Few instances

CHAP. I. encouraging and abetting him, we believe that no instance of the kind has occurred: at least, none with the sanction of any Catholic Bishop in Ireland.

of Excommunication.

Unfounded charge against

Clergy.

3. The Catholic Clergy have been un

the Catholic justly accused of pronouncing this Sentence in light and frequent cases.---Now, on the contrary, it is reserved for crimes of gross enormity or turpitude. Only two instances of it have occurred during the last 24 years in the populous ArchDiocese of Dublin, wherein, from the vicious habits of a great Capital, the most numerous occasions for its exercise may naturally be supposed to have occurred.---During the preceding 17 years only two other instances have been known.---Yet none of the persons, so excommunicated, appear to have suffered any temporal injury from the sentence. They have continued in their respective Trades and occupations: have not been in any manner molested: and they have met their Catholic Neighbours, and been dealt with, as before.

This power

not injurious.

Discreetly ex

So discreetly, too, is the exercise of this Power ercised in Ire- limited, and so jealously is it watched, by the Catholic Hierarchy, that, according to the Dis

land.

cipline of the Catholic Church in Ireland, no Clergyman of the second order can issue an Excommunication without previously laying the case before the Bishop of the Diocese, and obtaining

"

his sanction for proceeding to this last of spiritual CHAP. I. Punishments.

4. It is, then, a matter of just and griev

Ex communication punishable.

Boyle v. Mac

King's Bench,

1810.

ous complaint among the Catholic Clergy of Ire- Laughlin, land, that the exercise of this species of jurisdiction Easter Term, has been assailed by Judicial decisions, of recent date, pronouncing it to be obnoxious to the Laws, and punishable equally with common defamation. These decisions, coupled with strong declarations from high authority, hostile to the existence of a Catholic Hierarchy,, amount to a public avowal of an intention to extinguish all Power and Jurisdiction enjoyed by the Catholic Clergy, even with the voluntary concurrence of the People. If, indeed, the Catholic Clergy, under the presence of Excommunication, sought to establish an arbitrary right of over-stepping the legitimate boundaries of this Jurisdiction, at their discretion; for instance, in adding slander or defamation to the Language of the Sentence, in cautioning the public against the expelled member, as immoral, &c. by injuring him in his Trade, or by similar extra-official Acts: ---If they sought to deprive him of his temporal Rights, or to subject him to the temporal Penalties annexed by the Laws of these Realms to Excommunication, which indeed are dreadful!!!---then perhaps, they could not complain of being de prived of the exercise of this Power. But they

CHAP. I. neither profess, nor mean, any such thing.

Excommuni

Ex

communication, as understood by them, we have cation punish- already described to be "a mere Separation of a

able.

Excommunication known in all other

Religions.

66

person from the faithful in Spirituals." Of this Right no power upon Earth can divest them. If they refuse to admit to Communion, a notorious Sinner, or an incorrigible Delinquent, how can the Laws take cognizance of such refusal? Yet this is a species of Excommunication,

5. All Classes of Religious Dissenters, Presbyterians, Quakers, &c. and even Jews, exercise Rex v. Hart, this Right of Excommunication. Nay, it is a ports, p.336. Right, recognized by the Courts of Law in EngLaw. vol. 2,p. land. It is, indeed, inherent in the Constitution of

Blacks, Re

Burn's Eccles.

779.

every Community, Civil and Religious. If a member of such a Community acts disgracefully in it, or chooses to violate its settled Rules and Laws (and which he must be taken, as a member, to have assented to) nothing seems more reasonable or necessary, than that the Community, or its chief members, should exercise the right of expelling him. And, if any consequences, injurious to his interests or reputation, should happen to result from such expulsion, it would be an enormous injustice to compensate the Offender at the expence of the Community, thus compelled to remove him.

6. There certainly appears great reason CHAP. I. to question the sound sense of the Principle, upon Excommuniwhich it has been held, that "An Action at Law able.

cation punish

the Judicial Decision in

Laughlin, Ant.

p: 29.

may be sustained, to recover Damages from a "Catholic Clergyman, for a mere Excommuni- Doubts upon "cation." For, if the Catholic Worship be erro-Boyle v. Me. neous, as is pretended---if the Catholic Religion p and practices be dangerous, and fit to be stigmatized and discountenanced by the Laws---surely it would follow, and the Law ought to presume, that the removal of any person from the Catholic Community, howsoever effected, must be rather a benefit to him, than an Injury. He ought, therefore, not to be deemed entitled to complain of such removal; but rather be congratulated as a fortunate Person, extricated from an unhappy Society, which is condemned by law, or barely permitted to exist tó a partial extent, and under hard restrictions.--His temporal condition must derive admitted advantages from such removal---and, though his prospects in the world to come may be somewhat impaired by the untoward event, yet this is a supposition that the present Code of Laws cannot entertain or act upon. The question may possibly be brought under solemn discussion hereafter, and finally settled,

At present, the doctrine appears to be as unreasonable, as it is vexatious and harrassing to the Catholic Clergy of Ireland.

CHAP. I.

Prevented from attending the Soldiers and Sailors.

Post. 123, &c.

Divine Service unprotected.

6 Geo. 1, ch.5,

tects Dissent

ers.

IV. The Catholic Clergy are denied the

permission (and sometimes even in Ireland) to perform the Rites of their Religion for the Catholic Soldiers and "Sailors,"

This Interdiction, and its extent, shall be treated of hereafter, in the Chapter detailing the disabilities, affecting Catholics in the Army and Navy.

V. "The Catholic Clergy are unprotected (6 by any Law, prohibiting the disturbance "of Divine service, whilst celebrated by "them."

It is observable, that the celebration of Divine Sect. 14, pro- Worship, in the Dissenting Congregations in Ireland, is protected by an Act of Parliament, imposing a Penalty of 201. upon any person disturbing it.---This is but reasonable.

English Catho

by Law.

And in England, the Catholic Worship is pro

lics protected tected in like manner, by an English Statute of 31 George III. ch. 32. (1791.)