CANDID PROTESTANT WRITERS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 187, 27 October 1876, Page 11

CANDID PROTESTANT WRITERS.

It is not often that a Protestant historian undertakes in a fair spirit, and having trodden prejudice under foot, to write a history of any event owning to the name of Catholic. Most often such undertakings are conducted with a narrowmindedness that is deplorable, and a total ignoring of facts, that perfectly bewilders any even moderately educated Catholic who may chance to peruse the matter thus produced, j Writers of the highest ability, who are unquestionable authorities on other subjects, fail in this surprisingly ; and the merest tyro, who studies sincerely the doctrines of the Church, would find himself here capable of correcting men of world-wide reputation. There are, however, to be found in the field of literature certain honourable exceptions ; and we know of some who, carrying to their task a determination to sift the truth, and a resolution not to he diverted from their course, even by the accumulated calumnies of close upon four hundred years, have recognised, in veritable ecclesiastics of the Catholic Church themselves, men to excite, not alone their admiration, but their warmest enthusiasm. The Germati, Hurter, for instance, who was not only a Protestant, but a minister as well of the Church to which he belonged, wrote a life of Pope Innocent 111., who, although one of the most bespattered by this writer's co-religionists of all the Pontiffs, he declared to have been worthy alone of unqualified admiration; and of whom he says, that he must have been considered by all around him, as "an immediate instrument, in the hands of God, for securing the highest weal of the community." Again, some nine years ago, Sir Arthur Helps, the wellknown English author, published a life of Las Casas, " the Apostle of the Indies ; " and, in the concluding pages of his work, he says :—": — " In parting from Las Casas, it must be felt

that all ordinary eulogies would be feeble and inadequate. His was one of those few lives that are beyond biography, and require a history to be written in order to illustrate them. His career affords, perhaps, a solitary instance of a man who, being neither a conqueror, a discoverer, nor an inventor, has) by the pure force of benevolence, become so notable a figure, that large portions of history cannot be written, or at least cannot be understood, without the narrative of his deeds and efforts being one of the principal threads upon which the history is strung." It would be impossible for us, within the limits of a newspaper article, to enter upon a thorough examination into the life, which left this impression upon the mind of the author who had followed and studied it. It was a life given up wholly to self-denial, and to doing and daring ail things in furtherance of the great cause to which it was sacrificed ; — a life with which we, who are accustomed to read of Catholic missions, and what they entail on those who undertake them, are, in some degree, familiar, but which we can easily believe to have come with surprise upon one used only to hear the sad rhodomontade that, on these subjects, passes current in some quarters as truth ; — a life of unwearying labour ; long and fatiguing journeys ; of conflicts with the powerful, and the rude and wicked ; at times, also, with persons who meant well but judged badly, which, perhaps, is the most weary ing struggle of all. Las Casas lived for the protection of the Indians of Spanish America— for them he did and suffered ; and whilst he studied their spiritual welfare, by imparting to them the doctrines of the Catholic Church, he endeavoured to protect their temporal interests from the unprincipled adventurers who had flocked from Spain to make fortunes — they cared not how — in the newly-discovered El Dorado. The life of this great missionary, as exhibited by Sir Arthur Helps, affords a striking example of the stores of deep and touching heroism that lie open to the investigation of Protestant iuquirers, and that would afford them a rich harvest, would they but free themselves from the contempt, engendered by ignorance of the subject, that debars them, from seeking in the lives and labours of eminent Catholics, ecclesiastics and others, the treasures that these are, in many instances, capable of yielding. It further furnishes a complete refutation of the miserable inventions that have obtained with certain parties, regarding the method in which the Catholic faith was spread amongst the Indians of the Spanish settlements in central America; and replaces imaginary pictures of persecution inflicted upon these natives by sanguinary Dominican monks, with a true representation of the method in which some holy members of this much maligned Order, tinder the guidance of their brother monk, Las Casas, did, in truth, set about the conversion of the Indians. But, that we may further illustrate our meaning, we cannot do better than refer our readers to the Rev. Charles Kingsley's tale of " Westward Ho," where, in his highly imaginative description of scenes on the Spanish Main, they will see what an unscrupulous writer is capable of in the way of calumny ; while, at the same time, we furnish them with a quotation from Sir Arthur Helps' work, in which they Avill find the genuine actions of the Dominicans described. The passage quoted by us is that relating to the conversion of the inhabitants of the " Land of War " — a district of Guatemala, which lies to the south of Mexico, — and it runs as follows :—": — " After the manner of pious men of those times, Las Casas and his monks, did not fail to commence their undertaking by having recourse to the most fervent prayers, severe fasts, and other mortifications. These lasted several days. They then turned to the secular part of their enterprise, using all the skill that the most accomplished I statesmen, or men of the world, could have brought to bear j upon it. The first thing they did was to translate into verse, ! in the Quiche language, the great doctrines of the Church. j In these verses they described the creation of the world, the fall of man, his banishment from Paradise, and the mediation prepared for him ; then the life of Christ, His passion, Hi* death, His resurrection, His ascension; then His future return to judge all men, the punishment of the wicked, and the re- ! ward of the good." Such were the preliminary steps adopted for the evangelis ation of the district referred to, and we regret that our i space does not permit us to further quote the method in i which tbey were proceeded with, and carried to a successful ' issue. We have, however, done sufficient to show, not only [ the manner in which the pious missionaries proceeded, but as.

well the nature of the Christianity inculcated by them ; and inculcated with success, so that, we doubt not, at the present day, the like holy creed is professed, and acted upon by numbers of the descendants of those same Indians ; though probably many, as it is elsewhere, yielding to the depravity of their human nature, are false to the teaching of the Church of God, and give occasion frequently to her enemies to blaspheme.