The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-04-17

Wynne, S. j.; Condo Benoist Pallen, IN.
D., LII. D., editors; the latter being
managing editor. To be completed in 10
volumes, 200O illustrations and maps and
$4,000 articles. (Robert Appleton Co.,
New York, N. "
According to a writer in the American
Review of Reviews for December all
great captains of American enterprise
know by influence, offered to give from
his wealth a substantial sum to insure
the progress of this great publication,
THE Catholic Encyclopedia on this
condition: Let that book be SO worded
from A to z that a man like myself can
read it at night and get the truth, the
whole truth on every side that 1t covers
and by reading it can get closer to the
Spirit behind all truth
Financial support was also obtained
from thousands of other men and women
of many denominations in many lands,
who subscribed to the work at personal
sacrifice to themselves, impelled by real
izing the value to the world of its exist
ence and its value to themselves In
myriad walks of lfe-religious as we'll
as secular.
The 1000 and more contributors organ
lied by the editors are, with few eX-
ceptions, Catholics. The writer's had to
be those who could get at the first hand
letters, documents, attacks and replies,
DEGREES, chronicles and the rest, in the
original vellum or parchment or whatnof.
Every article is therefore authoritative.
Yet every creed, belief, and persuasion
from idolatry and hoodooism up to
Christian Science and New Thought Is
treated by the Catholic Encyclopedia as
fairly as the respective believers them
selves could ask And it is refreshing to
realize, too, that only this generation
could have brought forth or appreciated
such a work We do not have 10 go
back very far or far away for con
trast. It was on Boston Common that
four of the inoffensiye sect of Quakers,
three men and a woman, were hung py
Puritans, who may have been pertectiy
conscientious all the while. Not so long
ago either
The attitude of the encyclopedia toward
the church itself is another surprise ana
particularly so to the average cltizen,
outside the Catholic church accustomed
to trumors such as that since the churcn
is In politics in some places, she must,
like all politicians. never admit any
thing" never confess fallure on the par.
of her instruments.
The motto of the encyclopedia might be
a phrase which is quoted therein from
the historian Henri de fEpinois:
II am a Catholic and a disciple of the
God who hath horror of lies. seek
the truth and all the truth and nothing
but the truth Although our weak eyes
do not see the uses of it. or rather see
damage and peril, we must proclaim 1t
fearlessly."
And this has been done so far by the
seven volumes of the Catholic Encyclo-
pedia, which have been delivered to sub
scribers. The reader will only have to
refer to the discussions in this great
work regarding the position of the church
as to science to realize that the editors
are proclaiming the truth fearlessly. Fur
thermore, it would do those of us who
are not Catholics a great deal or good
to recall the first steamboat that crossed
the Atlantic and the Protestant minis
ters-some of them-in the United states
who appealed to all their congregations
to have nothing to do with this new in
vention for the reason that the new con-
traption combined fire and water-and
were not these, in the first chapter of
Genesis specially and divinely set apart
and divided? So when we harp we Pro-
testants harp, as It were, upon the ac-
ton of the council of 1916, which forced
Calico to recant his theory that the sun
did not go around the earth. we should
recall the Protestant ministers OF the
last century and the first steamboat. Re
memserlnR, 100, tnaL TO Iil6H WIN illuuc
the Bible their daily rule in matters of
science. as of all others. alarming indeed
must have been the proclamations and
so on which seemed to threaten the en-
tire structure OF Holy Writ. Yet the dis
cusson of Golileo In the encyclopedia
simply furnishes a fresh proof or the
works amazing fairness. In their oppo-
sition to Calico the church author says
1.-The ecclesiastical authorities committed
a grave and deplorable error and sane
toned an altogether false principle as
to the proper use of Scripture.
Volume VII of the encyclopedia, which
has lust been issued from the press,
marks the completion of the first half of
the greatest literary undertaking that
Catholics In the English-speaking world
have even known. In three years the
work has grown from a single volume to
a splendid array of imposing tones,
crowded with the worlds best learning
and giving promise of even better things
when 'finis'' is written on the last of all.
So steady and regular has been the
progress of this encyclopedia that the
realization that it has reached the half
way mark comes almost as a surprise,
but 1t is a surprise which brings with 1t
an appreciation of the real value of this
latest addition to the photography of the
Catholic church.
Nothing like it has ever before been
attempted in the English language and
nothing superior to it has appeared in
any other. No longer 1t is necessary in
searching for information on Catholic
matters either to turn to the biased &C.
counts of unfriendly works of reference
or to search laboriously through various
Catholic works until the particular thing
wanted is unearthed. The time has at
last arrived when the institution whose
manifold interests and influences de-
manded encyclopedia treatment can point
to a thorough dignified and dispassion-
ate medium through which its past and
present may be made known to every In
quirer with accuracy and dispatch. Al
ready scholars of all denominations are
beginning to use and to quote from this
encyclopedia; the fair mindedness which
characterizes it's treatment of its subjects
has done much to promote better feel
ing and understanding among students OF
all creeds and 1t is safe to say that the
impetus which 1t has given to historical
and literary research will go far to raise
the standard of American scholarship
The seventh volume begins with an ar
ticle on Gregory XII by Michael OFT and
concludes with one on Infallibility, which
important and interesting subject is ably
treated by p J Toner. The ALPHABETICAL
grouping has brought within the purview
of this volume many subject of particular
Geographically there are
"Ignatius Layola," by ]. H. Pollen,
"Henry VIII" by Herbert Thurston,
''Hus," by ]. Wilhelm, Gutenberg" by
Heinrich Wilhelm Wallau and the various
popes who bore the name of Gregory or
Honorius.
The geographical contributions include
Hungary" by A. Aldasy; Haiti" by
Gregor Reinhold; Guatemala by Jose
foyov-,. ssTpdio bx, E,rDact