On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
peculiar occasions occur which involve matters of external order arid interfere with the practice of virtue , " and the church is persuaded that external measures of coercion may with propriety be employed , they must be requested of the civil power , to which ! alone they belong , and not to the church . "
No jurisdiction exists simultaneously with the bishop ' s in his own diocese . If new rules of discipline are introduced , each bishop should have the power of examining them to find whether they are suited or not to his particular church , and may refuse to receive them . The pope is recognized merely as the primate among bishops , as the successor , in the Church of Rome , of St . Peter , who is considered the first of the apostles . The Bishop of Rome is the centre of unity , with whom every bishop should keep up an epistolary
intercourse . He presides in councils ; and in the absence of councils is bound to administer matters according to their united intentions , and , as the vicar of all , to ordain , in a provisional manner , whatever is deemed to be necessary . The controverted questions of jurisdiction between the popes , councils , and bishops in their separate dioceses , are fully considered . The Austrian government regarding the bishop ' s oath of fidelity to the papal see as somewhat prejudicial to the civil authority , prescribed , in 1781 , that n 6 oath should be taken but on condition that the whole form should be
understood in the just and original sense of an obedience purely canonical , and should be received so as not to clash either with the rights of the sovereign or the duties of the subject , both of which the bishops were , on that occasion , to recognize by an oath , to be taken in a form pointed out previous to the oath to the pope . Appeals to Rome are prohibited , or are to be judged by a delegate residing in the country to which the parties belong . The powers of dispensation in marriages are required to be exercised by the bishops ; the
government permitting those bishops who had scruples as to exercising these powers to obtain faculties from Rome so to do , which that court readily compromised the matter by granting . All papal indulgences are to be submitted previously to what is called the " Placet Royal , " for the sanction of the state before announcement . The legatine authority is of course confined within the bounds of the pope ' s own authority ; and the civil government has the power of examining these letters of legation , of not receiving legates , except under certain conditions , and of refusing to admit those against whom they may entertain just objections .
The powers of a bishop in his diocese for the regular administration of his church are strictly defined . They are , as before observed , exclusive and independent of every other jurisdiction , save always and excepted a pretty vigilant supervision which this despotic state takes great care to reserve to itself , while it keeps out all other intruders on the church's independence . For instance , no pastoral letter or charge , addressed to the clergy of a diocese , can be published without the approbation of government . By the
ancient canons the bishops , however , are required to perform nothing of great importance without the advice of their presbytery , that is , of the priests of the diocese ; from which arose diocesan synods , which the Austrian government , in some cases , restored , but probably saw fit to discourage as too popular in their character . All bishops are nominated by the emperor . By the Austrian laws it is prescribed , that all parochial benefices should be conferred on the more deserving candidate upon examination . The parish priests have the direction o £ the elementary schools ; they admV
Untitled Article
tleview . — Catholicism in Austria . 677
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1827, page 677, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1800/page/45/
-