Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1875-11-17
A GOLDEN AGE In THE CHURCH.
BY c. E. JONES.

Ages, and from some of those
epochs the world has reaped con-
siderable gain; 1t is my purpose to
write OF only one era brilliant as an
aurora, but, wherein the golden hue
of Church history contributed very
little to the mental or material
progress of contemporary human
ity. The career Of Bossuet serves
as the text for cursory review of
the ecclesiastical history of France,
during the reign Of the Grand Mon
argue Louis XIV. Richelieu and
Mazarin had been gathered to their
fathers, Colbert was shaping the
commercial policy of the Nation,
wealth poured into the Golfers of
the State, the people were compar-
atively prosperous, the country
yielded golden grain and other food
crops, enough for all mouths and to
spare, the cities resounded with
the hum of profitable industries, and
the splendor of the opulept in every
kingdom was largely due to the
wonder working looms Of La Belle
France. The civil wars of the
League and of the Fronde, had been
quelled, leaving at the disposal of
the king warlike people largely
inclined to pursue the phantom,
glory, across fields which treinb1ed
with the reverberations of annon
and the tramp Of armed men.
Bossuet owes his name to the indus
trial pursuits of his ancestors, Bos
Suefus Arat'o, their agricultural
avocations made them intimate with
the COX accustomed to the plow,"
and to that fact it was due in later
life, that the great priest was moi
advanced to the very highest rank
in the peerage, by his patron the
king. Napoleon wisely said, "Give
the tools to the Workman" ssopen
the course to the best men in every
rank" but the less enlightened king
and conqueror, his predecessor in
glory and defeat, dared not fully re-
cognize merit, unless it came en-
dorsed with the guerdon OF noble
birth. The difference between Ma
poleon and Louis could easily be
traced to the initial values of their
respective parcntagc and birth, the
one inheriting the purple from the
half imbecile son of Henri Quatre,
the other possessing an order of in
tellect such as the world seldom sees
excelled. But time presses, and that
line of thought would take us far
away from the church.
Dissent in France was slowly
growing under two heads, the Jam
senists hourished in a peculiar fash
ion at Port Royal, producing the
Arnaulds, Pascal, and other of va
rious note; the I1uguenots made
their chapel musical with such songs
as those which had provoked the
massacre of St. Bartholomew, and
they were protected by the Edict of
Nantes, which had been granted to
their forefathers by Henri of Ma
varre. Stimulated by such incentives
to exertion, the Catholic Church
in France brought its best intellects
to the front, and but for the spirit
OF intolerance which was developed
side by side with intellectual gran
deur, it might have been that the
excuses and crimes Of the aristoc-
racy in former generations, would
have been effaced without that ter
rible baptism Of blood, which was
seen towards the end Of the eigh-
teenth century. The church squan-
dered its opportunity. Such men,
tai power as adorned the pulpit
when Bossuet, Fenelon, Bourdaloue,
and Massillon, were heard in the sa-
cred edifces, should have. been pro-
ductive of good work for humanity,
but the time had gone by when Sec
ular advancement depended upon
the exertions of the hierarchy, and
the supreme excellence of the sew
eral preachers was almost fruitless.