The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1877-06-07
THE PoPES JUBILEE.

less and useful life.A The hftletn annr
versary Of the conservation Of Plus IL
to the espiscopate ia an event Of world
wide interest. Much more than halfof the
Christian church recognizes him as his
head. The great Byzantine and Angll'
can communions, though they deny his
papacy and his supremacy, recognize the
validity of his ordination, and see in the
Bishop of Rome the incumbent OF the
oldest and most illustrious of all the epls'
copates. And all Europe and all Amer
ica all of what is even in name Christen-
dom, must be affected by an occasion
which calls to their attention so Impress
ively the most ancient and august and
perhaps still the most potent Of existing
human institutions. .D
MANY of our readers will recall Mr.
Carlyle's sarcasm upon "the reforming
Pope," uttered when Cardinal Ferrettii
lust become Pope Plus, in the hush Of
his early enthusiasm set to work to make
so much of the Catholic church as could
be influenced by its head absolutely
worthy of its history and its preten-
sions. Already the young enthusiast
as it seems to us he must have been, was
man of ffy-four, and this was whole
generation ago. The papal reforms were
we'll under way before the revolutions Of
l849 rocked Europe. The events Of that
eyentful year might have persuaded al
most any man in the position OF Pope
Plus that the time was not ripe for Papal
reform, if they did not convince him that
the scenes which we're witnessed over az
continental Europe were but the out
come of the liberal and enfranchlsing
policy upon which he had entered
Whatever his motives may haye been he
did not afterwards appear as progress
i've Pope. The expulsion from Rome
was the end Of that episode in his career
1t is hard for this generation to imagine
the "prisoner of the Vatican" the hero
and Young ideal of Young Italy, as
during that episode he was; blessing the
standards of the Roman volunteers, and
looked up to by the enthusiastic youth
of the Peninsula as the leader be,
meath whose benediCtion Italy should
march upon the .detested "Tedesco" and
drive him forever back beyond the Alps
In those days Pope Plus was as popular
with Protestants and Radicals as he Is
now with Catholic and Conservatives
His portraits hung on the study walls o
New England ministers and in the work
shops of Partisan men of the blouse.
Between the return from Gaeta anC
the proclamation of the dogma of Infalli
bility century seems to have rollec
away, 30 crowded were the intervening
years with great events. The elevation
of an early Carbonaro to the imperia
throne of France; the war in the Crimes
striking down the military supremacy o
schismatic Russia over the European con
tinent; the expulsion of Austria and thu
substitution of France as the guardian o
the Papal throne; the triumph OF thu
Evangelical House of HoheDZollern owe
the Apostolic House of Hapsburg;--al
these political changes and Development
gradually threw the Church of Rom'
more and more completely back upon 1T
own reserves of spiritual authority ant
influence. And when in the early, sprlInt
of 1870 Pope Plus, surrounded by th'
august pomp Of a great Gcumenical Coun
Gil, reasserted for the Church its absolute
primacy and dominion over the spiritua
affairs Of the world, the contrast between
the Pope of Count Rossi and the Pope Q
Cardinal Antonelli was SO striking ant
impressive that it is hard to ind par
allel for it in the career of any one maj
in history. Since that time the preten
sions of the Papacy have been brough
into shape and actual conflict with thu
new principalities and the new pow
ers now dominant in the earth, Francs
has been driven, like Austria, from th'
Eternal City, and Italy, united from tn,
Alps to the Sea, has constituted herself
as she says, the guardian, but 40 the vat
ican maintains, the jailer, of the Church
The House Of Hohenzollern has won tn
crown of empire; and is ayenging Con
ossa upon the Hierarchy Of Germany
The trials and the duties laid upon thu
Head of the Roman Church since thu
day ofSedan would of themselves haV'
suficed to make a Papacy' memorable
and a Pope historical ~ ,tioIE o. n ~
But il 10 not ofthese things that mos
people will care 10 think on this day o
the Pope's iubileeg They will turn IRON
the prince to the priesty from the heaC
of a great ecclesiastiCal organization pass
ing through unparalleled. tempests! anS
confronting mighty social and poiItlca
pillows, to the gentle, humane and sin s!T
cere heart which has beaten, as steadll..
and with, as noble pulses on the thron
Of Peter as It did within the wall
of the modest seminary \ Of Iat
Giovanni or in the humble chapel Of th
mission among the Andes, Pope Plu 4,
TX. has so borne himself through az IN q
marvellous circumstances Of his lon
career-through all that he has attempt
ed. all that he has done and all that b
has suffefed-as to earn and to recely
the respect of all men. The notions whic
many worthy people cherish OF the fo9F
of Rome as the "man of sin, and OF hl
administration as the chief OF sbomli!Ins9
tions, grow ridiculous and contemptlDl
I'M the light which shines from the fac
of cine of the mildest, most benignar
and most beautiful of old men. Thout
ands of Protestants who cannot JOIN wit
Roman Catholics in the pledges Of allt
glance they renew to-day TO Pope Plu
will Join with them in rendering heart
human homage and honor to Masts
Ferretti. .--Neto York World, Sunday, Ju'
| I'd. I-otG ,a0l-Il cl}i93iIl