Daily American organ. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1856, 1855-01-11

be given TO said charter, II Is provided in the ed
section thereof, that no Interpretation thereof be
made ,chsreJy Gods holy and true Ohristian reii.
gion, or the allegiance due "a our heirs and sue
cessors, may, in any wise, suffer by change, preju-
dice or dimlnution.
In order moro fully to appreciate the words holy
and true Christian religion in this connexion, and
especially the words allegiance due us &C., Il win
be proper to go back little and consult the history
of those times just before the date OF the charter,
namely, 1888, and in so doing we will find that
the Protestant faith, declared by law, TO be
Gods holy and true Christian religion A contro-
versy had arisen In England, especially, and gen.
orally throughout Europe, in which was involved
the right Of the Pope Of Rome TO excommunicate
kings, and thereby depose them Soon after the
making Of the statute of James l, in the year
1906, many Of the English Catholics took the oath
prescribed thereby, and were encouraged by Geo.
Blackwell, then the arch priest or superior Of the
Catholic Church in England. But Pope Paul, in
the same year Of the enactment Of the law, issued
brief forbidding the subjects Of King James from
taking the oath Of allegiance TO him, enacted by
Parliament Blackwell did not publish this brief
upon the receipt Of 1t, when the Pope renewed his
prohibition, and some of his cardinals wrote to
England letters Of reproof, telling Blackwell and
others rather to suffer martyrdom than take such
an oath /; and Pope Urban VIII, in 1926, issued his
bull to the Irish Catholics, especially exhorting
them rather to lose their lives than TO take that
wicked and pestilent oath, whereby the sceptre Of
the Catholic Church was wrested from the Vicar Of
God Almighty
It win not be forgotten, in this connexion, that
very serious controversy had been going on be-
tween Pope Paul v, and the Republic Of Venice.
His holiness thought that some Of the laws Of the
Senate interfercd with his ecclesiastical jurisdic-
tion, and demanded by his nuncio that they should
be revoked The Senate, however. believed and
supposed that these laws concerned only matters
Of their internal police, and refused to revoke
them. At the same time there wero two priests
Of his church who had been guilty Of some high
crime, and we're about to be punished. He de-
manded, also, that they should be given up and be
tried by ecclesiastical judges. These requirements
having been refused on the part Of the Republic
bis holiness pronounced the doge and excommun-
Gated the Republic Dupin's History of the Church,
cent II, chap. 2 and g..
II viii thus be seen, first, that the terms Of the
charter, Goods holy and true religion and the
allegiance due u.s. shall suffer no change, diminu-
ton, or with the fourth section
Of tho charter: that of founding and dedicating
churches according to the eclesidstical lags of Eng
land-never meant to confer upon the grantee and
the beneficiary under him, the right to establish the
Roman Catholic religion in the province--but to
prevent it--while, at the same time, they were to
enjoy their own. The ecclesiastical laws Of England
did not allow Of grants to the Pope, of charters,
&C., over which he should exercise the power
claimed for him, and which he had SO recently set
up; but on the contrary, prohibitory. 1t is quite
clear from what has been said thus far, that the
Catholics of Maryland did not, as political body,
manifest by legislative acs, spirit and feeling Of
religious federation, as their record shows.
That the laws passed by them, concerning rei-
gion, were proscnptive; and that, by the terms of
their charter they were in such violation to a
sovereign power, and the very grant by which they
had existence as colony would not have permit
ted them to establish their religion and, finally,
by the very import of the word liberation, they
we're not the kind Of power or authority to claim
the benefit Of such an act.
Think can show, by the statutes Of England,
in force about this time, and unrepealed during the
revolution, that the charter to Baltimore was the
only authority under which Popery was tolerated.
It is evident, however, in conclusion, that they,
being tolerated by the Protestant government
could not claim that they tolerated Professionalism
to the embodiment of which in the form Of gov
eminent they owed ALLEGIANCE.