Note 44 — Chapter V · INDEPENDENCE.

President Blanco asks from his Congress (May 1876) a law which shall “declare the Church of Venezuela independent of the Roman Episcopate, and order that parish priests shall be elected by the faithful, the bishops by the rectors of parishes, and archbishops by Congress, returning to the usage of the primitive Church, founded by Jesus Christ and his Apostles.” Congress replies: “Faithful to our duties, our convictions, and the holy doctrines of the religion of Jesus, we do not hesitate to emancipate the Church of Venezuela from that Episcopate which pretends, as an infallible and omnipotent power, to absorb the vitality of a free people.” The leading newspaper of Venezuela discriminates with equal accuracy between the Papacy and Christianity—between “the genuine religion of Christ and those adulterations of his law which substitute the reign of vanity, pride, and contempt for mankind, for the doctrine of gentleness, meekness, and love.”