The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1868-10-25


with the Moors, the Church, not unnaturally,
claimed the glory and reaped large harvest
OF wealth and power. The position OF the
Church was improved, her power increased,
her wealth multiplied by the discovery and
conquest of the Indies. It was q privilege
claimed by every successful Castilian adven-
turer, when he returned to tie Old World
laden with the spoils of the New, to found q
chapel or dover some ancient shrine. The
spirit of the old Crusaders survived in Spain
long after it had died out in the rest of Europe.
1t was this spirit that drove the infldel from
Spanish SOIL 1t was this spirit that gave the
Indies to the Spanish crown and that so might
lily swelled the army Of the faithful. It was
the same spirit that pampered and spoiled the
Spanish Church Gorged with wealth, pulled
up with vanity and pride, it soon forgot
or despised its proper mission. In place of
training the intellect and heart, it lent its
powerful influence to check all freedom of
thought and inquiry. To the Spanish Church
we owe the fires of the Holy Inquisition-an
institution which in Spain and in Flanders
made the day horrible and the night hideous
for many weary year, and which, more than
any other cause or causes, repressed and
finally crushed out the growing liberties OF the
South Of Europe. This Church up to the
present moment has been the curse of Spain
1t has not only held the people in intellectual
bondage, 1t has broken their spirit, and in
1872, 1920, 1886 and every subsequent period
1t has, in alliance with despotism, successfully
crushed out their hopes. It is, therefore, the
one hopeful thing in connection with this revo-
luton that the clergy so far have been found
to be powerlass.
We are far from sanguine that the Church
may not yet prove stumbling block in the way
of the revolution. That Church is very bad
and very rotten which has not strong hold
on the minds and hearts of the peasant classes,
and to control the peasant classes in country
like Spain is to control the bulk of the popu-
lation. 1t is already known that the reyolu-
tonary leaders have resolved to confscate
large sections of the property Of the religious
orders. To confscate church property where
a Church is not alien is always dangerous
experiment. It proved great source Of
misery to France. 1t was hazardous expert
ment in Mexico. 1t has yet to be known
whether 1t will not prove the rock on which
italian unity will split We have no hesita-
ton in saying that the State Church principle
is doomed but the question now before us is,
whether in such countries as Italy and Spain
the hour of doom has yet struck. We shall
be glad to know that it has. Meanwhile it is
well to look facts in the face. If the Spanish
reformers can set their heel on the Church the
revolution will be a lasting success. If the
Spanish Church is allowed to come forth
again in its might the revolution Of 1868 will
be found to be as fruitless as the many others
which have gone before it. This, rather than
the relative merits of monarchy and republi-
canism-this, rather than who shall be chief of
the State, is the question which Spaniards
have to solve.