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The Vicar of Christ;
OR,
LECTURES
UPON THE
OFFICE AND PREROGATIVES OF OUR
HOLY FATHER THE POPE.
BY THE
VERY REV. THOMAS S. PRESTON, V.G.,
Pastor of St. Ann's Church, New York.
"Uii Petrus, ibi Ecclesiay
SECOND EDITION
Bew Yorh :
ROBERT CODDINGTON, PUBLISHER,
No. 246 Fourth Avenue.
1878.
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1871, by
REV. THOMAS S. PRESTON,
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C.
LOAN :
JOHN ROSS & CO., PRINTERS, 27 ROSE STREET, NEW YORK.
Letter of Dedication
P 7
TO
HIS HOLINESS PIUS IX.
Sanctissime Pater :
Humiliter exponit minimus quamquam
et devotissimus unus de filiis Tuis, ut sibi
liceat ad pedes Beatitudinis Tuse deponere
pignus hoc exiguum sui amoris erga Te,
suae que devotionis erga fidem quam doces
ac tueris, erga fidem illam cujus causa
tristitia Tibi magna est, et continuus dolor.
Ex quo enim illi datum est in ea
Domini vineae regione operari, quam inimi-
cus homo nititur erroris tenebris undequa-
que obscurare, doctrinam nullam potius
in
iv Letter of Dedication to
praedicandam aut fidelium cordibus altius
inserendam duxit quam quae spectat ad
singularia prorsus privilegia Successoris S.
Petri, cui totius gregis Sui curam, omnis-
que vitae aeternae verbi custodiam Dei
Filius commisit. Super illam siquidem
solam petram, quam Christus Dominus
Noster Ipse fundavit immobilem, sua
homini salus reperiunda est, suaque popu-
lis securitas.
Pro multitudine tribulationum quae in
die ista mala et amara invenerunt Te
nimis, Beatissime Pater, haec sane animam
Tuam laetificat insignis omnino consolatio,
quod in nullis Ecclesiae diebus praeteritis
arctior unquam fuerit capitis et membrorum
nexus, nullus tanto in amore tantaque in
veneratione habitus olim populi Christiani
Pontifex Summus.
Ad pedes porro Beatitudinis Tuae provo-
His Holiness Pius IX. v
lutus benedictionem apostolicam sibi sus-
ccptisquc pro animarum salute civiumque
conversione laboribus, supplex orat atque
obsecrat filius Tuus devotissimus,
Thomas S. Preston,
Pastor Ecclesiae Sanctae Annae.
Neo Eboraci die 14a Decembris,
A.D. 1871.
Letter of His Holiness Pius IX.
PIUS PP. IX.
Dilecte Fili, Salutem et Apostolicam
Benedictionem :
Perlibenter excepimus munus tuum, Di-
lecte Fili, non modo quia jucunde N ostris
in angoribus afficimur testimoniis religiosae
devotionis Nobis passim exhibitis a chris-
tiano populo, sed etiam quia opportunissi-
mas hisce temporibus et perutiles fidelibus
ducimus eas lucubrationes, quae praeroga-
tivas et jura Christi Vicarii propugnant,
explicant, illustrant. Cum enim impietas
diuturna saeculorum experientia edocta con-
stanter frustratas viderit et in se conversas
VI
Letter of His Holiness Pius IX. vii
machinationes adversus Ecclesiam institutas ;
vires deniquc universas intendit ad Petram
illam subruendam, cui divinitiis Ecclesia
eadem fu.it inacdificata, futurum confidens,
ut ea subducta, ista sponte corruerit.
Incassum tamen ; siquidem dc hac Petra
merito praedicari potest quod de angulari
lapide Christo Jesu, " Qui occiderit super
lapidem istum confringetur, super quem
vero occiderit conteret eum." Verum si Petra
commoveri nequit, si Ecclesia portas inferi
non formidat, interim nefariis artibus hie illic
errorum tenebrae mentibus offunduntur, de-
cipiuntur simplices, fides concutitur, restin-
guitur caritas, unitatis vincula laxantur,
et non pauci e filiis Nostris paratis
irretiti laqueis a Nobis abducuntur.
Gratulamur itaque, te hisce malis occurrere
studuisse per opus tuum ; cui propterea
fructum ominamur amplissimum, tibique
viii Letter of His Holiness Piits IX.
mercedem zelo tuo respondentem ac divina
largitate dignum. Caelestis vero favoris
auspicem et paternae Nostrae benevolen-
tiae, gratique animi pignus, Apostolicam
Benedictionem tibi peramanter impertimus.
Datum Romae, apud Sanctum Petrum,
die 15 Februarii, Anni 1872. Pontifi-
catus Nostri anno Vicesimo sexto.
PIUS PP. IX.
ENGLISH TRANSLATION.
PIUS PP. IX.
BELOVED SON, HEALTH AND APOSTOLIC BENE-
DICTION :
We have willingly accepted your offer-
ing, beloved son, not only because in our
present sorrows we are greatly consoled
by the testimonies of religious devotion
manifested to us by Christians throughout
the world, but also because we judge most
opportune in these days, and most useful
to the faithful, these treatises which defend,
explain, and illustrate the prerogatives and
rights of the Vicar of Christ. For while
impiety, taught by the experience of ages,
constantly beholds its efforts against the
church frustrated, and its machinations
ix
x English Translation.
turned against itself, it bends all its ener-
gies to destroy that Rock on which the
church was divinely founded, knowing well
that if that Rock could be moved the
church would instantly fall. In vain, how-
ever, are its artifices, for of this Rock may
well be said the words spoken concerning
Jesus Christ, the corner-stone : " He that
shall fall upon this rock shall be broken,
but upon whom it shall fall, it shall grind
him to powder." But while the Rock can-
not be shaken, while the church fears not
the gates of hell, nevertheless here and
there the shadows of error are thrown upon
the mind by nefarious arts, the simple are
deceived, faith is weakened, charity is ex-
tinguished, the bands of unity are relaxed,
and not a few of our children taken in
the snares prepared for them are led away
from us.
English Translation. xi
We congratulate you, therefore, that by
your work, which we have received with
favor, you have sought to meet and avert
these evils, and we predict an ample fruit
to your labors, and a reward correspond-
ing to your zeal and worthy of the Divine
blessing.
As an earnest, then, of the celestial fa-
vor, and a pledge of our fatherly kind-
ness and grateful mind, we lovingly im-
part to you the Apostolic Benediction.
Given at Rome, at St. Peter's, the fif-
teenth day of February, in the year
1872, the twenty-sixth year of our
Pontificate.
Pius PP. IX.
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.
In preparing a new edition of these lec-
tures upon the Vicar of Christ it has
seemed proper to add a few pages to the
last chapter, which treats of the life and
Pontificate of Pius IX., and thus briefly to
close the short biography of this immor-
tal Pontiff now gathered to his blessed
rest.
In the Appendix we have also printed
the eulogium written by Mgr. Mercurelli,
which was placed in the tomb of our
venerated Holy Father. This important
document is well worth preserving in a
lasting form, and will ever be interesting
to all Catholics.
xiii
xiv Preface to the Second Edition.
We have also published our own dedi-
cation of these lectures to His Holiness,
and the gracious reply which he conde-
scended to give. While this letter of Pius
IX. is one of the great consolations of
our life, it will add a new value to our
humble labor.
It may be proper also to say that we
never presumed to claim for our work the
merit of a complete theological treatise,
but only sought to present a plain and
popular argument for the prerogatives of
the Vicar of Christ. We venture to hope
that our efforts will not be altogether with-
out fruit. T. S. P.
Easter, 1878.
po
N T E N T S .
PAGB
LECTURE FIRST.
The Supremacy of the Pope, TI
LECTURE SECOND.
The Infallibility of the Pope, 86
LECTURE THIRD.
The Temporal Power of the Pope, ,.396
LECTURE FOURTH.
The Pontificate of Pius IX., . 287
Appendix, . . . . » • . 379
PREFACE.
The Conferences which it has been our
privilege to give in S. Ann's Church dur-
ing the season of Advent, have brought
us naturally to the subject of these lectures.
Having shown the essential unity of the
Christian church, the harmonies of reason
and revelation, and the necessary connec-
tion between our Lord Jesus Christ and
his mystical body, we are led to the con-
sideration of the prerogatives of S. Peter
and his successors. The church, which
we have proved to be the instrumentality
employed by our Redeemer for applying
to man the fruits of his passion and death,
would be incomplete and unfit for its work
without an infallible head and a living
centre of unity. The words of S. Am-
brose, which we have placed upon our
title-page, tell the great truth which the
4 Preface.
world needs to know for its salvation :
" Where Peter is, there is the church "
— " Ubi Petrus, ibi ecclesia." This truth is
the only remedy for hearts beguiled by sin,
and intellects led astray by pride or false
philosophy. All who call themselves Chris-
tians must accept the words of Christ, and
the historical teaching's of Christianity, or,
rejecting both, fall a prey to the ever in-
creasing infidelity of the day. No form
of Protestantism can stand against the
logic of the rationalist, or defend its feeble
counterfeit of revelation. There is only one
refuse for the honest and sincere. The
Word made flesh hath not deceived us
when he built his church upon a rock.
To this foundation let every true heart
come, casting aside the prejudices of edu-
cation and the bands of early associations,
and in Peter's faith find firmness and rest.
There is no misery so great as that of
those who make their own religion, and
have no support beyond themselves in the
day of trial. And while infidelity threatens
Preface. 5
all the dogmatic relics of the Lutheran
Reformation, and causes creeds of faith to
fade away from formularies which have
long since lost their binding power, the
spirit of revolution enters the domain of
law, and overturns the principles of justice,
on which alone the state can securely
rest. The sacredness of the marriage tie
passes from the minds of men, who forget
the duties of fathers and children, and the
mutual responsibilities of princes and peo-
ple.
It behooves Christians and good citi-
zens to look well to the dangers which
threaten society before the hour of ruin
come, lest they, unawares, be found among
those who seek to level with the dust all
that is dearest and most sacred to man.
Simply and briefly as we have been obliged
to treat the subjects of these lectures, we
believe that we have offered to the earnest
inquirer an unanswerable argument. So,
with the most sincere good-will to all, and
with the love of God constraining us, we
Preface.
urgently commend our reasoning to our
intelligent and honest countrymen. Chris-
tianity must be taken, as it has come
down to us, from the hand of its founder,
or be entirely abandoned. The rejection
of any part of revelation is logically the
rejection of the whole. Time will show
that the truths we maintain are divine,
and demonstrate, by the stern lessons of
experience, that Christ and his Vicar are
bound together; that the Papacy is the
keystone of the sacred arch which sus-
tains both religion and society.
T. S. P.
New York, Feast of All Saints, 1871.
Lecture I
THE SUPREMACY OF THE POPE.
"Thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build my
church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against
it."— S. Matthew xvi. 18, 19.
|[HE religious controversies of the
day, with whatsoever evils they
have been attended, have at least suc-
ceeded in bringing great questions to
an issue. The result of the Protestant
principle, which applies the judgment of
private reason to the intrinsic credibility
of revealed truth, has been clearly
manifested. If the rule, " By their fruits
you shall know them," be employed,
then that principle cannot be true which
renders revelation an impossibility, by
1 2 The Supremacy of the Pope.
taking from the intellect and heart the
faculty to see objective truth. In the
early days of Protestantism, it was
common to discuss the doctrines re-
vealed, as they had been taught by the
Catholic Church, and to argue against
their truth as if they were individual
propositions standing by themselves, and
not parts of one great system which
could not be broken in pieces. Some
of the reformers, on the eclectic plan,
were willing to receive this or that
portion of the old creed, rejecting other
articles which did not suit their notions
of God. It is possible thus to argue,
and even thus to defend the parts of a
faith which is true as a whole. That
which is true as a whole is also true
in its component parts. Yet this mode
of argument is far from being satisfac-
The Supremacy of the Pope. 1 3
tory ; nor is it altogether logical. In
all matters of truth supernatural, there is
really one question to be answered:
" Has God, who is the one fountain of
light, revealed them ? " If he has
spoken, then, whatever be the impres-
sions produced upon our minds by his
words, the truth remains firm and un-
alterable.
Discussions upon separate doctrines, as
regards their intrinsic credibility, which
were so rife in the beginning of Protes-
tantism, led naturally to the undervaluing
of the doctrines themselves, and then of
all dogma. It came to be practically
admitted that points of belief were really
of no consequence to our ultimate
destiny, and did not affect our moral
probation. Salvation could not be made
to deoend upon the nature of our faith,
14 The Supremacy of the Pope.
provided that our lives were in accord-
ance with the divine law. As Christianity
consists essentially of a set of dogmas,
and falls when these dogmas are denied,
so the question is not now, after three
centuries of varied struggle, as to the
truth or falsity of parts of the Apostolic
creed, but as to Christ himself and his
whole mission. The battle is not now
so much for doctrines as for the fact
of a revelation. Christianity in the
hands of the reformers has been first
broken to pieces, and then hopelessly
shipwrecked. The Catholic Church fights
now with open and undisguised infidelity.
Her children hold the lance in rest not
in a tournament for a doctrine or a
name, but in a mortal encounter, in
which the existence of faith is at stake.
This was ever the case, since, if the
The Supremacy of t/ie Pope. 15
pillar of truth be thrown down, there
remains no truth for man ; but now the
world sees it, and exults in it. So
much have the controversies of our dav
proved.
The Catholic Church alone teaches by
authority, or professes to speak in God's
name. Her voice is to the world, " I
am the pillar and ground of the truth " ;
"He that is of God, heareth us " ;
" Jesus Christ is God and man, the
redeemer and teacher of mankind. He
established the church that it might
represent him, extend itself to all men,
and teach in his almighty name."
Protestants, in all their varied forms,
profess no power to teach. It is their
peculiarity to deny any such power, and
to remit the whole question of belief to
the individual mind. The reference to a
1 6 The Supremacy of the Pope.
book whose inspiration they cannot
prove, and whose meaning is as various
as the texture of separate human intel-
lects, is perhaps the greatest insult to
the reason they claim to defend. Who
is so short-sighted as not to see that
the whole structure of Protestant dog-
matism, if such it may be called, is the
logical fallacy of "begging the question"?
The inspiration of the Bible cannot be
proved, except by another living, in-
fallible authority. The Bible cannot
prove itself, nor can historical testimony,
as to the authenticity of its different
books, substantiate its divine character.
Protestants are too thoughtless or too
dishonest to take notice of this great
fallacy in their whole system ; but the
world has long ago seen and pro-
claimed it.
The Supremacy of the Pope. 17
If you ask an infidel to believe in
the authority of the Scriptures, you
have to offer him reasonable evidence
of their inspiration. If you cannot do
this, you insult his understanding by
bringing them into the controversy. No
Protestant church can pretend to teach
infallibly, and there is no other kind
of teaching. Honest and sincere hearts
have to meet the question as it is,
and say if they are willing to re-
nounce Christianity and an objective
revelation, to give up Christ and the
hopes of his Gospel; for to this has it
come. They cannot hold logical con-
tradictions, form their creed by their
own or other people's minds out of a
book which they cannot show to be
the word of God, or go on for ever
taking for granted that which they can
1 8 The Stipremacy of the Pope.
demonstrate to no one. This is actual
infidelity, though masked under the garb
of sincerity or piety.
In these lectures we propose to treat
briefly and simply of the great question
which concerns all sincere men. If this
question be answered truly by us, there
is no further need of controversy. We
present no side issue, nor irrelevant mat-
ter. Our argument will only establish
the conclusions of reason and revelation,
that God is truth, that he has spoken
to the wants of our race, and that the
light which he kindled shines clearly
where all may find it who honestly seek
it. And if our words are true, then it
is the duty of all men who hope for
salvation through Jesus Christ to hear
the voice by which alone he speaks, and,
disregarding all otiier questions, and re-
The Supremacy of the Pope. 1 9
nouncing every opposing human interest,
to yield obedience to that church which
is really Christ teaching and redeeming
the world.
The argument of this lecture is very
simple, and, to an unprejudiced mind,
unanswerable.
I. Jesus Christ, who is God, founded
the Catholic Church, and his veracity, as
a teacher, is bound up with this church.
II. Of this church he made S. Peter
and his successors the supreme pastors.
III. Christianity is therefore identical
with the church of which S. Peter and
his successors are the head.
IV. The rejection of Christianity is the
actual rejection of natural religion and
the light of reason.
The fountains of evidence on which
we rely are, first: facts which no sane
20 The Supremacy of the Pope,
man can gainsay ; secondly, the Holy
Scriptures, which are inspired to those
who are willing to receive them as such,
and authentic to every one ; and, thirdly,
the testimony of reason itself, which must
find harmony and propriety in the works
of the divine hand.
In short and concise conferences, such
as we propose, our citations will neces-
sarily be brief; but one good proof is
sufficient when its force is direct and
invincible.
I.
We do not intend here to enter
upon the argument which establishes the
divinity of Jesus Christ. It will answer
our present purpose to simply state that
he professed himself to be the Son of
God, and, as such, equal in nature to his
The Supremacy of the Pope. 2 1
1
Father. His miracles, which are matters
of fact, witnessed by competent testimony,
proved the truth of the divine character
which he claimed.* God only can work
genuine miracles, and he can never co-
operate with falsehood.
The fact that he founded a church to
perpetuate his Gospel is generally admit-
ted. Those who reject him altogether
are not concerned to deny a fact so
evident. And the various sects of Chris-
tians, in the foundation and management
of their different churches, testify to it,
as a thinaf conceded without discussion.
If it were necessary to prove it, we should
only have to adduce historical testimony
overwhelmingly abundant. The New Tes-
*For fuller proof of the divinity of Jesus Christ, the
reader is referred to the author's lectures upon Christ
ana (he Church.
22 The Supremacy of the Pope.
tament gives a full account of the estab-
lishment of this church, and the commis-
sion of its first pastors or teachers, while
the Acts of the Apostles are simply the
history of its early growth and vicissitudes.
We need only quote the words of the
text: "Thou art Peter; and upon this
rock I will build my church " ; or the
great promise: "Go ye, therefore, and
teach all nations ; and behold, I am with
you all days, even unto the consumma-
tion of the world."*
The continued existence of a church
through nineteen centuries, deriving its
authority professedly from him, and really
tracing back its existence to him, is the
strongest proof that can be presented.
They who would reject this evidence
can consistently accept no historical tes-
* S. Matthew xxviii. 1S-20.
The Supremacy of I fie Pope. 23
timony whatever. The only link wanting
in the chain is the proof that the Catho-
lic Church is the church which Jesus
Christ founded. And here we have only
to say, that if he founded any church,
it must have been the Catholic Church ;
for, first, there is no other church which
can trace back its origin to him ; and,
secondly, there is no other church which
is founded upon Peter, as his was, by
the testimony of his own words. The
Protestant communions, without a single
exception, can be traced to their found-
ers at no very distant date, and every
schism gives us the exact day and hour
of its separation from the old church.
These could not have been founded by
Christ, since they took their rise long
after his death and ascension.
The peculiarity of the Christian church
24 The Supremacy of the Pope.
was, and is, that it rests upon S. Peter
and his successors as its foundation and
immovable centre of unity. Surely there
is no need to demonstrate that the
Catholic communion alone has this
characteristic and distinguishing mark of
the true church. No Protestant body
exists a day without the denial of this
essential feature of the body of Christ.
It cannot be said that the church estab-
lished by our Lord has failed, become
corrupt, or ceased to exist. The works
of God are imperishable, and that which
he commandeth to endure cannot pass
away. If his church could cease to
exist, then the gates of hell have pre-
vailed against it, and his word has
proved false. If it has become at any
time corrupt and unfit for its mission,
then has it so signally failed that the
The Supremacy of the Pope. 25
powers of evil have mastered it, and
turned it against its founder. If it
could be divided, so as to break its
unity and extinguish its living, infallible
voice, then has Christ been worsted in
the stru cMe with the devil, and his
o o
promises have come to naught. Who is
so blind as not to see that his veracity
as a teacher, and therefore the success
of his whole mission on earth, are
bound up with the perpetuity and
triumph of that one church which he
established? If his word can fail, then
he is not God, and Christianity is a
wreck of delusion and imposture. There
is no other conclusion to which a just
and unprejudiced mind can come.
26 The Supremacy of the Pope.
II.
It is important, however, to bring into
greater light the fact on which we have
for a moment dwelt. Of this church
which Christ founded, and to which he
gave the whole strength of his divinitv,
S. Peter and his successors were consti-
tuted the supreme head. This truth
being once established, every religious
question is settled among those who
profess themselves followers of Jesus
Christ.
I. Our proposition is only the state-
ment of a fact, better substantiated
than almost any fact in history. If our
Lord did not found his church upon
Peter, then he did not found any
church at all. The evidence for the one
is equal to the evidence for the other.
The Supremacy of the Pope. 27
First, we have his promise to this
apostle, given in the most solemn
manner. His name was not originally
Peter. He was Simon the son of Jonas.
At his first call to the apostleship, our
Lord changed his name, and called him
Peter, or " the rock." The other
apostles were not called by such a
name, and therefore it is certain that
something special and important was in-
tended by such an appellation. To
suppose anything else would be really
to make our Lord senseless and more
foolish than any ordinary man. And
there is no other interpretation of his
words possible, except one which would
throw ridicule upon Peter. Upon him
as " the rock," or foundation, Jesus
Christ promised to build his church. It
was no ordinary edifice, but one which
28 The Supremacy of the Pope.
the powers of evil or the changes of
time should not be able to destroy.
" Thou art Peter ; and upon this rock I
will build my church, and the gates of
hell shall not prevail against it." After
the resurrection, the supremacy and
pastorship promised were plainly con-
ferred.
"Jesus said to Simon Peter: Simon
son of John, lovest thou me more than
these ? He saith to him : Yea, Lord,
thou knowest that I love thee. He
saith to him : Feed my lambs. He saith
to him again : Simon son of John,
lovest thou me ? He saith to him :
Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love
thee. He saith to him : Feed my lambs.
He saith • to him the third time : Simon
son of John, lovest thou me ? Peter was
grieved, because he said to him the
The Supremacy of the Pope. 29
third time, Lovest thou me ? And he
said to him : Lord, ' thou knowest all
things: thou knowest that I love thee.
He said to him: Feed my sheep."*
The lambs and sheep of Christ con-
stitute his entire fold, and therefore by
these words S. Peter is made the
pastor of the whole flock. The power
conferred here is not given to the
other apostles, but they rather are
placed under the direction of their chief.
" Lovest thou me more than these ? "
signifies a greater trust, and therefore
a greater devotion. Any other interpre-
tation would imply that the God- Man
was either ignorant of the meaning of
words, or that he intended to deceive.
Christians have ever understood his
words in their plain, literal sense, and
* S. John xxi. 15-17-
3<D The Supremacy of the Pope.
on this point there is a testimony
overwhelming. As a matter of fact,
Peter and his successors have been the
pastors of the Catholic Church. This
one point has ever been the proof of
unity. Separation from the see of Peter
has been separation from the church.
As S. Ambrose says, " Where Peter is,
there is the church." No civil tyranny
nor galvanic efforts have been able to
give ecclesiastical life to a body sun-
dered from his communion. A branch
cut off from the vine is hopelessly dead.
The words of the early Christian writers
and teachers abundantly confirm our
statement of fact.
Tertullian, A.d. 195, thus writes:
" Was anything hidden from Peter, who
was called the rock on which the
church was to be built ; who obtained
The Supremacy of the Pope. 3 1
the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and
the power of loosing- and binding in
heaven and on earth?"*
Origen, a.d. 216, calls S. Peter "the
foundation of the church, and the most
solid rock, upon which Christ founded his
church " — " Ecclesias fundamentum, et
petram solidissimam, super quam Christus
fundavit ecclesiam."f "The chief authority
of feeding the sheep was delivered to
Peter, and on him, as on the earth, the
church was founded " — " Petro cum
summa rerum de pascendis ovibus tra-
deretur, et super ipsum, velut super
terram, fundaretur ecclesia." %
St. Cyprian, a.d. 248, among many
other like passages, says: "There is
* Tertidlian, De PnEScrip. Haeret.
f Origen, t.'ii., Horn. v. in Exod.
% T. iv., lib. v. in Ep. ad Rom.
32 The Supremacy of the Pope.
one baptism, and one Holy Ghost, and
one church, founded by Christ our Lord
upon Peter, for an origin and principle
of unity " — " Una ecclesia a Christo
Domino super Petrum origine unitatis et
ratione fundata." *
"Whither shall he come that thirsteth?
To heretics, where the fountain of water
is in no way life-giving, or to the
church, which is one, and was by the
voice of the Lord founded upon one,
who also received the keys thereof. She
it is that alone holds and possesses the
whole power of her Spouse and Lord. "I
S. Hilary, of Poictiers, a.d. 356, calls
S. Peter " happy foundation of the
church, and a rock worthy of that
building which was to scatter the in-
fernal laws, and the gates of hell, and
* S. Cypiian, Ep. Ixx., ad Januar. f Ibid. p. 2S1.
The Supremacy of the Pope. 33
all the bars of death. O blessed keeper
of the gate of heaven, whose judgment
on earth is an authority prejudged in
heaven.
S. Optatus of Milevis, a.d. 368: "To
err knowingly is a sin, for the ignorant
are sometimes pardoned. Thou canst not
then deny but thou knowest that in the
city of Rome, on Peter the First was
the episcopal chair conferred, wherein
might sit of all the apostles the head,
Peter; whence also he was called
Cephas (the rock), that in that one
chair (in qua u?ia cathedra) unity might
be preserved by all ; and that whoso
should set up another chair against the
single chair might at once be a schis-
matic and a sinner."f
* S. Hilary, Comm. in Matt., c. xvi.
\ S. Optatus, De Schism. Donat, 1. ii. n. 2-4.
34 The Supremacy of the Pope.
S. Gregory of Nyssa, a.d. 370 :
" The memory of Peter, the head of
the apostles, is celebrated ; upon him is
the church of God firmly established.
For he is, agreeably to the gift con-
ferred upon him by the Lord, that un-
broken and most firm rock upon which
the Lord built his church." *
Gaius Marius Victorinus, a writer
mentioned by S. Jerome and S.
Augustine. He flourished about the
middle of the fourth century. He thus
speaks (in his Prol. ad Galat.): "If the
foundation of the church was placed
upon Peter, as is said in the Gospel,
Paul, to whom all things had been re-
vealed, knew that he ought to see
Peter, as him to whom so great an
authority had been given by Christ."
* De S. Steph., t. vl
The Supremacy of the Pope. 35
S. Ambrose, a.d. 385 : "It is that
same Peter, to whom he said: "Thou
art Peter ; and on this rock will I
build my church." Therefore where
Peter is, there is the church ; where
the church is, there death is not, but
life eternal " — " Ubi ergo Petrus, ibi
ecclesia ; ubi ecclesia, ibi nulla mors, sed
vita seterna." *
S. Jerome, a.d. 390, thus writes :
" I speak with the fisherman's suc-
cessor and the disciple of the cross.
Following no chief but Christ, I
am in communion with your holiness
(Pope Damasus), that is, with the chair
of Peter. Upon that rock I know that
the church is built. Whosoever eats
the Lamb out of this house is profane.
If any one be not in the ark of Noah,
* S. Ambrose, t. i., in Ps. xl.
36 The Supremacy of the Pope.
he will perish whilst the deluge pre-
vaileth. Whosoever gathereth not with
thee scatter eth." *
S. John Chrysostom, a.d. 387 :
" Peter, the leader of the choir, the
mouth of the apostles, the head of that
brotherhood, that one set over the
entire universe, that foundation of the
church." " See how Paul speaks after
Peter, and no one restrains : James
waits, and starts not up, for Peter it
was to whom had been entrusted the
government."f
S. Innocent I., Pope, a.d. 410:
"Though Peter alone received many
things, nothing passed unto any one
else without his participation .in it. Out
of the whole world the one Peter is
* S. Jerome, Ep. xv., ad Damas. Papam.
+ S. Chrysostom, t. in Joannem et Horn, xxxiii. in Act. Ap.
The Supremacy of the Pope 3 7
chosen, to be both set over the voca-
tion of all the nations, and over all the
apostles, and all the fathers of the
church ; that so, though there be in the
people of God many priests and many
pastors, Peter especially may rule all
whom Christ also rules as the head.
. . . Wherefore, my beloved, since
we see that so great a safeguard has
been divinely instituted for us, reason-
ably and justly do we rejoice in the
merits and dignity of our leader, giving
thanks to our everlasting King and Re-
deemer Jesus Christ for that he gave
so great power to him whom he made
the prince of the whole church ; that,
if it so be that anything is rightly
done by us in these our days, it be re-
ferred to his doing, to his governing,
unto whom it was said, Confirm thy
38 The Supremacy of the Pope.
brethren; and to whom, after the
resurrection, the Lord, for a triple con-
fession of everlasting love, with a
mystic meaning thrice said : Feed my
sheep.
These passages, which are among
many others, show the universal Chris-
tian belief in the power of Peter and
his successors as the pastors and rulers
of that church which Christ established.
There is not in antiquity a dissentient voice.
The prerogatives of Peter were not a
matter of discussion. They were recog-
nized as a fact as essential to Chris-
tianity, as the divine ministry of our
Lord. Although we have only spoken
of Peter personally, it is evident from
the very nature of the case, and from
the evidence we have quoted, that the
* S. Innocent I., t. i. Serm. iv. in Natal. Ordinat.
The Supremacy of the Pope. 39
powers he received were official, and
are therefore transferred to his successors
to the end of time
If our Lord conferred the headship of
his visible body upon S. Peter, that
headship was essential to the church
which he constituted, and must therefore
last to the end of time. The church
could not exist without it. The church
was for all ages, and so was S. Peter's
office.
Again, the powers involved in this su-
premacy were for the salvation of men
of all generations, and hence the su-
premacy must endure during the whole
dispensation of Christ. If Peter fails,
Christ fails. Peter personally passes
away ; therefore, according to the unani-
mous voice of the fathers, he lives in
his successors. Peter, as the head of
4-0 The Supremacy of the Pope.
the church and the centre of its unity,
never dies. To this purport are the
words which we have just cited from the
early Christian writers, who witness to a
fact in their own day, a fact so essential
that it could not be separated from
Christianity. "Where Peter is, there is
the church, with which is life eternal."
The language of Philip, the Papal le-
gate, accepted by the Council of Ephesus,
a.d. 431, is conclusive:
" It is a matter of doubt to none, yea,
rather it is a thins: known to all asfes,
that the holy and most blessed Peter, the
prince and head of the apostles, the pillar
of the faith, the foundation of the Catholic
Church, received the keys of the kingdom
from Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour
and Redeemer of mankind. And to him
was given authority to bind and loose sins,
The Supremacy of the Pope. 41
who, even till this present, and always,
both lives and judges in his successors.
Our holy and much blessed Pope Celestin,
the bishop, the canonical successor of
Peter, and his viceregent, has sent us as
representatives of his person." *
At the Council of Chalcedon, a.d. 451,
the sentence of the deposition of Dioscorus
is pronounced in Pope Leo's name as
follows: "Wherefore, the most holy and
blessed archbishop of the great and elder
Rome, through us and the present most
holy synod, together with the thrice blessed
and illustrious Peter the apostle, who is
the rock and foundation of the Catholic
Church, and the foundation of the orthodox
faith, has stripped him (Dioscorus) of his
episcopacy, and has removed him from all
priestly dignity." f
* Cone. Epk., act. iii. f Cone. Chalced., act. iii.
42 The Supremacy of the Pope.
We conclude with the words of S. Boni-
face, Bishop of Rome, a.d. 418: "The in-
stitution of the universal church took its*
beginning from the honor bestowed on
blessed Peter, in whom its government and
headship reside ; for from him as its
source did ecclesiastical discipline flow over
all the churches when the culture of re-
ligion had begun to make progress. The
precepts of the Synod of Nicaea bear no
other testimony, insomuch that this synod
did not attempt to make any regulations
in his regard, as it saw that nothing could
be conferred that was superior to his own
dignity : it knew, in fact, that everything
had been bestowed upon him by the Lord.
It is therefore certain that this church is
to the churches spread over the world as
the head is to its own members ; from
which church whoso has cut himself off
The Supremacy of the Pope. 43
becomes an alien from the Christian re-
liQ-ion.
II. We have alluded to the Holy Scrip-
tures only as they contain an authentic
History of the life and acts of Jesus Christ.
Those who accept them as inspired writ-
ings will find new and weightier proof of
our proposition in them, since not only
are they the work of the Spirit of God,
but every line and feature becomes in-
vested with a higher meaning. We pur-
pose therefore merely to indicate the
testimony to Peter's prerogatives which
is so abundant in them. And here let us
premise that the Holy Scriptures bear
higher and stronger testimony to this
truth than to any other in the whole
circle of Christian verities. Some of the
truths admitted by Protestants are to be
* S. Boniface, Ep. xiv., Epis. Thess.
44 The Stipremacy of the Pope.
found only indirectly or by implication
in the sacred books ; others are not
there at all. But if language can ex_
press anything, Peter's supremacy is dis-
tinctly stated, so as to leave no shadow of
doubt. We do not say that men cannot
reject it, or deny that they see it. Any
statement, however clear, can be miscon-
strued. "I and my Father are one" can
be explained of a unity of sentiment ;
" This is my body " may be made to ex-
press " This represents my body," in utter
violation of common sense and the rules
of language. Yet, if words are of any use
whatever, our argument is good ; and if
they are of no use, then language ceases
to be a medium of communication be-
tween man and man, or between man
and God. What, then, do the Scriptures
teach ? We will place their testimony be-
The Supremacy of the Pope. 45
fore the reader in the briefest possible
synopsis :
1. Our Lord calls his disciples, whom
he afterwards names apostles. He changes
the name of only one of them. " Jesus,
looking" on him, said : Thou art Simon son
of Jonas ; thou shalt be called Cephas,
which is interpreted Peter (a rock)." *
The Creator does not speak in vain, nor
give a name without any signification.
And no reason for this appellation can be
given, except that which Christianity has
accepted, and which the Gospel afterwards
more fully explains.
2. In the catalogue of the apostles, and
the account of their appointment, S. Peter
is mentioned first. This could not be
without intention, even in the acts of a
merely human teacher, much less in those
* S. John i. 35-42.
46 The Supremacy of the Pope.
of a divine Saviour. " The names of the
twelve apostles are these : The first, Simon,
who is called Peter." *
3. Prominence is given to S. Peter by
our Lord and the Evangelists in every
leading act of his life and ministry. He
teaches from Peter's boat, and if he ever
taught from any other it is not recorded.
Peter's net alone takes the miraculous
draught of fishes. After the resurrection,
the scene on Galilee is repeated, and Peter
dragfs the laden net to the shore, where is
manifested the glorified Christ.
He is oftener mentioned in the Gospels
and the Acts of the Apostles than all the
other apostles put together. He is men-
tioned directly when the others are only
alluded to, or spoken of obliquely.
The leading part is assigned to him,
* S. Matt. x. I. Compare S. Mark iii. 14 ; S. Luke vi. 14.
The Supremacy of the Pope. 47
and he speaks for the others, who never
by any accident speak for him. After the
ascension of Christ, he is the chief figure
among- the apostles, taking the place which
Christ held before.
When the new apostle is elected in the
place of Judas, he " stood in the midst of
the disciples," to move and direct the elec-
tion. So S. Chrysostom says : " As one
entrusted by Christ with the flock, and as
the first of the choir, he ever first begins
to speak." *
He presides over the different steps in
the propagation of the church, and re-
ceives the Gentiles in the person of Cor-
nelius.
He exercises supreme legislative au-
thority in council when the apostles are
gathered together by the Holy Ghost, and
* Horn. iii. in Act.
48 The Supremacy of the Pope.
they acquiesce in his judgment. " See,"
says S. Chrysostom, "he first permits a
discussion to arise in the church, and then
he speaks."
S. Paul, after his miraculous conversion,
and the revelation which he received from
Christ himself, goes up to Jerusalem to
visit S. Peter.
Surely these various facts recorded by
the inspired writers have an important
meaning, else the Holy Spirit would not
have caused them to be written.
4. There are important texts which
deserve a distinct notice.
The miraculous payment of the tribute
is recorded in S. Matthew xvii. 23. Our
Lord first declares that, as the Son of God
and the Sovereign to whom the temple is
dedicated, he is free from any obligation to
pay the tribute. " But that we may not
The Supremacy of the Pope. 49
scandalize them," he says to Peter, "goto
the sea, and cast in a hook ; and that fish
which shall first come up, take, and when
thou hast opened its mouth thou shalt find
a piece of silver ; take that, and give it
them for me and thee." Why does Jesus
Christ here work this miracle, and asso-
ciate himself in this marked manner with
S. Peter ? There is really no reason for
his act, unless the disciple, as the head,
represents the church for which he stands.
The tribute is not paid for Christ and the
apostles, but for Christ and Peter : "for me
and thee."
Secondly, the terms of the passage al
ready quoted, as the text of our lecture,
are conclusive.
" Jesus answering, said to him : Blessed
art thou, Simon Bar-Jona : because flesh
and blood hath not revealed it to thee, but
5<d The Supremacy of the Pope.
my Father who is in heaven. And I say
to thee : That thou art Peter (the rock) ; and
upon this rock I will build my church, and
the gates of hell shall not prevail against
it. And I will give to thee the keys of
the kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever
thou shalt bind upon earth, it shall also be
bound in heaven : and whatsoever thou
shalt loose on earth, it shall be loosed also
in heaven." *
From this passage the following con-
clusions are evident : Peter had solemnly
confessed the true faith in the divinity
and humanity of Jesus Christ. This clear
faith he received from no human source,
but by divine inspiration from the eternal
Father. The reason for this special favor
was not his natural gifts, but the office
to which he was designated in his call to
f S. Matthew xvi 15-19.
The Supremacy of the Pope. 5 1
the apostleship. Our Lord gives this ex-
planation in the distinct statement of his
official character, and the meaning of his
name. " Thou art what I have called
thee, a rock, and on thee as such I will
build my church so firmly that the great-
est power or malice of devils cannot shake
it."
Here human language is useless, and
human intelligence given for naught,
if our Lord did not promise to bui'd
his church on Peter. To say that the
rock signifies the faith which Peter con-
fessed is to intimate that which cannot
honestly be deduced from his words, and
to make an interpretation which is an ab-
surdity.
The faith of the head of the church is
certainly implied, for how could he be a
foundation if his faith was not sure? But,
52 The Supremacy of the Pope.
if the God- Man meant only to say that he
founded his church on faith, why did he
not say so simply and plainly ? Surely he
was not ignorant of the use of the words
he used. But he goes on to express
the powers which were conveyed to Peter
" I will give to thee the keys of the
kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever thou
shalt bind on earth, it shall also be bound
in heaven." Here the supreme jurisdic-
tion over the church or kingdom of Christ
is given in the fullest terms. He who
holdeth the keys of the temple is the
master of the building. " He openeth,
and no man shutteth ; he shutteth, and
no man openeth." If the apostles receive
the power to bind and loose, their gift in-
terfereth not with the prerogatives of their
chief, who beareth alone the keys of the
heavenly kingdom.
The Stipremacy of the Pope. 5
5
We forbear again to quote the interpre-
tations of the Christian fathers on this text,
as we have already sufficiently manifested
their unanimous sentiment. And the lan-
guage of our Lord is so plain that no
comments of men can make it clearer. We
are well aware of the disputations of late
days which have endeavored to explain
away this text, but we think them contra-
ry to- reason and irreverent to the divine
mind which speaks in the inspired Scrip-
tures, as well as insulting to the God- Man
who redeemed us, to whose mercy we
owe the plan of salvation. There is no-
thing that can escape, denial. There are
those who assert that Peter was never in
Rome, that his successors (if he had any)
never possessed any jurisdiction over the
church ; that Christ did not institute any
church at all. But we parallel these ob-
54 The Supremacy of the Pope.
jectors, whom no one can reason with at
any time, with the intelligent philosophers
who deny the possibility of miracles, assail
the reality of our cognitions or perceptions,
and pride themselves in doubting every-
thing. To such there can be no history,
and even no certainty of things present.
We shall, . then, satisfy ourselves with
one more quotation from the sacred writ-
ings, in which, as we have seen under
another part of our subject, the Holy
Ghost records the fact that the Son of
God, the great shepherd of the sheep,
when about to leave the world, solemnly
confided his whole flock to the care of S.
Peter. We refer to the passage of S.
John's Gospel (xxi. 15-17) already cited.
Thrice does the Redeemer demand of his
apostle if he loves him more than the
others, and to his ready answer, thrice he
The Supremacy of the Pope. 55
replies by the great commission : " Feed
my lambs : Feed my sheep.'' No in-
genuity of error can take from these words
their plain signification. The will may say,
I will not accept them ; the reason may
argue that it is of no consequence who
feeds the flock of Christ, or that the other
apostles were equally charged with the
office here given only to one (which is an
unauthorized and palpable misstatement) ;
yet there, on the sacred page, remain the
unmistakable words, "Feed my sheep'' in
their letters of light. No revelation in
language is possible when such words can
be misinterpreted. It is the greatest of
surprises to us that those who thus pervert
the sayings and acts of Christ can possess
any respect for the inspired volume.
Well may we say, with S. Asterius (a.d.
387) : " O the deep darkness, and the
56 The Supremacy of the Pope.
cloud spread over men's eyes, whereby the
heretics see not the footprints of the
fathers, and walk not in the path worn
by the feet of the apostles ! For behold
Peter, that pre eminently sincere disciple
of Christ, he who everywhere received
the first place, both as regards honors and
good deeds; that great man, whose glory
has filled the whole world, when bidden to
declare his sentiments concerning our God
and Saviour, he, with singleness of heart,
proclaimed the truth briefly. . . . When
our Saviour was about to sanctify the human
race by a voluntary death, he entrusts to
this man the universal and oecumenical
church, after having thrice asked him :
Lovest thou me? But as he to those ques-
tions readily gave as many confessions,
he received the world in charge, as it were,
for one fold, one shepherd having heard
The Supremacy of the Pope. 57
Feed my lambs, and the Lord gave in his
own stead that most faithful disciple to the
proselytes as a father, pastor, and in-
structor." *
Yet reason has but one voice, Christi-
anity one history, and Jesus Christ one
fold.
III. Let us consult for a moment the
teachings of reason on this subject.
The divinity of Jesus Christ is estab-
lished by proofs which address themselves
to the reason, and which, according to the
laws of evidence, are unanswerable. God
then became man, " the Word was made
flesh," to redeem man from the effects of
sin, and to convey to him the gifts of a
new life.
The church which he instituted is a
society of men, adhering together by a
* Horn, in Apost. Princ.
58 The Supremacy of the Pope.
power which he gave and still imparts.
Nothing less can be gathered from the
facts of his life. " All power is given unto
me in heaven and on earth." " Behold I
am with you all days, even unto the con-
summation of the world."
He never founded but one church,
neither could he, without contradicting him-
self and nullifying his whole mission. Two
or more churches would at once neutralize
each other. "He that ga there th not with
me scattereth."
The end for which he founded this
church was twofold : to teach the various
generations of men the truths which he
came on earth to proclaim, and to apply
to all times and races the fruits of his re-
demption. He did not remain visibly
among us but one generation, and so could
reach only one age by his personal labors.
The Supremacy of the Pope. 59
Reason suggests no plan so effectual to
accomplish his designs as the institution
of a great society, to spread over the world,
and bind together its members in one faith
and one supernatural aim. Up to this
point everything is in accordance with our
intelligence, and the harmonies which we
demand in the works of a founder of a
great institution, much more in the works
of God.
But, if Jesus Christ established a church
and took no care to provide for its unity,
he labored unwisely and in vain. No
human teacher could be guilty of such
folly. His enterprise would receive and
deserve the ridicule of all mankind. And
unity in a society is impossible without a
head, whose rights and prerogatives are
clearly defined. We demand of the Master-
builder of the Christian temple that he
6o The Supremacy of the Pope.
shall thus satisfy the necessities of our
nature, and not leave to fall in pieces the
gflorious structure which he undertook to
erect. There is no unity so perfect as
that to which he parallels the unity of
his church. It is a kingdom under one
Lord ; a house built upon one foundation ;
a body whose many members partake of
one life, and are obedient to one head.
As unity is an essential of the church,
so it cannot exist without a head, and we
are not surprised to hear the God- Man
say: "Thou art Peter; and on this rock
I will build my church " ; nor to hear an-
tiquity echo on all sides the consequence
of this creating word, in the language
which expresses all: "Where Peter is,
there is the church."
Reason scoffs at the idea of many heads
to one body, many rulers to one kingdom,
The Supremacy of the Pope. 6 1
many foundations to one house. If there
be more than one God, there is no God,
since of many Gods there is none supreme.
If there be many heads to the church,
there is no unity ; and where there is no
unity, there is no church. God in nature,
as well as in revelation, teaches us this.
It is the height of absurdity, not to say
blasphemy, to make the divine founder of
Christianity less wise than human intel-
lects, which he created and enlightens.
They who profess to believe in the divin-
ity of Jesus Christ must deny the existence
of any church whatever, which is against
fact ; or hold to one alone which is worthy
of the mighty hand which framed its es-
sential parts according to the laws of a
perfect unity.
62 The Supremacy of the Pope.
III.
Christianity is, then, identical with that
church of which S. Peter and his successors
are the head.
From all that has been said and demon-
strated, it is quite evident that Jesus Christ
came upon earth to found a religion for
man's restoration to the complete favor of
God, and that the system he introduced
must be permanent. Christianity is the
name of the religion he established, and
must be taken as a whole on his authority,
or rejected as a whole. Taken in part,
and rejected in part, it ceases to bear the
mark of his hand. Truth when mixed
with error is the worst form of deceit.
The church was the concrete form of
Christianity, the outward sign or sacra-
ment of unity and reconciliation with God.
The Supremacy of the Pope. 6 1
3
It was founded upon Peter, not accident-
ally, but essentially, so that it had, and
can have, no existence without him. When
he fails, the church fails. When the foun-
dation gives way, the building falls. "The
gates of hell prevail against it." Separa-
tion from Peter is separation from the
unity of the church. This tests the whole
Christian system. The house of God can
never cease to be one, since communion
with the head ogives one life and one love.
Individual members may fall away, nations
apostatize from the fold ; the flock con-
tinues one, under one shepherd. The form
which Christ gave to his body must
continue, and any essential change de-
stroys all ; Christ fails, and we must
wait for a new redeemer. We cannot
construct a religion for ourselves, nor
modify the features of his work any
64 The Supremacy of the Pope.
more than we can become our own sa-
viour.
The religious bodies, therefore, which
apply to themselves the Christian name,
separated from the communion of Peter,
have really no part nor lot in Christ;
rather, as rivals of his religion, and ene-
mies to the faith he taught, are they anti-
Christian. We cannot have Christ with-
out the church which he founded, nor take
any share in his teachings, unless obediently
we receive all.
It was not to be hoped that the bark
of Peter would sail upon a tranquil sea,
nor to be expected that all converted
to the truth should remain faithful. Yet
it was absolutely necessary for the very
existence of Christianity that the body
should retain its integrity, and the church
its oneness. Faith must have its trials,
The Supremacy of the Pope. 65
but the Word of God must endure for
ever.
From the just conclusions of our lecture,
from the language of the fathers already
quoted, from the very words of our Lord,
it follows that no society separated from
the communion and obedience of S. Peter
and his successors, can be in any way the
representative of Jesus Christ and his re-
ligion.
There are bodies of men untouched by
the errors of late days, and retaining the
forms of the Apostolic Church, and the
orders of her priesthood. They are more
or less divided among themselves, with no
power to resist the tyranny of civil poten-
tates, nor control the rebelling minds of
their own children. They have the ex-
terior of the old temple, but no part in
its life and graces ; for they are not of
66 The Supremacy of the Pope.
that fold which Peter feeds. Cut off from
his communion, they touch not the founda-
tion laid by the Incarnate God, and are
no part of his body which " he filleth
with his fulness."
What other conclusion is possible, if the
words of Christ are true ? What other
conclusion consistent with the unity of the
church? Any other theory would make
as many distinct churches as there are
bishops, no regard being had to their faith
or charity towards each other ; and such
a theory, while it is an absurdity to reason,
is utterly opposed to the facts on which
we rest the whole fabric of revealed re-
ligion.
Protestantism is founded in the denial
of unity, either internal or external. To
consistent Protestants there is no external
teacher, nor any sheepfold or shepherd.
The Supremacy of the Pope. 67
There can be to them no church instituted
by Christ ; for, if there were such a church,
it would be the duty of every man to
obey it, and they recognize no such duty.
Their position cannot be logically defended
one instant, except by the plain and broad
statement that our Lord founded no church
in any proper sense of the term. Scrip-
ture and history have both to be explain-
ed away by them, yet, nevertheless, they
undertake to defend themselves by both.
On the plea that there is no divine church,
their forefathers left the Catholic com-
munion ; and on the same principle their
children have divided and subdivided, until
every generation sees the birth of new
sects, which, notwithstanding the zeal of
their members, have no authority from
above, and, confessedly, are unnecessary to
the salvation of any one. Such a state
68 The Stcpremacy of the Pope.
of disunion and religious strife may be
called by any name : it is no more Chris-
tianity than it is Mohammedanism.
We have said that there is with Pro-
testants neither internal nor external unity.
No long - argument is needed to prove our
statement. Visible unity they pretend
not to have, and it is palpably evident
that they do not agree in doctrine. In
truth, there is not one article of belief,
not even the divinity of Jesus Christ, in
which they all are of one mind.
The most advanced disciples of private
judgment, and the most illogical, are those
among Protestants who attempt to dog-
matize, and arrange matters ecclesiastical,
and terms of communion, as if they them-
selves were the lawgivers. Clothed in
vestments robbed from the ancient church,
without her orders, and repudiated by their
The Supremacy of the Pope. 69
own communion, they disport themselves
before the complacent world, the marvel of
wise men and the scandal of their breth-
ren. Ritualists rightly named ire they,
for there is nothing but rite there ; the
form without the thing, the vestment with-
out the priest, the altar without the sacri-
fice. If we speak feelingly, it is because
the time has come. Solomon says there
is a time for everything : the time to
weep and the time to laugh ; and now
the time for play is past. If they would
form a church of their own, they would
merit far more respect. To remain in a
church which disowns them, and openly
arrays itself on the side of Protestantism,
is neither the dictate of obedience nor
honesty. Their theory of unity does away
with the very essentials of a church, and
shows that they have not comprehended
jo The Supremacy of the Pope.
the first condition of union with Christ in
and through the sacraments of one visible
fold.
As the sacred text is capable of misin-
terpretations, so are the fathers to be ex-
plained away. Far better would it be for
honor and logic to stand on the broad
platform which asserts independence of all
authority, ecclesiastical or external, than
thus to be false to reason and facts. In
neither case, however, is found the revela-
tion through the incarnate Son of God,
the temple built upon Peter, in which
shines clearly the light of Christianity.
Yet, for a last question, Why do Pro-
testants at one time obey, and at another
time resist, the same evidence of revela-
tion ? Why hold certain tenets and reject
others which have even a greater weight
of testimony? If they would consider how
The Supremacy of the Pope. 71
overwhelming is the evidence for the su-
premacy of S. Peter compared with that
for many doctrines which they hold with-
out question, perhaps in moments of quiet
sincerity they might be ashamed of their
inconsistency. They need not be surprised
if their children learn the lesson their ex-
ample teaches, and in due time reject even
their semblance or remnant of Christianity.
Logic hath a stern voice and a mighty
power. Amid the storms of battle it
causeth itself to be heard, and there is
no grave in which it can be buried.
IV.
We have one step more to describe as
the just consequence of the rejection of
the pastorship of S. Peter. It is the re-
jection of natural religion and the light
of reason.
72 The Supremacy of the Pope.
First among: all verities and the founda
tion of all knowledge, is the existence of
God, a supreme and necessary being, en-
dowed with all possible perfections. In-
finite knowledge and unvariable truth are
the most essential of his attributes. In
his dealings with intelligent creatures whom
he has made, there is not only the light
that shines from his greatness, but also
the love that yearns over the work
of his hands. He cannot be deceived,
and still less can he deceive. Natural
religion rests on this truth, and reason
itself would be unanchored, if God were
to descend from his throne, which is the
centre of light and love to the universe.
The laws of evidence depend on his ve-
racity, which nothing can shake. " Heaven
and earth may pass away : the Word of
God standeth sure for ever."
The Supremacy of the Pope. j$
Christianity rests on this certainty, as
its revelations are addressed to those who
cannot doubt the existence of the Infinite
Mind, nor the possibility of his communi-
cation with his creatures. We have no
right to question the mode of such com-
munications, which depend solely upon the
divine pleasure, nor the matter of a re-
velation, since the supernatural is wholly
above our vision. Without referring here to
times and dispensations past, we argue that
Jesus Christ comes upon earth professing to
be the Messiah long predicted, the expected
hope of Jews and Gentiles. Prophecies,
proved to be divine by their fulfilment, are
centred in him. He claims to be more
than man, even to be equal with the Eternal
Father as his consubstantial Son. To
authenticate this claim he works undoubted
miracles, and at last raises himself from
74 The Supremacy of the Pope.
the sepulchre, and appears to many and
undoubted witnesses. If we refuse cre-
dence to these witnesses, we must in con
sistency refuse our trust in any external
testimony. Now, as we have seen, Jesus
Christ staked his veracity and divine cha-
racter on the church which he established,
and with which he promised to abide.
Let us suppose for a moment that Peter
and his successors are not the supreme
pastors of the church, and what are the
direct logical consequences ?
First, there is now no church whatever
on earth ; no visible body of Christ ; no re-
presentative of the Incarnate Word, who
spake the language of grace and truth.
Different sects, agreeing in no doctrine,
separated from each other's communion,
and contending against each other, are
surely not one flock under one shepherd.
The Supremacy of the Pope. 75
The world can never hear, if it would, a
voice of truth from lips whose names are
legion, and whose tones are discord. The
church has failed. The fragments of the
wreck float around, but the bark that was
launched on Galilee has gone to pieces.
What, then, has become of the promise
of Christ, "Behold I am with you all days
unto the consummation of the world " ?
That promise has never been fulfilled.
The Son of God has not kept his truth.
Secondly, the Christian church was built
upon Peter as its head and immovable
foundation. "Thou art Peter; and on
this rock will I build my church, and the
gates of hell shall not prevail against
it." The church of Christ is founded
upon Peter, and any church which rests
not upon him is no church of Christ, by
whatever name it may be called. The
76 The Supremacy of the Pope.
word of the Lord must be kept with
Peter, or we can trust him in nothing.
The church, says he, which I will build
on thee shall stand to the end of time;
"the gates of hell shall not prevail against
it." If this plain promise has been broken,
and there is no house of God resting
surely on Peter, and no flock which he
feeds, then is Jesus Christ neither true
prophet nor divine teacher. The whole
of his blessed life turns out to be cunningly
devised fiction.
Again, Christianity is not a pious feel-
ing towards our Lord, nor self-complacency
at the thought of his love : it is the com-
plex of truths which he taught, which are
one perfect whole that cannot be divided.
We do not accept the Gospel and its
verities because they commend themselves
to our taste, but because they are taught
The Supremacy of the Pope. yj
to us by God. They all rest upon a
divine authority, and stand or fall in their
completeness. If there is no visible church
speaking in its living- unity, or, which is
the same, no supreme visible pastor, who
shall tell what and where Christianity is ?
It cannot be in the motley group of con-
tradictions, nor in the Babel tongues of
sects which send up their confusing voices,
and darken counsel by words without
knowledge. Self-love will blind its own
eyes, and prejudice drive to palpable false-
hood, but reason will not accept a logical
impossibility. If this be Christianity, it is
a total failure. We are not staggered at
the trials of the faithful. We would ex-
pect to see the church which Peter guides
go down to her Gethsemani or ascend
to her Calvary ; but to see her broken
to fragments till no trace of her form re-
78 The Supremacy of the Pope.
mains, and in her place rise up a thousand
conflicting forces, as if she had bred rep-
tiles of her own body, the fruits of her
dissolution ; this cannot be reconciled with
the divinity of her founder. For an utter
rout like this, are we asked to believe
that God became man, and lived and
died on earth ? Even false prophets have
done works more wonderful than these,
and the votaries of lies have not so sio-
nally failed. Heathen mythologies have
not yet died out ; the Jewish theocracy
lived its long- day, and Christianity, planted
by a divine hand and watered by the
tears and blood of the Son of God, has
become a Babel of confusion and an
enigma of contradictions.
Yet, when the spirit of dissent has run
its logical course, and the founder of our
religion is counted an impostor, where shall
T'he Supremacy of the Pope. 79
shine the liq-ht of nature, or in what reeion
shall reason hold up her torch ? If the
miracles of the new law be rejected, and
revelation falls, where shall man repose his
trust when his God has so skilfully de-
ceived him ? No prophet can come to
him with the light from the infinite for
which his soul yearns. No sun shall arise
to chase away the gloom from the land of
the shadow of death. There let him
hopelessly mourn till, like the beast that
perishes, he be gathered to his fathers,
and dust returns to dust. If one rise from
the dead, he cannot believe the testimony
of his senses. It is only another decep-
tion of which he may be victim, and he
will cry out within himself: "Is there a
God of love and truth unbounded that
can thus sport with my misery, or am I
80 The Supremacy of the Pope.
myself a lie, the central figure in a scene
of delusion ? "
Such are the thoughts of more souls
than one in these days which boast of
their freedom and illumination. Such are
the steps which descend unfailingly, by a
logic that cannot be withstood, to the
dark chambers of infidelity, where even
the sunshine of reason is put out. Chris-
tianity stands or falls as Jesus Christ
formed it. If it fails us, everything falls
with it. We cannot go back to the days
of pure reason, for the light within us
is distorted, and we have lost our confi-
dence in the God who made us.
Here we rest our argument, convinced
that with it lies the salvation of man
not only from sin, but from the dangers
that threaten the understanding as well
The Supremacy of the Pope. 8 i
as the heart. Our words may be of no
avail where they are most needed, and
fall only as the seed which perishes in
barren soil. Yet are they earnest words
of truth and charity to all. The day
gives its sad testimony to the evils which
have come, and continue to increase, from
the rejection of the one fold, where,
through his chosen vicar, the Word made
flesh continues to feed his flock with the
unchangeable truth. Protestantism in its
various forms has no power to hold the
intellect or attract the heart. A semblance
of Christianity lingers as a familiar tradi-
tion, through force of education, or inability
to grasp any other remedy for spiritual
wants, where it has inconsistent shapes,
and offends every dictate of right reason.
In matters of human life, men see clearly
and argue sharply, while the interests of
&2 The Supremacy of the Pope.
eternity are postponed or suspended on
fancies and logical contradictions. The
facts of history are accepted at once
where they do not touch the great ques
tion of religion. The history of Christ
and his dealings with our race is disputed
or laid aside as of no consequence to the
world. Inconsistencies which would be
tolerated nowhere else, abound in the
realm of theology, and there reason as-
serts its rights in vain.
It is thought a mark of advancement in
knowledge to throw off the shackles of all
truths heretofore received, and to enter upon
their investigation as if there were nothing
certain, nothing to be believed, as if God
had never spoken to man, or thrown the
beams of his splendor into the waste
places of the creation. Philanthropy passes
for virtue, and humanity becomes the
The Supremacy of the Pope. %$
highest idea of religion. God ceases to
be a moral governor when hell and hea-
ven are accounted fables, and, as man be-
comes all-sufficient for himself, the throne
of the Eternal is levelled, that the creature
may sit thereon, the equal of his creator.
Jesus Christ himself is only one of many
philanthropists, good in his intentions, pure
in his life and maxims, but an enthusiast
carried away by his own ardor, and de-
ceived by the strength of his imagina-
tions.
They who fear the end of such opi-
nions need well to examine the grounds
of their creed. Is it, indeed, a faith which
they have received from the lips of God,
and have they heard the only voice that
can teach of things eternal, the voice of
the "Word made flesh"? That voice can
only be heard in the august temple built
84 The Supremacy of the Pope.
upon a rock, bearing the likeness of his
humanity, and standing fast in his strength.
The waves of centuries have broken in
vain against that rock which no tempest
has been able to shake. The floods have
arisen, the floods have conspired together
in their might. "The kings of the earth
have stood up, and princes have taken
counsel together against the Lord and
his Christ. Let us break their bonds,
and cast their yoke from us. He that
dwelleth in heaven shall laugh at them,
and the Lord shall have them in deri-
sion. . . . Yet am I placed by him, a
king upon Sion, his holy mountain, teach-
ing his precepts. The Lord hath said to
me, Thou art my Son, this day have I
begotten thee. Ask of me, and I will
give thee the Gentiles for thine inherit-
ance, and the uttermost parts of the earth
for thy possession."
The Stipremacy of the Pope. 85
" God is our refuse and strength. He
hath sanctified his own tabernacle. The
Lord of Hosts is with her, and she shall
not be moved, though the earth be shak-
en, and the mountains be cast into the
heart of the sea." The voice of the God-
Man still echoes from Galilee : " Simon,
son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than
these?" Then, "Feed the lambs and
sheep " for whom I died and rose again.
Lecture Second.
THE INFALLIBILITY OF THE POPE.
"And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold Satan hath
desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: hut
I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not : and thou
being once converted, confirm thy brethren." — St. Luke
xxii. 31, 32.
HE subject which we are to treat
to-night is intimately connected
with that of our last lecture. The infal-
libility of the successor of S. Peter is
the natural and necessary consequence of
his supremacy over the church. The lat-
ter could hardly exist without the former,
as we shall soon plainly see. There is
not one of the truths of revelation more
simple than this, while, perhaps, there is
The Infallibility of the Pope. 87
not one more misunderstood. Surely there
is no truth more important, especially in
these days when men are so easily led
astray by false lights, and when many
are anxiously inquiring how, amid con-
fusion and contention, they may know and
keep the Gospel of Christ. It settles all
questions in dispute, brings the voice of
the only Saviour of mankind to each in-
dividual, and answers every want of the
intellect and heart. The city of God is
set on a hill, its gates are open night
and day, and it hath one ruler and one
oracle of truth and life eternal. Here
speaketh Christ in language easy to be
understood ; here hath the divine wisdom
built her house, and prepared the table
for her high festival. Here alone can the
Word incarnate be known and seen : the
riches of Christianity are only to be found
88 The Infallibility of the Pope.
here on the Sion which the Lord hath
founded for his perpetual habitation. We
earnestly invite the seeker for truth to
the discussion of this evening. If preju-
dice could be laid aside, and the will
would obey the understanding, we should
have no fear of failing to convince every
hearer, and to guide the wandering to
those pastures where the one Shepherd
feeds his flock. It is not a matter of
earth, where mistakes involve trifling loss
which may be repaired : it is an issue
on which hang life and death, Christ or
anti-Christ, eternity with its unending des-
tinies. On the truth or falsity of the
verity we discuss to-night depends the
truth or falsity of Christianity itself. If
our proposition be not true, then we free-
ly admit that Jesus Christ has been de-
feated, and the bright promises of the
The Infallibility of the Pope. So.
future are the dreams of enthusiasts, when,
in the words of St. Paul, we, who call
ourselves Christians, "are of all men most
miserable." The streams that make glad
the city of God are turned into bitter-
ness, and there is no fountain of which
the thirsty may drink. To all who be-
lieve in the divinity of Jesus Christ we
will offer an argument which shall be
direct and unanswerable, and which, there-
fore, ought to produce the fruit of con-
viction and obedience.
The infallibility of the Pope is now a
matter of divine faith, since as such it
has been solemnly taught and proposed
by the CEcumenical Council of the Vati-
can, whose memorable history is fresh in
the minds of all. The Council has pro-
posed nothing new to our belief. Long
before its decree, the infallibility of the
90 The Infallibility of the Pope.
Roman Pontiff was a doctrine revealed
by God ; a part of the original deposit
of faith delivered by the universal and*,
constant tradition of the church, recog-
nized in CEcumenical Councils, presup-
posed in the acts of the Popes in all
ages, taught by the saints, and defended
by every religious order. The definition
has added nothing to its intrinsic cer-
tainty, for truth is one and unchangeable :
it has only added the extrinsic certainty
of universal promulgation, which imposes
an obligation upon all the faithful. "With
the exception of the modern opinion of
the local and transient Gallican school, the
general and traditionary faith of the church
in the infallibility of the Roman Pontiffs
has never been obscured."*
That narrow and transient school of
* See Pastoral of Archbishop Manning. Petri Privilegium.
The Infallibility of the Pope. 9 1
theologians has received far too much
notice, and, beyond the Catholic commu-
nion, far too much credit. Evil, indeed,
was wrought by it, for error is always
deadly, and far-reaching in its consequences ;
but it was never allowed to influence the
body of the faithful. Arising in France
under the royal favor, it sprang up with-
out warrant or antecedent, was affirmed
by only a few of the bishops, while it
was rejected by the great majority of
them, and condemned by three Popes in
succession. In other countries than France
it has never prevailed, and has only been
used in argument by those whose minds
were already out of sympathy with the
current of Catholic thought and feeling.
It is a mistake to suppose that the Gen-
eral Councils or the Pontiffs of the church
define any new doctrines. The definition
92 The Infallibility of the Pope.
only places in clear dogmatic outlines and
in exact words, with universal obligation
of belief, that which was in reality always
a part of the original deposit of revela-
tion. It simply declares that such a doc-
trine was revealed by Jesus Christ, as the
vicars of our Lord are witnesses and
keepers of the faith entrusted to them.
The fact of dissension, and even vigorous
disputations, before the definition of any
doctrine, is no evidence to the contrary
of our assertion. Such has ever been the
case when important verities, assailed by
the malice of Satan, were to take, in the
ways of divine Providence, their last and
perfect shape. It was so with the dogmas
of the Holy Trinity and the Incarnation,
defined at Nice, and in the subsequent
councils, and yet no one can for a moment
suppose that these dogmas were then new
The Infallibility of the Pope. 93
to the church. The discussion also falls
upon many other points besides the truth
of the doctrine in question ; upon the
phraseology to be employed, or the manner
and the time of promulgation. And the
Holy Ghost, who ever guides the coun-
cils of the church, so disposes events that
the authoritative word shall be spoken
when it is required for the strength of the
faithful, and the cure or defeat of the
evils which in any age threaten Christian-
ity. We need not wonder, then, if at
this supreme moment the enemies of reli-
gion raise their heads for a last attack,
or that spirits of falsehood come dressed
in the garb of angels of light. We shall
ever find harmony in the ways of the
Holy Ghost, and shall ever see the per-
fect accord between the tradition of the
church and her solemn definitions. This,
94 The Infallibility of the Pope.
and much more than this, will appear in
the brief argument of this lecture.
The treatment of our subject with clear-
ness and simplicity will require the fol-
lowing divisions :
I. The definition of the terms employed,
and the precise meaning we attach
to the infallibility of the Pope.
II. The evidence from reason.
III. The evidence from Holy Scripture.
IV. The evidence from history.
V. An answer to some of the principal
objections made against our doc-
trine.
i.
THE DEFINITION OF PAPAL INFALLIBILITY.
The best explanation of what the Ca-
tholic Church means by the infallibility
of the Vicar of Christ will be found in
The Infallibility of the Pope. 95
the dogmatic Constitution of the Vatican
Council upon the Church of Christ* In
this constitution, the nature of the Church
and the nature of Peter's primacy are
fully explained. We give here only the
closing words in which the definition is
contained: "Therefore, faithfully adhering
to the tradition received from the beein-
ning of the Christian faith, for the glory
of God our Saviour, the exaltation of the
Catholic religion, and the salvation of
Christian people, the Sacred Council ap-
proving, we teach and define that it is
a dogma divinely revealed : that the Ro-
man Pontiff, when he speaks ex cathedra,
that is, when, in discharge of the office
of pastor and doctor of all Christians, he
defines a doctrine regarding faith or
morals, to be held by the universal
* See Appendix to these Lectures
96 The Infallibility of the Pope.
Church ; by the divine assistance promised
to him in Blessed Peter, is possessed of
that infallibility with which the divine Re-
deemer willed that his church should be
endowed for defining doctrine concerning
faith or morals : and that, therefore, such
definitions of the Roman Pontiff are irre-
formable of themselves, and not from the
consent of the church."
These admirable words of the Holy
Ghost express in clear terms the truth
of which we speak.
First, this infallibility belongs to the
Pontiff when he acts ex cathedra, or offi-
cially, as the pastor and teacher of all
Christians. It belongs not to him as a
private person or private doctor. When
he acts as such, he may be subject to
error; but when, as teacher of the whole
church, he speaks as its head, he is whol-
The Infallibility of the Pope. 97
ly exempt from error. It will be seen
at once that this definition propounds no-
thing in regard to the private life or
probation of the Pope. He is not impec-
cable more than any other man, nor in
any way less subject than any one else to
the laws of God. Rather his high posi-
tion and his great graces increase his
responsibility. The impeccability of the
Roman Pontiff has been urcred against
us through the ignorance or dishonesty
of our adversaries ; it has never been
thought of by Catholic theologians.
Secondly, the object of infallibility is the
doctrine concerning faith or morals. The
witness of the Vicar of Christ regards
the way of salvation, the whole revelation
of faith, the law of God as binding upon
man, the truths and morals of the natural
and the supernatural order ; in fine, all
98 The Infallibility of the Pope.
that belongs to the sanctification of our
race through the redemption of the Incar-
nate Word. This includes an infallible
guidance, not only in regard to positive
truth revealed, but also in regard to things
directly opposed to revelation, since the
church must have power to proscribe doc-
trines which are contrary to the creed
which she maintains. So says the Con-
stitution of the Vatican Council, in its
chapter on faith and reason.* " The church
which, together with the Apostolic office
of teaching, has received a cnarge to
guard the deposit of faith, derives from
God the right and duty of proscribing
false science, lest any should be deceived
by philosophy and vain fallacy." The pro-
cesses of philosophy or science she does
not meddle with, unless they touch faith
* See Appendix,
The Infallibility of the Pope. 99
or are at variance with the revealed
word.
Thirdly, it seems hardly necessary to
state that this infallibility conferred upon
S. Peter and his successors in office is
a gift of God, and a divine guidance pro-
mised and given by Christ, from whom
all grace proceeds. It is, like inspiration,
a gift of the Holy Spirit ; but, unlike in-
spiration, it refers not to any power which
they have to declare new truths, but to
the guarding, defending, and expounding
the revelation already made and commit-
ted to their trust. They possess this great
gift of God in their own persons, not as
private individuals, but as the vicars of
Christ, inheriting the graces and powers
which inhere in their high office.
And therefore, as the decree plainly
states, the certainty of their decisions
ioo The Infallibility of the Pope.
comes not from the consent of the church,
which, in the providence of Jesus Christ,
will never be wanting, but from the in-
fallible guidance which ever sustains, in-
spires, and guards them for the good of
the world and the preservation of neces-
sary truth. " I have prayed for thee"
said our Lord, "that thy faith fail not."
II.
THE TESTIMONY OF REASON.
We do not for a moment intend to
imply that reason can establish the in-
fallibility of the Roman Pontiffs as if it
were a truth within its own sphere. We
wish simply to state, as it is a very im-
portant point in the controversy, that,
taking for granted the facts of revelation,
reason makes no objection to our doctrine,
but rather presents an argument for its
The Infallibility of the Pope. 101
necessity. By this statement we shall de-
stroy from the root the superficial cavils
of shallow thinkers and the blind asser-
tions of ignorant disputants. With pre-
judice we do not pretend to argue, for
there is no argument which it is capable
of appreciating. Death alone will open
the eyes of those who are more to be
pitied than approached by persuasion.
i. Reason has nothing to offer against
the infallibility of the Roman Pontiff.
We here assume the facts of revela-
tion already considered, and better au-
thenticated than any facts known to man.
These are the divinity of Jesus Christ, the
promulgation of a new Gospel, the estab-
lishment of a church upon S. Peter as its
foundation. If reason had any objection to
uree, it must be found either in the nature
of infallibility, or in the character of God,
io-2 The Infallibility of the Pope.
or in the Roman Pontiff. It is found in
neither, therefore it does not exist. For
the proof of our second proposition, as
the first is self-evident, we thus argue :
There is nothing in the nature of infal-
libility which makes it impossible or ab-
surd that a man should possess it. It is,
as we have seen, simply a supernatural
guidance, by which God, for great ends,
enlightens a human mind and defends a
person to whom are committed great trusts.
We can easily comprehend this gift, and
in it we see no inconsistency. There is
no reason why God might not enlighten
an individual in regard to the truths
of the natural or the supernatural order.
There is no more difficulty intrinsically in
this than there is in the gift of life or in-
telligent being. If we believe Christianity,
we are forced to accept inspiration, and
The Infallibility of the Pope. 103
there is surely no greater difficulty in in-
fallibility than in inspiration. Most Pro-
testants receive the inspiration of the Scrip-
tures, and by this confess that in it there
is nothing repugnant to their understand-
ings. The true and only question is one
of fact : " Has God imparted this gift, or
has he not ?"
For, secondly, no one can say that God
cannot give such a power, if in his wis-
dom he sees fit so to do, without attack-
ing the divine omnipotence, and so deny-
ing the existence of a God. God, infinitely
perfect of necessity, can do everything
which implies no contradiction of himself.
Contradiction is impossible, for it is the
negation of power. No one pretends that
there is any contradiction of God in the
gift of infallibility, and so there is no diffi-
culty on his part. He may bestow this
104 The Infallibility of the Pope.
infallible guidance to man when and where
his supreme wisdom prompts him to act
for his own glory and the good of his
creatures.
Thirdly, the Roman Pontiff is a man
endowed with intelligence, and capable of
receiving the cfift which the Lord sees fit
to grant. It does not extinguish, but aids
his natural power, and enables him to see
the truth, and only the truth, when he is
called to act and speak as an agent of
Christ. This, in fact, is the way in which
God has always spoken to our race. He
has not addressed us as individuals, ncr
has he communicated with us as a body ;
but he has conveyed his words to us
through prophets and teachers, whom he
has sent with authority to speak in his
name. We say, therefore, confidently, that
reason finds no objection whatever to the
The Infallibility of the Pope. 105
doctrine that the Vicar of Christ is infalli-
ble in his dogmatic definitions. It would
not be difficult to show by strict logic that
the prejudices of many are unreasonable,
and that the fallacies on which they de-
pend for all they know or believe are un-
worthy of sincere men who are possessed
of intelligence.
2. Reason thus argues in favor of our
doctrine :
First, Christianity, being essentially a
complex of truths revealed by God, cannot
be maintained upon earth without a teacher
whose utterances shall be infallible. A
teacher who may by any possibility deceive
us is surely no teacher at all, and if men
do not receive the truths of revelation pre-
cisely as they are, they do not receive
Christianity. Everything human is liable
to change, and so a creed depending on
106 The Infallibility of the Pope.
human agency alone for its perpetuation
would soon pass away. There must be a
living voice to guide us and proclaim the
truth to us, for both experience and com-
mon sense demonstrate that no written
page can be a teacher able to secure for
itself an unerring interpretation. If, then,
an infallible oracle be required, where shall
one be found more conformable to the de-
mands of reason than a succession of teach-
ers sustained by divine power in the dis-
charge of their office, through whom the
God who redeems us shall speak ?
Secondly, the church of Jesus Christ
was instituted to preserve among man-
kind the doctrine of its founder. It repre-
sents him to the world, and must, there-
fore, speak his word, or become utterly
useless for the end for which it exists.
When it speaks falsehood, it ceases to be
The Infallibility of the Pope. 107
the church of Christ in any sense, and
really becomes his worst adversary. There
is here a contradiction in terms. It is, and
it is not the Christian church, at one and
the same time. It is the church in fact,
and it is not the church on the supposi-
tion that it teaches error. But how shall
this church speak to the world ? Unity is
its first requisite, and there cannot be
unity without a head. It is a society dis-
persed throughout the world, and cannot
communicate with the world except through
the one voice of its head. Taking, therefore,
the facts of our religion into consideration,
we argue that nothing is so in accordance
with the necessities of our nature and the
conditions of revelation as that there should
be a living teacher, and that the church,
whose office it is to teach, should speak
through its head.
1 08 The Infallibility of the Pope.
Lastly, if the church of Jesus Christ
must be kept in the truth, and must, by a
very necessity of its existence, proclaim
unerringly that truth, then its head must
be infallibly guided. For it cannot be
without a head, as a headless body is a
monstrosity. The head cannot, in the
nature of things, be a mere ornamental
appendage. It will act for the body, and
exists for the same end as that for which
the body was constituted. The body will
pay obedience to its head, or, as S. Paul
argues, there will be an unnatural schism
and a discord, which is impossible in the
works of God. No human artist would
be guilty of such a folly. A fallible head
of an infallible body is a contradiction in
itself. If the church, which is our guide
in things revealed, were to follow its head,
and that head were not exempt from error,
The Infallibility of the Pope. 109
then the whole custody of revelation would
he abandoned, and "the pillar and ground
of truth " would fall. Contradictions would
abound on every side. There would be a
head which would not be a head, and a
church which would not be a church, a
teacher which would not be a teacher,
and a divine Redeemer less wise than
man, and, therefore, not divine.
We say, then, that, while reason has
nothing- against our doctrine, it has many
things in its favor. We say that our sys-
tem is harmonious, consistent, and logical
throughout, and that our adversaries, on
the contrary, are inconsistent with them-
selves, and ever violating the first rules
of sound argument. It is not in the pro-
vince of reason to discover truths super-
natural, but the unity and beauty of God's
works in grace are enough to kindle our
1 1 o The Infallibility of the Pope.
adoring admiration. The same hand that
formed the firmament, and caused order to
spring from chaos, and light from dark-
ness, designed the more wonderful and
no less beautiful ways of redeeming love.
in.
THE EVIDENCE OF HOLY SCRIPTURE.
i. We cannot altogether pass over the
symbolical evidence in favor of Papal in-
fallibility with which the New Testament
abounds. We have alluded to it in the
former lecture, and need not dwell upon
it here. Our Lord, being God as well as
man, did nothing without an end, and
truth is taught in his acts as well as in his
words. When not one of a thousand of
his sayings and doings is recorded, sure-
ly those which are written have great sig-
nificance. There is, therefore, a lesson in
The Infallibility of the Pope. 1 1 1
his whole treatment of S. Peter, in the
name which he gave him, in the words,
"Thou shalt henceforth catch men," in the
fact that he teaches from Peter's boat, in
the miraculous draught of fishes, and in
the scene after the resurrection, when this
favored apostle drags the net to the shore
where stood the glorified humanity of the
Son of God. If these things mean any-
thing, they certainly symbolize the office
of S. Peter, in which he was specially to
represent Christ and teach the world in
his name.
2. The different dispensations of God
are in harmony with each other, and the
Old Law was a preparation for the New.
The high-priest was, by divine institution,
the head of the Jewish Church. He held
the commission from on high to be the
interpreter of the law and the judge of
1 1 2 The Infallibility of the Pope.
controversies, from whose sentence there
was no appeal. The church of the old dis-
pensation was coextensive with the nation
of Israel, the peculiar people of God, con-
secrated to him in the person of the high-
priest. The kings who ruled over the
Jews were only military leaders, bound to
protect and uphold the observance of the
law, but the interpretation of the Mosaic
code was reserved to the high -priest
alone. Thus say the words of the Old
Testament : " If thou perceive that there
be among you a hard and doubtful matter,
thou shalt come to the priests of the Levi-
tical race, and to the judge that shall be
at that time." * We do not draw a strict
parallel between the high-priest and the
Vicar of Christ under the new law. Far
greater is the glory of the new covenant,
* Deut. xvii. 8-12.
The Infallibility of the Pope. 1 1 3
which possesses the graces of an Incarnate
God; yet with the Christian fathers we
find, in the successors of Aaron, a type of
a more wonderful priesthood, a symbol of
the great apostle who, in his lineal de-
scendants, ever rules the flock of Christ,
and teaches truth to the nations. Both
Jewish and Christian authorities agree that
the high-priest received a certain special
assistance of the Holy Ghost as a prero-
gative of his office, which assistance was
not wanting to his decisions concerninsf
the true meaning of revelation.
3. We pass to the plain and direct
words of Christ, spoken in the most solemn
manner, and recorded for our guidance.
They are among the most important of all
his words, and concern the very life of
Christianity. Touching the foundation of
his church, they touch the truth on which
ii4 The Infallibility of the Pope.
rests the whole system of revelation. There
are three texts so plain and easy to be
understood that nothing but prejudice or*
a perverse will can misinterpret them. We
take them, as we take all the Scriptures,
in their literal sense.
In S. Matthew xvi. 15-19, our Lord
promises to make S. Peter the foundation
of his church : "On this rock (on thee,
Peter) will I build my church ; and the
gates of hell shall not prevail against it."
As we have before seen, these words con-
stitute him a firm and immovable founda-
tion on .which the Christian church shall
rise ; a foundation so stable that the
strongest powers of evil, the gates of hell,
can never shake it. They can signify no-
thing less, if words are of any use what-
ever. Now, what is contained in this pro-
mise of the God-Man ? Surely, that Peter
The Infallibility of the Pope. 1 1 5
shall be the head of the church, and that
in this office God shall give him firmness
and stability against every attack of the
adversary or law of death. A building
depends upon its foundation in such sense
that the stability of the one is directly de-
pendent upon the solidity of the other.
The great function of the church is con-
fessedly to teach. " Go ye, therefore, into
all the world, and teach all nations." The
great function, then, of the church's head
would be to teach, and, in the profession
of the true faith, to preserve the body from
all inroads of heresy and corruptions of
error. Manifestly, if the head were to fall
from faith, the foundation would lose its
solidity, and the building could not stand.
He can be no rock who can fall from the
truth or become the teacher of false doc-
trine. And to this plain meaning of the
1 1 6 The Infallibility of the Pope.
text correspond the circumstances of the
great promise. It was to Peter's faith,
which he received " not from flesh and
blood, but from heaven," by special gift,
that our Lord responded in these memor-
able words, as if to say : " God has given
thee the peculiar grace to know the myste-
ries of the kingdom, and this grace shall
abide in thee to the end, and therefore
shalt thou be the firm rock on which the
edifice of faith shall stand unmoved. Soon-
er shall heaven pass away than the word
of truth fail from thy lips." Such was the
interpretation of the early Christians ; such
the unanimous sense of the fathers. "The
faith of Peter," says S. Hilary, " is the
foundation of the church : through it the
gates of hell shall be weak against her"
— " Hffic fides (Petri) ecclesioe fundamen-
tum erit : per hanc fidem infimae adversus
The Infallibility of the Pope. 1 1 7
earn sunt portse inferorum." "This faith,"
says S. Ambrose, " is the foundation of
the church ; for not of Peter's flesh, but
of his faith, was it said that the gates
of hell should not prevail against it.
His confession defeated hell. And this
confession overturned more than one her-
esy. The church, like a stout vessel, is
beaten by many stormy waves, and there-
fore the foundation of the church must be
sufficient against all heresies."
Peter, then, being the rock of the
church and of the faith, must never fail
to support the superstructure. The founda-
tion of the whole building must be itself
immovable, and Peter infallible in his
teaching. Whatever he shall bind on earth,
God on high shall bind ; whatever his hand
shall loose, shall be free before the judg-
ment of heaven. Either, therefore, by these
n8 The Infallibility of the Pope.
words our Lord builds on the shifting
sands, and engages himself to sanction
with divine authority laws and declarations
which may be in opposition to the prin-
ciples of faith and morals, or he promised
to make his great apostle steadfast and
infallible. Let the believer in Christianity
and the divinity of its founder choose
from these two conclusions.
We examine, secondly, the memorable
passage of S. Luke (xxii. 31, 32) which
the councils and fathers of the church have
directly interpreted as an assurance of in-
fallibility to S. Peter and his successors
in office. "And the Lord said, Simon,
Simon, behold Satan hath desired to have
you (all the apostles, in the plural), that
he may sift you as wheat. But I have
prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not :
The Infallibility of the Pope. 1 1 9
and thou being once converted, confirm
thy brethren."
The passion and death of Christ were
surely a great trial to the disciples. " I
will smite the shepherd," said the prophe-
cy, "and the sheep shall be scattered."
This terrible trial to those who had learn-
ed to know and love their Master, was
made the occasion of extraordinary tempt-
ations by the adversary of man. The cross
was the weapon of " principalities and
powers " against the Son of God. Satan
never fought a more fearful battle than
on Calvary, where he was conquered by
the very death which he had contrived.
He sought to disperse and discourage the
flock which Christ had gathered to per-
petuate his Gospel. In the passage quot-
ed, our Lord refers to this, and adds that
he had prayed especially for Peter, that
1 20 The Infallibility of the Pope.
his faith should not fail. Why this pray-
er for him more than for the other apos-
tles ? The words which follow explain
the whole mind of Christ. It was be-
cause of his office to " confirm his breth-
ren "; because he was the rock on which
the church was built, which must not and
could not fall. There is no just reason for
this especial prayer for Peter's steadfastness,
unless he was something more than his
brethren, with a higher office and duty.
The prayer of the Son of God is never
in vain, and is therefore a perpetual war-
rant of the infallibility of his Vicar on
earth. We know that in fear and sor-
row the apostles forsook their Master and
fled. We know that Peter, tempted more
than all, denied his Lord, not for want
of faith or knowledge, but through cow-
ardice and too much self-confidence. Yet
The Infallibility of the Pope. 1 2 1
from that terrific ordeal was he raised to
be more steadfast than ever, to lean
wholly on the divine arm, and to strength-
en all his brethren. Such, the only reason-
able explanation of this text, is the inter-
pretation of the early church, and of all
antiquity. The apostles represent the
church, bishops, and people. Peter is
appointed to strengthen them all, and by
his faith to keep them steady in the pro-
fession of that truth against which the
efforts of the devil are ever directed. So
says the Vatican Council: "All the vene-
rable fathers have embraced, and the holy
orthodox doctors have venerated and fol-
lowed, this apostolic doctrine ; knowing
most fully that the see of Peter remains
ever free from all blemish of error,
according to the divine promise of the
1 2 2 The Infallibility of the Pope.
Lord our Saviour, made to the prince of
his disciples, ' I have prayed for thee,
that thy faith fail not; and when thou art
converted, confirm thy brethren.' ' Accord-
ing to the universal and just sense of the
church, the prayer of Christ respects the
head of the church and the supreme pas-
tor in every age. "This word," says Bos-
suet, " is not a commandment to S. Peter
as an individual ; it is an office which he
demands and institutes in his church for
ever, for there must always be a Peter to
confirm his brethren in the faith." As the
fathers teach, this infallibility was not con-
ferred on him for the sake of himself alone,
but that he might discharge his office as
the rock of strength to the Christian tem-
ple. Thus writes S. Cyril of Alexandria :
"The Lord said to Peter, 'And thou once
The Infallibility of the Pope. 123
converted, strengthen thy brethren,' that is
to say, be the support and teacher of all
who come to me by faith."
So Theophylact, commenting on the text :
" Since I appointed thee prince of all the
apostles, confirm the others ; for this becomes
thee, who art, after me, the rock and foun-
dation of the church." There can be no
doubt that Peter here received the gift of
indefectibility in faith; and it is certain,
from reason and Christian tradition, that
he received it because of his office, which
is transmitted, with its endowment of grace,
to the end of time. For as the church can-
not exist without a head, neither can it
exist without a head whose fidelity to
Christ and his truth shall stand unmoved
for ever. Every age has the same need ;
the city of God must be illumined with
an unfailing light ; the flock of Christ must.
1 24 The Infallibility of the Pope.
have a sure guide, till the Son of the
Highest shall reappear, to open to the
true of heart the heavenly temple, where
the just shall see as they are seen, and
know as they are known, where God shall
manifest his very essence to his elect.
We shall now refer, in conclusion, to
the great commission sfiven to S. Peter
in S. John xxi. 15-17. Having already
commented on this passage at some length,
we need, in this place, only show how plain-
ly it proves our doctrine. The apostle is
here constituted the supreme pastor of the
sheep of Jesus Christ. Bishops and peo-
ple are alike to be fed by his hands.
And by what are they to be fed, unless
with the word of truth which the Incar-
nate Lord revealed ? What other food is
there for the soul of man? The bishops
The Infallibility of the Pope. 125
and priests are indeed the shepherds and
teachers of the people whom they guide ;
but at the same time are they themselves
sheep of the flock of Peter, and look to
him for food and direction. They depend
upon Peter ; he cannot depend upon them.
That he should be fed by the bishops,
the shepherd by the sheep, would be an
inversion of order, and a contradiction in
terms. If by any possibility the supreme
pastor could offer to the church the bane-
ful food of error, and lead the flock astray
from the pastures of sound doctrine, he
would cease to be the shepherd of Christ's
fold and the leader of his children. Then
truth would fail utterly from earth, unless
the sheep of Peter should leave their
position, and make themselves the shep-
herds of their chief pastor, by a power
for which the word of God gives no as-
126 The Infallibility of the Pope.
surance, and which would be in its ex-
ercise destructive of the unity of the fold.
In either supposition, the promise of Christ
falls to the ground, and the church which
he established ceases to exist. For there
is no flock of Christ which is not fed
by Peter, and that is not his flock in
which is dispensed the poison of falsehood
and heresy. The supreme pastor of the
church of God cannot be the teacher of
error. There is no reply to these con-
clusions ; and so we will add only the
words of the Council, which bear upon
their very face the signs of inspiration :
"The grift of truth and never- failing faith
was conferred by Heaven upon Peter and
his successors, that they might perform
their high office for the salvation of all,
that the whole flock of Christ might be
kept away by them from the poisonous
The Infallibility of the Pope. 1 2 7
food of error, and might be nourished with
the pasture of heavenly doctrine ; that,
the occasion of schism being removed, the
whole church might be kept one, and,
resting on its foundation, might stand
firm against the gates of hell."
IV.
THE EVIDENCE FROM HISTORY.
The testimony from this source divides
itself into several natural divisions, which,
for the sake of clearness, we shall follow.
We have, first, the voice of the early and
distinguished Christian fathers ; secondly,
the acts and words of the genera! coun-
cils of the church ; and, thirdly, great ec-
clesiastical facts in the history of Chris-
tianity, which establish beyond controversy
the doctrine we maintain.
128 The Infallibility of the Pope.
i. The fathers and writers of the early
times are sure witnesses of the doctrine
prevalent in their day. They, as saints
and doctors of the church, convey the be-
lief which they had received in sacred
tradition from Christ himself. Their una-
nimous voice is sufficient to show that the
infallibility in faith of Peter and his suc-
cessors is a dogma coeval and identical
with Christianity ; for to suppose them thus
agreed in error, is to suppose the corrup-
tion and, in fact, entire loss of the truth
taught by our Lord. This latter supposi-
tion, as we have seen, is fatal to the ve-
racity of Christ himself, and cannot be
entertained. We shall be very brief in
our quotations, and shall not cite the
writers of later ages, in which the doc-
trine and practice of the church are ad-
mitted even by our adversaries. The chain
The Infallibility of the Pope. 129
of proof which we shall give will, how-
ever, form an invincible argument to every
honest believer in a historical Christianity.
In the first place, as we have shown,
the early Christian authorities are agreed
in the interpretation which we have given
to the three great texts of Holy Scripture
already quoted. This alone is sufficient
to indicate their doctrine, since these texts
thus interpreted directly teach the infalli-
bility of the Roman Pontiff.
Secondly, there is a consensus of fathers
who speak of the necessity of union to
Peter as the inviolable rock of faith which
lends its firmness to the whole structure
of which he is the foundation. These
teachings permeate the whole of patristic
theology, and stand in bold relief when-
ever from any quarter, or by any species
of heresy, the truth is attacked. Not one
130 The Infallibility of the Pope.
of the great verities of Christianity is so
plainly manifested in the conflicts of the
church as this grand and essential doc-
trine.
We proceed, however, with our brief
list of quotations.
S. Irenseus, a.d. 178: "To this church
[of Rome] it is necessary that every
church, that is, those who are on every
side faithful, should resort, in which, al-
ways by those who are on every side,
has been preserved that tradition which
is from the apostles. ... By this
order and by this succession [of the Ro-
man Pontiffs] both that tradition which is
from the Apostles, and the preaching of
the trttth, have come down to us." — Adv.
Hseres. 1. iii. b. 3.
S. Cyprian, a.d. 248 : " Moreover, after
The Infallibility of the Pope. 1 3 1
this, a pseudo-bishop having been set up
by themselves, by heretics, they dare to sail,
and to carry letters from schismatics and
profane persons to the chair of Peter,
and to the principal church whence the
unity of the priesthood took its rise ; nor
do they consider that the Romans are
those whose faith is praised in the preach-
ing of the apostle, to whom faithlessness
cannot have access." — Ep. lv. ad Cornelium.
S. Ephrsem Syrus, a.d. 2,7° '• "We hail
thee, Peter, the tongue of the apostles, the
voice of the heralds, the eye of the apos-
tles, the keeper of heaven, the first-born
of those that bear the keys." — T. iii. in
S. S. Apost.
S. Damasus, a.d. 370, Bishop of Rome:
"Although, dearest brethren, the decrees
132 The Infallibility of the Pope.
of the fathers are known to you, yet we
cannot wonder at your carefulness as re-
gards the institutes of our forefathers, that
you cease not, as the custom has ever
been, to refer all those things which can
admit of any doubt to us as to the head,
that thence you may derive answers whence
you received the institution and rule of
living rightly. Wherefore are we mindful
that you also are not forgetful of the
canons which command this to be done.
Not that you are in any way deficient
in the law of the church, but that, sup-
ported by the authority of the apostolic
see, you may not deviate in any way
from its regulations. ... It does with
reason concern us, who ought to hold the
chief government in the church, if we, by
our silence, favor error." — Epis. v. Pros-
pero Numid.
T»
lie Infallibility of the Pope. 133
S. Epiphanius, a.d. 385 : " This was
befitting in that first of the apostles,
that firm rock upon which the church of
God is built. The gates of hell shall
not prevail against it. The gates of hell
are heretics and heresiarchs. For in every
way was the faith confirmed in him who
received the keys of the kingdom of hea-
ven. . . .He was aided by the Father,
so as to be the foundation of the security
of the faith." — T. ii. in Anchor, n. 9.
S. Ambrose, a.d. 385: "The ship is
not agitated wherein prudence sails, where
perfidy is not, where faith breathes. For
how could that be agitated over which
he [Peter] presided, in whom is the
foundation of the church ? Thou eh the
rest are ordered to let down their nets,
yet to Peter alone it is said, ' Launch
134 The Infallibility of the Pope.
out into the deep,' that is, into the depths
of disputations. . . . Into this deep of
disputation the church is led by Peter, so
as to see thence rising a^ain the Son of
God, thence flowing the Holy Spirit."
" Christ is the rock, ' for they drank
of the spiritual rock that followed them,
and the rock was Christ.' Yet he did
not refuse to bestow the favor of this title
even upon his disciple, so that he, too,
might be Peter, in that he has from the
rock a solid constancy ; a firm faith? — T.
i. Expos, in Luc.
S. Jerome, a.d. 390: "As the East,
vexed with internal discord, with all the
habitual frenzy of that people, is tearing
into shreds the seamless garment of the
Lord, and the foxes lay waste Christ's
vineyard, so that among the broken cis-
The Infallibility of the Pope. 135
terns that hold no water it is difficult to
understand where is 'the sealed-up foun-
tain ' and ' that enclosed garden '; therefore
have I thought that I ouorht to consult the
chair of Peter, and the faith that was
com?ncnded by the apostle, seeking now the
food of my soul from that place where,
in other days, I received the robe of Christ."
. . . " Following no chief but Christ,
I am joined in communion with your holi-
ness ; that is, with the chair of Peter.
Upon that rock I know that the church
is built." — T. i. Ep. ad Damas. Papam.
S. John Chrysostom, a.d. 387: "Peter,
the leader of the choir of the apostles,
the mouth of the disciples, the pillar of
the church, the biittrcss of the faith, the
fisherman of the universe, he who raised
up our race from the depths of error
136 The Infallibility of the Pope.
even to heaven." . . . — T. iii. Horn
de dec. mill. Talent.
" And in those days Peter, rising up
in the midst of the disciples (Acts i. 15),
said : Both as being ardent and as hav-
ing had entrusted to him by Christ the
flock, as the first of the choir, he is al-
ways the first to begin the discourse.
Justly, he has the first authority in the
matter, as having had all entrusted to him.
For to him Christ said, and 'thou being
converted, confirm thy brethren." — Horn,
iii. in Act. Ap.
S. Asterius, a.d. 387: "Peter went not
away unrequited and unrewarded ; but, de-
clared blessed by the truly Blessed, he is
called the rock of faith and the foundation
and superstructure of the church of God.
He receives, too, by promise, the keys of
the kingdom, and becomes the lord of the
The Infallibility of the Pope. 137
gates thereof, so as to open them to whom
he may choose, and to close them against
those against whom they justly ought to be
shut; plainly against the defiled and profane,
and the destroyers of this confession, through
which, as a careful guardian of the wealth
of the churches, he was appointed to pre-
side over the entrances into the kingdom." —
o
Horn, in Apost. Princ, t. i.
S. Innocent I., a.d. 410: "Especially, as
often as questions of faith are agitated, I
am of opinion that all our brethren and
fellow-bishops ought not to refer but to
Peter, that is, to the author of their name
and honor, even as your friendliness has
now referred to ascertain what may be
for the common weal of the church through-
out the world. Wherefore we do, by the
authority of the apostolic poiver, declare
138 The Infallibility of the Pope.
Felagius and Crelestius, the inventors of
novel words, deprived of the communion
of the church." — Ep. xxx. ad Cone. Meliv.
S. Boniface I., Pope, a.d. 419: "This
church [Roman Church] is to the churches
spread over the whole world as is the head
to its own members, from which church,
whoso has cut himself off becomes an alien
from the Christian religion." — Ep. xiv., Epis.
Thess.
Theodoret, a.d. 424 : " For this cause
do I suffer thee [Peter] to stumble first,
but permit thee not to fall, providing sta-
bility through thee for the wavering. Thus
did this great pillar support the tottering
world, and suffered it not in any wise to
fall, but placed it upright and made it firm,
The Infallibility of the Pope. 139
and received a command to feed the
Lord's sheep." — T. iii. Orat. de Carit.
" She [Rome] is the greatest and most
illustrious of cities ; she rules the world, and
overflows with a crowd of citizens. But
her faith specially adorns her, and the di-
vine Paul, a witness worthy of faith, cries
out that her faith is spoken of in the whole
world." — Ep. cxiii.
S. Xystus III., Pope, a.d. 434: "You
have learned by the result of this present
business what it is to agree in sentiment
with us. The blessed apostle Peter in his
successors has transmitted what he received.
Who would separate himself from his doc-
trine, whom the Master himself declared to
be the first among the apostles?" — Ep. vi.
ad Joan. Antioch.
140 The Infallibility of the Pope.
S. Peter Chrysologus, a.d. 440 : " We
exhort you, honored brother, that in all
things you obediently attend to those things
which have been written by the most bless-
ed Pope [Leo] of the city of Rome, because
blessed Peter, who lives and resides in his
own see, gives to those who seek, true
faith" — Proleg. Observ. Ed. Bacchin.
Cassian, a.d. 429 : " Let us interrogate
the greatest, the teacher among the teach-
ers, who, ruling the helm of the Roman
Church, as he had the primacy of faith, so
also had he the primacy of the priesthood.
Tell us, then, tell us, we beseech thee, O
Peter, prince of the apostles, how the
churches are to believe in God ; for it is
just that thou shouldst teach us, who wast
thyself taught of the Lord ; and that thou
shouldst open to us the gate, of which thou
didst receive the key." — De Incarn., 1. iii.
The Infallibility of the Pope. 141
S. Leo I., Pope, a.d. 640 : " The solidity
of that faith which was commended in the
prince of the apostles, is perpetual ; and as
what Peter believed in Christ is permanent,
so is what Christ institutes in Peter per-
manent." — T. i. Serm. iii. de Natal. Ordin.
"The blessed Peter ceases not to pre-
side over his own see, and he enjoys a
never-ceasing fellowship with the everlast-
ing priest [Christ]. For that solidity which
Peter, himself also made a rock, received
from the rock Christ, has passed onwards
to his heirs also ; and wheresoever any
firmness is exhibited, the constancy of that
pastor is undeniably apparent." — Serm. v.
ibid.
Sozomen, a.d. 445 : " It is a sacerdotal
law, that the things clone contrary to the
sentiment of the Bishop of Rome be look-
ed upon as null." "This important ques-
142 The Infallibility of the Pope.
tion beinsr agitated, and. as was to be ex-
pected, daily increasing in importance, when
the Bishop of Rome learned this, he wrote
to the churches of the East to worship a
consubstantial and equally glorious Trinity.
And after this had been done, they were
all silent, and this important question seem-
ed settled, as having been once for all de-
cided by the judgment of the church of the
Romans." — Hist. Eccles. 1. iii. 1. vi.
The Bishops of Tarragona write to Pope
Hilary, a.d. 440 : " Accordingly, we, ador-
ing in you the God whom you serve
blamelessly, have recourse to the faith
commended by the apostle, thence seeking
for answers whence, nothing by error,
nothing by presumption, but all with pon-
tifical deliberation, is prescribed."
Felix III., Pope, a.d. 490: ''I am also
The Infallibility of the Pope. 143
cheered by the purport of your letter,
wherein you have not omitted to state that
blessed Peter is the chief of the apostles,
and the rock of faith, and that to him
were entrusted the keys of the heavenly
mysteries. . . . Let the peace of the
churches be genuine ; let there be a real
unity, seeing that the paternal faith and
the communion of blessed Peter oup-ht to
be preferred before any individual whom-
soever." — Ep. iv. Imper. Zenoni.
S. Gelasius I., Pope, a.d. 492: "There,
as he [Peter] shone conspicuous for power
of doctrine, so, also, made glorious by the
shedding of his blood, does he repose in
a place of everlasting rest, granting to the
see which he himself blessed, that it be,
according to the Lord's promise, never
overcome by the gates of hell, and that
144 The Infallibility of the Pope.
it be the safest harbor for all who are
tempest-tossed. In that harbor whoso-
ever shall have reposed shall enjoy a
blessed and eternal place of safety, whereas
he that shall have despised it, it is for him
to see what kind of excuses he shall plead
at the day of judgment."
2. The acts and words of tne councils
of the church are in full accordance with
this stream of tradition, and even establish
our doctrine.
First, the General Councils have been
convoked with the sanction or by the
direct command of the Roman Pontiff.
" The summons to an CEcumenical Coun
cil must go forth from the oecumenical
head of the church, the Pope, except in
the case (which is hardly an exception)
in which, instead of the Pope, the tern-
The Infallibility of the Pope. 145
poral protector of the church, the Emper-
or, with the previous or subsequent ap-
proval and consent of the Pope, summons
a council of this kind." * The convocation
of bishops must necessarily come from the
head of ecclesiastical jurisdiction, and not
from a temporal power, which can only-
give its protection and support.
Secondly, no council, however large or
influential, is of any authority unless it
has had the direction and sanction of the
Pope. Such a council could never be
general, for it would be a body without
a head, and incapable of action, and would
in no way represent the church, which is
always with its visible pastor. The con-
firmation of the Roman Pontiff is neces-
sary to the validity and authority of an
oecumenical council, and this fact alone,
* Hefele, Hist. Councils.
146 The Infallibility of the Pope.
established by the history of Christianity,
proves the infallibility of the Vicar of
Christ. For the power to approve and
render certain in things of faith requires
a special gift of exemption from error.
Of councils claiming to be general, eighteen
are approved as such ; the Vatican Coun-
cil, now prorogued, makes the nineteenth;
while eight are annulled and considered
of no weight, and six are partly approved
and partly annulled by the sole authority
of the Popes.
Thirdly, the (Ecumenical Councils, in
their indiction, their action and confir-
mation, presuppose and often express the
infallibility of the Supreme Pontiff.
The Council of Nice was presided over
by the legates of the Pope, Hosius, Vi-
tus, and Vincentius. Five documents, dat-
ing from the fifth century, mention, be-
The Infallibility of the Pope. 147
sides, a solemn approval of the acts of
this Council by Pope Sylvester. Doubt
has been thrown upon the authenticity
of these documents, but not upon the fact
of confirmation, since this has been affirm-
ed by other synods. Pope Julius I. de-
clared, a few years after the Council of
Nice, that it was a rule and law of the
church, that ecclesiastical decrees could not
be published without the consent of the
Bishop of Rome. Dionysius the Less also
especially declares that the decisions of
Nice were sent to Rome for approval.
The Council of Constantinople, a.d. 381,
was guided by Pope Damasus in its con-
demnation of the Macedonian heresy, but
its canons were rejected. " It was, in fact,
on account of the creed having been ap-
proved of by the Holy See that afterwards,
in the sixth century, Popes Vigihus, Pela-
148 The Infallibility of the Pope.
gius II., and Gregory the Great formally
declared that this Council was oecumenical,
although Gregory at the same time refused
to acknowledge the canons it had pro-
mulgated." *
O
The Council of Ephesus, a.d. 431, was
sanctioned by Pope Celestine, whose le-
gates presided, and directed the condem-
nation of Nestorius, whom the Pontiff had
already condemned at Rome. Philip, the
Papal legate, thus addresses the Council :
" It is a matter of doubt to none, yea,
rather it is a thing known to all ages,
that the holy and most blessed Peter,
the prince and head of the apostles, the
pillar of the faith, the foundation of the
Catholic Church, received the keys of
the kingdom from Jesus Christ our Lord,
who [Peter] even till this present, and al-
* Hefele, Hist. Councils, Intr.
The Infallibility of the Pope. 149
ways, both lives and judges in his success-
ors. Our holy and most blessed Pope
Celestine, the canonical successor and vice-
gerent of this Peter, has sent us as re-
presentatives of his person."
The Council of Chalcedon, a.d. 451,
sent all its acts to Rome to obtain as-
sent, approval, and confirmation for them.
Such are the words of its letter to the
Pontiff: " We acknowledge the whole force
of the things which have been done, and the
confirmation of all that we have accom-
plished, to be dependent upon your approval."
The same language is used by Anatolius,
Archbishop of Constantinople. Pope Leo,
however, only confirmed the articles of this
Council which concerned the faith, and ex-
pressly rejected its twenty-eighth canon.
The dogmatic letter of S. Leo was read
at the opening of the Council, and, assert-
150 The Infallibility of the Pope.
ing the true doctrine, commanded the con-
demnation of Eutyches. When this letter
had been read, the bishops exclaimed,
"This is the faith of the fathers, this is the
faith of the apostles ; so we all believe ;
the orthodox so believe ; anathema to those
who do not so believe. Peter has spoke?i by
Leo." The doctrine of S. Leo in regard
to the infallibility of Peter's successor has
already been given in these lectures. He
says: "The power and authority of Peter
are supreme in his see. His faith is divinely
guarded by such a solidity, that neither
has heretical pravity ever been able to vi-
olate, nor heathen perfidy to overcome,
it." — Serm. iii. 3.
The Second Council of Constantinople,
A - D - 553> depends in its condemnation of
the three Chapters upon Pope Vigil ius, who
had already pronounced his decree. The
The Infallibility of the Pope. 1 5 1
sanction of Vigilius was for some time de-
layed, on account of the interference of
the emperor with the freedom of the
bishops.
The Third Council of Constantinople,
a.d. 680, sent a synodal letter to the Pope,
and asked his confirmation. Its language
was similar to that of the Council of Chal-
cedon. But the whole history of this
Council shows very plainly the uncontra-
dicted sentiment of the church. The letter
of Pope Agatho recites the decree of faith,
and thus continues : " Relying upon the
protection of Peter, this apostolic church
has never deviated from the way of truth
in any way of error whatsoever ; and his
authority, as that of the prince of the apos-
tles, the whole Catholic Church of Christ, and
all the universal synods, always and in all
things have faithfully embraced and followed
1^2
The Infallibility of the Pope.
. . . For this is the rule of the true faith,
which, both in prosperity and adversity, this
apostolic church of Christ, the spiritual mo-
ther of your peaceful empire, holds and de-
fends as vital ; which church, by the grace
of God, will never be convicted of departing
from the path of apostolic tradition, nor has it
ever been depraved by heretical novelties ;
but as it received the begfinninor of the faith
from its founders, the chief of the apostles
of Christ, so it abides untainted to the
end, according to the divine promise of our
Lord and Saviour himself, which in the
Gospels he uttered to the prince of his
disciples: '/ have prayed for thee, that thy
faith fail not! "
The creed of Pope Hormisdas, which, at
his command, the Oriental bishops were
required to sign, deserves mention in this
The Infallibility of the Pope. 1 5
1
connection. It was signed by a much great-
er number of bishops than any Council
called together, and is of universal authority.
In it the whole East, a.d. 517, professed
its faith in the inerrancy of the Apostolic
See. We can here give only a portion
of this profession : " The first act of sal-
vation is to keep rightly the rule of faith,
and in no way to depart from the decrees
of the fathers. The words of our Lord Jesus
Christ cannot be passed over : ' Thou art
Peter ; and on this rock will I build my
church.' These words are confirmed by
their effects, for, in the Apostolic See, re-
ligion has always been preserved without
spot. . . . Wherefore, we receive and
approve all the letters of Pope Leo, and
all that he wrote concerning the Christian
religion. Therefore, following in all things
the Apostolic See, and professing all its
154 The Infallibility of the Pope.
decrees, I hope to be worthy to be in that
one communion with you which the Apos-
tolic See commands, in which is the per-
fect and true solidity of the Christian re-
ligion, promising that the names of those
who are separated from the communion
of the Catholic Church, that is, those who
are not united in mind to the Apostolic
See, shall not be recited in the Holy Mys-
teries. This my profession I have sub-
scribed with my own hand, and presented
to thee, Hormisdas, holy and venerated Pope
of the city of Rome." * This creed was
afterwards approved in the Eighth (Ecu-
menical Synod.
It is hardly necessary to follow the Coun-
cils any farther, since from this time there
is scarcely a dispute in regard to Catho-
* Labbe, Condi, torn. v.
The Infallibility of the Pope. 155
lie tradition. We will only add the words
of three later (Ecumenical Synods.
The Council of Lyons, a.d. 1274: "The
holy Roman Church has the supreme prin-
cipality over the whole church of Christ,
which it received, with the plenitude of
power, from the Lord himself in blessed
Peter, whose successor is the Roman Pon-
tiff, so that, if any questions shall have
arisen concerning faith, they must by his
judgment be defined."
The Council of Vienne, a.d. 131 i: "To
solve doubts in matters of faith belongs
only to the Apostolic See."
The Council of Florence, a.d. 1439:
"We define that the Roman Pontiff has
the primacy in the whole world, and is
the • successor of Peter, and the head of
the whole church, and the father and
156 The Infallibility of the Pope.
teacher of all Christians, and that to him,
in blessed Peter, was given by our Lord
Jesus Christ the plenary power of govern-
ing the church, as is contained in the acts
of the (Ecumenical Councils and the Sacred
Canons."
The Synod of Rome, 863, under Nicho-
las I., made the following decree, which
was adopted in the Eighth General Coun-
cil : " If any one shall despise the dog-
mas, commands, interdicts, sanctions, or
decrees, in respect to Catholic faith, ec-
clesiastical discipline, the correction of the
faithful, or amendment of sinners, justly
promulgated by the Apostolic See, let him
be anathema." *
1
J'
We proceed now to mention a few
great ecclesiastical facts which presuppose
* Denzinger, Enchiridion, p. III.
The Infallibility of the Pope. 1 5 7
and establish the infallibility of the Sove-
reign Pontiff.
These are, first, facts in the history of
the church, and, secondly, in the history
of the Popes.
First. We have already seen that the
General Councils are such by virtue of his
confirmation. No assembly of bishops,
however large, is of any authority in
thingfs of faith without his sanction.
Again, Particular Councils, which have
received the approval of the Apostolic See,
have become of universal authority by vir-
tue of that approval alone, and have passed
into the code of the Catholic Church.
There is no need of citino- instances to
prove a well-known fact. We may only
mention the Councils of Hippo and Car-
thage concerning the canon of Sacred Scrip-
ture, and of Milevis against the Pelagians.
158 The Infallibility of the Pope.
Again, heresies, as they have arisen,
have been condemned by the Apostolic
See alone, and the judgment of this see
has at once become a law to the whole
church. We have shown how the Roman
Pontiff has directed the action of (Ecume-
nical Synods, and often given them full in-
structions in regard to the errors to be
condemned. Often they have done no-
thing but accept and propound the sen-
tence previously delivered by him.
But by his supreme authority, he has
detected error and pronounced against
heresy, which has been touched by no
General Council. Thus S. Gelasius
alone settled the canon of Sacred Scrip-
ture.
Thus Innocent I. condemned Pelagian-
ism, and pronounced the true doctrine
concerning original sin. The fathers of
The Infallibility of the Pope. 159
Trent only reaffirmed his infallible de-
clarations, which had been the rule of faith
for the whole Catholic communion.
Thus Leo X. condemned the errors of
Martin Luther and the reformers.
Thus since the Council of Trent the
false propositions of the Jansenist heresy
have been successively judged and anathe-
matized by the Pontiff.
Thus the doctrine of the Immaculate
Conception of the ever Blessed Virgin has
been solemnly defined by the sole decree
of our Holy Father, Pius IX.
Thus modern errors and the rationalism
of the day have been condemned by the
same glorious Pontiff.
Controversies have known but one arbi-
ter in the ages of Christianity, and his
voice once spoken has settled all, and,
with universal consent, closed the question.
1 60 The Infallibility of the Pope.
Could this ever have been if the church
had not recognized the office and duty
of S. Peter to confirm her in faith, to be
really and truly, and not in name only,
the Vicar of Jesus Christ ?
We are prepared now for a quotation
from Dr. Dollinger, which we will give
without note or comment :
" The Pope is supreme teacher and
guardian of the faith. That the decrees
of synods regarding faith, obtained their
full power and authority only by being
received and confirmed by the Pope, was
publicly acknowledged in the fourth cen-
tury. Thus the Synod held at Rome, 372,
under the Pope S. Damasus, declared that
the Council of Rimini, notwithstanding the
great number of bishops who were there
assembled, was invalid and null, because
neither the Bishop of Rome, whose deci-
The Infallibility of the Pope. 161
sion should be awaited before all others,
nor Vincent of Capua, and others, had
decreed with them. The same Pope
was the first who condemned the heresy
of Apollinaris, although it arose in the
East ; and by his decision, as Sozomen re-
lates, the controversy of the Orientals on
the divinity of the Holy Ghost was ended.
The Fifth General Council, which was a
Council of only Oriental bishops, acquired
the authority of an CEcumenical Synod
by the subsequent acceptance and confir-
mation of the Pope ; and S. Augustine
declared, after the two African Svnods had
been confirmed by the Pontiff, that the
cause of the Pelagians was terminated.
' Roma locuta est, causa finita est ' — ' Rome
hath spoken, the case is finished."
Hence could Boniface, the successor of
Zosimus, write to the Oriental bishops
1 62 The Infallibility of the Pope.
that a judgment of the Apostolic See was
inviolable, and that he who should presume
to act against it cut himself off from the
church. The proud pre-eminence of this
See, that it had never been stained by error y
was extolled by Theodoret. Peter, Bishop
of Ravenna, exhorted Eutyches to submit
himself before all others to the Pope and
to the judgment which he should pro-
nounce ; and Avitus, Bishop of Vienne,
about 503, names the Pope the pilot of
the vessel of the church when assailed
by the storms of heresy. The holy Max-
imus, in the controversy with the Mono-
thelite Pyrrhus, declared to him that, if
he would free himself from heresy, he
must make his peace with the See of
Rome, for that then all would believe him
to be orthodox. About the same time,
Sergius, Bishop of Cyprus, declared that the
The Infallibility of the Pope. 1 6 *»
o
See of Rome was, by virtue of the pro-
mises of Christ, the immovable foundation
of faith.
In his book against Rufinus,
S. Jerome asks him, " Is your faith the
faith of the Church of Rome? If so," he
adds, "we both are Catholics."
When, during the Pontificate of Hor-
misdas, the schism which had been begun
by the Patriarch Acacius was at length
terminated, after a duration of thirty-five
years, about 2,500 Oriental bishops sign-
ed a formulary which had been sent to
them by the Pope, on which occasion they
confessed that he who was not in all
things united with the Apostolic See, was
cut off from the Catholic Church.
It was customary (in case of
General Councils) that a decree of the
Apostolic See should precede their dog-
t 64 The Infallibility of the Pope.
matical decisions, and this decree was the
authority and guide of the Council. The
Council of Ephesus, therefore, in forming
its judgment against Nestorius, said that
it did so " following the canons and the
epistle of the Pope."
If particular councils formed decrees
on subjects of faith, it was by the approba-
tion of the supreme Pontiff that they
acquired authority.*
Secondly, it is a fact in the history of
the Roman Pontiffs, that all have claimed
and exercised supreme judgment in contro-
versies, and that not one has erred in faith,
when teaching the church by authority.
This fact alone is a miracle, and could not
be, without the continual and watchful aid
of the Holy Spirit, and the ever-powerful
prayer of Christ for his Vicar. Thus Bos-
* Dollinger's History of the Church, ii. pp. 220-224.
The Infallibility of the Pope. 165
suet says : " It is this Roman Church which,
taught by S. Peter, knows no heresy. He-
resies have been able to pass there, but
they could not there take root. So is the
Roman Church always a virgin: the Roman
faith is always the faith of the church.
What it believes is ever received ; the same
voice resounds everywhere ; and Peter re-
mains, in his successors, the foundation
of the faithful. It is Jesus Christ who has
said it, and heaven and earth shall pass
away sooner than his word." *
To establish our assertion, we will take
the full strength of our adversaries. If
there had been Popes who have disagreed
with each other and the received faith of
the church, they would have shown it long
ago. Their failure to show it, is abundant
evidence of all that we assert, since history
* Bossuct, torn. xv. p. 501.
1 66 The Infallibility of the Pope.
has been carefully searched with this end
alone in view. Cases of individual weak-
ness or of personal inconstancy are rare in-
deed, but, true or false, have nothing to
do with the argument. They must prove
that, of the long line of Pontiffs, even one
has taught error ex cathedra, and so official-
ly propounded false doctrine to the church.
Of all the accusations made, only two touch
the question even remotely. We pass over
the charge against S. Marcellinus, which,
as it was purely a personal matter, is ad-
mitted to be false by all the best historians.
If he had offered incense to idols under
stress of persecution, it would have been a
fall of human weakness; but the whole ac-
cusation is a falsehood of the Donatists,
circulated for their own ends, and now
shown in its true colors \.v authentic docu-
ments. The holy Pontiff who d«ed for the
The Infallibility of the Pope. 167
faith, and is honored as a martyr at the
altars of the church, is far above attacks
like these.
The acts of the Fifth General Council
sufficiently shield Pope Vigillius from any
of the charges made against him, as the
whole history shows him to have acted
with great prudence and zeal, even when
faith was not directly in the controversy.
There are only two of the successors of
S. Peter against whom our opponents
bring even the shadow of a fair accusation,
and in neither case did the Pontiff act ex
cathedra, or define a doctrine, or pronounce
a judgment. We might, then, dismiss the
whole matter as impertinent to the subject,
but, for the sake of truth, we will briefly
show that, in the first case, the charge is
false, and that, in the second, the fault of
the Pope was negative rather than positive,
1 68 The Infallibility of the Pope.
and implied only human infirmity, aside
from his official character.
i. The charge is made against Liberius,
Bishop of Rome from a.d. 352-366, that,
in the persecutions of the Arians, he was
induced by fear to sign an heretical con-
fession of faith. The answer to this is two-
fold: first, the document which he is said to
have signed, though omitting the Catholic
term consubstantial, is not in words heretical,
and is capable of being defended, as it has
been by S. Hilary. But, secondly, it is
not true that he signed any such confes-
sion, as facts and documents show. The
charges against him are contradictory, and
are proved false by contemporary evidence.
His whole life was distinguished by zeal
in defence of the orthodox doctrine against
the Arians, and the honor paid him on his
return to Rome from exile is a sufficient
The Infallibility of the Pope. 1 69
proof that he had never wavered. The
attempt to make S. Athanasius his accuser
in his apology against the Arians, for the
moment may produce its impression, but
the passage which thus speaks of Liberius
is evidently an interpolation in a subsequent
edition, and by a strange and unskilful hand.
For the History of the Avians was writ-
ten at a period prior to that of the sup-
posed fall of the Pope, and it is evident,
from the whole context, that S. Athanasius
knew of no such act. Arian authorities, for
their own ends, have forged and circulated
this unfounded accusation. Such is the
judgment of all the best historians, at
this time, to whose more extended defence
of this great Pontiff we refer."* S. Basil,
S. Epiphanius, and S. Ambrose speak of
* Sec Rolirbacher, Hist. ; Diss, of the Abbe Corgne
Darras, Ecc. Hist., i. pp. 456-462.
1 70 The Infallibility of the Pope.
Liberius as a Pontiff of holy, blessed, and
venerable memory ; and the ancient Latin,
Greek, and Coptic Martyrologies honored
him as a saint.
The Greek Menology reads as follows :
" The blessed Liberius, defender of the
faith, was Bishop of Rome under the em-
pire of Constantius. Burning with zeal for
the orthodox faith, he protected the great
Athanasius, persecuted by the heretics for
his bold defence of the truth, and driven
from Alexandria. While Constantine and
Constans lived, the Catholic faith was
supported, but when Constantius was left
sole master, as he was an Arian, the here-
tics prevailed. Liberius, for his vigor in
censuring their impiety, was banished to
Berea, in Thrace. But the Romans, who
always remained true to him, went to the
emperor and besought his recall. He was,
The Infallibility of the Pope. 1 7 1
therefore, on this account, sent back to
Rome, and there ended his life, after a holy
administration of his pastoral charge."
2. We shall not delay long upon the
case of Honorius, Bishop of Rome, a.d.
626-638. The whole matter has of late
been so thoroughly discussed, and so ably
treated by Catholic writers, that it will
suffice to state briefly the real truth, which
speaks for itself.
The charge of our adversaries is that
Honorius, when appealed to, interfered in
favor of the Monothelite heresy, and that
for this he was condemned by a subsequent
General Council.
The facts in the case are these : Hono-
rius was deceived by Sergius, Patriarch of
Constantinople, in regard to the question
at issue, and was induced to write a letter
urging the end of the discussion which
172 The Infallibility of the Pope.
Sophronius, Bishop of Alexandria, vehe-
mently maintained in defence of two wills
in our Lord Jesus Christ. " We have re-
ceived your letter acquainting us with the
discussions lately raised in the East. We
commend your zeal in rejecting all novel-
ties of expression, according to the advice
of the apostle. Let us leave grammarians
to discuss idle questions, and disdain a
war of words which would bring trouble
upon the church.
That he misunderstood the heresy of
Sergfius is evident from his own letter, as
well as from that of Pope John IV., a.d.
640 : " When Honorius spoke of a single
will in Jesus Christ, he meant that, in the
person of the Incarnate Word, the humanity
had not the two contrary wills of the flesh
and the spirit, as we have them since the
fall. But he did not mean that the divinity
The Infallibility of the Pope. I J^
had not in Jesus Christ its own proper
will," His letter, however, with all the
misconception of the question, was not
an active interference in favor of Sereius's
doctrine. His fault was neglect to exa-
mine more thoroughly the matters at issue,
and to use at once his apostolic autho-
rity in favor of the truth thus craftily as-
sailed.
At the same time he refused to eive to
his letters an encyclical character, and, in
express terms, refused to define anything,
while he in his own Ian quaere teaches the
true Catholic doctrine. From these facts,
we conclude, first, that it is certain he
did not act ex cathedra, or define any
doctrine; and, secondly, that he was not
heretical himself, as he holds and defends
in words the true faith in regard to the.
two wills in our Lord.
1 74 The Infallibility of the Pope.
Now, a few words will suffice, as to
the condemnation of the Sixth General
Council. The question of the heresy ol
Honorius was never before this Council,
and until late days, he has never been
charged with it. There is not one single
document existing which shows that he
favored the Monoth elite doctrine, for he
teaches the direct contrary. He was cen-
sured only for negligence, and because his
omission to use his Apostolic authority
had redounded to the benefit of heresy.
What advantage the opponents of Papal
Infallibility can draw from this, we are
at a loss to know. If he neglected to
use authority, then by the consent of the
church he possessed such authority, as one
of the attributes of his see. But let us
look a moment at the history of the
Sixth General Council, for we have no
The Infallibility of the Pope. 1 75
stronger testimony for the infallibility of
the Roman Pontiff, in all antiquity.
This Council was convoked by Pope S.
Agatho, who reigned from a.d. 679 to
682. His letter to the emperor, which
defined the true doctrine and gave instruc-
tions to the bishops, is as follows: "The
Catholic world looks up to this [Roman]
church as the mother and mistress of all
the others. By the grace of Almighty
God, it will never be convicted of having
wandered from the path of apostolic tra-
dition, or of yielding to the waywardness
of heretical teachings. The faith which she
received from her founders, the princes of
the apostles, she has kept unstained, ac-
cording to the promise of our Lord to
S. Peter, « I have prayed for thee, that thy
faith fail not.' In virtue of this divine
promise, the Apostolic Pontiffs, whose un-
176 The Infallibility of the Pope.
worthy successor we are, have always up-
held the cause of the true faith. So that,
when the bishops of Constantinople strove
to bring heretical novelty into the spot-
less church of Christ, my predecessors of
apostolic memory never ceased to exhort,
to warn, and to entreat them to forsake
their false belief, or at least to hush
questions so dangerous."
How could S. Agatho have said this,
if his predecessor, Honorius, a few years
before had been in any way tainted with
heresy ? These authoritative words are
alone his sufficient exculpation.
But how did the Council receive this
letter of the Pope? No sooner had the
assembled fathers heard the clear and strong
definition of the Catholic belief in the two
wills of Jesus Christ than they cried out
with one voice : " Peter hath spoken by
The Infallibility of the Pope. 177
the mouth of Agatho. We believe with
him that there are two wills in Jesus Christ.
Anathema to whoever holds the contrary-
opinion."
When the Council had ceased its labors,
the definition of faith was read : " By the
inspiration of the Holy Ghost, in agree-
ment with the dogmatic letter of our
Holy Father and Sovereign Pontiff Agatho,
we acknowledge in Jesus Christ two natures,
with two respective wills and acts. Ancient
Rome holds out a profession of faith com-
ing- from God himself. A letter from the
West has brought back the light of truth.
Peter has spoken by the voice of Agatho."
The acts of this Council were confirmed
by Pope S. Leo II., who reigned one year
only, a.d. 682. We give an extract from
the letter of the Emperor Constantine to
the Pope, and from S. Leo's reply.
1 78 The Infallibility of the Pope.
"The letter of Pope Agatho," writes the
emperor, " was unanimously agreed to ac-
cord with the Scriptures, the councils, and
the teachings of the holy fathers. We
saw with the soul's vision the Prince of the
Apostles himself, in the person of his suc-
cessor, opening out the mystery of the
Incarnation, and saying to our Lord, ' Thou
art Christ, the Son of the living God.' "
The letter of the Pope, dated May 16,
683, thus speaks of the acts of the Coun-
cil : " On examination, we find them to
agree with what the legates had reported.
We have ascertained that the Council ex-
actly followed the instructions of the Apos-
tolic See, and that it agrees with the de-
finitions of the five former CEcumenical
Councils. For this reason we have con-
sented to the publication of the decrees ;
we ratify them by the authority of S. Peter,
The Infallibility of the Pope. 1 79
and wish them to have the binding power
of laws." *
v.
During the progress of the discussion
elicited by the assembling of the Vatican
Council, much was said which it would be
a waste of time to notice in a serious work.
As the Catholic Church exhibited anew
her strength and her immortal youth, ma-
terialism and rationalism raised their heads,
and the embers of Protestant prejudice
were fanned into a flame. It is better not
to fight with one who strikes wildly with-
out a system or an end. Such a one will
ere long destroy himself. Nor is it worth
while to respond to attacks which take in
the whole of Christianity, and really aim
* See Darras, vol. ii. chap. viii.
1 80 The Infallibility of the Pope.
at the confusion of all revealed faith. The
church is quite safe from such adversaries,
and has only patiently to wait to see them
sink away from the notice of mankind. The
infallibility of the Pope presupposes the di-
vinity of Jesus Christ, and the truth of his
mission of salvation. And, let it be said,
it stands because of the divinity of the
founder of Christianity and the omnipo-
tence of his word.
Yet there are honest minds who have been
led to think that the decree of the Coun-
cil has ascribed to man powers he cannot
have ; that the possession of these prero-
gatives interferes with civil society, and
arrests the progress of mankind in cultiva-
tion and knowledge. To these objections
we shall briefly make reply before we close
this lecture.
The Infallibility of the Pope. 1 8 1
i. Our definition of the Catholic doctrine,
in the precise words of the Council, has
already answered the first objection. We
claim for the Supreme Pontiff, when acting
officially as the head of the church, that
divine guidance which shields him from
error. In this there is no inconsistency
with his nature, or his probation as an indi-
vidual, as we have already fully shown ;
and there is no power but such as God
has already given in former dispensations.
Prophets "have spoken as they were moved
by the Holy Ghost;" and God could not
speak through man as a medium, without
makingr that medium unerring. God Can-
es o
not teach unless he teach infallibly, and sure-
ly can never be a party to deception. Here
any objection to the infallibility of the chief
pastor of the flock of Christ would be
against the divinity and wisdom of the
1 82 The Infallibility of the Pope.
Redeemer himself. The whole Christian
scheme, coming from a God-Man, must
be supernatural and divine. The only ques-
tion, then, is one of fact. Did Jesus Christ
institute a church as " the pillar and ground
of the truth," and promise unfailing guid-
ance to its head in the discharge of his
office ? Does Christianity, as the world
knows it, depend for nineteen centuries on
the fulfilment of this promise, and the teach-
ine of S. Peter's successors ? No more
objection, a priori, can be made to this
plan of the new law, than to the inspiration
of prophets, or the guidance of the high-
priest under a less perfect dispensation.
2. The notion that the infallibility of the
Roman Pontiff implies interference with
civil power, or the order of government in
civil society, is entirely unfounded. No
change has been made by the Vatican Coun-
The Infallibility of the Pope. 183
cil in the actual relation of the world to
the church, or in the powers of the supreme
Pastor. The Pope always possessed the
gift which is now so carefully defined by
the inspired language of an (Ecumenical
Synod. He was always, as we have fully
proved, " the father and teacher of all Chris-
tians." The church and her head are con-
cerned with the truths of God, the questions
of faith and morals. These eternal prin-
ciples she teaches to the nations, and, as
government can only stand on right and
justice, she, through the unerring direction
of her Pontiff, upholds civil society and the
safety and happiness of mankind. So far,
and no further, does she meddle with po-
litical questions, where, indeed, very often
the voice of truth and wisdom is unheard.
Here we will produce an extract from a let-
ter of his Eminence Cardinal Antonelli, not
1 84 The Infallibility of the Pope.
only on account of its high authority, but also
on account of the exact expressions it gives
on this subject : " It follows that, if the
church was instituted by its divine founder,
as a true and perfect society, distinct from
the civil power, and independent of it, with
full authority in the triple order, legislative,
judicial, and coercive, no confusion springs
therefrom in the march of human society,
and in the exercise of the rights of the
two powers. The competence of the one
and the other is clearly distinct and deter-
mined, according to the end to which
they are respectively directed. The church
does not, in virtue of her authority, inter-
vene directly and absolutely in the consti-
tutive principles of government, in the
forms of civil regulations, in the political
rights of citizens, and in the duties of the
state. But, whereas no civil society can
TJie Infallibility of the Pope. 185
subsist without a supreme principle regu-
lating- the morality of its acts and laws,
the church has received from God this
lofty mission, which tends to the happiness
of the people, while she in no way embar-
rasses, by the exercise of her ministry, the
free and prompt action of governments.
She, in fact, by inculcating the principle
of rendering to God that which is God's,
and to Caesar that which is Caesar's, im-
poses, at the same time, upon her children
the obligation of obeying the authority of
princes for conscience' sake. But these
should also recognize, that, if anywhere a
law is made, opposed to the principle of
eternal justice, to obey would not be a
giving to Caesar that which is Ccesar's, but
a taking from God that which is God's."*
It has been an amazing thinof to eood
* Letter of Cardinal Antonelli to the Nuncio at Paiis.
1 86 The Infallibility of the Pope.
Catholics that any statesmen have allowed
themselves to be disturbed by an objection
so foolish and unfounded. The promoters fc
of the objection, at its conception, scarcely
deserve the credit of honesty, and proba-
bly only sought, by means known to the
world, to throw political difficulties in the
way of our doctrine. If the church had
not always acted on the belief in the in-
fallibility of her chief Pastor, they would
have had more semblance of sincerity in
their accusations. It is not hard to touch
the self-love of princes and cabinets, and
the more ignorant they are, the more jea-
lous they will be of their prerogatives. And
it is certain that the nation which lives
according to God's law, and is governed
according to the immutable principles of
justice, will best promote its high interests.
Of that law and those principles the Ca-
The Infallibility of the Pope. 1 8 7
tholic Church is the divinely appointed
teacher and guardian. So we can ask no-
thing more precious for our beloved country,
than that the steps of her people and her
rulers be guided by truth, in that full free-
dom which is not license, but obedience
to God in all things.
3. And lastly, what bar to true progress
or to advance in human knowledge, can
be found in the unerring teachings of the
Roman Pontiff? If he be a teacher from
God, then every light from above comes
to illuminate the way by which man reaches
his high destiny. The sovereign Truth
cannot blind the eye or circumscribe the
intellectual vision. Every ray descending
from the great centre of all knowledge,
lifts the creature one step higher in true
progress. Christianity professes to be
above nature, to deal with realities the
1 88 The Infallibility of the Pope.
unaided intellect could never measure, and
to open upon reason a world far beyond
its reach, where God comes to meet and
ennoble the work of his hands. Never
contravening reason or the revelations of
nature, the great Redeemer, who took our
humanity to exalt it, has caused the clouds
which curtained his throne to pass away,
that man, purified from sin, might open
his eyes upon the Infinite, and, in the true
Light, see light. Such is the temple of the
Incarnate Word, who speaks the language
of life, and the voice of salvation by the
shepherd whom he has commissioned to
guide his sheep. How can the clear light
of revelation, and certainty in things of
faith, interfere with the progress of our
race in wisdom or science ? God is true,
if every man be found a liar. Until man
shall be declared equal with God, our real
The Infallibility of the Pope. 189
advancement will be in the obedience of
the understanding- to the Supreme Good.
When man proclaims himself independent
of truth revealed, then hath he said in his
heart, "There is no God"; then the deep
night of atheism will reign over the human
intellect. That night is not so far away
from many minds, that its shadows are not
" darkening counsel by words without wis-
dom," and prostituting powers which were
meant for the glorious future, to the ser-
vice of the passions and to the idolatry of
pride. Philosophers abound who have not
learned the primary truths of natural reli-
gion ; and who, in their self-worship, for-
get that God's being is the fountain of all
knowledge. The infallibility of the supreme
head of the Christian church means, cer-
tainty in faith, a clear understanding of
Christianity. Let those who deny it show
1 90 The Infallibility of the Pope.
us how, without it, there can be, as there
never has been, one fixed and immutable
creed. And then let them show how such
a creed, which makes earth an antechamber
of heaven, can stand in the way of the
elevation of mankind.
The Catholic religion does not, indeed,
teach us to prefer this world to the next,
nor to believe that physical progress is the
great end for which we should labor. Pre-
paring us for eternity in the few months of
this mortal life, she can only echo our
Master's words : " Seek first the kingdom
of God and his justice"; "What shall it
profit a man if he gain the whole world,
and lose his own soul ? " All knowledge
is useful, except the knowledge of evil.
Yet who will deny that, even here, there
are grades ? Mechanics are not to be
ranked with abstract studies ; philosophy
The Infallibility of the Pope. 191
rises above the plane of natural science ;
and far beyond all, is that labor of the soul
by which we seek to know ourselves and
our relation to the Infinite ; that sun whose
effulgence we cannot bear; that shoreless
ocean which stretches far away from us in
the limitless being of God.
What means, then, this battle of human
freedom of which we hear so much ? Hath
the cry of modern society any sense, that
it should ring in our ears from day to
day ? Where is freedom but in the ser-
vice of the Almighty, whose creatures we
are ? Hath modern society taken to it-
self such power that it can cast away, as
shackles of by-gone ages, the facts of a
revelation from on high to our needy and
suffering race ? Is this emancipation from
the restraints of Christian law, the liberty
which men are seeking for with so much
192 The Infallibility of the Pope.
eagerness ? Alas ! for the self-styled cham-
pions of modern thought, when, having
cast off the clear light of the city which
Jesus Christ set on a hill, they wander
hither and thither, the slaves of passion,
or as dreamers in a land where there are
no realities. To them the senses teach
truth no longer. God cannot make his
voice to be heard; and so the eternal
throne which holds up the universe, the
fountain of all possibility and existence,
before which even the untutored child of
the forest kneels, is attacked by the puny
weapons of their philosophy. Refusing to
receive Jesus Christ for their teacher, they
wander, groping one after another, as the
voice of a man calls them on, and bidding
the world to rejoice that the fables of Chris-
tianity are exploded. Heaven with its
glories, and hell with its fears, a day of
The Infallibility of the Pope. 193
judgment with its dread account, and a
Judge before whose face the dead shall
stand ; these dreams of the enthusiast are
no longer to confront the soul in its hours
of battle. " Come with me," saith the new
philosophy, "and I will unbind all the
chains of free thought; I will unloose the
manacles from hand and foot, and give you
liberty, as the bird which escapeth from
her cage, and trieth the strength of her
wines. You shall be free to believe no-
thing, to know nothing of the world be-
yond the grave, to have no master, no
teacher, no God." Ah ! the heart in the
deep of our nature calleth not for this free-
dom. It asketh for a clear light in the
darkness, and a certain voice to lead to
the unchangeable truth. It asketh for a
God all-powerful to save, and a Man all-
1 94 The Infallibility of the Pope.
pitiful to pardon. And when that great
light shineth among the people that walked
so long in night, and a Redeemer cometh
who beareth in our nature the fulness of
the Godhead, then does the broken heart
of humanity revive and cry out for joy : "I
have found thee for whom my soul longeth,
and to thy voice alone will I listen, till
thou shalt lead me to my true home. This
earth is not my home. I am made for a
glorious destiny, an everlasting reign, where,
before God and his saints, I may bear the
palm and wear the crown. Though I have
wandered long, the good Shepherd has
found my heart at last. A voice comes to
me from Galilee. I see the Word Incarnate
in the days of his resurrection. 'Simon,
son of Jonas, lovest thou Me more than
these ? Then, feed my sheep.' And in
A
The hifallibility of the Pope. 195
that faith which, upheld by the almighty
prayer, faileth not, I confess with my
whole being, 'Thou art the Christ, the
Son of the living God.' "
Lecture Third,
THE TEMPORAL' POWER OF THE POPE.
" Let every soul be subject to higher powers : for there
is no power, but from God : and those that are, are ordained
of God. Therefore he that resisteth the power, resisteth the
ordinance of God. And they that resist, purchase to them-
selves damnation." — Rom. xiii. I, 2.
N our brief course of lectures upon the
Vicar of Christ, we cannot omit to no-
tice his temporal power, in regard to which so
much has been said and done in the present
age. The church will ever find an enemy
in the world, and can never reconcile her-
self with the passions of men. If she could
sacrifice her creed and her stern lessons
of morality, and bend to the popular will,
she would thereby identify herself with the
The Temporal Power of the Pope. 197
world, and altogether lose her divine char-
acter. "If you were of the world," said
our Lord to his disciples, "the world would
love its own ; but because you are not of
the world, therefore does the world hate
you." And it is passing strange how this
hatred of the church affects high intellects,
and otherwise ingenuous minds. On all
subjects but that of religion, there is quiet-
ness in discourse, or fairness in argument.
When the Catholic Church receives a
blow, there is a secret or open rejoicing,
without so much as an inquiry into the
justice of the attack, or a care to know
whether the blow given is a triumph of
evil over good, and a stratagem to destroy
the very foundations of morality. It is
true, indeed, that in many things men do
not reason ; and that by far the majority
make up their opinions without due con-
198 The Temporal Power of the Pope.
sideration. But very many apply principles
to the Catholic Church, and her interests
upon earth, which they could not defend
for one moment, and which they would
allow no one to apply to themselves. It
is in vain to cry for justice, for that is
the very thing they are unwilling to accord
to us.
And there is here a singular difference
between us and our adversaries. We state
plainly our principles, and carry them out
consistently, and are ready to stand by all
their just consequences. Few of those op-
posed to our creed pretend to show their
colors, or are amenable to the laws of logic.
Now they defend what, to-morrow, under
another point of view, they will reject.
And if we demonstrate to them the ground
on which they stand, and the only defence
which is possible to their position, they
The Temporal Power of the Pope. 199
turn as carelessly from our argument, as
if the conclusions of reason were of no
consequence to them. And all the while,
they accuse the church of interfering with
the prerogatives of reason, and opposing
the progress of intelligence. A man may,
undoubtedly, blind himself, and boast of
his ignorance, but the terrible retribution
is near at hand : " If the light that is in
us be darkness, how great is that dark-
ness !"
These remarks, true of the whole attack
upon the Catholic faith, along its extended
line, are especially true of the opinions
expressed in our day in regard to the tem-
poral power of the Pope. People say, "He
ought not to have any such power," with-
out even asking themselves if he has, in
fact, this power by a just right which every
one is bound to respect. And if this power
200 The Temporal Power of the Pope.
be taken away, they rejoice because they
think it will weaken the Papacy, without
so much as considering whether the in-
vasion of his rights be in accordance with
the principles of that justice which is essen-
tial to the existence of any Christian state.
The golden rule is scarcely thought of;
for there is not one among the assailants
of the church who would be willing that
others should do to him, what he rejoices
to see done to others.
Still, with all the disadvantages under
which we labor, with judge and jury fore-
warned and biassed against us, there is an
appeal, which will not, either now or here-
after, be wholly in vain ; to the everlasting
principles of truth, which will stand when
this busy age is gone ; which are as immu-
table as God himself. Calm judgment re-
vives at the sight of long injustice, and
The Temporal Power of the Pope. 201
honesty, in some minds, vindicates her
divine prerogatives. To this judgment and
to this honesty do we speak to-night, in
hopes of some success, even where we
attack long- seated prejudice. If we break
the golden rule, or infringe the rights of
our neighbor, or trample upon the just
laws of reason, we will be the first to con-
fess our guilt. But if we speak truthfully
and argue fairly, have we not a claim to
a verdict in our favor? If it be so that
we are vindicating justice on earth, then,
in the name of all that is holy, we deserve
the gratitude of men ; for we are fighting
for their rights, the cause of good order,
and the welfare of our race. It is a hap-
piness to speak to the American people ;
for, with all their anxious search for wealth
and physical progress, there is yet a hatred
of deceptions and an honesty of purpose*
202 The Temporal Power of the Pope.
which will one day break off from many
a mind the shackles of prejudice, and the
more than iron bands of a false early
education.
To elucidate the subject of our lecture
with simplicity, and to make our argument
with clearness, we will first define what
we mean by the temporal power of the
Pope, and state the Catholic view con-
cerning it ; secondly, review the facts of
its history ; thirdly, enter the protests of
religion and law against the recent inva-
sion of the states of the church ; and, last-
ly, examine the reasons which are alleged
in justification of acts which are intrinsically
against God and man.
i.
The temporal power of the Pope is that
civil princedom which, in fact, and by the
The Temporal Power of the Pope. 203
providence of God, he has possessed over
the states and provinces which, for a long
time, have been subject to his rule. No one
can deny that the Vicar of Christ, as such,
has been the ruler of Rome and its sur-
rounding territory ; and as the King of
kines rules anions: the inhabitants of
earth, that it has been by his providence.
" The powers that are, are ordained of
God." Any legitimate power has its au-
thority from God, and exists by his ordi-
nance. To deny this, is to deny the foun-
dation of governments ; for all true author-
ity comes from God, the supreme ruler,
and hence it is, according to the Scrip-
ture, " by him that kings reign, and princes
decree justice." Even the heathen empire
of Rome was, in this sense, as S. Paul
tells us, the minister of God, whom Chris-
tians were bound to obey, not only from
204 The Temporal Power of the Pope.
fear of its power, but " for conscience'
sake," because it had a rightful authority
over its subjects. The Vicar of Christ has
been the legitimate governor of his states,
and if there be a legal claim to civil do-
minion, he possesses it. If he has had no
such claim, then there is no government on
the earth which exists by right, and no
king or magistrate to whom obedience is
due. The consequence of such a theory
would be the extinction of society, since it
is for the preservation of society that go-
vernments exist, and are a necessity dic-
tated by the natural law.
If we look for a title to govern, which
binds in conscience, we shall scarcely find
among the nations any one as perfect as
that of the Roman Pontiff. The precise
date of his temporal power is lost in early
Christian antiquity. The emperors saw
The Temporal Power of the Pope. 205
very soon the incompatibility of their pre-
sence in the Eternal City, where one migh-
tier than they overshadowed them ; and
from the removal of the court to Constan-
tinople, the Popes became the virtual
rulers of Rome. That which is called by
many writers the donation of Pepin, was
really only the restitution of the provinces
which the Lombards had seized at various
times by unjust war. Neither Pepin nor
any of his predecessors ever laid claim
to Rome. Says Gosselin : " What must
be especially noticed in the donation of
Pepin, as well as in that of Astolphus,
which was its consequence and authentic
confirmation, is that those two monarchs,
when guaranteeing to the Holy See the
possession of all those cities and territo-
ries, never pretend that they are making
a donation strictly so-called, but rather a
206 The Temporal Power of the Pope.
restoration of the provinces usurped by the
Lombards from the church and republic
of Rome. This was the title on which
the Pope and the King of France con-
stantly claimed those provinces, and on
which the King of the Lombards himself
restored them to the Holy See, as appears
from the uniform testimony of ancient
authors, both French and foreign. It was,
in truth, very natural to regard, as the
property of the Roman Church and repub-
lic, provinces long abandoned by their
former masters, and which, in the extre-
mity to which they were reduced, had of
their own free will placed themselves under
the protection of the Holy See." *
Charlemagne not only recognized and
respected the Pope's sovereignty in Italy,
but he extended and consolidated it by
* Gosselin, i. pp. 226, 227. ■
The Temporal Power of the Pope. 207
his victory over the Lombards, and by
the total destruction of their monarchy in
yji>- " Not satisfied with confirming Pe-
pin's act, he ordered his chaplain, Euthe-
rius, to draw up a much more ample
donation, securing to the Roman Church
the exarchate of Ravenna, the island of
Corsica, the provinces of Parma and Man-
tua, Venice and Istria, with the duchies
of Spoleto and Beneventura. The king
signed this donation with his own hand
and ordered it to be signed by the bishops,
abbots, and dukes who accompanied him ;
he then deposited it on the altar of S.
Peter, and swore, with all his French lords,
to preserve for the Holy See all the ter-
ritories mentioned in that grant." * The
Pontiffs have suffered many vicissitudes on
account of their sacred character, yet their
* Gosselin, i. 232, 233.
208 The Temporal Power of the Pope.
title to reign over Rome and its tributary
provinces is undisputed, and is more ancient
and more just than that of any sovereign
in Europe. We may say with the bishops,
in their allocution to Pius IX., on the Feast
of Pentecost, 1862, when two hundred and
sixty-five prelates from all quarters of the
world surrounded the apostolic throne :
" Who may dare to impugn a principality
so ancient, established by so great autho-
rity, and even by so great a necessity ?
If that human right in which is found the
security of princes and peoples be consider-
ed, what other power can be compared with
this ? What other power so venerable and
holy ? What monarchy or republic in the
times past or present can boast of rights
so august, so ancient, so inviolable ? If all
these things be despised and counted for
naught in this Holy See, what prince shall
The Temporal Power of the Pope. 209
be secure in his kingdom, or what republic
safe in its territory ? Therefore is it, Holy
Father, that thou dost contend and suffer
for justice and laws, which are among
nations the very foundation of social order.
By a singular providence of God it was
that the Roman Pontiff, whom Christ made
the head and centre of his whole church,
has possessed the civil principality, and it
is by all to be held for certain that by no
accident was this temporal power given to
the Holy See, but by a special divine dis-
position ; and that it has been confirmed
and preserved through the long series of
years by the unanimous and almost mira-
culous consent of all kingdoms and em-
pires.
And so we may attribute to this princi-
pality a still higher sacredness, by reason
of the character and office of the Vicar of
210 The Temporal Pozver of the Pope.
Christ. Surely there is no person on earth
so sacred, no one with whom the ways of
divine Providence are more intimately con-
nected. With what we have seen and
demonstrated in the preceding lectures, we
cannot fail to recognize the propriety of
God's dealings with the chief Pastor of his
church, in thus securing his independence
and freedom for the discharge of his great
trust.
Catholics, then, believing that " the
powers that are, are ordained of God,"
defend the just title of the Popes to reign
over the states committed to them by the
prescription of so many ages. They do
not pretend that this temporal power is
absolutely necessary to the Papacy, for
wherever the Bishop of Rome is, there in
exile, as in his ancient court, is the whole
power of Christ the Lord, and the inviola-
The Temporal Power of the Pope. 2 1 1
ble supremacy of Peter. But we do con-
tend that this power is needed for the free
discharge of the Pontifical office, and is
eminently salutary to all nations. The
Bishop of Rome is not simply the bishop
of one diocese, as other prelates are, but
he is the shepherd of the whole flock of
Christ, commissioned to feed with heavenly
doctrine the entire earth. There is, there-
fore, an impropriety in his being the sub-
ject of another prince, who may by his
high dominion interfere with the exercise
of his spiritual prerogatives. Guarantees,
of whatever stringency, are of little use
when it is the interest of sovereigns to
break them ; and treaties are cancelled by
a stroke of the pen when either of the
contracting powers tires of observing them.
Catholics need a home where they can
find their common father, with no restraints
212 The Temporal Power of the Pope.
which the ambition or jealousy of kings
may choose to throw around him. Such
Rome has been till of late, a city unlike
any other, a home for the faithful of every
clime, whose august monuments even time
has seemed to hold sacred. And the Ro-
mans have had this glory which has dis-
tinguished them above all others. Art
and science, poetry, sculpture, and paint-
ing have flourished on their soil, but only
because the throne of the apostle has stood
there, the centre of truth, the foundation
of Christian lisfht and civilization. Our
argument finds a vindication in the cir-
cumstances of Italy since the unlawful
invasion of the Pontifical States. The
Pope and the ministers of religion are not
*
free even now, and as days pass away, if
there be no change, they will be less and
less free. Suppose a state of war to arise
The Temporal Power of the Pope. 213
which shall involve the kingdom of Italy,
where shall be the liberty of the Vicar
of Christ to guide and instruct the nations ?
It is a problem how long the Holy Father
can reside in Rome, though we are sure
he will remain there till the stern neces-
sities of his office drive him elsewhere,
that, untrammelled, he may feed the sheep
of the Lord. In this view we cannot, per-
haps, expect non- Catholics to agree with
us, but honest men can appreciate our
position with the faith we hold.
It has already been said that, in our own
country, there is a fact which goes to
support our claims. The people of the
United States, for the good of the whole,
have taken many of the rights of self-
government from the inhabitants of the
District of Columbia, that there, in the
seat of the Executive and Legislative
214 The Temporal Power of the Pope.
powers, the nation may have freedom and
independence of local control. And, al-
though this is not a perfect parallel, still
there is a resemblance which illustrates
the views we hold in regard to the prin-
cipality of the Sovereign Pontiff, and the
necessity of his complete freedom for the
great pastorship of the whole earth.
Catholics worthy of the name are all
agreed on this point. They cannot hold
other opinions, without separating them-
selves from the heart and sentiment of the
church. The Holy Father, and, with him,
the CEcumenical Council, have condemned
the propositions which assert that " the
children of the Catholic Church do [or
may] differ in regard to the compatibility
of the spiritual with the temporal power,"
or that "the abrogation of the civil do-
minion which the Apostolic See possesses,
The Temporal Power of the Pope. 215
would conduce to the liberty and felicity
of the church."* The contrary of these
propositions is true for all Catholics. The
children of the church cannot differ on this
point, because for them God in his pro-
vidence, and through his Vicar, has settled
the question. The loss of the temporal
power would not conduce to the liberty
and prosperity of the church, but rather
to its oppression and injury.
II.
But just as is the title of the Vicar of
Christ to his civil princedom, and useful
as we know it to be to Christianity, it
has been more than once invaded. The
Pontiffs have had to follow in the steps
of their Master, and their crown has been
* Syllabus of Pius IX., sect. ix.
216 The Temporal Pozver of the Pope.
to them no exemption from the cross.
From S. Peter, who was crucified with his
head downwards, to Pius IX., there has
been in the Eternal City many a confessor
and martyr. The world knows of the
struggles of the past. Many a wave,
mighty and overwhelming, has dashed it-
self to pieces against the rock of faith.
Many a king has laid his hand upon Christ's
anointed, only to fall, and, in due time,
to be ground to powder. The words of
Scripture have been strangely verified :
"Whosoever shall fall upon this rock shall
be broken ; but upon whomsoever it shall
fall, it will grind him to powder." * We
doubt not that history will repeat itself,
and we have no fear for the flock and
its shepherd.
With the teachings of ages past, how-
* S. Matthew xxi. 44.
The Temporal Power of the Pope. 2 1 7
ever instructive, we have not at this time
to deal. The states of the church have
been invaded in our own day, and it is
of this invasion that we are to speak.
This great act concerns not only Catholics,
but all mankind. Let us briefly review the
scenes which have been transpiring under
our own eyes, at which many have ap-
plauded, while many have wept, not
for themselves, but for society and reli-
gion.
It is hardly necessary, in the compass
of this short lecture, to specify the steps
by which Victor Emanuel, from being
the head of the state of Piedmont, has
raised himself to the position he now holds.
He owes little to any strength of mind
or foresight of his own, and has confess-
edly been the creature of others. The
wave of revolution has placed him upon
218 The Temporal Power of the Pope.
his uncertain throne, and that wave has
not finished its work. He could have ac-
complished little, had not France come to
his aid, and, without the slightest shadow
of right or justice, interfered in the affairs
of other independent nations. The un-
happy Emperor of the French has received
his punishment for a selfish diplomacy,
which, while it never had God or justice
in view, was, even to the worldly-wise,
foolish and suicidal. He has built up the
powers which have fallen upon him, and
crushed him. Having lent himself to the
cause of Italian unity, it was by his act
that the states belonging to the Holy Father
were spoiled, for without him nothing could
have been done. France, for ages, has
had the glory of being the protector of
the Holy See, and still cherished the hope
of preserving the patrimony of S. Peter
The Teyiiporal Power of the Pope. 219
against the revolution her emperor had
encouraged. There was no gratitude from
Italy for past favors, nor even conscience
in the observation of treaties. So long as
France held the Eternal City by her arms,
the convention was kept : when Napoleon,
rushing to his own downfall, recalled the
troops which had held guard around Rome,
the plighted word of king and cabinet had
no sacredness whatever.
On the 10th of September last, an army
of sixty thousand men, and one hundred
and fifty guns, encompassed the holy city.
There was not, and there had not been,
the slightest disquiet within the walls, nor
any appearance of revolution in the Papal
territory. No internal movement had call-
ed this army to its attack, and Christian
history certainly has no parallel to this
violation of all law and justice. It was
220 The Temporal Power of the Pope.
in vain for Pius IX. to contend, with his
little force, against a siege like this. The
following is the order then issued to the
general of his small but gallant army :
"At this moment, when a great sacri-
lege, and the most enormous injustice, is
about to be consummated, and the troops
of a Catholic king, without provocation,
nay, without even the least appearance
of any motive, surround and besiege the
capital of the Christian world, I feel, in
the first place, the necessity of thanking
you and our entire army, for your gene-
rous conduct up to the present time, for
the affection you have shown to the Holy
See, and for your willingness to consecrate
yourselves entirely to the defence of this
metropolis. May these words be a solemn
document to certify to the discipline, the
The Temporal Power of the Pope. 221
loyalty, and the valor of the army in the
defence of this Holy See.
1
"As far as regards the duration of the
defence, I feel it my duty to command
that this shall only consist in such a pro-
test as shall testify to the violence that is
done us, and nothing more ; in other words,
that negotiation for surrender shall be
opened so soon as a breach shall have
been made in the walls.
"At a moment when the whole of
Europe is mourning over the numerous
victims of the war now in progress between
two great nations, never let it be said that
the Vicar of Christ, however unjustly as-
sailed, had to give his consent to a great
shedding of blood. Our cause is the cause
of God, and we put our whole defence in
his hands. From my heart I bless you
and your whole army."
222 The Temporal Power of the Pope.
These words are worthy of him who
rules so sublimely as the vicegerent of the
Prince of Peace.
On the 20th of September, the fire of
five hours had made a breach in the old
walls, and the Italian soldiers entered in,
followed by thousands of exiles and fugi-
tives, who, for offences of many kinds, had
been banished, or had fled from Rome.
The rest is known, though the truth has
not half been told. Calmer and better days
will place the actors in these scenes in
their appropriate place in history, and
truth and justice will yet vindicate them-
selves.
The following" account of the siege is
taken from a private letter from a gen-
tleman in the service of the Holy Father :
" The principal attack was made at the
Porta Pia, where Captain Delahoyde, with
The Temporal Power of the Pope. 22
1
his zouaves, offered a determined and gal-
lant resistance. After some hours' cannon-
ading, a breach was made within about a
hundred yards of the gate. There were
not more than four companies of the zouaves
engaged. This magnificent corps numbered
over four thousand, and why the main
body were kept away is a matter involved
in some mystery. It was well known that
the Holy Father deprecated a resistance,
which should lead only to the useless effu-
sion of blood ; but it seems inexplicable
that, out of a corps of four thousand, all
in the highest state of efficiency, only four
hundred should be permitted to take part
in resisting the invaders. The breach hav-
ing been effected, a storming party, com-
posed of bersaglieri and grenadiers, em-
erged from the wood skirting the walls
of the city near the Porta Pia, and en-
224 The Temporal Power of the Pope.
deavored to take the breach by assault.
They were again and again repulsed by
the hundred zouaves who held this point,
and poured a destructive fire upon them as
they advanced from under cover of the
wood. The loss of the Papal troops be-
tween the breach and the Porta Pia, where
the struggle raged most fiercely, was about
one hundred and fifty men and five
officers killed. The loss of the enemy
was probably two thousand. While this
unequal contest was going on, an officer
from General Kanzler's staff arrived, and
raised a white flag. The zouaves imme-
diately ceased firing, but Victor Ema-
nuel's troops, instead of observing the
usual course, and sending forward a par-
lementaire, with characteristic bad faith took
advantage of the opportunity to storm the
breach, and with fixed bayonets dashed
The Temporal Power of the Pope. 225
forward, led by a colonel who was conspi-
cuous in front waving his sword. The
zouaves sent a volley into them as they
came, killing the colonel and a number of
the rank and file. The breach, however,
was carried, and the handful of devoted
and gallant soldiers, who for hours suc-
cessfully resisted, were overpowered by
superior numbers. So the Italian troops,
in their desire to achieve the eclat of
taking Rome by storm, violated the honor
of soldiers by an unworthy stratagem.
" When the zouaves were overpowered
and taken prisoners, some of the Italian
officers determined to signalize their entry
into the Eternal City by an atrocious act
of murder. The zouaves who resisted their
advance at the breach, numberinor about
one hundred and fifty, were all ranged
along a wall, disarmed, and were informed
226 The Temporal Power of the Pope.
that, inasmuch as they had fired under
flag of truce, killing several officers (among
them a colonel) and several men, they
were to be all shot, and, in pursuance of
this, files of men were drawn up before
them as a firing party, and ordered to load.
. The intended outrage was happily obviated
by the arrival of a superior officer, who
countermanded the order, and prevented
the execution of what would have been a
foul murder. After this the zouaves were
marched through Rome, and subjected to
every species of insult and indignity. I
have myself some experience of the man-
ner in which disarmed soldiers are treated
by Italian cowards and cut-throats ; but I
believe the history of civilized warfare fur-
nishes no parallel for the dastardly way in
which these zouaves — many, if not most
of them, gentlemen of good family — were
The Temporal Power of the Pope. 227
used by the miscreants who were let loose
upon Rome. A young Belgian nobleman,
an officer of zouaves, who distinguished
himself highly by repelling the enemy at
the breach, was walking along quietly with
his fellow-soldiers after they had been taken
prisoners; he still retained his sword, and
this attracted the attention of some ber-
saglieri, who demanded it. He laid his
hand upon the hilt, and said, in a quiet
but firm tone, 'Jamais!' Immediately half
a dozen bayonets were buried in his body,
and, in order to finish their victim, one
of the ruffians put his rifle to the young
zouave's head, and blew his brains out. I
believe a protest by some young English
Catholic gentlemen who served in the
zouaves is in course of signature ; but with
a powerful press ready to gloss over and
condone every outrage, however foul, pro-
228 The Temporal Power of the Pope.
vided it be directed against the head of
the Catholic Church, a protest, no matter
how impressive, cannot penetrate far into
the public mind of England. It is right,
however, that Irish Catholics should realize
to the full extent the infamy which re-
ceives its warmest approval from the liberal
press of England, as well as the silent
sanction of a liberal government which
Irish Catholics help to maintain." *
The consequences of this invasion were
not such as honest and moral people
would applaud, unless, indeed, their hatred
of the Catholic religion be sufficient to
shut out all principles of truth, or love of
decency. We give a short extract from
a letter written by an American, which,
from many sources we know, is not in the
least exaggerated :
* Correspondence of the Dublin Freeman.
The Temporal Power of the Pope. 229
"The city is entirely changed. The quiet
and order which reigned under the old
regime has entirely departed, and La Mar-
mora, with his 10,000 bayonets, is unable
to accomplish that which was perfectly
easy to the Pontifical gendarmes. The
streets swarm with the most obscene prints,
and, even the first day of the intrusion,
Protestant Bibles were sold in the streets
at five soldi a piece ; but even that low
price could not tempt the people, so our
brethren on the other side of the fence re-
tired in disgust. The piazza of the Rotun-
da (the Pantheon) is now a market-place,
and on Sundays the Jews sell their wares
in triumph; and on last Sunday, October 16,
whilst High Mass was being sung at St.
Louis des Francais, the steps of the church
itself were occupied by venders of infamous
prints. This I have from an American
230 The Temporal Power of the Pope.
Catholic lady, who, passing at the time,
witnessed the fact. Caricatures swarm ;
they are not even redeemed by wit, and
spare neither persons nor things. The
Pope and Cardinal Antonelli are favorite
subjects. The modus operandi is as fol-
lows : The caricatures most offensive to
Catholic hearts, assailing the sacred person
of our venerated father and sovereign,
are allowed to be displayed for the entire
day, until all Rome has beheld them ; the
next morning the ' questore ' sequestrates
them, and the papers announce with a
grand flourish of trumpets that such and
such papers have been seized as ridiculing
the Pope and religion. The streets are
lined with booths containing the most infa-
mous books, got up in the cheapest form,
so as to be within the reach of all classes.
I have examined them myself, and only say
The Temporal Power of the Pope. 231
what I know to be true. It seems as if
pains had been taken to collect all the
lowest and most demoralizing books pos-
sible.
" The Sapienza has been placed under
the sway of a band of professed atheists ;
the Universitd, ditto. We are awaiting
anxiously the opening of the schools and
colleges, which is near at hand, to see
what will be done with them. Neither
Irish nor German Catholic papers have
made their appearance for several days,
hence it is supposed they are stopped at
the frontier, dreading the effect of the
many protestations which they contain,
addressed to their respective governments
by the Catholics of those countries. The
espionage over letters seems to have ceased.
At first our letters came to us cut open,
and we were made aware that all outgo-
232 The Temporal Power of the Pope.
ing correspondence was examined. There-
fore, for several weeks we forwarded all
by private hand beyond the frontier. Even
the correspondence of the Pope was sent
him opened by the rascals. All honor
is due to Prince Torlonia, for the noble
manner wherein he had met all the ag-
gressions of the invaders. Some time
since he purchased the Gesu, the profess-
ed home of the Jesuits, adjoining. The
Ministry of Florence decided that the above-
named buildings, as also the Roman Col-
lege (St. Ignatius), would be just the
thing for the Parliament, and signified their
intention to the Society, which referred
them to the Prince. The latter coolly de-
clined, claiming the whole as his personal
property." *
The following testimony, from a most
* Correspondence of the Freeman's Journal, New York.
The Temporal Power of the Pope. 233
respectable source, is taken from one of
the journals of this city :
"The revolution is gaining - strength
every day. Crowds were screaming through
the streets last week, ' Via i Ges?titi, via
il Papa / ' and now the Jesuits have re-
ceived orders from ' the moderate ' (!)
party in authority to give up the Roman
College to the municipality, so that muni-
cipal schools may be carried on in it after
the new fashion of the modern Italian
ideas. So the liberty of the Pope in
Rome comes to this also, that the educa-
tion not only of the Roman youth, but
of the ecclesiastical youths from some twelve
different counties, is forcibly withdrawn
from his control. The Roman University
has also been taken possession of by the
invaders, on the plea of its being in the
234 The Temporal Power of the Pope.
hands of the priests, and yet the fact is,
that of sixty professors belonging to this
illustrious university, fourteen only were'
priests. Even the chair of Canon Law was
held by a layman. Another proof of the
liberty of the Pope, even in that famous
territory of the Leonine City, may be
seen in the fact that the great Hospital
of Santo Spirito, within the precincts of
that city, has been invaded by the Italian
revolutionist, Dr. Pantaleone, who has
driven out the fifty Fratelli who served it,
and usurped its management. So the Pope
is no more free within the Leonine City
than without it ; and no freer in respect to
the care of the sick and dying than in
the matter of education.
" The Romano contains an article attack-
ing the Minister-at-Arms, and also Madame
Kanzler, their only crime being unflinch-
The Temporal Power of the Pope. 235
ing devotion to the cause of the Pope.
The revolutionary press is becoming daily-
more scurrilous, and its object, in this in-
stance, is clearly to incite the canaille to
an attack on the Vatican, on the absurd
pretence that it is still full of zouaves —
the only foreign officers being the Comte
de Beaumont, an aide-de-camp of General
Kanzler's, an ex-Austrian officer, and the
colonel of the Swiss Guard, the Baron
Alfred de Sonnenberg.
"The real Romans, it must be owned,
are quite disgusted with the fungus jour-
nalism of the revolutionists ; and they read
the Unita Cattolica with avidity, and re-
joice at the reissue of the Osservatore.
They also go in great numbers into the
Piazza of the Vatican, and gaze at the
building which contains their father and
true sovereign, and then go into St. Peter's
236 The Temporal Power oj the Pope.
to pray for him. It is to be wished that
this good people had a little more courage,
and, mastering their fears of broken win-
dows, would have the spirit to haul down
their tricolor flags. A great many of them
have already disappeared, and as the days
of ' terror ' are for the present over, they
might well remove the remainder of these
badges of shame." *
The Holy Father has remained in quiet
submission to wrongs which he cannot
resist, giving to the world a beautiful ex-
ample of patience and resignation under
adversity which tests greatness of soul.
We add nothing to this history but his
own protest, sent through diplomatic chan-
nels to all the courts of Europe :
* Correspondence of the New York World.
The Temporal Power of the Pope. 237
" From the Vatican, 1870.
" Your Excellency is well acquainted with
the fact of the violent seizure of the great-
er part of the States of the Church, made
in June, 1859, and in the September of
the following year, by the government now
installed at Florence. Equally matter of
notoriety are the solemn reclamations and
protests of the Holy See against that sa-
crilegious spoliation — reclamations and pro-
tests made either by allocutions pronounced
in the Consistory, and published in due
course, or else by notes addressed in the
name of the Sovereign Pontiff by the under-
signed Cardinal Secretary of State to the
Diplomatic Body accredited to the Holy
See. The invading government would as-
suredly not have failed to complete its
sacrilegious spoliation if the French govern-
ment, well informed as to its ambitious
238 The Temporal Power of the Pope.
projects, had not arrested them by taking
under its protection the city of Rome and
the territory still remaining, by keeping a
garrison there. But, as a consequence of
certain compacts entered into between the
French government and that of Florence
— compacts by which it was supposed that
the conservation and tranquillity of the
dominions yet left to the Holy See would
be secured — the French troops were with-
drawn. These conventions, however, were
not respected, and in September, 1867,
some irregular bodies of men, urged for-
ward by secret impulses, threw themselves
upon the Pontifical territory, with the per-
verse design of surprising and occupying
Rome. Then it was that the French troops
returned, and lending a strong-handed
succor to our faithful soldiers, who had
already fought successfully against the in-
The Temporal Power of the Pope. 239
vasion, they achieved, on the plains of
Mentana, the repression of the audacious
invaders, and caused the complete failure
of their iniquitous designs. Subsequently,
however, the French government, having
withdrawn its troops on the occasion of the
declaration of w r ar against Prussia, did not
neglect to remind the government of Flor-
ence of the en easements ^ v hich it had con-
tracted by the convention specified above,
and to obtain from that government the
most formal assurances on the subject. But
the fortune of war having been unfavorable
to France, the government of Florence, taking
advantage of those reverses, to the prejudice
of the agreement it had entered into, took
the disloyal resolution to send an over-
powering army to complete the spoliation
of the dominions of the Holy See, although
perfect tranquillity reigned throughout them,
240 The Temporal Power of the Pope.
in spite of very active instigations made
from without, and in spite of the sponta-
neous and continual demonstrations of fi-
delity, attachment, and filial affection to
the august person of the Holy Father that
were made in all parts, and especially at
Rome.
" Before perpetrating this last act of ter-
rible injustice, the Count Ponza di San Mar-
tino was sent to Rome as the bearer of
a letter written by King Victor Emanuel
to the Holy Father. The letter stated
that the government of Florence, not be-
insr able to restrain the ardor of the national
aspirations nor the agitation of the "party
of action," as it is called, found itself forced
to occupy Rome and the territory yet
remaining annexed to it. Your Excellency
can easily imagine the profound grief and
indignation which filled the heart of the
The Temporal Power of the Pope. 241
Holy Father when this startling- declaration
was made to him. Nevertheless, unshaken
in the fulfilment of his sacred duties, and
fully trusting in divine Providence, he
resolutely rejected every proposal for ac-
commodation, forasmuch as he is bound
to preserve intact his sovereign power as
it was transmitted to him by his prede-
cessors. In view of this fact, which has
been brought to pass under the eyes of
all Europe, and by which the most sacred
principles of law and right, and especially
those of the law of nations, are trampled
under foot, his Holiness has commanded
the undersigned Cardinal Secretary of
State to remonstrate and protest loudly,
and the undersigned does hereby, in the
sacred name of his Holiness, remonstrate
and protest against the unworthy and sacri-
legious spoliation of the dominions of the
242 The Temporal Power of the Pope.
Holy See which has lately been brought
to pass ; and he, at the same time, declares
the kimj and his orovernment to be re-
sponsible for all the mischiefs that have
resulted or shall result to the Holy See
and to the subjects of the Pontifical Power
from that violent and sacrilegious usurpa-
tion.
" In conclusion, I have the command
from his Holiness to declare, and the under-
signed does hereby declare, in the august
name of his Holiness, that such usurpation
is devoid of all effect, is null and invalid,
and that it can never convey any prejudice
to the indisputable and lawful rights of
dominion and of possession, whether of
the Holy Father himself or of his success-
ors in perpetuity ; and although the ex-
ercise of those rights may be forcibly pre-
vented and hindered, yet his Holiness both
The Temporal Power of the Pope. 243
knows his rights and intends to conserve
them intact, and re-enter, at the proper
time, into their actual possession.
" In apprising your Excellency officially,
by command of the Holy Father, of the
deplorable event that has just taken place,
and of the protests and remonstrances which
necessarily follow it, in order that your
Excellency may be enabled to bring the
whole matter to the knowledge of your
government, the undersigned Cardinal Sec-
retary cherishes the persuasion that your
government will be pleased to take into
its earnest consideration the interests of
the Supreme Head of the Catholic Church,
now and henceforward placed in such cir-
cumstances that he is unable to exercise
his spiritual authority with that full liberty
and entire independence which are indis-
pensable for it.
244 The Temporal Power of the Pope.
" Having now carried into effect the
commands of the Supreme Pontiff, it only
remains that I subscribe myself, etc.,
"J. Cardinal Antonellli."
These are calm and dignified words,
which will stand an immortal witness
against the spoliation of the Holy See,
when the actors of to-day are forgotten.
They may avail little now; but might is
not right, nor is success a proof of lasting
strength.
in.
We are now prepared to enter our
protest, as Christians and American citi-
zens, against this act of invasion by which
Pius IX. has been stripped of his just
temporal sovereignty. Here we shall en-
The Temporal Pozver of the Pope. 245
deavor to be as brief and concise as the
subject will allow. We protest against it,
then, first, as a sin against God and the
moral law ; secondly, as an offence against
the Vicar of Christ and Christianity ; and,
thirdly, as subversive of the order of
society and international law.
1. God forbids us to steal, and theft is
a sin against him. When a sovereign
possesses a right to reign which he has
in no way forfeited, it is stealing to take
his dominion from him, or interfere with
the territory rightly placed under his juris-
diction. A war of offence without any
just motive, save the desire to acquire
what rightly belongs to another, is always
sinful ; and the nation or king that thus
takes possession of the states of another
government, is a thief before God and
man. Success will not cover up the guilt
246 The Temporal P ower of the Pope.
in the presence of that tribunal where all
must one day stand. The prince and his
abettors are all culpable in the sight of
heaven, and will meet their just punish-
ment as surely as the criminal who breaks
kito his neighbor's house and robs his
treasure. Society punishes the latter crime
as destructive of its existence. Nations in
community ought to be guided by the
same rule, if they value their own life.
There is no pretence in the present case
that the Italian army had provocation, or
that Pius IX. was not a rightful sovereign.
No reason whatever can be assigned for
the act of Victor Emanuel, except that
he coveted what belonged to another, and
had the power to take it. Thieves do
the same, and on the same principles.
Sometimes they are punished on earth, and
often they prosper and are called to no
The Temporal Power of the Pope. 247
account before human tribunals. But, even
if there be no retribution here, the moral
law remains the same, and the great
principles of right and wrong cannot be
obliterated. Nations which trifle with these
principles are preparing the way for their
own downfall, for God on high is the
supreme king, whose patience endures very-
long, but whose justice will surely fall upon
the offender.
2. It is a sin to steal from any man
or from any sovereign, but it is an ag-
gravation of that sin to steal from the
Vicar of Christ. We cannot forget the
sacredness of his person ; and even non-
Catholics ought to venerate one whom two
hundred millions regard as the vicegerent
of the Lord. Wonderfully protected by
divine Providence, he has been the civil
ruler of the small territories around the
248 The Temporal Pozver of the Pope.
holy city during ages, when dynasties have
risen and faded away, and mighty thrones
have crumbled into dust. No one has ex-
perienced such constant proof of the sup-
port which comes from the King of kings,
and no enemy of his has ever long pros-
pered.
Moreover, it is because of his office,
and his hisdi commission to feed the flock
of Christ, that God has given him this
civil independence ; a state not large
enough to excite the envy of his neigh-
bors, and yet sufficient to guarantee his
freedom. Is it nothing to lay one's hand
on the property of the church, and steal
that which belongs to God, the princi-
pality which he has appropriated to his
Vicar ? Is it nothing thus to be the an-
tagonist of the Christian world ? It may
indeed be said that the sinful deed is
The Temporal Poivcr of the Pope. 249
done by a professedly Catholic king, by a
nation which calls itself faithful. So much
the worse for them, as greater is the sin,
and more grievous will be the punishment.
Jesus Christ was crucified by Jews, and
an apostle was his betrayer. The saddest
wounds are those we receive in the house
of our friends. An open enemy would
scarcely have ventured to plunder the home
of Catholic faith, and lay his. sacrilegious
hands upon the head of Christianity. We do
not expect others to think as we do, but we
do ask them to be noble enough to put
themselves in our place, and from the golden
rules of morality to judge kindly and justly
of our rights and wrongs. The character
of the Supreme Pontiff, and the nature
of his civil power, aggravate the sin which
has been committed. It is as if a
son were to turn against his father, or
250 The Temporal Power oj the Pope.
the robber to profane the temples of reli-
gion.
3. But as American citizens, who believe
in law and hate revolution, we protest
against an act which subverts all social
order, and destroys the foundations of in-
ternational justice.
We hold that nations, as individuals,
are independent of each other, and that
no one of the community of nations can
interfere with the just rights of another.
We enter not here into the theory of
government. We do not hold that any
particular form of governmnt is established
by God ; but we maintain that every govern-
ment legitimately existing, and ruling de
facto, is to be obeyed as a power ordain-
ed of God. No other theory could be
adopted, for we do not obey one who has
no right to rule, and, without obedience
The Temporal Pozver of the Pope. 251
springing from a real obligation, there is
no order. When Ave are subject to any-
one, it is for God's sake, "whether it be
to the kinof as excelling : or to governors
as those who are sent by him for the
punishment of evil doers, and for the praise
of the good." * So says S. Paul, in lan-
guage which concerns the immutable prin-
ciples of justice, and which no progress
can call the doctrine of the past. "The
powers that are, are ordained of God."
This proposition is general, and refers to
the government of his day, then a hea-
then tyranny, as well as to the sovereigns
of our own age. " There is no power but
of God. Therefore he that resisteth the
power, resisteth the ordinance of God. And
they that resist purchase to themselves dam-
nation. For rulers are not a terror to the
* 1 S. Peter ii. 13, 14.
252 The Temporal Power of the Pope.
good work, but to the evil. Wilt thou then
be afraid of the power ? Do that which is
good ; and thou shalt have praise of the
same. For he is the minister of God to
thee, for good. But if thou do that which is
evil, fear : for he beareth not the sword in
vain. For he is the minister of God : an
avenger to execute wrath upon him that
doeth evil. Wherefore be subject of neces-
sity, not only for wrath, but also for con-
science sake. Therefore also you pay tri-
bute. For they are the ministers of God,
serving unto this purpose." *
A government legitimately existing is to
be obeyed by its own subjects, and respected
by its neighbors. We do not see how any
one can contravene this statement. Mi^ht
does not alone make itself to be considered ;
the law of nature and of God lies beneath
* Rom. xiii. 1-6.
The Temporal Power of the Pope. 253
the fabric of society as constituted by his
providence.
" The law of nations," says Judge Kent,
"is a complex system composed of various
ingredients. It consists of general princi-
ples of right and justice, equally suitable
to the government of individuals in a state
of equality, and to the relations and con-
duct of nations. . . . We have the
authority of the lawyers of antiquity, and
of some of the first masters in the modern
school of public law, for placing the obli-
gation of nations and individuals on simi-
lar grounds, and for considering individual
and national morality as parts of one and
the same science"*
This being the case, nations are bound
to respect each other on the same prin-
ciples which bind individuals as subjects
* Kent, Comment., lect. i. § 3.
254 The Temporal Power of the Pope.
or fellow-citizens. So says the same au-
thor : " Nations are equal in respect to
each other, and entitled to claim equal
consideration for their rights, whatever.be
their relative dimensions or strength, or
however greatly they may differ in govern-
ment, religion, or manners. This perfect
equality and entire independence of all
distinct states is a fundamental principle
of public law. It is a necessary conse-
quence of this equality that each nation
has a right to govern itself as it may think
proper; and no one nation is entitled to
dictate a form of government, or religion,
or a course of internal policy, to another.
No state is entitled to take cognizance
of the domestic administration of another
state, or of what passes within it as be-
tween the government and its own sub-
jects. The Spaniards, as Vattel observes,
The Temporal Power of the Pope. 255
violated all rules of right when they set
up a tribunal of their own to judge the
Inca of Peru according to their own laws.
If he had broken the laws of nations in
respect to them, they would have had a right
to punish him ; but, when they undertook
to judge of the merits of his own interior
administration, and to try and punish him
for acts committed in the course of it,
they were guilty of the grossest injustice.
The interference of Russia, Prussia,
and Austria in the internal government
of Poland, first dismembering it of large
portions of its territory, and then finally
overturning its constitution, and destroying
its existence as an independent power, was
an aggravated abuse of national right.
We may cite also the invasion of Naples
by Austria in 1821, and of Spain by
France in 1823, under pretext of putting
256 The Temporal Power of the Pope.
down a dangerous spirit of internal revo-
lution and reform, as instances of the same
violation of the absolute equality and in-
dependence of nations." *
These principles being indubitable, there
is nothing that can justify the act of the
Italian government. There was no offence
given by the Pontifical States. Rather,
unable to cope with the larger armies of
surrounding nations, they have patiently,
but not without protest, borne injustice
and spoliations which no strong govern-
ment could for a moment endure. The
little territory of the venerable Pontiff was
no menace to its neighbors. No motives
of security or self-defence influenced the
invader. All that can be said is, that he
desired to extend his kingdom into the
bounds of princes equally independent with
* Kent's Comm., §§ 22, 23.
The Temporal Power of the Pope. 257
himself, and to take by force that which
he could not have by right. There was
no disquiet or revolution in Rome, and
if there had been, he could not have in-
terfered until, according to the laws of
nations, he was asked to do so by legiti-
mate authority, or until his own safe-
ty was imperilled. But at the time of
his invasion, the holy city was in pro-
found peace, and content and happiness
reigned.
Can American citizens, who sigh over
the wrongs of Poland, and claim freedom
for themselves, justify an act like this ?
Can a stronger nation be allowed, without
protest, to enter the territory of a weaker,
and spoil its goods and dethrone the law-
fully existing sovereign? If so, then we
are never safe from brute force, and our
own government may fall, when a mightier
258 The Temporal Power of the Pope.
neighbor may be found who aspires for
our goods. Then there is no law but
that of might, and all the world over, it*
is the contest of beasts, who fight with-
out moral restraints, the strongest being
the victor.
IV.
There are no reasons adduced to justify
this violation of the laws of God and of
society, which can have one moment's
weight before an impartial tribunal. It is,
however, worth the trouble to notice briefly
what is said, and to show how poor is the
cause of modern revolution. Our remarks
on this head will also place in plainer light
the just prerogatives of the Pontiff.
The most violent opponents of the Papal
power do not pretend that the government
The Temporal Power of the Pope. 259
of the Pope was in any way tyrannical
or oppressive, but they say that the people
willed that he should no longer be a tem-
poral sovereign, and that the Italians as-
pired for a national unity which they had
a right to have.
1. As it is asserted by no one that the
Papal government was oppressive, we need
not delay to show how paternal and bene-
ficent that rule has been during the many
years of its existence, nor how its example
has guided and restrained other kings and
countries. No ri^ht which man can ask
for his protection and welfare, has ever
been withheld. Conciliary representation
is not an absolute right ; but even this,
with all its benefits, Pius IX. was disposed
to grant, if it had been consistent with
the safety of his people and the security
of his own person. The only fault, if it
260 The Temporal Power of the Pope.
be a fault, was that the Popes were too
indulgent towards rebellion, and too easy
to pardon the criminals whose oaths were
as easily broken as given, and who only
made use of orace to connive against the
life and authority of their sovereign. Yet
the Pontiffs could never forget the Prince
of peace and mercy whose vicegerents
they were. Had Pius IX. been disposed
to head the movement against Austria
and become aggressive, he might have been
even popular with the multitude. But
the Vicars of Christ cannot contravene the
principles of morality, nor forget the duties
of religion ; and, if they must be martyrs
or confessors to maintain riodit anion gf the
kings of the earth, they will never hesitate
to offer their lives.
2. Yet it is said that the people willed
the abolition of the Pope's temporal power,
The Temporal Power of the Pope. 261
and that, therefore, they had a right to
abolish it.
To this we reply: first, that no such
right is recognized by the laws of God
or man ; and, secondly, that it has never
appeared that the Roman people really
wished to dethrone their sovereign.
Is there any one who will seriously
maintain that the majority of a nation or
state have the power to change the form
of a government, drive away their rulers,
and extinguish vested rights whenever they
wish? No writer on law or ethics could
for a moment defend such a principle,
for it would put an end to all law, and
the security of all high power, legislative
or executive. If the will of the majority
be law, then why talk of any other rule,
when, day by day, the fabric of society
rests on shifting sands, and rulers and
262 The Temporal Power of the Pope.
legislators and princes are at the pleasure
of their subjects ? If it be said that a
government, by extreme tyranny, by tramp-
ling on the personal rights of individuals,
has lost its claim to reign, this is another
proposition, which, even then, must be
taken with great care for all the parties
concerned. Rebellion, even against a ty-
rant, is the last resort, and is not to be
justified on mere expediency or caprice.
Catholics are bound by a stricter law
than others, for we are taught that "the
powers that be are ordained of God," and
that we "should submit for co?iscience*
sake." In a republic, there is a legal way
of remedying abuses of rulers, and there
is the same power in constitutional monar-
chies, while even in despotisms there
are modes of petition and redress. If we
were to o-ive advice to our own commu-
The Temporal Power of the Pope. 263
nion, we should follow the Scriptures and
the great lights of the church, and urge
to patience, strict observance of the law,
and its salutary provisions ; and, above
all, trust in God, who is supreme among
the kings of the earth. But to say that,
without any cause, without the pretext of
tyranny or oppression, the majority shall
have their way, and, at their will, spare
nothing, but sweep away the throne, the
legislator, and the constitution — this is to
crown mobocracy, and bring back chaos
in society, from which every honest citizen
would flee away in terror. We are pre-
pared to declare that Americans, though
they talk often wildly and inconsequently,
are not yet ready for principles like these,
which are subversive of all government.
On what theory did we act .vhen the
people of the Southern States of our con-
264 The Temporal Power of 'the Pope.
federacy, with one unanimous voice, wished
to withdraw from the compact of our con-
stitution, and govern themselves ? We
saw not their rio-ht to rebel, even though
they were independent sovereignties, with
full powers of self-government. No one
at the North started the question of popu-
lar freedom, or said that it was a matter
which the Southern people should decide
for themselves. The nation or kingdom
which admits that it holds its claim to
rule by the majority of its members, who
are free any day to change their will, ab-
dicates, in this very admission, all the
powers of high dominion or government.
But, secondly : It has never appeared
that the people of the Papal States have
desired a change in their sovereign, and
it is certain that the great majority were
better satisfied before the invasion than
The Temporal Power of the Pope. 265
they are now. It is well known to every-
one that, in times of great excitement, it
is the designing minority which takes all
the active part, and really conducts affairs.
The better class are indisposed to follow
an unscrupulous mob with open opposition,
and so often sacrifice themselves and their
best interests. It may be that they are
to be blamed for this, but it is true in all
popular revolutions, that the few lead the
many. The history of almost every country
proves this, as revolutionists are ready
to use means and arms, for which the
majority are unprepared. In the case
before us, there was no popular move-
ment in the Roman territory, nor any
fear of an outbreak. The dominion of
the Sovereign Pontiff was in peace and
tranquillity, even when the guard of French
soldiers had left their post. And Pius IX.
266 The Temporal Power oj the Pope*
would never have had cause to fear it he
had been left to the voice of his own sub-
jects, and had been free from the plots of
his neighbors. As for the plebiscite, of
which we hear so much in these days,
let any honest man tell us what he thinks
of its fairness ! It has been an invention
of our age to cloak the injustice of inva-
sion and revolt, and the violation of law
and treaties, by this pretended voice of
the people. As if the popular vote could
make evil good, or injustice justice. And
in the presence of an invading army, in
the wild excitement of revolution, what
chance is there for a free vote, especially
when, in sight of bayonets, every one is
to make his vote public, or abstain from
voting ? Who is so credulous as to dream
that the invaders, who have charge of the
ballot-box, will permit a negative vote, and
The Temporal Power of the Pope. 267
retire from the ground already taken by
force of arms ? Such a plebiscite never
has been, and never will be, an honest
expression of the popular will. As for
the vote in the Roman States, we know
from positive facts that it was anything
but free or fair. We need not multiply
testimonies to this effect. We will give
one extract from a letter written by an
American for whose truthfulness we can
vouch :
"Twenty -five thousand persons were
brought hither from Florence, and paid
fifteen lire per day, for three days, to vote
as Romans. And on the second of Octo-
ber, the day of the plebiscite, a foreign
gentleman here thought he would see if
it were possible to vote. He went to the
place and asked for a ticket ; no one de-
268 The Temporal Power of the Pope.
manded his name or nationality. There
beine twelve voting urns, he visited them
all, and deposited twenty-one ' Si,' never
once being challenged. This came from
his lips. Three German gentlemen did
the like, and deposited thirty-six votes
amongst them. My padrona di casa, who
is a native of San Lorenzo, a small place
near Viterbo, upon seeing the overwhelm-
ing returns from her native place, said to
me : ' Why, there are more votes than in-
habitants.' Last week she went home for
a few days, and, upon returning, came to
ask me if I remembered the large vote
given from San Lorenzo, adding : ' The
truth is, Signorina, none of the people
voted ; all the principal inhabitants left,
and the "Si" were, they tell me, thrown
in by handfuls.' As a man is justified in
imagining what may happen by what has
The Temporal Power of the Pope. 269
happened, we may conclude the like to
have occurred in the other towns and pro-
vinces. *
It would be easy to add other evidence,
but the addresses made to the Holy Father
by his own people, and the feeling protests
he has received from every part of his
own states, are proof enough of the real
position of the true citizens of Rome.
What can they do, however, against an
army of sixty thousand, and a mob of the
most abandoned cut-throats of Europe ?
We do not deny that there are some of
the Romans who have aspired for Italian
unity, but we feel sure that they are not
the majority, either in numbers or im-
portance.
We have a proof of this in the address
* Correspondence of the New York Freeman s Journal.
270 The Temporal Power of the Pope.
lately made to his Holiness by twenty -
seven thousand of his devoted people. We
will let the address speak for itself:
" Rome, July 25; 1871.
" Yesterday the Council of Direction of
the Roman Society of Catholic Interests
presented to the Sovereign Pontiff the
volumes containing 27,161 signatures from
all classes of Roman citizens above eiofh-
teen years of age, inscribed, according to
their parishes, in such a manner as to
render a mistake impossible. The impor-
tance of the thing will be apparent to all.
" ADDRESS TO THE POPE.
"Prince Mario Chigi, Prince of Cam-
pagnane, read the following address :
" Most Holy Father : When the Roman
Society of Catholic Interests placed at the
The Temporal Pozver of the Pope. 2 7 1
feet of your Holiness its most lively con
gratulations on the occasion of your Pon-
tifical jubilee — an event unique in the his-
tory of the Roman Pontificate — allusion
was made to a collection of signatures
which should bear witness how the flower
of the good and religious inhabitants of
this city, the mother and nurse of faith,
of order, and of civilization, deplores the
violations of law, and boasts of aiming to
occupy the first place in the midst of the
numerous cohort of your children, the most
devoted and the most faithful in frank pro-
fession of Catholic sentiments. The Pro-
phet Elias, complaining, in presence of the
Lord, of the defection of the children of
Israel, of the altars destroyed, of the min-
isters of the sanctuary slain, and of the
complete abandonment in which it remained,
heard the Lord say : ' Dcrelinquam mihi
272 The Temporal Pozver of the Pope.
in Isi'acl septeni millia virorum quorum
genua non sunt incurvata ante Baal et
omne os quod non adoravit eum, osculans
manus!
" We are happy, Holy Father, to lay
at your sacred feet four times seven thou-
sand testimonies of love and fidelity from
your Rome alone — testimonies all the more
striking as being spontaneous, and coming
from a class of citizens whose rights by
age and condition are established. They
would have been more numerous if the
misfortunes of the times had not driven
from this city a considerable and select
part of her children. As the Catholic de-
clarations which we offer you in the name
of Rome are numerous, so will the bless-
ing of your heart and arm upon us, upon
the signers and upon the city, be wide-
spread, while we prostrate ourselves to re-
The Temporal Poivcr of the Pope. 273
ceive it, in order to prosecute courageously
all those works whose aim is the moral
preservation of Rome, the seat and centre
of the Catholic religion.
" THE POPE'S REPLY.
" His Holiness replied :
" Yes, that is very true, and we give
glory to God for it, and praise to you
also. Yes, that is very true. Rome will
preserve herself faithful to herself. It shall
never be said of Rome, as has been said
of Chorazin and Bethsaida, 'Woe to thee,
Chorazin, woe to thee, Bethsaida, because
if the prodigies and benefits which have
been accomplished under your eyes had
taken place in other countries, these would
have converted ; so that in the day of -
judgment their fate will be better than
yours.' No, that will never be said of
274 The Temporal Power of the Pope.
Rome. The fidelity and honor which have
kept you closely serried around me, and
which, in the midst of a torrent of evils,
enable you to follow courageously in the
paths of justice, and have made you worthy
citizens of this city, stained with the blood
of so many martyrs, illumined by the
virtues of so many confessors ; the good
works which you have performed with so
much zeal, the care you have taken to main-
tain and spread piety, make you truly
worthy of the blessing of God and the
applause of all religious men, and even
of men who are simply straightforward
and honest. May God keep you in those
holy dispositions, and deliver you from the
evils with which this city is overwhelmed.
T bless you tenderly; you and your fami-
lies. I bless those 27,000 who, at this
moment away from Rome, have not been
The Temporal Power of the Pope. 275
able to take part in this beautiful demon-
stration otherwise than in spirit.
" You say I am fatigued. Yes, I am
fatigued at the sight of so many iniquities,
so much injustice, so many disorders. I
am fatigued with seeing religion insulted
daily in a city which used to give to
the world an example of respect for faith
and morality. I am fatigued with seeing
the innocent oppressed, the ministers of the
sanctuary insulted — with seeing what we
most love and venerate profaned.
" Yes, I am fatigued, but by no means
disposed to lay down my arms — (here loud
applause burst from all sides of the hall) —
nor to make terms with injustice, nor to
desist from fulfilling my duties. No, thank
God ! I am not fatigued enough to do
that, and I hope never to be so. Receive
again my most cordial benediction ; may it
276 The Temporal Power of the Pope.
descend abundantly upon you, your fami-
lies, and upon all you possess ; may it
accompany you in life, and open to you the
gates of a blissful eternity ! " *
Referring to this address, a correspondent
of another journal says :
"Without doubt, our adversaries, who are
those of the Holy Father, will say that we
have wished to make a contra-plcbiscite
We, with a condemnation fresh in our me-
mory, do not desire another, f But neither
the Pisco nor we can prevent history from
confronting tranquilly that affair of Octo-
ber 2d (which we do not qualify out of
respect for the worthy Pisco) with this
free, courageous, irrefutable vote, attested
by the original signatures of 27,161 Ro-
* Correspondence of the New York Herald.
\ He refers to the suppression of one journal and the fining
of another, with the imprisonment of the editor.
The Temporal Pozver of the Pope. 2JJ
man citizens, all of age, and that under
the incubus of the government which we
now have, and at a time when half of
the Romans, and those of the better class,
are absent from Rome. The Italian govern-
ment has every right, or at least every need,
of holding on to that vote of October 2d,
because otherwise they would have no other
legitimate reason for remaining in Rome
than the guns of Cadorna and the bombs
of Bixio.
"The defects which occurred in counting
the tickets when taken out of the urns,
and still more so when put in ; the entire
want of electoral lists, and of every kind
of register ; the acuteness of those who made
the rounds of the polls, voting even 1 2 times,
are in fact little black spots {pujiti neri)
which cannot detract from the majesty of
that huge number of 40,000 Si against 47
278 The Temporal Power of the Pope.
miserable No. But the Italian Government
is too liberal not to allow us also to make
at least a little of these 27,161 Romans,
who evidently were not at the polls on
October 2d.
" But they will say, perhaps, that they
were there, and that they voted Si ! Ah !
such a supposition would be so injurious
to the Italian Government, that we scarcely
dare to speak of it. Since, then, it would
be necessary to say that 27,161 out of those
40,000, having tried the sweetness (dolcezze)
of the new government, have changed their
minds ; in this case, to-day there would be
for the Vatican 27,000 Si, and for the
Qnirinal only 13,000."
With these facts in view, we can con-
fidently assert that the argument of popular
will has no place here, and cannot honestly
The Temporal Power of the Pope. 279
be used. The invasion of the Italian army
has not even this plea in its favor, and
can only urge might against right, cove-
tousness and rapine against the order of
society and the law of nations.
3. But the Italians, it is said, demanded
a national unity, and, at every sacrifice, they
had the right to have it. Let us suppose
that the majority in the whole peninsula
wished for this unity; does this make it
just that they should trample on vested
rights, overturn peaceful kingdoms, and,
with sword and flame, devastate principali-
ties recognized by the world as independent
powers ? Is such a principle to be advo-
cated by honest and sincere men, as one
upon which nations and peoples can con-
scientiously act ? As all writers on law
confess, nations and individuals are to be
governed by the same morality. I may
280 The Temporal Power of the Pope.
covet my neighbor's goods, and persuade
myself that I can make a better use of
them than he does. Does this permit me
to take them, and to spoil him even at
the cost of his life? If an individual can-
not do this without putting himself under
the ban of society, among the class for
whom prisons and gibbets are erected ;
neither can a nation do it, without being
an outlaw from the family of communities
that fear God and respect justice. We
hear much about national unity. Tell us
what it is. Is it a geographical matter,
or is it regulated by language ? The map
of Europe has been changed many times,
and can be changed again. And will
nations consent to the rule of unity of lan-
guage ? If so, how many kingdoms will
stand ? To men who believe in God, there
is a right and a wrong in all these ques-
The Tcmpo7'al Power of the Pope. 281
tions. Where the right is, there is the
safety of the world ; where the wrong is,
there sooner or later outraged justice will
demand retribution with interest. By vio-
lence against law, a nation dies its own
grave, and a people descends to that ruin
which awaits those who, undermining the
foundation of their dwelling, pull down the
superstructure upon their own heads.
As we have shown, the inhabitants of
the Roman States, who had the right to
be heard, did not wish for an Italian unity
which drove the Vicar of Christ from his
throne, and deprived their capital of its chief
glory among the nations. And though the
tide of revolution may flow rapidly around
them, and unscrupulous masters frighten
the good into silence, and even commun-
ism, the legitimate fruit of modern diplo-
macy, lift its gory head ; they will never
282 The Temporal Power of the Pope.
rest in the Holy City, where sleep the ashes
sacred to Christianity, until the beneficent
hand of the Father of the faithful shall.,
again be their governor, and bring back
to Rome its princely diadem.
We have little to say in conclusion, for
our thoughts have been all expressed during
this short discussion.
We have no fear for the church of God ;
nor will the injustice of which we have
spoken injure her. She is beyond the
reach of any human enemy. Such is our
faith, and such is the experience of nine-
teen centuries. The more men assail, by
word or by violence, the household of
faith, the more is it strengthened. God's
right arm is never to be paralyzed. His
patience is beyond our comprehension, but
he still ruleth among the inhabitants of
earth, and is Lord of lords. Confessors
The Temporal Power of the Pope. 283
and martyrs make the ever-new life of
the Catholic Church. When many fall,
many more arise, and the Creator's hand
can " from the stones raise up children
to Abraham." Let no one imagine that
we are faint of heart, when the Vicar of
Christ ascends his Calvary, and gives us
an example of heroic union with his Mas-
ter. The pulses of new strength beat
through the mystical body of the Word
Incarnate, and outward pressure binds us
together to suffer or to do for the sacred
faith, in which is the welfare of man. We
are content to wait till the storm pass
away, and the noon of peaceful victory
shine upon our time-hallowed banners.
But we do fear for society, and for
nations that look on and approve, while
the great and immutable principles of
justice are trampled on and despised.
284 The Temporal Power of the Pope.
When men forget that " the powers that
are, are ordained of God," and are "to
be obeyed for conscience' sake ;" when king-
doms applaud acts of violence which break
the laws of nature and of society; what
shall be the future ? How long shall stand
the dynasties of Europe, that thus forget
the obligations of morality, and enter no
protest till their own turn comes, and the
destroyer is at their doors ?
For our own beloved land, to whose in-
stitutions our heart is bound, and to whose,
true welfare our life is gladly devoted ;
where can we seek perseverance in her
career of prosperity, and permanence in
her liberties, if not in the law of God as
made known to us by revelation ? Even
upon the broad plane whereon we stand,
there are dangers; and time has demon-
strated that a republic can only be upheld
The Temporal Poiver of the Pope. 285
by the virtue and morality of its citizens.
Let God be supremely worshipped, and
the name of Jesus Christ, our only Saviour,
be adored in all the light which his incar-
nation has brought to man, and we have
no fear. The fabric of our hallowed state
will rest, where alone kingdoms can stand,
on the imperishable foundations of right
and truth.
But spread abroad the modern doctrines,
that liberty is license, that there are no
restraints to popular will, that nothing
is sacred when the people ask its destruc-
tion, that government has no divine power
beneath it to hold it up, nor above it to
bless it ; and when shall we see the fruits
of such a seed-time, the harvest of desola-
tion that will surely come, the sad autumn
of such an unholy spring ? We shall see
all, when self-interest asks for greed, and
286 The Temporal Power of the Pope.
honesty cannot feed the thirst for wealth,
when our neighbors' goods kindle an un-
bridled avarice, and the forms of law
stand in the way of rapine and rebellion.
If the will of numbers be law for us, with-
out regard to right, then soon our day of
sorrow may come. May God avert from
our country the devastation which has
crimsoned in blood so many lands ; and
banish from our people this " new gospel
of anarchy and revolution " ! Yet the cor-
ruption of liberty is license, the denial of
justice is the denial of God. If we respect
not the rights of others, neither can we
defend or hold our own.
Lecture Fourth.
THE PONTIFICATE OF PIUS IX.
" He shone in his days as the morning star in the midst of
a cloud, and as the moon at the full. And as the sun when it
shineth, so did he shine in the temple of God." — Ecclesiasti-
cus xlix. 6, 7.
E are to close our brief course of
lectures upon the Vicar of Christ
and his prerogatives, by a short notice of
the great Pontiff who now rules the church,
and whose reign has been among the
most remarkable in history. This will be
a fitting occasion for us to review the
events which have crowded together in such
rapid succession during his pontificate, and
to kindle our faith anew at the sight of
a moral grandeur which even the world
must admire. God, who has purchased
288 The Pontificate of Pitts IX.
the church with his own blood, is ever
responding to her needs, and in a day
so active, so pregnant with mighty move-
ments for good or evil, has given to her
a pastor after his own heart, faithful to
his great work, filled with his Spirit, and
crowned with apostolic zeal. For this proof
of divine love, the church throughout the
world has many times given thanks, in
recounting the great acts of his reign, and
especially in these latter days, when, for the
first time, the successor of S. Peter has
passed the years of the great apostle, and,
with an age hallowed by wisdom and con-
secrated by suffering, bears the chains of
his predecessor.
Brighter even than the noonday is the
golden sunset; more blessed and more
sanctifying the lessons of the unclouded
evening, peaceful in its sorrow, and nearer
The Pontificate of Phis IX. 289
to God as the shadows deepen. Well may
we say of the Holy Father, so loved by
his children : " He shone in his days as
the morning star in the midst of a cloud,
and as the sun in the temple of God."
Our view of the pontificate of Pius IX.
naturally leads us to sketch the principal
facts of his life, and then to consider him
in the various offices of his pastorship, as
a civil ruler, as the governor of the church,
as the light of Christ to the world, as doc-
tor and teacher of all Christians, and as
a confessor for the truth. All the lessons
we have learned in our previous confer-
ences will be deeply impressed upon our
hearts by the example and history of one
to whom the church clings with singular
affection as to a beloved father. Few of
his children have seen him or heard his
290 The Pontificate of Pius IX.
voice, yet throughout the wide world his
name is venerated as the dearest next to
God. And even among those who are not
of the Catholic fold, there are many who
pay tribute to the nobility of his character
and the heroic virtue of his reign.
1.
Pius IX. (Giovanni Maria Mastai-Ferretti)
was born in Sinigaglia, on the 13th of May,
1792, of the Count Jerome and the Coun-
tess Catherine Solazzi. In his eleventh
year he was placed in a college of a reli-
gious order in Volterra, and in 1808 was
sent to Rome to pursue his ecclesiastical
studies. During the French occupation, he
retired to his native city, but returned to
the capital in 18 14, and was among those
who welcomed Pius VII. on his triumphant
The Pontificate of Pius IX. 291
reception in Rome. After a course of
studies at the academy, he received Holy
Orders in 1818. In company with the
apostolic delegate, Monsignor Muzi, he
visited Chili in 1823, and passed two years
at Santiago, employed in preaching and
instructing. Returning to Rome in 1825,
he was appointed by Leo XII. to the rec-
torship of the Hospital of S. Michael. The
prudence and zeal with which he discharged
the heavy duties of this office are yet
gratefully remembered by those who are
acquainted with that remarkable institution.
After twenty months of labor in this field,
he was raised by the same Pontiff to the
archiepiscopal see of Spoleto. Here, enter-
ing upon his office with the charity which
had distinguished him, he founded an asylum
for orphans modelled after the plan of the
one over which he had previously presided
292 The Pontificate of Pius IX
in Rome. During the civil disturbances of
1 83 1, his kindness induced the insurgents
who had taken refuge at Spoleto, to the
number of four thousand, to surrender to
the Papal authority ; and he was at this
time entrusted with the administration of
the provinces of Spoleto and Perugia. In
January, 1832, an earthquake laid desolate
a great portion of his diocese, thus opening
a new field to the charity and self-denial
of the Archbishop. Everywhere he has-
tened to the relief of the most distressed,
especially visiting and comforting those dis-
tricts whose inhabitants were almost left
without shelter. In the consistory of De-
cember, 1832, Gregory XVI. translated him
from Spoleto to the Episcopal See of Imola,
in which he was successor to Cardinal Jus-
tiniani. In this see he was raised to the
Cardinalate, being reserved in petto in 1839,
The Pontificate of Pius IX. 293
and proclaimed, on the 14th of December,
1840, Cardinal Priest of SS. Peter and
Marcellinus. His labors in this diocese have
left behind them many fruits. A college
for ecclesiastical students, and an orphanage
are proofs of the same zeal which had dis-
tinguished his priesthood. But in these
preparatory steps the great Head of the
church was maturing him for the high
office he was destined to fill in the most
critical days of Christianity. In the be-
ginning of June, 1846, he received the in-
telligence of the death of Gregory XVI.,
and at once proceeded to Rome. On the
14th of June the conclave of Cardinals was
held, and on the evening of the 16th he
was unanimously chosen Pontiff, and pro-
claimed on the morning of the 17th under
the title of Pius IX. No one could have
anticipated this election, and he least of
294 The Pontificate of Pius IX.
all. Overcome by this unexpected eleva-
tion, and humbled by the sense of the great
responsibilities to which he was called, he
needed the support of his brethren at that
solemn moment. As he writes to the
members of his family : " The blessed God,
who exalts and humbles, has been pleased
to raise me from insignificance to the most
sublime dignity on earth. May his most
holy will be ever done ! I am sensible to
a certain extent of the immense weight of .
such a charge, and I also feel my utter in-
capacity, not to say the entire nullity of
my powers. Cause prayers to be offered,
and you, also, pray, for me."
Since this day, the acts of Pius IX. are
before the world, and, precious as they
are to the church, they are also among
the most memorable in history.
One month after his election, July 16,
The Pontificate of Pius IX. 295
he published an amnesty in favor of all
political offenders, on the sole condition of
their making - , in writing", a solemn declara-
tion, on their honor, that they would not,
in arty manner nor at any time, abuse
this grace, but would for the future fulfil
the duties of good and faithful subjects.
The enthusiasm of the Italians at this
clemency of the new Pontiff knew no
bounds. "Vivas rent the air; blessings
and prayers followed his steps ; flowers
were cast beneath his feet ; and, almost
instinctively forming themselves into im-
promptu processions, they proceeded through
the streets of Rome, with music and ban-
ners, to pour out, before the palace of
their sovereign, a joy which seemed to
have no limit. And the solid earth seemed
to rock, and the very heavens to tremble,
as peal after peal of wild and frenzied
296 The Pontificate of Pius IX.
cheering burst from mighty masses of
the populace, when, yielding repeatedly
to the fond importunity of his subjects,
the Pope came forth on the balcony of
the Ouirinal, and, with graceful gesture,
imparted to them the apostolic benedic-
tion." * The amnesty granted by Pius
IX. was followed by the most energetic
endeavors on his part to popularize his
government, as far as consistent with pub-
lic safety. He applied himself with great
diligence to improving the administration,
lowering the taxes, opening offices under
the state to laymen, granting concessions
for railroads and public improvements, and
stimulating manufactures and agriculture.
A thorough visitation was also made of
the hospitals, and no effort neglected to
improve the condition of the poor and
* Rome and its Ruler. By J. F. Maguire.
The Pontificate of Puis IX. 297
suffering. While the generous Pontiff was
at work, thus striving to ameliorate the
different classes of society, and remedy
every defect complained of, the leaders
of revolution were more active than ever.
They aimed not at reforms, but at destruc-
tion. Honor and oaths were in no way
sacred to them. Receiving the pardon of
their sovereign, they at once used it to
plot against the state and his life. The
hatred of the Catholic Church, as the great
conservative power on earth, was the animus
of all their schemes, and no step was too
hazardous or too immoral to be adopted.
Difficulties attended the Pope on every
hand. Surrounding governments were
jealous of his movements, and even his
own advisers had reason to fear that the
Roman people were not ready for the
liberties he was disposed to accord them.
298 The Pontificate of Pius IX.
In June, 1847, Cardinal Gizzi published
a proclamation which fully disclosed the
intentions and designs of his Holiness. It
declared that " the Holy Father was firmly
resolved to pursue the course of amelio-
ration in every branch of the public ad-
ministration which may require it, but he
is equally resolved to do this only in a
prudent gradation, and within the limits
which belong essentially to the sovereignty
and the temporal government of the head
of the Catholic Church ; a government
which cannot adopt certain forms which
would ruin, or at least diminish, that ex-
ternal liberty, that independence in the
exercise of the supreme primacy, for which
God willed that the Holy See should have
a temporal principality."
The aesfressive conduct of Austria at
this time added to the difficulties of the
The Pontificate of Pius IX. 299
Pope, and the invasion of the Papal ter-
ritory, under the pretext of protection, still
further excited the already uneasy populace.
In November, 1847, the Council of State
was called together, and, after a solemn
opening, commenced its labors in the Va-
tican palace. This Council consisted of
deputies chosen from the different provinces,
who were to assist the Holy Father with
full powers of legislation. The address
made by this body on its first session has
these words: "Amongst us, it is the first
and most venerable authority of all, which
wishes to initiate us in the progress of
civilization. That authority itself directs
the minds in this peaceable and moderate
movement, and guides us towards the su-
preme end, which is the reign of peace and
justice on earth." The spirit of revolution
was satisfied with no such consistent policy ;
300 The Pontificate of Pius IX.
it demanded concessions which no sovereign
could safely grant ; and the commotions
of the year 1848 soon brought matters to
a crisis. Crowds rushed to the Ouirinal,
and demanded the promised constitution.
Pius IX. fulfilled his word, and the Roman
parliament was opened on the 5th of June.
The storm of insurrection had, however,
begun, and could be stayed by no con-
cessions. The Italians clamored for war
against Austria ; and the Father of the
faithful, always disposed to protect his own
states, could not proclaim an aggressive
war against a Christian power. He pro-
posed to the different governments a com-
mon national league for mutual defence.
This plan, though received with favor by
Naples and Tuscany, was defeated princi-
pally by the Sardinians, whose ambition
had other designs. We are all familiar
The Pontificate of Pius IX. 301
with the result of the crisis. Count Rossi,
whom the Holy Father had called to the
conduct of the government, commenced
his labors, and was beginning to restore
confidence among the excited people, when
he was dealt with by the dagger of the
assassin. This act of violence was the
signal for the revolutionists, to begin their
work in earnest. The Pope found himself
a prisoner in his own palace, surrounded
by an infuriated rabble, who clamored for
blood, and menaced his life. In the midst
of this scene, when the very people, who
had thrown flowers beneath his feet, be-
sieged the Quirinal, his calm trust in God
never forsook him. Flight was the only
course left, for the mere body-guard of
Swiss soldiers were wholly insufficient to
defend his sacred person. On the 24th
of November, he escaped, disguised as a
302 The Pontificate of Pius IX.
simple priest, in the carriage of the Ba-
varian minister. Arriving, after a day's
journey, at Gaeta, he was at once visited
by the King and Queen of Naples, and
induced by them to remain, and abandon
his original intention of accepting the
hospitality of Spain. In this his exile,
the Holy Father had the consolation to
receive the warmest assurances of attach-
ment and sympathy from all parts of the
world. One of his first acts at Gaeta was
to issue his protest against the revolution
at Rome; and on February 18, 1849, he
called upon the Catholic powers for their
armed assistance. Their response to this
call is well known. On April 25th, a French
force landed at Civita Vecchia, and march-
ed upon Rome, while the Austrians ad-
vanced upon the northern provinces, and
the Spaniards invaded the southern por-
The Pontificate of Pins IX. 303
tion of the Papal territory. The revolu-
tionists, overcome by the French arms,
capitulated on July 1st, and a commission,
appointed by the Pope, undertook the
affairs of Qfovernment. The condition of
Rome during - its occupation by the so-
called republican leaders is aptly described
in the appeal of Pius IX., which is part
of the documentary history of the time.
His language is mild, compared with that of
others who have portrayed the sad scenes
which took place in the Eternal City :
"After the most iniquitois malversations to
reward their accomplices, and get rid of
honest and God-fearing men ; after so many
assassinations committed under their guid-
ance ; after having let loose rebellion, im-
morality, and irreligion ; after having se-
duced the imprudent youths, desecrating
even the places consecrated to public wor-
304 The Pontificate of Puis IX
ship, by converting them into dens of most
licentious soldiery, formed of runaways and
criminals from foreign countries, the anar-
chists wished to reduce the capital of the
Catholic world, the See of the Pontiff, to
a sink of impiety, destroying, if they could,
all idea of sovereignty for him who is
destined by Providence to govern the uni-
versal church."
The Pope did not return to his capital
until April 6, 1850, having previously
granted a partial amnesty, and established
a Council of State. The manifestations of
joy which greeted his return were as hearty
as those which welcomed the first years of
his pontificate. Every good citizen exulted
in the re establishment of a government in
which there was protection for life, and
security of order. From his departure from
Portici, on the 4th of April, to his arrival
The Pontificate of Pius IX. 305
in the great square of the Lateran, his
journey was one continuous triumphal pro-
cession. The glad Te Deum which filled
the dome of S. Peter's was echoed in every
part of the Christian world.
In his exile at Gaeta, Pius IX. had pre-
pared the way for one of the grandest events
in the history of the church. Having pro-
posed to define as an article of faith the
Immaculate Conception of the ever blessed
Virgin, he addressed letters to all patriarchs
and bishops, requesting their views as to
the doctrine, and the testimony of belief
in their dioceses. The unanimous consent
of nearly the whole Catholic Episcopate
came to cheer the heart of the illustrious
exile, and the light of the Holy Ghost did
not fail the Vicar of Christ. The solemn
definition took place with great pomp in
the basilica of S. Peter, in the presence of
306 The Pontificate of Pius IX.
more than three hundred archbishops and
bishops from all parts of the earth, on the
festival of the Conception, December 8,*
1854.
Many as have been the singular glories
of this pontificate, it has no brighter splen-
dor than this definition. Sainted Pontiffs
had confessed and guarded this doctrine, so
dear to all lovers of Jesus Christ, but to
Pius IX. was reserved the immortal honor
of placing this crown upon the head of
the best and purest of all creatures. The
world will never forget that moment when,
standing by the tomb of S. Peter, sur-
rounded by the Cardinals of the Roman
Church, and prelates from every nation,
he spoke these immortal words : " To
the honor of the holy and undivided Tri-
nity, to the glory of the Virgin Mother of
God, to the exaltation of the Catholic faith,
The Po7itificate of Puis IX. 307
and the increase of the Christian religion,
by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ,
committed to us, under the protection of
the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, we
pronounce and define that the doctrine
which declares that the most blessed
Virgin Mary, in the first instant of her
conception, by the singular grace and pri-
vilege of the omnipotent God, through the
merits of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the
human race, was preserved free from all
stain of original sin, is a doctrine divinely
revealed, and therefore firmly and constant-
ly to be held by all the faithful."
Time would fail us to tell the many
ecclesiastical events which since this day
have rendered famous this great Pontiff.
Amid universal civil troubles, new hier-
archies and new sees have risen up under
his hand, and no part of the Christian
308 The Pontificate of Puis IX.
world has been untouched by his solicitude.
Thrice have the bishops of the church
gathered around his episcopal throne ; twice
by the intimation of his wish, and once by
the solemn call to a General Council. On
the ioth of June, 1862, the canonization
of the Martyrs of Japan brought the Catholic
prelates to the tomb of the apostles to
renew their devotion to the See of Peter,
and to be quickened with its words of
wisdom.
The centenary of the Prince of the
Apostles was another glorious event of this
pontificate. Five hundred bishops, from
north and south, east and west, were as-
sembled together in the great basilica of
the world, to celebrate the anniversary of
his martyrdom, eighteen hundred years be-
fore. That wonderful exhibition of the
church's unity seemed to gather together
The Pontificate of Pius IX. 309
both time and space, and, in the allocution
of June 26, 1867, to cause the voice of
Peter to sound again,- confirming his bre-
thren, and bidding them put on the whole
armor of God in the evil day which threa-
tens faith and justice, and the very foun-
dations of society.
And, lastly, the reign of Pius IX. has
been made glorious by the (Ecumenical
Council of the Vatican, and its ever-me-
morable decrees concerning faith, the church
of Christ, and the prerogatives of the
Roman Pontiff. It is known to him alone
who rules the winds and waves, though
he seems to sleep in Peter's boat, when
this great Council, now prorogued, shall
again renew its labors. But to Pius IX.
does the earth owe its debt of gratitude
for the words which the Spirit of God has
spoken through this Synod ; words which
310 The Pontificate of Phis IX.
reach the wants of the age, and touch with
a divine hand the evils of our generation.
For such gifts of the Holy Ghost, the spouse
of Jesus Christ may be content to follow
her Lord into the shades of Gethsemani,
and see her Pastor with his crown of
thorns.
In the midst of toils like these, the Holy
Father has fought his good fight of faith ;
never ceasing to reprove error, and con-
tend for truth and justice. And all the
time the burden of sorrow has been upon
him ; the world has arrayed itself against
him, and the wounds of ungrateful children
have been in his heart.
His return to Rome from exile, with all
its signs of triumph, was a return to new
crosses and sufferings. The experience
which he had tried of popular government
led him to act with greater caution, but
The Pontificate of Pius IX. 31 1
no less desire to improve in every just
way the condition of his subjects. As he
declares in his Encyclical of June 4, 187 1 :
" So soon as by the united care and prowess
of Catholic peoples and princes we were
restored to this our see, forthwith we used
all our power to the increasing and har-
monizing-, for our faithful subjects, of that
solid and true prosperity that we have
ever recognized as the most weighty of the
duties of our civil sovereignty." *
These intentions would have been ful-
filled but for the constant movement of
revolution in the peninsula, which has dis-
turbed all the Italian States. The French
army remained with the Holy Father to
protect a portion of his territory, including
the city of Rome, from the dangers which
menaced it from without. Tranquillity thus
* See " Appendix."
312 The Pontificate of Pitts IX.
reigned until the war of 1859, declared by
France and Sardinia against Austria. The
provinces of the Romagna then revolted
from the Papal authority, and, by previous
arrangement, were incorporated into the
kingdom of Piedmont. Forgetting: all the
antecedents of his family, and unworthy of
the heritage of the faith left to him, Victor
Emanuel has been carried by the hand of
revolution to the crown of Italy, and to
the conquests of rebellion. In a former
lecture we have glanced at this history
and its lessons, which are not yet ended.
Pius IX. has been the most popular of
princes ; then an exile ; then restored to his
throne, has seen his states one by one
wrested from him, until now he is a pri-
soner, deprived of his temporal authority,
and bound with the chains of Peter, with
only the tomb of his great predecessor for
The Pontificate of Pius IX. 3 1 3
his resting-place. How long the great
temple may be left to him, God only
knows. Yet among his many sorrows
there have been many consolations. The
singular love of the Catholic world, and a
more than wonted unity around his sacred
person, are the solace of his great crosses.
And to him alone of all the line of Pontiffs
has God given to pass the years of Peter,
and to distinguish by length of days a
reign so illustrious by contests with evil
under every form, and examples of heroic
virtue. This particular providence of the
great Head of the church has seemed to
mark with new blessing a life so precious
to faith, and, in the midst of affliction, has
given birth to new confidence and hope.
For the Lord hath in his hands alone the
issues of life and death, and he whose Vi-
car the world rejoices to spoil is the sove-
314 The Pontificate of Pius IX.
reign judge of heaven and earth. In his
beautiful letter of August 5, the Holy
Father gathers for himself and his children
the consolations of this evidence of divine
favor : " Now, when an event has come
to pass that has been unknown since the
days of S. Peter, and unexampled in the
whole list of Roman Pontiffs, that we have
reached the beginning of the twenty-sixth
year of our apostolic ministry in the Ro-
man See, you have shown your gladness
for this great favor bestowed on our un-
worthiness, and have so clearly proved that
the whole family of the faithful are instinct
with the most vigorous life, that we have
been deeply moved by your piety. So it is
that we join our prayers to yours, and take
courage anew to hope and confidently await
a full and finished triumph of the church."*
*See "Appendix."
The Pontificate of Pins IX. 3 1 5
II.
This brief sketch of the life of Pius IX.
will enable us to seize at a glance the
principal events of his pontificate, and to
make up our summary of the virtues which
will ever render illustrious his high char-
acter.
As a civil ruler, he has been distin-
guished for paternal affection for all classes
of his subjects, and the most sincere desire
to improve their condition. No accusation
has ever been made against his temporal
administration, and no fault found with his
government. To his own injury has he
been indulgent to criminal offenders against
the peace of society, granting pardon to
those who only sought opportunity to re-
new their rebellion. The Vicar of Jesus
Christ cannot forget the mercy of the Mas-
3 1 6 The Pontificate of Puis IX.
ter whom he represents, and so suffers for
his kindness. Every right demanded by
good citizens has been secured without
many of the burdens imposed in other
states.* His attempts to popularize the
government, and to establish a parliament
in Rome with all powers of legislation, are
an evidence of his disposition towards his
people. How these intentions were thwarted
by designing men within the Papal States
and enemies without, the world well knows.
Had he been willing to put himself upon
the wave of the revolution, he might have
counteracted the ambitious designs of Pied-
mont. But to plot against other friendly
kingdoms, to steal territory by force, and
sanction the theft by a plebiscite, to make
offensive war; these lessons of modern
diplomacy have not been learned by the
* See Encyclical of September iS, 1871, in " Appendix."
The Pontificate of Pins IX. 317
chief Pastor of the Christian church. Italy
could have enjoyed perfect peace if the
plans proposed by the Holy Father had
been accepted ; and the principles of justice
and reliofion would not have been sacri-
ficed. That he failed in just proposals for
reform, was no fault of the wisdom that
sought to benefit his age and nation, but
because the leaders of rebellion willed
destruction, and would accept nothing less
than the Utopian republic. Does the miser-
able King of Italy think that these leaders
are yet satisfied, or that the throne he has
usurped stands upon stable foundations ?
The day of retribution will surely come,
and long before that day, the people of
Rome will sigh after the privileges and
glories they enjoyed under the Papal so-
vereignty.
We have already noticed the charity of
3 18 The Pontificate of Pitts IX.
Pius IX. in providing for the wants of the
poor and suffering, in personally visiting
the sick and ministering to their relief. To
instruct the young, to reform the vicious,
to protect the widow and orphan, to shield
old age from want, to encourage industry,
to reform abuses, and to kindle anew the
spirit of religion, these have been his prin-
cipal cares. No sovereign in Europe is so
easily approached, and there is not one
who so fully realizes that the prince should
be the father of his people. The same
spirit of love for man prompts to the care-
ful education of the youth, and has led to
that thorough and complete system which
distinguishes the Holy City, and renders it
a model for other capitals. From the pri-
mary day-school to the university and ec-
clesiastical seminary, nothing has escaped
the vigilance of the Holy Father. Two
The Pontificate of Pius IX. 319
seminaries founded by him bear his illus-
trious name, one providing for the most
deserving students of the Papal States, and
another ior converts to the faith, especially
among those speaking the English tongue.
With all this solicitude for the higher in-
terests of his children, he has been eminent
for the care he has bestowed upon art, and
for the zealous encouragement he has given
to artists and the studies to which they are
devoted. Not only Christian, but even pa-
gan antiquity has received his constant
attention, and everywhere the museums
and galleries of Rome bear witness to his
munificence. The restoration of the church
of S. Aornes and of the basilica of S. Paul
have been among the memorable works of
his reien. The former task was one of
special gratitude to God for his own pre-
servation from death, while the latter is the
320 The Pontificate of Pius IX.
completion, after many years of labor, of
a temple which has no rival in modern
days. Let novices prate of their skill, and
tyros call in question the cultivation of the
Catholic Church, but let them confess that
Rome, with all its past glories, is now, as
ever, the home of painting, and sculpture,
and architecture. Let him who doubts, but
kneel once in this magnificent basilica, ex-
pressing the very soul of beauty so won-
derfully, that one might imagine himself
away from earth, and in the antechamber
of the celestial city, with its walls of pre-
cious stones and its gates of pearl.
Yet what of art in the nineteenth cen-
tury, if there are no railroads and lines of
magnetic telegraph ? The world has been
made to believe that these modern im-
provements could receive no favor in the
home of the Vicar of Christ, with the gar-
The Pontificate of Pius IX. 321
ments of the unchangeable church around
him. Yet has Pius IX. been the patron
of all these improvements, which are now
everywhere to be found in the Papal States,
connecting the great centres of travel, and
facilitating communication of thought and
feelinof. The Romans are not a commer-
cial people, and yet, to the increase of their
commerce and the activity of trade, the
Holy Pontiff has devoted many labors since
his accession to the throne. It has also
been often said that the whole government,
being placed in the hands of ecclesiastics,
could not necessarily advance with the
march of modern progress. What if it be
true that not one-fifth of the Roman offi-
cials are in sacred orders, and that laymen
are better represented in the public works
than in almost any other state in Europe ?
In these departments, the care of the Pope
322 The Pontificate of Pius IX.
for the happiness of his subjects has been
seen, and it is to their honor that, when
the invader came, scarcely any would hold
office under an usurper whom the world
has learned to call the robber-king - .
in.
If the administration ot our great Pon-
tiff has been distinguished by unwonted
wisdom in the discharge of the duties of
his temporal principality, much more is it
remarkable in the wider sphere of his go-
vernment of the universal church. Here
we may quote from the language of the
five hundred bishops who joined in the
great celebration of the centenary of S.
Peter: »We admire and rejoice over the
heroic courage with which you have op-
posed this world's pernicious stratagems,
The Pontificate of Pius IX. 323
and your efforts to keep the Lord's flock
in the way of salvation, to guard it from
the seductions of error, and defend it against
the force of the powerful and the subtlety
of the falsely wise. We admire that zeal
which knows no weariness, with which,
embracing in your apostolic care the
peoples of the East and West, you have
never ceased to provide for the good of
the universal church. We admire the noble
spectacle of the good shepherd which you
afford to the race of mankind, that is
plunging deeper into evil day by day ;
one which strikes the minds of the very
enemies of the truth, and arrests even
unwilling eyes by its intrinsic excellence
and dignity." These words are the tribute
of the Catholic Episcopate to their head,
and faintly portray the depth of that so-
licitude which has from the first surveyed,
3 24 The Pontificate of Pius IX.
and yearned to supply the wants of the
flock of Christ. See after see in all parts
of the world has arisen from his hand.
The suffering: churches of the East have
been quickened into new life by apostolic
care. England owes to him the new
hierarchy which shall replace the depart-
ed glories of Canterbury and York. Our
own country has ever been the object of
his fostering care, in the establishment of
the American seminary in the Eternal City,
in the erection of new dioceses and pro-
vinces, and in the blessing which has
attended the works of religion in the
New World. His counsels have given a
new impulse to the great cause of Christian
education, and schools and colleges found-
ed on principles of faith are the fruit of
his fatherly advice. It has been a day
of clouds and storms, of changes and re-
The Pontificate of Pius IX. 325
volutions, yet in all vicissitudes Jesus Christ
has been very near to his Vicar, and
has drawn to him the hearts of the whole
flock. At no time have bishops, priests,
and people been more closely bound to
the centre of Christian unity. Never has
the church been more completely one
body, movinQf with one will. The words
of a Protestant writer are more true in
these sad days than when they were writ-
ten of the exile at Gaeta: "It is a matter
of history that, in the very hour of his
flight and his fall, Pius IX. was, and is, more
entirely Pope and head of the Latin church
than many hundreds of his predecessors
have been, amidst all the splendor of the
Lateran. Personally, he has exhibited to
the world no common share of evangelical
virtue ; and though his political abilities
proved inadequate to execute the moderate
?26 The Pontificate of Phis IX.
o
reforms he had entered upon, from the
unworthiness of his subjects and the in-
felicities of these times, yet the apparition
of so benignant and conscientious a man
upon the Papal throne, in the midst of
the turmoil of Europe, has forcibly struck
the imagination, and won the affection of
the whole Roman Catholic population of
Europe. Accordingly, at a crisis, when
every other constituted power has been
more or less shaken, and every other in-
stitution tried, the Romish hierarchy has,
in all countries where it exists, extended
its influence, and more displayed its power." *
So says a writer in a leading American
journal, on the occasion of the late jubilee :
" It is plainly impossible to compress
into the columns of a newspaper the his-
tory of a papal reign so important in events
* London Times.
The Pontificate of Puis IX. 327
as that of Pio Nono. An estimate of his
character as a spiritual and temporal ruler
will vary according to the standpoint from
which it is made ; but those of his own
church who have studied the history of
his reign with the deepest attention, see
in him one of the greatest rulers of the
church. Certainly no reign has been sig-
nalized by greater events. Twice the re-
volution has held possession of Rome.
Once it obliged him to fly, but this second
time he has held his own. Yet no Catho-
lic regards him as free to cross the thresh-
old of his Vatican prison, save at the
risk of insult or personal violence. Twice
he has been called on to define new ar-
ticles of the Catholic faith. Four times
has he called around him the bishops of
the earth, once to hold an CEcumenical
Council. Under his prudent and firm rule
328 The Pontificate of Pi7is IX.
the Catholic Church has made such pro-
gress as no century since Constantino can
boast of; and, though Pio Nono may not
to-day be temporal ruler of Rome, he
governs more strongly than ever Pope of
Rome ruled the Catholic millions of every
nation of civilization. And it is not those
merely of his own fold whose affections
he has won. There are few who know
the character and history of this grand
old man who do not feel for him a respect-
ful reverence, even if they cannot accord
him the love and obedience which belong
to a father and spiritual chief." *
Thus, from the height of his supreme
pastorship has Pius IX. been the light to
the world, and to all whom Christ has re-
deemed. The beams which have come
from his apostolic throne have penetrated
* New York World.
The Pontificate of Pius IX. 329
every darkness in the regions of heresy
and schism. No sooner was he elevated
to the See of Peter than he turned with
paternal affection to the separated and de-
caying churches of the East, whose candles
shone so brightly in the early day. By
every act which solicitude for souls would
prompt, he has sought to recall them to
the centre of life, and to renew the union
so hopefully made at the Council of Flor-
ence. His prayers and labors have not
been, we believe, altogether without effect.
The great Synod of the Vatican has been,
unhappily, for a time interrupted. A large
portion of its labors were to have been
devoted to the affairs of the East, and
the congelations had besom their work.
The letter of the Holy Father to the schis-
matical bishops expresses the spirit of his
reign towards them, and his earnest desire
330 The Pontificate of Pius IX.
to fulfil his apostolic office in their regard.
"With all our strength, we pray you, we
urge you, to come to this General Council,!
as your ancestors came to the Councils
of Lyons and Florence, in order to renew
union and peace. Let the old laws of love
be re-established, and let the peace of our
fathers, that salutary and heavenly gift of
Christ, which for so long a time has dis-
appeared, be firmly renewed, that the pure
light of this long-desired union may ap-
pear to all, after the clouds of such a
wearisome sorrow, and the sombre and
sad obscurity of such long dissensions." *
Nor has the Vicar of Christ forgotten
the souls who, through false education or
ignorance, have been estranged from the
one faith. The work of conversion has,
by the divine Providence, received a new
* Letter of Pius IX., Sept. 8, 1868.
The Pontificate of Pius IX. 331
impulse through the zeal and graces of
his pontificate. From nations long es-
tranged, the true and sincere of every rank
in life are hurrying to the fold of the one
Shepherd, thankful to lay aside their doubts
and fears in the only home of the soul,
where God's voice in revelation is clearly
heard. In this great work of restoring -
the wanderer and enlightening t j ie jo- n0 rant,
the Holy Father has, by word and act,
shown the deepest interest, thus following
the steps of his Master, who came to
seek and save the lost sheep. We quote
from the touching words of his Apostolic
letter, written on the occasion of the
Vatican Council to all Protestants and
other non-Catholics:" "For ourselves, to
whom Christ our Lord has entrusted the
charge of the supreme apostolic ministry,
* See " Appendix."
2,2,2 The Pontificate of Pins IX.
and who must therefore fulfil with the
greatest zeal all the functions of a good
pastor, and love with a paternal love,
and embrace in our charity, all men, wher-
ever dispersed over the earth, we address
this letter to all Christians separated from
us, and we again exhort and conjure them
quickly to return to the one fold of Christ.
For we ardently desire their salvation, and
we fear to have one day to render account
to him who is cur judge, if we do not
show them, and if we do not give them,
as far as is in our power, the sure means
to know the way which leads to eternal
salvation. In all our prayers, beseeching
and giving thanks, we cease not, day or
night, to ask humbly and earnestly for
them, of the Eternal Pastor of souls, the
abundance of light and heavenly grace."
It is our happiness to know that these
The Pontificate of Pins IX. 3 3 3
words have not been without effect, and
we believe that many souls have by them
been guided into the safe pastures where
Peter feeds the one flock of his Lord.
IV.
In his great office of " father and teacher
of all Christians," Pius IX. has been dis-
tinguished by an unsleeping vigilance, and
in times when error, in everchanging
phases, has been seducing the unwary, has
continually spoken to confirm the faith
of his brethren. In the whole history of
the church, there has scarcely been a day
like ours. Often, and from the earliest
conflicts of Christianity, has the voice of
Peter been called to decide great contro-
versies, where heresy has sought to under-
mine the pillar of the truth, now by open
334 The Pontificate of Pius IX.
attack, and now by insidious artifices. Yet
never have the champions of a so-called
Christianity taken up the arms of infidelity
as in these latter times. They destroy
themselves with the weapons of their own
loeic, and are careless as to the result, if
they can aim a blow at the Catholic creed.
Opinions destructive of all revealed religion,
even subversive of the principles of natural
morality, are embraced and followed. Pro-
testant sects forget the landmarks of their
forefathers, and become deists in theory,
if not in practice. Governments, under
the lead of great statesmen, rush even
further into the darkness of atheism, and
throw their powers and influence against
the very foundations on which Christian
society stands. The state, to free con-
science from restraint, usurps the rights of
the family and the church, and then lords
The Pontificate of Phis IX. 335
it over the prostrate people from whom
it claims to derive its hio-h dominion.
Atheism in politics is atheism in society,
and atheism in society is anarchy, even
if it bear the popular name of progress.
During- the reign of Pius IX., convulsion
after convulsion has shaken the civil world,
while the ancient foes of the church have
almost dropped their old armor and their
doctrinal discussions for the more destruc
tive warfare of open infidelity. So has it
happened that never has a Pontiff been
called so often to exercise his infallible
office, to warn the unwise of danger, and
to declare the counsel of God to a restless
generation, bent upon change, and thought-
lessly seeking for revolution. "Your voice,"
says the address of five hundred bishops
at S. Peter's centenary, "has never been
silent. You have accounted it to belong
336 The Pontificate of Pins IX.
to your supreme office to proclaim eternal
verities; to smite with your apostolic sword
the errors of the time, which threaten to
overthrow the natural and supernatural
order of things, and the very foundations
of ecclesiastical and civil power ; to dis-
pel the darkness which perverse and novel
teachings have brought upon men's souls,
and declare all that is necessary and whole-
some to the individual, to the Christian
family, and to civil society ; so that all
may clearly know what every Catholic
should hold, retain, and profess. For that
exceeding care we render to your Holiness
the deepest thanks and endless gratitude,
believing that Peter has spoken by the
mouth of Pius."
First of all, the church has heard from
his unerring lips the definition of the
true doctrine of the Immaculate Concep-
The Pontificate of Pins IX. ^37
tion of the ever-blessed Virgin Mary.
The time had come when the belief, so
universal as to time and place, should
receive its last and dogmatic shape from
the mouth of Peter; and to our Holy
Father has this great privilege been
given, which will glorify his reign not
only in the militant, but also in the trium-
phant church, and to endless ages. The
purity of the Mother of God is essential to
the honor of her divine Son, and now, in
the later struggles of Christianity, the incar-
nation of Jesus Christ has become, if pos-
sible, more than ever the great mystery
of faith, on which all truth revealed depends.
It is from her realization of Peter's confes-
sion, " Thou art the Christ, the Son of
the living God," that the church sees so
clearly the grand outlines of faith, and is
able to discern the slightest shadow of
3$S The Pontificate of Phis IX.
error. And the prerogatives of the mother
shield the glories of the Son, and the truths
contained in the "Word made Flesh," so
that the language of the Canticle is not
only a fact, but also a prophecy : " Re-
joice, O holy virgin, for thou alone hath
destroyed all heresies throughout the earth."
Many a Pontiff, gone to his blessed rest,
would have rejoiced to have spoken the
words which God, in his providence, re-
served to Pius IX. as the great consolation
of his pontificate. ■ These words close
up the dogma of the Incarnation, and, in
a day of unbelief, present the mystery of
Bethlehem in its perfect form and uncloud-
ed beauty.
The Syllabus of condemned propositions,
of which the world has said so much and
known so little, manifests in a singular de-
The Pontificate of Phis IX. 339
gree the fulness of his office of "teacher
of all Christians," and the divine wisdom
which has illumined him. At a moment
when the spirits of revolution were gather-
ing their clans, and sounding to an attack,
he sends forth from the seat of divine
authority the apostolic voice. The errors
which have thus been condemned are those
which are rife among the enemies of reve-
lation. They have misled many who
scarcely know whither they tend ; they have
been adopted in part by modern philoso-
phy, and have been hailed by many un-
thinking persons as steps in intellectual
advancement ; while, in fact, they are only
a revival, in another shape, of paganism.
We would beg those who, with the popu-
lar voice, have cried out against this Sylla-
bus, to study more carefully its various
propositions, and, if they are believers in
34-Q The Pontificate of Pius IX.
Christianity, they will have cause to won-
der at the knowledge and skill with which
the Pontiff has touched the evils of the
day, which threaten society and govern-
ment as much as they do religion. It
bears the mark of the divine hand, and,
had Pius IX. pronounced no other deci-
sions from the chair of Peter, these alone
would render him immortal. If the a^e
does not listen to his warnings, no power
can arrest the destruction which will come
upon families and nations. The open in-
fidel is wise enough to see where he is
guiding the bark of Protestant Christianity,
but he would keep his followers in ignor-
ance till the vessel strands upon the shoals
of unbelief, amid the deep gloom of uni-
versal scepticism. What are the chief
errors which here receive the reprobation
of the Sovereign Pastor ? They are, briefly,
The Pontificate of Pins IX. 341
pantheism and naturalism, which deny God
by destroying" his divine character and
making him the equal of his own crea-
tures ; rationalism, which attempts against
its own first laws to exalt the human in-
telligence beyond its sphere ; indifferentism,
which, casting away the evidence of reve-
lation, makes Christianity itself an impos-
ture, and the death and resurrection of
Jesus Christ fables ; and socialism, with
its kindred communism, whose object is
the ruin of society in the overthrow of law
and all the principles of natural equity.
These are the errors which, under different
forms, threaten the very existence of our
social institutions, while, masked often under
the appearance of good, they identify
themselves with that which is called " mo-
dern progress" and the "spirit of the age."
The opposition to the church and her pre-
34 2 The Pontificate of Pius IX.
iwatives comes not now from the doe-
matic battles which have been foueht amone
Christian sects, so much as from these more
deadly errors, fostered and directed by the
spirits of evil, whose standard bears ever
against the Incarnate God, the Word that
speaks in man, and reveals to him the
truths of the world unseen. With these
enemies the Catholic Church fights single-
handed and alone.
From the condemnation of such false
and pernicious theories, the Holy Father
proceeds to defend those ecclesiastical rights
which inhere in the divine society which
the only Redeemer of mankind has formed
to perpetuate and apply his redemption ; to
resist the tyranny of the civil power over the
church, while he defends and sustains that
power in its just sphere ; and to guard
the very foundations of law, on which
The Pontificate of Pius IX. 343
stands the edifice of natural and Christian
ethics.
For these great acts, the world owes to
him its debt of lasting gratitude, and
families and nations, if they would follow
his counsel, could look upon him as their
saviour. Why is it that the advanced
philosophers of these times seek to do
away with the sacredness and inviolability
of marriage, to separate religion from edu-
cation, and in the state to ignore the facts
of revelation ? Alas ! there is a deeper
meaning than men think in the outcry
against the definitions of the Roman Pon-
tiff, whose words only defend all that is
precious on earth, or dear to the soul
of man. When the pernicious doctrines
condemned by Pius IX. shall have brought
forth their fruit (which may Heaven for-
bid), and the torch of revolution fires the
344 The Pontificate of Pins IX.
time-honored temple sacred to true liberty,
and the social fabric falls, then, mid the
ashes of a nation's glory, the demon's revel
shall begin, and the world learn too late
the lessons so lovingly taught by the Vicar
of Jesus Christ.
The two dogmatic decrees of the Vati-
can Council, confirmed and published by
his Holiness, are among the brightest
pages of the dogmatic history of Chris-
tianity.* It seems, indeed, strange that,
now in the end of the ages, nearly two
thousand years after Christ, the Catholic
Church should turn to the first principles
of faith, and solemnly set forth her belief
in God, the creator of all things, and
in the essential harmonies of reason and
revelation. Yet the wonderful words in
which the Council speaks bear the signs
* See "Appendix."
The Pontificate of Pius IX. 345
of divine inspiration, and are the language
of the one Redeemer to a faithless Qfene-
ration in its hour of great need. As the
preface to the decree declares, "The here-
sies proscribed by the Fathers of Trent,
by which the divine teaching of the church
was rejected, and all matters regarding
religion were surrendered to the judgment
of each individual, gradually became divided
into many sects, which so disagreed and
disputed with each other, until at length
not a few lost all faith in Christ. Even
the Holy Scriptures, which had previously
been declared the sole source and judge
of Christian doctrine, began to be held
no longer as divine, but to be ranked
among the fictions of mythology. Then
there arose, and widely overspread the world,
that doctrine of rationalism or naturalism
which opposes itself in every way to the
346 The Pontificate of Pius IX.
Christian religion as a supernatural insti-
tution, and works with the utmost zeal in
order that, after Christ, our only Lord
and Saviour, has been excluded from the
minds of men, the reign of what they call
reason, or pure nature, may be established.
And after rejecting and forsaking the Chris-
tian religion, and denying the true God
and his Christ, the minds of many have
sunk into an abyss of pantheism, materi-
alism, and atheism, until, denying rational
nature itself, and every sound rule of right,
they labor to destroy the very foundations
of human society." As time goes on, and
the rude trials of experience compel honest
men to study the definitions of this Coun-
cil, the world will learn to appreciate the
wisdom and charity which have so emi-
nently shone in the pontificate of Pius IX.
They are golden words, precious treasures
The Pontificate of Pius IX. 347
of everlasting- life, freely offered from the
chair of supreme authority to every child
of man.
In the second constitution of the Vatican
Synod concerning the church of Christ,
the voice of Peter, through his successor,
has spoken only the faith of many ages ;
but it has been the glory of our Holy
Father to solemnly define the infallibility
of the Sovereign Pontiff, and thus present
in bright outlines the fulness of the Catholic
dogma concerning the mystical body of
Christ. This has been the fitting 1 honor
of a reign which has been so distinguished
for the constant exercise of Peter's office
in confirming his brethren, and present-
ing the clear light of truth to the world.
The heart of the great Pastor, which, amid
so many sorrows, has never relaxed his
apostolic labors, has thus been crowned
34S The Pontificate of Pius IX.
with a lasting joy. The church, gathered
around her head, feels the pulses of a new
life, and, in the midst of manifold griefs,
girds herself to the work of evangelizing
the nations, as in her early youth, and in
the freshness of her Pentecostal baptism.
These are the consolations which cheer
the soul of the august Pontiff, who hath
filled up the days of Peter, and hath been
so largely endued with Peter's zeal, and
hath so often spoken Peter's unerring
voice.
Nor may we forget that by his supreme
pastorship, which binds in heaven as on
earth, the great patriarch S. Joseph has
been made the patron of the universal
church, and he who was the protector of
Jesus and Mary in their pilgrimage here,
will now become the guide and guardian
of the one family which is here sanctified
The Pontificate of Pius IX. 349
around the cradle of the Incarnate Word,
which will follow Christ to the end. This
is the mystery of faith, and they that receive
it "become the sons of God, and are born
again, not of the will of the flesh, nor of
the will of man, but of the will of God."
So may the holy prince of the heavenly
house look down with love, and watch
over the flock his foster-son purchased on
Calvary, and sustain the shepherd of the
sheep, as for his fidelity to his Lord he
bears the chains of Peter. May his hands
guide the great Pontiff to his rest, and
make glorious the beams of his setting
sun ! Now is the hour when the chariots
of fire should appear, and the arms of the
Unseen be lifted up for the right; for the
day of man's weakness is the day of heaven's
might.
350 The Pontificate of Pius IX.
v.
In trials such as our brief lecture has
feebly portrayed has Pius IX. been a con-
fessor for the faith. His fidelity to religion
has brought upon him all his sorrows,
which he has borne with heroic resigna-
tion to God, and even with the most for-
giving love of his enemies. No violence
has ever dimmed the lustre of his patience,
or caused him to breathe resentment to
any one. Even where he has been obliged
to pronounce the censures of the church
upon her rebelling children, it has been
with grief of heart, and the earnest prayer
for their repentance. Once driven into
exile, continually calumniated, stripped of
his temporal principality, and now in cap-
tivity, with an unceasing charity has he
raised his hands to God in the prayer
The Pontificate of Plus IX. 351
of his Master, " Father, forgive them, for
they know not what they do." During
his whole reign, so distinguished by active
efforts for the good of his people, he has
had scarcely one moment of repose, and
yet the ever-bright smile which lights his
face is an index of the deep trust in God
which enables him so meekly to bear his
burden. " Gentle, merciful, compassionate,
and paternal as he is, there is no sacrifice
which he would not be prepared to make,
no danger which he would not cheerfully
encounter, in the vindication of the truth,
or in the discharge of his duty. ' I am
ready to go to-morrow to the catacombs,
as many of my predecessors have done,
if the interests of the church of God re-
quire it,' were words which he uttered in
my presence, and with such simple dignity,
such an unconscious nobleness of gesture,
352 The Pontificate of Pius IX.
such a quick flushing of the face and light-
ing up of the eye, that there rose up be-
fore my mind those fearless martyrs of
the early day, who, though holy, gentle,
and mild as Pius IX., could yet meet the
sword of the slayer, without the betrayal
of a single emotion of human weakness." *
While every one, even his most violent
enemy, has ever found him full of com-
passion and generosity, we know that he
has more than once offered his life for the
church, and that he would be willing, at
any time, to give his blood for the salva-
tion of his misguided adversaries. Nay,
it is even in his heart that God may be
pleased to call him to this sacrifice, and
to crown his long and remarkable life with
the glory of martyrdom. In him, for the
edification of the church, we see the graces
* Rome and its Ruler. By J. F. Maguire.
The Pontificate of Pius IX. 353
of the early confessors, which the spouse
of Christ has so often brought forth to
her Beloved, the patience of the martyr,
combined with the gentleness of a child,
and complete fearlessness of the world, in
union with the tenderest sympathy for all.
No one has ever been in his presence
without feeling the magnetic power of his
character, and the supernatural grace which
clothes him as a garment, and attracts
even those hostile to our creed. His own
words, addressed on a memorable occasion
to the bishops, are worthy to be enshrined
in the heart of every Catholic. On the
17th of June, 1867, the anniversary of
his creation, the Cardinal Vicar, in the
name of the sacred college, made the usual
address of congratulation, wishing him
health and many years to see the peace
and triumph of the church. He replied :
354 The Pontificate of Pius IX.
" I accept your good wishes from my
heart, but I leave their verification to the
hands of God. We are in a moment of
great crisis. If we look only to the aspect
of human events, there is no hope ; but
we have a higher confidence. Men are
intoxicated with dreams of unity and pro-
gress ; but neither is possible without jus-
tice. Unity and progress, based on pride
and egotism, are illusions. God has laid
on me the duty to declare the truths on
which Christian society is based, and to
condemn the errors which undermine its
foundations. And I have not been silent.
In the Encyclical of 1864, and in that
which is called the Syllabus, I declared to
the world the dangers which threaten
society, and I condemned the falsehoods
which assail its life. That act I now con-
firm in your presence, and I set it again
The Pontificate of Pius IX. 355
before you, as the rule of your teaching.
To you, venerable brethren, as bishops
of the church, I now appeal to assist me
in the conflict with error. On you I rely
for support. When the people of Israel
wandered in the wilderness, they had a
pillar of fire to guide them in the night,
and a cloud to shield them from the heat
by day. You are the pillar and the cloud
to the people of God. By your teaching,
you must guide the faithful in the dark-
ness ; by your example, you must shield
them from the burnino - sun of this world.
I am aged and alone, praying on the
mountain, and you, the bishops of the
church, are come to hold up my arms.
The church must suffer, but it will conquer.
Preach the word, be instant in season, out
of season ; reprove, entreat, rebuke, with
all patience and doctrine. For there shall
356 The Pontificate of Pius IX.
be a time, and that time is come, when
they will not endure sound doctrine. The
world will contradict you, and turn from
you ; but be firm and faithful. For I am
even now ready to be sacrificed, and the
time of my dissolution is at hand. I have,
I trust, fought a good fight, and have
kept the faith ; and there is laid up for
you, and, I trust, for me also, a crown of
justice, which the Lord, the just judge,
will render to me at that day." *
When these words echo in our ears, and
we see the signs of the times, while infi-
delity flourishes, and the love of justice
deserts individuals and nations, and the
Holy Father is in captivity, with his own
loved city a prey to vice and revolution,
without one Christian state to raise its
voice of protest, we are ready for any
* Pastoral of Archbishop Manning, Sept. S, 1S67.
The Pontificate of Pius IX. 357
trial which the church may need for its
purification and the glory of its crucified
Master. The foes of society have the
torch in hand, and there is no land they
love so much to spoil, as that sacred soil
hallowed by the tomb of the apostles and
the scenes of the great triumphs of Chris-
tianity. If the sharing of the cross be
the mark of the Redeemer's love, and the
sign of nearness to his person ; then may
Pius IX. know how dear to his Lord are
the deeds and sorrows of his reign, and
in this ineffable grace receive his con-
solation.
With the light of this great example
before us, let Catholics awake to the duty
they owe to God and to their fellow-men.
This is no day for idleness, still less for
compromise with the principles which are
at war with Christ and his religion. " He
358 The Pontificate of Pins IX.
that gathereth not with the church, scatter-
eth." " He that is not with me is against
me." Lukewarmness on our part, or any
attempts to reconcile our faith with any
of the teachings of the world, will do more
to harm the cause of truth than the vio-
lence of many open enemies. So has our
illustrious Pontiff taught us. There is
more to fear from radicalism within the
church than from unmasked infidelity with-
out. Gallicanism has been consigned to
a grave from which it can never rise ; the
pressure of hostile columns forces us into
close array around the inviolable centre
of truth ; and shall any who wear the Chris-
tian name be found willing to compro-
mise with the spirit of revolution and its
Utopian dreams of progress? For us,
there is one law, one infallible voice, one
guide who safely will lead us through the
The Po7itijicate of Pius IX. 359
dangers of battle to certain victory. To
follow that voice is to follow the God- Man,
as he calls us on to do or suffer for his
Gospel. It is to stand steadfast in our lot,
and bear our witness to a faithless genera-
tion ; that, when we are gathered to our
fathers, we may be welcomed to the com-
pany of those who have fought the good
fight, and with the noble army of martyrs
and confessors have received an unfading
crown. Thanks, then, be given to God for
the pastor whom he has sent to us in these
days, when the flock of Christ is in manifold
dangers on every side. The ages of faith
come back to us in the presence of such
a Pontiff, and holy bishops, whose blood
was freely shed for their Lord, seem to
surround the long line of the successors of
S. Peter. The mountain is full of horses
and chariots of fire, while the hosts of evil
360 The Pontificate of Phis IX.
bear with new strength against the Sion
of the new law and the rock of divine
truth. Who is so foolish as to think that
their attack shall prevail ? Let the shout
of the unbelieving, and the victorious cries
of the revolution, be stayed till the battle
is over. Wait, rash and unthinking man,
till the sun shall arise upon your field of
conflict. You may drive the" Vicar of
Christ, whom now you hold a captive, into
exile. God may give you his blood with
that of many of his children, and permit
you to kindle the flames of the spoiler
within the most sacred temple of the earth,
and to do what neither pagan nor vandal
has accomplished ; but have you thus tri-
umphed ? To our eye there comes back
the most wonderful of all scenes. There
is a cross, and one who hangs on it in
the exhaustion of death, and that sufferer
The Pontificate of Pins IX. 361
is the ever-living God, the Creator. Can
man do more than crucify his Maker ?
And did he thus conquer the meek and
holy Jesus of Nazareth ? Ah ! the hour
when the forces of evil meet together for
their fiercest assault on the stronghold of
faith is the hour of their lasting over-
throw. Pius IX. may not live to see the
triumph of • the church, for the patience
of the saints may not be soon accomplish-
ed, and the full fury of the storm may
not yet be come. Yet, as surely as the
Eternal King reigneth on high, shall vie
tory crown the truth, and the Sovereign
Judge of the living and the dead stand
up for his Vicar. Woe to him who, in
this unequal conflict, rushes upon the buck-
ler of the Lord of hosts ! Woe to the
king or nation upon whom the corner-
stone shall fall, to grind him to powder !
362 The Pontificate of Pius IX.
These are days of restless activity, when
the things that are s-een are too often
made the end of the immortal soul. Pride
is mistaken for security, vanity for know-
ledge, and license for liberty. The bubble
will, ere long, burst, to the utter ruin of
the votaries of a false philosophy. Hav-
ing eyes, men see not, and, having ears,
they hear not. Yet there is no hour so
dark that the word of Christ faileth, or
the light ceaseth to shine from the one
temple of truth which he hath built upon
a rock, and in which he dwelleth with
all the fulness of his divinity. Here is
the standard of the Redeemer, here the
graces of the celestial city, here the peace
and safety of nations.
The Pontificate of Pius IX. 363
More than six years have passed since
we closed the foregoing sketch of the life
of one of the greatest in the long line of
Pontiffs. They have been indeed eventful
years, full of trial and suffering for the church
and her supreme Head. It was the hope
of all devout Catholics that Pius IX., so
dear to their hearts, and so identified with
the struggles of religion during his won-
derful pontificate, might live to see the
triumph of right over wrong and of justice
over injustice, and be restored to his tem-
poral sovereignty before his earthly confes-
sorship should be ended. But God has
willed otherwise in his inscrutable wisdom.
The world has lost its respect for truth,
and society has apostatized from Christiani-
ty. The end is not come, nor has the
364 The Pontificate of Pitts IX.
depth of moral atheism been reached. The
stormy sea of human passion will be stilled
when the Lord, who is ever in the bark
of Peter, shall speak the word which winds
and waves obey. Till that time faith and
hope and love must do their part, and
around the altars of the incarnate God
preserve the Gospel, which is the only sal-
vation of nations.
These last years of the life of our glo-
rious Pontiff present to our eyes a view
of increasing moral grandeur, and amid the
infirmities of age and the wearing effects
of disappointment, exhibit the strength of
Christ in his Vicar. The world has hardly
seen a more noble sight since the days
when it saw and crucified its Creator and
Redeemer.
In the constant discharge of the duties
of his laborious office Pius IX., up to the
The Pontificate of Phis IX. 365
latest hour of his life, has continued to
provide for the needs of the church with
the same vigor which characterized the
bright morning of his pontificate. The
years which have passed since he became
actually a prisoner in the Vatican have
been marked by the series of spiritual
triumphs which have been to his heart a
compensation for the many sorrows which
have overwhelmed him. The episcopate
has been strengthened and extended in
every land. It had been his purpose to
establish a hierarchy in Scotland, and the
decree was awaiting his final approval
when his last illness interrupted the work.
The great cause of Christian education has
received from him every support which
command and apostolic definition and ur-
gent entreaty could give. With unceasing
authority has he protested against the sepa-
366 The Pontificate of Pius IX.
ration of religion from education, which is
among the last attempts of Antichrist to
paganize again the world. On the 2 2d of
April, 1875, he published a decree, at the
request of many of the bishops and of
the faithful, consecrating the world to the
most Sacred Heart of Jesus. This solemn
ceremony took place throughout the entire
church on the 16th of June of the same
year, the second centenary of the revela-
tion made by our Lord to the Blessed
Margaret Mary Alacoque. The increase of
the devotion to the Sacred Heart has been
owing in great measure to the exhortations
and piety of Pius IX.
On the 19th of July, 1877, S. Francis
de Sales was raised to the dignity of a
Doctor of the Church by a special decree.
The perseverance and unflinching firm-
ness with which Pius IX. defended the
The Pontificate of Pius IX. 367
rights of the temporal sovereignty of the
Vicar of Christ have made him a confes-
sor for this inalienable right and privilege
of the Holy See. On the 12th of March,
1877, he addressed an allocution to the
Sacred College of Cardinals, in which most
plainly he rehearses the wrongs inflicted
upon the church and the papal preroga-
tives, and in language clearly conceived ex-
poses the violence and wickedness of the
persecution which has made the capital of
the Christian world a den of thieves, and
the aged Pontiff a prisoner.* The words
of this allocution are worthy to be trea-
sured among the brightest and most im-
portant of his long reign. Whatever may
be said in regard to politics, there is a
doctrine which underlies them ; and from
the declarations of the Popes we know
* See Appendix.
368 The Pontificate of Pius IX.
that the temporal dominion of the succes-
sor of S. Peter is not merely a political
question. No Catholic can deny the ex-
pediency or the right of the temporal
power without attacking the church her-
self, and making common cause with the
enemies of Christianity. So much have
the labors and sufferings of Pius IX. ac-
complished. Among the greatest works
performed by this remarkable Pontiff since
the breach of Porta Pia was the work of
continual and almost hourly labor, by which
he urged on the great Catholic revival in
every portion of the world. In his daily
receptions, in the visits of pilgrims which
flocked to his feet, his words animated
faith, while his very aspect inspired sympa-
thy and love. He seemed to bear upon
his heart and mind the whole heart and
mind of the church. The faith which lived
The Pontificate of Pius IX. 369
in him seemed to flow from the* head to
every member of the body. The fiftieth
anniversary of his episcopal consecration,
which occurred on the 3d of June, 1877,
was an occasion which brought out the
full fervor and devotion of all Catholics to
his office and person, and in the vast num-
ber of pilgrims to the tomb of the Apos-
tles, and the offerings of the whole world,
was a worthy testimony to the fidelity of
his ministry. It was, in the providence of
God, the closing demonstration of Christian
piety to the wonderful life drawing to its
glorious end.
The last consistories were held in the
private library of the Pope on the 28th
and 31st of December, 1877. The allocu-
tion made from his couch on the first of
these occasions, when from infirmity he
was no longer able to stand, is so touch-
370 The Pontificate of Pius IX.
ing and so full of meaning that it deserves
to be treasured by every devout Catholic.
It was thus worded :
" Venerable Brethren : Your presence
to-day in such numbers gives us the oppor-
tunity which we gladly seize to return you
and each of you our sincere thanks for
the kind offices shown us in this time of
our illness. We thank God that we have
found you most faithful helpers in bearing
the burdens of the apostolic ministry ;
and your virtue and your constant affec-
tion have contributed to lessen the bitter-
ness of our many sufferings. But much
more we rejoice in your love and zeal.
We cannot forget that we need daily
more and more your co-operation, and
that of all our brethren and^ of the faith-
ful, to obtain the immediate aid of God
for our many pressing necessities and those
The Pontificate of Pius IX. 371
of the church. Therefore we urgently
exhort you, and especially those of you
who exercise the episcopal ministry in your
dioceses, as well as all the pastors who
preside over the Lord's flock throughout
the Catholic world, to implore the Divine
clemency, and cause prayers to be offered
up to God that he may give us, amidst
the afflictions of our body, strength of
mind to wage vigorously the conflict
which must be endured ; to regard merci-
fully the labors and wrongs of the
church ; to forgive us and all our sins,
and for the glory of his name to grant
us the gift of good-will, and the fruits of
that peace which the angelic choirs an-
nounced to mankind at the Saviour's
birth."
The last address of Pius IX. was made
372 The Pontificate of Pius IX.
on the Feast of the Purification of the
B. V. Mary, February 2, 1878, to the heads
of the religious orders and the clergy of
the Roman parishes. He was assisted to
his throne, and, surrounded by his court,
spoke as follows:
"It is for me a great consolation to see
you here assembled around me, and mak-
ing me an agreeable circle {corona) of
loving sons. I thank you for the zeal
which you never cease to display in the
work of guarding and saving the souls
entrusted to your care. I thank the pas-
tors of souls who exert themselves to the
utmost to bring people to attend church
and to frequent the sacraments.
" I also thank the pastors of souls and
all the clergy, both secular and regular,
for the prayers which, under their direc-
The Pontificate of Pius IX. 3J3
tion, the faithful have not ceased to send
up to God for me. I charge you to re-
turn thanks in my name for those prayers
to all your flocks. Thank them, and
make it known to them that I am ask-
ing God to grant them the grace of per-
severance in prayer, in the frequentation of
the sacraments, and in their fidelity to
the Head of the Church. Tell them that
I remember them, and I pray to God for
them daily, that he would be pleased to
preserve them under the shield (egida) of
his protecting right hand. One thing
more I have now to say to you before I
take leave of you.
" I know that there are always in various
parishes some ignorant persons who do not
possess a knowledge even of the most
essential truths of religion. I know, too,
that there are parents who are most blam-
374 The Pontificate of P iits IX.
able in thus leaving their children to grow
up in such ignorance of religion, but I
know also that we ought to hunt up
(correre in traccia) the sinners to convert
them, and the ignorant to enlighten them.
" Do you, then, search after the ignorant,
and zealously enlighten them, so that it
may not be said that, in the centre of the
Catholic world, there are souls that are
ignorant of the chief mysteries of our holy
religion. Labor with all your might to
wipe off this reproach from Rome ; labor
that by means of your zeal and your
prayers souls may be converted, a.id the
truth may shine forth everywhere through-
out this Holy City.
" Such are the words which I have
exerted myself to say to you on the pre-
sent occasion ; my weakness not permitting
me to say more.
The Pontificate of Pius IX. 375
" And now I bless you. I bless your
persons, your religious houses, and all the
souls that are entrusted to your charge.
May this benediction accompany you all
the days of your life, and may it be the
theme of your prayers and praises when
it shall please God to call you into Para-
dise."
This was the last time that he sat
upon his pontifical throne on earth, and
these were his last words of public exhor-
tation. They may be almost called his
dying testament to the clergy who labor
for the salvation of souls.
Although the end came at an unex-
pected moment, when hopes were enter-
tained that he might once more regain his
strength ; yet it was the quiet and peace-
ful death of the just, the serene close of
n
76 The Pontificate of Pius IX.
a long and almost miraculous life spent
for God and his church. Even on the 6th
of February he seemed better and stronger,
but it was the last flickering light of his
life. After a short agony he expired on
the 7th, fortified by the sacraments and
surrounded by the sacred college and the
prelates of his household. His last act
was the apostolic benediction to the church
and the world, and his last word the com-
mendation of his own soul into the hands
of God.
As the sun of this sad day sank to its
setting, the bells of the "Ave Maria" an-
nounced the last moments of the earthly
life of the great and beloved Pontiff Who,
of all the long line of confessors and mar-
tyrs, could hope for a more happy welcome
to the choirs of the triumphant church ?
S. Joseph, proclaimed patron of the Chris-
The Pontificate of Pius IX. 3 7 7
tian world by his voice, came to be his
protector in the supreme moment when he
rendered up his apostolate. Mary, Mother
of God and Queen of Heaven, was at the
risfht hand of him whose infallible voice
had defined her Immaculate Conception,
whose priestly hands had placed upon her
head before the nations the crown of pu-
rity.
And the Sacred Heart of Jesus, to which
he had consecrated the redeemed earth,
opened to his longing gaze its safe shelter,
and gave him an everlasting home upon
the breast of incarnate Love. There sweet
and blessed be the rest of our venerated
and immortal Father.
In his last will and testament he directs
that his body shall be buried in the Church
of S. Lawrence, under the little arch over
the stone on which are still be seen the
37& The Pontificate of Pins IX.
stains of the martyr's blood. Should the
desire of Pius IX. be gratified, we hope
that the piety and the devotion of the Ca-
tholic world will rear to his memory a
fitting monument, which to after-ages shall
tell of the only Pontiff who has exceeded
the years of Peter, and who, in that won-
derful reign, has been the intrepid confes-
sor for the spiritual and temporal rights
of the Vicar of Christ.
APPENDIX.
>
P P E N D I X .
-♦-
I. PAGE
Dogmatic Decree on Catholic Faith, 383
II.
Dogmatic Decree on the Church of Christ, ..... 421
III.
Apostolic Letter to Protestants and other Non-Catholics,
September 13, i8£8, 447
Encyclical Letter of Pius IX., June 4, 1871 453
V.
Encyclical Letter of Pius IX., August 5, 1S71, 461
VI.
Chronological Table of the Roman Pontiffs 467
VII.
Eulogium of Pius IX. by Mgr. Mercurelli, ...... 471
VIII.
Allocution of His Holiness Pius IX., March 12, 1877, . . .483
381
I.
CONSTITUTIO DOGMATICA DE FIDE CATHOLICA.
{Confirmed ami Promulgated in the Third Public Session of the
Vatican Council, held in St. Peter 's, Pome, on
Low-Sunday, April 24, 1S70.)
PIUS EPISCOPUS SERVUS SERVORUM DEI SACRO AP-
PROBANTE CONCILIO AD PERPETUAM REI
MEMORIAM.
Dei Filius et generis humani Redemptor Dominus
Noster Iesus Christus, ad Patrem coelestem redi-
turus, cum Ecclesia sua in terris militante, omni-
bus diebus usque ad consummationem saeculi futu-
rum se esse promisit. Ouare dilectae sponsae praesto
esse, adsistere docenti, operanti benedicere, periclitanti
opem ferre nullo unquam tempore destitit. Haec vero
salutaris eius providentia, cum ex aliis beneficiis innu-
meris continenter apparuit, turn iis manifestissime cora-
perta est fructibus.qui orbi christiano e Conciliis oecu-
menicis ac nominatim e Tridentino, iniquis licet tempori-
bus celebrato, amplissimi provenerunt. Hinc enim sanc-
tissima religionis dogmata pressius definita uberiusque
exposita, errores damnati atque cohibiti ; hinc eccle-
siastica disciplina restituta iirmiusque sancita, promo-
383
384 Appendix.
turn in Clero scientiae et pietatis studium, parata
adolescentibus ad sacram militiam educandis colle-
gia, christiani denique populi mores et accura-
tiore fidelium eruditione et frequentiore sacramento-
rum usu instaurati. Hinc praeterea arctior mem-
brorum cum visibili Capite communio, universoque
corpori Christi mystico additus vigor ; hinc religiosae
multiplicatae familiae, aliaque christianae pietatis in-
stituta; hinc ille etiam assiduus et usque ad sanguinis
effusionem constans ardor in Christi regno late per
orbem propagando.
Verumtamen haec aliaque insignia emolumenta, quae
per ultimam maxime oecumenicam Synodum divina
dementia Ecclesiae largita est, dum grato, quo par est
animo recolimus ; acerbum compescere haud possumus
dolorem ob mala gravissima, inde potissimum orta,
quod eiusdem sacrosanctae Synodi apud permultos vel
auctoritas contempta, vel sapientissima neglecta fuere
decreta.
Nemo enim ignorat, haereses, quas Tridentini Patres
proscripserunt, dum, reiecto divino Ecclesiae magiste-
rio, res ad religionem spectantes privati cuiusvis iudicio
permitterentur, in sectas paullatim dissolutas esse mul-
tiplices, quibus inter se dissentientibus et concertan-
tibus, omnis tandem in Christum fides apud non paucos
labefactata est. Itaque ipsa sacra Biblia, quae antea
christianae doctrinae unicus fons et iudex assereban-
tur, iam non pro divinis haberi, imo mythicis cora-
mentis accenseri coeperunt.
Appendix, 385
Turn nata est et late nimis per orbem vagata ilia
rationalismi seu naturalismi doctrina, quae religioni
christianae utpote supernaturali instituto per omnia
adversans, summo studio molitur, ut Christo, qui solus
Dominus et Salvator noster est, a nientibus humanis,
a vita et moribus populorum excluso, merae quod vo-
cant rationis vel naturae regnum stabiliatur. Relicta
autem proiectaque Christiana religione, negato vero
Deo et Christo eius, prolapsa tandem est multorum
mens in pantheismi, materialismi, atheismi barathrum,
ut iam ipsam rationalem naturam, omnemque iusti rec-
tique normam negantes, ima humanae societatis fun-
damenta diruere connitantur.
Hac porro impietate circumquaque grassante, infelici-
ter contigit, ut plures etiam e Catholicae Ecclesiae filiis a
via verae pietatis aberrarent, in iisque, diminutis paulla-
tim veritatibus, sensus catholicus attenuaretur. Variis
enim ac peregrinis doctrinis abducti, naturam et gra-
tiam, scientiam humanam et fidem divinam perperam
commiscentes, genuinum sensum dogmatum, quern
tenet ac docet Sancta Mater Ecclesia, depravare, inte-
gritatemque et sinceritatem fidei in periculum addu-
cere comperiuntur.
Quibus omnibus perspectis, fieri qui potest, ut non
commoveantur intima Ecclesiae viscera ? Quemadmo-
dum enim Deus vult omnes homines salvos fieri, et ad
agnitionem veritatis venire ; quemadmodum Christus
venit, ut salvum faceret, quod perierat, et filios Dei,
qui erant dispersi, congregaret in unum : ita Ecclesia,
386 Appendix.
a Deo populorum mater et magistra constituta, omni-
bus debitricem se novit, ac lapsos erigere, labantes
sustinere, revertentes amplecti, confirmare bonos et
ad meliora provehere parata semper et intenta est.
Quapropter nullo tempore a Dei veritate, quae sanat
omnia, testanda et praedicanda quiescere potest, sibi
dictum esse non ignorans : Spiritus meus, qui est in te,
et verba mea, quae posui in ore tuo, non recedent de
ore tuo amodo et usque in sempiternum.*
Nos itaque, inhaerentes Praedecessorum Nostrorum
vestigiis, pro supremo Nostro Apostolico munere
veritatem catholicam docere ac tueri, perversasque
doctrinas reprobare nunquam intermisimus. Nunc
autem sedentibus Nobiscum et iudicantibus universi
orbis Episcopis, in hanc oecumenicam Synodum auc-
toritate Nostra in Spiritu Sancto congregatis, innixi
Dei verbo scripto et tradito, prout ab Ecclesia Catholica
sancte custoditum et genuine expositum accepimus,
ex hac Petri Cathedra in conspectu omnium saluta-
rem Christi doctrinam profited et declarare constitui-
mus, adversis erroribus potestate nobis a Deo tradita
proscriptis atque damnatis.
♦Is. lix. 31.
4ppcndix. 387
CAPUT I.
DE DEO RERUM OMNIUM CREATORE.
Sancta Catholica Apostolica Romana Ecclesia credit
et confitetur, unum esse Deum verum et vivum, Crea-
torem ac Dominum coeli et terrae, oinnipotentem,
aeternum, immensum, incomprehensibilem, intellectu
ac voluntate omnique perfectione infinitum ; qui cum
sit una singularis, simplex omnino et incommutabilis
substantia spiritualis, praedicandus est re et essentia
a mundo distinctus, in se et ex se beatissimus, et super
omnia, quae praeter ipsum sunt et concipi possunt, in-
effabiliter excelsus.
Hie solus verus Deus bonitate sua et omnipotenti
virtute non ad augendam suam beatitudinem, nee ad
acquirendam, sed ad manifestandam perfectionem suam
per bona, quae creaturis impertitur, liberrimo consilio
simul ab initio temporis utramque de nihilo condidit
creaturam, spiritualem et corporalem, angelicam vide-
licet et mundanam, ac deinde humanam quasi com-
munem ex spiritu et corpore constitutam.*
Universa vero, quae condidit, Deus providentia sua
tuetur atque gubernat, attingens a fine usque ad finem
fortiter, et disponens omnia suaviter. t Omnia enim
* Cone. Later. IV. c. i. Fir miter. t Sap. viii. I.
388 Appendix.
nuda et aperta sunt oculis eius, * ea etiam, quae libera
creaturarum actione futura sunt.
CAPUT II.
DE REVELATIONE.
Eadem Sancta Mater Ecclesia tenet et docet, Deum,
rerum omnium principium et finem, naturali humanae
rationis lumine e rebus creatis certo cognosci posse ;
invisibilia enim ipsius, a creatura mundi, per ea quae
facta sunt, intellecta, conspiciuntur :t attamen pla.
cuisse, eius sapientiae et bonitati, alia, eaque superna-
turali via se ipsum ac aeterna voluntatis suae decreta
humano generi revelare, dicente Apostolo : Multifa-
riam, multisque modis olim Deus loquens patribus in
Propbetis: novissime, diebus istis locutus est nobis in
Filio.J
Huic divinae revelationi tribuendum quidem est, ut
ea, quae in rebus divinis humanae rationi per se imper-
via non sunt, in praesenti quoque generis humani
conditione ab omnibus expedite, firma certitudine et
nullo admixto errore cognosci possint. Non hac ta-
men de causa revelatio absolute necessaria dicenda est,
sed quia Deus ex infinita bonitate sua ordinavit homi-
* Cf. Hebr iv. 13. t Rom. i. so. % Hebr. i. 1, a.
Appendix. 389
nem ad finem supernaturalem, ad participanda scilicet
bona divina, quae humanae mentis intelligentiam ora-
nino superant ; siquidem oculus non vidit, nee auris
audivit, nee in cor hominis ascendit, quae praeparavit
Deus iis, qui diligunt ilium.*
Haec porro supernaturalis revelatio, secundum uni-
versalis Ecclesiae fidem, a sancta Tridentina Synodo
declaratam, continetur in libris scriptis et sine scripto
traditionibus, quae ipsius Cbristi ore ab Apostolis
acceptae, aut ab ipsis Apostolis Spiritu Sancto dictante
quasi per manus traditae, ad nos usque pervenerunt.t
Qui quidem veteris et novi Testamenti libri integri
cum omnibus suis partibus, prout in eiusdem Concihi
decreto recensentur, et in veteri vulgata latina editione
habentur, pro sacris et canonicis suscipiendi sunt.
Eos vero Ecclesia pro sacris et canonicis habet, non
ideo quod sola humana industria concinnati, suadeinde
auctoritate sint approbati ; nee ideo dumtaxat, quod
revelationem sine errore contineant; sed propterea
quod Spiritu Sar^eto inspirante conscripti Deum ha-
bent auctorem, atque ut tales ipsi Ecclesiae traditi
sunt.
Ouoniam vero, quae sancta Tridentina Synodus de
interpretatione divinae Scripturae ad coercenda petu-
lantia ingenia salubriter decrevit, a quibusdam homi-
nibus prave exponuntur, Nos, idem decretum reno-
* 1 Cor. ii. 9.
+ Cone. Trid. Sess. IV. Deer, de Can. Script.
39° Appendix.
vantes, hanc illius mentem esse declaramus, ut in
rebus fidei et morum, ad aedificationem doctrinae
Christianae pertinentium, is pro vero sensu sacrae
Scripturae habendus sit, quem tenuit ac tenet Sancta
Mater Ecclesia, cuius est iudicare de vero sensu et
interpretatione Scripturarum sanctarum ; atque ideo
nemini licere contra hunc sensuin, aut etiam contra
unanimem consensum Patrum ipsam Scripturam sa-
cram interpretari.
CAPUT III.
DE FIDE.
Ouum homo a Deo tanquam Creatore et Domino suo
totus dependeat, et ratio creata increatae Veritati peni-
tus subiecta sit, plenum revelanti Deo intellectus et
voluntatis obsequium fide praestare tenemur. Hanc
vero fidem, quae humanae salutis initium est, Ecclesia
catholica profitetur, virtutem esse supernaturalem,
qua, Dei aspirante et adiuvante gratia, ab eo revelata
vera esse credimus, non propter intrinsecam rerum
veritatem naturali rationis lumine perspectam, se&
propter auctoritatem ipsius Dei revelantis, qui nee
falli nee fallere potest. Est enim fides, testante Apos-
tolo, sperandarum substantia rerum, argumentum non
apparentium.*
* Hebr. xi. i.
Appendix. 3 9 1
Ut nihilominus fidei nostrae obsequium rationi con-
sentaneum esset, voluit Deus cum internis Spiritus
Sancti luxiliis externa iungi revelationis suae argu-
menta, facta scilicet divina, atque imprimis miracula et
prophetias, quae cum Dei omnipotentiam et infinitam
scientiam luculenter commonstrent, divinae revela-
tionis signa sunt certissima et omnium intelligentiae
accommodata. Ouare turn Moyses et Prophetae, turn
ipse maxime Christus Dominus multa et manifestissi-
ma miracula et prophetias ediderunt; et de Apostolis
legimus : II 1 i autem profecti praedicaverunt ubique,
Domino co-operante, et sermonem confirmante, se-
quentibus signis.* Et rursum scriptum est : Habemus
firmiorem propheticum sermonem, cui bene facitis at-
tendentes quasi lucernae lucenti in caliginoso loco.t
Licet autem fidei assensus nequaquam sit motus
animi caecus: nemo tamen evangelicae praedicationi
consentire potest, sicut oportet ad salutem consequen-
dam, absque illuminatione et inspiratione Spiritus
Sancti, qui dat omnibus suavitatem in consentiendo et
credendo veritati.J Ouare fides ipsa in se, etiamsi per
charitatem nun operetur, donum Dei est, et actus eius
est opus ad salutem pertinens, quo homo liberam
praestat ipsi Deo obedientiam, gratiae eius, cui resis-
tere posset, consentiendo et cooperando.
Porro fide divina et catholica ea omnia credenda
sunt, quae in verbo Dei scriptovel tradito continentur,
* Marc. xvi. 20. i? Petr. i. 19. % Syn. Araus. II, can. 7.
39 2 Appendix.
et ab Ecclesia sive solemni iudicio sive ordinario et
universali magisterio tamquam divinitus revelata cre-
denda proponuntur.
Ouoniam vero sine fide impossibile est placere Deo,
et ad filiorum eius consortium pervenire; ideo nemini
unquam sine ilia contigit iustificatio, nee ulius, nisi in
ea perseveraverit usque in finem, vitam aeternam
assequetur. Ut autem officio veram fidem amplecten-
di, in eaque constanter perseverandi satisfacere posse-
raus, Deus per Filium suum unigenitum Ecclesiam
instituit, suaeque institutionis manifestis notis in-
struxit, ut ea tamquam custos et magistra verbi reve-
lati ab omnibus posset agnosci. Ad solam enim catho-
licam Ecclesiam ea pertinent omnia, quae ad evidentem
fidei christianae credibilitatem tarn multa et tarn mira
divinitus sunt disposita. Quin etiam Ecclesia per se
ipsa, ob suam nempe admirabilem propagationem, ex-
imiam sanctitatem et inexbaustam in omnibus bonis
foecunditatem, ob catholicam unitatem, invictamque
stabilitatem, magnum quoddam et perpetuum est mo-
tivum credibilitatis et divinae suae legationis testimo-
nium irrefragabile.
Quo fit, ut ipsa veluti signum levatum in nationes,*
et ad se invitet, qui nondum crediderunt, et Alios suos
certiores faciat, firmissimo niti fundamento fidem,
quam profitentur. Cui quidem testimonio efficax sub-
sidium accedit ex superna virtute. Etenim benignissi-
* Is. xi. 12.
Appendix. 393
tnus Dominus ct crrantes gratia sua excitat atque
adiuvat, ut ad agnitionem veritatis venire possint ;
et eos, quos de tenebris transtulit in admirabile lumen
suuin, in hoc eodem lumine ut perseverent, gratia su-a
confirmat, non deserens, nisi deseratur. Quocirca
minitne par est conditio eorum, qui per coeleste fidei
donum catholicae veritati adhaeserunt, atque eorum,
qui ducti opinionibus humanis, falsam religionem sec-
tantur ; illi enim, qui tidem sub Ecclesiae magisterio
susceperunt, nullam unquam habere possunt iustam
causam mutandi, aut in dubium fidem eamdem revo-
candi. Quae cum ita sint, gratias agentes Deo Patri,
qui dignos nos fecit in partem sortis sanctorum in
lumine, tantam ne negligamus salutem, sed aspicientes
in auctorem fidei et consummatorem Iesum, teneamus
spei nostrae confessionem indeclinabilem.
CAPUT IV.
DE FIDE ET RATIONE.
Hoc quoque perpetuus Ecclesiae Catholicae consen-
sus tenuit et tenet, duplicem esse ordinem cognitionis,
non solum principio, sed obiecto etiam distinctum :
principio quidem, quia in altero naturali ratione, in
altero fide divina cognoscimus ; obiecto autem, quia
praeter ea, ad quae naturalis ratio pertingere potest,
credenda nobis proponuntur mysteria in Deo abscon-
dita, quae, nisi revelata divinitus, innotescere non
394 Appendix.
possunt. Quocirca Apostolus, qui a gcntibus Deum
per ea, quae facta sunt, cognitum esse testatur, dis-
serens tamen de gratia et veritate, quae per Iesum
Christum facta est,* pronuntiat: Loquimur Dei sapien-
tiam in mysterio, quae abscondita est, quam praedes-
tinavit Deus ante saecula in gloriam nostram, quam
nemo principum huius saeculi cognovit : nobis autem
revelavit Deus per Spiritum suum : Spiritus enim om-
nia scrutatur, etiam profunda Dei.t Et ipse Unigeni-
tus confitetur Patri, quia abscondit haec a sapientibus
et prudentibus, et revelavit ea parvulis.}:
Ac ratio quidem, fide illustrata, cum sedulo, pie et
sobrie quaerit, aliquam, Deo dante, mysteriorum intel-
ligentiam eamque fructuosissimam assequitur, turn ex
eorum, quae naturaliter cognoscit, analogia, turn e
mysteriorum ipsorum nexu inter se et cum fine homi-
nis ultimo; nunquam tamen idonea redditur ad ea
perspicienda instar veritatum. qua proprium ipsius
obiectum constituunt. Divina enim mysteria suapte
natura intellectum creatum sic excedunt, ut etiam re-
velatione tradita et fide suscepta, ipsius tamen fidei
velamine contecta et quadam quasi caligine obvoluta
maneant, quamdiu in hac mortali vita peregrinamur a
Domino : per fidem enim ambulamus, et non per spe-
ciem. §
Verum etsi fides sit supra rationem, nulla tamen
unquam inter fidem et rationem vera dissensio esse
potest : cum idem Deus, qui mysteria revelat et fidem
•loan. i. 17. + 1 Cor. ii. 7, 8, 10. % Matth. xi. 25. §2 Cor. v. 6,7.
Appendix. 395
infundit, animo humano rationis lumen indiderit; Deus
autem negare seipsum non possit, nee verum vero un-
quam contradicere. Inanis autem huius contradictionis
species inde potissimum oritur, quod vel fidei dogmata
ad men tern Ecclesiae intellecta et exposita non fuerint,
vel opinionum commenta pro rationis effatis habean-
tur. Omnem igitur assertionem veritati illuminatae
iidei contrariam omnino falsam esse definimus.* Porro
Ecclesia, quae una cum apostolico munere docendi,
mandatum accepit, fidei depositum custodiendi, ius
etiam et officium divinitus habet falsi nominis scien-
tiam proscribendi, ne quis decipiatur per philosophiam,
et inanem fallaciam.t Quapropter omnes christiani
fideles huiusmodi opiniones, quae fidei doctrinae con-
trariae esse cognoscuntur, maxime si ab Ecclesia re-
probatae fuerint, non solum prohibentur tanquam legi-
timas scientiae conclusiones defendere, sed pro errori-
bus potius, qui fallacem veritatis speciem prae se fe-
rant, habere tenentur omnino.
Neque solum fides et ratio inter se dissidere nun-
quam possunt, sed opem quoque sibi mutuam ferunt,
cum recta ratio fidei fundamenta demonstret, eiusque
lumine illustrata rerum divinarum scientiam excolat ;
fides vero rationem ab erroribus liberet ac tueatur,
eamque multiplici cognitione instruat. Quapropter tan-
Sum abest, ut Ecclesia humanarum artium et disciplina-
•uin culturae obsistat, ut hanc multis modis iuvet atque
* Cone. Lat. V. Bulla Apostolizi regiminis.
t Coloss. 11. 8.
29 6 Appendix.
promoveat. Non enim commoda ab iis ad hominum
vitam dimanantia aut ignorat autdespicit; fatetur imo,
eas, quemadmodum a Deo, scientiarum Domino, pro-
fectae sunt, ita si rite pertractentur, ad Deum, iuvante
eius gratia, perducere. Nee sane ipsa vetat, ne huius-
modi disciplinae in suo quaeque ambitu propriis utan-
tur principiis et propria methodo ; sed iustam banc
libertatem agnoscens, id sedulo cavet, ne divinae doc-
trinae repugnando errores in se suscipiant, aut fines
proprios transgressae, ea, quae sunt fidei, occupent
et perturbent.
Neque enim fidei doctrina, quam Deus revelavit,
velut philosophicum inventum proposita est humanis
ingeniis perficienda, sed tanquam divinum depositum
Christi Sponsae tradita, fidebter custodienda et infalli-
bility declaranda. Hinc sacrorum quoque dogmatum
is sensus perpetuo est retinendus, quern semel decla-
ravit Sancta Mater Ecclesia, nee unquam ab eo sensu,
altioris intelligence specie et nomine, recedendum.
Crescat igitur et multum vehementerque proficiat,
tarn singulorum, quam omnium, tarn unius hominis^
quam totius Ecclesiae, aetatum ac saeculorum gradi-
bus, intelligentia, scientia, sapientia : sed in suo dum-
taxat genere, in eodem scilicet dogmate, eodem sensu,
eademque sententia*
*Vinc. Lir. Common, n. 28
Appendix. 397
CANONES.
I.
DE DEO RERUM OMNIUM CREATORE.
i. Si quis unum verum Deum visibilium et invi-
sibilium Creatorem et Dominum negaverit ; anathema
sit.
2. Si quis praeter materiam nihil esse affirmare non
erubuerit; anathema sit.
3. Si quis dixerit, unam eandemque esse Dei et
rerum omnium substantiam vel essentiam ; anathema
sit.
4. Si quis dixerit, res finitas, turn corporeas turn spi-
rituals, aut saltern spirituales, e divina substantia
emanasse ;
aut divinam essentiam sui manifestatione vel evolu-
tione fieri omnia ;
aut denique Deum esse ens universale seu indefini-
tum, quod sese determinando constituat rerum uni-
versitatem in genera, species et individua distinctam ;
anathema sit.
5. Si quis non confiteatur, mundum, resque omnes,
quae in eo continentur, et spirituales et materiales,
secundum totam suam substantiam a Deo ex nihilo
esse productas ;
aut Deum dixerit non voluntate ab omni necessitate
t
98 Appendix.
libera, sed tam necessario creasse, quam necessario
amat seipsum ;
aut mundum ad Dei gloriam conditum esse negave-
rit ; anathema sit.
II.
DE REVELATIONE.
i. Si quis dixerit, Deum unum et verum, Creatorem
et Dominum nostrum, per ea, quae facta sunt, naturali
rationis humanae lumine certo cognosci non posse;
anathema sit.
2. Si quis dixerit, fieri non posse, aut non expedire,
ut per revelationem divinam homo de Deo, cultuque
ei exhibendo edoceatur ; anathema sit.
3. Si quis dixerit, hominem ad cognitionem et per-
fectionem, quae naturalem superet, divinitus evehi
non posse, sed ex seipso ad omnis tandem veri et boni
possessionem iugi profectu pertingere posse et debere ;
anathema sit.
4. Si quis sacrae Scripturae libros integros cum om-
nibus suis partibus, prout illos sancta Tridentina Sy-
nodus recensuit, pro sacris et canon icis non susceperit,
aut eos divinitus inspiratos esse negaverit; anathems
sit.
Appendix. 399
III.
DE FIDE.
i. Si quis dixerit, rationem humanam ita indepen-
dentem esse, ut fides ei a Deo imperari non possit ;
anathema sit.
2. Si quis dixerit, fidem divinam a naturali de Deo
et rebus moralibus scientia non distingui, ac propterea
ad fidem divinam non requiri, ut revelata Veritas
propter auctoritatem Dei revelantis credatur; anathe-
ma sit.
3. Si quis dixerit, revelationem divinam externis
signis credibilem fieri non posse, ideoque sola interna
cuiusque experientia aut inspiratione privata homines
ad fidem moveri debere ; anathema sit.
4. Si quis dixerit, miracula nulla fieri posse, proin-
deque omnes de iis narrationes, etiam in sacra Scrip-
tura contentas, inter fabulas vel ir^thos ablegandas
esse ; aut miracula certo cognosci nunquam posse, nee
iis divinam religionis christianae originem rite probari ,
anathema sit.
5. Si quis dixerit, assensum fidei christianae non
esse liberum, sed argumentis humanae rationis neces-
sario produci ; aut ad solam fidem vivam, quae per
charitatem operatur, gratiam Dei necessariam esse ;
anathema sit.
6. Si quis dixerit, parem esse conditionem fidelium
atque eorum, qui ad fidem unice veram nondum per-
4-00 Appendix.
venerunt, ita ut catholici iustam causam habere pos-
sint, fidem, quam sub Ecclesiae magisterio iam susce-
perunt, assensu suspenso in dubiam vocandi, donee
demonstrationem scientificam credibilitatis et veritatis
fidei suae absolverint ; anathema sit.
IV.
DE FIDE ET RATIONE.
i. Si quis dixerit, in revelatione divina nulla vera et
proprie dicta mysteria contineri, sed universa fidei
dogmata posse per. rationem rite excultam e naturali-
bus principiis intelligi et demonstrari ; anathema sit
2. Si quis dixerit, disciplinas humanas ea cum liber-
tate tractandas esse, ut earum assertiones, etsi doc-
trinae revelatae adversentur, tanquam verae retineri,
neque ab Ecclesia proscribi possint ; anathema sit.
3. Si quis dixerit, fieri posse, ut dogmatibus ab Ec-
clesia propositis, aliquando secundum progressum
scientiae sensus tribuendus sit alius ab eo, quern intel-
lexit et intelligit Ecclesia ; anathema sit.
Itaque supremi pastoralis Nostri officii debitum exe-
quentes, omnes Christi fideles, maxime vero eos, qui
praesunt vel docendi munere funguntur, per viscera
Iesu Christi obtestamur, nee non eiusdem Dei et
Salvatoris nostri auctoritate iubemus, ut ad hos
errores a Sancta Ecclesia arcendos et eliminandos,
Appendix. 40 1
atque purissimae fidei luccm pandendam studium et
operam conferant.
Quoniam vero satis non est, haereticam pravitatem
devitare, nisi K quoque errores diligenter fugiantur,
qui ad illam plus minusve accedunt ; omnes officii
monemus, servandi etiam Constitutiones et Decreta,
quibus pravae eiusmodi opiniones, quae isthic diserte
non enumerantur, ab hac Sancta Sede proscriptae et
prohibitae sunt.
A DOGMATIC DECREE ON CATHOLIC FAITH.*
PIUS, BISHOP, SERVANT OF THE SERVANTS OF GOD,
WITH THE APPROBATION OF THE HOLY COUNCIL,
FOR A PERPETUAL REMEMBRANCE HEREOF.
Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God and the
Redeemer of mankind, when about to return to his
heavenly Father, promised that he would be with his
church militant on earth, all days even to the consum-
mation of the world. Wherefore, he has never at any
time failed to be with his beloved spouse, to assist her
in her teaching, to bless her in her labors, to aid her
in danger. And this his saving providence, unceasingly
displayed in countless other blessings, is most clearly
made manifest by those very abundant fruits which
have come to the Christian world from oecumenical
councils, and especially from that of Trent, although
* Translation of The Catholic World.
402 Appendix.
it was held in evil days. For thereby the holy doc-
trine? of religion were more distinctly denned and
more fully set forth ; errors were condemned and re-
strained ; thereby ecclesiastical discipline was restored
and more firmly established ; zeal for learning and piety
was promoted among the clergy ; and colleges were
provided for the training of young men for the sacred
ministry; and finally, the practice of Christian morali-
ty was restored among the people by more careful in-
struction and a more frequent use of the sacraments.
Hence arose, likewise, a closer union of the members
with the visible head, and renewed strength to the
entire mystical body of Christ ; hence the increased
number of religious communities, and of other institu-
tions of Christian piety ; hence, also, that unceasing
zeal, constant even to martyrdom, to spread the king-
dom of Christ throughout the world.
Nevertheless, while with becoming gratitude we call
to mind these and the many other remarkable benefits
which the goodness of God has bestowed on the church
chiefly through the last oecumenical council, we can-
not suppress our bitter sorrow for the grievous evils
which have chiefly sprung from many having despised
the authority of the aforesaid sacred council, or hav-
ing neglected to observe its most wise decrees.
For it is known to all that the heresies which the
fathers of Trent condemned, and which rejected the
divine authority of the church to teach, and, instead,
subjected all things belonging to religion to the judg-
ment of each individual, were, in course of time, broken
Appendix. 403
up into many sects ; and that, as these differed and
disputed with each other, it came to pass, at length,
that all belief in Christ was overthrown in the minds
of not a few. And so, the sacred Scriptures them-
selves, which they had at first held up as the only
source and judge of Christian doctrine, were no longer
held as divine, but, on the contrary, began to be
counted among myths and fables.
Then arose and spread too widely through the world
that doctrine of rationalism or naturalism, which, at-
tacking Christianity at every point as being a super-
natural institution, labors with all its might to exclude
Christ, who is our Lord and Saviour, from the minds
of men and from the life and the morals of nations ;
and so to establish, instead, the reign of mere
reason, as they call it, or of nature. And thus,
having forsaken and cast away the Christian religion,
having denied the true God and his Christ, the minds
of many have at last fallen into the abyss of panthe-
ism, materialism, and atheism ; so that now, repudiat-
ing the reasoning nature of man, and every rule of
right and wrong, they are laboring to overthrow the
very foundations of human society.
Moreover, as this impious doctrine is spreading
everywhere, it has unfortunately come to pass that
not a few even of the children of the Catholic Church
have wandered from the way of true piety ; and as
the truth gradually decayed in their minds, the catho-
lic sentiment grew fainter in them. For, being led
404 Appendix.
away by various and strange doctrines, and wrongly
confounding nature and grace, human science and
divine faith, they have perverted the true sense of the
doctrines which our holy mother the church holds
and teaches, and have endangered the integrity and
the purity of faith.
Now, looking at all these things, how can the
church fail to be moved in her innermost heart?
For inasmuch as God wills all men to be saved and
to come to the knowledge of the truth, inasmuch as
Christ came to save that which was lost, and to gather
together in one the children of God that were dispers-
ed ; so the church, established by God as the mother
and mistress of nations, feels that she is a debtor unto
all, and is ever ready and earnest to raise up the
fallen, to strengthen the weak, to take to her bosom
those that return, and to confirm the good, and carry
them on to better things. Wherefore, at no time can
she abstain from bearing witness to and preaching
the all-healing truth of God ; knowing that it has been
said to her, "My spirit that is in thee, and my words
that I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out
of thy mouth, from henceforth and for ever " (Isa.
lix. 21).
Wherefore, following in the footsteps of our pre-
decessors, and in fulfilment of our supreme apostolic
duty, we have never omitted to teach and to protect the
catholic truth, and to reprove perverse teachings.
And now, the bishops of the whole world being gath-
Appendix. 405
ered together in this oecumenical council by our au-
thority, and in the Holy Ghost, and sitting therein
and judging with us, we, guided by the word of God,
both written and handed down by tradition, as we
have received it, sacredly preserved and truly set
forth by the Catholic Church, have determined to
profess and declare from this chair of Peter, and in
the sight of all, the saving doctrine of Christ ; and in
the power given to us from God to proscribe and
condemn the opposing errors.
CHAPTER I.
OF GOD THE CREATOR OF ALL THINGS.
The Holy, Catholic, Apostolic, Roman Church be-
lieves and confesses that there is one true and living:
God, Creator and Lord of heaven and earth, almighty,
eternal, immense, incomprehensible, infinite in under-
standing and will and in all perfection, who, being a
spiritual substance, one, single, absolutely simple and
unchangeable, must be held to be, in reality and in
essence, distinct from the world, in himself and of
himself perfectly happy, and unspeakably exalted
above all things that are or can be conceived besides
himself.
This one only true God, of his own goodness and
almighty power, not to increase his own happiness,
nor to acquire for himself perfection, but in order to
4°6 Appendix.
manifest the same by means of the good things which
he imparts to creatures, did, of his own most free
counsel, "from the beginning of time make alike out
of nothing two created natures, a spiritual one and a
corporeal one, the angelic, to wit, and the earthly ;
and afterward he made the human nature, as partaking
of both, being composed of spirit and body." (Fourth
Lateran Council, ch. i. Fir miter?) Moreover, God by
his Providence protects and governs all things which
he has made," reaching from end to end mightily, and
ordering all things sweetly" (Wisdom viii. i). For
all things are naked and open to his eyes (Heb. iv.
13), even those which are to come to pass by the free
action of creatures.
CHAPTER II.
OF REVELATION.
The same holy mother church holds and teaches
that God, the beginning and end of all things, can be
known with certainty through created things by the
natural light of human reason ; " for the invisible things
of him, from the creation of the world, are clearly seen,
being understood by the things that are made " (Ro-
mans i. 20); but that nevertheless it has pleased his
wisdom and goodness to reveal to mankind by another,
and that a supernatural way, himself and the eternal
decrees of his will ; even as the apostle says, " God,
who at sundry times and in divers manners spoke, in
Appendix. 407
times past, to the fathers by the prophets, last of all,
in these days hath spoken to us by his Son " (Heb. i.
1, 2). To this divine revelation is it to be ascribed that
things regarding God, which are not of themselves
beyond the grasp of human reason, may, even in the
present condition of the human race, be known by all,
readily, with full certainty and without any admixture
of error. Yet not on this account is revelation abso-
lutely necessary, but because God, of his infinite good-
ness, has ordained man for a supernatural end, for the
participation, that is, of divine goods, which altogether
surpass the understanding of the human mind ; for
" eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither hath it
entered into the heart of man, what things God hath
prepared for them that love him " (i Cor. ii. 9).
Now, this supernatural revelation, according to the
belief of the universal church, as declared by the holy
Council of Trent, is contained in the written books
and in the unwritten traditions which have come to us
as received orally from Christ himself by the apos-
tles, or handed down from the apostles taught by the
Holy Ghost. (Council of Trent, Session IV., Decree
on the Canon of Scripture.) And these books of the
Old and New Testaments are to be received as sacred
and canonical, in their integrity and with all their
parts, as they are enumerated in the decree of the
same Council, and are had in the old Vulgate Latin
edition. But the church does hold them as sacred
and canonical, not for the reason that they have been
408 Appendix.
compiled by human industry alone, and afterward
approved by her authority ; nor only because they
contain revelation without error, but because, having
been written under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost,
they have God for their author, and as such have been
delivered to the church herself.
And since those things which the Council of Trent
has declared by wholesome decrees concerning the
interpretation of divine Scripture, in order to restrain
restless spirits, are explained by some in a Avrong
sense ; we, renewing the same decree, declare this to
be the mind of the Synod, that, in matlers of faith and
morals which pertain to the edification of Christian
doctrine, that is to be held as the true sense of the
sacred Scripture which holy mother church, to wnom
it belongs to judge of the true sense and interpreta-
tion of the sacred Scriptures, has held and holds ; and
therefore that no one may interpret the sacred Scrip-
ture contrary to this sense, or contrary to the unani-
mous consent of the fathers.
CHAPTER III.
OF FAITH.
Forasmuch as man totally depends on God as his
Creator and Lord, and created reason is wholly sub-
ject to the uncreated truth, therefore we are bound,
when God makes a revelation, to render to him the
Appendix. 409
full obedience of our understanding and will, by faitb.
And this faith, which is the beginning of man's salva-
tion, the church declares to be a supernatural virtue,
whereby, under the inspiration and aid of God's grace,
we believe to be true the things revealed by him, not
for their intrinsic truth seen by the natural light of
reason, but for the authority of God revealing them,
who can neither deceive nor be deceived. For faith,
as the apostle witnesseth, is the substance of things
to be hoped for, the evidence of things that appear
not (Heb. xi. 1).
To the end, nevertheless, that the obedience of our
faith might be agreeable to reason, God willed to join
unto the interior grace of the Holy Spirit external
proofs of his revelation, to wit, divine works, and
chiefly miracles and prophecies, which, as they mani-
festly show forth the omnipotence and the infinite
knowledge of God, are proofs most certain of divine
revelation, and suited to the understanding of all.
Wherefore both Moses and the prophets, and, above
all, Christ our Lord himself, wrought many and most
evident miracles, and uttered prophesies ; and of the
apostles we read, " But they going forth preached
everywhere : the Lord working withal, and confirming
the word with signs that followed " (Mark xvi. 20).
And again it is written, " We have the more firm pro-
phetical word ; whereunto you do well to attend, as
to a light that shineth in a dark place " (2 Pet. i. 19).
Yet although the assent of faith is not by any means
4io Appendix.
a blind movement of the mind ; nevertheless, no one
can believe the preaching of the Gospel in such wise
as behooveth to salvation without the light and inspira-
tion of the Holy Ghost, who giveth unto all sweetness
in yielding to the truth and believing it. (Second Council
of Orange, Can. 7.) Wherefore faith in itself, even
though it be not working by charity, is a gift of God ;
and an act of faith is a work tending to salvation,
whereby man renders free obedience to God himself,
consenting to and co-operating with his grace, which
he hath power to resist.
Now, all those things are to be believed of divine
and catholic faith which are contained in the word of
God, whether written or handed down by tradition;
and which the church, either by solemn decree or by
her ordinary and universal teaching, proposes for be-
lief as revealed by God.
And whereas without faith it is impossible to please
God, and to come to the fellowship of his children,
therefore hath no one at any time been justified with-
out faith ; nor shall any one, unless he persevere there-
in unto the end, attain everlasting life. And in order
that we might be able to fulfil our duty of embracing
the true faith, and of steadfastly persevering therein,
God, through his only-begotten Son, did establish the
church and place upon her manifest marks of his
institution, that all men might be able to recognize
her as the guardian and teacher of his revealed word.
For only to the Catholic Church do all those signs
Appendix. 4 1 1
belong, which have been divinely disposed, so many
in number and so wonderful in character, for the pur-
pose of making evident the credibility of the Christian
faith ; nay, more, the very church herself, in view of
her wonderful propagation, her eminent holiness, and
her exhaustless fruitfulness in all that is good, her
catholic unity, her unshaken stability, offers a great
and evident claim to belief, and an undeniable proof
of her divine commission.
Whence it is that she, as a standard set up unto the
nations (Is. xi. 12), at the same time calls to herself
those who have not yet believed, and shows to her
children that the faith which they hold rests on a
most solid foundation. And to this, her testimony,
effectual aid is supplied by power from above. For
the Lord, infinitely merciful, on the one hand stirs
up by his grace and helps those who are in error,
that they may be able to come to the knowledge of
the truth ; and, on the other hand, those whom he
hath transferred from darkness into his marvellous
light he confirms by his grace, that they may perse-
vere in that same light, never abandoning them unless
he be first by them abandoned. Wherefore, totally
unlike is the condition of those who, by the heavenly
gift of faith, have embraced the Catholic truth, and of
those who, led by human opinions, are following a false
religion ; for they who have received the faith under
the teaching of the church can never have a just
reason to change that faith or call it into doubt.
412 Appendix.
Wherefore, giving thanks to God the Father, who
hath made us worthy to he partakers of the lot of the
saints in light, let us not neglect so great salvation,
but looking on Jesus, the author and finisher ol
our faith, let us hold fast the confession of our
hope without wavering.
CHAPTER IV
OF FAITH AND REASON.
Moreover, the Catholic Church has ever held, as
she now holds, that there exists a twofold order of
knowledge, each of which is distinct from the other
both as to its principle and as to its object. As to
its principle, because in the one we know by natural
reason, in the other by divine faith ; as to the object,
because, besides those things to which natural reason
can attain, there are proposed to our belief mysteries
hidden in God which, unless by him revealed, cannot
come to our knowledge. Wherefore the same apostle,
who beareth witness that God was known to the
Gentiles by the things that are made, yet when speak-
ing of the grace and truth that came by Jesus Christ
(John i. 17), says: "We speak the wisdom of God in a
mystery, a wisdom which is hidden ; which God ordain-
ed before the world unto our glory ; which none of the
princes of this world knew ; but Which God hath re-
vealed to us by his Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth all
Appendix. 4 1 3
things, yea, the deep things of God" (i Cor. ii. 7, 8,
10). And the only-begotten Son thanks the Father
that he has hid these things from the wise and pru-
dent, and has revealed them to little ones (Matt. xi.
25)-
Reason, indeed, enlightened by faith and seeking
with diligence and godly sobriety, may, by God's
gift, come to some understanding, limited in degree,
but most wholesome in its effects, of mysteries, both
from the analogy of things which are naturally known,
and from the connection of the mysteries themselves
with one another and with man's last end. But never
can reason be rendered capable of thoroughly under-
standing mysteries, as it does those truths which form
its proper object. For God's mysteries, of their very
nature, so far surpass the reach of created intellect,
that even when taught by revelation, and received by
faith, they remain covered by faith itself as by a veil,
and shrouded as it were in darkness ; as long as in this
mortal life " we are absent from the Lord ; for we walk
by faith, and not by sight " (2 Cor. v. 6, 7).
But although faith be above reason, there never can
be a real disagreement between them, since the same
God who reveals mysteries and infuses faith has given
to man's scul the light of reason ; and God cannot
deny himself, nor can one truth ever contradict anoth-
er. Wherefore the empty shadow of such contradic-
tion arises chiefly from this, that either the doctrines
of faith are not understood and set forth as the church
4H
Appendix.
really holds them, or that the vain devices and opin-
ions of men are mistaken for the dictates of reason.
We therefore definitively pronounce false every asser-
tion which is contrary to the enlightened truth of
faith. (Fifth Lateran Counc. Bull Apostolici Regimz'nis.)
Moreover, the church, which, together with her apos-
tolic office of teaching, is charged also with the guar-
dianship of the deposit of faith, holds likewise from
God the right and the duty to condemn "knowledge
falsely so-called " (i Tim. vi. 20), " lest any man be
cheated by philosophy and vain deceit" (Col. ii. 8).
Hence all the Christian faithful are not only forbidden
to defend as legitimate conclusions of science those
opinions which are known to be contrary to the doctrine
of faith, especially when condemned by the church,
but are rather absolutely bound to hold them for
errors wearing a deceitful appearance of truth.
Not only is it impossible for faith and reason ever to
contradict each other, but they rather afford each
other mutual assistance. For right reason establishes
the foundations of faith, and by the aid of its light
cultivates the science of divine things ; and faith,
on the other hand, frees and preserves reason from
errors, and enriches it with knowledge of many
kinds. So far, then, is the church from opposing
the culture of human arts and sciences, that she
rather aids and promotes it in many ways. For she
; s not ignorant of, nor does she despise, the advan-
tages which flow from them to the life of men ; on
Appendix. 4 1 5
the contrary, she acknowledges that, as they sprang
from God the Lord of knowledge, so, if they be rightly
pursued, they will, through the aid of his grace, lead
to God. Nor does she forbid any of those sciences
the use of its own principles and its own method
within its own proper sphere; but, recognizing this
reasonable freedom, she only takes care that they
may not, by contradicting God's teaching, fall into
errors, or, overstepping their due limits, invade and
throw into confusion the domain of faith.
For the doctrine of faith revealed by God has not
been proposed, like some philosophical discovery, to
be made perfect by human ingenuity ; but it has been
delivered to the spouse of Christ as a divine deposit
to be faithfully guarded and unerringly set forth.
Hence all tenets of holy faith are to be explained
always according to the sense and meaning of the
church, nor is it ever lawful to depart therefrom, under
pretence or color of more enlightened explanation.
Therefore, as generations and centuries roll on, let the
understanding, knowledge, and wisdom of each and
every one, of individuals and of the whole church,
grow apace and increase exceedingly, yet only in its
kind ; that is to say, retaining pure and inviolate the
sense and meaning and belief of the same doctrine.
(Vincent of Lerins, Common. No. 2S.)
4 1 6 Appendix.
CANONS.
OF GOD THE CREATOR OF ALL THINGS.
i. If any one shall deny the one true God, Creator
and Lord of things visible and invisible ; let him be
anathema.
2. If any one shall unblushingly affirm, that besides
matter nothing else exists ; let him be anathema.
3. If any one shall say that the substance or essence
of God, and of all things, is one and the same ; let him
be anathema.
4. If any one shall say that finite things, both corpo-
real and spiritual, or at least spiritual things, are ema-
nations of the divine substance ;
Or that the divine essence by manifestation or deve-
lopment of itself becomes all things
Or, finally, that God is universal or indefinite Being,
which, in determining itself, constitutes all things, di-
vided into genera, species, and individuals ; let him be
anathema.
5. If any one do not acknowledge that the world,
and all things which it contains, both spiritual and
material, were produced, in all their substance, by God,
out of nothing ;
Or shall say that God created them, not of his own
Appendix. 4 1 7
will, free from all necessity, but through a necessity
such as that whereby he loves himself;
Or shall deny that the world was created for the
glory of God; let him be anathema.
II.
OF REVELATION.
i. If any one shall say that certain knowledge of the
one true God, our Creator and Lord, cannot be attained
by the natural light of human reason through the
things that are made ; let him be anathema.
2. If any one shall say that it is impossible, or inex-
pedient, for man to be instructed by means of divine
revelation in those things that concern God and the
worship to be rendered to him ; let him be ana-
thema.
3. If any one shall say that man cannot, by the
power of God, be raised to a knowledge and perfection
which is above that of nature ; but that he can and
ought of his own efforts, by means of constant pro-
gress, to arrive at last to the possession of all truth
and goodness ; let him be anathema.
4. If any one shall refuse to receive for sacred and
canonical the books of holy Scripture in their integri-
ty, with all their parts, according as they were enume-
rated by the holy Council of Trent ;
Or shall deny that they are inspired by God ; let him
be anathema.
4 1 8 Appendix.
III.
OF FAITH.
i. If any one shall say that human reason is in such
wise independent, that faith cannot be demanded of it
by God ; let him be anathema.
2. If any one shall say that divine faith does not
differ from a natural knowledge of God and of moral
truths; and therefore that for divine faith, it is not
necessary to believe revealed truth, on the authority
of God who reveals it ; let him be anathema.
3. If any one shall say that divine revelation cannot
be rendered credible by external evidences ; and there-
fore that men should be moved to faith only by each
one's interior experience or private inspiration ; let him
be anathema.
4. If any one shall say that no miracles can be
wrought ; and therefore that all accounts of such, even
those contained in the sacred Scripture, are to be set
aside as fables or myths ; or that miracles can never
be known with certainty, and that the divine origin of
Christianity cannot be truly proved by them ; let him
be anathema.
5. If any one shall say that the assent of Christian
faith is not free, but is produced necessarily by argu-
ments of human reason ; or that the grace of God is
necessary only for living faith which worketh by
charity; let him be anathema.
Appendix. 4 1 9
6. If any one shall say that the condition of the faith-
ful, and of those who have not yet come to the only
true faith, is equal, in such wise that Catholics can
have just reason for withholding their assent, and
calling into doubt the faith which they have received
from the teaching of the church, until they shall have
completed a scientific demonstration of the credibility
and truth of their faith ; let him be anathema.
IV.
OF FAITH AND REASON.
i. If anyone shall say that divine revelation includes
no mysteries, truly and properly so called ; but that all
the dogmas of faith may, with the aid of natural prin-
ciples, be understood and demonstrated by reason duly
cultivated ; let him be anathema.
2. If any one shall say that human sciences ought to
be pursued in such a spirit of freedom that one maybe
allowed to hold, as true, their assertions, even when
opposed to revealed doctrine ; and that such assertions
may not be condemned by the church ; let him be ana-
thema.
3. If any one shall say that it may at any time come
to pass, in the progress of science, that the doctrines
set forth by the church must be taken in another sense
than that in which the church has ever received and
yet receives them ; let him be anathema.
420
Appendix.
Wherefore, fulfilling our supreme pastoral duty, we
beseech, through the boweis of mercy of Jesus Christ,
all the Christian faithful, and those especially whi are
set over others, or have the office of teachers, and
furthermore we command them, by authority of the
same God and Saviour, to use all zeal and industry to
drive out and keep away from our holy church those
errors, and to spread abroad the pure light of faith.
And, whereas, it is not enough to avoid heretical
pravity, unless at the same time we carefully shun
those errors which more or less approach to it ; we
admonish all, that it is their duty to observe likewise
the constitutions and decrees of this Holy See, by which
wrong opinions of the same kind, not expressly herein
mentioned, are condemned and forbidden.
II.
FIRST DOGMATIC DECREE ON THE CHURCH OF
CHRIST.
Published in the Fourth Session of the Holy (Ecumenical.
Council of the Vatican — Passed July 18, 1870.
PIUS EPISCOPUS SERVUS SERVORUM DEI SACRO APPRO-
BANTE CONCILIO AD PERPETUAM REI MEMORIAM.
Pastor aeternus et episcopus animarum nostrarum,
ut salutiferum redemptionis opus perenne redderet,
sanctam aedificare Ecclesiam decrevit, in qua veluti
in domo Dei viventis fideles omnes unius fidei et
charitatis vinculo continerentur. Quapropter, prius-
quam clarificaretur, rogavit Patrem non pro Apostolis
tantum, sed et pro eis, qui credituri erant per verbum
eorum in ipsum, ut omnes unum essent, sicut ipse
Filius et Pater unum sunt. Ouemadmodum igitur
Apostolos, quos sibi de mundo elegerat, misit, sicut
ipse missus erat a Patre ; ita in Ecclesia sua Pastores
et Doctores usque ad consummationem saeculi esse
voluit. Ut vero episcopatus ipse unus et indivisus
esset, et per cohaerentes sibi invicem sacerdotes
credentium multitudo universa in fidei et communionis
421
A 22 Appendix.
unitate conservaretur beatum Petrum caeteris Apos-
tolis praeponens in ipso instituit perpetuum utrius-
que unitatis principium ac visibile fundamentum, super
cuius fortitudinem aeternum exstrueretur templum,
et Ecclesiae coelo inferenda sublimitas in buius fidei
firmitate consurgeret.* Et quoniam portae inferi ad
evertendam, si fieri posset, Ecclesiam contra eius
fundamentum divinitus positum maiori in dies odio
undique insurgunt; Nos ad catholici gregis custo-
diam, incolumitatem, augmentum, necessarium esse
iudicamus, sacro approbante Concilio, doctrinam de
institutione, perpetuitate, ac natura sacri Apostolici
primatus, in quo totius Ecclesiae vis ac soliditas
consistit, cunctis fidelibus credendam et tenendam,
secundum antiquam atque constantem universalis
Ecclesiae fidem, proponere, atque contrarios, dominico
gregi adeo perniciosos errores proscribere et con-
demnare.
CAPUT I.
DE APOSTOLICI PRIMATUS IN BEATO PETRO
INSTITUTIONE.
Docemus itaque et declaramus, iuxta Evangelii
testimonia primatum iurisdictionis in universam Dei
Ecclesiam immediate et directe beato Petro Apostolo
promissum atque collatum a Christo Domino fuisse.
Unum enim Simonem, cui iam pridem dixerat : Tu
* S. Leo M. serm. iv. (al. iii.) cap. 2 in diem Natalis sui.
Appendix. 4 2 3
vocaberis Cephas,* postquam file suam edidit con-
fessionem inquiens : Tu es Christus, Filius Dei vivi,
solemnibus hie verbis locutus est Dominus : Beatus
es Simon Bar-Iona, quia caro et sanguis non revelavit
tibi, sed Pater meus, qui in coelis est : et ego dico
tibi, quia tu es Petrus, et super hanc petram aedificabo
Ecclesiam meam, et portae inferi non praevalebunt
adversus earn: et tibi dabo claves regni coelorum :
et quodcumque ligaveris super terram, erit ligatum et
in coelis: et quodcumque solveris super terram, erit
solutum et in coelis. t Atque uni Simoni Petro con-
tulit Iesus post suam resurrectionem summi pastoris
et rectoris iurisdictionem in totum suum ovile, dicens :
Pasce agnos meos : Pasce oves meas.J Huic tarn
manifestae sacrarum Scripturarum doctrinae, ut ab
Ecclesia catholica semper intellecta est, aperte oppo-
nuntur pravae eorum sententiae, qui constitutam a
Christo Domino in sua Ecclesia regiminis formam
pervertentes negant, solum Petrum prae caeteris
Apostolis, sive seorsum singulis sive omnibus simul,
vero proprioque iurisdictionis primatu fuisse a Christo
instructum : aut qui affirmant eumdem primatum non
immediate, directeque ipsi beato Petro, sed Ecclesiae,
et per hanc illi, ut ipsius Ecclesiae ministro, delatum
fuisse.
Si quis igitur dixerit, beatum Petrum Apostolum
non esse a Christo Domino constitutum Apostolorum
♦Joan. i. 42. t Matth. xvi. 16-19.
% Joan. xxi. 15-17.
424 Appendix.
omnium principem et totius Ecclesiae militantis visi-
bile caput; vel eumdem honoris tantum, non autem
verae propriaeque iurisdictionis primatum ab eodem
Domino nostro Iesu Christo directe et immediate
accepisse ; anathema sit.
CAPUT II.
DE PERPETUITATE PRIMATUS BEATI PETRI IN ROMANIS
PONTIFICIBUS.
Ouod autem in beato Apostolo Petro princeps pas-
torum et pastor magnus ovium Dominus Christus
Iesus in perpetuam salutem ac perenne bonum Eccle-
siae instituit, id eodem auctore in Ecclesia, quae fundata
super petram ad finem saeculorum usque firma stabit,
iugiter durare necesse est. Nulli sane dubium, imo
saeculis omnibus notum est, quod sanctus beatissimus-
que Petrus, Apostolorum princeps et caput, fideique
columna et Ecclesiae catholicae fundamentum, a Do-
mino nostro Iesu Christo, Salvatore humani generis
ac Redemptore, claves regni accepit: qui ad hoc usque
tempus et semper in suis successoribus, episcopis sanc-
tae Romanae Sedis, ab ipso fundatae, eiusque consecra-
tae sanguine, vivit et praesidet et iudicium exercet.*
Unde quicumque in hac Cathedra Petro succedit, is se-
cundum Christi ipsius institutionem primatum Petri
in universam Ecclesiam obtinet. Manet ergo disposi-
* Cf. Ephesini Concilii Act. iii.
Appendix. 425
tio ventatis, et beatus Petrus in accepta fbrtitudine
petrae perseverans suscepta Ecclesiae gubernacula non
reliquit.* Hac de causa ad Romanam Ecclcsiam prop-
ter potentiorem principalitatem necesse semper fuit
omnem convenire Ecclesiam, hoc est, eos, qui sunt
undique fideles, ut in ea Sede, e qua venerandae cora-
munionis iura in omnes dimanant, tamquam membra in
capite consociata, in unam corporis compagem coales-
cerent.t
Si quis ergo dixerit, non esse ex ipsius Christi Do-
mini iastitutione seu iure divino, ut beatus Petrus in
primatu super universam Ecclesiam habeat perpetuos
successores ; aut Romanum Pontificem non esse beati
Petri in eodem primatu successorem ; anathema sit.
CAPUT III.
DE VI ET RATIONE PRIMATUS ROMANI PONTIFICIS.
Quapropter apertis innixi sacrarum litterarum testi-
moniis et inhaerentes turn Praedecessorum Nostrorum
Romanorum Pontificum, turn Conciliorum generalium
disertis, perspicuisque decretis, innovamus oecume-
nici Concilii Florentini definitionem, qua credendum
ab omnibus Christi fidelibus est, sanctam Apostolicam
* S. Leo M. Scrm. iii. (al. ii.) cap. 3.
t S. Iren. Adv. Ilaer. 1. iii. c. 3. Ep. Cone. Aquilei a. 381, inter epp. S.
Ambros. ep. xi.
426 Appendix.
Sedem, et Romanum Pontificem in universum orbem
tenere primatum, et ipsum Pontificem Romanum suc-
cessorem esse beati Petri principis Apostolorum, et
verum Christi Vicarium, totiusque Ecclesiae caput, et^
omnium Christianorum patrem ac doctorem existere ;
et ipsi in beato Petro pascendi, regendi et gubernandi
universalem Ecclesiam a Domino nostro Iesu Christo
plenam potestatem traditam esse ; quemadmodum
etiam in gestis oecumenicorum Conciliorum et sacris
canonibus continetur.
Docemus proinde et declaramus, Ecclesiam Romanam
disponente Domino super omnes alias ordinariaepotesta-
tis obtinere principatum, ethane Romani Pontificis iur-
isdictionis potestatem, quae vereepiscopalis est, immedi-
atam esse: erga quam cuiuscumque ritus et dignitatis,
pastores atque fideles, tarn seorsum singuli quam simul
omnes, officio hierarchicae subordinationis, veraeque
obedientiae obstringuntur, non solum in rebus, quae ad
fidem et mores, sed etiam in iis, quae ad disciplinam et
regimen Ecclesiae, pertotum orbem diffusae pertinent ;
ita, ut custodita cum Romano Pontifice tarn com-
munionis, quam eiusdem fidei professionis imitate, Ec-
clesia Christi sit unus grex sub uno summo pastore.
Haec est catholicae veritatis doctrina, a qua deviare
salva fide atque salute nemo potest.
Tantum autem abest, ut haec Summi Pontificis po-
testas officiat ordinariae ac immediatae illi episcopali
iurisdictionis potestati, qua Episcopi, qui positi a Spiri-
tu Sancto in Apostolorum locum successerunt, tamquam
Appendix. 427
veri Pastores assignatos sibi greges, singuli singulos,
pascunt ct rcgunt, ut eadem a supremo et universal]
Pastore asseratur, roboretur ac vindicetur, secundum
illud sancti Gregorii Magni : Meus honor est honor
universalis Ecclesiae. Meus honor est fratrum meo-
rum solidus vigor. Turn ego vere honoratus sum,
cum singulis quibusque honor debitus non negatur.*
Porro ex suprema ilia Romani Pontificis potestate
gubernandi universam Ecclesiam ius eidem esse conse-
quitur, in huius sui muneris exercitio libere commu-
nicandi cum pastoribus et gregibus totius Ecclesiae, ut
iidem ab ipso in via salutis doceri ac regi possint.
Quare damnamus ac reprobamus illorum sententias,
qui hanc supremi capitis cum pastoribus et gregibus
communicationem licite impediri posse dicunt, aut
eamdem reddunt saeculari potestati obnoxiam, ita ut
contendant, quae ab Apostolica Sede vel eius auctori-
tate ad regimen Ecclesiae constituuntur, vim ac valo-
rem non habere, nisi potestatis saecularis placito con-
firmentur.
Et quoniam divino Apostolici primatus iure Romanus
Pontifex universae Ecclesiae praeest, docemus etiam
et declaramus, eum esse iudicem supremum fidelium.t
et in omnibus causis ad examen ecclesiasticum spec-
tantibus ad ipsius posse judicium recurri;| Sedis vero
Apostolicae, cuius auctoritate maior non est, iudicium
* Ep. ad Eulog. Alexandrin. 1. viii. ep. xxx.
+ Pii P. VI. Breve Super Soliditate, d. 28, Nov. 1786.
X Concil. CEcum. Lugdun. II.
428 Appendix.
a nemine fore retractandum, neque cuiquam de ems
licere iudicare iudicio.* Ouare a recto veritatis tramite
aberrant, qui affirmant, licere ab iudiciis Romanorum
Pontificum ad oecumenicum Concilium tamquam ad
auctoritatem Romano Pontifice superiorem appellare.
Si quis itaque dixerit, Romanum Pontificem habere
tantummodo officium inspectionis vel directionis, non
autem plenam et supremam potestatem iurisdictionis
in universam Ecclesiam, non solum in rebus, quae ad
fidem et mores, sed etiam in iis, quae ad disciplinam
et regimen Ecclesiae per totum orbem diffusae perti-
nent ; aut eum habere tantum notiores partes, non
vero totam plenitudinem huius supremae potestatis ;
aut hanc eius potestatem non esse ordinariam et im-
mediatam sive in omnes ac singulas ecclesias sive
in omnes et singulos pastores et fideles ; anathema
sit.
CAPUT IV.
DE ROMANI PONTIFICIS INFALLIBILI MAGISTERIO.
Ipso autem Apostolico primatu, quern Romanus
Pontifex tamquam Petri principis Apostolorum suc-
cessor in universam Ecclesiam obtinet, supremam quo-
que magisterii potestatem comprehendi, haec Sancta
Sedes semper tenuit, perpetuus Ecclesiae usus com-
* Ep. Nicolai I. ad Michaelem Imperatorem.
Appendix. 429
probat, ipsaquc oecumemea Concilia, ea imprimis, in
quibns Oriens cum Occidentc in fidei charitatisque
unionem conveniebat, declaraverunt. Patres enim
Concilii Constantinopolitani quarti, maiorum vestigiis
inhaerentes, hanc solemnem ediderunt professionem :
Prima salus est, rectae fidei regulam custodire. Et
quia non potest Domini nostri Iesu Christi praeter-
mitti sententia dicentis : Tu es Petrus, et super hanc
petram aedificabo Ecclesiam meam, haec, quae dicta
sunt, rerum probantur effectibus, quia in Sede Apos-
tolica immaculata est semper catholica reservata re-
ligio, et sancta celebrata doctrina. Ab huius ergo fide
et doctrina separari minime cupientes, speramus. ut
in una communione, quam Sedes Apostolica praedicat,
esse mereamur, in qua est integra et vera Christianae
religionis soliditas.* Approbante vero Lugdunenis
Concilio secundo, Graeci professi sunt : Sanctam Ro-
manam Ecclesiam sumDum et plenum primatum et
principatum super universam Ecclesiam catholicam
obtinere, quern se ab ipso Domino in beato Petro
Apostolorum principe sive vertice, cuius Romanus
Pontifex est successor, cum potestatis plenitudine
recepisse veraciter et humiliter recognoscit ; et sicut
prae caeteris tenetur fidei veritatem defendere, sic et,
si quae de fide subortae fuerint quaestiones, suo
debent iudicio definiri. Florentmum denique Con-
* Ex formula S. riormisdae Papae, prout ab Hadriano II. Patnbus
Concilii Oecumenici VIII. , Constantinopolitani IV., proposita et ab
iisdem subscripta est.
430 Appendix.
cilium definivit: Pontificem Romanum, verum Christi
Vicarium, totiusque Ecclesiae caput et omnium Chris-
tianorum patrem ac doctorem existere ; et ipsi in
beato Petro pascendi, regendi ac gubernandi univer-
salem Ecclesiam a Domino nostro Iesu Christo plenam
potestatem traditam esse.
Huic pastorali muneri ut satisfacerent, Praedeces-
sores Nostri indefessam semper operam dederunt, ut
saJutaris Christi doctrina apud omnes terrae populos
propagaretur, parique cura vigilarunt, ut, ubi recepta
esset, sincera et pura conservaretuc Quocirca totius
orbis Antistites, nunc singuli, nunc in Synodis con-
gregati, longam ecclesiarum consuetudinem et antiquae
regulae formam sequentes, ea praesertim pericula,
quae in negotiis fidei emergebant, ad hanc Sedem
Apostolicam retulerunt, ut ibi potissimum resarciren-
tur damna fidei, ubi fides non potest sentire defec-
tum.* Romani autem Pontifices, prout temporum et
rerum conditio suadebat, nunc convocatis oecumeni-
cis Conciliis aut explorata Ecclesiae per orbem dis-
persae sententia, nunc per Synodos particulares, nunc
aliis, quae divina suppeditabat providentia, adhibitis
auxiliis, ea tenenda definiverunt, quae sacris Scripturis
et apostolicisTraditionibus consentanea, Deo adiutore,
cognoverant. Neque enim Petri successoribus Spi-
ritus Sanctus promissus est, ut eo revelante novam
doctrinam patefacerent, sed ut eo assistente traditam
•
* Cf. S. Bern. Epist. 190.
Appendix, 43 1
per Apostolos revelationem seu fidei depositum sancte
custodirent et fideliter exponerent. Quorum quidem
apostolicam doctrinam omnes vencrabiles Patres am-
plexi et sancti Doctores ortbodoxi venerati atque
secuti sunt; plenissime scientes, hanc sancti Petr
Sedem ab omni semper errore illibatam permanere.
secundum Domini Salvatoris nostri divinam pollicita-
tionem discipulorum suorum principi factam : Ego
rogavi pro te, ut non deficiat fides tua, et tu aliquando
conversus confirma fratres tuos.
Hoc igitur veritatis et fidei numquam deficientis
charisma Petro eiusque in hac Cathedra successoribus
divinitus collatum est, ut excelso suo munere in om-
nium salutem fungerentur, ut universus Christi grex
per eos ab erroris venenosa esca aversus, coelestis
doctrinae pabulo nutriretur, ut sublata schismatis
oceasione Ecclesia tota una conservaretur atque suo
fundamento innixa fir ma adversus inferi portas con-
sistent.
At vero cum hac ipsa aetate, qua salutifera Apos-
tolici muneris efficacia vel maxime requiritur, non
pauci inveniantur, qui illius auctoritati obtrectant ,
necessarium omnino esse censemus, praerogativam,
quam unigenitus Dei Filius i i summo pastorali
officio coniungere dignatus est, sclemniter asserere.
Itaque Nos traditioni a fidei Christianae exordio
perceptae fideliter inhaerendo, ad Dei Salvatoris nos-
tri gloriam, religionis CatholiCae exaltationem et
Christianorum populorum salutem, sacro approbante
43 2 Appendix.
Concilio, docemus et divinitus revelatum dogma esse
definimus : Romanum Pontificem, cum ex Cathedra
loquitur, id est, cum omnium Christianorum Pastoris
et Doctoris munere fungens, pro suprema sua Apos-
tolica auctoritate doctrinam de fide vel moribus ab
universa Ecclesia tenendam definit, per assistentiam
divinam, ipsi in beato Petro promissam, ea infallibili-
tate pollere, qua divinus Redemptor Ecclesiam suam
in definienda doctrina de fide vel moribus instructam
esse voluit ; ideoque eiusmodi Romani Pontificis de-
finitiones ex sese, non autem ex consensu Ecclesiae,
irreformabiles esse.
Si quis autem huic Nostrae definitioni contradicere,
quod Deus avertat, praesumpserit ; anathema sit.
Datum Romae, in publica Sessione in Vaticana
Basilica solemniter celebrata, anno Incarnationis Do-
minicae millesimo octingentesimo septuagesimo, die
decima octava Iulii.
Pontificatus Nostri anno vigesimo quinto
Ita est
IOSEPHUS
Episcopus S. Hippolyti
Secretarius Concilii Vatic am.
FIRST DOGMATIC DECREE ON THE CHURCH OF
CHRIST*
Published in the Fourth Session of the Holy (Ecumenical
Council of the Vatican — Passed July 18, 1870.
PIUS, BISHOP, SERVANT OF THE SERVANTS OF GOD, WITH
THE APPROBATION OF THE HOLY COUNCIL, FOR A
PERPETUAL REMEMBRANCE HEREOF.
The eternal Shepherd and Bishop of our souls, in
order to render perpetual the saving work of his re-
demption, resolved to build the holy church, in which,
as in the house of the living God, all the faithful should
be united by the bond of the same faith and charity.
For which reason, before he was glorified, he prayed
the Father, not for the apostles alone, but also for
those who, through their word, should believe in him,
that they all might be one, as the Son himself and the
Father are one. (John xvii. 1-20.) Wherefore, even
H Translation of The Catholic World.
433
434 Appendix.
as he sent the apostles, whom he had chosen to him-
self from the world, as he had been sent by the Father
so he willed that there should be pastors and teachers
in his church even to the consummation of the world.
Moreover, to the end that the episcopal body itself
might be one and undivided, and that the entire mul-
titude of believers might be preserved in oneness of
faith and of communion, through priests cleaving mu-
tually together, he placed the blessed Peter before the
other apostles, and established in him a perpetual prin-
ciple of this twofold unity, and a visible foundation on
whose strength " the eternal temple might be built,
and in whose firm faith the church might rise upward
until her summit reach the heavens " (St. Leo the
Great, Sermon iv. [or iii.] Chapter 2, on Christmas).
Now, seeing that in order to overthrow, if possible,
the church, the powers of hell on every side, and with
a hatred which increases day by day, are assailing her
foundation which was placed by God, we therefore, for
the preservation, the safety, and the increase of the
Catholic flock, and with the approbation of the sacred
council, have judged it necessary to set forth the doc-
trine which, according to the ancient and constant
faith of the universal church, all the faithful must be-
lieve and hold, touching the institution, the perpetuity,
and the nature of the sacred apostolic primacy, in which
stands the power and strength of the entire church ;
and to proscribe and condemn the contrary errors, so
nurtful to the flock of the Lord.
Appendix. 435
CHAPTER I.
OF THE INSTITUTION OF THE APOSTOLIC PRIMACY IN
THE BLESSED PETER.
We teach, therefore, and declare that, according to
the testimonies of the Gospei, the primacy of jurisdic-
tion over the whole church of God was promised and
given immediately and directly to blessed Peter, the
apostle, by Christ our Lord. For it was to Simon
alone, to whom he had already said, "Thou shalt be
called Cephas,"* that, after he had professed his faith,
"Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God," our
Lord said, " Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona : because
rlesh and blood hath not revealed it to thee, but my
Father who is in heaven ; and I say to thee, that thou
art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church,
and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it ; and
I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven ;
and whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, it shall be
bound also in heaven ; and whatsoever thou shalt loose
upon earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven." t And
it was to Simon Peter alone that Jesus, after his resur-
rection, gave the jurisdiction of supreme shepherd and
ruler over the whole of his fold, saying, "Feed my
lambs ;" " Feed my sheep." \ To this doctrine, so clear-
John i. 42. + Matthew xvi. 16-19.
t John xxi. 15-17.
436 Appe7idix.
ly set forth in the sacred Scriptures, as the Catholic
Church has always understood it, are plainly opposed
the perverse opinions of those who. distorting the
form of government established in his church by
Christ our Lord, deny that Peter alone above the
other apostles, whether taken separately one by one,
or all together, was endowed by Christ with a true
and real primacy of jurisdiction ; or who assert that
this primacy was not given immediately and directly
to blessed Peter, but to the church, and through her
to him, as to the agent of the church.
If, therefore, any one shall say, that blessed Peter
the Apostle was not appointed, by Christ our Lord, the
prince of all the apostles, and the visible head of the
whole church militant; or, that he received directly
and immediately from our Lord Jesus Christ only the
primacy of honor, and not that of true and real juris-
diction ; let him be anathema.
CHAPTER II.
OF THE PERPETUITY OF THE PRIMACY OF PETER IV
THE ROMAN PONTIFFS.
What the Prince of pastors and the great Shepherd
of the sheep, our Lord Jesus Christ, established in
the person of the blessed apostle Peter for the per-
Appendix. 437
petual welfare and lasting good of the church, the
same through his power must needs last for ever
in that church, which is founded upon the rock,
and will stand firm till the end of time. And indeed
it is well known, as it has been in all ages, that the
holy and most blessed Peter, prince and head of the
apostles, pillar of the faith and foundation of the
Catholic Church, who received from our Lord Jesus
Christ, the Saviour and Redeemer of mankind, the
keys of the kingdom of heaven, to this present time
and at all times lives and presides and pronounces
judgment in the person of his successors, the bishops
of the holy Roman See, which was founded by him.
and consecrated by his blood.* So that whoever
succeeds Peter in this chair, holds, according to
Christ's own institution, the primacy of Peter over
the whole church. What, therefore, was once estab-
lished by him who is the truth, still remains, and
blessed Peter, retaining the strength of the rock,
which has been given to him, has never left the helm
of the church originally entrusted to him.t
For this reason it was always necessary for every
other church, that is, the faithful ot all countries, to
have recourse to the Roman Church on account of
its superior headship, in order that being joined, as
members to their head, with this see, from which the
* Council of Eph. sess. iii. S. Peter Chrys. Ep. ad Eutvch.
t St. Leo, Serm. iii. chap. iii.
43 8 Appendix.
rights of religious communion flow unto all, they
might be knitted into the unity of one body. %
If, therefore, any one shall say, that it is not by the
institution of Christ our Lord himself, or by divine
right, that blessed Peter has perpetual successors in
the primacy over the whole church ; or, that the
Roman Pontiff is not the successor of blessed Peter
in this primacy; let him be anathema.
CHAPTER III.
OF THE POWER AND NATURE OF THE PRIMACY OF
THE ROMAN PONTIFF.
Wherefore, resting upon the clear testimonies ot
holy writ, and following the full and explicit decrees
of our predecessors the Roman Pontiffs, and of gen-
eral councils, we renew the definition of the QEcume-
nical Council of Florence, according to which all the
faithful of Christ must believe that the holy apostolic
see and the Roman Pontjff hold the primacy over the
whole world, and that the Roman Pontiff is the suc-
cessor of blessed Peter the prince of the apostles, and
the true Vicar of Christ, and is the head of the whole
church, and the father and teacher of all Christians ;
and that to him, in the blessedt Peter, was given by
* S. Irenreus against Heresies, book iii. chap. 3. Epist. of Council of
Aquileia, 381.
Appendix. 439
our Lord Jesus Christ full power of feeding-, ruling,
and governing the universal church ; as is also set
forth in the acts of the oecumenical councils, and in
the sacred canons.
Wherefore, we teach and declare that the Roman
Church, under divine Providence, possesses a headship
of ordinary power over all other churches, and that
this power of jurisdiction of the Roman Pontiff, which
is truly episcopal, is immediate, toward which the pas-
tors and faithful of whatever rite and dignity, whether
singly or all together, are bound by the duty of hie-
rarchical subordination and of true obedience, not only
in things which appertain to faith and morals, but
likewise in those things which concern the discipline
and government of the church spread throughout
the world, so that being united with the Roman Pon-
tiff, both in communion and in profession of the
same faith, the church of Christ may be one fold
under one chief shepherd. This is the doctrine of
Catholic truth, from which no one can depart with-
out loss of faith and salvation.
So far, nevertheless, is this power of the supreme
pontiff from trenching on that ordinary power of epis-
copal jurisdiction by which the bishops, who have
been instituted by the Holy Ghost and have succeeded
in the place of the apostles, like true shepherds, feed
and rule the flocks assigned to them, each one his own ;
that, on the contrary, this their power is asserted,
strengthened, and vindicated by the supreme and uni-
44° Appendix:
versal pastor; as St. Gregory the Great saith : My
honor is the honor of the universal church; my honor
is the solid strength of my brethren ; then am I truly
honored when to each one of them the honor due is
not denied (St. Gregory Great to Eulogius, Epist. 30).
Moreover, from that supreme authority of the Ro-
man Pontiff to govern the universal church, there
follows to him the right, in the exercise of this his
office, of freely communicating with the pastors and
flocks of the whole church, that they may be taught
and guided by him in the way of salvation.
Wherefore, we condemn and reprobate the opinions
of those, who say that this communication of the
supreme head with the pastors and flocks can be
lawfully hindered, or who make it subject to the
secular power, maintaining that the things which
are decreed by the apostolic see or under its authority
for the government of the church, have no force or
value unless they are confirmed by the approval of
the secular power. And since, by the divine right of
apostolic primacy, the Roman Pontiff presides over
the universal church, we also teach and declare
that he is the supreme judge of the faithful (Pius VI.,
Brief Super Soliditate), and that in all causes calling
for ecclesiastical trial, recourse may be had to his
iudgment (Second Council of Lyons) ; but the de-
cision of the apostolic see, above which there is no
higher authority, cannot be reconsidered by any one,
nor is it lawful for any one to sit in judgment on his
Appendix. 44 1
judgment (Nicholas I. Epist ad Michaelem Imper-
atorem).
Wherefore, they wander away from the right path
of truth who assert that it is lawful to appeal from
the judgments of the Roman Pontiffs to an oecumenical
council, as if to an authority superior to the Roman
Pontiff.
Therefore, if any one shall say that the Roman
Pontiff holds only the charge of inspection or direc-
tion, and not full and supreme power of jurisdiction
over the entire church, not only in things which per-
tain to faith and morals, but also in those which
pertain to the discipline and government of the
church spread throughout the whole world ; or, that
he possesses only the chief part and not the entire
plenitude of this supreme power; or, that this his
power is not ordinary and immediate, both as regards
all and each ol the churches, and all and each of the
pastors and faithful ; let him be anathema.
CHAPTER IV.
OF THE INFALLIBLE AUTHORITY OF THE ROMAN
PONTIFF IN TEACHING.
This holy see has' ever held — the unbroken custom
of the church doth prove— and the oecumenical coun-
cils, those especially in which the East joined with the
442 Appendix.
West, in union of faith and of charity, have declared
that in this apostolic primacy, which the Roman Pon-
tiff holds over the universal church, as successor
of Peter the prince of the> apostles, there is also con-
tained the supreme power of authoritative teaching.
Thus the fathers of the fourth council of Constanti-
nople, following in the footsteps of their predeces-
sors, put forth this solemn profession :
" The first law of salvation is to keep the rule of
true faith. And whereas the words of our Lord
Jesus Christ cannot be passed by, who said: Thou
art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church
(Matt. xvi. 1 8) ; these words, which he spake, are
proved true by facts ; for in the apostolic see, the
Catholic religion has ever been preserved unspotted,
and the holy doctrine has been announced. There-
fore wishing never to be separated from the faith
and teaching of this see, we hope to be worthy to
abide in that one communion which the apostolic see
preaches, in which is the full and true firmness of the
Christian religion." [Formula of St. Hormisdas, Pope,
as proposed by Hadrian II. to the fathers of the
eighth general Council (Constantinop. IV.), and sub-
scribed by them.]
So too, the Greeks, with the approval of the second
Council of Lyons, professed that the holy Roman
Church holds over the universal Catholic Church a
supreme and full primacy and headship, which she
truthfully and humbly acknowledges that she re-
Appendix. 443
ceived, with fulness of power, from the Lord himself
in blessed Peter, the prince or head of the apostles,
of whom the Roman Pontiff is the successor; and as
she, beyond the others, is bound to defend the truth
of the faith, so, if any questions arise concerning
faith, they should be decided by her judgment. And
finally, the Council of Florence defined that the
Roman Pontiff is true Vicar of Christ, and the head
of the whole church, and the father and teacher of
all Christians, and that to him, in the blessed Peter,
was given by our Lord Jesus Christ full power oi
feeding and ruling and governing the universal church.
(John xxi. 15-17.)
In order to fulfil this pastoral charge, our predeces-
sors have ever labored unweariedly to spread the sav-
ing doctrine of Christ among all the nations of the
earth, and with equal care have watched to preserve
it pure and unchanged where it had been received.
Wherefore the bishops of the whole world, sometimes
singly, sometimes assembled in Synods, following the
long established custom of the churches (S. Cyril, Alex,
ad S. Ccelest. Pap.), and the form of ancient rule (St.
Innocent I. to councils of Carthage and Milevi), re-
ferred to this apostolic see those dangers especially
which arose in matters of faith, in order that injuries
to faith might best be healed there where the faith
could never fail (St. Bernard, Ep. 190). And the Ro-
man Pontiffs, weighing the condition of times and
circumstances, sometimes calling together general
444 Appendix:
councils, or asking the judgment of the church scat-
tered through the world, sometimes consulting par-
ticular synods, sometimes using such other aids as
divine Providence supplied, defined that those doc-
trines should be held, which, by the aid of God, they
knew to be conformable to the holy Scriptures and the
apostolic traditions. For the Holy Ghost is not pro-
mised to the successors of Peter, that they may make
known a new doctrine revealed by him, but that,
through his assistance, they may sacredly guard and
faithfully set forth the revelation delivered by the
apostles, that is, the deposit of faith. And this their
apostolic teaching, all the venerable fathers have em-
braced, and the holy orthodox doctors have revered
and followed, knowing most certainly that this see of
St. Peter ever remains free from all error, according
to the divine promise of our Lord and Saviour made
to the prince of the apostles : I have prayed, for thee,
that thy fail not, and thou, being once converted, con-
firm thy brethren. (Conf. S. Agatho, Ep. ad Imp. a
Cone. OZcum. VI. approbat.)
Therefore, this gift of truth, and of faith which fails
not, was divinely bestowed on Peter and his successors
in this chair, that they should exercise their high
office for the salvation of all, that through them the
universal flock of Christ should be turned away from
the poisonous food of error, and should be nourished
with the food of heavenly doctrine, and that, the oc-
casion of schism being removed, the entire church
Appendix. 445
should be preserved one, and, planted on her founda-
tion, should stand firm against the gates of hell.
Nevertheless, since in this present age, when the
saving efficacy of the Apostolic office is exceedingly-
needed, there are not a few who carp at its authority ■
we judge it altogether necessary to solemnly declare
the prerogative, which the only begotten Son of God
has deigned to unite to the supreme pastoral office.
Wherefore, faithfully adhering to the tradition hand-
ed down from the commencement of the Christian
faith, for the glory of God our Saviour, the exaltation
of the Catholic religion, and the salvation of Christian
peoples, with the approbation of the sacred councij,
we teach and define it to be a doctrine divinely reveal-
ed : that when the Roman pontiff speaks ex cathedra,
that is, when in the exercise of his office of pastor and
teacher of all Christians, and in virtue of his supreme
apostolical authority, he defines that a doctrine of
faith or morals is to be held by the universal church,
he possesses, through the divine assistance promised
to him in the blessed Peter, that infallibility with
which the divine Redeemer willed his church to be
endowed, in defining a doctrine of faith or morals ;
and therefore that such definitions of the Roman Pon-
tiff are irreformable of themselves, and not by force of
the consent of the church thereto.
And if any one shall presume, 'which God forbid,
to contradict this our definition; let him be ana-
thema.
446 Appendix.
Given in Rome, in the Public Session, solemnly
celebrated in the Vatican Basilica, in the year of the
Incarnation of our Lord one thousand eight hundred
and seventy, on the eighteenth day of July; in the
twenty-fifth year of our Pontificate.
Ita est.
Joseph, Bishop of St. Polten,
Secretary of the Council
of the Vatican.
11.
LETTER APOSTOLIC OF OUR HOLY FATHER POPE
PIUS IX.
TO ALL PROTESTANTS AND OTHER NON-CATHOLICS.
PIUS IX., POPE.
You already know that we, having been elevated,
notwithstanding our unworthiness, to this Chair of
Peter, and therefore invested with the supreme go-
vernment and guardianship of the whole Catholic
Church by Christ our Lord, have judged it reasonable
to summon to us our venerable brethren the Bishops
of the whole earth, and to unite them together, to
celebrate, next year, an (Ecumenical Council ; so that
in concert with these our venerable brethren, who
are called to share in our cares,. we may take those
steps which seem most opportune and necessary to
disperse the darkness of the numerous pestilential
errors which everywhere rage to the increasing over
throw and the intoxication of many souls ; and also to
confirm and increase daily more and more among the
Christian people entrusted to our watchfulness the
dominion of true faith, justice, and the peace of God.
Confidently relying on the close ties and most loving
447
448 Appendix,
union which in so marked a way unite to ourselves
and to this holy See these our venerable brethren,
who, through all the time ot our supreme Pontificate,
have never failed to give to ourselves and this holy
See the clearest tokens of their love and veneration ;
we have the firm hope that this (Ecumenical Council,
summoned by us at this time, will produce, by the
inspirations of divine grace, as other General Councils
in past ages have done, abundant fruits of benedic-
tion, to the greater glory of God, and the eternal
salvation of men.
Sustained by this hope, and roused and urged by
the love of our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave his life
for the whole human race, we cannot restrain our-
selves, on the occasion of the future Council, from
addressing our apostolic and paternal words to all
those who, whilst they acknowledge the same Jesus
Christ as the Redeemer, and glory in the name ot
Christian, yet do not profess the true faith of Christ
nor hold to and follow the communion of the Catholic
Church. And we do this to warn, and conjure and
beseech them with all the warmth of our zeal, and in
all charity, that they may consider and seriously ex-
amine whether they follow the path marked out for
them by Jesus Christ our Lord, and which leads to
eternal salvation. No one can deny or doubt that
Jesus Christ himself, in order to apply the fruits of
his redemption to all generations of men, built his
only church in this world on Peter ; that is to say, the
Appendix. 449
church, one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic ; and that
he gave him all the power necessary to preserve the
deposit of faith whole and inviolable, and to teach the
same faith to all kindreds, and peoples, and nations ;
so that all men who through baptism become members
of his mystical body, and of that new life of grace,
without which no one can ever attain to life eternal,
may always be preserved and perfected in them ; and
this church, which is his mystical Body, may al-
ways in its own nature remain firm and immovable to
the consummation of ages, that it may flourish, and
supply to all its children all the means of salvation.
Now, whoever will carefully examine and reflect
upon the condition of the various religious societies,
divided among themselves, and separated from the
Catholic Church, which, from the days of our Lord
Jesus Christ and his apostles, has ever exercised, by
its lawful pastors, and still does exercise, the divine
power committed to it by this same Lord, will easily
satisfy himself that none of these societies, singly
nor all together, are in any way or form that one
Catholic Church which our Lord founded and built,
and which he chose should be ; and that he cannot,
by any means, say that these societies are members or
parts of that church, since they are visibly separated
from Catholic unity.
For such like societies, being destitute of that liv-
ing authority established by God, which especially
teaches men what is of faith, what the rule of morals,
45° Appendix.
and guides them in everything that relates to eternal
life, are always varying in their doctrines ; and this
changing and instability are increasing. Every one
therefore must perfectly understand, and clearly and
evidently see, that such societies are distinctly oppo-
site to the church instituted by our Lord Jesus
Christ , for in that church truth must always con-
tinue firm and inaccessible to change, so as to pre-
serve absolutely inviolate the deposit confided to her,
for the guardianship of which the presence and aid
of the Holy Ghost have been promised to her for ever.
Every one also knows that from these divergent doc-
trines and opinions serious schisms have had their
birth, which have again generated within themselves
sects and communions without number, which spread
themselves continually, to the great injury of Chris-
tian and civil society.
Indeed, whoever observes that religion is the foun-
dation of human society, must perceive and confess
the great influence which this division of principles,
this opposition, this strife of religious societies among
themselves, must have on civil society, and with
what force this denial of the authority established by
God, to determine the belief of the human mind, and
direct the actions of men as well in private as in
social life, has fostered, spread, and supported those
deplorable changes of times and circumstances, those
troubles which at this day overwhelm and afflict almost
all peoples.
Appendix. 45 1
Let all those, then, who do not profess the unity
and truth of the Catholic Church, avail themselves
of the opportunity of this Council, in which the
Catholic Church, to which their forefathers belonged,
affords a new proof of her close unity and her invin-
cible vitality, and let them satisfy the longings of
their hearts, and liberate themselves from that state
in which they cannot be assured of their own salva-
tion. Let them unceasingly offer fervent prayers to
the God of Mercy, that he Will throw down the wall
of separation, that he will scatter the darkness of
error, and that he will lead them back to the Holy
Mother Church, in whose bosom their fathers found
the salutary pastures of life, in whom alone the whole
doctrine of Jesus Christ is preserved and handed
down, and the mysteries of heavenly grace dispensed.
For ourself, to whom the same Christ our Lord has
entrusted the charge of the supreme apostolic minis-
try, and who must, therefore, fulfil with the greatest zeal
all the functions of a good pastor, and love with a
paternal love, and embrace in our charity all men,
wherever dispersed over the earth, we address this
letter to all Christians separated from us, and we
again exhort and conjure them quickly to return to
the one fold of Christ.
For we ardently desire their salvation in Jesus
Christ, and we fear to have one day to render account
to him who is our Judge, if we do not show them,
and if we do not give them, as far as is in our power,
45 2 Appendix.
the sure means to know the way which leads to eter-
nal salvation. In all our prayers, beseeching and giv-
ing thanks, we cease not, day or night, to ask earnest-
ly and humbly for them, of the Eternal Pastor of
souls, the abundance of light and heavenly grace.
And since, notwithstanding our unworthiness, we
are his Vicar upon earth, with outstretched hands
we wait, in the most ardent desire, the return of our
erring sons to the Catholic Church, so that we may
receive them with love into the mansion of our
Heavenly Father, and enrich them with his unspeak-
able treasures. On this longed-for return to the truth
and unity of the Catholic Church depends not only
the salvation of individuals, but still more Christian
society ; since the whole world cannot enjoy true
peace unless it becomes one fold under one Shepherd.
Given at St. Peter's, in Rome, the 13th day of
September, 1868, and the twenty-third year ot our
Pontificate.
\v.
ENCYCLICAL LETTER OF OUR MOST HOLY FATHER
POPE PIUS IX.
ANNOUNCING THE NEAR APPROACH OF THE COMPLE-
TION OF THE TWENTY-FIFTH YEAR OF HIS POPEDOM,
AND PROCLAIMING PLENARY INDULGENCES, SUBJECT
TO THE WILL OF ORDINARIES OF DIOCESES.
To all Patriarchs, Primates, Archbishops, Bishops, and
other Ordinaries of Places in Grace and Communion
with the Apostolic See :
PIUS PP. IX.
Venerable Brethren : Health and the apostolic
benediction ! The bounties of God call us to praise
his goodness, since they show forth the glory of his
majesty, and a new gift of his safe keeping in our re-
gard. For now the twenty-fifth year is about to be
fulfilled since, by the will of God, we undertook the
ministry of this apostolate. How thorny the times
of our pontificate have been is so well known to you,
that it needs not our telling.
It is most clear to you, venerable brethren, from the
whole history of what has happened, that the church
453
454 Appendix.
militant is holding its course, tossed always between
contests and victories. Most surely, God governs
all that takes place, and rules on this globe, that is his
footstool. Most surely, that he may fulfil all the coun-
sels of his wisdom, he makes use, often, of instruments
weak and scorned.
It is Jesus Christ our Lord, the author and highest
ruler of the church, which he bought with his own
blood, who, moved also by the prayers of St. Peter,
the most blessed prince of the apostles, who ever
lives and governs in this See of Rome— for the greater
glory of his name, and for the good of his people-
has, by his free grace and strength, vouchsafed to
govern and uphold our weakness and littleness, even
to this lengthened time of our apostolic calling.
Hence it is that, leaning on his aid, and ever using
the counsels of our venerable brethren, the cardinals
of the Holy Roman Church ; and, more than once,
calling you hither, venerable brethren, who have
flocked to us at Rome, adorning this see of apostolic
truth by the beauty of your virtue and of your united
devotion; we have availed, in the course of this our
pontificate, by our decree, and that of the church
throughout the world, to declare, by a dogmatic de-
finition, the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin
Mother of God.
We have, in the like manner, decreed the honor
of worship as saints to a large number of heroes of
the Catholic faith, by whose intercession— as especi-
Appendix. 455
ally by that of the Mother of God — we have full hope
that, speedily, help will be brought, in these distress-
ing times, to the Catholic Church.
It has been equally to the advantage and to the
renown of the Catholic Church, that, in distant and
unfriendly regions of country, we have spread the
light of the true faith by Catholic missionaries, and
have established the order of an ecclesiastical hie-
rarchy in sundry places.
We have, also, stamped with condemnations the
most solemn, prevalent errors, fearfully increasing
in our days, against human reason ; against right
morals ; against the civil as well as the Christian com-
monweal. Also, God helping, we have tried to put in
harmony, both in Europe and in parts of America,
ecclesiastical and civil rights.
In many parts of the Eastern Church, also, which,
from the beginning of our apostolic ministry we have
held in special regard, we have taken counsel for the
Catholic welfare.
Of late, also, it has been granted to us to begin, and
to carry forward, the Oecumenical Council of the Vati-
can, some of whose fruits have been received to the
very great profit of the Church, while others have, for
causes well known, been postponed by our order.
Nor, venerable brethren, have we ever failed in what
the duty and obligation of our civil state required of
us. The greetings and praises that, as you well re-
member, made an exception of the beginnings of our
456 Appendix.
pontificate, were, in a short time, so changed to re-
proaches and hostile actions, that they compelled us
to go as an exile from this our beloved city. But, so
soon as, by the united care and prowess of Catholic
peoples and princes, we were restored to this our See,
forthwith we used all our power to the increasing and
harmonizing, for our faithful subjects, of that solid and
true prosperity, that we have ever recognized as the
most weighty of the duties of our civil sovereignty.
Then it was, however, that the greed of a neighbor-
ing power sighed after the possession of our temporal
states; preferred obstinately the whisperings of the
sects of hell to our paternal and repeated admoni-
tions and words ; and at last, as you know, surpassing
far the shamelessness of that prodigal son that we read
of in the Gospel, has attacked with force and arms this,
our very city, that he coveted for himself, and now,
against all right, holds in his grasp, as if it were his
property. It is impossible, venerable brethren, that
we should not be vehemently moved at this wicked
usurpation by cause of which we are suffering. We
groan within ourselves exceedingly, recognizing in this
iniquity the plottings that look not only to the sub-
version of our civil principality, but also, and together
with it— if that were possible — that our spiritual power
and the kingdom of Christ on earth might be blotted
out. We groan in anguish, in view of so great evils,
of those, especially, by which the everlasting salvation
of our people is brought in danger.
Appendix. 457
And in the sharpness of our sorrow nothing
more grieves us than that we are deprived of the
liberty wanting to apply the needed remedies for
such evils. And to these causes of our sorrow,
venerable brethren, there has been added the long
and pitiable series of woes and ills which have
stricken and afflicted the most noble French na-
tion. These evils have been vastly increased in
late days by outrages unmentionable, perpetrated
by savage and abandoned men ; and, especially, the
atrocious crime of impious parricide, in the slaying of
our venerable brother the Archbishop of Paris, has
harrowed our soul, as you well understand, from the
awe and horror that act has excited throughout the
world. There is, finally, another and even deeper
bitterness that we suffer, venerable brethren: It is the
sight of so many children rebellious against us, loaded
with the chains of so many and heavy censures, with
no ear for our paternal words recalling them to duty,
no care for their eternal salvation, flouting the long-
suffering of God, who has given them time for repen-
tance, and provoking obstinately the wrath of God's
vengeance, when they should rather try the timely
fruit of his mercy.
But now, through all these vicissitudes of affairs,
the most Merciful God being our protector, we see
approaching that birthday of our elevation, on which,
as we have succeeded to the See of the blessed Peter,
so, though very far from equalling him in his merits,
458
Appendix.
we are found his companion in the prolonged years
of his apostolic service. This new gift vouchsafed by-
God is singular and great. To us, alone, it has been
granted, out of the great array of our most holy pre-
decessors, through the long course of nineteen cen-
turies. This is God's doing. So, too, we recognize in
it the more wonderful goodness of God, when we see
that during this time of our Pontificate we have been
counted worthy to suffer persecution for justice's
sake ; and again, when we behold the astonishing
movement of devotion and love by which Christian
peoples are most earnestly stirred, in all lands, to-
wards this holy See, with an impulse without excep-
tion.
We try our powers in vain, to answer our duty of
thanksgiving for all these favors granted to us, who
are so unworthy of them. Therefore, while we beseech
the Immaculate Virgin Mother of God to teach us to
give glory to the Most High, in the self-same mind as
she did, in those grand words : Fecit mihi magna qui
potens est (" He that is mighty hath done great things
for me "), we ask you also, venerable brethren, that,
with the flocks committed to you, you will say with us
canticles and songs of praise and thanks to God.
Magnificate vos Domitium mecum — "Magnify the Lord
with me "■ — (we say in the words of Pope Leo the
Great), and let us exalt his name together, that all the
graces and favors we have received may redound to
the glory of the Giver of them all. But tell, also.
Appendix. 459
your faithful people that our burning love and most
grateful affections go forth to them for the man)'
testimonies and duties that they have so long and so
signally rendered.
For what belongs to us, while we may rightly take
the words of the royal prophet : Incolatus metis pro-
longatus est {"The time of our abiding here has been
prolonged "), we need the help of your most earnest
prayers, that we may have strength and confidence
rightly to give back our soul to the Prince of shep-
herds, in whose bosom is the comforting for the evds
of this thorn-set and troubled life, the blessed haven
of undying quiet and peace.
But, that the benefits God has lavished on our Pon-
tificate may redound to his greater glory, opening the
treasury of spiritual graces, we give you power, vene-
rable brethren, to each one in his diocese, either on
the sixteenth of June [day of Papal election of Pope
Pius IX.] or on the twenty-first [the day of the Pon-
tifical coronation of our Holy Father], or on any
other day, to be chosen at your will, that you may
give the Papal benediction, with the addition of
plenary indulgence, by our Apostolic authority, in
the usual form of the Church. And wishing to
promote the spiritual welfare of the faithful by
the tenor of these letters now written, we grant, in
the Lord, to all the faithful in Christ, whether
secular or regular, and of either sex, wherever or in
whichsoever of your dioceses they may be, who shall
460 Appendix.
have made a good confession, and received Holy Com-
munion, and will have prayed to God for concord
among Christian princes, the extirpation of heresies,
and the triumph of the Catholic Church ; on whatever
day you may severally have appointed or chosen for
granting this benediction, that they may gain a
plenar}' indulgence for all their sins. In vacant sees,
we grant the same, subject to the day chosen by the
vicars capitular. Nor do we doubt that, on this
opportunity, the faithful will be stirred to prayer, and
that, by their multiplied supplications, we may re-
ceive that mercy which the view of so many pass-
ing evils leads us the more earnestly to seek.
For you, meantime, venerable brethren, we implore
from God Almighty constancy, heavenly hope, and
every consolation ; as the earnest of which, and the
pledge of our greatest affection, we wish to give to
you., and to the clergy and people committed to your
care, our apostolic benediction from an overflowing
neart.
Given at Rome, at St. Peter's, on June 4, Feast of
the Holy Trinity, a.d. 1871, the twenty-fifth of our
Pontificate.
PIUS PP. IX.
V.
ENCYCLICAL LETTER OF OUR MOST HOLY FATHER
PIUS IX., BY DIVINE PROVIDENCE POPE,
To all Patriarchs, Primates, Archbishops, Bishops, and
other Ordinaries of Places in Grace and Communion
with the Apostolic See.
PIUS PP. IX.
Venerable Brethren : Salutations and the apos-
tolic benediction. Often, venerable brethren, in this
prolonged Pontificate, we have turned towards you
and witnessed to you how thankfully we have taken
the proofs of the devotion and love which the God
of mercies has put in your hearts, and in those of the
faithful committed to your trust, towards us and this
Apostolic See. And truly, since the enemies of God
began to invade his civil possession, that, at length,
were it possible, they might prevail against Jesus
Christ and the Church, "which is his body and the
fulness of him"; you, venerable brethren, and the
Chiistian people have never ceased to pray God,
" whom the winds and the sea obey," that he would
vouchsafe to lay the storm ; nor have you left off at
4 6i
462 Appendix.
any time repeating pledges of your love, and using
every means by which you might solace us in our trou-
ble. And, after that, this city — the capitol of the whole
Catholic world — has been taken from us by force, and
we given over to the will of those that would crush
us, you. with the great body of the faithful of your
dioceses, have redoubled your prayers, and, by fre-
quent denunciations of the wrong-doers, have main-
tained the rights of religion and of justice, trampled
under foot by an unheard-of effrontery.
But now, when an event has come to pass that has
been unknown since the days of St. Peter, and unex-
ampled in the whole list of Roman Pontiffs, that we
have reached the beginning of the twenty-sixth year
of our Apostolic ministry in the Roman See, you
have so shown your gladness for this great favor be-
stowed upon our unworthiness, and have so clearly
proved that the whole family of the faithful are in-
stinct with the most vigorous life, that we have been
most deeply moved by your piety. So it is that we
join our prayers to yours, and take courage anew,
to hope and confidently await a full and finisheo
triumph of the church.
It has been most welcome to us that very fre-
quent gatherings of pious supplicants have flocked
to the more noted shrines of devotion in various
churches; and that, throughout the whole world,
churches have been thronged in union with their several
pastors, by prayers and the reception of the sacra-
Appendix. 463
ments, thanking God for the grace bestowed on us,
and praying earnestly for the triumph of the church
that can come from him alone.
Our sorrows and our cares have not only been light-
ened, but they have been turned into joy by the
greetings, the professions of duty, the holy wishes,
and by the many visits of the faithful, often of
noble birth or of high ecclesiastical or civil station,
but more noble by the proofs of their faith, all unit-
ed ; both of those from this city of Rome, and of our
invaded provinces, and of regions far away, that have
come to testify towards us their devotion, even at
the cost of enduring the dangers and insults to which
we are continually exposed. This they have done in
order to show their own sentiments of religion, and
also those of their fellow-citizens, towards us ; and
they brought us volumes in which tens of thousands
of the faithful of every nation had inscribed their
names, branding most severely the invasion of our
dominion, and demanding most earnestly its restitu-
tion, as required by justice, by religion, and even
by civilization itself.
On this occasion the Peter-pence flowed in to us
in larger measure than usual, as poor and rich vied
with each other in readiness to supply our need ; and
to these contributions were added gifts of various
kinds, and very grand ones, the shining tribute of
divers Christian arts, consecrated to the honor of
the twofold power— spiritual and regal— that we hold
464 Appendix.
from God. And, besides these, an ample and elegant
collection of sacred vestments and vessels, wherewith
we may be able to supply the need and poverty of so
many churches in various parts.
Wonderful, indeed, was the spectacle of Catholic
unit}', which thus showed that the universal church,
though spread through the whole world, and compos-
ed of peoples most diverse in customs, dispositions,
and pursuits, is yet informed by the One Spirit of
God ; and thus, by him, the more marvellously
strengthened, the more wickedness attacks and
presses on it, and strives the more cunningly to strip
it of all human aid.
Therefore we attribute those blessings to the Giver
of all good, but we at the same time feel our heart
filled with gratitude toward those who, making them-
selves the instruments of Providence, have lent us
the aid of their help, their consolations, their devo-
tion, their piety, and their love. And, with our eyes
and hands raised to heaven, we offer to the Lord all
that has been given us by our sons, in his name,
beseeching him to give a speedy satisfaction to their
common wishes for the liberty of this holy See, for
the victory of the church, for the tranquillity of the
world, and to grant them, to each one generously,
in heavenly and worldly matters, the reward which we
ourselves cannot bestow.
We would wish, indeed, to be able to express to all,
and each in particular, our gratitude, and to assure
Appendix. 465
them of our good-will, but the immense abundance of
the presents made to us, in substantials, in writings,
and in words, does not permit it.
Therefore, that we may fulfil in some measure a
part of our desires, we beg you, venerable brethren,
to whom we give the first-fruits of these sentiments
of gratitude, to declare them and make them known
publicly to your clergy and people. Urge them all to
persevere constantly, and with confidence to pray
with you; for if the assiduous prayer of the just man
pierces the clouds and does not cease till the Most
High deign to hear — if Christ has promised to be in
the midst of two persons united for prayer in his
name, and to obtain from his heavenly Father all
they shall ask, how much more surely the entire
church, united in prayer, shall, finally, after hav-
ing touched the divine Justice, have granted to her
to see the powers of hell broken, the efforts of human
malice overturned and destroyed, and peace and jus-
tice restored to earth !
And for your part, venerable brethren, apply your
vhole mind and all your strength to a more lasting
and perfect union between you, in order to present,
as it were, a close and compact battalion to the ene-
mies of God who attack the church, which no force
can destroy, with ever- fresh rage and new devices, in
order that you may be able to resist their charge
and rout their srmy with greater facility and surer
victory. This our desire we ask eagerly, and
466 Appendix.
wish for you from the bottom of our heart, for you
and the entire Catholic family. And as a presage
of that very desirable event, and of the divine favor,
we grant, from the depths of our heart, to each one
of you, venerable brethren, to the clergy and all the
people confided to your care, the Apostolic bene-
diction, as a sure testimony of our good-will and
gratitude.
Given at Rome, at St. Peter's, on August 5, Feast of
St. Mary in the Esquiline (ad Nives), A.D. 1871, of our
Pontificate the twenty-sixth.
PIUS PP. IX.
VI.
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF THE ROMAN PONTIFFS
Down to the Reigning Pontiff, Pius IX., the 258TH in Succession
from St. Peter, showing the Date of their Respec-
tive Accessions and Df.aths.
A. D.
A. D.
42-67. St. Peter.
259-269. St. Dionysius.
fSt. Linus.
269-274. St. Felix I.
Dates
uncer- '
tain.
St. Anacletus.
St. Clement 1.
274-283. St. Eutychian.
283-296. St. Caius.
'•St. Evaristus.
304. St. Marcellinus
119. St. Alexander I.
308-310. St. Marcellus I.
127. St. Sixtus I.
310. St. Eusebius.
127-139. St. Telesphorus.
311-314. St. Melchiades.
139-142. St. Hyginus.
SH^S- St. Sylvester.
142-157. St. Pius.
336. St. Marcus.
137-168. St. Anicetus.
336-352. St. Julius I.
168-177. St. Soter.
352-366. Liberius.
177-192. St. Eleutherius.
366-384. St. Damasus I.
192-202. St. Victor I.
385-398. St. Siricius.
202-219. St. Zephyrinus
598-402. St. Anastasius.
219-223. St. Calixtus.
402-417. St. Innocent I.
223-230. St. Urban.
417-418. St. Zozimus I.
230-235. St. Pontian.
418-422. St. Boniface I.
235-236. St. Anterus.
423-432. St. Celestine I.
236-250. St. Fabian.
432-440. St. Sixtus III.
251-252. St. Cornelius.
440-461. St. Leo I.
253. St. Lucius.
461-468. St. Hilary.
253-257. St. Stephen I.
468-483. St. Simplicius.
257 -258.
St. Sixtus II.
483-492. St. Felix II.
467
468
Appendix.
A. D.
A. D.
492-496. St. Gelasius.
715-731- St. Gregory II.
496-497. St. Anastasius II.
731-741. St. Gregory III
498-514. St. Symmachus.
741-752. St. Zacharias.
514-323. St. Hormisdas.
752. Stephen IL
523-525. St. John I.
75 2 -757 St. Stephen III.
526-530. St. Felix III.
757-767. St. Paul I.
530-532- St. Boniface II.
767-772. Stephen IV.
533-535- St. John II.
772-795. Hadrian I.
535-530. St. Agapetus I.
795-S16. St. Leo III.
536-540. St. Sylverius.
816. Stephen V.
540-555- Vigilius.
817-824. St. Paschal I.
555-560. Pelagius I.
824-S27. Eugenius.
560-573. John III.
827. Valentine.
574-578- Benedict I.
827-844. Gregory IV.
578-590. Pelagius II.
844-847. Sergius II.
590-604. St. Gregory I.
847-855. St. Leo IV.
604-605. Sabinianus.
855-858. Benedict III.
606. Bonifacius III.
858-867. St. Nicholas I.
607-614. St. Bonifacius IV.
867-872. Hadrian II.
615-618. Deusdedit.
872-882. John VIII.
619-625. Bonifacius V.
882-884. Marinus.
625-638. Honoiius I.
884-885. Hadrian III.
640. Severinus.
885-891. Stephen V.
640-642. John IV.
891-895. Formosus.
642-649. Theodorus.
895-896. Bonifacius VI.
649-655. St. Martin I.
896-897. Stephen VI.
655-657- Eugenius.
897. Romanus.
657-672. St. Vitalian.
898. Theodorus II.
672-676. Adeodatus.
898-900. John IX.
676-678. Domnus.
goo-903. Benedict IV.
679-682. St. Agatho.
903. Leo V.
682-683. St. Leo II.
903. Christophorus.
685. St. Benedict II.
904-911. Sergius III.
685-686. John V.
911-913. Anastasius III.
687. Conon.
913. Landus.
687-701. St. Sergius I.
914-028. John X.
701-705. John VI.
928. Leo VI.
705-707. John VII.
929-931. Stephen VII.
708. Sisinnius.
931-936. John XL
708-715. Constantine.
936-939. Leo VII.
Appendix.
469
A. D.
A. D.
939-942. Stephen VIII.
1159-1181. Alexander III.
942-946. Martin III.
1181-1185. Lucius III.
946-955. Agapctus.
1185-1187. Urban III.
956-964. John XII.
1 187. Gregory VIII.
964. Benedict V.
11S7-1191. Clement III.
965-972. John XIII.
1191-1198. Celestine III.
972-973. Benedict VI.
1198-1216. Innocent III.
974. Domnus II.
1226-1227. Honorius III.
975-9S4. Benedict VII.
1227-1241. Gregory IX.
9S4-985. John XIV.
1241. Celestine IV.
985-996. John XV.
1241-1254. Innocent IV.
996-999. Gregory V.
1254-1261. Alexander IV.
999-1003. Sylvester II.
1261-1264. Urban IV.
1003. John XVII.
1264-1268. Clement IV.
1003-1009. John XVIII.
1271-1276. Gregory X.
1009-1012. Sergius IV.
1276. Innocent V.
1012-1024. Benedict VIII
1276. Hadrian V.
1024-1035. John XIX.
1276-1277. John XXI. (XX.)
1033-1044. Benedict IX.
1277-1280. Nicholas III.
1044-1046. Gregory VI.
1281-1285. Martin IV.
1046-1047. Clement II.
1285-1287. Honorius IV.
1048. Damasus II.
1288-1292. Nicholas IV.
1049-1054. St. Leo IX.
1294. Celestine V.
1055-1057. Victor II.
1394-1303. Bonifacius VIII.
1057-1058. Stephen IX.
1303-1304. Benedict XL
1058-1061. Nicholas II.
1061-1073. Alexander II.
Seventy Years' Residence in
1073-1085. St. Gregory VII.
A vignon.
1086-1087. Victor III.
1088-1099. Urban II.
1305-1314. Clement V.
1099-1118. Paschal II.
1316-1334. John XXII.
1118. Gelasius II.
1334-1342. Benedict XII.
1118-1124. Calixtus II.
1342-1352. Clement VI.
1124-1130. Honorius II.
1352-1362. Innocent VI.
1130-1143. Innocent II.
1362-1370. Urban V.
1143. Celestine II.
1370-1378. Gregory XL
1144-1145. Lucius II.
J145-1153. Eugenius III.
Return to Residence in Ron
1153-1154. Anastasius IV.
1154-1159. Hadrian IV.
1378-1389. Urban VI.
47o
Appendix.
Forty Years' Disputed Succession.
{Roman tine.)
A.D.
1389-1404. Boniface IX.
1404-1406. Innocent VII.
1406-1417. Gregory XII.
(Rival Popes.)
Clement VII.
Benedict XIII.
Alexander V.
John XXIII.
1417-1431-
1431-1447.
1447-1455-
1455-1458.
1458-1464.
1464-1471.
1471-1484.
1484-1492.
1492-1503.
i5°3-
1503-1513-
1513-1521.
1522-1523.
»523-i534-
'334-I549-
I55i*-i555-
1555-
"555- 1559-
Martin V.
Eugenius IV.
Nicholas V.
Calixtus III.
Pius II.
Paul II.
SixtusIV.
Innocent VIII.
Alexander VI.
Pius III.
Julius II.
Leo X.
Hadrian VI.
Clement VII.
Paul III.
Julius III.
Marcellus II.
Paul IV.
A.D.
1559-1565- Pius IV.
1566-1572. St. Pius V.
1572-1585. Gregory XIII.
1585-1590. Sixtus V.
1590. Urban VII.
1590. Gregory XIV.
1591. Innocent IX.
1592-1605. Clement VIII.
1605. Leo XL
1605-1621. Paul V.
1621-1623. Gregory XV.
1623-1644. Urban VIII.
1644-1655. Innocent X.
1655-1667. Alexander VII.
1667-1669. Clement IX.
1670-1676. Clement X.
1676-1689. Innocent XL
1689-1691. Alexander VIIL
1691-1700. Innocent XII.
1700-1721. Clement XL
1721-1724. Innocent XIII.
1724-1730. Benedict XIII.
1730-1740. Clement XII.
1740-1758. Benedict XIV.
1758-1769. Clement XIII.
1769-1774. Clement XIV
1775-1799. Piub VI.
1800-1821. Pius VII.
1823-1829. Leo XII.
1829-1830. Pius VIII.
1831-1846. Gregory XVI.
1846- 1878. Pius IX.
1878. Leo XIII.
VII.
BRIEF EULOGIUM OF PIUS IX.
[This Eulogium, comprising the principal events of the life and reign
of Pius IX., was written by Monsignor Mercurelli, and, in accordance
with the usual custom, was placed in the tomb of the deceased Pontiff.)
CORPUS CONDITUM
Pn IX. P. M.
Hie die 13 Maii anni 1792, Senogalliae, quarto loco
natus e coniugio Comitum Hieronimi Mastai-Ferretti
et Catharinae Solazzi, Joannis Mariae nomen i'n bap-
tismate sortitus est. Litteris excultus Voluterris apud
Patres a Scholis Piis, et severioribus disciplinis Romae,
ad presbyteratum promotus anno 1819 primum sacrum
peregit die solemni Paschatis in templo S. Annae
orphanotrophii, cui nomen a fundatore Tata-Giovamu
et cui praefuit. Deinde Praesuli Joanni Muzi, qui
pro Chiliensi aliisque regionibus Americae meridionalis
Delegatus et Vicarius Apostolicus constitutus fuerat.
sacus adjectus, anno 1823 Roma discessit. Rediens
vero anno 1825 a Leone XII. sa : me : praepositus fuit
Hospitio Apostolico ; ac biennio post renunciatus et
consecraUis Arcbiepiscopus Episcopus Spoletanus.
Omnibus ibi se praebuit instructum optimi Episcopi
dotibus, et praesertim caritate et prudentia ; quarum
471
472
Appendix.
praeclara cdidit exempla turn anno 1831, cum Delega-
tione extraordinaria in Spoletanam et Perusinam pro-
vinciam auctus ad compescendos rebelles, sola comi-
tate et subsidiis ad discessum elargitis, eos adduxit ad
arma sponte tradenda, quae Romam misit; turn anno
insequenti, cum Umbria vehementibus quassata terrae
motibus, afflictissimi populi levaminl se totum impen-
dit. Eximia menta utilem suaserunt Gregorio XVI.
ipsius translationem ad sedem Forocorneliensem, eo
ipso anno vacantem ; ubi se in universo pastoralis
muneris exercitio sibi parem exbibuit. Primus ipse
Italorum Praesulum in earn dioecesim pium opus Pro-
pagationis Fidei canonice invexit ac promovit ; et
praeclarum inter cetera edidit fortitudinis et caritatis
Episcopalis exemplum anno 1846, cum solus per horas
vespertinas orans in cathedrali teinplo hominem a
tribus impetitum sicariis incolumen servavit. Quo-
circa idem Pontifex eum in Consistorio diei 23 Decem-
bris anni 1839 reservatum in pectore, die i4"Decembris
insequentis anni Purpura decoravit. Ut nuncium ac-
cepit decessus Gregorii XVI. Romam se contulit pro
novi Pontificis electione ; sed mira celeritate coeunti-
bus in eum suflfragiis, ipse ad Petri Cathedram fuit
evectus. Laetitiam tamen omnibus ab insuetae rei
nuncio inditam cito in luctum converterunt religionis
et publici ordinis hostes ; et, rebellione commota, sic
Pontificem circumvenerunt, ut ipse vix, et non sine
peculiari divino auxilio, ex eorum manibus elabi
potuerit et Caietam petere. Ibi humanissime et
Appendix. 473
obsequentissime exceptus a Rege Neapolis, duni to-
tius catholici orbis testimonia venerationis et mu-
nera excipicbat, animum adjiciens ad religionis de-
trimenta, ad accisa Sanctac Sedis jura, ad deceptos
veteratorum machinationibus populos, per allocu-
tiones ct litteras Apostolicas, gratum animum suum
testatus fuit, fidelibus miserrimam religiosarum rerum
conditionem exposuit, opem imploravit catholicorum
principum, veram consiliorum indolem hostium Ec-
clesiae populis aperuit ; ac praeterea egit de resti-
tuenda deleta jamdiu in Anglia Ecclesiastica 1 1 i e -
rarchia, et pro sua insigni in Deiparam pictate,
toti nunciavit Episcopatui disquisitiones se mandante
inslitutas ad definiendum immaculatum Illius con-
ceptual, omnesque rogavit ut ad boc secum orarent,
ac quae traditio apud eos bac de re vigeret, referrent-
Rom am vero christianorum armis reductus, urbe et
orbe plaudentibus, non minorem Orientalis quam Oc-
cidentalis Ecclesiae curam egit. Et sicut jam anno
1S47 restituerat jurisdictionem Hierosolymitani Patri-
archae Latini, et insequenti anno electionem confirma-
verat Babilonensis Patriarchae proChaldaeis ; sic pos-
tea Orientales Ecclesias schismate, insectatione, interi-
oribus dissidiis laborantes, novis initis rationibus, aucto
Episcoporum numero, officiis omnibus, liberalitate, et
misso etiam Apostolico Delegato, et Legato a Latere,
tueri, relevare, conciliare inter se indefesso studio con-
tendit. Nihil pariter omisit ut Russicam catholicae
religionis insectationem compesceret aut saltern leni-
474
Appendix
ret, sive per propositas conventiones, sive per illius
Imperii Ministros, sive per publicas expostulationes,
sive per peculiares ad Imperatorem litteras, sive per
Delegatum ad eura missum, dum interim Ruthenos de-
fendere et confirmare, Polonosque solari non desine-
bat. Et quoniam ubique religiosae res affligebantur,
omnem adhibuit diligentiam ut cum compluribus popu-
lorum moderatoribus conventiones iniret,quibus Eccle-
siae jura et libertas custodirentur. Errores, tot malo-
rum causam, ac nominatim massonz'svu' machinamenta
operire, refellere, damnare nunquam destitit per en-
cyclicas litteras, allocutiones, publicos sermones, epis-
tolas ad Episcopos vel privatos homines ; et insignem
ilium edidit syllabum, qui perpetuus erit errorum om-
nium malleus ; ac demum oecumenicum Concilium in-
dixit et coegit, quo perspicue proposita confirmataque
vera doctrina de Deo, de Ecclesia, deque Summi Pon-
tificis auctoritate et infallibilitate, via cuicumque
praecludatur sophismati. Dum ita Satanae regnum
subruere nisus est, pari zelo Christi regnum dilatare,
Catholicorum fidem ac pietatem incendere novaque iis
auxilia coelestia comparare curavit, Ecclesiasticam
Hierarchiam in Anglia et Hollandia instauravit, et de
Scotica restituenda agebat, cum morte occupatus fuit.
Missiones ad extremosterrae fines provexit; permultas
approbavit novas religiosasfamilias peculiaribuspopuli
m'cessitatibus addictas ; impense fovit catholicas con-
sociationes in Ecclesiae subsidium et proximorum utili-
tatern institutas ; Ecclesiam universam Smo. Cordi Jesu
Appendix. 475
arctius obstrinxit ; Patronum ei dedit S. Joscphum ; e
christianis heroibus, quorum gesta incitamento esse
posse patebat et patrocinium auxilio, undecim Beato-
rum et quinquaginta duos albo Sanctorum adscripsit;
auxit demum fiduciam et cultum in Deiparam per defi-
nitionem dogmaticam Immaculati Eius conceptus :
quibus studiis sic amplificavit Ecclesiam, ut novem et
viginti metropoliticas Sedes priscis addere debuerit,
Episcopales centum et triginta duas, tres Nullius dioe-
cesis, tres Apostolicas Delegationes, tres et triginta
Vicariatus Apostolicos et quindecim Apostolicas Prae-
fecturas. Ouamquam sub hostili potestate consti-
tutus strenuc semper propugnavit Ecclesiae jura et
Sanctae Sedis, Apostolica libertate sacrilegum usurpa-
tions facinus gravissime potentibus cxprobravit, cen-
surasque in eos latas indixit et renovavit. Divini
cultus splendori prospexit, refectis, expolitis, ornatis
regio sumptu templis, aut collata ad boc domi forisque
pecunia et sacris ornamentis. In solidae scientiae pro-
vectum rationem sludiorum proposuit, catbolicas uni-
versitates instauravit, seminaria, gymnasia, scholas
evexit ; ubique demum munificentiae suae monumenta
reliquit ; eaque fuit liberalitate, ut quidquid ei obve-
niebat non sibi sed aliis habere videretur. Quibus
omnibus virtutibus cum accederent benignitas et faciii-
tas vere singularis, sic advenientium animos alliciebat,
ut observantiam et devotionem Jesu Christi Vicario
debitam ad flagrantem erigeret amorem. Id publicae
significationes ostenderunt, id crebra peregrinorum
476 Appendix.
agmina, id praesertim jubilares anni presbyteratus,
episcopatus, Pontificatus ejus, qui insueta prorsus ob-
tuleriint indicia filialis pietatis ac incensissimi amoris
totius orbis catholici. Unus ipse inter Pontifices sedit
in Petri catbedra annos unum et triginta, menses sep-
tem, dies duos supra viginti : obiit sextum etoctogesi-
mum agens aetatis annum die septima Februari anni
1878.
ENGLISH TRANSLATION.
Here lies the body of Pius IX., Sovereign Pontiff.
He was born on the 13th of May, 1792, at Sinigaglia,
and was the fourth son born of the marriage of Count
Girolamo Mastai-Ferretti and the Countess Caterina
Solazzi. In baptism he received the name of Gio-
vanni Maria. He was taught at first by the Fathers of
the Scuole Pie in Volterra, and afterwards entered on
more advanced studies at Rome. Promoted to the
priesthood in the year 1819, he celebrated his first
Mass on Easter Sunday in the church of St. Ann, in
the orphan hospital called, after its founder, Tata-Gio-
vanni, of which institution he was director. After-
wards he was appointed assistant to Bishop Giovanni
Muzi ; Delegate and Vicar-Apostolic to Chili and other
countries of South America, and in this capacity left
Rome in 1S23. On his return, in the year 1825, he was
Appendix. 477
placed over the apostolic hospice by Leo XII. of holy
memory, and two years later was preconized and con-
secrated Archbishop of Spoleto. There he showed
himself to be endowed with all the best qualities of a
bishop, especially charity and prudence, of which he
gave brilliant proofs in the year 1831, when, invested
with an extraordinary mission to Spoleto and Perugia,
by kindness and liberality he induced the insurgents
to cease their rebellion and surrender their arms,
which he sent to Rome. Also in the year following
he gave up himself wholly to the relief and consolation
of the people grievously afflicted by the fearful earth-
quake in Umbria. His great merits induced Gregory
XVI. to translate him to the See of Imola, then vacant,
where he proved himself equal to the great charge en-
trusted to him. He was the first of the Italian bishops
to establish canonically in his diocese the pious work
of the propagation of the faith. Among other exam-
ples of episcopal fortitude and charity he gave a re-
markable instance in the year 1846, when one evening,
praying alone in his cathedral, he saved the life of a
man attacked by three brigands.
The same Pontiff decorated him with the purple in
the consistory of December 14, 1840, having already
reserved him in fctto on the 23d of December of the
preceding )'ear.
When he received the intelligence of the death of
Gregory XVI. he at once proceeded to Rome fo take
part in the election of a new Pontiff. There with won-
4 7 8 Appendix.
derful celerity, by the votes of the Sacred College, he
was elevated to the Chair of Peter. The joy felt by all
at the news of so unexpected an event was turned into
mourning by the enemies of religion and public order,
who, exciting a rebellion, so beset the Pontiff that
with great difficulty and only by peculiar divine assis-
tance did he escape from their hands and seek a refuge
in Gaeta. There, most kindly and reverently wel-
comed by the king of Naples, he received testimonies
of veneration and devotion from the whole Catholic
world. In this exile he turned his mind to the evils
which threatened religion, to the outraged rights of
the Holy See, to the nations deceived by the arts of the
wily, and in his allocutions and apostolic letters he
testified his own gratitude and exposed to the faithful
the deplorable state of religious affairs, implored the
succor of the Catholic princes, and laid plainly before
the people the real nature of the plans designed by the
foes of the church. Besides that, he set about re-
establishing in England the ecclesiastical hierarchy,
which had for a long time been destroyed ; and on ac-
count of his wondrous piety toward the Mother of
God he announced to the episcopate that he had
ordered researches to be made for the purpose of defin-
ing her Immaculate Conception, and he asked them
all to pray for that object with him, and to inform him
of the traditions which obtained in their respective
countries.
Brought back to Rome by Christian arms, amidst
Appendix. 479
the acclamations of the city and of the whole world,
he evinced no less care for the Eastern Church than
for the Western. As in 1847 he had already re-estab-
lished the jurisdiction of the Latin Patriarch of Jeru-
salem, and the following year had confirmed the elec-
tion of a Patriarch of Babylon for the Chaldeans, so he
set himself with an indefatigable zeal to protect,
strengthen, and unite the Eastern churches, torn by
schisms, disputes, and dissensions, by forming new
rules for their conduct, by increasing the number of
bishops, by aiding them in all manner of ways through
his liberality, and in sending them even an apostolic
delegate and a legate a latere.
He left nothing undone in his efforts to stay the
persecution of the Catholic religion in Russia, or at
least to mitigate it either by the conventions which he
proposed, by appeals to the ministers of that empire,
by public demands, by special letters to the emperor,
or by sending delegates to him ; while during all this
time he never ceased to defend and support the Ruthe-
nians and to console the Poles. And as everywhere
religious affairs were in dire distress, he used every
diligence in stipulating with the greater part of the
rulers of nations for conventions by which the rights
and liberty of the church might be protected.
He never ceased from exposing, refuting, and con-
demning in encyclical letters, allocutions, public dis-
courses, letters to bishops or private persons, the
errors which are the cause of so much evil, and nota-
4S0 Appendix.
bly the machinations of the Freemasons. He pub-
lished the celebrated Syllabus, which will remain for
ever to crush all errors ; and, finally, he convoked and
assembled the (Ecumenical Council, so that by clearly
setting forth and confirming the true doctrine as to
God, the church, and the authority and infallibility of
the Sovereign Pontiff, no place could be left for the
prevalence of any heretical sophism.
While he was thus engaged in the struggle against
the kingdom of Satan, he applied himself with the
same zeal to spread the kingdom of Christ, to enliven
the faith and piety of Catholics, and to furnish them
with new celestial help. He re-established the eccle-
siastical hierarchy in England and Holland, and he was
considering its re-establishment in Scotland when he
was taken away by death. He sent missions to the
extremities of the earth ; he approved of the estab-
lishment of a large number of new religious orders
suited to the peculiar necessities of the people ; he
particularly protected the Catholic associations insti-
tuted for the defence of the Church and the needs of
our neighbor; he bound the universal Church more
closely to the most Sacred Heart of Jesus by a solemn
consecration, and gave to her St. Joseph as a patron.
Among the Christian heroes whose acts are our en-
couragement and whose intercession is our aid he in-
scribed eleven on the roll of the blessed, and fifty-two
he added to the list of the saints, and finally he in-
creased the confidence of the faithful in the Mother of
Appendix. 48 1
God, and added to their devotion to her hy the dogma-
tic definition of her Immaculate Conception.
By his labors the church was so enlarged that
twenty-nine new metropolitan sees were erected, and
to those before existing one hundred and thirty Epis-
copal Sees were added, as also three Nullius dz'oecest's,
thirty-three Apostolic Vicariates, three Apostolic De-
legations, and fifteen Apostolic Prefectures
Although placed under the power of the enemies of
religion, he has always vigorously defended the rights
of the church ; with an apostolic liberty he reproved
the powerful for their sacrilegious usurpation, and pro-
claimed and renewed the censures which he pronounced
against them. lie watched over the splendor of divine
worship, and rebuilt, repaired, and ornamented the
temples with a royal luxury, or furnished the money
and the sacred ornaments for that purpose both at
home and abroad. He proposed a new Ratio Studiorum
for the advancement of true science, established Ca-
tholic universities, founded colleges, seminaries, and
schools; he left everywhere monuments of his muni-
ficence, and so great was his liberality that all that
was offered to him seemed to be accepted not for him-
self but for others.
As he combined with all those virtues a really re-
markable gentleness and affability, he charmed the
minds of all those who approached him in a manner
that increased the respect and devotion due to the
Vicar of Jesus Christ until developed into the most
482 Appendix.
ardent love. This is evidenced by the addresses, fre-
quent assemblages of pilgrims, and especially the cele-
brations in the jubilee years of his priesthood, his epis-
copate, and his pontificate, which exhibited altogether
unusual marks of the filial piety and warm affection of
the entire Catholic universe.
Alone among the Popes he sat in the chair of St.
Peter thirty-one years, seven months, twenty-two
days. He died at the age of eighty-six years, on the
7th of February, of the year 1878.
VIII.
ALLOCUTION OF HIS HOLINESS PIUS IX.,
ADDRESSED TO THE SACRED COLLEGE, MARCH 12, /S77.*
Venerable Brethren: During the sorrowful times
of our pontificate we have on many occasions con-
vened your most august order in this palace with the
intent of bewailing, in concert with you, the grievous
ills with which the church is undeservedly afflicted,
and to utter our protests against the crimes committed
both in Italy and in other countries to the detriment
of the church and of the Apostolic See. But of late
years we have had to witness the fresh and ever more
violent attacks which the church of God in various
parts of the Catholic world has to endure from her
bitter enemies, who have deemed the calamitous state
of our affairs, and the isolation from all human aid in
which we are placed, their best opportunity for assail-
ing the Spouse of Jesus Christ. Venerable brethren,
we could have wished on the present occasion to place
before your minds and thoughts a detailed statement
of this dreadful and wide-spread persecution now
raging against the church in many of the countries of
Europe ; but intending as we do at a future opportunity
* Translation of the London Tablet.
483
484 Appendix.
to lay this painful description before you, we cannot
meanwhile refrain from calling your attention to the
distresses and vexations of the church in this Italy,
becoming daily more severe, and from explaining to
you the dangers, every day growing greater, which we
see impending over us and over this Apostolic See.
It is now the seventh year since the invaders of our
civil principality, trampling under foot all laws divine
and human, violating the faith of solemn treaties, and
deeming the calamities of an illustrious Catholic
nation their own opportunity, seized by force and
arms those provinces which still remained under our
dominion, took by storm this holy city, and filled the
universal church with grief and sorrow and pain at a
deed of such great wickedness. The false and hypo-
critical professions and promises which, during those
dreadful days, they made to foreign governments
about our affairs, declaring themselves willing to
render honor and obedience to the liberty of the
church, and that they wished the power of the Roman
Pontiff to be full and unfettered, could not delude us
with groundless expectations, nor prevent our tho-
roughly comprehending all the sorrows and miseries
that awaited us under their domination. No ; we were
fully aware of the impious counsels that, characterize
men banded together in the guilty league of revolu-
tionary purposes, and we publicly declared the ten-
dency of that sacrilegious invasion to be not only to
the overthrow of our civil principality, but also and
Appendix, 485
much more, our temporal dominion being overthrown,
to the easier destruction of all the church's institu-
tions, to the downfall of the authority of the Holy
See, and to the pulling down of that power which, as
Christ's Vicar, we, though undeserving, hold on earth.
But now this work of demolition and pulling down
of all things belonging to the ecclesiastical edifice and
order may be said to be complete, if not to the extent
of the persecutors' intent and malice, yet to the extent
of most terrible ruin which the}'' have gone on adding
to even to this day ; and a single glance at the laws
and decrees enacted and issued from the commence-
ment of the new domination even to the present time
is sufficient to show us that singly and gradually are
taken away day by day one after another of the means
and securities of which we stand in absolute need in
order duly to rule and govern the Catholic Church.
Thus, for example, the wickedness which has been
perpetrated in the suppression of the religious orders
has injuriously despoiled us of efficient and useful
helpers whose assistance was absolutely necessary to
us in the transaction of the business of the ecclesiasti-
cal congregations and in the discharge of many de-
partments of our ministry. At the same time that
suppression has destroyed here in our city many
homes in which religious men from foreign nations
found hospitality, who at stated times were accus-
tomed to resort to this metropolis to strengthen their
souls, to give an account of their ministry. The same
486 Appendix.
suppression has also cruelly torn up by the roots
many useful and prolific plants which carried into all
regions of the earth the fruits of benediction and
peace. And the same unjust suppression that has
struck the missionary colleges established in Rome
for training fit and proper missionaries zealously to
carry the light of the Gospel into distant and un-
civilized lands, has miserably deprived many peoples
of the saving aid of piety and charity, and has tended
to the great injury even of that worldly civilization
which results from the holy teaching and example
of Christianity. And these enactments, cruel as they
are in themselves, and opposed to the interests not
only of religion but even of human society, are greatly
aggravated by the late regulations of the government,
by which all associations in convents, of women,
members of religious communities, and all fresh ad-
missions for regulars of either sex are prohibited under
severe penalties. Having forcibly scattered the reli-
gious orders, their efforts and designs are now di-
rected to the destruction of the secular clergy, and a
fatal law has been enacted by which we and the pas-
tors of the people of Italy behold to our great sorrow
the young clerics, the hope of the church, wickedly
torn from the sanctuary, and, when arrived at the age
at which they are solemnly to dedicate themselves to
God, compelled to put on the military uniform and
betake themselves to the kind of life most abhorrent
to the practice and spirit of their vocation. Nor is
Appendix. 487
this all. Other unjust laws have since been passed,
by which the universal patrimony which the church
has possessed, by sacred, immemorial, and inviolable
titles, has been in great part taken from her, small
stipends being substituted, locally and partially only,
and those completely dependent on the changing
vicissitudes of the times, and on the will and pleasure
of the government. We have also to deplore the fact
that buildings in great number, erected at very great
expense by the piety of the faithful, and worthy of the
Christian times of Rome, and which afforded a peace-
ful abode to virgins dedicated to God or to religious
communities, have been seized and, their rightful
owners being without exception dispossessed, con-
verted to profane uses. Moreover, many pious works
and institutions, consecrated to the practice of charity
and beneficence — some of them, with admirable muni-
ficence for the relief of poverty and other distresses,
founded by the Roman Pontiffs our predecessors, and
others by the pious liberality of foreign nations —
have been withdrawn from our control and from the
administration of the sacred ministers ; and, if any of
those works of public charity still remain under the
superintendence of the church, it is reported that
a law is about, at no distant date, to be brought in by
which they are either to be taken from us or totally
abolished; as is plainly and barefacedly announced in
public documents. Moreover, we have seen, and as
we state it our soul is pierced with extreme grief, the
488 Appendix.
public and private teaching of the arts and sciences
withdrawn from the authority and guidance of the
church, and the duty of teaching entrusted to men of
suspected faith, or openly hostile to the church, and
who have not scrupled to make public profession
of atheistic impiety.
But the recreant sons of the church have not been
satisfied with thus seizing upon and ruining so many
important religious institutions: they must also place
impediments in the way of the ministers of the sanctu-
ary to hinder them in the free discharge of their duty ;
and they have gone so far in this wicked project as to
propose a law which has been passed by the legislative
chamber of orators, and which is entitled the " Law of
Clerical Abuses," by virtue of which law are made
criminal and liable to heavy penalties the acts of bi-
shops and also of priests which the authors of the said
law include under the insidious phrase of disturbing
what they call the public conscience and the peace of
families. For example, the law in question enacts that
all words and writings of every kind by which the
ministers of religion shall, in the discharge of their
duty, think it right to characterize or denounce any
decree, regulation, or other act of the government as
opposed to the sacred rights involved or to the laws
of God or the church, shall be liable to prosecution
and to penalties, as shall also the action of the publish-
ers or disseminators of such words or writings, from
whatever rank or station of ecclesiastical authority
Appendix. 4S9
they may have emanated. When this law shall have
been passed and promulgated, it will be competent to
the lay tribunal to judge whether and in what manner
a priest, in administering the sacraments or in preach-
ing the Word of God, shall have disturbed the public
conscience or the peace of families ; and the voice of the
bishop or of the priest will be able to be restrained or
silenced altogether, nay, even the voice of. the Vicar
of Jesus Christ, who, although he is said for political
reasons to be in himself liable to no man's censure,
yet is adjudged to be punishable in the person of the
accomplices in his offence — as a member of the govern-
ment in his place in the legislative chamber did not
scruple to declare plainly in reference to us that it was
no innovation or unusual thing in legislation, and per-
fectly agreeable to the principles and practice of crimi-
nal jurisprudence, that the accessories to an offence
should be made amenable to punishment when the
principal offender himself could not be so made. From
which it is understood that, in the intention of those
in power, this law is a hostile weapon aimed even at
us, so that, whenever our words or acts may happen to
offend against it, the bishops or priests who shall pub-
lish our words or execute our commands may undergo
the penalties of that pretended crime, of which we as
principal shall be adjudged to be chargeable with the
legal responsibility.
Behold, then, venerable brethren, how not only so
many defences and so many institutions, the growth
490 Appendix.
of ages, and the survival of so many convulsions, and
so necessary to the administration of the church, have
been overthrown amongst us by hostile violence and
demolition; but things have come to that pass that
the sublime office of teaching and of watching over
and of providing for the salvation of souls, conferred
on the church by her Divine Founder, is wickedly in-
terrupted, and the severest penalties enacted to silence
the voice of her ministers, who, when they teach the
people to observe all those things that Christ com-
manded, when they are instant in season and out of
season, when they reprove, entreat, rebuke in all pa-
tience and doctrine, do the thing which is commanded
them by divine and by apostolic authority. We pass
over in silence the other dark machinations of the op-
ponents of the church, to which, as we well know, are
not wanting the counsels and instigations of some of
the ministers of state, and the object of which is to
bring days of even greater tribulation on the church,
or else to produce occasions of schism when the elec-
tion of a future pontiff shall take place, or to obstruct
the exercise of the spiritual authority of the bishops
set over the church in Italy, on which account we
have recently been compelled to declare it allowable
that the acts of canonical institution of the said bishops
be exhibited to the secular authority, in order to obvi-
ate, so far as is in our power, a most fatal conjunc-
ture of affairs in which it was no longer the possession
of the temporalities that was at stake, but the con-
Appendix. 49 1
sciences of the faithful, the peace of those consciences,
and the cure and salvation of souls, which is the su-
preme law to us, were put to hazard. But in all that
we have done to ward off the worst dangers, we would
have it once more publicly recognized that we do alto-
gether condemn and reprobate the unjust law called
the Regium placitum; and we plainly declare that it is
injurious to the divine authority of the church and a
violation of her liberty.
And now, having so far exposed these things, omit-
ting many others which we might lengthen our allo-
cution to deplore, we put the question, How is it pos-
sible for us to govern the church under the domina-
tion of a power which continually takes away from us
every means and protection needed for the exercise of
our apostleship, which obstructs every path, and daily
casts in our way new hindrances and new difficulties,
and ever lays new snares and ambuscades ? Truly we
cannot enough wonder that men should be found in
whom we know not whether levity or malice predomi-
nates, and who, either in the public journals or in spe-
cial writings, or in unblushing speeches delivered at
many public meetings, endeavor to make it believed
and to persuade the people that the present position
of the Sovereign Pontiff in Rome is such that, even
placed as he is under the domination of another power,
he enjoys full liberty, and is able peacefully and fully
to discharge the duties of his spiritual primacy.
They lose no opportunity of publicly asserting that
49 2 Appendix.
opinion, whether it be when bishops and faithful come
from foreign countries to visit us, or when we admit
to our presence the pious assemblies of the faithful, or
when we, in our addresses to those assemblies, lament
the impious aggressions on the church ; yea, they of
set purpose and craftily endeavor to impress the unre-
flecting with the belief that we do in reality enjoy full
power and liberty both of speech and of receiving the
faithful and of administering the universal church.
AVonderful it is to us that they can unblushingly as-
sert this, as if the performance of those alleged acts
were fully and entirely in our power, and as if in them
were comprised the whole government of the church
belonging to our office. For who can be ignorant that
the liberty of action which they so loudly assert is de-
pendent, not on us, but on the will and pleasure of the
rulers, so that we are only able to do those acts to
such extent and so long as it is not prevented by
them? And how completely our freedom of action is
dependent on their will and pleasure is shown and
proved, were all other proofs wanting, by that most
recent law which we have just deplored, by which the
free exercise of our spiritual power and of the admin-
istration of the ecclesiastical order is subjected to
fresh, constraint and intolerable oppression. If they
have left us the power to perform some acts because
they know how important it is for them that we should
be believed to be free under their domination, yet how
many most weight}', most necessary and most essen-
Appendix. 493
tial things are there connected with the formidable
burden of our ministry, for the real and due perform-
ance of which we, while subjected to their domination,
are without all necessary means and liberty ! We in-
deed could wish that those who write or speak the
tilings we have referred to would but glance at the
things that are happening around us, and, freeing their
minds for a moment from the prejudices of party,
would judge whether it can be truly said that the
power of ruling the church divinely committed to us
can be compatible with the state to which the rule of
the invaders has reduced us. We could wish them to
recognize the insults, the abuse, the contumelies that
even in the deliberative chamber of the people are
poured forth against our humility — insults respecting
which we indeed forgive the wretched men who offer
them, but which constitute a very great offence to the
faithful, whose common father is outraged, and which
tend to diminish the respect, authority, and veneration
due to the office of the Vicar of Christ, which we,
though unworthy, sustain. We could wish them to be
witnesses of the reproaches and calumnies with which
both vour most august order and the sacred authorities
of the church are in every way assailed, to the great
injury of their administration ; to be witnesses of the
mockery and ridicule with which the august rites and
institutions of the Catholic Church are dishonored,
of the insolence with which the holiest mysteries of
religion are profaned ; that they could behold the
494 Appendix.
impious and atheists decorated with the tokens and
trappings of public honor; while on the other hand
those religious supplications and processions which
the ancestral piety of the people of Italy has always
been accustomed at solemn seasons freely to cele-
brate, are forbidden. We could also wish that they
knew the blasphemies which, unpunished, winked at
by the government, are hurled against the church in
the legislative convention in which the accusation of
subversiveness and aggressiveness is brought against
the church herself, and her liberty is called a wicked
and fatal principle ; and her doctrines are character-
ized as erroneous and as opposed to the well-being
and morals of society; and her power and authority
denounced as pernicious to the social bond. Nor can
the vaunters of our pretended liberty deny the mani-
fold and incessant occasions prepared for the express
purpose of corrupting thoughtless youth by in-
flaming their animal passions and of utterly eradi-
cating the Catholic faith from their minds. If those
persons would only traverse the streets of this city,
which, by reason of its being the See of Blessed Peter
is also the seat and capital of religion, they could very
well judge whether or no the temples of non-Catholic
worship in these days erected, the schools of cor-
ruption spread in every direction, the many houses
of perdition everywhere established, obscene and
filthy sights presented to the popular gaze — whether
all these things together constitute a situation that
Appendix. 495
can be supportable to him who, by virtue of his
apostolic office, is in duty bound and earnestly desires
to obviate these many evils, but on the contrary is
deprived of all means and resources and of all exer-
cise of power by which he could apply the needful
remedies to even one of so many evils, and rescue
souls rushing to destruction. Such, then, venerable
brethren, is the state to which we are compelled to
submit by the act of the government dominant in this
city. Such is the liberty and faculty of exercising our
ministry of which they abuse the name, and which,
as they unblushingly assert, we enjoy the liberty,
forsooth, of witnessing the demolition, daily growing
worse, of the order and constitution of ecclesiastical
affairs ; of beholding the destruction of souls, while
we can do nothing effectual on our part and under-
take nothing towards the reparation of so many mis-
chiefs. These things being so, must not that be
considered a new and bitter jest and mockery which
is often said, that we ought to initiate counsels of
conciliation and concord with the new rulers, when
the principle of such conciliation could on our part
be nothing else than an utter betrayal not only of the
fundamental rights of this Holy See which we, on our
elevation to this supreme chair, received to guard
and to keep as a sacred and inviolable deposit, but
also a betrayal of the divine ministry committed to us
for the salvation of souls — a betrayal of Christ's in-
heritance into the hands of an authority such that its
496 Appendix.
whole efforts are directed to annihilate, if that were
possible, the very name of the Catholic religion ?
Now assuredly are displayed in a clear light, and in
every point of view, to the whole world, the value, the
validity, and the trustworthiness of those concessions
with which, as in mockery of the faithful, our enemies
ostentatiously proclaimed themselves in favor of the
liberty and dignity of the Roman Pontiff, which
liberty and dignity should repose as on a foundation
on the arbitrary caprice and hostile will of a govern-
ment possessing the power to adapt, maintain, in-
terpret, and give effect to them according to its own
designs and principles, and at its own pleasure. No,
no ; certain it is that the Roman Pontiff is not and
will not be in possession of full liberty or full freedom
of action so long as he is the subject of others that
rule in his own city. Never at Rome can his position
be other than that of sovereign prince or of a captive ;
nor can the peace, security, and tranquillity of the
Catholic Church ever exist so long as the exercise of
the Supreme Apostolic Ministry is subjected to the
conflicts of parties, the caprice of those in power, to
the uncertainties of political elections, or to the
schemes and proceedings of crafty men, who place
expediency before justice.
But do not suppose, venerable brethren, that, dis-
tressed and weighed down as we are with such great
evils, we lose heart or that our confidence fails with
which we await the decrees of the Omnipotent and
.Appendix. 4 9 7
Eternal. When we formed the resolution after the
seizure of our dominion at Rome of remaining there
rather than seeking a tranquil refuge in foreign lands,
with the intention of keeping watch at the tomb of
blessed Peter for Catholicity, we never ceased, with
the help of God, to battle for the defence of his cause,
and still daily do we battle, nowhere giving ground to
the foe, save when forcibly driven back, in order to
defend the few things that still remain from the
violence of the robbers and those that strive to per-
vert all things. And when all other succors have
failed us by which we could defend the principles of
the church and of religion, we have used the agency
of our voice and our expostulations, of which fact you
are witnesses who have shared a common danger and
a common grief with us. Many times have you
listened to our words publicly uttered, when we
either denounced new crimes and protested against
the increasing violence of the enemy, or when, with
appropriate warnings, we instructed the faithful not
to be led astray by the wiles of the wicked nor the
specious pretences of religious hypocrisy, nor by the
noxious teaching of false brethren. O that they, to
whose office it belongs and most concerns to uphold
our authority and manfully to defend the cause, than
which none is more just and holy, would at length
lend their ears and apply their minds to our utter-
ances! For how can they fail, wise as they arc, to
perceive that it is vain to expect solid and real pros-
49 8 Appendix.
perity in nations, peace and order amongst peoples,
or stability of power for those that sway the sceptre,
if the church's authority, which holds together all
rightly constituted communities in the bond of re-
ligion, be with impunity violated and set at naught,
and the church's supreme head be debarred from the
enjoyment of full liberty in the discharge of his minis-
try and be subjected to the will of another power.
We rejoice indeed at one happy event, namely, that
our utterances have been most gladly and with great-
fruit received by the whole Catholic people firmly
united to us in the bonds of filial piety. The continual
and reiterated testimonies of affection which we re-
ceive from them confer the highest glory both on
them and on the church, and bid us hope for more
joyful days to dawn on the church and on this Apos-
tolic See. Truly we can hardly express adequately
the delightful consolation which we receive, although
destitute on all sides of effectual aid, when we behold
the noble emotions and generous affections which,
springing up spontaneously, are propagated every day
more widely even amongst the most distant nations ;
how they take the part of and make common cause
with the Roman pontificate, and with our humility,
and defend its dignity. The liberal subsidies which
reach us from all parts of the world to enable us to
provide for the pressing necessities of this holy see,
and the crowds of our numerous children who flock
from all nations to this Vatican palace to testify their
Appendix. 499
devoted loyally to the visible head of the church, arc
also pledges of the sentiments of the faithful for
which we arc quite unable to return sufficient thanks
to the Divine goodness. We could wish, however, all
to understand, and it may serve as a salutary proof of
the essential value and real significance of those pil-
grimages which we see so often repeated at the present
time, when the most furious war is waged against the
Roman pontificate. Assuredly the value of those pil-
grimages is not only that they are demonstrations of
love and obedience on the part of the faithful towards
our humility, but they also afford a manifest token of
the solicitude and anxiety that agitate their hearts
because the common father is living in a wholly abnor-
mal and incongruous condition. Now this anxiety
and solicitude will not be allayed— nay, will and ought
to go on increasing — until possession of full and real
liberty be restored to the pastor of the Universal
Church.
Meanwhile, venerable brethren, wc desire nothing
more earnestly than that our words may penetrate
beyond these walls even to the uttermost ends of the
earth, in order that our most grateful feelings may be
signified to the faithful of the whole world for the
noble proofs of filial affection and obedience which
they continually exhibit. We also long to thank them
for the pious liberality with which they, forgetting
their own exigencies, send assistance to us, knowing
as they do that all that is given to the church is an
500 Appendix.
offering made to God ; and to congratulate them on
the magnanimity and courage with which they despise
the rage and mockery of the impious ; and to profess
ourselves obliged to them for the eagerness with
which they are hastening to offer us the demonstra-
tions of their love to celebrate the anniversary of the
day on which, fifty years ago, we, although unworthy,
received the office of episcopal consecration. Equally,
too, is it our earnest wish and desire that all pastors
of churches spread far and wide throughout the whole
world, receiving these our words, may be incited by
them to make known to their flocks the dangers,
attacks, and troubles, every day growing more grievous,
with which we are distressed, and to assure them,
that, let the issue of affairs be what it may, we shall
never desist from denouncing the iniquities perpe-
trated before our eyes ; but that it may possibly come
to pass, by reason of the laws lately brought forward
and of others still more severe which are threatened,
that our voice may only be able to reach them more
seldom and with great difficulty, on account of the
obstacles that may be interposed. Nevertheless,
under these circumstances, we urge the pastors to
warn their flocks not to be led astray by the fallacious
arts by which fraudulent men strive in their speeches
to invent and misrepresent the real situation in which
we are placed, either concealing its real acerbity or
vaunting the liberty they pretend we possess, and
asserting that our power of action is subjected to no
Appeiidix. 501
arbitrary control ; whilst we arc able to sum up tbc
whole matter thus in few words — namely, that the
church of God in Italy suffers violence and persecu-
tion ; the Vicar of Christ enjoys neither liberty nor
the unfettered or complete use of his own power.
Such being the situation, we deem nothing more
opportune, we desire nothing more earnestly, than
that all prelates, who by manifold proofs have bravely
given evidence of their admirable unanimity in main-
taining the rights of the church, and their distin-
guished loyalty towards the Apostolic See, would stir
up the faithful over whom they preside, that by all
means that are legal in their respective countries they
would urge upon their rulers a more careful considera-
tion of the serious position in which the head of the
Catholic Church is placed, and to the adoption of
effectual plans for the removal of the obstacles to his
real and plenary "independence." And forasmuch as
it is Almighty God alone who can pour light into men's
minds and turn their hearts, not only do we beseech
you, venerable brethren, that you would, at this season
especially, supplicate him with fervent prayers, but
we also urgently exhort the pastors of all Catholic
peoples to take care to assemble their faithful congre-
gations in the consecrated temples, and there, from
their inmost soul, pour forth their humble petitions
for the safety of our Mother the Church, for the con-
version of our enemies, and for the termination of our
so grievous and so widely extended ills. We have
502 Appendix.
confidence that God will accept the prayer of the
people that call upon him, whose good pleasure is over
them that fear him, and in those who hope in his
mercy.
And now, venerable brethren, let us be strong in
the Lord and in the power of his might ; let us put on
the armor of God, the breast-plate of justice, and the
shield of faith ; let us fight strongly and bravely against
the powers of darkness and the wickedness of this
world. Now of a truth has the fondness for disturb-
ing and throwing into confusion all things, come to
such a pitch, that, like a raging torrent, it threatens to
drag all things headlong, and not a feiv of those who
have been the abettors and partisans of revolution now
look back in alarm, terrified at the results of their own
work. But God is with us, and will be so even to the
consummation of the world. Those ought to be
affrighted of whom it is written : " I saw that they who
work iniquity and who sow griefs and reap them, have
perished by the breath of God, and have been con-
sumed by the spirit of his wrath." But for those that
fear God, and strive in his name and hope in his power,
there is laid up in store mercy and protection. We
cannot doubt that when his is the cause, and his the
battle, he will help to victory those that contend for
him.
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