Alexandria gazette & daily advertiser. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1817-1822, 1817-09-30
ALEXANDRIA:
TIygSD3y. SEPTEMBER so. 1917.
REPLY re MIR. QUERo.


seen it, occurrences by Informing the
public, that Z" your opponent wishes t"
have recourse to the iafal!ibitity Of me
church as a ,ubterluse to cover his dog
mas and want of proof" The pubic
will easily recoIlect, that you first IN.
troduced that subject to their notice. anu
more than once provoked its discussion
And why then should you complaint 1t
| tnok up tn gauntlet which you hail
thrown down, and showed myself in rea-
diness to meet you. 1t the church which
the redeemer established be infallible,
aud if no other church except the Catho-
lie church can produce any claim 20 it,
then the controversy is ended; all minor
considerations must retire and vanish
before the glare Of conviction and evil
dence.
You are constantly forcing the Laie-
ran council into your remarks on the
temporal power of The Roman Pontl'''
When ysu first introduced your objection
from that council, l gave what l concelv-
ed TO be satisfactory solution. TO this
you have never replied, nor indeed cculd
you, with a. y credit to your candor and
good sense. Blu, why do you constant
ly repeat your objection, as i; it had ne
yer net with its condemnation 1t vas
your duty, first to show the tallacy Of my
solution, before you vertured to repeat
your obi ctiun. The same remark will
apply ~ your assertion, that you lave Cit
ed pope's bulls against me. You never
had, and you never will have it in your
power to cite Ponlifcial bull address
ed to the whole church and received by
it. in which tue writer claims the tempo
raj power, Of which you speak. No o.
Their than a bull vi this nature can have
any decisive weight. In addition to
this, you inform the public, that first
ad.nllted aud then renounced the Pope's
inf.llibilhy. Although might rejec'
that personal prerogative without break
ing through the pale of catholic unity
yet If you will peruse my letters asecond
time, you will discover, that have ne
80, So !" - ~rr"";tinn In that
prerosative. But can easily accoun'
for your dwelling so long on this point
You were resolved to strain every nerve
to prove that tic Pppe's temporal pow
er was unce at least tenet of cathc.
licity. The creed Of catholics IS to be
learnt fIom the decisions Of general coun-
ellis, and the doct,inal bulls of Pontiffs
addressed to: and received by the whole
church, That this tenet has flowed INFO
the Catholic world through either of
these two channels, you have in vain at
tempted toprove. What private Divines
nay have written on the subject, Or how.
ever coniormably to the supposed prero.
gativr, fcpes dsy have acted, these will
never prove any thing mOre, than that
private Divines have erred in theory,
and Roman Pontifls in practice. This
assertion an as ready TO confess as you
to boast Of. Wheu Certain Protestant
nobenan Of discernment and erudltion
had resided in Rome for some time, ar d
heccme acquainted with its interval mo
dcrn history he strongest argument
thus he writes to friend, (which Re-
nan Catholics can produce IN defence Of
the divinity Of their religion, is tin my O.
pinion) that, nntwiths apding the occs-
sional corruPtions Of the Roman court, Of
the priesthood. and sometimes Of the so
vereign pontiif himself, their church has
always "eathered the storm, and even in
the worst times preserved each essential,
which existed in the earliest ages
II appears to me, that al, which you
have written on this subject for some time
past, was calculated to attain no other
object than lin your own wold.)" to
henn,l L. tho nnhlin :, Inn.n.I IL L.