The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-11-28

for series of articles that will be of consider
able interest to our readers.
THE KING OFITALYAND THEPOPE
The Pope not being able to keep the King Of
Italy out of Rome by the aid of temporal
weapons, has resorted to some of the great
guns of his spiritual armory, and has pro-
nounced against him and all his aiders and
abettors the major communication. The
King, we believe, has been communicated
several times before, but has managed to bear
up pretty we'll under the inaiction, and was
not deferred from annexing the Papal terri
tory to his dominions. The last thunderbot
of the Church seems to have disturbed his
equanimity somewhat, however, and he has
given vent to his irritated feelings in a
rather foolish manner by suppressing several
newspapers that published the Pope's bull.
Victor Emanuel could do much better than
this by fighting the Pope with his own wea-
pons, for while he will gain but little credit
in attempting to bride the press, he could
scarcely fail to make an impression of most
decided character upon the Pope and his
counsellors if he we're to encourage a num-
Der of anti-papal preachers to hold popular
the Vatican. In the old times, when excom-
munication really meant something, even
such obstinate kings as John of
England could be brought to terms
by the stoppage of all religious
services and by the personal odium that
attached even to royalty when it fell under
the ban of the Church. King John had the
disposition to fight the Pope to the last and
he had many able supporters, but when all
religious ordinances ceased throughout his
kingdom, he had the nation as we'll as the
Church against him. and he was obliged to
succumb. In like manner other potent
monarchs were brought to terms and COM
PEELED to acknowledge themselves vassels of
the See of Rome, but things have changed
since those days, and it is difficult to imagine
what the practical effect of the excommuni-
cation of the King of Italy and his sup
| porters ought to be according to the ideas
| that prevail in the Vatican According to
precedent it ought to put stop to all rel-
gious services OF the Catholic Church through
out Italy, but it can scarcely be imagined
that the Pope would perpetrate such piece
of folly as this when the King is, or ought to
be, able to command q weapon of equal
potency. Whatever the effect of the excom-
munication may be, however, it gives the
King more than reasonable excuse for re-
sorting to a measure that will excite the
greatest alarm in the Papal councils, for it
will strike at the very root of the supremacy
of the Roman Church. There are now in
Italy many liberal eeclesiastics-men of the
Father Hyacinthe stamp, who, while they
are scarcely prepared to acknowledge
themselves Protestants, are bitterly
opposed to the policy that refuses to acknowl-
edge the civilization of the age, and who
would, under proper encouragement, readily
undertake to preach and pray in the streets
of Rome, or in improvised meeting houses,
and there are thousands of non-ecclesiastics
who would eagerly engage in the same work.
The King, therefore, could organize an eff
fcient spiritual opposition to the Pope with
out calling in the aid of any outsiders; and if
he were to place himself at the head of
great religious reform movement, as did
Henry VIII of England, the Pope's bull of
communication would not only become
dead letter, but it would be turned into an
efficient weapon against him who issued it.