under the pretext of making itself more
complete; there it is, built and finished; it cannot add to or go beyond
this; no collateral and supplementary constructions are requisite which,
through their independence, would derange the architectural whole, no
monastic congregations, no body of regular clergy; the secular clergy
suffices. "Never[5157] has it been contested that the public power had
the right to dissolve arbitrary institutions which do not insist on the
essence of religion and which are judged suspicious or troublesome to
the State." As a principle, all religious communities should be judged
in this way; for they are spontaneous bodies; they form their own
organization, and without the aid of the State, through the free will
of their members; they live apart, according to the proper and peculiar
statute which they adopt, outside of lay society, alongside of the
established Church, under distinct chiefs chosen by themselves,
sometimes under foreign ones, all more or less independent, all, through
interest and by instinct, gathered around the Holy See, which, against
diocesan authority and episcopal jurisdiction, serves them as protector.
Formerly, the monks[5158] formed the Pope's militia; they recognized
no other sovereign, and thus were they more to be feared by governments
than the secular clergy. The latter, without them, "would never have
caused embarrassment;" henceforth there will be no other body.[5159] "I
want bishops, cures, vicars, and that's all! Religious communities have
been allowed to re-establish themselves against my instructions;--I am
informed that, at Beauvais, the Jesuits have formed establishments under
the name of the Fathers of Faith. It should not be allowed"--and he
prohibits it by decree.[5160] He dissolves "all associations formed
under the pretext of religion and unauthorized." He decides that, in
future, "no aggregation or association of men or of women shall be
formed under pretext of religion unless formally authorized;" he enjoins
the prosecuting attorneys of his courts "to prosecute even by extra
proceedings all persons of both sexes who directly or indirectly
violate this decree." He reserves to himself, however, the faculty
of authorizing communities by which he can profit, and, in fact, he
authorizes several of these as instruments which society needs, or
which are useful to the State, especially nursing or teaching sisters
of charity,[5161] the brethren of Christian school