Political Strength of Romanism in Free Countries.

Thames Star, Volume VIII, Issue 281, 16 February 1878, Page 4

Political Strength of Romanism in Free Countries.

The peculiarity of the Roman Churcli as a system of discipline and government lies in tlio universal character asserted for ifc by medieval Pontiffs. 'The sovereign authority is external to the different nationalities, the individuals of which belong to the Itoman communion. It knows nothing of national institutions, and cares nothing for national interests except so far as it enn employ them for its own purposes. Complete in itself, acknowledging no equal upon earth, and listening to no remonstrance, the Holy See remains unchanged, and incapable of change. Often baffled, often driven back and defeated, it recoils only to re-advanco on the same linesi It relinquishes no privilege. It abandons no province over which it has once asserted its right to rule. It treats the world alternately as an enemy to be encountered, or as an instrument to be bent (o its own designs, and caring nothing for any institution but itself, free fromall prejudice in favor of any nation or. any political form of government, it allies itself with all the principles which sway successively in the various organizations of society. Monarchies, aristocracies, democracies, it accepts theni all, and utilises them indifferently; regarding none of them as having a right to exist save by the will and pleasure of the •wearer of the tiara ; 'out treating (hem as phenomena of the world, which it is the business of the Church to control, and lending the Church's authority to whatever party promises to be most,useful to it. V . Never was the Church better disciplined, never more completely denationalised and unpatriotic tlmn at the present moment. "When her creed was really and universally received, and believed, her bishops and archbishops engaged in the local government of their several countries. They were English, they were French, they were Spanish. They shared in.nalional aspirations, they were swayed by national prejudices. The Popes themselves were often rather Italian princes than vice - regents over the mystic organism which was co-ex-tensive, with mankind. As temporal governments have become^ secularised, tlio influences have ceased which so long interfered with the centralising tendencies of the system; As division oFopinion grows among the mnsses, those who remain or who become members of the Catholic Church find a closer bond of union in their creed than in their temporal allegiance. The Church of Rome is now herself and nothing else: "From the pontiff to the humblest parish priest, her ecclesiastics acknowledge no object save the assertion of the Catholic cause. Her bishops and clergy all over the world are as completely obedient to the orders of Pome, they work together as harmoniously and enthusiastically as the officers of a perfectly organised army. Whether in their own minds they approve or disapprove the orders which they receive—it is no matter —they : obey them. The Immaculate Conception is proclaimed; ihere is a murmur of surprise, but it dies away; the miracle in the womb of St Anne becomes henceforth a matter of faith. Papal infallibility claims tobeaclinowledged;clamcr follows, and even active resistance, but when tho decree is past, submission,is absolute. The hierarchy regard themselves as soldiers of a cause to which all minor interests, all personal opinions must yield. Unanimity and co-operation are essential to success; and with a heartiness, an enthusiasm, a singleness of purpose which is never forgotten, and to which every enjoyment and occupation of life is deliberately postponed, the entire ecclesiastical, order devotes itself, body and soul, io the propagation of the principles of the JKoman Church. Barely, or never, do we hear now of personal scandal, rarely of rash experiments which expose the cause to discredit. If a mistake is made, as with the vision of the virgin in the south of France, there is no confession or retraction. The united power of the priesthood is brought to bear to carry the imposture through ; opposition is faced down, and courage and resolution turn the shame into a fresh triumph.', An organisation of this kind acts obIviously with extraordinary advantage En countries which have free institutions. Where there is a vigorous execu■tive, where the secular government Bias an existence of its own, and the repre-

sentative body is simply consulative or legislative, the growth of an imperium in itnperio,. nn authority, distinct from the State, and moved by impulses exterior to the realm, is always jealoualy watched, md when it; becomes aggressive, is encountered and restrained. So it was in tho old German empire. So it was in England under the Plantagenet nnd Tudor princes. Even in Spain, the most Catholic country in the world, the Church's bspiratioris were often checked. The State in France supported Ec Gallican liberties. Joseph 2nd in ustria beats down priestly encroachent and ties its hands. Germany is no

sooner ; united again under the imperial crown than the same problem returns. The Church is encountered by principles which intend to assert themselves. She lias declared war against those principles.

She opposes them with the old arts. She is at once seized by the throat, and driven back within her own lines. Iv countries governed by authority intelligence rules. In 'free countries, numbers rule. The supremacy of the Church is incompatible with any kind of liberty—liberty of jonscience or of reason, liberty for man to expand in any , direction rave what the Church works out for him. Dbviously and confessedly it is the enemy >f everything which we now call civilisation und improvement. Yet it is an jnemy against which self-governed peoples, who are most proud of iheir supposed advancement, contend at greatest

lisadvantage. Power follows the majority :>f votes. The Church marshals its forces in an unbroken phalanx.- The theory of

i free government supposes every citizen :o be influenced by patriotism, to exert v's own intelligence, to take a personal intl individual share in.the business of the State. The Eoinnn Catholics have no sounlry but their Church. They are jtllowed no independence. They are private soldiers in an army which is commandticl by the priests, and united and organised action is as superior at the polling bootli as an army is superior to a mob in tho field. They claim their right to the free assertion of their opinions in the Dame of Republican principles, and it fiannot bo denied them. But no such

Republican liberty is permitted within ;heir own lines. They obey their comBanders, and (heir commanders care lothing for the nution in the management

of which they are challenging a share. They are members of n spiritual empire which aims only at submitting all other powers under its feet. They are Catholics first, and Americans or .English afterward. Yet as English or American citizens they possess the privileges of free men, and the wire pullers at politicul elections, whose horizon is bounded by the result of some immediate struggle, know too well the value of such allies to be unwilling to bid high for their support. Thus it is that in the English Parliament, though England does not herself return a single Catholic representative, the Catholics, through the Irish members, often hold the balance of power, and governments exist but by their suffranco. Thus, lately, the Catholic vote controlled the city of JNew York, and but for the scandalous corruption of the party which they had borne into power, the Catholics would have probably controlled it at this moment.

Those who believe that the Catholic doctrines are false, that Catholic pretensions to universal sovereignty are absurd, and that, in the long run, truth and good sense are certain to prevail, see in this apparent recovery of strength but an eddy in the great stream of tendency. '1 hey will be provoked at the folly which may throw back for a generation individual nations, delay the geueral improvement, generate, perhaps, once more political complications; but they will rest confident of the general result. In the sixteenth century the Catholic Church courted the alliance of the despotic sovereigns; The despotic sovereigns seemed towers of strength to it; but when they fell, it was buried in their ruins. It avails itself now of the weak side of party government in constitutional monarchies, republics, and it kachieves an apparent success; but that success can only last till patriotism and intelligence are awake to its advances. The minds of a whole people are less easily penetrated than the mind of a minister like Prince Bismarck, but when the conviction reaches them, they will assert themselves with the same emphasis and the same effect.— Fboude on the Revival of Uomanism.