The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1868-04-05
The Bishop of Louisiana.

The Bishop of Louisiana.
We recently noticed in our columns ;
species OF pastoral which has been latel,
put forth by the Episcopal Bishop of Loui
siana, Oh the occasion of his return from
the Lambeth Conference in England. The
portion of his address to which we then ad.
verified, related to the proceedings of tina,
Conference, and was invested with il GER
tain interest as being the testimony of Il
participant III transaction which, ut one
time, engrossed share of public attention.
The bishop, however, does not limit himself
to that function, but takes occasion to attack
the Catholic Church in the following words
Let it be left to the Church OF Rome to
assemble her Councils, to treat the Gospel
as imperfect, to charge the Apostles with
ignorance OF unfaitllfulness, and insult the
Catholic Church of eighteen centuries by
adding new articles to the creed, and i'm
posing restraints upon the liberty of her
children, unknown to the primitive Church"
Elsewhere, he speaks of '' the great error
and superstition of that Church (Catholic)
i'll the exaltatione of the Virgin Mary, as
In the first place, the Reverend author adj
mits that there has existed in the Church,
since the days of the Apostles, the power
to decide questions of faith, and even
settle the authenticity of the Scriptures.
His language is, ave do not live in the
early age of the Church. The responsibility
OF attesting the camons Of the Scriptures, of
sitting the testimony in favor of spurious
Gospels and Epistles, of deciding contro-
versies concerning the cardinal doctrines of
the faith, has devolved on-others more
worthy of the task" And again he speaks
OF "the primitive and undisputed Councils
of the Church" 1t is we'll known that the
authenticity of the Scriptures was not def
nitely settled for several centuries, and if
we do not misunderstood n subseauent-pas-
sage in our author, he comedies that some
OF the powers enumerated by him were
properly exercised in the Church at least
until the sixth century. Therefore, all these
powers existed in the Church subsequently
to the time of the Apostles.
Why has not the Church the same author
ity now as then: Many Protestants, to es-
S"pN viz NtoS'iihS VI III VIC SuurCn,
contend that infallibility and authority
were personal with the Apostles and in
spircd writers, and became extinct with
them. They make this distinction with
out reason, and merely to meet the ext
gency of the-case, but ut least they escape
the glaring Inconsistency of~Episcopalians,
who admit that the full power claimed by
The ('burrb aSiStn1 ON
but deny its present existence without ac-
counting for its disappearance.
The only solution of this problem given
by our Reverend author-is the rather sane
humility with which his Church
washes its hands of this power, in favor of |
"others more worthy of the task This
humility is not-quite so visible, however.
where he says: ''None of the Ecumenical
Councils of the early Church actually en-
braced so large an extent of territory, and
none of them assembled more real inteIE-
gence, learning, moral ,corth, and sound reli-
gious fdith" than the Lambeth Conference,
recently convened in England. And it
would appear also that in the definition of
heresy on the part of Bishop Colenso, of Ma
tai, and his solemn accommodation. the
Conference of Lambeth forgot for the mo-
ment its humility and reasserted the dis