The Sun.
London, England, 1822-07-30 00:00:00

FOR THE SUN.

LETTER XVII.
MR. EDITOR—In my Twelfth Letter, which
appeared in your Paper of the 12th of this month,
I gave the Oaths of Fidelity to the Roman Pon-
tiff, taken at this day by the Romish Priests and
Bishops in Ireland ; and I shall now submit to
the consideration of your Readers the opinion of
Doctor Burke, titular Bishop of Ossory, as to
an Oath of Allegiance, intended to have been
taken by the Romish Clergy, and introduced into
a Bill then (1757) under the consideration of the
Irish House of Lords, to secure the Protestant
' Succession to .the Throne, as expressed in his
Work, entitled " Ilibernica Dominicana," and
published in the year 1762, to which I have al-
seedy made reference in the course of these
Letters—" Would it not," asks this loyal and
orthodox Divine, 44 exceed the greatest ima-
ginable absurdity, that a Catholic Priest, who
instructs his Catholic , people in the will of God
from Scripture and tradition, by his discourse
and action, and nourished' them with the Sacral
ment of the Church, should swear fidelity to
King George, as long as he professeth a hete-
rodox religion, or has a wife of that religion ?
Thai Then, and in that case, the same Priest
ought instantly to abjure the very King to whom
he had before sworn allegiance." In a Supple-
ment to his Work, published in 1772, he gives
the opinion of the Pope's Legate, at Brussels, in
the year 1768 ; at which time an oath, to be
taken by Roman Catholics, was under the con-
sideration of the Irish Parliament, containing,
in fact, no more than the Roman Catholic Com-
mittee disavowed twenty years after—that 44 the
abhorrence and detestation_ of the doctrine, that
faith is not to be kept with heretics,' and that
' Princes deprived by the Pope may be deposed
or murdered by their strbjects; as expressed in
that proposed oath, are absolutely intolerable,
because," he (the Legate) says, " those doc-
trines are defended and contended for by most
Catholic nations ; and the Holy See has fre-
quently followed them, in practice." On the
whole, he decides, that " as the oath is in its
whole extent unlawful, so. -in its,nature it is ins
valid, null, and of no effect, in so much that it
-can by no means bind or oblige consciences."
Should any of your Readers have entertained, a
doubt upon this subject, and at the same time
have imagined that the oath proposed by Mr.
O'Connell, in his famous Plan for Domestic No-
mination, would henceforth be binding upon the
Romish Bishops,-1 think the authorities I have
now cited must convince the most sceptical, that
nothing can bind such Casuists to an heretical
State, when the 'interest or authority of their
Church shall intervene : for, be .it remembered,
that the tenets described in my Eleventh Letter,
from the .Decrees of General Councils, " are
unquestionably at this day the tenets of the
Church of Rome : they have never been re-
nounced or disavowed ; and till they are dis-
avowed by authority, every good Catholic is
bound to obey them."
On the 14th and the 15th of September, in the
year 18081 the Romish Bishops of Ireland held
a Synod at Dublin, for the purpose of expressing
their hostility to the Veto,- proposed, with their
concurrence, by their parliamentary friends, in
the preceding Session, as a security to the
State, in the event of what is called " Catholic
Emancipation " having been conceded ; and,
among other Resolutions, the two following were
adopted :—" It is the decided opinion of the
Reman Catholic Prelates of Ireland, that it is
inexpedient to introduce any alteration in the
canonical mode hitherto observed in the nomina-
tion of the Irish Roman Catholic Bishops, which
mode long experience has proved to be unexcep-
tionable, wise, and salutary."—r" That the Ro-
man Catholic Prelates , pledge themselves to
adhere to the rules by which they have hitherto
been uniformly guided ; namely, to recommend
to his Holiness only such persons as are of un-
impeached loyalty and peaceable conduct."
A few Questions naturally arise from these
Resolutions, which, if not satisfactorily answered,
furnish, or ought to furnish, matter for the most
serious consideration to Protestants. In the first
place, what is " .the canonical mode hitherto
observed, which long experience has proved to
be unexceptionable, wise, and salutary " ? For
myself,,l do conceive that, according to the De-
crees of General Councils, to which 44 Roman
Catholics are obliged to adhere implicitly," a
mode may be at once 4' CANONICAL," and yet
hostile to, and inconsistent with, the safety of a
Protestant State. Secondly, to what period of
time does the indefinite term ",LONG EXPE-
RIENCE " extend—to 20, 40, 60, 80, or 100
years ; or will they carry it hack to the Era of
the Reformation, when, by the account of their
friend Pastorini, Luther opened the door of
Hell ? Lastly, if this "canonical mode, " which
had stood the test of time, bad always been ob-
served, and if " only such persons as were of
unimpeached loyalty had been recommended to his
Holiness,"—how came the whole Conclave of
Irish Romish Prelates to have been raised to their
respective dignities, who petitioned, and ob-
tained from Pope Benedict MU. in the year
1729, " an Indulgence for ten years, in order
to raise money, to be speedily applied to restore
King James 111. to his tight, and to put the
present King and all the Royal Family to the
sword ? "—or the following, that signalized them-
selves in 1762, as mentioned in my last Letter,
viz. the titular Archbishops of Cashel and Dub-
lin, and the titular Bishops of Cork and Water-
ford ?—or the learned author of " Hibernica
Dominicana ?—or, in later times, Dr. Hussy,
titular Bishop' of Waterford, the celebrated
writer of Pastoral Letters, replete with Treason ?
—or some of the Heroes of 1798 ?—or, of • still
more recent date, the man who, according to
Dr. M'Nevin's testimony before the Secret Corn=
mittee of the House of Lords, had been one of
those Priests that had rendered great service in
propagating with discreet zeal the system of the
Union ? Indeed, so great had been his zeal,
that General Loftus, who thought it ought not
to go unrewarded, had diligent search made after
him for several days ; but, as true merit always
seeks the shade, so this 44 discreet promoter of
the Union". eluded pursuit; and, after having