The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1871-12-18

GA Medieval Saint.''
A portrait of DR.. Manning, the Catholic
Archbishop of Westminster, serves as a 'front.'
ispiece to the January number of the Gdlasy.
What is it that has given all the renowned
Catholic clergy, from the lowest to the high
est, such singularly naughty, arrogant, I'M
sympathetic faces? There is kind of apos-
tolc benignity in ecountenance of Plus TX,
but there is rarely bishop or priest from
whose lordly countenance every trace OF
christian meekness and kindness is not oan-
ished. This characteristic is mucn more
marked in the dgnitaries OF the hohiish
church than in our civil rulers. But 1ustlh
Nc Carthy tells us something Oh this Arcn-
bishop that NAV serve as key to the whole
mystery of the excessive arrogance OF the
Romisb clergy. Men who believe that the
old times were the good times, that progress
is retrogression, that schools are devices of
the arch adversary, that thought is crime and
that all authority is vested in the clutch OF
which they are the officers, are not likely to
cherish the early Christian graces oflowliness
and loving kindness. But just let us hear
what Mr.. Nc earthly says of his Medieval
Saints" personal appearance, hoping his &C
count is more trustworthy than his EXPOSE
ton of the results of the Maine Law in its ma
tive State:
''He is tall thin parsonage, some sixty
two years of age. His face is bloodless-pale
as ghost, one might say. He is so thin as
to look almost cadaverous. The outlines of
the face are handsome and dignified. There
is much Of courtly grace and refinement about
the bearing and gestures of this pale, weak,
and wasted man. He wears a long robe OF
violet silk, with some kind of dark cape or
! collar, and has massive gold chain round his
neck, holding attached to it great gold
cross. There is certain nervous quivering
about his eyes and lips, but otherwise he is
perfectly collected and master OF the occasion.
His voice is thin, but wonderfully clear and
penetrating. 1t is heard all through this
great hall-a moment ago SO noisy, now SO
silent. The words fall with a slow, quiet
force, like drops of water. Whatever your
opinion may be, you cannot choose but listen;
and, indeed, you want only to listen and
see For this is the foremost man in the
Catholic Church of England. This is the
Cardinal Grandson of Disraeli's "Lothair''-
DR.. Henry Edward Manning, Roman Catho-
lie Archbishop of Westminster, successor in
that office ofthe late Cardinal Wiseman.
1t is no wonder that the Irishmen at the
meeting are enthusiastic about Archbishop
Manning. An Engishman of Englishmen,
with no drop of Irish blood in his veins, he is
more Hibernian than the Hibernians them
selves in his sympathies with Ireland. A man
of social position, of old family, of the highest
| education and the most refined instincts, he
would leave the Catholic noblemen at any
time to go down to his Irish teetotallers at
the east end of London. He firmly believes
that the salvation of England is yet to be ac-
complished through the influence of that re-
| ligious devotion which is at the bottom of the
| Irish nature, and which some of us call super
stition. He loves his own country dearly,
but turns away from her present condition of
industrial prosperity to the days before the
| Reformation, when yet saints trod the Eng
fish SOIL SIN England there has been no
saint since the Reformation" he said the
| other day, in sad, sweet tones, to one of
wholly different opinions, who listened with a
mingling of amazement and reverence. No
| views that have ever heard put into living
words embodied to anything like the same ex-
tent the full claims and pretensions of Ultra
montanism. 1t is quite wonderful to sit and
listen. One cannot but be impressed by the
sweetness, the thoughtfulness, the dignity, I
had almost said the sanctity of the man who
thus pours forth, with a manner full of the
most tranquil conviction, opinions which pro-
claim all modern progress failure, and glori-
fy the Roman priest or the Irish peasant as
| the true herald and repository of light, liber-
ty, and regeneration to sinking and degrad-
| ed world. -r
And this is an account of the Archbishop's
theological opinions:
| A more singular, striking marvellous fig
ure does not stand out, think, in our Eng
| ltSl, 49,
| Englishman or American would regard as
admirable and suspicious in the progress of
our civilization, Archbishop Manning calmly
looks upon as lamentable and evil-omened
| What we call progress is to his mind decay
What we call light is to him darkness. What
| we reverence as individual liberty he deplores
| as spiritual slavery The mere fact that a
man gives reasons for his faith seems shock
ing to this strangely-gited apostle of uncon-
ditiona! belief. Though you were to accept
on Bonded knee pinety-nine of the DEGREES of
! OF Rome, you would still be in his mind her.
| etic If you paused to consider as to the ac-
ceptance of the hundredth dogma All the
pecullarly-modern changes in the legislation
OF England, the admission of jews to farfia-
ment the introduction of the principle of di-
! vorce, the practical recognition of the Eng
fish divine's right of private judgment, are
painful and odious to him. have never
heard from any other source anything so
clear, complete, and astonishing as his cor
dial acceptance of the uttermost claims of
Rome; the prostration of all reason and
| judgment before the supposed supernatural
attributes Of the Papal throne. In one of
the finest passages of his own writings he
says: 'My love for England begins with the
EnglansApf ST. Bede. Saxon England, with
all its tumults, seems to me sanity and beau
tiful. Norman England have always loved
less, because, although majestic, it became
continually less Catholic, until the evil spirit
of the world broke off the light yoke of faith
at the so-called Reformation. Still 1 loved
the Christian England which survived, and
alf the lingering outlines of diocese and par
ishes, cathedrals, and churches, with the
names of saints upon them. 1t is this vision
of the past which still hovers over England
and makes it beautiful and full of the memo
ries of the kingdom of God. Nay, 1 loved
the parish church of my childhood and the
college chapel of my youth, and the little
church under green hillside where the
morning and evening prayers and the music
of the English Bible for seventeen years be-
came part of my soul. Nothing is more
beautiful in the natural order, and if there
were no eternal world 1 could have made it
my home" To Archbishop Manning the
time when saints walked the earth of England
is more OF reality than the day before yester-
day to most of us. Where the ordinary eve
sees only poor, ignorant Irish peasant,
Archbishop Manning discerns heaven-com-
missioned bearer of light and truth, destined
by the power of his unquestioning faith to re-
deem, perhaps, in the end, even English phi
losophers and statesmen. When it was said
in the praise of the murdered Archbishop of
Paris that he was disposed to regret the in
PRODUCTION of the dogma of infallibility, Arch
bishop Manning came eagerly to the rescue of
his friends memory, and as one would vindi-
cate person unjustly accused of crime, he
vin!dcated the dead Archbishop from the stig-
ma OF having for moment dared to have an
opinion OF his ownon such subject.
January Magazines.