The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1859-08-06
What ~ ths Religious 9s,as sox os the italia,
SonfedeI aaApn:


TIE correspondents Of the Cnglsh Journals
writing from Germany about the peace, co no'
understand what they are wri,iog about aud
many American journals are equally puzz'ed as
10 the meaning Of the new II ,lian Confederation.
ard write the purest nonsense on the sub
ject. The fest soa Of tire church" well knows
what be means by the peace OF V,llafIenea. auo
wba. he means by the political reorganization
of Italy under the Presidency Of the Pope
But ii is beyond the comprehension of the soal
Low and the short sighted, who only zee in it an
| .vidsI ce of fis conscious weakness or of his
fears They have not The sagacity to perceive
that the design OF the Emperor Of the French
| Is tn INACCURATE q new era in the Catholic
chuIch--an epoch which will not mark its
speedy decline and fall, but its regeneration,
whence it will take a new start and eater or
new Greer Of civilization. in which it will
| absoIb the numerous sects which revolted
from it or split from each other There il
| very little real difference low between the
Catholic and the Protestant churches. The
| !ofRer 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 the spin, Of Christianity, and there is ten.
ceucy amt ng them to return to the cd G ,thoo
church, with its sublime ritual, in which the i'm
| aginalion Of the oevout can find attractions ard
charms for Hhich it will look in vain in the dry
Protestant creedE with their speculative the
ology, which the most intellectual and educated
minds can scarcely understand, but which
nnsolyed riddles to the great mass of the COM
pnpity. The Puseyites in Eogland, and the
movement of DR.. Bellows and his friends ia this
country, are but indications Of the general ten.
dency. And ifreligion, with its genial warmth
and its immortal hopes, is to be preserved in the
world, and cold in6delity is not to overrun all
Europe ard America, there is nothing left but
return to the Catholic church. purife recon
structed and adapted to the wants and the civil.
cation of the sge 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
biz 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 none had ever
carried so far before, the mo1e worldly ambition
Of consolidating separate principality for the
Holy See in the centre of Italy.
The contest begun between the German Em-
peror Henry w. and Pope Gregory VII. (Hilde-
brandt 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 di.
vided between them just as that of England has
been 30 long divided botweeu 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-
tabliabed 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. 1926, 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
> preeminence. At these assemblies platforms OF
; doctrine were laid down ana voted for just as
do the heads of the democratic party in their
national Conventions at Baltimore, or Cncin-
NATL or Charleston.
As the power Of the Popes and of the Roman
Church became consolidated, extended and firmly
established, corruptoDs and absurdities crept in,
till, in the time of Leo X, the open sale of in
dulgences precipitated the Reformation; aud the
cold, argumentative minds of Northern Germa-
ny, Switzerland, Scotland, Sweden, Denmark
I and Norway not only revolted against doctrioes
f 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 hardnaids- painting, sculp-
ture, music and poetry. This is because the TIA.
lians live in the open air of their lovely
cline, ard are familiar with the sublime
and beautiful forms of nature. In cold
aud 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-
ton are the results. In England which is half
| (ycltio 4 halG H.