Waterbury evening Democrat., 1908-01-08

tnelr ealing upon tnelr common
 father, the pope, to take up thell
 cause. To amplify this feature O
 the church's history would be {
 pleasing task, but just now time
 does not suffice. The church ha.
 lost her authority in the state. LII
 timately, perhaps, she may find req
 son for rejoicing that she has. Bu
 she has not lost her religious yau
 thority over the, people of France oi
 Italy. Many in both places refuse
 their obedience, 1t is true, but com. pared with the success that attended
 Christ himself the number is com
 paratively enormous. Neither has
 she lost a mastery over the control ling forces of life." The present | Italian king and the present Ger
 man emperor realized full well her
 mastery over the controlling forces
 of life when they called in her as- sistance to preserve their thrones from the incursions of that radical
 socialism that would have tottered
 them. The church, says the Spring
 field Republican, lost the power to
 give to the people a good religious education. That is rather d para
 lyzing statement for Catholics of some countries believe, especially those of England, Australia, Cana da, Brussels and the United States, which by the way furnish fairly
 wide area of religious thought. And we Catholics are congratulating ourselves that even in Italy one of the great glories of Plus Ks short reign is the power he has and is welding to give the Italians religious education in more systematic way than they have for some time hith- erto known.
 l think that the writer in the Springfield Republican has lost sight of distinction that is extremely inn portant when he tries to parallel the failure of Professionalism with that of Catholicism. Where Protes- tantism has lost its hold. it has been because of its fundamental princi- pies, and in countries and epochs when in the exercise of those prin- ciples it moved along the lines of the
 
 on the other hand, it has lost mainly because physical power superior to itself in material forces has curtailed the exercise of her basic tenets. And in places where both have enjoyed equal freedom from external pressure the Catholic church has more than held it's own. So in England for the rfn of la United States where, though there has been some leakage and suf- ficiently large percentage of only nominal Catholics, she is neverthe- less vigorous and robust and preach ing the centuries-old doctrines. As the editorial writer in Saturdays American seems to reason the, and to see, logically, Professionalism failed because of the disintegrating indi- vidualism against which stand the rock of logic on which Catholicism is based" which made Catholicism the perduring church that he saw as an actuality in his own day and which in prophetic vision he saw would still be the same church of the future.
 Both with Dr Smyth and the Springfield Republican the abso- lutism of the Catholic church seems to have been a bungler. Here again l think there is a distinction O be ob- served. In purely spiritual affairs, within heir own proper limits, can- not see how we can we'll avoid abso- lutism. To me Christ was an ex- treme "absolutist," if there be such a word. His mission to his apostles was not indiyidualism or electicism, but absolutism. Whatsoever have l you," that is what they | were bidden to teach. How Dr | Smyth expects to have new or any other Catholi- cism without absolutism is beyond l my ken.
 But these is another absolutism that perhaps may be said to be with Calvanism and in- idel and mediaeval times was some what of mixture of the temporal and spiritual. It can hardly be fruthfully denied that many promi- nent churchmen became absolutists In this latter sense and in conse- Iuenee became nothing more than at court But think it ;an be safely stated that the ten iency of the authorities in the ,hurch was to restrain absolutism. Tracing It's origin in western Europe o the loss of power there yielded 1y fha nyzautfna nr,narnr. ,..o a.l | { passing from them 10 the German the great families of em- 'erors that rose up from the ruins If the old Roman civilization. up to he great schism of the west in the century, the church strug- lied successfully against that abso- utism on the part of imperial au- horities.
 The crown. though practically hereditary, was nevertheless elective nd the nation through its three old estate. nobility. clergy and com non people, held the supreme power. [, [ was from this condition of affairs i hat arose papal interference with i eigning monarchs. Heresy was d rime against the civil law and popes i nd ecclesiastical tribunals did only 1 that a jury does now. decide that !, nch a person was guilty of a crime { gainst the law. IL exercised the de- l' osing power. it is true. but if did | D in virtue of the oath that each l ,onarch took to be faithful to Chris i Ian teaching. Gregory XII. known ' D history as Hildebrsnd. is sup | osed to be the very incarnation of q