required, and even such bulls as have been sanctioned shall only be valid as long as new decrees of the state do nol affect their validity." According to another decree, dated April 2 and 7. 1784, the placet w.a- also required for all instructions, orders, etc, given to preachers and
prie-ts. no matter as to the form in which they are made known to them. The Austrian decree of 1791 was also
adopted Jan. 30, 1830, for the province of the Upper Rhine. In l'.a\ aria the Bame principles, w hich « ere -till adhered to in the edict dated May 26, 1818, were already
the same as in the edict dated April :'.. 1770. that all ecclesiastical edicts are subject to the placet, with the
PLACETTE
255
PLAGUE
exception of summons issued by the ecclesiastical au- thorities, provided they only refer to the lower clergy, and are the natural issues of ordinances already sanc- tioned. These claims of the state had always been the subject of protest on the part of the Roman See. The bull " In coena domini" (q. v.) excommunicates all those who prevent the promulgation and annunciation of pa- pal bulls and briefs (comp. the bull Pastoralis of Urban VIII, anno 1627, § 7, 13, in the Bullarium Romanum, vi, 38, 40). When Leopold I, while governor of Bel- gium, would not allow the publication of the papal pro- hibition of Jansen's (q. v.) work Augustimis without the sanction of the government, appealing to privileges, liberties, and usages, Innocent X, in 1651, protested against it most decidedly: "Quod equidem audiri sine horrore animi non potest." " Never has such a privi- lege been granted either by a pope or a council, which must needs destroy the papal power. None, however, dare to refer to the privilege of a worldly prince, be- cause it would be nothing else but a foolhardy arrogance to bind and loose the souls, which right the Lord Jesus Christ has granted to none else than to his vicar" (Ros- kovany, Monumenta catholica pro indejjendentia potes- tatis eccksiasliece ab imperio civili, pt. i, p. 203, Quinque- Ecclesiis, 1847). In this sense the popes have continu- ally protested against the placet, and the brief of Pius VIII (q. v.), " Pervenerat non ita pridem," dated June 30, 1830, is a bitter protest against the edict of Jan. 30, 1830. This persevering opposition was finally crowned with a result, but the hierarchy owes this result to an institution which is anything but desirable to the Church, viz. the liberty of the press. The Belgian Constitution of Feb. 25, 1831, art. xvi, decreed : "The state has no right to interfere with the appointment or election of minis- ters of any denomination, or to prevent them from hav- ing intercourse with their superiors and promulgating their records; in the latter case with the proviso of the usual responsibility concerning the press and promulga- tion." This example was followed in Holland and Prussia in 1848, in Austria in 1855, and in Wtirtemberg in 1857. In other countries the purely ecclesiastical edicts are freed from the placet; all that is required is that the civil authorities get an insight at their publi- cation. Since the ascendency obtained by Prussia in the German empire at the close of the Franco-German war, the system of Church legislation has undergone a complete change, the details of Church government be- ing largely taken into the control of the state, and obe- dience to the new code of Church laws being exacted from the clergy under penalty of forfeiture of income, of deprivation of office, and in some cases of exile. For the present status quo of Rome in the German empire, comp. Kurtz, Lehrbuch der Kirchcngtsehichte (Mitau, 1874), ii, 389 sq. See Wetzer u. Welte, Kirchen-Lexi- hon, s. v. Placet ; Herzog, Real-Encyldop. s. v. ; Theolo- gisches Universal- Lexikon, s. v.; Aschbach, Kirchen- Lexikon, iv, 596-601 ; Gieseler, Eccles. Hist. (Smith's transl.), iii, 340, note 5 ; Van Espen, Tractatus de pro- mulgations legum ecclesiasticarum ac speciatim Bullarum et rescriptorum Curia Romance (Opera omnia, Lovanii, 1753, fol. iv, 123 sq.) ; Stockman, Jus Belgarum circa Bullarum pontijicum receptionem (Opera, Brux. 1760) ; Besier, Specimen de juris placeti historia in Belgio (Tra- jecti ad Rh. 1848) ; Philipp, Kirchenrecht, ii, 557 sq. ; iii, 556 sq. ; Eichhorn, Kirchenrecht, i, 772, 782 sq. ; Rich- ter, Kirchenrecht, § 66, 177 (5th ed.).
Placette, Jean de la, a noted French Protestant divine, whose religious convictions caused his exile, was born at Pontac in 1039. His father was him- self a minister, and trained Jean with great care for the preaching of the glad tidings. In 1660 he was or- dained, and continued faithfully to discharge the obli- gations of his sacred ministry until after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, when he was obliged to seek refuge from persecution in Denmark. He was there brought to the notice of the queen, who recognised in him great worth, and determined to enjoy his associ-
ations and teachings. After her death in 1711 he went over to Holland, residing for a while at the Hague, and then at Utrecht, where he died in 1718. He was the author of many works on practical religion and morals, which are highly esteemed. He also wrote several works in the department of Protestant polemics, and his influence was much dreaded by the Romanists. See Hook, Eccles. Biog. viii, 97. (J." H. W.)