Experimental investigation of the spirit manifestations, [electronic ...

ON THE MORALS OP CHRTSTIANS. 253altliougli tlic reader should not be enabled to form an ojjitiion directly, bya perusal of the details, fortunately I am enabled to submit tliat of theright reverend prelate by •\vhoni they liavc been compiled.loOG. The fact deserves attention, that for more than a thousand years,of all the upper classes of society the Christian clergy were pre-eminentlywicked, frequent complaints having been made against them by the laity,notwithstanding the cruelpersecution to which complainants were liable.The popes were generally as prominent in wickedness as high in officialdistinction. The summing up of j^ishop Hopkins, which I subjoin, fullyconfirms the impression which I have endeavoured to convey :1307. " I have now gone over the history of your church, with thesingle aim of proving, from your own records, the rise, progress, and terribleextent of its corruption, up to the close of the sixteenth century.Here wc see that for a period of seven centuries together there had beena constant outcry for reformation ; that the popes and priesthood were theobjects of continual complaint on the part of the laity;that by their ownacknowledgment, although the church was never destitute of true Christians,yet holiness was the exception, and iniquity the rule, since thegreat body of the clergy were steeped in licentiousness, avarice, simony,cruelt3', violence, falsehood, and blood ; that the University of Paris, oneof your most famous nurseries of theologicaleducation, was infested withan infidel philosophy, and with habits of libertine sacrilege ;that the boastsof absolute atheism were heard from the lips of pontifis and cardinals;that the reliance of your church was in the terrors of the inquisition, inthe rack, the dungeon, and the stake;that war, and treachery, and assassination,were patronized in the service of religon ; that bishops, and cardinals,and popes, were ready to lead their troops to battle ;constant revolts and rebellions againstthat there werethe tyranny of the priestly power;that there were many schisms in the papal kingdom, in which two or threepretenders to infallibility cursed each other at the same time, in the nameof God and his apostles ; and that every effort to banish these horribleiniquities proved utterly abortive, until the success of the Protestant reformationcompelled them to respect public opinion, by fear for their verybeing ifthey continued to brave it any longer."1308. It is believed that there was no such wickedness among the paganpriesthood as to have become a cause of complaint, although far lesspower existed to silence accusation. Throughout Christendom even monarchswere made to sufi"er severely for their remonstrances against papaltyranny, and had to make concessions after having been ill-treated. ]3yway of exemplif^^ing his disrespect for those precepts of Christ which enjoinhumility, meekness, and poorness of spirit as the means of reachingheaven. Pope Celestin kicked the crown from the head of the emperor,Henry VII., as this potentate knelt before him. Could any sane manhave done this while believing that Christ's allegations were to be verified.