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ritual matters should produce a fair settlement of a question , involved in much mystery , and after all dependant upon the construction of the canon law , by the imprudent discussion of which you have disturbed many tender consciences . A very enlightened priest , who had the reputation of being an eminent canonist , not many years dead , who had beeu a Freemason , ahvays spoke of the distinction between the letter and spirit of the law , the decree of the
Pope , and the decree of a council , in reference to " secret societies . " If the letter of the law were to be understood , many commercial unions , associations , societies , and companies , bound by oath of secrecy , would be included in the condemnations hy the church . The same power which found it expedient to suppress the Society of Jesus , and afterwards again restored that most useful order , —if that power have classed British Catholic Freemasons with Illnminati , Carbonari , Communist , and the Freemason ' s secret societies of Italy , France , and Germany , she has condemned , —may in the
course of time define , modify , or withdraw her anathemas upon proper representations . He often mentioned that much ignorance of the statistics of other countries prevailed in Italy , and that the word " Freemason" has often the same import as " raw-head-and-bloody-bones" to frighten children . It is a notorious fact , that the Holy Father was disabused ofa prejudice , by the Earl of Shrewsbury , against the British Catholics for holding our meetings at the l- ' uEE . MASO . vs' Tavern in London , when the noble Earl experienced some difficultin explaining that it was a mere nameno more
y , than the sign-painting to notify a public tavern . But what principally is to be reprobated in the " Tablet" is the pertinacious adherence to wholesale classification of British Freemasons with all sorts of " secret societies" on the Continent , as immoral , anti-social , irreligious , and infidel , and no Freemason , or layman , none but " a clergyman" is allowed to correct your monstrous misrepresentations . Right or wrong , " duty or not duty , WE shall
denounce them at alt hazards . ! " It is : t libel upon truth to affirm that Freemasonry in England offers " sanctuary" to crime . No Freemason in England could screen a felon or a murderer , and it is for the very purpose of excluding suspected characters , that secrecy and ceremony are observed in the conduct of many societies . They are Guilds and Brotherhoods , in which till are esteemed to be on perfect equality , from the noble Duke to the most humble citizen , all are brothers . To so noble and high a pitch have these chivalrous notions of universal charity and brotherhood attained , as to
induce two deadly enemies , met in mortal strife , to relent and sheathe the weapons of death , upon the vanquished foe yielding the well-known sign understood by the victorious Brother . It may be true that the Turk , the Jew . the Protestant , the Methodist , or the Unitarian , . H-c , & c , may shape his individual Freemasonry according to each respective creed , but as a Catholic , I protest against the assumed censorship of the " Tablet" as the pretending organ of British Catholics , denouncing British Freemasons as entertaining coincident opinions with such , or with the wicked combinations
on the Continent , or that a Catholic must have so done because he had been a Freemason . 1 am acquainted with many British Freemasons ; I was acquainted with Freemasons in Spain und Portugal , many were learned and pious ecclesiastics . In Spain , as in England , a Prince ofthe royal blood was the Grand Master in Madrid , in 1820-21-22 , and 23 , in the reign of Ferdinand the Seventh , his brother the ( then ) Infant Don Carlos ( then ] heir apparent to the thronenow occupied hIsabella the Secondnot then bornbefore the
, y , , abrogation of the old gothic salic law of succession , in 1830 ; and I can affirm that not one came under the category of your text , except as belonging to " secret societies , " whether condemned by the church , is a question to be decided by the construction of the canon law , whieh should be left Jo the dictum of our lawful superiors . The liberties of the Spanish church are more ancient , and on a much firmer footing , than the liberties of the
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Rejected Letters.
ritual matters should produce a fair settlement of a question , involved in much mystery , and after all dependant upon the construction of the canon law , by the imprudent discussion of which you have disturbed many tender consciences . A very enlightened priest , who had the reputation of being an eminent canonist , not many years dead , who had beeu a Freemason , ahvays spoke of the distinction between the letter and spirit of the law , the decree of the
Pope , and the decree of a council , in reference to " secret societies . " If the letter of the law were to be understood , many commercial unions , associations , societies , and companies , bound by oath of secrecy , would be included in the condemnations hy the church . The same power which found it expedient to suppress the Society of Jesus , and afterwards again restored that most useful order , —if that power have classed British Catholic Freemasons with Illnminati , Carbonari , Communist , and the Freemason ' s secret societies of Italy , France , and Germany , she has condemned , —may in the
course of time define , modify , or withdraw her anathemas upon proper representations . He often mentioned that much ignorance of the statistics of other countries prevailed in Italy , and that the word " Freemason" has often the same import as " raw-head-and-bloody-bones" to frighten children . It is a notorious fact , that the Holy Father was disabused ofa prejudice , by the Earl of Shrewsbury , against the British Catholics for holding our meetings at the l- ' uEE . MASO . vs' Tavern in London , when the noble Earl experienced some difficultin explaining that it was a mere nameno more
y , than the sign-painting to notify a public tavern . But what principally is to be reprobated in the " Tablet" is the pertinacious adherence to wholesale classification of British Freemasons with all sorts of " secret societies" on the Continent , as immoral , anti-social , irreligious , and infidel , and no Freemason , or layman , none but " a clergyman" is allowed to correct your monstrous misrepresentations . Right or wrong , " duty or not duty , WE shall
denounce them at alt hazards . ! " It is : t libel upon truth to affirm that Freemasonry in England offers " sanctuary" to crime . No Freemason in England could screen a felon or a murderer , and it is for the very purpose of excluding suspected characters , that secrecy and ceremony are observed in the conduct of many societies . They are Guilds and Brotherhoods , in which till are esteemed to be on perfect equality , from the noble Duke to the most humble citizen , all are brothers . To so noble and high a pitch have these chivalrous notions of universal charity and brotherhood attained , as to
induce two deadly enemies , met in mortal strife , to relent and sheathe the weapons of death , upon the vanquished foe yielding the well-known sign understood by the victorious Brother . It may be true that the Turk , the Jew . the Protestant , the Methodist , or the Unitarian , . H-c , & c , may shape his individual Freemasonry according to each respective creed , but as a Catholic , I protest against the assumed censorship of the " Tablet" as the pretending organ of British Catholics , denouncing British Freemasons as entertaining coincident opinions with such , or with the wicked combinations
on the Continent , or that a Catholic must have so done because he had been a Freemason . 1 am acquainted with many British Freemasons ; I was acquainted with Freemasons in Spain und Portugal , many were learned and pious ecclesiastics . In Spain , as in England , a Prince ofthe royal blood was the Grand Master in Madrid , in 1820-21-22 , and 23 , in the reign of Ferdinand the Seventh , his brother the ( then ) Infant Don Carlos ( then ] heir apparent to the thronenow occupied hIsabella the Secondnot then bornbefore the
, y , , abrogation of the old gothic salic law of succession , in 1830 ; and I can affirm that not one came under the category of your text , except as belonging to " secret societies , " whether condemned by the church , is a question to be decided by the construction of the canon law , whieh should be left Jo the dictum of our lawful superiors . The liberties of the Spanish church are more ancient , and on a much firmer footing , than the liberties of the