55 So. 881 | Miss. | 1911
delivered the opinion of the court.
The questions here involved which grow out of the union of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church and the Presbyterian Church, U. S. A., have been passed upon by ten supreme courts, each of them rendering a lengthy and well-considered opinion thereon,.so that the discussion comes to us almost, if not fully, exhausted. In Landrith v. Hudgins, 121 Tenn. 556, 120 S. W. 783, and
The property here in controversy is not held under a deed by which it is devoted to the. teaching, spread, or support of any specific form of religions doctrine or belief, but under a deed which simply conveyed it for the use of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church at West Point, Miss. The question we are called upon to determine, therefore, is simply which faction is the true representative or successor of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church at West Point, Miss., as the same was constituted prior to the schism therein caused by the union of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church with the Presbyterian Church, U. S. A. In order for us to do this, it is only necessary that we ascertain whether the union of the two churches was valid. If so, appellees are entitled to the property; if not, appellants are entitled thereto. The validity of this union is purely an ecclesiastical question, involving the doctrine, discipline, ecclesiastical law, rule, and custom of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Such questions this court will not for itself determine, even where property rights are involved, but will accept the decision thereof by the highest ecclesiastical authority of the church. Mt. Helm Baptist Church v. Jones, 79 Miss. 488, 30 South. 714; Smith v. Charles, 24 South. 968.
It may be that cases may arise wherein the decision of the ecclesiastical tribunal is so palpably erroneous, or so manifestly in excess of its jurisdiction, that the civil courts ought to decline to be bound thereby. Such, however, is not the case here, and consequently we are not called upon to express an opinion thereon. Under the Presbyterian system of ecclesiastical government, the highest authority charged with the determination of the matter here in controversy is the G-eneral Assembly. Its decision as to the validity of this union, therefore, will be accepted by this court, and the property in controversy given to the faction adhering thereto.
Affirmed.