Mgr. Geay, Bishop of Laval, has made his submission to
the Pope. He has quitted his diocese without consulting the civil authority, has repaired to Rome, and will, it is said, be appointed to a canonry. The incident is much discussed in France, where one party quotes it as evidence that the civil power cannot, whatever it does, release Roman Catholic ecclesiastics from their obedience to the Papacy, while another retorts that this is the very reason why Papal sovereignty can no longer be tolerated in France. The imperium in. imperio must, it is said, be suppressed. M. de Lanessan, who was formerly a Minister, even argues that the incident proves that there is danger in delay, as all the forces of Clericalism are evidently. rallying to the defence of the Holy See. Is not that discussion a little superfluous ? If a majority of Frenchmen approve the Concordat, the Government will be powerless to abolish it; and if a majority disapprove it, all the Clericals in France will but waste their labour in defending it. The imperium in imperio, if it exists at all, rests only on opinion.
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