The Irish standard., 1901-06-15

In the year S26 Pope Eugcnius IL
tablislrd throughout the Catholic
world, at cathedral and parochinl
churches, and in such other places as
And the general council of l4atcran,
held under Pope Alexander Ill, in
ITO, dccrccd that
"Snce the church OF God, like II ten
der mother, is bound to provide for the
poor, both in these things that appcr-
tain to the body and in those which be-
long to the soul, lest the opportunity
should be wanting to those poor chill
dren who cannot be aided by their par,
cnts, let competent bcncice be founded
ill., every cathedral church and assigned
to a teacher whose duty it shall be to
teach the clerks and poor children of
the same church gratuitously. Let the
practice be restored in other churches
and monastcrics, il in time past any
thing was set apart for this purpose"
Such, says the Irish World, has been
tcachng Of Popes, councils and the
ologians from Eugenius to Leo KILL;
from the Third General Council Of
I.atcran to the Third plcnary Council
of Baltimore, and from st. Bonavcn-
ture to Cardinal Manning, who was
fond Of repeating not that Ignorance
but dogmatic knowledge is the moth
cr and nurse of devotion. Such are
and always have been the principles
of the church regarding education.
Now let us see what her practice has
been.
Having quoted Catholic authorities,
let us take Protestant witnesses. Hal
lam, in his "IntroductiOn to IIitcra
turc," says: "rhc praise of having
originally established schools belong to
some bishops and abbots of the sixth
century. They came in place of the
imperial schools ovcrthrown by the
barbarans. In the downfall OF that
temporal dominion spiritual aristoc-
racy was prOvidcntially raised up to
save from extinction the remains Of
| learning and religion itself. The cathc-
dral and convcntlal schools created or
restored by Clarlemagne became the
means Of preserving that small portion
of learning which continued to exist"
What Hallam says Of the past the
Scotch historian, Laing, says of the
present, in his "Notcs of Il Travclcr": /:
an Catholic Germany, in France,
Italy and even in Spain, the education
of the common people is at least as
generally diffuscd and as faithfully
promoted by the clerical body as in
| 'ocOlliIlu. IT, is Dy lIlclF OWL iuNiiICc
and not by keeping back the advance
Of the people that the Popish priest.
hood Of the present day seek to keep
ahead Of the intellectual progress Of
the community in Catholic lands. Edu-
cation is in reality not only not re
pressed, but it is encouraged by the
POnish church, and is mighty instru-
ment in it's hands and is ably used.
The Catholic clergy adroitly seize on
education and not as we supposed in
Protestant countries to keep the people
in darkness and Ignorance, and to in
culcatc error and superstition, but to
be at the head of the great social intlu-
encc of useful knowledge"
The Anglican Bishop Rylc, of Liver
pool, England speaks almost like II
Roman Pontiff regarding what the
Church of Rome has done for educa-
ton: "Whatevcr her faults might be,
they could not lay it to the charge Of
the Church of Rome that she neglected
her children, for wherever the Church
of Rome placed a church she always
took care to build school as well."-
Derry Journal, Young, p. 253.