WHAT IS TAUGHT IN A CATHOLIC SUMMER SCHOOL.
THE Roman Catholics have a "summer school" at Plattsburgh, N. Y., on Lake Champlain. Concerning that school, "Augustus" has this to say in the New York Observer (Presbyterian) of June 15:— "The outline of the study for the past month at this school is worthy of the attention of Protestants, and especially of those who think that the animosity of the Roman Church towards Protestantism has ceased to exist. The subject for the month was the Protestant Reformation. The list of books recommended to be read by students embraced seven Catholic histories and historical studies, six suggested topics for papers and discussion, and a list of questions and answers from a controversial catechism by the Rev. Stephen Keenan. The topics were: Europe before the Reformation, Cause and Success of Protestantism, Character of the Reformers, the Reformation and Tolerance, the Reformation and Civil Liberty, and the Political Situation in Europe at the time of the Reformation. This is a good series of subjects for fair and intelligent historical discussion. But the method in which they were to be handled can, perhaps, be gathered from the 'questions and answers' which follow their announcement upon the program. The first question is, 'What is Protestantism?' and the answer, 'A new religion, invented and propagated by a person called Luther.' It is then stated that no such theology, either as to faith or morals, was ever known, taught, or believed by any sect in the world until Luther's time. The 'errors' of the other sects are thus given:— "The Albigenses taught that there were two Gods and two Christs; they reprobated marriage, denied all the sacraments, as well as the resurrection of the body. The Waldenses aimed at plunder; they declared it a heinous sin for a magistrate to condemn to death for any crime; according to them it was a mortal sin to take an oath; the clergy became reprobates by holding one farthing's worth of property. In other things these deluded fanatics were Catholics; they held the sacrament, mass, transubstantiation, purgatory, etc. The Wickliffites maintained that man must sin, that God approves of sin; yet, with evident inconsistency, they declared that all power, whether of the priest or magistrate, is forfeited by the commission of one mortal sin; they concluded, that as they themselves were all free from sin, so all power belonged to them. As to the Hussites, their doctrines were those of Wickliffe, their principles were seditious and unchristian, and plunder was their object." "The catechism proceeds to outline the parentage, birth, religion, and life of Luther till his thirty-fifth year, giving his religious vows at the age of twenty-three years, 'poverty, chastity, and obedience,' all of which he is declared to have violated, by apostasy, marriage to a nun, and disobedience to ecclesiastical authority. Then come the closing questions and answers of the first week of this summer school, which are as follows:— "Q.—Was this man in reality the founder of the Protestant religion, and the first of that sect that ever appeared in the world?
"A.—Most certainly, for no minister, no congregation, no body of divines, professing Protestant doctrines, was ever heard of until this time.
"Q.—What inference do you draw from all this?
"A.—That Protestantism can not be the religion of Christ: because, if the church of Christ required reformation, a God of purity and holiness would never have chosen such an immoral character—an apostate, a wholesale vow-breaker, a sacrilegious seducer—for that purpose." "The second week enters upon Luther's motives for attacking the Catholic faith and inventing a new creed. These were pride and jealousy 'because the commission to preach Indulgence was given to the order of St. Dominic and not to his own.' Reference is then made to his nailing the ninety-five theses on the gates of the Wittenburg church, and it is taught that these false articles were cleverly refuted, that Luther repented and abased himself before the pope, and proved a hypocrite. From these and other like statements, the pupil is instructed to draw the inference, 'that a man bursting with pride, envy, jealousy, a disobedient hypocrite, was not the person to be chosen of God to reform abuses, if any such existed.' The travesty of history is then continued, and the second week concludes as follows:— "Q.—What do you conclude from such conduct?
"A.—In the first place, that Luther must have been extremely fickle to appeal to so many judges, and to abide by the decision of none. Secondly, that he knew his cause was bad and his doctrine false, since he would not submit it even to the best judges. Thirdly, that he must have been brimful of sinful pride and obstinacy, since he preferred his own single judgment to that of the whole Christian world.
"The third week deals with his 'monstrous errors,' and wresting of the Scriptures to 'give them any sense he pleased, as the Mormons, the Methodists, and the Free-Kirkmen do at the present day;' and presents this conclusion:— "Q.—What do you think of Luther's conduct?
"A.—I can discover nothing in it but the spirit of inconstancy, doubt, error, and revenge, without even the slightest mark of the Spirit of God. He seems solely actuated by the spirit of the devil." "The fourth week describes the dreadful effects of Luther's teaching; the rise of 'religious hucksters,' Calvin, Zwingli, and others; the multiplication of sects, Mormons, the Free-Kirk and the Salvation Army; the socinianism and socialism which have followed in their train; the pernicious doctrine that all Christians are truly and really priests; the abolition of the mass, which was done at the direct inspiration of the devil; and the conclusion, that 'one can hardly tell at which to be most astonished—at the open and brazen avowal of Luther, or at the awful blindness of those who follow a master, who, by his own account, received his training and instruction in the school of Satan.'" "Perhaps it might be well for some of those Protestants who are so ready to apologize for Roman Catholic invasions of Protestant rights, and so pleased with their friendly words on secular themes, to spend a week or two at the summer school at Plattsburgh, and learn a little of the real Roman Catholic teaching about Protestants and their religion. If they had ears to hear and eyes to see, they would come back convinced that, tho' Rome may change her manners in order to gain her ends and extend her influence, her hatred of Protestantism is as bitter as ever, and that the iron hand which has often tortured and tried to crush out its life is only covered with a velvet glove. What Thomas Jefferson said of the attitude of freemen half a century and more ago, is true to-day—'Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.'"