THE Southland Times PUBLISHED BVBttY MOBNINO. Luceo Non Uro. WEDNESDAY, 22nd JULY. 1903. THE DEATH OF THE POPE.

Southland Times, Issue 19104, 22 July 1903, Page 2

THE Southland Times PUBLISHED BVBttY MOBNINO. Luceo Non Uro. WEDNESDAY, 22nd JULY. 1903. THE DEATH OF THE POPE.

The illness of the aged Pope. Leo XIIL, has reached its natural termination. In the words of his physician, his life went out like the flame of a lamp when the oil is exhausted. For long his hold on life *h«,d been of the slenderest ; though his mental vigour continued unimpaired ; it seemed, indeed, as if the frail body were sustained merely by the force of the spirit within ; end in the last days of mortal weakness his powers of intellect and will were still astonishing. Sometimes the melancholy spectacle is witnessed of the decay of a great intellect long before the term of bodily existence has reached its close ; in the case of the nonagenarian Pope, the mind may be said to have survived tho body. Apart from his position as revered head of one of the main divisions of the Christian world, which alone renders the present crisis" interesting, he was in himself ,«?•;& striking and interesting personality. He possessed the keen and subtle intellect often manifested by I' is countiymen, which seems to gain in keenness froxtt the ■ narrowness of the field in which it is exercised ; he showed considerable literary talont ; and his personal influence, as well as his policy, did much to inTuse u'esh strength into the Papacy. In point of duration, his pontificate makes a good second to th» record pontificate of his predecessor, Pius the IX, which lasted thirty-two years. As a lule, popes are far advanced in life at the time of their election ; thus the average pontificate is short. Leo XIII was sixty-eight when elected in 1878 ; yet he hold the position for twenty-five years. It is' more than five years since Rome celebrated with great rejoicings the jubilee of his priesthood. A short time ago a volume of poems was published, or republished, which had been composed by him 'as a young man sixty years before. It is remarkable that some of them were written in bodily feebleness and depression, and in anticipation of early death ; yet the writer lived a full life-time after their publication. Tho Papacy of Leo XLVL. has been remarkable, among other incidents, for the " Kultur-kampf " ; a tercn given to the strife waged in Germany between the dogmas and claims of the Church and modern' ideas of enlightenment and progress. The Kultur-kampf was commenced in 1872, in the time of Pio Vono, by ! the energetic opposition of Bismarck to the encroachments >of the y&tican. For some years victory seemed on the side of Bismarck and the modarn spirit ; but reaction followed, end Bismarck had to desist from his struggle with Catholicism. At present, Wilhelm 11., whose cue it is to uphold all constituted authority, has taken Church and Pope under his patronage. He as-pires to be Pope himself in his own dominions — supreme arbiter of politics, social customs, education, and everything else, as well' as religious belief ; und he finds democracy and socialism more dangerous than priestcraft.

It is but a few months since Edward VII paid a friendly visit to the aged Pope. "Though but a natural act c<f courtesy, this was regarded with some disapproval ,by a few of the more rigid opponents of Rome. Forty or" fifty "years ago thero would have been a chorus of disapproval instead of the few faint whispers of to-day. The dead Pope indicated the successor on whom he wished his mantle to fall ; aiid his last wishes will doubtless ca^ry weiglvt. It will be interesting to watch the successor's power in working out Rome's traditional policy. Reason, modern science and enlightenment, and the natural instincts of liberty, are opposed to the claims of the Papacy ; but its directors know well how to suit their weapons to the needs of the times,; and they have powerful allies in some of the strongest sentiments of human nature. Natural conservatism, reverence, sentiment, and dread of the blank materialism that seems all that science has to offer, all aid in retaining the -hold of the Churchi on those once within its influence— they even draw In many from outside the fold. And many of the purest natures and finest intellects of our time are devoted adherents of Rome. Whatever our beliefs may be, only the narrowest and least imaginative could have remained unstirred by some feelingi of sympathy and ad-, miration as they watched the last hours of Leo XIII-