The real -point of Cardinal Bourne's letter is to be
found in the application to the Irish situation of what Cardinal Manning said in 1867. The murderers in Ireland were then called Fenians, but the essentials of the situation are the same now
as they were then, though it must be added that Sinn Fein, in its record of crime, has utterly eclipsed the Fenians. Cardinal Manning fastened upon a Fenian paper, which had been dis- tributed among English Roman Catholics, as the subject of his discourse. This paper declared that Fenianism was not opposed to Roman Catholicism as no canon, bull, deoretal, or rescript of any Pope had dealt with Fenianism. Cardinal Manning pointed out that Fenianism was no less condemned by Roman Catholic teaching because it was not condemned by name, and that the Roman Church had condemned " oath- bound societies," and that it therefore condemned Fenianism in spite of the Fenian pretence that there was no condem- nation. Cardinal Manning added that " the Church, by the voice of its head," had declared that " all conspiracy, whether against the Church or the State severally, is sin." " Against the Church it cannot be without heresy, schism, or apostacy ; against the State it is rebellion ; and apostasy and rebellion are each and severally mortal sins against God."
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