MR FROUDE AND THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume I, Issue 42, 14 February 1874, Page 10

MR FROUDE AND THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH.

The following tribute to the grandeur, utility, and beauty of the ' Roman Catholic Church is from a public address by Mr Froude, one of the most eminent Protestant historian* of tho age, and the report of which aorjeired in the Manchester ' Times ' and ' Examiner ' (England). " Never in all history, ia ancient and modern times, that the world knew of, had mankind known out of themselves anything so grui3,so useful, so beautiful, as the Catholic Cliarch once "was. In these our times well-regulated selfishness was the recognised rule of action — everyone was expacted to look out for himself, and to take care of his own interests. At the time he spoke of, the Church ruled th« State with the authority of a conscience, and self-interest as a motivo of action was only named to be abhorred. (Cheers). Wisdom, jmtioe, self-denial, nobleness, purity, high-mindednees — those wore the qualities before which the freeborn races of Europe had been co itented to ' bow, and in no order of men were such qualities to be found a* they were found 600 years ago, in the clergy of the Catholic Church. They called themselves the successors of the Apostles ; they claimed ia their Master's name universal spiritual authority ; but they made goad their pretensions by the holiness of Hieir lives. They were allowed to rule because they deserved to rule, and in the fulness of reference kings and nobles bent before a power which was nearer to G-od than their own. (Applause) Over prince an J subject — chieftain and serf — a body of unarmed, defenceless men reigned supreme by tha in fluence of sanctity. He did not pretend^ that tho clergy were perfect ; they were very far from being perfect at the best of times ; and the European nations were never completely submissive to them ; it would not 'have been Tvell if they had been. The business of human 1 creatures in th"i 3 planet was not summed up in the most excellent of priestly catechisms ; tho world and its concerns continued to interest men, though priests insisted " ou their nothingness. They oould not prevont kings from quarrelling with each other ; they could not hinder disputed successions, and civil feuds, wars, and political conspiracies ; wha f they did was to shelter the weak from the strong In the eyea of the clergy, the serf and his lord stood on the common level of sinful humanity. Into their rnnks high bii*th was no passpoit. They were for the most part children of the people, and tho son of the artisan and peasant rose to the mitre and triple crowu jii't as now-a-days the rail-splitter and tho tailor became presidents of the Republic of the West. . . . Aftet alluding to the extraordinary pririlo<je3 which tha clergy possessed, he glanced at the monasteries as another vast feature of the middle ages, when they were inhabited by fraternities of men who desired to devote themselves to goodness : and wbo, in order the better to do so, took vows of poverty, that they mig r it not be entangled with tha pursuit of money, and of chistity, that they might not be distracted with the cares of a family. Their day* were spent in hard bodily labour, in study, or in visiting the stok ; at night they were on the stone floors of their chapels, holding up their withered hands to heaven interceding for the poor souls who were suGfermg in putgatory. Th«» syatem spread to the farthest limits of Christendom. The religious houses became places of refuge, where men of noble birth, kings and queens, and emperors, and warriors, and statesmen, retired to lay down their splendid earee and end their days in pe&o9. Those with whom the world had dealt hardly, and those whom it bad surfeited with its unsatisfying pleasures, those who were disappointed with earth, and those who were filled with passionate aspirations aftes heaven, alike found a haven of rest in the quiet cloi-Uers. Gradual'y lands came ra them, and wealth, and social dignity — ill gratefully extended to men who deserved wall of their fellow-i ; while no Un Mnrh were more popular than tluy, for the sanctify of the monks sheltered th?ir dependents as well as themselves." Could the most devoted Catholic havo written more enthuiastically in favor of the Roman Catholic Church ? Though now shorn of some of her gory and power, she is essantially the same still as ehe " onca was."