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    m ^ s ^^^ E SanX store in the distincftve incident of ^ &pss ^ IX ^ KS ^ fif the ihild of sin , is . there , anyttag 8 **** * f removing it to the relation of grandchild to sin ?! The triviality of this question is not ours ' it is inherent in the attempt to remove the VirginMary out of the category of human and her parents still

    nature . Extricate her , remain to impart the hereditary taint of sin-, if such taint exist at all . To acknowledge the Virgin Mary to be human in all respects , until she became the vessel of divine favour ; is , indeed , to accept the dogmatic miracle of Christianity in its . simplest , purest , and most intelligible form . The tendency of opinion within the Eoman Church to accept it m that form has existed from the earliest days when such subjects were mooted at all ; and its tacit persistence ought to have occasioned no anxiety . Yet it did so ~ .

    But to whom ? We repeat , to certain aged intriguers , and to certain ardent neophytes who had adopted the theory of development , who were angry at encountering confutation , and' who appealed from the text of ancient fathers to the , Pope : This' was hardly fair . Poor Pius the ; Hinth is not one of the strong brothers . Impressionable , undecided , impulsive , he is ; just the man to be the puppet of the ambitious ecclesiastics who , from their Sacred College , would fain con < - trol the . world . The world declines

    dictation . Even Naples repudiates the secondary dignity of a Tief of the Church . Piedmont resolves the suppression of convents , after after , having exiled a factious and' conspiring Archbishop . Throughout Itaty only the very ignorant remain sunk in superstition ; the educated' are content to pay the tribute of conforming indifference to a p ower not so much detested as desjrised . The sovereign Pontiff himself totters superbly , propped up by Austrian and Bonapartist bayonets . Remove that uncomfortable support , and he would fall to the ground , for all the tiara which the immaculate Isabella the

    Second of Spain has recently placed uponhia head . Feeble in . health , in nerve , in will , epileptic , shaken alternately by a double remorse for the past and a double terror for the future , Pius the Ninth grasps the fiction ' of a , spiritual supremacy , because his temporal dominion is but the shadow of a precarious sufferance . Sustained by the disgrace of France and the political convenience of Austria , crowned by the decorous Isabella the Second , lie is the most signal instance of

    a puppet ruler that ever exposed the cruelty and the falseness of impotence to the world . There is a native African potentate of whom it is said that after he has , dined every day ; his trumpeters go forth and proclaim that the other monarch s of the world' are per * mitted ' to dine . Having made up his mind ( with the assistance of other and stronger minds ) upon the inscrutable mystery of the Immaculate Conception , Pius proclaims from his throne what the Catholic Church may think .

    ^ In' these late proceedings he has placed himself at issue with the real supporters of the Church . Naples is sullen and suspicious n her adhesion ; Piedmont ? is openly schismatic ; what remains- of the Church of France bitterly resentB an arbitrary definition , asserted without the authority of a General Councilthe < m&r . authority traditionally capable of establishing Wb&ma . The Pope has ceased to be a spiritual' dfcspofc ; in the attempt to mated Km aw ihstramentf of-their pettiy dictation ^ tHe Chrditnuo have only made- him

    SJ ^ S ^ S ^ g&S fesnsafs ^ &wst encfe upon a . new axiom of dogma ^ p hysiology uttered in the fifth- decade of the nineteenth century * .

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    THE DnfGHER-DENISON CASE . Once more- there is a ferment among the men of the pulpit and the altar touchmg ^ the sacred essences of what are called the doctrines- of the Chureh of England . -Rome , with greafrpomp and circumstance , settles to her own content what she deems * an awful dogma , the Immaculate Conception ; England is actually debating her dogmas ; at this very day , but with proctors , not with priests ; cannot agree respecting the bread and wine , and the

    and their effect upon the worthy unworthy ; cannot agree whether written words mean this thing or that ; demands the assent of all to the assertion , that these unsettled doctrines are the highest truths ^ we possess Think of the pretensions of a Church that admits of doubts , that tolerates two , or-more than two , interpretations of the same dogma ; one party taking a " high , " another a " low view of what they say concerns eternal life and eternal misery ! To such a , pitch of perfection have the differences arrived , and so neatly are the followers of each section organisedthat they distinguish each other by

    , technical terms ! There are the Pharisees and Sadducees , the followers of Omar , and the followers of AM ; the Big-endians and the little-endians , the High and the Low . TJpon one point only are they agreed : both , nay all , for there are more than two , unite in looking upon Church property as sacred to the usesi and solely ; for the behoof of Churchymen . Certainly we are signalising no new thing , but an old one ; yet this old thing , perennially interesting , bursts forth with all the- freshness 1 of a novelty irf a new illustration—the case of Mr . Gteouge Anthony

    Denison : The Vicar of East Brent and Archdeacon of Taunton is not unknown to our readers ^ We believe him to be a conscientious minister and a high-spirited gentleman , blameless , in-life , learned ,-cour . teous , ^ benevolent ; personally held in high esteem and affection by all ; but as a public man , somewhat hasty and capricious in his moods , and' occasionally doing things not altogether creditable nor consistent , such as his junction with the

    Derbyites in 1852 ; on the whole , he is one , we believe , who strives honestly to do his best in the not very easy position of an active and thoughtful minister of the Church of England . As might be expected from a man of this stamp , Geobge Anthony Denison is a staunch friend of that more logical , more learned , and more tolerant section of the Church of England called the High Church party . He liveB' in the very camp of his section , and commands its respect if . not its confidence . ' But in the same district there

    are members of that less tolerant , less learned , less courteous section of the Church , known to the curious'in Ecclesiastical zoology as ILow —parsons-like Archdeacon Law , who take a " very low view" indeed of the traditions and dbotrines of the English Church . The antagonism of these two sections , once ; typified by GfamffAM and Exeteb , now by Law and Dmsi&OTf , has broken out into open conflict , and'the unseemly spectacle is again witnessed of two Christian priests contending , by proxy , about the most sacred , essences of their eommon religion .

    The immediate origin of the present contention , in its simple elements ^ is easily told Some months ' ago , when Mt . Dm&BOJX held the office of examining chaplain'ibpthe < late

    Bishop of Bath and WeUs , he Breached two sermons * - and subsequently ; . * & >* - £ * ** £ * « we remember rightly ,, relmqn » hed that oflfce , he preached a thirds-all toreaitaucEmg the doctrine of : " the real , presemcetof body and blood of Christ in the sacramental bread and wine . " These sermons were printed _ and published , and scattered far and wide .- J-ney to the © hiirch - n n il J Tir . lin l > a nvaanliA /) ¦ kvori

    gave great offence Lovr prarions ; Archdeacon Law took ; the opportunity of his quarterly residence ; in the cathedral city to go gossipping about them among the grocers of WeUs ( we were not aware of the sacramental efficacy of grocers ); and the Reverend Josiah Ditches , Vicar of South Brent , the adjoining parish to the more celebrated East ' Brent , incited it would seem by Mr . Law , founded charges of heresy upon them , and preferred the said charges before the authorities . These charges were ,

    generally , that the doctrine taught in the sermons was contrary to the doctrine of the Church of England . ' At first the matter came only under the cognisance of the late Bishop of Bath and Wells , who decided it himself , without sending the case before a court , declaring that Mr . Denison might hold , but not teach , the doctrine he had taught in his sermons . From Dr , Bagot , Mr . Ditches , the prosecutor , carried his grievance to the Archbishop of Canterbury ; and Dr . John Bird Sumneit , although constitutionally inclined to peace , seems to have felt bound to do more than look into this matter .

    Accordingly , he issued a commission , consisting of five clergymen of the diocese of Bath and Wells , who-were to inquire ostensibly as to the grounds there were for further proceedings ; but whose real business seems to have been to collect evidence to make eut a primd facie case . Mr . Denison protested very energetically and' formally against the whole proceeding , and declared that as the matter had already been settled between him and his then diocesan ^ it would be a violation of the law to try him twice for the . same offence . Dr . Stimneb did not hearken unto

    these protestations and arguments , but named his commissioners and set them to work . Last week they commenced operations at Clevedon , in Somersetshire , and this week they have . arri . ved . at a-decision . It ; maysafely be said that the inquiry before them was frivolous in the last degree . It might have been expected that they would overrule an ; objection to their jurisdiction ; but that they should refuse to hear evidence that one or

    more of them were incapacitated by their antecedents for the post they occupied , because the objection was urged too late , is certainly not to their credit . That they should have declined to hear arguments respecting the allegation ^ of heresy , might not unnaturally have been looked for , because they deemed themselves competent to decide the question without argument : but , if so ^ way this mockery of an inquisition ?

    The real question w * as > whether ' Mr . DbnU ' son taught false doctrine P The evidence of that lay in the sermons , if anywhere : their authorship was not , could- not be disputed ; and the five Commissioners might just as well have read the sermons and have uttered their opinion in Lambeth Palace as in Wason ' s Hotel , Clevedon . For , practically , all wo learn by this inquiry is > that Mr . Denison preached the sermons ; that Mr . Dktchbb and Archdeacon Law toot offence

    thereat ; that Mr : Masters * published them , and that they were pretty extensively circulated ; that Mr . John G-ifpobo ) Kvebkto , grocer . and draper-oil ? Wells , was tormented ) by Arohdeacon Law oauly last year , to- give evidence about' the preaching'of thesd s » i > - monB' —very useful knowledge no doubt ,, bat not much to the point—and laBtdyi which / is

    Untitled Article

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• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 13, 1855, page 38, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2073/page/14/