The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-08-20
Career Of Plus X, Who From BarefOOed Peasant Boy
 Became The Spiritual Head Of Over 200, ,OOO OOO People

he displayed the broad grasp of af- Ta1rs. thorough understanding and sure Judgment that marked his ad- I ninistration Of the lesser, though im- portant. duties that had been intrust-
 ed to him by the church. He was | consider and sympathetic, while 1
 strictly upholding the dignity of his high position, and he earned the sloy- | a1ty and devotion and admiration of all the world.
 Pre- eminent among his characterfs- | fiance of convention and his disregard | of precedent. Of peasant percentage.
 he was peculiarly the pope of the poor. Peasants were as welcome to
 the vatican as princes, and he gave | them his blessing without favor. His | charities were proverbial. His pres ence pervaded the vatican with new tmosphere. I With quiet decision he did away had endured for centuries. Early he abolished the custom requiring visitors to genufiect three times in coming into the presence of the pope | to kiss the crown upon his right slip | per. and to remain kneeIing while in | his presence. He would have none without formality, chatted in good old fashion. and usually accoppanieci
 them to the door when they retired Many incidents resulted from this Independence of custom, and to the |
 pope they brought quiet amuse-
 ment- For instance,E he abolished the centuryfoId custom of requiring
 everyone to vacate the gardens or gal
 1eries of the vatican when the pope walked therein. His first ride through | the grounds was in an open carriage; which he insisted upon having, even though another precedent was shat |
 He abolisned the custom of com
 n1unicants kissing his ring when re- ceiving communion from his hands, holding 1t to be a source of distrac- | ton for the communicant.tS Instead | of being carried into St Peters or the |
 Sistine chapel on the sedia gestatoria,t with the six 4palafreniere twhfte os- trich fans used to fan the pope), he |
 preferred to walk. He also did away | ing any of the civil authorities of | Rome or representatives of the Ital-
 ian government. and his warm friend | ship for King Emmanuel, dating from | the period when he was patriarch of | Venice. did much toward aleviating | church. and state: and may be the means of paving the way to an ulti- l
 mate reconciliAtionsI
 defiance of precedent was the bring | ing of women to his table, in the per- sons of his sisters. Since the foun- dation Of the Catholic Church. there were only two instances of women l having eaten in the pope's apart ments. One was when Queen Chris 1 tine of Sweden sat at q separate taz l ble, and lower down than the pope. at a light luncheon. the other when ] communion at the hands ofSI4eo XIII,
 was served some light refreshments in
 his apartments- pa aia Plps x Ire fr,squently
 bers of his official family, at his own table. who was a barefooted peasant boy and became the spiritual ruler of far
 smore than 200,000,OO0 people.
 l. Giuseppe Me1chiorre Sarto, known to ] the world as Pope Plus x, was elected I to the PohtIficate on August 4. 1908, , and during his occupancy of his ex- aFted office Head of the Roman Catholic Church, he was confronted problems religious and governmental with which the Holy See has had to-
 deal in modern times.
 Pope Plus was the candidate of Leo XIII as his successor, but he so lit 1 tie realized the future that when he
 left Venice. in July, 1903, for the Con clave in Rome, he bought a return l ticket
 In the conclaye the struggle was for and against Cardinal RampoFla, Leo
 xIII's Secretary of State, whose i chances were lost when Cardinal
 Puzyna pronounced the veto of Aus l tria against him, which veto was sup I posed to represent the Triple Ali ance. Then, needing a f'compromise's Pope, all eyes turned to Cardinal Sar-. Ito, who at first refused, but was a,r-' ter induced to accept the high posi- ton, being elected almost unanimously lon August 4 assuming the title of: Pope Plus x, Bishop of Rome and iyicar of J Jesus Christ, Successor of St. Peter, Prince of the Apostles; Supreme Pontim of the Universal Church, Pa
 triarch Of the West, Primate of Italy; l Archhishop and Metropolitan of the Roman Province and Sovereign of the
 Temporal Dominions of the Holy Foo-
 man Church.
 The Pontificate of Pope Plus x was
 characterized by that spirit of mod
 esty which never abandoned him and II by that strong religious feeling which
 made him choose motto, sTo re-
 store everything in Christ The day
 after his coronation he was asked tf~ l give orders for his private apartment
 in the Vatican, and while he urged
 the then young Monsignor Merry del Wal his pro-Secretary Of State, to oc- T cupy the. gorgeous Borgia apartment
 he himself chose four small rooms in 4 the 1ow-ceilinged suite above the State
 apartment of the Pontiff, which under
 Leo XIII had been occupied by his
 private secretary, Mgr Angeh.
 It would take long to enumerate all
 the reforms of religious character q initiated by Plus x, such as that Of ,l restoring the Gregorian chants, or \ preaching every Sunday from a text
 from the Bible himself giving the eood example by having as long as lt his strength allowed him, the fa1thful of the different parishes of Rome ID r l the Courtyard of San Damaso To nee1r . him explain the Gospel story, and car } rying out one after the other as Pope inc same ideas and principles which he had professed and advocated as z Bishop and Patriarch. One of his und ertakings will leave an important . mark in the history Of the Papacy- r the qualification of ecclesiast1c law : He entrusted the work to an illus i, l trfous scholar in Canon Law, Mgr. Pietro Gasparri, on whom he confefreo !. the Red Hat in December, 190f An . . other epoch making task was that o1 < the revision of the Vulgate, which he n conffded to Father Francis Aidan Gas l quet, Abbot-President or the Engllsn