THE CHURCH AS PROMOTER OF PEACE

New Zealand Tablet, 3 February 1916, Page 27

THE CHURCH AS PROMOTER OF PEACE

At the quarterly theological conference of the priests of the archdiocese of New York, held in Conference Hall, Cathedral College, the Rev. Francis X. Albert, pastor of St. Boniface's Church, and a former professor at St. Joseph's Seminary, read a paper on 'The Church and Peace.' It was a timely and carefully prepared account of the position the Church has taken as a potent factor in the promotion of peace throughout the ages. The paper was listened to with. special interest by the assembled priests and was favorably commented on by his Eminence Cardinal Farley. Father Albert's paper was as follows: The first ecclesiastical institution in behalf of peace of which we read in the history of the period under discussion (the tenth century) is known as The Peace of God,' which exempted from the evils of war all consecrated persons, clerics, monks, virgins, and cloistered widows; (2) all consecrated places, churches, monasteries, and cemeteries with their dependencies; (3) consecrated times, Sundays and ferial days, all under the special protection of the Church, which punished transgressors with excommunication. At an early date the Councils extended The Peace of God to the Church's proteges —the poor, pilgrims, crusaders, and even merchants on a journey. Together with the Peace of God, ' Leagues for the maintenance of peace' were formed at Poitiers, A.D. 1000, and a militia to maintain peace and order was established at Bourges in 1031. This remarkable movement, begun in France, slowly extended itself to the North and into Germany. After 1030 the Popes officially joined their efforts with those of the Kings of France and Germany. It is difficult to imagine the wide influence of this movement, the spirit of fraternal charity that governed these associations where lords and peasants swore treaties of peace, the wonderful humanitarian character of these leagues that protected the poor and their possessions, the profound Christian sense which animated these new institutions, and finally the love of justice which their statutes revealed. In them we find the germ of a ' people's right.'

These leagues, however, were limited in their good effects. They could not pretend to oppose indefinitely wars that were just, for that would have been against good order, nor could they reach the powerful and mighty lords, the kings to whom war was as their life's-breath. War had to be checked, muzzled, so to speak. And so the ' Truce of God ' was established, a fact which appears for the first time at the Council of Elne in 1027. This Council declared it illicit to attack an enemy from 9 a.m. Saturday until 1 a.m. Monday. This prohibition was later extended to the days of the week consecrated to the great mysteries of Christianity, viz., Thursday in memory of the Ascension, Friday in honor of the Passion, and Saturday in honor of the Resurrection. Still another step included Advent and Lent. Efforts were thus made to limit the scourge of private wars without suppressing it outright. The penalty was excommunciation. The truce soon spread from France to Italy and Germany, and the CEcumenical Council of 1139 extended it to the whole world.

The Spirit of Faith, Justice, and Charity, fostered by the Peace and Truce of God, was further cultivated by the splendid religious Orders of St. Francis and St. Dominic, which originated about the beginning of the Middle Ages. The Third Order of St. Francis, like the Third Order of St. Dominic, was recruited exclusively from among the people living in the world and was imbued with the peace-loving spirit of its founder, St. Francis, and his disciples, the mendicant friars. If the" Third Order of St. Francis and St. Dominic succeeded in spreading with such marvellous rapidity throughout the world it was because it responded to the supernatural aspirations of souls longing for closer union with God; but also because it was wonderfully adapted to the times and offered to the masses, enervated by continuous warfare, social peace, the object of their most ardent desires. It is no exaggeration to state that the Third Order of St. Francis was one of the most effective institutions of the Middle Ages, the grandest effort to introduce more justice among men. In addition to the Third Order, there appeared in the same period the Order of the Humiliati, the Order of Poor Catholics, both consecrated to the same purpose. A little later the Militia of Jesus Christ, founded by St. Dominic, also consecrated itself to the cause of peace and justice. Thus from the eleventh to the thirteenth century, a grand endeavor was made by the Church in favor of peace and the ultimate triumph of justice. Popes, bishops, and monks, the only ones capable of governing the world, fulfilled their mission of peace and responded to the hopes of the people. Notwithstanding the zeal and activity of the Church in favor of peace, the various institutions of which we spoke did not and could not touch the root of the evil—the warlike and brutal nature of the lords. The Church understood this, and therefore created, or rather appropriated to herself, chivalry. Finding herself face to face with an institution of Germanic origin which grouped about itself the elite of feudal nobility, she penetrated it with her spirit instead of destroying it, and succeeded in making of the brigand, very often hidden beneath the armor of nobility, the type of the Christian soldier. The character of the true Christian Knight is well traced by Leon Gautier. (1) Thou shalt believe all that the Church teaches and observe all her commandments; (2) Thou shalt respect the weak and constitute thyself their pro-

tector; (3) Thou shalt always be the champion of good and right against evil and injustice. The character of the Christian Knight may also be learned from the formula of the blessing of the sword: ' Bless, O Lord, this sword that Thy servant might be the defender of churches, widows, orphans, and of all who love God, against the cruelty of heretics and pagans.' It was her sense of justice and right that prompted the Church to create other military Orders for the defence of human dignity and justice against brute force. For example, the military Order of the Faith and Peace, established in 1229 and confirmed in 1231 by Amaneve, Archbishop of Auch; the Order of the Temple, founded by Hugo des Payens and introduced into the Church by St. Bernard. ' There is no law,' says St. Bernard, ' which forbids a Christian the use of the sword. The Gospel recommends moderation and justice to the soldier, but it is nowhere stated: "throw down your arms and renounce the life of a soldier." Unjust war alone is forbidden, especially among Christians.' The statutes of this Order were framed by St. Bernard himself. And now we come to The Crusades, concerning which some have maintained that they were not just wars in the sense taught by the Doctors of the Middle Ages. And among the Crusades we shall include not only those for the conquest of the Holy Land, but also the Crusades against the Moors, Albigenses, the Hussites, and the Turks. Just a few words to show that these wars were justified.. As regards the Crusades for the conquest of the Holy Land, it has been stated that they were undertaken for the mere pleasure of spilling blood upon the relics. Against this objection we can set various just reasons in defence of these Crusades —(1) They were undertaken to defend Christianity menaced by the invasion of the Saracens; (2) to deliver the Christian inhabitants of the Holy Land from the constant annoyance and persecution to which they were subjected; (3) to answer their just appeal; (4) to avenge the maltreatment suffered by pilgrims to the Holy Sepulchre. The Crusade against the Moors of Spain was a merely defensive war. The Crusade against the Albigenses was undertaken in defence of human society in general, for their doctrines concerning the family, marriage, property, and country made these heretics veritable anarchists who were a menace to society. That this was the sole reason for this Crusade is also proved by the fact that Innocent 111., when he saw that the Crusade had developed into a war of conquest and that the Crusaders had lost sight of its original just purpose, at once endeavored to stop it. The same must be said concerning the Crusade against the Hussites, which was directed by Martin V., and the Crusade against the Turks, who threatened to submerge Christian* Europe. It thus appears very clear that these Crusades, including that of Leo IX. against the Normands of. Sicily, were undertaken for the defence of Christian civilisation against barbarism and anarchy, and in this light were justified. On the other hand, ...

The Church was Always Solicitous about checking and putting a stop to wars that were really unjust. ' Thus in 1203 the Pope forbade the Crusaders to march against Constantinople. Innocent 111., as we saw, put a stop to the Crusade against the Albigenses when it overstepped the limits of a just invasion. Martin V., after the Sicilian Vespers, excommunicated and deposed Peter of Aragon, saying: ■ He has made himself chief and leader of the rebels; his malice is evident, and the justice of the Roman Church stands against him with all power.' Finally, the Sovereign Pontiffs personally refused to make peace with those who enjoyed benefices that were the fruit of war. We shall now refer ? briefly to the principal instances of intervention on the part of Sovereign Pontiffs in the interest of peace. One of the first instances is that of Alexander 11., who excommunicated Harold, King of England, who was, found guilty of perjury, Gregory VI espoused the cause pt Ku-

dolph against Henry IV. : Clement 111. sought by all means at his command to reconcile England with France so that they might join forces in the third Crusade. Gregory IX. excommunicated Frederick 11. as a persecutor of the Church and oppressor of public liberty. Boniface VIII. writes to Philip -the Fair to respect the truce signed with England. Eugene IV., addressing the whole Christian world and inviting all to rise together against the Crescent, desires and ordains in virtue of his supreme authority that the whole Christian world be at peace. Those individuals refusing obedience are threatened with excommunication and communities with interdict. Pius 11. commands the subjects of Ferdinand of - Naples to be subject to their prince, and declares that peace is a duty. Paul 11., seeing himself obliged to inveigh against the King of Hungary because he had disturbed the peace in declaring war against Podiebrad, and who on the other hand seeing Florence, Naples, and Milan, in spite of his efforts, unwilling to lay down their arms, proceeds against them with his supreme power, and under pain of interdict commands them to lay down their arms within thirty days. When we pass from the Middle Ages, however, mediation and arbitration on the part of the Church become rarer as The True Christian Spirit Vanishes, and the reasons of State take the place of a ' just cause.' But still in 1514, when pagan right, sanctioned by the Reformation, legitimatized the bellicose principles of princes, the Lateran Council once more proclaimed to the whole world that nothing is more pernicious, nothing more sorrowful to the Christian Republic than war. In conclusion, it is quite clearly established from what has been said that the Catholic Church has been throughout the ages, but particularly in those ages most needing a guiding influence, the most potent factor in the promotion of peace and the preservation of the moral order among men. True to her divine mission, she has persevered in her appointed task to spread the message of peace and goodwill among men. And if to-day she stands powerless amid these smoking ruins of a desolated Europe, it is not because her sympathies have changed, but because governments have become deaf to the gentle persuasion of a mother's Voice that calls them to peace and security.