PERILS. — ROMAXISM. GO 



to which he has been subject.'' The Roman Cathohc 

 profession of faith, having the sanction of the Council 

 which met at Baltimore in 1884, contains the following 

 oath of allegiance to the Pope :— " And I pledge and swear 

 true obedience to the Roman Pontiff, vicar of Jesus 

 Christ, and successor of the blessed Peter, prince of the 

 Apostles." ^ We have already seen how broad is the 

 obligation which the oath lays on the Romanists. Here, 

 then, are men who have sworn allegiance to two different 

 powers, each claiming to be supreme, whose spheres of au- 

 thority are "inseparably" bound together and which, 

 therefore, afford abundant opportunity for the rise of 

 conflicting interests and irreconcilable requirements. 



3y Avay of throwing light on such a situation, it is in- 

 teresting to read in the Canon Law: "No oaths are to 

 be kept if they are against the interests of the Church of 

 Rome." 2 And again: " Qaths which are against the 

 Church of Rome, are not to be called oaths, but per- 

 juries." ^ An American ecclesiastic. Bishop English, of 

 Charleston, S. C, quotes this canon, and defending it 

 says : ' ' These are the principles which I have been 

 taught from Roman Catholic authors, by Roman Cath- 

 olic pi-ofessors ; they are the principles which I find rec- 

 ognized in all enactments and interpretations of councils 

 in the Roman Catholic church, from the Council at Je- 

 rusalem, held by the Apostles, down to the present 

 day.'' ■* In a work prepared by Rev. F. X. Schouppe for 

 Roman Catholic schools and colleges and bearing the 

 imprimatur of Cardinal Manning, we read (p. 278), 

 " The civil laws are binding on the conscience only so 

 long as the}^ are conformable to the rights of the Catho- 

 lic Church." 



When a man has placed his conscience and will in the 



1 " Romanoque Ponlifici, beati Petri Apostolorum Principis successori ac 

 Jesu Christi vicario veram ohedientiam spondeo ac juro.''^ Acta et De- 

 creta Concilii Baltiinorensis III., p. liii. (Baltimore, 1886). 



' CoriJim Juris Canonici, Leipsic edition, 1839, torn, ii., p. 11.59. . 



= Ibid. p. :358. 



* Letters Concerning the Roman Chancery, p. 158. 



