344:
THE SYLLA.BUS.
into practica! e~ect. The Syllabus stigmatizes pantheism, naturalism, and absolute rationalism, denouncing such opinions as that God is the world ; that there is no God other than N atme ; that theological matters must be treated in the same manner as philosophical ones ; that tl:.e methods and principles by which the old scholastic doctors cultivated theology are no longer suitable to the demands of the age and the progress of science; that every man is free to embrace and profess the religion he may believe to be true, guided by the light of his reason ; that it appertajns to the civil power to define what are the 1".ights and limits in which the Ohurch may exercise authority; that the Ohurch has not the right of availing herself of force or~ny director indirect temporal power; that the Ohurch ought to be separated from the state and the state from the Ohurch; that it is no longer expedient that the Oatholic religion shall be held as the only religion of the state, to the exclusion of a1l other modes of worship; that persons coming to reside in Oatholic countries have a right to the public exercise of their own woTShip ; that the Roman ponti:ff can and ought to reconcile himself to, and agree with, the progress of modern civilization. The Syllabus claims the right of the Ohurch to control public schools, and denies the right of the state in that respect; it claims the control over marriage and divorce. Such of these principles as the Oouncil found expedient at present to formularize, were set forth by it in "The Dogmatic Oonstitution of the Oatholic Faith." The essential points of this constitution, more especially as regards the relations of religion to science, we have now to examine. It will be understood that the following does not present the entire document, but only an abstract of what appear to be its more important parts.