The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1912-12-20

the crusades still live in the memory
of men. The cause and effect. The
reformation! Shall | repeat it?
will first point out to you that the ma
tional churches of the majority of
European states have been incessant-
ly at variance with the Roman court;
the councils have been at war with
the popes; heresies have been innu-
merable, and ever springing up anew;
schisms always breaking out; no.
where was ever witnessed such d.
versity of opinions, so much rancor
in Disputes, such minute parceling
out of powers. The internal state OF
the church, the disputations which
have taken place, the revolutions by
which it has been agitated. have been
perhaps the greatest of all obstacles
to the triumph of the theocratical or
ganization which the church endeav-
ored to impose upon society. The pc
Rod of its greatest glory-its crisis,
as it may be termed-Was the reign
of Gregory the Seventh, at the end
OF the eleventh century. Groezo says
that we have already seen that the
predominant wish of Gregory was to
render the world subservient to the
clergy, the clergy to the pope, and to
form Europe into one immense and
regular theocracy. In the scheme by
which this was to be effected, this
great man appears, so far as one can
Judge of events which took place so
lang ago, to have committed two
great errors, or faults-one as a the
orist, the other as revOlutiOnist.
The first consisted in the pompous
proclamation of his plan; giving a
systematical detail of his principles
relative to the nature and the rights
of spiritual power, of drawing from
them beforehand, like a severe logi-
clan, their remotest, their ultimate
consequences. He thus threatened
and even attacked all the lay sover-
eigns of Europe, without having Sc
cured the means of success, not con
sidering that success in human af-
fairs is not to be obtained by such alb
solute proceedings, or by mere APP
peal to a philosophic argument. Greg
q SnUOnth oil no
common error of all revolutionists-
that of attempting more than they
can perform, and not fixing the meas
ure and limits of their enterprise
within the bounds of possibility. He
consulted no particular interests, but
openly proclaimed his determination
TO reign over all kingdoms, as well as
all intellects; and thus raised up
against him, not only all temporal
danger of their situation, but also all
those who advocated the right OF
free inquiry, a party which now be-
gan to show itself, and dreaded and
exclaimed against all tyranny over
the human mind. This cause flourish
ed through the twelfth century down
to the middle of the thirteenth. This
was the epoch of the greatest power
and september of the church She
made no progress to the end of the
reign of Innocent III. She displayed
the glory and power, but at this very
moment a popular reaction declared
war against her in almost every part
of Europe. Down to the fifteenth
century the only general ideas which
had a powerful influence on the mass
ligion. The church alone was invest
ed with the power of regulating, pro-
mitigating and prescribing them At
tempts, it is true, at independence,
and at separation, were frequently
made, and the church had much to do
to overcome them Down to this pc
riOd, however, she had been success
full. Creeds rejected by the church
had never taken any general or per-
manent hold on the mind of the PEG
pie Dissention and strife were in.
cessant in the church, but without
any decisive and striking result At
the beginning of the fifteenth cen
fury new ideas and a public and
avowed desire of change and reform
alton began to agitate the church her
self. The beginning of the fifteenth
century was marked by two great
schisms OF the west, resulting in the
/ removal of the papal chair to Avig-
non, and the creation of two popes,
one at Avignon, and the other at
Rome. The contest between these
two papacies is what is called the
great schism of the west 1t began
in 1878. In 1907 the Council of Pisa
endeavored to put an end to it by de-
posing the two rival popes and elect
ing another. Instead of ending the
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