Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 69:276 (Oct 1912)
Article: The Question Of A Reform Of Romanism
Author: Henry C. Sheldon

BSac 69:276 (Oct 1912) p. 591

The Question Of A Reform Of Romanism

Henry C. Sheldon

Occasionally a Protestant writer is moved to give expression to the optimistic expectation that the Roman Catholic Church is about to experience a salutary transformation through an interior reformation. In some instances the inference is drawn that strenuous opposition to the exorbitant claims of Rome is no longer in demand, inasmuch as the coming reformation will dispose of those claims from the inside. Whether the inference is formally drawn or not, it is likely to be implicitly operative in those who cherish the given expectation. It becomes, therefore, a matter of practical importance to determine whether the record of the Roman Catholic Church in recent times affords grounds for believing that a substantial reformation is imminent. In providing a suitable basis for a verdict on this question, we propose to examine the recent record of the papal communion in four different lines: (1) sentimental devotion; (2) sacramental theory; (3) papal absolutism in the ecclesiastical domain; (4) teaching and practice bearing on the subject of the relation between Church and State.

1. As respects the first of these topics, we shall content ourselves with a very brief discussion. The most significant fact to be emphasized here is the extraordinary industry which was manifested at Roman Catholic headquarters during the latter half of the nineteenth century in promoting the

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cult of the Virgin Mary. We make bold to affirm that in no other fifty years, in the whole history of the Church, have papal initiative and practice been so emphatically engaged in promoting that cult. Not only did Pius IX. solemnly decree, as a dogma of the faith, the immaculate conception of the Virgin (1834), but he rivaled, not to say transcended, the most extravagant tributes rendered to her by the idolatrous fancy of the Middle Ages. In the encyclical addressed to the bishops in 1849 relative to the proposed dogma, he indulged in this strain: “You know very well, venerable brethren, that the whole of our confidence is placed in the most holy Virgin, since God has placed in Mary the fulness of all good, that accordingly we may know that if there is any hope in us, if any grace, if any salvation, it redounds to us from her, because such is His will who has willed that we should have everything through Mary.” In the decree imposing the dogma, the Pope describes Mary as “the most powerful mediatress, who ever slew all heresies”; furthermore, as the one “who, bearing a motherly mind toward us, and having in hand the affairs of our salvation, is anxious about the whole human race, and having been made by the Lord queen of heaven and earth and exalted above all the orders of angels and saints...