Page:The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII.djvu/119



CHRISTIAN CONSTITUTION OF STATES. 113

noblest of ends, so is its authority the most exalted of all authority, nor can it be looked upon as inferior to the civil power, or in any manner dependent upon it.

In very truth Jesus Christ gave to His apostles un- restrained authority in regard to things sacred, together with the genuine and most true power of making laws, as also with the twofold right of judging and of punish- ing, which flow from that power. All poiver is given to Me in heaven and on earth: going therefore teach all na- tions. . . teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. ^ And in another place, // he will not hear them, tell the Church? And again. In readiness to revenge all disobedience} And once more. That. . . I may not deal more severely according to the power which the Lord hath given me, unto edification and not unto destruction.* Hence it is the Church, and not the State, that is to be man's guide to heaven. It is to the Church that God has assigned the charge of seeing to, and legislating for, all that concerns religion; of teaching all nations; of spreading the Christian faith as widely as possible; in short, of administering freely and without hindrance, in accordance with her own judgment, all matters that fall within its competence.

Now this authority, perfect in itself, and plainly meant to be unfettered, so long assailed by a philosophy that truckles to the State, the Church has never ceased to claim for herself and openly to exercise. The apostles them- selves were the first to uphold it, when, being forbidden by the rulers of the Synagogue to preach the Gospel, they courageously answered, We must obey God rather than men.^ This same authority the holy Fathers of the Church were always careful to maintain by weighty arguments, accord- ing as occasion arose, and the Roman Pontiffs have never shnink from defending it with unbending constancy.


 * Matt, xxviii. 18-20. * 2 Cor. xiii. 10.

matt. x\'iii. 15. 6 Acts v. 29.

3 2 Cor X 6