Page:Petri Privilegium - Manning.djvu/111

Rh of religion, by which not only Catholics but Protestant Nonconformists were persecuted, is a page of our history over which we are happy to be able now to draw a veil. So long as the civil power exacted conformity and obedience in matters spiritual, the conscience of Catholics placed them in an unnatural state of passive opposition to supreme authority. It is the dictate of our conscience, founded upon the words of our Lord and of His Apostles, upon the precepts of the Fathers, and the decrees of Councils, that we should render true and faithful obedience in all civil matters to our lawful prince. An oath of pure civil obedience Catholics are bound by their religion to make, from their hearts, to the person of their sovereign. Happily, all the elements of religious and ecclesiastical matter, which used to be mixed up with these civil oaths, have gradually been purged away. The laws of England, with the exception only of a few lingering stains of the old