The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1897-04-24

from the revolt Of Henry WILL. or the
spirit of Puritanism fostered by Oliver
Cromwell. the nineteenth century will
never become enamored with Liberal
thought
The world had not known, since pa
gan emperors slaughtered Christian
victims in the Flavian amphitheater,
..to make a Roman holiday" what per-
secution for conscience sake meant,
and how religious tolerance might
make men mad, until after the revolt Of
Henry VIII. That licentious monster
was as cruel as he was lecherous, and
as INSCRIPTIONS a robber as he was a
merciless tyrant, "who never spared
man in his fury, nor woman in his
wrath" That period of the worlds
daughter, Elizabeth, declared the Pro-
testant church established by law in
the English realm, and closed with the
abolition Of the iniquitous penal laws in
1882, period of about $50 years, is the
most intolerant, the most bloody and
the most cruel known since the dawn
of Christian civilization.
This sanguinary period is especially
marked by the spirit Of intolerance that
came into existence with the revolt of
Henry VIII. The Puritans, led by that
monster of ferocious atrocity, Oliver
Cromwell, had learned their lesson Of
intolerance we'll from the cruel Tudors
and the degenerate stuarts. They cut
off the head of the treacherous Charles,
set up the "protectorate," and in the
name of God and an open Bible, bar
barously prosecuted all who dared to
exercise any liberty of thought and diff
fer from them. It was a favorite ex-
preston of Cromwell's, who butchered
helpless children and weeping women
at the sieges of Wexford and Drogheda,
that he was in favor of religious tolera-
tion, but II ty this anyone understood
the liberty of going to mass, "by the
horn Of Beelzebub he would find HIM
self nightly mistaken" This intoler-
ance of English Professionalism and of
English Puritanism was not an accident
did not simply follow the revolt of
Henry without having any special con-
nection with the same, but it is tracea-
BILE directly to the revolt of Henry
against the church he had sworn to pro-
tect and defend. That spirit of intol-
erance was exercised only when George
III. became alarmed at the strength OF
Grattan and the Volunteers, and the
gratitude of Catholics was sought by
giving them some relief from penal
legislation during our revolutionary
war. Catholic emancipation was not
granted until 1929.
In matter wholly unworthy OF
scholar and an honest teacher OF the
lessons Of oul: colonial history Prof.
Tiske passes over the pa,saaffGsl penal
epoch, during which the intolerant
spirit of the Puritan fought with re-
lentless fanaticism to suppress religious
fl eedom. Catholic refugees from the
le!igious intolerance that had sprung
from the revolt of Henry VIII. as it's
natural fruit, lifted up the inspiring
standard of religious liberty on the vir-
gin soil of America. They offered the
Puritan of New England and the perse-
cuted dissenter of Virginia a peaceful
home, and impartial enjoyment OF the
glorious sunlight of religious and civil
liberty, under the charter Of the Catho-
lie Lord Baltimore They were the only
friends of religious liberty in the new
world. This pregnant and exceptional
fact III the history of our country Prof.
Fiske seems to consider worthy Of only
passing allusfon. He refers to it simply
by stating that I'm Maryland an attempt
was made to take care of the Catholics"
The truth of the matter is that the Cath
olics of Maryland took excellent care of
the prosecuted Of every creed. In all the
other colonies, with the honorable ex-
ception of William PENIS. the spirit
of Henry's revolt prompted the Puri-
tans and their descendants to persecute
Catholics, to deny them their God-given
civil and religious rights. and later in
our history that same hostile spirit
uprooted the precious seed Of religious
from Maryland soil and plant
ed in it's stead the foul cookie of re-
ligious bigotry. Those who were ami
mated by the dastardly spirit of Henry's
rebellion against the church, stained the
annals of our early history by forget
ting and ignoring the truly Christian
spirit Of the Catholic colonists, and
made every effort that malice could
suggest to prescribe them and their re-
ngion.
As New England has become more
largely Catholic it has cast of it's Puri- |
tan fanaticism and become heartily
ashamed of the narrowness and intoler-
ance Of its early history. We need not
feel surprised that kind Of Puritan Or
thodoxy that impelled it to hate: tho
ancient faith has become dfstrustful Of
religious forms that deceived and dis
honored It.
No man who wishes lasting prosperity
and moral health to the nation can fail
to deplore the loss of earnest Christian
faith among the descendants Of the