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diff --git a/76305-h/76305-h.htm b/76305-h/76305-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8580e1a --- /dev/null +++ b/76305-h/76305-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,3230 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html lang="en"> + <head> + <meta charset="UTF-8"> + <title>The Catholic Church and Conversion | Project Gutenberg</title> + <link rel="icon" href="images/cover.jpg" type="image/x-cover"> + <style> + body { margin-left: 8%; margin-right: 8%; } + h1 { text-align: center; font-weight: normal; font-size: 1.4em; } + h2 { text-align: center; font-weight: normal; font-size: 1.2em; } + p { text-indent: 0; margin-top: 0.5em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; text-align: justify; } + .sc { font-variant: small-caps; } + .lg-container-b { text-align: center; } + .x-ebookmaker .lg-container-b { clear: both; } + .linegroup { display: inline-block; text-align: left; } + .x-ebookmaker .linegroup { display: block; margin-left: 1.5em; } + .linegroup .group { margin: 1em auto; } + .linegroup .line { text-indent: -3em; padding-left: 3em; } + div.linegroup > :first-child { margin-top: 0; } + ul.ul_1 {padding-left: 0; margin-left: 2.78%; margin-top: .5em; + margin-bottom: .5em; list-style-type: disc; } + div.pbb { page-break-before: always; } + hr.pb { border: none; border-bottom: thin solid; margin-bottom: 1em; } + .x-ebookmaker hr.pb { display: none; } + .table0 { margin: auto; margin-top: 2em; width: 70%; } + .colwidth10 { width:10% ; } + .colwidth80 { width:80% ; } + .nf-center { text-align: center; } + .nf-center-c0 { text-align: left; margin: 0.5em 0; } + .c000 { margin-top: 4em; } + .c001 { font-size: 85%; } + .c002 { font-size: 115%; } + .c003 { border: none; border-bottom: thin solid; margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 45%; width: 10%; margin-right: 45%; } + .c004 { margin-left: 2.78%; text-indent: -2.78%; } + .c005 { page-break-before: auto; margin-top: 4em; } + .c006 { font-size: 135%; } + .c007 { margin-top: 4em; font-size: 85%; } + .c008 { page-break-before:auto; margin-top: 4em; } + .c009 { margin-top: 2em; text-indent: 1em; margin-bottom: 0.37em; } + .c010 { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: 0.37em; margin-bottom: 0.37em; } + .c011 { vertical-align: top; text-align: right; padding-right: 1em; } + .c012 { vertical-align: top; text-align: left; padding-right: 1em; } + .c013 { vertical-align: top; text-align: right; } + .c014 { font-size: 120%; } + .c015 { margin-top: 1em; } + .tnbox { border:1px solid silver; padding: 0.5em; margin:2em 10% 0 10%; } + .indent1 { padding-left: 2em; } + .indent2 { padding-left: 4em; } + </style> + </head> + <body> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 76305 ***</div> + +<div class='nf-center-c0'> +<div class='nf-center c000'> + <div><a id='Page_1'></a><span class='c001'>THE CALVERT SERIES</span></div> + <div><span class='c001'><span class='sc'>Hilaire Belloc</span>, <i>General Editor</i></span></div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='nf-center-c0'> +<div class='nf-center c000'> + <div><span class='c002'>THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AND</span></div> + <div><span class='c002'>CONVERSION</span></div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='pbb'> + <hr class='pb c000'> +</div> + +<div class='nf-center-c0'> +<div class='nf-center c000'> + <div><a id='Page_2'></a>THE CALVERT SERIES</div> + <div><span class='sc'>Hilaire Belloc</span>, <i>General Editor</i></div> + </div> +</div> + +<hr class='c003'> + +<div class='lg-container-b c004'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'><i>Belloc</i>: <span class='sc'>The Catholic Church and History</span></div> + <div class='line'><i>Chesterton</i>: <span class='sc'>The Catholic Church and Conversion</span></div> + <div class='line'><i>McNabb</i>: <span class='sc'>The Catholic Church and Philosophy</span></div> + <div class='line'><i>Ward</i>: <span class='sc'>The Catholic Church and the Appeal to Reason</span></div> + <div class='line'><i>Windle</i>: <span class='sc'>The Catholic Church and Its Reactions With Science</span></div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='pbb'> + <hr class='pb c000'> +</div> + +<div> + <a id='Page_3'></a> + <h1 class='c005'><span class='c006'>THE CATHOLIC CHURCH</span><br><span class='c006'>AND CONVERSION</span></h1> +</div> + +<div class='nf-center-c0'> +<div class='nf-center c000'> + <div><span class='c001'>BY</span></div> + <div>G. K. CHESTERTON</div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='nf-center-c0'> +<div class='nf-center c000'> + <div>New York</div> + <div>THE MACMILLAN COMPANY</div> + <div>1927</div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='nf-center-c0'> + <div class='nf-center'> + <div><span class='c001'><i>All rights reserved</i></span></div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='pbb'> + <hr class='pb c000'> +</div> + +<div class='lg-container-b c000'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'><a id='Page_4'></a>Nihil Obstat</div> + <div class='line'><span class="indent1">Arthur J. Scanlan, S. T. D.</span></div> + <div class='line'><span class="indent2">Censor Librorum.</span></div> + <div class='line'>Imprimatur</div> + <div class='line'><span class="indent1">Patrick Cardinal Hayes</span></div> + <div class='line'><span class="indent2">✠Archbishop, New York.</span></div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>New York, September 16, 1926.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='nf-center-c0'> +<div class='nf-center c007'> + <div>Copyright, 1926,</div> + <div><span class='sc'>By</span> THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.</div> + </div> +</div> + +<hr class='c003'> + +<div class='nf-center-c0'> +<div class='nf-center c001'> + <div>Set up and electrotyped.</div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='nf-center-c0'> +<div class='nf-center c001'> + <div>Published November, 1926.</div> + <div>Reprinted, April, 1927.</div> + <div>September, 1927.</div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='nf-center-c0'> +<div class='nf-center c007'> + <div><i>Printed in the United States of America by</i></div> + <div>THE FERRIS PRINTING COMPANY, NEW YORK.</div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='pbb'> + <hr class='pb c000'> +</div> + +<div> + <a id='Page_5'></a> + <h2 class='c008'>EDITOR’S NOTE</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c009'>It is with diffidence that anyone born into the +Faith can approach the tremendous subject of +Conversion. Indeed, it is easier for one still quite +unacquainted with the Faith to approach that subject +than it is for one who has had the advantage of +the Faith from childhood. There is at once a +sort of impertinence in approaching an experience +other than one’s own (necessarily more imperfectly +grasped), and an ignorance of the matter. Those +born into the Faith very often go through an experience +of their own parallel to, and in some +way resembling, that experience whereby original +strangers to the Faith come to see it and to accept +it. Those born into the Faith often, I say, go +through an experience of scepticism in youth, as +the years proceed, and it is still a common phenomenon +(though not so often to be observed as +it was a lifetime ago) for men of the Catholic +culture, acquainted with the Church from childhood, +to leave it in early manhood and never to +return. But it is nowadays a still more frequent +phenomenon—and it is to this that I allude—for +those to whom scepticism so strongly appealed in +youth to discover, by an experience of men and of +reality in all its varied forms, that the transcendental +truths they had been taught in childhood +<a id='Page_6'></a>have the highest claims upon their matured +reason.</p> + +<p class='c010'>This experience of the born Catholic may, I +repeat, be called in a certain sense a phenomenon +of conversion. But it differs from conversion +properly so called, which rather signifies the +gradual discovery and acceptance of the Catholic +Church by men and women who began life with no +conception of its existence: for whom it had been +during their formative years no more than a name, +perhaps despised, and certainly corresponding to no +known reality.</p> + +<p class='c010'>Such men and women converts are perhaps the +chief factors in the increasing vigor of the Catholic +Church in our time. The admiration which the +born Catholic feels for their action is exactly consonant +to that which the Church in its earlier days +showed to the martyrs. For the word “martyr” +means “witness.” The phenomenon of conversion +apparent in every class, affecting every type of character, +is the great modern <i>witness</i> to the truth of +the claim of the Faith; to the fact that the Faith +is reality, and that in it alone is the repose of reality +to be found.</p> + +<p class='c010'>In proportion as men know less and less of the +subject, in that proportion do they conceive that +the entrants into the City of God are of one type, +and in that proportion do they attempt some +simple definition of the mind which ultimately +accepts Catholicism. They will call it a desire for +security; or an attraction of the senses such as is +<a id='Page_7'></a>exercised by music or by verse. Or they will +ascribe it to that particular sort of weakness (present +in many minds) whereby they are easily dominated +and changed in mood by the action of another.</p> + +<p class='c010'>A very little experience of typical converts in our +time makes nonsense of such theories. Men and +women enter by every conceivable gate, after every +conceivable process of slow intellectual examination, +of shock, of vision, of moral trial and even of +merely intellectual process. They enter through +the action of expanded experience. Some obtain +this through travel, some through a reading of +history beyond their fellows, some through personal +accidents of life. And not only are the +avenues of approach to the Faith infinite in number +(though all converging; as must be so, since +truth is one and error infinitely divided), but the +individual types in whom the process of conversion +may be observed differ in every conceivable fashion. +When you have predicated of one what emotion or +what reasoning process brought him into the fold, +and you attempt to apply your predicate exactly to +another, you will find a misfit. The cynic enters, +and so does the sentimentalist; and the fool enters +and so does the wise man; the perpetual questioner +and doubter and the man too easily accepting immediate +authority—they each enter after his kind. +You come across an entry into the Catholic Church +undoubtedly due to the spectacle, admiration and +imitation of some great character observed. Next +day you come across an entry into the Catholic +<a id='Page_8'></a>Church out of complete loneliness, and you are +astonished to find the convert still ignorant of the +great mass of the Catholic effect on character. And +yet again, immediately after, you will find a totally +different third type, the man who enters not from +loneliness, nor from the effect of another mind, but +who comes in out of contempt for the insufficiency +or the evil by which he has been surrounded.</p> + +<p class='c010'>The Church is the natural home of the Human +Spirit.</p> + +<p class='c010'>The truth is that if you seek for an explanation +of the phenomenon of conversion under any system +which bases that phenomenon on illusion, you arrive +at no answer to your question. If you imagine +conversion to proceed from this or that or the +other erroneous or particular limited and insufficient +cause, you will soon discover it to be inexplicable.</p> + +<p class='c010'>There is only one explanation of the phenomenon—a +phenomenon always present, but particularly +arresting to the educated man outside the +Catholic Church in the English-speaking countries—there +is only one explanation which will account +for the multiplicity of such entries and for +the infinitely varied quality of the minds attracted +by the great change; and that explanation is that +the Catholic Church is reality. If a distant mountain +may be mistaken for a cloud by many, but is +recognised for a stable part of the world (its outline +fixed and its quality permanent) by every sort +of observer, and among these especially by men +famous for their interest in the debate, for their +<a id='Page_9'></a>acuteness of vision and for their earlier doubts, the +overwhelming presumption is that the thing seen +is a piece of objective reality. Fifty men on shipboard +strain their eyes for land. Five, then ten, +then twenty, make the land-fall and recognise it +and establish it for their fellows. To the remainder, +who see it not or who think it a bank +of fog, there is replied the detail of the outline, the +character of the points recognised, and that by the +most varied and therefore convergent and convincing +witnesses—by some who do not desire that +land should be there at all, by some who dread +its approach, as well as those who are glad to find +it, by some who have long most ridiculed the idea +that it was land at all—and it is in this convergence +of witnesses that we have one out of the innumerable +proofs upon which the rational basis of +our religion reposes.—<i>The Editor.</i></p> + +<div class='pbb'> + <hr class='pb c000'> +</div> + +<div> + <a id='Page_11'></a> + <h2 class='c008'>CONTENTS</h2> +</div> + +<table class='table0'> +<colgroup> +<col class='colwidth10'> +<col class='colwidth80'> +<col class='colwidth10'> +</colgroup> + <tr> + <th class='c011'></th> + <th class='c012'>CHAPTER</th> + <th class='c013'>PAGE</th> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c011'> </td> + <td class='c012'> </td> + <td class='c013'> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c011'>I.</td> + <td class='c012'><span class='sc'>Introductory: A New Religion</span></td> + <td class='c013'><a href='#Page_15'>15</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c011'>II.</td> + <td class='c012'><span class='sc'>The Obvious Blunders</span></td> + <td class='c013'><a href='#Page_27'>27</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c011'>III.</td> + <td class='c012'><span class='sc'>The Real Obstacles</span></td> + <td class='c013'><a href='#Page_49'>49</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c011'>IV.</td> + <td class='c012'><span class='sc'>The World Inside Out</span></td> + <td class='c013'><a href='#Page_75'>75</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c011'>V.</td> + <td class='c012'><span class='sc'>The Exception Proves the Rule</span></td> + <td class='c013'><a href='#Page_93'>93</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c011'>VI.</td> + <td class='c012'><span class='sc'>A Note On Present Prospects</span></td> + <td class='c013'><a href='#Page_111'>111</a></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<div class='pbb'> + <hr class='pb c000'> +</div> + +<div class='nf-center-c0'> +<div class='nf-center c000'> + <div><a id='Page_13'></a><span class='c014'>INTRODUCTORY</span></div> + <div><span class='c014'>A NEW RELIGION</span></div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='pbb'> + <hr class='pb c000'> +</div> + +<div class='nf-center-c0'> +<div class='nf-center c000'> + <div><a id='Page_15'></a><span class='c014'>THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AND</span></div> + <div><span class='c014'>CONVERSION</span></div> + </div> +</div> + +<div> + <h2 class='c008'>CHAPTER I<br> <br>INTRODUCTORY: A NEW RELIGION</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c009'>The Catholic faith used to be called the Old +Religion; but at the present moment it has a recognized +place among the New Religions. This has +nothing to do with its truth or falsehood; but it +is a fact that has a great deal to do with the understanding +of the modern world.</p> + +<p class='c010'>It would be very undesirable that modern men +should accept Catholicism merely as a novelty; +but it is a novelty. It does act upon its existing +environment with the peculiar force and freshness +of a novelty. Even those who denounce it generally +denounce it as a novelty; as an innovation and +not merely a survival. They talk of the “advanced” +party in the Church of England; they talk +of the “aggression” of the Church of Rome. When +they talk of an Extremist they are as likely to mean +a Ritualist as a Socialist. Given any normal respectable +Protestant family, Anglican or Puritan, +in England or America, we shall find that Catholicism +is actually for practical purposes treated as a +new religion, that is, a revolution. It is not a survival. +It is not in that sense an antiquity. It does +<a id='Page_16'></a>not necessarily owe anything to tradition. In places +where tradition can do nothing for it, in places +where all the tradition is against it, it is intruding +on its own merits; not as a tradition but a truth. +The father of some such Anglican or American +Puritan family will find, very often, that all his +children are breaking away from his own more or +less Christian compromise (regarded as normal in +the nineteenth century) and going off in various +directions after various faiths or fashions which +he would call fads. One of his sons will become +a Socialist and hang up a portrait of Lenin; one +of his daughters will become a Spiritualist and play +with a planchette; another daughter will go over +to Christian Science and it is quite likely that another +son will go over to Rome. The point is, +for the moment, that from the point of view of +the father, and even in a sense of the family, all +these things act after the manner of new religions, +of great movements, of enthusiasms that carry +young people off their feet and leave older people +bewildered or annoyed. Catholicism indeed, even +more than the others, is often spoken of as if it +were actually one of the wild passions of youth. +Optimistic aunts and uncles say that the youth +will “get over it,” as if it were a childish love affair +or that unfortunate business with the barmaid. +Darker and sterner aunts and uncles, perhaps at a +rather earlier period, used actually to talk about +it as an indecent indulgence, as if its literature were +literally a sort of pornography. Newman remarks +<a id='Page_17'></a>quite naturally, as if there were nothing odd about +it at the time, that an undergraduate found with +an ascetic manual or a book of monastic meditations +was under a sort of cloud or taint, as having been +caught with “a bad book” in his possession. He +had been wallowing in the sensual pleasure of +Nones or inflaming his lusts by contemplating an +incorrect number of candles. It is perhaps no +longer the custom to regard conversion as a form +of dissipation; but it is still common to regard conversion +as a form of revolt. And as regards the +established convention of much of the modern +world, it is a revolt. The worthy merchant of +the middle class, the worthy farmer of the Middle +West, when he sends his son to college, does now +feel a faint alarm lest the boy should fall among +thieves, in the sense of Communists; but he has +the same sort of fear lest he should fall among +Catholics.</p> + +<p class='c010'>Now he has no fear lest he should fall among +Calvinists. He has no fear that his children will +become seventeenth-century Supralapsarians, however +much he may dislike that doctrine. He is not +even particularly troubled by the possibility of +their adopting the extreme solifidian conceptions +once common among some of the more extravagant +Methodists. He is not likely to await with terror +the telegram that will inform him that his son has +become a Fifth-Monarchy man, any more than that +he has joined the Albigensians. He does not exactly +lie awake at night wondering whether Tom +<a id='Page_18'></a>at Oxford has become a Lutheran any more than +a Lollard. All these religions he dimly recognises +as dead religions; or at any rate as old religions. +And he is only frightened of new religions. He is +only frightened of those fresh, provocative, paradoxical +new notions that fly to the young people’s +heads. But amongst these dangerous juvenile attractions +he does in practice class the freshness and +novelty of Rome.</p> + +<p class='c010'>Now this is rather odd; because Rome is not so +very new. Among these annoying new religions, +one is rather an old religion; but it is the only old +religion that is so new. When it was originally +and really new, no doubt a Roman father often +found himself in the same position as the Anglican +or Puritan father. He too might find all his children +going strange ways and deserting the household +gods and the sacred temple of the Capitol. +He too might find that one of those children had +joined the Christians in their Ecclesia and possibly +in their Catacombs. But he would have found +that, of his other children, one cared for nothing +but the Mysteries of Orpheus, another was inclined +to follow Mithras, another was a Neo-Pythagorean +who had learned vegetarianism from the Hindoos, +and so on. Though the Roman father, unlike the +Victorian father, might have the pleasure of exercising +the <i><span lang="la">patria potestas</span></i> and cutting off the heads +of all the heretics, he could not cut off the stream +of all the heresies. Only by this time most of the +streams have run rather dry. It is now seldom +<a id='Page_19'></a>necessary for the anxious parent to warn his children +against the undesirable society of the Bull of +Mithras, or even to wean him from the exclusive +contemplation of Orpheus; and though we have +vegetarians always with us, they mostly know more +about proteids than about Pythagoras. But that +other youthful extravagance is still youthful. That +other new religion is once again new. That one +fleeting fashion has refused to fleet; and that +ancient bit of modernity is still modern. It is still +to the Protestant parent now exactly what it was +to the pagan parent then. We might say simply +that it is a nuisance; but anyhow it is a novelty. +It is not simply what the father is used to, or even +what the son is used to. It is coming in as something +fresh and disturbing, whether as it came to +the Greeks who were always seeking some new +thing, or as it came to the shepherds who first +heard the cry upon the hills of the good news that +our language calls the Gospel. We can explain the +fact of the Greeks in the time of St. Paul regarding +it as a new thing, because it was a new thing. But +who will explain why it is still as new to the last +of the converts as it was to the first of the shepherds? +It is as if a man a hundred years old +entered the Olympian games among the young +Greek athletes; which would surely have been the +basis of a Greek legend. There is something almost +as legendary about the religion that is two thousand +years old now appearing as a rival of the new religions. +That is what has to be explained and +<a id='Page_20'></a>cannot be explained away; nothing can turn the +legend into a myth. We have seen with our own +eyes and heard with our own ears this great modern +quarrel between young Catholics and old Protestants; +and it is the first step to recognise in any +study of modern conversion.</p> + +<p class='c010'>I am not going to talk about numbers and statistics, +though I may say something about them +later. The first fact to realise is a difference of +substance which falsifies all the difference of size. +The great majority of Protestant bodies to-day, +whether they are strong or weak, are not strengthened +in this particular fashion; by the actual attraction +of their new followers to their old doctrines. +A young man will suddenly become a +Catholic priest, or even a Catholic monk, because +he has a spontaneous and even impatient personal +enthusiasm for the doctrine of Virginity as it appeared +to St. Catherine or St. Clare. But how +many men become Baptist ministers because they +have a personal horror of the idea of an innocent +infant coming unconsciously to Christ? How +many honest Presbyterian ministers in Scotland +really want to go back to John Knox, as a Catholic +mystic might want to go back to John of the Cross? +These men inherit positions which they feel they +can hold with reasonable consistency and general +agreement; but they do inherit them. For them +religion is tradition. We Catholics naturally do +not sneer at tradition; but we say that in this case +it is really tradition and nothing else. Not one +<a id='Page_21'></a>man in a hundred of these people would ever have +joined his present communion if he had been born +outside it. Not one man in a thousand of them +would have invented anything like his church formulas +if they had not been laid down for him. None +of them has any real reason for being in their own +particular church, whatever good reason they may +still have for being outside ours. In other words, +the old creed of their communion has ceased to +function as a fresh and stimulating idea. It is at +best a motto or a war cry and at the worst a catchword. +But it is not meeting contemporary ideas +like a contemporary idea. In their time and in their +turn we believe that those other contemporary ideas +will also prove their mortality by having also become +mottoes and catchwords and traditions. A +century or two hence Spiritualism may be a tradition +and Socialism may be a tradition and Christian +Science may be a tradition. But Catholicism +will not be a tradition. It will still be a nuisance +and a new and dangerous thing.</p> + +<p class='c010'>These are the general considerations which govern +any personal study of conversion to the Catholic +faith. The Church has defended tradition in a +time which stupidly denied and despised tradition. +But that is simply because the Church is always +the only thing defending whatever is at the moment +stupidly despised. It is already beginning to appear +as the only champion of reason in the twentieth +century, as it was the only champion of tradition +in the nineteenth. We know that the higher mathematics +<a id='Page_22'></a>is trying to deny that two and two make +four and the higher mysticism to imagine something +that is beyond good and evil. Amid all these anti-rational +philosophies, ours will remain the only +rational philosophy. In the same spirit the Church +did indeed point out the value of tradition to a +time which treated it as quite valueless. The nineteenth-century +neglect of tradition and mania for +mere documents were altogether nonsensical. They +amounted to saying that men always tell lies to +children but men never make mistakes in books. +But though our sympathies are traditional because +they are human, it is not that part of the thing +which stamps it as divine. The mark of the Faith +is not tradition; it is conversion. It is the miracle +by which men find truth in spite of tradition and +often with the rending of all the roots of humanity.</p> + +<p class='c010'>It is with the nature of this process that I propose +to deal; and it is difficult to deal with it without +introducing something of a personal element. +My own is only a very trivial case but naturally +it is the case I know best; and I shall be compelled +in the pages that follow to take many illustrations +from it. I have therefore thought it well to put +first this general note on the nature of the movement +in my time; to show that I am well aware +that it is a very much larger and even a very much +later movement than is implied in describing my +own life or generation. I believe it will be more +and more an issue for the rising generation and for +the generation after that, as they discover the actual +<a id='Page_23'></a>alternative in the awful actualities of our time. And +Catholics when they stand up together and sing +“Faith of our Fathers” may realise almost with +amusement that they might well be singing “Faith +of our Children.” And in many cases the return +has been so recent as almost to deserve the description +of a Children’s Crusade.</p> + +<div class='pbb'> + <hr class='pb c000'> +</div> + +<div class='nf-center-c0'> +<div class='nf-center c000'> + <div><a id='Page_25'></a><span class='c014'>THE OBVIOUS BLUNDERS</span></div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='pbb'> + <hr class='pb c000'> +</div> + +<div> + <a id='Page_27'></a> + <h2 class='c008'>CHAPTER II<br> <br>THE OBVIOUS BLUNDERS</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c009'>I have noted that Catholicism really is in the +twentieth century what it was in the second century; +it is the New Religion. Indeed its very antiquity +preserves an attitude of novelty. I have always +thought it striking and even stirring that in +the venerable invocation of the “Tantum Ergo,” +which for us seems to come loaded with accumulated +ages, there is still the language of innovation; +of the antique document that must yield to a new +rite. For us the hymn is something of an antique +document itself. But the rite is always new.</p> + +<p class='c010'>But if a convert is to write of conversion he must +try to retrace his steps out of that shrine back into +that ultimate wilderness where he once really believed +that this eternal youth was only the “Old +Religion.” It is a thing exceedingly difficult to do +and not often done well, and I for one have little +hope of doing it even tolerably well. The difficulty +was expressed to me by another convert who said, +“I cannot explain why I am a Catholic; because +now that I am a Catholic I cannot imagine myself +as anything else.” Nevertheless, it is right to make +the imaginative effort. It is not bigotry to be certain +we are right; but it is bigotry to be unable to +imagine how we might possibly have gone wrong. +<a id='Page_28'></a>It is my duty to try to understand what H. G. +Wells can possibly mean when he says that the +mediæval Church did not care for education but +only for imposing dogmas; it is my duty to speculate +(however darkly) on what can have made +an intelligent man like Arnold Bennett stone-blind +to all the plainest facts about Spain; it is my duty +to find if I can the thread of connected thought in +George Moore’s various condemnations of Catholic +Ireland; and it is equally my duty to labour +till I understand the strange mental state of G. K. +Chesterton when he really assumed that the Catholic +Church was a sort of ruined abbey, almost as +deserted as Stonehenge.</p> + +<p class='c010'>I must say first that, in my own case, it was at +worst a matter of slights rather than slanders. +Many converts far more important than I have had +to wrestle with a hundred devils of howling falsehood; +with a swarm of lies and libels. I owe it to +the liberal and Universalist atmosphere of my +family, of Stopford Brooke and the Unitarian +preachers they followed, that I was always just +sufficiently enlightened to be out of the reach of +Maria Monk. Nevertheless, as this is but a private +privilege for which I have to be thankful, it is +necessary to say something of what I might be +tempted to call the obvious slanders, but that better +men than I have not always seen that the slander +was obvious. I do not think that they exercise +much influence on the generation that is younger +than mine. The worst temptation of the most +<a id='Page_29'></a>pagan youth is not so much to denounce monks +for breaking their vow as to wonder at them for +keeping it. But there is a state of transition that +must be allowed for in which a vague Protestant +prejudice would rather like to have it both ways. +There is still a sort of woolly-minded philistine +who would be content to consider a friar a knave +for his unchastity and a fool for his chastity. In +other words, these dying calumnies are dying but +not dead; and there are still enough people who +may still be held back by such crude and clumsy +obstacles that it is necessary to some extent to clear +them away. After that we can consider what may +be called the real obstacles, the real difficulties we +find, which, as a fact, are generally the very opposite +of the difficulties we are told about. But +let us consider the evidence of all these things being +black, before we go on to the inconvenient fact of +their being white.</p> + +<p class='c010'>The usual protest of the Protestant, that the +Church of Rome is afraid of the Bible, did not, as +I shall explain in a moment, have any great terrors +for me at any time. This was by no merit of my +own, but by the accident of my age and situation. +For I grew up in a world in which the Protestants, +who had just proved that Rome did not believe +the Bible, were excitedly discovering that they did +not believe the Bible themselves. Some of them +even tried to combine the two condemnations and +say that they were steps of progress. The next +step in progress consisted in a man kicking his +<a id='Page_30'></a>father for having locked up a book of such beauty +and value, a book which the son then proceeded to +tear into a thousand pieces. I early discovered that +progress is worse than Protestantism so far as stupidity +is concerned. But most of the free-thinkers +who were friends of mine happened to think sufficiently +freely to see that the Higher Criticism was +much more of an attack on Protestant Bible-worship +than on Roman authority. Anyhow, my +family and friends were more concerned with the +opening of the book of Darwin than the book of +Daniel; and most of them regarded the Hebrew +Scriptures as if they were Hittite sculptures. But, +even then, it would seem odd to worship the sculptures +as gods and then smash them as idols and still +go on blaming somebody else for not having worshipped +them enough. But here again it is hard +for me to know how far my own experience is +representative, or whether it would not be well to +say more of these purely Protestant prejudices and +doubts than I, from my own experience, am able +to say.</p> + +<p class='c010'>The Church is a house with a hundred gates; +and no two men enter at exactly the same angle. +Mine was at least as much Agnostic as Anglican, +though I accepted for a time the borderland of Anglicanism; +but only on the assumption that it could +really be Anglo-Catholicism. There is a distinction +of ultimate intention there which in the vague +English atmosphere is often missed. It is not a +difference of degree but of definite aim. There are +<a id='Page_31'></a>High Churchmen as much as Low Churchmen who +are concerned first and last to save the Church of +England. Some of them think it can be saved by +calling it Catholic, or making it Catholic, or believing +that it is Catholic; but <i>that</i> is what they +want to save. But I did not start out with the idea +of saving the English Church, but of finding the +Catholic Church. If the two were one, so much +the better; but I had never conceived of Catholicism +as a sort of showy attribute or attraction to +be tacked on to my own national body, but as the +inmost soul of the true body, wherever it might be. +It might be said that Anglo-Catholicism was simply +my own uncompleted conversion to Catholicism. +But it was from a position originally much more +detached and indefinite that I had been converted, +an atmosphere if not agnostic at least pantheistic +or Unitarian. To this I owe the fact that I find +it very difficult to take some of the Protestant propositions +even seriously. What is any man who has +been in the real outer world, for instance, to make +of the everlasting cry that Catholic traditions are +condemned by the Bible? It indicates a jumble of +topsy-turvy tests and tail-foremost arguments, of +which I never could at any time see the sense. The +ordinary sensible sceptic or pagan is standing in the +street (in the supreme character of the man in the +street) and he sees a procession go by of the priests +of some strange cult, carrying their object of worship +under a canopy, some of them wearing high +head-dresses and carrying symbolical staffs, others +<a id='Page_32'></a>carrying scrolls and sacred records, others carrying +sacred images and lighted candles before them, +others sacred relics in caskets or cases, and so on. +I can understand the spectator saying, “This is all +hocus-pocus”; I can even understand him, in moments +of irritation, breaking up the procession, +throwing down the images, tearing up the scrolls, +dancing on the priests and anything else that might +express that general view. I can understand his +saying, “Your croziers are bosh, your candles are +bosh, your statues and scrolls and relics and all the +rest of it are bosh.” But in what conceivable frame +of mind does he rush in to select one particular +scroll of the scriptures of this one particular group +(a scroll which had always belonged to them and +been a part of their hocus-pocus, if it was hocus-pocus); +why in the world should the man in the +street say that one particular scroll was <i>not</i> bosh, +but was the one and only truth by which all the +other things were to be condemned? Why should +it not be as superstitious to worship the scrolls as +the statues, of that one particular procession? Why +should it not be as reasonable to preserve the statues +as the scrolls, by the tenets of that particular creed? +To say to the priests, “Your statues and scrolls are +condemned by our common sense,” is sensible. To +say, “Your statues are condemned by your scrolls, +and we are going to worship one part of your procession +and wreck the rest,” is not sensible from any +standpoint, least of all that of the man in the street.</p> + +<p class='c010'>Similarly, I could never take seriously the fear +<a id='Page_33'></a>of the priest, as of something unnatural and unholy; +a dangerous man in the home. Why should +a man who wanted to be wicked encumber himself +with special and elaborate promises to be good? +There might sometimes be a reason for a priest being +a profligate. But what was the reason for a +profligate being a priest? There are many more +lucrative walks of life in which a person with such +shining talents for vice and villainy might have +made a brighter use of his gifts. Why should a +man encumber himself with vows that nobody +could expect him to take and he did not himself +expect to keep? Would any man make himself +poor in order that he might become avaricious; or +take a vow of chastity frightfully difficult to keep +in order to get into a little more trouble when he +did not keep it? All that early and sensational +picture of the sins of Rome always seemed to me +silly even when I was a boy or an unbeliever; and +I cannot describe how I passed out of it because I +was never in it. I remember asking some friends +at Cambridge, people of the Puritan tradition, why +in the world they were so afraid of Papists; why +a priest in somebody’s house was a peril or an Irish +servant the beginning of a pestilence. I asked them +why they could not simply disagree with Papists +and say so, as they did with Theosophists or Anarchists. +They seemed at once pleased and shocked +with my daring, as if I had undertaken to convert +a burglar or tame a mad dog. Perhaps their alarm +was really wiser than my bravado. Anyhow, I +<a id='Page_34'></a>had not then the most shadowy notion that the +burglar would convert me. That, however, I +am inclined to think, is the subconscious intuition +in the whole business. It must either mean that +they suspect that our religion has something about +it so wrong that the hint of it is bad for anybody; +or else that it has something so right that the presence +of it would convert anybody. To do them +justice, I think most of them darkly suspect the +second and not the first.</p> + +<p class='c010'>A shade more plausible than the notion that +Popish priests merely seek after evil was the notion +that they are exceptionally ready to seek good by +means of evil. In vulgar language, it is the notion +that if they are not sensual they are always sly. +To dissipate this is a mere matter of experience; +but before I had any experience I had seen some +objections to the thing even in theory. The theory +attributed to the Jesuits was very often almost +identical with the practice adopted by nearly everybody +I knew. Everybody in society practised +verbal economies, equivocations and often direct +fictions, without any sense of essential falsehood. +Every gentleman was expected to say he would be +delighted to dine with a bore; every lady said that +somebody else’s baby was beautiful if she thought +it as ugly as sin; for they did not think it a sin to +avoid saying ugly things. This might be right or +wrong; but it was absurd to pillory half a dozen +Popish priests for a crime committed daily by half +a million Protestant laymen. The only difference +<a id='Page_35'></a>was that the Jesuits had been worried enough about +the matter to try to make rules and limitations +saving as much verbal veracity as possible; whereas +the happy Protestants were not worried about it +at all, but told lies from morning to night as merrily +and innocently as the birds sing in the trees. +The fact is, of course, that the modern world is +full of an utterly lawless casuistry because the +Jesuits were prevented from making a lawful casuistry. +But every man is a casuist or a lunatic.</p> + +<p class='c010'>It is true that this general truth was hidden from +many by certain definite assertions. I can only call +them, in simple language, Protestant lies about +Catholic lying. The men who repeated them were +not necessarily lying, because they were repeating. +But the statements were of the same lucid and precise +order as a statement that the Pope has three +legs or that Rome is situated at the North Pole. +There is no more doubt about their nature than +that. One of them, for instance, is the positive +statement, once heard everywhere and still heard +often: “Roman Catholics are taught that anything +is lawful if done for the good of the Church.” This +is not the fact; and there is an end of it. It refers +to a definite statement of an institution whose statements +are very definite; and it can be proved to be +totally false. Here as always the critics cannot see +that they are trying to have it both ways. They +are always complaining that our creed is cut and +dried; that we are told what to believe and must +believe nothing else; that it is all written down +<a id='Page_36'></a>for us in bulls and confessions of faith. In so far +as this is true, it brings a matter like this to the +point of legal and literal truth, which can be tested; +and so tested, it is a lie. But even here I was saved +at a very early stage by noticing a curious fact. I +noticed that those who were most ready to blame +priests for relying on rigid formulas seldom took +the trouble to find out what the formulas were. I +happened to pick up some of the amusing pamphlets +of James Britten, as I might have picked up +any other pamphlets of any other propaganda; but +they set me on the track of that delightful branch +of literature which he called Protestant Fiction. +I found some of that fiction on my own account, +dipping into novels by Joseph Hocking and others. +I am only concerned with them here to illustrate +this particular and curious fact about exactitude. +I could not understand why these romancers never +took the trouble to find out a few elementary facts +about the thing they denounced. The facts might +easily have helped the denunciation, where the fictions +discredited it. There were any number of +real Catholic doctrines I should then have thought +disgraceful to the Church. There are any number +which I can still easily imagine being made to look +disgraceful to the Church. But the enemies of the +Church never found these real rocks of offence. +They never looked for them. They never looked +for anything. They seemed to have simply made +up out of their own heads a number of phrases, +such as a Scarlet Woman of deficient intellect might +<a id='Page_37'></a>be supposed to launch on the world; and left it at +that. Boundless freedom reigned; it was not treated +as if it were a question of fact at all. A priest might +say anything about the Faith; because a Protestant +might say anything about the priest. These novels +were padded with pronouncements like this one, +for instance, which I happen to remember: “Disobeying +a priest is the one sin for which there is no +absolution. We term it a reserved case.” Now +obviously a man writing like that is simply imagining +what might exist; it has never occurred to him +to go and ask if it does exist. He has heard the +phrase “a reserved case” and considers, in a poetic +reverie, what he shall make it mean. He does not +go and ask the nearest priest what it does mean. +He does not look it up in an encyclopædia or any +ordinary work of reference. There is no doubt +about the fact that it simply means a case reserved +for ecclesiastical superiors and not to be settled +finally by the priest. That may be a fact to be +denounced; but anyhow it is a fact. But the man +much prefers to denounce his own fancy. Any +manual would tell him that there is no sin “for +which there is no absolution”; not disobeying the +priest; not assassinating the Pope. It would be +easy to find out these facts and quite easy to base +a Protestant invective upon them. It puzzled me +very much, even at that early stage, to imagine why +people bringing controversial charges against a +powerful and prominent institution should thus +neglect to test their own case, and should draw in +<a id='Page_38'></a>this random way on their own imagination. It +did not make me any more inclined to be a Catholic; +in those days the very idea of such a thing +would have seemed crazy. But it did save me from +swallowing all the solid and solemn assertion about +what Jesuits said and did. I did not accept quite +so completely as others the well-ascertained and +widely accepted fact that “Roman Catholics may +do anything for the good of the Church”; because +I had already learned to smile at equally accepted +truths like “Disobeying a priest is the one sin for +which there is no absolution.” I never dreamed +that the Roman religion was true; but I knew that +its accusers, for some reason or other, were curiously +inaccurate.</p> + +<p class='c010'>It is strange to me to go back to these things now, +and to think that I ever took them even as seriously +as that. But I was not very serious even then; and +certainly I was not serious long. The last lingering +shadow of the Jesuit, gliding behind curtains and +concealing himself in cupboards, faded from my +young life about the time when I first caught a +distant glimpse of the late Father Bernard Vaughan. +He was the only Jesuit I ever knew in those days; +and as you could generally hear him half a mile +away, he seemed to be ill-selected for the duties +of a curtain-glider. It has always struck me as +curious that this Jesuit raised a storm by refusing +to be Jesuitical (in the journalese sense I mean), by +refusing to substitute smooth equivocation and +verbal evasion for a brute fact. Because he talked +<a id='Page_39'></a>about “killing Germans” when Germans had to +be killed, all our shifty and shamefaced morality +was shocked at him. And none of those protesting +Protestants took thought for a moment to realise +that they were showing all the shuffling insincerity +they attributed to the Jesuits, and the Jesuit was +showing all the plain candour that they claimed +for the Protestant.</p> + +<p class='c010'>I could give a great many other instances besides +these I have given of the hidden Bible, the profligate +priest or the treacherous Jesuit. I could go steadily +through the list of all these more old-fashioned +charges against Rome and show how they affected +me, or rather why they did not affect me. But my +only purpose here is to point out, as a preliminary, +that they did not affect me at all. I had all the +difficulties that a heathen would have had in becoming +a Catholic in the fourth century. I had very +few of the difficulties that a Protestant had, from +the seventeenth to the nineteenth. And I owe this +to men whose memories I shall always honour; to +my father and his circle and the literary tradition +of men like George Macdonald and the Universalists +of the Victorian Age. If I was born on the +wrong side of the Roman wall, at least I was not +born on the wrong side of the No Popery quarrel; +and if I did not inherit a fully civilised faith, neither +did I inherit a barbarian feud. The people +I was born amongst wished to be just to Catholics +if they did not always understand them; and I +should be very thankless if I did not record of them +<a id='Page_40'></a>that (like a very much more valuable convert) I +can say I was born free.</p> + +<p class='c010'>I will add one example to illustrate this point, +because it leads us on to larger matters. After a +long time—I might almost say after a lifetime—I +have at last begun to realise what the worthy Liberal +or Socialist of Balham or Battersea really means +when he says he is an Internationalist and that +humanity should be preferred to the narrowness +of nations. It dawned on me quite suddenly, after +I had talked to such a man for many hours, that +of course he had really been brought up to believe +that God’s Englishmen were the Chosen Race. +Very likely his father or uncle actually thought +they were the lost Ten Tribes. Anyhow, everything +from his daily paper to his weekly sermon +assumed that they were the salt of the earth, and +especially that they were the salt of the sea. His +people had never thought outside their British +nationality. They lived in an Empire on which +the sun never set, or possibly never rose. Their +Church was emphatically the Church of England—even +if it was a chapel. Their religion was the +Bible that went everywhere with the Union Jack. +And when I realised that, I realised the whole story. +That was why they were excited by the exceedingly +dull theory of the Internationalist. That was why +the brotherhood of nations, which to me was a +truism, to them was a trumpet. That was why it +seemed such a thrilling paradox to say that we +must love foreigners; it had in it the divine paradox +<a id='Page_41'></a>that we must love enemies. That was why +the Internationalist was always planning deputations +and visits to foreign capitals and heart-to-heart +talks and hands across the sea. It was the +marvel of discovering that foreigners had hands, +let alone hearts. There was in that excitement a +sort of stifled cry: “Look! Frenchmen also have +two legs! See! Germans have noses in the same +place as we!” Now a Catholic, especially a born +Catholic, can never understand that attitude, because +from the first his whole religion is rooted in +the unity of the race of Adam, the one and only +Chosen Race. He is loyal to his own country; indeed +he is generally ardently loyal to it, such local +affections being in other ways very natural to his +religious life, with its shrines and relics. But just +as the relic follows upon the religion, so the local +loyalty follows on the universal brotherhood of +all men. The Catholic says, “Of course we must +love all men; but what do all men love? They +love their lands, their lawful boundaries, the memories +of their fathers. That is the justification of +being national, that it is normal.” But the Protestant +patriot really never thought of any patriotism +except his own. In that sense Protestantism is +patriotism. But unfortunately it is only patriotism. +It starts with it and never gets beyond it. We +start with mankind and go beyond it to all the +varied loves and traditions of mankind. There +never was a more illuminating flash than that +which lit up the last moment of one of the most +<a id='Page_42'></a>glorious of English Protestants; one of the most +Protestant and one of the most English. For that +is the meaning of that phrase of Nurse Cavell, herself +the noblest martyr of our modern religion of +nationality, when the very shaft of the white sun +of death shone deep into her mind and she cried +aloud, like one who had just discovered something, +“I see now that patriotism is not enough.”</p> + +<p class='c010'>There was this in common between the Catholics +to whom I have come and the Liberals among +whom I was born: neither of them would ever have +imagined for a moment that patriotism was enough. +But that insular idealism by which that great lady +lived really had taught her unconsciously from +childhood that patriotism <i>was</i> enough. Not seldom +has the English lady appeared in history as a heroine; +but generally as facing and defying strangers +or savages, not specially as feeling them as fellows +and equals. Those last words of the English martyr +in Belgium have often been quoted by mere +cosmopolitans; but cosmopolitans are the last +people really to understand them. <i>They</i> are generally +trying to prove, not that patriotism is not +enough, but that it is a great deal too much. The +point is here that hundreds of the most heroic and +high-minded people in Protestant countries have +really assumed that it is enough to be a patriot. +The most careless and cynical of Catholics knows +better; and so did the most vague and visionary of +Universalists. Of all the Protestant difficulties, +which I here find it hard to imagine, this is perhaps +<a id='Page_43'></a>the most common and in many ways commendable: +the fact that the normal British subject begins by +being so very British. By accident I did not. The +tradition I heard in my youth, the simple, the too +simple truths inherited from Priestly and Martineau, +had in them something of that grand generalisation +upon men as men which, in the first of those +great figures, faced the howling Jingoism of the +French Wars and defied even the legend of Trafalgar. +It is to that tradition that I owe the fact, +whether it be an advantage or a disadvantage, that +I cannot worthily analyse the very heroic virtues +of a Plymouth Brother whose only centre is Plymouth. +For that rationalism, defective as it was, +began long ago in the same central civilisation in +which the Church herself began; if it has ended in +the Church it began long ago in the Republic: in +a world where all these flags and frontiers were +unknown; where all these state establishments and +national sects were unthinkable; a vast cosmopolitan +cosmos that had never heard the name of England, +or conceived the image of a kingdom separate +and at war; in that vast pagan peace which was +the matrix of all these mysteries, which had forgotten +the free cities and had not dreamed of the +small nationalities; which knew only humanity, +the <i><span lang="la">humanum genus</span></i>, and the name of Rome.</p> + +<p class='c010'>The Catholic Church loves nations as she loves +men; because they are her children. But they certainly +are her children, in the sense that they are +secondary to her in time and process of production. +<a id='Page_44'></a>This is, as it happens, a very good example of a +fallacy that often confuses discussion about the +convert. The same people who call the convert +a pervert, and especially a traitor to patriotism, +very often use the other catchword to +the effect that he is forced to believe this +or that. But it is not really a question of what +a man is made to believe but of what he must believe; +what he cannot help believing. He cannot +disbelieve in an elephant when he has seen one; +and he cannot treat the Church as a child when he +has discovered that she is his mother. She is not +only his mother but his country’s mother in being +much older and more aboriginal than his country. +She is such a mother not in sentimental feeling but +in historical fact. He cannot think one thing when +he knows the contrary thing. He cannot think +that Christianity was invented by Penda of Mercia, +who sent missionaries to the heathen Augustine +and the rude and barbarous Gregory. He cannot +think that the Church first rose in the middle of +the British Empire, and not of the Roman Empire. +He cannot think that England existed, with cricket +and fox-hunting and the Jacobean translation all +complete, when Rome was founded or when Christ +was born. It is no good talking about his being +“free” to believe these things. He is exactly as +free to believe them as he is to believe that a horse +has feathers or that the sun is pea green. He cannot +believe them when once he fully realises them; and +among such things is the notion that the national +<a id='Page_45'></a>claim upon a good patriot is in its nature more +absolute, ancient and authoritative than the claim +of the whole religious culture which first mapped +out its territories and anointed its kings. That +religious culture does indeed encourage him to fight +to the last for his country, as for his family. But +that is because the religious culture is generous and +imaginative and humane and knows that men must +have intimate and individual ties. But those secondary +loyalties are secondary in time and logic to the +law of universal morality which justifies them. +And if the patriot is such a fool as to force the +issue against that universal tradition from which +his own patriotism descends, if he presses his claim +to priority over the primitive law of the whole +earth—then he will have brought it on himself +if he is answered with the pulverising plainness of +the Book of Job. As God said to the man, “Where +were you when the foundations of the world were +laid?” We might well say to the nation, “Where +were you when the foundations of the Church were +laid?” And the nation will not know in the least +what to answer—if it should wish to answer—but +will be forced to put its hand upon its mouth, +if only like one who yawns and falls asleep.</p> + +<p class='c010'>I have taken this particular case of patriotism +because it concerns at least an emotion in which I +profoundly believe and happen to feel strongly. +I have always done my best to defend it; though +I have sometimes become suspect by sympathising +with other people’s patriotism besides my own. +<a id='Page_46'></a>But I cannot see how it can be defended except as +part of a larger morality; and the Catholic morality +happens to be one of the very few large moralities +now ready to defend it. But the Church defends +it as one of the duties of men and not as the +whole duty of man; as it was in the Prussian theory +of the State and too often in the British theory of +the Empire. And for this the Catholic rests, exactly +as the Universalist Unitarian rested, upon +the actual fact of a human unity anterior to all +these healthy and natural human divisions. But +it is absurd to treat the Church as a novel conspiracy +attacking the State, when the State was only +recently a novel experiment arising within the +Church. It is absurd to forget that the Church +itself received the first loyalties of men who had not +yet even conceived the notion of founding such a +national and separate state; that the Faith really was +not only the faith of our fathers, but the faith of +our fathers before they had even named our fatherland.</p> +<div class='pbb'> + <hr class='pb c000'> +</div> + +<div class='nf-center-c0'> +<div class='nf-center c000'> + <div><a id='Page_47'></a><span class='c014'>THE REAL OBSTACLES</span></div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='pbb'> + <hr class='pb c000'> +</div> + +<div> + <a id='Page_49'></a> + <h2 class='c008'>CHAPTER III<br> <br>THE REAL OBSTACLES</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c009'>In the last chapter I have dealt in a preliminary +fashion with the Protestant case in the conventional +controversial sense. I have dealt with the objections +which I suspected very early of being prejudices +and which I now know to be prejudices. I have +dealt last and at the greatest length with what I +believe to be the noblest of all the prejudices of +Protestantism: that which is simply founded on +patriotism. I do not think patriotism is necessarily +prejudice; but I am quite sure it must be prejudice +and nothing else but prejudice, unless it is covered +by some common morality. And a patriotism that +does not allow other people to be patriots is not a +morality but an immorality. Even such a tribal +prejudice, however, is a more respectable thing than +most of the rags and tatters of stale slander and +muddleheadedness which I am obliged to put first as +the official policy of the opposition to the Church. +These stale stories seem to count for a great deal +with people who are resolved to keep far away +from the Church. I do not believe they ever +counted with anybody who had begun to draw +near to it. When a man really sees the Church, +even if he dislikes what he sees, he does not see +what he had expected to dislike. Even if he wants +<a id='Page_50'></a>to slay it he is no longer able to slander it; though +he hates it at sight, what he sees is not what he +looked to see; in that place he may gain a new +passion but he loses his old prejudice. There drops +from him the holy armour of his invincible ignorance; +he can never be so stupid again. If he has a +ready mind he can doubtless set his new reasons in +some sort of order and even attempt to link them +with his lost tradition. But the thing he hates is +there; and the last chapter was wholly devoted to +the study of things that are not there.</p> + +<p class='c010'>The real reasons are almost the opposite of the +recognised reasons. The real difficulties are almost +the opposite of the recognised difficulties. This is +connected, of course, with a general fact, now so +large and obvious but still not clearly comprehended +and confessed. The whole case of Protestantism +against Catholicism has been turned clean round +and is facing the contrary way. On practically +every single point on which the Reformation accused +the Church, the modern world has not only +acquitted the Church of the crime, but has actually +charged it with the opposite crime. It is as if the +reformers had mobbed the Pope for being a miser, +and then the court had not only acquitted him but +had censured him for his extravagance in scattering +money among the mob. The principle of modern +Protestantism seems to be that so long as we go on +shouting “To hell with the Pope” there is room +for the widest differences of opinion about whether +he should go to the hell of the misers or the hell +<a id='Page_51'></a>of the spendthrifts. This is what is meant by a +broad basis for Christianity and the statement that +there is room for many different opinions side by +side. When the reformer says that the principles +of the Reformation give freedom to different points +of view, he means that they give freedom to the +Universalist to curse Rome for having too much +predestination and to the Calvinist to curse her for +having too little. He means that in that happy +family there is a place for the No Popery man who +finds Purgatory too tender-hearted and also for the +other No Popery man who finds Hell too harsh. +He means that the same description can somehow +be made to cover the Tolstoyan who blames priests +because they permit patriotism and the Diehard +who blames priests because they represent Internationalism. +After all, the essential aim of true +Christianity is that priests should be blamed; and +who are we that we should set narrow dogmatic +limits to the various ways in which various temperaments +may desire to blame them? Why should +we allow a cold difficulty of the logician, technically +called a contradiction in terms, to stand between +us and the warm and broadening human brotherhood +of all who are full of sincere and unaffected +dislike of their neighbours? Religion is of the +heart, not of the head; and as long as all our hearts +are full of a hatred for everything that our fathers +loved, we can go on flatly contradicting each other +for ever about what there is to be hated.</p> + +<p class='c010'>Such is the larger and more liberal modern attack +<a id='Page_52'></a>upon the Church. It is quite inconsistent with +the old doctrinal attack; but it does not propose +to lose the advantages arising from any sort of attack. +But in a somewhat analogous fashion, it +will be found that the real difficulties of a modern +convert are almost the direct contrary of those +which were alleged by the more ancient Protestants. +Protestant pamphlets do not touch even remotely +any of the real hesitations that he feels; and even +Catholic pamphlets have often been concerned too +much with answering the Protestant pamphlets. +Indeed, the only sense in which the priests and +propagandists of Catholicism can really be said to +be behind the times is that they sometimes go on +flogging a dead horse and killing a heresy long after +it has killed itself. But even that is, properly understood, +a fault on the side of chivalry. The +preacher, and even the persecutor, really takes the +heresy more seriously than it is seen ultimately to +deserve; the inquisitor has more respect for the +heresy than the heretics have. Still, it is true that +the grounds of suspicion or fear that do really fill +the convert, and sometimes paralyse him at the very +point of conversion, have really nothing in the +world to do with this old crop of crude slanders +and fallacies, and are often the very inversion of +them.</p> + +<p class='c010'>The short way of putting it is to say that he is +no longer afraid of the vices but very much afraid +of the virtues of Catholicism. For instance, he has +forgotten all about the old nonsense of the cunning +<a id='Page_53'></a>lies of the confessional, in his lively and legitimate +alarm of the truthfulness of the confessional. He +does not recoil from its insincerity but from its +sincerity; nor is he necessarily insincere in doing so. +Realism is really a rock of offence; it is not at all +unnatural to shrink from it; and most modern +realists only manage to like it because they are careful +to be realistic about other people. He is near +enough to the sacrament of penance to have discovered +its realism and not near enough to have +yet discovered its reasonableness and its common +sense. Most of those who have gone through this +experience have a certain right to say, like the old +soldier to his ignorant comrade, “Yes, I was afraid; +and if you were half as much afraid, you would +run away.” Perhaps it is just as well that people +go through this stage before discovering how very +little there is to be afraid of. In any case, I will +say little more of that example here, having a feeling +that absolution, like death and marriage, is a +thing that a man ought to find out for himself. +It will be enough to say that this is perhaps the +supreme example of the fact that the Faith is a +paradox that measures more within than without. +If that be true of the smallest church, it is truer +still of the yet smaller confessional-box, that is like +a church within a church. It is almost a good thing +that nobody outside should know what gigantic +generosity, and even geniality, can be locked up in +a box, as the legendary casket held the heart of the +giant. It is a satisfaction, and almost a joke, that +<a id='Page_54'></a>it is only in a dark corner and a cramped space +that any man can discover that mountain of +magnanimity.</p> + +<p class='c010'>It is the same with all the other points of attack, +especially the old ones. The man who has come so +far as that along the road has long left behind him +the notion that the priest will force him to abandon +his will. But he is not unreasonably dismayed at +the extent to which he may have to use his will. +He is not frightened because, after taking this drug, +he will be henceforward irresponsible. But he is +very much frightened because he will be responsible. +He will have somebody to be responsible to and he +will know what he is responsible for; two uncomfortable +conditions which his more fortunate fellow-creatures +have nowadays entirely escaped. +There are of course many other examples of the +same principle: that there is indeed an interval of +acute doubt, which is, strictly speaking, rather fear +than doubt, since in some cases at least (as I shall +point out elsewhere) there is actually least doubt +when there is most fear.</p> + +<p class='c010'>But anyhow, the doubts are hardly ever of the +sort suggested by ordinary anti-Catholic propaganda; +and it is surely time that such propagandists +brought themselves more in touch with the real +problem. The Catholic is scarcely ever frightened +of the Protestant picture of Catholicism; but he is +sometimes frightened of the Catholic picture of +Catholicism; which may be a good reason for not +disproportionately stressing the difficult or puzzling +<a id='Page_55'></a>parts of the scheme. For the convert’s sake, it +should also be remembered that one foolish word +from inside does more harm than a hundred thousand +foolish words from outside. The latter he has +already learned to expect, like a blind hail or rain +beating upon the Ark; but the voices from within, +even the most casual and accidental, he is already +prepared to regard as holy or more than human; +and though this is unfair to people who only profess +to be human beings, it is a fact that Catholics +ought to remember. There is many a convert who +has reached a stage at which no word from any +Protestant or pagan could any longer hold him +back. Only the word of a Catholic can keep him +from Catholicism.</p> + +<p class='c010'>It is quite false, in my experience, to say that +Jesuits, or any other Roman priests, pester and +persecute people in order to proselytise. Nobody +has any notion of what the whole story is about, +who does not know that, through those long and +dark and indecisive days, it is the man who persecutes +himself. The apparent inaction of the priest +may be something like the statuesque stillness of +the angler; and such an attitude is not unnatural +in the functions of a fisher of men. But it is very +seldom impatient or premature and the person acted +upon is quite lonely enough to realise that it is +nothing merely external that is tugging at his liberty. +The laity are probably less wise; for in most +communions the ecclesiastical layman is more ecclesiastical +than is good for his health, and certainly +<a id='Page_56'></a>much more ecclesiastical than the ecclesiastics. My +experience is that the amateur is generally much +more angry than the professional; and if he expresses +his irritation at the slow process of conversion, +or the inconsistencies of the intermediate condition, +he may do a great deal of harm, of the kind +that he least intends to do. I know in my own +case that I always experienced a slight setback +whenever some irresponsible individual interposed +to urge me on. It is worth while, for practical +reasons, to testify to such experience, because it may +guide the convert when he in his turn begins converting. +Our enemies no longer really know how +to attack the faith; but that is no reason why we +should not know how to defend it.</p> + +<p class='c010'>Yet even that one trivial or incidental caution +carries with it a reminder of what has been already +noted: I mean the fact that whatever be the Catholic’s +worries, they are the very contrary of the Protestant’s +warnings. Merely as a matter of personal +experience, I have been led to note here that it is not +generally the priest, but much more often the layman, +who rather too ostentatiously compasses sea +and land to make one proselyte. All the creepy +and uncanny whispers about the horror of having +the priest in the home, as if he were a sort of vampire +or a monster intrinsically different from mankind, +vanishes with the smallest experience of the +militant layman. The priest does his job, but it is +much more his secular co-religionist who is disposed +to explain it and talk about it. I do not +<a id='Page_57'></a>object to laymen proselytising; for I never could +see, even when I was practically a pagan, why a +man should not urge his own opinions if he liked +and that opinion as much as any other. I am not +likely to complain of the evangelising energy of +Mr. Hilaire Belloc or Mr. Eric Gill; if only because +I owe to it the most intelligent talks of my youth. +But it is that sort of man who proselytises in that +sort of way; and the conventional caricature is +wrong again when it always represents him in a +cassock. Catholicism is not spread by any particular +professional tricks or tones or secret signs or +ceremonies. Catholicism is spread by Catholics; +but not certainly, in private life at least, merely by +Catholic priests. I merely give this here out of a +hundred examples, as showing once again that the +old traditional version of the terrors of Popery was +almost always wrong, even where it might possibly +have been right. A man may say if he likes that +Catholicism is the enemy; and he may be stating +from his point of view a profound spiritual truth. +But if he says that Clericalism is the enemy, he is +repeating a catchword.</p> + +<p class='c010'>It is my experience that the convert commonly +passes through three stages or states of mind. The +first is when he imagines himself to be entirely detached, +or even to be entirely indifferent, but in the +old sense of the term, as when the Prayer Book +talks of judges who will truly and indifferently +administer justice. Some flippant modern person +would probably agree that our judges administer +<a id='Page_58'></a>justice very indifferently. But the older meaning +was legitimate and even logical and it is that which +is applicable here. The first phase is that of the +young philosopher who feels that he ought to be +fair to the Church of Rome. He wishes to do it justice; +but chiefly because he sees that it suffers injustice. +I remember that when I was first on the <i>Daily +News</i>, the great Liberal organ of the Nonconformists, +I took the trouble to draw up a list of fifteen +falsehoods which I found out, by my own personal +knowledge, in a denunciation of Rome by Messrs. +Horton and Hocking. I noted, for instance, that +it was nonsense to say that the Covenanters fought +for religious liberty when the Covenant denounced +religious toleration; that it was false to say the +Church only asked for orthodoxy and was indifferent +to morality, since, if this was true of anybody, +it was obviously true of the supporters of salvation +by faith and not of salvation by works; that it +was absurd to say that Catholics introduced a horrible +sophistry of saying that a man might sometimes +tell a lie, since every sane man knows he +would tell a lie to save a child from Chinese torturers; +that it missed the whole point, in this connection, +to quote Ward’s phrase, “Make up your +mind that you are justified in lying and then lie +like a trooper,” for Ward’s argument was against +equivocation or what people call Jesuitry. He +meant, “When the child really is hiding in the cupboard +and the Chinese torturers really are chasing +him with red-hot pincers, then (and then only) +<a id='Page_59'></a>be sure that you are right to deceive and do not +hesitate to lie; but do not stoop to equivocate. Do +not bother yourself to say, “The child is in a +wooden house not far from here,” meaning the +cupboard; but say the child is in Chiswick or Chimbora +zoo, or anywhere you choose.” I find I made +elaborate notes of all these arguments all that long +time ago, merely for the logical pleasure of disentangling +an intellectual injustice. I had no more +idea of becoming a Catholic than of becoming a +cannibal. I imagined that I was merely pointing +out that justice should be done even to cannibals. +I imagined that I was noting certain fallacies partly +for the fun of the thing and partly for a certain +feeling of loyalty to the truth of things. But as +a matter of fact, looking back on these notes (which +I never published), it seems to me that I took a +tremendous amount of trouble about it if I really regarded +it as a trifle; and taking trouble has certainly +never been a particular weakness of mine. It seems +to me that something was already working subconsciously +to keep me more interested in fallacies about +this particular topic than in fallacies about Free +Trade or Female Suffrage or the House of Lords. +Anyhow, that is the first stage in my own case and +I think in many other cases; the stage of simply +wishing to protect Papists from slander and oppression, +not (consciously at least) because they +hold any particular truth, but because they suffer +from a particular accumulation of falsehood. The +second stage is that in which the convert begins to +<a id='Page_60'></a>be conscious not only of the falsehood but the truth, +and is enormously excited to find that there is far +more of it than he would ever have expected. This +is not so much a stage as a progress; and it goes on +pretty rapidly but often for a long time. It consists +in discovering what a very large number of +lively and interesting ideas there are in the Catholic +philosophy, that a great many of them commend +themselves at once to his sympathies, and +that even those which he would not accept have +something to be said for them justifying their acceptance. +This process, which may be called discovering +the Catholic Church, is perhaps the most +pleasant and straightforward part of the business; +easier than joining the Catholic Church and much +easier than trying to live the Catholic life. It is +like discovering a new continent full of strange +flowers and fantastic animals, which is at once wild +and hospitable. To give anything like a full account +of that process would simply be to discuss +about half a hundred Catholic ideas and institutions +in turn. I might remark that much of it consists +of the act of translation; of discovering the +real meaning of words, which the Church uses +rightly and the world uses wrongly. For instance, +the convert discovers that “scandal” does not mean +“gossip”; and the sin of causing it does not mean +that it is always wicked to set silly old women +wagging their tongues. Scandal means scandal, +what it originally meant in Greek and Latin; the +tripping up of somebody else when he is trying to +<a id='Page_61'></a>be good. Or he will discover that phrases like +“counsel of perfection” or “venial sin,” which mean +nothing at all in the newspapers, mean something +quite intelligent and interesting in the manuals of +moral theology. He begins to realise that it is the +secular world that spoils the sense of words; and +he catches an exciting glimpse of the real case for +the iron immortality of the Latin Mass. It is not +a question between a dead language and a living +language, in the sense of an everlasting language. +It is a question between a dead language and a dying +language; an inevitably degenerating language. It +is these numberless glimpses of great ideas, that have +been hidden from the convert by the prejudices of +his provincial culture, that constitute the adventurous +and varied second stage of the conversion. It +is, broadly speaking, the stage in which the man is +unconsciously trying to be converted. And the +third stage is perhaps the truest and the most terrible. +It is that in which the man is trying not to +be converted.</p> + +<p class='c010'>He has come too near to the truth, and has forgotten +that truth is a magnet, with the powers of +attraction and repulsion. He is filled with a sort +of fear, which makes him feel like a fool who has +been patronising “Popery” when he ought to have +been awakening to the reality of Rome. He discovers +a strange and alarming fact, which is perhaps +implied in Newman’s interesting lecture on +Blanco White and the two ways of attacking Catholicism. +Anyhow, it is a truth that Newman and +<a id='Page_62'></a>every other convert has probably found in one +form or another. It is impossible to be just to the +Catholic Church. The moment men cease to pull +against it they feel a tug towards it. The moment +they cease to shout it down they begin to listen to +it with pleasure. The moment they try to be fair +to it they begin to be fond of it. But when that +affection has passed a certain point it begins to take +on the tragic and menacing grandeur of a great love +affair. The man has exactly the same sense of +having committed or compromised himself; of +having been in a sense entrapped, even if he is glad +to be entrapped. But for a considerable time he +is not so much glad as simply terrified. It may be +that this real psychological experience has been misunderstood +by stupider people and is responsible +for all that remains of the legend that Rome is a +mere trap. But that legend misses the whole point +of the psychology. It is not the Pope who has set +the trap or the priests who have baited it. The +whole point of the position is that the trap is simply +the truth. The whole point is that the man himself +has made his way towards the trap of truth, +and not the trap that has run after the man. All +steps except the last step he has taken eagerly on +his own account, out of interest in the truth; and +even the last step, or the last stage, only alarms him +because it is so very true. If I may refer once more +to a personal experience, I may say that I for one +was never less troubled by doubts than in the last +phase, when I was troubled by fears. Before that +<a id='Page_63'></a>final delay I had been detached and ready to regard +all sorts of doctrines with an open mind. Since +that delay has ended in decision, I have had all +sorts of changes in mere mood; and I think I sympathise +with doubts and difficulties more than I did +before. But I had no doubts or difficulties just +before. I had only fears; fears of something that +had the finality and simplicity of suicide. But the +more I thrust the thing into the back of my mind, +the more certain I grew of what Thing it was. And +by a paradox that does not frighten me now in the +least, it may be that I shall never again have such +absolute assurance that the thing is true as I had +when I made my last effort to deny it.</p> + +<p class='c010'>There is a postscript or smaller point to be added +here to this paradox; which I know that many will +misunderstand. Becoming a Catholic broadens the +mind. It especially broadens the mind about the +reasons for becoming a Catholic. Standing in the +centre where all roads meet, a man can look down +each of the roads in turn and realise that they come +from all points of the heavens. As long as he is +still marching along his own road, that is the only +road that can be seen, or sometimes even imagined. +For instance, many a man who is not yet a Catholic +calls himself a Mediævalist. But a man who is +only a Mediævalist is very much broadened by becoming +a Catholic. I am myself a Mediævalist, in +the sense that I think modern life has a great deal +to learn from mediæval life; that Guilds are a better +social system than Capitalism; that friars are +<a id='Page_64'></a>far less offensive than philanthropists. But I am a +much more reasonable and moderate Mediævalist +than I was when I was only a Mediævalist. For +instance, I felt it necessary to be perpetually pitting +Gothic architecture against Greek architecture, because +it was necessary to back up Christians against +pagans. But now I am in no such fuss and I know +what Coventry Patmore meant when he said calmly +that it would have been quite as Catholic to +decorate his mantelpiece with the Venus of Milo as +with the Virgin. As a Mediævalist I am still +proudest of the Gothic; but as a Catholic I am +proud of the Baroque. That intensity which seems +almost narrow because it comes to the point, like a +mediæval window, is very representative of that +last concentration that comes just before conversion. +At the last moment of all, the convert often feels +as if he were looking through a leper’s window. +He is looking through a little crack or crooked hole +that seems to grow smaller as he stares at it; but it +is an opening that looks towards the Altar. Only, +when he has entered the Church, he finds that the +Church is much larger inside than it is outside. He +has left behind him the lop-sidedness of lepers’ windows +and even in a sense the narrowness of Gothic +doors; and he is under vast domes as open as the +Renaissance and as universal as the Republic of the +world. He can say in a sense unknown to all +modern men certain ancient and serene words: +<i><span lang="la">Romanus civis sum</span></i>; I am not a slave.</p> + +<p class='c010'>The point for the moment, however, is that +<a id='Page_65'></a>there is generally an interval of intense nervousness, +to say the least of it, before this normal heritage +is reached. To a certain extent it is a fear which +attaches to all sharp and irrevocable decisions; it +is suggested in all the old jokes about the shakiness +of the bridegroom at the wedding or the recruit +who takes the shilling and gets drunk partly to +celebrate, but partly also to forget it. But it is the +fear of a fuller sacrament and a mightier army. He +has, by the nature of the case, left a long way behind +him the mere clumsy idea that the sacrament +will poison him or the army will kill him. He has +probably passed the point, though he does generally +pass it at some time, when he wonders whether the +whole business is an extraordinarily intelligent and +ingenious confidence trick. He is not now in the +condition which may be called the last phase of real +doubt. I mean that in which he wondered whether +the thing that everybody told him was too bad to +be tolerable, is not too good to be true. Here again +the recurrent principle is present; and the obstacle +is the very opposite of that which Protestant propaganda +has pointed out. If he still has the notion +of being trapped, he has no longer any notion of +being tricked. He is not afraid of finding the +Church out, but rather of the Church finding him +out.</p> + +<p class='c010'>This note on the stages of conversion is necessarily +very negative and inadequate. There is in +the last second of time or hair’s breadth of space, +before the iron leaps to the magnet, an abyss full +<a id='Page_66'></a>of all the unfathomable forces of the universe. The +space between doing and not doing such a thing +is so tiny and so vast. It is only possible here to +give the reasons for Catholicism, not the cause of +Catholicism. I have tried to suggest here some of +the enlightenments and experiences which gradually +teach those who have been taught to think ill +of the Church to begin to think well of her. That +anything described as so bad should turn out to be +so good is itself a rather arresting process having a +savour of something sensational and strange. To +come to curse and remain to bless, to come to scoff +and remain to pray, is always welcome in a spirit +of wonder and the glow of an unexpected good.</p> + +<p class='c010'>But it is one thing to conclude that Catholicism +is good and another to conclude that it is right. It +is one thing to conclude that it is right and another +to conclude that it is always right. I had never +believed the tradition that it was diabolical; I had +soon come to doubt the idea that it was inhuman, +but that would only have left me with the obvious +inference that it was human. It is a considerable +step from that to the inference that it is divine. +When we come to that conviction of divine authority, +we come to the more mysterious matter of +divine aid. In other words, we come to the unfathomable +idea of grace and the gift of faith; and I +have not the smallest intention of attempting to +fathom it. It is a theological question of the utmost +complexity; and it is one thing to feel it as +a fact and another to define it as a truth. One or +<a id='Page_67'></a>two points about the preliminary dispositions that +prepare the mind for it are all that need be indicated +here. To begin with, there is one sense in +which the blackest bigots are really the best philosophers. +The Church really is like Antichrist in +the sense that it is as unique as Christ. Indeed, if +it be not Christ it probably is Antichrist; but certainly +it is not Moses or Mahomet or Buddha or +Plato or Pythagoras. The more we see of humanity, +the more we sympathise with humanity, the +more we shall see that when it is simply human it +is simply heathen; and the names of its particular +local gods or tribal prophets or highly respectable +sages are a secondary matter compared with that +human and heathen character. In the old paganism +of Europe, in the existing paganism of Asia, +there have been gods and priests and prophets and +sages of all sorts; but not another institution of +this sort. The pagan cults die very slowly; they +do not return very rapidly. They do not make +the sort of claim that is made at a crisis; and then +make the same claim again and again at crisis after +crisis throughout the whole history of the earth. +All that people fear in the Church, all that they +hate in her, all against which they most harden +their hearts and sometimes (one is tempted to say) +thicken their heads, all that has made people +consciously and unconsciously treat the Catholic +Church as a <i>peril</i>, is the evidence that there is something +here that we cannot look on at languidly and +with detachment, as we might look on at Hottentots +<a id='Page_68'></a>dancing at the new moon or Chinamen burning +paper in porcelain temples. The Chinaman and +the tourist can be on the best of terms on a basis of +mutual scorn. But in the duel of the Church and +the world is no such shield of contempt. The +Church will not consent to scorn the soul of a +coolie or even a tourist; and the measure of the +madness with which men hate her is but their vain +attempt to despise.</p> + +<p class='c010'>Another element, far more deep and delicate and +hard to describe, is the immediate connection of +what is most awful and archaic with what is most +intimate and individual. It is a miracle in itself +that anything so huge and historic in date and design +should be so fresh in the affections. It is as +if a man found his own parlour and fireside in the +heart of the Great Pyramid. It is as if a child’s +favourite doll turned out to be the oldest sacred +image in the world, worshipped in Chaldea or +Nineveh. It is as if a girl to whom a man made +love in a garden were also, in some dark and double +fashion, a statue standing for ever in a square. It +is just here that all those things which were regarded +as weakness come in as the fulness of strength. +Everything that men called sentimental in Roman +Catholic religion, its keepsakes, its small flowers +and almost tawdry trinkets, its figures with merciful +gestures and gentle eyes, its avowedly popular +pathos and all that Matthew Arnold meant by +Christianity with its “relieving tears”—all this is +a sign of sensitive and vivid vitality in anything +<a id='Page_69'></a>so vast and settled and systematic. There is nothing +quite like this warmth, as in the warmth of +Christmas, amid ancient hills hoary with such +snows of antiquity. It can address even God Almighty +with diminutives. In all its varied vestments +it wears its Sacred Heart upon its sleeve. But +to those who know that it is full of these lively +affections, like little leaping flames, there is something +of almost ironic satisfaction in the stark and +primitive size of the thing, like some prehistoric +monster; in its spires and mitres like the horns of +giant herds or its colossal cornerstones like the four +feet of an elephant. It would be easy to write a +merely artistic study of the strange externals of the +Roman religion, which should make it seem as +uncouth and unearthly as Aztec or African religion. +It would be easy to talk of it as if it were really +some sort of mammoth or monster elephant, older +than the Ice Age, towering over the Stone Age; +his very lines traced, it would seem, in the earthquakes +or landslides of some older creation, his very +organs and outer texture akin to unrecorded patterns +of vegetation and air and light—the last residuum +of a lost world. But the prehistoric monster +is in the Zoölogical Gardens and not in the +Natural History Museum. The extinct animal is +still alive. And anything outlandish and unfamiliar +in its form accentuates the startling naturalness +and familiarity of its mind, as if the Sphinx +began suddenly to talk of the topics of the hour. +<a id='Page_70'></a>The super-elephant is not only a tame animal but +a pet; and a young child shall lead him.</p> + +<p class='c010'>This antithesis between all that is formidable +and remote and all that is personally relevant and +realistically tender is another of those converging +impressions which meet in the moment of conviction. +But of all these things, that come nearest to +the actual transition of the gift of faith, it is far +harder to write than of the rationalistic and historical +preliminaries of the enquiry. It is only with +those preliminary dispositions towards the truth +that I claim to deal here. In the chapters that follow +I propose to touch upon two of the larger considerations +of this class, not because they are in +themselves any larger than many other immense +aspects of so mighty a theme, but because they +happen to balance each other and form a sort of +antithesis very typical of all Catholic truth. In +the first of the two chapters I shall try to point out +how it is that when we praise the Church for her +greatness we do not merely mean her largeness but, +in a rather notable and unique sense, her universality. +We mean her power of being cosmos and containing +other things. And in the second chapter I +shall point out what may seem to disturb this +truth but really balances it. I mean the fact that +we value the Church because she is a Church Militant; +and sometimes even because she militates +against ourselves. She is something more than the +cosmos, in the sense of completed nature or completed +human nature. She proves that she is something +<a id='Page_71'></a>more by sometimes being right where they +are wrong. These two aspects must be considered +separately, though they come together to form the +full conviction that comes just before conversion. +But in this chapter I have merely noted down a +few points or stages of the conversion considered +as a practical process; and especially those three +stages of it through which many a Protestant or +Agnostic must have passed. Many a man, looking +back cheerfully on them now, will not be annoyed +if I call the first, patronising the Church; and the +second, discovering the Church; and the third, running +away from the Church. When those three +phases are over, a larger truth begins to come into +sight; it is much too large to describe and we will +proceed to describe it.</p> + +<div class='pbb'> + <hr class='pb c000'> +</div> + +<div class='nf-center-c0'> +<div class='nf-center c000'> + <div><a id='Page_73'></a><span class='c014'>THE WORLD INSIDE OUT</span></div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='pbb'> + <hr class='pb c000'> +</div> + +<div> + <a id='Page_75'></a> + <h2 class='c008'>CHAPTER IV<br> <br>THE WORLD INSIDE OUT</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c009'>The first fallacy about the Catholic Church is +the idea that it is a church. I mean that it is a +church in the sense in which the Nonconformist +newspapers talk about The Churches. I do not +intend any expression of contempt about The +Churches; nor is it an expression of contempt to +say that it would be more convenient to call them +the sects. This is true in a much deeper and more +sympathetic sense than may at first appear; but to +begin with, it is certainly true in a perfectly plain +and historical sense, which has nothing to do with +sympathy at all. Thus, for instance, I have much +more sympathy for small nationalities than I have +for small sects. But it is simply a historical fact +that the Roman Empire was the Empire and that +it was not a small nationality. And it is simply +a historical fact that the Roman Church is the +Church and is not a sect. Nor is there anything +narrow or unreasonable in saying that the Church +is the Church. It may be a good thing that the +Roman Empire broke up into nations; but it certainly +was not one of the nations into which it +broke up. And even a person who thinks it fortunate +that the Church broke up into sects ought +to be able to distinguish between the little things +<a id='Page_76'></a>he likes and the big thing he has broken. As a +matter of fact, in the case of things so large, so +unique and so creative of the culture about them +as were the Roman Empire and the Roman Church, +it is not controversial but simply correct to confine +the one word to the one example. Everybody who +originally used the word “Empire” used it of that +Empire; everybody who used the word “Ecclesia” +used it of that Ecclesia. There may have been +similar things in other places, but they could not +be called by the same name for the simple reason +that they were not named in the same language. +We know what we mean by a Roman Emperor; +we can if we like talk of a Chinese Emperor, just +as we can if we like take a particular sort of a Mandarin +and say he is equivalent to a Marquis. But +we never can be certain that he is exactly equivalent; +for the thing we are thinking about is peculiar +to our own history and in that sense stands +alone. Now in that, if in no other sense, the Catholic +Church stands alone. It does not merely belong +to a class of Christian churches. It does not +merely belong to a class of human religions. Considered +quite coldly and impartially, as by a man +from the moon, it is much more <i><span lang="la">sui generis</span></i> than +that. It is, if the critic chooses to think so, the +ruin of an attempt at a Universal Religion which +was bound to fail. But calling the wreckers to +break up a ship does not turn the ship into one of +its own timbers; and cutting Poland up into three +pieces does not make Poland the same as Posen.</p> + +<p class='c010'><a id='Page_77'></a>But in a much more profound and philosophical +sense this notion that the Church is one of the +sects is the great fallacy of the whole affair. It is +a matter more psychological and more difficult to +describe. But it is perhaps the most sensational of +the silent upheavals or reversals in the mind that +constitute the revolution called conversion. Every +man conceives himself as moving about in a cosmos +of some kind; and the man of the days of my youth +walked about in a kind of vast and airy Crystal +Palace in which there were exhibits set side by side. +The cosmos, being made of glass and iron, was +partly transparent and partly colourless; anyhow, +there was something negative about it; arching +over all our heads, a roof as remote as a sky, it +seemed to be impartial and impersonal. Our attention +was fixed on the exhibits, which were all +carefully ticketed and arranged in rows; for it was +the age of science. Here stood all the religions in +a row—the churches or sects or whatever we called +them; and towards the end of the row there was a +particularly dingy and dismal one, with a pointed +roof half fallen in and pointed windows most +broken with stones by passers-by; and we were +told that this particular exhibit was the Roman +Catholic Church. Some of us were sorry for it +and even fancied it had been rather badly used; +most of us regarded it as dirty and disreputable; a +few of us even pointed out that many details in +the ruin were artistically beautiful or architecturally +important. But most people preferred to deal +<a id='Page_78'></a>at other and more business-like booths; at the +Quaker shop of Peace and Plenty or the Salvation +Army store where the showman beats the big drum +outside. Now conversion consists very largely, on +its intellectual side, in the discovery that all that +picture of equal creeds inside an indifferent cosmos +is quite false. It is not a question of comparing +the merits and defects of the Quaker meeting-house +set beside the Catholic cathedral. It is the Quaker +meeting-house that is inside the Catholic cathedral; +it is the Catholic cathedral that covers everything +like the vault of the Crystal Palace; and it is when +we look up at the vast distant dome covering all +the exhibits that we trace the Gothic roof and the +pointed windows. In other words, Quakerism is +but a temporary form of Quietism which has arisen +technically outside the Church as the Quietism of +Fenelon appeared technically inside the Church. +But both were in themselves temporary and would +have, like Fenelon, sooner or later to return to the +Church in order to live. The principle of life in +all these variations of Protestantism, in so far as +it is not a principle of death, consists of what remained +in them of Catholic Christendom; and to +Catholic Christendom they have always returned +to be recharged with vitality. I know that this +will sound like a statement to be challenged; but +it is true. The return of Catholic ideas to the separated +parts of Christendom was often indeed indirect. +But though the influence came through +many centres, it always came from one. It came +<a id='Page_79'></a>through the Romantic Movement, a glimpse of the +mere picturesqueness of mediævalism; but it is +something more than an accident that Romances, +like Romance languages, are named after Rome. +Or it came through the instinctive reaction of old-fashioned +people like Johnson or Scott or Cobbett, +wishing to save old elements that had originally +been Catholic against a progress that was merely +Capitalist. But it led them to denounce that Capitalist +progress and become, like Cobbett, practical +foes of Protestantism without being practising followers +of Catholicism. Or it came from the Pre-Raphaelites +or the opening of continental art and +culture by Matthew Arnold and Morris and Ruskin +and the rest. But examine the actual make-up of +the mind of a good Quaker or Congregational minister +at this moment, and compare it with the mind +of such a dissenter in the Little Bethel before such +culture came. And you will see how much of his +health and happiness he owes to Ruskin and what +Ruskin owed to Giotto; to Morris and what Morris +owed to Chaucer; to fine scholars of his own school +like Philip Wicksteed, and what they owe to Dante +and St. Thomas. Such a man will still sometimes +talk of the Middle Ages as the Dark Ages. But +the Dark Ages have improved the wallpaper on his +wall and the dress on his wife and all the whole +dingy and vulgar life which he lived in the days +of Stiggins and Brother Tadger. For he also is a +Christian and lives only by the life of Christendom.</p> + +<p class='c010'>It is not easy to express this enormous inversion +<a id='Page_80'></a>which I have here tried to suggest in the image of a +world turned inside out. I mean that the thing +which had been stared at as a small something swells +out and swallows everything. Christendom is in +the literal sense a continent. We come to feel that +it contains everything, even the things in revolt +against itself. But it is perhaps the most towering +intellectual transformation of all and the one that +it is hardest to undo even for the sake of argument. +It is almost impossible even in imagination to reverse +that reversal. Another way of putting it is +to say that we have come to regard all these historical +figures as characters in Catholic history, even +if they are not Catholics. And in a certain sense, +the historical as distinct from the theological sense, +they never do cease to be Catholic. They are not +people who have really created something entirely +new, until they actually pass the border of reason +and create more or less crazy nightmares. But +nightmares do not last; and most of them even now +are in various stages of waking up. Protestants +are Catholics gone wrong; that is what is really +meant by saying they are Christians. Sometimes +they have gone very wrong; but not often have +they gone right ahead with their own particular +wrong. Thus a Calvinist is a Catholic obsessed +with the Catholic idea of the sovereignty of God. +But when he makes it mean that God wishes particular +people to be damned, we may say with all +restraint that he has become a rather morbid Catholic. +In point of fact he is a diseased Catholic; +<a id='Page_81'></a>and the disease left to itself would be death or madness. +But, as a matter of fact, the disease did not +last long, and is itself now practically dead. But +every step he takes back towards humanity is a step +back towards Catholicism. Thus a Quaker is a +Catholic obsessed with the Catholic idea of gentle +simplicity and truth. But when he made it mean +that it is a lie to say “you” and an act of idolatry +to take off your hat to a lady, it is not too much +to say that whether or not he had a hat off, he certainly +had a tile loose. But as a matter of fact he +himself found it necessary to dispense with the +eccentricity (and the hat) and to leave the straight +road that would have led him to a lunatic asylum. +Only every step he takes back towards common +sense is a step back towards Catholicism. In so +far as he was right he was a Catholic; and in so +far as he was wrong he has not himself been able +to remain a Protestant.</p> + +<p class='c010'>To us, therefore, it is henceforth impossible to +think of the Quaker as a figure at the beginning of +a new Quaker history or the Calvinist as the founder +of a new Calvinistic world. It is quite obvious +to us that they are simply characters in our own +Catholic history, only characters who caused a great +deal of trouble by trying to do something that we +could do better and that they did not really do at +all. Now some may suppose that this can be maintained +of the older sects like Calvinists and Quakers, +but cannot be maintained of modern movements +like those of Socialists or Spiritualists. But they +<a id='Page_82'></a>will be quite wrong. The covering or continental +character of the Church applies just as much to +modern manias as to the old religious manias; it +applies quite as much to Materialists or Spiritualists +as to Puritans. In all of them you find that some +Catholic dogma is, first, taken for granted; then +exaggerated into an error; and then generally reacted +against and rejected as an error, bringing the +individual in question a few steps back again on +the homeward road. And this is almost always +the mark of such a heretic; that while he will wildly +question any other Catholic dogma, he never dreams +of questioning his own favourite Catholic dogma +and does not even seem to know that it could be +questioned. It never occurred to the Calvinist that +anybody might use his liberty to deny or limit the +divine omnipotence, or to the Quaker that anyone +could question the supremacy of simplicity. That +is exactly the situation of the Socialist. Bolshevism +and every shade of any such theory of brotherhood +is based upon one unfathomably mystical +Catholic dogma; the equality of men. The Communists +stake everything on the equality of man, +as the Calvinists staked everything on the omnipotence +of God. They ride it to death as the others +rode their dogma to death, turning their horse into +a nightmare. But it never seems to occur to them +that some people do not believe in the Catholic +dogma of the mystical equality of men. Yet there +are many, even among Christians, who are so heretical +as to question it. The Socialists get into a +<a id='Page_83'></a>great tangle when they try to apply it; they compromise +with their own ideals; they modify their +own doctrine; and so find themselves, like the Quakers +and the Calvinists, after all their extreme extravagances, +a day’s march nearer Rome.</p> + +<p class='c010'>In short, the story of these sects is not one of +straight lines striking outwards and onwards, +though if it were they would all be striking in different +directions. It is a pattern of curves continually +returning into the continent and common +life of their and our civilisation; and the summary +of that civilisation and central sanity is the philosophy +of the Catholic Church. To us, Spiritualists +are men studying the existence of spirits, in a +brief and blinding oblivion of the existence of evil +spirits. They are, as it were, people just educated +enough to have heard of ghosts but not educated +enough to have heard of witches. If the evil spirits +succeed in stopping their education and stunting +their minds, they may of course go on for ever repeating +silly messages from Plato and doggerel +verses from Milton. But if they do go a step or +two further, instead of marking time on the borderland, +their next step will be to learn what the +Church could have taught. To us, Christian Scientists +are simply people with one idea, which they +have never learnt to balance and combine with all +the other ideas. That is why the wealthy business +man so often becomes a Christian Scientist. He is +not used to ideas and one idea goes to his head, like +one glass of wine to a starving man. But the Catholic +<a id='Page_84'></a>Church is used to living with ideas and walks +among all those very dangerous wild beasts with +the poise and the lifted head of a lion-tamer. The +Christian Scientist can go on monotonously repeating +his one idea and remain a Christian Scientist. +But if ever he really goes on to any other +ideas, he will be so much the nearer to being a +Catholic.</p> + +<p class='c010'>When the convert has once seen the world like +that, with one balance of ideas and a number of +other ideas that have left it and lost their balance, +he does not in fact experience any of the inconveniences +that he might reasonably have feared before +that silent but stunning revolution. He is not +worried by being told that there is something in +Spiritualism or something in Christian Science. He +knows there is something in everything. But he +is moved by the more impressive fact that he finds +everything in something. And he is quite sure that +if these investigators really are looking for everything, +and not merely looking for anything, they +will be more and more likely to look for it in the +same place. In that sense he is far less worried +about them than he was when he thought that one +or other of them might be the only person having +any sort of communication with the higher mysteries +and obviously rather capable of making a +mess of it. He is no more likely to be overawed +by the fact that Mrs. Eddy achieved spiritual healing +or Mr. Home achieved bodily levitation than +a fully dressed gentleman in Bond Street would be +<a id='Page_85'></a>overawed by the top-hat on the head of a naked +savage. A top-hat may be a good hat but it is a +bad costume. And a magnetic trick may be a sufficient +sensation but it is a very insufficient philosophy. +He is no more envious of a Bolshevist for +making a revolution than of a beaver for making a +dam; for he knows his own civilisation can make +things on a pattern not quite so simple or so monotonous. +But he believes this of his civilisation +and his religion and not merely of himself. There +is nothing supercilious about his attitude; because +he is well aware that he has only scratched the +surface of the spiritual estate that is now open to +him. In other words, the convert does not in the +least abandon investigation or even adventure. He +does not think he knows everything, nor has he +lost curiosity about the things he does not know. +But experience has taught him that he will find +nearly everything somewhere inside that estate and +that a very large number of people are finding next +to nothing outside it. For the estate is not only a +formal garden or an ordered farm; there is plenty +of hunting and fishing on it, and, as the phrase +goes, very good sport.</p> + +<p class='c010'>For this is one of the very queerest of the common +delusions about what happens to the convert. +In some muddled way people have confused the +natural remarks of converts, about having found +moral peace, with some idea of their having found +mental rest, in the sense of mental inaction. They +might as well say that a man who has completely +<a id='Page_86'></a>recovered his health, after an attack of palsy or St. +Vitus’ dance, signalises his healthy state by sitting +absolutely still like a stone. Recovering his health +means recovering his power of moving in the right +way as distinct from the wrong way; but he will +probably move a great deal more than before. To +become a Catholic is not to leave off thinking, but +to learn how to think. It is so in exactly the same +sense in which to recover from palsy is not to leave +off moving but to learn how to move. The Catholic +convert has for the first time a starting-point +for straight and strenuous thinking. He has for +the first time a way of testing the truth in any +question that he raises. As the world goes, especially +at present, it is the other people, the heathen +and the heretics, who seem to have every virtue +except the power of connected thought. There +was indeed a brief period when a small minority +did some hard thinking on the heathen or heretical +side. It barely lasted from the time of Voltaire +to the time of Huxley. It has now entirely disappeared. +What is now called free thought is valued, +not because it is free thought, but because it is freedom +from thought; because it is free thoughtlessness.</p> + +<p class='c010'>Nothing is more amusing to the convert, when +his conversion has been complete for some time, +than to hear the speculations about when or whether +he will repent of the conversion; when he will +be sick of it, how long he will stand it, at what +stage of his external exasperation he will start up +<a id='Page_87'></a>and say he can bear it no more. For all this is +founded on that optical illusion about the outside +and the inside which I have tried to sketch in this +chapter. The outsiders, stand by and see, or think +they see, the convert entering with bowed head a +sort of small temple which they are convinced is +fitted up inside like a prison, if not a torture-chamber. +But all they really know about it is that he +has passed through a door. They do not know +that he has not gone into the inner darkness, but +out into the broad daylight. It is he who is, in +the beautiful and beatific sense of the word, an outsider. +He does not want to go into a larger room, +because he does not know of any larger room to go +into. He knows of a large number of much smaller +rooms, each of which is labelled as being very large; +but he is quite sure he would be cramped in any +of them. Each of them professes to be a complete +cosmos or scheme of all things; but then so does +the cosmos of the Clapham Sect or the Clapton +Agapemone. Each of them is supposed to be domed +with the sky or painted inside with all the stars. +But each of these cosmic systems or machines seems +to him much smaller and even much simpler than +the broad and balanced universe in which he lives. +One of them is labelled Agnostic; but he knows by +experience that it has not really even the freedom +of ignorance. It is a wheel that must always go +round without a single jolt of miraculous interruption—a +circle that must not be squared by any +higher mathematics of mysticism; a machine that +<a id='Page_88'></a>must be scoured as clean of all spirits as if it +were the avowed machine of materialism. In living +in a world with two orders, the supernatural +and the natural, the convert feels he is living in a +larger world and does not feel any temptation to +crawl back into a smaller one. One of them is +labelled Theosophical or Buddhistic; but he knows +by experience that it is only the same sort of wearisome +wheel used for spiritual things instead of +material things. Living in a world where he is +free to do anything, even to go to the devil, he does +not see why he should tie himself to the wheel of +a mere destiny. One of them is labelled Humanitarian; +but he knows that such humanitarians have +really far less experience of humanity. He knows +that they are thinking almost entirely of men as +they are at this moment in modern cities, and have +nothing like the huge human interest of what began +by being preached to legionaries in Palestine and is +still being preached to peasants in China. So clear +is this perception that I have sometimes put it to +myself, as something between a melancholy meditation +and a joke. “Where <i>should</i> I go now, if I +did leave the Catholic Church?” I certainly would +not go to any of those little social sects which only +express one idea at a time, because that idea happens +to be fashionable at the moment. The best I could +hope for would be to wander away into the woods +and become, not a Pantheist (for that is also a limitation +and a bore) but rather a pagan, in the mood +to cry out that some particular mountain peak or +<a id='Page_89'></a>flowering fruit tree was sacred and a thing to be +worshipped. That at least would be beginning +all over again; but it would bring me back to the +same problem in the end. If it was reasonable to +have a sacred tree it was not unreasonable to have +a sacred crucifix; and if the god was to be found +on one peak he may as reasonably be found under +one spire. To find a new religion is sooner or later +to have found one; and why should I have been +discontented with the one I had found? Especially, +as I said in the first words of this essay, when it +is the one old religion which seems capable of remaining +new.</p> + +<p class='c010'>I know very well that if I went upon that journey +I should either despair or return; and that none +of the trees would ever be a substitute for the real +sacred tree. Paganism is better than pantheism, +for paganism is free to imagine divinities, while +pantheism is forced to pretend, in a priggish way, +that all things are equally divine. But I should +not imagine any divinity that was sufficiently divine. +I seem to know that weary return through +the woodlands; for I think in some symbolic fashion +I have walked that road before. For as I have +tried to confess here without excessive egotism, I +think I am the sort of man who came to Christ from +Pan and Dionysus and not from Luther or Laud; +that the conversion I understand is that of the pagan +and not the Puritan; and upon that antique conversion +is founded the whole world that we know. +It is a transformation far more vast and tremendous +<a id='Page_90'></a>than anything that has been meant for many years +past, at least in England and America, by a sectarian +controversy or a doctrinal division. On the +height of that ancient empire and that international +experience, humanity had a vision. It has not had +another; but only quarrels about that one. Paganism +was the largest thing in the world and Christianity +was larger; and everything else has been +comparatively small.</p> + +<div class='pbb'> + <hr class='pb c000'> +</div> + +<div class='nf-center-c0'> +<div class='nf-center c000'> + <div><a id='Page_91'></a><span class='c014'>THE EXCEPTION PROVES THE RULE</span></div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='pbb'> + <hr class='pb c000'> +</div> + +<div> + <a id='Page_93'></a> + <h2 class='c008'>CHAPTER V<br> <br>THE EXCEPTION PROVES THE RULE</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c009'>The Catholic Church is the only thing which +saves a man from the degrading slavery of being +a child of his age. I have compared it with the +New Religions; but this is exactly where it differs +from the New Religions. The New Religions are +in many ways suited to the new conditions; but +they are only suited to the new conditions. When +those conditions shall have changed in only a century +or so, the points upon which alone they insist +at present will have become almost pointless. If +the Faith has all the freshness of a new religion, it +has all the richness of an old religion; it has especially +all the reserves of an old religion. So far as +that is concerned, its antiquity is alone a great advantage, +and especially a great advantage for purposes +of renovation and youth. It is only by the +analogy of animal bodies that we suppose that old +things must be stiff. It is a mere metaphor from +bones and arteries. In an intellectual sense old +things are flexible. Above all, they are various and +have many alternatives to offer. There is a sort +of rotation of crops in religious history; and old +fields can lie fallow for a while and then be worked +again. But when the new religion or any such +notion has sown its one crop of wild oats, which +<a id='Page_94'></a>the wind generally blows away, it is barren. A +thing as old as the Catholic Church has an accumulated +armoury and treasury to choose from; it can +pick and choose among the centuries and brings +one age to the rescue of another. It can call in the +old world to redress the balance of the new.</p> + +<p class='c010'>Anyhow, the New Religions are suited to the new +world; and this is their most damning defect. Each +religion is produced by contemporary causes that +can be clearly pointed out. Socialism is a reaction +against Capitalism. Spiritualism is a reaction +against Materialism; it is also in its intensified form +merely the trail of the tragedy of the Great War. +But there is a somewhat more subtle sense in which +the very fitness of the new creeds makes them unfit; +their very acceptability makes them inacceptable. +Thus they all profess to be progressive because +the peculiar boast of their peculiar period was +progress; they claim to be democratic because our +political system still rather pathetically claims to +be democratic. They rushed to a reconciliation +with science, which was often only a premature +surrender to science. They hastily divested themselves +of anything considered dowdy or old-fashioned +in the way of vesture or symbol. They +claimed to have bright services and cheery sermons; +the churches competed with the cinemas; the +churches even became cinemas. In its more moderate +form the mood was merely one of praising natural +pleasures, such as the enjoyment of nature and +even the enjoyment of human nature. These are +<a id='Page_95'></a>excellent things and this is an excellent liberty; and +yet it has its limitations.</p> + +<p class='c010'>We do not really want a religion that is right +where we are right. What we want is a religion +that is right where we are wrong. In these current +fashions it is not really a question of the religion +allowing us liberty; but (at the best) of the liberty +allowing us a religion. These people merely take +the modern mood, with much in it that is amiable +and much that is anarchical and much that is merely +dull and obvious, and then require any creed to be +cut down to fit that mood. But the mood would +exist even without the creed. They say they want +a religion to be social, when they would be social +without any religion. They say they want a religion +to be practical, when they would be practical +without any religion. They say they want a religion +acceptable to science, when they would accept +the science even if they did not accept the religion. +They say they want a religion like this because +they are like this already. They say they want it, +when they mean that they could do without it.</p> + +<p class='c010'>It is a very different matter when a religion, in +the real sense of a binding thing, binds men to their +morality when it is not identical with their mood. +It is very different when some of the saints preached +social reconciliation to fierce and raging factions +who could hardly bear the sight of each others’ +faces. It was a very different thing when charity +was preached to pagans who really did not believe +in it; just as it is a very different thing now, when +<a id='Page_96'></a>chastity is preached to new pagans who do not believe +in it. It is in those cases that we get the real +grapple of religion; and it is in those cases that we +get the peculiar and solitary triumph of the Catholic +faith. It is not in merely being right when +we are right, as in being cheerful or hopeful or +humane. It is in having been right when we were +wrong, and in the fact coming back upon us afterwards +like a boomerang. One word that tells us +what we do not know outweighs a thousand words +that tell us what we do know. And the thing is +all the more striking if we not only did not know +it but could not believe it. It may seem a paradox +to say that the truth teaches us more by the words +we reject than by the words we receive. Yet the +paradox is a parable of the simplest sort and familiar +to us all; any example might be given of it. +If a man tells us to avoid public houses, we think +him a tiresome though perhaps a well-intentioned +old party. If he tells us to use public houses, we +recognise that he has a higher morality and presents +an ideal that is indeed lofty, but perhaps a +little too simple and obvious to need defence. But +if a man tells us to avoid the one particular public +house called The Pig and Whistle, on the left hand +as you turn round by the pond, the direction may +seem very dogmatic and arbitrary and showing insufficient +process of argument. But if we then fling +ourselves into The Pig and Whistle and are immediately +poisoned with the gin or smothered in +the feather-bed and robbed of our money, we recognise +<a id='Page_97'></a>that the man who advised us did know something +about it and had a cultivated and scientific +knowledge of the public houses of the district. We +think it even more, as we emerge half-murdered +from The Pig and Whistle, if we originally rejected +his warning as a silly superstition. The warning +itself is almost more impressive if it was not justified +by reasons, but only by results. There is something +very notable about a thing which is arbitrary +when it is also accurate. We may very easily forget, +even while we fulfil, the advice that we thought +was self-evident sense. But nothing can measure +our mystical and unfathomable reverence for the +advice that we thought was nonsense.</p> + +<p class='c010'>As will be seen in a moment, I do not mean in +the least that the Catholic Church is arbitrary in +the sense of never giving reasons; but I do mean +that the convert is profoundly affected by the fact +that, even when he did not see the reason, he lived +to see that it was reasonable. But there is something +even more singular than this, which it will +be well to note as a part of the convert’s experience. +In many cases, as a matter of fact, he did +originally have a glimpse of the reasons, even if he +did not reason about them; but they were forgotten +in the interlude when reason was clouded by rationalism. +The point is not very easy to explain, and +I shall be obliged to take merely personal examples +in order to explain it. I mean that we have often +had a premonition as well as a warning; and the +fact often comes back to us after we have disregarded +<a id='Page_98'></a>both. It is worth noting in connection +with conversion, because the convert is often obstructed +by a catchword which says that the Church +crushes the conscience. The Church does not crush +any man’s conscience. It is the man who crushes +his conscience and then finds out that it was right, +when he has almost forgotten that he had one.</p> + +<p class='c010'>I will take two examples out of the new movements: +Socialism and Spiritualism. Now it is perfectly +true that when I first began to think seriously +about Socialism, I was a Socialist. But it is equally +true, and more important than it sounds, that before +I had ever heard of Socialism I was a strong +anti-Socialist. I was what has since been called a +Distributist, though I did not know it. When I +was a child and dreamed the usual dreams about +kings and clowns and robbers and policemen, I +always conceived all contentment and dignity as +consisting in something compact and personal; in +being king of the castle or captain of the pirate ship +or the man who owned the shop or the robber who +was safe in the cavern. As I passed through boyhood +I always imagined battles for justice as being +the defence of special walls and houses and high +defiant shrines; and I embodied some of those crude +but coloured visions in a story called <i>The Napoleon +of Notting Hill</i>. All this happened, in fancy at +least, when I had never heard of Socialism and was +a much better judge of it.</p> + +<p class='c010'>Shades of the prison-house began to close and +with them came a merely mechanical discussion as +<a id='Page_99'></a>to how we were all to get out of prison. <i>Then</i> +indeed, in the darkness of the dungeon, was heard +the voice of Mr. Sidney Webb, telling us that we +could only conceivably get out of our Capitalist +captivity with the patent Chubb key of Collectivism. +Or to use a more exact metaphor, he told us +that we could only escape from our dark and filthy +cells of industrial slavery by melting all our private +latchkeys into one gigantic latchkey as large as a +battering ram. We did not really like giving up +our little private keys or local attachments or love +of our own possessions; but we were quite convinced +that social justice must be done somehow and +could only be done socialistically. I therefore became +a Socialist in the old days of the Fabian Society; +and so I think did everybody else worth +talking about—except the Catholics. And the +Catholics were an insignificant handful, the dregs +of a dead religion, essentially a superstition. About +this time appeared the Encyclical on Labour by Leo +XIII; and nobody in our really well-informed +world took much notice of it. Certainly the Pope +spoke as strongly as any Socialist could speak when +he said that Capitalism “laid on the toiling millions +a yoke little better than slavery.” But as the Pope +was not a Socialist it was obvious that he had not +read the right Socialist books and pamphlets; and +we could not expect the poor old gentleman to +know what every young man knew by this time—that +Socialism was inevitable. That was a long +time ago, and by a gradual process, mostly practical +<a id='Page_100'></a>and political, which I have no intention of +describing here, most of us began to realise that +Socialism was not inevitable; that it was not really +popular; that it was not the only way, or even the +right way, of restoring the rights of the poor. We +have come to the conclusion that the obvious cure +for private property being given to the few is to see +that it is given to the many; not to see that it is +taken away from everybody or given in trust to +the dear good politicians. Then, having discovered +that fact as a fact, we look back at Leo XIII and +discover in his old and dated document, of which +we took no notice at the time, that he was saying +then exactly what we are saying now. “As many +as possible of the working classes should become +owners.” That is what I mean by the justification +of arbitrary warning. If the Pope had said then +exactly what we said and wanted him to say, we +should not have really reverenced him then and we +should have entirely repudiated him afterwards. +He would only have marched with the million who +accepted Fabianism; and with them he would have +marched away. But when he saw a distinction we +did not see then, and do see now, that distinction is +decisive. It marks a disagreement more convincing +than a hundred agreements. It is not that he was +right when we were right, but that he was right +when we were wrong.</p> + +<p class='c010'>The superficial critic of these things, noting that +I am no longer a Socialist, will always say, “Of +course, you are a Catholic and you are not allowed +<a id='Page_101'></a>to be a Socialist.” To which I answer emphatically, +No. That is missing the whole point. The +Church anticipated my experience; but it was experience +and not only obedience. I am quite sure +now from merely living in this world, and seeing +something of Catholic peasants as well as Collectivist +officials, that it is happier and healthier for +most men to become owners than for them to give +up all ownership to those officials. I do not follow +the State Socialist in his extreme belief in the State; +but I have not ceased to be credulous about the State +merely because I have become credulous about the +Church. I believe less in the State because I know +more of the statesmen. I cannot believe small property +to be impossible after I have seen it. I cannot +believe State management to be impeccable after I +have seen it. It is not any authority, except what +St. Thomas calls the authority of the senses, which +tells me that the mere community of goods is a +solution that is too much of a simplification. The +Church has taught me, but I could not unteach +myself; I have learned because I have lived, and I +could not unlearn it. If I ceased to be a Catholic +I could not again be a Communist.</p> + +<p class='c010'>As it happens, my story was almost exactly the +same in connection with Spiritualism. There again +I was modern when I was young, but not when I +was very young. While I had a vague but innocent +nursery religion still hanging about me, I regarded +the first signs of these psychic and psychological +things with mere repugnance. I hated the whole +<a id='Page_102'></a>notion of mesmerism and magnetic tricks with the +mind; I loathed their bulging eyes and stiff attitudes +and unnatural trances and the whole bag of tricks. +When I saw a girl I admired set down to crystal-gazing, +I was furious; I hardly knew why. Then +came the period when I wanted to know why, when +I examined my own reasons and found I had none. +I saw that it was inconsistent in science to revere +research and forbid psychical research. I saw that +men of science were more and more accepting these +things and I went along with my scientific age. I +was never exactly a Spiritualist, but I almost always +defended Spiritualism. I experimented with a +planchette, quite enough to convince myself finally +that some things do happen that are not in the +ordinary sense natural. I have since come to think, +for reasons that would require too much space to +detail, that it is not so much supernatural as unnatural +and even anti-natural. I believe the experiments +were bad for me; I believe they are bad +for the other experimentalists. But I found out +the fact long before I found out the Catholic +Church or the Catholic view of that question. +Only, as I have said, when I do find it out, I find +it rather impressive; for it is not the religion that +was right when I was right, but the religion that +was right when I was wrong.</p> + +<p class='c010'>But I wish to note about both those cases that +the common cant in the matter is emphatically not +true. It is not true that the Church crushed my +natural conscience; it is not true that the Church +<a id='Page_103'></a>asked me to give up my individual ideal. It is not +true that Collectivism was ever my <i>ideal</i>. I do not +believe it was ever really anybody else’s ideal. It +was not an ideal but a compromise; it was a concession +to practical economists who told us that we +could not prevent poverty except by something uncommonly +like slavery. State Socialism never came +natural to us; it never convinced us that it was +natural; it convinced us that it was necessary. In +exactly the same way Spiritualism never came as +something natural but only as something necessary. +Each told us that it was <i>the only way</i> into the +promised land, in the one case of a future life and +the other of life in the future. We did not like +government departments and tickets and registers; +but we were told there was no other way of reaching +a better society. We did not like dark rooms +and dubious mediums and ladies tied up with rope, +but we were told there was no other way to reach +a better world. We were ready to crawl down a +municipal drain-pipe or through a spiritual sewer, +because it was the only way to better things; the +only way even to prove that there were better +things. But the drain-pipe had never figured in +our dreams like a tower of ivory or a house of gold, +or even like the robbers’ tower of our romantic +boyhood or the solid and comfortable house of our +matured experience. The Faith had not only been +true all along, but it had been true to the first and +the last things, to our unspoilt instincts and our +conclusive experience; and it had condemned nothing +<a id='Page_104'></a>but an interlude of intellectual snobbishness and +surrender to the persuasions of pedantry. It had +condemned nothing but what we ourselves should +have come to condemn, though we might have condemned +it too late.</p> + +<p class='c010'>The Church therefore never made my individual +ideal impossible; it would be truer to say that she +was the first to make it possible. The Encyclical’s +ideal had been much nearer my own instinct than +the ideal I had consented to substitute for it. The +Catholic suspicion of table-rapping was much more +like my own original suspicion than it was like my +own subsequent surrender. But in those two cases +it is surely clear that the Catholic Church plays +exactly the part that she professes to play: something +that knows what we cannot be expected to +know, but should probably accept if we really +knew it. I am not in this case, any more than in +the greater part of this study, referring to the things +that are really best worth knowing. The supernatural +truths are connected with the mystery of +grace and are a matter for theologians; admittedly +a rather delicate and difficult matter even for them. +But though the transcendental truths are the most +important they are not those that best illustrate +this particular point, which concerns the decisions +which can be more or less tested by experience. +And of all those things that can be tested by experience +I could tell the same story: that there was +a time when I thought the Catholic doctrine was +meaningless, but that even that was not the very +<a id='Page_105'></a>earliest time, which was a time of greater simplicity, +when I had a sort of glimpse of the meaning though +I had never even heard of the doctrine. The world +deceived me and the Church would at any time +have undeceived me. The thing that a man may +really shed at last like a superstition is the fashion +of this world that passes away.</p> + +<p class='c010'>I could give many other examples, but I fear they +would inevitably tend to be egotistical examples. +Throughout this brief study I am under the double +difficulty that all roads lead to Rome, but that each +pilgrim is tempted to talk as if all roads had been +like his own road. I could write a great deal, for +instance, about my early wrestlings with the rather +ridiculous dilemma which was put to me in my +youth by the optimist and the pessimist. I promptly +and properly refused to be a pessimist; and I +therefore fell into the way of calling myself an +optimist. Now I should not call myself either, and +what is more important I can see that virtue may +be entangled in both. But I think it is entangled; +and I think that an older and simpler truth can +loosen the tangle. But the point in the present +connection is this; that before I had ever heard of +optimists or pessimists I was something much more +like what I am now than could be covered by either +of those two pedantic words. In my childhood +I assumed that cheerfulness was a good thing, but +I also assumed that it was a bad thing not to protest +against things that are really bad. After an +interlude of intellectual formalism and false antithesis, +<a id='Page_106'></a>I have come back to being able to think what +I could then only feel. But I have realised that +the protest can rise to a much more divine indignation +and that the cheerfulness is but a faint suggestion +of a much more divine joy. It is not so +much that I have found I was wrong as that I have +found out why I was right.</p> + +<p class='c010'>In this we find the supreme example of the exception +that proves the rule. The rule, of which +I have given a rough outline in the previous chapter, +is that the Catholic philosophy is a universal +philosophy found to fit anywhere with human +nature and the nature of things. But even when +it does not fit in with human nature it is found in +the long run to favour something yet more fitting. +It generally suits us, but where it does not suit us +we learn to suit it, so long as we are alive enough +to learn anything. In the rare cases where a reasonable +man can really say that it cuts across his intelligence, +it will generally be found that it is true, +not only to truth, but even to his deepest instinct +for truth. Education does not cease with conversion, +but rather begins. The man does not cease +to study because he has become convinced that certain +things are worth studying; and these things +include not only the orthodox values but even the +orthodox vetoes. Strangely enough, in a sense, the +forbidden fruit is often more fruitful than the free. +It is more fruitful in the sense of a fascinating botanical +study of why it is really poisonous. Thus, +for the sake of an example, all healthy people have +<a id='Page_107'></a>an instinct against usury; and the Church has only +confirmed that instinct. But to learn how to define +usury, to study what it is and to argue why it is +wrong, is to have a liberal education, not only in +political economy, but in the philosophy of Aristotle +and the history of the Councils of Lateran. +There almost always is a human reason for all the +merely human advice given by the Church to humanity; +and to find out the principle of the thing +is, among other things, one of the keenest of intellectual +pleasures. But in any case the fact remains +that the Church is right in the main in being tolerant +in the main; but that where she is intolerant +she is most right and even most reasonable. Adam +lived in a garden where a thousand mercies were +granted to him; but the one inhibition was the +greatest mercy of all.</p> + +<p class='c010'>In the same way, let the convert, or still more +the semi-convert, face any one fact that does seem +to him to deface the Catholic scheme as a falsehood; +and if he faces it long enough he will probably find +that it is the greatest truth of all. I have found +this myself in that extreme logic of free will which +is found in the fallen angels and the possibility of +perdition. Such things are altogether beyond my +imagination, but the lines of logic go out towards +them in my reason. Indeed, I can undertake to +justify the whole Catholic theology, if I be granted +to start with the supreme sacredness and value of +two things: Reason and Liberty. It is an illuminating +comment on current anti-Catholic talk that +<a id='Page_108'></a>they are the two things which most people imagine +to be forbidden to Catholics.</p> + +<p class='c010'>But the best way of putting what I mean is to +repeat what I have already said, in connection with +the satisfying scope of Catholic universality. I +cannot picture these theological ultimates and I +have not the authority or learning to define them. +But I still put the matter to myself thus: Supposing +I were so miserable as to lose the Faith, could I go +back to that cheap charity and crude optimism +which says that every sin is a blunder, that evil cannot +conquer or does not even exist? I could no +more go back to those cushioned chapels than a man +who has regained his sanity would willingly go +back to a padded cell. I might cease to believe in +a God of any kind; but I could not cease to think +that a God who had made men and angels free was +finer than one who coerced them into comfort. I +might cease to believe in a future life of any kind; +but I could not cease to think it was a finer doctrine +that we choose and make our future life than that +it is fitted out for us like an hotel and we are taken +there in a celestial omnibus as compulsory as a +Black Maria. I know that Catholicism is too large +for me, and I have not yet explored its beautiful or +terrible truths. But I know that Universalism is +too small for me; and I could not creep back into +that dull safety, who have looked on the dizzy +vision of liberty.</p> + +<div class='pbb'> + <hr class='pb c000'> +</div> + +<div class='nf-center-c0'> +<div class='nf-center c000'> + <div><a id='Page_109'></a><span class='c014'>A NOTE ON PRESENT PROSPECTS</span></div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='pbb'> + <hr class='pb c000'> +</div> + +<div> + <a id='Page_111'></a> + <h2 class='c008'>CHAPTER VI<br> <br>A NOTE ON PRESENT PROSPECTS</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c009'>On reconsidering these notes I find them to be +far too personal; yet I do not know how any conception +of conversion can be anything else. I do +not profess to have any particular knowledge about +the actual conditions and calculations of the Catholic +movement at the moment. I do not believe +that anybody else has any knowledge of what it +will be like the next moment. Statistics are generally +misleading and predictions are practically always +false. But there is always a certain faint tradition +of the thing called common sense; and so +long as a glimmer of it remains, in spite of all +journalism and State instruction, it is possible to +appreciate what we call a reality. Nobody in his +five wits will deny that at this moment conversion +is a reality. Everybody knows that his own social +circle, which fifty years ago would have been a +firm territory of Protestantism, perhaps hardening +into rationalism or indifference but doing even that +slowly and without conscious convulsion, has just +lately shown a curious disposition to collapse softly +and suddenly, first in one unexpected place and then +in another, making great holes in that solid land +and letting up the leaping flames of what was +counted an extinct volcano. It is in everybody’s +<a id='Page_112'></a>experience, whether he is sad or glad or mad or +merely indifferent, that these conversions seem to +come of themselves in the most curious and apparently +accidental quarters; Tom’s wife, Harry’s +brother, Fanny’s funny sister-in-law who went +on the stage, Sam’s eccentric uncle who studied +military strategy—of each of these isolated souls +we hear suddenly that it is isolated no longer. It +is one with the souls militant and triumphant.</p> + +<p class='c010'>Against these things (which we know as facts +and do not merely read as statistics) there is admittedly +something to be set. It is what is commonly +called leakage; and with a paragraph upon +this point I will close these pages. Father Ronald +Knox, with that felicity that is so good that the +wit almost seems like good luck, has remarked that +the Catholic Church really does have to get on by +hook or crook. That is, by the hook of the fisherman +and the crook of the shepherd; and it is the +hook that has to catch the convert and the crook +that has to keep him. He said in this connection +that the conversions to the Church just now were +so numerous that they would be obvious and overwhelming, +like a landslide, if it were not that they +were neutralised in mere numbers, or rather lessened +in their full claim of numbers, by a certain amount +of falling away in other directions. Now the first +fact to realise is that it is in other directions, in +totally different directions. Some people, especially +young people, abandon practising Catholicism. But +none of them abandon it for Protestantism. All of +<a id='Page_113'></a>them practically abandon it for paganism. Most +of them abandon it for something that is really +rather too simple to be called an <i>ism</i> of any kind. +They abandon it for things and not theories; and +when they do have theories they may sometimes +be Bolshevist theories or Futurist theories, but they +are practically never the theological theories of +Protestantism. I will not say they leave Catholicism +for beer and skittles; for Catholicism has never +discouraged those Christian institutions as Protestantism +sometimes has. They leave it to have a high +old time; and considering what a muddle we have +made of modern morality, they can hardly be +blamed. But this reaction, which is only that of +a section, is in its nature a reaction of the young +and as such I do not think it will last. I know it +is the cant phrase of the old rationalists that their +reason prevents a return to the Faith, but it is false: +it is no longer reason but rather passion.</p> + +<p class='c010'>This may sound a sweeping statement, but if it +be examined it will be found not unjust, and certainly +not unsympathetic. Nothing is more notable +if we really study the characteristics of the rising +generation than the fact that they are <i>not</i> acting +upon any exact and definite philosophy, such as +those which have made the revolutions of the past. +If they are anarchical, they are not anarchist. The +dogmatic anarchism of the middle of the nineteenth +century is not the creed they hold, or even the excuse +they offer. They have a considerable negative +revolt against religion, a negative revolt against +<a id='Page_114'></a>negative morality. They have a feeling, which is +not unreasonable, that to commit themselves to the +Catholic citizenship is to take responsibilities that +continually act as restraints. But they do not maintain +anything like a contrary system of spiritual +citizenship, or moral responsibility. For instance, +it is perfectly natural that they should want to act +naturally. But they do not want to act naturally +according to any intellectual theory of the reliability +of Nature. On the contrary, their young and +brilliant literary representatives are very prone to +press upon us the crudity and cruelty of Nature. +That is the moral of Mr. Aldous Huxley, and of +many others. State to them any of the consistent +theories of the supreme claim of Nature upon us, +such as the pantheistic idea of God in all natural +things; or the Nietzschean theory that nature is +evolving something with superior claims to our +own; or any other definable defence of the natural +process itself, and they will almost certainly reject +it as something unproved or exploded. They do +not want to have an exact imitation of the laws of +the physical universe; they want to have their own +way, a much more intelligible desire. But the +result is that they are, after all, at a disadvantage +in face of those other young people who have satisfied +their reason by a scheme that makes the universe +reasonable.</p> + +<p class='c010'>For that is the very simple explanation of the +affair. In so far as there is really a secession among +the young, it is but a part of the same process as +<a id='Page_115'></a>that conversion of the young, of which I wrote in +the first chapter. The rising generation sees the +real issue; and those who are ready for it rally, and +those who are not ready for it scatter. But there +can be but one end to a war between a solid and +a scattered army. It is not a controversy between +two philosophies, as was the Catholic and the Calvinist, +or the Catholic and the Materialist. It is a +controversy between philosophers and philanderers. +I do not say it in contempt; I have much more +sympathy with the person who leaves the Church +for a love affair than with one who leaves it for a +long-winded German theory to prove that God +is evil or that children are a sort of morbid monkey. +But the very laws of life are against the endurance +of a revolt that rests on nothing but natural +passion; it is bound to change in its proportion +with the coming of experience; and, at the worst, it +will become a battle between bad Catholics and +good Catholics, with the great dome over all.</p> + +<div class='pbb'> + <hr class='pb c015'> +</div> +<div class='tnbox'> + +<div class='nf-center-c0'> + <div class='nf-center'> + <div><b>Transcriber’s Notes</b></div> + </div> +</div> + + <ul class='ul_1'> + <li>Missing or obscured punctuation was silently corrected. + </li> + <li>Typographical errors were silently corrected. + </li> + <li>Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation were made consistent only when a predominant + form was found in this book. + </li> + </ul> + +</div> + +<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 76305 ***</div> + </body> + <!-- created with ppgen.py 3.57e on 2025-06-15 05:20:16 GMT --> +</html> + diff --git a/76305-h/images/cover.jpg b/76305-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..30d0689 --- /dev/null +++ b/76305-h/images/cover.jpg |
