572
The Great Controversy 1888
to Constantine the Great, ordered the solemnity of Easter to be kept
everywhere on the same day, after the custom of Rome.” [Bower’s
History of the Popes, Vol. 1, pp. 18, 19.
] This decree, “backed by
the authority of so great an emperor,” was decisive; “none but some
scattered schismatics, now and then appearing, that durst oppose the
resolution of that famous synod.” [
Hevlyn, History of the Sabbath, part
2, chap. 2, secs. 4, 5.
]
Note 10. Page 565—There is no more remarkable movement of
the present day, and no one fraught with more vital consequences to
men and nations, than the rapidly reviving influence of the papacy in
national affairs. The papacy is fast moving into the place of the greatest
influence of any earthly organization. In Europe, to say nothing of
Catholic countries, which, as a matter of course, are subject to the
pope, Chancellor Bismarck has made Germany virtually subject to the
dictation of the papacy; England has invited the interference of the
pope in her political affairs in the contest with Ireland; and even the
[687]
Czar of Russia has shown himself willing to make overtures to the
papacy. On the occasion of the golden jubilee of the priesthood of Leo
XIII., it is well known that, except the kingdom of Italy and the United
Kingdoms of Sweden and Norway, every nation, Protestant as well as
Catholic, paid grateful respect to Rome.
If any nation might justly be expected to keep clear of Romish
influences, the United States of America should be the one above all
others, as it is constitutionally pledged to have nothing at all to do
toward “an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise
thereof.” Yet this nation is in nowise behind the others in paying
assiduous court to Rome. When the papal delegates came to America
bearing to Cardinal Gibbons the trappings of his Romish dignity, a
government vessel was dispatched down New York Harbor to meet
them, with the papal flag, instead of the stars and stripes, flying from
the place of honor. And at the investiture of Cardinal Gibbons with
the purple of a papal prince, President Cleveland sent him a letter of
congratulation. The Converted Catholic says that a larger number of
senators and representatives send their sons to the Jesuit College at
Georgetown—one of the suburbs of the national capital—than to all
the other institutions of learning at Washington, which proves either
that the larger number of senators and representatives are Catholics, or
that rome has more influence with senators and representatives than