officers, or to frame legislation; the working out of these principles must be left to other agencies. Either through the parties to which they belong or through independent organizations these Christian citizens must exercise their political functions."

The Church has a message on every subject related to human welfare. When men are hardened by materialism it proclaims eternal ideals. When scepticism attacks creeds, it is the pillar and ground of the faith. When superstition and ignorance enthrall the conscience, it stands for reasonableness and light. When anarchy stalks red-handed over the land, it is the champion of law and order. When the tyrant grinds the faces of the poor, it demands justice and equity. The Church is to rule the world, but "not by might nor by power but by my Spirit, saith the Lord.”

MODERNISM.

G. W. R.

The encyclical of Pius X., dated September 8, 1907, is one of the most notable theological documents of the current year. When Rome speaks the world still listens, but no longer trembles. The occasion for this utterance is not found in conditions outside, but inside, of the Roman Church. With the concern and grief of a father for his erring children, the Pope admonishes, and pleads with, his wayward sons. "That we make no delay in this matter," he says, " is rendered necessary especially by the fact that the partisans of error are to be sought not only among the Church's open enemies; they lie hid, a thing to be deeply deplored and feared, in her very bosom and heart."* Many of the laity and the priesthood are charged with holding" the poisonous doctrines." He admits, indeed, that they lead "a life of greatest activity, of assiduous and ardent application to every branch of learning, and that they possess, as a rule, a reputation for the strictest morality.”

*The quotations are taken from the translation of the Encyclical published by The Catholic Mind, Nos. 20. 21, 22.

Of course all this makes them only the more dangerous enemies of the Church.

What is meant by the term Modernism"?

The answer is found in the Encyclical which is divided into three parts as follows: (1) Analysis of Modernist Teaching; (2) Causes of Modernism; (3) Remedies. Printed in the REVIEW the material would cover about seventy pages. By far the greater portion of the space is given to the first part. The reasons assigned for dwelling at such length on the exposition of the erroneous doctrines are: first, to refute the charge of his opponents that he "does not understand their ideas"; and, second," to show that their system does not consist in scattered and unconnected theories but in a perfectly organized body, all the parts of which are solidly joined, so that it is not possible to admit one without admitting all." In our opinion both these ends have been accomplished. The Pope understands the fundamental principles of what he terms Modernism, so far as an opponent can. He has, also, demonstrated, what we have always contended for, that the difference between the medieval and the modern theology is not found in this or that doctrine, but in a general view of the world and of life. The two systems are principially antagonistic and irreconcilable. Unless the men in controvery will agree on the premises, it is love's labor lost to argue about conclusions. The modernist is considered as philosopher, believer, theologian, historian, critic, apologist, and reformer.

In the analysis of the philosophical foundation the theory of knowledge is found to be the point at issue. Modernism is said to deny that man, by the natural reason, can know God. The methods of Natural Theology are given up. In so far it is a species of agnosticism. But what the reason cannot discern is comprehended by faith. The positive side of the system is the theory of the "vital immanence" of God. He reveals Himself in the heart of man as sentiment." the presence of this unknowable, whether it is outside man and beyond the visible world of nature, or lies hidden within

"In

in the subconsciousness, the need of the divine, according to the principle of Fideism, excites in a soul with a propensity towards religion a certain special Sentiment, without any previous advertence of the mind; and this sentiment possesses, implied within itself both as its own object and its intrinsic cause, the reality of the divine, and in a way unites man with God. It is the sentiment to which Modernists give the name of faith, and this it is which they consider the beginning of religion." Their agnosticism is, therefore, not atheistic but theistic. Both the Pope and the Modernist believe in God but their way of approach to Him differs. A natural corollary of this view of revelation is the evolution of religion, corresponding to the progressive revelation of God in human consciousness, and the development of dogma by expressing in philosophical formulas the contents of the religious sentiment in the several stages of its growth. This theory undermines the Catholic idea of authority and the Pope calls it "an immense collection of sophisms, that ruins and destroys all religion." The refutation of the false philosophy closes in papal style as follows: "Blind that they are, and leaders of the blind, inflated with a boastful science, they have reached that pitch of folly where they pervert the eternal concept of truth and the true nature of the religious sentiment, etc."

The Modernist is, also, a believer. His faith, however, does not rest on miraculously revealed facts and dogmas which have been entrusted to a hierarchy and must be accepted without question by the laity, but upon the individual's experience of God. "In the religious sentiment one must recognize a kind of intuition of the heart which puts man in immediate contact with the very reality of God, and infuses such a persuasion of God's existence and His action both within and without man as to excel greatly any scientific conviction." It necessarily follows that faith and science are separated. The only function of science is to formulate the material furnished by faith. is dependent on science.

In so far, and no further, faith This is said to be in opposition to

the decree of the Vatican Council, the teaching of Pius IX., and of Gregory IX. Without further argument the error is disposed of in this summary appeal to authority.

As a theologian the Modernist is declared to be in error on the Sacraments, the Scriptures, the Church, the Relations between Church and State, and the Magisterium (authority) of the Church. The Sacraments "are mere symbols or signs, though not devoid of a certain efficacy-an efficacy like that of certain phrases vulgarly described as having 'caught on,' inasmuch as they have become the vehicle for the diffusion of certain great ideas which strike the public mind." Or, in other words, they "are instituted solely to foster the faith -but this is condemned by the Council of Trent." The Scriptures are described "as a collection of experiences, not indeed of the kind that may come to anybody, but those extraordinary and striking ones which have happened in religion." The source of inspiration is the immanent God. "Of inspiration in the Catholic sense there is no trace." The Church "has its birth in a double need, the need of the individual believer, especially if he has had some original and special experience, to communicate his faith to others, and the need of the mass, when the faith has become common to many, to form itself into a society and to guard, increase and propagate the common good." It is an organism whose vital principle is Christ and which has gradually unfolded into the Catholic system with a "triple authority," namely, "disciplinary, dogmatic, liturgical." The encyclical teaches, on the contrary, that the Church was "instituted by God as the author of the supernatural order." According to Modernism Church and State ought to be separated. They" are strangers by reason of the diversity of their ends, that of the Church being spiritual that of the State is temporal.” The principles, from which these doctrines spring, have been solemnly condemned by Pius VI. in his Constitution Auctorem fidei. "What will become of ecclesiastical authority," it is asked, "which can only be exercised by external acts? Obviously

It

it will be completely under the dominion of the State. is this inevitable consequence which impels many among liberal Protestants to reject all external religious community, and makes them advocate what they call individual religion. Enough has been quoted to indicate to the reader the system against which the Pope contends. At the conclusion of the analysis he says: "We should define it as the synthesis of all heresies." “Their system means the destruction not of the Catholic religion alone, but of all religion."

Two causes are cited. "The proximate and immediate cause consists in a perversion of the mind." The remote causes are "curiosity and pride.” These statements will not likely have a conciliatory effect on the dissenters. Nor will the "Remedies," which are proposed, cure the disease. The scholastic philosophy, especially the system of St. Thomas, is to be made the basis of the sacred sciences. The policy of repression and prohibition, rather than of argument and conversion, is advocated with more rigor than in the sixteenth century. All who are suspected of being imbued with modernist tendencies are not to be chosen as directors and professors for seminaries and Catholic universities. "Diligence and severity are to be used in selecting candidates for Holy Orders." Bishops are "to prevent writings infected with modernism or favorable to it from being read when they have been published, and to hinder their publication where they have not." Pernicious books are to be driven out of the dioceses. "It is not enough to hinder the reading and the sale of bad books-it is also necessary to prevent them from being printed." Directions are carefully given for the publication of books under the strictest censorship. Special censors for newspapers and periodicals are to be appointed. Congresses of priests are considered dangerous and are to be prohibited by the bishops. In order that the commands and prescriptions may be carried out, "Diocesan Watch Committees " are to be appointed. They shall meet every two months and "shall watch most carefully for every trace and sign of