Leo XIII. Pope.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIII, Issue 16, 7 August 1885, Page 19

Leo XIII. Pope.

Health and Apostolic Benediction. You are perfectly well awarp of the necessity so often mentioned by us, and with such go-d reason, to pat forth all possible application and assiduity for encouraging, day by day, a knowledge of science in the clerical order. This necessity is more keenly felt in our own day than it was in other times. In the midst of such a great movement of mind and such an ardour for learning as are now displayed, the clergy would never be able to discbarge their duty and their office with right dignity and fruitful effect if they neglected those advantages of the intellect for which other men are so eager. Thus we have paid special attention to the interests of science principally among younv students in the sacred calling, and we have referred them to ancient principles, under the guidance of St. Thomas Aquinas, in their theological and philosophical studies. The results already compassed have»proved the opportuneness of our action. But inasmuch as a great part of science, precious as a possession and infinitely useful for life and culture, is comprised within the art of letters, we have determined upon taking a new step to give an impulse to the progress of literary study. What we here have in view above all is the honour of the clergy, for there is nothing more noble than the literary glory. All men look upon those who win it as distinguished amojg their fellows : those who are without it enjoy little of the esteem of the world. Hence, it is easy to understand the malice and the treachery of the Emperor Julian, who forbade the Christians the practice of liberal studies. He felt that contempt would easily cover unlettered men, and that the Christian name would not long prosper if it were regarded as a stranger to the intellectual arts. Such, be»ides, is our nature that we are led through that wuicb our senses perceive to contemplate tbat which transcends them ; therefore nothing is more apt to aid our intellect than a scholarly and elega> t literary style. The use of words showing at once nature and reseai eh persuades mankind to listen and to read ; truth illustrated by a >>plendour of phrases penetrates the mind and dwells there. In this there is a certain analogy with the exterior rites of Divine worship, which fulfil the great object of leading the soul through outward beauty and magnificence up co the thought of Divinity itself. Saint Basil and St. Augustine, to name no others, have gloried in these fruits of intellectual culture : and our predecessor Paul the Third accomplished a work of lofty wisdom when he commanded Catholic writers to U6e beauty of style in their controversy with those heretics who boasted that they were the only men able to combine learning in doctrine with learning in letters. When we assert that the clergy should study modern literature with care, we do not refer to modern letters only, but also te tho«e of antiquity. It is indeed necessary that amongst ourselves a chief part of study should be devoted to Latin author?, inasmuch as their language accompanies throughout the West the Catholic religion and serves its uses ; jet iv this matter students have been too few and too negligent ; bo ihat the art of writing Latin with beauty and i.oblaness of style seems everywhere to be passing away. Greek authors, too, must be studied with application ; the models of Greek literature are so eminent and in every way so great that imagination cannnot conceive a more perfect literature. Amoner the Orientals the Greek language still lives in the monumei.ts of the Church and in her daily use. Those, too, who understand Greek literature are able to enter more profoundly, thanks to that knowledge— and tt.is consideration should have its weight— into the secrets of Latin ity. Convinced of these truths and aiming at all that is civilised, lovely, and of good report, the Catholic Church has always prized literary study at its true value, and has in «11 times shown au extreme solicitude for its advancement. ladee 1, all the holy Fathers of the Cburcb have been men of letters according to the measure of their day. Some of them have yielded nothing in genius or art to the most renowned among the classics. And it is the Church which has conferred the great boon upon the world of saving from destruction a great part of the works of antiquity in poetry, eloquence, and history. Ail men know tbat at a time when literature was neglected or abandoned, and when the noise of arms drowned its voice in Europe, there was but one refuge for tbe works of the past ; they wero saved in the sanctuaries i>f the clergy. Among the Roman Pontiffs, our predecessors, several distinguished themselves by an ability in letters which guaranteed the credit of learning in their time. For this cause the memory of Damasuß. of Leo the Great and Greg ry the Great, of Zacbaj-ias, of Sylvester the Second, of Gregory the Ninth, of Eugene the Fourth, of Nicholas the Fifth, and of Leo the Tenth will never pass away. In the whole long line of Popei there is perhaps not one to whom literature has owed nothing. Their foresight and their liberality opened on all sides colleges and schools for the instruction of eager youth, and stored up libraries for the intellectual food of all mankind. Bishops were commanded to found in their dioceses schools of literature ; learned men were overwhelmed with glory, and brilliant rewards persuaded them to surpass themselves. All this is so true, so notorious, tbat even the detractors of the Apostolic See have confessed that the Roman Pontiffs personally have deserved well of liberal education. A conviction of the worth of such advantages and the remembrance of the action of our predecessors have inspired our resolution to take action for setting up this kind of learning in its old honour and its old glory in the clerical orders. Your wisdom and your help, dear son, give us full confidence ; and in the execution of our designs we will begin with our Sacred Seminary in Rome. We desire, then, that special coursea appropriate to young studentß of marked intelligence may be opened there at once, so tbat the more proficient, after fulfilling the ordinary

cycle of Italian, Latin, and Greek letters, may, under the direction of able instructors, pass to the higher branches of study in e*6h language. For the fulfilment of this wish of oars we charge yon to choose men whose learning and zeal may best, under oar aathority, be directed to these ends. As a pledge of the Divine favour, and as a sign of our affection, we give you in the Lord, dear son, oar Apostolic 1 Benediction. Given in Rome, at Haint Peter's, oa the 20th of May, 1886, in the eighth year of our Pontificate. Lbo XIIL, Pope.