In the article we have cited, the _Civiltà_ affirmed anew, on the authority of the Minorite, Bonaventure of S. Bernardino (_Trattato della Chiesa_), that the Pope can dispose of the whole "Temporali" of kings and princes, their authority and possessions, whenever, in his judgment, the good of the Church requires it. The work of a French writer, Maupied, gives the Fathers of the Society of Jesus the desired opportunity of again commending their _Magna Charta_--their favourite Bull, _Unam Sanctam_--as the completest exposition of the relations of Church and State (p. 213): "Fall down on your faces, and adore your lord and master in Rome, who can after his pleasure depose you, deprive you of your rights and bishoprics, and bid you draw or sheathe the sword." This is a compendium of the teaching the _Civiltà_ addresses to princes and magistrates. If Papal Infallibility is defined by the Council as an article of faith, the whole system is sanctioned, down to its extremest consequences, and the Jesuits will not fail to point to it as proving that their political doctrines also are now approved.
Under such auspices does the Council open, when the Bishops, according to the _Civiltà_--"the faithful echo of the Holy See,"--have only to say Yea and Amen to the teachings and commands of their master. Never in her whole history has the Church had a severer task imposed upon her, or passed through a more perilous and decisive crisis than the present. It is not only a question of internal freedom; it is, above all, the question whether she is to be involved in an endless war with the political order and civilisation of the modern world, or by keeping to the really religious sphere, and thus guarding her rightful independence, is for the future too to fulfil throughout the widest area her blessed mission towards mankind. The Council, which has to decide on this alternative, acquires a weight and significance such as none had before it.
_Rome, December 1869._--The Council is opened. It is, we may say, in full swing, and the situation has to a certain degree revealed itself. Two great questions are in every mind and on every tongue--_first_, "Wherein will the freedom promised to the Council consist, and how far will it extend?" and _secondly_, "Will Papal Infallibility be erected into a dogma?"