etiam idolis exhibent; nullo modo tale ali- | cœlo, æri, aquæ, et omnibus hujusmodi parquid offerimus, aut offerendum præcipimus, vel cuiquam martyri, vel cuiquam sanctæ animæ, vel cuiquam angelo.-Con. Faust. Manich., lib. xx. c. 21. Nec tamen nos eisdem martyribus templa, sacerdotia, sacra et sacrificia constituimus: quoniam non ipsi, sed Deus eorum nobis est Deus.-De Civ. Dei. Lib. viii. c. 27. B. tibus, et ad hæc referebant nomina et tris. Respondeo dicendum, quod sicut supra dictum est, (2d, 92, art. 1) ad superstitionem pertinet excedere debitum modum divini cultus. Quod quidem præcipue fit, quando divinus cultus exhibetur cui non debet exhiberi; debet autem exhiberi soli summo Deo, increato, ut supra habitum est, (2d, 81, art. 1) cum de religione ageretur. Et ideo cuicumque creaturæ divinus cultus exhibeatur, superstitiosum est. Hujusmodi autum cultus sicut creaturæ a sensibilibus exhibebatur per aliqua sensibilia signa, puta sacrificia, ludos, et alia hujusmodi: ita etiam exhibebatur creaturæ repræsentatæ per aliquam sensibilem formam seu figuram, quæ idolum dicitur. Diversimode tamen cultus divinus idolis exhibebatur. Quidam enim per quandam nefariam artem imagines quasdam construebant, quæ virtute dæmonum aliquos certos effectus habebant. Unde putabant in ipsis imaginibus esse aliquid divinitatis, et per consequens quod divinus cultus eis deberetur. Et hæc fuit opinio Hermetis Trismegisti, ut August. dicit in [9] de Civitat. Dei (líb. ix. c. 23.) Alii vero non exhibebant cultum divinitatis ipsis imaginibus, sed creaturis, quarum erant imagines. Et utrumque horum tangit Apostolus ad Ro. 1. Nam quantum ad [Perfect charity is here used in the sense primum dicit: Mutaverunt gloriam incor- of intense charity, excluding all affection to ruptibilis Dei in similitudinem imaginis cor- venial as well as mortal sin. Catholic theoruptibilis hominis et volucrum et quadrupedum logians generally allow that contrition to be et serpentium. Quantum autem ad secundum perfect; and sufficient for the remission of subdit: Coluerunt et servierunt potius creatura the guilt and eternal punishment of mortal quam creatori. Horum tamen fuit triplex sin, when the sacraments cannot be had; opinio. Quidam enim æstimabant quos- which is founded on the motive of love to dam homines deos fuisse, quos per eorum God, even though an affection to venial sin imagines colebant: sicut Jovem, Mercu- may remain. But in order to gain remission rium, et alios hujusmodi. Quidam vero of the guilt and punishment of venial sin, æstimabant totum mundum esse unum even by means of the sacrament of penance Deum, non propter corporalem substantiam, and a plenary indulgence, it is necessary sed propter animam quam Deum esse cre- that charity should be so intense, that the debant, dicentes Deum nihil aliud esse will is purged from all attachment even to quam animam motu et ratione mundum venial sin, and firmly determined never gubernantem. Sicut et homo dicitur sapiens more to commit deliberately even the least propter animan, non propter corpus. Unde transgression.-See Kenrick, Theol. Moral. De putabant toti mundo, et omnibus partibus Contritione, and Bouvier on Indulgences, trans. ejus, esse cultum divinitatis exhibendum: | by Rev. F. Oakeley, p. 59.] C. Incorrectly numbered in the text AA. APPENDIX TO CONTROVERSY WITH THE "MT. ZION MISSIONARY." A. cumstances, might prudentially fall back on [THE controversial works of Bellarmine, them, as on a reserve ground, in his contest though written against the new heresies of with the enemies of Catholic dogma. But the sixteenth century, are remarkable for time and experience have, perhaps, shown their bland and conciliatory manner. He that it is better to be clear and explicit, and sought to purge theology of its scholastic unyielding in controversy with Protestants. dross, and to present it to its enemies, as To narrow down our dogmas to their esfar as possible, in its original dogmatic sim-sential elements, to strip them of those adplicity. He can, therefore, scarcely be said to have written with a view to exalt the papacy. And it must not be forgotten that, by some ultra partisans of the day, some of his opinions on this particular point were considered too tame, and little short of heterodoxy. The words esse debeat are here understood, of propriety or necessity, sensu logico, and therefore are equivalent to sit. Even the Gallican church taught it to be of faith, that in the church there is a monarchy, immediately instituted by Christ himself, when she censured as heretical the following proposition of M. Ant. de Dominis, the unhappy apostate of Spalatro: "Monarchia formam non fuisse immediate, in Ecclesia a Christo institutam."* Yet this monarchy is tempered with aristocracy, and even with democracy, according to Bellarmine. This is the ordinary language of theologians. But Bishop England, at the outset, professes to take monarchy, in its strict, absolute sense, as exclusive of any other form; and therefore safely and justly maintains that in that sense the Church is not a monarchy. The reader cannot but observe that, in the present piece, and perhaps also elsewhere, Bishop England speaks not only with leniency, but even with seeming approbation, of the so-styled Gallican doctrines. This must not seem strange when we reflect how current they were in several parts of Europe, in the last century, and the beginning of the present. Besides, as they have never been condemned by the Church, and are less obnoxious to Protestants, a Catholic controversialist, under certain cir Ludovicus Bail in Summa Concilior., apud Gerdil. Animadversiones in Comment. Febronii. Romæ, 1792, p. 19. juncts, which, though not actually defined, yet seem to flow, necessarily, from articles of faith; to countenance, however, indirectly, the opinions of the few in preference to those of the greater and sounder portion of Catholic theologians, is justly considered by many as yielding too much, as a useless sacrifice to the spirit of error. It flatters, they say, our adversaries, but it fails to convince them, Men who resist the known truth, or what they fear to be the truth, hate it alike under every aspect and in all its parts. But the candid searcher, when convinced, hesitates not to embrace Catholic tent, without stopping to inquire whether truth, in all its bearings, to the farthest exeach point be formally and specially defined, under penalty of anathema. The birth of the Gallican opinions must be traced to the stormy epoch of the Councils of Pisa and Constance, when the chair of Peter was divided between rival claimants, and men looked to a general council as the most expeditious means of restoring peace to the Church. Gerson and Peter de Alliaco were the first champions of the new doctrines, which have since unjustly usurped the name of Gallican, as the majority of the French clergy have never adhered to them. They were but little known until the days of Louis XIV., to please whom they were incorporated into the famous Declaration of the Gallican clergy in 1682. This Declaration was condemned by the Holy See, and an elaborate defence of the same, (reputed by some to be the posthumous work of Bossuet,) which appeared only in the year 1730, was refuted soon after by Cardinal Orsi, De Irreformabili Rom. Pont. Judicio, Romæ, 1741, Tomi iii. 4. In our own day a new effort to prop the crumbling fabric of Gallicanism has been made by a distinguished writer, Card. de la Luzerne, an ad vocate worthy of a better cause; but in vain. | sent: and none deserve more emphatically These opinions are now rapidly passing the name of guardians of the sacred canons, away from the minds and hearts of men; and ere another century shall have rolled by, they will be no more. It is but justice to the memory of Bishop England to state, that though in his youth, owing to his theological sources of education, his mind had been to some extent impressed with these opinions, yet he always entertained the most lively respect and filial tenderness for the Holy See; and we have good reason positively to affirm, that in after life he rejected, as unsound and false, those opinions that he had incautiously imbibed in early years.-J. A. C.] B. [This is one of many passages, which to some may appear a paradox: and which Bishop England, had he lived, would have probably altered or clothed in different language. than those very men, whom a profane world is pleased to single out from that illustrious crowd, and brand with the calumnious mark of ambition and tyranny. "Nos omnia," says the holy Pope St. Julius I., (Ep. ad Orient. apud Labbe. tom. ii. Col. 499.)“ secundum canonem facimus." "We always act in conformity with canonical usages." And St. Cœlestine (Ep. iii. ad Episc. Illyr. Ed. Courtant. apud. Migne. tom. 1. Col. 428.) “ Dominentur nobis regulæ, non regulis dominemur: simus subjecti canonibus, cum canonum præcepta servamus." "Let us not exercise arbitrary sway over church discipline, but rather follow its guidance implicitly in all canons, let us chiefly maintain their obserthings: and since we are the keepers of the vance. has described in language no less true than St. Leo the Great, who elsewhere magnificent, the prerogatives of the Holy See, says in his letter to Anatolius (Ep. 106 Ed. Bell. al. 80 art. 53), "Nimis improba, nimis sunt prava, quæ sacratissimis canonibus inveniuntur esse contraria. . . . . Absit a conscientia mea, ut tam prava cupiditas meis studiis adjuvetur." "We cannot too strongly censure and condemn whatever is opposed to the sacred canons. . . . . Far be it from my conscience to abet such sinful ambition," &c. &c. And St. Gelasius (Ep. ad Episc. Dard. apud Labbè. tom. iv. Col. 1200,)“Confidimus quod nullus jam veraciter Christianus ignorat uniuscujusque synodi constitutum, quod universalis Ecclesiæ probavit assensus, non aliquam magis exequi sedem præ ceteris oportere quam primam." "There is not, we trust, among Christians any one, who does not know, that it is the duty of the First See to surpass all others in zealously carrying into effect the decrees of synods approved by the universal church.” Similar language might be quoted from a hundred others. And even when occasion required that they should make use of the fulness of power received through the blessed Peter, and dispense with these very canons, or exercise any other even of the highest and most incontestable acts of supremacy, they have never done so from caprice, or a reckless desire to exhibit their autho rity before men, but influenced by a sense of justice, for weighty and important reasons, and always in accordance with the principles and conduct of their predecessors. With just reason then did the great St. Gregory VII. affirm, that the Holy See in all its proceedings acts on the fixed maxim never to depart from the principles that have guided the church at all times. Emendaturus, si licuisset, erat."-OVID. But when we come to investigate more closely the meaning, we shall find that however strange may seem the language, it contains beneath it a principle that is most true in itself, and one that forms the peculiar glory of God's kingdom upon earth. The temporal ruler, no matter how much fettered in appearance by parchment constitutions, has always a vast field for the exercise of power: and that power is generally used according to the dictates of caprice, interest, fashion, or perhaps most often made to succumb to that worst of tyrannies, a depraved public opinion. Not so the supreme head of the sacred monarchy of the church. His power is given not unto destruction, but unto edification; and is wielded according to the immutable standard of justice and truth. It is needless to say that he cannot change the sacred deposit of faith entrusted to his guardianship, but only declare and define it. Neither can he alter the essential form of the institutions of the church, either by introducing new orders in the sacred hierarchy, or new sacraments. Even in matters of discipline, he is ever mindful of the advice of B. Peter, the founder and model of his high station: "Non dominantes in cleris, sed forma facti gregis ex animo." (1 Pet. v. 3.) Though supreme in the duties of his sacred office, though responsible to no human tribunal, yet he does not seek to lord it over clergy or laity by a vain display of authority, but rather to set them the chief example of obedience to the laws and regulations of primitive times. Such has been the uniform language and practice of all pontiffs from the first days down to the pre-sancta et Apostolica Sedes . . . . NUNQUAM in "Solet APPENDIX TO CONTROVERSY WITH "MT. ZION MISSIONARY." 369 "But, suis decretis et constitutionibus a concordia ca- | in the mind of the writer who professes nonicæ traditionis discedere (Greg. VII. Lib. to quote Arnobius. "Sed erras, inquit, ii. Ep. 50, apud Labbè. tom. x. Col. 105) et laberis, nam neque nos area, neque This then is the essential difference between auri, argentique materias, neque alias, qui church government and the governments of bus signa confiunt, eas esse per se Deos, this world. The latter exercise their autho- et religiosa decernimus numina." rity in a worldly manner, according to the says he, (i. e. the heathen,) you mistake, maxims and wisdom of the children of men, and slip in your reasoning, for we do not that is folly in the eyes of God, as becomes judge brazen things, or the material subthe "pride of life, which is not of the Father, stances of gold or silver, or any others, from but of the world" (1 Jo. ii. 16); while on the which images are made, to be in their contrary even in the most lofty and authori- own nature, gods, or divine objects worthy tative acts of the Holy See there shines of religious honour." The next clause of forth an uprightness, a humility, a modest the sentence totally destroys the false gloss self-distrust, which, while it detracts nothing of the Missionary, and sustains Bishop Engfrom the consciousness of inherent power, land's conjecture. "Sed eos in his colimus, yet eminently becomes the servant of the eosque veneramur, quos dedicatio infert sacra, servants of God, and verifies practically the et fabrilibus efficit inhabitare simulacris." admonition of the blessed Saviour: "Reges" But we worship in them those, and venerate gentium dominantur eorum... Vos autem non sic... Regnum meum non est de hoc mundo." (Luc. xxii. 25, 26. Jo. xviii. 36.)—I. A. C. C. [The Missionary appears to have quoted, not from Arnobius himself, but from some writer who states his proposition in his own language. It would require the reading of the entire book to warrant a positive assertion that this passage is not in it: but on referring, by the aid of an accurate index, to the section where this precise plea of the heathen is considered, we find only the following; which appears to have been those, whom the sacred dedication brings into them, and causes to dwell in the manufactured images." Arnobius then proceeds to ridicule the notion that the gods would leave the heavens and confine themselves in images, as their souls or animating spirits; he inquires what they will do when business requires their absence; whether they live in each image severally, or divide their presence among all, &c.; evidently assuming as an undoubted fact, that the heathen did hold that doctrine concerning images, which the Council of Trent disavows and condemns as regards the Catholic Church.-Vid. Arnob. adv. Gentes. Lib. vi. §§ 17 and 18.] WORKS OF DR. ENGLAND. PART II. HISTORY. INFLUENCE, POLITICAL AND MORAL, OF THE ROMAN SEE. 1. LETTERS PROVING THE RESIDENCE AND EPISCOPACY OF ST. PETER IN ROME. IN ANSWER TO THE REV. A. BLANC. "But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned, and which have been committed to thee; knowing of whom thou hast learned." (2 Timothy, iii. 14.) [The occasion which gave rise to the following series of letters concerning a point of historical controversy, now ceded by many intelligent Anti-Catholic writers, is fully explained in the brief correspondence which is prefixed, extracted from the "United States Catholic Miscellany," Vol. VIII. No. 18, for November 8th, 1828. The Letters appeared in this and several subsequent numbers of the "Miscellany," and were republished in a pamphlet form. The originals of passages quoted have not been given, as most of them are merely historical, and can scarcely admit of question.] From the United States Catholic Miscellany of "TO THE RIGHT REV. BISHOP ENGLAND, "Wentworth Street. "Right Reverend and Dear Sir:-Some time since I promised our mutual friend, Dr. ******, to procure for him the Christian Spectator, it being a work, as we supposed, that contained a most foul calumny against yourself and the respectable body of clergy over whom you preside. On continuing my exertions, I have ascertained that it is the Christian Advocate, not the other work mentioned. Being unacquainted with his place of residence, and considering that it was intended to meet your eye, I have taken the liberty of sending it to you for perusal. The highly offensive matter is contained in page 298, second column. A Protestant myself, and deep THE CHRISTIAN ADVOCATE. THERE is a Magazine, bearing this title, published in Philadelphia, every month, and devoted to the cause of Presbyterianism. In the number for last July, an article appeared, which we were informed assailed us most heroically, and charged us with deceit and falsehood; we were somewhat anxious to see the production, and requested a friend to endeavour to procure a copy he informed us that a gentleman who was a subscriber, and had the Advocate, declined lending it to us, upon the ground that it was better we should not see it, lest it should hurt our feelings. We thought the reason any-ly attached to my religion, I cannot but greatly thing but reasonable, coming from the quarter whence it emanated. Our friend continued his efforts, and in another way was more successful. Nearly a month since, the Bishop sent to our office, accompanying the Christian Advocate for July, the following note, which he received together with it, stating that all he required was, through a motive of delicacy, the suppression of the names it contained; with which requisition we comply. The note will explain itself. regret, and severely condemn, the use of such means. May the time soon arrive when bigotry shall be consigned to its native nothingness, and no other arms be used than those of attraction, mildness, and persuasive argument. In this prayer the liberal of both religions will most cordially unite. "Yours, very respectfully, "Sunday morning, Oct. 5, 1828." |