The Wanganui Chronicle. "Nulla Dies Sine Lines." THURSDAY, AUGUST 18, 1910. THE CRISIS IN SPAIN.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume L, Issue 12588, 18 August 1910, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle. "Nulla Dies Sine Lines." THURSDAY, AUGUST 18, 1910. THE CRISIS IN SPAIN.

_ 1 r crisis „** hal arisO n in Spain in the form of an open conflict between tho Church and the State is not without significance to the rest of the world. It is nearly four hundred years since Mar- .. T ,i -, t , , ~ i ii ,i . tm Luther dared to burn the mill that Popp Leo X. issued against him, and now, after the lapse of. centuries, Spain iias been constrained in'her own way to endorse'his act]on and take sides with ~ c l- • l-i t n i tho cause of religious liberty..- One by one the Latin ra>?cs have found themreives forced io accept a belated instalnvent of i he belated Reformation. History records how France, through tho Rmhrttt,.. «»d Italy, b y acl, ie vi,, X unity and crirtaUmg the temporal power of tho Popes, have responded to the democratic instinct, and now the events

that are happening in Spain indicate that she is pi'epared to amend her version of the Reformation at. least to the extent of that Avhieh was current in Germany, Switzerland, Holland ana Britain nearly four centuries ago. There can. bo no doubt that the agitation now prevalent in Spain is due to the policy which the. Government has adopted in regard to the religious iassoeiations, though the crisis now reached has been in process of evolution for many years. Tho Church of Rome, on account of tho enormous property and other vested interests it had acquired in Spain, was forced to take fides in the civil wars early last century. It sided with the Carlists, and being defeated in this political struggle found that it had to pay cost", to the victors. In 1835 the Jesuit order was suppressed and others dissolved. But this represented far too extremo a swing of the pendulum to- J wards radicalism, and by 180 l a written reconciliation between the Spanish Government and the Vatican was drawn ' up. This made the Roman Catholic religion the State religion of Spain, to the exclusion of all others; it restored • the right of the Church to hold property ! in Spain, and permitted tire establish- ; ment of religious houses on Spanish soil by tho Orders of St. Philip Neri, St. Vincent do Paul, and one other not 1 designated by name. But political and j economic discontent with the. Church still smouldered amongst the Liberals, ' for a Bill for the sale of Church lands provoked trouble in 1855 to such an extent that Pope Pius IX. broke off diplomatic relations with Madrid. To-day it is. the Spanish Ministry that breaks off theso relations, with the addition of ( n studied affront. Tlio storm blew over, but tho Liberals worked tenaciously ac ' their theoretical point of religious tolera- j [ tion, and by 1876 got' the following • elan.se into the national constitution :— I < '•'Freedom of worship shall bo lawful, : though no public manifestations other ' than those of the Roman Catholic , Church shallv.be. allowed." Recent 1 troubles have centred round this ro- ' ■

striction, though the. real objection of Spanish Radicals and Republicans to the Church in Spain is still against it* power of interfering with secular affairs through its vast accumulations of proparty. Education, for instance, continues to be almost entirely dominated by tho Clericals. The present Government in Spain, that of Senor Ganalejas, evidently recognised at tho beginning of thin year that unless it attacked tn« Church and made mere free room for the . Reformation in Spain, tho Republican* would absorb all the young Liberal elements of tho country, and work forward for a violent revolution. In the King's Speech at tho opening cf Parliament on loth June the bold announcement is mude: —-"My Government is taking stop:; to .s»ti>fy the public wish that they (tho excessive multiplication of re ligious orders iind congregations) should bo reduced m number and subjected to Uk> ordinary civil law regulating the right of association, and that negotiations should be opened with the Holy Set< for an agreement to suppress thoso 'convents and religious houses which arc not indispensable in eich diocese." The complaint against these religious associations in Spam is precisely the sam*> as it Mas in France^ that they had accumulated enormous wealth at the public expense, they had secured practical control of the education system, and they obstinately refused to keep the terms of the Concordat and abstain from interfering in politics. As long ago as IS3O Richard Fold, a clever traveller, gave the world a vivid insight as to the dominance of these clerical institutions. Ho wrote:—" How numerous and well appointed-are the churches and convents there compared to. the hospitals ; how amply provided are the relic magazines with bones and spells when compared to tho anatomical museums and chemists' shops; again, what a flock of holy practitioners come forth after a Spaniard ha:; been stabbed, starved or executed, not one of whom would have} stirred to save an army of his counti-y----men wiien alive j and what coppers are now collected to pay masses to get his soul out oc purgatory!" It is not t© be wondered at that the Spanish reformer in anxious to see such reproaches as theso wiped away from his country, and to give the people that wider opportunity for moral and material advancement which can only be secured in an atmosphere of religious liberty.