THE.t —* - NOTEE DAME SCHOLASITC •DI5CE-9VA5I SEMPERVICTVf?V5- VIVE-gVASICRASMOBITURVyS- VOL. XXXIV. NOTRE DAME, INDIANA, OCTOBER 6, 1900. NO. 5. OUR GUEST. i; MOST REV. ALEXANDER CHRISTIE, D. D., Archbishop of Portland, Oregon. 7^ NOTRE DAME SCHOLASTIC. he knows the history of the European nations', The Class of 1901. if he has watched and carefully studied their dealings with one another and the state of JOSEPH J. SULLIVAN. IQGI. affairs that prevailed in them at the outset of the i8th century—calling to mind the great mm "\7[7E will snig a song of love and hope, of days that Catholic Poland, that once was so powerful a are to be, kingdom; that great protectress and refuge As we launch our bark of knowledge on life's dark 'WA Mi and brooding sea. of all the European nations from the inroads We will sing no song of failure, for the future soon of the Turks and Tartars into the very heart is past; of the continent. One can not think of it In the front and foremost column you will hear our without at the same time admiring the great bugle's blast. and noble deeds of its soldiers, and still more There's no weakling heart among us, no heart that is of its heroic kings. France may, indeed, be not true. proud of Napoleon I., yet Poland has not fallen No nature soft and flabby, tho' our saints are small far behind her in this respect. She holds up and few; to the world Sobieski, her greatest child—a But there are many hearts among us whose strings beat soft and I6w man at whose name the pagan Turks and To the measured, dim re-echoings of the days of long Tartars shuddered, and whose appearance in .ftl ago. battle, going before his army like an avenging In no slow funereal marching will we leave grey Notre spirit, spread dismay and terror among the Dame, ranks of the enemy. With no muffled voice or silent lip will we utter her No search into history is necessary to proud name; But Ave'll march in stately columns, as our fathers did verify this fact; Vienna stands to-day a living -1. of old. example of it. She is but one illustration of With our sun-dipt pen we'll write her name in the the heroism of magnanimity and devotion to sky in letters of gold. Christ's Church on earth, of the spirit that We are fond of idle musing, for the muser is the man. permeated the Polish heart during the ten We are fond of distant dreamings and we live as centuries of Poland's existence. There is not dreamers can; one instance to show that Poland ever broke But we leave no days regretted, no duties half begun. her loyalty to the Papacy; but instance after i When our day of school life closes we will greet instance may be recorded to tell that she has another sun. ' ever been the Church's protectress and her And the memories of our Mother cluster round us devoted daughter. What greater example of where we go. this can there be found in any of the existing In the rich and smiling south lands, in the lands of powers than that of Sobieski, who, while on ice and snow. «:'^^' his way to the church with his two sons, was •t^.^ When the bugle's blast is calling in the dying setting *!«« sun, stopped in the streets of Cracow by the To our Mother comes soft greetings from the Class of Austrian ambassador and the papal legate, and Nineteen-one, addressed in beseeching tones by the former: To our Mother comes soft greetings from the Class of " King, defend Vienna and Christianity! "Sobi­ Nmeteen-one. eski immediately turned back;' and, gathering svV whatever soldiers he had on hand,went speedily How Did Poland Fall? to the rescue of Vienna, where, with 25,000 men, he overthrew an army of 300,000 Turks, MIECESLAUS T. SZALEWSKI, IQOI. broke entirely the Mussulman power; and on the very spot where the day before the Saracen Si Deus pro nobis, quis contra nds (Rom. viii., 31.) cried, "Allah! Allah!" now resounded the HESE words stand imprinted solemn " Te. Deum." in large golden letters on the The object of the present paper does not eastern arch at the entrance permit us to enter into other such noble and to the palace of the Polish heart-inspiring examples. We are now em­ kings in Cracow. They are ployed to , present the true view of one sad the watchwords and a power- question : in connection withi the history of :ul guardian of the conscience of the Polish Poland. It is a question which almost inevi­ people and fill it with strong and well-grounded tably occurs to the mind of one reading the hope. On reading them one can riot helpr—if golden inscription on the arch of Cracow's :\fOtR£ DAME SCHOLASTIC. 19 palace, and the solution of which rings out the time when Stanislaus ascended the throne. with the voice of Poland's martyrs for ven­ The scale, with the king on one end and geance to Heaven. It is the beginning of the the opposition on the other, was always in long and still enduring exile of the Polish activity, never in equilibrium; but yielding people, at whose entry the cold dungeons of at one time to the royal power, at another Siberia were thrown open to consume their time to the opposers; so that while the two victims; it is the beginning of that long and parties were gradually withdrawing farther and cruel persecution of the Catholic Church, farther from each other, a third power was which was, and which is still the great per­ slowly but steadfastly creeping in untilit secution of modern Christianity. What was reached the central point of the scale, firmly the chief cause? grasped the two opposing ends in its man­ of Poland's downfall? Who was the cause? agement, and altogether made them subject It were long to enter into the proper to it. This power was Russia, and at its head discussion of a problem over which intellects stood a woman taken jfrom the midst the of bright and logical fought with one another German princesses and presented to it by the for the past one hundred years. Historians Prussian Frederick, II. Her" name is almost too of every nation have written volumes on the hard to give, here, so bloodily is it engraved subject, and only after a long and exhausting in the heart of every Pole. struggle have they come to some kind of a The name of Catherine presents an inter-" conclusion. We could not here give a full esting study not only to the psychologist account of the problem; the only thing that is and historian, but also to the politician. Her expedient for us to do is to touch upon certain character would, I think, be known well phases of it; to give the reader a brief and a enough -by merely stating that she usurped proper view of the subject. the throne, having first murdered her husband, The prevailing idea among many people to­ Peter I. Of a strong, almost masculine char­ day is that the chief cause of Poland's downfall acter, bright and keen intellect, she was also was her last king, Stanislaus Augustus. He the full type of hypocrisy, egoism,-pride and is generally looked upon as an inactive, timid vengeance. Destitute of all religious, or even character, as an impostor and a usurper, the moral convictions, she possessed in the highest underlying spring of every possible evil that degree a sense, of polite. modesty, which she had befallen Poland in the last days of her was not apt to offend. Anything like open desperate struggle. People of this opinion revolts and disturbances she as much as think too that all the evils arose suddenly; possible avoided; but whatever such evils, that they took root with the accession of even of the most cruel nature, seemed to b,e Stanislaus to the throne; that he was their of advantage to her, she did them quietly and regulator, and pressed their spring of action slurred them over by her lies. Her will was all of.a sudden. Absurd as these notions seem law, and her desires an inevitable sign for to be, they are nevertheless such as are found action. The spirit that we especially note in existing at the present time. We have no her throughout her whole career is a constant intention here to justify Stanislaus Augustus; desire to subdue all neighboring lands and but to us it seems that he was not the only bring them under her control. Ambition— nor the greatest cause of the catastrophe but ambition, treacherous and cruel—governed The whole nation was guilty, especially the her in these ignoble pursuits. Seeing on her nobility, whose only aim for the two pre­ accession to the throne, that the southern ceding centuries, was a constant craving for nations, allied to one another, formed one more and more power; to dominate more and solid league, she also planned to form a league more; to keep aloof from the command and comprising all the northern powers, of which influence of the kings — in a word, to be too she herself would hold the command. Her absolute. Already from the death of Sobieski plans, however, were soon overthrown, as none (A. D. 1696), at every election of a king, of the powers would hearken to her proposals.