do, not by contention or anathema, but by the words, 'it hath seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us.'
The other certain result of the Council will be, to make more than ever manifest to the civil powers of the Christian world the inevitable future they are now preparing for themselves.
A member of the Corps Législatif in France, two years ago, announced that, in the Bull of Indiction of the Council, the Holy Father, by omitting to invite the civil governments to take part in it, had proclaimed the separation of Church and State.
A moment's thought will be enough to explain why no civil government was invited to attend. What government, at this day, professes to be Catholic? How should any government which does not even claim to be Catholic be invited? What country in Europe, at this day, recognises the unity and authority of the Catholic Church as a part of its public laws? What country has not, by royal edicts, or legislative enactments, or revolutionary changes, abolished the legal status of the Catholic Church within its territory? On what plea, then, could they be invited? As governments or nations, they have, by their own act, withdrawn themselves from the unity of the Church. As moral or legal persons, they are Catholic no longer. The faithful, indeed, among their subjects will be represented in the Council by their pastors; and their pastors are not only invited, but obliged to be present. If any separation has taken place, it is because the civil powers have separated themselves from the Church. They have created the fact, the Holy See has only recognised it. The gravity of the fact is not
