have taken it, and compared it with the Latin of the council in this edition, the edition of the councils, by Mansi. My friend, the Rev. Mr. Thelwall, will have the goodness to read.

The Rev. Mr. Thelwall read it as follows:

"Canon 3.-(Papal authority over the possessions of sovereign princes.)

"We excommunicate and anathematize every heresy which exalteth itself against this holy, orthodox, and Catholic faith, which we have set forth above; condemning all heretics, by whatsoever names they may be recognized; who have, indeed, diverse faces, but their tails are bound together, for they make agreement in the same folly.

"Let such persons, when condemned, be left to the secular powers who may be present, or to their officers, to be punished in a fitting manner, those who are of the clergy being first degraded from their orders; so that the goods of such condemned persons, being laymen, shall be confiscated; but in the case of clerks, be applied to the churches from which they received their stipends.

"But let those who are only marked with suspicion, be smitten with the sword of an anathema, and shunned by all men until they make proper satisfaction, unless, according to the grounds of suspicion and the quality of the person, they shall have demonstrated their innocence by a proportionate purgation. So that if any shall persevere in excommunication for a twelvemonth, thenceforth they shall be condemned as heretics. And let the secular powers, whatever offices they may hold, be induced and admonished, and, if need be, compelled by ecclesiastical censure, that, as they desire to be accounted faithful, they should, for the defence of the faith, publicly set forth an oath, that, to the utmost of their power, they will strive to exterminate from the lands under their jurisdiction all heretics who shall be denounced by the church; so that whensoever any person is advanced, either to spiritual or temporal power, he be bound to confirm this decree with an oath. But if any temporal lord, being required and admonished by the church, shall neglect to cleanse his country of this heretical filth, let him be bound with the chain of excommunication by the metropolitan and the other co-provincial bishops. And if he shall scorn to make satisfaction within a year, let this be signified to the supreme pontiff: that thenceforth he may declare his vassals to be absolved from their fidelity to him, and expose his land to be occupied by the Catholics, who, having exterminated the heretics, may, without contradiction, possess it, and preserve it in purity of faith, saving the right of the chief lord, so long as he himself presents no difficulty, and offers no hindrance in this matter: the same law, nevertheless, being observed concerning those who have not lords in chief.

"But let the Catholics, who, having taken the sign of the cross, have girded themselves for the extermination of the heretics, enjoy the same indulgence, and be armed with the same privilege, as is conceded to those who go to the assistance of the Holy Land.

"But we decree also, to subject to excommunication, the believers, receivers, defenders, and abettors of the heretics; firmly determining that if any one, after he has been marked with excommunication, shall refuse to make satisfaction within a twelvemonth, he be thenceforth of right in very deed infamous, and be not admitted to public offices or councils, nor to elect for any thing of the sort, nor to give evidence. Let him also be intestable, so as neither to have power to bequeath nor to succeed to any inheritance.

"Moreover, let no man be obliged to answer him in any matter, but let him be compelled to answer others. If, haply, he be a judge, let his sentence have no force, nor let any causes be brought for his hearing. If he be an advocate, let not his pleading be admitted. If a notary, let the instruments drawn up by him be invalid, and be condemned with their damned author. And we charge that the same be observed in similar cases. But if he be a cleric, let him be deposed from every office and benefice, that where is the greatest fault, the greatest vengeance may be exercised.

"But if any shall fail to shun such persons after they have been pointed out by the church, let them be compelled by the sentence of excommunication, to make fitting satisfaction. Let the clergy by no means administer the sacraments of the church to such pestilent persons, nor presume to commit them to Christian burial, nor receive their alms nor oblations; otherwise let them be deprived of their office, to which they must not be restored without the special indulgence of the Apostolic See."

Mr. M'GHEE said, the latter part of this is quoted in the papal decree which I have read.

"We add, moreover, that every archbishop, or bishop, either himself, or by his archdeacon, or by persons of repute, should twice, or at least once a year go round his own parish, in which it is reported that heretics reside, and there he shall compel three or more credible witnesses, or if it shall appear expedient, the whole neighbourhood to be sworn, that if any one shall know heretics there, or any worshipping in secret conventicles, or dissenting in life or manners from the conversation of the faithful, he may carefully point them out to the bishop. But the bishop himself shall cite the accused into his presence, who, unless he shall have purged himself from the crime with

which he is accused, or if, after having been purged, he shall have relapsed into his former defection, he shall be punished canonically. But if any of those rejecting the sacredness of an oath, by a damnable obstinacy, shall be unwilling to swear, on this account alone they shall be regarded as heretics.

"We will, therefore, and command, and, in virtue of obedience, we strictly ordain that bishops, for the purpose of effectually discovering these things, watch diligently over their dioceses, if they wish to escape canonical vengeance.

"But if any bishop be negligent or remiss in purging his diocese from the leaven of heretical pravity; when this shall be apparent by indubitable proofs, he shall be displaced from his episcopal office, and another fit person substituted in his place, who is willing and able to confound heretical pravity."

Here then is the canon law laid down by the Roman Catholic archbishops and bishops of Ireland. Here is the character of a Christian bishop held up by them to the priesthood, who are aspirants to that office. Now, with respect to the evidence of Dr. Murray, that this is not to be found in any ancient author, it is to be hoped that he skope from ignorance of the matter; for, in direct proof of the contrary, in the year 1220 Honorius III., the successor to Innocent III., crowned the emperor Frederick II., and in the account which is here given in their own Bullarium of that event, it is proved that, at his coronation, the emperor proclaimed, as the law of his realm, this very canon of the council. He uses the very same words which are used in the third canon of the fourth Council of Lateran. If this is not the authority of an ancient writer I know not what is, for the writer gave his account five years after the Council of Lateran sat. If that is not an ancient authority, I repeat, I know not what is. Now Dr. Murray writes to Lord Melbourne, and disavows the doctrines imputed to him; and yet he has published, under his own express sanction, the supplemental volume to Dens, in which he lays down those doctrines and principles as the ecclesiastical law of Ireland. In the year 1826 he states, the Council of Lateran was not in force in Christendom; and yet, in 1832, he quotes that same council under the authority of the Pope, as the papal law for the government of Ireland. In the year 1826 he pledges himself and his brother bishops, on their solemn oath, that Catholics "detest as impious and unchristian the doctrine, that it is lawful to murder or destroy any person or persons whatever for, or under the pretence of their being heretics;" and yet, in the year

1832, he promulgates a law for the regulation of the priests in Ireland, in which he lays down that it is the duty of the bishops and patrons of the church to exterminate heretics. Now, I say, if you believe that these documents are printed here as I have read them-if you believe that these words convey the meaning that you hear with your own ears-if you believe that they were written at the period to which I refer that they were promulgated by the authority of the pope as laws binding on the church-that they were adopted by the Roman Catholic bishops in Ireland as the fit rule for governing the Roman Catholics of Ireland;—if you believe these things, I ask you on what ground can you refuse to pass this resolution? It is a resolution which I am sorry as a man, more sorry as a Christian, and ashamed as an Irishman, to place in your hands, but my sense of public duty compels me.

The resolution was then put and carried. *

The last resolution which I have to submit to the consideration of the meeting, involves the only question that remains upon the subject. That question is-Were the Roman Catholic laity of Ireland bound or obliged to submit to the laws enacted by the Pope? Upon this subject, the resolution which I have to propose is to this effect

"That it appears from the law laid down by the Irish Roman Catholic bishops, that all the Romish clergy and laity who hinder the execution of the commands, citations, and other provisions of the Court of Rome, are excommunicated; so that the whole of the Roman Catholic population of Ireland appear to be in total subjugation to the Pope."

This resolution is almost a copy of the very words of this supplement, in which, under the head "Execution of the Provisions of the Roman Court," (Romanæ Curiæ,) we find these words :

"In the bull Pastoralis Regiminis,' (Bull, tom. 1. n. 47,) laymen impeding the execution of the mandates, citations, and other provisions of the Roman court, are smitten with excommunication, reserved for the Roman pontiff."

That is, they are under a ban, from which neither their priests nor their bishops can deliver or absolve them; no power under that of the Pope himself. It proceeds

"So are they, also, who afford aid, advice, or favour, to those who

*See Resolution, p. 250.

impede it. Regulars and ecclesiastics incur, ipso facto, suspension, as well from the exercise of their orders as their offices, both which censures are reserved for the Roman pontiff; but notaries or scribes refusing to execute the public instruments of these provisions and executions at the instance of the party, are deprived of the office of notary, and are declared infamous.”—Vol. viii. p. 74.

Here is the tremendous authority-here is the tremendous weight of temporal and eternal vengeance, which is hanging over the head of every Roman Catholic who refuses submission to the laws which this meeting has this day heard. The attention of the public is awakened to this subject. I rejoice that an error of mine has been, although the cause of humiliation to myself, a means of arousing the public mind. Now, although perhaps there never was a subject brought before a public meeting which could open so wide a field for declamation, I shall, notwithstanding, consider it inconsistent with the gravity of the question and the importance of the facts which I have laid before the public, to allow myself to utter one declamatory sentence on the case. I have endeavoured plainly and simply to state the facts. I haye read the documents. And I will let the papal laws, which I have recited, go forth to the world without comment, and leave it to their own weight to make what impression they may upon the public mind. I have now only just briefly to recapitulate the subjects which I have submitted to your consideration. I have laid before you incontrovertible evidence, that the book in my hand-"The Digest of the Moral Theology and Canon Law of the Church of Rome"-was published in 1832, under the express sanction of the Roman Catholic archbishop and the bishops of the chief province of Ireland, and that includes the sanction of all the Roman Catholic bishops in that country; for I have proved to the meeting, that where a papal decree is published, and the bishops do not protest against it, then it becomes a canonical law of infallible authority. In this case no bishop protests; but on the contrary, the book, containing those bulls, is actually now first published by the bishops. It is, in fact, set up, as has before been proved, as the standard work for the instruction of the Irish Roman Catholic priests by all the Roman Catholic bishops of Ireland. That its authority on canon law is infallible, I have shown to the meeting, in the passages which I have quoted from the standard work of the professor of theology in the college of Maynooth (Dr. Delahogue.) I have shown to them, on the authority of the standard work of theology itself