Carmen Ariza Part 7

CHAPTER 9

Always as a child Jose had been the tortured victim of a vague, unformed apprehension of impending disaster, a presentiment that some day a great evil would befall him. The danger before which he now grew white with fear seemed to realize that fatidic thought, and hang suspended above him on a filament more tenuous than the hair which held aloft the fabled sword of Damocles. That filament was the slender chance that the notebook with which he was occupied when the terrified child precipitated herself into the river, and which he had hastily dropped on seeing her plight and rus.h.i.+ng to the rescue, had been picked up by those who would consider its value _nil_ as an instrument of either good or evil. Before the accident occurred he had been absorbed in his writing and was unaware of other occupants of the park than himself and the children, whose boisterous romping in such close proximity had scarce interrupted his occupation. Then their frightened cries roused him to an absorbing sense of the girl's danger. Nor did he think again of the notebook until he was relating the details of the accident to the guard at the edge of the park, when, like a blow from above, the thought of it struck him.

Trembling with dread antic.i.p.ation, he had hurried back to the bench, only to find his fears realized. The book had disappeared! His frenzied search yielded no hint of its probable mode of removal.

Overcome by a sickening sense of misfortune, he had sunk upon the bench in despair. But fear again roused him and drove him, slinking like a hunted beast, from the park--fear that the possessor of the book, appreciating its contents, but with no thought of returning it, might be hovering near, with the view of seeing what manner of priest it could be who would thus carelessly leave such writings as these in the public parks and within the very shadow of St. Peter's.

But to escape immediate identification as their author did not remove his danger. Their character was such that, should they fall into certain hands, his ident.i.ty must surely be established. Even though his name did not appear, they abounded in references which could hardly fail to point to him. But, far worse, they cited names of personages high in political and ecclesiastical circles in references which, should they become public, must inevitably set in motion forces whose far-reaching and disastrous effects he dared not even imagine.

For the notebook contained the soul-history of the man. It was the _journal intime_ which he had begun as a youth, and continued and amplified through succeeding years. It was the repository of his inmost thoughts, the receptacle of his secret convictions.

It held, crystallized in writing, his earliest protests against the circ.u.mstances which were molding his life. It voiced the subsequent agonized outpourings of his soul when the holy order of priesthood was conferred upon him. It recorded his views of life, of religion, of the cosmos. It held in burning words his thoughts anent the Holy Catholic faith--his sense of its virtues, its weaknesses, its a.s.sumptions, its fallacies. It set forth his confession of helplessness before circ.u.mstances too strong for his feeble will, and it cited therewith, as partial justification for his conduct, his tender love for his mother and his firm intention of keeping forever inviolable his promises to her. It voiced his pa.s.sionate prayers for light, and his dim hopes for the future, while portraying the wreck of a life whose elements had been too complex for him to sift and cla.s.sify and combine in their normal proportions.

A year had pa.s.sed since the unhappy lad had opened his mouth to receive the iron bit which Destiny had pressed so mercilessly against it. During that time the Church had conscientiously carried out her program as announced to him just prior to his ordination.

a.s.sociated with the Papal Legate, he had traveled extensively through Europe, his impressionable mind avidly absorbing the customs, languages, and thought-processes of many lands. At Lourdes he had stood in deep meditation before the miraculous shrine, surrounded with its piles of discarded canes and crutches, and wondered what could be the principle, human or divine, that had effected such cures. In Naples he had witnessed the miraculous liquefaction of the blood of St. Januarius. He had seen the priests pa.s.s through the great a.s.semblage with the little vial in which the red clot slowly dissolved into liquid before their credulous eyes; and he had turned away that they might not mark his flush of shame. In the Cathedral at Cologne he had gazed long at the supposed skulls of the three Magi who had wors.h.i.+pped at the rude cradle of the Christ. Set in brilliant jewels, in a resplendent gilded shrine, these whitened relics, which Bishop Reinald is believed to have discovered in the twelfth century, seemed to mock him in the very boldness of the pious fraud which they externalized. Was the mystery of the Christ involved in such deceit as this? And perpetrated by his Church? In unhappy Ireland he had been forced to the conviction that misdirected religious zeal must some day urge the st.u.r.dy Protesters of the North into armed conflict with their Catholic brothers of the South in another of those deplorable religious--nay, rather, _theological_--conflicts which have stained the earth with human blood in the name of the Prince of Peace. It was all incomprehensible to him, incongruous, and d.a.m.nably wicked. Why could not they come together to submit their creeds, their religious beliefs and tenets, to the test of practical demonstration, and then discard those which world-history has long since shown inimical to progress and happiness? Paul urged this very thing when he wrote, "_Prove_ all things; hold fast to that which is good." But, alas! the human doctrine of infallibility now stood squarely in the way.

From his travels with the Legate, Jose returned to Rome, burning with the holy desire to lend his influence to the inst.i.tution of those reforms within the Church of which now he so clearly saw the need.

Savonarola had burned with this same selfless desire to reform the Church from within. And his life became the forfeit. But the present age was perforce more tolerant; and was likewise wanting in those peculiar political conditions which had combined with the religious issue to send the great reformer to a martyr's death.

As Jose entered Rome he found the city in a state of turmoil. The occasion was the march of the Catholic gymnastic a.s.sociations from the church where they had heard the Ma.s.s to St. Peter's, where they were to be received by the Holy Father. Cries of "Long live free-thinking!" were issuing from the rabble which followed hooting in the wake of the procession. To these were retorted, "Viva il Papa Re!"

Jose had been caught in the _melee_, and, but for the interference of the civil authorities, might have suffered bodily injury. With his corporeal bruises he now bore away another ineffaceable mental impression. Were the Italian patriots justified in their hostility toward the Vatican? Had United Italy come into existence with the support of the Papacy, or in despite of it? Would the Church forever set herself against freedom of thought? Always seek to imprison the human mind? Was her unreasonably stubborn att.i.tude directly accountable for the presence of atheism in the place, of all places, where her own influence ought to be most potent, the city of St.

Peter?

For reasons which he could only surmise--perhaps because of his high scholars.h.i.+p--perhaps because of his remarkable memory, which const.i.tuted him a living encyclopedia in respect of all that entered it--Jose was now installed in the office of the Papal Secretary of State as an office a.s.sistant. He had received the appointment with indifference, for he was wholly devoid of ecclesiastical ambition. And yet it was with a sense of relief that he now felt a.s.sured of a career in the service of the Administrative Congregation of the Church, and for all time removed from the likelihood of being relegated to the performance of merely priestly functions. He therefore prepared to bide his time, and patiently to await opportunities to lend his willing support to the uplift of the Church and his fellow-men.

The limitations with which he had always been hedged about had not permitted the lad to know much, if anything, of the mult.i.tude of books on religious and philosophical subjects annually published throughout the world; and his oath of obedience would have prevented him from reading them if he had. But he saw no reason why, as part preparation for his work of moral uplift, he should not continue to seek, at first hand, the answer to the world-stirring query, What does the Bible mean? If G.o.d gave it, if the theory of verbal inspiration is correct, and if it is infallible, why then was it necessary to revise it, as had been done in the wonderful Jerusalem Chamber which he had once visited? Were those of his a.s.sociates justified who had scoffed at that work, and, with a sneer on their lips, voiced the caustic query, "Fools! Why don't they let the Bible alone?" If the world is to be instructed out of the old sensual theology, does the Bible contain the truth with which to replace it? For to tear down an ideal without subst.i.tuting for it a better one is nothing short of criminal. And so Jose plunged deeply into the study of Scriptural sources.

He had thought the rich treasures of the Vatican library unrestrictedly open to him, and he therefore brought his fine Latin and Greek scholars.h.i.+p to bear on its oldest uncial ma.n.u.scripts. He began the study of Hebrew, that he might later read the Talmud and the ancient Jewish rabbinical lore. He pursued unflaggingly his studies of the English, French, and German languages, that he might search for the truth crystallized in those tongues. As his work progressed, the flush of health came to his cheeks. His eyes reflected the consuming fire which glowed in his eager soul. As he labored, he wrote; and his discoveries and meditations all found lodgment in his sole confidant, his journal.

If the Church knew what Christianity was, then Jose was forced to admit that he did not. He, weak, frail, fallible, _remit sins_?

Preposterous! What was the true remission of sins but their utter destruction? He change the wafer and wine into the flesh and blood of Jesus? Nay, he was no spiritual thaumaturgus! He could not do even the least of the works of the Master, despite his priestly character!

Yet, it was not he, but the Christ, operating through him as a channel, who performed the work. Then why did not the Christ through him heal the sick and raise the dead? "Nay," he deplored, as he bent over his task, "the Church may teach that the bones, the teeth, the hair, and other human relics of canonized Saints can heal the sick--but even the Cardinals and the Holy Father when they fall ill demand the services, not of these, but of earthly physicians.

They seek not the Christ-healing then; nor can they by their boasted powers heal themselves."

Israel's theme was: Righteousness is salvation. But Jose knew not how to define righteousness. Surely it did not mean adherence to human creeds! It was vastly more than observance of forms! "G.o.d is a spirit," he read; "and they that wors.h.i.+p Him must wors.h.i.+p Him in spirit and in truth." Then, voicing his own comments, "Why, then, this cra.s.s materializing of wors.h.i.+p? Are images of Saviour, Virgin, and Saint necessary to excite the people to devotion? Nay, would not the healing of the sick, the restoration of sight to the blind, and the performance of the works of the Master by us priests do more than wooden or marble images to lead men to wors.h.i.+p? Proof! proof! proof!

'Show us your works, and we will show you our faith,' cry the people.

'Then will we no longer sacrifice our independence of thought to the merciless tyranny of human tradition.'" And he knew that this related to Catholic and Protestant, Jew and Mohammedan alike.

One day a Cardinal, pa.s.sing through the library, saw the diligent student at work, and paused to inquire into his labors. "And what do you seek, my son?" was the kindly query of the aged churchman.

"Scriptural justification for the fundamental tenets of our faith,"

Jose replied quickly, carried away by his soul's animation.

"And you find it, without doubt?"

"Nay, Father, except through what is, to me, unwarranted license and a.s.sumption."

The Cardinal silently continued his way. But permission to translate further from the Vatican ma.n.u.scripts was that day withdrawn from Jose.

Again the youth lapsed into his former habit of moody revery. Shackled and restless, driven anew into himself, he increasingly poured his turbulent thought into his journal, not for other and profane eyes to read--hardly, either, for his own reference--but simply because he _must_ have some outlet for the expression of his heaving mind. He turned to it, as he had in other crises in his life, when his pent soul cried out for some form of relief. He began to revise the record of the impressions received on his travels with the Papal Legate. He recorded conversations and impressions of scenes and people which his abnormally developed reticence would not permit him to discuss verbally with his a.s.sociates. He embodied his protests against the restrictions of ecclesiastical authority. And he noted, too, many a protest against the political, rather than religious, character of much of the business transacted in the office to which he was attached. In the discharge of his ordinary duties he necessarily became acquainted with much of the inner administrative polity of the Vatican, and thus at times he learned of policies which stirred his alien soul to revolt. In his inferior position he could not hope to raise his voice in protest against these measures which excited his indignation; but in the loneliness of his room, or on his frequent long walks after office hours, he was wont to brood over them until his mind became surcharged and found relief only in emptying itself into this journal. And often on summer days, when the intense heat rendered his little room in the dormitory uninhabitable, he would take his books and papers to some one of the smaller parks lining the Tiber, and there would lose himself in study and meditation and the recording of the ceaseless voicing of his lonely soul.

On this particular afternoon, however, his mind had been occupied with matters of more than ordinary import. It happened that a Bishop from the United States had arrived in Rome the preceding day to pay his decennial visit to the Vatican and report on the spiritual condition of his diocese. While awaiting the return of the Papal Secretary, he had engaged in earnest conversation with a Cardinal-Bishop of the Administrative Congregation, in a small room adjoining the one where Jose was occupied with his clerical duties. The talk had been animated, and the heavy tapestry at the door had not prevented much of it from reaching the ears of the young priest and becoming fixed in his retentive memory.

"While I feel most keenly the persecution to which the Church must submit in the United States," the Bishop had said, "nevertheless Your Eminence will admit that there is some ground for complaint in the conduct of certain of her clergy. It is for the purpose of removing such vantage ground from our critics that I again urge an investigation of American priests, with the view of improving their moral status."

"You say, 'persecution to which the Church _must_ submit.' Is that quite true?" returned the Cardinal-Bishop. "That is, in the face of your own gratifying reports? News from the American field is not only encouraging, but highly stimulating. The statistics which are just at hand from Monsignor, our Delegate in Was.h.i.+ngton, reveal the truly astonis.h.i.+ng growth of our beloved cause for the restoration of all things in Christ. Has not G.o.d shown even in our beloved America that our way of wors.h.i.+ping Him is the way He approves?"

"But, Your Eminence, the constant defections! It was only last week that a priest and his entire congregation went over to the Episcopal faith. And--"

"What of that? 'It must needs be that offenses come.' Where one drops out, ten take his place."

"True, while we recruit our depleted ranks from the Old World. But, with restricted immigration--"

"Which is not restricted, as yet," replied the Cardinal-Bishop with a sapient smile. "Nor is there any restriction upon the inspiration, political as well as spiritual, which the American Government draws from Rome--an inspiration much more potent, I think, than our Protestant brethren would care to admit."

"Is that inspiration such, think you, as to draw the American Government more and more into the hands of the Church?"

"Its effect in the past unquestionably has been such," said the Cardinal-Bishop meditatively.

"And shall our dreams of an age be fulfilled--that the Holy Father will throw off the shackles which now hold him a prisoner within the Vatican, and that he will then personally direct the carrying out of those policies of world expansion which shall gather all mankind into the fold of Holy Church?"

"There is a lessening doubt of it," was the tentative reply.

"And--" the Bishop hesitated. "And--shall we say that those all-embracing policies ultimately will be directed by the Holy Father from Was.h.i.+ngton itself?"

A long pause ensued, during which Jose was all ears.

"Why not?" finally returned the Cardinal-Bishop slowly. "Why not, if it should better suit our purposes? It may become advisable to remove the Holy See from Rome."

"But--impossible!"

"Not at all--quite possible, though I will not say probable. But let us see, can we not say that the time has arrived when no President of the United States can be elected without the Catholic vote? Having our vote, we have his pledges to support our policies. These statistics before us show that already seventy-five per cent of all Government employes in Was.h.i.+ngton are of our faith. We control Federal, State, County and City offices without number. I think--I think the time is not distant when we shall be able to set up a candidate of our faith for the Presidency, if we care to. And," he mused, "we shall elect him. But, all in good time, all in good time."

"And is that," the Bishop interrogated eagerly, "what the Holy Father is now contemplating?"

"I cannot say that it is," answered the noncommittal Cardinal-Bishop.

"But the Holy Father loves America. He rejoices in your report of progress in your diocese. The successes attained by Catholic candidates in the recent elections are most gratifying to him. This not only testifies to the progress of Catholicism in America, but is tangible proof of the growth of tolerance and liberal-mindedness in that great nation. The fact that the Catholic Ma.s.s is now being said in the American army affords further proof."

"Yes," meditated the Bishop. "Our candidates who receive election are quite generally loyal to the Church."

"And should const.i.tute a most potent factor in the holy work of making America dominantly Catholic," added the older man.

"True, Your Eminence. And yet, this great desideratum can never come about until the youth are brought into the true fold. And that means, as you well know, the abolis.h.i.+ng of the public school system."

"What think you of that?" asked the Cardinal-Bishop off-handedly.

The Bishop waxed suddenly animated. A subject had been broached which lay close to his heart. "The public schools const.i.tute a G.o.dless sink of pollution!" he replied heatedly. "They are nurseries of vice! They are part of an immoral and vicious system of education which is undermining the religion of American children! I have always contended that we, the Holy Catholic Church, _must_ control education! I hold that education outside of the Church is heresy of the most d.a.m.nable kind! We have heretofore weakly protested against this pernicious system, but without success, excepting"--and here he smiled cynically--"that we have very generally succeeded in forcing the discontinuance of Bible reading in the public schools. And in certain towns where our parochial schools do not instruct beyond the eighth grade, it looks as if we might force the introduction of a form of the Catholic Ma.s.s to be read each morning in the High School."