Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1878-02-25
RELIGIOUS DISCUSSION.
EPISCOPAL REPLY TO BISHOP IRE
LAND.

Rev, Z. 81 Thomas Makes an Able Contribu.
ton to the Current Debate Among the
Clergy--Another Noticeable Service by
Bishop Ireland-- Other Church Services.
Rer. T.. S. Thomas Reply to Bishop ireland.
At St. Paul's church last evening, the Rev.
E. S. Thomas preached upon "Old and New
Catholicism being reply to Bishop Ire
lands sermon on Professionalism. He took
for his text the words:
THE church Of the living God, the pillar and
ground of the truth Timothy Sd chapter,
18th verse.
Prove all things; hold fast that which is
od.'-lI Thessalonians, 5th chap, 81 V.
He said his reason for taking two texts,
which apparently run counter to each other.
was because of the tendency of the mind to
make acknowledged truth the basis of ex-
IRENE conclusions. Almost every truth has
its counter-truth Justice finds it's counter
truth in mercy foreknowledge in free will,
liberty in authority. Both texts were written
by St. Paul in the one we are exhorted to
respect tue authority of the church, because
it is the pillar of the truth. In the other,
we are exhorted to use reasonable a divine
gift-because false teachers will seduce, if it
were possible, the very elect. This anti
nomy is not peculiar to Scri pture.
we find it in the church, where
principle has struggled against principle.
theory against theory in all ages. 1t exists
in human thought also. Thus it is difficult
to reconcile the idea of good God with the
of f,;t I, 4na
analysis of science and the synthesis of re-
ligion.
The ultra Protestant loses much by giving
up the authority of the church and resting
solely on revelation, for he gives up line of
testimony determining the authority and au
thenticity Of the Bidle. The Romanist
gains nothing by inveighing against the
liberty of reason, nor does the nationalist by
rejecting the authority of the Bible and the
church. The branch of Gods church to
which we belong belives i'll the coordinate
authority of the Bible and the church and
reason. When these three voices harmonize
we believe we have approached as near to in
fallibility in religious truth as it is possible
in this world. The Bible is the revelation
of God, the church the kingdom of God:
reason and conscience the creatures Of God
as they come from God they have authority.
The Roman branch of the Catholic church
has simpler theory to some minds. 1t sub
ordinates the Bible and reason to the intalli-
BILE authority of the church, and makes the
Pope the exponent of infallibility. On ac-
count of obvious difficulties it very wisely
draws nice line of demarcation between
infallibility and impeccability. The Romanist
is compelled to believe when the Pope speaks
&C c0thedrd OH faith or morals, it is infal-
lible. The weak or impatient, or tired mind,
finds rest in such a church. but if doubt of
this claim arises. what a sense of mental
cowardice must attach to such a servitude?
The reverend gentleman then proceeded
to quote from Bishop Ireland's sermon, as
reported in The GLOBE, in which he said. if
the church had contradicted her own rulings
in eighteen centuries she would have proved
herself human. To which he answered, that
the rulings of the Popes had been sadly con-
Trajectory, in proof of which he quoted st.
Gregory's reply, CO c0thedra, to St. Angus
tines question upon the lawfulness of mar
riage with stepmothers and sisters-in- law,
and Alexander the Sixth's dispensation, in
direct opposition to that decree, to Emanuel
of Portugal to marry his sister-in-law and
Ferdinand of Sicily to marry his aunt Pope
Innocent III had previously decided that in
the degrees prohibited by the Divine law a
dispensation cannot be given. Here is a
fiat contradiction, and as only one instance
was demanded, said the preacher, content
myself with one, the pages of history will
furnish more if necessary. He asked if St.
Gregory was infallible when he said the me-
diator of God and man is the rock from
which Peter received his name and upon
which he said that he would build his
church, and if Bishop Ireland is infallible
when he says the rock was Peter. This
statement of Pope Gregory, if infallible, to
use an expression of the Bishops own,
stakes the bottom out of Romanism.''
Rome argues in circle. She says the
See of st. Peter is supreme because the bible
says 50, and the bible is the word of God be-
cause the See Of St. Peter says so. If St..
Peter was the head of the college Of the
apostles why did St. James preside at the
first council at Jerusalem? And I may
ask Mr.. Breeds question again, for
the nut was not cracked,' why did st. Paul
who was not even one of the twelve-pre-
sumo to rebuke St. Peter to his face? The
title of universal bishop "was not assumed
by the Roman Potitf till about the year 600.
Gregory the Great, elected Pope 594 A. D.,
said, 'sno one of my predecessors ever con-
scented to use so prota11e term as univers il
bishop" Is it possible that Gregory was
infallible when he said that it was formal
letter and on question of faith
He next spoke on the unity of the Roman
Church. He said it's unity of organization
is very complete, because any one not sub
scribing to the last development of an in
fallible Pope is at once exco1nmunica-
ted. AS an instance of this he
gave the circumstances of Dollinger's ex-
communication. This is unity, but the
unity of military discipline allowing no free
dom of thought after the general has spoken.
He contended that in subjective unity outside
of few dogmas like transubstantiation, i'm
maculate conception and infallibility, there
is no more unity in the Roman church than
in denominations of Professionalism. He
asked the Bishop what theory he holds of
scripture inspirations; on atonement whether
that of Anselm, or Grotius or Oxenham.
He asked him whether he belonged to the
liberal, the aggressive or the sin statu quo''
party in the recent struggle of the Vatican
The Gallican party, he was told, did not ex-
ist it was crushed out he supposed by the
ponderous authority of the last council. He
went on to state the principles of Galican-
ism as given in the declaration of
the French clergy, drawn up by
Bossuet in 1882. He contrasted this with an
infallibility which is personal and developed
ftom traditions by majority vote of three,
characterizing the latter as monstrosity
which the Roman church will ultimately
discard.
Schism was the next subject touched upon.
He contended that communication when
exceeding the limits of the church's com
mission does not destroy nnitv He did NOT