National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1874-06-23

point of the moral law; and If human tribu-
nails cannot settle the matter In dispute the
decision Of the question appertains properly to
mat authority which 10 the guardian and e1-
FOUNDER Of the divine law.
This doctrine found a magnificent illustrs-
tion In those ages when
es& THE GENIUS OF CHRISTIANITY
exhibited its MASTERPIECES of civilization, and
wnen all the nations of Europe formed but
one Christian society, bound together by the
same moral Law, and recognizing its suprema-
cy over all temporal affairs. The ciYil and the
spiritual powers were not COMPOUNDED In those
tlmee; the separate sphere of each was dis
tinetly admitted; but it was universally admit
ted, also, that the divine law is prior to and
above all human law, and that when human
law Is adverse to the Law Of God or Of His
Church, 1t is the Office of the Vicar Of God to
sound the alarm aud to warn men Of their
crime and their folly. At the period alluded
to, in social quarrels, the Pontifs set as un-
pires, at one time between people and people,
at another between people and prince, and
again between prince and supreme ruler. II,
in this enlightened age, we witness 90 many
political and social commissions We cannot deny
that they are owing to lsmentable apostasy
from that true civilization which the Church
had introduced and which is the normal state
Oh bOClcLys ndLnOuS dI6 U IelcCL
the supreme law, which alone can maintain
them in o state Of order and peace, It is their
misfortune, for which they may
be compared to sea captains who launch their
vessels upon the mighty deep without q Com
pass, and, overtaken by the storm, they lose
all knowledge of their situation and are mo-
mentarily exposed to the horrors of fatal
shipwreck.
Plus TX has condemned not only the revolu-
tionary school, but also the Cesarisn school,
or Casarism. These two schools do not differ
essentially in principle, because they both as
sert total independence of the spiritual au-
thority, or the divine order. The revolution
aims at the overthrow Of lawful government;
cEsARIsM
assumes superiority over the Church. It not
only afirms, with Cavour, "a free Church in a
free State, p but it has the impudence to assert,
with Bismarck, "sn enslayed Church in q per-
scouting State.n According to the Cesarism
of the day, ell rights and Institutions of the
Church must give way before the pretended
progress of the age--a progress which no at
tentiye observer can qualify as anything else
than an increased denial of God, q contempt OF
dogmatical religion, the worship Of matter,
the reputation of justice, the loss of moral
dignity and honor-in word, progress which
is, in reality, q gradual retrocession towards
a barbaric age. -, -g....--- a.r..' -
The supreme Pentif, who now reigns so
gloriously over Christendom, has repeatedly
Illuminated bis anathemas against this degrad-
ing imitation of Pagan times In eonsistory
held on the 9th of June, 1862, he thus refers TO
this pestiferous doctrine of modern statesman
ship: "You all know that these men alto
gether repudiate that essential relation which
God has established between the two orde-s-
the one natural, the other supernstural-and
change and entirely reject the spirit and au-
thority of divine revelation, and the eonstitu-
ton and power Of the Church. And they
carry their temerity so far, that they do not
fear to deny all truth, all law, all power and
right, as of divine origin; for they have the
boldness to assert that all philosophical and
moral science and civil laws ought to be d.
vorced from divine revelation and the author
ity of the Church, and that the Church Is not
a true and perfect society, endowed with full
liberty, and possessing her specific and inalien-
able rights as conferred upon her by her divine
founder, but that il is the ~. 4- 3d..
OFFICE OF THE CIVIL POWER
to define what are the rights of the Church
and the limits within which these rights are to
be exercised Hence, they falsely pretend
that the civil power may interfere in those
things which appertain to religion, morals and
spiritual government, and may take measures
W pIcNcuL U ITcC DtLWCEh ClcIRy,
the faithful and the Roman Pontif, the diVinely
constituted head of the Church and this they
do for the purpose Of completely rupturing that
essential and intimate union which, by the
institution Of Christ himself, ought to exist be-
tween the members of his mystical body and
It's visible head"
Two years after he uttered these words in
he addressed an eEcyclical letter to
all the patriarchs and bishops of the Church
proclaiming jubilee, the object Of which was
to call the attention Of all Christendom to the
pestilential errors of the times, which threat
ened not only the Church, but the very exist
enee of civil society. "These false and per-
verse opinions" he says, fare the most detest-
able, as they aim chiefly at hindering and
banishing that salutary influences which the
Catholic Church, by the institution and COLL
mand of her divine author, ought freely 10
exercise, not only over individuals, but over
nations, peoples, and soyereigns and at
abolishing that mutual cooperation and agree
ment of counsels between the priesthood and
which has always been propitious
and conducive to the welfare both of Church
and State. For you know well, that at this
time there found not few, who, applying to
civil intercourse the impious and absurd prin-
ciples of what they call Nsturalisn, dare teach
that the best form of society, and the exigen-
cies of civil progress absolutely require human
society to be constituted and governed without
any regard whatever to religion, as If there
was no such thing as religion, or no distinction
between
TRUE AND FALSE RELIGIONS" g.
Such is the explicit and emphatic language
IN which Pins TX has condemned that perni-
cious and universal error Of modern res,
which not only asserts the independence 0. ne
secular upon the divine power, but even =
of the secular over the spiritual
power. This is nothing less than revival OF
the old Pagan despotlsm, which made the
king or. emperor, in virtue Of his temporal
headship, supreme pontif in religion. Such
is the deplorable state Of things
which We now behold throughout the
world, and makes Us tremble for religion and
society. In Spain, Italy, Germany, SwitzeT-
land, Austria-everywhere p the normal se-
ton Of the Church obstructed, her rights tram
pied under foot, her property eonfscated, her
clergy and faithful collaborators among the
religious orders imprisoned or sent into exile,
and even the Sovereign Pontiff of the Christian
world robbed and held prisoner in his own
palace, II disorders of this kind we're only
witnessed, we could view them
with less dismsy, as the passing eruptions OF 3
moral volcano, to be expected now and then
from the excitements and conflicts of human
Of the age in which we live that the whole so
cial body Is infected with that moral poison
which aims at the overthrow Of God Himself
in the world which he created, and which He
sustains by His almighty power. The cry Of
the Infatuated enemies of Christ Is again re-
viyed among men: 1--WE do not want this man
TO reign over u.s." We wish to be independ-
emit of God, of Christ, of the Church-as II
God had not created men TO serve Him-as II
Christ had not come upon earth to Undue man
kind with His principles, and to subject all
things to himself;' as if the Church YVES not
q divine institution, established, perpetuated
and ever-subsistiug, TO teach men and nations
the truth, and, In teaching them the truth, to
r a.. 2. -r MAKE THEM FREE. f i-'
We must hope and pray that the stupid
or political Atheism, which
holds European nations in continual state Of
agitation and oppression, may never gain the
ascendant in our beloved country. The Con-
stitution of the United States recognizes the
supremacy of the spiritual over the secular or
der, because IL denies to the Government the
right to interfere in religious matters. At the
same time, the Constitution has, with few ex-
ceptions, been carried out according to the
spirit of its founders; and so long as the Con-
stitution and It's original spirit are preserved,
the American people viii enjoy in peace
the signal blessings which an all bountifrl
Providence has conferred upon them. But II
cannot be denied that we have some grounds
for apprehension, and that there are mutter-
ings in the distance Of an approaching storm.
While there is a growing tendency to modify
the fundamental law, and even to invest It
with 3 sectarian character, there is an intrinsic