The Express.
London, England, 1852-09-11 00:00:00

• ••,v4

which the sacerdotal love of domination pureness its
untiring work of grasping aadirgyeasion...Sepuled
to day, it prepares to mum* the stinggli for ascen-
dancy to-morrow. Na' est any length et.tinie
during which a nation or a government may have
enjoyed the immunities of emancipation from its
sway, extinguish in the ecclesiastical heart the fond
hope of being able to weave again the potent
though impalpable web of spiritual suojuga-
tiou. In Germany, ere yet the heaving of the
revolutionary tide had subsided in 1849, a Synod was
held at Wurzburg, wherein were represented nearly
all the separate churches between the Alps and the
Baltic in communion with Rome; and by its resolu-
tions a common course of policy was adopted by them
all, having fir its object the abnegation of all contra-
by the temporal power, whatever that might be, over
the properties or privileges of the clerical body. The
Joscphisn laws of Austria and the more recent con-
cordats established between the Holy See and
Prussia, Bavaria, and other states, were lOW /We
denounced as irreligious encroachments on the
di% ino feof, which had once in unqualified in-
tegrity been held by the bishops and clergy
of an unschismatic world. Measures were
then and there systematically commenced for
the recovery of many lofty powers, which had
either been partitioned with Protestants after the
Reformation, or sequestrated by the temporal autho-
rity for the skit of its own peace, and that of its
subjects generally. And strange u it may appear,
throughout all southern and central Germany the
decrees of the council of Wurzburg have already
been acknowledged and admitted by the despotic
rulers of those regions. Prussia still wavers; bat
among her neighbours, not only has the supreme
control over education been surrendered to the
Roman clergy, but their veto and interference in • '
variety of concerns long secularised there as here—
and affecting directly and necessarily the pease of i
families, the legitimacy of offspring, and the trans-
mission of property—have been abjectly recognised
as lawful and requisite to be obeyed.
But Europe is not solitary in these exhibitions of
a reviving tendency towards spiritual tyranny and
intolerance. From the remote regions of the New
World, accounts have still more recently reached us
of like doings. In Mexico, as until lately in Pied-
mont, the old canonical law respecting the invalidity of
marriages not solemnised by a priest still prevails k
and the republican government in its present state of
weakness and prostration is doubtless ill able to re-
sist any demands made by the church for its enforce-
ment—however at variance with its own con% ictiona,
and repugnant to the common sense and judgment of
the time. A case has arisen, however, which is likely
to put impoverished and distracted Mexico to the test.
A French resident in the capital, desirous of marrying a
woman, also of French extraction, was fur some reason
not explained refund the nuptial rites by direction of
the bishop of the diocese; and his love being stronger
than his loyalty to the canon law, ho induced hie
betrothed to accompany him to Vera Cruz, where
they were duly married by the French Consul, ac•
cording to the form laid down in the Code Napoleon.
On their return home the man was placed under
arrest, and eventually brought to trial for contains-
ci)usly disobeying the mandate of the bishop. He
was condemned to undergo imprisonment for a
period of two years, and to be kept to hard labour.
The French envoy was appealed to by the unhappy
bridegroom, but it would appear that even his remon-
strances had been vain. Finally the matter has
been referred to Paris, and it will be curious to
observe what coarse the most dutiful son of the
church will take on the occasion.

VI PIP

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