The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1855-01-07
The Papal Bull ON the Immaculate concep-
ton.


The public will learn from documents pub
lished elsewhere that, on the 9Th of lastmonth,
Pope Plus TX. declared it to be an inlispen-
sable article OF the Roman Catholic faith that
the Virgin Mary was conceived Immaculate or
without original sin. The point had long
engaged the attention of the faithful; ami now,
We are told by one apparently well qualified to
Judge Of the Roman Catholic mind, its solution
"has given joy to the world" and may effect
I" the pacifcation Of the nations and general
prostration ofheretical and prosecuting forces"
1t is hardly worth while examining the grounds
on which the Catholic writer POUNDS his expec-
tation that Papal bull relative to the Virgin
Mary will demolish Professionalism, or settle the
Turkish question. In these latter days, Popes
are not used to WELD any such influence, and
their bulls are not per Sc more formidable than
the DEGREES Of Protestant synods or secular
monarchs. But whatever exaggeratien this
last act Of his Holiness may provoke among
Catholic enthusiasts, there can be no question
but it possesses much real Importance, and
reveals depth of purpose and an accuracy of
discernment that few had expected from the
conctave at st. Peters. Bigoted Protestants
and superficial sceptics may sneer at the reli-
gious view Of the question; it may serve to
point frivolous jokes and indecent sarcasms;
but neither the one nor the other can aetract
from the true significance of the act. It tells
plainly as language can that Plus TX, awaken
ing from the lethargy in which he has lain since
the reaction of 1849, has once more set himself
with his ancient vigor to the practical business
of his office, and to the strengthening of the
Church of Rome.
For, it must never be forgotten, the most
salient of the distinctions between the various
forms of Paganism and Christianity lies in the
manner in which female character is dealt with
in both. In the Greek and Roman mythology
as in the farrago Of monstrosities which served
the most enlightened nations of the East as q
religion-fe virtue was q thing unknown,
undreamt Of Their goddesses were models, not
Of g0dliness, but of prurient vice end immora-
lily. BY their lives, as told in poets numbers,
they taught blind submission to every sensual
impulse, and set an example which could not
have been without fruit in the most virtuous
community. Naturally prone to indulgence,
the ancient nations rather encouraged than
frowned upon the besetting sins of which their
mythology furnished them with so attractive q
sample. Laws, based upon no religious grounds,
and resting solely on abstract principles of So
cial convenience, interposed but q feeble bar
rier to vice; especially when poetry, art and
sentiment were arrayed on the opposite side.
Thus it came about that when the nations
reached the highest period of civilization, their
women reached also the climax of depravity; a
point not surpassed though possibly render
ed more hideous and repulsive in the dark
days of national decline. The mother of
all vices-female immorality--rose with the
power Of Babylon, Egypt, Greece and
Rome; fourished most openly when their lustre
shone brightest; and when their sun set, the
loathsome deformity was the only trace Of
their former state which was eligiously pre-
served.
To shc disgust which this unvarying charac-
teristic Of the old my thologies must have pro-
duced in the minds of thinking men, much of
the early success OF Christianity must doubt
ess be ascribed. 1t was new thing to see q
religion the only female In whose mythology
was commended to the worlds alteration by
have been strongly influenced by the vast diff
ference between the disreputable Venus Of their
own faith and the pure gentle, undefiled Mary
Of the Christians. Aware as they must have
been OF the perricious example Of the heather
goddesses it was natural to expect that q re-
ligion in which pure virgin was the model
for imitation should exercise at least as power
full On influence in the opposite direction. Nor
were they mistaken. With the first progress Of
Christianity, vast revolution began to be
wrought in the condition of woman. Love
ceased to be wholly sensual, as it had always
been before: women were no longer mere ami
mails; their spiritual nature vas developed,
and from being the jest Of philosophers, female
purity became an object of universal respect
and worship Then woman rose to her proper
sphere in the worlds economy, as the help
meet for man, and the fountain of all tn at is
pure, gentle, amiable. From out the transfer
nation sprung at once chivalry, the light
Of the middle age, and the father of mo-
dern civilization; and woman, then first
elevated to q rank in which the noble
qualities Of her sex could be developed, bore
humanity's torch in advance Of the ruder sex,
and repaid part Of her debt to religion by
clothing it's dogmas with her own charms. Had
there been no Virgin Mary in the Christian re-
ligion, civilization might yet have been un-
known.
How much we owe to that feature Of our faith
1t were impossible to seil. Certain it is that
almost every quality in which we deem our
selves superior to the heather can be traced,
more or less directly, to the humanizing infiu-
ence Of that ideal model Of female excellence.
In this view, at time when Christianity's hold