A New Witness for God (Volume 1 of 3) — John Shaqi
A New Witness for God (Volume 1 of 3)Roberts, B. H. (Brigham Henry)
Religion
A New Witness for God (Volume 1 of 3)
Roberts, B. H. (Brigham Henry)
Latter Day Saint churches
Finally, through the mutual jealousy and ambition of the bishops of
Rome and Constantinople, a controversy arose which, in the ninth
century, resulted in a great and lasting division of Christendom into
two great ecclesiastical bodies; viz., the Greek Catholic or Eastern
Church, and the Roman Catholic or Western Church. In the Western Church
the secular or civil power continued to be regarded as subordinate to
ecclesiastical authority, a sort of convenient instrument to execute
the decrees of the church. Hence Roman Catholic Christianity drew to
itself all that prestige in the propagation of its doctrines which
comes from the authority and support of the state; and though the power
of the state was held to be subordinate to that of the church, no
one who has read our Christian annals can help being struck with the
importance of the civil power as a factor in the propagation of Roman
Catholic Christianity. The barbarous peoples who came in contact with
the Christian nations, were often compelled to accept the so-called
Christian religion as one of the terms of capitulation; and the fear
of the sword often eked out the arguments of the priests, and was
generally much more effective.
I think it proper that the above statement should be emphasized by the
following proofs:
"In the year 772, A. D., Charlemagne, king of the Franks, undertook
to tame, and to withdraw from idolatry, the extensive nation of the
Saxons, who occupied a large portion of Germany, and were almost
perpetually at war with the Franks, respecting their boundaries and
other things; for he hoped that if their minds could become imbued
with the Christian doctrines, they would gradually lay aside their
ferocity, and learn to yield submission to the empire of the Franks.
The first attack upon their heathenism produced little effect, being
made not with the force of arms, but by some bishops and monks whom
the victor had left for that purpose among the vanquished nation. But
much better success attended the subsequent wars which Charlemagne
undertook, in the years 775, 776, and 780, A D., against that heroic
people, so fond of liberty, and so impatient, especially of sacerdotal
domination. For in these assaults, not only rewards, but also the sword
and punishments were so successfully applied upon those adhering to
the superstition of their ancestors, that they reluctantly ceased from
resistance, and allowed the doctors whom Charles employed to administer
to them Christian baptism. Widekind and Albion, indeed, who were two
of the most valiant Saxon chiefs, renewed their former insurrections;
and attempted to prostrate again by violence and war, that Christianity
which had been set up by violence. But the martial courage, and the
liberality of Charles at length brought them, in the year 785, solemnly
to declare that they were Christians, and would continue to be so. *
* * The Huns inhabiting Pannonia, were treated the same way as the
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