Popery

“ Therefore, in despair of dissuading the nobility and gentry of the land from introducing popery by any motives of honour, religion, alliance, or mercy, be assures them, That the pope has not duly confirmed their titles to the church lands in their possession; which therefore must be infallibly restored, as soon as that religion is established among us. ”

“ The following are his principal works, several of which have passed through numerous editions:
‘A Papist Misrepresented and Represented; or, a Two-fold Character of Popery; the one containing a sum of the superstitions of that Popery which ... deserves the hatred of all good Christians; the other laying open that Popery which the Papists own and profess; with the chief articles of their faith, and the principal grounds and reasons which attach them to it. ”

“ You ought to remember that there is a worse popery coming than ever existed in the church — the so-called scientific popery, which has become so successful that it dictates to us with more authority than religious popery. ”

“ So that the pope is evidently, according to the titles given him in the public decretals, The God upon earth; at least there is no one, like him, who exalteth himself above every god; no one, like him, who sitteth as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. The foundations of popery were laid in the apostle's days, but of which the superstructure was raised by degrees; and several ages passed before the building was completed, and the man of sin revealed in full perfection. ”

“ The good Protestant conviction, that the Pope is both Antichrist and the Whore of Babylon, is a more effectual preservative in this country against popery, than all the solid and unanswerable arguments of Chillingworth. ”

“ By this is appears that popery is still the same thing that ever it was, an enemy to the knowledge of the scriptures, and to the honour of divine grace. What reason have we to bless God that we have liberty to read the scriptures, and have helps to understand and improve them, which we are concerned diligently to make a good use of, that we may not provoke God to give us up into the hands of those powers that would use us in like manner! ”

“ But our argument is made by a great deal more strong, if yet further we consider, that by the controverted ceremonies, we are not only made like the idolatrous Papists, in such rites of man's devising as they place some religion in, but we are made likewise to take upon us those signs and symbols which Papists account to be special badges of Popery, and which also, in the account of many of our own reverend divines, are to be so thought of. ”

“ Defoe says, that there were a hundred thousand stout country-fellows in his time ready to fight to the death against popery, without knowing whether popery was a man or a horse. ”

“ Pulci here is holding up to ridicule and execration the horrid butchery or betrayal of friends by popish converts, and the encouragement they receive from the priest. No sooner is a person converted to popery than his principal thought is how he can bring the p. ”

“ II. That we shall in like manner, without respect of persons, endeavour the extirpation of Popery, Prelacy, (that is, church-government by Archbishops, Bishops, their Chancellors, and Commissaries, Deans, Deans and Chapters, Archdeacons, and all other ecclesiastical Officers depending on that hierarchy,) superstition, heresy, schism, profaneness, and whatsoever shall be found to be contrary to sound doctrine and the power of godliness, lest we partake in other men’s sins, and thereby be in danger to receive of their plagues ”

“ I am emperor now, and I want to be pope too; go down to the flounder.’
‘Alas! wife,’ said the fisherman, ‘what more do you want? You cannot be pope; there is only one pope in Christendom, and he cannot make you that.’
‘Husband,’ she said, ‘I will be pope. Go down quickly; I must be pope to-day.’
‘No, wife,’ said the fisherman; ‘I can’t ask him that. It is not right; it is too much. The flounder cannot make you pope.’
‘Husband, what nonsense!’ said his wife. ‘If he can make emperor, he can make pope too. Go down this instant; I am emperor and you are my husband. ”

“ And for popes, that supply the place of Christ, if they should endeavor to imitate His life, to wit His poverty, labor, doctrine, cross, and contempt of life, or should they consider what the name pope, that is father, or holiness, imports, who would live more disconsolate than themselves? ”

“ O my God, bless, sanctify, and protect the Pope, thy representative on earth; have mercy on the bishops, priests, and all who labour in thy vineyard; animate them with zeal for the salvation of souls, who are the purchase of thy blood; give them prudence, perseverance, humility, and patience; inflame their hearts with that ardent zeal which consumed thy holy apostles; render their lives as holy as the law they inculcate; make them all according to thy own divine heart; and let their light so shine before men, that they, seeing their good works, may glorify their Father who is in heaven. ”

“ I wrote thus in my treatise; 'If the pope be humble and meek, neglecting and despising the honours and lucre of the world; if he be a shepherd, taking his name by the feeding of the flock of God (of which feeding the Lord speaketh, saying. Feed my sheep) ; if he feed the sheep with the word, and with virtuous example, and become even like his flock with his whole heart and mind; if he do diligently and carefully labour and travail for the church, then is he, without doubt, the true vicar of Christ. ”

“ Peter’s. The Pope is represented as kneeling in prayer. The modelling of the entire figure is instinct with expression. The fine and beautiful hands express reverence and trust. The countenance is pervaded with that peace only known to the soul that is in complete harmony with the divine power. ”

“ You have driven your soul headlong into the abyss, because you would not humble yourself and bend your stubborn neck. When a pope is able by his teaching and admonition to bring the emperor of his time before God, guiltless and cleansed from all sin, he gains great glory from Him on the holy day of resurrection, when all our secrets and all our works are brought to light to our confusion in the presence of his angels. ”

“ The left hand was that of a man, signifying the worldly power of the pope, which grasped at universal empire over kings and princes. The right foot was that of an ox, signifying the spiritual ministers of the papacy, the doctors of the church, the preachers, confessors, and scholastic theologians, and especially the monks and nuns, those who aided and supported the pope in oppressing people’s bodies and souls. ”

“ The Pope is impressive, the Death is gentle and tender, the Religion, with her crown of gilded spikes for rays, and her clumsy cross, is a vision of bad taste, and the sleepy lions, when separated from what has been written about them, excite no interest. ”

“ About seventy persons were seated in rows, facing each other, along this gallery, nearly all laden with rosaries to be blessed by the Holy Father. We waited till my neck ached with looking up at the exquisite frescoes, fresh and tender in coloring as if new from the hand of the master, when the pope appeared, attended by a cardinal on each hand. We fell on our knees instantly, but not till I had seen an old man's face so sweet and venerable as to make this act of etiquette a spontaneous homage. ”

“ It is the pope, and the pope alone, who has caused the sap of Christian piety to circulate in the whole Catholic world, by the honors of the altars accorded to the saints of every land, and by those institutions which, originating in one country, belong to all countries, as powerful, in the realization of their vast aspirations, as zeal and charity themselves. ”

“ Here reigns a pope, self-nominated, self-consecrated,—ay, and much stranger too,—self-believing!—a pope whom, if you cannot obey him, I would advise you to disobey as silently as possible; a pope hitherto afraid of no Luther; a pope who manages his own inquisition, who punishes unbelievers as no most skilful inquisitor of Spain ever dreamt of doing;—one who can excommunicate thoroughly, fearfully, radically; put you beyond the pale of men's charity; make you odious to your dearest friends, and turn you into a monster to be pointed at by the finger! ”

“ It is certain that it is not in the power of the church or the pope to establish articles of faith, or laws for morals or good works * * * But I permit the pope to make articles of faith for himself and his faithful such as * * * the soul is the substantial form of the human body, the pope is emperor of the world, and the king of heaven and God upon earth; the soul is immortal, with all those monstrous opinions to be found in the Roman dung-hill of decretals.--Luther’s Works, Vol. ”

“ The clergy in divers places continue to pray for the pope.
"Right trusty and well-beloved cousin, we greet you well; and whereas it has come to our knowledge that sundry persons, as well religious as secular priests and curates in their parishes and in divers places within this our realm, do daily, as much as in them is, set forth and extol the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome, otherwise called the Pope; sowing their seditious, pestilent, and false doctrines; praying for him in the pulpit and making him a god; to the great deceit of our subjects, bringing them into errours and evil opinions ”

“ Maybe I appear presumptuous, but zeal and the duty I owe to Your Holiness so touch my conscience that I must speak thus openly and remind Your Holiness that all men are mortal, and that a Pope is what he wills to be; he cannot leave the Papacy as [Pg 308] a heritage and can only call his own the honours, the glory and the benefits, he gives to his family. ”

“ The shadow of the great Pope is upon those time-worn steps where he stood and blessed his brethren, with moisture in his eyes and joy in his heart, sending them forth upon the difficult and dangerous way which he had himself desired to tread, but from which their spirits shrank. We have all a sacred right to come back here, to share the blessing of the saint, to remember the constant affection he bore us, his dedication of himself had it been permitted, his never-ending thought of his angel boys which has come to such wonderful issues. ”

“ Pope, I charge none to his Poetical Capacity, but chiefly to his Ruling Passion, which is so much his Master, that we must allow, his inimitable Verse is generally warmest, where his too fond Indulgence of that Passion inspires it. How much brighter still might that Genius shine, could it be equally inspired by Good-nature! ”

“ The title pope, once used with far greater latitude (see below, section V) , is at present employed solely to denote the Bishop of Rome, who, in virtue of his position as successor of St. Peter, is the chief pastor of the whole Church, the Vicar of Christ upon earth.
Besides the bishopric of the Roman Diocese, certain other dignities are held by the pope as well as the supreme and universal pastorate: he is Archbishop of the Roman Province, Primate of Italy and the adjacent islands, and sole Patriarch of the Western Church. ”

“ The Pope, or Supreme Pontiff, is the vicar of our Lord on earth, his representative—the representative not only of him who is our invisible High-Priest, but of him who is King of kings and Lord of lords, therefore of both the priestly and the kingly power. ”

“ To this errand the pope answered thus, "If it is allowed to men to hallow the church which the archangel himself constructed, then the hallowing ought to be on the day on which, through the grace of the Almighty, he gave you victory. ”

“ This ceremony over, the candles are lighted, the pope is mounted in his chair and carried in procession, with hymns chaunting, round the antichapel; the throne is stripped of its splendid hangings; the pope and cardinals take off their gold and crimson dresses, put on their ordinary robes, and the usual mass of the morning is sung. ”

“ I confess and believe, that the Pope is Christ’s vicar, and has full power to forgive the sins of all mankind, according to his own will and pleasure, either to save, to let them perish, or to excommunicate them, if he thinks fit. ”

“ The lines of Pope that I have quoted elsewhere dwell truthfully enough upon life's endless playing,—upon the playing of the child with straws and rattles, of the young man with his mistresses, of the mature with wealth and worldly honors, and of the aged with rosaries and prayer-books. ”

“ The ideal of the Papacy was perhaps the noblest which has ever entered into the heart of man to conceive. According to it, the Pope was to be the High Priest of God and Vicar of Christ, higher than the kings of the earth. ”

“ Six of the Swiss guard (representing the six Catholic canons) walked near the Pope, with drawn swords on their shoulders, and after his chair followed a troop of civil officers, whose appointments I did not think it worth while to enquire. The procession stopped when the Pope was opposite the "chapel of the holy sacrament," and his Holiness descended. The tiara was lifted from his head by a cardinal, and he knelt upon a cushion of velvet and gold to adore the "sacred host," which was exposed upon the altar. ”

“ This pope enjoined that on the day of dedication, or the birthday of holy martyrs, whose relics are there placed, the people should make to themselves booths of the boughs of trees, round about those very churches which had been the temples of idols, and should observe a religious feast; that beasts be no longer sacrificed to the devil, but for eating, and for God’s glory; that when the people were satisfied, they should return thanks to the Giver of all good things. ”

“ Is the Pope possessor of supreme and universal authority over the whole of the Christian Church, is the Pope the Vicar of Christ: are questions of the greatest moment to all believers in Christianity. ”