50 “Ove accadesse collisione tra le definizioni del Concilio ecumenico
e le leggi dello Stato, queste cesserebbero per ciò solo di avere
_qualsiasi_ vigore obbligatorio,” p. 262.
51 So Pius VI., in his Brief of 1791, directed against the new laws of
the French Assembly for securing religions freedom. Therein the
distinction is still drawn between heathen and Jews on one side and
Protestants or heretics on the other, that the former cannot be
compelled to receive baptism, but the others, “qui se Ecclesiæ per
susceptum Baptismi Sacramentum subjecerunt, cogendi sunt” (_Collect.
Brev. Pii VI._, Aug. Vindel. 1791, i. 34). Benedict XIV. declared
the same before in 1749 (_Bullar. Mag._, Romæ, ed. Coquel, T. xvii.
p. 272). And Pius VII. afterwards, in his Brief of 1803 (Kopp, _Die
kath. Kirche des 19 Jahrh._, Mainz, 1830, p. 429). “According to
Scripture, Councils and Tradition, heretics remain subject to the
laws of the Catholic Church.”