Horrible blasphemies of a pope and a cardinal

Creators of the Creator

and that ye receive not of her plagues! For her sins have reached unto heaven and God hath remembered her iniquities. Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets; for God hath avenged you on her! And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth."* § 23. The doctrine which requires such pious frauds as above related, to gain it credence, is so gross an outrage upon common sense, that no arguments are necessary to disprove it.† Its very statement is its refutation. But it has been the source of incalculable worldly gain to the anti-Christian clergy, whom it elevates to the blasphemous dignity of CREATORS OF THEIR CREATOR, and hence the secret of its success. It is almost impossible to quote the horrible impiety of pope Urban and cardinal Biel, without shuddering.

"The hands of the pontiff," said Urban in a great Roman Council, "are raised to an eminence granted to none of the angels, or CREATING GOD THE CREATOR OF ALL THINGS, and of offering him up for the salvation of the whole world." "This prerogative," adds the same authority, "as it elevates the Pope above angels, renders pontifical submission to kings an execration." To all this the Sacred Synod, with the utmost unanimity, responded, Amen.‡ Cardinal Biel extends this power to all priests. "He that created me," says the cardinal, "gave me, if it be lawful to tell, TO CREate HIMSELF." This power, Biel shows, exalts the clergy, not only above emperors and angels, but which is a higher elevation, above Lady Mary herself. "Her ladyship," says the cardinal, "once

* 2 Thess. ii. 9, 10; Jer. li. 13; Rev. xvii. 5-xviii. 4, 5, 6, 24.

On such a subject as this it is lawful to imitate the satirical and ironical mode of disputation adopted by the prophet Elijah, in his contest with the idolatrous priests of Baal. (1 Kings, xviii. 27.) The following is translated from a satirical poem of George Buchanan, and sets in vivid and striking light the folly and impiety of this idolatry. "A baker and a painter once contended, which of them could produce the best specimen of his art;-whether the former would excel with his oven, or the latter with his colors. The painter boasted that he had made a god; the baker replied, It is I who make the true body of God, thou only canst produce an image or representation of it. The painter said, thy god is always consumed by men's teeth; thine, rejoined the baker, is corroded by worms. The painter affirmed, that one of his making would endure entire for many years, while an innumerable quantity of the baker's would be often devoured in an hour. But you, said the baker, can scarcely paint one god in a year, while I can produce ten thousand in a day.

Stop, said a priest, and contend no more with words to no purpose; neither of your gods can do anything without me; and seeing it is I that make each of them a god, both shall be subservient to me: for the picture shall beg for me, and the bread be eaten by me.”

Dicens, nimis execrabile videri, ut manus, quæ in tantam eminentiam excreverunt, quod nulli angelorum concessum est, ut Deum cuncta creantem suo signaculo creent, et eundem ipsum pro salute totius mundi, Dei Patris obtutibus offerant. Et ab omnious acclamatum est "Fiat, fiat." (Hoveden, ad Ann. 1099, P. 268. Labb. 12, 960. Bruy 2, 635.)

Worship of the wafer God in the nineteenth century.

conceived the Son of God and the Redeemer of the world; while the priest DAILY CALLS INTO EXISTENCE THE SAME DEITY."

If the fact were not beyond dispute, the assertion would be incredible that this impious and idolatrous doctrine of the dark ages is still held in the nineteenth century, and in enlightened America too! Yet such is the fact, and whoever wishes to see a Romish priest create his wafer God by pronouncing a few mystic Latin words, and the silly multitude worship this bit of bread, as the priest holds it up before them, has only to visit a Roman Catholic church during the performance of mass.

This worship of the wafer God is a stupid and grovelling idolatry, of which even an ancient worshipper of Jupiter or Venus, or a modern votary of Juggernaut or Vishnu, would be ashamed. While most of the rites and ceremonies of Popery can be traced to their heathen origin, this alone is too extravagant to find a parallel

* Qui creavit me, si fas est dicere, dedit mihi creare se. Semel concepit Dei filium, eundem Dei filium advocant quotidie corporaliter. (Biel, Lect. 4. See Edgar, 383.)

As a proof that this monstrous doctrine of the dark ages is taught in all its grossness in the nineteenth century, the following few questions and answers are transcribed from Butler's Catechism, a popular Roman Catholic manual in almost universal use among papists wherever the English language is used.

On the Blessed Eucharist.

Q. What is the blessed Eucharist? A. The body and blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ, under the appearance of bread and wine?

Q. What do you mean by the appearances of bread and wine? A. The taste, color, and form of bread and wine, which still remain, after the bread and wine are changed into the body and blood of Christ.

Q. Are both the body and blood of Christ under the appearance of bread, and under the appearance of wine? A. Yes; Christ is whole and entire, true God, and true Man, under the appearance of each.

Q. Did Christ give power to the priests of his church to change bread and wine into his body and blood? A. Yes; when he said to his apostles at his last supper: Do this for a commemoration for me. Luke xxii. 19.

Q. Why did Christ give to the priests of his church so great a power? A. That his children, throughout all ages and nations, might have a most acceptable sacrifice to offer to their Heavenly Father-and the most precious food to nourish their souls.

Q. What is the sacrifice of the New Law? A. The Mass.

Q. What is the Mass? A. The sacrifice of the body and blood of Christ, which are really present under the appearances of bread and wine; and are offered to God by the priest for the living and the dead.

Q. Is the Mass a different sacrifice from that of the Cross? A. No; because the same Christ, who once offered himself a bleeding victim to his Heavenly Father on the cross, continues to offer himself in an unbloody manner, by the hands of his priests, on our altars.

Q. At what part of the Mass are the bread and wine changed into the body and blood of Christ? A. At the consecration.

Q. How are we to be penetrated with a lively faith? A. By firmly believing that the blessed Eucharist is JESUS CHRIST HIMSELF, TRUE GOD AND TRUE MAN, HIS VERY FLESH AND BLOOD, WITH HIS SOUL AND DIVINITY.

Hoc est corpus meum (this is my body), from which is doubtless derived the cant phrase, Hocus pocus, used by pretended conjurors.

Papists worse than the heathen who never devoured the gods they worshipped

even in the temples of paganism itself. "As to that celebrated act of popish idolatry," says Dr. Middleton," the adoration of the host, I must confess that I cannot find the least resemblance of it in any part of the pagan worship: and as oft as I have been standing at mass, and seen the whole congregation prostrate on the ground, in the humblest posture of adoring, at the elevation of this consecrated piece of bread; I could not help reflecting on a passage of Tully where, speaking of the absurdity of the heathens in the choice of their gods, he says, ' Was any man ever so mad as to take that which he feeds upon for a god?' Ecquem tam amentem esse putas, qui illud, quo vescatur, Deum credat esse? (Cic. de nat. Deor. 3.) This was an extravagance left for Popery alone; and what an old Roman could not but think too gross, even for Egyptian idolatry to swallow, is now become the principal part of worship, and the distinguishing article of faith in the creed of modern Rome."* No wonder that the old Arabian philosopher, Averroes, when brought into contact with this worse than heathenish superstition, exclaimed, with surprise and disgust, "I have travelled over the world, and seen many people, but none so selfish and ridiculous as Christians, who devour the God they worship!"

After reading the particulars above narrated, and especially the horribly blasphemous language of pope Urban and cardinal Biel, let the reader remember that the besotted votaries of Rome not only receive this doctrine as an article of faith themselves, but pronounce a most awful curse upon all the world beside, who refuse to believe it! The following are the very words of the canons of the celebrated council of Trent, passed in 1551, pronouncing the awful anathema, and thus consigning to eternal damnation (if they could) the whole protestant world, and all else who refuse to believe this monstrous doctrine. The following are extracts from the original Latin of the words of the council, with a faithful English translation.

"Sancta hæc synodus declarat, per consecrationem panis et vini conversionem fieri totius substantia panis in substantiam corporis Christi Domini nostri, et totius substantiæ vini, in substantiam sanguinis ejus: quæ conversio convenienter et proprie a sancta catholica ecclesia transubstantiatio est appellata."

The council then proceed to which the following are the first,

"Canon I. Si quis negaverit in sanctissimæ eucharistiæ sacramento contineri vere, realiter, et substantialiter, corpus et sanguinem una cum anima et DIVINI

"This holy council declareth-That by the consecration of the bread and wine, there is effected a conversion of the whole substance of the bread into the substance of the body of Christ our Lord, and of the wine into the substance of his blood; which conversion is fitly and properly termed by the holy Catholic church, Transubstantiation."

enact the canons and curses, of second, and third.

1. "If any one shall deny that in the most holy sacrament of the eucharist, there are contained, truly, really, and substantially, the body and blood, together

*Dr. Middleton's letter from Rome, p. 179.

The curses of Trent upon all who refuse to believe the dogma of Transubstantiation.

§ 24. Let it be remembered that these awful curses were pronounced by the last general council of the Romish church ever assembled; that, of course, they have never been repealed; but stand down to the year 1845 in flaming characters upon the statute book of Rome, an enduring monument of her bigoted intolerance and hatred of all who refuse to yield up their common sense and reason at the bidding of a corrupt priesthood, whose evident object it is to exalt themselves not only above the common herd of the laity, but in their own language, "to an eminence granted to none of the angels"-by proclaiming themselves as the "CREATORS OF THE CREATOR." In these awful anathemas, of course, are included our Baxters, our Bunyans, our Flavels, our Paysons, and all the holy and devoted men who have honored the protestant ranks, not only in the past, but in the present generation. There have been periods, as we have already seen, when the anathemas of Rome were something more than an idle breath of air, when they could kindle the fires of martyrdom, and fill the dungeons of the inquisition with the tortured and helpless victims of popish bigotry and cruelty. Blessed be God! those periods, we trust, are past. God forbid that they should ever return! The spirit of Popery remains unchanged. God forbid that the power to make these curses effectual (at least by the aid of "the secular arm") should ever again return to deluge the world with blood!

*Concil Trident., sess. xiii., cap. 4.

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CHAPTER III

PROOFS OF THE DARKNESS OF THIS PERIOD CONTINUED.-BAPTISM OF BELLS, AND FESTIVAL OF THE ASSES.

25.-Another of the profane and senseless mummeries of Popery, which sprung up in this dark age, and which has been handed down to the present time, was the consecration or baptism of Bells. Cardinal Baronius says this custom was first introduced by pope John XIII., who died in 972; who gave the name of John the Baptist, to the great bell of the Lateran church at Rome. The reason why the name of some saint is given to the bell at its baptism, says Cardinal Bona, is "in order that the people may think themselves called to divine service, by the voice of the saint whose name the bell bears." The following was inscribed upon the consecrated bells:

"Colo verum Deum; plebem voco; et congrego Clerum;

Divos adoro; festa doceo; defunctos ploro;

Pestem dæmones fugo."

that is, "I adore the true God; I call the people; I collect the priests; I worship the saints; I teach the festivals; I deplore the dead; I drive away pestilence and devils."

This senseless custom of the dark ages, of consecrating and baptizing bells, has been ever since observed by papists, and still is, down to the present time. In a letter of an English traveller, inserted in the London Magazine for 1780, there is an interesting account of a performance of this ceremony at Naples, in Italy. On that occasion a nobleman was godfather to the bell, and a lady of quality was godmother. Most of the prayers said on the occasion, ended with the following words, that thou wouldst be pleased to rinse, purify, sanctify, and consecrate these bells with thy heavenly benediction. Ut hoc tintinnabulum cœlesti benedictione perfundere, purificare, sanctificare, et consecrare dignareris.' The following were the words of consecration: 'Let the sign be consecrated and sanctified, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.' Consecretur et sanctificetur signum istud, in nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.' The bishop, then turning to the people, said, the bell's name is Mary. He had previously demanded of the godfather and godmother what name they would have put upon the bell, and the lady gave it this name.

$26.-A more recent eye-witness of this ceremony in the city of Montreal, Canada, describes it as follows: "The two bells were suspended from a temporary erection of wood in the centre of the church. In the vacant space round them, a table and chairs were placed for

Bona. Rer. Liturg., Lib. ii., cap. 22.

• Baronius' Annals, ann. 968