GOING BACK TO THE MIDDLE AGES.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 107, 15 May 1875, Page 14

GOING BACK TO THE MIDDLE AGES.

(To the Editor of the N"ew Zealand Herald, per favor of the • New Zealand Tablet.) Sic, — You, in common with many public writers of our day, express somo fear lest Society might again return to the condition it was in during the " Middle Ages," if the Vatican decrees shall gain ground. You have of late reproached some of your correspondents with taking a one-sided view of certain great questions, now powerfully agitating the public mind. It strikes me you take a somewhat one-sided view of the Middle Ages. Theie was much during these ages which cannot be now revived, and which it would not be desirable to recall even if it could be done. But on the other hand, there was much that was good in the spirit of the Middle Ages ; much which has long passed away, and which is now being, with advantage to the people, visibly revived. This is a wide subject, too large for such as me to grapple with. But take one or two portions of it. What are all these Benefit Societies which have sprung up of late years— the Oddfellows, Foresters, Hibernians, Good Templars, and the like, but proofs that the spirit of the Middle Ages is at work in this age. The same may be said of Trades' Unions. The Middle Ages were remarkable for popular unions or guilds of all kinds. These popular associations at that time had a religious as well as a secular character. They were meant to promote the temporal or commercial interests as well as the moral and religious improvement of the masses of the people. They had also a political character, and looked to the defence of the people against the encroachments of arbitrary power, no matter from what quarter such encroachments might come. But they were not secret societies. They were, in general, under the patronage both of the Church and the Government. This was a guarantee for their safety, and that they would not be used as instruments to promote irreligion, sedition, or any kind of injustice — a danger from which our modern Trades' Unions are unhappily not altogether free. There was no rattening practised by the Trades' Guilds in those dark ages, so called. The tradesman of those times had more of the fear of God in him, and a higher respect for the rights of his neighbour than many of our Brummagem lads in the present enlightened age. The society of Freemasons, if then in existence, was on a very different footing than now, and had widely different ends in view. The Freemasons of the Middle Ages were masons indeed worthy of the name, since they were instrumental in enriching those gorgeous and graceful temples which yet adorn so many towns and villages in Europe. They devoted their talents to the servico of religion ; to the honour of Christianity, which can hardly be said of our modern society of Freemasons, since it embraces so many men avowedly hostile to Christ, however good they may be in other respects. But I may not proceed further on this dangerous ground. The Middle Ages were remarkable for a high state of proficiency in ecclesiastical architecture, and the present age is becoming remarkable for the same thing. The churches tuilt in England after the spirit of the Middle Ages had well nigh died out were few in number, and poor and mean to appearance, with the single exception of St. Paul's, London. As regards the number and splendour of her new churches, England is decidedly going back to the Middle Ages — those ages of superstition and darkness as so many call them, and a return to which you and others so much dread. The institutions for the education of the people in the Middle Ages and for the relief of the afflictsd and destitute, were probably more ample and efficient in proportion to their means than they are now, and more conducive to the promotion of good feeling between the rich and the poor. The modern method of treating the insane by gentle and religious means was practised in the Middle Ages. There was no need of poor rates and education rates in those ages. The voluntary liberality of the pious rich amply sufficed to provide for the physical and religious wants of the poor. Education in its modern sense was less widely extended than now. But the homely virtues of industry, temperance, chastity, honesty, and filial piety, were propably as well understood and practised in England during the Middle Ages as they are at this day, if not a great deal better, in spito of our pretended progress in everything great and good. Nothing has contributed so much to demoralize and degrade the English people as the Poor Laws. Any one may see this on reading the Report of the Royal Commission appointed in 1833 to enquire into the working of these laws. But the system of managing the poor by means of Poor Laws has become an e&sential part of the modern British Constitution. It sprang out of a rejection of the voluntary system of relief practised in the Middle Ages. The samo vicious system of Government relief to the poor is being practically adopted in this Colony. Would it not be better, in many cases, to give the really destitute a license to beg, countersigned by a magistrate and their pastor. The license to be only for a certain short period. The destitute in all Catholic and in all Mahomedan countries are supported by the Voluntary alms of the charitable rich. It is not a reproach to Protestant England that her people will only support the destitute when forced to do it by an Act of Parliament. We have now no country in Europe ruled upon the principles of the Middle Ages sinco the Pope was deprived of his temporal dominions. His temporal Government was anything but perfect, and no one was more sensible of its defects than he himself was, or more anxious to reform, them. He was anxiously engaged to extensive reforms when, he was deprived of his kingdom, which he may or may not recover as providence shall hereafter decide. But defectivo as his temporal Government was, and limited as were his means, there is amply published evidence, both, by Protestant and Catholic writers, to show that the interests of his subjects were carefully attended to by him, and that he provided amply for the educational wants of the people ; for the relief of the destitute and the reformation of the fallen portion of them, with a degree of anxiety and wisdom that other and more powerful sovereigns and states would do well to copy. He did not hoard money drawn from his people to enrich himself, his friends or dependents, as some or rather most sovereigns do, if Victor g£mnianuel does not. He was more anxious to promote the spiritual jmd moral progress of his people than to Bee them rich, though ho was

not indifferent to their material prosperity either. If by peaceful means he shall ever recover his temporal dominions, and the Govern - ments of Europe shall deem it for the common good to throw the shield of their protection over him, so far as regards extornal enemies, Pius IX. and his successors may yet show the world the true principles of government for a Christian State in this progressive age. None of our modern Trades' Unions or popular Guilds or Benefit Societies havo any religious character, any official connection with any Ch>irch, if we except the Hibernians. But I see some of them are affiliated with Government in a financial sense. The Good Templars for instance. That is avowedly a political organization. Its connection with Government in any Bhape, therefore, is rather anomalous, and may lead to evil. Would it not be better for Government to steer clear of all \ financial connection with popular societies of this kind and allow them ( to stand on their own feet. The London Times thinks we are drifting on a wrong course, when the Government are doing everything for the people, educating them, feeding them, or a large portion of them, and employing their cash bo largely. In time, the people ■will ask to be entertained at shows, circuses, and theatres by Government. This is going back to pagan despotism, when the Government -was everything, the people nothing but slaves.^