The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1868-03-22

following, taken from BGacapccStns NGSasjae.
The tendencies Of this able publication
Tory and High Church too well known
to admit, for moment, the thought Of par
TALLY. Its love of truth, however, prompts
it to explode pernicions delusion:
We are beginning to find out that the dark
ages" were not SO utterly dark a. they have
been represented. We ascertain that there was
not that universal blight upon the human mind
contrast with the fourfshing condition of their
own times. Nay, if we are now to take that
measure which those historians adopted, we
should estimate their cir, own era with as disRarag
inventions of our own days-the great advance
of arts and sciences-sO far from having ten
dency to depreciate, throw . light upon, and
acknowledge the value of those of the middle
ages. The appreciation is becoming general
We are old enough to remember the time when
it was thought of little moment to block up
purpose, those amazing works of medieval
genius. Men thought themselves wise in those
days, and learned, and ingenious. And so they
were; but in respect Of arts they were dark
enough-and the spirit of Puritanism was in
deed q blight injecting that darkness; and the
effects of that blight have notyet passed away.
We here speak Of those large and conspicu-
GUS monuments of the mind Of the middle ages,
but the increasing admiration leads to discoye-
ries of yet more hidden treasures. The genius
that designed the structures was as busily and
ration; and with a surprising unity of feeling;
and as if with one sole object, to carry out the
new Christian Principle-to make significant a
"beauty of holiness in all outward things,
that men might look to with an awe and rev
-eEenee-and- rn.lThe sanctity of that one
religious art-architecture- demanded that
nothing without or within should be left COM
mon or "unclean," but that in the whole and
and manifest" Do all to tie glory of God."-
All art was significant of the religion for which
all ~ oil Tv.n rLnro
of those days labOred with n loving and pious
toll, and lifted mp their works to an unseen and
all-seeing eye, and not to the applause Of men.
as q period of universal intellectual darkness.
If it were SO, it would be q miracle contrary to
the intention of miracle; and the thought has
the sustaining arm of Providence, and imply
an unholy rest.
The Church was in fact, the ark of safety, to
which all that intellect had effected, all arts,
all sciences, all learning, fled for refuge. And
as was the ark among the dark waters, SO was
the Church and the treasures it bore providen-
TALLY preserved amid the storms without that
darkened aud howled around it. What hea-
/thenism was to the middle ages, in respect of
the hidden treasures, the middle ages are, or
have been, to us. Their arts, their sciences, in
had, indeed, invisible but effective virtues-the
darkness, the blindness, has been ours. We
have been doing the work of our age, and are
now discovering the good that was in theirs,
and how mach We are indebted to them for our
own advancement. Let us imagine for mo-
ment all that was then done obliterated, never
to have been done, we should now have to do
the work of the so-called CLARK ages" 1t
would be impossible to start up what we are
without them. AS we reflect, their works pre-
sent themselves to us in every direction. Look
where we will, we shall see that the Church
has been the school of mankind, in which all
knowledge was preserved, and from which new
sources of knowledge have arisen. She was
the salt of the earth, to rescue 1t from rank
ness. .---sr -
What were, then, the monks about Z EN-
bodying laws of peace, and with q faith in the
future Improvement of mankind, cultivating
sciences planning and building up in idea new
society, foreseeing its wants, and for its sake
pursuing the nseful arts; invehting, continuing,
constructing, and decorating all, and preparing
even the outward face of the world, by their
wondrous structures, their practical applica-
ton of their knowledge, more worthily to re-
ceiye people whom it was their hope. their
faith, to bring ont of a state of turbulence into
peace. So far as the Church was concerned in
- governments, it is astonishing how, when the
body of the state was mutilated and dislocated,
she kept the heart sound; SO that where it
4 might seem tyranny would have overwhelmed
all, she made, and she preserved those whole
some laws to which we now owe our, liberty,
and every social advancement. But it is in
the light of the arts and sciences our present
purpose directs us to view their doings.t Let
us take one fact-walk the streets of even our
inferior provincial towns, see not only the COM
forts which, in their dwellings, surround the
inhabitants, but the magnifcence of the shops
with their glass fronts. Whence are they Tie
first skill, the first invention, arose from the
study of ecclesiastics, and was practised by
clustered monks. 1t would not be very diff
cult in fact, to trace every useful invention, in
its first principle, to the same source But with
great portion of mankind it would, not be
pleasing so to trace their means of enjoyment.
They have been habituated to think, or at least
to feel, otherwise. History has been too often
written by men either averse to religion itself,
or inimical TO churchmen. History, such as il
has been put into the hands of children, for the
rudiments of their education, has taught them
to falsehoods against the Church, tho