Daily American organ. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1856, 1855-07-30
NUMBER 218.
AMERICAN ORGAN.
From the Louisville Journal.
Romnn Catholicism.

The disposition OF the anti american organs 10
hide or misrepresent the truth is surpassed only
by that Of the Romansh priesthood. The latter,
to this very day. imposes restrictions upon printing
and reading the scriptures and other writings, and
locks the daily worship of God in a foreign and
dead language. The former, by their association
with the latter, have caught the trick of corrnpng
and concealing political truth, and do not hesita;
to say that "the highest authorized exponents Of
Catholic doctrine, in Europe and America, have
for ages dsavowed the dogma that the citizen Of
any government outside the Papal States owes the
Pontfcal Potenate directly or Indirectly, any tent
poral allegiance whatever" The Louisville Jour
nal in its editorials and Colonel Marshall in his
speeches have proved again and again that the
Papacy asserts spiritual Jurisdiction directly, and
u temporal Jurisdiction indirectly, In this year Of
our Lord 1865, over the souls and bodies Of all
the faithful of every cline and country. But we
are willing to prove II still again, and now invite
attention to the process:
1st The fourth Lateran Council was attended
by larger number Of dignitaries than any other
known in church history The third canon of this
council enjoncd that "IIeretics SHALL after Their
condemnation, be delivered over to the secular
powers. The temporal lords are to be almo,
ished, and, If it should be proved necessary, con
PEELED by censures to take an oath in public 10
eaterminate heretics from their territories Ifthe
temporal lord shall refuse to purge his land from
hcresy, he shall be communicated; and, on his
neglect to give satisfaction, &c. his Holiness shall
denounce the oiTenders's vassals to be absoved by
law from the obligation Of fealty." This canon
has never been disavowed by any Pope or Coup.
ell; and the church, which is "aways and every.
where the same" must still accept it as binding
I'd. Gregory the 9th, in 1889, excommunicattd
Frederick the I'd, and absolvcd his subjects from
allegiance; and Innocent the 4th, Boniface tho
sth Paul the Sd, and Plus the 9th, each subse-
quently performed similar acts and these atta
hay hpnp pnndnmnad pr Il
by the infallible and unchangeable hierarchy, tr
by any Of the sovereign Pontiffs to this day
Sd. Baronius celebrated Papal writer of the
very highest authority at Rome says empha.ically
that all those who take from the Church of Rome
and from the See of st. Peter one Of the two
swords, and allow only the spiritual, are branded
as heretics." And Suarez, another eminent Papal
writer, answers afirmatively the question 'wheth-
the sovereign Pontff in virtue Of his spiritual
authority can not merely advise and direct chris
tian Princes but also coerce them by punishment
even to the extent of stripping them of royal pow
err IL need be-"
4th. The most renowned expounder of Cathol c
doctrine is Bellarmine. lie was not, indeed, cor
sidered by Pope Sextus the Sixth, as sufficiently
dyed in the wool of orthodoxy, and was actual
therefore put in the "lndex Expurgatorusn fer
denying the direct temporal authority of the PoIe
beyond his own Italian dominions. But Bellai-
mine asserts and advocates, with great acuteness,
the indirect temporal authority of the Sovereign
Pontiff--which il the middle ground, aud TO tho
present hour the commonly yreceived opinion Of the
Church of Rome. He says expressly that tho
Pope hath the "supreme power of disposng Of tie
temporal concerns of all Christians, and that "a,-
though he cannot ordinarily depose temportl
princes in the same manner in which he depos,s
Bishops, he can, nevertheless, change their king
doms, and take away from one and confer on
another, as Supreme Spiritual Prince, If that i,
necessary for the salvation of 5Oulg
9th. The Dublin Tablet, the most highly ac.
credited organ of Romanism in the British domin-
ions, as recently as the month of February, 1855,
affirmed substant lily the same doctrine After re-
pudiating the speech of the temporizing Mr.. Chan
der, delivered in the Congress of the United
States, the Tablet reminds its readers that two
Popes highly celebrated for deposing temporal SOW
ereigns have been numbered with the saints them
selves to wit: Gregory the 7th and Plus the 9Th T;
and the Tablet then alleges that the deposng pow
er does actually exist at the present day, and ia
publicly taught in every State that considers itself
free.
9Th In his Review for April, 1854, Mr.. Brown
son writes his belief that the Catholic dogma re-
quires him to maintain at least the indirect tempo
raj authority Of the Popes to forswear his logic.
| He asserts that the "Cburch must have right to
take cognizance of the fidelity Of subjects" and
therefore Of the manner in which princes di-
charge their duties to their subjects and TO judge
and to declare whether they have or have not for
feited ther trusts and lost their right to reign or
command the obedience Of their subjects" "The
deposing power, then, Is inherent in her as tIe
spiritual authority, as the guardian and judge of
the land under which kings and emperors hold
their crowns aud have the right to reign" "Thc
Church, as the spiritual power, has jurisdiction IN
all matters that touch our conference.-the Law,
! the glory of God, or our supreme good.
Then she has jurisdiction over all our lives and
| all 90 If the Church IL thn sniritual
er, with the right to declare the law Of Christ for
all men and nations, can any act Of the State, In
contraventon of her canons be regarded as law ?
The most vulgar common sense answers that il
cannot Tell us, then, even supposing the Church
to have only spiritual power, what question
| come up between man and man, between sovereign
| and sovereign, between subject and sovereign, or
| sovereign and subject, that does not come within
the legitimate Jurisdiction of the church, None.
Then the power she exercised over sovcreigns in
the middle ages was not usurpation, but was ard
Is hers by dicine right; and whose reslsts IL re-
bells against the King of Kings and Lord of Lords
Thus writes Mr.. Brownson. But this is not alb or
half Of all The same honest aud logical writer
denounces the Gallican theory held by small
| fraction Of the Papal Church, as halfway Protes.
tantism adopted and cherished in the spirit Of
coTardly and time-serying policy in opposition 10
the Wears OF Jesus Christ. And he says that n
proportion ms we wish 70 save religion and society,
| We must raise our voices against Gacanism tuin
to the Holy Father, and, instead of weakening his
hands and saddciing bis heart by our denial OF his
plenary authority, reassert his temporal MS well
| spiritual prerogatives" ave have no hope but In
God, and God helps us only through Peter, and
Peter helps us only through his successors" &C.
Mr.. Brownson, further declares that the Galicau
heresy was never accepted at Rome, and that he
seeks to be Catholic as they are Catholics at
Rome, and not merely ~ they are at Paris, for
Rome, not Paris, holds the chair Of st. Peter. He
quotes the language Of Monscigneur Gousset, the
dominant French Catholic prelate, "that Catho-
lie can never admit that they who govern king.
dom or republic, are subject to ecclesiastical
authority IN tcD,porais;" and in the January num-
Der Of the Review, for 1854, he avows that the
ultramontane doctrine is the true Roman Catholic
doctrine, for the fearless and energetic assertion cf
which the Church is indebted for the wonderful in
crease of CathoIicity during the last thirtr years.
Further citations from Brownson are unncces-
sary. The anti-American newspapers have en-.
deayored 10 marry the force of similar ouctItt5,,s