Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 14.djvu/296

 STATE

254

STATE

purely natural principles, it accepted from Rousseau and the Utilitarians the principle that all right comes from the State, all authority from the consentient wills of the people of the State. The position logically followed that the Church has no rights — not even the right to existence — save such as are conceded to it by the civil power. Hence it is not a perfect society, but a creature of the State, upon which it depends in all things, and upon which it must be directly subordi- nate, if it is to be allowed to exist at all. (See Liber- alism.)

B. Qualified Ldberalism, as formulated by Cavour and Minghetti in Italy at the close of the first half of the nineteenth century, does not go so far. While claiming to admit that the Church is more or less a perfect society with foundations in the Divine Posi- tive Law of Christian Revelation, it contends that the Church and State are disparate in such fashion as to prosecute their respective ends independently in be- half of the individual, having no subordination what- ever one to the other. Consequently, in all public affairs the State must prescind from every religious society, and deal with such either as private associa- tions existing within the State or as foreign corpora- tions to be treated with accordingly. The axiom of this newer LiberaUsm is "A free Church in a free State", which in point of fact means an emasculated Church with no more freedom than the shifting poh- tics, internal and external, of a State chose to give, which in the event, as was to be foreseen, amounted to servitude. (See Italy: Political and Cinil Govern- ment: (2) Church and State.)

C. The Theory of the Regalists conceded to the Church a certain amount of social right from its Di- vine Founder, but conditioned the exercise of all social powers upon the consent of the civil government. This theory, originating with Gallicanism (q. v.), practicaUy denied the Church to be a perfect society, inasmuch as it made its jurisdiction depend for its valid exercise upon the civil power. The theory gradually extended its contentions so far as to make the Church indirectly subordinate to the State, attrib- uting to the State the authority to forbid the Church any juridical act that might work to the detriment of the State and to command the Church in case of necessity to put forth her full powers to promote the interests of the State.

Pius IX, Encyclical^ Quanta Cura, and Syllabus Errorum (Rome, 1864) ; Leo XIII, Encyclicals Immortale Dei and Sapien- tia Christiance, tr. in The Pope and His People (London, 1910)-. CosTA-RossETTl, Philosophia Moralis (Innsbruck, 1886); Pal- MiERi, De Romano Ponlifice (Rome, 1877); Hammerstein, De Ecclesia et Statu (Trier, 1886); Cavaqnis, Delia Natura di SocietA Giuridica e Pubblica Compelenle alia Chiesa (Rome, 1887); LiBERATOBE, La Chiesa e lo Stato (Naplea, 1872); Laboulate, Le Parti Liberal (Paris, 1864); Minghetti, Lo Stato e la Chiesa (Turin, 1878); Marca, De Concordia Sacerdotii et Imperii (Frank- fort, 1708). — The last three present non-Catholic views.

Charles Mackset.

State or Way, PtrRGATivE, Illuminative, Uni- TivE. — The word stale is used in various senses by theologians and spiritual WTiters. It may be taken to signify a profession or calling in life, as where St. Paul says, in I Cor., vii, 20: "Let every man abide in the same calling in which he was called". Wc have, in this sense, states of perfection, classified in the Church as the clerical state, the religious state, and the secular state; and among religious states, again, we have those of the contemplative, the active, and the mixed orders. The word is also used in the class- ification of the degrees or stages of Chri.stian perfec- tion, or the advancement of souls in the supernatural life of grace during their sojourn in the world. This has reference to the practice of all the virtues, both theological and moral, and to all their acts both ex- ternal and internal. It includes two elements, namely our own efforts and the grace of God assisting us. This grace is never wanting for those arts which are positively commanded or inspired by God, and

the work of perfection will proceed according to the energy and fidelity with which souls correspond to its aids.

Division of the States or Ways. — It is in the latter sense we have to understand the word state in this article, and, according to the various classes of souls who aspire to perfection in this life, the Fathers and theologians distinguish three states or stages of perfection. These are the state of begin- ners, the state of progress, and the state of the perfect. These states are also designated " way s ", because they are the ways of God by which souls are guided on the road to heaven according to the words of the Psalmist: "He hath made his wa\'s kno\\'n to Moses: his wills to the children of Israel" (Ps. cii, 7). Hence we have the division of the spiritual life which has been adopted since the time of the Pseudo-Dionysius, into the "purgative" way, the "illuminative" way, and the "unitive" way. (See St. Thomas, II-II, Q. cbcxxiii, a. 4; Suarez, "De Religione", Tr. VIII, lib. I, c. xiii.) St. Thomas well explains the reason for this division when he says: "The first duty which is incumbent on man is to give up sin and resist con- cupiscence, which are opposed to charity; this belongs to beginners, in whose hearts charity is to be nursed and cherished lest it be corrupted. The second duty of man is to apply his energies chiefly to advance in virtue; this belongs to those who are making progress and who are principally concerned that charity may be increased and strengthened in them. The third endeavour and pursuit of man should be to rest in God and enjoy Him; and this belongs to the per- fect who desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ. " Among the condemned propositions of Miguel de Molinos, the author of "The Spiritual Guide" (in which the false mysticism known as Quietism is propounded), is the following: "These three kinds of way, the purgative, illuminative, and unitive, are the greatest absurdity in Mystical Theology" (cf. Con- stitution "Ctt'lestis Pastor" of Innocent XI, 1687). Avoiding this and other errors of false mystics, it must be borne in mind that energy and activity are required in every stage of our spiritual life, and that we have to accept the degrees of that life and to follow the kind of prayer which is proper to one or other of them according to our state, whether it be the purgative, illuminative, or unitive. Various descrip- tions of these three ways are given by eminent mas- ters of the spiritual life. Substantially they may all be said to agree, though in details and manner of treatment they may differ.

The Purgative Way. — The purgative way is the way, or state, of those who are beginners, that is those who have obtained justification, but have not their passions and evil inclinations in such a state of sub- jugation that they can easily overcome temptations, and who, in order to preserve and exercise charity and the other virtues, have to keep up a continual warfare within themselves. It is so called because the chief concern of the soul in this state is to resist and to overcome the passions by nourishing, strength- ening, and cherishing the virtue of charity. This can and ought to be done not only by keeping the Commandments, but by foreseeing the occasions in which the precepts oblige, so as to be ready by a prompt and well-disposed will to resist and avoid any sins opposed to them. This state, although in one sense it is imperfect, in another sense may be called a state of perfection, because the soul remains united to Ciod by grace and charity so long as it is free from the stain of mortal sin. Purity of soul may be said to be the proper end of the purgative way, and the forms of prayer suitable for this way or state are meditations on sin and its consequences, and on death, judgment, hell, and heaven. Tlie acts which aid towards uprooting the remnjints jind habits of former sins, and preventing one from ever returning U) them.