Thomas Paine Quotes
The Vatican is a dagger in the heart of Italy.
Guiseppe Garibaldi, 1807-1882, Italian Patriot, General & Politician, 1862
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The Holy Roman Emperor and the Pope were at odds. The Pope had issued an edict staking out the powers of the Pope. King Henry called a conclave of clerics and deposed Pope Leo VII. The Pope Excommunicated Henry and deposed him as king and emperor. Civil war ensued, and finally they reached a compromise and accommodation with each other." Saint Hildebrand
The Vatican & the Chinese Communist Government had been at odds for years with much of the Chinese church going underground. Fr. Jin had been jailed for a decade. Then the government allowed him and the Catholic Church and operate openly, but there were still Vatican conflicts over numerous issues including the right of the Government to approve senior appointments of church officials—a privilege the church claimed exclusively. The Vatican ordered Jin not to cooperate and especially not to reopen the national theological seminary which the government had ordered closed. There had been no training for Chinese priests and Jin wanted to reopen the national theological seminary but the Vatican refused cooperation waiting for the government to capitulate to the Vatican’s various demands. Fr. Jin defied the Vatican & reopened the seminary. Without officially admitting their failed tactics, the Vatican let the discipline issue against Jin drop & the national theological seminary thrived.
Wycliffe, although a Roman Catholic, was an early reformist. He not only opposed the Pope vis a vis King Edward of England, but he went against church doctrine and printed the first English Bible. He was burned at the stake.
The relationship between Irish Catholics and the organized priesthood has at times been contentious. Forced tithing to support clergy in a lifestyle that was greater than average, together with some corrupt priests and monks produced hostility from even many Catholics.
At the time the Pope had secular, diplomatic relationship with many of the states of Europe:
This notice of Excommunication was promulgated to the Catholic clergy in Ireland in May of 1538. It required all Roman Catholic leaders to size the property of Protestants or Catholics who sympathized with them. Those who did were then regarded as traitors by the Protestant King. The anti-Protestant feeling culminated with the massacre of about 100 Protestants who were drowned in Bann a few years later.
Of all the Western Colonial Powers, Spain was the worst. They took the most from their possessions and contributed the least. Worst, they killed off almost all the indigenous people.
Thomas Paine was an English-born American political activist, philosopher, political theorist, and revolutionary. He authored Common Sense (1776) and The American Crisis (1776–1783), the two most influential pamphlets at the start of the American Revolution, and helped inspire the patriots in 1776 to declare independence from Great Britain. His ideas reflected Enlightenment-era ideals of transnational human rights. Historian Saul K. Padover described him as "a corsetmaker by trade, a journalist by profession, and a propagandist by inclination".
