The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1896-01-28
The City of Rome and Adjacent
Territory Are Alone in
Dispute.
a SERIES OF LECTURES.
They Will Deal With Church His.
tory and Have No Connection
With the Controversy.

The first of the series of Midwinter lee
lures under the auspices of the San Fran
cisco Educational Union was held at
Metropolitan Hall last night.
Very Rev. Father Prendergast, Vicar
General, was the speaker of the evening.
His subject was 1.-The Temporal Power of
the Pope" He said that the idea had
gone out that the meetings had been in
spired by the controversy. That was not
true. The idea of organizing q Pacific
school on lines similar to the Eastern
summer school and the New Orleans
winter school was decided on months ago.
Indeed, so far as we are concerned"
said the speaker, sit Is unnecessary. for
the reading circles to come to the support
of our side of the controversy.
The lectures will be educational in their
nature. If you came here for the purpose
of hearing popular and eloquent addresses
you have made a mistake, but if you have
come to learn something of the history of
your religion and the reasons for your
faith then you may not be disappointed"
Father Prendergast explained that he
intended to defend the claims of the Popes
to temporal power. He said that the sub
lect was evidently an unlnteresting one to
the American mind since I'VE in America
have fixed ideas on the absolute segrega-
ton of church and state. But Leo XIII,
man of vast wisdom, had not acquiesced
IN the loss OF his temporal right to govern
the strips OF territory in Italy, including
the city of Rome, to which the church
long held claim"
Father Prendergast spoke substantially
as follows:
BY the temporal power of the Pope may be
understood not only the civil sovereignty OF
M Dom IN lgfa c1e H.
that eminent sovereignty claimed by many OF
the medieval Popes over emperors and kings.
Some persons seem TO eonfound the two pow,
ers, or, at least, TO consider them so closely
linked that the subversion OF the one in 1870
meant the defnitive extinction of the other.
But there is no necessary connection or inter-
dependence OF the two powers. When the Pope
interviewed in the political affairs of nations in
certain great emergencies, he interviewed, not
in his character of King of Rome, but in his
character as supreme chief of Christendom,
the interpreter and executor OF the higher law
In effect, with one or two transient Interrupt
tlons, the Pope had never been so completely
King as he was from 1870 to 1870; yet during
those three hundred years there was no inter
vention or his part in the political affairs of
nations. On the other hand, the first recorded
intervention OF the kind antedated the posses
sion and recognition of the temporal soy
ereignty. The two powers, then, are different
repose on different bases and have existed for
different purposes. One power had for its end
TO guarantee the official liberty of the Pope as
supreme head OF the church; the other to
check the absolutism of kings and subject
even them TO laW-the Pope thus discharging O.
function in medieval times analogous TO the
function OF the constitution in the modern
state.
Now, as the two subjects are distinct, and as
each opens upon us wide field for historical
study and demands much time for its ADEQUATE
treatment, confine myself this evening to the
subject of the TEN poral power-or, better the
civil sovereignty-of the Pope in the ecclesias-
teal states. 1t is not subject to stir I'D en-
thuslasm at the present day, and the discus
sion of it, as necessarily in a large degree his
torical, must be unavoidably tame. Withal it
is not dead subject.
On the contrary, it is living and important
and of general interest. For the temporal
power IS not matter personal to the Pope.
On the cOntrary, it has, we shall see, q vital
bearing on his high prerogatives as head of the
chureh, on the sacred rights OF souls, on the
cherished aspirations OF Christian people, and,
strange to say, on the first principle OF political
science IN our day-the separation of church
and state.
In the first year of our era, the year one.
when Augustus reigned in glory over the
mighty empire of Rome, little boy was play
ing with other boys of his own age on the
sands OF the Sea of Galilee or on his fathers
boat mOored near the shore. He was the son
OF humble fisherman and his name was
simon This boy was without friends, without
influence, without wealth, almost without even
q rudlmentary education. He was child of
an obscure family in an obscure province, and
the future that awaited him was to live like his
Iatner on the water How wonderful are the
ways OF the Almighty That little boy was
destined in the divine mini to build a throne
near the throne OF Augustus; TO be the first in
a line OF world-rulers, stretching unbroken
from the day OF redemption to the day of doom !;
10 establish spiritual yet visible empire wide
as the world and enduring as time.
In the fifteenth year of the reign of the En-
peror Ifberius, successor of Augustus, when
the little boy had become man, a person who
had come down 10 the earth from his home of
light in the far-of worlds passed one day by
the lake and said to Simon: "Come and fol
low me and will make thee fisher of men.
And Simon left all things and followed him
de had been with him for year or two when
this marvellous scene occurred: "And Jesus
came into the quarters OF Ceserea Philippi and
he asked his disciples, saying Whom do men
say that the Son OF Man is? But they said :
Some John the Baptist, and others some Elias
and others JeTemies or one OF the prophets
Jesus saith TO them, But whom do you say that
1 amf simon Peter answered and said, Thou
art Christ, the son OF the living God And
Jesus answering, said to him, Blessed art
thou, Simon Bariona, because flesh and blood
who is In heaven. And say TO thee that thou
art Peter, and upon this rock will build nv
church, and the gates OF hell shall not prevail
against II. And VIII give TO thee the KEYS OF
the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever thou
shalt bind on earth shall be bound also in
heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on
earth 1t shall be looSed also in heaven -
(Matthew XVII Jesus died and rose from
the dead, and gave his apostles their commits
sion 10 teach all nations.
Now, where should the priest abide if not in
the midst of his flock? And where should a
bishop dwell If not in the chief city of his d.
ocese? And where should Peter the pastor OF
The entire fold, and that fold the world estab-
lish his primatial see if not in the capital of
the world-in Rome? Accordingly when he
had tarried long enough in Jerusalem and An
tioch to organize the Church of Christ in East
ern lands, he turned his eyes to the West, and,
alone or with only one or two companions and
without any outward sign of his more than i'm
perial rank, about the fortieth year of the
Christian era, Peter, a wayworn stranger en-
tered the gates of the Eternal City. Thus there
were two high priests in Rome: Claudius the
Emperor, was the high priest of paganism
(high priest was one of the Emperor titlesl
and Peter as Christ's vicar and in Chrlst's
place, the high priest of Christianity
The inevitable war soon began. Peter was
crucified by Nero and about thirty of Peters
successors were slain by the successors of
Nero. Emulating the example Of their divine
master those first Popes gave up their lives for
the salvation of man and put on the martyrs
robe.
During the long period of the prosecutions,
that is, for about $50 years, the Popes, need
less TO say, possessed no temporal power
With the conversion of Constantine in the
wear 1913 q new era dawned on the church
In particular, and as matter germane to our
subject, the Christian Emperors clothed the
bishops with considerable civil Jurisdiction
for the reason that they, and they only, were
found to possess the moral and mental qualifi-
cations for administering justice and otherwise