Fayette County herald. [volume] (Washington [Washington Court House], Fayette County, O. [Ohio]) 1860-1???, 1879-03-27


The fate of Huss and Jerome; the deeds
of the Spanish inquisition, the naughty
bearing, the immortal lives of the popes
of Avignon and Rome, made honest men
shudder in every land, and had prepared
Europe for general revolt against the
reign of cruelty. The people were eager
everywhere to rise from the barbarism
and crime inculcated by the infallible
popes; the popes were as resolute to suf-
fer no one to escape alive from their tolls.
AT last the Reformation came, and the
two opposing impulses in society were
arrayed against each other in open dav.
In all Protestant lands the principle of
persecution was at first softened and then
abandoned. In all papal lands the spirit
of cruelty ragged with new intensity
Spain was racked anew by the inquisi-
tion and converted into a den of murder
GUS madmen. Loyola arose and con-
densed the spirit of his barbarous age and
into that famous company whose Iurid
track across the path of modern society
is redolent of the memories of the auto
da-fe and the bull-fight, of the brigands
and assassins of disordered Spain, and
whose rigid tenets and overwhelming in
| fiuence has at last subjected the Papal
Church to the extreme doctrines of infal-
libility. Loyola at once, so his disciples
boast-founded the Roman inquisition, of
which Plus TX is the living head. Under
the rule of his predecessor, Plus V, in
the sixteenth century, Rome rang with
the cries of perishing martys, or caught
their hymns of joy; and Loyola, had he
lived, would have heard with exultation
the groans and dying plants of the vic
Tins of the fearful institutions he had
founded. 1t was thus that Rome taught
its lessons of cruelty. While England,
Germany and the North became compar-
atively humane, Spain, Italy and the
South were filed with brigands, ,assassins
and inquisitors. Plus V declared that an
obstinate hereto was worse than the most
hardened criminal, that not one should
be spared, that they should be swept from
the face of the earth; and not a day passed
at Rome but some one was hanged and
quartered for his Lutheran faith. Plus
V sanctioned and urged the assassination
of Queen Elizabeth, and the assassins of
the age turned naturally for comfort and
| guidance to Rome. A universal horror
| filed the Northern capitals at the deeds
that were done in the Southern lands
But they were surpassed by the signal
crime which has made France and Paris
conspicuous in the annals of cruelty.
The massacre of st. Bartholomew
sprang naturally from the teaching and
the example of Plus V and Loyola. Plus
V prompted and his successor applauded
the fearful scene which had left it's lasting
trace upon the history of that unhappy
land. Gregory XIII lent his infallible
sanction to the dreadful deed, and all
Rome rang with joy over a crime which
humanity trembles to recall. The Pope.
indeed, complained that only half enough
Protestants had been massacred. The
city of Rome was Illuminated in honor of
the deed; a jubilee was proclaimed; a
picture and a medal commemorate the
Partisan horror; and a century later,
when Louis XIV drove the Huguenots
from France with extravagant atrocities,
another pope celebrated his piety and
sanctioned all the crimes, and once more
repeated the lesson of cruelty to mankind.
In the eighteenth century Rome was in a
faint measure purified and reformed. The
Jesuits were suppressed, and humane
counsels seemed to have reached the pa
pal ear. In the nineteenth century the
Jesuits have been restored; the persecu-
ting rage of Plus V and innocent III has
, been revived; the Papal Church has be-
come the harbinger of discord to the ma
tions and repeats its dreadful lessons OF
cruelty in Germany and New York. Il
is the church of Plus V and Innocent III
; which now rises, horrible as antichrist
, amidst the stormy sea of modern politics
, and hopes to crush liberty and renew the
: ancient tyranny of the days of St. Bar
tholomew, the Inquisition of the Cru
sades to cover Italy with desolation, ant
place once more Plus TX upon his blood
; stained throne.
Such is one kind of teaching which ev
Y cry believer in the doctrine of infallibil
: ity must accept. He must learn that hu
] man life is no longer sacred when com
t pared with the interests of the Papa
t Church. He must hold that assassination
e is lawful with Plus V, and the carnag'
S of Montana or the horrors of Bologna
- righteous thing with Plus TX. He adopt
T. the morals of the Patagonian or the Mo
j. doc, and the past or present condition o
If Italy, Spain, ireland, or France, prove
e that this doctrine of infallibility produce
IS everywhere its natural results. Whereve
If it prevails men sink back into savage!
e. and within the element of cruelty is il
ioI, oil uiaoc on6 nripnns
S. who has lost the sentiment of humanit
IS will pause before no other offense. FrauC
n treachery, rage, cunning, are the usu
a traits of blind fanaticism. 1t was said
of some of the most cruel of the linguistic
or that they seemed the gentlest and mo
he pleasing of men, yet that they struC
n their foe in secrecy, and surveyed his to
- ture with a smile. It is no wonder, ther
in fore, that infallibility seeks to silence Il
n press, to crush knowledge, to hide
re acts in an impenetrable veil, to destr,
he all free government, to subject all civ
ity powers, since it would substitute in t
spt place of religion horrible cruelty, a
nd would guide the human race back to
pal decay and desolatiOn of primeval harbs
at ism.
At Had the band of fanatics who nj
KY rule the Roman Church remained only
uis school of theolgy, religious sect, tn
,ir- would scarcely have deserved the not
Ma of letters or of criticism. But they ha
vas risen at once into intense political aotf
the ty. They have organized their Chul
les into an immense political faction, resol
ma to control the elections of France, G
many, England and America. To destl
;ors the freedom of the press, general edu
rim ton, human liberty, the privileges of C