The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-06-24
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From the NJ y. Tribune
The Republicans of the Cortes, slandered
some time ago by the report that they would
prove non-jurors to the new constitution Oh
their country, are at TINS moment urging
upon their constituents simple fealty to the
Constitution and the regime OF Serrano.
With the Church party the cable informs us
that il is far otherwise. The priests of Spain
have not vet recovered from the shock dealt
to them not merely by the general majority
of the Cortes but especially by the speeches
. of the extremer class of Republicans. They
are now acting evidently in the spirit of the
boast of Cardinal Cuesta that three millions
of Spanards were ready to sign their names
to a pledge to resist a constitution which as
serted itself to be the enemy of the Church
The Cardinal was wildly out of the way in his
calculations; but the Church, if resolved to
oppose the Constitution with blind Zealotry
lust because the Republicans defend it, may
do mischief to the State no less than to itself
Competition as against enforced monopoly
is an old moral of trade. 1t is also the moral
of the Church defeat in Spain. Inasmuch as
a competition in religion is often saving of
morals, good Spaniards aver that the sincerity
and activity of their Church will profit by the
stimulant of q new faith and new idea.
Crowds have attended the service of Protes-
tantism since the ordination of tolerance,
though it is said that the owner of the house
in Madrid where it was held has been threat
ened with assassination. Whether we believe
this or not, it is certain that the new religion,
together with the new principle of tolerance,
have secured an invincible foothold. To keep
the peace of opinion, much more is to be de-
manded from the forbearance of the Repub-
licans than the inveteracy of the churchmen.
We commend to free religionists the candid
confession uttered in the Spanish Cortes by
one Daz Quintero. II belong to no religion,
said Senior Quintero. Il am not even an
atheist, because l have nothing to do with
religions, not even to deny them. They are all
subyersive of morality. l say with Don Car
los in Schiller, My ideas are not of this age
I should have lived at q more advanced pc
rod According to his own statement, Mr.
Quintero would advance like the crab back
wards. But the real progress of Spanish ideas
will tend away from such egotism as this into
something like charity of opinion-a charity
not more demanded of such churchmen as
Manterola and Cuesta and the Bishop of
Jaen, than of such Republicans as Suner and
Quintero.
1t is no common defeat which has been
wrought upon the Church, nor can we say
that it has been sustained vulgarly and in the
spirit of irreconcilable defiance. The most
Jealous lovers of their religion have bitterly
lamented this first step of divorce between
the Church and the State None have done
so with more sincere sorrow than the pious
Bishop OF Jaen, whose fanatic shock upon
hearing the atheism uttered in the Cortes
moves a certain compassion and even admira-
ton, spite of the Bishops unreasoning oppo-
sition to moral liberty "There were those
he said, ''who declared Catholic morals infe-
rior to universal morals. There were those
who asked tolerance only to impugn religion.
There were those who ridiculed the existence
of the Holy Spirit. Some invented fables,
and were praised-falsfed history, and were
applauded. Compassion-com for all
The measure, beyond being full, ran over its
sides, with the stencil of we know not how
many miseries more unjustifable than punish
able; but they were not sufficient. Miseries
deplorable - pitiful, worthy to be washed,
even on our part, in a sea of truly expiatory
tears !" Few will be indisposed to grant to
the Bishops compassionate jeremiad the merit
of eloquence and sincerity worthy of the
days when the best orator Of Spain was the
fierce devotee who upheld the cross He
mistakes the nature of his opponents-both
their power to do harm by aggression or to
do good by forbearance. The Church can
only save itself-the State can rob it of none
of its true possessions. The absence of CON-
petition does not make its morals a whit bet
teI-the presence of it cannot shake its
ngbtful hold if it be founded in the truth.
On the other hand, the reformers gain nothing
by their unreasoning advocacy of reason
Unless they themselves learn the tolerance
and the charity they demand-unless they car
in their own conduct commend to the Church
its own texts-they have really not great
deal to teach, however fierce the onslaught
their Quixotism may make against forms il
the name of shadows.