New-York tribune., 1908-01-05
CHURCH And STATE.
Leading Men Comment on Effect
of Frances 4ctiOn.

Paris Jan. 4.-The Temps has begun the pub
Hcation of a series of opinions from distinguished
prelates and scholars engaged in the critical and
historical study religion regarding the effect of
the separation CHURCH and State in countries ike
France the religious life of the people Scholars
of all countries and beliefs including Catholics,
Protestants Hebrews and Greek Church men, have
been invited contribute brief articles
The Temps assumes that separation involves
the overthrow of the principle of religion is
matter of individual conscience and leaves the
State unfettered by. the moral doctrines of the
Church. asks what savans think regarding this
principle, especially from the point of view OF
exegesis and Christian history
TODAY three replies published They were
those OF the Abbe Loisy, the French modernist
whose works recently were prohibited by the
Vatican; the Rev T. X Cheyne, Canon OF
Rochester and Orie professor of Interpretation at
Oxford University. and the celebrated German
critic Rudolph Eucken, professor of philosophy at
the University of Jena
The Able Loisy considers that separation is only
another step in the crisis of the Catholic Church
which began WITH Protestant reformation In the
sixteenth century and continued in the philo-
sopticaI movement of the seventeenth century and
the scientific movement of the eighteenth century
"On its development viii depend the fate of the
Catholic religion he says.
He rejects the idea that civil society can be di-
yorced from the religious convictions of the people
and adds:
liv Correspond with dominant mental and moral
OF & ihe and tns sG IN the moral and re-
ugious traditions of its Cathonc past
Professor Cheyne considers the principle that re-
iigion is something which each Individual must &C
quire as a fundamental part of Christs teachings
He SAYS that historical solution OF dIesta blish
ment varies in different countries As Broad
Churchman he approves of the state gently con-
trolling ecclesiastical affairs In the time Of Christ
when the Jewish Church united with the jew
+rrrn
vet there was far independence in the Jewish
Church than in the modern Catholic Church, where
he had found the liberty of religious thought
which he considered necessary for convinced dis
cpIe of Christ
In the Anglican Church he says there is more
liberty and as the Church developed liberty would
be increased. The time might come in England
when separation would become natural and neces-
sary. He adds:
AS I am Of science. my syrnDathies are
e respec3 e for the ties which s5i attach US to
the past If Christ did not free Himself from the the
to break with the Anglican Church until the time
TO DO so has palpably come?
Professor Eucken says that the separation Of
Church and State in France is the most important
and most interesting fact of the present time. He
saws that the authority of religion has been strong
enough in the past il from all assaults. be-
cause the masses were Indifferent. Now. when the
people think that the irreconcilable conflict be-
tween the old and the conceptions, in spite
of all efforts to stfe it, must be settled, religion
must have established its rights before the forum
Of modern thought" adding:
With the support of the state gone it must live
the convictions of individuals; II IS drlNeit
toward self-criticism toward radical revision; II
must discard the ephemeTa keep the eternal and
harmonze the eternal with the ideas of our times.
If i seeks a frank reconciliation with modern
culture il should not fear Modern culture leaves
many essential questions in profound obscurity; it
awakens many desires; ii cannot be satisfactory.
No one listening lofty to the mysterious voice OF
the present fail TO recognize the yearning for
interlife. the growing tendency toward religion,
but a religion altogether changed.
What viii become of the old religion Will depend
on the spiritual force its representatives infuse
into il CnSuStained from without. live on
truth. There is nothing so injurious to religion
among the intellectual the conviction that il
contains uneradicated errors Nothing can ma Ike
its truth grow like the ground of liberty on which
henceforth il will be built.