In 1848, the Revolution, long fdretold bf Ibls ploded. The reforming Pope was drives fron all the nations of Europe were agitated and ess On the 4th of January, 1849, he prononaocdkii fs* in the Cortes renouncing all liberal doctriBes,^^^ manding a dictatorship. This speech startled E^ and was perhaps the beginning of the resctia> I was a defiant reassertion of the principles of ^Kff YII and Innocent III.
Shortly after the delivery of this speech !>■* Cortes was sent as ambassador extraortissif tt l» lin. The earlier part of the next year irai oce^ with the n^id composition of his only fenni *^^ his Esso^ on Cathoiieism, UberaKmn, ami Sxims^ It was published in 1851, in Spanish, at JhdA^ was speedily translated into French, Itafiaa, tai 6* man. An English version, by Madeleine G«Usi s peared in 1862 (Phila. 12mo)I Just befcretbe^**' ance of this work he was sent as ambanadorteFma a mission which he held till his death. His and high position were, however, embitteicd tf ^ imputations of heretical doctrine alleged apistf ti brilliant essay by the abb6 Gadnel and otber (^ nents. He submitted his book without reserrttidi papal judgment. He died at Paris May t VS&,
A collection of his worlo, in 2 vols., had bees^ lished at Madrid in 1849 (CoOeedm e$eogida Ab* critos dtl SeAor Don Juan D.-C.y, A more ct^ edition of his worlu was published after bis ^ (Madrid, 1854-55, 5 vols.) by Tejada, and was nf^ lished at Paris, in French, by M. Louis VesiDot ^ Essay on Catholicism forms three vohmies of tbe{» lection. The other two volumes contain Pkurhanai^ Addresses ; Letters on France in 1842, and is ISS^ Observations on Prussia in 1849 ; a Um costritati* to political and literary journals ; letters to distia^ ed correspondents; and some unfinished |fcetcte< historical and political topics.
The smgle work on which his repntatioa viS ^
DONOSO-CORTES
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DOOR
'Es9€Mif named above. He is throoghoot a polem-^
a polemic after the order of Hooker, wboee so- I periods he alone of moderns rivals, with great- clsioiiy <x>rrectne88, and elegance. The book is a ant onslaught on Protestantism and Liberalism ; nest, unquestioning advocacy and eulogy of Ro- Jatholicism, and all its ancient usages, doctrines, >licy. Tet it affords a bright exhibition of pure ct and lofty sentiment. The writer is a logician
inteUect, and something of a mystic by his heart. 3 ever present to his mind, and the redemption n is ever on his lips. life is no independent, tain, arbitrary human evolution. It is the dread ly acted on earth by responsible beings in the ice of heaven and of hell, with the certainty of (18 as a recompense or of the other as a doom. OS as -weU as individuals are on their trial in the
arena, which is presided over by the Almighty, red to issue his eternal judgments. The course •ught in the Euay is about as follows : Man, cre- n the ima^ of his Maker, falls by disobedience, atered into the world, and death by sin. The curse lized in the alienation of the sinner from God, and e introduction of disorder and violence into all bases of human life, and into the whole constitu- >f nature. '* Discord on the music fell, and dark- on the glory." " The whole world groaneth un- »w.** Helpless, apparently discarded, and turned to the counsels and passions of his own depraved :, man falls into all the corruptions and aberrations atbenism. Redeemed at last by divine grace and dne expiation, the work of regeneration and res- ion commences. Christianity changes the spir- ' the world, and recreates society. It changes relation of man to his Creator and to his fellow- The little leaven ferments, and leaveneth the le lump, and civilization slowly becomes Christian ughout instead of pagan, llie range of man's emplation is enlarged and his sympathies e^pand- his reason is strengthened, his knowledge aug- ted, his dominion over thought and matter is in- sed ; but, in the pride of intellect, he claims again knowledge of good and evil ; he speculates about hings ; he drags revelation and the ordinances of
before the tribunal of his own understanding; he utains the sovereignty of his own caprices, phanta- , and passions ; he inaugurates on earth a new re- ., similar to that which cast the rebellious angels of heaven. The passionate vacillations or vaga-
of the individual or of the mass are substituted the decrees of the Almighty and beneficent Father ill. The furious appetencies of pride, greed, Jeal- y, and lust are taken to be canons of political and ial wisdom, instead of the precepts of the moral r and of obedience to constituted authorities, *' since
powers that be are ordained of God." Hence an s of revolutions and of social disturbances prepares
1 way for the long agony of a material and debasing •potisro. All that is right, and wholesome, and en- bed with promise is founded on voluntary submission the wUl of God. All revolt from his ordinances is \ and is followed by the consequences of sin — disor- r, crime, war, Mrretchedness, impotency, ending in po- ical and social dissolution. The law of the Gospel is
2 law of perffect liberty. The carnal mind is enmity th God ; and the law of man is enslavement to the salons, provoking, inviting, necessitating, and ma- ring the tyranny of force on earth, and eternal tor- ants hereafter.