St Jerome says:--“If the master or bishop prescribes what is not contrary to the faith or the Scriptures, the servant should obey. But if he commands what is contrary to these, we must rather obey the Master of the soul, than the master of the body.” And in another place he adds:--“If the emperor orders you, to do that which is good, execute the will of the emperor; should he require you to do ill, answer, ‘It is better to obey God than men.’” St Augustin also says, in his _Sermon on the Words of the Lord_:--“If my earthly presence commands that which you ought not to do, despise this power, and fear a higher one. Consider the different degrees of human power. Do you obey the under officer, if the proconsul orders you the contrary? And if the proconsul orders you to do one thing, and the emperor another, would you attempt to disobey the latter for the former? If the emperor commands you to do that which is prohibited by God, despise the emperor and obey God. We ought, then, to resist the power of the devil or of men, when they suggest any thing against God; and in doing so, we resist not, but obey even God’s commands.” Such are the sentiments of St Augustin. Gregory also says, in his last _Treatise on Morality_:--“Know, therefore, that evil should never be done from mere obedience.” St Bernard writes in one of his letters:--“To do evil after the orders of any one, is not to obey, but to disobey.” And St Isidore maintains, that if he who is in authority does and orders a thing which is not according to the Lord, or violates the written law, and orders it to be overstepped, to him ought to be applied these words of St Paul: “If an angel should descend from heaven, and preach to you a gospel different from that which we preach, let him be accursed!” He also declares, that whoever forbids you to do what is commanded by the Lord, ought to be held in execration by all who love the Lord--he ought to be regarded as a false witness and a sacrilegious person. It would appear from these words, that these names are applicable to those who interdict the preaching of the Divine Word, and that such persons are excommunicated according to the words of the Prophet, “Cursed be those who resist thy commandments!” Jerome expresses the same feeling as is experienced by myself, when he thus writes to Rusticus, Bishop of Narbonne:--“Let no bishop abandon himself to envy and anger, through an infernal jealousy, because the priests exhort the people, preach in the churches, and bless the multitude.” I declare, then, to those who prohibit me to do these things, that he who interdicts priests from doing that which God commands, professes himself to be superior to Jesus Christ.