new Church more perfect than that founded by Christ, a new humanity more perfect than that formed by the Church. But where is the new Christ, where is the new Church, where is the new humanity, and what do we see around us save the old passions, the ancient selfishness, so much the more hideous because it rears its head in the midst of a society which charity has founded? Ah! Gentlemen, when the Church appeared upon earth she did not thus announce herself. She edified without ruining anything; you ruin without edifying anything. But I trespass on your time. Be, then, men of hope and desire; and you who are more advanced, who appreciate at their just value the powerless efforts of this age, and who know that the tomb of the Church will be the tomb of the civilised world, entertain more ardent faith and charity, devote yourselves entirely to that Church out of which there is no salvation in time or in eternity.

SECOND CONFERENCE.

MY LORD,

OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE CHURCH.

GENTLEMEN,

Or all kinds of bondage, the most oppressive, the most fatal in its effects, is that of the understanding. Now the understanding is in bondage whenever it is in submission to individual authorities, and the lot of mankind is such, that reason forms itself by instruction, and that all men, without exception, have been ever since the beginning subject to authority. The people, that is to say, the immense majority of mankind, remain invincibly bent under the yoke of their early instruction; and the men who are called enlightened yield at least to the instruction recognised by their country and their age. What is man to do to release himself from this servitude? What resource has he by which to emancipate his understanding? There are two of these; either he must think by his own unaided means, or, if it be proved that to exercise thought he stands in need of instruction, if he cannot exercise thought of himself, because God alone thinks in this manner, there is only salvation for him here below, by having an authority which represents the infinite intelligence of God, and which communicates to each man its divine conceptions by divinely-established teaching. This authority exists, and

we have seen that a sign is given by which we may recognise it: the sign of universality. We must now probe more profoundly the nature of this authority, this liberator of the human understanding; we must see what is its constitution, the constitution which it has received from God for perpetual existence.

Now, every kind of authority is composed primarily, of a hierarchy, that is to say, of a body of men co-ordained to act for the same end; secondarily, of a power of which that hierarchy is the depositary, and which it exercises at will. The subject of this discourse will, then, be the development of the Catholic Church in her hierarchy, and in the power which is confided to it.

Truth being the chief good, we may say the only good of men, and as no man ought to be deprived of this good, without which there is no other, it follows that it was of the highest importance that God should render his Church universal, in order to enable her, like the light of the sun, to enlighten every man coming into the world. Therefore our Saviour commenced by founding an apostolate, that is to say, by choosing a certain number of men who were to be sent into the whole world. The heathens had shut up sacerdotal knowledge in their temples; a few strangers only who came from afar to interrogate them were admitted into the sanctuary. The philosophers confined their teaching to the interior of the schools; they distributed it in gardens and under porticos surrounded by the distinctions of friends and their applause. It was not thus that Jesus Christ gave himself to his work he did not say to the depositaries of his uncreated Word, to his apostles, "You will wait until some one comes to ask you for the truth." He did not say to them, "Go, and promenade in gardens, and under the porticos;" but he said to them, "Go, and teach all nations." (1) Fear not the difficulties of languages, neither the differences of customs, nor the temporal powers; halt not to examine the courses of rivers or the direction

(1) St. Matthew, ch. 28, v. 19.

of mountains, go straight before you; go, as travels the thunderbolt of Him who sends you, like the creating word which brought life into chaos, like the eagles and the angels.

And who were the first apostles whom he chose? You might have seen, Gentlemen, experiments of apostleship in times near to us, men who, after a century of destruction, found it fit and excellent to build up again: where did they choose their apostles? In the higher ranks of society: they invited to themselves the learned, the ingenious, the high functionaries of state. Jesus Christ did not thus act: the work was the deliverance of the human race from error; he chose his apostles not from among the oppressors of the understanding but from among the oppressed-not from the ranks of philosophers and learned men, but from the poor and simple-minded. One day, as he walked on the borders of a lake in Galilee, he saw two fishermen, and he said to them, "Follow me; I will make you fishers of men."(1) And such were the first liberators of the human understanding.

The apostolate being founded as the parent stock of the episcopate, the universe was readily comprehended in its many parts all these men separated to diffuse the Gospel under the four winds of heaven. The Church, however, had not yet all the elements necessary to universality, for who could keep in one single association, in one single doctrine, all the dispersed apostles? Who could hinder particular Churches from becoming in time diversified and opposed to each other? Who was to put them in communication with each other? There is no universality without unity. A centre was necessary to the apostolate, an unique chief of the apostles and the bishops their successors. This idea was even more bold and more original than that of the apostolate. What! an unique chief for the whole world! What! place upon the head of a single man an authority against which all the princes of the earth (1) St. Matthew, ch. 4, v. 10.

might one day league themselves! Constitute unity upon one head which a sword-cut might make to fall! This was bold, original, impossible, yet, however, it is so. Not far from the place where the rulers of the ancient world sat by the force of arms, an old man sits whose voice commands and is respected not only within the limits of the largest human empire which has ever existed, but within and beyond the limits of all the seas. He has traversed not one century only, but eighteen hundred years. He has witnessed the rising up against him of schisms, heresies, kings and republics, and he rests secure upon the monument which creates his power, having only for his guard that short saying, "Thou art Peter, and upon that rock I will build my Church."

The Church, however, was not yet complete. If all her ministers had been bishops under a single supreme pontiff, the bonds of unity would have been easily broken, on account of the too great dignity and independence with which each minister would have been invested. Jesus Christ, therefore, instituted the presbytery which should, under the authority of bishops, spread the Gospel, offer the Sacrifice, and administer some of the Sacraments; and afterwards the deacons to aid the priests in their ministration.

The vicar of Jesus Christ was to exercise jurisdiction to bind and loose in every part of the world; he alone could appoint bishops and assign to them a district and a flock. The bishops were to have jurisdiction to bind and loose within their respective provinces, and to assign to the priests under them a district and a flock. The priests were to communicate directly and habitually with the faithful laity, to offer up for them the holy Sacrifice, to administer the Sacraments, save those of Confirmation and Orders, and to publish the Word of God. The decisions in matters of faith, the regulations with regard to general discipline, (the government of the Church,) were to appertain only to the sovereign pontiff and the bishops. The Church