Sectarian school-books : a series of letters

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II. Where Swinton’s Book is used

It has been said that a greater part of the school boards of Massachusetts excluded Swinton’s book from their schools, “when their attention had been called to Mr. Swinton’s travesty of Catholic faith and teaching.” * The fact is, that Boston is the only place where such action has been taken ; and in that city one half the members of the School Board were Catholics at the time.t Swinton’s History is used in more than one hundred cities and towns in Massachusetts, and it is used in very nearly every high school in the State. It is used in the following towns and cities at the present time: Brockton, Chelsea, Concord, Cambridge, Fall River, Gardner, Hingham, Holyoke, Hyde Park, Hudson, Leominster, Lynn, Malden, Marlboro’, Milford, North Adams, New Bedford, Newton, Quincy, Springfield, Somerville, Salem, Watertown, Waltham, Worcester, and several others.

In the State of Maine Swinton’s History is used.in Bath, Bangor, Castine, Lewiston, Biddeford, Saco, Waterville, Portland, Calais, Houlton, and many other places of importance. In New Hampshire it is used in Dover, Keene, Manchester, Nashua, Concord, Portsmouth, and right on through the State. In Vermont it is used in Brattleboro, Bennington, Montpelier, Burlington, Rutland, St. Johnsbury, and in almost every other town and city. During the year 1888, Swinton’s History was for the first time introduced into about twenty New England towns. These include Easton, Andover, Dedham, and the Westfield Normal School, in Massachusetts ; Newcastle, Gorham, Kingston, Machias-

* See foot-note on pages 17 and 18. —R. J. J. t This statement is incorrect. —R. J. J.

port, Pembroke, Greenville and the Farmington State Normal School, in Maine; and Pawtucket in Rhode Island.

Swinton’s History is not only popular in New England, but it is quite as popular in most other parts of the country. It is the most popular and best selling high-school text-book now published in the United States. It is used at the present time in more than nine tenths of the high schools in this country ; and in a great proportion of the academies, seminaries, and normal schools where the course of study calls for the use of such a book.

Whatever may be said about Swinton’s “Outlines of History ” by the newspapers, secular or religious, it iseemphatically approved by the teachers of the country. They find it the best text-book on history they can procure; and they evidently accept its teachings as being correct. Asa hody, the teachers in the high schools of the, country are quite likely to know what is historically true.*

ITI.

Swinton on the Catholic Church.

Swinton’s History is remarkably well written for a text-book. It is concise, graphic in style, brings out the salient facts, and makes history a living reality for the pupil.t He. gives the dates and the leading facts, but in a manner to impress them upon the pupil, and to make him feel that history is not a mere succession of dates and events. It is

* See closing paragraphs of Mr. Child’s review, pages 200, 201. —R. J. J.

+ Contrast this opinion with that of Mr. Child, whose review of the book is reprinted in the Appendix, page 192. In this review Mr. Child, after pointing out the many errors in Swinton’s ‘‘ Outlines,” its omissions of important matters, and its heedless blunders, declares that it comes within the application of the excellent doctrine laid down by the Boston Transcript, that ‘‘ being false, it is not a fit text-book for American youth.” While giving his opinion of Swinton’s style, Mr. Cooke might have gone on and said with truth that the ‘‘ Outlines” abounds in grammatical errors, which, in many cases, make it extremely difficult to understand what he means to say. —R. J. J.

written in a very attractive manner, and yet it is so arranged as to be remarkably fitted for use in the school-room. Not only has Swinton made a well-arranged text-book, but he has grasped and mastered the great events of history so as to present them ina vivid and in a highly suggestive manner. He displays genuine qualities as a historian, clearness of conception, mastery of events in their larger relations, and an active insight into the more intricate and important meanings of history. The book is in every way well fitted to give the pupil an outline knowledge of the history of the world. These ° qualities of. ability, fairness, and historic insight should be taken intg consideration in deciding whether Swinton’s book is one which ought to be retained in the public schools.

Does Swinton misrepresent the teachings of the Catholic Church? as has been charged. In answering this question, it is best to appeal to the book itself. Those paragraphs of Swinton’s book which have been the cause of controversy are on pages 319 and 320, and they will be cited in full, in order that the reader may have an opportunity of judging of the merits of the case:

“It happened very soon after the beginning of the sixteenth century, that great controversies on matters of religion arose. There was complaint at many practical abuses in the Church, and at the claims of the Popes to interfere in the affairs of nations ; and there was also a growing feeling among many that not a few of the doctrines which were believed, and of the ceremonies which were practised, in the Church, were contrary to Scripture.

“It was in this state of affairs that there arose a dispute, trivial indeed in its nature, but which kindled a flame that quickly spread over most of Western Europe. When Leo X. came to the papal chair, he found the treasury of the Church exhausted by the ambitious projects of his predecessors. He therefore had recourse to every means which ingenuity could devise for recruiting his exhausted finances, and among these he adopted an extensive sale of indulgences, which in former ages had been a source of large profits to the Church. The Dominican friars, having obtained the monop-

~~ oly of the sale in Germany, employed as their agent Tetzel, one of their own order, who carried on the traffic in a manner that was very offensive, and especially so to the Augustinian friars.

“ One of these, named Martin Luther, professor of theology in the University of Wittenberg, took the lead in opposing Tetzel. Having vainly sought to procure the suppression of the traffic from the Archbishop of Magdeburg, he appealed to the people and to men of letters (1517), by publishing ninety-five theses condemning the sale of indulgences as contrary to reason and Scripture.

“ These indulgences were, in the early ages of the Church, remissions of the penances imposed upon persons whose sins had brought scandal on the community. But in process of time they were represented as actual pardons of guilt, and the purchaser of indulgence was said to be delivered from: all his sins.”

This is Swinton’s account of the origin of Protestantism ; and the foot-note is the chief cause of complaint by Catholics. A careful and a fair-minded reading of the whole passage, as cited, together with the foot-note, ought to make it evident that Swinton does not say that the Church taught, as one of its doctrines, that “the purchaser of indulgence was delivered from all his sins.” His language bears the fair interpretation that he charged this teaching, not upon the Church, but upon some of its over-zealous members. When all that he says about the Catholic Church is taken into consideration, and the liberality with which he speaks of it everywhere else, this interpretation is the only one which can be justly given to his words. With this interpretation, which ought to be accepted, when there is no good reason for any other, the charge against Swinton falls to the ground. A willingness to deal liberally and honorably with a writer, as to the meaning of his words, would remove all objection to the teachings of Swinton’s book on the part of Catholics. *

* A very complete answer to Mr. Cooke on this point will be found in . the editorials of the Boston Post (page 118), the Boston Beacon (page 126),