As a body the church has from the first opposed all progress. As early as the year 414 Bishop Cyril’s mob brained the learned Hypatia in a Christian church, for the heinous crime of teaching mathematics. The Pope and his pious court attempted to prevent the art of printing becoming known in Europe. Copernicus was excommunicated for the sin of announcing the grand truth that the earth revolves round the sun. Galileo rotted in the prison of the Inquisition for daring to say that the earth rotates on its axis. Bruno was burnt at the stake for declaring his belief in the Copernican philosophy. Newton’s theory of gravitation was denounced by the church. Descartes, Kepler, Locke, Laplace and Darwin all were abused and insulted by the holy ones for their heretical writings, which have brought us such blessings. The church opposed the abolition of slavery, both here and in America, the bishops in the House of Lords applauding king George when he said that slavery was a useful institution because it was taught in the holy Bible, and the southern States of the Union appealing to the ‘word of god’ in justification of their cruelty. The burning of witches, taught in the Bible, was vigorously encouraged by the church; and the cruel horrors of the Inquisition are too well known to need description. All measures of reform in our own country have been opposed by bishops and nobles together; the church and the state having aided each other in trampling on the people’s rights, and enslaving both their minds and bodies. In spite of the present very apparent poverty and misery, the people are exhorted by the church to increase and multiply, being told that it is a blessed thing to have one’s quiver full, and that it is wicked to listen to those who preach conjugal prudence, small families, and social thrift. In short the Christian religion has entirely failed in its mission, being a standing menace to all progress, and a cause of unceasing animosity all over Europe.