The Footprints of the Jesuits

by Richard W. Thompson

This is not said reproachfully, but rather to indicate the shrewdness and sagacity practiced by him to influence the large body of believers in the Church. The whole history of the papacy at that time proved that it was essential to its future success that the doctrine of infallibility should be extended beyond mere questions of religious belief, so as to embrace other matters connected with the revolutionary movements then in progress in Europe, which were threatening to undermine, if not destroy, the papal power; that is, the temporal power of the pope. Revolutionary disturbances are always threatening to those against whom they are directed, and Pius IX, believing, as he undoubtedly did, that such as then existed in Europe were directed, or would be if not checked, against his temporal power, deemed it necessary to obtain, if possible, the sanction of a conciliar decree to the exercise by him of new powers in addition to those then universally conceded to him over religious questions and affairs. Thus he designed to obtain the express or implied assent of the Church to his exercise of jurisdiction over politico-religious matters, in order that he might be enabled to promulgate such decrees as would, through the agency and influence of "the faithful" among the different European nations, arrest the progress of the revolutionary movements, and save his temporal power. Hence, when the decree of infallibility was interpreted by him in the light of these events and his own purposes, he had no difficulty in concluding that it had given him jurisdiction over all such politico-religious questions as bore, either directly or indirectly, upon the spiritual or temporal interests of the Church in all parts of the world. That his successor, Leo XIII, agrees with him in this interpretation no intelligent man can deny. If he were not influenced to do this by his desire to regain the temporal power which was taken away from his predecessor, his education and training by the Jesuits would impress his mind with the conviction that a temporal crown upon his head is a positive necessity, in order that he may promote "the greater glory of God." Consequently, when it is thus made too plain and palpable to admit of fair denial, that the infallibility of the pope is the chiefest and most fundamental dogma of faith—the foundation of the whole system of papal belief—it is positively obligatory upon us, in this country, to understand its full import and meaning. If anything were required to make this obligation more binding than it is, it is found in the facts now confronting us, that our public schools are pronounced "godless" because this religious dogma is not taught to our children, and that it is taught to Roman Catholic children in parochial schools, mainly under Jesuit control.

Tedious as the evidence already adduced may seem to be to those who look at such matters as these only by casual glances, it is indispensable to a thorough knowledge of the truth that the politico-religious matters which this decree has brought within the jurisdiction of the pope should be plainly and distinctly made known. Without this knowledge, our tolerance may seem to invite dangerous encroachments, by the Jesuits and those obedient to them, upon some of the most highly cherished principles of our Government. We have seen, from one papal author, what is meant at Rome by a religious education, and shall, in the next chapter, see cumulative proof from another, probably more influential.

From this latter author, even more distinctly than from the former, we shall see how absolutely we should be subject to the commands of the pope; how we should be domineered over by his ecclesiastical hierarchy and their Jesuit allies; how all our actions, thoughts, and impulses, would be held in obedience to ecclesiastical and monarchical dictation; and how we should have, instead of a Government of the people, one under the arbitrary dictatorship of a foreign sovereign, who can neither speak our language nor understand our Constitution and laws. We might be permitted to manage our secular affairs—such as relate to the transaction of our ordinary business—but in everything we should consider as pertaining to the Church or himself, he would become our absolute and irresponsible ruler. Church and State would be united, and all the measures provided by the framers of our Government for the protection of our natural rights—such as the freedom of religious belief, of the press, and of speech—would be destroyed. Free government would be at an end, and a threatening cloud would hover over us like the pall of death. We should be turned back to the Middle Ages, and all the fruits of the Reformation would be lost, without the probability of ever being afterwards regained by our posterity. A careful scanning of what follows will show that this picture is not overdrawn. And if it is not, the obligation to see that these calamities shall not befall us, rests as heavily upon the Roman Catholic as it does upon the Protestant part of our population. A common spirit should animate the hearts of all, no matter what their religious belief, and stimulate them to joint protest and mutual defense. Those who brave the dangers of navigation upon the same vessel at sea, must, when the storm rages, unite together in heart and hand, or run the risk of sinking in a watery grave. So it is with those whose lives and fortunes and earthly interests are under the protection of the same civil institutions; if they become divided into angry and adverse factions, under the dominion of unrestrained passions, they invite the spoiler to undermine the foundations of the fortress which shelters and protects them.

That the Jesuits, in the war they are now making, and have always made, against civil and religious liberty, constitute such a spoiler, history attests in numerous volumes. Wheresoever civil government has been made obedient to the popular will, they have labored indefatigably for its overthrow. To that end monarchism has been made the central and controlling principle of their organization—so completely so that their society never has existed, and could not exist, without it. They warred malevolently upon the best of the popes, and defied the authority of the Church for more than a hundred years—never abating their vengeance, except when the pontifical chair was occupied by a pope who submitted to their dictation. They are, to-day—as at every hour since the time of Loyola—compactly united to destroy, as sinful and heretical, all civil institutions constructed by the people for their own protection, and substitute for them such as are obedient to monarchs and their own interpretation of the divine law. And now, when the pontifical authority is vested in a pope whose youthful mind was impressed and disciplined by their teachings, and they stand ready to subvert every Government which has separated the State from the Church, and secured the freedom of conscience, of speech, and of the press, and are straining every nerve to obtain the control of our system of common-school education, so as to instill their doctrines into the minds of the American youth—the times have become such that all the citizens of the United States, irrespective of their forms of religious belief, should form a solid and united body in resistance to their un-American plottings.

Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, who signed our Declaration of Independence, was a Roman Catholic, but not a Jesuit. He loved his Church, and adhered to its faith, which did not then require him to believe that its pope was infallible; and with his mind filled with patriotic emotions, he stood by the side of Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and fifty-four other patriots, and united with them in separating Church and State, in establishing a Government of the people, in guaranteeing the absolute freedom of religious belief; and when he and they looked upon the great work they had accomplished, they solemnly declared that it was in obedience to "the laws of nature and of nature's God." He who now insists, as the Jesuits do, that in all this he violated his Christian conscience by offending God in the perpetration of an act of heresy, not only asperses unjustly the memory of this unselfish patriot, but wounds the sensibilities of every true American heart. At the time our independence was established Pius VI was pope. He had not been declared to be infallible, and the Jesuits did not exist as a society under the protection of the Church; for they had been suppressed for their innumerable offenses against the Church and the nations, by his immediate predecessor Clement XIV, and were wanderers over the earth, seeking shelter under heretical princes and States, where they were allowed to plot against the Church. The pope, therefore, possessing only spiritual jurisdiction, did not pronounce a pontifical curse upon our infant institutions, not only because they were not within that jurisdiction, but because they secured, by proper guarantees, the freedom of religious belief to Roman Catholics. He had his hands full in attempting to deal with the French Revolution, over which he supposed his jurisdiction to extend, because France had, for several centuries, recognized the spiritual dominion of his predecessors and their right to regulate its faith. Consequently, he took the side of Louis XVI against the people of France, and denounced the Legislative Assembly, and avowed his purpose to maintain all the prerogative rights of the "Holy See." He, accordingly, issued an encyclical proclamation, in which he condemned the efforts of the French people to establish a Republic, and the Legislative Assembly, in these words: "That Assembly, after abolishing monarchy, which is the most natural form of government, had attributed almost all power to the populace, who follow no wisdom and no counsel, and have no understanding of things." He further instructed the bishops that all "poisoned books" should be removed "from the hands of the faithful by force and by stratagem." He declared that "the priesthood and tyranny support each other; and the one overthrown, the other can not long subsist." He denounced the liberty after which France was striving, in imitation of our Revolutionary example, as tending "to corrupt minds, pervert morals, and overthrow all order in affairs and laws," and the equality of man as leading to "anarchy" and the "speedy dissolution" of society.[230]

And inasmuch as this same pope, Pius VI and the present pope, Leo XIII, have been solemnly decreed to be infallible, incapable of error in matters of faith, and standing in the place of God upon earth—and Leo XIII has never repudiated these teachings of Pius VI or many others of like import by other popes—and the decree of infallibility has so enlarged his spiritual jurisdiction as to bring all politico-religious matters throughout the world within its circle, and the Jesuits have been re-established under their original constitution as it came from the hands of Loyola, and are still full of life and vigor, which they constantly display in their tireless efforts to control the education of American youth, the obligation imposed upon all our people, of every religious creed, to discover in what direction we are drifting, is positive, absolute, and indispensable.

FOOTNOTES:

[224] The Council of the Vatican. By Thomas Canon Pope. Page 272.

[225] The Council of the Vatican. By Thomas Canon Pope. Page 10.

[226] The Council of the Vatican. By Thomas Canon Pope. Page 11.