The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1907-1917, 1914-11-05


~~e or rawlings in defense of liber-
ty of conscience are a most pestilen-
tial error, pest, of all others, most
to be dreaded by a State' The
same Pope mathematics, ''Those
who assert the liberty of conscience
and of religious worship" and of all
those, "Who maintain the liberty of
the press, and the liberty of speech"
One Of the latest Papal edicts de-
clares it to be q duty to bend every
effort, public, social and political,
towards making this country "the
first Catholic country in the world
The claim is boldly made in the press
that their Cardinals are Princes
and have royal precedence in our
State and National Functions. Our
vice-Presidents, Members of Presi-
Dental Cabinets, Supreme Court
Judges, Senators and Representa-
tives of the people, Governors of
States, and all other high officials in
our Government must be pushed
aside in order to give precedence to
the Cardinal princes of the
Church. mere representatives of a
sect. Against such arrogant claims
Masonry will be found in line with
all Protestant churches and religious
and patriotic societies of our land
1t makes the intolerant claim that it
is the only true Christian church,
and has always made such claim
This we might pass without notice,
but when it asserts for it's head tenn
poral power and civil authority, and
enters into the political affairs of the
country, it's unwarranted assump-
lions will be Indignantly met and
resisted. No church or body of men
under the guise of religion will be
allowed to put forth such claims with
out the intense opposition of Free
masons. That church, and no other
church has any business in politics.
American Masons, or patriotic citi-
Zens who are nOn-Masons, will pre-
serve unimpaired the blessings of
civil and religious liberty they have
inherited. The attempt on the part
of the Romish Church to combine or
unite the powers of Church and State
as to the purpose and sphere of duty
Of each, has been resisted in Eng
land, Germany, France, Italy, Por-
tugal and other leading nations, and
caused such patriots as Gladstone,
Bismarck, Jaurez, Diaz, Garibaldi
c1Ad 4SduA1IS oCdCGOuISn Ill duC0 W
resist it's pretensions. AS Americans
shall we do less?
It is not alone in our own country
the Church of Rome has of late be-
come Extensively aggressive, and al
most intolerable on the part of the
government. The public press in
forms us that in Germany, because
the Federal Council by brusque de-
cision lately made to the effect that
the Jesuits could not be permitted to
re-enter that Empire because of their
Consciousness, a declaration of war
had been made against the Imperial
Chancellor in this movement, and
that while he had strong reverence
for religion he had no use for the
dogmatism and clericalism of Rome,
and was inf1eXible in his opposition
to the Church interfering in politics.
In the letter "Humanum Genus''
the Pope presents the issue boldly.
In arraigning Masonry he says, that
with it the rule of the Church Chat
is, the Church of Rome, which he in
tolerantly prOclaims is the only true
church in the world) should be of
no weight, that it's authority should
be as nothing in a State, and that
for this reason Masons everywhere
assert and insist that sacred and civil
matters ought to be wholly distinct"
He says by this method, "they ex-
clude the most wholesome virtue of
the Catholic religion from the laws