Note 1064 — Chapter II · THE ROMAN EMPIRE UNDER ANASTASIUS: THE INHERITANCE OF JUSTINIAN (continued 2)

In the daily press of March 15, 1896, we read the utterance of a R. C. prelate when speaking of the Anglican clergy: “Do they claim the power to produce the actual living Jesus Christ by transubstantiation on the altar, according to the claims of the priesthood of the Eastern and Western Churches?” Persons who address a public audience in the Metropolis in this manner are not considered to be insane nor are they classed as charlatans. Concomitantly with such proceedings we find that the greatest of English encyclopaedias is published with introductory articles in which it is allowed that the old religion is now a mere phantasm on the stage of reality. At the present moment every form of religious belief rests secure and stable on the broad back of popular ignorance; and it remains for posterity in ages to come to solve the problem as to how long humanity will have to wait for the evolution of that elevation of mind which will decline to pay the tribute of hypocrisy and reticence for the assurance of a stipend.