Chapter XVII: Experiments of More Kinds Than One (7)

BEETHOVEN'S LETTERS. (1790-1836.) From the collection of Dr. Ludwig Nohl; also his Letters to the Archduke Rudolph, Cardinal-Archbishop of Olmutz, from the collection of Dr. Ludwig Ritter von Kochel. Translated by Lady Wallace; with a portrait and facsimile. 2 vols., 12mo. Hurd & Houghton.

These letters of the illustrious _maestro_ are arranged under three heads: Life's Joy a and Sorrows, Life's Mission, Life's Troubles and Close. They are of quite a miscellaneous character, and refer to every conceivable event of life, displaying much good humor and not a little ill humor in their short, quick, impatient sentences. As a letter-writer he is far inferior to Mozart, with whom the reader comes at once into sympathy, and of whose letters very few indeed are wanting in sentiments of universal interest. On the contrary, a very large number of these letters of Beethoven will be read simply because Beethoven wrote them, and will not bear a reperusal Yet they will, no doubt, find a welcome place beside those of his great brother artist on the table of every admirer of the grand music or these two grand geniuses. His enthusiastic, and we may add, somewhat imaginative editor and compiler, Dr. Nohl, is perhaps better qualified to form a judgment upon the general tenor and worth of these letters than we are, and we therefore quote the following from his preface to the present work: "If not fettered by petty feelings, the reader will quickly surmount the casual obstacles and stumbling-blocks which the first perusal of these letters may seem to present, and quickly feel himself transported at a single stride into a stream where a strange roaring and rushing is heard, but above which loftier tones resound with magic and exciting power. For a acute year life breathes in these lines; and under-current runs through their apparently unconnected import, uniting them as with and electric chain, and with firmer links than any mere coherence of subjects could have effected. I experienced this myself to the most remarkable degree when I first made the attempt to arrange, in accordance with their period and substance, the hundreds of individual pages bearing neither date nor address, and I was soon convinced that a connected text (such as Mozart's letters have, and ought to have) would be here entirely superfluous, as even the best biographical commentary would be very dry work, interrupting the electric current of the whole, and thus destroying its peculiar effect."

The volumes are published in scholarly style, and present a very readable and attractive page.

LONDON POEMS. By Robert Buchanan 12 mo, pp. 272. Alexander Strahan, London and New-York.

The elegant dress of this volume, so characteristic of Mr. Strahan's publications, is calculated to make one shy of saying anything derogatory to its character; but we are held to say that we decidedly object to Mr. Buchanan's poetry in any dress. The greater part of these poems are to us positively repulsive. They are but little more than rudely hand sketches of certain phases of low life in London, immoral and irreligious in tone, and utterly wanting in that spiritual expression which invests the true poet with the mantle of inspiration. The poet may describe vice if he will, but let him not dare to excuse it or throw a charm about it if he would not raised a storm of indignation in the bosoms of the virtuous and the truthful. Poetry is a divine art; the poet must discharge at once the high office of teacher as well as psalmist, and every {575} line should bear the impress of divine truth nobility, and purity. That which is false, base, boorish, and obscene is none the less detestable for being put in rhythm.

FREDERICK THE GREAT AND HIS COURT. An historical novel. By L. Mühlbach. Translated from the German by Mrs. Chapman Coleman and daughters. 12mo. New-York: D. Appleton & Co. 1866.

The rapidity with which the novels of Miss Mühlbach have risen into popularity in this country is a pretty good indication of their merit. They are free from the false sensationalism which furnishes the spice of the lower school of modern fiction; and they treat of historical subjects and characters with an honest intention to exhibit historical truth, and not as a mere framework for the display of a trashy story. Many of the scenes are drawn with a fidelity and an effectiveness which show at the same time a close familiarity with the times and persons with which the novel is concerned and a very considerable literary skill; but the dialogues are not always well managed, the diction being sometimes too trivial and sometimes too stilted. Despite this minor defect, the book is full enough of interest: and our wonder is, considering the great and long-established popularity of Miss Mühlbach in Germany, that her writings were not translated into our language long ago. It is a singular fact that the present work, and some other historical novels from the same pen which D. Appleton & Co. have now in press, were translated and first printed in the Confederate States during the late rebellion.

THE HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN. By Emily Davies. 16mo, pp. 191. London and New-York: Alexander Strahan. 1866.

This is a well-written plea for reform in the present system of female education; not for a reform which would ignore the difference in the character and duties of the two sexes, but one which would open to women various callings for which nature has specially fitted them, but which they are now shut out either by defective training or by the prejudices of society. Miss Davies's little treatise is an appropriate companion work for a volume of similar essays by Miss Parkes which we noticed two or three months ago; and though both of them are more applicable to the state of things in England than to the better condition of women in our own country there is much in both which deserves our serious consideration.

A GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, from the commencement of the Christian Era until the present time. By M. l'abbé J. E. Darras. Vol. IV. New-York: P. O'Shea. 1866.

The fourth volume of this highly esteemed work completes the publication of the original history of M. Darras. It comprises the last, and to us for many reasons the most interesting period of the history of the church; that which begins with the rise of Protestantism down to the pontificate of Gregory XVI. To this volume is added as an appendix a very concise and valuable historical sketch of the origin and progress of the Church in the United States by the Rev. Dr. C. I. White, of Washington City. We have already warmly commended this work to our readers. It will take its place, of course, in all our colleges and literary societies, and become as familiar to our American as it is already to all French students; but we wish for it also a wide distribution in the family circle. There is no reason why such useful and entertaining works as this should not be kept at hand and under the eye of our youth at home. A good knowledge of the church's life, labors, trials, and victories is necessary to every Catholic in our day, both for an intelligent appreciation of his faith as well as to be able to combat the attacks that faith receives through misrepresentation of the facts of history, and the unblushing falsehoods concerning the Papacy, which are so foul a blot upon the pages of history and controversy written by Protestant and infidel enemies of the church. The present work is the best history of the church we possess in the English language. It is such a one as we have needed a long time, and we again thank the enterprising publisher for the boon he has thus conferred upon the Catholic public.

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THE SUFFERINGS OF JESUS. by Father Thomas of Jesus. Reprinted from the last London Edition. New York: P O'Shea, 27 Barclay st. 1866.

This is a work composed by a great saint, and justly deserving of the great reputation it has always enjoyed as one of the best of spiritual books. It contains an inexhaustible mine of meditation, sufficient to last a person during his whole life, and just as new and fresh after the hundreds perusal as during the first. It is as a book for meditation that it should be used, and for this purpose it cannot be too highly recommended to religious communities or to devout persons in the world who desire and need a guide and model for the practice of meditation.

THE LIFE AND LIGHT OF MEN. An essay. by John Young LL.D. Edin. Strahan.

Dr. Young was formerly a Presbyterian minister, but resigned his position on account of his inability to believe the Presbyterian doctrines, especially that of the vicarious atonement and imputed righteousness of Christ. The present work is leveled against this doctrine. The author has tolerably clear views of the Incarnation, and some other Catholic doctrines. His learning appears to be considerable, the tone of his mind very just and moderate, and his intellectual and literary ability of no mean order. He is one instance among a thousand others, of a noble, religious mind striving to rise above the common Protestant orthodoxy without floating away into rationalism. We recommend his book to our Calvinistic friends. What the excellent author is yearning after is Catholic theology. This, and this alone, would satisfy him, for it alone can satisfy any mind that wishes to believe in the Christian revelation and at the same time the rational.

THE LIFE OF ST. VINCENT DEPAUL, AND ITS LESSONS. A lecture. By Rev. T. S. Preston, R. Coddington.

The publication of this lecture will gratify many who were not able to be present at its delivery. The orator gives a short account of the life and great labors of the apostle of charity, and then shows the difference between charity as a Christian virtue and simple, natural philanthropy, both in principle and their means and plans of action. In works of benevolence, that which the Christian saint is careless about and avoids to the utmost of his power, is considered by the world as of vital necessity to secure success, the approval and applause of men. This truth is well brought out in the lecture, and is one which it is necessary to keep before our minds in this puffing age. The proceeds of the sale of the lecture is accredited to the benefit of the conference of St. Vincent de Paul, attached to St. Ann's Church in the city.

ALTE UND NEUR WELT. Benziger Bros. New York.

This is a Catholic monthly magazine in the German language, enriched with copious illustrations. The type and paper are of very superior quality, and the contents very various and, we should think, well-chosen. The illustrations are by far the best which can be found in any periodical published in America, and many of them equal to those of the best European magazines. The work as a whole reflects the greatest credit on its conductors, and deserves the most extensive patronage from our numerous and intelligent German Catholic population. We recommend it also to those who are studying the German language, or interested in German literature. The illustrations alone are worth the price of subscription, which is $4.00 a year.

BOOKS RECEIVED.

From D. & J. Sadlier & Co. New York. The denouncement; or, the Last Baron of Crana, and The Boyne Water. By the Brothers Banim. 2 vols. 12mo, pp. 448 and 559; Parts 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35 and 36 of D'Artaud's Lives of the Popes.

From Ticknor & Fields, Boston. How New York is Governed. By James Parton, reprinted from the North American Review. Pamphlet.

From P. O'Shea, New York. The Purgatorian Manual; or, a Selection of Prayers and Devotions with appropriate reflections for the use of the members of the Purgatorian Society in the Diocese of New York, and adapted for general use. By Rev. Thomas S. Preston, pastor of St. Ann's and Chancellor of the Diocese. Approved by the most Rev. John McCloskey, D.D., archbishop of New York, pp. 452; The Imitation of Christ in Two Books, translated by Richard Challoner, D.D. 48mo, pp. 308; Instructions on the Commandments of God, and Holy Sacraments. By St. Alphonsus Liguori. 48mo, pp. 288. The Spiritual Combat; or, the Christian Defended against the Enemy of his Salvation. 48mo, pp. 256; Little Office of the Blessed Virgin, in Latin and English. 12mo, pp. 178.

We have received an Oration delivered before the members of St. Mary's Orphan Association of Nashville, Tenn., July 4th, 1866, by Rev. A. J. Ryan, author of The Concord Banner, etc.

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THE CATHOLIC WORLD

VOL. IV., NO. 23--FEBRUARY, 1867.

THE POPE AND THE REVOLUTION

BY JOHN HENRY NEWMAN, D.D.

[This sermon is given to the world in consequence of its having been
made the subject in the public prints of various reports and
comments, which, though both friendly and fair to the author, as far
as he has seen them, nevertheless, from the necessity of the case,
have proceeded from information inexact in points of detail.

It is now published from the copy written beforehand, and does not
differ from the copy, as delivered, except in such corrections of a
critical nature as are imperative when a composition, written
_currente calamo_, has to be prepared for the press. There is one
passage, however, which it has been found necessary to enlarge, with
a view of expressing more exactly the sentiment which it contained,
namely, the comparison made between Italian and English Catholics.

The author submits the whole, as he does all his publications, to
the judgment of Holy Church.]
October 13, 1866.

The church shone brightly in her youthful days,
Ere the world on her smiled
So now, an outcast, she would pour her rays
Keen, free, and undefiled;
Yet would I not that arm of force were mine,
To thrust her from her awful ancient shrine.

'Twas duty bound each convert-king to rear
His mother from the dust;
And pious was it to enrich, nor fear
Christ for the rest to trust:
And who shall dare make common or unclean
What once has on the holy altar been?

Dear Brothers! hence, while ye for ill prepare,
Triumph Is still your own;
Blest is a pilgrim church! yet shrink to share
The curse of throwing down.
So will we toll in our old place to stand,
Watching, not dreading, the despoiler's hand.

_Vid_. Lyra Apostolica.

SERMON.

This day, the feast of the Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary, has been specially devoted by our ecclesiastical superiors to be a day of prayer for the sovereign pontiff, our holy father, Pope Pius the Ninth.

His lordship, our bishop, has addressed a pastoral letter to his clergy upon the subject, and at the end of it he says: "Than that festival none can be more appropriate, as it is especially devoted to celebrating the triumphs of the Holy See obtained by prayer. We therefore propose and direct that on the festival of the Rosary, the chief mass in each church and chapel of our diocese be celebrated with as much solemnity as circumstances will allow of. And that after the mass the psalm {578} _Miserere_ and the Litany of the Saints be sung or recited. That the faithful be invited to offer one communion for the Pope's intention. And that, where it can be done, one part at least of the rosary be publicly said at some convenient time in the church, for the same intention."

Then he adds: "In the sermon at the mass of the festival, it is our wish that the preacher should instruct the faithful on their obligations to the Holy See, and on the duty especially incumbent on us at this time of praying for the Pope."

I. "Our obligations to the Holy See." What Catholic can doubt of our obligations to the Holy See? especially what Catholic under the shadow and teaching of St. Philip Neri can doubt those obligations, in both senses of the word "obligation," the tie of duty and the tie of gratitude?

1. For first as to duty. Our duty to the Holy See, to the chair of St. Peter, is to be measured by what the church teaches us concerning that Holy See and of him who sits in it. Now St. Peter, who first occupied it, was the Vicar of Christ. You know well, my brethren, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who suffered on the cross for us, thereby bought for us the kingdom of heaven. "When thou hadst overcome the sting of death," says the hymn, "thou didst open the kingdom of heaven to those who believe." He opens, and he shuts; he gives grace, he withdraws it; he judges, he pardons, he condemns. Accordingly, he speaks of himself in the Apocalypse as "him who is the holy and the true, him that hath the key of David (the key, that is, of the chosen king of the chosen people), him that openeth and no man shutteth, that shutteth and no man openeth." And what our Lord, the supreme judge, is in heaven, that was St. Peter on earth; he had the keys of the kingdom, according to the text, "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, shall be bound also in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth, be loosed also in heaven."

Next, let it be considered, the kingdom which our Lord set up with St. Peter at its head was decreed in the counsels of God to last to the and of all things, according to the words I have just quoted, "The gates of hell show not prevail against it." And again, "Behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world." And in the words of the prophet Isaias, speaking of that divinely established church, then in the future, "This is my covenant with them, My spirit that is in thee, and my words which I have put in thy month, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth and for ever." And the prophet Daniel says, "The God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed . . . and it shall break in pieces and shall consume all those kingdoms (of the earth, which went before it), and itself shall stand for ever."

That kingdom our Lord set up when he came on earth, and especially after his resurrection; for we are told by St. Luke that this was his gracious employment, when he visited the apostles from time to time, during the forty days which intervened between Easter day and the day of his ascension. "He showed himself alive to the apostles," says the evangelist, "after his passion by many proofs, for forty days appearing to them and speaking of the kingdom of God." And accordingly, when at length he had ascended on high, and had sent down "the promise of his Father," the Holy Ghost, upon his apostles, they forthwith entered upon their high duties, and brought that kingdom or church into shape, and supplied it with members, and enlarged it, and carried it into all lands. As to St. Peter, he acted as the head of the church, according to the previous {579} words of Christ; and, still according to his Lord's supreme will, he at length placed himself in the see of Rome, where he was martyred. And what was then done, in its substance cannot be undone. "God is not as a man that he should lie, nor as the son of man, that he should change. Hath he said then, and shall he not do? Hath he said then, and will he not fulfil?" And, as St. Paul says, "The gifts and the calling of God are without repentance." His church, then, in all necessary matters, is as unchangeable as he. Its framework, its polity, its ranks, its offices, its creed, its privileges, the promises made to it, its fortunes in the world, are ever what they have been.

Therefore, as it was in the world, but not _of_ the world, in the apostles' times, so it is now; as it was "in honor and dishonor, in evil report and good report, as chastised but not killed, as having nothing and possessing all things," in the apostles' times, so it is now; as then it taught the truth, so it does now; and as then it had the sacraments of grace, so has it now; as then it had a hierarchy or holy government of bishops, priests, and deacons, so has it now; and as it had a head then, so must it have a head now. Who is that visible head? who is the vicar of Christ? who has now the keys of the kingdom of heaven, as St. Peter had then? Who is it who binds and looses on earth, that our Lord may bind and loose in heaven? Who, I say, is the successor to St. Peter, since a successor there must be, in his sovereign authority over the church? It is he who sits in St. Peter's chair; it is the Bishop of Rome. We all know _this_; it is part of our _faith_; I am not proving it to you, my brethren. The visible headship of the church, which was with St. Peter while he lived, has been lodged ever since in his chair; the successors in his headship are the successors in his chair, the continuous line of Bishops of Rome, or Popes, as they are called, one after another, as years have rolled on, one dying and another coming, down to this day, when we see Pius the Ninth sustaining the weight of the glorious apostolate, and that for twenty years past--a tremendous weight, a ministry involving momentous duties, innumerable anxieties, and immense responsibilities, as it ever has done.

And now, though I might say much more about the prerogatives of the Holy Father, the visible head of the church, I have said more than enough for the purpose which has led to my speaking about him at all. I have said that, like St. Peter, he is the vicar of his Lord. He can judge, and he can acquit; he can pardon, and he can condemn; he can command, and he can permit; he can forbid, and he can punish. He has a supreme jurisdiction over the people of God. He can stop the ordinary course of sacramental mercies; he can excommunicate from the ordinary grace of redemption; and he can remove again the ban which he has inflicted. It is the rule of Christ's providence, that what his vicar does in severity or in mercy upon earth, he himself confirms in heaven. And in saying all this I have said enough for my purpose, because that purpose is to define our obligations to him. That is the point on which our bishop has fixed our attention; "our obligations to the Holy See;" and what need I say more to measure our own duty to it and to him who sits in it, than to say that, in his administration of Christ's kingdom, in his religious acts, we must never oppose his will, or dispute his word, or criticise his policy, or shrink from his side? There are kings of the earth who have despotic authority, which their subjects obey indeed and disown in their hearts; but we must never murmur at that absolute rule which the sovereign pontiff has over us, because it is given to him by Christ, and, in obeying him, we are obeying his Lord. We must never suffer ourselves to doubt, that, in his government of the church, he is guided by an intelligence more than human. His yoke is the yoke of Christ, _he_ has the responsibility {580} of his own acts, not we; and to his Lord must he render account, not to us. Even in secular matters it is ever safe to be on his side, dangerous to be on the side of his enemies. Our duty is, not indeed to mix up Christ's vicar with this or that party of men, because he in his high station is above all parties, but to look at his acts, and to follow him whither he goeth, and never to desert him, however we may be tried, but to defend him at all hazards, and against all comers, as a son would a father, and us a wife a husband, knowing that his cause is the cause of God. And so, as regards his successors, if we live to see them; it is our duty to give _them_ in like manner our dutiful allegiance and our unfeigned service, and to follow them also whithersoever they go, having that same confidence that each in his turn and in his own day will do God's work and will, which we felt in their predecessors, now taken away to their eternal reward.

2. And now let us consider our obligations to the sovereign pontiff in the second sense, which is contained under the word "obligation." "In the sermon in the mass," says the bishop, "it is our wish that the preacher should instruct the faithful on their obligations to the Holy See;" and certainly those obligations, that is, the claims of the Holy See upon our gratitude, are very great. We in this country owe our highest blessings to the see of St. Peter--to the succession of bishops who have filled his apostolic chair. For first it was a Pope who sent missionaries to this island in the beginning of the church, when the island was yet in pagan darkness. Then again, when our barbarous ancestors, the Saxons, crossed over from the continent and overran the country, who but a Pope, St. Gregory the First, sent over St. Augustine and his companions to convert them to Christianity? and by God's grace they and their successors did the great work in the course of a hundred years. From that time, twelve hundred years ago our nation has ever been Christian. And then in the lawless times each followed, and the break-up of the old world all over Europe, and the formation of the new, it was the Popes, humanly speaking, who saved the religion of Christ from being utterly lost and coming to an and, and not in England only, but on the continent; that is, our Lord made use of that succession of his vicars to fulfil his gracious promise, that his religion should never fail. The Pope and the bishops of the church, acting together in that miserable time, rescued from destruction all that makes up our present happiness, spiritual and temporal. Without them the world would have relapsed into barbarism--but God willed otherwise; and especially the Roman pontiffs, the successors of St. Peter, the centre of Catholic unity, the vicars of Christ, which primarily related to the Almighty Redeemer himself: "I have a lead help upon one that is mighty, and I have exalted one chosen quote of the people. I have found David my servant, with my holy oil have I anointed him. For my hand shall help him, and my arm shall strengthen him. The enemy shall have no advantage over him, nor the son of iniquity have power to hurt him. I will put to flight his enemies before his face, and them that hate him I will put to flight. And my truth and my mercy shall be with him, and in my name shall his horn be exalted. He shall cry out to me, Thou art my Father, my God, and the support of my salvation. And I will make him my first-born, high above the kings of the earth. I will keep my mercy for him for ever, and my coveted shall be faithful to him."

And the Almighty did this in pity toward his people, and for the sake of his religion, and by virtue of his promise, and for the merits of the most precious blood of his own dearly beloved Son, Whom the Popes represented. As Moses and Aaron, as Josue, as {581} Samuel, as David, were the leaders of the Lord's host in the old time, and carried on the chosen people of Israel from age to age, in spite of their enemies round about, so have the Popes from the beginning of the gospel, and especially in those middle ages when anarchy prevailed, been faithful servants of their Lord, watching and fighting against sin and injustice and unbelief and ignorance, and spreading abroad far and wide the knowledge of Christian truth.

Such they have been in every age, and such are the obligations which mankind owes to them; and, if I am to pass on to speak of the present pontiff, and of our own obligations to him, then I would have you recollect, my brethren, that it is he who has taken the Catholics of England out of their unformed state and made them a church. He it is who has redressed a misfortune of nearly three hundred years' standing. Twenty years ago we were a mere collection of individuals; but Pope Pius has brought us together, has given us bishops, and created out of us a body politic, which, please God, as time goes on, will play an important part in Christendom, with a character, an intellect, and a power of its own, with schools of its own, with a definite influence in the counsels of the Holy Church Catholic, as England had of old time.

This has been his great act toward our country; and then specially, as to his great act toward us here, toward me. One of his first acts after he was Pope was, in his great condescension, to call me to Rome; then, when I got there, he bade me send for my friends to be with me; and he formed us into and oratory. And thus it came to pass that, on my return to England, I was able to associate myself with others who had not gone to Rome, till we were so many in number that not only did we establish our own oratory here, whither the Pope had specially sent us, but we found we could throw off from's a colony of zealous and able priests into the metropolis, and establish there, with the powers with which the Pope had furnished me, and the sanction of the late cardinal, that oratory which has done and still does so much good among the Catholics of London.

Such is the Pope now happily reigning in the chair of St. Peter; such are our personal obligations to him; such has he been toward England, such toward us, toward you, my brethren. Such he is in his benefits, and, great as are the claims of those benefits upon us, great equally are the claims on us of his personal character and of his many virtues. He is one whom to see is to love; one who overcomes even strangers, even enemies, by his very look and voice; whose presence subdues, whose memory haunts, even the sturdy resolute mind of the English Protestant. Such is the Holy Father of Christendom, the worthy successor of a long and glorious line. Such is he; and great as he is in office, and in his beneficent acts and virtuous life, as great is he in the severity of his trials, in the complication of his duties, and in the gravity of his perils--perils which are at this moment closing him in on every side; and therefore it is, on account of the crisis of the long-protracted troubles of his pontificate which seems near at hand, that our bishop has set apart this day for special solemnities, the feast of the Holy Rosary, and has directed us to "instruct the faithful on their _obligations_ to the Holy See," and not only so, but also "on the duty especially incumbent on us at this time of _praying_ for the Pope."

II. This, then, is the second point to which I have to direct your attention, my brethren--the duty of praying for the Holy Father; but, before doing so, I must tell you what the Pope's long-protracted troubles are about, and what the crisis is which seems approaching, I will do it in as few words as I can.

More than a thousand years ago, nay, near upon fifteen hundred, began that great struggle, which I spoke of {582} just now, between the old and the new inhabitants of this part of the world. Whole populations of barbarians overrun the whole face of the country, that is, of England, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, and the re«t of Europe. They were heathens, and they got the better of the Christians; and religion seemed likely to fail together with that old Christian stock. But, as I have said, the Pope and the bishops of the church took heart, and set about converting the new-comers, as in a former age they had converted those who now had come to misfortune; and, through God's mercy, they succeeded. The Saxon English--Anglo-Saxons, as they are called--are among those whom the Pope converted, as I said just now. The new convert people, as you may suppose, were very grateful to the Pope and bishops, and they showed their gratitude by giving them large possessions, which were of great use, in the bad times that followed, in maintaining the influence of Christianity in the world. Thus the Catholic Church became rich and powerful. The bishops became princes, and the Pope became a sovereign ruler, with a large extent of country all his own. This state of things lasted for many hundred years; and the Pope and bishops became richer and richer, more and more powerful, until at length the Protestant revolt took place, three hundred years ago, and ever since that time, in a temporal point of view, they have become of less and less importance, and less and less prosperous. Generation after generation the enemies of the church, on the other hand, have become bolder and bolder, more powerful, and more successful in their measures against the Catholic faith. By this time the church has well-nigh lost all its wealth and all its power; its bishops have been degraded from their high places in the world, and in many countries have scarcely more, or not more, of weight or of privilege than the ministers of the sects which have split off from it. However, though the bishops lost, as time went on, their temporal rank, the Pope did lose his; he has been an exception to the rule; according to the providence of God, he has retained Rome, and the territories around about Rome, far and wide, as his own possession without let or hindrance. But now at length, by the operation of the same causes which have destroyed the power of the bishops, the Holy Father is in danger of losing his temporal possessions. For the last hundred years he has had from time to time serious reverses, but he recovered his ground. Six years ago he lost the greater part of his dominions--, all but Rome and the country immediately about it,--and now the worst of difficulties has occurred as regards the territories which remain to him. His enemies have succeeded, as it would seem, in persuading at least a large portion of his subjects to side with them. This is a real and very trying difficulty. While his subjects are for him, no one can have a word to say against his temporal rule; but who can force a sovereign on people which deliberately rejects him? You may attempt it for awhile, but at length the people, if they persist, will get their way.

They give out then, that the Pope's government is behind the age--that once indeed it was as good as other governments, but that now other governments have got better, and his has not--that he can either keep order within his territory, nor defend it from attacks from without--that his police and his finances are in a bad state--that his people are discontented within--that he does not show them how to become rich--that he keeps them from improving their minds--that he treats them as children--that he opens no career for young and energetic minds, but condemns them to inactivity and sloth--that he is an old man--that he is an ecclesiastic--that, considering his great spiritual duties, he has no time left him for temporal concerns--and that a bad rebellious government is a scandal to religion.

{583}

I have stated their arguments as fairly as I can, but you must not for an instant suppose, my brethren, that I admit either their principles or their facts. It is a simple paradox to say that ecclesiastical and temporal power cannot lawfully, religiously, and usefully be joined together. Look at what are called the middle ages--that is, the period which intervenes between the old Roman empire and the modern world; as I have said, the Pope and the bishops saved religion and civil order from destruction in those tempestuous times--and they did so _by means_ of the secular power which they possessed. And next, going on to the principles which the Pope's enemies lay down as so very certain, who will grant to them, who has any pretension to be a religious man, that progress in temporal possessions is the greatest of goods, and that everything else, however sacred, must give way before it? On the contrary, health, long life, security, liberty, knowledge, are certainly great goods, but the possession of heaven is a far greater good than all of them together. With all the progress in worldly happiness which we possibly could make, we could not make ourselves immortal--death must come; that will be a time when riches and worldly knowledge will avail us nothing, and true faith and divine love and a past life of obedience will be all in all to us. If we were driven to choose between the two, it would be a hundred times better to be Lazarus in this world than to be Dives in the next.

However, the best answer to their arguments is contained in sacred history, which supplies us with a very apposite and instructive lesson on the subject, and to it I am now going to refer.

Now observe, in the first place, no Catholic maintains that that rule of the Pope as a king, in Rome and its provinces, which men are now hoping to take from him, is, strictly speaking, what is called a theocracy, that is, a divine government. His government, indeed, in spiritual matters, in the Catholic Church throughout the world, might be called a theocracy, because he is the vicar of Christ, and has the assistance of the Holy Ghost; but not such is his kingly rule in his own dominions. On the other hand, the rule exercised over the chosen people, the Israelites, by Moses, Josue, Gideon, Eli, and Samuel, was a theocracy: God was the king of the Israelites, not Moses and the rest--_they_ were but vicars or vicegerents of the Eternal Lord who brought the nation out of Egypt. Now, when men object that the Pope's government of his own states is not what it should be, and that therefore he ought to lose them, because, forsooth, a religious rule should be perfect or not at all, I take them at their word, if they are Christians, and refer them to the state of things among the Israelites after the time of Moses, during the very centuries when they had God for their king. Was that a period of peace, prosperity, and contentment? Is it an argument against the divine perfections, that it was not such a period? Why is it, then, to be the condemnation of the Popes, who are but men, that their rule is but parallel in its characteristics to that of the King of Israel, who was God? He indeed has his own all-wise purposes for what he does; he knows the end from the beginning; he could have made his government as perfect and as prosperous as might have been expected from the words of Moses concerning it, as perfect and prosperous as, from the words of the prophets, our anticipations might have been about the earthly reign of the Messias. But this he did not do, because from the first he made that perfection and that prosperity dependent upon the free will, upon the cooperation of his people. Their loyal obedience to him was the condition, expressly declared by him, of his fulfilling his promises. He proposed to work out his purposes through them, and, when they refused their share {584} in the work, everything went wrong. Now they did refuse from the first; so that from the very first, he says of them emphatically, they were a "stiff-necked people." This was at the beginning of their history; and close upon the end of it, St. Stephen, inspired by the Holy Ghost, repeats the divine account of them: "You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Ghost; as your fathers did, so do you also." In consequence of this obstinate disobedience, I say, God's promises were not fulfilled to them. That long lapse of five or six hundred years, during which God was their king, was in good part a time, not of well-being, but of calamity.

Now, turning to the history of the papal monarchy for the last thousand years, the Roman people have not certainly the guilt of the Israelites, because they were not opposing the direct rule of' God; and I would not attribute to them now a liability to the same dreadful crimes which stain the annals of their an ancestors; but still, after all they have been a singularly stiff-necked people in time past, and in consequence, there has been extreme confusion, I may say anarchy, under the reign of the Popes; and the restless impatience of his rule which exists in the Roman territory now is only what has shown itself age after age in times past. The Roman people not seldom offered bodily violence to their Popes, killed some Popes, wounded others, drove others from the city. On one occasion they assaulted the Pope at the very altar in St. Peter's, and he was obliged to take to flight in his pontifical vestments. Another time they insulted the clergy of Rome; at another, they attacked and robbed the pilgrims who brought offerings from a distance to the shrine of St. Peter. Sometimes they sided with the German emperors against the Pope; sometimes with other enemies of his in Italy itself. As many as thirty-six Popes endured this dreadful contest with their own subjects, till at last, in anger and disgust with Rome and Italy, they took refuge in France, where they remained for seventy years, during the reigns of eight of their number. [Footnote 170]

[Footnote 170: I take these facts as I find them in Gibbon's
History, the work which I have immediately at hand; but it would not
be difficult to collect a multitude of such instances from the
original historians of those times.]

That I may not be supposed to rest what I have said on insufficient authorities, I will quote the words of that great saint, St. Bernard, about the roman people, seven hundred years ago.

Writing to Pope Eugenius during the troubles of the day, he says: "What shall I say of the people? why, that it _is_ the Roman people. I could not more concisely or fully express what I think of your subjects. What has been so notorious for ages as the wantonness and haughtiness of the Romans? a race unaccustomed to peace, accustomed to tumult; a race cruel and unmanageable up to this day, which knows not to submit, unless when it is unable to make fight. . . . I know the hardened heart of this people, but God is powerful even of these stones to raise up children to Abraham. . . . When will you find for me out of the whole of that populous city, who received you as Pope without bribe or hope of bribe? And then especially are they wishing to be masters, when they have professed to be servants. They promise to be trustworthy, that they may have the opportunity of injuring those who trust them. . . . They are wise for evil, but they are ignorant for good. Odious to earth and heaven, they have assailed both the one and the other; impious towards God, reckless toward things sacred, factious among themselves, envious of their neighbors, inhuman toward foreigners, . . . . they love none, and by none are loved. Too impatient for submission, too helpless for rule; . . . importunate to gain an end, restless till they gain it, ungrateful when they have gained it. They have taught {585} their tongue to speak big words, while their performances are scanty indeed." [Footnote 171]

[Footnote 171: St. Bernard is led to say this to the Pope in
consequence of the troubles created in Rome by Arnald of Bresela.
"Ab obitu Caelestini hoc anno invalescere coepit istiusmodi
rebellio Romanorum adversus Pontficem, eodemque haeresis dicta
Politicorum, sive Arnaldistarum. Ea erant tempora infelicissime,
cùm Romani ipsi, quorum fides in universo orbe jam à tempore
Apostolorum annunciata semper fuit, resilientes modo à Pontifice,
dominandi cupidine, ex filiis Petri et discipulis Christi, fiunt
soboles et alumni pestilentissimi Arnaldi de Brixiâ. Verùm, cùm tu
Romanos audis, ne putes omnes eâdem insaniâ percitos, nam
complures ex nobilium Romanorum familiis, iis relictis, pro
Pontifice rem ageoant, etc." Baron. Annal. in ann. 1144. 4.--_De
Consid_. iv. 2.]

Thus I begin, and now let us continue I parallel between the Israelites and the Romans.

I have said that, while the Israelites had God for their king, they had a succession of great national disasters, arising indeed really from their falling off from him; but this they would have been slow to acknowledge. They fell into idolatry; then, in consequence, they fell into the power of their enemies; then God in his mercy visited them, and raised up for them a deliverer and ruler--a judge, as he was called--who brought them to repentance, and then brought them out of their troubles; however, when the judge died, they fell back into idolatry, and then they fell under the power of their enemies again. Thus for eight years they were in subjection to the king of Mesopotamia; for eight years to the king of Moab; for twenty years to the king of Canaan; for seven years to the Madianites; for eighteen years to the Ammomites; and for forty years to the Philistines. Afterward Eli, the high priest, became their judge, and then disorders of another kind commenced. His sons, who were priests also, committed grievous acts of impurity in the holy place, and in other ways caused great scandal. In consequence a heavy judgment came upon the people; they were beaten in battle by the Philistines, and the ark of God was taken. Then Samuel was raised up, a holy prophet and a judge, and in the time of his vigor all went well; but he became old, and then he appointed his sons to take his place. They, however, were not like him, and everything went wrong again. "His sons walked not in his ways," says the sacred record, "but they turned aside after lucre, and took bribes, and perverted judgment." This reduced the Israelites to despair; they thought they never should have a good government while things were as they were; and they came to the conclusion that they had better not be governed by such men as Samuel, however holy he might be, that public affairs ought to be put on an intelligible footing, and be carried on upon system, which had never yet been done. So they came to the conclusion that they had better have a king, like the nations around them. They deliberately preferred the rule of man to the rule of God. They did not like to repent and give up their sins, as the true means of being prosperous; they thought it an easier way to temporal prosperity to have a king like the nations than to pray and live virtuously. And not only the common people, but even the grave and venerable seniors of the nation took up this view of what was expedient for them. "All the ancients of Israel, being assembled, came to Samuel, . . . and they said to him . . . Make us a king to judge us, as all nations have." Observe, my brethren, this is just what the Roman people are saying now. They wish to throw off the authority of the Pope, on the plea of the disorders which they attribute to his government, and to join themselves to the rest of Italy, and to have the King of Italy for their king. Some of them, indeed, wish to be without any king at all; but, whether they wish to have a king or no, at least they wish to get free from the Pope.

Now let us continue the parallel. When the prophet Samuel heard this request urged from such a quarter, and supported by the people generally, he was much moved. "The word was displeasing in the eyes of Samuel," says the inspired writer, "that they should say, Give us a king. And Samuel prayed to the Lord." {586} Almighty God answered him by saying, "They have not rejected thee, but me;" and he bade the prophet warn the people, what the king they sought after would be to them when at length they had him. Samuel accordingly put before them explicitly what treatment they would receive from him. "He will take your sons," he said, "and will put them in his chariots; and he will make them his horseman, and his running footmen to go before his chariots. He will take the tenth of your corn and the revenue of your vineyards. Your flocks also he will take, and you shall be his servants." Then the narrative proceeds, "But the people would not hear the voice of Samuel, and they said, Nay, but there shall be a king over us. And we also will be like all nations, and our king shall judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles for us."

Now here the parallel I am drawing is very exact. It is happier, I think, for the bulk of a people to belong to a small state which makes little noise in the world than to a large one. At least in this day we find small states, such an Holland, Belgium, and Switzerland, have special and singular temporal advantages. And the Roman people, too, under the sway of the Popes, at least have had a very easy time of it; but, alas that people is not sensible of this, or does not allow itself to keep it in mind. The Romans have not had those civil inconveniences which fall so heavy on the members of a first-class power. The pontifical government has been very gentle with them; but, if once they were joined to the kingdom of Italy, they would at length find what it is to attain temporal greatness. The words of Samuel to the Israelites would be fulfilled in them to the letter. Heavy taxes would be laid on them; their children would be torn from them for the army; and they would incur the other penalties of an ambition which prefers to have a share in a political adventure to being at the head of Catholic citizenship. We cannot have all things to our wish in this world; we must take our choice between this advantage and that; perhaps the Roman people would like both to secure this world and the next, if they could; perhaps, in seeking both, they may lose both; and perhaps, when they have lost more than they have gained, they may wish their old sovereign back again, as they have done in other centuries before this, and may regret that they have caused such grievous disturbance for what at length they find out is little worth it.