tain conditions; and they are quite numerous. With regard to relationship, for instance, marriage is not admitted as valid between Catholics even so remotely related as third cousins; nor is the marriage of a Catholic with an unbaptized person recognized. It is not considered as possible to marry after receiving holy orders; of this I have already spoken. Nor can one having the solemn vows of a religious order validly marry. Perhaps the most practically important of all these provisions, as far as the State is concerned, is one not existing generally in this country, but prevailing over a great part of Europe, invalidating the marriage of Catholics unless celebrated in the presence of the parish priest and two witnesses. There are other laws than these making marriage invalid; others which simply prohibit without invalidating; but those which I have mentioned will suffice. The legislation of the Church on this point of impediments to marriage, as they are called, is quite complicated; it is as impossible to explain it in a few words as it would be to put all the civil laws regarding contracts in a nutshell. That Catholics intending to marry should make no mistake nullifying their marriage in the sight of the Church, it is as necessary for them to consult a priest as it would be to consult a lawyer before drawing up a complicated legal document; and

I may say that it is mainly on this account that the law above mentioned has been made, making it absolutely necessary for them to get married in the presence of the priest, in order that he may know their case and be able to advise and warn them properly. And though this provision is not, as has been said, generally inforce in this country, this cogent reason for it exists here as elsewhere.

The Church, then, will often refuse to recognize as really married those whom the state regards as being so. As she will not accept as valid the remarriage to other parties of those who have obtained a civil divorce, so also she will not, where her law requiring the presence of the priest is in force, consider a merely civil marriage as being a marriage at all; nor will she consider those as truly married between whom an invalidating impediment exists according to her law, though the parties themselves, as well as the State, are quite ignorant of its existence. Also, vice versa, she must necessarily sometimes consi ler those as really married whom the State will not accept as such; for instance, in countries where it is necessary by civil law that all must be married by the civil magistrate, the Church will regard as married all Catholics who have complied with her own rules, whether they have with those of the State or not.

It must be remembered, however, that it is only concerning the baptized, who alone come under the jurisdiction of the Church, that she makes or can make special laws or regulations.

And it must also be well understood that the laws which are made by the Church admit of dispensation in particular cases. Of this matter of dispensation I have already spoken; still it will be well to bring it up again, on account of its importance in the present connection. Let it not, then, be supposed that the Church meddles with, attempts to change, or makes exception to the laws of God in this or any other matter; that she undertakes by any act of her own to make right what is wrong according to the Divine Law. In other words, she does not, as has been clearly stated before, give permission to commit sin, on any terms whatever. But it is an entirely different thing to make a rule which it is advisable should be observed on the whole, and to make exceptions to this rule in particular cases. This is no more giving permission to commit sin than it would be for the father of a family to require all to be in the house by ten o'clock at night, and then to allow some one to stay out later for special reasons.

There are, then, in these rules of the Church regarding marriage, some of greater importance, some of less. It has been said that third

cousins cannot validly marry, for instance; this, of course, is not held to be part of the divine law; no, it is a rule made by the Church for her own subjects. It might be changed tomorrow, and the limit placed at second cousins, instead of third; but it is considered best, on the whole, to keep it for the present as it is, in order to discourage the marriage of those who are blood relations. But in any particular case, where any reason can be presented, the importance of such a remote relationship is so slight that the law will readily be relaxed.

On the other hand, the celibacy of the clergy is regarded as such an important matter that the law prohibiting those in holy orders to marry, and invalidating any marriage which they may attempt, is not dispensed for any private reasons, however grave or urgent they may seem. Indeed, it is obvious that were it otherwise the law would be in grave danger of being broken down.

Still, it would be a very different matter to give permission for this, from what it would be to allow a man to have two wives at once; for in this latter case we have a clear and certain Divine Law standing in the way. And the Church will never consent to allow the Divine Law to be broken. She was willing to lose England rather than sanction such an act; Catherine of Aragon being truly and indis

solubly married to Henry VIII., it was simply and utterly impossible to give consent to his marriage with another while she was still alive; just as impossible as it would have been to allow him to murder her in order to remove the difficulty. If the Pope had been willing to act as Luther acted in his similar case, the Reformation would probably have been effectually checked in England by the royal power; but the Pope, acting in accordance with Catholic principles, could not give permission for sin, or do evil that good might come, even though that good were the saving of a whole nation to the faith.

Some cases, then, there may arise of serious and irremediable consequences coming from the inflexibility of the Church regarding the divine. law; but though trouble may no doubt arise from the difference of her legislation from that of the State, this trouble would practically be entirely avoided if Catholics would take care always to consult the Church in this important matter. The trouble comes from their breaking the laws of the Church through ignorance or contempt; not from their breaking the laws of the State, or still less from any encouragement given them by the Church to do so. The State permits marriages which the Church will not recognize; but it does not require anything which the Church will not permit, nor is it at all likely that it will forbid anything which the