Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1870-12-28
New York Herald.l
The New Life and Future OF the RO-
man Catholic Church.

ma NuuTcus
At this moment-the turning point
of an age eventful beyond all compar-
ison in bygOne histOry-the gaze of
civilized mankind is fixed on Rome
with peculiar interest. The call for
an Ecumenical Council of the Church
reputed Apostolic and universal was,
in itself, a great awakening to the
world. To the faithful and earnest
adherents of CathOlicity it was a sum-
mons that seemed inspired in the
midst Of accommodating disorders; the
breaking down Of all restraints; the
abrogatiOn Of old tenets; the setting
up Of self and the higher law, so
called, inthe place Of the one Supreme
Father, whose precepts had become
the basis and the rallying point Of Or
der in barbaric times and the bulwark
against destructive license and vice in
the DAYS of a corrupt and unbelieving
civilization. To the opponents Of
Romanism, per sc, on the other hand,
this call was deemed a fragrant ehal-
lenge thrown down to 1.-THE spirit Of
our time" and a defiance Of the work
achieved by religious and political
progress. These two opinions divided
ChristendOm while the Council was
sitting, and they divide il still. But
in the meanwhile, through all the
Earring and caviiling Of authorities,
the Church itself is evidently under
going a wonderful and salutary trans
formation, or, rather, is slOughing OIL
the e-Xcrescences which the ambition
Of prelates and princes and the eX-
igencies Of peculiar times and regions
had fastened on it. This process is
grand to contemplate in the light Of a
history so picturesque and so majestic
as that of the Roman Church.
In order to appreciate the change
let US cast our thought backward for
an instant to the period when Christi
anity began TO take shape and emerge
from the alluring but deceptive mirage
of Pagan mythology and the imposing
but unsatisfactory rites of ancient Ju-
daism. "VOice of the East, voice OF
the West, voice Of the four winds, woe
to the Temple! woe TO Jerusaleml' ~
was the terrible warning cry Of him
who was known as "Jesus, son Of
Ananius," who, as Josephus tells US,
suddenly uplifted his voice amid the
city in the hour of profOundest peace,
and ceased not by night or by day IN
til the whole Jewish people had heard
of his coming and his prophecy. But
as Jesus, the Christian Messiah, had
been rejected, so was this Jesus, the
prophet of ruin, despised by a head
strong people. Yet the sack Of the
ancient city by the Roman Titus
came, and the ideas Of the Christian
faith caught up amid the fire and the
carnage Of the Jewish capital chung 10
the skirts of the e~Onquerors and were
transferred with them to Rome. But
in the meanwhile, as we learn from
sacred tradition, st. Thomas bore the
Gospel of Jesus to the farthest Ind;
St. John preached it and exemplihed
it in Asia Minor; st. Andrew made il
a revelation of a higher life to the rude
Scythian hOrdes; st. Philip spread il
abroad over the Asiatic Continent
St. Bartholomew established it in
Armenia; st. Matthew disclosed it to
benighted Persia st. Simon made il
the new and saving light of MesopOta-
mia, and st. Luke with il refuted the
legends and the imaginative heogony
of Arabia. Thus was q grand, q glO-
rious message made known by in
spired and devoted men to p suffering
world. The heart of humanity leaped
up to hail a dawn so benignant, and,
in spite Of all trials and prosecutions,
the faith fiourished and grew on all
sides. The terrible prosecutions
which, beginning with Nero at Rome,
were continued under Domitian and
his ferOcious successors, but seemed
to give strength, vitality and fixed
stability to nascent belief so full of
native strength, as the storm wind
but imparts vigOr to the oak whose
roots are deep in the soil, even while
it sweeps away the feebler children Of
the forest and scatters them dying in
its path. And why was this? Be
cause, to continue our smile, the roots
of the Christian creed descended
deeply into the hearts of men. The
simple virtues Of its early followers,
the purity and lofty life Of its apostles
and its advocates; their divine elO-
quence; their inspired eruditiOn (;
their indefatigable toll; their fearless
ness in the presence Of chains and
death, and the sublime promises they
uttered from the gibbet and the stake
to the humblest and the weakest who
believed, were a power which over
awed the purple tyrants Of the world
and announced Christ and Him cruel
fed as indeed the livery present help"
and Saviour Of the stricken people
Vivihed by the warmth of a zeal that
had been kindled by the lamps of the
sepulchre, and vivified by the blood
shed in so many massacres, at last, in
A. D. 1853, the new Church, so sOrely
beset by Julian the Apostate, found a
Roman emperor to thoroughly pro-
tect it. Jovian, who had braved the
wrath of Julian, heard his own troops
exclaim, Fear not, Emperor; you
command a Christian army. The
most aged among US were instructed
by the great Constantine, and the rest
by his son." The cross which had
appeared but as a vision of victorious
omen in the sky became a fixed en-
blem in the most powerful and civil
lied of cities, and hurried on from
conquest TO conquest until 1t rose re-
splendent upon church spires in half
the world. At last the Eeumenical
Council, held at COnstantinople a. D..
3SI, in the reign of TheodOsius, and
accepted by the West, proclaimed and
fixed the main dOgmas of the Church,
and it became a positive power on
earth. But even with this access of
spiritual dominion began the usual
corruptiOns and troubles that beset
things human even while they striv-
ingly aspire TO God. The Arian,
Macedonian, Pelagian, HISTORIAN and
Eutychisn heresies and the schism of
the Donatists rapidly succeeded each
other. There were divided eounsels;
Popes and anti-POpes; prelates who
lest themselves in the ambition Of the
prince, and princes who claimed to be
prelates without the JUNCTION and the
call. Formulas and ceremonies began
70 overcast and eclipse the simple,
pure, sweet teachings of the Sermon
on the Mount, and gorgeous fanes and
royal pomp superseded the plain re-
membrance of the Last Supper and
the homely words of the morning and
evening walks by the sacred shore Of
Galilee. Conversions were abundant,
indeed, and, to use the same phrases
which st. Paul himself, quoting from
the Psalmist, applied to the Apostles,
i'Their voice was heard over all the