MR FROUDE'S TRIBUTE TO THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 196, 29 December 1876, Page 7

MR FROUDE'S TRIBUTE TO THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH.

The ' following is from a public address by Mr James Anthory Froude, which appeared in the Manchester ' Times and Examiner :* Never in all history, in ancient and modern times, that the -world knew of, had mankind known out of themselves anything so grand, so useful, so beautiful as the Catholic Church once was. In thaso our times, well-regulated selfishness was the recognized rule of action, every one was expected to look out for liiui3olf and to take cave of his own interests. At the time ho spoke of, the Church ruled the State with the authority of a conscience, and self-interest as a motive of action was only named to be abhorred. Wisdom, justice, self-denial, nobleness, purity, high-nrindedness — these -were the qualifications before which the free-born races of Europe had been contented to bow, and in no order of men were such qualities to be found as they were found six hundred years ago in the clergy of the Catholic Church. They called themselves the successors of the apostles, they claimed in their Master's name universal spiritual authority, but they made good their pretensions by the holiness of their lives. They were allowed to rule because ( hey deserved to rule, and in the fulness of reverence, king 3 and nobles bent before a power which was nearer to God than their own. Over prince and subject, chieftain and serf, a body of unarmed and defenceless men reigned supreme by the influence of sanctity. He did not pretend that the clergy were perfect ; they were very far from being perfect at the best of times; and the European nations were never completely submissive to them; it would not have been well if they had been. The business of human creatures in this planet was not summed up in the most excellent of priestly catechisms j the world and its concerns continued to interest men, though priests insist on their nothingness. Th*>y could not prevent kings from quarrelling with each other; they could not hinder disputed successions, and civil feuds, wars, and political conspiracies ; -what they did •was to shelter the weak from the strong. In the eyes of the clergy, the serf and his lord stood on the common level of sinful humanity. Into their ranks high birth was no passport. They -were, for the most part, children of the people, and the son of the artisan and peasant rose to the mitre and the triple crown, just as now-a-days, the rail-splitter and the tailor becoui3 President of the Republic of the West. The monasteries of the Catholic Church arc another vast feature of tho middle ages, when they were inhabited by fraternities of men who desired to devote themselves to goodness ; and who, in order to do so, took vows of poverty, that they might not be entangled with the pursuit of money; and of chastity, that they might not be distracted with the cares of a family. Their days were spent in hard bodily labor, in study, or in visiting the sick ; at night they were on the stone floors of their chapels, holding up their withered hands to heaven, interceding for the poor souls suffering in purgatory. The system spread to the farthest limits of Chiistendom. The religious houses became places of refuge, where men of noble birth, kings, and queens, and emperors, and warriors, and statesmen retired to lay down their splendid cares and end their days in peace. Those with whom tho world had dealt hardly and those whom it had surfeited with its unsatisfying pleasures, those woo were disappointed with earth and those who were filled with passionate aspirations after heaven alike found a haven of rest in the quiet cloisters', lands came to them, and wealth, and social dignity — all gratefully extended to men who deserved well of their fellows;, while no landlords wero more popular than they, for the sanctity, of ttw monks sheltered, their dependents as' well as themselves,