The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1871-09-03
Those Fens and Morasses.

L
be much exercised on the subject Of the !
wilds and wastes, the bogs and Sens re.
claimed from state Of savage unproduc- |
tiveness by monks OF the earlier ages. |
eve should like to know" it says,
"where some Of them are" We, on our
part, cannot undertake in these columns,
the role Of professor Of history to the en-
ployees Of our neigtbor. We will simply
tell them in general terms that they are to
be found in every country or Subdivision
Of ireland, Scotland, England, Wales,
Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Prussia, Aus
tria, Bavaria and other German States, as
also in many parts Of France, Spain, Italy
and other countries pretty thoroughly re-
claimed before the empire Of Christianity
became established. We refer them for
these facts to any history of the Monastlc
Orders and, in fact, any respectable history,
Catholic or heretical, of modern Europe.
It is simply impossible to 60 amiss for
information on this point, if our neighbor
will make it's folks read at all. As we'll,
might we be called on to cite the Universe
ties that were founded, the Cathedrals that
were built, the masterpieces of painting and
sculpture, the triumphs in music and poe
try, tho wonderful inventions in art, that
characterized and fructified the labors Of
monks and churchmen, as to particularize
the "fens and morasses" reclaimed. La
our neighbor ignorant of the immenee
results achieved in Architecture under the
influence of the Church that it should 30
easily doubt of its triumphs in the field of
Agriculture Ia it ignorant also of the vast
improvement made in manufacturing paper
aud of the invention of printing by which
IL new era in literature was inaugurated
of ~ syention of the compass by which
mob u0Fid was discovered and commerce
receives new. life of the invention of
gunpowder and its application to arms,
whereby the horrors of war were 80 greatly
modified. If the fostering care of the
Church wrought revolution In commerce,
navigation, war, man ufacture, architecture,
literature, education, music, painting,
sculpture, in fact everything that consti-
tutes true civilization and If most of this
was done by the immediate agency Of
priests and monks, why Re wonder-struck
| that in the meantime they were retaining
| "fsns and morasses" to the sway of agri-
culture and Transforming them into smiling
provincess
We had thought it known to everybody
that the monks were the founders of true
agriculture, that they came like angel mes
gengers among the miserable, squalid
peasantry of half barbarous regions, taught
them to be thrifty and provident, gave
gratuitously to their children the rudi
ments of education, introduced ideas OF
comfort and habits of decency, stood be-
tween them and the tyranny of feudal
masters and in times Of scarcity threw open
the doors of their monasteries to the all in
the community who might be in want OF
aid. In those days there were no poor IN
the modern sense and certainly no poor
houses. 1t was under such state of thugs
that England acquired the title, which she
has long since forfeited, of Merrie England
Well, the reformation came; Luther
burned the bull of accommodation ant
the books of Canon law he told the Ger
man princes that all the wealth of thu
0 Church was lawfully theirs. They, beinl
9 robbers by trade, naturally found grea
p deal of grace in the new doctrine; the,
o were converted in great numbers, and tn
"fens and morasses went up rapidly
Calvin taught the same doctrine, wit
variations on lesser points, and Switzer
I " land, Holland, England and other countrie
~ adopted his system of rapine and religion
m m The cody men of the new Church did ne
hesitate to appropriate private property I
hs their neighbors to their own personal use an
on behoof, simply because it belonged to r.
ed ligious orders or ecclesiastical bodies. The
TO- have precisely the same right to do it no
,p' that they had then. If a new zuinglius
he Calvin should come now and counsel ii
to authorities to confiscate the property of Il
ere Redemptorist Fathers, in the Fourth ID
trict, ON which they have expended thr
ire. re- millions of dollars, or to seize the Arc
bishops residence and all the Catho
}. schools, churches and convents in Il
are city, and divide the spOils among the 81