Government Responses to Papal Infallibility
Even at this time, when the pope by the promulgation of the dogma of infallibility is asserting in the face and eyes of the common sense of the nineteenth-century his claim, in the broadest sense, to rule the consciences of men, and control the governments of earth, these governments are taking occasion to remind him that they yet have some rights which he is bound to respect. The Hungarian government has given notice that those bishops who voted against the dogma, shall not be deprived of any of their rights or privileges. And the response which Austria makes to the definition of the infallibility scheme, is the abolition of the famous concordat which granted such powers to the Roman clergy. This step, the Methodist asserts, cannot fail to lead to a separation of church and state in that kingdom.