of religion, by which not only Catholics but Protestant Nonconformists were persecuted, is a page of our history over which we are happy to be able now to draw a veil. So long as the civil power exacted conformity and obedience in matters spiritual, the conscience of Catholics placed them in an unnatural state of passive opposition to supreme authority. It is the dictate of our conscience, founded upon the words of our Lord and of His Apostles, upon the precepts of the Fathers, and the decrees of Councils,[1] that we should render true and faithful obedience in all civil matters to our lawful prince. An oath of pure civil obedience Catholics are bound by their religion to make, from their hearts, to the person of their sovereign.[2] Happily, all the elements of religious and ecclesiastical matter, which used to be mixed up with these civil oaths, have gradually been purged away. The laws of England, with the exception only of a few lingering stains of the old anti-
- ↑ Concil. Toletan. iv. c. 75: 'Sacrilegium quippe est si violetur agentibus Regum suorum promissa fides, quia non solum in eos fit pacti transgressio, sed et in Deum, in cujus nomine pollicetur ipsa promissio.' So also the tenth Council of Toledo, and the Council of Aix-la-Chapelle. Suarez, Responsio ad Regis Angliee Librum, lib. vi. c. 1.
- ↑ 'Cum enim uniuscujusque Regis subditi, teste Paulo, ei parere, et fidelitatem servare, et in omnibus quae ad potestatem Regiam spectant, illi obedire teneantur, ut in libro 3. ostensum est, per se manifestum est, juramentum de hac obedientia, et fidelitate servanda (quod juramentum fidelitatis appellamus) per se, et ex objecto suo honestum esse: ac subinde et posse a Rege ad suam majorem securitatem ac stabilitatem postulari, et tune a subditis et exhiberi et servari debere.'—Suarez, ibid. lib. vi. Proœm.
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