The Catholic World, Vol. 06, October, 1867 to March, 1868.Various
Religion
The Catholic World, Vol. 06, October, 1867 to March, 1868.
Various
Catholic Church -- Periodicals
Then, after showing how the Anglican system expels from itself
the enthusiasm it can neither wield nor control, he proceeds to
draw his contrast:
"Far different is the policy of Rome. The ignorant enthusiast
whom the Anglican Church makes an enemy, and, whatever the
polite and learned may think, a most dangerous enemy, the
Catholic Church makes a champion. She bids him nurse his beard,
covers him with a gown and hood of coarse, dark stuff, ties a
rope round his waist, and sends him forth to teach in her name.
He costs her nothing. He takes not a ducat away from the
resources of her beneficed clergy. He lives by the alms of
those who respect his spiritual character and are grateful for
his instructions. He preaches not exactly in the style of
Massillon, but in a way which moves the passions of uneducated
hearers; and all his influence is employed to strengthen the
church of which he is a minister. To that church he becomes as
strongly attached as any of the cardinals whose scarlet
carriages and liveries crowd the entrance of the palace on the
Quirinal. In this way the Church of Rome unites in herself all
the strength of establishment, and all the strength of dissent.
With the utmost pomp of a dominant hierarchy above, she has all
the energy of the voluntary system below. It would be easy to
mention very recent instances in which the hearts of hundreds
of thousands, estranged from her by the selfishness, sloth, and
cowardice of the beneficed clergy, have been brought back by
the zeal of the begging friars. At Rome the Countess of
Huntingdon would have a place in the calendar as St. Sabina,
and Mrs. Fry would be foundress and first superior of the
blessed order of Sisters of the Gaols.
{190}
Place Ignatius Loyola at Oxford: he is certain to become the
head of a formidable secession. Place John Wesley at Rome: he
is certain to be the first general of a new society devoted to
the interests and honor of the church. Place Johanna Southcote
at Rome: she founds an order of barefooted Carmelites, every
one of whom is ready to suffer martyrdom for the church; a
solemn service is consecrated to her memory; and her statue,
placed over the holy water, strikes the eye of every stranger
who enters St. Peter's."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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