The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 42
Chiniquy Vindicated
Chiniquy Vindicated.
In another column we give an extract from an American paper, which will be perused with interest just now as bearing on the character and work of Pastor Chiniquy. Our readers will see that the Pastor has been successful in his long and expensive suit against the Popish Bishop Foley, who attempted not only to degrade the Pastor as an apostle from the Romish Church, but to dispossess him and his people of the Church property which they held. The Pastor therefore has taught the Bishop a lesson which he will probably remember for many a day. It must be humiliating to him to acknowledge defeat; but the defeat which he has sustained in the law courts is not half so humiliating and crushing as that which is involved in the exposure which the Pastor compelled the Bishop to make of himself and his Church when being examined. When the Bishop was put in the box Chiniquy put a few ugly questions to him which he did not like to answer. The Bishop, in fact, declined to answer them. But the judge told him he must answer. As he had come to the Court against Chiniquy, he must answer Chiniquy. As he had appealed to American law, he must submit to American law. Whatever he might think of the Pope and his Church and of the canon law, by which the Church desires to rule the world, he must remember that American law ruled the States. Therefore he must answer Chiniquy, and Chiniquy made him wish a hundred times that he had never ventured outside the walls of his episcopal palace. It was a grand and laughable sight to see Chiniquy holding in his grip the great Bishop, and compelling him to answer the questions which he put to him. The questions were about the authorities which rule in the Church of Rome. He wanted the Bishop to say whether or not the doctrines of St. Thomas and St. Liguori were the doctrines which are taught in the Church of Rome. He wished to get, on oath, an admission or denial that the teachings of those two saints are the teachings which the Romish bishops and priests give to their people. The bishop refused to answer. He contended that he was not bound to tell such a mighty secret in the Church. He stood long silent and refused to say a word: but at last it came out! And the bishop admitted that St. Thomas and St. Liguori were the authorities; and that the principles and doctrines of those two saints were the principles and doctrines in which the Roman Catholic people were now being trained.—We urge our readers to study what the Bishop had good reason to conceal, but what he was compelled under oath to admit. The principles are atrocious. They contain all the violence, murder, and persecution of which we read when the Papal Chinch was in power. They therefore show what the Church would do again if power were given it. No wonder that the people who are taught to believe such principles are troublesome and overbearing. You must not know an excommunicated man, neither eat with him, nor do business with him, nor pray with him! You must not tolerate heretics, and you must help to hand them over to the secular power to be exterminated! Heretics deserve the sentence of death. And Catholics who are especially zealous in opposition to heretics will get special indulgences—a high place in the kingdom of heaven!—Will our Protestant people consider that what is here stated is not a "Protestant slander," but the admission of a Popish bishop under oath? Will our silly talkers about charity see here that charity to such people is thrown away? Men who believe that you ought to be burned—who believe that you are weeds—who are taught that there is merit in exterminating such heretics as you, are traitors; such intolerant enemies of civil and religious liberty ought not to be tolerated.— In bringing these facts out to the open day, Pastor Chiniquy deserves the thanks of the whole Protestant world. With immense labour he has won his cause. At immense cost of time and thought, and money he has succeeded in beating off Popish wolves who had gnashed at him with their teeth. A brave old man has, single handed, as Luther did, beaten his enemies into small dust.
A Romish Bishop'S Testimony.
The Kanhakee Times publishes the following communication from a member of the Illinois 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 depose for simple heresy any temporal ruler of today, 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 yet 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.
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.'" 2.—St. Liguori, vol. 9, page 162. |
2. | "Though heretics must not be tolerated because they deserve it, we must bear with 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 admitted 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. |
A.D
. 1215:—"We excommunicate and anathematise every heresy that exalts itself against the holy, orthodox, and Catholic faith, condemning all heretics, by whatever name they may be known—for though their faces differ, they are tied together by their tails. Such as are condemned are to be delivered over to the existing secular powers, to receive due punishment. If laymen, their goods must be confiscated. If priests, they shall be first degraded from their respective orders, and their property applied to the use of the Church in which they have officiated. Secular powers of all ranks and degrees are to be warned, induced, and, if necessary, compelled by ecclesiastical censures, to swear that they will exert themselves to the utmost in the defence of the faith, and extirpate all heretics denounced by the Church, who shall be found in their territories. And whenever any person shall assume government, whether it be spiritual or temporal, he shall be bound to abide by this decree.
"If any temporal lord after having been admonished and required by the Church, shall neglect to clear his territory of heretical depravity, the Metropolitan and the Bishops of the province shall unite in excommunicating him. Should he remain contumacious a whole year, the fact shall be signified to the supreme Pontiff, who will declare his vassals released from their allegiance from that time, and will bestow his territory on Catholics, to be occupied by them, on the condition of exterminating the heretics and preserving the said territory in the faith.
"Catholics who shall assume the cross for the extermination of heretics shall enjoy the same indulgences and be protected by the same privileges as are granted to those who go to the help of the Holy Land. We decree further, that all who may have dealings with heretics, and especially such as receive, defend, or encourage them, shall be excommunicated. He shall not be eligible to any public office. He shall not be admitted as a witness. He shall neither have the power to bequeath his property by will, nor to succeed to any inheritance. He shall not bring any action against any person, but any one can bring action against him. Should he be a judge, his decision shall have no force, nor shall any cause be brought before him. Should he be an advocate, he shall not be allowed to plead. Should he be a lawyer, no instruments made by him shall be held valid, but shall be condemned with their author."
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.
Coulls and Culling, Printers and Stationers, Rattray street, Dunedin.