  Popish aims at supremacy—Avowals by distinguished Catholics—The order of Jesuits—Startling disclosures and authentic references!—The strength of Romanism in the United States! The Romish hierarchy aims at supremacy in the Church and the State. It is nothing more nor less than a great political system, arrogating to itself the right to sway the spiritual and temporal concerns of men—a right it claims to have derived from God, and that therefore the Romish Church is above all, and may rule all. Hence the conspiracy against our government emanating from the Vatican, and planned by the Pope, his Cardinals and Bishops, in the late grand council at Rome! They there and then resolved on affecting the objects of the Leopold Foundation, established in Vienna, May 13, 1829, to support Catholic missionaries in the United States. Every member of this Society—and its branches are numerous, being scattered over the whole earth—agrees to offer prayers daily to St. Leopold, and every week to contribute as much as a crucifix. The valley of the Mississippi has been surveyed and mapped by the Jesuits, under the directions of the Vatican, and Popish Cardinals in Europe are boasting of the certainty of their subjecting this land of freedom at no distant day to papal supremacy! Rev. Dr. James, an eminent clergyman of England, says: "The Church of Rome has determined to compensate herself for her losses in the old world, by her conquest in the new." Hence, too, a Papal editor in Europe conducting a Catholic organ, and advising vigorous measures for the extension of Papal power, says: "We must make haste—the moments are precious—America may become the centre of civilization." The Rev. Dr. Reze, of Detroit, a priest of distinction, who is now in custody at Rome, a few years since, writing from Michigan to his master, the Pope, says: "We shall see the truth triumph—the temple of idols overthrown—the seat of falsehood brought to silence—and all the United States embraced in A Catholic priest in Indiana told a Protestant minister, an able Methodist clergyman, in a controversy, "The time will come when Catholics will make Protestants wade knee-deep in blood in the valley of the Mississippi!" Bishop England, one of their master-spirits in this country, in a letter to the Pope written from Charleston, and which was so good that his Holiness caused it to be published, said: "Within thirty years, the Protestant heresy will come to an end. If we can secure the West and South, we will take care of New England." This same dignitary said to his brethren at Vienna in that memorable letter, by way of advice and encouragement: "All that is necessary is money and priests, to subjugate the mock liberties of America." The Jesuits profess to be a more devoted branch of the Pope's army than any other order. The Abbe De Pradt, formerly Roman Archbishop at Malines, calls them "the Pope's zealous militia:" another correctly calls them "the Pope's body-guard, organized for the express purpose of defending the Papal See, and undertaking a spiritual crusade against heretics." Pius VII., in his Bull of August 7, 1814, reËstablishing the order, which Clement XIV. had suppressed, says: "We would be guilty of a great crime," if, amid the dangers threatening the Papal interests, and "if, placed in the barque of Peter, tossed and assailed by continual storms, we refused to employ the vigorous and experienced rowers who volunteer their services in order to break the waves of a sea which threatens every moment shipwreck and death." The presumption is, that "these vigorous and experienced rowers who thus volunteer their services," have some moving principle, some hidden spring, which moves with that oneness and constancy under all discouragements. The watch does not show the spring that sets it in motion: who that looks at its face and observes the movement of the hands will doubt that it is there, and that they move in proportion to the strength or weakness of that spring? The old Romans used to swear their soldiers: the Roman Church swears even her private members. Read the following from the creed: "I solemnly promise, vow, and swear true obedience to the Roman bishop," &c. "This true Catholic faith, out of which there is no salvation, &c.—I promise, vow, and swear most constantly to hold and profess the same, whole and entire, with God's assistance, to the end of my life, and procure, as far as lies in my power, that The Jesuits are more strict, subservient, devoted to the Vatican, than any other wing of the Catholic Church. In the second volume of the constitutions of the Jesuits, under the heading of obedience to superiors, is written: "You shall always see Jesus Christ in the General." "You shall obey him in every thing. Your obedience shall be boundless in the execution, in the will and understanding. You shall persuade yourselves that God speaks in his mouth: that when he orders, God himself orders. You shall execute his command immediately, with joy and with steadiness." "You shall be in his hands a dead body, which he will govern, move, place, displace, according to his will." Under these teachings, says Arnauld, a student in a college of Jesuits stated, on hearing of the implicit obedience of another: "I would have done still more. Were God to order me, through the voice of my superior, to put to death father, mother, children, brothers, and sisters, I would do it with an eye as tearless and a heart as calm as if I were seated at the banquet of the Paschal lamb." Andrew B. Cross, of Baltimore, in a recent publication, says: "As early as 1624, the University of Paris charged them with being governed by 'secret laws.' In 1649, Palafox, Bishop of Angelopolis, in his letter to Innocent X., accuses them of having 'a secret constitution, hidden privileges, and concealed laws of their own.'" What will our Democratic Protestant opposers of Know Nothing secret lodges say to this? What will our Democratic advocates of Popery say to the principles of such an organization, and to its "horrible oaths?" But hear the Roman Catholic King of Portugal, in his manifesto to his Bishops, in 1759, only ninety-seven years ago: "In order to form the union, the consistency, and the strength of the society, there should be a government not only monarchical, but so sovereign, so absolute, so despotic, that even the Provincials themselves should not have it in their power, by any act of theirs, to resist or retard the execution of the orders of the General. By this legislative, inviolable and despotic power; by the profound devotedness of the subjects of this company to mysterious laws with which they are not themselves acquainted; by the blind and passive obedience with which they are compelled to execute, without hesitation or reply, whatever their superiors command," &c. But our Democratic anti-Know Nothings not only object to our having formerly kept our ritual concealed, but especially to our "The greatest care imaginable must be also taken that these instructions do not fall into the hands of strangers, &c.; if they should, let it be positively denied that these are the principles of the society," &c. But again: "Auquetil, in the fourth volume, page 333, of his History of France, gives an account of the celebrated case of the bankruptcy of the Rev. Father Jesuit La Valette, the Jesuit agent, for three million francs. Their ships had been taken by the English; the bankers in Marseilles, who had accepted bills of exchange to the amount of one and a half millions, required prompt payment. They wrote to De Sacy, the General Procurator of the Missions; he wrote to the General at Rome, but the General died at the same time; and before a new General could be elected, and an order sent to pay the money, the Fathers had become bankrupt, and suits were instituted. After delay and manoeuvre on their part, the case came on unexpectedly in 1760. All the Jesuits were accused. They tried to lay the guilt upon La Valette, but the bankers charged that all the Jesuits were under the General, and La Valette was only agent. In this sad condition they proposed to prove, according to their constitutions, that as a society their body possessed nothing, that all belonged to each college-house, convent, &c. The proposal of the Jesuits was accepted. On the 8th of May, 1761, after trial, the Parliament condemned the General and all the society to pay bills, costs, damages, &c., which they did without selling any of their property. "It was in this evil hour to the Jesuits that their constitutions, which had been acted upon for two hundred years in secret, were brought to light. Rules and constitutions maybe in existence and acted upon, when it would be impossible to obtain a copy from any one who was sufficiently advanced in the order to be trusted with a copy." It will astonish American Protestants to be told how numerous, influential, and strong the Catholics are in this land of liberty! They have 7 archbishops, 40 bishops, 1704 priests, 1824 churches, 21 colleges, 37 ecclesiastical institutions for the education of priests and Jesuits, 117 female academies, all of which are, in reality, Convents. Nuns, priests, and Jesuits are the professors, teachers, and matrons; and, strange to say, Protestant young ladies are their chief supporters! The Romish Hierarchy is far more numerous in Protestant America, than in any Catholic country on earth. Their strength in America equals what it is in Ireland, Scotland, and England combined! How extensive is this religious organization in our land: how subtle! Its ramifications are all so many arteries, which receive their life's blood from the heart at Rome, and return it there by its regular palpitations! It is now concentrating its arteries at Washington City, and is promised "aid and comfort" from the great Democratic party—a party fast becoming the foe of true liberty, and of the evangelical Protestant faith. |
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