words it is the union of all who exercise their functions in all times and places, bound into one by union with Christ.

The Church being a society must be organized.

Organization has for its object the assurance to every man of the recognition of his rights and liberties.

Therefore every man must participate in the appointment of the superiors of this organization.

Constitutional government is therefore of the essence of Church organization.

The state has interfered by violence with this liberty, and the result has been a demoralization of the Church, ending in rupture or indifference.

And I conclude, that till the union of Church and State is utterly annihilated, till, that is, moral authority and effective authority have been distinguished and dissevered, the Church can never meet the requirements of mankind nor fulfil her mission in the world.

As Christ individually suffered martyrdom by the princes of the world, so He, in His social capacity, has undergone His passion through the tyranny of the Crown exercised on His body, the Church; may be, that Passion will shortly be over, and even as there took place, according to the Gospel, a resurrection of the Personal Christ, so we shall witness a resurrection of Christ in His social character.

Far be it from me to assert that there is necessary opposition between the Church and the State. As long as the State confines the exercise of its authority to matters strictly within its sphere, and as long as the Church forbears from interference in political matters, there will be no clashing of interests. The office of the Church is to insist on the dogmatic basis of the rights of men,

and on the consequent equality of those rights. The office of the State is to maintain those rights inviolate. Among the primordial rights of man is that of spiritual independence. If the State invade this right, antagonism springs up. If the Church persuades the State to use compulsion, that is, to violate a spiritual right—confusion is the consequence.

CHAPTER XIV

THE INCARNATION AND AUTHORITY

"Chose étrange, que nous avons donné la liberté à tout le monde, excepté à Dieu!”— M. DE LAMartine.

Moral and effective authority mutually destructive-A theocracy destructive of the dogma of free-will-The Papacy and its results-Subordination of temporal to spiritual authority-The separation of spiritual and temporal authorities-Temporal authority is justifiable when exercised in its own domain-but immoral when it invades religionSpiritual authority can only devolve from God-Man cannot delegate it-because man cannot make another represent God to him-No moral obedience due to the temporal power when it invades spiritual rights— The representation of authority in the Church necessary―The priesthood necessary-Confusion of functions between priest, magistrate, and soldier ruinous to authority-Authority lodged in the whole Church— but devolves from Christ-it is absolute and it is limited-Ecclesiastical authority must be confined to the declaration of religious truths—Infallibility resides in the whole body-Fallibility in negation-Are members of branch churches bound by negations ?-The duties of Catholics.

IF

the reader will recur to chapter iv., he will see that a distinction has been laid down between moral and effective authority.

By moral authority is meant that authority which is persuasive, and to which obedience is morally due; whilst by effective authority is meant that authority which is of force, and to which obedience is only due out of compulsion.

I have shewn that it is impossible to unite these two authorities, because they mutually destroy each other.

I have shewn that the action of God upon man is moral and moral only; that by constituting man free, He has refused to exercise effective authority over him, and that an ecclesiastical or political society claiming Divine Authority must exercise moral authority only; for the moment it exercises compulsion it ceases to represent God, and resolves itself into effective authority which is human, all human, and not at all Divine.

In this chapter I propose to shew what is the bearing of the dogma of the Incarnation on this distinction between authorities, and how it conciliates what otherwise must remain conflicting.

First, let us see whether a theocracy is deducible from the Incarnation. Almost all priesthoods have endeavoured to unite temporal power with spiritual power; and when they have succeeded, a theocracy has been the result.

Almost all governments, kings, emperors, and republics have endeavoured to unite the spiritual power with the temporal power; and when they have succeeded, an autocracy has been the result.

Theocracy is consequently an absolute government carried on in the name of the Absolute.

An Autocracy is consequently an absolute government carried on in the name of the governmental will dominating the Absolute.

Theocracy supposes, as its metaphysical principle, the co-action of God over man for the accomplishment of His law, since it exercises this co-action only by the name and the authority of God, for the execution of His designs. It is then, in principle, absolutely contradictory to the theory of free-will, which allows man to be at liberty to follow his

own determinations in chosing that which is right or that which is wrong. It is based on a false relation between man and God. It is consistent only with a negation of freewill and a doctrine of fatalism. From it flows a complete system of constraint. Man being no more free before God, is not free before His representative, the pope, the direct representative; the king, the indirect representative, deriving his authority by papal procuration, through institution, concordat and the like.

This is tyranny elevated into divine necessity, since man not being free not to obey the law, the representative of God is not free not to exact obedience to it. Liberty of conscience is at a end; for the representative of the Deity formulates what the conscience is to accept, and cuts off all opportunities of expressing doubt or disbelief, as sacrilege and profanity. Liberty of science is at an end; for science runs counter to received religious dogmas; it must do so, for religious dogmas are on one side of the world of truth, and scientific demonstrations are on the other side. As a theocracy is founded on dogma alone, it must wage perpetual war on science, which is founded on demonstration. The Inquisition is the logical consequence of a system of government in the name of a God of compulsion.

The Papacy is the great Christian theocracy. Confusing moral authority with effective authority, it was forced to abdicate the former, and resolve itself into a despotism over men's souls and bodies. Temporal sovereignties were subordinated to the spiritual sovereignty, which became the apex of a vast pyramid weighing down humanity by Divine right. Nicholas II. (A.D. 1059) assumed this supremacy when he took upon himself to confirm the Duke of Calabria and Sicily in his possessions, for which the Duke swore fealty to the Pope. Alexander II. did likewise when he