,
had obliged the prelates of the old regime, sullied by a monarchical
origin and suspected of zeal for the dethroned Bourbons, to abandon
their seats. In 1816, under the pressure of the re-established Bourbons,
the same Pius VII. obliged Fesch, cardinal-archbishop of Lyons, and
uncle of the fallen Napoleon, to abandon his seat. Bercastel et Henrion,
XIII, 192. Cardinal Fesch having been banished from France by the law
of January 12, 1816, "the Pope no longer regarded the person of the
cardinal, but the diocese that had to be saved at any cost, by virtue of
the principle salus populi suprema lex. Consequently, he prohibited the
cardinal from "exercising episcopal jurisdiction in his metropolitan
church, and constituted M. de Bernis administrator of that church,
spiritually as well as temporally, notwithstanding all constitutions
decreed even by the general councils, the apostolic ordinances,
privileges, etc." In both cases the situation was similar, and, in the
latter as in the former case, motives of the same order warranted the
same use of the same power.

But the situation, in being prolonged, multiplied, for the Church, the
number of urgent cases, and, for the sovereign pontiff the number of
cases of intervention. Since 1789, the entire civil order of things,
constitutional, political, social and territorial, had become singularly
unstable, not only in France but in Europe, not only on the old
continent but likewise on the new one. Sovereign states by hundreds
sunk under the strokes and counter-strokes, indefinitely propagated and
enforced by the philosophy of the eighteenth century and of the French
Revolution; others, by dozens, arose in their place, and, in these,
different dynasties succeeded each other; here, Catholic populations
falling under the rule of a schismatic or Protestant prince; there, this
or that Catholic country, for fifteen years included in a mixed state,
detached from it and constituted apart. In Protestant America, the
Catholics, increased to millions, formed new communities in Catholic
America, the colonies had become independent; almost everywhere in
America and in Europe the maxims of government and of public opinion
had changed. Now, after each of these changes, some initiative,
some direction, some authority was necessary, in order to reconcile
ecclesiastical with lay institutions; the Pope was on hand, and on each
occasion he establishes this concord.[5208] At one time, by a diplomatic