Page:One Link in the Chain of Apostolic Succesion; or, The Crimes of Alexander Borgia (1854).djvu/15

VI Standing thus upon the shores of the present, and looking back to what have been the achievements of Jesuitical cunning and power, the mind cannot grasp at anything that seems too bold and hazardous for the emissaries of the church of Rome to accomplish. Emerging from the gloom and desolation of the dark ages,—that period when a mental night seemed about to enclose all mankind as in one living grave,—the principles of Catholicism have gone on spreading and increasing for centuries, though always directly antagonistical to civilization, enlightenment, the elevation of the masses, and civil and political liberty. These principles find their vitality in the cunning and steady perseverance of an overwhelming priesthood, whose every action is governed by a desire to swell the resources of "the church," and make all means subservient to this single end. They have planted their banner upon nearly every portion of the globe,—always establishing it in blood, and sustaining it in tyranny and oppression,—and wherever their sway predominates, there will the people be found existing under a curse like that of Cain! Spain, Mexico, the greater portion of South America, and even Rome itself, are all living examples of the deadly evils that are born of Papal supremacy. Ignorance, superstition, and inertness, are the leading characteristics of a people ruled by the priesthood; and hence their value to themselves and their God is lost in the bonds of servility that strip them of their manhood, and make them but automatons that are entirely subject to their master minds—the Jesuits!

But by such means—the exercise of the assuming knowledge of the few over the submissive ignorance of the many—has the church of Rome built up a mine that any instant threatens to destroy all things antagonistic to itself. It has attained an influence as mighty and universal as it will one day be deadly, should circumstances ever warrant it safety and success in throwing off the mask of secretness and inertness