James Graham Montrose Quotes

[Martin] Luther was guilty of two great crimes. He struck the Pope in his crown and the monks in their bellies.

The chief cause that I fell out with the pope was this: the pope boasted that he was the head of the Church, and condemned all that would not be under his power and authority …. If the pope were the head of the Christian Church, then the Church were a monster with two heads, seeing that St. Paul says that Christ is her head. The pope may well be, and is, the head of the false Church.

I'd like to write a history, maybe of the Reformation.

(People object to education and Christianization of Negroes on the grounds that:) That it would make them less governable; the contrary to which is experimentally known amongst their Neighbours, both French & Spaniards in those parts. Now 'twould be too great a blemish to the Reformation, to suppose that Popery only makes its Converts better, but Protestancy worse; as this Allegation being admitted, it must be granted

Our realm and subjects have been long wanderers, walking astray, whilst they were under the tuition of Romish pastors, who advised them to own a wolf [the Pope] for their head (in lieu of a careful shepherd) whose inventions, heresies and schisms be so numerous, that the flock of Christ have fed on poisonous shrubs for want of wholesome pastures.

Protestantism is nothing else than another form of the true Christian religion through which one can please God as much as through the Catholic Church

A heresy and a new error sprang up in England, through pride, vainglory, avarice, and lust, and through many strange sciences so that the men of England went into opposition to the Pope and to Rome …. New laws and statutes were enacted … They destroyed the orders, namely the monks, canons, nuns …. The broke down the monasteries and sold the roofs and bells…. burned the images, shrines, and relics of the Saints … and burned the staff of Jesus, which was in Dublin, performing miracles since the time of Saint Patrick.

I do affirm I was never, nor am, a popish Recusant—or popishly affected

There is this difference between the Church of Rome and the Church of England: the one professes to be infallible, the other to be never in the wrong.

Christianity is part of the law of England.

The corruption of the people has its chief source in the clergy. From this arise the evils of Christendom: faith perishes, religion is defaced, liberty is restricted, justice is trodden under foot, the heretics multiply, the schismatics are emboldened, the faithless grow strong, the Saracens are victorious.

The Romanists have, with great adroitness, drawn three walls round themselves, with which they have hitherto protected themselves, so that no one could reform them, whereby all Christendom has fallen terribly. Firstly, if pressed by the temporal power, they have affirmed and maintained that the temporal power has no jurisdiction over them, but, on the contrary, that the spiritual power is above the temporal. Secondly, if it were proposed to admonish them with the Scriptures, they objected that no one may interpret the Scriptures but the Pope. Thirdly, if they are threatened with a council, they pretend that no one may call a council but the Pope.

I never heard of these bulls and encyclicals and books.

The ecumenical movement was exceedingly important, if not absolutely essential, to the Vatican's march toward unrestrained power in America. It halted, then blocked, criticism of the Catholic Church by all leading Protestant denominations. This no doubt contributed to the Catholic Church's success in silencing all criticism of the hierarchy's actions in the lay press.

The egotistical Mohammed, to serve his own ends, revised history to discredit known events in order to unite the descendants of Hagar, a slave, who bore Abram his son Ishmael; a child who was not to be of the covenant. In a sense Mohammed was the forerunner of the Protestant pick-and-choose mentality that is now running rampant even in the Catholic Church

Those who claim that the children of the faithful dying without sacramental baptism will not be saved, are stupid and presumptuous in saying this .… Just as Christ is God and man at the same time, so the consecrated host is at the same time the body of Christ and true bread. For it is Christ's body at least in figure and true bread in nature; or, which comes to the same thing, it is true bread naturally and Christ's body figuratively…. Oral confession to a priest, introduced by Pope Innocent, is not as necessary to people as he claimed. For if anyone offends his brother in thought, word or deed, then it suffices to repent in thought, word or deed…. That the pope is supreme pontiff is ridiculous. Christ approved such a dignity neither in Peter nor in anyone else…. The people may withhold tithes, offerings and other private alms from unworthy disciples of Christ.

As to the matter of relics, it is almost incredible how impudently the world has been cheated. I can mention three relics of our Saviour's circumcision; likewise fourteen nails which are exhibited for the three by which he was fixed to the cross; three robes for that seamless one on which the soldiers cast lots; two inscriptions that were placed over the cross; three spears by which our Saviour's side was pierced, and about five sets of linen clothes which wrapped his body in the tomb. Besides, they show all the articles used at the institution of the Lord's supper, and an infinite number of similar impositions. There is no saint of any celebrity of whom two or three bodies are not in existence. I can name the place where a piece of pumice stone was long held in high veneration as the skull of Peter

And in order to leave no occasion for troubles or differences between our subjects, we have permitted, and herewith permit, those of the said religion pretended Reformed to live and abide in all the cities and places of this our kingdom and countries of our sway, without being annoyed, molested, or compelled to do anything in the matter of religion contrary to their consciences

The Romanists have affirmed and maintained that the temporal power has no jurisdiction over them, but, on the contrary, that the spiritual power is above the temporal.

I do further declare him or her, father or mother, brother or sister, son or daughter, husband or wife, uncle or aunt, nephew or niece, kinsman or kinswoman, master or mistress, and all others, nearest or dearest relations, friend or acquaintance whatsoever, accursed, that either do or shall hold, for the time to come, any ecclesiastical or civil power above the authority of the Mother Church; or that do or shall obey, for the time to come, any of her, the Mother of Churches' opposers or enemies

All priests whatsoever made and ordained by any authority derived or pretended to be derived from the see of Rome shall, before the tenth day of December, depart out of the kingdom of Ireland.

This war is undertaken for the defense of the Catholic religion against the heretics …. We are warring against a she-tyrant who has deservedly lost her royal power by refusing to listen to Christ in the person of her vicar and through to subject Christ’s Church to her feminine sex on matters of faith.

I am not sure I can make clear what it means to say I come from the Catholic side of Protestantism, but at the very least, it means that I do not think Christianity began with the Reformation.

When the problems in Northern Ireland started, it was not a question of Protestantism or Catholicism, because the Catholic church was the only church at that time-it was a nationalist conflict.

The three great elements of modern civilization, Gun powder, Printing, and the Protestant religion.