In presenting "In The Pillory" to the American public, The Fellowship Forum feels that it is rendering a distinct service by throwing new light on one of the darkest chapters in the history of Christendom.

The material contained in this volume was compiled by the author, John Bond, at the cost of months of painstaking research among centuries-old volumes to be found nowhere outside the "Eternal City," where the scenes depicted in the work were laid. Many of the illustrations in "In The Pillory" have never before been given to the world, a large number of them having been made from original photographs taken by John Bond within the walls of the Vatican.

It is felt that the publication of this volume at the present time is especially opportune, as some of the more advanced and diplomatic members of the Roman hierarchy have recently attempted to have the election of Pope Alexander VI declared fraudulent, in order that the entire record of his pontificate might be blotted from the pages of Vatican history. The reigning pope has frowned upon this movement, however, and it seems to have been abandoned, Pope and cardinals, no doubt, being unwilling to establish a precedent that might in future years wipe their own names from the roster of reigning prelates.

The reader will naturally want to know something about the author of this remarkable story. John Bond is an American citizen, and was for years one of the prominent authors and journalists of the United States. During recent years he has spent his entire time in Old World countries, as Special European Correspondent for The Fellowship Forum, which Patriotic Fraternal Newspaper publishes weekly news stories from his masterful pen. John Bond has established a reputation for absolute dependability in all his writings, includes in his articles only well established and absolutely verified facts, and after years of residence in European cities, has gained an insight into Old World ways and conditions that makes his contributions to contemporary literature absolutely invaluable.

In the words of the author, "An institution like the Roman papacy, conceived in fraud and born in iniquity, was bound in the order of God's law, to produce its crop of evil, and of this crop probably the Borgia Pope is the most striking example, though by no means the only one. Pope Alexander VI was the one who gave the entire New World to Spain, during the early days of exploration of the Americas. Thus the incestuous Borgia Pope Alexander VI becomes the fitting patron of the Knights of Columbus in their effort to "Make America Catholic", which proposition is further strengthened by the action of the Knights of Columbus in selecting the Borgia Coat of Arms to adorn the walls of their Oratory in Rome.

One Romanist historian, in a recently published work, declared that the Roman Catholic church is "an accomplice in the crimes of the Borgia Popes if she does not take some official action to annul their election and obliterate their memory." The book containing this statement has been placed on the "Index Expurgatorius" or List of Forbidden Books, by the Vatican. Therefore, to the Vatican the record of "His Holiness Alexander VI" presents nothing to condemn. Indeed, the Church has within recent times, on two occasions, gone out of the way to honor the most villainous of her popes by restoring his apartments in the Vatican and erecting a monument to him in one of the largest churches in Rome. All this has brought the story of the Borgia Pope and his life and adventures into the limelight and has revived interest in the darkest period of the papacy.

As a tale of crime and scandal, the story of the Borgia, his concubines and children, his intrigues and secret murders, the brewing of the "cantrella," the mystery of the "Infant of Rome," and the final retribution of justice, constitutes a chapter of unparalleled interest in the annals of mankind.

Realizing its great value, both as an authentic document of history, and as an intensely interesting and tragic tale of engrossing fascination, "In The Pillory" is offered to the reader with the feeling that it offers an unbreakable link between the Roman Catholic church of past and present times, for Pope Alexander VI, known in history as pre-eminent among Rome's scoundrelly "Sovereign Pontiffs," is still loved and revered by all the "faithful" as "His Holiness Alexander VI of Blessed Memory."

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The 38 Splendid Illustrations

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