e order. "_For the powers that
are ordained by God._" (Rom. xiii. 1.) And if this were not so, causes
of rivalries and dangerous disputes would be constantly arising; and man
would often have to stop in anxiety and doubt, like a traveller with two
roads before him, not knowing what he ought to do, with two powers
commanding contrary things, whose authority however, he cannot refuse
without neglect of duty. But it would be most repugnant, so to think, of
the wisdom and goodness of God, Who, even in physical things, though
they are of a far lower order, has yet so attempered and combined
together the forces and causes of nature in an orderly manner and with a
sort of wonderful harmony, that none of them is a hindrance to the rest,
and all of them most fitly and aptly combine for the great end of the
universe. So, then, there must needs be a certain orderly connection
between these two powers, which may not unfairly be compared to the
union with which soul and body are united in man. What the nature of
that union is, and what its extent, cannot otherwise be determined than,
as we have said, by having regard to the nature of each power, and by
taking account of the relative excellence and nobility of their ends;
for one of them has for its proximate and chief aim the care of the
goods of this world, the other the attainment of the goods of heaven
that are eternal. Whatsoever, therefore, in human affairs is in any
manner sacred; whatsoever pertains to the salvation of souls or the
worship of God, whether it be so in its own nature, or on the other
hand, is held to be so for the sake of the end to which it is referred,
all this is in the power and subject to the free disposition of the
Church: but all other things which are embraced in the civil and
political order, are rightly subject to the civil authority, since Jesus
Christ has commanded that what is Caesar's is to be paid to Caesar, and
what is God's to God. Sometimes, however, circumstances arise when
another method of concord is available for peace and liberty; we mean
when princes and the Roman Pontiff come to an understanding concerning
any particular matter. In such circumstances the Church gives singular
proof of her maternal good-will, and is accustomed to exhibit the
highest possible degree of generosity and indulgence.

Such, then, as we have indicated in brief, is the Christian order of
civil society; no rash or merely fanciful fiction, but deduced from
princip