number of parishes augmented, when such measures
become necessary from the increase of population, the too great extent of
existing parishes, or the difficulty of communications.

Such matters as could not be agreed upon and embodied in the Concordat may
be gleaned from the allocution which Pius IX. addressed, at the time, to
the Cardinals. "Many things of the greatest importance still remain, in
regard to which the Plenipotentiaries could not come to an agreement, and
the omission of which awakens our most lively solicitude, and causes us
the utmost pain; for they concern, in the highest degree, the liberty of
the church, its rights, its essential principles, and the salvation of the
faithful in those Russian countries. We allude to that true and complete
liberty, which ought to be secured to the Christian people, of being able,
in regard to the things which relate to religion, to communicate, without
impediment, with this Apostolic See, the centre of Catholic unity and
truth, the Father and Master of all the Faithful. All men may understand
how deeply grieved we are, when they call to mind the multiplied appeals
which this Apostolic See has never ceased to cause to be heard at divers
times, in order to obtain free communication of the faithful, not only in
Russia, but also in other countries, where, in certain affairs of
religion, it is seriously impeded, to the great loss of souls. We would
speak of the property which ought to be restored to the clergy. We would
have removed from the Episcopal Consistories the lay person chosen by the
government, in order that, in these assemblies, the bishops may be able to
act with all liberty. We must advert to the law according to which mixed
marriages are not recognized as valid, until they have been blessed by a
Russo-Greek Catholic priest; and also to the liberty which Catholics ought
to possess of trying and judging their matrimonial causes, in eases of
mixed marriages, by a Catholic ecclesiastical tribunal. Finally, we would
allude to divers laws prevalent in Russia, which fix the age at which
religious professions may be made, which destroy entirely the schools that
are held in the houses of religious orders, which prevent the visits of
provincial superiors, which forbid and interdict conversion to the
Catholic faith."

In this same allocution the Holy Father deplores the miserable state of
the illustrious Ruthenian nation, which, dispersed throughout the vast
countries of