CHALKING UP "NO POPERY."

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 95, 20 February 1875, Page 9

CHALKING UP "NO POPERY."

■!-+ London, November 9.— Mi-. Gladstone, as Lord John Eussell one© did, has chalked up "No Popery " on the door. He has not yet rua away around tlie corner, but he shows signs of an intention to make his escape in that manner. Evil associations corrupt good manners; Mr. Gladstone has been to Munich, in company with Lord Acton, and Dr. Dollinger has inspired him with the malice, envy, iad tmcharitableness which he displays in the pamphlet that -was published to-day, and which has for its ostensible purpose to show that Catholics cannot be^loyal citizens. But why ? Only because they consider themselves bound to obey God rather than man. Dr. Ddllinger and Lord Acton have made Mr. Gladstone believe that the decrees of the Vatican Council imposed upon us poor priest-ridden slaves a new yoke, but with amazing inconsistency he admits that the Church had maintained the doctrines which were formulated at the Vatican Council, for 1000 years. The simple explanation of Mr. Gladstone's assault upon the Church is this — He is out of office, and he is miserable. How can he return to power? Mr. Disraeli has made himself the especial champion of Protestantism by espousing the Bill to put down the Eitualists in the Anglican Church — and Mr. Gladstone wishes to outbid him. He went to Munich — there Dr. Dsllinger poured poison into his ears. He made Mr. Gladstone believe that while the Catholic Church was holy, its head, the Pope, was a devil ; and that he -ittight win over all the English Catholics by alternately coaxing and alarming them. He must coax them by telling them that they were splendid fellows and good Englishmen, and that the Pope had imposed upon them a cruel yoke ; he must alarm them by threatening them with a revival of the Penal Laws unless they declared themselyes independent of the Pope, and,

became even as Dr. Dollinger is. Thus inspired, he wrote his now bXK l E2K L "V*" CaUsed a eat commotS «£n fSifSf -T %Hl tle t0 ° t^Parent. Every one who has seen through it, and the most influential of the daily iournals expose its real meaning. The Archbishop of Westminster lost no J^Lw repelling the assault made upon the Church. The pamphlet appeared on Saturday— and on Monday morning the following letter from the Archbishop was published in all the leading journals : — "Sib— The gravity of the subject on which I address you, affecting, as it must, every Catholic in the British Empire, wUL I hope, obtain from your courtesy the publication of this letter. v a ««,T ! n mOnUI1? I ,f c . ei J ed a copy of a pamphlet, entitled "The Vatican Decrees in their bearing on Civil Allegiance." I found in appeal to myself, both for the office 8 1 hold, and for the wSE.™ T WS^' I gladly the duty that lies upon me for both those reasons. lam bound by the office I tl a d^ £ without re P ell i n g from the Catholics of this country the slightest imputation upon their loyalty ; and, for my teaching, I am ready to show that the principles I have ever taught are beyond impeachment upon that score. It is true, indeed, that in page 57 of the pamphlet Mr. Gladstone expresses his belief « that many of his Roman Catholic friends and fellow-countrymen" are, "to say the least of it, as good citizens as himself" But, as the whole pamphlet is an elaborate argument to prove that the teaching of the Vatican Council renders it impossible for them to be so, I cannot accept this graceful acknowledgement, which implies that they are good citizens because they are at variance with the Catholic Church I should be wanting in duty to the Catholics of this country and to myself, if I did not give a prompt contradiction to this statement, and if I did not with equal promptness affirm that the loyalty of our allegiance is not in spite of the teaching of the Catholic Church, but because of it. „ The , sum ° f th £ ar g um ent in the pamphlet just published to the world is this : That, by the Vatican decrees, such a change his been made in the relations of Catholics to the civil power of States that it is no longer possible for them to render the same undivided cml allegiance as it was possible for Catholics to render before the promulgation of those decrees. In answer to this, it is for the present sufficient to affirm : „, lm . £ ha * * he Vatican decrees have in no jot or title changed either the obligations or the conditions of civil allegiance c i?V.u • £. the civi J aUe S ia nce of Catholics is as undivided as that m r 1 V~ istians ' and of aU men wno recognize a divine or natural 3. That the civil allegiance of no man is unlimited ; and therefore the civil allegiance of all men who believe in God, or are governed by conscience, is in that sense divided. .. n * hi , s 1 sense ' and in no otheT > can it *» c said with truth that the civil allegiance of Catholics is divided. The civil allegiance of every Christian man in England is limited by conscience; and the law of God ; and the civil allegiance of Catholics is limited neither less nor more. • i.v The ?1? 1 i bl j c peace of the Bri tish Empire has been consolidated i in the last half -century by the elimination of religious conflicts and ! inequalities from our laws. The Empire of Germany might have been equally peaceful and stable if its statesmen had not been tempted in an evil hour to rake up the old fires of religious disunion. The hand of one man, more than any other, threw this torch of discord into the German Empire. The history of Germany wiU record the name of Doctor Ignatius von Dollinger as the author of this national evil. I lament not only to read the name, but to trace the arguments, of Dr. von Dollinger in the pamphlet before me. May God preserve these kingdoms from the public and private calamities which are visibly impending over Germany ! The author of the pamphlet, in his first line, assures us that Ms purpose is not polemical, but pacific." lam sorry that so eood an intention should have so widely erred in the selection of the means. But my purpose is neither to criticise nor to controvert. My desire and my duty as an Englishman, as a Catholic, and as a pastor, is to claim for my flock and for myself, a civil allegiance as pure, as true, and as loyal as is rendered by the distinguished author of the pamphlet, or by any subject of the British Empire.— l remain, Sir, your faithful servant, t Henkt Edward, Archbishop of Westminster. November 7.—' Catholic Review/