We do not expect that such a dense darkness of ignorance and prejudice as that which exists in the Protestant world will be immediately dispelled by the light which will radiate from the city of God through the council of bishops assembled about their august chief, the vicar of Jesus Christ. We have reason to expect a great number of conversions, among those who are already partially enlightened, as its immediate result, and the more zealous and successful prosecution of the work of bringing back all nations to the fold of truth and grace as its effect during a long period to come. But, no doubt, the greater number of those who are thoroughly committed to the anti-Catholic cause will persevere to the last in their hostility, and retain for a long time a multitude of followers under their influence. It is useless to argue with such men in the hope of convincing or converting them. They will be forced, however, to meet the Catholic question fairly and squarely, and no longer be able to hide themselves behind vague platitudes and unmeaning generalities. They will be obliged, also, to give account of their own systems, whatever they may be, which they put forward as substitutes for the Catholic religion, and thus undergo the crucial tests of logic, history, and critical science. For ourselves, we cannot doubt for a moment that, as the ultimate result, everything like orthodox or positive Protestantism will be ground into dust between the two opposing forces of Catholicity and infidelity, leaving the great contest to be waged between these two. In regard to this last great issue we venture to make no prognostics. There are reasons both for fear and for hope; but the only course for us to pursue is to aim for as much good as possible, leaving the rest with God. That a crisis approaches in the conflict between the universal divine order and universal lawlessness, between the church and the world, that is, the wicked world or concrete mass of all false and wicked principles, the mundus positus in malignos, of which the apostle speaks; and that this crisis will be hastened and materially affected by the council, cannot be doubted. We desire to impress, therefore, upon all the really sincere and upright lovers of truth and Christianity, the importance of their paying careful attention to the doings of this council and of looking to correct sources for their information.
All Catholics must look forward to the council with sentiments of the most profound veneration and ardent expectation of the incalculable good which it will produce in the bosom of the church. An ecumenical council is the representative Catholic Church, the entire episcopate with its head and supreme bishop, the highest tribunal on earth, with plenary authority to define doctrines and enact laws, with the spiritual presence of Jesus Christ in the midst of it, and the plenitude of the Holy Spirit to enlighten and assist its deliberations and judgments; infallible in all its decrees respecting faith and morals, sovereign in all its enactments, with full power to bind all minds and consciences to an implicit and unreserved obedience in the name of God. The church is always infallible, and is perpetually teaching the faith and the rule of morals; the holy see is always invested with authority to decide controversies and make laws; and is competent to make even definitions of faith, to which the assent of the dispersed bishops gives the same force of concurrent judgment which their conciliar action possesses. Nevertheless, the pope with the episcopate assembled in ecumenical council can do more than when they are dispersed. The gift of active infallibility is in a higher and more intense exercise, because the common intellect and will of the church is prepared by common counsel and communion to receive a more abundant illumination and vivification of the Holy Spirit. It is by the councils, from that of Nice to that of Trent, that heretics have been condemned, and the clear, explicit definitions of the faith once delivered to the saints have been made. The council of the Vatican will possess the same infallible authority with that which met at Jerusalem under St. Peter, or that which at under the presidency of the legates of St. Sylvester, condemned the Arian heresy and defined the Son to be consubstantial with the Father. This august tribunal will therefore have full power to terminate all controversies and differences among Catholics in regard to which it shall judge that the interests of the faith and the well-being of the church require a definite judgment to be made. The result will be both a more perfect concordance in doctrine and principles of action, regarding all the matters which will be decided, and a more perfect recognition of liberty in reference to all opinions which are left as open questions. That this will be a great gain no truly loyal Catholic can doubt. Another result to be expected is a more precise, definite, and uniform system of ecclesiastical law and administration, providing a more perfect adjustment of all the multiform relations of the church and her hierarchy. Those portions of the church which are in an apathetic and torpid state we may hope will be roused up; a multitude of sluggish and unfaithful Catholics become reanimated with the spirit of faith; and the unity, sanctity, catholicity, and apostolicity of the church—the immortality of her life, the divine authority of her teaching, the irresistible and universal power of that spirit which is in her—be manifested with a brightness which will make for ever glorious the close of the nineteenth century, whose opening was so very dark and inauspicious.
St. Mary's.
If there is one spot in our country to which the American Catholic turns with special interest, it is certainly to the landing-place of Lord Baltimore's colony in Maryland and the site of St. Mary's City. New Englanders are never weary of boasting of "our pilgrim forefathers," who landed on Plymouth Rock to obtain freedom to worship God according to their own peculiar notions. To have an ancestor who came over in the Mayflower is equivalent to a patent of nobility—it sets the fortunate individual above his fellows, and makes him a member of a caste truly Brahminical.
The Catholic can turn with far greater pride to those spiritual forefathers who, with no self-righteousness, sought in the new world not only liberty of conscience, but allowed it to others; who were so just in their dealings with the natives that they never took an inch of land without paying for it; and who, by their Christian kindness, won over so many of the Indians to genuine Christianity. We truly have reason to say,
"Ay, call it holy ground
The soil where first they trod!"
I had always wished to visit this consecrated spot so dear to the Catholic heart, and embraced the first convenient opportunity of doing so. I rode down from Leonardtown during the pleasant Indian summer time. My most vivid remembrance of the ride is of passing over a frequent succession of what my Aunt Pilcher used to call "sarvent-madams."—a sudden depression, as if be tween two logs, which unceremoniously pitched you forward in the carriage and then brought you up with a sudden jerk, thus forcing you to make an impromptu bow which gave point to the pleasant name of "sarvent-madams." This sort of exercise may be novel, but a continuation of it is not at all amusing, and I was glad when, after a ride of about twenty miles, we emerged from a woody path, crossed a stream, and found ourselves on the high plain where once stood the city of St. Mary. One is surprised—pained—to find not one stone left upon another of that settlement. When the seat of government was removed, nature resumed her sway and avenged herself for the ravages of man by obliterating most of his traces and reclothing the place with her own freshness and beauty. There are now a few dwellings belonging to the farmer who owns this historic site, a barnlike church belonging to the Episcopalians, said to have been built of the ruins of the old state-house, and a large brick building that stands dreary and treeless, looking like a factory, but which is really a seminary for young ladies, the monument erected by the Maryland legislature to commemorate the landing of the first colonists! It would be an excellent place for a convent of Carthusians; but to banish lively girls to this lonely region, lovely though it be, so far from any town, several miles from the post-office, and with no literary advantages, must have been the conception of some malicious and dyspeptic old bachelor. The young are rarely lovers of nature. Those whose souls have been chastened and weaned from the world alone find a balm therein. It is a great defect in the training of our youth that they are not made more observant of natural objects. Insects, vegetation, the very stones beneath the feet, are a source of unceasing pleasure to the heart in sympathy with nature in all her infinite variety. But this requires teachers who are capable of opening to youth the great treasure-house of nature. It is not always the most intellectual people who are the most fond of the country. Madame de Staël preferred living in the fourth story of a house on the Rue du Bac in Paris to a villa on the enchanted shores of Lake Geneva. And Dr. Johnson thought there was no view that equalled the high tide of human beings at Charing Cross.
This seminary is intended to educate the young ladies of prevailing religious sects of the country, each of which is represented by a teacher. I have understood that at times there have been serious conflicts between those who were for Paul and those who were for Apollos; but this is not at all surprising in a place where they must be driven to desperation for a little excitement. The only church near is the Episcopal, where the services are very intermittent indeed, which obliges the teachers to play the part of chaplain.
This uninviting church is in a yard full of old graves, shaded by clumps of hollies and gloomy cedars. There is a venerable old mulberry-tree in the midst, now quite decayed, but still putting forth a few leafy branches, said to have been planted (a twig from old England) by Leonard Calvert's own hands. There is a tradition that he was buried in this yard—perhaps near his tree, familiarly known as Lord Baltimore's tree—but there is nothing to indicate the precise spot. It is more probable that he was buried near the Catholic church, which was about a quarter of a mile farther down. Relic lovers have nearly killed this venerable tree, by cutting out pieces for canes, crosses, etc. Passing through the grassy graveyard, and descending a steep bank, you come to a narrow line of sand, a miniature beach on the shore of St. Mary's River, the place where the colony landed. The water is as salt as the sea, and the broad river deep enough for the Dove and the Ark to anchor. A gentle ripple came up over the yellow sand and crystalline pebbles. The broad expanse of water lay like a lake, with undulating hills in the background all covered with woods in their gorgeous autumn foliage. The whole scene was as calm and peaceful as if these waters had never been disturbed by Indian canoe or white man's craft.