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all their opinions , morals , and dogmas , were heretical , being fbunded on the false basis of temporal power arid aggrandizement . The Christian religion , as at first instituted , had only a limited and incomplete organization , acknowledging the law of force , where it inculcated the rendering to Caesar that which belonged to Caesar , whilst new Christianity , in its perfection ,
ought to found all power , temporal as well as spiritual , on the law o ? brotherly love . The new system , as well as the old heretical ones , should have its moral code , its forms of worship , its dogmas , its clergy , its head ; but its morals must be considered as of the first importance , th 6 modes of faith and worship must be esteemed only as accessaries to fix the attention of the faithful on its moral principle .
The author then proceeds to review the Catholic and the Protestant ( Lutheran ) religions , to shew wherein they have deviated from and corrupted the truth . Four principal accusations are brought against the Pope . That the instruction given to the laity did not lead them to true Christianity . That the education of the priesthood was not such as to render them capable of directing their flocks in the right path ; theology , or the art of arguing on their dogmas , being alone cultivated , and in every other kind of knowledge the clergy being surpassed by the laity .
That in his civil government he pursued a system more injurious to the moral and physical interests of his poor subjects than any lay prince . As an instance of the corrupt ^ practices , he notices the fact of a baker being fined in Rome for selling bread too cheap , because most of the bakehouses belonged to some of the cardinals . That he established and protected the two institutions of the Jesuits and
the Inquisition . " The spirit of Christianity is mildness , goodness , charity , and , above all , sincerity ; its arms are persuasion and demonstration ; the spirit of the Inquisition is despotism and rapacity , its arms violence and cruelty ; the spirit of the society of Jesuits is egoisme , the exercise of universal dominion over clergy as well as laity , and its arms are secrecy and deception . "
The impulse given to civilization in the 15 th century , by the discovery of America and other causes , produced laymen of distinguished eminence in various branches of science and art ; the influence of commerce was more extensive , and the clergy no longer maintained that mental ascendancy which had long been the source of their influence . " The divine founder of Christianity had commanded his apostles to labour unceasingly , to elevate the lower classes of society , and to diminish the importance of those who were invested with the rights of power and legislation . Up to the 15 th
century the church followed this Christian direction ; almost all the cardinals , and all the popes had been taken from the plebeian ranks , and often from families pursuing the lowest avocations ; by this policy there was a constant tendency to diminish the importance of the aristocracy of birth , and to substitute that of talent . At the end of this century the system was altogether altered ; the spiritual power ceased to struggle with the temporal , it
no longer identified itself with the lower classes , but adopted for its object the preservation and enjoyment of the riches acquired by the labours of the church militant . For this purpose it made with potentates this impious compact : * We will employ all our influence to establish for you arbitrary power ; we will declare you kings by the grace of God , we will teach passive obedience , will establish the Inquisition and the Jesuits , which will secure the ascendancy of the rich over * the ^ Wkr ; and , in return for this treason
Untitled Article
86 French Sect qf Saint Simonites .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1831, page 86, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2594/page/14/
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