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 WHY NO GOOD CATHOLIC 
 CAN BE A SOCIALIST 
 
 BY 
 
 KENELM DIGBY BEST 
 
 Priest of the Oratory 
 
 6 
 
 R. & T. WASHBOURNE, LTD. 
 
 i, 2 & 4 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON 
 74 BRIDGE STREET, MANCHESTER 
 AND 248 BUCHANAN STREET, GLASGOW 
 
 BENZIGER BROS.: NEW YORK, CINCINNATI, <Sr CHICAGO 
 1909 
 
WHY NO GOOD CATHOLIC 
 
 CAN BE 
 
 A SOCIALIST 
 
 BY 
 
 KENELM DIGBY BEST 
 
 Priest of the Oratory 
 
 FIFTH EDITION 
 1909 
 
 R. & T. WASHBOURNE, LTD. 
 
 i, 2 & 4 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON 
 74 BRIDGE STREET, MANCHESTER 
 AND 248 BUCHANAN STREET, GLASGOW 
 
 BENZIGER BROS. : NEW YORK, CINCINNATI & CHICAGO 
 
8PRECKE13 
 
 BY THE SAME AUTHOR 
 
 The Blood of the Lamb. 
 Rosa Mystica. 
 
 Le Masson's Spiritual Reading for every day. 
 7th Edition. 
 
 The Illuminative Way. 
 
 Carthusian Devotions for Holy Communion. 
 
 Something: about the Life and Spirit of St. Philip, 
 Apostle oi Rome, yd Edition. 
 
 Letters from the Beloved City. 
 The Victories of Rome, sth Edition. 
 A Priest's Poems. 3rd Edition. 
 The Catholic Doctrine of Hell. 
 
Wbfl obstat: 
 
 C. H. BOWDEN, 
 
 Censor Deputatus. 
 
 Jmprimatut: 
 
 HENRICUS EDUARDUS, 
 
 Card. Archiep. Westmonast. 
 
 1Re=imprimatur : 
 
 HERBERTUS CARDINALIS VAUGHAN, 
 A rchiepiscopus Westmonasteriensis. 
 
 March T2th, 1898. 
 
 ff * OF THE 
 
 f UNIVERSITY I 
 
 *' OF 
 
 NOTICE. 
 
 THE following pages were read to the Brothers of 
 the Oratory. Several of those who heard the lectures 
 asked me to have them printed. I should hardly have 
 ventured to act on the suggestion had I not known 
 that the pamphlet would be little more than a com- 
 pendium of doctrines and decrees against Socialism, 
 which in these days of dispute may be useful. 
 
 KENELM DIGBY BEST 
 
 PRIEST OF THE ORATORY. 
 THE LONDON ORATORY, 
 April 1 6, 1890. 
 
 193475 
 
PREFACE TO THE FIFTH EDITION 
 
 IT is pleasant to learn that the last edition of this little 
 pamphlet has been exhausted in a few months : this shows 
 that a want is supplied by it. But, I fear that it also 
 shows the evil which it protests against to be still too 
 prevalent. More than twenty years ago, the treatise was 
 written in order to dissuade Catholics from calling them- 
 selves Socialists. Its title gave great offence to many, who 
 vented their displeasure in an angry correspondence. 
 That correspondence enabled the author to correct one or 
 two inaccuracies, but it did not induce him to alter the 
 title ; and now the same words are repeated in warnings 
 which Episcopal authority finds it necessary to utter to the 
 faithful. Del Vecchio's definition of Socialism, given in 
 the treatise, is unassailable as ever ; and it inspired the 
 method in which these pages try to uphold the rights of 
 Authority, and Proprietorship, and to show that Catholics 
 should not call themselves what the Church forbids them 
 
 to be. 
 
 K. D. B. 
 
 The Oratory, 1909. 
 
WHY NO GOOD CATHOLIC 
 CAN BE A SOCIALIST 
 
 IN his edition of Scavini, Del Vecchio declares 
 Socialism to be a mixture or fusion of Com- 
 munism and Radicalism. The edition of 
 Scavini's work in my possession is that of 1880, 
 and I must say I have never before seen the 
 word Radicalism in a theological book. He 
 defines what he means by it ; but I hope and 
 believe that some who call themselves Radicals 
 in this part of the world would say, "That is 
 not what we understand and mean by Radical- 
 ism." According to Scavini's editor, Radicalism 
 asserts the right of every one to share and 
 share alike in power and authority, in making 
 and enforcing laws. Communism proclaims the 
 right of every one to share and to share alike in 
 everything ; it substitutes for private property 
 a community of goods. Hence, Socialists are 
 those who would abolish all rights of authority, 
 all rights of ownership, who maintain that all 
 men ought to be equal in power and property. 
 
8 WHY NO GOOD CATHOLIC 
 
 In the famous Syllabus of Errors drawn up 
 by Pius IX. we do not find the word Radicalism, 
 but we find Socialism ; and it is called a plague 
 or pestilence ; and it is dealt with in the Allocu- 
 tions and Encyclicals there referred to in such 
 sort that it becomes impossible for a well- 
 instructed Catholic to advocate and encourage 
 Socialism without contradicting the teaching 
 of the Church. 
 
 In the Allocution pronounced at Gaeta, 
 1849, speaking of the Roman revolutionists 
 and their instigators, Pius IX. says, 4< The 
 demands for new institutions and progress, so 
 loudly uttered by men of this sort, only tend to 
 stir up perpetual trouble, to destroy totally and 
 universally the principles of justice, virtue, 
 honour and religion, to propagate far and wide, 
 to the detriment and ruin of all human society, 
 the domination of that horrible and deplorable 
 system, opposed to reason itself and the law of 
 nature, which is called Communism and also 
 Socialism." 
 
 In the same year, Pius IX. writes, in his 
 Encyclical Letter to the Italian Bishops : 
 "The few perverse Italians who conspire to 
 deprive Italy of the glory of the Papacy, with 
 the authors of this most detestable machina- 
 tion, have for object to urge on the peoples, 
 swayed by every wind of perverse doctrine, to 
 subvert the whole order of human affairs, and 
 to commit themselves to the criminal systems 
 of Socialism and Communism." He speaks 
 
CAN BE A SOCIALIST 9 
 
 of "the pernicious inventions of Communism 
 or Socialism." " It is evident," he says, 
 "that the teachers of Communism or Social- 
 ism, though employing various methods and 
 different means, have one common end of 
 keeping up continual agitation, and gradually 
 leading to greater crimes workmen and the 
 lower classes, deceived by their artful language, 
 and seduced by their promise of a happier lot, 
 in order to have their help afterwards in 
 attacking every kind of supreme authority, in 
 pillaging, wasting and invading first the pro- 
 perty of the Church, and then of all other private 
 individuals, to violate at last all rights divine 
 and human, to bring about the destruction of 
 the worship of God, and the overthrow of all 
 order in civil society." Again, " If the faithful, 
 despising the fatherly warnings of their pastors 
 and the precepts of the Christian law, which we 
 have invoked, allow themselves to be deceived 
 by the promoters of the machinations of these 
 days, if they agree to conspire with them in the 
 perverse system of Socialism and Communism, 
 let them know and seriously consider that they 
 heap up for themselves before the Divine Judge 
 stores of vengeance in the day of wrath, and 
 that meanwhile no earthly advantage will come 
 to the peoples from this conspiracy, but much 
 rather an increase of miseries and calamities. 
 For it is not granted to them to establish new 
 societies and communities opposed to the natural 
 condition of human affairs ; and this is why the 
 
10 WHY NO GOOD CATHOLIC 
 
 result of such schemes, if they spread in Italy, 
 would be this : the existing order of public 
 affairs would be utterly shattered and over- 
 thrown from top to foundation by the strife of 
 citizens with citizens, by usurpations, by mur- 
 ders and then, some few, enriched with the 
 plunder of the greater number, would seize on 
 power in the midst of the common ruin." 
 
 The Holy Father, Leo XIII., in the Ency- 
 clical Quod Apostolici Muneris, Dec. 28, 1878, 
 teaches thus: "The wisdom of the Catholic 
 Church, resting on the precepts of natural and 
 Divine law, is most careful for the preservation 
 of public and domestic peace in the doctrine 
 which she lays down on the subject of the 
 dominion and the divisions of the possessions 
 which are provided for the necessities and the 
 conveniences of life. For, while the Socialists 
 falsely hold the right of property to be merely 
 a human invention, repugnant to the natural 
 equality of men, and, claiming a community 
 of goods, contend that poverty should not be 
 borne with patience, and that the rights and 
 possessions of the wealthy may be violated 
 with impunity, the Church with far greater 
 justice and utility, acknowledges that the 
 inequality amongst men, which is seen in the 
 natural distribution of mental and bodily gifts, 
 exists also in the possession of property, and 
 she enjoins the inviolability of the right of 
 property and ownership, which has a natural 
 foundation : for she knows that theft and 
 
CAN BE A SOCIALIST II 
 
 rapine have been so strictly prohibited by the 
 Divine Author and upholder of all right, that 
 He has forbidden us even to covet the goods 
 of our neighbour, and that thieves and spoilers, 
 no less than adulterers and idolaters, are 
 excluded from the Kingdom of Heaven. Nor 
 does she on this account neglect the care of 
 the poor, for whose necessities she provides as 
 a mother, embracing them with natural affec- 
 tion, and seeing in them the person of Christ 
 Himself, who considers that what is done for 
 the poorest is done for Him, holds them in 
 great honour : she relieves them by every 
 means in her power, she causes homes and 
 hospitals to be raised in every part of the 
 world to shelter, nourish and support them, 
 and extends her protection over them. She 
 earnestly admonishes the rich to obey the com- 
 mand to give i.p their superfluities to the poor ; 
 and she holds up to them the terrors of Divine 
 justice which will punish them eternally if they 
 do not relieve the wants of the needy. And 
 she ever seeks to cheer and solace the hearts 
 of the poor, either placing before them the 
 example of Christ, who being rich became poor 
 for our sake, or recalling the words in which 
 He declared the poor to be blessed, and bade 
 them hope for the reward of eternal happiness. 
 Is it not evident that this is the best mode of 
 composing the difference which has ever existed 
 between the rich and the poor ? For, as the 
 evidence of actual facts demonstrates, if this 
 
12 WHY NO GOOD CATHOLIC 
 
 principle is rejected and set aside, it will neces- 
 sarily follow, either that the greater part of 
 mankind must relapse into a condition of the 
 most abject slavery such as long existed among 
 the heathen, or human society must be agitated 
 by never-ending commotions, and afflicted by 
 violence and rapine, such as we have witnessed 
 with grief even in recent times." 
 
 In the Society of Freemasons there are out- 
 side, inside, inner and innermost circles, and 
 a central council, hidden and unseen though 
 not inactive ; and I am willing to admit that 
 here in England a Protestant who became a 
 Freemason might never come across anything 
 worse than the silliness of admission celebra- 
 tions, might never have any suspicion of evil 
 aroused, might live and die a Mason, without 
 doing more than give his name and his money 
 to the Society as an act of benevolence. And 
 yet the Church condemns and forbids even this 
 amount of participation in Freemasonry ; and 
 no good Catholic questions her wisdom herein. 
 But I mention the fact, in order to explain that 
 Socialists also will vainly try to excuse and 
 defend themselves by saying that there are 
 different kinds of Socialists, and that we are 
 not asked to sympathize with Nihilists, Anar- 
 chists, but only with the orderly, harmless, 
 philanthropical, speculative Socialists, whose 
 theories and doctrines, they aver, clash 
 neither with the teaching of the Church, nor 
 with the revealed law, nor with the natural 
 
CAN BE A SOCIALIST 13 
 
 law of God. Indeed, they claim to find in 
 the spirit of the Gospel and in its words a 
 justification for their innocent programme of 
 universal benevolence. I say, it will not do 
 *' it won't wash "-ubi lex non distinguit nee nos 
 distinguere debemus, where the law does not 
 distinguish we may not distinguish Socialism, 
 rough and smooth, violent and gentle, practical 
 and theoretical, is condemned by the Sovereign 
 Pontiffs Pius IX. and Leo XIII. It offends 
 against the principles of reason and justice 
 which rest on eternal law. 
 
 In 1889, "The quintessence of ' Socialism ' 
 was translated and published in England. It 
 originally appeared in articles of the Deutsche 
 Blatter ; its accuracy has remained unchal- 
 lenged." Professor Schaffle is its author. No 
 one could give a clearer or better account, to 
 which the name of the translator, Bernard 
 Bosanquet, M.A., also lends importance. Dr. 
 Schaffle says: "We will first concentrate our 
 attention on the economic kernel of Socialism, 
 setting aside for the moment the transitory 
 aspect it bears in the hands of agitators, its 
 provisional passwords, and the phenomena and 
 tendencies in politics and religion by which it 
 is accompanied." What is set aside has, how- 
 ever, to be gone through the nutshell must be 
 cracked to get at the kernel, eggs must be 
 broken to make omelettes! He continues: 
 "The economic quintessence of the Socialistic 
 programme, the real aim of the international 
 
14 WHY NO GOOD CATHOLIC 
 
 movement is as follows To replace the 
 system of private capital, by a system of 
 collective capital that is, by a method of 
 production which would introduce a unified 
 (social or collective) organisation of national 
 labour on the basis of collective or common 
 ownership of the means of production by all 
 the members of the Society. This collective 
 method of production would remove the present 
 competitive system, by placing under official 
 administrations such departments of production 
 as can be managed collectively (socially or co- 
 operatively), as well as the distribution among 
 all of the common produce of all, according to 
 the amount and social utility of the productive 
 
 labour of each Private business, 
 
 individual enterprise, would be no more." 
 He continues, " The leaders of the international 
 movement, especially Karl Marx, are very 
 cautious in enunciating their positive pro- 
 gramme, but every intelligent reader and 
 logical thinker will recognise in the above 
 sentiment the fundamental idea and aim of 
 Socialism ; critically, dogmatically 
 
 and practically the cardinal thesis stands out 
 collective instead of private ownership of 
 all instruments of production (land, factories, 
 machines, tools, &c.), public organisation of the 
 labour of all on the basis of the collective 
 ownership of all the working materials of social 
 labour and finally, distribution of the collective 
 output of all kinds of manufacture in proportion 
 
CAN BE A SOCIALIST 15 
 
 to the amount and value of the work done by 
 each worker." No profit, no wages, only a 
 share in the national produce proportioned to 
 the labour performed. They do not say, 
 Property is Robbery, in Proudhon's sense. 
 They do not count the present private owners 
 as personally criminal they plan to expropriate 
 them, it is true, but " to compensate them for 
 the right of which they deprive them by instal- 
 ments of the common commodities for their 
 maintenance till they shall have grown accus- 
 tomed to the new state of things." .... 
 "Socialism forbids the future use of property 
 as a private source of income, and thus neces- 
 sarily puts an end to all inequalities of income 
 which are not the result of pre-eminent labour 
 performed. Inequality is then, as a Socialist 
 has expressed it, organically impossible." . . . 
 " State credit, private credit, interest bearing 
 capital and loan capital are to cease. So also, 
 national debts, private debts, tenancy, leases, 
 shares negotiable in the Bourse ; . . . . The 
 aristocracy of wealth is ended the aristocracy 
 of personal merit is alone allowed." .... 
 "Agricultural rents, private loans, mortgage, 
 ground rents, house rents, shares, stocks, part- 
 nerships, are at an end." .... "Coinage 
 also ; for labour-money, i.e., certificates of 
 labour, would be presented for articles of con- 
 sumption corresponding to the hours of work 
 indicated. The amount of work, again, the 
 number of hours recognised as hours of pro- 
 duction, to be decreed and regulated more 
 
1 6 WHY NO GOOD CATHOLIC 
 
 would be valueless so far as remuneration went. 
 Trade would disappear. The average labour- 
 day would replace money as a standard of value, 
 the normal social workday would become the 
 real unit of value." 
 
 Such is Socialism in its essence, and practi- 
 cally it amounts to the destruction of private 
 ownership and property. 
 
 Imagine the revolution, the strife, the ex- 
 cesses through which alone such a state of 
 things could by any possibility be reached. 
 Imagine how soon such a state of things, were 
 it begun, would expire, if for no other cause, 
 for its dull monotony and slavery. Socialism 
 prohibits all profitable ownership of anything 
 except a man's corporal and mental powers, of 
 which he may make gain only to a certain 
 regulated amount. He may amuse himself, 
 tire himself to any amount, but he shall get 
 nothing for what 'he does over and above the 
 value fixed by the Social time-table of labour, 
 and then he shall be paid only in that sort of 
 goods provided by the community. 
 
 We will now examine the nature of the right 
 of property or ownership. 
 
 But let me first give the definition of a word 
 for which unless men mend their ways there 
 will at length be no use in the present life- 
 justice. Justice is the virtite which renders to 
 every one that which is diie to him, that which 
 is his* 
 
 * This and other definitions are taken from Scavini, De justitia et 
 jure. De Legibus. 
 
Proprietorship or ownership is defined, the 
 right of possessing, using, and freely disposing 
 of what is ones oivn, unless prohibited. I 
 explain the prohibition. A minor is prohibited 
 by law to alienate his goods, evidently in order 
 to protect his weakness and inexperience. A 
 man is left a legacy : it is his, but the testator 
 forbids him to make use of it for a year. 
 
 We are tolcl that in the beginning of the 
 world all things were in common : and we may 
 give some Socialists credit for thinking that, in 
 wishing to revert 'to the earliest conditions of 
 human life, they are aiming at what is most in 
 accordance with human perfection. They will 
 listen to the words of a philosopher probably 
 much more readily than to the teaching of the 
 Church. "The evils of existing institutions 
 are due, not to the want of a community of 
 property, but to the depravity of human nature. 
 For experience teaches that disputes are far 
 more likely to occur among people who possess 
 property in common and live as partners, than 
 among those who hold their estates in separate 
 tenure. The life proposed appears to be 
 altogether impossible."^ 
 
 I venture to think that not only the Paradise 
 in which Adam was placed, but the outlying 
 earth from pole to pole was Adam's. The 
 absolute Owner is the Creator of heaven and 
 earth ; but God gave the earth to man to hold 
 and possess. " Let him have dominion over 
 
 * Aristotle, as quoted by the Rev. Joseph Rickaby, S.J. 
 
l8 \V1IV NO GOOD CATHOLIC 
 
 the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the air, 
 and the beasts, and the whole earth"* I think 
 we may say that Adam shared his right with 
 his sons, and practically yielded them, as the 
 human family multiplied, to those who first took 
 possession either of the earth to till it, or build 
 cities on it, or of beasts which they domesticated 
 as did Abel the shepherd, or of wild animals 
 which they chased and captured for food and 
 raiment. I will add, that I see nothing in the 
 Scripture narrative to justify the assumption of 
 Rousseau and modern infidels who hold that 
 man in primitive time was but a naked savage, 
 not much above the level of the brute, wild and 
 ungregarious, and utterly uncivilised. All this 
 is wild nonsense ; we have Adam's third son, 
 Henoch, building- a city ; we have another, 
 Jubal, "the father of them that play upon the 
 harp and the organ ; " another, Stella, whose 
 son Tubalcain was 44 a hammerer in every sort 
 of brass and iron." It is incredible that Adam 
 and his family and immediate descendants, fresh 
 from the hand of God, and given dominion by 
 God over the whole earth, should not have 
 been gifted with what is best and noblest in 
 religion and civilisation. I look later on in the 
 world's history for human decadence, and the 
 presence of the savage. It is quite conceivable 
 that, after the Deluge, when Noe and his sons 
 repeopled the earth, man gradually deteriorated, 
 though not at first, nor rapidly, if we remember 
 
 * Genesis i. 26. 
 
CAN BE A SOCIALIST 19 
 
 the huge monuments and marvellous ruins 
 which abound, and testify to the skill and 
 splendour of mankind in former ages. Still, 
 suppose that man here and there became an 
 explorer and a castaway, too careless and indif- 
 ferent to keep up or regain such talents as he 
 had, such arts as he had known, we should 
 soon have races of men lapsed into savage life, 
 too listless to attempt more than elude defeat 
 and destruction in the warfare waged on them 
 by wild beasts or the elements. Man's true 
 history would, therefore, be recession from 
 civilisation, and then attempts, more or less 
 successful, to regain his former social state. 
 
 However, for all this I must ask indulgence ; 
 it is but a digression ; and the principles 
 assailed by Socialists are equally available to 
 defend the right of a savage to the stag he has 
 captured and of the farmer to the cattle he has 
 reared ; they protect alike the cabin of the 
 peasant and the palace of the king. 
 
 The first right of ownership in every town 
 and country is acquired by occupation that is 
 the taking possession of a thing ivhich belongs to 
 none with the intention of making it one s oivn. 
 Thus, finding things that are hopelessly lost, 
 and catching wild beasts, birds and fishes, were 
 amongst the earliest and at present are lawful 
 means of acquiring property. This acquisition 
 once effected, the ownership, according to 
 Catholic theology, is inviolable and sacred 
 i, by the law of Nature since otherwise there 
 
2O WHY NO GOOD CATHOLIC 
 
 would be only confusion and conflict, and no 
 human society could exist 2, by the Divine 
 law, which says Thou shalt not steal 3, by 
 human law both Ecclesiastical and Civil. 
 
 Let me draw your attention to the force of 
 the expression, " Possession is nine points of 
 the law " so strong a right is possession alone 
 admitted to be. 
 
 A writer * of the last century has said, 
 " Those who have reasoned on Property are 
 the only persons who make any difficulty 
 regarding its nature. Thieves and robbers 
 perfectly understand that, when they take 
 away by fraud or force what is occupied by 
 another, they commit a wrong action. Natural 
 Reason teaches that he who is in possession 
 has a right to that which he possesses, and 
 that no right to dispossess him can subsist 
 unless derived from prior possession ; the 
 innate sense of Right compels assent. A man 
 comes to another who has taken possession 
 of an unowned piece of land, and says, * This 
 land which you have tilled is as much mine 
 as yours, since the Creator gave the earth 
 to all its inhabitants,' the answer will be, 
 * Before this field was appropriated as a share 
 in the great grant, it belonged equally to both 
 of us ; it was the possible right of either, the 
 actual right of neither of us ; had you then 
 taken possession of it before me, would you 
 now admit my equal pretensions, were I to 
 
 * Henry Best, M.A., Fellow of St. Mary Magdalen Coll., Oxford. 
 
CAN BE A SOCIALIST 2 1 
 
 urge them ? Your claim is not prior to mine 
 but only coeval : it is therefore not better 
 than mine. I have made mine good by 
 occupancy a title the validity of which you 
 would acknowledge were it in your own 
 favour. It would have been just for you, it 
 is just for me ; if it were just for neither of us, 
 it would be just for no one of the sons of 
 men, and it would follow as a consequence 
 that the Creator intended the surface of our 
 globe to continue a wild waste. An absurdity 
 revolting to human reason, and to justice in 
 accord with reason.' ' 
 
 The same writer elsewhere adds, " Oft have 
 we indulged the day-dream, dear to the lover 
 of his kind, and by no means displeasing to 
 the fancy of one not over careful for his own 
 interests the scheme of equal partition of 
 the products of the earth, equal labour, equal 
 enjoyment ; we are awakened to the stern 
 and severe reality of life, remediable only by 
 the submission of the poor and the benevolence 
 of the rich." A most sensible reflection, 
 this last ! I will venture to add that sub- 
 mission should not be made distasteful to 
 the poor, nor should benevolence be made 
 difficult to the rich, as is now the case in 
 nearly every country, by the abuse of power 
 on the part of the State, by the oppressive 
 laws and the oppressive taxes everywhere 
 imposed. This and more I dare to say, for 
 am I not, however unworthy, a son of the 
 
22 \\1IY NO GOOD CATHOLIC 
 
 Saint who scrupled not to present himself 
 before a Pope with bread in one hand and in 
 the other a sword? For thus did St. Philip 
 warn Gregory XIV. of the need there was 
 even in the Papal States of abundance and 
 justice. 
 
 II 
 
 SOCIALISM AND AUTHORITY 
 
 Evidently, the realization of the Socialistic 
 scheme cannot take place whilst any degree 
 or portion of authority as at present con- 
 stituted lasts. Socialists do not tell us, 
 perhaps cannot say just yet, whether they 
 mean to wait for a universal abdication on 
 the part of " the powers that be," or to bring 
 about a general revolution, which shall depose 
 every ruler, magistrate and master, reduce 
 them to the ranks, and allow them only their 
 one vote apiece in the universal suffrage. 
 Even now, they count as gain all strikes, 
 conspiracies, rebellions and revolutions ; they 
 are to be found fomenting every kind 
 of discontent with the existing order of 
 things ; and they have the hardihood to 
 avow sympathy and proclaim fraternity with 
 
CAN BE A SOCIALIST 23 
 
 Anarchists and Nihilists who have committed 
 the most treacherous and inhuman crimes. 
 It may then, without unfairness, be assumed 
 that their red cap of liberty retains all the 
 ominous meaning of its symbolical colour, 
 and that Socialism will one day start its 
 shambles. But even the most sanguine of 
 them seem to consider that the ultimate 
 triumph of their cause can be only in the far 
 future. 
 
 Meanwhile they are not idle, and besides 
 their perverse doctrines about Property, they 
 are spreading doctrines equally perverse and 
 false in order to subvert authority. We will 
 again consult the Syllabus, to discover what 
 these errors are which are being disseminated 
 wherever Socialists obtain a reader or a 
 listener. 
 
 None of the following propositions can be 
 held by a good Catholic. 
 
 1. The Church ought to be separated from 
 the State, and the State from the Church. 
 
 2. 7^ he laivs of morality have no need of 
 divine sanction, and it is not at all necessary 
 that Imman laws should conform to the nat^lral 
 law or receive their obligation from God. 
 
 3. The Sciences of Philosophy and Ethics, 
 as also Civil Lazvs, can and ought to be exempt 
 from divine and ecclesiastical authority. 
 
 4. Right consists in the material fact : " the 
 duties of men" is a phrase without sense : and 
 all human achievements have the force of right. 
 
24 NVHY NO GOOD CATHOLIC 
 
 5. Authority is no tiling but the sum of 
 numbers and material forces. 
 
 6. An unjust deed if successful is not detri- 
 mental to the sanctity of right. 
 
 7. It is permissible to refuse obedience to 
 legitimate rulers, and it is even lawful to revolt. 
 
 8. The violation of an oath, however sacred, 
 and any criminal and wicked act contrary to the 
 Internal Law, not only should not be blamed, but 
 is quite lawful and worthy of highest praise 
 when the deed is done for love of country. 
 
 Such are some of the modern Errors enum- 
 erated in the Syllabus, errors which evidently 
 have been acted on, especially in Russia and 
 America, by misguided Socialists of the extreme 
 sort. In the assassination of the late Czar, in 
 the outrages at Chicago, we have had speci- 
 mens of the character of the forlorn hope of 
 Socialism. 
 
 We will now consult Catholic theology, to 
 understand distinctly and precisely the duties of 
 citizens and subjects towards law and authority. 
 
 But what is Law ? Reasonable regulations 
 for the common good, promulgated by him who 
 has charge of the community or society. Now, 
 as man has a twofold society one with the 
 God who made him, the other with his fellow 
 mortals each society must be maintained by 
 its own laws. Hence we have : 
 
 i. Eternal Law in God Himself, whereby 
 God wills that man should not swerve from 
 what is right and reasonable. 
 
CAN BE A SOCIALIST 25 
 
 2. Natural Law in man himself, whereby 
 that will of God is made known to man's 
 reason and sense of right. 
 
 3. The Divine Positive Law, whereby man 
 is guided to the supernatural end for which he 
 is created. 
 
 4. Human Law, Ecclesiastical and Civil, 
 whereby public order is provided for in the 
 world. 
 
 These definitions are self-explanatory. I will 
 only make two remarks in connection with 
 them. The Divine Positive Law is divided 
 into the Old and the New. The Old was 
 abrogated, and yet reaffirmed by being in 
 essential respects incorporated into the New. 
 The Legislator of the Old Law was Moses, the 
 Legislator of the New Law is Christ our Lord 
 and King, and, according to the Council of 
 Trent, "If anyone shall say that Jesus Christ 
 was given by God to man as the Redeemer in 
 whom they must trust, and not the legislator 
 whom they must obey, let him be anathema."^ 
 
 Again, the Law of Nations is a phrase which 
 perhaps requires explanation. This law be- 
 longs to the natural law rather than to human 
 law ; for in its true and proper signification, it 
 is the universal and immutable law of nature 
 applicable alike to private individuals and to 
 states and empires. 
 
 I proceed to lay down further Catholic 
 doctrines. 
 
 * Sess. vi. Can. 21. 
 
26 WHY NO GOOD CATHOLIC 
 
 It is certain that the Supreme Civil Power 
 has the right to make laws concerning" matters 
 purely civil, and, if the ends are just, the right 
 to oblige the consciences of its subjects to 
 obedience. " He that resists the power resists 
 the ordinance of God, and they that resist 
 purchase to themselves damnation."* So 
 wrote St. Paul to the Christian subjects of the 
 heathen Roman Emperors. Suarez considers 
 this doctrine, which is confirmed by Holy 
 Scripture, to be de fide, or at any rate proxi- 
 mately de fide. Instead, then, of authority 
 being nothing but the sum of numbers and 
 material forces, it descends from God as 
 directly on the Civil Ruler as on the Ecclesi- 
 astical Ruler, and resistance to one or the other, 
 when they are acting justly, is resistance to the 
 ordinance of God, and deserves damnation. 
 
 When once a united portion of the human 
 race has designated and appointed those who 
 are to command, the elected are consecrated, if 
 I may so express it, by being endued from on 
 high with the power and authority of God, and 
 the community once having exercised its choice, 
 has nothing left but to show its obedience and 
 submission to all just regulations. 
 
 This Supreme Civil Pow r er is vested in 
 Emperors for Empires, in Kings for Kingdoms, 
 in Presidents and Assemblies for Republics. 
 In representative governments the power is 
 shared by the Sovereign and the Delegates or 
 
 * Romans xiii. 2. 
 
CAN BE A SOCIALIST 27 
 
 Parliaments. The Holy Father Leo XIII. in 
 his Encyclical Immortale Dei, says, "The 
 right of sovereignty in itself is not necessarily 
 united with any particular form of government : 
 it can rightly assume now one form, now 
 another, provided only that each of these forms 
 does in very deed secure useful results and the 
 common good." 
 
 What if the ruler be a wicked tyrant? He 
 must still be submitted to, and obeyed in all 
 his legislation that can be complied with 
 without sin. " Be subject to your masters 
 with all fear, not only to the good and gentle 
 but also to the fro ward. "^ S. Thomas says, 
 " The people must pray to God, because often 
 they are given a wicked ruler in chastisement 
 of their own sins." 
 
 S. Thomas teaches the duty of insurrection 
 in certain rare cases, in his Commentary on 
 Aristotle's Politics, " But if these things were 
 to concur that they had a just cause, and the 
 requisite strength, and that it would not be 
 detrimental to the common good, they " (i.e., 
 the wise and virtuous) " would reasonably make 
 a sedition and would sin if they did not."t In 
 the Summa the Saint states the same doctrine. 
 Ad tertium dicendum quod regimen tyrannicum 
 non est /^///;/2, quia non ordinatur ad bonum 
 commune, sed ad bonum privatum regentis, ut 
 patet per Philosophum (Polit. i iii. c. 5, et Ethic. 
 lib. 8, c. 10). Et ideo perturbatio hujus regi- 
 
 *l Peter ii. 18. f Com. Pol. v. I. 2. 
 
28 WHY NO GOOD CATHOLIC 
 
 minis non kabet rationem seditionis ; nisi forte 
 qiiando sic inordinate perturbatur lyranni regi- 
 men, quod multitude subject a majiis detrimentum 
 patitur ex perturbatione consequenti quam ex 
 tyranni regimine. Magis autem tyrannus sedi- 
 tiosus est, qui in populo sibi subjecto discordias 
 et seditiones mitrit, ut tutius dominare possit : 
 hoc enim tyrannicum est, cum sit ordinatnm ad 
 bonum proprium pr&sidentis cum multitudinis 
 nocumento. (Sec sec. quczst. xlii. Art. 2). 
 
 A doctrine this which it would be dangerous 
 to preach to a mob, but which it is consolatory 
 to bear in mind while reading the world's 
 history ! Practically, the just cause may exist, 
 but the other conditions would hardly ever be 
 also present, the means would be wanting 
 especially in the large States of these days, 
 and the detriment to the common good would 
 be so great, even were success to crown the 
 undertaking. Prayer to God would be nearly 
 always the only available remedy. But I am 
 led on to make another remark, and to bring to 
 recollection the salutary practice of olden times, 
 when the virtuous invoked the Deposing Power 
 of the Sovereign Pontiffs against unjust and 
 wicked rulers. In 1871, Pius IX., addressing 
 the Academia, said in substance, " No one in 
 these days thinks of the deposition of princes 
 by the Pope, and no one does so less than the 
 Pope. " But, if the world has so completely 
 turned its back upon the Papacy, if Christen- 
 dom no longer desires to be dealt with on 
 
CAN BE A SOCIALIST 29 
 
 Christian principles, it is easy to understand 
 that in prudence the Popes would not give 
 occasion of fresh offence to the perverse by an 
 act of whose benefits both princes and peoples 
 seem unworthy, and which they have made 
 themselves unfit to receive. The world has de- 
 prived itself of a huge benefit. In Scriptural 
 language the Popes may say, " Why should I 
 strike you any more, you who multiply trans- 
 gressions ? The whole head is sick, and the 
 whole heart is sad." 
 
 What if the Ruler be an Usurper? Theo- 
 logians say, in his act of invasion he must if 
 possible be resisted. And this resistance may 
 be a prolonged resistance, though those who 
 make it may be styled insurgents. But if he 
 succeeds in his usurpation and maintains him- 
 self in it, then the people are bound to submit 
 to his just laws which are for the common good. 
 However, it is not by his unjust usurpation 
 that he acquires rights, the subjects are bound 
 to obey only to avoid the scandals and evils 
 which must necessarily come on a society with- 
 out some sort of ruler. 
 
 On whom is the law obligatory ? On all 
 subjects without exception who have the use 
 of reason. " Let every soul be subject to 
 higher powers." The laws of Church therefore 
 do not bind unbaptised persons, they are not 
 her subjects. Neither are children and lunatics, 
 until they acquire the use of reason, amenable 
 to the civil law. 
 
3O WHY NO COOD CATHOLIC 
 
 The writer whose views on Property I have 
 quoted in the first chapter, supplies me with 
 the following passage on the present subject. 
 "Political states in some form or other arc 
 necessary, they are constituted for the good of 
 mankind, and are confirmed by the moral sense 
 and right reason, and have the sanction and 
 support of true religion. The government may 
 be monarchical, aristocratic or democratic, 
 hereditary or elective, for it can in any of these 
 forms fulfil its end. The Government with 
 which each is in relation has a claim on his 
 relative duty ; a right to change the form at 
 will would be equivalent to a negation of civil 
 or political duty." 
 
 The clearest, the best and the most authorit- 
 ative teaching of all is that of the Sovereign 
 Pontiffs, to which all " will do well to attend ;" 
 and I will delay no longer in quoting the words 
 of Leo XIII. in defence of public authority 
 against the Socialists of these days. 
 
 "These are they who, as the divine oracles 
 testify, 'defile the flesh, despise dominion, and 
 blaspheme majesty.' Nothing which has been 
 w r isely enacted by human and divine laws for 
 the security and adornment of life is left by 
 them intact and entire. They refuse obedience 
 to the higher powers to which, according to the 
 admonition of the Apostle, every soul ought to 
 be subject, and which derive right of governing 
 from God, and they preach the perfect equality 
 of all men in rights and offices \llured 
 
CAN BE A SOCIALIST 3! 
 
 moreover, by the desire of present goods, which 
 is the root of all evil, and which some coveting 
 have erred from the faith, they impugn the 
 right of property sanctioned by the law of 
 nature, and by a monstrous crime, while they 
 appear to meet the wants and satisfy the desires 
 of all men, they aim at seizing and holding in 
 common whatever has been acquired by lawful 
 inheritance, or by the intellect, or the labour of 
 the hands, or by frugal living. And these porten- 
 tous opinions they publish in their meetings, 
 inculcate in pamphlets, and scatter among the 
 lower orders in a cloud of journals. From this 
 it results that the revered majesty and rule of 
 Kings has so incurred the hatred of a seditious 
 populace, that nefarious traitors, impatient of 
 every restraint, have more than once within a 
 short space of time in impious daring turned 
 their arms against the Princes of the realm 
 themselves. 
 
 " But this audacity of perfidious men, which 
 threatens greater ruin to civil society, and 
 strikes the minds of all with anxious fear, 
 derives its cause and origin from those poison- 
 ous doctrines, which scattered in former times 
 like corrupt seed among the peoples, have borne 
 such pestilential fruit in their season. 
 
 " For you, venerable Brethren, very well 
 know that the object of the war, which ever 
 since the sixteenth century has been waged 
 by innovators against the Catholic Faith, and 
 which has every day increased in intensity 
 
32 WHY NO GOOD CATHOLIC 
 
 down to the present time, has been that 
 setting aside of all revelation, and subverting 
 every kind of supernatural order, that 
 entrance might be cleared for the discoveries, 
 or rather, the delirious imaginations of mere 
 reason. This kind of error, which wrongly 
 usurps the name of reason, as it entices and 
 sharpens the desire of superiority naturally- 
 implanted in man, and gives a loose rein to 
 desires of every sort, has spontaneously 
 penetrated to the widest extent not only very 
 many minds but civil society itself. Hence it 
 has come to pass, that by a novel impiety 
 unheard of even among heathen nations, 
 States have been constituted without taking 
 any account of God and of the order estab- 
 lished by Him : it has moreover declared that 
 public authority derives neither its principle 
 nor its majesty, nor its power of command from 
 God, but rather from the multitude of the 
 people which, thinking itself absolved from 
 all divine sanction, has determined to acknow- 
 ledge only those laws which itself has framed 
 according to its own good pleasure. The 
 supernatural verities of faith having been 
 impugned and rejected as if they were inimical 
 to reason, the Author and Redeemer of the 
 human race has been Himself forcibly banished 
 from the Universities, the Lyceums, and Gym- 
 nasiums, and from every public institution 
 connected with the life of man. Finally, the 
 rewards and punishments of the future life 
 
CAN BE A SOCIALIST 33 
 
 being relegated to oblivion, the ardent desire 
 of happiness has been confined within the space 
 of this present life. These doctrines having 
 been disseminated far and wide, this great 
 licence of thought and action being everywhere 
 introduced, it is no wonder that men of the 
 lowest class, weary of a poor home or work- 
 shop, should desire to invade the palaces and 
 fortunes of the rich ; it is no wonder that there 
 now exists no tranquillity in public or private 
 life, and that the human race has nearly 
 reached its lowest depths. 
 
 " But it is to be lamented that those to whom 
 has been committed the care of the public 
 good, deceived by the machinations of impious 
 men, and terrified by their threats, have har- 
 boured suspicions, and even hostile dispositions 
 towards the Church, not perceiving that the 
 attempts of the sects would be powerless if the 
 teaching of the Catholic Church and the author- 
 ity of the Roman Pontiffs both among princes 
 and among peoples had ever remained duly 
 honoured. For the Church of the living God, 
 which is the pillar and ground of truth, hands 
 down those doctrines and precepts whose first 
 object is to provide for the safety and tranquillity 
 of society, and by which the fatal plant of 
 
 Socialism is torn up by the roots 
 
 They indeed are constantly asserting, as we 
 have implied, that all men are by nature equal, 
 and they therefore maintain that no honour 
 or respect is due to authority nor any obedience 
 
34 WHY NO GOOD CATHOLIC 
 
 due to laws unless to those enacted by them- 
 selves at their own good pleasure. But, on 
 the contrary, according to the teaching of 
 the Gospel, men are equal in the sense that 
 having all inherited the same nature, they 
 are called to the same exalted dignity of 
 the sons of God, and that as one and the 
 same end is set before all of them, each and 
 all are to be judged by the same law, 
 and will receive punishment or reward accord- 
 ing to their deserts. But an inequality of 
 rights and power proceeds from the very 
 Author of nature Himself, from whom all 
 paternity in heaven and earth is named. And 
 according to Catholic doctrine and precept, the 
 dispositions of princes and subjects are so 
 bound to each other by mutual duties and rights 
 that the lust of arbitrary rule is restrained and 
 obedience is rendered easy, stable and most 
 honourable." . . . " He who created and 
 governs all things has in His wise Providence 
 ordained that all should occupy their proper 
 places, the lower beneath the middle, the 
 middle below the highest. As therefore in the 
 heavenly kingdom itself He has decreed that 
 there should be distinct orders of angels some 
 subject to others, and as in the Church He 
 has instituted various orders and diversity of 
 offices, not all being Apostles, or doctors, or 
 pastors ; so also has He appointed that there 
 should be in civil society many orders distin- 
 guished by their rank, privileges and power ; so 
 
CAN BE A SOCIALIST 35 
 
 that the State like the Church should be one 
 body comprising many members, some more 
 noble than others, but all mutually necessary 
 and all concerned for the common good. 
 
 " But that the rulers of nations may use 
 the powers confided to them to save and not 
 to destroy, the Church of Christ seasonably 
 recalls to the minds of Princes the severity 
 of the Supreme Judge : and using the words 
 of divine w r isdom, calls upon all in the name 
 of God, * Give ear you that rule the people, and 
 that please yourselves in the multitudes of 
 nations ; for power is given you by the Lord 
 and strength by the Most High, zvko will 
 examine your ivorks, and search out your 
 thoughts. . . . For a most severe judgment 
 shall be for them ^vho bear rule .... for 
 God ivill not except any mans person, neither 
 will He stand in aive of any mans greatness, 
 for He hath made the little and the great, and 
 He hath equally care of all. But a greater 
 punishment is ready for the more mighty' 
 (Wisd* vi.). And if it sometimes happens 
 that the power of the State is unwisely and 
 unduly exercised by Princes, still the teaching 
 of the Catholic Church does not authorise 
 rebellion against them, lest public tranquillity 
 be still more disturbed, and society be exposed 
 to still greater calamities ; and when no other 
 ray of hope appears, she teaches that a 
 remedy is to be found through the virtue of 
 Christian patience and earnest prayer to God. 
 
36 WHY NO GOOD CATHOLIC 
 
 But if the mandate of legislators and princes 
 sanction or order aught repugnant to the 
 divine or natural law, the dignity and duty 
 of a Christian as well as the precept of the 
 Apostle teach that God is to be obeyed rather 
 than man." 
 
 Yes, indeed, if the Civil Government abuses 
 authority, exceeds the limits of its jurisdiction, 
 it also is guilty, whether one or many have 
 to bear the guilt. And it is well that all 
 should remember that God is no respecter of 
 persons, and that the powerful offender shall 
 be the more powerfully tormented. We are 
 commanded to obey both God and Caesar. 
 How often it is Csesar's crime that we can 
 only keep this divine precept by an act of 
 disobedience to Csesar ! We are supplied 
 with innumerable examples of this by the 
 roll-call of Christ's Martyrs. 
 
 The depositaries of power, especially dele- 
 gates who have ample means of being well 
 informed associated with the Ruler, as in 
 Representative Governments have personally 
 and individually a fearful responsibility in the 
 making of laws, the imposing of taxes, the 
 voting of supplies for warfare. These things 
 are constantly done with hardly any other 
 reason or motive than party spirit, ambition, 
 vain-glory, negligence, the thirst for fame. 
 The pressure always falls ultimately on the 
 
 * Extracts from the Encyclical, Quod Apostolici Muneris, Dec. 28, 
 1878. 
 
CAN BE A SOCIALIST 37 
 
 masses of the people ; what is sport to the few 
 is death to the many. The rich, who, if left 
 alone, would assist their poor brethren out of 
 their wealth, find an excuse for doing nothing 
 willingly, because they are forced to pay so 
 much, and often for useless or evil purposes. I 
 notice that it is precisely in those countries 
 where the Church is most oppressed that 
 Socialists are strongest in numbers and influ- 
 ence with the non-Catholic populations. An 
 international Conference either at Berne or 
 Berlin in behalf of the workman, to arrange a 
 concordat between capital and labour, is 
 doubtless an excellent and praiseworthy 
 achievement. God grant that it may be 
 followed by another international Conference 
 to bring about a general disarmament, and thus 
 to relieve mankind from the present crushing 
 and hideous burdens of taxation and conscrip- 
 tion, and to return, ere it be too late, to the 
 unity, the faith and practices of the Catholic 
 Church. Only thus will a remedy be found for 
 the miseries and affliction of a world at present 
 stained with two deadly and monstrous sins 
 crying to heaven for vengeance, oppression of 
 the poor and defrauding labourers of their 
 wages. 
 
 Were authority and property used in accord- 
 ance with the counsels of the Roman Pontiffs, 
 there would be nothing more heard of Socialists. 
 For us, it is enough to know that no good 
 Catholic can be a Socialist. 
 
ST. WILLIAM'S PRKSS, MARKET \YEIGHTON 
 
OVERDUE. 
 
193475