The Holy See And The Liberty Of The Irish Church At The Beginning Of The
Present Century.
I. From Mgr. Brancadoro to Father Concanen, O.P., Agent at Rome for the
Irish Bishops. Dalla Propaganda. 7 Agosto, 1801.
II. From the same to the same. Dalla Propaganda, 25 Settembre, 1805.
A Recent Protestant View Of The Church Of The Middle Ages.
The Mss. Remains Of Professor O’Curry In The Catholic University. No. II.
The Destiny Of The Irish Race.
Liturgical Questions. (_From M. Bouix’s __“__Revue des Sciences
Ecclesiastiques__”_).
Documents.
I. Condemnation Of Dr. Froschammer’s Works.
II. Decree Of The Congregation Of Rites.
Notices Of Books.
Footnotes
THE HOLY SEE AND THE LIBERTY OF THE IRISH CHURCH AT THE BEGINNING OF THE
PRESENT CENTURY.
All students of Irish Catholic affairs must feel, at every moment, that we
are at a great loss for a collection of ecclesiastical documents connected
with our Church. The past misfortunes of Ireland explain the origin of
this want. During the persecutions of Elizabeth, of James the First, and
Cromwell, our ancient manuscripts, and the archives of our convents and
monasteries, were ruthlessly destroyed. At a later period, whilst the
penal laws were in full operation, it was dangerous to preserve official
ecclesiastical papers, lest they should be construed by the bigotry and
ignorance of our enemies into proofs of sedition or treason. Since liberty
began to dawn on our country, things have undergone a beneficial change,
and recently great efforts have been made to rescue and preserve from
destruction every remaining fragment of our ancient history, and every
document calculated to throw light on the annals of our Church. We are
anxious to coöperate in this good work, and we shall feel deeply grateful
to our friends if they forward to us any official ecclesiastical papers,
either ancient or modern, that it may be desirable to preserve. Receiving
such papers casually, we cannot insert them in the RECORD in chronological
order, but by aid of an Index, to be published at the end of each volume,
the future historian will be able to avail himself of them for his
purposes.
To-day we insert in our columns two letters never published before, as far
as we can learn, in their original language. They were addressed, in the
beginning of this century, by the learned Archbishop of Myra, Monsignore
Brancadoro, Secretary of the Propaganda, to a distinguished Dominican,
Father Concanen, then agent of the Irish bishops, who was afterwards
promoted to the See of New York, and who died at Naples, in the year 1808,
before he could take possession of his diocese.
The first letter, dated the 7th August, 1801, refers to certain
resolutions adopted by ten Irish prelates, in January, 1799, at a sad
period of our history, when Ireland was in a state of utter prostration,
and abandoned to the fury of an Orange faction. In such circumstances, we
are not to be surprised that the Catholics of Cork, Waterford, Wexford,
and many other parts of Ireland, in the hope of preserving their lives and
property, should have petitioned to be united to England; or that Catholic
prelates, anxious to gain protection for their flocks, should have
endeavoured to propitiate those who had the power of the government in
their hands, by taking into consideration the proposals then made—that the
state should provide for the maintenance of the clergy, and that a right
should be given to the state to inquire into the loyalty of such
ecclesiastics as might be proposed for the various sees of Ireland.
The celebrated Dr. Milner, treating of the resolutions just referred to,
observes in his _Supplementary Memoirs_, p. 115, that they had nothing in
common with the veto which was afterwards proposed by government in 1805,
and several times in succeeding years, and adds, that the prelates
“stipulated for their own just influence, and also for the consent of the
Pope in this important business.”
According to the wise determination of the prelates, the matters they had
agreed to were referred to the judgment of the Supreme Head of the Church.
A speedy answer, however, could not be obtained. At that time the great
Pontiff, Pius the Sixth, was a captive in the hands of the French
Republicans, and soon after died a martyr at Valence in France. The Holy
See was then vacant for several months, until, by the visible
interposition of Providence, Italy was freed from her invaders, and the
cardinals were enabled to assemble in conclave to elect a new Pope. Soon
after his promotion, Pius the Seventh occupied himself with the affairs of
our Church, and the secretary of the Propaganda received instructions to
communicate through Father Concanen to the Irish Prelates the wishes of
his Holiness.
The substance of the official note of Monsignore Brancadoro is, 1. That
his Holiness is thankful to the British government for the relaxation of
the penal laws to which Catholics had been so long subjected, and for any
other acts of liberality or kindness conferred on them. 2. That the Irish
prelates, whilst manifesting their gratitude for the favours they had
received, should prove, by their conduct, that it was not through a
feeling of self-interest, or through hopes of temporal advantages, that
they inculcated on their flocks the necessity of obedience to the laws and
the conscientious fulfilment of the duties of good citizens; but that they
did so through a spirit of religion, and in conformity with the dictates
of the gospel. 3. That to prove how sincerely they were animated with
those feelings, the Irish prelates should refuse the proffered pension,
and continue to act and support themselves as they have done for the past,
thus giving an example of Christian perfection which would not fail to
give general edification.
The second letter is also from the secretary of Propaganda to Father
Concanen, and is dated 25th of Sept., 1805, in which year Dr. Milner had
just brought under the notice of the Holy See some new projects of
government interference with the Catholic clergy, which had lately been
introduced into Parliament by Sir John Hippisley, at that time a supporter
of Emancipation, but who afterwards gave proofs of a great desire to
enslave the Catholic Church.
In the second letter Monsignore Brancadoro states the apprehension felt by
the S. Congregation, lest the moment of the Catholic triumph should prove
the one most dangerous to the purity and stability of the Catholic
religion since the Reformation; that it would be no injustice to suspect
the British Government of being influenced by designs to that very effect;
that the Bishops should, therefore, as a general principle, renounce all
idea of advancing their own proper interests, or of securing any temporal
advantages, lest through human frailty they should inadvertently be
surprised into any concessions which in course of time might prove
injurious to the interests of religion. The Secretary then goes on to say
that the S. Congregation found serious difficulties, more or less, in all
the plans which, as Dr. Milner had reported, had been proposed by the
statesmen of the day in England. These plans were:—1. The pensioning of
the clergy. 2. State interference in the nomination of Bishops. 3. The
restoration of the Hierarchy in England. 4. The concession to the ministry
of the right to examine the communications which might pass between the
English and Irish Catholics and the Holy See.
As to the plan of pensioning the clergy, Monsignore Brancadoro points out
the dangers to which its adoption would expose them. If they accept a
pension from government, the offerings of the faithful will be undoubtedly
withdrawn, and the priesthood will be left quite dependent on the caprice
of those in power. He recalls to Father Concanen’s memory, that in his
previous letter of the 7th of August, 1801, he had announced to him the
Pope’s wish that the Irish clergy should decline all pensions from the
government, and mentions that the Irish Bishops, in reply, had stated that
they willingly renounced all temporal advantages in order to preserve
religion uninjured.
The secretary of the Propaganda next reminds his correspondent that Pius
VI., in a brief of 20th March, 1791, had condemned a decree of the
National Assembly of France, by which the clergy of that country were made
pensioners of the state; and he adds that the Holy See had resisted a
similar attempt of the English government in regard to the clergy of
Corsica, when that island had fallen into their hands.
Examining the various vetoistical plans mentioned by Dr. Milner,
Monsignore Brancadoro quotes the authority of the great and learned
Pontiff, Benedict XIV., to show how decidedly opposed the Holy See has
always been to every project directed to vest Catholic ecclesiastical
appointments in the hands of a Protestant sovereign. This question is
discussed in a brief of that Pope addressed to the Bishop of Breslau on
the 15th of May, 1748, and his words are as follows: “There is not
recorded in the whole history of the Church a single example in which the
appointment of a bishop or abbot was conceded to a sovereign of a
different religion”. He adds “that he would not, and could not, introduce
a practice calculated to scandalize the Catholic world, and which, besides
bringing on him a dreadful judgment in another world, would render his
name odious and accursed during life, and much more so after death”.
2. The learned writer then proceeds to examine the various plans of
granting to government certain powers in regard to the nomination of
bishops, and explodes them all as replete with danger to religion, and
well calculated to enslave the Church.
The plans proposed to lessen the Pope’s unwillingness to grant to the
sovereign the right of nomination were the following:—Some thought that
the nomination should be limited to a certain class of persons who should
have been approved of by the episcopal body after an examination and
trial. Such a body might be the vicars-general, of whom two should be
appointed for each diocese. The government was to be bound to choose the
bishops out of this body. This plan was rejected, first, because it would
really amount to vesting the nomination of bishops in a non-Catholic
sovereign; and secondly, on account of difficulties created by the
circumstances of the time and place.
Others proposed to give the government the right of excluding from the
episcopal charge those obnoxious to itself. Monsignore Brancadoro says of
this plan, that unless this right of exclusion were restricted by limits,
it would be equivalent to a real power of nomination. But even so, even
after due limitation, it was an absolute novelty in the Church, and no one
could tell what its consequences might be. Besides, it was uncalled for,
since the experience of so many centuries ought to have convinced the
government that the ecclesiastics appointed to govern dioceses were always
excellent citizens. Besides, it was the custom of the Holy See not to
appoint to a vacant diocese until it had received the recommendation of
the metropolitans and the diocesan clergy. This was a safeguard against
improper appointments.
3. With respect to the restoration of the Hierarchy in England, Monsignore
Brancadoro blames the motive which induced the English nobles to petition
for such a change of church government, namely, the desire they felt to
have bishops less bound to the Holy See. He declares that, although
differing _quoad jus_, bishops and vicars-apostolic did not differ in
reality, and that the Holy See was equally well satisfied with the bishops
of Ireland, and the vicars-apostolic of England and Scotland.
4. The Secretary condemns, as worst of all, the plan of giving to the
ministers the right to examine the communications that pass between the
Holy See and the British and Irish Catholics. Such a right has never been
allowed, even to a Catholic power, much less should it be allowed to a
Protestant government. The case of France was not to the point, for there
the right was limited to provisions of benefices alone. The government has
no reason to be afraid: the Holy See has expressly declared to bishops and
vicars-apostolic, that it does not desire any political information from
them.
The two official notes we insert will be read in their original language
with great interest. They are noble monuments of the zeal of the holy
Pontiff, Pius VII., and of the vigilance with which the Holy See has
always endeavoured to uphold the rights and independence of our ancient
Church. Undoubtedly the wise instructions given in those letters had no
small share in arousing that spirit with which a few years later our
clergy and people resisted and defeated all the efforts of British
statesmen to deprive our Church of her liberties, and to reduce her to the
degraded condition of the Protestant establishment. The notes of the
secretary of Propaganda are a fine specimen of ecclesiastical writing,
illustrating the maxim _fortiter in re, suaviter in modo_.
I. From Mgr. Brancadoro to Father Concanen, O.P., Agent at Rome for the
Irish Bishops. Dalla Propaganda. 7 Agosto, 1801.
Informata la Santità di Nostro Signore del nuovo piano ideato de Governo
Brittannico in supposto vantaggio della ecclesiastica Gerarchia dei
cattolici d’Irlanda, non ha punto esitato a manifestare la più viva
reconoscenza verso la spontanea e generosa liberalità del prelodato
Governo, cui professerà sempre la massima gratitudine, per l’assistenze, e
favori, che accorda ai mentovati cattolici de’ suoi dominj. Tenendo poi la
Santità Sua per indubitato, che la sperimentata fedeltà di quel Clero
Cattolico Romano al legittimo suo Sovrano derivi interamente dalle massime
di nostra S. Religione, le quali non possono mai esser soggette a verun
cambiamento, desidera il suddetto Governo resti assicurato, che i
Metropolitani, i Vescovi e il Clero tutto della Irlanda conoscerà sempre
un tal suo stretto dovere, e lo adempirà esattamente in qualunque
incontro. Brama però ad un tempo vivissimamente il S. Padre, che
l’anzidetto Clero seguitando il plausibile sistema da lui osservato finora
si astenga scrupolosamente dall’ avere in mira qualunque suo proprio
temporale vantaggio, e che dimostrando sempre con parole, e con fatti la
sincera invariabilità del suo attacamento, riconoscenza, e sommissione al
Governo Brittanico, gli faccia vieppiù conoscere la realtà di sua
gratitudine alle offerte nuove beneficenze, dispensandosi dal profittarne,
e dando con ciò una luminosa prova di quel costantè disinteresse stimato
tanto conforme all’ Apostolico zelo dei ministri del Santuario, e tanto
giovevole, e decoroso alla stessa cattolico Religione, come quello che
concilia in singular modo la stima, e il respetto verso dei sagri
ministeri, e che li rende più venerabili, e più cari ai fedeli commessi
alla loro spirituale direzione.
Tali sono i precisi sentimenti che la Santità di Nostro Signore ha
ordinate al Segretario di Propaganda di communicare alla Paternità Vostra
affinchè per di Lei mezzo giungano senza ritardo a notizie degli ottimi
Metropolitani, e Vescovi del regno d’Irlanda, nel quale spera fermamente
Sua Santità, che come ad onta dei più gravi pericoli si è già mantenuta in
passato, cosi manterassi pur anco in avvenire affatto illesa da ogni
benchè menoma macchia la nostra cattolica Religione.
Lo scrivente pertanto nell’ eseguire i Pontificj comandi si rassegna nel
suo particolare colla più distinta stima ec.