rity itself. The Catholic Church is supposed to have received a great blow in the fall of what is commonly called "the Temporal Power of the Pope." Its first effect, many Protestants even believe, will be destructive to the whole theory of Infallibility. Its first effect in that regard will, on the contrary, we believe, be to remove any lingering doubt that may have remained in the mind of any Catholic as to the opportuneness of the definition uttered by the Council ere it broke up on the eve of the declaration of war. In the state into which the world has since drifted, and is still drifting, it is surely well that there should not be the shadow of the shade of a doubt possible within the confines of the Church, as to the exact character of the Supreme Pontiff's authority. As to invasion of his states, it is a mere matter of fact, that nothing has happened at Rome but what the Holy Father precisely anticipated four years ago, when the Emperor Napoleon was at the height of his power, and M. Rouher had not yet uttered his famous jamais! "As I have already said to others of your comrades,"-so spoke the Pope to the French general and garrison in December, 1866, "we must not delude ourselves; the Revolution will come hither. It has said so and proclaimed it; you have heard it, understood it, seen it. Words have been placed in the mouth of a great personage that Italy is made, but not yet completed. I, in my turn, will say that if she is not yet completely undone, if she exists as she does, it is because there is still a fragment of the earth where I am, in which justice, order, and peace reign. When that shall no more be so, I see the flag of the Revolution float over the Capitol; but I see also that the Tarpeian Rock is not far off." And now it has come to pass. The flag of the Revolution floats over the Capitol. The Revolution has seized Rome, in violation of "the common law of nations," in defiance of "the text of treaties," by "a violent and immediate invasion," by an act of "violent and bloody conquest," in contradiction to the "declared policy" of the Government of Florence, in a way that places it "in antagonism with the public opinion of the whole of Europe." The epithets which we quote are those, it may be supposed, of some vehement partisan of the Papal authority, or are culled from an official protest of Cardinal-Antonelli. By no means. They are the words of Signor Visconti Venosta, Minister of Foreign Affairs, spoken in the Chamber of Deputies at Florence, exactly a month before the invasion of the Pontifical territory was commenced. On the 19th of August this Minister declared that even if the Convention of September of 1864 were not in existence, and the Italian Government had re-accepted it at the end of July, 1870, the Roman States

were entitled to be respected in virtue of the common law of nations. On the 24th of August the same Minister made a still more formal and categorical statement. He said :

The honourable gentleman (Giotto-Pinta) asks me if I am prepared to transfer to Rome the Department of Foreign Affairs. I ask him in reply, is he prepared to advise such a course? Is he prepared to go there with a violent and immediate invasion; is he prepared to solve the Roman question by taking action of a decisive character forthwith; action perhaps involving violent and bloody conquest? I may tell the hon. Deputy that such a course must have at least two very serious inconveniences; it is in contradiction to our declared policy, and it places us in antagonism with the public opinion of the whole of Europe. There is no one, I am sure, in this House who is prepared to urge such a course upon the Government. The difficulties with which the Roman question is beset are real, and inseparable from it; the concurrence of many conditions is needed to ensure a success that shall be lasting; we must not commit the country to a policy of chance- -a policy subject to events which we are unable to direct or to foresee.

This speech, as we have said, was spoken exactly a month before the Italian army marched on Rome; and in it the Government of King Victor Emmanuel has characterized its own conduct in terms to which we have no occasion to add. It entered Rome by action involving violent and bloody conquest, in violation of treaties, in defiance of the law of nations. But Signor Visconti-Venosta was wrong in anticipating the antagonism of the public opinion of the whole of Europe. Public opinion, in England at least, had utterly exhausted its spare supply of moral indignation in denouncing the similar but not so utterly treacherous enterprise contemplated by the Emperor Napoleon and Count Bismarck in regard to the territory of the King of the Belgians. What happened at Rome was applauded at once and ever since-from the breach beside the Villa Bonaparte to the ballot-box presented at the point of the bayonet. But the end is not yet. "I repeat," said the Holy Father, in the speech we have quoted above, "the thing may come to pass. I am weak. I have no resource upon earth. Notwithstanding, I am tranquil, because I trust in a Power which will give me the strength of which I stand in need. That Power is God." The Italian Government has adopted a policy which they had described beforehand "as a policy of chance, a policy subject to events which they are unable to direct or to foresee." They have, according to their own confession, violated human and divine law, in order to plunder and imprison him whom they know to be the Vicar of Christ. They have now to deal with the Author and Master of "events." They are at the Capitol. At the Tarpeian rock they will arrive in the just God's good time. 2 K

VOL. XV.-NO. xxx. [New Series.]

CONSTITUTIO DOGMATICA PRIMA
DE ECCLESIA CHRISTI.

PIUS EPISCOPUS, SERVUS SERVORUM DEI, SACRO APPROBANTE CONCILIO, AD PERPETUAM REI MEMORIAM.

PASTOR æternus et episcopus animarum nostrarum, ut salutiferum redemptionis opus perenne redderet, sanctam ædificare Ecclesiam decrevit, in quâ veluti in domo Dei viventis fideles omnes unius fidei et charitatis vinculo continerentur. Quapropter, priusquam clarificaretur, rogavit Patrem non pro Apostolis tantum, sed et pro eis, qui credituri erant per verbum eorum in ipsum, ut omnes unum essent, sicut ipse Filius et Pater unum sunt. Quemadmodum igitur Apostolos, quos sibi de mundo elegerat, misit, sicut ipse missus erat a Patre: ita in Ecclesiâ suâ Pastores et Doctores usque ad consuminationem sæculi esse voluit. Ut vero episcopatus ipse unus et indivisus esset, et per cohærentes sibi invicem sacerdotes credentium multitudo universa in fidei et communionis unitate conservaretur, beatum Petrum cæteris Apostolis præponens, in ipso instituit perpetuum utriusque unitatis principium ac visibile fundamentum, super cujus fortitudinem æternum exstrueretur templum, et Ecclesiæ cœlo inferenda sublimitas in hujus fidei firmitate consurgeret. * Et quoniam portæ inferi ad evertendam, si fieri posset, Ecclesiam contra ejus fundamentum divinitùs positum majori in dies odio undique insurgunt; Nos ad catholici gregis custodiam, incolumitatem, augmentum, necessarium esse judicamus, sacro approbante Concilio, doctrinam de institutione, perpetuitate, ac naturâ sacri Apostolici primatûs, in quo totius Ecclesiæ vis ac soliditas consistit, cunctis fidelibus credendam et tenendam, secundum antiquam atque constantem universalis Ecclesiæ fidem, proponere atque contrarios, dominico gregi adeo perniciosos, errores proscribere et condemnare.

CAPUT I.

DE APOSTOLICI PRIMATUS IN BEATO PETRO INSTITUTIONE.

Docemus itaque et declaramus, juxta Evangelii testimonia primatum jurisdictionis in universam Dei Ecclesiam immediate et directe beato Petro Apostolo promissum atque collatum a Christo Domino fuisse. Unum enim Simonem, cui jampridem dixerat: "Tu vocaberis Cephas," + postquam ille suam edidit confessionem inquiens: "Tu es Christus, Filius Deivivi," solemnibus hi verbis allocutus est Dominus: "Beatus es Simon Bar-Jona: quia caro et sanguis non revelavit tibi, sed Pater meus, qui in cœlis est: et ego dico tibi, quia tu es Petrus, et super hanc petram ædificabo Ecclesiam meam, et portæ inferi non prævalebunt adversus eam : et tibi dabo claves regni cœlorum: et

*S. Leo. M. Serm. IV. (al. III.), cap. ii., in diem Natalis sui.
† Joan. i. 42.

FIRST DOGMATIC CONSTITUTION

OF THE CHURCH OF GOD.

PIUS, BISHOP, SERVANT OF THE SERVANTS OF GOD, . SACRO APPROBANTE CONCILIO, . . . . FOR PERPETUAL

REMEMBRANCE.

THE Eternal Shepherd and Bishop of our souls, in order to make perpetual the salutary work of redemption, resolved to build up Holy Church, that in her, as in the house of the living God, all the faithful might be contained in the bond of one faith and charity. Wherefore, before He was glorified, He asked His Father, not only for the Apostles, but also for those who were to believe in Him through their word, that they might all be one as the Son Himself and the Father are one. (John xvii. 1-20, &c.) And even as He sent the Apostles, whom He had chosen for Himself out of the world, as He Himself had been sent by His Father; even so He willed that that there should be pastors and doctors in His Church until the consummation of the world. But in order that the Episcopacy itself should be one and undivided, and that the universal multitude of believers should be preserved in unity of faith and of communion by priests mutually cohering among themselves, He placed Blessed Peter above the other Apostles, and instituted in him the perpetual principle and visible foundation of this twofold unity, that on his fortitude the eternal temple should be built, and that on the firmness of his faith the sublimity of the Church should rise and reach to heaven. (S. Leo M., Serm. IV. (al. III.) cap. 2, in diem Natalis sui.) And since the gates of hell, in order to destroy, were that possible, the Church, rise everywhere with daily increasing hate against her divinely-established foundation, we, Sacro approbante Concilio, judge it necessary for the custody, safety, and increase of the Catholic Flock, to set forth, according to the ancient and constant belief of the Universal Church, the doctrine to be believed and held by all the Faithful, concerning the institution, perpetuity, and nature of the sacred Apostolic primacy, in which consists the force and solidity of the whole Church, and to proscribe and to condemn contrary errors so pernicious to the Lord's Flock.

CHAPTER I.

ON THE INSTITUTION OF THE APOSTOLIC PRIMACY IN BLESSED PETER.

We teach, therefore, and declare, in accordance with the testimony of the Gospel, that the primacy of jurisdiction over the Universal Church of God was, by Christ our Lord, immediately and directly promised to, and conferred upon, Blessed Peter the Apostle. For to Simon alone, to whom He had said: "Thou shalt be called Cephas" (John i. 42), after the other had uttered his confession: "Thou art Christ, Son of the living God," did our Lord say: "Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona, because flesh and blood have

quodcumque ligaveris super terram, erit ligatum et in cœlis: et quodcumque solveris super terram, erit solutum et in cœlis."* Atque uni Simoni Petro contulit Jesus post suam resurrectionem summi pastoris et rectoris jurisdictionem in totum suum ovile, dicens: "Pasce agnos meos; Pasce oves meas." + Huic tam manifestæ sacrarum Scripturarum doctrinæ, ut ab Ecclesiâ catholicâ semper intellecta est, aperte opponuntur pravæ eorum sententiæ, qui constitutam a Christo Domino in suâ Ecclesiâ regiminis formam pervertentes, negant solum Petrum præ cæteris Apostolis, sive seorsum singulis, sive omnibus simul, vero proprioque jurisdictionis primatu fuisse a Christo instructum; aut qui affirmant eumdem primatum non immediate, directeque ipsi beato Petro, sed Ecclesiæ, et per hanc illi ut ipsius Ecclesiæ ministro delatum fuisse.

Si quis igitur dixerit, beatum Petrum Apostolum non esse a Christo Domino constitutum Apostolorum omnium principem et totius Ecclesiæ militantis visibile caput; vel eumdem honoris tantum, non autem veræ propriæque jurisdictionis primatum ab eodem Domino nostro Jesu Christo directe et immediate accepisse ; anathema sit.

CAPUT II.

DE PERPETUITATE PRIMATUS B. PETRI IN ROMANIS PONTIFICIBUS.

Quod autem in beato Apostolo Petro, princeps pastorum et pastor magnus ovium Dominus Christus Jesus in perpetuam salutem ac perenne bonum Ecclesiæ instituit, id eodem auctore in Ecclesiâ, quæ fundata super petram ad finem sæculorum usque firma stabit, jugiter durare necesse est. Nulli sane dubium, imo sæculis omnibus notum est, quod sanctus beatissimusque Petrus, Apostolorum princeps et caput, fideique columna et Ecclesiæ catholicæ fundamentum, a Domino nostro Jesu Christo, Salvatore humani generis ac Redemptore, claves regni accepit: qui ad hoc usque tempus et semper in suis successoribus, episcopis sanctæ Romanæ Sedis, ab ipso fundatæ, ejusque consecratæ sanguine, vivit et præsidet et judicium exercet. Unde quicumque in hâc Cathedrâ Petro succedit, is secundum Christi ipsius institutionem primatum Petri in universam Ecclesiam obtinet. Manet ergo dispositio veritatis, et beatus Petrus in acceptâ fortitudine petræ perseverans suscepta Ecclesiæ gubernacula non reliquit.|| Hâc de causâ ad Romanam Ecclesiam propter potentiorem principalitatem necesse semper fuit omnem convenire Ecclesiam, hoc est, eos, qui sunt undique fideles, ut in eâ Sede, e quâ venerandæ communionis jura in omnes dimanant, tanquam membra in capite consociata, in unam corporis compagem coalescerent.§

Si quis ergo dixerit, non esse ex ipsius Christi Domini institutione, seu jure divino, ut beatus Petrus in primatu super universam Ecclesiam habeat

* Matth. xvi. 46-49.

Cf. Ephesini Concilii Act. III.

S. Leo. M. Serm. III. (al. II.), cap. iii.

+ Joan. xxi. 45-47.

SS. Irena Adv. Hær., 1. iii. c. iii., et Ep. Concil. Aquil. a. 384 ad Gratian. Imper., c. iv. Cf. Pius VI. Breve Super Soliditate.