ROMAN CATHOLIC PROVINCIAL COUNCIL.
This Council, consisting of the Bishops and Prists of Romanism, met recently
at Baltimore. Their proceedings are now on their way to the Pope, and cannot
be published til they have received his sanction. These councils says the Boston
Recorder, are the Pope's tribunals of justice, established in our republic'imperium
in imperior;' exercising jurisdiction for him, without responsibilities
to our own government. The Catholics thus explain the spiritual power of the
Bishops; 'it lies not only in preaching the gospel, and so by persuasion and
exhortation only, as some heretics hold, to rem it or retain sins, but it hath
authority to punish, judge and condemn heretics and other rebels.'
The full import of this explanation is learned from the histories of the Inquisition.
It is stated in the 'Conn Observer,' that the government of four of the most
distinguished papal countries in Europe, Spain, Portugal, France and Germany,
have thought it proper, for centuries past, to prevent the meeting of these
provincial assemblies within their limits, because of their dangerous character.
But in our country, they must be tolerated. Our safety lies, not in our laws,
but in the vigilance of the Christian community, and in the formation of a correct
public sentiment in regard to the nature and tendencies of Romanism. |