The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1859-08-06
What 10 ths Religious r,at aoz OF tho Itallat
COMEDIES asSun:

The correspondents Of the Gngleh Journals
writing tro1a Germany about the peace, co no.
understand what they are wri,iog about, aud
may American journals are equally pvzz'ed as
TO The mea0ing OF the pew It,lian Confederation.
ard write she purest nonsense on the sub
ieot. The fest soa Of the church" well knows
what be means by the peace OF Villafienea auo
wbs. he means by the political reorganization
OF Italy under the Presidency Of the Pope
But il is beyond the comprehension of the soal
Low and the short sighted, who only eco in it an
tvidt1ce Of his conscious weakness or of his
fears. They bave not the sagacity to perceive
| that the design OF the Emperor Of the French
ia to INACCURATE new era in the Catholic
church-an epoch which will not mark its
speedy decline and fall, but its regeneration,
whence it will take a new start and eater ou a
new creer Of civilization. in which il will
abso,b the numerous sects which revolted
from it or split from each other. There il
very little real difference How between the
Catholic and the Protestant churches. Tue
former is no longer what 1t was, aud its
members do not now believe in the absurd
res which were grated upon it in the
Middle Ages. The Protestant sects are all be-
ginning to feel that they have failed in maintain
ing lbe spirit Of Christianity, and there is ten.
ceEcy aultng them to return to the cd ,Eholio
church with its sublime ritual, in which the i'm.
ANIMATION Of the oevout can find attractio,s a. d
rharms for which it will look in vain in the dry
| Protestant creeds, with their speculative the.
| ology, which the most intellectual and educated
minds can scarcely understand, but which are
nnsolved riddles to the great mass of the COM
pnpi,y. The Puseyites in Eoglsnd, and the
movement of DR.. Bellows and his friends ID this
country are but indications Of the general ten.
dency. And if religion, with its genial warmth
and its immortal hopes, Is to be preserved in the
| world and cold infdelity is not to overrun all
Europe and America, there is nothing left but
return to the Catholic church. purife recon
cation of the age Louis Napoleon, the man of
the age, understands this, and its accomplish
ment is bis great mission.
The Catholic Church owes its first power to the
Roman Emperor Constantine, who, being con.
verted to the faith, not only stopped the persecu-
ton against Christianity, but made it the estab-
| iished religion of the empire, and acknowledged
the Bishop of Rome as the chief bishop of the
! Christian Church. Pepin and Charlemagne, by
| their grants, established the temporal dominion
of the Roman Bishop, and laid the foundation of
bis political power in Europe, which attained its
highest pitch under Hildebrand, Pope who was
| at the same time great reformer Of the church,
and mighty potentate His ideas were carried
out still more boldly by his successor, Innocent
Ill. who was hardly second to him, and who,
young, noble and intrepid, united with spirit Of
ecclesiastical usurpation which nona had ever
carried so far before, the more worldly ambition
of consolidating separate principally for the
Holy See in the centre of Italy.
The contest begun between the German EN-
peror Henry w. and Pope Gregory VII (Hilde-
brandy for the independence Of the church was
long continued by their SUCCESSORS, and the cele-
brated PARTIES called the Guelfs and Ghibelins Of
Lombardy, took an active part-the former in
favor of the Pope, and the latter in favor of the
Emperor. Nearly the whole population was d.
vided between them just as that of England has
| been 30 long divided between wings and tories,
and as the people OF the United States used to be
divided between wings and democrats.
There was one important source of power by
| which the Popes were greatly strengthened, and
| that was the Universal Council, which was es-
| tablisbed under the authority of Constantine,
| and consisted of commissioners from all the
churches Of the Christian world, and who,
consequently, represented the church Catho-
lie, or universal The first of these Councils
was held at Nice, A. D. 1885, and the last at
Trent in 1916, the same year in which Luther
died. The Bishop of Rome, being first in rank,
presided at the councils, and thus gained great
pre.eminence. At these assemblies platforms OF
| doctrine were laid down ana voted for lust as
do the heads of the democratic party in their
national Conventions at Baltimore, or Cincin-
nati, or Charleston
AS the power Of the Popes and of the Roman
Church became consolidated, extended and firmly
established, corruptions and absurdities crept in
till, in the time Of Leo x, the open sale of in.
dulgences precipitated the Reformation; and the
| cold, argumentative minds of Northern Germa-
ny, Switzerland, Scotland, Sweden, Denmark
and Norway not only revolted against doctrines
and practices in the Roman church which GER
tainly did not belong to it originally but against
its whole ritual and system of worship, invented
by the warm hearted Italians-children of the
sunny South, with whom the coarser Northerns
had little in common. The Roman ritual is
formed more for the Imagination, and addressed
more to the eye and the ear than to the intellect.
The fine arts are its landmarks painting, sculp-
ture, music and poetry. This is because the TIA.
lans live in the open air Of their lovely
cline, ard are familiar with the sublime
and beautiful forms of nature. In cold
and harsh climates, on the contrary,
the people live indoors, and the mind
having nothing external to feed upon, turns in.
ward on itself and much reflection and specula-