doubted assurance that they are always ready to execute whatsoever he shall command, in the domain of faith and morals, without stopping to inquire what human laws or institutions are in the way, except so far as it may be necessary to contrive some method to evade or overleap them. All this is required by the official oath taken by each of them. By it they create an allegiance to the pope consid ered higher and more binding than any earthly obligation. It obliges them to be "faithful and obedient" to him; to "defend and keep the Roman papacy and the royalties of St. Peter;" to do whatsoever they can to "increase" the papal "privileges and authority," and to "persecute and oppose "all "heretics, schismatics, and rebels" who shall stand in the way of making "the rules of the holy fathers, the apostolic decrees, ordinances, or disposals, reservations, provisions, and mandates," the foundation upon which all human institutions shall rest. (2)

These American prelates took the earliest occasion, after the appearance of the Syllabus, to show, not only that they fully comprehended its meaning, but that the pope's reliance upon their fidelity to him was not misplaced. In this extraor dinary document it is asserted, with dogmatic brevity and terseness, that it does not appertain "to the civil power to define what are the rights and limits within which the Church may exercise authority;" that its authority must be decided upon by itself, that is, by the pope, and exercised" without the permission and assent of the civil government," and that, "in the case of conflicting laws between the two powers,' the laws of the Church must prevail over those of the State.(3) Here, every thing is plain-nothing equivocal. The subordination of the State to the Church, and the substitution of the papal hierarchy for the people in enacting and enforcing such laws as the pope may think necessary for the Church, are distinctly and emphatically asserted. There is no room for misconstruction of the language. And it must be observed that the pope is speaking alone of civil "rights and limits," and the authority which "the Church may exercise "

(2) For the "Bishop's Oath," see Appendix A.

()"The Pope's Syllabus," Articles 19, 20, and 42. See Appendix D.

THE SECOND NATIONAL COUNCIL.

43

in reference to them; that is, over that class of temporalities; holding the Church to be, in these respects, above the state, and having the right, as its superior, to command and enforce obedience. It requires but a moderate share of intelligence to see that the principle here asserted is in direct antagonism to the theory of American government, and that, if established, it would violate one of the cherished provisions of the Constitution of the United States and of the Constitution of every State in the Union. The American hierarchy understand this perfectly well. Whosoever else may shelter themselves behind the plea of ignorance, they can not. And yet this knowledge imposed no restraint whatever upon them, in the expression of their submissiveness and obedience to the pope. They considered themselves as owing their first and highest allegiance to him, as the representative of "the royalties of St. Peter," and did not hesitate to avow it: of all this, they have themselves furnished the most satisfactory evidence.

The second National Council of the Roman Catholic Hierarchy of the United States met at Baltimore in October, 1866-nearly two years after the Encyclical and Syllabus were issued. It was composed of seven archbishops and forty bishops, besides a number of the superiors of religious orders, and was presided over by Archbishop Spalding, of Baltimore, as "apostolic delegate" representing the pope, and thus giving to the assembly as much weight and influence within its jurisdiction as if the pope had been personally present. In theory it represented the great body of the Roman Catholic laity in the United States; practically, it took no note of them or of their opinions. It was assembled for a special work-to respond to the Encyclical and Syllabus; and it did it, to the " great comfort and consolation" of the pope. It would have been unnatural for him to have felt otherwise at thus seeing the ranks of the papal army closing up, and at knowing how well he had succeeded in inaugurating a conflict between the imperial dogmas of the papacy and the fundamental principles of American govern

ment.

In the pastoral letter issued by this Council, the relation of the Roman Catholic Church to the government and laws

of this country is discussed. There is a tone of ecclesiastical authority and command employed by its authors which tends to show an impression existing in their minds that they were addressing an auditory not accustomed to question their authority or controvert their propositions. Hence, they proceed, without indirection, to lay it down as an axiom in the science of all government, not to be disputed, that the civil power is never absolute or independent. Inasmuch as "all power is of God," there must exist some delegated authority upon earth, which, representing God, must constitute the tribunal of last resort. Upon this tribunal alone all absolute power is conferred, no matter what the form of government. If it be a monarchy, the king must be held in subjection to it; and if a democracy, the people must be taught that it is above them. With this as the beginningpoint of their theory, substantially expressed, though not in these words, they declare that obedience to the civil power of government "is not a submission to force which may not be resisted, nor merely the compliance with a condition for peace and security; but a religious duty founded on obedience to God, by whose authority the civil magistrate exercises his power." This power of the civil magistrate, being subordinate and delegated power, they insist, "must always be exercised according to God's law." And, therefore, "in prescribing any thing contrary to that law, the civil power transcends its authority, and has no claim on the obedience of the citizen," because it "never can be lawful to disobey God;" or, as a necessary and logical result, those to whom, as custodians of his power on earth, he has delegated the divine right to govern. Founding their theory of government upon this idea, they proceed to show how differently the principle operates in "the Catholic system" and in the Protestant system. In the latter, according to them, “the individual is the ultimate judge of what the law of God commands or forbids;" while in the former, "the Catholic has a guide in the Church, as a divine institution, which enables him to discriminate between what the law of God forbids or allows;" so that when the Church shall instruct him that any particular law of the state is contrary to God's law, he is thereby forbidden to pay obedience to it. Ac

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tomed to ques sitions. Hence, down as an ar e disputed, that ent. Inasmuch some delegated od, must constitribunal alone hat the form of must be held in people must be the beginning. , though not in the civil power which may not a condition for nded on obedi agistrate exer gistrate, being "must always therefore, "in he civil power the obedience ul to disobey ose to whom, Lelegated the y of govern v differently ' and in the them, "the aw of God e Catholic which enf God for truct him to God's

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CONFLICT WITH CIVIL INSTITUTIONS.

45

cording to the Protestant system, in their opinion, the state is exposed to disorder and anarchy, because the authority by which it is governed has no warrant for its character as divine. The reverse they insist to be the case in the "Catholic system;" and, therefore, because it has this divine authority in the Church and not in itself, "the state is bound to recognize" the Roman Catholic Church as the sole depository of the delegated power to decide what laws shall be obeyed and what disobeyed; for the obvious reason that the world, in order to obey God, must recognize that Church -that is, the pope and his hierarchy-" as supreme in its sphere of morals, no less than dogmatic teaching."

It requires no pause for reflection to see how directly a "Catholic system" of government, thus constructed, would conflict with the existing civil institutions of the United States. Nor do we need a prophet to tell us that the establishment of such a system here would be followed by their immediate destruction. To permit a church-any churchto decide upon the validity or invalidity of our laws after their enactment, or to dictate, beforehand, what laws should or should not be passed, would be to deprive the people of all the authority they have retained in their own hands, and to make such church the governing power, instead of them. Yet, understanding this perfectly well, and, evidently, contemplating the time when they might possibly be able to bring about this condition of affairs, these papal representatives directly assail a principle which has been universal in all our State governments, from their foundation; that which regulates by law the holding of real estate by churches and other corporations, and requires them to conform, in this temporal matter, to the statute-laws of the States. To this there could be no reasonable or just objection, had they invoked the rightful power to change, alter, amend, or even to abrogate the obnoxious laws, for this would have been only the exercise of the admitted right of free discussion, secured as well to them as others. But they, manifestly, had no such idea in view, inasmuch as, according to them, that method of procedure belongs to the Protestant and not the "Catholic system" of government. To exclude the impression that they design to look to any other authority than

that of the papacy for the relief they seek, they take especial pains to say that they "are not as yet permitted legally to make those arrangements for the security of church property which are in accordance with the canons and discipline of the Catholic Church!" that is, that the canons and discipline of their Church, issued from the Vatican at Rome, by the pope and Roman curia, are not permitted to override and nullify the laws of the States! The plain import of this is, that all the laws of the States concerning the rights of the Roman Catholic Church, and regulating the manner in which it shall hold and enjoy property, have "no claim on the obedience" of the Roman Catholic citizen, because they are not "in accordance with the canons and discipline of the Catholic Church" and the papal decrees. Such a system of government, put into practical operation, would amount to this, that conformity to the " canons and discipline" of that Church would be the test of all laws, and none would be binding except those pronounced obligatory by the pope. The "divine right" of the pope to govern the people, through his hierarchy, would be fully recognized, and the right of self-government would be at an end.

The right of holding real estate and accumulating large wealth, after the manner of the Roman Catholic Church and monastic orders of Europe, the American hierarchy regard as of so much importance to the success of their ecclesiastical organization, that this Baltimore Council declared that to withhold it is to deprive their Church “of a necessary means of promoting the end for which she has been established." They declare that "she can not accept " the principles upon which the American laws are based "without departing from her practice from the beginning," because they are the expression of a distrust of ecclesiastical power. And, to leave no doubt whatever about their meaning, they insist that the States have no more right to impose on their Church "a system of holding her temporalities, which is alien to her principles," than they have to "prescribe to her the doctrines she is to teach ;" and they solemnly enter their "formal protest" against all such legislation, notwithstanding the laws they protest against exist in all the States, and embody a principle deliberately con

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