Page:The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII.djvu/132



126 CHRISTIAN CONSTITUTION OF STATES

From these pronouncements of the Popes it is evident that the origir;.of Â£ubljc powfir i&iaÂ»ha.aQUgJbLti^ Himself, and not in the multitude, and that it is repugnant to reason to allow free scope for sedition. Again, that it is not lawful for the State, any more than for the individual, either to disregard all religious duties or to hold in equal favor different kinds of religion; that the unrestrained freedom of thinking and of openly making known one's thoughts is not inherent in the rights of citizens, and is by no means to be reckoned worthy of favor and support. In like manner it is to be understood that the Church no less than the State itself is a society perfect in its own nature and its own right, and that those who exercise sovereignty ought not so to act as to compel the Church to become subservient or subject to them, or to hamper her liberty in the management of her own affairs, or to despoil her in any way of the other privileges conferred upon her by Jesus Christ. In matters, however, of mixed jurisdiction, it is in the highest degree consonant to na- ture, as also to the designs of God, that so far from one of the powers separating itself from the other, or still less coming into conflict with it, complete harmony, such as is suited to the end for which each power exists, should be preserved between them.

This then is the teaching of the Catholic Church con- cerning the constitution and government of the State. By the words and decrees just cited, if judged dispas- sionately, no one of the several forms of government is in itself condemned, inasmuch as none of them contain

Prop, xxxix. The State, as the origin and source of all rights enjoys a right that is unlimited.

Prop. Iv. The Church must be separated from the State, and the State from the Church.

Prop. Ixxix. ... It is untrue that the civil liberty of every form of worship, and the full power given to all of openly and publicly manifesting whatsoever opinions and thoughts, lead to the more ready corruption of the minds and morals of the people, and to the Bpread of the plague of religious indifference.