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Show Cburcb and the Papacy. A Spiritual Head Always Admitted and Needed to Preserve Pre-serve Unity of Faith. (Written for The Intermountain Catholic.) Having established the fact that the Pope claimed and exercised the plenti-tude plenti-tude of power, and that bishops, kings and people acknowledged his spiritual jurisdiction up to the time of the Reformation, Re-formation, it now only remains to show that the government of the Church in the past and present are identical, that is, that the Pope was universally recognized as the supreme pastor, from whom all bishops received jurisdiction jurisdic-tion over their flocks. No student of ecclesiastical history, in the last century, made a deeper study of that subject than Dr. Dollin-ger. Dollin-ger. By critics he is admitted to have made a more profound study of ecclesiastical eccles-iastical history than most historians, whilst by authors hostile to the Church he has been often quoted, especially since his apostasy, during the Vatican council. Apropos to the subject of the government of the early Church, Dr. Dollinger, in a work entitled "The First Age of Christianity and the Church." referring to the divine origin of the Primacy, wrote: "Christ gave to Peter four closely allied promises of future power and pre-r -inence in the Church: (1) He should be the rock whereon Christ should build it: (2) the Church built on him should never fall; (3) Christ would give him the keys of His kingdom or Church; (4) what he bound or loosed on earth should be bound or loosed in heaven." This same writer, in his Church history, wrote: "That the decrees of synods concerning faith obtained their full force and authority au-thority only by being received and confirmed con-firmed by the Pope, was publicly acknowledged ac-knowledged in the fourth century." Dr. Dollinger does not rest his case with a mere assertion, but proves it by referring to the early general councils. In his history he states that: "The Fifth General Council held in 3S1. which ! was a council of only Oriental bishops, ! acquired of an Ecumenical Council by the subsequent acceptance and confirmation confir-mation of the Pope, St. Augustine declaring de-claring after the two African synods had been confirmed by the Pontiff. 'Rome has spoken the case is finished!.' So again the Council of Ephesus, in forming its judgment against Nestor-i Nestor-i iusy said that it did so following the canons apd epistle of the Pope. .The same council also' ratified, without any further examination the Papal condemnation con-demnation of Pelagianism. At Chal-cedon Chal-cedon the council, in drawing up its dictum on the point of the controversy, did not appeal to the synod which had been held at Constantinople, under Flavian, but only to the decree of the Pontiff. In the judgment vpon Batches, Bat-ches, Cecropius, Bishop of Sebaste, declared de-clared in the name of his brethren that the Bishop of Rome had sent to them a formulary, and that they all ' followed fol-lowed him and subscribed to hi3 epistle. The Sixth General Council in like manner man-ner declared mat it adhered to the dogmatic epistle of Pope Agatho, and by it condemned the heresy." This lengthy quotation shows that Dr.' Dollinger, now a favorite author with writers who are hostile to tne Catholic Church, was convinced that the jrovernment of the Church was Papal, .and was so recognized. Commenting Com-menting on his own word3 just quoted, he wrote: "It was acknowledged to be the prerogative of the first see in the Christian world that the Bishop of Rome -could be judged by no man. It was a thing unheard of that the head of the Church should be placed in judgment before his own subjects. He who was not In communion will the Bishop of Rome was not mi! in the Catholic Church." Whatever may be the opinion formed 1 of the German doctor and his historical account of the early Christian church, ho completely refutes all the claims of the Anglican church that England was independent of Rome in the early times, and not till the mission of Augustine Au-gustine did the Pope exercise any jurisdiction jur-isdiction over Britain. That there were Catholics in England before Augustine, is certain; also it must be borne in I mind that England was a Roman colony, col-ony, paying a Roman polltax. long before be-fore it became ecclesiastically Roman Catholic. Throughout ail England Roman towns were built. Roman Christians were in the army, and filled important positions in the department of the statct and this before Pope Klutherius sent missionaries to Eng-' . . land in the second century. Tle-e r..u-sionar'os r..u-sionar'os preached to the Roman Christians Chris-tians in the Roman language, firmly establishing the authority of the Ro- I man Pontiff in England. At the Council-Of Aries inFrancp. A. D. 3r4, there were present many English Eng-lish Roman Catholic bishops, who had distinctively Roman names: Prestitu-tus. Prestitu-tus. bishop of London: Adelphinus. bishop of a colony of London, and Eborius. bishop of York." the Roman capital, are mentioned as members of the council. These same bishops, together to-gether with those of Gaul, Spain. Italy and Africa, before the Council of Nice, signed a synodical letter which was addressed to Pope Sylvester, regarding certain disciplinary matters. The attempt to segregate the Anglican Angli-can church from Rome and give it an independent existence down through the centuries is so futile that English writers, who accept the verdict of history, his-tory, do not attempt it. A feu- years ago. when this question was debated in the English press, the Guardian, an organ of the' Church of England, had in its editorial page, Feb. S, 1SSD, the following significant article: "It cannot can-not be said too often that -he Koma.-i planted, the Scot watered, the Briton did nothing. Mind, it is no kind of blame to the Briton that he did nothing, noth-ing, but as a matter of fact he did nothing. The Scot did a good deal, but he did nothing till the Roman had begun ,and his work may be looked upon as- merged in that of the Roman. Make what theological inferences we choose the Church of England is, above ail other churches of Europe, the child of the Church' of Rome." . That the Christian faith was planted in England at a very early period is now certain. In an ancient Syriac manuscript discovered in the Nltrian monastery of lower Egypt, and now preserved in the British museum, it i3 stated that: "The city of Rome, and all Italy, and Spain, and Britain, and j Gaul, received ' the apostle's hand cf I priesthood from Simon Cephas, who j went ur from Antioch." The same Syriac writer gives the assurance that between A. D. 42 and 67, a disciple of St. Peter tried to evangelize Britain. I In a letter addressed by Lucius, kins' of Britain, to Pope Elutherius in the second century, the kin? requested that "he might be made a Christian by his 1 order." Gildas. the historian and Ven- erable Eede, also assert that Christian- f Ity was introduced into England in I the first century, whilst St. Irenaeu I (A. D. ITS) wrote that: "The whole f Church has one and the same faith througout the whole world." This unity of faith supposes one governing head, f from which the members received one- f neas in all doctrines of faith and mor- f als. To secure unity without a head is an impossibility. Its claim and ex- ercise has been the distinctive feature of the Catholic r'hurch all through her ; past history. Disintegration followed whenever a head was wanting. (To Be Continued.) ' |