The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1895-12-19
DR.. Thompson
and the Church.
CONTINUED from LIT pags.)

ware since the fall Of the Roman
empire. We know that these hosts
were composed OF men infamed by
bigotry and unrestrained by discip-
line; that they provided for all their
wants by the sword, living at the
expense Of the country, and
Selling at their pleasure both
the harvests OF the peasants and
the merchandise Of the citizens.
More than three-fourths Of the
landed proprietors had been des-
poiied Of their fefs and castles.
In hundreds Of villages every inhab-
liant had been massacred. Since
the sack Of Rome by the Vandals.
the European world had never
mourned over national disaster SO
wide in its extent or so fearful in its
character" Such was the spirit and
work OF the Church.
II the free spirit Of Christ and its
moral influence had spread equally
with the theology Of the Church and
its ruthless power, the Church would
have aided instead Of retarding the
progress Of human freedom. "'Vbile
the religion Of the world underwent
y total change" says Milman, "tbe
Church rose OF the ruins Of the tenn
pie and the establishment Of Pagan
ism became gradually extinct or
suffered violent suppression: the
moral revolution was far more slow
and far less complete. While they
swept in converts Unfortunately
from the palace and the public
street, while the emperor and the
lowest Of the populace were alike
admitted on little more than the
open profession of allegiance, they
were satisfied il their allegiance in
this respect were blind and complete.
The common. vulgar incentives of
action were infused into the ex-
banding Christian body. Men be-
came Christians, orthodox Chris
tians. with little sacrifice of that
which Christianity aimed chiefly to
extirpate."
Clovis, King of the Franks, for in
stance, was converted in 496. ellis
conversion made no alteration in the
policy and conduct of Clovis: he re-
NAMED the same mixture of cum
ming and audacity, Of cruelty and
sCnsuallty." There followed the
Wholesale conversion Of his people,
who carried through their baptism
into the Church their heather super
stitions and their barbarous notions.
In the midst OF times reeking with
corruption. the evils suffered were
cited by Cody men as evidence of
the divine displeasure at the de-
bauchery Of the Church; whose con-
dition was such that it was found
necessary to prohibit in successive
Councils the most heinous and un-
mentionable crimes committed both
BY the laity and by the clergy. And
this degree OF immortality continued
and was not lacking in the Church
at q time when the Church was not
only the most powerful, but the only
powerful organization in the civil
ized world.
From the closing years of the 9th
until the middle Of the 18th century,
according to j. II. Newman, "no
exaggeratiOn is possible of the de-
moralized state into which the Chris
tian world, and especially the
Church Of Rome, had fallen. The
tenth century is ever known among
Protestants as par excellence the
saecutum dbscurum, and Baronius ex-
presses Its portentous corruption in
the vivid remark that Christ was as
IT asleep in the vessel of the Church.
The infsmies prevalent among the
clergy OF the time are to be alluded
to, not detailed" Read the history
OF some Of the popes. In the time
OF john MI, "the Lateran Palace
was diseraced by becoming a recep-
tacle Tor court, zans: and decent
females" says Bowden, "were terri
fled from pilgrimages to the thresh-
old OF the Apostles by the reports
spread abroad Of the lawless impuri.
ty and violence Of their representa-
tive and successor" The papal
treasury was plundered by Boniface
VII, who skipped, like a modern
bank cashier, to Constantinople.
John XVIII would have sold his sa-
cred Office to the Emperor Basil for
sum of money. Benedict TX, con.
secrated Pope while mere bow,
became notorious for murders and
adulteries." He sold the popedom
for large sum and consecrated the
purchaser as Gods vice gerent and
Head OF the Church. "The world,
said st. Bruno. clay in wickedness,
holiness had disappeared. iustice
had persisted, and truth had been
buried; Simon Magus lording it over
the Church, whose bishops and
priests were given to luxury and for
nication."
The condition in the 18th century
was no wise improved. Indeed. i
is considered the darkest period of
papal vice and crime. Roderipo
Borgia purchased the SURFACES of
the highest disnitaries of the
Church to become Pope Alexander
vi, putting to fight those who dared
to oppose his election. By the infa-
nous Vanozza, the wife of Roman
citizen, he had three sons, and nat
urally enough permitted clergy and
ia'ty to keep concubines, saying
that it was not forbidden, since the
life OF priests and ecclesiastics was
such that hardly one was to be
found who did not keep concubine.
All ecclesiastics, from the greatest
to the least, have concr bines, and
that publicly" quotes Taine; eff
dod hinder 1T not, this corruption
will pass to the monks and religious
orders; although, to confess the
truth, almost all the monasteries
have become bawd-houses, without
anyone to speak against it," Such
immortality the Church permitted
and INDUCED in. Yet its devotees
called it the Church of Christ: and il
was not prudent to criticise it's con-
duct, as a brief view of wyeliffe, Je.
rome OF Prague and Huss, Savona.
rols, Luther and other Reformers
will abuudantly prove.
CYRUS THOMPSON.