sensibilities of power, than to defend it on the ground of divine right, and as inherent in the divine Constitution of the Church; but even on the low ground of policy we do not think it the wisest in the long run. Say what we will, we can gain little credit with those we would conciliate. Always to their minds will the temporal power of the Pope, by divine right, loom up in the distance, and always will they believe, however individual Catholics here and there may deny it, or nominal Catholic governments oppose it, that it is the real Roman Catholic doctrine, to be reasserted and acted the moment that circumstances render it prudent or expedient. We gain nothing with them but doubts of sincerity, and we only weaken among ourselves that warm and generous devotion to the Holy Father which is due from every one of the faithful, and which is so essential to the prosperity of the Church, in her increasing struggles with the godless powers of this world.'-Brownson's Review, Jan., 1854."

The Dublin Tablet, a Catholic publication of high authority, is equally emphatic in its condemnation of Mr. Chandler's speech. The writer, after arguing to prove the power of the Pope to depose sinful sovereigns, says:

"Mr. Chandler goes a great deal further, we are sorry to refer to him so often, and trenches on the real spiritual power which he is so anxious to guard inviolate. His words are these: 'I deny to the Bishop of Rome the right resulting from his divine office to interfere in the relations between subjects and their sovereigns,-citizens and their governments.'

"It is impossible that he can mean what these words imply. The Pope is at this moment interfering in Piedmont, defending one class of citizens there against the Government, and yet, in the House of Representatives, a Christian denies the right! Governments may and do prohibit good works, and the Pope interferes. They also encourage and commit evil; the Pope interferes; and good Christians prefer the Pope's authority to that of the State. The Godless colleges in Ireland, the hierarchy in England, the trou

ble in Piedmont, all bear witness together against this unChristian opinion which must have escaped from the speaker, who did not ponder his words."

The closing paragraph of the article in the Tablet is in these words:

"The old Gallican leaven, driven out of the Old World, foments in the New, and the exploded opinions of obstinate men in Europe seem to have found favor in some quarters in America. Humanly viewed, the matter is easy of explanation; but it is not the less perilous, for unsound theories about the extent of the ecclesiastical power will never convert heretics, but are sure to pervert Catholics."

The opinions expressed by Mr. Chandler in the above extract from his speech are precisely the opinions of the American party, and yet when Americans announce them, they are charged with being persecutors and enemies of religious freedom!

The American party deny that the Pope has any temporal or political power outside of his own dominions. They deny that the subjects or citizens of any other government owe him any political allegiance. They deny that the Pope has any power to depose sovereigns or to overthrow republics. They deny that he has a right to absolve citizens or subjects from their allegiance to their own government. And they utterly repudiate the idea that there is a paramount allegiance due to him which overrides their own government.

And as a corollary to these propositions, they are unwilling to vote for any man for public office in this country who holds the opposite, or Ultramontane doctrine.

They hold that the Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the land, and no man who denies that proposition ought to hold office under it. They hold that our first, highest, and only political allegiance is due to our own country, and that none is due to any other.

They disclaim and denounce "The Higher Law Doc

trines" in all their length and breadth, whether they exhibit themselves in abolition fanaticism at the North, or in the recognition of a higher allegiance to the Sovereign of the Church than is due to the Government of our own Country.

They require that when a man swears to support the Constitution of the United States he shall do so in good faith, and according to its true spirit, and not with qualifications and mental reservations.

None who are unwilling to conform to these requisitions can receive the support of the American party.

Ah! but (say our adversaries) this recognition of the temporal power of the Pope is a part of the Catholic religion, and therefore you are interfering with their religious freedom! So, it may be said, polygamy is a part of the religious faith of the Mormons, and abolition is an element in the creed of Theodore Parker, H. W. Beecher, and others of their fanatical stripe! And would our adversaries be willing to elect a Mormon or an Abolitionist to high office? I presume not, and therefore the argument proves too much. No such device can be tolerated as that by blending obnoxious political sentiments with religious opinions, immunity can be claimed for both under the broad shield of the freedom of religion!

The Americans are charged with dragging religion into the political arena. This is wholly untrue. Their steadfast aim is to keep religion out of the party contests of the day. They have manifested no aggressive spirit. Throughout they have been on the defensive. It was not until the organs. of the Ultramontane branch of the Roman Church avowed their purpose to war on the freedom of religion, to strive to gain the ascendancy in this country with the view to prostrate it at the footstool of Rome, to persecute Protestants, and for the accomplishment of these ends to vote as Catholics and in a body in such a way as to be most effective,— that the Americans were roused to resistance.

In my next number I will endeavor to establish this proposition by undoubted evidence.

MADISON.

CHAPTER XIX

MADISON LETTER NUMBER TEN-THE ULTRAMONTANE AND GALLICAN BRANCHES OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH

IN my last number I furnished some striking proofs of the extraordinary pretensions of the dominant party of the Romish Church to temporal power in the Pope. Before passing from this point I will add further evidence to support my position.

Brownson's Review is the accredited organ of that party. He ostantatiously parades the names of the Archbishop and Bishop on the cover of his book to give the stamp of authenticity to its sentiments, and he inserts in it that "I never think of publishing anything in regard to the Church without submitting my articles to the Bishop for inspection, approval, and endorsement." This declaration stands to the present day, uncontradicted, and, therefore, on every principle of evidence must be taken to be true.

Let us then look to his pages for an exposition of the devotions of his Church. In his number for January, 1853, he says:

"For every Catholic at least, the Church is the supreme judge of the extent and limits of her power. She can be judged by no one; and this, of itself, implies her absolute supremacy, and that the temporal order must receive its law from her." *

"Whenever the occasion occurred, she asserted her power, not in empty words only, but in deeds, to judge sovereigns, kings and Caesars, to bestow or take away crowns, to depose ungodly rulers, and to absolve their subjects from their oaths of allegiance."

Again, in the number for July, 1853, he says:

"The Church is supreme, and you have no power except what you hold in subordination to her either in spirituals or in temporals. *** You no more have political than ecclesiastical independence. The Church alone, under God, is independent, and she defines both your powers and her own."

"They have heard it said from their youth up, that the Church has nothing to do with politics, that she has received no mission in regard to the political order. * * *

"In opposing the non-juring bishops and priests, they believed they were only asserting their national rights as men, or as the State, and were merely resisting the unwarrantable assumption of the spiritual power. If they had been distinctly taught that the political authority is always subordinate to the spiritual, and had grown up in the doctrine that the nation is not competent to define, in relation to the ecclesiastical power, its own rights; that the Church defines both its powers and her own; and that though the nation may be and ought to be independent in relation to other nations, it has and can have no independence in the face of the Church, the kingdom of God on earth; they would have seen at a glance that to support the civil authority against the spiritual, no matter in what manner, was the renunciation of their faith as Catholics, and the actual or virtual assertion of the supremacy of the temporal power.'

In the same number, page 301, he says:

"She (the Church) has the right to judge who has or who has not, according to the law of God, the right to reign, whether the prince has, by his infidelity, his misdeeds, his tyranny and oppression, forfeited his trust and lost his right to the allegiance of his subjects; and, therefore, whether they are still held to their allegiance, or are released from it by the law of God. If she has the right to judge, she has the right to pronounce judgment and order its execution; therefore to pronounce sentence of deposition