The Pope has addressed an Encyclical to the Prussian Bishops,
telling them that the Falck laws are invalid, as no temporal ruler can interfere in things which concern the service of the Church or deprive Bishops of their functions. All persons who accept such functions, and all impious men who usurp the government of the Church, fall under the major excommunication, and should be avoided by the faithful, who, however, are still to render obedience in temporal things. The Encyclical has excited great stir in Germany, where it is denounced as- a provocation to rebellion, and the Catholic Church is threatened with a withdrawal of its subvention. The latter measure is fair enough, if the Church is left independent, but the Encyclical does not contain a word more than is asserted by the Scotch Presbyterians and English Dissenters. They also say that people who force Bishops or Church functionaries on them do wrong, and will be damned; and their view has, after centuries of contest, been recognised by the State, without civil government going to pieces. A Pope is necessarily wicked, but what is he saying just now that Dr. Chalmers, at the time of the Disruption, did not say?
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