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Show Papacy in the Light of History Statements Made by a Helena. Mont., Minister Refuted and His Position Analyzed. (Written for Intermounta in Catholic.') The question of jurisdiction, so essential essen-tial both in civil and religious government, govern-ment, cannot, in the Christian order, be ; ; explained apart from Catholic princi- , pies. The aposties ordained by Christ ; received from him their jurisdiction, which extended over the entire world. "Go ye, therefore, teach all nations." Having ample authority himself. h could and did authorize his chosen ju-risdistion ju-risdistion to "teach all nations." To him all Christians look as the fountain : ; ! head of all spiritual jurisdiction, and I from him directly through the apostles I it has come down through the centu-j centu-j ries. When the number of Christian I converts in any new country justified : I the establishmetn of a new pee or dio-j dio-j cese, and the appointment of a bishop to rule and govern the thureh. that I I new sef derived Its right to be a se 1 from the authority whuih created it as a new diocese. The civil power lays no j claim to the conferring of spiritual jurisdiction: it is not inherent in the. " see itself; only one more source remains for making an independent see, and that Is the authority of the Roman pontiff who created it. j ' Before referring to the exercisa ol j this power from the beginning of the Christian era by the bishops of Rome, it should be observed that the power j and unlimited jurisdiction conferred by ; . Christ would ever remain with the I apostles and their successors, since he i promised to remain with them "all I dajs, even to the consummation of th i world." This promise extending Into i j the future ("the consummation of the world"), did not apply to the apostles , j personally, but a? a church or corpo- i rate body, and was to be perpetuated for all time. The church which perpetuates per-petuates the original authority and jurisdiction ju-risdiction over the entire worldv must b identical with and flow in a direct ' ; line from the original apostolic body. As a corporation out!U-es all its orig- j inal members, so was the church, which j received its charter from Christ, and became a corporate body In the apos- ties, not only to outlive the lives of I the apostles, but to last till the end of ! tiiws, "the consummation of the .world." . I . To share in the original authority be- stowed on the apostles by Christ, one f must be united with the apostles. To . trace an historical union without any interruption one will look in vain out- , f side the Catholic church: therefore, too, 1 j for the original jurisdiction given by ' j Christ to his apostles. Th unbroken 1 line of pontiffs from Peter to Leo XIII is as historically evident as the. line of presidents from George Washington to I Theodore Roosevelt. ' I Peter's jurisdiction came immediate- I ly from Jesus Christ: "Feed my lambs i and feed my sheep." When a new see f is erected and a bishop appointed, the ' rights of the new diocese, and the au- j thority and jurisdiction of the newly , i consecrated bishop come from the pope. ' f who sanctioned same. Whilst, then, f the jurisdiction of a bishop is limited and confined to his own diocese, that of ! I the supreme pontiff is universal. The ' archbishop of San Francisco could give I I no power or grant a mission to an ec- j clesiastic In any of the suffragan dio- I ceses of his pro-rlnoe. A bishop in his ) own diocese is independent of all other ' bishops, being amenable only to the '-holy '-holy see. ; By divine right there is no superiority ' among bishops, who were constituted by Christ himself equals. Only the pope is. by divine right, their superior. The i episcopal office and dignity were divinely divine-ly constituted. He is the father of his flock, duly appointed to "feed the ' lambs." Union with him is to be united f with Christ in the church. The apos- tolic power, as separate and distinct i from the episcopal, belonged to Peter f and his successors. This power was f symbolized by the keys which were ; given to Peter aione: and which, as St. Cyprian says, gave him the primacy. ? In the beginning:, not only Peter, but f I all the other apostles, erected new aees. ; for all received from Christ universal jurisdiction. After the death of tlie apostles, only by the authority or with j the consent of the Roman pontiff were new bishoprics founded. In an address recently delivered at Helena, Mont., the lecturer said: "Up to the time of the great division between the east and the west, at the ' close of the genera! councils, approxi- mately at the close of the seventh century, cen-tury, there was in the world just one ' universal, or Catholic church. Then, after serious misunderstandings, the - great family separated into branched. After that time there were several j branches among them the Roman, the Greek and the Anglican." If the lecturer means by "division" a schism, he will find those divisions in the first century, when those of the Novatians. Donatists and Luciferians occurred. The Greek schism took place ( under the Emperor Michael III, who. i raised Plotius to the see of Constanti- i nople in 858. His election, which was illegal, was annulled by Pope Nicholas I. "The great division" then was two centuries later than that assumed by , the lecturer. History fails to mention : the Anglican division. There is no record rec-ord of any division, or any mention of an Anglican church, before the fourteenth four-teenth century. Like all myths, it exists ex-ists only in the minds of those who try to harmonize error with opposing facts of history. From the landing of St. Augustin in England down to the time ' of the Norman conquest, English Catholics Cath-olics were loyal to the holy see. Neither William the Conqueror nor any of his royal successors denied the spirituat jurisdiction of the Roman pontiff. The origin of Anglican jurisdiction was the accident of Queen Elizabeth's illegitimate illegiti-mate birth. Against facts there can be no argument. The Anglican branch, , which the lecturer traced back "ap- f proximately to the close of the seventh century," occurred during the reign of Henry VIII. On the accession of his daughter to the throne. Cardinal Pole i absolved the nation from schism and- J heresy, restoring it to the communion .3 of the Catholic church. Queen Eliza- . beth, not through previous zeal, but I from force of circumstances fher il- legitimacy) segregated the English na- (Continued on Page 3.) - - . j PAPACY IN THE LIGHT OP HISTORY ! (Continued from page 1.) tion from Catholic unity. She was -willing to sacrifice a celestial for a terrestrial terres-trial crown, and an eternity for a reign of forty years. The English people as a body were unwilling to come under the ban of the church a second time. When the change of faith was proposed in parliament, and the oath of royal supremacy introduced, intro-duced, it was carried only by a small majority of three. Bishops, clergy, laity "and the universities who retained their Anglo-Saxon independence and dared express their opinion, protested against such outrage. By an act of parliament the ancient faith was thrown aside and the new faith, the Anglican church, brought into existence. Just at this period and not at the close of the seventh sev-enth century, the great anomaly of a new creed seeking rehabilitation with the apostolic church was presented. Its ministers, without jurisdiction and severed sev-ered from the apostolic tree without the sacrament of holy order, seek spiritual consolation from six of 'the queen's theologians as to the validity of their orders. The opinion of those profound theologians was that "in a case of urgent ur-gent necessity the queen possessed the power of supplying every defect through the plenitude of her ecclesiacti-cal ecclesiacti-cal authority as head of the church." Here was a new theory for deferring and creating cL IltfW uieiuuu JuriauiLLlUXl. At to Caesar what belonged to God. Parliament Par-liament gives its queen "the pientitude of power" to excommunicate the pope, depose bishops and suspend priests. Her jurisdiction was more divine in spirituals than that of the pope, to which the English church for a thousand thou-sand years adhered. The lecturer adverts ad-verts to the general councils. The inference in-ference to be drawn "that these councils coun-cils ended, too, at the close of the seventh century, when Catholic unity was ,broken. To the close of the seventh sev-enth century there were six general councils, the third of Constantinople being held in 681. All these general councils were convoked by the authority author-ity of the Roman pontiff and were presided pre-sided over by him either in person or by his legate. Their decrees regulating faith and morals and disciplinary canons, can-ons, were effective only when sanctioned sanc-tioned by the pope or his legate. This was the pope's universal jurisdiction, admitted by all Christian nations. Alii this was changed in England, not at the close of the seventh century, but in the fourteenth century, and what belonged be-longed to God was given to Caesar, who had the plenitude of power to "supply all deficiencies in the acts done by them" (her bishops) "or in the person or state, or faculty of any of. them; such being the necessity of the case, land the urgency of the time." How in- .' consistent? Parliament defines spiritual s jurisdiction, next divinely creates it. j and then institutes a new faith con- i formable to its requirements! j- I (To b.- Continued. j |
