The Papal Supremacy: With Remarks on the Bill for Recognizing Its Authority in the United Kingdom Passed in the Commons, and Rejected by the Lords in the Year 1825
The Papal Supremacy: With Remarks on the Bill for Recognizing Its Authority in the United Kingdom Passed in the Commons, and Rejected by the Lords in the Year 1825
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1827 Excerpt: ...established by " Law;" and, secondly, " to preserve unto the bishops " and the clergy of the realm, and the churches com" mitted to their charge, all such rights and privileges " as by law do or shall appertain unto them." By this oath the King is bound " to maintain the " Protestant Reformed Religion, as established ...
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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1827 Excerpt: ...established by " Law;" and, secondly, " to preserve unto the bishops " and the clergy of the realm, and the churches com" mitted to their charge, all such rights and privileges " as by law do or shall appertain unto them." By this oath the King is bound " to maintain the " Protestant Reformed Religion, as established by law." These concise and general terms, like all others of the kind, admit of some latitude of interpretation. No reasonable man will insist upon such a literal observance of them, as must preclude any change, however minute, even in mere matters of discipline. We must look to the substance and intent of the oath, about which no man can doubt who is acquainted with the 1 W. and M., c. 6. context of contemporaneous history. Now the oath wa9 coeval with the Revolution, and what King William could not consistently do, cannot be done by any of his successors. It has indeed been said, that when the King swears to maintain " the Religion established by law," he does not mean as now established, but as now or hereafter may be established by law, or, which is the same in effect, until legally overthrown. According to this construction, King William, immediately after he had taken the oath, might consistently have concurred with a small majority in the two Houses of Parliament, in repealing the Act of the 1st of Queen Elizabeth, for the expulsion of the Papal Supremacy; or the first Act of his own reign for the exclusion of Papists from Parliament; or 'even in the revival of the Act of Philip and Mary, for the complete restoration of the Papal system. So that, by this interpretation, the whole effect of the oath is evaded. The King is pledged, in one and the same sentence, to maintain, first, ...
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