But for once he has been too hasty in his conclusions. He does not seem aware that there is one religion which does not fit under his general definition. Yet there is one religious body which is not only not disturbed by his arguments, but which these very arguments serve only to support. There is one Church whose clergy do not bend before the oncoming of free thought, where orthodoxy still holds sway, where musical art is displayed not to please the critic's ear, but to raise the worshiping heart, where sermons deal not with topics of worldly interests, but are wholly absorbed with thoughts of the life beyond the grave. And that Church is the Church of Rome. And there is one faith to which every nation's history bears witness, and which physical discoveries and inventions have only tended to confirm, and that faith is the faith in a supernatural Creator. Every new discovery and every new physical law serves only to bring out the more clearly the marvelous order of the universe and the wonderful hidden power of Him who made it.

But prejudice and bad logic will scarcely be sufficient to explain away some of Goldwin Smith's statements. There must be something else. We do not wish to call it downright insincerity or wilful blindness, but we know no other name for it.

For now he enters upon his own long-studied fields of history and comments on the records of past ages. There, too, he sees signs of the coming dissolution! Comparing the past with the situation of to-day, he deduces conclusions such as these: That a Church which, while yet only a few handfuls of men, could break down the worldwide empire of the Cæsars and place itself triumphant upon their throne; a Church which for century after century withstood the incessant encroachments of political and private, foreign and homebred foes, not only with success, but with a success that brought them all in humble submission before its feet; that a Church which could override a rebellion of such magnitude and persevering activity as had never before been read of in the annals of man; that a Church like this, with a history like this, need fear the intimations of a few scattered prophets of evil such as himself. We cannot excuse this blunder of his. We cannot blame it on blindness alone. We feel forced to attribute it to wilful malevolence. That an historian and professor like Goldwin Smith should declare that the existence of a religion which embraces all nations and has within its fold a quarter of a billion of men, one-half of all Christianity, is endangered because a Godless government of a once Catholic country has appropriated its property and persecuted its clergy, is a statement that can be accounted for only because the writer wilfully closes his eyes to the truth. And yet this is the only argument deserving of attention which he brings forward to substantiate his claim.

We cannot resist the temptation of quoting a well-known passage and comparing the judgment of a bitterly Protestant historian with the assertion of Goldwin Smith: "She (the Catholic Church) saw the commencement of all governments and of all the ecclesiastical establishments that now exist in the world, and we feel no assurance that she is not destined to see the end of them all. She was great and respected before the Saxon set foot on Britain; before the Frank had passed the Rhine; when Grecian eloquence still flourished at Antioch; when idols were still worshiped in the temple of Mecca. And she may still exist in undiminished vigor when some traveler from New Zealand shall in the midst of a vast solitude take his stand on a broken arch of London bridge to sketch the ruins of St. Paul's."

Macaulay in no friendly spirit studied the history of the Church and the varied conflicts she has sustained, and this is his judgment concerning her future: "Four times since the authority of the Church of Rome was established in Western Christendom has the human intellect risen up against her. Twice she remained completely victorious. Twice she came forth from the conflict bearing the marks of cruel wounds, but with the principle of life still strong within her. When we reflect on the tremendous assaults which she has survived, we find it difficult to conceive in what way she is to perish."8

It is to be pitied that Goldwin Smith did not wait till the next issue of the Review to publish his article, for then perhaps he would have had more reason to modify his assertions. He would in the meantime have beheld 50,000 men marching through the metropolis of this country with the determined purpose of showing their loyalty to that "poor, quaking Pope," for whom he seemed to have so much compassion. He would have heard an eminent member of our country's Congress speaking before countless thousands in the largest assembly hall of that metropolis and openly professing his love and reverence for that Church. He would have read letters from Major, Governor and President, praising that Church and wishing its wellbeing in the future. He would, in short, have witnessed one of the greatest religious demonstrations ever held in the country. Would he then dare to say that that Church was falling in ruins?

Nor is this sort of religious demonstration confined to one corner of our land. New York is by no means unique in its demonstration. Fifty thousand line the streets of Baltimore to welcome home a revered Prince of that same Church; 50,000 assemble in St. Louis to lay a corner-stone for a Cathedral of that same Church; 50,000

fill the halls of England's metropolis to do honor to the solemn mysteries of that Church, and 50,000 march through New England's metropolis to show their reverence for the Name of the Founder of that Church. And all this in utter disregard of Goldwin Smith's careful calculations.

And yet Goldwin Smith was not altogether wrong. All that he said of the skeptical and materialistic tendencies of the age, and of the struggles of men to reconcile their consciences with their beliefs, is undoubtedly true of Christian religious sects outside the Catholic Church. And this explains the fact that during the past year so many thousands of their number have sought shelter within its fold. This makes it quite evident why so many leaders of Protestant sects are leaving their posts because they feel they were deceiving their flock. And it is this contrast between the skeptical unsettled attitude of the Protestant mind and the steadfast and unbending position of the Church of Rome which prompts us to assert that the "Christianity of the future" is to be identical with the Christianity of the far-off past, and that the time will come when the names "Christian" and "Catholic" will be used indiscriminately, as they were centuries ago before the rebellion of Luther.

Woodstock, Md.

FERDINAND W. HABERSTROH, S. J.

THE PIONEER SCOTTISH SEMINARY.

MS. of Bishop John Geddes, 1777.

MS. of Rev. James Glennie, of Chapeltown, Glenlivat, 1841-1873.
Memoir of Bishop Hay by Rev. J. A. Stothert (Gordon's "Scotichronicon,"

Appendix), 1860.

T

HE early part of the eighteenth century was a period of severe trial for the Catholics of Scotland. The Church had been

roused to new life by the appointment in 1696, after more than a century of destitution, of a Bishop for the whole country. Rev. Thomas Nicholson, a priest of Scottish birth, who had suffered prison and exile for the faith during the early years of his missionary life, was consecrated at Paris as Bishop of Peristachium and constituted Vicar Apostolic of Scotland. On his way thither he was again seized and imprisoned in London, and it was at least a year after his nomination that he was able to take up his charge.

Persecution, which had never wholly ceased, though it might languish for brief periods, awoke in renewed strength at the acces an aptitude for the priestly state were received here in 1713. Rev. George Innes, who later on became rector of the Scots College in Paris, was placed in charge. Among the few students who entered there was the son of the Laird of Morar. This youth, Hugh Macdonald, was destined to become the first Vicar Apostolic of the Highland District. The school had been but a short time opened when a renewal of persecution, following upon the Jacobite rising of 1715, seemed to threaten the destruction of Catholicism in Scotland, and compelled the Bishops to close the establishment until more peaceful days should dawn. An instance of the virulence of the persecuting party is to be seen in the arrest of Bishop Nicholson, together with a priest who resided with him, at a period when the agitation had already begun to cool down. Luckily, both were able to effect an escape.

It remained for Bishop Gordon, who in the failing health of the Vicar Apostolic had to take charge of the ecclesiastical affairs of Scotland, to make a fresh attempt towards the foundation of a seminary. He wisely determined to make choice of a different locality, and fixed upon a farm known as Scalan, situated in Glenlivat, Banffshire, as a suitable spot.

Scalan was already the residence of a priest, for the Rev. John Gordon, missionary of Glenlivat, who had formerly dwelt at Castletown, had been compelled to fly from the Hanoverian troops under General Cadogan, after the rising of 1715, and had taken refuge at Scalan, where he lived in a disused barn. The hidden nature of the place, and the fact that it was situated on the estate of the Catholic Duke of Gordon, made it a safe retreat for the priest, who was able in course of time to build a rude habitation by the side of the little stream known as the Crombie, and thence minister to the many faithful Catholics scattered over that part of the country.

The spot upon which Father Gordon settled had been at one time a waste covered with juniper, and its name of Scalan is said to be derived from a Gaelic word signifying the screens of bushes erected by hunters of the game which frequented the lonely spot, rendered a complete solitude by the high hills which shut it off from civilized life.

About the year 1717 a few students were lodged in the poor little hut which Father Gordon had built for himself, and which for at least twenty years served as a seminary for candidates for the Scottish mission. The same Father Innes who had presided over the humble college in Loch Morar was appointed superior of Scalan.

Bishop Gordon took a keen interest in everything pertaining to the little seminary. It was his delight to visit it from time to time, and it became his custom to spend there some months in each sum