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The Champions of the Church:
Their Crimes and Persecutions
By
 T
De Robigne Mortimer Bennett
Editor of "The Truth Seeker." author of "The World's Sages, Thinkers, and Reformers," "ThirtyDiscussions, Bible Stories, Essays, and Lectures," "Interrogatories to Jehovah," "What I Don'tBelieve; What I Do Believe: Why and Wherefore," and joint author of “Christianity andInfidelity — the Humphrey-Bennett Discussion," " The Bennett- Teed Discussion." etc.. etc.,NEW YORKLIBERAL AND SCIENTIFIC PUBLISHING HOUSE,SCIENCE HALL, 141 EIGHTH STREET. 1878
 
INTRODUCTION
 
 THIS
volume is largely a compilation from standard authorities, andconsequently but little claim is set up for originality. Accuracy has been theobject in view, and it has been the aim to strictly follow history, and very fewexcept Christian authorities have been resorted to. A moiety only of thecharacters who have made themselves conspicuous by their crimes andpersecutions have been named; had all been given with the details connectedwith their inglorious careers, a score of volumes the size of this would havescarcely contained the recitals. The more striking cases have been selected.A few of these sketches were written some months before the work was takenin hand in earnest, but the greater portion has been produced in a little overthree months' time. This, with editorial duties (which are not slight), an extensivecorrespondence, together with numerous other claims upon the writer’sattention, has necessitated assistance. The names of the assistants are in somecases appended to the sketches written by them, and thanks for their aid are due.The services of our assistant,
S. H. Preston
, who has aided us largely in the work,we gratefully acknowledge.
 W. S. Bell
contributed the article on “Jesus” and thaton the “Four Evangelists.” Others have aided us in a lesser degree, and to all,thanks are extended.The main purpose of this volume has been to give, briefly and succinctly, anauthentic history of the cruelties and persecutions practiced by distinguishedleaders of the Christian Church in the past sixteen centuries. Nothing has beenexaggerated; all is given as found in the most reliable authorities
.
The first fewarticles are written, not with a view of proving the subjects to have been cruel orbloodthirsty, but rather to show the unreliable nature of the statements madein reference to them. It is unfortunate for Christianity that her reputed foundersand leaders rest under such a cloud of mysticism and uncertainty. It is to behoped the initial chapters will be studied with interest. Before entering upon aconsideration of the founders and champions of Christianity, it will be well,perhaps, to briefly examine the nature of religion, and whence the probableorigin of Christianity.There was a time when the present race of man was without literature andwithout arts, without civilization and without religion. At that early period manwas but a slight remove above the animal, from which, in long courses of ages,he had probably evolved. He was without knowledge, without skill, without alanguage, and with but little intelligence. He lived in caves and holes in theground, and associated on terms of more or less equality with the wild beaststhat surrounded him. With these animals he struggled for subsistence, fleeingfrom those stronger than himself, and pursuing and capturing for his own foodthose that were weaker, or those over which, by superior cunning, he was able toprevail.
 
From this crude, primitive condition man emerged very slowly. He wascompelled to seek for food, and to protect himself from the extremes of heat andcold which alternately oppressed him. Having a brain slightly superior to thelower animals, he gradually obtained a mastery over them. He was able tofashion from stones, the limbs of trees, and the bones of animals such crudeimplements as he needed to slay the beasts he required for food, and ultimatelyto dig a little in the ground to plant such seeds as in time, he learned wereuseful to sustain life.
 
The language used by man at that early period was doubtless crude andimperfect in character, consisting of but few words or sounds, which served toconvey to his fellow –beings the meager ideas he had to impart. As the racespread over the surface of the earth, and became more developed in otherrespects, its language and its intelligence improved, and new dialects graduallycame into use in different localities.At the time when man was but a trifle above the brutes, he had no religion, butas he gradually emerged from that condition, and his intelligence and languagewere developed in a sparing degree, he began to have some religious ideas,though crude and rudimentary. In his primitive ignorance all his ideas were ofthe crudest character. This stage is called
Fetishism
TP
.
Man saw in the clouds, in thewinds, in the tempest, the lightning, in the thunder, in the ocean, in the riversand streams, in the burning sun of summer and the frosts of winter, in thesuperior animals, in the growing forests, and in everything that possessed lifeand motion, powers and capabilities of ministering to his pleasures or his pain,and all these in his infantile imagination he invested with good or bad demons asthe case might be. Everything that added to his pleasure was the work of gooddemons and everything that caused him pain or discomfort was caused by thebad demons. And here was the origin of gods and devils in the humanimagination.The fetish -worshiper thus had innumerable gods and demons, of greater orlesser power, as they contributed to his pleasure or pain. Many varieties ofanimals, plants, and trees he invested with invisible power, and held them asgods whom he could influence and placate by adoration and sacrifice. Heregarded them not as symbols or representatives of invisible powers merely, butcrudely imagined them to be absolute gods. Thus his deities were almost withoutnumber, and they were often so portable that he carried them around with him.Dogs, cats, horses, cattle, sheep, crocodiles, snakes, lizards, toads, birds, fishes,trees, plants, and crudely shaped blocks of wood and stone, served ignorantman for gods ; and how to placate them and secure their good influences in hisbehalf was a source of great anxiety. As he had more pain than pleasure, as theills that befell him were a greater
 
source of dread than all else besides, he readilylearned to fear his gods more than to love them. Thus fear was the parentof religion and worship. How to placate his gods and keep them well disposedtowards him taxed his ingenuity to the utmost. And thus it has been down to the
of 00

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12 / 25 / 2009This doucment made it onto the Rising List!
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This is only one example of the blasphemy found in this article. "...In Phalicism is found the origian of the symbol of the cross, which so many millions have profoundly venerated..."

reply04 / 05 / 2009
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