Daily Tombstone epitaph., 1886-04-20

whom was the Bishop oi Rome.
 The Council of Eph2sus was convoked
 by the Emperor Tl,eodosius, A. D. 43r.
 Two hundred Bishops attended.
 The Council of Chalceden was con-
 voked by the Emperor Marcian AID. 4sI
 Six hundred and thirty Bishops attended
 These are the four generally accepted
 Ecumenical Councils. Not one of them
 was convoked by the Bishop of Rome;
 not one of them required his assent; not one required his confirmation to es'
 la5lish the validity of its testimony to
 the faith, or its concillar decrees.
 am not sure that he presided
 in either of the last two, as he certainly
 did not in the first two. Not one of them
 gives the least shadow of ground for the
 supremacy of the See or Bishopof Rome.
 On the contrary, the Sixth Canon of the
 Council of Nice, A. D. 325, pionounces
 the then patrarchs of Rome, Alexandria
 and Antioch, to be on an equal footing,
 and the 18th Canon, Chalcedon, A. D.
 4sI, on which 63o bishops attended (the
 largest assembly of bishops ever assem-
 bled together in general counci), con
 firms the decree of the Council of Con-
 stantinople, giving to the Church of Con-
 stantinople the same privileges as to
 Rome, because "she was Rome the
 younger" for it is said "the Fathers, with
 reason, gave precedency to the throne of
 Rome the elder, because she was the im-
 perial city" Not a word because ot Peter, or supremacy by Divine right, or
 any sort of ecclesiastical primacy, but simply because she was the imperial city Again, the oth Canon of Chalcedon pro- , vides for an ultimate appeal Ito the ? throne of imperial Constaptinople." The Roman legates were there but offered no objection. The Bishop of Rome, when z it was received by him, in common with all the churches, offered no objection
 To speak of the Fathers, neither Cyprian Clement of Alexandria, Eusebius
 Ireneus or Tertullan, give any idea o' . the supremacy by Divine right of the See or Bishop of Rome. Zosimus "A. D. 417.4I8), the 4Ist in the list of Bishop:
 of Rome, is the first who claimed to m hert from St. Peter Divine authority :, equal to that of St. Peter.
 . As to the Church of England and thu Church in the United States. Your cor :, respondent intimates that one wa 's founded by Henry VIII, and that tn :. other was still subject to the Bishops . England, as before the Revolution. It :, known to every intelligent person that tn . Church was established in England i :, Apostolic days, possibly by St. Paul, e , Joseph of Arimathea. It had its bishops :. martyrs, confessors and representative I .s in council in the early centuries, and CT . ~ ; ioyed an independent existence until tn
 mission of the Monk Augustine, sent - Gregory the Great "A. D, 5o6). Frol :. that time the usurpations of the Roma " -. Church began. Those usurpations wei - of two kinds, temporal and doctrina ~ The voice of protest never ceased " ' England. The temporal usurpation wi " finally severed by the act of Henry VII
 but he died, as he lived, Roman Cat " ollie in doctrine, as we'll as in moral cha ' acter. The doctrinal usurpation w W thrown off by the Church of Englar " herself, after Hcnry's death, through h bishops and clergy, purifying her ritu wI.. w restoring the Scriptures, reasserting t V, primitive faith, unmixed by late and e m rupt additions, enforced upon her by t ;" Roman supremacy, just such process .s. the repentance and reformation of an ' dividual who has gone astray, or as m possible yet for the Church of Ron s This was performed in the reign of k
 ward VI. Shadowed and hindered fo ..a time in the short reign of Bloody Ma w made glorious by the martyrdom of ;a bishops, but perfected under El'zaoe
 The continuity of the Church ot gland is complete from the days Of the Apostles. The American branch of pen Church grew from the English trunk. was has the same ministry in Apostolic s to cession, but is as independent of he' ere temporal government as were the pri esti- tive national churches, joined only i all common faith, common origin, conn oi sacraments, common Scriptures, i''eS mated by the same spirit, coming II e.e. the same great Head of the Church.
 Now, my dear MT. Editor, h
 stated these things, not from any de '''ry to obtrude upon the public what is 'of"e known by those who take the troubl or al inquire, because we do not think it ''ohi coming to Haunt our cathoicity of con age before the world, but rather to do