Sermons of the Rev. Francis A. Baker, Priest of the Congregation of St. Paul: With a Memoir of His LifeBaker, Francis A. (Francis Aloysius)
Religion
Sermons of the Rev. Francis A. Baker, Priest of the Congregation of St. Paul: With a Memoir of His Life
Baker, Francis A. (Francis Aloysius)
Baker, Francis A. (Francis Aloysius), 1820-1865; Catholic Church -- Sermons; Sermons, American -- 19th century
opposition to Rome, one portion of them progressed continually,
and another remained stationary or retrograded, thus producing
separation and division in the ranks. What I wish to show now is,
that those who progressed were logically compelled to do so by
the principles of the movement itself, and that those who
remained stationary, although they held a position which was
necessary to the maintenance of Anglicanism, were illogical and
inconsequent.
The advocates of the claim of the Church of England to be the
only legitimate and Catholic Church in England, and of the same
claim for the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States,
were obliged to make out some case against the bishops of these
two countries who were under the jurisdiction of the Roman See
and who proclaimed themselves to be the only lawful and Catholic
bishops, sustained as they were in this claim by all the other
bishops of Western Christendom.
{41}
The possession of the titles and temporalities of the ancient
sees in England by the Established Church naturally suggested the
plausible pretext that the Church of England of to-day is the
legitimate successor of the Church of England before the
separation under Henry VIII. Hence, other bishops, exercising
episcopal functions within the dioceses of the bishops of the
Church of England, are schismatical intruders, and their
congregations are schismatical. The same principle was extended
to the United States, on the plea that the Bishop of London had
episcopal jurisdiction over the English colonies, and moreover
that the Protestant Episcopal bishops were first on the ground,
and had acquired possession before the "Romish" bishops, as they
chose to call them, came. Now this theory is forced to answer one
question: Are the bishops of France, Spain, &c., the legitimate
Catholic bishops of those countries, and is their communion the
true and only Catholic Church there, or not? Is this question
answered in the affirmative? Then, who are the Catholic bishops
in Canada, Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, Texas, and California?
Who went first to China and India? Are the Anglican bishops in
these places schismatical intruders or not? If not, why not? And
if not, why are Roman Catholic bishops schismatical intruders in
London and New-York? The Protestant Episcopal Churches of England
and the United States pay no attention whatever to any claim of
jurisdiction by the Catholic Church in any part of the world, but
seek to thrust themselves in and make converts wherever they can.
In order to justify this attitude, and at the same time to
profess Catholic principles, it is necessary to maintain that the
entire Roman communion is schismatical and heretical, and the
Protestant Episcopal Church is the true and only Catholic Church,
at least in Western Christendom.
{42}
This idea is the real _animus_ of the Protestant Episcopate,
and its highest expression is found in the opinion so common
among Protestants, and held even by Mr. Newman some years after
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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