Considering the circumstances of the times, His Holiness permits that the secular judges may take cognisance of and decide purely civil suits, to which clergymen are parties, such as suits respecting contracts, debts, and inheritance. The Holy See also consents that suits concerning the civil rights, or burthens of churches, benefices, and tithes, as well as those concerning the burthen of constructing ecclesiastical buildings, may be decided in the secular courts. For the same reason the Holy See does not refuse to suffer trials of clergymen for crimes or misdemeanours, which are punished by the penal laws of the kingdom, to take place before the lay judge, on whom, however, it shall be incumbent to inform the bishop thereof without delay. And if sentence of death, or imprisonment for a longer period than five years, shall be pronounced upon an ecclesiastic, the judicial acts shall always be communicated to the bishop, and he shall have the power of hearing the condemned person, so far as is necessary to decide respecting the infliction of an ecclesiastical penalty on him. The same shall be done when the punishment is of a less degree, if the bishop request it. VI. The communications of the bishop, clergy, and people with the Holy See in ecclesiastical affairs shall be free. The bishop shall also communicate freely with the clergy and people. Consequently the instructions and ordinances of the bishop, as well as the acts of the Diocesan Synod, of the Provincial Council, and of the Holy See itself, in ecclesiastical matters, shall be published without being previously examined and approved by the Royal Government. VII. The bishop, by virtue of his pastoral office, shall direct the religious instruction as well as the religious education of the Catholic youth, in all public and private schools, and shall watch over both. He shall also determine what books and catechisms are to be used for religious instruction. In the elementary schools religious instruction shall be given by the parish priests; in all other schools only by those persons on whom the bishop shall have conferred authority and commission, and from whom he shall not subsequently have withdrawn the same. VIII. The bishop shall be free to establish a seminary in the form laid down by the Council of Trent, into which he shall admit for education such youths and boys as he shall think fit, with regard to the wants and advantages of his diocese, to be received. The regulation, teaching, government and administration of this seminary shall be subject,. of full and free right, to the authority of the bishop. The bishop shall also appoint the rectors, professors and masters, and shall also remove them, whenever he shall think it necessary or desirable to do so. So long, however, as no seminary on the principle of the Council of Trent shall exist, and as there will be colleges supported principally at the expense of the public Treasury, at Ehingen, Rottweil, and Tubingen, the following arrangements shall be observed: a. In all matters of religious education and domestic discipline these institutions are subject to the direction and inspection of the bishop. b. The students belonging to these institutions, so far as they receive instruction in the public schools, are subject in the same manner as other students to the laws which are established in those schools, and to the rules prescribed concerning the method and course of studies. If (as regards the gymnasia) the bishop shall consider any change in these matters to be necessary or desirable, he shall confer with the Royal Government, which also on its side shall not make any change without previously conferring with the bishop. c. The bishop shall appoint and remove the rectors and tutors of these institutions; but he shall never select any persons for those offices whom he shall know to be unacceptable to the Government on civil or political grounds, for serious reasons, founded on facts. He shall also dismiss those whom he shall subsequently discover to have become disagreeable to the Government for such reasons. d. It belongs to the bishop to visit these same institutions, to send his delegates to the public examinations, especially to those for the admission of students, and to require periodical returns. e. The Royal Government shall provide that by degrees no professors, not clergymen, shall be appointed to those gymnasia, with which inferior colleges are connected. IX. The Faculty of Catholic Theology in the Royal University is subject, in what regards the ecclesiastical office of teaching, to the direction and inspection of the bishop. The bishop has power to give authority and commission to professors and masters, and, if he think it advisable, to withdraw the same from them; and he may require from them a profession of faith, and the submission to his examination of their writings and compendiaries. X. The temporal property which the Church now possesses, or may acquire hereafter, shall be preserved entire for ever; and without the consent of the ecclesiastical authority it can neither be diverted nor alienated, nor its revenue be applied to other uses. It shall, however, be subject to the public burthens and taxes, and to the general laws of the kingdom, in the same manner as other property. The ecclesiastical property shall be administered in the name of the Church, under the inspection of the bishop, by those persons to whom such administration belongs, by the regulations of the canons, or by any local custom, privilege, or constitution; nevertheless, every administrator, although obliged on the above grounds to render an account of his administration to other persons, is nevertheless equally bound to render one to the Ordinary or his deputies. The Holy See, considering the peculiar circumstances of the case, consents that the fabrics of the several churches and the other ecclesiastical foundations of each locality shall be administered in the name of the Church, in the mode which is now in use in the kingdom, provided that the parish priests and rural deans exercise the duties which they discharge in this respect by authority of the bishop. The Government will agree with the bishop respecting the special execution of this arrangement. Moreover, the Holy See consents that, so long as provision is made at the expense of the public Treasury, for the general as well as local wants of the Church, vacant benefices, and the fund accruing from the intermediate returns of the same, shall be administered under the authority of the bishop, and in the name of the Church, by a Mixed Commission, composed of ecclesiastics chiefly deputed by the bishop, and of an equal number of Catholics appointed by the Royal Government. Of this Commission, however, the bishop himself or his delegate shall be president. On which subject a special and more definite convention shall be made between the Royal Government and the bishop. The revenue of this fund shall always be applied, in the first place, to increasing the stipends of the parish priests to the proper amount, to assigning suitable pensions to beneficed clergymen, infirm from old age or illness, to establishing ordination appointments for clergymen, to providing the necessary stipends for deputing vicars; and what remains shall only be employed for other ecclesiastical objects. Information shall always be given to the Royal Government by the administrating Commission respecting the preservation of this fund, and the application of its proceeds. So long as the Mixed Commission for the administration of this fund shall exist, the other benefices shall be administered, according to the canons, by the rectors, under the general inspection of the said Commission. XI. The bishop shall communicate directly with all the royal officials. XII. Whatever royal decrees and edicts are not in conformity with the present Convention are abrogated; and such laws as are contrary to the same Convention shall be altered. XIII. If any difficulty should arise hereafter respecting what is now agreed to, His Holiness and His Majesty will confer with each other, in order that the matter may be amicably settled. The ratifications of the present Convention shall be exchanged at Rome within the space of two months, or sooner if possible. In testimony whereof the above-named Plenipotentiaries have signed this Convention, and have affixed their seals to it. Given at Rome, on the 8th day of April, in the year of our Lord 1857. (L.S.) CAROLUS AUG. CARDINAL REISACH. (L.S.) ADOLPHUS BARON DE OW. RAPPORT et DECRET sur la Police de la Péche de la Morue à l'Ile de Terre-Neuve.-Le 2 Mars, 1852. RAPPORT au Prince-Président de la Républic Française. MONSEIGNEUR, L'ordonnance du 24 Avril, 1842,* sur la police de la pêche de la morue à l'ile de Terre-Neuve avait besoin d'être complétée et modifiée dans quelques-unes de ses dispositions. D'un autre côté, le caractère de cet acte n'assurait pas l'exécution des dispositions pénales qu'il édictait. L'assemblée générale des armateurs, réunis à Saint-Servan les 5, 6,7 et 8 Janvier, 1852, pour le tirage quinquennal des places de pêche aux côtes de Terre-Neuve, a été consultée sur les changements à apporter aux prescriptions de l'ordonnance dont il s'agit. J'ai examiné avec soin le travail de cette assemblée, et, après avoir revisé et coordonné les Articles dont il se compose, je soumets à votre sanction un projet de décret destiné à remplacer l'ordonnance précitée du 24 Avril, 1842. Le Ministre Secrétaire d'Etat de la Marine et des Colonies, THEODORE DUCOs. DECRET. LOUIS NAPOLEON, Président de la République Française, Vu l'ordonnance du 24 Avril, 1842, portant règlement sur la police de la pêche de la morue à l'Ile de Terre-Neuve; Vu le procès-verbal de l'assemblée générale des armateurs pour la pêche de la morue, réunis à Saint-Servan, les 5, 6, 7 et 8 Janvier 1852; Page 1352. Sur le rapport du ministre Secrétaire d'état de la marine et des colonies, Le Conseil d'amirauté entendu, Décrete: ART. I. Les havres et places, avec les graves qui en dépendent aux côtes de l'Ile de Terre-Neuve, continueront de n'être pas au choix du premier arrivé ni du premier occupant. La répartition en sera faite entre les armateurs tous les 5 ans, par voie d'un tirage au sort et au moyen d'un état indicatif des havres situés sur la partie des côtes de ladite Ile, où, d'après les Traités, les capitaines Français peuvent s'établir pour la pêche. Cet état fera connaître, suivant le plan topographique des côtes, et en commençant par le premier havre de la côte de l'ouest : Les noms des havres; Les numéros et les noms des places comprises dans chaque havre; Le nombre de bateaux que chacune des places peut contenir; La nomenclature des places sera divisée, sur ledit état, en trois séries établies de la manière suivante, d'après le nombre de bateaux auquel chaque place peut suffire, savoir: Première série (place pouvant contenir), 15 bateaux et audessus ; Deuxième série (place pouvant contenir), de 10 à 15 bateaux exclusivement; Troisième série (place pouvant contenir), 9 bateaux et audessous. II. Tous les 5 ans, les armateurs des différents ports de France qui se proposent d'envoyer des navires à la pêche sur les côtes de Terre-Neuve feront, au Chef du Service de la Marine, à Saint-Servan, la déclaration du nombre de navires qu'ils doivent armer pour la pêche, avec l'indication du tonnage de ces navires. III. Ces armateurs ou leurs correspondants, spécialement autorisés, se réuniront à Saint-Servan, le 5 Janvier, sous la présidence du Chef du Service de la Marine, afin qu'il soit procédé, ainsi qu'il suit, à la répartition des places que leurs navires devront occuper. Les déclarations, faites conformément à l'Article II, seront comprises dans un relevé général présentant, eu égard au tonnage des navires et à la force de l'équipage, le classement des navires en trois séries, savoir: Première série.-158 tonneaux et au-dessus, 50 hommes d'équipage au moins. Deuxième série.-100 à 158 tonneaux exclusivement, 30 hommes d'équipage. Trosimème série.-Au dessous de 100 tonneaux, 20 hommes |