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Bu it is said this is
A NEW DOCTRINE.
that is now for the first time added to
the faith of the Church. In the first
place, I reply, it is not new. It has ever
been known and acted on substantially
from the very beginning. He gave in
stances of this from the fact of Pollycarp,
a disciple of St. John, coming to Home
to endeavor to induce the Pope of that day
not to excommunicate the Bishops of Asia
for not following his decision regarding
the day on which Easter should be cele
brated. He quoted what St. Ireneus, a
disciple of St Pollycarp said. He de
clared that it was necessary that every
Church should agree in faith with that
of Koine. Also St. Augustine, who speak
ing of a decision that had come up from
Home on a question then agitated, said,
“the cause is now finished.” He showed
that the same doctrine was put forward
in several ancient Councils, and taught
by many ancient fathers, and it was never
attempted to overrule any decision that
had come from that quarter.
CHURCH DEFINITIONS.
The definition, if made, may be new,
like many ether definitions that have been
made from time to time in the Church.
Then definitions are generally made to
oppose new errs, in defence of old doc
trines which were taught and believed
before definition or error were heard of.
On matters which are in themselves of
secondary importance, when nothing vi
tal is directly or indirectly at stake, the
Church has frequently trusted to time
for a remedy. Thus in the days of the
Apostles themselves they did not imme
diately condemn those who upheld Jewish
observances. For a long time the prac
tice of celebrating Easter on the four
teenth day of the month was tolerated.—
It was lett to time to correct the errors
of the few. Everything essential was
secured in the meantime. Thus with re
gard to the books that constituted the
Bible no universally binding decree was
issued for many centuries. “ The books
were practically received and that was
deemed sufficient. So with regard to the
authority ot the Pope. It was practical
ly acoepted by the well-minded. No de
finition was necessary for this. It was a
part and parcel of the Christianity which
had been handed down from the begin
ning. It was received by all who re
ceived Christianity and rejected with the
rest by those who set up new systems,
What is said of the institution itself may
be said of its prerogatives.
THE HOLY SEE LOSES SOME OF ITS PRES
TIGE.
It was only in the fifteenth century,
during the great schism of the West,
that the Holy See lost some of the pres
tige with which it was ever regarded.—
Men began to draw lines between the
rights of the See and the occupant, and
endeavored to sink the latter below the
Council, making the Council alone infal
lible. But even the school that would
make the official teachings of the Pope
liable to error was comparatively insig
nificant, and the Reformation came, in
which attention was directed to more
vital matters. In the meantime, as well
as ever since, these teachings have been
practically revived by all as fully as if
all men were thoroughly convinced of
their infallibility. It is so in civil mat
ters in those courts to which I have al
ready compared the Church. Erroneous
opinions that do little or no harm are
tolerated. When a decision by com
petent authority is announced all adopt
it unhesitatingly. Hence the practical
working of the school which denied the
Pope's infallibility has not been felt. It
was a mere speculative theory, and even
that confined to a few, though being taken
VP by secular governments, particularly
hi France, it had an appearance of life
which did not belong to it. It can be
proved most satisfactorily that the great
1 <ass of the Church even in France never
espoused what are called
GALLIC!AN PRINCIPLES.
Now that the Bishops have come to
gether in Council they can compare
Rotes more easily and announced the
doctrine which is everywhere believed
P is for them to say what is the general
khh on this subject. God, no doubt, will
direct their decision. We will await it
without uneasiness or fear. Whatever it
*?■' it will make little practical difference.
P'ou though they may T not think it well
to define it, the faithful will continue to
toceive the Pope’s decisions on faith, as
they have done heretofore, with docility.
If they
declare such decisions infallible it
will bo little more than giving the rea
the submission wiih which they
o f en ever received.
COUNCILS NOT NECESSARY.
He then spoke of the objection that
Ins will render Councils unnecessary.
Fj-* Catholic, he said, pretends that Coun-
Fj ai e, strictly speaking, necessary.
JC F ar R oniy useful under certain eir
cumstances. The agreement of the Bish
ops dispersed all over the world is all
that the most exacting required to give
the Pope’s decrees the fullest force. We
must seek, therefore, other reasons for
holding Councils, besides the absolute
necessity of giving full authority to the
decrees of the Pope. These are found in
their striking more forcibly, in their
fuller knowledge of the nature of the evils
that are abroad, in their reconciling
minds to the measures that are adopted,
and the like. It was thus that a Coun
cil was held at Jerusalem, though any
one of the Apostles who were present
might have decided the whole question.
In this, as ;n other matters, the Church
acts like individuals. Though relying
on the help of God, all proper human
means that are available are taken to
accomplish the end. We rely on God,
as St. Ignatius says, as if all depended on
Him; we exert ourselves as if all de
pended on ourselves. We thus combine
proper confidence in God with fidelity on
our part. It is so that the Church acts.
IT IS SO THAT THE POPES ACr.
They consult, they examine, they call
others around them, as if all depended
on the overtures they may make; but
they rely on God, who makes all things
work unto good. We will be sure, at
any rate, to rely on the decision of the
Ecumenical Council, whatever it may be,
knowing that through it we will be led
to the very truths of God.
EUROPEAN CORRESPONDENCE
OF THE BANNER OF THE SOUTH.
IRELAND AND HER RULERS.
During the last few months we have
found ourselves at a loss how to explain
the extraordinary, not to say unnatural
silence of the conservative landlords at a
moment when every one supposed they
would be howling a soprano of lamenta
tion and despair; as how they could pos
sibly have permitted the great work of
reform to proceed so far without a dis
play of that rampant ferocity with which
they consider their especial privilege to
favor on every occasion when the enlight
enment of the age seems to menace the
rights or exercise of their more than
doubtful prerogative. Some have hailed
it as a sign of the times, and with an en
viable confidence in the all-prevailing in
fluence of modern civilization have not
hesitated to declare that even Toryism
may sooner or later appreciate the salu
tary effecis which the exercise of common
•ense can produce on the judgments of
mankind. Others with the characteristic
charity with which the world good
naturedly judges the motives u>f men,
think that the logic of Tipperary has not
been lost upon the would-be tyrants to
whom it was directed and that then silence
and inaction is a mask which conceals the
deadly malice and hatred with which
they have never failed to regard anything
tending to elevate the moral or social
status of Ireland. Without hazarding
any speculation as to the probable causes
of the phenomenon, we were content to
accept it as an accomplished fact and
were about to congratulate the Nation in
general and themselves in particular upon
the happy conversion of Toryism to com
mon sense and reason, when we have
found ourselves most equally mistaken
and disagreeably disappointed. When
the weak and unsatisfactory measure of
the Government had produced, through,
out the length and breadth of the land a
feeling of disaffection and regret—at the
very moment of crisis, when the mind of
Ireland was wavering between hope and
despair—when another moment must
forever confirm or everlastingly destroy
the reconciliation of Celt and Saxon, the
pent-up energies of the Conservatives
have burst in all the fury of the beast at
bay and their exertions were brought to
bear with a fearful precision on everything
nearest and dearest to the cause of Ire
land. Seizing as a basis of their villain
ous operations, the discontent referred to
as consequent upon the failure of the
Government solution of the land ques
tion, the landlords first drive the people
to a pitch of indignation which vented
itself in every possible form which could
express their disappointment, they then
turn to the Government and fiercely de
mand the prompt suppression of the storm
they themselves had raised, and by such
measures as would by force establish the
MBBEB flf mmK
“security of life and property in Ireland.”
Not only that, but by a gross and syste
matic exaggeration, whose simple name
is falsehood, the “state of Ireland” was
represented to the members of the Gov
ernment and Parliament in the most fear
ful hues of startling atrocity. A blow—
which in Ireland ranks amongst the cour
tesies of civilized life—became a “horri
ble murder;” a case of theft or drunken
ness, a “robbery and outrage;” and every
street row a “riot and massacre.” From
the first moment of the agitation a child
could have perceived that the whole ma
chination and tactics of the landlords and
Tories were directed to accomplish an
alienatim of the confidence of the Irish
people from the present Government.—
As loDg as that Government and its great
leader proved himself worthy of the con
fidence the people reposed in them, their
enemies labored in vain to effect any
misunderstanding or distrust between
Ireland and its legislators, or even under
the most galling provocation to disturst
the tranquility which she resolutely main
tained But, unfortunately, the Govern
ment, by a blind stupidity and nervous
trepidation, sacrificed Ireland’s best hopes
to a servile deference to that antiquated
anomaly which Gladstone describes as
the “social relations existing between
the various classes of society”—in other
words the high handed ascendancy with
which the possession of gold can'invest
any man over the fortunes, t.Jents and
worth of what is termed the “lower
classes of society.” Ireland could not
receive such treatment with feelings other
than those of resentment and displeasure.
The Conservatives saw that the moment
had come and seized the opportunity in
the manner referred to, and what is
worse than all the Government have be
come their dupes and have played into
their hands with the most child-like sim
plicity by passing a coercive measure
under the name of the “Peace Preserva
tion Act of Ireland,” and by which the
virtual Government aud ruling of the
country is effectually handed over to the
same Conservatives in their capacity as
the Magistrates and Grand Jurors of
Ireland. It may not be amiss then to
inquire who are these men at whose ten
der mercies the rights and liberties of
Irishmen are to be placed.
It is a matter of histor3 r that some cen
turies ago England held a very precari
ous tenure of her ascendancy in Ireland,
and British authority was threatened
with a prompt and practical extinction.
Under the circumstances, she held out a
variety of inducements to the mobs and
rabble that inundated her principal cities,
and offered to secure her own authority
and at the same time open a fair field to
the avidity of these adventurers by plun
dering the Irish, thus the Northern Pro
vinces became a sink into which was
poured the surplus villany of jEngland
and Scotland. Amongst them were to
be found some reckless roues and broken
down aristocrats who had been banished
from society in England, and who, in
this new world where wickedness and
unscrupulous barbarity were the crite
rions of superiority, soon carried the
palm and became the elite of the grace
less combination. That they were suc
cessful not only in the North but through
out the island, Ireland knows to her cost.
But the Home Government perceived
the distinction between the mob and its
leaders. To the tormer it apportioned
tho Northern Provinces, and constituted
them as tenant farmers, so a fearful work
of robbery, wr#ng and oppression, was
qualified by the convenient name of the
“Plantation of Ulster.” To the leaders
it gave the broad estates and fair lands
over every portion of the island. Eng
land then, confident that as their interests
were now effectually identified with her
own, knew that she had but to give them
the opportunity, and for oppression and
every unscrupulous violation of right or
justice, that nothing would be left undone
that would serve to maintain landlord in
terest and British authority. This land
lord aristocracy has faithfully fulfilled the
expectations of the mother-Kingdom, and
has repaid her confidence by being the
faithful slaves—the degraded spies—the
miserable tools—the fierce and arrogant
bailiffs of the British Government through
centuries of her sad and tearful history.
In their descendants to-day we recog
nize all the low tyranny, the miserable
servility and the heartless oppression that
marked the lives of their graceless ances
tors. We recognize them in three ca
pacities in which their baneful influence
is exerted over the unhappy land they
govern—as Landlords, as Legislators and
Administrators. When we conceive any
body in the possession of these three
Provinces of power, we will not be sur
prised at the self-preserving principle
by which the alien landlordism of Ireland
has survived the fate of the oppressor and
lives to disgrace the civilization of the
Nineteenth Century. By the law and
administration they are landlords—by the
t
powers of Irndlordism (oppression and in
timidation) they are legislators—by the
legislation they are made administrators
of the laws they make. The Irish land
lord, in his capacity as such, compels his
tenants to send him to Parliament; once
in Parliament he confirms and extends
his powers and privileges as landlord, and
invests himself with the administration
of the law as Grand Juror or Magistrate.
As landlord he oppresses the tenantry;
drives the Catholic Celt out of the home
of his fathers to make room for the Pro
testant stranger; as Magistrate or Grand
Juror he is the declared enemy of Catho
licity in every form and exists the living
mockery of justice; as legislator he op
poses and, in nine eases out of ten, de
feats every measure that Englishmen, with
a spirit of justice introduce, to elevate
the condition of Ireland, which would
menace the privilege they enjoy to the
prejudice of justice and right.
Such are the self-constituted makers,
dealers, and rulers of law in Ireland; such
is the three-headed cerberus that guards
the Island from every blessing that the
spirit of justice and enlightenment would
extend to her, and such is the body of
bigots to which Gladstone, in these days
of hope, has" handed the reins of Gov
ernment with increased powers to op
press and degrade the people of Ireland
Every day brings intelligence of some
false step of a Government that, about
two months since was almost idolized at
every hearth in Ireland.
Amidst this disastrous turn of the crisis
we can see one gleam of hope which we
can predict, will one day throw a bright
light over the unhappy ’land—the intro
duction and successful reception of the
ballot. It foreshadows a great and im
portant revolution among the institutions
of the day—a reform which we are happy
to say, will strike at the very root of
landlord oppression and tyrannv.
From this state of existing events we
can draw the conclusion :—First, that
Irelauds prosperity and happiness can
never be erected but on the ruin of land
lord ascendancy. Second, that powerful
influences are at work—influences con
tained in the very progress of time and
ideas that sooner or later must effect that
desirable consummation. Thus in this
hour of disappointment and darkness we
can have the pleasure of contemplating
at least the sublime satisfaction with
which Ireland will behold her detested
oppressors pass into the obscurity from
which they came, aud when a brighter
and happier day will dawn for the perse
cuted land.
SPAIN.
Spain seems to have taken upon herself
the solemn and disagreeable task of illus
trating some of the worst features of the
Nineteenth Century civilization. More
over she has demonstrated to a conviction
that a Government founded upon revolu
tionary principles in the South is as
great and hollow a mockery as a Church
upon the principles of heresy in the North.
She has proved to a scientific certainty
that a revolution in either the temporal
or spiritual world is merely another name
for weakness, division and anarchy.—
Since the first days of Prim’s adminis
tration the Government has been drift
ing to a whirlpool of every conceivable
complication, misgovern meat and error.
With feelings of the most sublime satis
faction have we watched both him and
the uuhappy bark he commands, converg
ing towards the vortex into which he
must soon descend, whither we hope every
enemy of the Church of God will follow
him.
Tim latest news from the luckless
country is that Montpensier has shot
Don Enrique Bourbon) another would be
revolutionist) in a duel outside of Madrid,
for some not over polite terms, the un
fortunate Don applied to him. He was
shot dead on the ground. The Duke
seems to be an expert at the art of
honorable murder. Don Enrique can be
well spared from society, and we would
recommend the Duke to some of the
other Spanish heroes for a similar comp
liment.
Serrana is about to resign and the
ministry is about to break up. The
friends of the Revolution are indiespair
while Don Carlos, the friend of Priests
and people, is rapidly progressing in
various parts of the Peninsula. Even
our virulent English press is compelled
to admit that the time has arrived when
the Revolution must measure its strength
with reaction. We hope soon to see that
Catholic Spain is herself again.
THE COUNCIL.
Every moment lends a fresh anima
tion to the great world of the Eternal
City as it moves on in the light and life
of its moral and material magnificence.
The few murmurs of Galiicau dissent to
the definition of the Infallibility is com
pletely lost in the loud and powerful
voice of the Catholic world. Not long
since the Tin € , smarting under the
failure of the opposition to the defini
tion, consoled itself with tne assertions
that the “strength of the opposition lay
outside of the Council.” Facts now
give an emphatic contradiction to the
idea. The Church has found consola
tion where perhaps she least expected
it, from Gallican France and from rato
nalistic Germany. The faithful, Priests
and people, of nearly every diocese have
proclaimed their devotion to the holy
See and entire concurrence in the de
finition of the Infallibility. The Dioceses
of llheims, Valence. Grenoble and several
German dioceses are especially, ardent
in their manifesto. German princes
and rulers have added their voice to that
of the faithful people. It must truly af
ford consolation to the Church in this
hour of crisis.
France, from some uuknown motives,
has asked liberty to send an Ambassa
dor to the Council. The people of France
resent very much such conduct on part
of the government while the whole
press denounce the idea of sending an
Ambassador where he would be so much
out of his element and among those
dignitaries of the church where he
would be overpowered with a sense of
his own insignificance. The reply of
Antonellie to the application is yet un
known.
ITALY.
Several political riots of a serious na*
ture have occurred at Florence which re
sulted in a collision between the troops
and people, several on both sides are
killed and many wounded.
Veritas.
foreign.
Paris, April 10. —The Emperor refuses
concessions regarding plebncitum.
Boffet has resigned. No other Min
isters have yet resigned, though other re
signations are expected.
The city of Paris remains perfectly tran
quil.
The Cruizot strike shows no sign cf end
ing.
Paris, April 10. —The crisis continued
this morning in the ministerial council. In
the Corps Legislatif Ollivier declared that
the Government would employ neither
menaces nor promises. He argued that
the Emperor and Empire were not in the
question. The question was, shall we
change an absolute empire lor a liberal
one?
Madrid, April 10.—The barricades in
the suburbs of Barcelona were carried by
the Captain General, aided by Baldrich’s
contingents, after some severe fighting,
and the army conscriptions are now pro
gressing.
The conscription has been terminated
everywhere in Spain, aud the immediate
cause of the conflict has ceased-
Madrid, April 10.—The casualities at
Barcelona are not heavy.
The Spanish Government has ordered
the Cuban authorities to release the Ameri
can steamer Loyd.
London, April 11, noon.--The Alabama
oan, lately put on the market, is a success.
Paris, April 11, noon.—To this hour
only Boffet has retired from the Ministry.
Daru’s resignation is still probable.
Unusual precautions were taken to
guard against threatened disorders yester
day All quiet.
London. April 11, noon. —The French
Ministers crisis is attributed to the oppo
sition of a portion of the Cabinet to the
continuance of plebiscitory power in the
hands of the Executive.
The Pall Mall Gazette censures Glad-
shuffling policy on the crisis mat
ters, and predicts the defeat of the Irish
Land bill on account oi the complication
and obscurity of its provisions.
The same paper urges the dispatch of a
steamer to tlm fisheries to watch Ameri
can war steamers there.
Lisbon, April 11, noon Later Para
guayan advices state that Lopez suddenly
turned up and surprised his pursuers,
winning quite a victory. It is thought at
Rio Janeiro that this victory will prolong
the war indefinitely.
Madrid, April 11, noon.—-The trial of
Montpensier commences to morrow.
Montreal, April 11, p. m.-Troops
and volunteers are held in readiness tore
pulse the raid, oi’ which the authorities
have notice.
London, April 11, p. in.— A me orial
diplomatique has information ti.ui the
Council will adopt the dogma of ini iibili
ty by acclamation on Easter Monday.
Paris, April 11, p. ra.—The workmen
in the immense factory of M. Coil in this
city have struck.
I)aru’s resignation is imminent. Should
he resign others will follow.
The impression gains credence that the
Emperor is influenced by Rouher.
A large number of arrests have been
made since the >n of the emeute.
Edinburg April 11, c- m.—The wood
work of both shafts of Gates mines were
burned. Seven suffocated and forty-nine
rescued.
Toronto, April 11. p m.—Daniel Mor
i ison, editur daily Tt l> (jeaph, uied from
apoplexy.
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