TRANSCRIPTIONS

OF THE

FOURTH LETTER ADDRESSED BY DOCTOR PHILLPOTTS TO MR. BUTLER, CONTAINING A CHARGE BROUGHT BY HIM AGAINST DOCTOR LINGARD.

DOCTOR LINGARD'S REPLY,

DOCTOR HENRY PHILLPOTTS, D.D. Rector of Stanhope, in the diocese of Durham, has published "Letters to Charles Butler, esq. on the Theolo

gical Parts of his Book of the Roman Catholic "Church, with Remarks on certain Works of "Doctor Milner and Doctor Lingard, and on some

parts of the Evidence of Doctor Doyle before "the Committees of the Houses of Parliament."

The fourth of these Letters is entitled, "Doctor "Lingard: his Unfaithfulness in Translation." This letter, and Doctor Lingard's reply to it, in a letter, which he has done the writer of the preceding letter the honour to address to me, are now presented to the reader.

I.

DOCTOR PHILLPOTTS'S CHARGE.

"IN inquiring, in my last letter, into the Acts of the II. Nicene Council, I said that "Dr. Lingard protests altogether against such in

ledges only the Council's doctrinal decree "passed in its last session." In answer to this statement, I then satisfied myself with showing, that the previous Acts of the Council are admitted, as authoritative, even by the Trent Catechism. But, as this Council's proceedings have been found very important in my view of the doctrine of your Church respecting Images, I now think it right to give more particular attention to Dr. Lingard's assertions, and shall thus at the same time fulfil my promise of addressing to you a few words respecting Dr. Lingard himself.

one of

That gentleman is, I believe, among the most distinguished living writers of your Church. By yourself he is repeatedly mentioned in terms of very high respect for although he is not cited as your Vouchers for the doctrines of your Church, yet as an historian, he is warmly commended by you, more especially for his accuracy and precision, and for "constantly citing "the authorities upon which his relations are "founded."* It is said, indeed, by those who have read his history, (I am not in that number), that the main part of your historical facts are derived from him.

It is plain, therefore, on all these accounts, that it will be by no means a superfluous labour, to dwell a little more at large on the manner in which he has treated the II. Nicene Council. The result may not only be useful in establish* "Book," &c. p. 28. note, and p. 193.

ing more fully the authority of that Council's Acts, a matter of much moment in the inquiry in which I am engaged;-but it may also afford a specimen of the method in which your modern ecclesiastical historian disposes of subjects which are not quite agreeable to him, and may thus assist his readers in estimating the value of his authority in all questions of doubtful evidence.

I have said that I am not in the number of those who have read Dr. Lingard's history; and I will frankly tell you my reason.

It happened to me, several years ago, to be engaged in a controversy with him,-the attack and defence of a charge delivered by the present Bishop of Durham: and, on that occasion, I had so frequent opportunities of experiencing the very peculiar use, which he thinks himself at liberty to make of the writings of ancient authors, that I felt no inclination to sit down to a work of his, the merit of which must entirely depend on his faithfulness to the authorities which he cites.

In the course of our controversy, I made pretty copious extracts from the Acts of the II. Nicene Council, (of which, indeed, I have not scrupled to avail myself in my preceding letter to you): and in his answer, which closed the controversy, he makes the statement to which I have before referred. "The Acts of this Council," says he, "are of no authority in the

"Catholic Church. We assent, indeed, to the "doctrinal decree passed in the last session, "which was approved by the Popes: but in the "Acts and Canons much is contained to which the "Roman Church would never impart its sanction. "Quæ apud nos nec habentur, nec_admittuntur, says Anastasius Bibliothecarius, a Roman writer of the same age.

This passage was not much regarded by me at the time when I first read it; and I never reverted to it, till my attention was recalled to these matters by my present correspondence with you. I then determined to investigate the grounds of a statement, which I was confident was

founded, but which I never before had thought worth examining. I now proceed to give you the result of my inquiries. It will be found, that not a single point, whether affirmed, or insinuated, in the passage which I have cited from Dr. Lingard, (except your Church's admission of the final Decree of the Council), is there truly stated by him.

First, Dr. Lingard is pleased to say of his alleged authority, Anastasius Bibliothecarius, in order to give the greater weight to his testimony, that he was "a Roman author of the same age" with the Council. Now, so far is this from being the case, that the tract of Anastasius, from which Dr. Lingard makes his quotation, is inscribed to

* Lingard's Tracts, p. 238.

Pope John VIII. who did not succeed to the Papal Chair till near a hundred years later.*

In the next place, Dr. Lingard is so good as to give us the testimony of Anastasius to this alleged fact, that "in the Acts and Canons of "the Council much is contained to which the "Roman Church would never impart its sanc"tion; quæ apud nos nec habentur, nec admittun

tur." Now, viewing this representation in the most favourable light, it is exactly of that kind which a man of real veracity would scorn to make; but which one, who halted between the inclination to mis-state and the fear of being exposed in his dishonesty, might bring himself to fancy at once serviceable and safe.

The words of Anastasius (to which, by the way, Dr. Lingard with all his accuracy in citing authorities, gives us no further clue than the name of the author) occur in a very short " Pre"face to the Seventh Synod" (the second Nicene) interpreted and edited by him. He was, as his title denotes, the Pope's librarian, and by virtue of that office, had access to all the Papal records and monuments. He had translated the eighth General Council, and thought it, therefore, unfit, that the seventh should remain locked up either in the original or in an existing translation, which was so very bad, as to be hardly intelligible. In the course of his further observations, he says,

* The Council sate A. D. 787; John VIII. was elected Pope A. D. 873. vid. Baron. Ann.