The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1888-02-26
TUE JEsUITs.
A Letter by Bishop Coke to the 1t. Rev. DIR.
Chatard. r. G. Bishop of Vincennes.

Rt Reverend Sir-For q twelve month"; or
more. the press in divers parts of the country
has been padded with puffs of the Jesuits and
with misrepresentation OF matter in which
they were concerned with me- Having once
and for all exposed them in their subterfuges
felt to be needed in the way of cor
rection from my pen Their name is legion
They can employ hundred pens against any
one, at any moment Our journalism, on politi-
cal motives, is generally ready to do them
service, and they are restrained by none
of those rules by which other Christians are
ordinarily governed They deny anything;
affirm anything; or do anything sfor the greater
glory Of" their society. Such is their charac-
ter as accepted by the civilized world. As they
will ALWAYS .bave the last word" have, there
fore, not cared to take notice OF their anony-
nous or ambiguously certified assaults. The
case is very different when a respecta bic Roman
Catholic preIate lends his responsible name as
their champion, ana undertakes to inform the
public of the nature of my opposition to the
court of Rome, three-and-thlrty years ago. In
Baltimore
am sorry that whose name and antece-
dents connect him with Frenchmen and whose
family maintains o credtable position in the
city OF the Gallican primate Eccleston and the
liberal minded Judge fancy, should expose him
self as an Ultramontanist and defender of the
JesuIts 1t is lost opportunity. Yoar posi-
ton entitled you TO be the emancipation of your
own DIR. Brownsou. that of foreign col.
ony," aliens the Republic; a people inferior to
Americans in education and culture; without
my sympathy with our history or our ineradica-
bic ideae; enemies to our schools living. in short,
outside Of American life and in bondage to a
foreign potentate. This portrait of the greater
number of Roman Catholics in America is not
mine, but that of your lay champion who
has any place in American literature;
one to whom your prelates have paid the
tribute OF exaggerated praise. Why have you
not come forward, at this crisis, to take up his
testimony and imitate st. Louis and Bossuet by
asserting Ihe liberties" of your peopleE IL IS
a great opportunity forfeited. unless you re
trace your steps and demand of the court of
Rome, in the name of Clement XIV, and by the
early example of Plus TX, to suppress the society
of Jesuits in the United States of American
Depend upon it. thorough Reputation of ''ul-
tramonfanismp will be enforced by the national
spirit in thunder tones, unless you adopt this
American policy. / have. never shown myself
an enemy of such Roman Catholics have
been known and felt for centuries in the history
of France. have had among such,
in eminent instances, both friends
and correspondents / differ with them
theologically. but l have always asserted that
"Gallicans" have been and may be faithful
American citizens, good neighbors and worthy
magistrates. But Ultramont anists. you know
very well, what DIR BrowDson calls for
eign colony" 1t is hard to tolerate the in toer-
ant, but we can be patient so long as they are
modest When they insult us by sending a
foreign prince" to NEEDLE with our domestic
questions and to make bargains with corrupt
politicians when they import into our cities in
swarms the "black -frocked militia of the Roman
court" expelled from Roman Catholic countries
for inveterate crime against humanity and NOR
ais" and when they even menace us with a
university in our metropolis. where youth
may be corrupted by catechlsms that predict the
eternal damnatou of the most exemplary and
benefcent and by far the most numerous of
American Christians, simply because they re-
jecr the Paparchy; / say, when it comes to this,
it is time for Ultramontanists to 'set their
house in order" am sorry that at such a
crisis You come forward as champion of the
Jesuts. Shall we never see among us a Roman
Catholic preate who dares to show his people
how to be Americansl Have six centuries of
French history, since st. Louis established the
French liberties, taught you nothings Do you
pretend to assert that what Plus VII conceded
no be rights of the French republic in 1901 is
too much for your people to demand as citizens
of this Republica Let me remind you that
they have begun to demand it, and will do
and Let me quote the
wholesome language of resolution
Gently passed in New York, with vociferous en-
thusiasm by thousands of your people. Thus it
reads:
Resolved That as citizens and in the domain of
politics, render neither allegiance obedience
TO authority but the Constitution and the laws
If you favor me with any reply, please note
this resolution. / shall await preliminary to
anything you are entitled to say TO Americans.
your brethren in the Roman Catholic prelacy
accept this resolution in all the length aud
breadth Of it's reference to the Constitution and
where Won stand. The Pope's acceptance Of the
PRESIDENTS jubilee offering is, then, reduced to
a pretense and to hypocrisy. IL ''Aye"-then.
welcome to our good will and to the brother
ihood of Americans You are no longer for
eign colony" DIR. Brownson has triumphed. and
'Galicanism has avenged itself by it's revival
On free America. We shall argue with you, per-
baps. in friendly difference as to what is truly
Catholic" but we shall love You neighbors
and as Christians. and maintain your rights
jealousy as we protect and defend our own.
And now it is time to defend myself against
your gratuitous assaults upon myself ] call 1T
gratuitous because. with one exception the Jo-
suits had said all you bring forth more than a
year ago. / say with one exception;" for as an
Old Baltimorean you undertake to enlighten the
public as to the history of my opposition to
ultramontaism in Baltimore. You certainly |
exemplify the maxim upon which you gloze. in |
the means you employ to gain your end For, |
you say. Some thirty three years ago he was |
rector of Grace Church, Baltimore. and gratifed |
his feeling of hostility TO the Catholic Church |
by violent attack on the recently defined doc |
trine of the immaculate conception" Here |
you lead your readers TO infer that my attack |
shat fiction chiefly characterized by ''vio- |
lence;" utterance of mere malignity. Why |
did you not mention that it consisted
violence was borrowed almost ex- |
clusively from ST Bernard's searching testi- |
mony against the dogmai Why did you
not tell them that the sermon was followed up |
by patient labor to inform the Batimoreans |
what Roman Catholics had said on that subject |
why did you not mention that my chiefest vio-
lence consisted in translating and editing work |
of the Able Laoorde on the 'impossibility" of |
making a dogma out of a fable OF which St
Bernard testified that antiquity knew nothing
which he pronounced il superstition and temeri- |
ty TO accept against the witness of the church |
Itself in all ages down to his ownl
Then again you insinuate what you will not
venture TO affirm-that my information about
Jesuitlsm comes from the encyclopedias You
say that l referred my Jesuit ASSISTANTS to the
Encyclopadia Britannica" So l did, because
they professed Ignorance of their authors.
and challenged me TO cite instance of |
a Jesuit writer who had taught that ''the
end justifes the means" Until 1 received
this challenge. had never read the article in
the encyclopaedia, nor did / know of It's exist
ence | turned TO il. however taking it for
granted that such article must include some !
reference to the Fundamental law of Jesuit |
Instead of one citation found three;
TWO of them old saws, thoroughly illustrated by
Innumerable instances in the history of Loyolais
foilowerst The third was not less to the point