BY ALEXANDER ROBERTSON, D.D.
WE have already had two brief references to this valuable book in our columns, but we think it worthy of more extended notice, as it is a work that is fitted to make a new epoch in our history as a nation, if it were only carefully read and duly pondered by our civil and ecclesiastical rulers and the general body of our people. Dr. Robertson has done immense service to the cause of true Christianity by placing before us in such excellent literary form the simple but startling facts about the Roman Church in its native field—Italy. The facts are such as should open the eyes of silly Protestants, who are blinded by a false charity to the evils of Romanism, to discern the real character and workings of this huge organisation, which no name can more fitly describe than the one provided by Holy Scripture, namely, “The Man of Sin.” We make bold to say that the clergymen and others who in this country refuse to apply this name to Romanism evince either utter ignorance of the system or an appalling bluntness of ordinary moral perception. They have either not gone to the common sources for information in regard to the Papacy, and are childishly illiterate on the subject, or they are so debased as not to be able to recognise unblushing iniquity when they see it. Dr. Robertson has made a splendid addition to our literature on the Romish Church, and we cannot too strongly recommend the perusal of his book to everyone whose eyes may fall upon these lines. Would to God that the people of this nation would only take a lesson from Italy and France in regard to this great and devastating system of moral evil! The result would be the downfall of the Church of Rome not only in the three kingdoms, but in almost every part of the world.
An Historic Retrospect
In the first chapter Dr. Robertson gives “An Historic Retrospect” of Italy as it was when the Pope had temporal power before the year 1870. He describes in vivid terms some of the outstanding features of the Papal government under the following heads:—
“Patriotism was the greatest crime.
There was no personal liberty.
There was no justice.
Prisoners were tortured and drugged.
People of proved innocence were executed.
There was no education.
There was no sanitation.
Commerce and industry were discouraged.
Agriculture was at a standstill.
Poverty, pauperism and beggary abounded.
Brigandage was part and parcel of the machinery of the Papal Church.”
The picture here presented is a very black one, but none the less true on that account. In fact, Dr. Robertson seems careful throughout his whole book to avoid the language of exaggeration, and so his descriptions may be regarded as strictly faithful and accurate. Italy was a scene of well-nigh universal degradation and misery under the domination of the Pope, but ever since that domination was overthrown in 1870 the country has been rising socially, educationally and morally—in every respect that is good. Would our readers note the last particular in the black list of evils that preyed upon the vitals of poor Italy in those dark days? “Brigandage was part and parcel of the machinery of the Papal Church.” The highways were infested with bands of robbers, who spoiled and murdered travellers at their will. These ruffians were actually the servants of the Church in their abominable work, and divided the spoil with her. They were devout Papists, who constantly frequented places of worship before and after the commission of their deeds of horror. “The monasteries often afforded them shelter, and were their depots for arms and ammunition.” The churches also were their houses of refuge. “Some years ago there died a famous brigand called Giovanni Tolu, who has left us an account of the pious way in which he, as a “good brother,” went about the murder of his victims. He says—”As we walked together I prayed inwardly to the Blessed Virgin that she would illuminate my conscience and reveal to me if my companion (in this case a certain Salvatore Moro) deserved to die. My conscience told me ‘yes,’ and I was tranquil. I then recommended my own soul to the Lord in case I might be overcome. I have never neglected these religious practices during the whole course of my life. Having killed Salvatore Moro by blowing his brains out, my first care was to reload my gun, leaning the butt end of it upon his fallen body. I then recited an Ave Maria and a Requiem for the deceased. . . . Having recited my prayer, I took hold of the dead body by an arm and dragged it a little distance and then let it fall into a crevice of a neighbouring rock. After this, with a tranquil mind, I continued my journey alone. Although a bandit I never neglected my religious offices. I read always the office of the Blessed Virgin, I recited the prayers for morning and evening, I prayed for the dead, and I frequented the church and the confessional. The rector, Dettori, of Florinas, conducted me into the church by a secret stair that communicated with it from his house. Whilst outside the baracell (those who carry the bier) kept guard, I, the bandit, all alone with the priest, helped the priest at the mass and heard mass at the same time, and I confessed once a year.” What an exhibition of the mystery of iniquity is this! And this is Romanism in full bloom in a country where it had unrestricted sway. Things are different now in Italy, but that is not because the Papacy has changed, but because the strong arm of the law imposes a check on its operations. In poor Ireland the elements of all those evils that overspread Italy in past times have abundantly shown themselves, and would have developed more fully if no legal restraints had been imposed. But let England take care lest by the encouragement she presently shows to Romanism, she, at no far-distant date, foully lays her honour in the dust.
The Pope, the falsely-called Vicar of Christ
In the second chapter, Dr. Robertson deals with “The Pope, the falsely-called Vicar of Christ.” He outlines the character of past Popes, and then proceeds to notice the present Pontiff. He tells us that “the position of Pope Leo XIII. in the Church to-day is simply that of a slave of the Jesuits,” and that he runs the risk at any moment of being poisoned by them if he fails to do what they request. The Italian Government, though renouncing his temporal authority, guarantees, with too great generosity indeed, his dignity, liberty, and comfort in the Vatican; while he professes to spurn all the concessions of the State. The two distinguishing characteristics of the present Pope, whose piety is often absurdly lauded in our newspapers, are avariciousness and pride. “He has the nature of the Popes of the Middle Ages, but without their faith,” is the testimony of an Italian of high position who knows him well. Dr. Robertson deplores the action of the Duke of Norfolk, who in 1891 had the audacity to go to Rome and actually advocate there the restoration of the Pope’s temporal power. The only solution of Italy’s difficulties “would be to get the Pope outside its borders.” May the Lord hasten the time when his final downfall will be accomplished!
The Priest
The third chapter is devoted to “The Priest.” He tells us that “the rank and file of the Italian priesthood is recruited from the lowest of the people.” The time was when every family had to send a son to the priesthood, but now “no father who respects himself” will make his son a priest. The priests are for the most part ignorant, uneducated men, of doubtful character and life. “Truth-speaking is a thing that is rarely associated in the public mind with a priest. Of the priests in Southern Italy it is frequently said that from their lips ‘there never came forth one truth.’ . . . Want of truth-speaking is not peculiar to the Italian priest. . . . One is amazed from time to time at the revelation of deliberate falsehoods uttered, when the interests of their Church is at stake, by Papal ecclesiastics who stand high in rank and high in public esteem in Protestant lands.” Let our readers mark well the following statement as descriptive of public opinion in Italy to-day in regard to the priests: “No profession is held in less esteem than that of the priesthood, and no men are so despised, and even hated, as its members. It is a distinctly discreditable thing to be a priest, and it is a distinctly discreditable thing to be on terms of friendship with one. A gentleman who has officially to do with them has told me that he feels ashamed to be seen talking to them in the streets. A priest-professor from Padua, lecturing in Venice a few years ago before a gathering of Roman Catholic students and their friends, complained that if a man was seen to raise his hat respectfully to a priest in the street, he fell in public estimation. “People,” he said, “would point the fingers at him and call him a birbone (a scoundrel).” It appears, however, that “the number of Italian priests is steadily decreasing,” and that the great majority of the priests are now foreigners, many of them Irishmen. “If the priesthood were not thus recruited, it would die out in Italy before the love of country and the onward march of education, of civilisation, and of Christianity.” Dr. Robertson also says that he has never read or heard of any really Christian priest in any age, within the pale of the Church of Rome, who was not persecuted by his Church. Could there be any clearer testimony that Romanism is the Man of Sin, an enemy of all righteousness?
The Church: The Antithesis of Christianity, The Pope’s Shop, and A Political Conspiracy
In the fourth, fifth and sixth chapters he deals with “The Church,” first, as “The Antithesis of Christianity;” secondly, as “The Pope’s Shop;” and, thirdly, as “A Political Conspiracy.”
The so-called Church of Rome is the antithesis or opposite of Christianity. This is Dr. Robertson’s verdict, as it is that of all sound Protestants. He gives interesting quotations from distinguished Italians on the subject. From one of them he takes the expressive phrase “The Antithesis of Christianity.” This writer—Dr. Mariano, Professor of Philosophy in the University of Naples—affirms that Roman Catholicism is not only not Christianity, but it is the very antithesis of it. Italians, learned and unlearned, recognise that Christ came into the world to save from sin, that the Papal Church, though it requires confession of sin and repentance before absolution, makes no agreement that its subjects should depart from iniquity, and practically offers salvation in sin; and therefore they logically conclude that Romanism is the very opposite of true Christianity. The whole history of dispensations and indulgences granted by the Pope confirm the opinion. Dr. Robertson also adduces the writings of Lignori, whose work on Moral Theology is the standard one on morals in the Roman Church, in further confirmation of this. “The whole book,” he says, “from cover to cover is an incitement to sin.” He concludes this chapter by showing the deteriorating effects of Romanism in those countries where it has predominated, and quotes from Mr. Michael Macarthy, a Romanist, who has recently published a book, entitled “Five Years in Ireland,” and other writers, to show the misery and crime that “the Church of the unholy” constantly brings in its train.
The Pope’s Shop
“The Pope’s Shop” is a chapter that is fitted to evoke a feeling of amusement in the reader, if the subject were not too serious a one for such an emotion. Everything in connection with “the Church” is a matter of pounds, shillings, and pence. Pardon for offences against law, dispensations to live in sin, masses for the dead, relics of Mary and Christ and the saints, divorces and liberty to marry within the forbidden degrees—all these things may be bought for money. The Religious Houses are also to a large extent branches of the great Papal Shop. “Before the passing of the recent French laws in regard to such houses, M. Clemenceau published a report regarding them, in which he said that 2500 monasteries were engaged in trade which deleteriously affected the French tradesman in almost every line of business. The favourite traffic, however, of the monks in France, as it is in Italy and wherever they exist, is in alcoholic drinks. . . . The trade of some of these, as that of La Grande Chartreuse, is enormous.” All this unholy traffic and money-making, under the guise of religion, not only has opened the eyes of Italians and French to the hollow mockery of the Roman Church—a salutary revelation indeed—but it has also done what is essentially bad: it has made many of them think that all religion is a sham. But if they would carefully study the Bible they would see that Christ and the Apostles warned the true Church long beforehand of the rise and character and doings of the Papal Antichrist.
A Political Conspiracy
Dr. Robertson’s chapter on the Church as a political conspiracy is well worthy the perusal of cabinet ministers, members of Parliament, aye, every citizen of our country. He points out that English Roman Catholics always assume that their Church should be exclusively viewed as a religious institution, and studiously hide its political aspect altogether, while he shows most effectively that Romanism with all its false religion is also political to the backbone. In Italy before 1870 “the only character it assumed in the face of the world was that of a political institution, and as such it was one of the most despotic, most cruel, most unrighteous that ever oppressed and destroyed a people; and the Sovereign Pope was known as ‘the Jailer and Butcher’ of Italy. Christendom has cause to thank God that the temporal power of the Pope and his priestly government have been destroyed for ever.” He notes the past experience of the political influence of Romanism in England in the times of Henry VIII. and Queen Elizabeth, and that in the present day Ireland affords proof that Popery and Patriotism are frequently “wide as the poles asunder.” The recent massacres in China are also adduced in proof. The Chinese hate the Roman Catholic priests because of their assumption of political power, and it is striking to notice that in those places where there were no Romanists there were no disturbances. Dr. Robertson shows how the political conspiracy is carried on by the Papal Church. It diligently fans disloyalty, sedition, and anarchy; it did so in Sicily in 1894; and it condoned the assassination of King Humbert. It also skilfully tries to allure and entrap Protestants into its fold, especially visitors to Rome, giving them every opportunity to see the Pope, and using every means to throw the Papal glamour over them—poor people, certainly, that will be so befooled. “The Church of the Unholy” also largely uses the press to damage Italy and Italian institutions. False information is circulated “in regard to the social, economic, and political conditions of the country.” Indeed, its intrigues and plottings are without number. The priest is at the bottom of every mischief that is being perpetrated. It is matter, however, of great thankfulness that Italy has enacted many laws which check the encroachments of the Papacy. The priests are shut out of all civil spheres, and their efforts to terrorise the people are effectively curbed. Priest-teachers, for example, are banished from the schools. Protestant schools are licensed by the State, and Italian parents set a high value on them. A new penal code was promulgated in 1890 for the checking of abuses by priests. One of the most common abuses was an attempt made by the priest to get hold of a dying man’s money or estate. Dr. Robertson gives an illustration of the case of a priest who induced a peasant to leave his money to the Church, but his sons returned from America and contested the will at law, gained their case, and received the whole inheritance, while the priest was sent to penal servitude. But he also shows how a similar case was treated in the law courts of Ireland and England; the will in favour of the Church, melancholy to relate, was twice sustained, while the ordinary lawful heirs lost their case, and had the expenses of both trials to pay. He concludes this chapter with the following sad reflection:—“I often feel and often say that Italy and not England is the true Protestant country; that Italy and not England is the land where one enjoys the fullest religious liberty.”
We intend to give a second notice of this instructive book in next issue.