Republican farmer., 1918-09-06
VIEWS OF POPE GREGORY xv. EXPRESSED IN ARTICLE BY
 MONSICNOR CYRIL s. N. FAY

had a tremendous autocrat in the person of Henry VIII, and he de- stroyed the Pope's authority in Eng land. France had great autocrat in Louis XIV, and he reduced the Popes authority in France to an almost negligible thing. Austria had once a potent autocrat in the person of Jo- seph II, and but for the French Rev olution he would have done in Aus tria what Henry VIII did in England.
 The German Emperor has acted to- ward the Holy See in a truly auto cratic manner. Several years ago, the Pope made new law in regard to clandestine marriages. This law was published and enforced throughout the Catholic world, except in Germany, where it was forbidden by the Elm peror. A few years after that, dur ing the Modernist troubles, the Pope required an oath against Modernism from all clergymen who were public preachers or professors in the Cath olic universities; the oath was taken everywhere except in Germany, where the Emperor forbade the clergy to take it, and the year after, when the Pope published an Encyclical on the subject of St. Carlo Borromeo, the EmpeI'or on the grounds of it's not being sufficiently respectful in regard to Martin Luther, forbade it's publi cation in the German Empire.
 These instances make strong claims on the Holy Fathers attention, and it is small wonder that, when he sees his authority lessened day by day in Germany, he should throw his entire influence against the Kaiser, and not helm him in any way to Germanize the world. Otherwise the Pope would 1 be instrumental in seeing whatever papal authority that remains in Ger many utterly taken away. There is 1 only one Hypothesis which I would emphasize, and that is this---we must suppose that the Pope, who is the spiritual head of many million human | beings, Is possessed of at least ordi- nary intelligence.
 l The Pope has had one salient chance to show on which side his sympathy fay, and that was when
 eJrusalem was captured by the Brit
 ish. At the very moment, when by 1 his special order, the church bells
 were ringing with joy that Jerusalem
 had passed into Christian hands, the
 Pope was being maHgned and scorned
 for wishing to prevent the Holy City's
 remaining in Christian hands. The
 Papacy is very old. It saw the Ro-
 man Empire go to pieces; it saw the
 modern states of Europe arise---in- deed it was their nursing mother; it
 warred with an empire of the pagans;
 1t warred with the Holy Roman Elm nj ha in ha
 Middle Ages which supported democ- lracy, and its whole history has shown that the religion over which it pre- sides is most successful when 1t is free from any state control It has
 been proven that the Catholic religion lean exist better, with more health and more yigor in a free atmosphere
 than in an atmosphere of despotism
 Tn despotic Byzantium it disappeared;
 in despotic Russia it was driven out;
 in England of the Tudors 1t Was
 beaten to the earth; in France ot
 Louis XIV 1t was bound hand anG
 foot. These are all incontrovertible
 reasons why the Pope should not de.
 sire to give over the world to an auto
 crat who does not even profess thf
 Catholic religion---but on the otheH nanQ processes 10 De the renglOuS IOl
 lower of the deadliest enemy the
 Catholic church has ever had, ana
 who presides over that religious SO
 ciety which Martin Luther left behind him in opposition to the Church O. Rome.
 We have forgotten our religious dis putes in the crisis of this war, and for this many thanks. We are all try ing to act together for the safety O this country, and for a decisive ant glorious victory for our cause. Arr they, then, the friends of this coun try, or of it's cause, who represent, O rather misrepresent the Catholic re ligion, and try to throw the apple 0 discord among those who should stant : shoulder to shoulder against the com mon enemy?