ANGLICANISM AND CATHOLICISM.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXIV, Issue 31, 27 November 1896, Page 21

ANGLICANISM AND CATHOLICISM.

(By the Very Rev. Theophiltjs Le Menant de Chesnais, R.M., being a reply to •■ Some thoujrhtH on Christian Reunion," London, Macrnillan and Co., 189.*), by the Ri^ht Rev. W. Boyd Carpenter, D.D.D.C.L., Bishop of Ripon, and Hon. Fellow of St. Catherine's College, Cambridge.) LECTURE 11. {('out inuul).

Let us now pass on to the next article of the Bishop of Ripon. IV. THE DUAL FORCE OF AUTHORITY. You say that '"The mere possession of power is not in human minds a sufficient ground ot legitimate authority. We may bow to it of necessity, but we do not acknowledge its rights. True and legitimate authority is met by the answering voice in its subject. The sense of authority, i.e. the consciousness that the voice which speaks has authority, is due to the co-operation of two factors. There is the power without and the soul within ; both must speak in order that the sense of authority may be complete. There must be two factors at work — the truth without and the recognition of the truth within — before the truth can make itself good to me. Till then its voice has no authority over me."' OBSERVATION. The authority itself is totally independent of its acceptation or rejection by the subject. "Whenever the authority is legitimate, the superior has a right to command and the inferiors have a co-relative obligation to obey ; their refusing to do so does not. in any way, affect the right of the superior. If authority depended on the acceptance of subjects, it would follow that the inferiors should have a right to scrutinise all the commands of their superiors before submitting to them and that they should obey only in such matters as they approve of, which would render every administration impossible and would lead to continual dissensions and rebellions. Indeed, we admit that superiors should endeavour to make their order acceptable to their subjects as tar as is possible and consistent with duty. When a legitimaie superior speaks to us. his voice is authoritative ; if we refuse to listen to it. we become rebels both m the sight of men and in the sjoht of God, as is evident from the texts of Scripture I have quoted and the other explanations I ha\ c given. When the authoritative \oice without finds an echo in the boul within, the authority is effectne lor both the superior and the subject ; when it is not heeded, though meft'ectne in the subject, it is none the less real to him. A^iun you say •■ In all spiritual societies, authority must justify itself . it can only become authority by such a revelation ot itself as may win the co-operation ot conscience, reason, intelligence. ' KEIM^. Outside the Catholic Church, there can be no legitimate spiritual authority. The proofs () j the divinity ot the Catholic Church may be comprehended bj all who are not biased by predudioe or passion, and they will certainly bring conviction to the mind. It prayers are joined to candid research ot the truth, the conversion is certain. Catholics \s ho have no doubts about the authority ot the Church or of the Roman Pontiff have no need of such an inquiry. a- we have aheady remarked. The mission of all the bit-hops and piiests of the Catholic Church can be most easily ascertained ivm liy mnor.inl persons. If the bishop of the diocese is in communion with the Pope, and the pastors of each Church in communion with their bishop- the faithful have all the guarantee they may reasonably require, that in listening to them they are obeying God. What more do they want ' The faithful are to be guided by their pastor-<. not the pastors by the faithful. The two factors spoken ot by your Loidship are always present and working harmoniously together. Then.' is the imperative voice without, and the assenting voice within. There ne\er is any conflict between them, because both have no other object but the glory of God and the obtaining of heavenly bliss. V. AUTHORITY IN RLLIOION. Whilst admitting that "God is the supreme authority" in a long article of twenty-tour pages you endeavour to show that the seat ot authority is God to the conscience of every particular Christian soul •• For all high conviction ot the soul, the co-operation and approval of the conscience is indispensable. That which appeals to the conscience must carry with it an authority which the conscience can accept, otherwise no approval is possible, so that the conscience can say: - I see." or "it is true" (p. r>2). '• You are not to believe, you cannot believe, either fisherman or doctor, if the assertion is contrary to truth, to the laws of your being, to the order and constitution ot the universe, in which you are living. They ma) repeat it till doomsday (p. .">(>)." Then, speaking ot Divine taitli. you remark : ■• God is its author. In the Christian economy it come-, to us by the Holy Spirit, who alone can reveal to us the things ot Christ, and who works in men that conviction which our Lord declared would be the special work of the comforter" (p. ">7). "The authority of conviction is the highest, the most indubitable w hich can reach the human soul " (p. .V.I). '• Private judgment in its true sense must mean the judgment of the individual ■understanding on the questions submitted to it. The exercise of this reason is a duty" (p. (>1). "No man ought to accept a proposition a- tiue without facing the question, is it true or not? To submit our reason to authority is to decline to ask this one important question ' (p- ♦»•"')■ It is surely fatal tor any Church to adopt the attitude which asks men to accept propositions and teaching which it cannot justify by evidence" (p- t> 7 )- ''The teaching of the Church must be tested by reason and evidence. Every particular or national Church has authority to ordain, change and abolish ceremonies or rites ordained by man's authority" (p. 6l>)

OBSERVATIONS AND REPLY. If you will look at your Bible from the Book of Genesis to the Apocalypse, you will see that God has never manifested His will to every particular soul, nor promised the guidance of His Holy Spirit to enable it to properly understand His revelation. He spoke to our first parents, to the patriarchs, to Moses, to the prophets. These made known to the people what God had said to them. Moses and the prophets, by the miracles they performed, showed that they were God's messengers, and commanded the people to believe what God had said. The Doctors of the Jewish Church and the High Priest were, by God's ordination, the sole interpreters of the law given to Moses on Mount Sinai. Our Blessed Lord came to teach us all what we want to know in order to obtain eternal bliss. He gave to His Apostles the spiritual authority necessary to make His doctrine acceptable to the faithful and enable them to reasonably believe it. This authority was handed down by the Apostles to their successors, in virtue of the powers they had received from Christ. This authority being Divine in its character, is independent of the civil power. Its sphere of action being purely spiritual, it can never clash with the prerogatives of kings, emperors, or presidents of a republic, whose object is to preserve life, property, and public order and advance the material prosperity of the country they represent. The spiritual authority of the Church, instead of militating against it, is its main support, by making people understand that it is the will of God that they should love, honour and obey their civil rulers and the legitimate representatives of the Divine Majesty in temporal matters. When princes embraced Christianity they understood this, and, even through human policy, they deemed it expedient to protect the Church. The reformers, in order to justify their rebellion against the authority of the Catholic Church, gratuitously affirmed that it was not granted by Jesus Christ to the pastors of the Church but to the body of the faithful. They maintained that pastors of souls are only the representatives of the Christian community and that they receive their power from it. This is an impious and unwarrantable assertion. What authority can you find in the Scriptures showing that our Blessed Lord gave to the body of the faithful commission to appoint ministers, to govern the pastors and to define their prerogatives ; you might as well say that children have a right to command their parent-*, soldier-- their general and subjects their sovereign. Having rejected the authority of the Church, the reformers claimed the protection of the ci\ ll power. The Lutherans, Anglicans and Calvinists. in monarchical countries, taught that God had given to kings and emperors the power to govern the Church : but in Republican States, thty preached that every authority came from the people This i evolutionary doctrine is the practical denial of ever.) dnino authority. It makes the Church the slave ot the State, having to conform to all the caprices and unjust exigencies ot state-men upon whom they depend, and having no freedom ot speech or ot action. Protestants generally admit that no bishop or clergyman can exen-i-e an\ ecclesiastical function ■without the sanction ot the State. Many Protestants deny ordination. The Calvinists. tor nistai.ce. maintain that e\ery man capable of teachmu m.iy be appointed pastor by the General Assembly. Anulicuis. although admitting the Episcopate i.s an apostolical and Divine institution, sij that bishops receive their character and spiritual privileges by tluir ordination, but that they receive from their -ou reign then jurisdiction, or the right to minister to the faithful m a ceit.un district or diocese, that is. they substitute the authority of the Crown tor the authority ot the Pope. Thih is a complete servihn. None can be appointed to bishoprics except they be pi rsinuc i/r-it <i . v\ illinn to be submissive to all the whims and deques ot the temporal ruler. \\ ho. as he muli s them, to use the words of Queen Lh/abeth. can also %n mah e them, and remove them trum theii post it they do not please him. How can such prelates be able to maintain the purity ot the Christian doctrine ? How can they rebuke princes and other statesmen for their immoral or tyrannical conduct, when ft is from them they receive their jurisdiction ' Presbyterians say that authority comes from the appointment ot the community, pai ticularly ot the elders. Thw is another servility. The elders who appoint the minister* are generally the influential men of the locality. In order to remain in office a minister mu4 be very careful not to displease them and dissemble their vices and criminal conduct. Does not this show, my Lord, that the Church ot Christ, in spiritual matters, and in the appointment of her pastors, must be entirely independent of civil authority, to the end that v, orthy pastors may be set over the faithful, who will preach truth without tear of the rank or quality ot the offenders? The Catholic teaching is: (1) That neither princes nor the laity can give to pastors ot souls any spiritual authority. " Potestatis s c ecularis non est regere ecclesiam, (Vat.'' Counc. sess. iv. c. \V). The ecclesiastical authority is derival from God. not from the people (" Pote-tas ecclesiastica confertur desuper, non a plebe " (Cone. Trid. Sess. xxiii. cap. A. can. 7). The ecclesiatical jurisdiction is given by the Church, not by magistrates, parliaments or princes. •• Potestas ecclesia^tica contertur ab eccle-ia, non a magistratu chili ' (Cone. Trid. Ses^. xxiii. can. 7. Cone. Vat. viii. 2Ui. 27.".. 275. Mr,, 42.".). (2) That the ecclesiastical mission is valid, apart from the consent ot the people or secular authority. " Missio ecclesiastica est valida sine populi et potestatis s.ccularis consensu (Cone. Trid. Sess. xxiii. can. 4. can 7). (;<) Ecclesiastical authority is from God. not from men; it is neve granted to the laity, ecclesiastics and the laity form two separat order-, quite distinct from oul another : the pastors are the divinely appointed teachers and guides of the laity in spiritual things, even ot kings and emperors, who are all obliged to obey God and Jesus Christ Hisbelo\ed Son. and can never ha\e a right to command them or dictate to them what they are to do, or what they are to t.ach. It is to the Apostles, not to the community or princes Christ entrusted the care of His flock. He commanded the faithful to hear them and to be guided by them. Xt Paul declares that bishops are appointed, not by the State or the people, but by the Holy Ghost, not to be led by the State or the people, but to guide them to their

feternal destiny and remind them of their duties and warn them of their defects and errors. No one is to be raised to the episcopal or priestly dignity without being called by God, as Jesus called His twelve Apostles (Luke v. l(i., John xx. 21, Math, xxviii. ltf., Hebrew xiii. 1 7). (4) The Apostles never consulted princes or civil rulers or the community about the laws they framed. They spoke as having authority and power to command (Acts. xv. (i). The early Christian Fathers recommended the faithful to obey their bishops. Many of the reformers being only Laymen, or simple priests, or apostate monks in rebellion against their bishops, in order to justify their conduct, had to teach that a Divine mission was not necessary to fulfil the functions of the ministry. Anglicans who preserved the hierarchy, but said the Roman Pontiffs had lost their privileges by teaching error and encouraging superstition. assumed, without any proof, that their own bishops had inherited their privileges, contrary to Scriptural evidence, ecclesiastical history and the belief of all Christendom previous to the lamentable English Schism of the sixteenth century, commenced by Henry VIII and completed under Elizabeth. However, as there can be no exercise of authority without jurisdiction, they affirm that whether the authority comes from God or not, it cannot be exercised without the sanction of the State, and that no degrees of Popes, councils or bishops can have any value except when approved by the State. Is not the this placing the State above the Church, and leaving to statesmen, kings, queens and emperors or parliament, to decide what people are to believe and what they are to do .' Can there be a servility greater than this .' If no decision of Popes, councils or bishops can have any value except when accepted by the civil authority, no matter by what name you may call it, when the civil authority is the supreme and ultimate judge of all matters of faith and morals, then nothing can be called good except what is approved of by the State, and nothing is evil but what is condemned by it : virtue consists in obeying the State and sin in acting in opposition to its bidding and dictation. With this theory, one may worship the sun in Persia, practise polygamy in Turkey and be guided by the Koran, and adore the demon under the most hideous forms in China, Africa and other parts of the world. You see. my Lord, whither the submission of the Church to the State may lead if the principles of the Church, as by law established, were admitted as an absolute truism. (s_) It is a mischievous error to say, as you do, my Lord (p. (in). '• No man ought to accept a proposition as true without tacing the question, is it true or not ? To submit our reason to authority is to decline to ask this important question. Re;is(.n may and should as-k • Ha-- (Jod said it .' Doos the Church, appointed by Him to teach and guide us. teach it .' if so, it is certainly true, no matter whether I can disco\er it or not, because the authority of Clod and of His Church which is infallible is far greater and more safe than the light of my private, fallible reason, (ti) We are not to believe a thing because we understand it, because it seems to us wise, prudent, etc., but we are to judge that it is so because it comes from God who, being infinitely holy, can only command Avhat is true, and being infinitely good. He can only command what is advantageous to us. and calculated to promote His external glory, the good of our follow creatures-, or our own individual material or spiritual welfare. Faith is to believe, on the authority of God, whatever He has revealed ; to believe what we understand or approve of is not Divine faith at all. (<>) The Holy Spirit, my Lord, doe^ not guide, as you state. e\ery individual soul, but He guides the pastors of the Church and the Pope in his magisterial declarations in faith and morals', binding on .ill the faithful, so that they cannot teach error or approve of w rong. Your objections, my Lord, against the supremacy and infallibility of the Church and the Roman Pontiff. I shall examine in my next lecture.