Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 69, No. 427, May, 1851Various
General
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 69, No. 427, May, 1851
Various
England -- Periodicals; Scotland -- Periodicals
It is admitted by the best advocates for leaving this aggression to
itself, that the Roman Catholic religion is dangerous; that, if it
could recover its political ascendency, another Marian persecution
would follow. It is said that, although it never renounces anything
to which it had once committed itself, that times and circumstances
are changed; that the coercion which made it more dangerous has been
relinquished by Governments. Emancipation, if it has not changed
its character, has rendered it innocuous. And it is asked, What has
occurred since emancipation? The question may well create surprise.
What has occurred! Has Ireland acquired the promised peace, the absence
of rebellions, the discontinuance of denunciations from altars, and
murders, which a shamefully palliating press almost excuse by naming
"_agrarian_?"
True, indeed, is it that the Papacy renounces nothing of all it ever
claimed, however it has renounced its creeds. This obstinacy delayed
Roman Catholic Emancipation twenty-five years, because the suggestion
of allowing the Crown a veto in the nomination of bishops was treated
with scorn. Every Popish priest, says Blackstone, renounces his
allegiance to his lawful sovereign upon taking orders. That he may
more substantially, more effectually do so, the attempt is made to
substitute their canon law for the law of the land. And here we see
one great object of the aggression. The so-called Cardinal Wiseman
alleged that the object of the Pope's brief was to introduce the "real
and complete code of the Church; that, for this purpose, the Roman
Catholics must have a hierarchy; that the canon law was inapplicable
under vicars-apostolic; that, besides, there were many points that
required to be synodically adjusted; and that, without a metropolitan
and suffragans, a provincial synod was out of the question." What
are these points to be so adjusted--requiring this extraordinary
organisation, but that this kingdom, in the fustian simile of the
Cardinal, is to be restored as a planet to roll round the centre, the
Pope? But this centre is no fixed sun, disseminating its certain and
seasonable heat. The comparison will not hold with Popery, that is only
the _semper eadem_ in one course--that of perpetual aggression; of
one only law--domination. Are its creeds one and the same consistent
unerring faith from the beginning? Creeds have been thrown off that
implied a submission, or even subscription, to the creeds of the
ancient church, that were built upon the authority of the Scriptures
and the Apostles. All things of doctrine and authority must have
their real origin in, and arise _primo motu_ from, the Papacy. St
Peter himself, from whom the succession is claimed, is discarded;
the inspired dictum of a present Pontiff is all-sufficient. There is
a law now for all this, unknown to the Apostles, not sanctioned in
the Gospels; they call it the law of "development." It is not a new
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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