Joseph McCabe

“ Whatever may be their future — and so long as socialism is kept in check they have every favourable condition — it is quite clear that any serious attempt to purify, to vitalise and spiritualise their fraternity will meet bitter opposition, and will, if successful, considerably reduce their numbers: no large body of men will ever again sincerely adopt an ascetical spirit in their common life. ”

“ One of the greatest concerns of a superior is his wine-cellar, for he knows well that his chance of re-election is closely connected with it: in fact, on one occasion, when I had asked why a certain young friar seemed to be a popular candidate for the highest position before an election, I was told with a smile that ‘his brother was a wine merchant.’ Wherever I went in Belgium, to monasteries, nunneries, or private houses, I found that teetotalism was regarded as a disease whose characteristic microbe was indigenous to the British Isles. ”

“ Not very many years ago a young advocate at the Brussels Catholic conference declared himself a Christian Socialist, and was emphatically suppressed by the clerical and aristocratic members: now, if it were not for Christian Socialism, Rome would soon lose its hold of the peasantry. Socialism, avowedly anti-Christian as it is, has secured the industrial classes and is undoubtedly making progress amongst the peasantry. However, it cannot join forces with waning Liberalism, for it hates the bourgeoisie ”

“ It is a firm decree of a monastic order that the religious costume must never be laid aside: it is still decreed in English law that any person wearing a monastic habit in the public streets shall be imprisoned, and although the law has become a dead letter, experiment has shown the practice to be attended with grave inconveniences. ”

“ Unfortunately the modern sophist finds little earnest and disinterested attention, even in universities: modern students of the great science are widely removed from the restless zeal of Athens or Alexandria or mediæval Paris. Mgr. Mercier is also burdened with an obligation to adhere to the teaching of Thomas of Aquin—the least critical, perhaps, of an age of rampant dogmatism—who is the present favourite at the Papal court. However, Rome keeps a jealous eye on Louvain philosophy since the outbreak of heterodoxy under the famous Ubaghs some thirty years ago. ”

“ A new party which is hardly a generation old and which has had a marvellously rapid growth is presumed to have acquired a serious momentum: it consists almost entirely of converts, and the average convert is conscious of his opinions and zealous for them. The adherents to the old party may be still, to a great extent, in their traditional apathy, and only need their minds to be quickened in order to change position. And in Belgium, if we merely listen to the clerical party itself, such would seem to be the state of affairs. ”

“ Politics and religion are so confused in Belgium that the religious status of the country has been revealed roughly at every general election. For many years there has been a fierce struggle between Liberalism and Catholicism, in which the orthodox party has been frequently overpowered; and Liberalism, as is well known, is the anti-clerical, free-thought party. ”

“ The clerical students, who live as a rule in the colleges, are priests who have distinguished themselves in their ordinary theological course, and who have been forwarded by their respective bishops to graduate at the university. Few of them, indeed, reach the full term of a university career and secure the doctor’s cap in theology, philosophy, or canon law, for their bishops are compelled by financial and other pressure—frequently by the unsatisfactory results of their examinations—to withdraw them prematurely to the active work of the diocese. ”

“ All food is sent in in kind by the surrounding peasantry except, usually, meat and beer, which are bought through the syndic: a lay-brother is constantly wandering about the country begging provisions for the friars, and the response is generous both in quantity and quality. The brown habit is sure to elicit sympathy—especially in the form of liquid, and even the railway officials accept a note from the friary when a ticket is necessary: I have travelled all over Belgium, visited Waterloo, &c., as comfortably as a tourist, without touching a centime from one end of the year to the other. ”

“ As every religious order, and therefore every school of theology (as was explained in a preceding chapter) , is formidably represented in the town, very lively scenes are sometimes witnessed in the discussion of the theses; in fact, certain controversies have had to be practically excluded from the list of debatable questions in order to avoid an undignified delay of the proceedings from the Jesuits and Dominicans in the gallery. The success of the student is, however, practically guaranteed by the mere fact of his presentation by a professor. ”

“ English law does not recognise the peculiar effects of a vow of poverty, and English railway companies and others are unwilling to accept a billet from a religious superior instead of the coin of the realm. ”

“ The fidelity of the people must be tested, as in France, by their obedience to the grave obligations of the Church. Under such a test the Catholicism of Belgium is not found to be very deep or substantial: one may confidently predict, although the wisdom of uniting religious and political issues may be called in question, a steady growth of the anti-clerical party. ”

“ The patriotic Germans naturally prefer their own vigorous, though less venerable, University of Innspruck. Britons and Americans have always been represented in its colleges very sparsely, for they have been usually attracted to the fountain head, to Rome, in their thirst for higher doctrine; now America has its great Washington University, and English Catholicism will, ere long, bring to an end its self-imposed banishment from Oxford and Cambridge. The recent efforts to form a Catholic colony at Cambridge have awakened the Jesuits to a counter demonstration of zeal at Oxford ”

“ All the clerical students are intended by their bishops to become professors in their seminaries, and, in addition to their degree in theology, they are directed to follow the particular course which will benefit them. Still a spirit of narrow utilitarianism pervades all ranks: the lay students have a definite profession in view and have no superfluous industry to devote to supererogatory studies, the priests think of little else besides their theology or philosophy. ”

“ It soon became apparent, however, that perfection, in their opinion, consisted very largely in a purely mechanical and lifeless discipline. Much stress was laid upon their exact observance of the letter of the constitutions, which we English friars conspicuously neglected. In most of the monasteries they arose at midnight for office, observed all the fasts diligently, would not touch a sou with a shovel, never laid aside their religious habit, and never interfered in secular business. ”

“ One difference between the Belgian and the English system is that few of the students live in the colleges, scattered at intervals over the town, which form the university. They are usually only lecture halls, and their attendant rooms and museums; the students live in the houses of the townspeople, for the town exists merely for the accommodation of the university. ”

“ At present they are making strenuous efforts to reorganise and improve their scheme of study: one or two earnest men are striving against the dead weight of materialism which is oppressing them, and possibly time will bring an improvement, though it can only be by a sacrifice in point of numbers which all are unwilling to make. The two points in which the glory of the fraternity is thought to consist are the maintenance of a perfect formal discipline and the increase of members. The Belgian friars are wrongly endeavouring to secure both points at once. ”

“ Ecclesiastics, of course, will still have to be sent abroad to develop in a purer atmosphere, and will continue to prefer Rome to Louvain; large numbers of them still receive their ordinary training in Spain or at Rome. Still Louvain could boast many nationalities amongst its 1,600 students.
The long struggle between Catholicism and Liberalism in Belgium has had the effect of marking off Louvain amongst its universities as distinctively Catholic. ”

“ The Dominicans have also a large international college in the town, and the American bishops a fourth, in which European volunteers for the American missions are trained. The rivalry which results, although it does occasionally overflow the channel of fraternal charity, helps to sustain the ebbing vitality of the Belgian Church, and turns its attention from the rapid growth of Rationalism and Socialism. ”

“ Then the philosopher has the advantage of attending, with the medical students, scientific courses under men who are eminent in their respective sciences, and the student of theology and Scripture attends lectures in the Oriental languages under equally distinguished professors. ”

“ The youngest novices take three pints of beer per day, for they take no tea in the afternoon, and soon learn to look out for every opportunity of an extra pint. Spirits are forbidden, though a few of the elders who have been on the English mission have developed a taste for whisky. They tell a curious story in connection with it in one of their monasteries. ”

“ Thus the power of the Church remains as yet slightly in the ascendant: it can command little more than half the votes of the country. So much is clear from election results; but in a country which is fermenting with new ideas mere statistics teach very little of themselves. ”

“ Confession was taken as a safe test, for annual confession is essential, and its integrity is equally demanded under pain of mortal sin. However the Walloon boasted that you could believe a Walloon in the confessional, but certainly not a Fleming. ”

“ Persian is never demanded, and even Arabic (though the professor is an Arabic scholar of the first rank) is rarely mentioned. Hebrew must be undertaken by aspirants for theological degrees, but Syriac has few devotees.
I was requested by my authorities to follow the course of Hebrew under M. Van Hoonacker. In the old province of Grey Friars in England there had always been a professorship of Hebrew, and a desire was felt in certain quarters to emulate the glory of our ancestors in that respect. ”

“ They hear great numbers of confessions, principally of the surrounding peasantry, and have frequent ceremonies in their churches, but, as there are usually many of them, the work occupies little time. ”