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 J Bel) 
 
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 IIIHtlllllM iiiiH 
 
 / 
 
 Pastoral Letter 
 
 OF THE 
 
 j |t p Janifs f ip^^ 
 
 n.; 
 
 m 
 
 ^ i) 'ul 
 
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 BISkOP OF KINGSTON, 
 
 TO THE REV. CLERGY OF HIS DIOCESE, 
 
 ON 
 
 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 AND 
 
 SCOTT'S ''M ARM ION," 
 
 Being a Sitnimary of Three Sermons Preached by him in 
 
 St. Mary^s Cathedral on the ist, 2nd and 
 
 ^th of November, 1882. 
 
 KINGSTON, ONT. : 
 
 PRINTED AT THE BRITISH WHIG OFFICE, KING STREET EAST, 
 
 1882. 
 

 ^ 
 
 B 
 
4 
 
 ' 
 
 i 
 
 ?; jBH n3fl:.utgi>a;^*g 
 
 g?sTii«ga^ Sin iti i iiw i iii ilii ^ 
 
 y-'/ 
 
 Pastoral Letter 
 
 OF TIIF. 
 
 |t %vi. %m^% |ii|ceql |[far||.|. 
 
 BISHOP OF KINGSTON. 
 
 TO THE REV. CLERGY OF HIS DIOCESE, 
 
 ON 
 
 CATHOLIC EDUCATION 
 
 AND 
 
 SCOTT'S " M ARM ION," 
 
 Bcinf( a Summary of Three Sermons Preached by him in 
 
 St. Mary's Cathedral on the \st, 2nd and 
 
 ^th of November, i<S82. 
 
 KINGSTON, ONT. : 
 
 PRINTF.n AT THE ))RITISII WHIG OrFICK, KING STRKKT KA.ST. 
 
 1882. 
 

 C5S ■ 
 
 240086 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Persecution of Catholic Ireland, 
 
 Anti-Educational Penal Laws. 
 
 System of Primary Education Tolerated. 
 
 Queen's Colleges and Model Schooh Condemned. 
 
 Reason of their Condemnation. 
 
 In what does the f^ntario System differ from the Condemned Irish 
 Systems ? 
 
 Cause of Recent Ihicasijirss. 
 
 The Author of " Marmion." 
 
 Is "Marmion " Offensive to Catholics ? 
 
 Is " Marmion " Immoral ? 
 
 Is ''Marmion'' Unjust ? 
 
 Where A re We Now ? 
 
r :t; ■ If ^*i;"W»«i»*!H*H»f*T 
 
 ?itmc6 IHnccut (tlcaviv J^.J'.O., 
 
 By the Grace of God and favor of the Apostolic See, Bishop 
 of Ki)t^ston, to the Rev. Clergy of his Diocese. 
 
 DEAR REV. FATHERS : 
 
 The preservation of Ireland's faith throughout three cen- 
 turies of the direst persecution the world has ever witnessed 
 was a miracle of God's rij^ht hand. Human causes are utterly 
 inadequate to explain it. Of all the multitudinous forms of 
 penal legislation t(i which Catholic Ireland was suhjected, the 
 most odious and most trying- is that which aimed at enslaving 
 the mind and starving out its life by the persistent denial of 
 the food of intelligence, without which it cannot live, its 
 faculties must remain undeveloped, it is dwarfed, enfeebled, 
 brutified. This diabolical system of persecution for conscience 
 sake was invented, 1500 years ago, by the wicked rimperor, 
 Julian the Apostate, who, seeing that the Bishops and Apolo- 
 gists of the Church were the most learned men of their age, 
 issued an edict forbidding Catholic schools to teach Grammar, 
 Rhetoric or Philosoph\ , that is to say, the branches of educa- 
 tion corresponding to the Arts curriculum in our modern 
 Universities ; and In a subsecpient decree prohibited the stud\- 
 of the classic authors of (ireece and Rome in the Catholic 
 schools, because, as he loved to say derisively, " Luke's Greek 
 is good enough for the Na/areans." Ammianus Marcellinus, 
 the Pagan panegyrist of this bad Emperor, does not hesitate 
 to qualify this anti-educational polic\- as a most base and 
 unjust contrivance of tyranny. Nevertheless, the oppressors 
 of Ireland, in the hey-day of their boasted enlightemnent, 
 were not ashamed to renew and intensify these methods of 
 religious persecution. Need you be told how the grand insti- 
 tutions of learning, which adorned the Holy Isle and had been 
 for ages the centre of attraction for the youth of many 
 countries who thirsted after the fountains of sacred and profane 
 knowledge, were seized, plundered, dismantled in the name of 
 religious liberty, their students, numbering several thousandr- 
 
ntummmuitmimit^mtmmiim 
 
 PASTORAL LETTRR. 
 
 in some colleges, were dispersed at the point of the sword, 
 their professors exiled or massacred, and all education thence- 
 forth interdicted to the children of Catholic Ireland. 
 
 Anti-Educatioual Penal Laws iu Ireland. 
 
 In the country that had sent forth its learned sons, Clement 
 and John, at the request of Charlemagne, in the eighth cen- 
 tury, to found the first two universities in the world, those of 
 Paris and Pavia, and had supplied good King Alfred with 
 counsellors in his projects for the promotion of learning in 
 England, a Catholic parent had no alternative, if he wished to 
 live and die in the faith of his fathers, but to allow his lovely 
 boy, his bright-eyed, talented boy, grow up in besotting 
 ignorance, his mind stunted, his natural cravings for know- 
 ledge unsatiated, and every high and honorable career closed 
 against him all the days of his life. There was no university, 
 no college, no high school, no grammar school, no school of 
 any kind open for Catholics, or tolerated in any part of the 
 island for Catholic children's education in conformity with 
 their faith. The Catholic schoolmaster was hunted down as 
 a wild beast, and a price was set upon his head, the same as 
 upon the head of a wolf. Ciood men had found means in- 
 deed to establish numerous bourses for Irish boys in F'rance, 
 Spain, Italy, Austria and the Netherlands ; but a series of 
 Acts of Parliament forbade any parent to send his child across 
 the sea for education under pain of fine, imprisonment and, 
 eventually, of death. Although the Endowed schools, provided 
 by the piety of our Catholic forefathers for the Catholic train- 
 ing of Irish youth, had been transferred to the stranger pro- 
 fessing an alien creed, a Catholic boy would have been gladly 
 welcomed to their halls, and might have passed thence to 
 Trinity College, to prepare himself for the higher walks of 
 professional and civil life, were he only to declare himself a 
 Protestant. Hut father and son and grandson, and ten gen- 
 erations of Irishmen in succession, preferred ignorance with 
 soul-saving faith to learning purchased by the forfeiture of the 
 hope of heaven. It was not in vain they had imbibed at their 
 mothers' breasts the love of Ciod, the Virgin and St. Patrick. 
 In their boyhood they had been taught by parent and priest 
 the divine maxim, " what doth it profit a man, if he gain the 
 whole world and suffer the loss of his own soul ?" (Mark 8c. 
 28v.) And amidst the dreariness of their Irish firesides, 
 throughout the long night of persecution, parent and child, 
 
itanniiiiaiff 
 
 'ffff^3$K*^^r*^^ '''*'*' 
 
 PASTORAL LETTER, 
 
 ;\vord, 
 lence- 
 
 ement 
 1 cen- 
 ose of 
 i with 
 inp in 
 ihed to 
 lovely 
 sotting 
 know- 
 closed 
 I'ersity, 
 lool of 
 of the 
 V with 
 )vvn as 
 ime as 
 ans in- 
 rance, 
 ies ()t 
 across 
 nt and. 
 ovided 
 train- 
 er pro- 
 }j;ladly 
 nee to 
 alks of 
 nself a 
 n gen- 
 e with 
 of the 
 It their 
 atrick. 
 priest 
 in the 
 irk 8c, 
 esides, 
 child, 
 
 brother and sister, often cheered each other by the soul-sus- 
 taining words of the good Tobias in the days of the Captivity, 
 " We are the children of saints, and we expect that life which 
 God shall give to those who never change their failh from 
 him." (Tobias 2c. i8v.) 
 
 Many and various were the causes that led to the gradual re- 
 laxation of those anti-educational laws. One thing is certain, 
 not the smallest link in the chain of Catholic servitude was 
 loosened by English bigotry in acknowledgment of the claims of 
 justice between man and man or equality of rights before the 
 law, much less through love of Christian brotherhood or gener- 
 osity towards the vanquished. Considerations such as these, in 
 respect of Catholic rights and interests, never reach the English 
 Protestant mind, except through the agency of fear infused 
 into Cabinets by loud and earnest agitation or the proximate 
 danger of some Imperial calamity. Unhappily for Ireland, 
 and for England also, this lesson is too plainly written in the 
 pages of their international record. It vvas not till England 
 had suffered grave humiliations and found herself surroimded 
 by unwonted dangers a hundred years ago, that she bethought 
 herself of the necessity of conciliating Irish Catholics by con- 
 ceding the minimum of mitigation of her penal atrocities. 
 Her army under Cornwallis had just surrenaered in America. 
 France and Spain were actually engaged with her in war. 
 Their fleets were coursing freely through the British Channel. 
 The Irish volunteers, many thousands of whom were Catholics, 
 had formed into brigades, and were unopposed by British 
 regiments in Ireland. At this conjuncture it was, that the 
 very cautious and modest bill introduced by Mr. Gardiner in 
 the British House of Commons in 1771, asking, among other 
 small favors, that liberty be given to Irish Catholics to edu- 
 cate their children, after having been several times defeated, 
 was brought forward again on the 15th February, 1772, the 
 day of the Convention of the Volunteers in Dungannon and 
 the adoption by them of Grattan's resolution in support of 
 Catholic rights. Then, and only then, the bill received 
 favorable consideration and was passed into law. 
 
 System of Primary Rdncaiion in Ireland. 
 
 At first the privilege was conceded to Catholics of opening 
 private schools for instruction in the principles of Christian 
 morality and the rudiments of secular knowledge, on condition 
 of a permit being procured from the local Protestant bishop's 
 
PASTORAL LETTER. 
 
 Consistcrlai Court. We have had in our hand the document 
 whereby the nuns of the Presentation Order, at their first 
 introduction into the city of Waterford for the gratuitous 
 education of the female poor in 179H, were authorised by the 
 Protestant Bishop to conduct a school, two CathoHc clerj^y- 
 men and a CathoHc merchant having been required previously 
 to give bail for their good behaviour. By the same document 
 all other persons were inhibited from teaching within the city, 
 " in pain of the law and contempt thereof." In view of these 
 humiliating restrictions, how thankful should not we be to 
 Almighty God for the change He has wrought in the spirit of 
 the age and the comparative freedom enjoyed by our brethren 
 in the old land and ourselves in this country of our adoption. 
 Let us pray that His Divine Spirit may continue to operate 
 upon society for the more copious diffusion amongst all classes 
 of the principles and sentiments of true liberty and of natural 
 and civil right, entitling every citi;jen to his just share of the 
 undivided patrimony of the family of freemen. 
 
 The Catholic Relief Bill having been passed in the year 
 1829 — though not until the Duke of Wellington had declared 
 that its rejection would result in a civil war — it was fairly ex- 
 pected that the right of citi;ienship would entail the right of 
 free education to the emancipated children of Ireland. The 
 rich Protestant minority had ample means of giving their sons 
 the best literary and scientific education in Trinity College, 
 the most wealthy University in the world, and in the Endowed 
 schools, founded by pious Catholics in bygone days, but now- 
 converted by Government to Protestant uses. Some system 
 of popular education should of necessity be established bv 
 Government for the great mass of the people, whose im- 
 poverished condition left them helplessly at the mercy of 
 their English rulers. Should not they be educated in 
 accordance with the doctrine and discipline of their re- 
 ligion, that its holy influence might season and sanctif\' 
 their intellectual food and mould their moral nature in 
 harmony with the supernatural, purifying, refining, and 
 elevating its character, its ainiF, its hopes, its tastes and 
 aspirations? If Protestants had Protestant teaching in all 
 its grades provided for them by the State, why not Catholics 
 — the poor, despoiled Catholics — have Catholic teaching pro- 
 vided for them at least in the elementary grade ? But it must 
 not be. Traditional bigotry could not tolerate it. The sole 
 education permissible to the Catholic poor man's child under the 
 
 P- 
 
I'ASTORAL LETTER. 
 
 National School system, about to be provided by Parliament, 
 shall be based on the undenominational principle, and shall be 
 hampered by a variety of vexatious restrictions and suspicious 
 conditions. No dogma, no discipline, no book, no symbol, 
 in the least degree tainted with Catholicity, shall be tolerated 
 in the school during school Iiours. Even the sacred sign of 
 redemption must not be seen witliin the school or upon its 
 exterior, lest, it was pretended, the Protestant children 
 should be offended, although there are 2,500 National schools 
 in Ireland, attended by nearly half a million Catholic children, 
 in which no Protestant child has ever, and probably none 
 shall ever, set foot. Moreover, the entire working of the 
 system shall be entrusted to a Board of Commissioners, ten in 
 number, seven of them Protestants and only three Catholics, 
 for the mental and moral training of nearly g'00,000 Catholic 
 boys and girls, varying from four to fourteen or lifteen years 
 of age. No wonder that suspicion was aroused against the 
 system in all quarters. The Bishops, desirous to maintain 
 their strength in unity, referred the question of its acceptance 
 or rejection to the Holy See, " from which," as St. Cyprian 
 declared 1600 years ago, "sacerdotal unity is derived." (lip. 
 55 ad Cornel). Afier two years' deliberation the Sovereign 
 Pontiff decided to leave every bishop to his own discretion as 
 to the litness of the system for its safe practical working in 
 his diocese, laying the gravest obligation upon his conscience 
 to keep jealous watch over the books to be used in the schools 
 and the observance of certain restrictions upon the office of 
 teachers, because on these two points would chiefly depend 
 the safety or danger of the National System in its relation to 
 religioi . In its practical working, however, it was found that, 
 with the connivance of the Commissioners, the grossest in- 
 justice was in many parts, especially in Ulster, done to the 
 poor Catholic children, whose poverty did not enable them to 
 erect schools of their own, and who weie, therefore, com- 
 pelled to attend the mixed schools under Protestant patrons 
 and teachers. Parliamentary investigations revealed the 
 shameful fact that Godly Protestant teachers availed them- 
 selves of their position to enforce upon the poor Catholic 
 children their Protestant bible and their own peculiar inter- 
 pretations thereof. The startling disclosure is made by Arch- 
 bishop Whately's daughter, in her father's biography, that he, 
 who liad been one of the Commissioners, — in fact the very 
 soul of the Board, — had confessed (in his own handwriting, 
 
8 
 
 PASTORAL LETTER. 
 
 authenticated by his daughter) that his whole aim and object 
 in the working of the National System of education was- 'to 
 undermine the vast fabric of Popery in Ireland ;" and he adds 
 that, whilst aiming at this end, and fearing to avow it, he was 
 " like a man fighting with one hand, and that his best one, 
 tied behind his back." The result of these exposures has 
 been a complete stoppage to the system of proselytism in the 
 schools, and the practical conversion of what is legally termed 
 the united secular and separate religious education into 
 thoroughly denominational teaching in most parts of the 
 country. Thus far the action of priests and people with their 
 Bishops, and the unity of the Bishops with the Pope, h.ave 
 saved the poor Catholics of Ireland from the danger of per- 
 version in the primary schools. 
 
 Hi'^hcr Edncaiiun in Ireland. , 
 
 The higher education of the Catholic people foimed no part 
 of the first Governmental project of national education in 
 Ireland ; but Archbishop McHale and others foretold from 
 the beginning that, if the Government should get hold of the 
 elementary education of Catholic children, the next step 
 would be to establish colleges without the guarantees against 
 proselytism which had of necessity been granted in the pri- 
 mary schools. The prophecy was verified. The Oueen's 
 University, consisting of three colleges richly endowed, and 
 offering to Catholic youth tempting bribes in the form of 
 scholarships anc' prizes, were established on the principle of 
 Godless education, no guarantee whatever being given to 
 Catholic parents that the text books might not be irreligious 
 or immoral, or that the professors might not be (what some 
 of them avowed themselves to be) dogmatic infidels. Tliis 
 system was likewise referred to Rome, and was condemned as 
 " intrinsically dangerous to faith and morals." The Bishops 
 of Ireland were strictly forbidden to take any part in the for- 
 mation or working of those Godless institutions, and priests 
 were ordered to accept no office, educational or disciplinary, 
 in them. The result is their absolute failure, despite the 
 hundreds of thousands of pounds expended upon the buildings 
 and the immense annual revenues by which they are fed from 
 taxes of Catholics and Protestants alike. l"he next project of 
 the Government for undermining the Catholic faith of Ireland 
 was the creation and endowment of Model schools, for classi- 
 cal and scientific teaching, in the cities and large towns, on 
 
 till 
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 PASTORAL LETTER. 9 
 
 the same principle of peremptory denial to Bishops and 
 parents of all right and title to examine tlie character of the 
 text-books or to have a voice in the election or dismissal of 
 teachers. These institutions were accordingh' condemned 
 by the Holy See for the same reasons that led to the condem- 
 nation of the yueen's collej^^es ; and, like the fijj^-tree cursed 
 by the Saviour, (Mark ii ch.) they have withered before t!ie 
 eyes of mankind, The ele{:,'ance of the buildings, erected at a 
 cost of three hundred thousand pounds sterling, and the 
 superior collegiate apparatus and staff of teachers provided 
 for them at an annual expense of twenty-eight thousand 
 pounds, have failed to tempt Catholic parents to the violation 
 • of the Episcopal interdict laid upon them in every Diocese, 
 conformably to the instructions of the Holy See. This is the 
 glorious faith of Ireland, defending its imsullied purity against 
 the artifices of its traditional foe. It is the standard of God 
 upheld against the standard of the world. It is the unity of 
 people with priest, of priest with Bishop, of Bishops with 
 Christ's Vicar, effectually resisting alike the anti-educational 
 policy of the past and the more dangerous policy of anti- 
 Catholic education in the present " for the sake ot the hope 
 of Israel " (Acts 28c. 2ov.) Let us take to heart the lesson 
 of Ireland's inextinguishable faith, her fervent piety, her lofty 
 wisdom, her dauntless courage, always remembering the ad- 
 monition of the prophet, " Look to the rock whence you are 
 hewn," (Isaias 51c. ly.), for "we are the children of saints, 
 and we expect that life which God shall give to those who 
 never change their faith from him." (Tobias 2c., 18). 
 
 Reaaous of their Condemnation. 
 
 It is of the utmost importance, dear Revd. Fathers, that 
 you keep your attention fixed upon .,e ladical difference be- 
 tween the system of Primary education, tolerated by the 
 Chuich in Ireland, and the systems of the Queen's University 
 and Model Schools, condemned by the Supreme Pontiff and 
 the Irish Bishops. The former concedes to the divinely- 
 appointed guardians of faith and morals the right of manager- 
 ship, involving the right of election and dismissal of teachers, 
 vvherever the schoolhouse is Catholic property ; and in those 
 parts of the country, where Catholics are few, and are ac- 
 cordingly necessitated to attend schools under Protestant 
 management, satisfactory guarantees against proselytism are 
 afforded by the rules of the Board and the right of visitation 
 
 .,.,.^.mmm^mm,,mmmmumm 
 
lO 
 
 PASTORAL LETTER. 
 
 regularly exercised by the priest. The books used in these 
 schools have moreover been compiled with cautious regard to 
 the doctrine and discipHne of the Catholic Church and the 
 religious feelings of her children, this right being assured by 
 the law, both in its letter and its spirit. On the other hand, 
 the charters of the Queen's Colleges and the Model School 
 expressly exclude all interference with their management on 
 the part of the Church's pastor^ or the children's parents. 
 The right of election and dismissal of teachers, the censorship 
 of the books, and the entire regulation of the course of in- 
 struction, are vested exclusively in the University Senate for 
 the Queen's Colleges and in the Board of Commissioners for 
 the Model Schools. Neither priest nor bisliop has the right • 
 of visitation or censorship, nor control of any kind whatsoever. 
 Hence the condemnation of the latter and the toleration of 
 the former system of education. 
 
 In what does ! he Ontario System differ from the Systems Condemned 
 
 in Ireland ? 
 
 Such being the case, we are led naturally to inves- 
 tigate the difference between our systems of higher educa- 
 tion in Ontario and th6se reprobated by the Church 
 in Ireland. The principle of their constitution seems to be 
 one and the same. Their statutes do not, so far as we 
 know, exhibit any essential difference. Why, then, do We 
 tolerate here what the Holy See forbids the bishops to 
 tolerate in Ireland ? For Our part, we cannot explain it 
 otherwise than by reference to the spirit that governs their 
 practical working. In Canada the spirit of peace happily 
 prevails among the influential men of the various religious 
 bodies. The Government, whether Liberal or Conservative, 
 exhibits a disposition to deal, in the main, fairly between 
 Catholics and Protestants, to recognize ecjual rights, and i!i 
 transactions affecting religious interests to avoid all needless 
 irritation and all appearance of partiality for one denomina- 
 tion to the prejudice of another. There is no traditional 
 hostility to the Catholic religion in Canada, nor any heredi- 
 tary claims of Protestant ascendancy supplying pretext for 
 unfair advantage. There has been no confiscation of the land 
 here, nor any agrarian war between the despoilers and the 
 despoiled, deepening in strife from generation to generaiion, 
 and constantly evoking new penal enactments for the defence 
 of the territorial and religious supremacy of the former and 
 
 ;,j,-l-.j)t(4|iy|g:;i 
 
■w!HrW-lHn«rWu)>inHWi»:MHMvii*ilia;jiiJnniiyiiiHi: 
 
 PASTORAL LETTER. 
 
 n 
 
 in these 
 regard to 
 1 and the 
 jsured by 
 her hand, 
 el School 
 ement on 
 s parents, 
 censorship 
 Lirse of in- 
 rienate for 
 ioners for 
 
 the right 
 batsoever. 
 eration of 
 
 Condemned 
 
 to inves- 
 ler educa- 
 p Church 
 ems to be 
 ar as we 
 n, do We 
 ishops to 
 explain it 
 erns their 
 e happily 
 religious 
 servative, 
 between 
 s, and in 
 needless 
 enoniina- 
 aditional 
 y heredi- 
 etext for 
 the land 
 and the 
 neraiion, 
 defence 
 nier and 
 
 the heavier oppression of the latter. Public opinion among 
 the masses and public policy on the part of the rulers are, 
 moreover, largely affected by the balance of political power in 
 the Provinces, the dominant Catholicity of the Lower 
 Province countervailing the dominant Protestantism of the 
 Upper, whence the minority in Ontaiio may, with good show 
 of reason, demand the same social and religious consideration 
 that is accorded to the- minority in Q.jebec. The great 
 variety of races likewise coutributes to the general peace in 
 this country by renderin,_,' sectarian combinations more diffi- 
 cult, the intermixture of nationalities in the settlement being 
 admonitive of their dependence on one another and the mani- 
 fest advantage of their mutual forbearance for the quiet order- 
 ing of life. These are among the causes that operate in Cana- 
 dian society favorably to peace, and justify our srnse of secu- 
 ' ity against any lormidable combination for the purpose of 
 anti-Catholic aggression. It is true, the High Schools and 
 Collegiate Institutes of Ontario do not supply Catholic educa- 
 tion. They are not what the Church desires for her children. 
 They do not accord with her spirit. Their non-Catholic 
 character renders them ineffective for the moral and spiritual 
 training of youth. They inform the intellect, but they do not 
 fashion the man, much less the woman, in the perfect mould 
 which the constant influence of religious teaching, combined 
 with the secular, alone imparts ; for it is only the Divine 
 stamp impressed upon the mind and heart of man, " prone 
 to evil from his youth," (Gen. 8c. 21,) that shapes the 
 thought, the judgment, the fancy, the tastes and principles 
 and motives of conduct in the Htness of the life of the 
 children of God, destined for something beUcr and more 
 enduring than the best chances of earthly prosperity. In 
 other respects also our Ontario system is defective, and 
 worse than defective. They are not without their dangers. 
 Hut we are not devoid of hope that whatever grievances 
 we at present endure shall in due time be taken into 
 high consideration and honestly remedied. Our confi- 
 dence rests upcn the social basis. We have no grave 
 apprehension that the little ones of our flock shall be 
 
 or undermined in their mora 
 
 lis by 
 
 ipprenension inai irj 
 
 robbed of their faith 
 
 their acceptance of instruction in the High Schools and 
 
 Collegiate Institutes of Ontario. It is not by the statutes 
 
 written on parchment, but by the practical working of the 
 
 system, that the judgment of the Hierarchy is determined ; and 
 
 .^,;tiirii.ut'+!- .!..••*;•!■•■; 
 
12 
 
 PASTORAL LETTER. 
 
 the liberty hitherto allowed to Catholic parents to send their 
 children to those educational centres is proof before the 
 world of the Bishops' belief that tiie system is, on the whole, 
 free from any grave danger that would render it intolerable. 
 Were things otherwise — were the conditions of civil society 
 and the spiiit of governmental action in Ontario the same as 
 in England with respect to Catholicity, then the same w;ell- 
 founded suspicion of contemplated proselytism and the same 
 apprehensions regarding the operation and development of 
 the systems of high education in Ireland, referred to by the 
 Popes in their condemnation of them, should, it seems to Us, at- 
 tach to the systems of Ontario likewise, and call for their condem- 
 nation by the same Sovereign authority. The Church cannot 
 uphold in one country what she condemns in another, the 
 conditions, theoretical and practical, being the same in both. 
 If, therefore, the peace we have hitherto enjoyed should be 
 rudely broken, .tnd the confidence of the Chief Pastors be for- 
 feited by acts of aggression on Catholic faith or discipline, 
 whether by the sanction of bad school-books or the offensive 
 action of anti-Catholic teachers, the question for the Bishops 
 then would be: Should they not imitate the example set them 
 by their Irish brethren and ask the Holy See to decide whether 
 the systems of Higher Education in Ontario are not "intrinsi- 
 cally dangerous to faith and morals ?" It must be obvious to 
 every one that the result of an affirmative decision wouH be 
 the compulsory withdrawal of our children from those institu- 
 tions, and thenceforth Ontario would resound with the tumult 
 of war and the fierce battle-cries of creeds and races. 
 
 Cause of Recent Uneasiness. 
 
 A wave of anxiety has recently passed over the public mind 
 by reason of tlie extremely bitter anti-Catholic tone 
 of a series of editorial articles in a Toronto journal which is 
 supposed to rellect the sentiments of the great Conservative 
 party in the Dominion. We must here premise that since 
 our advent to Canada We have carefully abstained Irom inter- 
 ference by word or act with political affairs. We have known 
 no party but our own people and their spiritual interests. 
 We confess, however, that we entertain the highest respect 
 for the Conservative party, and from individual members 
 within it we have received nothing but courtesy and kind- 
 ness, impressing us with the conviction that their principles 
 and high social character guarantee their freedom from all 
 
PASTORAL LETTER. 
 
 ^3 
 
 send their 
 jefore ihe 
 the whole, 
 itolerable. 
 vil society 
 le same as 
 ;ame well- 
 \ the same 
 jptnent of 
 to by the 
 sto Us,at- 
 ;ircondcm- 
 ich cannot 
 other, the 
 le in both, 
 should be 
 tors be for- 
 discipline, 
 le offensive 
 he Bishops 
 le set them 
 de whether 
 t "intrinsi- 
 obvious to 
 
 wouH be 
 nse institu- 
 
 he tumult 
 
 ublic mind 
 lolic tone 
 which is 
 nservative 
 that since 
 rom inter- 
 ave known 
 interests. 
 St respect 
 members 
 and kind- 
 principles 
 from all 
 
 desire to wilfully trespass upon the relis^ious rights of the 
 Catholic people, or offend their feelings by words of insult. 
 What, then, was Our surprise upon reading in the paper, 
 supposed to be their organ, editorial articles aboundmg with 
 insult add the vilest ribaldry against the highest ecclesiastical 
 dignitary in the province. And what for ? Because, forsooth, 
 His Grace had daied to exercise the first and most important 
 duty of his office by respectfully expostulating with the 
 Minister of Education against the introduction into the 
 schooio frequented by Catholic children of a book extremely 
 offensive to the Catholic religion, its discipline and conventual 
 institutions. On this ground he has been attacked as an 
 intermeddler an<l a dictator, and vituperation in all forms has 
 been heaped upon hii:^. His Grace's venerable age, his 
 exalted place in the Churcli, his learning, his piety, his great 
 public services, his representative character, were no safe- 
 guard against obloquy and derision the moment he appeared 
 as a defender of his children's innocence. Here is war pro- 
 claimed against a first principle of the Catholic religion, 
 against a paramount right of the Episcopate, a right which 
 no bishop can renounce under any threat or any penalty. 
 The chief pastor must guard his flock against being seduced 
 into poisonous pastures, and, above all, the little ones of the 
 fold must have their innocence protected b^' the special 
 vigilance of liiin to whose rare they have been entrusted by 
 the Pastor of Pastors. 
 
 The Author of " Manniou.'' 
 
 Consider the character of the book entitled '' Marmion," to 
 which objection has been taken. We may be permitted to 
 state at the outset that We do not regard Sir Walter Scott 
 as an enemy of Catholicity. vScott did not profess ieligious 
 zeal in any fotni. His religion was what may be called a 
 political religion— !:e followed the views of his party. His 
 writings were directed chi.''fly to the illustration of the man- 
 ners of society, and had regard generally to the middle ages, 
 the times cf feudalism and chivalry. If '" Marmion " offends 
 owx Catholic feelings, we readily condone the offence, because 
 of the many beautiful pictures of Catholic life, animated by 
 lofty Catholic inspiration, and developing in the formation of 
 iiobie characters, with which the author's elegant writings 
 abountL " Marmion " was not composed by him with any 
 special spite against us : but the traditional prejudices of 
 
 ;vjW».v.;:«iK!. 
 
H 
 
 PASTORAL LETTER. 
 
 English society, carefully fostered by the holders of the Abbey 
 lands which Henry VIII. had confiscated on pretence of immoral 
 practices among the holy inmates, had thoroughly imbued 
 the mind of the poet ; and the wonder is that Scott, living 
 in the midst of this fog of English prejudice, and straitened 
 by financial difficulties, did not indulge more frequently in 
 that species of writing calculated to gratify the morbid taste 
 of anti-Catholic society in En^dand ninety years ago. 
 
 Is " Marmion " Offenswe to Catholics .- 
 
 It has been said, and repeated ad nauseam, that this poem 
 is not of its nature " offensive" to Catholics. We must claim 
 the right to doubt the sincerity of the gentlemen, reverend 
 and lay, who put forth this opinion. Remember always that 
 the Author has explicitly declared the poem to be an illustra- 
 tion of the manner of life in the early part of the i6th 
 century. In his Preface to the work he writes as follows : — 
 " The design of the author was, if possible, to apprize his 
 " readers, at the outset, of the date of his story, and to pre- 
 
 *' pare them for the manners of the a^e in ivhich it is laid 
 
 '* An attempt to pain! the manners of the feudal times will not be 
 " unacceptable to the public." Is it not. therefore, exceed- 
 ingly " offensive " to represent to the youth of this Province 
 Catholic institutions of superior sanctity, and religious men 
 and women under manifold forms of abominable vice ? Is 
 not the typical priest — the local pastor — " offensively ' repre- 
 sented as more rude and profane than anv trooper in his 
 habits of swearing, stabbing and brawling : Is Catholic feel- 
 ing not justly " offended " and grieviously hurt by the picture 
 of a friar, the man of humility and prayer and self-imposed 
 mortification, going about as a sot and buffoon through towns 
 and castles and towers, wheresoevei the wine and ale flowed 
 freely, and violating the sacred rights of hospitality by the 
 most atrocious of all crimes, the f(->ul dishonouring of his 
 host's wife ? Are not our nuns, the virgins espoused to Jesus 
 Christ in poverty, chastity and obedience, "offensively" and 
 untruly and most painfully typified in the trio selected for 
 portraiture of their Order, of whom one indeed is a virtuous 
 nun, but the second is a love-lorn maiden, wearing the holy 
 habit of religion, whilst her heart and mind are abroad in the 
 world ; and the third is a creature of sin. a perjured inipure. 
 Is it not an " offensive" and shockini^;ly untrue and indecent 
 picture of Catholic life that is set before the minds of pure 
 
■.^■,.gvitni m"' *-«-t**«'»'"*'-''^gt>' 
 
 i-i<Hi!h;:Mii^MHm>»\t6mi*^^!^Mia!ii>rJa' 
 
 of the Abbey 
 ce of immoral 
 p:hly imbued 
 Scott, living 
 id straitened 
 requently in 
 morbid taste 
 ago. 
 
 t this poem 
 
 e must claim 
 
 len, reverend 
 
 always that 
 
 e an illustra- 
 
 of the i6th 
 
 s follows : — 
 
 apprize his 
 
 and to pre- 
 
 >' laid 
 
 s will not be 
 
 |"ore, exceed - 
 
 his Province 
 
 ious meji 
 
 vice ? Is 
 
 ely " repre- 
 
 per in his 
 
 atholic feel- 
 
 the picture 
 
 elf-imposed 
 
 ouo^h towns 
 
 ale flowed 
 
 ality by the 
 
 ring of his 
 
 sed to Jesus 
 
 ively " and 
 
 elected for 
 
 s a virtuous 
 
 ig the holy 
 
 oad in the 
 
 ed impure. 
 
 d indecent 
 
 ids of pure 
 
 PASTORAL LETTER. 
 
 ^5 
 
 boys and girls, both Catholic and Protestant, in Canada, 
 when the whole plot of the poem is an impure and sacrilejifious 
 intrigue between a voluptuous young chieftan and a conse- 
 crated nun, resulting in this weak creature's abandonment of 
 herself to his lust, her flight from the convent, her companion- 
 ship with him for three years in this loathsome turpitude of 
 life, her sex all the while disguised by her dressing in male 
 attire ? Is it not " offensive " to our dearest religious feelings 
 to have the convents, the homes of holiness, represented as 
 places where murder was practised in dungeons loo feet below 
 the surface of the earth., into which neither light nor aircould 
 enter"? Are we to take no " offence'" for abbots of the great 
 Benedictine monasteries that have done such wonderful things 
 for civilization, for the conversion of the pagan, and the sanc- 
 tification of Christian society, whose life-long labors in the 
 intervals of pra\er were devoted to the transcription and 
 preservation of the glorious classic writings of ancient Greece 
 and Rome— that these self-sacrificing men. these benefactors 
 of society, are represented as the natural foes of mankind, 
 fired with spite and envy, and driven by despair into the 
 cloister, or again as men whose early life was marked by some 
 foul crime and were drawn by rernorse of conscience to the 
 penitential life of the convent ? We wouUl repectfully ask 
 those gentlemen who proclaim " Marmion " inoffensive as a 
 school-book, what they would think of the guardians of edu- 
 cation in the province of Quebec appointing as a text book for 
 the high schools and university Dryden's poem of "The Hind 
 and the Panther." or Cobbett's " History of the Reformation ?" 
 Or, to make the case more parallel, suppose that instead of 
 the scene of the plot being laid in the Middle Ages, it were 
 laid in the i6th century, and, for precision's sake, in the year 
 1525 ; that it was not in northern England but in Germany, 
 not a fiction of the poet's brain but an incontrovertible his- 
 torical fact, and that the two principal characters pourtrayed 
 were not Marmion and Constance, but Martin and Catharine, 
 would any Protestant gentleman, lay or cleric, patiently listen 
 to a Catholic clergyman solemnly assuring his congregation 
 that it was exactly the book to l)e placed in the hands of the 
 male and female children of Canada ? 
 
 The Qiu'stion of '* \tarininn\ " Imnun-ality. 
 
 It has been asked, " Is ' Marmion" immoral ? We answer, 
 No. not in intent. Is it of its nature likely to awaken impure 
 
i6 
 
 PASTORAL LETTER. 
 
 emotions in the readers* minds? No, if tlie reader be a man 
 of educated feeling and well-balanced judgment and steady, 
 virtuous disposition. But for boys and girls, arrived at the 
 critical period of adolescence, when nature has awakened a new- 
 sense within them, and they have begun to recognize an order in 
 society and a relaticjn between the tw(i great classes in human 
 life, hitherto concealed by a wise Providence, and as yet their 
 feelings and ideas have not been definitely brought under the 
 control of self-denial and the chastening of the imagination, 
 will any parent say that the picture of the turpitude of life 
 represented in Marmion and Constance is proper to be set 
 before them for close continual study and analysis of every 
 sentence, line and word ? " I made a covenant with my 
 eyes," said holy Job, " that I would not so nuich as think 
 upon a virgin." (Job 31c.) St. Paul would have " the un- 
 married woman and the virgin be holy both in body and 
 spirit." (I Cor. 7c. ,54V.) The Saviour of mankind has, 
 m<jreover, classified *' evil thoughts" with murder, adultery 
 and fornication, and of them He said, " These are the things 
 that defile a man." (Matt. 15c.) How shall we reconcile 
 this exalted doctrine of chaste restraint upon the mind anfl 
 imagination, so dear to the heart of the Catholic Church, with 
 the severe critical study by our boys and girls of such pictures 
 as " Marmion" draws of the " gentle paramour" in page's garb ; 
 of the hurried flight of the surprised adulterer : of Lord Heron 
 at the head of his banquet-table jesting with lascivious refer- 
 ence to the page's sex, and his noble guest retorting with 
 scornful reproach of cuckoldom : of James in his camp indulg- 
 ing royal amours, and the " wily Lady," of siren charms, be- 
 witching him with harp and song, with laugh and blush and 
 " pretty oath" in presence of his courtiers ? 
 
 One needs not to be a very profound moralist to know what 
 a powerful support to virtue in youth is the atmosphere of 
 holiness encompassing daily life. The conviction that virtue 
 reigns supreme all round in stern, exacting reality, exercises 
 a mighty influence for the steadying of the undisciplined mind 
 of the gay stripling with downy cheek. Shall Canadian 
 youth be taught to forfeit this conviction and look upon all 
 classes of society with suspicion of inner vice being concealed 
 under the outward forms of conventional reserve ? For, if the 
 nun and friar be impure, and the military chief be impure, 
 and the Lord's Lady too, and the King in can^p and court be 
 impure, may not the scanning student of *' Marmion" say to 
 
 tsl 
 
 •ft 
 
 ml 
 asj 
 \\l 
 
 wl 
 
 \'a| 
 
 w I 
 
 fof 
 
 luj 
 
 \ii 
 
 us 
 
■.- ■ a«*u*»te*lr trhM.A'WJ'*-' W'-.^ 
 
 ^•«'.-!'.-.ii*i»fe;<.lt((H.-,Hrtrtmi«tStFA*WH:4*' 
 
 je a man 
 id steady, 
 d at the 
 led a new 
 n order in 
 n human 
 vet their 
 inder the 
 igination, 
 ie of hfe 
 
 be set 
 of every 
 with my 
 as think 
 ' the un- 
 'ody and 
 :ind has, 
 
 juhiltery 
 le things 
 reconcile 
 lind and 
 rch, with 
 
 1 pictures 
 :e'sgarb ; 
 rd Heron 
 us refer- 
 
 with 
 > indulg- 
 nns, l)e- 
 lnsh and 
 
 :)w what 
 
 (here of 
 
 |t virtue 
 
 exercises 
 
 'd mind 
 
 lanadian 
 
 ipon all 
 
 mcealed 
 
 |r, if the 
 
 impure, 
 
 ;ourt be 
 
 sav to 
 
 T'ASTORAI. LETTER. 
 
 17 
 
 himself, as he surveys the drawing-room, " Perhaps here also 
 is plotted some impure intrigue ?" It is unquestionably dan- 
 gerous to inure the boyish mind to general suspicion of evil. 
 
 Concerning this particular vice, the Apostle St, Paul ad- 
 monishes all Christians, old and young, " Let it not so much 
 as be named among you, as becometh saints." (Eph. 5c. jv.) 
 What shall become of this rule in Canada, if the poem of 
 which We complain, be a subject for public reading and pri- 
 vate stud} with a view to examination ? The school-book 
 will be a common topic of conversation among the class-mates: 
 for if the mind be full, the mouth must speak. We repeat that, 
 lu)W innocuous soever this book may be to a man matured in 
 virtue, it is decidedly injurious to youth, especially if it be 
 used as a class-book and iiiade the subject of examination for 
 honors and matriculation. The impressions made upon tlie 
 mind by class-books under these circumstances are, we all 
 know it, absolutely ineffaceable. It does not recpiire any 
 sensuous coloring of sin by the pen of fancy to give an immoral 
 tendency to a poem placed in the hands of youth for daily 
 study. The danger is perhaps all the greater by reason of the 
 attractive dress in which vice is disguised, the glamour of 
 romance and chivalry surroimding the infamous characters it 
 pourtrays, the picture of beauty, eJegance of form, "matchless 
 constancy" and elevation of spirit, with which the fallen fe- 
 male, the woman of sin. is presented to the unsteady and 
 i'asil\ fascinated youthftU mind. 
 
 Is " Mannioit" Uujiisf ? 
 
 To offer to the public of Canada the poem " Marnnon" as a 
 faithful delineation of Catliolic life in our conventional institu- 
 tions, whether in the Middle Ages or any age, would be the 
 foulest of historical injustices ever perpetrated upon the Church 
 of the Crucihed. The Pagan satirists upheld the gods of the 
 empire, and ac(|uired the power of evoking the demon of jierse- 
 cution at will, b\' calunmiatiiig the Christian worshii)pers. 
 whom they boldly charged with feasting upon the flesh of 
 slaughtered infants and committing shameful impurities in 
 their religious assemblies. The sacrilegious intrigues and 
 dungeon-scenes of "Marmion" are not \ery dissimilar in their 
 nature, their origin and their purpose. Not that Sir Walter 
 Scott invented them. He treats them as portions of the great 
 Protestant Tradition of Enghuul, the truth or falsehood of 
 which he was not concerned to in\estigate, whilst its supreme 
 
l8 
 
 PASTORAI, LETTER. 
 
 influence in social and political circles, no less than its ex- 
 clusive possession of the richest treasures (^f classic British 
 literature, overcame his hetter instincts and led him to offer 
 occasional sacrifice to the popular idol. The followinj^' extract 
 from the writinj^s of Enj^land's greatest scholar and truest 
 of critics, John Henry Cardinal Newman, forcihly illustrates 
 the position : — 
 
 "Verse and prose, grave and gay, the scientific and the 
 practical, history and fable, all is animated spontaneonsh', or 
 imperiously subdued, by the spirit of Henry and Elizabeth. 
 I say "imperiously subdued," l)ecause the Tradition of Pro- 
 testantism is strong enough, not only to recommend, but to 
 force, its reception on each successive generation of authors. 
 It compels when it cannot persuade. There is Alexander Pope, 
 a Catholic, and who would discover it from the run of his 
 poems? There is Samuel Johnson, born a Protestant, yearn- 
 ing for the Catholic Church, and bursting out into fitful de- 
 fences of portions of her doctrine and discipline, yet professing 
 to the last that very Protestantism which could neither com- 
 mand his affections nor cure his infirmities. And, in our own 
 time, there was Walter Scott, ashamed of his own Catholic 
 tendencies, and cowering beliore the jealous frown of the tyrant 
 Tradition. There was Wordsworth, obliged to do penance for 
 Catholic sonnets by anti-Catholic comi)liments to them. Scott, 
 forsooth, must plead anticpiarianism in extenuation of his pre- 
 varication. Wordsworth nmst plead Pantheism ; and l^urke, 
 again, must plead political necessity. Liberalism, scepticism, 
 infidelity, these must be venial errors, under plea of which a 
 writer escapes reprobation for the enormity of feeling tenderly 
 towards the relig^ion of his fathers, and of his neighbours 
 around him." — (Newman's "Present Position of Catholics in 
 ICngland," Lecture H.^ 
 
 That human nature may have sometimes, throughout the 
 1800 years of the Church's existence, yielded to the im]>ulse of 
 passion in not a few of her elect children from amongst the 
 Inmdred millions consecrated by her to (iod under religious 
 vows, is quite pixssible, it is' more than i)rol)ab!(;. That re- 
 generated man may fall from frouj grace is a dogma of 
 Catholicity, whose denial is heresy. That the Church of 
 Jesus Christ shall consist of good men and bad, of sinners and 
 saints, of those who shall be crowned with benediction and 
 those who shall be condemned to the torments of hell on the 
 Day of General Judgment, is also a dogma of Catholic faith. 
 
l.;w-.HWt>lB.WUW;li4t!»»^lti|i i li|lii|tifll i tt c H ' l l lli ■»■ 
 
 han its ex- 
 >sic British 
 iiii to offer 
 v'\u'^ extract 
 
 and truest 
 y illustrates 
 
 fie and the 
 neonsh', or 
 
 Ehzabeth. 
 ion of Pro- 
 :.'nd, but to 
 of authors, 
 inder Pope, 
 
 run of his 
 mt, vearn- 
 () fitful <le- 
 t professin^r 
 
 jit her coni- 
 
 in our own 
 
 •n Catholic 
 
 f the tyrant 
 
 x^'nance for 
 
 eni. Scott, 
 
 )f his pre- 
 
 n(\ Hurki', 
 
 ce[)ticisni, 
 
 )f which a 
 
 'f^; tenderly 
 
 i('i^dd)ours 
 
 itholics in 
 
 hout the 
 iMi]>ulse of 
 onj^'st tilt- 
 relif^Mous 
 
 That rc- 
 lof^nia of 
 "hurch of 
 mers and 
 :tion and 
 on the 
 Hie faith. 
 
 PASTOR AT. LETTER. 
 
 19 
 
 written in lines of noon-day distinctness in every p'dge of the 
 New Testament. But the *' Marmion " story of "Bloody 
 Rome " and " Priests' cruelty " and the '* Vault of Penitence 
 exdudinf,' air and li^'ht " and '' living tombs " underneath the 
 convents : of the cowled assassin skilled in the use of " bowl 
 and knife " ; of the Benedictine Abbot, on whose brow 
 
 " Nor ruth, nor mercy's trace, is shown " 
 
 holding "Council of life and death in secret aisle beneath." 
 
 " To speak the Chapter's doom" 
 " On those the wall was to enclose" 
 " Alive, within the tomb" : 
 
 of the "haggard monks," the church's "chosen executioners, 
 vassals of her will" standing motionless, torch in hand, 
 
 " And building tools in order laid," 
 
 beside the fatal niche's grisly door- this mass of ghastly 
 horrors, associated with the unchastity of (instance de 
 Beverley, and the farrago of silly superstitions scoftingly 
 tyi)ifying the religious mind — the whole plrjt of the story and 
 all its vicious embellishment, are indeed a true expression of 
 England's cherished Tradition of Piejudice, but, at the same 
 time, a cruel, heartless libel ufion the Xfonastic life of the 
 favored children of the Church of (iod. 
 
 The constitution of our religious Orders is the brotherluxKl 
 of peace and holiness and dospel Coimsel and charity towards 
 (Iod and man. If discipline must be upheld in the Cloister, 
 and faults expiated, the imposition of j)euance must be 
 tempered by mercy and ordained to the correction of the 
 delinquent, not to his destruction. You will search in vain 
 through the whole code, ancient and modern, of ecclesiastical 
 law for the institution of monastic tribunals empowered to 
 inflict the death-penalty. On the contrary, dear Rev. Fathers, 
 as you well know, the Catholic Church has, from the remotest 
 ages, re{)elled from her Sanctuar\ the spiller of blood ; not 
 alone the murderer, but every man who has participated in 
 the taking of human life, albeit in strict accord with the 
 (established rules of public justice, be he accuser or witness or 
 executioner, ermined judge upon the bench or Crown counsel 
 |)leading for the })rotection of society. And yet the aged 
 Benedictine Abbot, " the Saint of Lindisfarne," is, we are 
 ti^ld, fitlv represented to Canadian youth in solemn judicial 
 character 
 
 :i;,!*ij<!V.i./.(,K.'.V.- 
 
20 
 
 IWSTOKAf. l.r.TTF.R. 
 
 " In loii^ black dress, on scat of stone," 
 
 consi^nin^ to death in most harharous form two of his sub- 
 jects I)} virtue of "the Statutes of his OnJer strict" hiid open 
 before him on an " iron table !" We may smile at the poetic 
 elegance of the " iron table " and the " seat of stone" : but we 
 should be Tuore than men, or very much less, were our souls 
 not rtred with indij^Miation at the revoltinjf picture of exalted 
 Christian sanctity transformed into worse than Faj^an vice, 
 and the Evangelical Counsels of povert\ , chastity and 
 obedience, the favorite virtues of the " \\'ord made tlesh," 
 personified in livin/^ characters unutterably odious. Place this 
 poem in the hands of youth as a subject of study for aca- 
 demic honors, to be read, ruminated, dijjested and assimilated 
 to their vital thouj^ht ; what other effect can it have than to 
 create an early horror of the cloistered relij^ious life fashioned 
 upon the divine model of the V'irj^inal association of Jesus, 
 Mary and Josvjph in the first Christian Convent, the holy 
 home of Nazareth ? Is not this unjust to the Church ? Is it 
 not unjust to Catholic youth ? Oh! yes: but this is precisely 
 the end to which the foul calumniation of the relij^jious Orders 
 was directed, not by the prevaricating^ aulhor of " Marmion," but 
 by the rapacious Kinj^' who procured sciUTilous libels, indecent 
 pictures and suborned testimony of paid accusers to be 
 scattered among the Knj^dish people from end to end of the 
 island, impressing them effectually with tlu; ideas which for 
 three centuries have been embodied in the Tradition of 
 Prejudice against Catholicity. It well became Henry tlu> 
 Eighth's " innocence of hand and I'leanness of heart" to chaigt> 
 the chaste spouses of Christ with unchastity. and to impute 
 deeds of nameless viciousness to the erudite Benedictines, the 
 UMirtified Trappists. the soul-stirring Dominican Preachers of 
 the olden (lospel, the I'Vanciscau dexotees of j)overt\', the 
 /jealous Augustiuiaii Missionaries, the pious Carmelite guardians 
 of the Virgin's shrines, and all other religious men whose prayers 
 and got)d works helped to sa\e England from the fate of Sodonj 
 and (jomorrah in the days of that impure, wife-murdering 
 despot. If the monasteries, were to be i)lundere(l. policy re- 
 quired that they should first be defamed. Hence Tom Crom- 
 well's Court (»f Inquisition. If the good English people were 
 to be gained over to belief in the evil-doing of monks and 
 nuns, they nnist be coaxed b\- the promise of exemption from 
 taxes and the grant of Abbey lands to intiuential families. Eet 
 Us here quote an historian than whoni none has c\vv been 
 
 11 
 P' 
 
 P 
 c 
 
 hi 
 
 a; 
 
e, 
 
 of his sub- 
 laid open 
 it tlu- poetic 
 It'" ; hut Wf 
 ere onr stinls 
 e of exalted 
 Paj^an vice, 
 hastity and 
 nade tlesli," 
 Place this 
 dy for aca- 
 I assimilated 
 ^ve than to 
 fe fashioned 
 in of Jesus, 
 It. the holy 
 uch ? Is it 
 is precisely 
 (ions Oniers 
 irrnion,"" hut 
 lis. indecent 
 isers to he 
 end of the 
 s which for 
 radition of 
 Heiuy tht' 
 t" to chaij^e 
 to inipute 
 ictines, the 
 'c'achers of 
 )vert\', the 
 e jL,Miardians 
 lose i,)ra\ers 
 e of Sodonj 
 inurtlerin;^'^ 
 policy ri'- 
 \)in Croni- 
 fople were 
 lonks and 
 ption fron> 
 lilies. Let 
 I'ViT been 
 
 PASTORAL LETTKR. 
 
 21 
 
 more hostile or more unscrupulous in employ injj^ his pungent 
 pen against the Holy Catholic CJuirch. Hume in his "History 
 of England," chap. 51, referring to Tom Cromwell's Comis- 
 sion, writes : — 
 
 " During times of faction, especially ol the religious kind, no 
 etjuity is to be expected from adversaries ; and as it was 
 known that the King's intention in this Visitation was to find a 
 pretence for abolisliing monasteries, we may naturally con- 
 clude that the repoits of the Commissioners are very little to 
 be relied on. Friars were encouraged to bring information 
 against their brethren ; the slightest evidence was credited : 
 and even the calumnies spread abroad by the friends of the 
 
 Reformation were regarded as grounds of proof 
 
 When it was observed that the rapacity and bribery of the 
 Commissioners and others, employed in visiting the monas- 
 teries, intercepted much of the profits arising from these con- 
 fiscations, it tended much to increase the general discontent. 
 
 In order to reconcile the people to such mighty 
 
 innovations, they were told that the King wouKl never thence- 
 forth have occasion to levy taxes, but would be able from the 
 abbey lands alone to bear, dming war as well a:? peace, the 
 whole charges of government. Stories were propagatetl of 
 the detestable lives of the friars in many of the convents ; 
 and great care was taken to defame those whom the Co(nt 
 had determined to ruin." 
 
 Is it not a grievous injustice to the Catholic Church and 
 her faithful people that these shameful calumnies, so wickedly 
 CiMitrived and =0 craftily blended w ith popular interests and 
 popular prejudice, should be forced upon the High Schools of 
 Ontario for the propagation of the seeds of strife and sectarian 
 bitterness '? Does not this injustice towards the C-atholic popu- 
 lation threaten to overflow upon society. at large ? Shall not 
 the hatied and contempt of the Catholic religion, engendered 
 by these shocking stories in the school-room, extend quickly 
 to the family, and from the family to factory and store, and 
 thence to every sphere of social life '.' Is it not enough that 
 the blind anti-Catholic hatred, begotten of Cromwell's Inqui- 
 sition, has been the cause of permanent internecine war be- 
 tween England and Ireland, resulting in a catalogue of guilt 
 that, cries to heaven for vengeance? Is it when all intelligent 
 and good men in England are filled with shame for the Anglo- 
 Irish record of by-gone days, and loudly proclaim the duty of 
 patriotism to forget, and. if possible, undo, the evil work of 
 
22 
 
 PASTOR AT, LETTER. 
 
 their fathers, Canada shall import the decayinj^ weed, the 
 "root of bitterness," (Hebr. 12c. 15,) and plant it, as a flower 
 of sweetness, in her intellectual nursery ? In fine, does not 
 justice demand the exclusion of sucli books from our schools 
 for the sake of the children themselves, Protestant as 
 well as Catholic ? It shall not be denied that error is in all 
 cases an injury to the mind, a stain upon the intellect. Pre- 
 judice is also an in]ury to man's moral nature ; it distorts the 
 moral sentiment. Errors and prejudices imbibed in youth are 
 with difficulty effaced in mature ajje. Those derived from 
 school-books are usually indelible: for they are stamped upon 
 the plastic mind with the sanction of parental authority, and 
 by emulous study and repetition and examination are inter- 
 mixed with the very tissues of life. Text-books are supposed 
 to be chosen judiciously, not alone for the communication of 
 knowledge, but also, and much more, for the formation of 
 taste and the direction of nascent thought. Whv should not 
 the intellectual type be free from error and undefiled by 
 prejudice ? We confidentlv leave this most grave cpiestion to 
 all good Protestant parents for calm reflection in the interest 
 of t!ieir beloved offspring, who shall be the life of society, in 
 the next generation. If the fountains be poisoned, how shall 
 society maintain a healthy.exister.ee? 
 
 Where arc ice iioic ? 
 
 We are happ}', dear Rev'd I'^athers. to observe that the 
 storm which seemed to threaten us a few weeks ago has 
 gradually subsided into calm. The Torontine .l^^olus has, it 
 would seem, returned to his cave for a season, having failed 
 to create any serious disturbance in the temper of society 
 by his angry blasts against the Catholic Hierarchy. 
 At all events, the right of Hisho[)s to expostulate with 
 the Minis^^er of Education for the protection of religion 
 against sctiool-books "'offensive'" to Catholic feeling and dan- 
 gerous to our children's innocence, is no lonijer denounced as 
 a claim of " dictatoiship " over the Provincial Cabinet. 'I'he 
 Catholic principle is now more thoiougiily understood and its 
 leasonableness more freely confessed. Thus far, let us thank 
 God, the controversy that was so noisily forced upon us, has 
 been productive of good. The issue has, moreover, been 
 officially decided by the following order of the Lieutenant- 
 Governor in Council last Saturday : — 
 
 " In the subject of English Litera^tne, i)rescril)ed b\ the 
 
g weed, the 
 , as a flower 
 e, does not 
 our schools 
 otestant as 
 ror is in all 
 illect. Pre- 
 distorts the 
 in youth are 
 erived from 
 imped upon 
 :hority, and 
 n are inter- 
 re supposed 
 inication of 
 orniation of 
 
 shoidd not 
 indetiled i)y 
 
 question to 
 the interest 
 f society, in 
 , how shall 
 
 e that the 
 s a^'o has 
 
 us has, it 
 vin«^ failecJ 
 of society 
 Hierarchy. 
 date with 
 |>t rehj.,Mon 
 
 and dan- 
 
 ounced as 
 
 liiiet. The 
 
 |od and its 
 
 lis thank 
 
 lui us, has 
 
 |)ver, been 
 
 ieutenant- 
 
 h\ h\ the 
 
 wsssss 
 
 ^^E 
 
 PASTORAL LETTER. 
 
 23 
 
 Order in Council of the jist March last. Goldsmith's " Traveller " 
 or " Marntion " may be used by any pupil in the High School or 
 candidate at the departmental examinations in July next, as 
 the parent or guardian may select." 
 
 It rejoices Us to state, for the honor of Our Episcopal 
 City, that, prior to this option being given, the young ladies, 
 both Catholic and Protestant, of Kingston (under direction, 
 we presume, of their parents) formally declared against 
 " Marmion " as a text-book. The following statement has 
 been communicated to Us by two of those young ladies in 
 reply to Our intei rogations : — "The direction having been 
 given to the female pupils of the High School, that all who 
 were in favor of *' Marmion " should declare their wish by 
 standing, the minority, consisting of those only who are study- 
 ing the Matriculation course and are accordingl}' under 
 necessity of using that book, stood up, the majority remaining 
 in their seats. Among the latter were all the Catholic pupils 
 of the school. One of these was subseciuentK' called aside 
 and asked * Had she any personal objection to the book ":*' 
 Whereupon she replied, as became a well-instructed and self- 
 respecting Catholic, that she had no opinion on the matter, 
 since the (juestion had been decide^! by the bishops, to whose 
 judgment, as superior to hers, she submitted." May God 
 bless this young lady and her companions, Catholic and 
 Protestant alike ! A high religious principle — 'the very same 
 whose denial gave occasion to the whole controversy — has 
 been affirmed by Our Catholic pupils unhesitatingly and 
 spontaneously, without any command or suggestion from 
 Us. For this we give thanks to God and beseech Him to 
 reward the faith and virtue of those who have openly confess- 
 ed His Name and autiiority in His Holy Church. 
 
 One word more and We have done. It did appear not unreason- 
 able, when violent attacks were made from day to day against 
 the divine rigiits of the Episcopate in a journal reputed lo be 
 the organ of the great and respectable Conse vative party in 
 the Province, that men should hold the party itself more or 
 less responsible for those exhibitions of hostility to Catholic 
 interests. We are happy to have learned, as well from the 
 current sentiment of the Press as from communications, di- 
 rectly or indirectly, made to Us by persons of position and 
 influence, that the course pursued by the Torontine journal 
 has been regarded by Conservatives generally as a mistake, a 
 grievous error, and that the writer neither re})resent'^d their 
 views nor shared their sympathies. We believe this to be in 
 
24 
 
 PASTORAL LETTER. 
 
 iiiin 
 
 i Hi 
 
 !!!: 
 
 Hill! I I 
 
 }j[reat measure true, especially with reference to the leaders of 
 opinion among the party. /\rii1 We declare Our belief the more 
 readily, because Our just ii)(li<,'nation a^^ainst that unwarranted 
 ajif^ression might otherwise l)e construed into a condemnation 
 of a great political i)ody. We repeat. We know no party save 
 Our Catholic flock. We are not fettered by favors from 
 either Liberal or Conservative Ministers: WeOwe no hos- 
 tility to either section. We stand upon Our right. Our firm 
 basis is the Constitution, guaranteeing liberty of religion to 
 every citizen in this free Dominion. We place Our supreme 
 trust in God, who has pledgee! His word to sustain His 
 Church "all days, even to the consummation of the world." 
 (Matt. 28c.) 
 
 For the rest, dear Revd. Fathers. let u? follow the Apostolic 
 rule *' If it be possible, as much as is in you, have peace with 
 all men." (Rom, 12c., 18.) If some be found to l)reathe 
 hatred against us, let us pray to God for them, that He may 
 infuse into their hearts His spirit of charity and goodness. 
 This is the precept of Our Blessed Lord, "Pray for them that 
 persecute and calumniate you."' ( Matt. 5 c, 44). Let iis also 
 fulfil the injunction given by St. Paul to the Bishop of 
 Ephesus, to pray for Our rulers, on the wisdom of who.se 
 councils depends the peace and happiness of society, and the 
 advancement of religion and growtli of Christian virtue. " I 
 desire, therefore, first of all, that supplications, prayers, inter- 
 cessions and thanksgivings be made for all men; for kings and 
 all who are in high station, that we may lead a (piiet and 
 peaceful life, in all piety and chastity, h'or this is good and 
 acceptable in the sight of (iod, Our Saviour, who wishes all 
 men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth." 
 (ist Tim. 2c.) 
 
 Entreating your special suffrages in Oir Own behalf, and 
 praying God's blessing on you and your faithful congregations, 
 
 We remain, dear Rev. Fathers, 
 
 Your de oted servant in Christ, 
 
 tJAMKS \'1NCKNT CLEARV, S.T.D., 
 
 l)ishop of Kingston. 
 I'V His Lordship's C^ommand, 
 „., . . Thomas Kllly, Secretary. 
 
 Bishop^a Palace, Kiiv^slon, lyth yovenibcr, 1882. 
 

 aiiiuggiiiasaifer 
 
 the leaders of 
 lelief the more 
 t unwarranted 
 :ondeinnation 
 no party save 
 favors from 
 owe no h OS- 
 It. Onr firm 
 ^f reli<,Mon to 
 ^n\■ supreme 
 ' sustain His 
 f the world." 
 
 the Apostolic 
 e peace with 
 d to breathe 
 hat He may 
 id ,i,'oodness. 
 or them that 
 Let i)s also 
 e Bishop of 
 •m of whose 
 Jty, and the 
 
 virtue. " I 
 ayers, inter- 
 ior kings and 
 a (piiet and 
 is good and 
 ) wishes all 
 
 the truth." 
 
 hehalf, and 
 igiegations. 
 
 St, 
 
 S.T.I)., 
 
 »f Kingston, 
 
 Secretary