ARCHBISHOP VAUGHAN'S LOYALTY.

Patea Mail, Volume II, Issue 177, 20 December 1876, Page 1 (Supplement)

ARCHBISHOP VAUGHAN'S LOYALTY.

The following, letter from Archbishop Yaughari appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald of Oct. 30 :—■ Sir, As an Archbishop exerting some influence over a portion of. the community, will you allow me to state, for tho benefit of those who care to know, how I really stand regarding loyalty to the Queen of England, and the English Government ? Previous to my consecration I took an oath by which I consider myself bound during the rest of my life : 1. To regard the Sovereign Pontiff as my spiritual head, and to die rather than to deny him to be such. 2. To regard Her Majesty the Queen as my/temporal head, and to die rather than deny such to be the case.

3. To do all I can to open the eyes of my fellow men to the truth and beauty of the religion of bur ancestors —the religion of those men who laid the foundation of England's greatness, established her universities,: built her cathedrals, ‘ 4. To do all this with gentleness, and charity—that is, in the spirit of our Saviour—and only to speak vehemently when vehemence seems the only way to make oneself understood. 5. To consider loyalty to the Crown as much an obligation placed upon me by. Almighty God as obedience: in spirituals to the Pope, and to be willing to lay down my life rather than prevaricate against either. It was in this sense—kneeling at the feet of Cardinal Manning—the. most loyal of English subjects and the- most earnest of English Catholics —-that I took my oath. This is the sense in which it was interpreted to me ; and in no other sense—however some may twist the Latin words—could I, as a Catholic theologian, have taken it. I may, moreover state that were I to act contrary to any of the five principles just laid down, I should consider myself guilty of the crime of perjury—of acting sciens et pnidens in the teeth of the spirit of my oath to God. Of course, Catholics know these principles as well as I do, and I am never tired of inculcating them in these anarchial days. Hut there are those who are less acquainted with bur religious teaching on fundamental points ; and it is to.these, who know the weight of the word of an English gentleman, that I now address myself. ( And they will understand me when I say that I believe the Catholic Church to be the only true ’church, and lain doing all I can to get people to become Catholics, not for my sake, but for theirs ; not because I hate them ; but because I love them; because I hold two things with absolute conviction—first, that the principles of Catholicity teach man howto kneel with purest worship at the altar; and, secondly, how to spill his blood most lavishly—as thousands of our brave Irish soldiers have done—in his chivalry towards the throne. I am, Sir, yours faithfully, Roger Bode Vaughan, Archbishop of Nazianzus. St. John’s College, Sydney.