Pius IX, 1846-1878

government, to be revoked, therefore, at will by the civil government (9).

1726. 26. The Church does not have a natural and legitimate right to acquire and to possess (18, 29).

1727. 27. The sacred ministers of the Church and the Roman Pontiff should be entirely excluded from all administration and dominion over temporal things (26).

1728. 28. Without the permission of the government, it is not lawful for bishops to issue even Apostolic Letters (18).

1729. 29. Favors granted by the Roman Pontiff should be considered void, unless they have been requested through the government (18).

1730. 30. The immunity of the Church and of ecclesiastical persons had its origin in civil law (8).

1731. 31. The ecclesiastical court for the temporal cases of clerics, whether civil or criminal, should be absolutely abolished, even if the Apostolic See was not consulted, and protests (12, 18).

1732. 32. Without any violation of natural right and equity, the personal immunity by which clerics are exempted from the obligation of under-going and practising military service, can be abolished; in truth, civil progress demands this abrogation, especially in a society organized on the form of a more liberal government (32).

1733. 33. It does not belong exclusively to the ecclesiastical power of juris-diction, by proper and natural right, to direct the teaching of theological matters (30).

1734. 34. The doctrine of those who compare the Roman Pontiff to a free prince acting in the universal Church is a doctrine which prevailed in the Middle Ages (9).

1735. 35. There is nothing to forbid that by the vote of a General Council or by the action of all peoples the Supreme Pontificate be transferred from the Roman Bishop and THE CITY to another bishopric and another city (9).

1736. 36. The definition of a national council allows no further discussion, and the civil administration can force the matter to those boundaries (9).

1737. 37. National churches can be established which are exempt and com-pletely separated from the authority of the Roman Pontiff (23, 24).

1738. 38. The excessive decisions of the Roman Pontiffs contributed too much to the division of the Church into East and West (9).

Sec. VI. Errors Concerning Civil Society, Viewed Both in Themselves and in Their Relations to the Church

1739. 39. The state of the commonwealth, inasmuch as it is the origin and source of all rights, exercises a certain right bound by no limits (26).

1740. 40. The doctrine of the Catholic Church is opposed to the good and to the advantages of human society (1 [see n. 1634], 4).