To this finding of the Vicarial Council, dictated by ecclesiastical
caprice, without regard to the law of the land, or even to the statutes
of the Church, it was impossible for me to submit--and I did not
submit to it; because I should have thereby degraded, _first_, my moral
dignity; _secondly_, the honour of the nation; and, _thirdly_, the
rights of the whole body of inferior clergy, by a cowardly submission to
the unjust and disgraceful punishment.
In the first place, my moral dignity was slighted. If I am bound _as
a man_ to resist all violent infringement of my freedom and individual
privileges, and rather to hide a free and virtuous heart beneath the
poorest clothing, than to strut about as a slave in rich attire,--I
am still more solemnly engaged to such a course, as _teacher of
the people_. As such also, in order to bear vigorous and successful
testimony to the truth, I must maintain an unblemished reputation among
my fellow-citizens. The right reverend Board, however, have at once
assailed my freedom and my honour.
As the citizen of a civilized state, and belonging to a civilized
nation, where the law and not caprice is paramount, I should have
compromised the national honour, had I, the subject of such privileges,
submitted in a cowardly and passive manner to the despotical dictation
of a foreign power.
_Lastly_, seeing that it is at once the duty and the privilege of
every teacher of the people (as also of each vicar,) to speak the
truth without respect of persons, I should have incurred the guilt of
sacrificing the privilege and duty of the whole body of inferior clergy,
by tame submission to the power of those who thus dispute the one, and
hinder us in the performance of the other.
As regards the latter, the inferior clergy have certainly renounced
their duty, when, in opposition to their superiors, they have submitted
to be robbed of this--and many other of their rights as men--and to see
themselves reduced to the condition of blind slaves; but the cowardice
of many in the past and present time, cannot relieve me or any other
man, from the duty of guarding intact the possession of our civil
rights. I am only the more solemnly bound most vigorously to contend
for all our rights,--as men and citizens, and to free myself from
slavery,--the more clearly I perceive, that by the slavery of the
popular teachers, the moral and physical suffering of the people is
ensured. Does a man cease to be a citizen when he becomes a priest?