Religion

This book is dedicated in all seriousness to rabbis, priests and ministers, in the hope that it may bring them to realize the fraud they are perpetrating by preaching the Bible as the Word of God, and as a moral and intellectual guide for or the human race.

Our ancestors have been visited with unmeasured reproach for their conduct on the occasion. Sad, indeed, was the delusion that came over them, and shocking the extent to which their bewildered imaginations and excited passions hurried and drove them on. Still, however, many considerations deserve to be well weighed before sentence is passed upon them.

Ignatius, who also called himself Theophorus ("bearer of God"), was most likely a disciple of both Apostles Peter and John. Ignatius is generally considered to be one of the Apostolic Fathers (the earliest authoritative group of the Church Fathers) and a saint by both the Roman Catholics, who celebrate his feast day on October 17, and the Orthodox and Eastern Catholic churches, who celebrate his feast day on December 20. Ignatius based his authority on living his life in imitation of Christ.

The object of this work is not a desire to create or annihilate such or such a system to favor any particular religion or creed, more or less prominent in our age; its sole object is to commune with men who, like me, seek the truth with all the strength of their soul, Pursue the track wherein I believe it to be, and you will find it. Be prudent; admit, reject nlaught without mature examination, and what you do not comprehend never proclaim to be impossible!

A day will come when the European God of the nineteenth century will be classed with the gods of Olympus and the Nile; when surplices and sacramental plate will be exhibited in museums; when nurses will relate to children the legends of the Christian mythology as they now tell them fairy tales.

The excuse for writing another history of the Reformation is the need for putting that movement in its proper relations to the economic and intellectual revolutions of the sixteenth century. The labor of love necessary for the accomplishment of this task has employed most of my leisure for the last six years and has been my companion through vicissitudes of sorrow and of joy.