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    has risked theBishop of Bath and Wells, ...

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    THE DIl^GHER-DENISOlT CASE. Once more th...

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    The « Immaculate Conception." Quieta Non...

    Bence the desire to show ^\^ Tff ^ Mother was nerself not human , so ^ s she s ^ fl ^ ii the parents of the Virgin 2 Audit there i ^ a re ^ oh in the idea of rendering cLvmrfcy the child of sin , is there anything gjni ?^ y 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 Virgin Mary out of the category of human her

    nature . Extricate her , and parentsystill remain to impart the hereditary tairit 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 tfconfcm Church to accept it m that form has existed from tne 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 ? ¥ e repeat , to certain aged intriguers , and to certain ardent neophytes wlio 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 Ninth 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 control the world . The world declines dictation-. Even ISWleS repudiates the secondary

    dignity of a iFieF of the Church . Piedmont resolves the suppression of convents , after after having exiled afactioiis and conspiring Archbishop . Throughout Italy only the very ignorant remain sunk in superstition ; the Educated are content to pay the tribute of conforming indifference to a power not so much detested as despised . 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 upon his ^ g ^ . . _ . ^^^^ j _^_^^ . ^^ ^ ^ _ . j ^ , ^ lj _ 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 Dut 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 , he 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 monarchs of the world are permitted to dine . Having made up his mind ( with the assistance ot other and stronger minds ) upon the inscrutable mystery df 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 or France bitterly resentB nn arbitrary definition , asserted ¦ without the authority of a General Councilthe fctflyv authority traditionally capable of establishing a dogma . The Pope has ceased to be * spiritual despot ; in the attempt to inakte him , -tribt Tnafermnent of their petty dictai tion , « ie Cardinals have only made hid

    ! irritant . If anything has risked the gradual marehof the Holy Catbohc Church into a new century without total disruption , it is this foolish attempt to stake its existence upon a new axiom ^ of dogmatic physiology uttered in the fifth decade of the nineteenth century . . i ii

    Has Risked Thebishop Of Bath And Wells, ...

    4 H * tl T , Tft A 1 ) IS . - jS ^ KPAir , - *^ ¦ • ¦ '—;¦ - ¦¦ ¦ - --- ¦¦ - - ~ gBi = ga ^ I

    The Dil^Gher-Denisolt Case. Once More Th...

    THE DIl ^ GHER-DENISOlT CASE . Once more there is a ferment among the men of the pulpit and the altar toncfcmgthe sacred essences of what are called the doctrines of the Church of England . Jk > > with great pomp and circumstance , settles to lier own content what she deems an awiul 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 , tne

    and theireffect upon the worthy ana 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 " lowV 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 othef by

    , technical terms ! There are the Pharisees and Sadducees , the followers of Omar , and the followers of Ali ; the Big-endians and the Little-endians , the High and the Low . Upon one point only are they agreed : both , nay all , for there areTnore than two , unite in looking upon Church property as sacred to the uses , and solely for the behoof of Churchmen . Certainly we are signalising no new thing , but an old one ; yet this old tiring , perennially interesting , bursts forth with all the freshness of a novelty in a new illustration—the case of Mr . G-eobgke Anthonx :

    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 , courteous , 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

    Derbyited 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 , GI-eorcke Anthony Dinison 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 lives in the very camp of his section , and commands itB 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 Low —parsons like Archdeacon Law , who take a " very low view" indeed of the traditions and doctrines of the English Church . The antagonism of these two sections , once typified by Gouham and Exeter , now by Law and Denison , 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 common religion .

    The immediate origin of the present contention , in its simple elements , is easily told Some months ago , when Mr . Denison hold the office of examining chaplain for the late

    Bishop of Bath and Wells , he-preached two sermons , « nd subsequently , when he had , if we remember rightly , relinquished that o ^ ce , he preached a third—all tbree touching the doctrine of " the real presence of 'body and blood of Christ in the saewmaetital teatf and wine . " These sermons were printed , and published / and Scattered far and -wide . They gave great offence to the Low'Church parsons ; Archdeacon Law took the opportunity of his quarterly residence in the cathedral city to go gossipping about them among the ii i r Tliili 1 TMln he preached two

    grocers of WeBs ( we were not aware of the sacramental efficacy of grocers ); and the Beverend JoSIah Ditcher , Vicar of Soath Brent , the adjoining parish to the more celebrated East Brent , mcited it would seem by Mr . Law , founded charges of heresy uyon 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 Eneland . At first the matter came only

    under the cognisance of the late Bishop ot 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 . Ditcher , the prosecutor , carried his grievance to the Archbishop of Canterbury ; and Dr . John Bird Stf mner , although constitutionally inclined tcf peace , seems to have felt bound to do more than look into tbia matter . Accordinglyhe issued a commission ,

    consist-, ing of five clergymen of the diocese of Bath and Wells , who were to inquire ostensibly as to the grounds there were fb ' r farther proceedings ; but whose real business seems to have been to collect evidence to make out a prim & fade case . Mr . Denison protested very energetically and formally against the whole proceeding , and-declared thatas 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 . Sumnbr did not hearken unto

    these protestations and arguments , but named his commissioners and set them to wdrk . Last week they commenced operations at Clevedon , in Somersetshire , and this week they have arrived at a decision . It may safely ^ besaid that the inquiry before-them wbb- frivolous in the last degree . It might have been expeeted 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 ifflanaturally have been looked for , because they deemed themselves competent to decide the question without argument : but , if so , why this mockery of an inquisition ?

    The real question wns , whether Mr . BfE-mson taught false doctrine ¦? The evidence of that lay in the sermons , if anywhere : their authorship was not , could not 'be disputed j and the five Commissioners might just as well have read the BOrmOna and have uttered their opinion in Lambeth Palace as in Wason ' a Hotel , Olevedon . For , practically , all we learn by this inquiry is , that Mar .

    Dentbon preached the sermons ; that ] ytr . Ditcher and Archdeacon Law took offence thereat ; that Mr . Masters published them , and that they were pretty extensively circulated ; that Mr . John & iffgbd Evebeitt , grocer and draper of Wells , was tormented by Archdeacon . Law early lafct year , to give evidence about the preaching' of those acrmons * -very useful knowledge , no doubt , font not much to the point— -and 'lastly , which is

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 13, 1855, page 14, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_13011855/page/14/