The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1871-03-28

impoverished with wars, credit it as you
may to the better education of the people,
and you will realize the value of the ex-
ample old mother Groton has sent you,so
worthy Of your ambition to follow. Build
schools for your children and find talent
to teach them, them intelligence and in
tcgrity in prosperous and happy homes will
be your sure reward.
Associated as you have made me with
your veal and woe, wish l might be al
lowed to contribute from my MEANS such
as they are, something towards this first
foundation Of the public good.
Gentlemen, l have detained you too
long. Oppressed with the fear, that l
do not deserve the distinction you bestow
l pray God to make me worthier, and
to smile upon you with His perpetual
blessings.
THE FOUNDER OF THE INQUIsITIoN.
OF Dominic of Guzman we are told. upon
the unerring authority of infallibiity, that
his life was surrounded by cloud ofmir-
acles; that at the sound of his inspired
voice the dead arose and walked, the
sick were healed, the heretics converted
that often in his moments of ecstasy he
Aoated in the air before the eyes Of his
disciples that the fiercest flames refused
to consume the parchment upon which
were written his divine meditations and
that, in the midst of the carnage his eo-
quence excited, the saint ever remained
the gentlest and meekest of his race
Once, as Dominic stood in the midst of a
pious throng in the convent of st. Sextus,
conversing with the Cardinal Stephen,
messenger, bathed in tears, came in to an
nouncc that the Lord Napoleon, the ne
phcw of Stephen had been thrown from
his horse, and lay dead at the convent
gate. The cardinal, weighed down by
grief, fell weeping upou the breast of the
saint. Dominic, full of compassion, or
dered the body Of the young man to be
brought in, and prepared to exercise his
miraculous powers. He directed the altar
to be arranged for celebrating mass he
fell into sudden ecstasy ,and, as his hands
touched the sacred elements, he rose in
the air and hung, kneeling, in empty space
above the astonished worshippers, De.
scending, he made the sign of the cross
upon the dead he commanded the young
man to arise, and at once the Lord Ma
poleon sprang up alive and in perfect
health, in the presence of throng of
witnesses.
Such are the wonders gravely related
of Dominic, the founder Of the Inqusition;
yet, if we may trust the tradition, the
real achievements othis scared and cloud
ed intellect far excel in their magnificent
atrocity even the widest legends of the
saints. He invented or he enlarged that
grand machinery by which the conscience
Of mankind was held in bondage for GEN.
turies; whose relentless grasp was firmly
fastened upou the decaying races of South
ern Europe, the converts of Hindostan,
and the conquerors Of Mexico and Peru;
whose gloomy palaces and dungeons
sprang up in almost every Catholic city
of the South, and formed for ages the
chief bulwarks of the aggressive career
of Rome. The Holy Office, from the
time of Dominic, became the favorite in
strument for the propagation of the faith
it followed swiftly the path of the mis-
sionary, and was established wherever
the worship of Mary extended, whether
in Lima, Goa, or Japan it devoured
the Netherlands, silenced Italy or Spain,
F and its hallowed labors and its happy in-
Auences are still celebrated and lamented
by all those pious but diseased intellects
who advocate the use of force in creating
unity Of religious belief. Its memory is
still dear to every adherent of infallibli-
ty; nor can any one of that grave as
sembly of bishops who so lately sat in St.
Peters venture to avow, without danger
of heresy, that he doubts the divine or-
gin of the institutions of Dominic.
Nothing, indeed, can be more impress
sive than that tender regret with which
the Italian prelates lament over the fall
of the venerble tribunal. Modern civili-
zation has inflicted no deeper wound
modern governments have never more
grossly invaded the rights of the infalli-
BILE church. One of the means, the bish-
ops exclaim, which the Church employs
for the eternal safety of those who have
the good fortune to belong to her is the
Holy Inquisition it cuts off the hereto,
it preserves the faithful from the contag-
ion of error its charitable solicitude, its
exhortations and its teachings, its vener-
able procedure, its necessary and reme-
dial punishments, have won the admira-
, ton of generations of devoted Catholics.
1t has been hallowed by the approval of
, series of infallible popes it is conse-
Grated by the voice of Heaven. For
. time it may be suppressed by the action
of hostile governments, by the corrupt in
, fluence of modern civilization. But the
Church has never for moment abandon
, ed its most effective instrument and in
some happier hour, when the claims of
St. Peter are acknowledged in every land,
his infallible successor will establish anew
the charitable solicitude and the remedial
pains of the Holy Office in Europe and
America, and the civilized world shall
, sit once more, humbled and repentant,
at the feet Of Dominic and his holy in
|, quisitors. 'Dominic and the holy
f Inquisition," by Eugene Lawrence, in
Harpers Magazine for April.
: The organ Of the Paterson On, j.,
Democracy, in slightly disgusted mood
says it twill not support every loafer who
happens to get the nomination, but will
advocate only respectable, solid men,"
! In the town of Newbury, Mass, is a
: dwelling which was erected in 1852. 1t
is genuine curiosity, and is so heavily
timbered that it will stand 500 years,u
less pulled down. 1t was used for gar
rison in the time Of the Indian wars.
The stairs are made of blocks of oak TIM
ber, ten inches wide and ten inches thick.
What is quite remarkable as anything
about it is the fact that the dwelling is