The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1893-01-05
THE BEST DAYS OF PAPAL IN
ELUENEE.

The pope of Rome is today without tenn
| poral power, and yet We believe never in
the past was the pope the representative
of greater spiritual power. See what a
vast impulse to liberation of spirit on the
vexed and vexing subjects of public and
| parochial schools has been given by the
recent papai utterance and interference in
this matter. II has been the unfortunate
| habit OF bigots on both sides to consider
| every discussion Of the question Of the
| public vs. the parochial schools as red
rag shaken In face of the papal bull,
| and its method OF discussion has
| generally included a stupid denial Of
events, which are as authentic as
| the battle of Bunker Hill or Gettys-
| burg The Rev. Joseph Cook and
the Rev. DR.. Fulton have never been con-
tent with reciting the true history of the
Reformation: It's true provocation; its
| far-resching and benefcent consequences
| in enlarging the domain Of popular lib
| erty. which Luther did not intend, for
while he believed in free Bible. he had
| no sym patty with free state. These men
| have not been content with fairly stating
| the medieval attitude of the Church of
| Rome toward the advancement of science,
religious liberation, spiritual and religious
freedom. On tho other hand certain
Catholic bigots have made altogether too
much noise over the use of school books
that are compelled to recite the medieval
cruelty and iliberality of The Catholic
church, just as they are compelled to re-
cite the disgraceful and inhuman medise-
val performances of Protestant bigots.
To represent the Catholic church of
cruel policy of the middle ages that forced
the Reformation would be as unjust as it
would be to hold the English Protestants
responsible for the frighttul cruelty and
bigotry of Elizabeth; of Archbishop Laud.
or the iconoclastic barbarism of the Crom-
wellians, or the frightful persecution of
Catholics and Quakers by the New Eng
land Puritans. The facts of history must
be recited fearlessly in public school books
without favor to either the Protestant or
Catholic church of the past.
1t is true that since temporal power has
departed from the pope his spiritual power
has increased in its widespread influence
for good. The time was when constitu-
tional liberty had no chance to spread its
wings in France or Italy, for when the
pope had temporal power and influence he
naturally sympathized with hi. fellow SOW
ereigns and their aristocratic or monarch
ical ideas of government, but when the
pope became purely spiritual sovereign,
he lent a more favorable ear to the voices
pleading the cause of popular govern
| ment. As temporal sovereign
Plus the Ninth had no sympathy
whatever with the republican uprising of
France, Germany and Hungary in 1S4S,
but today Leo, spiritual sovereign, sides
with the republic in France, and his most
trusted advisers in America are the most
| patriotic, radical Americans in the ranks
| of his clergy. In France and the United
States the present pope is the warm friend
of republican institutions, and treats the
relations between the state schools and the
church schools in spirit of liberation and
practical wisdom that is worthy of all
| praise.
1t was once true that science was
smothered by the Catholic church when
its advancement was welcomed in Protest
| ant Europe, but that is true no longer, so
| far as the Vatican is concerned. and it is
utterly unfair and intoierant for men of
| the Rev. J. ID. Fulton type to forget that
| the progress of the world has been so rapid
| within the last one hundred and fifty
| years that science is no longer gagged and
| free speech flung into letters and forced
| into exile by the Catholic church as they
| once were in the medieval days of Copper
| nicus, Calico, Bruno and Rabelais.
| Science and free speech have as large an au-
dience and as complete immunity from
| persecution today in Catholic countries as
| in Protestant, and this situation has
| greatly improved since the temporal con-
| sequence and influence of the pope were
| broken and ne became q political cipher.
| but nevertheless remained n spiritual
sovereign Of increased and increasing
| magnitude.
| Look at science in Italy and France since
| political and social revolution broke the
F! grin of the aristocracy on the neck OF the
| people. The genius of France and Italy,
80 long as it limited its expression to art
| and pure literature, was tolerated by the
| court. but the mOmentit turned its search
| ing eye on science, or political or social
freedom and began to plead for the right
| Of free inquiry, for the lega; reform of
| everything that trampled under foot the
| primitive. natural and equal rights of man
| then genius went into exile with Voltaire
| and Rousseau. Science in Italy sprang
into new and better life when Napoleon as
first consul conquered its petty tyrants
| and honored its scientists as they had
! never been honOred before.
But in those days if the pope was no.
| with the people twas because his position
as a representative of temporal power
| forced him into sympathy with the sove--
| eigns rather than with their subjects. To-
| day il Is but fair 20 admit that the pope.
| robbed OF oil temporal power. has risen 10
the far higher position of q grea, spiritual
| sovereign. who sides with the republic in
| France and pleads for liberation and hber-
| atty in the adjustment OF the relations Of
the church with the public schools in the
| United States. Under these circumstances
| IL is but fair 10 treat the church and its
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