effectual belief in the imposture. Mr. Abbot closes this chapter by saying:

I have no hesitation in saying that the priests in Mexico (1869) are the lowest order of pretended intellectual beings I ever saw, and the stories of their personal conduct will not bear repeating. The Mexican church always has been, and so long as it exists always will be, the great element of evil in Mexico, and there will be no peace, prosperity, or progress in the country until this church is overthrown and totally destroyed, root and branch.

The idolatrous character of Mexican Catholicism is well known to all travelers. The worship of saints and madonnas so absorbs the devotion of the people that little time is left to think about God. Religious ceremonies are performed with the most lamentable indifference and want of decorum. It would require volumes to relate the Indian superstitions of an idolatrous character which exist to this day. One of the greatest evils is the exorbitant fee for the marriage ceremony. The priests compel the poor to live without marriage, by demanding for nuptial benediction a sum that a mechanic can scarcely accumulate in fifty years. The consequences are as lamentable to public morality as to religion. The Roman Church, so called, is a system of unutterable ignorance, superstition, and imposture, of intolerable despotism, of organized and systematic outrage of the rights of man, which has overshadowed the nations for centuries. The conflicts, revolutions, and civil wars for centuries have all had resistance to ecclesiastical tyranny at the bottom. The church party rest their pretensions and claims on the authority of church traditions, and decrees of the Council of Trent. The church says " civil government "is only the subordinate department of government, the people are subject to a higher sovereign than the state. When the real sovereign commands, it is our duty to resist the civil ruler and to overthrow,

if need be, the civil government. It belongs to the church to determine when resistance is proper and to prescribe its form and extent.

The pope, therefore, is the universal sovereign, invested with all power over the whole earth. All political, ecclesiastical, legislative, judicial, and executive powers are his prerogatives. Privileges, dispensations, prohibitions, interdicts are his. He grants or forbids freedom of opinion, conscience, speech, and the press. He forgives or punishes; bishops and priests are of his creation. He binds and dissolves the marriage tie. The keys of heaven and hell are in his hands, and he opens and closes the gates at his will. Such is the religious system, the very foundations of which are laid in despotism of the most revolting forms, the fruits of which have been ignorance, superstition, degradation, and vice. In Mexico under Spanish rule not only three fifths of the cities were occupied with convents and churches, but there were convents which occupied a large part of the city, but the ecclesiastics, after making the vow of poverty, live a lie in the midst of abundance and comfort. In the late revolutions the Mexicans took over two hundred million dollars in gold, silver, and precious stones, which the Spaniards had accumulated in their churches. The clergy have very little education. Divinity is only a pretext and motive of action, with charity and humility as a screen to hide their lust for greed and power, and who make an infamous traffic of religion. Nevertheless, there are some good priests whose conduct is irreproachable. The absurd, impotent, and impertinent attempt of the pope to impose on the people of our country the pretensions of a thousand years ago, and who promulgates as legislation binding on fifteen hundred millions of the human race the repudiated dogmas of a packed council of 247 men three centuries ago. But such is the case. Our people should know the past and present history of this organization in its efforts for money and power. The two

mendicant orders, Dominican and Franciscan, instituted in A.D. 1212, and now in existence in our country, were engaged in the work of extirpating the enemies of the papal supremacy. Their influence was absolute in church and state, occupied the most prominent positions, political and diplomatic, and the most abject champions of the pretensions of the Roman pontiff. Kings, bishops, and the whole world trembled before them, a towering system of corrupted Christianity, of intolerable despotism, of organized and systematic outrage of the rights of man. It is in vain to close our eyes against the secret designs and plottings of this so-called church. They can neither be cloaked nor concealed, and must be more completely known that we may be on our guard.

At this writing, 1909, in Mexico, there is complete separation of church and state, free exercise of religious services. The state gives no official recognition of any religious festivals save the Sabbath as a day of rest, and religious services to be held only within the place of worship.

Under provisions of the constitution other laws of reform were also issued by the secretary of state, viz., the use of church bells is restricted to calling the people to religious work. Religious processions are forbidden in the streets. Clerical vestments are forbidden in the streets. Pulpit discourses advising disobedience to the law or injury to any one are strictly forbidden. The state does not recognize monastic orders nor permit their establishment. The association of sisters of charity is suppressed in the republic. Jesuits are expelled, and may not return. Matrimony is a civil contract and to be duly registered. The religious service may be added. No one can sign away their liberty

by contract or religious vow. Cemeteries are under civil inspection and open for the burial of all classes and creeds. Education in the public schools is free and compulsory. As Mexico after suffering for three centuries under the Roman Catholic Church yoke found it necessary for self protection to issue the above laws of reform, it would seem advisable the governors of our states should send representatives to Mexico to ascertain what the church authorities did that made the enactment of such laws an imperative necessity; and if the information prove of value, to further enquire why the opposite of such laws are virtually in force in our country, and whether the same are beneficial and for the best interests of the republic, that our people be more fully informed on these matters which it is likely they will soon be called upon to face, whether they will or no. Also whether idols of gold, silver, and copper should be melted down; that fasts, abstinence from meat, and auricular confession should be abolished; and that the government should decree, declaring all church laws, bulls, and rescripts from the court of Rome, or any other power claiming sovereignty, void in the United States, unless sanctioned and formally adopted by the government. And further, what, if anything, religion has to do with the above, and how far any religious or other association shall be allowed to meddle or interfere with the domestic laws of the state, or set itself up as an independent sovereign within its limits, across which limits the state has no jurisdiction and may not go.

C

MEMOIRS OF TALLEYRAND

HARLES MAURICE TALLEYRAND DE PERIGORD, the accredited author of the annexed letter to Pope Pius VII, was born at Paris, March 7, 1754. Descended from one of the most ancient families of France, and whose political career is unequaled in the annals of history. In his twenty-sixth year he was nominated agent general of the clergy, and in spite of royal opposition was Bishop of Autun at the age of thirty-four. Among the other ceremonies of the day of federation he administered to the representatives of the people a new oath of fidelity to the nation, the king, and the law. He also consecrated the constitutional bishops in the Church of Notre Dame, a step which brought forth a monition from the pope, complaining loudly against him as an impious wretch who had imposed his sacrilegious hands on intruding clergymen," and declaring him excommunicated, unless he recanted his error within forty days. Upon this he resigned his bishopric and directed his whole attention to secular affairs.

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