THE PAPAL AGGRESSION.

New Zealander, Volume 7, Issue 525, 26 April 1851, Page 3

THE PAPAL AGGRESSION.

The following " Pastoral Letter Was been addressed to "the faithful" ol the dioceses of Birmingham aDd Nottingham, by Willum Bernard, 0.5.8 , " Bishop of Birmingham, and Administrator of the diocese of Nottingham :"— William Bernard, by the Grace of God and th favour of the Apostolic See, Bishop of Bumingham and Administiator of the Diocese of Nottingham, to our dearly beloved the clergy, secular and regular, and the faithful of the said dioceses, health and benediction in the Lord. Dearly beloved, — " Blessed are ye when they shall revile you and persecute you, and speak all manner °f evil against you, untruly, for My sake; be glad and rejoice, for your reward is very great in heaven." God our Saviour, who cannot deceive or fail, has given us this sacred promise, this heavenly consolation. He has said it to His childten of all times, He says it to us, and lie cannot come short of 1 1 is words ; rather will He far exceed His promises. Hence do we raise our eyes to Him who is at the right hand of the Father, and abound in consolation. He says, " Have confidence ; I have overcome the world j" and He is with us, as He was with Peter, to uphold us on the troubled waters. The rage of unbelief is unchained against us ; but the angel ot the Lord, who closed the mouths of the lions that they should do no hurt is by our side. What have we seen ? We have seen the vicar of God and Chief Pastor of Christendom and the prelates of our church held up in burlesque, ami their names and sacied offices exposed to mockery and ignominy in every imaginable shape ; and that even in the public streets of our metropolis the guardians of peace and of public decency looking on. We have seen our holiest, our dearest, our most saving truths aud mysteries blasphemed by deeds as well as words beio/e the ignorant crowd, and not a hand of any of those to whom God has given His power on earth put forth to protect the religion of the gieate*t Christian community within her Majisty's empire from those profanations. The Catholic nations ot Europe have also teen how they, in their dearest and most intimate feelings, have been insulted ; and, not themselves only, but their chief pastor also; not their chief pastor only, but even their God. For our parts, dearly beloved, we have to take this reflection to our hearis — tint so did they treat our Divine Master in the itreets of Jerusalem. And He says to us—-" If the world htte you, know that it hath hated Me before you. If you had been of the world the world would love its own ; but because you are not of the world therefore the world hateth you. Remember My word that I said to you, — The servant is not greater than his master. If they have persecuted Me, you also will the peisecute." We are instructed, we are divinely prepared, we see our Lord's truth in these very things— our confidence is strengthened ; and our comforter and Strength has also said •' Fear not, I am always with you." What have we heard ? We have heard the First Minister of the Crown pouring out such contempt as a frail mortal can against what we know to be the most holy and sanctifying gifts of our dearest Saviour. We have heard men of the highest station striving to inflame the minds of men, aud to raise a moral, or even a legalized persecution against us. We have heard numbers of Her Majesty's clergy — of those who j range themselves beneath the spiritual headship of our Sovereign — men who profess themselves to be the ministers of truth, and justice, and peace, and charity, I urged on by this high example, contending in a heated rivalry of calumnies, of insults, and of every manner of wild misstalements against the truths we profess, and the mysteries which console us ; against the spiritual acts of our Chief and against ourselves. They know well, those especially who, from their position, are bound to protect the liberty and peace of all who inhabit the land — know well that as u body, we are | patient, and enduring, and forgiving ; that we can neither be stirred to disaffection by their acts, nor diverted from our allegiunce to our Soveieign— that our loyalty and submission to the Crown and State is an obligation of our conscience, and that our fidelity to our spiritual is the sure guarantee ot our loyalty to our temporal head ; that in proportion to our carefulness in giving to God the things that are God's is our prompt disposition to render unto Caesar t the things that are Casar's. These things do they know and calculate upon. What other body of her Majesty's subjects as numerous as ours, if another Christian communion could be found so largely extended over this vast empire, would they have dared to treat as we aretieated? For well do they know what energies and passions would be set in motion, which our holy religion forbids us to indulge in. And what, dearly beloved, is the cause of this outburst upon our Christian and national liberties ? Simply that those bishops who have so long ruled over you are now called by .English instead ot by foreign titles. Because our church in England is no longer placed in an exceptional, but in the usual and regular order of its divine constitution. Because we are no longer left to be ruled in our spiritual affairs in that extraordinary way in which the church is provided for in pagan lands, or where much persecution is raised against her. Literally, because we ourselves had concluded that we were no longer under persecution. Because, acting on this conclusion, the Pope has withdrawn the exercise of his powers as immediate bishop horn this country, and left us to be governed by our o>vn bishops; because he has left these episcopal

powers to be exercised by Englishmen which hs used j to exercise himself.} It is iille to talk of the division of the country as a new thins ; it his always been divided by us. These are but lines drawn bv the mind, and not a taking of temporal possession. Where there is more than one bishop in a country, how can each know his ilock and his work except by marking lines of division ? The Pope has, in fact, done no moie than appoint bishops in England in the same way as he does in Ireland — as lie has changed Vicars-Apostolic into a hierarchy in Australia— as he has done in the Mauritius — as the late Pope marked out the new bishoptic of G-dway — as bishops aip appointed in Protestant Prussia, and in schismatical Russia— as in Vis United States of Ameiica. In vain it is objected that this is the act of a foreign Sovereign. For the Pope has in nowibe acted ns a ! Sovereign, but as a bishop, and as the bishop of bishops, as the supreme pastor of the church. Our Parliament itself made this distinction three years ago. An act was passed to nllow diplomatic relations with his Holiness in the capacity of Sovereign of Home, but not as Pope. And how could this be done, unless there were a visible, plain, and admitted distinction between Pius IX. of Pope, and Pius IX. as Sovereign of Rome? And, if plea be made that his Holiness has done this I act without consulting the State, how could it be otherwise, seeing that l>v an act of the Legislature they had declined to hold communication with him in that very capacity in winch alone he acts in ecclesiasi tical affairs ? But even this subterfuge is without foundation. For we have it on undoubted authority, that the Holy Father has shown every delicacy and attention that the case admitted to our government. Nay more, it is well known that this hierarchy in no way controvened the law, so long as we took not the titles of Protestant bishops, and that the present head of the minibtiy had, on two separate occasions, advocated in Parliament the expediency of our being; allow ed, by a repeal of the disallowing clause to take even those titles, if so minded. We had seen the existing Ministry directing that their titles of honour should be given both to the new Catholic hierarchies of the colonies and to the prelates of Ireland, and how could we imagine that we possessed not those libei ties in England which were recognized both in Ireland and in the colonies ? Tne Pope had seen an English Protes~ tant Bishop exeicising his ministry not only in Catholic Malta, but in the city of Rome itself; and how could las Holiness suppose that less libeity should exist in England for us, whose ministry is required by moie than a million of Her Majesty's subjects ? And heie, dearly beloved, we cannot but bestiuck with the resemblance between these dealings towards ourselves and those of a ceitain ancient administration, amongst whom tiiere were found temporal and spiritual rulers combining together rgainst our blessed Redeemer. They in>iated that He was a King, and and that he interfered with concerns of Stale : and in vain did our Lord reply that His Kingdom '' was not of this world." They insisted He had confused His> spiritual with their temporal power and on this plea the crucified him. He s^nt forth his disciples two and two into all the country. He taught the multitudes ; and these men said, "If we let Him alone so, the Romans will come, aud will take away our place and nation ;" and, therefore, they crucified the Son of God. The Apostles divided the whole earth amongst them ; and what permission from its rulers did they feel to be needed ? Without asking consent o( C«sar did St. Peter fix his chair in Rome. Her statesmen could not make St Peter different fiom what he was. He himself could not cease to be what he was, and so they crucified him, as they had done his Maiter. And what was the crime ot St. Peter? Only that he had become Bishop ot Rome without leave obtained of the Government. So our Henry 11. could not make St Thomas of Canterbury other than what he was. lie could not unmake an archbishop all he could do was to add to his mine the crown of martyrdom. And out of all these persecutions what came there forth but the victory of God and the spread of ihe faith ? A victory of another kind may be pointed to in the history of religion *, but the cases are no longer the same. The true key to the victories orcr the church at the Reformation is her temporal possessions. These aie gone fiom us ; and in this iact lies our strength, it the grace of God be added to our poverty. For, like St. Paul's succesful combatant, we are " despoiled of all;" our affections are not of this world, and our force is wholly spiritual. And, except through some great canonical cause, we, even we, unworthy ai we are of so holy and elevated a place, can never cease to be what God and His Vicar hath made us — the fust bishop of our see. Persecution, were it even attempted in> more direct ways— by violent acts following upon violent words — would only consolidate and more firmly establish, as all history proves, the ioundatioos of our chair and that of our successors. The ram may fall, the floods come, and the wiiul3 blow, and beat against it : but it cannot fall, " because it is built upon a rock." Our exhortation to you, then, dearly beloved, is, that you confide in God, in whose hands aie both ourselves aud our works : that you stand firm and united, and without fear in the faith ; that you return not evil for evil, nor reviling for reviling,— but, on the contrary, bles 3 ings ; that you endure with patience, as you have always done, whatever temporal inconveniences you are subject to because of your faith, knowing that you will reap the reward hereafter; that you give cairn and reasonable explanations to all who ask them of you in a becoming spirit: that you pray for them that persecute you and do good io them that speak evil of you, as the children of your Father who is in heaven : that you set forth the example of your faith in your lives, and look forward to the blessed reward which God has promibed to those who love Him and endure forJHis sake. And may the grace ot God be always with you. •j William Beunard, Bishop of Birmingham and Administrator of the Diocess of Nottingham. Given at Birmingham, Ncv. 15. j