I have elsewhere noticed, that Papal Briefs and Bulls, which are published without the consent of the Roman Clergy,

"de quelque Jurisdiction Ecclesiastique qui ce puisse etre ; de"clarant de nulle force tout ce qu'aucun d'eux entrepren"droit." Reclamations Canon. a Londres 1804, p. 11.

There is no instance of this in the Christian Church; and yet the Irish Bishops have approved of this Bull, and of the other still more extraordinary Bull, "Ecclesia Christi," which not only confirms it, but absolutely interdicts all reasoning, all objecting, all censure, and all opposition, in these words:"Nous statuons que les presentes Lettres ne pourront jamais en aucun temps, etre taxees de vice de subreption, d'obrepou de nullite, ou de quelque autre default qui ce puisse etre, qu'elles ne pourront jamais etre attaquees, pour ces causes, mais qu'elles sont et seront toujours fermes, valides, "et efficaces, et qu' elles doivent ressortir et avoir leur plein "et entier effet, et etre inviolablement observees, non obstant "les dispositions des Synodes, Conciles Provinciaux et Gene"raux," &c. ib. p. 26. And again, "Nous voulons que les presentes lettres et toutes le dispositions qu' elles contiennent ne puissent etre attaquees, meme a raison de ce que quelques personnes que ce puisse etre, de quelque etat Ecclesiastique ou Seculiere qu'elles soient, n'ont point consenti "aux dites dispositions, ou n'ont point eté appelles, ou n'ont "ete aucunement entendues, ou pour quelque autre cause que ce puisse etre, meme de lesion, ou d'alleiurs juridique, ou "de quelque autre defaut quelque grand qu'on le suppose, 66 quand il seroit substantiel, et tres substantiel, mai qu' etant "faites comme d'office de Providence Pontificale, et emances "de notre propre mouvement, et de la plenitude de notre

however they may be sanctioned by the Pope individually, or by the Pope with only some of the Representatives of the Roman Clergy, are not to be deemed Decisions of the Holy See, and it so happens that in this very Bull, the Pope expressly declares that he gives it with the consent only of some of the Cardinals

Apres avoir entendu les avis de plusieurs de "nos venerables freres les Cardinaux de la S.

Eglise Romaine, nous derogeons a tout consentement des legitimes Archeveques, et "Eveques, des chapitres, et de tous autres "Ordinaires.

Independently therefore of this Bull being

"puissance Apostolique, elles soient pour toujours, de la ma"niere la plus inebranlable valides et efficaces." ib. p. 2829. I say again that the darkest ages have not witnessed any Bull so extraordinary as this.

Pope Cælestine I. who sent S. Patrick into Ireland, declares that the Holy See has no power above the Canons. "Dominentur nobis Regulæ, non Regulis dominemur. Con"tra statuta Patrum concedere aliquid, ne hujus quidem "Sedis potest auctoritas. Apud nos enim inconvulsis radi"cibus vivit antiquitas, cui Decreta Patrum sanxere "reverentiam." Ep. 1. ad Ep. Illyr. "We cannot violate

the Rules of the Church, (says Pope S. Martin ;) we "are their Guardians, not their transgressors." I. Ep. ix.

invalid, because it sets the Pope above all the Laws of the Church, it is, invalid also in point of form. It is not an er Cathedra Decision. It is not the Act of the Holy See. And yet so anxious are the Irish Bishops to establish the Doctrine of arbitrary power in the Episcopal order, that they have, in the strongest terms, declared their unqualified approbation of all those Bulls, and Acts by which Pius VII has ratified a Concordat with the Attila of modern times; though one of those Acts, the crowning of that Attila, implies a right to crown him, and an absolution of all Frenchmen from their allegiance to the Bourbon race!

If not only the ignorant, ill-fated rabble of Ireland, but even the Catholic Barrister will venture to exhibit himself the champion, of, such maxims, so diametrically hostile to the principles of English Law, and of English Statutes, enacted even in the most Catholic times, then adieu to the Emancipation of my country! I shall shew in the sequel that

Ib. p. 27.

these maxims have cost Ireland millions of money and millions of lives.

Mean time be it remembered that as there is a point beyond which mercy ceases to be mercy, and becomes connivance, so there is also a point beyond which obedience ceases to be a virtue, and sycophant compliance becomes confederacy in guilt.

§ II. Laws yet in force by which ecclesiastical causes are to be decided.-Irish Bishops not qualified to decide on all such causes.-They cannot tender oaths.-Provincial and National Councils, as now constituted in Ireland, inadequate to decide Canonically.-Genuine Laws on which decisions must be founded.

1. "No people on earth- says the V. Bishop "of Castabala, can make laws of any kind for "the spiritual kingdom of J. C." Let. p. 90.

Be not imposed upon-good reader.-By the kingdom of J. C. he means the Bishops crclusively." Bishops alone, says he, have a "right to judge and decide on all matters re"lating to faith and discipline. The claims of

"all others however high, powerful, or numerous, are vain and schismatical." Elucid. of Veto, p. 48.

What then were the ecclesiastical laws of the Saxon kings, Ina, Withred, Edgar,* Alfred, Canut, which have been published by Spelman, Whelock, Lambard, Wilkins, Johnson, Beveridge, Lyndwood? What were the Capitularia Regum Francorum, which have been so eruditely published by the learned Baluz? -Really does the education of a Vicar

* Of Egbert's Canons Spelman says that there were several ancient MS. Copies. Concil. Angl. t. 1. p. 258. Selden owns that the Cotton MS. is of the time of Henry I, but suspects that another made the collection. I see no reason however for such a suspicion. Egbert was brother to the king of Northumbria, and a great promoter of ecclesiastical learning, as appears by his dialogue published by Ware, Dublin 1664, also from Bede's epistle to him a little before his death, and from Alcuin's concerning him. We might as well suspect those of Theodore of Canterbury. Gratuitous doubts are as inadmissible as gratuitous assertions. Every one can doubt, and mere opinion is the last refuge of ignorance.

↑ Baluzius quotes a MS. of the 9th century in his own private collection, the second number of which contained a copy of the seven books of Charlemagne's Capitularies, and the Acts of an Irish Council relating to marriage. Another