.

which resulted in the expulsion of the English invaders from Scotland. Are the Hungarians, and Poles, and Spaniards, and French, who fought for centuries the battles of European independence against the Saracens and Turks, to be set down as enemies of freedom? Are the brave knights of St. John, who so heroically devoted themselves for the liberty of Europe at Rhodes and at Malta, also to be ranked with the enemies of human rights?

13. Who will stigmatize as lovers of despotism the brave heroes, William Tell, Furst, Werner, and Melchtal, who, at the head of four or five hundred Swiss, fought the battle of Morgarten in 1307, and drove back an invading army of twenty thousand Austrians? And yet these brave men, who laid the foundation of the Swiss Republic, were all Roman, Catholics; and in nobly asserting the cause of freedom, they surely did not act in opposition to their principles as Catholics.

14. And still, in the face of all these facts, and of many others which might be alleged, we are to be told that Catholicity is the friend of despotism, and the sworn enemy of republican government! And that, forsooth, all our free institutions are to be ascribed to the Protestant reformation! If this be so, is it not a little strange that wherever Protestantism appeared in Europe, and especially wherever it gained the ascendency, the democratic principle was weakened, and the arm of monarchy strengthened? Yet this fact is incontestable. Where now are the liberties of Germany, established by her people, and recognized by her emperors and princes, in the middle ages? What has become of the great democratic principle so generally received during that period, that the people are not to be taxed without their own consent? What has become of the representative system, by which each city and province of the empire had a voice in the general diet? These have all vanished. The fate of Germany is now decided, not by the voice of her once free people, but by the swords and bayonets of her immense standing armies. These constitute the ultima ratio assigned by her emperors and kings for any laws they may choose to enact ! And it must be confessed that this reason, if not altogether satisfactory, is at least conclusive. Where are now the free cities of Germany, once so famous? Alas! they have dwindled down to two or three, and these shorn of half their honors!

Whence this great change in her social condition? Our vision must be very dull indeed, not to perceive that it occurred in the sixteenth century; and that the revolution, called the reformation, caused it in some places, and occasioned it in others. The political excitement, and the bloody wars to which that revolution gave rise, afforded an excellent opportunity to the German princes to grasp at absolute power. Amidst the agitations of society, they seized on the golden prize thus offered to their ambition, and bore it off triumphantly! And did the Protestants of Germany resist these pretensions? On the contrary they favored them. Though they were clamoring for liberty, and struggling for emancipation

from what they were pleased to call a religious despotism, yet they tamely yielded their political rights to the first despot who espoused their cause, and offered to protect them in their religious innovation! They gave themselves up, body and soul,-bound hand and foot,- to a real in order to escape an imaginary despotism! We confidently appeal to the whole history of that period, to show that this is no exaggeration, and that the picture is not even too highly colored. M. Guizot, a Protestant, and a historian of great weight, expressly asserts "that the emancipation of the human mind, (by the reformation) and absolute monarchy triumphed simultaneously throughout Europe. And if he had not admitted it, standing monuments would fully attest the fact. Every Protestant kingdom on the continent of Europe has been since the reformation, and is still, an absolute despotism! Every one of them has an established religion, and recognizes in the king absolute power, civil and ecclesiastical! Many of them, as Prussia, for example, are military despotisms, in which every citizen is bound to military service!

The Protestant reformation is directly responsible for all this; for it certainly caused all these political evils, wherever it gained the ascendency. It indirectly occasioned political changes of a similar character in most other countries of Europe. To preserve themselves from the social disturbances, which the reformation had caused wherever it had made its appearance, Catholic princes adopted rigid precautionary measures, and their subjects, under the excitement of the times, willingly resigning a portion of their liberties in order to enable their princes to ward off the threatened evil, the Catholic governments of Europe became, many of them, absolute monarchies. These influences contributed much to produce the effects just named in the Catholic governments of Austria, France, Spain, and Portugal.

In England, the reformation crushed the liberties of the people transmitted to them by their Catholic ancestors, and embodied in the Catholic Magna Charta. The tyrant Henry VIII. trampled with impunity on almost every privilege secured by that instrument. Royal prerogative swallowed up every other element of government, both civil and religious. The king was every thing,-supreme in church and state; the parliament and the people were nothing,—a mere cypher. This state of things continued, with the brief and troubled interval of Cromwell, or of the soi distant "commonwealth" excepted, until the revolution in 1688,-a period of one hundred and fifty years.

And what did the revolution effect? It did no more than restore to England the provisions of her Catholic Magna Charta, which instrument, during the three hundred years preceding the reformation, had been renewed and extended at least thirty times.' The glorious revolution. indeed!! It did no more than repair the ravages committed by Protestantism on the British constitution during the previous hundred and fifty

1 Lectures on Civilization in Modern Europe, p. 300, et seq. Though he admits this fact, yet he labora, strangely enough, to show that Protestantism emancipated the human mind and originated free institutions! So much for modern eclecticism.

years, and to restore that constitution to its ancient Catholic integrity. It did not even do this to the fullest extent; for it refused to grant protection and the most unalienable civil privileges to the Catholic body, to whom the British were indebted for the Magna Charta, and their glorious constitution. Nor was this body emancipated from political slavery until 1829, one hundred and forty one years later; and then the act was passed with a bad grace, nor was it full in its measure of justice,-the tithe system and other intolerable evils still remaining unrepealed!

15. We might bring the subject home to our own times and country, and show that the Catholics of the colony of Maryland, were the first to proclaim universal liberty, civil and religious, in North America ;2 that in the war for independence with Protestant England, Catholic France came generously and effectually to our assistance; that Irish and American Catholics fought side by side with their Protestant fellow-citizens in that eventful war; that the Maryland line which bled so freely at Camden with the Catholic Baron De Kalb, while Gates and his Protestant militia were consulting their safety by flight, was composed to a great extent of Catholic soldiers; that there was no Catholic traitor during our revolution; that the one who periled most in signing the Declaration of Independence, and who was the last survivor of that noble band of patriots, was the illustrious Catholic, Charles Carroll of Carrolton; that half the generals and officers of our revolution,- Lafayette, Pulaski, Count de Grasse, Rochambeau, De Kalb, Kosciusko, and many others, were Catholics;-and that the first commodore appointed by Washington to form our infant navy was the Irish Catholic-BARRY. These facts, which are but a few of those which might be adduced, prove conclusively that Catholicity is still, what she was in the middle ages, the steadfast friend of free institutions."

To conclude: Can it be that Catholicity, which saved Europe from barbarism and a foreign Mahommedan despotism,-which in every age has been the advocate of free principles, and the mother of heroes and of .republics, which originated Magna Charta and laid the foundation of liberty in every country in Europe, and which in our own day and country has evinced a similar spirit,-is the enemy of free principles ? We must blot out the facts of history, before we can come to any such conclusion! If history is at all to be relied on, we must conclude, that THE INLUENCE OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH HAS BEEN FAVORABLE TO CIVIL LIBERTY.

1 See a series of very able articles in the Dublin Review, under the title, " Arbitrary Power, Popery, Protestantism,"-republished in a duodecimo volume by Mr. Fithian; where this and many similar facts are proved by incontestable evidence.-Dublin Review, Nos. xv, xviii, xix.

2 See Bancroft's (Protestant) History of the United States, Vol. i, Colony of Maryland,

8 See a letter of General Washington to Charles Carroll of Carrolton and Bishop Carroll, written in March, 1790; in which he bears honorable evidence to this fact, alleging it as a reason why Catholics in this country should have equal rights with their Protestant fellow-citizens.

4 De Tocqueville, a good judge in such matters, says "that the Catholics constitute the most democratic class of citizens in the United States." And to account for this fact, he enters into a course of philosophic reasoning to show that this is a necessary result of Catholic principles.-Democracy in America, p. 281: New York edition, 1838.

VIII. AGE OF POPE GREGORY VII.

THE DEPOSING POWER.

*

Importance of the subject-Society struggling into form-Hildebrand-His cotemporaries-Histor ical portraits and parallels-Napoleon's opinion of Gregory VII.-How the Pontiff has been attacked by his enemies-And how defended by Voigt-The great idea of Gregory-His relations to society as its spiritual head-A torrent of abuse stemmed-The question of investitures-Ancient mode of nominating to bishoprics-Contest between the Popes and the emperors of Germany-Papal election -A vital question-St. Peter Damian-His relations to Gregory-Simony and disorder among the clergy-Hildebrand unanimously elected Pope-His earlier career-His experience, coolness, and wisdom-Not exceedingly stern-His wonderful activity-His correspondence-His moral courage -His temporal relations to society-Distracted state of Europe-Princes swearing fealty to the Pope-His protectorate recognized and invoked-Gregory not ambitious-His long struggle with Henry IV.-The Nero of the twelfth century-Otto of Nordheim-Summary of the whole contestModeration of Gregory-How and why the Pontiff declared Henry deposed-A stroke for liberty-Opinion of Voigt.

GREGORY VII. was the first Roman Pontiff, who ever attempted to depose a temporal prince. Hence his character, as well as that of his age, has awakened much interest and elicited considerable historical inquiry. Men have naturally sought to know why, and under what circumstances, he maintained the claim to a power seemingly so extraordinary in one who was the successor of the poor fisherman of Galilee. We will attempt to throw some light upon this subject, with the aid of M. Voigt, the distinguished biographer of the Pontiff. His testimony will be deemed unexceptionable by the mass of Gregory's opponents; while, based as it is upon original documents, carefully examined, it must have great weight with all impartial men.

The age of Pope Gregory VII., was one of peculiar interest, crowded with great and important events. It was an age of transition. After the civil convulsions which followed the subjugation of Europe by the northmen in the fifth century, society, as if exhausted by over exertion, seems to have settled down into a species of lethargy in the tenth century, reputed by most writers the darkest and most dreary of all the period called the middle ages. The eleventh century presents us the picture of society again struggling into form. To attain this consistency, however, it was necessary for it again to pass through the storm of revolution. Commotions in society are sometimes as necessary for its moral health, as storms are in nature for the purification of the atmosphere.

*Histoire du Pape Gregoire VII. et de son siecle, d'apres les monuments originaux. Par J. Voigt, profess. a l'universitè de Hall. Traduite de l'Allemand, par M. l'Abbé Jager. Paris, 1838; 2 vol. 8vo. History of Pope Gregory VII, and of his age, from original documents. By J. Voigt, Professor at the University of Hall. Translated from the German by the Abbé Jager. Paris, 1838. 2 vols. 8vo.

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Whoever will take the trouble to compare the tenth with the twelfth century, must be convinced that, during the intervening period, a great man has passed, and that his passage has been marked by great events. That great man was Hildebrand, afterwards Gregory VII.; and the great events are those which M. Voigt so graphically describes in his history. This embraces the period of thirty-nine years, from the birth of the emperor Henry IV. in 1046, to the death of Gregory in 1085.

M. Voigt could not have chosen a more interesting or important subject, and few could have done it greater justice. His history is not confined to Gregory. Along with him, he portrays the various remarkable personages who flourished at the same time, and with most of whom the Pontiff was thrown into frequent contact. Among these, the chief is Henry IV., of Germany, the exact antithesis of Gregory in all things, infamous for every thing for which he was famous. He and all the others appear before us like finished portraits from a master hand;—their features and form so clearly marked, that they remain fixed in the memory, and will ever afterwards be recognized as old acquaintances.

appear in groups,

Great men often like the stars in heaven; and, among the distinguished cotemporaries of Gregory, we may mention St. Peter Damian, St. Anselm, bishop of Lucca, and Desiderius, abbot of Monte Cassino, in Italy, St. Hugh of Cluni, and Cardinal Hugh de Die, in France; Lanfranc, archbishop of Canterbury, and William the Conqueror, in England; and Anno of Cologne, Rodolph, duke of Suabia, and Otto of Nordheim, in Germany. In the south of Italy, the famous Chevalier Robert Guiscard is seen extending the Norman power almost as much as William the Conqueror extends it in England; and the attentive reader will not fail to remark a great similarity in the characters and fortunes of these two fierce, but chivalrous Norman chieftains. He will also detect in the life, position in relation to Henry IV., splendid designs, varied fortunes,

d remarkable death of the great Anno, archbishop of Cologne, many raits common to him with the great Cardinal Wolsey of England; though if the comparison be strictly carried out, the palm will, perhaps, be awarded to Anno. Had Henry IV. listened to his counsels, and not been guided too much by the ambitious Adalbert, bishop of Bremen, and by others, the history of the eleventh century would have been very different. If the reader be fond of drawing parallels, he may find many things in the life, character and varied adventures of the great Otto of Nordheim, to remind him of that pink of medieval chivalry, Richard Cœur de Lion.

Finally, in the excellent Empress Agnes, the mother of Henry IV., he will discover the most estimable traits of character; and in the famous Matilda of Tuscany, the particular friend of Gregory, he will find all the qualities which constitute a great and good princess. She combined, in a remarkable degree, the coolness, firmness, and zeal of Gregory, with the warlike talents and impetuous bravery' of Otto of Nordheim. All these

1 See Voigt, (vol. ii, p. 436,) for a curious instance of her skill in arms, when, at the head of her troops, she surprised and defeated Henry's army in Lombardy.