One other word of caution is desirable. In explaining the legal position of the parochial clergy, it is, of course, necessary to indicate the exact limits of their rights. If they venture beyond these limits, they are manifestly in the wrong. But no community, either ecclesiastical or civil, could maintain its well-being, or even its coherence, if every individual were on all occasions to take advantage of the full tether of his legal rights. It will frequently be wise and proper for the clergy, in their relations with their ecclesiastical superiors or with the lay officials and other laity of the parish, not to adopt the most uncompromising attitude which the letter of the law permits to them. The dictates of love and of Christian forbearance, and of consideration for the claims of others, as well as of expediency, will not warrant the infringement by an individual of the ordinances of either the Church or the State. But they will more than justify him in refraining from taking up a position of defiance which these ordinances may strictly entitle him to assume.
P. V. SMITH.
Easter, 1905.
CONTENTS
pages [xxi-xiv]
[CHAPTER I]
General Legal Position