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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Untitled Article
-1819 , by authority , and from this book Count Fozzo bas published his abridged translation , " It contains , " he observes , " a system of doctrine ,
in the formation of which , under the reigns of Maria Theresa , Joseph II ., and Leopold II ., the roost learned German and Italian political writers , civilians and canonists , have co-operated , which has been maintained in -practice a sufficient time to appreciate its effects , and which well deserves to jix the attention of other nations and of other governments . It is a far better system than that of the celebrated Gallican Liberties . "
The work . is divided into three books : —the first , treats of Ecclesiastical Law in General , and its divisions ; the second , of Internal Public Ecclesias * ticaLLaw , as it regards the authorities constituted for the internal administration of the church , their mutual rights , duties , &c . ; the third , of External Ecclesiastical Public Law , under which head are considered the relations between the church and the state . The first of these books is of an abstract character : it defines the church
to be a society , that is to say , a congregation of men connected by common laws or rules , having a settled object , which is in this life the fulfilment of religious duties , and in the life to come , eternal salvation . Into this church every person is free to enter or not to enter . No means of coercion are permitted on account of matters relating to this society , and the society itself is recognized as having and requiring no other powers than it is proper should be conceded to it as necessary for the internal regulation of any such an association of persons for a common object , sanctioned and
approved by the state . Of course , excommunication or exclusion of members is the principal power of this sort which is allowed . Individuals are recognized to have the power of thus associating with a view to determinate objects , and a new social law is , to a certain extent , therefore introduced by the restrictions which such individuals impose on themselves . But this new social law is held to require the approbation of the civil power , and to be only valid on condition that it does not prejudice public liberty and the interests of civil society .
The sources of ecclesiastical common law are next considered . The suspected decisions or assumptions , in modern times of Papal encroachment , are not admitted as legitimate authorities . The decretals of the popes are confined to the limits fixed to their authority as heads of the church , which the Austrian ecclesiastical law confines within narrow limits ; and an important division of the sources of ecclesiastical law is assigned to the internal laws , customs , and regulations , of different states , and the
decrees of their rulers . The particular laws and customs of Austria for the regulation of the state's relations to the church , are enumerated under this head . It is stated , that all who in Ausiria are destined for ecclesiastical cures , or even for the administration of civil affairs , are obliged to study the maxims of the government with regard to ecclesiastical matters ; and no person can be admitted into tfye higher orders of the church if he have not undergone an examination upon its canon law .
The second book contains a detailed exposition of the limits and nature of purel y ecclesiastical power ; of the officers instituted for the maintenance of the social system of the church , and their respective powers and duties . Bishops are recognized , as by regular succession , the principal administrators of ecclesiastical authority , the church having , however , no other means at its disposal of coercing its subjects than those which arc requisite to instruct and exhort them , and to exclude the refractory oc disobedient from all } or a part of the ecclesiastical communion , If
Untitled Article
r 676 Review . —Catholicism in Ausirta .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1827, page 676, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1800/page/44/
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