The Spanish Bishops have apparently reached the precise mental point
attained by the English Bishops during the Reformation when they suggested that if the laws of the Church conflicted with the laws of the State, the laws of the State could be made to agree with the laws of the Church. Cardinal Cascajares and the Bishops of Spain have met in conference at Burgos, and have decided that seventeen " principles " must be accepted before a union of Catholics of different parties can be effected. Among these principles are that "toleration should be confined to the narrowest limits allowed by the Constitution," that "no ecclesiastic should be punished by the ordinary civil Courts of Justice," that mar- riages by the Church should always have civil effect, that Bishops should recover legacies from pions testators without any intervention of lay authority, and that all associations which are not Catholic should be prohibited. It is not quite certain whether the Bishops also demand that ecclesiastical property should be exempt from taxation, but, according to the Times, this is the apparent intention. These demands, which are put forward in all seriousness, constitute a pretty distinct negative to Cardinal Vaughan's assertion that the Church does not interfere in the internal politics of a State. To liberate ecclesiastics from all law but their own seems to Englishmen very decided interference. That pretension was one principal cause of the violent form taken by the English Reformation.
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