Mangasarian - How the Bible Was Invented

Many good people believe that the Bible was given by inspiration of God. The wording of my subject suggests that it is the work of men, and not always of honest men, either. Am I trying to offend people by intimating that the Bible was invented? On the contrary, I am exposing myself to criticism by telling these good people the truth about the Bible, which their own preachers, for some reason or other, have withheld from them. One of the texts in the Bible, attributed to Jesus, says that, It were better for a man to have a millstone tied about his neck, and he were cast into the sea, than that he should offend, that is to say, unsettle the faith of, "one of these little ones." According to this saying of Jesus, a man must keep his questionings and his doubts to himself. He shall not talk where he is liable to upset the faith of some believing soul, some aged mother, some Sunday-school lad or lassie. The man who will go about disturbing people's religious peace, deserves to be drowned with a millstone about his neck ! What is your opinion of such a suggestion?

34 Pages
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Jeffery Peter - The Secret Gospel of Mark Unveiled

In 1958, Bible scholar Morton Smith announced the discovery of a sensational manuscript–a second-century letter written by St. Clement of Alexandria, who quotes an unknown, longer version of the Gospel of Mark. When Smith published the letter in 1973, he set off a firestorm of controversy that has raged ever since. Is the text authentic, or a hoax? Is Smith’s interpretation correct? Did Jesus really practice magic, or homosexuality? And if the letter is a forgery . . . why? Through close examination of the “discovered” manuscript’s text, Peter Jeffery unravels the answers to the mystery and tells the tragic tale of an estranged Episcopalian priest who forged an ancient gospel and fooled many of the best biblical scholars of his time. Jeffery shows convincingly that Smith’s Secret Gospel is steeped in anachronisms and that its construction was influenced by Oscar Wilde’s Salomé, twentieth-century misunderstandings of early Christian liturgy, and Smith’s personal struggles with Christian sexual morality.


353 Pages
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Janus - The Pope and the Council

Preface:

THE immediate object of this work is to investigate by the light of history those questions which, we are credibly iniormed, are to be decided at the Ecumenical Council already announced. And as we have endeavoured to fulfil this task by direct reference to original authorities, it is not perhaps too much to hope that our labours will attract attention in scientific circles, and serve as a contribution to Ecclesiastical History. But this work aims also at something more than the mere calm and aimless exhibition of historical events ; the reader will readily perceive that it has a far wider scope, and deals with ecclesiastical politics, in one word, that it is a pleading for very life, an appeal to the thinkers among believing Christians, a protest based on history against a menacing future, against the programme of a powerful coalition, at one time openly proclaimed, at another more darkly insinuated, and which thousands of busy hands are daily and hourly employed in carrying out. We have written under a deep sense of anxiety in presence of a serious danger, threatening primarily the internal condition of the Catholic Church, and then as is inevitable with what affects a corporation including 180 millions of men—destined to assume vaster dimensions, and take the shape of a great social problem, which cannot be without its influence on ecclesiastical communities and nations outside the Catholic Church.

464 Pages
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Horne, Thomas - Romanism Contradictory to Bible

Preface:

VARIOUS efforts have, of late, been made, to persuade BRITISH PROTESTANTS, that the peculiar tenets of the Church of Rome are not so obnoxious as their forefathers at the Reformation believed, and as the venerable compilers of the Liturgy, Articles, and Homilies of the Church of England, not only believed but asserted. Unhappily for the professors of these liberal opinions, the Romish Church remains the SAME. She has NOT retracted a single iota of the unscriptural and anti-scriptural doctrines and practices, sanctioned by the assembly called the Council of Trent, and which, in the Creed of Pope Pius IV., are made necessary articles of faith. As many persons, who are desirous of information on the points at issue between Protestants and the members of the Church of Rome, may not have leisure to peruse the unrefuted and unanswerable publications of the Rev. Dr. PHILPOTTS, Dr. SOUTHEY, the Rev. H. J. TODD, the Rev. BLANCO
WHITE, the Rev. George TOWNSEND, the Rev. G. S. FABER, and other distinguished defenders of our Protestant faith ; the author of the following
pages was induced to compile the present concise statement of the principal CONTRADICTIONS OF
SCRIPTURE by the peculiar tenets of Romanism,  or that " system of doctrine and practice, which
the Church of Rome in all her branches maintains and inculcates." This little manual originally appeared in the
CHRISTIAN REMEMBRANCER, for the months of November and December, 1826, and of January,
1827 ; it is once more respectfully offered to the serious and candid consideration of British Protestants,
in consequence of solicitations made to the author, that he would present it to the public in a detached form.
In preparing his compilation a second time for the press, the author has collated the references anew and has added a few facts, which have subsequently come to his knowledge. The references to the Holy Scriptures are necessarily brief, his design being to offer to uninformed Protestants a compendious DEFENSIVE MANUAL, rather than a copious polemical treatise: and the contradictions of the Word of God by the peculiar tenets of the Church of Rome are given, for the most part, in the words of the Creed of Pope Pius IV., or of the Decree of the Council of Trent.

66 Pages
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Henderson, H.A. - Is Roman Church Holy

Preface:

The following pages are a religious and ethical review of the lives of the Popes of Rome, shewing in some detail the steps taken by them to mount the papal throne ; the methods used to circumvent an opponent, and the many tragedies encircling them. The Holy Spirit is invoked at every election to the  "Holy" See, to guide in the choice of a pontiff.
I invite the reader after perusing these pages to decide in his mind whether the Holy Spirit could be present at many of the scenes that took place. It may be said that it is unnecessary in the in terests of religion to portray the base side of the lives of these men, but since the Pope proclaims himself to be the Vicar of God on earth, the visible
representative of the invisible God, the universal Governor of the world and upon this claim the Papacy rests the personal character of the man
and his actions necessarily and emphatically must come before us for consideration, and according to our view so we judge of the truth or
falsity of the claim. To decide upon the claim we need to decide upon the life. In the case of the Papacy, which believes itself to be synonymous with Christianity, we may not divorce the private from the official life. The Holy Spirit will not govern the religious, while Satan governs the
secular life.

264 Pages
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Ferdinand Gregorivus - Lucretia Borgia

Dedication:

MY HONORED DUKE : I am induced to dedicate this work to you by the historical circumstances of which it treats and also by personal considerations. In it you will behold the founders of your ancient and
illustrious family. The Borgias were mortal enemies of the Gaetani, who narrowly escaped the fate prepared for them by Alexander VI and his terrible son. Beautiful Sermoneta and all the great fiefs in the Maremma fell into the maw of the Borgias, and your ancestors either found death at their hands or were driven into exile. Donna Lucretia became mistress of Sermoneta, and eventually her son, Rodrigo of Aragon, inherited the estates of the Gaetani. Centuries have passed, and a beautiful and unfortunate
woman may be forgiven for this confiscation of the appanages of your house. Moreover, it was not long before your family was reinstated in its rights by a bull of Julius II, which is now preserved a precious jewel in your family archives. To your house has descended the fame of its founders, but to yourself is due the position which the Gaetani now again enjoy. The survival of historical tradition in things and men exercises an indescribable charm on every student of civilization. To recognize in the ancient and still flourishing families of modern Rome the descendants of the great pervii sonalities of other times, and to enjoy daily intercourse with them, made a profound impression on me. The Colonna, the Orsini, and the Gaetani are my friends, and all afforded me the greatest assistance. These families long ago vanished from the stage of Roman history, but the day came, illustrious Duke, when you were to make a place again for your ancient race in the history of the Imperial City; the day when the temporal power of the popes havingpassed away, a power which had endured a thousand years you carried
to King Victor Emmanuel in Florence the declaration of allegiance of the Roman populace. This episode, marking the beginning of a new era for the city, will live, together with your name, in the annals of the Gaetani, and will preserve it forever in the memory of the Romans.

468 Pages
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MGR. L. Duchesne, - The Beginnings of the Temporal Sovereignty of the Popes

Preface:

THIS book is the outcome of a course of lectures given at Paris some twelve years ago. They made their first public appearance, collected and printed,
in a Review, and, afterwards, a fairly large selection of them was placed at the disposition of the public. As the first edition of the lectures is now exhausted, I am, in accordance with request, bringing out another. This, however, is rather out of deference to the advice of my publisher, than to any deep sense of the book s importance. So many people have written on the subject, and with so much erudition ! At least, I suppose so ; but not being
a person of unlimited leisure, I have, as a rule, confined myself to the study of original documents, without unduly troubling myself about the lucubrations to which they have given rise. Few foot-notes will be found in these pages, for I have been chary of references, even with regard to my own first hand investigations. Many details are explained in my notes on the Liber Pontificalis, to which the learned and conscientious reader is respectfully re
ferred. Small works of this kind are intended for the average reader. For the benefit of the latter, then, I have tried to explain the formation of the little pontifical state in the eighth century, and how the conditions under which it worked during the first three centuries of its existence are connected with the great religious conflicts in the time of Gregory VII. It is true that the subject may appear remote, but as long as it is a question of the Church and of Italy, its interest can never pall.

332 Pages
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