The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1909-01-30
Church Universal

statement criticized. usually remain
firmly convinced each of the others in
accuracies, and my speech evidently
furnishes no exception go this rule
l must confess however. that l am at
loss to discover any historical mac
curacy which this brochure points out
or any which it even imputes to me. If
the author really intended to charge
me with error of statement, | assume he
had reference to my discussion of the
conflict between Pope Boniface VIII
and Philip the Handsome, or the Fair
of France. which ] stated was based not
on the narrative of any Catholic writer,
but of Guizot, a Protestant historian.
| did not. of course, profess to give the
language employed by Guiozt, but
merely its substance in my own words,
as 1 was speaking entirely from MEM
DRY. The extracts from a translation of
Guizot's work given in the brochure (p.
2D far from impeding confirm the
substantial accuracy of my statement.
While ! cannot admit the authority
of the reverend professor as an eXpon-
ent of inaccuracies, logical or historically
his "politeness" is beyond all ques-
ton. So also is his courage. This in
deed, is not only beyond question, it
is beyond comprehension.
Few men wro are either reverend or
learned would venture TO describe the
violent assault on the person as well as
the authority of Pope Boniface VIII by
few of his own subjects, instigated and
encouraged-'f financed we would say
noWadaYS-by Philip the Handsome as
an invasion of the papal states by
French army (p. 23). The reverend pro-
fessor's expansion of Nogaret, the
Il. L..
filled with. corruption funds-into an
army, might be considered a brilliant
display of enterprise in that field of
journalism know as yellow" AS a
specimen of historical statement it is,
to speak mildly, bold in the extreme.
1t requires no little courage to speak
gently, almost approvingly as does the
reverend professor, of the ruthless vio-
lence with which Philip, to satisfy an
unbridled rapacity, butchered the
knights Templar, seized property adj
mittedly belonging to the church, and
completely paralyzed the commerce on
his own subjects by clipping the coins
current in his kingdom-a course which
won for him the title Philip the Coun-
terfeiter,'' under which he is known to
this day-while at the same time con-
demning in vehement terms the lam
guage in which the pope protests
against some of these enormities.
The reverend professor boasts that he
possesses a translation of Guizot's work
In which practically all the charges ever
made against Pope Baniface are col
lected and considered. Assuming him
to have read it, he must know that Pope
Boniface stands accused of no offense
except extreme energy in maintaining
the prerogatives of his office. AFRO
gance in asserting papal pretensions is
perhaps how the reverend professor
would describe it
Philip, on the other hand is &C
knowledged by everyone to have been
a murderer of peculiar atrocity, coun-
terfeiter who debased the entire coinage
of a great country. pillager of prop
erty wherever he could seize it on any
pretext. And these crimes were per-
petrated not under the influence of mis-
guided fervor or perverted patriotic
instinct, but to crafty the basest- and
most sordid aVarice. Yet the reverend
professor says Il quote his exact Words
THE Lutheran ministers have only
negative interest in the moral character
of Boniface VIII and Philip the Hand
some, but in a choice between the two,
they would regard Boniface VIII as the
villain of the deeper dye" His author
ity to speak for all the Lutheran minis
tiers is perhaps open to question. His
right to speak for himself cannot be
doubted.
This surely is an astounding specta-
Gle
Here is a man avowedly reverend and
presumably learned, capable at least of
writing coherently, who has obviously
read something concerning the reign of
a king, which through all the interven-
ing centuries has remained sinister
monument of unbridled violence and
prostituted power, ministering to hu-
man -depravity. and yet has nothing but
expressions Of liberation for stupen-
dous crimes that have cast dark
shadow over the age in which they
were committed, and words of actual
approval for gross personal outrages
perpetrated upon man over 80 years
old who (whatever may be thought of
the papacy as a religious institution
occupied what was universally cOnSid-
cred at the time the most exalted place
in Christendom, Even for the brutal
blow which Sciara Colonna struck him
in the face, this reverend professor has
not word of condemnation. or even of
criticism. But he Has abundant express
sions of contempt and denunciation for
the venerable pontiff. who. though. un-
armed, deserted, helpless, captive,
threatened, beaten, yet disdained to
surrender the great office to which he
had been chosen-to abase its dignity
or compromise its independence-at the
demand OF a tyrant enforced by the fist
of a ruffian.
And stranger still, other men enjoy
ing equal advantages of education and
association appear willing to approve
openly this attitude of the reverend
professor. w. H. T. Dau-
If it be a sound maxim of conduct
that a man shall be judged by the COM
pany which he keeps, it is equally
sound to judge him by the historical
characters whom he honors.
This reverend professor who declares
that he prefers Philip the Handsome to
Boniface VIII must therefore be held to
proclaim that in his judgment whole
sale torture and butchery of human be-
ings, innocent of any offense except the
possession of treasure coveted by their
murderer, and the preparation OF rob-
berry on a gigantic scale through vio-
lence and fraud by ruler whOse sworn
duty it was to protect these limbs that
he mangled. these lives that he de-
stroyed. this property that he seized,
are less heinous and therefore less OBJ
jectionable than energy. zeal. "arro-
gance" (if you wild, in asserting with