Joseph McCabe

“ The Church of Rome, after nineteen centuries of proud unquestioned dominion, comes to the tribunal of a keenly critical, ratiocinative, utilitarian generation. In an age of universal disillusion, its venerable antiquity gives no immunity from criticism; tradition has blundered almost in every portion of its theory of human life, its religious belief must be carefully tested. ”

“ Rome, the heir of the tact, ambition, and vigour of the Cæsars, the richest treasury of art, and a veritable hive of lawyers and diplomatists, controls and utilises the talent, the ambition, and the jealousy of its great sacerdotal army, and with easy confidence commands the attention of the civilised world. ”

“ If the mysterious dogmas which are common to all Christian sects invite criticism, nothing is gained in point of security by adding to them that microcosm of miracles — Transubstantiation — or the seven sacraments, or the vaguely floating tradition of an Immaculate Conception. Then, too, the Church of Rome is so dogmatic in its teaching, and has so frequently to abandon very positive positions. In other sects the privilege of private judgment and the absence of any adequate magisterium gives greater elasticity before hostile pressure. ”

“ In our own days, though there is a comparative lull in the storm of controversy and a comparative dearth of eminent thinkers on both sides, the struggle is still conspicuous in every page of every branch of literature. A great number of influential writers are well-known champions of one or other form of naturalism; it is hardly too much to say that the greater number of eminent exponents of literature, science, and art depart in some measure from the orthodox path. ”

“ And the great human consciousness that lives on and treasures up the scattered leaves of experience under the ebb and flow of endless generations, and that has at length awakened to the fact that many beliefs have been lightly imposed upon and accepted by it, will continue the struggle of its systematised thoughts through ages yet to come. ”

“ Again the ideal of a higher life which the Church of Rome advocates brings it into collision with all modern ways of thinking. Self-torment will never again be recognised by the world at large as the supreme virtue, yet the ‘saints’ of the Roman calendar are honoured principally for that practice. One of the most recent models whom the Church has raised up for the veneration of humanity, Benedict Joseph Labre, shows the exemplary record of having avoided labour and lived by mendicancy, and having deliberately cultivated the most filthy habits of life. ”

“ The Church of Rome, in particular, regards herself as the only effective guardian of morality, and the ethical function of its priests is their most prominent service. It will never submit to the transfer of ethical interests to a secular institution; otherwise it would be reduced to the condition of the Greek or Roman priesthood—a condition which would not last long in modern times. Yet the ethical societies are rapidly growing in importance. ”

“ It is usually said that women are the more reliable support of clericalism: we have at the present day in England an unusual number of brilliant women writers, but, though few of them (for reasons which may be left to the psycho-physiologist) profess extreme naturalism, few of them adhere strictly to the orthodox sacerdotal institutions. The issue of the struggle is, therefore, the object of much anxious speculation.
The place which the Church of Rome is destined to occupy in this struggle is a matter of much interest, and it is usually conceded that it will be a very prominent position. ”

“ Such would seem to be the peculiar strength of the Church of Rome in the religious struggle, as distinguished from all other Christian sects. The influences at work for its extension and consolidation are undoubtedly effective, but side by side with them it has many characteristic weaknesses which seem to give less security to its fabled immortality. In the first place, seeing that it does not shrink from and repudiate the rational criterion which the new-born age is applying to every existing institution, its very vastness is a source of danger ”

“ Non-Catholics are gravely reminded that it is ethically imperative to study both sides of every religious question. Catholics are told in the same breath that it is sinful for them to read the works of opponents, because, naturally, they are already in possession of the truth and must not endanger its possession. ”

“ The religious condition of France is well known to be highly unsatisfactory. Tested by the safe criterion of fidelity to grave obligations—such as weekly attendance at Mass and annual confession—French people seem to be fast losing their traditional faith. It is usually said, and observation of French churches seems to confirm the statement, that French women remain faithful. There is another test of fidelity which raises a serious doubt on that point. The Church of Rome is known by all its votaries to condemn neo-Malthusian practices under pain of mortal sin ”

“ At the same time Catholics are indulged to some extent in their wayward anxiety to know what opponents are saying by having the objections formulated for them in their own apologetical literature—with satisfactory solutions appended. Here again the peculiarity of the Catholic controversial method tells in its immediate favour. As one would expect, most of the objections which are formulated have been carefully prepared for the express purpose of refutation; no Catholic writer ever gives an accurate version of hostile criticism. ”

“ But the Church of Rome bears the luxuriant overgrowth in dogma, and ethics, and ritual, and polity, and discipline of 2,000 years of freedom; it practically denies the activity of a purely human element in its growth, and attributes its whole intricate scheme to a divinely-guided unfolding of a divine revelation, in the face of Buddhism and other analogous growths. ”

“ Mallock; the revolutionary movement finds its chief antagonist in the Church of Rome, which wages with it a guerre à outrance. How extensive that movement is, embracing all who accept the results of philosophical, scientific, and Biblical criticism, and how powerfully represented in every branch of literature, even (and conspicuously) in fiction, is too well known and too frequently pointed out by sacerdotalists themselves to be commented upon. ”

“ Every sense is appealed to and finds gratification in a Roman ceremony; every art is pressed into its service. In Protestant countries, where the ancient reaction against Roman corruption has reduced ceremonies to a state of spiritual nudity, this influence is found to be most potent. Indeed, a comparison of the percentage of 'converts' in different parishes with the sensuous attractiveness of their services would yield interesting results.
Other forces which are peculiarly at work in the Church of Rome can only be briefly mentioned. ”

“ But one result is even now detaching itself from the solemn struggle; a feeling of tolerance, a diminution of selfishness, a mutual trust and sympathy, a recognition that all are earnestly interpreting to the best of their power that shadow of a higher world that has somehow been cast upon the life of man. ”

“ Owing to its profound antiquity and its comprehensive range it can enumerate a long series of humanitarian works which have been achieved by men who happened to be ecclesiastics; these become an imposing record of the Church’s wondrous benefits to humanity in art, science, sociology, and philanthropy. So even in ethics the Church of Rome professes a more effective promotion of the welfare of humanity than other Churches, though in this department its claim of special power does not seem difficult to impugn. ”

“ In the United States, England, and Germany, especially, a number of ethical societies have been founded and propagated with much zeal. Frequently they do not profess hostility to ecclesiastical institutions, but the mere fact that they advocate the transference of ethical life to a non-theological basis marks them out as enemies. ”

“ Usefulness to humanity is the principle virtue in the eyes of the modern world, and the Church pays little heed to that in canonisation. In fact, the very essence of its ethical teaching is entirely at variance with modern views ”

“ A fourth influence of a less tangible and definable character, but infinitely more dangerous in tendency and more rapid in growth, may be set down under the name of Erotism. It may be thought that this is no new danger, but the world-old revolt of human nature against that moral law whose enforcement was boldly undertaken by Christianity. ”

“ John Damascene until the sixteenth century almost all the talent of the civilised world has contributed to the formation of that system; it is a truism to say that it is plausible. Enduring almost unchanged through ten centuries, and eliciting the veneration of almost the entire intellectual world, it presents a majestic contrast to the theologies of more recent growth. ”

“ In the political world the Church has met with harsh treatment from time immemorial, and its own diplomatic power has grown keen in the long contest. But the political anti-clerical movement of modern times is in a very different position from the violent movements of that character which are dispersed throughout history. ”

“ To the same great force must be added (from the present point of view) a new and anxiously regarded power—Socialism. The Church is very sensible of approaching danger from this quarter, and therefore, instead of its traditional practice of fierce opposition to every new movement, we find it attempting a compromise by patronising ‘Christian Socialism.’ This sociological force is not in direct intellectual opposition, and does not spend much time in discussing the Church’s credentials ”

“ The vague and shadowy forms of religion which are now so widely accepted, and which do but embody the fundamental religious instinct and tradition in one meagre and purely speculative formula, will be confident enough of acquiescence. ”

“ Anglicans are allowed some hope of ultimate salvation, although even here there is grave anxiety; Archbishops of Canterbury, &c., are, of course, case-hardened, men like Gladstone are fully expected to make a death-bed repentance, and so on. But when we come to greater sceptics the credit of bona fides is stopped: they are one and all represented to be in bad faith. Thus every Catholic believes that the Emperor Julian (the atheist, they are pleased to call him) died in a fit of rage, crying ‘Galilæus vicit’ ”

“ Just as the Rationalist does not reject supra-rational theorems if they are not contra-rational, and if there is satisfactory evidence in their favour, so neither does the theologian reject the demands of reason for logical satisfaction. ”

“ Until the last century the anticlerical politician or diplomatist had no great anti-theological system to fall back upon. Now, the large body who are ever ready to spring up in reaction to the Church’s political encroachments have a powerful philosophy to appeal to. ”

“ In the present division of the world of thought and the imposing opposition to ecclesiastical teaching, that simple faith must be, and is, deeply affected; and erotism gains proportionately in power and stability. ”

“ During this and the preceding century the number of most powerful writers and thinkers from—Hume to Huxley, from Voltaire to Renan, from Kant to Wellhausen—who have withstood traditional authority in England, France, and Germany is deeply significant. ”

“ They may be all safely grouped under the banner of anti-sacerdotalism, and described as a vast modern intellectual movement directed against orthodox Christianity in general and particularly against the Church of Rome, the most dogmatic, conservative, and unyielding section of Christianity and the most powerful and most skilfully organised priesthood the world has ever seen. Non-Catholic sects have no stereotyped profession, they yield and adapt themselves to pressure with curious elasticity, as is so well illustrated in ‘The New Republic’ of Mr. ”

“ The free-love movement has also assumed important proportions, and counts some eminent literary exponents. Most important of all, there is an æsthetic and Hellenistic school which will prove a serious adversary of traditional ethics. ”

“ Its vast and powerful diplomatic body of legates, &c., and its incessant political intrigue have no parallel in any other religion; neither has the vast wealth which is contributed annually by an organised collection throughout the entire world. ”