The Portland daily press., 1865-01-25
The ra;lure of Plus TX.

II one were required to point out the most
signal instances of entire and hopeless failure
which the present age has produced. he might
feel compelled to name first the Shareholders
Confederacy, but second in order would GER
tainly be placed His Holiness, Pope Pho Nono'
A more melancholy spectacle of fair promise
unfulhed than his career presents, It wouiu
be hard to fnd Commencing his reign as the
iuitiator of benencent reforms, his advent was
hailed with joy, not only oy the more liberal
portion of Catholic Europe, but by all thought
ful Protestants. Here, at last, men said, we
have the enlightened and progressive Pope;
at last we have a man in the chair of Saint Pc
ter with brain enough and heart enough to
see that the best interests of his church are
identical with the interests Of humanity; man
who viii throw the vast influence of the Holy
See upon the side of progress, and BY investing
the best religious thought of the age with the
sancdty of its divine authority, at once benefit
the world, and establish its own power on
worthy and LISTING basis. esR FsRNse
1t was wild hope, perhaps, though many
shared il; but their delusion was BRIEF The
olent and well-meaning, was not Of the stuffof
which reformers are made. He was no match
for Antoneli, and the rest of the black breth
rem who loved darkness rather than light.
They forced him at first into the backward
course, and he soon acquired such facility In 1t
that he has travelled far, far to the rear OF his
own startingspoint. The whole history of his
l. AawI - f.I
struggling bindly against the inevitable ten
denotes of the age Everything that he has
touched has been failure. Under his admin
istration the Holy See has steadily declined in
power and prestige. Since his reign began,
Christendom has rocked to the centre with
the agitation of great questions connected
with human destiny; but the only authorize
tive utterance of a new truth which has ema-
mated from the Head of the Romish Church
has been the decree of the immaculate Con-
ceptionl Now he writes to the church an
"Eacyclleal Letter" which Is perhapsthe most
pitifu failure of all, since its only efiectcan be
to ALLEVIATE his most faithful and powerful
friends. II filings the doctrines of the thir-
teenth century in the face of the enlighten-
ment and civilization of the nineteenth. 1t
declares that "liberty of thought and con-
science" is only "iiberty of perdition," denoun-
ces free schools as "snare to delude and de-
prave uuthinking youth" asserts that all civ
IL power should be subordinate to the author
ity of the Pope, and roundly scolds all kings,
emperors, and governments of every kind who
dare to oppose their mere human authority to
his divine decree. This remarkable document
has an appendix, as long as a lane, in which
under eighty different heads are denounced
the ''detestable errors" and "pernicious doc
trines ofthe present age" such as pantheism,
rationalism, socialism, freedom Of speech and
OF the press, and denial of the infallibility OF
the Church! This catalogue of heresies calls
to mind the prayer which a pious old deacon
In this state used for many years to offer week.
ly in the prayer-meeting: "Oh, Lord grant
that all uuiversalism and enthusiasm and de-
ism, and every Other. form Of infdelity may be
done away in our land ~ a1se ssie"
Poor Pho Mono! II he had but seen aud
seized the possibilities which at the out
set were before him, he might have made him
self name m re truly Respondent than that
of Hildebrand, or of Leo the Tenth. But he
has lost the opportunity the which he was
lord Of" and his prestige is fading SO rapidly
that among the powers OF the earth there will
soon be none $50 poor as to do him reverence."
. q "