His irons in ecclesiastical, political, social and commercial fires were innumerable. The doctrine of the indivisibility of Church and State had in him an able champion--but only because he thereby found a sure means of increasing his prestige and augmenting his power and wealth. His methods of work manifested keenness, subtlety, shrewdness and skill. His rewards were lavish. His punishments, terrible. The latter smacked of the Inquisition: he preferred torture to quick despatch.
It had not taken Wenceslas long to estimate the character of the newcomer, Jose. Nor was he slow to perceive that this liberal pietist was cast in an unusual mold. Polity necessitated the cultivation of Jose, as it required the friendship--or, in any event, the thorough apprais.e.m.e.nt--of every one with whom Wenceslas might be a.s.sociated.
But the blandishments, artifice, diplomacy and hints of advancements which he poured out in profusion upon Jose he early saw would fail utterly to penetrate the armor of moral reserve with which the priest was clad, or effect in the slightest degree the impression which they were calculated to make.
In the course of time the priest became irritating; later, annoying; and finally, positively dangerous to the ambitions of Wenceslas. For, to ill.u.s.trate, Jose had once discovered him, in the absence of the Bishop, celebrating Ma.s.s in a state of inebriation. This irritated.
Wenceslas had only been careless. Again, Jose had several times shown himself suspicious of his fast-and-loose methods with the rival political factions of Cartagena. This was annoying. Finally, he had come upon Jose in the market place a few weeks prior, in earnest conference with Marcelena and the girl, Maria; and subsequent conversation with him developed the fact that the priest had other dark suspicions which were but too well founded. This was dangerous.
It was high time to prepare for possible contingencies.
And so, in due time, carefully wording his hint that Padre Jose de Rincon might be a Radical spy in the ecclesiastical camp, Wenceslas found means to obtain from Rome a fairly comprehensive account of the priest"s past history. He mused over this until an idea suddenly occurred to him, namely, the similarity of this account with many of the pa.s.sages which he had found in a certain book, "The Confessions of a Roman Catholic Priest"--a book which had cast the shadow of distrust upon Wenceslas himself in relation to certain matters of ecclesiastical politics in Colombia nearly three years before, and at a most unfortunate time. Indeed, this sudden, unheralded exposure had forced him to a hurried recasting of certain cherished plans, and drawn from him a burning, unquenchable desire to lay his pious hands upon the writer.
His influence with Rome at length revealed the secret of the wretched book"s authorship. And from the moment that he learned it, Jose"s fate was sealed. The crafty politician laughed aloud as he read the priest"s history. Then he drew his plans and waited. But in the interim he made further investigations; and these he extended far back into the ancestral history of this unfortunate scion of the once powerful house of Rincon.
Meantime, a few carefully chosen words to the Bishop aroused a dull interest in that quarter. Jose had been seen mingling freely with men of very liberal political views. It would be well to warn him. Again, weeks later, Wenceslas was certain, from inquiries made among the students, that Jose"s work in the cla.s.sroom bordered a trifle too closely on radicalism. It were well to admonish him. And, still later, happening to call at Jose"s quarters just above his own in the ecclesiastical dormitory, and not finding him in, he had been struck by the absence of crucifix or other religious symbol in the room. Was the young priest becoming careless of his example?
And now, on this important feast-day, where was Padre Jose? On the preceding evening, as Wenceslas leaned over the parapet of the wall after his surprise by Jose, he had noted in the dim light the salient features of a foreigner who, he had just learned, was registered at the Hotel Mariano from the United States. Moreover, Wenceslas had just come from Jose"s room, whither he had gone in search of him, and--may the Saints pardon his excess of holy zeal which impelled him to examine the absent priest"s effects!--he had returned now to the Bishop bearing a copy of Renan"s _Vie de Jesus_, with the American"s name on the flyleaf. It certainly were well to admonish Padre Jose again, and severely!
The Bishop, hardly to the surprise of his crafty coadjutor, flew into a towering rage. He was a man of irascible temper, bitterly intolerant, and unreasoningly violent against all unbelievers, especially Americans whose affairs brought them to Colombia. In this respect he was the epitome of the ecclesiastical anti-foreign sentiment which obtained in that country. His intolerance of heretics was such that he would gladly have bound his own kin to the stake had he believed their opinions unorthodox. Yet he was thoroughly conscientious, a devout churchman, and saturated with the beliefs of papal infallibility and the divine origin of the Church. In the observance of church rites and ceremonies he was unremitting. In the soul-burning desire to witness the conversion of the world, and especially to see the lost children of Europe either coaxed or beaten back into the embrace of Holy Church, his zeal amounted to fanaticism.
In the present case--
"Your Eminence," suggested the suave Wenceslas to his exasperated superior, "may I propose that you defer action until I can discover the exact status of this American?"
And the Bishop forthwith placed the whole matter in his trusted a.s.sistant"s helpful hands.
Meantime, Jose and the American explorer sat in the shade of a magnificent palm on a high hill in beautiful Turbaco, looking out over the shimmering sea beyond. For Hitt had wandered into the _Plaza de Coches_ just as Jose was taking a carriage, and the latter could not well refuse his proffered companionship for the day. Yet Jose feared to be seen in broad daylight with this stranger, and he involuntarily murmured a _Loado sea Dios_! when they reached Turbaco, as he believed, un.o.bserved. He did not know that a sharp-eyed young novitiate, whom Wenceslas had detailed to keep the priest under surveillance, had hurried back to his superior with the report of Jose"s departure with the _Americano_ on this innocent pleasure jaunt.
"Say no more, my friend, in apology for your abrupt departure last evening," the explorer urged. "But tell me, rather, about your ill.u.s.trious grandfather who had his country seat in this delightful spot. Why, man! this is paradise. I"ve a notion to come here to live some day."
Jose cast his apprehensions upon the soft ocean breeze, and gave himself up to the inspiriting influence of his charming environment.
He dwelt at length upon the Rincon greatness of mediaeval days, and expressed the resolve sometime to delve into the family records which he knew must be hidden away in the moldering old city of Cartagena.
"But now," he concluded, after another reference to the Church, "is Colombia to witness again the horror of those days of carnage? And over the human mind"s interpretation of the Christ? G.o.d forbid!"
The American shook his head dubiously. "There is but one remedy--education. Not sectarian, partisan, worldly education--not instruction in relative truths and the chaff of materialistic speculation--but that sort of education whereby the selfish human mind is lifted in a measure out of itself, out of its petty jealousies and envyings, out of sneaking graft and touting for worldly emolument, and into a sense of the eternal truth that real prosperity and soundness of states and inst.i.tutions are to be realized only when the Christ-principle, "Love thy neighbor as thyself," is made the measure of conduct. There is a tremendous truth which has long since been demonstrated, and yet which the world is most woefully slow to grasp, namely, that the surest, quickest means of realizing one"s own prosperity and happiness is in that of others--not in a world to come, but right here and now."
"But that means the inauguration of the millennium," protested Jose.
"Well, and why not so?" returned the explorer calmly. "Has not that been the ultimate aim of Christianity, and of all serious effort for reform for the past two thousand years? And, do you know, the millennium could be ushered in to-morrow, if men only thought so?
Within an incredibly short time evil, even to death itself, could be completely wiped off the earth. But this wiping-off process must take place in the minds and thoughts of men. Of that I am thoroughly convinced. But, tell me, have you ever expressed to the Bishop your views regarding the condition of this country?"
Jose flushed. "Yes," he replied in embarra.s.sment. "Only a week ago I tried again to convince him of the inevitable trend of events here unless drastic measures were interposed by the Church. I had even lectured on it in my cla.s.ses."
"Well, what did he say?"
"The Bishop is a man of very narrow vision," replied Jose. "He rebuked me severely and truculantly bade me confine my attention to the particular work a.s.signed me and let affairs of politics alone. Of course, that meant leaving them to his a.s.sistant, Wenceslas. Mr. Hitt, Colombia needs a Luther!"
"Just so," returned the explorer gravely. "Priestcraft from the very earliest times has been one of the greatest curses of mankind. Its abuses date far back to Egyptian times, when even prost.i.tution was countenanced by the priests, and when they practiced all sorts of impostures upon the ignorant ma.s.ses. In the Middle Ages they turned Christianity, the richest of blessings, into a snare, a delusion, a rank farce. They arrogated to themselves all learning, all science. In Peru it was even illicit for any one not belonging to the n.o.bility to attempt to acquire learning. That was the sole privilege of priests and kings. In all nations, from the remotest antiquity, and whether civilized or not, learning has been claimed by the priests as the unique privilege of their caste--a privilege bestowed upon them by the special favor of the ruling deity. That"s why they always sought to surround their intellectual treasures with a veil of mystery. Roger Bacon, the English monk, once said that it was necessary to keep the discoveries of the philosophers from those unworthy of knowing them.
How did he expect a realization of "Thy kingdom come," I wonder?"
"They didn"t expect it to come--on earth," said Jose.
"No. They relegated that to the imagined realm which was to be entered through the gateway of death. It"s mighty convenient to be able to relegate your proofs to that mysterious realm beyond the grave. That has always been a tremendous power in the hands of priests of all times and lands. By the way, did you know that the story of Abel"s a.s.sa.s.sination was one of many handed down, in one form or another, by the priests of India and Egypt?"
"Do you mean it?" inquired Jose eagerly.
"Certainly. The story doubtless comes from the ancient Egyptian tale which the priests of that time used to relate regarding the murder of Osiris by his brother, Set. It was a deed of jealousy. The story later became incorporated into the sacred books of India and Egypt, and was afterward taken over by the Hebrews, when they were captives in Egypt. The Hebrews learned much of Egyptian theology, and their own religion was greatly tinctured by it subsequently. The legend of the deluge, for example, is another tradition of those primitive days, and credited by the nations of antiquity. But here there is the likelihood of a connection with the great cataclysm of antiquity, the disappearance of the island of Atlantis in consequence of a violent earthquake and volcanic action. This alleged island, supposed to be a portion of the strip at one time connecting South America with Africa, is thought to have sunk beneath the waters of the present Atlantic ocean some nine thousand years before Solon visited Egypt, and hence, some eleven thousand years ago. Anyway, the story of this awful catastrophe got into the Egyptian records in the earliest times, and was handed down to the Hebrews, who probably based their story of the flood upon it. You see, there is a foundation of some sort for all those legends in the book of Genesis.
The difficulty has been that humanity has for centuries childishly accepted them as historical fact. For example, the serpent story.
Now in very primitive times the serpent was the special emblem of Kneph, the creator of the world, and was regarded as a sort of good genius. It is still so regarded by the Chinese, who make of it one of their most beautiful symbols, the dragon. Later it became the emblem of Set, the slayer of Osiris; and after that it was looked upon with horror as the enemy of mankind, the destroyer, the evil principle. Hence, in Egypt, the Hebrew captives adopted the serpent as emblematical of evil, and later used it in their scriptural records as the evil genius that tempted Eve and brought about the fall of man. And so all people whose religious beliefs are founded upon the Hebrew Bible now look upon the serpent as the symbol of evil. Jews, Christians, and Mohammedans thus regard it."
Jose gazed at the man with rapt interest. "Don"t stop!" he urged. "Go on! go on!"
Hitt laughed. "Well," he resumed, "the tree and the serpent were worshiped all through eastern countries, from Scandinavia to the Asiatic peninsula and down into Egypt. And, do you know, we even find vestiges of such worship in America? Down in Adams county, Ohio, on the banks of Brush creek, there is a great mound, called the serpent mound. It is seven hundred feet long, and greatly resembles the one in Glen Feechan, Argyleshire, Scotland. It also resembles the one I found in the ancient city of Tiahuanuco, whose ruins lie at an elevation of some thirteen thousand feet above the Pacific ocean, on the sh.o.r.es of Lake t.i.ticaca, near the Bolivian frontier. This ancient city ages ago sent out colonists all over North and South America. These primitive people believed that a serpent emitted an egg from its mouth, and that the earth was born of that egg. Now the serpent mound in Ohio has an egg in its mouth. What is the logical inference?"
"You don"t mean it!" exclaimed Jose, his eyes wide with astonishment.
Hitt laughed again in evident enjoyment of the priest"s wonder. Then he resumed: "It has been established to my entire satisfaction that the ancient Egyptians and the Mayas of Central and South America used almost identical symbols. And from all antiquity, and by all nations, the symbols of the tree and serpent and their worship have been so closely identified as to render it certain that their origin is the same. What, then, are the serpent and tree of knowledge in the Hebrew Bible but an outgrowth of this? The tree of life, of civilization, of knowledge, was placed in the middle of the land, of the "garden," of the primitive country of the race, Mayax. And the empire of the Mayas was situated between the two great continents of North and South America. These people spread out in all directions. They populated the then existing island of Atlantis. And when the terrible earthquake occurred, whereby this island was sunk beneath the waves of the Atlantic ocean, why, to these people the world had been drowned! The story got to Egypt, to Chaldea, and to India. Hence the deluge record of Genesis."
"But, these primitive people, how ancient are they?" queried Jose.
"No one can form any adequate estimate," said Hitt in reply. "The wonderful city of Tiahuanuco was in ruins when Manco Capac laid the foundations of the Inca empire, which was later devastated by the Spaniards. And the Indians told the Spaniards that it had been constructed by giants before the sun shone in heaven."
"Astonishing!" exclaimed Jose. "Such facts as these--if facts they be--relegate much of the Scriptural authority to the realm of legend and myth!"
"Quite so," returned the explorer. "When the human mind of this century forces itself to approach a subject without prejudice or bias, and without the desire to erect or maintain a purely human inst.i.tution at whatever cost to world-progress, then it finds that much of the hampering, fettering dogma of mediaevalism now laid upon it by the Church becomes pure fiction, without justifiable warrant or basis.
Remember, the Hebrew people gave us the Old Testament, in which they had recorded for ages their tribal and national history, their poetry, their beliefs and hopes, as well as their legends, gathered from all sources. We have likewise the historical records of other nations. But the Hebrew possessed one characteristic which differentiated him from all other people. He was a monotheist, and he saw his G.o.d in every thing, every event, every place. His concept of G.o.d was his life-motif. This concept evolved slowly, painfully, throughout the centuries. The ancient Hebrew patriarchs saw it as a variable G.o.d, changeful, fickle, now violently angry, now humbly repentant, now making contracts with mankind, now petulantly destroying His own handiwork. He was a G.o.d who could order the slaughter of innocent babes, as in the book of Samuel; or He was a tender, merciful Father, as in the Psalms. He could harden hearts, wage b.l.o.o.d.y wars, walk with men "in the cool of the day," create a universe with His fist, or spend long days designing and devising the material utensils and furniture of sacrifice to be used in His own worship. In short, men saw in Him just what they saw in themselves. They saw but their mental concept. The Bible records humanity"s changing, evolving concept of G.o.d, of that "something not ourselves which makes for righteousness."
And this concept gradually changed from the magnified G.o.d-man of the Old Testament, a creature of human whims and pa.s.sions, down to that held by the man of Nazareth, a new and beautiful concept of G.o.d as love. This new concept Jesus joyously gave to a sin-weary world that had utterly missed the mark. But it cost him his earthly life to do it. And the dark record of the so-called Christian Church, both Protestant and Catholic, contains the name of many a one who has paid the same penalty for a similar service of love.
"The Chaldeans and Egyptians," he went on, after a moment"s reflective pause, "gave the Hebrews their account of the creation of the universe, the fall of man, the flood, and many other bits of mythical lore. And into these stories the Hebrews read the activity of their G.o.d, and drew from them deep moral lessons. Egypt gave the Hebrews at least a part of the story of Joseph, as embodied in the hieroglyphics which may be read on the banks of the Nile to-day. They probably also gave the Hebrews the account of the creation found in the second chapter of Genesis, for to this day you can see in some of the oldest Egyptian temples pictures of the G.o.ds making men out of lumps of clay.
The discovery of the remains of the "Neanderthal man" and the "Ape-man of Java" now places the dawn of human reason at a period some three to five hundred thousand years prior to our present century, and, combined with the development of the science of geology, which shows that the total age of the earth"s stratified rocks alone cannot be much less than fifty-five millions of years, serves to cast additional ridicule upon the Church"s present att.i.tude of stubborn adherence to these prehistoric scriptural legends as literal, G.o.d-given fact. But, to make the right use of these legends--well, that is another thing."
"And that?"
The explorer hesitated. "I find it difficult to explain," he said at length. "But, remember what I have already said, there is, there _must_ be, a foundation beneath all these legends which admonish mankind to turn from evil to good. And, as I also said, that foundation must be very broad. I have said that I was in search of a religion. Why not, you may ask, accept the religious standard which Jesus set? That was the new concept of G.o.d as love. Very good. I am quite convinced that love is _the_ religion, _the_ tie which binds all things together and to a common source and cause. And I am equally convinced that Jesus is the only person recorded in history who ever lived a life of pure reflection of the love which he called G.o.d. And so you see why I am chipping and hewing away at the theological conception of the Christ, and trying to get at the reality buried deep beneath in the theological misconceptions of the centuries. I am quite convinced that if men loved one another, as Jesus bade them do, all war, strife, disease, poverty, and discord of every sort would vanish from human experience. But--and here is a serious question--did Jesus ask the impossible? Did he command us to love the sinful, erring mortal whom we see in our daily walk--or did he--did he have a new thought, namely, that by loving the real man, for which, perhaps, this human concept stands in the human mind, _that this very act would change that distorted concept and cause it to yield its place to the real one_? I believe Jesus to have been the wisest man who ever trod this earth. But I likewise believe that no man has ever been more deplorably misunderstood, misquoted, and misinterpreted than he. And so I am delving down, down beneath the ma.s.s of human conjecture and ridiculous hypothesis which the Church Fathers and our own theologians have heaped up over this unique character, if perchance I may some day discover just what he was, just what he really said, and just what the message which he sought to convey to mankind."
He leaned over and laid a hand on Jose"s arm. "My young friend," he said earnestly, "I believe there are meanings in the life and words of Jesus of which the Church in its astounding self-sufficiency has never even dreamed. Did he walk on the water? Did he feed the mult.i.tude with a few loaves? Did he raise Lazarus? Did he himself issue from the tomb? No more momentous questions were ever asked than these. For, if so, _then the message of Jesus has a bearing on the material universe, on the human mind, and the whole realm of thought that is utterly revolutionary_! What was that message? Did the man"s own apostles and immediate followers understand it? Did Paul? Certain we are, however, that the theology which Rome gave to her barbarian conquerors was wholly different from that taught by Jesus and his disciples. And we know that the history of Europe from the fall of the Roman Empire down to the Franco-Prussian war is largely a recital of the development of the religious beliefs which Rome handed down to her conquerors, and their influence upon the human mind. These beliefs const.i.tute the working hypothesis of that inst.i.tution known to-day as the Holy Roman Catholic Church, and its separated offshoots, the Greek Catholic and the Protestant Churches, including the numberless ramifications and divisions of the latter. The question as to whether eternal salvation is a function of complete immersion of the human body, or only a gentle sprinkling, appears most lamentably puerile in the face of the tremendous revolutionary truths hinted by the deeds of Jesus, a.s.suming that he has been correctly reported in the Gospels. No; Renan, in his _Vie de Jesus_, which I gave you last night, missed it. Before him, Voltaire and countless other critics of man-made theology missed it.
The writings of these men do serve, however, to mow down the theological stubble in the world"s field of thought. What is it, this gigantic truth which Jesus brought? I do not know. But he himself is reported to have said, "If ye keep my commands, ye shall know of the doctrine." And his chief command was, _that we love G.o.d and our fellow-men_. I have no doubt whatever that, when we follow this command, we shall know of the doctrine which he came to establish in the hearts of men."
"But his message was the brotherhood of man," said Jose.
"Nay," replied the explorer, "it was the _fatherhood_ of G.o.d, rather. For that includes the brotherhood of man. But, while we agree thus far, who can say what the fatherhood of G.o.d implies? Who, realizing that this was Jesus" message, knows how to make it practical, as he did? To him it meant--ah, what did it not mean! It meant a consciousness that held _not one trace of evil_. It meant a consciousness of G.o.d as omnipotent power, the irresistible power of good, which, in the form of spirit, or mind, as some will have it, is ever present. Is it not so? Well, then, who is there to-day, within the Church or without, who understands the divine message of the fatherhood of G.o.d sufficiently to acquire such a consciousness, and to make the intensely practical application of the message to every problem of mind, or body, or environment? Who to-day in your Church or mine, for example, realizes that Jesus must have seen something in matter far different from the solid, indestructible thing that we think we see, and that this was due to his understanding of the immanence of his Father as spirit--an understanding which enabled him to walk on the waves, and to treat material things as if they were not? No, my friend, the Christ-message of the fatherhood of G.o.d is hardly apprehended in the world to-day in the slightest degree by priest or prelate, church or sect. And yet, the influence of Jesus is tremendous!"
Jose"s brow knit in perplexity. "I--I don"t believe I follow you, quite," he said.
"I am not surprised," replied the explorer gently. "I sometimes wonder if I understand myself just what it is that I am trying to express. My belief is still in a state of transition. I am still searching. The field has been cleared. And now--now I am waiting for the new seed. I have abandoned forever the sterile, non-productive religious beliefs of current theology. I have abandoned such belittling views of G.o.d as the Presbyterian sublapsarian view of election. I have turned wearily from the puerile dogma of your Church as unworthy of the Father of Jesus. From delving into the mysteries of the Brahminism of India, of ancestor-worship in j.a.pan, of Confucianism in China, of Islamism in the far East, I have come back to the wonderful man of Nazareth. And now I am trying to see what Christianity would be if purged of its adulterations--purged of the Greek philosophy of the early Fathers; of the forgeries of the Middle Ages; of the pagan ceremonialism and priestly rites and a.s.sumptions of power to save or d.a.m.n in this present century. And what do I find, after all this rubbish has been filtered out? Love, friend--love; the unfathomable love of the Father of Jesus, who knows no evil, no sin, no sickness, no death, no h.e.l.l, no material heaven, but whose kingdom is the harmonious realm of spirit, or mind, wherein the individual consciousness knows no discord of any name or nature."
The afternoon haze had been long gathering when Jose roused the sleeping _cochero_ and prepared to return to the stifling ecclesiastical atmosphere from which for a brief day he had been so happily free. A cold chill swept over him when he took his seat in the carriage, and he shuddered as if with an evil presentiment.
"And you still adhere to your determination to remain in the Church?"
his friend asked, as they turned from the green hills and nodding palms of Turbaco, and set their course, toward the distant mediaeval city.
"Yes," came the scarcely audible reply. But as Jose spoke, he knew that his mind had that day been stripped of its last remaining vestige of the old theology, leaving it bare, exposed--and receptive.