A Romish Bishop's Testimony.

The Kankakee Times publishes the following communication from a member of the Illinios Bar. Though perhaps containing nothing new or strange to those who have studied the matter, the statement made may convince such Protestants as imagine the Church of Rome to be a harmless institution, of their great error. The principles of the Papal hierarchy remain unchanged. The wearer of the Tiara would as readily dispose for simple heresy, any temporal ruler of to-day, as his predecessor, six centuries ago, deposed and deprived of his estates, Count Raymond of Toulouse, for a like crime. Religious liberty is both hated and dreaded by a Church which claims the right of enforcing its spiritual decrees by the assistance of the secular arm:—

In one of your past issues, you told your readers that the Rev. Mr. Chiniquy had gained the long and formidable suit instituted by the Roman Catholic Bishop to dispossess him and his people of their Church property. But you have not given any particulars about the startling revelations the Bishop had to make before the Court, in reference to the still existing laws of the Church of Rome, against those whom they call heretics. Nothing, however, is more important for every one than to know precisely what those laws are.

As I was present when the Roman Catholic Bishop Foley, of Chicago, was ordered to read in Latin, and translate into English those laws I have kept a correct copy of them, and I send it to you with a request to publish it.

The Rev. Mr. Chiniquy presented the works of St. Thomas and St. Liguori to the Bishop, requesting him to say, under oath, if those works were or were not among the highest theological authorities in the Church of Rome, all over the world. After long and serious opposition on the part of the Bishop to answer, the Court having said he (the Bishop) was bound to answer, the Bishop confessed that those works were looked upon as among the highest authorities, and that they are taught and learned in all the colleges and universities of the Church of Rome as standard works.

Then the Bishop was requested to read in Latin and translate into English the following laws and fundamental principles of action against the heretics, as explained by St. Thomas and Liguori:—

1.	"An excommunicated man is deprived of all civil communication with the faithful, in such a way, that if he is not tolerated, they can have no communication with him, as it is in the following verse: 'It is forbidden to kiss him, pray with him, salute him, to eat or do any business with him.'"—St. Liguori, vol. 9, page 162.page 14
2.	"Though heretics must not he tolerated because they deserved it, we must bear them till, by a second admonition, they may be brought back to the faith of the Church. But those who, after a second admonition, remain obstinate in their errors, must not only be excommunicated, but they must be delivered to the secular power to be exterminated."
3.	"Though the heretics who repent must always be accepted to penance, as often as they have fallen, they must not, in consequence of that, always be permitted to enjoy the benefits of this life . . . . . When they fall again, they are permitted to repent . . . . . but the sentence of death must not be removed."—St. Thomas, vol. 4, page 91.
4.	"When a man is excommunicated for his apostacy, it follows from that very fact, that all those who are his subjects are released from the oath of allegiance by which they are bound to obey him."—St. Thomas, vol. 4, page 94.

The Roman Catholic Bishop swore that these laws had never been repealed, and, of course, that they were still the laws of his Church. He had to swear that, every year, he was bound, under pain of eternal damnation, to say in the presence of God, and to read in his Brevarium (his prayer-book) that "God Himself had inspired" what St. Thomas had written about the manner in which the heretics shall be treated by the Roman Catholics.

I will abstain from making any remarks on these startling revelations of that Roman Catholic high authority. But I think it is the duty of every citizen to know what the Roman Catholic Bishops and Priests understand by liberty of conscience. The Roman Catholics are as interested as the Protestants to know precisely what the teachings of their church are on that subject of liberty of conscience, and hear the exact truth, as coming from such a high authority that there is no room left for any doubt.

Stephen Moore, Attorney.