The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1918-05-18
VALUABLE NEW WORK
MGR. DAY OF HELENA ISSUES
TRANSLATION OF kURTH'S
GREAT HISTORICAL STUDY
1.-THE CHURCH AT THE. TURN
lNG-PoINTS OF HISTORY"
Work Reviewed by Rev. w. Busch.)

entitled, 1.-The Church at the Turning
French work of Godefroid Kurth. The
author is distinguished Belgian his
torian who died two years ago. He
was a professor of history in the Uni
versity of Liege, member of the Bel
gian national commission for histori-
cal studies, member of various
learned societies, and writer of his
tOrical works Of eminent merit.
The volume now published in Eng
lish translation by Mgr. Day. contains
the substance of a course of lectures
delivered by Professor Kurth in Ant
Werp in the years 1897 and 1898. In
these lectures he sketches, with equal
historical erudition and skill and ora
torical power, certain large outlines
of history, presenting certain phases
of the role of the Catholic Church
throughout the ages. He shows how
the Church has always understood,
under the guidance of God, how to
adapt herself to the changing circum-
and to fulfil always her civilizing and
saving mission.
The appearance of this volume in
English is particularly opportune.
The world is better disposed at this
moment than at any other moment in
the long time past, to attend to the
lessons which the author sets forth.
For a long time the modern world
has been blind to it's true condition
We were told that; by a regular
course of evolution, we had advanced
sfar beyond the earlier centuries and
were approaching the very climax of
civilization, reign of universal pros
perity; that we were a superior gen.
past. But now war has come to show
us suddenly how completely we were
mistaken. We had not been going
forward, but backward-in the things
that really count; the war is an abyss
into which the world had been gradu-
ally sinking during several centuries.
Recent writer's have analysed the
process of degeneration, such ass Mr..
Ralph Adams Cram (The Gothic
Quest, ed. 1870.
We are stold now that we must not
only trace out into the past the
sources of our errors, but that we
must also learn to improve the present
by returning in many ways to the bet
ter things of days gone by. Humanity
does not make steady progress, as the
evolutionists of the nineteenth CEN
fury pleasantly feigned. On the con-
trary, we find sudden leaps, both for
ward and backward, with long periods
either of slow progression or of equally
slow retrogression. The word "catas-
trophic'' must replace the word "evo-
lutionary" (Cram, The Substance of
Gothic, p. y.
In Europe, a certain school of his
torians did not need the war to teach
them these things. Kurth, in these
lectures, deals with some of the Ca
tastrophes" of history. His general
aim is to point out how, amid all the
vicissitudes of history, the Catholic
Church is the one voice that constant
ly announces to mankind those eter-
nal principles which alone bring true
progress and welfare and salvation.
These lectures unroll ga grand piano.
rama, none grander in all history and
none more instructive, for the voice
which issues from the great pheno-
mena of history is, in certain meas
ure, the voice of God" There are
many at the present moment who feel
that we are near new turning point
in history, that society is passing
through grave crisis and confronting
the most serious problems. Hence, all
may well be interested in the unique
example of the Catholic Church, the
one institution that has lived through
all the crises of history. To. Catholics
these lectures will be an inspiration,
stirring their enthusiasm in the serv-
ice of the Church which is the saliva
ton of the world in the future as in
the past.
The authors reputation as an his
torian of first rank, well established
by his numerous writings, will stand
as guarantee of the historical &C.
curacy of the tableaux which he pre-
sents. His lectures will correct GER
tain false impressions, and will set
in proper light certain great events
and movements in history.
Inasmuch as so large a portion of
English historical literature is not
written from a Catholic viewpoint,
some readers will find that particular
points which the author brings out are
somewhat new and surprising to them.
We will do well to consider the
character of the Gregorian reforma-
ton of the eleventh century, a true
reformation which had as a conse-
quence three centuries of wonderful
Christian achievement, and compare
it with the so-called Protestant refor-
nation, upon which followed the three
centuries that have had their issue in
a world-War
While of late years the Middle Ages
have been coming back into honor,
there are still those who need much
enlightenment regarding those ages.
Kurths lectures will help to assure
us that the thirteenth may be con.
sidered the greatest of centuries.
He will toll us that fhp fhirtpnnth