Chapter 8: The Converted Priest

SOME years ago there lived in the important interior city of Juiz de Fora a priest, Father Hyppolyto Campos.
He was the vicar of the city and enjoyed a wide reputation for eloquence and learning — qualifications not very often met with among his class.
A zealous and convinced believer in the infallibility of his Church, he knew by heart all the Jesuitical arguments against Protestantism — and very clever and subtle they are. Woe betide the Gospel controversialist who meets with a man like Father Hyppolyto, unless he is absolutely sound and secure on the whole Word of God!
With such a reputation this priest was in great demand in every district of the diocese in which Gospel messengers had appeared, and too often his astute eloquence succeeded in stifling the first germ of life. sown by the wayside. But it was not universally so, for he occasionally met a man or woman who bed Lad the Bible, which he had not, and who could easily confuse him with the simplest questions, such as, “Where is the Apostolic teaching on Purgatory, the Intercession of Saints, the Confessional?” and so forth.
Nothing that most of these dissenters were illiterate, humble folk, he felt the more perplexed and annoyed with tire situation, and he at last resolved to silence sir impertinent heretics by studying the Catholic Bible in order to refute them out of the same.
This was more easily said than done. By the wisdom of the sixteenth-century Council of Trent it was laid down that no priest should read the Scriptures without the written consent of his bishop under penalty of excommunication. Such is Roman fear of the Bible in the hands of her own priests!
Needless to say the priest who dares to ask for this liberty becomes an object of suspicion and is a marked man thereafter — with very good reason, as we shall see.
Father Hyppolyto wrote to his bishop, exposing the difficulty of his situation and asking ecclesiastical permission to read the Bible approved by the “Holy Church” in order to confound these heretics.
Receiving no reply he repeated his request, and met with a curt refusal. He expostulated and urged the advantages to be gained, without, however, inducing his bishop to relax the general rule. At last, thoroughly aroused and somewhat indignant, he wrote in such downright terms that he received an “approved” Bible by the next mail.
One of the unscrupulous methods of Rome to keep the Bible from the people is to declare that the Protestant version is an entirely corrupt and mutilated one — Biblias falsas, they call them; but they are careful that the “true Bible” is out of the people’s reach, the cheapest version costing ten dollars, and even that is now out of print!
Father Hyppolyto was soon immersed in his Church’s Bible, which, as is known, closely resembles our own, with the exception of the few Apocryphal books of the Old Testament.
First of all he searched for apostolic approval of purgatory, that corner-stone of Romish superstition; and was not a little disturbed to find no mention of it whatever from cover to cover. Somewhat disconcerted, he next sought confirmation of the other doctrines of his Church which had been questioned; and one by one they were met by either absolute silence or a direct negative from the Bible of his own Church. It began to dawn on his mind that something was wrong and that he had been deceived, and in turn had become a deceiver, and this troubled his conscience; but not being yet fully enlightened as to the truth of the Gospel he resolved remain a priest.
Shortly after this Father Hyppolyto, calling one evening at the house of a friend, heard the sound of singing.
“What’s that?” he inquired.
“Why, don’t you know?” rejoined his friend; “it’s the Protestantes. They have rented the place next door and have regular meetings, and many Catholics are attending. Come this way, and from window you can see right into their hall.”
From the shadow of the dark room the priest gazed into that little assembly.
The hymn had ceased, and the missionary led in a prayer hick strangely affected the father, so that when the Gospel discourse commenced there was no earnest listener than that hidden priest. At the dose of the service he bade farewell to his friend, not without first casually inquiring how often these meetings were held.
As if by chance, when the evening of the next arrived Father Hyppolyto again visited his friend and once more he listened to the Gospel from message from that dark side window.
This continued for some time, until at last conviction laid hold of the priest so strongly that he sought an interview with the missionary; and it ended in his definite acceptance of the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.
He immediately doffed his ecclesiastical robes and sent in his resignation to the bishop, explaining the reason for his step. The result was a terrible uproar among the Roman Catholic hierarchy, and every agency was pit into movement to turn him from his resolution. Celebrated priests, like Julio Maria, and well-known Catholic statesmen and Jesuits pressed him on every hand with alternating threats and promises, and his life was in peril. But in spite of all that Rome could do he stood steadfast in the storm and never looked back.
Withdrawing from the public gaze, he applied himself to the Scriptures. Three years later he was received as a local preacher in the American Methodist Mission, and he is now pastor of their largest congregation in Brazil, by his eloquent appeals powerfully convincing all who listen of the pure truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, as contrasted with the deceptions and falsehoods of Rome.