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Rh affairs with the coöperation of the bishops, to sustain the Roman religion exclusively, to reëstablish and reorganize the religious orders, to protect the patrimony of the church, to let public and private instruction be directed and guarded by ecclesiastic authorities, and to liberate the church from dependence on civil powers.

In reply, Maximilian declared that duty and conscience would direct his measures. As a basis for arrangement, he proposed religious tolerance, yet with special protection for the catholic faith as the state religion; the expenses of the latter to be defrayed by the public treasury, the clergy being supported like civil servants, and granting free ministration to the people; the church to cede to the government all the revenue from property which had been declared national during republican rule; the emperor and his successors to enjoy rights equivalent to those conceded from the American church to the kings of Spain; conditions to be arranged for restoring orders, for clerical jurisdiction, and cemeteries; civil registry to be kept, where deemed desirable, by priests acting as civil functionaries.

The nuncio answered that he had no power to deal with other questions than those indicated in the papal letter, the prospect of countenancing Juarez' laws being wholly unexpected. He must confer with the Vatican. Maximilian declared that he could not submit the course of justice and the interests of the