Freemasonry & Israelitism.

ever , produced their natural results , and the princes of the empire , ecclesiastical as well as secular , in a diet held at Frankfort , established the famous constitution by which it was irrevocably decreed that the

plurality of the suffrages of the electoral college was sufficient , without the sanction of the Pope , for the settlement of the imperial dignity ; that the Pope had no superiority over the Emperor , nor any right

to approve or reject his election ; and that to maintain the contrary was high treason . The claim of the Popes to the government of the empire , during a vacancy , was disallowed , and the right declared to belong ,

by ancient custom , to the Count Palatine of the Rhine . The contest was renewed by succeeding Popes , but they were always , eventually , baffled . Their pretensions , however , were not circumscribed by the tilings

of this life . They not only claimed the power of disposing of crowns , and of releasing nations from their oaths of allegiance , but of absolving individuals from the obligation of moral duties . They assumed and

exercised the power of pardoning all ofTences and crimes ; and , by the sale of indulgences , and of plenary pardons , assumed , not only to remit the sins of the living , but to release the dead from the pains of purgatory . The

revolting profanity of openly selling these indulgences , in the alehouse and the marketplace , to even the vilest of the rabble , avowedly to raise a revenue for the papacy , produced a deep impression and a burning

indignation in men s minds , and Luther ' s indignant and fervent denunciations awakened the slumbering spirit of not only the Germans but of the nations throughout Europe . In England , the labours of Wycliffe and his

followers had long been preparing the public mind for a revolt against the usurpations of the papacy . The Bible had been read in the vernacular tongue , and this branch of the great Saxon family hailed the progress

of the Reformation amongst their kinsmen in Germany , Switzerland , Sweden , Denmark , Norway , & c . While the people and their rulers were pressing towards the light , the Reformers were striving to produce a

general revival , and to penetrate the whole mass withtheprinciples of Christianity . The struggle with the papacy was no slight one . The strife was hard , but the glory was great . The Reformation had on its side many

prayers , the sympathy of the people , and the rising influence of mind , which no power could arrest . The Papacy had in its favour the ancient order of things , the power of old customs , the zeal and hatred of formidable

princes , and the power of that great emperor whose dominion extended over two worlds . At a critical juncture , the Pope ( Clement VII . ) , seized with a strong infatuation , turned against the Empcror . and

threatened him with excommunication . The result was , that Charles abruptly turned towards the Protestant princes , Mahomet himself having come to their aid by the invasion of Hungary ; and , as Daubigny observes , "the

puissant Charles , instead of marching with the Pope against the Reformation , as he had threatened at Seville , marched with the Reformation against the Pope . " He addressed a manifesto to the people , in which

he reproached the Pope for not behaving like the Father of the Faithful , but like an insolent and haughty man ; and declared his astonishment that he , Christ ' s vicar , should dare to shed blood , to acquire earthly

possessions , which was quite contrary to the evangelical doctrine . During these transactions in Germany , the dawn of truth rose lipon other Saxon nations . I have already referred to England , which had been prepared to receive it , Henry VIII . was the

Freemasonry & Israelitism.

instrument by which the first great blow was struck against Rome . He had previously so resolutely opposed the •doctrines of the great Reformer , that he received from the Pope the honorary title of "Defender of the

Faith . " A quarrel of the king with the Pope , however , touching his desired divorce from Queen Kathcrine , and his marriage with Anne Boleyn , induced him to renounce the jurisdiction and supremacy of the

Pontiff , and the Parliament , who , with the people generally , had become impatient of the foreign yoke , declared the king supreme head on earth of the Church of England . The monasteries were suppressed and their

revenues seized , and the power and authority of the Pope were abrogated and overturned . This deposition of the papal power , Jiowever , was of but little benefit to the nation , or to the progress of the

Reformation , Henry , self-willed and capricious , regarded himself as the religious centre of his subjects , and prescribed modes of faith according to his fancy . During his life and reign the face of religion was constantly

changing , according to his caprice and unsteady character . During the short reign of his son and successor , Edward VI ., some efforts were put forth , and some progress was made towards relieving the nation from

many of the absurd fictions and debasing ceremonies which Henry had retained ; but after his death , his sister , Mary , who was a fierce bigot , despotic and cruel , imposed anew upon the country the arbitrary laws

and tyrannical yoke of Rome . Barbarous tortures , and death , in the most shocking forms , awaited those who opposed the sovereign will , and it was not until

Elizabeth ascended the throne that the despotic yoke of papal authority was broken down , and the nation delivered from the bondage of Rome .

The Reformation , thus triumphant in Germany and England , spread itself far and wide , and almost all the European states welcomed its salutary beams and exulted in the prospect of an approaching deliverance from the yoke of despotism .

T . litis , we have seen that , while the-world , cast and west , was being brought into bondage , its intellect blighted or dwarfed , and its religious aspirations perverted into a corrupting and debasing channel , by the

ambitious and despotic machinations of a power which , assuming to be Christian and apostolic , was intent upon the acquisition of worldly power and wealth ; and by the equally-ambitious and despotic , but more

coarse , gross , sensual , and hebetating system of Mahomet—at a time when it might be truly said , " Darkness covered the earth , andgrossdarkness the minds of the people " —the Saxon nations were being prepared

to combat these mighty and mischievous powers , and again to become instruments of deliverance and a means of light to the nations . It had been said , ages previously , " Thou art my servant . . . O Israel ,

in whom I will be glorified " ( Isa . xlix . 3 ) . "Shall the spoil be taken from the mighty , or the prey seized from the terrible be rescued ? Yea , thus saith the Lord , even

the prey of the might } - shall be retaken , and the spoil seized by the terrible shall be rescued ; for with those who contend with thee I will contend , and thy children I will deliver . . . and all flesh shall know

that I , the Lord , am thy Saviour , and that thy Redeemer is the Mighty One of Jacob " ( ver . 25 , 26 ) . The deliverance was not to come from the Celtic , but from the Saxon

race—the descendants of Israel , to whom were the promises . These were to deliver the spoil and the prey from the mightyand the terrible ; and from the midst of them

Freemasonry & Israelitism.

was to break forth " a strong light ; " and " her salvation like a blazing torch : and the nations shall see thy righteousness , and

all the kings thy glory ; and thou shalt be called ' by a new name , which the mouth of the Lord shall put upon thee . " [ Protestants ?]

A power like that of the Papacy , which aims to exercise a direct spiritual , and an indirect—when a direct is impracticabletemporal supremacy throughout the world , though it may often be checked , and

sometimes prostrated , will never yield , while there are even faint hopes of recovery . The Reformation having deprived it of a large number of its subjects , and greatly abridged its powers , a new instrumentality was

employed to bring back its lost subjects , and revive and extend its dominion . The Society of Jesus , originated by Ignatius Loyola , in 1534 , was adopted by Pope Paul III . ; and the Jesuits soon became the

active and unscrupulous emissaries of the Papal power , throughout Europe . The intrigues and the plots against kings and governments which they originated in difte ^ rent countries , exposed them , every now

and then , to the resentment of the civil powers . They were banished from several kingdoms , but they pursued their work with an energy and amidst multifarious difficulties which must always excite

admiration , if not wonder . But the complaints against them became , at length , so loud and general , that Clement XIV . appointed a Commission of Inquiry ; and , in 1773 , he abolished the Order . They were too useful

a body , however , to be thus set aside , and , in 1 S 14 , they were re-established by Pius VII . The present Pope , Pius IX ., threw himself into their arms , and became fascinated with their ambitious design of

realizing the fond dream of the most aspiring of the Popes , which was nothing less than the spiritual domination of the successors of St . Peter , and to bring the civil powers of all

Europe into subjection to them . This was to be accomplished by the CEcumenical Council of 1 S 70 , which claimed for the Papacy the highest ecclesiastical and political supremacy that was ever claimed , even

in the palmiest days of pontifical dominion . But as the Saxons resisted the usurpations and pernicious doctrines and practices of the Papacy in the sixteenth century , so do they seem likely to successfully resist and

humble it in the nineteenth century . The novel and monstrous doctrine of the Pope ' s infallibility , declared and promulgated by the Council , produced ashock in the Roman Catholic Church , which already threatens

more mischief to Rome than any occurrence . since the days of Luther . The inordinate pretensions , spiritual and temporal , which menaced everything like liberty , not only of action , but of speech and thought ,

beyond the sacred limits of the Vatican , has created great consternation amongst the more enlightened and independent members of the hierarchy , as well as of the laity ; and now , as in the sixteenth century , a

flame has been kindled in Germany which bids fair to consume many of the gross abuses which have again been introduced into the church , and were fast extinguishing the light of Divine truth therein . The

excommunication of Dr . Dollinger aroused the churches , and 500 professors , priests , and laymen assembled at Munich in solemn congress , to uphold their independence against the aggressions of the Papacy .

Already , ecclesiastical censures have been set at nought ; and in spite of them , priests have ministered , congregations accepting their services . The rubicon once passed , the necessity grows in area and intensity .