OATH OF THE KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS 

"I,_________,  now in the presence of Almighty God, the Blessed 
Virgin Mary, the Blessed Michael the Archangel, the Blessed St. 
John the Baptist, the Holy Apostles, Peter and Paul, and all the 
Saints, sacred hosts of Heaven, and to you, my ghostly Father, 
the Superior General of the Society of Jesus, founded by St. 
Ignatius Loyola, in the Pontification of Paul the Third, and 
continued to the present, do by the womb of the Virgin, the matrix 
of God, and the rod of Jesus Christ, declare and swear that his 
Holiness, the Pope, is Christ's Vice-regent, and is the true and 
only head of the Catholic or Universal Church throughout the 
earth; and that by virtue of the keys of binding and loosing, 
given to his Holiness by my Saviour, Jesus Christ, he hath power 
to depose heretical kings, princes, states, commonwealths and 
governments, all being illegal without his sacred confirmation, 
and that they may be safely destroyed.
   "Therefore, to the utmost of my power, I shall and will defend 
this doctrine and his Holiness' right and customs against all 
usurpers of the heretical or Protestant authority whatever, 
especially the Lutheran Church of Germany, Holland, Denmark, 
Sweden and Norway, and the now pretended authority of the Church 
of England and Scotland, the branches of the same, now 
established in Ireland, and on the continent of America and 
elsewhere...I do now renounce and disown any allegiance due to 
any heretical king, prince or state named Protestant or Liberals, 
or obedience to any of there laws, magistrates or officers.
  "I do further declare that I will help and assist all or any of 
his Holiness' agents in any place wherever I shall be, and do my 
utmost to extirpate the heretical Protestant or Liberal doctrines 
and to destroy all their pretended powers, legal or otherwise.
   "I do further promise and declare, that notwithstanding I am 
dispensed with to assume any religion heretical, for the 
propogating of the Mother Church's interest, to keep secret and 
private all her agents' counsels, from time to time as they may 
instruct me, and not to divulge directly or indirectly, by word, 
writing, or circumstances whatever; but to execute all that shall 
be proposed given in charge or discovered unto me, by you, my 
ghostly father...
   "I do further promise and declare, that I will have no opinion 
or will fo my own, or any mental reservation whatever, even as a 
corpse or cadaver but unhesitatingly obey each and every command 
that I may receive from my superiors in the Militia of the Pope 
and Jesus Christ.
   "That I will go to any part of the world, without murmuring 
and will be submissive in all things whatsoever communicated to 
me...
   "I do further promise and declare, that I will, when 
opportunity presents, made and wage relentless war, secretly or 
openly against all heretics, Protestants and Liberals, as I am 
directed to do to extirpate and exterminate them from the face of 
the whole earth, and that I will spare neither sex, age nor 
condition, and that I will hang, waste, boil, flay, strangle, and 
bury alive these infamous heretics; rip up their women and crush 
their infants' heads against the wall, in order to annihilate 
forever their execrable race.
  "That when the same cannot be done openly, I will secretly use 
the poison cup, the strangulation cord, the steel of the poniard, 
or the leaden bullet, regardless of the honor, rank, dignity or 
authority of the person or persons whatsoever may be their 
condition in life, either public or private, as I at any time may 
be directed so to do by any agent of the Pope or Superior of the 
Brotherhood of the Holy Faith of the Society of Jesus."
  (Copied from Bible Believers' Bulletin, November 1989.)
(Documented in the United States Congressional Record-House Bill 
1523, Contested Election Case of Eugene C. Bonniwell against 
Thomas S.Butler-Feb.15,1913, pp.3215-3216)

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