The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-11-12
The Four Hundredth Anniversary of His
Birth Celebrated in Every Spot Where
Christianity Is Known.
Ceremonies Incident to dwelling the
Statue at Eisleben,
The Historic Church in Which Luther
Preached-A Monster Celebration at
Berlin-The Day Elsewhere.
FROM a CATHOLIC POINT.
Utterances of Monsignor Capel as to the
Church and the Reformer.

Utterances of Monsignor CapeI as to the
Church and the Reformer.
CINCINNATI, Nov. 11.-Monsignor Capel, who
arrived yesterday, is the guest of Archbish-
op-elect Elder at the Cathedral residence
though the latter was compelled to be at
Chillicothe to fill a previous engagement
The Monsignor to-day treated in two dis
courses in the Cathedral, which supple
mented each other, of Luther from a Catho-
lie stand point. In morning sermon the
preacher showed that the church was an or
ganized body, corporation both human and
divine; human inasmuch as it is made up of
teachers in hierarchical order, and divine be-
cause inhabited by the Holy Spirit. This
human-diyine creature, born or Pentecost
Sunday, grew according to the law of its ex-
istence increasing but not creating every
organ, just as is done by the human frame
in assimilating food. Therefore, argued the
Monsignor, the church in the
fifteenth century was a babe
born on Pentecost, but now grown to man
hood. In the next place, it was urged that
the church is sacred in its origin, in its OBJ
rior life with Christ and the Holy Ghost,
and, lastly, in its producing saints. And
then it was conceded to be a church at all
I times, and consequently in the sixteenth
century had this holiness. The Monsgnor
said tAe DEGREES of the Council of Trent bore
too painful testimony to the corruption ex-
| isting among the clergy and the people, but
fha trnt ba
holiness of the church-no more than the
conduct Of Judas would prove the apostolic
college corrupt, or our own evil deeds the
falsity of the commandments or the crimes
narrated in the daily press show that the
American constitution teaches wrong-doing
To show that the church was more vigorous
than ever at the time of the reformation
the Monsignor appealed to the imitation
of Christ the spiritual combat the
works of st. Theresa, Louis, of Granada. and
| others Immediately before or during the
period, as literary evidence; to the labors of
| St Francis Xavier in the old world, and of
ST. Louis Bertrand in the new, as missionary
| evidence; to the several priestly orders of the
| church, to the founders of the pious schools
to the works of ST. Jerome, Aurelian, and
others, as evidence of creative power; to
Saints Ignatius, Aloysius Stanislaus, Kostka,
| Theresa, Caietan, Philip Novi, and dozen
Others as evidence of the churchs power
| to make heroes of holiness at the very time
its enemies would fain make believe she was
| corrupt.
In the evening the Monsignor continued
the subject, first dsclaiming intention to of
| fend anyone by what he should saw of Luther
as reformer He said if he were in London
to-day, and would ask what was the state of
intelligence in Europe when Luther
lived, ninety-nine out of one hundred would
say it was state OF gross darkness, and would
add that Luther's spark kindled the whole
world into blaze of light. He would show
that nothing was further from the truth
than this modern view of Luther's period
and of his influence He asserted that to
Catholicism, and not to Professionalism, was
the world indebted for the light that fol-
lowed the fifteenth century. Printing and
paper, those powerful agents in the diffusion
of knowledge, were invented before Luther
was born. The discovery of this new world
was the result of the energy, learning and lib
erality of Catholic Spain. At that time sixty
four universities of learning existed all over
Europe The church. architecture and art
of that time were cited as evidence that the
Catholic Church was not the suppressor of
learning. The existence of republics
with prosperous commerce under Catho-
lie auspices gave the lie to the charge
that the Catholic Church was the
enemy of energy, learning and liberty.
Without speaking in any detail of the life of
LuJneF, he WOulu IDenLlOn one or TWO points
that were sufficient to deprive him of the
title of Reformer. When he was
twenty years of age he took the
solemn VOWS of the Catholic Church
This was a voluntary act but q
most solemn obligation; yet he voluntarily
broke his VOWS. This was not the mark of
saint. Another fact cited with reluctance
was that he wrote letters, and left them to
the world of such coarse sensuousness that
any pure man would suffer his right hand to
be cut off rather than write them. Reform
ers are not made of such material. The
Monsignor said Luther's heresy was special
in that it was a revolt against the principal
authority and an assertion of the right of
private Judgment instead; yet, with singular
inconsistency, he undertook to say
what should be the private judg-
ment of all his followers. Looking
to the fruits of Luther's teaching, the Mon
signor said: GA recent publication says there
are 236 divisions of the Protestant religion
in England alone; on the contrary, the Cath
olc Church remains the same everywhere
tends to destruction, not to building up. 1t
tends to rationalism and agnosticism. Com
munism, another OF its legitimate fruits, was
not known in the middle ages. Revolt
against the principal authority leads to all
this No nation has ever been converted to
Christianity by Luther's followers. 1t would
be impossible when his rule of private judg-
ment was to govern" Passing to the popu-
lar idea that Luther gave the Bible to the