Royal Veto of The Appointment of Bishops - The Quarantotti Rescript

The Quarantotti Rescript

The vetoists were disappointed at the defeat of the Bill of 1813. It then occurred to them that if they could get the Holy See in any way to countenance it, the mark of schism attached to it by the Irish bishops would no longer stain it. They therefore represented to Propaganda the great benefit which the Catholic religion would derive from Emancipation, and the harmlessness of the veto conditions on which the Government had offered it. Dr. Milner was represented to the secretary of Propaganda, Mgr. Quarantotti, as having an uncompromising attitude.

In the light of these representations Mgr. Quarantotti, in his Rescript of February, 1814, whilst rejecting certain conditions of the Relief Bill as not lawful, declared that securities for the loyalty of bishops which the Government claimed might be allowed. It did not contain an order, but rather a permission, its words being: "Haec cum ita sint, indulgemus" etc., thus leaving the Catholics free to accept or refuse Emancipation on the condition offered.

It raised a storm, however, in Ireland. The Irish bishops deputed Dr. Murray and Dr. Milner to represent to the pope, who had been a prisoner when it was issued, that there was danger in the Rescript such as it was. Pope Pius VII declared that Mgr. Quarantotti "ought not to have written that letter without authority from the Holy See". He appointed a commission to examine the question.