They tell us it is for the greater good of the church that they act thus; that it is to preserve the respect which is due to the Holy Catholic Hierarchy, that they take those extreme measures against the people of St. Anne!
But I have carefully studied the laws of the church upon these great questions, and I see they say precisely the contrary. I see that the Catholic Church said to us:
1st. “In the church there is no arbitrary power.”
2nd. “The censures are null when they have been pronounced against sins which have not been committed.”
3rd. “Never receive any accusation against a priest, which has not been proven by two or three witnesses.”
4th. “If a sentence is visibly unjust, the condemned must not pay any attention to it; for before God and His church, no unjust sentence can injure any one.”
5th. “The unjust excommunication is not binding, neither before God nor the people, when that people know its injustice, because the Holy Ghost can not abandon those who have not deserved it.”
You wish me to act according to the canons of the church. I have already told you that if I had been interdicted on the 19th of August, I would have been able to appeal from that sentence, but I had not. I had fifteen days to consider. How could I have appealed from a sentence which had not been pronounced? What witness could I bring against a fact which, I knew, had never taken place?
But you will say:
“The excommunication? Should it not give you some anxiety?”