Morning journal and courier., 1881-08-03
The Seholar-POpe.

Incidents of Lees School Days and
 Points in His Policy.
 [renviile- Murray the Geneva Continental Timesl
 Leo XIII. is a crowned scholar. From a child he took kindly to his book and the leguits turned him into one of the first Lat inists of the age The one result was pretty certain to follow from the other, as the key to the educational success of the Jesuits IS to be found in their principle of first ascertain ing a pupils aptitudes and then cultivating them to the best of their power. Joachim Pecci's youth was series of academlcal trl umphs, each of which signalized the addition of a fresh province of learning to his intel lectuaI dominions. Classics were first mas tered, then mathematics, next physics, and afterward moral philosophy, in which he gave instruction at the age of 19. Perhaps he might have remained a scholar and nothing more but in the third decade of his life he fell under the infiuence-one would say rose to the inhuence-of the famous Cardinal Odes- calchi, man who, in another age, might have replayed the great part of Ignatius Loy- ola. Odescalchi it was who renounced the purple to enter the Order of Jesus and who gave innumerable other proofs of Christian humility and devotion to his Masters cause. Among the services he rendered to the Church of Rome not the least was the conversion ot Pecci, as one may call it, in the true sense of the word. He turned his mind to serious
  the happiness of admitting him to holy or ders Pecci was then 27 and already lay prelate in the house of Gregory XVI.
 Like every Pope since the Reformation, Leo KILL is a thoroughly good man. Still. if one may venture to compare hls moral standard with that of his immediate predeces- sor. one would be inclined to state the differ ence between them as consisting in the fact that Leo has more of the wisdom of the serpent, while Plus had more the innocence of the dove Plus kept child-li heart and faith to the last, and the Bishop of Perug1a who knew the world and showed it, rose but slowly into his sovereign's confidence. lie re- ceiyed the red hat in 1853, but was not ap- pointed Camerlengo till 24 years later. The ,dsys of Plus were already numbered, and he must have known that in thus singling out Pecci for distinction he was almost deslgnat- ing him as desirable successor. The court lv and accomplished Cardinal had at length won his way to the Pontiffs cordial esteem Pius too, may have suspected that he had set too little store by the wisdom of this world and that humanly speaking, no small snare of it would be necessary to the man who was next to steer the bark of St. Peter through the troubled waters.
 Leo XIII, has now reigned more than three years, and the broad lines of his policy are sufficiently defined His attitude towaro the governments of Europe is the wlsest, II it be not the only possible one, he could have adopted He stands on the de- fensive and bides his time. Two points Tn the purely spiritual policy of Leo XIII de serve notice. The second of the Pope, ofh- cially recognized as infallible, he has not, any more than the first, made the slightest use of the extraordinary powers vested by the last General Council in the Holy See. He has defined no disputed doctrine. In truth, the Council which proclaimed the Pope infallible when speakingeo co cGthedrG has necessarily made the Pope extremely cautious of giving expression to co cdthedTG utter ances Absolute power has often been re- marked to exercise 8 sobering influence on lts possessor Even so, authority to decide the most solemn questions without appeal IS one which man who is at once an Italian and 2 priest. a scholar and dipfomatist, will not be likely to abuse. This is the negative re- suit of Leo's reign the positive is the new impulse he has given to the study of thf works of St. Thomas Aquinas. When one remembers that the Angelic Doctor was the favorite of Maurics-unquestiona the largest. minded of Protestant theologians- one cannot help deriving 8 better hope foI the future of the Universal church from thii circumstance And, whatever opinion WI may have of the schoolmen, it is surely aI excellent sign of tho times when the chic Pastor of Christendom seeks to combat un belief, not as of old, with the tempora sword, but simply by the study of what h. holds to be the soundest philosophy. The present generation may or may not ac cept the conclusions of St. Thomas; it vii certainly gain by studying, if only with view to refute him.