Before closing, he treats of the separation of Church and State, and justifies the condemnation of it by Pius IX in the Syllabus, and says that "after such a declaration of the supreme pastor, no true Catholic can hold that politics and religion ought to be utterly separate." But not content with the authority of Pius IX upon this point, he adds that of the present pope, Leo XIII, whom he represents as having lifted up his voice "to teach the world that, while the Church and the civil Governments are orders distinct in their origin and in their nature, it is the will of heaven that religion lend its aid to the State, and that the State should support religion;"[276] that is, the Church and the State should be united together, and each aid the other in maintaining its authority, so that, by their joint alliance, they should be able to render a Government of and by the people impossible. In order to accomplish this and the other objects pointed out by him, he represents that the Church "brooks many affronts, and suffers many wrongs, and makes herself all things to all men"—as the Jesuits did when they worshiped idols in China, and became Brahmins in India—so that she may bring all nations and peoples under her dominion, and the pope become the ruling power of the world, "independent of all civil Governments," and "subject to no earthly ruler."
Thus we have, in plain and authoritative language, a complete portrayal of the only form of government which the pope can approve. If he seems to be reconciled for the time being to any other form, it is merely because it is expedient to do so, so that by being "all things to all men," in obedience to Jesuit teaching, he may thereby make himself surer of ultimate triumph. Every man who shall take the pains to scan the foregoing evidence will find in it ample proof of the fact—to say nothing about other independent Governments—that the papal system is more antagonistical to the civil institutions of the United States than to any other in the world. Whatsoever professions to the contrary may be put forth, it is a palpable truth, absolutely incontestable, that the fundamental principles of our Government are the subjects of constant and vindictive assault by the papal party—the followers of the pope—in and out of the United States. The framers of our Government secularized it by measures which resulted in separating Church and State, but the pope and his hierarchy, aided by the Jesuits, fling in our faces the accusation that, in doing so, they violated the divine law which it is their religious duty to restore. We have established a nationality of our own, recognized by all the nations of the earth, but they tell us that it possesses no authority to impose the least restriction, by any laws it can enact, upon the power of the pope or his army of ministers and employees within the borders of our own territory. We have guaranteed freedom of conscience, or diversity of religious belief, but they confront us with the charge of heresy on account of it, and openly avow their purpose to destroy this guarantee by employing the combined powers of Church and State to unify their own religion, to the exclusion of all others, by laws above and superior to our Constitution. We have secured freedom of speech and of the press, and have provided for civil marriages, and for the secular education of our children at the public expense; and they tell us that, on account of these and other equally important measures of public policy, we have become a "godless" nation, living under "godless" laws enacted for "godless" purposes, and that they have been divinely appointed to perform the holy duty of exterminating all these evils, in order to save us from the destruction inevitably awaiting us on account of them. One is required to give but a single moment to reflection to be assured that if the pope, by the aid of his hierarchy and the Jesuits, shall be permitted to achieve the results for which they are now so anxiously seeking, and acquire such dominion as they desire in the United States, our free institutions must come to an end. They can win success only by our defeat. Papal government can only prevail here when our present civil institutions shall be destroyed.
FOOTNOTES:
[231] Popular Errors Concerning Politics and Religion. By Lord Robert Montagu, M.P. Introduction, pp. 1 to 5; text, pp. 42 to 47.
[232] Popular Errors Concerning Politics and Religion. By Lord Robert Montagu, M.P. Pages 122 to 136.
[233] Popular Errors Concerning Politics and Religion. By Lord Robert Montagu, M.P. Pages 139-140.
[234] Popular Errors Concerning Politics and Religion. By Lord Robert Montagu, M.P. Pages 193 to 196.
[235] Popular Errors Concerning Politics and Religion. By Lord Robert Montagu, M.P. Pages 201 to 238.
[236] Ibid., pp. 311 to 316.
[237] Popular Errors Concerning Politics and Religion. By Lord Robert Montagu, M.P. Page 318.