Whoever passes in Germany from a Roman Catholic to a Protestant principality, in Switzerland from a Roman Catholic to a Protestant canton, in Ireland from a Roman Catholic to a Protestant county, finds that he has passed from a lower to a higher grade of civilisation. On the other side of the Atlantic the same law prevails. The Protestants of the United States have left far behind them the Roman Catholics of Mexico, Peru, and Brazil. The Roman Catholics of Lower Canada remain inert, while the whole continent round them is in a ferment with Protestant activity and enterprise.
The sixteenth century was comparatively a time of light. Yet even in the sixteenth century a considerable number of those who quitted the old religion followed the first confident and plausible guide who offered himself, and were soon led into errors far more serious than those which they had renounced. Thus Matthias and Kniperdoling, apostles of lust, robbery, and murder, were able for a time to rule great cities. In a darker age such false prophets might have founded empires; and Christianity might have been distorted into a cruel and licentious superstition, more noxious, not only than Popery, but even than Islamism.
Excerpt From
Thomas Babington Macaulay
1st Baron (1800–59), English historian, essayist, and philanthropist. Notable works: The Lays of Ancient Rome (1842) and History of England (1849–61).
“The History of England, from the Accession of James II — Volume 1”
The pretence of the Church of England is incomparable. How it or any other street vendor of magic imagined that its product was superlative to that of any other retailer I shall never know. The Church of England does at least score points for pushing its product at all costs including name calling and murder. The Crusades were a British upperclass pastime equivalent to fox hunting or merely the political necessity for grabbing votes for good behaviour. The presumption that the Church of England is solely responsible for the preservation of the even more superstitious product called Christianity is unforgiveable. From what I have read of the History of England, those who practiced one or the other religious mysticisms were doing so purely for the purpose of legislative control and popular dominion. It was an occupation from the top down, from king to serf, and equally indiscriminate in all other aspects. The Church of England had its own version of drag shows used to ornament the rubbish they muttered in unintelligible language and repetitive monologues. I will however give them credit for architecture and painting; but otherwise the entire fabrication did nothing but bore people or encourage them to hate others of dissimilar persausion.
I believe we have now long passed the social ceremony of confining ourselves to useless exchanges to cover our intentional views. The calculated misbehaviour of religious advocates is no longer endurable as a mere point of view. If people wish to manufacture entitlement based upon liturgy and insight into the universal void, they are welcome to practice the entertainment at the local circus. But invalidating intelligence and truly unimaginable forces by rote and preposterous allusions is nothing short of vulgar and narrow-minded.