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R. W. Thompson.
THE
Footprints of the Jesuits.
BY
R. W. THOMPSON,
Ex-Secretary of the Navy, and Author of "The Papacyand the Civil Power."
"It was very difficult, not to say impossible, that the Churchcould recover a firm or durable peace so long as the said societyexisted."—Pope Clement XIV.
"The Jesuits, by their very calling, by the very essence oftheir institution, are bound to seek, by every means, right orwrong, the destruction of Protestantism. This is the conditionof their existence, the duty they must fulfill, or cease to beJesuits."—Nicolini, of Rome.
CINCINNATI: CRANSTON & CURTS.
NEW YORK: HUNT & EATON.
1894.
COPYRIGHT
BY CRANSTON & CURTS,
1894.
PREFACE.
The civil institutions of the United States could not havebeen formed without the separation of Church and State, and could notcontinue to exist if they were again united. Christianity could notmaintain its primitive purity if politics and religious faith weremingled together; nor could the State preserve its capacity to providefor the general welfare if subjected to the dominion of ecclesiasticalauthority. Our success as a nation is mainly attributable to the factthat these sentiments are deeply imbedded in the American mind.
A party pledged to restore to the pope the temporal powerwhich the Italian people have taken away, must necessarily bepolitico-religious in character, because it proposes to interferewith the temporal affairs of one of the European nations. And if theattempt to do this is justified upon the ground that such restorationinvolves religious duty, any one can see that the obligation is thesame in the United States as in Italy, for the laws of God do not shiftto suit the exigencies of human affairs.
In the times before the Reformation the temporal affairs of Governmentswere required to conform to the commands of the ecclesiasticalauthority—that is, the pope—and it was held to be a necessary andessential part of religion that this union should be continued, nomatter what might be the degree of popular ignorance and humiliation.The founders of our Government started out upon a different theory,believing it to be[Pg 4] their duty to separate "the things of God" from"t