Year: 1869




THE CHURCH OF SPAIN


The Republicans of the COrtes, slandered
some time ago by the report that they would
prove non Jurors TO the new Constitution OF
their country are at this moment urging upon
their constituents a simple fealty to the Con-
stitution and the regime of Serrano. With the
Church party the Cable informs us that 1T is far
otherwise. The priests of Spain have not yet
recovered from the shock dealt to them not
mere ely by the general majority Of the
Cortes, but especially by the speeches
of the extremer class of Republicans.
They are now acting evidently in the
spirit of the boast of Cardinal Cuesta, that
three millions of Spaniards were ready to sign
their names to pledge to resist Constitution
which asserted itself to be the enemy of the
Church. The Cardinal was wildly out OF the
way in his calculations; but the Church, If re-
solved to oppose the Constitution with blind
zealotry just because the Republicans defend
it, NAV do mischief to the State no less than to
itself


Competition as against enforced monopoly is
an old moral of trade. 1t is also the moral of
the Church defeat in Spain. Inasmuch as
competition in religion is often saving OF
morals, good Spaniards aver that the sincerity
and activity of their Church will profit by the
stimulant of a new faith and a new idea.
Crowds have attended the service of Protest
antism since the ordination Oftolerance, though
it is said that the owner Of the house in Mad
rid where it was held has been threatened
with assassination. Whether we believe this
or not, it is certain that the new religion, to-
gether with the new principle OF tolerance,
have secured an invincible fOOthold. To keep
the peace of opinion, much more is to be de-
manded from the forbearance of the Repub-
licans than the inyeteracy of the churcbmen.
We commend to free relgiOnists the candid
confession uttered in the Spanish COrtes by
one Diaz Quintero. 81 belong to no religion"
said Senior Quintero al am not even an athe-
"ist, because have nothing to do with rellg-
"ions. not even to deny them. They are all
"subversive of morality. ! say with Don Car
"los in Schiller, My ideas are not of this age.
"'I should have lived at a more advanced
"'period.'r According to his own statement,
Mr.. Quintero would advance like the crab,
backward. But the real progress OF Spanish
ideas will tend away from such egotism as this
into something like charity of opinion-a char
ity not more demanded of such churchmen as
Manterola and Cuesta and the Bishop Of Jaen,
than of such Republicans rs Sunerand Qnintero.


II is no common defeat which has been
wrought upon the Church. nor can we say that
il has been sustained vulgarly and in the spirit
of irreconclabe defiance. The most jealous
lovers of their religion have bitterly lamented
this first step Of divorce between the Church
and the State. None have done so with more
sincere sorrow than the pious Bishop OF Jaen,
whose fanatic shock upon hearing the atheism
uttered in the Cortes moves a certain compass
sion and even admiration, spite of the Bishops
unreasoning opposition to moral liberty
"There were those,n he said, "wlIo de-
"cared Catholic morals inferior to universal
"morals There were those who asked toll
% erance only to impugn religion. There were
those who rdiculed the existence OF the
" Holy Spirit. Some invented fables, and were
praised-ralsiied history, and were applauded.
ompasSion-compassioD for all! The mea-
" sure, beyond being full, ran over its sides,
a. with the stencil of we know not how many
"miseries more unjustifiable than punishable;
"but they were not sufficient. Misenes de-
"plorable-pitiful, worthy to be washed, even
:" on our part, in a sea of truly expiatory
/" "tears.r Few will be indsposed to grant to
the Bishops compassionate jeremad the merit
of eloquence and sincerity worthy of the
days when the best orator of Spain was the
fierce devotee who upheld the cross. He mis-
takes the nature of his oDpOnents-both their
power to do harm by aggression or to do good
by forbearance. The Church can only save
itsef-the State can rob it of none of its true
possession. The absence of competition does
not make its morals whit better-the presence
of it cannot shake its rightful hold if it be
founded in the truth. On the other hand, the
reformers gain nothing by their unreasoning
advocacy of reason. Unless they them elves
learn the tolerance and the charity they
demand-unless they can in their own conduct
commend to the Church its own teXts--they
have really not n great deal to teach, however
fierce the onslaught their Quixotism may make
against forms in the name of shadows.


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