The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1855-01-05


From the London Times, Dec Q.
The Pope has apparently been reading q second timo
Mr. Macaulays celebrated article Ranke's History Of
the Popes and that his delight with this celebrated
little subsidized he has become aware that there are
some things 1t which he cannot wholly approve. No
that as the Church Of Rome has resisted 70 many Iuds
assaults it cannot be expected that any future nsur
recon Of the intellect Of man viii ever prevail against
her for her losses In the DID, and that the
principle of vitality in her is stu strong that she may
well hope to witness the end even az she saw the be-
ginning of ali the European monarchies.
But while allowing to her infinite duration in point or
time the sssyst has line o. Ssr
over the human mind or gon 1t is said that we
know more in the nineteenth age than we did in tho
first and therefore the Church of Rome Is safe from that
overthrow which the advance Of knowledge has inflicted
dogmatcal teachers in almost every other science
to concur. would indeed, be humiliatng to person
age occupying his exalted position il he were forced to
emain for ever Stationary perpetual exception TO
he law of progress-a mere monument OF the past,
forbidden TO combine the two striking excel
lenses Of truth and novelty. Besides, it must
give to the teaching Of the Church Of Rome some
what piquancy have been signaly unsuccessful,
that the holy coat Of reves turned out scandal and
the legend Of our Lady of Ia Salette fraud Under
these circumstances it seemed wise to abstain while
from the miraculous line Of business and to seek for
support in the other supernatural functions Of the
Catholic Church. Physical science, siuce the daD OF
Calico and the unholy discovery that the earth did
pher and not the round the earth according to the
Pope was too dangerous to be attempted, nothing
worship Of the Virgin Mary has been in
peculiar degree the work Of Popes and OF CouD-
ellis i was only in the eleventh century that So
rous controversy, in which St Bernard st. Thomas
Aquins, and the Dominicans, were on one side, and
Duns Scotus and the University Of Paris the other
The subject Of discussion neither very decorous nor
oprofane eyes, very important. 1t was admitted on
Hands that the Virgin Mary without SIM else she
uOt a a
The question which has long divided the Roman ca.
tholc world is at what period this change was eected9
All agreed that it before the birth Of the Virgin
the difference Ia as to the precise time Was 1t at the
moment Of conception, or was it at q later periods
that difference this delicate subject unmporant
and the church has canoniaed persons holding either
opinion but 1t is now determined to put an end to this
SINFUL toeration and to decide the question for all
amatively negatively and thus, in the interest of
Christian charity to convert venial difference into
mortal sin. In order to establish this doctrine the
prelates OF the Roman Catholic Church are sum-
moned from the four winds to give the sanction Of their
authority to this fgment and the Catholic world
may expect shortly to be edited and asonshed by the
proclamation ola miracle, wrought nobody knows
where nobody knows upon whom, and nobody knows
when We regard the step, all things cosidered
of the most extreme audacity. To require the nine
teenth century to believe and that truth necessary
the Apostles early Fathers Of the Church. the Popes
the Martyrs and the whole calendar of Saints that
upon no better evidence than the opinion of the Pope
and number of Bishops really stretch of presump-
ton of which we could not have believed even the
Church of Rome to have been capable She il
Book of Revelation, which she claims to inter
pref at her will and to add to from the resources of
tradition; she Is now inventng and improvising new
facts and requiring them to be received by her voares
without the slightest attempts at Demonstration. II
this claim of the Pope be admitted he may we'll
Gel he whole Bole and leave the doctrines Of Christian
ity to be taught at his pleasure No fact il
well esablished conclusion logical and absolute
that he cannot at his will overthrow it. Indeed 1t ia
quite evident that this matter of the con-
ception cannot stay where il is The necessity
which drives the Church of Rome to make the immacu
late concpient herself the offspring of immaculate
succession of generations that between the Virgin
Mary and the beginning Of the world What Is true Of
the mother may be alleged with equal fosce of the great
grandmother and the remote ancestors IL win only
be necessary for Pope in difficulties 20 step fur
Their backward in order to add saint to the calen-
dar and miracle to the annals of the church Names
will be wanting, but Rome is rich in nomenclature and
the inspiration which reveals the miracle will not
withhold the name of its object. When this is done we
may look for an increase upon authority of the plaques
of Egypt the days of the creation the number of the
pariarchs, other firmly settled fact or number
Nothing is true that under this system n NAV not
become falsenothng false tina. it may not become
true.
We shall wait with some curisoty this bold expert
ment on the credulity OF mankind and if seeds
though shall not be able to agree with Mr. Macaulay
that the teaching Of the Church the same in all ages We
shall certainly be disposed to admit to him that after
having done tins with mpunity, amount of absurdity
however deception, however transparent-no
fraud or fasehood, however glarng shake the en-
pre OF the Roman Catholic Church over the minds of
men, or teach them to apply to her the of
common sense and with which they measure all
other subjects She Is about to make two immaculate
conceptions out OF one If she proceed to multiply mri
cles at this rate, and with this facility she may incor
porate into Christianity in single hour all the living
wonders OF the Hindoo Pantheon We know of but two
parallels to such astounding audacity Mahomet who
improvised chapter in the Koran reestablsh the
more than questionable character of his favorite wife,
TO conceal fraud, to secure mistress, TO punish
enemy.