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The Oath of a Catholic Priest
"I, _____, now in the presence of Almighty God, the Blessed Virgin Mary, the blessed Michael and Archangel, the blessed St. John the Baptist, the holy Apostles, St. Peter and St. Paul, and the Saints and the Sacred Hosts of Heaven, and to you my Lord, I do declare from my heart, without mental reservation, that the Pope is Christ's Vicar-General, and is the true and only Head of the Universal Church throughout the earth, and that by virtue of the keys of binding and loosing given to his Holiness by Jesus Christ, he has power to dispose heretical kings, princes, states, commonwealths and governments, all being illegal without his sacred confirmation, and they may safely be destroyed. Therefore, to the uttermost of my power, I will defend the doctrine and his Holiness' rights and customs against all usurpers of the Protestant authority whatsoever, especially against the now pretended authority and church in England and all adherents, in regard that they be usurpal and heretical opposing the Sacred Mother, the Church of Rome.
"I do denounce and disown any allegiance as due to any Protestant king, prince, state, or obedience to any of their inferior officers. I do further declare the doctrine of the church of England, of the Calvinists, Huguenots and other Protestants to be damnable, and those to be damned who will not forsake the same.
"I do further declare that I will help, assist, and advise all or any of his Holiness' agents in any place wherever I shall be, and do my utmost to extirpate Protestant doctrine, and to destroy all their pretended power, legal or otherwise. I do further promise and declare that notwithstanding that I may be permitted by dispensation to assume any heretical religion for the propagation of the Mother Church's interest, to keep secret and private all her agents' councils as they entrust me, and not to divulge directly or indirectly, by word, writing, or circumstance whatsoever, but to execute all which shall be proposed, given in charge or discovered unto me by you my most Reverend Lord and Bishop.
"All of which I, _____, do swear by the blessed Trinity and sacrament which I am about to receive, to perform on my part, to keep inviolably, and do call on all the Heavenly and Glorious Hosts of Heaven to witness my real intentions to keep this my oath.
"In testimony wherefore I take this most holy and blessed sacrament of the Eucharist, and witness the same further with my consecrated hand, in the presence of my Holy Bishop and all the Priests who assist him in my Ordination to Priesthood." Oath Taken by a Perspective Catholic Priest, from the Manuele Romanum,.as recorded in Congressional Record of the U.S.A., House Bill 1523, Contested election case of Eugene C. Bonniwell, against Thos. S. Butler, February 15, 1913.