spised and scorned as the ravings of pride, arrogance, and imbecility. Romanists believe that the Popes act by divine authority, and that they must be obeyed. When John, King of England, had offended Pope Innocent III., he laid his kingdom under an interdict, by which all the places of worship were shut up for "three years, " and the "dead buried in the highways without the ordinary rights of interment." This failing to bring the King to terms, the Pope proceeded to severer measures. He absolved his subjects from their oath of allegiance, and declared his throne vacant, and called upon the King of France to enter upon the conquest of Briton, and to annex it to his own dominions. An army was immediately raised for this purpose, which, in connection with the wide-spread disaffection among his own subjects, so alarmed the King of England, that he hastened to do homage to the Pope, who, after five days, restored his crown and scepter upon the most humiliating conditions.

In fact, the most powerful monarchs were powerless before the Popes. Emperors led his horse and held his stirrup. Kings who chanced to fall under his displeasure, were stripped by him of their honors and power, and whole realms were deprived of every religious privilege. The Emperor Henry was not only driven from his throne by Pope Gregory VII., but

compelled to cross the Alps amid the rigors of winter to implore the clemency of the Pope. On arriving at Canusium, the Pope's residence at that time, he was compelled to stand at the entrance of this fortress for three days, in the open air, with his feet bare, his head uncovered, and no other garment but a coarse woollen cloth thrown around his naked body.

For sanctioning, as was supposed, the assassination of Thomas A. Becket, Henry II., king of England, was compelled by Pope Alexander to walk barefoot over three miles of flinty road, with only a coarse cloth over his shoulders, to the shrine of Becket, where eighty monks, four bishops, abbots and other clergy, who were present, whipped his bare back with a knotted cord, compelled him to drink water mingled with blood, and to pay forty pounds a year for tapers to burn perpetually before the martyr's tomb.

Said Pope Boniface to Philip King of France: "We desire that thou shouldest know that thou art subject to us in ecclesiastical and worldly matters." "God has set us over kings and countries to tear down and destroy, spoil and scatter, build up and plant."

In fact, to such an extent of insanity was this idea of Papal authority over all mankind carried, that a provision was inserted in the canon law declaring that "if a Pope was so lost

to the duties of his high station that through negligence he drew multitudes with him to hell, yet was he not to be reproved by any man; for he was to judge mankind, and not to be judged by man; therefore the nations were to pray for him, for on him their salvation depended next to God." An ecclesiastical Papal writer says: "The Pope is bound by no form of law; his pleasure is law." "The Pope makes right of that which is wrong, and can change the nature of things." "The Pope is all and over all; he can change square things into round." Pope Adrian VI. said to the Elector Frederick, whom he sought to intimidate, in order to prevent his encouraging or supporting the Reformation: "Thou art a sheep; presume not to impugn thy shepherd, nor to judge thy God and Christ." Could any form of words be employed more shocking or blasphemous than the above? The very throne and high prerogatives of the Almighty are assumed as belonging to a poor, weak, sinful man. But such is their boasted claim, and such has been their tyranny founded upon these wicked pretensions over the nations of the earth.

The whole history of the Church shows Romanism to be the very worst form of despotism under the sun. Nothing can exceed its haughty pretensions, or the arrogance and pride with which it has sought to subjugate the world to

its iron sway.

Consequently she has ever been the enemy of all liberal governments and free institutions. True to her nature and instincts, in all struggles for liberty, she always arrays herself on the side of oppression. She must, from her very structure and nature, be an enemy to our free institutions, and woe to our country and our liberties when Romanism becomes dominant in these United States.

CHAPTER XXII.

Rome Still Despotic.

WHEN we refer to the past history of the Romish Church to show the terrible, crushing despotism with which she has oppressed mankind in past ages, we are frequently met with the reply, True, but Rome has changed; that she is no longer the tyrant she was in the days of Hildebrand; that with the progress of civilization she has advanced in the direction of a more humane and liberal policy; that, in fact, it was nearly impossible for her, amid the general diffusion of knowledge, to still adhere to the despotic dogmas of the dark ages.

Such persons should remember that Rome boasts of her immutability. That, however greatly society may change in customs and forms, she changes not. And, it must be admitted that in this respect she has wonderfully held her own.

Rome is as despotic to-day in heart and soul as she has been at any former period of her existence. This charge is not based upon the assertions of her enemies, but upon the declarations of her own expounders of her principles, and what is better, her long and uniform prac