The Edinburgh United Free Presbytery and the Royal Visit to the Pope.
The visit to the Pope, as we write, is now a thing of the past, but there is an aspect of the question that was brought out by the mover of a motion protesting against the visit in the Edinburgh United Free Presbytery that is worthy of being emphasised. Mr W. T. Forrester, the mover of the motion, said, among other things:—”But there was another aspect to the question of the King’s visit. The Pope refused to recognise the King of Italy. In his eyes the Italian King was a usurper in Rome, and the Pope would not receive anyone coming to him direct from the Quirinal. To meet Papal susceptibilities, therefore, our King and Queen had to go to the British Legation, which was supposed to represent British soil, and from there to proceed to the Vatican. What would be said in this country were the King of Italy to be guest of our King and, if desiring to make a visit to Cardinal Bourne, was informed that the Cardinal could not receive him if he came from Buckingham Palace? The outcry against such an affront would not be easily quelled. Yet that was the embarrassing and humiliating position in which both Sovereigns were to be placed through the action of our Foreign Office. The action of the Foreign Office in that matter had been stigmatised as little short of disloyalty, for it imposed on the King a task which came perilously near an infringement, if it was not a direct infringement, of the Bill of Rights.”
Principal Martin (son of the well-known Dr Hugh Martin) said that, in view of the lack of interest manifested by the great Protestant Churches, self-respect would lead them to keep silent. One would have thought that self-respect on the part of true Protestants is the very thing that would make them speak out. The motion was carried by 30 votes to 28.
An Act that the King and His Councillors Should Remember.
Here are the words of the Bill of Rights passed in the first year of the reign of William and Mary, 1689:—“And whereas, it hath been found by experience that it is inconsistent with the safety and welfare of this Protestant Kingdom, to be governed by a Popish Prince, or by any King or Queen marrying a Papist, the said Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons do further pray that it may be enacted that all and every person and persons, that is, are, or shall be reconciled to, or shall hold communion with the See or Church of Rome, or shall profess the Popish religion, or shall marry a Papist, shall be excluded and be for ever incapable to inherit, possess, or enjoy the Crown and Government of this realm and Ireland and the dominions thereto belonging, or any part of the same, or to have, use, or exercise any regal power, authority or jurisdiction within the same; and in all and every such case or cases the people of these Realms shall be and are hereby absolved of their allegiance; and the said Crown and government shall from time to time descend to and be enjoyed by such person or persons, being Protestants, as should have inherited and enjoyed the same, in case the said person or persons so reconciled, holding communion or professing or marrying as aforesaid, were naturally dead.”