The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1896-02-02


OF wanders off into discursiye explanations
that explain nothing and only serve. to con.
luse and obscure the real point. Ana pack Oh
al is the possibility of his being m1sled him.
sell by the garbled and imperfect editions
winch the Catholic church sometimes employs.
IN my third article l cited the case OF per-
sonai friend who had been led out OF the priest
hooa aud communion of the Church OF Rome
Dy discovering, through the aid OF the British
museum Library, that his Catholic authorities
We're untrustworthy. l have just received a
letter , from that gentleman in which he writes:
w nat you say of my experience in London IS
al true, except that had had Jesuit train
but did not feel called upon to take their vows.
remained in friendly relations with them I'M
III my doubts arose, or for ten years. lie asks
me to withhold his name, as he does
persecution, request which, after my
recent experience, can appreciate. Ny asser-
eution and even murder of heretics is correct.
II Is equally matter OF record tnat they
argued In favor of regicide. Says Lecky, after
summing up the evidence, ssThere can be little
doubt that the Jesuits looked with very in
uuIgent eye on all attempts at ASSASSINATION
lnat were directed against deposed sovereign
t wa2 WAS In opposition to the ennTcn my
in it.
Having said this much in vindication of my
own honesty and the truth of history frankly
slate that this point is q matter OF indifference
! me and in no way affects, the important
AoSues between myself ana Fatner lorAe.
IN closing, a word on liberation.
- am much .gratifed to find my opponent
Gltlng ".Lecky's History of Rationalism in
Europe" as witness. 1t shows that he con-
worthy authority. He is right in this opinion.
10 read Leckys book is itself liberal educa ton,
especially his chapters on persecution ana the
seculariZation of politics. But Father Yorke
stopped too soon in his quotations. Letme con-
tnue them. Says Lecky (vol. ii, p. A.:
a.. Noth1ng can De more egreg1ousiy absurd
IMAM TO represent the ipquiSltion as something
unconnected with the church. 1t was created
by Pope and introduced into the chief coun-
tries OF Europe by the soYere1gns who were
most devoted to the church, and composed of
ecclesiastics and directed to the punishment of
ecclesiastical offenses and long re-
garded as the chief bulwark of Catholicity.
Although all the atrocities 1T perpetrated do
undoubtedly fall upon the blood-stained church
that created it, it is nevertheless true that one
or two Popes endeayored to moderate its
seventies"
Again he says "that the church of Rome has
shed more innocent blood than any other in
stitution that has ever existed among man
k kn VIII be questioned by no Protestant who
mas competent knowledge of history.
Ltorente, who had free access to the archives of
me spanish Inquisition, assures US that by that
trlDunal alone more than 81 900 persons were
burned and more than go, 900 condemned to
punlshments less severe than DEATH
"The number of those who were put to death
lot their religion in the Netherlands alone III
the reign OF Charles has been estimated by a
very high authority at $4,000, and at least half
as as many more perished under his son. Upon
me 10Th OF February, 1868, sentence
inhabitants of the Netherlands to
death as heretics, only a few persons
especially, named were excepted
Three millions of people, " says Motley, linen,
women and children, sentenced to death in
three linesl" "These atrocities were >
inflicted by triumphant church with every
circumstance of solemnity and elaboration"
Lecky goes on, page after page, to chronicle
the terrible annals of their persecution. "The
massacre of the Albigenses, which a Pope ad
instigated, and the massacre of St. Barthole-
NEW. for which Pope returned solemn thanks
to heaven" at can surely be no ex-
aggeration to say that the church of Rome
has inflicted greater amount OF unmerited
suHerlng than any other religion that has
ever existed among men,"
PROTESTANT Prosecutors.
Lecky then shows his impartial reading of
history by treating in the same frank and con-
demnatory spirit of Protestant prosecutions.
AS Father YOrke has made a frightful cata-
logue of this Protestant intolerance and
cruelty, / will not repeat it here, except to
quote Leckys comment: "The Protestant per-
secutlons were never so sanguinary as those of
the Catholics Owing, he says, to the compare
tive weakness of clerical influence in Protest
ant countries), but the principle was affirmed
quite as strongly, was acted on quite as con-
stantly, and was defended quite as pertina-
clously by the clergy" The only two eXcep-
tons to this among the latter, he.tells us, were
Zwinglius, the Swiss reformer, and especially
Socinius, the founder of my own or Unitarian
branch OF the Christian church. His plea for
liberation was so earnest that, as Lecky says,
IT was long reckoned the distinctive tenet of
his sect. 1t remains so to-day. Catholics no.
where receive kindlier, more appreciative
treatment than at the hands of Unitarians.
NO wonder that when our great leader, DR..
Charming, died, the bells OF the Roman Catho-
lie cathedral in Boston were tolled in honor
OF his memory by the Bishop.
PROTESTANT INTOLERANCE.
But this may be said in partial palliation of
fhie int lara hxrD
they did not originate the prosecuting spirit,
but received it as direct legacy from the
mother church. 1t is not SO surprising that
men whose hearts were still anguished with
the horrors of the Inquisition, the night of ST.
Bartholomew or the -avages of the Thirty
Years War should thirst for vengeance and re-
taliat:on. The Catholic church cannot excuse
her outrages in the same way. at the time
her prosecutions were at their highest she was
comparatively the mistress of the world and
had nothing to fear from her hapless victims.
Secondly, while the central principle of the
Roman church--namely, her infallible author
ity-if fully developed leads inevitably to per-
secutlon, the central principle of Protestant
ism-namely, the right and duty of private
Judgment-the more it is developed leads to
tolerance, charity and mutual forbearance.
"a nation cannot be strongly Catholic and at
the same time tolerant. but that nation may
be strongly Protestan. and exercise the widest
tolerance is shown by both England and
America to-day"
"To the Reformation" says Lecky, ISIS chiefly
que the appearance OF that rarionalistic spirit
which at last destroyed persecution. While
the Protestant world for long time after the
Reformation pursued the same path of spiritual
tyranny and oppression which had been taught
her by Rome, the growth of Protestant princi-
pies is nnally putting an end 10 all intoler-
ance and oppression. The Reformation, the
most glorious event in modern history, taught
men to think and TO think for themselves on
religious su objects; it set free the individual
conscience, it broke the shackles of ecclesiasti-
cal despotism, 1t gave new opportunities for
growth, intellectual, moral social, political
to oppressed and priest-ridden nations. it
made modern science possible, and enlarged
the number and scope OF human interests"
THE NEW AGE.
The age and country in which we dwell is q
beautiful exemplification of this growth of
rationalistic, liberal, humane and truly Christ
like spirit. The reign of fire and sword in
religion is over for us. The era of reason, con-
science and good will has begun. No person
is in any serious danger of persecution because
OF his religious views. Ii any church among
us should attempt to abridge his personal
rights our secular state, the supreme authority
IN the land, would speedily intervene to pro-
tect him. Under this broad charter Catholics
ana Protestauts, Jew and freethlnker, live to-
gether IN comparative harmony and peace.
me only disturbing elements are the clergy,
both Catholic and Protestant, especially the
former, and certain forms of native American
ism more ardent than wise. For political
discussion in a republic inevitably assumes
heated and partisan form. The creeds
OF the churches are practically the same as