Smyrna times., 1894-06-13
Peter and the Apostolic Succession.
SHARP CRITICISM OF GEO. P. LATH
ROP's REMARKABLE STATEMENTS.

Rev. Madison C. Peters, of Boston, in
Ms sermon Sunday evening, Nav Both.
said -
In the May number of the North Ameri-
can ReCjeic, Geo. Parsons Lnthlop makes
the remarkable statement that among other
things Protestants ask the Roman Catholics
to "torsake the faith transmitted to them
| from Christ and his Apostle"
Our only prayer is that they may return
to that faith. The whole fabric of the
Papacy rests on an unqualified faith in the
| primacy of st. Peter That St. Peter WAS
not the founder of the Church of Rome
was rever Pope, and never even in Rome
IS the indubitable verdict of history and
the Bible. 1t is claimed by Papist that st.
Peter was taken to Rome to expose a fam
Gus necromancer known to history by the
name of Simon, the magician The story
goes that Simon, in the presence of the
Emperor Nero, flew into the air, but Peter
fell upon his kness and called upon Jesus;
whereupon the Devil, upon whom Simon
depended for his power to deceive, was
struck with terror, and let his prOtege fall
to the earth, whence he rose with broken
leg. The stranger in Rome is still shown
the stone on which Peter was good enough
to leave the print of his knee when he pray
ed, and the stain upon the other stone upon
which the magician fell and left his blood.
Even if this legend did not carry upon
its tace-as it may not to some minds-un-
equivOca evidence of being falsehOod,
the fact that it was never heard of until the
fifth century, would be fatal to it AS testi-
mOny to anything supposed to have hap
pened III the first century. ST. Peter evil
} IDENTIFY knew nothing about his ever having
: even been in Rome; his epistles to the
church give no such intimation, still less of
having been clothed with any special au-
| ,l- 81
apostles are equally reticent. Even the
words of st. Matthew, which are regarded
as the cornerstone of the papacy, do not
, touch the question OfPeters being in Rome
1 st. Luke, who wrote the Acts of the Apos-
tles-who was with Paul at Rome and wit
messed his martyrdom-doesn not seem to be
: aware Of the fact that st. Peter was ever in
Rome James and Jude seem to have
known nothing of Peters residence in
G Rome. In all the fourteen Epstes of Paul
e he never even hints of Perers being in
;. Rome. Why was the Pope thus strangely
ignored?
Among all the monuments and memorials
4 Of traditional antiquity there is not a single
: authenic trace of Peters presidency over
{ the church till the fourth century The first
Christian Council was held in Jerusalem
]. and presided over by James The office OF
e Pope, universal father" was IA title un-
e known by the world for nearly six hundred
" years after Christ.
= An overwhelming objection to Rome
!: claim Of being the oldest church is found il
IL the historical fact that the first seven coun
&c ellis of church history were not Roman, bu
a Greek. The historical truth is that for egh
e. hundred years the Greek church was frs
le in authority, numbers and origin. Th
ly Roman church is a schism from the Greel
s church, and was organized July lth, 1854
~ when Michael, the Patriarch of Constant
10 nopl2, eXcOmmunicated and anathematiZe
Is the Pope of Rome and all his adherents
re ROmanism is not apostolic succession, bu
ID a baptized Paganism. All students can Sc
w the conformity between pagan and pOpis
= rites The Roman Catholicism of to-day
not even the Roman Catholicism of tn
& early middle ages. The earlier Lati
church distributed the communion in bot
kinds the modern practice of commune
in one kind is the child of the thirteen cen
nd tury. Extreme JUNCTION was unknown un
or til the twelfth century. In the sevent
~. century, the worship of images was cor
ror demned by the so-called Pope of Rome
Ot The fiction Of purgatory, though invente
by Gregory the First, did not become
nS dogma of faith till the council of FlorenC
10 in 1888. TransubstantiatiOn originated wit
IS monk PasChasius in the ninth century, bl
M it remained for a council in the begnnin
de of the thirteenth century, in the papacy
q, Innocent Ill, to PROFOUND transubstanti
~ tiOn as an article of faith. Auricular col
~ fession was also introduced at this tim
ac- The priests of Bacchus were bound new
Ter to marry.
The immaculate conception of Mary b
came a dogma in 1854, and the POpeS i
fsllibility became the faith of the churC
the amid the thunder in 1870.
itb From the undeniable facts of history,
~ is certain that Geo. Parsons Lathrop blu
~, " dered when he wrote that Roman Cath
lex licism is the faith transmitted to us fro
lite Christ and His Apostles" Papal Rome
be the successor of Pagan Rome.