LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
Tat CATHOLIC DOCTRINE OF REBELLION.
(TO THE EDITOR OP THE BrourAros."1
Srn,—In the "News of the Week" in your issue of January 18th, Iobserve the following statement with reference to the
Pope's recent Encyclical :—" He [the Pope] lays it down that a Government, however bad, is never to be resisted, except it require from its subjects that which is rebellion against God." Will you, allow me to observe that this proposition is not contained: in the Encyclical, and that it is opposed to the teach- ing of the greatest-theologians. Leo XHI.'s words are as follows : "Si tamen quandoque contingat temere et ultra modum publicam a Principibus potestatem exerceri, catholicae Ecclesiae doctrina in me' insurgere proprio marte non sinit, ne ordinis tranquillitas magis magisque turbetur, neve societas mains exinde detrimentum capiat. Cumque res eo- devenerit ut nulla alia spas salutis affnlgeat, docet christianae patientiae merit% et instantibus ad Deum precibtur re- madium ease maturandunned si legislatorum ac principnm plaeita, santiverMt ant insserint quod divinae ant natarali legi repugnet, christiani nominis dignities et officium atque Apostolica sententia-suadent obediendum ease magis Deo gum hominibus."
What the Pope here says is, in effect, this,—that if it should chance that, the: power of the State is exercised by Rulers rashly and-immoderately, the teaching of the Catholic Church does not authorise private persons—observe the force of the words "pro- prio marte "—to say," Go to, let us make a revolution ;" and that should things come to such a pass that no other hope of deliver- ance dawns (the Prussian persecution, we may well believe to have been in the Pontiff's mind), patience and earnest prayer will hasten a remedy. He adds, that in case legislators or rulers command anything against the divine or natural law, the dignity and duty of the Christian name, and the precept of the Apostle, are reasons for obeying God rather than man.
This certainly falls very far short of the proposition "that a Government, however bad, is never to be resisted, except it re- quire from its subjects that which is rebellion against God,"— a proposition- which is identical with the doctrine of passive obedience taught by the Anglican divines of the Laudian school. That doctrine, like the doctrine of the immediate divine right of kings, of which it is a. corollary, is an invention of sixteenth- century Protestantism ; it has never been countenanced by Rome or by any school of Catholic theology, except the half- schismatic G-allican, and is directly opposed to the teaching of St. Thomas, Bellarmine, and Suarez.—I am, Sir, &c., P.S.—Those of your readers who may care to investigate the question of the right of resistance to the civil power, will find the authorities collected in Essay xiv. of Hergenrother's very learned workupon "The Catholic Church and Christian State," of which an excellent English translation is now available. At the risk of inordinately prolonging my letter, I venture to quote the following specimen of St. Thomas's teaching :—
"'Regimen tyrannicum non eat jastum, quia non orffinatur ad bonum commune, sed ad bonnm privatnm regentis, nt patet per philosophnm, et ideo perturbatio hnjus regiminis non habet rationem sedition% nisi forte, Tian& sic inordinate perturbatur tyranni regimen, quod multitado subject& majns detrimentum patitnr ex perturbatione consequenti quam ex tyranni regimine : magis autem tyrannus seditiosns est, qui in popnlo sibi snbjecto discordias nutrit ct seditiones,ut tutirts dominari possit."—" Summa," 2,2, q. 42, a. 2, ad. 3.
I should add that St. Thomas has left us in no doubt as to his conception of a "tyrant." He expressly defines him in another place as one " qui sua commoda ex regimine quaetit, non antem -bon= multitadinis sibi subjectir."—" De Regim. Prin.," lib i., c. 6.
I think I °tight to observe, too, that the resistance which the Airgelic beam. has in view is something very different from the popular revolutions of the nineteenth century, brought about, often on slight grounds, by political adventurers. Be contemplates the uprising of a nation in its strength, when all other means have failed, and the tyranny has become unbearable.
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