Devoted to the Propagation and Defense of New Testament Christianity
VOLUME 9
September 5, 1957
NUMBER 18, PAGE 3

The Papal Pageantry -- No. IV.

Luther W. Martin, St. James, Missouri

(Adapted from "The Giant Masquerade," a book written by Frank C. Raynor, and printed in Scotland in 1925.)

"Many things are asked from God, and are not granted; they are asked of Mary, and are obtained."

"Mary has only to speak and her Son performs all."

"He who is protected by Mary will be saved; he who is not will be lost."

"At the command of the Virgin all things obey, even God."

(The above quotations from the Roman Catholic, Alfonso de Liguori's book, Glories of Mary.)

The more the Latin Church flourished as an institution, the farther it got from its source. Like a river, the farther it flowed, the more turbid it became. The later centuries of the Latin Church as little resembled the New Testament Church from which it departed, as does the yellow stream of the Rhone those eternal snows amidst whose white virginity it is born.

Even though the Western Empire had fallen, over the following centuries the Latin Church began its ascendency. Patrick went to Ireland, and from thence the Latin doctrine was wafted through the forests of Germany, down the Rhine to Switzerland. Whole tribes were baptized by command of their chiefs and swept into the Latin Church, dripping, like retrievers from the fens, with the dark waters of heathenism. As they entered, the Latin Church was further defiled. It was conquest, not conversion; they became the Pope's men' . . . never `Christ's men.'

From the hills of Donegal to the Ganges roamed the messengers, and in the midst of this ever-growing web sat the bishop of Rome, claiming to hold the destiny of every soul in his hand. In her effort to 'convert' the barbarians, the Latin Church resorted to the method of appealing to the senses. Ceremonies with great pomp and splendour were augmented greatly at this period.

Pagan temples and feasts, reeking with heathen associations were boldly appropriated for what was called `Christian' purposes. Concessions were made to the war-lust of the Teuton. The gentle Saviour of mankind was depicted as a God of Battle. Myths, superstitions and the most infantile inventions of counterfeit 'sacred writings' were solemnly paraded before the simple Teuton, and these incredible puerilities became more of a basis for Latin doctrine than the Sermon on the Mount and the Golden Rule. Indeed the teaching of Christ and His inspired Apostles as recorded in the New Testament was almost lost beneath this ever-increasing mass of trash. The relic — a rag from the garment of a `saint;' a bit of the 'true' cross, a thorn from the 'actual' crown of our Saviour — or an image, took the place of the heathen idol or sacred tree. Saints are invoked precisely as were pagan gods: "If thou dost not perform what I request of thee, we will here burn for thee no more lamps, nor pay thee any honor at all." Gregory, Bishop of Tours, declared that the touch of the tomb of St. Martin could heal hemorrhages, lameness, and blindness, and banish sorrow from the heart.

One of the most remarkable instances of the influence of heathenism on Latin 'Christianity' is to be seen in monasticism. This movement had its origin in the dualistic view of the world brought into Europe from the East by the Pythagorean and Platonic philosophies. The `Christian' monks were only a feeble copy and caricature of the monks of Brahma, Buddha, and Serapis. The monks of Serapis had their matins and vespers with which to rouse the goddess or to lay her to rest. The whole of this gigantic growth, which was destined to spread over Europe like a fungus, not only had a heathen origin, but is contrary to the nature of man, as the terrible confessions of Anthony and Jerome, and the shocking immorality which haunted its houses, are sufficient to show; while it has no support as such from the New Testament.

The teachings of Christ could scarcely be found. The INSTITUTION took precedence over the word of God and had become the very antithesis of its early source. Superstition had woven its uncouth webs in the sanctuary and on the altar, and in the fetid air, vice and greed rioted in rank and jungle-like weeds, riving and tearing asunder the very stones of the tabernacle, like the giant growths which wrap about the temples of Bangkok. The lion, the jackal, and the panther, those symbolic beasts, make their lair where the devout were wont to pray.

"But the Spirit saith expressly, that in later times some shall fall away from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons, through the hypocrisy of men they speak lies, branded in their own conscience as with a hot iron; forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by them that believe and know the truth." (I Timothy 4:1-3.)