Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1867-02-28

ledge, to. be sure, did not then exist, and
books, useless or mischieVous to read, were
not as abundant as now. Prelates were
statesmen, too, in these days, and the great
principles of government the true sources
of popular rights and the proper limits of
/ royal power were discussed with an acumen
and boldness from which this nineteenth
century might well take hint. The claim
of kings to rule by Divine right, or, as our
/ Ifriends.in Great Britain say, 8 by the grace
of God,os-was rebuked by st. Augustine,
who asserted that the consent of the people
was the legitimate source Of royal power.
In these dark ages you see some Legislators
and jurists were saints. There is small
reason to believe that this combination of
qualities is to be found in the parliaments
and congresses of to-day Butof all the
| ills of humanity there was none to which
the Church so earnestly directed its atten-
| ton as that, which is indeed the most gil
gantic and fatal of them tAll--War. Seldom
necessary or inevitable, always evil and diss
astrols in ITSELF and the parent of multi
piled evils and disasters, philosophy reason.
experience, all revolt at the horrors of war,
and yet all are utterly powerless to prevent
it. Its existence is woful enigma which
wisdom cannot solve. What causes war
From whom, or how the first impulse was
given which drives at last multitudes of
men, who have really no dislike for one an
other. to mutual slaughter. history fails to
Achilles, the son of Peleus, heaped unnum-
bered woes on Greece and drenched the
banks of Simois and Scamander with heroic
blood, down to our own times, who shall say
how many bloody battles have had, if the
truth were known, no higher origin or aim
than to avenge some private grief or satisfy
some personal object of ambition ? I'D elrdnt
Reyes, plectuntur Aehioi,nfs GO "Kings fall
out the people bear the knocks" But
sufely of alltrades, there is none to which
men take so kindly as war. Talk as you
may. Of the ties Aof commerce, or blood, or
language, or religion; philanthropy and
humanity, and all that, let but the gay
the bugle sound, and anSil and loom, and
plow and furrow are forsaken, and men
hasten to obey the sovereign instinct which
teaches them TO destroy. Nay, even sober
and sedate men who, in their saner mo-:
ments, would question the pfoprfety of
killing blue bottle fly. become the advo-
Gates of gbloodshed, and the enthusiastic
apostles Of mansiaughter on a large scale.
into this region of storms, against this i'm
memorial phrenzy, the Church early de-
voted its energies; netdirectly to stop war
las well seek to stay theswind or bid the
cessfully oppose it applied itself with
practical sagacity TO mitigate and control.
it ordained that certain periods of the year,
Certain places, certain persons and things,
should be sacred and unmolested by war.
At first it was ordained in solemn council of
the Church that between sunset on Friday.
and sunrise on Monday no blow should be
struck or sword be drawn. BY subsequent
councils this period was extended until It
came by degrees to include all the festivals:
of the Church, and most part of Advent
and Eent. During this hour of lull and
calm between the storms no act of war
could be committed. The sword rested in
70 n Ia
Opportunity was given for reflection and
forgiveness, for sadder and holier inspira-
tion; and many a beleagured city saved
from pillage, and many man rescued
from mortal peril when NO human help
was near, thanked the blessed interval
.tthe truce of God" Again, there
were certain places which the ancient
Church sought to invest with peculiar:
sacredness and keep like an oasis in the
Wide-spreading desert of desolatiOn. The
Church itself and a space of thirty PAGES
all around it was set apart as holy ground,
There no hostile foot should ever tread.
Within its charmed circle no violence
should be committed. Once there, the fu-.
gitive claimed and found refuge and asylum,
and no, armed hand dared to assail him.
Nayy even on the roadside there were stone
crosses erected {some of them stand to-day,
aud he who could lay his hand on the cross
was secure from harm. Aye, even though
the pprsner.s sword was raised TO slay, hiut,
he was shielded by that uni iyersaI reverence
which thoughtful sin t0 stain the symboIsof
salvation with blood. A gain, IL 81 as ID
creed that women, men having Women in
their charge, ecclesiasti iesS s4 nfefehaflfS
should 90 in the midst of war. ufffaffned
The shepherd and his flock, the ploughman
and his plough, were sacred. The Yine-
dresser might prune his vine and gather his
grape. the olfve-grower might tend his ol-
ives without fear of molestation; for over
all, the great eivilizer-the eChurch-spread
the ample shield of its protection. And
the Church never lacked courageto enforce
it's law. Once Roman emperor, angered
against a rebehious cityIordered that when
it was taken its citizens should be put to
the sword. A bishop heard of the order,
and warned the emperor that such an act
would be a. crime. The emperor sent to
withdraw the order, but the messenger
came too late. The city had been taken,
and the wretched Inhabitants had been
slaughtered. But the emperor thought to
braZen it out, and went to church the next
Sunday as If nothing had happened; and
SO with all his escort--a splendid company
-he appeared at the church porch but
there, in the doorway, stood the bishop, in
mitre and cope, Outshining in splendOr the
monarch Fbefore him. Across the door he
set his crozier to bar the way, and then he
said: "Stand back; your presence would
deseerate this sacred place. With one man
inside this churchwhOse hands were STAIN
ed with the murder of his fellow / could
not dare to proceed with the sacrifice of
the mass. How could 1 suffer your pres
lence-you.wh no are the slaughterer of thous-
ands ?'' The bishop was st. Ambrose, the
EemDeror was TheodoSius, aud the sacked
city was Thessalonica. By these means, by
Ecourage, earneStness and sagacity, by train
| ing men to selt-restraint and forbearanee,
~,Ef ,.1r n
peace in the midst of conflict, the
Church strove to wean men from
their vices and follies, and if it failed in
that, to mitigate their horrors. War lost
half its barbarism, aud the gentle spirit of
religion, infusing itself strangely into the
customs of the camp and the battle, turned
the descendants of the Northland Vikings
into gallant knights, educated them in
kchivalry and taught them that courtesy and
dignity of demeanor, that sensitiVeness of
honor, that respect for weakness, that rev.
erence for woman, that exquisite combi-
nation of courage and Rentieness, OF
strength and refinement which were found
long ago among the warriors of Ascalon
and Jaffa-the heroes of the crusades-and
are found, thank God, in the character OF
1.-THE true gentleman of to-day. But the age
of chivairy is gone. All things-king-
doms, cities, systems. habits-wear out and
perish. So wrote Edmund Burke in that
noble passage where all the cnlValry o.
his own high nature flashed out in anger
lat the insult. that France, degraded into ra-
tionalism, had cast on fair and innocent
Observation-Disclosures. He was right
France will never be able to cleanse from
its escutcheon the stain of that murdered
! lady 8 blood. t"The age Of chiyalry is gone
} that of sophisters, economists and calcula-
: tors has succeeded" Progress, the juger-
naut of our idolatry, crushes under its 1e
I morseless wheels many harmless super
stition, kindly tradition and gracious
habit of the past. Woman asks not loyal