Page:The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII.djvu/267



ALLEGIANCE TO THE REPUBLIC. 261

The principles which should regulate our conduct towards God and towards human governments being thus defined, no unprejudiced man can censure French Catholics if, sparing themselves neither fatigue nor sacrifice, they labor to preserve a condition essential to their countrj^'s salvation, one which embodies so many glorious tradi- tions registered by history, and which every Frenchman is in duty bound not to forget

Before closing Our Letter, We wash to touch upon two points bearing an affinity to each other and which, because so closely connected with religious interests, have stirred up some di\asion among Catholics. . . . One of them is the Concordat, which for so many years has faciUtated in France the harmony between the government of the Church and that of the State. On the observance of tliis solemn, bi-lateral compact, always faithfully kept by the Holy See, the enemies of the Cathohc religion do not themselves agree. . . . The more \dolent among them desire its aboHtion, that the State may be entirely free to molest the Church of JESUS CHRIST. ... On the contrary^, others, being more astute, wish, or rather claim to wish, the preserv^ation of the Concordat : not because they agree that the State should fulfil toward the Church the subscribed engagements, but solely that the State may be benefited by the concessions made by the Church; as if one could, at will, separate engagements entered into from concessions obtained, when both of these things form a substantial part of one whole. For them the Concordat w^ould amount to no more than a chain forged to fetter the liberty of the Church, that holy liberty to which she has a divine and inalienable right. Of these tw^o opinions which will prevail? We know not. We desired to recall them only to recommend CathoHcs not to provoke a secession by interfering in a matter with which it is the business of the Holy See to deal.

We shall not hold to the same language on another point, concerning the principle of the separation of the