THE Rev. Dr. Robertson, of Venice, is already well known as the author of a remarkable book, entitled The Roman Catholic Church in Italy. His new work, The Papal Conquest, comes as an appropriate sequel to the former. Dr. Robertson has been for many years a minister of the gospel in one of the chief towns in Italy, and has had every opportunity of studying the workings of Popery at its headquarters. As an earnest and able witness for Protestant truth, he has fully availed himself of his opportunities, and during these years, by books and articles in papers, has been constantly keeping his fellow-countrymen at home informed of the plots and doings of the Vatican in Italy and on the continent in general. In this manner he has done a great service to the cause of Christ and truth. His previous book tells us what the Roman Catholic Church has done in the past for Italy—and the record is a very black and terrible one—and what Italy, by divine help, has been enabled to do for herself in recent times, in throwing off the Papal yoke.
His new volume informs us of Italy’s warning as to what the same Church (so called) purposes to do for Great Britain, if her emissaries are allowed to pour in, without restraint, and take possession of the field. Dr. Robertson’s Papal Conquest is a trumpet call to this country to awake out of sleep and to realise the immediate murderous designs of the Papacy on its welfare and prosperity. “The Philistines be upon thee, Samson.”
Let no one suppose, not the most liberal-minded of our readers, that this is an imaginary danger—the dream of hysterical fanatics—no; it is a dark and tremendous reality which will sooner or later make itself felt in a manner and degree not experienced since Reformation times. It has long been very plain to us that Popery was working its way towards ascendancy in these kingdoms, but we have never had a more vivid conviction than at the present moment, after reading Dr. Robertson’s eloquent book, of the remarkable nearness of that ascendancy, if things are permitted to proceed as they are doing at present. Let lukewarm Protestants, blinded by a false charity, take care lest they may know it to their cost sooner than they expect that “the black Pope,” with a sword in his hand, is standing at the door!
The Papal Conquest.—Italy’s Warning—Wake up, John Bull! By the Rev. Alexander Robertson, D.D. London: Morgan & Scott, Ltd., 12 Paternoster Row, E.C. To be had for 4/6 net; postage, 4d. extra.
Dr. Robertson in his “Preface” reminds us of the friendly relations that have ever subsisted between Italy and Great Britain, and points out at the same time that both countries are “objects of the most implacable hatred on the part of the Roman Catholic Church.” When the Pope lost his temporal power in Italy in 1870, Britain befriended the Italian nation as against the Pope. The loss of the temporal power is a wound which the Papacy is ever striving to get healed, and its only hope of obtaining this is the subjugation of our country. “Old England and Young Italy” will stand or fall together on this matter. The voice of Italy is resistance to the Papal Church with all its designs, political and religious, and Dr. Robertson has written with the earnest desire to make the voice of Italy heard in England to purpose. If our legislators had the wisdom to take to heart the contents of his book, we would see another attitude shown towards Rome and its agents than that which is now common.
The title of Dr. Robertson’s first chapter is “Conquest Determined Upon,” and he shows not only that it is the mind of Italy that the Roman Catholic Church has determined upon the conquest of England, but that there are abundant evidences of the truth of this in England itself. Ever since the Catholic Disabilities Act of 1829 was passed, Popery has been rising in England, and it is certain that the scheme of conquest has “formed part of the fixed policy of the Church” since 1850. In October of that year Pope Pius IX. had the audacity to issue a bull ordering the establishment in Britain of a hierarchy of bishops and dividing up our country into Roman Catholic dioceses. He appointed one Archbishop, one Cardinal, and twelve Bishops. This interference was correctly interpreted by Lord John Russell as “a pretension of supremacy over the realm of England,” “inconsistent with the spiritual independence of the nation as asserted even in the Roman Catholic times.” And what are the facts at the present moment? Great Britain has actually been dedicated to the Virgin Mary, and christened “Our Lady’s Dowry”; “and a Jesuit Association of lay members, male and female, exists for the express purpose of making over this gift. This association is called ‘The Sodality of the Children of Mary,’ and it has guilds in scores of places in Great Britain, each presided over by the local priest.” Still further, the Jesuit Association has adopted as its patron saint Pope Pius V., who carried on the struggle between Rome and England in Queen Elizabeth’s time. Pius V. was one of the most cruel and blood-thirsty popes that ever occupied the chair at Rome. Before he became Pontiff he was identified “with the Inquisition, being at one time Inquisitor-General, and bore the bad pre-eminence of being its most cruel and blood-thirsty member, so that during his rule as Bishop, Cardinal, and Pope, its atrocities were greater than during any other period of its history.” “He it was who blessed Mary Stuart, condoned all her crimes, and helped her in every intrigue and rebellion set on foot throughout England for the assassination of Queen Elizabeth, and the setting of his Catholic protégée on the throne.” Measures of his they were which “prepared the way and led up to the massacre of St. Bartholomew,” in France, in August, 1572, though he died in the previous May. And this is the patron saint of the Jesuits in England and Scotland to-day, who, we may add, have drawn up the following prayer in his honour for the furtherance of their pernicious objects, which prayer clearly shows that they are animated by the same spirit, and are seeking the same ends as Pope Pius V., as well as prepared to adopt the same methods of violence to accomplish their purposes: “O God, Who, for crushing the enemies of Thy Church, and for the reparation of Divine worship, didst deign to choose blessed Pius as Pope, grant that we may be defended by his protection, and may so follow Thy commands, that we may vanquish the treachery of all our enemies, and rejoice with Thee in everlasting peace, through our Lord.” This prayer has been circulated in thousands at home and abroad. Can anything be too dreadful to expect, as the result of this blasphemous crusade? Towards the close of this chapter, Dr. Robertson recalls a similar prayer which was “concocted by the Jacobite Roman Catholic hierarchy in 1690, for the dethronement of William and Mary, the destruction of Protestantism, and the restoration of James II. and the Roman faith, copies of which were also scattered broadcast throughout the land,” and in regard to which Lord Macaulay wrote that the Jacobin prayer “did not attract general notice till the appearance of a foreign armament on our coast had roused the national spirit.” Our author well adds in conclusion: “Let us not wait ’till the appearance of a foreign armament on our coast’ rouses the national spirit! Let that spirit arouse itself now! Our peril is as imminent and as great as it was in 1690! . . . The Philistines be upon thee, John Bull! Wake up, England!”
In the next three chapters, Dr. Robertson shows, with full information, that the “Church’s Bankruptcy” in Italy and on the continent is one of the great impelling causes of the movement Britain-wards. The bankruptcy is moral and financial. The third chapter is devoted to “The Church Bankrupt in Italy;” the fourth to “The Church Bankrupt in France and in other Continental Nations.” It is impossible for us to give as large extracts from these valuable chapters as we would desire. In regard to Italy, Dr. Robertson states that “in Parliament and in the Press she (the Papal Church) is constantly spoken of as ‘the enemy in the citadel,’ and as ‘the eternal enemy’; and I have heard the Pope denounced, not personally, but officially, as ‘the assassin of the country.’ It is calculated that of Italy’s thirty-three millions of inhabitants, over twenty millions refuse, on principle, to cross the threshold of a church door, which twenty odd millions include nearly all the industry, intelligence, morality, and religion in the land.” Even the occasional large attendances of people that may be seen in city and country churches do not necessarily imply any real fellowship with the so-called Church. Many enter places of worship “who have no link of any kind with the officiating priests, who never confess to them, or ever take the sacrament at their hands.” It used to be the case that those who in general shunned the priest, sent for him on important occasions “such as at times of marriage, baptism, sickness, and approaching death,” but it is not so now. “Marriage has been taken entirely out of the hands of the Church. No priest, not even the Pope himself, can now legally marry a couple. Marriage is a civil contract, only legal when performed by the Mayor of the place in which the couple live, or by his assessor . . . If people are silly enough to obey the Pope and rest content with a religious marriage, then their children are registered as illegitimate, and on the death of their parents they cannot inherit real property. The Pope’s marriage Encyclical is, of course, a document in favour of illegality and immorality. After a couple have been married civilly and legally, then they may go, if they choose, to a church and get what is called the Church’s benediction on their union. But the number of those who do this is steadily declining.” In some places ninetenths of the people refuse to take the sacrament at death, and give orders that no priest be called to their funerals. “At the same time, crosses are generally carried” at these funerals “to show that those who died were Christians.” Dr. Robertson’s concluding sentence to this chapter is “Italy is lost to the Roman Catholic Church.”
As we intend, if well, having a second extended notice of this remarkable and stirring volume, we break off at this point. Suffice it to say meantime that the book is most tastefully got up, print and paper being excellent, and is illustrated with several striking cartoon pictures taken from an able Italian Protestant paper, the Asino, which exhibit in a graphic form, not easily forgot, the character and workings of the Papacy. Every Protestant household that can afford the money should have this book on its table. If any friend is looking about for a suitable gift-book to a young man or woman, such can hardly do better than purchase this. It is a book opportune for the times, when there are such falsely charitable views of the Roman Church abroad. The enemy comes in like a flood. May the Spirit of the Lord make use of Dr. Robertson’s wisely timed message as a standard against him!