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Vol. XIL—
2 Be
Phitadetphia, Thursday, January. 18, 18.44.
rs inner td a een
Whole Number 575
THE CATHOLIC HERALD-
18 PUBLISHED EVERY THURSDAY RY
M. FITHIAN,
No. 61 North Second Street, Philadelphia.
Terms.—T wo Dollars and Fifty Cents, ¢f paid
advance, or Three Dollars, payable half yearly,
No paper discontinued until all arrearages are
ed.
All Communications, except from Agents or
Subscribers enclosing remittances, must be post
paid,and addressed * To the Editor of the Ca-
tholic Herald, Philadelphia, Pa.”
By permission of the Post-Master General, any
Post-Mastercan frank a letter containing a remit-
tance, for a Subscriber.
Poetry.
For the Catholic Merald.
A DREAM.
» Methinks the spot I now can see,
Where once I lost my
. > Within a Forest dark,
From terror'and dist
Fatigue and Hunger did contend
For umpire’s stately post,
Whilst Thirst disputed "bout the end,
Despair almost a ghost
ta this dilemma and distress
What shall be done ?—thought I—
Astray within a wilderness,
Perchance I'm doom’d to die!
Kindred and friends were also there
Who scarcely knew the road;
Bewilder'd and amaz’d, they stare!
+» Expecting light from God.
A Sprite approach'd, in vulgar
Was honor'd a3 a guest >
He came to tell whot.he bad we
Of sacred things to jest.
‘The Lamb's pure
To cover o'er hi
But being loose and rather wide,
+ A Wolf I saw within,
be arp ’d, he plied,
A little noise, ‘ts true, made, ros
But ‘twas agai winds
Both Sympathy and Love, afraid
To breathe aloud their mind. ‘
Here Wisdom’s clerk—the Owl—appear'd,
And beckon'd me to lovk
Qn yonder Mount !—but lo! I fear'd
To ford a little brook!
I rais'd my eyes and plainly saw
brilliant Cross oF tian !
: Be mindful now—said Wisdom'slaw—
I's always in your sight.
‘The rays reflected from this source
‘The darkest path shall show:
This Siax is set to guide our course,
And teach ue where to go.
Turormuys.
i
»From.the Catholie Advocate.
HISTORY ‘
o the life, works and doctrines of Calvin,
y Mr, Audin, Knight of the order of St.
eegory the Great, member of the Acade-
my and literary circle of Lyons, of the
Tiberine Academy of Rome, of the eae:
my of the Catholic Religion of the sa
city, $c. New edition, “revised and cor-
‘rected. Paris, 1843.
‘The religious dissensions, and discordant
sects, of the present times, have awakened
in numbers of all denominations, the deepest
and most reasonable grief, because it. is but
too apparent that religion suffers amirst the
contesis of opinion, and infidelity or indiffer-
ence gains all those who are disgusted with
the warfare of creed, puzzled by the inconsis-
tent absurdities of irreconcileable articles of
faith, and shocked by the uncharitable bitter.
ness of sec:a'ivs. If principles should be ap-
preciated by their consequences, if the. tree
should be judged by its fruits, we have in the
present condition of Protestant: Christianity,
ample reasons for lamenting the day, whose
light sbed ils first rays upon the cradle of the
Mon, of Wittemberg, and. of the scholar of
‘| he lived.
faithless and negligent children of the church
of God, their type is seen in the fate of that
bright star, which followed by a third of the
host of heaven, like lightning, fell into the
darkness of the abyss, to be lost forever.
In the history of revolutions, we perceive
that individuals generally become the person-
cations of the sentiments, feelings, passions,
and views of parties, and by the magic of
some word of undefined and portentous omen,
control and govern the popular power, of
which they ‘pretend to be the servants. © ‘The
offspring of passions fermenting amid agitated
masses of society, they acquire an undue great
ness from the force of circumstances, and
though often but blind instruments obeying) a
resisiless exterior influence, they derive credit
rom success, and by their contemporaries and
by posterity, are esteemed the very causes and
authors of the event with which their careers
is identified.
‘The Monk of Wittemberg, Dr. Martin Lu-
ther, was cerlainly a man, whose tempera-
ment, disposition and intellect, qualified him
for the part he acted in the great religious
drama of the sixteenth century, In his name
is contained a voluminous history of interesting
evenst. Iis figure occupies a prominent place
amid the shadowy personages which history
shows us in her lengthened galleries. “The
grand and imposing figures which there crowd
on the mental gaze, with the dazzle of pontifi-
cal Varas, imperial crowns, regal dialems,
warrior’s swords and plumes, episcopal mitres,
abo 's staffs, ahd green bays of civic or lite-
fame, do not prevent our notice of the
brent reformer, who stands before us, with his
feet upon the robes of his furmer monachism
and priesthood, with his mach loved Catherine
by his side, and his first-born clasping his pa-
ternal knees, the German version of the bible
in one band, and the other clenched, and mena-
cingly directed against some object of denun-
B=
“| ciation—a vision of antichrist, perhaps —which
he would annihilate with the lightning of the
ire which flashes from his eyes. ‘And yet the
_| mngnitude of the Saxon’s fame was less due
to his own genius than to the times in which
fle appeared at a period when cau.
ses, long in silent operation, were progressing
0 hele wighty results, and as far as excite-
nt, an immenée influence and power, and
a 2 deathless celebrity, could be desired by an
ambitious man, who cared for no destiny but
the present, it was most fortunate for him that
the star of his nativity marked his birth for
that precise epoch. “Had he come into the
world fifty years sponeny he might have plod-
ded on with the other monks in their routine
of specified avocations, and laid his bones in
the cemetery of the monastery. beneail the
marble monuments of his order. Had his na-
tivity been retarded for half a century, bis
chances for notoriety would have been dimin-
ished, and perhaps some other name woul
have represented the agitations, passions and
outbreaks of the times, and summed up the
history of the result of those causes, which fa-
vored him and made him great, and which,
had he pot existed, must still have produced
important, if not similar events. ‘Those who
can only contemplate fragments of history,
and whose minds are inadequate to grasp the
details and combinations of vast and compre-
hensive pictures, may perhaps find a solution
in the personal genius of the reformer, for the
whole problem of that great revolution of
which he was the hero, We are content to
leave these standing, in mute reverence and
admiration, before the colossal statue of their
idol, on whose pedestal they have placed the
burning incense of their grateful adulation. The
€| apostate monk neither foresaw nor devised the
work which he acco: plished, and, even were
this work itself worthy of praise or approba
tion, we could not be so blind to the preceding
and attending events, ax to consider him in any
other hight than as a meré instrument, obeying
*| the influence of events, and itself ignorant of
the end of its operations; like many other
heroes, he was, perhaps himself the most of
any, astonished at his own deeds and success,
and wondered that
“greatness was thus throst upon him.”
Mr. Aadin, in his history of Luther's life,
has shown the true character, position,” and
deserts of the Suxon monk,’ Te has placed
him in a light which exhibits his true claims,
and reveals shis enormous defects.” And this he
has done, in a manner, which sets at defiance
the eavils of the, critic, and the reclamations
Noyon.” Bora to be the scourge of the more
of the sectary; for he proceeds with a logic
id | away.
that is rrefutable, and a reference to written
documents, whuse genuineness cannot be ques-
tioned,
Among the co-labourers of the German re-
‘ormer, there are many, whose naines are held
in particular esteem by Protestants, but’ cer-
tainly none of them ore important
part ‘Vian did John Calvi in, the Theocratic des-
pot of Geneva. With less genius and fewer
good qnalijies than Luther had, with less in
his character to awaken sympathy, and far
inferior talents fur moving popular masses,
the scholar of Noyon, by some means, was
enabled to throw his spell over the once famed
republic of Geneva, taint thousands with the
poison of his heresies—vest himself with the
mantle of an usurped priesthood,—make him-
self the prominent object of veneration in the
temple, and of honor in the state,—give his
own portrait lo be revered by men and wo-
men, in place of the images of the sainis and
of the cross of Christ,—and persuade his dis.
ciples that for the love of God they should
desecrate churches, pillage convents, destroy
the most valuable creations of the arts: seize
upon the gouds and wives of their neighbors;
rejectthe sacraments; control conscience; cor-
rupt the bible; and do all manner of iniquity,
—while, forsooth, he, the heaven-sent apostle,
assured to them the right to a place among
“the elect,” whom God, from all eternity,
» by unalterable decree, destived for salva
tion.
Calvin, therefore, next after the great Sax-
on, has deserved to find a biographer in Mr.
Audin, who tas presented to the public, a
work in two octavo volumes of upwards of
500 pages each, in which we fiad many Pase
sages of stirring dramatic interest, proofs of
laborious and careful research, a correct ana-
lysis of the doctrines of Calvin, a striking
exposition of the incongruous symbols of the
reformation, and the same well-woven logic,
and detailed reference to historical authorities
which characterise the author's “life of Lu-
ther,”
‘The readers of the Catholic Advocate,-will
no doubt, be content wo accompany us in our
proposed ex ith Mr. Audin through
paris of that his aatieat domain which he has
so thoroughly explored. We will point out
for their ubservation, some of those things
which most struck ourselves, and at times we
shall allow the learned and graphic water to
address them in his own make
them participators of his thoughts, Teelines
and inspiration.
In his introduction, the author causes us to
remark the difference between the reformation
of Wittemberg and that of Geneva,
+ Wittemberg it was a revolt of the cloi-
ster, at Geneva, a political movement. Under
this double form, the reformation of the 16th
censury deceived the souls which it bore
In Saxony, it was destined to result
in anarchy ; in Switzerland, in despotism.”
First years of Calvin, 1509, 1529.—On
the 10th of July, in the year 1509, Juho Cal-
vin was born at Noyon, in the house’ where
now hangs the signof the stag, and which
his father had purchased at the wheat market,
He was baptised at St, Godeberie, having the
canon, John deVatines, fur his godfather. **1
elain my baptism,”’ Calvin ofien said to Be-
za, “but L renounced the Chrism,”
His father, Gerard Cauvin, a native of
Pont leveque, had two wives, the first of
whom was Jeane le Franc, a native of Cam-
bray, and daughter ofa tavern keeper, who
had retired at Noyou. By this wife, Gerard
bad six children, four sons and two daughters,
The sons were Charles, John, Anthony, and
a fourth, whose name is unknown. ' The two
daughters were married iv the Catholic
Jhurch,
Atthe birth of Jobn, those present were
astonished by an unusual phenomenon, for
an account of which we must refer the reader
to the third page of the original. “If true, his
entrance into life, as well as his exit, was
visibly ‘noted by that Divine Providence,
whose hand holds the scales by which men
are to be weighed, and whose judgment re-
verses the sentence, which the world passes
"| upon human deeds.
Gerard, whore eye read the future, destin
ed this child for the study of theoiogy.
“This limpid and prominent eye of the
child, his large brow, his nose susceptible of
genile inflextons, such as the ancients delight-
ed to contemplate in their’ statues, his lips
cutled with disdain and sneers, his leaden
cunning, stratagem, and obstinacy, When in
the Library of Geneva, yea meet the portrait
of Luther beside that of
h his florid
face; which the blood courses and a betes with
his eagle eyes, and his brilliant tints of col-
ours quite Venetian, represents popular elo-
quence, brutal force, and lyrical enthusiasm ;
for him, the tribune, the public place, the
tavern. The other, with his face of an an-
choret, emaciated with vigils or disease, his
faded flesh, his unqyiet air, his cadaverous
hue, his prominent bones, piercing the skin,
will figure, otstimate sophistry and argument.
He is the man of the school, of the temple,
of the cabinet,—the diplomatic, theologian,
the fox, who, to disguise himself, hasassumed
the monk's cap.”
‘To be continued.
+05. -
From the Catholic Advocate.
DIOCESS OF NASLVILLE.
Mr, Editor: Being a constant reader of
your valuable * papery I find that you are al-
ways happy to insert in your columns, any
information which ma y be communicated to
you from the Diocess of Nashville. { there-
fore, presume to make a few’ remarks, which
may be interesting to you and to all the friends’
of Catholicity.
The Right Rev. Dr. Miles, after making
his Episcopal visitation to Memphis, where a
jarge and handsome brick church has been
erected, (through the pious zeal of the Rev.
Mr. McAleer, the respecied pastor of that
cungregation,’ who also visits tbe Catholics’
of the surrounding ‘counties, proceeded ‘to’
Jackson, where he was received by the little.’
but very zealous’ congregation, with all that’
respect and luve, which pious Catholics have’
for their’ bishops.’ “They ‘devoutly com-.
plied with the ordinances of the Church, and
the good’ Bishop had the consolation of ad-‘
minisieriog the sacrament of Confirmation to’
three conseris, “They intend to erect a church
there, also, next suminer, when they mu
have a clergyman to reside with them,
Rt. Rev, Prelate visited several ouher imino
stations and administered to the good people,
the consolations of our holy religion.
On his return to Nashville, he held an ordi-’
nation, on the first Sunday of Advent, in bis
humble cathedral, on which occasion Mesers,:
Ivo Schachet, a native of Belgium, and Wil-
liam Howard, a native of Ireland, were raised
fo the holy order of Subdeacon. These
young .men have received their theological
education in his own Seminary, and are the
first students of his own formation, who have!
been raised to this dignity, “On the 23d/
inst., being Saturday, in quarter-tense, these
Rev, gentlemen received the holy order of
Deaconship, and on the following day, being’
the fourth Sunday of Advent, were ordained
priests,’ ‘The day being mild and temperate,”
the sinall cathedral was thronged to excess at*
an early hour to witness the solemn and im-
pressive ceremony. ‘Phe Rt. Rev. Prelate’
attended by Very Rev. Lewis Hoste, Vicar,
General of the Divcess, as Dean, ani .
Joseph Allemany, O. P. as Sub-deacon, in
toned the mass ;—and there stood the young!
Rev. gentlemen, having on their arms the in.
signia of the solemn office, with which they
were to be invested. * There they stood, as if ©
ready to offer themselves victims to the Lord,
uml prostrating themselves before their God,
the Holy Spirit was invoked, to inflame their’
hearts with his divine love, and to Prepare.
them for the reception of that divine commis-
sion, which was given tothe Apostles eighteen’.
hundred years ago. And how consoling must
(not be to the Cathotic, thus, to witness the *
tranvinssion of this divine power, without
change or diminution, Yes, this is that bright”
beacon, which guides the church of God over,
the ocean of time, and a distinguishing autk.;
of her divinity.
Afier the: solemn ‘ benediction, the Rev. °
Bishop, seated in his chair on the platform of «
‘he altar, with mitre and crozier, delivered an '
address to the young clergymen, at once,
simple and ‘impressive, in which he depicted ,
the onerous obligations. which they then con-:
\racted—that, henceforth, they were to show »
themselves brilliant pauerns of virtue, and as +
zealous ministers of God, ready to sacrifice *
life itself for Zfis honor, who! was now theie :
inheritance and their crown. °
| ‘This solemn service wad” witnessed by”
and billous complexion, were the indicia of
many of our separated brethren, among whom
.
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