# 
 
 »«T™ 
 
 THE 
 
 RBCTOR OR THK CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OP LOUVAIN 
 
 REVISED, ENLARGED AND EDITED 
 
 BY 
 
 CARDINAL GIBBONS 
 
 WITH A CHAPTER 
 BY 
 
 MOST REV. P. J. RYAN, D.D., LL.D. 
 
 * 
 
 THOMAS J. FLYNN & COMPANY 
 62 and 64 Essex Street, Boston 
 
IFUbtl ©bstat. 
 
 REMIGIUS LAFORT, S.T.L. 
 
 Censor 
 
 imprimatur* 
 
 JOHN M. FARLEY, D.D. 
 
 Archbishop of New York 
 
 New York, October 25, 1909 
 
 Copyright, 1909, 
 
 BY THE 
 
 CONGREGATION OF THE MISSION OF 
 ST. VINCENT De PAUL, 
 
 IN 
 
 Springfield, Mass. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 #7 Uto 
 J 2 S~ 
 
 f T is useless to deny the fact that in Chris¬ 
 tian communities many men are to be 
 found who no longer believe in Chris¬ 
 tianity. Many even, not content with rejecting 
 the religion of Jesus Christ, go on to deny God; 
 or if they do not deny him in express terms, 
 their idea of him is radically false, and they 
 seek to place upon the altar of the living God, 
 the Creator of heaven and earth, a philosophical 
 idol, ten thousand times more vain than the idols 
 of wood and stone to which pagan nations of¬ 
 fered incense. Whence comes this infidelity? 
 According to those who pride themselves on be¬ 
 ing philosophers or critics, the denial of Chris¬ 
 tianity, or even of a personal and living God, 
 is dictated by science and reason; it is, they 
 say, the natural and legitimate fruit of intel¬ 
 lectual progress; rationalists, spiritualists, ma¬ 
 terialists, atheists, pantheists, sceptics of every 
 kind, all alike appeal to science and reason to 
 justify their belief or their doubts in the 
 eyes of the public, and even apparently to their 
 
 own conscience. I willingly bear this testi- 
 
 • • • 
 
 111 
 
IV 
 
 Preface. 
 
 mony to learned unbelievers of every shade, that 
 they can shelter their infidelity under the finest 
 and noblest pretexts. I have no intention here 
 to examine or discuss those scientific and philo¬ 
 sophical pretexts which they call decisive and 
 unanswerable reasons. This has been done else¬ 
 where,* and Catholic writers continue to do so 
 daily with the authority which belongs to true 
 learning. I am now going to attempt another 
 method. 
 
 I have often reflected, sometimes with won¬ 
 der, always with sadness, on the phenomenon of 
 infidelity in the midst of the light of Chris¬ 
 tianity. I have frequently asked myself, in the 
 sincerity of my heart, why so many men—many’ 
 of whom are noble-minded, serious, learned— 
 reject the^ teaching of the Catholic Church—the 
 organ and representative of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ upon earth—why certain minds, rather 
 than submit to the authority of the Church, will 
 descend to a total denial of the moral and re¬ 
 ligious order, and even to universal doubt. In 
 this fact there is certainly matter for psychologi¬ 
 cal and moral study of high importance and 
 melancholy interest. I know very well that in 
 the eyes of infidels this fact appears the simplest 
 and most natural thing in the world; I know 
 that they affect to place their infidelity under 
 
 * See “Our Christian Heritage,” also “The Faith of Our 
 Fathers,” by Cardinal Gibbons. 
 
Preface. v 
 
 the direct and exclusive patronage of science 
 and philosophy; but I am convinced that science 
 and philosophy are in no way interested in the 
 hostile or indifferent attitude which they as¬ 
 sume toward the Christian faith. Christians 
 have always possessed, and still, thank God, 
 possess, as large a measure of science and phi¬ 
 losophy as infidels. Infidelity depends on other 
 causes. What these causes are I propose now 
 to make the object of my inquiry. I cannot 
 hope to bring to light all the real causes of in¬ 
 fidelity; there are some which necessarily es¬ 
 cape the eye of the observer, however attentive 
 he may be; there are mysteries in the depths of 
 the human soul which the eye of God alone can 
 penetrate. But it is easy for any one who has 
 had an opportunity of closely observing believ¬ 
 ers and unbelievers, and of studying their his¬ 
 tory, to recognize the principal and ordinary 
 causes of infidelity. 
 
 This work will be divided into two parts, one 
 historical, the other critical. In the first part, 
 after a few-words on the preaching of Jesus 
 Christ, and the opposite effects produced by it, 
 we shall mark, by a few examples, the principal 
 phases of the twofold history of the Christian 
 faith, and of unbelief in the bosom of Chris¬ 
 tianity; this history will afford us valuable les¬ 
 sons ; it will show us how men become, how they 
 
VI 
 
 Preface. 
 
 remain, and how they cease to he Christians. 
 We shall see, by the experience of eighteen cen¬ 
 turies of the human mind, whether the source 
 of infidelity can possibly be the development of 
 reason and the progress of intelligence. In the 
 second part, relying on the lessons of history and 
 on psychological and moral observation, we shall 
 seek to unfold the real causes of religious unbe¬ 
 lief. We shall begin by defining the nature of 
 faith and the nature of infidelity; we shall then 
 analyze the principal forms of contemporary in¬ 
 fidelity, and we shall seek to distinguish the 
 diverse and often complex conditions of the 
 soul, to which they attach themselves, or by 
 which they are produced. 
 
 We trust that God will make use of these 
 pages, humble though they be, to confirm some 
 souls in the happy possession of the Faith, and 
 to rescue others from the corroding bitterness of 
 doubt, or from the gloomy, icy void of unbelief, 
 leading them back to the bright and sweet re¬ 
 pose which Christian faith alone can give. 
 
NOTICE—SECOND EDITION. 
 
 HIS book has already produced consoling 
 41 fruits; God has used it as his instru- 
 v ment to bring hack many wandering 
 souls to Christian Faith and practice. 
 
 The Sovereign Pontiff had foretold this re¬ 
 sult in a letter addressed to the author a few 
 weeks after the publication of this work. We 
 give a translation of this letter. 
 
 LETTER OF THE SOVEREIGN 
 
 PONTIFF. 
 
 Illustrious and Reverend Sir : 
 
 To the more considerable works which you 
 have already published you have added one 
 which, though small in size, will, as its title 
 promises, prove of the greatest utility. For, as 
 in the art of healing the body its diseases are 
 treated with the greatest ease and security 
 when their true cause is known, so may the 
 maladies of the soul be best and most effectually 
 
 resisted and cured when their origin has been 
 
 • • 
 
 VII 
 
Vlll 
 
 Notice—Second Edition. 
 
 ascertained. As the plague of infidelity, which 
 is the principal evil of our day, proceeds either 
 from corruption of heart, or from the languor 
 of religious feeling, or from the madness of 
 pride, to discover such causes and to bring 
 them to light, by tearing from them the veil 
 under which they disguise their shameful de¬ 
 formity, will assuredly he a powerful aid to 
 the minds of men to reject these errors, and to 
 give them also a free access to the truth. 
 Therefore our most Holy Father especially ap¬ 
 proves its design, and has charged me to return 
 to you his thanks, and to assure you from him 
 that he foresees most abundant fruit from the 
 labor which you have undertaken, and, as a 
 pledge of that success, to convey to you his 
 Apostolic Benediction, which he gives you with 
 the tenderest affection. 
 
 Having had the pleasure of fulfilling this 
 agreeable task, I offer you also the expression 
 of my particular respect and esteem, and pray 
 God to bestow all his favors upon you. 
 
 Your most humble and devoted servant, 
 Franciscus Mercttrelll, 
 Secretary to His Holiness. 
 
FOREWORD. 
 
 M E who possess the light of Divine faith 
 should not censure too severely those 
 who are deprived of that sublime gift. We 
 should rather assist them by prayer and by try¬ 
 ing to lead them to a better way of thinking. 
 They are not the only ones to blame. The three 
 great enemies of man’s salvation, the world, the 
 flesh, and the devil, have much to do with un¬ 
 belief: “All that is in the world is the con¬ 
 cupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence 
 of the eyes, and the pride of life, which is not 
 of the Father, but is of the world”. (I. John 
 2:16). This evil of unbelief is deeply seated; 
 it is largely traceable to the corruption of hu¬ 
 man nature: “The earth was corrupted before 
 God, and was filled with iniquity”. (Gen. 6: 
 11). We are a fallen race. Mankind fell from \ 
 the favor of God by the disobedience of our first 
 parents in transgressing the commandment of 
 their Maker: (Gen. 3 :17). Since that day the 
 natural tendency of human nature is towards 
 evil: “The imagination and thought of man’s 
 heart are prone to evil from his youth”. (Gen. 
 
 IX 
 
X 
 
 Foreword. 
 
 8:21). We see this principle in the repug¬ 
 nance of children to obey their parents; in the 
 tendency of some citizens to rebel against law, 
 order and authority. Hence, on account of this 
 corrupt nature, we see the inclination of some 
 persons towards dishonesty, and of others 
 towards anger, revenge, impurity, etc. In any 
 indulgence of this kind corrupt nature im¬ 
 agines that it sees and enjoys a good. What¬ 
 ever stands in the way of the enjoyment of that 
 apparent good seems to corrupted nature to be 
 an evil. On this principle parents seem to be an 
 evil standing in the way of disobedient children; 
 the police force and sheriff, who are the friends 
 and protectors of good citizens, seem to be an 
 evil to the shoplifter, the lascivious street 
 walker, and the keepers of houses of ill fame. 
 On the same principle, God, in Whom the good 
 Christian sees a friend, a father, and a bene¬ 
 factor, seems to be an evil to the impure and 
 the wicked. How the wayward child, by his 
 bad reasoning, desires to get his parents out of 
 the way, or to be removed from their influence; 
 the disorderly citizen and the train robber, by 
 their unwarranted reasoning, would like to see 
 the police and the sheriff meet with defeat or 
 destruction, because these officials stand in the 
 way of their unruly desires. By the same 
 process of bad reasoning the impure and the 
 
Foreword . 
 
 xi 
 
 wicked desire to strike a deadly blow at God 
 Himself, and deny His rights and even His 
 very existence, because God and His rights and 
 His commandments stand in the way of their 
 bad lives. This is the main principle under¬ 
 lying much of the unbelief and infidelity of the 
 present day: “Men loved darkness rather than 
 the light, for their works were evil. Tor every 
 one that doth evil hateth the light, and cometh 
 not to the light, that his works may not be re¬ 
 proved’’. (John. 3:19). In the eight Beatitudes 
 our Lord tells us: “Blessed are the clean of heart, 
 for they shall see God”. (Matt. 5:8). The un¬ 
 clean of heart do not perceive the ways of God, 
 His Providence, His goodness, His conditions 
 of salvation; for, as St. Paul reminds us, “The 
 sensual man perceiveth not these things that are 
 of the Spirit of God; for it is foolishness to 
 him, and he cannot understand, because it is 
 spiritually examined”. (I. Cor. 2:14). 
 
 These principles will be developed in the 
 following pages. 
 
 James Cardinal Gibbons. 
 
TABLE OF CONTEXTS 
 
 PART I. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 Chap. I.—The preaching of Jesus Christ—Some be¬ 
 lieve our Lord’s words; others reject 
 them—Whence arises this difference of 
 attitude and conduct. 15 
 
 Chap. II.—The manner in which the Christian Faith 
 took possession of the world—An exam¬ 
 ple of the conversion of learned men and 
 philosophers—St. Justin. 25 
 
 Chap. III.—Decisive triumph of Christianity in the 
 Roman world—End of the persecutions— 
 Constellation of great men in the bosom 
 of the Church of the fourth century.... 45 
 
 Chap. IV.—St. Augustine—His unbelief and his return 
 
 to the Faith. 50 
 
 g i.—How Augustine loses the Faith—He rapidly 
 descends all the steps of unbelief—He 
 falls into materialism and scepticism. ... 51 
 
 g II.—Augustine’s return to the Faith—He passes 
 through an intellectual and moral crisis 
 before his conversion. 61 
 
 Chap. V.—The Christian Faith of the Middle Ages— 
 
 It is paramount in society and governs 
 men of,high intellect as well as the com¬ 
 mon people—Was this a blind Faith?... 75 
 
 Chap. VI.—Protestantism and reason. 91 
 
 g I.—Primitive Protestantism—Age of Leo X.— 
 
 The real doctrines of Luther and his ac¬ 
 complices—Denial of reason and liberty 
 —War declared against science—Imme¬ 
 diate effects of these doctrines. 95 
 
 $ II.—The negative principle of Protestantism, or 
 the rejection of authority in matters 
 of religion—Fanaticism and rationalism 
 the twofold fruit of this principle. 110 
 
 • • • 
 
 Xlll 
 
Contents 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 Chap. VII.—Modern unbelief—Infidelity prevails first in 
 England, afterward in France and Ger¬ 
 many—Poverty of the infidel philosophy 
 of the eighteenth century—Theological 
 infidelity in Germany. 116 
 
 Chap. VIII.—The principal forms of contemporary unbe¬ 
 lief—Materialism—Pantheism—Sophistry 
 and Scepticism—Spiritual Rationalism.. 129 
 
 PART II. 
 
 Chap. I. —What Faith is.. 145 
 
 Chap. II.—Unbelief: In what it consists. 165 
 
 Chap. TII. —It is impossible to attribute the unbelief of 
 the present day to the progress of rea¬ 
 son and science—Numerous conversions 
 among learned men—Augustin Thierry 
 and Maine de Biran. 171 
 
 Chap. IV.—Real causes of unbelief—First cause ; Ig¬ 
 norance of religion. 190 
 
 Chap. V.—Causes of religious ignorance—It is often 
 voluntary, culpable ignorance—Levity 
 and moral indifference of most infidels.. 203 
 
 Chap. VI.—Materialism—On what it rests—The soul 
 materialized—How the soul arrives at 
 this state, and what moral treatment 
 must be followed to raise it from this 
 degradation . 212 
 
 Chap. VII.—Scepticism—In what it consists—Different 
 
 causes of scepticism. 225 
 
 Chap. VIII.—Corruption of the understanding—Sophistry 
 
 and its victim's. 241 
 
 Chap. IX.—Unbelievers who admit the fundamental 
 principles of natural religion—Causes of 
 their unbelief. 247 
 
 Chap. X.—Recapitulation of the causes of unbelief— 
 
 How a young man may become an infidel 259 
 
 Chap. XI.—Paganism under a new name—A fatal error 
 —In the hour of affliction—Paganism 
 under another name. 269 
 
The 
 
 Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 CHAPTEK L 
 
 The 'preaching of Jesus Christ—Some believe 
 our Lord's words, others reject them — 
 Whence arises this difference of attitude and 
 conduct. 
 
 HE parable of Lazarus and tbe rich man, 
 Lw recorded by St. Luke, contains a pas¬ 
 sage which, at the first glance, claims 
 especial attention. A rich voluptuary, without 
 compassion for the sufferings of the poor, dies, 
 and is condemned to the torments of hell; 
 whilst Lazarus, who had lived in extreme pov¬ 
 erty and affliction, is carried by Angels to the 
 bosom of Abraham, the father of the faithful. 
 The rich man, seeing himself hopelessly lost, 
 implores Abraham to send Lazarus upon earth, 
 
 15 
 
16 Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 
 
 to enlighten and undeceive his brethren, who, 
 like himself, were living in opulence and pre¬ 
 paring for themselves a similar eternity of woe. 
 Abraham thus answers this unhappy victim of 
 wealth: “Your brethren have Moses and the 
 Prophets; let them hear them.” “Yo, father 
 Abraham,” replies this miserable reprobate; 
 “but if one went to them from the dead, they 
 will do penance.” Abraham said unto him, “If 
 they hear not Moses and the Prophets, neither 
 will they believe if one rise again from the 
 dead.”* The history of the preaching of the 
 Gospel, the whole history of Christianity, bears 
 unanswerable testimony to the profound truth 
 of the judgment which our Lord puts into the 
 mouth of Abraham. People .are apt to imagine 
 that a striking miracle, performed under such 
 circumstances as ought to banish doubt from 
 any reasonable mind, must overcome opposition 
 and silence contradiction. Put this is a grave 
 error which experience condemns. The ma¬ 
 jority of men who, knowing Jesus Christ 
 and his Church, believe not, would not believe 
 more readily though one went to them from the 
 dead. This assertion admits of abundant proof. 
 
 At the commencement of our Lord’s preach¬ 
 ing St. John the Baptist sent two of his dis¬ 
 ciples to ask if he were the Messiah whom the 
 
 * SI. Luke 16 : 19-31. 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 17 
 
 world was looking for, and Jesus answered 
 them: “Go and relate to John what you have 
 heard and seen: the blind see, the lame walk, 
 the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead 
 rise again, the poor have the Gospel preached 
 > to them. And blessed is he that shall not he 
 * scandalized in me.”* Such were the wonders 
 daily performed by Jesus Christ; each of his 
 steps was, so to speak, marked by a miracle; he 
 exercised absolute sovereignty over all nature; 
 nothing resisted his voice; he called forth the 
 dead from the grave with the same ease with 
 which he gave sight to the blind or calmed the 
 angry waves. His doctrine, his life, his moral 
 character, were equal to his power. Hever man 
 spake as he did. His lessons infinitely sur¬ 
 passed those of all the wise men who had pre¬ 
 ceded him; and men asked in amazement 
 whence came this sublime wisdom to a man 
 who had not followed the teaching of any mas¬ 
 ter. AVhat life was ever to be compared to his 
 in dignity, in moral grandeur, in modesty, good¬ 
 ness, unselfishness, in devotion to duty! He 
 presented the ideal of moral perfection to the 
 eyes of all men. 
 
 Such is Jesus Christ as the Gospel narrative 
 shows him to us, such as he revealed himself to 
 the Jews when he presented himself to them as 
 
 * St. Matthew 11: 4-7. 
 
 2 
 
18 
 
 Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 
 
 the expected Messiah, as the only Son of God, 
 as the Word made flesh for the salvation of men. 
 
 And how was he received ? What effect did 
 this threefold and incomparable miracle of the 
 power, the doctrine, and the life of Jesus pro¬ 
 duce upon the Jews ? We have just heard these 
 astounding words uttered by his own lips to the 
 disciples of John: “Blessed is he that shall not 
 be scandalized in me.” And in fact, he was and 
 still remains a subject of scandal to the greater 
 part of mankind. His contemporaries who saw 
 and heard him were divided into two or three 
 different categories with regard to him: some 
 believed in him, others were indifferent and ap; 
 peared to take no heed either of his w T orks or 
 his person; many pursued him with implacable 
 hatred. What happened after the raising of 
 Lazarus? That was a glorious miracle, mani¬ 
 festly attesting divine power. It was a miracle 
 performed before the eyes of a crowd of persons 
 who had flocked to the tomb of Lazarus. They 
 knew that he had been dead four days; they sup¬ 
 posed that his body already showed symptoms 
 of decay;* and yet, at the command of Jesus, 
 “Lazarus, come forth,”! he that had been dead 
 
 * “Lord, by this time he stinketh, for he is now of four 
 days.”—John 11: 39. 
 
 t When he had said these things. He cried with a loud 
 voice: Lazarus, come forth. And presently he that had 
 
 been dead came forth, bound feet and hands with winding 
 bands, and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus 
 said to them: Loose him and let him go.”— Ibid. 43-44. 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 19 
 
 rase immediately from the grave and appeared 
 full of life. Row listen to the continuation of 
 the Gospel narrative: “Many, therefore, of the 
 Jews who were come to Mary and Martha, and 
 had seen the things that Jesus did, believed in 
 him. But some of them went to the Pharisees, 
 and told them the things that Jesus had done. 
 The chief priests, therefore, and the Pharisees 
 gathered a council, and said: What do we, for 
 this man doest many miracles ? If w T e let him 
 alone so, all will believe in him, and the Romans 
 will come and take away our place and nation.”* 
 The chief of the council, the high priest 
 Caiphas, gave advice that Jesus should he sac¬ 
 rificed for the safety of the people. This ad¬ 
 vice was adopted by his colleagues, and from 
 that moment the elders of the nation sought to 
 put Him to death who had restored Lazarus to 
 life. Ror was that sufficient. Lazarus had be¬ 
 come the object of universal curiosity, and af¬ 
 forded embarrassing proof of the Almighty 
 Power of Jesus. The chief priests, therefore, 
 determined to put Lazarus also to death.t 
 Thus did men who were exclusivelv devoted 
 to material interests receive such a miracle as 
 the raising the dead to life* And the same story 
 
 * John. 11: 45-49. 
 
 t “But the chief priests thought to kill Lazarus also; be¬ 
 cause many of the Jews by reason of him went away, and 
 believed in Jesus.”—John 12: 10, 11. 
 
20 Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 
 
 will be repeated again and again in the course 
 of the preaching of Christianity. To induce 
 men to believe it is not enough for the light to 
 shine before their eyes; before all things they 
 must have a sincere and constant intention to 
 keep their eyes open and to turn them in the 
 direction of the light. The Gospel affords sev¬ 
 eral instances of this moral phenomenon, which, 
 moreover, all of us may observe in different de¬ 
 grees, both in ourselves, and in those around us. 
 The understanding does not act alone; it is in 
 great measure under the dominion of the will, 
 which directs it and fixes its attention on those 
 objects which are pleasing to itself. The truth 
 of this main point of psychology, especially of 
 moral and religious psychology, will become 
 more evident as we proceed. 
 
 Among the eye-witnesses of the raising of 
 Lazarus, some beheld in this miracle a proof 
 of the divinity of Jesus Christ; but what of the 
 rest ? Many of these men, indifferent to all 
 morality and influenced only by their levity or 
 perhaps their cupidity, hastened to report the 
 fact to the Pharisees, whom they knew to be the 
 enemies of our Lord. It was impossible to deny 
 the miracle, but they shut their eyes to the re¬ 
 ligious consequences which flowed from it; they 
 sought to turn it to their own profit or to make 
 use of it as an instrument of their vengeance. 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 21 
 
 The sacred historian relates, in another part 
 of the Gospel, that the Pharisees, having seen 
 Jesus cure a man who had a withered hand, im¬ 
 mediately resolved on his destruction.* Every¬ 
 thing which our Lord did irritated them; the 
 more miracles lie performed, the more proofs 
 of His divinity He gave, the more was their 
 hatred kindled against Him, the more did their 
 fury rage, the more eagerly did they seek to 
 make away with Him. 
 
 We meet with another class of persons in the 
 Gospel; men w T ho did not hate Jesus Christ like 
 the Pharisees, but who still did not believe in 
 Him; men who held aloof, some from fear of 
 compromising themselves, others from levity of 
 mind and indifference on matters of religion. 
 Pilate affords us a memorable example of this 
 culpable levity and this fatal indifference with 
 regard to all that is of supreme importance to 
 man. We are all familiar with the examination 
 which our Lord underwent at the hands of this 
 wretched judge, whose name has become a by¬ 
 word for prevaricating cowardice, before he was 
 delivered to the Jews, who clamored for his 
 death. The Divine Victim, desirous to raise 
 the soul of his judge above the paltry occupa¬ 
 tions and interests of a day, said to him, in the 
 course of this examination, “I came into the 
 
 * Matt. 12 : 13, 14. 
 
22 Causes arid Cure of Unbelief . 
 
 world that I should give testimony to the truth; 
 every one that is of the truth heareth my 
 voice.” And Pilate said to Him: “What is 
 truth ?” This question of surpassing interest 
 was directly suggested by our Lord’s language, 
 and was about to he answered by that infallible 
 Teacher, hut Pilate did not wait for the 
 answer. Scarcely had he put the question be¬ 
 fore he left the judgment-hall to seek the ac¬ 
 cusers of Jesus, and thought no more of inquir¬ 
 ing for the truth.* Here is the type of exces¬ 
 sive levity. What is truth? Men know not, 
 and they do not care to know. Por Pilate, the 
 truth was his rank as governor; all that he 
 feared was to compromise his position. He saw 
 only material interests in life; riches and glory 
 absorbed all his thoughts; the moral world was 
 closed to him. How should such men as he was 
 believe in the preaching of Jesus Christ ? 
 
 Our Saviour has Himself described several of 
 the moral causes which hindered many of His 
 contemporaries from believing in Him. Pride, 
 injustice, corruption of manners, levity of mind, 
 these, according to the testimony of the Son of 
 God, are the chief moral obstacles which close 
 the soul against the entrance of his word. 
 “How can you believe,” said lie to the proud 
 Pharisees, “who receive glory one from another, 
 
 * “Pilate said to him: What is truth? And when he had 
 said this he went out again to the Jews.”—John 18 : 38. 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief, 23 
 
 and the glory which is from God alone you do 
 not seek ?”* And elsewhere: “Light is come 
 into the world, and men loved darkness rather 
 than light, for their deeds were evil. For every 
 one that doth evil hateth the light, and cometli 
 not to the light, that his works may not be re¬ 
 proved.” f Are not these the chief moral 
 causes of religious infidelity in every age ? 
 Jesus Christ pointed out to the Jews, who re¬ 
 fused to receive His doctrine, that the root of 
 unbelief is in the will rather than in the un¬ 
 derstanding: “You will not come to me,” said 
 lie to them. + He was moved by the disdainful 
 and hostile attitude of the chief priests in the 
 presence of the wonderful miracles which He 
 daily wrought, to cry out to God, Father: “I 
 confess to thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and 
 earth, because thou hast hid these things from 
 the wise and prudent, and hath revealed them 
 to little ones.” 11 The Word by whom the 
 world was made voluntarilv annihilated Him- 
 
 t J 
 
 self, as St. Paul says, in order to restore man 
 ruined through pride: humility is the condi¬ 
 tion of belief in this God and Saviour. 
 
 Again, Our Lord, when explaining the par¬ 
 able of the sower, taught that the cares and 
 riches and pleasures of this life are thorns 
 which too often choke the seed of faith.§ 
 
 * John 5 : 44. f John 3 : 19, 20. t John 5 : 40. 
 
 || Matt. 11: 25. § Luke 8 : 14. 
 
24 Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 
 
 Such are the lessons which the teaching of 
 Jesus Christ presents to us on the twofold ques¬ 
 tion of faith and unbelief. These lessons, which 
 call for the consideration of every reflecting 
 mind, are confirmed by the whole subsequent 
 history of Christianity. 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 
 
 25 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The manner in which the Christian Faith took 
 possession of the world—An example of the 
 conversion of learned men and philosophers 
 — St. Justin. 
 
 f T is not intended to give even a brief out¬ 
 line of the history of the triumph of 
 Christian teaching. I will only give one 
 example to show the manner in which the new 
 faith took possession of the loftiest intellects of 
 the pagan world. 
 
 We know how the mass of pagan society re¬ 
 ceived the preachers of the Gospel. That so¬ 
 ciety had become a very sink of corruption, and 
 it defended itself with a kind of frenzy against 
 the moral invasion which attacked all that it 
 loved, adored, and idolized. For three centuries 
 the blood of the disciples of Jesus Christ flowed 
 almost without intermission. We can with 
 difficulty understand the cruelty manifested 
 toward them by the masters of the Roman 
 world. 
 
 The era of public persecutions began with 
 Kero. Tacitus, who gives the history of the 
 
26 Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 
 
 first persecution, reveals in liis narrative the 
 horror with which the new religion was re¬ 
 garded by his fellow-countrymen. 
 
 A considerable part of Rome had been de¬ 
 stroyed by fire, and public rumor attributed the 
 conflagration to the orders of Eero. “To put 
 a stop to these reports,” says Tacitus, “the Em¬ 
 peror sought out criminals—miserable wretches 
 who were held in abhorrence for their crimes, 
 commonly called Christians—and exposed them 
 to the most cruel torments. Christ, from whom 
 they took their name, had suffered under the 
 Procurator, Pontius Pilate,* in the reign of 
 Tiberius, and his death had repressed for the 
 time this execrable superstition. But the tor¬ 
 rent soon broke forth anew, not only in Judea, 
 where it arose, but in Rome itself, the centre 
 where all disasters and crimes meet at last and 
 assume increased dimensions. Those who 
 openly avowed themselves Christians were first 
 seized, and afterwards, on their deposition, 
 vast multitudes were convicted not so much of 
 the crime of setting fire to Rome as of hatred of 
 the whole human race. Derision was added 
 to their torments; some were enveloped in the 
 skins of wild beasts and thrown to dogs to be 
 devoured; some were crucified ;t the bodies of 
 
 * “Christ, the Founder of Christianity, was put to death by 
 Pontius Pilate, in the reign of Tiberius.”— Tacitus. 
 
 t St. Peter, the first Pope, was crucified. 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 27 
 
 others were covered with pitch and they were 
 made to serve as torches to give light at night. 
 ISTero gave up his own gardens for the spectacle, 
 and at the same time opened the games of the 
 circus where the emperor mingled with the peo¬ 
 ple dressed as a charioteer, or taking part in the 
 chariot races.’ 7 * 
 
 Thus did the master of the world understand 
 the dignity of a sovereign; thus far did a so¬ 
 ciety without compassion carry its contempt for 
 human life and its hatred of Christianity. 
 
 Tacitus condemns Christians on public re¬ 
 port; he knew nothing of them. One word of 
 his, however, describes admirably the radical 
 opposition between paganism and Christianity: 
 This immense multitude, he says, was con¬ 
 victed, not so much of having set lire to Rome, 
 as of hatred of the human race. Tacitus shows 
 clearly enough that he was convinced of the in¬ 
 nocence of the Christians of the conflagration of 
 Rome; but that they were convicted of hatred 
 of the human race is profoundly true, though in 
 a very different sense from that intended by the 
 Roman historian. The disciples of a God made 
 man through love of men could not hate men; 
 but they did hate with a burning hatred all that 
 was idolized by the foolish and corrupt human 
 race of whom Tacitus speaks, and they were 
 
 • Annal. lib. xv. n. xliv. 
 
28 Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 
 
 therefore necessarily looked upon as its mortal 
 and irreconcilable enemies. The world owes its 
 renovation and refreshment to this generous 
 hatred of the religious and social ideas, the 
 manners and customs, of a society which was 
 rotten to the core. 
 
 The new Religion, born of the sacrifice of 
 the Cross and founded by the Blood of Jesus 
 Christ, could not be arrested in its course by 
 the fury of pagan rulers. The Blood of Mar¬ 
 tyrs became the seed of Christianity. Within 
 two centuries of the death of Jesus Christ, Ter- 
 tullian, who had himself abjured the supersti¬ 
 tions of heathenism and embraced the Christian 
 Faith,* feared not to write thus to the Roman 
 proconsuls: “We are but of yesterday, and 
 we already fill all that belonged to you; towns, 
 islands, fortresses, even camps, the troops, 
 whether tribunes or decurions, the palace, the 
 senate, the forum: we leave you nothing but 
 your temples.”! 
 
 Christianity, in the first years of the preach¬ 
 ing of the Gospel, was recruited principally 
 from the ranks of the people, though even in the 
 time of the Apostles a certain number of rich 
 and learned men were received into its bosom. 
 It had pleased the Divine Restorer of humanity 
 to call, in the first instance, the little ones and 
 
 * Apol. xviii. 
 
 t Apol. xxxvii. 9. 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 29 
 
 the poor, the despised of a carnal world which 
 adored only fortune and power. But by de¬ 
 grees, illustrious sages, whom the pride of 
 knowledge had failed to intoxicate, came to 
 swell the humble beginnings of Christian so¬ 
 ciety. 
 
 Souls of a higher order, who w T ere in some 
 degree inflamed with the love of what was true 
 aiid excellent, found themselves in a strange as 
 well as painful position amid the superstitions 
 of idolatry. All pagan religions had two seri¬ 
 ous defects; they were neither reasonable nor 
 moral. They were not religions in the higher 
 acceptation of the word. And yet the human 
 soul, if not wholly debased by vice, is naturally 
 religious, and the mind turns instinctively to 
 regions above the world of sense. The masses, 
 who are not in the habit of reasoning, and in 
 whom feeling and imagination preponderate, 
 might perchance find sufficient aliment in the 
 external practices and numerous festivals con¬ 
 secrated by mythology. Besides which they 
 lived in a state of moral ignorance bordering on 
 stupidity. But how could men of cultivated 
 minds, in whom the moral sense was not totallv 
 extinct, accept the tissue of absurd and often 
 immoral fables on which the religious worship 
 of Greece and Borne rested ? I have read most 
 of the documents which antiquity has be- 
 
30 Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 
 
 queathed to us touching Grecian philosophy, 
 and I do not know of two philosophers who se¬ 
 riously believed the popular religion. It was 
 not possible. They rarely had the courage to 
 condemn it, and they despised the lower orders 
 too much to seek to free their minds from the 
 monstrous errors by which they were enslaved, 
 especially as such a course would have been 
 attended with danger; but, as regards them¬ 
 selves, they did not believe the greater part (I 
 dare not say all) of these extravagant fictions. 
 They were well aware that they must not seek 
 for truth in the popular creed: they sought it in 
 ancient traditions, in the teaching of men who 
 had been most renowned for wisdom, in their 
 own meditations; but if they were able to raise 
 themselves above the grosser errors of the multi¬ 
 tude, they could never attain to the pure and 
 serene profession of truth, with regard to God, 
 with regard to man, with regard to the relations 
 between God and man; and many of them even 
 fell into errors worse than the popular super¬ 
 stitions. How sad was the moral condition of 
 Xenophon, of Pythagoras, Philolaus, Anaxa¬ 
 goras, of Socrates, Plato, Aristides, of Zeno of 
 Cittium, of all those noble and obstinate seekers 
 after truth who have left so honorable a trace 
 in the history of philosophy! 
 
 Christianity is the only religion which has 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 31 
 
 ever united in a common faith, equally clear, 
 complete, and steadfast, the common people and 
 philosophers, the ignorant and the learned. It 
 affords a singular phenomenon in the annals of 
 humanity. 
 
 As early as the second century of the Chris¬ 
 tian era a great number of eminent and culti¬ 
 vated minds had embraced the Faith of Jesus 
 Christ. One of them, the philosopher Justin, 
 has left us an account of his conversion. The 
 narrative is singularly instructive. I will re¬ 
 late the principal facts, and we shall learn, by 
 one memorable example, the way by which 
 philosophers arrived at the True Faith. 
 
 Justin made a profession of philosophy, and 
 continued to wear the philosopher’s mantle even 
 after his conversion to Christianity. He was 
 born in Samaria either at the end of the first or 
 beginning of the second century. He studied 
 Creek literature with ardor, and his writings 
 attest that he had attained a considerable de¬ 
 gree of mental cultivation. The gross doctrines 
 of paganism could not satisfy a serious and ele¬ 
 vated mind such as his. The thirst after truth 
 devoured his soul. He was prepared to seek it 
 at all risks, and to follow it when found. Ho 
 tried, in the first instance, the schools of phi¬ 
 losophy in highest repute; he applied by turns 
 to stoicism, to peripateticism, to pythagorism, 
 
32 Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 
 
 to platonism: “Philosophy,” said this noble 
 mind, “is truly a great treasure, of great price 
 in the eyes of God to whom it leads, and in 
 whose sight it alone can make us acceptable.”* 
 Justin flattered himself that he should be able 
 to obtain from the most famous masters of phi¬ 
 losophy clear answers to those religious ques¬ 
 tions which every soul not absolutely debased 
 necessarily asks itself. He went from error to 
 error. Por one moment, however, he thought 
 he had met with the object of his search. The 
 philosophy of Plato, the purest and most ele¬ 
 vated of the pagan systems of philosophy, 
 seemed at first sight destined to give full satis¬ 
 faction to the religious cravings of, his mind; 
 he was transported with joy at meeting with 
 this beautiful system which promised to unveil 
 before his eyes the realities of the world of in¬ 
 telligence. His pilgrimages to the schools of 
 Pythagoras, Aristotle and Zeno had been futile. 
 “I resolved,” he says, “to confer with the fol¬ 
 lowers of Plato who are held in high repute. 
 One of their principal teachers had just arrived 
 in our city. I put myself in communication 
 with him, and after long conversations I found 
 myself daily making fresh progress. The 
 knowledge of the world of intelligence trans- 
 
 * Dialogue with Trypho, n. 2. 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 33 
 
 ported me with joy: the theory of ideas gave 
 wings to my understanding.* I fancied I had 
 become learned in a short time, and flattered 
 myself that I should soon arrive at the contem¬ 
 plation of God, which is the aim and end of 
 Plato’s philosophy.”!* 
 
 But there are grave omissions and important 
 errors in Plato’s teaching. Justin was some 
 time before he perceived them. As yet he was 
 ignorant of the new doctrine whose light was 
 beginning to dissipate the darkness in which the 
 highest intellects vainly struggled. He knew 
 that Christians existed, but he probably shared 
 the disdainful and hostile sentiments of the in¬ 
 tellectual men of his time toward them. Still 
 he did not believe in the monstrous and infa^ 
 mous crimes which the world at large imputed 
 to them, and to which Tacitus alludes in the pas¬ 
 sage quoted above. “I also,” he says, “when I 
 was attached to Platonism, had heard of the 
 crimes imputed to Christians; but when I saw 
 them face death, and all that men are wont most 
 , to dread, without fear, I could not conceive it 
 possible that they passed their lives in disorder 
 and voluptuousness. How was it possible to 
 suppose that a man who was a lover of pleas¬ 
 ure and intemperance, a slave to the flesh and 
 
 • A familiar expression of Plato 
 t Dialogue with Trypho, n. 2. 
 
34 Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 
 
 worldly delights, should court death, which 
 would deprive him of these goods ? Far from 
 running to meet certain condemnation, would 
 he not, on the contrary, conceal himself from 
 the vigilance of the magistrates in order to en¬ 
 joy the pleasures of life as long as possible ?”* 
 
 Nothing could he simpler than this reasoning. 
 The generous philosopher was struck by the con¬ 
 stancy of the Martyrs; and if he did not yet 
 ask himself whence came this heroism, his rea¬ 
 son was at any rate free from the absurd preju¬ 
 dices which blinded the eyes of the multitude. 
 Prejudice, next to the passions, is one of the 
 greatest obstacles which the Christian Paith has 
 encountered in every age. Let men once cast 
 off prejudice and sincerely pursue the search 
 after truth, and truth will not hide itself from 
 their eyes. It was not long before Justin be¬ 
 came a Christian. He relates himself, in the 
 opening of his dialogue with the Jew Trypho, 
 how he became acquainted with and embraced 
 Christianity. He quickly passed from the 
 school of Plato to the school of Jesus Christ. 
 
 It happened that one day, in order to he able 
 to apply himself with greater freedom to the 
 contemplation of the world of intellect to which 
 the Platonic philosophy had introduced him, he 
 repaired to a solitary place near the seashore. 
 
 • II. Apol. n. 12 . 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 35 
 
 Thither he was followed by an old man of ven¬ 
 erable aspect, vdiose countenance bore the im¬ 
 pression both of gravity and sweetness. Jus¬ 
 tin stopped and could not forbear expressing 
 his astonishment at meeting any one in that 
 solitude.* “I did not expect/ 7 said he to the 
 old man, “to meet any one here. 77 “I am in 
 trouble, 77 replied the unknown, “about some of 
 my friends who are traveling, and I came here 
 to see if by chance they might be visible in some 
 point of the horizon. But what brings you to 
 this solitude ? 77 “As for me, I take a delight in 
 these rambles, because, free from all distraction, 
 I can here commune with myself at my ease; 
 for solitude is eminently favorable to philoso¬ 
 phy. 77 “Ah! you are one of those who love 
 words without troubling yourself about actions 
 or truth, and who neglect what is practical for 
 the sake of vain speculations. 77 Justin thus at¬ 
 tacked began to speak in praise of philosophy, 
 and to extol it as the necessary source of all 
 moral dignity. “Does philosophy necessarily 
 confer happiness? 77 asked the old man. “Cer¬ 
 tainly; and philosophy alone can do so. 77 “If 
 nothing forbids it, explain to me what phi¬ 
 losophy is, and what is that happiness of which 
 it is the source. 77 “Philosophy, 77 replied Justin, 
 
 * Justin must have been at Ephesus or Alexandria. He 
 lived for some time in these two cities. He afterward settled 
 at Rome, where he founded a school. 
 
36 Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 
 
 “is the science of being, and the knowledge of 
 truth; happiness is the reward of this science 
 and of this wisdom.” This is, in fact, the 
 Platonic idea of philosophy, and it is a noble 
 and generous idea; but it cannot be realized by 
 the unassisted power of human reason. 
 
 The confident disciple of Plato then went on 
 to explain briefly to his companion what was 
 the doctrine of his master with regard to God 
 and the soul of man. The old man, versed in 
 the teaching of Jesus Christ, pointed out to the 
 philosopher the weak points, the omissions, the 
 manifest errors of this doctrine, remarkable 
 though it be in many respects; and he particu¬ 
 larly insisted on the absurdity of the doctrine 
 of the metempsychosis, which Jean Peynaud, 
 Pierre Leroux, Laurent, and certain savants 
 have endeavored to resuscitate in our days in 
 the name of progress. Justin knew not how to 
 answer; all his philosophical illusions forsook 
 him. His mind was in confusion, and not 
 knowing how to calm it, he cried out in accents 
 of despair, “To whom shall I go; where is truth 
 to be found if not in the teaching of these men 
 who are the oracles of philosophy V y 
 
 Justin’s companion, having clearly pointed 
 out the insufficiency of philosophy, proceeded to 
 reassure him, and introduced him to a far 
 higher school than that of Plato: “At a dis- 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 37 
 
 tant period of our history, long before the time 
 of those who pass for philosophers, there lived 
 men who were blessed, just, beloved of God; 
 they were inspired by the Holy Spirit, and fore¬ 
 told future events, which have been fulfilled in 
 our days: they are called prophets. These men 
 alone had knowledge of the truth, and they an¬ 
 nounced it to men without weakness or fear; 
 they were strangers to any thought of vain glory, 
 and only taught what the Holy Spirit had given 
 them to see and hear. Their writings still ex¬ 
 ist ; whoever reads them with faith will derive 
 from them great profit, and will he enabled to 
 understand the beginning and end of things, 
 and all that a philosopher ought to know. They 
 do not proceed by way of demonstration; they 
 are sincere witnesses of the truth and above all 
 demonstration: the accomplishment of what 
 they announce compels us to believe their words. 
 Besides, the miracles they performed placed 
 their testimony above suspicion. They glorified 
 God the Father, Creator of the universe, and 
 announced to men his Son Jesus Christ, sent by 
 him. As for you, before all things, pray that 
 the gates of light may be opened before you; 
 for no one can see and understand these things 
 unless God and his Christ give him understand- 
 
 * Dialogue urtth Trypho, n. 7. 
 
38 Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 
 
 Prayer! Philosophy knew nothing of this 
 mode of arriving at the knowledge of the truth. 
 The gates of faith—faith which is the true 
 moral and religious light—open of themselves 
 to prayer; for God is pleased to communicate 
 himself to the humble, and prayer, being the 
 acknowledgment of our insufficiency and pov¬ 
 erty, is the expression of humility. Justin 
 soon experienced this. 
 
 He continues thus: “When the old man had 
 said these things and many more which I can¬ 
 not relate here, he left me, recommending me to 
 meditate on what I had heard. Since then I 
 have not seen him. But my soul, inflamed with 
 holy desire, longed ardently to become ac¬ 
 quainted with the Prophets and those men who 
 are the friends of Christ. Passing over in my 
 mind the conversation that had taken place, I 
 found that this was the only certain and useful 
 philosophy. Thus and for this reason I am a 
 philosopher.” Would that all might follow the 
 same road, so as not to wander from the doctrine 
 of the Saviour; for this doctrine possesses a 
 majesty calculated to strike those who have de¬ 
 viated from the right path, and those who medi¬ 
 tate on it will find in it rest full of sweetness.* 
 Pest in a luminous and immovable certainty; 
 this was the end which the restless, ardent soul 
 
 * Dialogue xoith Trypho, n. 8. 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 39 
 
 of the philosopher pursued. The careful read¬ 
 ing of the Holy Scriptures, and meditation on 
 the doctrine of Jesus Christ, soon brought him 
 to this happy end. Scarcely had he entered this 
 divine school than he comprehended that there 
 were safer and more perfect masters than Pyth¬ 
 agoras and Plato. A new world was unveiled 
 before his eyes. He saw that from the begin¬ 
 ning God had spoken to men by a positive reve¬ 
 lation; that he had afterward created a nation 
 expressly to preserve, develop, and preach Re¬ 
 vealed Truth, and to announce and prepare the 
 world for universal redemption; that in the ful¬ 
 ness of time he had sent his own Son, the Lord 
 Jesus, to perfect man’s education and to accom¬ 
 plish the great work of his regeneration. 
 What new and magnificent prospects for a mind 
 thirsting after knowledge, and how insignifi¬ 
 cant must the schools of Greece have appeared 
 to him beside this grand school, visibly held and 
 governed, not by a man of genius, but by the 
 Word of God* in Person! 
 
 We, who were born and have grown up in the 
 full light of Christianity, can with difficulty 
 picture to ourselves the effect which this sudden 
 transition, from the schools of Grecian philoso¬ 
 phers to the school of the Word made flesh, pro¬ 
 duced on pagans of pure and elevated character. 
 It was literally passing from the darkness of 
 
40 
 
 Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 
 
 night to the light of day. What deep, enthusi¬ 
 astic joy animates the meetings of these illustri¬ 
 ous converts! Charity kindled in their souls the 
 fire of proselytism, and they ardently desired to 
 bring all the unhappy victims of error to partici¬ 
 pate in the ineffable delight which they found 
 in the Christian Faith. What deep-seated hap¬ 
 piness, what ardent proselytism, shine forth to¬ 
 gether in that eloquent passage with which Jus¬ 
 tin, now become the apologist of the Christian 
 religion, closes his discourse to the Greeks: 
 “Come, O Greeks! and participate in a wisdom 
 that is incomparable! Instructed by a Divine 
 Word, you will become acquainted with a King 
 who is not subject to corruption; with heroes 
 who have not distinguished themselves from the 
 rest of their fellows by their crimes. The Di¬ 
 vine Word who is our head does not desire in 
 us strength of body, nor beauty of form, nor 
 nobility of birth; but a pure mind established in 
 holiness, virtuous actions by which the world 
 may discern what King we serve. It is by the 
 Word that a secret virtue penetrates the soul. 
 A celestial herald! announcing peace to the soul 
 convulsed by war! Salutary messenger! extin¬ 
 guishing the fire of the passions! . . . Draw 
 near then, O Greeks! suffer yourselves to be in¬ 
 structed. Become such as I am, for I also have 
 been as you now are. The Divine virtue of the 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 41 
 
 doctrine and power of the Word triumphed over 
 me. Like the skilful enchanter who draws 
 from his lurking-place the serpent he would put 
 to flight, the Word banishes sensual pleasures 
 from the depths of the soul; first covetousness, 
 from which spring the evils most to be feared, 
 enmities, dissensions, envy, jealousy, anger, and 
 all that resembles them. Let covetousness once 
 be drawn from the breast, and the soul recovers 
 peace and security. All things necessarily re¬ 
 turn to their place of origin and point of de¬ 
 parture; therefore, when the soul is delivered 
 from the vices which make war against it, it 
 returns of its own accord to its Creator.”* 
 
 The teaching of the Word made flesh worked 
 at once a moral and intellectual revolution in the 
 soul. It was, according to St. Paul’s words, the 
 renovation of the whole man, nova creatura. 
 
 The manner in which the philosopher Justin 
 
 arrived at the Christian Faith must arrest the 
 
 / 
 
 attention of the observer. From the moment 
 that the tr.ue idea of God, as the Creator of the 
 world and the beginning and last end of man, 
 took possession of his mind, he was won over 
 to Christianity. We gather this from the nar¬ 
 rative of his conversion, and from the general 
 bearing of his doctrinal controversies against 
 paganism. In spite of his wanderings among 
 
 * Orat. ad Grcecos, n. 5. 
 
42 Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 
 
 the many schools of philosophy, this noble intel¬ 
 lect knew little of the nature of God and of his 
 relations with the world; and the knowledge of 
 God being the true source of the knowledge of 
 ourselves, it followed that he had little knowl¬ 
 edge of man; the nature of man, his origin and 
 his end, and the path to be followed to attain 
 that end, were so many enigmas of which the 
 answer was hidden from him. Christian doc¬ 
 trine, by revealing to him the relations between 
 God and finite creatures, gave him the key to 
 all these problems. How could he refuse to ac¬ 
 cept the witness of Christianity with regard to 
 mysteries of an order above human reason, 
 when the same teaching resolved so clearly and 
 fully, and in a manner so comformable with rea¬ 
 son, those important questions, the solution of 
 which he had vainly sought in all the schools of 
 philosophy ? Besides, he comprehended that 
 God, being the Creator and Bather of man, 
 must himself have instructed man in that which 
 it was of supreme importance for him to know, 
 and must have established upon earth some au¬ 
 thority commissioned to maintain and teach the 
 True Religion. He had now met with this au¬ 
 thority, and to it he owed the solution of those 
 problems which had hitherto perplexed him: 
 how could he refuse to hear and follow its 
 teachings? Further, when a man attains the 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 43 
 
 knowledge of God, when he believes in his in¬ 
 finite goodness and his love for men, there is 
 nothing in Christianity, in spite of all its mar¬ 
 vels, to astonish him. To the grateful and en¬ 
 raptured soul of the philosopher, the Christian 
 Religion appeared the most glorious, and if I 
 may say, the most natural, manifestation of the 
 love of God to man. 
 
 St. Justin sealed his belief in the Christian 
 Faith with his blood, about the year 168, after 
 having gloriously defended it in writings which 
 cannot be read even in our days without fervent 
 religious feeling.'* 
 
 In the second century and in the beginning of 
 the third, we find many pagans distinguished by 
 genius and learning following the example of 
 the philosopher Justin, and bowing down their 
 reason before the majesty of the Gospel. Three 
 - of them have left names of especial celebrity: 
 Athenagoras, Tertullian, and Clement of Alex¬ 
 andria. We do not know the details of the con¬ 
 version of* these illustrious men. From this 
 time a great number of learned writers were 
 to he found among Christians. Besides those 
 we have already named, it will suffice to men¬ 
 tion Theophilus of Antioch, Melitus of Sardis, 
 Saint Irenseus, Bishop of Lyons, Pantenus the 
 
 * The Abbd Freppel, professor of sacred eloquence at the 
 Sorbonne, has recently published a very complete and valuable 
 treatise on the life of St. Justin. 
 
44 Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 
 
 master of Clement and first teacher of the re¬ 
 nowned Christian school of Alexandria, Origen, 
 Saint Hippolytus of Porto, Minutius Felix, 
 Saint Dionysius of Alexandria, and Saint Cy¬ 
 prian, Bishop of Carthage. Such men as these 
 assuredly did not believe blindly. Some of 
 them have left remarkable works in defence of 
 the Christian Faith. The writings of Origen 
 on the Holy Scriptures still command the ad¬ 
 miration of critics. 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 
 
 45 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Decisive triumph of Christianity in the Roman 
 world—End of persecution—Constellation of 
 great men in the bosom of the Church of the 
 fourth century. 
 
 HE era of the legal and public persecu- 
 tions of Christianity which Nero had 
 opened was closed by Diocletian before 
 its social and political importance was recog¬ 
 nized. From Nero to Diocletian, Christianity 
 had not ceased to extend its pacific conquests; 
 it had invaded the whole empire, and numbered 
 a vast multitude of disciples of every class even 
 in Rome itself; it had penetrated the highest 
 ranks of society; some of the noblest citizens of 
 the empire sought refuge in its bosom. It had 
 become, therefore, a serious matter, even on 
 political grounds, to engage in a general perse¬ 
 cution of the Christian Church. Rut Galerius 
 Caesar, whose cruel nature thirsted for blood, 
 and who was a prey to all the superstitions of 
 paganism, urged Diocletian to pursue rigorous 
 measures. The emperor made a long resistance, 
 
46 Causes and Cure of Unbelief, 
 
 but at length, after having taken the advice of 
 a council of judges and of the heads of the army, 
 after having consulted the Oracle of Apollo at 
 Miletus, which declared that the presence of 
 Christians upon earth was the cause that only 
 false answers were issued from the tripod, he 
 resolved, in concert with Galerius, to annihilate 
 Christianity. In the year 303 he published an 
 edict, which is one of the saddest monuments of 
 intolerance and cruelty: “All Christians, with¬ 
 out exception, are to be stripped of their honors 
 and dignity; no rank, no position will serve as 
 protection against torture; all persons are at 
 liberty to bring actions against them, but they 
 cannot bring an action against any one, how¬ 
 ever great the injustice of which they may have 
 to complain; churches are to be destroyed, 
 ecclesiastical property confiscated, religious 
 books burnt; Christians are to be allowed no 
 liberty and no voice in public matters.” In 
 the beginning of the year 304 the punishment 
 of death was decreed against all who would not 
 abjure Christianity, and from that moment the 
 blood of Christians flowed in torrents from one 
 end of the empire to the other, with the excep¬ 
 tion of Gaul, which was governed by Constan- 
 tius Chlorus. “It is impossible,” says Dr. Dol- 
 linger, “to depict the atrocious emulation of the 
 persecutors in the invention and application of 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 47 
 
 infernal tortures; the words of Lactantius are 
 too weak to describe it when he says, ‘A voice 
 of groaning was heard over the whole earth, 
 which from the east to the west (with the ex¬ 
 ception of Gaul) was devastated by the fury of 
 three most ferocious wild beasts—Diocletian, 
 Maximianus, and Galerius.’ ”* The name of 
 Diocletian has remained attached to this perse¬ 
 cution, which lasted about seven years, and 
 caused frightful carnage. The pagan rulers 
 thought they had ruined the cause of the new 
 religion forever, and to perpetuate the memory 
 of their triumph they caused medals to be 
 struck, with inscriptions of this kind: “The 
 name of Christian is destroyed, the Christian 
 superstition is everywhere abolished, and the 
 worship of the gods propagated.” Fools that 
 they were; they knew not that the religion of 
 the Cross had been born in blood; they forgot 
 the lesson which so many persecutions ought to 
 have taught them, that the blood of Martyrs is 
 the seed of Christians. At the very time that 
 these blind representatives of a bloody power 
 flattered themselves that they had stifled Chris¬ 
 tianity in blood, he who reigns in heaven was 
 laughing at their shouts of triumph, was pre¬ 
 paring their tomb, and weaving the crown 
 which his justice, too long ignored, was about 
 
 * Origin of Christianity. —Lactant. 
 
48 Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 
 
 to place on the victorious head of Christianity, 
 henceforth to be recognized as the ruler of the 
 empire of the world. 
 
 In the year 313, Constantine and Licinius, 
 who were the real heads of the empire, pub¬ 
 lished at Milan that celebrated edict which, by 
 placing Christianity on a perfect equality with 
 the pagan religion, gave it definite freedom. 
 The religion of Jesus Christ, thus set free, was 
 able to show itself in the light of day; and the 
 pagans, who had just celebrated its obsequies, 
 were struck with amazement when they beheld 
 the innumerable multitude which professed it. 
 Paganism was vanquished; its day was over. 
 Julian the Apostate might attempt its restora¬ 
 tion, but the only result was to cover it with 
 ridicule in the eyes of all men, and to bury it 
 forever under universal contempt and execra¬ 
 tion. 
 
 The fourth century is undoubtedly one of the 
 most glorious periods in the history of the 
 Church, especially with regard to science and 
 learning. It is the great era of Christian liter¬ 
 ature. It was adorned by eminent men of all 
 kinds; St. Athanasius, Eusebius of Caesarea, St. 
 Basil, St. Gregory Nazianzen, St. Gregory of 
 Hyssa, St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Didymus and 
 St. Cyril of Alexandria, St. Epiphanius, St. 
 John Chrysostom, Lactantius, St. Hilary of 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 49 
 
 Poitiers, St. Eusebius of Vercelli, St. Am¬ 
 brose, St. Jerome, St. Augustine. These were 
 all eminently gifted men, some of whom, with 
 truly superior genius, penetrated the profound- 
 est depths of the Christian Faith, and placed 
 in a brilliant light the secret and marvelous har¬ 
 monies of the religion of Jesus Christ. When 
 we read their profound and luminous writings 
 we may well feel proud and happy to be par¬ 
 takers of their belief. IIow resplendent with 
 light and Divine beauty does Catholic Doctrine 
 appear in the works of these immortal theo¬ 
 logians ! How vast the powers of human rea¬ 
 son! The chief mysteries in the natural and 
 supernatural order of earth and heaven shine 
 therein with mild, serene brightness. Put we 
 must not linger over this spectacle, consoling 
 though it be amidst the sad attacks of men of 
 our own day, who seem to fear that poor human 
 reason must be lowered by seeking to draw 
 light and heat from the clear, luminous focus of 
 Faith. I must at once enter on the subject of 
 St. Augustine’s unbelief and ultimate return 
 to the Faith. 
 
50 Causes and Cure of Unbelief, 
 
 CHAPTEK IV. 
 
 St. Augustine—His unbelief and return to the 
 
 Faith. 
 
 f S there any one who does not know that 
 Augustine was a genius of the highest 
 order, one of the most powerful intel¬ 
 lects whom the world has ever produced % Bos- . 
 suet read and re-read him continually, ever 
 finding fresh light in his writings. To his in¬ 
 spiration we owe the most eminent theologians 
 and Christian philosophers of the middle ages 
 and of modern times. We could point out 
 writers who are more correct, more elegant, 
 more eloquent, than the Bishop of Hippo; but 
 we believe that in the annals of mankind no in¬ 
 tellect is to he met with superior to his. The 
 experience of this man, as regards the question 
 of unbelief and faith, is therefore worthy of 
 particular attention. 
 
 By singular good fortune we possess a history 
 of Augustine, written by himself, which gives 
 us an intimate knowledge of his soul. His Coru- 
 fcssions describe with great minuteness the two- 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 51 
 
 fold journey of this great soul, by which he 
 descended into the darkness of infidelity and 
 returned to the light of Faith. I know of no 
 book more curious, more absorbing, more in¬ 
 structive, than this. I cannot attempt to re¬ 
 produce the simple and dramatic picture of the 
 wanderings and conversion of Augustine, but 
 must content myself with pointing out some of 
 its most characteristic features. 
 
 -o- 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 IIoiv Augustine loses the Faith—He rapidly 
 descends all the steps of unbelief—lie falls 
 into materialism and scepticism. 
 
 In Augustine’s time, society was in great 
 part Christian, but still mingled with paganism. 
 The Bishop of Hippo w T as born at Tagaste, in 
 the year 384, of parents in the middle class. 
 At the time of his birth his father was not a 
 Christian, though he was converted afterward. 
 But his mother, the future Saint Monica, had 
 instructed him in the Faith of Jesus Christ 
 from his tenderest years. “I then already be¬ 
 lieved,” he says, “and my mother, and the 
 wFole household, except my father: yet did not 
 
52 Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 
 
 he prevail over the power of my mother’s piety 
 in me, that as he did not yet believe, so neither 
 should I.”* However, the young Augustine had 
 not received Baptism, he was only a Catechu¬ 
 men. 
 
 The faith of the son of Monica was neither 
 sufficiently earnest nor sufficiently enlightened 
 to withstand the whirlwind of the passions; nor 
 could it resist the poisonous action of a hostile 
 or even indifferent school of teaching. Augus¬ 
 tine’s faith soon gave way; but still the name 
 of Jesus Christ, which he had learned to vene¬ 
 rate on his mother’s knees, was always dear to 
 his heart, even amidst his most grievous dis-’ 
 orders.t 
 
 Augustine passed several years in the schools 
 of Tagaste and Madaura, a neighboring city; 
 then he was sent to the capital of Africa to 
 finish his studies. 
 
 He tells us that his father, whose means were 
 very moderate, was obliged to impose heavy 
 sacrifices on himself, in order to enable his son 
 to study under the famous masters of Car¬ 
 thage. J He was only sixteen when he arrived 
 in that city. His soul was already a prey to sen¬ 
 sual passions, and a residence in Carthage was 
 not calculated to recall him to the austere per¬ 
 formance of duty. He thought only of enjoy- 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 
 
 53 
 
 ment; he knew no other pleasures than the 
 gross and bitter pleasures of sense. “For within 
 me was a famine of that inward food, thyself, 
 my God; yet through that famine I was not 
 hungered: hut was without all longing for incor¬ 
 ruptible sustenance, not because filled therewith, 
 but the more empty, the more I loathed it. For 
 this cause my soul was sickly and full of sores; 
 it miserably cast itself forth, desiring to be re¬ 
 lieved by the touch of objects of sense.”* The 
 students of Carthage were given up to all man¬ 
 ner of disorders, and though Augustine was the 
 slave of voluptuousness, he was better than 
 many of his companions. According to the tes¬ 
 timony of Vincent the Rogatist, he always loved 
 decency and good manners even in his irregu- 
 larities.f At the beginning of his residence at 
 Carthage, the young student from Tagaste con¬ 
 tracted a criminal intimacy with a woman which 
 lasted fourteen years. 
 
 But the disorders of the son of Monica did 
 not interfere with his progress in study; his 
 quick intelligence triumphed over every ob¬ 
 stacle. “Those studies,” he says, “which were 
 accounted commendable, had a view to excelling 
 in the courts of litigation; the more bepraised, 
 the craftier. Such is men’s blindness, glorying 
 even in their blindness. And now I was chief 
 
 k. 
 
 * Conf. lib. iii. c. 1. | Cf. Conf. lib. iii. c. 3. 
 
54 Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 
 
 in the school of rhetoric, whereat I joyed 
 proudly.”* 
 
 The brilliant student of Tagaste soon be¬ 
 came professor of rhetoric in the metropolis of 
 Africa, and w r as no less successful as a master 
 than he had been as a scholar. 
 
 But what had become of Augustine’s religious 
 belief in the midst of this whirlwind of pleas¬ 
 ure and of the vain plaudits of the world ? 
 Where was the faith of his childhood ? That 
 faith was dead; Augustine no longer believed 
 the teaching of Christianity. His soul, it is 
 true, preserved an affectionate respect for the . 
 name of Jesus Christ; but this respect, which 
 was the fruit of his early education, found no 
 support in his understanding, and subsisted 
 only as a vague, unexplained sentiment. With 
 virtue and innocence the son of Monica lost also 
 his faith. Every Christian idea was effaced 
 from his mind, and he entertained the most in¬ 
 credible prejudices against the Creed of the 
 Church. He attributed the most extravagant 
 doctrines to Christians. It was at this time he 
 imagined that Christianity taught that God was 
 a material being, with a body similar to ours! 
 
 It is inexplicable how an intelligent man who 
 had received a Christian education could seri¬ 
 ously impute the grossest anthropomorphism to 
 
 * I&itf. 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 55 
 
 a religion which claims as one of its most glori¬ 
 ous titles that it reestablished in the human 
 soul the grand idea of the spirituality and in¬ 
 finity of God. The religious teaching which 
 Augustine received in his childhood must have 
 been strangely superficial. 
 
 And with what had this poor, proud youth 
 replaced the faith which had shone upon his 
 cradle ? lie had, alas! descended to the lowest 
 grade of intellectual misery. He had fallen into 
 materialism, and into a doubly absurd form of 
 materialism: into Manicheism. We know that 
 the Manichees believed in two coeternal prin¬ 
 ciples, wholly independent and essentially op¬ 
 posed to one another—the good principle and 
 the evil principle. They professed the most 
 shameful extravagances. It was at Carthage 
 that Augustine fell in with these strange 
 masters, who spoke much of truth and science, 
 and set forth their pretensions to unveil all mys¬ 
 teries ; and this noble genius, whose wings had 
 been cut, as Plato speaks, by sensuality, allowed 
 himself to be caught in their vulgar toils. “I 
 fell among men,” says he, “proudly doting, ex¬ 
 ceeding carnal, and prating, in whose mouths 
 were the snares of the devil. . . . They cried 
 out exceedingly, Truth, Truth, and spake much 
 thereof to me, but the truth was not in them; 
 but they spake falsehood, not of thee only, O 
 
56 Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 
 
 my God! who truly art Truth, but even of those 
 elements of this world, the work of thy hands.”* 
 
 . . . “Alas!” cries Augustine, after having re- 
 # called some of the errors of Manicheism, “by 
 what steps was I brought down to the depths 
 of hell? Ah my God! ... I descended 
 thither because I sought thee, not according to 
 the understanding of the mind, wherein thou 
 willedst that I should excel the beasts, but ac¬ 
 cording to the sense of the flesh.” t 
 
 It is needless to follow Augustine in the 
 picture he draws of the errors and unheard-of 
 absurdities into which Manicheism had led 
 him4 It is sufficient to remark that he con- * 
 suited astrologers, and believed all the follies 
 of judicial astrology.§ Pascal says, “None so 
 credulous as unbelievers and nothing is more 
 true. The whole history of infidelity for eigh¬ 
 teen hundred years confirms this assertion. 
 People reject, in the name of reason, the Cath¬ 
 olic Creed, reasonable though it be, and capable 
 of solid demonstration, and they receive the . 
 most senseless superstitions without proof and 
 against all reason. A very curious book might 
 be written with this title, The Credulity of In¬ 
 fidels; and more than one interesting chapter 
 might be furnished by the times in which we 
 live. 
 
 * Conf. lib. iii. c. 10. 
 
 t Ibid. 
 
 tlbid. lib. iii. c. 6. 
 I Ibid. lib. iv. c. 2. 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 57 
 
 Augustine had now become a thorough ma¬ 
 terialist. He admitted the existence of a God, 
 but a God who was corporeal and extended; he 
 could not conceive the existence of beings purely 
 spiritual. lie says: “When I wished to think 
 on my God, I knew not what to think of but a 
 mass of bodies (for what was not such did not 
 seem to me to be anything). This was the 
 greatest and almost only cause of my inevitable 
 error. For hence I believed evil also to be some 
 such kind of substance, and to have its own soul 
 and hideous bulk. . . . And because a piety, 
 such as it was, constrained me to believe that 
 the good God never created any evil nature, I 
 conceived two masses, contrary to one another, 
 both unbounded; but the evil narrower, the good 
 more expansive. And from this pestilent be¬ 
 ginning the other sacrilegious conceits fol¬ 
 lowed. 77 * “I knew not God to be a spirit, and 
 that consequently he had neither a body com¬ 
 posed of different members, nor one who hath 
 parts extended in length and breadth, or whose 
 being was bulk. 77 t 
 
 Thus was this magnificent intellect stifled, as 
 it were, in the folds of sensual passion: it could 
 no longer conceive any reality in the world of 
 intelligence; it could only recognize data ap- 
 
 * Conf. lib. v. c. 10. t Conf. lib. iv. c. 3. 
 
58 Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 
 
 parent to the senses, and phantasms of the im¬ 
 agination which corresponded to them. 
 
 The spectacle of such a fall involuntarily re¬ 
 calls to me the pages of Plato, in which that 
 profound observer points out that sensuality is 
 the usual source of those shameful excesses into 
 which the most highly gifted minds fall. 
 “Take,” says this true philosopher, “take these 
 same souls from childhood, cut away and re¬ 
 trench all that the passion of lust deposits 
 therein; free them from the heavy masses at¬ 
 tached to the pleasures of the table and such 
 like enjoyments; take away the weight which 
 depresses the vision of the soul to inferior * 
 things. Then if, freed from such obstacles, 
 the same gaze, in the same men, is turned 
 toward the things that are true, it will behold 
 them with the same penetration with which 
 it now sees the objects to which it is turned.”* 
 Never did any man justify, in the same degree 
 as Augustine, these words of the great disciple 
 of Socrates. 
 
 Manicheism could not long satisfy this err¬ 
 ing genius. Tie soon found therein weak points 
 and important omissions, and his soul was be¬ 
 set with doubts. He was flattered with the hope 
 that Faustus, the most famous teacher of the 
 sect, would readily clear away his difficulties. 
 
 * Republ. lib. vii. 516. Cf. lib. ix. 586. Tim. 90. 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 59 
 
 But liow was he deceived! He saw this incom¬ 
 parable doctor, and found him to be only a bril¬ 
 liant talker; he had no solution for those grave 
 questions with which the anxious soul of Mon¬ 
 ica’s son was tormented.* Augustine found 
 himself cruelly deceived, and despaired of find¬ 
 ing in Manicheism the light he was seeking; 
 still he thought he ought not to break the ties 
 which bound him to this gloomv sect. “As one 
 finding nothing better,” says he, “I had settled 
 to be content meanwhile with what I had, in 
 whatever way fallen upon, unless by chance 
 something more eligible should dawn upon 
 me.”t In the year 383 the young professor 
 left Carthage and repaired to Home. He had 
 grown weary of the turbulence and dissoluteness 
 of the students of Carthage; he was told that 
 the youth of the Homan schools were more 
 docile and modest; moreover, he flattered him¬ 
 self that he should attain fortune and glory 
 more rapidly in the ancient capital of the 
 world.! He embarked without his mother’s 
 knowledge, who would have accompanied him, 
 and whose heart was broken at the separation 
 from her son.§ He met with the Manichees 
 again in Home, and still joined himself with 
 them. He was convinced the truth was not to 
 be found with them, but he despaired of find- 
 
 * Conf. lib. v. c. 6, 7. t Ibid. c. 7. 
 
 J Ibid. lib. v. c. 8. § Conf. 
 
60 Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 
 
 ing it elsewhere; and his weary spirit began 
 to think that truth cannot be comprehended by 
 man, and that possibly the Academics were the 
 wisest of philosophers, for they doubt all things, 
 and abstain from affirming anything.* 
 
 The brilliant dreams of the professor quickly 
 vanished. “Students of rhetoric were not want¬ 
 ing to Augustine; the disorders which reigned 
 at Carthage did not show themselves in the 
 Roman schools, but in them turbulence was re¬ 
 placed by meanness. It often happened that 
 the Roman scholars plotted together, and, to 
 avoid paying their master’s stipend, deserted 
 his lessons in a body. Augustine felt profound 
 contempt for such conduct; disgust soon fol¬ 
 lowed contempt, and hearing that the city of 
 Milan had requested Symmachus, prefect of 
 Rome, to send thither a professor of rhetoric, 
 he solicited and obtained the appointment. . . . 
 Symmachus, prefect of Rome, was at the same 
 time pontiff and augur, and was the same who 
 shortly afterward begged of the emperors the 
 restoration of the statue and altar of Victory. 
 This defender of the old Roman divinities little 
 thought that the young professor of rhetoric, 
 whose name was scarcely known to him, wa3 
 destined to strike the last blow against the gods, 
 to close the sepulchre of the old pagan world, 
 
 * Ibid. c. 10 . 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 61 
 
 and to plant over its immense tomb the Cross 
 of Christ, the prophetic symbol of a glorious 
 futurity.”* 
 
 It was at Milan that Divine Providence 
 awaited Augustine. There the pure light of 
 truth was to open his weary, aching eyes, and 
 restore to them that clear, strong vision which 
 they had lost through contact with passion and 
 sophistry. God made use of an eloquent and 
 holy Bishop to lead back this poor victim of 
 error to the truth. We shall now see by what 
 means. 
 
 -o- 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 Augustine’s return to the Faith—He passes 
 through intellectual and moral crises before 
 his conviction. 
 
 / 
 
 Augustine arrived at Milan toward the end 
 of the year 384; he was just thirty years of age. 
 The name of the Bishop of Milan was not un¬ 
 known to him, for the fame of Ambrose filled 
 the world. The professor of rhetoric pre¬ 
 sented himself to the holy Bishop, who received 
 him with the kindness of a father. “Thence- 
 
 * M. Poujoulat, Hist, de St. Augustin, tom. i. c. 11. 
 
62 Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 
 
 forth I began to love him,” says Augustine; 
 “at first indeed not as a teacher of the truth 
 (which I utterly despaired of in thy Church), 
 but as a person kind toward myself.”* How 
 marvelous that a young man whose infancy had 
 been cradled on the knees of a Christian mother 
 should not even suspect that truth might be 
 found in the Church of Jesus Christ! So 
 strong were the prejudices with which the Man- 
 ichees had inspired him against Christianity! 
 If he went to hear Ambrose explain the doc¬ 
 trines of religion to his people, it was from 
 pure literary curiosity and to enjoy the charms 
 of his eloquence. “I listened diligently to him 
 preaching to the people, not with that intent I 
 ought, but, as it were, trying his eloquence, 
 whether it answered to the fame thereof. . . . 
 And I hung on his words attentively, but of 
 the matter I was as a careless and scornful 
 looker-on.”t Are there not many in our days 
 who listen to our great Christian orators with 
 the like dispositions ? 
 
 However, Augustine, though exclusively 
 taken up with the outward form, could not long 
 forbear acknowledging that the form in the ser¬ 
 mons of Ambrose covered serious and solid 
 foundation. By degrees his senseless prejudices 
 against the Christian Religion gave way; 
 
 * Conf. 
 
 t Ibid. 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 63 
 
 finally lie comprehended that Catholic belief 
 was not so absurd as he had imagined, that it 
 could be defended, and that the objections of the 
 Manichees were not unanswerable.* But there 
 he stopped. The Catholic faith was not con¬ 
 quered, but neither did it appear to him to be 
 victorious.t Is it credible that he could be still 
 held back by the impossibility of conceiving a 
 purely spiritual substance? However, his un¬ 
 derstanding definitely abandoned Maniche- 
 ism; he judged that the tenets of most of the 
 philosophers with regard to material objects 
 were much more probable than the doctrine of 
 the Manichees. Therefore he resolved to leave 
 that sect. The school of the Academics, who 
 doubt of everything, alone appeared in harmony 
 with the state of his mind. But as his early 
 education had commended to him the Catholic 
 Church, he resolved, amidst this universal 
 doubt, to remain a Catechumen in the Church 
 till something certain might dawn upon his 
 soul. 
 
 Monica had crossed the sea and had joined 
 her son at Milan. She rejoiced to learn that 
 Augustine had renounced Manicheism. What 
 tears and what prayers had this holy mother 
 poured forth before God that the soul of her 
 child might be enlightened, and that he might 
 
 ♦ Conf. c. 14. t Ibid. 
 
64 Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 
 
 see clearly the monstrous and immoral errors 
 of that sect! Now that God had heard her 
 prayers on that point she waited patiently for 
 him to complete his work. She was convinced 
 that she should not die till she had seen her son 
 restored to the Catholic Faith. 
 
 But this darkened intelligence had a long 
 road to traverse before it could reach the full 
 light of the Gospel. The idea of a Being, sov¬ 
 ereignly perfect, shone in the inmost depth of 
 his soul and seized hold of his conscience; but 
 his understanding, accustomed to the gross im¬ 
 aginations of materialism, could not conceive 
 any substance without material form.* Au¬ 
 gustine was still the slave of his senses and im¬ 
 agination. At this time Divine Providence 
 caused certain books of the Platonic philoso¬ 
 phers to fall into his hands.t He read them 
 eagerly, and their perusal worked the most salu¬ 
 tary revolution in his mind. In them he saw 
 that the sensible world, which he thought the 
 only reality, is but the kingdom of shadows; 
 that true realities are purely intellectual, and 
 that God, who occupies the summit of the world 
 of intelligence, is a pure spirit inaccessible to 
 the senses and imagination. It was quite a 
 revelation to this noble genius so long enslaved 
 by matter. Quitting at length the world of 
 
 Hid. c. 9. 
 
 • Conf. lib. vii. c. 1. 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 
 
 65 
 
 phantoms to enter into that inward sanctuary 
 where God shows himself, as Plato speaks, his 
 sonl found itself in finding God: it beheld it¬ 
 self by the aid of an intelligible light superior 
 to itself, a light unchangeable, identical with 
 Truth.* Here was the end of materialism. 
 The mind of Augustine, restored to itself, was 
 replaced on the true path of Christian spirit¬ 
 ualism. 
 
 It has been said that Plato’s philosophy is the 
 human preface to the Gospel.t Doubtless it is 
 an incorrect and very imperfect preface, but it 
 is a fact that Platonism was the vestibule of 
 Christianity to Augustine as well as to other 
 great intellects of the early centuries. 
 
 The books of the Platonists had revealed the 
 invisible world to Augustine; but unhappily 
 they had increased in him the pride of intellect 
 without freeing him from the pride of the flesh, 
 and this twofold pride is the principal obstacle 
 to the light of Faith. The new disciple of 
 Plato was proud of his wisdom; he did not feel 
 that his necessities were infinite, he did not 
 think of praying to God to supply them. Hu¬ 
 mility is the gate of Faith; prayer, which is 
 the acknowledgment of a poverty which expects 
 everything from God, is the most beautiful ex¬ 
 pression of humility. God wills that man, who 
 
 t Ibid. c. 20. 
 
 * Co7if. c. 10 and 20. 
 
66 Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 
 
 is a mere creature, and moreover a fallen crea¬ 
 ture, should confess his own insufficiency and 
 implore aid from on high. 
 
 This is the usual condition of the effusion of 
 the supernatural light of Faith. Augustine was 
 acquainted with the teaching of the Church on 
 the Incarnation of the Word, and after he had 
 read the Neo-Platonists he willingly believed in 
 the Word; but the Incarnation, that mystery of 
 the loye and humiliation of God, offended his 
 egotism and his pride. In his eyes Jesus Christ 
 was the wisest of men, but he was not the Word 
 made Flesh.* 
 
 Augustine learned two things from the study 
 of St. Pauls Epistles which he had not found 
 in the books of the Platonists: the lost state of 
 man and the need of the grace of God to know 
 and practice the truth. He comprehended the 
 mystery of that twofold law, the law of the flesh 
 and the law of the spirit, by the painful con¬ 
 flict by which his soul was torn. He possessed 
 the key to those wonderful contradictions of 
 which our nature is continually the theatre, and 
 from which the Manichees drew an argument 
 in favor of the absurd doctrine of two eternal 
 principles—one good and the other evil, the re¬ 
 spective causes of the good and evil which ap¬ 
 pear in us. Once convinced of the fall of man, 
 
 * Conf. c. 19. Cf. c. 17. 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief. G7 
 
 and contemplating in himself the deadly traces 
 of the fall, Augustine began to comprehend the 
 benefit of the Incarnation; the sentiment of 
 his moral and intellectual failings inspired him 
 with humility, the humiliation of the Word in 
 the mystery of the Incarnation no longer ap¬ 
 peared to him unworthy of the majesty of God: 
 Jesus Christ revealed himself to his soul as the 
 true and necessary Restorer of fallen humanity. 
 
 Augustine relates that, whilst reading the 
 Epistles of St. Paul, he experienced, by the 
 secret operation of grace, sentiments of humility 
 and compunction, leading him to shed tears and 
 to confess his faults. lie insists on this point, 
 that humility is the source of true light, and 
 repeats these words of Jesus Christ to his 
 Father: “Thou hast hid these things from the 
 
 O 
 
 wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to 
 little ones.”* 
 
 Formerly, when a student at Carthage, the 
 son of Monica had desired to read the Holy 
 Scriptures; hut the simplicity of the Divine 
 Books offended the pride of a young man accus¬ 
 tomed to the majestic style of Cicero, and in¬ 
 capable of penetrating the mysterious depths of 
 revealed doctrine: the study of these sublime 
 pages was distasteful to him.t Since then, the 
 Scriptures had not changed, hut Augustine was 
 
 * Conf. c. 21. t Ibid- lib. iii- C. 5. 
 
68 Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 
 
 no longer the same man; his understanding had 
 ripened, his prejudices against Christianity had 
 vanished; the sermons and example of Am¬ 
 brose, the prayers and tears of Monica, had 
 opened his eyes, and where he had formerly 
 perceived only clouds and darkness he now 
 discovered an admirable light. 
 
 The moral and intellectual transformation of 
 Augustine daily advanced. He w r as no longer 
 tempted by the dreams of his youth, fortune and 
 glory; hut the flesh still held him captive, 
 though the fire of passion was allayed. At 
 this juncture, Augustine sought a venerable 
 priest, Simplician, the spiritual father of Am¬ 
 brose, to whom he opened his mind. Simplician 
 related to him the conversion of Yictorinus, a 
 celebrated professor, whose Latin translations 
 of the writings of the Platonic philosophers Au¬ 
 gustine had read. The young African professor 
 ardently desired to imitate this great man. His 
 understanding was convinced of the truth of 
 Christianity, but he was held back by his will. 
 “I was bound/’ says he, “not with another’s 
 irons, but by my own iron will. My will the 
 enemy held, and thence had made a chain for 
 me, and bound me. Por of a forward will was 
 a lust made; and a lust served became custom; 
 and custom not resisted became necessity. By 
 which links, as it were, joined together (whence 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 69 
 
 I called it a chain) a hard bondage held me en¬ 
 thralled. But that new will which had begun 
 to be in me, freely to serve thee, and to wish to 
 enjoy thee, 0 God! the only assured pleasant¬ 
 ness, was not yet able to overcome my former 
 wilfulness, strengthened by age. Thus did my 
 two wills, one new and the other old—one 
 carnal, the other spiritual—struggle within 
 me; and by their discord undid my soul.”* 
 Augustine has depicted in the liveliest colors 
 this grievous combat in which his salvation was 
 at stake. The spiritual will, aided by the grace 
 of God, can always vanquish the carnal will, 
 and at last, after many failings, it completely 
 triumphed in this tempest-tossed soul. “For 
 to go toward thee, O my God!” cries Augustine, 
 when relating this internal conflict, “and even 
 to go in thither, was nothing else hut to will to 
 go, hut to will resolutely and thoroughly; not 
 to turn and toss, this way and that, a maimed 
 and half-divided will, struggling, with one part 
 sinking as another rose.”t j 
 
 Augustine has left us the picture of the last 
 crisis through which his soul passed before 
 breaking its chains. It is a marvellously touch¬ 
 ing scene. He was in the garden of the house 
 he occupied at Milan, and was alone with his 
 friend Alypus, from whom he had no secrets. 
 
 * Conf. lib. viii. c. 5. 
 
 t Conf. c. 8. 
 
70 Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 
 
 A mighty storm agitated his mind, and he felt 
 the need of tears. Alypus perceived it, and 
 abstained from following his friend when he 
 rose to leave him. Augustine cast himself on 
 the ground under a fig-tree, and there shed tor¬ 
 rents of tears, intermingled with prayers and 
 pious groans. All at once a voice issued from 
 a neighboring house, like the voice of a young 
 hoy or girl chanting, and often repeating these 
 words:* “Take up and read; take up and 
 read.” “Instantly my countenance altered,” 
 says Augustine. “I began to think most in¬ 
 tently whether children were wont in any kind 
 of play to sing such words; nor could I remem¬ 
 ber ever to hear the like. So, checking the tor¬ 
 rent of my tears, I arose, interpreting it to be 
 no other than a command of God to open the 
 Book and read the first chapter I should find. 
 Bor I had heard of Antony, that coming in dur¬ 
 ing the reading of the Gospel, he received the 
 admonition, as if what was being read was 
 spoken to him: ‘Go sell what thou hast and give 
 to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in 
 Heaven: and come follow me.’* Eagerly then 
 I returned to the place where Alypus was sit¬ 
 ting, for there had laid the volume of the Apos¬ 
 tle when I arose thence. I seized, opened, and 
 in silence read that section on which my ejzz 
 
 * Matt. xix. 21* 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief, 71 
 
 first fell: ‘Let us walk, not in rioting and 
 drunkenness, not in chambering and impurities, 
 not in contention and envy, but put ye on the 
 Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for 
 the flesh in its concupiscences.’* No further 
 would I read, nor needed I; for instantly at 
 the end of this sentence, by a light, as it were, 
 of serenity infused into my heart all the dark¬ 
 ness of doubt vanished away. 
 
 “Then, putting my finger between, or some 
 other mark, I shut the volume, and with a calm 
 countenance made it known to Alypus. And 
 what was wrought in him which I knew not, he 
 thus showed me. He asked to see what I had 
 read. I showed him, and he looked even fur¬ 
 ther than I had read, and I knew not what fol¬ 
 lowed. This followed, ‘Him that is weak in the 
 faith take unto you ;’t which he applied to him¬ 
 self and disclosed to me. And by this admoni¬ 
 tion was he strengthened; and by a good resolu¬ 
 tion and purpose, and most corresponding to his 
 character, wherein he did always very far differ 
 from me, for the better, without any turbulent 
 delay he joined me. Thence we go in to my 
 mother; we tell her; she rejoiceth; we relate in 
 order how it took place; she leaps for joy, and 
 triumpheth.”t 
 
 Well might this holy mother triumph and 
 
 * Rom. xiii. 13, 14. f Rom. xiv. 1. J Conf. lib. viii. c. 12. 
 
72 Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 
 
 leap for jov ! Her tears and supplications were 
 heard, all her desire was accomplished. Vigor¬ 
 ous souls, do nothing by halves. From the mo¬ 
 ment that Augustine, yielding to the attraction 
 of grace, had said, “I believe,” he gave himself 
 wholly to the truth; the most austere practices 
 of the Christian religion alone appeared to sat¬ 
 isfy the ardor of his generous will. This man, 
 who but yesterday could not comprehend the 
 possibility of living if deprived of gross carnal 
 pleasures, now determined to sacrifice even the 
 lawful joys of marriage, and to live in per¬ 
 petual chastity. It is well known how faith¬ 
 fully he kept his resolution. 
 
 The conversion of Augustine happened in the 
 month of August of the year 386,, when he was 
 thirty-two years old. He was baptized by St. 
 Ambrose on Easter Eve in 387. Four years 
 later he was ordained Priest at Hippo, and 
 toward the end of the year 395 he received 
 episcopal consecration. 
 
 It would be rash to say what the genius of 
 Augustine might have become had it not bent be¬ 
 fore the authority of the Church; none, I think, 
 can take it upon themselves to maintain that 
 the Christian Faith was an obstacle to the de¬ 
 velopment of this powerful intellect. It is true, 
 it is incontestable that Faith was at once a 
 marvellous light and a wonderful moral power 
 
BOSTON COLLEGE LIBRARY 
 
 Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 73 
 
 to tliis great mind. Faith opened to him hori¬ 
 zons absolutely new, suffered him freely to use 
 his wings and to traverse with incomparable 
 ease and security those regions in which human 
 reason is naturally called to exercise itself. 
 
 Would you understand, would you see with 
 your own eyes how far Faith restores, enlarges, 
 elevates reason ? Open the works of Plato and 
 of St. Augustine. Whilst you glance over the 
 writings of these two immortal minds you will 
 be struck hv the eminent doctrinal superiority 
 of the Christian Bishop over the Prince of 
 Grecian Philosophers. First, all the truths 
 which are in Plato are to he found in St. 
 Augustine, hut with a purity, a clearness, a 
 firmness, a plenitude, which we vainly seek in 
 the Athenian philosopher. Plato’s view is fre¬ 
 quently obscured even on the ground of natural 
 religion in matters which are within the pro¬ 
 vince of reason; he sees but a part of the truth, 
 he mixes error with it, and almost always is 
 deficient in firmness even on those points which 
 he seems best to understand. And yet every 
 one is agreed that mere human reason never 
 had a more intelligent, more luminous, more 
 complete interpreter than the disciple of Soc¬ 
 rates. Plato is indisputably the noblest and 
 most exalted representative of reason devoid of 
 the light of Faith. But reason, how high so- 
 
74 Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 
 
 ever it may soar, is full of obscurity and sub¬ 
 ject to a thousand weaknesses, even in that 
 part of the moral and religious domain which 
 naturally falls to it. Reason has lost its up- 
 j rightness, and needs the renovating grace of 
 Faith in order to regain it and exercise its 
 full power. To Faith the Bishop of Hippo 
 owes his incomparable superiority to the master 
 of the Academy on all great questions of the 
 rational and strictly philosophical order. 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 
 
 75 
 
 CHxlPTEK Y. 
 
 The Christian Faith of the Middle Ages—It is 
 \paramount in society, and governs men of 
 high intellect as well as the common people — 
 Was this a blind Faith? 
 
 B T the period of the great Bishop of 
 Hippo’s death the Roman Empire was 
 crumbling away on all sides under the 
 repeated inroads of the barbarians. This old- 
 world empire was condemned to perish; for, in 
 spite of the work of moral renovation which it 
 had undergone, it still retained a fund of ideas 
 and customs which unfitted it for the office of 
 forming Christian society. The Church re¬ 
 quired other elements to found a new civiliza¬ 
 tion. Moreover, it was needful that the justice 
 of God should be exercised upon an empire 
 which had trodden underfoot all laws of the 
 moral order, and which for three centuries had 
 shed the blood of the disciples of the Incarnate 
 Word. 
 
 This is not the place to remind the reader 
 how Christianity gained possession of those vig- 
 
76 Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 
 
 orous and healthful races, uncultivated and sav¬ 
 age though they were, which established them¬ 
 selves on the ruins of the Roman Empire. A 
 new social order arose from the bleeding ruins 
 with which the invasion of the barbarians had 
 strewn the soil of Europe. By dint of patience 
 and holy energy the Church had contrived to 
 bind together by close ties nations proud of 
 their savage independence, and whilst she re¬ 
 spected individual nationality, she founded that 
 social unity which is expressed by the beautiful 
 name of Christendom. The European nations 
 of the Middle Ages were all united by a com¬ 
 mon Eaith; they all recognized the same au¬ 
 thority; they all obeyed the Church as their 
 common mother. 
 
 Every one admits that the Christian Faith 
 was supreme during the Middle Ages. People 
 even allow pretty generally that Eaith was a 
 useful auxiliary to social and moral progress. 
 “The Church,” says one of the most ardent ad¬ 
 versaries of Catholicism, “occupies one step in 
 the immense ladder of the development of hu¬ 
 manity. Her existence is intimately united 
 with the destinies of those barbarous nations who 
 destroyed the Roman Empire; she was called 
 upon to raise them by faith to a state of morality 
 and intelligence. The Church was worthy of 
 her mission, for in an age of barbarism, immor- 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 77 
 
 ality and ignorance she alone opened asylums 
 for science, she alone showed to the world 
 models of Christian perfection; she wielded 
 spiritual power in the highest acceptation of the 
 word, for she ruled by superiority of reason 
 and wisdom. But this rule, by its very nature, 
 was transitory. The world is no longer the 
 world of the Middle Ages; it is no longer a prey 
 to brute force; it no longer requires a power to 
 educate, rule and guide it like a child by blind 
 faith.”* People recognize, therefore, in a cer¬ 
 tain degree, the benefits of Catholic Faith in the 
 Middle Ages, but they pretend that the nations 
 of that period were nations of children, and 
 that the Faith which served for their intellectual 
 and moral education was a blind Faith. 
 
 I am not going to discuss this twofold thesis, 
 but I must say a few words in elucidation of 
 the grave question whether infidelity is really 
 the natural and legitimate result of the progress 
 of reason. 
 
 The Middle Ages comprise two essentially 
 distinct periods. In the first period we see the 
 nations who replaced the old Homan society still 
 barbarians; they are without moral and intel¬ 
 lectual fellowship; they have the impetuosity, 
 the heat, the inconstancy, the simplicity of 
 
 * Studies on the History of Humanity: the Papacy and the 
 Empire. By F. Laurent, Professor at the University of Ghent. 
 
 P. 54. 
 
78 Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 
 
 childhood. In the second period we behold 
 these same nations, but entirely changed; they 
 have grown up; they have completed their edu¬ 
 cation; they are truly civilized. The French 
 of St. Louis differ as widely from the Franks 
 of Clovis as a grown-up man differs from a 
 child. How it is an incontestable fact that the 
 Christian Faith ruled over both these periods 
 of the Middle Ages. 
 
 I frankly avow that I cannot repress a smile 
 of pity when I hear certain persons speak dis¬ 
 dainfully of the darkness of that grand historic 
 epoch, and date the event of light to the world 
 from the sixteenth century. If so, who raised 
 those cathedrals, those public edifices, those pal¬ 
 aces of learning and piety, those monuments of 
 genius, faith, patriotism—winders of architec¬ 
 ture—which still in our days constitute the 
 noblest monuments of the soil of Europe ? Were 
 these marvels of art bequeathed to us by na¬ 
 tions of children? Do not they rather deserve 
 the name of children who, in the face of these 
 living witnesses to the genius and energetic 
 activity of their fathers, insult and outrage a 
 glorious past ? Blind, ungrateful children, who 
 blush not to curse the hand to whose skill and 
 bounty they owe a good part of the patrimony 
 they enjoy. 
 
 I am not a fanatical admirer of the Middle 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 79 
 
 Ages; I believe there were many imperfections, 
 many disorders, many abuses in those powerful 
 bodies which were bound together by a common 
 Faith, a common submission to the authority of 
 the Church. But men must indeed be blind if 
 they fail to recognize that this period had points 
 of incomparable greatness. 
 
 If, as people affirm, the Faith of the Catholic 
 populations of the Middle Ages was an unen¬ 
 lightened Faith, they must at least admit that 
 it was not the fault of the Church, for in all 
 parts of Europe she opened sources of instruc¬ 
 tion: schools arose everywhere by the side of 
 cathedrals, colleges and convents, and some of 
 these acquired great celebrity. Great Britain, 
 Italy, Spain, France, Belgium, Germany, Bo¬ 
 hemia, Denmark, all Catholic countries, had 
 universities, or upper and universal schools, in 
 which all the sciences were taught. Centres of 
 light were not wanting in Europe: therefore 
 w T hy not admit that learned men of the highest 
 order were- nourished in her bosom ? 
 
 I willingly admit that in the Middle Ages 
 historical criticism, mathematics, natural sci¬ 
 ences, were not cultivated with that ardor and 
 success which in modern times have acquired 
 for them immortnl glory. But I believe that the 
 seience of Beligion, the science of the dogmas 
 taught by the Church, was never treated with 
 
80 Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 
 
 more vigor, penetration and power at any 
 period of the history of Christianity, than in 
 the age of St. Anselm, of Hugh and Richard, of 
 St. Victor, of St. Bonaventure, St. Thomas 
 Aquinas, and Duns Scotus. Ro period has sur¬ 
 passed the Middle Ages in the philosophy of 
 Christianity, or in the accurate and profound 
 study of the principles and the dogmas of Cath¬ 
 olic Faith. What was the motto of those men 
 whom ignorant or prejudiced detractors depict 
 as blindly believing all the teaching of the 
 Church ? We read it in the title which St. An¬ 
 selm had at first intended to give to his Proslo- 
 gium, an admirable little treatise on metaphys¬ 
 ics : “Fides qucerens inlellectum.” This is the 
 device of all the masters of scholastic theology. 
 They have faith, they firmly believe all the 
 Church teaches; but they are not content with 
 believing; they desire as much as possible to 
 understand; they seek to give an account of 
 their faith, to analyze and penetrate its dogmas, 
 and thus to attain that science of faith which 
 constitutes true Catholic Theology. “Credo ut 
 intelligam,”* says St. Anselm. I seek not to 
 understand the mysteries of Christianity before 
 I adhere to them by faith. I accept them on the 
 authority of the Divine Revelation made known 
 by the Church; but when this faith is once es- 
 
 * Proslog. c. i. 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 81 
 
 tablished I endeavor to penetrate its mysteries. 
 My belief helps me on the way to science. I 
 believe in order that I may understand. “As 
 it is necessary that we believe the mysteries of 
 the Christian Faith before we discuss them by 
 reason, so does it also appear to me negligence 
 not to seek to understand that which we firmly 
 believe/’* 
 
 Most of the writings of the great Archbishop 
 of Canterbury are an eloquent carrying out of 
 this thought: whilst he rests firmly on faith he 
 aims at raising himself to the understanding of 
 Christian truths. At the commencement of the 
 work from which we have just quoted, the dis¬ 
 ciple of Anselm asks to be led “to understand 
 by reason that all which the Catholic Faith 
 commands to be believed of Christ ought really 
 to be believed.”! The master accedes to his dis¬ 
 ciple’s request, and seeks to explain how the In¬ 
 carnation of the Son of God was necessary for 
 the accomplishment of the designs of Providence 
 for the Salvation of man. He seeks not to con¬ 
 ceal the difficulties which infidelity opposes to 
 the mystery of the Incarnation; he points out 
 and discusses all these difficulties on the ground 
 of reason. Men who speak with so much disdain 
 of the blind faith of the Middle Ages would do 
 
 * Cur. Deus Homo, lib. i. c. 2. 
 
 Cur Deus Homo, praef. 
 
 6 
 
82 Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 
 
 well to read this short treatise on the Incarna¬ 
 tion. 
 
 The spirit of St. Anselm was that of all the 
 eminent scholastics. A celebrated theologian of 
 the twelfth century, Richard of St. Victor, has 
 left us a singularly remarkable work on the 
 Trinity. At the beginning of the book Richard 
 declares Faith to be the starting-point and 
 necessary foundation of all theological science. 
 “Faith,” he says, “is the entrance-gate of the 
 sanctuary; by Faith alone can we penetrate 
 therein. Rut,” he adds directly afterward, “we 
 must not pause on the threshold of the sanctu- • 
 ary, we must penetrate into the interior, we 
 must use every means in order that each day we 
 may daily advance further in the knowledge of 
 the truths received by Faith.” “If the begin¬ 
 ning of all good,” says this illustrious doctor in 
 another place, “resides in Faith, the consum¬ 
 mation and completion of all good is found in 
 science. Let us labor to attain this perfection, 
 let all serve as steps by which we may go from 
 Faith to science; let us use every effort to un¬ 
 derstand what we believe. It is of small ac- 
 
 V 
 
 count to have true and just sentiments with re¬ 
 gard to God; we must, as I have just said, 
 endeavor to understand what we believe; we 
 must labor unceasingly, as much as we are per* 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 83 
 
 mitted, as much as is possible, that we may 
 grasp by reason what we hold by faith.” 
 
 Nor was Richard satisfied to establish princi¬ 
 ples with regard to the mission of theology; he 
 preached also by example. His work on the 
 Trinity contains a truly profound discussion of 
 this great mystery; and though there are weak 
 points in his book, it seems to me a sublime mas¬ 
 terpiece of metaphysical science. 
 
 The generality of assailants of the Catholic 
 Faith seem to imagine that before modern times 
 the grounds and teaching of that Faith had 
 never been verified by the light of reason—had 
 never formed the subject of scientific discus¬ 
 sion. We have already had abundant evidence 
 of the value of such an opinion. Moreover, the 
 Middle Ages have bequeathed to us the writings 
 of one who is illustrious above all doctors of the 
 Church, and whose writings would suffice, even 
 in these days, victoriously to refute all the ob¬ 
 jections of infidel philosophy to the Catholic 
 Creed. This profound and universal genius 
 has founded, with a power which has never 
 been surpassed, the whole basis of Christianity; 
 he has explained and justified its dogmas, its 
 practices; he has proposed and solved all the 
 difficulties which can offer themselves to the 
 human intelligence. ITis works are the most 
 marvellous expression of the alliance between 
 
84 Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 
 
 reason and Faith. This man, whom it is 
 scarcely necessary to name, is St. Thomas 
 Aquinas. 
 
 It is impossible to enter with any degree of 
 minuteness into the labors of this great doctor; 
 hut I consider it incumbent on me to show the 
 point of view which he occupies in one of his 
 , great monumental works. 
 
 St. Thomas has written a work which we 
 should now call a demonstration of the Catholic 
 Religion; it is his Summa against the Gentiles. 
 He explains the design of the work as follows: 
 “Full of confidence in the Divine Mercy, I take 
 upon myself to fill the ’office of a sage; and 
 though the undertaking is beyond my strength, 
 I intend, according to my feeble means, to dem¬ 
 onstrate the truth professed by the Catholic 
 Faith, and not to repel all errors contrary to it. 
 For, to make use of the words of Hilary, I feel 
 that the first dutv which I have to fulfil toward 
 
 %j 
 
 God during my life is to consecrate my writings 
 and all the faculties of my soul to the task of 
 making him known. But it is difficult, for two 
 reasons, to attack each error in particular. The 
 first reason is that we are not sufficiently ac¬ 
 quainted with the sacrilegious inventions of 
 erring minds to draw from their very teaching 
 arguments capable of overthrowing their errors. 
 This method was pursued by the ancient fathers 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 85 
 
 to destroy tlie erroneous doctrines of the Gen¬ 
 tiles, whose dogmas they knew because they 
 themselves had been of the number of the Gen¬ 
 tiles, or at all events had lived amongst them 
 and studied their doctrines. The second reason 
 is that amongst them there are some, such as 
 the Mohammedans and pagans, who do not agree 
 with us in recognizing the authority of Scrip¬ 
 ture, which might convince them. We can dis¬ 
 pute with the Jews, taking the Old Testament 
 in support of our arguments, in the same way as 
 we make use of the Hew Testament in oppos¬ 
 ing heretics. But pagans and Mohammedans 
 admit neither the one nor the other. Therefore, 
 it is necessary to have recourse to natural rea¬ 
 son, to which all are obliged to submit, although 
 reason alone suffices not in Divine matters. At 
 the same time that I examine each truth I shall 
 point out the errors which it excludes, and I 
 shall show how truth which is susceptible of 
 demonstration accords with the Christian 
 Faith.”* 
 
 It is therefore a complete apology of the 
 Christian Faith which St. Thomas undertakes 
 to write, taking his stand on the ground of rea¬ 
 son. lie distinguishes two orders of truths in 
 the Catholic Creed, some rational, others super- 
 rational. “In those things which we confess in 
 
 * Contra Gent. lib. i. c. 2. 
 
86 Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 
 
 regard to God/’ says he, “there is a twofold 
 mode of truth. In fact, there are truths which 
 exceed the power of human reason: as, that 
 God is three and one. There are others to which 
 human reason can attain: as, for example, that 
 God is, that God is one, and other similar 
 truths, which the philosophers themselves have 
 proved to demonstration with regard to God, 
 guided by the light of natural reason.”* The 
 great apologist explains why it was fitting that 
 rational truths themselves should he proposed 
 to man as the object of Divine Taith ;t he points 
 out the causes for the revelation of truths su-‘ 
 perior to reason, X and proves that Christians do 
 not lightly believe these super-rational truths. 
 He fixes, in the following terms, the principles 
 which govern the question of the agreement be¬ 
 tween reason and faith. “Although the truth 
 of the Christian Taith surpasses the capacity 
 of human reason, it is impossible that it should 
 he in opposition to the data which form the 
 basis of reason. In fact, first, it is evident that 
 the natural data of reason are most true, so 
 much so that it is not possible to think that they 
 may he false. It is not permitted to look upon 
 that which appertains to faith as false, because 
 it is too manifestly confirmed by God. As that 
 which is false is opposed to that which is true, 
 ... it is impossible that the truth of the Chris- 
 
 * Ibid. c. 3. f Ibid. c. 4. t Ibid. c. 5. 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 87 
 
 tian Faith can be in opposition to the principles 
 which are naturally known by reason. Sec¬ 
 ondly, . . . The principles which we know nat¬ 
 urally are placed in us by a Divine hand, for 
 God himself is the author of our nature. There¬ 
 fore these principles are also in the Divine 
 AYisdom; and consequently all that is contrary 
 to them is opposed to the wisdom of God, and 
 cannot for that reason come from God. We 
 must, therefore, conclude that the articles of 
 Faith, which have been divinely revealed, can¬ 
 not be contrary to natural knowledge. ... It 
 follows evidently, from what goes before, that 
 whatever objections may be made against the 
 teaching of faith, they cannot be taken legiti¬ 
 mately from first natural principles known by 
 themselves. Consequently they can have no 
 demonstrative force; they are only plausible 
 reasons or sophisms, which it is easy to refute.* 
 “As faith,” says the angelic doctor in another 
 place, “rests on infallible truth, and as it is im¬ 
 possible to- demonstrate the contrary of truth, 
 it is evident that the proofs alleged against faith 
 are not demonstrations, but arguments that may 
 be solved.”! 
 
 The Summa against the Gentiles comprises 
 four books. The first three are devoted to 
 
 * Contra Gent. c. 7. 
 
 t Plato had already said that that which is true cannot be 
 refuted. 
 
88 Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 
 
 questions of the rational order; the last treats 
 of super-rational truths. In the first book the 
 author considers, by the method of reason, that 
 which concerns God in himself; in the second 
 he discusses the manner in which creatures pro¬ 
 ceed from him; in the third he examines the re¬ 
 lation of creatures toward him as toward their 
 end. In the fourth book St. Thomas sets forth 
 and discusses the Catholic Doctrine of the 
 Trinity, the Sacraments, the Resurrection of the 
 Body, the State of the Soul after Death, and 
 the Last Judgment. The whole Christian edi¬ 
 fice, from the foundation to the summit, is ex¬ 
 amined in this magnificent work, and that with 
 a power of reasoning before which modern criti¬ 
 cism, provided it be sincere, must reverently 
 bow. Rever has the Christian Faith been sub¬ 
 jected, in its principles and in its dogmas, to a 
 more complete and serious scrutiny.* 
 
 If those who speak with so much disdain of 
 the Faith of the Middle Ages would read the 
 Summa against the Gentiles, the Theological 
 Summa (another incomparable monument of 
 St Thomas), the Opuscula, and his Biblical 
 Commentaries, they would be forced to admit 
 that the Faith which they call blind and unrea¬ 
 soning is marvellously enlightened, and that in 
 the hands of genius it becomes a power which 
 
 * Summa Theol, part i. q. 1, 2, 8. 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 89 
 
 sustains, purifies, enlarges reason, and raises it 
 to a sublime grandeur unknown to mere human 
 philosophy. 
 
 The whole of European society in the Middle 
 Ages, with the exception of the Mohammedans, 
 whose religious creed is beneath discussion, was 
 Christian, and earnest in the profession of the 
 Faith. Still we may discover in its bosom a 
 certain number of unbelievers. Scotus Erigena, 
 Amaury of Chartres, and David of Dinan must 
 be regarded as such, and they all three professed 
 pantheism.* The first has left us two consid¬ 
 erable works, but we possess no writings of the 
 others. The serious error into which these 
 writers fell does not testify to the rectitude of 
 their minds.t USTo one can dream of comparing 
 them, for power of reasoning, with the men I 
 have just named, or with the many other illus¬ 
 trious philosophers and theologians who were 
 the glory of the Church of the Middle Ages. 
 Alcuin, Lanfranc, St. Anselm, Hildebert of 
 Mans, Hugh, and Bichard of St. Victor, Peter 
 Lombard, Alexander of Hales, Albertus Mag¬ 
 nus, Vincent of Beauvais, Boger Bacon, St. 
 Thomas, St. Bonaventure, Henry of Ghent, 
 Duns Scotus, Dante, Gerson, Nicholas of Cusa, 
 
 * Abelard was a rationalist for some time, but did not re¬ 
 main one. 
 
 t See the excellent work of our lamented friend Nicholas 
 Moller. Mayence, 1844. 
 
90 Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 
 
 were all sincere believers. Who will dare to 
 maintain that they were not at the same time 
 the honor of theology, philosophy, science and 
 literature ? 
 
 We may, therefore, be allowed to conclude 
 that if in the Middle Ages men believed with 
 a firm and constant faith all the teaching of the 
 Christian Religion, they did not believe blindly. 
 
 Row we must examine whether it was really 
 the progress of science which brought about the 
 great religious schism of modern times which 
 is called Protestantism, and which led to in¬ 
 fidelity, its natural consequence. 
 
Causes and Cure of U7ibelief . 
 
 91 
 
 CHAPTEK VI. 
 
 Protestantism and Reason .* 
 
 f AM often tempted to think that I must 
 be under the influence of a bad dream, 
 or that I must be the victim of some hal¬ 
 lucination, when, on one side, I daily hear the 
 Catholic Faith and the Church anathematized 
 in the name of reason, human dignity and civ¬ 
 ilization ; and on the other Protestantism and 
 infidelity, the offspring of Protestantism, lauded 
 to the skies. I ask myself—Can these outcries 
 be sincere ? Can reasonable beings be really met 
 with in Europe capable of pronouncing and re¬ 
 peating with apparent conviction such an 
 opinion ? But I call to mind that in the in¬ 
 fancy of Christianity the pious and chaste min¬ 
 isters of Nero, Domitian, Caligula, and similar 
 monsters were seen hurrying to death, as guilty 
 
 * God forbid that in the following pages I should dream of 
 wounding, or even paining, our separated brethren! But it 
 is necessary to recall the fact that the unhappy men who, in 
 the sixteenth century, caused this fatal and irremediable 
 schism in Christian society were enemies alike to reason and 
 to social virtue. Protestants of the present day are victims 
 of this deplorable revolution. We pity them ; we judge ttmm 
 not. We would not insult the misery of a son whose parents 
 had squandered his inheritance. 
 
02 Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 
 
 of impiety and immorality, those who were the 
 sole representatives of truth, virtue, and moral 
 and religious dignity. I remember the number¬ 
 less proofs of the levity, folly, moral and intel¬ 
 lectual perversion of humanity in all ages; and 
 I comprehend that in these days men may still 
 be found who imagine that they are serving the 
 cause of reason, justice and social progress 
 when they devote to public execration that 
 grand institution and those sublime doctrines 
 which form the safeguards of what they hold 
 so dear. Doubtless this is a sad and frightful 
 phenomenon; but it is perfectly understood by 
 those who consider what human nature is, and 
 have not forgotten its history. 
 
 The most determined enemies of the Catholic 
 Faith are willing to admit that the Church was 
 a precious auxiliary to civilization in the Middle 
 Ages, in the midst of those half-barbarous, tur¬ 
 bulent, unsettled races from whose bosom issued 
 the well-ordered glories of the modern world; 
 but they pretend that since the advent of Prot¬ 
 estantism the Church has but curtailed the legit- 
 imate development of reason, and that the Cath¬ 
 olic Faith has been but a perpetual obstacle to 
 the advancement of science and social progress. 
 Luther’s revolt against the authority of the 
 Pope is hailed as the signal for the deliverance 
 of the human intellect, and men admire the au- 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 93 
 
 tliors of the Reformation of the sixteenth century 
 as the emancipators of reason and the restorers 
 of the dignity of man. Not, however, that 
 they willingly confess that human reason was 
 set entirely free by the Protestant revolution. 
 To Rationalism appertains the glory of giving 
 full, entire freedom to this noble captive; but 
 Protestantism was the first glorious stage on the 
 route of definite emancipation; and since, by 
 the natural and necessary progress of events, 
 Protestantism must bring forth Rationalism, it 
 has a right to claim the honors of having broken 
 the chains of humanity and saved reason by re¬ 
 storing its power. This is the thesis which an 
 infidel press is daily defending, and many per¬ 
 sons even elevate this thesis to the height of a 
 philosophical and historical axiom above the 
 reach of discussion. 
 
 We have a profound respect for axioms, but 
 on condition that they really are axioms and do 
 not contradict all principles and facts. We 
 will ask leave, then, freely to examine and dis¬ 
 cuss this strange axiom, which our understand¬ 
 ing has an invincible repugnance to accept. 
 
 We will begin by declaring that, with the ad¬ 
 versaries of the Catholic Paith w T e recognize the 
 
 close affinitv between Protestantism and Ration- 
 €/ 
 
 alism, and that we consider the latter to be not 
 only the natural, but the legitimate offspring of 
 
94 Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 
 
 the former. In our eyes Rationalism is, de 
 jure as well as de facto, the child of Protestant¬ 
 ism. But this is the limit of our agreement. 
 Far from reason having obtained restitution of 
 its legitimate dominion and its rights from 
 Protestantism and Rationalism, we believe that 
 they have seriously injured reason, and that it 
 would have been irretrievably ruined if the 
 Catholic Church, which is the vigilant and in¬ 
 corruptible guardian of all rights and all prin¬ 
 ciples, had not unceasingly opposed their per¬ 
 nicious action. Many persons, we know, will 
 look upon this opinion as a supreme paradox, 
 but there are certain paradoxes which can be 
 more easily justified than certain axioms. Let 
 us cast a rapid glance over the page of history, 
 and let history decide in which of these two con¬ 
 tradictory theses truth is to be found. 
 
 It will suffice to take the most salient points 
 of the moral and intellectual history of modern 
 times, and to abide by the evidence of patent 
 and undisputed facts.* 
 
 * Missionaries, pastors and publishers say that they have 
 found “The Faith of Our Fathers” most satisfactory in con¬ 
 vincing people that there is and can he only one true religion. 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 
 
 95 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 Primitive Protestantism—Age of Leo X—The 
 real Doctrine of Luther and his Accomplices 
 —Denial of Reason and Liberty—War de¬ 
 clared against Science—Immediate Effects of 
 these Doctrines . 
 
 The age which gave birth to Protestantism 
 bears the name of a Pope; it is the age of Leo X. 
 It appears to me that this simple fact ought to 
 suffice to shake the thesis of the calumniators of 
 the Church. At the moment when Luther 
 raised the standard of revolt the Pontifical court 
 was the principal centre of the scientific, liter¬ 
 ary and artistic movement in Europe; it was the 
 rendezvous of artists, authors, philosophers; of 
 men who excelled in every branch of intellectual 
 culture. Leo X, the generous protector of 
 genius, sought to assemble round him the elite , 
 not only of Italy, but of Europe. What sov¬ 
 ereign ever had a more brilliant circle of schol¬ 
 ars; above all, of artists? Would not Leonardo 
 da Vinci, Raphael, Michael Angelo, suffice to 
 render any age illustrious ? And it was in this 
 age, so rich in intellectual greatness, and pre¬ 
 sided over by a Pope, that Protestantism ap¬ 
 peared, as our adversaries say, to set free and 
 reinstate human intellect. Does it not seem as 
 
96 
 
 Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 
 
 if pleasantry were carried too far; and would it 
 not be the time to repeat Horace’s saying, 
 “Risum teneatisV’ But let us now see in what 
 sense Luther and his accomplices understood the 
 emancipation of reason and the re-establishment 
 of human dignity. 
 
 Protestantism at its birth appeared not only 
 as a revolt against the religious authority of the 
 Pope, but at the same time as a protest against 
 the principles and moral teaching of Christi¬ 
 anity, even against that part of Christian Doc¬ 
 trine which appertains to natural religion; in a 
 word, against reason purified and restored to all • 
 its rights by Christianity. There are two very 
 distinct points in the Reformation of the six¬ 
 teenth century: a negative principle and posi¬ 
 tive doctrines. The negative principle springs 
 from the very fact of the revolt against the au¬ 
 thority of the Church; it consists in the rejec¬ 
 tion of all external authority in matters of re¬ 
 ligion. But what did Luther teach when he had 
 denied the authority of the Pope and established 
 the principle of the independence of each indi¬ 
 vidual Christian? What are his positive doc¬ 
 trines ? Considered in relation to reason and 
 the foundations of moral order, what symbol did 
 he substitute for the Catholic “Credo ?” Here 
 is the teaching of this singular liberator of the 
 human mind: By original sin man has lost all 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 97 
 
 strength, all power to know truth and to do 
 good; his moral and religious faculties are not 
 only weakened, but destroyed; he has become 
 essentially wicked; reason, in so far as it re¬ 
 lates to God and to that which concerns the 
 moral order, no longer exists; liberty is but a 
 word.* 
 
 Luther wrote a book expressly against free¬ 
 will, and he has ventured to give to his book 
 this title, (De Servo Arbitrio ) The Slave Will. 
 He pretends that philosophy introduced the 
 word liberty as well as the fatal term reason 
 among Christians. lie sets himself with savage 
 violence against philosophy and against all the 
 works of human reason. He frequently de¬ 
 nounces such works as the works of Satan. 
 Listen for a moment to this extraordinary eman¬ 
 cipation of the human intellect: “If the Chris¬ 
 tian Revelation evidently rejects flesh and blood, 
 that is, human reason and all that comes from 
 man, ... it follows, without doubt, that all 
 this can be only darkness and lies. Yet the 
 great schools, these schools of the devil, do not 
 make the less noise about their natural lights, 
 and cry them up to us as if they were not only 
 useful, but even indispensable, to the manifesta¬ 
 tion of Christian truth; so that we may now be 
 
 perfectly satisfied that these schools are an in- 
 
 « 
 
 • See Mohler, Symbolik, lib. i. ch. ii. Section vi. 
 
 7 
 
98 Causes and Cure of Unxhelief . 
 
 vention of the devil, destined to obscure Chris¬ 
 tianity, if not to ruin it utterly, as in fact they 
 are on the high-road to do.”* This is the way 
 in which Luther speaks of those great schools, 
 those universities which the Catholic Church 
 had established in all parts of Europe, and 
 which diffused everywhere the benefits of 
 science. The reformer’s hatred of universities 
 amounted to madness. Among other follies, he 
 pretended that the four soldiers who are said 
 to have crucified our Lord were the symbolical 
 figure of the universities with their four facul¬ 
 ties, t In his explanation of St. Paul’s Epistle 
 
 • 
 
 to the Galatians he teaches that faith ought to 
 trample reason under foot, or, as he expresses it, 
 strangle the beast. In the last sermon which 
 he preached at Wittemberg he says, amongst 
 other things impossible to translate, “Reason is 
 the bride of the devil, a prostitute, an abomina¬ 
 tion, which with its wisdom we ought to tread 
 under foot.” 
 
 Luther’s writings are full of similar amen¬ 
 ities with regard to reason. 
 
 I willingly admit that Calvin, Zuingle, and 
 other leaders of the Reformation, did not wage 
 so ferocious a war against human reason. Rut 
 all the chiefs of Protestantism are agreed on 
 these two points: Man is not free; good works 
 
 * Kircher postill. Walch, xi. 459. f Dollinger, ibid. 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 99 
 
 are useless to salvation. Now, I ask, do not 
 these two articles of the new creed entail, to¬ 
 gether with the denial of reason and the dignity 
 of man, the destruction of all moral order, of 
 all progress, of all civilization? To set up 
 fatalism as a dogma, to proclaim the uselessness 
 of good works—what is this but to destroy the 
 very idea of duty, to destroy all morality, to re¬ 
 duce man to the level of brutes ? Had these 
 monstrous dogmas been generally received by 
 the nations of Europe, so as to influence their 
 daily life, and had they become the rule and 
 motive of their actions, there would have been 
 an end of civilization, and we should now be 
 plunged in that abject and decrepit barbarism 
 in which Mussulman nations, which profess fa¬ 
 talism and know no more powerful or salutary 
 idea of duty, are vainly struggling. Happily 
 for Europe, “public opinion, good sense, de¬ 
 cency,as Balmez well remarks, “ranged them¬ 
 selves on the side of Catholicity. Even those 
 nations which embraced these fatal doctrines 
 as a religious theory ordinarily rejected them 
 in practice. Catholic teaching had left too deep 
 an impression on these important points; too 
 powerful an instinct of civilization had been 
 communicated to European society by Catholic 
 Doctrine. Thus did the Church, whilst she re¬ 
 jected the fatal errors taught by Protestantism, 
 
100 Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 
 
 preserve society from the debasement which fa¬ 
 talist doctrines carry in their train. By con¬ 
 demning these errors of Luther, which formed, 
 as it were, the main point of Protestantism at 
 its birth, the Pope/’ adds the eminent Spanish 
 politician, “raised the war-cry against an irrup¬ 
 tion of barbarism in the order of ideas; he 
 favored morality, law, public order, society, the 
 Vatican. By securing the noble sentiment of 
 liberty in the sanctuary of the conscience, he 
 preserved the dignity of man; by combating 
 Protestant ideas, by defending the sacred de¬ 
 posit confided to its keeping by the Divine. 
 Master, the Roman See became the tutelar 
 divinity of the future destiny of civilization. 
 
 The vigorous spiritual temperament which 
 Europe had received from the action of the 
 Church for so many centuries past enabled it to 
 resist the abject and criminal follies of the 
 father of the Reformation, but not without re¬ 
 ceiving serious and irreparable injury. It is 
 enough to hear Luther himself despairingly at¬ 
 test the disastrous effects of these senseless 
 doctrines; it is enough to hear this pretended 
 restorer of the dignity of man deplore the 
 frightful spiritual degradation which immedi¬ 
 ately followed the establishment of Protestant¬ 
 ism. “Since the tyranny of the Pope has ceased 
 
 * Protestantism and Catholicity compared in their effects 
 on the civilization of Europe, ch. xi. 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 101 
 
 among us,” says the great Reformer, “there is 
 no one who does not despise pure and salutary 
 doctrine: it is no longer with men that we have 
 to do, but with very brutes, with a brutish 
 race.” . . . “People think only of deceiving 
 one another; they take delight only in robbery 
 and rapine: it appears as if the Word of Life 
 had the property of changing men all at once 
 into so many savage and furious beasts.” 
 “Under the Papacy people performed with zeal, 
 pleasure, and often at great expense, a number 
 of those useless and senseless works. . . . Since 
 they have heard the word liberty they speak of 
 nothing else, and use it only to refuse to fulfil 
 every kind of duty. If I am free, say they, 
 I may do what appears to me good. If I cannot 
 be saved by works, why should I impose priva¬ 
 tions on myself, as, for example, by bestowing 
 alms on the poor ? Their conduct is sevenfold 
 worse under the reign of liberty than it formerly 
 was under Papal tyranny. . . . Theft and 
 robbery are the only things about which people 
 show any zeal. . . . Whilst half the town of 
 Wittemberg is threatened with ruin on account 
 of adultery, usury, dishonesty and rapine, there 
 is not even a tribunal of justice to rectify all 
 this misery. . . . Formerly, when people were 
 yet in the errors of Popery, if any good work 
 were in question, all were ready and full of 
 
102 Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 
 
 good will; now, on the contrary, they think only 
 of heaping up riches, of saving, of robbing, of 
 stealing the property of others by lies, decep¬ 
 tion, usury. If we still possess some evangelical 
 pulpits and some Christian schools, it is not be¬ 
 cause people have paid the necessary expenses 
 from their own stores: they found what they 
 wanted by pillaging ancient foundations, which 
 is not very meritorious. . . . Had the existence 
 of churches and schools depended on our gener¬ 
 osity, on us who live in this age, there would 
 have been long ago neither scholars nor pas¬ 
 tors. ” “We have a singular spectacle before • 
 our eyes; every one pretends to be a Christian 
 and follower of the Gospel, and yet they give 
 themselves without measure to gluttony, avarice, 
 usury, and I know not what other vices.” 
 
 Here we have the confession of the father of 
 Protestantism to shoAV us how far this magnifi¬ 
 cent Reform had elevated and ennobled souls. 
 True, Luther is filled with indignation when it 
 is pointed out to him that this moral and intel¬ 
 lectual decline is the natural and necessary fruit 
 of his preaching and teaching. This indigna¬ 
 tion, if sincere, is certainly singular. When 
 people have been taught that reason is of no ac¬ 
 count in the moral and religious order, that lib¬ 
 erty is hut a word, moreover, that good works 
 are useless, can it he wondered at if they ah- 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 103 
 
 stain from such works as impose constraint on 
 their appetites and selfishness; if they indulge 
 all their inordinate inclinations, despise intel¬ 
 lectual culture, and descend even below the 
 level of brutes ? 
 
 We have seen that Luther was not satisfied 
 with accusing reason of absolute want of power 
 in the moral and religious order; hut that he 
 deemed it to he evil, to he contrary to faith, and 
 that he attacked all culture of the reason, and 
 especially philosophy, with the grossest sar¬ 
 casms. These senseless declamations had their 
 effect. Schools and academies were suppressed 
 in many places where the new religion was es¬ 
 tablished. “At Wittemberg,” says Dollinger, 
 “the preachers, George Mohr and Gabriel Didy- 
 mus, both zealous Lutherans, proclaimed from 
 the pulpit that the study of the sciences was 
 not only useless but pernicious, and that people 
 could not do better than destroy academies and 
 schools. The result of this preaching was to 
 convert the schoolhouse of Wittemherg into a 
 baker’s shop. The same thing occurred through¬ 
 out the duchy of Anspach.”* Protestant mag¬ 
 istrates, alarmed at the desertion and ruin of 
 the schools, addressed a petition to the Mar¬ 
 grave of Brandenburg, in which they declared, 
 “If this state of things continue we shall soon 
 
 * Loc. cit. p. 400. 
 
104 Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 
 
 fall into such gross ignorance that nothing will 
 he more difficult than to find a good preacher or 
 a skilful lawyer.’’* 
 
 Catholicism had covered Germany with 
 schools and academies, besides a vast number of 
 flourishing universities. Where Protestantism 
 was established many of these universities 
 quickly fell into decay. The universities of 
 Erfurt and Rostoch, amongst others, were en¬ 
 tirely ruined. 
 
 The Reformation produced analogous results 
 in Denmark, Norway and Sweden. In 1594 
 the governing senate of Copenhagen addressed 
 a circular to the bishops of the kingdom, in 
 order to call their attention to certain measures 
 which they judged necessary to arrest the ruin 
 of learning, “which it could not be denied 
 was imminent.” “Village schools existed no 
 longer,” says Dollinger. “Even in towns, 
 schools for the people, as well as those of a 
 higher class, were in a state of complete decay 
 during the sixteenth century.”! It is w T ell 
 known that in Sweden the change of religion 
 was violently brought about by the king, Gusta- 
 vus Vasa, whose chief object was to gain pos¬ 
 session of Church property in order to pay the 
 debts he had contracted by his wars. In this 
 
 * lb. p. 401. 
 
 t Die Reformation, etc., tom. xi. p. 600. Heart-rending 
 accounts are met with in Dollinger of the intellectual and 
 moral state of Denmark at this epoch. 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 105 
 
 country, as in Denmark, the pernicious influ¬ 
 ence of the Reformation affected, in the first 
 instance, schools and public instruction. We 
 may see this from two letters, bearing date 1533 
 and 1540 addressed by the king to his subjects 
 at Upsala, Westeras, and the provinces of Up¬ 
 land and Indermania: “We are convinced, and 
 we make known to you,” says the king, “that the 
 schools in all towns of our kingdom are in a 
 deplorable state of decay; to such a point that, 
 in those schools where there were formerly 
 three hundred students, scarcely fifty can now 
 be reckoned. In many parishes they are com¬ 
 pletely deserted, which must be highly prejudi¬ 
 cial to the kingdom. The principal cause of 
 this state of things is that you, good, honest 
 people that you are, neglect to have your chil¬ 
 dren instructed as you were accustomed to do 
 formerly, and that you will not assist poor 
 scholars as is your duty, and as your fathers 
 and ancestors did.* Besides, but a very small 
 number of subjects are now destined to pursue 
 learning; and those who devote themselves, or 
 wish to devote themselves, to it are now obliged 
 to give it up for want of means and support on 
 your part. . . . The refusal or reduction of 
 tithes and other duties of the same kind has had 
 
 * Gustavus Vasa forgot that he had himself given the death¬ 
 blow to learning when he confiscated the property of the 
 Church, and employed it for far different objects than the 
 education of youth. 
 
106 Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 
 
 the fatal effect of diminishing the means of 
 maintenance formerly granted to those who fre¬ 
 quented the schools; and as, moreover, the title 
 of student or minister is now held in disesteem, 
 few parents will consent to devote their children 
 to learning, so that shortly this country will be 
 hut indifferently provided with learned and ca¬ 
 pable men”* 
 
 In a letter to the Bishop of Osnaburgh, the 
 Senator Joeran Gylte writes, “that public in¬ 
 struction is in so deplorable a stage in Sweden 
 that a new state of barbarism was to be feared; 
 that he knew but ten preachers, or high func¬ 
 tionaries of the Church, who could really be 
 considered learned; and that, in the whole king¬ 
 dom, it would not be easy to find a single theo¬ 
 logian or physician who had attained the degree 
 of doctor.”! 
 
 Erasmus, who was a competent judge of the 
 state of literature and science, points out the 
 disastrous influence exercised upon learning by 
 the new doctrines in several passages of his 
 writings. Especially he denounces Luther as 
 the chief author of the decay of instruction. 
 He says: “When a man professes, as Luther did, 
 that the Aristotelian philosophy—that is to say, 
 all philosophical science based upon the prin¬ 
 ciples of Aristotle—is but the work of Satan; 
 
 * Ap. Dollinger, loc. cit. p. 664. t Ibid. p. 668. 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 107 
 
 when he looks upon all speculative science in 
 general as sin and error; when, with Farell, he 
 treats openly and on all occasions every kind of 
 human knowledge as the conception of hell and 
 the devil, how can any one suppose that such 
 principles should produce aught but a contempt 
 for study, and the predominance of avaricious 
 and sensual passions ? Has it not been openly 
 taught at Strasburg and elsewhere that it is 
 contrary to the spirit of the Gospel that people 
 should lose their time, whether in studying 
 ancient languages (Hebrew alone excepted) or 
 in instructing themselves in any other branch 
 of human learning ?”* 
 
 Surely this will suffice. Is it not evident that 
 Protestantism announced itself to Europe, not 
 as the emancipator of reason and science, as 
 some pretend, but as the inauguration of a veri¬ 
 table barbarism ? The Reformation of the six¬ 
 teenth century appears in history as a revolt of 
 the senses, and of all that is low and vile in 
 human nature, against reason and moral dig¬ 
 nity. It is the resurrection of pagan material¬ 
 ism, with its debasement and infamy, as far as 
 the spiritual atmosphere which long centuries 
 
 * Epist. ad Fratres Germanics infer, p. 4. Colonise. 1561.— 
 Epist. Londini, 1642, p. 984. “The printers relate,” says 
 Erasmus in another letter, “that previous to the new gospel 
 (of Luther) they were accustomed to sell three thousand 
 volumes in less time than they now sell six hundred.” And 
 again, elsewhere. “Wherever Lutheranism reigns, there is an 
 end of literature.” 
 
108 Causes and Cure of Unbelief, 
 
 of Christianity had generated in Europe would 
 permit. Had Protestant nations followed lit¬ 
 erally the teaching of Luther and his accom¬ 
 plices, they would have sunk below even pagan 
 vileness; for pagans did not anathematize either 
 reason or liberty, and Athens and Pome hon¬ 
 ored science, literature and art. The people 
 were devoured by the most ignoble practical ma¬ 
 terialism; but the philosophers, at all events, 
 glorified reason, and exalted noble and generous 
 actions. The moral temperament of European 
 nations was strong enough, thank God, to re¬ 
 sist, in part if not completely, the debasing doc¬ 
 trines proclaimed by the chiefs of Protestanism. 
 Soon a number of Protestants might be seen, 
 who, alarmed at the flood of depravity which 
 threatened to overwhelm civilization with its 
 unclean waters, began to work courageously at 
 opposing a dike to the devastating torrent. 
 They strove to correct what was too visibly base 
 in the new religion, and to assimilate them¬ 
 selves as much as possible to the moral teaching 
 of the Catholic Church, whose neighborhood 
 was not without influence upon them. But, 
 after all, it is a fact taught by history that 
 Protestantism, as set forth by its originators, 
 bears manifestly the mark of the beast, and 
 that it is the negation of all those principles 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 109 
 
 which constitute the strength and honor of 
 European civilization. 
 
 We know what was the attitude assumed by 
 the Catholic Church in the face of this revolu¬ 
 tion which threatened to destroy all moral 
 order. She publicly condemned the mad doc¬ 
 trines of Luther and his competitors; she sol¬ 
 emnly anathematized the two fundamental arti¬ 
 cles of the Protestant creed, namely, that reason 
 has lost all power in that which regards the 
 moral order, and that liberty no longer exists.* 
 She maintained the prerogatives of reason and 
 human liberty with immovable firmness, and 
 upheld the rights of morality against the at¬ 
 tacks of pretended reformers. She thus saved 
 not only revealed but natural religion, and with 
 it all those notions of right, duty, justice, dig¬ 
 nity, responsibility, moral greatness, without 
 which nations, as well as individuals, must fall 
 into contempt and decay, and which raise the 
 standard of civilization in proportion to the in¬ 
 fluence they exercise upon society. 
 
 By the admirable laws of the Council of 
 Trent in matters of discipline, the Catholic 
 Church opposed a true, serious, Christian refor¬ 
 mation to the false, cynical reformation of Lu¬ 
 ther and his accomplices. The Council of 
 Trent appears as the bulwark not only of the 
 
 * See the Council of Trent, Sess. vi. 
 
110 Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 
 
 Christian Faith, but of reason, justice, morality 
 and civilization. 
 
 And whilst proud, corrupt men, assuming to 
 be reformers of the Church, were denying rea¬ 
 son, denouncing science, and ruining schools of 
 learning, a new Religious Order came forth 
 from the ever-fruitful bosom of the Church, 
 which was destined to struggle with incompar¬ 
 able glory against the moral and intellectual 
 barbarism with which these strange reformers 
 threatened Europe. The Company of Jesus, 
 illustrious from its very birth, established 
 schools in all directions, founded missions, and 
 combated, with a zeal which can never be suf¬ 
 ficiently admired, the prevailing state of ig¬ 
 norance and immorality. 
 
 We must now say a few words of the general 
 principle on which Protestantism is based, and 
 point out the fruits produced by it. 
 
 -o- 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 The Negative Principle of Protestantism, or the 
 Rejection of Authority in Matters of Religion 
 —Fanaticism and Rationalism the twofold 
 Fruit of this Principle. 
 
 When the assailants of the Catholic Faith 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief . Ill 
 
 hail Protestantism as the liberator of reason and 
 science, they certainly cannot intend to speak 
 of the positive and peculiar doctrines of the 
 Reformation of the sixteenth century; for, as 
 we have seen, these doctrines sacrificed reason 
 to a blind and impossible faith. Apparently 
 they considered only the general principle of the 
 Reformation, which consists definitively in the 
 rejection of all authority in matters of religion. 
 When Luther revolted against the authority of 
 the Pope, he naturally sought to justify his re¬ 
 volt ; and he certainly did this most effectually 
 when he declared that, according to the true 
 spirit of Christianity, each Christian is the 
 judge of religious truth, that he is independent 
 of all external authority, and that the Bible is 
 his sole guide. Hence arose the principle which 
 was to serve as the foundation of Protestantism: 
 it was the offspring of the pride of a monk who 
 sought to legitimatize his want of submission 
 and his revolt against authority. Luther had no 
 suspicion of the lengths to which the principle 
 he proclaimed would be carried; and it must be 
 admitted that most Protestant sects recognize its 
 value only so far as it affects the authority of 
 the Pope: they are ready to accept any author¬ 
 ity provided it is not the authority of the Pope. 
 But logic preserves its rights, and sooner 
 or later the consequences involved in a prin- 
 
112 Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 
 
 ciple will make themselves felt. The nat¬ 
 ural consequence of the Protestant principle was 
 fanaticism or rationalism, according as religious 
 enthusiasm or mere individual reason might pre¬ 
 vail in the reading and interpretation of the 
 Bible. Panaticism, and fanaticism of the most 
 extravagant kind, showed itself in the earliest 
 stages of the Reformation. 
 
 “Protestantism had existed for five years,” 
 says Mohler, “when several inhabitants of 
 Zwickau, Nicholas Storch, Mark Thomas, Mark 
 Stalmer, Thomas Muneer, Martin Cellarius, 
 and others, repaired to Wittemburg in order to 
 confer with the doctors who had adorned the 
 birthplace of Gospel Truth. As Luther was 
 then at Wartburg, it devolved on Melancthon to 
 receive them. These brethren in Christ were 
 sent by the Holy Ghost: revelations had been 
 made to them on various subjects, but for the 
 present they contented themselves with attack¬ 
 ing the baptism of infants, which they rejected 
 as contrary to Holy Scripture.”* Thus arose 
 the sect of Anabaptists. Now that the authority 
 of the church was set at naught, and all doc¬ 
 trinal guidance rejected, each man understood 
 the Scripture in his own fashion, and was but 
 too ready to mistake his own fancies for the in¬ 
 spirations of the Holy Spirit; and all the more 
 
 * SymVolik, b. ii. ch. i. 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 113 
 
 because religious activity in man was denied in 
 principle, and he was regarded as passive under 
 the hand of God. How many visionaries were 
 to be found among the first disciples of Luther !* 
 And would to God that these fanatics had been 
 no more than extravagant visionaries! But 
 with many fanaticism became the source of the 
 most atrocious cruelties and most frightful dis¬ 
 orders. Germany was inundated with torrents 
 of blood. Hot to mention other facts, the peas¬ 
 ants’ war, kindled by Luther’s doctrines and 
 stirred into a flame by the fanaticism of the 
 Anabaptists, covered the soil with thousands of 
 human hecatombs. One historian says that dur¬ 
 ing the savage war “more than a hundred thou¬ 
 sand men might be reckoned as killed on the 
 battlefields of Germany, seven cities were dis¬ 
 mantled, a thousand Monasteries razed to the 
 ground, three hundred Churches burned, and 
 immense treasures of painting, sculpture, glass, 
 and engraving were destroyed.”! Who is ig¬ 
 norant of the immoral and bloody follies of 
 which Munster was the theatre under the tyr¬ 
 anny of Mathias Harlem and John of Leyden, 
 that tailor who was crowned King of Sion, on 
 the 24th of June, 1534? 
 
 nationalism was another result of the rejec- 
 
 • See Balmez, tom. i. p. 258, etc. 
 t Rohrbacher, Histoire Universelle de VEglise Catholique, 
 
 t. xziii. p. 227. 
 
 8 
 
114 Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 
 
 tion of the authority of the Church. Very 
 shortly after Luther’s revolt Protestants began 
 in earnest to make use of the principle of free 
 examination, and to apply it to the interpreta¬ 
 tion of the Bible and the discussion of the Chris¬ 
 tian Faith. These men did not believe, with 
 Luther and the other fanatics of whom we have 
 just spoken, that reason was extinct, and that it 
 had been replaced by the Holy Spirit; but in¬ 
 stead of understanding Scripture in conformity 
 with tradition and the authority of the Church, 
 they recognized no other rule for the interpre¬ 
 tation of Holy Scripture than human reason, 
 and soon went so far as to pretend that nothing 
 is evident in Scripture except what does not ex¬ 
 ceed the measure of reason. On these grounds 
 was based Socinianism, whose principles were 
 definitely established by Faustus Socinus, in the 
 second half of the sixteenth century. Poland 
 was at first the principal theatre of this sect. 54. 
 Its followers accept Holy Scripture as the source 
 of Divine Bevelation; but they pretend that 
 God has revealed no dogma superior to human 
 reason, and whenever they meet with the decla¬ 
 ration of a doctrine in the Bible which is above 
 reason they interpret the text in a metaphorical 
 or allegorical sense. All the Christian mys- 
 
 * Lilius annd Faustus Socinus, who gave their names to this 
 sect, lived long in Poland, where they made numerous prose¬ 
 lytes. 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 115 
 
 teries were soon suppressed. Socinianism was 
 the first rough draught of Rationalism. 
 
 Socinian ideas quickly found a number of 
 supporters among learned Protestants in Ger¬ 
 many, France and England. Various Protes¬ 
 tant sects, wdio appealed to the Bible by the 
 same right and with the same authority, were 
 soon divided on all points of doctrine. They 
 were agreed only on the two articles—there is 
 one God, and Jesus Christ is the Messiah. 
 They were constrained to restrict the funda- 
 mental and essential dogmas of Christianity to 
 these two articles, under pain of condemning the 
 principle whence all these contradictions sprang. 
 And we must observe that whilst they ac¬ 
 knowledged Jesus Christ as the Messiah, they 
 did not intend to prejudge the question as to 
 whether he were God or merely a messenger 
 from God. Reduced to these proportions, 
 Christianity evidently lost all supernatural 
 character, and became nothing more than a 
 timid Deism. Thus it appears in the Reason¬ 
 able Christianity of Locke, and other writings 
 of a similar class.* 
 
 The door was opened to infidelity. Protest¬ 
 antism was beginning to bear fruit. 
 
 * The historical development of the Protestant principle is 
 given in detail in “Brownson’s Essays.” See also “The Path 
 which Led a Protestant Lawyer into the Catholic Church ;” 
 by Burnett, ex-Governor of California.—B. Herder, St. Louis. 
 
116 Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Modern Infidelity—Infidelity prevails first in 
 England, afterward in France and Germany 
 —Poverty of the Infidel Philosophy of the 
 Eighteenth Century—Theological Infidelity 
 in Germany. 
 
 t NFIDELS are to be met with in every 
 century of the Christian era; but such 
 a spectacle as we have had before our 
 eyes during the last two centuries was never 
 witnessed from the day in which Christianity 
 first took possession of the nations of Europe. 
 Infidelity has become a power, and a formid¬ 
 able power, possessing a whole army of soldiers. 
 Here is a singular phenomenon in the annals of 
 the Christian world. Protestantism, as we have 
 just seen, was one chief cause of this grievous 
 fact. By the logical development of the prin¬ 
 ciple born of Luther’s revolt, Protestantism led 
 directly to Rationalism; but in another way—in 
 an indirect way, it contributed to the triumph 
 of infidelity by diminishing the action of the 
 Catholic Church, and by weakening in a degree 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 117 
 
 hitherto unknown the religious spirit in Europe. 
 Infidelity first displayed its power on a Protest¬ 
 ant soil—in England. In the year 1624, Lord 
 Herbert, of Cherbury, published a work in 
 which Deism was set forth and systematically 
 defended. The empire of opinion in England 
 was conquered for unbelief by Hobbes, Toland, 
 Blount, Shaftesbury, Tindal, Morgan, Chubb, 
 Collins, Woolston and Bolingbroke. Boling- 
 broke was the master of Voltaire. It is well 
 known that the Erench infidels of the eighteenth 
 century were but the echoes of English Deists. 
 M. Villemain recognizes and proves this fact in 
 his Cours de Litterature Frangaise. He says, 
 “The boldest arguments of French philosophy 
 in the eighteenth century may be found in the 
 English school of the beginning of that cen¬ 
 tury.” That philosophy was summed up in 
 Bolingbroke. In his dissipated youth, his high 
 official station under Queen Anne, and in his 
 exile, he gave himself up to the pursuit of an 
 anti-Christian erudition. His singular learning 
 charmed and perplexed Voltaire in the conver¬ 
 sations they held together in Touraine.* There, 
 in place of the libertine scepticism which had 
 been his first school, and the only philosophy of 
 Vendome and Chaulieu, he met with a learned 
 
 * When Bolingbroke was banished from England by Act of 
 Parliament, he withdrew into France, and had a magnificent 
 residence in Touraine. He returned to England in 1726. 
 
118 Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 
 
 polyglot infidelity, based on the authority of a 
 philosopher and a statesman. We can easily 
 conceive how vast must have been the power 
 exercised by the reflection of this erudition, the 
 confidence of this bold scepticism, the essence 
 of irreligion exhaled by such a multitude of 
 books read rapidly by Voltaire, and imported 
 into France, where the douane was powerless 
 to stop them, and there was no moral influence 
 to resist their power. Voltaire followed Boling- 
 broke to England, and passed three years with 
 the leaders of English infidelity. “Diderot, the 
 most active mind of the eighteenth century 
 after Voltaire, borrowed his first philosophical 
 studies, and his first essay of the Encyclopedia, 
 from England.* Bousseau took a great portion 
 of his ideas on politics and education,! and 
 Condillac all his philosophy from Locked’ X 
 Condillac was not himself an unbeliever, but 
 his philosophy, a pale reflection, as it was, of 
 Locke’s, opened the way to all the degradation 
 of materialism. It is curious to hear this poor 
 Abbe de Condillac, the oracle of the infidel 
 philosophers of the eighteenth century, date the 
 
 * Diderot and D’Alembert, the editors of the Encyclopedia, 
 inscribed the name of Francis Bacon on the frontispiece of 
 this famous work, and brought out this sad monument of the 
 French science of the eighteenth century under the auspices of 
 the English Chancellor, 
 
 t Locke’s Essay on Civil Government formed a model for 
 the Contrat Social of Rousseau, and to his Thoughts upon 
 Education Rousseau is largely indebted for his Emile. 
 
 J Villemain. 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 119 
 
 advent of philosophy in the modern world from 
 Bacon and Locke, whilst he counts for nothing 
 Descartes, Malebranche, Leibnitz, Bossuet, 
 Eenelon—all the great minds of the seven¬ 
 teenth century, who are the eternal glory 
 of French literature.* I have said elsewhere, 
 making use of Condillac’s sacramental for¬ 
 mula in his explanation of the generation 
 of faculties in his statue, that Condillacism 
 is philosophy changing itself into nonsense. 
 I am certain that this sentence will not 
 now be disputed by any serious philosopher, 
 whether he be a believer or an unbeliever. 
 Locke is certainly not strong in metaphysics; 
 the heights to which the genius of Malebranche, 
 Leibnitz, Bossuet and Fenelon soars are inac¬ 
 cessible to him; but Locke is an eagle compared 
 to Condillac. Yet everv one knows that Condil- 
 
 %j 
 
 lac held the sceptre of philosophy in France 
 even up to the first years of the present century, 
 and for fiftv-vears the contemners of the Chris- 
 
 i/ 
 
 tian Faith bowed before this man. This does 
 not prove the progress of reason. It appears to 
 me that if, instead of seeking inspiration from 
 England, the France of the eighteenth century 
 had been faithful to herself by following up the 
 philosophical and literary traditions of her 
 
 * Leibnitz wrote his two great philosophical works, his 
 Essais de Theodicee and his Nouveaux Essais sur VEntende- 
 vient Humain, in French. 
 
120 Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 
 
 seventeenth century, reason would not have been 
 the loser. 
 
 Oh! that men who look upon infidelity as the 
 natural and necessary result of the legitimate 
 - progress of reason would draw a simple com¬ 
 parison, hut a comparison which speaks most 
 eloquently. The seventeenth century, as rep¬ 
 resented by her greatest men, was thoroughly 
 Christian; the eighteenth, on the contrary, was 
 infidel. Now, which is the greater of these two 
 centuries for power of reason, extent of science 
 and brilliancy of literature? I think among 
 earnest men there cannot be two opinions on the 
 subject: the seventeenth century is undoubtedly 
 far superior in all these respects to the eigh¬ 
 teenth.* 
 
 As to philosophy, which is the highest mani¬ 
 festation of reason, we must admit that among 
 French infidels of the eighteenth century it was 
 entirely null. Who in the present day would 
 dream of taking Ilelvetius, D’Holbach, Lamet- 
 trie, and other thinkers of the same school, in¬ 
 heritors of Condillac’s sensualism, for philoso- 
 
 * “The great writers of the age of Louis XIV,” says Maine 
 de Biran, “were so only in their own estimation ; this no 
 longer exists, and now the most brilliant amongst them seem 
 but as monkeys, whose tricks excite our surprise; they are 
 lively, nothing more. ... I see men of wit who believe only 
 in themselves ; they are puffed up with pride, completely sat¬ 
 isfied with their own utterances ; they imagine the world ad¬ 
 mires them, and in fact this self-esteem gains for them the 
 approbation of men of weak judgment: competent judges ridi¬ 
 cule them and their pretentions.”—Maine de Biran, La Vie 
 et ses Pensees, p. 329. 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 121 
 
 phers ? What philosopher would consent to 
 speak seriously of the pretended philosophy of 
 Voltaire and J. J. Rousseau? They were 
 writers of genius, I admit, hut strangers alike 
 to philosophy and to all science properly so- 
 called. They were men of letters, hut neither 
 philosophers nor scholars. If, then, the eigh¬ 
 teenth century was infidel, it evidently did not 
 become so by its intellectual and scientific su¬ 
 periority. We must seek elsewhere for the 
 causes of that unbelief, which, with frightful 
 rapidity, invaded the higher ranks of French 
 society and spread thence over the rest of Eu¬ 
 rope. 
 
 A conscientious and learned man, the Abbe 
 Bergier, who lived in the midst of the infidels of 
 the eighteenth century, and read all their works, 
 has not been afraid to affirm that their unbelief 
 had no other source than licentiousness and the 
 unbridled sway of the passions. “We make a 
 point,” he says, at the beginning of his Traite 
 de la Yraie Religion, “of ignoring whether the ^ 
 authors of the crowd of impious books which at¬ 
 tack religion, are living or dead, fellow-country¬ 
 men or foreigners, known or unknown; we 
 would depict them only by their writings: we 
 attack books, not men. We will only mention 
 by name those whose works arc generally 
 avowed, and we will allege no other facts than 
 
122 Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 
 
 those which result from the works themselves. 
 Limiting ourselves to this irrefragable proof, we 
 maintain that licentiousness and unbridled pas¬ 
 sion are the real causes of infidelity.”* 
 
 The Baron d’Holbach, who, in his capacity of 
 first maitre d 7 hotel of philosophy,t must have 
 been well acquainted with the philosophical or 
 infidel party, passes the following judgment on 
 the greater number of his accomplices, in a book 
 of mournful celebrity: “We must allow that cor¬ 
 ruption of manners, debauchery, license, and 
 even frivolity of mind may often lead to irre- 
 ligion or infidelity. . . . Many people give up 
 prejudices they had adopted through vanity and 
 hearsay; these pretended free-thinkers have ex¬ 
 amined nothing for themselves, they rely on 
 others whom they suppose to have weighed mat¬ 
 ters more carefully. IIow can men, given up 
 to voluptuousness and debauchery, plunged in 
 excess, ambitious, intriguing, frivolous, and dis¬ 
 sipated—or depraved women of wit and fashion 
 —how can such as these be capable of forming 
 
 * Introd., Section 14. 
 
 t D’Holbach was in the habit of giving two dinners a week 
 to his friends the philosophers. The Abbe Galiani, writing 
 him from Naples, the 7th April, 1770, says: “Does the 
 philosophy of which you are the chief steward always eat 
 with so good an appetite?” It suffices to make the most 
 glorious titles odious that a certain man should have appropri¬ 
 ated them. The name of sophist, so honorable in its origin, 
 was forever disgraced by Gorgias, Protagoras, and other buf¬ 
 foons whose notions were so cruelly lashed by the irony of 
 Socrates. It is not the fault of Voltaire’s school that philos¬ 
 ophy did not share the same fate. 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 123 
 
 an opinion of a religion they have never thor¬ 
 oughly examined, of feeling the force of an 
 argument, or of embracing a system in all its 
 parts 
 
 About the same period another leader of un¬ 
 belief spoke thus of a multitude of infidels: 
 “Can philosophy boast of having for adherents, 
 in a dissolute nation, a multitude of dissipated 
 and licentious libertines who despise a gloomy 
 and false religion on hearsay, without knowl¬ 
 edge of the duties they ought to substitute for 
 it ? AVill philosophy he flattered by the inter¬ 
 ested homage and stupid applause of a troop of 
 voluptuaries, of public robbers, of intemperate 
 and licentious men, who conclude that because 
 they forget their God and despise his worship, 
 therefore they owe nothing to themselves or to 
 society, and who think themselves wise, because 
 (though often with fear and remorse) they 
 trample under foot chimeras which compelled 
 them to respecft decency and morality ?”t 
 
 Helvetius admits that his friends, the leaders 
 of infidelity, were sometimes more taken up 
 with the correction of their work than of their 
 behavior. | Who is ignorant that Voltaire and 
 Rousseau were not precisely models of chastity 
 nor even of probity? Frederick II, who had 
 
 * Systeme de la Nature, tom. ii. ch. 13. Le Systeme de la 
 Nature is a manual of atheism, 
 t Essad sur les Prejuges, ch. 8. 
 tDe I’Esprit, 2 discours, c. 9. 
 
124 Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 
 
 long been intimately acquainted with Voltaire, 
 and who was certainly not very exacting on the 
 score of morals, wrote thus to Dargot: “Vol¬ 
 taire behaved here like a consummate scoundrel 
 and cheat, and I paid him off as he deserves. 
 He is a wretch, and for the honor of genius I 
 am sorry that a man who has so much should be 
 so full of mischief. Voltaire is the most wicked 
 fool I have ever known: is only good to read. 
 You cannot imagine what duplicity, cheating 
 and villainy he practiced here.”* 
 
 There is no doubt that corruption of morals, 
 joined to the weakening of Christian sentiments 
 which Protestantism had brought about in Eu¬ 
 rope, was the principal cause of the infidelity of 
 the eighteenth century. Season and science had 
 nothing to do with it. I believe that no honest 
 man, who has read some of the writings of the 
 most eminent infidels of that period, and who 
 is acquainted with their moral history, will dis¬ 
 pute the fact. 
 
 But let me not be misunderstood. I do not 
 mean to say that moral corruption is the sole 
 cause of infidelity: unbelief has many other 
 sources, and I freely acknowledge that among 
 infidels men are to be found whose lives are 
 
 * The work of M. Nicolardot, Menage et Finances de Vol¬ 
 taire, Paris, 1854, shows what were the habits of Voltaire 
 and the philosophers of the eighteenth century. I do not 
 approve the general tone of this work, but it contains some 
 curious information. 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 125 
 
 purer than the lives of many Christians. I 
 merely recall a historical fact which is indispu¬ 
 table. 
 
 Further, two distinct forms of infidelity are 
 met with in the eighteenth century. By the 
 side of that frivolous infidelity, which for the 
 most part originated and was kept up in the im¬ 
 moral atmosphere of the salons of the Voltair¬ 
 ian school, there was a serious, earnest infidel¬ 
 ity, produced by causes of a totally different 
 kind. This serious infidelity prevailed in Ger¬ 
 many especially, and its principal organs were 
 the Protestant theologians. Germany had paid 
 a heavy tribute to the raillery and frivolity 
 which distinguished French infidelity. Fred¬ 
 erick II, who had an equal contempt for 
 morality and religion, had made Berlin the 
 rendezvous of French freethinkers, and en¬ 
 couraged them in their work of demoralization. 
 The spirit of the French school was exactly 
 represented by some German writers, such as 
 Edelmann, Bahrdt and Basedow. But about 
 the same period a grave, earnest Rationalism 
 arose from a wholly different source. The Prot¬ 
 estant theologian, Semler, carrying out to its 
 legitimate conclusion the principle of free ex¬ 
 amination in the interpretation of Holy Scrip¬ 
 ture, founded theological or exegetical Ration¬ 
 alism. This new form of infidelity soon found 
 
126 Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 
 
 numerous supporters in the ranks of the Prot¬ 
 estant clergy, and since the beginning of the 
 century it has been dominant in the theological 
 schools of Protestantism. 
 
 We know that with Protestants theology rests 
 wholly and exclusively on the Bible. Luther, 
 and the companions of his revolt against the 
 traditional authority of the Catholic Church, 
 pretended that the Bible was the sole source of 
 Divine Revelation, and that all Christian doc¬ 
 trine was most clearly declared in it; that, con¬ 
 sequently, it was useless to interrogate tradi¬ 
 tion, which, besides, had for the most part only 
 corrupted the purity of the teaching contained 
 in Holy Scripture. Hence the boasted disdain 
 of the early Protestants for tradition and its 
 most venerable interpreters, the Bathers and 
 Doctors of the Church. Protestant theology 
 knows only the Bible, and is in fact but the 
 mere simple interpretation of the Bible: it is 
 confounded with the exegesis itself. How, to 
 the greater number of Protestant theologians the 
 Bible is but a book like any other, stripped of 
 all supernatural character, and no more repre¬ 
 senting a Divine teaching than the dialogues of 
 Plato or the metaphysics of Aristotle. They in¬ 
 terpret it as a purely human work; and when 
 they meet with facts or doctrines which trans¬ 
 cend the powers of nature or the capacity of 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 127 
 
 reason, they either reject them altogether or 
 explain them so as to bring them down to the 
 level of the purely natural order. This is the 
 rationalistic exegesis, which is at the same time 
 theological rationalism. It is a rationalism 
 which rests, at least in appearance, on the Bible, 
 and makes its comments with the greatest care; 
 but in reality it robs the Bible of its very es¬ 
 sence, and recognizes no other light than that 
 of mere human reason. It differs from ordi¬ 
 nary or philosophical rationalism only in form. 
 
 Bor some years past a movement favorable 
 to the Christian Baitli has stirred the ranks of 
 the Protestant theologians of Germany. Many 
 distinguished scholars have broken with ration¬ 
 alism. Unfortunately their faith has no fixed 
 rule, and their opinions are, for the most part, 
 vague and uncertain. The early Protestants 
 in practice forgot the principle of free exami¬ 
 nation and free interpretation of the Bible, and 
 were fixed in their belief by common and sup¬ 
 posed obligatory confessions of Baith; now, 
 even believing theologians no longer accept these 
 ancient creeds. Julius Muller says: “It is 
 patent, that in all the theological works recently 
 published, and in which the collective doctrines 
 to be believed are set forth, there is not one 
 which has not declared that the Lutheran con¬ 
 fessions need modification on some point or 
 
128 Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 
 
 other;* and this regards definitions of the 
 highest importance.” And Ehrenberg said, be¬ 
 fore the general Synod of Berlin, that he had 
 for years sought a man who should agree on all 
 points with his Confessions of Faith, and that 
 he had never found such a one. It is affirmed 
 that, for the last hundred years, no theologian, 
 either from his professor’s chair or from the 
 pulpit, has taught one single doctrine perfectly 
 agreeing in form and matter with the published 
 Confessions .t How can a common settled faith 
 be maintained when no doctrinal authority is 
 recognized on religious subjects ? Would that 
 those theologians who believe and who must 
 groan over the divisions and uncertainty pro¬ 
 duced by the necessary development of the prin¬ 
 ciples of the Reformation—would that they 
 might at length comprehend that the authority 
 of the Catholic Church is the Divine, indispen¬ 
 sable safeguard of the firmness and unity of the 
 Christian Eaith, and that a full, pure Eaith is 
 to be found in the bosom of Catholicism alone! 
 
 * Deutsche Zeitschrift, 1855, p. 107. 
 
 t Revue mensuelle pour VEglise evangelique unie. 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 
 
 129 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 The Principal Forms of Contemporary Infi¬ 
 delity — Materialism — Pantheism—Sophistry 
 and Scepticism—Spiritualistic Rationalism. 
 
 -^REFTCH unbelief is rarely distinguished 
 by originality. In the eighteenth cen- 
 tury it copied England, in the nine¬ 
 teenth it copies Germany. Erom England, 
 France borrowed the cynical deism and debased 
 philosophy which quickly engendered material¬ 
 ism ; from Germany she has in our days re¬ 
 ceived Pantheism, and that presumptuous soph¬ 
 istry which, .together with the principles of re¬ 
 ligion, pretend also to change the fundamental 
 laws of reason itself. 
 
 IIow thankful and happy should believers 
 feel when they behold the result of the arro¬ 
 gant efforts of poor human reason in revolt 
 against the teaching of Christian Faith! For 
 the last century two systems have been predomi¬ 
 nant by turns in the schools of infidelity; and 
 
 what are these systems? Materialism and Pan- 
 
 «/ 
 
 9 
 
130 Carnes and Cure of Unbelief. 
 
 theism. And what is Materialism? what is 
 Pantheism ? I ask the question of every under¬ 
 standing that is not dead or wholly perverted by 
 falsehood. Materialism is reason abdicating 
 her throne, which she abandons to the flesh; it 
 is the mind compassing its own ruin, and de¬ 
 livering itself up as a vile slave to the caprices 
 of the body which was made to serve it; it is 
 the soul losing the very consciousness of its own 
 reality, and believing itself to be but the prop¬ 
 erty or a dependent of the organs of sense; it is 
 man assimilated to the brutes, and glorying in 
 this assimilation. And what is Pantheism ? 
 Pantheism, as we shall explain presently, is 
 reason abdicating its throne and abandoning it 
 to sophistry; it is the radical change of all 
 principles which form the light of the moral 
 and intellectual life of humanity; it is the ne¬ 
 gation of good sense and reason—of pure, sim¬ 
 ple reason—that which all men call reason. 
 Behold the intellectual and moral progress ac¬ 
 complished by the human mind in revolt against 
 God! What a lesson for any one capable of re¬ 
 flecting and judging! 
 
 At the beginning of the present century, Ma¬ 
 terialism was the fashionable doctrine with in¬ 
 fidels, at least in Prance. We know to what a 
 depth of degradation and ignominy it had sunk 
 at the end of the last century. Men, who in 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 131 
 
 their pride despised the Christian Faith, and 
 rejected Christianity in the name of the pro¬ 
 gress of reason, blushed not to place a naked 
 prostitute upon the altar of the Incarnate God. 
 Behold the goddess, who, by a just judgment of 
 Divine Providence, was permitted to call her¬ 
 self the goddess of reason! 
 
 Materialism was vigorously combated by men 
 whose names have retained their celebrity. 
 Boyer, Collard, Maine de Biran, M. Cousin, 
 carried on a persevering war against this ig¬ 
 noble philosophy, which ended in destroying its 
 authority as a recognized philosophical system. 
 Many unbelievers, however, renounced Mate¬ 
 rialism only to embrace Pantheism. France 
 and Europe are indebted to Germany for this 
 monstrous philosophy. 
 
 The earliest professors of Pantheism in 
 modern times were Giordano Bruno, an un¬ 
 frocked monk .of the sixteenth century, and 
 Baruch Spinoza, a Dutch Jew, of the seven¬ 
 teenth. As long as the mind of Europe pre¬ 
 served its uprightness and balance there was 
 nothing to fear from Pantheism. The seven¬ 
 teenth century only beheld in Spinoza’s phi¬ 
 losophy the mad dream of a delirious mind; the 
 eighteenth century, though infidel, borrowed 
 nothing from Spinoza’s philosophy, and took 
 from him only a portion of his rationalistic 
 
132 Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 
 
 criticism of the Bible.* Pantheism established 
 itself in Europe, and began to acquire import¬ 
 ance only in the last years of the eighteenth 
 century, and especially in the beginning of the 
 nineteenth. It appeared first in Germany, 
 where, thanks to the religious decomposition 
 brought about by the natural development of 
 Protestantism, the training of the intellect had 
 passed almost wholly into the hands of the 
 rationalistic philosophy. Kant was at that 
 time its great master. This philosopher, who 
 had been thrown into an absurd course by the 
 Cartesian formalism of Wolf, made the idea of 
 God, and all those general and absolute ideas 
 which are the light and rule of reason, purely 
 subjective forms of the human mind—necessary 
 forms certainly, but devoid of all objective 
 value. Thence he argued the impossibility of 
 proving the existence of God, and the reality of 
 a moral order beyond our ego, by means of 
 theoretical reason, that is to say, of reason prop¬ 
 erly so-called. Johann Gottlieb Eichte, the 
 most celebrated of the disciples of the philoso¬ 
 pher of Konigsberg, went still further. He 
 taught that there is no real God, no moral order 
 exterior to the ego; according to Eichte it is 
 this ego which is God, which is the true Sov- 
 
 * Voltaire and his followers were only acquainted with the 
 Traite Theologico-Politico of Spinoza; they were ignorant of 
 L’Ethique, which contains this writer’s philosophy. 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 133 
 
 ereign Reality; all else is the work of the activ¬ 
 ity of this ego, the product of thought. This 
 is idealistic or subjective Pantheism, and was 
 the first form of the revived Pantheism. 
 
 Pantheism having reappeared, the works of 
 Spinoza, which had been long forgotten, be¬ 
 came once more the fashion; and this writer, 
 who professes the most brutal and repulsive 
 materialistic Pantheism, was hailed as the 
 prince of modern philosophy. Infidel France 
 soon shared the infatuation of Germany for 
 this miserable philosopher whom Malebranche 
 called a wretch, and whose system he treated as 
 a frightful chimera. I want no other proof 
 of the feebleness and decline of reason among 
 our infidel philosophers than their judgment of 
 Spinoza. 
 
 Schelling and Ilegel were the most famous 
 representatives of Pantheism in Germany dur¬ 
 ing the first half of the present century. Hegel 
 is the undoubted master of the sophistry of our 
 day. ’ -- • I 
 
 Victor Cousin, the founder of the eclectic 1 
 school, who, in 1817, visited the leaders of the 
 philosophical movement in Germany, imported 
 Pantheism into France. Afterward he sin¬ 
 cerely repudiated this fatal doctrine. The most 
 considerable writers of the eclectic school never 
 adopted Pantheism. But by the side of this 
 
134 Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 
 
 purely philosophical school arose another whose 
 teachers openly professed that system. I speak 
 of the humanitarian socialist school, which 
 reckoned Pierre Leroux among its leaders, as 
 also the unhappy Abbe de Lamennais, whose 
 pride plunged him into every kind of error. 
 Leroux teaches Pantheism clearly in his work 
 De VHumanite, and Lemennais tried to rec- 
 -oncile it with Christianity in L’Esquisse d’une 
 Philosophie. A philosopher of some repute, 
 M. Yacherot, formerly a disciple of Cousin, 
 still professes Pantheism. M. Renan once 
 summed up the metaphysics of Vacherot in 
 the following sentence: “ God is the idea of 
 the world, and the world is the reality of God.” 
 As for M. Renan himself, that tardy copyist of 
 German extravagance, he recognized no God 
 hut the ideal, as it manifests itself in the human 
 mind, with which it is confounded. This is 
 pure atheism.* 
 
 Belgium did not escape the general contagion. 
 A German philosopher, M. Ahrens, a disciple 
 of Krause, introduced Pantheism into the Uni¬ 
 versity of Brussels. It was professed there 
 later by M. Tiberghien, the pupil and successor 
 of M. Ahrens, in the chair of philosophy. 
 
 * The Vie de Jesus, which the infidel press of Belgium, 
 France, and Italy has welcomed as the last utterance of Ger¬ 
 man criticism, has excited irrepressible ridicule in learned 
 Germany, even in the bosom of the rationalistic schools. 
 Grave German critics cannot comprehend how any one, in 
 the critical state of science, can regard in a serious light the 
 author of such a book. 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 135 
 
 This detestable system has assumed many 
 various forms, and I willingly admit that the 
 Pantheism of Schelling, Krause, and other con¬ 
 temporary philosophers differs in many respects 
 from the Pantheism of Spinoza; hut these dif¬ 
 ferences are hut accessory; the foundation of 
 the system is the same in all, and it is this: 
 Pantheism consists in recognizing but one sole 
 substance, and in giving to this one substance 
 the name of God. God is all, since all partici¬ 
 pates of his substance, and is truly consubstan- 
 tial with him. According to this doctrine, God 
 is no longer a personal Being, subsisting in 
 himself, and living by his own life, substantially 
 distinct from the world and from each one of us, 
 a Being gifted with a personal intelligence and 
 will. lie is the sole and universal substance, 
 displaying himself under the form of the world, 
 and of humanity, developing himself necessa¬ 
 rily and unceasingly under this twofold form, 
 which is the sole and necessary manifestation of 
 his life. God exists not without the world and 
 without man; he has no reality but in them and 
 by them; man and the world are in strict terms 
 the realization of God. This is the essence of 
 all Pantheism. We maintain that such a doc¬ 
 trine not only injures reason, but radically de¬ 
 stroys it. Kothing can be plainer. 
 
 Pantheism, by recognizing only one sole sub- 
 
136 Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 
 
 stance or essence, called by the name of God, 
 pretends, and must pretend, that all things and 
 all ideas are fundamentally identical, and can 
 only differ in form; it proclaims the principle 
 of absolute and universal ideality. Hence the 
 identity of God and the world, of mind and 
 matter, of necessity and liberty, of truth and 
 falsehood, of good and evil, of just and unjust, 
 of being and not being, as Hegel teaches posi¬ 
 tively : hence in one word the identity of things 
 that are contrary and contradictory. All this . 
 is the direct denial of that fundamental princi¬ 
 ple without which there is neither reason, lan¬ 
 guage nor thought. It is impossible to affirm 
 yes and no at the same time with regard to the 
 same point. I ask, is not all this the total, 
 radical destruction of reason? Ho, Pantheism 
 is not philosophy; it is mere sophistry; it is 
 the production of a reason overthrown and be¬ 
 come unreason or systematic folly. 
 
 The logic of Hegel, in which that daring 
 master of German philosophy affirms in express 
 terms the identity of things that are contrary 
 and contradictory, is simply the logic of supreme 
 absurdity, and it is the only logic that Panthe¬ 
 ism can produce.* 
 
 * Pius IX., in his memorable allocution of June 9th, 1862, 
 thus characterizes Pantheism: “With a dishonesty only 
 equalled by egregious folly, they do not hesitate to assert that 
 there exists no divine Being, no eternal providence. 0 'ir i i'- 
 cient and supreme, distinct from the universe, and that God 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 137 
 
 Observe further that by representing God, 
 or the universal substance, as something inde¬ 
 terminate, which, according to Hegel’s expres¬ 
 sion, becomes and never is, which changes and 
 modifies itself unceasingly, which develops it¬ 
 self and progresses indefinitely, Pantheism sup¬ 
 presses at one stroke those necessary, inimitable, 
 absolute ideas which are the support, light and 
 rule of our intelligence, and without which man 
 is no longer a reasonable being, rationis parti- 
 ceps. If there be no perfect and unchangeable 
 God, how can there be unchangeable truth ? 
 Where would truth have her foundation or her 
 abode ? Consequently how could there be prin¬ 
 ciples ? With the immutability of God, all 
 truths and all principles must necessarily fall. 
 Ho lohger is anything fixed, all is subject to 
 change. All, according to the saying of Hera¬ 
 clitus, is in perpetual flow. In this universal 
 and incessant movement, in which at every in¬ 
 stant one wave succeeds another wave, reason 
 can no longer exist, and thought, deprived of its 
 anchor, wanders at hazard over a tempest-tossed 
 ocean. 
 
 This is the goal attained by that proud plii- 
 
 and nature are identical, and that God as a consequence is 
 subject to change ; that all things are God and have the very 
 essence of the Deity, that God is identical with the world, 
 and necessarily spirit with matter, necessity with liberty, 
 truth with falsehood, good with evil, what is just with in¬ 
 justice ; than which it is certainly impossible to invent or 
 imagine anything more foolish, more impious, more contrary 
 to reason itself.” 
 
138 Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 
 
 losophy which the most famous infidels of the 
 nineteenth century have thought fit to substi¬ 
 tute, in the name of progress and reason, for 
 the ancient Christian Faith. 
 
 For some time past Pantheism has lost 
 ground in Europe; it is on the decline in strictly 
 philosophical schools, though it undoubtedly 
 still reckons a great number of adherents in 
 Germany, Belgium, France and elsewhere. 
 And it is unfortunately undeniable that the in¬ 
 fluence of Pantheism will be long felt among . 
 us. This detestable philosophy has corrupted 
 all principles, and the reason of. Europe has 
 probably suffered irreparable injury from the 
 long sway which it has exercised over the minds 
 of men. The manner in which many writers 
 who do not profess Pantheism treat religion, 
 social and moral sciences, history, and even lit¬ 
 erature, sufficiently attests that they still suffer 
 from this fatal influence. 
 
 Since the decline of Pantheism in Germany, 
 Materialism has gained favor there. At pres¬ 
 ent, it numbers many supporters among the rep¬ 
 resentatives of philosophy, but especially among 
 the interpreters of the natural sciences. Feuer¬ 
 bach, Max Stirner, Arnold Ruge, Vogt, Mole- 
 schott L. Buchner, not to mention others, re¬ 
 ject everything that transcends the limits of ex¬ 
 perience—God, the moral law, the immortality 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 139 
 
 of the soul, all general principles which to¬ 
 gether form the light and rule of reason, and 
 without which man is no longer a reasonable be¬ 
 ing, but a mere sensitive being, an animal. 
 German Materialism followed Pantheism, and 
 in more than one instance sprang directly from 
 it. Hegel deified man: his disciple, Feuer¬ 
 bach, brought man down to the level of the 
 beasts. Is not this a repetition, in the moral 
 order, of the old story of Nabuchodonosor? 
 Man madly lifts himself up to the desire of be¬ 
 coming God, then falls below his own nature of 
 man; he becomes like to the beasts, and sinks 
 so low as even to seek to convince himself that 
 such ignominy is his glory. 
 
 In France, two or three writers calling 
 themselves philosophers have, in the name of 
 reason, resumed the defence of Materialism. 
 Auguste Comte and Littre have founded a pre¬ 
 tended philosophy which they adorn with the 
 name of positive philosophy, because it recog¬ 
 nizes only facts attested by experience. The 
 school which proudly calls itself the critical 
 school is worthy to figure by the side of the posi¬ 
 tivist school. Taine and Renan, w r ho are 
 firmly persuaded that before the appearance of 
 their school there was neither science nor phi¬ 
 losophy upon earth, are its chief upholders. 
 These enlightened minds profess Materialism, 
 
140 Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 
 
 Taine roughly and openly, Renan in delicate 
 terms, and with shades of such nicety and va¬ 
 riety as to do honor to his imagination. This 
 austere moralist brands that “egotism which 
 makes us eagerly seek the reward of virtue be¬ 
 yond the tomb.”* In M. Renan’s eyes the im¬ 
 mortality of the soul is a chimera w T hich fades 
 away before the touch of criticism, it is an in¬ 
 vention of Greek philosophy. This eminent 
 critic mocks at the “doctrine called spiritualist, 
 which cuts man into two parts, body and soul, 
 and looks upon it as quite natural, that while 
 the hodv rots the soul should survive.”! In 
 fact, is it not much more natural that the soul 
 should decay with the body? 
 
 What a noble philosophy! and how proud 
 ought a man to feel who has made such wonder¬ 
 ful discoveries! M. Renan is, in fact, so en¬ 
 chanted with himself, that—in order doubtless 
 to justify his immeasurable pride—he goes so 
 far as to point out pride and disdain as the 
 chief among virtues. Listen to this really origi¬ 
 nal moralist: “The word pride, in the language 
 of Christian moralists, is held in suspicion; it 
 is used to stigmatize precious qualities, and 
 even virtues.”! “There is a certain elevation 
 of soul which is only obtained by a habit of 
 disdain.”§ “Disdain almost always produces 
 
 *Vie de Jesus, p. 55. Paris, 1863. t lb. P- 51. 
 
 X Essais de Morale et de Critique, p. 174. % lb. p. 209. 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 141 
 
 a delicate style. . . . Disdain is a delicate and 
 delicious luxury which a man enjoys by him¬ 
 self: it is discreet, for it suffices to itself.”* 
 And in the blasphemous romance which it has 
 pleased him to call vie de Jesus, this man, who, 
 
 . according to the words of a famous orator, has 
 found means to make praise of the most repul¬ 
 sive form of blasphemy,! extols our Lord Jesus 
 Christ for having “founded that great doctrine 
 of transcendent disdain, the true doctrine of 
 the liberty of souls, which alone gives peace. 
 
 Is not this intoxication? is not this truly de¬ 
 lirium ? To have descended to the lowest de¬ 
 gree of intellectual abjection, and there, 
 haughty in the midst of ruin, pity those who, 
 as Plato says, have not so far corrupted their 
 understanding? What can there be in the in¬ 
 tellectual order below Materialism, and that 
 state in which reason, wholly stripped and cor¬ 
 rupted, no longer believes in truth, and can no 
 longer discern between that which is and that 
 which is not ? This is M. Henan’s position, as 
 his last writings testify. This singular leader 
 of the pretended critical school in France is 
 perhaps the most remarkable type of those sub¬ 
 tle but corrupted minds, numerous enough at 
 the present time, who have no concern as to 
 
 * Essais de Morale et de Critique, p. 188. 
 f M. de Montalembert. $ Vie de Jesus, p. 117. 
 
142 Causes and Cure of Unbelief, 
 
 what is true or what is false, and who lull 
 themselves with images and a vain sound of 
 words. Nor is this class of mind new. It was 
 dominant in Greece at the epoch when Socrates 
 appeared. Protagoras and Gorgias are the real 
 ancestors of M. Renan and our other contem¬ 
 porary sophists. It is the glory of Socrates that 
 he delivered his country from these public 
 poisoners. Who will deliver European society 
 of their miserable descendants? 
 
 By the side of the Materialists, Pantheists, 
 sceptics, sophists of every kind, there is among 
 unbelievers a large class of men who seek to 
 maintain the fundamental dogmas of natural 
 religion and the essential principles of moral 
 order: these are the spiritualistic rationalists. 
 The supporters of spiritualistic Rationalism 
 recognize the existence of a personal God, dis¬ 
 tinct from the world, infinitely perfect. With 
 Christians they affirm that this God is one and 
 the Creator of all things; they defend the spir¬ 
 itual nature, liberty and immortality of the 
 soul; they admit an absolute and immutable 
 moral law, the necessary basis of the distinction 
 between moral good and evil, and they confess 
 that rewards and punishments are reserved in a 
 future life for men who observe or violate the 
 precepts of this law; but they do not define the 
 nature of these rewards and punishments, nor 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 143 
 
 their duration. They say, moreover, that man 
 owes a worship to God; but they do not say in 
 what this worship consists. This, in its essen¬ 
 tial features, is the moral and religious creed of 
 many cultivated and honest minds who will not 
 receive the Christian Faith, and absolutely re¬ 
 ject whatever is supernatural. 
 
 It is the fear of the supernatural which 
 causes these Rationalists, without denying the 
 doctrine of Divine Providence, singularly to 
 lower it. They reject all positive intervention 
 of God in the world, because otherwise they 
 must admit miracles, which would destroy 
 their system. They do not even recognize the 
 legitimacy and efficacy of prayer in the sense 
 of petition: they pretend that God can not 
 derogate from the general law of the universe 
 in order to bestow certain favors, whether in the 
 moral, religious, on material order, on any in¬ 
 dividual man who asks for them. 
 
 What becomes of religion with such doctrines 
 as these ? To what is the dogma of Providence 
 reduced ? To this: that God exercises no direct 
 action on the world; that he is a stranger to the 
 life of humanity; that truth and error, good and 
 evil, the happiness and misery of man, are mat¬ 
 ters of profound indifference to him; that it is 
 enough for him to have created the world; 
 henceforth he has no further concern with it, 
 
144 Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 
 
 that it must go on as it can, and that each crea¬ 
 ture must suffice to itself. I protest that I can¬ 
 not understand how any one who believes in a 
 personal and infinitely perfect God can reduce 
 him to act such a part as this. Truly this God 
 of Rationalism is hut the statue of God; he is 
 not the living God. This is the remark of M. 
 Guizot, who was long in the trammels of Ra¬ 
 tionalism: “The best among Rationalists,” he 
 says, “only suffer the statue of God (if such an 
 expression may he used)—the statue only, an • 
 image, a piece of marble—to subsist in the 
 world and in the human soul. God himself is 
 no longer there. Christians alone possess the 
 living God. It is this living God,” adds the 
 statesman, “whom we need. It is requisite for 
 our present and future salvation that faith in 
 the supernatural order, that reverence for the 
 submission to the supernatural order, should be 
 restored to the world and to the human soul in 
 great minds as in simple minds, in the highest 
 ranks as well as in the humblest. On this con¬ 
 dition rests the truly efficacious and regenerat¬ 
 ing influence of religious belief. Without this 
 it is superficial, and all but vain.”* 
 
 Assuredly spiritualistic Rationalism—which 
 is undoubtedly the best, the noblest, the most 
 honest form of unbelief, is, in my opinion, 
 anything but reasonable. 
 
 * Meditations et Etudes morales, preface. Paris, 1852. 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 
 
 145 
 
 PART II. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 What Faith is. 
 
 ANY people have a strange idea of 
 II religious Faith. Some look upon it 
 as only an office of the imagination, 
 or, at most, of the feelings. According to them 
 religion is wholly in the sensible part of the 
 soul; reason has nothing to do with it. Hence 
 they consider all religions as indifferent in 
 themselves. Religious feeling may be produced 
 under diverse forms; these forms are of no im¬ 
 portance ; it is sufficient that the feeling be 
 sincere, and that it show itself by the homage 
 of a respectful submission to the Divinity. 
 The question of doctrine and truth wholly dis¬ 
 appears ; it is of no moment to know whether a 
 religious belief be true or false, if it be conform¬ 
 able or contrary to reason; all is judged exclu¬ 
 sively from the point of view of the heart. This 
 is truly a senseless opinion, insulting alike to 
 10 
 
146 Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 
 
 reason and to God. Yet a great number of men 
 hold it, according to whom Christian Faith is 
 a blind sentiment, more or less respectable, 
 which may be good enough for the common 
 people, but is nnworthy of a cultivated mind 
 guided by the light of reason. 
 
 On the other hand, men are to be found who 
 place themselves at a wholly opposite point of 
 view; who persuade themselves that faith is the 
 work of the understanding alone, that feeling 
 and the will have no part in it; and they con¬ 
 clude thence that faith is not free, that it in 
 no way depends on us, and that if some receive 
 the Christian creed whilst others reject it, it 
 is because they see, or think they see, what is 
 hidden from the others. If it were so, unbelief 
 could never be a sin; at most, putting things at 
 their worst, it would only be a mistake. Men 
 who reason thus can have reflected but little on 
 the part the will plays in the adhesion of the 
 soul to truth. 
 
 Let us begin by recalling the principles of 
 Catholic theology on the nature of faith. 
 When these principles are known, it will be 
 easier to discern the causes of infidelity. It is 
 necessary to know exactly what the Christian 
 Faith is in order that we may comprehend 
 what the obstacles are which hinder its birth 
 and growth in a soul, that we may know what 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 147 
 
 things are most likely to weaken or even ex¬ 
 tinguish it in a soul where it already exists. 
 
 To believe, in the religious and Christian 
 sense of the word, is to adhere to any truth on 
 the authority of God, who is the revealer of 
 that truth. Human faith accepts a thing on 
 the testimony of man; Divine and Christian 
 Faith on the testimony of God. We believe all 
 the articles of the Catholic creed, because we 
 are convinced that all these articles have been 
 revealed by God, and consequently they have 
 for their warrant the testimony of God Himself. 
 We do not adhere to such or such a doctrine as 
 the object of our Faith, on the word of the 
 Pope, or of the Church. In our eyes the 
 Church is but a means of going to God, a me¬ 
 dium divinely established to communicate the 
 teaching of God to us. The Church is not the 
 Truth; she is its guardian and its organ; she 
 hears witness to the Truth. 
 
 We must observe, hv the way, that the Cath¬ 
 olic Church and the Divine Pevelation made in 
 Jesus Christ are two things absolutely insep- 
 erable. From the moment we admit that God 
 has made a divine and supernatural revelation 
 to the human race, and that he has prescribed 
 a religion for men to follow, we must also nec¬ 
 essarily admit that his providence has estab¬ 
 lished an authority charged to maintain this 
 
148 Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 
 
 religion pure and entire, to preserve it, and to 
 propagate it. It is absurd, supremely absurd, 
 to suppose that God would reveal and establish 
 the religion which men must follow in order to 
 attain their end, and then leave this religion to 
 itself, abandon it to chance, without any care 
 for its fate, suffering it to become corrupt and 
 to fade away by contact with time, and the in¬ 
 terested caprices and innumerable moral and 
 intellectual weaknesses which human nature • 
 continually displays. A God who could act 
 thus could not be to us a personal God, infinitely 
 wise and perfect; he would be a being as inex¬ 
 plicable as the god of Epicurus, a god whom 
 reason must disown. Many Protestant authors, 
 in spite of their prejudices, recognize the nec¬ 
 essary and indissoluble union between Chris¬ 
 tian revelation and the Church. “When we 
 start from a supernatural principle in religion,” 
 says Staeudlin, “we must necessarily admit 
 that the Divinity, who has deigned to make this 
 revelation to man, must have taken care that it 
 should not be abandoned to the arbitrary judg¬ 
 ment of men; not to admit this principle is to 
 argue inconsistently.”* “What the doctrine of 
 Divine Providence is with regard to the crea¬ 
 tion,” says another Protestant writer, “such is 
 the doctrine of the infallibility of the Church 
 
 * Staeudlin’s Magazine, vol. iii. p. 83. 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 149 
 
 with regard to Divine Revelation. They must 
 stand or fall together.”* 
 
 The Divine Word, which the Church does but 
 repeat and explain to men, cannot deceive. God 
 is Truth, and the Truth does not lie. When it 
 is once thoroughly established that a doctrine 
 comes from God, it would be absurd to demand 
 other proofs of the truth of this doctrine. Peo¬ 
 ple do not ask Truth if it speaks the truth. Our 
 Faith, resting on the authority of the Divine 
 Word, is therefore sheltered from all error; the 
 foundation on which it rests is immovable. It 
 is supremely reasonable, for it depends on the 
 veracity of God himself, who is infinite reason. 
 
 We are certain that the doctrines to which we 
 adhere by Divine Catholic Faith really come 
 from God. We do not admit lightly or without 
 cause the fact of Divine Revelation; we believe 
 it on the authority of truths whose evidence in 
 our eyes is absolutely incontestable, and twenty 
 times more striking than that which surrounds 
 the best authenticated historical facts. These 
 proofs form what is called in theology motives 
 of credibility. These are the preliminaries of 
 faith—preliminaries which human reason has 
 a right to demand, and may examine by the 
 light of earnest, upright, loyal criticism. Chris¬ 
 tianity does not fear an attentive and thorough 
 
 * N. Qnartalschrift, Jahrgang ix. n. 3. 
 
150 Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 
 
 examination of its title-deeds. On the con¬ 
 trary, it calls for it. But people must not de¬ 
 ceive themselves. However evident the motives 
 of credibility may he in themselves, they do not 
 suffice to produce faith in the soul; they prepare 
 the way for faith, but they do not create it. 
 The causes on which faith depends are higher, 
 and of a more interior nature. Here we must 
 strive to understand thoroughly the teaching of 
 Catholic theology, throwing light, as it does, . 
 upon depths whose existence is not even sus¬ 
 pected by multitudes of inattentive and super¬ 
 ficial minds. 
 
 St. Thomas Aquinas gives the following defi¬ 
 nition of faith: “To believe is an act of the 
 understanding adhering to Divine Truth by 
 command of the will, which is moved by the 
 grace of God. The act of faith is subject to 
 free will in relation with God, and therefore it 
 is meritorious.”* We shall make a brief com¬ 
 mentary on this definition, in which all is com¬ 
 prised. Baith is the result of the combined 
 action of God and man. Let us see first what 
 man does; then we will show what he receives 
 from God, and how far he must be aided by 
 God in order to believe with a supernatural and 
 true faith.t 
 
 * Summa Theol. 2, 2, q. ii. art. 9. 
 
 t “To believe is in the first place an act of the intellect, be¬ 
 cause the object of this act is ‘the true,’ which properly per¬ 
 tains to the intellect.”— Ibid. q. iv. art. 3. 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 151 
 
 The understanding does not act alone in man 
 in the formation of the act of Faith, but the 
 will also, and principally; it is the act of the 
 whole soul, with all its faculties, all its powers. 
 To believe is assuredly, as St. Thomas says, an 
 act of the understanding, because the object of 
 Faith is Divine Truth, and truth in itself is the 
 object of the understanding, and not of the will; 
 the understanding is made to know that which 
 is true, the will to love and conform itself to 
 that which is good. It is therefore exact to say 
 that faith is the direct and immediate act of 
 the understanding, not of the will. But it is 
 only by the intervention of the will which 
 moves, directs and commands it, that the under¬ 
 standing accepts Divine Truth, and gives ad¬ 
 hesion and assent to it. There is no constraint 
 upon the will with regard to the direction it 
 shall take, and in which it will be followed by 
 the understanding: the will is free. Undoubt¬ 
 edly it can, under grave responsibility, choose 
 between two contrarv directions, and, conse- 
 quently, either unite and bind the understand¬ 
 ing to truth, or turn it away, and precipitate it 
 into error. On this account, the act of faith, 
 on the firm adhesion of the understanding to 
 Divine Truth, is meritorious; it is a free act, 
 free with a liberty subject to trial, and not yet 
 fixed in the love and possession of the truth. 
 
152 Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 
 
 Suarez justly observes that, to accomplish the 
 act of faith, it is not sufficient that there be no 
 repugnance in the will to believe; it is neces¬ 
 sary that by a positive act it move the under¬ 
 standing to attach itself to revealed truth.* It 
 is, then, the will that is the principal agent 
 of faith in us. It is not the understand¬ 
 ing, but the will, which decides with regard to 
 faith. In order to believe we must will to be¬ 
 lieve ; will it positively and seriously; the 
 direction and assent of the understanding de¬ 
 pend upon the will. In this sense St. Augus¬ 
 tine says, and St. Thomas repeats after him, that 
 Faith dwells in the will of those who believe: 
 “Fides consistit in credentium voluntateffif 
 
 I fear that this doctrine, which gives so great 
 a preponderance to the will in the act of faith, 
 may astonish and disturb more than one of my 
 readers who are accustomed to look only to the 
 understanding when the knowledge and accep¬ 
 tance of truth are in question. But they may 
 be reassured. I am confident that if thev will 
 
 t / 
 
 read to the end they will see that the principles 
 of Catholic theology, on the adhesion of the 
 soul to Divine Truth, are in harmony with the 
 fundamental and intimate laws of our nature, 
 and can be misunderstood only by a prodigiously 
 
 * Be Fide. disp. vi. sect. vi. n. 7. 
 t See St. Thom. loc. cit. q. vi. a. 1. 
 
Causes and Cure of Uribelief. 153 
 
 superficial psychology. I will confine myself 
 for the present to some short remarks. 
 
 Most theologians, in explaining the free and 
 meritorious character of the act of faith, con¬ 
 tent themselves with observing, “That the ob¬ 
 ject of faith is obscure to us—not evident in 
 itself. Thus the dogmas of the Holy Trinity, 
 of the Incarnation, of the Redemption, of the 
 Eucharist, for example, are certainly not in 
 themselves evident to our reason; they are mys¬ 
 teries ; that is to say, obscure truths superior to 
 reason, truths in which,” as Leibnitz remarks, 
 “sober minds will always find sufficient explana¬ 
 tion to believe, and never as much as is needed 
 to comprehend.”* The proofs which hear testi¬ 
 mony to the existence of Divine Revelation are 
 evident—they ought to he evident, they are the 
 motives of credibility—hut the things revealed, 
 being above reason, remain obscure; not wholly 
 obscure, doubtless, for in that case they could 
 not he known, and faith would be impossible, 
 but in that kind of half-obscurity which excludes 
 evidence. This defect of evidence, as theolo¬ 
 gians justly remark, explains the possibility of 
 hesitation and denial on the part of the under¬ 
 standing, and shows the necessity of the pre¬ 
 ponderance given to the will in the accomplish¬ 
 ment of the act of faith. 
 
 * Discours de> la Conform'ite de la Foi avec la Raison, n. 56. 
 
154 Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 
 
 This is elementary to any one who reflects. 
 The mind, not being subjugated by evidence, 
 may accept or reject the truth that is offered to 
 it; all depends on the disposition of the will. 
 
 But we must go further. Supposing the 
 truths proposed were not superior to reason, a 
 sad and daily experience shows that reason 
 might still reject them. Liberty plays a consid¬ 
 erable part even in the domain of truths of the 
 natural order, on which the clearness of rational 
 evidence sheds light. Is not the existence of 
 God evident ? And vet men are to be found— 
 I mean learned men, men of cultivated minds— 
 who are ignorant of God, or who form so un¬ 
 natural a notion of him that the God whom they 
 seem to acknowledge presents none of the fea¬ 
 tures of the living and true God. What is more 
 evident than the freedom and immortality of the 
 soul ? And yet these truths meet with contradic¬ 
 tion, and obstinate contradiction. Whence 
 comes this ? Do not these facts offer abundant 
 proof that the assent of the mind remains free 
 even in the face of evidence ? How could it be 
 free if the will—the sole power in us which is 
 free—did not intervene in the judgments we 
 form ? 
 
 We must not forget that our understanding is 
 not a solitary faculty, living and acting by itself 
 alone in entire independence. It is closely 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 155 
 
 united to the other powers of our soul, and is 
 moved and governed by the will, the centre and 
 chief of these powers. The will makes the man 
 in the moral and religious order, as it does in 
 the social order; and it exercises an incalculable 
 power even in the order which appears purely 
 intellectual. I shall return to this subject 
 hereafter. 
 
 Let us now show, according to Catholic teach¬ 
 ing, what part is necessarily borne by God in 
 the act of faith. 
 
 “To believe/’ says St. Thomas, “depends on 
 the will of those who believe; but the will of 
 man must be prepared by God through grace, 
 and thus be raised to the supernatural order.”* 
 Faith appertains to the supernatural order; 
 hence it cannot be the work of nature, nor of 
 our soul abandoned to its own strength. Let us 
 hear the second Council of Orange on this point, 
 whose decisions -have been received as rules of 
 faith throughout the whole Catholic Church. 
 “If any one shall say that by the powers of na¬ 
 ture we can do any good in order to the salva¬ 
 tion of eternal life—that we can think or 
 choose as we ought, or consent to the preaching 
 of salvation, that is to say, to the Gospel, with¬ 
 out the light and inspiration of the Holy Spirit, 
 who gives to all the sweetness which makes us 
 
 * Summa Theol. 2, 2, q. vi. ad 3um. 
 
156 Causes and Cure of Uribelief. 
 
 consent to and believe the truth—such an one 
 is seduced by the spirit of heresy, and hears not 
 the voice of God, which says in the Gospel, 
 ‘Without me you can do nothing’ (St. John 15: 
 5).”* “If any one shall say that the beginning 
 as well as the increase of faith, and even the 
 pious sentiment by which we believe in him who 
 justifies the ungodly, and attain the new birth 
 of holy baptism, is in us naturally, and not by 
 the gift of grace, that is to say, by the inspira¬ 
 tion of the Holy Spirit, which corrects our will, 
 and turns it from infidelity to faith, from im¬ 
 piety to piety—such an one shows himself op¬ 
 posed to the apostolic dogma, the blessed Paul 
 saying, ‘Being confident that he who hath begun 
 a good work in you will perfect it unto the day 
 of Christ Jesus’ (Phil. 1:6); and elsewhere, 
 ‘Unto you it is given for Christ, not only to be¬ 
 lieve in him, but also to suffer for him’ (v. 29) ; 
 and, ‘Por by grace you are saved through faith, 
 and that not of yourselves, for it is the gift of 
 God’ (Ephes. 2:8).”t 
 
 These decisions of the Council of Orange 
 were confirmed by Pope Boniface II. In the 
 letter which the Pontiff wrote on this subject to 
 the illustrious Saint Cesarius of Arles, who had 
 presided over the Council, we read: “We re¬ 
 joice greatly that in the Council which you and 
 
 * Caput vii. 
 
 t Caput v. 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief, 157 
 
 certain Bishops of Gaul have held, the Catholic 
 Faith has been followed, in defining by common 
 consent, as vou point out, that the faith by 
 which we believe in Jesus Christ is given us by 
 Divine Grace preventing us. ... For it is a 
 certain and Catholic dogma, that in all good 
 works, of which faith is the chief, even before 
 we have yet willed, Divine Mercy prevents us, 
 in order that we may will; it accompanies us 
 when we will, and follows us in order that we 
 may persevere in the faith.”* 
 
 Grace must therefore prevent our will, and 
 incline us to consent to, and to believe revealed 
 truth; it must accompany and sustain our 
 changeable and inconsistent will in this holy 
 disposition; finally, it must follow the good will 
 it has inspired, and help us to will to adhere 
 always to the Word of God. 
 
 Nothing in the principles of Christianity can 
 be more simple or more logical than this doc¬ 
 trine. We are not created for a purely natural 
 end, one to be realized bv the mere exercise of 
 our natural powers, but for a supernatural end, 
 above the reach of our faculties. This end is to 
 see God face to face, or in his essence, as he is 
 in himself, a single nature subsisting in three 
 distinct persons; to possess him fully, and to 
 enjoy the happiness attached to such possession. 
 
 * Labbe, Concil. tom. iv. col. 1688. 
 
158 Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 
 
 This vision of God, this beatitude, is mani¬ 
 festly above nature. How can we attain it ? 
 The happiness of a free and intelligent being 
 consists in the realization of his end, and he 
 must achieve it by his own acts; but the acts of 
 man, in themselves, are not means proportioned 
 to an end superior to nature. In order, there¬ 
 fore, that there may be harmony or proportion 
 between the means and the end, it is necessary 
 that these acts should be elevated, ennobled, 
 transformed, by a principle superior to nature, 
 and thus become supernatural; this principle is 
 grace. Is it not a common axiom that means 
 must be proportioned to their end ? If, then, 
 the end of man is supernatural, his acts, which 
 are the means by which he must attain this end, 
 must of necessity be supernatural, and conse¬ 
 quently animated by a principle superior to 
 nature. This reasoning appears to me geomet¬ 
 rically exact. 
 
 Grace, by which God enlightens our under¬ 
 standing with a supernatural light, attracts, for¬ 
 tifies and elevates our will, sows in us the seed 
 of that higher life which is to become the 
 Christian life, and will be the initiation and 
 first faint sketch of that eternal life, which be¬ 
 gins upon earth and will be finished and con¬ 
 summated in the glory of heaven. “Grace and 
 glory,” says St. Thomas, “ are generically one; 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 151) 
 
 because grace is nothing else than a certain be¬ 
 ginning of glory in us.”* How faith is pre¬ 
 cisely the beginning of that supernatural life, 
 of which the glory of the beatific vision will 
 be but the marvellous completion. It is by 
 faith that man enters of full right, if I may 
 thus speak, in the supernatural order. It is, 
 therefore, easy to understand the indispensable 
 necessity of grace for the act of faith. 
 
 There are three kinds of life possible to man 
 in this world: the life of the body or of the 
 senses; the life of mere natural reason; the life 
 of grace, raised above nature by faith, and 
 working by charity. “The first,” says a relig¬ 
 ious writer, whose simple, frank language I will 
 venture to borrow, “is the life of an animal; 
 the second, the life of a man; the third, the life 
 of a Christian. . . . The carnal man,” adds 
 this author, “the man whollv immersed in the 
 animal life—a drunkard, for example—can con¬ 
 ceive nothing beyond eating and drinking, noth¬ 
 ing beyond the body and what flatters the senses. 
 All that is intellectual—science, poetry, moral 
 beauty—all is folly to him. The rationalist or 
 philosopher, wholly taken up with nature, can 
 conceive nothing above human reason. All that 
 is supernatural and divine—faith, grace—is 
 folly to him. He is to the Christian what the 
 
 * Loc. cit. q. iv. art. 9 ad 2m. 
 
160 Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 
 
 drunkard is to the philosopher. The carnal man 
 may mistake or deny the intellectual order: that 
 order, none the less, exists. In the same way 
 the rationalist may mistake or deny the super¬ 
 natural order, the order of grace: that order, 
 none the less, exists. The carnal man, who 
 would raise himself to the intellectual order, 
 must in some sort die to himself in order to 
 enter a new state of existence, a new world. 
 The rationalist who would raise himself to the 
 supernatural order, the order of grace and 
 faith, is obliged in some sort to die to himself, 
 in order to enter a new state of existence, a new * 
 world such as he had never even suspected. The 
 carnal man in becoming a rational man ceases 
 not to be a man, but becomes better and nobler. 
 The rational man in becoming a man of faith 
 ceases not to become a rational man, he becomes 
 a man of Divine reason.”* 
 
 Rationalism recognizes only the first two of 
 these states—life according to the senses and 
 life according to reason; it altogether denies the 
 supernatural life, the life of faith. Such a de¬ 
 nial is precisely as well founded as that of the 
 animal man, who denies the life of reason be¬ 
 cause it is extinct in him. Maine de Biran, 
 after having himself traversed all the phases of 
 
 Rationalism, came to discern clearly these three 
 
 ¥ 
 
 • Rohrbacher, De la Grace et de la Nature, xxxii. and xl. 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 161 
 
 states of existence in man, by simply psycho¬ 
 logical observation; and with the exception of 
 a few inaccuracies of language, unavoidable in 
 one who is a stranger to theological study, he 
 has described them well. 
 
 lie names these three conditions of life, the 
 animal life, the human life, the spiritual life. 
 
 Whatever blind philosophy may say, faith 
 does not destroy nor lower reason, but, on the 
 contrary, strengthens and raises it in a singular 
 degree. Did faith lower the reason of St. Au¬ 
 gustine, St. Thomas, Leibnitz, Bossuet, of 
 Joseph Gorres ? Faith gives to human reason a 
 superior light, which, at the same time that it 
 discovers absolutely new horizons to our gaze, 
 illuminates the domain which the eyes of our 
 understanding have already discerned with a 
 clearer and brighter light. Philosophers who 
 reject faith to confine themselves to mere reason 
 are just like astronomers who would lay aside 
 the telescope to study the heavens with their 
 nakod eye. Faith is the telescope of human 
 reason. Armed with this powerful help our 
 understanding has a clearer conception of that 
 which is within its reach, and in the heaven of 
 heavens, beyond its natural horizon, it discovers 
 new and marvellous worlds, to which its unaided 
 vision could never have attained. To reject 
 faith is manifestly to diminish reason, and to 
 11 
 
162 Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 
 
 deprive it of its most wonderful auxiliary to 
 knowledge.. 
 
 Faith, inasmuch as it is light, produces a 
 twofold effect in us: first, it reveals to us truths 
 of the supernatural order; next, it adds to the 
 rational evidence of the light of reason in the 
 circle of truths of the purely natural order, 
 such as the existence of God, his attributes, the 
 Creation of the world, Providence, the spiritual 
 nature, liberty, and immortality of the soul. 
 More than this, faith, as light and as power, 
 purifies the eye of the understanding from a 
 thousand foreign elements, which embarrass it, 
 and hinder its free exercise; it gives a movement 
 to the will which turns it toward God and the 
 intelligible world, and at the same time raises 
 the whole soul, helps it to shake off the yoke of 
 those things that are inferior to its nature, and 
 leads it toward those higher regions in which 
 its destiny calls it to move and live. Faith is 
 a power which struggles against the inclination, 
 unhappily innate in fallen man, which drags 
 our soul toward inferior objects, and imparts to 
 us a contrary inclination. Plato would say 
 that faith restores to the human soul the wings 
 that were broken in its fall. 
 
 Let no one infer from the Catholic dogma 
 that grace is necessary to enable us to believe 
 with a divine supernatural faith, that there are 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 163 
 
 therefore men necessarily condemned to be 
 without faith, because God has not given them 
 the grace to believe. The Church—which 
 knows God, and beholds in him a compassionate 
 Father, and not an unjust master, gathering 
 where he has not sown—teaches that he refuses 
 grace to none. It is also Catholic dogma that 
 God wills all men to he saved, and that he offers 
 to all the grace necessary to enable them to ac¬ 
 quire the ineffable glory to which he bids them. 
 The Council of Trent declares that “God com¬ 
 mands nothing impossible; when he orders any¬ 
 thing, he at the same time warns us to do what 
 we can, to ask for what we cannot do of our¬ 
 selves, and he will help us to do it.”* 
 
 To ask for w T hat we are unable to attain of 
 ourselves is the ordinary condition which God 
 imposes for the bestowing of his favors. He 
 wills that we, who are created and essentiallv 
 dependent beings, should confess our own in¬ 
 sufficiency, and implore the aid of him from 
 "whom light and strength descend. The old 
 man who discovered the teaching of the Gospel 
 to the philosopher Justin, when he was seeking 
 for the truth, said to him, “Pray that the gates 
 of light may be opened before you; for no one 
 can see and comprehend these things unless 
 
 * Sess. vi. cap. xi. 
 
164 Causes and Cure of U7ibelief. 
 
 God and his Christ give him understanding.”* 
 Justin followed this counsel, and was rewarded 
 by a faith which he sealed with his blood. If 
 men who do not believe would pray as this ar¬ 
 dent and generous philosopher prayed, they 
 would, I am convinced, soon believe with a 
 faith as firm as his. 
 
 * Dial, cum Tryph n. 7. See above, p. 37. 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 165 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Infidelity—In what it consists. 
 
 t lSTETDELITY is the opposite of faith. 
 What we have just said of the nature 
 and condition of faith may make us un¬ 
 derstand what constitutes the ground of unbe¬ 
 lief. But we will add a few words to describe 
 it in a more precise and complete manner. 
 
 Generally speaking, we call any one an in¬ 
 fidel or unbeliever who does not bend his reason 
 before Divine Revelation and submit to its au¬ 
 thority. Infidelity is the denial of all Divine 
 Revelation—of the primitive revelation made 
 to the father of the human race, continued later 
 to the patriarchs, then to the prophets of God’s 
 people, and finally accomplished in Jesus 
 Christ, the Author and Finisher of our Faith. 
 Unbelief denies the supernatural order of which 
 we spoke just now, and the miraculous order 
 which supposes and involves a Divine Revela¬ 
 tion. It denies any determinate and positive 
 intervention of God in the history of humanity. 
 It absolutely ignores the immense divine fact 
 
166 Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 
 
 which occupies the two epochs of history—the 
 epoch of the ages anterior to Jesus Christ, and 
 the epoch of the ages which followed Him—the 
 fact which shines with incomparable brilliancy 
 in Christian society, the most moral, learned, 
 civilized, powerful society that the world has 
 ever seen. The infidel pretends to rely solely 
 upon reason; he admits no other light than the 
 natural light; he recognizes no other facts than 
 those which can be explained by natural causes; 
 miracles in his eyes are a chimera as much as 
 Divine Revelation; he rejects all that surpasses 
 the power of nature, as well as all that exceeds 
 the light of reason. 
 
 Such is the general character of infidelity as 
 it shows and asserts itself in the midst of Chris¬ 
 tian Europe. All our unbelievers, to whatever 
 school they belong, and however great may be 
 their differences, agree in the denial of the su¬ 
 pernatural and the miraculous; all make a boast 
 of recognizing only reason and nature. There¬ 
 fore the names of Naturalism and Rationalism 
 express exactly the common principle which 
 unites them. 
 
 St. Thomas teaches that infidelity, like faith, 
 is an act of the understanding, but an act com¬ 
 manded by the will. He says, “Infidelity, as 
 well as faith, is in the understanding as in its 
 immediate subject; but it is in the will as in its 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 167 
 
 first mover.”* lie adds: “It is the contempt 
 of the will which causes the dissent of the un¬ 
 derstanding, and it is in this dissent that in¬ 
 fidelity essentially consists. Hence the cause of 
 infidelity is in the will, although infidelity it¬ 
 self is in the understanding.! Infidelity, hav¬ 
 ing its cause in the will, is, like faith, a free 
 act; it is the fruit of a free decision of the 
 mind. Therefore it is imputable. Faith is a 
 virtue, and infidelity is a vice.”J 
 
 It is scarcely necessary to observe that it 
 does not follow from hence that every man who 
 does not believe in the Christian Revelation is 
 necessarily guilty. A man may be unbelieving 
 and yet not an infidel in the strict sense of the 
 word. Infidelity, properly so called, as St. 
 Thomas defines it, supposes that the ignorance 
 of Divine Revelation is not wholly involuntary. 
 There are men who do not know, and who, mor¬ 
 ally speaking, cannot know, Jesus Christ; there¬ 
 fore these men do not believe in Him: but their 
 infidelity is a purely negative infidelity, as St. 
 Thomas calls it; they are non-believers rather 
 than infidels; this absence of faith is not impu¬ 
 table to them because it is nowise in their will. 
 There is no real, and consequently no culpable 
 infidelity, in the theological sense of the word, 
 
 • Loc. clt. q. x. art. 2. f Loc. cit. q. x. art. 2 ad 2 m. 
 
 $ St. Thomas, ibid. art. 1. 
 
168 Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 
 
 except voluntary infidelity. Where there is no 
 freedom there is no sin, is an elementary prin¬ 
 ciple of morals. But there is another principle 
 no less elementary which is too often for¬ 
 gotten, and it is this: a thing may he voluntary 
 directly or indirectly, in itself or in the cause 
 upon which it depends. God alone knows the 
 secret dispositions of the soul, and the obstacles 
 which many unbelievers oppose, more or less 
 voluntarily, to faith. It is indisputable that the 
 will plays an important part in infidelity, and 
 this will be better understood as we proceed. 
 
 The diverse forms of Rationalism, which are 
 but different degrees of infidelity, would suffice 
 to justify the doctrine of St. Thomas on the first 
 and fundamental cause of unbelief, as I have 
 already remarked in speaking of faith. All un¬ 
 believers affirm, with marvellous unanimity, 
 that they will obey reason and reason alone; 
 they add, with one voice, that the language of 
 reason is sufficiently clear on all questions which 
 affect the destiny of man, and that they need no 
 other teacher. If it be thus, whence arise those 
 radical differences which divide the faithful 
 and respectful disciples of reason into two op¬ 
 posite camps? Whence comes it that Renan, 
 an atheist and materialist, contradicts on all 
 the principles of morality, Jules Simon, who, 
 like him, recognizes no other authority than 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 169 
 
 reason ? Is it not because all do not equally 
 listen to the voice of reason, whose sovereignty 
 they proclaim in theory whilst they ignore and 
 resist it in fact ? How many men assume 
 toward reason the same attitude which the best 
 of the rationalists assume toward faith! The 
 sophists, by an evil and culpable disposition of 
 the will, ignore the authority of reason, as the 
 rationalists ignore the authority of faith. 
 
 There are rebels and revolutionists in the 
 kingdom of reason as there are in the kingdom 
 of faith. There are also, which is sometimes 
 more excusable, sick and languishing minds 
 whom the light wounds, and who see things 
 only through a deceptive medium. This intel¬ 
 lectual malady has too often a voluntary cause; 
 but sometimes it is the result of education and 
 circumstances from which its victims have 
 been unable to free themselves. 
 
 I have already pointed out the principal 
 forms of contemporary infidelity. In the first 
 half of this century Pantheism reckoned the 
 greatest number of celebrated followers; now 
 materialism is regaining favor, and is received 
 and supported by many learned unbelievers. 
 Evidently neither pantheists nor materialists 
 follow the natural light of reason; they are in 
 open revolt against it, declared rebels to its 
 authority. Spiritualistic Rationalism looks 
 
170 Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 
 
 upon them in this light as we do. There are 
 also among our infidels sceptics who no longer 
 believe in any certainty, and who, despairing to 
 find truth, close their eyes and bury themselves 
 in a factitious slumber which completes the 
 ruin of their understanding. They are sick, and 
 imagine they will find health and rest in suicide. 
 Spiritualistic Rationalism is certainly the most 
 reasonable form of infidelity; but its most dis¬ 
 tinguished representatives act with regard to the 
 motives of credibility of the Christian Faith— 
 which are as evident as the freedom and im¬ 
 mortality of the soul—in the same way that 
 sceptics, materialists and pantheists act with 
 regard to the evident truths of reason. I am 
 aware of the fine pretexts with which they 
 cloak their unbelief; but are not they them¬ 
 selves also aw r are of the pretexts with which the 
 miserable crowd of sophists cover their daring 
 negations ? Let them lay aside pretexts, let 
 them go to the bottom of things, and with their 
 hand on their conscience dare to ask themselves 
 seriously and sincerely why they do not believe. 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief, 171 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 It is impossible to attribute the Infidelity of 
 the Present Day to the Progress of Reason 
 and Science—Numerous Conversions among 
 Learned Men—Augustin Thierry and Maine 
 de Biran. 
 
 3 
 
 EFORE pointing out in detail the real 
 causes of unbelief, we will again 
 glance at the pretext ordinarily em¬ 
 ployed by men of all kinds who reject the 
 Christian Faith. All, whether sceptics, atheists, 
 pantheists or spiritualistic rationalists, pretend 
 that our belief, which was perhaps good for un¬ 
 enlightened ages, cannot sustain critical in¬ 
 quiry in the actual condition of the human 
 mind; reason goes beyond it; science exposes 
 its failings and errors. Certainly it is strange 
 to see a religion which has been at the head of 
 civilization for eighteen centuries, and whose 
 creed has been accepted, defended, glorified by 
 the most eminent intellects and most illustrious 
 philosophers, from St. Justin to Lacordaire 
 and Joseph Gdrres, condemned with such self- 
 
172 Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 
 
 sufficiency, and, we may add, with such levity. 
 Will any one dare to say that there has ever 
 been a society equal to the Christian society for 
 power of reasoning and extent of knowledge ? 
 For the rest it seems to me that the historical 
 portion of this work has completely disposed 
 of the fine pretext put forward by rationalists 
 of every shade. I protest that I can with diffi¬ 
 culty regard the proud anti-Christian declara¬ 
 tions of contemporary unbelief in a serious 
 light, and were it not that charity for human 
 souls obliges me to bear with the most unrea¬ 
 sonable prejudices, I should be tempted to 
 answer them only by contemptuous silence. But 
 it is the duty of the disciples and ministers of 
 Jesus Christ to compassionate all the intellec¬ 
 tual and moral infirmities of their brethren. 
 
 It is unnecessary here to examine and dis¬ 
 cuss directly the motives of the non-acceptance 
 which nationalism opposes, in the name of phi¬ 
 losophy and science, to the teaching of the Chris¬ 
 tian Faith; this has been done elsewhere.* We 
 will only recall a few contemporary facts, 
 which, in our opinion, demonstrate that infi¬ 
 delity has nothing in common with scientific 
 progress. 
 
 In the early ages of Christianity pagan phi- 
 
 * See “Faith and Science,” by Brownson. Pub. by H. F. 
 Brownson, 35 W. Congress St., Detroit. 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 173 
 
 losophers ridiculed the simplicity of Christians, 
 and represented them as the enemies of reason, 
 philosophy and science. Celsus and Porphyry, 
 not to mention other names, attacked the Gospel 
 upon principles similar to those which Ration¬ 
 alism now employs. But these attacks did not 
 hinder philosophers and learned men of the 
 first order, such as St. Justin, Athenagoras, 
 Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria, Arnobius, 
 and St. Augustine, from bowing their reason 
 before the authority of the Gospel, and sub¬ 
 mitting their understandings to the Christian 
 Paith. Who, in these days, speaks of the 
 criticisms of Celsus or Porphyry ? And since 
 a new paganism has sought to raise its head 
 in Europe, the same phenomenon is reproduced 
 before our eyes. Whilst a certain number of 
 men denounce the Christian Faith as the anti¬ 
 thesis of philosophy and science, men of emi¬ 
 nent minds are Jo be met with, who, after hav¬ 
 ing passed the greater part of their lives in 
 infidelity, returned to this Faith, and proclaim 
 that all the objections of Rationalism, which 
 had so long held them back, have no pretensions 
 to science, and rest upon prejudices unworthy 
 of an earnest mind. This is a fact of the high¬ 
 est importance, which would alone suffice to 
 show the puerility of infidel pretensions. Since 
 the beginning of this century, how many 
 
174 Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 
 
 learned men have been seen to desert the stand¬ 
 ard of Rationalism and range themselves under 
 the banner of the Faith! Nor can it be said of 
 these learned converts, as it is said of us, that 
 in their profession of the Faith they do but 
 obey the prejudices of education; for on enter¬ 
 ing the Church they have been obliged to break 
 with their past life, and often with habits of 
 mind contracted since the first real dawn of 
 reason. Who will dare to say that men like 
 Frederick Schlegel, Maine de Biran, Lher- 
 minier, Augustin Thierry, with many more as 
 learned as they, were strangers to the progress 
 of modern criticism, or deficient in intellectual 
 independence % 
 
 We will pause only at two names, Augustin 
 Thierry and Maine de Biran, of whom one 
 represents historical, and the other philosoph¬ 
 ical criticism. 
 
 Augustin Thierry claims a place in the first 
 ranks of the restorers of historical research in 
 France. No one, in the annals of literature, 
 presents a more wonderful example of perseve¬ 
 rance in labor and devotion to science. “For 
 thirty years/’ says a priest, the friend and 
 confidante of the illustrious historian, “it was 
 the will of God to shroud this luminous under¬ 
 standing in material darkness, and imprison 
 this energetic will in a motionless body. But 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 175 
 
 the soul confined in this prison, and wearing 
 ing search after God and his truth. ... Per¬ 
 fectly blind, entirely paralyzed, instead of 
 giving way to heaviness and dulness, he 
 watched, meditated, listened, and dictated; and 
 with what brilliancy, what enthusiasm! His 
 life was regulated and disciplined by the in¬ 
 flexible exactness of an almost religious rule.” 
 This energetic and unconquerable mind entered 
 on the study of history with the most hostile 
 prepossessions against the Christian Faith, and 
 he often evinced great injustice toward the 
 Church. But what was the result of his re¬ 
 searches and meditations \ It was the profound 
 conviction that all the philosophical and his¬ 
 torical difficulties of which unbelief makes so 
 much are but phantoms which fade away as 
 soon as they are exposed to the light of serious 
 examination. Let us hear Father Gratry: 
 
 “Having abandoned infidelity, as he himself 
 has often told me, he soon learned from the 
 sincere study of men and of history that in¬ 
 fidelity does not explain the mystery of the 
 world, and that the living power which leads 
 mankind is religion. History further showed 
 him that this religion can be no other than 
 Christianity. But as his mind rose by degrees 
 from error to truth, he thought at first to have 
 found the pure doctrine of the Gospel in 
 
176 Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 
 
 this chain, continued its work and its persever- 
 Protestantism. At that time, he sought for 
 light at Geneva. 
 
 “Then (these are his own words) I had no 
 notion of the history of the Church. When I 
 had cast my eyes over it, I saw clearly that 
 Protestantism could not be the religion founded 
 by Jesus Christ. Protestantism and history are 
 wholly incompatible. The Protestant system 
 has been forced to construct a fictitious history 
 for its own use. I am astonished that people 
 can still maintain themselves on such ground. 
 How is it that they do not see that Catholicism 
 is found entire in the first four centuries V 9 
 Another day, quite recently, he said to one 
 of the Fathers of the Oratory, M. Pinaud: 
 “People sometimes maintain—and it is a prej¬ 
 udice I shared for a long time—that the 
 doctrine of the Church is formed of pieces and 
 fragments. How false this is! What admir¬ 
 able unity we find in her teaching! The ex¬ 
 amination of the text soon overthrows this 
 % error.” 
 
 In the rationalist world, in the midst of 
 which Augustin Thierry had passed his life, 
 people wondered that so many learned men 
 should be converted to Catholicism, and submit 
 the reason they had so long held in indepen¬ 
 dence to the authority of the Church. A week 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief. ITT 
 
 before his death this learned and conscientious 
 man spoke of this fact to Father Gratry: 
 “Many persons cannot understand how it hap¬ 
 pens, or whence it comes, that so many should 
 return to the Catholic Church in spite of ob¬ 
 jections and difficulties. It is very simple: it 
 is because Catholicism is the Truth. It is the 
 true religion of mankind. Pretended philoso¬ 
 phical objections are not philosophical; on the 
 contrary, all the philosophy of all times and all 
 places is found in the Catholic Doctrine. All 
 truth centres in it, and men plunge into false¬ 
 hood in proportion as they wander from it. 
 This is why Lutheranism is worth less than 
 Anglicanism, Calvinism less than Lutheranism, 
 Unitarianism less than Calvinism, and so of 
 the rest. On the other hand, I see no good 
 reason against the Catholic Religion. If we 
 consider the precepts of the Church, they are 
 good, reasonable, salutary, even to the smallest 
 practice: none can be omitted without leaving 
 cause for regret. People do wrong to hesitate. 
 They must come thither at last. True phi¬ 
 losophy, true practical wisdom will be sure to 
 lead men thither/’ 
 
 Many false judgments, many religious errors, 
 are to be found in the works of Augustin 
 Thierry. lie had intended to correct all that 
 
 he had written against the Truth. Death sur- 
 12 
 
178 Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 
 
 prised him in the midst of these generous labors. 
 He said to Father Gratry: “I wish to correct 
 all that I may have written, although in good 
 faith, against the Truth, any wise. Every day 
 and every night I implore God to give me time 
 to finish this work, for it seems to me that in 
 this I am working for God. I am often sus¬ 
 tained and encouraged in my weariness and 
 sleeplessness by this thought: I am God’s 
 workman. But do not repeat this,” said he, 
 with delicate modesty, “it would be presump¬ 
 tuous. I only say it to you.” 
 
 “If I am not deceived,” says Father Gratry * 
 in conclusion, “this example will become his¬ 
 torical; it will be salutary to many; it will 
 raise many from despair; it will cure the blind¬ 
 ness of many.” Certainly it is well calculated 
 to dispel prejudices, and to raise up weak and 
 wavering minds. 
 
 The conversion of Maine de Biran is not less 
 striking than that of Augustin Thierry. Cousin 
 said of this philosopher that he was “the great¬ 
 est metaphysician who had adorned France 
 since Malebranche.” We must not exaggerate: 
 Maine de Biran is not a great metaphysician; 
 he does not come near Malebranche; but he is 
 an eminent psychologist, and undoubtedly one 
 of the most sagacious and profound observers 
 known to the philosophy of the present century. 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 179 
 
 How could a man become a metaphysician who 
 had Condillac for his master, and who has not 
 studied in the school of Plato and St. Augus¬ 
 tine ? Maine de Biran, like all his unbelieving 
 contemporaries, began with the philosophy of 
 sensation and the degradation of materialism. 
 IIow long a road he had to travel before he 
 could reach the heights of Christian Faith! 
 lie did travel this road slowly, painfully; and 
 by force of perseverance and courage he tri¬ 
 umphed over the obstacles of every kind which 
 he met with on this long journey. 
 
 The serious observation of the phenomena 
 of thought and the activity of the ego soon 
 showed Biran how empty was the philosophy 
 of sensation. Materialism was vanquished, but 
 the philosopher did not dream of replacing it 
 by Christianity. lie remained an infidel for a 
 long time. The morality of stoicism pleased 
 his noble and generous soul, and he would have 
 declared himself the disciple of Zeno had not 
 the feeling of reality, always so vivid in him, 
 shown him the chimerical side of this proud 
 philosophy. His ideas with regard to the na¬ 
 ture of religion w r ere most false. lie wrote thus 
 in 1815: “Beligion is a sentiment of the soul, 
 rather than a belief of the mind; belief is 
 subordinate to feeling/ 7 This is exactly the 
 inverse of the truth. At the same period he 
 
180 Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 
 
 gave an account of the state of his soul and of 
 the intellectual freedom with which he pursued 
 the search after truth. “In my youth, and 
 when I was prepossessed in favor of the mate¬ 
 rialistic systems which had seduced my imagin¬ 
 ation, I put aside all ideas which did not tend 
 to this end. I was frivolous rather than in¬ 
 sincere. But since my own ideas have led me 
 far from these systems, I have had no pre¬ 
 possession in favor of any fixed conclusion at 
 which I would arrive, no prepossession either 
 in favor of belief or of unbelief. If I find 
 God and the true laws of the moral order, it . 
 will he by good fortune, and I shall be more 
 worthy of credit than they who, with so many 
 prejudices, tend only to establish them by their 
 theory.” Alas! this mind, which believed 
 itself so free, obeyed unwittingly a multitude of 
 prejudices fostered by anti-Christian ignorance. 
 
 Three years later, this philosopher, till then 
 so proud of his reason and moral strength, 
 experienced an invincible need of leaning on 
 God. “I leant on myself, I reckoned on my 
 faculties, I hoped that they would continually 
 develop, I expected great progress from time 
 and labor; experience teaches me that I leant 
 upon a feeble reed, agitated by the winds, 
 broken by the tempest. Our faculties change 
 and deceive our expectations; we have as little 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 181 
 
 ground to believe in their power and duration 
 as in their authority. ‘When a man seeks not 
 God, he doth himself more harm than the whole 
 world and all his enemies can do him.’ ” 
 
 This last sentence is taken from the Follow¬ 
 ing of Christ. At the time when Biran wrote 
 these lines, he was continually reading that 
 incomparable book. The Pensees de Pascal 
 and Fenelon ? s CEuvres Spirituelles were of the 
 number of his favorite works. He tells us 
 that in 1815 he was in the habit of beginning 
 each day by reading a chapter of Holy Scrip¬ 
 ture. This acquaintance with the doctrines 
 revealed by God completed and corrected that 
 work in his soul which his own moral and 
 psychological experience had begun. As it hap¬ 
 pens almost always with earnest rationalists, 
 this man, formerly so proud, so confident in 
 his powers of reason and will, came scarcely 
 to believe either'in one or the other; he had 
 fallen into a kind of moral and intellectual de¬ 
 pression. Men begin with senseless pride, and 
 end with despair, because they obstinately reject 
 all support but self, that poor, feeble reed which 
 bends and breaks so easilv. But in this sad 
 state of weakness, Biran happily turned toward 
 God, and asked for light and strength from 
 him who is the Truth and the Life. He prayed. 
 When a soul prays, it is saved. We cannot 
 
182 Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 
 
 too often repeat what reason and history agree 
 in attesting, that prayer is the key of Faith. 
 When a man humbly confesses his own insuf¬ 
 ficiency, and sincerely asks God to enlighten 
 and strengthen him, he is very near believing 
 and being a Christian. 
 
 Listen to Maine de Biran, to whom, a little 
 while hack, religion was but a matter of feel¬ 
 ing, and Christian mysteries hut dreams and 
 chimeras: “Religious and moral belief, whicli 
 reason does not originate, hut which forms a 
 basis and necessary starting-point of departure 
 for reason, is now my sole refuge; and I find . 
 true science precisely there, where formerly, 
 with the philosophers, I saw only dreams and 
 chimeras.” “Religion alone solves the prob¬ 
 lems proposed by philosophy.” 
 
 “The help of God,” adds this undeceived 
 rationalist, “is necessarv for us even in those 
 things which are, or appear to be, in our own 
 power. I find myself stripped of all my facul¬ 
 ties precisely because I relied too much on my¬ 
 self, and had not acquired the habit of con¬ 
 fiding in the assistance of a superior power and 
 asking for it by prayer, in order that I might 
 be strengthened.” 
 
 “There are three very different kinds of dis¬ 
 position of the mind and soul: the first, which 
 is that of most men, consists in living ex- 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 183 
 
 clusively in the world of phenomena, (that 
 is to say, the world of business, pleasure, glory), 
 and taking them for realities. Hence arise in¬ 
 constancy, disgust, perpetual change. The 
 second is that of reflective minds who long seek 
 for truth in themselves and in nature by sep¬ 
 arating appearances from realities, and who, 
 finding no fixed basis for this truth, in despair 
 fall into scepticism. Finally, the third is that 
 of souls enlightened by the light of Religion, 
 which alone is true and immutable. They alone 
 have found a sure support; they are strong be¬ 
 cause they believe. . . . The greatest benefit 
 Religion has bestowed upon us is the saving us 
 from doubt and uncertainty, which are the 
 greatest torment of the human mind, the true 
 poison of life. In a mind destitute of religious 
 belief all is undetermined, fugitive, and change¬ 
 able.” 
 
 The human mind is not made to walk alone; 
 it walks securely only when leaning on Divine 
 authority. It hesitates and totters even in the 
 domain where it is naturally intended to move, 
 unless sustained by the hand of God. This 
 fact of daily experience Maine de Biran had 
 observed in himself, and in the society in which 
 he lived. We rarely meet with infidels, even 
 among the best, who firmly and constantly ad¬ 
 here to the truths of natural religion. 
 
184 Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 
 
 In the state of degradation and forfeiture in 
 which man is born, he has need of the grace 
 of God for two ends. First, he has need of a 
 ♦ medicinal grace to cure the ‘wounds of his na¬ 
 ture and to fortify his understanding and his * 
 will, so as to enable them, as Fenelon says, to 
 attain the end of themselves, ( alter au bout 
 d'elles-meines .)* Maine de Biran saw per¬ 
 fectly the necessity of this grace; perhaps, as 
 usually happens with minds that have relied 
 too much on themselves and have been cruelly 
 deceived, he exaggerated the extent of this 
 necessity. Secondly, man has need of grace to 
 raise himself to the supernatural order, which 
 is, properly, the order of Faith, as we have 
 already explained. Even before he fully em¬ 
 braced the Faith, our philosopher had clearly 
 perceived the reality of this supernatural 
 order, and the necessity of grace to attain it 
 and maintain himself in it. FTo psychologist 
 has ever more clearly seen, what nationalism 
 obstinately denies, that man is called to live a 
 life superior to the life of the senses and of 
 mere reason; that our nature, such as God has 
 made it, calls for this life, but that it is not 
 possible without supernatural help, which is 
 
 * This expression, rather trivial in its form, may be ren¬ 
 dered : “To go as far as they are capable of going them¬ 
 selves.” 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 185 
 
 grace. Let us hear this scrupulous and pro¬ 
 found observer of the human soul: 
 
 “There are not only two opposing principles 
 in man, there are three; for there are three 
 * ** kinds of life and three orders of faculties. 
 
 If there were perfect accordance and harmony 
 between the sensitive and active faculties which 
 constitute man, there would still be a superior 
 nature—a third life—which would not be satis¬ 
 fied, and which would make us feel that there is 
 another happiness, another wisdom, another 
 perfection beyond the greatest human hap¬ 
 piness, the highest wisdom and intellectual and 
 moral perfection of which a human being is 
 susceptible.’ 7 * In the last pages of this Journal 
 Intime, Biran returns continually to these 
 three kinds of life: the life of the senses, the 
 life of pure reason, the super-rational life or 
 the life of faith; he has made the distinction 
 between these three kinds of life one basis of 
 his Nouveaux Essais d’Anthropologic. This 
 
 superior life is instilled into us by the Spirit 
 of God, which acts in us and communicates with 
 our soul without being confounded with it. 
 
 “The delusion of philosophy is to consider 
 the principle of spiritual life as exclusively 
 belonging to the ego, and because our ego can 
 to a certain point free itself from dependence 
 
 * Journal Intime, p. 399. 
 
186 Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 
 
 on sensible objects, to look upon it as indepen¬ 
 dent of that other superior influence whence it 
 receives all that light which it does not origin¬ 
 ate. ... I was formerly puzzled to under¬ 
 stand how the Spirit of Truth could be in us 
 without being ourselves, without identifying 
 itself with our own spirit, our ego. Now I 
 comprehend the interior communication of a 
 Spirit superior to us, which speaks to us, which 
 we hear within us, which vivifies and fertilizes 
 our spirit without being confounded with it. 
 . . . This communication of the Spirit with 
 our spirit—when we know how to call him to 
 us, or to prepare for him a fit dwelling within 
 us—is not only of faith, it is a veritable psy¬ 
 chological fact. 
 
 “The whole doctrine of Christianity is com¬ 
 prised in love. When we have felt within our¬ 
 selves the vivifying influence of the Divine 
 Spirit, it is natural that we should love him, 
 that we should invoke him without ceasing, as 
 the food, support, principle of our life; that we 
 should love him more than ourselves, for from 
 him we hold an existence superior to that of 
 self, and it is by love alone that we unite our¬ 
 selves to the Spirit.”* Rationalism denies this 
 action of the Spirit of God in us, and the life 
 which that action inspires and nourishes; but 
 
 * Journal Intime, pp. 405, 410, 411. 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 187 
 
 this denial, contradicted moreover by the prin¬ 
 ciples of true philosophy, cannot prevail against 
 a fact which all Christians experience, any 
 more than the denial of a blind man would pre¬ 
 vail against the fact that there is light, which 
 all see whose eyes are open. “It is impossible,” 
 again says Maine de Biran, “to deny to the true 
 believer who experiences in himself what he 
 calls the effects of grace; who finds the repose 
 and peace of his soul in the intervention of 
 certain ideas or intellectual acts of faith, hope, 
 and love; and who is thence able to satisfy his 
 mind with regard to problems which no other 
 system can solve; it is impossible, I say, to 
 dispute what lie experiences, and consequently 
 not to recognize the true foundation there is 
 in him, or in his religious belief, for those con¬ 
 ditions of soul which constitute his consolation 
 and his happiness.”* 
 
 The following lines are the last which occur 
 in the Journal Intime of Maine de Biran, and 
 they deserve the attention of all men who think 
 themselves strong enough to walk alone, and 
 who proudly repulse the hand which God offers 
 them by his Son Jesus Christ: “There should 
 always be two, and we may say of man, even 
 the individual man, vce soli! If a man is 
 carried away by the unruly affections which 
 
 * Journal Intime, p. 405. 
 
188 Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 
 
 absorb him, he can form no just judgment 
 either of outward objects or of himself; if he 
 abandon himself to them, he is unhappy and 
 degraded, voe soli! A man may be ever so 
 strong in reasoning powers and in human wis¬ 
 dom, but unless he feel himself sustained by a 
 power and reason higher than himself, he will 
 be unhappy; he may impose on others, he can¬ 
 not impose on himself. True strength, true 
 wisdom consists in walking in the presence of 
 God, and in feeling his supporting hand, other¬ 
 wise vce soli! The stoic is either alone, or with 
 the belief in his own strength, which deceives 
 him; the Christian walks in the presence of 
 God and with God, by the Mediator whom he 
 has taken for the guide and companion of his 
 present and future life.” 
 
 These lines, the truth of which every sincere 
 and upright mind will attest, were penned by 
 Maine de Biran on the 17th May, 1824. Two 
 months later he died, with sentiments of lively 
 faith, consoled and fortified by the presence of 
 our Divine Mediator, who came to visit him in 
 the Sacrament of his love. 
 
 Let superficial and vain minds, who so pre¬ 
 sumptuously take their stand on the progress of 
 reason, then see whither it led one of the deep¬ 
 est thinkers of this a^e. 
 
 o 
 
 In the face of such examples, how can the ab- 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 189 
 
 surd prejudice be explained which maintains 
 that Christian Faith is incompatible with the 
 progress of reason and science ? We have seen, 
 and still see at this moment, learned men, men 
 of the highest intellect, the most illustrious 
 savants of France, Germany, England and 
 America, return to the Faith which never grows 
 old, and, after having scrutinized all, tried all, 
 proclaim that this Faith is the torch of science, 
 the infallible guide of true progress; and are 
 not those who have always kept the faith of 
 their baptism as strong in reasoning, as well 
 informed in the progress of science, as the un¬ 
 believers amongst whom they live ? Let men 
 cease to justify their infidelity by seeking 
 refuge in a pretended incompatibility between 
 Catholic Faith and- modern science. Such an 
 excuse is unworthy of a sincere mind. The real 
 causes of infidelity are not to be found in the 
 progress of information. We will now en¬ 
 deavor to show what they are. 
 
190 Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Real Causes of Unbelief—First Cause, Ig¬ 
 norance of Religion. 
 
 j^^AITH, as we have seen, is an act of the 
 understanding, but an act prescribed 
 py the will—a free act. The cause of 
 unbelief may be in the understanding or in 
 the will, or in both these faculties combined; 
 that is to say, in the whole sonl. We will be¬ 
 gin, then, with the understanding: we will seek 
 to discover how and in what degree the under¬ 
 standing acts upon the influence of the will; 
 this will lead us to study the state of the will, 
 and with that the state of the whole soul in 
 infidels. 
 
 The first and most common cause of in¬ 
 fidelity is ignorance of those truths which are 
 the objects of faith. People know nothing of 
 religion; they do not know what the Catholic 
 Church—which keeps the Faith and prolongs 
 the presence of Jesus Christ upon this earth— 
 believes and teaches. In most cases, such ig- 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 191 
 
 norance is not wholly unprecedented. In the 
 early ages of Christianity, many pagans, and 
 among them many of the intellectual men of 
 the time, reproached the disciples of the In¬ 
 carnate Word with adoring the head of an ass! 
 Is it possible that, after eighteen hundred years 
 of Christian civilization, in a society born and 
 nourished in the lap of the Church, men are 
 still to be met with who heap upon us reproaches 
 equally senseless ? We see beside us learned 
 men; men who have conscientiously studied the 
 religions of Greece, of ancient Rome, of Persia, 
 India, Egypt, and who yet speak of the religion 
 of Jesus Christ, of the religion which has 
 civilized Europe and is the light of the world, 
 as a man born blind might speak of colors. 
 Surely this phenomenon, which we daily wit¬ 
 ness, is one of the most alarming mysteries of 
 the moral world. 
 
 Religious ignorance, as a cause of infidelity, 
 shows itself in various degrees. There is total 
 ignorance, and there is partial ignorance. But 
 the greater number of unbelievers are totallv 
 ignorant of the Christian Religion, and have 
 scarcely a vague notion of religion in general. 
 We have seen that at the time when the soul of 
 Maine de Bi ran began seriously to turn toward 
 God, he looked upon religion as a matter of 
 feeling in which reason had no part. Before 
 
192 Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 
 
 that time, the thoughts of the philosopher had 
 never even glanced at the religious order; to 
 him that order had no existence. As long as 
 Augustin Thierry was an infidel he studied 
 history without any regard to religion—the only 
 thing which can explain the history of the 
 world. And when his eyes began to open— 
 when he had a glimpse of the part assigned to 
 religion, and thought he saw that religion could 
 only be Christianity, he did not even then sus¬ 
 pect that religious truth might be found in the 
 Catholic Church. Tie knew nothing of the 
 Church, or only knew her through the carica¬ 
 tures of her enemies. This man, who was so 
 eager for knowledge, so curious in research, 
 had never read with sincere attention a history 
 of the Church, nor a complete and exact ex¬ 
 position of Catholic Doctrine. How can men 
 believe, when they know nothing of what they 
 ought to believe ? 
 
 M. Droz, a member of the French Academy, 
 admits that he became an infidel, not in conse¬ 
 quence of a serious examination of Christian 
 Truth, but without any examination; and be¬ 
 cause he was ill-informed with regard to the 
 principles and doctrines of the Christian Re¬ 
 ligion, ignorantly and unreservedly accepting 
 all the opinions of infidelity. This was an un¬ 
 happy jige, in which many marvellously gifted 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 193 
 
 youths became, in some sort, the necessary prey 
 of irreligion as soon as they entered the world: 
 many, alas! receiving their first lessons of in¬ 
 fidelity at the domestic hearth. Droz had re¬ 
 ceived a Christian education; he had gone 
 through his Humanities and course of philos¬ 
 ophy in a college where the doctrines and prac¬ 
 tices of Christianity were held in honor. Still 
 he was almost wholly ignorant of religion, and 
 the first assaults of infidelity destroyed his 
 belief. lie did not, however, sink to the depth 
 of moral and religious degradation as so many 
 others had done; his noble mind, whilst it re¬ 
 jected Christian Revelation, preserved its be¬ 
 lief in God, in the immortality of the soul, and 
 in the moral law; he. was one of the most up¬ 
 right and accomplished types of spiritualistic 
 Rationalism. Let us listen to his confession; 
 it will teach us how it happened that so many 
 young men, at the beginning of the last cen¬ 
 tury, became infidels, and how it happens, 
 doubtless, that so many become infidels at this 
 
 day: 
 
 “I was almost always inattentive to religious 
 instruction, and was far from having given 
 those solid foundations to my belief which the 
 times in which we were living required. The 
 philosophy of the eighteenth century was pre¬ 
 dominant. Deists, in order to exercise influence, 
 13 
 
194 Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 
 
 had no need either of profound learning or 
 close logic; irreligion was the fashion—infidel¬ 
 ity and indifference seemed to he in the air we 
 breathed. Whilst I was occupying myself with 
 literature, and prudently descending from 
 poetry to prose, I constantly heard so many 
 voices repeat with full conviction, ‘The cause 
 of Christianity has been judged and is lost 
 for ever/ that I never doubted that I must start 
 from this opinion as from a certain fact, when 
 I would treat of religion with the enlightened 
 men of the time. Thus did the youth of that ‘ 
 time decide. God,” adds this excellent man, 
 “might have punished me for my infidelity 
 more severely than he has done; he might have 
 suffered me to fall into the degradation of the 
 sophists, who seek in their pitiful pride to 
 maintain that God does not exist, that man acts 
 under the dominion of fate, and that morality 
 is hut a fable invented by ingenious men to 
 dupe the weak and foolish. I was spared this 
 excess of degradation; God, whose goodness sur¬ 
 passes our sins; God, to whom I owe so many 
 acts of thanksgiving; God has never wholly 
 abandoned me.” 
 
 Is it credible that this upright rationalist who 
 was absorbed in the study of moral philosophy, 
 and who read assiduously the essays of Mon¬ 
 taigne, the Tusculan Disputations and De 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 195 
 
 Ofjiciis of Cicero, the Dream of Scipio, Plu¬ 
 tarch , that he should never have dreamt of 
 reading the Gospel, nor any of the great Chris¬ 
 tian moralists who have drawn freely from that 
 incomparable source ? In his eyes Christianity 
 was irrevocably condemned, and all Christian 
 literature was suppressed by the same blow. In 
 this way did he understand and apply free ex¬ 
 amination. 
 
 I cannot forbear quoting one more page from 
 the instructive Aveux of this once infidel moral¬ 
 ist : “I did not lose time in seeking for argu¬ 
 ments against Christianity; what was the use 
 of doing so ? Others had taken this trouble, 
 and, as far as I was concerned, the question was 
 settled. In all my projects, that which occupied 
 me most was the desire to succeed in self-im¬ 
 provement. In spite of my love of literature 
 and philosophy—far from paying a fanatical 
 homage to Voltaire, the patriarch of irreligion, 
 I was disgusted by his cynicism—I was grieved 
 to behold an illustrious poet disgrace his genius 
 by a parody of the history of the angelic heroine 
 of France. . . . The so-called Philosophy of 
 History excited still more painful feelings. In 
 this libel against humanity man is represented 
 as a mass of vice, which renders him at once 
 hateful and contemptible: what can be done 
 with such a being? I loved liberty; I de- 
 
196 Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 
 
 manded it for all nations capable of under¬ 
 standing it; and when I saw the enthusiastic 
 admirers of Voltaire proclaim themselves the 
 champions of public liberty, the incoherency of 
 their ideas confounded me. If man is made up 
 of the tiger and the monkey, why should we 
 speak of giving him liberty ? On the contrary, 
 bring a muzzle and chains; defend the world 
 from the crimes of such a monster.”* 
 
 We perceive that Droz, although an infidel, 
 was not a follower of Voltaire. He was not a 
 fanatic in his irreligion; he was an upright, 
 moderate rationalist, striving to judge of men 
 and things by the light of calm, serene reason. 
 But he knew very little of the Christian Re¬ 
 ligion, and unwittingly condemned it on the 
 word of those disciples of Voltaire whom he 
 held in such slight estimation. Question those 
 learned and distinguished men who in our own 
 days have passed from Rationalism or Protest¬ 
 antism to the Catholic Paith, ask them why 
 they rejected, and sometimes with supreme con¬ 
 tempt, the teaching of the Church ? Most of 
 them will answer that they were ill-informed 
 in regard to that teaching; many, that they were 
 wholly ignorant of it. 
 
 If such was the religious ignorance of un¬ 
 believers as earnest as Maine de Biran, Augus- 
 
 * Aveux d’un Philosophe Chretien, pp. 17, 18. 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 197 
 
 tin Thierry, and Droz, what must we think of 
 the ordinary run of infidels ? It is a fact, of 
 which the infidel press alone gives mournful 
 evidence, that the generality of them do not 
 even suspect what the Catholic Religion may 
 be. Ignorance in religious matters is truly a 
 phenomenon. 
 
 Still a certain number of men are to be met 
 with among infidels who are not ignorant of 
 Catholic belief so far as this. They have some 
 notion of the Christian Revelation and of the 
 doctrines which it contains; they even find 
 things in the life and teaching of the Church 
 which command their admiration, but, seen 
 under a false light, ope point or other of the 
 Catholic Creed or Catholic discipline stops 
 them, and they remain in their unbelief. Some 
 minds reject the Christian Faith because the 
 mystery of the Trinity or of original sin shocks 
 their reason. Ask them how they understand 
 the doctrine of the Church on these two dogmas* 
 which in our own opinion shed so valuable a. 
 light over history and philosophy, and you will 
 at once perceive that they attach to these great 
 mysteries a sense really repugnant to reason, 
 and which has nothing in common with the 
 Catholic sense; men create phantoms for them¬ 
 selves, and then shrink from them in horror. 
 How many infidels impute to the Church on 
 
198 Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 
 
 the subject of original sin not only what she 
 does not teach, but what she has formally con¬ 
 demned! Then they draw consequences from 
 this travesty of the Catholic dogma which are 
 really monstrous, and which, if they were legiti¬ 
 mately deduced from it, would, I admit, suffice 
 to refute it in the eyes of all reasonable beings. 
 What just and generous soul, they exclaim, 
 would not shudder at that necessary conse¬ 
 quence of the dogma of original sin—that in¬ 
 fants who die unbaptized are punished eternally 
 in hell like the greatest criminals ? Were such 
 a consequence well founded, I confess that I 
 should be deeply disturbed by it. But in what 
 .General Council, in what Papal Bull, in what 
 Scriptural or traditional source, in the writings' 
 -of what authorized theologian, have they seen 
 that such is the bearing of the Catholic dogma ? 
 We most emphatically deny that the Church 
 anywhere teaches that children who die with 
 the sole taint of original sin are punished in 
 the same way as men who have been guilty of 
 grave personal sin, and who quit this life in 
 impenitence; the Church does not even teach 
 that such children are positively unhappy.* 
 There is a simple and supremely reasonable 
 
 * See Suarez, ed. vives, vol. xix., p. 235. Many consoling 
 truths on this and kindred subjects are contained in “Beyond 
 the Grave,” by Hamon.—B. Herder, St. Louis. 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 199 
 
 Catholic maxim, which is a kind of bngbear to 
 many minds which in other respects seem to be 
 well enough disposed toward the Church; it is 
 the maxim—No salvation out of the Church. 
 But I repeat that this is but a necessary ap¬ 
 plication of the most evident principles of rea¬ 
 son, as soon as men admit that there is a re¬ 
 ligion revealed by God; nevertheless, we fre¬ 
 quently see learned men who reject Catholi¬ 
 cism, alleging this maxim as their excuse—they 
 discover in it, what no Catholic theologian has 
 ever seen, the wholesale and blind condemna¬ 
 tion of all who do not belong to the external 
 communion of the Church. Were such the 
 meaning of this dogma, I do not hesitate to 
 declare that it would be as absurd as it is 
 odious; but, thank God, it bears no such inter¬ 
 pretation. Sometimes it is a simple point of 
 Catholic discipline which disturbs and arrests 
 certain minds. They only half understand it— 
 they only know it according to the estimation 
 of persons who are hostile, or at least strangers, 
 to the Church; but there they stop and gravely 
 declare that, although Catholicism may have 
 good points, it cannot be accepted as a whole. 
 
 ITow terrible a thing is prejudice! We 
 Catholics are often reproached with obeying 
 prejudices. I admit that in some respects we 
 do obey prejudices, but as a celebrated con- 
 
200 Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 
 
 troversialist of the seventeenth century* has re¬ 
 marked, there are reasonable prejudices and 
 prejudices which are extremely unreasonable. 
 Ask those who were formerly unbelievers—but 
 whose firm and generous faith now rejoices the 
 Church of God—whether they were not slaves 
 of most blind prejudice, when, like you, they 
 rejected the Catholic Faith? You will see 
 what their answer will be. Why, then, do not 
 you, who love truth and admire Christianity, if 
 certain difficulties present themselves, ask an 
 explanation from the teachers of that great re¬ 
 ligion which, for eighteen hundred years, has 
 been the consolation and glory of the greatest 
 geniuses of whom the world can boast ? 
 
 Why do you not imitate the noble and gen¬ 
 erous mind of whom I spoke just now—why 
 not go as he did and confide your doubts, your 
 hesitations, your difficulties, to one of your 
 brethren whose charge it is to explain the teach¬ 
 ing of this religion ? What is there opposed to 
 your dignity in such a course? Listen to the 
 confessions of Droz, deploring the fault he com¬ 
 mitted in seeking to escape from his ignorance 
 and his doubts without having consulted any 
 one: “When I wished to begin the examina¬ 
 tion of Christianity, I had been so much ac- 
 
 * Pellisson. 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 201 
 
 customed to rely on my own light and guidance, 
 that in my presumptuous ignorance I sought 
 counsel of none to direct my researches. It is 
 easy to see the utility of religion—its benefits 
 are before our eyes; hut instruction is neces¬ 
 sary for the consideration of religion in itself, 
 and to bring its truths home to ourselves. It 
 was indispensable that a man who had been en¬ 
 lightened by its study should supply the light 
 of which I was devoid. I knew a priest held 
 in universal veneration; in my eagerness to es¬ 
 cape from doubt I decided that I would see him 
 the very next morning. ... I opened my heart 
 to him; I revealed to him my thoughts, my 
 agitation, my desires, in all sincerity. I finished 
 by saying to him: ‘I owe to the proofs afforded 
 by my feelings the desire that religion should 
 be true. Finish by conveying to my under¬ 
 standing the entire conviction which my heart 
 craves. But if, instead of seeking to convince 
 my reason, you command me to believe—if 
 I must sacrifice the noblest gift I have received 
 from Heaven—I have nothing more to ask you, 
 we cannot understand one another.* ”* Thanks 
 to the instructions of the priest, this suspicious 
 rationalist soon learnt that the Christian Faith 
 does not sacrifice reason, but takes it for 
 
 * Aveux d’un Philosophe Chretien, pp. 65, 66. 
 
202 Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 
 
 granted, purifies, strengthens, extends, and ele¬ 
 vates it; he understood that Faith demands hut 
 one sacrifice, the sacrifice of pride, which he 
 confounded with reason. 
 
 f 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 203 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Causes of Religious Ignorance—It is often 
 Voluntary, Culpable Ignorance—Levity and 
 Moral Indifference of most Infidels. 
 
 *ffT T is a widespread opinion in these days 
 H that error is not culpable, and that no 
 one is responsible for the religious ig¬ 
 norance in which he lives. This opinion is 
 supremely absurd, and shows too plainly the 
 general decline of reason. Were It true, we 
 should be obliged to declare that m/m is not a 
 free agent, and that the truth has no claim upon 
 his understanding. Our understanding, con¬ 
 sidered in itself, and apart from the will, is 
 undoubtedly not free, but by its nature it is 
 under the command of the will; it is placed 
 under the direction of the will and participates 
 in its freedom. Let it never be forgotten that 
 the will is the central power and ruler of the 
 soul, that from the will the whole soul must 
 receive its impulse and direction, that it is 
 made to rule and direct the movements of the 
 understanding as well as the movements of the 
 
204 Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 
 
 feelings and affections—everything must de¬ 
 pend upon the will, and the will is responsible 
 for everything. Therefore, it cannot be too 
 often repeated, it is the will that really makes 
 the man. Let no one say that all conditions of 
 the understanding, all ignorance in matters of 
 religion, are things indifferent in themselves; 
 our intellectual state depends in a very great 
 measure upon our will, and the ignorance of 
 which we are speaking may be voluntary, and 
 consequently culpable. Man is bound to know 
 the truth, to adhere to it, to submit to it; who¬ 
 ever wills not seriously and sincerely to make 
 use of the means at his disposal to arrive at 
 the truth, fails in his duty, and deserves punish¬ 
 ment for his ignorance and his errors. r 
 
 All ignorance of the religion revealed by 
 God is assuredly not culpable. There are many 
 souls to whom it is morally impossible to rec¬ 
 ognize the truth of the Church’s teaching, either 
 by reason of the condition in which they are 
 living, or the atmosphere of prejudice which en¬ 
 veloped their early education, or of other cir¬ 
 cumstances absolutely independent of their will. 
 God will not condemn these souls for that of 
 which they are ignorant. Pius IX. wrote 
 as follows to the Bishops of Italy: “ We know 
 and you know that they who are unavoid¬ 
 ably ignorant of our most Holy Religion, and 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 205 
 
 who, carefully observing the natural law and 
 the precepts engraved by God in the hearts of 
 all men, and willing to obey God, lead an honest, 
 upright life, may, with the help of Divine light 
 and grace, acquire eternal life; for God, who 
 perfectly sees, searches, and knows the minds, 
 souls, thoughts and actions of all men, in his 
 sovereign goodness and clemency, permits not 
 that he who is not guilty of a voluntary fault 
 should suffer eternal punishment.”* It is a 
 question of sincerity of which God is the 
 judge. 
 
 But religious ignorance frequently depends 
 on moral causes which must be studied, and 
 this study will afford us occasion to penetrate 
 more profoundly into the mystery of unbelief. 
 Infidelity is a complex fact in which all the 
 powers of the soul have a share. As we pro¬ 
 ceed, we shall be more and more convinced of 
 this fundamental truth. We will begin by 
 pointing out a general condition of the soul very 
 common among unbelievers; next, we will show 
 by what means many souls descend all the steps 
 of unbelief till they lose themselves in Material¬ 
 ism, or perish in the helplessness of scepticism, 
 or the aberrations of Pantheism. We will then 
 return to the consideration of the moral ob- 
 
 * Encyclical Letter to the Cardinals, Archbishops and 
 Bishops of Italy, August 10, 1863. 
 
206 Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 
 
 staeles which the Christian Faith meets with 
 in the souls of the better class of infidels— 
 of those who admit the fundamental dogmas 
 of natural religion. 
 
 Levity of mind, moral dissipation, a cul¬ 
 pable indifference to religion, is the ordinary 
 source of religious ignorance and one of the 
 most common causes of infidelity. What are 
 the greater number of men who do not be¬ 
 lieve doing? What is the usual condition of 
 their souls ? The Apostle St. John wrote to 
 the first disciples of the Gospel: “Love not the 
 world, nor the things that are in the world. 
 . . . All that is in the world is the concupis¬ 
 cence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the 
 eyes, and the pride of life.”* The world, in 
 the language of Scripture, denotes men “who 
 prefer visible and transitory things to those 
 that are invisible and eternal.”! This world 
 ever exists, and although the triple concupis¬ 
 cence which the Apostle points out has in some 
 respects diminished during the long reign of 
 the Christian Faith, it still displays itself in 
 the world, and still brings forth therein the 
 fruit of death. Are not the pleasures of sense, 
 riches, honors, the sole object of desire and 
 pursuit to the ordinary run of unbelievers ? 
 
 * 1 John ii. 15, 16. 
 
 t Bossuet, Traite de la Concupiscence, chap i. 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 207 
 
 Material interests, considered under their di¬ 
 verse forms, absorb them wholly. They occupy 
 themselves only with perishable goods; this 
 present life is everything to them. Probably 
 they do not deny that there is a future life, 
 but they think nothing about it; it is an item 
 which does not enter into their calculations. 
 To succeed in the world, to satiate themselves 
 with riches, pleasure, and, if possible, with 
 glory, or at any rate with honors, is their sole 
 care. Some give themselves up with a kind 
 of frenzy to sensual enjoyment, a great num¬ 
 ber exercise a kind of half restraint upon them¬ 
 selves and at least respect decency, though their 
 view extends not beyond the narrow horizon of 
 this earth. With such dispositions, men are 
 capable of sinking to the lowest depths of deg¬ 
 radation, but they will not raise themselves to 
 the heights of the moral order to seek the light 
 of truth. Such men as these do not even dream 
 of studying religion. 
 
 Pascal said of the few infidels of his time: 
 “We know well enough how men of this kind 
 act. They think they have made great efforts 
 at self-instruction if they have spent a few 
 hours in reading the Scriptures, and have ques¬ 
 tioned some ecclesiastic on the truths of Faith. 
 Afterward they boast of having made a fruit¬ 
 less search in books and among men. But, in 
 
208 Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 
 
 truth, I cannot refrain from telling them, as 
 I have often done, that such negligence is 
 intolerable. The trifling interests of some 
 stranger are not in question here; the stake 
 is ourselves and our all.”* “This negligence in 
 a manner which concerns themselves, their 
 eternity, their all, irritates more than it moves 
 me; it astonishes me, it alarms me. To me it 
 is monstrous.”! What would the religious and 
 austere solitary of Port Royal say if he lived 
 in our days ? It is no longer a question with 
 the multitude of unbelievers of employing 
 some hours in reading the Scriptures and ques¬ 
 tioning some ecclesiastic on the truths of Faith; 
 they read nothing, they question no one, they 
 take no thought of religion. There is a levity 
 and indifference about them inexplicable in 
 reasonable beings. “There must be strange dis¬ 
 order in a man’s nature who can live in such 
 a state, still more when he can pride himself 
 on it.”J And yet the greater number do really 
 pride themselves on it. They despise us who 
 believe; they denounce us as the enemies of 
 reason, as men whose understandings are en¬ 
 slaved; whilst they look upon themselves as 
 reason personified, claim for themselves alone 
 liberty of thought, and proudly call themselves 
 
 * Pensees, part ii. art. 2: Necessit§ d’etudier la Religion, 
 t IWid. t Pascal. 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 209 
 
 free-thinkers. From the time of La Bruyere 
 infidels have called themselves esprits forts; 
 this title called forth from the immortal author 
 of Les Caracteres the following reflection: “Do 
 our esprits forts know that they are called thus 
 in irony?* God forbid that I should wish to 
 offend any one, but I cannot help seeing the 
 most bitter irony in the name of free-thinkers 
 as given to infidels. It is a fact that the gen¬ 
 erality of them think neither freely nor ser¬ 
 vilely; they do not think at all. Permit me 
 to say frankly that there are infinitely more 
 free-livers than free-thinkers among the enemies 
 of the Christian Faith. If some few (and 
 they are the exception) really think, I know of 
 nothing less free than their thoughts; they are 
 the slaves of the blindest and most absurd 
 prejudices; they accept, with a truly blind 
 faith, all the judgments which condemn Chris¬ 
 tianity. An infidel examining the bases of the 
 Christian Religion, sincerely, without prepos¬ 
 session, with conscientious freedom, is the 
 rarest thing in the world; when a man has 
 done that, he is very near renouncing infidelity 
 and embracing the Faith. But, I repeat, this 
 multitude of worshippers of free examination, 
 and these so-called free-thinkers examine noth- 
 
 14 
 
 * Les Caracteres, chap. xvi. 
 
210 Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 
 
 ing and never think for themselves. They re¬ 
 peat lofty maxims, write pompous formulae, 
 for the most part like parrots, and without 
 attaching any meaning to them; this is the 
 power and freedom of their thought in the do¬ 
 main of morals and religion. They affirm with 
 imperturbable assurance that they are for the 
 independence of reason, for the emancipation 
 of the human mind, for progress, for the liberty 
 of nations; according to them, the Catholic 
 Faith is the antithesis of these beautiful and 
 noble things. But do not ask them what they 
 mean by the independence of reason, the eman¬ 
 cipation of the human mind, and other articles 
 of the rationalist programme; they are words 
 which they repeat by heart and without having 
 ever examined their true meaning. Above all, 
 do not ask them in what the Catholic Faith, 
 which is professed by the most independent, 
 purest, and most eminent men of our days, as 
 it was in the days of St. Augustine—do not ask 
 them in what that Faith opposes the freedom 
 of reason and shackles social progress. They 
 have never thought of it; they will give you no 
 other answer than the eternal sing-song of ac¬ 
 cusations a hundred times refuted, and formulae 
 as new as the formula which comprises all the 
 religious science of the disciples of Mohammed: 
 ‘God is God, and Mohammed is his prophet.’ ” 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 211 
 
 We will close this chapter with one general 
 observation. The meaning of words must be 
 restored. What man in his senses would say 
 that moral freedom consists in exemption from 
 the rule of virtue ? How, then, can men place 
 intellectual liberty in exemption from the rule 
 of truth? Tor pity’s sake, do not confound 
 liberty with libertinism. There is a libertinism 
 of thought as well as a libertinism of morals. 
 To live regardless of the law of virtue is moral 
 libertinism; to think and speak without regard 
 for the law of Truth is intellectual libertinism. 
 
 We will now see whither either one or the 
 other may lead. 
 
212 Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Materialism—On what it Rests—The Soul Mar 
 terialized—How the Soul arrives at this 
 State, and what Moral Treatment must be 
 Followed to Raise it from this Degradation. 
 
 ^pP^EE ordinary result of the intellectual 
 levity and moral dissipation which we 
 have just described is to materialize 
 the soul and to lead it to believe only in sen¬ 
 sible realities. There is a twofold materialism 
 —a dogmatic materialism which denies pos¬ 
 itively the existence of the soul and of God, 
 and a practical materialism which denies 
 neither the one nor the other expressly, but 
 neglects and forgets them both. The moral 
 condition, of which we have just spoken, can¬ 
 not be distinguished from this practical ma¬ 
 terialism. We will now speak of dogmatic 
 materialism, properly so called. 
 
 This materialism, which for a short time was 
 ignominiously driven from the schools of in¬ 
 fidel philosophy, has reappeared in the last few 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 213 
 
 years, and has again acquired considerable in¬ 
 fluence. It is daily gaining ground in the do¬ 
 main of natural science, and many cultivated 
 minds are ranging themselves under its banner. 
 How materialism is radical infidelity—it is the 
 denial of the very foundation on which all re¬ 
 ligion rests, and on which the Christian Faith 
 in particular must take its stand. How can a 
 soul come to ignore and deny its own existence ? 
 IIow can it sink to this intellectual and moral 
 degradation ? The key to this mystery must 
 he sought for in human liberty, which is the 
 principle of all degradation and all elevation. 
 We are free and imperfect beings; we may 
 refuse our adhesion to truths of the moral 
 order, and our soul may so far blind itself— 
 not nil at once, but by dint of a thousand weak 
 and base acts—that at length it will come to 
 ignore God, and no longer be able to discern 
 itself. Men reach > this point by two roads: 
 by libertinism of life, and also, whilst pre¬ 
 serving a comparatively virtuous exterior, by 
 that religious indifference which enervates the 
 best part of the soul and ends by extinguish¬ 
 ing its life. 
 
 Our soul has a direct and immediate view of 
 itself—it has a perception of itself, the mani¬ 
 festations of its life, its understanding, its sen¬ 
 sibility, and its will; it perceives God and the 
 
214 Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 
 
 moral order by evidence which seems irresist¬ 
 ible. How then is materialism possible? It 
 arises from the moral condition of the soul, it 
 comes from this, that the state of our under¬ 
 standing depends in great measure on the state 
 of our will and affections. All our faculties are 
 mutually affected, and exercise an incessant ac¬ 
 tion upon one another. Nothing is easier than 
 to refute a materialist, but it is not so easy to 
 cure him. This cure is only possible by means 
 of a moral treatment which is occasionally very 
 painful. 
 
 There are souls so buried in matter, so ma¬ 
 terialized, that the realities of the moral world 
 have no longer any meaning to them, but ap¬ 
 pear to them the most inexplicable chimera. 
 The most sublime religious symbols reveal ab¬ 
 solutely nothing to them: in the most touching 
 ceremonies of religion they behold merely ex¬ 
 ternal things, having no moral significance. A 
 Russian of great distinction, who was converted 
 a few years ago to the Catholic Eaith, attests 
 this of himself: M. Schouvaloff had in his 
 youth lost all religious belief; not only did 
 he no longer believe the Gospel, but he no longer 
 recognized the existence either of God or of his 
 own soul. Teachers of philosophy had con¬ 
 firmed him in his denial of the Truth. lie 
 passed several years in this state. In the 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 215 
 
 history of his life he says: “As I finish the 
 account of this first part of my spiritual exist¬ 
 ence, I ask myself how it happened that neither 
 my heart nor my mind was ever touched, when, 
 during my sojourn in Italy, and particularly 
 in Rome, I happened to be present at religious 
 ceremonies. I cannot comprehend my indif¬ 
 ference in this respect, nor how it happened 
 that no serious idea ever came to me—to me 
 who believed myself to be a thoughtful man— 
 at the sight of things that had been objects of 
 veneration for so many centuries, and that to 
 men belonging to all classes of society, to every 
 degree of intelligence. It is true that I never 
 entered a church except out of curiosity or 
 from some other frivolous motive, but still I 
 went into the churches; I was present at glor¬ 
 ious and beautiful ceremonies—my eyes were 
 sometimes arrested by ancient sculptures or 
 magnificent pictures, the figures of which, seen 
 through clouds of incense, appeared animated 
 with life; everywhere was to be seen the image 
 of the Holy Mother, surrounded with innum¬ 
 erable ex voto, tokens of hope, of sorrow, of 
 gratitude, and of love; the most profound feel¬ 
 ings of the heart had left their traces on her 
 altars. Moreover, I heard words, sublime in 
 their simplicity, mingling with the music of 
 angels; the air of the Basilicas appeared to 
 
216 Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 
 
 me to be impregnated with the sentiment of 
 Faith; here, a whole people listened motionless 
 to the voice of the preacher; there, the faithful 
 were confessing their sins; others, with silent 
 devout recollection, were receiving the Divine 
 Body; prostrate priests adored the Sacred 
 Host; an old man, the Father of Christians, 
 washed the feet of a few poor men, or gave his 
 benediction to the city and to the world. . . . 
 And in presence of these grand spectacles not 
 a thought, not a question! I beheld them with 
 the indifference of idiocy. . . . One sense was 
 wanting—the spiritual sense, the divine sense! 
 My body was present, but my soul was else¬ 
 where, ... it slept.” 
 
 This is truly the condition of a materialized 
 soul; in it the moral sense is, as it were, extinct. 
 Still, the root of this sense is alive, but is stifled 
 by foreign elements. To restore its vigor, these 
 elements must be removed, and the soul must 
 be replaced in its true position. This is the 
 object of the moral treatment of which I was 
 speaking just now. 
 
 Plato was perfectly well acquainted with 
 materialized minds; they abounded in pagan 
 society. He has depicted them in several pas¬ 
 sages of his Dialogues, but particularly in the 
 celebrated allegory of the cavern. The great 
 moralist compares this visible world to a sub- 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 217 
 
 terranean cave, in which men who have been in 
 chains since infancy behold the shadows of 
 objects through an opening and by the pale 
 glimmer of a fire; the captives imagine that 
 these shadows are the only realities. “Now 
 see/’ continues Plato, “what must naturally 
 happen if they be delivered from their chains 
 and cured of their error. Let one of these 
 captives be unbound: let him be compelled to 
 stand up at once, to turn his head, to walk, and 
 to turn to the light, lie will do all this with 
 infinite trouble; the light will hurt his eyes, 
 and dazzle him so as to prevent his discerning 
 the objects whose shadows he formerly beheld. 
 What think you might he reply to him who 
 should tell him that up to this time he had 
 seen only phantoms, but that now he has more 
 real objects, objects more approaching to the 
 truth, before his eyes ? Suppose he were now 
 pulled out of the cavern and dragged by a rude, 
 steep path to the light of the sun, what a pun¬ 
 ishment would it be to him! how great would 
 
 be his furv! And when he should have reached 
 «/ 
 
 the light of day, would not his eyes be dazzled 
 by the brightness? Could he see anything of 
 the crowd of objects which we call real beings ? 
 At first he would not be able to do so. Doubt¬ 
 less time would be necessarv to accustom him 
 
 c/ 
 
 to it.” Put when he had become accustomed 
 
218 Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 
 
 to the sight of objects, and to the contempla¬ 
 tion of the sun which gives them light, “if he 
 happened to call to mind his first dwelling, the 
 companions of his slavery, and the idea which 
 they had there of wisdom, would he not re¬ 
 joice in his own change? Would he not com¬ 
 passionate their misfortune ? Most assuredly 
 he would. Do you think he would still be 
 jealous of the honors, praise and rewards given 
 to him who was most prompt in seizing the 
 shadows as they passed, or who called to mind 
 most accurately which shadows went before, 
 which followed, which went together, and thus 
 was the most skilful in guessing the time of 
 their appearance; or that he envied their con¬ 
 dition who were most powerful and most hon¬ 
 ored in that prison? Would he not prefer 
 passing his life, as is related of Achilles by 
 Homer, in the service of a poor laborer, and 
 suffer everything rather than resume his former 
 condition, with its illusions ? I doubt not that 
 he would be ready to suffer everything rather 
 than again live in that manner. . . . Well, my 
 dear Glaucus, that is the precise image of our 
 human state. The subterraneous cave is this 
 visible world; the fire by which it is lighted 
 is the light of the sun; the captive who soars 
 to a higher region and who contemplates it is 
 
219 
 
 (James and Cure of Unbelief. 
 
 the soul raising itself to the sphere of intel¬ 
 ligence/”* 
 
 The materialized soul delights in this king¬ 
 dom of shadows, which it takes for the only 
 realities, and is irritated by any proposal to 
 quit this world of phantoms. Only at the price 
 of a generous effort can it be snatched from 
 them. The fulfilment of a moral condition 
 must be the first step; the soul must purify 
 itself and disengage itself as much as possible 
 from the mass of gross images which defile its 
 sight and hinder it from contemplating the true 
 light. In the Phcedo, Socrates, discoursing on 
 his approaching death, and seeking to console 
 his friends, defines the purification of the soul 
 to be a kind of anticipated death. “Does not 
 the purification of the soul/’ he says, “consist 
 in separating it as much as possible from the 
 body; in accustoming it to be shut up in itself, 
 to be recollected in itself, and to live as much 
 as possible . . . alone and in itself, disengaged 
 from the shackles of the body? . . . Without 
 the least doubt this is so.”t “Now what is 
 death/ 7 adds Socrates, “if not the complete 
 separation of the soul and body? The philoso¬ 
 pher who seeks to purify his soul exercises him¬ 
 self in dying, and philosophy is an apprentice- 
 
 * Republ. lib. vii. 514-518. 
 
 t Phcedo, 67. 
 
220 Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 
 
 ship of death/' 1 * The illustrious sage of Athens 
 had but a glimpse of this sublime thought, 
 which was to be fully comprehended and real¬ 
 ized—free from all admixture of error—by 
 Christianity alone. 
 
 Plato recognizes three distinct principles in 
 the soul of man: the superior or rational part 
 of the soul is the seat of the understanding; 
 the inferior part is the seat of sensation and 
 material pleasures; the middle part is the seat 
 of passions somewhat more elevated, such as 
 anger, pride, and ambition.t Por the man who 
 seeks truth he teaches the necessity of subject¬ 
 ing the lower and middle parts of the soul to 
 the superior, so that, free from all shackles, 
 it may more easily turn to the contemplation 
 of that which is. “Have you not yet re¬ 
 marked,” says Socrates, “how far the sagacity 
 of those men reaches to whom is given the name 
 of clever rogues ? With what penetration does 
 their little soul seize on the things to which 
 it is turned. Its sight is by no means 
 weak, but as they constrain it to serve 
 their malice, the more penetrating it is the more 
 hurtful it is. This is most true. But take 
 these same souls from childhood, cut and pare 
 
 * Phcedo. Cicero and the Neoplatonicians reproduced this 
 
 maxim. 
 
 t Republ. lib. ix. 580, 581. 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 221 
 
 away all that the passions of lust have deposited 
 therein, loosen them from the heavy masses at¬ 
 tached to the pleasures of the table and similar 
 luxuries, take away the weight which depresses 
 the glance of the soul to inferior things—then 
 if the same glance in the same souls, freed from 
 these obstacles, is turned toward the things that 
 are true, it will behold them w T ith the same 
 penetration with which it now beholds these 
 things to which it is turned.”* 
 
 The faculty of knowing God and moral 
 truths is implanted in man; but it is weak¬ 
 ened, paralyzed in its movements, turned away 
 from its object, by the weight of sensual pas¬ 
 sions or by material prepossessions. To restore 
 to this noble faculty its power of soaring on 
 high, and to enable it to turn toward its true 
 object, it is necessary to combat these passions 
 and to triumph over these strange preposses¬ 
 sions. Man must be purified by mortification. 
 Those who do not purify themselves spend their 
 lives in miserably passing from the lower to 
 the middle region of the soul, and in falling 
 back again from the middle to the lower region, 
 without ever raising themselves to that where 
 God manifests himself. “Men who know 
 neither wisdom nor virtue, who are always 
 taken up with festivities and other sensual 
 
 * Republ. lib. vii. 519. 
 
222 Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 
 
 pleasures, necessarily sink to the lowest region; 
 thence they raise themselves to the middle 
 region, and pass their lives in wandering 
 between the two. But to traverse these two 
 regions in order to look upon that which 
 is really on high, and to raise themselves to 
 it, this is what they never do. Therefore they 
 have never been filled with the possession of ► 
 that which truly is, nor have they ever 
 tasted a pure and solid joy. Bent down toward 
 the earth, like animals whose eyes are ever 
 fixed upon their food, they give themselves up 
 brutally to good cheer and love; they dispute 
 among themselves for the enjoyment of these 
 pleasures, turn their arms against one another, 
 and end in mutual slaughter. . . . You have 
 just drawn to the life the condition of the 
 greater number of men. Does not the same 
 thing necessarily occur with regard to that part 
 of the soul where courage resides—when am¬ 
 bition, seconded by jealousy, the spirit of strife 
 by violence, and a savage disposition by anger, 
 drive man—without reflection or discernment 
 —to pursue a false plenitude of honor and 
 victory, and afterward to the satisfying of his 
 resentment % The same thing must necessarily 
 happen.”* How many men run after this false 
 plenitude of honor and victory, and, willing 
 
 * Republ. lib. ix. 586. 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 223 
 
 captives, know not liow to surmount the narrow 
 frontiers of that cavern which can only offer 
 them shadows! 
 
 It is assuredly not absolutely necessary that 
 the soul should be freed from the yoke of pas¬ 
 sions and interests before it can recognize God 
 and the moral order, but it has need of a cer¬ 
 tain degree of purification to raise itself to 
 that superior world and to attach itself thereto 
 by a firm adhesion of the understanding. When 
 a soul has attained this moral condition, it 
 must, by an act of the will, unfold its divine 
 faculty, and direct it on the object for which 
 the soul is made. This is a movement which 
 purification renders easy, and which completes 
 the education of the soul. What is the use 
 of the organ of sight if men do not make use of 
 it, or if it is ill-directed ? “In the evolution 
 which is given to the soul,” says Plato, once 
 more, “the whole art consists in turning it in 
 the easiest and most beneficial manner. The 
 question is not to bestow on it the faculty of 
 sight, it has that already; but its organ is in 
 a bad direction, it does not look in the right 
 direction. . . . The faculty of knowledge . . . 
 never loses its power, only it becomes useful 
 and advantageous, or useless and hurtful ac¬ 
 cording to the direction which is given to it.”* 
 
 * Republ. lib. vii. 518. 
 
224 Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 
 
 This is the real supreme importance of the 
 part which the will hears in knowledge. Would 
 that those poor souls who deny God and ignore 
 themselves would seriously reflect upon it! 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 225 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Scepticism—In v:Jiat it consists — Different 
 Causes of Scepticism. 
 
 ♦ITWOW few souls are there, in these days, 
 J who preserve their equilibrium and 
 their uprightness, affirming what ought 
 to be affirmed, denying what ought to be denied, 
 abstaining from judging where it is right so to 
 abstain! Aristotle has defined virtue to be the 
 middle between two vices, the too much and 
 the too little.* I do not accept this definition 
 in its full extent, but it is frequently no less 
 applicable in the intellectual than in the moral 
 life. Sometimes men foolishly seek to raise 
 themselves, alone and without support, above 
 human nature; sometimes they sink below that 
 same nature by falling miserably into materi¬ 
 alism or scepticism. How many minds are in 
 perpetual oscillation between these two ex¬ 
 tremes, slipping now on one side, now on the 
 other, without power to fix themselves in the 
 just medium which reason prescribes! 
 
 15 
 
 * Ethic. Nicom. ii. 6. 
 
226 Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 
 
 Scepticism often depends on a moral condi¬ 
 tion similar to that which engenders and 
 nourishes materialism; occasionally, however, 
 it arises from other causes. I am now speak¬ 
 ing of moral universal scepticism, of that state 
 of mind wliiciz denies nothing positively, hut 
 at the same time does not affirm any truth of 
 the moral order, whether natural or super¬ 
 natural; in which a man doubts the existence 
 of God, of his own soul, of all religious prin¬ 
 ciples. With some men, universal doubt is the 
 result of a false system of philosophy carried 
 out to its extreme point, but this is an excep¬ 
 tion which we need not specially notice. Even 
 in minds that give themselves up to philoso¬ 
 phical studies and are sincerely prepossessed 
 in favor of the truth, scepticism is rarely the 
 logical product of a false method; it almost 
 always depends on other causes; it springs for 
 the most part from a monstrous and bitter de¬ 
 ception. It is this deception which directly 
 engenders intellectual despair; but in this it is 
 assisted by moral dispositions which indicate 
 an unhealthy condition of the soul. Scepticism 
 is a weakness of the will and of the under¬ 
 standing. It is the younger son of pride, if I 
 may so speak. Pride begins with a ridiculous 
 self-sufficiency and ends in despair. This is, 
 in one word, the history of many sceptics of 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 227 
 
 lofty and earnest intelligence. In this way, 
 as we have already seen, St. Augustine fell into 
 scepticism. Disdaining the Christian Faith, 
 he at first imagined that he should be able to 
 discover everything by reason alone; when de¬ 
 ceived in this presumptuous confidence, that 
 noble genius recoiled upon itself, and took up J 
 the belief that the human understanding is 
 powerless to attain a certain knowledge of 
 truth. IIow many infidels, in our own days 
 and under our own eyes, have gone through 
 this same experience! Their reason, jealous 
 of a false independence, sought to walk alone 
 to the conquest of all truths, and rejected with 
 disdain the support of Divine Authority. And 
 in what did this course generally end? For 
 the most part in miserable discouragement and 
 bitter despair. I will content myself with 
 recalling the example of Theodore Jouffroy, 
 one of the most eminent philosophers of the 
 school of French rationalists. Jouffroy had 
 received a Catholic education, but his belief 
 was weak and unenlightened, and vanished at 
 the first breath of rationalistic teaching. Ilis 
 young and ardent mind, seduced by the false 
 promises of infidel philosophy, was persuaded 
 that it was about to find, in that philosophy, 
 the clear and definite solution of all prob¬ 
 lems. “My mind,” wrote the disappointed 
 
228 Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 
 
 philosopher at a later period, “was persuaded 
 that on entering upon the study of philosophy 
 it was about to encounter a regular science, 
 which, after having pointed out its end and 
 the process by which to attain it, would con¬ 
 duct me by a sure and well-defined road to the 
 certain knowledge of those things which are 
 of surpassing interest to man. In one word, 
 my understanding, excited by its necessities 
 and enlarged by the teaching of Christianity, 
 had ascribed to philosophy the grand object, 
 the vast frame-work, the sublime bearing of a 
 religion. . . . Such had been my hope; and 
 what did I find ? The struggle which had 
 awakened the slumbering echoes of the faculty, 
 and which had turned the heads of all my fel¬ 
 low-students, had for its object—its sole ob¬ 
 ject—the question of the origin of ideas. I 
 could not recover from my astonishment that 
 men should occupy themselves with the origin 
 of ideas with as much ardor as if the whole 
 of philosophy was contained in it,* and yet 
 leave on one side man, God , the world, and 
 the relations which unite them to the enigma 
 of the past and the mysteries of the future, and 
 to many other gigantic problems on which they 
 did not conceal their scepticism. All philoso- 
 
 * It must not be forgotten that in Rationalism, philosophy 
 takes the place of religion, and ought consequently to fulfil 
 
 the task of religion. i 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 229 
 
 phy seemed to be buried in a hole where there 
 was no air, and in which iny soul, recently 
 exiled from Christianity, was stifled, yet the 
 authority of the teachers and the fervor of their 
 disciples impressed me, and I dared not show 
 either my surprise or my disappointment. 7 ’* 
 Jouffroy soon became one of the most distin¬ 
 guished masters of that philosophy which as¬ 
 sumed to be the supreme personification of rea¬ 
 son. Ilis personal researches could not fill up 
 the void which the loss of faith had produced 
 in his soul. All religious certainty had dis¬ 
 appeared from his mind. Tie became a sceptic, 
 God, man, the world, their mutual relations, all 
 those grand problems which every intelligent 
 soul necessarily proposes to itself, remained 
 obscure enigmas to him. Listen to the phi¬ 
 losopher telling, with the accent of despair, the 
 impression which the sight of the places where 
 he had once had the happiness to live as a 
 Christian made upon his afflicted soul. lie 
 says: “I found myself once more under the 
 roof where I had passed my childhood, in the 
 midst of those who had brought me up so ten¬ 
 derly, in the presence of objects which had 
 struck my eyes, touched my heart, affected my 
 understanding, in the happy days of my early 
 life. . . . All was unchanged except myself. 
 
 * Noveaux Melanges Philosophiques, by Theodore Jouffroy. 
 
230 Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 
 
 The Church, where the holy mysteries were 
 celebrated with the same devotion; the fields, 
 the woods, the fountains which were still blessed 
 in the springtime; the house where, on the ap¬ 
 pointed day, an altar of flowers and foliage 
 was still erected; the Cure, who had instructed 
 me in the Taith and who had grown old, was 
 still there—still firm in his belief; all who 
 surrounded me had the same heart, the same 
 soul, the same hope in faith. I alone had lost 
 it. I alone lived without knowing how or why . 
 I alone, so learned, knew nothing . I alone was 
 empty, agitated, deprived of light, blind, and 
 restless This is what Rationalism had af¬ 
 fected in an understanding naturally so power¬ 
 ful and enlightened. 
 
 These last words of Jouffroy, so profoundly 
 mournful, remind me of the observation of 
 another philosopher who was also for some time 
 an infidel, but who returned at last to the Taith 
 of his childhood. M. Droz says: “I was often 
 astonished to see illustrious philosophers less 
 enlightened on the most important subjects 
 than humble Christians. Is it not shameful 
 that sages should consume long watches in 
 seeking what has been long ago found ? Philos¬ 
 ophers discuss the question as to what is man’s 
 destination upon earth; they plunge into sub* 
 
 * Work quoted by M. Guizot in his Meditations et Etudes 
 Morales, Preface. Paris, 1852. 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 231 
 
 tleties, they exhaust themselves in declamations 
 more or less eloquent, and in the meanwhile 
 a good Christian woman would say to them: 
 ‘God has created us to love him and to worship 
 him, and to make us one day participate in his 
 felicity. Here we are in a place of probation 
 where duties are imposed upon us; we may 
 fulfil them or we may transgress them. After 
 this short life, according as we shall have 
 obeyed or resisted the will of our Father, he 
 will reward us because he is good, or he will 
 punish us because he is just. ? If philosophers 
 do not confine themselves to the development 
 of these words in treating the same subject, 
 they unteach us the truth.”* 
 
 JoufTroy was unable to recover from his fall 
 into scepticism. This proud philosopher con¬ 
 cludes his works by charging philosophy with 
 absolute impotence; he ends by declaring with 
 bitter sadness that philosophy, which in his 
 idea is the same thing as nationalism, raises 
 and brings to light a multitude of questions, 
 none of which it is able to resolve. What a les¬ 
 son is this! Men begin by proclaiming the 
 omnipotence of human reason, and end by ac¬ 
 cusing it of utter weakness. This is surely the 
 well-deserved chastisement of pride, which in its 
 delirium refuses to accept the conditions which 
 
 * Avcux d’un Philosophe Chretien, pp. 32, 33. 
 
232 Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 
 
 God has imposed upon our nature, and disdain¬ 
 fully rejects the hand which alone can save us. 
 Neither so high nor so low is the teaching of 
 good sense and the teaching of Catholic philoso¬ 
 phy. Rationalism is neither reason nor 
 philosophy; it is the moral enemy of both; it 
 compromises them and destroys them by its ex¬ 
 aggeration and its foibles. 
 
 The causes of scepticism are complex; it is 
 not produced in the same way in all minds 
 that are attacked by this terrible malady. In 
 the case of most infidels it is not the result 
 of a serious search after truth, but of an ill- 
 directed search; it is the fruit of levity, of 
 dissipation, of indolence of the will, or of ‘ a 
 false direction of the understanding. Many 
 Christians who are not familiar with psycho¬ 
 logical studies ask themselves if scepticism is 
 really possible, and are astonished that earnest 
 men can fall into such error. I can understand 
 this blessed ignorance of evil. The faculties 
 in a Christian soul are in equilibrium; they 
 are maintained in their vigor and in their nor¬ 
 mal state; scepticism, which is the overthrow 
 and ruin of our moral and intellectual nature, 
 is an impossibility in such a condition. But 
 let a man enter into himself and scrutinize his 
 own thoughts, let him study attentively the 
 history of those souls who are not settled in 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 233 
 
 the truth by Faith, and he will soon be con¬ 
 vinced that scepticism is unfortunately but too 
 possible, and that it is easier to become the 
 prey of this monster than people usually 
 imagine. Let it never be forgotten that man 
 is as free in his adhesion to truth as he is in 
 his adhesion to virtue; in both orders it is 
 possible to fall away; men may reject what 
 is true as they may reject what is good; they 
 may hesitate and vacillate in affirming what is 
 true, as well as in practising what is good. 
 
 All truths, even those which we call evident, 
 and which in reality are so, present a dark side 
 to human reason; man, according to the saying 
 of Montaigne, sees the whole of nothing. Even 
 in the purely natural order, every object of 
 human thought presents two faces—two sides; 
 one clear, luminous, evident; the other dark 
 and cloudy. I see a man; I affirm his exist¬ 
 ence; I affirm that he is a being composed of 
 two distinct substances, body and soul. This 
 affirmation rests on evidence. But when I af¬ 
 firm the existence of the bodv, when I affirm 
 the existence of the soul, do I know which is 
 the precise object of this twofold affirmation? 
 I know it in a certain degree. I know which 
 are the proper characteristics of the body; I 
 know which are the essential properties of the 
 soul; I see clearly that they are two distinct 
 
234 Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 
 
 substances. But if I am asked to state in clear 
 and forcible terms in what the essence of the 
 human body consists, what constitutes its life, 
 what the action of the organs of the body is, 
 and how it is produced; if I am asked to de¬ 
 fine with the utmost precision the essence of 
 my own soul, and to explain the play of all its 
 faculties, I confess that I have no answer to 
 give. I could certainly give a few explana¬ 
 tions and elucidations, but I should soon come 
 to a point before which I should be obliged to 
 pause, and a grain of sand stops me as much 
 as man. What philosopher durst flatter himself 
 that he knows thoroughly, and in all their parts, 
 those things the reality of which he affirms ? 
 A mysterious obscurity hangs over all our 
 knowledge. One of the leaders of French Ra¬ 
 tionalism has said with great truth, “In science, 
 as often as we make anv advance, we find an 
 abyss; only weak minds believe that they can 
 explain all and understand all.”* 
 
 If nature herself, bounded, limited, finite as 
 she is, conceals depths which our minds can¬ 
 not fathom, must not God, the Infinite Being, 
 be full of obscurity to us ? Ro truth can be 
 more easily demonstrated than the existence of 
 God. But what incomprehensible things are 
 there in the nature of that God whose existence 
 
 * Jules Simon, La Religion Naturelle, p. 45. 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 235 
 
 reason demonstrates! Jules Simon, judging in 
 this respect of the pretensions to omniscience 
 which many of his companions in Rationalism 
 set up, says: “More humiliated by what is 
 wanting to us than intoxicated by that which 
 we are permitted to discover, the first word 
 we shall pronounce when we speak of God is 
 incomprehensibility. Human pride, and we 
 must also say philosophical pride, revolts at 
 this word. We are willing enough to admit 
 that religion speaks of the incomprehensibility 
 of God, and every one knows that the Catholic 
 Religion proclaims a hidden God—an incom¬ 
 prehensible God; but it would seem that the 
 very end of philosophy is to explain all mys¬ 
 teries, to render all ideas precise, to carry 
 everywhere the light of reason, and to accustom 
 the human mind to believe only what it can 
 prove and understand. We might say that 
 Bayle’s proverb, ‘Understanding is the measure 
 of belief/ is the very motto of philosophy. 
 To believe without proof or to believe without 
 understanding appears to human reason to be 
 at most only two different modes of abdicating 
 its claims. . . . These commonplaces cannot 
 stand examination. In science, the question is 
 not to attain what we wish, but to attain what 
 we can. Ho doubt the essence of philosophy 
 consists in believing nothing without proof; but 
 
236 Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 
 
 wlien the existence of a being is once proved, 
 are we to renounce our belief in that existence 
 on the pretext that the nature of that being is 
 incomprehensible to us ? . . . These data are 
 so simple and natural, that when we reflect on 
 them we know not how to explain the preten¬ 
 sions to omniscience which certain schools have 
 set up.”* “If in nature herself,” adds the 
 philosopher, “that is to say, in what is neces¬ 
 sarily limited and imperfect, we admit the 
 existence of real mysteries unfathomable to 
 human reason, by what mental aberration would 
 we have the only perfect Being to he without 
 abysses which our thoughts cannot penetrate ?” 
 “My life is passed at the bottom of an abyss, 
 in the midst of mysteries. I am surrounded 
 by the unknown; I am myself ever unknown to 
 my own mind (in the sense in which we spoke 
 just now). In spite of all this I live in peace. 
 
 I speak of science in pompous terms, and when 
 I come to demonstrate the existence of God 
 and am told that he is incomprehensible, I cry ^ 
 out and declare myself offended in my dignity 
 as a human being and as a philosopher.” 
 
 ISTo one could express this better. In these 
 passages the author of La Religion Naturelle 
 does but declare a well-known truth—one which 
 has been recalled and explained a hundred 
 
 * Jules Simon, La Religion Naturelle, pp. 35-40. 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 237 
 
 times by Christian philosophers, but it is a 
 truth big with consequences and which has al¬ 
 ways more or less affrighted Rationalism. 
 
 This, then, is the condition of human reason. 
 We meet with mystery even in the dogmas of 
 natural religion—in things which seem the 
 most familiar to us. What must we do in 
 presence of that obscurity which in all our 
 knowledge mingles constantly with the light ? 
 Must I deny or abstain from affirming the 
 existence of God because I can only compre¬ 
 hend his nature in part ? It is undeniable that 
 I can do so. The obscurity which accompanies 
 light, and to which our intelligence is averse, 
 makes this denial possible, and leaves me at 
 liberty to give or refuse my consent to the 
 known truth. All depends on the disposition 
 of my will. We know what scepticism is. It 
 will not accept a light mingled with shadows— 
 it rejects the light, out of fear and hatred of 
 darkness. A reasonable man will not act thus. 
 He admits the obscurity, which is inseparable 
 from all knowledge; he admits it, not for itself, 
 but on the authority of the light. He knows 
 that he is not intended to understand every¬ 
 thing. We are intelligent beings, no doubt, but 
 we are also finite beings, and consequently the 
 comprehension with which we are endowed is 
 finite. Also, further, we are beings subject to 
 
238 Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 
 
 trial; and this state of probation excludes the 
 full light of day. We mistake the laws of our 
 nature and of our actual condition if we deny 
 the existence of God because his nature is in¬ 
 comprehensible to us. Such pride would he 
 ridiculous were it not profoundly criminal. 
 
 Occasionally scepticism springs less from 
 pride than from a false direction of the under¬ 
 standing. Some minds prefer to direct and 
 arrest their attention to what is obscure, not 
 only with regard to moral and religious truths, 
 hut to historical facts and questions of natural 
 science; they will not look at the light, or 
 scarcely glance at it, they fix their eyes only 
 on the shadows. Is it astonishing if they do 
 not see, or if they hesitate and grope their way 
 along like the blind ? We know many such 
 minds. Things which are the most evident, 
 the most solidly demonstrated, appear doubt¬ 
 ful to them, because they do not see arguments, 
 but pay attention to a thousand little difficulties 
 in which their darkened reason perplexes itself, 
 and ends by losing its way completely. Why 
 not look on the side where light is ? 
 
 We have said already that levity, indiffer¬ 
 ence, apathy, generally helped and fed by the 
 passions, is the most frequent cause of religious 
 scepticism. Men do not love the truth; they 
 do not desire it—they fear it and turn away 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 239 
 
 from it as from an enemy. With such dis¬ 
 positions, without the special aid of God, how 
 can they avoid becoming sceptics? But let 
 them not deceive themselves; such a scepti¬ 
 cism is highly criminal, and the truth, from 
 which they now fly, will one day find them 
 out to their cost. 
 
 One, who had traversed all the phases of in¬ 
 fidelity, has said: “The greatest benefit of re¬ 
 ligion is to save us from doubt and uncertainty. 
 . . . All is uncertain, fugitive and change¬ 
 able in a mind destitute of religious belief.”* 
 Change, instability, fluctuation, is a malady of 
 the understanding as well as of the heart of 
 man; faith cures us of this malady by fixing 
 our mind upon truth and prohibiting doubt: 
 those who do not believe are hut too frequently 
 its victims. “Therefore,” says an Italian phil¬ 
 osopher, “the Catholic precept is most wise 
 which forbids us to admit a doubt of the known 
 truth even for a single instant. The weakness 
 and instability of the human mind are such, 
 and so great, that, however strong and solid 
 our persuasion of the truth of any article of 
 faith may he, there is not one with regard to 
 which difficulties may not sometimes arise cap¬ 
 able of making a momentary impression on the 
 mind; if men entertain this impression, doubt- 
 
 * Maine de Biran, Journal Intime, p. 333. 
 
240 Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 
 
 ing of the truth which they possess, they will 
 by degrees acquire a habit of scepticism which 
 will soon leave no belief intact. But if, on the 
 contrary, they courageously resist these assaults 
 —if they despise these involuntary clouds of 
 the mind—by degrees the darkness will dis¬ 
 perse, calm will return, they will he able to 
 smile at their doubts instead of thinking them 
 formidable, and will wonder that they ever 
 looked on them in a serious light. Sophistry 
 sometimes assumes a specious and seductive as¬ 
 pect in the eyes of the understanding, as the 
 passions do in the eyes of the heart; hut if men 
 are strong and do not yield to appearances, it 
 will soon vanish away.”* 
 
 * Gioberti, from the French translation, t. iii. p. 182. 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 241 
 
 CIIAPTEK VIII. 
 
 Corruption of the Understanding—Sophistry 
 
 and its Victims. 
 
 IIE understanding may become corrupt- 
 ed as well as the heart, but this is a 
 case of less frequent occurrence; we 
 have, however, signal examples of this corrup¬ 
 tion of the understanding in our day. This 
 corruption is at once the root and the fruit of 
 sophistry. I have no desire to go over the sub¬ 
 ject of modern sophistry, which my friend. 
 Father Gratry, has treated in so masterly a 
 manner; but after having, in the words of this 
 uncompromising religious writer, pointed out 
 the evil, I will seek to indicate the remedy. 
 
 “The sophists of the eighteenth century at¬ 
 tacked the Faith in the name of reason; those 
 of the nineteenth now attack reason itself. The 
 sophists follow in the intellectual order the 
 course which, according to Tacitus, they follow 
 in the political order—they attack reasonable 
 life in the same manner as they attack social 
 life. ‘They first attack power/ says Tacitus, 
 1G 
 
242 Causes and Cure of Unbelief, 
 
 ‘in the name of liberty, and when power has 
 been overcome they attack liberty itself.’* We 
 see the same thing before our eyes in the in¬ 
 tellectual order. At first they attacked the 
 power and authority of Faith in the name of 
 reason; now they attack the free and manifest 
 light of reason. At first they rejected the 
 Eternal Word illuminating the assembly of 
 Christians with his revelations; now they at¬ 
 tack the Word, who, as the eternal light of 
 reason, enlightens every man coming into this 
 world. . . . Such is the progress of intellectual 
 decay. 
 
 “It is certain that the absurd, set forth dar¬ 
 ingly, openly, and without evasion, has some^ 
 times a strange power. It has the fascination 
 of a precipice. I know many instances of it. 
 When a mind has once had the weakness to 
 hesitate for an instant in presence of the visibly 
 absurd, that mind is lost. As there is nothing 
 more to expect, in the order of thought, from 
 a mind which demands the demonstration of 
 evidence, so there is nothing more to hope for 
 from a mind which demands the refutation of 
 the absurd, which is itself the evidence of error. 
 Beyond evidence there is nothing to demon¬ 
 strate; beyond the absurd there is nothing to 
 refute. 
 
 * Annal xvi. 22. 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 243 
 
 “There philosophy stops. Then the mind, 
 deprived of the support of evidence, and of the 
 beacon-light of the absurd, quits the limits of 
 reason, and abandons philosophy for sophistry. 
 . . . And what is sophistry? It is the process 
 of a reason overthrown, which asks the demon¬ 
 stration of evidence, and which in the mean¬ 
 while denies evidence; which demands the 
 refutation of the absurd, and which in the 
 meanwhile affirms the absurd.”* 
 
 It is not that, as in materialism and scep¬ 
 ticism, the soul is simply hebetated or en¬ 
 feebled ; sophistry is the perversion and utter 
 overthrow of the mind. All is reversed; the 
 fundamental principles of reason are over¬ 
 thrown, and the understanding, as it were, up¬ 
 rooted, floats in darkness and feeds upon con¬ 
 tradictions. Ilegel is the great master of 
 sophistry, as we stated before, on the subject 
 of Pantheism. Ilegel has founded in the midst 
 of our Christian Europe a sophistry infinitely 
 more dangerous than that of Gorgias and the 
 other Greek sophists whom Socrates and Plato 
 opposed. He has ruined innumerable minds. 
 Father Gratrv says once more: “When a mind 
 under the influence of Hegelism, which is the 
 most daring and at the same time the most 
 
 * Une Etude sur la Sophistique contemporaine, by P£re 
 Gratry, pp. 124-126. 
 
244 Carnes and Cure of Unbelief. 
 
 radical form of sophistry, has once given way, 
 and destroyed the two extreme limits of reason, 
 which are evidence and the absurd, that mind 
 —whatever may be its riches, its distinction, 
 its natural qualities—that mind is lost. You 
 can no longer reckon upon its judgment. To 
 it assertion and contradiction are alike. It 
 seeks contradiction methodically. Philosophy 
 is now out of the question: the mind is oc¬ 
 cupied only with that sterile movement of 
 thought of, for, or against, which Plato in the 
 Sophist calls in derision ‘enantiopoiology.’ 
 
 This sophistry, the effects of which are be¬ 
 fore our eyes, springs directly from Pantheism; 
 it is the necessary application of the only logic 
 which that cloudy system has to show; which 
 lays down as a thesis the identity of God and 
 the world, of the necessary and the contingent, 
 of the absolute and the relative, and thus ter¬ 
 minates fatally in the confusion of truth and 
 falsehood, good and evil, being and non-ex¬ 
 istence. Pantheism is the doctrine of universal 
 identity or general confusion. In this pre¬ 
 tended philosophy, light and darkness, day and 
 night, are but one and the same thing. Ilegel 
 affirms this in express terms in his logic. It 
 is the direct negation of reason, of what hu¬ 
 manity in all times has always called reason. 
 
 * Ouv. cit. pp. 126, 127. 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 245 
 
 For some years past Pantheism has in a re¬ 
 markable degree lost its prestige in the philoso¬ 
 phical schools; but it has poisoned the reason 
 of Europe, and even in these days intelligent 
 men, otherwise richly endowed, are attacked hy 
 its venom. Many minds are wholly corrupted; 
 they have no principles left in virtue of what 
 they call progress; that which is true to-day 
 may be false to-morrow; they have no longer a 
 single fixed point, and their reason, being truly 
 uprooted, vacillates between an assertion and 
 its contrary, and incessantly contradicts itself, 
 whilst firmly believing in its own fidelity. In¬ 
 tellectual corruption is not the same in all soph¬ 
 ists; but we are acquainted with several, re¬ 
 garded as oracles by a considerable portion of 
 the unbelieving world, in whom reason appears 
 to be totally overthrown. 
 
 How are such minds to be cured? I know 
 of but two remedies—humility and the sincere 
 love of truth. Contempt of truth is the char¬ 
 acteristic of the sophist, and it is usually the 
 fruit of moral and intellectual egotism—that 
 is, of pride in its highest degree. The leader 
 of contemporary sophistry himself warns us 
 that the soul must strip itself of all love for 
 being, truth, justice, God, in order to arrive at 
 confounding being and non-being. Listen to 
 the profound teaching of these words: “The 
 
246 Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 
 
 formula, ‘Being and non-being are identical/ 
 appears so great a paradox that reason can 
 scarcely regard it in a serious light. Doubt¬ 
 less no great effort of the mind is necessary to 
 render the assertion, that being and non-being 
 are the same thing, ridiculous, nor to deduce 
 absurdities in its application. Dor instance, it 
 may be maintained as a consequence of this 
 principle, that it is the same thing whether my 
 house, my goods, the air I breathe, this city, 
 the sun, justice, the soul, God, are or are not. 
 . . . In fact, philosophy is precisely that doc¬ 
 trine which teaches man to free himself from 
 a multitude of special ends and points of view, 
 and renders him independent of everything, so 
 that it is absolutely indifferent to him whether 
 things are or are not.”* 
 
 Hegel agrees then with us; the absolute in¬ 
 difference of the soul with respect to all things 
 is, in his eyes as it is in ours, the source or 
 nourishment of sophistry. Let this detestable 
 source, then, be dried up and sophistry will dis¬ 
 appear. Let this deadly indifference be re¬ 
 placed by the vivifying love of truth, justice, 
 and goodness; reason will then recover its up¬ 
 rightness, and the soul, quitting the cloudy 
 abyss where it is struggling, will soar once 
 again to the pure, serene regions of light. 
 
 * Hegel, CEuvres, 2 edit. tom. vi. pp. 171, 172. 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 247 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Unbelievers who admit the Fundamental Prin¬ 
 ciples of Natural Religion—Causes of their 
 Unbelief. 
 
 OPIIISTRY, scepticism, materialism, are 
 J all radical forms of infidelity, which at¬ 
 tack reason as directly as Faith; that is 
 to say, they aim at the total ruin of the moral 
 man. We will again quote Father Gratry, who 
 says: “We have frequently repeated, after 
 
 Plato, Leibnitz, and others, that the mind of 
 man may follow two contrary tendencies, by 
 the one raising itself toward being, toward God, 
 by the other, sinking toward nothingness; one 
 is followed by philosophers, the other by soph¬ 
 ists. Traces of these two tendencies are to be 
 found in all ages; it is an intellectual imitation 
 of the life or death of souls according as they 
 ascend toward God, or depart from him of their 
 own free will.”* The infidelity which has been 
 described in the three preceding chapters is the 
 act of minds which, by a free and secret choice, 
 
 * Logxque, tom. I. pp. 124, 125. 
 
248 Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 
 
 descend toward nothingness and plunge them¬ 
 selves into darkness. Ho Christian age has ever 
 witnessed so many souls given over to this spirit 
 of darkness as the present. Let not earnest men, 
 who have retained some vigor, some moral up¬ 
 rightness, whether they are believers or unbeliev¬ 
 ers, deceive themselves; reason is in peril; in the 
 midst of the astonishing material progress which 
 this century realizes every day, and to which we 
 give our willing admiration, reason, good sense, 
 that something which is the support and nec¬ 
 essary safeguard of society, is visibly lowered; 
 the moral standard of men’s minds has sunk in 
 a manner which would alarm us, did we not 
 hope in the invincible power of the Christiari 
 Faith. 
 
 How is it that the best among rationalists, 
 those who join us in our struggles against soph¬ 
 ists, obstinately reject this Faith, without which 
 our civilization would soon sink into the abject 
 grossness of materialism ? How is it that 
 learned men, who recognize a personal God in¬ 
 finitely good and infinitely wise, all-powerful 
 and free, Creator of the world—how is it that 
 they reject all positive intervention of this God 
 in the government of the human race, that they 
 deny the miraculous and supernatural order, 
 understand not that marvellous, and, if I may 
 be permitted to call it so, that natural effusion 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 249 
 
 of infinite goodness in the Incarnation of Jesus 
 Christ? We must endeavor to clear up this 
 moral mystery. 
 
 From the moment men admit miracles they 
 are no longer infidels, and in our European so 
 ciety they are very near being Christians. 
 Now, is it conceivable that a learned man, whose 
 mind is not corrupted, should recognize a per¬ 
 sonal and free God, the Master of the universe, 
 and yet deny him the power of acting in the 
 world as he pleases, according to the dictates of 
 his wisdom and the inspirations of his love ? 
 Droz, who had been an infidel for a great part 
 of his life, passes the following judgment on 
 this incomprehensible prejudice: “Infidels 
 have one fixed idea. They will have it that 
 miracles are impossible. When I was hut a 
 Deist, I recognized the absurdity of those who 
 pretended to impose limits on Divine Power. 
 
 I wfill add that this age is too enlightened for 
 the prejudice which refuses to admit miracles 
 to subsist. The day will come when it will be . 
 a consequence of this simple evident truth: 
 God is an Infinite Being.’’* Nevertheless, this 
 prejudice, so manifestly contrary to reason, still 
 maintains its ground. 
 
 We remarked, when relating the conversion of 
 the philosopher Justin, that in the early ages of 
 
 * Aveux d’un Philosophe Chretien, p. 79. 
 
250 
 
 Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 
 
 Christianity pagans who were learned, and 
 anxious to discover trnth, generally admitted the 
 Christian Faith from the moment that the idea 
 of the true God, the Creator of the world, had 
 fully taken possession of their understanding; 
 the religion of Jesus Christ, with its mysteries, 
 its institutions, its practices, appeared to the 
 generous and grateful souls of these men a con¬ 
 sequence and in some sort a natural application 
 of the idea of a God infinitely perfect, who is 
 rather the Father than the Master of the hu¬ 
 man race. The knowledge of God and of his 
 relations with the world led straight to the be¬ 
 lief in the Incarnation of the Word and in all 
 the ineffable inventions of the love of the 
 Saviour of men.* There is not a single pagan 
 philosopher mentioned in the early ages of the 
 Church who rejected the Christian Faith after 
 having accepted the true notion of God. Why 
 is it otherwise in our days ? ITow is it that we 
 see earnest minds admit the natural, whilst they 
 reject the supernatural part of the Christian 
 
 * “The Sacrament of the Eucharist,” says Madame Swetch- 
 ine, “is the noblest expression of a love which can brook 
 no limit, no separation, no obstacle. By this adorable Sacra¬ 
 ment we feel the presence of God in ourselves, his intimate 
 union, not only with the spirit, but also with the flesh and 
 blood. The love of God, Almighty as himself, could go no 
 farther, but thus far it could go, and in mercy God has stopped 
 only at its extreme limits. . . The reality of our Lord’s pres¬ 
 
 ence in the Holy Eucharist emanates almost necessarily from 
 redemption, as the supreme consequence and highest develop¬ 
 ment of infinite love. The Eucharist is the natural effect of 
 a supernatural charity .”—Meditations et Prieres, pp. 212, 
 213. Paris, 1863. 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 251 
 
 Creed ? This depends on certain moral disposi¬ 
 tions. 
 
 After St. Augustine had studied in the school 
 of Plato, he recovered himself nobly; he rose to 
 things appertaining to the intelligible world, 
 and found once more the spiritual and perfect 
 God, who is the light of the world. But the 
 Platonists had not instructed him in the true 
 relations between God and the created universe; 
 they did not know them. Still, in their school 
 he had formed a sufficiently pure idea of God, 
 though it was incomplete and undefined. In 
 this state he saw no difficulty in believing in the 
 Word of whom Christianity speaks, but he 
 could not understand the mystery of the Incar¬ 
 nation of the Word. And why did his mind 
 recoil before this mystery ? lie tells us himself 
 it was because he was governed by a pride which 
 hindered him from recognizing and confessing 
 the weakness, the failings, the moral miseries 
 from which his soul was suffering.* When St. 
 Augustine saw himself as he really was, with 
 all the humiliations and all the necessities of his 
 nature, then he understood the benefit of the In¬ 
 carnation of the Word, and Jesus Christ ap¬ 
 peared to him as the necessary Pestorer of our 
 fallen nature. Is it not possible that many 
 rationalists are retained in unbelief by the same 
 
 * Conf. lib. vii. c. 20, 
 
252 Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 
 
 causes which retained St. Augustine? “You 
 will not come to me,” said the Word Incarnate 
 himself to the Jews who rejected him.* The 
 true root of unbelief is the will. It is pride, 
 it is sensuality, it is egotism in some shape or 
 other which hinders the will from turning to¬ 
 ward Jesus Christ and fixing in sincerity the 
 eye of the understanding on this adorable form. 
 “How can you believe,” said the Saviour to the 
 Pharisees, who were proud of their vain wis¬ 
 dom—“How can you believe, who receive glory 
 from one another, and the glory which is from 
 God alone you do not seek ?”t And once more: 
 “Men loved darkness rather than the light, for 
 their works were evil.”]! Human nature is still' 
 the same. St. Paul said that the Cross was a 
 stumbling-block to the Jews and foolishness to 
 the Gentiles. For God, the Master of the world, 
 to lower himself, for the love of men, even to 
 die upon a cross, was, in the eyes of egotism, 
 an unspeakable absurdity. When men do not 
 love, how can they understand what love is ? 
 When men refer everything to themselves, how 
 can they comprehend the generous and admir¬ 
 able folly of devotion and sacrifice ? The Cross 
 of Jesus Christ has exalted human nature. It 
 has become to all civilized nations the symbol of 
 honor and of glory; and nevertheless it remains 
 
 * John v. 40. t John v. 44. J John iii. 19. 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 253 
 
 a stumbling-block and foolishness to infidels. 
 When will they surmount the narrow boundaries 
 of that egotism in which they waste away in 
 sterile and delusive self-enjoyment ? When will 
 they comprehend that if we, who are evil, can 
 give our life to save one of our brethren, God, 
 who is Infinite Goodness, can empty himself, ac¬ 
 cording to the expression of St. Paul, take the 
 form of a servant, and die upon a cross, out of 
 love for his children and to save them ? A 
 pure, devoted, humble soul has nothing to op¬ 
 pose to the Christian Faith, but beholds in it 
 the most touching, and at the same time the most 
 magnificent effusion of the love of God. 
 
 Pationalists, I well know, hide their unbelief 
 under fair pretexts. Reason, they say, must 
 not abdicate its sway; reason has prerogatives 
 which it may not renounce. In Christians, they 
 say, reason abdicates by submitting to a power 
 foreign to itself and by accepting mysteries 
 which it cannot understand on the authority of 
 that power. I wish to believe that men are sin¬ 
 cere when they speak thus, but we are so ingeni¬ 
 ous in deceiving ourselves when the sacrifice of 
 some passion is in question. Ask Droz, Au¬ 
 gustine Thierry, Maine de Biran, or any other 
 of the numerous infidels who have recently re¬ 
 turned to the Faith, whether they sacrificed one 
 single prerogative of reason in submitting to 
 
254 Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 
 
 the authority of the Church; they will answer, 
 that they had certainly to sacrifice prejudices 
 and passions, but that on becoming Christians 
 they did but yield full obedience to reason. 
 Why, then, speak of the abdication of reason, 
 and of a power foreign to reason? Is God a 
 stranger to reason? We Catholics bow before 
 the authority of the Church, because we regard 
 her as the representative and permanent organ 
 of Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh; we be¬ 
 lieve this not blindly, not lightly, but because the 
 proofs which establish it are evident to the 
 eyes of reason. Faith is finite reason, obeying 
 infinite reason, or the Word of God, in all 
 things; what can be more just? what more * 
 worthy of us ? We admit doctrines, it is true, 
 which transcend reason and which reason can 
 only half understand, but we accept them on 
 the testimony of an authority whose title can¬ 
 not be disputed. Besides, in things of the 
 purely natural order, the human mind meets 
 with obscurities, with unfathomable mysteries; 
 why, then, should it take offence at mysteries 
 of the supernatural order ? 
 
 Jules Simon, one of the leaders of spiritual¬ 
 istic rationalism, speaks eloquently of the mys¬ 
 teries of the natural order, but condemns abso¬ 
 lutely, in the name of reason, the mysteries of 
 Christianity. This philosopher sees an essen- 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 255 
 
 tial difference between the incomprehensible 
 and mystery in the Christian sense of the word. 
 These are the incredible words which he has 
 written on the subject in the first edition of his 
 book, La Religion Naturelle: “If, in this ex¬ 
 planation of the incomprehensible, propositions 
 are enunciated which are not proved, which do 
 not convey a precise meaning to the mind, and 
 which imply contradiction in terms, this new 
 doctrine is that which properly constitutes mys¬ 
 tery. This doctrine is not only incomprehensi¬ 
 ble ; besides this characteristic it has three 
 others: it is affirmed without being demon- 
 strated; it is not intelligible in its enunciation; 
 it contains a formal contradiction.”* All this 
 is false, absolutely false, and in direct opposi¬ 
 tion to all the teaching of Catholic theology. 
 Christian mysteries are all demonstrated; not 
 in themselves, doubtless, but in revelation, the 
 existence of which is verified by reason with an 
 evidence which defies objection; all are intelli¬ 
 gible in their enunciation, and no one has ever 
 been able to discover the slightest contradiction 
 in a single dogma of Christianity. Jules Simon 
 knows nothing of our great theologians, who, 
 nevertheless, deserve to be consulted by every 
 earnest philosopher. He knows not that a 
 
 * La Religion Naturelle, pp. 233. 234. The author has 
 modified this language in the third edition of his work, but he 
 has not corrected the idea which it expresses. 
 
256 Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 
 
 science exists infinitely higher than the petty 
 philosophy with which rationalism seeks to 
 nourish superior minds, and that this science, 
 which is called theology, consists precisely in 
 the explanation of all those mysteries of which 
 he speaks so lightly.* But at least he knows 
 Leibnitz, for he has borrowed largely from him. 
 ]STow Leibnitz establishes clearly that the Chris¬ 
 tian mysteries are not contradictory; that they 
 do not contradict reason; that they are not con¬ 
 trary to any truth evidently recognized by rea¬ 
 son ; that their enunciation presents a suffi¬ 
 ciently intelligible meaning to the mind, and 
 that, in short, all objections opposed to them 
 may be solved. “That which is contrary to mys¬ 
 teries in us,” says Leibnitz, “is not reason, or 
 the natural light, or the natural sequence of 
 truths; it is corruption, it is error or prejudice, 
 it is darkness.”t This is what that great man 
 thought of the contradictions which erring 
 minds imagine they have discovered in the mys¬ 
 teries of Christianity. 
 
 Let people cease to set the prerogatives and 
 dignity of human reason against the Christian 
 
 * Relying on the works of the authorized interpreters of 
 theology, we have ourselves attempted a thorough explanation 
 of all the mysteries of the Catholic Creed. We do not pretend 
 to have demonstrated those mysteries, but we think we have 
 placed them in such a light, that, according to the expression 
 of F. Lacordaire, “pride can only insult itself in despising 
 them.’' 
 
 t Essais de Theoft'cee. Discours de la Conformity de la Eoi 
 et de la Raison, n. 61. 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 257 
 
 Faith. We believe on good evidence; our faith 
 has nothing in common with credulity. “There 
 is a great difference/’ as Joubert well observes, 
 “between credulity and faith; one is a natural 
 'defect of the mind, the other is a virtue; the 
 first comes from our extreme weakness, the sec¬ 
 ond has a mild and praiseworthy docility for its 
 principle, quite compatible with strength, and 
 ■which is even highly favorable to strength.”* 
 This docility, whence faith springs, is not con¬ 
 trary to our dignity; it is only contrary to our 
 pride. “Let us be men with men,” says Joubert 
 once more, “but before God let us be always 
 children; for, in fact, we are but children in his 
 eyes.”+ Dignity, in whatever way we under¬ 
 stand it, can only lose by that self-sufficiency 
 which affects to depend on self alone, and re¬ 
 fuses to bow before the Gospel. “When a man 
 has rebelled against the Gospel,” says Madame 
 Swetchine, “he has .given himself a master, and 
 that is himself; a master who prepares the way 
 for many more by a continual descent.” 
 
 Faith is no more opposed to the freedom of 
 reason than to its dignity: as we have alreadv 
 said, it is only contrary to the libertinism of rea¬ 
 son. “Why,” observes Madame Swetchine, 
 “should not faith bind our understanding as 
 
 • Penstes, tom. ii. p. 26. Paris, 1862. 
 
 t Ibid. 
 
 17 
 
258 Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 
 
 morality binds our actions ? Do we cease to 
 be free because we are virtuous ? Why should 
 we cease to be free because we are believers ? 
 Does not true liberty always exercise itself in 
 a given space ? Does it not require a centre to 
 attract it, and a basis for its support V 
 
 * De la Verite du Christianisme, p. 85. 
 
 k 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 259 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Recapitulation of the Causes of Unbelief — 
 How a Young Man may beco7ne an Infidel. 
 
 ♦4Y” BELIEVE that I have now pointed out 
 the chief causes of infidelity. These 
 causes, as I have shown, are many and 
 diverse; but infidelity depends far more on the 
 will and on a certain moral state of the soul 
 than on the understanding. Faith is an act of 
 the understanding, since its object is the re¬ 
 vealed truth of God; but in order that the un¬ 
 derstanding may give its assent to Divine Truth 
 and firmly adhere to it, the intervention of the 
 will is necessary, and under the inspiration of 
 the grace of God the will intervenes freely. 
 This grace is refused to none. Faith is free; 
 therefore it is meritorious; faith is a virtue, and 
 virtue, as a moral act, presupposes freedom. 
 Man is free to choose between faith and un¬ 
 belief in the same way that he is free to choose 
 between good and evil, on condition of bearing 
 the responsibility of his choice. We are free 
 to adhere or not to adhere to revealed truth; 
 
260 Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 
 
 first, because even in things that are evident, it 
 depends on ourselves whether we will turn 
 away the eyes of our understanding from the 
 light that enlightens all things—whether we 
 will arrest the spring of our mind, give it a 
 false direction or even corrupt it; secondly, be¬ 
 cause the principal object of faith is not self- 
 evident, but is obscure. “All religion is in the 
 same plane: light is always mingled with ob¬ 
 scurity ; and why ? In order that faith may be 
 a virtue.”* This mingling of light and dark¬ 
 ness is the necessary condition of this present 
 life, because it is a life of probation; the full 
 day will dawn only when trial shall have ceased. 
 
 Ignorance itself, which is one of the common¬ 
 est sources of infidelity, is often the result of an 
 evil-disposed will. In such case ignorance is 
 culpable, and its guilt is greater or less, ac¬ 
 cording as it is more or less wilful. How can 
 we excuse the levity, the dissipation, the indif¬ 
 ference in which most unbelievers live, and 
 whence their ignorance of religion proceeds ? 
 Are not reasonable beings bound to seek seri¬ 
 ously and sincerely the knowledge of the truth ? 
 Moral indifference, the ordinary source of re¬ 
 ligious ignorance, is capable of leading to every 
 degree of degradation and ruin. When a mind 
 is infected by it, it rarely stops at the rejection 
 
 * Madame Swetchine, Pensees, tom. ii. p. 89. 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 261 
 
 of Christianity, but almost always descends to 
 the denial or corruption of the fundamental 
 principles of natural religion; generally it be¬ 
 comes materialistic, and believes only in sensible 
 realities. Materialism, which is the lowest de¬ 
 gree of moral and intellectual degradation, is 
 the most frequent result of indifference in relig¬ 
 ious matters. Scepticism, which is the supreme 
 impotence of reason, often depends on a moral 
 condition similar to that which engenders and 
 nourishes materialism. In certain minds of 
 high intelligence, eager for truth, it may spring 
 from a senseless pride which has had a cruel 
 fall. People flatter themselves that they can 
 remove the limits of reason; they want to be 
 able to see the truth without clouds, and when 
 these clouds, which they believed themselves 
 able to disperse, continually reappear, they 
 grow angry, and end by denying the light be¬ 
 cause of the shadows which they themselves cast 
 upon it. This is the despair of disappointed 
 pride. Put there is a malady of the soul still 
 more difficult to cure than scepticism or mate¬ 
 rialism, and it is that condition of intellectual 
 corruption which is called sophistry. We have 
 seen this frightful and fatal malady, which de¬ 
 stroys many highly-gifted minds. It is useless 
 to seek to convince sophists that they are in er¬ 
 ror; they will not understand you; they contra- 
 
262 Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 
 
 diet themselves at every step, whilst they main¬ 
 tain with imperturbable assurance that they 
 never contradict themselves, and that they con¬ 
 stantly obey reason. They are minds which lit¬ 
 erally see everything crosswise, and it is im¬ 
 possible to reason with them. “If thy eye be 
 “ clear/’ says the Gospel, “thy whole body shall 
 be lightsome; but if thy eye be evil, thy whole 
 body shall be darksome.”* The intellectual eye 
 of sophists is evil; simplicity and clearness must 
 be restored to it, otherwise they cannot receive 
 the light, or they receive it imperfectly. How 
 can this be done ? Only by changing the soul 
 in its inmost depths. Let them yield less to 
 egotism ; let them love truth more; let their will * 
 be simple and just, and their understanding will 
 promptly recover that uprightness which is the 
 .condition of true enlightenment. 
 
 The greatest obstacle to the Christian Faith 
 is egotism; egotism of the senses, or sensuality; 
 egotism of the mind, or pride; egotism in every 
 form. We have each of us daily to struggle 
 against this egotism, which shuts out innumer¬ 
 able souls from the light of Faith. If unbeliev¬ 
 ers, of whatever kind, were animated by a gen¬ 
 erous love of truth—if they showed that they 
 were ready to embrace it at the price of any sac¬ 
 rifice—they would soon become Christians. 
 
 * Matt. vi. 22, 23. 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 2G3 
 
 Their will, recovering its rectitude and its moral 
 energy, would turn the eye of the understanding 
 in the right direction, and would confirm the un¬ 
 derstanding in its adhesion to recognized truth. 
 Doubtless we mav hesitate even in the face of 
 known truth; but such hesitation is a culpable 
 weakness, and if the will be pure and vigorous 
 it will not hesitate. Moreover, God will sustain 
 it, because it will be humble and suppliant as 
 it becomes every created will to be. 
 
 See this young man of twenty. He has been 
 baptized into the Church of God, and has re¬ 
 ceived the Divine seed of Faith in the Sacra¬ 
 ment of regeneration. This blessed seed has 
 germinated under the breath of the Holy Spirit, 
 and by the culture which it has received from 
 the pious solicitude of a Christian family. 
 This young man has made his first Communion, 
 he has been marked in the Sacrament of Con¬ 
 firmation with the seal of Christian manhood. 
 But now he believes no longer; the Christian 
 life of his soul has disappeared; Faith appears 
 to be wholly extinct within him. He goes so 
 far as even to affect pity for the belief which in 
 his tender years he shared with his mother; he 
 parades a supreme contempt for the teaching 
 of the Church of Jesus Christ; he is astonished 
 that defenders of such teaching can still be 
 found; he is inclined to regard the defenders of 
 
264 Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 
 
 the Faith of his childhood as hypocrites, seeking 
 to make their profit out of the ignorance and 
 credulity of the simple. What can have hap-x 
 pened to work such a revolution in this youth¬ 
 ful mind ? If we ask him, he will probably tell 
 us what are the new sources of light whence he 
 has drawn decisive proofs against that old Faith 
 which for nineteen centuries has held captive 
 the loftiest intellects, and reigned over the 
 noblest and the purest wills. What has this 
 contemptuous youth seen of the Faith of Bos- 
 suet, of Leibnitz, of Joseph Gorres, of Lacor- 
 daire, of Ozanam, of so many eminent men who 
 in our days have adorned and still adorn philos¬ 
 ophy, literature, criticism, science ? Hear him: ‘ 
 he has scrutinized everything, examined every¬ 
 thing by the torch of pure and independent rea¬ 
 son. The Catholic Creed cannot sustain for a 
 moment the examination of serious criticism. 
 Philosophy, history, science, agree to condemn 
 it. . . . What composure! what assurance! 
 what proud, triumphant judgments ! But these 
 lofty affirmations, these pompous maxims, can¬ 
 not impose on any one who has had experience 
 of men and things; such an one easily discovers 
 behind the clatter of pretensions and empty 
 phrases the true history of this poor soul. It 
 is this: 
 
 This young man, who so proudly condemns 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 265 
 
 Catholic belief, has examined nothing for him¬ 
 self ; he has had neither the leisure nor the will 
 to do so. He has read none of the great works 
 of the Christian apologists; he has not even 
 opened a detailed and scientific exposition of 
 the dogmas which the Church teaches. He con¬ 
 demns Christianity on hearsay with the lightest 
 and blindest faith that can be imagined. His 
 morals being already tainted, doubt entered his 
 soul the first time he heard a contemptuous 
 word spoken with regard to the Faith which 
 had enlightened his tender years; he gave ear to 
 the word of the tempter, which met with a sym¬ 
 pathetic and ready echo in a heart already de¬ 
 graded, or on the eve of becoming so. Doubt 
 having penetrated his soul and disturbed its 
 serenity, he sought not to conquer it; on the 
 contrary, he acted so as to encourage it and with 
 the secret desire of beholding its perfect 
 triumph over the' ruins of an austere faith. 
 He let loose his sensual passions, or at least 
 contenting himself with avoiding gross excess, 
 he did but half restrain them; he fed his un¬ 
 derstanding with writings hostile to Catholi¬ 
 cism, and would only read such books and jour¬ 
 nals as calumniated the Church in her dogma, 
 her worship, her history, her present life, in all 
 her manifestations. These writings, in which 
 ignorance rivals hate, are henceforth his sole 
 
266 Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 
 
 light, his sole authority in religious questions; 
 he blindly repeats the sentences he finds in 
 them, imagining perhaps that he is judging the 
 teaching of Faith with entire intellectual in¬ 
 dependence. Poor young man! Your affected 
 independence of reason will only deceive chil¬ 
 dren ; any serious observer will tell you how you 
 have descended all the steps of the ladder of 
 doubt and infidelity; he will give you the his¬ 
 tory of your moral and intellectual falls, and 
 placing his finger on the wounds of your heart, 
 as well as on the wounds of your understanding, 
 he will force you to confess, if you are sincere, 
 that reason and science have no part in your 
 condition, and that your unbelief is the fruit 
 of weakness and decay of every kind. Do not 
 deceive yourself; infidelity is not an elevation, 
 hut a degradation; it is a fall, it is a moral and 
 intellectual decline; and this decline in a young 
 man who has been educated in the Christian 
 Faith is usually brought about by the ruin of 
 more faculties than one. Some young men fall 
 into infidelity in consequence of manifold low 
 and degrading actions, which have extinguished 
 their moral life. Many, thank God, descend 
 not thus far; they stop themselves on the sad 
 incline. They lose the Faith hv hostile teach¬ 
 ing, by irreligious reading, by intercourse with 
 indifferent or adverse companions, by the very 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 267 
 
 atmosphere of infidelity that surrounds them; 
 hut though their soul may have undergone many 
 falls, the moral life still animates it. La 
 Bruvere said: “I would fain see a man who is 
 sober, moderate, chaste, equitable, declare that 
 there is no God; he would at least speak dis¬ 
 interestedly; but such a man is not to be 
 found.”* For my part, I would fain see a 
 young man who is chaste, modest, humble, seri¬ 
 ously instructed in Christian doctrine, declare, 
 that the Faith which he received from his 
 mother the Catholic Church is without founda¬ 
 tion : hitherto I have never met with such a 
 young man. 
 
 t/ O 
 
 But what 1 have often seen, what we see every 
 day, is this: men of ripe intellect, after years 
 of wandering, return to the Faith and to the 
 practices which it imposes, acknowledging and 
 declaring, in all humility, that their unbelief 
 was but the fruit'of vanity, ignorance, or pas¬ 
 sion. It is a fact of dailv observation that men 
 regain the summits of faith by the pure and 
 persevering love of truth and virtue, as they de¬ 
 scend into the abyss of infidelity by pursuing 
 a contrary path. A pure and humble soul, lov¬ 
 ing truth and justice, opens of itself to the light 
 of faith; and the holier it is the higher in the 
 moral order, the greater its knowledge of God 
 
 * Les Characteres, chap. xvi. 
 
268 Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 
 
 and of itself, the deeper and more lively will 
 be its faith. Faith grows in direct proportion 
 to the purity and moral light of the soul. This 
 is a fact attested by the whole history of Chris¬ 
 tianity. I will conclude by recommending this 
 fact to the consideration of all sincere men. 
 
 The cure of unbelief will obviously be found 
 in serious reflection on the preceding truths, 
 and in earnest prayer for light and grace: “I 
 wished, and understanding was given me; and 
 I called upon God, and the spirit of wisdom 
 came upon me: And I preferred her before 
 kingdoms and thrones, and esteemed riches 
 nothing in comparison of her. Now all good 
 things came to me together with her, and in¬ 
 numerable riches through her hands; for she 
 is an infinite treasure to men, which thev that 
 use become the friends of God” (Wis. 7: 
 7-14). 
 
 Ask, with the confidence of the blind man of 
 Jericho: “Lord, that I may see.” 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 
 
 2G9 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Paganism Under a New Name . 
 
 BY ARCHBISHOP RYAN. 
 
 HRISTIA1STITY is a fact in the history of 
 y \ ^ the human race, the most mysterious in 
 its nature, the most stupendous and uni¬ 
 versal in its effects—a fact which philosophy 
 cannot ignore, nor infidelity deny, nor skepti¬ 
 cism doubt, which has influenced religion, arts, 
 arms, sciences, literature, social life, politics, 
 human happiness, human suffering, human pro¬ 
 gress more than any other fact in the history of 
 our race. The unbeliever who regards it lightly 
 as one of the many false religions embraced by 
 man at various periods of his history, who 
 thinks that its influences were simply and ex- 
 clusively confined to the secret intercourse be- 
 tween the Creator and the creature, such a one 
 can never adequately understand the philosophy 
 of human history. Christianity refashioned the 
 whole being of man, politically and socially, as 
 well as religiously. It formed not only the 
 Christian saint, but the Christian statesman, 
 
270 Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 
 
 the Christian warrior, the Christian citizen, the 
 Christian artist, the Christian soldier and the 
 Christian philanthropist. 
 
 Christian civilization is based on and motived 
 by great Christian doctrines, which if weakened 
 or denied will weaken or rnin the great super¬ 
 structure itself and send us back not merely to 
 pagan civilization, but much farther. For even 
 paganism taught great conservative truths, such 
 as the existence of the Supreme Being and his 
 providence over men, and the doctrine of future 
 rewards and punishments, which modern unbe¬ 
 lief affects to deny. 
 
 Let us observe the countries of the world 
 which have remained unconverted, and those 
 also, the nations, that tried to unchristianize 
 themselves. Take as a specimen France, once 
 so gloriously Christian, in the full noontide of 
 her unchristian days. She sought in the mad 
 paroxysm of the revolution to cast aside her 
 Christian doctrines and traditions, and with 
 them lost her Christian civilization. She 
 abolished the Sabbath, desecrated the sanctuary, 
 shattered the tabernacles, broke the statues of 
 Christ and his saints, and flung off the Christian 
 yoke. By one wild, desperate spring she 
 plunged into the chasm of w T orse than paganism. 
 Christianity, with folded arms, looked on from 
 a distance to see how France could live without 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 271 
 
 her. Deeds of blood, fearful as those of Roman 
 story, characterized the new regime. The mere 
 humanitarian theories of infidel philosophy 
 could never elevate her. When tried, thev 
 melted in the sunshine like the waxen pinions 
 of the Athenian artist. France sank into the 
 wildest barbarism in the “Reign of Terror.” 
 This is a lesson to posterity of the essential con¬ 
 nection of Christianity and true civilization. 
 
 A FATAL ERROR. 
 
 But here I may be confronted by some young 
 orator of progress, who would say to me: “I 
 acknowledge that Christianity did great things 
 in its day, but that day has passed. It helped 
 humanity in its infancy to rise and walk, but 
 now it needs no such assistance. The Church 
 must conform herself to the new and advanced 
 state of things or' be pulverized beneath the 
 chariot wheels of progress. We freely admire 
 and adopt all that is beautiful in the morality 
 of Christianity; we admire the Sermon on the 
 Mount and its Preacher. We take its morality, 
 but we care little for its doctrines, for these doc¬ 
 trines only lead to differences of opinion and 
 sectarianism. ” 
 
 One of the most fatal and demoralizing su¬ 
 perstitions of this country is this attempted 
 
272 Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 
 
 separation of morality from doctrinal teaching. 
 Doctrines are as the granite foundation to the 
 whole edifice of Christian ethics, and with them 
 that edifice must stand or crumble into ruins. 
 What underlies the value of holy childhood but 
 the doctrine that the child has an immortal soul ? 
 Abolish this, look at the child only in the light 
 of its utility to the State, and soon infanticide 
 will commence again, and deformed children 
 will he put to death when men shall have lost 
 the tenderness which Christianity has produced 
 and fostered. Most men admire the Church’s 
 action in regard to divorce. They believe that 
 her conservatism in this respect is essential to 
 the preservation of the family and the sanctity 
 of human love. But all her action and her suf¬ 
 ferings in maintaining this principle are 
 founded on a doctrine that marriage is indissol¬ 
 uble, and because of this doctrine the Pope him¬ 
 self and all the Bishops of the world united with 
 him cannot grant a single divorce. Look at the 
 great motives of human action. Behold that 
 young man contending with fearful temptation, 
 wrestling with some “mid-day demon.” The 
 pleasure promised is certain and alluring. Re¬ 
 ligion whispers in his ear, “Fear God; listen to 
 your conscience. You know that to yield is 
 wrong. Remember the punishment which God 
 lias threatened. Remember the heaven you re- 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 273 
 
 nounce if you yield, and the hell whose pun¬ 
 ishment you will deserve.” Now, all this warn¬ 
 ing is based on doctrines. Only whisper in his 
 ear, “There is no hell. God is indulgent, or 
 takes no cognizance of human action.” Strike 
 down tilt? great truth, and you strike down the 
 great motive. Again, look at the marvellous in¬ 
 stitutions of charity throughout the world, sis¬ 
 terhoods and brotherhoods. These people have 
 sworn that in poverty, chastity and obedience 
 they shall wait upon sufferers whom they never 
 saw before, and with whom in many cases they 
 can have little human sympathy. ITow account 
 for this phenomenon ? Not by fanaticism, 
 which is short-lived and uncertain, whereas 
 these sacrifices have lasted nineteen hundred 
 years. No, there is but one solution: all this 
 work of charity is built on a single doctrine that 
 Christ has identified himself with the poor and 
 the outcast, and that in attending to them we 
 aid ITim. The fevered brow is the brow crowned 
 with thorns; the prisoner in jail is the captive 
 of Pontius Pilate; the man dying on the scaf¬ 
 fold the crucified sufferer of Calvary. Thus 
 Christ is loved and tended in His representa¬ 
 tives. Deny this single doctrine and you rob 
 the sick, the poor, the prisoner and the dying 
 of their consolers, and civilization of one of its 
 most glorious triumphs. 
 
 18 
 
274 Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 
 
 IN' THE HOUR OF AFFLICTION. 
 
 Look again at the influence of doctrinal teach¬ 
 ing in the hour of affliction. Look at that poor, 
 broken-hearted wretch who feels that the world 
 has rejected him. Why should he live ? Why 
 should he endure “the stings and arrows of this 
 outrageous fortune ?” There is nothing left to 
 live for, and suicide seems his only relief. 
 Then Christian faith descends like the com¬ 
 forting angel of Gethsemane and whispers to 
 him, “There is One beyond the stars who takes 
 cognizance of every sigh and tear and heart . 
 moan. lie has said that, if a mother should for¬ 
 get her child, lie will not forget thee, His crea¬ 
 ture. Bear your sufferings for a little time. 
 He will aid you in bearing them and reward 
 you for having borne them.” But tell him, 
 “There is no God to hear you; or, if there be 
 one, He is too far away and too glorious to care 
 for a broken-hearted wretch like you.” Take 
 away the doctrine of faith, and suicide, which 
 is becoming so common, is the resort of the child 
 of misfortune in the hour of misery. 
 
 And as faith diminishes suicide must in¬ 
 crease. Statistics show us that in ten years it 
 increased thirty per cent, in Germany. It is 
 increasing in Trance, and will increase in pro¬ 
 portion as faith loses its hold upon the children 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief . 275 
 
 of men. One thing is remarkable in the statis¬ 
 tics of suicide, and that is the disproportion of 
 women to men. Women are supposed to believe 
 more and trust more deeply than men, and in 
 one list of one hundred and sixty-six cases, 
 where suicide was attributed to weariness of 
 life, there were found but six women to one hun¬ 
 dred men. It is known that among Germans 
 who endeavor to act out their faith, as the Cath¬ 
 olics and Lutherans, suicide is almost unknown. 
 So that it is not to be attributed to a national 
 temperament, but to loss of faith and of hope 
 which makes life wearisome. It is remarked of 
 the Irish who have faith, that suicide is almost 
 unheard of amongst them, and this is to be at¬ 
 tributed, at least to a great extent, to the in¬ 
 fluence of that faith upon them in the hour of 
 their trying afflictions. Some have asserted that 
 it is rather pugnacity than piety. An Irishman 
 does not like to be beaten in a fight, even in the 
 “fight of life,” and regards suicide as an act of 
 cowardice, which in truth it is. But this is not 
 sufficient to account for his victory over afflic¬ 
 tion. 
 
 PAGANISM UNDER ANOTHER NAME. 
 
 I might continue to show you that doctrines 
 underlie and give motive to all the great works 
 of Christian civilization. To expect effects 
 
276 Carnes and Cure of Unbelief. 
 
 without causes, to tear up the root and the stem 
 and hope that the flower and the fruit will re¬ 
 main, to attempt to retain the morality of 
 Christianity without its doctrinal teaching is as 
 illogical as it is destructive of true civilization. 
 
 I think I can already see in the comparative 
 levity with which men begin to regard the great 
 crime of perjury and in the fact that it is not 
 as certainly and as severely punished now as 
 in former times evidence of the effect of neglect¬ 
 ing to realize the importance of doctrinal teach¬ 
 ing. Perjury supposes belief in two great 
 truths: Pirst, that God may be called to wit-, 
 ness what we state; second, that He will punish 
 any man who calls on Him to witness a lie as the 
 truth. In proportion to the depth of our faith 
 in these truths is our dread of perjury. If we 
 deny them entirely, perjury is no more than 
 lying, which is proverbially easy to many peo¬ 
 ple. I have shown how many other great con¬ 
 servative influences depend on faith in doc¬ 
 trines, and must fall with that faith. 
 
 But someone may say that it is utterly im¬ 
 possible that we should go back to the paganism 
 from which Christianity has liberated us. 
 There is no danger of our going back to pre¬ 
 cisely the old forms of that paganism. Yet we 
 must remember that human nature is always the 
 same, and that mere culture will not save us. 
 
Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 277 
 
 We have no greater nor as great poets as Horace 
 and Virgil, no greater nor as great orators as 
 Cicero, no greater moralist outside the pale of 
 Christianity than Seneca, and yet they could 
 not save society from the civilized barbarism 
 of paganism. 
 
 We must remember that though the new re¬ 
 ligion of the future of which some men dream 
 may not be called paganism, it is paganism un¬ 
 der another name. We occasionally hear of the 
 “religion of humanity.” What is this but pa¬ 
 ganism, which deified all that was true and 
 beautiful and good with all that was vile in our 
 nature, and called these things by various 
 names, the deities of its religion? If any one 
 whispered to the infidel philosophers of France 
 who sought the destruction of the Christian re¬ 
 ligion that the day would come when they would 
 find themselves worshipping at a pagan altar, 
 they would have smiled in derision. But false 
 principles soon act themselves out into institu¬ 
 tions. Human reason was deified, and the god¬ 
 dess of reason—a dancing girl of Paris—stood 
 on the high altar of Hotre Dame, a fit symbol 
 of the prostituted reason that ruled the hour. 
 But after a time some philosopher might say: 
 “Why not a goddess of love, a power stronger 
 than reason and more universal in its influ¬ 
 ence ?” We will not call her Venus, because 
 
273 Causes and Cure of Unbelief. 
 
 that would sound like old paganism. "We w r ill 
 call her glorious “Human Love.” “But,” 
 cries out another, “we should, above all, have 
 a god of spotless French Honor, and another of 
 Military Glory,” and so on through the whole 
 range of human passions, good and bad, until 
 the Pantheon should be complete. Man is a 
 religious being. If he worship not God, he will 
 worship himself. Deny the doctrines of faith, 
 and you try to kill Christianity and establish 
 some form of paganism. 
 
 In the name of our Christian civilization I, 
 a Bishop of the Christian Church, lift up my 
 voice to warn the representative men who hear 
 me that the popular modern system of teaching 
 morality without the doctrines that motive it, 
 whether that system he called Christian ethics 
 or moral instruction, or unsectarian teaching, is 
 sapping the very foundations of Christianity 
 and Christian civilization. 
 
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 prominent lawyer of Los Angeles, to become a Catholic. 
 TREATISE ON THE SACRAMENT OF EXTREME UNC¬ 
 TION. By Rev. P. J. Hanley. 
 
 THE EXISTENCE OF GOD. By Rev. R. F. Clarke, S.J. 
 WHAT THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IS, AND WHAT SHE 
 TEACHES. By Ernest R. Hull, S.J. 
 
 THE BIBLE AND THE REFORMATION. By C. F. B. 
 Allnatt. 
 
 THE POPE: HOW FAR DOES HE CONTROL CONSCIENCE? 
 HOW FAR DOES HE INTERFERE WITH CITIZEN¬ 
 SHIP? 200 pages. 
 
 WHAT CATHOLICS DO NOT BELIEVE. By Most Rev. P. J. 
 Ryan, D.D. 
 
 A most eloquent and masterly discourse on the subject of 
 Catholic doctrine. Though specially intended for non-Cath- 
 olics, it cannot fail to instruct and edify Catholics. In his 
 introduction the Archbishop says: “I have given to this 
 lecture the title, ‘What Catholics Do Not Believe,’ because its 
 primary object is to remove certain prejudices against the 
 Church founded on what ‘we do not believe.’ The positive 
 side of the question—what we do really believe on these 
 points—will be found stated in every instance, in replying to 
 objections.” 
 
 TO WHOM SHALL WE GO? By Rev. C. Van de Ven. 23 
 pages. 
 
 Rome plain questions and answers about the true religion. 
 A pamphlet very useful to point out to an inquiring mind the 
 way to the Church. 
 
 THE VOICE OF THE GOOD SHEPHERD. DOES IT LIVE? 
 
 AND WHERE? By Rev. Edmund Hill, C.P. 25 pages. 
 RELIGIOUS UNREST. The Way Out. By James P. Lafferty. 
 PLAIN FACTS FOR FAIR MINDS. By Rev. George M. 
 SgstIg Paulist 
 
 THE HOLY GHOST AND THE CHURCH. By Cardinal 
 Manning. 
 
 A BRIEF HISTORY OF RELIGION. 
 
 From the Creation of the World to the Present Time. 
 CONFESSION TO A PRIEST. By Rev. W. H. Anderson, S.J. 
 
 1—What it is not. 2—What it does to society. 3—What 
 to the individual. 
 
WHERE IS THE CHURCH? By Rev. C. Coupe, S.J. 
 
 THE RELIGION OF A TRAVELER. By Cardinal Manning. 
 76 pages. 
 
 This is accounted to be one of the best bits of controversial 
 literature in English—clear, trenchant and masterly, as was 
 the mind of the author. 
 
 HOLY MASS. By Mother Loyola. 
 
 INDIFFERENTISM. By Rev. Charles Coupe, S.J. 
 
 A protest against the spirit of the age, which is declared 
 to be one of lawless liberalism in religion, and a tendency 
 to minimize the importance of dogma and principle. The 
 popular theory that if a man is upright and attends to the 
 ordinary duties of life, it matters not what creed he holds, 
 is shown to be fallacious. 
 
 CHURCH OR BIBLE. By Rev. Arnold Damen, S.J. 
 
 Who has not heard of Father Damen, the Jesuit mis¬ 
 sionary? It is conservatively estimated that he received ten 
 thousand converts into the Church during his fifty years of 
 missionary labor. The above pamphlet summarizes his argu¬ 
 ments which awakened those souls to serious thought, showed 
 them how unstable was the foundation upon which they were 
 building. 
 
 WHY I BECAME A CATHOLIC. By Horace E. Chap¬ 
 man, M.A. 
 
 JOSEPH SLATTERY: THE ROMANCE OF AN UN¬ 
 FROCKED PRIEST. 
 
 CREDO. By Mother Loyola. 
 
 THE PROTESTANT RULE OF FAITH AN IMPOSSIBLE 
 ONE. By Monsignor John S. Vaughan. 
 
 HENRY VIII AND THE ENGLISH MONASTERIES. By 
 Cardinal Manning. 
 
 REASONS FOR BEING A CATHOLIC. By E. H. 
 
 HOW TO SEEK FOR THE TRUE CHURCH. By Mgr. John 
 S. Vaughan. 
 
 WHERE IS THE CHURCH OF CHRIST? 
 
 WHY I LEFT THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. By James 
 Britten, Hon. Sec. Catholic Truth Society. 
 
 THE AWFUL DISCLOSURES OF MARIA MONK. 
 
 THE INQUIRER’S CATECHISM. “Lead, Kindly Light.” 
 
 SHORT COURSE IN CATHOLIC DOCTRINE FOR NON¬ 
 CATHOLICS INTENDING MARRIAGE WITH CATH¬ 
 OLICS. 
 
 THE REAL PRESENCE. By Rev. C. F. Smarius, S.J. 
 
 IS THERE SALVATION OUTSIDE THE CHURCH? By Mgr. 
 Vaughan. 
 
 No truth of the Catholic faith is more repugnant to those 
 outside the fold than the well-known dictum, “Outside the 
 Church there is no salvation.” If, however, this brochure of 
 Mgr. Vaughan would be widely read, this prejudice would 
 vanish. 
 
 UNBELIEF A SIN. By the Rev. Edmund Hill, C. P. 16 
 pages. 
 
 FAITH AND REASON. By Rev. Bernard Vaughan, S.J. 
 THOUGHTS FOR ALL TIMES. By Mgr. J. S. Vaughan. 
 JESUS OF NAZARETH: THE STORY OF HIS LIFE. By 
 Mother Loyola. 
 
LIFE OF 
 
 St. Vincent de Paul 
 
 By REV. CHARLES MALOY, C.M. 
 
 Paper Edition - Retail, $0.20 ; net, $0.16 
 
 Cloth - - Retail, $0.35; net. $0.28 
 
 1 -3 off on quantities 
 
 In the opinion of the best critics this is the most popu¬ 
 lar, the most unctuous, and the most readable life of St. 
 Vincent that has yet appeared. After years spent in the 
 careful study of fourteen histories of St. Vincent, Father 
 Maloy has become a fit instrument for placing before the 
 public a much-needed and greatly appreciated work—namely, 
 a concise and practical account of the life, labors and virtues 
 of the great apostle of charity. 
 
 A prominent member of the Conference of St. Vincent de 
 Paul said: “This book is precisely what we want in order 
 to make the works of the Conference better known and to 
 create more interest in them.” 
 
 “Just what we need to increase the number of vocations 
 in our community .—Sisters of Providence. 
 
 Cardinal Vaughan highly praises the larger Life of St. 
 Vincent, by Bishop Bougaud, from which much of the matter 
 of this book has been taken. 
 
 The Cardinal says: “This Life of St. Vincent de Paul 
 will be of value to bishops, superiors and ecclesiastical 
 students, because it contains so much that directly concerns 
 the training and mission of the priesthood. It will be of 
 use also to the devout laity if it incite them also to address 
 frequent and fervent prayer to God for the sanctification of 
 the clergy. Sicut populus sic Sacerdos. If the fathers and 
 mothers of families form a high ideal of the priesthood, if 
 they inspire it into their children, if they foster it dur¬ 
 ing the years of the education of their sons, they will render 
 incalculable service to the Church. . . Now, from no 
 
 biography will they better learn what the priesthood ought to 
 be than from the Life of St. Vincent de Paul.”— Herbert 
 Cardinal Vaughan. 
 
 FOR SALE BY PUBLISHERS OF THIS BOOK 
 
Most Serviceable for Teachers, and an Admirable 
 Gift=Book for First Communicants 
 
 FIRST COMMUNION 
 
 The Dublin Review says: 
 
 “The second edition of a book within a year is its best 
 recommendation. In addition to this fact, we gladly 
 testify that the work before us deserves all the praise be¬ 
 stowed upon it by the Catholic press of England, Ireland 
 and America, and that it really rendered to us the service 
 which the Right Rev. Bishops of Newport and Birming¬ 
 ham expected it would render to the instructors of first 
 communicants. . . . After having it used for some 
 weeks both last year and this year, we can say that its 
 reading before the lesson is an excellent preparation for 
 the instructor, and that the use of its language and its 
 context is a powerful means to touch the hearts of the 
 little ones.” 
 
 The Irish Ecclesiastical Record says: 
 
 “This is a child’s book and a delightful one. It should 
 have a prominent place in the spiritual library of every 
 Catholic home, as it is written in such a fashion as to 
 interest, instruct and deeply move the most untutored 
 mind and the least reverent heart. Being intended for the 
 young, it is likewise for the old, because the charm of 
 simplicity and the kind intensity of a sincerely written 
 word are qualities whose appeal is still and ever must be 
 unlimited. Father and son, mother and daughter, will 
 dwell lovingly on these innocent pages, every passage of 
 which brims with wisdom and love and piety. The illus¬ 
 trations are many and good ; the frontispiece is a fine re¬ 
 production of an exquisite piece of art.” 
 
 “We are much mistaken if, like other well-written chil¬ 
 dren’s books, this does not prove even more fascinating to 
 their elders, and if in those who use it for the instruction 
 of others there remain not an abiding memory of what 
 they have gained from it themselves. . . . The reader 
 
 will, we hope, be inclined to endorse the verdict delivered 
 by one of the youthful audience to whom the book di¬ 
 rectly appeals, ‘Oh, let us have First Communion, it’s such 
 a talky book.’ ” 
 
Vocations Explained 
 
 Matrimony, Virginity, the Religious 
 State, the Priesthood 
 
 BY A VINCENTIAN FATHER 
 
 16mo. t Flexible Cloth, 10 cents each; per 100, $5.00. 
 
 APPROBATIONS 
 
 Host Rev. Sebastian Martinelli, I>. I>., Apostolic Del¬ 
 egate; “I was very glad in reading them to find out that you 
 follow, in this serious point, the doctrine taught by St. Alphonsus 
 Liguori. ... So I think your work will be of great utility and 
 help to young people. . . . ” 
 
 Most Rev. Wan. H. Gross, D. R., Archbishop of Oregon; 
 
 . “ I am very glad you have published a work on a subject so grave 
 as ‘ Vocations.’ . , . Your work is very opportune. . . .” 
 
 Host Rev. Fr. X. Hatzer, 1). I)., Archbishop ©f Mil¬ 
 waukee: “In the hands of our young it is certainly apt to do 
 a great deal of good. ” 
 
 Right Rev. W. M. Wigger, D. I)., Bishop of Newark; 
 
 “ I have carefully read the little book entitled ‘ Vocations Ex- 
 
 F lained.’ . . , If it were introduced into the Catholic schools, 
 am confident it would do much good among the children.” 
 Right Rev. Ignatius F. llorstmann, D. D., Bishop of 
 Cleveland ; “ As I gave my approbation to the larger Catechism 
 on Vocations, I cheerfully do the same for * Vocations Explained. 
 . . . What is said about mixed marriages is most timely.” 
 Right Rev. L. De Gocsbriand, I). ])., Bishop of Bur- 
 lington : “ Excellent—excellent.” 
 
 Right Rev. James McGoIrick, I). D., Bishop of Dnlnth; 
 ” You have written a most useful book. . , . It will be of great 
 use in all our schools, for a clear, accurate statement about voca¬ 
 tions is very much needed.” 
 
 Bight Rev. James Ryan, R. R„ Bishop of Alton : “ A val¬ 
 uable and timely treatise, calculated to do much good.” 
 
 Right Rev. L. Scanlan, R. D., Bishop of Salt T.ake : “ I 
 bave read the little volume with great pleasure and interest, and I 
 must add that I have received therefrom no small amount of in¬ 
 struction. I consider it a very useful and instruetve book for all.” 
 Right Rev, John Moore, D. B., Bishop of .St. Augustine: 
 “ . . .1 consider it very good and very useful in guiding the 
 teachers of the young in this delicate matter. ... I shall 
 recommend its use to the sisters who have charge of the schools in 
 this diocese. , . ” 
 
 Right Rev. James A. McFanl, R. B., Bishop of Trenton: 
 
 ”... I am confident that it will be a faithful guide to every 
 one who is anxious to find his true place in the divine plan of re¬ 
 demption.” 
 
 FOR SALE BY ALL CATHOLIC BOOKSELLERS 
 
WELCOME 
 
 Holy Communion: 
 Before and After 
 
 In his Preface to this admirable book, Father Thurston 
 says: “Our moods are very various. Our thoughts about 
 God and our own souls are often more entangled than our 
 ideas about anything in the world. The spiritual guide 
 who helps us most is he who can interpret ourselves to 
 ourselves ; and to nobody do we feel a deeper gratitude 
 than to one who can put into simple words the vague long¬ 
 ings after good which we know not how to utter in any 
 form that satisfies us. . . . Those who use this little 
 
 book will find it both immediately and permanently helpful 
 as an aid to their devotion in Holy Communion.” 
 
 A reader of Mother Loyola’s works says: “Welcome 
 has done me more good than any book that I have ever 
 read.” 
 
 A Spiritual Director says: “I find Welcome most useful 
 for myself and for the direction of others. It is a most 
 timely book, now that our Holy Father has so urgently 
 recommended frequent and daily Communion.” 
 
WORKS BY 
 
 Mother Mary Loyola 
 
 FIRST COMMUNION. Serviceable for Teachers 
 
 and for First Communicants, net. $1.25 
 
 QUESTIONS ON “FIRST COMMUNION,” net... .30 
 
 MASS FOR “FIRST COMMUNION,” net.05 
 
 THE CHILD OF GOD, OR WHAT COMES OF 
 
 OUR BAPTISM. Cloth, net. 1.00 
 
 THE SOLDIER OF CHRIST, OR TALKS BE¬ 
 FORE CONFIRMATION . 1.35 
 
 WELCOME! BEFORE HOLY COMMUNION 
 AND AFTER. Leather, net, $1.75. Cloth, net, 1.00 
 CONFESSION AND COMMUNTON. For the Use 
 of Religious, and those who Communicate fre¬ 
 quently, net .45 
 
 CORAM SANCTISSIMO. Visits to the Blessed 
 
 Sacrament. Cloth, net.45 
 
 HAIL, FULL OF GRACE, SIMPLE THOUGHTS 
 
 ON THE ROSARY, net. 1.35 
 
 FIRST CONFESSION. A book in very simple lan¬ 
 guage, intended as a help to teachers in the prep¬ 
 aration of young children for this important duty, 
 
 net .40 
 
 A FTRST CONFESSION BOOK, net.05 
 
 FORGIVE US OUR TRESPASSES. Talks before 
 Confession for Elder Children. Cloth, illus¬ 
 trated, net . 55 
 
 A SIMPLE CONFESSION BOOK, net.05 
 
 A SIMPLE COMMUNION BOOK, net.05 
 
 A SIMPLE CONFIRMATION BOOK, net.05 
 
 CREDO. A Simple Exposition of the Chief Points 
 
 of Catholic Doctrine, net.05 
 
 FOR SALE BY 
 
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CARDINAL GIBBONS 
 
 ON 
 
 Thoughts for AH Times 
 
 BY 
 
 MONSIGNOR VAUGHAN 
 
 "The human heart is captivated more readily and more 
 effectually by love than by fear. 
 
 "It is true that ‘the fear of the Lord is the beginning of 
 wisdom,’ yet it is only the Beginning; for love is the Com¬ 
 pletion of wisdom: ‘perfect charity casteth out fear, because 
 fear hath pain, and he that feareth is not perfected in 
 
 charity’ (1 John 4:18). 
 
 ‘‘Many persons find the service of God very hard and the 
 way of salvation difficult, because they do not love God ; and 
 they do not love Him because they do not know Him. ‘He 
 
 that loveth not, knoweth not God; for God is charity’ 
 
 (1 John 4:8). 
 
 "Whoever throws light on this powerful and magnetic 
 principle of love smooths the way of salvation for thousands, 
 and becomes a great benefactor of mankind. This the Right 
 Rev. Monsignor Vaughan has done in his' excellent work, 
 
 ‘Thoughts for All Times.’ From this truly valuable book the 
 reader gets a deeper insight into the meaning of the words of 
 the beloved disciple, ‘Let us love God, because God first hath 
 loved us’ (1 John 4: 19). 
 
 "After giving convincing proofs of the intensity of God’s 
 love for us, the Right Rev. Author beautifully explains the 
 consoling principle of God’s personal and concentrated love 
 for each one of us individually; for St. Paul says: ‘He hath 
 loved me, and delivered Himself for me/ ” — Cardinal Gibbons. 
 
 "The Right Rev. Author meets the wants of our times in 
 a manner as consoling as it is convincing.”— Catholic Citizen. 
 
 "It needs only to be known to have its merits appreciated.” 
 —Catholic Standard and Times. 
 
 "The main principle pervading ‘Thoughts for All Times’ 
 readily finds an echo in every human heart; namely, the 
 principle of love.” — Catholic Tribune. 
 
 "When a book has critical prefaces by such eminent men 
 as Bishop Hedley and Cardinal Gibbons there is little left to 
 the reviewer to say in its praise.”— Catholic News. 
 
 “A book of striking and lucid analogies. One cannot fail 
 to be first struck by the author’s faculty of throwing light 
 on supernatural things by means of the simplest and most 
 ordinary occurrences in the natural order.”— The Catholic 
 Universe. 
 
 "Monsigncr Vaughan’s book will have a large number of 
 readers.”— The Western Watchman. 
 
 "This is a work of great beauty and interest—an assured 
 success.”— The Dublin Review. 
 
JESUS OF NAZARETH 
 
 The Story of His Life Simply Told 
 
 BY 
 
 MOTHER MARY LOYOLA 
 
 “The book is eminently adapted to strengthen faith in Our 
 Lord’s Divinity and to draw to Him the hearts of children. I 
 most willingly recommend the book to Christian parents. 
 They will find it most useful in the difficult task of training 
 
 their children in the fear and love of God.”— Most Rev. D. 
 
 Falconio, Apostolic Delegate. 
 
 “The book is eminently practical, simple, unctuous and 
 interesting. It will make a powerful impression on the 
 minds of children. In fact, no one can read it without loving 
 God more, and therefore becoming better.”— Cardinal Gibbons. 
 
 “I have read it through, and am pleased to recommend it 
 
 to all our people. It is one of the most attractive Lives of 
 
 Our Blessed Lord I have met, especially for young people.” 
 —Archbishop Farley. 
 
 “I have gone through it from cover to cover, and in closing 
 the book to-night my first act is to tell how much I would 
 desire to see it in the hands of our Catholic people as a 
 treasure-trove of their homes.”— Bishop Beaven. 
 
 “I most cordially recommend the admirable book, ‘Jesus 
 of Nazareth, the Story of His Life.’ The study of the life 
 of Our Lord is the most important and sanctifying of all 
 studies ; for ‘This is eternal life, that they may know thee, 
 the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent’ 
 (John 17: 3). It is a book for all to read.”— Archbishop 
 Ryan. 
 
 “I hope it will be adopted by our Catholic schools.”— 
 Archbishop Christie. 
 
 “Teachers in Catholic schools and colleges will contribute 
 much to the religious formation of their pupils by putting 
 this volume into their hands.”— Archbishop Ireland. 
 
 “It is charming.”— Bishop Fox. 
 
 "I like it very much. I will ask our Mission Band to 
 recommend it on their missions.”— Bishop Tierney. 
 
 “Mother Loyola’s latest work, ‘Jesus of Nazareth,’ crowns 
 all her works.”— Bishop Grace. 
 
 Price, 72 cents ^postage, 11 cents); six copies and upwards, 57 
 cents per copy ; 25 copies and upwards, 48 cents per copy. All book- 
 dealers. 
 
gll*( 
 
 Is One Religion as Good 
 as Another ? 
 
 BY 
 
 REV. JOHN MacLAUGHUN 
 
 AMERICAN EDITION 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 REV. L. A. LAMBERT, LL D. 
 
 When the foreign edition of this book appeared some 
 years ago, it caused a great furor among non-Catholics. 
 This American edition will cause a still greater furor 
 among some people, on account of its logical and up-to- 
 date arguments, and also on account of the renown and 
 well-known ability of the Editor. By others, however, 
 this edition will be more welcomely received, because many 
 non-Catholic minds of to-day are becoming more and more 
 dissatisfied with Protestantism, and are anxious to find 
 something better. Among this latter class this little book 
 will cause many conversions. Among other classes, if it 
 does not cause conversion of the will, it certainly will 
 bring conviction to the intellect, because the clear logic of 
 the arguments is irresistible, and the well adapted Scrip¬ 
 ture texts are overpowering. 
 
 The Dublin Reviezv. 
 
 “This is a book that is wanted. The arguments are put 
 forth with great clearness and force, and to any honest 
 reader will appear irresistible.” 
 
 The Whitehall Reviezv, London (non-Catholic) : 
 
 “It is plain, straightforward reasoning from stem to 
 stern.” 
 
 A well-known educator says: "One way to appreciate 
 Father Lambert’s merits is to circulate his writings.” 
 
 Retail price, 15 cents; wholesale price, $7.50 per 100. 
 
 ALL CATHOLIC BOOKDEALERS 
 

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