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COPY OF THE LORD BISHOP OF CLOYNE'S CONSECRATION

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OATH.

TAKEN FROM THE ENGLISH CARDINAL.)

The Archbishop's Interrogatory to the Bishop-Elect.

ARE you ready, with all faithful diligence, to banish and drive away all erroneous and all strange doctrines, contrary to God's word, and both privately and openly to call upon ' and encourage others to the same?

Answer. I am ready, the Lord being my helper."

The reader may judge whether the above oath be not tantamount to prosecute and impugn Heretics and Schismatics. Nay, they go further; for the Catholic Prelate uses the dignified language of Salvo meo ordine, and does not bind himself to call upon and encourage others privately and openly to the same. What an alarming comment would not malevolent writers make on the Lord Bishop of Cloyne's consecration oath in those Protestant and Catholic States, where free toleration is granted, if they were as active in excluding the members of the church of England from national confidence, as the Lord Bishop of Cloyne has been in excluding Irish Dissenters and Catholics; or Counsellor Dominick Trant, who calls them internal confederated enemies against the constitution.

How these words privately encouraging others, would be tortured to the prejudice of the two Bishops, who were con secrated the other day in Lambeth Palace, in order to instruct their flocks in America, where unfettered conscience enjoys that innate freedom of which tests and penalties have deprived unhappy persecuted mortals!

The affinity of one oath with the other was so glaring, that it drew equal vengeance on the Bishops of the church of England, as well as on the Catholics, during those unhappy scenes which distracted England in the reign of Charles the First. Papists and Malignants were equally ob

noxious to people who perceived such a thin partition between both, and similarity of ceremonies, mitres, confirmation, consecrations and oaths, scarce discernible.

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What is the meaning of the words, to banish and drive away all erroneous and strange doctrines, and encourage others privately and openly to the same?" The Lord Bishop of Cloyne, who must believe that Bishops are jure divino, must believe the doctrine of the Dissenters strange and erroneous. The Lord Bishop of Cloyne, who believes that two sacraments are necessary to salvation, must believe the doctrine of the Quakers strange and erroneous. Lord Bishop of Cloyne, who believes the Catholics to be Idolaters, violators of faith with Heretics, must believe their doctrine enormously and horridly strange and erroneous. What is then the consequence? That the Lord Bishop of Cloyne is bound to banish and drive away the Dissenters, Catholics, Quakers: in a word, all Adam's children who do not profess his creed. His pamphlet shews it: his Lordship hints to a dispensing power in the Church of Rome, I most earnestly recommend a dispensation with any oath, which deprives mortals of the rights to which they are entitled by nature, and which they have not forfeited by their personal crimes. He should then have left the consecration oath of Catholic Prelates, who in every age, have been an ornament to human nature by their philanthropy, their learning, and the purity of their lives; he should have left it where he found it, in an old Pontifical, on the shelf of a College Library, and foreseen that his own oath would be sought for in his ordinal, when he would examine into the oaths of others; if both are to be taken in the literal sense, they are very well matched, and should discover in each other's face a striking similiarity of features, such as ought to be between an elder and younger sister, to use the words of the ingenious Mr. Barber.

This affinity, however, has been very troublesome to the unhappy Catholics of England and Ireland, ever since the reign of Queen Elizabeth, to this very day. In Holland and Switzerland, Protestants and Catholics live together in the greatest harmony in some parts of Germany, Calvinists, Lutherans, and Catholics, say their prayers in the same

church, each in their turn. And doubtless a passenger on earth may succeed another in a house of worship, to offer up a few prayers, as one traveller succeeds another at an Inn, and sits down at the same table on which another traveller had taken his repast an hour before. In Upper Alsatia, Protestants and Catholics study in the same University; and in Paris, the youth of all nations and religions may study the sciences, and attend what lectures they think fit, in the Universities and other Seminaries of learning, where quick parts and a comprehensive genius are attended to. But where students' religion is no matter of concern to a professor, who explain to his hearers either the Justinian code, or Hippocrates's aphorisms, or Quintilian's institutions, what reason to assign for disputes about religion in this kingdom, I am at a loss? Is the Pope more formidable here than in Holland, Switzerland, and other places more 'contiguous to Italy?' Is it on account of the difference of belief? The Catholic creed is the same all over the world: an Irish peasant believes neither more or less than a Fenelon or Bissuet, Is it on account of the Pope's alldispensing power? Is his Omnipotence more prevalent here than elsewhere? Because the Catholic Clergy of Ireland do not choose to change their creed, does the Lord Bishop of Cloyne imagine they are so ignorant as to confound a Legate's letter, or a Pope's decree with the doctrine of the Catholic Church? History informs them that a Pope was excommunicated after his death, on a suspicion of having favoured the doctrine of the Monothelites; that Pope John the Twenty-second, was obliged to retract the doctrine which he preached at Avignon, where he asserted that the souls of the Saints were not to enjoy the beatific vision, or the clear sight of God before the last judgment; and that Popes were deposed by a Council, to put an end to disorder and schism: the Pope's infallibility then can be no part of their creed: they acknowledge him as the head pastor of their religion: but the pasturage on which he is to feed the flock, is not at his choice. The boundaries are prescribed, and under the controul of unalterable faith, and the Universal Canons of the church, he would not dare to remove the land-marks: if he attempted to publish the Charter.

School Catechism, which (I am informed) was composed by, or compiled under the direction of the Lord Bishop of Cloyne, the Catholic body would depose him, and elect another in his room. Is it from dread of the Pope's deposing power, and the implicit obedience due to his mandates? Who can name a prince deposed by the Pope, in virtue of his spiritual authority? Can the prince be named who parted tamely with his crown, and opened his gates when St. Peter sounded the trumpet and ordered him to surrender? If in a memorable dispute between a Pope and an Emperor, about investitutes, the latter was worsted, it was a contest in which compacts and agreements were pleaded on both sides, and supported by powerful parties; but in this very contest have not Catholic subjects fought against the Pope in defence of their Sovereign? Have not the Catholic Barons and Clergy of England, with Archbishop Langton at their head, obtained the great charter of English liberty, in defiance of the threats, menaces, and excommunications of Pope Innocent the Third ? Is it for any degeneracy peculiar to the Roman Catholic religion, which makes contemptible cowards of its votaries? The gallant Richard Coeur de lion, was the admiration of Europe and Asia; where James the First, whom the Lord Bishop of Cloyne admires for his wise saying no Bishop, no King, used to shut his eyes whenever he drew the sword to perform the ceremony of dubbing a Knight: is it for want of valour and heroism? The heroes of Agincourt and Cressi, who said their beads on the evening of those memorable battles, which will immortalize them in the annals of the world, were as brave as Marlborough, who was obliged to make a declaration of war against the Virgin Mary, before he could draw his sword in Flanders. Is it on account of the alloy of slavery, peculiarly blended with their profession?

When Attila flew over Italy like a vulture, a few Catholics, unable to resist by land, took shelter in the sea; and like the Halcyon that builds his nest on the calm surface of the water, in that very element they laid the foundation of a Republic, equally famous for preserving its liberties against the Popes of Rome, and the Turkish Emperors of Constantinople. Without any breach of faith, or rupture of Catholic communion, the keys of Saint Peter painted on the Pontiff's

Tiara, and the crescent raised on the top of the Saracen's turban, are equally obnoxious to Catholic republicans, if either nodded at any attempt against their liberties. Where then can the Lord Bishop of Cloyne find the truth of his assertion, that despotic States have found in the Papal authority a congenial system of arbitrary dominion? Has not the Temple of Liberty (from whose very corners he endeavours to exclude the natives of these realms,) been erected by Catholic hands, long before Langton could foresee that a Bishop would misrepresent his creed? Have not Catholic States opposed this Papal authority so congenial, according to the Lord Bishop of Cloyne, with the system of arbitrary dominion. Are not Protestant Monarchs as despotic as Catholic Kings? Does not the small Republic of Ragusa change its governor every month, lest a longer continuance in office would enable him to become the petty sovereign of a small territory? Where is this congeniality of Papal authority with arbitrary dominion, so interwoven with the frame of a Catholic creed as to make them inseparable? Or can a Bishop be so much a stranger to human nature, as to be ignorant of one of its most undeniable principles? One man resembles another, and every one chooses to be free.

SECTION THE FOURTH.

Containing Cursory Remarks on the Lord Bishop of Cloyne's Pamphlet.

HAD I not seen the Reverend Mr. Barber's pamphlet, and got information that strictures on the Lord Bishop of Cloyne's publication are sent to the press, by a gentleman of more distinguished abilities than I can pretend to, I would examine his Lordship's possessions in every section of his work. Others have exempted me from the task. And my principal design was to enter into a full vindication of the Catholic body, and of myself, whom his Lordship's work is

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