Page:The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII.djvu/263



ALLEGIANCE TO THE REPUBLIC. 257

form of government. Founded by Him who was, who is, and who vnll be forever, she has received from Him, since her very origin, all that she requires for the pursuing of her divine mission across the changeable ocean of human affairs. And, far from wishing to transfoiTn her essen- tial constitution, she has not the power even to relinquish the conditions of true liberty and sovereign independence with which Providence has endowed her in the general interest of souls. . . . But, in regard to purely himian societies, it is an oft-repeated historical fact that time, that great transformer of all things here below, operates great changes in their political institutions. On some occasions it linnts itself to modifying something in the form of the established government; or, again, it will go so far as to substitute other forms for the primitive ones â€” forms totally different, even as regards the mode of trans- mitting sovereign power.

And how are these political changes of which We speak produced? They sometimes follow in the wake of violent crises, too often of a bloody character, in the midst of which pre-existing governments totally disappear; then anarchy holds sway, and soon public order is shaken to its very foundations and finally overthrowTi. From that time onward a social need obtrudes itself upon the nation; it must provide for itself without delay. Is it not its pri\ilege â€” or, better still, its duty â€” to defend itself against a state of affairs troubhng it so deeply, and to re-establish public peace in the tranquillity of order? Now, this social need justifies the creation and the existence of new govern- ments, whatever form they take; since, in the hypothesis wherein we reason, these new governments are a requisite to public order, all public order being impossible without a government. Thence it follow^s that, in similar junctures, all the novelty is limited to the political form of ci\il power, or to its mode of transmission ; it in no wise affects the power considered in itself. This continues to be immutable and w^orthy of respect, as, considered in its