THE ARCHBISHOP OF POSEN.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume I, Issue 53, 2 May 1874, Page 7

THE ARCHBISHOP OF POSEN.

Cablegrams tell us that this venerable prelate and illustrious confessor has been deprived of his See by the German Government. This is uutiue. Neither the German, nor any other Civil Government, can deprive a Bishop of his See. The Pope — the Vicar of Christ — and he alone, has power to take away his diocoae from a Bishop. That the German Go-

vernment has striven tp usurp fcEe jurisdiction of the Church and pf the Holy See, and insanely attempted to degrade this great Archbishop, there is no doubt whatever. This parvenu Government has confiscated His Grace's property, and meanly withheld his revenues ; has cast him into prison, and in every way impeded him in the exercise of his jurisdiction and the discharge of his duties, and procured the sentence of his deposition in its law courts. Ail this is also true ; but it is powerless to make him cease to be Archbishop of Posbn in reality, in fact, and in effect. The Archbishop of Posen holds his Sec by authority of the Church, and not of the German Government ; and let the tyranny of that Government be ever so great, Archbishop of Posen he still is, and will continue to be in spite of and in defiance of the German Emperor ; and he is, and will be acknowledged as such, not only by the universal Church, but by all the faithful in Posen, and throughout the newly-constituted Empire. What has Prince Bismarck, and his followers, gained by this proceeding? Two thousand pounds sterling per annum ! and, in addition-, the indignation and disaffection of millions of honest men. With all hi 3 victorious soldiers, and enormous power, the German Emperor is unable to conquer one Bishop ! or to compel one diocese to become either heretical or schismatical.