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 A 
 
 CHURCH AND STATE IN QUEBEC 
 
 A REVIEW OF SIR ALEXANDER GALT'S PAMPHLET. 
 
 BY QUEBECENSIS. 
 
 (From the Canadian Monthly.) 
 
 WHEN, in the year 1851, the Legisla- 
 ture of Canada embodied in a 
 Statute* the principle of the legal equality 
 of all religious denominations, and declared 
 that to be a fundamental principle of our 
 civil polity, it was supposed that all ques- 
 tions concerning the relations of Church 
 and State were permanently settled; and the 
 country, relieved from the discussion of so 
 difficult a subject, turned with satisfaction 
 its undivided attention to those measures of 
 practical utility which preceded and accom- 
 panied a long career of material progress 
 and peace. The pamphlet recently pub- 
 lished by Sir Alex. Galtt warns us that 
 these pleasing anticipations have not been 
 realized ; but that thee is now existing in 
 the Province of Quebec an organized deter- 
 mination to assert, .,m behalf of the hier- 
 archy of the Church of Rome, a pre-emi- 
 nence and an authority unsanctioned by 
 the law of the land, and contrary to the 
 genius of the people of both races who 
 dwell therein. 
 
 That such questions should again come 
 up for discussion will no doubt be distaste- 
 ful to the mere politician. They embarrass 
 all his party alliances and disturb all his 
 deep-laid plans. But the fault is not with 
 such men as Sir Alex. Gait. If, as he at- 
 tempts to show, it be true that gradual and 
 insidious encroachments are being made by 
 the hierarchy upon the civil power in Que- 
 bec, then, upon the principle of the motto, 
 Qui tacd conscntirc videtur, which lie has 
 chosen from Pojie Boniflice's Maxims of 
 Canon Law, he is bound, as a citizen who 
 has acted no humble part in the politics 
 of his country, to utter the words of warn- 
 ing wliich are contained in the pamphlet 
 before us. There are certain principles of 
 
 * 14-15 Vic, cap. 175. 
 
 + Church and State. Montreal, 1&76. 
 
 civil liberty which long ages of struggle have 
 engrained so deeply in the very nature of 
 Anglo-Saxon peoples, and certain principles 
 of the independence of the civil power, 
 wliich centuries of contest have instilled in- 
 to the minds of 1* renchmen, that they cannot 
 be tampered with to any great extent with- 
 out causing great convulsions of society. It 
 is better to recognise such encroachments 
 in their beginnings, in the hope that timely 
 remonstrance may prevent those disturb- 
 ances which would inevitably result from a 
 tacit acquiescence at the first. 
 
 The task which Sir ."!.;. Gait has taken 
 up for this Province is in some respects 
 similar to that of Mr. Gladstone for Great 
 Britain : it is to show that new claims have 
 of late been put forward on behalf of the 
 Roman Catholic hierarchy. Mr. Gladstone 
 treats these chiefly as bearing upon civil 
 allegiance ; Sir Alex. Gait as bearing spe- 
 cially upon the peculiar circumstances of 
 his own Province, and as weakening cer- 
 tain rights of the Protestant minority which 
 were guaranteed at Confederation. The 
 writers do not cover the same ground. If, 
 however, Mr. Gladstone apprehends dan- 
 ger to civil liberty from these recently 
 put forward claims of the Roman Church, 
 how much more anxiously should we scan 
 them, living in a Roman Catholic Province 
 like Quebec? 
 
 Mr. Gladstone traces in clear outlines the 
 progress of Roman Catholic emancipation 
 in Cireat Britain. He shows that it was 
 in a great measure obtained by means of 
 the testimony given by all the prelates 
 and representatives of the Roman Church 
 in England and Ireland. Protestant pre- 
 judice gradually gave way before the earnest 
 and sincere assurances of good and learned 
 Roman theologians that Protestant notions 
 of Paj)al claims were utterly false, that 
 Papal infallibility was a Protestant fiction, 
 
 / 
 
CHURCH AND STATE IN QUEBEC. 
 
 and that the claiiis of the Pope to coer- 
 cive power, or to any au.hority over the 
 State, were obsolete. 
 
 In Quebec the case was different. By 
 the liberahty of the British Government, the 
 Roman Catholic religion was, from the very 
 first, established in the fullest freedom. By 
 virtue alone of the Imperial Act, 14 Geo. 
 III. cap. 83, the Catliolicp, of Canada ob- 
 tained privileges not enjoyed by their Eng- 
 lish co-religionists. We are aware that upon 
 this point a wide-spread misapprehension 
 exists now in Quebec, even in the highest 
 quarters, and we regret to read the follow- 
 ing in a pastoral of the Roman Catholic 
 Bishop of Montreal : 
 
 " Le Canada 6tait done vaincu, mais le 
 patriotismc Canadien ne I'^tait pas. Car nos 
 pferes, avant de mettre bas les armes, se sou- 
 vinrent qu'ils n'^taient venus peupler le 
 pays, que pour en faire un pays religieux. 
 lis capitul^rent done avec les vainqueurs ; 
 et, forts dc leur patriotisme, ils demanderent 
 hardiment, pour tous les habitants de la 
 colonic ' le droit d'etre conserves dans la 
 possession de leurs biens ; ' pour tous les 
 Catholiques 'le libre exercice de la religion' ; 
 pour leur clerg6 et leurs communaut^s, des 
 sauve-gardes, les dimes, et tOL'.s les droits 
 accoutum^s ; et pour les Eveques, le libre 
 exercice de leurs fonctions episcopates. VoilJi 
 comme nos religieux a,ncetres pensereat et 
 agirent, dans les circonstances si critiques 
 pour eux, puisqu'ils <5taient sur le point de 
 passer sous une domination ^trangke, et de 
 toucher au pouvoir d'un gouvernemert qui, 
 k cette 6poque, faisait mourir sei propres 
 sujets pour cause de religion."* 
 
 * Fioretti Vescovili, p. 105, Pastoral, dated May 
 31, 1858, and reprinted in this collection in 1872: 
 — "Canada was then conquered, but Canadian 
 patriotism was not. For our fathers, before lay- 
 ing down their arms, bethought themselves that 
 they had come to settle in this country only that 
 they might make it a religious country. They 
 made terms then with the conquerors ; and, strong 
 in their patriotism, they boldly demanded for all 
 the inhabitants of the colony the right of being es- 
 tablished in the possession of their property ; for 
 all Catholics, the free exercise of religion ; for their 
 clergy and their religious communities, safeguards, 
 tithes, and all accustomed dues ; and for the bishops 
 the free exercise of their episcopal functions. This is 
 how our religious ancestors thought and acted in 
 circumstances so critical for them, since they were 
 then on the point of passing under a foreign domina- 
 tion, and wer*; touching the power of a Government 
 which at that time was put ing its own subjects to 
 death for the sake of religion." 
 
 A reference to the Articles of Capitulation, 
 Nos. 28 to 35. will show that the right to 
 tithes and accustomed dues to the clergy 
 was distinctly lefused ; and that the right of 
 the Bishops to exercise episcopal functions, 
 in Article 31, was also refused by implication, 
 for it was classed by General Amherst with 
 Article 30, which was expressly refused. 
 Lest, however, there should be any doubt as 
 to this misapprehension of the exact facts, 
 we quote from another pastoral dated the 
 same day : " En passant sous la domination 
 Anglaise, nos peres demanderent et obtinrent 
 ^ la capitulation du pays pour leur clergd le 
 droit de percevoir les dimes et autres obla- 
 tions accoutum6es."t 
 
 It will be evident to any one reading the 
 documents, that the free exercise of their 
 religion was alone granted, and that is de- 
 fined by the treaty of cession, which expressly 
 states that the inhabitants of Canada shall 
 hai'e the free exercise of their religion so far 
 as the laws of Great Britain permit. We 
 purposely abstain from any comment upon 
 the statement that at that time (1760) the 
 British Government was putting its own 
 subjects to death for the sake of their reli- 
 gion. It remains to be observed that, at 
 that time in Canada, the Church of Rome 
 was Gallican. This Sir Alex. Gait shows- 
 was decided by the Privy Council in the 
 Guibord case ; consequently, even if there 
 had been no further enactment, the King of 
 England became possessed of all the rights 
 of sovereignty held by the French monarch. 
 Returning, however, to the subject of Ro- 
 man Catholic Emancipation in Great Britain, 
 it is important to remember that during the 
 whole agitation Rome kept silent. Still the 
 rule qui tac -onsentire videtur did not bind 
 her. We fil^d, from the replies of Cardinal 
 Manning, Monseigneur Capel and others, 
 that all the Roman Catholics at that time 
 were mistaken, and did not really know the 
 principles of their own Church. Even Dr. 
 Newman thinks that Bishop Doyle's evi- 
 dence needs a little " pious interpretation," 
 and adds that these representations of the 
 Roman Catholic hierarchy in Great Britain 
 had no real value, because Rome was not a 
 
 + Fioretti Vescovili : Pastoral on Tithes, p. 106, 
 May 31, 1858 :— " In passing under the English 
 domination, our fathers demanded and obtained at 
 the capitulation of the country for their clergy the 
 right of collection of tithes ind other customary 
 oblations. " 
 
 
CHURCH AND STATE IN QUEBEC. 
 
 
 formally consenting party. Protestants are 
 often, with justice, reproached for misrepre- 
 senting Roman doctrine ; but in this case, 
 at least, they would seem to have been 
 nearer the truth than those learned men who 
 had made a lite study of Roman theology 
 If Barrd and Maseres, who resisted the 
 Quebec Act of 1 7 7 4, or those statesmen who 
 so long resisted Catholic Emancipation in 
 Ireland, were now alive and could read Car- 
 dinal Manning's assurances that Rome had 
 never withdrawn one jot or one tittle of her 
 extremest claims, how would they exult over 
 the easy credulity of their opponents ! 
 
 Among the many replies to Mr. Gladstone, 
 Cardinal Manning's is distinguished by its 
 amcompromising tone, reminding us, in its 
 ^boldness, of those men who in Lower Ca- 
 nada are pithily said to be " more Catholic 
 than the Pope." He declares that the civil 
 ipower is in no way affected by the Vatican 
 ■decrees more than it ever was, and yet ad- 
 mit« that the whole mass of Papal decrees, 
 from the earliest times, must now be held 
 as of binding force. It now for the first time 
 clearly appears that this really was the state 
 of the matter all the while, only it was not 
 generally known ; certainly the good Bishop 
 of Kildare did not know it, or he would not 
 have described as "odious" such dogmatic 
 utterances as the Unam Sandam. Pity it is 
 that we could not have had a few centuries 
 more of happy ignorance. To revive upon 
 us the whole mass of the Canon Law, and 
 yet maintain that civil liberty is not touched, 
 seems a contradiction. The claims of the 
 Roman Pontiff to exercise coercive power 
 over kings and kingdoms are too much 
 slur.-ed over, however, even by the Cardinal. 
 In explaining away this claim, he quotes the 
 bull "Novit" of Innocent III., and pur- 
 ])orts to give the text in full in his Appendix. 
 But Mr. Gladstone, in his second pamphlet, 
 supplies an omitted portion of that Bull, 
 which asserts that the Pontiff is able and 
 bound i.0 coerce, and is appointed over the 
 nations and tlie kings that he may tear up 
 and pull down, and scatter every mortal sin. 
 Still the Cardinal indicates, by the words 
 '' et infra,'" the omitted passage, the fact 
 being that passages supposed to be of no 
 special importance are relegated to the end, 
 in smaller type, their place being indicated 
 by the words "■et infra." Now, however, that 
 these documents are of increased importance 
 ViQ presume such liberties will no longer be 
 
 taken, and no such device will be permitted. 
 As for the question of coercive power, the 
 present Pope, in the Encyclical Quantd 
 Curd, condemns all those who declare that 
 the Church has no right of restraining by 
 temporal punishments those who violate her 
 laws. Upon these and other changes of 
 Roman Catholic teaching in England Mr. 
 Gladstone dwells, in both his pamphlets, at 
 great length ; and Sir Alexander Gait shows 
 that a similar change has taken place in Que- 
 bec. To establish this he quotes largely from 
 pastorals and other official utterances of the 
 Bishops. But what is especially of import- 
 ance to us is the danger, under these new 
 doctrines, of collision between the Church 
 and the Civil power. We have recently seen 
 overone thousand men underarms to enforce 
 a decision of the Privy Council. How slight 
 an error on the part of the magistrates, or of 
 the officers commanding troops in such an 
 emergency, might cause ihe stieets of a city 
 to run with blood, and destroy for a gene- 
 ration the peace and harmony of this Pro- 
 vince i 
 
 With regard to the precise locus of infalli- 
 bility, it is not a subject with which Protes- 
 tants have any business to deal. It is no con- 
 cern of theirs whether infallibility resides in a 
 Council or in the Pope. If Catholics choose 
 to hold the latter doctrine, they have a right 
 to do so. Protestants do not believe in in- 
 fallibility residing in any person or persons. 
 The question for Protestants is, that abso- 
 lute and entire obedience is now demanded 
 where it was not before. It is, that indi- 
 rectly, by the Vatican decrees, the whole 
 body of the past jurisprudence of the Roman 
 Church rises into startling importance, and 
 becomes matter of faith binding on the con- 
 science. Hence, living in a Province where 
 the majority are Roman Catholic, they must 
 ask what is this Canon Law — what is this 
 which Popes have decreed, and which now 
 binds, and did not bind before (that is, 
 which was not generally thought to bind 
 before), and they find there everything which 
 vheir forefathers resisted, asserted ; and that 
 liberty of conscience which is the breath of 
 their life, denied. True, Dr. ^'ewman and 
 Bishop Fessler minimise the decrees to 
 an almost harmless degree ; but when may 
 they not be maximised, as they were in the 
 olden times of strife, and be again brought 
 to bear upon civil liberty, by a majority 
 acting thror.gh constitutional forms? 
 
CHURCH AND SI ATE IN QUEBEC 
 
 i/ 
 
 'A 
 
 !! ■•• 
 
 v5 
 
 \-.:> 
 
 It is here that the extracts which Sir 
 Alexander Gait has giveft from Bishop 
 Fessler are specially to be borne in mind ; 
 for they show tlie dangerous bearing of the 
 principle of minimising. During the Eman- 
 cipation agitation Rome kept quiet. At 
 the present time Bishop Fessler and Dr. 
 New?nan are minimising, but those in Que- 
 bec who are " more Catholic than the Pope" 
 are probably right after all, and may at any 
 time be justified in their interpretations. 
 It is hard for Protestants to sit silent when 
 the whole foundation of their civil rights is 
 being sapped by dogmatic decrees which at 
 one time are explained one way and at 
 another time are explained another way by 
 scientific Roman theologians. These ultra 
 Romans are the avant courncrs of i)ublic 
 opinion. Let such doctrir.es go unchal- 
 lenged—let the public mind get familiar 
 with this once foreign language— let the 
 youthful mind be imbued with it in the 
 schools, and it will soon reach the Bar, the 
 Bench, and the Senate, and we shall wake 
 up one day to find that we need all our 
 safeguards, and that we too have been over- 
 credulous in listening while scientific the- 
 ology placed a meaning uiion words which 
 their ordinary sense would not justify. 
 
 This resdessness on the part of the 
 Roman hierarchy is the more inexcusable, 
 because the Bishops admit, in the decree 
 quoted by Sir Alexander Gait, th?t their 
 Church is freer here than in any other jiart 
 of the world. Yet they are not satisfied : 
 they hope to attain still further (lieinccps) to 
 an ideally full and perfect freedom, by means 
 of the favour of our civil rulers. Now tins 
 full freedom of the Roman Church is the 
 complete subordination of every other 
 Church, or sect as they would say. Not 
 only is the Roman Church now free, but it 
 has this advantage over the State Churches 
 even of the Empire, that the sword of the 
 civil power collects its tithes. O, Reverend 
 Prelates of the Council, why seek to bind 
 upon this country burdens which neither we 
 nor our fathers were ever able to bear ? 
 
 During the superficial discussion lately 
 elicited in the House of Commons and m 
 the press, it seemed to appear that all Roman 
 Catholics are Ultramontanes. We venture to 
 think that a fallacy underlies the use of this 
 word. They are doubtless Ultramontane 
 in the sense that ihey accept the recent 
 definition of the infallibility of the Pope. 
 
 The word is used evidently in opposition to 
 the word Gallican, which has now become 
 almost a term of opprobrium. But it does 
 not follow that in giving up the most salient 
 of the Gallican doctrines, that they give 
 them all up. They may cease to be Galil- 
 eans, and yet may not— and we believe most 
 of the laymen do not— liold to the power of 
 the Pope in temporals, or even in mixed 
 matters. It is true that the position is logi- 
 cally difficult. Cardinal Manning shows 
 tliat an infallible authority must define its 
 own limits. In any conflict betAveen Church 
 and State, the fallible State must yield to the 
 I infallible Church, from the very nature of the 
 I terms employed. The latent premiss once 
 admitted, the logic is irresistible : and for 
 all who value civil liberty the outlook is 
 gloomy. When we see, as Sir Alexander 
 Gait has sliown us, that infallible authority 
 has made its first appearance on our Statute 
 Bock, we can only hope that our civil rulers 
 will carefully remember in the future that the 
 rights of conscience are superior to tlie rigid 
 deductions of scholastic logic ; for it is in 
 the wielding of the temporal sword, under 
 the dictation of the spiritual sword, that the 
 conflict is likely to arise. If Sir Alexander 
 Gait's pamplilet does no other service, it will 
 compel the politicians to turn their attention, 
 to this question, and to form definite ideas 
 as to the true relations between Chuich and 
 State in Quebec. 
 
 The liberties of the Gallican Church, con- 
 cerning' which so much has of late been 
 srid, are summed up by Fleury under two 
 maxims : ist. That the power given by 
 Jesus Christ to His Chuich is purely 
 spiritual, and extends neilher directly nor 
 indirectly over temporal matters ; 2nd. 
 That the fulness of the power which the 
 Pope has, f.s Chief of the Church, should 
 be exercised conformably to the canons 
 received by the whole Church ; and that 
 the Pope himself is subject to the judgment 
 of a Cieneral Council in the case pointed out 
 by the Council of Constance. These pro- 
 positions, with the addition that the laws, 
 manners, and customs of the Gallican 
 Church should be preserved inviolate, were 
 proclaimed as •' maxims received from their 
 forefathers," and embodied in four Articles 
 drawn up by the hand of the celebrated 
 Piossuet. These Articles were unanimously 
 adopted by the Bishops in 1682, homolo- 
 gated by the Parliament, and sanctioned by 
 
 1. 
 
CHURCH AND STA2E J A QUEBEC. 
 
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 the King. They were included in a Royal 
 edict, commanding: that they should be 
 everywhere taught, and declaring them to be 
 general law in all the dominions of France. 
 They were in force in Canada, as is clearly 
 shown in the (luibord iudginent. Under 
 the French law befot-e the Revolution, 
 " appels comme d'abus " to the King's 
 Courts extended to all the relations between 
 the civil and the spiritual powers. 
 
 That these liberties a'-e not now upheld 
 generally by the clergy of France is one of 
 the results of the Revolution of 1 789. That 
 stupendous ])olitical convulsion broke up 
 every institution of the country, civil and 
 religious. The churches were closed, and 
 the clergy either ])ut to death or driven into 
 exile. Finding it difficult, however, to get 
 along without religion, Napoleon, at that 
 time Firs' '" )nsul of the Republic, made, in 
 with Pope Pius VII. 
 I ■-.e Bull Qui Chnsti, 
 s i-pr '..c:,, and ex- 
 .•• , the status of the 
 !)ir"< 7»i.'.l and Epis- 
 uters. ."igiits. privi- 
 ■<i w at oever sort 
 notv,-i.nst;niding the 
 statutes, customs (even thot /h immemorial), 
 privileges and induUs Oi the^e same 
 Churches." By the r,ame Bull, all the 
 legitimate Bishops and Chapters were de- 
 posed, and even the boundaries of the old 
 dioceses changed. The FirstConsul named, 
 and the Pope instituted, the new Prelates. 
 There was, consec ently, an absolute histo- 
 ric break in the continuity of the Church 
 of France, and the foundation of the [jresent 
 Church dates only from the year 1801. To 
 do the Pope justice, he was driven to this act 
 of outro Ultramontanism (we quote the 
 words of the Archbishop of Paris, in 1845) 
 by Napoleon, who threatened to make 
 France Protestant unless it were done. 
 The Pope signed the Concordat and. issued 
 the Bull, but in order to save the rights of 
 the State, and such of the Gallican customs 
 as did not conflict with his government, the 
 First Consul took care that neither Bull nor 
 Concordat was promulgated until what were 
 siyled " the Oroanic Articles" were attached. I 
 These were not signed by the Pope, but ! 
 rest on the authority of the State alone, and , 
 were purposely made to go over much of 
 tlie subject-matter of the Bull in another 
 form. He then published all these together 
 
 as one legislative act. It would be diffi- 
 cult to .say whetiier the Poi)e or the Consul 
 more exceeded their powers— and indeed 
 that (juestion has been disputed ever since 
 in France ; but, together, they succeeded 
 in dealing .,uch a blow at the ancient privi- 
 leges of tile Church of France, that these 
 have maintained but a sickly existence ever 
 since. Radicalism is potent to destroy but 
 Ijowerless to create, and the Revolution, in 
 destroying the continuity of the institutions 
 of France, entailed upon her Cicsarism in 
 the State, and Absolutism in the Chun h. 
 
 We come now to the consideration of the 
 Bull of Boniface VIII., Unaw. Sanctam, is- 
 sued in 1302, which Sir Alexander Gait 
 shows us is re-affirmed in a decree of tiie 
 fifth Provincial Council of Quebec, held in 
 187,3, confirmed by the Pope the following 
 year, and consequently in force in this eccle- 
 siastical Province as far as such decrees can 
 have any force. Cardinal Manning holds 
 this to l)e an infallible ex cathedra Bull. 
 Newman has considerable doubt upon that 
 point, and Bishop F'essler maintains that 
 die last sentence alone is an infallible utter- 
 ance. That sentence is hard reading— it 
 runs : " And this we declare, we say, we de- 
 fine, and we pronounce, that it is necessary 
 to the salvation of every human creature 
 that he should be subject to the Roman 
 Pontiff." If the Pope had added " in sin- 
 ritual matters," Protestants would have no 
 right to complain, because, as far as their 
 salvation is concerned, they are content to 
 go wherever their fathers have gone ; but 
 when the doctrine of the two swords is re- 
 affirmed, that at once clearly trenches upon 
 the declaration of the Canadian Act of 185 1, 
 which, as we have seen, affirms that the 
 eijuality of all religions is a fundamental 
 part of our constitution. The text of a por- 
 tion of the Quebec decree is given at page 
 21 of Sir Alexander Gait's pamphlet. In 
 substance it is : that the Church is a per- 
 fect society, independent of and superior 
 to the civil power ; and that the political 
 power of the Christian ruler is, not only ne- 
 gatively but even positively, subordinate 
 to the religious authority of the superior so- 
 ciety which resides in the Sovereign Pontitif. 
 Not only, then, must the civil power abstain 
 from hindering the superior society in at- 
 taining its supernatural end, but, when 
 called upon, it must aid it ; for the temporal 
 sword is under the spirilual sword {gladitim 
 
 I 
 
CHURCH AND STATE IN QUEBEC. 
 
 sub gladio), and is to be wielded by the civil 
 ruler for the Church, not against the 
 Church— that is, of course, the Roman 
 Church. The decree then goes on to urge 
 that this doctrine should be taught in all 
 colleges and schools, and impressed upon 
 judges, advocates, members of Parliament, 
 and newspaper writers, at every oppor- 
 tunity. . 
 
 Now, in this doctrine of the indirect tem- 
 poral power lies the kernel of the contro- 
 versy. It has been fought over age after 
 age, and whenever asserted by Popes 
 promptly repudiated by Governments. For 
 a long time it had lain dormant, and now it 
 comes up again, necessarily to fail once 
 more. A similar doctrine had been put 
 out by Innocent III., who, in a rescript still 
 forming part of the Canon Law, says that God 
 made two lights in the firmament, the greater 
 to rule the day and the lesser the night ; 
 and as the light of the day— the Pontifical 
 power— is greater than the light of the night 
 —the temporal power,— so is the power of 
 the Pontiffs superior to that of kings. From 
 Innocent III. to Boniface VIII. the power 
 of the Papacy remained at its flood. The is- 
 suing oit\\\?.'&v\\{Una);iSancta)K) marks the 
 commencement of its ebb. Philip the Fair 
 was then King of France, and was engaged 
 in a violent quarrel with the Pope, which 
 was exasperated by the arrogant bearing of 
 one of the French bishops, acting for the 
 Pope, to Philip in person. Him the king 
 sent to prison. Boniface shortly after wrote 
 in the following strain :— "Boniface, Bishnn, 
 servant of the servants of God, to Philip, 
 King of France : Fear God and keep His 
 commandments. We would have you to 
 know that you are subject to us in spiritual 
 and in temporal matters," &c., itc. The 
 King publicly burned the Bull and replied : 
 "Philip, by the grace of God, King of 
 France, to Boniface, calling himself Sove- 
 reign Pontiff: little or no greeting. Let 
 your great extravagance be informed that 
 we are subject to no one whomsoever m 
 temporal matters," &c., &c. In November 
 of the same year the dogmatic Bull Unam 
 Sivictam was issued, followed by the excom- 
 munication of the King. The point worthy 
 of special note is that the Pope utterly 
 failed ; for, in 1303, he was seized by an 
 
 the next, Clement V., issued the Bull 
 Meruit, which Cardinal Manning says tx- 
 plainyl, but which Bishop Bossuet and 
 Bishop Doyle said recalled the offensive Bull. 
 This latter effect it was at the time supposed 
 to have had, and it is not easy to read it in 
 any other sense. This is in few words the 
 history of the famous Bull, around which 
 so much of the Gladstone discussion re- 
 volves. Many attempts jre now made to 
 
 explain it away ; but Boniface and Philip 
 must be supposed to have had an advan- 
 tage in ascertaining its real meaning, even 
 over the scientific theologians of 573 years 
 later. 
 
 In France, as we have seen, the doctrine 
 of the indirect temporal power met with no 
 success. In England, coming up under 
 various forms, it caused incessant collisions 
 with the civil authority. Kings and Parlia- 
 ments kept a jealous watch upon it. No 
 more devout Catholic ever sat on the throne 
 than VVilliaiu the Conqueror ; but he, when 
 even Hildebrand was Pontiff, compelled all 
 the Pope's letters coming into England to 
 be brought first to him, in order that he 
 might see before publication ih?*^^ they con- 
 tained nothing derogatory to the rights of 
 the Crown. The perfidious John alone 
 bowed the neck, when his tyranny had 
 alienated the nation ; and, in recompense, 
 Pope Innocent anathematized and annulled 
 Magna Charta utterly to no purpose. The 
 struggle was renewed under Edward I., and 
 resulted in the first Statute of Provisors, 25 
 Edward III., caps. 5 and 6. Then followed 
 the first Statute of Prsemunire, 27 Edward 
 III., cap. I ; then 38 Edward III. ; 12 Rich. 
 II.,cap.i5 ; 13 Rich. II., caps. 2 and 3 ;and 
 the Statute, still in force, of Provisors and 
 Praemunire, 16 Rich. II., cap. 5. Many others 
 followed, but this last declared "that the 
 Crown of England liath been so free at all 
 times, that it hath been in no eartlily sub- 
 jection, but immediately subject to God in 
 all things touching the regality of the same 
 crown." So the (juarrel went on until the 
 time of Henry VIII. Now, if all these Ca- 
 tholic princes and kings violently repudiated 
 the doctrine of the indirect power of the 
 Roman Pontiff in ages supposed to be dark 
 and enslaved, how can it be possible to revive 
 1 it with success in times such as these we live 
 
 agent of the King, and died of chagrin , in 
 
 shortly after his release. The following 
 Pope revoked the excommunication, and 
 
 But why go over such ground as this, 
 which is patent to every reader of history ? 
 
CHURCH AND STATE IN QUEBEC. 
 
 Because, if these old Bulls and Constitutions 
 of the Roman Church are to be revived — 
 if, as Cardinal Manning says, such Bulls as 
 Novit and Unam Sanctam are infallible — if, 
 as Cardinal Cullen testified on the O'Keefe 
 trial, every Bull is of binding force when pub- 
 lished at Rome — if, as Bishop Moran testi- 
 fied on the same trial, the whole Canon Law 
 is in force in Ireland — if one of our own 
 younger Judges can sit in a Royal Court and 
 receive the " Corpus Juris Canonici " as of 
 superior authority to the statutes of the 
 realm — if Suarez, and Scavini, and Schmalz- 
 groeber, and the Syllabus can be quoted in 
 a judgment of one of the Queen's Judges ; 
 instead of Blackstone and Stephen and 
 Coke — and, especially, if in a Statute passed 
 at the last Session of the Quebec Parlia- 
 ment, the Canon law is recognised as regu- 
 lating Roman Catholic cemeteries in Ca- 
 nada — it is time to go back and look into 
 this new body of law and see what is in it. 
 Over these dead bones of history the Vatican 
 decrees have breathed the breath of an ephe- 
 meral life. Once more, all these haughty 
 forms of proud and imperious churchmen 
 threaten us with menacing gesture. Shall we 
 not then be allowed to invoke to our aid those 
 kings, warriors, and statesmen who resisted 
 the.TQ a I'outrajice, and conquered them 
 along the whole line of combat ? But why, 
 after all, speak of kings, when we can read 
 the burning words of the eloquent Bishop of 
 iKildare, on his letters to Lord Liverpool ? 
 ■" If," says Ihe, " we declare in all the forms 
 which language can assume, that the Church 
 has not defined anything upon the subject 
 about which I treat — if, in opposition to the 
 doctrine imputed to her, we adduce the 
 concurrent testimony of the Lord Himself, of 
 His Apostles, and of the Holy Fathers — if 
 we even show that the conduct and doctrine 
 of the most eminent of the Popes themselves 
 are opposed to it, with what colour of justice 
 can it still be imputed to us ? If we do not 
 stop here — if we point out the source from 
 which this hateful doctrine has originally 
 flowed — if we show its origin, its progress, its 
 decline and fall, i^ it not, my Lord, uncan- 
 did, ungenerous, and unjust to overlook our 
 statements, to reject our proofs, to condemn 
 us for that conduct in others which we our- 
 selves abhor? If the Bull Unam Sanctam, \\\ 
 which Boniface declares that every creature 
 is subject to the Roman Pope, without at 
 all specifying whether it be in spiritual or 
 
 temporal matters — if this Bull be objected 
 to us, is it not reasonable to attend to us 
 whilst we cay that no Bull of any Pope can 
 decide our judgment, if it be not received 
 and assented to by the pastoid of the Church 
 —an assent which this Bull Lnam Sanctam 
 never has received? Should we not be 
 allowed to add, that so far from being re- 
 ceived by the Church, it was violently oj • 
 posed, and by an opposition so successful 
 that it was recalled by Clement V., between 
 whom and the author of that Bull only one 
 Pope, Benedict XL, intervened? If the one, 
 which was rejected by the world, be of such 
 mighty moment, is not tlie other, which was 
 admitted by all, entitled to some respect ? " 
 We have no desire to underrate the many 
 benefitswhich civil societyowes to the Canon 
 Law, and to the influence of Rome in the 
 ages when society was slowly reorganizing 
 after the barbaric invasions. In relation to 
 this, Monseigneur Capel, in his reply to Mr. 
 Gladstone, gives an extract from Arnold's 
 " Lectures on Modern History," which must 
 meet with the concurrence of every reason- 
 able man. But upon taking up the passage 
 at the very word where Mgr. Capel left off, 
 we find the very qualification which renders 
 so large a part of the Canon Law repugnant 
 to the present age. Dr. \rnold continues : 
 " But conceive, on the other hand, the Pa- 
 pacy to become the representative of super- 
 stition and of spiritual tyranny, while the 
 Imperial power was the expression and voice 
 of law ; that the Emperor stood in the place> 
 of the Church, and the Pope was the mere 
 priest, the Church's worst enemy ; — and this 
 was actually the form which the contest be- 
 tween the sacerdotal and regal powers as- 
 sumed at a later period; — then our sym- 
 pathies are changer", and we become no less 
 zealously Ghibelin than we before were 
 Guelf." It would have been fairer for Mgr 
 Capel to have given the whole passage. Be 
 that, however, as it may, it is extr.,.iely dan- 
 gerous to a free people to allow such a mass 
 of jurisprudence to acquire by degrees any 
 authority whatsoever ; and lest our readers 
 may not be familiar with it, we shall quote 
 from the evidence of Dr. Slevin, Professor 
 of Canon Law in 1826 at Maynooth, the 
 following account of it : " The Canon Law, 
 or common law of our Church, is contained 
 in a work known by the title of ' Corpus Juris 
 Canonici.' It was published by Pope Gregory 
 XIII., and is composed of several parts or 
 
CnURCTI AND STATE IN QUEBEC. 
 
 collections of Canon l.aw made at different ' 
 times The !)ody of Canon Law is composed 
 of texts of Scripture, decrees of Councils, 
 decretals of Popes, extracts from the holy 
 fathers, and even some from the Civil Law. | 
 The different collections making up the 
 body of the Canon Law are : the Decretum 
 Gratiani; secondly, the Decretalia (iregorii , 
 IX.; thirdly, tlie Sextus Decretalium ; 
 fourthly, the Clementinie Constitutiones , 
 fifthly, the Kxtravagantes Johannis ; and : 
 sixthly, the Kxtravagantes Communes ; ar.d 
 the sources from which the different laws 
 contained in these collections art taken are ] 
 those that I mentioned. To h"ve a complete 
 body of Canon 1 .aw, we must add the de- 
 crees of the Council of Trent, and the dif- 
 ferent Hulls that have been issued by Popes 
 since the lime of Pope Sixtus IV., as none 
 of a more recent date are included in the 
 collection of Gregoiy XIiL, which was pub- ; 
 lis.Kd towards the end of the i6th century. 
 The IkiUs that were issued after Sixtus IV. 
 down to Clement XIL have been included 
 in the' liullarium Ronvinum.' " When we say 
 that this law, so far only as the Kxtravagantes 
 Communes, extends over a huge folio volume 
 of 1,000 pages of smal' type in dooble 
 columns (we refer to the edition of Pithoous, 
 1779), and when we reflect that the " Pul- 
 lariuni Romanum," down to 1757, includes 
 19 vols, folio, and, moreover, that the con- 
 tinuation, publishing at Rome, comi)rised a 
 few years ago 15 folio volumes mote, down 
 only t3 1 82 1 ; when we remember also the 
 immense literary activity of the present 
 Pope, the mind sinks in despair before the 
 mass of reading matter which has of late re- 
 ceived so great an additional authority. 
 Surely, for a while, the world might have a 
 respite from Kncyclicals and Syllabuses, un- 
 til it . ould have time to digest one thot ^and 
 years of back reading. 
 
 It seems to us that the parting line of 
 opinion cannot be drawn by creeds and 
 races. It ill becomes Protestants, bearing 
 in mind the supreme law of conscience and 
 personal responsibility upon which they fun- 
 damentally rely, to attempt to interfere with 
 any doctrines of the spiritual order wiiich 
 Catholics may choose to hold ; but, upon 
 the principle of the indirect power of the 
 Roman Pontiff in temporals, a line n-ay be 
 drawn which, we believe, would include, at 
 present, not only Protestants, but the large 
 majority of lay Roman Catholics over 30 
 
 years of age— men who could say, with 
 IJishop Doyle in 182O: "We consider the 
 lonstitutedauthority in eve>-y State, whatever 
 form it may assume, as derived from Cod, 
 and totally indeiiendent of the Pope or any 
 other autiiorit/ v/hatsoever, except only such 
 authority as the constitution itself of any 
 State may recognize as the immediate basis 
 or source of its own ])ower. We are war- 
 ranted in this opinion by the W- ord of Cod 
 Himself; ' and who could say with Dr. CroUy, 
 of Maynooth, before the Royal Commission 
 in 1854^" I teach iliat it is our duty, asCa- 
 tholicS; to be as loyal subjects of the (^ueen 
 in temporal as of the Po|ie in spiritual mat- 
 ters. 1 lirmly l)el'eve that nothing could be 
 more jjeniicious to the Church herself than 
 any attempt to revive thi. obsole e, the false, 
 and, as 1 had fondly imagined, the univer- 
 sally alnuidoned pretensi(;ns that the Pope, 
 as head of the Church, possessed any direct 
 or indirect temporal ])ower." 
 
 Ul)on such principles no (|uarrel can 
 arise; but it is the doctrines of the Neo-Ca- 
 tholics which we dread. Such, for instance, 
 as those which Cardinal CuUen |)Ui cr.c on 
 oath as a witness on tiie ()'ls.eefe trial in 
 1873 : "The laws oi the Catholic Church, 
 when they are publislied at Rome, bind all 
 over the earth, just as the laws published in 
 London bind in every part of Ireland, Kng- 
 land, and Scotland, :;s I am informed ; " and 
 again : " The Canon Law was made for the 
 whole world, and of its own force it extends 
 ail over the world ; " or such as are embodied 
 in a series of propositions, put forth originally 
 in Helgium, copied in the Osscnuiton Ro- 
 mano, and published in the Dublin Free- 
 man's yoiiniarxw 1874, under the heading of 
 " Our Cailiohc Creed : " " We firmly believe 
 and ijrofess that it in no degree belongs to 
 the Slate to define what are the rights of the 
 Church or the limits within which it may ex- 
 ercise them." " It belongs to the spiritual 
 power to establish the temporal power, and 
 to judge it if it be not good ; " and again . 
 " We tirmly believe and profess that liberty 
 of conscience and of worship, understood in 
 the sense ol" theological equality, and indif- 
 ference in matters of religion, is in itself a 
 principle contrary 1:0 the good of souls and 
 to the rights of the Church. And if the 
 Cliurch sa[)ports it in certain countries, it is 
 through necessity and through fear of 
 greater evils." 
 
 Such principles as these Sir Alex. Gait 
 
 i 
 
CHURCH AND STATE /A' QUEBEC 
 
 shows are spreatliru^ in Quebec, and he re- 
 minds lis that Protestants are in a minority, 
 and that the safeguardsdevised at Confedera- 
 tion are not so strong as they were siipj^jsed 
 to be. To this ii is no answer to say that Sir 
 Alex. Gait did, or did not, devise tliose safe- 
 guards—that he did, or did not, think them 
 sufficient a year ago. Such statements may, 
 or may not, be important to Sir Alex, (lalt ; 
 but to llie Protestants of Quebjc they are un 
 imiiorlant. Nor is it an an^jwcr to say that 
 the RoMKui C' tholicsarein a minority in On- 
 tario ; because no one in Ontario is jiropos- 
 ing to revive the obsolete inioleiani statutes 
 of England there. Nor is it conclusive to 
 ask, with that triumphant air of utilitarian 
 politics which is not to be confounded 
 with political wisdom, "What arc yougoi'* ' 
 to do about it? Vou cannot help yc 
 selves." To tliis we reply : ist, That t 
 calm and tliorough discussion alone of these 
 new and radical doctrines is their sure de- 
 feat : and 2nd, Tii<.t u i", not the ci'sto»- , of 
 free people lo sit quietly down and await 
 any fate, no matter how mevitable it may 
 seem to be. 
 
 While the attacks of the Neo-Catholif- 
 school in Quebec are incessant, and their 
 productions, in pamphlets, editorials, letters, 
 &c., are innumerable, the old tolerant school 
 of clergy with whom Protestants have lived 
 so quietly are fast passing away. And what 
 is worse, those who survive do not reply to 
 their more active and vigorous assailants, 
 for the epithets "Liberal" or " Galilean" 
 are not now lightly 'o be incurred. As spe- 
 cimens of this new Quebec style, we 
 give extracts from a pamphlet published in 
 1872, violently attacking the Grand Vicar 
 Raymond for liberalism. " Proof, if you 
 please? Proof? It is that thete is in 
 Canada liberty of conscience, liberty of 
 worship, liberty cf speech, and liberty of 
 the press — all liberties inscribed in o<ir laws 
 as rights, and applied every day in our 
 society as facts ; all liberties forming the 
 balance of our social state, the protocol of 
 our political existence ; all libertie > con- 
 demned and reproved by infallible Popes." 
 And again : " We answer still that the Catho- 
 lic Church lias alone the right to liberty, be- 
 cause she alone possesses the truth." The 
 writer indignantly asks, " Does prudence 
 then demand that we should wait until the 
 good dispositions of our politicians r.ie 
 changed with regard to the Clnirch, before 
 
 demanding the reform of those of our laws 
 wliich are not in harmony witi 'he Syllabus? 
 It seems to \is (juite the contrary." And 
 again : " Ought v,e, we Ch'-istians, to exer- 
 cise more circumspection in regard to the 
 impious and to the Proiestnnts of the 19th 
 century than our brothers of the Primitive 
 Church did to the impious and the pagans 
 of tlieir day?" This is ram|);int Neo- 
 Catholicisu' and there is abundance of it 
 in the recent issues of the Roman Catholic 
 ; ressof the Province.. In Laval University, 
 which has been so much atMcked for its 
 liberal opinions, the lecturjs of liie I'rofes- 
 sor of Theology, the AblX*' Paquet, have 
 been published under the sanction of the 
 Archbishop. Upon the subject of tolera- 
 tion we read : " A GovtrnuH-nt cannot pro- 
 claim the civil liberty of worship without 
 usurping a right which it lias not ;,'ot. It is 
 not judge in the matter of religion, aid in 
 declaring the civil liberty of .vorship it arro- 
 gates to itself a light which belongs only to 
 the spiiitual power — it substitutes '*sclf for 
 the infallible tribunal of the Church." 
 Again: "Absolute liberty of - or^ .ip, set 
 up as a principle, is then ? c'^.imer.i, an 
 error, and an impiety. Always and every- 
 wncre the principle of religious or dogmatic 
 iiUolerance will remain niasLer of the posi- 
 tion, because it is the truth, and truth is in- 
 destructible, because it is eternal." The 
 Abbt' explains the principle of toleration 
 thus : " The rulers of nations, although they 
 may grant civil libefty 10 false religions for 
 the purpose of avoiding great evils, yet with 
 regard to God and society are always un- 
 der the obligation of promoting the true re- 
 ligion within the limits of their ])owers." He 
 quotes Monseigncur Audisio (" Droit Pub- 
 lic de rEglise")as stating that thecivil liberty 
 of worship .nay be tolerated, and as even 
 citing Rome itself under the Popes as a 
 crucial instance of that toleration on a pretty 
 large scale. Now, such toleration as that 
 would never suit the Prote:itants of Quebec, 
 although they may kindly thank the good- 
 hearted A.bb6 for straining his authorities to 
 make it out. Here is the danger of the 
 doctrine of the two swords wheii it comes 
 firmly to be believed in by the majority. 
 
 Sir Alex. Gait has been reproached with 
 endeavouring to stir up religious strife. On 
 the contrary, we believe that open discus- 
 sion at this period, will tend to prevent it. 
 His style is quiet, though forcible. There 
 
10 
 
 CHURCH AND STATE IN QUEBEC. 
 
 is nothing, for instance, in his pamphlet like 
 the following extract from a pamphlet — 
 " Letters to a Member of Parliament, by 
 Monseigneiir the Hishop of Birtha " — pub- 
 lished at Montreal in 1874. The Bishop 
 writes to a member at Ottawa in this strain : 
 •" This is a battle a routraiice, and without 
 quarter. This battle cannot be fought witl. 
 white gloves and with snowballs ; there 
 nuist be iron and fire ; for it is thesalvati<m 
 of society as well as the salvation of souls 
 which is at hazard, according as the victory 
 shall rest with truth or with error — two ir- 
 reconcilable enemies. Moreover, upon 
 whomsoever teaches error, says the Church, 
 let there be anathema. She makes no dis- 
 tinction of persons ; she strikes without dis- 
 tinction, according to the rules of Justice ; like 
 (Jod Himself, she never pardons without 
 repentance. If the guilty man remains ob- 
 stinate and dies in his revolt against the 
 Church, anathema follows him even to the 
 ur.iVL, where they throw b.is corpse deprived 
 ui the honours of Christian burial." Truly 
 here is a Bishop militant of the good old 
 siuft. Pity that he does not reside in his 
 diocese, m partibus hifideliuiii though it be, 
 so that the Birthites might bo speedily 
 brought to a knowledge of the truth. Bis- 
 marck used to say that " blood and iron " ] 
 were the essential requisites ; but " fire and 
 iron " are more canonical. Oh, that Birtha 
 were in Germany, thai the Bishop and Bis- 
 marck might compare their views ! But in 
 Quebec we are not going to fight even with 
 snowballs. The Queen's writs will answer 
 for bullets, and, failing the Federal Parlia- 
 ment, the Crown and Parliament of Great 
 ' Britam, with the appeal to the Queen in 
 Council, are our all-sufficient safeguards. 
 
 The Protestants of Quebec arc not a help- 
 less minority, if they will only master this 
 question of civil rights, and cling to it, with- 
 out confusing it with the religious doctrines 
 of the Roman Catholics. They are only 
 dividing themselves if they attack doctrines 
 of the spiritual order which Catholics have 
 a right to hold, and which, under true Pro- 
 testant principles, should remain unassailed. 
 They are undermining the basis on which 
 tliey themselves stand. The Abbe Paquet, 
 who has read Rousseau (we have not — is he 
 on the Index?), cites him with disapproval as 
 saying that " it is impossible to live in peace 
 with peoi)le whom one believes to be eternally 
 lost." We concur in his disapproval. It is 
 
 possible for people to live in ptace so long 
 as all religions are ecpial before the law, no 
 matter what gloon.y anticipations we may 
 cherish as to each other's future welfare. 
 When we shall all escape into a happie*" 
 region, far from the interminable folios of 
 the Canon Law, we believe that manyagree- 
 able surprises will be in store for those. Pro 
 testant and Catholic, who in the necessary 
 relations of this sublunary life have learned 
 to know and respect each other. 
 
 In the third division of his pamphlet. Sir 
 Alex. Gait treats of the special guarantees of 
 Protestants in (Quebec. He shows — ist, 
 That the education of Roman Catholics 
 has now fallen entirely into the hands of 
 the clergy ; this cannot be changed until the 
 Roman Catholic majority so will it. 2nd, , 
 That the English and Protestant constituen- 
 cies are last being settled by French Roman 
 Catholics, and thnt the present Knglish mi- 
 nority representation will be very greatly 
 weakened ; this also cannot be lielped, tor 
 it is contrary to true notions of freedom to 
 dream (even if the power existed) of dis- 
 franchising any otie on account of his reli- 
 gion, who chooses to setUe anywhere in 
 Canada. Our author sees and admits this, 
 and therefore turns to the Federal veto as 
 the sole palladium of the civil rights of the 
 minority. 
 
 But the Protestant position is stronger 
 than that. Its strength consists in the fact 
 that Quebec forms part of the Protestant 
 empire of Great Britain, and that the supre- 
 macy of the Crown is a fundamental part of 
 the constitution of that empire. The very 
 privileges oi the Roman Church, by which 
 its tithes and dues are still collected by law, 
 rest upon a clause of an Imperial statute 
 (the 14th (ieo. III. cap. 83, Quebec Act) 
 embodying a recognition of the royal supre- 
 macy. The clause thus reads : — " His Ma- 
 jesty's subjects professing the religion of the 
 Church of Rome, of and in the said Province 
 of Quebec, may have, hold and enjoy the 
 free exercise of the religion of the Church of 
 Rome, subject to the Ring's sui)remacy de- 
 clared and established by an Act made in 
 the first year of 'he reign of Queen Eliza- 
 beth over all the dominions and countries 
 which then did or thereafter should belong 
 to the Imperial Crown of this realm ; and the 
 clergy of the said church may hold, receive 
 and enjoy their accustomed dues and rights 
 with respect to such persons only as shall 
 
CHURCH AND STATE IN QUEBEC. 
 
 II 
 
 profess the said religion." Now, the i6th 
 section of the ist Eliz. cap. i, which haa 
 never been repealed, reads thus : — " And to 
 the intent that all the usurped and foreign 
 power and authority, spiritual and temporal, 
 may for ever be clearly extinguished, and 
 never be used and obeyed within this realm, 
 or any other of your Majesty's dominions or 
 countries, may it please your Highness that 
 it be further enacted, by the authority afore- 
 said, that no foreign prince, person, prelate, 
 state, or potentate, spiritual or temporal, shall 
 at any time after the last day of this Session 
 of Parliament, use, enjoy or exercise any 
 manner of power, jurisdiction, superiority, 
 authority, pre-eminence or privilege, spiritual 
 or ecclesiastical, within this realm or within 
 any other of your Majesty's dominions or 
 countries that now be or hereafter shall be ; 
 but from thenceforth the same shall be clear- 
 ly abolished out of this realm and all other 
 your Highness's dominions for ever ; any 
 statute, ordinance, custom, constitution, 
 or any other matter or cause whatsoever to 
 the contrary in anywise notwithstanding." 
 
 Here, then, is the real stronghold of Pro- 
 testants. Before these statutes the Quebec 
 Government is powerless ; and at any mo- 
 ment the Imperial Government might strike 
 cut of its own Act the clause under which 
 the Roman Church collects its dues. If, 
 on the other hand, the Quel.ec Government 
 slKHild pass any Act which trenches on 
 the civil rights of Protestants, or infringes 
 the royal sujiremacy — if, in short, the 
 doctrine of Boniface VIII. should in any 
 way attain legislative recognition in Quebec, 
 — and if ever the Federal Government chose 
 to concur in it, the Governor-General, with 
 his instructions before him, could not let it 
 pass without incurring certain disgrace from 
 the Imperial authorities. The strength of 
 the empire then is behind the Protestants 
 in a just cause, but they should remember 
 that this strength will never be exercised 
 upon matters in the spiritual order ; and also, 
 that those who seek to do aw;iy with the ap- 
 peal to the Queen in Council seek unwit- 
 tingly to destroy their most important safe- 
 guard. 
 
 In going over this wide and important 
 discussion within the limited space of a 
 magazine article, we are painfully conscious 
 that much has necessarily to be nassed over 
 which might have been considered with ad- 
 vantage. A great deal bearing upon the 
 
 subject has appeared in the English news- 
 papers, but, so far, the discussion has been 
 carried on rather as a party question than on 
 its own merits. From this remark we should, 
 however, except a series of articles on the 
 Routhier judgment which appeared in Au- 
 gust, 1874, in the Toronto N'atiou. These 
 showed a very complete and exceptional 
 knowledge of the subject, evidently the 
 fruit of careful study. It remains now briefly 
 to consider whether there is any common 
 ground in this matter upon whicli Protes- 
 tants and Catholics can stand together. 
 A^.ain we turn to the Maynooth professors, 
 and again we find principles of peace and 
 cliarity laid down upon which all can unite. 
 We cannot do better than quote the words 
 of Dr. O'Hanlnn before Lord Harrovvby's 
 Commission in 1853. He distinguishes 
 between the spiritual and temporal in this 
 wise : — " Those matters are si)iritual which 
 have been instituted, commanded or recom- 
 mended by Christ. All those matters must 
 be deemed spiritual which were regulated 
 by the Apostles and their successors in the 
 ministry, from the death of Christ to the 
 conversion of the Em|)eror Constantine. 
 During the first three centuries of the Chris- 
 tian era, the Church possessed no temporal 
 power. She did not possess it in virtue of 
 any concession from Christ ; for we are 
 agreed that Christ communicated no tem- 
 poral authority to His Church. She did not 
 derive it from the concession of secular 
 orinces ; for during this period they were all 
 enemies of the Christian religion and per- 
 secutors of the Christian people." In like 
 manner Dr.Crolly, before the same Commis- 
 sion, propounds the following principles : — 
 " ist. The State possesses suprem.e indepen- 
 dent power in all civil affairs — as sui)reme 
 and independent as when the Gospel was 
 first promulgated. 2nd. The Church, by vir- 
 tue of her Divine institution, has neither 
 more nor less power now than she had dur- 
 ing the first three centuries. 3rd. The sanc- 
 tion by which the Church enforces her 
 commands is purely spiritual, whilst the 
 penalties inflicted by the State are of a pure- 
 ly temporal nature." 
 
 Let such principles as these obtain in 
 Quebec, and there never can be quarrels 
 between Protestant and Catholic. The 
 doctrine of Boniface VIII. never led to any- 
 thing but trouble and disaster to the Roman 
 Church ; and its resuscitation, after six cen- 
 
 r 
 
12 
 
 CHURCH AND STATE IN QUEBEC.^ 
 
 tunes of burial, will be as mischievous in 
 the 19th century as it was in the 13th, when 
 both princes and people were Roman 
 Catholic. In the days when v the Papacy 
 was at its zenith, ?n the troublous times of 
 Henry III., the assembled Barons at Merton 
 liad the courage to declare to the Bishops, 
 
 who were pressing on them a canon of Pope 
 Alexander III., their determination' not to 
 alter the laws of England, and they used a 
 phrase, celebrated in afterVears, with which 
 we may fitly conclude this paper — Nblunms 
 leges Anglice mutari. 
 
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