schism.

Italy was more deeply interested in the events at Rome than any other
nation. The hostility of the clergy was felt both in the political and
financial difficulties of the kingdom; and the prospect of conciliation
would suffer equally from decrees confirming the Roman claims, or from
an invidious interposition of the State. Public opinion watched the
preparations for the Council with frivolous disdain; but the course to
be taken was carefully considered by the Menabrea Cabinet. The laws
still subsisted which enabled the State to interfere in religious
affairs; and the government was legally entitled to prohibit the
attendance of the bishops at the Council, or to recall them from it. The
confiscated church property was retained by the State, and the claims of
the episcopate were not yet settled. More than one hundred votes on
which Rome counted belonged to Italian subjects. The means of applying
administrative pressure were therefore great, though diplomatic action
was impossible. The Piedmontese wished that the resources of their
ecclesiastical jurisprudence should be set in motion. But Minghetti, who
had lately joined the Ministry, warmly advocated the opinion that the
supreme principle of the liberty of the Church ought to override the
remains of the older legislation, in a State consistently free; and,
with the disposition of the Italians to confound Catholicism with the
hierarchy, the policy of abstention was a triumph of liberality. The
idea of Prince Hohenlohe, that religion ought to be maintained in its
integrity and not only in its independence, that society is interested
in protecting the Church even against herself, and that the enemies of
her liberty are ecclesiastical as well as political, could find no
favour in Italy. During the session of 1869, Menabrea gave no pledge to
Parliament as to the Council; and the bishops who inquired whether they
would be allowed to attend it were left unanswered until October.
Menabrea then explained in a circular that the right of the bishops to
go to the Council proceeded from the liberty of conscience, and was not
conceded under the old privileges of the crown, or as a favour that
could imply responsibility for what was to be done. If the Church was
molested in her freedom, excuse would be given for resisting the
incorporation of Rome. If the Council came to decisions injurious to the
safety of States, it would be attributed to the unnatural conditions
created by