1* LC 1S&B8 $>* LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. -%p.' §opri#la UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. THE SCHOOL QUESTION IN THE UNITED STATES. A CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF Dr. BOUQUILLON'S "Rejoinder to Critics." From the Civilta Cattolica, March 5, 1892. 1892. FR. PUSTET, Printer to the Holy Apostolic See and the S. Congregation of Rites. FR. PUSTET & CO. NEW YORK and CINCINNATI. THE SCHOOL QUESTION IN THE UNITED STATES. BY MR 2 REV. S. BRANDI, S.J. W?? Copyright, 1892, By ERWIN STEINBACK, Firm of Fr. Pustet & Co. - The School Question in the United States. A CRITICAL EXAMINATION of Dr. Bouquillon's ''Rejoinder to Critics." (From the Civilta Cattolica, March 5, 1892.) * In our first number for last January we published a brief criticism of Dr. Bouquillon's first pamphlet on the question of education. We did so both because we believed his teaching to be, on various points, false and dangerous, and because it seemed to us proper to defend the Civilta Cattolica, since our arguments in favor of the doctrine opposed by the distinguished Professor were pronounced by him to be " far from con- vincing, and very faulty." Our voice was not the only one raised in defence of the truth. Among those who have written against Dr. Bouquillon's pamphlet, may be mentioned Father R. I. Holaind, Professor of Ethics in the Jesuit Scholasticate at Woodstock, Md. ; 2 the Rt. Rev. Dr. Chatard, Bishop of Vincennes; 3 the Rev. E. A. Higgins, S.J., formerly Provincial of Mis- souri, a writer thoroughly conversant with questions of social science ; 4 the Rev. S. G. Messmer, Bishop-elect of Green Bay and Professor of Canon Law in the same University in which Dr. Bouquillon holds a chair; 5 the Rev. H. J. Heuser, Editor of the American Ecclesiastical Review, and Professor in the Theological Seminary of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia ; 8 the Rev. J. Conway, S.J. of Canisius College, Buffalo, N. Y. , the author of several excellent works on Education ; 7 the critic of the American 1 Education: to whom does it belong ? A Rejoinder to Critics. J. Murphy & Co. , 2 The Parent First. Benziger, New York, 1891. Baltimore, 1892, p. 42. 3 Dr. Bouquillon on the School Question. Amer. Eccl. Rev., Feb. 1892. 4 Catholic News, New York; and Church Progress, St. Louis. 5 The Right of Instruction. Anier. Eccl. Rev., ibid. p. in. 6 Amer. Eccl. Rev., January and February, 1892. 7 A Study of Dr. Bouquillon's pamphlet. Pustet, New York, 1882. — 4 — Catholic Quarterly Review (January, 1892), in a review of a treatise against compulsory education, written by Judge E. F. Dunne, a jurist of high reputation in the United States. x Moreover, several American and Euro- pean periodicals have published articles against the theories of Dr. Bou- quillon and in defence of the principles for which the Civilta Cattolica has been contending. It is not surprising that Dr. Bouquillon, finding himself arraigned by so many writers of name and reputation, and unwilling to admit that he was in the wrong, should have felt himself impelled to return to the con- test and to defend with new ardor what he ought never to have written at all. This he does in the "Rejoinder" which it is our purpose to re- view in these pages. In this second pamphlet he se:s forth his position, in a paragraph of modest dimensions, and then proceeds to clear up the disputed points in his teaching and to protest against the insinuations of some censors, who, with no slight foundation, gave out that he had written his pamphlet to serve the purposes of the liberal-catholic American school. The courteous tone with which the Professor begins the difficult task he has set himself in the "Rejoinder," is certainly commendable. If, in the heat of controversy, he sometimes deviates from the mild and moderate forms of speech with which he started, as, for example when he ascribes to his adversaries ignorance, prejudice, falsehood or dishonesty, we may condone this occasional acerbity of style when we consider the hard lot of the writer who is sorely strained in his defence of the false theories which he sincerely believes or, at all events, which he wishes to believe true. In such straits, as sophistry takes the place of argument, so passion holds sway where calm reasoning alone should prevail. To spare the patience of our readers, we shall limit our review to the principal points of the "Rejoinder," which, if our judgment is not at fault, give to the theories of the Reverend Professor a still more objection- able character than they had before. This is what we understand the author to hold : — The State — that is, any and every State — has the special and proper right, though not the exclusive right — 1) to educate the children of its citizens, that is, to establish schools for them, to appoint teachers, to prescribe methods and programmes of study; 2 — 2) to determine a mini- mum of instruction and make it obligatory; 3 — 3) to impose by law the teaching of any branch, the knowledge of which, considering the circum- 1 Compulsory Education. St. Louis, 1891. 2 Pamphlet, pp. 11, 12. Rejoinder, p. n. 8 Pamphlet, p. 26. -^ 5 — stances, is deemed necessary to the majority of the citizens; 1 — 4) to punish parents who neglect to give to their children or to procure for them the instruction prescribed by the State ; 2 — 5) to exercise its authority in the matter of education not only over schools founded by the State, but equally over all schools of human science founded by individuals, families and associations ; 3 — 6) to exact from all teachers in such schools evidence of worth and capability. 4 It must be observed, moreover, that, according to the Reverend Professor, the judge who is to decide upon the instruction obligatory on all, on the matter to be taught, on the methods and programmes to be followed and the qualifications required of the teachers in all the schools, is the State itself, whatever its character and polity may be, whether Protestant, infidel, or atheist. Keeping this statement of the case in mind, it is not hard to under- stand why the opponents of Dr. Bouquillon, as strenuous defenders of the rights of the Church and of the family, have promptly rejected his theories as pure and simple state-worship, 5 or as savoring of political rationalism, 6 or, at the best, even taking into account all the circum- stances of times and surroundings, as dangerous in the highest degree to the welfare of the Church, of the family, and even of civil society itself. What adds to the dangerous character of the Doctor's theories is the fact that, as we pointed out in our first review, 7 the author himself has no clear, certain and precise concept of education ; hence he uses the term with such a confusion and diversity of meanings that, in spite of the restrictions and explanations with which he surrounds it, the reader of his pamphlet might be justified in using one or another of his definitions, at will, and might draw therefrom a logical conclusion not only false, but such that even the most liberal of liberal Catholics would not venture to defend it. Neither in the original pamphlet nor in the "Rejoinder" has the word "education" any fixed and determined meaning. The author speaks of education now "in a restricted sense," again "in a large sense," at one time "in a certain sense," at another " in another sense ; " mostly, 1 Pamphlet, p. 28. 2 Ibid, pp. 26, 28. 3 Ibid, p. 23. 4 Ibid, p. 24. 5 These theories are characterized as " statolatry " by M. Roussel, in the Univers, Jan. 30 and Feb. 7, 1892; and by the Osservatore Catto/ico, Feb. 4 and 5, 1892. 6 La Verife, Quebec, Jan. 30, 1892. i Civilta Catlolica, Jan. 2, 1892, p. 87. 6 — it seems to us, in no sense at all, and often against all sense, even common sense. Even reading cursorily the work of our author we have culled out about a score of such definitions. Here are some of them : What is education ? In a large sense it is to communicate what we know to one who does not know (p. 8); education in a restricted sense is to communicate after a methodical and continuous fashion knowledge relative to religion, morals, letters, sciences, the arts (p. 8) ; to educate is to instruct and train childhood and youth (p. 8) ; education, as far as the State is concerned, means the same as teaching, which is "estab- lishing schools, appointing teachers, prescribing methods and programmes of study" (p. n). This definition is repeated twice in the "Rejoinder," but with two variations. On page 30 we read : the right of education is the right "to establish schools, pay teachers, prescribe programmes;" and on the following page something else is brought into the definition of the right to educate, that is, to build schools, and the appointing or paying teachers is changed into "employ masters." The only definition that comes near to the truth is one which is given on page 16 of the "Rejoinder," where it is stated that education is "the formation of character, the inculcation of virtue, the correction of faults and defects." But it would be a dangerous concession to grant to any and every State the right to educate, if this definition were applied in the concession. 1 But perhaps the Reverend Professor believed that he had anticipated our objection (in what sense we cannot surmise) when he wrote in the "Rejoinder" (p. 10) that "contentions merely about words are ridicu- lous." He then goes on to say : "In olden times such things flourished in Byzantium ; I did not expect to find them to-day in the free and fair land of America ! " 1 This definition is given by Dr. Bouquillon to prove that every individual has the right to educate. We shall quote his argument as he lays it down himself (" Rejoinder, p. 16), as a sample of the lack both of clearness and precision in his ideas and of sound logic in the application of them. "Education is the formation of charater, the incul- cation of virtue, the correction of faults and effects." " But every man has the right to inculcate virtue on his neighbor, to correct his neighbor's faults." " Therefore (!) every individual has the right to educate." One need not have studied dialectics very deeply to understand that the Doctor's conclusion is a clear case of non sequitur. The syllogism contains four terms. The " formation of character " which appears in the major premise, is omitted in the minor. Had the Doctor taken care to propose his syllogism in fortn, he should have asserted in the minor premise that '■'■every individual has the right to form the character of his neighbor;" an assertion which his readers and admirers "in the free and fair land of America " would not readily have accepted. Evidently the Professor, when he left Europe, a few months more than two years ago, for the free land of America, had formed an alto- gether wrong notion of American liberty. It certainly does not consist in the unrestrained freedom of perverting ideas of which words are the signs. Such perversion has been and now is, as his Eminence Cardinal Gibbons well points out, "the source of the popular errors now existing in reference to education." 1 The same conviction is expressed by another distinguished prelate well known in the United States as one of the most learned members of the American hierarchy. The Rt. Rev. T. A. Becker, Bishop of Savannah, writing about this confusion of ideas, such as we have pointed out in Dr. Bouquillon's work, calls attention to the dangerous tendency of them, in these words: "Men who have studied logic. . . . will perceive that many honest thinkers are, by this vague, indefinite and interchanging use of the two terms {education and instruction) led to illogical results ; and these are the men who do harm in matters per- taining to the moral and intellectual domain." 2 The question of education in the United States is not a Byzantine question, nor a mere matter of words. It is one of the most important questions with which American Catholics have to deal, because it touches most nearly the vital interests of that flourishing Church. On its solution, especially on its practical solution, depends the welfare, present and future, of millions and millions of souls. In this question of education, and we mean truly and thoroughly catholic education, we prefer to remain ' * stationary, " that is, to stand unswervingly by the principle ' 'nil innovetur nisi quod traditum est." rather than admit of any compromise such as is suggested by Dr. Bouquillon on page 34 of his "Rejoinder." Such a compromise we believe to be fraught with danger, and moreover it would justify the Faribault bargain, 3 which means the closing of Catholic schools already existing, and the giving over of them to the State in order to save the outlay necessary for their maintenance ; and this arrangement provides for the exclusion from such schools of crucifixes, prayers and religion, gaining in return, from the State, secular instruction for catholic children, which instruction is given indifferently by teachers who are Pro- testants, or Jews, or unbelievers, appointed by the State ; and over this instruction the Church has absolutely no jurisdiction. We never have be- lieved and we never will believe that the teaching of Catholic religious and 1 "I am persuaded that the popular errors now existing in reference to education spring from an incorrect notion of that term." Our Christian Heritage, p. 489. 2 Secular Education. Amer. Cath. Quarterly Rev., Jan., 1892, p. 177. 3 We have given an account of this transaction in our Correspondence from the U.S., issue of Feb. 6, 1892, p. 366. moral doctrine can be given as an appendix to the education of the Church's children, or that the real and not imaginary harm done to our Catholic children who, for months and years spend the greater part of the day in neutral schools, studying the histories and manuals of literature prescribed by the State, associating continually with a promiscuous assem- blage of boys, and often girls, who are Protestants or unbelievers, can ever be repaired by the half-hour of catechism which they may be allowed to have outside of school-hours, on certain days, or even if it were every day, in the week. * In confirmation of what we have just written, we may quote the words of the Rev. S. B. Smith, the first of American canonists : "Ex- perience teaches that the public or common schools in the United States, owing to their very system, .the text-books used, and the class of children frequenting them, in most cases endanger both the faith and morals of Catholic children sent to them." 2 And His Eminence, the Archbishop of Baltimore, classes among the serious evils which threaten American civilization, ' ' our mutilated and defective system of public school education. " 3 It will be well not to pass over the 48th proposition of the Syllabus, condemned by Pius IX., which states that Catholics may approve of that manner of educating youth, which is disjoined from Catholic faith and from the authority of the Churchy and is concerned only with natural science, and which takes into account only, or at least primarily, the pur- poses of social life. But to return to the Reverend Professor. After speaking of the prin- ciples that govern education, which education, according to the Doctor, belongs "to the individual physical or moral, to the family, to the State, 1 As early as December of last year, that is, three month after the Secularization of the Catholic schools, some forty pupils of the former parochial school of Faribault had been transferred, by the State officials, to other schools, where they receive secular in- structions from secular teachers. Meanwhile, in the schools built by Catholics for Cath- olics, no religious instruction is given, because it is forbidden by the State officials who have charge of the schools and on whose authority those schools now depend exclusively. 2 Elements of Ecclesiastical Law, Vol. I, p. 442, 8th Ed., l89l. 3 Our Christian Heritage, p. 489. 4 The Secretary of the Faribault School-board, in a letter quoted by us in our Cor- respondence (p. 368), quoted above, declared that all superintendence and management of the school had passed entirely out of the hands of the hierarchy; and the Archbishop in whose diocese the school is situated, adds that "the authority (secular) of the Board is supreme in all that concerns the teaching prescribed by its own programme and during all the time fixed by the said programme." (Archbishop Ireland in the New York Herald, Dec. 14, 1891.) Vid. Civilta Cattolica, Feb. 6, p. 367 seq., and the Letter from the U. S. in the Correspondence in this number. — 9 — to the Church," he concludes, the "practical application (of these prin- ciples) is the work of the men whom God has placed at the head of the Church and the State." x We can understand how this practical and "har- monious" application may be made by the Church and the State, without any serious inconvenience or danger, when the State is in harmony and union with the Church. But the practical case would be and is very dif- ferent in countries where the State, atheistic, or Protestant, or altogether indifferent in religious matters, does not recognize the Church ; in other words, where, as in the United States, the State is separated from the Church. It is obvious that in such a case the practical application of those principles cannot have place, and in point of fact will not be made except by the State which alone will be the supreme judge, and that with- out appeal. If the Reverend Professor says that he will never approve of the abuse of these rights, should the State be guilty of abusing the rights he grants it, he should reflect that the State, say an atheistic, Protestant or unbelieving State, will make little account of his theoretical disapproval, just as it cares not one iota for the sacred and imprescriptible rights of the Church. These are my rights, the state will tell him, and I recognize no judge in the matter of their use other than myself. Such a State might fairly quote, in favor of its action, Dr. Bouquillon himself; for, in his "Re- joinder"' (page 13) he affirms that a State "where many religious beliefs prevail" — and a fortiori a State which is atheistic or irreligious — "may be inclined to waive the use of its rights in education, but it can never put those right* out of existence. " The reason why the State, whatever its character and polity may be, could never lose those rights, in Dr. Bouquillon's theory, is that the right of educating, as he wrongly teaches, belongs to the State as such ; just as it belongs to the family as such. Hence the Reverend Doctor declares most emphatically, in the "Rejoinder" (pp. 11, 14) that in this matter of education he admits no distinction between "the State Christian and the State non-Christian, because 1) it is unfounded, and 2) it implies that the government of the United States is not Christian, an assumption which I regard," he says, "as untrue in its full extent." Upon this we must ask leave of the Reverend Professor to make a passing remark. He is a theo- logian, and he assures us ("Rejoinder," p. 33) that he has "gone to the school of Franzelin, Pattrizzi and Ballerini, S.J." Now we would ask him whether he learned in that school that a State which professes absolute indifferentism in religious matters, which officially declines to recognize 1 The original pamphlet, p. 31. — 10 — any faith, which, in its schools, does not admit the Sacred scriptures as a book containing a divine and supernatural revelation, is a Christian State? In that. school, which is ours too, the teaching was then, as it is now, that " Extra catholicismum non datur verus christianismus." * We may add that the theory of the rights of the State in matter of educa- tion, in the sense in which it is now defended by the author of the pamphlet we are reviewing, is altogether at variance with the teaching of that school. We must believe then, that elsewhere, and not in that school, he learned the theories he is now propounding. We would have it under- stood that we are dealing with the opinions which he has set forth in his first pamphlet, and which he is now striving to defend in his "Rejoinder"; for we do not at all admit the truth of his assertion (" Rejoinder," p. 6), that "the doctrine exposed in the pamphlet. ... is substantially contained in the treatise De Legibus of the Theologia Fundamentalis " ! In that treat- ise (n. 205) we read the following words : "Ad auctoritatem civilem pertinet providere institutioni in litteris, scientiis et artibus humanis, quae tantopere necessariae sunt turn singulis individuis turn toti communitati .... ne tamen ultra suos limites extendatur, animadvertendum est, societatis civilis finem non esse ut praedicta, bona omnia immediate civibus procuret, sed potius ut eos ad ilia comparanda adjuvet." Here we recognize sound doctrine ; this is the doctrine of our school, which has been clearly ex- pressed by our colleague, the Rev. Father Taparelli. "Civil society has no right, in the regular order of things, to arrogate to itself the direction of private education. I say, to arrogate to itself — because the State may / open to its youth the safe and wholesome sources from which they may learn what is true and right ; it may provide parents, for this same end, I with a true and faithful helper in whom their confidence may be assured by public guarantees, provided always it claims no right to compel them to use these helps. This is not arrogating to itself the right to educate ; it is simply offering helpful means towards obtaining education, and it is a most just and praiseworthy proceeding in a progressive society." 2 Certainly, from this doctrine to that which Dr. Bouquillon defends in his pamphlet, is a far cry. For in the "Theologia Fundamentalis" the providere institutioni in human knowleflge^ letters, sciences and arts, did not mean that the State has either the right or the duty to furnish these advantages to its citizens immediately, but only to help the citizens to the attainment of them; but in the "Rejoinder" (p. 32) that same providere institutioni "means not only to aid and. encourage others in 1 Vide Perrone, De Vera Religione, p. 2, n. 88. Marietti, 1865. 2 Saggio teoretico, Vol. 2, n. 1570. II *s> the giving-ef such instruction, but to give instruction directly," that is, to-educate the children of its .citizens. What he refused to the State in 1887 "ne ultra suos limites extendatur," he- now grants to the same State as a natural and divine right which the State can never lose how- ever much the State may abuse it ! Metastasio must have been thinking of something like this when he wrote : " Dopo un error commesso, Necessario diventa ogni altro eccesso. " It was our purpose to say something more about the Doctor's present teaching about compulsory education, which doctrine was dispatched by him in five lines, two in the text and three in a note, in his "Theologia Fundamentals ;" but we have been made 'acquainted, by our American correspondent, with a letter written by Dr. Bouquillon, in which he announces his intention of publishing, at an early date, a reply to our criticism of his theories on this point, which we gave to our readers in our issue of January 2d. We think it right to defer any further treat- ment of the subject till we shall have read this other "Rejoinder," if it appears. Meanwhile we deem it lawful for us to give our honest opinion concerning the authors quoted by Dr. Bouquillon in. support of his thesis. "The State — that is, any and every. State — has the special and proper right to educate." The authors quoted as patrons of this thesis are his Eminence Cardinal Zigliara, Monsignor Sauve, and Fathers Hammerstein and Costa-Rosetti, S.J. Now we have most carefully and diligently conned and pondered the passages quoted by Dr. Bouquillon ; we have gone to the original writings themselves, and after a deep and accurate investigation we are constrained, on behalf of the truth and in justice'' to those illustrious writers, to declare that not one of them grants to the State — that is, to any and every State — the proper and special right to educate, not even in the sense in which Dr. Bouquillon explains the meaning of those words — namely, "to establish schools, to appoint teachers, to prescribe methods and programmes of study." Not only is this doctrine not found in any one of the passages quoted by Dr. Bouquillon, but it is distinctly excluded by the whole context. As an example, we will quote the context of his Eminence Cardinal Zigliara, whose great and uncontested authority in matters of theology and philosophy Dr. Bouquillon has' so sadly misused. According to Dr. Bouquillon, the State has the right to educate, and of this right the principal element is the "prescribing methods and 12 programmes of study." x Now Cardinal Zigliara, in his "Summa Philo- sophica" v. 3, 1. 2, c. 4, a. 3, explicitly denies that the State has any such right." Addo Ecclesiae competere jus seligendi magistros, designandi scholas, praescribendi methodos et doctrinas suis subditis quod jus statui denegavimus. " Dr. Bouquillon undertakes to prove that the State has the right to educate, because "civil authority has the right to use all legitimate tem- poral means it judges necessary for the attainment of its end." But this reason is rejected by Cardinal Zigliara as a sophism: "Si haec ratio, quam ad nauseam usque adversarii decantant valeret, nimis probaret; siquidem nullus est actus externus civis, qui aliquam externam relationem ad civi- lem societatem non habeat; ergo in sensu objectionis, societas civilis, prae- textu boni communis, de omnibus actibus externis hominis, considerando ea ut bona quaedam socialia, disponere posset. Hoc est, non homines, sed pecudes essent homines in societate viventes " (ibid. 1. 2, c. 1, a. 5). Observe, moreover, that according to Dr. Bouquillon's theory, men- tioned above, the State has the right, not only of helping parents to fulfil their duty in the education of their children and of exercising due watch- fulness to keep this education within the bounds of truth and right, but also of constituting itself the educator of the offspring of its citizens, of determining the minimum of instruction to be given to all and of making this obligatory, of prescribing by law the teaching of any branch it may judge necessary, etc. Cardinal Zigliara, on the other hand, takes quite the opposite view. With that clearness and precision which is one of the many charms of his philosophical teaching, he enumerates and determines the rights that may be granted to the State. They are 1) Jus simul et omcium procurandi (familiis) media aptiora ad educationem turn intellectualem turn moralem — 2) Jus et omcium invigilandi ut educatio intellectualis et mora- lis intra limites honestatis et veritatis contineatur." And as if this were not definite enough, he adds the emphatic declaration: "his (duobus) libenter concessis, imo ex jure impositis Statui, caetera, quae sibi arrogat, vehementer negamus; " and in a note, after repeating that the State has no other rights, in this matter, than the two above-mentioned, he goes on to say: " en limites societatis civilis, quos nonnisi contra sacra jura paterna excedere fas est." 1 To establish or build schools, to pay, employ or even appoint teachers, without obliging parents to use them, is not to educate, but only, as Card. Zigliara explains, to furnish the parents with means of promoting education, whether intellectual or moral, or, as Taparelli has it, it "is offering helpful means towards obtaining education; a most just and praiseworthy proceeding in a progressive society." — 13 — • We were amazed, therefore, when we read the "Rejoinder," to find that Dr. Bouquillon persisted in his misinterpretation of Cardinal Ziglia- ra's teaching, to say nothing of his charging with ignorance and falsehood a distinguished American writer who incurred his displeasure by asserting and proving, just as we have asserted and proved, that the learned Cardi- nal is so far from favoring Dr. Bouquillon's thesis that he is one of its strongest opponents. As we deem it important that no shadow of doubt on this point should remain in the minds of our readers, we have taken the liberty of calling upon his Eminence in person, to make sure of our statement. He has very kindly authorized us to declare that he does not admit the doctrine that "the State, that is, any and every State, has the right to educate the children of its citizens." We close this article with a solemn protest against some words used by Dr. Bouquillon on the 8th page of his "Rejoinder," as follows: "Fre- quent use has been made of Mgr. Cavagnis, not only because of the in- trinsic worth of his writings, but also because of his special position. He is a member of the Sacred Congregation of extraordinary ecclesiastical affairs and Professor in the Pontifical Seminary of the Apollinare. May we not repeat in America what is taught in the Seminary of the Pope himself and is published in Rome P" If these words mean anything they mean that these theories now proposed by Dr. Bouquillon in America are the theories of Mgr. Cavagnis, taught in the Pope's seminary and contained in the Institutiones published in Rome. If this is not the meaning of his words, what does the Professor mean by asserting, in defence of his theories, that he does but repeat in America what is taught and published in Rome? Now it is our duty to declare that Dr. Bouquillon's assertion is absolutely and entirely false. Dr. Bouquillon's theories are not taught in the Pope's seminary, and they are not found in the work of Mgr. Cavagnis published in Rome. • We have enquired, by letter, of Mgr. Cavagnis whether the doctrine set forth on page 554 1 of this number of our Review (the author's name we did not mention) was to be found in the " Institutiones Jur. Pub. Ecclesiastici " published by him in Rome in 1883, and whether he taught any such doctrine in the Roman Pontifical Seminary of the Apollinare. To this enquiry he has sent us the following reply : — 1 The propositions mentioned here are found on page 4 of this pamphlet. — 14 — Roman Pontifical Seminary, Rome, February 21st, 1892. Rev. Father in Christ : — In answer to your letter of the 15th inst, I declare to you that in my Institutiones I do not directly treat of public natural right, but only of ecclesiastical law, and consequently I have in that work written rather fully about the rights of the Church concerning education and schools. But I have never treated of a proper and special right that could belong to the-State, that is, to any and every State, of educating its citizens, nor have I treated the question whether and how the State may render obliga- tory a certain measure of instruction. I deem it hardly necessary to add that the doctrine which your Reverence mentions in the letter sent to me, is not taught in this Pontifical Seminary. I am, &c, Felice Cavagnis. We may stop here. There are many other things that we would like to say ; but we will hold them in reserve for another article which we may give to our readers as soon as we shall have received Dr. Bouquillon's rejoinder to the Civilta Cattolica. Meanwhile we take this opportunity to thank him for the words in which he expresses his confidence in our judg- ment to which ("Rejoinder" p. 6 note) he refers "those who should be tempted to suspect his orthodoxy." — °- « \ LIBRARY OF CONGRESS M lllllllllllllllllllilllil 10 030 218 739 3