Page:William John Sparrow-Simpson - Roman Catholic Opposition to Papal Infallibility (1909).djvu/108

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The Assembly ordered this sermon to be printed. The King was satisfied with it. Bossuet had conciliated two of the three departments, the Crown and the Episcopate. It remained to be seen how the sermon would be regarded at Rome. Bossuet sent the sermon with an explanatory letter to a friendly Cardinal.

"I must tell your Eminence," he wrote, "that I was forced to speak of the liberties of the Gallican Church. You will at once realise what that involved. I set before myself two things—the one, to do this without derogating from the true dignity of the Holy See; the other, to explain the Gallican principles as the Bishops understood them, and not as they are understood by the magistrates." …

"The sensitive ears of Romans ought to be respected. And I have done so most readily. Three points might wound them, namely—the temporal independence of the royal power; episcopal jurisdiction received immediately from Jesus Christ; and the authority of the Councils.

"You are well aware that in France we speak plainly on these matters, and I have endeavoured so to speak that, without wronging the doctrine of the Gallican Church, I might at the same time avoid offending