tionibus suo praesidio adest et consulit; ad ipsum deinde clamemus, tum fervidis precibus tum sancta vitae disciplina, ut Nos et omnem populum suum in praelio confortare pergat, ut errantium mentes sua luce collustret et corda flectat, utque quemadmodum Redemptor Noster non in sua omnipotentia, sed in nostra humilitate et infirmitate congressus fortem armatum vicit, ita Nos patientiae et iustitiae virtute adversas potestates vincamus. Si ita clamaverimus, dubitare non possumus, quin placatus nobis cito in sua benignitate respondeat, salus tua ego sum.

Nunc ut catholicae orientalium Ecclesiae necessitatibus novi Syrorum Patriarchae Apostolica confirmatione consulamus, Vobis notum facimus, Venerabiles Fratres, quod e vivis erepto Ven. Fratre Ignatio Philippo Harcus, quem ab Episcopis Syris de more electum Nos ante octo annos Patriarcham confirmavimus et instituimus, Episcopi Syriaci ritus, alii per se, alii per procuratorem ad Ecclesiam S. Mariae Liberatricis, quae in Libano est, in Synodum convenientes, cui auctoritate Nostra praefuit Ven. Frater Dionysius Scelhot Syrorum Archiepiscopus Aleppensis, consuetis precibus praemissis, omnes uno animo per secreta suffragia praedictum Ven. Fratrem Dionysium Scelhot in Patriarcham Antiochenum Syrorum elegerunt, ac tum electus, tum electores de hac re ad Nos litteris datis Nos suppliciter obsecrarunt, ut Auctoritate Nostra Apostolica hanc electionem confirmare, electumque sacri Pallii honore decorare vellemus. Rebus hisce omnibus a Nostra Congregatione Fidei Propagandae praeposita diligenti et accurato examine perpensis, Nos eiusdem Congregationis consilium libentissime excipientes, praedictum Ven. Fratrem Dionysium Scelhot Patriarcham Antiochenum Syrorum renunciare, illique Pallium de Corpore B. Petri sumptum tribuere existimavimus, firma confisi spe, ipsum, Deo bene iuvante, Catholicae Syrorum Ecclesiae tam acerbo tempore, zelo Religionis et salutis animarum, ac pastoralis muneris partibus sancte implendis valido adiumento et praesidio futurum.

Quid Vobis videtur?

Auctoritate Omnipotentis Dei Sanctorumque Apostolorum Petri et Pauli ac Nostra confirmamus et approbamus electionem seu postulationem a Venerabilibus Fratribus Episcopis Syriaci ritus factam de persona Ven. Fratris Dionysii Scelhot Patriarchae, quem absolvimus a vinculo, quo Aleppensi Ecclesiae obstringitur, ac transferimus ad Patriarchalem Ecclesiam Antiochenam Syrorum, eumque praeficimus in Patriarcham et Pastorem eiusdem Ecclesiae, prout in Decreto et Schedula Consistorialibus exprimetur, contraris quibuscunque non obstantibus.

In Nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti, Amen.

V. THE POPE AND THE DOCTRINE OF ST. ALPHONSUS.

[The Holy Father has lately ordered the following letter to be addressed to the Rev Simon Vittozi, one of the learned writers in the Neapolitan Review, entitled Scienza e Fede. The Rev. S. Vittozi had presented to His Holiness two Theological Treatises-one, to defend and explain the first Dogmatic Constitution of the Vatican Council De Fide-the other, to show the true Moral System of the new Doctor of the Church, St. Alphonsus M. de Liguori, and to refute the false interpretations of the same of certain modern theologians and writers] :

PERILLUSTRIS ET REV. DOMINE OBSME.:

Licet molestioribus quotidie curis impeditus, Sanctissimus Dominus Pius IX. obire nequiverit lucubrationes tuas de Fide Catholica quoad priorem Vaticani Concilii dogmaticam Constitutionem, et de Theologia Morali S. Alphonsi de Ligorio: utramque tamen acceptissimam habuit. In tanto enim eorum Ecclesiae nisu ad pervertendam, in deceptionem simplicium, indolem et sensum definitorum dogmatum, peropportune te operam dedisse censuit iis exponendis et illustrandis: nec minus commendandum duxit, propugnandas te suscepisse laudes ab Ecclesia tributas S. Alphonsi doctrinae, eorumque malitiae studuisse occurrere, qui, abusi disquisitionibus in eamdem institutis, illam deprimere sunt conati. Filialis itaque obsequii tui pignus, per haec opuscula eidem Sanctissimo Domino a te exhibitum, pergratum ei contigisse me tibi significare Ipse jussit simulque nunciare Benedictionem Apostolicam, quam divini favoris auspicem et paternae benevolentiae suae testem tibi peramanter impertit.

Quo sane munere ultro libenterque ego functus, propitia utor occasione, ut tibi gratuler ac testimonium praebeam peculiaris aestimationis observantiaeque meae, dum tibi omnia secunda et salutaria adprecor a Deo.

Tui, Perillustris et Rerevende Domine

Observandissime,

Romae, 7 Decembris, 1874.

Addictiss. famulus

FRANCISCUS MERCURELLI,

Sanctissimo Domino Nostro a Brevibus ad Principes.

Perillustri et Reverendo Domino Observandissimo.

DOMINO SIMONI VITTOZI,

Presbytero Neapolitano.

VI. LETTER OF CARDINAL ANTONELLI.*

TO HIS EXCELLENCY THE APOSTOLIC NUNCIO AT PARIS. Rome, March 19th, 1870.

MY LORD,

The Marquis de Banneville, ambassador of His Majesty, read me, a few days ago, a despatch forwarded to him under date the 20th of February last, from Count Daru, Minister of Foreign Affairs, relative to the affairs of the Council. In this communication, of which the ambassador was kind enough to leave me a copy, the aforesaid minister, referring to the resolution come to by the French Government not to take part in the deliberations of the General Council, desiring at the same time its liberty to be guaranteed fully and absolutely, states that such resolution was based on the supposition that the venerable assembly would occupy itself solely about the sacred interests of the Faith, and would abstain from touching questions of a purely political order. But the publication (he says) by the Augsburg Gazette, of the canons appertaining to the draft of constitution on the Church and on the Roman Pontiff, showing that there is question of deciding whether the power of the Church, and of her Head, extends to the whole aggregate of political rights; the Government, keeping firmly to the resolution of leaving, upon this point also, entire liberty to the deliberations of the august assembly, intends to exercise the right given it by the Concordat of making known to the Council its opinion on 'questions of such nature.

Passing to the examination of the said canons, the minister sums up their contents (on which he wishes to comment) in the two following propositions:- First, "the infallibility of the Church extends not only to the deposit of Faith, but to all that is necessary for the preservation of such deposit"; and secondly, "the Church is a society divine and perfect; its power is exercised at once in foro interno et externo; is absolute in the legislative, judicial, and coercive order, and is to be exercised by her with full liberty and independence from any civil power whatever." Hence, as corollaries of these two propositions, he deduces the extension of infallibility to all that is thought necessary for the defence of revealed truths, and consequently to facts, whether historical, philosophical, or scientific, external to revelation: as also the absolute subordination to the supreme authority of the Church, of the constituent principles of civil society; of the rights and duties of government; of the political rights and duties of citizens, whether electoral or municipal; of all that relates to the judicial and legislative order, as well in respect of persons as of things; of * This reprint of Cardinal Antonelli's letter concerning the rights of Church and State, may be of use in the controversy recently raised by Mr. Gladstone.

the rules of public administration; of the rights and duties of corporations, and in general, of all the rights of the State, not excluding the rights of conquest, peace, and war.

Next, the minister passes on to note the profound impression which the simple enunciation of such doctrines must produce in the entire world; and asks at the same time, how it could be possible for the bishops to consent to abdicate their episcopal authority, concentrating it in the hands of one alone; and how it could have been imagined that princes would lower their sovereignty before the supremacy of the Court of Rome. Lastly, concluding, from all that has been set forth, that political and not religious interests are being discussed in the Council, Count Daru demands that the Governments be heard, or at least admitted to bear testimony to the characters, dispositions, and spirit (disposizioni di spirito) of the peoples they represent; and in particular that since France, by reason of the special protection which for twenty years she has exercised over the Pontifical State, has quite special duties to perform, he demands that the Government of that nation be permitted to exercise its right of receiving communication of projected decisions touching politics, and of requesting the delay necessary for bringing its observations before the Council, before any resolution be adopted by the same.

This is an abstract of the despatch communicated to me by the Marquis de Banneville. I have thought proper to inform your Lordship of it; with the view, moreover, of communicating to you some short considerations which I think necessary to put in a clearer light the points touched upon by the minister, and to reply to the deductions made by him with respect to the points submitted to the deliberations of the Council.

And first, I cannot dispense myself from manifesting to your Lordship the satisfaction with which the Holy Father received the declaration expressed at the beginning of Count Daru's despatch, and repeated in the sequel, of the fixed intention of the French Government to respect, and cause to be respected, any event, the full liberty of the Council, as well in the discussion of the constitution referred to as of all others which shall hereafter come to be proposed to the examination of the venerable assembly. This declaration, which does great honor to the Government of a Catholic nation, is considered by the Holy See as the natural consequence of that protection which, for more than twenty years, France has exercised towards it; a protection which has called forth several times public demonstrations of gratitude on the part of the Supreme Pontiff, who always, but especially at the present moment, cannot do less than recognise and appreciate all its importance.

But, coming closer to the object cf Count Daru's despatch,

I must say frankly that I am quite unable to understand (non mi è dato di comprendere) how the declarations contained in the draft of Constitution on the Church, and the respective canons-published in the Augsburg Gazette by a breach of the Pontifical secret-could have produced so grave and profound an impression on the mind of the French Cabinet, as to induce it to change the line of conduct which it had properly traced out for itself in regard to the discussions of the Vatican Council. The subjects treated in that draft of constitution, and in the canons appertaining to it, whatever modification they may undergo in the sequel from the judgment and decision of the Episcopate, are no more than the exposition of the maxims and fundamental principles of the Church; principles repeated over and over again in the acts of former General Councils, proclaimed and developed in several Pontifical Constitutions, published in all Catholic states, and in particular in the celebrated dogmatic Bulls beginning, "Unigenitus," and "Auctorem Fidei," where all the aforesaid doctrines are generally confirmed and sanctioned; principles, finally, which have constantly formed the basis of teaching in all periods of the Church, and in all Catholic schools, and have been defended by an innumerable host of ecclesiastical writers, whose works have served for text in public schools and colleges, as well Government schools as others, without any contradiction on the part of the civil authority, but rather, for the most part with the approbation and encouragement of the same.

Much less would it be possible for me to agree upon the character and extent given by the minister to the doctrines contained in the aforesaid canons. In virtue of them there is not attributed, either to the Church or the Roman Pontiff, that direct and absolute power over the whole aggregate of political rights, of which the despatch speaks; nor is the subordination of the civil to the religious power to be understood in the sense set forth by him, but in another order of quite different bearing. And in truth the Church has never intended, nor now intends, to exercise any direct and absolute power over the political rights of the State. Having received from God the lofty mission of guiding men, whether individually or as congregated in society, to a supernatural end, she has by that very fact the authority and the duty to judge concerning the morality and justice of all acts, internal and external, in relation to their conformity with the natural and divine law. And as no action, whether it be ordained by a supreme power, or be freely elicited by an individual, can be exempt from this character of morality and justice, so it happens that the judgment of the Church, though falling directly on the morality of the acts, indirectly reaches over everything with which that