Chapter VI: Bianca’s Festa (6)

A late measure of the government has also a tendency to diminish the fervor of attachment in the people to their religion, and that measure is the prohibition of public manifestation of their belief outside the churches. A circular letter from the Minister of the Interior to the prefects of Italy forbids religious processions in the public streets. This in a Catholic country is a severe and deeply-felt blow at the piety of the people. Processions have always been one of the most natural and favorite ways of professing attachment to principles, and this is particularly true of religious processions. They have a language of their own that goes straight to the heart of the people. The discontinuance of them will have a dampening effect, on those especially who are a little weak; while those who go to church as seldom as possible, or rarely, will be deprived of a means of instruction that constantly served to recall to their minds the truths of religion; and instead of the enjoyment that came from beholding or assisting at some splendid manifestation of their faith, and from the accompanying festivities never wanting, will be substituted forgetfulness of religion and religious duties, the dissipation of the wine-shop and saloon, and those profane amusements, often of the most questionable character, that are beginning to be so frequent on days of obligation, offered to the masses at hours conflicting with those of religious ceremonies. What has especially shocked every unprejudiced person, even liberals and non-Catholics, is the prohibition of the solemn accompaniment of the Blessed Sacrament. Besides the ordinary carrying of the Viaticum to the sick, and occasional communion to those unable to come to the church, some three or four times a year the Blessed Sacrament was borne to the bedridden with much solemnity, the most respectable people of the parish taking part in the procession or sending those who represented them. It was always an imposing and edifying spectacle to Catholics. This has been put a stop to. In Frascati, where, after prohibition of public processions had been notified to all, the Blessed Sacrament was carried to the sick with only the _ordinary_ marks of respect, that there might be no violation of the unjust and illegal order, there was an exhibition of the animus of the authorities that almost exceeds belief. The people, to honor the Blessed Sacrament, were present in greater numbers than usual, and, as is the custom, prepared to follow it to the houses of the sick persons. The government authorities determined to prevent them. Hardly had the priest come out of the church, with the sacred pix in his hands, when he was accosted by the police officer, was laid hold of by him, and made to come from under the canopy, which from time immemorial is used during the day for the ordinary visits for the communion of the sick at Frascati. He was permitted to go with some four or five assistants. The people persisted in following, whereupon the troops were called and they dispersed the crowd. The result was a spontaneous act of reparation to the Blessed Sacrament in the form of a Triduum in the cathedral, at which the first nobility of Rome, very numerous in the neighborhood of this city, assisted, while the attendance in the church was so great, including even liberals, that many had to kneel out on the steps and in the piazza. The effect on good Catholics thus far, though painful, has been beneficial; but the continuation of this course on the part of the government, with the means of coercion at their disposal, cannot but be hurtful to the cause of religion, and cannot but diminish the respect and obedience of the people to their pastors. All this, as a matter of course, has a decided effect on the power and influence of the Pope himself. There are indeed Catholics to whom God has vouchsafed so great an abundance of faith that, no matter what happens, they rise under trial and show a sublimity of trust and courage that extorts admiration even from their enemies; but, unfortunately, these are not the majority. Faith is a gift of God, and requires careful cultivation and fostering watchfulness; negligence, and above all wilful exposure to the danger of losing it, ordinarily weaken it much, and not unfrequently in these days bring about its total loss. This is one reason, and the principal one, why the church prays to be delivered from persecution, because, though some die martyrs or glorify God by a noble confession and unshaken firmness, many, very many, fall away in time of danger. History is full of instances of this. The _lapsi_ in the early centuries were unfortunately a large class, and in the persecutions of China and Japan, in our day, we hear, indeed, of martyrs, but we hear, too, of large numbers that fall away at the sight of torture or in the presence of imminent peril.

Such is the state of things in Italy with respect to the Sovereign Pontiff and the church over which he rules: persecution, oppression, hate, are the portion of Catholics and their Head; protection, favoritism, and aid, that of all who are adversaries of the church, from the latest-come Protestant agents of the Bible societies of England or America to the most avowed infidel and materialist of Germany or France. A Renan and a Moleschott are listened to with rapture; a Dupanloup or a Majunke are looked on as poor fanatics who cling to a past age. We do not wish to weary our readers with further instances of tyrannical action; though readily at hand, we may dispense with them, for the matter cited above is enough for our purpose, and certainly speaks for itself. We simply ask, What prospect lies before us? What is the promise of the future? On such a foundation can anything be built up that does not tell of sorrow, of trouble, and of ruin? Of a truth no one who loves virtue and religion can look upon the facts without concern; and that concern for an earnest Catholic will increase a hundred-fold, if he take into consideration the plans just now showing themselves for the warfare of to-morrow. These prove the crisis to be approaching, and that far greater evils are hanging over the Papacy than yet have threatened it, demonstrating more evidently and luminously than words what a pope subject of another king or people means.

Any one who is even a superficial observer of matters in Italy cannot fail to see how closely Italian statesmen and politicians ape the ideas and the measures of Germany, particularly against the church. There, it is well known, strenuous efforts are being made to construct _a national church_, and with partial success. The pseudo-bishops Reinkens in the empire and Herzog in Switzerland are doing their utmost to give form and constitution to the abortions they have produced. The example is followed in Italy. The apostate Panelli, in Naples, made an unsuccessful attempt to begin the _chiesa nazionale_; but disagreement with his people caused him to be supplanted, though he still styles himself national bishop. Agreeing with him in sentiments are a certain number of ecclesiastics, insignificant if compared with the clergy of the Catholic Church in Italy; yet to these men, who certainly did not and do not enjoy the esteem of the _sanior pars_, the wiser portion of the people, the government, holding power under a constitution the first article of which declares that the Roman Catholic and apostolic religion is the religion of the state, show favor and lend aid and comfort. Let us listen for a moment to their language and to that of their supporters.

Sig. Giuseppe Toscanelli is a deputy in the Italian parliament, and a man of so-called liberal views, an old soldier of Italian independence, and an old Freemason. He has the merit of seeing something of the inconsistency and injustice of the action of the authorities, in parliament and out of it, with regard to the church, is a ready speaker, and has the courage to say what he thinks, thus incurring the enmity of his fellow-Masons, some of whom, in 1864, in the lodge at Pisa, declared him unworthy of their craft, and cast him out of the synagogue. We are not aware that he troubles himself much about the matter, nor that he looks on himself as any the less an ardent supporter of united Italy. When the law of guarantees for the Sovereign Pontiff was up for discussion, Toscanelli said: “Report has it that in 1861 some public men of Lombardy conceived the idea of a national church, which they made known to Count Cavour, and urged him to bring it about; and that Count Cavour decidedly refused to do so. In 1864 this idea showed itself again, and a bill in accordance with it was presented in parliament. The civil constitution of the church was most strongly maintained by the Hon. Bonghi. At present we see papers, some most closely connected with the government, printing articles professedly treating of a national church, even to the point of going to the extremes Henry VIII. reached.”

But not only papers favor the project. We have heard lately of cabinet ministers using the same language. The head of the late ministry, Sig. Marco Minghetti, did so at Bologna in a public speech. Yet he was the leader of the so-called _moderate_ party. It is therefore not surprising that the recognized prince of Italian lawyers, Sig. Stanislas Mancini, the Minister of Public Worship of the present radical cabinet, should speak in the same style. We have a letter of his to a notorious person, Prota Giurleo, President of the Society for the Emancipation of the Clergy, vicar-general of the national church, in the _Libertà Cattolica_ of August 2, 1876. It is worth translating:

“HONORED SIR: Hardly had I taken the direction of the
ministry of grace, justice, and worship, when you, in the
name of the society over which you preside, thought fit to
send me a copy of the memorandum of Nov. 9, 1873, which,
under the form of a petition, I had myself the honor of
presenting to the Chamber of Deputies, recalling to my mind
the words uttered by me at the meeting of Dec. 17 of that
year, when I asked and obtained that the urgency of the case
should be recognized, and demanded suitable provision.

“It is scarcely necessary for me to say that I remembered
very well the expressions used by me on that occasion,
because they give faithful utterance to an old, lively, and
deep feeling of my soul.

“As minister I maintain the ideas and the principles I
defended as deputy. Still, I did not conceal the fact that
the greatest and most effectual measures were to be obtained
only by way of legislation, without omitting to say,
however, that by way of executive action something might be
done. To-day, then, faithful to this order of ideas, I have
no difficulty in opening my mind on each of the questions
recapitulated in the memorandum.

“1st. The first demand of the worthy society over which you
preside was made to the Chamber of Deputies, in order that
steps might be taken to frame a new law to regulate
definitively the new relations between the state and the
church, in accordance with the changed condition of the
political power and of the ecclesiastical ministry. On this
point I am happy to assure you that this arduous problem
constitutes one of the most important cares, and will form
part of study and examination, to which the distinguished
and competent men called by me to compose the commission
charged with preparing the law reserved by the eighteenth
article of the law of May 13, 1871, for the rearrangement
and preservation of ecclesiastical property, will have to
attend.

“2d. In the second place, this memorandum asks the
revindication, for the clergy and people, of the right to
elect their own pastors in all the grades of the hierarchy.
You are not ignorant that such a proposition made by me in
parliament, during the discussion of the above-mentioned law
of May 13, 1871, relative to the nomination of bishops, did
not meet with success, nor would there be reasonable hope,
at present, of a different legislative decision. It results
from this, therefore, that efforts in this direction must be
limited to preparing by indirect ways the maturity of public
opinion, which is wont, sooner or later, to influence the
deliberations of parliament. The manifestation of the will
of the people in the choice of ministers and pastors, that
recalls the provident customs and traditions of the
primitive church, to which the most learned and pious
ecclesiastics of our day――it is enough to name
Rosmini――earnestly desire to return, must first be the
object of action to propagate the idea, in the order of
facts, by spontaneous impulse, and by the moral need of
pious and believing consciences; and afterward, when these
facts become frequent and general, it will be the duty of
the civil power to interfere to regulate them, and secure
the sincerity and independence of them, without prejudice to
the right of ecclesiastical institution.

“Already some symptoms have shown themselves, and some
examples have been had, in certain provinces of the kingdom,
and I deemed it my duty not to look on them with aversion
and distrust, but at the same time to reconcile with
existing discipline regarding benefices all such zeal and
the protection that could be given to the popular vote and
to ecclesiastics chosen by it, not only by providing for
these the means needed for the becoming exercise of their
ministry, but also to benefit at the same time the people by
works tending to their instruction and assistance. I will
not neglect opportunities of aiding by other indirect
measures the attainment of the same end. The future will
show whether this movement, a sign of the tendencies of the
day, may be able to exercise a sensible influence on
religious society and claim the attention of the legislator.

“3d. The same commission referred to above will be able to
examine how, by means of opportune expedients, some of the
dispositions of the forthcoming law on the administration of
the ecclesiastical fund may be made serve to relieve and
encourage the priests and laymen belonging to associations
the aim of which is to fulfil scrupulously at one and the
same time the duties of religion and of patriotism. Still,
despite the fact that the actual arrangement and the
accustomed destination of the revenues of vacant benefices
succeed with great difficulty in meeting the mass of
obligations that weigh upon them, I have earnestly sought
for the readiest and most available means to afford some
help and encouragement to the well-deserving society over
which you preside, especially to promote the diffusion of
the earnest and profound studies of history and
ecclesiastical literature; and I am only sorry that
insuperable obstacles have obliged me to keep within very
modest limits. I will not neglect to avail myself of every
favorable occasion to show the esteem and the satisfaction
of the government with respect to those ecclesiastics and
members of the association who join to gravity of conduct
the merit of dedicating themselves to good ecclesiastical
studies, and render useful service to their fellow-citizens.

“4th. In the fourth place, by this memorandum the demand is
presented that one of the many churches in Naples, once
conventual, be assigned to the society, endowing it with the
property acquired by the laws affecting the title to such
property of February 17, 1861, July 7, 1866, and August 15,
1867. On this point I have to say that many years ago there
was brought about a state of things which certainly is not
favorable to the granting of the demand; for the
twenty-fourth article of the law of February 17, 1861, was
interpreted in the sense that churches formerly conventual
should be subject, as regards jurisdiction, to the
archiepiscopal curia. Notwithstanding this, and although I
intend to have examined anew the interpretation given to
Article 24, seeing in the meantime that this state of things
be not in the least changed for the worse, I will
immediately put myself in relation with the prefect of the
province, to know whether, keeping in view the facts as
above, there be in your city a church we may dispose of that
presents all the conditions required, in order that it may
be given for the use of the society. It is hardly necessary
to speak of the absolute impossibility of assigning an
endowment from the property coming from the laws changing
the title to such property, because, even apart from any
other reason, the very laws themselves determine, in order,
the use to which the revenues obtained by the consequent
sale of the property are to be put.

“5th. Finally, as regards guaranteeing efficaciously,
against the arbitrary action of the episcopate, the lower
clergy who are loyal to the laws of the country and to the
dynasty, I do not deem it necessary to make any declarations
or give any assurances, because my principles and the first
acts of my administration are a pledge that, within the
bounds allowed me by law, and urging, if needful, the action
of the courts, in accordance with the law of May 13, 1871, I
shall not fail to show by deeds that the government of the
king is not disposed to tolerate that good ecclesiastics of
liberal creed should be subject to abuse on the part of
their ecclesiastical superiors, when the legal means are in
their power to prevent it.

“Be pleased to accept, honored sir, the expression of my
esteem and consideration.

“The Keeper of the Seals,
“MANCINI.”

We shall adduce only one other document as prefatory to what we are going to say, and that is the letter of a certain Professor Sbarbaro, who is a prominent writer of extreme views, possessing a frankness of character that makes him attack the government at one time, even in favor of the church, though through no love of it, at another launch forth against it an amount of invective and false accusation that would warrant us in looking on him as the crater of the revolutionary volcano. This personage has written quite recently one of his characteristic letters, in which he uses all his eloquence against the church, recommending everywhere the establishment of Protestant churches and schools; because, he says, this is the only way to destroy the Catholic Church, the implacable enemy of the new order of things. Every nerve must be strained to effect this. There can be no peace till it be accomplished, and the edifice of Italian unity and freedom tower over the ruins of ecclesiastical oppression.

With the express declaration of the deputy, Sig. Giuseppe Toscanelli, the letter of his Excellency the Keeper of the Seals and that of Professor Sbarbaro, before our eyes, we are prepared to see some fact in accordance with the ideas and sentiments therein expressed. The fact is at hand; it is a movement set on foot to obtain adhesion and subscriptions to the scheme of electing, by the people, to their positions ecclesiastics even of the highest grade. The Sovereign Pontiff himself alluded to this in his discourse to the foreign colleges, July 25, 1876, when he warned them that steps were taking to prepare the way to a popular election, “_a tempo suo, anche al maggior beneficio della chiesa_”――“at the proper time, to even the first benefice of the church”――in other words, the Papacy. It is worth while examining this question, because the agitation having begun, specious arguments having been advanced, and illustrious names, such as that of Rosmini――who, it is well known, retracted whatever by overzeal he had written that incurred censure at Rome――having been brought forward to support such views, it is not unlikely that elsewhere we may hear a repetition of them. Say what people may, Rome is the centre of the civilized world; the agitations that occur there, especially in the speculative order, are like the waves produced by casting a stone in the water: the ripples extend themselves from the centre to the extreme circumference. So thence the agitations strike France and Germany and Spain, extend to England, Russia, the East, and finally reach us and the other extra-European nations.

The errors on this subject of popular election in the church, where they are not affected, come from a confusion of ideas and a want of knowledge of what the church is. Protestantism has had the greatest part in misleading men; for it completely changed the essential idea of this mystic body of Christ. Our Lord, when founding his church on earth, spoke of it continually as his, as his kingdom, as his house, as his vineyard. He told his disciples that to him all power had been given in heaven and on earth. Nowhere do we see him giving to any one a title that would make him a sharer in that power; the unity of command signified by the idea of the kingdom, the absolute power of imposing laws, is his, his alone, and is entrusted to those he selected to continue his work. His words to his apostles were: “As the Father hath sent me, I send you”――the fulness of power I have I bestow upon you, that you may act in my name, in such a way that “he who hears you hears me; and he who will not hear you, let him be to you as the heathen and the publican.” He makes the distinction between those who are to hear and those who are outside his church; he constitutes in his kingdom, his church, those who are to command with his authority and those who are to obey: the apostles and their successors――the Sovereign Pontiff with the bishops――and the people or the laity. The duty of the laity is to obey, not to command, not to impose, not to exact, much less to name those who are to hold positions in the church――an act proper of its nature only to those who hold power of command, just as in a kingdom the naming to offices resides with the king or with those he may depute for such purpose. The duty of the laity is summed up in the words of the Prince of the Apostles: _Obedite præpositis vestris_――Obey your prelates. Such is the divine constitution of the church, and, like everything of divine right, that constitution is unchangeable. Alongside of this fact, however, we find another that apparently conflicts with it. We see the people, even in the first period of the preaching of Christianity, taking part in the election of those who were to hold places in the church, and this at the instance of the apostles themselves. It is, however, not the rule, but the exception, in the sacred text; for we find the apostles acting directly, themselves selecting and bestowing power of orders and jurisdiction; as, for example, when St. Paul placed Timothy over the church of Ephesus, and Titus over those of Crete. This is in accordance with what we might expect from the constitution of the church. Had the election to such places been of divine right, St. Paul would have violated that right in so naming both Timothy and Titus. It follows, then, that this power of taking part in the election of prelates, priests, and deacons was introduced by the apostles and used in the early church as a matter of expediency, the continuation or interruption of which would depend upon circumstances. What was the meaning of it? Was it a conferring of power, a naming to fill a place, or a presentation, a testimony of worth of those thus selected, which the apostles and their successors sought from the people? It was a testimony of worth only. This is evident from the words of St. Peter to the one hundred and twenty gathered with him for the nomination of St. Matthias. It is St. Peter who regulates, orders what is to be done, and commands the brethren to select one from their number. They could not agree on one; two were nominated, and the prayer and choice by lot followed. This was, of course, an extraordinary case, and we do not see this mode of election afterwards resorted to, leaving the matter to be decided by the power of God. What we do see here that is of interest to us is the act of the Prince of the Apostles prescribing what was to be done; this shows his supreme authority, and is the source of the legality of the position of St. Matthias. The testimony of the people was required to ascertain his worth and fitness. It was very natural that this testimony of the people should be resorted to, especially in the early church, in which affairs were administered and the work of the Gospel carried on rather through the spirit of charity, “that hath no law,” than by legal enactments; though we begin to see quite early traces of these, as required by the nature of the case. This example of the apostles continued in use in the church for centuries, the testimony of the people to the worth of their bishops being required; for it has always been an axiom in the conduct of affairs in the church that the bishop must be acceptable to his people; nor is any great examination needed to arrive at such a conclusion, for the office of a bishop regards the spiritual interests of his flock, and such interests cannot be furthered by one against whom his people have just cause of complaint and dissatisfaction. To obtain such testimony, or to be able to present an acceptable and worthy bishop to a flock, there is no one essentially necessary way. Provided testimony beyond exception can be had, it matters little by what channel it comes. In process of time, when persecution, and persistent struggle with paganism for centuries after persecution, ended, “the charity of many having grown cold,” the strife that too often ensued in the choice of bishops, and the success of designing men through bribery or intrigue, brought about the change in the discipline of the church. We find the eighth general council legislating with regard to elections to patriarchates, archbishoprics, and bishoprics. We see that the powerful were making use of the means at their command either to influence the people in the choice, where this was possible, or by their own authority placing ecclesiastics in possession of sees. The council was held in the year 869, and was called on to act against Photius, the intruded patriarch of Constantinople. It drew up and promulgated these two canons:

“CAN. XII. The apostolic and synodical canons wholly
forbidding promotion and consecration of bishops by the
power and command of princes, we concordantly define, and
also pronounce sentence, that, if any bishop have received
consecration to such dignity by intrigue or cunning of
princes, he is to be by all means deposed as having willed
and agreed to possess the house of the Lord, not by the will
of God and by ecclesiastical rite and decree, but by the
desire of carnal sense, from men and through men.

“CAN. XXII. This holy and universal synod, in accordance
with former councils, defines and decrees that the promotion
and consecration of bishops are to be done by the election
and decree of the college of bishops; and it rightly
proclaims that no lay prince or person possessed of power
shall interfere in the election of a patriarch, of a
metropolitan, or of any bishop whatsoever, lest there should
arise inordinate and incongruous confusion or strife,
especially as it is fitting that no prince or other layman
have any power in such matters” (Version of Anastasius).

In the Roman Church, however, while the active interference of secular princes and nobles, despite the canons of the church, continued to be the rule during the middle ages, to the great harm of religion and dishonor of the See of Peter, to the intrusion even of unworthy occupants who scandalized the faithful, the popes and the clergy wished to have the people present as witnesses of the election, and consenting to it, that in this way there might be a bar to calumny, affecting the validity of it, and an obstacle to the ambition of the surrounding princes. Still, the election proper belonged to the clergy, the people consenting to receive the one so elected. Prior to the pontificate of Nicholas II. the people, so often the willing servants of the German emperors or of their allies, used not unfrequently to impose their will on the clergy, or made Rome the theatre of factional strife. To put a stop to this, Nicholas, having called a council of one hundred and thirteen bishops at Rome, published in it the following decree:

1. “God beholding us, it is first decreed that the election
of the Roman Pontiff shall be in the power of the cardinal
bishops; so that if any one be enthroned in the apostolic
chair without their previous concordant and canonical
election, and afterwards with the consent of the successive
religious orders, of the clergy, and of the laity, he is to
be held as no pope or apostolic man, but as an apostate.”

In the centuries of contention between the lay powers and the ecclesiastical authorities, the discipline on the subject of election to the higher benefices became more and more strict, till finally the selection has, as a rule, come to be reserved to the Sovereign Pontiff, to whom, even after election by chapter, the confirmation belongs. The Council of Trent has been very explicit on this point. In ch. iv. of sess. xxiii. we read:

“The holy synod, moreover, teaches that, in the ordination
of bishops, priests, and of the other grades, the consent,
or call, or authority neither of the people nor of any
secular power and magistracy is so required that without
this it be invalid; nay, it even decrees that those who
ascend to the exercise of this ministry, called and placed
in position only by the people or lay power and magistracy,
and who of their own rashness assume them, are all to be
held, not as ministers of the church, but as thieves and
robbers who have not come in by the door.”

Can. vii. of this session condemns those who teach otherwise.

We are, therefore, not surprised to find duly promulgated the following document referring to the “Italian society for the reassertion of the rights that belong to Christian people, and especially to Roman citizens,” under whose auspices the movement for election to ecclesiastical benefices by the people has been set on foot. The _Sacra Penitentiaria_ is the tribunal to which cases of conscience are submitted for decision, and its answers are given according to the terms of the petition or case submitted. We give the case as submitted, and the reply:

“MOST EMINENT AND REVEREND SIR: Some confessors in the city
of Rome humbly submit that, at the present moment, there is
in circulation in it a paper containing a printed programme,
with accompanying schedules of association, by which the
faithful are solicited to join a certain society,
established or to be established to the end that, on the
vacancy of the Apostolic See, the Roman people may take part
in the election of the Roman Pontiff. The name of the
society is: _Società Cattolica per la rivendicazione dei
diritti spettanti al popolo cristiano ed in ispecie al
popolo Romano_. Whoever gives his name to this society must
expressly declare, as results from the schedules, that he
agrees to the doctrines set forth in the programme, and
contracts the obligation, before two witnesses, of doing all
he can to further the propagation of these doctrines and the
increase of the society. Wherefore, the said confessors,
that they may properly absolve, when by the grace of God
they come to the sacrament of penance, those who have been
the promoters of this evil society, or have subscribed their
names thereto, and other adherents and aiders of it, send a
copy of the programme and schedules to be examined by the
Sacred Penitentiary, and ask an answer to the following
questions:

“1. Whether each and all, giving their names to this
society, or aiding it, or in any way abetting it, or
adhering to it, by the very fact incur the penalty of the
major excommunication?

“2. And if so, whether this excommunication be reserved to
the Sovereign Pontiff?”

“The Sacred Penitentiary, having considered all that has
been laid before it, and duly examined into the nature and
end of this society, having referred the foregoing to our
most holy lord, Pius IX., with his approbation, replies to
the proposed questions as follows:

“To the first, affirmatively.

“To the second: The excommunication is incurred by the very
fact, and is in a special manner reserved to the Roman
Pontiff.

“Given at Rome, in the Sacred Penitentiary, August 4, 1876.

“R. CARD. MONACO, _for the
Grand Penitentiary_.

“HIP. CANON PALOMBI, _S. P.
Secretary_.”

Such is the state of things we have to present to our readers as a result of the triumph of Freemasonry in Italy and of the seizure of Rome: the Pope a captive; his temporal power gone; his spiritual power trammelled; his influence subject to daily attacks that aim at its destruction; and, to crown all, looming up in the distance, a possible schism, resulting from interference, patronized by the Italian government, in the future election of the Head of two hundred millions of Catholics throughout the world, whose most momentous interests are at stake. Surely nothing could be of more weight to show how impossible a thing a pope under the dominion of a sovereign is; nor could we desire anything better adapted to show the necessity of the restoration of his perfect independence in the temporal order. We believe this will be; and, as things are, we can see no other way possible than by the restoration of his temporal power; how, or when, is in the hands of divine Providence.

[86] Art. XVI. “The disposition of the civil laws with
regard to the creation and the manner of existence of
ecclesiastical institutions, and the alienation of their
property, remains in force.” There is no mention of the
_exequatur_ being required for a bishop to plead before a
court; that is, to begin to act under the provisions of Art.
XVI.

A GLIMPSE OF THE ADIRONDACKS.

LAKE GEORGE, Sept. ――, 1876.

MY DEAR FRIEND: Not content with being told that we enjoyed our trip immensely, you demand a description――of, at least, the chief part of it. Now, an adequate description of any kind of scenery is by no means an easy thing. I have read since my return those _Adventures of a Phaeton_ which your high praises made me promise to try. And, certainly, the author’s plan is admirably executed; his pages are fragrant with rural freshness; but can you aver that your mind carries away a single picture from his numerous descriptions? I have, as you know, the advantage over you of having visited some of the places through which he conducts the party, particularly Oxford and its vicinity; but I assure you, had I not _seen_ old Iffley, for instance, with its church and mill, the strokes of his pen would have given me no idea of them.

Poets understand description better than other writers. Lord Byron is the greatest master of the art in our language, and, I venture to say, in any. What is their secret? To go into the least possible detail――sketching but a few bold outlines, and leaving you to contemplate, as they did. I shall make no apology, then, for following in their wake.

Well, the time we spent in the woods proper――or mountains proper, if you prefer it――was barely five days. It took us a whole day to voyage down Lake George and part of Lake Champlain, and then stage (or vehicle) it to a place with the euphonious name of Keene Flats. Lake George looked as lovely as it always does under a clear morning sky; and when the _Minnehaha_ had finished her course, we found――something new to us――a railway station, and a train waiting to convey us to Lake Champlain. I cannot deny that the unromantic train is an improvement on the coach-ride of other days; for the old road was so absurdly bad, one had to hold on to the coach like grim death to avoid being jolted off.

The Champlain boats are all that can be desired. Besides other accommodations, they serve you with a dinner which is well worth the dollar you pay for it. The lake itself, though, makes a very poor show after the beautiful George; and on this occasion what charms it had were veiled by a thick smoke――from Canadian forests (we were told). We had not more than time for a post-prandial cigar before we reached Westport, our aquatic terminus. Landing, we found it no difficult matter to discover the stage for Keene Flats. Two men, if not three, vociferously greeted us with “Keene Flats!” “Stage for Keene Flats!” The stage we had expected to meet was not there. It ran only Tuesdays and Fridays, they said――or Mondays and Fridays, I forget which――and this was Wednesday. So we took the only one to be had, and started on a journey of some twenty-four miles, but which lasted over five hours.

The journey was broken by having to change vehicles at Elizabethtown――a strikingly pretty place, and evidently popular. The drive thus far had been through a continuous cloud of dust, and the thickest of its kind I was ever in. The remaining fourteen miles were really delightful. While evening fell softly from a cloudless sky, the scenery grew bolder and wilder. The heights on either side took a deeper blue, the woods a darker green. And presently the chill air made us wrap ourselves against it. Very long seemed the drive, and weary; but many a violet peak beguiled us with its beauty, and the large star drew our thoughts from earth, till at last, as we descended into Keene Valley, the moon rose to light us to our rest.

It was after nine o’clock when we alighted at Washbond’s. Mine host had gone to bed, but was not slow to answer our summons; and then his wife and daughter came down to get us supper. We did justice to the repast, which was simple but well served, and in the meantime made arrangements with Trumble, the guide, whom we were fortunate in finding at home. Our beds were in a new house Washbond had just built. Everything was clean and comfortable, and I need not say we slept.

Breakfasting about eight next morning, we made preparations for our tramp through the woods. The guide was very useful to us in knowing what provisions to get. His younger brother, too――himself training for a guide――came along with us, for a consideration, to help carry our load.

Taking one more meal at Washbond’s, we started in the heat of noon. A couple of miles brought us to the woods proper. Here the character of the road changed, of course, and the “pull” began. It was surprising how cool the air of the woods was when we stopped to breathe and sat down with our packs; whereas, wherever the sun got at us through the trees, he “let us know he was there.” But had the fatigue of those first miles through the woods been twice or ten times as great, it would have been more than repaid when, suddenly, a turn in the road brought us in view of the Lower Au Sable Lake.

One of our trio, whom we called Colonel (for we thought it wise to travel _incog._――the second being Judge, and myself Doctor), had run on ahead of the guides――a practice he kept up throughout the trip. We heard him shout as he came upon the lake, and he told us afterwards that he had taken off his hat and thanked God for having lived to see that view. There lay the water in the light of afternoon, long, narrow, and winding out of sight. To either shore sloped a mountain, wooded, clear-cut, precipitous.

It was quite romantic to be told we had to navigate this lake. But first there were the Rainbow Falls to see. Our end of the lake (not included in the above view) was choked up with fallen timber. Crossing on some trunks to the other shore, we had but a few minutes’ walk before we came into a rocky hollow of wildest beauty, where, from a cliff some hundred and fifty feet high, leapt the torrent――scarcely “with delirious bound,” nor, of course, with the bulk it would have had in winter, yet with terrible majesty――into a channel below us. It did not wear the rainbow coronal, the time of day being too late. But the glen was well worth a visit, and deliciously cool from the spray.

The boat we were to voyage in was the property of the guide――a light craft, and rather too crank to be comfortable, particularly with a load of five on board, to say nothing of the dog and the baggage; so that, in fact, our passage along the lake and between the giant slopes was not as pleasant as it might have been. After some difficult navigation at the other end of the lake, the crew was safely landed with the baggage, and the boat hidden in some bushes. Then a trudge through the woods again for a couple of miles at least (distances, by the bye, are peculiar in these regions), till we issued on the bank of the Au Sable River where it leaves the Upper Lake. It was during this march that the Colonel (who had brought his gun) got a shot at a certain bird, and knocked too many feathers from her not to have killed her, though neither he nor the dog could find her; and this was, positively, the only game he sighted the whole trip through.

But here a second boat was found hidden and ready, and one a little larger than the first. And now came _the_ scene of our excursion. We seemed to have entered an enchanted land――to be floating on a veritable fairy lake. The vision stole over us like a dream. Then, too, it was “the heavenliest hour of heaven” for such a scene: the sun set, and twilight just begun. The picture, as a whole, will ever remain in my memory as, of its kind, the loveliest it has been my happiness to see. But, my dear friend, it “beggars all description.” I can only ask you to imagine it, while I jot down a few points of detail.

The Upper Au Sable differs strikingly from the Lower, although, of course, equally formed by, and a part of, the same river. It is less long, but also less narrow; and while to the left, as you glide up it, there stands but one mountain from shore to sky, to the right you behold other majestic summits towering above the wooded slope. So, again, on looking back, you see a gap of fantastic grandeur, and, fronting you, is a wide opening, relieved by a single peak. This peak, as we then saw it, wore the bewitching blue that distance and evening combine to “lend”――a charm which I, for one (and surely all lovers of nature), can never enough feast my eyes upon. The summits to the right and behind us were also robed in various shades of “purple,” which deepened with the twilight. The glassy water was covered here and there with yellow-blossomed lilies. Even the green of the woods partook with the sky

“That _clear obscure_,
So softly dark, and darkly pure.”

Along the right bank two campfires were burning brightly. Toward one of these our guide was steering. He knew that his camp (constructed by himself, and therefore his by every right) was occupied, but was bent on turning the intruders out. We found a guide sitting calmly by the fire, and awaiting the return of his party to supper. They had gone up “Marcy,” he said, and two of them were ladies, and it would be very hard for them to have to seek another camp after their day’s climb. He had supposed our camp would not be wanted. There was one of his own on the other side, just as good, and we could have that. Well, of course, we three, when we heard of ladies, used our influence with Trumble, who slowly relented, and then rowed us over to the other shore. Yes, the camp was as good, and all about it; but we were on the wrong side for seeing the moon rise, and felt not a little disappointed.

While the guide was making the fire the Colonel proposed that we should row up the lake and look for deer. So we went; but not a sign of any such quadruped could we see. Our view of the lake, though, repaid us; and when we returned, we found a splendid fire and a savory supper. These fires are kept up all night. They are close in front of the camp. This species of “camp” is a hut or shed, built of logs and securely roofed with birch bark. Sloping upward from behind, it stands open to the air in front. The floor is strewed with spruce boughs, or some other equally suitable; and when over this covering a “rubber blanket” is placed, you have quite a comfortable bed. Did we sleep, though? Very fairly for the first night out.

And here I am tempted to end this epistle; for no other day of our whole trip brought anything to compare with the exquisite surprises of this first day in the woods. But I know you will not be satisfied if I fail to take you up Mt. Marcy and round through Indian Pass.

Well, then, we started for “Marcy” (as the guides call it) next morning, right after breakfast. Our breakfast, by the way, was unusually good for Friday. The Colonel and Trumble had risen early and caught a nice string of brook trout. The brook was near the head of the lake. We also supped on trout, which the Colonel and I got from Marcy Brook, a mountain stream we reached about noon.

The ascent from the lake was decidedly a “pull,” the more so, no doubt, from the reluctance with which we took leave of the lake. We felt the climb that day more than any climb we had afterward. A mile, too, of this kind seems equal, in point of distance, to three or four miles on ordinary ground. Having rested by Marcy Brook for dinner, we pushed on in the afternoon for Panther Gorge, where we found a good camp unoccupied, which served us for the night. The Judge was very eager to scale Marcy that evening, in order to get the view from it by moonlight. We met a gentleman coming down, who said he had been on Marcy the night before, and described the moonlight view as the finest sight he had ever witnessed. We also met some ladies belonging to the same party. Still, I think it was as well we did not go up that night; for it would have sorely taxed our strength. I have recently been told of persons who brought on disease, and died within a year or two after, by rash exertion among these mountains. This sort of thing seems to me consummate folly. More than that, it is a sin. We had come on the excursion not only to see, but, equally, to gain vigor. Having, then, plenty of time and ample provisions, there was no use in straining ourselves to gratify vanity or anything else.

Panther Gorge must have taken its name from that truculent animal having “infested” there (as Josh Billings would say). But the bounty set on beasts of prey current in these woods seems to have made them very scarce; for the only specimen we met with all the way was a dead bear rotting in a trap. The gorge itself is wild, but not particularly romantic. We got a view of it from a place called “The Notch,” near the summit of Mt. Marcy, where we rested to dine. There is a sort of camp at this spot, but a poor thing to pass a night in. There is also a most convenient spring. Indeed, we had reason to be very grateful for the springs and rills of delicious water which abounded all along our line of march.

The ascent of Marcy is singularly easy for a mountain of such height――one of the highest, indeed, this side of the Rocky range. I confess I had rather dreaded the climb, from an experience of Black Mountain, on Lake George. I was therefore quite agreeably surprised. On the other hand, I was almost equally disappointed by the view from the Cloud-splitter’s top. (Tahawus――_i.e._, Cloud-splitter――is the old Indian name for the mountain. What a pity it was changed!――nearly as barbarous as giving the name of one of Thackeray’s “Four Georges” to the beautiful Lac du Saint-Sacrement. Far better to have restored the Indian name――Horicon, _Holy_ Lake.) It is rarely, I suppose, that a perfectly clear view is to be had from these mountains. _We_, probably, saw little more than half the horizon commanded by the height at which we stood. What we did see was worth seeing, certainly. Still, I, at least, remembered an incomparably finer view from the well-named Prospect Mountain at the head of Lake George.

Lake George we could not see, but only where it was. A number of small lakes were pointed out to us by the guide, among them the “Tear of the Clouds,” one of the reputed sources of the Hudson. This wretched little pond――for such it proved when we passed it on our way towards Lake Colden that afternoon――looked far from deserving of its poetical name, even at a distance; for we could see that it was yellow, being, in fact, a very shallow affair, and more like a stagnant marsh than a crystalline tear. They might as well have given some sidereal appellation to the sun-reflector which Mr. Colvin has erected on the exact apex of Marcy――a few sheets of tin, some of which had been torn off; for when, three days later, we were many miles away, we beheld this apparatus glittering like a star in the rays of the setting sun.

But here let me moralize a moment. Those to whom “high mountains are a feeling,” as they were to the “Pilgrim poet,” will not scale them purely for the view they afford, much less for the sake of vaunting a creditable feat. They will understand the longing so nobly expressed by Keats:

“To sit upon an Alp as on a throne,
And half forget what world and worldling meant.”

That is, they will feel at home on mountain-tops, because uplifted from the transitory and the sordid, and reminded what it is to belong to eternity. But then, on the other hand, unless, with Wordsworth, they “have ears to hear”

“The still, sad music of humanity,”

they will miss the real lesson which the “wonder-works of God and Nature’s hand” are meant to teach――to wit, the infinitely greater worth and _beauty_ of a single human soul, even the lowest and most degraded, as a world in which are wrought, or can be wrought, the “wonder-works” of _grace_. The love of Nature never yet made a misanthrope. The poet who could write

“To me
High mountains are a feeling, but the hum
Of human cities torture,”

had been stung into misanthropy before he “fled” to Nature, and would rather have found in Nature’s bosom a sublime and tender love of mankind, had he not possessed (as some one has well said of him) “the eagle’s _wing_ without the eagle’s _eye_,” so that “while he soared above the world” he “could not gaze upon the sun of Truth.”

Such having been my cogitations as I stood on Mt. Marcy, you will not think it pedantry that I record them here.

Descending, we returned to the camp at the Notch, where we had left our baggage, then struck into the trail for the Iron-Works (of which anon). This trail, though well worn, is very tiresome, owing to the number of trees that have fallen across it, obliging you to crawl a good deal. But we were glad to have seen the “Flumes” of the “Opalescent”――another poetic name, which obviously means “beginning to be opal,” or _resembling_ that hue. But, unfortunately, there are various kinds of opal; and since the water had nothing of a milky tinge, the bestower of the name must have meant the _brown_ opal, an impure and inferior sort. I therefore deem the name infelicitous. The only color-epithet for clear and shallow waters, whether running or still, is _amber_. Witness Milton, in _Paradise Lost_:

“Where the river of bliss through midst of heaven
Rolls o’er Elysian flowers her _amber_ stream.”

And again, in _Comus_:

“Sabrina fair!
Listen where thou art sitting
Under the glassy, cool, translucent wave,
In twisted braids of lilies knitting
The loose train of thy _amber_-dropping hair!”