Oregon Historical Quarterly/Volume 37/The Protestant Ladder
THE PROTESTANT LADDER
THE PROTESTANT LADDER
By NELLIE B. PIPES
Much Has been written about the work of the missionaries among the Indians in imparting to the heathen mind their ideas of the Christian religion. The efforts of the Spaldings in translating hymns and the gospels and simple lessons into the native language have been recorded in the many letters and reports returned to the missionary board under whom they were serving.
There is one document, however, about which little has been written and which has never been reproduced. This is what is known as the Protestant Ladder, the only copy of which is owned by the Oregon Historical Society.
To understand the origin and purpose of the Protestant Ladder it may be well to review the story of the Catholic Ladder, used by the Catholic missionaries.
When Father Blanchet and Father Demers began their work among the Indians of the Oregon country in 1839 they were hampered by the difficulty of presenting the story of their religion in a simple, concrete form that could be understood by the natives. To overcome this difficulty Father Blanchet conceived the plan of using a square stick or rule on which were marked forty short horizontal bars to represent the centuries before Christ, thirty-three dots to indicate the years of the life of Christ; a cross symbolized the crucifixion. The centuries and years since the birth of Christ were represented by eighteen bars and thirty-nine points. The chiefs were then instructed in its meaning and use and aided the missionaries in carrying its message among their people. The Indians called it the sahale stick (stick from above). Later the sahale stick was superseded by a printed chart, which showed, besides the bars and points, simple drawings illustrating some of the chief events in biblical history, the ark, the tower of Babel, Solomon's temple, the tablets of stone, etc. The reformation was indicated by a branch springing from the sixteenth century bar, and three vertical bars, representing the three heretics, Luther, Calvin and Henry the Eighth. It was now called the Catholic Ladder. Different editions were printed from time to time, with elaboration of the crude drawings into finished pictorial emblems. A copy in the Oregon Historical Society belongs to this later period. It is printed on both sides of two large boards. Since it was engraved in Paris, with the title and legends in French, it may be one of those issued under the supervision of Father Blanchet while he was in Paris in 1844. None of the pictures or accounts of the Catholic Ladder which the writer has seen conform to the description given to Dr. Whitman by members of the Wilkes expedition in 1841, as recorded in a letter from Whitman to the American Board, November 11, 1841:
If you see Mr. Hale or Mr. Drayton of the U. S. Exploring Squadron (& perhaps others may tell you the same) They can describe to you the picture of a tree hanging in Chief Factor McLoughlin's room at Vancouver which represents all Protestants as the withered ends of the several branches of Papacy falling off down into infernal society & flames as represented at the bottom. This gives a good idea of their manner of instruction to the Indians as drawn out in manuscript & given to them accompanied with oral instruction of a similar character. The possession of one of these manuscripts by an Indian binds him not to hear any more the instruction of Protestants so far as observation goes.
A picture of the Catholic Ladder, with an explanation of its symbolism by C. B. Bagley, may be found in his Early Catholic Missions in Old Oregon, volume II.
In the religious rivalry and hostility then existing between the sects, the success of the Catholic missionaries in converting the heathen was a matter of great concern to Spalding and his co-workers. To combat the so-called heretical teachings of the priests Spalding decided to make an appeal to the natives through pictures, and invented a chart or ladder to show what he considered the evils of the Catholic church. Spalding explains its meaning in a letter to the board February 12, 1846, as follows:
Two meetings on the sabbath where I exhibited the Protestant Chart which by the way I will here describe & the cause of it. The Catholics in this country have had printed (I suppose in the states) a vast No of small charts on which the Road to Heaven is exhibited & from which Luther is represented as branching off in a road that leads to hell. These as also brass medals representing Christ on the cross are scattered profusely among the Indians of the Mountains & among as many of this people & Kayuse & the people of Cimakain, as they can induce by the assurance of Heaven promise of wordly gain, threats &c, to accept them. They tell the people that Luther laid down his black gown & cross together & went off in the Road to hell after a wife & never returned & that all American preachers i e all Protestants are on the same road to destruction. To meet this attack I have planed & Mrs. S. has drawn & painted a chart about 6 feet long & 2 feet wide containing two ways one narrow & one broad. After representing briefly some of the important events of the world before the christian era & the crucifixion of Christ I come to Paul whom I represent as pointing to one who has turned off from the narrow way where he has left his wife & children & with black gown on & a cross in his hand is just entering the Broad Road. A few of Paul's prophecies concerning the man of sin are translated & printed as proceeding from his mouth such as he shall forbid to marry & after he has left his wife & entered the Broad Road he is represented as the Pope with a sword in one hand & torch or fagot in the other, a king kissing one foot & a bishop the other. Further up he is represented with 5 children by his side & again as receiving the bleeding head of Admiral Coligny who was beheaded at the great slaughter of St. Bartholomew & his head sent by Charles IX to the Pope who ordered public thanks to be given to Charles & a jubalee to be proclaimed throughout France. Boniface IX & Benedict XIII are represented as contending with deadly weapons. Tetzel receiving a sum of money from a young man whose father has escaped hell all but one of his feet, is represented. A Nunnery is drawn from which a young priest has come out & is paying 18s to get the sin of Fornication pardoned according to "Taxa camarae Apostolicae" of the Chancery court of Rome. The lifeless body of a father killed by his own son for his money, is represented with the mother & sisters weeping on the bleeding corpse, & at a little distance the murderer before a priest receiving pardon for 10s 6d according to the same book. Some of those burnt in queen Marys reign are drawn, the Burning of Bibles in the N of NY State is drawn. Luther is represented as leaving the Broad road and returning to the narrow way. The end of the Man of Sin is represented by his falling back into hell at the approach of the Lord Jesus Christ who is coming in the clouds of heaven with his holy angels ... Monday morning proceeded on my journey . . . About 9 oclock came to a village of some 40 lodges, alighted, wrang a bell although most of the people were already around me, unrolled the Chart & talked about 2 hours. Rode hard the rest of the day to reach another vilage but found it upon an Island & did not go over till next morning. However several canoes came over to my tent & I explained the Chart to them as long as brush could be found for a fire light.
The ladder is six feet long and two feet wide, made on heavy paper, fastened to a roller at the top. The colors used in the decoration are green, red, blue, brown, yellow and black. On it are drawn two paths, the narrow one that leads to eternal bliss, and the broad road to destruction. In the lower half of the chart are pictures portraying stories from the Bible, which are readily identified. In the upper half the artist's efforts are confined to depicting the iniquities of the broad path, culminating in the disastrous climax for those who follow its evil way. That the lessons of the pictures may be more surely impressed some of the legends are translated into the Nez Perce language.
The general scheme of the chart can be seen in the accompanying illustration, but, unfortunately, on account of the reduction in size and the lack of color, it can give only a hint of the quality of the original. Perhaps the high point, pictorially, is the scene of the crucifixion, and the twelve apostles and Saint Paul clothed in the garb of dignity and decorum, modeled probably from Mr. Spalding's own "best suit." To give variety and distinction to the group green coat and brown trousers alternate with brown coat and green trousers. The reproduction fails to show the effective use of the red color to suggest the stream of blood and the gory heads of the Saint Bartholomew massacre, as well as the flames of the final punishment.
Looking at it today, removed from the strife and religious rivalries of that time, we are amused at the crudely drawn and colored figures, and we can well believe Mr. Spalding's testimony as to the interest manifested by the natives, but perhaps we may be permitted to wonder if this was not the childish interest aroused by the novelty of the pictures rather than by any great appreciation of the spiritual significance they were designed to convey.
As stated above, the Oregon Historical Society is fortunate in owning the original Protestant Ladder. It was presented by Mr. George F. Holman and his sister, Miss Kate Holman, who inherited it from their brother, the late Mr. Frederick V. Holman, for many years president of this society.