left the beautiful island where intolerance reigned, "How hideous is tyranny under the garb of false religion!"

In Canada the Roman Catholic hierarchy have excommunicated legislators who dared to vote in opposition to their demands (see Chs. XVIII. & XXIII.); they have threatened to excommunicate the members of the Montreal Institute, if they did not exclude from their library every volume objectionable to the priests and from their news-room every anti-clerical newspaper; and when about the beginning of 1870 one of the members named Guibord died, the priests refused him burial except in a lot set apart for suicides and heretics. Colporteurs, engaged in circulating Bibles and religious books and tracts, have often been lawlessly beaten by Roman Catholics; an Irish Catholic mob attacked and broke up a public meeting in Quebec in 1853, while Gavazzi was lecturing on Romanism; and the same thing was unsuccessfully attempted at Montreal two nights afterward, but defeated by the police and military who killed 10 or 12 assailants and others.

Like opposition to civil and religious liberty has been manifested in our own country. An orderly open-air religious meeting, held for several Sunday afternoons in Tompkins square, New York, under the auspices of the N. Y. Young Men's Christian Association in 1868, was stopped through Roman Catholic influence by order of the acting president of the Common Council, the order being afterwards countermanded by Mayor (now Governor) Hoffman, and the countermand revoked the next day. Protestant lecturers on the confessional and other Roman Catholic peculiarities have frequently been interrupted, insulted, and maltreated by Roman Catholics. Miss Edith O'Gorman, the escaped nun (see Chap. VIII.), lectured in the Methodist church at Madison, N. J., on the evenings of April 14 and 15, 1869, on " Convent Life" and the "Romish Priesthood." The first lecture was frequently interrupted and otherwise disturbed by Roman Catholics; the second lecture was disturbed by a noisy mob outside, and was followed by a rush of the mob at her with yells and abusive language and a

pistol-shot, which, however, missed its aim, the ball passing over her head. The mob afterwards surrounded the house where she was, threw stones, used abusive language, and did not disperse till midnight; but she was protected by a strong guard of citizens, with some constables and nearly all the students of the Drew (Methodist) Theological Seminary. Says Miss O'Gorman in her book:

... The responsible heads of the Roman Catholic church made every effort to free the rioters, and the result was that through Catholic influence the would-be assassin was not convicted, though there were witnesses who could swear to his identity, and when the witnesses were called, the Grand Jury refused to hear them, and the rioters were set free without even a fine or reprimand. . . .”

But the Roman Catholics of Madison and its neighborhood are not the only offenders against order and liberty. Interruptions and rumors of intended assault and of assassination have attended Miss O'Gorman's lecturing elsewhere; though Rev. I. T. Hecker and other Roman Catholics may lecture freely without any disturbance from Protestants. Rev. Mr. White of Jacksonville, Ill., it is reported, attempted to lecture at Columbus, O., in February, 1870, on the "Secrets of the Confessional," when an Irish mob assaulted him with brickbats, and the police rescued him with difficulty.

Protestants charge these and other similar infringements of liberty, which are certainly discountenanced by many respectable Roman Catholics, upon the Roman Catholic system. This system in their view is unchangeably opposed to both civil and religious liberty; and the liberal principles and practice of many sincere Roman Catholics do not disprove this opposition. The principles of the Roman Catholic church are intolerant, and do not change. Said Rev. Leonard Bacon, D. D., at the anniversary of the American and Foreign Christian Union in 1853:

"... That Church of Rome is founded on a rock indeed, not that

on which Christ has founded his Church; but the rock on which that Church is founded is the denial of religious liberty. I will tell you where you will find the true exponent of Romanism. Wherever you can get a mob of Irishmen to break up a Sunday-school and assail the children in the streets, there is the infallible, the immutable doctrine of the Church of Rome, the application of physical force as pertaining to religion. Dr. Kalley had an opportunity to see it in the island of Madeira [see Ch XII.]. There not only the Church but the government was Catholic, and the people were 'Catholic,' and even the power of the British government, of which he was a subject, could not have protected him, but for his concealment. That is the immutability of the Church of Rome, and it is in relation to this very point that we are to maintain our conflict in this country. . . .

99

The Protestant may present his argument in respect to the subject of the present chapter thus: The Roman Catholic church is organized as an absolute and self-perpetuating monarchy (see Chapter II.); the pope, who is declared to be the supreme and infallible head of the church, is chosen by the cardinals, whom his predecessors have appointed, according to their own will and from their own number (see Chs. III. and V.); every bishop of the church throughout the world is appointed by the pope with or against the advice of other bishops, and takes an oath of obedience to the pope, and every priest is dependent on his bishop for place and support, and is pledged to obey the bishop (see Chs. VII. and XXI.); the religious orders and congregations are so many trained and disciplined subordinates, solemnly bound to obey the pope and the hierarchy under him (see Chap. VIII.); the right of private judgment is abjured by all these and condemned by the church (see Chap. XXII.); through confession and penance and absolution and excommunication and indulgence the priests, and through them their supreme head, have access to every Roman Catholic heart and control over every Roman Catholic conscience (see Chs. XVII-XIX.); persecution and the inquisition have been used to enforce their decrees, and may be so used again, if it seem best to the pope and those whose

advice he asks or takes (see Chs. XI. and XII.); the declared sentiments of the pope and of the leaders of opinion in the Roman Catholic church, as given in this chapter, are unfavorable to Protestant notions of civil and religious liberty; and, whatever individual Roman Catholics have done or may do for the defense or promotion of such liberty, it is still a fact that the tendency of the Roman Catholic system, the authority of those who wield the power in and by the church, and the actual influence of the church as an organized whole, have been decidedly and positively favorable to despotism in church and state, and unfavorable to freedom.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

POLITICAL AND SOCIAL POWER OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH.

THE simple fact that the adherents of the Roman Catholic church in this and other countries are so numerous, gives to that church great power in the world. Wherever Roman Catholics are increasing both in number and efficiency, there, of course, the power of that church is increasing; wherever they are increasing in number only, provided there is no decrease in the amount of zeal and activity, they may also be gaining in real power.

That a large part of the population of the United States consists of Roman Catholics, admits of no doubt. But this number is variously stated.* "The Catholic World" in Dec., 1870, speaks repeatedly of the "6,000,000 or 7,000,000 Catholics of the United States." The returns of population from the various archdioceses (marked "A."), dioceses ("D."), and vicariates apostolic ("V. A."), are given as follows in Sadliers' Catholic Directory for 1870 and 1871:

* For statistics of the Roman Catholic bishops and other clergy, see Chapter VII. Since that chapter, however, was put in type, another diocese (Plattsburg, taken from Albany) is reported in the State of New York. The statistics of monks, nuns, &c., are given in Chapter VIII.