textfiles-politics/pythonCode/personTestingOutput/mccabe16.xml

<xml><p> 28 page printout</p>

<p> Reproducible <ent type='ORG'>Electronic Publishing</ent> can defeat censorship.</p>

<p> This file, its printout, or copies of either
are to be copied and given away, but NOT sold.</p>

<p> Bank of Wisdom, Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
**** ****</p>

<p>Edited by E. <ent type='PERSON'>Haldeman</ent>-<ent type='PERSON'>Julius</ent></p>

<p>THE BLACK INTERNATIONAL No. 16</p>

<p> THE HOLY FAITH OF ROMANISTS</p>

<p> HOW <ent type='NORP'>CATHOLICS</ent> ARE HYPNOTIZED
ABOUT THEIR WEIRD CREED</p>

<p> by Joseph McCabe</p>

<p> HALDEMAN-JULIUS PUBLICATIONS
GIRARD -- : -- KANSAS</p>

<div> **** ****</div>

<p> CHAPTER</p>

<p> I What Is the <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> Creed? ........... 1
@@@
II The <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> and <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>ry ................ 6</p>

<p> III The System of Sacred Magic .............. 11</p>

<p> IV How the Doctrines Were Fabricated ....... 19</p>

<p> V How the General Public Is Duped ......... 24</p>

<div> **** ****</div>

<p> Chapter I.</p>

<p> WHAT IS THE ROMAN CREED?</p>

<p> One of my readers informs me that the editor of an important
and comparatively independent <ent type='NORP'>American</ent> daily to whom he spoke about
the theme of these booklets, the conspiracy of the Black
International with the <ent type='ORG'>Axis</ent> powers, said that I would create a
sensation if I could furnish adequate evidence of it. He seemed to
think that my work must be on the level of the fools who talk about
a conspiracy against civilization of <ent type='ORG'>the Elders</ent> of Zion or at the
best a strained inference of plots which from the nature of the
case would be kept strictly secret. The editor did not say that he
would read the ten booklets of the first series in which I gave a
volume of factual evidence and unimpeachable testimony which it
would take a court of law a month to examine; evidence and
testimony from the published words of <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>s, prelates, and <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>
newspapers, leading dailies like the Times and <ent type='ORG'>the New York</ent> Times,
the European press as objectively reviewed in Keesing's </p>

<p> Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
1
.
THE HOLY FAITH OF ROMANISTS</p>

<p>Contemporary Archives, <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> and pro-<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> books, and
official statistics. All that was new in my work was that I
laboriously collected these testimonies from the records of the
last ten years -- in our swiftly-moving times even editors forget
what they published a year ago -- and arranged them in such order
as to give the reader a faithful retrospect and an analysis of the
present situation of the world.</p>

<p> Another correspondent asks me if I have worked up the material
in, or intend to write, one of those three or four-dollar books,
handsomely bound which really inspire confidence in the reader. My
friend is a member of one of those impressive societies of very
serious men and women who are out to tell their contemporaries the
full and profound truth about international happenings from month
to month. It appears that they won't read ten-cent paper-covered
booklets. Their library would not accept a copy of a work which
was, so that any worker could buy it, split up into ten such
booklets. And I reply as in the preceding paragraph. These people
may or may not want to know the truth about the share of the Black
International in the corruption of our age but they would not
publish it in any form or under any circumstance,, and most of them
have a more or less conscious feeling that they would rather not
see anyone give the world truth which they have not the courage to
give.</p>

<p> Some of these folks privately wish me good-speed in my work.
Some excuse themselves on the score that I am vituperative or a
mere superficial collector of facts; and when one reflects on the
way in which for the last ten years the "polite" writers and the
"profound" writers have led the world blind-fold to the brink of
the pit I welcome this description. But many feel it very difficult
to believe that the <ent type='ORG'><ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent></ent>, which they thought they knew
well, is capable of this conspiracy against civilization: that is
to say, a conspiracy for their own end's, no matter how they define
these, of the leaders of the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> with powers which, if they
succeeded, would certainly wreck civilization as we know it.</p>

<p> This is not now in dispute but I recommend the reading of a
booklet recently published (though possibly not in <ent type='GPE'>America</ent>) by
Prof. J. Needham, of <ent type='ORG'>Cambridge University</ent>, The <ent type='NORP'>Nazi</ent> Attack on
international Science, in which he shows the appalling corruption
of even men of science in <ent type='GPE'>Germany</ent>, "Blood and soil," says Prof.
Krieck, Rector of <ent type='ORG'>Frankfort University</ent>, "are the symbols of the
<ent type='ORG'>National</ent>-political point of view and the heroic style of life," and
"What is the purpose of university education? . . . the heroic
science of the soldier." But it will be enough to show the depth to
which Prof. P. Lenard, one of the six greatest physical scientists
of our time, has sunk. He has adopted the vile and stupid racialist
creed of the <ent type='NORP'>Nazi</ent>s and repeatedly said that the great <ent type='NORP'>Jewish</ent>
scientists of <ent type='GPE'>Germany</ent> (Einstein, etc.) have merely hampered "the
will for truth of the <ent type='NORP'>Aryan</ent> scholar, which is as boundless as it is
painstaking" and "lowered the level of <ent type='NORP'>German</ent> science." And what
these men of science, intoxicated by the <ent type='NORP'>Nazi</ent> poison, say in
<ent type='GPE'>Germany</ent> is applied to all higher culture and all that is
distinctively modern and promising in our civilization by the
priest-ridden dictators of the dozen countries which now grovel at
the feet of the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>.</p>

<p> Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
2
.
THE HOLY FAITH OF ROMANISTS</p>

<p> There are two possible theories as to why the leaders of the
<ent type='ORG'><ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent></ent> thus allied themselves with powers that corrupt
culture, suppress a freedom which it took the world a century of
heroic struggle to win, and brought an incalculable misery upon the
race. the first theory, which you may feel to be the natural
interpretation of all the facts that I have given and the whole
history of the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>, is that <ent type='ORG'>the Black International</ent> sought to
protect the wealth and power it was rapidly losing through the
advance of Socialism. The second theory is that of the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>
itself as stated by the most conscientious of its apologists. You
have the germ of it in these words of Cardinal <ent type='PERSON'>Newman</ent>, the most
respected and most orthodox of <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> writers in the English
language:</p>

<p> "The <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> holds that it were better for sun and moon to drop
from heaven, for the earth to fail, and for all the many millions
who are upon it to die of starvation in extremist agony, so far as
temporal affliction goes, than that one soul, I will not say should
be lost but should commit one single venial sin, should tell one
wilful untruth, though it harmed no one, or steal one poor farthing
without excuse (<ent type='NORP'>Anglican</ent> Difficulties, p. 190).</p>

<p> And if it is <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> doctrine that it is better that all this
ruin, being only material or secular, should take place than that
you should tell the wife you were detained at the office when you
were giving a little dinner to a stenographer, what ruin is not the
<ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> prepared to sanction, or to cooperate in producing, rather
than that tens of millions of folk should commit, or should persist
in the mortal sin of apostasy with all its sequels? <ent type='PERSON'>Eve</ent>ry apology
for the Pope's action in <ent type='GPE'>Japan</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Spain</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Germany</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Abyssinia</ent>,
<ent type='GPE'>Brazil</ent>, etc., springs from that root. It is <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> doctrine from
Augustine's City of God onward.</p>

<p> Which theory do you prefer? If the first, the Black
International is purely and simply one of the gang, to be arraigned
like the others at the close of the war. If the second, it is an
enemy of the human race and of civilization as we moderns
understand the words. But at least do not talk to me about
respecting sincerity. The head-hunters of <ent type='GPE'>Borneo</ent>, the thugs of
India, the <ent type='NORP'>Aztec</ent> priests of <ent type='GPE'>Mexico</ent>, and the Inquisitors of <ent type='GPE'>Spain</ent>
were sincere.</p>

<p> <ent type='NORP'>American</ent> apologists never quote this perfectly sound doctrinal
statement of <ent type='PERSON'>Newman</ent>. They talk vaguely about it being the business
of the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> or the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> to look after man's "Spiritual" or
"eternal" interests; and they rub the dust into your eyes by
telling you in the next breath that <ent type='NORP'>American</ent> civilization is based
upon "spiritual realities." Make no mistake about it. They mean,
when they tell the truth, just what <ent type='PERSON'>Newman</ent> said, for that is the
<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> faith. Why, then, you ask, do we not hear Protestant
apologists say things of this sort since they also believe in
eternal torment or eternal bliss? You will, as a matter of fact,
sometimes find a fanatical <ent type='ORG'>Baptist</ent> preacher using equally bleak and
revolting language, though in most <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>es the old dogmas have
been softened by modern humanism. But the chief reason is that the
<ent type='ORG'>Black International</ent> is a professional body which is mainly
concerned to use the logical implications of the creed it imposes
to cover its anti-human activities.</p>

<p> Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
3
.
THE HOLY FAITH OF ROMANISTS</p>

<p> As I said in an earlier book, it is not uncommon to find an
<ent type='NORP'>American</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> writer, even a bishop, loudly asserting, with a
sort of strut and swagger, that if <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent> ever ordered them to do or
to believe anything contrary to <ent type='NORP'>American</ent> principles they would cut
the cable. This, I explained, is a bit of forensic rhetoric or
trickery. It is just to give the non-<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> public the feeling
that these apologists are so perfectly aware that there is nothing
in <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>ism opposed to our principles that they can even express
themselves in this melodramatic fashion. But it will be a good
introduction to our subject, the real nature of the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> as[
distinct from the general <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> creed, to consider what would
happen if these folk were some day called upon to make good their
boast.</p>

<p> Obviously the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> in <ent type='GPE'>America</ent> would no longer be either
<ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> or <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>. The loss of the first name may not seem to
matter much because there is already some tendency to drop it. As
I have often pointed out, the new Encyclopedia <ent type='NORP'>American</ent>a is
drenched with <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> influence, yet if you look up "<ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent>
<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>" you are referred to "<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>, <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent>." It
is only a few years since <ent type='ORG'>the Black International</ent> in <ent type='GPE'>Britain</ent> made
a brazen attempt to get the history-books in the public schools
revised in their interest, and one change they wanted was to have
the word "<ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent>" deleted in references to the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>, and
to get the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> described as "the head of the <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> religion."
It was rather amusing for those of us who knew that a few years
earlier <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s (especially in <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent>) had boiled over with wrath
because the (<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>) Premier of <ent type='GPE'>Malta</ent> had wanted that change made
in the Constitution of the island. However, you easily see what
isolation from <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent> would mean to the <ent type='NORP'>American</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>. The
oleographs of the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> and St. Peter's in millions of <ent type='NORP'>American</ent>
(<ent type='NORP'>Polish</ent>, <ent type='NORP'>Italian</ent>, etc.) homes must be burned, and try to picture
the turmoil of mind of the folk, old or young, who had listened for
years or decades to services on the august authority of "<ent type='ORG'>the Vicar</ent>
of Christ," the glories of the <ent type='ORG'>Papacy</ent>, the unique wisdom of the
Encyclicals, etc., etc. Just bunglers after all. Leave them to
McCabe and <ent type='PERSON'>Haldeman</ent>-<ent type='PERSON'>Julius</ent>.</p>

<p> The word "<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>" would, of course, go with the word <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent>.
It means, and most essentially implies, "universal." But every
other branch of the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> would scorn this <ent type='NORP'>American</ent>
abortion. At <ent type='GPE'>Detroit</ent>, Canadian <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s would cross the river to
break up meetings of these foul schismatics of the . . . I wonder
what they would call it. The <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> of the Stars and Stripes? The
Neo-<ent type='NORP'>American</ent>-Medieval <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>? I give it up.</p>

<p> But we know how bold our apologists are, so let us entertain
the idea that some day the hierarchy may bring out bell, book, and
candle against the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>, and all the Papal marquises and knights
will throw their decorations into the gutter, and so on. What would
be the creed of the new <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>, as distinguished from that of the
Protestant Episcopal <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>? Study the latest and most careful
statement of the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> faith that is offered to the <ent type='NORP'>American</ent>
public, that written by a <ent type='ORG'>Jesuit</ent> professor in your Encyclopedia
<ent type='NORP'>American</ent>a. Cut away the Papal part and see what is left.
Practically nothing. There is a lot about sacraments (baptism,
confession, communion, ordained priests, etc.) but it seems that </p>

<p> Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
4
.
THE HOLY FAITH OF ROMANISTS</p>

<p>the validity of these things depends essentially upon magical
powers inherited from the apostles, to whom Christ gave them,
through <ent type='PERSON'>Peter</ent> and the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>s! These revolting bishops would throw
away the dog and keep only the tail.</p>

<p> In other words, all this talk about defying the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> is just
trickery, probably put out with the amiable agreement of the
Vatican. The opportunity to state the creed in the <ent type='NORP'>American</ent>a was so
important from the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> angle that you may certainly take the
article as authoritative, and it agrees with all other short and
responsible 'statements, as in the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> Encyclopedia. It begins
with the Gospels, which are said to show that Christ was God, and.
that he founded a <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> with twelve "apostles" as its cabinet-ministers and <ent type='PERSON'>Peter</ent> as Premier or President. That is familiar. The
unique <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> Truth comes in at the next step. It is that if not
a single Gospel had been written we should still know all about it.
Tradition is the great thing, greater than the Gospel's; and, of
course, the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> is the custodian and exponent of Tradition. This
is that wonderful <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> logic, which is so lacking in modern
science. You prove from the Gospels that God (Christ) founded the
<ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> and made its leaders infallible, so you have to listen to
it. As to the little weakness that it is a most thorny question
even among <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> scholars how far the Gospel-narrative is
historical, when it was written, what interpolations were made,
etc., the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> need not be troubled. The <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>, with its
Tradition, which is older than the Gospels, settles all these
things. You prove that <ent type='PERSON'>John Doe</ent> is an authority on economics by the
authority of <ent type='PERSON'>John Smith</ent>, and then you prove the reliability of John
Smith on the authority of <ent type='PERSON'>John Doe</ent>.</p>

<p> But there is method in the madness. We pass over articles of
the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> faith which are common to that <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> and the
Fundamentalists. As I showed in the last book, and this, latest
exposition of the creed emphatically repeats, every man who calls
himself a <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> pledges himself to a belief in the <ent type='ORG'>Trinity</ent>, the
creation of <ent type='PERSON'>Adam</ent> and <ent type='PERSON'>Eve</ent> and descent of the whole race from them,
the Garden of Eden, the Fall, the inherited or Original Sin, the
<ent type='ORG'>Incarnation</ent>, the virginity of <ent type='PERSON'>Mary</ent>, the Redemption ("by death on
the cross"), the resurrection, the ascension. Any educated or
liberal <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> who tells you that the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> does not now require
him to believe all these things literally, or as they were defined
by <ent type='ORG'>the Council</ent> of Trent, lies. It is the priest who received him
into the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> who whispered that to him -- if he will keep his
mouth closed about it. If any <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> questions this, let him show
you one line in print of a sermon, book, or <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>, paper
claiming that liberty.</p>

<p> After this the creed again becomes distinctively <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>, and
you see the reason for the above mental gymnastic. Christ's death
created an infinite store of "grace" (supernatural help) for men,
and this is mostly conveyed to them by the seven Sacraments of the
<ent type='ORG'><ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent></ent>. We will consider their peculiarities later. The main
point is that the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> has to prove that these "sacraments," with
all the weird beliefs and elaborate ritual and hierarchy they
entail, were "instituted by Christ." When you contrast the
anti-clerical and anti-ritual message consistently attributed to
<ent type='PERSON'>Jesus</ent> in the Gospels with the powerful hierarchy and rich ritual of</p>

<p> Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
5
.
THE HOLY FAITH OF ROMANISTS</p>

<p>the <ent type='ORG'><ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent></ent> you fancy that this will strain the resources of
even the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> apologist. Not in the least. It is quite easy.
That is where Tradition comes in. The Gospels are just unofficial
collections of tit-bits. The full message and instructions of <ent type='PERSON'>Jesus</ent>
about the future life of the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> were given privately to the
apostles, and <ent type='PERSON'>Peter</ent> faithfully transmitted them to his successors
in the <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> See. What these Protestant and Rationalist historians
say about the early <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> inventing priesthood and dogmas and the
medieval <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> inventing myriads of new dogmas and practices which
happened to be rather profitable to it is all nonsense. The <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>
invented nothing. It was all there in the instructions whispered to
the Galilean fishermen on the sunny slopes of the hills of <ent type='NORP'>Judaea</ent>.
When the time for each step was ripe the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> brought out the
plan from the Tradition entrusted to it.</p>

<p> You begin to see the wonderful simplicity of the <ent type='ORG'><ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent></ent>
-- or of its lay adherents. If you find it difficult to believe
that a <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> could get away with this Tradition theory in the
20th, Century read for yourself this article in the <ent type='NORP'>American</ent>a. When
at last <ent type='GPE'>America</ent> was to have its own encyclopedia and not rely on
these <ent type='NORP'>Britishers</ent>, and the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> was invited to advertise
itself lavishly in its pages, you may be sure that this chief
article on <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>ism was most carefully considered. It makes a
very strong point of the Tradition theory. Naturally it has to be
helped out by a monstrous amount of tampering with the historical
evidence, but it will be enough to show this in regard to the first
and principal part of the <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> creed: the part which the bishops
propose to discard when that famous day comes on which they will
hurl defiance at the Vatican and the greedy <ent type='NORP'>Italian</ent>s.</p>

<p> Chapter II</p>

<p> THE POPE AND POPERY</p>

<p> In a sense its teaching in regard to the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> is the only
distinctive part of <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>ism. The <ent type='NORP'>Greek</ent> and certain other
oriental <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>es which reject the authority of the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> -- the
<ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> -- agree in almost every other respect with <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> dogma
and ritual, and until 1918 these non-<ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>es had
almost as many members as the <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent>. Each of them -- <ent type='NORP'>Greek</ent>,
<ent type='NORP'>Russian</ent>, <ent type='NORP'>Bulgarian</ent>, <ent type='NORP'>Rumanian</ent>, <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent>, <ent type='NORP'>Syrian</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Abyssinia</ent>n, etc. --
called itself the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> (or universal) <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>, and they hated
each other like cold poison and snorted at the idea that they were
all sound branches of a really <ent type='ORG'>Universal</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>, Historically the
<ent type='NORP'>Greek</ent>s, when <ent type='GPE'>Greece</ent> was still an <ent type='GPE'>Empire</ent>, massacred thousands of
followers of the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>, and the <ent type='NORP'>Russian</ent>s carried on the gentle
tradition on the <ent type='NORP'>Poles</ent> in the 19th Century. From 1919 to 1939 the
<ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent>ist <ent type='NORP'>Poles</ent> returned the compliment to the non-<ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent>ist
<ent type='NORP'>Russian</ent>s, and today <ent type='NORP'>Italian</ent> and Croat <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent>ists use the familiar
argument on non-<ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent>ist Serbs, or <ent type='NORP'>Greek</ent>s. Remember that it is
better that, millions should die of starvation, or have their dying
accelerated by a knife or a club, than that one man should commit
a venial sin, much less the mortal and horrible sin of questioning
that <ent type='PERSON'>Eugenio Pacelli</ent> is <ent type='ORG'>the Vicar</ent> of Christ.</p>

<p> Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
6
.
THE HOLY FAITH OF ROMANISTS</p>

<p> Each of these oriental <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>es was founded by an apostle, or
by a <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> which had been founded by an apostle, and -- if for a
moment you will screw your profane mind up to seeing things on this
sacred plane -- it is impossible to think that Christ gave one set
of instructions about the future to <ent type='PERSON'>Peter</ent> and a different set to
his cabinet-ministers. It is therefore essential for the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>
apologists to say that in the fast few centuries of the <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>
Era, when the blood of the martyrs kept the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>es fragrant with
virtue -- this is their language, of course, not mine -- and all
were loyal to the message entrusted to the apostles, the supremacy
of the successors of <ent type='PERSON'>Peter</ent> in the bishopric of <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent> was
acknowledged; and so all the apologists, not to put too fine a
point on the matter, here lie like blazes. From <ent type='ORG'>Ducheane</ent>, the
finest and most liberal historical scholar they have had in this
century, to the <ent type='ORG'>Jesuit</ent> writers in the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> Encyclopedia, they
lie.</p>

<p> Do not ask me to be more polite and to say only, in the words
of a <ent type='NORP'>British</ent> statesman, that they are guilty of frigid and
calculated inexactitude. Only half a dozen times in the first four
centuries did the <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> claim a jurisdiction outside of <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent>.
The evidence is therefore compact and can be studied in two or
three hours by any person who reads <ent type='NORP'>Latin</ent>; for all the <ent type='NORP'>Greek</ent>
documents are available in <ent type='NORP'>Latin</ent> (in the <ent type='PERSON'>Migne</ent> collection). And
this evidence, plainly and emphatically shows that on every such
occasion the other <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>es vigorously, and in most cases with
indignation aid contempt, repudiated the claim of the Bishop of
<ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent>. Yet in the article on the subject in the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>
Encyclopedia, one of the chief articles in this work which
announces to the <ent type='NORP'>American</ent> public that it is the last word in
<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> scholarship and candor, the <ent type='ORG'>Jesuit</ent> <ent type='PERSON'>Joyce</ent> says:</p>

<p> "History bears complete testimony that from the very earliest
times the <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> See has ever claimed the supreme leadership, and
that that leadership has been freely acknowledged by the universal
<ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>."</p>

<p> Duchesne himself says in the article on the <ent type='ORG'>Papacy</ent> in the
Encyclopedia Britannica that its supremacy was "never questioned."
Each of these statements to the public on a point of the highest
importance is therefore the exact reverse of the truth. You can
guess how the minor apologists talk.</p>

<p> The <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> professor who writes on the <ent type='ORG'>Papacy</ent> in the
Encyclopedia <ent type='NORP'>American</ent>a is more diplomatic. Perhaps he has seen that
in half a dozen books in the last few years I have reproduced the
evidence -- see especially my True Story of the <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>
<ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> (I, 39-43, II 47-57) -- so that even those who do not read
<ent type='NORP'>Latin</ent> can judge for themselves. But he cannot or dare not tell the
truth. He says: "It is not now maintained that the full
significance of the <ent type='ORG'>Petrine</ent> primacy was manifest from the first in
the life of <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>ity." But that is exactly what the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>
Encyclopedia does maintain, as I have quoted. And when this
<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> professor says that the "full significance" was not
"manifest," instead of saying that it was flatly denied whenever it
was asserted, he is guilty of a constructive untruth. And when he
goes on to say that "Critics of all shades agree that <ent type='PERSON'>Peter</ent> was in </p>

<p> Bank of Wisdom
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<p><ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent> in 64" he is as bold as the others. Very few Protestant
theologians and no Rationalist historians admit that <ent type='PERSON'>Peter</ent> was ever
in <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent>, and I have shown that the "Letter of the <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent>s to the
Corinthians" of the year 96 plainly proves the opposite.</p>

<p> I must not here be drawn into details of history, with which
I have fully dealt, quoting the original <ent type='NORP'>Latin</ent> and <ent type='NORP'>Greek</ent>
authorities, elsewhere. For the moment I am concerned only to point
out that the most distinctive doctrine of the <ent type='ORG'><ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent></ent>, that
concerning the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>s, the principal basis of the power of the Black
International, is so demonstrably contrary to the evidence that the
apologists, have to lie to their own people and to the general
public about that evidence. Indeed, the literature they impose upon
their own people -- we are bound to say "Impose" when they forbid
them to read critics -- about this important early phase of their
<ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> and its <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>s is comprehensively untruthful. In the lists of
<ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>s nearly the whole of the first thirty are marked "Saints and
Martyrs" whereas the facts are so notorious that the leading
<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> experts admit that not more than two at the most were
martyrs, that the hundreds of stories of martyrs impressed upon
children in <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> schools are forgeries.</p>

<p> In the first book of this series I gave a short analysis of
our actual knowledge of the character of the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>s. The character
of the majority of the first eight centuries is really unknown to
us, but many were rogues. It is significant that there are only two
periods in the first three centuries when contemporary documents
throw a light upon the character of the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>s and they (<ent type='PERSON'>Victor</ent>,
<ent type='ORG'>Callistus</ent>, and <ent type='PERSON'>Damasus</ent>) are seen to be very far from saintly. But
I need not repeat the facts even in summary. When <ent type='NORP'>catholics</ent> are
told by their priests that their <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> has been ruled by a long
line of Holy Fathers, Vicars of Christ, except that for mysterious
reasons God permitted "a few bad <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>s" in the series, they are
<ent type='ORG'>dupe</ent>d. The phrase "a few bad <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>s," 'which occurs in all <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>
writers, is a constructive untruth. The <ent type='ORG'>Papacy</ent> was corrupt for
whole centuries: especially from about 880 to 1050 and (with a
short decent pontificate at rare intervals) 1290 to about 1660. No
"primacy" in any other organized religion has so disgraceful a
record. If I have any readers of this who are not familiar with my
earlier work I may assure them that I have covered the entire
ground in those works and quoted the contemporary documents for
each age, Some day I will get out a biographical catalogue of the
<ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>s. The general public is today more grossly deceived than ever
about the facts of <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> history.</p>

<p>These facts are materially relevant to my present subject. The man
who hesitates to admit that the supreme motive of the Black
International is the protection and increase of its power and
wealth, who is inclined to take the "spiritual" view of its
activity therefore fails to understand that activity until it is
too late, only to consult the historical facts. I have said that
the longest period of degradation of the "Holy See," a period to
which you will find no parallel in the history of the religions
which <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent> treats with such contempt, was from about 1290 to 1660.
<ent type='ORG'>The Papal Court</ent> was almost uniformly and extraordinarily corrupt
during that stretch, and the great majority of the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>s were men
themselves of unworthy character or men who permitted or patronized
corruption. That applies to nine-tenths of this period of nearly
four centuries.
Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
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THE HOLY FAITH OF ROMANISTS</p>

<p> Yet this is just the period when the fires of the Inquisition
burned most fiercely. The spectacle of the deeply religious and
puritanical monk <ent type='PERSON'>Savonarola</ent> butchered as a heretic at <ent type='GPE'>Florence</ent>
under a <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>, Alexander VI, of the most cynically immoral life is
not a bad symbol for the period. More cynical still in some
respects, as he turned to sodomy after he became <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>, was Leo X,
and this man. wanted <ent type='PERSON'>Luther</ent> burned at the stake as <ent type='PERSON'>John Hus</ent> had
been burned under that "monster of vice" (as <ent type='ORG'>the Council</ent> which
tried him called him), <ent type='PERSON'>John XXIII</ent>. Yet in those days the cry of the
<ent type='ORG'>Black International</ent> was the same as now. They were, they said,
moved only by thought of the horrible danger to the faithful of
eternal damnation, and no bodily suffering of individual or of
nation need be taken into account in their zeal to protect souls.</p>

<p> It is one of the paradoxes of modern times that the larger our
historical knowledge has grown or the more self-conscious the world
at large has become, the more the power of the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> has grown. No
<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> writer would now dare, or be disposed, tell the facts
about the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>s of the <ent type='EVENT'>Middle Ages</ent> as candidly as did Cardinal
Baronius, the Father of <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> History, the pride of the <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent>
<ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> in the 16th Century. A Cardinal Richelieu honestly telling
the Vatican, not making an insincere brag about it to impress his
own countrymen, that if the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> does not mind his own business he
will sever <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> from <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent> is today unthinkable. Instead of a
"Gallican Movement," which for centuries checked the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>s and
their encroachments in <ent type='GPE'>France</ent>, we have a <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> hierarchy cringing
to <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent> though it is the ally of the brutes who drench <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> with
shame and misery. All the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> anti-Papal attitudes (Febronian,
etc.) of national <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>es are deader, if I may use the expression,
than astrology. Such a figure as Lord <ent type='PERSON'>Acton</ent>, the last fine scholar
of the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>, is no longer possible in it. There is far more
deliberate untruth in <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> literature, particularly in regard
to the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>s, than there ever was before. And the literary men and
sociologists who write so much and so brilliantly about the
paradoxes and weaknesses of our age never notice this paradox.</p>

<p> The historian of the future will write delicious pages on it.
The fundamental reason for this growth in modern times of what is
properly called <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>ry -- not the growth of <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent>ism in the world,
for there is no such growth, but of the cult of the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> in the
<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> -- is just that spread of democracy which <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent>
hates so much. The <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> is the figure-head of the <ent type='NORP'>Italian</ent>
hierarchy, which shares the vast wealth and prestige that the new
<ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>ry brings to <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent>. <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent> itself is too poor to give a
comfortable living to the preposterous number of its bishops and
priests, but <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent> as the international center of the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> always
redeemed the poverty of <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent>, as far as the clergy are concerned,
and this new glorification of the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> everywhere, this blind
adulation of his encyclicals and speeches, this pressure on the
world-press to exalt him, have made it more profitable than ever;
and <ent type='ORG'>the Black International</ent> in every country shares the prestige
and prosperity and the new protection against the formidable forces
which threatened the very existence of the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>.</p>

<p> The root of this remarkable development is, as I said, the
growth of democracy. A million <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s means a quarter or half a
million votes, according to the nature of the franchise, and a
political party has a profound respect for a man who can control </p>

<p> Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
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<p>even quarter of a million votes, not to speak of five or six
millions. I am for the moment considering the world as it was
before the convulsions of the last three years, though we have seen
how the Vatican extracted profit from those. The Black
International in each country needed no orders from <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent>. They and
the junta of <ent type='NORP'>Italian</ent>s who run the Vatican had a common interest. It
was to the profit of all that statesmen should begin to consult and
editors to flatter "His Holiness." <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> papers, knowing well
what it all meant -- <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> support for politicians or papers --
put into their mouths an elegant pretext: they were supposed to
have rise superior to the narrow and poisonous prejudice against
the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>s of the last century and inaugurated an era of real
liberalism, tolerance, and civic cooperation.</p>

<p> All this reacted on the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> body itself and led to a
meeker submission to or exaggeration of the powers of the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> than
ever before. <ent type='ORG'>Universal</ent> free education and the creation of a
<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> press greatly aided the clergy. <ent type='PERSON'>Eve</ent>ry encyclical that
issued from <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent> was hailed in <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> papers and, under <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>
pressure, in other papers as a document of marvelous wisdom. As I
have had occasion to point out in various books, <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>
literature still dilates in superlative language on encyclicals of
<ent type='PERSON'>Leo XIII</ent> that were either actually reactionary or at the best
contained a few outward platitudes of humanitarian <ent type='NORP'>Liberalism</ent> which
were nicely trimmed so that no <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> capitalist could take
serious, exception to them. Simple-minded <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s expected the
<ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> to be asked to preside at the Versailles Conference and are
today expecting President <ent type='PERSON'>Roosevelt</ent> to secure that he will be
invited to preside at <ent type='EVENT'>the Peace Conference</ent> when the present war is
over. Their <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> in <ent type='GPE'>America</ent> published the fact that with a
prodigious expenditure of money and outpour of literature and
oratory it "converts" only about 25000 of the 120000000
<ent type='NORP'>American</ent>s every year; and it is demonstrable that it loses ten
times that number every year. Yet you will find numbers of <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>
papers and books declaring that the conversion of the whole of
<ent type='GPE'>America</ent> to this child-like allegiance to the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> is just round the
corner -- as prosperity was in Hoover's day.</p>

<p> This second quarter of the 20th Century will be characterized
by social writers of the future as the age of <ent type='ORG'>negroid</ent> music,
tabloid newspapers, and cosmetics. In such an age any sufficiently
enterprising body can do almost anything. And the Black
International, with an army distributed over the earth of certainly
more than a million agents (priests, monks, nuns, teachers,
journalists, etc.) is an enterprising body. <ent type='PERSON'>Eve</ent>n in <ent type='GPE'>England</ent>, where
<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s are about one-twenty-fifth of the population, it had the
insolence a few years ago to approach the educational authorities
of the <ent type='GPE'>London</ent> County <ent type='ORG'>Council</ent> and demand a revision -- in reality,
of course, a falsification -- of the historical manuals used in the
schools of its vast area; and these manuals are already as tame as
a toothless old dog. It transpired that when, with the help of
benevolent <ent type='ORG'>Labor</ent> majorities, they had captured the schools of
<ent type='GPE'>London</ent>, they hoped to capture those of the whole country. Why not,
they asked? They had, they said, already done this in some of the
leading cities of <ent type='GPE'>America</ent>. And the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> whom they expected to
glorify, knowing that they would shine in the reflection of his
glory, was one of the men responsible for the horrible evil which
came within measurable distance of wrecking the, <ent type='NORP'>British</ent> <ent type='GPE'>Empire</ent>,
reducing <ent type='GPE'>Britain</ent> to the status of a fourth-rate power.
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<p> Chapter III</p>

<p> THE SYSTEM OF SACRED MAGIC</p>

<p> This <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>ry of the <ent type='ORG'><ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent></ent> is enough in itself to prevent
it from ever cooperating heartily in <ent type='NORP'>American</ent> life. As far as I can
discover no one has pointed out that these theologians (<ent type='PERSON'>Suarez</ent>,
etc.) who four centuries ago spoke about the rights of the people
and the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>s who, after ignoring their political ethics for four
hundred years and defending the divine right of kings, now find it
expedient to recall it in their encyclicals never say what
<ent type='NORP'>American</ent>s think and say. No one has ever been able to quote, or
ever will be able to quote, any endorsement by the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>s of the
people's right to govern themselves. All that they have ever said
is that the people have a right to nominate the man, king or
president, to whom God will give the authority to govern them. Such
words as "rule" and "govern" are in fact, obsolete to the modern
mind. Within strict limits the majority which votes a "government"
into "power" has the right to cheek the activity of individuals
whose acts are prejudicial to the general good. But it is, as in
the case of crime, a matter of organized administration not
governing.</p>

<p> Thus, while the essential feature of democracy, as we
understand it, is freedom, the operative word in this revived
<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> political ethic is "authority." It dropped from the lips
of <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>s more and more frequently when there seemed to be a
prospect of <ent type='NORP'>Nazi</ent>sm conquering the world. Petain dribbles it in
<ent type='GPE'>Vichy</ent> every week. Franco, Salazar, <ent type='PERSON'>Vargas</ent>, and the whole brood of
puppet dictators under clerical guidance agree that the cause of
the world's malady is the decay of authority and the remedy is the
restoration of authority. A few days before I wrote this the
<ent type='NORP'>German</ent>-inspired <ent type='NORP'>Swiss</ent> and Swedish press said that <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> was going
to make a sensational announcement "and that this would be a
declaration that the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> League (<ent type='GPE'>Spain</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>France</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Portugal</ent>,
etc.) had agreed to adhere formally to the <ent type='ORG'>Axis</ent>. The sensational
announcement proved to be a pitiful exhibition of carpet-chewing,
but the contemptible <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> dictators continue to mumble about
authority. We know what they mean by authority: abject submission
to rulers in the choice of whom the people have no share, or the
exact opposite of the <ent type='NORP'>American</ent> Constitution.</p>

<p> This is the fundamental principle of the Papal Constitution,
and it is all the more repugnant to the modern mind when we
contrast the story of its actual historical development with the
<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> theory of it. The idea that <ent type='PERSON'>Jesus</ent> took <ent type='PERSON'>Peter</ent> and his
friends aside and instructed them how they and their successors
during centuries were to build up and equip the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> is a very
feeble sort of fairy-tale. That such an idea should be offered to
the <ent type='NORP'>American</ent> public in what purports to be its most up-to-date and
most important work of reference shows only to what an extent the
<ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> has already put a blight upon <ent type='NORP'>American</ent> culture. I suppose
this new encyclopedia is in the historical school of all <ent type='NORP'>American</ent>
universities, and I wonder if any professor dare warn his pupils
that, not only is the idea in itself too absurd to be put before an
adult person, not only is <ent type='PERSON'>Jesus</ent> described in the oldest portion of</p>

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<p> the earliest Gospel as convinced that the world would come to an
end within fifty years, but that the historical influence and
conditions which explain the evolution of the Papal power are as
fully known as the causes of the feudal system or the <ent type='ORG'>Renaissance</ent>.</p>

<p> We will glance at these in the next chapter. Let us first
consider the next distinctive element of the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> scheme. To
the man in the street it probably seems that there is a gulf
between the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> and the Protestant <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>, but my readers know
differently. Practically all branches of the <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> east
of a line from <ent type='PERSON'>Northern</ent> Yugo-<ent type='NORP'>Slavia</ent> to the <ent type='NORP'>Russian</ent> frontier of
<ent type='GPE'>Poland</ent> agree entirely with the <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent>ists except that they scorn the
<ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>, allow married men to become priests, and differ on one
insignificant detail of the doctrine of the <ent type='ORG'>Trinity</ent>. Then there is
the "<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>" wing of the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> of <ent type='GPE'>England</ent> and the Protestant
Episcopal <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> of <ent type='GPE'>America</ent>. In any case, you can simplify the
apparently bewildering <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent>ist system by dividing it into two
parts. There is the doctrine of the authority of priests and
hierarchies with all its disciplinary consequences, and there is
the doctrine of "grace" which is the basis of the whole scheme of
ritual and dependence on the priests.</p>

<p> I am afraid my readers are a very profane lot, and I almost
despair of explaining to them what this "grace" means. I might make
short work of the job and say that it is just supernatural magic
and the priest is the magician, but, your <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> friends would
not admit that. It is fundamental to the whole <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> system, yet
all these pro-<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> writers and journalists fight shy of it as
nervously as they do of the chastity of a nun. The nearest thing to
it in the world of reality is mana. The <ent type='NORP'>Melanesians</ent>, who are almost
at the lowest section of savage life, believe that a mysterious
power pervades nature and is especially stored in certain persons
and objects. <ent type='PERSON'>Eve</ent>ry native is on the lookout for more mana, which
means more strength, bravery, defiance of evil spirits. He looks
for unusual objects -- shells, stones, etc. -- in nature or eats
dead men who had been strong and bold. It is fairly equivalent to
the medieval idea of magical power, and it is analogous in a sense
to that supernatural influence or "grace" which <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s are so
keen to get.</p>

<p> Do not ask me to go into the psychology of it. <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>
doctrines, and especially this basic doctrine, can no more be
fitted to modern psychology than the grass-skirt of some fat old
Maori woman could be fitted on a slim blond stenographer. <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>
theology still talks about man's "free will" as the basis of moral
judgment. Most of my readers will know that no modern psychologist
even notices the antiquated belief in free will, and four manuals
out of five say that there is no such thing as will. But even if
there were, the cooperation of this "grace" with it would be as
mysterious as the <ent type='ORG'>Trinity</ent>. However, there it is. Since the Fall of
man the human will has been so enfeebled in the face of temptation
that it needs this magical strengthening or grace. Is a girl going
to a dance? Has a youth to sit in an office with wicked non-<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> youths? Does a man's business afford illicit
opportunities? And so on. You remember how we saw that the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>
is assured that the rest of us are so fearfully wicked that every </p>

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THE HOLY FAITH OF ROMANISTS</p>

<p>hour he is in more danger -- because the penalty of yielding is
eternal -- than if he were in a <ent type='GPE'>Florida</ent> swamp or a smallpox area of
a <ent type='NORP'>Mexican</ent> town. <ent type='ORG'>Grace</ent> is what he needs: the great evil-tonic with
magical qualities.</p>

<p> The next step is that the <ent type='ORG'><ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent></ent> has an unlimited Supply
on tap, and other <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>es have none or a very poor and uncertain
supply. You may find this exposition rather tedious but on
reflection you will admit that you now begin to see why the
<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> talks about his unique church, outside which salvation is
at least so risky that no <ent type='ORG'>Insurance Corporation</ent> in <ent type='GPE'>Chicago</ent> would
take it on. This grace has to be conveyed by "channels" for some
reason or other (doubtless on those secret instructions given to
<ent type='PERSON'>Peter</ent> in his fisherman's cottage), and the main channels are the
Seven Sacraments: Baptism, Penance (Confession and Absolution)
Confirmation, the eucharist, Holy Orders, Marriage, and Extreme
Unction. And by what you may or may not choose to regard as a
remarkable coincidence each of these channels is controlled and
opened by a priest. You may, of course, get grace by praying for
it, as the devil does not always give you fair warning to get
official assistance. You may see a man drop a five-spot on the
pavement before you, the sun shining through a girl's translucent
skirt, an unexpectedly bold picture at the cinema, one of McCabe's
books lying about . . . Then pray for grace. But the surest and
broadest of all channels are the confessional and that priceless
advantage of <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s, the "real presence" of Christ, in the
consecrated wafer and the various rites (communion, the mass, etc.)
based upon it.</p>

<p> These two threads will take you through almost the entire
labyrinth of the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> scheme of services and practices for
defeating those deadly, restless, voracious, and intensely spiteful
enemies of yours: the world, the flesh, and the devil. I am not
going through the labyrinth with you. I have a touch of lumbago
just now, and my sense of humor is under eclipse. But I must say a
few words on each "sacrament", for there are writers who may try to
persuade you that they are just pretty symbolic arches under which
the happy <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> passes as he hurries from the cradle to the
grave. baptism in infancy, confession at the age of seven (when you
first become liable for hell), communion at nine or so,
confirmation at thirteen or fourteen when the springtide of the
hormones rises, marriage or holy orders when the contest becomes
tougher, extreme unction in the last lap.</p>

<p> There is nothing symbolic about baptism. It is stern <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>
dogma -- and if any man professes to be a <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>, and does not
admit it he is not honest for he dare not openly say so -- that
every human being inherits the eternal punishment imposed for the
sin of <ent type='PERSON'>Adam</ent> and <ent type='PERSON'>Eve</ent>, and baptism is the one cleansing fluid for
this liability. In the early <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> baptism was generally
administered late in life, and the idea of all children, if not
half the <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> body, to say nothing of the pagan millions,
being sent to hell for all eternity was so revolting to the few
educated pagans who took any interest, in the new religion that a
compromise was effected. Eternal torture, as I explained in the
last book, has two aspects: the loss of the vision of God and
"sensory pain." So theologians worked out -- I mean found amongst </p>

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<p>the blue-prints entrusted to <ent type='PERSON'>Peter</ent> in Galilee -- that besides hell
and heaven there is <ent type='PERSON'>Limbo</ent> or Purgatory, a spirit-world with a
salubrious temperature and what-ever sports and entertainment
spirits indulge in, but no vision of God . . .</p>

<p> I had better keep off these more delicate aspects of the
<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> faith, as this pen of mine runs to ribaldry. It is enough
that not one of us, from the new-born babe to the <ent type='NORP'>centenarian</ent>, will
go to heaven unless he has been baptized. In <ent type='GPE'>America</ent> apologists
<ent type='ORG'>dupe</ent> the general public by saying that it is no longer <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>
doctrine that "outside the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> there is no salvation." I have
shown that this is false if by salvation is meant admission to
heaven, but theologians are good enough to allow that baptism in
Protestant <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>es may be valid. There are, however, so many
conditions for validity that it is always doubtful, and a convert
to the <ent type='ORG'><ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent></ent> is always "conditionally" baptized.</p>

<p> Doubtless all this sounds very silly, if not a little
nauseating, to most of my readers, but it is an essential part of
the theory to which <ent type='ORG'>the Black International</ent> appeals to justify its
intrigues, its encroachments on the liberties of non-<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s, and
its endorsement of such policies as the alliance with the <ent type='ORG'>Axis</ent>
powers. By the "spiritual interests" which, the apologist says, the
<ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> must consider above all other matters, he means something
totally different from what a religious statesman or a puritanical
essayist means when he uses that expression. He is referring to
this monstrous doctrine of eternal punishment and the claim of the
<ent type='ORG'><ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent></ent> to possess the only really safe means of dodging it.</p>

<p> At seven the normal child is introduced to the sacrament of
Penance. The basis of this practice again is revolting. It is that
a child usually reaches "the age of reason" at that age and may
incur eternal damnation. They are all treated as junior Dead-End
Kids. The child is confronted with a list of the more serious sins
-- I regret that I do not remember from 67 years ago whether it
contained fornication, adultery, etc., as it does in the Prayer
Book which older children consult -- which it may have committed up
to the age of seven. Less serious sins (lies, quarrels, petty
thefts, etc.) a <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> is not bound to confess as the penalty is
not hell. I have not patience to discuss it, but when you read one
of those books in which it is said that the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> has,
from its long experience, a marvelous understanding of and sympathy
with human nature, think of these boys and girls of seven to ten
being taught to brood over their sins and hell and the devil.</p>

<p> So begins the life-long comedy of the confessional. From the
age of seven to death the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> must go to confession at least
once a year, and the societies and confraternities which most of
them are bullied into joining make the obligation monthly. It is
rather surprising that the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> does not make it weekly. It must
<ent type='PERSON'>harrow</ent> a priest's feelings to think of his men and women, youths
and maids, boys and girls over the age of seven, frivoling about
the parish or the city for three weeks or so under the sentence of
so savage a punishment that the practices of the <ent type='NORP'>Nazi</ent>s in <ent type='GPE'>Poland</ent>
and <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent> or of the Japs in <ent type='GPE'>China</ent> are pleasantries in comparison.
Is it necessary again to remind you that this is indispensable
<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> belief on which no gloss whatever in permitted?</p>

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<p> The moral aspect I have considered in an earlier book. To talk
about the rare cases in which a woman of severe character goes to
the priest for "spiritual advice" is like saying that war is a fine
moral tonic because a few are braced or purified by their
sufferings. Let us keep to plain English. The crowd you will see on
any Saturday night in a <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> awaiting their turn to
confess is enough to make you despair of modern intelligence in the
mass. There are social moralists who shed tears over the crowds at
baseball games or in cinemas. They would do better to be concerned
about the intellectual level betrayed in these scenes in <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>
churches. Remember that I was once a father-confessor. They just
reel off mechanically a list of lies, quarrels, thefts, drinking,
etc. and in almost every case a few points about sex; for the
<ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> tells them that not merely every act of touch or exhibition
but every thought or word about sex comes under the damnation
clause. And for every woman or girl who sincerely wants guidance
there are fifty who just love the intimate talk about sex that is
permitted with the priest in the confessional; and, to crown the
infamy, there is not a more transparently priest-made doctrine in
the whole of religion than this sacrament of penance. That it
promotes morals and reduces crime is bunk. The one object of it is
to consolidate the power of the priest over the laity.</p>

<p> I pass over the sacrament of confirmation, which is as idle a
ceremony as taking the oath when you are elected to <ent type='ORG'>Congress</ent>, and
the next sacrament, the <ent type='NORP'>Eucharist</ent>, the chief glory and pride of the
<ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>, is intellectually quite the most repellent of the lot.
"Eating the God" -- that is to say, eating food in which the God is
believed to be present so that some mysterious power or influence
(grace) passes to the eaten -- is so natural a stage in the
development of ritual religion that the <ent type='NORP'>Spanish</ent> missionaries who
came out to convert the <ent type='NORP'>Aztec</ent>s found that they had that ceremony in
a form that was weirdly like their own. It was common in <ent type='GPE'>Greece</ent> --
in the cult of Ceres (the spirit of the corn) and <ent type='ORG'>Bacchus</ent> (the
spirit of the vine) -- and was found in the <ent type='NORP'>Persian</ent> and <ent type='ORG'>Mithralc</ent>,
and <ent type='PERSON'>Manichaean</ent> religions. Thus a sacred supper of bread and wine
was very well known in all those cities of the Mediterranean coast
in which <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>ity arose. In the great rivals of <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>ity
during the first three centuries of its life, <ent type='NORP'>Mithraism</ent> and
<ent type='NORP'>Manicheanism</ent>, the similarity to the <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> practice was so close
that one Father of the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> was inspired with the theory that the
devil had tried to spoil the Church's game by anticipating it, and
<ent type='PERSON'>Augustine</ent> tried to discredit the <ent type='PERSON'>Manichaean</ent> sacrament by assuring
his followers that the <ent type='PERSON'>Manichaean</ent> priests made their wafer from a
fluid and in a manner even the vaguest description of which would,
if I gave it here, secure a year's rest in a <ent type='ORG'>Penitentiary</ent> for
<ent type='PERSON'>Haldeman</ent>-<ent type='PERSON'>Julius</ent>; and <ent type='PERSON'>Augustine</ent> was an ex-<ent type='PERSON'>Manichaean</ent>!</p>

<p> Whether thing common practice of "communion" had anything to
do with the appearance of the "last supper" story of the Gospels we
cannot consider here, nor can we linger to trace how the
"eucharist" grew out of this. But the fully developed dogma is so
starkly incredible that, although there is no obscurity whatever
about the statement of it I have often described it, I wonder if
any non-<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> reader fully realizes what the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> believes
and would be expelled from the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> if he did not quite literally
believe. The "bread" used in the sacrament is, as most people know,</p>

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<p>a thin round wafer or cracker made from flour and water: the wine,
as a rule, a light <ent type='NORP'>Rhenish</ent> wine mixed with water. And the dogma is
that when, in the mass, the priest breathes over these the <ent type='NORP'>Latin</ent>
for "This is my body" (Hoc est corpus meum, which the wicked
<ent type='NORP'>Reformers</ent> shortened to <ent type='ORG'>Hocus</ent>-pocus) and "This is my blood," they
are in the most literal sense converted into the living personality
(body, mind, and divinity) of <ent type='PERSON'>Jesus</ent> Christ. Theologians take
advantage of a fanciful distinction, which <ent type='PERSON'>Aristotle</ent> made -- it is,
of course, quite meaningless in modern science -- between the
"substance" of a thing and its "accidents." In the case of a wafer
or a glass of wine these "accidents" are the color, shape, weight,
taste, etc. The <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> dogma is that in every <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> chapel
every morning there is the prodigious miracle, at the priest's
words, of the living personality of Christ taking the place of the
substance (by transubstantiation) of the bread and wine while the
"accidents" (or qualities, if you like) of the bread and wine
remain!</p>

<p> Of course, you say, educated <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s do not believe this .
. . (supply your own expletive). If any educated <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> does not
literally believe it he dare not say so except in private
conversation with some other person who thinks it honest to profess
to be a <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> and to deny a dogma on which the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> insists as
sternly as it insists on the existence of God. <ent type='PERSON'>Eve</ent>ry proposal to
give it a figurative or symbolical interpretation has been
condemned as heresy, a mortal sin to hold even in your own mind, a
sure ticket to <ent type='PERSON'>Gehenna</ent>. But you have not yet heard the half of it.</p>

<p> As the "accidents" of the wafer and the wine can be divided
into crumbs or drops, the theologian has to say that the living
body of Christ is in each crumb or drop: the entire physical body,
with heart beating, lungs working, blood flowing -- from hair to
toe-nails. Ask any <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> if you still believe that I am pulling
your leg. Count <ent type='PERSON'>Hoensbroech</ent>, the <ent type='NORP'>German</ent> ex-<ent type='ORG'>Jesuit</ent>, tells us from
his personal experience of a woman who after receiving the
sacrament (consecrated wafer) in communion reflected that she had
Christ's organs in her mouth, and she spat it into her handkerchief
and brought it to him. I advise you to get that point clearly. It
is heresy and a moral sin in <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> theology to say even in your
own mind, as Protestants say in regard to their Lord's Supper, that
there is just a special presence or influence of God in the
consecrated elements. The doctrine of the Real Presence of which
<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> (domestic) literature talks so much, means that Christ's
physical living body -- you remember that it "ascended" alive into
heaven -- is present in every crumb of the consecrated wafer -- if
one is badly made and a crumb falls off Christ is in it -- and
every drop of the consecrated wine.</p>

<p> By this time some of my readers will be saying: Oh, quit it
and pass on to something that we can at least read. But if you want
to understand the Catholic's pride in his unique faith and
especially his belief that cruelty, intrigue, and mendacity are
justified in the work of bringing the world to so beautiful and
salutary a faith, you had better hear the whole of it.</p>

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<p> There are, I take it -- I won't stop to work it out -- quarter
of a million altars at which this miracle occurs every morning,
with Christ in each crumb. But besides the larger wafer which the
priest swallows -- often with much effort, for I can assure you
that those "accidents" of the bread remain pretty tough in a dry
throat -- he occasionally "consecrates" hundreds of smaller wafers
in a separate vessel for the laity to receive in what is called
communion. These are stored in that highly decorated safe which you
will find in the center of every <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> altar. That is why a lamp
burns before it and the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> bends his knee on entering or
raises his hat on passing a church. If a bedridden invalid wants to
communicate in his home, the priest takes a wafer in a silver box
in his vest pocket. In <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> countries, where there are no
ribald scoffers a procession warns <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> wayfarers, who fall on
their knees, and even in <ent type='GPE'>America</ent> the priest wears a half-hidden
"stole" on such occasions so that the first parishioner he meets
will not stop him to tell the latest funny story or offer him a
cigarette. Did it ever occur to you that many a time when you met
a black-clad priest round Fourth Avenue he had <ent type='PERSON'>Jesus</ent> Christ in his
vest pocket?</p>

<p> If you like large sums in arithmetic you may care to estimate
in round numbers in how many crumbs of how many wafers (allow, say,
a hundred wafers to each church) in how many churches throughout
the world <ent type='PERSON'>Jesus</ent> Christ is physically present without leaving
heaven: I haven't time. You may wonder also what happens when a
burglar opens the safe (tabernacle) for the silver cups and
scatters the consecrated wafers ( ... hosts") on the street, or a
bomb buries it until the "accidents" putrefy -- all theologians
admit that they will -- and so on. All that is carefully worked out
in theology and was doubtless included in the blue-prints entrusted
to <ent type='PERSON'>Peter</ent>. It is disputed whether Christ remains when these wicked
<ent type='ORG'>Satanists</ent>, who are as real to <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s as vampires are to a <ent type='GPE'>Bulgar</ent>
peasant, steal a "host" for very naughty purposes. It is generally
held that he does, and there are lots of edifying stories in
circulation in the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> about how the blood spurted from the host
when the wicked <ent type='NORP'>Freemason</ent> or Satanist stuck a dagger in it. A
church in <ent type='GPE'>America</ent> can hardly prosecute a man for stealing Christ,
but theft is not necessary. <ent type='PERSON'>Eve</ent>ry apostate priest, even Joseph
McCabe, retains the power to work this transubstantiation. I must
say that no <ent type='ORG'>Satanists</ent> have ever offered me a dime for my services.</p>

<p> I could fill a book with interesting features of this dogma
and of the practices which it inspires, but must confine myself to
one more. This belief is the care of the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> <ent type='LOC'>Sunday</ent> just as it
is the central and most tremendous and precious dogma of the whole
system. In the "mass" on the <ent type='LOC'>Sunday</ent> morning the priest consecrates
the "host" and under pain of hell every <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> who is not
seriously ill (tiredness or a cold or toothache won't do) must be
present at least at one of the "low masses (without singing). The
priest does his best for the people, gabbing his addresses and
prayers, in <ent type='NORP'>Latin</ent>, to the Almighty at 200 to 300 words a minute, so
as to get through in 25 minutes, or there will be much grumbling.
The "high" mass is the same ceremony with singing, commonly a choir
of non-<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> professionals who happily, do not understand in the
least what is going on, and the best music (<ent type='PERSON'>Beethoven</ent>, Mozart,
<ent type='ORG'>Cherabini</ent>, etc.) has been written by skeptics and apostates, as I </p>

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<p>will tell in a later book. The evening service is optional to
<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s, but again the chief part of it is based upon this dogma.
A consecrated wafer in a silver-gilt and glass receptacle, is
exhibited amidst a blaze of candles and flowers for the adoration
'Of the people. This doctrine of the eucharist, in other words, is
the chief source of the priest prestige -- he alone can create and
handle "the Blessed Sacrament" -- and the possession of so unique
and priceless a thing puts the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> faith incomparably higher
than any other religion.</p>

<p> After this I need not waste time on the other sacraments and
all the devices piously supplied by the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> for a small
consideration, for defeating this desperate conspiracy of the world
(you and me), the flesh, the devil against the souls of <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s.
Matrimony is a peculiar sacrament -- No, not on the ground that you
think I mean but because, on theological principles, the parties
administer it to themselves by marrying. But you may be sure the
priest is not out of it. As I have shown in an earlier booklet it
is part of Rome's sheer defiance of civil law in any modern
civilization that it declares the marriage invalid if the priest is
not present and valid if he is although the ceremony is (contrary
to civil law) kept secret. The real reason why in this case the
priest is not said to be the minister of the sacrament is, because
any <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> can find out that until the 12th Century a <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>
did not need to be married by a priest.</p>

<p> "Holy Orders" is the channel by which a very special "grace"
-- the power of transubstantiate bread, to absolute sins, and to
sustain a vow of chastity so heroically as priests do -- is
conveyed. Extreme Unction, or the Last Anointing, is a development
of a pre-<ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> medical practice of rubbing with oil, men who
were very ill. It became a symbolical ceremony of touching with oil
the parts of the body with which a man or woman had sinned. It was,
however, apparently provided in the original blue-prints that when
our wicked age supervened the anointing of "the loins" might be
omitted. In the delicate and virtuous <ent type='EVENT'>Middle Ages</ent> they just lifted
up the dying person's smock and -- Well, it is not clear in the
ritual books what exactly the priest anointed. Holy Water is not a
sacrament but is very valuable. It is water from which a priest
has, with a pinch of salt -- I was never clear whether or not this
was meant for the devil's tail -- and various incantations driven
out the devil, and he so dreads it ever after that the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>
makes lavish use of it in church; where, <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> practice suggests
-- women Still wear their hats to keep the devil from entering by
their ears -- evil spirits are strangely numerous. Then there are
the numerous objects (medals, etc.) blessed by the priest, the
bishop, or the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> to be worn next the skin. These are the
cheapest of all means of fighting the world, the flesh, and the
devil and getting,one's "time" in purgatory reduced. But these
simple reflections on the main features of the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> system must
suffice.</p>

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<p> Chapter IV</p>

<p> HOW THE <ent type='ORG'>DOCTRINES</ent> WERE FABRICATED</p>

<p> That very persuasive and very popular and magnificently
audacious '<ent type='NORP'>American</ent> apologist Dr. <ent type='PERSON'>Fulton Sheen</ent> published a work
entitled Old Errors and New Labels (1931). It is as boring and as
far from reality as <ent type='PERSON'>Hilaire Belloc</ent> on the same theme (Arrivals and
New Arrivals). The burden of the first chapter is a complaint -- a
complaint, mind you -- that nobody ever attacks his <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> today.
It has "never before in the whole history of <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>ity been so
intellectually impoverished for want of good sound intellectual
opposition" (p. 7). Phew! I will not attempt to reply that I have
myself written about 100 books and booklets (besides the present
series) on the <ent type='ORG'><ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent></ent> and never seen a word of reply,
because, of course, I am not at all on the same intellectual level
as <ent type='PERSON'>Fulton Sheen</ent>. He would at once tell you that. So would I. What
he means is, he says, that the apologist wants "a foeman worthy of
his steel" -- like <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent> looking round Europe for little men until
he stupidly attacked <ent type='GPE'>Russia</ent>. The <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>, he says, "asks her
children to think hard and think clean," and a really powerful
opposition helps this. But the intellectuals of <ent type='GPE'>America</ent> are afraid
to venture upon criticism. And so on.</p>

<p> That is the sort of stuff that <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s read. It does not
occur to them that they are forbidden to read critics anyway, or
that to explain the "intellectual impoverishment" of their
literature in his fashion is much like a junior baseball team
saying that it is kept down because the <ent type='ORG'>Giants</ent> won't meet it. The
reverend sophist also sublimely ignores the fact that his <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> in
<ent type='GPE'>America</ent> has a tremendous organization for preventing the
publication or circulation of any criticism of itself and trying to
bring economic ruin upon any professor or professional writer who
dare attempt it.</p>

<p> But we might overlook all that. What will at once occur to the
reader, after the preceding chapter, is the question: How in heck
does a <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> expect modern scientists, philosophers, or
historian's to sit down and write serious criticisms of that
bewildering tissue of puerilities and <ent type='ORG'>dupe</ent>ry? <ent type='PERSON'>Eve</ent>n the modern
astrologer or palmist puts up a better show. If Dr. <ent type='PERSON'>Sheen</ent> literally
Believes that stuff, as he certainly professes to do, he might as
well expect <ent type='PERSON'>Mencken</ent> to criticize the kiddies's section of the
<ent type='LOC'>Sunday</ent> Supplement, or a Carnegie Foundation to issue a learned
treatise on the longevity of the patriarchs. To talk about the
intellectual impoverishment of his <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> is superfluous, but for
a man who accepts all this medieval trash to turn round on our age
with its monumental intellectual and practical achievements and
tell us that we are "<ent type='ORG'>Spineless</ent>" and "afraid of truth" is too funny
to be a good joke.</p>

<p> I have written this lengthy chapter on what the <ent type='PERSON'>Fulton Sheen</ent>s
and <ent type='PERSON'>Ryins</ent> and J.J. Walshes believe not because it is stuff that is
worthy of the reader's consideration but because he ought to know
exactly what <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>s and apologists mean when they say that those
"higher interests" of men which they have to consult justify them
in ignoring those "lower interests" (peace., prosperity, freedom, </p>

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<p>etc.) which we moderns think paramount. Now you know just what they
mean. But the cream of this very bad joke is that these doctrines
and practices which they are going to fasten upon more millions of
men at the cost of appalling war and suffering were quite
transparently and, in the world of scholarship, notoriously
fabricated by <ent type='ORG'>the Black International</ent> itself.</p>

<p> I have shown this in chapter II as regards the first
distinctive leading <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> doctrine, the power and peculiar
inspiration of the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>. In the first reliable <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> document,
which was written by the <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>s themselves in the year
96, their bishops is not mentioned. He is just one of the bunch. A
hundred years later his successor claims authority over communities
in <ent type='LOC'>Asia</ent> Minor, and the bishops "bitterly reproached <ent type='PERSON'>Victor</ent>" (the
<ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>) for his insolence, the first ecclesiastical historian, Bishop
<ent type='PERSON'>Eusebius</ent>, tells us (v. 24) and the <ent type='NORP'>African</ent> Fathers joined in and
heavily castigated him. In short, as I said, though the claim of
authority began to be treasured in <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent> itself after A.D. 150 --
the blue-print given to <ent type='PERSON'>Peter</ent> on this point seems to have been lost
for a century and a half, and all copies in the case were lost --
<ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>s ventured to assert it only five or six times in four
centuries and were mercilessly snubbed every time. Their
opportunity came in the 5th Century when the <ent type='NORP'>Goths</ent> and <ent type='ORG'>Vandals</ent>
wrecked the <ent type='GPE'>Empire</ent> and left no bishop of any strength to oppose
<ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent>, and Europe sank to an abysmal ignorance. The <ent type='NORP'>Greek</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>es,
though on <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> theory they had the same instructions or
tradition as <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent>, continued to tell the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> what he could do with
his claims, and even in <ent type='LOC'>the Darkest</ent> Europe of the Dark Age it took
the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>s eight further centuries -- culminating in the monstrous
claims of Innocent in (1198-1216) -- to build up that power which,
the world is solemnly informed in the 20th Century -- it would have
laughed even in the 10th -- Christ prescribed to the apostles. And
this power was, <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> historians admit, in large part based upon
a mass of forgeries, the False Decretals, that are still basic
documents of the Canon Law.</p>

<p> Reflect again on the fact, which I proved, that the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s
of our time are more subservient to the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> than <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s ever
were before. The <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>s had to wait until 1870 to get themselves
declared infallible, as they had always claimed to be, and they had
a deuce of a time in getting the bishops to declare it. A
<ent type='NORP'>Republican</ent> or <ent type='ORG'>Democratic Convention</ent> for nominating a candidate for
the presidency has nothing on the Vatican <ent type='ORG'>Council</ent> of 1870. <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>
schools had exposed in the 15th Century the lies on which the
claims of jurisdiction and the temporal power of the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>s were
based. <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> loudly defied the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> even in the time of
<ent type='PERSON'>Louis XIV</ent>. Now <ent type='NORP'>American</ent> and <ent type='NORP'>British</ent> bishops laud his serene wisdom
and divine majesty even while he is, they know, conspiring with the
bitter enemies of their countries and of civilization. Do you want
further proof of the common interest of <ent type='ORG'>the Black International</ent> and
of the fact that that interest is economic?</p>

<p> Not less demonstrable is the fabrication of those dogmas and
practices which, the apologists blandly say, Christ sketched to the
apostles. (Incidentally, what an encyclopedia these illiterate
fishermen must have compiled?) The "eucharist," of course, is
ancient enough. As I explained, a sacred supper of bread and wine </p>

<p> Bank of Wisdom
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<p>in which a god was somehow incorporated was one of the chief
features of the leading religions of the <ent type='NORP'>Greek</ent>-<ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> world, as the
Fathers admit. The pagans taunted them with having borrowed it. But
what exactly it meant to <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>s in the first and second
centuries we do not know, and how it became "the mass" (borrowing
the very word from the <ent type='ORG'>Mithraists</ent>, according to many) in the 3rd
Century, and how the doctrine of transubstantiation was slowly
elaborated we cannot consider here. It was that towering genius
<ent type='PERSON'>Thomas Aquinas</ent> who fully worked out the theory of the "accidents"
(color, shape, weight, smell, liability to putrefy or intoxicate,
etc.) of the bread and wine remaining when the "Substance"
disappeared.</p>

<p> The sacraments of penance (confession) and matrimony, which
are the richest sources of the power of the priests over the laity,
are, on the other hand, quite obvious and late bits of <ent type='ORG'>priestcraft</ent>.
A practice of voluntarily confessing sins was, as I have previously
said, inherited from the pre-<ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> world, but it was not until
after the year 200 that the <ent type='ORG'><ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent></ent>, under a <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> of
disreputable character (<ent type='ORG'>Callistus</ent>), discovered that the power to
bind and loose, which Christ was supposed to have given to the
apostles (<ent type='PERSON'>Matt</ent>. XVI:19), meant that the bishop could absolve from
grave sing that were confessed to him, and other <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>es
pronounced this a scandalous misinterpretation of the Scriptures in
the interest of the <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> clergy. Again the apostolic blue-prints
seem to have been lost. In the Darn Age, naturally the clergy made
headway with their ambition to enslave the laity -- even Havelock
Ellis and <ent type='PERSON'>Bloch</ent> do not seem to have read the lists of sins that
survive from that appalling age -- but it still took centuries to
get obligatory confession extended to the clergy, monks, and nuns.
The laity remained refractory until the most powerful and most
arrogant of the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>s, Innocent III, imposed the obligation of
annual confession upon the entire <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> (1215). It was, of course,
those marvelously modern school-men, Aquinas and his
contemporaries, who worked out the theory of it, and instead of it
proving the moral discipline which some historians, eager to oblige
the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>, now profess to find it, the law was followed by quite
the most immoral and vicious period in the history of Europe (1200-1550). After this long and picturesque history <ent type='ORG'>the Council</ent> of Trent
declared it a "sacrament."</p>

<p> Holy Orders (or ordination) is a magical ceremony of which the
clergy very gradually increased the solemnity and complexity in
order to mark off their sacred caste from the laity and enhance
their own prestige. From the Pauline Epistles and the earliest
<ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> documents we gather that each "<ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>," which means
"assembly," was a very <ent type='NORP'>democratic</ent> community of a few dozen or
score, vague "followers of Christ." The only distinction recognized
amongst them in the last decade of the 1st Century according to the
Letter of the <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent>s to the Corinthians is that they have
presidents (bishops) and helpers (deacons),. As these things
usually go, they probably had annual elections at which Brother and
Sister So-and-so contrived to got on the committee and Brother or
Father So-and-so, probably the old fellow with the longest beard
and the longest purse, became chairman or overseer. A century
later, when a squabble for the leadership of the <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> community
led to one, and much the better, of the rivals writing a book which</p>

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<p>we still have, we find that the original weekly or monthly supper
is now a sacred event and round it is gathered a group of clergy
who are definitely cut off as a higher caste. In the squabble an
astute ex-slave got the bishopric, and this unscrupulous adventurer
made a considerable advance in marking off the clergy from the
laity and opened a modest chapel -- a room over a deserted pub
according to one contemporary version -- in which doubtless the
strict dividing line of the sanctuary was drawn. All this was
already done in the <ent type='GPE'>Mithraic</ent> temples, one of which was a stone's
throw from the <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> conventicle in <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent>, so we do not need to
think of hidden Protocols.</p>

<p> We cannot follow here the slow growth of this arrangement and
of the elaborate consecrating ceremonies, to impress the laity,
which became <ent type='ORG'>the Sacrament</ent> of Holy Orders. I will add only one
detail. Although the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>s of the 5th Century, finding Europe in
ruins and sinking into profound ignorance, were now able to assert
(with the help of the imperial police -- this is a literal truth)
the sovereignty they had long claimed, they were very small cheese
compared with the <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>s of a later date. When one died the people
helped themselves to his table-silver, wines, and anything else
worth looting and then joined the clergy in a new election. On many
such occasions the records tell, the church in which the election-meetings were held swam with blood. At the election of "St."
<ent type='PERSON'>Damasus</ent>, the darling of the women -- voters, the "butcher's bill"
was nearly 200. However, the people continued to have the chief
vote, since the election was carried by acclamation, in the
election of a <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> until the 11th Century. The priests then had the
assistance of a <ent type='NORP'>German</ent> army in putting the <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> laity in their
place and making a holier business of the election of a <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>: in
theory, that is to say, like all things <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>, for the history
of Papal elections during the next five centuries was amazing and
it continued to this day to be an orgy of intrigue and rival
ambitions.</p>

<p> But the historical details do not matter. It is more
interesting that, as in the case of confession and matrimony, the
elevation of ordination to the rank of a sacrament or "channel of
grace" had in actual fact, as revealed in all contemporary
chronicles, not the least moral result. I am often accused even by
skeptics who fancy themselves far superior to me in emotional
delicacy and intellectual poise of being unable to see or unwilling
to acknowledge "the good side" of these things. To which I reply
that I would rather be truthful than dainty and I am convinced that
it is immeasurably better for the world to ascertain and tell the
facts than to refuse to read the facts so as to be able to say
smooth and conciliatory things. In 1937 I published in <ent type='GPE'>Britain</ent> a
book titled The <ent type='ORG'>Papacy</ent> in Polities Today, plainly showing the
Vatican intrigues to that date and warning folk about the future.
In the organ of a group of these superior non-<ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> folk the
book was dismissed as "lamentable" and not worth reading. I doubt
if even today they have read a line of the evidence I have
published of the conspiracy of <ent type='ORG'>the Black International</ent>. There are
thousands of them in <ent type='GPE'>America</ent>.</p>

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<p> As far as my present subject is concerned these highly
respectable folk say that even if "grace" as a supernatural entity
does not exist the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> scheme of special channels of it and
impressive ceremonies for the young men who are taking the clerical
vow of celibacy and the married couples who are swearing loyalty to
each other for life is admirable and may psychologically have
excellent results. There their knowledge of the matter ends. People
who argue in this way are on exactly the same level of
mischievousness as those who five or six years ago argued that
Fascism and <ent type='NORP'>Nazi</ent>sm, with all their faults, were doing good. The
world wants or needs the truth -- facts. And the truth is, and
every year of extension of my fifty years study of history makes it
plainer, that the fabrication of these sacraments by the clergy of
the <ent type='ORG'><ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent></ent> was followed by a more vicious general life in
Europe than we find over an equal period of several centuries in
any earlier civilization. Penance, holy orders, and matrimony were
not dogmatically declared sacraments until the 16th Century. But in
practice they were enforced as such and the basis of them was
constructed by the <ent type='ORG'>School</ent>-men, in the 13th Century. That century
and the following two are the most vicious period in civilized
history. Sacraments are medieval fabrications of the Black
International to <ent type='ORG'>dupe</ent> and further enslave the laity.</p>

<p> There is the same evidence of deliberate priestly fabrication
in every part of the distinctively <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> structure of doctrine
and practice. One of the next most prominent features is the cult
of <ent type='PERSON'>Mary</ent> and the saints and martyrs. As late as the end of the 4th
Century we find the greatest of the Fathers, <ent type='PERSON'>Augustine</ent>, protesting
against this cult, which was then beginning in the <ent type='ORG'><ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent></ent>;
though he did not know that, as <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> authorities admit today,
the new cult of martyrs was based upon a mass of audacious
foreigners by the <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> priests. They had their revenge on
<ent type='PERSON'>Augustine</ent>. They forged sermons on <ent type='PERSON'>Mary</ent> in his name, and some of
these are incorporated in the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> ritual today.</p>

<p> The cult of <ent type='PERSON'>Mary</ent> is one of the most glaring innovations of the
latter part of the 4th Century, when the pagans were being forced
by law into the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>. They wanted a goddess so the mother of
<ent type='PERSON'>Jesus</ent>, -- who is given less prominence than <ent type='PERSON'>Mary</ent> Magdalene in the
Gospels and was not honored even in the <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> community for more
than 300 years after her death -- when the supposed tradition ought
to have been freshest -- was decked in all the dazzling robes and
epithets of the old pagan goddesses (Ceres, Ishtar, Anaita, etc.).
When, after an almost unparalled period of artistic dissolution,
art was cultivated once more in Europe, this cult of "the <ent type='PERSON'>Madonna</ent>"
proved a splendid asset to the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> of <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent>, and the great age of
<ent type='PERSON'>Mariolqtry</ent> opened. As if in unconscious mockery of the theory of
Trpdition it got worse in modern times. Apologists profess that
while doctrine certainly "developed" there is in this no
inconsistency with their theory of Tradition or "a deposit of
faith" (kept, doubtless, in <ent type='ORG'>the Sacred Archives</ent> of the Vatican).
Any man who is not under the hypnotic influence of the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>
atmosphere smiles. The pure <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>ity of the first three
centuries and <ent type='ORG'>the Reformed</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>ity which returned to the
Gospels in the 16th Century rejected the cult. It began as a
concession to paganism, it developed more richly in the Middle
Ages( as a concession to the weird mixture of paganism and </p>

<p> Bank of Wisdom
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THE HOLY FAITH OF ROMANISTS</p>

<p><ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>ity in the art of the <ent type='EVENT'>Middle Ages</ent>, and it was encouraged
to develop still more in modern times because it appeals to the
imagination of the emotions as few other dogmas do. The language
itself in the hymns to <ent type='PERSON'>Mary</ent> today surpasses that of hymns and
prayers to the old pagan goddesses, and grown-up men in <ent type='GPE'>New York</ent>
and <ent type='GPE'>Boston</ent> lustily sing such things as "when wicked men blaspheme
thee, I'll lay me down and die," while frivolous city stenographers
and store assistants sing: "Holy <ent type='PERSON'>Mary</ent>, let me come soon to be with
thee in thy home." It is part of the doctrine that when <ent type='PERSON'>Mary</ent> died
her body was physically transported by angels into heaven, (now
called the stratosphere -- but I suppose that is blasphemy, so I
must look out for pious gunmen). The "rosary," a string, of 50
small and 5 large beads, to count 50 prayers to <ent type='PERSON'>Mary</ent> and 5 to God,
became in the modern world one of the chief symbols of "the pure
religion of <ent type='PERSON'>Jesus</ent>." Bogus shrines like <ent type='PERSON'>Lourdes</ent> in <ent type='GPE'>France</ent> and St.
Annes in <ent type='GPE'>Canada</ent> attracted millions -- to the great profit of the
<ent type='ORG'>Black International</ent>.</p>

<p> I have no space to trace even in the same very brief manner
all the other peculiarities of "the Holy Faith." The upshot is the
same. Doctrine and practice "developed" in exactly the same way a
great store like <ent type='PERSON'>Marshall Fields</ent> developed. New attractions were
required to sustain or to increase profits. Age by age the
structure of the faith, with its gargoyles and its buttresses, its
dark corners and its theatrical mummery, was built up, and on every
stone of the structure is stamped the word "Priestcraft." at the
<ent type='NORP'>American</ent> public should in the fourth decade of the 20th century and
in its chief work of reference be confronted with a solemn
statement that all this was done in conformity with unwritten
instructions given to <ent type='PERSON'>Peter</ent> 1900 years ago is an insult to
<ent type='ORG'>Intelligence</ent>: that the <ent type='PERSON'>Fulton Sheen</ent>s should be in a position to
claim blandly over the ether that the structure is so chaste, so
graceful, so logical that no "foeman worthy of their steel" will
venture to criticize it, while all the world knows what funds and
organizations they have for stifling criticism, is a menace and
disgrace.</p>

<p> Chapter V</p>

<p> HOW THE GENERAL PUBLIC IS DUPED</p>

<p> This situation would make the social student and the reformer
wonder, if they ever candidly confronted, it, whether a very large
part of the public is not kept in a mental atmosphere which must
have a dangerous effect on its attitude to more practical problems;
and the ease with which the entire population has been led during
years into a poisonous swamp, the mischievous action to the last
moment of <ent type='NORP'>American</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s, and the stubborn adherence even now
of Canadian <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s to that policy show that in fact this doping
of the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> mind by the priests is a real national and
international evil. But how do they succeed in drugging some
15000000 people in a country that spends more on education and
cultural establishments than any other country in the world? And
how is it that the general public is so far deceived that few
recognize the intellectual insipidity of the creed and the scheming
of priesthood?</p>

<p> Bank of Wisdom
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THE HOLY FAITH OF ROMANISTS</p>

<p> The first question requires a thorough reply, and this will be
provided in the next book, but let me recall several elements of
the reply that I have already given. The <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> body may be
predominantly urban, but it has not the psychological features of
urban life. Instead of being stimulated by community life it is
taught to regard the community as evil and free discussion as a
sin. It is composed to an extraordinary extent of immigrants from
the rural regions of less-educated countries (<ent type='GPE'>Poland</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent>,
Erie <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent>, etc.) and their families, and the priests take care
that in the matter of religion they shall still have a link with
the motherland. The bulk of the remainder are folk who, since they
are taught to regard as particularly sinful the reading of any
literature that might unsettle their faith and assured that the
writers are conscious or unconscious agents of the devil, might
almost as well live still in <ent type='GPE'>Kerry</ent> or <ent type='GPE'>Apulia</ent> for all the influence
of modem culture on them.</p>

<p> As to the "educated" <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s we saw what such education is.
<ent type='PERSON'>Eve</ent>rybody knows that many of them do defy the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> and read
modern books, without troubling to get the priest's permission and
are healthily skeptical about much that the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> teaches. If you
bear in mind that the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> does not merely forbid such reading
but dogmatically teaches that it is a mortal sin like fornication,
you see that these men and women, while professing to be members of
the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>, must repudiate its authority, when it suits them, to
say what is or is not a sin and thus reject a fundamental part of
the creed. They formally remain in the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> for reasons which it
drastically condemns. The mortal sin of heresy not merely to say
but to believe in one's own mind that a dogma of the faith is not
literally true. The amiable writers who speculate on the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> of
<ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent> from without and think that it is just as easy for <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s
to take their peculiar doctrines figuratively as it is for members
of the Episcopal <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> do not know what they are talking about.
And where these "liberal" <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s are "converts" you will be
interested to know that before they were received into the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>
they made a solemn declaration of literal acceptance, not of the
religion as a whole, but of each one, individually, of a long and
complete list of the dogmas which was presented to them to recite.</p>

<p> I will tell the sad story of <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> Modernism in the next
book and will add only one further point here. It would be a
reflection on the intelligence of one-sixth of the <ent type='NORP'>American</ent> people
if we were to suppose that, even taking into account their vast
funds and powerful organization, the priests actually hold the
loyalty of 20000000 to 25000000 people, according to their
various estimates, to this weird synthetic creed. We saw that, on
the contrary, the leakage is enormous, and that even when they give
the figure of 18000000 they include, and on the law of their
<ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> must include, people who have quit it. Another striking
proof of this reaches me as I write this book.</p>

<p> It is announced in some of the papers -- most of them, as
usual, suppress the news as "offensive to <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s" -- that the
religious census compiled by the military authorities from the
interrogation of recruits show that 31 percent of the men were
baptized <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s. This means that about 40000000 of the
present inhabitants of <ent type='GPE'>the United</ent> States had <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> baptism and </p>

<p> Bank of Wisdom
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<p>are in the canonical sense <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s. There is no ground whatever,
to suggest that the recruits were in any large proportion taken
from the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> more than the Protestant body, and it is clear
that more than half these men, though still fairly young, left the
<ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> so long ago that it is unknown to the priests of the
districts in which they live that they are really "subjects of the
<ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>." They mainly represent that drift from the faith of boys who
have left the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> primary school, a drift which some <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>
authorities estimate at between 60 and 80 percent of the whole. It
is a nice reflection on that "statistical" work, which I examined
in the second book, in which Fr. <ent type='ORG'>Shaugnessy</ent> learnedly proves that
there is no drift whatever! It seems to be about twice as bad as
even I estimated, and it is fairly certain that there are at all
events not more than 15000000 actual <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s, half of whom are
children and most of the remainder peculiarly ignorant, in the
United States.</p>

<p> This at once gives us one of the ways in which the general
public are <ent type='ORG'>dupe</ent>d According to the statistics of religion which are
given in all reference books the <ent type='ORG'><ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent></ent> has twice as many
members as any other <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> in <ent type='GPE'>America</ent> or more than one-third of
the <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>s of the country. The meaning of this -- the heavy
<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> immigration from backward countries -- is, of course,
never pointed out in the papers, and the naturally large increase
of such a body at each decennial census is not explained. In fact
the government officials who publish the figures generally make
remarks about the "extraordinary increase" -- no one knows better
than they that the increase is not as great as that of the general
population -- and, while they are quite scientific in their
analyses of and notes on the figures in all other respects they
never warn the readers that, unlike other <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>es, the <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent>
<ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> does not admit that seceders have seceded from it.</p>

<p> The net result is that the general public are grossly deceived
about the largeness and growth of the <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent>ist body, and this makes
them very receptive to <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> propaganda of the broader kind: the
sort of propaganda that does not make you eager to enter the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>
and endorse its creed but disposes you to look upon the <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent>
<ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> as a really unique body and superior to other <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>es.
Skeptics of the last century, and far too many even in our time,
had a theory that the <ent type='ORG'><ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent></ent> has a far better chance of
survival than its rivals. If in this they were regarding the wealth
and power of its organization and the unscrupulousness of its
methods we could see nothing more than an exaggerated estimate in
the theory but they meant and mean, much more than this. They meant
that the doctrinal structure of the <ent type='ORG'><ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent></ent> was less likely
than that of other <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>es to be affected by the corrosive forces
of the new age. Their idea of the difference is summed up in the
phrase "<ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent> or Reason." The world of the future was to be divided
between those who admitted the exercise of reason on religious
matters and would all become <ent type='NORP'>Rationalists</ent> and those who repudiated
the application of reason and based their faith upon authority.</p>

<p> I have elsewhere shown that there is no such fundamental
distinction between the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> and Protestant <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>es. We have,
in fact, seen repeatedly in these pages that <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> writers claim
that they alone in the modern world are logical and that what they </p>

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<p>want to face is "Intellectual" opposition. But it suits their
purpose to make use of the conclusion to which this <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent>-or-Reason
theory leads, and they freely quote predictions of future triumphs
of their <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>. They still drag out periodically and polish up the
famous prediction of <ent type='PERSON'>Macaulay</ent> -- never mentioning, of course, that
he had a profound contempt for the doctrines and brutal methods of
<ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent> -- that the rule of the Vatican would still spread over the
earth when tourists from the other side of the world came to see
the melancholy ruins of <ent type='GPE'>London</ent> (which to <ent type='PERSON'>Macaulay</ent>, as a good
Englishman, meant thousands of years in the future). They quote
<ent type='ORG'>Wells</ent> (whom they hate) telling, amongst his anticipations, how
monks with shaven polls will be conspicuous figures in the
scientific cities of the future, or <ent type='ORG'>Bodley</ent>, who at one time had a
high reputation in <ent type='GPE'>America</ent>, predicting that by the end of the
present century there would be 70000000 <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s in <ent type='GPE'>the United</ent>
States. and a corresponding increase of the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> population all
over the world. If these critical writers -- two Protestants and
one Rationalist -- so candidly admit the triumphant progress of the
<ent type='ORG'><ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent></ent> it must, the general public think, really have
something of the unique nature and unconquerable spirit which it
claims.</p>

<p> A good journalist would, of course, riddle theme predictions
with his shot in ten minutes. <ent type='PERSON'>Macaulay</ent> was more rhetorical than
scientific in his essays, and he rather lazily suggested that a
<ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> which had survived all the onslaughts of seventeen centuries
-- he quite admitted that it was by the use of violent and
unscrupulous; methods -- would probably continue to survive. <ent type='ORG'>Wells</ent>
had the wrong idea that <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> faith was based upon an emotional
trust in authority: which his particular opponent, <ent type='PERSON'>Hilaire Belloc</ent>,
would have described as the sloppy Protestant idea of faith. <ent type='GPE'>Baldly</ent>
estimated that there would be 70000000 <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s in <ent type='GPE'>America</ent> at
the end of this century because he calculated that the total
population would be 400000000: which would leave the proportion
of <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> to general population just the same as <ent type='GPE'>Baldly</ent>
understood it to be at the time when he wrote. This critical
journalist would further point out that a <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> which claims only
to make 20000 to 25000 converts a year and admits a serious
leakage does not show any promise of fulfilling these predictions,
and that in point of fact even the figures supplied by the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>
hierarchy to the authorities at each decennial census show, when
the birth-rate is taken into account (to say nothing of fresh
immigration and a claim of 250000 converts a decade), not an
increase in the number of <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s but a very notable decrease. He
would, in fine, easily learn that the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>, figures grossly
deceive the general public because while a Protestant minister may
hopefully include in his list folk in his parish who have ceased to
attend his church, the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> priest includes such seceders on
principle and denies their right to secede from the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>.</p>

<p> But there is no such journalist in <ent type='GPE'>America</ent> (or <ent type='GPE'>Britain</ent>). No
paper would print such material. Any editor who ventured to do so
would lose his job. Not only would his circulation and his revenue
from advertisements be threatened but to an unknown extent the
<ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> buys up shares in <ent type='NORP'>American</ent> papers. Lecturing -- not on
religion or the <ent type='ORG'><ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent></ent> -- in <ent type='GPE'>Seattle</ent> a few years ago I
learned that one of the dailies made various excuses for not </p>

<p> Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
27
.
THE HOLY FAITH OF ROMANISTS</p>

<p>inserting the advertisement of my lectures. My agent, a local
business man, was persistent, and he found, to his astonishment,
that through the bishop the <ent type='ORG'><ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent></ent> held a high proportion of
the shares in the paper. <ent type='PERSON'>Haldeman</ent>-<ent type='PERSON'>Julius</ent> has told in his paper how
after his advertisements had been accepted and inserted in some
papers a hidden hand intervened, and no more advertisements were
accepted and even a public apology made for the insertion. We speak
ironically when we call it a "hidden" hand. You can smell the holy
oil on it, even when it acts through a <ent type='PERSON'>Knight</ent> of <ent type='GPE'>Columbus</ent> as a
member of <ent type='ORG'>the Holy Family Society</ent>.</p>

<p> Editors and journalists, often ashamed of the pressure to
which economic necessity compels them to yield, evolve their own
defense-mechanism. As good <ent type='NORP'>American</ent>s they are not going to
encourage the disruption of community-life by this "sectarian
strife." Moreover, the <ent type='ORG'><ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent></ent> is really exceptionally
entitled to respect. Look at its long and glorious history -- as
told now by certain professors who are, like themselves,
intimidated by it. took at Its world-wide spread, its primacy
amongst the <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> sects (if not all religions), the great names
(of dead men) it has an its roll of honor, the world-prestige of
its venerable and once more royal head, its vast wealth, its unique
organization, its privileged position in <ent type='GPE'>Washington</ent>, and so on. So
every <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> event is written up by <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> members of the staff
on their knees. A <ent type='NORP'>Eucharist</ent>ic <ent type='ORG'>Congress</ent>? Not a word must be said to
the public about the childish <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> doctrine that is at the root
of it. A canonization? Not a word about how the Vatican claims that
the "saint" literally wrought miracles and the <ent type='NORP'>Italian</ent> clergy at
all events lined their pockets at the expense of the country to
which the saint belongs. Diplomatic courtesies with <ent type='GPE'>Japan</ent>? Not a
word about how these have gone on since 1930 and the Vatican, by
its international influence, mightily helped <ent type='GPE'>Japan</ent> to hoodwink
<ent type='GPE'>America</ent> and the world.</p>

<p> So it goes on. As I write, some of the papers announce that
the <ent type='NORP'>French</ent> general who hag "escaped" from <ent type='GPE'>Germany</ent> and gone to the
holy shrine of <ent type='GPE'>Vichy</ent>, the foulest nest of treachery in Europe, took
a message that the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> industrialists of <ent type='GPE'>Germany</ent> are prepared,
in collusion with the army-leaders to destroy <ent type='PERSON'>Hitler</ent>ism and make
peace with <ent type='GPE'>Britain</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>America</ent>. The condition implied is that
<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent>ism shall be restored in <ent type='GPE'>Germany</ent> and continue to hold the
position it has won by treachery in <ent type='GPE'>Belgium</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>France</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent>, <ent type='GPE'>Spain</ent>,
<ent type='GPE'>Slovakia</ent>, etc. It is, of course, nonsense, but the remark leaves on
the mind a vague feeling that the <ent type='ORG'><ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent></ent> has vast
potentialities of service. It is unique. That, or the reputation
for it, is its strength. And all this subservience of the press
which it now commands hides the real uniqueness which ought to put
it on the same level in the public mind as the Holy Rollers or the
Seventh Day Adventists. Its creed is uniquely contemptible amongst
the major branches of the <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> religion and more redolent of
deliberate <ent type='ORG'>priestcraft</ent> than any other. "Can such a faith survive?"
is the title given by an <ent type='NORP'>Angelican</ent> bishop to a series of sermons he
gave on the theology of his <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>. Yes, he said, by jettisoning
half its dogmas, literally understood. But the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> of <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent>
survives, ravaged it is true but still massive, without the
sacrifice of a line of its creed. How? To that question we must
next address ourselves.</p>

<p> Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
28
</p></xml>