PAPAL AIMS AND PAPAL CLAIMS. pro THE EDITOR OF THE
"SPECTATOR."]
Si,—I beg to thank you for the opportunity offered me of replying to Mr. Chapman's objections in the Spectator
of December 206.
He will find the authoritiesfor the Roman Catholic "divine exemp- tion from error," &c., in Archbishop Whately's "Apostolic Succes- sion," p. 50; Cranmer's collection of "Tenets from Canon Law," Parker Edition, Vol. II., p. 68, collected from "Corpus Juris Canonici," Paris, 1687; and as bearing on the subject, "Catholic Belief," chap. 9, with preface by Cardinal Manning (Burns and Oaths) ; also "Infallibility of Roman Pontiff," by Manning ,(Longmans).
As to the second objection, I extract the actual words used in" Papal Aims and Papal Claims," p. 23. In the Roman Canon Law, in the Gloss on the " Extravagantes " of Pope John XXII, Tit. XPir., cap. iv., Paris, 1685, the words appear :—" To believe that Our Lord God the Pope' has not the power to decree as he has decreed is to be deemed heretical." Collette avers that the Popes have not entirely rejected the title, for the passage appears in the Canon Law, Rome, A.D. 1580, Gregory XIII. In the Index Expurgatorius of Pius V., although the erasure of many other passages is decreed, yet "Lord God the Pope" remains. In the Bull permitting no alteration or erasure this edition is annexed with the epithet extant. It again occurs in two editions at Lyons and in those of Paris. In the British Miseum in the Lugduni Edition "De Verb°. Signifi.," p. 154, cap. iv., "Lib. Sex. Decretalium. D. Johannis Pare XXII., 1584," I find the words, "Credere autem Dominum Deans nostrum Papam,"&c., &c., underlined. This edition has a note on the title-page "that it has been diligently revised and compared with the Roman edition." In the collection of Tenets before mentioned there appears this Canon:—" The Bishop of Rome can be judged of none but God, Forasmuch as he is called God, he may be judged of no man, for God may be judged of no man." I would also refer to the "Gravamina adver. synod. Trident. Ob Tyranniden Paine Argent. 1565." In the "Sacra Sancta Consilia," edited by the Jesuits Labbaeus and Ceased, Tom. XVI, Col. 109, Recto Paris, 1671, I see a speech is recorded, as spoken at the Fourth Lateran Council before Julius II. and a large gathering of cardinals and prelates, in which the speaker used the words, " Tu denique alter Deus in Terris." These were uttered in solemn conclave, and the speaker was neither rebuked nor the words repudiated. The Roman Catholic Univers of June 27th, 1846, gives a report of the Pope's installation which rather tends to intensify the claims. Collette, in quoting it, says:—" He is Placed on the High Altar, &a., Sus, a place consecrated by the actual body and blood, soul and divinity of the living Christ. He uses the High Altar as a footstool, enthroned as a King. He is adored as the consecrated wafer is adored—i.e. as a God. The Cardinals loss his feet which rest on the High Altar."
With regard te the statement "that he is Jesus Christ himself hidden in the flesh," this is a quotation from the
helieue National in its issue of July 13th, 1895, giving the words of the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Venice :— The Pope is not only the representative of Jesus Christ, bat he is • Jesus Christ Himself hidden under the veil of flesh. It is Jesus Christ who pronounces anathema or accords a favour, SO that when the Pope speaks we have no business to examine, W e have only to obey.' Bougaud, Bishop of Laval, on the Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, says :—" The Host is dumb. It ie, then, only half of yourself that is wanting to me, 0 my Saviour, and if only half of yourself is found in the Eucharist, it
in effect, in another place,—it is in the Vatican. It is in the
Pope. As we see Jesus in the Eucharist, E0 we see Jesus in the Pope." Space again forbids, but these statements are intensified passim in his chaps. 5, 6, 7, "De Christianisme." In Donovan's translation of the Trent Catechism, officially published at Rome A.D. 1839, Vol. L, p. 603, I find:-.-" Priests and Bishops are repro- sentatives of God Himself on earth. What more exalted funetiou, !cc. Justly are they called not onty Angels, but also Gods, holding as they do the power and majesty of God." In "Papal Aims," p. 25, I remark:—" A distinction must be drawn between statements of Romanists as to what they allege the Papal powers are, and as to what the Popes themselves claim. For instance, the Decretum is the basis of a study of the Canon Law made by Gratian, while the Gloss is a commentary mostly written by John the Teutonic. The words in brackets are said to have been interpolated. Many Roman Catholics repudiate this claim." The whole question was threshed out in the controversy between the Rev. J. Hitchens, D.D., Collette, and Smith, S.J. (See tracts, Catholic Truth and Protestant Alliance.) The Jesuit Father admits that the wcrds appear and "do not sound well," but he says it is just a kind of copyist's error ! But it is an error existing for some centuries, appearing in twelve editions (sic Collette), an stereotyped, as it were, in the edition of Gregory XIII. by his command and in his infallible Bull. Want of space forbids my touching on the claims Terrenus Deus and Constantine's appella- tion of God quoted by Nicholas I.
The statement as to condemning doctrines, logical, scien- tific, physical, &c., is to be found in an authorised Roman Catechism approved by Archbishop Gibbons A.D. 1885. As to the right of deposing Kings, "the Bishop of Rome may excommunicate Emperors and Princes, depose them from their States, and assoil their subjects from their oath and obedi- ence to them, and so constrain them to rebellion." See "Corpus Juris Canonici" under headings "Duo Sent," 259-6, "Alius Nos Sancterum," "Juratos," "In Clement de Haereticis," " Ut Officiuxu," &a., confirmed by Cardinal Manning, who states : "The right of deposing Kings is inherent in the supreme sovereignty which the Popes as Vicegerents of Christ exer- cise over all Christian nations.—"(" Essays on Religion and Literature," 1867, p. 416.) In his "Sermons on Ecclesiastical Subjects" he puts into the mouth of the Pope this reply to those who urged him to be reconciled to Liberalism : —" In His [Christ's] right I am sovereign. I acknowledge no civil superior and I claim more than this: I claim to be the supreme judge on earth and director of the consciences of men, of the peasant that tills the field and the prince that sits on the throne ; of the household that lives in privacy and the legislature that makes laws for kingdoms. I am the last supreme judge on earth of what is right and wrong."—(Burns and Oates, 1873, p. 27.) In the same essays (1867, p. 19) he wrote :—" The Royal Supremacy has perished by the law of mortality which consumes all earthly things. The Supremacy of the Vicar of Jesus Christ re-enters as full of life as when Henry VIII. resisted Clement, etc. The undying authority of the Holy See is once more an active power, etc., etc.. in England."
I see Mr. Chapman does not really deny that these claims are put forward by or on behalf of the Papacy, but he suggests that if a seeker after entrance to his Church should tell the priest that he believed "anything so blas- phemous and so senseless," he would be undoubtedly told that he was fit only for a lunatic asylum. I agree with Mr. Chap- man's opinion on the matter. Am I, therefore, to assume that all these high ecclesiastics and others whose authorities I have quoted either did not believe the statements they uttered, and therefore were hypocrites, or, believing them to be true, were fitted for that asylum which the sensible priest suggests? I leave the reverend Father to choose between the two alternatives. Should he not feel satisfied with the authorities quoted, I shall be happy to give him others, which tenderness for your space pre- cludes my now quoting.
Walton-on-Thames.
[As we allowed Mr. Chapman to challenge Mr. Man specifi- cally on points mentioned in a review, we feel obliged to allow Mr. Man the right to answer, even though his letter is some- what long. Beyond this attack and reply, however, the con- troversy cannot go, and we must decline on any consideration to print more letters on the points at issue.—En. Spectator.]
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