The Tipton advertiser. [volume] (Tipton, Cedar Co., Iowa) 1856-1962, 1865-02-16
THE POPE'S LETTER.

In the excitement of our own affairs,
the American public should not over
look the grand Declaration of War" "
just made by the Pope of Rome against
the ideas of the Nineteenth Century
We but repeat the voice of the liberal
Roman Catholic party through Europe
| when we say that such return to the
spirit Of the Middle Ages has not
been made by any pubic official for more
than hundred ears.
We much fear that owing to it's length
our readers have not read carefully this
singular proclamation, and noted its i'm
portaut points. The first general topics
on which it touches are ''the heresies
and errors the "depraved and monstrous
opinions of this most sad age" "These
are SO much the more detestable. mas
much as they tend to destroy the iuAu.
ence which the Catholic Church should
exercise over individuals, nations and
sovereigns, to the end of the world, an
Influence which has always proved fsvora.
bic, as we'll to religion as to civil affairs"
1t laments especially the exclusion of
religion from the direction of human SO.
ciety, and 'the denial Of the duty of CO.
oioS s"u ''o'aUo'o sno OaruoIiU re, !,
giou by authorized penalties" Libert
Of CON cicnce and Of worship are declared
60 10 -S-s.~s",,., .na HSas.y or s"o P'ess
and speech-or1in the words of the letter,
''the liberty unrestrained by ecclesiastical
or civil authority Of manifesting or declar.
ing any thought whatever by speech,
print, or any other mode, lis denomi,
mated "tho liberty of perdtion." The,
new assaults against monastic institutions
are rebuked in the severest terms, and
and these arc upheld as Offering the
mode Of life most commended by the
apostles and the fathers
Democracy is Indignantly denounced,
aud it is denied that "the will of the
people, as manifested by what is called
public opinion, or 10 any other manner,
shdald constitute the supreme law, and
that accomplished facts, for the reason
that they are accomplished, should retain
tho force Of law" Popular education is
discovered to be one of the worst heresies
Of the age, and the exclusion of the Catho.
lie Church from the instruction of youth
is described as an attempt "to deceive
and dcprave the inexperienced youth"
The temporal power of the Popesis as
serted with as much confidence aud zeal
as it might have been by Gregory VII,
and the Encyclical is most of all severe
against "the marked impudence of those
who would subject the supreme authority
of the Church and of the Holy See, com.
mi.tsd to it by Christ the lord, and who
deny all the rights Of the same church
and See over things appertainiug to ex
formal order"
Secret societies are Numbered against,
and it is maintained that the Church i.
competent to punish with temporal pun
lshments the violators of its laws" or, il
other words, to put down all creeds OF
associations which DO not recognize its au
tthor'ty. Unitarianism is bitterly repro
bated, and inasmuch as purity of hear
is needful for the success of our petition.
to Heaven, ga p,enary indulgence i:
conceded "to both sexes in the Catholic
world for the space of one month only til
the end ofls65."
The language which We have alread
given te1tually, is singularly violent auo
full of epithets, and the citations from
the fathers, which must support the 20
sitions taken, to any logical or phllosoph.
'caI mind, have the most childish snt
unreal air.
This remarkable document is taken, b,
the-1iberal Catholics of France and italy
to be an effort, as the Steele expresses It
"to reconstitute mortmain, re establish
religious corporations, subordinate th,
civil civ. to the ecclesiastical power, suppress
liberty of conscience, reconstruct a Stat,
religion, revive the ancient regime auc
even the Middle ages" The Journa
,des ,Debats, speaking for the most cult
vated Catholics, considers it as an attem o.
"te 20 back to the time of Gregory VII,
and "to interfere in the relations betveer
,sovereigns aud their subjects, to domi
neer over one end the other, and snsd