* March, 1889.
"_Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is
new? it hath been already of old times, which was before
us._"--Ecclesiastes i. 10.
Everybody is talking about the flight of Pigott. The flight into
Egypt never caused half such a sensation. Pigott has gone off into the
infinite. He was shadowed, but he has performed the feat of running away
from his own shadow. Where he will turn up next, or if he will turn
up anywhere, God only knows. But wherever he re-appears--in the South
Pacific as a missionary, in America as a revivalist, or in India as an
avatar--it will be the same old Pigott, lying, shuffling, forging and
blackmailing, with an air of virtue and benevolence.
The edifice of calumny on Mr. Parnell and his closest colleagues rested
on the foundation of Pigott, and Pigott is exploded. He has entirely
vanished. Not a hair of him is visible. He is gone like last winter's
snow or last summer's roses. He is in the big list of things Wanted. But
advertisements will not bring him back, and considering who is in power,
it is very problematical if the officers of justice will be any more
successful.
We have no wish to be disrespectful to the Commission, and it is
far from our intention to pronounce judgment on a case which is _sub
judice_, though who can help sundry exclamations when the chief witness
on one side bolts, leaving no trace but a few more lies and counter
lies? Our object, indeed, is not political but religious. We desire
to make the noble Pigott point a moral and adorn a tale. He and his
achievements in connection with the _Times_ splendidly illustrate the
process by which Christianity was built up. Pigottism was at work for
centuries, forging documents, manufacturing evidence, and telling the
grossest lies with an air of truth. What is still worse, Pigottism was
so lucky as to get into the seat of despotic power, and to crush out all
criticism of its frauds; so that, at length, everyone believed what
no one heard questioned. It was Pigottism in excelsis. The liar gave
evidence in the witness box, stifled or murdered the counsel for the
opposite side, then mounted the bench to give judgment in his own favor,
and finally pronounced a decree of death against all who refused to own
him the pink of veracity.
Just look for a moment at these Parnell letters. They were printed
in facsimile in the _Times_, published in _Parnellism and Crime_,
circulated among millions of people, and accepted as genuine by half
the population of England. And on what ground? Solely on the ground that
Parnellism was heterodox and the _Times_ was a respectable journal.
That was enough. The laws of evidence were treated with contempt.
Investigation was thought unnecessary. Thousands of people fatuously
said, "Oh, the letters are in print." And all this in an age of Board
schools, printing presses, daily papers, and unlimited discussion; nay,
in despite of the solemn declaration of Mr. Parnell and his colleagues,
backed up by a demand for investigation, that the letters were absolute
concoctions.
Now if such things can happen in an age like this, how easily could they
happen in ages like those in which Christianity produced its scriptures.
Credulity was boundless, fraud was audacious, and lying for the profit
of the Church was regarded as a virtue. There was no printing press, no
free inquiry, no keen investigation, no vivid conception of the laws of
evidence; and the few brilliant critics, like Celsus and Porphyry, who
kept alive in their breasts the nobler spirit of Grecian scepticism,
were answered by the destruction of their writings, a process which was
carried out with the cunning scent of a sleuth-hound and the remorseless
cruelty of a tiger.
The Church produced, quite as mysteriously as the _Times_, certain
documents which it said were written by Matthew, Mark, Luke, John,
Peter, Paul, and James. Others were written by Pagans like Pilate, and
one at least by Jesus Christ himself. No commission sat to examine and
investigate, no Sir Charles Russell cross-examined the witnesses.
The Pigotts, the Houstons, and the Macdonalds kept quietly in the
background, and were never dragged forth into the light of day. The Mr.
Walters took the full responsibility, which was very trifling; and
as Englishmen relied on the respectability of the _Times_, so the
illiterate and fanatical Christians relied on the respectability of the
Mother Church.
Some of those documents, so mysteriously produced, were as mysteriously
dropped when they had served their turn. Hence the so-called Apocryphal
New Testament, a collection of writings as ancient, and once as
accepted, as those found in the Canon. Hence also the relics, either in
name or in fragments, of a host of gospels, epistles, and revelations,
which primitive Pigottism manufactured for the behoof of Christianity,
Every single scrap no doubt subserved a useful end. But whatever was no
longer required was discarded like the scaffolding of a house. The real,
permanent work, all the while, was going on inside; and when the Church
faced the world with its completed edifice, it thought itself provided
with something that would stand all winds and weathers. It was found,
however, in the course of time, that Pigottism was still necessary.
Hence the Apostolic Constitutions, the Decretals, the Apostles' and the
Athanasian Creeds, and all the profitable relics of saints and martyrs.
About two hundred years ago an informal Commission began to sit on these
Christian documents. The precious letter of Jesus Christ to Abgarus
soon flew off with the Veronica handkerchief, and many other products
of Christian Pigottism shared the same fate. The witnesses were examined
and cross-examined, and the longer the process lasted the sorrier was
the spectacle they presented. Paul's epistles have been shockingly
handled. The Commission has positively declared that all but four of
them are forgeries, and is still investigating the claim of the remnant
under reprieve. Nor is the judgment on the gospels less decisive. The
Court has decided that they were not written by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and
John. Who wrote them, when they were written, or where, is left to the
Day of Judgment.
Unfortunately the press has given little attention to the proceedings in
this Court of Commission. Its reports are published in expensive volumes
for scholars and gentlemen of means and leisure. Some of the results,
indeed, are given in a few journals written for the people; but these
journals are boycotted as vulgar, unless they go too far, when they are
prosecuted for blasphemy. Yet the truth is gradually leaking out. People
shake their heads ominously, especially when there is anything in them;
and parsons are looked upon with a growing suspicion. They look
bland, they assume the most virtuous airs, and sometimes they affect a
preternatural goodness. But in all this they are excelled by the noble
Pigott, whose bald head, venerable beard, and benevolent appearance,
qualified him to sit for a portrait of God the Father. Gentlemen, it
won't do. You will have to bolt or confess. The documents you have
palmed off on the world are the products of unadulterated Pigottism. You
know it, we know it, and by and bye everyone will know it.