In witness whereof, the Plenipotentiaries aforesaid have signed this Agreement, and have affixed their seals to it.

Given at Vienna, this 18th of August, 1855.

(L.S.) VIALE PRELA, Cardinal.

(L.S.) JOSEPH OTHMAR v. RAUSCHER.

CONCORDAT between Rome and Guatemala.-Signed at Rome, October 7, 1852.

[Ratified by the President, December 24, 1852. Apostolic Letters, August 3, 1853.]

(Translation.)

In the name of the Holy Trinity.

Confirmed by

His Holiness the Supreme Pontiff Pius IX, and the President of the Republic of Guatemala, Captain-General Don Rafael Carrera, have named for their respective Plenipotentiaries:

His Holiness, his Eminence Monsignore Giacomo Antonelli, Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, Deacon of St. Agatha of Suburra, and Secretary of State;

And the President of the Republic of Guatemala, his Excellency Don Fernando de Lorenzana, Marquis of Belmonte, Knight of the Sacred Equestrian Order of Jerusalem of the Holy Sepulchre of our Lord Jesus Christ, Commander of the Pontifical Order of St. Gregory the Great, of the Military Class, Knight Grand Cross of the same Order, of the Civil Class, Commander of the Royal Order of Francis I of the Two Sicilies, &c., and Minister Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Guatemala to the Holy See.

Who, after having exchanged their respective full powers, have agreed upon the following Articles:

ART. I. The Catholic, Apostolic, Roman Religion shall continue to be the religion of the Republic of Guatemala, and it shall always be maintained with all the rights and prerogatives which it ought to enjoy according to the law of God and the provisions of the sacred Canons.

II. Consequently, the instruction given in the universities, colleges, public and private schools, and other establishments of education, shall be in conformity with the doctrines of the said Catholic religion; for which object the local bishops and ordinaries shall have the free direction of the professorships of theology and canonical law, and of all branches of ecclesiastical education, and besides the influence which they exercise, in virtue of their ministry, over the ecclesiastical education of youth, they shall take care that nothing contrary to religion or morals shall be taught in other branches of education.

III. The bishops shall also maintain their right of censorship over all books and writings relating to dogmas, ecclesiastical discipline, or public morals; and the Government of Guatemala, although its laws have already provided for cases of this kind, engages to concur with the means peculiar to its authority, in maintaining the provisions made in conformity with the sacred Canons for the protection of religion, and the prevention of every thing that may be contrary to it.

IV. The Roman Pontiff being Chief of the Universal Church by divine right, the Bishops, as well as the clergy and the people, shall have free communion with the Holy See.

V. The Guatemalan Government engages to maintain the payment of tithes, and to exact it by means of its authority; this contribution being totally and unreservedly destined, even in case of the vacancy of the see, or of any benefices, to the endowment of the Archbishop, the chapter, and the seminary, and for the expenses of worship and of the fabric of the Metropolitan Church; there shall be instituted a Commission of ecclesiastics, selected by the Ordinary, if possible, from the canons of the cathedral, over which the Ordinary himself, or the capitular vicar, in case the see is vacant, shall preside; and this Commission, during the vacancy of the mitre, or of any other benefice, shall receive and administer the revenues belonging to the Archbishop or to the prebendaries, and apply them according to requirement, and in conformity with the orders of the said Commission, for the repairs of churches, to alms, or other objects of a religious nature or institution.

If, on account of circumstances that cannot now be foreseen, it should become necessary to make any alterations in the tithes, this cannot be done as of right, unless by the intervention of the authority of the Holy See, and with the substitution, on the part of the Government, of other funds, so as to form an independent and decent revenue, as really the property of the Church as any other is of its owner in the dominions of the Republic of Guatemala.

Considering that the tithes do not actually afford an income sufficient for the object for which they are destined, the said Government shall furnish a yearly contribution out of the national treasury; which contribution shall be continued even after the produce of the tithes shall have increased; and it shall be considered as a real claim of the Church upon the State, to the amount of 4,000 dollars, distributed according to the specific scale which will be found at the end of the present Concordat.

VI. The curates, until the Government shall have assigned them a sure and independent revenue, subject to the approbation of the Ordinary, shall continue to enjoy the first fruits and other emoluments called of the Stole, the rates of which shall be conscientiously

arranged by the Ordinary, and these rates shall be subject to revision and approval by the said Ordinary when necessary, with the concurrence of the Government for the aid it must lend for the exaction of these emoluments.

As there exist in the Republic of Guatemala some funds proceeding from the duties or taxes, termed of the fabric, the Government shall take care that such funds be duly applied to the purposes of the churches, in the maintenance of worship, and succour to the poor of the respective parishes, without this being understood to give any right to interfere in the administration of these branches, and the Government shall exercise its influence with the Ordinary for the due correction of the abuses that may appear in the application of them. If the means of providing for their necessities should be wanting in any parishes, the Government, after arranging with the Ecclesiastical Ordinary, engages to provide what may be necessary.

VII. In consideration of the engagements contracted as aforesaid, the Supreme Pontiff grants to the President of the Republic of Guatemala and to his successors in that office the patronage or privilege of presentation to any vacancies in Archiepiscopal, or Episcopal churches if canonically erected, of worthy and suitable ecclesiastics, possessing all the qualifications required by the sacred Canons; and the Supreme Pontiff, in conformity with the rules prescribed by the Church, will give to the persons so presented the canonical institution in the accustomed form. But the ecclesiastics presented cannot interfere in any way in the government or administration of the churches to which they have been appointed before they receive the Bulls of canonical institution, as prescribed by the sacred Canons. The President of the Republie shall proceed to make these presentations within the term of one year from the date of the vacancy.

VIII. For the same cause His Holiness grants to the President of the Republic the privilege of appointing six prebends in each chapter, whether they be to dignities, canonries, or petty canonries, excepting the chief dignity which shall be reserved for the free collation of the Holy See, which, wishing to give proofs of its consideration for the clergy of the Republic of Guatemala, will confer it on an individual of the same clergy; and the lectoral, penitentiary and magistral prebends shall be conferred by the Bishops, by competition, on the most meritorious candidates. The President will fill up the six canonries that may first become vacant, of those not excepted, and they shall for ever remain subject to his free nomination. The provision for the remaining ones, whatever be their class or number, shall henceforth belong to the Bishops. This is not to prevent the foundation of other competitive prebends, such as

the three aforesaid, which are to be conferred in competition by the Bishops, and which when once established cannot be changed.

IX. All the parishes shall be provided for by open competition according to the provisions of the sacred Council of Trent; the Ordinaries having to make out the lists of the three approved candidates and send them to the President of the Republic, who shall appoint one of the persons proposed, according to the practice hitherto observed.

X. The Holy See, in the exercise of its own right, shall create new dioceses, and make new demarkations for them, according as the wants and advantages of the faithful may require. Nevertheless, should it become necessary, it will proceed in accordance with the Government of Guatemala. In each of these dioceses there shall be established a Chapter of Canons and a Seminary College in proportion to the number of the diocesan clergy and the wants of the new dioceses; and for the endowment of the new sees that may be created, as well as for that of the Seminaries and Chapters, provision shall be made upon the basis already established for those now existing; the Holy See acting in accordance with the Govern ment of Guatemala, so that the said endowments may be fitting and independent.

XI. New parishes shall also be created by the respective Ordinaries, as the necessity and benefit of the faithful may require, proceeding always in accordance with the Government, whenever it may be necessary to acquire civil means.

XII. The Metropolitan Seminary College shall be maintained in the diocese of Guatemala, and when new dioceses shall have been created, a seminary shall immediately be founded in each of them. In these seminaries shall be received and educated, according to the prescriptions of the sacred Council of Trent, those young men whom the Bishops may think proper to admit according to the wants and advantages of their dioceses.

It consequently belongs, of full and free right, to the authority of the diocesan prelates to regulate all that concerns the arrangement, teaching, government and administration of the seminaries, the rectors and professors of which shall be freely appointed and dismissed by the Bishops when they think proper.

XIII. On the vacation of a see, the Chapter of the Metropolitan or Suffragan Church shall appoint a Vicar of the Chapter within the prescribed term and in conformity with what has been established by the sacred Council of Trent; this appointment cannot be revoked when once made, nor can another be made, thus abolishing any practice that may be contrary to the provisions of the sacred Canous.

XIV. Proceedings concerning the faith, the sacraments, the

ho'y offices, the obligations and the rights appertaining to the sacred ministry, and in general all proceedings of an ecclesiastical nature, belong exclusively to the judgment of the ecclesiastical authority, according to the rules of the sacred Canons.

XV. Considering the circumstances of the times, the Holy See consents to refer to the civil tribunals the personal causes of ecclesiastics in civil matters, as also the proceedings concerning the property and temporal rights of clergymen as well as of the churches, benefices and other ecclesiastical foundations. But if the suits be between ecclesiastics only, the Bishops can then interfere as arbitrators, with the object of deciding the differences and reconciling them; without whose previous requisition and the legal testimony that this arbitration has not been sufficient, no tribunal of the State can hear or proceed in these causes.

XVI. For the same reason the Holy See makes no difficulty in submitting criminal actions against ecclesiastics, for offences prosecuted by the laws of the Republic, and not of a religious nature, to the civil tribunals; but in the judgments passed in second and in last instance, two ecclesiastics, at least, named by the Ordinary, shall form part of the tribunal as co-judges. These judgments shall not be public, and the sentences resulting therefrom, in case of condemnation to capital, corporal or defamatory punishment, shall not be carried into effect without the approbation of the President of the Republic, and without the Bishop having previously done what is required in such cases by the sacred Canons. In the apprehension and imprisonment of ecclesiastics, due regard must be paid to their character, giving immediate information thereof to the respective Bishops. In the provisions contained in this Article, it is always to be understood that the cases of a grave character are excluded, they being reserved for the cognizance of the Holy See, according to what is provided by the Council of Trent, section 21 de Ref. Chapter V.

XVII. The Ordinaries, being entirely free in the exercise of their ministry, can, according to the existing discipline, approved by the Church, correct and impose adequate penalties on ecclesiastics for failings in the duties of their office or in their moral conduct.

XVIII. The Church has the right to acquire property by any just title; their acquisitious and the pious foundations shall be respected and guaranteed equally with the property of all Guatemalan citizens; and with respect to these foundations, no suppression or union can be made without the intervention of the authority of the Holy See, unless by faculties conceded to the Bishops according to the provisions of the sacred Council of Trent.

XIX. The Holy See, in consideration of the present circumstances, consents that the funds and other ecclesiastical property