Page:The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII.djvu/125



CHRISTIAN CONSTITUTION OF STATES.

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magistrates; and Church and State were happily united in concord and friendly interchange of good offices. The State, constituted in this wise, bore fruits important beyond all expectation, whose remembrance is still, and always will be, in renown, witnessed to as they are by countless proofs which can never be blotted out or even obscured by any craft of any enemies. Christian Europe has subdued barbarous nations, and changed them from a savage to a civilized condition, from superstition to true worship. It victoriously rolled back the tide of Moham- medan conquest; retained the headship of civilization; stood forth in the front rank as the leader and teacher of all, in every branch of national culture; bestowed on the world the gift of true and many-sided liberty; and most wisely founded very numerous institutions for the solace of human suffering. And if we inquire how it was able to bring about so altered a condition of things, the answer is â€” Beyond all question, in large measure, through religion; under whose auspices so many great under- takings were set on foot, through whose aid they were brought to completion.

A similar state of things would certainly have con- tinued had the agreement of the two powers been lasting. More important results even might have been justly looked for, had obedience waited upon the authority, teaching, and counsels of the Church, and had this sub- mission been specially marked by greater and more un- swerving loyalty. For that should be regarded in the light of an ever-changeless law which Ivo of Chartres wrote to Pope Paschal II.: "When kingdom and priest- hood are at one, in complete accord, the world is well ruled, and the Church flourishes, and brings forth abun- dant fruit. But when they are at variance, not only smaller interests prosper not, but even things of greatest moment fall into deplorable decay." ^

Epist. 238.