in 1910. The revolutionary government which had deposed Dom Manuel promptly abolished the Concordat of 1778, based on the Concordat concluded between Pope Leo X. and King Emmanuel in 1516, seized the temporalities of the Church and placed them under the control of lay corporations resembling the French associations cultuelles. As any word, written or spoken in public, blaming or criticising the action of the Govern- ment, was forbidden under the severest penalties, in a short time the Patriarch of Lisbon, Mgr. Mendes de Bello, and several of the bishops were exiled, and a large number of the clergy imprisoned or deported. The Holy See, in the Encyclical Jamdudum (May 24 1911), refused to recognize the lay cor- porations, forbade the clergy to accept the pensions offered by the Government, and exhorted the bishops to stand firm while waiting for better times.
The ten years preceding 1921 brought into play the wisdom of milder measures. More moderate rulers succeeded the earlier extremists, and the legislation in Portugal on ecclesiastical matters was mitigated, so that the bishops and clergy were able to return to their sees and parishes, and an arrangement acceptable both to Rome and the Government was gradually worked out, so that in 1918 diplomatic relations were resumed with the Holy See. In fact, Cardinal Gasparri, the papal Secre- tary of State, at a dinner given in 1920 to the Portuguese envoy, publicly expressed his congratulations on the good understand- ing prevailing between Portugal and the Holy See.
It would be difficult to forecast with accuracy from such events how far the traditional union of Church and State based on Concordats will be, in the future, compatible with the principles and programme of liberal or revolutionary govern- ments amongst the Latin nations. That the actual separation of Church and State demanded by such governments need not necessarily mean a rupture between the two powers, and may be carried out in a friendly spirit in which the right and liberty of both are respected, would seem to be indicated by the modifi- cations which have followed upon the revolution in Brazil since 1890. In that country the Church, after the separation, has been left fairly free in the control of her property, with powers as a corporation to possess and receive bequests. In 1905 Pius X. had marked his satisfaction with the action of the Brazilian Republic by raising the Archbishop of Rio de Janeiro, Mgr. Arcoverde de Albucuerque, to the Sacred College and giving to Brazil the honour of having the first cardinal ever created in South America. The papal nuncio presided over the diplomatic commission which sat for some five years and succeeded in maintaining peace and arranging all the points of dispute between the three republics, Brazil, Peru and the Argentine. In 1918 the Senate of Brazil, by a unanimous vote, appointed a commission to congratulate Pope Benedict XV. on the anniversary of his coronation, and to thank him for his efforts for peace during the World War. Since then, chap- lains and religious services have been restored in the Brazilian navy, and notable Church progress has been made in the vast territories of the republic by the erection of new sees and the organization of missions in the Chaco and far interior.
In Serbia the great majority of the population belongs to the Eastern Orthodox Church, and before the war the number of Catholics in the kingdom was estimated at 8,000. Over these the Emperor of Austria, by the treaty of Carlovitz, exercised a protectorate which gave him a handle for intervention in Serbian affairs, and became a factor of considerable political value. The Serbian Catholics were placed under the jurisdiction of the Albanian Archbishop of Scutari, and Austria was credited with the design of making use of this protectorate to promote her ambitions of eastward extension, which had the port of Scutari for its objective. To the great displeasure and annoy- ance of the Emperor of Austria and his Government, the Holy See in June 1914 practically crushed this scheme by abolishing the protectorate and by concluding a Concordat with Serbia which, by the inclusion of Uskub, had now a Catholic population of some 16,000 Catholics. By this Concordat the full and free exercise of their religion was guaranteed to the Serbian Catholics,
and an ecclesiastical province, consisting of the archbishopric of Belgrade and the bishopric of Uskub, was recognized and endowed by the Government. The Catholic Church as a legal corporation was to have complete liberty to possess and to administer her temporalities. Teachers of the Catholic catechism (who might be priests) were to have free entry into the State schools, and as long as they enjoyed the approbation of the Catholic bishops were to be paid by the Government for their services. This Concordat was ratified by Pope Benedict XV. in March 1915, and diplomatic representation has been estab- lished between Serbia and the Holy See.
A still more important step in the appreciation of the political advantages of representation at the Vatican as a centre of influence and information was taken by the British Govern- ment in 1914 by sending as its envoy to Rome the late Sir Henry Howard, who in 1916 was succeeded by the Count de Salis. In 1915 Holland followed the example of Great Britain and appointed a temporary representative, and in 1917 Luxem- burg resumed the diplomatic relations which had been sus- pended under Leo XIII. In the same year the new Russian Government which came into power after the fall of the Tsar sent a minister plenipotentiary as its representative to the Holy See, and the Pope was able to procure the liberation of the Ruthenian Bishop of Lemberg, who had been sent into exile. On learning of the arrest of the Tsar and Tsaritsa and their family, Benedict XV. made earnest efforts with the Maximalist Russian Government, but without success, to procure their liberation. In 1919 Archbishop Sylvester of the Russian Orthodox Church wrote to the Pope describing the cruel persecution to which he and his co-religionists were subjected, and Benedict XV. wrote to Lenin begging him to act fairly to members of all religions, but received from the Foreign Minister, Tchicherin, an evasive reply. At the same time the Letts petitioned the Pope to erect Danzig into an archbishopric, and in August 1919 the Government of the Ukraine sent an envoy to represent its interests at the Holy See.
The diplomatic activity of the Vatican during this period made itself felt in various directions. In 1917 Benedict XV. addressed a strong remonstrance to the German Government against the deportation of French and Belgian workmen, and received through Count Hertling, the Foreign Minister, an assurance that deportations would cease, and that those who were deported in error would be sent back to their homes. He obtained later on from that Power that prisoners-of-war suffer- ing from consumption or similar diseases should be allowed to go to hospitals or homes in Switzerland or neutral territory. Large numbers of the prisoners thus transferred addressed to the Holy See a letter of thanks for this intervention in their favour.
In 1918 a new treaty was concluded with Spain, which went to obviate the danger of over-multiplication of monasteries. In the same year in Canada there arose a vehement agitation amongst the French-speaking Catholics against the new bilingual school laws in Ontario. The Pope dispatched to Cardinal Begin, Archbishop of Quebec, an apostolic brief strongly exhorting all concerned to mutual peace and good-will, and giving directions as to the steps to be taken to effect a conciliation of the various parties. In the same year the Vatican received a solemn embassy and special envoy from the Empress of Abyssinia, with every assurance of her friend- ship. A diplomatic mission was received at the same time from the new Chinese Republic, and a convention was concluded by the Holy See and the Emperor of Japan, in accordance with which the German missionaries in the Caroline and Marshall Is. were replaced by the Capucin friars, who are under French superiors.
It may also be of interest to those whose studies in Church history lead them to the work of research in the Vatican archives that in July 1918, through the zeal of Cardinal Gasquet, Prefect of the Vat- ican Library, a friendly agreement took place between the Vatican and the Italian Government by which the latter restored to the Vatican archives a large quantity of valuable documents and Church records which had fallen into its possession at the occupation in 1870, and the Vatican in return handed over to the Government a similar quantity of title-deeds of property jnd documents concern- ing the civil administration of the city and province which had been retained in its keeping. This mutual concession and the amicable way in which it was conducted showed a new spirit of conciliation between the Vatican and the Quirinal.
