New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1851-03-21

require the baptism OF your children or
enforced conformity on your part to some
Catholic ceremonial or usage-then you
might Justly resist; nay, Professionalism re-
quires that you should resist; but, so far as
the question concerns purely his own reli-
eious state and duties, you cannot inter-
pose the barrier of penalty between the
individual Catholic and the visible Head
of his Church without a gross outrage on
the fundamental principle of Professionalism
without justifying the burnings of Smith
field and the tortures of the Spanish Inqui-
sition. We deprecate, therefore, the pas
sage of any law by the British Parliament
intended to embarass the exercise of Epis-
copal authority over Catholics by the
Pope's new English Bishops, as not merely
unjust and mischievous intrinsically, but as
a practical abjuration of Protestant princi-
pies and a scandal to the Christian name.
The ultimate source of the paltry per-
secution now impending in Great Britain is
recogized by both Martneau and Landor
as inherent in the anomalous constitution Of
the English State Church. The People of
Great Britain are mainly Protestants; but
the personal recognition of the monarch as
Head of the Church is not Protestant, nor
is the regal appointment and recognised
powers of the Bench of Bishops consistent
with Protestant principles. A legal en-
forcement of submission to Church claim
ing Infallibility as one of its attributes is
not very agreeable to those who deem that
Church not merely fallible but seriously
wrong; but when a Church which does
not even claim infalibility demands ODE
dience and tribute of those who deem her
a sink of corruption and labyrinth of er-
ror, the demand is felt to be at war not
only with Religious Freedom but with con-
sistency and common decency. To Pro-
testant the Papacy of Rome seems grave
usurpation; but the Papacy of Canter-
bury-and still more that of Windsor Pal
ace-seems an ostentatious defiance of JUS
tice, liberty and common sense.
That the pending agitation throughout
the British Empire is destined to result
Immediately in advantages to Catholicism,
seems to be conceded by intelligent Protes-
tants. That any enactment, by Parliament
of fines and penalties for the exercise of
Catholic Episcopal authority over Catho-
lies in Great Britain, will strengthen and
accelerate the tendency to Remaining,
now so palpably potent in England, we see
no reason to doubt. But, above and beyond
this, we anticipate great ultimate benefit
from this controversy in the enlightenment
of the British mind as to the nature and re-
quirements of Professionalism and the deadly
hostility of State Hierarchies to the very
essence of Religious Freedom. There may
be fewer nominal Protestants when the !
shall be terminated than now,
but they will inevitably be far better Prot
estants than now, more familiar with what
Professionalism affirms and better disposed |
to obey its fundamental requirements
And thus, while we deplore the immediate
influences of this controversy, as calculated
to withdraw public attention from those
great Social changes, especially with re-
gard to Land Tenures, which we know to |
be most essential to the we'll being of Great
Britain and of mankind, we do not, in view |
of the entire future, regret that it has
arisen, while we fully justify the act which
caused it.