River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1905-03-30
ment the world has ever seen.

When Christianity passed over
into Europe, it found Europe domi-
mated by a great imperialistic sys-
tenn. Caesar was the supreme au-
thority. His edicts were absolute
law ecclesiastical, civil, political
law-throughout the empire. lie
was represented by host of sub
ordinates who were simply the in
struments to interpret and execute
these laws. He was absolutely in
accessible to the great multitude of
the citizens of the Roman Empire;
they could come to him only through
his subordinates, who were medi-
ators between the people and the
Emperor. Christianity, entering
into Europe and pervading it, adopt
ed, naturally, as its ecclesiastical ma
chinery, this framework of govern
ment. The pagan Roman Empire
was transformed, as Mr.. Bryce has
we'll shown us, into the Holy Roman
Empire. Caesar became the Pope;
the projects and sub projects became
bishops and archbishops and rectors
and curates; but the essential princi-
ciple of the ecclesiastical system re-
NAMED what the essential principle
of the political system had been
absolute imperialism The Pope
was the vicar and. representative of
Almighty God-the supreme and
absolute authority. The DEGREES OF
the Vatican were the laws of God.
The bishops and archbishops and
curates and rectors were the repre-
sentatives of this Caesar. They
were the mediators between him
and the people.
AT the same time Christianity was
modified in its thinking, or rather
was transformed in its thinking, by
this imperialistic system. The He
brews were no philosophers. The
Old Testament contains no philoso-
ply; the New Testament contains
very little, except such as is to be
found in Paul's Epistles, and not
great deal even there. But when
Christianity passed over into Europe
it took on a philosophic form, and
therefore the Roman form, and
the imperialistic form.
God was conceived of as a celestial
Caesar, sitting in the center of the
universe and ruling it. The
Church was the representative Of
this divine Caesar. The laws of
God were edicts issued from him
and handed down to men. This
God was inaccessible to the great
majority of men; they had no ears
to hear him, no capacity to reach
him; they must reach him through
mediators. First was Christ, the
divine Mediator. But Christ was
too holy and too remote. Next
there was the Mother of God, as
the mediator through whom to come
to the Christ; but she was too holy
and too remote. Then there were
saints to come to the Mother of God,
and priests to come to the saints.
And so the individual came to the
priest, and the priest to the saints,
and the saints to the Mother of God,
and the Mother of God to Christ,
and Christ to the Eternal. The
Eternal was an absentee God, dwell
ing in far-off world. Law issued
from him; sin was disobedience to
that law; forgiveness was remis-
sion of the penalty for violating that
law; access to him was only through
throng of mediators.
The Reformation broke down the
ecclesiastical system for the Reform
ers and the children of the Reform
ers. The Protestant world said,
"The Pope is not the vicar of God;
the Church is not the supreme and
final authority" The Church had
held to the sacredness of the Bible,
but to the Bible as the constitution
of the Church. 1t was not for the
common people; it was for the
Church; and the Church was to
interpret it and to declare its mean
ing. The Protestant Reformers
went back of the Church, of the
priesthood, of the human ,nediators,
to the Bible. They said, ANY man
may take this constitution; any man
may interpret it. But still Protes-
tantism accepted and adopted-un-
consciously, perhaps-the notion OF
an absentee God. Still God was
conceived of as entllroned in the
center of the universe, as the Moral