The San Francisco call., 1896-03-05

is exempt from all cOntr0l OF human duthor.
ity. No authority on earth can intervene to
dictate to the church what 1t has to teach, or
within what limits it shall teach. There is no
authority to determine whether the church
shall teach or not this or that doctrine"
There is not sect in the United States which
does not claim this right. Our constitution
refuses to claim any authority over the teach
ing m OF religion. There is no power IN the the
teachings OF any church as long as these
teachings do not offend public morality. Yet
because Manning claims this right for the
church, D. Ross declares that the Pope and the
priests claim temporal dominion. Moreover,
this absolutely honest gentleman, who has not
stopped in the midst of sentence or done
aught to misrepresent his auth critics, takes
good care to leave out words which might show
even to his audience and to his judge that ne
was acting in bad faith.
He knew that Manning was speaking about
doctrinal teachings, not about laws or politics,
ana therefore he calmly suppressed Mannlngs
words, "Ihere is no authority to determine
whether the church shall teach or not this
doctrine But he adds, ut is therefore not
only exempt but supreme, and being supreme,
there can be no appeal from it," He wishes to
lnsinuate that the church is here given q civil
ming merely claims, what every American
claims. that in matters of religion, the church
is supreme and exempt from all civil authority
The Then .9o comes the quotation with which Oh i
is the faith and what Is the law of God, and
when science and politics come into contact
with that faith and that law it admits OF no
appeal" etc. "Politics' here we must re-
member are the great constructive laws by
which human society is held together, namely,
the great moral laws OF justice, right and char
Every Protestant admits the same, except that
for church he substitutes the Bible.
From the church or the Bible in these mat
ters there is no appeal either in the past or in
the future. Where is the American who will
find fault with this assertion? To produce it
as Ross does as proof that the ecclesiastical
ought to run politics is the very delirium Of
dunderheadedness.
THE LIBERTY OF THE CHURCH.
The American doctrine of the relations be-
tween church and state is that each has its
own sphere and each is independent. Now
Ross propositions said in substance that
Catholics claimed for the church the right to
invade the sphere of the state and to exercise
its authority without any limits. To uphold
this travesty of our doctrines he quoted Cardi-
nal Manning:
II will draw out the proof that Ultra
montanism and Catholicism are Identical. -
Just previously to that he said this: "Th1s is
ultramontanism, the essence of which is that
the church being divine and by divine as
sistance infallible, is within its own sphere in
dependent of all civil power, and as the
guardian and interpreter of the divine law it
is the proper judge of man and nations, and OF
all things touching that law or faith or
morals"
Again, Manning is careful to be accurate.
He inserts the words "in their proper sphere" "
thereby limiting the authority Of the church to
things spiritual. Yet Ross would persuade
that Manning claimed that there were no linn
its to the authority of the church. 1t was an.
other case of "Barkis is willing"
Moss ao .Gh ony h i0bt to bsve tnrned to
the next page and read: "Civil allegiance to
sovereigns is, therefore, a part OF Christianity.
and treason is both crime q against sg & lawful
dained that authority. Ultramontanlsm
teaches that within the sphere of its compe-
tence the civil power is to be obeyed, not only
for wrath, but for conscience sake Rome
is sovereign because it is independent;
it is independent because it has no master on
earth. The vicar of Jesus Christ is the source
of its liberty, the guardian of its sovereignty.
Call it temporal power if you will, the thing is
the same-the freedom, the Independence, the
sovereignty of the kingdom of God on earth in
all the. world and over all mankind, resting
upon its center in the patrimony OF the
church, within which the shadow of no other
sovereignty can intrude without violation OF
the supernatural order of grace"
give Ross argument in its maudlin tncon-
sequence:
must not fall upon the church / think the
church is pretty independent. If the shadow
OF no sovereignty can intrude without violat-
ing moral law within the sphere where the
church is, and no shadow of authority can en-
ter without doing. wrong, must declare that
the church has right to exercise Its authority
within that limit" (Applause)
Now Manning does not say that the shadow
of an officer of the law cannot fall on the
church. He claims for the church spiritual
supremacy. To guarantee this spiritual su-
premacy the Catholic world had created an ec-
clesiastical District of Columbia in Rome. The
temporal sovereignty of that district the Cath
olic states had given to the Pope, and Manning
is merely proving that the independence OF
Rome arose from the recognition of the spirit
ual power of the Pope.
Yet D. Ross draws the sapient conclusion
that because the Pope was King of the city of
Rome therefore there is no end to the church's
authority. No wonder he chose candidate
for Stockton as judge.
LIMIT OF THE CHURCH'S POWER.
Again in order to prove that the church
ought to exercise her power without any
limits D. Ross quotes Manning:
SIN any question as to the competency OF the
two powers either there must be some judge
to decide what does and what does not fall
within their respective spheres, or they are
delivered over to perpetual doubt and 10 per-
petual conflict 1t is clear that the civil
powers cannot define how far the circum-
ference of faith and morals extends But
if the church be certain with q divine GER
tainty as to the limits of its Jurisdiction its
voice in such matters is final. But an author
ity that can alone define the limits of its own
Office is absolute, because 1t depends on none,
and infalifble because 1t knows with divine
certainty the faith which it has received in
charge"
If Ross had 'any glimmerings of common
sense he would have seen at once that this
very quotation gives his proposition the