EINSIEDLN.
What is’t t’ us
Whether ’twas said by Trismegistus,
If it be nonsense, false, or mystic,
Or not intelligible, or sophistic?
’Tis not antiquity, nor author,
That makes truth truth.--HUDIBRAS.
As you enter the _Place_ of Einsiedln, there faces you on the east
side, if orientation has been observed in the Church, the large and
famous monastery of Our Lady of the Hermits. The first impression is
good and pleasing. It is even something more: it is striking. There is
plenty of space in the foreground; and the whole is well kept. In the
centre of the extended front is the entrance to the church. To compare
what is small with what is great, it reminds you of St. Peter’s at
Rome, and its Piazza. As the _Place_ rises from the point at which you
enter it, throughout, up to the monastery, the elevation of the site of
the building adds somewhat to its imposing effect. Rows of cell-like
stalls, constructed in a stage of the rise, in a curve before the pile,
increase its apparent height and size. There is an openness, and a
breadth of sky, above, which give a sense of light, and space. As the
structure dates from 1719, there is, as might have been expected,
nothing in it, architecturally, worthy of notice.
The monastery, and the incidents of the pilgrimage made to its
black-faced, and black-handed image of the Virgin, were what we had
come to Einsiedln to see; and as there is nothing else in the place to
see, we were soon in the church. The interior of the building is less
pleasing than the exterior. White-wash, tawdry tinsel, and pictures,
inferior even to what you might have expected, do not produce so good
an effect as the space, simplicity, and weather-tinted stone of the
outside. No service was then going on; but there were about a hundred
people in the church, the greater part of whom were before the shrine
of the image.
We again returned for vespers. The church, which is large, was then
more than half full; and there was some crowding around the shrine.
We were present once more--the next morning, at mass. The celebrants,
if that is the correct appellation, were more than gorgeously
vestmented, in vestments which appeared stiff with gold embroidery.
These vestments, the screen which separated the priests from the
profane laity, the incense, the bell-ringing, the lights, transported
me in thought to the old heathen world. I felt as if I were witnessing
the celebration, in the style of those times, of some of its sacred
mysteries. The material means used, and the motives which prompted
their use, that is to say the desire to produce a sense of undefined
awe, were the same as they might have been then. I do not say this
with any thought that it contains a reason why they should not be
reverted to by ourselves: it may be right to aim at producing this
effect; and these may be the readiest, the most powerful, and the
most inoffensive means for producing it. I am only saying that what
I was then witnessing carried my thoughts back to the old mysteries,
which Christianity, as a matter of fact and of history, abolished;
and which it abolished, because they would have served no purpose
but that of obscuring the perception of its simple, intelligible,
conscience-originated moral aims. I was told, immediately after the
service, by a monk, who was showing me over the library, that in the
celebration of the mass, at which I had just been present, a part had
been taken by M. Dupanloup, the Bishop of Orleans.
The library, as might have been expected, is rich in folios. Folios, as
a general rule, belong, like arquebuses, culverins, and coats of mail,
to the past. As far as I saw, the contents of these folios, and of the
books generally, were either theological, or classical. The Classics
may be so made the instrument, and substance of education, and the
study of a life, as quite to preoccupy the mind, and not themselves to
suggest, or to allow anything else to suggest, any of the questions
of modern controversy. Hence, perhaps, the desire and effort of the
Church of Rome to confine education to the Classics. There were also
in the library an electrical apparatus, and a cabinet of mineralogical
specimens. We were, besides, shown the abbot’s private chapel; the
guest chambers, most of which make up two beds; and the conference
chamber. This last is a large room, on the walls of which, among some
other modern portraits, hang those of Napoleon III., and of the Emperor
of Germany. If I recollect rightly, these two had been placed where we
saw them before the outbreak of the late war.
In the rows of stalls in front of the monastery--there are some of a
similar character to the north of the building--and in a great many
of the shops of the town, are sold only such objects as pilgrims of
the poorest class would purchase, to carry home with them as mementos
of their pilgrimage. Among these objects is conspicuous in wood,
earthenware, and a variety of other materials, a miniature reproduction
of the black-faced image. I thought of the silver shrines of Ephesus;
though the precious material of which they were formed, tells us that
their purchasers were the wealthy and the educated. The aspect of the
locality, in which these mementos are exposed for sale, and the fact
that, not the mementos only, but everything else vendible in it, is of
the humblest kinds of tinsel, unredeemed by any articles of use or
substance, reminded me somewhat of a bazaar, or fair.
What you go to Einsiedln to see is the pilgrims. This is as exclusively
the one object there as the Temple of the Sun at Baalbec, or the rock
sculptures and excavations at Elephanta. If there were no pilgrims,
not only would no one go to see Einsiedln, but there would be no
Einsiedln to go to see: for it is supported by pilgrims only, and by
nothing else. We are told that about 150,000 visit it yearly. These
hosts of pilgrims have built, and maintain, both the monastery and the
town. Everything you see of the town shows its origin, purpose, and
character. It is a town of pilgrims’ inns, and of pilgrims’ shops. It
is quite a mediæval sight. What is presented to you here enables you to
form a picture in your mind of what many a town in those days must have
been; as, for instance, Bury St. Edmunds, with its great monastery, and
its shrine for pilgrims.
Of course a man does not go a long journey to see some object without
a wish to know something about it: that were irrational. If he go to
Baalbec to see what remains of it, he would be glad to know how Baalbec
came to be placed where he finds its remains; what maintained its
population; and what was the kind of life of the place. At Elephanta he
desires to know what were the ideas in men’s minds, that brought them
to expend so much labour on such costly excavations. So at Einsiedln.
You may not yourself have come on a pilgrimage to the shrine of the
black-faced image: still you are not in every sense an unconcerned
outsider. You have come on a pilgrimage of your own sort: its object is
to see pilgrims doing a pilgrimage; and to think over the matter with
the object, and the doers of the pilgrimage, before your eyes.
Now what is it that brings these tens of thousands of pilgrims
here? That is the great question. Several reasons contribute to the
explanation of the phenomenon. We will put first the famous Einsiedln
inscription, because that is what first meets the eye as we enter the
church. This inscription exhibits certain words of Christ’s Vicar upon
earth--an infallible Pope of Rome. The words are, ‘_Hic est plena
remissio peccatorum a culpâ et a pœnâ_.’ No words can be more precise
and definite. ‘Here,’ in Einsiedln, in this Monastery, before this
shrine of the black-faced Virgin, ‘is plenary remission of sins, from
their guilt and from their punishment.’ No wonder, then, that the
peasants of the Valais, of Bavaria, and of other places, where this
statement is known and believed, flock to Einsiedln. This alone would
explain their coming. The only wonder is that the whole Romanist world
do not make a pilgrimage to Einsiedln the great and paramount object
of life. To be sure I had just been told that I had, that morning,
seen in the church M. Dupanloup, the Bishop of Orleans. But, during
the last five centuries, how many Bishops of Orleans have been there?
Was he following the example of his predecessors in being there? or
was he there for some other purpose? How many Cardinals have made this
pilgrimage? We do not ask how many Popes of Rome have made it; because,
if they can give this plenary remission to those who make it, we may
suppose that in this matter they do not give away all that they have
to give, but reserve of it as much as will be needed for their own
requirements.
Another question arises out of this inscription. Who could have
expected that this remote, bleak, wild, formerly lonely forest, now
open, dank grassland, would have been so highly favoured? Why is this
‘plenary remission of sins both from their guilt, and from their
punishment,’ to be secured at this out-of-the-way, unhistorical,
little-known spot? We might have supposed that, if at any one
particular spot upon earth was to be granted this plenary remission
of sins, it would have been at Bethlehem, or at Nazareth, or at
Jerusalem. We, who wish to understand matters of this kind, cannot
but ask, why they have been passed over, and why, of all places in
the world, Einsiedln has thus been made the gate of heaven? But still
in the meantime, as it is the gate of heaven, we cannot be surprised
that the peasants of the Valais, of Bavaria, and of other like-minded
places, are attracted to it. In them it would be wrong, if they were
not so attracted. It would however make the matter a little more
intelligible, if the Bishops and the educated neighbours, of these
poor people came with them; and showed by accompanying them, that they
participated with them in the desire to pass through this wide, and
smooth-paved gateway. Can the reason of their not coming be, that they
know, that of them, to whom so much more has been given, somewhat more
will be required? Can it be at all because they cannot but think that
plenary remission is not within their reach on such easy terms?
Another reason for the maintenance of this pilgrimage to the
black-faced image of Einsiedln may be the offerings of the pilgrims.
The surmise that the latter of these facts stands towards the former,
in some way and degree, in the relation of cause to effect, receives
a colour of probability from this plenary remission of sins not
having been accorded to pilgrimages made to Bethlehem, Nazareth, and
Jerusalem; and also from the cessation of pilgrimages to some other
places, let us say, for instance, to Canterbury. We all know that
pilgrimages to Canterbury were, once upon a time, as common in this
country as Einsiedln pilgrimages now are in Switzerland. There are
still plenty of Romanists in this country; some remains, at all events,
of the shrine of St. Thomas are still at Canterbury; and the Dean and
Chapter, we may be sure, would put no difficulties in the way of those
who might wish to perform this pilgrimage. Why, then, do we see no
parties of pilgrims assembling at, and setting out from, some modern
Tabard, or, if Chaucer’s shade can forgive the supposition, from Cannon
Street Station, for Canterbury? I am afraid we must give as a reason,
not that the efficacy of prayers addressed to St. Thomas of Canterbury
is less now than it was five centuries ago--any supposition of that
kind would be quite inadmissible, for we know of nothing that could
have diminished the saint’s power: whatever it was five hundred years
ago it must be the same at this day, precisely--but that there are none
now who can receive the offerings of pilgrims. There is no body of men
on the spot who could receive such offerings. And it would hardly do
to say to the faithful, make your pilgrimages to Canterbury first; and
then make your offerings to some authorized recipients in London, or
else remit them by a bill of exchange, or a post office order, to Rome.
As nothing of this kind can be done, it comes about that St. Thomas of
Canterbury is no longer an object of pilgrimage. If the fact that there
is no longer anyone to receive the offerings of pilgrims to Canterbury
is, in some way or other, a reason for the cessation of pilgrimages to
Canterbury, the fact that there are people to receive the offerings of
pilgrims to Einsiedln may, in some way, be a reason for the maintenance
of pilgrimages to Einsiedln. This may also throw some light upon the
fact, that though the monastery has seven times been destroyed by fire,
the black-faced image has, upon every one of these catastrophes,
escaped without injury; and that in 1798, though the French carried it
away to Paris, it forthwith re-appeared. In short, we may, I think,
infer, with some degree of probability, from the nature of the case,
and from what we know of such matters, that there would be no monks, no
monastery, no black-faced image at Einsiedln, were there no offerings.
One reason more: the peasant of the Valais goes to Einsiedln, because
he has not yet arrived at that stage of knowledge which enables men
to distinguish between things material and physical on the one side,
and things moral and spiritual on the other; and to assign each to its
own realm. To do this readily and habitually implies an advance in
knowledge which has not yet been reached by the mass of any people in
the world. Just as wit is, mainly, the perception of resemblances, so
is knowledge the perception of differences; and the differences, which
separate the matters we are now speaking of from each other, and which
are of their very essence, the peasant of the Valais has not yet been
brought to apprehend. He is still in that stage of the perception, or
rather of the non-perception, of the differences of these things, which
admits of his supposing that, if he drink water from a fountain from
which he is told the Saviour drank, he will be thereby spiritually
benefited; and that a carved piece of wood, dressed in tinsel, that
can neither hear nor see, as was argued of old, but might help him
to make a fire to warm himself, or to cook his dinner, is able to
intercede with God on his behalf. Having, then, been taught that there
is at Einsiedln such a fountain--it stands in front of the monastery,
and has fourteen jets--he goes to Einsiedln, and drinks from each of
the fourteen jets; to make sure that he has stood on the right spot,
and drank from the right jet: though probably all the jets have been
replaced many times since the date of the legend; if it have a date.
And, having also been taught that there is there such a figure, he goes
on a pilgrimage to it, and prostrates himself before it.
As to the poor peasant pilgrim himself: if the wish of his heart is to
become a better man, morally and spiritually, then all right-minded
people will regard him with sympathy and respect, notwithstanding
his inability to distinguish between things physical and material on
the one side and things moral and spiritual on the other. But if the
wish of his heart be to purchase, by the means he has been taught to
resort to, for the present certain earthly, and for the future certain
heavenly advantages, then our sympathy and respect for him will be
somewhat diminished. Ammer’s common-sense observation on the pilgrims
we saw was in the direction of the mark: ‘If they really wish to become
better men,’--of course he meant morally--‘they should try what can be
done in that way by honest dealing, industry, and speaking the truth.’
A word or two about the colour of the image of Our Lady of Einsiedln.
Was the Virgin black? If not, why is this image black? As no reason
is given, except the authority of the Church, which has received it
as a true representation, vouched to be true by the miracles it has
worked, and is still working, we are left to what light we ourselves
may possess for the elucidation of the difficulty. The blackness
is intentional, because it is superimposed on the material, and is
repeated in every reproduction of the image. Now we are all aware that
blackness of complexion, one of the characteristics of the negroid
races, results from the presence in the cuticle of the granules of a
kind of pigment, which are not found in the cuticle of the European,
and which could not have been present, except to a very inconsiderable
degree, in that of a Jewess, especially in one of the house and lineage
of David. In the days, however, of Charlemagne, when Ste. Hildegarde
of Zurich gave the original black image to the anchorite of the House
of Hohenzollern, who retired with it to the spot where Einsiedln now
stands, to tend and to serve it, matters of this kind were not thought
about; such distinctions were not understood: nor are they at this day
understood, or thought about, by the peasants of the Valais; though
probably a day will come when it will be otherwise even with them. We,
however, cannot help noticing them, and adverting to them, when this
image is before us.
The Virgin is here represented as by her complexion of the negroid
race. In multitudes of other images, the genuineness and authenticity
of which is vouched for by the same authority, she is represented
by the same token, that of complexion, as a Caucasian. A Jewess of
the house and lineage of David might, possibly, have been as fair
as a Caucasian: so that may pass. But she could not have been as
swart as the negroid race. That would have been impossible. But the
greater impossibility--supposing impossibility to admit of degrees--is
that which this authority vouches for, that she was both as fair
as a Caucasian and as swart as a negro. Under which colour, then?
Infallible authority. Speak, or die. It is not possible to ride off on
the assertion that this is a matter of no consequence at all. If the
peasant of the Valais is to prostrate himself before this image, let
it at all events have some verisimilitude. It is, however, true that
there are some questions of a graver character, which have to be asked,
and for which each will have, himself, to find an answer. If authority
betrays ignorance in this particular of colour, what guarantee have
we that its ignorance stops here? If it be mistaken in this, how can
we be sure that it does not make mistakes in other particulars; for
instance, in having any image at all of the Virgin, here, or elsewhere;
and in addressing prayer to her as a mediator or intercessor, for we
have no authority for putting these words into a feminine form? If, in
the matter of colour, the authority we had previously been referring to
says that black is white; and that white is black; and that there is no
difference between them; why may it not rule, in a similar fashion,
in other matters? If it is ignorant, mistaken, and contradictory in
that which is least, supposing it to affirm that these points are of
that category, we have another authority--this time an authority we
all defer to--for believing that it may be ignorant, mistaken, and
contradictory in that which is greater. If the abbot and his sixty
brethren--to say nothing about the infallible head of the Church--are
not themselves at all ignorant, or mistaken, in this matter of the
black-faced, and black-handed image, their position is not thereby at
all improved. From whatever side, then, we look at it, there is about
it something ugly.
* * * * *
The world has lately been startled at the manner in which the Church
of Rome, after centuries of indifference to pilgrimages, has, all of a
sudden, woke up to a sense of their advantages and necessity. They are
now being preached up everywhere; but most loudly in France, Italy,
and Romanist Germany. Why particularly just now? Why was not this done
equally one, or two, hundred years ago? And why, just at this moment,
in these countries? Everything has a cause. There was a reason why
they were not preached up one, or two, centuries ago; and there is a
reason for their being preached up now. And it requires no great amount
of sagacity to make out the reason in each case. They are preached up
now, because pilgrimages are supposed to be a very good device for
stirring up the fanaticism of the ignorant; and it is hoped that,
when fanaticism has been stirred up, it may be directed against the
Governments of Italy, Germany, and France. _Voila tout._ They are not
preached up because they may be profitable to the saving of souls: for,
if that were the reason, they ought to have been preached up as much a
hundred years ago as to-day. They are preached up now, because it is
believed that the spirit they engender may be turned to account in the
game the Church of Rome is now playing. Its platform, just at present,
is to exasperate the ignorant classes, everywhere, against government.
Hence its denunciations of Cæsarism, of which nothing was heard as
long as Napoleon III. was acting in conformity to the dictation of the
priests. Pilgrimages are a plank of this platform.
Those, who come to this conclusion, will go on to ask, whether that
Church is likely to win by these means? We may deem the means both
dishonest and insufficient: still it would be unwise for that reason,
or for any other, to think lightly of our opponents. Your harpoon may
be fixed securely in a whale’s vitals; still, if you do not take care
what you are about, he may foul your boat with his head, or lash it
with his tail, and throw all your hands into the water, and be the
death of some of them. He must die: but if you do not keep a good
look-out, he will get you into trouble before he dies.
Consider the situation: and you will see that you can afford to wait,
and to be calm. Everything in the world that is great, and growing, is
on your side: east, north, and west. In the eyes of the great empire of
Russia, that will soon number 100,000,000 of subjects, the Church of
Rome is regarded, and historically this is not a mistake, as merely an
unorthodox and schismatic communion. Germany, the great intellectual
and military power of the day, has just crumpled up the political
bulwark of the Church of Rome, and is now confronting the machinations
of that Church itself; which, by the way, had had no small share in
the creation of the animosity that brought its political bulwark to
rush upon destruction. Next comes England, the busiest, the wealthiest,
and the most prolific of all people, whose empire is greater than that
of Rome was of old; and to whom it has been given, as the mother of
nations, to occupy the wide waste places of the earth. And then in the
New World we have already nearly 50,000,000 of English-speaking people,
and these every five-and-twenty years double their numbers. Russia,
then, and Germany, and England, and the United States must all be put
into the scale which weighs the opponents of Rome. And what is to be
put into the scale in which Rome weighs her resources? Chiefly Italy,
France, and Spain--the Latin race. And how do they stand affected to
the Church of Rome? And what are they doing for her? They know her
best. But the truth is that they know her too well to like her, to
trust her, to believe in her, or to do anything for her. All, of
late years, they have done, that has any bearing on her interests, is
against her. And how does she meet all this? By the pronunciamento of
Infallibility. And what does that mean? It means, looking back, that
all the mistakes, and all the crimes of the past are to be maintained;
and just now it means the syllabus, and pilgrimages. We can, then,
afford to be calm: but we must take care not to be struck by the flap
of the tail of the distracted and dying monster.
It is hard, upon this subject, to find anything to say to those who
are incapable of understanding that force of mind is rightfully, and,
in the long run, practically the greatest force among men; that force
of mind is compounded of moral and of intellectual elements; and that
neither individuals, nor, and still less, nations who submit alike
understanding and conscience to the dictation of Roman Infallibility,
which has ever acted with a view to its own supposed interests, can
be morally and intellectually strong. Russia, Germany, England, and
the United States are not in subjection to this thraldom; and that
is a reason, perhaps the chief reason, of their vigour. France is
in the unhappy condition of either submitting to it, or of becoming
irreligious. At present, therefore, it would almost seem that she can
only be strong in proportion as she becomes irreligious. It is the
Church of Rome that has brought her into this dilemma. Irreligion,
though stronger than thraldom, is weaker than moral and intellectual
power animated by religion.
But to go back to our pilgrimages: that to Paray-le-Monial, we have
heard so much of lately, has some bearing on the pilgrimage to
Einsiedln. There are multitudes of old familiar places of pilgrimage
in Italy, France, and Spain. If pilgrimages are to be made, why not to
one of them? The virtue of pilgrimages to them has, in other times,
been loudly proclaimed. Why then are they, now, to be set aside,
and ignored? And this in favour of a new place? Simply, because the
world, including the Romanist world, has advanced. If, therefore, in
the face of a world that has advanced, and that discusses everything,
pilgrimages are to be preached up, something that has the appearance
of being more religious, more reasonable, more spiritual, more
Christian than the old objects of pilgrimage must be presented in
their stead. We can hardly picture to ourselves even the intrepid
Archbishop of Westminster preaching up pilgrimages to the black-faced
image of Einsiedln. The commonplace visions of the feazy imagination
of the nun of Paray-le-Monial, to some extent, met the difficulty.
Here was something that might, in a sense, be preached in Paris and
in London. True those visions could not bear examination; but few
people are disposed, or, should they be, are able to examine such
matters thoroughly. And true, also, that what was selected from those
visions, to be presented to the Romanist world as the new object of
pilgrimages, involves many assumptions: for instance, it assumes that
a conception, which is purely spiritual, has a physical, earthly,
material form and substance; and then, furthermore, that the heart is
the seat and organ of the affections, and that the brain is not. This
may, or it may not, be both good physiology, and good psychology: but,
as yet, it requires proof. In the meantime it may be suggested that the
heart has evidently another duty to perform, which in itself would go
some way towards disproving the supposition which supplied the form of
the poor nun’s hallucinations. And with respect to the lower animals,
there is nothing to lead us to believe that the heart is the seat and
organ of what affections they possess. The assumption, however, of
these points would, for the present, be less damaging than that of
those involved in the old objects of pilgrimage.
But in forming our opinions on matters of this kind, we must consider
not only our own position, and must regard the points in debate not
only from our own point of view, but must also endeavour to understand
the position, and the point of view, of the Romanist. Pilgrimages
must now be preached up, because the Church of Rome supposes that it
wants Crusades. It would be impossible to preach up pilgrimages to the
black-faced image of Einsiedln. The object now presented to the devout
must be something that admits of open advocacy in the face of the
world. Everything must be done now, more or less, in the light of day.
The visions of the poor nun of Paray-le-Monial supplied, passably, what
was required. It would, too, be in these times very desirable that some
new object of this kind should be made, if possible, to supersede the
old objects: their day was gone by.
We must also, in endeavouring to understand the policy of the Church
of Rome, look at things from the point of view of an Infallible
Church. Its Infallibility obliges it to accept, and maintain for ever,
everything it ever at any time accepted, or maintained. It cannot
disclaim the practice, or the principle, of the Inquisition; nor can
it acknowledge that the black-faced image was a mistake. It has bound
itself, irrevocably, to the maintenance of everything it ever taught or
did. Its assumption of Infallibility obliges it to hold that everything
it has taught, and is teaching, rests upon precisely the same ground
and authority; that all must stand, or that all must fall, together;
and that all must stand, or that all must fall, together with its
system: the black-faced image, and the plenary remission, of Einsiedln,
belief in the being of God, and in the infallibility of the Pope of
Rome, truth of every kind, and the practice of every virtue. Arrogance,
disregard for, and distrust of truth, worldliness, unbelief, cowardice
can go no further. In this statement they all together culminate in one
climax.
Morality and religion, however, do not depend for their being on the
Church of Rome. They existed before it, and will exist after it, and
notwithstanding it. Even its immorality and irreligion will not, we
may be sure, permanently be able to injure morality and religion, even
in the Romanist world. France, Italy, and Spain will recover. Morality
and religion are eternal; for morality, as we now know by an induction
from all kindreds of men, through all ages, in every form and stage of
barbarism, and in every form and stage of civilization, is the order
of the family, and of society: the very word itself indicates this.
And religion is morality, practised not merely with reference to the
requirements of the family, and of society, but also with reference to
what in these, and in all other, domains of morality is required of us
by our conceptions of God, and of a future life. The effect of these
conceptions on morality is that they enlarge, elevate, and purify it;
and give additional motives for its practice. Morality is eternal,
because it is inherent in, and inseparable from domestic, social,
political, and individual life. And religion, the principle of the
spiritual life, which, of course, is still human life in this world,
is the same morality, only regulated, so far as present circumstances
admit, by a reference to the unseen world. All this has been obscured;
and morality and religion have been corrupted and perverted, by the
aims and claims, the policy and the developments, of the Church
of Rome. Knock away those aims and claims, that policy and those
developments, and then the Romanist world will have a chance of seeing
morality and religion in their true forms; and will also see--which the
teaching of the Church of Rome has done, and is doing, a great deal to
prevent it from seeing--that they are the salt, and the light of life;
which have been, for they inhere in the nature of human things, from
everlasting, and, for the same reason, must continue to everlasting.
Once more: morality is the right ordering of the life of the
individual, and of the family, and of society, and of the state;
internally, with a view to his, or its own well-being; and externally,
with a view to the well-being of all the rest. And it is not looking
too far afield to add what even the old heathen world saw, that it is
the right ordering of each with a view to the well-being of mankind,
generally; this makes its empire universal, for it advances its
dominion to the utmost limits of international law. All its forms
are both relative, and related. It is the same ideas and principles
applied to different natural units from the individual up to mankind.
Religion is the ordering of these forms of morality, when weighed in
the balance of the sanctuary. Our quarrel with Rome is that it weighs
them all in the balance of ecclesiastical domination. It shapes them
all in accordance with the requirements of this low, narrow, class
interest; and in every Catholic country these have, hitherto, been
found inconsistent with the requirements of the state, and of the
home, and of the individual. The perversion of that which is best
is, proverbially, the worst thing of all; and the perversions of the
Church of Rome have ever been a demonstration of the truth of the
proverb. From these perversions, for it is built up with them, and
they are of its essence, it can never, except accidentally, deviate.
If it were to begin to act upon the principle of the truth, the whole
truth, and nothing but the truth, and this for all, it would cease
to be the Church of Rome. It lowers to the level of its own worldly
interests, for everything must be subordinated to them, the life
of the individual, of the family, of society, and of the state; in
three words, truth, virtue, and religion: that is to say, all that
is best among men, all their dearest interests, all that makes life
desirable, and even tolerable. This is the interpretation of every
manifesto issued from Rome. We honour the devotion to their Church
of the poor peasants of the Valais, and of all others who honestly,
and in simplicity of mind, believe in it; be they individuals, or be
they nations. But, in respect of that which is best, and highest, and
truest, there is a wide difference--wide as the poles apart--between
what it ought to be, to which these good people know their fealty to
be due, and that which is only its corruption and perversion: again,
the cause of its corruption and perversion being that those, who lord
it over the Church of Rome have, somehow or other, been brought
to seek first not that which is truest, and highest, and best, but
ecclesiastical domination, and to that to subordinate everything. And
hence it is that it has come about, that when men ask for bread the
lords of that Church can offer only something very like a stone; when
for light, only something very like darkness; when for the highest
life, only a low form of life; when for truth, only the infallibility
of Mastai Ferretti.
* * * * *
Few things can be more laughable than the threats of social and
political cataclysms, the charges of falsehood, unbelief, and other
theological abuse, the misrepresentations of facts, of motives, and
of history, which are ever on the tongue of the head of the Romanist
Church, to be echoed by his subordinate array of Archbishops and
Bishops, and their mediæval-minded proselytes, always accompanied, in
the name of peace and religion, with earnest deprecations of every kind
of controversy, and even of so much as a word in reply: for if a man
smite you on the right cheek, ought you not to turn to him the other
also? Or if he take away your coat, ought you not to let him have your
cloak also? At all events, one profession, and that a legitimate one,
would find its occupation gone, and another, but this an illegitimate
one, would find its occupation far smoother and more profitable than
would be for the general good, were society to allow any such method
of proceeding in the management of its worldly affairs, and in the
protection of its worldly goods: though, of course, it may be quite
different with respect to the higher matters of truth, morality, and
religion. The proposal amounts simply to this: ‘Just allow us to make
whatever accusations, and whatever claims, may suit our purpose.
However false and injurious the accusations, and however groundless and
injurious the claims, pray do not say a word in reply. Only be silent,
and allow judgment to go against you by default. Nothing can be easier
and more reasonable. All will then be well. Should you act otherwise,
the whole blame, it is clear, will rest with you.’