FATHER TYRRELL AND MODERNISM.
-r-F great souls be not annihilated with their bodies, you will
1 rest in peace; and you will rouse us by a consideration of your virtues." It was in these words, among others, that the strongest of Romans and of writers mourned triumphantly, though melting into rare tenderness, over a noble kinsman; and similar feelings will have been stirred in many countries by the departure of George Tyrrell. Unlike Agricola in the externals of his life, he resembled him in the nobility of his character. And there is another resemblance between them which is too striking to be overlooked. Both of them suffered, by reason of their nobility, under a despotic and suspicious authority exercised in the name of Rome. Let us, however, first pay our due tribute of appreciation and regret to a man of remarkable gifts and of heroic mould, who gave his life to a cause which be believed true and infinitely important ; and then let us ponder the cause itself, as that is the most grateful homage we can offer to Tyrrell's memory.
By those who knew him personally he will be remembered with affection as the kindest of friends and the most charming of companions. To a larger and an increasing number of people he was a great intellectual and spiritual influence, a master of their minds and a director of their souls, a guide in external problems and interior perplexities ; and this influence has been, not weakened, but extended by the publicity and the theological controversies which were forced upon him in his closing years. But his influence was due even more to what he was than to what be represented. Far more philosophical than Newman and subtler though without sophistry, not less spiritual than Church and almost as judicial, with an intellect as keen and luminous as 'Tort's, possessed by a moral fervour as glowing and infectious as Thomas Arnold's, and touched with something of Arnold's kindling genius in history, above all a mystic of the mystics, he was dowered with gifts which are not often held in
combination by religious teachers. Although the incarna- tion of common-sense, he was never commonplace ; the most sympathetic of mortals, he could not be senti- mental. He thus avoided the two prevailing defects of our current Anglo-Celtic religiosity. He had no taint of the edifying book, nor trick of the disedifying preacher. Not exactly a stylist in the higher meaning of the word, and unlikely to be a classic through his way of writing, he was nevertheless an admirable writer. He could suffuse mystical subjects with light and make spiritual notions clear. There was for him no conflict between the intellectual and the spiritual. His intellect glowed with spiritual fire ; his piety was illumined by the dry light of reason. It could be said of him literally that his eye was single and his whole body was full of light. On the mere physical side he was, however, to say the least of it, disappointing, almost shocking. His gifts of mind and heart were imprisoned in a frail body which conveyed nothing of their wealth and power. The treasure was in an earthen vessel, and the flame burned in a lamp of clay.
All the more unexpected, therefore, was the power which was displayed suddenly in his last book. In his " Medievalism " Tyrrell shows that, in addition to his other gifts, he was one of the greatest masters of honest and trenchant controversy. The Papal bureaucracy against which it is directed has had no such redoubtable antagonist in our present time. There is no answer to his indictment, and no escape from his con- clusions, except by reforming the evil which be discloses. Now Tyrrell in his fervent youth "left all" for the sake of Rome. He accepted the Roman theory of Catholicism in its Most logical form, by becoming a Jesuit, and be spent the greater part of his life in the Society. He knows, therefore, what he is talking about, none better, so that his testimony is of the highest value. From that extreme Ultramontanism which is represented in its fullness by the Society of Jesus he passed, by gradual stages and through many struggles, to the contrary position which is known at present as Modernism. No doubt history, philosophy, Biblical studies, all had their part in Tyrrell's evolution ; but all such destructive or recon- structive processes were accompanied in his case by a widen- ing and a deepening of spiritual experience. It is this which makes his transition so unusual, and so convincing to those whose interests are higher and deeper than mere ecclesiastical controversy.
The chief impelling force in Tyrrell's "Medievalism" is evidently an outraged moral fervour. This gives the book an irresistible attraction, and makes it an indispensable guide for those who wish to understand one aspect of the Modernist position. The chief " wound" of the Church at present, in Rosmini's phrase, is the Papal absolutism and its methods of administration. Tyrrell explains the growth of that absolutism, and exposes its inevitable consequences, with unrivalled skill. He shows how it is the antithesis of true Catholicism, and the paralysis of all intellectual and spiritual life. "Is it not the Popes who, with the sword of theological omniscience in one hand, and that of juridical omnipotence in the other, have backed the whole body of Christendom to pieces ; have split the East from the West, the Teutonic from the Latin races; and the whole Church from the living world ?" In the last phrase we have the explanation of Modernism, the reason why it has come to life. It is the passionate effort of those who wish to live iu the modern world, and at the same time both to preserve their own Catholicism and to hand it on to the future as a living religion.
This movement is opposed in the name of scholasticism, or of mediaevalism, which is taken as the sole and unalterable standard of Catholic orthodoxy. This is not the place to show how false and shallow that assumption is. But this inde- fensible position is held by all the weapons at the disposition of the Papal bureaucracy. Tyrrell proves how the practice and theory of Vaticanism are subversive of the traditional constitution of the Church. He proves further that these theories are not only incompatible with sound scholarship and destructive to all progress, but that they are actually 'slighting and sterilising the Papal Church itself. The Bishops are "marionettes." The mind of the Church means now the private judgment of one man. In other words, the Papacy is destroying Roman Catholicism. The world has already slipped from your grasp, he says to the Curia. " You have nothing to hold it by. Neither its intellectual, nor its ethical, nor its social, nor its political ideas are yours " (p. 172). Finally, he strikes a deeper note, in the twentieth chapter, which he entitles "The Moral ROot of the Conflict." In this he.saya :. "Diplomacy is not the best school of veracity " ;.and he protests against diplomatic methods and casuistical practices. He deplores "that all-permeating mendacity which is the most alarming, and desperate symptom of the present ecclesiastical crisis." And then he adds: "The only infallible guardian of truth is the spirit of truthfulness. Not till the world learns to look to Rome as the home of truthful- ness and straight dealing, will it ever look to her as the citadel of truth. It will never believe that the spirit of Machiavellian craft and diploinacy is the spirit of Christ."
This volume carried Tyrrell at once into the forefront of the conflict. And now he has been removed from the battle, though he has left behind, as we are told, a posthumous volume in which his fight will be continued. Though his mortal part has perished, his spirit will live on. Books like his do not die easily; and the controversies which have been held over his grave will not help the cause of those who raised them, for nothing is so offensive and incomprehensible to English feeling.
Tyrrell's life undoubtedly was shortened by the Modernist conflict, with all the strain and anxiety which it brought him. The end of the conflict is not yet, but the result is absolutely certain. Modernism is not dead, though the Ultramontane organs affect to think so. Indeed, last year a medal was struck to commemorate its decease. Modernism, as the Lernein Hydra, was represented lying prostrate. before the Pontifical throne. Pius X. is not exactly a Hercules; but putting that aside, we venture to think that the Good Samaritan, pouring his oil and wine, would have been the more appropriate symbolism for a Pope who began his reign with the resolve Instaurare Omnia in Christa.
It is true that there has been no corporate or external Modernist movement. There is no new sect or organisation, nothing the theologians can attack or the journalists lay bands on. - But the spirit of Modernism lives and moves. It passes from one individual to another. It is in the very air which we breathe intellectually, in which we live socially. It cannot be excluded, not even from the schools and seminaries, unless Roman Catholics can be isolated altogether from the world in which they exist. In that case they will perish, as the surviving pagans did, of intellectual starvation and social atrophy. The Papacy itself is in the same case. It must either be transformed by the modern spirit, or it mist wither. The motto of Pius X. in Malachy's roll is Ignis Ardens. It is pot easy to see how he has fulfilled it, except by devastating the French Church. It is much easier to see what he is doing to prepare for the next Pope, who is to be Religio liepopalata. Both intellectual and literal starvation will be the ultimate condition of the Papacy unless the Modernists .can save Etiiopean Catholicism.
In Fiance recent political events will make no change. M. Briand remains Minister of Worship, and he will continue his policy of coups de libertj, which absolutely cheektuates the Curia and the bcmne presee. The Vatican has prayed in vain for a new " persecutor " 4 /a Combes. and political Catholicism will inevitably be killed by liberal treatment. Meanwhile the official Church is losing continuously in quality and numbers, The Bishops are in sore straits for both men and money. The State, pensions are gradually diminishing for priests in active work. The younger clergy, in ever-growing numbers, are inclined to .Modernist sympathies. The breach between the hierarchy and the young Catholic Socialists is widening Very little indeed is left of the, healing policy initiated by Leo XIII. It must not be .thought that. Modernists do not exist because they are not geen. Some few have been brought into pnblic notice by the authorities, Some have been, moved out of the Church against their will. Very few have moved out voluntarily. They think and hope that the Church can still he .saved. They wish. to transform it from within. It seems to them a base desertion to leave it, before they must, to absolutists and obscurantiste, Only.the future can decide on the wisdom and success of this policy.. Tyrrell.* end may not forebode success, but he said " Who shall separnte us? Not twenty Popes nor a hundred exeomniunications. I belong [to,the Roman Church] in spirit and.in truth, by the bond of my free ,conviction that no bishop. can snap " (p. 187). Re saw what.treasures and possibilities. Rome still preserves, if . they can be liberated. The "if" is very large. The present
writer is unable to share it, but he has every indulgence for those who can, and he will be glad if they are proved right. Modernism, of course, is not limited to France. It is even more diffused in Italy, especially among the lower clergy, who unite with it an active and rather violent Socialistic propaganda. The movement rimy yet prove dangerous both to the Vatican and to the Monarchy. It is much interested, not only in theological reform, but in such practical matters as the celibacy of the clergy.
In Germany there has been some trouble in the Universities, which would have been aggravated by the Roman authorities had they not been restrained by the Governments. The apparent quiet in Germany seems to many observers the lull before a storm. The Centre Party, strong as they are in politics, do not represent Catholic opinion as faithfully as they did in their conflict with Bismarck. It is difficult to see how Germanic science can have any lasting agreement with history, , theology, and criticisui, as they are represented by the latest utterances of the Vatican. And, mulatis mutandis, similar questions are raised by a consideration of all that is covered by the term "Americanism," and by the conditions under which Catholicism has to live in Australasia and in Canada.
If even the Roman Church is affected by environment, as of course it is, then the Catholicism which was evolved in Europe by the Catholic reaction and the Council of Trent, which still subsists as a ghost of itself in Portugal and Spain, which persists with robuster vices in South America, must b@ affected in time, and even essentially, by the conditions of a progressive France, of the British Empire, of the United States, and even of the awakening East. For it is under these conditions that the Roman Church will have to live if it be destined for a prolonged life. Therefore we do not think that the policy of the Modernists is altogether desperate or hope:. less. Still less do we think that George Tyrrell's life has been wasted in a Vain conflict, or that it has ended in defeat. Malta dies, variusgue labor mulabilis aeroi Rett alit in =elks.
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