His one achievement was to drive out of the Church what was left of Catholic scholarship.

Catholics were compelled to accept as genuine history the childish and derivative stories of the Creation, the Garden of Eden, the Fall, the Flood, and the confusion of languages at Babel.

But for a brutal history of suppressing labor rights, anti-Communist hysteria, the efforts of workers and freethinkers, and the indifference of the churches, the US would be celebrating Labor Day on this day instead.

Though decrying the secrecy of Freemasonry, the Catholic Church apparently has no problem with its own secret organizations, such as Opus Dei.

Like most public figures during the post-Revolutionary Royalist reaction, Champollion was compelled to keep his religious opinions discreet.

30,000 pilgrims arrived daily, and one of them says, "day and night two clerics stood at the altar of St. Peter with rakes and drew off the infinite sums of money."