The Belmont chronicle, and farmers, mechanics and manufacturers advocate. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1848-1855, 1854-09-15

of the Jesuits to which we propose hereafter
to refer.
| The tareUeA letter chims that the Roman
| Church has been an institution emipentlv
progreSstUe, and essentially democratic. -
lhe basis for this argument is claimed from
the fact that her agents are taken from all
classes, and that the humble, by birth or sta
ton, attain eminence ani power. Thisr rea.
soning denies the major proposition. The
church indeed has used all ranks in her social
and political development; but this does no,r
nor does history anywhere warrant the s,.
sertien that the church was politicallv or
practically democratic. While the bjerar.
chy usedthe commons, the commons had no
choice either in organizing or shaping thai
hierarchy. Similar is the democracy oftbe
Czar, who chooses his agents wheresoever he
may please, but is himself the Representative
Of the system OF abEolutism and perpetual
succession, and not olthe democratic choice.
This writer contrasts Romish with Prot
estant tolerance, and finds little to praise in
the latter. We do not excuse the severity of
the Puritans, or the Commonwealth. smart.
ing as :hey were under the burden of old per-
secutiVnsj but We have not found like excess.
es adopted in the established formularv of
The Protestant Church, on the one hand, nor
on the other have we learned that the Roni.b
Church has ever failed to adopt them wbers
1t held unquestoned sway. Furthermore ws
know of no Papal State that has made free.
dom, knowledge and popular sovereignty it's
ambition-or has faiied to seek the copsoli.
dation OF power--the dependence of the peo.
II A Il
Ple-and the subjection Of the popular mind
to the will of its priesthood ..
The writer rsma-ks-t.Tlat he uho asserts
that the influence Of he Catholic Church has
Ten erH rather Man good Hasphsmes The ou,nts.
Gent Proridence, under ,cio,n for fourteen Inn.
dret years The ciUiii7ed ,oorid ras Catholic and
Cat.oltc alone. Even more than this: Ha
who asserts that it is inimical to Reuubli-
canism in its sprit--as many of the leading
newspaper presses do--speaks without war
rant either in the present or past"
10 all which we say in a word that, bv
the Catholic church we mean the Rom:sh
church, after its adoption OF q secular char
acter, and not the primitive christian church.
which this writer treats as identical with the
late churon of Rome. Nor does it provo that
such union of the secular power, and its
harsh exercise, was ntrinsicalIy better than
the primitive church, because tha: church
surrtreS this union. On the other hand, this
union commenced the encroachments upon
the coasciences and liberties of men which
the gospel spirit had guarantee land the spir.
it OF the Romisll church thus organized-es-
tablished and still maintained-has never ia.
vored sound publicanism-- -no-never.
This distinction is legitimate, and 'vivat
RespuOlca" assumes to beg tine question by
confounding the Christian Church with the
formal Romisn Church, US known Cflate GEN.
turies.
We seek no discussion; and as history il
not referred to by this writer, to sustain hi.
assertions, save loose reference to our Puri-
tan ancestors, we refer Respublica to the
Forr ularies of the Romish order with which
he must be conversant, and which he should
in good faith produce. AMERICUS.s