The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-05-04
TUESDAY, MAY a, 1869.
RELTqIOUS LIBERTY IN SPAIN.

RELIGIOUS LIBEhLI IH or dLN'
THE Spanish revolution has rescued the op-
nressed people of that down-trodden nation
from ecclesiastical as well as monarchical despo-
tism The privileges extended by the new con-
stitution are best explained by the speech of one
of their determined opponents, member of the
SPANISH Cortes Senior Manterola, the canon of
Vitoria who, advocating the continued supre-
macy of the Catholic Church in all spiritual
matters said 1t was impossible to "preserye the
fervor of the Catholic faith and at the same time
pot oppose the tolerance of other creeds;" that
Oabsolute freedom of thought was an absurdity,
and absolute freedom to transmit it was an equal
absurdty;" that if the gates OF Spain were
openedto all worships and to all creeds all could
come there "with their religions and their sacrl-
fees even with their sacrifices of human blood;"
that there could be no permanent prosperity
where freedom of worship prevailed; that
the United States had prospered mainly because
four-ffths of the emigrants landing on our shores
were Catholics; and that if Spain launched her
self 'into the unnatural arms of free worship,
the day on which this occurs, on that day the
Spain of the memories of the past the Spain of
the ancient glories will have died"
All this and much more fanfaronade of a SINH
lar description was duly uttered in Spanish
Cortes in the year of grace one thousand eight
hundred and sixty-nine and to do the clerical
orator Justice, he made the best defense possible
of the policy which has prevailed for centuries
in the land of Ferdinand and Isabella. But the
world moves despite such puny attempts to ar
+ EST its progress. The Cortes of Catholic Spain
adopted the sections authorizing freedom of
worship in spite of the opposition of canons
and archbishops. Senor Manterola's diatribe ex-
cited, we are told, only ''the alternate amusement
and disgust of the Assembly," and when he took
his seat Senor CASTELAR, q Spanish champion
of religious tolerance, Immediately arose and de-
livered the grand and overwhelming reply which
we publish in another part of THE TELEGRAPH.
1t is scarcely necessary to bespeak careful
perusal of this eloquent Speech for its intrinsic
merits will secure that from every intelligent
reader. We refer TO it here mainly to direct
attention to the internal evidence it affords that
the hearts of the liberal and progressive men Of
all climes and all creeds are beating in unison,
and that brave and magnanimous Catholics of
other lands are as ready to protect Protestant
ism, as the liberal Protestauts of the United
States are to secure unrestricted freedom of re-
ligious worship to the members of the Roman
Catholic Church.
Senior CASTELAR, combines with his splendid
defense of religious freedom a philo-
sophie analysis of the religious predictions of
diverse races, from which all can learn wisdom
as well as charity and mutual forbearance. Re-
ligious prosecutions have made millions of hypo-
critics, and they have promoted infdelity by
depriving millions of men of the enjoyment of
the mode of worship most congenial to their
natures, but they have done nothing to establish
on permanent foundation any truly Christian
Church. or to turn the footsteps of erring sin
ners into the narrow path that leads to heaven.
In the United States freedom of religious wor-
ship has so long prevailed that we can scarcely
realize the depths of the iniquity which has in
other lands prohibited the utterance of Pro
testant prayer, or the delivery of a Protestant
sermon, as a hdeous crime. 1t is a gratifying
spsaacle to behold Catholic Spain bursting these
shackles, despite the opposition of her hierarchy
at the same moment that Protestant England il
doing tardy justice to the down-trodden Catholics
of Ireland, despite the antagonism of the mag
mates of the Established Church of Great Britain
From present indications we hope that the uni
versal establishment of religious freedom, in al
civilized lands, win become one of the crownin,
glories of the age-and that intolerance, will
its twin demon, slavery, will be driven back int,
the bottomless pit from which they sprung.