the Teutonic race spread over Italy, as the Sclavonic over Greece; the "Barbarian" possess those crops of ancient art? Who can say what shall succeed an effete race of men?

In the ecclesiastical condition of France, there is the samne wavering to and fro, which has long distinguished all the action of this Gallo-Romanic people. Since the Reformation, her course has been fearfully inconsistent. The Protestant Theology came to France in the form of Calvinism. The political character of that form of religion, so inimical to royalty and all centralization of power, made it hateful to the monarchic politicians, even Francis I. regarding it as hostile "to all monarchy, divine or human;" its severe morality, its devout earnestness and simplicity, were detestable to the wealthy nobles. But it was welcomed by the manufacturing and mercantile classes, and gained for a time such privileges as even Catholicism did not possess. But the Protestant star set in a sea of blood. Now France is more ultramontane in its character than ever since the days of Chancellor Gerson. In all things the nation fluctuates ; now with loud acclaim the public declare the unalienable Rights of Man, and seek to build thereon a Human State; then, with acclamations yet louder, they welcome a despotism. One day they deify a courtesan as Goddess of Reason, then turn and worship the Pope, and then enthrone Louis Napoleon as Emperor.

At this day France seems to reproduce the phenomena of the Lower Empire. Paris is a modern Byzantium-the period of decadence appears to have begun. But there is intellectual activity, profound, various, and versatile; no nation had ever such talent for clearness of sight, accuracy of discrimination, and attractive nicety of statement. Not be. wildered as the Germans by the refinement of subtlety, the French mind sees and reports the real distinctions however nice. But no nation has a more divided consciousness. Catholicism is the religion of the State; with the wealthy and educated classes of men it seems to be only a state-religion, a mere spectacle, as remote from their convictions as the heathenism of Rome from the mind of Cicero and Cæsar. The priests forget the lessons of Bossuet, and are Roman rather than Gallic, so medieval in their tendencies. But the philosophers-the historians, naturalists, metaphysicians, economists, what is their religion? The two extremes of VOL. XI.-Theism, &c.

с

speculation are united in the consciousness of the nation, which accepts alike Helvetius and Thomas à Kempis. France does nothing to remove the contradiction from the mind of Christendom; nay, she increases the trouble by developing each extreme. The "Eclectic Philosophy" of modern France does not appear as yet in the Theology of this most elastic nation.

Yet at this time France has a great influence on the mind of Christendom. The powerful Catholic party reprints the old masters of thought, expounds the history of times gone by, not forgetful that scholasticism-which sought to reconcile the history of the Church with the nature of man-was borne in her bosom. Catholic France has more intellectual life than all the other Romanic races, and does great service to mankind. Abelard and Descartes were her children. But, alas, her theological function is only conservative, not creative, not even critical. The clean and the unclean are equally taken into her ark, and equally honoured while there.

66

The philosophical party influence the world by their science, history, and letters; the rich wine of Germany is here clarified, decanted, and made ready for popular use. But enlightened France does not study Theology. Few important works in that science have got printed there since the “Great Encyclopedia" made its appearance, and smote Theology to the ground. The Bible is printed in France as in England; it is studied in Germany. The philosophers do little to mediate between Sceptism-which stops with d'Holbach, or Voltaire-and Superstition, which seeks to believe what is impossible and because it is impossible. It is a strange phenomenon that there should be a new advent of the Virgin Mary" in France at the same time M. Comte publishes his "System of Positive Philosophy," making "a new Supreme Being" out of the mass of men, all of them deemed merely mortal! The old defences of the Popular Theology are republished; but of what avail are they to men who have read Bayle and the Encyclopédie? At one extreme of society, the Jesuits revive the Theology of Thomas Aquinas; at the other extreme there is the foremost Science of the age. Religion never fails from the heart of a nation-but when the Theology which is taught in the name of religion, and as the indispensable condition thereof, is at variance with the convictions of every enlightened man; when it is not believed

by the priests who teach it more than by the philosophers who will not smile at it,-why, the religious development of the nation is attended with the greatest difficulties.

The Latin Church has disciples in the Teutonic familyamong Scandinavians, Germans, and Anglo-Saxons. But they are chiefly found in those countries where the government is most despotic, or where the intellectual activity of the people, even of the learned, is the feeblest. The cruel persecution of the Irish Catholics, so long and so systematically carried on by the British government, converted men and women of Protestant families to the faith of the patient and heroic sufferers. Of late years some of the most pious and most learned men of England-so it seems to one at this distance -have gone back to the bosom of the Latin Church. Doubtless there is much in that Church which the English Establishment has unwisely left behind. The relapse of English Churchmen to Catholicism shows at least that there is some life and a real desire for piety and religious tranquillity in that least Protestant of the new Churches. Within twenty years past the Catholic Theology has had considerable influence on the English mind.

The Scandinavian, Dutch, and Belgic Catholics have little. appreciable influence on the mind of Europe at this day. The intellectual activity of these nations does not appear in a Catholic form. Perhaps it would not be possible to mention a Catholic book published in these countries during the present century, which has had any appreciable influence on the thought or feeling of Europe. Yet in Belgium there is considerable religious life; at this distance it appears the most religiously Catholic country of Europe.

Amongst other Catholics of the Teutonic family there is more intellectual activity. Valuable books relating to Catholic Theology are published in the German tongue. Hebrew and Christian antiquity is carefully studied; much thought goes to the exposition of the Scriptures, to the study of ecclesiastical history. An attempt is made by able and learned men to reconcile the Catholic Theology of the Middle Ages with the most advanced speculations of Kant and Hegel. Among the German Catholics of the present century there are the honourable names of Jahn, Hug, Wessenberg, Möhler, Movers, Staudenmaier, and others of perhaps equal merit, who

would be an honour to any nation. Books full of religious life also come up from the fresh consciousness of men,—both mystical and practical. The Latin Church seems to have more intellectual and religious life in the country of Martin Luther than elsewhere in the world. But still the new thought, the new feeling which controls the Teutonic population is far from Catholic. The new religious life-mystical or practical-is not Roman. The German Catholic movement of Ronge only weakens the Latin Church. Of the six eminent Catholics just named, half are obviously heretical; two of them have been put in the Index. Intellectual activity is the deadliest foe of the Roman Church and its mediæval divinity. Any attempt to reconcile her Theology with the Science of the nineteenth century must needs end, as the Schloasticism of the Middle Ages, in the conviction that the two are natural opposites.

It is idle to suppose the Latin Church can accept anything new and good from the science of these times. Her only strength is to stand still; if she moves she must perish: "infallible," Immobility and Intolerance are the indispensable conditions of her existence. The Protestants may learn from the Catholics as the Christians from the Jews and the Heathens; but it is not possible for the Catholics to learn from the Protestants-more than for the Heathen, or the Hebrew, to take any new truth from the Christians.

Celtic and other disciples of the Latin Church appear in the portion of America settled by the Teutonic population. They have influence only by their numbers and gregarious action. The laity are subordinate to the clergy, who are the lowest, the most ignorant, filthy, and oppressive ministers on the continent, and as elsewhere, studiously keep the people in darkness and the most slavish subjection. The Latin Church has lost none of her intolerance and despotism by removing to America; learning nothing and forgetting nothing, she still claims the right to cut off the head of heresy with the sword. She only wants the power. The toothless old lion of the medieval wilderness, his claws pared off, roams abroad in the new world; he journeys in "clippers," in steamboats, in railway cars; looks at the ballot-box, the free school, the newspapers, and the Bible, hating them all. Now and then he roars after the old fashion; but no Inquisition echoes his

voice. He has no teeth, no claws; is not a dangerous beast. He loved European Slavery; he loves also American Slavery; and equally hates a negro and a scholar.

A great tide of immigration sets continually to America. It is chiefly Catholics who come, many pious and holy men among them with whom their Theology is the result of conviction, at least of satisfied experience; many are ignorant, low, and unfortunate men, who are Catholics from position, they cannot yet go alone in religion, and wish a priest with assumed authority to guide, or push, or drive them. Fear of the priest and of hell is the hangsman's knot to hold them in order. But many are Catholics in Europe from indifference or from fear. In America they cease to be Catholics. the immigrants from Catholic countries in the present century, with their descendants, amount to four millions-a moderate estimate-then it appears that out of thirteen persons who were reputed Catholics in Europe, or are actually born of such, not four remain in the communion of the Catholic Church of America.

If

In the Latin Church, as a whole, little is done to reconcile the actual consciousness of men with the traditional Theology. Scotus Erigena taught that "all authority which is not confirmed by right reason seems to be weak ; " “accordingly we must resort to reason first and authority afterwards." The Scholastic movement may be dated from these words, whereon Erigena stood well nigh alone in his time. Now the aim of the Latin Church-nay, it always has been-is to subordinate Man to the Church, reason to the tradition of the past, or the caprice of the present: accordingly she does not allow her disciples to study any one of the sciences in the normal manner, with perfectly free individuality of spirit. Hence she aims to control the intellectual convictions of mankind, making her medieval catechism the norm of all science. To this end she endeavours to keep the mass of her people uneducated, for "ignorance is the mother of devotion such as she requires; so she hates the free school and the free pulpit and the free press. She hampers the learned class of men and prohibits them from publishing their individual. opinions; and hinders them from reading the books which. contain the new sentiments and ideas of the times. The bosom of this Church feeds the most odious tyrannies of the age. Her clergy with honourable exceptions-are the allies,