Fifty Years in the Church of Rome

by Charles Paschal Telesphore Chiniquy

If, at any step made by the Protestant through the regions of science and learning, he asks God or man to tell him how he can proceed any further without any fear of falling into some unknown and unsuspected abyss, both God and man tell him what Christ said to His apostles—that he has eyes to see, ears to hear, and an intelligence to understand; he is reminded that it is with his own eyes, and not with another’s eyes, he must look; that it is with his own ears, and not with another’s ears, he must hear; and that it is with his own intelligence, and not another’s intelligence, he must understand. And when the Protestant has made use of his own eyes to see, and his own ears to hear, and his own intelligence to understand, he nevertheless feels again his feet uncertain on the trembling waves of the mysterious and unexplored regions of science and learning which spread before him as a boundless ocean, all the echoes of heaven and earth bring to his ears the simple but sublime words of the Son of God: “If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he, for a fish, give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children; how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?”

Emboldened with this infallible promise of the Saviour, which has ennobled and almost divinized him, the Protestant student ceases to tremble and fear, a new strength has been given to his feet, a new power to his mind. For he has gone to his Father for more light and strength. Nay, he has boldly asked not only the assistance and the help of the Spirit of God, but the very presence of His Spirit in his soul to guide and strengthen him. The assurance that the great God who has created heaven and earth is his Father, his loving Father, has absolutely raised him above himself; it has given a new, I dare say a divine impulse, to all his aspirations for truth and knowledge. It has put into his breast the assurance that, sustained by the love, and the light, and the help of that great infinite, eternal God, he feels himself as a giant able to cope with any obstacle. He does not any more walk, on his way to eternity, as a worm of the dust; a voice from heaven has told him that he was the child of God! Eternity, and not time, then becomes the limits of his existence; he is no more satisfied with touching with his hands and studying with his eyes the few objects which are within the limited horizon of the eyelid-vision. He stretches his giant hands to the boundless limits of the infinite, he boldly raises his feet and eyes from the dust of this earth, to launch himself into the boundless oceans of the unknown worlds. He feels as if there was almost nothing beyond the reach of his intelligence, nothing to resist the power of his arms, nothing to stop his onward progress toward the infinite so long as the infallible words of Christ shall be his compass, his light, and his strength. He will then touch the mountains, and they will melt and bow down before him to let his iron and fiery chariot pass over the Rocky Mountains, 8,000 feet above the level of the sea. He will boldly ascend to the regions where the lightning and the storms reign, and there he will place his daring hands into the roaring clouds, and wrench the sparkle of lightning which will carry his message from one end of the world to the other. He will force the oceans to tremble and submit, as humble slaves, before those marvelous steam-engines which, like giants, carry “floating cities” over all the seas in spite of the winds and the waves.

Had the Newtons, the Franklins, the Fultons, the Morses been Romanists, their names would have been lost in the obscurity which is the natural heritage of the abject slaves of the Popes. Being told from their infancy that no one had any right to make use of his “private judgment,” intelligence and conscience in the research of truth, they would have remained mute and motionless at the feet of the modern and terrible god of Rome, the Pope. But they were Protestants! In that great and glorious word “Protestant,” is the secret of the marvelous discoveries with which they have changed the face of the world. They were Protestants! Yes, they had passed their young years in Protestant schools, where they had read a book which told them that they were created in the image of God, and that that great God had sent His eternal Son, Jesus, to make them free from the bondage of man. They had read in that Protestant book (for the Bible is the most Protestant book in the world) that man had not only a conscience, but an intelligence to guide him; they had learned that that intelligence and conscience had no other master but God, no other guide but God, no other light but God. On the walls of their Protestant schools the Son of God had written the marvelous words: “Come unto me; I am the Light, the Way, the Life.”

But when the Protestant nations are marching with such giant strides to the conquest of the world, why is it that the Roman Catholic nations not only remain stationary, but give evidence of a decadence which is, day after day, more and more appalling and remediless? Go to their schools and give a moment of attention to the principles which are sown in the young intelligences of their unfortunate slaves, and you will have the key to that sad mystery.

What is not only the first, but the daily school lesson taught to the Roman Catholic? Is it not that one of the greatest crimes which a man can commit is to follow his “private judgment?” which means that he has eyes, but cannot see; ears, but he cannot hear; and intelligence, but he cannot make use of it in the research of truth and light and knowledge, without danger of being eternally damned. His superiors—which mean the priest and the Pope—must see for him, hear for him, and think for him. Yes, the Roman Catholic is constantly told in his school that the most unpardonable and damnable crime is to make use of his own intelligence and follow his own private judgment in the research of truth. He is constantly reminded that man’s own private judgment is his greatest enemy. Hence all his intellectual and conscientious efforts must be brought to fight down, silence, kill his “private judgment.” It is by the judgment of his superiors—the priest, the bishop and the pope—that he must be guided in everything.

Now, what is a man who cannot make use of his “private personal judgment?” Is he not a slave, an idiot, an ass? And what is a nation composed of men who do not make use of their private personal judgment in the research of truth and happiness, if not a nation of brutes, slaves and contemptible idiots?

But as this will look like an exaggeration on my part, allow me to force the Church of Rome to come here and speak for herself. Please pay attention to what she has to say about the intellectual faculties of men. Here are the very words of the so-called Saint Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Jesuit Society:

“As for holy obedience, this virtue must be perfect in every point—in execution, in will, in intellect, doing which is enjoined with all celerity, spiritual joy and perseverance; persuading ourselves that everything is just, suppressing every repugnant thought and judgment of one’s own in a certain obedience; and let every one persuade himself, that he who lives under obedience should be moved and directed, under Divine Providence, by his superior, JUST AS IF HE WERE A CORPSE (perinde acsi cadaver esset) which allows itself to be moved and led in every direction.”

Yes! Protestants, when you send your child to school, it is that he may more and more understand the dignity of man. Your object is to enlighten, expand and raise his intelligence. You want to give more light, more strength, more food, more life to that intelligence. But know it well, not from my pen, but from the solemn declaration of Rome. The young Roman Catholic goes to school, not only that his intelligence may be fettered, clouded and paralyzed, but that it may be killed. (You have read it.) It is only when he will be like a corpse before his superior that the young Roman Catholic will have attained to the highest degree of perfect manhood! Is not such a doctrine absolutely anti-Christian and anti-social. Is it not diabolical? Would not mankind become a flock of brute beasts if the Church of Rome could succeed in persuading her hundred of millions of slaves to consider themselves as cadavers—corpses in the presence of their superiors.

Some one will, perhaps, ask me what can be the object of the popes and the priests of Rome in degrading the Roman Catholics in such a strange way that they turn them into moral corpses? What can be the use of those hundred of millions of corpses? Why not let them live? The answer is a very easy one. The great, and the only object of the thoughts and workings of the Pope and the priests is to raise themselves above the rest of the world. They want to be high! high! high! above the head not only of the common people, but of the kings and emperors of the world. They want to be not only as high, but higher than God. It is when speaking of the Pope that the Holy Ghost says: “He opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he, as God, sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God” (2 Thess. ii. 4). To attain their object, the priests have persuaded their millions and millions of slaves that they were mere corpses; that they must have no will, no conscience, no intelligence of their own, just “as corpses, which allow themselves to be moved and led in any way, without any resistance.” When this has been once gained, they have made a pyramid of all those motionless, inert corpses, which is so high, that though its feet are on the earth, its top goes to the skies, in the very abode of the old divinities of the Pagan world, and putting themselves and their popes at the top of that marvelous pyramid, the priests say to the rest of the world: “Who among you are as high as we are? Who has ever been raised by God as a priest and a pope? Where are the kings and the emperors whose thrones are as elevated as ours? Are we not at the very top of humanity?” Yes! yes! I answer to the priests of Rome, you are high, very high indeed! No throne on earth has ever been so sublime, so exalted as yours. Since the days of the tower of Babel, the world has not seen such a high fabric. Your throne is higher than anything we know. But it is a throne of corpses!!!