eademque Nos nulla et prorsus irrita Apostolica Nostra Auctoritate declaramus. Imprimis enim memoratus pseudoadministrator quavis ecclesiastica iurisdictione penitus destituitur, quam scilicet nec legitimus Episcopus in suo discessu, nec postea Apostolica Sedes eidem umquam demandarunt, ac proinde ipsum per ostium non intrasse in ovile ovium, sed ascendisse aliunde ac veluti intrusum habendum cuique perspectum et exploratum est.

Ad haec Sacri Ecclesiae Canones antiquos orientales ritus legitime inductos religiose utique servandos praecipiunt, cum "Praedecessores Nostri Romani Pontifices satius consultiusque duxerint ritus huiusmodi, qua in parte nec Fidei catholicae adversantur, nec periculum generant animarum, aut ecclesiasticae derogant honestati, approbare seu permittere:"2 at simul ipsi solemniter indicunt, nemini prorsus, hac Sancta Sede inconsulta, fas esse in re liturgica vel leviores innovationes peragere, quemadmodum satis abunde commonstrant Apostolicae Constitutiones, quas initio retulimus.

Nec ullius momenti est quod ad fucum faciendum adiicitur, nimirum liturgicas huiusmodi innovationes proponi ut orientalis ritus expurgetur et ad nativam integritatem restituatur. Quandoquidem Ruthenorum liturgia nulla alia esse potest nisi quae vel a sanctis Ecclesiae Patribus fuit instituta, vel Synodorum canonibus sancita, vel legitimo usu inducta, Apostolica Sede sive expresse sive tacite semper adprobante : et siquae variationes temporis lapsu in eadem Liturgia occurrerunt, eae profecto non inconsultis Romanis Pontificibus et potissimum ea mente invectae sunt, ut huiusmodi ritus a quavis haeretica et schismatica labe eximerentur, atque ita catholica dogmata ad incolumitatem fidei tuendam, et bonum animarum promovendum rectius et clarius exprimerentur. Quocirca sub dolosa specie ritus expurgandi, eosque in integrum restituendi nihil aliud intenditur nisi parare insidias fidei Ruthenorum Chelmensium, quos ab Ecclesiae Catholicae gremio distrahere, et haeresi ac schismati devovere perditissimi homines adnituntur.

Sed acerbissimas inter, quibus undique premimur, angustias Nos reficit ac recreat praeclarissimum et plane heroicum fortis et constantis animi spectaculum nuperrime Deo, Angelis et hominibus oblatum a Chelmensis Dioeceseos Ruthenis, qui iniqua pseudo-administratoris mandata reiicientes, mala quaeque perpeti atque ipsam vitam in extremum discrimen maluerunt adduci quam avitae fidei iacturam facere et catholicos 1 Io. Cap. x. v. I.

* Benedictus XIV. in sua Constitutione Etsi pastoralis edita die 26 Maii 1742.

dimittere ritus quos ipsi ab eorum maioribus receperunt et incorruptos ac illibatos se perpetuo servaturos conclamarunt.

Nos autem Deum omnibus percibus orare non intermittimus, ut dives in misericordia lumen gratiae suae in corda eorum, qui omne contra fas Chelmensem Dioecesim divexant, clementer effundat, ac simul miseris illis fidelibus omni prorsus auxilio et spirituali regimine destitutis potentem suam opem afferat, et optatae tranquillitatis solatium acceleret.

Post haec Vos Venerabiles Fratres qui tanto studio ac singulari zelo demandatam Ruthenorum curam suscepistis, etiam atque etiam in Domino hortamur, ut liturgicam disciplinam ab Apostolica Sede probatam, vel eadem sciente et non contradicente invectam religiose tueamini, quavis innovatione penitus interdicta, et accuratam Sacrorum Canonum hac in re editorum, ac potissimum Zamoscenae Synodi custodiam Parochis atque Sacerdotibus vel per severissimas, si opus fuerit, poenarum sanctiones praecipiendam curetis. Agitur enim de re gravissima, videlicet de salute animarum, cum illegitimae innovationes catholicam Fidem et sanctam Ruthenorum unionem in summum discrimen adducant. Quamobrem nulli curae, nulli labori parcendum est, nihilque intentatum relinqui debet quo universae in re liturgica perturbationes istic a pravis hominibus excitatae vel ab earum primordiis penitus comprimantur: quibus muneribus fortiter et suaviter obeundis Vos Venerabiles Fratres, Dei opitulante gratia, minime defuturos confidimus.

Quod ut feliciter contingat Apostolicam Benedictionem Vobis, Venerabiles Fratres, et gregibus cuiusque Vestrum curae concreditis peramanter in Domino impertimus.

Datum Romae apud S. Petrum die decimatertia Maii MDCCCLXXIV. Pontificatus Nostri anno vicesimoctavo.

PIUS PP. IX.

II. DECREE OF THE SACRED CONGREGATION OF THE

COUNCIL.

[In certain parts of Italy the infidel party have taken to themselves the right of electing their own parish priests, and, in some cases, ecclesiastics have been found to accept parishes so conferred. In order to meet this difficulty, the Sacred Congregation of the Council has issued the following decree].

THE members of the condemned sects, who are continually endeavouring to cbtain power, and who, when they obtain it, direct all their efforts to disturb society and to overturn the

fundamental constitution of the Church of Jesus Christ, fear not, even in the heart of Catholic Italy, to excite the people to follow the sad example of certain men in Switzerland, who have pushed their audacity so far as to usurp and arrogate to themselves the right of pastors of souls. And what is still worse, certain ecclesiastics have been found who, allowing themselves to be corrupted, have not hesitated to accept a parochial office conferred on them so perversely, and to exercise its functions with the greatest presumption and audacity. This is an enormous crime, which overthrows the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy and completely destroys it. In fact, "it is we," says Pope Celestine, "who should lead the people, and not follow them; instead of subjecting ourselves to the caprices of men, it is we who should teach them what is allowed and what is forbidden." It is, then, an exceedingly rash boldness to rebel against the decrees of the Holy Fathers: it is a crime as ambitious as it is contrary to obedience. "From this," adds Gregory VII., " flow the greater part of those perturbations which disturb the Church, ruin our holy religion, and cause religious principles to be trampled under foot." There is nothing strange, then, in the holy canons constantly condemning such a crime, and visiting it with the greatest punishment. Thus, Gregory VII., already cited,3 Pascal II., Alexander II., and the Council of Lateran, held under Alexander III., have solemnly decreed that ecclesiastical investiture at the hands of laymen is completely null, and that clerics who accept such an investiture are forbidden to enter the Church, that they are excommunicated, and that if they persist in wishing to persevere in their crime, they should be deprived of the functions of their ecclesiastical ministry. Nay, more, such a crime involves that exceedingly grievous usurpation of jurisdiction, of benefices, and of the rights of the Church which the Council of Trent' has punished with its anathema as long as the usurpation continues: and the Constitution Apostolicae Sedis iv. id. Oct. of the year 1869,8 has declared it subject to an excommunication latae sententiae reserved specially to the Pope.

Now, since all the decrees of the sacred canons, notwith

1 Cap. Docendus 2 dist. 63.

Cap. Si quis deinceps, 12 et cap. Quoniam 13 cons. 16, q. 7.

3 Cap. Si quis deinceps, 12 cap. Quoniam, 13 cap. Si quis Episcopus, 14 cons.

16, q. 17.

Cap. Si quis clericus, 16. Cap. Constitutiones, 17. Cap. Nullus, 18. Cap. Sicut, 19 cons. 16, q. 17.

Cap. Per laicos, 20 cons. 16, q. 7. 7 Sess. 22, cap. 11, de Reform.

Cap. Praeterea, 4 de jurepatr.

8 Part i., § II.

standing the salutary advice which they contain, are not sufficient to restrain the audacity and the perversity of innovators, and do not hinder them from committing, in the northern parts of Italy, the same crime which has been lately condemned in Switzerland by the Apostolic authority, our Most Holy Father Pope Pius IX., inflamed by that love which causes his solicitude to extend to all the sheep, has wished that this Congregation of the Council should oppose the same remedy to the same evil. He has, therefore, ordered that in the provinces of Venice and of Milan, and in each of the dioceses subject to the Patriarchal and Metropolitan jurisdiction of these provinces, all that has been so wisely enacted for the Swiss Confederation in the Encyclical letter of the 21st November last, 1873, concerning the election of parish priests by the people, be applied and sanctioned, as in reality by the present decree all such is applied and sanctioned. So that whoever shall dare, in the dioceses we have mentioned, to take possession either of a church, or of ecclesiastical rights and benefices, on account of his having been elected to the office of parish priest or curate by the suffrages of the people, and shall not hesitate to discharge the functions of that office as ecclesiastical minister, incurs, ipso facto, the greater excommunication specially reserved to the Holy See, as well as all the other canonical penalties; and all those who so act should be avoided by the faithful, according to the divine counsel, as strangers and robbers who come not but to seize unjustly the goods of others, to corrupt hearts, and to ruin souls. It is thus that the Sacred Congregation of the Council has enacted and decreed, ordering at the same time that what has been enacted and decreed be observed by all the faithful, notwithstanding any exceptions or privileges which would require special mention.

Given at Rome, from the office of the S. Congregation of the Council, 23rd May, 1874.

P. CARD. CATERINI, Pref.

P. ARCHBISHOP OF SARDES, Secr.

481

CHRONICLE.

ITALY.

To pretend respect for the Pope's person, and to credit him

with being personally inclined to a policy of conciliation with his revolutionary aggressors, is an olti trick of Italian Liberalism. In proof we might allege the line of conduct marked out for, and followed by the members of the secret societies, in the opening years of Pius the Ninth's Pontificate. If we are to trust the liberals, His Holiness is a liberal too, and his seeming opposition to the present state of things is merely due to the sinister influences of Cardinal Antonelli and the Jesuits. Yet it was neither Cardinal Antonelli nor the Jesuits, but Pius the Ninth, who condemned the proposition which stands last in the Syllabus of '64-" Romanus Pontifex potest ac debet cum progressu, cum liberalismo, et cum recenti civilitate sese reconciliare et componere."

We have a token of this anxiety of the liberals to rank His Holiness amongst themselves in a recent correspondence from Rome to the Nazione of Florence. Therein is related an alleged conversation between the Pope and a Turin priest, from which it is sought to deduce that the Holy Father would be inclined to a policy of compromise with the Subalpine Government, were he not withheld by the hostile attitude of the advisers who surround him, and who exercise such a fatal sway over his public conduct.

Fearing that this almost worn-out cheat might yet deceive some simple people, the Osservatore Romano subsequently published the following notification :-" From a Roman letter to the Nazione of Florence, it is given to believe that the Holy See has made offers of conciliation to the Italian ministers. . . . We are formally authorized to declare that the Holy See has not only never bent to propose a compromise with its despoilers, but has ever repelled, as it shall ever repel with horror, whatever proposal shall emanate from them as tending not to guarantee to the Church the liberty of her existence, but only to legalize in some way, before the world, the most enormous of injustices."

2. What conciliation could be effected with a State which favours and fosters impiety, and obstructs the exercise of that religion which, as a State, it professes in one of its fundamental statutes? A saddening instance of the powerful and evil influences of liberal principles on the Italian government has