Ancient Faith," and "An Expo- | shall always venerate him as his chief sition of Liturgy," having been corrected, and officially approved at the holy see aud the said approbations moreover having been there subsequently confirmed by authority and official answers to all the objections which had been offered, having been since transmitted to the Right Rev. Dr. Poynter, V. A.-the sacred congregation of Propaganda, wishing to put this affair completely to rest, ("ut molesta huic controversæ finis aliquando ponatur,") and that every cause of misunderstanding might be entirely removed, has, (by letters both to Dr. Poynter and the Rev. Peter Gandolphy, under date of the first of March.*) on one part, required, that the Rev. Peter Gandolphy be immediately (“sine mora,”) restored to the possession of his former missionary faculties and, on the other hand, that the said Peter Gandolphy do apologize to Dr. Poynter for whatever may have been disrespectfully stated by him in an address to the public, hastily printed some months back, and of which Dr. Poynter had complained to the holy see. The Rev. Peter Gandolphy therefore, in compliance with the order of the holy see, most willingly offers his humble apologies to Dr. Poynter, for whatever may have been disrespectful to his 1 rdship in the said address, and, in consequence, confidently hopes, that is lordship will now, without further delay, restore to him those faculties, for the restitution of which the holy see has so earnestly inter ested itself. The Rev. Peter Gandolphy takes this opportunity also of declaring, that at all times he shall be ready to retract any errors notified to him by Dr. Poynter-that he bears, and wishes to show, every respect to him as his legitimate superior-that he * Received the 24th of March, and spiritual guide in all his missionary labours and that to merit his approbation shall always be his earnest endeavour and ambition. The Rev. Peter Gandolphy moreover seizes this opportunity of declaring, that he wishes nothing more sincerely than a perfect reconciliation with every person who may have been led to oppose him in this unfortunate dispute, so trying to him under every consideration-that he is ready to allow every thing passed to sink into oblivion for ever to forgive as he hopes to be forgiven-and here retracts, before the public, every charge, impatient complaint, or uncharitable assertion, which he may have offensively made on any occasion. PETER GANDOLPHY. Spanish-place, April 15, 1817. PASTORAL LETTER. To THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CLERGY AND LAITY OF THE LONDON DISTRICT. Keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding the profane novelties of words, and oppositions of knowledge falsely so called; which some promising, have erred concerning the faith, 1 Tim. vi. 20, 21. DEARLY BELOVED BRETHREN AND CHILDREN IN JESUS CHRIST,-IT is one of the principal duties of bishops, who are the official guardians of the sacred depcsit of divine faith, to preserve, within the limits of their respective spiritual jurisdictions, the doctrine of the catholic church in its original purity and integrity; and to transmit the same without change to their successors. Hence it is their right, as well as their duty, to exercise their authority in forbidding and in preventing, by every means in their power, the propagation of doctrines which they judge to be errors contrary to the faith of the catholic mined, many other errors of a similar nature would be discovered in them, we forbad him to circulate these works, or to permit them to be circulated in our vicariate, until the errors should be corrected, or the judgment of the apostolical see should be passed on them; that the author declared to us his intention of immediately presenting these his works to his holiness, in order to their ex church, amongst the people committed to their charge. To a prohibition of this nature issued by a bishop, obedience is due in conscience from every person subject to his ecclesiastical jurisdiction, until the doctrines which the bishop judges to be erroneous are corrected to his satisfaction, or until the judgment of the bishop concerning them is corrected by the judgment of an ecclesiastical tribunal, to which he himself is sub-amination, and of submitting them jeet. By this regular dependance and gradual subordination in the hierarchy of the catholic church, according to which priests are subject to their bishops, and all the bishops of the church are subject to the sovereign pontiff, the unity and integrity of faith have been preserved in all ages from the beginning. In the discharge of our pastoral duties, we have been compelled to exercise our authority in labouring to preserve the purity of faith, and to prevent the propagation of error in this district. That you may be guarded against the danger of deception, to which you are exposed from various erroneous statements and unauthorized documents that have been lately circulated relative to the subject on which we now address you, we feel it to be our duty to communicate to you the following information and admonitions. to the judgment of the apostolic see that in the mean time, in obedience to our command, he gave orders that the circulation of these his works in the London district should be withheld; that when he presented them to the pope, his holiness sent them to the sacred congregation of the Propaganda to be examined ;-that the cardinal prefect of the Propaganda officially communicated to us a strict order, that the prohibition on these works in our vicariate should remain in its full force, until the judgment of the apostolic see should be passed on them; that to this moment we have no knowledge that the judgment of the apostolic see has been passed On them; that the author, in violation of this our prohibition, ordered or permitted the sale of these works in the London district about the beginning of September last, after he had stopped the sale of them here for about nine We therefore make known to you, months;-that for having obstinatedearly beloved brethren and children ly persisted in ordering or permitting in Jesus Christ, that certain works, the sale of his works in this district entitled "Liturgy" or "Exposition beyond a certain day, after he had of Liturgy," and Defence of the been repeatedly reminded of our Ancient Faith, having been pub-prohibition, and had been 'duly adlished in our vicariate by a clergy-monished of the consequences man subject to our spiritual jurisdiction, which works we judged to contain doctrines contrary to the ancient faith of the catholic church;-that having pointed out some of these errors to the author, and having declared our just apprehensions that, when the whole work should be exa of per sisting in the violation of it, he did by his own act incur the canonical censure of suspension, which we had denounced to him ;-that even after his suspension he gave further proof of his contumacy, by pointing out in his address to the public, dated Oct. 5, 1816, the places in London where his books might be had, which he was forbidden to permit to be sold in the London district. Hence, dearly beloved brethren and children in Jesus Christ, you may observe that the real cause of the suspension incurred by the author was his obstinately persisting in ordering or permitting the sale or circulation of these his works in our vicariate, before the errors were corrected, or the judgment of the apostolical see concerning them was communicated to us. In the correction of these errors we have now no concern; since the works have been referred by the author himself to a higher tribunal, the apostolic see, for their examination and correction. ༣ posed as an apology, began with misstating the ground of his suspension: consequently it could not be admitted. On the evening of the 18th instant, a few copies of a printed paper in the form of an apology, dated April 15, 1817, were forwarded to us by direction of the author. But we have been compelled to inform him, that this paper, which, we must remark, was published by him before it was communicated to us, cannot be admitted as a sufficient apology, because it contains assertions which are not true, and because it is in no regard a competent satisfaction, or any satisfaction at all. We wish it most particularly to be observed, that inasmuch as this paper see us evidentWe should have been happy long ly intended to convey an idea that ago to have restored the author to these his works have received the the exercise of his sacerdotal func-approbation of the holy see; the tions, if he had been willing to coun- character and dignity of that holy termand and stop, to the best of his and apostolical see, have, we apprepower, the circulation of his workshend, been deeply wounded by it. (until the judgment of the apostolic We have therefore required that he see should be passed on them,) to re- publicly retract that paper. Not tract his advertisement of the sale of having lost sight of the subject, which them, dated Oct. 5, 1816, to make in our answer of the 26th of March, due satisfaction for his disobedience we had required time duly to consito episcopal authority, and to repair der, and being anxious to restore the the evil which his disedifying con- author to the exercise of his sacred duct had occasioned. functions, on such terms as duty and The sacred congregation of the charity should dictate to us, we had Propaganda (by a letter to the au- prepared a form of declaration for thor, under date of the first of March, the author to sigu, grounded on a received on the 24th of the same letter of the cardinal prefect of the month) having commanded him to Propaganda to him, dated the 1st of make a public acknowledgement of March, 1817. Before the receipt of his past offensive conduct to his bi- his printed paper, we had, for the shop, and to ask pardon for the same, purpose of proposing this declaration the author did, on the 25th of March, to him, requested his attendance on submit to us, in writing, a form of Saturday, the 19th instant; having an advertisemen, which he had previously determined, that before drawn up for that purpose. To his he should sign it, we would, at his letter containing this form, we re-request, deliver a copy of it to him, turned an answer in writing the following day, March 26th, requiring time to consider the subject, and observing, in the mean while, that the advertisement which he had pro- | that he might have an opportunity to consider it at his leisure: but he absolutely refused to hear a word of this declaration read to him. Such disregard as he manifested for epis copal authority is most distressing contrary to the faith of the catholic church, we caution you not to re In our solicitude to preserve the purity of the catholic faith in our vi cariate, and to remove from you the danger of error concealed under the specious title of orthodox doctrine, we have judged it necessary to address to you these instructions and admonitions in the present circum stances. The Lord direct your hearts in the charity of God, and the patience of Christ......The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with all. you Amen. 2 Thess. iii. 5, 18. WILLIAM, Bishop of Halia, and afflicting to us. 4 In these circumstances we deem it indispensably necessary to caution you, dearly beloved brethren and children in Jesus Christ, against receiving any documents, purporting to contain the approbation of these works by the apostolic see, not offically notified to you by us, we being the only legitimate authority for officially communicating to you such approbation. But as no approbation of the apostolic see has yet been communicated to and as the works alluded to still contain various doctrines which we judge to be errors us, London, April 24, 1817. NOTE ON THE PASTORAL. A FRIEND of the Rev. P. G. observing a strong feeling to have been excited against him, by the solemn denunciation, read in all the chapels of London on Sunday week, thinks it essential to the cause of justice to put the public in possession of two letters which have come to his knowledge, and which, by throwing a considerable light upon the subject, are eminently calculated to lead the public to form their judgment of it on the true principles of British justice, which in no case is disposed to condemn an individual unheard. It is not meant to be inferred, that these letters are calculated totally to exculpate this clergyman, but the writer thinks it will be admitted by every candid person, who will care. fully consider their purport and date, that they materially alleviate the weight of the charge against him, and, at any rate, lay a strong claim to have been considered so far at least as to have procured some little delay in the publication of the denunciation in question. Copy of a Letter from the Rev. P. G. to the Right Rev. Dr. P. "MY LORD,-Feeling myself yesterday taken by surprise, when your lordship unexpectedly proposed to me, in the formal presence of your three grand vicars, to accept and subscribe to a pa | per which you had drawn, (this paper was to have been substituted for the printed apology, dated April 15,) as I then signified my objection to put my hand to any matter which I am not allowed previously to examine and coolly to consider with my friends, if your lordship yet requires my signature, I take the liberty of requesting your lordship to transmit to me a copy of what you wish me to subscribe. To a full apology as required by the Propaganda, I shall never object. I have the honour to be, your lordship's obedient humble P.G... servant, Spanish Place, April 20th 1817.", 66 Right Rev Dr. P." * The of the letter from the carpassage dinal prefect of propaganda to the Rev. P. G. so much canvassed, is as follows: "The holy congregation therefore, desirous that a termination may be put to this unpleasant dispute, and that the source of disagreements may be entirely done away, requires and orders, that on your part, you publicly declare that you humbly ask pardon of your bishop for all those things by which you may have offended him, and especially for your printed address to the public; moreover that you are willing and ready to correct any errors, which may have crept into your printed works, and shall be notified to you by the vicar apostolic, and that you promise him all obedience and submission. If you do this, we readily signify to the bishop himself, that he restore to you your former faculties without delay. This just act of yours will satisfy the bishop, will do honour to yourself, and will remove all cause of disagreements. Wherefore noways doubting but your reverence will perform this act of duty, I beseech the Almighty that he grant you whatever may be to your happiness and peace."-By a pre | vious letter, dated Nov. 23, 1816, from the same authority as the last, the Rev. P. G. was officially informed, " that the holy congregation had directed the RightRev. Dr. P. to call Mr. G. and to notify to him the errors which his lordship still discovers in the works, as well as any offence he might have given him and on his showing himself | willing to correct the errors, and to pay bim due submission, that his lordship was to restore to Mr. G. his faculties" The writer can say, that his rev. friend has ORTHOD. JOUR. Vol. V. Copy of a Letter from the Rev. P. G. to the Right Rev. Dr. P. "MY LORD,-I feel deeply concerned at the unintentional offence, which it appears I have given you, by hastily re tiring from your lordship on Saturday last, without waiting te hear the declaration read, which your lordship intended me to sign. I acknowledge, my lord, I was much to blame by acting so precipitately, but my apology, which I hope will be accepted, is, that I felt myself so ill by the anxiety of mind and agitation which this protracted affair has occasioned in me, as well as by my surprise at unexpectedly meeting in formal assembly your three grand vi cars, as to be absolutely incapable of discussing or deciding any thing in that circumstance, and more especially as I conceived by your lordship saying, ، that you would not be dictated to, that you declined to allow me the fa vour of considering your wishes in writing. I can assure your lordship, that I did not retire through any dis respect or contempt of your authority. "The apology or declaration to which your lordship excepts, was published only in the conviction that you did not choose to take further notice of the sub ject, or were waiting for some such shown himself most ready to produce his letters and papers, and he would do the them. It appears that every difficulty same for any person desirous of seeing might be easily decided, by a reference to an official letter from the congregation of the propaganda received by the Right Rev. Dr. P. and dated March 1st, into which Mr. G's letter of the same date is transcribed as a copy. Why has not this unnoticed letter been produced, or spoken of in the printed pastoral? It is reported to terminate with the following sentence. "This holy congregation again formally com mands your lordship to restore to Mr. G. his faculties, and accept of the submission be has by our directions proffered, and that you never more tire. ("fatiges") the which he will again proffer; and we insist holy congregation upon this shameful and odious affair." N. B. By a recent letter from Rome, it also appears, that the approbations of the Rev. P. G.'s works, by the Master of the Sacred Palace, were AGAIN officially communicated to the Right Rev. Dr. P. by the cardinal prefect of the Propaganda, in the very letter of the 1st of March, as the approbations OF and BY the HOLY APOSTO. LIC SEE. 2 A |