Page:The Net of Faith.pdf/179

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74

He little respected the Church doctors and saints used by the Romanists to bolster up their patristic edifice of power. Albertus Magnus, the most respected medieval authority of ecclesiastical learning, he called "that loudly howling Albertus,78 and he was not much more flattering to St. Augustine to whom he often referred to as that pillar standing in Rome."79 He felt that it was St. Augustine who was the most responsible for providing the Roman Church with a theology of ecclesiastical imperialism:

That great pillar of the Church of Rome which supports her strongly that she may not fall, gave to the gospel the spirit of a sharp sword. . .80

But the greatest sin the Church has committed is her alliance with the state and with the secular methods of power,81 institutionalism,82 and coërcion.83

The Church of Rome has allied herself with the state, and now they both drink together the blood of Christ, one from a chalice, and the other from the ground where it was spilled by the sword.84

The Christians have fallen short of the ideal and and the only remedy is to obey the Inner Light which comes of the grace of God.


78 Chap. 76, p.229*

79 Chap.XL, p.170*.

80 Chap.XL, p-.169*

81 pp.142*, 192* et passim.

82 pp.75*, 202*, 212*.

83 p.196* et passim.

84 Chap.XCI, p.256*.