The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1850-11-19 00:00:00

THE PAPAL AGGRESSION,

REPLY OF THE BISHOP OF CHESTER TO THE
LIVERPOOL CLERGY.

The following is the Bishop of Chester's reply to the
memorial addressed to him by ninety of the clergy of
Liverpool and its neighbourhood, headed by the Ven.
Archdeacon Brooks:—

" Chester, 9th November, 1850.
"My dear Archdeacon,—l beg to acknowledve the receipt of
an address, signed by yourself and a very numerous body of
the clergy of Liverpool and its neighbourhood, in relation to
the recent Papal edict.

toleration in rots country has given to
the members of the Roman Catholic Church the free exercise
of their religious faith ; and so far as respects the internal
form of government within their own communion, there would
probably be no desire on the part of others to interfere with it.
As long as the Pope was contented to provide for the episcopal
superintendence of the congregations of Roman Catholics in
this country by means of vicars apostolic, in the mode hitherto
practised, the proceeding might be regarded as intrinsically
confined within the pale of the Romish Church.
" But the recent edict from the Papal See advances a loftier
pretension. It makes a partition the realm of England into
new-created dioceses, over which bishops are appointed to ex-
ercise spiritual government. This is apparently intended as a
demonstration reaching beyond the scanty numbers of the
Roman Catholic communion, and affecting to cover with its
influence the whole realm. It treats our Established Church
as a nullity, and pretends to Lice possession of the country cs
a spiritual waste. Such pretensions will be met with firmness,
and reduced to their proper level. We may confidently rely
that, so far as the occasion may require, our government and
:lature - l P effectual care that the royal supremacy
'-",e shall not suffer either detriment
`',i• the conse-

legisiu, __ rill tract
and the national indepenuei..,
or indignity. We need not entertain any fear fol
quences. The Church of England, appealing to the inspired
volume of Scripture as the standard of its faith, will not now
relapse into the errors which at the Reformation it renounced,
or again bow to the yoke of spiritual usurpation from which it
was then freed. The Bible is in the hands of our r‘eople. It
is in the Bible, God's word, not in Papal letters sent from
Rome, that they will look for the rule of their obedience and
the foundation of their trust.
"The part especially pertaining to ourselves is to labour

simplicity,

purity, its truth

't:spective spheres'

of duty, in t
ral visitation of tl
children of the pool
ourselves; marking plainly
line that separates the chi
each other; upholding strei

acting with union and concert among
uncoznpromising'y the broad

and the principles of the Protestant faitl
the spirit of Christian charity towards the
it is our duty to resist.

whose Pretension-s

" If you and the rest of the clergy shall join in a declaration
expressing your devoted loyalty to our gracious Queen, and
your seal for the maintenance of the roy .1 supremacy and of
the rights of the Established Church, ycu will have my cordial
sympathy.

of my affectionate regard

" J. CHESTER

th, or c

Pope over the count

rejoice to I c