BISHOP MORAN FUMES.

Evening Star, Issue 8774, 15 March 1892, Page 3

BISHOP MORAN FUMES.

10 THU BDI'XOB. Sir,— Bishop Moran waxed warm in his wrath at Invercargill the other day over Collier’s remarks on indulgences. “ To raise funds for tho building, Leo X. sent out monks to sell indulgences. They were first invented by Urban 11. in the days cf the C usades. The people thought that this money paid for these pieces of parchment would buy for them the righteousness of saints.” These sentences, said the bishop, “contained three notorious falsehoods and grievous calumnies on the Catholic Church,” which, he further contended, had been “ denied, repudiated, and refuted a thousand times." He then denied that his church does, or ever did, "sell indulgences.’’ Unfortunately for this leader of the people there are to-day documents in existence which confirm Collier, and confute Moran—documents which bear the imprimatur of the Popes of Rome, who are much superior in authority to Dr Moran. In A D. 1500 Pope Alexander VI. commissioned Jasper Powe, D. D., to sell those articles in England. The commission was contained in a bull, preserved in Weaver’s ‘Menu ments,’ in which we read: “ The articles of the bull of the holy jubilee of full remission and great joy, granted to the realm of England, Wales, Ireland, Jersey and Guernsey, and other places under the subjection of King Henry VII, to be distributed according to the full meaning of our Holy Father unto the king’s subjects.” It goes on to say that, “whereas His Holineis provides for all such perils and jeopardies as may fall to the king’s subjects by granting great indulgence and remission of aim and trespasses, and whereas His Holiness considers the infinite number of people, both spiritual and temporal, who were desirous to have had the said remission in the holy year just passed—that is to say, the year of the remission of all sins, etc., etc. , . . and now feel anxious to obtain and purchase tho said remission of all sins, etc., etc., shall have for them and their households . . . first compounding effectually with the commissioner or his deputy for the same, and thereby putting into the chest such gold or silver as may be ordered by the Right Rev. Father in God, Jasper Powe.” To carry out this scheme of indulgences cheats were made and placed in every church in the realm, and the amounts ordered by Dr Powe were arranged on the following scale : Any person having lands to the yearly value of L 2.000, must pay L 3 7a 8d; those having LI,OOO had to payL2; those having L4OO paid LI 6s 8d; under L2OO and over L2O, Is; those who had less than that were to pay according to their generosity and devotion. I presume Pope Alexander’s bull can be no falsehood or calumny, nor can it be denied or refuted. What, then, of Bishop Moran’s accusation ? He is evidently at fault in his history. Of the third sentence, he says Collier is wrong, because “ the church teaches, and always has taught, that a person in a state of sin or unrighteousness can derive no benefit from an indulgence.” But that does not affect Collier’s assertion. He says “ the people thought,” etc.; and he is perfectly correct. The language of tho above bull gives reason for the belief that an indulgence grants “ remission of all sins.” Berthold, the Franciscan, makes this very charge against the practice, that it deceives the people. He calls the sellers of indulgences “ penny preachers,” and says: “Fie on thee, penny preachermurderer of the whole world 1 How many souls dost thou, for the sake of thy false gain, seduce from true repentance and cast to the bottom of Hell, beyond all reach of help ? Thou promisest a large indulgence for a penny or a farthing, so that many thousands foolishly imagine they have expiated all their sins with their penny or their farthing, as thou snufflest out to them. Those are the words of a devout Roman Catholic, not a Protestant; and they contradict Bishop Moran, while they endorse Collier. Dr Moran has erred In his passion. Against what Collier says of the origin of indalgences the bishop is no more accurate than on the other two sentences. He says indulgences are “as old as the Catholic Church—as Christianity.” Now, students of ecclesiastical history are aware that the system of indulgences, or fines, was copied from the Northern nations, amongst whom criminals could, by paying stated fines, fixed according to the character of the crime committed, purchase their exemption from punishment. This was introduced to ohnrob discipline about the fifth century, and grew in favor with the clergy until they found at last it was a ready means of raising money,

At first the money was devoted to ptovidlng for the poor, then for the ransom of captives, then for defraying the expenses of church services, and so on until it was found to be an easy way to raise funds for erecting churches, etc. , .. D If things are not so now in the Roman Catholic Church, why do they not honestly allow history to tell its story of the post, and try to show by their present modes of conducting their affairs that things are better now? Bishop Moran should know that he cannot afford to stir up these old records—they tell too severely against him when honestly related. He should, therefore, let them rest. He may make his followers believe what he says, but there are men in the colony who have a better knowledge of the facts on which history rests than the impetuous bishop. It is unwise of him to criticise and denounce where he has to diverge from the lines of veracity to make a case.— l am, etc., Histobicoe. Dunedin, March 14.