history of the revival of Cæsarism, and of a reaction against the liberty of religion and of conscience with which Christ has made us free. What is chiefly to be noted is, that this oppression of Christian freedom has been accomplished to the cry of liberty of religion and of conscience.

11

For proof of this, it is enough to refer to a book entitled A History of the Free Churches of England,1 in which the sufferings of Nonconformists and Catholics under the Cæsarism of the English Crown are patiently and fully described. The effect of this mixed civil and religious despotism has been gradually to obtain for one-half of the English people and the whole population of Ireland a complete religious liberty. Scotland has always rejected the interferences of kings in matters of religion; and in our day one-half of the Scottish population has rejected even the remnants of civil interference lingering in the law of patronage. The political tendency of the whole world is towards 'free churches ;' that is, to the desecration of the civil power and to the rejection of the Church.

The temporal sovereignty of the Supreme Pontiff has been violated on the plea that the civil and spiritual powers ought to be once more separated, not as Providence has ordained hitherto, but on the impossible theory of a free Church in a free State. The Italian Revolution has put this forward as its solution of the religious conflicts of the nineteenth century. It will endure until the first quarrel, and the first quarrel will arise upon the first pontifical act in condemnation of the 11 By Mr. Herbert S. Skeats (Miall, 1868).

usurpations of the free State. The supremacy of the civil power will then be declared to be vital to its freedom. It must, however, be acknowledged that, violent and sacrilegious as the acts of the free State have been and still are in practice, Italy has hitherto refrained from committing itself in the domain of principle and of law to doctrines such as are embodied in Prussian ecclesiastical legislation. From this the Catholic faith and instinct of Italy have saved it. Through twenty years of revolution, it has never entangled itself in the tyrannous and pedantic absurdities of the Falck laws. It has had two things profoundly impressed upon its intellect and its conscience-the one, the impious monstrosity of the 'Divus Cæsar;' the other, an inextinguishable consciousness that the Catholic Church is a Divine creation. Excepting a handful of Petruccelli della Gattinas, no people in Europe can look upon the Prussian persecution with less sympathy or more secret contempt than the Italians.

But the pretensions of the Berlin Government are only the first indications of an Imperial omnipotence, which will hereafter be more explicitly and violently put forth. This Imperial legislation may be regarded as the link between the old royal supremacies of the sixteenth century and the revived Lex Regia which the anti-Christian revolution is preparing for the future of Europe.

The following quotations will best exhibit what I mean. I will give a passage from a leading journal, representing a school of political doctrine which, though not yet numerous, has already obtained a place among

us.

After saying that there is a conviction widely spread hostile to the Catholic Church, the writer goes on to say: 'Side by side with this negative conviction, a positive conviction, vague indeed and indistinct, but exceedingly powerful, has been and still is growing up, that a nation, as such, is essentially a better thing than a Church; that it is, in fact, of all positive human institutions at present known to us, the most sacred, the most deeply-rooted in human nature, and the best fitted. to engage the affections of a rational man. Contrast for a moment the English nation and the Catholic Church, and see to which of the two it is best worth an Englishman's while to be loyal. . . . All this, we say, puts nations-for the same sort of statements are true of most other nations besides England-above Churches as objects of affection and loyalty. . . . We should regard no one as really loyal to his nation who did not regard it as being to him a higher and more sacred object than any Church whatever.'12 This doctrine is revived Paganism.

In the Prussian Chamber, Dr. Falck laid down the following doctrine on the 15th of January last year: 'We have become more "concrete;" we have estimated the rights of the State. There is the reason why the proposed laws must be carried.' On the 17th of January he added: If the State and the Church are equal in the domains of moral power, the State must always have the supremacy in the domain of law.' That is to say, as M. de Pressensé remarks, 'This amounts to saying that the Church has all the benefits

12 Pall Mall Gazette, Jan. 23, 1873.

of equality in the domain of abstractions, on the condition that the State has all power in the domain of the "concrete;" that is, Right is a theory, Force is the only reality.'13

This brings out the essence of modern Cæsarism, which is not only that the State has supreme power over the Church in all persons and causes, but supreme right to determine the limits of the rights of the Church, its liberties, offices, and duties; or, in other words, that the State can determine, and the Church cannot determine, what is the authority and commission intrusted to it by its Divine Founder. This is the vital point in the contention. The Church claims to be the sole, because the divinely-appointed, judge of the sphere of its own spiritual office, authority, and jurisdiction. · The modern Cæsarism claims this ultimate power of determination for the State. Between these conflicting claims there can be no modus vivendi. To concede or to abdicate this supreme spiritual office would to the Church be death. It was for this that a long line of its martyrs died. It was for this that S. Thomas of Canterbury died, which the other day was described as his 'exploits.' It is for this that the Archbishop of Posen has also declared his readiness to die. And now the Berlin Government, it is said, is about to attempt to impose on every future Bishop the following oath :

The Bishops are henceforward to swear obedience to the laws of the country, to bind themselves by oath to exhort the clergy and laity to be loyal to the king, patriotic and obedient to the laws, and not to permit

13 Revue des Deux Mondes, Mai 1873, 1er liv. p. 27.

the clergy under their control to teach or act in opposition to these principles.'14

The cynicism of this oath is clear as day. The Berlin Government supports the Old Catholic heretics against the Catholic Church, on the ground that the Church has innovated in its doctrines. It now proposes to bind Catholic Bishops to obey the laws of the State after all the Falck innovations. It refuses the innovations of an infallible Church, but binds the Bishops of the Church by oath to obey whatsoever laws may now or hereafter be made by a fallible State. But Cæsarism is infallible in the domain of the concrete.' 'Divus Cæsar.'

Prince von Bismarck declared in the Chamber of Peers that the future of an Evangelical Empire has shown itself clearly on the horizon of Germany;' that is to say, the Catholic Church, which is the direct antagonist of the Evangelical Empire, must cease from before it. Such is, in fact, the inevitable effect of this legislation. Finally, the Emperor justifies his legislation against the Catholic Church by asserting a claim of absolute independence against all religious or spiritual authority whatsoever upon earth, which is equiva-. lent to claiming a supremacy over all religious and spiritual matters within the Empire of Germany. Evangelical creed, which, as must be known to your Holiness, I, like my ancestors and the majority of my subjects, profess, does not permit us to accept in our relations to God any other mediator than our Lord Jesus Christ.'

14 Times, Friday, December 19th, 1873.

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