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Show ' Our 0ub Coiipcrsations I By Orestes A. Brownson. ! Conversation XIII. j "I hope," said Do Bonnc-viHo. "that I have dm- reverence for the ministers of religion, and I would 1 never eounlenanee the adherents even of a fa!e j religion, in treating their ministers with disrespect, j The minister of religion, even when the religion is j heterodox, has for me something sacred, and I I would never treat even a Protestant, minister as if I he were the same as a Protestant layman. Bill I look upon the orthodox clergy, or my own church, j as having received authority only in spirituals. :md i 1 hold the interests of religion are hest promoted ; when the clergy let secular matters alone, and confine con-fine themselves to their own spiritual functions." : "If we accept the principle that- all authority in : morals and polities as well as in religion comes from God, who. through his creative act, is the ', law to all his creatures." said O'Connor. "I see not 1 how we can make any valid distinction Let ween au- i thority in spirituals and authority in seculars. If I the clergy represent the ideal element of thought. i see not how we can say their authority dues not ex- ' tend alike to all departments of life, to seculars, as , well as to spirituals." '"The question." replied De Ponneville. "is not ! one of reasoning, hut one of authority. Our Lord : says, 'My kingdom is not of this world.' and there- , fore 'llendor unto Caesar the things that are : Caesar's, and unto Ood the things that are God's.' j "That the clergy, in union with the sovereign ! Pontiff, their chief, are a spiritual society, and pes- j sess only. spiritual authority, or have only spiritual j functions is. T suppose," said Winslow. "agreed on all hands. The real qusetion is not whether the spiritual authority has secular authority or not. Lut wl let her tlie spiritual authority itself. Ly its own nature, suhordinates the secular authority. The government, in Loth spirituals and seculars. Le-longs Le-longs to God, who only hath dominion. The spiritual spirit-ual society is instituted as his minister in tho gov- j ernment of human affairs. It represents the spirit- j ual law, and the spiritual law is' the supreme law. ( from which all so-called human laws derive their force. The spiritual society, then, is not merely the superior of a secular society in dignity or rank, but its superior in authority, as the creator is superior su-perior to the creature. All authority belongs to God; all dominion is his; the spiritual society represents rep-resents on earth his supremo domain; therefore, secular princes must hold from God through the spiritual society, or the church, and be amenable to that society, and justiciable by it. The texts f. j de I'onneville cite3 do not sustain him. When our Lord says, 'His kingdom is not of this world he docs not, mean that he has not authority over this world, for he says, 'All power in heaven and in earth is given unto me but that hi.s kingdom is not of this world, not derived from it. or not founded on its principles and maxims, in Pie old sense of the word of, which is the sign of the genitive, geni-tive, answering to the Latin de. The other text spoken by our Lord, in answer to a captiou-s question ques-tion put to him by the Jews, doe9 not affirm that Caesar owns any thing or has any right. It was the Jews, not our Lord, that said the image and superscription su-perscription on the tribute money are Car5ar's. Our Lord simply replies, if Caesar's, as you say, then render to Caesar what is Caesar's, and render unto God the things that are God's. He does not answer the question, 'Is it lawful to pay tribute to Caesar?' put by the Jews, to entrap him, but merely mere-ly asserts the general principle, that we must give to every one his due. That he did not acknowledge Caesar's right to the tribute, at least from the priesthood, is evident, from his telling Peter to pay it, not as an act of justice, but as expedient, in order to avoid scandal." 'But ci-nccliii;i- ;iinir.i-!fy from (; ,!.'' nskc.l O'Connor, "why nisiy. ;.. h ,v nui.',- :h-spiritual :h-spiritual society Mi;.rc.tic in ;iriM:a!-. an. I si srato or secular society i;t .... .:! a .' I:..;!- w..;;' I then hold lY.m him. ami !h- ! ;i 1 iM- with i'... insertion of e.r'u-'ie 1. ; 1 i 1-i ( : i ." "Cxi can lo," ;it!-vv'.-"i .1 Win-low. . . :..Vl ; : nri" incomp-; Hhlr wi;Ii !: iwu c:. ma! !'!. ir. : thinir kit .'eny or n-inihiiate hi.u-.-lf. llu: !: iouml i:u unl'T in which the ;i.-ii.;; ! i, n, , preme n ::uth..rify, hecui-c he him-eii' i!,.-itnal i!,.-itnal in ire!t', ;nnl a- the x:v.f i- :''.. -. '. supreme authority nr. i nu.-a net--.:"i:-. itnal. Fie ! 1 : 11. t make llu ciivi-ion of authori contended fur. heexu-e the spiritual ivpr eiitiiu;-him, eiitiiu;-him, the distinction Ix-twcen it .-ind f - mu-a copy oi- imitate in the order of .,-,, m. I can. his creative act. Tho sovereign Lord i-; ei:- ;.!! .indivisible, and as his authority i- by it-, own nature na-ture spiritual, toe spiritual which r; p-0-1 n; hi:.i must include all tho authority ho d. -I. -;.'es. and I-;-its ov l! nature eteml to all e.va.i uro. in aii thr'-.r acts, word-- ; nd deeds. It. if ir lepr. '-.-ni - the tine authority at all. mu-t thmi represen.r ir in b-i universality and cxclusrvenr--. nml stand to t'- secular as repiv-entiu the relation ef creator and creature." "Flu; even that." rejoined O'Connor, "com-ede a radical !i-a im-tiou between the .-pirhua! and tho secular, f.o- i ho distinction between creator and creature i- radical, if then dd can delegate po.ver ar. all to a. creature, why not to the ocular soeict-as soeict-as well as to the spiritual, since the sc-uhir so.-iety is no Joss his creature than the spiritual society." "Secular society is the ereaMiro of Ond indc",."' replied Win-low, "but his creature nvdhinto - spiritual -ocii ly, and therefore lie can dolena power :n ii only through 'he medium of thai society. so-ciety. Ail power i-. spiritual, and the secular holds from (bd through the spiritual." "That denies all original similar power." said )e Fionuevilie. "and makes the secular the men; creature of (lie spiritual. It sunpo-es the prince does -noi recive his authority itumediat-'iy from (bid. but receives it from Cod only through the medium me-dium of the I'opo the theory of ircifury VI 1 and Boniface V III, but which the Christian world ha rejected." "Which temporal princes and thr-ir lawyers and courtiers have rejected M. de Bonneville should say." replied Winslow. '"Cur if the two pyrea.. l'opcs named asserted it. they asserted it not as m theory of their own. but as the law of Chris;. v:h"-o viejir they were, and to oppose it is to nppo-o Christ himself. The Tope is the hiirhosf aufhority i'or declaring what is or is not the divine order.'' "IJut the church herself," replied O'Connor, ''has always recognized two societies and two distinct dis-tinct powers. Pope Orelasius asserts ir in writing to the Emperor Anastasitts. and admonishes than prince that as the spiritual does not eneoaeh on the riuhfs of the secular power, the secular 11111-t not encroach 011 tho ricrht.s of the spiritual power. Jn all her relations with temporal princes, tho church lias recognized a distinct secular authority, independent in its own province, and all she has over claimed has been her own freedom and independence inde-pendence in spirituals." "The church," rejoined Diefenbach, "has always al-ways recognized the two powers, I grant, but, never as two mutually independent powers. In the letter let-ter of St. (ttdasius referred to, the Bope represents repre-sents the spiritual as bavin? to answer to (iod for the secular, which could not be if th spiritual had not power over it, for where there is ik power tliero is 110 responsibility. There are two orders, and the one is not absorbed in the other; but the secular depends on the spiritual, and is sustained by if, not as a power in relation to the spiritual, but as a power in relation to tho secular, ns tho creature, created a second cause, is a power in relation to its own acts." (To bo Continued.) |