3. A Livelier Sense of the Soul-Ruining Character of Romanism
J C Ryle
1 Chronicles 12:32. Men that had understanding of the times.
3. The times require of us an awakened and livelier sense of the unscriptural and soul-ruining character of Romanism. This is a painful subject, but it imperatively demands some plain speaking.
The facts of the case are very simple. No intelligent observer can fail to see that the tone of public feeling in England about Romanism has undergone a great change in the last 40 years. Father Oakley, who has perverted to Rome and is an ally of Cardinal Newman2, asserts this triumphantly in a recent number of the Contemporary Review. And I am sorry to say that, in my judgement, he speaks the truth. There is no longer that general dislike, dread and aversion to Popery, which was once almost universal in this realm. The edge of the old British feeling about Protestantism seems blunted and dull.
Some profess to be tired of all religious controversy, and are ready to sacrifice God’s truth for the sake of peace. Some look on Romanism as simply one among many English forms of religion, and neither worse nor better than others. Some try to persuade us that Romanism has changed and is not nearly so bad as it used to be. Some boldly point to the faults of Protestants, and cry loudly that Romanists are quite as good as ourselves. Some think it fine and liberal to maintain that we have no right to think anyone wrong who is in earnest about his creed. Yet there are two great historical facts: (1) ignorance, immorality and superstition reigned supreme in England 400 years ago under Popery, (2) the Reformation was the greatest blessing God ever gave to this land. Both these are facts which no one but a Roman Catholic ever thought of disputing 50 years ago. In the present day, alas, it is convenient and fashionable to forget them. In short, at the rate we are going, I shall not be surprised if it is soon proposed to repeal the Act of Settlement and to allow the crown of England to be worn by a Roman Catholic.
The causes of this melancholy change of feeling are not hard to discover:
(1.) It arises partly from the untiring zeal of the Romish Church herself. Her agents never slumber or sleep. They compass sea and land to make one proselyte. They creep in everywhere and leave no stone unturned, in the palace or the workhouse, to promote their cause.
(2.) It has been furthered immensely by the proceedings of the Ritualistic party in the Church of England. That energetic body has been vilifying the Reformation and sneering at Protestantism for many years, with too much success. It has corrupted, leavened, blinded and poisoned the minds of many Churchmen by incessant misrepresentation. It has gradually familiarised people with every distinctive doctrine and practice of Romanism: the real presence, the mass, auricular confession and absolution by priests, the priestly character of the ministry, the monastic system, and a sensuous, showy style of public worship. And the natural result is that many simple people see no mighty harm in downright genuine Romanism.
(3.) Not least, the spurious liberality of the day we live in helps on the Romeward tendency. It is fashionable now to say that all sects should be equal, that the state should have nothing to do with religion, that all creeds should be regarded with equal favour and respect, and that there is a substratum of common truth at the bottom of all kinds of religion, whether Buddhism, Mohammedanism, or Christianity. The consequence is that myriads of ignorant folk begin to think there is nothing particularly dangerous in the tenets of Roman Catholics, any more than in the tenets of any Protestant denomination, and that we ought to let Romanism alone and never expose its unscriptural and Christ-dishonouring character.
The consequences of this changed tone of feeling, I am bold to say, will be most disastrous and mischievous unless it can be checked. Once let Rome get her foot again on the neck of England and there will be an end of all our national greatness. With Bible reading discouraged, with private judgment forbidden, with the way to Christ’s cross narrowed or blocked up, with priestcraft re-established, with auricular confession set up in every parish, with monasteries and convents dotted over the land, with women everywhere kneeling like serfs and slaves at the feet of clergymen, with men casting off all faith and becoming sceptics, with schools and colleges made seminaries of Jesuitism – with all these things, the distinctive manliness and independence of the British character will gradually dwindle, wither, pine away and be destroyed; and England will be ruined. All these things, I firmly believe, will come unless the old feeling about the value of Protestantism can be revived.
I warn all who read this paper, and I warn my fellow churchmen in particular, that the times require you to awake and be on your guard. Beware of Romanism and beware of any religious teaching which, wittingly or unwittingly, paves the way to it. I beseech you to realise the painful fact that the Protestantism of this country is gradually ebbing away and I entreat you, as Christians and patriots, to resist the growing tendency to forget the blessings of the English Reformation.
For Christ’s sake, for the sake of the Church of England, for the sake of our country, for the sake of our children, let us not drift back to Romish ignorance, superstition, priestcraft and immorality. Our fathers tried Roman Catholicism long ago, for centuries, and threw it off at last with disgust and indignation. Let us not put the clock back and return to Egypt. Let us have no peace with Rome; the vaunted re-union of Western Churches, which some talk of and press upon our notice, is an insult to Christianity.
Read your Bibles and store your minds with scriptural arguments. A Bible-reading laity is a nation’s surest defence against error. I have no fear for English Protestantism if the English laity will only do their duty. See how the Thirty-nine Articles, that neglected document, speak of Romish doctrines. We clergymen, I fear, are often sadly to blame. We break the first Canon, which bids us preach four times every year against the Pope’s supremacy. Too often we behave as if “giant Pope” was dead and buried, and never name him. Too often, for fear of giving offence, we neglect to show our people the real nature and evil of Romanism.
I entreat my readers, beside the Bible and Articles, to read history and see what Rome did in days gone by. Read how she trampled on your country’s liberties, plundered your forefathers’ pockets, and kept the whole nation ignorant, superstitious and immoral. Read how Archbishop Laud ruined Church and state, and brought himself and King Charles to the scaffold by his foolish, obstinate and God-displeasing effort to unprotestantise the Church of England. Read how the last Roman Catholic King of England, James II, lost his crown by his daring attempt to put down Protestantism and reintroduce Romanism Do not forget that Rome never changes. It is her boast and glory that she is infallible and always the same. Think twice before you cast aside the principles of the Reformation. Think twice before you give way to the prevailing tendency to favour Popery and go back to Rome.
The Reformation found Englishmen steeped in ignorance and left them in possession of knowledge; it found them without Bibles and placed a Bible in every parish; it found them in darkness and left them in comparative light; it found them priest-ridden and left them enjoying the liberty which Christ bestows; it found them strangers to the blood of atonement, to faith and grace and real holiness, and left them with the key to these things in their hands; it found them blind and left them seeing; it found them slaves and left them free. For ever let us thank God for the Reformation. It lit a candle which we must never allow to be extinguished or to burn dim. Surely I have a right to say that the times require of us a renewed sense of the evils of Romanism and of the enormous value of the Protestant Reformation.1
1 A further section, as edited, from a chapter in Ryle’s book Holiness. The previous part, last month, emphasised the need for a “distinct and decided views of Christian doctrine”. Ryle’s warnings are still absolutely relevant.
2 At first an Evangelical in the Church of England, he became a leader in the Tractarian movement, which promoted Roman Catholic ideas in the English Church. In 1845 he left the Church of England for the Roman Church. In 1879, he was made a cardinal in recognition of his services to the Roman Catholic Church in England. Ryle was writing in 1879.