Donahoes Magazine, Volume 15, No. 1, January 1886 | Page 7

the satisfaction of lust, but for the propagation of
offspring, and participation in the affairs of the family. Thou settest
husbands over their spouses, not that they may trifle with the weaker
sex, but in accordance with the laws of true affection. Thou subjectest
sons to their parents in a kind of free servitude, and settest parents over
their sons in a benignant rule.... Thou joinest together, not merely in
society, but in a kind of fraternity, citizens with citizens, peoples with
peoples, and in fact the whole race of men by a remembrance of their
parentage. Thou teachest kings to look for the interests of their peoples.
Thou admonishest peoples to submit themselves to their kings. With all
care thou teachest to whom honor is due, to whom affection, to whom
reverence, to whom fear, to whom consolation, to whom admonition, to
whom exhortation, to whom discipline, to whom reproach, to whom
punishment, showing how all of these are not suitable to all, but yet to
all affection is due, and wrong to none." (De Moribus Eccl. Cath., cap.
xxx., n. 63.) And in another place, speaking in blame of certain
political pseudo-philosophers, he observes: "They who say that the
doctrine of Christ is hurtful to the State, should produce an army of
soldiers such as the doctrine of Christ has commanded them to be, such
governors of provinces, such husbands, such wives, such parents, such
sons, such masters, such slaves, such kings, such judges, and such
payers and collectors of taxes due, such as the Christian doctrine would
have them. And then let them dare to say that such a state of things is
hurtful to the State. Nay, rather they could not hesitate to confess that it
is a great salvation to the State if there is due obedience to this
doctrine." (Epist. cxxxviii., al. 5, ad Marcellinum, cap. ii., 15.)
There was once a time when the philosophy of the Gospel governed
States; then it was that that power and divine virtue of Christian
wisdom had penetrated into the laws, institutions and manners of
peoples--indeed into all the ranks and relations of the State; when the
religion instituted by Jesus Christ, firmly established in that degree of

dignity which was befitting, flourished everywhere, in the favor of
rulers and under the due protection of magistrates; when the priesthood
and the government were united by concord and a friendly interchange
of offices. And the State composed in that fashion produced, in the
opinion of all, more excellent fruits, the memory of which still
flourishes, and will flourish, attested by innumerable monuments which
can neither be destroyed nor obscured by any art of the adversary. If
Christian Europe subdued barbarous peoples, and transferred them
from a savage to a civilized state, from superstition to the truth; if she
victoriously repelled the invasions of the Mohammedans; if civilization
retained the chief power, and accustomed herself to afford others a
leader and mistress in everything that adorns humanity; if she has
granted to the peoples true and manifold liberty; if she has most wisely
established many institutions for the solace of wretchedness, beyond
controversy is it very greatly due to religion under whose auspices such
great undertakings were commenced, and with whose aid they were
perfected. Truly the same excellent state of things would have
continued, if the agreement of the two powers had continued, and
greater things might rightfully have been expected, if there had been
obedience to the authority, the sway, the counsels of the Church,
characterized by greater faithfulness and perseverance, for that is to be
regarded as a perpetual law which Ivo of Chartres wrote to Pope
Paschal II.: "When the kingdom and the priesthood are agreed between
themselves, the world is well ruled, the Church flourishes and bears
fruit. But when they are at variance, not only does what is little not
increase, but even what is great falls into miserable decay." (Ep.
ccxxxviiii.)
But that dreadful and deplorable zeal for revolution which was aroused
in the sixteenth century, after the Christian religion had been thrown
into confusion, by a certain natural course proceeded to philosophy,
and from philosophy pervaded all ranks of the community. As it were,
from this spring came those more recent propositions of unbridled
liberty which obviously were first thought out and then openly
proclaimed in the terrible disturbances in the present century; and
thence came the principles and foundations of the new law, which was
unknown before, and is out of harmony, not only with Christian, but, in

more than one respect, with natural law. Of those principles the chief is
that one which proclaims that all men, as by birth and nature they are
alike, so in very deed in their actions of life are they equal and each is
so