Page:The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII.djvu/190



184 CHIEF DUTIES OF CHRISTIANS AS CITIZENS.

of filial piety, and love God with the deepest love of which we are capable. The order of precedence of these duties is, however, at times, either under stress of public calam- ities, or through the perverse will of men, inverted. For instances occur where the State seems to require from men as subjects one thing, and religion, from men as Chris- tians, quite another; and this in reality without any other ground, than that the rulers of the State either hold the sacred power of the Church of no account, or endeavor to subject it to their own will. Hence ^.rises a conflict, and an occasion, through such conflict, of virtue being put to the proof. The two powers arc confronted and urge their behests in a contrary sense; to obey both is wholly impossible. No man can serve two masters,^ for to please the one amounts to contemning the other. As to which should be preferred no one ought to balance for an instant. It is a high crime indeed to withdraw alle- giance from God in order to please men ; an act of consum- mate wickedness to break the laws of Jesus Christ, in order to yield obedience to earthly rulers, or, under pretext of keeping the civil law, to ignore the rights of the Church; we ought to obey God rather than men.^ This answer, which of old Peter and the other apostles were used to give the civil authorities who enjoined unrighteous things, we must, in like circumstances, give always and without hesitation. No better citizen is there, whether in time of peace or war, than the Christian who is mindful of his duty; but such a one should be ready to suffer all things, even death itself, rather than abandon the cause of God or of the Church.

Hence they who blame, and call by the name of sedition, this steadfastness of attitude in the choice of duty, have not rightly apprehended the force and nature of true law. We are speaking of matters widely known, and which We have before now more than once fully explained.

Â» Matt. vi. 24. Acts v 29.