It was decided to send a deputation of bishops with a letter of greeting to the national council of the Russian Church about to be assembled (60) and certain conditions were laid down for intercommunion with certain of the Churches of the Orthodox Eastern Communion (62) and the "ancient separated Churches of the East" (63-65).
In the case of the former, claim is laid to the unbroken episcopal succession through the Waldenses, and the question of their eventual intercommunion with the Anglican of the Sermon against Wilful Rebellion," ed.
Thus over a great part of Europe the Catholic Church was split up into territorial or national churches, which, whatever the theoretical ties which bound them together, were in fact separate organizations, tending ever more and more to become isolated and self-contained units with no formal intercommunion, and, as the rivalry of nationalities grew, with increasingly little even of intercommunication.
But there were also independent Sicel towns in the interior, and there was a strong religious intercommunion between the two races.
It refused, moreover, to recognize the validity of Anglican orders, and consequently to follow the example of the other Old Catholics in establishing intercommunion with the Church of England.