Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-08-04
Is raIs AN AGE OF PERsECUrIoNe

Is THIS AN AGE OF PERsECUTIONP
A general and almost implicit belief pre-
walls that the ages of religious persecution
have passed away, never again to clog the
wheels Of modern progress. Yet many in
cidents are transpiring throughout the
world which go far TO prove that human
nature has changed but little, and that re-
ligious animosity is still one Of the fiercest
Of human passions. Most of as have wit
messed in eur own country Know-Noth-
ing ftrore, which, happily, vanished as sud
denly as it came. Two years ago the world
was shocked by the massacre of Tien-tsin,
though not surprised; for France, the regu-
lator Of the sHeathen Chinee,p was too
much occupied at home. Later on gross
and continued outrages upon the Rouma-
man Jews have disgraced this glorious nine
teenth century, not one of the "Great
Powers" stretching forth an effective hand
to protect the inofensive victims; and the
persecution has not indeed yet died out.
The struggle Of Victor Emmanuel with the
Pope seems more natural. 1t is an ire
pressible conflict, death struggle, which
must continue till one or the other
succumbs. 1t is not surprising that
our last mails announce The
appropriation" of thirty-fve converts,
schools and churches in the city of RNme.
The same work has been nearly finished
elsewhere throughout the Peninsula. 1t is
with the Italian government sort Of politi
cal necessity, and mayhap financial ne
eessity as well, in vie W of the low ebb of
Italian credit. But the christian archeo-
logist is none the less shocked to learn of
royal hounds kenneled in ancient temples
over the very catacombs of the martyrs.
Nor is the strict moralist likely to distin-
guish between these appropriations and the
Mexican spoliation of church treasures by
each successive revolution. The late Fran
cI-German war was regarded by many as
religious war; and, curiously enough, many
German Catholics, prelates, priests, and
people, saw the avenging arm of Provi-
dence in the disgrace of Napoleon who had
abandoned Plus TX; and honestly thought
that German soberness would be a vast i'm
provement over French fiiyolity in the
leadership of Europe. But the new EN-
pire seems bent on alternating this large
class of supporters. The edicts lately is
sued against few thousand Jesuits, seem,
at this distance, inexplicable on grounds of
State polity. What could there poor bach
eiors effect against the towering
German empire, whose laws place The
whole matter of education in
the hands of government after the
mode desired by our own Massachusetts,
Hoar? Yet the same process is going on
in Switzerland. Late advices announce
the expulsion of the Christian Brothers
from that traditional mountain home of
liberty, aud the ever gentle Sisters of Char
ity have not been spared. And only two
weeks ago, in England, that refuge of ages
from Continental oppression, Sir Robert
Peel rose in Parliament to inquire why an
obsolete law of 1929 prescribing the terrible
Jesuits, is not enforced. With these ex-
amples among leading nations, we are not
surprised that the "sick man" Turkey has
felt emboldened to exile the Armenian Pat |
riarch Hassoun, and seeks to impose on his
flock "schismatic' prelate. Hassoun re- |
fuses to be exiled except by brute force. |
The move betrays Russian influence at the |
Porte, and it may be no great while before |
the Car is possessed of the Suez Canal. |
But France and Austria are silenced now, |
the old man of the Vatican thun-
ders his communications against any |
Armenians who accept the 'schismatic. |
(This is the matter alluded to in a Roman |
telegram of last week, which corrupted the !
word "Armenian" into "American.') |
From a different quarter comes informl-
ton that Barrios, the latest revolutionary
master of Guatemala, is appropriating all
the church and school property, aud ex-
polling the monastic and teaching orders
His motive is plundar merely; or perhaps
he is urged by the military necessity Of
paying off his barbarous Indian soldiery
with the proceeds. A late steamer from
Panama landed at San Francisco half a hun
dred Franciscans and Dominicans. AID |
such likewise may be the result of the Eu
ropean policy. America may soon be the
only refuge left for perfect religious liberty,
and our country may in few years present
the strange juxtapositiOn of large and nu-
merous monastie communities spending
their lives in medieval silence, prayer and
in The midst Of the most utlita-
RAN people on earth.