OUR LETTER FROM FRANCE

New Zealand Tablet, 4 December 1913, Page 23

OUR LETTER FROM FRANCE

Paris, October 15. . Marcellino Menendez. Not since the death of Balmez has such a wave of grief passed over Spainespecially over intellectual and religious Spain—as that which now saddens the land on account of the death of another of the great sons of the Peninsula, Marcellino Menendez. Balmez, dying at the early age of thirty-seven, had only begun his work, had only shown what mighty things he might have accomplished had he lived the usual span; Menendez, dying at fifty-six, had got fairly through with his life-work, for he began early—at the age of nineteen. In a few short notes I cannot hope to give a fair idea of the labors of one who at nineteen was promoted to the Chair of Literature in the University of Madrid; of one who at twenty had written, in three volumes, a history of Spanish heresies, beginning with Priscillianism and coming down to our time, a work in skill, research, and study surpassing the labors, in a like field, of men such as Bollinger and Cantu ; of one who at twenty-two was deemed worthy to be admitted a member of the Academia Hispanica, a learned society consisting of tile cream of Spain’s oldest and best literati , scientists, and philosophers. At twenty-seven he had published his .Historic, de las Ideas stheticas in Esjxinya — a book which, passed through, the crucible of a profound and honest criticism not merely of Spanish writers, but of all those who had made a mark in France, Germany, and Italy—Taine, Lemaitre, Hegel, Kant. He did not forget England; he talks of Spenser, Shakespeare, Bacon, and comes down to Burns, Byron, Shelley, Macaulay —not forgetting even Carlyle, whom he describes as ‘ an unfathomable, obscure writer, an enlightened and phantasmagoric historian, a puritan-moralist, and pantheistic metaphysician.’ It is worthy of remark that Menendez, rising high above all bigotries, treats with absolute fairness and with the highest commendation of their intellectual powers those Englishmen, who had nothing but sneers for Catholic Spain and everything Spanish. During his thirty years of active work he poured out an unceasing stream of histories, criticisms, lectures, conferences, and speeches. He was a giant ruling his people; his library was his palace, and his university-chair his throne. He never rested, he never took a holiday. His holidays consisted in train journeys up and down the country delivering lectures, conferences, and speeches to young men’s clubs, workingmen’s guilds, and conferences of the members of the St. Vincent de Paul Society. He would not, if he could spare the time, refuse a village priest or schoolmaster inviting him to come and give ‘ a talk ’ to their boys. And with all his engrossing mental activity he never omitted his morning Mass and his evening Rosary. The most elegant and finished discourse delivered at the great Eucharistic Congress at Madrid in 1911 was that of Marcellino Menendez.

A Most Learned Man and a True Christian.

On the day, at the age of twenty-two, of Menendez' installation in the Spanish Academy, the grey-haired President, Pidal-y-Mon, showing his qualifications for admission, said of him: ' If God gives length of days to this the last member received into our society, we shall one day, and that no distant day, behold the most glorious representative of science in Spain.' Then the old man went on to say of this youth: Hear him speak of the prehistoric races, and you would believe that he had dwelt in the cave of the troglodyte, and had wandered across the desert wilds with the nomad tribes hear him speak of Oriental civilisation, and you would think him a hierophant of these far-off days; listen to him when he talks of Greece, and you will be convinced that he was a regular guest at Plato's banquet, and when he speaks of Rome a courtier of Maecenas' age could do no better hear him on the Christian age, and you will feel sure that you are listening to a chronicler of some religious monastery; hear him discourse on the Renaissance, and you will mistake him for a grammarian of the court of the Medicis or for a professor of Sala-

manca or Alcala; hear him on the questions of the day,, and you will conclude that a kindly spirit brought him up to some eminence whence he could view the chairs and academies, the countries and cities of all Europe.' In his reply, Menendez spoke much before and after, but one dominant sentence contains the spirit of the rest: ' Every work that I shall undertake, every success that may attend my efforts in the field of science shall be devoted to the greater glory of God, to the exaltation of the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the honor of my grand old mother, the Holy Catholic Church.'

Menendez was True to His Promise.

All his life he was a practical Catholic of the most sterling type. He always and everywhere put his religion forward and first. He was put to the test time and time again; but just as often was ne found true to the faith of his fathersnever timid or temporising. He had the courage to bear testimony to the faith before men, and to declare the praises of the Omnipotent God even in the midst of hostile audiences frowning in silence, but with the silence of admiration. He converted many from doubt and distrust, who afterwards joined their voices with his in his heaven-directed work. Spain was the land of intrepid heroes, of great artists, of famous writers as long as the spirit of Christianity ruled and guided deeply and fully the hearts of the Spanish people. But this is universally true; the writer, orator, or artist who aspires to -draw men's hearts to higher things—to heaven and the things of God—gains undying fame on earth, but from the moment he breaks the bonds that bind him to this sacred duty, even the glory of the world ceases, and will never be regained. Look at Dollinger on the one side, look at Menendez on the other. The one great guiding principle of Menendez' life was Christian charity, love of God, love of his country, love of his fellow man. No wonder that Spain is in mourning for her great son. No wonder that his praises are being spoken from university chair and from public platform; but what is more pleasing to the soul of Menendez is that from cathedral choir and village sanctuary, all over the land, the old immemorial chant goes up for him: Requiem eternam dona ei Domine et lux perjwtua luceat ei —May he rest in peace.

The Brotherhood in 'ltaly.

You have already heard of the trouble into which the Masonic, brotherhood has got in' Italy owing to the antics of the brothers in the army and navy. It is a good thing for us to see ourselves as others see us. Often it takes much of our conceit out of us. An Italian newspaper, the Idea Nazionale, has undertaken to tell Italian Masons what others think of them as samples of 'emancipated humanity.'- Representatives of that paper have interviewed the first public men in Italy—members of both Houses, judges, lawyers, professors, publicists, admirals, and generals of the army. They _ have asked them for an answer to these three questions: do you think that the existence of Freemasonry is compatible with the conditions of our modern life? Secondly, do you think that the public and secret action of Freemasonry on Italian life and particularly on that of the army, magistracy, the schools, and the public administration, makes for the good of the country? Thirdly, do you think that the materialistic rationalism and the humanitarian and international ideas of which France is declaring itself the mouthpiece, are in keeping with the trend of sound modern thought ? The answers were numerous, very many of them declaring that the Masonic lodges were a real danger to Italy. Signor Pastro, one of the oldest and most respected members of the Upper House, answered thus: First, in a free country the fact that a society is secret is a confession that it is ashamed to show its purposes. Secondly, the necessity of entrenching itself behind a secret reveals Masonry's perverse purpose of injecting into the army, the magistracy, and the school the poison of its aims and asperations; hence it constitutes a danger for every institution in the land. Thirdly, as long as there exist, different languages, different religions, customs, and peoples internationalism will remain a Utopia. Pastro's answer is a sample of

many more given by able public men who knew well what they were talking about. But it may be said, as indeed it was said by leaders in Masonry a few months ago: 'Oh ! Italian Masonry, we are not responsible for it; we have no connection with it; it is in fact "excommunicated."' This reply is not satisfactory in view of the evidence supplied by the public papers of the international union or solidarity of the craft. It has been declared lately in England that the Grand Orient, which is the rite most prevailing on the Continent, is the true and -genuine type of Masonry. New York has been lately hobnobbing with Masonic Rome. When Bishop Koppes, of Luxembourg, a few months ago, denounced at the Metz Congress the efforts being made by the Grand Orient to introduce the secular system into the schools of the Duchy, one Dr. Schwabe, grand secretary of the Jena lodge, filled the German papers, Liberal and Masonic, with articles in defence of that rather disreputable rite. He forgot that repeatedly, when the Grand Orient had been caught at some nasty work, German Masons declared as above: 'Oh ! we have no connection with it; we are too respectable, too God-fearing to have anything to do with Paris apaches.' On the occasion of Bishop Koppes' speech, Wherein he said of the Grand Orient, ' It's laws are lies; its God is the devil; its teaching most disgraceful,' Dr. Schwabe lost his temper, and gave away the show rather imprudently.