Year: 1870

The Spiritual Power and the Nations of Europe.


FLORENCE, March 12.-Real concern is felt
on account of the pressure, or restraint, which
the Catholic powers are more and more in
clined to exercise at Rome. To be sure, there
ls no interference, as there should be none, with
the liberty of action of the council, but the re-
peated warnings are the rod and threatening
finger which Rome has to keep constantly before
its eye. The prelates carry stiff upper lip, and
talk of having the power to make mischief If
they are not allowed to have their own way; but
they recognize with dread the formidable oppo-
sition with which they have to deal. Italy and
Spain are in open antagonism, and Austria,
as well as France, is disposed to put
the screws on, if any DEGREES of the council are
in conflict with the rights of the State or the
national legislation. The present position of
Austria is most interesting. We know that the
action of some of the German bishops has been,
and the civil authority is disposed to go con-
siderable lengths, to put check on Rome. A
statement has come to one lately of what Aus
tra will be likely to do under the circumstances,
and il is in this sense. The Austrian Hungarian
monarchy will respect the rights of the Church,
while it sees toitthatits own laws are respected.
An informal understanding among the Catholic
powers permits the council to exercise full
liberty in discussing and settling the questions
of dogma and discipline; and this while
the soyereigns do not avail themselves of the
ancient prerogative of having their special


agents take part in the deliberations of the as
sembly. Such abstention of the civil power is a
recognition of the spirit of the time which tends
to separation of the secular from the sacerdotal
power; If the act is not indeed, an adoption of
the principle of such separation, By the absence
of its agents, and in no manner responsible for
the conclusions of the council the civil authority
nnquestionably reserves to itself the right to re-


view the decisions and to deny or accept them as
they are In accord or in conflict with the const-
tutiona privileges OF the. sovereign the rights OF
the State and the public good. Austria, in COM
mon with other advanced or advancing Catholic
States, has taken stand against the spiritual
usurpation which has been permitted for so
many centuries to go on, almost without re-
straint The concordat of 1855, mnch less libe-
raj for Austria than that of France of more an
cient date, gives the bishops free communica-
ton with Rome, with full power to publish its
bulls and decrees The new legislation in Aus
tria, of liberal character, has changed the sys-
tenn of public instruction, and modified the mar
riage law in such q way as to take the control of
both from the hands of the clergy and give 1t to
the civil authority, to which it properly belongs.
This has caused much agitation among the pre-
]ates, who, taking their order from Rome, have
advised disregard of the law. The State is now
obliged to be more than ever on its guard, since
in the council canons have been proposed
which, if adopted, are calculated to create in
suboTdination and menace the public peace


Certainly in our day the civil authority of nc
State which respects itself or wishes to be re-
spected will permit the publication within its
limits of the impudent doctrine that all laws are
to be considered null and void and of no effect
if they are not approved by the DEGREES of the
Romish Church. No pretensions could be more
dangerous, If the power were possessed to make
them good, for the privileges most highly prizet
by enlightened society would be destroyed
liberty of worship freedom of the press, popular
instruction under the direction of municipa
committees, the equality of the clergy
of every grade before the law, the validity Q
civil marriage, and whatever else of good, mod
ern legislation, without the consent of tn,
Church, has taken the liberty to give u.s. Franc
and Italy are better grounded in the enjoymen
nj fhQi riO nj N q
country time has already made them the habi
of the people, and here many years of suffering
from the injustice of the Church has made tn
population determined to resist at all hazard
its usurpations. But in Austria the struggle
not half over, or but just begun. The igno
rance of the inhabitants in the rural communi
ties gave the priests almost absolute control
In Italy there is much more of municipal life.