32 Contemporary Evolution. 



task of maintaining by self-denial and suffering the com- 

 mon rights of all men and the most fundamental and 

 sacred of all liberties the liberty to adhere with unde- 

 viating fidelity, in speech and action as well as in thought, 

 to what they believe to be truth revealed to them by their 

 Creator. 



The supreme and indefeasible rights of conscience 

 have never perhaps been more admirably defended than 

 by the most widely venerated priest of our own time 

 and country, Father Newman.* He tells us : 



" The rule and measure of duty is not utility, nor ex- 

 pedience, nor the happiness of the greatest number, nor 

 State convenience, nor fitness, order, and the pulchrum. 

 Conscience is not a long-sighted selfishness, nor a desire 

 to be consistent with oneself; but it is a message from 

 Him, who, both in nature and in grace, speaks to us 

 behind a veil, and teaches and rules us by His repre- 

 sentatives. Conscience is the aboriginal vicar of Christ, 

 a prophet in its informations, a monarch in its peremp- 

 toriness, a priest in its blessings and anathemas, and, 

 even though the eternal priesthood throughout the 

 Church should cease to be, in it the sacerdotal principle 

 would remain and would have sway." 



As to the necessary relation of the visible head of the 

 Church to the claims of conscience, and the certainty 



* See his " Letter to the Duke of Norfolk," p. 57. 



