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SLAVERY AND CATHOLICISM
BY
RICHARD ROSCOE MILLER, LL.B.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents
TABLE OF CONTENTS
REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER
DEDICATION
Dedicated
TO MY WIFE
LOUISE BENNETT MILLER
PREFACE
Some six years ago, the author was informed by a colored woman that she had left the church of her childhood, and of her parents, and had become a member of the Roman Catholic Church.
Upon inquiry as to the reason for such a radical change in her religious profession, she informed the author that it was due to the interest of the Catholic Church in the colored racethat other churches discriminated against colored people, while the Catholic Church treats everybody alike.
The woman stated that colored people were welcome to go to all Catholic churches, and that the church had shown its lack of prejudice by having several Negro popes.
These declarations came as a surprise to the author, and led to an investigation of the relationship of the Catholic Church to the Negro race. In the course of study of many religious faiths and practices, the author, perhaps, has been guilty, at times, of impatience with mens carelessness and perversities in the handling of the Scriptures, seeing in false systems of teaching, a snare for the feet of the unwary, by which Satan would bind mens minds in darkness and delusion, and has come to hate such apostasy, and yet he has in his heart only a real love for all his fellow men, seeking, as he does, to follow Christs admonition to even love your enemies. God hates sin, but loves sinners.
The author has a real desire to be a Christian, and to have a real love for all his fellow menseeing in each, as he does, a soul for whom Jesus died, whether he be of high estate or low, whether white or brown, or black or yellow or red, or whatever else might distinguish one from another.
It was not without a sense of the difficulty of the taskof the great amount of research involvedand finally of the very real hazards of the undertaking, as shall be understood increasingly by the reader of this volume as he studies its revelations, that the author launched upon the task of gathering the material for this book.
The author wishes to acknowledge his great debt to the libraries of Duke University, The University of North Carolina, North Carolina College, and some very fine Catholic libraries which kindly permitted access to their bookshelves.
In pursuing the desire to prove the seemingly incredible facts as being altogether true, and the work unbiased, the author has resorted to many old and altogether unimpeachable sources, which are generously quoted, and to the authors of which much appreciation is given.
If this volume shall serve to help some of Adams fallen race to avoid Satans masterpieces of deception, and shall succeed in pointing some soul to the Lord Jesus, the true and living Way, the author shall feel that his efforts shall not have been in vain.
THE AUTHOR
ILLUSTRATIONS
J. A. Healy, Bishop of Portland
J. A. Healy, Bishop of Portland
St. Bartholomews Medal
Popes Crest
Lash-scarred Back of a Slave
Right Reverend John England, D.D.
North Carolina Standard Advertisement, 1838
Work-House, Charleston
Work-House with Old Jail and Tower at Rear
Jail-Yard, Charleston
CHAPTER ONETHE CHURCH: FRIEND OR FOE OF THE NEGRO?
The year 1956 witnesses unparalleled activity all over the United States by the Catholic Church, for Negro converts.
This is as it should be, and as it should have been through the many centuries of that churchs long existence. And the Negro, understandably, is showing much response to this show of interest in him by this, the largest and richest, and most powerful, of all the churches professing the name of Jesus, the Nazarene.
It was the Negros inability to cope with the white mans weapons that made him a prey to all the avarice of the slave trader and slave holder in times past, and it is only fair that he should be able to know, and to evaluate for himself, the facts concerning the history of the Church of Rome as she has related herself to his race in the past.
In Ephesians 6:12, we read, For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. (or as the margin gives it, heavenly placesmeaning places of worship, or in the church itself.)
It is too true that many people go to church for worldly purposes. However, the thinking person, though having no faith, owes it to himself to inquire into the credibility of the Book that contains promises of eternal life, and to let his actions and life be controlled by his conclusions as to the dependability of those promises. Individual accountability is set forth in Ezekiel 14:14, They should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness.
The Bible speaks of the gift of this eternal life as salvation, or being saved,saved, that is, from eternal death which is the wages of sin, Romans 6:23. Ephesians 2:8 tells how: By grace are ye saved through faith. Romans 10:17 tells us how faith is acquired: Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
The word of God is the Bible, and not what some mere man,or some man who calls himself Godor some group of men, might declare it to be, whether they be a hundred in number, or a thousand, or a million, or five hundred million.
In Jesus day there was a church which God had establisheda big church,the Hebrew Church, the only church, and unto them were committed the oracles of God. Romans 3:2. The divisions in Christs day were within the one church: the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Herodians, and the Essenes, a kind of intensified Pharisees, etc.
Jesus found it necessary to warn the people against the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. Matthew 16:6. The 12 th verse explains that by leaven He spake of the doctrine of the Pharisees. Smiths Bible Dictionary says of them, Their influence was very great, ruling, beyond question, the Sanhedrin and all Jewish society, except the slight opposition of the Sadducees, even overawing the civil courts.
This should be ample warning to us not to be carried away with the antiquity, or the immensity or the learning, or the worldly power, of any church, but to test all things by the Word of God. See Isaiah 8:20To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.
