2. “The next Session of Parliament may settle for ever the position of Christianity in this country.”
Not Christianity, my lord Cardinal!—for that is above all “settling,”—save with its Founder—but that the next Session may open the way to a more complete Roman Catholic domination is what you venture to hope and to work for.
3. “The adoption of a single clause or principle will have far-reaching and most vital results.”
Precisely;—so far-reaching and vital that England must be on her guard against even a “single clause or principle” which endangers the liberty of the subject.
4. “Struggles will be inevitable until the Christian cause, which is becoming more and more openly the cause of the majority, has permanently triumphed.”
For Cardinal Vaughan there is only one “Christian” cause—viz., the Roman Catholic, and he who runs may read the meaning of the above phrase without much difficulty.
Concerning the King’s Declaration Oath, said the Cardinal:—
“It is not the King who is responsible for the drafting or the retention of this detestable Declaration. It is the Ministry, the Legislature, the Constitution that are responsible for its retention, and for forcing its acceptance upon the Sovereign. The gravamen, therefore, lies against the State, not against the person of the King.”
Quite true; and it is therefore against the State that the Vatican powers must and possibly will be directed.
“And,” went on the Cardinal, “do not devout clergymen swear every day in good faith to teach the Thirty-nine Articles, and find every day that conscience and good faith compel them to break their engagement by submitting to the Catholic Church? When a man fully realizes that by a promise or an oath he has pledged himself to something that is unjust, immoral, untrue, the engagement ceases to bind.”