Golden Age, April 7, 1937

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The Golden Age

A JOURNAL OF FACT HOPE AND COURAGE

in this issue

JUDGING THE HIERARCHY

BY ITS FRUITS

(Part 1)

THE HIERARCHY'S CRUSADES

"FATHER RICHARD FELIX"

EXPOSED

THE INVISIBLE REALM

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WEDNESDAY

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Vol. XVIII - No. 458

April 7, 1937 CONTENTS

JUDGING THE HIERARCHY BY ITS FRUITS (Part 1) 419

Anything to Get Publicity 419

Study the Crusades 420

Hierarchy Advocates Murder 422

Crusades Led to Inquisition 424

Pope Innocent III 425

Gregory IX, Another "Vicar of Christ" 425

"Saint" Thomas Aquinas 426

Pope Nicholas IV 426

In the Days of the Inquisition 426

Butchers' Code in the Canon Law 427

The Vatican Garden 427

The Murder Department 428

The Flogging Department 429

The Arson Department 429

The Osh! Kosh! Department 430

The Religious Department 431

The Pope's Own Department 434

'Vanity! Vanity! All Is Vanity!' 435

Not Enough, Even Yet 435

Evashenski Writes the Pope 436

Pinnock's Papal Diary 437

Jezebel's Kalsomining Operations 437

Protestants No Longer Protest 437

Building the Communist Bogey 438

Liars Double-Cross Each Other 438

Wilson Under Jesuit Pressure 439

Unable to Get the Marines 439

A Lather of "Morality" 439

Fascism Temporarily Halted 440

Murderers Advise Permanent Peace 440

Domestic Rows Mar Felicity 440

Russia and Religion 440

Catholic Action in Spain 441

Fascism the New Brat 441

"Rev." Patrick O'Brien Spills the Beans 442

"Father Richard Felix" 432

EXPOSED (B) 433

THE INVISIBLE REALM 443

The Morning Stars 443

The Covering Cherub 444

Temptation and Fall 444

A Murderer from the Beginning 445

"Spirits in Prison" 445

"He Went and Preached" 446

Holy Angels 446

ILLUSTRATIONS AND CARTOONS

It's their river; they made it for themselves 419

THE HIERARCHY'S CRUSADES—I 421

THE HIERARCHY'S CRUSADES—II 423

The Hierarchy's regard for its own people 424

The Vatican Garden 428

The Hierarchy will now sing their favorite ballad, "Let the whole world genuflect when papa's barometer fluctuates" 434

The guest in the house of the ten kings.—Revelation 17: 16. 438

The Hierarchy's bastard man-child—to "rule all nations"? 442

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The Golden Age

Volume XVIII Brooklyn, N.Y., Wednesday, April 7, 1937 Number 458

Judging the Hierarchy by Its Fruits

(Part 1)

WHATEVER else you may do, do not fail to read carefully the serial now running in The Golden Age from the pen of Judge Rutherford, entitled "EXPOSED". It goes directly to the Word of God to uncover the most dreadful institution of all time. The Golden Age is glad, happy and thankful for the privilege of going along, and pointing to some of the fruits of the Hierarchy, past and present, supporting the points made.

Cartoons are used in this work, as well as words, because some people are thus aided to clearer conception of actual conditions. If the cartoons grieve you, because they make you laugh or cry or shudder, remember that some need to laugh, to cry and to shudder. Some appreciate them, and say so.

It's their river; they made it for themselves

Here is a letter from R. B. Brickell, pioneer Jehovah's witness in the wildest part of Australia. In a friendly note he says that he and his companions put out 800 copies of last year's "Philistia-Catholic Action" numbers and found that "the pointed cartoons in recent issues are a big factor in arousing interest". That is what the cartoons are for. They may be a little hard on hypocrites, and it may take some courage to put them in the hands of those that may turn out to be dogs or swine, but it was always true, and is yet, that the "sheep in the midst of wolves" are not entrusted with the job of making the wolves over into sheep.

Brickell's work takes him to mines and sawmills far removed from the beaten track. Lodgings are obtained catch-as-catch-can, sometimes in empty and abandoned houses, sometimes as the guest of honor in places of public entertainment. Meals are a luxury. If obtained at all, all O.K., but if not, it is all part of the witness work. A bicycle is the means of propulsion, but often that has to be left behind and miles are journeyed on foot, and not infrequently in the dark.

Judge Rutherford's radio lectures have permeated the entire country. Often the most remote are most ready for the truth. The Roman Hierarchy is as bent on capturing Australia as it is on capturing America. Everything is rapidly getting into the hands of the Jesuits, and, once in their hands, it is never released.

Anything to Get Publicity

It should be borne in mind that it is the ardent desire of the Hierarchy to get publicity, and sometimes it seems as though this desire to make the headlines would permeate even those double-seamed copper-riveted domes that had their last idea twenty years ago and still place implicit faith in that efficient booster of things "as is", The Associated Press. November 12, 1936, a dispatch from Vatican City told of Pope Pius posing for a battery of 25 newspapermen and cameramen, and the next day a dispatch went out telling of the great precautions which had been made to lock the Vatican gates to prevent the news of his death leaking out when, as expected, he might die shortly. The first dispatch pulled down 4½ inches of free publicity, and the second one 3½ inches; and that was all either was for. A dispatch from Vatican City nine days later said the pope has never been confined to his bed by illness for even one hour, that his step is energetic and almost military. That one got a three-column spread, with a picture, and 18½ inches more; total, 26½ inches of free advertising for the Roman Catholic Hierarchy's sales department.

The Washington Herald contains a picture of a priest administering the last rites of the church to a man at Jamaica, N.Y., after his car hit a pole. How long the man lay in the blazing sun so that a good picture could be taken glorifying the Roman Catholic church once more was not stated, but it seems as if the decent thing would have been to rush him to a hospital without taking time to get a photographer on the job. However, the present motto of the Hierarchy seems to be, "Anything to get publicity."

The Associated Press has been running as "news" an alleged history of the papacy, starting with Peter, who never was a pope, and ending with Pius XI. The Golden Age always wishes to help out The Associated Press in a work of this kind—the farther out the better. Hence, this issue is devoted to consideration of some things likely to be overlooked in such a story.

St. Sophia's Cathedral was built at Constantinople in A.D. 325 from material taken from heathen temples all over the Roman empire. It thus well represents the ramshackle "religion" of which Constantine was the sponsor and which still curses the world. The Roman Catholic "religion" is merely a composite patchwork of all the heathen "religions", and no more represents true Christianity than a tub of dirty water represents the Atlantic ocean.

Study the Crusades

You may know all about the Crusades, but if not, you would better study carefully the accompanying illustrations. They accurately portray the facts, also supplied by the cartoonist. His supplementary notes on the pictures are as follows:

List of well-known crusades:

First Crusade 1095 Pope Urban II

Second Crusade 1147 "Saint" Bernard

Third Crusade 1189 Gregory VIII

Fourth Crusade 1202 Celestine III

Children's Crusade 1212 Another in 1237

Fifth Crusade 1221

Sixth Crusade 1228 Robert de Courcon

Seventh Crusade 1234 Council of Spoletto

Eighth Crusade 1245 Council of Lyons

Ninth Crusade 1286

Crusade against Hussites 1420-31 Pope Martin V

Crusade against Waldenses 1477 Innocent VIII

Crusade against King John and Emperor Frederick II

Crusade is from a verb meaning to mark oneself with a cross. Under cover of plausible excuse to recover the Holy Land from the Turk, the pope strove to extend his empire.

The Crusades form one of the maddest episodes of history. Christianity hurled itself at Mohammedanism in expedition after expedition for nearly three centuries until failure brought lassitude, and superstition itself was undermined by its own labors. Europe was drained of men and money, and threatened with social bankruptcy if not with annihilation. Millions perished in battle, hunger, or disease; and every atrocity the imagination can conceive disgraced the warriors of the cross.—Foote and Wheeler, Crimes of Christianity, Vol. 1, page 172.

The Crusades originated in the wild but uninstructed fanaticism of the age. The great impetus they conferred on the aspirations of the Roman See was speedily discovered. The ferocity stimulated against Saracens was easily directed with augmented fury against alleged heretics within Christendom. The prospect of unlimited plunder excited greed. The taking of the cross became a duty which every prince and peer, and every renegade, murderer, and vagabond also owed to church and country for the expiation of crime. A certain number of years of crusading became the recognized penalty for the most heinous offenses, and Palestine was formally constituted the Botany Bay of Europe. By a strange mixture and confusion of ideas the service of the cross was made a punishment for malefactors; and the hewing down of Saracens assumed the same recognized status as picking oakum, or rolling shot. The white cross worn on the loose robe was as much the outward sign of a condemned malefactor as striped pantaloons or a checkered coat in modern days.—R. II. Vickers, History of Bohemia, pages 195, 196.

These enterprises were chiefly stimulated by the popes, who not only profited by the Crusades, but found them an admirable expedient to stifle the growing spirit of inquiry.—Crimes of Christianity, page 207.

The Crusades never varied as to pattern.

At the voice of their pastor, the robber, the incendiary, the homicide, arose by thousands to redeem their souls by repeating on the infidels the same deeds which they had exercised against their Christian brethren. . . . (Pope Urban said:) "His (Christ's) cross is the symbol of your salvation; wear it, a red or bloody cross, as an external mark on your breasts or shoulders."—Edward Gibbons' Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Chapter 53.

The Hierarchy's Crusades—I

In 1095 A.D. Pope Urban II instigated the most diabolical device for the degradation of the human race the world has ever known. Called a crusade to recover the Holy Land from the Turk, it has been operated openly and secretively ever since to satiate the popes' lust for blood, money and power.

Peter the Hermit, preaching the first crusade, shared honors as leader with a goat and a goose, 'who' were thought to be inspired by the 'Holy Ghost'. —History of the Inquisition, page 325.

"After this, the horrors and abominations of the crusades can surprise no one." (History of the Inquisition) "Every atrocity the imagination can conceive disgraced the warriors of the cross." "Women appeared in arms in the midst of warriors, prostitution not being forgotten among the austerities of penance."—Hallam.

To induce support for the enterprise the "Church" granted a plenary indulgence, abolished sin, promised eternal felicity and—"at the voice of their pastor, the robber, the incendiary and the homicide arose by thousands."'—Edward Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Chapter LIII.

Passing through Greece and Bulgaria "they forgot their mission in tumultuous scenes of debauchery; and pillage, violation and murder were everywhere left as the trace of their passages".—Hallam, Part I, Chapter 1. They repaid the Greek Christian emperor's generosity "by deeds of flagitiousness on his people. Palaces and churches were plundered to afford them means of intoxication".—Mills, I, page 70.

False miracles and fanatical prophecies, which were never so frequent, wrought up the enthusiasm to a still higher pitch. —Hallam, Chapter I, Part 1.

The church remitted penances, abolished sins, promised eternal felicity, wrought miracles and prophesied alluringly.—History of the Inquisition, page 326.

As the First Crusade passed through the Christian countries of Germany, Hungary, Bulgaria and Greece, the Crusaders committed such excesses that they were practically annihilated by the natives.

Peter the Hermit's men abandoned themselves to "every species of grossness and libertinism"—Mills, I, page 67.

They committed crimes which made nature shudder.—Michaud, I, page 73.

The scenes of female violation need not be described.—Mills, II, page 192.

Typical of the fate of Crusaders and their victims was Godfrey of Bouillon's capture of Jerusalem, when the Jews were burned alive in their synagogues and 70,000 Moslems were slaughtered.

Women with children at the breast, girls and boys, all were slaughtered. . . . The mutilated carcasses were hurried by the torrents of blood into the court; dissevered arms and hands floated into the current that carried them into contact with bodies to which they had not belonged.—Mills, I, page 253.

The vices and disorders of the Crusaders were so disgraceful that the authors of the old chronicles blush while they retrace the pictures of them.—Michaud, II, page 31.

With a superstition equally cruel and fierce, the Christians searched the carcasses of the murdered Turks for golden byzants, and converted the gall which was found in their dead bodies into medicine.—Sir J. Mackintosh's History of England, I, page 194.

Pope Innocent III had a twinge when he accuses the Pilgrims of respecting in their lust, neither age, nor sex, nor religious profession, and bitterly laments that the deeds of darkness, fornication, idolatry and incest, were perpetrated in open day, and that noble matrons and holy nuns were polluted by the grooms and peasants of the Catholic camp.—Gibbons, Chap. 60.

The toll of life was tremendous for the Crusaders as well as the Turks. Thus 300,000 had perished, mostly at the hands of their fellow-Christians, before they had accomplished anything. . . . When they heard of the recovery of the Holy Sepulchre, Germany, Italy and France sent 400,000 more men into Asia Minor, where they quickly went down under sword, disease and starvation.—A Short History of the Inquisition, pages 328, 330.

By the time of the Third Crusade, the magic and wonder had gone out of these movements altogether. The common people had found them out. Men went out, but only kings and nobles straggled back.—H. G. Wells' Outline of History, page 645.

In 1212 occurred a dreadful thing, a Children's Crusade. An excitement that could no longer affect sane adults was spread among the children in the south of France and in the Rhone valley. A crowd of many thousands of French boys marched to Marseilles. They were lured on board ships by slave traders, who sold them into slavery in Egypt. Pope Innocent III made great capital out of this strange business and sought to whip up enthusiasm for a Fifth Crusade.—H. G. Wells' Outline of History, page 646.

Whenever the pope quarrelled with anyone now, he called for a Crusade, until the word ceased to mean anything but an attempt to give flavor to an unpleasant Civil War.—H. G. Wells' Outline of History, page 645.

And so Innocent VIII preached a crusade against the Waldenses. Samuel Moreland, English ambassador to Savoy, an eye witness, stated: "The head and breasts of the teachers were cut off, boiled and eaten; to the most tender parts of some fire was applied; women were cut open with flints; limbs were broken and exposed to fires; nails were pulled out with pincers; men half dead were tied to the tails of horses and dragged over the sharp rocks; young women were impaled by the most sensitive parts and carried about as standards; into the mouths of living men were thrust their dissevered parts; infants were snatched from cradles and torn in pieces; young girls were roasted alive and their breasts cut off and eaten before they were dead; other men were flayed alive; brains were beaten out, roasted and eaten. . . . Famine and pestilence shared honors with crime and depravity. At the capture of the town of Marra, provisions giving out, the Crusaders butchered the inhabitants and ate their flesh.—History of the Inquisition, pages 285 and 329.

Hierarchy Advocates Murder

Some who think of the Catholic Hierarchy as holy men will wonder how they could have been parties to the Crusades. The answer is that they are not holy men. They are evil men, with no regard whatever for the Word of God. Their attitude towards the Scriptures, and all that the Scriptures contain, is seen in the statement of John Hooper, bishop of Gloucester, burned at the stake by agents of "Bloody Mary", Roman Catholic daughter of Henry VIII, king of England, in the year 1555, in which he bore testimony to the fact that of the 311 clergy in his diocese 31 did not know where the ten commandments came from and 40 could not recite the Lord's prayer.

If you doubt that it is a settled policy of Roman Catholic theologians to dispose of those who differ with them by the gentle art of murder, read the following, taken from the Northwest Review:

Father Marianus de Luca is a learned and able Jesuit, who, according to Mr. Frank Hugh O'Donnell, M.A., holds the important chair of the Text of the Decretals in the Gregorian University at Rome. Mr. O'Donnell is the author of a learned work, The Ruin of Education in Ireland, and on pages 187-195 he gives these headings, which reveal the nature of De Luca's teaching:

"The Church of Christ Has the Right of Inflicting the Pain of Death"; "As a Perfect Society the Church Must Kill"; "Killing Heretics Conducive to Truth"; "The Church Better Entitled to Kill than the State"; "The State Bound to Kill When Ordered by the Church"; "Not the Amendment of the Heretic, but His Death Necessary"; "Civil Government Refusing to Kill Heretics to Be Disposed and Confiscated"; etc. And the following is quoted by Mr. O'Donnell from the same volume of De Luca's:

The church has the right and duty to kill heretics; because it is by fire and sword that heresy can be extirpated. Mere exThe Hierarchy's Crusades—II

Capturing Jerusalem, they burned the Jews alive in their synagogue and slaughtered 70,000 women, children and babes. Dismembered bodies floated in rivers of blood, while the crusaders took "time out" for devotions.

So much crime and so much misery have seldom been accumulated in so short a space as the three years of the first crusade. Pope Innocent III "accuses the pilgrims of respecting in their lusts neither age nor sex, nor religious profession; and bitterly laments that the deeds of darkness, fornication, adultery and incest were perpetrated in open day by the Catholic camp".—Gibbon, Chapter LX.

Famine and pestilence shared honors with crime and depravity. At the capture of the town of Marra, the crusaders butchered the inhabitants and ate their flesh.' . . . "And the Christians searched the carcasses of the murdered Turks for golden byzants and converted the gall which was found in their bodies into medicine."—Mackintosh's History of England, I, page 194.

Innocent VIII preached a crusade against the followers of Peter Waldo in the south of France; for "the ferocity stimulated against Saracens was easily directed with augmented fury against alleged heretics within Christendom. The great impetus they conferred on the aspirations of the Roman See was speedily discovered".—Vickers' History of Bohemia, pages 195, 196.

"To engage in the crusade and to perish in it, were almost synonymous."—Hallam, I, Chapter 1. 300,000 crusaders perished at the hand of fellow "Christians" before they reached the Holy Land. "By the time of the third crusade the magic and wonder had gone out of these movements altogether. . . . Men went, but only kings and nobles straggled back."

communication is derided by heretics. If they were imprisoned or exiled they corrupt others. The only resource is to put them to death. Repentance cannot be allowed to save. Just as repentance is not allowed to save civil criminals; for the highest good of the church is the Unity of the Faith, and this cannot be preserved unless heretics are put to death.

When the church appears intolerant, she has no alternative; she is simply obeying the injunction of Christ, her founder, who was ever intolerant of error. The other (the state) is free to alter, amend or abrogate her constitution and adopt another. No one has the right to worship God in his own way.

Crusades Led to Inquisition

The mass murders of the Crusades led directly to the Inquisition murders. It is not generally known that the Roman Catholic church, with the full endorsement and backing of its popes, has murdered thousands upon thousands of ITS OWN CHILDREN. Yet such is the case. Honest, sincere and unsuspecting Catholics have been the victims of a systematized scheme of murder, rape and robbery.

By this satanic "law" the most wicked and depraved "supporters" of the "Church" were given power over other Catholics, more decent and more honest. Rome extended her hand to the murderers and thieves, the fornicators and adulterers, and encouraged them in their dirty work with bribes and honors.

The Hierarchy's regard for its own people

While the object of the Inquisition was supposed to be to stamp out heresy, it was actually used to further the schemes of selfish men and give them opportunity to satisfy their lust and greed. Innocent girls were accused of heresy and taken to the private quarters of inquisitors, never to be heard of again. Other persons, honest and industrious, who had met with a measure of financial success, were accused of heresy by envious men in order that their property might be seized.

And, remember, these unfortunate victims of the Hierarchy's wickedness were not necessarily "Protestants" or "heretics". Many were decent, consistent and even devout Catholics. The accuser did not have to prove his accusation. The victim himself would be made to "CONFESS" by torture of the most excruciating kind. Thus the apostate church destroyed its noblest children, many of whom, though tortured to death, would maintain their integrity and refuse to confess to anything they had not done, even where confession would have brought speedy relief, or a quicker death.

Nor was the Inquisition merely an accidental feature of the church's history. It continued its nefarious work for five uninterrupted centuries, pillaging, destroying, blighting, wherever it carried on its operations. All this was done, not only with the knowledge and permission of its popes, its "holy fathers", but with their full approval, and more, under their express direction and command.

Never has this "church", this apostate and degraded system, expressed the least regret that its history should have been so marked with all that is unholy and wicked.

Sometimes some of its defenders will weakly claim that the church was influenced by the conditions surrounding it, and cannot therefore be held responsible. This is a very poor excuse, surely, for a system that claims to be infallible.

Nor do such apologies express the mind of that organization. It would today, if it had the chance, do what it did during those five centuries of organized murder and robbery. In fact, wherever its influence is not counteracted by the enlightened opinion of men who have a little more of the natural humane feeling that was given to men in their creation, it is to be noted that the same course of action, only slightly changed, is being followed.

But, in addition to what has already been noted, consider what history tells further of the methods and means employed to torture mankind into submission. Note the official attitude of the Hierarchy and its head on this subject not only in the past, but today. Rome may change in other things, but its spirit never changes. It has, from its inception in the days of aspiring and worldly bishops, ever been the most potent earthly instrument of Satan. The proofs of her wickedness are endless. The following are examples:

Pope Pius X congratulated a monk, Lepicier, and bestowed the apostolic benediction upon him for writing a book in which Lepicier declared that public heretics deserve not merely to be excommunicated, but to be killed; that the power to kill belongs both to the state and to the "Church"; that the "Church" has the right to murder even repentant heretics; that these teachings should be publicly declared; that King Ferdinand III of Castile was canonized because he permitted no heretics to dwell in his kingdom and with his own hands brought wood for their burning; and that the "Church" tolerates heretics now only because it is not prudent to kill them; and that the pope has the power to depose secular rulers and absolve subjects of such rulers from their allegiance.

So much for Giuseppe Sarto, Pope Pius X. Sarto died August 20, 1914. Were the encyclopedias to be rewritten some day, what a change would take place in the biographies of some of these demons in human form that have so dishonored God and so misled millions of their fellow men.

Pope Innocent III

The Encyclopedia Americana has almost a column about Pope Innocent III and "his clemency and prudence"; but others did not think so highly of him in these respects. Judge of the "clemency" of a devil that would decree as he did, that:

Heretics, along with those that shelter, defend and support them, we declare to be excommunicated. As soon as any of such—this is our strict decree—becomes thus publicly excommunicated, the penalty upon him if within a year he neglect to repair his fault, is this: he is under infamy; he cannot fill public office, or share in choosing public officials; he is not allowed to give testimony in a court of justice; he is incapable of making a will bequeathing property, or of coming into possession of a bequest to himself; he cannot exact information upon any matter from others, but he must give information when asked by others. If he is a judge, his sentence is null, and no cases should be brought before him for trial. If he is a lawyer, no one is permitted to hire him. If he is a notary, the public documents that he draws up are invalid, being vitiated in their source. Priests must refuse the sacraments to such pestilential wretches, deny them Christian burial, and scorn to take their alms and offerings. . . . Neither is this law of ours to shrink from despoiling the orthodox children [of heretical parents] on any pretext of mercy whatsoever; for in many cases, some of them, divinely sanctioned, the children must suffer temporally for their father's fault; and, according to canon law, punishment at times is visited, not only upon the authors of crime, but upon their posterity.

Pope Innocent III, Giovanni Lothario Conti, so the Encyclopedia says, "was one of the greatest popes and rulers." Why, sure! He was a regular Hitler ahead of time. "All Christendom acknowledged the Pope's spiritual sovereignty." They had to, or die. Innocent III died at Perugia, Italy, July 16, 1216. It is good to know that he is stone dead. The canon law of the Roman church still embodies his decrees disinheriting even Catholic children of heretical parents. The reason for that is that the Hierarchy loves money, and ANY excuse to lay hands on it is a good excuse.

Gregory IX, Another "Vicar of Christ"

Gregory IX, another leading light in the history of the Roman Hierarchy, laid down the law that:

If any of the aforesaid ["heretics"] refuse to perform condign penance after they have been apprehended, they are to be shut up in prison for life.*

Perhaps fearing that he had not made himself plain enough, this spokesman for the Hierarchy went on to say:

It is not fitting that the Apostolic See should withhold its hand from bloodshed, lest it fail in its guardianship of the people of Israel.

This direct incitement to murder is often quoted with approval by Catholic priests, and was so quoted by the Catholic priests Vacandard and Turmel in the Revue du Clergé Français, January 15, 1907.

In private life Gregory IX was Mr. Ugolino, count of Segni. The Encyclopedia Americana says of him that "he canonized Saint Francis of Assisi, one of the glories of the Church". Won-

* Another decree (of Frederic II) registered, or approved by this monster, was that heretics should have their tongues cut out, later modified by the regulation that they should be burned alive; and hundreds were so burned.

der, mildly, if "Saint" Francis went along with Ugolino's ideas of imprisoning for life, or murdering, those that disagreed with him.

"Saint" Thomas Aquinas

In The Encyclopedia Americana there are accounts of two persons called Saint Thomas. One of these, selected by the Lord Jesus Christ himself, and loved by all God's people as a true witness of the Son of God, received a grand total of 50 lines of comment. But the other Saint Thomas, written up by William Turner, professor of philosophy in the Catholic University, received 420 lines, in this so fair and so AMERICAN Encyclopedia Americana.

Mr. Turner thought, while he was writing up "Saint" Thomas Aquinas, the star theologian of the Roman Catholic Hierarchy, he would better do a good job at it, and for fear some might overlook the idea that the writer of Summa Theologica, standard and supreme textbook in every Catholic theological school in the world, was an A No. 1 saint, all wool and a yard wide, guaranteed not to rip, tear, ravel or run down at the side, he managed to call him "Saint Thomas" just 26 times in those 420 lines.

To be sure, that is only once every sixteen lines, but as he neared the end of the story he realized that he was not batting as high as the publishers and their Jesuit friends would wish, and so he cramped it in 6 times in 22 lines. It took a shoehorn to do it, but why be a professor of philosophy if you can't do a little job like that to save your bread ticket?

Coming back now to Mr. Aquinas (called Aquinas because he was born in Aquino, Italy): A part of the philosophy of this man (whose philosophy, by the way, is built entirely upon ideas of the Greek and heathen philosopher Aristotle, and not at all upon the words or the example of Jesus Christ), and which philosophy is and must be an integral part of the training of every well-educated Catholic priest, is, as far as those who have different opinions are concerned, merely that of any other ordinary murderer. The way he put it is thus:

When the heretic is stubborn, the Church, despairing of his conversion, provides for the safety of others by cutting him off from the Church through sentence of excommunication, and finally by yielding him up to the secular power to be killed. (Page 25) Mr. Aquinas died March 7, 1274. Te Deum laudamus.

Pope Nicholas IV

The more one looks into this "Vicar" business, the more one sees that they were all murderers, as different from Christ as night is different from day. From the order to brand heretics in the face (A.D. 1157) there is a growing savagery in the decrees of the popes, marked by the years 1166, 1184, 1197, 1220, 1224, 1230, 1231, 1252, 1254, 1259, 1265, 1270, 1290, 1335. It is not possible to examine all these. Just take one.

Take the Ad Extirpanda, originally enacted by Pope Innocent IV, 1254, and repromulgated in 1259, 1265, and 1290, by Alexander IV (Reinwald, count of Segni), Urban IV (Jacob Pantaleon), and Pope Nicholas IV (Gorolamo Masci). It is addressed to all the rulers of Italy and provides the following "Christ-like" treatment of those who disagreed with them:

Any one may seize a heretic, and despoil him of his property; every magistrate shall appoint an inquisitorial commission, whose salaries are to be paid by the State; no law may be passed interfering with these inquisitors; heretics who will not confess their heresy shall be tortured; the houses of heretics shall be demolished; the confiscated property of heretics shall be divided, one-third to the inquisitors and the bishops, one-third to the city, and one-third to those who aided in the arrest and conviction.

It is best, in being churchy and "pious" to flavor the churchly act or the "pious" act with a chance to make a little something on the side. These popes all caught the drift of this chance to split something among the bishops, the city and the Judases, and thus popularize their murders.

Gorolamo Masci checked out April 4, 1292. That's good; there is always something to be thankful for. One of his brilliant acts of "justice" was to proclaim that all obligations entered into by a person in captivity are null and void, even though oaths have been exchanged and hostages given for their performance. What a model for Hitler and subsequent "saints"!

In the Days of the Inquisition

The Inquisition proper began with Pope Innocent IV, Sinibaldo de' Fieschi, of Genoa. An indulgence of three years was bestowed on informers, and as the indulgences cost nothing, any information obtained was pure 100-percent graft. The accused was at once arrested and thrown into prison. A Catholic priest then explains what happened to him: At first he was thrust into the common dungeon and there trained spies and specialists in delation (accusation by an informer) craftily beset him to beguile him into some direct or indirect acknowledgment of guilt. Should this prove insufficient, he was immured in the durus carcer, the "cruel prison", a foul hole in which, half starved and bound with chains, he might be expected to come to a better mind. Or if the carcer and the durus carcer were judged too slow, or in the event had proved inefficacious, there was left the torture-chamber of the holy monks. Into this room the victim—still legally an innocent man, be it remembered—was brought, and put to one or all of the varieties of anguish which the Inquisitors possessed abundant means of inflicting. The favorite arguments of this sort were three: greasing the victim's feet and thrusting them into the fire; the triangular rack which dislocated the body stretched upon it; and the hoisting of the man to the ceiling by a rope about his hands, which were tied behind his back, and then letting him fall suddenly to within a few inches of the floor.

Though the inquisitors were forbidden to inflict torture more than once upon the same man for the extortion of a confession, the inquisitors got around that by inflicting EACH torture once; and when the man's torture was continued over several days the inquisitors explained that it was not a new torture, but merely a continuation of the old. How like the Devil! how like the clergy! and how like Rome! Children were encouraged to denounce heresy in their fathers and, when they did so, were not deprived of their share in the property of the parent they thus helped to murder.

One concession for women was that they were not tortured until forty days after childbirth. So much for the "Christianity" of those that have so much to say about the sacredness of motherhood, Virgin Mary, etc.

Butcher's Code Still in the Canon Law

Don't fool yourself that the Roman Catholic Hierarchy has ever given up the idea of the Inquisition, or ever will. The Devil is the father of the whole Hierarchy brood of Dagon-mitered, long-robed, lace-beskirted, reverse-collared devil-worshipers from the bishops up. The Inquisition will die with them all at Armageddon, along with their crosses, beads, scapulars and images.

A standard up-to-date law book of the Roman Catholic Church is Ferrari’s Bibliotheca Juris Canonici. There you will find such propositions as the following: Civil authorities, though strictly forbidden to examine the records of Inquisitorial trials, must execute under pain of excommunication the Inquisition's sentence. . . Heretics must be denounced to the Inquisition under pain of excommunication. . . Heretics suffer confiscation of their property from the day on which they fall into heresy. . . Heretical fathers lose paternal authority over their children. . . Impenitent heretics are to be burned; this is the common opinion of the learned.

As late as 1864 Pope Pius IX, whose real name was Giovanni Maria Mastai-Ferretti, denied in the most emphatic manner that man is free to embrace and profess the religion which his reason tells him is true, and denied that it is wrong for the "Church" to inflict violence. That is why Jehovah's people have no protection in cities, towns, states and countries where officials can be brought under the influence of the Roman Catholic Hierarchy. The Roman organization is a brotherhood of murderers, torturers and defamers of God's holy name. It will be destroyed for ever at Armageddon by the act of Almighty God. And the earth will never be a fit place for anybody to live in until that happiest of earth's events takes place. What concord hath Christ with Belial? None; not a trace, not a shadow.

The Vatican Garden (Contributed)

It is, of course, only fitting and proper, an adjustment of un-nature, that the Roman Catholic Hierarchy should appoint itself censor of manners and morals, as in the days of the Roman Pontifex Maximus. Down through the ages, history records that the Hierarchy and its head, the pope—any pope—personally investigated every crime in the calendar. This personal investigation was so thorough that a person might, conceivably, jump to the conclusion that the popes and Hierarchy agents committed every one of them personally and repeatedly. But, ha, ha! that's another story! And so, because they have the first-hand knowledge of their own actions, and the recorded history for a thousand years of personal investigation at their finger tips, they are in every way qualified to ascertain the bad effects of certain phenomena, such as lust, rape, adultery, theft, murder, treachery, war, incest, sodomy, lying, oppression, disloyalty, blasphemy, etc. A beggarly few details of several phases of this investigating work follows:

ADULTERY. Pope Alexander Borgia thoroughly investigated "adultery". His two children were criminals of the first water, despite the effort by the novelist Sabbatini (a "prince" in the church) to whitewash the whole business.

POISONING THE WEALTHY TO GET THEIR WEALTH. The above pope also "investigated" this little matter to the number of oodles of rich cardinals and such. His own death cut short his labors, with his "investigations" uncompleted.

TORTURE, BURNING AT THE STAKE. Torquemada, acting as the pope's representative, "investigated" the theory that living human creatures are leery of torture by the rack, the last, the boot, the iron virgin, etc.; he also investigated the theory, promulgated by Nero, that these same hapless creatures make good torches. In examining this high crime, he burned countless innocent people at the stake. It is rumored that the Hierarchy is not satisfied with his conclusions and will investigate again soon.

MURDER FOR FILTHY LUCRE. The Inquisition "investigated" this crime on a grand scale, and the rich fell like reeds before a hurricane. The inquisitors' only objection to approving it was that they had to give a third of the deceased's property to the king.

JEW-BAITING. The Roman emperors started this, and, of course, to get the truth of the matter, the pope and the Hierarchy "investigated" on a large scale, persecuting and robbing the Jews.

SUPPRESSING FREEDOM OF CONSCIENCE, SPEECH, ETC. Since the Hierarchy came into existence they have "investigated" (practiced) this crime with rigor and without mercy. Their findings have not been made public by them.

SLAUGHTER OF INNOCENT MEN, WOMEN AND CHILDREN. Peter the Hermit, leader of the first crusade, took a flier at this, and so did all the other crusaders. The popes repeatedly "investigated" this high crime by declaring crusades as often as the public would allow it.

TOLERANCE. This high crime has been exposed by all the popes from Pope Constipate I till now. Louis VII of France was rebuked by Pope Alexander III because he was lenient to the Jews and unbelievers.

PERSECUTION OF TRUE WORSHIPERS. Burned Bibles and burned heretics will testify to the zeal of the popes to "investigate" this crime. They are still zealously at it.

The present incumbent, Pope Ambrose Ratti, is a studious man and will not swallow just everything that history records—even the Vatican history. No, sir. He is nobody's goat. To some he will seem bullheaded, even stubborn to excess, for not relying upon the findings of his predecessors. Not on your life, so-o-o-o-o he is "investigating" these things all over again.

His consuming aim is to be an authority on crime, so his censoring will be respected.

Just recently, with his "pard" Benito, he "investigated" the crime of muscling in on Ethiopia and murdering countless innocent men, women and children.

In Germany he is "investigating" Jew-baiting and robbery, also suppression of freedom of speech and conscience.

In Spain he is "investigating" with Moorish, Italian and German troops.

In the United States he is also "investigating" freedom of speech and conscience, and expects to get Judge Rutherford off the air any time now.

The Vatican garden

The Murder Department

It is a well-known fact that the Roman Catholic church teaches that all heretics should be put to death, and according to their dogmas everybody who is not a Roman Catholic is a heretic.

Perhaps it will be of interest to know that anybody who does not accept the doctrine of "Infallibility of the Pope" is a heretic and should be put to death. This includes Catholics as well as Protestants and nonbelievers; for any Catholic who denies this doctrine automatically becomes a member of a dissenting organization known as "Old Catholics", and, curses of curses, a dissenter is regarded as more damnworthy than a heretic. The following is from the New School and Office Webster Dictionary, edited by Joseph Devlin, M.A., in 1929:

Old Catholic: A member of a religious body organized in 1870 by a party in the Roman Catholic Church who refused to accept the doctrine of papal infallibility.

The "Reverend Father" Julius Arthur Nieuwland, professor of chemistry at Notre Dame University, is the inventor of lewisite war gas, claimed to be the only poison gas worse than mustard gas. The "Reverend" is very proud of his invention—as one would expect. The Devil is also well pleased with it.

What a wonderful heaven that would be that would have in it the De Medicis, Liguori, Dutch Schultz, and the Negro in Kentucky who killed a 70-year-old woman and turned Catholic at the gallows. Surely anybody that could stay out of such a heaven would regard it a pleasure to stay out.

At hand from St. Peter's Boy's School, St. John, New Brunswick, an envelope intended for use by one of the 200 students. Each lad is supposed to give a nickel or more every week. The envelope, besides containing the name, grade and amount of contribution of the pupil as his "Sacrifice for the Holy Childhood This Week", contains the explanation, "We have baptized and already sent to heaven 23,324,323 abandoned infants in China, India, Japan and Africa. Help us to save more." Just a minute! Just a minute! By what route were they sent? Were they given "Christian" baptism, followed by "Christian" strangulation by some old nun and then buried in a "Christian" limepit, or how?

The Flogging Department

Brutal floggings are quite the thing at Catholic institutions; so two letters in the same mail plainly show. One from North Carolina tells of a lad, his father a Protestant, his mother a Catholic, who was being "educated" at a parochial school. He was to have appeared in some theatricals, but when the night of the event came off it stormed so badly that his grandmother, at the moment in charge of him, declined to let him go with the "Sisters" when they came for him. It stormed hard the next day also, and he was kept at home. On the day following he was assaulted in the schoolroom by fellow pupils. The "Sisters" retired and let him fight it out alone. He came home black-and-blue all over, nearly.

In a Michigan city one of Jehovah's witnesses has a Riches sign in the window next door to a Catholic church and school. All the children were forbidden to enter the premises, but some of them did so, and two older girls who came and read and were convinced received most brutal floggings, one of them literally from her father, and the other was shunned by all her playmates on orders of the "Mother Superior", and probably that hurt worse than the other.

The Lejac Indian School, Lejac, B.C., is a nice place for boys (?). Four little fellows, all under ten years of age, all of them without caps, and one of them with only one shoe, ran away on the night of January 1, 1937, to escape the beatings for which the school is famous. They tried to get back to their Indian parents. They got within a mile and all died of exposure, and were found frozen to the ice where they fell, victims of a Catholic "civilization".

Another nice orphanage is St. Francis Orphanage for Girls, Central Avenue and Seventeenth Street, Union City, N.J. At that place a 14-year-old girl tied two sheets and a bathrobe together to try to let herself down and fell 50 feet. Imagine what a nice place that must be where a 14-year-old girl would choose that method of trying to get downstairs.

Kelvedon Hall Convent, Ongar, Sussex, England, is a charming place to board. Last winter a Mrs. Galavin got away in a nightdress and coat. She called at the wrong house and they bundled her into a car and took her back to the convent. She claimed that at Kelvedon Hall her things had been taken away from her and she was put on bread and water. A witness stated that she often cried and was anxious to go back to her husband. Eight months later she made another break for liberty, fell from a window, and was killed. On one occasion within a year a "Sister" was found drowned in a pond on the grounds. The verdict was "Accidental death". Oh, yeah?

Harry A. Jagar, 26 years a principal in Providence (R.I.) schools, has lost his job. He was canned on a motion offered by Dr. John P. Cooney (guess Cooney's "religion"). Here is why Jagar was fired. He told an audience of parents and teachers of a visit to Cornwall, England, where he stayed at a hotel which was formerly a convent; the owner of the hotel, in making changes, discovered an old tunnel leading to a near-by monastery. That is all. That is all. Fired, in America, for telling that.

The Arson Department

It seems that it is all right to burn houses in Papua, or at least it is exactly nine-tenths right. The offender was Anthony Cranssen, Roman Catholic priest. He induced members of his “flock” to burn down three houses of Lutherans, and they did the job. The court sentenced him to five years. When it got to the high court, one of the justices of which was Mr. McTiernan (guess his “religion”), the high court explained that the priest made a mistake in pleading guilty; that when he did it he had the idea that that would keep it out of the newspapers; and that, anyway, the houses were only flimsy houses. So the sentence was reduced from five years to six months, a nine-tenths reduction.

Incidentally, the same court that gave “Reverend Father” Cranssen five years for arson and contemplated murder—for he sent his men armed—gave two years to a young American Lutheran missionary for trying to take a stake some natives who had robbed his converts. This young man has a young and delicate wife and three small children, one of them an infant. Is it not a strange world that puts a young father in prison two years for restraining a thief, and lets off with a six-month sentence an unmarried arsonist and would-be murderer?

Believe Bishop Gleeson or not, but at the Hibernian Australian Catholic Benefit Society, Newcastle, Australia, he stated with a straight face:

The Roman Catholic Church, standing on the platform of truth, liberty, justice, brotherly love, and peace, is not allied with Fascism or any other system contrary to true democracy.

He should have said this to Mussolini, Hitler, Von Schuschnigg, and Franco, and heard them laugh. Also, it would have been nice to say it to numerous Catholic dignitaries who in recent years, and with full papal approval, have declared the “church’s” right to put opposers of Catholic teachings to death by any means that will produce results desired. And he should have said it to Judge Rutherford and all the rest of Jehovah’s witnesses, who know all about it.

The Osh! Kosh! Department

They are getting worse in Oshkosh. Osch! Kosch! Why, at one “church” (guess the “church”) they took in $3,000 at one affair with “wheels, pin games and that sort of thing”. The sheriff says that he positively did not hunt up the machines for the “church”, and he did not know a thing about it until two days later, when, of course, it was too late to take any action.

The regular gamblers of the state claim that most machines are screwed down to yield 50 percent to the gamblers and 50 percent to the house; in select locations the gambler may even get 75 percent. But when the machines are rented to “churches” they are screwed down so that the “church” gets 90 percent and the “sucker” gets only 10 percent. This is too hard on the Catholic population. They are entitled to a run for their money, and it is no wonder some of the suckers squealed.

At Verplank, N.Y., one priest walloped the easily walloped and cowardly Ku Klux Klan, which was planning to hold a convention in that city, and which had a perfect right to do it. Want to know how he did it? It was so simple. He followed the usual lines of Roman Catholic Hierarchy procedure. The priest, “Reverend” Francis X. Doyle, made demands on the town council that the meeting be prevented, and the town council, remembering previous disorders and Roman Catholic boycotts of merchants, did as it was told. It was just as easy as that.

The Roman Catholic Hierarchy realizes that it is now or never in its push to control the whole world. This is, in effect, the object of the great assembly held in Rome, June 24, 1936, at which 300 of the highest dignitaries of the church were present. All the proceedings of this meeting were in strictest secrecy. The assembly is said to be the greatest of its kind in 66 years.

A dispatch from Callander, Ontario, stated that Mrs. Dionne was “conferring with a priest” in preparation for the birth of another child. The dispatch went on to say that the saving of the quintuplets at their birth was merely incidental as far as Dr. Dafoe was concerned. The sender of the dispatch was so anxious that the Roman Catholic Hierarchy should get some newspaper glory out of the new arrival in the Dionne family that he forgot how very anxious the Hierarchy was previously that all glory should go to Dafoe because he is a Catholic. In other words, Dafoe now has too much glory and the church not enough, hence all the stress on “conferring with a priest”.

The Boston Post contains a picture of Captain John Murphy (“religion” not stated, but guessed) denouncing the witnesses of Jehovah before the members of the Alexander Graham Bell Post of the American Legion. Verily he had his reward: his picture in the paper.

The Religious Department

The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago found near Bagdad an alabaster monkey formerly carried on a pole in religious processions in Babylonia, in honor of the sun god Shamash. This is the origin of the carrying of images in religious processions of the present time. Religious processions where images of the virgin Mary are carried are common in Roman Catholic countries, and even take place in America.

Getting ready for the rush to the Philippines on the occasion of the "33d International Eucharistic Congress" the Malaya Catholic Leader told some of the outstanding things that were to be worshiped on that occasion.

In the church of Santo Domingo, the images of St. Dominic and St. Francis and the Blessed Virgin adorn the façade.

In the Franciscan church is the statue of San Francisco de Lagrimas, which, if you will believe it, shed tears during an earthquake.

In the church of the Recoletos is "a hand, still incorrupt, magnificently complete with all its fingers".

In the church of St. Vincent de Paul, on the high altar, is a statue of the gent for whom the church was named.

In the church of Our Lady of Antipolo is a statue of this lady in a shrine of solid silver.

In the church of Pandacan is a beautiful image of the child Jesus.

In the church of Tondo is another beautiful image of the child Jesus.

In the church of Quiapo is a life-size figure of the Black Christ, bearing the cross.

On account of the fact that all the heathen in Asia worship images, everybody will feel at home, is the thought.

The Sydney (N.S.W.) Catholic Herald contains a letter from The Daughters of Mary, New York, in which the latter say of St. Bernadette,

Apart from a few relics which were taken for the Holy Father and for Lourdes, without disturbing the integrity of the body, we have been able to get only a few small pieces of the incorrupt flesh of the saint. That is why we have to be so economical of these precious relics taken from the flesh of the saint herself.

Now if that wouldn't put a stop to the cuckoo in your grandmother's clock, won't you name something that will?

The Catholic Register tells about how Rose of Lima became a saint. She was said to be naturally very beautiful but cut off her hair (as all nuns are required to do, so it can be turned into cash for the "church"), rubbed her face with pepper to produce blotches, and blistered her hands with lime so she could not touch anything for a month. In due time she was "sainted".

For translating the Bible into English, so that every plowboy in England might read it, William Tyndale was first strangled and then burned at the stake at Vilvorde, near Brussels, Belgium, October 6, 1536. How the Hierarchy does love the Bible!

An American girl went to "church" (guess the "church"), and this is a word-for-word report of what she says took place:

On entering the building, all started bowing and scraping, before taking their seats. A bell rang and then a guy came out, with about three nightgowns on, and a lot of gold braid. They then had a procession which was a combination of a circus parade on a small scale, with a goose-step motif. After this the guy officiating had a book on a stand, with two little boys in front. He bowed and bobbed and muttered for three-quarters of an hour. Every time he changed directions a bell rang. Finally two little boys came (also in nightgowns) with two silver goblets, and filled them with wine. The guy poured both into a gold one and drank the lot. Then another bell rang and he said "Amen" and every one scrammed for the door.

The profits of righteousness are set forth by the Catholic magazine Light. It tells how to put on a public religious show in a park. In an illuminating and amusing paragraph about the use of religious junk in places of recreation that belong to the public, and are maintained by the public, it says:

The only effort required was that of taking them down from the walls of the church and transporting them to the park. The local newspapers were informed of the event, and not less than a dozen photographers were present while the devotion was in progress.

At Oneonta, New York, a man's baby was crying. This peeved him and he grabbed it, and the baby bit him. He thereupon shook it to death. Nice father; something like that "holy father" that turned the Moors loose on his own professed children at Badajoz and Malaga and numerous other places in Spain, including Madrid. Probably the man's defense will be the same as the pope's—that his children, by some strange freak, are Communists, and therefore, of right, ought to die.

(Continued on page 434) "Father Richard Felix"

ORDINARILY Casey's Irish Catholic Register, Kansas City, Mo., is unworthy of notice. Its issue of January 21, 1937, however, contains such a tissue of typical Roman Catholic editorial lies that it seems worth while to give it a few moments' passing attention. The following are the headlines of the article in question: "Father Richard Felix Meets Challenge of Rutherford. Native Missouri Benedictine Asks Catholic Societies to Sponsor His Broadcasts on Radio Stations in Different Sections of Country. Bigot's Attacks Best Answered by Plain Statement of Church's Position. Cites Far-Flung Anti-Catholic Activities of 'Jehovah's Witnesses'."

For simon-pure bigotry, cowardice and general cry-baby inability to take it on the chin the Roman Catholic editors of America are at the foot of the class of American manhood, and Casey, of the Irish Catholic Register, is at the tail-end of the line.

Trying to induce Casey of the Irish Catholic Register to render any act of justice or truth would be like trying to cleanse a sewer with a toothbrush; but because he plays up "Father Richard Felix", and in so doing misrepresents Judge Rutherford and all of Jehovah's witnesses (including this paper), and because priests are supposed to have some measure of common honesty and decency in their make-up (although it often happens that such is not the case), The Golden Age wrote Mr. Felix the following, which will, no doubt, be of interest to some, and will explain to others the significance of the colossal lie that "Father Felix Meets Challenge . . .".

3-10-37

Mr. Richard Felix,

Pilot Grove, Mo.

Sir:

In the Catholic Register of January 21 appears an article entitled, "Father Richard Felix Meets Challenge of Rutherford." While the heading creates a false impression, to the effect that here is a response to Judge Rutherford's eminently fair proposal that certain debatable subjects be considered, the article itself dispels that impression entirely. As you know, the petition calling for a debate was signed by 2,630,000 persons, and the proposal was that this debate be held over a nation-wide hook-up of radio stations, some member of the Catholic Hierarchy being appointed to represent them. It is obvious that if you are "meeting the challenge" in any sense, the method is inadequate, slow, suspicious and unconvincing. If you are anxious for "Catholic Action", why not urge the acceptance of the challenge for debate and have a nation-wide hook-up? The fact that the Hierarchy will not come out in the open necessarily makes honest people wonder why their hesitancy.

You state that Judge Rutherford is an "ex-convict". This, as you know, is a lie. The Hierarchy, together with the other clergy, framed Judge Rutherford and caused his imprisonment, using the World War as a pretext, in 1918. The case was reversed and the government dismissed it. That leaves Judge Rutherford's record as clear as that of anyone in America. The "framing" of Judge Rutherford has become a boomerang and the clergy are now howling, just as the prophet said they would do, in Jeremiah 25:34, 35: "Howl ye shepherds and cry . . . for the days of your slaughter . . . are accomplished; and ye shall fall . . . and . . . have no way to escape."

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