Thirty-seven Italian Cardinals,[2] proud and arrogant, rule the Church, elect the Pope, and assume dictatorship of the earth, as also arbiters of human destiny, here and hereafter. America, the corn-bin of this modern Egypt, by courtesy has _one cardinal_, just to keep her in countenance. The effrontery is cyclopean, but our supineness and indifference are deplorable and inexcusable. Shipping her impoverished, degraded, criminal, and priest-ridden hordes to America by the million every year, Rome is massing her army for the overthrow of our government and all our present civilization. With her dogma of obedience, her army now _votes_ and will, by and by, _fight_ under the dictatorship of the Cardinals at Rome. Already undermining our Public Free Schools, boycotting the public press, with their army of Jesuit spies and secret assassins of every liberty prized by man, the "merry war" goes on right under our eyes, and we sleep and dream and blindly assume that "there is no danger." Read the history of the Crusaders, of the Protestant Reformation and of the "Holy Inquisition," and if further enlightenment is needed, study the origin, history, and denouement of all the Avatars of the past, the fate of Egypt, the cities of the plain, where paganism and a degenerate priesthood usurped the place of pure and undefiled religion, and literally wiped from the map of the world the civilizations of the past. _Nemesis_ is written in letters of flame across the starry heavens, as an atonement for the blood of nations and the degeneracy and diabolism of an ambitious, cruel, relentless, and unrestrained priesthood. And it is all being literally repeated to-day without the novelty of a new idea, or method, or device, or motive. It is _The Reincarnation of the Avatar of Siva, the Destroyer_. ----- [2] At the death of Pope Leo there were 65 Cardinals, 39 of whom were Italians. CHAPTER XII PORTENTS OF THE PRESENT TIME There is no disguising nor denying the fact that during the past half century institutional religion in the West has steadily lost its hold upon the great mass of the people. Creeds and dogmas are denied and repudiated. The "higher criticism" represents the reluctant yielding of theologians to the existing conditions. In order to maintain any hold whatever upon the people and retain a semblance of the old faith, they have revised and modified beliefs and interpretations, and relaxed completely the former demand for the confession of faith and acceptance of the old creeds. Mere general verbal assent admitting of many mental reservations is now often deemed sufficient. In the meantime, the living of the life and the doing of the work demanded by Jesus have come more and more into demand and general recognition. The "Emmanuel Movement," now gaining such recognition and making such rapid progress, is sufficient evidence at this point.