Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1853-1862, 1855-05-16

Catholic Dominion was owing TO its =
of mower and uniformity of creed. 1liis we oehy'
pou,e hoa hecome the centre of Empire before her
- ol,,o, had an existence. It was one OF the
a,s IF the mastery policy of that church to adapt
;,.o,f 70 that state of human government, and, at
tho same titne accept every other marked 6harac-
.o,;s,;c of the scattered provinces, republics, end
,.;hol associations of men, What we mean 10 al
firm is, that Catholicism secured its spread and do
minion by the most skiul adaptation of itself to
the different tastes, passions wants and achieve
ments of men. True, the Roman church called
itself unit-but it was unity in diversity. To
every diversity of taste and habit it adapted it.
self.
To the lover of show and parade it presented a
splendid materalistic ritual of pompous ceremony
and gorgeous vestments To the worldly minded,
swayed by selfish ambition, it presented mock
Emperor in Pope upon regal throne, with lordly
palaces for bishop and earthly dominion to crafty
the most grasping lust for power; while, on the
other hand it furnished penances for the self-deny
ing and sincere devotee and the pharsaical hypo-
critic 1t offered converts for those whose devotion
led them to starve the devil out of their nature
and palaces ofluxury to HIM who would feed him to
gloatipg To the lover of travel it offered conse-
Grated tombs temples, and affairs, in distant lands;
while to the morose and cynical it revealed the cell
of tie hermit as the hallowed precinct of the saint
To the generous but disappointed woman, it gave
a ssterhood of charity; while to philanthropc
men it offered the sacrifices rewards and glory, of
the Brethren of the Miserecordia. To feed the
sympathy of common humanity, it presented the
begging friar by the side of the courty emperor,
and offered deliverance from purgatory to each. To
the martial spirit of the young soldier it presented
the conquest of the land of the Holy Sepulchre /;
while to the enthusiastic artist it offered prizes for
sculpture, painting, and music. Here was its
strength and not in its Capitalization.
To this variety of forces Professionalism has pre-
sented its endless variety of sects and the result
is the weakening Of despotic rule every where: and
Its final achievement must be the downfall of Pope
ry as principle that can never enthrone itself
again, either in Rome or in England. For no Pro-
tesant sect can ever become sufficiently uniform in
its faith discipline to initiate, with any degree of
success, this narrow system. There may be, and
doubtless are, tendencies in many Protestant lead
ers to Catholic rule under the pretext of conserva
tive purposes but the day is past for such folly
and the man or men who undertake it, generally
live to see their disappointment in the miscacula-
tons they have made of human ignorance and SER
Witty. Again: in the proportion in which Pro-
testant sect initiates the Catholic by strange fs
tally they come to hate each other only the more
cordially, and thus defeat the aggressive spirit in
each. Two of trade seldom agree, and especially
if that trade be traffic in human ignorance and
misfortune Catholicism, therefore, so far from
getting aid from Protestant dissensons finds them
only more sagacious and powerful enemy. These
dissensons keep alive inquiry, freedom, and prog
RESI- Without them Professionalism would degen-
crate into Catholicism; and the few conversions
that lead that way only serve to animate more pro-
gressive ideas in those who observe them.
But the serious Protestant Republican will ask.
should not Catholicism be opposed, and if So how?
We answer, there is but one way: and that way has
always proved effectual and always triumphantly
victorious 1t is by spreading more just, more ra-
tonal, more natural, more ennobling views of Re-
ligion You lift men above Catholicism whenever
you make them to realize more pritual views of
Christianity Violence avails nothing but rather
serves to increase the power of those you would
iniure. You cannot burn Catholicism down as
the people in Massachusetts, attempted when
they set fire to the convent Of Charestown. You
cannot destroy it by insulting the natural and
modest feelings of females as the know-nothing
committee attempted in Boston. You but bind
the attachment Of the Catholic to his religion by
such outrages, and enlist the sympathies of the
virtuous everywhere. Nor can you destroy it by
insolence and reprosch. The priest can denounce
as well as the preacher. Nor can you advance
your success against it by borrowing its FORMS its
oalhs, and its secret plottngs By spreading
purer devotion, more freedom of enquiry, more
charity toward the misfortunes of Humanity; by
giving more attention to the discoveries of science
and the education of the masses; by preserving
inviolate the spirit Of Repubicanism the power
out of which all hat is great and hopeful in our
Social Institutions have their life and vigor, you
erect barrier to Catholic and Protestant Papacy
over which no tide of despotic sway can ever pass
We should never forget that there is no sadder
picture in the history of the world, than that pre-
scented, by the selfcomplacent intolerance, almost
incredible blindness, and arrogant folly of rival
sects-none that so much obscures the essence of
Christianity and shames its very name. Republi-
cans cannot look upon the atrocities committed
under this fell spirit of Sectarianism, with any
other feelings than those of pity, shame and grief
while upon the efforts of those who revive that
spirit prosecuting any, those feelings must sooner
or later be converted into contempt We rejoice
to recognise some of the best and greatest of men
among them all But such have lived above the
intolerance of their sects; have sometimes suffered
by it, but never returned it. Men who have been
anxious for nothing so much as the appreciate on of
the grand purpose of Christianity, the morl ex-
cellence dsiuterested and divine charity embodied
in the teaching and life OF its founder; men who
never claimed a badge of peculiar holiness or a
warrant for condemning and trespassing upon the
rights of those who differed with them; men who
effect no mock dignity from exclusive claims to
churchship, saintsnip, or official power; men who
have no mimic thunderbolts to hurl at those it is
popular to despise men who make no claims of
infability zealots too apt to do in the pro-
portion to the absurdity of their creeds thousands
of such men in all sects, the Catholic not excepted
who think and feel as men with human hearts and
human homes and who would rather sever their