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Show "Dark Ages" Were Bright Ages. D"3.. SHAHAN, belonging to the faculty fac-ulty of the Catholic University of Washington, is doing a mighty work for truthful history these days on the Pacific coast, besides aiding the Catholic Truth society of San Francisco Fran-cisco in the work of demolishing popular popu-lar fallacies regarding the position of the Church in what is called the "dark ages" by some and middle ages by others. Whoever first applied the term "dark" to the centuries when the world enjoyed its greatest happiness even while the people of western Europe Eu-rope supported feudal barons as their servants and henchmen, must have had an intellect as dark as his heart was stony. True, the labor of hands had not been displaced by machinery; what clothed the body was woven on the primitive spindle; tallow dips were burned and meat cooked on the spit; but there were no labor strikes in that good old time, no anarchists, no dynamite, dyna-mite, no politicians or ward heelers, no policemen in white vests, no city officials who would run off with the money belonging to the people. And yet these are called the "dark ages" because books were not printed and people could not read; because the monks alone were the only persons who produced them from manuscript and sometimes it was the labor of years to turn out a single volume. And the Church is blamed for the ignorance of the masses, because up to the time of the Reformation all of the Christian people of western Europe acknowledged the Roman Pontiff as the spiritual and temporal head of the universal Church. It did not take Macaulay long to administer ad-minister rebuke to these bigots. This , most reliable and brilliant of Protestant Protest-ant historians declared it was these patient monks, working incessantly in their cells making books from manu- ' script, . who preserved the history of the world from total destruction and linked the ancient with the modern in literature. Of course, with the accidental acci-dental discovery of movable types and the introduction of the printing press, the monks returned to prayer and the people of the world knew each other through printed books. Then ceased the "dark" ages. The lecture which Dr. Shahan recently recent-ly delivered in .-an Francisco under the auspices of the Catholic Truth society treats of the cathedrals of Europe and their builders, and he entertainingly describes how the means were raised to build these monuments in the nuadle ages, which are today unsurpassed in beauty of architecture by any of modern mod-ern times. Dr. Suahan's language in some places is veritable word painting. For example, describing the manner of contributions: . "The lady sent in her laces and jewelry, jew-elry, the women of the people their little lit-tle heirlooms of gold and silver, even such neat and desirable articles of clothing as they possessed. The farmer gave his best cow; the peddler offered a choice trinket. The serf came up with his weekly wages. And when men and women were too poor to give anything as individuals, they clubbed together in little associations. Their pennies soon swelled to silver, and the silver was turned into gold, and with the gold they cast in their hearts, and so the stones of the building got each a tongue that is yet eloquent with praise of the popular devotion. Much of the money was gotten by the weekly auction of these articles that was carried on. in the public square by the foreman of the works. Indeed, the whole enterprise was like a majestic social song, a solemn sol-emn hymn, whose notes rose slowly and sweetly from the earth to heaven, telling tell-ing of the transformation of avarice into in-to of. en-heartednes.. of coarseness into refinement, of selfishness into altruism, of blank ignorance and stupidity into a creative faith. Prayer anJ adoration, propitiation and gratitude were finally blended in the great popular chorus. King and serf, prir.oe.s and milkmaid, pope and poor sacristan the whole world of Europe moved In a vast procession pro-cession before the Throne of Jesu's Christ, and cast each a stone on the memorable, pne of religion." Reading this, one is reminded of the way the Mormons built their temple in this city, for further along in Dr. Sha-han's Sha-han's lecture as we find it printed in the Monitor, he says those who had nothing to give contributed their labor. Then he describes the guilds of the mediaeval age, which correspond to our modern labor unions: "On signing the articles of the union or guild, the member learns that it is intensely relig'ious, that he must attend at-tend Mass Sundays and holy days, lead a moral and Catholic life, abstain from swearing, drunkenness and immorality. He learns that the guild supports its own chapel and priest to say an arly Mass daily for them. He is told that the lodge or workshop is Uk3 a hall of justice, where the rights of each man, above all his free personality, must be respected. "Each guild was under the protection of the Blessed Trinity ant some saint. It had solemn services once e. yar In honor of its patron. It buriedSolctmnly It3 members and held anniversary serv-cies. serv-cies. Gradually its own chaoet hecTCTu the center of its religious life, whose details were carried on by its own priests. Religion covered every act of its corporate life and in th mlmy days of the great guilds, their selfsaf-sciousness selfsaf-sciousness was great they bowecf to the bishop', indeed, and the pope, king or emperor, who were often included a3 members of their roll call but he was,, indeed, a strong parish priest or abbot 'vhofie. authority they consented to acknowledge." ac-knowledge." Oh. for a revival of those happy conditions con-ditions of labor in the "dark ages," where the fierceness of competition had not begun to set in and master and workmen met together on an equal plane! How many labor strikers of the present day would gladly exchange modern conditions for such as oVtained in those "dark ages!" |