ness than ever before. As Rome asserts that the church "_never
erred_; nor will it, according to the Scriptures, _ever err_,"(1000) how
can she renounce the principles which governed her course in past ages?

The papal church will never relinquish her claim to infallibility. All
that she has done in her persecution of those who reject her dogmas, she
holds to be right; and would she not repeat the same acts, should the
opportunity be presented? Let the restraints now imposed by secular
governments be removed, and Rome be re-instated in her former power, and
there would speedily be a revival of her tyranny and persecution.

A well-known writer speaks thus of the attitude of the papal hierarchy as
regards freedom of conscience, and of the perils which especially threaten
the United States from the success of her policy:

"There are many who are disposed to attribute any fear of Roman
Catholicism in the United States to bigotry or childishness. Such see
nothing in the character and attitude of Romanism that is hostile to our
free institutions, or find nothing portentous in its growth. Let us, then,
first compare some of the fundamental principles of our government with
those of the Catholic Church.

"The Constitution of the United States guarantees _liberty of conscience_.
Nothing is dearer or more fundamental. Pope Pius IX., in his Encyclical
Letter of August 15, 1854, said: 'The absurd and erroneous doctrines or
ravings in defense of liberty of conscience, are a most pestilential
error--a pest, of all others, most to be dreaded in a State.' The same
pope, in his Encyclical Letter of December 8, 1864, anathematized 'those
who assert the liberty of conscience science and of religious worship,'
also 'all such as maintain that the church may not employ force.'

"The pacific tone of Rome in the United States does not imply a change of
heart. She is tolerant where she is helpless. Says Bishop O'Connor:
'Religious liberty is merely endured until the opposite can be carried
into effect without peril to the Catholic world.'... The archbishop of St.
Louis once said: 'Heresy and unbelief are crimes; and in Christian
countries, as in Italy and Spain, for instance, where all the people are
Catholics, and where the Catholic religion is an essential part of the law
of the land, they are punished as other crimes.'...

"Every cardinal, archbishop, and bishop in the Catholic Church takes an
oath of allegiance to the pope, in which occ