The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1908-04-11

O'Donovan S. I. L.; preceded by preface by His
Eminence James Cardinal Gibbons. Archbishop OF
Baltimore. From the publishing house of Benziger
Brothers, New York and Chicago Price 81
We very much regret that when Father O'Dono-
van gave us what Cardinal Gibbons terms % rare.
royal Catholic book" he did not furnish for the
reading public Introductory chapter on the So
cial, moral and religious state of England immed
! ately preceding the so-called Reformation That
Henry VIII entered the controversial tournaman,
against Luther and endorsed him does not CON
Germ US very much today. Tertullian Donger De
'Amenais and many other learned men did Tie
same in their day and died warnc against the
Church, We believe that at the time the English
monarch wrote his thesis against Luther he was at
heart a blackguard. 1t is contrary to the expert
ence OF human nature that any man descends in IA
short time from the heights OF morality and de-
cency to the depths of brutality and lust memo
repente fuit turpissimus' no man becomes all at
once scoundrel-writes the heather poet. and We
are inclined to agree with him.
No one man. even though tvraDnicaI auto
crat could swing an entire kingdom with its people
into the rankes form of heresy. unless beneath the
surface there were conditions favoring his amb
ton and his policy. Lord Macaulay writing of the
reformation" observes
"A king whose character may be best described
by saying he deSpotism itself personified. I'M
prlncipled ministers, rapacious aristocracy. ser
vile pariament-such were the instruments bv
which England was delivered from the yoke of
Rome. The work which had been begun by Henry
the murderer of his wives, was continued by Som
erset, the murderer of his brother and completed
by Elizabeth, the murderer of her guest"
But apart from these atrocious characters and
unscrupulous conspirators. political causes made
the Reformation possibility; and the Reformers.
as they called themselves, were ready and faclo
tools IN the hands of tyranncal king and his pred
atory mobiles to make the movement at once disas-
trous to religion and in itself complete
According to the System of the Catholic Church
from the time of the Apostles to that of the Refor
nation two features distinctly prominent
First, the Church held to be the authoritative
teacher of the truth, and again the Church dis
pensed the Sacraments by means of which it's Nom
bers preserved their Union with Christ. the Head
In order to overthrow the Church il was neces.
sary to subvert its authority and to supply some
new means other than Sacraments whereby the moo
pie might be united to their Lord This. with CON
and satanic skill was effected bv tho Re-
formers by opposing Holy Scripture to Eccesiast;-
cal Tradition and by nventing the doctrine of JUS
LITIGATION by Faith only
The king and his plant ministers perceived that.
n contest with Rome, an infable basis for oper-
atoms was necessary to insure success. position
apparently, at least, as secure as that of the Cath
'lics was an essential, if they hoped to triumph
The Catholics allowed the authority of the HOLY
whereas the Protestants disputed the
authority of the Church. By assuming. first. that
Scripture was opposed to tradition. and therein,
ppealing to Scripture against the Church. thew
ucceeded in representing their cause as an appeal
rom the human to the Divine from the infalGbil-
ty of the Bible to the presumed falIibilitv Of the