airs the right is granted of
maintaining separate postal and telegraph offices, of transmitting
sealed packages of correspondence under the papal stamp, either
directly or through the Italian post, and of sending couriers who,
within the kingdom, are placed on an equal footing with emissaries of
foreign governments.

[Footnote 567: Art. 12. Dodd, Modern Constitutions,
II., 19.]

*429. Legal Relations of Church and State.*--The regulations by which
the relations of church and state are governed more specifically begin
with the abolition of all restrictions upon the right of members of
the Catholic clergy to assemble for ecclesiastical purposes. With
provisional exceptions, the _exequatur_, the _placet_, and all other
forms of civil authorization of spiritual measures are done away.[568]
The state yields its ancient right of nominating to bishoprics, and
the bishops themselves are no longer required to take oath of fidelity
to the king. In matters of spiritual discipline it is stipulated that
there shall be no appeal to the civil courts from the decisions of the
ecclesiastical authorities. If, however, any ecclesiastical decision
or act contravenes a law of the state, subverts public order, or
encroaches upon the rights of individuals, it is, _ipso facto_, of no
effect; and in respect to these things the state is constituted sole
judge. The Church, in short, is granted a very large measure of
freedom and of autonomy; but at the same time it is not so far
privileged as to be removed beyond the pale of the public law. If its
measures constitute offenses, they are subject to the provisions of
the ordinary criminal code.[569]

[Footnote 568: On the Government's use of the
_exequatur_ since 1871 see King and Okey, Italy
To-day, 253.]

[Footnote 569: By act of July 12, 1871, articles
268-270 of the Italian penal code were so modified
as to render ecclesiastics liable to imprisonment
of from six months to five years, and to fines of
from one thousand to three thousand lire, for
spoken or written attacks upon the state, or for
the incitement of disorder.]

*430. Papal Opposition to the Existing System.*--The arrangements (p. 390)
thus comprised in the Law of Guarantees have never received the
sanct