POPERY

(See Church of Rome , Council of Trent , Romanism .) By Popery we mean the peculiar system of doctrine, by adopting which the Church of Rome separates herself from the rest of the Catholic Church, and is involved in the guilt of schism. The Church of Rome, or Popery, has departed from the apostles’ doctrine, by requiring all who communicate with her to believe, as nece ary to salvation, 1st, That that man is accursed who does not ki , and honour, and worship the holy images. 2nd, That the Virgin Mary and other saints are to be prayed to. 3rd, That, after consecration in the Lord’s supper, the bread is no longer bread, and the wine no longer wine. 4th, That the clergyman should be excommunicated who, in the sacrament of the Lord’s supper, gives the cup to the people. 5th, That they are accursed who say that the clergy may marry. 6th, That there is a purgatory; that is, a place where souls which had died in repentance are purified by suffering. 7th, That the Church of Rome is the mother and mistre of all churches. 8th, That obedience is due from all Churches to the bishop of Rome. 9th, That they are accursed who deny that there are seven sacraments. From those doctrines, contrary to Scripture and the primitive Church, have resulted these evil practices. From the veneration of images has sprung the actual worship of them. The invocation of the Ble ed Virgin, and of other saints, has given rise to the greatest blasphemy and profanene . The bread in the eucharist has been worshipped as though itself were the eternal God . From the doctrine of purgatory has sprung that of indulgences, and the practice of persons paying sums of money to the Romish bishops and clergy, to release the souls of their friends from the fabulous fire of purgatory. Popery is a corrupt addition to the truth, and we can give the very dates of the several corruptions. Attrition , as distinguished from contrition, was first pronounced to be sufficient. The priest’s right intention was first pronounced to be indispensable to the valid participation of the sacraments, and Judicial absolution was first publicly authorized, by the Council of Trent, A. D. 1551. Auricular confe ion was first enjoined by Innocent III., at the fourth Council of Later an, A. D. 1215. Apocrypha received as canonical first at the Council of Trent, A. D. 1547. Compulsory celibacy of the clergy , first enjoined publicly at the first Council of Later an, A. D. 1123. Communion in one kind only , first authoritatively sanctioned by the Council of Con stance, A. D. 1414. Use of images and relics in religious worship, first publicly affirmed and sanctioned in the second Council of Nice, A. D. 787. Invocation of saints , first taught with authority by the fourth Council of Constantinople, A. D. 754. Papal infallibility was utterly unknown to the third Council of Constantinople, A. D. 680. Papal supremacy , first publicly a erted by the fourth Council of Later an, A. D. 1215. Prayers in a foreign tongue , first deliberately sanctioned by the Council of Trent, were expre ly forbidden by the fourth Council of Later an, A. D. 1215. Purgatory and indulgences , first set forth by the Council of Florence, A. D. 1438. The Roman number of the sacraments was first taught by the Council of Trent, A. D. 1545. Transubstantiation was first publicly insisted on by the fourth Council of Later an, A. D. 1215.