The Anti-Catholic Spirit of Certain Writers [pp. 658-667]

6~8 A~H-CATHoL!c SHRIT OF CERTAIN WRITERs. [Feb.,
THE ANTI-CATHOLIC SPIRIT OF CERTAIN
WRITERS.
ONE of the characteristics of the present age is the spirit towards the Catholic Church which is systematically manifested in
every department of literature. Take up a magazine, a review,
or a newspaper, and every subject will be found to be treated
not only from a noj:-Catholic but from an anti- Catholic point of
view. It is assumed as a matter of course that all readers are
inimical to Catholicity and are pleased to see it abused and ridiculed. There was no excu&e for this even when the number of
Catholic readers in English-speaking countries was inconsiderable. There was no excuse for Sir Walter Scott, in the most
beautiful of his novels, Jvanhoe, to have described the monks and
priests as "fat," "jolly," and "lazy," and to have made the
worst character in the book a Knight of the Holy Temple.
Scott knew that it was the Catholic priests and bishops of Eng
land who joined with the barons in wresting Magna Charta from
King John.
But if there was no excuse for this intolerant spirit sixty
years ago, when English Catholic readers were few and English
Catholic writers were unknown, it is absolutely unpardonable
now, when some of the brightest intellects, the profoundest
thinkers and most gifted men, are members of the Catholic
Church. A religion which numbe~, or has recently numbered,
a Wiseman, a Newman, a Manning, a Faber, a Brownson, a Kenrick, a Hughes, a Montalembert, an Ozanam, a De Vere, a Lacordaire, a G6rres, a Balmes, a Cantu', a Manzoni, and many others
more or less distinguished in literature, should command at least
the respect of all intelligent writers. Yet, ~otwithstanding this
glorious array of Catholic literati, the editors of some of our
"popular" magazines and many writers have no hesitation about
raising their voices against the religion of nine millions of their
fellow-countrymen and two hundred and twenty-five millions
of their fellow human beings. Even the brilliant but bigoted
Macau lay said there is not and never was on this earth a work
so well deserving of examination as the Roman Catholic Church.
In this country especially Catholics should be appreciated and
their religion respected it was the Catholic Carroll who risked
more than any other of the signers of the Declaration of Inde