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THE PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY 
 
THE 
 
 PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY: 
 
 VIEWED IN ITS RELATIONS TO 
 
 THE CATHOLIC RELIGION, 
 
 AND TO THE 
 
 LAW OE EUROPE. 
 
 FEOM THE EEENCH OF MGE. DUPANLOUP, 
 
 Bishop of Orleans, 
 
 MEMBER OF THE FRENCH ACADEMY. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 CHARLES DOLMAN, MANAGER, 
 
 61, NEW BOND STREET, & 21, PATERNOSTER ROW; 
 DUBLIN : J. MULLANY, 1, PARLIAMENT STREET. 
 
 18GO. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 THE FISHERMAN OF GALILEE 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 THE PRESENT STATE OF THE QUESTION 15 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 REASONS OF GOD'S DESIGNS IN ESTABLISHING THE TEM- 
 PORAL SOVEREIGNTY OF THE HOLY SEE. THE POPE 
 MUST BE INDEPENDENT OF FOREIGN POWERS 28 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 THE POPE SHOULD BE INDEPENDENT WITHIN HIS OWN 
 
 STATES ., 42 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 ORIGIN AND PROVIDENTIAL PREPARATION OF THE TEMPORAL 
 
 POWER OF THE HOLY SEE . 57 
 
 702 
 
VI CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 FINAL AND PROVIDENTIAL ESTABLISHMENT OF THE TEM- 
 PORAL SOVEREIGNTY OF THE HOLY SEE 73 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 GENERAL VIEW OF THE HISTORY OF THE TEMPORAL POWER 98 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 ROME WITHOUT THE POPE 108 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 ITALY WITHOUT THE PAPACY 124 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 EUROPE WITHOUT THE PAPACY 136 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 PRANCE AND THE HOLY SEE IN 1849 151 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 FRANCE AND THE HOLY SEE IN 1849. SPEECH OF M. DE 
 
 FALLOUX 159 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 FRANCE AND THE HOLY SEE IN 1849. M. THIERS* REPORT 167 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 \< i: \M> mi: HOLY SEE IN 1849. SPEECH OF M. DE 
 
 MONTALEMBERT.., . 181 
 
CONTENTS. Til 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 FRANCE; 1849 1859. WHY is THERE STILL A ROMAN 
 
 QUESTION 1 200 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 PIEDMONT. FIRST PERIOD : HOSTILITY TO THE HOLY SEE 
 
 LAWS AGAINST THE CHURCH RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION 208 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 PIEDMONT. SECOND PERIOD : CONGRESS OF 1850 MEMO- 
 RANDUM OF COUNT CAVOUR, AND ITS CONSEQUENCES 231 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 PIEDMONT. THIRD PERIOD: REVOLUTIONARY VIOLENCE 251 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 ENGLAND. MALEVOLENT PREJUDICES 281 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 ENGLAND. HER BLINDNESS AND INJUSTICE 293 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 ENGLAND. RELIGIOUS PACIFICATION 324 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 THE DISMEMBERMENT. THE THEORY OF SPOLIATION... . 339 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 THE DISMEMBERMENT. THE THEORY OF SPOLIATION CON- 
 TINUATION OF THE SUBJECT , . 360 
 
Vni COXTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 THE DISMEMBERMENT. THE RELIGIOUS QUESTION 369 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 THE DISMEMBERMENT. THE EUROPEAN QUESTION 391 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 THE REFORMS DEMANDED FROM THE PAPAL GOVERNMENT. 
 
 ARE THOSE SINCERE WHO DEMAND THEM? , 416 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 THE REFORMS DEMANDED FROM THE PAPAL GOVERNMENT... 425 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 THE REFORMS DEMANDED FROM THE PAPAL GOVERNMENT, 
 
 CONTINUED. LIBERAL GOVERNMENT . 436 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 THE REFORMS DEMANDED FROM THE PAPAL GOVERNMENT. 
 
 THE QUESTION OF RIGHT 450 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 SINCE the memorable day when Pope Pius IX. inau- 
 gurated liis reign by setting an example of reform to the 
 different princes of the Italian peninsula, the temporal 
 sovereignty of that great and holy Pontiff has been twice 
 attacked. In 1849, at Rome, by Romans and foreigners : in 
 1859, in the Romagna, by Piedmont. 
 
 In 1849, 'the government of the French republic interfered, 
 and the French arms soon reinstated at Rome the august head 
 of Catholicity. In undertaking this generous intervention, the 
 French government was actuated by motives both of gratitude 
 and of policy. Their gratitude was due to the Pontiff, whose 
 just and immense popularity had so largely contributed to 
 stamp a peaceful character upon the startling events of 1848, 
 and to secure a respect but rarely displayed in revolutions, for 
 all that was honorable and sacred. The line of policy, too, 
 pursued by the great statesmen who then governed France, was 
 fundamentally opposed to a dispossession, which, had it been 
 allowed to truimph, would have established an iniquitous 
 precedent, and endangered the liberty of conscience of all 
 Catholics, as well as the peace of Europe. The prince president 
 of the French republic himself declared that " the maintenance 
 of the temporal sovereignty of the supreme head of the Church 
 was intimately connected with the liberty and independence of 
 Italy." 
 
 The Catholics showed themselves neither indifferent nor 
 ungrateful ; their votes testified, by millions, their approbation 
 of this spirited policy, and, during the last ten years, the 
 emperor, who has continued our respectful protection at Rome, 
 
X INTRODUCTION. 
 
 has had reason to admit that the gratitude of our hearts is not 
 unworthy of the favours we receive. 
 
 As the incessant machinations of the Italian revolution 
 obliged France, contrary to her intention, to prolong her 
 occupation, so, for the same reason, the Pope, though he effected 
 extensive administrative reforms, had to adjourn some of the 
 political changes he had inaugurated. Some may have con- 
 sidered our stay, as well as his scruples, too long continued : 
 that there was at least some reason for them, no one has 
 denied. 
 
 Such was the conduct of the government and the French 
 Catholics, in 1849 and the succeeding years. 
 
 In 1859, when the Roman states "were again threatened, not 
 this time by their subjects, but by a neighbouring power, the 
 French government decided not to interfere, except with its 
 advice, which Piedmont, though under deep obligations to its 
 ally, disregarded. It is not for me to examine or criticise here 
 the motives which suggested such a course ; but the Catholics 
 were not blind to the peril of these attacks, less menacing at 
 first, it is true, but really far more formidable, and maintained 
 in 1859 the same sentiments and the same attitude which they 
 adopted in 1849. They felt that the more pressing the danger, 
 the more resolute should be their resistance ; that the call upon 
 their loyalty was more imperative, in proportion to the in- 
 difference shown in other quarters. Such were the sentiments 
 of the great majority of the Catholics. 
 
 The flagrant violations of right and justice which charac- 
 terized the earlier events of the Italian convulsion, at first, were 
 not positively alarming. Honesty and good faith, indeed, could 
 not see without indignation, a neutral, Italian, and pacific 
 sovereign held up as the agent of the Austrians, his neutrality 
 violated, and the war carried into his states ; and a nefarious 
 ambition masking its designs against him under the great name 
 and cause of Italian independence, the cause which he had so 
 faithfully and sincerely served. 
 
INTRODUCTION. XI 
 
 But, in the sequel, the religious faith and the dearest rights 
 of Catholics became involved. They saw that the hostilities 
 against the Prince must soon take the shape of attacks upon the 
 Pontiff When a portion of the states of the Church were 
 invaded in the name of principles which implicated all that 
 remained, when these principles were built up into a theory in 
 significant publications, publications immediately adopted as 
 their programme by the declared enemies of the Papacy as an 
 institution, in Italy, France, and throughout Europe all 
 uncertainty vanished, and to keep silence would have been to 
 consent. 
 
 The Catholics spoke out : and I myself, a bishop, felt it my 
 duty to protest. In so doing, I was riot serving my interests, 
 or my tranquillity : or to speak more correctly, I was securing 
 the interests and the tranquillity of my conscience. I was 
 certainly not consulting my taste. My taste would have been 
 not to break my peace, that laborious peace which is the life 
 of every bishop in his diocese. 
 
 Nor did I at first lend more than a partial attention to the 
 rumours of the assaults which menaced the Holy See. Such 
 was my love for peace and calmness, and so laborious my 
 duties, that I turned with reluctance to mark the symptoms 
 which foreboded a coming storm, though so ominous and 
 unequivocal that they forced themselves upon my view. Not 
 that I have ever shrunk from discussion, whether before public 
 opinion, which sooner or later yields to truth, or even before 
 the laws of my country, whose decision I have not shunned. 
 Such conflicts, though tinged with bitterness, serve a great 
 cause more effectually than silence and apathy : they feed and 
 trim those lamps, which, as good servants, we should keep 
 always burning. By fighting, though without success, we at 
 least save our honour ; by desertion, all is lost, and honour 
 more surely than the rest. 
 
 Still, I did not think myself called upon to speak till roused 
 at last by a crowning piece of audacity on the part of the 
 
xii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 enemies of the Church. My conscience would not be silenced. 
 The words, Tu es Petrus, et super hanc Petram cedificabo Ecclesiam 
 meam, again and again rose up before me. I saw but too clearly, 
 that the peril was not subsiding, but becoming imminent. I felt 
 that I must of necessity take my part in the toil, the turmoil, 
 the conflict. Silence was treason. Such peace would be of 
 the nature of that which elicited the divine malediction Pax 
 et non est pax. And then it was that I protested. 
 
 It was a consolation to me that I was not the first to enter 
 the lists : none of us held back ; the emotion was universal. 
 Never perhaps was there a more imposing demonstration of 
 opinion ; bishops, priests, laymen, the entire Christian world, 
 were unanimous. Not a single French bishop remained silent ; 
 and nearly three hundred pastorals show that many must have 
 thought it their duty to lay, more than once, before their flocks, 
 the perils of the vicar of Jesus Christ and of his Church. 
 
 The old champions of the Catholic cause showed themselves 
 more faithful, more devoted than ever. Even laymen of but 
 little fervour were moved. An explosion of eloquent writings 
 burst forth in France. Spirited and conscientious political 
 writers, with the freedom and self-possession which letters and 
 experience give, spoke the same language as the bishops. 
 
 As the temporal power of the Holy See concerns both 
 religion and politics, so politicians, as well as Churchmen, were 
 among the band of its defenders. The Papacy being the 
 greatest visible manifestation of the power of spirit, as oppposed 
 to matter, philosophers sustained it, in the name of spiritualism, 
 with all the ardour of Christians. We had on our side the 
 spirit of man, as well as the spirit of God. 
 
 The fears of the Catholics were frankly laid before the Corps 
 I. jislatif; respectful but energetic petitions were presented to 
 the Senate, though, unhappily, they received a very inadequate 
 consideration. Generous offerings were contributed, and humble 
 and fervent prayers ascended to Heaven, from every point of 
 the Catholic world. Vain prayers ! it has been scoffingly said : 
 
INTRODUCTION. Xlll 
 
 J'rovidence has passed to the order of tlie day 1 1 As if man had 
 penetrated the counsels of Heaven, and could infer from passing 
 events the decrees of providence as to the future ! As if the 
 Divine Majesty were tied down by parliamentary forms, and 
 disclosed in a day wliat had been conceived in eternity ! But 
 let us forget this unhappy speech. Already the Holy Father 
 has received unlooked-for aid. At his invitation, a chivalrous 
 and illustrious soldier, one of the glories of modern France, has 
 placed his name and renown at the service of the Pontiff. His 
 noble heart felt that in the service of the Church it is not 
 presumption to anticipate success, even when all seems lost. 
 
 Thus when the Father was attacked, the children resisted : 
 when t/ie head was struck, as an Irish bishop eloquently said, 
 the hands were instinctively raised to protect it. God was pleased 
 to give to those who sneer at the weakness of the Church, a 
 new proof of her strength. These imposing manifestations 
 created surprise, and even provoked irritation and suspicion. 
 
 Those were surprised, who, so long unused to demonstrations 
 of public opinion in France, which were discouraged by the 
 prevailing apathy, and thwarted by so many restrictions, least 
 of all expected them from the Catholics. These are generally 
 regarded as worthy people, naturally inclined to obedience, and 
 with reason : but their conscience must not be trifled with, and 
 it should be known that it is never far distant. They are like 
 certain genial and easily cultivated soils, where, however, one 
 must not dig too deep ; one comes to rock. 
 
 The surprise of some took the shape of admiration, though 
 indignation was the more general sentiment. I doubt whether 
 we ever received such a number of passionate affronts and in- 
 vectives. The injury they did us was trifling; but we were 
 grieved for the weak minds which are dispirited by such 
 
 1 M. Dupin's speech in the French Senate, 29th, March, 1860. See 
 
 Const-lint wn ncl, of April 7. 
 
XIV INTRODUCTION. 
 
 outrages, and for those who, already traitors at heart, only 
 waited for a pretext to quit our ranks. 
 
 The word seems to have been passed to treat the expressions 
 of Catholic feeling as party manoeuvres. There are feelings in 
 the heart which others may not have the happiness to share, but 
 which delicacy at least should enjoin them to respect. 
 
 At all events, a man who has passed half a century in this 
 world, can estimate the worth of this hacknied accusation. Of 
 course, parties seek to turn everything they can to account, 
 the parties who have the upper hand, as well as as those who 
 are on the defensive : but it would be puerile to keep silence 
 lest we may furnish them with weapons, for they know how to 
 make use of silence, as well as of speech. Granted that the 
 conduct of the French Catholics meets the views of certain 
 parties of whom they want to know nothing, has not that of 
 the government served the purposes of parties whom it dis- 
 owns ? Whenever, then, duty calls, we should act, in single- 
 ness of purpose, without examining whether we are indirectly 
 seconding or deranging the calculations of others ; for other- 
 wise nothing can be done ; our scruples will issue in remorse, 
 and, for fear of serving the truth injudiciously, we shall abandon 
 its service altogether. 
 
 For my part, I beg to be informed of what party I have 
 been unintentionally furthering the ends. While I respect all 
 sincere opinions, I am a stranger to all parties, and, concern- 
 ing myself exclusively with the interests of religion and the 
 honour of my country, I acknowledge, and mean to serve, no 
 cause but that of God, the Church, and France. 
 
 A party, indeed ! what is now at stake is the keystone of 
 the Christian world, the corner-stone of the European edifice, 
 the Papacy. I have just gone over the whole history of the 
 Pontifical sovereignty, and I believe that since the eighth cen- 
 tury, no more deadly attack has been made upon the Holy See. 
 I do not so much dread the acts of violence and usurpation, a,s 
 the principles invoked against it, and the novel and perfidious 
 
INTRODUCTION. XV 
 
 form in which the question is presented. At no former period 
 was it stated in its present form. It is not possible to reflect 
 on the doctrines now put forward, to listen to the views of the 
 revolutionary journals of France and Italy, and those of the 
 greater part of the English press, without being convinced of 
 the drift of the present controversy. There lurks a deadly 
 design against the Catholic Church, unknown to some, but to 
 the delight of others, under this great aggression upon the 
 temporal power of the Pope. Yes! the circumstances are 
 critical, the moment solemn. 
 
 I am convinced the juncture is critical, not only for the 
 Church, but for Europe. The whole of the fourteenth and 
 fifteenth centuries suffered by the removal of the Papacy to 
 Avignon : that fatal event was the occasion of innumerable 
 scandals and woes to Europe. We now see the most vital 
 questions relating to the Church agitated by journalists, and 
 summarily decided with a levity unequalled, unless by the 
 greatness of the danger ; and while the irreligious press dis- 
 cusses them, the revolutionary bandits march, and events suc- 
 ceed one another with frightful rapidity. I felt myself forced 
 into polemical composition, and I have endeavoured to make my 
 pen keep pace with events. I have had at once to accommo- 
 date myself to governmental measures, which fetter far more 
 the freedom of speech of the bishops than the articles of news- 
 papers, and to raise my voice, in detached and hurried publica- 
 tions, in compressed and incomplete arguments. But this is 
 evidently but a part of what such a grave emergency calls for : 
 a subject so important also needs ampler developments and 
 more satisfactory demonstrations. 
 
 Accordingly, having published pamphlets, I felt it necessary 
 to write a book ; having taken my part in the skirmishing, I 
 have sought, if possible, to build a rampart. Had I been a 
 party man, I should have contented myself with the uncon- 
 nected efforts I had already made ; but because I am a man of 
 conviction, I wish to furnish my proofs, and to give a warrant 
 
Xvi INTRODUCTION. 
 
 for my assertions. This work will have at least one merit, it 
 will testify to the profound sincerity of my preceding attempts. 
 
 Many reasons, indeed, dissuaded me from undertaking it. 
 It took me away from a more grateful task, a work upon 
 Catechisms, which I had begun for young people, with whom I 
 had hoped to end my life. To leave children for men, and for 
 the disputes of men, was not an agreeable change. 
 
 There was, too, the salvation of those souls which are com- 
 mitted to my charge, to whom I owe the word of life, whom 
 no interest, however elevated, can efface from my memory and 
 my heart, and who had a paramount claim upon me, vce miki 
 si non evangelizavero ! 
 
 I was obliged, too, in preparing for such a work, to examine 
 anew the doctrines involved, and, moreover, to undertake long 
 historical researches, which the weakness of my eyes rendered 
 doubly trying. I had to study afresh, in a particular point of 
 view, eighteen centuries, and more particularly the last fifteen 
 years, and the contemporary history of France, Italy, Pied- 
 mont, and England. 
 
 Nor was my toil uninterrupted ; unexpected combats awaited 
 me, breaches had to be repaired, more pressing than the con- 
 struction of my edifice. I wrote while I fought : with one 
 hand I built up the laborious structure of this book, while I 
 had to repel with the other numerous assailants, and attacks 
 continually renewed. 
 
 I will add, that the years of my life gliding away so rapidly, 
 the labours which crowd upon me, the close of my earthly 
 career which threatens to overtake me before I have done any- 
 thing of moment for the salvation of souls, the deep and invo- 
 Ir.nfury yearning for peace and calmness which haunts a life of 
 unintermitting toil, the dispiriting sadness occasioned by the 
 sight of the triumph of evil of the hardened blindness and 
 injustice of men, other sources of affliction besides, fatal 
 misconceptions, which it was impossible to avert and equally 
 impossible now to di^ipate, all these things would fain have 
 
INTRODUCTION. XV11 
 
 persuaded me that I was not called upon for more than my 
 daily toil, and the desultory efforts necessitated by the hourly 
 fluctuations of the conflict. 
 
 But profounder reflection convinced me that so great a cause 
 should be more effectually defended than by the animated pro- 
 testations which vivid faith and injured consciences might 
 dictate ; that it was worthy of more than fleeting words and 
 ephemeral publications. I felt that interests so paramount 
 and so enduring demanded something fuller and more elabo- 
 rate, a work, in short, which may, if it so please God, remain 
 and speak hereafter. 
 
 I may then say with St. Hilary, "I have written because 
 I was obliged," Coactus hcec scripsi. " I have expressed the 
 inmost convictions of my soul," Et quce ipsce credebam locutus 
 sum, I recollected, like that great doctor, that a bishop is not 
 only the disciple, but also the witness of the truth, Disci- 
 pulus veritatis, testis quoque veritatis. I have fought, because 
 I felt it was my duty to fight for the Church, Conscius mihi 
 hoc me Ecclesice stipendium mece militice debere. I have pub- 
 lished these pages because I owed to Christ the voice of my 
 episcopate, Ut Christo per has literas ejriscopatiis rtiei vocem 
 destinarem. 
 
 No one can say, at least no upright mind will believe, that 
 any human, narrow, or unworthy motive has guided my pen, 
 Nemo me aliquo vitio humance perturbationis ad hcec scribenda 
 arguet incitatum. If I have brought forward so many facts, 
 and appealed to so many principles, if I have pronounced, 
 freely, and I hope justly, a judgment upon so many men and 
 things, si vero universa hcec manifesto, esse ostendimus, I may 
 also say with St. Hilary, we have not gone beyond our apo- 
 stolic liberty, Non sumus extra libertatem apostolicam. 1 
 
 However, I know but too well that neither this book nor 
 
 1 S. Hilarii, lib. contra Constantium, p. 1247 ; lib. de Synodis, p. 1206, 
 edit. Benedict. 
 
 b 
 
XV111 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 any other will set things to rights : the all-powerful hand of 
 God alone can, and no man knows his hour. Alas ! humanly 
 speaking, we are far from having done with the Italian ques- 
 tion. The future veils its secrets here as ever ; but what we 
 can see is far from reassuring, and the horizon remains charged 
 with angry clouds. 
 
 Some may tell me, " Your views are two gloomy, you are 
 shortsighted, and do not see the skilful and judicious plans by 
 which influential parties hope shortly to unravel all difficulties ; 
 all will end well." 
 
 I do not deny that I am blind, or rather, we are all blind : 
 as Bossuet says, " The wisest and most powerful do either more 
 or less than they intend, and their plans, in the execution, 
 escape from their control, and produce unforeseen effects. 
 There is no human power which is not made, in spite of itself* 
 to serve ends at which it does not aim. God alone can reduce 
 everything to his will." 
 
 God has made us blind ; but we are blind men who can feel 
 their way, who cannot see the morrow, but have light enough 
 for the present day, enough to avoid, if we will, wrong roads 
 and dangerous precipices, and to walk straight for our journey's 
 end. To-morrow belongs to God, he alone knows its secrets, 
 and disposes of it as he pleases. Let us all do our duty to-day 
 in truth and justice, and God, to-morrow, will do the rest. 
 
 At all events, I trust that I have avoided bitterness and ran- 
 cour in this work. I pity those whom I condemn the most. 
 It is always painful to me to speak harshly, even when it is 
 necessary. If I have dwelt upon the unwarrantable prejudices 
 of a great and illustrious nation, it was to offer them a fair and 
 honourable peace. And I would particularly remark here, that 
 though truth has compelled me to speak severely of the descend- 
 ant of an ancient house, of a glorious and Christian dynasty, 
 which I had been from childhood accustomed to revere, I have 
 done so with heartfelt pain, and not without the tears which 
 the prophets of old shed for those princes who forsook the God 
 
INTRODUCTION. XIX 
 
 of their fathers, Lugebat tiamuel. . . . proplwta Domini In- 
 deed, Samuel was so inconsolable for the prince whom he had 
 loved, that God himself said to his prophet, " How long wilt 
 thou mourn for Saul ? " Usquequo tu luges emu I We find again 
 in the Scriptures another touching account of the grief which 
 the sins of priuces and the sufferings of peoples cause the 
 ministers of God. When Eliseus announced to the envoy of 
 the king of Syria that his master was to die, and he himself to 
 succeed him, " he was troubled so far as to blush, and the man 
 of God wept," conturbatHS est, flevitque vir Dei. Hazael said 
 to him, " Why doth my lord weep ?" quare dominus tmusflet ? 
 And he said, " Because I know the evil that thou wilt do to 
 the children of Israel," quia scio quce facturus sis filiis Israel 
 
 While writing these lines, I feel deeply moved by the recol- 
 lection of a circumstance, which I do not think delicacy forbids 
 me to record here, and which is not inapposite at the outset of 
 the present work. 
 
 I visited, some time ago, a desert sanctuary, in a wild gorge 
 of the Apennines, where the unfortunate Charles Albert, 
 after the disaster of Novara, and before taking a last farewell 
 of Italian soil, came alone and unknown, to kneel and meditate, 
 and utter a parting prayer. He had left his attendants in the 
 valley below, and arrived there alone, on foot, wrapped in his 
 cloak. He heard mass there, and received the Sacraments of 
 Penance and Communion, without being recognized by any one. 
 Then, having prayed for a long time, and left an alms for the 
 poor, he continued his way in silence, without again halting 
 till he reached Oporto, where he was to die. It was not till 
 after his departure that the monks found out who he was. 
 
 When the good religious who had heard his confession with- 
 out recognizing him, related to me this trait of his chequered 
 life, I felt myself deeply touched. I had known that unfor- 
 tunate king, and seen his two young sons a very few years 
 before ; he was even pleased then to give me a striking mark 
 
 b 2 
 
XX INTRODUCTION. 
 
 of confidence, which I cannot forget. I had remained deeply 
 attached to him. I could not picture him to myself, praying 
 before that solitary altar, in that trying hour, without compas- 
 sion. I approached the spot where he had knelt, with sympathy 
 and with respect. What had been the reflections which there 
 passed through his soul ? What petitions had he addressed to 
 the God of his fathers 1 From that mountain did he cast a 
 glance towards Rome ? Did he think of Pius IX, of his alliance 
 and his counsels, which he had refused 1 What were his im- 
 pressions before Heaven, of the past and the future of Italy, the 
 destinies of his family his son ? 
 
 I prayed there for him : then, sad and silent, I left that 
 holy spot, and slowly descended the mountain, along the 
 narrow path which he had taken, and occupied probably with 
 the same mournful thoughts as he ; and when, from the top of 
 the rock of Turbie, I looked down upon the vast and radiant 
 waters, I imagined him there, casting a long and last look over 
 the horizon, and beyond the Mediterranean, towards Oporto : 
 and the grand image of Yirgil occurred to me 
 
 " Cunctseque profundum 
 Pontuin aspectabant flentes." 
 
 He departed, never to return. 
 
 And I recollected with pain, the words applied in Scripture 
 to the princes from whom Heaven seems to withdraw its light : 
 Effusa est contemptio super jyrincipes : for they walk in devious 
 and fatal paths et errare fecit eos in invio et non in via. And 
 therefore we should mourn and pray for them. 
 
 ORLEANS, May Sth, 1860. 
 
PREFACE TO THE SECOND TAPJS EDITION. 
 
 The First Edition of this Work has been very rapidly 
 exhausted. 
 
 Whatever the favour of the public for its author, it is clear 
 that it is to the nature of the subject, to the ever-present and 
 growing interest of the most solemn question of our time, that 
 the success of so grave and extensive a work must be attributed. 
 Yes, the Roman question is, and continues to be, the most 
 interesting of all topics ; and, to the honour of the French public 
 be it said, that nothing has succeeded, as yet, in distracting 
 attention from it. The publication of so many books and pam- 
 phlets on the subject, has not created satiety ; even the strange 
 and lamentable events in Sicily and the East, far from causing 
 us to forget Rome, have only enhanced our zeal and our 
 anxiety. We feel that the end of the religious moral conflict 
 which agitates the world, can only come through Rome ; for 
 there is guarded the sacred deposit of the fundamental princi- 
 ples of order and justice, the neglect of which issues in the 
 terrible convulsions which appai us. 
 
 If any thing more ought to be said here as to this work, 
 written amidst so many other labours in the struggle, in the 
 breach, as I may say, I must attribute all its merit, if it has 
 any, to the conscientious efforts I made to treat the question in 
 its fulness ; to accumulate all the principles, reasons, proofs, 
 facts, and particularly authorities, which from all the diversified 
 regions of the political and religious world, concur with singular 
 unanimity, in sustaining the thesis I was defending. I had 
 proposed to raise a rampart ; it has been said that I have con- 
 structed an arsenal : I should be happy if the expression were 
 true if I had succeeded in storing up here all the facts and 
 arguments of the case, and if, in writing a faithful history of 
 the present, I had forged weapons available for the future 
 struggle. 
 
XX11 PREFACE. 
 
 I have intended tins work both to meet the present needs of 
 the controversy, and to remain as a text-book. It comprises 
 three distinct divisions : 
 
 The first, doctrinal, in which I have laid down the essential 
 principles of the question, the providential reasons, and the 
 necessity, religious and political, for the Pontifical Sovereignty. 
 
 The second, historical, in which I have endeavoured to corro- 
 borate those principles by facts, and by the history of ten 
 centuries. 
 
 The third, polemical, and adapted to present circumstances, 
 in which I follow the contemporary policy of the revolution 
 throughout all its phases, and demonstrate the ultimate and 
 fatal consequences, as to Catholicism and European society, of 
 the dismemberment of the Papal States. 
 
 Such are the contents of my book. In giving a new edition 
 to the public, what shall I add as to the present state of 
 events 1 I need, indeed, say nothing ; for events speak loudly 
 enough of themselves, and only confirm too well my arguments 
 and anticipations. Alas ! they prove more and more, that, to 
 my deep sorrow, I was right : each day that passes adds a new 
 chapter to my work, with a pressing, disheartening, relentless 
 logic, which outdoes my prognostications. 
 
 Since it appeared, the clouds which overcast the horizon have 
 grown visibly blacker and more threatening : evil has made 
 fearful progress ; the confusion, moral and social, grows daily 
 more inextricable : men, princes themselves, and national 
 assembles speak a language the import of which they do not 
 comprehend themselves, and we might aptly titter the com- 
 plaint of the old Roman ; Jawpridem vera rerum vocabula 
 amisimus. Those grand words, justice, liberty, religion, honour, 
 seem wih certain nations to have lost the sense once attributed 
 to them, by the conscience of mankind : and conscience itself, 
 appalled and paralyzed, seems to have been stifled from one end 
 of Europe to the other. 
 
 Words and deeds are equally unparalleled. England and 
 Piedmont, in particular, have so far confounded the best- 
 defined notions of good and evil, that nothing they do can 
 surprise us. 
 
 At Turin, at the very moment that Piedmontese ban-: 
 by Zainbi;mrhi, are invading the Papal territory, Count Cavmir. 
 tin- piiim- minister of the Crown, dares t<> speak openly in 
 Parliament, of the Papal hordes and of that Lumorlcu-re who 
 
PREFACE. XX111 
 
 has put himself at their head. It is now the Pope who has 
 been despoiled of a part of his provinces by Piedmont, and is 
 threatened with the loss of the remainder who is attacking 
 Piedmont ! " The Pope," says Count Cavour, " has recourse to 
 every means in his power to attack us." 
 
 What are we to think of this 1 For my part, I prefer Gari- 
 baldi. The revolutionary chief does not belie his character, 
 when with, impious effrontery, he calls to arms the Marches, 
 Umbria, the Roman Campagna, and Naples, to extirpate the 
 gangrene of the Papacy. But how characterize the speeches 
 of Count Cavour. 
 
 But here is another sovereign, on amicable terms with a 
 neighbouring country, who suddenly sees his states invaded by 
 thousands of revolutionary adventurers from that country. 
 Garibaldi starts from Genoa, to carry fire and sword through- 
 out Sicily : but Piedmont had no eyes to see him. Europe has 
 heard the protestations of Count Cavour, that he was not 
 aware of the departure of fleets equipped by Piedmontese 
 hands, hired with Piedmontese money, and starting from Pied- 
 montese ports, to fall, in open day and in time of peace, upon 
 Sicily, and sustain a rebellion in the name of Piedmont ; and 
 fresh bands are daily hurrying from every corner of Piedmont, 
 to'join the former. Garibaldi constitutes himself Dictator, in 
 the name of Victor Emmanuel ; he issues his edicts in the name 
 of Victor Emmanuel, King of Italy ! Yet Piedmont is igno- 
 rant of all this ! And truth and honour have still names among 
 men ! And Europe imagines that international justice and a law 
 of nations are still in force in the civilized world ! 
 
 We must add, that this novel public code makes its appear- 
 ance in Europe under the auspices and the too much dreaded 
 flag of another power, foreign to Italy, but the ally of all the 
 revolutions which now are troubling the world. England has 
 not done less, but perhaps more for Garibaldi than Piedmont. 
 English vessels protect the landing of Garibaldi. The Neapo- 
 litan cruisers capture two vessels laden with arms and Gari- 
 baldian volunteers ; Piedmont, backed by British agents, claims 
 these ships, and succeeds in having them restored. 
 
 The enthusiasm for Garibaldi in England breaks forth even 
 in Parliament. Lord Brougham declares that 999 Englishmen 
 out of 1,000 are for him ; and while money and arms are 
 forwarded to him from the ports of the United Kingdom, and 
 officers leave the British army to place their sword at his 
 
XXIV PREFACE. 
 
 disposal, the government proclaim illegal the subscriptions, and 
 recruiting for the Pope. 
 
 Soon Palermo surrenders to Garibaldi : 25,000 men capitu- 
 late to 8,000. After the capitulation blood flows even women 
 are slaughtered ; and then it is that M. Cavour, at last grown 
 weary of his official denials, rece/ves the deputies of Garibaldi, 
 and sends him envoys in his turn : then, too, he protests the 
 most energetically against any intervention in Sicily. It would 
 seem that what he is doing there himself, and what England 
 is doing, is nofc an intervention ! 
 
 The Sardinian chambers grant him a sum of 0,000,000, on 
 condition that he shall pursue " the militant policy which 
 brought Piedmont to Milan, to Bologna, to Florence ; and 
 which will conduct from Palermo to Naples, from Naples to 
 Venice and to Rome : on condition that the jewel of Sicily be 
 added to the Piedmontese crown, which has lost that of Nice 
 and Savoy." Yet all this is not intervention ! The King of 
 Naples is advised to negotiate with Piedmont ! He makes the 
 attempt, proclaims a constitution, removes his faithful regiments, 
 deputes envoys to Paris, London, and Turin ; meanwhile Gari- 
 baldi continues his work ; after Palermo, Messina falls, and the 
 massacres recommence ; the Dictator calmly orders disarmed 
 prisoners to be shot, to give " a salutary example," and to offer 
 a guarantee for the perfect freedom of the Sicilian suffrage ! 
 
 Such are the deeds which obtain for Garibaldi the title of 
 Liberator of Italy, and the moral support of free England ! 
 
 The revolution hurries onward : to-day perhaps it is at 
 Naples to-morrow at Rome. In the mean time it has its foot 
 on the neck of a king, who, isolated, abandoned by all, is 
 struggling in vain ; and Europe looks on ! 
 
 And what are we to think of the news which we have just 
 heard of an armistice concluded between the royal troops and 
 Garibaldi ? Every honest man sees that it is not peace, but 
 death, which is meant. Such a treaty is a worthy counterpart 
 to that which the Druses have just concluded with the Maronites. 
 I know not whether the events in Sicily or those in the East 
 make the saddest impression on the soul the massacres of 
 Beyrout and Damascus, or the fratricidal combats of Palermo 
 and Melazzo the connivance of the Turks, or that of 
 Piedmont. 
 
 One may trace at present in Italy the operation of the 
 inexorable law which decrees that chastisement shall follow 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 crime. I see there a revolution which abrogates justice, to be 
 soon, most probably, followed by a reaction which will extinguish 
 liberty that liberty which its panegyrists are forsaking for the 
 pursuit of a chimerical unity. "When is that noble land to be 
 delivered from this fatal circle 1 O generous, beneficent aspira- 
 tions of Balbo, of Pellico, and of Pius IX., where are ye ? When 
 will Italy repent for having scorned you 1 
 
 But while the common Father of the faithful suffers with 
 Italy, his children are massacred in the East. Europe delibe- 
 rates, and during her deliberations the extermination proceeds : 
 the blood of Christians cries out to us ; but the English cabinet 
 is deaf to its cries, and to many others too. Read the journal 
 of Lord Palmerston, and say if that Government is not dead to 
 truth and justice. 
 
 But shall France, who has so often fought for an idea, do less 
 for a duty ? Her Government has not held back ; and through- 
 out France a universal cry of approbation has greeted and 
 anticipated its initiative. Such policy may well be called 
 national, as we have pursued it under every form of govern- 
 ment, at all epochs, from Charles Martel to St. Louis, and from 
 the battle of Nicopolis to the siege of Candia and the recent 
 emancipation of Greece. Great and instructive lesson ! When 
 France, in her external policy, shows herself Catholic, the 
 universal sentiments of the country respond ; they proclaim 
 that she is obeying her duty, her noblest interests, and appear- 
 ing in her true character. However, the British Government 
 takes exception to her generous enthusiasm. What a contrast ! 
 England makes very light of the integrity of the rights of the 
 venerable old man of Rome (as he has been called) ; but she is- 
 jealous of any departure from precedent with regard to the 
 worthy Sovereign of Constantinople, and those Turks who are an 
 incubus on Europe. Yet perhaps we are mistaken in calling 
 her conduct inconsistent. If in Europe she is the advocate of 
 the violation of right and the abuse of force, of bloodshed and 
 of the oppressors of the weak, it is not strange that she should 
 take part with, not against, the barbarians of the East. 
 
 But enough on this lamentable subject. I am unwilling 
 that the impression produced by niy book should be one of 
 despondency and gloom. A Christian book should always inspire 
 hope. Let us, then, remark, before concluding, that the events 
 which are now agitating Europe convey a profound and en- 
 couraging lesson ; they teach us that no human prudence can- 
 
XXVI PREFACE. 
 
 annul the inviolable harmony established by Providence, 
 between principles and their consequences, causes and their 
 effects ; that the seed sown must bear its natural fruit ; and 
 that it is vain for men to expect peace when they have con- 
 temned and trampled upon justice. 
 
 There is in Scripture a text of consoling and celestial force, 
 which has often been my support in the conflicts which have 
 fallen to my lot. Expecto cceluni et terras uM Justitia habitat 
 I look for a heaven and earth where justice inhabits. Justice ! 
 she ought to be the queen of the earth ; but too often she is an 
 exile. It would be the honour and the happiness of men, 
 especially of the great, to cause her to triumph upon earth ; but 
 too often they tread her under foot. There is, then, no champion 
 to take her part but God ; but then it is that he rises in her 
 defence. At times he seems to delay. We must wait, accord- 
 ing to another expression of the Holy Scriptures, till justice be 
 turned into judgment donee convertatur justitia in judicium ; 
 that is, till she be publicly vindicated and triumph ; we must 
 wait till God himself arise and turn judgment into victory 
 donee ejiciat ad victoriam judicium ; but we shall not wait in 
 vain. God's time will come at last ; and his mighty hand will 
 straighten the bruised reed, and kindle into flame the smoking 
 flax ; and, when we least expect it, our hearts are consoled by 
 one of those special interpositions of Heaven which confirm, for 
 centuries, the supremacy of truth and justice upon earth. 
 
 OBLEASS, August Gth, 1860. 
 
Letter from His Holiness Pope Pius IX. to the Author 
 of" The Papal Sovereignty." 
 
 PIUS, PP. IX. 
 
 VENERABILIS FRATER, Salutem et Apostolicain Benedictionem. 
 
 Nihil jucundiusnobis contingere potest, in ea quani 
 gerimus misero hoc et luctuoso tempore totius Christian! populi 
 gravissima sollicitudine, quam intelligere venerabiles Fratres 
 Episcopos, tempestate saeviente, quasi in murum sereum stare pro 
 domo Israel, seque attentos ac vigiles in retundenda hostium 
 Ecclesise pravitate jugiter exhibere. Hoc igitur solatium 
 attulerunt nobis studia et contentiones tuse, venerabilis Frater, 
 qni strenue Sanctse liujus Sedis juribus et auctoritate ac pro 
 Ecclesise disciplina dirnicatus, tarn vera tainque proeclara de 
 civili nostro ejusdemque Sedis Apostolicae principatu scripsisti, 
 ut nullus qui hac nostra setate in hujusmodi operam incubuit, 
 videatur cum te comparandus. Opus itaque quod de civili ipso 
 Principatu Xostro mox exarasti ac typis superiore mense in 
 lucem publicam edidisti, perlibenti prorsus animo accepimus. 
 Tibiqtie propterea, qui tantam hac in re et immortalem ubique 
 adeptus es laudem multas iios denuo agimus et habemus gratias. 
 Deum optimum maximum et enixe precari ne desistamus ut 
 hostium nostrorum elidat superbiam ac consilia disperdat, atque 
 ut Ecclesise sua9 Sanctseque huic Sedi splendidum cito tribuat 
 triumphum. Te interim, Venerabilis Frater, prsecipua in 
 Domino Jesu Christo caritate complectiniur, atque omnem 
 animi et corporis prosperitatem ipsi tibi ab eo summis pre- 
 camur votis. Hujus auspicem habeas Apostolicam benedic- 
 tionem, quam ex imo corde depromptam ipsi tibi, venerabilis 
 Frater, atque omni tuse istius Ecclesise clero ac populo per- 
 amanter impertimur. 
 
 Datum Romse apud S. Petrum, die 27 Junii, 1860. 
 Pontificatus nostri anno XV. 
 
 PIUS PP. IX. 
 
[Translation.'] 
 
 VENERABLE BROTHER, Health and Apostolic Benediction. 
 
 Amidst the grave cares imposed upon us by the 
 charge of the whole Christian people, in these times of sorrow 
 and calamity, nothing is more consoling to our heart than to 
 see our venerable Brothers the Bishops standing up, amid the 
 raging tempest, as a wall of brass, in the defence of the house 
 of Israel, and ever showing themselves firm and vigilant in 
 repelling the wicked attacks of the enemies of the Church. 
 Your labours and efforts, venerable Brother, have afforded us 
 this consolation you who, after defending so energetically the 
 rights and authority of this Holy See, and the discipline of the 
 Church, have published such true and admirable writings upon 
 our temporal sovereignty, that none of those who, in our time, 
 have engaged in this laborious task, seems comparable to you. 
 We have therefore received with joy the work which you have 
 just completed, and published last month, upon the Pontifical 
 Sovereignty. We, accordingly, once more express to you, who 
 have thereby won the immortal praise of the universal Church, 
 our heartfelt thanks. Let us not cease earnestly to pray to the 
 great and good God, that he may bring down the pride of our 
 enemies, and dissipate their designs, and that he may soon 
 grant a glorious triumph to His Church and to this Holy .See. 
 In the mean time, venerable Brother, we embrace you with 
 especial charity in the Lord Jesus Christ, and beseech Him, with 
 all our heart, to grant you all prosperity of mind and body. 
 Receive, as a pledge of this, the Apostolical Benediction, which, 
 from the bottom of our heart, we impart, with the utmost love, 
 to yourself, venerable Brother, and all the clergy and faithful 
 of your Church of Orleans. 
 
 Given at St. Peters, at Rome, June 27, 1860. 
 The fifteenth year of our Pontificate. 
 
 PIUS IX. 
 
THE PAPAL SOVEBEIGNTY, 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE FISHERMAN OF GALILEE. 
 I. 
 
 ALL the works of God are characterized by wonderful 
 grandeur and simplicity ; and assuredly Jesus Christ dis- 
 played superhuman grandeur and simplicity when he chose 
 a mortal man, ignorant and obscure, as the supreme chief 
 of his immortal Church, the father of souls, the guide of 
 consciences, the sovereign judge of the religious interests 
 of humanity. He surely gave one of the most astonishing 
 proofs of his power, when he said to that man, or rather, 
 that grain of sand from the shores of a lake of Galilee, 
 " Thou art Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church, 
 and the gates of hell shall not prevail* against it." Tu es 
 Petrus, et super lianc petram cedificabo Ecclesiam meam. 
 
 One observes, in this singular play upon words, a touch- 
 ing condescension and familiarity, if I may so speak, in 
 the language of the Almighty. Meditating upon it, and 
 calling to mind the ages and events which the world has 
 since seen, the expression of Fenelon occurs to me : " The 
 words of upright men express what is ; but the omnipotent 
 words of the Son of God accomplish what they express." 
 
 So it was. It is now eighteen hundred years since that 
 weak creature, that reed, became PETER the rock on 
 which is built the great Church of the Son of God, and 
 the gates of hell have never prevailed against her. 
 
 For my part, I confess that this man, so wonderfully 
 conceived in the purposes of God, and so fashioned by his 
 power, the centre and foundation of the greatest of the 
 
 B 
 
THE FISHERMAN OF GALILEE. 
 
 divine counsels which lias been realized in time, so pre- 
 served by an immutable Providence, throughout the course 
 of ages, and amid so many tempests, not only excites my 
 faith and touches my heart, but is also the continual 
 wonder of my reason. I shall never forget my feelings 
 when I first beheld him, at Rome, in 1831, when, for the 
 first time, I saw the Vicar of Christ appear under the 
 majestic dome of S. Maria Maggiore. Deeply moved at 
 the sight of the common Father of the Faithful, and by 
 feelings yet more powerful, I said to myself, " That, then, 
 is the Pope the successor of Peter the Chief of Catholic 
 Christendom the mouth of the Church, os Ecclesice, 
 everliving and open to teach the universe the centre of 
 Christian faith and unity the light of truth, kindled to 
 illuminate the world, lux mundi that weak old man is the 
 adamantine base of a divine edifice, which the powers of 
 darkness can never shake the corner-stone on which the 
 city of God here below r reposes. I see before me the 
 mortal whose head is encircled by so many glorious recol- 
 lections of the past, hopes of the present, and plans of the 
 eternal future ! Prince of priests, father of fathers, heir 
 of apostles ; a greater patriarch than Abraham, as St. Ber- 
 nard has said greater than Melchisedeck in priesthood, 
 than Moses in authority, than Samuel in jurisdiction ; in a 
 word, Peter in power, Christ by unction, pastor of pastors, 
 guide of guides, the cardinal joint of all the churches, the 
 keystone of the Catholic arch, the impregnable citadel of 
 the communion of the children of God. ;; 
 
 And this marvel has lasted eighteen hundred years, on 
 
 arth, where all passes away! it lasts, not in the 
 
 midst of darkness and of nations slumbering in an eternal 
 
 infancy no, but surrounded by the brilliant light of this 
 
 civilization shining far and wide ; it lasts in 
 
 the vi of the activity of European nations, which 
 
 -ts and it resists the wit- 
 ness of men, the fatality of events, the instability of th 
 .-md, more than all, the natural woaknrss of those in whom 
 il, who arc but flesh and blood, ; 
 
 .-atcr or more ' 1* 
 
HERMAN OF GALILEE. 3 
 
 there not here manifestly a divine work, the sport, as it 
 were, of infinite power, Indent in. orbe tcrrariun, as the 
 Scriptures say 'r 
 
 Now, in this work, God has eternal designs in view : 
 it is to remain to the end of time, and its past duration is 
 to us Catholics a warrant of the truth of the oracles which 
 declare it to be imperishable. Let us inquire what are 
 the means and instruments employed by Providence to 
 accomplish its ends in this divine institution, to sustain 
 and preserve it throughout the agitation of ages, in inedio 
 annorum, as the sacred text speaks. 
 
 But before thus following the Papacy throughout its 
 long history, it is necessary to cast a closer glance upon 
 its first origin. 
 
 ii. 
 
 Modern science loves to go back to the origin of events, 
 and with reason ; to contemplate things as they first 
 appeared throws light on their nature and their con- 
 sequences, raises questions pregnant with interest and 
 instruction, and thereby excites the attention of inquiring 
 and reflecting minds. 
 
 The sovereign pontificate, like Christianity itself, and 
 like most things that are divine, possesses the double 
 attraction of the prodigious results it has produced in the 
 world, and the mysterious humility which surrounds its 
 origin. All modern civilization has sprung from it. It is 
 from the first focus of Christianity that has shone, and still 
 shines, upon humanity, the new and vivid light, whose 
 powerful influence we now feel even in spite of ourselves, 
 and which, however we may disdain it, is still the basis of 
 our moral life. What then commenced in Judea was 
 nothing less than the renewing of the old world, the con- 
 ception and birth of the new. 
 
 But the beginnings of such great things were singularly 
 little, strange, and obscure I may almost say, surpris- 
 ingly original. Nothing similar was ever seen or ever 
 said. It is both the humblest and the greatest fact in 
 history; and, whether one has faith or not, so lowly a pre- 
 
4 THE FISHERMAN OF GALILEE. 
 
 paratioii for the most stupendous moral revolution that 
 ever took place must excite profound reflections in every 
 thinking mind which seeks to account for facts. 
 
 We see these details so simple, so ordinary in appear- 
 ance ; yet their bearing, how comprehensive ! In the back- 
 ground of an immense picture, vast as the world, are 
 suddenly traced in silence a few feeble touches, imper- 
 ceptible lines which insensibly swell and brighten, and 
 soon, with an art ineffable and divine, have changed all 
 the perspectives, illuminated the whole horizon, and we 
 behold the picture radiant and transformed. 
 
 Does not this wonderful contrast disclose, to a discerning 
 eye, an unseen hand which disposes all things with infinite 
 force and sweetness ? At least, we cannot seek to trace, 
 in any more singular event, the divine action which 
 sooner or later reveals itself in all human affairs, and 
 which history must recognize, , or be incomplete. It is 
 upon this interesting study we are about briefly to enter. 
 
 in. 
 
 Home had conquered the world by her arms, and 
 governed it by her laws, from the shores of Great Britain 
 to the Euxine Sea, from the Pillars of Hercules to the 
 Euphrates. Her historians related with enthusiasm her 
 humble beginnings, and the wondrous course of her pro- 
 gress and her conquests; her poets sang with pride of 
 her sway reaching to the farthest confines of the known 
 world; her name was extolled to the stars impcrium 
 oceano, famam qui terminal astris ; and the unshaken rock 
 of 'her Capitol was an emblem of her eternal empire 
 Capitoli immobile saxum. 
 
 At peace with the universe and with herself, after so 
 many wars and intestine troubles, she was now sitting at 
 the feet of a master, wearied with her agitations and the 
 very weight of her greatness ; and one man, concentrating 
 in his hands all the power of the people and of the Senate, 
 alone representing the majesty of Kome, ruled the city 
 and the world urbi tt orbi. 
 
THE FISHERMAN OF GALILEE. 5 
 
 That man had played on the political arena a part 
 without a parallel. Having risen by treachery, duplicity, 
 and cruelty, he found it answer his ambition to make the 
 second part of his life a contrast to the crimes of the first, 
 to parade those virtues which charm a people, good faith, 
 moderation, and clemency : all had gone well with him, 
 good as evil ; he had seen his crimes triumphant, his 
 person adored ; and adulation rising into apotheosis, he 
 was styled a divinity, even during his lifetime. Praesens 
 Divus habebitur. 1 
 
 The contrasts of his own life, and the constant view of 
 so much baseness, had inspired him with a contempt for 
 mankind, and a sarcastic and universal scepticism : and, 
 his thoughts limited to the sphere whose centre he had 
 been, and to the stage where he had been the sole actor, 
 he died with these words upon his lips, accompanied with 
 a bitter and ironical smile, " My friends, the play is over ; 
 but have I not acted my part well ? " 
 
 Yet, still what a cruel stigma on fortune and human 
 glory the name of Augustus, with which flattery had 
 clothed his crimes, remains as the highest title to which 
 earthly ambition can aspire ; and his age, called by his 
 name, is reckoned one of the four famous ages of history. 
 So be it : such is the worth of earthly things. Those who 
 are dissatisfied with such a decision, may trust in Provi- 
 dence, and believe in a future world : to those who are 
 content with it we can only say that they are worthy of 
 it ; talibus dominis terra erat digna, the world was w r orthy 
 of such masters, and had no right to complain of them, 
 says, justly, St. Augustine, in his " City of God." 
 
 IV. 
 
 While, then, Augustus reigned over the world, a little 
 boy was playing by his father's boat on the shore of a 
 lake in Galilee, in an obscure corner of the world, the 
 
 Horace. 
 
6 THE FISHERMAN OF GALILEE. 
 
 meaiiest province 1 of a despised country. His name was 
 Simon,, son of John the fisherman. It was that child, 
 that fisherman's son from the lake of Genesarcth, who was 
 one day to succeed Augustus, after a new manner, in the 
 empire of Rome and of the world. 
 
 In the fifteenth year of Tiberius, the successor of Augus- 
 tus, this little boy had reached the age of thirty. Then 
 it was, Tiberius being at Caprsea, where history tells us 
 how he lived, that a strange voice was heard upon the 
 banks of the Jordan. An extraordinary man, of austere 
 and prophetical life, was saying, " Do penance, or you 
 shall all perish." "Art thou the Christ ? " he was asked. 
 He answered, " No ; but I come before Him ; prepare His 
 ways, make straight His paths, fill up the valleys of your 
 corruption, bring low the mountains of your pride." 
 
 Christ was, in fact, coming : He was already among the 
 crowd whom John was baptizing ; He even came, the type 
 of penitent and regenerate humanity, to be baptized as the 
 rest ; and as John the Baptist poured the purifying water 
 upon His bare head and shoulders, the heavens opened, 
 and a glory shone around Him. 
 
 Shortly after, as He was coining up from the desert, 
 John, pointing Him out to two of His disciples, said, 
 " Behold the Lamb of God ; behold Him who taketh away 
 the sin of the world." 
 
 Now, one of the two was called Andrew, and he was 
 brother of Simon, the son of John, of Galilee : " We have 
 found the Mcssias," said he to Simon his brother; and he 
 brought him to Jesus. Jesus gazing upon him intuitm 
 eum said to him, " Thou art Simon, sou of Jona, thou 
 shalt be called Peter." 
 
 Some days later, Jesus was walking by the sea of Galilee, 
 and saw the two brothers, Simon surnained Peter, and 
 Andrew, casting their nets into the sea ; he said to them, 
 "Follow me, and 1 will make you to be FISHERS OF 
 
 1 Can anything good come out of Galilee? y>:;n</;i!:7 
 ettef A Ji-wisli proverb. St. Matt. 
 
s'AX OF GALi: 7 
 
 And they immediately leaving their nets, followed 
 Him. 
 
 Such was the first apostolic vocation, such were the first 
 instruments of universal regeneration chosen by this man ; 
 still unknown in that world which soon was to adore Him, 
 as He walked solitary along the lake, His thoughts dwell- 
 ing on the race He had come to save, and gazing with love 
 upon the two poor fishermen, busy catching fish, ignorant 
 of Him and His designs. 
 
 They left all, and followed Him : and undoubtedly their 
 courage was great, their faith generous. Julian ridicules 
 them ; but I bless them for it, or rather I admire Him 
 whose word has such sovereign virtue to touch the soul of 
 man, whose hand, when He pleases, is felt to be the Mas- 
 ter's. Then comes the Sermon on the Mount, that sublime 
 and simple code of evangelical morality, the exaltation of 
 the poor, the compassion for those who mourn, and all the 
 new beatitudes ; and then those miracles, where, as Bossuet 
 says, mercy is still more conspicuous than power. Peter 
 and his brother, and all the disciples with them, feel their 
 faith confirmed j and Peter, always the first, soon proclaims 
 it, and receives for his glorious confession an unlooked-for 
 reward. The circumstance is memorable, and I leave the 
 account of it to those who were present : 
 
 " And Jesus came into the quarters of Cesarea Philippi : 
 and he asked His disciples, saying : Whom do men say 
 that the Son of Man is ? But they said : Some John the 
 Baptist, and other some Elias, and others Jeremias or one 
 of the prophets. Jesus saith to them : But whom do you 
 say that I am ? Simon Peter answered and said : Thou 
 art Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answer- 
 ing, said to him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona : because 
 flesh 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 l shall not prevail against it. And I will give 
 
 In the East the spates of cities where patriarchs, kinjrs, and 
 
8 THE FISHERMAN OF GALILEE. 
 
 to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatso- 
 ever thou shalt bind upon earth shall be bound also in 
 heaven ; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth., it shall 
 be loosed also in heaven." 1 
 
 Christ's meaning is now revealed : this was the sense 
 of the first mysterious look He cast on Peter, and of the 
 symbolical name He substituted for his original cue. He, 
 then, is now the foundation of a divine edifice he, mere 
 weakness and obscurity, a poor fisherman ! But he is 
 more than this : to this poor unlettered man, who, however, 
 believes in the love of God for men, in the kingdom of 
 heaven, and the divinity of the Son of God, is said, " I give 
 thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven ; " those eternal 
 keys, which by means of faith and grace, hope and charity, 
 the exercise of spiritual sovereignty and the virtue of Chris- 
 tian obedience, will open and shut the gates of heaven : in 
 short, to him is here committed all moral power, all reli- 
 gious authority, the direction and the tranquillizing of 
 consciences, and all that concerns the security of the souls 
 of men. All this is given to the humblest, the last of 
 men. For my part, jealous of the just rights of conscience, 
 and the true dignity of man, I must say that I far prefer 
 to see such powers in the hands of Peter the fisherman, 
 and in. those of his poor fellow-labourers, unarmed and 
 simple men like myself, than in those of the masters or 
 autocrats of the world, of a Julian the Apostate, of a Peter 
 the Great, or of an Elizabeth of England. The dignity of 
 my conscience, the liberty of my soul, the honour of my 
 life, and my feeble virtues, arc safer and more at ease in 
 the Church of Jesus Christ : I there find, to use the happy 
 expression of one to whom my respect and gratitude 
 would wish the full light which" his words contain, what I 
 most require here below " an authority before which my 
 soul may bow, and vet suffer no humiliation." - 
 
 judges sat in judgment, were used to signify the power. Since the 
 East was se| ;init<- i fVm the see of Peter, the ironical term, the 
 Sublime Porte, is thr unlv remnant of these ancient associations. 
 1 S. Mat. 16. M. Guizot. 
 
THE FISHERMAN OF GALILEE. \) 
 
 It is better as it is, for my weakness, as well as for my 
 dignity ; and I would repeat here the words of our great 
 Master : " I confess to Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven 
 and earth, because Thou hast hid these from the wise and 
 prudent, and hast revealed them to little ones/ 5 
 
 v. 
 
 However, the fisherman of Galilee must understand 
 that the honour imposed upon him is a burden ; such a 
 load will press upon his natural weakness ; lie must suffer 
 and groan under it. He knows not this at present, but 
 he will soon learn it. It is, indeed, but the ordinary con- 
 dition which the great gifts of God carry with them; 
 even earthly ones, as genius and glory ; but far more his 
 heavenly ones, only in them there is this consolation, that 
 they sustain him whom they overwhelm. 
 
 About eight days after, Jesus took with him Peter, 
 James, and John, and retired to a mountain to pray. As 
 he prayed his face became bright as the sun, and his 
 raiment as white as snow. Peter saith to Jesus, " Lord, 
 it is good for us to be here ; if thou wilt let us make here 
 three tabernacles, one for thee, and one for Moses, and 
 one for Elias." But, adds the Gospel, he knew not what 
 he said. The great Bishop of Hippo, commenting on this, 
 says : O Peter, thou desiredst rest ; but no, come down 
 from -the mountain and labour; have charity, preach the 
 truth, and so thou shalt gain eternity, where thou shalt 
 rest in peace Petre, in monte requiescere cupiebas : de- 
 scends laborare ; habere caritatem, pradica veritatem, et 
 sic pervenies ad ceternitatem, ubi invcnies securitatem. 
 
 O Roman Pontiffs, successors of St. Peter, it is not your 
 lot either to rest upon the mountain in the splendour of 
 your transfiguration, in the glory of the human diadem or 
 the temporal power, which time and Providence have 
 added to your tiara and joined to your 'spiritual power. 
 Doubtless you shall be kings, no Jews shall efface that 
 title from your cross; what is written by Providence is 
 written ; only your royal title will be read upon a cross ; 
 
10 THE FISHERMAN OF GALILEE. 
 
 your sceptre will often be a reed ; with it you will some- 
 times be struck upon the face ; your crown will often be 
 one of thorns, your purple a. derision: from time to time 
 the kings and princes of the earth will come to mock you. 
 So your Master would have it ; He has not willed that His 
 disciples should be treated differently from Himself. 
 
 "Who knows not the mysterious details which follow? 
 Peter walking on the water to go to Jesus, and as the 
 wind blew strong, being afraid, and crying out, " Lord 
 save me ; " and Jesus stretching out his hand to him with 
 these words, " O thou of little faith ; why didst thou 
 doubt ? '* 
 
 Another day they are on the sea; the storm rises, the 
 boat is ready to sink. Jesus was asleep; the disciples 
 awake Him with the cry, "Lord save us, we perish." 
 Jesus rises, commands the sea and the winds, and there 
 is a great calm. 
 
 Airain, Jesus enters Peter's boat, and says to him, 
 " Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a 
 draught." " Master, we have laboured all the night and 
 have taken nothing ; but at thy word I will let down the 
 net." He casts it, and it is ready to break with the 
 multitude of fishes. Peter, amazed, falls down at his 
 Master's feet ; " Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, 
 O Lord." Jesus repeats what He had said before, " Fear 
 not; from henceforth thou shalt catch men." 
 
 It was thus, by striking facts, and by simple words yet 
 of deep meaning, that Jesus Christ formed His apostles 
 and their chief, placing continually before their eyes pro- 
 phetical images of the perils, the tempests, and the future 
 of the Church, and of the divine assistance 
 which was never to fail her. 
 
 But LVter's most memorable les^m was to be the 
 
 n and death of his Master. On the eve of those 
 
 great and sorrowful days, Pet ; Jesus coming to 
 
 wash His feet, exclaims, "Lord, dost thou wash my 
 
 Jesus gives this profound answer; "\\hat I do, 
 
 thou knowest not now, but thou shalt her thou 
 
 shalt know that, as supreme pastor, thou must be the 
 
FISHERMAN OF (1AL! 11 
 
 servant of die servants of (Jod, and wash the feet of all 
 :hy brethren. 
 
 Soon after : <c Simon, Simon,, behold Satan hath desired 
 to have you, that he may sift yon as wheat. But 1 have 
 prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not; and thou, being 
 once converted, confirm thy brethren." 
 
 Sublime promises thus always accompany the sad and 
 solemn lessons he receives. 
 
 Afterwards, before entering the garden; ""Whither I 
 thou canst not follow me now, but thou shalt follow 
 me hereafter." Peter saith to Him, ""Why cannot I 
 follow Thee now? I will lay down my life for Thee." 
 "Wilt thou lay down thy life for me? Amen, amen, I 
 say to thee, the cock shall not crow till thou deny me 
 thrice." 
 
 Yet- surely, remarks here St. John Chrysostom, Christ 
 knew well whom he had chosen, and on what a frail 
 foundation he was building His Church. He had foreseen 
 all weakness, prevaripatiou, fall. Such things are in- 
 evitable here below ; it is but the undiscerning and the 
 short-sighted who are surprised at them. God, in all His 
 plans relating to man, and particularly in the foundation 
 of His Church, assumes as necessary conditions human 
 weakness and human liberty ; and this is the chief glory 
 of His works. Peter is a weak man, a fisherman ; his 
 successors are like him, and must pay their tribute to 
 human nature ; Jesus Christ knows it ; but what of that ? 
 Men are men, but the Lord is God. And honest minds, 
 seeing the extreme weakness of those who bear the weight 
 of the Church, will not say, God is not here, these are 
 but men, as we ; but, on the contrary, the men we see 
 are but of dust, therefore, God is here, and the work is 
 divine, because it lasts. 
 
 In the passion there is another secret for Peter ; the 
 salvation of the world is not to be accomplished in peace, 
 nor amidst human joys and prosperity, but in tears, in 
 suffering, and in blood. It is all important he should 
 learn this ; but to convince him of it will require great and 
 terrible lessons, and, most terrible of all, the lesson of his 
 
12 THE FISHERMAN OF GALILEE. 
 
 fall. Christ himself, the Man-God, at Gethsemane, His 
 soul, sorrowful unto death, falls prostrate on the ground, 
 and wills to taste, in His last moments, the sorrows and 
 anguish of humanity. At sight of the bitter chalice, in 
 His agony, what does Christ do? He prays. And Peter? 
 He sleeps. "Simon," said Jesus, "sleepest thou? couldst 
 thou not watch one hour?" And soon after, during the 
 first accusation of Christ, Peter denies Him three times, 
 at the questions of a maid-servant. The cock then crew, 
 and Jesus, from afar, looks upon His unfaithful disciple. 
 At this look, Peter wept bitterly flevit amare and his 
 tears never ceased to flow for the rest of his life ; so that 
 Christian artists have always represented him in tears. 
 
 VI. 
 
 But, wonderful to relate, notwithstanding his fall, Peter 
 did not lose his election and the apostolic primacy ; and it 
 could not have been otherwise, according to the unanimous 
 opinion of Christian doctors; it was necessary that he who 
 was to be first in the Church, the sovereign pastor, should 
 have a more profound compassion than others for human 
 frailty: and St. Bernard says this was the reason why, in 
 spite of his crime, and perhaps because he had fallen so 
 grievously, he continued supreme pastor " It was such a 
 pastor mankind required, because mankind is a great 
 sinner, and needs great pity." 
 
 He finds himself first the mercy he is to render to 
 others : " Simon, son of John, lovest thou me more than 
 these?" asks Jesus, risen from the dead. Yea, Lord, 
 Thou knowcst that I love Thee. He saith to him, Feed 
 my lambs. 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? 
 The Gospel adds, Peter was grieved because he said to 
 him the third time, Lovest thou me ? But it was fitting 
 that our Lord should thus persist ; it was a refinement of 
 the Divine goodness ; it was necessary, says St. Augustin, 
 
THE FISHERMAN OF GALILEE. 13 
 
 that love should generously confess thrice, what fear had 
 denied thrice. After this, all is forgotten. " Feed my 
 sheep pasce agnos, pasce oves" Thus Peter receives 
 anew his divine investiture, in presence of all his brethren, 
 and is again constituted pastor of the lambs and of the 
 sheep, of the little ones and their mothers, that is to say, 
 of the whole flock of Jesus Christ. 
 
 Finally, all assembled, they heard the last words of the 
 Saviour : All power is given to me in heaven and in earth ; 
 as my Father has sent me, I send you ; going therefore 
 teach you all nations ; and behold I am with you all days, 
 even to the consummation of the world. 
 
 " From that time," says Bossuet, " all is settled : Peter 
 always appears the first ; he is everywhere named first by 
 the evangelists and apostles. First in his confession of faith, 
 and first in his confession of love ; he is first in the elec- 
 tion of a successor to Judas, first in the solemn promulga- 
 tion of the evangelical law, first in preaching to the 
 Gentiles, first in the internal government and discipline 
 of the Church, first in the council of Jerusalem. Every- 
 thing, his weaknesses themselves, concurs to establish his 
 primacy. 
 
 A strange transformation, morever, has passed upon all 
 these men since the apostolic flame has descended upon 
 them; Jerusalem and all Judea resound with their teach- 
 ing. They soon find Judea too little; they divide the 
 world among them : and now in this mighty movement, 
 directed by Peter, whither is he led himself by an influence 
 evidently from above? In what place is to reside the 
 supreme authority with which he is invested ? What is 
 to be the seat of the spiritual sovereignty upon earth?" 
 Bossuet thus describes the road traced for him by Provi- 
 dence : 
 
 " Jesus Christ never speaks in vain. Peter is to carry 
 about with him everywhere, while preaching the gospel, 
 the foundation of all the churches ; and the road he is 
 to take is this. Beginning at Jerusalem, the holy city, 
 where Christ appeared, where the Church must necessarily 
 begin, in order to continue the succession of the people of 
 
1-1 THE FISHERMAN OF GALILEE. 
 
 God, whence Peter used to visit all the churches and confirm 
 them in the faith, whither Paul is to come to see him, to 
 contemplate and study him, to recognize him, says St. 
 Chrysostom, as greater than himself, as well as before him 
 in time, so that it might be for ever settled, that, however 
 holy and learned one may be, were one a second Paul, one 
 must still look to Peter; beginning with this holy city, and 
 then passing to Antioch, the metropolis of the East, the most 
 illustrious Church in the world, in that the name of Chris- 
 tian originated there ; to Antioch, of which St. Paul, who 
 had preached the faith there, regards Peter as the pastor; 
 through these two cities, so peculiarly distinguished in 
 the Christian Church, Peter had yet to reach a city still 
 more illustrious Rome, the capital of idolatry as well as 
 of the empire, but which, being predestined to become the 
 capital of religion and the church, is for this reason to 
 become St. Peter's own Church ; this is where he must 
 arrive after Antioch and Jerusalem." 
 
 I have nothing to add to the grandeur, the clearness, 
 and the depth of these words; yet, before concluding, I 
 cannot avoid reflecting on the first obscure entry of the 
 fisherman of Galilee into Rome ; who would have said, 
 to see him passing unobserved, among the crowd, along 
 the Via Sacra, surrounded by superb buildings and cele- 
 brated temples, a wooden cross under his Jewish robe, 
 that there was the future successor of the masters of the 
 world, and that the unknown God whom he announced, 
 the crucified, would soon reign upon the Capitol, having 
 dethroned the Cresars and all the gods. Still all this ^ 
 to happen. Capitoline Jupiter has fallen; the Caesars arc 
 no more ; Rome has seen the end of the eternal empire 
 promised by her poets; and if she is still a great name 
 upon earth, she owes it to that fisherman, who came to 
 knock at he. ith his traveller's staff, repaying her 
 
 hospitality with the cross of Calvary, and witli a r. 
 empire, the immortal and universal empire of souls. 
 
 iat that hospital r how Rome receive*', tin 
 
 apostolical sovereignty, is no secret. Nero thought to 
 cut it down at a blow, when he fastened Peter to a cross 
 
THE PRESENT STATE OF THE QUESTION. 15 
 
 with his head do \vn\vards, at the same moment that Paul's 
 head fell beneath the sword. But imperial cruelty con- 
 curred, in spite of itself, 'in the execution of the divine 
 plan. By raising Peter upon the cross, Nero fixed for 
 ever at Rome the sovereignty he dreaded. Home, which 
 Providence had made the seat of the fisherman of Galilee, 
 which witnessed his death and received his venerable 
 dust, acquired thereby the right to preserve his chair. 
 That chair of Peter still exists, after so many centuries, 
 and continues, under the divine protection., there where 
 Peter himself had brought it, and fixed it by his death; 
 there where he left his sacred bones, when he had given 
 his Master the greatest of all proofs of his love. 
 
 "It is thus/ 7 to conclude in Bossuet's words, "that the 
 eternal chair, the principal principality was elevated and 
 fixed at Home ; the mother Church whose hand guides all 
 other churches ; the head of the episcopate, the centre of 
 government ; the one only chair in which unity is safe : 
 it is there that Peter remains for ever in his successors, 
 the chief of Catholic bishops and the foundation of the 
 faithful." 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE PRESENT STATE OF THE QUESTION. 
 I. 
 
 EVEN those who have not the faith, and do not consider 
 as divine the spiritual power with which the Koman Pontiff 
 is invested, must confess that its origin is extraordinary ; 
 and that, in fact, it was the fisherman of Galilee who 
 
 1 "In these words," adds Bossuet, " you hear the joint opinion 
 of the East and the West." S. Aug. epist. 13. S'. Iren. iii. 3. 
 S. Cypr. epist. 55. Tlitod. ep. ad Ren. 116. S. Avit. ep. ad Faust. 
 S. Prosper, Carmen de Ingr. cap. 2. 
 
16 THE PRESENT STATE OF THE QUESTION. 
 
 brought to Rome the apostleship of the Gospel, and the 
 Christian faith, which has shone from thence upon the 
 world for so many centuries. The Pope is the successor 
 of this wondrous fisherman : and Pius IX., the reigning 
 Pope, is really the spiritual sovereign of two hundred 
 millions of souls, scattered over the globe, as well in the 
 midst of the infidels as in Christian countries ; among 
 schismatical and Protestant nations as among Catholic; 
 who all look to him as the supreme judge of their religious 
 faith, and the guide of their conscience : such is the pro- 
 digious fact introduced into the world by Peter the fisher- 
 man. 
 
 This vast moral authority, unparalleled in the world, 
 this spiritual and universal sovereignty exists, and it has 
 sprung from the humble and imperceptible origin we have 
 been tracing; so much is historical. 
 
 This power required an abode, a residence, a seat of 
 some kind here below. The Christian Church is not a 
 vague speculative idea; it was intended to be a living fact, 
 a real society, having consequently at its head a real 
 power, which speaks and governs, and therefore subject to 
 the conditions of other human affairs, the conditions of 
 time and space. Where is to be this abode? We have 
 seen that the place chosen by Peter, or rather by Him 
 who guided him unknown to himself, was the seat of that 
 Roman sovereignty which the whole world obeyed; the 
 centre of all the lights of ancient civilization, and of the 
 imposing organization of the imperial power : doubtless 
 Peter's choice, if it was his, was a singularly bold one. 
 
 The question which at first presented itself, and has 
 done so several times since, and which is still the question 
 at the present moment, is, what is to be, in the place of 
 its abode, the external condition of this spiritual power ? 
 What is to be the manner of its visible, terrestrial exist- 
 ence? What means, what instruments will God employ 
 to guide it to its end, to enable it to accomplish its work, 
 tp sustain and preserve it in life and activity during the 
 whole course of time ? The answer is as simple as jt is 
 indisputable : God sustains, preserves, and perpetuates it, 
 
THE PRESENT STATE OF THE QUESTION. 37 
 
 according to His uniform mode of action, by human 
 means co-operating with His powerful and supernatural 
 assistance ; the idea, the work, are from heaven ; the in- 
 struments are, in part, of the earth : such is the secret of 
 the divine economy. 
 
 This is, moreover, God's uniform mode of action. It 
 may be unhesitatingly laid down as a principle, that, 
 miracles not being the ordinary rule of the divine govern- 
 ment, the ordinary, regular, normal means employed by 
 God to establish the spiritual power in the world, to main- 
 tain it firm and respected, to prepare for it a due influence, 
 and to render its action free and fruitful, will not be a 
 continual derogation from the laws which regulate the 
 moral world, but a visible application of those laws, joined 
 to the invisible support of His omnipotence. 
 
 The analogy of the most remarkable of God's works, 
 together with universal history, attest the truth of this 
 principle. 
 
 God has wrought two works of primary importance in 
 this world ; the Creation and the Redemption. He 
 wrought both himself by the direct intervention of His 
 sovereign power ; but to perpetuate them, He makes use 
 of His creatures. 
 
 Thus He perpetuates the Creation by the institution of 
 families, by the lawful and sacred union of man and woman. 
 
 So also by an organized and permanent institution, the 
 Christian priesthood and its supreme chief, who is tke 
 guardian, the doctor, and minister of truth, of morality, 
 and of the Catholic worship, the teaching, the sacrifice, 
 and the benefits of redemption are continued. But God 
 has clothed men, not angels, with this priesthood and this 
 power; the external means He employs in this divine 
 work are human, simple, vulgar in appearance; natural 
 means, and not miracles. 
 
 Doubtless there is always present a secret intervention 
 of Providence, concealed under the operation of second 
 causes, distinct both from human means and from visible 
 miracles; not, strictly speaking, miraculous. 
 
 If I were asked : Humanly speaking, considering 
 
 c 
 
18 THE PRESENT STATE OF THE QUESTION. 
 
 only ordinary causes and probabilities, can the Church 
 subsist? I should answer, no. Means human, visible, 
 foreseen, are clearly insufficient to save her. She is saved 
 by the unforeseen, the accidental, as men speak ; that is, 
 by the intervention, more or less secret, 'of Providence ; 
 by a sort of latent miracle continually renewed ; but not 
 a miracle properly so called ; and it is always true that 
 God's mode of government is not by prodigies, but by 
 laws; laws from which He departs when He pleases, and a 
 miracle results. But He usually governs by law, sustained 
 by the secret action of His ordinary Providence; the law 
 follows its course, but He incessantly superintends its 
 working and its effects. 
 
 If God governed the world, even in the spiritual order, 
 by constant and palpable miracles, He would destroy, in 
 some degree, for us the merit, and for Himself the homage 
 of our liberty. The moral world would be subjected to 
 an impulsive force which would savour of constraint, and 
 would resemble too closely the blind movements of the 
 material world. 
 
 God would not have it so, and if we may dare to say it, 
 He was right. It seems even easy to penetrate the reason 
 of this divine arrangement. In fact, if God's action only 
 manifested itself in a continual derogation from His own 
 laws, there would exist no longer the beautiful calmness of 
 order, the peace, according to St. Augustin, of the works 
 of (iod and of the world Pax est tra-HquiUitds ordin'is. 
 
 There would be, as St. Ambrose says, more miracles, 
 but also less mercy. It may even be asserted, in the case 
 we are considering, that a perpetual miracle would not 
 reveal a "Tenter power; for, on the one hand, in the his- 
 tory of the (,'hurch, the miracle of the divine assistance, 
 though its operation be hidden, is nevertheless to be dis- 
 cerned by an attentive eye; und, on the other, tlie means 
 employed by (Iod are >o feeble, so vulgar, so contemptible 
 to human wisdom nijlnna, yii'liu. centemptibiHti* that 
 
 1 1 CV; 
 
Till I'HKSl.XT STATE OF THE QUESTION. 19 
 
 the divine power receives from the very weakness of the 
 means it uses, the glory of a perpetual miracle. Thus 
 God employs virtue and genius in the service of His 
 Church; but learning grows vain, genius errs, virtue often 
 falters ; still the Church remains. 
 
 Thus too, the Church was established by a bloody 
 miracle which lasted three hundred years. Reversing 
 the order of all human institutions, it pleased God she 
 should enter on her royalty by martyrdom. For three 
 centuries, suspended between heaven and earth, without 
 human support, resting on -nothing in this world, crowned 
 with the double diadem of apostleship and sacrifice, the 
 Roman Church sent all her first pontiffs to the confession 
 of blood, and not one of them refused this testimony to 
 his ministry and his see. But when by this long and 
 terrible experience, God had shown the world that his 
 Church neither feared nor depended upon men, he changed 
 his plan, and allowed the Roman Church to acquire a 
 human government and sovereignty, as a sort of temporal 
 security and external protection against the agitations of 
 the world. 
 
 As he chose but once to change fishermen suddenly 
 into apostles; as there was but one Pentecost, when 
 the spirit of God bestowed the gift of tongues; the 
 ministers of religion having since then been forced to 
 study diligently, and to toil and strive to sanctify them- 
 selves, and to place at the service of the Church a learning 
 and a virtue laboriously acquired : so, after permitting for 
 three centuries that thirty-three popes should have no 
 duelling but the catacombs,, no throne but the scaffold, 
 he at length chose that the chief of his Church, the pastor 
 of pastors, the prince of all the bishops of the Catholic 
 world, should have a house at Rome, in the centre of 
 Europe, to shelter his spiritual crown, an independent 
 altar at St. Peter's whereon to offer the eternal sacrifice, 
 and a seat at the Vatican to proclaim the oracles of truth. 
 He chose that the spiritual sovereignty, which rules so 
 many millions of Christians, and reigns by faith over so 
 many consciences, should have a temporal power, humble 
 
 c 2 
 
20 THE PRESENT STATE OF THE QUESTION. 
 
 enough not to give umbrage to the great powers of the 
 world, and yet sufficient to secure the independence neces- 
 sary to the Supreme Judge of so many human beings, so 
 many different countries and interests, necessary, in short, 
 to the liberty of the universal guide of souls. He chose, 
 not only since Charlemagne, but in some degree since 
 Constantino, that this human means should serve to ac- 
 complish and perpetuate his divine work ; and nowhere 
 does his providential intention more visibly appear. The 
 popes, indeed, have never become unaccustomed to martyr- 
 dom ; there have been popes exiled, imprisoned, martyred 
 at all times. No ; for them the Vatican has not always 
 been a place of rest. 
 
 We consider that the liberty of Catholic conscience, 
 and the independence of Catholic truth, have been provi- 
 dentially linked to the liberty and independence of the 
 Holy See. And we are not alone here ; the greatest 
 politicians, and even the adversaries of the Holy See, have 
 thought so too. To speak only of recent times, the first 
 consul bore a remarkable testimony to the truth of this 
 principle. The heir of his name and of his power has 
 solemnly proclaimed and reiterated it. Long before them, 
 the great bishop of Meaux had taught it with all the 
 authority of his genius. We have seen the French re- 
 public, vProtestant England, and Catholic Spain, declare it 
 with one accord ; the schism atical autocrat of all the 
 Kussias, not long ago, did homage to this truth in the 
 person of the venerable Gregory XVI. Who knows not 
 that even infidel princes have sent ambassadors to the 
 Papacy? What shall we say, then, of the temerity which 
 would contest to the temporal sovereignty of the popes, 
 rights consecrated by so visible an interference of Pro- 
 vidence, and recognized by such homages on earth? 
 
 Still, this is what we are condemned to witness at the 
 present moment. 
 
 ii. 
 
 Yes ; at the present moment, this ancient institution, 
 which its undoubted necessity, its providential. origin, its 
 
THE rilESEXT STATE OF THE QUESTION. 21 
 
 past benefits, and its long duration, ought to render for 
 ever sacred and venerable to the whole world, finds itself 
 exposed, more than it ever was, to attacks, spoliations, 
 insults, and calumnies of all "sorts. One would imagine 
 we had gone back to the worst times. Everything seems 
 to presage for Home and the Papacy one of the most 
 perilous periods of their history. A plot, deeply contrived, 
 lurking in secret for a long time, but perseveringly fol- 
 lowed out, employing by turns subtilty and violence to 
 beguile peoples and to overthrow sovereigns, bursts forth 
 all at once and audaciously declares itself, pressing the 
 most opposite factions into the service of a far-reaching 
 ambition. Yet such is the strange excitement created by 
 the wars and political convulsions we have witnessed that 
 people seem scarcely to be aware of this. As storms 
 shake and strip the tops of trees, so revolutions and the 
 clash of arms agitate the heads of men ; the strongest do 
 not always resist such shocks, and the excitement they 
 feel strangely disturbs at times their ideas and their best- 
 founded convictions. 
 
 In fact we are shocked and horror-struck., not only at 
 the schemes of the wicked, but at what we hear said at 
 times by well-meaning men shocked and horror-struck, 
 but not for the Roman Church, not for the Catholic 
 Church. The Church has grown old amid combats; 
 nothing surprises her : persecutions, clamours, treasons, 
 novelties, everything is impotent against her, and un- 
 ruffled she sees the angry vraves break at her feet. This 
 new conflict, whatever its incidents or its duration may 
 be, for her will be but one victory more. But we are 
 terrified for the loss of souls, the corruption of weak 
 spirits, the delusions, the selfishness, the presumption of 
 some who are entering on a wrong and fatal path, for the 
 obstinacy, the blind prejudices, the ambition, and the 
 hatred which ingulf and hurry them along. 
 
 The temporary sovereignty of the Holy See has oppo- 
 nents who attack it only from inconsistency, presump- 
 tuous temerity and blindness. I am aware of this ; but it 
 has also mortal enemies who combat it with all the tenacity, 
 
.22 THE PRESENT STATE OF THE QUESTION*. 
 
 all the energy, and all the perspicacity of hatred ; pre- 
 cisely because they feel of what importance it is, especially 
 in the present state of society, to the dignity and the free 
 exercise of the spiritual power. 
 
 Here, as ever, according to the sad and infallible words 
 of our dear Master, the men of the age, " the children of 
 this world are wiser in their generation than the children 
 of light." 
 
 The atheists, the revolutionists, the anarchists, and 
 demagogues of all countries, feel that to effect most surely 
 the destruction of the Church and the ruin of Catholicism 
 (which they justly consider as the most insurmountable 
 obstacle to their designs), they must begin by overthrow- 
 ing the temporal power of the Holy See. Indeed they 
 make no secret of it ; they have expressed themselves 
 explicitly enough upon the point. 
 
 " The abolition of the temporal power," the most 
 famous of them 1 has lately written, " necessarily involves, 
 in the judgment of any one who understands the secret 
 of the Papal authority, the emancipation of the human 
 race from the spiritual power." Though there be in these 
 words a grave error, they show at~ least what the object of 
 these men is in attacking the temporal power of the 
 Holy See. 
 
 Manin himself writes : " As long as the Pope is sup- 
 ported at Rome by the French arms, we must not attempt 
 an insurrection ; this would be to fight against our allies ; 
 but if France should wish to overthrow the Pope, we will 
 aid her with all our heart." ' 
 
 How can people help seeing too, that it is not the Papal 
 power alone which is thus menaced, but at the same time 
 every power, which, like his, is based upon right ? Is it 
 not clear, that if sovereign right is vanquished in its most 
 august representative, the eternal enemies of all right and 
 order will soon have conquered it elsewhere, and that the 
 success of their conspiracy against the Papacy will be the 
 
 1 Mazzini. 
 
TII: or THE QUESTION'. 23 
 
 ;il of a vast revolution, not only religious but social, 
 throughout all Europe r 
 
 In its fanatic irritation against the Church, conservative 
 and political Protestantism does not weigh this sufficiently ; 
 and this is why wo see it at present take part with revolu- 
 tionists and infidels in their attacks on the temporal power 
 of the Holy See, hoping afterwards to ruin that spiritual 
 authority which is such an eyesore to it. Frederick, a 
 Protestant and an infidel, lets us into the secret of such 
 conduct, in a private letter to Voltaire : " We must under- 
 take," says he, " the easy conquest of the Pope's States, 
 and then the Pallium will be ours and the curtain will fall. 
 None of the potentates of Europe choosing to recognize as 
 Vicar of Christ a subject of another sovereign, they will 
 each create a patriarch for his own State. By degrees 
 each will wander from the unity of the Church, and will 
 end by having in his kingdom a separate religion, as well 
 as a separate language." 
 
 The predictions of Frederick the Great trouble me but 
 little ; the crowned philosopher of Berlin is not the first 
 false prophet of his sect ; for all that he says, I feel at 
 ease as to the immortal duration of the Church here 
 below, and of the Papacy, which is inseparable from it. 
 Still, these impious reveries contain a great lesson for us; 
 for the method they point out for ruining the Church in 
 Europe would be, humanly speaking, infallible, were God 
 not with her, were He to let loose completely the revolu- 
 tionary passions, and thus to allow an irrevocable maledic- 
 tion to fall upon European society. 
 
 There are others who would sacrifice the temporal 
 sovereignty of the Pope, as well as all the sovereignties and 
 nationalties of the Peninsula, to the great Utopia of 
 Italian unity. They feel that the Pope would not remain 
 as a subject in the place where he had been a sovereign; 
 they think his sovereignty, fixed there in the centre of 
 Italy, an obstacle to the realization of their plans, and 
 declare that the Papacy should limit itself to the Vatican, 
 or, still better, be banished from Italy, and even from 
 Europe, where there is no room for it, and go where is 
 
24 THE PRESENT STATE OF THE QUESTION. 
 
 it to go ? They see no difficulty these great political 
 geniuses have arranged all; the Papacy is to seek a last 
 refuge where its, cradle was, in Syria, at Jerusalem, or on 
 the shores of the Lake of Genesareth, or, if the East and the 
 ancient world will not have it, in the free republics of the 
 New World, in deserts where none will dispute possession 
 with it, at least, before it has peopled, civilized, and 
 enlightened them. 
 
 Some of my readers may be surprised at this ; but I 
 have stated nothing but what has been proposed, written, 
 and published. These brilliant ideas have been publiciy 
 produced ; they have been discussed in French, Belgian, 
 and Spanish journals, and to many a clever intellect they 
 have appeared an ingenious, at least, a pacific solution of 
 the Italian question. 
 
 The Pope exiled from Rome and from Italy ! The Pope 
 at Jerusalem, in America, or the islands of the Pacific ! 
 Ah ! doubtless he would always remain the Chief of the 
 Church, the spiritual sovereign of souls, the vicar of Jesus 
 Christ upon earth. And if the Romans, that people so 
 dear to St. Peter and St. Paul if the Romans, who have 
 already often fallen, or rather, been precipitated into 
 anarchy for they are almost always more weak than 
 guilty were ever to fall into infidelity, which, God for- 
 bid, the successor of St. Peter, then Bishop of Rome in 
 partilus wfidelium, would still be, on whatever shore 
 the tempest had cast him, the common Father of the 
 faithful. He might cross the seas, and, the Gospel and 
 Cross in one hand, the constitutions of the Church in the 
 the other, transport his sacred Penates to a town or a 
 desert of the New World ; but the Church, would voyage, 
 would land, and would remain with him, and we should 
 always say with St. Ambrose, " Ubi Petrus, Hi Ecc/esia." 
 Like* the sun, immovable in the firmament, that man 
 might seem to change place upon the earth, but undis- 
 turbed upon his divine base, he would still illuminate the 
 whole world ; from every region of Catholicity souls would 
 still look to him, and he would for ever have a right to 
 say, giving to grand words a still grander sense " Rome 
 is no longer at Rome; it is wherever I am." 
 
THE PRESENT STATE OF THE QUESTION. 25 
 
 It would remain, however, to inquire what Home would 
 ho, what Italy, what Europe, without him. We shall have 
 to treat these questions, whose importance, in a social and 
 religious point of view, is so strangely disregarded and 
 ignored, even by some who consider themselves religious. 
 
 For it is not only hatred, impious prejudice, political 
 passions, and a grasping ambition, which now menace the 
 temporal power of the Holy See ; we see also with sur- 
 prise some who ought to be its natural defenders abandon 
 it, or, at least, prepared to receive with singular resignation 
 its entire destruction, or its curtailment and social degra- 
 dation. It is only the Romagna, say they, only a province, 
 more or less. Such rash and deplorable sentiments, pre- 
 vail too extensively among the presumptuous and the 
 unreflecting. 
 
 There are pious people who are grieved by them, per- 
 haps, but not greatly scandalized. Some noble spirits, 
 who have foreseen all, and whom nothing surprises, dream 
 in their sublime zeal of a perfection for the future un- 
 known to the Christianity of the past, and see in the 
 troubles and temporal humiliation of the Papacy, a grand 
 horizon of social transformation opening upon Europe and 
 the world : if such revolutions apparently threaten the 
 interests of the Church, they know, or think they know, 
 that all changes will infallibly turn to the greater glory of 
 God and the good of souls. Chivalrous adventurers of the 
 faith, they courageously consent to the destruction of the 
 temporal sovereignty of the Pope. By its annihilation the 
 Church seems to them to renew her youth. Altars stripped, 
 chalices of glass, priests begging their bread, the Vicar of 
 Christ not having where to lay his head, a return to the 
 night of the catacombs all this seems to them sublime, 
 and thrills their soul with joy. Well, I, with my vulgar, 
 prosaic ideas, cannot consent to wish the Papacy all these 
 grand adventures ; and though I proclaim with joy it is a 
 Cross of wood which has saved, and ever w T ill save, the 
 world, I cannot think it expedient for Christians to go 
 back fifteen centuries, and for the Church to return on 
 her steps and be born over again : I prefer to see her 
 
26 THE PRESENT STATE OF THE QUESTION. 
 
 follow the path along which God 1ms guided her, the 
 course which his finger points out, and make use of the 
 temporal conquests God has made for her to continue her 
 spiritual conquests. I think, in short, that in the works 
 of God, it is wiser to study his mode of acting and his 
 intentions, and humbly to conform to them, than to im- 
 pose as rules upon him our fancies, however brilliant, or 
 to endeavour to shape his wisdom to the views of our 
 genius. 
 
 It is, above all, where the interests of the Church are 
 concerned, that we must beware of romantic illusions ; 
 that it is wise to return to the origin of things, and to go 
 by facts to consider them carefully, to catch their mean- 
 ing and their force, and to penetrate the important and 
 living lessons they convey. Of what use are reason and 
 experience, if not to put realities before us in place of 
 visions ? I think, accordingly, that it will be useful here 
 to call to mind the true principles of the question of the 
 Pontifical sovereignty, and whatever may be the prevailing 
 political and religious excitement, to study with my readers 
 the design of God, and the way followed by his Providence, 
 in establishing the temporal government of the Holy See. 
 
 The subject is a grand one ; the materials are immense 
 I can but make a sketch ; I will begin, however, humbly 
 determined to employ all the powers of my soul in the 
 service of a cause so great, so holy, and so unworthily 
 outraged. 
 
 Never, thank God, shall human events shake our faith 
 in the divine promises made to the Church. Never shall 
 our confidence in Peter's bark be troubled by the agita- 
 tions of the waves which carry it ; humble passengers on 
 that mysterious bark, our faith in the invisible pilot, who 
 sometimes seems to sleep during the storm, is unchange- 
 able. Nay, it is when we see the Roman Church, the 
 dear and venerable Mother of the children of God, exposed 
 to the most terrible assaults of her long career, that we 
 feel most palpably whence; her real strength proceeds, and 
 what God can do to save her. The momentary tribulations 
 which sadden her onlv serve to call our attention more 
 
THE PRESEM 1 sTATi: O!< TilK (JTESTION. 27 
 
 pointedly to tlie solidity of the divine foundation on which 
 her wonderful structure rests. 
 
 But it is no less certain that, if the Church can con- 
 fidently refer to the promises of immortality she has 
 received, we should not forget the threats uttered against 
 ingratitude and injustice, and that we cannot sport with 
 manifest danger : it is no less certain that the Christian 
 faith is not irrevocably fixed to any of the places which it 
 enlightens, and that it has often left behind it a fearful 
 night to those who have despised the day ; that if Religion 
 has always repaired her losses by new conquests, those 
 losses have not been the less fatal to the souls that have 
 perished ; that for us French in particular, we have been 
 for seventy years hanging on the brink of a precipice ; that 
 the hand which has so often saved, and which still upholds 
 us, may at last be withdrawn : in fact, to speak plainly, 
 that all the greatest religious and social interests are at 
 stake ; that a fearful game is being played at the present 
 moment ; that to think we have nothing to fear would be 
 to forget too rashly what we are ; and that in every point 
 of view, the case should, at the very least, be gone into 
 radically and fully. 
 
 Now, the first principle, the first undeniably fact, which 
 meets our view at the outset of this inquiry, is that leaving 
 aside purely miraculous facts, on which no one has a right 
 to count, the liberty of Christian conscience, the indepen- 
 dence of Catholic truth, and the security of souls, have 
 been in the designs of God, providentially united for 
 centuries to the liberty and temporal independence of the 
 Holy See. 
 
 This much reason and history irrefragably demonstrate, 
 and this is the principle which I would ask my readers to 
 examine closely, before finally entering on perilous courses, 
 where none can be sure that in the hour of need the ground 
 may not suddenly give way beneath his feet. 
 
28 THE POPE MUST BE INDEPENDENT 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 REASONS OF GOD's DESIGNS IN ESTABLISHING THE TEMPORAL 
 
 SOVEREIGNTY OF THE HOLY SEE. 
 THE POPE MUST BE INDEPENDENT OF FOREIGN POWERS. 
 
 WHEN I thought it recently my duty to protest against 
 the odious attacks which threatened, and still threaten, 
 the Apostolic See, the following is the principle from 
 which I started ; and if I am to believe the innumerable 
 marks of approbation I have received, I may say, that all 
 Catholic consciences have declared with me : 
 
 That it is necessary to the spiritual security of the 
 Church, and to our own, that THE POPE BE FREE AND 
 
 INDEPENDENT ; 
 
 That this independence be SOVEREIGN ; 
 
 That the Pope be free, and that HE APPEAR FREE ; 
 
 The Pope must be free and independent AT HOME AS 
 
 WELL AS ABROAD. 
 
 This is what the gravest reasons demonstrate irresistibly; 
 and also what the greatest minds, even those the most op- 
 posed to what are called ecclefiastical pretensions, as well 
 as all true politicians, have always admitted. 
 
 i. 
 
 It is highly important to recollect, that when one treats 
 with the Church and with Catholics, with the intention to 
 respect their conscience and their rights, one must hear 
 them, learn what their principles are, and take into 
 account the laws, the essential conditions of their ex- 
 istence. 
 
 Well, the Catholics say unanimously, the Pope is, in 
 the spiritual order, our king; he is our father, in con- 
 science and faith ; his liberty is ours ; and none of the 
 great Catholic family, the members of the Church, bought 
 by the sacrifice of the Cross, should ever see him, who is 
 
OF FOREIGN POWERS. 29 
 
 for them the august interpreter of the law of God, and the 
 sovereign of souls, unworthily bending under subjection of 
 any kind. All consciences, all souls would suffer; the 
 faith, tl\e moral law, all the most sacred interests would 
 be in captivity with him. This was eloquently expressed 
 by M. de Montalembert, always the first of the Church's 
 champions in the breach on a day of peril, before the 
 Assembles Nationale, amidst the applause of the great 
 majority of the representatives of the nation : " The 
 liberty of the Pope is a condition sine qua non of the reli- 
 gious liberty of Catholics ; for if the Pope, the supreme 
 judge, the tribunal of appeal, the living organ of the law 
 and the faith of Catholics, is not free, we cease to be so. 
 We have, then, the right to ask from the State, from the 
 the government which represents us, and which we have 
 established, to guarantee to us both our personal liberty 
 as to religion, and the liberty of him who is jfor us the 
 living representative of religion." 
 
 It is in this point of view that the temporal sovereignty 
 of the Pope is not a mere Italian institution ; but, as an 
 Italian declared before the Assembles Constituante, in 1849, 
 it is "a European, universal institution in a word, an 
 institution of Catholic right" And in this sense, the 
 ambassador of France wrote with justice: "Rome does 
 not belong exclusively to the Romans ; }> or, better, as the 
 illustrious archbishop of Cambrai long ago expressed it 
 " Rome is the common country of all Christians ; they are 
 all citizens of Rome ; every Catholic is a Roman." This 
 is why observe, no other cause can be alleged the 
 outrages committed against the temporal sovereignty of 
 the Pope at present, have roused the entire world, wounded 
 to the quick all Catholic nations, and caused us all to utter 
 a cry of grief and indignation. 
 
 ii. i . 
 
 But the liberty of the Pope, in order to be real and 
 secure, must be sovereign. 
 
 ""Why," an Englishman lately asked an Irishman, 
 
30 THE POPE MUST BE INDEPENDENT 
 
 must your Pope be a king?" "Because," answered the 
 Irishman, " he cannot be a subject, and there is no 
 medium." This is clear. 
 
 No, the Pope can be no man^s subject, because we 
 might all fear to be in bondage with him. That noble 
 head, crowned with the sacred tiara, should not bend 
 under the yoke of any monarch. It requires an inde- 
 pendent- sovereignty. The persons least favourable to the 
 temporal authority of the Holy See, even those in whom 
 deplorable prejudices had obscured natural rectitude and 
 the purity of the light of faith, have rendered homage to 
 this truth. I do not intend here to take advantage of the 
 admissions of Protestants and infidels on this point. I 
 will cite at least one word of President Henault ; it is well 
 expressed : te The Pope," says he, " has to direct all those 
 who command in the universe ; consequently none of them 
 should have the right to command him. Religion does 
 not suffice to awe so many sovereigns, and God has justly 
 permitted that the common Father of the faithful should 
 maintain by his independence the respect which is due 
 to him." 
 
 Sismondi, still more disinterested than president Henault 
 on this point, agrees with him when he states : " The chief 
 of religion, if not a sovereign, must be a subject . . . The 
 administration of a state is, indeed, ill suited to a priest ; 
 but servitude becomes him still less. The pontiff-king 
 will, at least, be independent of kings, and by his courage 1 
 in censuring their faults, he will have his attention drawn 
 to his own." 
 
 AVe are justified by the best authorities in asserting 
 that the palrinrchs of Constantinople became the degraded 
 puppets of the Arian, Monotlielite, Iconoclast, and Ma- 
 hometan emperor^ 1 and were a revolting image of what 
 
 l " It is well known that since the patriarchs of Constantinople 
 became subjects of the sui: .. under Peter the Great, would 
 
 not submit to the authority of a patriarch novemed by the 'i 
 (J recce, also, after rc^.-iihin:; its iii<ie]>eiiijei:!v. ttou'ul not 
 
 lions of 
 
or roRKicx rowans. 31 
 
 the popes, the supreme chiefs of Catholicity, might have 
 become, or at least have appeared to become in the course 
 of centuries, had not God preserved them by a perpetual 
 miracle, or rather, had lie not provided by His infinite 
 wisdom and power the plan, as simple as it is powerful, 
 of an independent sovereignty, to secure the Church 
 which is mother and mistress of all others. 
 
 The sentiments of Fleury naturally occur here ; no one, 
 surely, will accuse him of being too favourable to the 
 temporalities of the Holy See : " As long as the Roman 
 empire existed, it comprised within its vast extent nearly 
 all Christendom. The Papacy then had a master, but he 
 was master also of the whole world. But since Europe 
 has been divided among several princes, if the Pope had 
 been subject of any one of them, it would have been to be 
 feared that the others would have had some difficulty in 
 recognizing him as the common father, and that schisms 
 would have become frequent. We may therefore believe 
 that it is by a special intention of Providence that the 
 Pope became independent and master of a state powerful 
 enough not be easily oppressed by other sovereigns/ so as 
 to be more free in the exercise of his spiritual power, and 
 better able to keep all other bishops to their duty. This 
 was the idea of a great bishop of our day." Fleury } Hist. 
 Eccl., t. xvi. 4th Disc., No 10. 
 
 in. 
 
 The great bishop whose authority is invoked by Fleury, 
 was probably Bossuet : I shall soon have to cite his power- 
 
 the schismatical Church in the Austrian empire are also governed 
 by a separate and independent patriarch. It is easy to understand 
 the political reasons which always induce governments to exclude 
 from their territory, as far as they can, an ecclesiastical authority 
 which is under the rule of a foreign po\ver. As to the Greek Church, 
 since its separation from the common mother, it has been torn by 
 intestine dissensions; its chief calls /himself pompously universal 
 (o KaQoXtKog) ; but this is but an empty title ; a just punishment of 
 pride and scnismatical ambition." lion, dc Lucca. 
 
32 THE POPE MUST BE INDEPENDENT 
 
 fill testimony upon this grave question ; at present I shall 
 content myself with relating a curious incident, and a 
 striking expression of the Bishop of Meaux, on a subject 
 analogous to the present. It will -prove how well the 
 so-called courtier bishops of the great century knew ho\v 
 to defend the dignity and rights of the Church and their 
 own, and to maintain their freedom of speech, without 
 disrespect for the authorities. 
 
 The Chancellor de Pontchartrain having proposed to 
 submit the charges and pastoral letters of the bishops to 
 the royal censure, Bossuet obstinately resisted the measure. 
 " I would sooner give my head," he writes. He says, in 
 a letter to Cardinal de Noailles, intended to be submitted 
 to Louis XIV., " They want to tie the hands of the 
 bishops in the most essential points of their office. I 
 will never consent to it." Louis XIV., who did not like 
 to be opposed, still commanded the Chancellor de Pont- 
 chartrain to yield. 
 
 It was Bossuet, too, who said to that all-powerful 
 monarch, " Sire, you have nothing to fear, but the very 
 excess of your power." 
 
 A similar incident has lately occurred in France, to 
 which I do not attach a greater importance than it calls 
 for, but which I mention because it throws light on the 
 present discussion. It has been thought advisable to 
 forbid the newspapers to publish the pastorals of the 
 bishops relating to the affairs of Home. Those journalists 
 who are every day attacking the Holy See, have not failed 
 to commend the exceptional measure directed against us, 
 and while they continue to insult the Church and the 
 Papacy, we have had to submit. 
 
 Does not this show what would happen, if the Pope, 
 instead of being a prince, was only a bishop? Does not 
 this show how he might be treated by the power whose 
 subject lie was? It would be said that it was all from 
 respect to him, and to spare him the insults of the irre- 
 ligious journals. Indeed ! But, enough of this ; let us 
 return to first principles, and from them judge of facts. 
 
Or FOREIGN POWERS. 33 
 
 IV. 
 
 For us Catholics, the Pope is admitted to be the uni- 
 versal doctor, the supreme judge of questions of Christian 
 faith and morality, the interpreter of the holy Scriptures 
 and the divine teachings; but to judge, to interpret, to 
 define, to approve, and to condemn, in a word, to be 
 able to accomplish the essential acts of this high spiritual 
 authority, he must be able to speak, and to speak freely; 
 there must be some point of the globe, a centre of Catho- 
 licity, a chair from which the Pope may speak and make 
 himself heard, may write and proclaim his decrees, and 
 where his hand and his speech may be as free as his 
 conscience. 
 
 Thought, doubtless, is always essentially free ; but speech 
 is not, it may be arrested on the lips of the speaker, if he 
 be in the hands of those who are interested in silencing it, 
 if he be dependent upon any who do not choose to hear 
 his words, or still less to allow them to be heard. 
 
 The truth is, that, in order that the Pope may speak 
 freely, that he may really be the tongue and the mouth of 
 the Church, os Ecclesice, he must have a house of his own, 
 whence to speak; and no police, no foreign constraint, 
 must interfere to silence his voice or to stay his hand, 
 when he writes his apostolic letters and addresses them 
 to all the bishops of the world; when he publishes a 
 decree condemning such an heretical work, or such a 
 scandalous proposition ; when he pronounces one of those 
 allocutions in which Jhis lamentations on the woes of the 
 Church warn all the faithful to lament and to pray with 
 him. 
 
 Doubtless the jealous policy of governments can always 
 raise barriers between themselves and the apostolic decrees, 
 but at least they cannot stifle the words of the Pontiff 
 upon the spot where they are uttered : a word once pro- 
 nounced, as the Attic poet says, is a light thing; and, 
 notwithstanding the weight it sometimes carries with it, 
 has wings and flies through the air. This is sufficient. 
 
31 THE POPE MUST BE INDEPENDENT 
 
 For us Catholic bishops, who cannot always have full 
 freedom of speech, it is important that the Pope be not 
 treated like us, and that his voice be always heard : and 
 this is important for every one, as otherwise Catholic 
 consciences are unsettled, as they were when the Pope' 
 was a prisoner at Savona and at Fontainebleau. 
 
 I am glad to render this praise to the French govern- 
 ment, that even when for reasons which it is not for 
 me to judge here they directed an exceptional measure 
 against the freedom of speech of the bishops, they ac- 
 corded due liberty to the allocutions and letters of the 
 Sovereign Pontiff. 
 
 I need not observe that the truth, even when captive, is 
 always the truth. St. John Chrysostom has expressed it 
 even better than Sophocles : " The divine word is as the 
 rays of the sun ; nothing can chain it, radius solis v'uwiri 
 nonpotest" Truth is sovereign, sovereign in the Mamer- 
 tine prisons as in the Vatican, and three centuries of 
 combats and victories have shown the world that Peter 
 can be free in irons, or a king in exile. But God lias 
 not willed that this prodigy, which, if it were needed, 
 would not be less wanting to the Church now than' 
 formerly, should enter into the regular course of her 
 destinies, and be the ordinary condition of the peace 
 promised her. It was an extraordinary remedy for pass- 
 ing and violent disorders, disorders which had to be 
 healed, combated, and overcome; but, as we have said 
 above, miracles are not here below the regular and- perma- 
 nent order of the divine government. The regular, normal 
 state of the Church is liberty with independence. 
 
 Moreover, it is not enough that the Pope be free : his 
 liberty must be evident; he must appear free in tin 
 of all, this must be known and believed ; on this point 
 there cannot bo a doubt or a suspicion. 
 
 He might be really free; but if he seemed, I do not say 
 oppressed, but simply a subject, if he were under the 
 
OF FOliKHJN 1'0\\ 35 
 
 authority of any prince of the emperor of Austria near 
 home, or the emperor of Brazil further off we should all 
 IK' injured and suffer from it; he would not appear to 
 us sufficiently free. A natural distrust would certainly 
 weaken, in some, the respect and obedience which are due 
 to him. The action, the will, the decrees, the words, the 
 sacred person of the chief of the Catholic Church, must 
 be always visibly elevated above all influences and alj. 
 passions, and neither jarring interests nor irritated passions 
 should ever be able to protest against him with an appear- 
 ance of justice. 
 
 Let us endeavour to penetrate here the vital part of 
 the question, the true nature of this supernatural power, 
 personified in the head of the Church. This power, 
 established for the good of all, has never to decree any- 
 thing which flatters the miserable interests or bad passions 
 of men ; it is the irreconcilable enemy of selfishness and 
 pride, which unceasingly are driving them to dissensions 
 and to revolts. Its honour and its duty, therefore, require 
 it to be free from the shadow even of suspicion, to be 
 always manifestly above all rival pretensions, all jealous 
 prejudices. Neither murmuring and discontented spirits, 
 nor those who are haughty and fiery, or weak and easily 
 scandalized, nor great minds which go astray, and whom 
 the Pope has to warn, nor kings who oppress their subjects, 
 and whom he rebukes, nor peoples who revolt and whom 
 he condemns, no one, in short, upon earth must ever 
 have reason to suspect the authority, the authenticity, and 
 the perfect independence of his decrees. Now for this, 
 sovereignty is indispensable; if the tiara were to bow 
 beneath any sceptre whatever, would there not be reason 
 to suspect the Pope of partiality and weakness ? Accord- 
 ingly there are no efforts, no sacrifices which he ought 
 not to make to rescue his authority from such a danger. 
 And this is confirmed by the example and the words of 
 Pius IX., who, when flying from outrages and violence at 
 Rome, protested solemnly in these terms : " Among the 
 motives which have determined us to this removal, the 
 most important is, TO HAVE FULL LIBERTY IN THE EXERCISE 
 
 9 
 
36 THE POPE MUST BE INDEPENDENT 
 
 OF THE SUPREME POWER OP THE HOLY SEE, WHICH THE 
 CATHOLIC UNIVERSE MIGHT UNJUSTLY SUPPOSE WAS NO 
 LONGER FREE IN OUR HANDS, UNDER THE PRESENT CIRCUM- 
 STANCES." 
 
 VI. 
 
 We shall only add to this unexceptionable testimony 
 one last consideration, a consideration pertaining to 
 Christian politics; we offer it confidently to those well- 
 meaning men, who, at least, admiring the Catholic Church, 
 if not sincere believers, do not wish to see this great moral 
 authority, the protectress of all others, shaken or degraded, 
 and who are alive to the real conditions essential to its 
 dignity, independence, and successful operation. Is it 
 not manifest to every honest mind, that if the Church is 
 to be respected, she should be elevated above, not only 
 private, but also above what may be called international 
 passions ? What I mean is this : since the fall of the 
 Roman empire, as Fleury remarks, Christendom has been 
 divided into a great number of states independent of each 
 other, some small and weak, others great and powerful. 
 Now, I ask, is it not absolutely necessary that the former, 
 as well as the latter, be assured of the complete impar- 
 tiality of the common father, and be unable to suspect 
 him of favouring any to the detriment of the rest ? 
 
 It is well known that the popes of Avignon were 
 formerly too dependent on the kings of France ; and what 
 sad and lamentable results ensued. " If the Pope had 
 continued at Avignon," says Miiller, 1 " he would have 
 become a good almoner of France, and no country but 
 France would have acknowledged his authority." Why, 
 too, did Henry IV. attach so much importance to limiting 
 Austrian influence in Italy? He had several reasons, 
 doubtless, relating to French interests, but also one which 
 was Catholic, " lest the Pope," says Cardinal d'Ossat, our 
 
 Mullcr, Hist, de la Suisse. 
 
OP FOREIGN POWERS. 37 
 
 ambassador at Rome, " should be reduced to the condition 
 of chaplain to Philip II." 
 
 What we demand here for the Holy See is not essential 
 only to the interests of the Church, but also to those of 
 society. The Protestant historian Voigt, in his work on 
 Gregory VII., praising the great character of that Pope, 
 says, " Even the enemies of Gregory are forced to admit 
 that the ruling idea of this Pontiff the independence of 
 the Church was indispensable to the good of the Church, 
 and also to the reform of society." 
 
 On the same grounds, one of the counsellors of Pius IX., 
 the cardinal archbishop of Fermo, has remarked, with 
 the most profound truth, that the sovereignty of the Pope 
 is necessary, not only since, as Fleury says, Europe 
 has been divided into a multitude of states, small and 
 great, but especially since the Church has begun to carry 
 the gospel into heathen countries, where the different 
 European nations, Catholic, Protestant, and schismatic, 
 vie with each other in influence. " Since, then," he says, 
 " the subjection of the Pope to a foreign power would have 
 necessarily been a source of political rivalry and of inter- 
 minable discord." 
 
 And it must not be forgotten that not only is Europe 
 divided into a multitude of states, Catholic, Protestant, 
 and schismatical, but the different communions are every- 
 where mixed together. Protestant England has millions 
 of Catholic subjects ; Catholic Poland is under the schis- 
 matical autocracy of Russia; the Rhenish provinces, West- 
 phalia, the grand-duchy of Posen and Silesia, are the 
 subjects of Lutheran Prussia. I do not speak of the 
 grand-duchy of Baden, whose sovereigns are Protestant; 
 of Hanover, Switzerland, and so many other countries, 
 where Catholics are mixed up with other communions. 
 Imagine what the Papacy would appear in the eyes of 
 Europe and of Catholicity, if the Pope were subject of 
 one of these powers, small or great, of the king of 
 Hanover or the Federal Council of Berne, of Queen 
 Victoria, the Emperor Alexander, or of King Frederick 
 William, who laid hands on the archbishop of Cologne. 
 
38 THE POPE MUST BE INDEPENDENT 
 
 Again, were the Pope the subject of a Catholic nation, 
 as France, Austria, or Spain, what would be his atti- 
 tude, what his authority or dignity, with regard to the 
 great heretical or schismatical powers, when defending 
 against them the liberty of conscience of their Catholic 
 subjects ? l 
 
 No, we must keep to the true principles which are 
 established by such strong arguments, and proclaimed by 
 sucli great authorities. Let us repeat with M. de Haller : 
 "The temporal independence, which is necessary to the 
 credit of religion, to the free, secure, and impartial exer- 
 cise of the spiritual power, is less advantageous to its 
 possessor than to the world." With Montesquieu : - 
 " Render sacred and inviolable the ancient and sacred 
 domains of the Church ; let them be fixed and eternal as 
 herself." Finally, let us say with Bossuet : "God, who 
 did not intend that this Church, the common mother of 
 all kingdoms, should be temporally dependent on any 
 
 1 ]\I . de Sacy, in the noble letter he has published on this subject, 
 says : " Suppose that this power was Piedmont, and there is 
 nothing improbable in the idea, the Pope, the chief of Catholicity, 
 is then a Piedmontese subject ; that is, he holds the same position 
 with regard to King Victor Emmanuel and M. de Cavour, as the 
 archbishop of Paris does with regard to the emperor and the French 
 ministers. The Pope, the spiritual head of 200 millions of Catholics, 
 u subject of Piedmont ! A subject of Piedmont, as bishop of Home, 
 invested with spiritual power over all Catholic nations ! He will 
 have lo send them legates or nuncios, and receive ambassadors from 
 them! In person, or by his representative*, lie is to come among 
 them to exercise the highest of all jurisdieiions ! lie is to govern 
 their consciences in matters of iaitli and divine worship, to institute 
 their bishops, to conclude concordats on a footing of equality with 
 their kings or emperors ! He has the power to strike them with 
 interdict or excommunication ! Does any one imagine that the 
 Catholic powers would I.-MIJT bear this, and that such a state of things 
 
 would not force them into sehism Js it not clear that 
 
 Schism, immediate, inevitable sehism, must result from this pre- 
 tended separation of the spiritual from the temporal power, which, 
 must make the chief of I'.itholieity tho subject of some power or 
 other r" 
 
 2 Esprit des Loig, 1. xxx. c. 5. 
 
OF FOItKlGN POWKKS. 30 
 
 kingdom, and who desired that the see which was to con- 
 stitute the unity of all the faithful, should finally be 
 placed above the partialities which jarring interests and 
 state jealousies might cause, laid the foundations' of this 
 great plan by means of Pepin and Charlemagne. It is 
 the happy consequences of their liberality which have 
 enabled the Church, independent, in her head, of all 
 temporal powers, to exercise more freely for the common 
 irood, and under the common protection of Christian 
 kings, her celestial power of directing souls ; and, holding 
 the scales even, in the midst of so many empires, often 
 enemies to each other, to maintain unity throughout the 
 whole body, sometimes by inflexible decrees, and some- 
 times by wise compromises." (Sermon on the Unity of the 
 Church.) 
 
 VII. 
 
 It is curious and I will thus conclude the chapter to 
 see how far the opinion of the first consul on the sove- 
 reignty of the Pope coincides with Bossuet's. It is thus 
 given by M. Thiers in his history : 
 
 "The institution which maintains the unity of the 
 faith; that is to say, the Pope, the guardian of Catholic 
 unity, is an admirable one. It is sometimes regretted that 
 this head is a foreign sovereign. He is a foreigner, it is 
 true, and we should thank Heaven for it. The Pope is not 
 at Paris, and it is well he is not; neither is he at Madrid 
 or Vienna, and that is why we suffer his spiritual authority. 
 At Vienna or Madrid they can say the same. Do you 
 think if he were at Paris that the Austrians or Spaniards 
 would consent to receive his decisions ? We should thus 
 be glad that he resides away from us, and that he does not 
 reside with our rivals : that he lives in that old Rome, out 
 of the reach of the emperors of Germany, or of the 
 kings of France or Spain, holding the balance between 
 Catholic sovereigns, always giving way a little to the 
 strong, but soon checking himself if the strong becomes 
 an oppressor. Ages have been necessary to arrange 
 matters thus, and they have been well arranged. For the 
 
40 THE POPE MUST BE INDEPENDENT 
 
 government of souls it is the best, and does the most; 
 good, of any institution that can be imagined. And I 
 do not asssert this as a fervent Catholic, but as a man of 
 sense." 
 
 These words are worthy of a great mind, which can 
 when it pleases shake off the narrow prejudices of the 
 times. Later, it was for not having always put in practice 
 these principles, and for having forgot the sacred rights of 
 religion, of liberty, and justice, that Napoleon found his 
 power begin to totter. It was surely a memorable strug- 
 gle, in which was seen the gentlest, the most tender of 
 Pontiffs opposed to the proudest and most violent of 
 Cffisars. But in this struggle, the peaceful combatant 
 overcame ; the rights of peace and sacred neutrality 
 triumphed over the imperious will of the conqueror; and 
 when Pius VII., menacingly summoned to declare war 
 against England, replied that being the common father of 
 all Christians, he could not have enemies among them 
 when the invincible Pope having thus spoken, rather than 
 yield, allowed himself to be outraged, expelled, and im- 
 prisoned, and, finally, commenced the long martyrdom 
 which England has too soon forgotten ; he was botli the 
 generous victim and the triumphant defender of the wise 
 and necessary principle, which places the Apostolic See 
 and its temporal power in a superior region of indepen- 
 dence and of peace. 
 
 In vain Napoleon had recourse to extreme measures of 
 severity; the brutal force of the warrior was overcome 
 by the unconquerable sweetness of the angelic Pontiff. 
 
 In vain, afterwards, Napoleon, attempting a theological 
 argument, said before all the bishops, at the Tuileries, to 
 M. Emery, superior of St. Sulpice : " I do not deny you 
 the spiritual power of the Pope, since he received it from 
 Jesus Christ ; but Jesus Christ did not give him his 
 temporal power. It was Charlemagne who gave him that; 
 and I, who am Charlemagne's successor, intend to take it 
 from him, because he does not know how to use it, and 
 because it prevents him from exercising his spiritual 
 functions. What do you think of that, M. Emery ? " 
 
OF FOREIGN POWERS. 41 
 
 " Sire," answered M. Emery, " your majesty knows 
 Bossuet, and loves to quote him for us often. These 
 words are his; I know them by heart: ' We know that 
 the Roman pontiffs possess as legitimately as any one on 
 earth, goods, rights,, and sovereignty (bona,jura, imperia). 
 We know, moreover, that these possessions, as being dedi- 
 cated to God, are sacred, and that they cannot be invaded 
 without sacrilege. The Apostolic See possesses the sove- 
 reignty of the city of Rome and the Roman states, in 
 order to exercise its spiritual power in all the universe 
 more freely and safely (liberior ac tutior). We rejoice that 
 it does, not only for its own sake, but for the sake of the 
 whole universal Church, and we wish with all our heart 
 that this sacred principle may for ever remain safe and 
 intact/ ' (Defence of the Declaration of the French 
 Clergy.) Napoleon was worsted and withdrew. Some 
 bishops, apologizing to him for the freedom of M. Emery, 
 the emperor replied, " You are wrong ; I am not angry 
 with the Abbe Emery. He spoke like a man who was 
 master of his subject. I like people to speak to me so." 
 On going out, he saluted M. Emery with marked esteem 
 and respect. 
 
 A few days after having borne this courageous testi- 
 mony to the papacy in its captivity, M. Emery died at the 
 seminary of St. Sulpice, at the age of eighty, happy in 
 that his long and virtuous career could not terminate 
 more gloriously for himself and his holy society, either 
 before God or men. It was a fresh confirmation of 
 Fenelon's dying message to Louis XIV., " Sire, I know 
 of nothing more apostolic or more venerable than St. 
 Sulpice/' Unfortunately, M. Emery's advice had been 
 asked too late. The Pope continued a captive,' and the 
 venerable society of St. Sulpice, dissolved by an imperial 
 decree, was soon driven from its peaceful abode, as the 
 reward of its inviolable devotion to the Holy See. 
 
 But let us quit this sad subject ; Providence has its 
 ways, which we do not understand. Every time has its 
 own trials and its own remedies. Strange to say, it was 
 the nephew of Napoleon, the president elect of the French 
 
42 THE POPE SHOULD BE INDEPENDENT 
 
 .republic, who, on the eve of his election, wrote thus to the 
 representative of the successor of Pius VII. : " The tem- 
 poral sovereignty of the venerable head of the Church is 
 intimately connected with the glory of Catholicism, as well 
 as with the liberty and independence of Italy." 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE POPE SHOULD BE INDEPENDENT WITHIN HIS 
 OWN STATES. 
 
 IT is, then, clearly demonstrated that the Pope, in order 
 to exercise freely and without embarrassment his spiritual 
 power, must be free and independent of foreign powers ; 
 but he must also be independent at home, in his own states, 
 that is, free from the control of sovereign assemblies and of 
 factions : this remains for us to study. 
 
 i. 
 
 Common father of the faithful, and king of the great 
 family of the children of God, he has been also appointed 
 by Providence father and king of a people chosen among 
 the nations of the world, of a city privileged above all other 
 cities. Like all temporal princes, and more than any, the 
 Pope has to study the welfare of his subjects ; he is bound 
 to dispense to them the benefits of a wise liberty, with 
 those of a regular and paternal administration. And as- 
 suredly Pius IX. has not b'jeu wanting to these duties: 
 when he was obliged, ten years ago, to fly from Rome before 
 a triumphant rebellion and the hands of Garibaldi, he 
 could, when he first touched foreign soil, have taken so- 
 lemnly to witness the city from which he was flying, and 
 the whole world with her, that he had done spontaneously, 
 for the true happiness and liberty of his people, more than 
 any European sovereign had then done. 
 
WITHIN HIS OWN STATES. 43 
 
 But order is necessary with liberty, the free action of 
 the supreme power must be combined with the regular 
 working of the constitution, to secure the prosperity of 
 the people ; and respect for authority must always be 
 the first law, if the public peace is to be maintained, and 
 justice guarded from intimidation. This is still more ne- 
 cessary at Rome than elsewhere ; not only the peace and 
 welfare of the Roman people, but the most sacred interests 
 of the Christian world, and the very maintenance of the 
 European equilibrium, require the temporal government of 
 the papacy to be independent of the yoke of intestine fac- 
 tions, as well as of the pressure of foreign powers. It is 
 evident that if the Pope were to suffer violence within his 
 states, if he were oppressed or intimidated by the caprices 
 of the multitude, or the schemes of turbulent parties, at 
 that instant the security of the Church herself would be 
 profoundly shaken : all Christian states who do not choose, 
 and justly so, that the Pope should belong to any power 
 but himself, would feel their liberty injured. If triumphant 
 rebellion is to be allowed, sword in hand, to besiege in his 
 palace the heir of the supreme pontificate and of the prin- 
 cipality which Providence has attached to it ; if, as we have 
 seen in our times, it is to be allowed, after having assassi- 
 nated his minister, to threaten to set fire to his palace, to 
 murder his faithful servants, and only to consent to spare 
 their lives on the condition of his forced abdication, and the 
 sacrifice of his inalienable rights, all would be over, not 
 only with the government of the pontifical states, but with 
 the security, the dignity, and the liberty of the government 
 of the universal Church. 
 
 We should, or at least might, then see a ministry born 
 of murder arid rebellion, speak, act, and decree in the name 
 of the sovereign pontiff; we might see covered by this sacred 
 mantle a hypocritical usurpation of the rights inherent in 
 the supreme authority of the Vicar of Jesus Christ; we might 
 see ecclesiastical laws made by a lay and rebellious assem- 
 bly, or rather by an anarchical and impious faction. We 
 might also see ritual ordinances proclaimed, contrary to 
 the ancient discipline of the sacred hierarchy and to all the 
 
44 THE POPE SHOULD BE INDEPENDENT 
 
 rights of the Church, bishops, priests, and religious pro- 
 scribed, or else condemned to take oaths reprobated by 
 their conscience ; we might see the education of youth 
 monopolized by systems subversive of parental and religious 
 rights. All these things would be anywhere great evils and 
 great scandals ; but at Rome the evil and the scandal would 
 be supreme, religion would be outraged in its most august 
 sanctuary, the last refuge of liberty would be violated ; and 
 the reason of these calamities would be, that the Pope was 
 no longer free, independent, and sovereign at Rome. 
 
 Doubtless the heir of Leo, of Gregory, and of Innocent, 
 the successor of Pius VI. and Pius VII., those magnani- 
 mous pontiffs who confronted with an iron resistance the 
 passions of princes, would in his turn encounter unappalled 
 the passions of the multitude : we know it ; martyrdom 
 would, if necessary, maintain the independence of the Vicar 
 of Christ, and his blood would protest against the usurping 
 laws and the sacrileges which men have vainly hoped to 
 impose upon him. 
 
 But what affliction for the Church, and what a scandal 
 for Europe, if things were ever to come to this ! if such 
 excesses were even attempted in the sight of the Pontiff- 
 king. How sad, if, embracing the crucifix, he were reduced 
 to protest against violence ; if the sovereign Pastor of souls, 
 imprisoned, were obliged, in some solitary garden, a new 
 Gethsemane, to drink, prostrate on the ground, the chalice 
 of his passion even to the dregs ! All this has happened ; 
 all this may again happen ; but it surely suffices, at least, 
 to show that the real independence of the sovereign is 
 necessary at Rome more than anywhere else; not only the 
 highest and most universal temporal interests require it, 
 but divine interests also. It is necessary to the Catholic 
 world that its spiritual head, its father and its king, be 
 respected. 
 
 And, if I need add anything to such powerful argu- 
 ments, does any one imagine that the liberty of the sacred 
 congregations which the whole Catholic world has to con- 
 sult, and, above all, the liberty of the election of the 
 Sovereign Pontiff, and the independence of the conclave 
 
WITHIN HIS OWN STATES. 45 
 
 which elects him, is of no consequence to the security of 
 the Church, or to the justifiable, imperious requirements 
 of ;\ll Christian nations ? 
 
 Does any one imagine that we can see, unmoved, rebels 
 and assassins surround the Quirinal, disperse the sacred 
 college, cause the Pope to die of grief, and prepare him a 
 successor ? Would it, then, be a sufficient consolation for 
 our souls to reflect that the papacy and the holy Catholic 
 Church possess the promise of immortality, and that, as 
 Providence always watches over them, we may set our 
 minds easy, and sleep in peace ? No ; we will humbly 
 confess that our faith is not so sublime, or rather not so 
 indifferent. We can believe, but we do not wish to tempt 
 God, nor to make light of the afflictions and the perils of 
 what is most august and holiest upon earth. 
 
 But, passing from these painful emotions and recollec- 
 tions, let us calmly examine yet more thoroughly the nature 
 of that spiritual magistracy which is called the Roman 
 Pontificate ; entering further into details, we shall see still 
 more clearly how necessary is its sovereign independence. 
 
 ii. 
 
 What is the Sovereign Pontificate ? What is it to 
 govern the Catholic Church, and what are the external 
 conditions necessary to the full and free exercise of such 
 a government? 
 
 To govern the Catholic Church is to correspond with all 
 the churches in the world, with nearly a thousand bishops 
 or vicars-apostolic who govern them ; it is to institute 
 bishops, to guard the sacred trust of faith and morals, to 
 maintain discipline, to define doctrine, to condemn errors, 
 to extirpate abuses, to labour for the propagation of the 
 Christian faith, to send missionaries of the Gospel and of 
 civilization into all climates, under all latitudes ; it is to 
 treat with the kingdoms of the earth, to entertain peaceful 
 relations with all courts, to make those concordats which 
 concern so nearly the harmonious accord between the two 
 powers : and at Rome, it is to relieve the necessities of the 
 
46 THE POPE SHOULD BE INDEPENDENT 
 
 people, to found and develop benevolent institutions, to 
 preserve the churches and religious buildings, to protect 
 antiquities and the arts,, to receive with affection the 
 Catholics of all countries,, and to exercise towards them 
 the noble and generous hospitality which becomes the 
 common father of the great Christian family ; for all Chris- 
 tians are citizens of Home, as Fenelon says : such are some 
 of the vast duties which the government of the Church 
 imposes on the papacy. 
 
 But, for the exercise of this great office,, for this universal 
 action, for these relations so extensive,, so elevated, and so 
 delicate, the Pope evidently requires not only liberty and 
 authority, but numerous coadjutors, adequate temporal 
 resources, and even something of splendour, I do not say 
 for his person what stranger has not been touched to see 
 the extreme simplicity which surrounds him but for the 
 sake of his office : and these resources must be independent 
 of every state but his own. Any dependence in this respect 
 would necessarily subject him, even in the government of 
 the Church, to trammels, hostilities, and vexations which 
 our respect for so high a dignity will not allow Catholics 
 to tolerate. Any kind of dependence, at home or abroad, 
 will inevitably reduce him to impotence and degradation. 
 
 No, it was never well, and it would be less desirable 
 now than ever, that the Pope should be protected or swayed 
 by Roman factions : I do not mean only the Colonnas or 
 the Frangipanis of old times, but the Rienzis of modern 
 days, the Cicervacchios, the whites or the blacks, the right 
 or the left of a national assembly. We can see but too 
 well at present what might happen in poor weak Italy, if 
 popular leaders became the protectors of the Popes, and 
 the Holy See were under vassalage to them. As M. de 
 ..Mnntalembert ably spoke before the Asscmblee Legislative : 
 "Whenever the line of conduct adopted by the Holy 
 Father even in the a Hairs of the Church did not give satis- 
 faction, what would happen ? The supplies would be refused 
 him, or he wmild be threatened with such refusal; any 
 Pope who would follow such or such a course in the general 
 government of the Church would be threatened with a 
 
WITHIN HIS OWN STATES. 47 
 
 refusal of the budget ; who would not, for instance, con- 
 demn such or such an order; we should see some orator 
 mount the tribune of the Komau Assembly, and prove the 
 incompatibility of such or such a religious congregation 
 with modern enlightenment." Nothing could be worse 
 for the security and dignity of Catholic consciences than 
 such an interior, domestic oppression of the papacy, than 
 this shadow of royalty, merely nominal, justly suspected, 
 and continually humbled and curtailed. " In fact/' con- 
 tinues M. de Montalembert, " Catholics would not know 
 how to act ; their position would become, iri some respects, 
 more delicate, more difficult, more painful than if the Pope 
 were the captive of some foreign power. Then, at least, 
 the Catholics would know with whom they had to deal. 
 But with a rival power by his side, they would be in con- 
 stant uncertainty ; his sovereignty would be divided, that 
 is, annihilated; the Pope would be nominally the king, 
 but really the subject ; he would be condemned to do the 
 will of others in the name of his own ; it would be for him, 
 as well as for us, the most false, the most equivocal, the 
 most terrible position." l 
 
 1 It is worth while giving the rest of this speech, pronounced 
 by one who is still an avowed partisan of parliamentary govern- 
 ment: "I wish," says M. de Montelambert, "first to establish 
 why and in what certain liberties are incompatible with the temporal 
 sovereignty of the Pope. It is not that liberty is in itself incom- 
 patible with that sovereignty. It has existed with it ; in the middle 
 ages very considerable liberties, local, individual, and general, 
 coexisted in the Roman states with the temporal sovereignty of the 
 popes, as they coexisted in other countries with the sovereignty of 
 the kings. But in these latter times modern democracy has estab- 
 lished a nearly complete synonymy between liberty and the 
 sovereignty of the people. Certainly this identity is not in the 
 nature of things, for there is very great liberty in England where 
 there is no sovereignty of the people ; there was great political 
 liberty in France, too, under the Restoration, when the principle of 
 the sovereignty of the people was not proclaimed. It is this prin- 
 ciple of the sovereignty of the people, which, as General Cavaignac 
 lias ably remarked in this chamber, is absolutely incompatible with, 
 the temporal sovereignty of the Pope ; and it is because people con- 
 
48 THE POPE SHOULD BE INDEPENDENT 
 
 I have mentioned concordats. Nothing is more im- 
 portant for the honour of the Church, the tranquillity of 
 consciences, and the peace of religion. The Sovereign 
 Pontiff has very lately concluded several most important 
 concordats : with Russia, on August 3, 1847 ; with Spain, 
 the 16th March, 1851 ; with Costa Rica, the 7th October, 
 1852; with Guatimala thesame day; with Austria, the 18th 
 August, 1855 ; with Wurtemburg, the 8th April, 1857 ; 
 with Baden, the 28th June, 1859. But if he who made and 
 signed these concordats with these powers were not free, 
 if those with whom he treats might suspect that a foreign 
 influence intervened between him and them, who would 
 consent to treat with him ? 
 
 I have also spoken of the election of the Sovereign Pontiff 
 and of the independence of the conclave ; but to what would 
 they be reduced in the state of things we are considering, 
 and to what evil times might we be brought back? To 
 the saddest period of the middle ages, the ninth and tenth 
 centuries, when more than once the pontifical tiara, having 
 become the plaything of tyrannical factions, was placed on 
 unworthy brows, to the great scandal and grief of the whole 
 
 found liberty with the sovereignty of the people, that it lias been 
 stated and proved that certain liberties which are now in vogue are 
 incompatible with the sovereignty of the Pope. (Cheers on the 
 right.) The modern sense of sovereignty of the people is, not the 
 right of a people to create its government and found its institutions, 
 but the right of changing them at will, of upsetting everything, of 
 reopening all questions everyday, without a pretence, but wantonly, 
 at its mere pleasure. This is what is absolutely incompatible with 
 the Catholic idea of authority ; and yet this is what is now meant 
 by the sovereignty of the people ; this is what the Romans in par- 
 ticular understand by the sovereignty of the people. (Murmurs on 
 the left.) If they had chosen to content themselves with moderate 
 liberty, they would now be enjoying all the liberties which Pius IX. 
 had granted them. But no, they have preferred to the concessions 
 of Pius IX. the delusions of certain demagogues, titled oruntitled; 
 they have preferred revolution to liberty, and now they are suffer- 
 ing for their rlinv ; they have lost political liberty for having 
 chosen to confound it with the arbitrary and illegitimate exercise of 
 the sovereignty of the people." (Hear, hear.) 
 
WITHIN HIS OWN STATES. 49 
 
 Church. Who does not know that the great schism of the 
 West arose in consequence of one of these hasty elections, 
 which was suspected not to have been independent ? It 
 is now four centuries since any division of this kind has 
 afflicted the Church, and since the scourge of anti-popes 
 has disappeared ; thanks to what ? to the full sovereign 
 power at last guaranteed by Europe to the papacy. This 
 is what has liberated the pontifical election from the intes- 
 tine pressure of parties, as well as from the tyrannical 
 influence of crowns. Well, I repeat that it is of the highest 
 importance to our consciences and to the peace of the world 
 that this favourable state of things be maintained, and that 
 the door remain shut against anti-popes and schisms : it 
 is essential that no lay influence, external to the Catholic 
 electoral college, to whom the Church has confided this 
 sovereign function, may intrude into the election of the 
 universal Pastor of souls ; that no people nor assembly may 
 say to the cardinals, " The Pontiff is yours, but the Prince 
 belongs to me ; it is for me to choose him." 
 
 in. 
 
 And here I will say freely, on the question of the rights 
 of the Roman people, either the temporal sovereignty 
 ought not to exist, and the Catholic powers in creating and 
 upholding it were wrong, and have misunderstood the 
 general and permanent interests of Christendom, or the 
 cardinal interests which have necessitated this creation 
 should here overrule all other interests, and place the 
 Roman States in an exceptional position; glorious and 
 advantageous to them, in my opinion, to abdicate which 
 would be for them a political suicide, and whose con- 
 tinuance is conformable to all the principles of justice. 
 
 But, I may be asked, How do you reconcile this excep- 
 tional position with what are called national rights, the 
 rights of the people? In whatever manner these rights 
 are understood, M. Thiers, in his celebrated report on the 
 Roman question, has pointed out the true answer to this 
 question. These are his words : " Catholic unity would 
 
50 THE POPE SHOULD BE INDEPENDENT 
 
 be untenable if the Pontiff, who is its centre, were not 
 completely independent; if in the territory which ages have 
 assigned him, and which all nations have respected, another 
 sovereign, whether prince or people, should rise to dictate 
 laws to him : for the pontificate, sovereignty is the only 
 independence. This interest is one of a superior order, 
 which should overrule inferior interests, as, in a state, the 
 public interest silences individual interests' 3 This prin- 
 ciple explains everything; it may be called an elementary, 
 fundamental principle, which is continually applied in 
 political and international law, as well as in civil law. Let 
 us give some instances. 
 
 The Turks cannot permit any vessel of war to pass the 
 Dardanelles; their most faithful allies cannot pass from 
 the Mediterranean to the Black Sea, nor from the Black 
 Sea to the Mediterranean. Whatever the interests of the 
 Turks may be in this, whatever their territorial and mari- 
 time right, it matters not, the interests of Europe and 
 public law, which is the interpreter of general interests, 
 forbid it. So also Europe has neutralized certain nations, 
 for instance, Belgium and Switzerland. As M. de la 
 llosiere said in his remarkable speech, they may feel a 
 warlike enthusiasm, or religious and political leanings and 
 inclinations, but they cannot make war, nor contract 
 alliances ; the general interests forbid it ; Europe has 
 stamped them with neutrality. So also in the United 
 States, of all nations the most jealous of their liberties, 
 und of the sovereignty of the people, while each state 
 has a constitution of its own, Columbia alone has none. 
 Why so? Because Columbia is the seat of the Federal 
 Government. So that to secure the peace, liberty, and 
 dignity of the deliberations of the government, the United 
 States have reduced the territdry of Columbia to political 
 incapacity, and the inhabitants of Washington, in that 
 free country, cannot even choose their municipal magis- 
 trates. 
 
 These analogies suffice to explain why the Roman, 
 people, whether as a member of Catholic society, or of the- 
 European family, ought not to have authority over its 
 
WITHIN HIS OWN STATES. 51 
 
 government ; why it cannot be allowed to bias and to 
 sway at pleasure the authority of the Sovereign Pontiff, 
 "without which," says M. Thiers, "Catholic unity would 
 be dissolved, Catholicism would be severed into sects, and 
 the moral world, already so rudely shaken, would fall into 
 a heap of ruins." 
 
 Hence, also, the right of interference always asserted by 
 Catholic nations whenever attempts have been made 
 against a government founded by the whole of Catholicity, 
 and which it is bound by its dearest interests to protect. 
 It is, in fact, clear that all nations Avhich are daughters of 
 the Church, and even others, are deeply interested in pre- 
 serving intact the Pope's temporal power, as a security 
 morally necessary to religious liberty ; and hence they 
 have here an exceptional right of interference. 1 Nay, it is 
 incumbent on them to interfere, particularly when, as at 
 present, what is chiefly required is to defend the real 
 wishes and the liberty of the population against foreign 
 demagogues who overawe them. The courageous and un- 
 
 1 M. de la Eosiore says -. " Shall I cite some examples of Catholic 
 jurisprudence with regard to the Holy See ? When, in the four- 
 teenth century, the popes were at Avignon, after they had been 
 there for some time, as soon as Catholicity began to perceive that 
 they did not enjoy there the full independence requisite for the good 
 use of their authority, as Voltaire says, all Catholic sovereigns 
 began to communicate to each other their suspicions, the king of 
 Spain, the king of Hungary, the king of A.ragon, the king of 
 England, the king of Sicily ; the emperor of Germany crossed the 
 Alps to confer with Urban IV. as to his return, and Avhen the Pope 
 re-entered Rome, he was conducted to the mouth of the Tiber by 
 the united galleys of Venice, Genoa, and Sicily. In the sixteenth 
 century, when the duke of Bourbon besieges and sacks Home, 
 Francis I. instantly takes arms, and at the news of his preparations, 
 Charles V. withdraws his army. In the wars of the Revolution 
 and the Empire, the idea of a religious crusade plays a great part 
 in political coalitions. In 1832 Austria takes possession of the 
 Legations ; the French flag is hoisted at Ancona to compel her to 
 withdraw ; and finally, at the present day, General Cavaignac too 
 feels the spontaneous, involuntary, irresistible impulse which at all 
 periods has urged Catholicity to interfere in the affairs of Home, in 
 order to protect either the Pope's government or his person." 
 
 E 2 
 
52 THE POPE SHOULD BE INDEPENDENT 
 
 fortunate Count Rossi boldly declared to these conspirators, 
 in the city of Rome, " As to the pontifical throne, the 
 matter is still more serious. The independence of the 
 Sovereign Pontiff is under the common protection of the 
 consciences of all Catholics. Rome, with its monuments 
 raised by the treasures of all Europe, Rome, the centre 
 and head of Catholicism, belongs more intimately to the 
 Christians than to the Romans themselves. Be assured 
 that we will not suffer Catholicity to be decapitated, nor 
 the Pope to be forced to fly to some place of refuge, 
 which might cost him the sacrifice of his liberty." (Revue 
 des Deux Mondes, torn. xxiv. Dec. 1848, p. 1837.) 
 
 IV. 
 
 We could cite innumerable opinions and authorities in 
 support of the principle we are maintaining, so irresistible 
 is its truth, and so capital its importance. Notwithstand- 
 ing his Protestant prejudices, a celebrated historian, 
 M. Hurter, the uprightness of whose intentions, and the 
 goodness of whose heart have since called down upon him the 
 benedictions of God, wrote thus in his Life of Innocent III. : 
 " The tranquillity of the country and the city where the 
 Sovereign Pontiff resides, to watch over the Church in all 
 other countries, is a condition necessary to the fulfilment of 
 the duties of so elevated a position. How, in fact, could the 
 Pope weigh so many different causes, give advice^and assist- 
 ance, decide the numberless affairs of so many churches, 
 watch over the progress of the kingdom of God, repulse 
 attacks against the faith, speak freely to kings and peoples, 
 if he had not peace at home ; if the plots of the wicked 
 forced him to concentrate on his own states the glance 
 which should embrace the world, to combat for his own 
 safety and liberty, or to seek refuge and protection upon 
 foreign soil ? " 
 
 The English House of Lords, in spite of the anti- 
 Catholic prejudices and hatred which prevail there, has 
 more than once seen disinterested testimony borne to this 
 principle: thus, on the 21st of July, 1849, in the debate 
 
WITHIN HIS OWN STATES. 53 
 
 upon the Roman expedition, Lord Lansdowne did not 
 hesitate to say, in reply to Lord Aberdeen and Lord 
 Brougham : " The state of the papal sovereignty is pecu- 
 liar in this, that, while, temporally speaking, he is a 
 monarch of the fourth or fifth class, he is, by his spiritual 
 power, a sovereign without an equal upon earth. Every 
 country which has Catholic subjects has an interest in the 
 condition of the Roman States, and is bound to see that the 
 Pope be not embarrassed in the exercise of his authority by 
 any influence capable of affecting his spiritual power" 
 
 " We will say frankly," to borrow the words of a poli- 
 tician noted for his extreme democratic views, " that the 
 Catholic powers have a real and serious interest, founded 
 upon their own security and preservation, in maintaining 
 the temporal authority of the Popes in the metropolis of 
 their spiritual sovereignty. Seeing that the deposal, as a 
 temporal sovereign, of the head of the Church, may cause 
 so many evils and disasters to society, and may involve the 
 ruin of a universal institution, on whose integrity depend 
 the tranquillity of consciences and the peace of the world, 
 is not one prompted to ask whether a petty people, raised 
 into a state solely by foreign hands, and still depending- 
 upon their support, may justly assert, in the name of their 
 independence, that to them alone its sovereignty belongs 
 to pronounce so momentous a decision? " 
 
 I am happy to be able to quote an opinion of still 
 greater weight, expressed in the most convincing eloquence. 
 :e Why demand from the papacy/' exclaims M. Villemain,. 
 " why require from it, what facts render impossible ? Rome 
 can never again become the political capital of a great state, 
 precisely because she must ever remain the religious metro- 
 polis of the world. The day that the supreme pontificate 
 was given her, it was settled that she was never again to 
 see a dictatorial senate, or a forum. If for fifteen centu- 
 ries no lay sovereignty could exist at Rome by the side of 
 the tiara, if right and conquest have both failed to maintain 
 any, if the imperial power found itself always forced to 
 remove to Constantinople, Milan, or Ravenna, to some 
 place where the Pope was not, neither can the modern- 
 
54 THE POPE SHOULD BE INDEPENDENT 
 
 sovereignty of popular elections enthrone itself in the place 
 
 where the Pope must reign The Sovereign Pontiff 
 
 cannot establish all the machinery of representative govern- 
 ment. ... If any will but his could dispose of Rome, 
 Rome would no longer be an inviolable and neutral asylum. 
 The most ardent advocates of the indefectibility of the 
 apostolic chair have never advanced that its temporal 
 power is infallible; but it must be independent. If we 
 <jannot conceive it stretching to a distance, and encompass- 
 ing all Italy in its dominion, still less can we conceive it 
 
 subjected to the ascendancy of a national assembly 
 
 Let not a zeal for constitutional uniformity make us forget 
 certain laws of human nature and of history. A sceptical 
 writer of the last century observed, that, in general, the 
 Pope, as a temporal sovereign, because of the usual con- 
 ditions of his election and of his power, was free from 
 most of the evils and defects of absolute government. All 
 that Europe should desire for the improvement of Italy is 
 to see durable reforms, granted by the free gift of a great 
 pontiff, and united to his inalienable privilege of inde- 
 pendent sovereignty. The imperishable glory of Rome, 
 which the sword cannot prevail against, which has survived 
 barbarian violence and civilized force, which arrested Attila 
 and brought about the fall of Napoleon, is the chair from 
 which the Pope addresses the world, whether in grandeur 
 or in captivity, at the Vatican or at Fontainbleau. 
 
 " Let not the Roman people, then, ever be moved by 
 agitators to reduce their Church to servitude. They 
 would thus lose their most precious privileges ; they 
 would fall into that anarchy, the prey of every accident, 
 which they felt at the beginning of the middle ages; or 
 they would make another trial of the republican repre- 
 sentation of 1798, which would brinjj them back a Ca3sar, 
 or even a foreign army without Caesar. Rome is too 
 great a temptation for ambition to remain long intact, if 
 she is to cease to be sacred ; and she c;m only be so in the 
 person of the Pont ill', and tor the jood of those who 
 ventrate and reverence his power. Rome, if not the city 
 of the Pope, free and happy in him, is a capital without 
 
\VITHI N T HIS OWN STATI.S. .")."> 
 
 an empire ; or, .'is was said in Alaric's time, the decapi- 
 tated liead of the old world. It is better for her to be 
 the soul of modern society/' 
 
 There still remains an important and final reason to be 
 considered, upon which we have not yet touched. 
 
 The Pope must be free, independent, and sovereign at 
 home and abroad ; at home, that he may be so abroad, 
 in the government of the Church. We have examined 
 the convincing arguments which establish this. But he 
 must also be independent at home, in order to maintain 
 harmonious relations with all Christian nations, to pre- 
 serve a neutrality of reconciliation during all their 
 quarrels with each other, and to be ever upon earth the 
 true prince of peace, as his divine office requires him to be. 
 
 Now, if anything is self-evident, it is that the Sovereign 
 Pontiff could not hold this calm and lofty attitude, if the 
 ascendancy of a body of representatives, if the caprices 
 of a faction could involve him in the political struggles of 
 his country, and substitute, in his relations with the uni- 
 versal Church, for the high, independent, and Catholic 
 spirit which ought to be his, the narrow-mindedness, the 
 petty and violent prejudices of parties : if, to speak plainly, 
 he could be dragged into Italianism, exclusive, ambitious 
 Italianism, perhaps even the dreams of Gioberti. 
 
 The common father must always be free to raise pure 
 and peaceful hands upon the holy mountain, that the 
 spirit of union and concord may descend upon Christian 
 princes and people. " The earth," says St. Augustine, " is 
 sometimes agitated by wars, as the sea is by tempests. The 
 human race has its storms ; the sky grows dark, and a 
 whirlwind of universal war seems to devastate everything. 
 May there be at least one people who escape this terrible 
 storm ! one tranquil city, whence pacification may arise ! l 
 
 1 Voltaire writes : "The interests of mankind demand some 
 curb to keep sovereigns in check, and to protect the people. This 
 
56 THE POPE SHOULD BE INDEPENDENT 
 
 Though wars be sometimes inevitable, and may sometimes 
 arm the purest hands in legitimate self-defence, they are, 
 nevertheless/' adds the holy doctor, " a cruel sport of evil 
 spirits, ludi Damonum. Those who make war sometimes 
 do so from necessity ; but the state of those who are 
 spared the scourge of war, and who spare it to others, is 
 confessedly the happiest/' 
 
 Romans, listen to these words : do not complain of the 
 glorious privilege conferred upon you by your pontiff- 
 king, who emancipates you from the sad necessity of war, 
 and secures to you that peaceful, honourable, and ever 
 independent neutrality which you have enjoyed during 
 the last centuries in the midst of Christian Europe, and 
 which it depends upon yourselves to continue for ever to 
 enjoy. 
 
 We concur, with gratitude, in the wish expressed in the 
 Assembler National e } by a distinguished French represen- 
 tative, on the question of restoring to the Sovereign 
 Pontiff all his rights in their integrity. 1 
 
 " Does any one consider that the Roman States, which 
 have for capital the Eternal City, with the Catholic in- 
 terests which are attached to it, are not in the world of a 
 far different importance from Belgium ? For my part, I 
 am convinced that, after the criminal and deplorable 
 
 curb of religion might by general consent have been placed in the 
 hands of the Popes. These chief Pontiffs, taking no part in tem- 
 poral quarrels except to appease them, warning kings and people of 
 their duty, reproving their crimes, and reserving excommunications 
 for great offences only, would have been always regarded as the 
 images of God upon earth." JSssai sur VHist. Gt'n. ch. 60. 
 
 "I should recommend," says Leibnitz, "to establish at Borne a 
 tribunal (to judge of differences between princes), and to make the 
 Pope president, as he was, in fact, formerly the umpire between 
 Christian princes. This plan would succeed quite as well as that of 
 the Abbe do St. Pierre (a plan for universal peace in Europe). But 
 since people now are fond of speculations, why should we find fault 
 with a fiction which would restore to us the Golden Age?" (Euvres 
 de Leibnitz, torn. v. p. 05, 2nd Letter to M. Grimaret. 
 
 1 Baron Charles Dupin. 
 
WITHIN HIS OWN STATES. 57 
 
 events which have just taken place in Italy, their interests 
 will excite the deepest attention in all Christian nations. 
 I am convinced that a benefit will result, which I most 
 profoundly desire. Yes, the Christian Powers will do for 
 the Roman States what they have done for Belgium ; they 
 will proclaim the perpetual neutrality of the states of the 
 Holy Father, and will place them under the guardianship 
 of all Christendom. All Catholic nations will secure to 
 the Holy Father the permanent possession of the states 
 which he received from France a thousand years ago. 
 Such are my wishes, such are my hopes. I have the firm 
 conviction that Christian nations will hear them, and that 
 they will be realized." 
 
 We shall shortly explain, when examining what would 
 be the condition of Rome without the Pope, what solid 
 advantages abundantly compensate the peculiarity of the 
 political position which the Romans occupy in the 
 world. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 ORIGIN AND PROVIDENTIAL PREPARATION OF THE 
 TEMPORAL POWER OF THE HOLY SEE. 
 
 WE have hitherto seen what were the designs, and, if 
 we may dare to say so, what was the idea of God in esta- 
 blishing the temporal power of the Holy See. Providence 
 has chosen, for the security of the Church and our own, 
 that the Pope be free and independent, and that he appear 
 so : that his independence be sovereign, in order that he 
 be always free both at home and abroad, in the exercise 
 of his august ministry. Such are the weighty grounds 
 and reasons, the providential principles, as it were, of this 
 sovereignty of the Vicar of Christ. 
 
 Let us now study the facts, in order to throw still clearer 
 light upon the principles : let us see historically in what 
 
58 ORIGIN AND PROVIDENTIAL PREPARATION OF 
 
 manner this idea, this plan of God for his Church, has 
 been realized. Let us seek in history for the titles of this 
 sacred royalty, and inquire if any power has risen in the 
 world, whose origin is so pure and honourable, if any state 
 was ever founded, in the face of day, upon more legitimate 
 and irreproachable bases. 
 
 i. 
 
 So it seemed to the great genius of Bossuet, and his 
 great episcopal heart felt a just and holy pride on this 
 head, as we have seen in his words already cited. An 
 illustrious writer of our century 1 has expressed himself 
 in not less remarkable terms : " There is no sovereignty 
 in Europe more justifiable, if I may so speak, than that 
 of the sovereign pontiffs. It is like the divine law, 
 justificata in semetipsd. But what is truly astonishing 
 is, to see the Popes become sovereigns without their know- 
 ledge, and even, to speak strictly, in spite of themselves. 
 The see of Rome seemed elevated by an invisible law, and 
 the head of the Universal Church grew into a sovereign. 
 From the martyrs' scaffold he ascended a throne which at 
 first was not perceptible, but which insensibly became con- 
 solidated, like all great institutions." In fact, tracing back 
 as far as we can the records of past ages, we find in the 
 Papacy a sort of temporal magistracy, recognized and 
 venerated by the faithful of Rome. Its vestiges may even 
 be remarked in the epistles of St. Paul. This magistracy 
 was at first located in the Catacombs. There, the Pontiff 
 and his priests, according to the doctrine and the exhor- 
 tations of the great apostle, - distributed justice to the 
 first faithful ; and the authority of this august and peace- 
 ful arbitration embraced all their affairs, even of a secular 
 kind, all the disputes which might break out between 
 them, ,'Hid disturb the concord of their families. Nothing 
 could be more humble and unobtrusive, less imposed by 
 force, and more willingly accepted, than this power: still 
 
 1 Count de Muistrc. - 1 Cor. ri. 
 
THE TEMPORAL POWER OF THE HOLY SEE. 59 
 
 Rome took offence at it. The Pope bore upon his 
 brow the character of so eminent a priesthood, as Bossuet 
 says, that the Emperor, who counted among his titles that 
 of Sovereign Pontiff, was more troubled at his presence in 
 Home than he would have been if, among his armies, a 
 rival were pretending to the throne of the Casars. 
 
 When the Church left the Catacombs, this magistracy, 
 consecrated by the respect and confidence of the early 
 Christians, and rendered more and more necessary by the 
 difficulties of the times, remained in force to receive from 
 princes and people the successive extensions which the 
 Almighty reserved for it, and to grow, in the course of 
 time, into the temporal sovereignty which we see at 
 present, but whose name Providence had not yet pro- 
 nounced. Its rise, so gradual and imperceptible, is one of 
 the most curious phenomena in history. Here are disco- 
 vered no treaties, no battles, no intrigues, no usurpations: l 
 go back as far as we may, the most scrupulous investi- 
 gation always finds a power established, as it were, of 
 itself a power peaceful, beneficent, and disinterested, and, 
 soon endowed with an independent domain by the eager 
 homage of universal Christendom, peoples as well as kings. 
 Constantine, Theodosius all the most Christian emperors 
 and, after the fall of the Empire of the West, Pepin, 
 Charlemagne, Otho, the Countess Matilda, appear to our 
 view, visibly chosen by God to constitute this sovereignty, 
 so precious for the interests of the Church. But the force 
 of events, as I have observed, had begun this great work 
 long before Constantine, and the facts which history here 
 reveals to us are most curious. 
 
 ii. 
 
 Even at the time of the most violent persecutions, when 
 the glorious martyrs of the Roman Church were shedding 
 their blood in the Coliseum, she exercised her spiritual 
 authority over the faithful, dispersed over the face of the 
 
 De Maistre. 
 
60 ORIGIN AND PROVIDENTIAL PREPARATION OF 
 
 earth ; and even then God provided for her all the 
 temporal means necessary to the exercise of this sacred 
 authority. The Church of Rome, mother and mistress 
 of all churches, was even then, as was fitting, the richest 
 in resources, the most powerful in action, and also the 
 most generous in charity. The scattered faithful revered 
 her as the centre of Catholicity, and offered her their 
 goods in profusion, as well as their obedience and their 
 love. They wished the Chief of Religion and Vicar of 
 Christ not to be unequal to the immense calls of his 
 spiritual administration ; they wished to see the Pope 
 able to meet all the exigencies of his universal mission 
 all the enormous expenses required for the guidance of so 
 many peoples confided to his care, as well as for the 
 evangelization of heathen nations, to whom he had to 
 send bishops and apostolic missioners. 
 
 Hence the riches of the Roman Church, even during 
 the persecutions ; hence the considerable possessions she 
 enjoyed long before Constantine ; hence, also, her alms 
 and liberalities. She supported, says Eusebius, a great 
 number of clerks, widows, orphans, and of poor, while she 
 propagated the faith and founded new churches in the 
 most distant countries. Eusebius instances Syria and 
 Arabia; our own records add the Gauls and Spain. This 
 was not all : the Papacy, still hiding in the Catacombs, 
 required apostolic notaries to keep the acts of the martyrs, 
 and to answer the incessant consultations of all the 
 churches ; while it was covering the seas with ships loaded 
 with its alms. 
 
 Such were, even before peace was granted to the 
 Church, the temporal riches which the faithful lavished 
 upon the Apostolic See, and which were so nobly devoted 
 by the charity of the popes to the welfare of their flock. 1 
 We learn from records and from some remarkable facts, 
 
 1 See Allan Butler, Lives of the Fathers ; Fleury, Hist. Eccl. 
 torn. ii. liv. 7, No. 39 ; S. Ambrose, De Officiis, ii. 28 ; Pruden. 
 Hymn 2 de Coronis ; Euseb. Hist. iv. 23, vii. 5. 
 
THE TEMPORAL POWER OF THE HOLY SEE. 61 
 
 that the Roman Church possessed not only rich vessels of 
 gold and silver for the celebration of the holy mysteries, 
 chalices, ciboriums, and numbers of movables of the high- 
 est value, but also considerable landed property. Con- 
 stantine gave orders to RESTORE to the clergy, says Euse- 
 bius, " the houses, the possessions, the fields, the gardens, 
 and other goods of which they had been unjustly deprived." 1 
 It is indeed strange, and has not been sufficiently dwelt 
 upon, that in the midst of paganism those rights of pro- 
 perty were conceded to the Church, which, after eighteen 
 centuries of Christianity, men who call themselves Catho- 
 lics are found to dare to contest to her. Except in the 
 last fury of the persecutions, the pagan emperors and 
 magistrates not only recognized in the Christian Church 
 these rights of property, but even sometimes defended 
 them against violence and injustice. Lampridius, in his 
 Life of Alexander Several, cites a remarkable instance of 
 this moderate conduct of certain pagan emperors, and 
 relates in detail how Alexander Severus restored to the 
 Christians, for their worship, a place the possession of which 
 certain innkeepers disputed with them. 2 Eusebius, the 
 historian, cites several facts of the same kind. The life 
 of Aurelian, though he was one of the persecuting em- 
 perors, offers a particularly striking example. Paul of 
 Samosata, protected by Zenobia, queen of Palmyra, was 
 living at Aiitioch, and continued, notwithstanding the 
 condemnation of a council, in the house which belonged 
 to the Church. The Christians complained to the Em- 
 
 1 " Omnia ergo quae ad ecclesias recte visa fuerint pertinere, sive 
 domus ac possessio sit, sive agri, sive korti, seu quaecumque alia, 
 nullo jure quod ad dominium pertinet imminuto, sed salvis omnibus 
 atque integris manentibus, restitui jubemus." Euseb. Vita Con- 
 stant. 2, 39 ; see also cap. 21, 36, and 4L Euseb. Hist. Eccl. viii. 
 1, 2; x. 5Fleury, Hist. Eccl. torn. ii. liv. ix. 46; torn. iii. liv. 
 x. 2 and 40. 
 
 2 " Cum Christian! quemdam locum, qui publicus fuerat, occu- 
 passent, contra popinarii dicerent sibi eum deberi, rescripsit (impe- 
 rator) melius esse ut quomodocumque illic Deus colatur, quam 
 popinariis dedatur." 
 
62 ORIGIN AND PROVIDENTIAL PREPARATION OF 
 
 peror Aurelian, and he ordered possession of the house 
 to be given to those to whom the bishops of Italy and 
 the Roman Pontiff addressed their letters ; so notorious 
 was it, even to the pagans, that the Christian churches 
 had the right of possessing, and that the mark of true 
 Christians was communion with the Church of Rome. 
 Paul of Samosata was consequently expelled from the 
 Church, and from the house belonging to the Church, by 
 the secular magistrate. 
 
 This right of property was then the common and con- 
 stant right of the Christian churches, and that from the 
 very commencement of Christianity. Have we not seen 
 the earliest of all churches, the Church of Jerusalem, 
 governed by the Apostles themselves, and the model of 
 all others, possessing goods intended for the support of 
 the pastors and of the faithful, and for the relief of the 
 poor ? This right no one, whether Jew or pagan, thought 
 of refusing them. Existence was often denied them ; but 
 whenever they were suffered to exist, the right of possess- 
 ing was not denied them. Accordingly, the history of the 
 foundation of all churches in the empire and all over the 
 world, shows that there was not a single large Christian 
 community which had not, and which was not obliged to 
 have, goods more or less considerable, for the relief of the 
 indigent, the support of the clergy, and other expenses 
 relating to divine worship. 1 What I here lay down as a 
 principle and a fact, will perhaps excite some surprise; 
 but, independently of the historical proof, does not 
 common sense show that it was then, as it is now, a 
 simple necessity founded on the nature of things, and 
 that the Church, as soon as she exists, may and must be 
 
 1 The persecution excited in Africa by Maximian Hercules in 
 303 gives an idea of (he riches of the African churches at that 
 period. The acts of this persecution inform us that Paul, bishop of 
 Cirta, in Numiilin, placed in the hands of the magistrates of that 
 town two chalices of ^oKl, six of silver, six silver vases, a silver 
 seven lamps of the same metal, and several other precious article? 
 intended for the services of the Church. 
 
Till: TKMl'OKAL POWER OF THE HOLY SEE. 63' 
 
 a proprietor ? She may, because she constitutes a real 
 and legitimate community; and it is an elementary prin- 
 ciple of law, that all the rights of property belong to 
 communities, who acquire property and exercise their 
 rights by the medium of their administrators. Is it not 
 quite as evident that material resources are absolutely 
 necessary to the Church in order to meet the wants of her 
 ministers and her worship ? And is not the least reflection 
 sufficient to show it is only property which can secure to 
 her these resources in a stable manner, without which her 
 liberty must ever be precarious, and her existence miser- 
 ably dependent ? In fact, to refuse the Church the right 
 of possessing, is to refuse her the right of existing ; and 
 the latter impious and deadly design inspires more or less 
 all systems hostile to ecclesiastical property. 
 
 It has seemed to me necessary to the present inquiry 
 to insist upon these fundamental principles ; and I have 
 thought it useful to examine how they had been under- 
 stood and practised under the pagan and persecuting 
 empire. The edict of Licinius and Constantino, when 
 peace was granted to the churches, is extremely interest- 
 ing to study in this point of view. In conclusion, I shall 
 quote a few words of it : 
 
 " We have ordered, moreover, concerning the Christians, 
 that, if the places where they used to assemble formerly, 
 have been bought by any, whether from our treasury or 
 from any one else, they be restored to the Christians 
 without expense, and without any delay or difficulty. 
 Those who may have received them as a gift are also to 
 return them immediately ; and let both those who have 
 bought and those who have been given them, apply to the 
 governor of the province, in order that he may arrange 
 with them for us. All these places shall be immediately 
 delivered over to the communities, that is, to the churches, 
 and not to individuals. You are to see all these things 
 restored to their corporations and communities, on the 
 conditions above expressed, without any difficulty or, 
 dispute, it being understood that such as shall have 
 restored them without reimbursement may hope to be 
 indemnified bv us." 
 
64 ORIGIN AND PROVIDENTIAL PREPARATION OF 
 
 III. 
 
 With Constantine, a change passed over the world. 
 He did not content himself with restoring to the 
 Christians the possessions which belonged to them ; he 
 added other and far more important ones. Naturally 
 generous, his munificence never shone forth r.iore than 
 towards the Church. One cannot read without surprise 
 the details given on this subject by contemporary authors, 
 and particularly Eusebius, the most ancient of any, and 
 the most likely to be well-informed as to the facts he 
 states. In all parts of the empire, at Constantinople, at 
 Jerusalem, at all the holy places, but especially at Rome, 
 Constantine built magnificent churches, and assigned to 
 them handsome revenues : he spared nothing, neither in 
 the beauty of the structures, the richness of the orna- 
 ments and of the sacred vessels, nor in the payment of 
 the clergy, and the assistance given to the different works 
 of charity undertaken by the zeal of the pastors and the 
 piety of the faithful. 
 
 Anastasius, the librarian, makes an astonishing calcu- 
 lation of the offerings of this great prince to the churches 
 of Rome and some other churches in Italy. 1 If we add 
 together the values of all the gold and silver ornaments 
 mentioned by the historian, we find that they amounted 
 to 685 Ibs. of gold and 12,943 Ibs. of silver, which comes 
 to upwards of 68,000 of our money, without the work- 
 manship. And Anastasius does not include in this sum 
 the gold employed in gilding the roof of the Constantine 
 Basilica, which was 500 feet long. Constantiue also 
 settled on this basilica considerable revenues in land, 
 situated both at Rome and its environs, and in distant 
 provinces. 2 All these lands which are enumerated by 
 
 1 Anastas., Vita S. Silvestri. Fleury, Moours des Chretiens, No. 
 50 ; Hist. Eccl. torn iii. xi. 36. 
 
 /. iccario, De Kebus ad Hist, et Antiquit. Eccles. pertinentibus 
 , 1781). 
 
THE TEMPORAL PoNVKll OF THE HOLY SKK. M 
 
 Anastasius furnislied a revenue to tlie basilica of about 
 j9,300 of our money. The* emperor added an annual 
 tribute of 150 Ib. of aromatics for the divine services. 
 Besides these offerings to the Constantino Basilica, the 
 same prince made the most generous gifts to the churches 
 of Rome which he had built or repaired, particularly to 
 those of St. Peter, St. Paul, the Holy Cross of Jerusalem, 
 St. Agnes, St. Lawrence, SS. Peter and Marcellinus. 
 He also assigned to these churches extensive possessions 
 in land, either in Rome and Italy, or in Africa and Asia, 
 even in the provinces of the Euphrates. The lands belong- 
 ing to the Roman churches, exclusive of the Constantine 
 Basilica, brought in annually about .10,500 of our money. 
 
 Most of the successors of Constantine behaved not less 
 generously than he towards the Roman Church. And 
 it should be added that the generosity of the emperors 
 was singularly encouraged by the personal disinterested- 
 ness of the popes and bishops, and the noble, charitable 
 uses to which they put the gifts of the imperial muni- 
 ficence and those of the piety of the people. Of this I 
 will enumerate some examples. 
 
 The Christian Church appeared, from the beginning, to 
 have been raised up by God to 'teach sentiments of 
 humanity towards the poor, and to inspire men with a 
 spirit of compassion to which they had hitherto seemed 
 entirely strangers. This was something quite new to the 
 Pagans. At the sight of the tender charity which bound 
 together all the faithful, they used to exclaim with amaze- 
 ment, according to Tertullian: See how they love one 
 another ! The Emperor Julian himself, that open enemy 
 of Christianity, blushed for the contrast between the 
 Pagans and the Christians in this respect. We see this 
 particularly in his letter to Arsaces, pontiff of Galatia, 
 in which he charges him to establish alms-houses for 
 the relief of the poor, according to the example of the 
 Christians, who, besides their own poor, says he, support 
 ours also, whom we leave in destitution. 1 St. John the 
 
 1 Ancient writers, who Lave described in detail the public build- 
 
 F 
 
66 ORIGIN AND PROVIDENTIAL PREPARATION OF 
 
 Almoner, patriarch of Alexandria, had in his episcopal 
 city more than seven thousand five hundred poor, whom 
 he supplied with daily bread. Besides these daily alms, 
 the holy patriarch had established, in different parts of his 
 diocese, hospitals for strangers, the aged, and the sick ; 
 the poor were there received in crowds. His charity was 
 not confined to his diocesans, it ministered also to the 
 wants of a multitude of churches and of poor, in all 
 Egypt and the East. The popes and the bishops sold 
 even the sacred vessels to feed the destitute and to 
 redeem captives. St. Ambrose in particular did so, for 
 the redemption of the captives carried away by the 
 Goths, under the reigns of Valens and of Gratian. About 
 the same time, St. Exuperius of Toulouse reduced himself 
 in this way to such poverty, that he was obliged to place 
 
 ings of Home, Constantinople, and other famous cities of antiquity, 
 enumerate their palaces, baths, theatres, temples, ports, public- 
 granaries, prisons, and other buildings of public utility : but they 
 mention no establishment for the sick or the destitute. The fir.-: 
 hospitals on record, are due to the charity of the Christians. St. 
 Gregory of Nazianzen, in his Discourse against Julian, in 363. 
 shows that they had already established a number of these pious 
 asylums before the reign of that prince, who in vain endeavoured to 
 form similar ones. Divcrsoria et hospitales domos, monast 
 item et virginum coenobia, cedificare statuebat, simulque et benigni- 
 tatem erga pauperes adjungere, cum in aliis rebus turn in commeii- 
 datitiis epistolis sitam, quibuseosqui inopid premuntur, ex gentead 
 gentcm transmittimus ; quce videlicet ille in nostris rebus prccst , 
 admiratus fuerat. . . . Illius autem conatus inanis <t ir/ 
 fuit. S. Grey. Naz. Orat. I. contra Julian, torn. i. p. 13S, edii 
 Benedict. 
 
 Since then this new kind of institution multiplied rapidly in all 
 parts of the empire, and everywhere that Christianity was diffused. 
 St. Basil built, in his episcopal city, an hospital for the poor, about 
 the year 372, and others in other towns of his diocese. Some y 
 afterwards, St. J'ammarhus established one at Porto, near Rome, 
 for strangers, and another at Home, assisted by a Eoman lady, 
 named Fabiola, who devoted herself with the most tender charity 
 to the service of the sick tlieiv. About the same time St. Augustin 
 constructed at Hippo an almshouse for foreigners, and St. Gallicun 
 another at Ostia. Several constitutions of the Emperor Justinian 
 
THE TEMPORAL POWER OF THE HOLY SEE. 67 
 
 the body of our Lord in a wicker basket, and the precious 
 blood in a chalice of glass. 
 
 But the Roman Church, above all, multiplied her alms 
 and liberalities, in proportion as her resources increased. 
 History teaches that the sovereign Pontiffs continually 
 turned to the relief of the poor and the needs of divine 
 worship, the rich offerings they received from the piety of 
 the faithful. St. Jerome states this in particular of Pope 
 Anastasius I., whom he calls on this account a man rich 
 in poverty. We know all that St. Leo the Great did 
 to repair the calamities which Italy suffered from the 
 Vandals. Pope Gelasius I. voluntarily reduced himself 
 to poverty, in order to be able to feed a multitude of 
 poor. The pontificate of St. Gregory deserves particularly 
 to be named as one of the most perfect models of pon- 
 
 show that there were in his time a number of hospitals established 
 in the different parts of the empire, and grant great privileges to 
 these precious establishments. Ducange, in the description of the 
 buildings erected in the imperial city, under the Christian emperors, 
 reckons thirty-five houses of charity intended for the relief of 
 different classes of poor. Most of them had names which indicated 
 their object. The infant asylum was called Brephotrophium ; the 
 orphan refuge, Orphanotrophium ; the hospital for the sick, 
 Nosocomium; Xenodochium for strangers ; Gerontocomium for the 
 aged ; Ptochotrophium, for the poor in general. These establish- 
 ments were generally under the superintendence of the bishop, who 
 named a priest to act for him, and spared nothing in the relief of the 
 sick and poor. However, nattering as is this picture of the virtues 
 and charity of the clergy at the period we speak of, we are far from 
 imagining that there were then no abuses in the use and adminis- 
 tration of church property, or that all the members of the clergy 
 were equally distinguished for their generosity and disinterested- 
 ness. One must be very ignorant, both of human nature and of 
 history, to deny that even the ages which have been most fruitful 
 in virtues have had many scandals to deplore. As long as a society 
 is composed of men, and not of angels, we may wish, but cannot 
 expect to find all its members constantly faithful to the severe rules 
 of detachment and self-denial which the Gospel lays down. Still, 
 the human defects which remain should not make us forget what 
 evidently comes from God in the matters we have been considering. 
 Gosselin, Pouvoir du Pape. Flcury, Mceursdes Chretiens, &c. 
 
 F 2 
 
68 ORIGIN AND PROVIDENTIAL PREPARATION OF 
 
 tifical charity. This great Pope lavished the goods of the 
 Church upon the poor with a holy prodigality, not only 
 at Rome and in Italy, but in all parts of Christendom. 
 We see in all his letters to the administrators or rectors of 
 the patrimony of the Roman Church, which was situated 
 in different countries, how he excited their charity to 
 orphans, widows, the poor of every kind, particularly 
 those who were ashamed to beg. In order to animate his 
 clergy by his own example, he gave himself abundant 
 alms daily at Rome, which he redoubled at certain times 
 of the year, and particularly during the calamities brought 
 by the barbarian invasions upon the empire of the West. 
 There was still to be seen in the ninth century, at the 
 Lateran Palace, a register of the poor of every age and 
 sex whom the holy Pope was in the habit of relieving at 
 Rome, in Italy, and other countries, and of the stated 
 alms he gave them. There may be still seen at Rome (I 
 have seen it myself) the great stone table on which 
 he served every day a meal for the poor with his own 
 hands. 
 
 Long before St. Gregory, there existed, wherever the 
 Church of Rome possessed patrimonies, an almshouse for 
 the poor, called Diaconia, because it was generally admi- 
 nistered by a deacon. Not content with continuing these 
 charitable institutions, St. Gregory often desired the 
 rectors of the patrimonies of the Holy See to employ all 
 the revenues which they produced iri relieving the poor of 
 the place : and he says distinctly, in one of his letters, that 
 if he appoints clerks, and not laymen, to govern these 
 patrimonies, it is less to prevent malversation, than that a 
 wise administration may make them benefit a greater 
 number of poor. 
 
 It was not, indeed, only towards the poor that he showed 
 himself so prodigal of the goods of the Church. We shall 
 soon see him employing them with the same liberality for 
 the defence of the empire, then so violently attacked in 
 Italy by the Lombards ; and his generosity in this respect 
 served as a rule and a model to all his successors during 
 the whole duration of the Roman empire in the West. 
 
THE TEMPORAL POWER OF THE HOLY SEE. 69 
 
 But here a new and grand picture unrolls itself, which 
 must be closely examined in the light of history, and for 
 which all that precedes was but the providential pre- 
 paration. 
 
 IV. 
 
 From the moment that Constantino, victorious by the 
 Cross, was established on the imperial throne, an attentive 
 glance might have observed that Providence was beginning 
 to repeal its plans, and that the new destinies of the eter- 
 nal city were becoming visible. One feels, one sees that a 
 vast revolution is preparing in the Roman world, and 
 being accomplished with wonderful force and sweetness. 
 Constantino was the first to perceive it, and he became, as 
 it were, the herald of Providence. In transporting the 
 seat of the Roman power from the banks of the Tiber to 
 the shores of the Bosphorus; in making a fisherman's 
 village his imperial city, he also made Rome the holy city 
 and the capital of another empire, the kingdom of God 
 upon earth, regnum Dei, which was to embrace the whole 
 universe. Did he foresee this great novelty? Was it 
 given him from above to feel that Rome had been con- 
 quered by the Cross and by charity, that three centuries 
 of persecutions and of blood had adequately paid for this 
 conquest, and that henceforth human pomp was to dis- 
 appear before sacred festivals, the Emperor before the 
 Pontiff? 
 
 However that may be, he withdrew. After that, for 
 the good of the people themselves, the Vicar of Christ had 
 to fill the place at Rome of the absent Cassar; or, rather, 
 to borrow the words of Count de Maistre " The same 
 precincts could not contain the- Emperor and the Pontiff; 
 Constantine yielded up Rome to the Pope. From that 
 time we also observe that the emperors seem no longer at 
 home in Rome ; they resemble strangers passing through 
 and lodging there from time to time. But what is still 
 more surprising, Odoacer, with his Heruli, puts an end to 
 the Western empire in 575. Soon afterwards, the Heruli 
 disappear before the Goths, and they in their turn give 
 
70 ORIGIN AND PROVIDENTIAL PREPARATION OF 
 
 place to the Lombards, who take possession of the king- 
 dom of Italy. What force was it which,, for more than 
 three centuries, prevented all these princes from fixing 
 durably their throne at Rome ? Whose was the arm 
 which drove them to Milan, to 'Pavia, to Ravenna, &c. ? " 
 He who cannot see here the finger of Providence must be 
 blind indeed. 
 
 And yet, the Roman Pontiffs, already sovereigns of 
 Rome, without intending it, almost without knowing it, 
 ceased not to labour, as far as lay in them, to maintain 
 there the authority of the emperors of Constantinople. 
 We shall see them employing for several centuries, with 
 an incomparable zeal, all their authority to nourish in the 
 hearts of the people fidelity to their masters. But it was 
 in vain ; an invisible force was endowing the See of Rome 
 with temporal sovereignty, and forming the independent 
 patrimony of St. Peter. Under the hand of Providence 
 everything concurred to forward the work; the East, the 
 West, kings and peoples, great and small, vied with one 
 another in generosity, as well as in affection and gratitude, 
 towards the Holy See. Accordingly, from the fourth 
 century we see the possessions and domains of the Church 
 of Rome increasing in extent and importance. 1 In the 
 sixth century, according to the most authentic records, 
 the Roman Church possessed extensive territories in Italy, 
 at Rome, Naples, and in Calabria, and in several other 
 provinces, in Dalmatia, Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, Spain, 
 the Gauls, and Africa. 2 Among these possessions some 
 
 1 Doubtless the rights of property of the Church of Romp arc 
 not the right of the Pope's temporal sovereignty : the grounds on 
 which they rest arc not the same. The title to the possession of 
 lands does not confer sovereignty over people ; the right of govern- 
 ing is different from that of administering domains. But the rights 
 of property of the Koman Church preceded and prepared her rights 
 reignly ; and it is as well not to forget these important facts, 
 in times \\hirh have seen, and may again see, these two great rights 
 of the Church contested. 
 
 - S. Gregorii Vita, per Joan.Diac. lib. ii. cap. 53, 55, &c. Ejusdem 
 Vita rccens adornata (per DC Saintc-Hfarthc}, lib. iii. cap. 9, No. 6 
 
: TEMPORAL POWER OF THE HOLY SEE. 71 
 
 were simple estates, whose revenues the Roman Church 
 received; others were real principalities, embracing cities 
 and entire provinces, such as the country of the Cottian 
 Alps, including the city of Genoa, and all the coast of 
 Liguria, as far as the frontiers of Gaul. The Lombards, 
 having usurped this country about the end of the seventh 
 century, restored it to Pope John VII. (about the year 708) 
 as an ancient possession of the Roman Church. 1 
 
 Historians remark, that the greater part of the patri- 
 monies of the Roman Church, in Sicily and Calabria, had 
 been given to her by the emperors, since Theodosius the 
 Great, in exchange for those which she possessed in several 
 provinces of the East, whose revenues it would have been 
 difficult for her to receive, on account of the frequent 
 incursions of the barbarians into those provinces. 2 
 
 The temporal sovereignty of the Popes grew thus 
 insensibly and involuntarily, by the providential agency of 
 Catholic princes and nations. The donations of the 
 emperors, the pious generosity of the faithful, prepared 
 for the successors of St. Peter a royalty whose beneficent 
 influence was soon to return them greater benefits than 
 they had bestowed. It was the work of the faith, the 
 respect and the love of Christian times ; but it was at the 
 same time the work of a careful Providence, which intended 
 
 (Oper. torn. iv.)Fleury, Hist. Eccl. torn. viii. lir. 35, Nos. 15 and 
 15. Zaccaria, ubi supra, cap. 3. Hist, de 1'Eglise Gallicane, torn. 
 :ii. p. 311. 
 
 1 The following are Bede's own words, in his chronicle (year 
 708) : " Aripertus, rex Longobardorum, nmltas cohortes, et patri- 
 moniam Alpium Cottiarum, quo? quondam ad jus pertinebant apo- 
 stolica? sedis, sed a Longobardis multo tempore fuerant ablata, resti- 
 tuit juri ejusdem sedis ; et hanc donationem, aureis scriptam literis, 
 Eomam direxit." The Pope exercised in these provinces, by means 
 of governors, all the rights of sovereignty. Zaccaria, ubi supra, 
 cap. 1. S. Gregor. Epist. lib. i. epist. 44, 75 j^epist. 19, 99, 100, 
 &c. Pere Denis de Sainte-Marthe, Vie de S. Gregoire, ubi supra. 
 fere Thomassin, Ancienne et Nouvelle Discipline, torn. iii. liv. i. 
 ch. 27, No. 7. Zaccaria, ubi sup. cap. 3, No. 13. 
 
 2 Du Pouvoir du Pape au Moyen A ge. 
 
72 ORIGIN AND PROVIDENTIAL PREPARATION OF 
 
 soon to give a new sanction to this royalty by the unani- 
 mous wishes of the Italian people. 
 
 Besides, we must add, this addition of temporal to 
 spiritual power in the person of the sovereign Pontiffs 
 was not a fact exclusively proper to the Roman Church : 
 from the time of the first Christian emperors, there was a 
 general tendency throughout the empire, not only to 
 confirm to the Church the right of property, which is a 
 necessity founded on the very nature of things, but to 
 invest the bishops and the clergy with several of the 
 powers of the civil magistracy ; and it is known with what 
 beneficial results for the welfare of the people and the 
 spread of civilization in Europe. Let us quote upon this 
 important subject the lucid remarks of M. Guizot. 
 
 " From the 5th century, the Christian clergy had 
 powerful means of influence. The bishops and clerks had 
 become the chief municipal magistrates. The municipal 
 system was, strictly speaking, all that remained of the 
 Roman empire : such were the vexations of despotism, and 
 the ruin of the cities, that the curiales, or members of the 
 municipal corporations, had fallen into discouragement 
 and apathy. The bishops, on the contrary, and the priests, 
 full of life and zeal, naturally offered themselves to super- 
 intend and to manage everything. // would be absurd to 
 blame them for it, or to tax them with usurpation; the 
 natural course of things would have it so ; the clergy alone 
 was morally alive and vigorous ; it became powerful every- 
 where ; such is the Jaw of the universe. This revolution is 
 traceable in all the legislation of the emperors at this 
 period. If you open the Theodosian or Justinian code, 
 you will find a great number of arrangements which charge 
 the bishops and clergy with municipal affairs. 1 And the 
 Christian Church has powerfully contributed since that 
 time, to the development of modern civilization. 
 
 1 In support of this assertion M. Guizot cites in particular the 
 Justinian Code. lib. i. tit. 4, De Episcopali AudientiA, JNos. 26 and 
 30; tit. 55, De Defensoribus, No. 8. 
 
THE TEMPOBAL POWER OF THE HOLY SEE. 73 
 
 " The presence of a moral influence,, of a moral force, a 
 force based wholly upon conviction, upon belief and moral 
 sentiments, was a vast advantage in the midst of the 
 deluge of material force which at that epoch inundated 
 society. If the Christian Church had not been in existence, 
 the whole world would have been abandoned to pure material 
 force. The Church alone exercised a moral power. But 
 she did more ; she kept up and diffused the idea of a rule, 
 of a law superior to all human laws ; she professed the 
 belief, essential to the safety of humanity, that there is, 
 above all human laws, a law called, according to times and 
 customs, sometimes reason, sometimes the divine law, but 
 which, in all times and places, is the same law under 
 different names." 1 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 FINAL AND PROVIDENTIAL ESTABLISHMENT OF THE 
 TEMPORAL SOVEREIGNTY OF THE HOLY SEE. 
 
 \\*E shall examine here 
 
 1. The causes which brought about the establishment of 
 the pontifical sovereignty. 
 
 2. The striking disinterestedness of the Popes, and their 
 long fidelity to the emperors of Byzantium. 
 
 3. The abandonment of Rome and Italy by the empe- 
 rors, and the accomplishment of the designs of God, by 
 means of the sword of the Franks. 
 
 i. 
 
 \Ve have now to exhibit one of the most incontestable 
 titles of the Pope's temporal sovereignty, perhaps the 
 
 1 Guizot, Histoire generale de la Civilisation en Europe, 2 C 
 lecon, pp. 55 58, 3 e edition : Paris, 1840. 
 
74 FINAL AND PROVIDENTIAL ESTABLISHMENT OF 
 
 noblest of any. Not only the Popes did not impose 
 themselves upon the people, as we have seen, but, as is 
 demonstrated by history, and is very much to the point to 
 notice, the people themselves, abandoned by their former 
 masters, and reduced to despair, implored the Popes to 
 govern them and to save them. It was a great sight, 
 unparalleled in the annals of the world. There have 
 existed, doubtless, more powerful royalties ; but we know 
 not one, which, like that of the Popes, derives from its 
 singular rise, its benefits, the needs, the wishes and unani- 
 mous acclamations of its people, a juster right to call itself 
 the royalty of Providence. A Ye have here only to recapi- 
 tulate briefly the known and undisputed facts.- 
 
 The lamentable state of the Italian populations after the 
 invasion is well known : defencelesss and exposed to the 
 incursions of the barbarians, betrayed by their natural 
 protectors, ravaged and desolated for two hundred years 
 by the Huns, the Goths, the Vandals, and the Lombards, 
 they turned with one accord towards the Popes, as their 
 refuge and their bulwark. In the midst of these frightful 
 and indescribable calamities, the Roman Pontiffs had 
 become the only refuge of all the afflicted. The great 
 Pope St. Leo alone saved twice the city of Rome and the 
 Romans from the fury of Attila and Genseric ; thus point- 
 ing out to Italy the moral power to which she must look 
 for safety, the declining power of the emperors having 
 ceased to be available. Soon afterwards, in 476, Odoacer, 
 with his Heruli, put an end to the Western empire; 
 some years later the Heruli disappear before the Goths, 
 who in their turn give place to the Lombards, v AYhat was 
 the force which, during these disastrous ages, protected 
 the name and the remains of Rome? The Papacy ! AY hat 
 were not the struggles of St. Gregory the Great, for 
 twenty-seven years, to preserve the holy city from the 
 sword of the Lombards? These fierce conquerors felt 
 their rage and threats expire upon their lips, and their 
 pride tamed, in the presence of the unarmed Pontiff of 
 Rome, as if the angel of the Lord had appeared to them. 
 
 During the long and terrible assaults which the Eternal 
 
THE TEMPORAL SOVEREIGNTY OF THE HOLY SEE. 75 
 
 City had to suffer from Alaric, Ricimer, Yitiges, and Totila, 
 and after that fall which made St. Jerome say that the light 
 of the ruorld was extinguished, and that the fall of one city 
 ! !u<f left the universe in ruins, whither did the Romans fly 
 when exiled from their abodes, patricians, senators, ple- 
 beians, men, women, and children, driven before the barba- 
 rians like a flock of sheep? to the churches, the basilicas 
 of St. Peter and St. Paul. Procopius records the respect 
 shown by the Goths to the apostolic churches. Totila, their 
 chief, even entered the church of St. Peter to pray ; * some 
 years before, the barbarians, under Vitiges, had in like 
 manner respected the basilica of St. Paul. 2 He says, " They 
 so respect the sacred temples of these two apostles, that 
 during the whole war they never profaned them in the 
 least, and that the priests have always had full liberty to 
 celebrate there all the sacred rites." St. Augustin, too, 
 celebrates this unheard-of triumph of religion over barba- 
 rians, comparing the taking of Rome to that of Troy : 
 " There, the spoils were carried off from the burning tem- 
 ples, not to restore them to the conquered, but to share 
 them among the conquerors ; here, things even seized 
 elsewhere, if proved to belong to the holy places, were 
 brought back with honour and pious reverence. There 
 liberty was doomed ; here it was preserved. There the 
 inhabitants were reduced to slavery; here captivity was 
 forbidden. There they were insulted by enemies whose 
 property they had become ; here they were set free by 
 compassionate soldiers. There, finally, avarice and pride 
 ravaged the temples ; here the humility of the most savage 
 b.irbarians respected the basilicas of Jesus Christ." 
 
 And it was not only in so desperate a moment that the 
 Romans found a last refuge under the shadow of the apo- 
 
 1 " Totila in templum Petri apostoli sese contulit precandi gratifi." 
 -De Bello Gotho, iii. 20. 
 
 " " Gothi sacra m ban c Paulisedera apostoli, itemque alterarn apo- 
 stoli Petri sic reverentur, ut neutram toto belli tempore ne minimum 
 quidem violaverint, ac sacerdotibus de more sacra illic omnia pro- 
 curare licuerit." Lib. ii. 4. 
 
76 FINAL AND PROVIDENTIAL ESTABLISHMENT OF 
 
 stolic churches; it was not only in critical emergencies 
 that recourse was had to the Popes ; but in everything and 
 from all quarters. Every important affair was submitted to 
 them ; nothing great was done without them. The Pope 
 Agapitus, in the sixth century, negotiated a peace for the 
 Italian people between Theodatus, king of the Goths, and 
 the Emperor Justinian. Athalaric and Theodatus having 
 made important donations to the Romans, Pope Vigilius 
 travelled to Constantinople, and obtained from Justinian 
 an imperial constitution, the principal object of which was 
 to confirm these donations. About the same time, Cassi- 
 odorus, a lloman senator, prefect of the Prsetorium, wrote 
 to John II. : " You are the chief of the Christian people ; 
 under your name of Father, you direct everything. The 
 security of the people depends upon your fame and your 
 power. We have minor responsibilities in the administra- 
 tion of affairs, but the supreme authority is yours. Your 
 principal care, no doubt, is the spiritual direction of your 
 flock ; but you cannot neglect their temporal interests ; as 
 man has a double nature, it is the duty of a good father to 
 watch over both our temporal and eternal welfare." 1 Such 
 language from a prefect of the Prsetorium, one of the first 
 officers of the empire, would surprise us, if we did not 
 know that Italy, in her distress, was continually imploring 
 in vain the assistance of the emperors. The people were 
 perishing of hunger and misery ; the towns were burnt 
 down, the country devastated, the inhabitants, dispersed 
 and exiled, were wandering here and there at the mercy 
 of the barbarians. In so deplorable a situation, the only 
 
 1 " Yos enim spcculatores Christiano populo praosidetis, vos Patris 
 nomine omnia dirigitis. Securitas ergo plebis ad vestram respicit 
 famam, cui divinitus est commissa custpdia. Quapropter nos decet 
 custodire ali^ua, sed vos omnia. Pascitis quidem sp iritualiter com- 
 missum vobis gregem ; tamen nee ieta potestis negligere, qusc 
 corporis videntur substantiam oontinere ; nam sicut homo constat 
 ex dualitate, ita boni patris est utrumque refovere." Cassiodor 
 Epist. lib. xi. ep. 2, Opera, torn. i. 
 
THE TEMPORAL SOVEREIGNTY OF THE HOLY SEE. 77 
 
 resource of Italy was the authority of the Holy See and 
 the charity of the Popes. 
 
 Such were, in the fifth and sixth centuries, the necessity 
 and the benefits of the pontifical intervention ; such was 
 the origin of the temporal power of the Holy See. The 
 rise of the Lombard monarchy in 568, and the calamities 
 which followed from it, strengthened this necessity. From 
 the time that these new barbarians, encamped in Northern 
 Italy, became, as it were, a standing menace of invasion 
 to the whole peninsula, the increasing weakness of the 
 empire, and the isolation of all its provinces, rendered still 
 more indispensable the public intervention of the Popes. 
 Their protection was necessary, not only to the poor inha- 
 bitants, but to the exarchs themselves, who continually 
 were imploring it from Ravenna, now to aid the expenses 
 of administration in the provinces, now to appease the 
 excited population, and again to negotiate with the Lom- 
 bards. In a word, the Popes had become, by the mere 
 force of circumstances, by the pressing demands upon 
 them and their authority, the centre of government and 
 public affairs in Italy. It was an involuntary but real 
 and necessary sovereignty. 
 
 The modern writers who are least favourable to the 
 Church, cannot help, in spite of their prejudices, render- 
 ing homage upon this point to the Holy See, and recog- 
 nizing the supreme legitimacy of this new greatness, as 
 well as the providential nature of the circumstances which 
 by degrees elevated the temporal sovereignty of the Popes 
 upon the ruins of the imperial power. 
 
 "Another cause," says one of them, "brought about 
 and even justified the revolution which was about to de- 
 prive the Greek emperors of Italy. They had almost 
 completely abandoned, for two hundred years, their pro- 
 vinces in that country. They did not keep up a garrison 
 in Rome ; and the city, continually threatened by the 
 Lombards, invoked more than once, through its dukes or 
 its pontiffs, the care of the exarch and the power of the 
 
 emperor Deserted by their masters, the Romans 
 
 clung to their Pontiffs, then generally Romans, and worthy 
 
78 FINAL AND PROVIDENTIAL ESTABLISHMENT OF 
 
 of their confidence. Fathers and defenders of the people, 
 mediators between the great, chiefs of religion, in the 
 Popes were united the different grounds of influence which 
 are afforded by riches, benefits, virtues, and the supreme 
 priesthood." 1 
 
 Sismondi, whom no one can suspect of partiality to the 
 Popes, holds the same language : 2 " The more the Romans 
 saw themselves neglected by the Emperors, the more they 
 clung to the Popes, who, during this period, were almost 
 all Romans by birth, and whom their virtues have, for the 
 most part, enrolled in the catalogue of Saints. The Popes, 
 to protect the churches and convents from the profanations 
 of the barbarians, lavished the ecclesiastical riches at their 
 disposal, as well as the alms they received from the piety 
 of the Western faithful, so that the increasing power of 
 these Pontiffs in the city of Rome was founded on the most 
 respectable of all titles, virtues and benefits. 3 ' 
 
 Gibbon, who is as free from the suspicion of partiality 
 as Sismondi, declares that the temporal dominion of the 
 Popes was founded upon a thousand years of veneration, 
 and that their grandest title to sovereignty was the free 
 choice of a people delivered by them from servitude. 
 
 St. Gregory the Great was the most remarkable per- 
 sonification, the most noble and impressive type of this 
 singular sovereignty, which only afforded him a wider 
 field for his benevolence and love for men. 3 We find this 
 
 1 M. Daunou, Essai Hist. torn. i. pp. 29, 30. 
 
 2 Sismondi, Hist, des Republ. Ital. torn i. cli. 3. p. 122. 
 
 3 About the same time (590604) the Papacy attained its full 
 power in the person of St. Gregory the Great, an heroic priest, who 
 had been reserved for the dangers of those evil times. While the 
 walls of Rome, shaken by constant assaults, were threatening to fall 
 on him, his thoughts were at the extremities of the world ; in the 
 East, to withstand the Byzantine court ; in the North, to convert 
 the Anglo-Saxons ; in the West, where he succeeded in crushing 
 Arianism among the Visigoths of Spain. His exhortations on the 
 emancipation of slaves, hia reform of religious psalmody, and his 
 writings, still one of the great bases of theological instruction, had 
 done enough for future ages. Ozanam. 
 
THE TEMPORAL SOVEREIGNTY OF THE HOLY SEE. 79' 
 
 holy Pope continually discharging the offices of a temporal 
 nilor, almost of a sovereign. He administers provinces; 
 he urovides for the defence of towns; he deputes go- 
 vernors, with injunctions to the people to obey them as 
 they would himself. " We have charged Leontius with 
 the care and the government of your town," he writes to 
 the citizens of Nepi, " that he may superintend every- 
 thing, and make what regulations he thinks necessary for 
 your good and .that of the state. Whosoever resists his 
 orders, resists our authority. 1 " l He sends military officers 
 to command the garrisons of towns, menaced by the 
 enemies of the empire. He writes to the Neapolitans : 
 " You have received as you ought our letter, by which we 
 have deputed the noble tribune Constantino to the com- 
 mand of your city, and we rejoice that he has found 
 among you the faithful obedience of military devotion." 
 We see him even, in several of his letters, excite the 
 bishops to vigilance and zeal for the defence of towns, and 
 to repair and provision fortresses. He gives orders to the 
 chiefs of the army. He treats for peace with the Lom- 
 bards in person, and facilitates the success of negotiations, 
 at one time by his largesses, at another by his repeated 
 entreaties addressed to the emperors, the exarchs, and the 
 Lombards themselves. In short, to repeat again the words 
 of a learned writer 3 from whom we borrow these details,, 
 
 1 " Leontio curam, sollicitudinem civitatis Nepsesinse injunximtis, 
 ut in cunctis invigilans, qua) ad utilitatem vestram vel reipublica* 
 pertinere dignoscat, ipse disponat . . . quisquis congruae ejus ordina- 
 tioni restiterit, nostra? resultare disposition! cognoscetur." >S'. 
 Gregor. Epist. lib. ii. epist. 2, alias 8. 
 
 2 " Devotio vestra, sicut etn unc didicimus, epistolis nostris, qui- 
 bus magnificum virum Constantinum tribunum custodia? civitatis 
 deputavimus prseesse, paruit, et congmam militaris devotionis 
 obedientiam demonstravit." S. Grenor. Epist. lib. ii. epist. 31, 
 alias 2-1. 
 
 3 I mean the Abbe Gosselin, director of the Seminary of St. 
 Sulpice, in his work " Du Pouvoir du Pape au Moyen Age," a pious 
 and modest scholar, whose learning would have rendered his name 
 illustrious, had not his humility studied, during his life, to prevent 
 
80 FINAL AND PROVIDENTIAL ESTABLISHMENT OF 
 
 his authority, equally respected by princes and subjects, 
 by Romans and barbarians, is the centre of government 
 and of political affairs in Italy. 
 
 This great and holy Pope was so compelled by the wants 
 and sufferings of his people, and by the charity which 
 oppressed his heart, to busy himself with public affairs, 
 that he says himself his life was divided between the 
 offices of pastor and of temporal prince. 1 He writes to 
 the Empress Constantina, wife of the Emperor Maurice : 
 " We have now been living twenty-seven years in this 
 city, in the midst of the swords of the Lombards. But 
 to live with them, I cannot tell you what sums the Roman 
 Church has to pay them daily ... As the emperor 
 names a treasurer in the province of Ravenna, charged to 
 provide for the daily wants of the troops of his Italian army, 
 so I am the emperor's treasurer at Rome, to provide for 
 the wants of that city, always harassed by the Lombards." 
 One may judge of the sad state of Italy and of the ser- 
 vices of the papacy at this period, by the following pas- 
 sage from a letter to the bishop of Nomentum from St. 
 Gregory : " The impious fury of the enemy has so ravaged 
 the churches of different cities, that there is no hope of 
 repairing them, because the people have almost disap- 
 peared. We are therefore bound to watch with greater 
 care over the few who remain, their priests being dead, 
 and they being without a pastor." ' 
 
 But to form a just idea of these frightful calamities, 
 
 it. \Vc recommend strongly to all Catholics to peruse this remarkable 
 work under the present circumstances. 
 
 1 " Hoc in loco quisquis Pastor dicitur, curis exterioribus graviter 
 occupatur, ita ut ssope incertum sit utrum pastoris officiurn an terreni 
 proceris agat." Lib. i. epist. 25. 
 
 - " Postquarn hostilis impietas diversarum civitatum, ita peccatis 
 facientibus, dcsolavit ecclesias, ut reparandi eas spes nulla, populo 
 deficiente, remanserit, rnajori valdecuraconstringimur, ne defundis 
 earum saccrdotibus, reliqui:i> plcbis, nullo pastoris moder.-unino 
 gubernante, per devia fidei hostis callidi, quod absit, rapiautur 
 insidiis." Epist. xx. lib. ii. 
 
THE TEMPORAL SOVEREIGNTY OP THE HOLY SEE. 81 
 
 one should read the homily of St. Gregory on Ezechiel ; 
 it is the grandest funeral sermon that ever was, on Rome, 
 Italy, and the whole empire. " If we look around us, we 
 see nothing but mourning ; if we listen, we hear but groans 
 on all sides. The towns are destroyed, the castles are 
 overturned, the fields are wasted, the earth has become a 
 solitude . . . . 1 There are no longer any inhabitants in 
 the country, and scarcely any in the towns, yet still the 
 remnant of the human race is being struck down daily, 
 and without intermission : some are dragged into captivity, 
 some perish on the scaffold, others are massacred ; such is 
 the spectacle our eyes are forced to look upon. What 
 have we then left, my brethren, to charm us in this life ? 
 If we continue to love the world in its present state, it is 
 not pleasures but woes that we shall love. Rome herself, 
 the queen of the world, we see all that remains of her; 
 she is overwhelmed under manifold and immense woes, by 
 the desolation of her citizens, the marks of the ravages of 
 her enemies, and the abundance of her ruins. e Where is 
 the Senate ? Where is the people ? 
 
 " Her bones are dried up, her flesh is wasted away, all 
 her worldly pomp and glory have departed. 3 And we, the 
 few who survive, live amidst alarms ; innumerable tribula- 
 tions sweep over us ; our sighs and tears are renewed every 
 day ; Rome is waste a wilderness in flames. Her inha- 
 bitants have vanished ; her edifices are in ruins. 4 Once 
 more, where are they who prided themselves in the monu- 
 ments of her glory ? Where is their pomp ? Where is 
 their pride ? Where are the vain pleasures which revelled 
 within her precincts ? What the prophet says of Judsea' 
 
 1 " Destructae urbes, eversa sunt castra, depopulati agri, in solitu- 
 dinem terra redacta est." Horn, in Ezech. vi. lib. ii. 
 
 2 " Immensis doloribus multipliciter attrita, desolatione civium, 
 impressione hostium, frequentia ruinarum." 
 
 3 "Ubi enim senatus? ubi jam populus? contabuerunt ossa, con" 
 sumptai sunt carnes, onmis in ea secularium dignitatum fastus ex' 
 tinctus est." 
 
 " Postquam defecerant homines, parietes cadunt." 
 
 G 
 
82 FINAL AND PROVIDENTIAL ESTABLISHMENT OF 
 
 has happened to her : Thou shalt be bald as an eagle. She 
 is bald as an eagle, for she has lost her feathers ; that is, 
 her people. Her feathers have fallen from her wings, 
 with which she used to dart upon her prey ; her valiant 
 sons are no more, who formerly covered her with foreign 
 spoils. 1 The desolation of Home, too, is but a picture of 
 the desolation of all our other cities. Let us then turn 
 our hearts from the present world, now but a bleak wil- 
 derness ; let us bury our worldly desires, at least, in the 
 tomb of the world itself." ~ 
 
 The successors of St. Gregory inherited his afflictions, 
 his charity, and his power ; and it is to be remarked that 
 the emperors of Byzantium, far from being offended by 
 the conduct of the Popes, or by the involuntary increase 
 of their temporal power, kept up habitually the most 
 cordial relations with them. 
 
 ii. 
 
 WONDERFUL DISINTERESTEDNESS OF THE POPES, AND THEIR 
 LONG FIDELITY TO THE EMPERORS OF BYZANTIUM. 
 
 The establishment of the temporal sovereignty of the 
 Holy See was not, then, one of those sudden and unfore- 
 seen revolutions which astonish the world by the rapidity 
 of their course. An attentive perusal of history convinces 
 us, on the contrary, that it was insensibly brought about 
 by a concurrence of circumstances altogether independent 
 of the will of the Sovereign Pontiffs, circumstances whose 
 influence they would in vain have endeavoured to stay, 
 and whose natural result they could not even have pre- 
 
 1 " Calvitium ergo suum aicut aquila dilatat, quia plumas perdidit 
 qua) populum amisit. Alarum quoque pcnnse cccicli'runt, cum quibus 
 volare ad pracdam consueverat: quia omnes potentes cjus extincti 
 sunt, per quos alicna rapicbat." 
 
 2 " Pespiciamus ergo ex toto animo pra:seDS seculum vel exiinc- 
 tum : fininmus mimdi ck.-nkria saltern cum rnundi fine." 
 
THE TEMPORAL SOVEREIGNTY OF THE HOLY SEE. 83 
 
 vented without compromising the interests both of religion 
 and society. 1 
 
 AVc seek in vain in history for what the emperors then 
 did for Italy; we find the Popes alone acting for her, 
 taking up her cause, negotiating effectually with the 
 barbarians, and putting- the towns into a proper state of 
 defence. The emperor Maurice so relied upon the Popes 
 and the bishops for the defence of the Italian cities, that 
 he earnestly requested from the Pope the removal of a 
 bishop whom his infirmities prevented from superintend- 
 ing, with the necessary energy,, the arrangements for the 
 defence of his episcopal city. St. Gregory, not thinking 
 fit to depose a bishop for such a reason, assigned him a 
 coadjutor, qualified to provide for the defence of the town, 
 in case of attack. Several letters of the same pontiff 
 tend to excite the bishops zealously to fulfil this duty, to 
 look diligently after the guard of the ramparts, the repairs 
 and provisioning of the fortresses, and other sucli matters, 
 which in ordinary times were the duty of civil magistrates 
 and military governors. 
 
 Very often, the Popes arrested the invading march of 
 the barbarians by their pacific interference, and sometimes 
 even made them restore their conquests. Thus it was that 
 John VI. preserved Rome, from an invasion; and, under 
 Gregory II., the king Luitprand, touched by the virtues 
 of the successor of St. Peter, laid at the Apostle's tomb 
 a silver cross, his belt, his sword, and crown. The same 
 Gregory II. writes to the emperor Leo: "All the West 
 turns its eyes towards our humility .... It regards us 
 as the moderator and arbitrator of public tranquillity." 
 Gregory III., his successor, sends ambassadors to Charles 
 Martel, and treats with him as one power with another. 
 Zachary, who filled the pontifical throne from 741 to 752, 
 treats with like manner Ptachis, king of the Lombards, 
 and stipulates with him a peace of several years, which 
 tranquillized all Italy. 
 
 1 Gosselin, Pouvoir des Papes. 
 
 G 2 
 
84 FINAL AND PROVIDENTIAL ESTABLISHMENT OF . 
 
 But what is most admirable in these great pontiffs, and 
 should for ever silence the faintest accusation against them 
 and the origin of their power, is their generous disinter- 
 estedness in circumstances most favourable to a justifiable 
 ambition, and their constant, unshaken fidelity to the 
 imperial power which so miserably abandoned them. This 
 power, by its wretched and feeble policy, was deposing 
 itself: not content with abandoning the defence of its 
 people, its inefficiency was accompanied by intolerable 
 oppression : a vexatious and tyrannical administration 
 kept pace in Italy with the notorious and increasing 
 degradation of the imperial power ; still the Popes per- 
 sisted obstinately in observing themselves, and in incul- 
 cating on the people, loyalty to the emperors. 
 
 The Popes were so far from wishing to transform them- 
 selves into temporal princes, that they deplore bitterly 
 and unceasingly this inevitable transformation. Their 
 authority imposes itself upon them against their will ; 
 they submit to it, and it increases according as the perils 
 of Italy, and as the weakness of the imperial power 
 becomes more obvious. It would be ivrong to reproach 
 them with it, or to tax them with usurpation, as M. Guizot 
 says ; so the natural course of things would have it : the 
 clergy alone was morally alive and vigorous ; it gained 
 power everywhere : such is the law of the universe. 
 
 And, what is most remarkable, at 110 period was the 
 doctrine of the Church as to the distinction of the two 
 powers, the independence of the spiritual power in reli- 
 gious matters, and submission in temporals, more univer- 
 sally professed. We will cite the famous letter of the 
 great Pope Gelasius to the emperor Anastasius, the pro- 
 tector of the Eutychian heresy : " This world, august 
 emperor, is ruled by two powers, that of her pontiffs and 
 that of kings ; of these, the charge of priests is so much 
 the heavier, in that they shall have to answer before the 
 tribunal of God for the souls of kings. You know, 
 beloved son, that, though you are above other men in 
 dignity, yet you humble yourself before the bishops who 
 preside over sacred things, and you apply to them for 
 
THE TEMPORAL SOVEREIGNTY OF THE HOLY SEE. 85 
 
 everything that concerns your salvation ; and in the recep- 
 tion and administration of the divine sacraments, you are 
 bound to obey them, instead of commanding. You know, 
 I say, that in all these things you are dependent upon 
 them, and that they cannot be subjected to your will. 
 For if, in temporal things, the ministers of religion obey 
 your laws r knowing that you have received your power from 
 above, how dutifully, I ask, ought you not to obey those 
 who are charged with dispensing the august mysteries?" l 
 Conformably to these principles, the Popes struggle 
 intrepidly against the perpetual and intolerable preten- 
 sions of the Byzantine court, which claims to interfere 
 in questions of doctrine, and supports heresies ; whilst 
 they cease not to recognize and recommend with all their 
 influence to the people the temporal authority by which 
 they are oppressed. It is both curious and sad to study 
 this short-sighted and oppressive policy of the emperors. 
 Not only the independence, but the safety and even the 
 life of the Roman Pontiffs was often endangered in their 
 relations with the emperors of Constantinople. St. Martin, 
 persecuted by Heraclius Constans, perished on the shores 
 of the Black Sea. Others, though they did not die in 
 exile, suffered long persecutions, as Pope Yigilius, under 
 
 1 " Duo sunt, imperator auguste, quibus principaliter munclus hie 
 regitur, auctoritas sacra pontificum, et regalis potestas : in quibus 
 tanto gravius est pondus sacerdotum, qiianto etiam pro ipsis regibus 
 in divino reddituri sunt examine rationem. Nostienim, fill clemen- 
 tissime, quod, licet praesidens humano generi, dignitate, rerum 
 tamen prsesulibus divinarum devotus colla submittis atque ab eis 
 causas tua? salutis expetis ; inque sumendis coyest ibus sacranieutis, 
 eisque, ut competit, disponendis, subdite deberecognoscis, religionis 
 ordine, potius quam prseesse. Nosti itaque inter hsec ex illomm te 
 pendere judicio, non illos ad tuam vellc redigi voluntatem. Si 
 enim, quantam ad ordinem pertinet publicse disciplinsc, cognoscentes 
 imperium tibi superna dispositione collatum, legibus tuis ipsi 
 quoque parent religionis antistiter, quo, rogo, decet affectu eis 
 obedire, qui pro erogandis venerabilibus sunt attributi mysteriis? " 
 S. Gelas. Pap. Epist. ad Anast. Aug. ; Lable, Concil. torn. iv. p. 
 1182; Fleury, Hist. Eccl. torn. vii. liv. xxx. No. 31; Bossuet, 
 Defens. Declar. lib. i. sect. 2 cap. 33. 
 
86 FINAL AND PROVIDENTIAL ESTABLISHMENT OF 
 
 the reign of Justinian. Need we recall the forced jour- 
 neys of the Popes to Byzantium, as of Agapitus and 
 Constantine ? Or the intrigues against Sergius, John VI., 
 and Gregory II., of Monothelite or Iconoclast emperors ? 
 Still the Sovereign Pontiffs of whom we speak never took 
 advantage of the disaffection towards the imperial power 
 produced by such vexatious tyranny, still more odious 
 because of the evident weakness of the princes, nor of 
 the disgust of the people and their impatience of the 
 Byzantine yoke, to emancipate themselves from its thral- 
 dom : they alone, on the contrary, maintained it in Italy, 
 both against the barbarian invasions and the revolts of a 
 discontented and indignant people. 
 
 St. Gregory the Great affords a remarkable proof of 
 the truth of this assertion. He had sufficient reason to 
 complain of the representatives of the imperial power. 
 " I cannot tell you," he writes to a bishop, " all we have 
 to suffer here from the exarch. I will say, in one word, 
 that his tyranny does us more injury than the arms of the 
 Lombards ; we almost prefer the enemies who kill us to 
 the officers of the empire who consume us by their frauds 
 and extortions." Such was the conduct of the exarchs. 
 Well, how does St. Gregory behave towards Constanti- 
 nople? A law having been imposed upon him by the 
 emperor 'Maurice, which appeared to him disadvantageous 
 to the interests of the Church, he remonstrates with the 
 prince, with all the liberty of a pontiff, but with all the 
 loyalty of a subject. "Obeying your jurisdiction, I have 
 forwarded your law to the different parts of the world ; 
 thus discharging my double duty, on the one hand, of 
 obeying the emperor, on the other remonstrating with you 
 on what concerns the honour of God." J 
 
 All the successors of St. Gregory imitated his loyalty 
 
 1 " Ego quidem jussioni subjectus, legem per diversas orbis paries 
 transmitti feci, et eccc per BUggeationifl nic.-i- pn^inam screnissimis 
 Dominis nuntiavi, utrobiquc ergo qurc debui exsolvi. qui et impe- 
 ratori obedientiam prrcbui et pro Deo quod sensi minime tacui. 
 Ep. iii. 65. 
 
THE TEMPORAL SOVEREIGNTY OF THE HOLY SEE. 87 
 
 and dcvotedness. Thus under Popes Sergius and John VI. 
 their authority alone saved the envoys of the emperor, in 
 the seditions excited by their intrigues against the Pope. 1 
 A remarkable incident occurred during the pontificate of 
 Constantine, in 713, when the Romans rose against the 
 emperor Philippicus, who had openly protected the heresy 
 of the Monothelites. This prince having sent the duke 
 Peter to Home to take the government of the city, the 
 people refused to recognize him, and even determined to 
 repulse him by force of arms ; a combat took place before 
 the duke's palace, and would have had the most serious 
 consequences, had not the Pope sent bishops with the gos- 
 pels and crosses to appease the sedition. " The prospects 
 of the governor were desperate, and his life was in extreme 
 danger ; but the Catholics withdrew on the Pope's order, 
 so that the heretical party of Peter prevailed, as if they 
 had defeated their adversaries." ~ Gregory II. himself,, 
 whose life was threatened three different times by Leo the 
 Isaurian, continued, notwithstanding the sharp contests he 
 had to sustain against that prince, to display, in most cri- 
 tical circumstances, the traditionary fidelity of the Pontiffs 
 to the imperial power. Thus, when Italy, irritated by the 
 iconoclast fury of Leo. proposed to elect another emperor 
 in his place, Gregory opposed it. 3 The king of the Lom- 
 bards occupies Ravenna during this state of anarchy ; the 
 exarch had taken refuge in the infant city of Venice ; the 
 duke, or doge of Venice, Ursus, or Orso, as the Italians 
 call his name, had received the exarch, but showed little 
 
 1 Anastas. Vita Joannis VI. p. 1290. Fleury, Hist. Eccl. torn, 
 ix. liv. xl. JS T o. 54. 
 
 - " Pars Petri ita anguatiata (crat), ut nulla illi esset spes vivendi ; 
 verum ad Pontificis jussionem pars alia, qurcet Christiana vocabatur, 
 recessit ; sicque defensoris liseretici pars valuit Petri, ac si ilia 
 attrita recederet." Anastas. ubi supra. 
 
 3 " Omnis quoque exercitus Eavennse vel Venetiarum talibus jussis 
 mianimiter restiterunt, etnisieos prohibuisset Pontifex, imperatorem 
 super se constituere fuissent agressi." Paid Diac. l)e Gestis 
 Longob. 
 
88 FINAL AND PROVIDENTIAL ESTABLISHMENT OF 
 
 anxiety to encounter the Lombards. Gregory II. wrote a 
 pressing letter to the doge, and prevailed on him to equip 
 a fleet, which retook Ravenna, and restored that imperial 
 city to the exarch. Again, towards the end of his reign, 
 the excitement continuing in Italy, a usurper appears in 
 Tuscany, and is supported by numerous adherents ; Gre- 
 gory II. supports the exarch in quelling this rising sedition. 
 A writer, whom we have already cited, and who is anything 
 but partial to the Popes, M. Daunou, cannot help praising 
 this generous conduct of Gregory II. : J "At a most cri- 
 tical juncture, when, on the one hand, heresy, armed with 
 the imperial power, was forcing its way into Italy, and ou 
 the other, Italy saw no way of repelling heresy but revolt 
 against her sovereign, Pope Gregory II. found' means to 
 observe the two obligations which appeared incompatible. 
 The intrepid head of the Church firmly opposed the exe- 
 cution of an edict which was contrary to the prescriptions 
 of Christianity ; he made every effort to dissuade the em- 
 peror from his impious purpose ; he confirmed the people 
 in the resolution to refuse commands which they could not 
 obey without betraying their religion ; but, at the same 
 time, as a loyal subject, he continued to obey his prince, 
 and animated his people to a due submission ; he stifled 
 the spirit of rebellion ; and, in spite of the infamous plots 
 against his life, planned by the prince himself, this true 
 apostolic prelate, superior both to sentiments of vengeance 
 and of fear, was generous enough to preserve Italy to the 
 crown, which was on the point of losing it." 
 
 Such was the conduct, respectively, of the Emperors 
 and the Popes. This rapid historical glance suffices to 
 establish incontrovertibly that not only was the Byzantine 
 despotism a standing menace to the spiritual independence 
 and even the life of the Sovereign Pontiffs of Rome, but 
 that the incapacity of the emperors, combined with their 
 
 1 Dauncu.^Ess&i Historiquesur la Puissance Temporelle des Papcp. 
 Lclcau, Hist, de Bas-Empire, torn. xiii. liv. Ixiii.No. 54; AnnaU-s 
 du Moycn Age, torn. vi. liv. xxiii. pp. 301, 113, &c. 
 
THE TEMPORAL SOVEREIGNTY OF THE HOLY SEE. 89 
 
 oppression and the rnpaciousness of their officers, rendered 
 it more and more nrgcnt for perishing Italy to look for 
 aid elsewhere. 
 
 One last excess of the insane policy of the despots of 
 Byzantium brought the despair of the people to the crown- 
 ing point, and severed the last bonds which united Italy 
 to Constantinople. In 741, Luitprand, king of the 
 Lombards, besieges the eternal city, and reduces it to the 
 last extremity. What succour does the emperor of Con- 
 stantinople send? It is with profound indignation and 
 disgust that we read the following details in the con- 
 temporary historians : " The emperor sent a considerable 
 fleet to Italy, to sack Rome and several other cities, as a 
 punishment for their continuing to venerate images. The 
 commander of the fleet had orders to seize the Pope him- 
 self, and bring him bound hand and foot to Constantinople. 
 The execution of this project was only prevented by the 
 destruction of the fleet, which was dispersed near Ravenna 
 by a furious tempest. To revenge himself, the emperor 
 loads Italy with new taxes\ and seizes the patrimonies of 
 the Roman Church in Sicily and Calabria." It was then, 
 in 741, that Gregory III. resolved to write to Charles 
 Martel, and to send him a solemn embassy. 
 
 in. 
 
 ACCOMPLISHMENT OF THE DESIGNS OF GOD BY MEANS 
 OF THE SWORD OF THE FRANKS. 
 
 It is extremely important to observe here, in order 
 fully to comprehend the immense services rendered by 
 the Papacy, at this gloomy period, to European civiliza- 
 tion, that not only Rome and Italy had now to be 
 defended against the Lombards, but the whole of the 
 West to be protected from the invasions of the Mussulman 
 barbarians. To understand how great the danger was, 
 we need only state that in 712 Spain was invaded and 
 conquered by the Mussulmans; in 719 they passed the 
 Pyrenees, and entered ancient Gaul. About the same 
 time the Arabs had besieged Constantinople for the third 
 
90 FIXAL AXD PROVIDENTIAL ESTABLISHMENT OF 
 
 time, under Soliraan I. ; and the capital owed its deliver- 
 ance to the effects of the Greek fire. The provinces of 
 Gaul, then under the Carlovingian dynasty, were hemmed 
 in between the Mussulmans of Septimania and the Pagan 
 barbarians from beyond the Rhine. 1 
 
 The reasons, then, are but too clear which forced the 
 Popes and Italy, abandoned by the emperors, to turn to the 
 Franks. The necessity was urgent, not only in order to 
 save Italy, but the whole of Western Europe ; and it was 
 these two urgent and united necessities which decided the 
 Popes upon the important resolution which they formed in 
 order to insure the safety of Italy, the independence of 
 the West, and the preservation of the whole of Christen- 
 dom. The kings of the Franks, too, seemed providen- 
 tially designed to assist the Popes : in the critical state of 
 Rome, abandoned by its natural protectors, and menaced 
 by the Lombards as well as of the West in general, as- 
 saulted by Islamism, the Popes, thoroughly acquainted 
 with the material and moral resources of their time, saw of 
 what powerful avail would be the bravest soldier then in 
 Europe, Charles Martel, who was then keeping in check, 
 with rare courage, the pagans of Germany on the north, 
 while on the south he was presenting a formidable barrier 
 to the irruptions of the Mussulmans, whom he had already 
 encountered and crushed upon the plains of Tours (73.2) . 
 
 1 The attacks of the Saracens upon the coasts of Italy were 
 incessant during the succeeding centuries. " Pope Leo IV., taking 
 on himself in this crisis an authority which the generals of the 
 emperor Lotharius seemed unwilling to assume, shovred himself 
 worthy, by his defence of Rome, to rule there as sovereign. He had 
 employed the riches of the Church in repairing the walls, raising 
 towers, and stretching chains across the Tiber. He armed the 
 ruilitia, he visited all the ports himself, and received the Saracens 
 on their approach not in warlike array, but as a pontiff who was 
 enedtHfUpng a Christian people, and as a king Witching over the 
 safety of his subjects. He had been born a Roman : the courage 
 of the first ages of the republic reappeared in him, in a period of 
 cowardice and corruption, like one of the prand monuments of 
 ancient Rome appearing among the ruins of later structures." 
 l r oltairc. 
 
THE TEMPORAL SOVEREIGNTY OF THE HOLY SEE. 91 
 
 Moreover, in this crisis, the Popes and the Romans 
 acted in accordance with the most universally recognized 
 principles of law and justice. " Every one admits/' says 
 Puffendorf, 1 e< that the subjects of a monarch, when on 
 the point of perishing, and having no succour to hope for 
 from their sovereign, may make their submission to 
 another prince." " No part of a state/' says Grotius, 2 
 " has a right to detacli itself from the body politic ; unless 
 that not to do so would expose it to manifest danger of 
 perishing; for all human institutions seem to be subject 
 to the tacit exception of a case of extreme necessity, when 
 the natural law only can be considered.-" On this Grotius 
 quotes St. Augustin, who is not less formal : " Among 
 all nations/' says the holy doctor, " it has been considered 
 a better course to submit to the yoke of a conqueror than 
 to suffer the last horrors of war and be exterminated ; 
 such is, as it were, the voice of nature." 3 
 
 The ambassadors sent by Gregory III. to Charles 
 Martel were commissioned to offer him in the name of 
 the Pope, and the Roman Senate and the people, the 
 dignity of patrician. Charles Martel received the Pope's 
 request favourably, and was preparing to cross the moun- 
 tains, when death prevented him. The deaths of the 
 Pope and the emperor in the same year (741) suspended 
 the negotiations opened with France; but Pope Zachary, the 
 successor of Gregory III., succeeded, by his tact and in- 
 fluence, in retrieving the affairs of the empire in Italy. 
 He obtained from the king of the Lombards the restitution 
 of the cities and territories of the exarchate which they 
 had seized, re-established the authority of the exarch, and 
 thereby that of the emperor whom he represented ; yet, 
 
 1 De Jure 2s"at. ct Gent. lib. vii. cap. 7, sec. 4. 
 
 3 Grotius, De Jure Belli et Pacis, ii. 6, sec. 5. 
 
 3 " In omnibus fere gentibus, quodam modo vox nature ista per- 
 sonuit, ut subjugari victoribns mallent, quibus contigit vinci, quam 
 bellica onmifaria vastatione deleri.'' S. Aug. De CivitateDei, xviii. 
 2,1. 
 
92 FINAL AND PROVIDENTIAL ESTABLISHMENT OF 
 
 singular to say, it was to himself alone, and not to the 
 emperor, that the barbarian had made the restitution; 1 
 so notorious was it to every one, that the Popes, by the 
 necessity and the force of circumstances, were, in point of 
 fact, real sovereigns in Italy, even before the French 
 kings had recognized and founded upon positive titles their 
 temporal sovereignty. But not only the barbarians in the 
 West, but the emperors of the East themselves paid an 
 involuntary homage to this evident fact. Indeed, when 
 Constantine Copronymus, notwithstanding his attachment 
 to the Iconoclast heresy, made donations to Pope Zachary 
 of new domains in the provinces which still remained 
 to the empire, 2 did he not seem to approve implicitly 
 the sovereign authority which it was known that the Pope, 
 after the example of his predecessors, exercised de facto in 
 those provinces, and to express openly his satisfaction at it ? 
 Zachary dies ; and, as if he had been the only barrier 
 which kept back the Lombards, as soon as he is no more, 
 they invade the imperial possessions, and seize upon the 
 Pentapolis and the exarchate. The exarch flies to Naples, 
 
 1 The following are the expressions of Anastasius on the restitu- 
 tion of the four towns of the duchy of Home : " (Zacharia?) piis 
 
 eloquiis flexus (Longobardorum rex) pnedictu quatuor 
 
 civitates eidcm sancto viro, cum eorum habitatoribus, redonavit ; , . 
 (quas) per donationis titulum, ipsi beato Petro apostolorum principi 
 reconeessit." 
 
 The same author makes use of similar expressions when speaking 
 of the restitution of the cities and territories of the exarchate -. 
 " Ab eodem rege nimis honorifice susceptus (Zacharias), salutaribus 
 
 monitis eum allocutus est, obsccraus ut ablatas Bavennatum 
 
 urbes sibi redonaret. Qui pradictus rex, post multam duritiam 
 inclinatus cst . . . . et duas partes territorii Cesensc Castri ad 
 partem rcipublica? restituit, &c. -Labbe, Concil. ib. 
 
 2 "Post IUTC, requirens (Constantinusprinceps) missum Apostolicsc 
 Sedis, cui ibidem (Constantiuopolim) in tcmpore perturbationis con- 
 tigerat advenisse, eumque repertum ad sedem absolvit (/. e. dimisit) 
 apostolicam ; et juxta quod beatissimus pontifex postulaverat, dona- 
 tionem in scriptis de duabus massis (i. c. fuudis seu pra?diis) qure 
 Kymphas et Normias appellantur, juris existentes publici, eidem 
 sanctissimo ac beatissimo Papa) sanct.i' Eomana? Ecclesia', jure por- 
 petuo, direxit possidendas." Anast. ubi supra, p. 1 J7_f. 
 
THE TEMPORAL SOVEREIGNTY OF THE HOLY SEE. 93 
 
 and thus terminates the exarchate, which lasted one 
 hundred and eighty-four years. Astolphus then falls upon 
 Rome, a prey so often and so ardently coveted. What 
 did, what could the emperor do for its defence ? He so 
 feels his weakness, that he sends ambassadors, not to the 
 barbarians, but to Pope Stephen II., the successor of 
 Zachary, who, of his own accord, had already opened 
 negotiations with the Lombards, and implores him to 
 take in hand the cause of Italy and her despairing people. 
 In this emergency, the Pope, after having in vain again 
 solicited aid from the emperor, seeing no hope left for him- 
 self and his people but to implore, like his predecessors, 
 Gregor}' III. and Zachary, the interference of the Franks, 
 resolved to proceed in person to the court of Pepin. 1 
 
 " When Pope Stephen arrived in France," says De 
 Maistre, " Pepin and all his family came to meet him, and 
 paid him royal honours. It is evident that the Popes 
 were sovereigns de facto, and, to speak with perfect accu- 
 racy, sovereigns by compulsion, before any of the Carlo- 
 vingian liberality; and yet they never ceased, up to 
 Constantine Copronymus, to date their acts by the year 
 of the emperors : they unceasingly exhorted them to pro- 
 tect Italy, to respect the opinions of the people, and to 
 leave their consciences in peace ; but the emperors would 
 
 1 " Tune pra?fatus sanctissimus vir, agnito raaligni regis (Aistulphi) 
 consilio, misit in regiam urbcm (Constantinopolim) suos missos . . . 
 deprecans imperialem clcmentiam, ut juxta quod ei ssepius scrip- 
 serat, cum exercitu ad tuendas has Italia) partes, modis omnibus 
 adveniret, et de iniquitatis filii morsibus Ilomauam lianc urbem, vel 
 
 cunctam Italise provinciam liberaret Cernens prseterea et ab 
 
 imperiali potentica nullum esse subveniendi auxilium ; tune quemad- 
 mpdum prsedecessores ejus beata? memorise, Gregorius, et Gregorius 
 alius, et Dominus Zacharias, beatissimi Pontifices, Carolo excel- 
 lentissimre memoriae regi Francorum direxerunt, petentes sibi 
 subveniri propter oppressiones ac invasiones quas et ipsi, in hue 
 Komanorum provincia, a nefanda Longobardorum gente perpessi 
 sunt ; ita modo et ipse venerabilis pater (Stephanus), divinfi gratia 
 inspirante, clam per quendam peregrinum suas misit litteras Pippino 
 regi Francorum, nimio dolore huic provincial adhcerenti conscriptat." 
 Anastas. ib. pp. 1(521, 1622. 
 
94 FINAL AND PROVIDENTIAL ESTABLISHMENT OF 
 
 listen to nothing, and the hour of doom was coming. The 
 people of Italy consulted for their own safety ; deserted 
 by their emperors, and harassed by the barbarians, they 
 chose themselves chiefs, and gave themselves laws. The 
 Popes, dukes of Rome de facto and de jure, finding it 
 impossible to resist the people, who rushed into their 
 arms, and not knowing how to defend them against the 
 barbarians, cast their eyes at last upon the French 
 princes." 
 
 It is curious to hear Bossuet also upon the same sub- 
 ject. He says : " During the fall of the empire, while 
 the Caesars found it scarcely possible to defend the East, 
 to which they confined their attention, Rome, abandoned 
 for two hundred years to the fury of the Lombards, and 
 forced to beg protection from the French, was obliged to 
 break with the emperors. She endured much before 
 coming to this extremity; she waited till the capital of 
 the empire was thrown off and abandoned by its emperors 
 as a prey to the enemy." 
 
 The hour had come, foreordained by Providence, when 
 the great institution of the temporal power of the Popes 
 was to be solemnly confirmed and proclaimed, its justice 
 to be publicly recognized, and its high rank fixed among* 
 the new monarchies of the West, which took the place of 
 the political unity of the ancient world, a rank which, 
 without giving umbrage to other sovereignties, sufficed for 
 the designs of God upon His Church. 
 
 Pepin and Charlemagne were destined to accomplish 
 this great work. Italy was in a critical position, as we have 
 seen : Astolphus, king of the Lombards, was besieging 
 Rome, which could riot long resist; Stephen had been 
 himself to the court of France, to implore aid from Pepin. 
 In a general assembly of the lords of the kingdom, at 
 Quiercy, Pepin solemnly binds himself by a formal act of 
 donation, signed by himself and his sons, to have restored 
 to the Holy See all cities and territories seized upon by 
 the Lombards. He then enters Italy ; Astolphus, besieged 
 and hard-pressed in his capital, engages to restore, without 
 delay, Ravenna and the other towns to the Church and 
 
THE TEMPORAL SOVEREIGNTY OF THE HOLY SEE. ! -> 
 
 the Roman republic (Sanctce Dei Ecclesice}. 1 But scarcely 
 lias LVpiu recrossed the mountains, when the faithless 
 Lombard returns and renews the siege of Rome. Pepin 
 hastens back 'to Italy, and this time imposes upon 
 Astolphus, defeated in a pitched battle and closely 
 blockaded in Pavia, harder conditions than before. He 
 adds the town and district of Comachio to those which 
 the Lombard king had undertaken the year before to 
 return to the Pope. 2 To insure the execution of this 
 treaty, Fulrad, abbot of St. Denis, was to visit in Pepin's 
 
 1 " Sub terribili et fortissimo sacramento, atque in eodem pacti 
 fcedere per scriptam paginam affirinavit, se illieo redditurum civi- 
 tatem Ravenuatuin, cum aliis diversis civitatibus." Anast. p. 1G24. 
 
 - It is a common impression that the Popes were indebted for 
 everything to the Carlovingians. Nothing, however, can be more 
 ungrounded than this idea. The idea of the papal sovereignty, 
 anterior to the Carlovingian donations, was so universal and undis- 
 puted, that Pepin, before attacking Astolphus, sent him several 
 ambassadors to induce him to re-establish peace and restore the 
 possessions of the holy Church of God and the Roman republic. 
 Ut pacifice sine ullCi sanguinis effusione, propria S. Dei Ecclesia- 
 et Eeip. Horn, reddant jura. (Anastasius.) And in the famous 
 charter Ego Ludovicus, Louis le Debonnaire declares that Pepin 
 and Charlemagne had long before, by an act of donation, restored 
 the exarchate to the blessed apostle and to the Popes. jExarchatum 
 
 quern Pippinus rex et genitor nosier Carolus, imperator, 
 
 . Petro et predecessor ibus jamdudum restituerunt. (Du Pape, 
 M. de Maistre, p. 250.) Charlemagne and his envoys, when claiming 
 from Desiderius the provinces he had taken from the Holy See, or 
 delayed to restore, always speaks of them as a restitution due to the 
 Pope and the Romans. The expressions used by Anastasius, in the 
 life of Adrian *I. are: " Ipsi Francorum missi, properantes cum 
 Apostolicse Sedis missis, declinaverunt ad Desiderium, qui et con- 
 stanter cum deprecantes adhortati sunt, sieut iflis a suo rege 
 praeceptum extitit, ut antefatas, quas abstulerat civitates pacifice 
 beato Petro redderet." And it is not only Anastasius, the historian 
 of the Popes, who speaks thus ; Eginhard himself, so zealous for the 
 glory of Pepin and Charlemagne, and consequently indisposed to 
 depreciate the value of their donations to the Holy See, says in the 
 life of Charlemagne: ''Finis belli fuit subacta Italia, et res a 
 Longobardorum rege (.reptee, Adriano Romance Ecclesiffi rectori 
 restitutes" 
 
96 FINAL AND PROVIDENTIAL ESTABLISHMENT OF 
 
 name all the towns surrendered or restored to the Church 
 of Rome. He received their keys, which he afterwards 
 laid clown religiously on the tomb of St. Peter, along with 
 the act by which the king of the Lombards ceded and gave 
 them up for ever to the Holy See. These towns were 
 twenty-two in number ; they formed the greater part of 
 the exarchate of Ravenna, and most were situated along 
 the coast of the Adriatic, within a space of about forty 
 leagues. 1 In vain did the emperor of Constantinople 
 send ambassadors to Pepin to claim for himself the 
 conquered provinces. Pepin treated his claim with con- 
 tempt, and answered that the Franks had shed their 
 blood, not for the Greeks, but for St. Peter. From this 
 time the Popes, in all their proceedings and in all their 
 letters, speak as sovereigns. 2 But their sovereignty was 
 continually menaced by the proximity and the ambition 
 of the Lombards ; it was Charlemagne, of immortal 
 memory, who finally delivered them from this danger, 
 continuing and gloriously completing his father's work. 
 
 A few facts will suffice to illustrate the manner in 
 which the providence of God made use of the hand of 
 man to complete his designs. Charlemagne did not 
 content himself with recognizing and respecting the 
 sovereignty of the Pope in Italy ; he extended and con- 
 solidated it by his victories over the Lombards, and by 
 the complete destruction of their monarchy in 773. The 
 year before, Adrian I. more closely pressed than ever by 
 Desiderius, had invoked the aid of the king of France, of 
 whose devotion to the interests of religion and of the 
 
 1 The exarchate of Ravenna comprised twenty-two towns : Ra- 
 venna, Rimini, Pesaro, Fano, Cesena, Sinigajilia, Jesi, Forlimpopoli, 
 Forli, Castrocaro, Montefeltro, Acerragio, Montelucari, Serravalla, 
 Snn-Msirigni, Bobio, Urbino, Caglio, Luccoli, Eugubio, Comarchio, 
 and Kami. Of thc.sr Kiniini, Pesaro, Funo, Sinigaglia, and Ancona 
 wi-re called the Pentapolis. 
 
 - " Nostras civitates. . . Rostram Senogalliam (in Pentappli) . . 
 nostrum castrum 'Valentis (in Campania)." Cod. Carol, epist. 38, 
 39,40. 
 
Till: TKMPOUAL SOVEREIGNTY OF TIIE HOLY SEE. 97 
 
 Ilolv Sec lie was aware. Charlemagne, having in vain 
 employed diplomacy to force the king of the Lombards 
 to give satisfaction to the Pope, crosses the Alps, besieges 
 Desidcrius in Pavia, takes him prisoner, sends him to 
 France to the monastery of Corbie, and thus puts an 
 end to the kingdom of the Lombards, which had lasted 
 two hundred years, and adds their crown to his own. 
 
 But the conduct of Charlemagne towards the Roman 
 Church reflected more glory upon him than the conquest 
 of this new diadem. Not content with confirming all the 
 donations of his father Pepin, he repaired to Rome, gave 
 the Pope the most touching marks of his respect, made 
 his chaplain Etherius draw up a far more ample act of 
 donation, by which he secured for ever to the Holy See 
 the exarchate of Ravenna, the island of Corsica, the pro- 
 vinces of Parma, Mantua, Venice, and Istria, with the 
 duchies of Spoleto and Beneventum. The king signed this 
 donation with his own hand, and caused it to be signed 
 also by the bishops, abbots, dukes, and counts who ac- 
 companied him ; after which he laid it on the altar of 
 St. Peter, and, with all the French chiefs, took an oath 
 to preserve to the Holy See the states which he had 
 solemnly restored to it. Thus Providence consummated 
 the establishment of the temporal sovereignty of the Holy 
 See : we have seen what instruments it used for this work 
 during a long succession of centuries. 
 
 Such was the providential order followed by events in 
 Italy; such was the method chosen by God in establishing 
 the sovereignty of the Holy See. We have carefully 
 distinguished the periods : 
 
 1. Before Constantine, in the first ages, the Roman 
 Church had neither sovereignty nor any temporal juris- 
 diction, but only very considerable properties, which she 
 received from the liberality of Christians, and which were 
 necessary to the exercise of her spiritual sovereignty. 
 
 2. From Constantine to Gregory II. the Popes possessed 
 numerous patrimonies, several of which were really princi- 
 palities. They had, too, particularly after the pontificate 
 of St. Gregory the Great, an immense influence in temporal 
 
 H 
 
98 GENERAL VIEW OF THE HISTORY 
 
 affairs, founded upon the respect and confidence of both 
 princes and subjects, but not as yet any sovereignty properly 
 so called. 
 
 3. From Gregory II. to Charlemagne a real sovereignty 
 existed ; the learned have called it a provisional sove- 
 reignt} 7 " ; but, whatever its designation, it was real : it 
 existed de facto arid de jure ; it had grown with time, 
 and was based upon long custom and the gratitude of the 
 people ; it was contested by none, and it received involun- 
 tary and glorious homage even from the East. Rome and 
 Italy were but expecting the hour of Providence. 
 
 4. At last this hour arrives, and Charlemagne receives 
 the glorious mission of founding definitively the temporal 
 sovereignty of the Holy See. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 GENERAL VIEW OF THE HISTORY OF THE TEMPORAL 
 POWER. 
 
 THERE remain other remarkable lessons to be learned 
 from history besides those we have been reviewing in the 
 preceding pages, which, confirming the fact, throw light 
 also upon the present, and the difficulties which it proposes 
 to us. 
 
 "When a great institution has lasted for ages, and has 
 experienced the most various fortunes, it has undergone, 
 so to speak, the ordeal of men and times, and, by the 
 light of so protracted an experience, its interests, its needs, 
 and its rights, may be equitably appreciated. Accord- 
 ingly, after an attentive study of the above facts, we think 
 we are justified in pronouncing, that the temporal sove- 
 reignty of the Pope, as at present constituted and recu..- 
 nizcd by Europe, places him, as regards the full and free 
 
OF THE TEMPORAL POWER. 99 
 
 exercise of his spiritual authority, and the peace of our 
 consciences which depends upon it, in a better position 
 than he was at any period of history; better than under 
 the pagan and persecuting emperors ; better than under 
 the Csesars of Byzantium, protectors, indeed, but too 
 often oppressors also ; better even, or, at least less ex- 
 posed to violence and outrage, than at the time of his 
 greatest political influence in the middle ages. 
 
 We can here but cast a rapid glance over the different 
 phases through which the Papacy has passed ; but the 
 events we have to review are important and luminous 
 enough to show that the changes in human affairs have, 
 notwithstanding the evident and never-failing protection 
 of Providence, been the occasions of continual perils and 
 great injuries to the Holy See, from which the position 
 created for it by the modern principles of public and 
 international law which prevail in Europe, seems emi- 
 nently calculated to preserve it. And this is why we ask 
 that this position may continue, and may be, more than 
 ever, confirmed and placed under the safeguard of all the 
 Catholic powers in the world. 
 
 The Papacy, as was fitting, appeared at first in the 
 world invested with the essential powers, and all the 
 rights which it held from Jesus Christ. The position 
 immediately created for it by the wickedness of men, 
 namely, persecution, was evidently unjust and anomalous; 
 but the providential reason for it is obvious : " The 
 Church," as Bossuet says, " begins by the cross and 
 martyrdom ; daughter of heaven, she must prove beyond 
 dispute that she is born essentially free and independent, 
 and that she does not owe her origin to men." Under 
 these abnormal and unjust circumstances, the Papacy 
 maintained its rights and saved its independence by the 
 extraordinary means of martyrdom, and by the transitory, 
 exceptional assistance of miracles. It was the heroic age 
 of the Church, the most glorious epoch in her history : 
 yet, who would wish to bring us back to it? "Who shall 
 presume to say that the Church of God is for ever to con- 
 tinue an alien and an outcast here below7or that she has 
 
 H 2 
 
100 GENERAL VIEW OF THE HISTORY 
 
 been placed upon earth only to confess the truth before 
 tyrants, and to die? 
 
 After she had thus conquered earthly power, and ac- 
 quired a free existence in the world, a new era opened upon 
 her : Constantine and the new Caesars sheltered under 
 their imperial purple Christianity so long proscribed, and 
 the Papacy sees peace, and sometimes triumph, succeed to 
 scaffolds and persecutions. " When, after three hundred 
 years of persecutions, the Church has proved hy her vigorous 
 growth, unaided by man for so many years, that she 
 depends not upon man, appear now, O Caesars, it is 
 time ! " So Bossuet greets the entry of the princes into 
 the Church, and the peaceful and honourable existence 
 they procured for her ; so does he celebrate this harmony 
 between the priesthood and the empire, " which gives free 
 course to the Gospel, more immediate force to the canons, 
 and maintains discipline more visibly." 
 
 However, was this alliance with human powers a benefit 
 which called for unreserved congratulation ? Does it 
 involve no peril for the Church ? The state being all- 
 powerful, and master of the Church, does she run no 
 risk of often paying with her independence for her too 
 close connection with the Caesars ? He who protects may 
 enslave. So it was, in fact, more than once. When we 
 read the history of the Lower Empire, and observe the 
 fatal, and as it were irresistible, propensity of the Byzantine 
 Caesars to consider themselves the heirs of the emperor- 
 pontiffs, and to extend their absolute power into the 
 sacred domain of conscience, we are tempted to ask if the 
 Church has been a great gainer, and if the protection of 
 the imperial diadem profits her more than the halo of 
 martyrdom ? 
 
 This unfortunate interference of the secular power in 
 church matters begins already under the successor of 
 Constantine, even under Constantine himself, and con- 
 tinues ever after with incredible pertinacity. All heresies 
 seem sure of a favourable reception at the court of the 
 emperors : they depose bishops, attempt to bias councils, 
 and even draw up articles of faith ; some of the popes 
 
OF THE TEMPOKAL POWER. 101 
 
 they send to die in exile, as Heraclius did St. Martin I., 
 others they retain captive at Constantinople, to make them 
 the tools of their unhappy policy, as Justinian did Pope 
 Yigilius : the Monothelite and Iconoclast errors have no 
 warmer supporters than the imperial theologians of Byzan- 
 tium. They seem resolved, at any price, to be the judges 
 of doctrine and the dictators of consciences. Though the 
 absurd pretensions of the Byzantine despotism were re- 
 sisted, though the temporal power did not, owing to the 
 firmness of the popes, absorb the spiritual, do not these 
 lasting conflicts between the powers, these perpetual 
 struggles against a vexatious tyranny, exemplify but too 
 clearly the dangers which must result to the Church from 
 a state of dependence upon the protection of an irre- 
 sistible power ? And would our consciences be now as 
 tranquil as they are, were universal empire to be resus- 
 citated in Europe, necessarily exposing us to the same 
 perils ? 
 
 The destruction of the Western Empire, which put an 
 end to the political unity of the ancient world, and the 
 appearance of the barbarian races, whence the various 
 nationalities of modern Europe were to spring, rendered 
 a change necessary in the external state, in the temporal 
 constitution of the Holy See ; and Providence brought it 
 to pass. The popes, at the fall of the Roman empire, 
 found themselves placed in a new and elevated position. 
 The great moral power with which they were invested 
 gave them an immense prestige in the eyes of the bar- 
 barians, and enabled them to arrest more than once, at 
 the gates of Rome, these scourges of God. From the 
 confidence of princes, and the needs of the times, resulted 
 then a new species of power, which gave the Papacy, not 
 only a temporal and independent, though limited sove- 
 reignty, but the supreme arbitration between princes and 
 people : the power of the Roman pontiffs increased im- 
 mensely, not in its essential and divine rights, which can 
 neither increase nor diminish, but in its political and 
 social influence upon the world and civilization ; and the 
 advantage to Europe and humanity was very great, what- 
 
102 GENERAL VIEW OF THE HISTORY 
 
 ever complaints and objections may have been brought 
 against details. Light has been at last thrown upon 
 the history of those middle ages, so long decried ; vain 
 declamation has been silenced ; and the greatness of 
 that moral power is now generally felt, which, in those 
 troubled times, alone opposed a successful barrier to the 
 torrent of material force, pointing out to those barbarian 
 sovereigns who only appealed to the sword, another right 
 than that of force. " It is felt that its development at 
 this period arose from circumstances and not from ambi- 
 tion ; that such development was favourable to Europe 
 and to humanity ; and that, in fact, in guarding the 
 liberty of their own election, the sanctity of marriage, 
 ecclesiastical celibacy, and the integrity of the hierarchy, 
 the popes were defending the cause of justice and civiliza- 
 tion." (Pere Lacordaire, Conferences, torn, i.) It is felt 
 that they were, to borrow the expression of De Maistre, 
 the constituting genii of Europe. 
 
 But, what is strange and most worthy of remark, this 
 power, which at that time influences all others, which awes 
 the passions of kings, which conquers spiritual liberty for 
 the Church, which summons all Europe to the crusades, 
 and hurls it upon Asia, finds its own existence continually 
 menaced : it is for ever exposed to the outrages of superior 
 strength; oppressed or exiled, now by the emperors of 
 Germany, now by the republican passions which agitated 
 Rome and the other cities of Italy during the middle ages. 
 More than once, at that stormy period, the work of 
 Charlemagne was in danger of perishing ; the political 
 position of the Papacy was most insecure, its temporal 
 sovereignty was often threatened and sometimes over- 
 thrown : and comparing times with times, we shall find 
 that the evils which then afflicted the Holy See have been 
 spared it, since its temporal sovereignty and independence 
 liavc born secured to it, and the Pontifical States placed 
 under the common protection of the European powers. 
 
 A double enemy continually threatened the temporal 
 sovereignty of the Popes in tlic middle a^es : the pre- 
 tensions to suzerainty of the emperors of Germany, who 
 
OF THE TEMPORAL POWEll 103 
 
 would persist in considering Rome as a fief of the empire, 
 :md, at Rome, the ambition of certain great families, and 
 the turbulence of factions. To revive the republic at 
 Rome, and to re-establish her ancient supremacy in the 
 West, was frequently, during the middle ages, the dearest 
 wish and the most fantastic vision of the Romans. In the 
 tenth century, a cabal attempted to make use of the 
 influence of the Papacy as an instrument to further this 
 ambitious design. The nobles had built castles, or con- 
 verted the triumphal arches and the tombs of the ancient 
 Romans into fortresses. Secure within their ramparts, 
 they issued thence to superintend the elections of the 
 Pontiffs, and to secure the Holy See for their creatures. 
 The castle of St. Angelo is famous in the long history of 
 the violence done to the Papacy in the middle ages. It 
 v;jis there, in the beginning of the tenth century, that the 
 too famous Marozia took up her abode ; it was there that 
 she caused John X. to be strangled : John XIII. was in- 
 carcerated there previous to his exile in Campania : 
 Benedict VI. was strangled there; there Crescentius 
 starved John XIV. to death, and from thence he op- 
 pressed the Sovereign Pontiffs and Rome till the emperor 
 Otho put an end to his tyranny in 998. In 1069, an 
 anti-pope installed himself in this fort, and held out there 
 for two years. St. Gregory VII. was besieged there, in 
 his turn, by the emperor Henry IV. in 1084, and delivered 
 by the Norman Robert Guiscard. 
 
 The absence of any temporal guarantee to the Papal 
 independence, and these odious tyrannies, were the causes 
 of the disreputable elections which afflicted the Church at 
 this period. "The divinity of religion was never more 
 clearly proved ; that it should have survived the crimes of 
 its own ministers is as great a miracle as its establishment 
 all over the world." Such is the conclusion drawn by a 
 learned historian from these scandals of the tenth century. 
 But how far preferable for the Church would have been a 
 really independent political position, which would have 
 averted these evils ! 
 
 In the twelfth century, the old chimera of a republic is 
 
lOi GENERAL VIEW OF THE HISTORY 
 
 revived in the Roman cities, by the doctrines of Arnauld 
 of Brescia; the names of citizens, of Comitia, of the 
 Forum, are re-established patricians and a senate are 
 created. 
 
 Rienzi, in the fourteenth century, again renews these 
 insane ideas ; but seeing the liberty of the Holy See for 
 ever menaced at home, by these republican aspirations, 
 by the passions of Guelphs and Ghibellines, by the rivalry 
 of the great families, the Colonnas, the Orsinis, the Fran- 
 gipanis, the Gaetanis, the Contis; abroad, the quarrels 
 of the Empire with the Church, which are continually 
 bringing German armies to Rome, the Popes flying from, 
 their capital, or the prisoners of the emperors the scandal 
 of anti-popes ; I would ask, are all these troubles and 
 perils a state of things greatly to be envied to the middle 
 ages, greatly preferable for the welfare of the Church and 
 the Holy See, and with which Catholic consciences would 
 now declare themselves satisfied ? How much better is the 
 position of the chief of the Catholic Church in modern 
 days, when his full independence, though nothing more, 
 has been secured to him by the provisions of the most 
 solemn treaties; since his temporal sovereignty, guaran- 
 teed by the public consent of Europe, has never been 
 contested, except at moments of universal confusion. 
 True, he no longer exercises that immense influence over 
 temporal powers which public opinion had conferred upon 
 him in the middle ages; but this sort of jurisdiction over 
 crowns, which rendered sucli real services to Europe, is 
 not essential to the Papacy ; and the reaction which 
 stripped him of it, strengthened him in other ways. 
 
 Two vast advantages result from this settled and clearly- 
 defined arrangement. On the one hand, the Papacy is 
 the sole master of its temporal dominions; it is no longer 
 umpire, as formerly, between other powers ; but, emanci- 
 pated from the menaces of the imperial suzerainty, from the 
 dangers of war, and from republican schemes, it is enabled 
 by its state of proper independence to exercise untram- 
 melled all its spiritual prerogatives, and to give full play 
 to its powerful and fruitful religious agency. On the 
 
OF THE TEMPORAL POWKK. 105 
 
 other hand, its action being visibly confined to tlic sphere 
 of the venerable powers which have been confided to it for 
 tin.- salvation of the world, other states no longer attempt 
 to sway or to subjugate it, as they so often did in the middle 
 ages. * The great quarrels of former times, such as that 
 on the subject of investitures, have died away, the dis- 
 trusts and umbrages of the past have disappeared, peace 
 on both sides has been the fruit of the separation of the 
 two powers, between which the teaching and the practice 
 of the greatest Popes had drawn so clear a distinction ; 
 the liberty of the election of the Sovereign Pontiffs has 
 been respected ; due independence and mutual harmony 
 are now the wise foundation of the relations of Church 
 and State, and the true principles of liberty for the Church, 
 which should be cherished by the present generation. It 
 is thus that the peaceful possession of its terrestrial 
 sovereignty has placed the Papacy in a due position in 
 Europe, for 300 years, and enabled it to exercise freely 
 its august ministry. 
 
 See what great things, during these three centuries of 
 peace (for which the Papacy was evidently indebted to the 
 principle of its independent sovereignty) it has done for 
 the propagation of the Gospel and of Christian civilization, 
 for the development of sacred learning, for arts and letters, 
 for the discipline and government of churches. What 
 magnificent impulses given to distant missions ! missions 
 to Mexico (1524), missions to the Indies (1541), missions 
 to Japan (1549), missions to Ethiopia and Brazil (1554), 
 missions to China (1580), missions to Paraguay (1602), 
 missions to Canada (1613), missions to the Levant (1616). 
 Besides, how learning is advanced, what magnificent his- 
 torical, archaeological, linguistic researches are undertaken, 
 under the protection of the Papacy, by those orders which 
 are founded or regenerated by its powerful impulse, the 
 Jesuits, the Oratory, the Benedictines of St. Maur, and 
 others ! Consider, too, all the concordats concluded 
 between the Holy See and the different powers: in 1516, 
 without going higher, between Leo X. and Francis I. ; 
 in 1753, with Spain; in 1757, with the duchy of Milan; 
 
10G GEXERAL VIEW OF THE HISTOKY 
 
 in 1770, with Sardinia; in 1791, with the kingdom of 
 Naples; in 1801, with France; not to mention the con- 
 cordats of our own time which I have before enumerated. 
 Would the Popes have enjoyed the same liberty of action 
 and of government, would they have been on equally 
 harmonious terms with all the Catholic powers, and even 
 with some who, not having the happiness of being Catholic 
 themselves, possess Catholic subjects, had they been the 
 subjects of a prince or a republic, had they only enjoyed, 
 as in the middle ages, a precarious sovereignty, for ever 
 insulted and menaced by emperors or tribunes ? 
 
 The new state of things, doubtless, was not perfect nor 
 entirely secure ; but, at least, the Pope was at peace with 
 all the rulers of the world, in virtue of the recognition of 
 his sovereignty and his neutrality as Voltaire says, 
 " Though Rome is no longer powerful enough to make 
 war, her weakness is a blessing. She is the only state 
 which has enjoyed peace for three centuries." Cour de 
 Rome, Diet. Phil. 
 
 If, then, the Papacy has lost its political preponderance, 
 if it is no longer the centre of the political intrigues of 
 Europe, it continues, with as great lustre as ever, and with 
 greater liberty and independence, the supreme tribunal of 
 consciences, the highest moral authority in the world. Its 
 dignity and the freedom of its religious and civilizing 
 action are nobly sheltered by a temporal crown, sufficiently 
 imposing for the needs of its earthly mission, but not for 
 its ambition, if it were so tempted, and in no way threaten- 
 ing to any other sovereignty. Fixed in an honourable 
 neutrality by the respect of all, and by formal guarantees, 
 enjoying a spiritual supremacy as complete and unques- 
 tioned as ever, its independence has been felt and recog- 
 nized as necessary to the balance of power in Europe, and 
 to the peace of the world ; and Uomo has become a sacred 
 spot of territory, which the ambition of conquerors must 
 i-t, the- inviolable asylum of the Sovereign Pontiff. 
 So have died away in modern generations the unhappy 
 collisions between the two powers, which so long and so 
 oft "ii desolated the Lowci Empire and the middle ages ; so 
 
OF THE TEMPORAL POWER. 107 
 
 D independent existence been created in Catholicism, 
 and in Catholicism only, for the two orders, temporal and 
 spiritual; so have Catholic consciences escaped from the 
 tyranny which has every where else absorbed or subjugated 
 the spiritual power, in the East as in the West, at London 
 as at St. Petersburg and Constantinople. At the same 
 time, soverereigns need no longer mistrust or dread a 
 superior political influence ; the concord so long sought 
 has been realized in a due independence ; the spiritual 
 power, limited to its own sphere, has freely pronounced its 
 oracles, and is not less deeply revered by the faithful ; it 
 has proclaimed before kings and peoples the great truths 
 of the moral order, those immutable' principles on which 
 social tranquillity and national prosperity must ever rest. 
 The Pontiffs on their throne, and princes on theirs, the 
 modern world has reposed under the shadow of their 
 concord ; souls submit willingly to this authority, which 
 does not force the truth upon them, but proclaims it in 
 the name of God, and asks only for the free assent of the 
 conscience ; nor do even self-willed and restless spirits 
 take offence at the authoritity of the old man who sits in 
 the Vatican, unarmed though revered. 
 
 Men of comprehensive mind have often felt, that to 
 subjugate the Roman Pontiff would be to enslave the 
 general freedom of opinion, and that it is well to have an 
 independent spiritual power upon earth, whose unappalled 
 firmness may raise at least one free voice, one independent 
 protest, at the moments of greatest danger for human 
 liberty. France felt the advantage of this at the begin- 
 ning of the present century ; and if the Muscovite and 
 Greek patriarchates had not altogether lost this liberty, I 
 do not know that Christianity and liberty of opinion in 
 Russia and Turkey would not have reason to congratu- 
 late themselves. At all events, all the Catholics of 
 Europe now bless God for an institution which has visibly 
 been the laborious and glorious work of ages and of 
 Providence. 
 
 Why, then, seek to undo it ? Why eradicate from the 
 soil of Italy and of Europe a venerable institution, which 
 
108 ROUE WITHOUT THE POPE. 
 
 has cast such deep roots there these fifteen hundred years ? 
 Is it that peace, tranquillity, and order are an eyesore to 
 the spirits of our time? Are people no longer to he 
 allowed to sit down and to repose under the shadow of 
 the time-honoured traditions of the past? The edifice of 
 the Pope's temporal power has been constructed by the 
 hand of God to protect the liberty of mankind, and to 
 assure the independence of their faith. Woe, then, to the 
 sacrilegious temerity which dares to touch the work of 
 Divine Wisdom, and, in the language of the faith of other 
 days, to lay its hands upon the patrimony of St. Peter ! 
 
 It is vain to make a hypocritical parade of good inten- 
 tions ; those cannot be sincere who dare lightly and pre- 
 sumptuously to speculate where such solemn interests are 
 at stake : it is unsafe to make experiments here ; it would 
 be perilous to test a crude and random political theory 
 upon such sacred matters, which should be approached 
 with reverence ; or, to borrow an expression of St. Paul, 
 with fear and trembling. He who hastily broaches and 
 presumptuously resolves such questions, runs a greater risk 
 than he is aware, of a collision with that corner-stone, of 
 which it is written : Whosoever shall fall upon that stone 
 shall be bruised : and upon whomsoever it shall fall, it will 
 (/rind him to powder. The patrimony of St. Peter is the 
 common property of the great Catholic family : those un- 
 natural children who have sought to usurp or appropriate 
 it to themselves, have never prospered ; it is a spoil which 
 has ever proved the ruin of all plunderers who have en- 
 deavoured to lay hands upon it. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 ROMK WITHOUT THE POPE. 
 
 ALTHOUGH the arguments already discussed most con- 
 clusively demonstrate the thesis we are maintaining, we 
 
ROME WITHOUT THE POPE. 109 
 
 shall add some important considerations of a particular 
 nature, which will confirm and complete our proof. 
 
 And, first, as the dreams of revolutionary impiety have 
 gone so far, and as the idea has been so often broached, 
 and is now more loudly proclaimed than ever, let us see 
 what Home, Italy, and Europe would be without the Pope, 
 and let us commence by carefully examining what the 
 Papacy has done, and still does, for Rome. 
 
 It has been said with truth that Rome with the Papacy 
 is neither a great centre of political action, nor a great 
 industrial city, nor a great commercial emporium. Yes, 
 but if Rome loses the Papacy, will she thereby become a 
 great political, commercial, or manufacturing city, or if 
 not, what will she gain ? Rome, with the Papacy, was a 
 city which stood alone in the world ; great without earthly 
 power, brilliant without luxury, strikingly tranquil, yet 
 full of life; a city which rallied around her, from the 
 extremities of Europe, whatever was great and noble : 
 artists, scholars, bishops, kings, pilgrims, and travellers of 
 every profession, of every rank, of every nation, I may 
 even add, of every faith. 
 
 What would Rome be without the Papacy ? A town 
 effaced from among the number of European capitals, the 
 fourth or fifth at most in revolutionary Italy; smaller than 
 Naples, less graceful than Florence, less curious than 
 Venice ; the chief town of the fourth or fifth state in the 
 Italian confederation (if such confederation be possible 
 without the Pope) ; the residence of some grand-duke, if 
 the confederation is to be monarchical ; or else the capital 
 of some puny, abortive republic, only the more ridiculous 
 for having borrowed the great name of Roman Republic. 
 
 The revolutionary admirers of classical Rome, who 
 doubtless far prefer their Pagan to their Christian an- 
 cestors, ought at least to feel that they have not among 
 them Cnesars, Scipios, or consuls; it would be difficult for 
 the Rome of Garibaldi and Mazzini to believe itself the 
 Rome of Fabricius and Cato, or to consider the unworthy 
 successors of the exiled Papacy as true inheritors of the 
 majesty of the people-king. 
 
110 ROME WITHOUT THE POPE. 
 
 But Rome without the Pope is a contradiction in terms : 
 an historical, religious, and social contradiction. The ima- 
 gination cannot lend itself to the idea : monuments, arts, 
 sciences, politics themselves, religion, history, the me- 
 mories of the past and the hopes of the future, exclaim 
 and protest against the outrage done to their immemorial, 
 their necessary protector, and declare that Rome without 
 the Pope would be a city depopulated, a body without a 
 soul, a place without honour and without life ; non tenebat 
 ornatum suum civitas, her ancient orator would have said. 
 (Cic. De Repub.) What a sudden collapse, when the 
 imagination endeavours to portray Rome as no longer the 
 city of the popes, the centre of Christianity, the metro- 
 polis of the Catholic world ! Rome a profane and vulgar 
 city ! What surprising littleness succeeds at once to her 
 departed grandeur ! Nothing of what makes Rome her- 
 self, of what gives her that peculiar aspect, that mysterious 
 beauty, that incommunicable charm, would remain to her 
 new existence : we might seek for Rome at Rome, and not 
 find her. Her stones even would complain and cry out. 
 Yes, for the stones, the ruins of Rome, speak a language 
 proper to themselves alone. In other places, these relics 
 of ages which are no more, these mute but expressive 
 witnesses to the instability of all human things, touch the 
 soul of the beholder with deep and unmitigated sadness ; 
 but at Rome other voices issue from the wreck of the past, 
 and sweet consolations redeem the melancholy which it 
 inspires. At Rome, there are ruins and death, but there 
 is also resurrection and life, a glorious transformation 
 rather than a destruction ; through the dust of the fallen 
 monuments of antiquity, we can always distinguish a new 
 Rome, whose youth is continually renewed in all the fresh- 
 ness of infancy, and all the majesty of immortality : and 
 so the holy city is called also the Eternal City. 
 
 So a Catholic orator spoke in 1849, before the Legis- 
 lative Assembly, celebrating the greatness of Christian 
 Rome: "What is our object? It is to restore to Rome 
 the place whicli she has held for so many ages, the name 
 which she so gloriously bears, the* name of Eternal City, 
 
KOMI: WITHOUT THE POPE. 311 
 
 11:11110 which you still give her, inconsistently, while 
 YOU are depriving her of all that creates her title to it. 
 Paris is the capital of intellect and of the arts, as we 
 always say ; yet \\lio ever thought of calling Paris the 
 Eternal City? London is the capital of the world in 
 maritime and commercial affairs ; yet who ever thought 
 of calling London the Eternal City ? Why then does 
 Home continue to bear this grand title, which none dis- 
 putes with her ? Because she is the capital, the ancient 
 capital of the Christian republic, not of some thousands 
 of chimerical republicans ; because she is the second 
 country of all Catholics, where their minds, their hearts, 
 their faith, and their sympathies find themselves at home ; 
 to her, for eighteen hundred years, pilgrims from all 
 regions of the world have been bringing their tributes 
 and their respect ; her very dust is venerable, impreg- 
 nated as it is with the blood of the saints and martyrs. 
 This is why Rome is called the Eternal City." M\ de 
 Falloux. 
 
 It is not only Catholic orators, like M. de Falloux, who 
 pay this homage to the Eternal City and the Papacy : the 
 most illustrious Protestants have held the same language. 
 To cite the words of Lord Macaulay, the great historian, 
 whose premature end is still deplored by England : " We 
 see no sign which indicates that the term of her long 
 dominion is approaching. She saw the commencement 
 of all the governments and of all the ecclesiastical esta- 
 blishments that now exist in the world ; and we feel no 
 assurance that she is not destined to see the end of them 
 all. She was great and respected before the Saxon had 
 set foot in Britain, before the Frank had passed the 
 Rhine, when Grecian eloquence still nourished in Antioch, 
 when idols were still worshipped in the temple of Mecca. 
 And she may still exist in undiminished vigour when some 
 traveller from New Zealand shall, in the midst of a vast 
 solitude, take his stand on a broken arch of London 
 Bridge, to sketch the ruins of St. Paul's." 
 
 What constitutes the sovereignty of Rome and her 
 supreme dignity is, that she is the residence of the Church 
 
112 ROME WITHOUT THE POPE. 
 
 which is the mother and mistress of all churches, the 
 centre and the focus of all Christian light. This august 
 character is everywhere stamped upon Rome : we see it in 
 her monuments, her ruins, on the front of her palaces or 
 temples, on her glittering domes, on her walls, even in 
 her soil. So Dante said of old. 1 In this consists the 
 poetry, the grandeur, the life of Rome. Once stripped of 
 this glory, of this crown, the imagination fails to recog- 
 nize her : the disconcerted pilgrim or artist, wandering 
 over her sullied precincts, asks himself, Where is the city 
 that was solitary upon earth, consecrated by the blood of 
 the heroes of Christianity, 
 
 Veuve d'un peuple roi, mais reine encore du monde ? 
 
 Where is that majesty of religion which hung over her, 
 grander than the majesty of the empire? Where is the 
 voice of the Pontiff, blessing the city and the world? 
 
 1 " No further proof is needed to see that a special divine design 
 has presided over the birth and the greatness of this holy city ; and 
 I firmly believe that the stones of her walls are worthy of respect, 
 and that the very ground on which she rests is worthy of venera- 
 tion beyond what can be imagined or expressed." (Dante.} Long 
 before the Florentine poet, the early fathers of the Church had 
 celebrated this mysterious glory of ancient Rome in being trans- 
 formed into Catholic Rome : " What was Pagan Rome ? " asks St. 
 Jerome : " an accursed city, whose people filled the entire universe, 
 but whore vice received the palm which should belong to honour ; 
 where everything pure and sacred was defiled. But now, the holy 
 Church reigns there ; there are the trophies of the apostles and 
 martyrs ; there the true faith of Jesus Christ is preserved, and the 
 pure doc-trine of the Evangelists is preached ; there the glory of 
 the Christian name for ever shines over the ruins of gentility"" 
 ,S. I Her. Epist. Fam. iii. 9, ad Principiam ; id. ii. 17, ad Marcellam. 
 
 " Those who formerly neither knew nor loved her," says Ter- 
 tullian, " when they have come to know her, have loved her." 
 Alas ! Rome has at the present time enemies to whom we may add 
 with Tertullian, " As for you, you love to remain ignorant of 
 what others have rejoiced to know. You prefer not to know, 
 because you hate, as if you were sure of losing your hatred with 
 your ignorance." I'crfn/l/an, advcrsus Gentes, torn. i. 
 
ROME WITHOUT THE POl'i:. 113 
 
 "NY here is the reign of Christ, proclaimed by her obelisks, 
 her churches, and her basilicas ? What has become of 
 the living' splendour of Catholicism, which once attracted 
 to her the men of the North, of the South, of the East, 
 and of the West, in those days when she was the heart of 
 Christendom, and a common home to all nations ? Such 
 was Rome : such was the sublime perspective which she 
 presented to the imagination and to faith : that per- 
 spective has now been swept from our view ; a cloud has 
 lowered over Rome, her lustre is obscured, her glory turned 
 into mourning. 
 
 Rome without the Pope, to speak plainly, would be a 
 desert ; for, who will visit it ? Who will fill it ? Who is 
 there to do its honours? There are already deserts 
 enough at Rome : permit me, Romans who would wish to 
 give us a Rome without a Pope (if there be any such), to 
 argue with and question you directly. You want, then, 
 to multiply these deserts. The Palatine, the Aventine, 
 the Yiminal, the Forum, your most important quarters, 
 are deserted ! You would add to them the Quirinal, 
 the Yatican, the entire city ! In particular, what will 
 you do with the seven basilicas? W^hat will you 
 do with 365 churches, answering and representing all 
 the necessities, all the recollections, all the vows, all the 
 pilgrimages of the Catholic world ? We would all visit 
 them one day, priests and faithful, if only in the longings 
 of our heart; but ah ! if the Pope be absent, who would 
 set out on such a pilgrimage ? What would your great 
 solemnities be then ; or rather, would a single one of your 
 hundred feasts be possible without him? Above all, 
 what will you do with St. Peter's, with such immensity, 
 such light, such magnificence? The universal Pontiff of 
 Catholicity alone can fill it. St. Peter's has been evi- 
 dently made so vast, in order that the common Father 
 of the great Catholic family may assemble there all his 
 children and bless them ! The revolutionists would labour 
 under a sad delusion, were they to imagine that St. Peter's 
 is only the largest parish church in the diocese of Rome : 
 no ; it is for itself that Catholicity built it, and lavished 
 
 i 
 
114 ROME WITHOUT THE POPE. 
 
 upon it its treasures. St. Peter's is the august temple of 
 Catholicity; Rome is but the vestibule and the porch; its 
 life,, its soul, its glory, is the Pope. 
 
 Rome without the Pope ! But at Easter, the great 
 feast of Christians,, who shall raise his hand, to give to the 
 city and the world, urbi et orbi, the solemn benediction 
 of the Vicar of Christ? Surely there will remain some 
 lingering echoes of that great and paternal voice, which, 
 amidst the sublime silence of earth and sky, is heard upon 
 the air, by the entire universe, as the voice of God 
 himself ! I have seen there the most unbelieving fall 
 upon their knees, overcome by a superior and divine 
 force ; 1 have seen them, as docile children, bend respect- 
 fully under the hand of the common Father of the great 
 Christian family ; I have seen lost sheep receive with 
 emotion and with love the benediction of the sovereign 
 pastor of souls ! Romans, Italians, Germans, French, 
 Protestants, schismatics, Greeks, English, Russians, Poles, 
 Americans, we were all there, of every tongue, of every 
 tribe, of every nation, prostrate on the ground, and 
 hanging on the lips of the Supreme Pontiff! It was the 
 most beautiful, the most touching sight ; human language 
 fails to give expression to it. When we arose, tears were 
 in all eyes, indefinable yearnings filled all hearts; there 
 was there, then, but one fold and one shepherd. We 
 all formed but one heart and one soul. You have seen 
 all this as I have, and you would do away with this 
 beauty and this glory ! You would deprive yourselves of 
 it as \vell as us you wish Rome to have no Pope ! Or 
 you imagine some hypocritical and impious plan to 
 humiliate arid degrade him, and force him to regret the 
 Catacombs ! 
 
 It has IH.TII often said, that Rome, even with the Pope, 
 gi\v* us the impression of sadness and loneliness. True, 
 but it is only a first impression : on a longer acquaintance 
 one begins to appreciate and to love this solitude; one 
 finds in it a singular attraction, a repose which one feels 
 unwilling to leave. There is in it a solemnity, a profound 
 peace, a mysterious interest, which si!- Mvr.t" the 
 
HOME WITHOUT THE POl'E. 115 
 
 soul. It possesses an inexpressible but irresistible charm. 
 It is of Rome, in better and happier days, of Home with 
 her Pope, of Rome the holy city, that we may repeat the 
 lines of a poet, whose name, alas ! is an affliction for whom 
 we mourn, though we never will say without hope : l 
 
 " Ici viennent mourir les derniers bruits du monde ! 
 Nautonniers sans ctoile, abordcz ; c'est le port ! 
 Ici Tame se plonge en une paix profonde, 
 Et cette paix n'eat point la mort ! " 
 
 But, without the Pope, the loneliness of Rome would 
 be. that of the grave! her repose would be the stillness 
 of death ! People go to Naples for the suu ; but to 
 Rome for the Pope. It is the Pope and the gentle light 
 which surrounds him, the light of peace and grace, of 
 faith and paternal tenderness, which rests weary eyes, 
 which heals weak ones, which gives eyes to see to those who 
 have them not, which is loved often by those who fear it, 
 which captivates those who would fly from it, and some- 
 times gains them for ever. 
 
 In vain do the Italians or revolutionary pamphlets say 
 the Pope might remain at Rome, and inhabit the palace 
 and basilica of St. John Lateran, as under Constantine : 
 he might be both mere bishop of Rome and head of 
 Catholicity : spiritually, he would reign ; as to temporals, 
 the Roman authorities would supply them to him. I 
 have already said what I think of this absurd and odious 
 hypocrisy. No ; this could never be. You yourselves 
 would soon find it was impossible. If you are serious in 
 proposing such a dream, I tell you it would soon be dis- 
 sipated. The Pope, the supreme chief of Catholicity, the 
 universal Pontiff, at St. John Lateran! \Vhoever you 
 are, senator, consul, municipal authorities, ruler under 
 whatever title, you could not remain one day beside hini. 
 He would be to you an unceasing cause of umbrage and 
 difficulty. The Pope would be too great for you; the 
 
 1 JLamartine, ^ledil. sur la RocLc-GuyoE. 
 I 2 
 
116 ROME WITHOUT THE POPE. 
 
 weight of his dignity would crush you in spite of him, in 
 spite of yourselves ; you could not suffer him ; you would 
 soon hide yourselves in despair and shame. 
 
 And what would you do with the Vatican and a hun- 
 dred other wonders, which, without the Pope, would be 
 vain and meaningless ? Do you not see that if he leaves 
 you, you would wander like shadows over those immense, 
 void spaces, that you would appear like pigmies at the foot 
 of such gigantic monuments, raised for a greatness which 
 is not yours ? The more I reflect on it, the more I am 
 amazed. You, to reign at Rome, beside the Pope, above 
 the Pope ! But again, as we have already told you, the 
 Pope cannot be your subject. Catholicity cannot tolerate 
 it ; we must have a Pope w r ho is independent and sove- 
 reign ; our consciences demand it, and also that he appear 
 so evidently. But, did the Pope even yield to your 
 wishes for an instant, the force of things would elevate 
 him above you in spite of himself, and you could not hold 
 your ground : greater men than you have failed to do 
 so. Constantine, Theodosius, those emperors of glorious 
 memory, placed by Providence at the head of an empire 
 which knew no limits but those of the universe, felt that 
 they could not remain at Rome beside the Pope, and 
 removed to Byzantium, to Milan, to Treves, to the East 
 or to the West. The world would not at present offer you 
 such grand abodes, it is true : but whether you will or no, 
 one of two things must take place ; either you will expel 
 the Pontiff from Rome, and his departure will leave you 
 amazed and stupefied at your solitude ; or you will restore 
 him to his place, and descend to your own ; and your 
 happiness, your honour, and the peace of the world will 
 benefit by it. 
 
 But you may say, " This matchless grandeur gone, this 
 majesty of religion sacrificed, this Christian stamp effaced, 
 we shall make up for them by political advantages and 
 a better government; in a word, we will make ehanires 
 suited to modern times, to the real wants, to the material 
 prosperity of the Roman people." 
 
 Do not imagine it : having profaned and vulgarized this 
 
HOME WITHOUT THE POPE. 117 
 
 august city,, having made of it the chief town of some 
 Piedmontese department, or the capital of some ephemeral 
 re-public, or the seat of a municipal corporation, which is 
 to govern in the Pope's place ; having banished Catho- 
 licism and extinguished the Papacy, its humiliation will 
 be but the prelude to its ruin. The past greatness of 
 Rome would then only serve to bring out more clearly its 
 shame and its decay ; its ruin would speedily follow. 
 Consuls, town-councillors, and great recollections alone 
 will not sustain life ; and Rome lives, even in the most 
 material sense of the word, by the Papacy, which does her 
 the honour to dwell within her walls. The popes and 
 religion have never once quitted Rome, that the town has 
 not been impoverished and the population diminished. 
 These variations were remarkably perceptible when the 
 popes were at Avignon ; they were so even during the 
 absence of Pius VII., which, however, did not last five 
 years. AYhen, after its long residence at Avignon, the 
 Papacy returned at last to the Eternal City, the popula- 
 tion had diminished by more than half of what it was 
 under Innocent III. During this sad interval, which 
 Rome called the captivity of Babylon, no new building 
 had embellished her ; and it is for this reason that Gothic 
 architecture, so nourishing at that period, has left no 
 trace at Rome. When, on the departure of Pius VII., 
 Rome became merely the chief town of the department of 
 the Tiber, the population gradually decreased, and in 1813 
 was only 117,000. The Pope having returned, it in- 
 creased immediately, and, under Gregory XVI., was 
 170,000 ; a difference, in a few years, of more than 
 50,000 inhabitants. 
 
 The revolutionists ought not to forget this. As to 
 their complaints against the government, I would ask, Do 
 not the people of Rome enjoy all that is wanting to the 
 real happiness of a population? Do not all foreigners 
 admit that they are under the most gentle of govern- 
 ments? One sees even the galley-slaves pass quietly 
 along the thoroughfares of Rome, and their keepers 
 asking them with kindness to sweep the streets. Every- 
 
118 ROME WITHOUT THE POPE. 
 
 thing bespeaks a paternal government, perhaps even too 
 paternal. What is wanting to you? Is it the first rank 
 in the cultivation of the arts ? In this respect, what city 
 can be compared to yours ? Under the influence of the 
 popes, what country has been more enriched by genius ? 
 Perhaps you desire the honour and the rewards of in- 
 dustry? But what prevents you from having them? 
 You may work. Is it agriculture? Labour in your 
 fields ; Heaven has given you a privileged soil, terra 
 parens frugum. Is it commerce ? Cross the seas, all 
 ports are open to you. You are at peace with the whole 
 earth; what the ancient poet sung, has been realized by 
 the pacific influence of new Rome : 
 
 " HSB tibi erunt artes, pacisque irnponere morem ! " 
 
 Voltaire himself says, "the Romans now are no longer 
 conquerors, but they are happy." But if hitherto you 
 have been too much attached to ease and indolence, do 
 not blame the Papacy for the faults of your disposition 
 and your own weaknesses : to lay their indolence to the 
 charge of their government, e la colpa del governo, would 
 be really too convenient for a people. 
 
 But you claim also other rights, or at least those who 
 want to have you themselves, pretend that you do. They 
 repeat that you are deprived of what are called political 
 rights. Ah ! I could say much upon the vanity of these 
 rights among certain nations who appear to enjoy them, 
 and have found but deep and bitter disappointment ! But 
 Pius IX., while reserving to himself, as was due to the 
 Papacy itself, the principle of sovereign authority, which 
 indeed it was fitting that the Pope should maintain amid 
 the rude shocks which European civilization had undergone, 
 Pius IX. had granted you extensive political rights, more 
 than you were able to bear. Not a sovereign in the world has 
 done so much for his people as Pius IX. had done for you ; 
 like the ancient Cicsjir, 1 the Christian Caesar has been so 
 
 Pliny, vii. 25. 
 
ROME WITHOUT THE POPE. 119 
 
 generous that lie has been obliged to repent of -it. You 
 showed then,, but too clearly, that true liberty is not in 
 the tumult of republican assemblies, nor in the unbridled 
 license of the press. Your jealous caprice called for lay- 
 7r.cn in public offices ; he appointed numbers. " Still" said 
 JK\ with his incomparable goodness, l( if good is done by 
 ecclesiastics, it is nevertheless good" And, in fact, when 
 laymen and Mazzini had everything in their hands, had 
 you fewer troubles, fewer disputes, less corruption, less 
 taxes, fewer murders ? 
 
 What immense and peculiar advantages you owe to the 
 Pope, even temporally and politically, advantages which 
 110 monarch upon eartli could ever offer to his people. 
 Observe that you are not subjects of a family, but of an 
 elective prince, chosen not from an aristocratic body, but 
 in at once the noblest and the most democratic assembly 
 than can be conceived; the cardinals, sprung from all 
 ranks among the people, who are the people itself! The 
 election of the Pope, the college of electors who nominate 
 him, the Pope himself, is not this all that is most illus- 
 trious and all that is most popular? Not a Roman, not a 
 shepherd's boy of the Campagna or the Abruzzi, not a 
 citizen of the Corso, but may become Cardinal, Grand 
 Elector, and Pope. Do the ordinary age of the popes, 
 the maturity of their judgment, the character of their 
 government, even the shortness of their reign, offer no 
 security for liberty? Assuredly, at least, many of the 
 seeds of despotism are absent here : the youth of the sove- 
 reign, military force, duration of reigns, dynastic passions, 
 whose effects are felt elsewhere. The celebrated Addison, 
 though a Protestant, observed that the Pope is usually a 
 man of learning and virtue, mature in years and experience, 
 and seldom having vanity or pleasures to be gratified at the 
 expense of his people. The families at Rome which are 
 called Papal are known to be only distinguished by their 
 liberality to the poor and their encouragement of art; 
 their name is only a just tribute to the past, and confers 
 upon them no rights for the future. 
 
 Have the Romans ever reflected, also, that in giving 
 
120 ROME WITHOUT THE POPE. 
 
 themselves a sovereign, by means of their cardinals, almost 
 always chosen from among themselves, they also give one 
 to all the Catholics upon earth ? Is this nothing ? Is 
 it not something grand to be able to say that they have a 
 sovereign who reigns over two hundred millions of men, 
 who commands the respect of the universe ? that they are 
 his peculiar people, and have a right to him above all 
 others ? We should not be so jealous of his independence, 
 were he nothing but the sovereign of Home. But the 
 sovereign of Rome, and because of him, Rome and the 
 Romans, reign over the whole world. All Catholic nations 
 accept this ; but on one condition, that Rome and the 
 Romans respect his sovereignty. At this price they par- 
 take of it themselves. The cardinals, the princes of the 
 Church, the sacred congregations, the legates, the apos- 
 tolic nuncios, are, in fact, nearly all children of Rome and 
 of Italy, and participate in the Roman sovereignty ; it is 
 ever the imperium sine fine. Under one form or another, 
 the Romans have possessed this empire for three thousand 
 years, Romanes rerum dominos, without even altering the 
 last words of the poet, gentemque toyatam. 
 
 This thought, the pride of the poets and historians of 
 Pagan Rome, 1 has assumed greater proportions with the 
 destinies of Christian Rome ; according to the eloquent 
 tribute to her universal royalty of one of our great doctors, 
 thirteen centuries ago : 
 
 " Sedes Horn a Petri, qurc pastoralis honoris 
 Facia caput nmndo ; quidquid non possidet armis, 
 llelligione tenet." S. Prosper. 
 
 The Prince of the Apostles, the founder of Christian Rome, 
 might have said from the beginning, with more reason than 
 
 "Ilia inclyta lioma 
 Imperium terris, nniinos equabit Olympo." 
 
 7 'try. 
 
 " Fails debebatur tauta? origo urbis." Liry. 
 
ROME WITHOUT THE POPE. 121 
 
 her original founder, Nuntia Romanis, cce/estes ita velte, id 
 mea Uonut caput or bis terrarum sit. And your immortal 
 and apostolic ancestors, St. Peter and St. Paul, have 
 raised you still higher than human poetry contemplated ; 
 you arc, more than other Christian nations, a chosen 
 nation, a royal priesthood populus acquisitionis, regale 
 tacerdotiwn. 
 
 It is to be noted here, that Home is not indebted for 
 these advantages to politics or human passions. " No/' 
 says a philosophical traveller, " Christian Rome owes no- 
 thing to policy ; if she has extended her power to regions 
 enveloped in thick darkness ; if she has reduced under 
 her sway nations who had resisted the arms, and never 
 had acknowledged the empire of the greatest conquer- 
 ors ; if savage hordes, who have never pronounced the 
 names of Alexander or of Csesar, have listened with 
 respect to the voice of her pontiffs, and received their in- 
 structions as oracles ; if pacific Rome has made conquests 
 which the Rome of warriors would have envied, these 
 prodigies were not the work of human passions; human 
 passions only served to render them more conspicuous, by 
 leaguing themselves to oppose the greatest obstacles to the 
 execution of projects which they were deeply interested in 
 defeating." 1 
 
 The Roman people without the Pope means nothing, is 
 nothing ! with the Pope, it is ever the people- king, populum 
 late regem, in the eyes of foreigners and its own. Leave 
 to Rome her Pope, and foreigners will treat the Roman 
 people with respect ; with the Pope, the Romans appear 
 to the other Catholic nations what the tribe of Levi, the 
 
 1 Discours sur 1'Histoire, le Governement, etc., par Le Comte 
 d'Albon. This passage of a modern author resembles another far 
 more ancient: "Ut civitas sacerdotalis et regia, per sacram beati 
 Petri sedem, caput orbis effecta, latius prsesideres religione divina, 
 quam dominatione terrena. Quamvis enim, multis aucta victoriis, 
 jus imperil tui terra marique protuleris, minus tamen est quod tibi 
 bellic'us labor subdidit, quam quod pax Christiana subjecit." Leo M. 
 Serin. I. in Nat. Apost. Petri et Pauli. 
 
122 ROME WITHOUT THE POPE. 
 
 family of Aaron, seemed to the other tribes of Israel ; with 
 the Pope, Rome is, as it were, the holy tribe, and every 
 Roman seems related to the family of the high-priest, to 
 the royal priesthood. And it is this, perhaps, which some- 
 times puffs up and leads astray, unknown to themselves, 
 this privileged and indocile people, this spoiled child of 
 Providence, when they rebel against the hand which loads 
 them with benefits ; thus renouncing all gratitude and all 
 dignity, and miserably dishonouring the royal and sove- 
 reign blood, which seems to have flowed in their veins 
 for more than twenty centuries ! 
 
 Yes, take from Rome her Pope, and put in his place a 
 ^rrand-duke, a consul, a prefect, a president, a regent 
 anything you please and this people will lose in their 
 own and in foreign eyes, all greatness and all respect; 
 there will exist no more a Roman people; Rome will 
 become what Athens became. Now what was Athens 
 during long centuries ? what is she now, in spite of the 
 efforts made in her behalf? Where are now the Athenians 
 or the old Greeks? I would almost say, the Romans 
 without the Pope will soon be mere guardiaus of a large, 
 badly-kept museum, which will soon be bought up and 
 carried away by connoisseurs. 
 
 With the Pope, Rome is always Rome ; she is the 
 capital of the universe, the centre of the highest and 
 greatest affairs; the peaceful rendezvous of the civilized 
 world ; the asylum of fallen kings, of greatness in mis- 
 fortune, however ungrateful it may afterwards show itself 
 to the hospitality which harboured it : with the Pope, 
 Rome sees every year a hundred thousand strangers come 
 to bring her their homage and their treasures. Romans, 
 who hearken so cnsily to-day to revolutionary sophists, 
 would you see all this, if you had not the Pope as your 
 guest and your king? Learn, then, from the respect and 
 admiration of the entire world for your city, that you are 
 a people who stand alone, and that vulgar low outbreaks 
 and revolutions are not suited to you. 
 
 Without leaving your own Mulls, it should suffice to 
 glance at the monuments which encompass you, to under- 
 
ROME WITHOUT THE POPE. 
 
 stand what it is which constitutes your high dignity. 
 A V lien you see the Prince of Apostles, with the keys of 
 the kingdom of heaven in his hand, raised upon the pillar 
 of Trajan, and St. Paul armed with the sword of faith, 
 upon that of Antoninus, cannot you feel that your own 
 glory is embodied in them ? When you look from the 
 Capitol to the Vatican, and go over in your memory all 
 the history and the fortunes of these two hills, do you not 
 see the design of God ? When you pass from the Coliseum 
 and the Mamertine prisons to St. Peter's, and read upon 
 the glittering dome of the immortal basilica, Thou art 
 Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the 
 gates of hell shall not prevail against her, do you not 
 understand that you are the eternal city, only because you 
 are the city of the king of souls ? When in Nero's gardens 
 you contemplate the obelisk of Christ victorious, and the 
 radiant cross which crowns it, and these glowing words, 
 Christus vincit, regnat, imperat, how not recognize that 
 you are a sacred and providential people ; that in the in- 
 scrutable counsels of Providence, Rome has been chosen 
 as the seat of the most legitimate, the most beneficent, 
 and the most august sovereignty in Europe, or the world ; 
 and that to revolt against it is to incur the united ana- 
 themas of heaven and earth ? 
 
 Let us hope that the masters of error and deceit, who 
 are now abusing the ephemeral power which has fallen 
 into their hands, will see their fatal credit give way 
 when misfortunes have prepared the way for reason and 
 good sense. Them it is, far more than Bologna and the 
 people of the Romagna, whom we denounce ! It is against 
 them, above all, that we protest before all civilized and 
 Christian nations ! As to Bologna, Ferrara, and Ravenna, 
 now so fatally misled, we cannot bring ourselves to despair 
 of them ; we do not forget the love with which, not so 
 long ago, they welcomed Pius IX., when he entered within 
 their walls. It is with delight that we look forward to a 
 day when the reconciliation of these children with their 
 Father shall renew the following consoling scene, related 
 by an ancient historian : " It happened then/' says Otto 
 
124 ITALY WITHOUT THE PAPACY. 
 
 de Frisingue, speaking of Eugene III., "by the mercy of 
 God, that a great joy burst forth through the whole city 
 at the news of the unexpected return of the Pontiff. An 
 innumerable multitude ran to meet him with green 
 branches in their hands. They prostrated themselves 
 before him, they kissed his footprints, they overwhelmed 
 him with embraces. Banners floated ; officers and judges 
 advanced in crowds. The Jews were not absent from this 
 great rejoicing, bearing on their shoulders the law of 
 Moses. All, like a choir of musicians, sung in unison 
 these words, Blessed is he who cometh in the name of the 
 Lord." 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 ITALY WITHOUT THE PAPACY. 
 
 WHAT St. Peter's is to Rome, Ronje is to Italy : Italy 
 in her degree shares with the eternal city the respect and 
 love of Christian nations; and the injury the Romans 
 would do themselves, or that others would do them, in 
 expelling the Pope, or in keeping him among them as the 
 captive of some Roman government, would not be con- 
 fined to them : its effects would be felt far beyond the 
 walls of Rome. The whole of Catholicity would suffer; but, 
 above all, Italy. Rome and the Pope are the head of 
 Italy ; without Rome and without the Pope, Italy would 
 be decapitated. 
 
 What would Italy have been, what would she still be, 
 without the Pope? "I am an Italian," said M. Rossi, 
 " and for that reason I am devoted to the Pope : the 
 Papacy is the sole living grandeur of Italy. 33 Even the 
 revolutionary Italians have felt this: one of their ideas 
 was to make the Pope, whether he would or no, the chief 
 of some Italian league or republic; thus involuntarily 
 
ITALY WITHOUT THE PAPACY. 1:25 
 
 testifying that the Italian nation cannot do without the 
 Papacy. 
 
 The popes have, in fact, always generously, though 
 peacefully, laboured for the welfare and the nationality 
 of Italy. We have already seen all that they did for her 
 in the 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th centuries, and how they 
 saved her from total ruin during the barbarian invasions. 
 But it is worthy of remark, that Rome, papal Rome, is 
 the only state which has always continued Italian. Inva- 
 sions have never seized upon her but for a moment. She 
 never was Norman like Naples, nor Spanish or German 
 like Milan. The Heruli or the Lombards never mastered 
 her; she has always been since Romulus, what she is to- 
 day, an independent city. The Gauls took her, but they 
 could not hold her; nor has any barbarian since, now 
 for nearly 2,500 years. Princes of Savoy are at Turin, 
 princes of German extraction at Florence, Bourbons at 
 Naples : at Rome there have never been but the popes, 
 and generally Italian popes ; never foreign conquerors. 
 The Pope is, then, the sole really Italian potentate in 
 Italy. And this might have been said even when the 
 Pope was an Englishman or Frenchman, because he never 
 brought with him dynasty, army, party, or anything, in 
 short, from England or France. As temporal prince, he 
 was an Italian, far more so than the princes of Lorraine 
 at Florence, or the princes of Savoy at Turin. Nay, it is 
 during the last three hundred years, when there was not 
 one other Italian prince in Italy, that the Papacy has 
 been exclusively Italian. Many have even complained of 
 this, but certainly no Italian could. The last foreign Pope 
 was Adrian VI., the tutor of Charles V. 
 
 History shows, then, that Rome, Papal Rome, is the 
 true centre and sanctuary of Italian nationality. Rome, 
 if a purely temporal state, would not have been more 
 privileged than Naples or Florence ; it would have been 
 exposed, like them, to conquests, and foreign dynasties 
 would have been imposed upon it by force, or by the law 
 of succession. So that I do not hesitate to assert, that it 
 is the Pope, in his double character of prince and pontiff, 
 
126 ITALY WllEOtT TI1E PAPACY. 
 
 who has preserved whatever is living and immortal in 
 Italian nationality. 
 
 Absolute political unity has been long an impossibility 
 in Italy, and probably will long remain so. It never 
 existed, strictly speaking, even under the Romans. As 
 long, then, as she continues divided into different states 
 and sovereignties, and even her warmest partisans admit 
 that such must continue to be her state, 1 what can be 
 more desirable for her independence and for the sort of 
 unity she is capable of, than to see one of her sovereigns 
 invested with a sacred and august character, which places 
 him, without rivalry or ambition, above the others, and 
 makes him morally the chief of Italy? To the popes 
 Italy owes whatever nationality and unity it was possible 
 for her to have. At the fall of the Western Empire, the 
 popes, the providential chiefs of Italy, saved her from 
 a complete invasion by the barbarians. Italy became 
 neither Frank, like Gaul, nor Gothic and Moorish, like 
 Spain. Why so? Because, in the fifth and sixth cen- 
 turies, she had a head, when the other countries had not. 
 All this is matter of history. At no period has Italy been 
 able to oppose a military resistance to her enemies. At 
 Rome alone there was an element of resistance, of a 
 different sort, but invincible. Rome was respected ; and 
 but for her, nothing would have been respected in Italy, 
 it would have been utterly ravaged. 
 
 1 " Can Italy be made one kingdom ? History and nature herself 
 condemn this solution. Italian unity could only be realized, after 
 many efforts, by military influence or by revolutionary tyranny. 
 From the Alps to Sicily, the Italian peninsula exhibits essential 
 varieties, not Jess perceptible for the family resemblance which per- 
 vades them. Beside these evident differences, we perceive a com- 
 munity of language, of habits, and of interests, which have always 
 produced a tendency to confederation, but never to fusion. We 
 may say that the absolute unity under the sceptre of Eon. 
 only an accident. Tin- Jvoinans \\ ere oMi^ed, in order to master 
 and unify the peninsula, to move entire populations. They \\nv as 
 long in accomplishing this conquest as in subduing the world. 
 They had to do violence to Italy, as they did violence to the world." 
 N*fH !. 'on III. et I'Jfatic. 
 
ITALY AV1TJIOUT THE PAPACY. 127 
 
 In all the quarrels of the popes with the emperors, 
 the chief question, doubtless, was the religious one. De 
 Mai st re, by the way, does not acknowledge this fully 
 enough : but the independence of Italy also played a 
 great part. 
 
 The constant ambition of the emperors of Germany 
 during the middle ages, was to rule despotically over 
 Eome and Italy ; and all would have been over with 
 Italian liberty, if the Papacy had not maintained at Borne 
 a centre of resistance to the claims of the invaders. The 
 holy Roman empire, of which it is sad to repeat with 
 Voltaire, that it was neither holy nor an empire, nor 
 Roman, and which was the constant enemy of the Holy 
 See, was equally the enemy of Italian liberty; and the 
 terrible ravages of the imperial armies in that lovely 
 country are well known. Unfortunate Italy being then 
 parcelled out into a number of petty principalities and 
 rival republics, the partisans of the emperor and those 
 of liberty were mixed everywhere together. Here a Guelph 
 city, there a Ghibelline, and quarrels everywhere. In the 
 midst of these intestine broils and contests, the Papacy 
 constantly adhered to the policy of the Guelphs, and ail 
 its struggles with the imperial power benefitted Italian 
 liberty. Voltaire himself acknowledges that the cause of 
 the Papacy and that of Italian liberty were one and the 
 same : " It seems clear that Otho the Great and Frederick 
 II. wanted to reign over Italy without control and without 
 rivals : this is the secret of all their quarrels with the 
 popes. The Guelphs, the partisans of the Papacy, and still 
 more, of liberty, counterbalanced the power of the Ghibti- 
 lines, the partisans of the empire." 
 
 The independence of Italy was finally achieved under 
 the great Pope Alexander III., doubtless by force of arms, 
 but, above all, by the sacred and universally admitted 
 authority of the Papal power. The Lombard cities sided 
 with St. Peter's chair, and the victory of the Papacy, 
 followed by a generous peace, established the relations of 
 Italy and Germany, of the Holy See and the Empire, on 
 the most just and honourable footing. The successors of 
 
128 ITALY WITHOUT THE PAPACY. 
 
 Alexander III. energetically continued the struggle against 
 Frederick II., which he had undertaken against Frederick 
 Barbarossa on behalf of Italian liberty. " The temporal 
 power of the popes," says Count Balbo, " was the cause 
 and the beginning of Italian independence, and of the 
 liberties of the municipal bodies." This is sufficiently 
 proved by the history of the society of Venice, of the diet 
 of E/oncaglia, of the Lombard league, of the battle of 
 Legnano, and the peace of Constance, which gave a legal 
 existence to the republics of Italy. 
 
 As to the thirteenth century, M. Gaillardin, in his 
 " Histoire du Moyen Age," has shown that the struggle 
 between the Papacy and the Empire had, in freeing the 
 Church, emancipated Italy. Rodolph of Hapsburg, who 
 had, by the constitution of 1279, recognized the Eccle- 
 siastical State, also refused to cross the Alps in order to 
 impose his authority upon the cities which were hostile to 
 the emperor. And in succeeding times, while the popes 
 forced the emperors to forego even their pretensions to 
 suzerainty over the State of the Church, the rest of Italy 
 disengaged itself with like success from the foreign rule 
 established by Otho, and resumed its nationality. 
 
 Italy, however, did not gain its liberty. In place of 
 foreign tyrants, Italian tyrants arose ; for Italy was 
 then widowed of her popes : such is the forcible term 
 used by herself to express the indissoluble union which 
 binds her destinies to the greatness of the Papacy, and 
 also to testify what grief a separation caused her. She 
 has also called this period the captivity of Babylon. Then 
 it was that the municipal independence of the cities dis- 
 appeared : dynasties of petty tyrants established them- 
 selves in ;ill the Italian republics, without strengthening 
 l lie Empire which hud raised them up, and which was 
 expiring itself, because the Empire, too, had need of the 
 Papacy, and because all Europe was suffering from the 
 temporal degradation and exile of the popes. Hence 
 the raue of the Italians, carried even too far, against the 
 popes of Avignon, the disorders of their court, &c. In 
 all the taunts of Petrarch and others, we can trace their 
 
ITALY WITHOUT THE PAPACY. 129 
 
 irritation at having lost what was then, as now, the sole 
 liriny yreatness of Italy. 
 
 After this, the Papacy returns to Rome, politically 
 weakened : it undergoes the trial of the great schism : its 
 political authority over the Christian world disappears : 
 Italy, too, declines and becomes more and more enthralled. 
 The reign of the condottieri commences. Then come the 
 wars, in which French, Italians, Spaniards, and Germans 
 contend for it as a prey. The heroic but unsuccessful efforts 
 of Julius II. and his Italian patriotism are well known. 
 
 I pause here, as the succeeding ages are too well known ; 
 and I will only add, that no nation can continue one 
 without a capital. Now, for Italy, there can be no capital but 
 Rome, atid Rome can only be the capital of Italy through 
 the Holy See. The historical recollections and municipal 
 traditions which have illustrated the Italian cities in the 
 middle ages, will never allow them, I am convinced, to 
 accept any other supremacy. Florence, Naples, Milan, 
 Venice, not to mention Bologna and Genoa, will never 
 cede their rival pretensions to another city or another 
 title : the constant bickerings of Genoa against Turin are 
 notorious ; and at the present moment the preponderance 
 of Turin over Milan is far from being quietly accepted 
 the future will tell the rest. 
 
 In this, the author of the famous pamphlet " Napoleon 
 III. et Tltalie ;; is of my opinion : " The precedence of 
 Rome over the other cities of the peninsula has been 
 sanctioned by time, by fame, by the veneration and the 
 piety of all nations. The precedence of the Pope results 
 from his title of Pontiff : he represents the eternal sove- 
 reignty of God, and this august character permit! the 
 greatest kings to bow before him. He is not a master, he 
 is a father I Turin, Naples, Florence, Milan, and Venice 
 have each a history, an importance, a greatness, which 
 might give them equal claims and justify their rivalry ; 
 but their rights fade away before the Eternal City. None 
 of these capitals would be degraded by recognizing as the 
 head of the confederation a city which was the capital of 
 the world." 
 
130 ITALY WITHOUT THE PAPACY. 
 
 But,, eveii in the state of languor and disunion which 
 has prevailed for three hundred years in Italy, has not 
 Rome, at least in part, fulfilled the duties of a capital? 
 Without being, in that disunited country, a political and 
 military centre, still she is a national centre, because she 
 is a religious one. Why have the Milanese not become 
 either Spanish or German ? Why did Venice, in the days 
 of her power, neither become a Greek or Dalmatian, nor 
 a Slavonic power, though she had more possessions on 
 the other, than on this side of the Adriatic? Why has 
 not Piedmont become French, with its princes of French 
 extraction ? Why has Naples, so often conquered, grown 
 neither Norman, nor Saracen, nor Spanish? Why do 
 Sicily, which has passed through so many hateids, and 
 Corsica, now a French island, remain so Italian as they 
 are, notwithstanding the sea which separates them from 
 Italy ? Is it not partly that religion gives them a 
 powerful centre at Rome, that at Rome they meet 
 brethren in blood and language, who prevent them from 
 k forgetting the name and the traditions of Italy ? 
 
 The exaggeration of this idea forms -a part of the pre- 
 tensions even of modern Italianism. The " Primato" of 
 Gioberti makes of the Pope, and even of Catholicism, an 
 instrument in maintaining the domination of Italy over 
 the rest of the world. Of course this would not be : 
 Italy and Catholicism would deeply suffer if religion were 
 made the tool of politics : the Church would never lend 
 herself to such a scheme. It is, doubtless, glorious for 
 Italy that the first and the most Italian of her sovereigns 
 is also he to whom, in his sacred office, all nations owe 
 respect and love. Italy gives a spiritual chief to the 
 world in the Pope ; she should content herself with this 
 glory, and forego the ambition of pretending to rule all 
 the Latin races. But even this folly serves to show 
 us how much Italy needs to retain the Papacy. The wild 
 ambition of Italy now desires to make the Papac 
 instrument in acquiring a chimerical preponderance, 
 because in past times the Papacy has been for Italy an 
 anchor in dangers, a last remnant of cohesion which has 
 
ITALY WITHOUT THE PAPACY. 131 
 
 saved her from dissolution, a bond which preserved to her 
 some degree of union. The day that the Papacy abandons 
 Italy would be a day of mourning for the Church ; but 
 for Italy it would most probably be a day of doom, and in 
 the long catastrophes which would follow it, we might bid 
 farewell to all hope of Italian nationality. What might 
 we not add, were we to prosecute further our researches 
 upon this vast subject, which seems to open wider and 
 wider horizons to our view ? In particular, where would 
 be the glorious sceptre of letters, arts, and sciences which 
 Italy has held so long, and for which she was indebted to 
 Rome and the Papal influence? We can now appreciate 
 the profound political and historical meaning of the words 
 of the president of the French republic already cited : 
 The maintenance of the temporal sovereignty of the vene- 
 rable Head of the Church is intimately connected with the 
 liberty and independence of Italy. 
 
 Ten years ago, in a providential concurrence of circum- 
 stances, Italy saw for a moment, through Pius IX., a way 
 to terminate her humiliations. Why she did not succeed, 
 history will declare. Pius IX. felt the military weakness 
 of Italy; and desired that the change should be a peaceful 
 one. Above all, he intended that the great mediator 
 should remain neutral in the dispute, in order the more 
 easily to bring about an honourable compromise. If his 
 plan had been followed, upper Italy would probably be 
 to-day a vigorous and gloriously independent branch of 
 the Austrian empire, and the rest would form a powerful 
 confederation of sovereigns independent of foreign in- 
 fluence, under the presidency of the Holy See. Such was 
 the hope of Pius IX., and the most enlightened statesmen 
 of Europe had shared it for an instant. As to Italian 
 independence, the Pontiff assuredly was not then unfaith- 
 ful either to the traditionary policy of the Papacy, or to 
 the aspirations of the common country ; but he did not 
 wish to arrive at his end by either of the two means which 
 ruined everything in 1848 war or revolution. War, and, 
 above all, revolution, were the two evils of that period, the 
 two great mistakes then made by Italy, or, in the expres- 
 
 K 2 
 
132 ITALY WITHOUT THE PAPACY. 
 
 sive language of M. Thiers, " by a licentious faction, which, 
 setting more value on the gratification of its passions than 
 on the real interest of its cause, seized upon Italy and 
 fatally compromised her. They stirred up the people 
 everywhere to demand institutions unfitted to the habits 
 and sentiments of the time. They did more ; by provoking 
 the untimely war of independence, they committed a most 
 fatal and ruinous mistake ; and this done, they added the 
 still graver one of turning against the governments of Italy 
 the arms of the Italian people" 
 
 The consequences of these mistakes are notorious. Well, 
 has Jtaly, or what is called Italy, profited by these lessons? 
 Alas ! no ; she has re-entered on her ill-advised course. 
 The war of independence has partially succeeded, because 
 Prance has thrown her sword into the scale ; but the de- 
 signs of the revolution have arrested the conqueror him- 
 self in his triumphal march ; and at the present moment, 
 the complications of Italian politics, or rather the violence 
 of the licentious faction which M. Thiers alludes to, are 
 on the point of again hurrying Italy into ruin, if Europe 
 does not interfere. What ingratitude, and what a fatal 
 error it is to rise against and to attack a peaceful power, 
 to whom the Italians owe whatever liberty and nationality 
 they enjoy, and whose interests, now as ever, are iden- 
 tified, by the nature of things, with the cause they have 
 espoused ! Were the Papacy even less necessary to Italy 
 than it is, and ever has been, this ungrateful injustice to 
 it would still be mean and cowardly. Ever since the 
 battle of Novara, this sad policy has been followed out with 
 the most deplorable obstinacy, as we shall soon have occa- 
 sion to show ; at present we would but point out the 
 dangerous path which Italy is taking, and which is even 
 compromising the victories which have been gained. 
 Victory and force are not enough to constitute a nation, 
 still less foreign force, and victories gained by foreigners. 
 
 In accomplishing a great work, too, the precedents of 
 Providence, and the eternal laws of morality, which forbid 
 to do evil that good may come, must be taken into account. 
 We should also study carefully the nature, the condition, 
 
ITALY WITHOUT THE PAPACY. 133 
 
 and the interests of the various parts of the complicated 
 machine we are pretending to put in order; and, for my 
 part, I am firmly convinced that Italy will exhaust, perhaps 
 ruin herself in sterile agitation, unless she retracts her 
 misguided policy, unless she arrests the torrent of revolu- 
 tionary passions, unless she seeks unity in her centre, and 
 unless she learns at last the lesson which her history 
 teaches, and which, providentially for her, is in the very 
 nature of things ; namely, that the liberty and independence 
 of Italy are intimately connected with the maintenance 
 of the temporal sovereignty of the supreme Head of the 
 Church. 
 
 Whatever may be my respect for Italy, and my heart- 
 felt affection for so holy a country, for so dear and illus- 
 trious a nation, whatever my wishes for her glory and 
 prosperity, perhaps it is not for me to offer to instruct her. 
 But she will permit me to repeat the opinions and the 
 advice of her own children, her most generous and devoted 
 citizens : " Italians," says Count Caesar Balbo, " devote 
 courageously to your moral regeneration the time during 
 which God chooses to delay your political. Let there be 
 no more secret societies, no more cruel passions, no more 
 daggers whetted in the dark ; but manly habits, study, 
 and energetic labour ; these alone will conquer and secure 
 a great position for a great nation. Europe will, sooner 
 or later, have to remodel the distribution of her territory : 
 Islamism is falling to pieces ; Austria, our ancient enemy, 
 will be invited to its funeral, and have a part in its spoils ; 
 and thus, her grasping ambition being satisfied in other 
 ways, our deliverance, by general consent, will follow : the 
 pacification of Europe will coincide with the victory and 
 the development of Christianity over the whole world. 
 This is the day we should abide and prepare for ! " Silvio 
 Pellico, in his turn, a liberal, but of a noble heart, 
 liberal, but anti-revolutionary, incapable of servility, but 
 profoundly sensible of the necessity of virtues to the 
 regeneration of a people, exclaims : " All forms of govern- 
 ment have their weak points ; in all, honesty may find a 
 place, and in all, hypocrisy, intrigue, and corruption." 
 
134 ITALY WITHOUT THE PAPACY. 
 
 And, speaking of the Italians, for whom he had suffered 
 so much : " How much evil have they done hitherto ! 
 They give themselves the airs of heroes, and they are mere 
 children. They fancy themselves Pelasgi ; but for this 
 something more is necessary than satires and rhodomon- 
 tade : learning and virtue are indispensable." 
 
 " Italy, Italy," exclaims on his side, one of the Protest- 
 ant writers of England, who at present enjoys the most im- 
 mense popularity, " while I write, your skies are over me 
 your seas flow beneath my feet ; listen not to the blind 
 policy which would unite all your crested cities, mourning 
 for their republics, into one empire : false, pernicious de- 
 lusion ! your only hope of regeneration is in division. 
 Florence, Milan, Venice, Genoa, may be free once more, 
 if each is free. But dream not of freedom for the whole 
 while you enslave the parts ; the heart must be the centre 
 of the system, the blood must circulate freely every- 
 where ; and in vast communities you behold but a bloated 
 and feeble giant, whose brain is imbecile, whose limbs are 
 dead, and who pays in disease and weakness the penalty 
 of transcending the natural proportions of health and 
 vigour." Sir E. Bulwer-Lytton. 
 
 I shall conclude these warnings and counsels by the 
 words of an Italian, whose patriotism is well known : 
 " To precipitate his country into revolution," says Signer 
 d'Azeglio, "is a solemn step, the most solemn that a man 
 can take : for the impulse once given, it becomes difficult, 
 if not impossible, to distinguish clearly what is just or 
 unjust, useful or pernicious. One may be led to the 
 greatest and most generous actions, or hurried into the 
 most fatal errors. One may become the occasion of im- 
 mense good or evil ; meet with glory or infamy ; become 
 the cause of the salvation or the ruin of a whole people 
 
 To throw oneself of one's own accord into such 
 
 an undertaking, to put one's hand to it and set it going, 
 may be the height of courage, of rashness, or of insanity; 
 but, in all cases, it is an act to be dreaded by any man 
 who values justice, the good of his country, the lot of 
 others, his own reputation, and that of his country. To 
 
ITALY WITHOUT THE PAPACY. 135 
 
 attempt a revolution is to constitute oneself the sovereign 
 arbiter of the will, the property, and the life of an indefi- 
 nite number of one's fellows. In most cases, those who thus 
 decide to employ, for their own ends, the most precious 
 possessions and the most sacred rights of their fellow- 
 citizens, do so without their consent, without any right, 
 without having been authorized or chosen. Whether they 
 be one or many, does not affect the question : the respon- 
 sibility only becomes common instead of individual. It is 
 easy to proclaim monarchies, republics, and constitutions ; 
 but no one has the power to render a population monar- 
 chical, constitutional, or republican, if their habits and 
 opinions are opposed to it. All the terrors of the French 
 revolution were unable to make republicans of those who 
 were not republican. The imitations of foreign constitu- 
 tions, which were introduced into Italy in 1821, have not 
 made the Italians constitutional, who then were not so. 
 .... The art of maturing our plans, and making the cal- 
 culations necessary to this success, the art of construct- 
 ing the edifice stone by stone, beginning where we must 
 begin, by the foundation, is an art which we Italians are 
 ignorant of; and yet, without it nothing can be done; 
 and so we have learned, to our cost. Hitherto we have 
 resembled an inexperienced master of fiery and impetuous 
 steeds, who, not giving himself time to harness them pro- 
 perly, not taking the trouble to look to the reins and the 
 traces, whips them forward madly, and has scarcely started 
 before he is upset, and breaks his neck " 
 
 Alas, alas ! How is it with poor Italy now ? . . . . O 
 Italy, Italy, Terra par ens magna virum! what are they 
 doing with thee ? . . . . Illustrious, unhappy nation, whither 
 will they bring thee, those who have fixed their grasp upon 
 thee? .... Shall no mighty and generous arm be stretched 
 out to save thee ? 
 
136 EUROPE WITHOUT THE PAPACY. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 EUROPE WITHOUT THE PAPACY. 
 
 IT remains for us to inquire, not only what Rome and 
 Italy, but what Europe would have been, and what she 
 would be, without the Papacy. 
 
 We have said that there are diseased and excited minds 
 who would recklessly sacrifice the most solemn interests 
 of Rome, of Italy, and of Europe, to the reveries of their 
 inconsiderate imagination, and would see, without much 
 regret, the Roman Church quit European soil, embark 
 with the Pope, cross the seas, and settle in America, for 
 instance, or at Jerusalem, or in China. I repeat that I 
 have not invented these ideas ; they have been imagined, 
 expressed, and published even by respectable people, of 
 superior minds, who, one would have thought, were inac- 
 cessible to the weaknesses and the apprehensions which too 
 often bias minds of a more vulgar stamp. 
 
 " Europe without the Pope is a puzzle to me," said one 
 day, in our presence, a distinguished man, whose political 
 sagacity is renowned. There is vast good sense in this- 
 expression. In fact, we cannot well understand or picture 
 to ourselves how things would be in a state so different 
 from the present and from what ages and Providence have 
 established. 
 
 Europe without the Papacy, is Europe without a centre 
 of light and of Christian civilization : this Rome has been 
 to Europe for ages, this Rome is still to her. Europe- 
 without the Papacy, is Europe without an immemorial and 
 venerable bond of union for her nations, without any 
 common centre of agreement and social harmony, as well 
 as of faith and religion. Europe without the Papacy, is 
 Europe without the most august personification of those 
 
EUROPE WITHOUT THE PAPACY. 137 
 
 two great tilings, which are now so pressingly necessary 
 to her I mean, Authority and Respect. Europe without 
 the Papacy, would be a revolution in religion and society : 
 it would be probably the final doom of the European con- 
 tinent. And, for my part, I have always thought that if 
 God, one day, were to determine to curse Europe, and to 
 pour out upon us the most terrible of his judgments that 
 is, to take from us the light of faith and civilization, He 
 would begin by taking away from us the Papacy, and 
 transporting it elsewhere. 
 
 i. 
 
 We have already cited the opinions of Leibnitz and 
 Voltaire ; we will here cite, in his turn, Chateaubriand, 
 who has expressed himself upon our present subject with 
 his usual felicity : " Christian Rome has been, to the 
 modern world, what Pagan Rome was to the ancient a 
 universal bond of union. This capital of the nations has 
 justified her right to the title of Eternal City. A time, 
 perhaps, will come when people will acknowledge that the 
 Papal throne was a grand idea, a magnificent institution. 
 The spiritual Father, placed at the centre of the nations, 
 united the different parts of Christendom. We still feel 
 every day the influence of the immense and inestimable 
 benefits which former ages owed to the court of Rome." 
 " Do you think/' wrote, some time ago, a politician, whose 
 authority is free from the suspicion of partiality, " that 
 the annihilation of a power, which is now the sole bond of 
 union of the various scattered nationalities of the world, 
 was a great boon? Are there not, then, in the world 
 elements enough of disunion and discord ? Can any one 
 fancy that the old trunk of Jesse has cast into the earth, 
 during eighteen centuries of life and bloom, such frail and 
 shallow roots, that it is easy to tear it up without disturbing 
 and agitating the earth around it ? Ah ! be sure that it will 
 not fall without shaking society to its centre, and, perhaps, 
 not without carrying it along with it in its fall ! " 
 
 Good policy and good sense here speak the same lan- 
 guage ; but the spirit of revolution speaks a different one. 
 
138 EUROPE WITHOUT THE PAPACY. 
 
 The Papacy is the common bond and centre of peace and 
 harmony in Europe, the embodiment of authority and 
 respect : and it is just this which marks it out for the 
 attacks of revolution ; and here strange contradiction ! 
 a monarchy, blinded by ambition, makes itself the accom- 
 plice and the tool of the revolutionists ; and it is at a 
 congress that Piedmoritese diplomacy has dared to ask the 
 sovereigns of Europe to assist in breaking this sacred bond, 
 to overturn this august personification, and preside at 
 its destruction ! Whilst the decay of institutions, whilst 
 selfishness and passion, are evoking throughout Europe 
 the spirit of insubordination, ought the plenipotentiaries 
 of the powers which are thus menaced, solemnly to ignore 
 the principle, that European society is deeply interested 
 in maintaining in its bosom this providential sovereignty, 
 which upholds as doctrines the principles of authority and 
 respect, which puts them in practice with unyielding firm- 
 ness, though, at the same time, with the most touching 
 condescension to human weakness ? 
 
 One who has played a considerable part in political 
 affairs has said, with justice, " No, it never was more ne- 
 cessary to have in Europe an authority felt and accepted 
 as a right, without requiring to have recourse to force ; a 
 power before which man may bow without lowering his 
 dignity, and which speaks from on high with the authority, 
 not of constraint, and yet of necessity." l 
 
 But if you expel the Pope from Europe, or if you un- 
 worthily degrade him, you at the same time destroy the 
 most striking living expression of authority and of right ; 
 you take away from men's consciences the holiest motive 
 for submission to the powers that be ; you realize the 
 audacious desires of the agitators of empires : having broken 
 the bond which united men, you break the bridle which 
 restrained their impetuous pride, and you let loose all the 
 
 1 M. Guizot adds : " Such is true authority : wherever it is 
 absent, whatever be the force or the preponderance of numbers 
 which support the ruler, obcdi<- rays cither mean or pre- 
 
 carious, bordering either on servility or r^belldon." 
 
EUROPE WITHOUT THE PAPACY. 139 
 
 fury of anarchy on the world. Europe has had some lessons 
 already ; and what she has learnt is nothing to what the 
 countless demagogues she owns would still teach her, all 
 of whom demand, with hungry clamour, the fall of this 
 great sovereignty, because they descry from afar its for- 
 midable and inevitable consequences. Once more, in the 
 wreck of authority and respect which alarms us, never was 
 it more necessary to Europe that the Pope should still 
 preserve some fragments of them at Rome ; and that he 
 should continue to offer to sovereigns and people, in him- 
 self the embodiment and model of authority, and in his 
 people an abiding and salutary example of obedience and 
 respect. Here is a work all should labour at ; here is a 
 work for a European congress. As to the labours of 
 anarchy, whose audacious and persevering progress we have 
 been watching in Italy these ten years, as to this organ- 
 ized conspiracy of all ambitious and revolutionary passions 
 against the Papacy, all should unite to stigmatize and 
 reprobate them. 
 
 Such would be the advice of the wise: "But," as 
 Bossuet said long ago, "are the wise believed in these 
 times of excitement, and are not their prophecies mocked 
 at ? But what a judicious foresight could not impress 
 upon men, a more imperious mistress will force them to 
 believe .... Kings will suffer by it .... but it will have 
 been their own doing." 
 
 ii. 
 
 There is another order of services rendered to Europe 
 by the Papacy, Avhich the heart of a Catholic and of a 
 priest cannot help recognizing with gratitude. Yes, a 
 Christian is proud to proclaim, that if Europe rules the 
 entire world, she is clearly indebted for it to the Church 
 and the Gospel. Europe has been a source of light to the 
 whole universe, because Rome has been a centre of light 
 to the whole of Europe. 
 
 During the long ages, " when our fathers were mere 
 barbarians, who had to be taught everything, not only to 
 read, to speak, and to clothe themselves, but to plough their 
 
140 EUROPE WITHOUT THE PAPACY. 
 
 fields, and to obtain food .... the Papacy always showed 
 itself to be in advance of its age. It had'ideas of legisla- 
 tion and of jurisprudence ; it was acquainted with the fine 
 arts, with the sciences ; it was polite, when all else was 
 buried in the darkness of Gothic institutions. Nor did it 
 hide its light ; it diffused it everywhere ; it broke down the 
 barriers created by prejudice between nations; it strove 
 to soften our manners, to deliver us from our ignorance, 
 to break us of our coarse or ferocious customs. The Popes 
 were among our ancestors as missionaries of the arts sent 
 to barbarians, as legislators among savages. The reign of 
 Charlemagne only, says Voltaire, saiv a glimmer of polite- 
 ness which probably was the fruit of his journey to Rome. 
 It is a thing generally admitted that Europe owes its 
 civilization to the Holy See, as well as part of its best 
 laws, and nearly all its arts and sciences." J Hume, a 
 Protestant and sceptical historian, allows that the union 
 of all the Western churches under a Sovereign Pontiff, 
 facilitated the intercourse between nations, and tended to 
 make Europe one vast republic; that the pomp and 
 splendour of worship contributed to the progress of the 
 fine arts, and began to diffuse a general elegance of taste, 
 by identifying it with religion. Have not the missions of 
 Rome, to use the expression of Buffon (Hist. Nat. torn, iii.), 
 turned more savages into men than all the armies of the 
 princes who have conquered whole barbarian nations ? 
 
 The Church, in truth, has been the instructress of man- 
 kind ; she has really educated, enlightened, and ennobled 
 it : self-willed as a child in its cradle, in its youth violent, 
 wild, and untamable, the Church has softened, civilized, 
 and polished it, and brought it up to the age of manhood : 
 she has been, I repeat, its instructress and its mother. Yet 
 now there are those who think it generous to revolt 
 against her ! 
 
 Is it not strange with what supercilious ingratitude we 
 enjoy all the benefits of the Church? The light of the 
 Gospel, that kindly light whose beams she for ever diffuses 
 
 Chateaubriand. 
 
EUROPE WITHOUT THE PAPACY. 141 
 
 upon the world, encircles us on all sides ; it has penetrated 
 insensibly into our laws, our manners, and even our most 
 ordinary habits, as well as into oar science and literature ; 
 everywhere, in short. Yet we disdain and insult this 
 heritage, by which we live, though \ve may not be aware 
 of it. 1 We forget that religion has still, and will ever 
 have, to teach us the most important secrets of this life, 
 and all those of eternity eternity, before which we are 
 never more than children, than infants; we forget that 
 the Gospel alone has a resource for every need of humanity, 
 consolation for all its sorrows, lessons for all its fortunes, 
 and infallible secrets for the security of the world. Is there 
 not in this scorning of the Church, that venerable instruct- 
 ress of nations, an ingratitude and an injustice calculated 
 to bring chastisements upon us ? Ah ! were the lights of 
 the Gospel suddenly to fail us ; were all its dispersed rays, 
 which fill the atmosphere which surrounds us, extinguished, 
 we should be appalled at our darkness ! For all that men 
 have said or done, the holy Catholic Church still holds 
 the key of all the mysterious and vital problems of society 
 and nature. Even now, in spite of its pride and its disdain, 
 the civilized world reposes only under the shadow of the 
 cross. If the cross and the Gospel were suddenly to fail, 
 we, who even now agree so badly, would soon devour one 
 another. And if the Pope and the Catholic bishops, 
 shaking off the dust from their feet, were to leave an ungrate- 
 ful world, closing the sacred books, and carrying them with 
 them into the desert, the broken gleams of Christian truth 
 they might leave behind would soon be dissipated, and 
 chaos would not be far distant. Like the impious ages of 
 paganism, the nations would then tremble at the mighty 
 ruin hovering over them, which they had themselves 
 evoked, and in their despair would dread the approach of 
 an eternal night : 
 
 " Impiaque seternam timuerunt secula noctem ! " 
 
 i 
 
 ' I know not why any should attribute to philosophy the grand 
 morality of our books. . . . That morality was Christian before it 
 \vas philosophical. ... It was all in the Gospel before it was in 
 our books." J.-J. Rousseau. 
 
142 EUROPE WITHOUT THE PAPACY. 
 
 It is strictly possible (God avert the omen, I say such 
 things with fear aiid trembling) that God has determined 
 to send the Pope and the Roman Church to the New 
 World,, to transfer to it our inheritance, to crown its 
 fortunes, and to give it, if I may so express myself, its 
 letters patent of civilization and nobility. It is quite pos- 
 sible that one day the Old World may become a missionary 
 country, as America now is with regard to Europe : that 
 missionaries may come to' us from the Rocky Mountains, 
 and that one day it may be our turn to say, How beautiful 
 upon the mountains are the feet of him that bring eth good 
 tidings, and that preacheth peace, which we had lost. 
 
 Such mournful transformations have been seen before now 
 in the world : the faith had risen, like the sun in the East ; 
 but now the school and the Church of Alexandria, Judcea, 
 and Jerusalem the holy city, are in barbarism ! and we 
 are sending missionaries to them ! Europe would be to 
 the United States what China and the South-Sea Islands 
 now are to us. The supposition is frightful ; but the faith 
 is fixed to none of the places which possess it, if they show 
 themselves unfaithful to it ; and if we will not have him 
 who bears in Europe, in one hand the sceptre of paternal 
 authority, in the other the torch of the Gospel, we should 
 tremble lest we may lose, with the vicar of Jesus Christ, 
 all true light, all respect for authority, and all union 
 among European nations. Yes, if the Pope were to leave 
 Europe ; if Italy, Rome, France, Spain, Belgium, Ireland, 
 and Catholic Germany lost their father ; were he to carry 
 the tabernacle of St. Peter and the keys of the kingdom 
 of heaven to some shore of the New World, I should 
 tremble, not as a Catholic, but as a Frenchman, as a child 
 of the European family. It would seem to me that God 
 had withdrawn from among us; and from the midst of 
 the European chaos, as formerly from the midst of Jeru- 
 salem cast off by God, I should imagine I heard myste- 
 rious voices crying, Come out of her, come out of her ! 
 
 If I be accused of exaggeration, I would say, If you 
 will not believe my word, at least believe in facts. Con- 
 sider what has been the fate of those who, after having 
 
i:UKOPE WITHOUT THE PAPACY. 143 
 
 known the Gospel, have ceased to revere it, and have lost 
 thr faith. Cast a glance upon these countries, formerly so 
 brilliant, of the East, which contained the famous cities of 
 Ephesus, Antioch, Csesarea, and Nicomedia, where, with 
 Christianity, the arts and sciences, letters, and a pure 
 morality prevailed, which were adorned by the eloquence, 
 the genius, and the virtues of Basil, of Gregory, and of 
 Chrysostoni. See, on the confines of Europe and Asia, 
 what now is that Byzantium, which was once so splendid, 
 so polished, and so learned, which was long considered a 
 second Rome, a new Athens. Then turn your eyes 
 towards Africa, the home of Athanasius, of Cyril, and 
 Tertullian, where the famous school of Alexandria flourished 
 under Origeii and Clement : where Cyprian and Augus- 
 tine illustrated the cities of Carthage and of Hippo. Com- 
 pare the present state of these populations with their 
 past ; see how they are wrapt in the thickest darkness of 
 ignorance, how they bend under the yoke of a brutal 
 despotism, how degraded their morals, how gross their 
 superstition ; they have gone back, in short, from their 
 
 past glory, to the infancy of society.- But I am wrong ; 
 
 the feebleness of that age contains within it the latent 
 elements of growth ; but here is the incurable impotence 
 of decrepitude. Their life is gone : with the true reli- 
 gion they have manifestly lost their enlightenment, their 
 liberty, their happiness, and their civilization. 
 
 I will even make a striking but irrefutable assertion : 
 I defy any one to name a single country where the torch 
 of the Gospel was extinguished, which did not immediately 
 fall into barbarism. It was just, in fact, that it should 
 be so ; that national apostasy should meet with its punish- 
 ment here below, as well as individual; so that, seeing 
 the life of those unhappy nations die out, we might learn 
 what it was that had supported it ; and that it might be 
 said to each of them, Know and see that it is always evil 
 and bitter to forsake the law of God, and to disregard the 
 appointments and warnings of His Providence. Scito et 
 vide quia malwn et amarum est rdiquisse te Deum tuum. 
 
144 EUROPE WITHOUT THE PAPACY. 
 
 III. 
 
 I know that some fertile imaginations have foreseen 
 incalculable resources for Europe, in a new empire, a 
 universal monarchy, or at least supremacy : civilization is 
 to be secured by the potent unity and cohesion created by 
 this new political order ; this supreme power is to reside 
 at St. Petersburg, Constantinople, Vienna, or Paris. 
 
 In ffty years Europe will be either republican or Cossack, 
 said once the greatest potentate of the present century, 
 after having vainly attempted himself to remodel the 
 history and geography of Europe after another fashion. 
 
 I will put but one question to the excitable imagina- 
 tions whom so imposing an idea may fascinate : What is 
 to be the prime mover and the regulator of this vast 
 machine? Force? Then you will have but slavery on a 
 great scale. Mind ? But where shall a mind great enough 
 be found ? Human intellects are rarely equal to such a 
 task. Who shall preserve it from decay? Who shall 
 establish its authority? Above all, who shall insure its 
 moderation? In a word, whence shall come the quid 
 divinum, without which any human organization is null? 
 Who upon earth shall take upon him to say, with the 
 boldness of Bossuet, to this universal monarch, You 
 have nothing to fear but the excess of your own power. 
 But what am I saying ! knowing what the insolence of 
 unresisted pride and the cringing meanness of men are 
 capable of, we cannot conceive a Bossuet or a true Catholic 
 episcopate in this empire of servility, with the Papacy 
 banished or degraded. It has been malevolently stated 
 that Bossuet was antagonistic to the Papal authority ; for 
 my part, I think that any real antagonism, which existed 
 was trifling, and that at bottom, Bossuet was as Roman as 
 Fenelon. But however that may be, I maintain, that if 
 the Papacy had not been in Europe when Bossuet spoke 
 thus to Louis XIV., Bossuet would have been less firm, 
 and would not have dared to speak so. 
 
EUROPE WITHOUT THE PAPACY. 145 
 
 But .this idea is not new. Aristides, the rhetorician, in 
 his time, celebrated in flattering terms the progressive 
 development of the various parts of the universe, by means 
 of the universal equality, and the social tranquillity 
 springing from the concentration of all power in the 
 hands of a sole master : " Small and great, rich and poor, 
 nobles and plebeians, are equal before the majesty of 
 Caesar, whence all power springs, and by which all rights 
 are sanctioned. What Caesar is to all powers, Rome is to 
 all powers. Rome, the common forum and universal 
 centre, receives the citizens of the world, as the ocean 
 confounds all rivers in its bosom. The majesty of the 
 city soars over the universe, and the nations unite to ask 
 from the gods the eternity of such an empire." The gods, 
 however, were deaf to such applications, and they were 
 right. 
 
 In fact, a better arrangement was practicable ; and it 
 was realized in Christian Europe. Instead of nations 
 crushed and degraded into a miserable equality, she saw 
 liberty, energy, and national spirit distinguish her illus- 
 trious family of powerful nations ; each, doubtless, having 
 its own peculiarities and defects, but each accountable only 
 to itself : mutual goodwill and respect prevailed, under an 
 independent spiritual authority, which lowers the dignity 
 and infringes on the true liberty of none, neither the 
 petty and weak, nor the proud and powerful : under that 
 authority, of which it was so well said, as I have already 
 quoted, " before which men may bow without lowering 
 their dignity, and which speaks from on high with the 
 authority, not of constraint, and yet of necessity." We 
 may sometimes murmur against this authority, when it 
 condemns us ; but I maintain that even when it reproves 
 it is guarding the true liberties of the human mind and 
 conscience. Those who do not agree with me may consult 
 Tacitus, and the Rome of his day, for past ages, and, for 
 the present time, may look at China. 
 
 Yes, I assert that Protestants, Freethinkers, and Catho- 
 lics have all a common interest here : yes, it concerns all 
 that there may continue for ever here below a moral autho- 
 
146 EUROPE WITHOUT THE PAPACY. 
 
 rity which has never yielded, a living protest and counter- 
 poise against the supremacy of the Czar, or of a tyrannical 
 parliament, 'against the fatal, inevitable servility of the 
 patriarchs of Moscow and the archbishops of Canterbury. 
 On this condition, human dignity will be safe, at least in 
 one important respect. But if, as it was eloquently said 
 the other day, the last bulwark of spiritual independence 
 is forced, if the Papacy falls under the yoke of a multitude, 
 or into the grasp of a despot, if no point of resistance to 
 force remains but the random and impotent efforts of a 
 few rare and isolated individuals, who does not foresee the 
 sweeping and deadly catastrophe which would strike the 
 liberty of the human conscience ? 1 
 
 This was clearly the sentiment of a celebrated philo- 
 sopher, confessedly of powerful mind, M. Cousin, when he 
 addressed to me, on leaving the academy the other day, in 
 the presence of several of our fellow-academicians, on the 
 staircase of the institute, the following remarkable words, 
 which I give as they were uttered : " Materialist and 
 atheistical philosophy may be indifferent; nay, it is right 
 in applauding the curtailment and degradation of the 
 Papacy ; for it does not require the Papacy when proving 
 to men that the soul is a result of the body, and that there 
 is no God but the world. But the philosophy of spiritual- 
 ists looks with a different eye on the events which are 
 going on. If it be not blinded by the most preposterous 
 pride, it ought to see that outside the schools, among man- 
 kind, spiritualism is, as it were, represented by Christianity, 
 
 1 M. Foisset, Annalcs Catholiques de Geneve. In his remarkable 
 article, M. Foisset also said : " M. de Presseuse ought to know 
 this better than any one, claiming incessantly, as he docs, iiuli-ji' n- 
 dence for Protestantism; he is. a minister of a private church, 
 which does not allow that it is accountable to any authority but 
 itself; a church ^hich does not accept any interference of the civil 
 power between God and man. I am sorry that his mind is not 
 unprejudiced enough to POO that, at bottom, the Pope's cause is his 
 own, as it is the cause of all who do not admit the omnipotence of 
 Cajsar in the things of God." 
 
EUROPE WITHOUT THE PAPACY. 147 
 
 that Christianity itself is excellently represented by the 
 Catholic Church, and that thus the holy Father is the 
 representative of the whole moral and intellectual order. 
 I consider that this chain of propositions is impregnable, 
 and would undertake to maintain them against any oppo- 
 nent whatever, provided only that he admits the existence 
 of God, that is of a real God, who possesses understanding, 
 liberty, and love. So that, monseigneur, if you will excuse 
 my familiar language, I want for mankind a Papacy strong 
 enough to be independent, and to exercise efficaciously its 
 sacred ministry .... I wish it to be strong, even though 
 your humble servant may sometimes suffer a little for it. 
 Yes, Rome may put in the Index my book, Du Vrai, du 
 Eeau y et du Bien ; no matter ; I shall remain faithful to her, 
 and defend her in my own way, in the name of philosophy 
 itself. "What if I were to speak to you as a liberal, which 
 I have always shown myself ? or if I were to speak as an 
 old and tried friend of Italy ? But I will not detain you 
 on this staircase ; I only beg, that if you are writing to 
 Rome, you will present my respects to the Holy Father, and 
 inform him that, with all my unworthiness, I take the 
 liberty, in these deplorable circumstances, to range myself 
 among his warmest supporters." 
 
 I have mentioned the Protestants ; it would be a great 
 mistake, though a very common one, to imagine that 
 Protestants can do perfectly well without the Papacy. I 
 maintain that it is the Papacy which preserves to them, in 
 spite of themselves, whatever Christianity they have not 
 lost. If there were not the Catholic Church in the world, 
 whose chief and bond of unity is the Pope ; if this Church 
 did not exist, the emporium and the guardian of true and 
 unrnutilated Christianity, with her faith, her discipline, 
 her hierarchy, and her worship, Christianity itself, modi- 
 fied, travestied, and torn by so many hands, would soon 
 totally disappear ; it is clear that the separated sects have 
 no sufficient means" of preserving it. The Bible alone 
 cannot resist false and strained interpretations. These 
 sects, having no internal authority to guard what they 
 possess of Christianity, and no longer having Catholicism 
 
 L 2 
 
148 EUROPE WITHOUT THE PAPACY. 
 
 outside them, where the sacred deposit of revealed truth 
 is safely kept, and may always be had recourse to, these 
 sects, I say, already so numerous, would split still farther ; 
 the fragments again would break up, and be frittered away 
 into dust, as we see even now in America, and as is^de- 
 plored by many sincere Protestants : there would cease to 
 exist any form of belief, and even the semblance of a reli- 
 gious society. Christianity would utterly perish, and with 
 it many other things of which we are justly proud, and 
 which we would be as unable to preserve without Chris- 
 tianity as we were to procure them without her. The 
 truth is, that human civilization owes everything to Chris- 
 tianity. Open the map of the civilized world : we see that 
 religion and civilization have there the same boundaries ; 
 whatever is far from Christ is in the dark, whatever is near 
 Him is in the light : the world, as well as history, is di- 
 vided into two by the Cross. The Church is the guardian 
 of the faith of Catholics : it is from her that Protestants 
 have received the notion of a Redeemer, and it is she who 
 preserves it to them ; moreover, it is to her that Deists 
 owe the idea of a God and a Creator. And such is the 
 moral power against whom war is now declared ! 
 
 But I must conclude. It seems to me unlikely that we 
 shall see Europe republican in ten years : as to the threat 
 of the Cossacks, and the danger of a schismatical and im- 
 perial Papacy, as a Catholic, I am easy ; God will preserve 
 His Church : but will He preserve Europe ? I cannot say. 
 But, certainly, I cannot think of her future without dismay, 
 if she effaces from her soil the temporal sovereignty of the 
 popes. I am convinced of this, that into the gulf which 
 must inevitably open in her midst when the Papacy and 
 Catholicism have departed, the revolutionary torrent would 
 sweep with a headlong violence and fury as yet unknown 
 in history, and to which it is hard to see what barrier could 
 be opposed. 
 
 We have seen Romans, Italians, Europeans, Protestants 
 themselves, political writers, philosophers, statesmen, as 
 well as the most humble Christians, all testifying to the 
 truth of the principles we have laid down, namely : 
 
EUROPE WITHOUT THE PAPACY. 149 
 
 That the temporal sovereignty of the Holy See is inti- 
 mately united, in the designs of God, with its spiritual 
 sovereignty. 
 
 That the liberty of conscience and the independence of 
 Catholic truth are providentially united to the liberty and 
 independence of the Pope. 
 
 That, for the security of the whole Church, it is neces- 
 sary that the Pope be free and independent. 
 
 That this independence be sovereign. 
 
 That the Pope be free, and that he appear free. 
 
 That the Pope be free and independent at home as well 
 as abroad. 
 
 Nor must these great principles be practically nullified 
 by any hypocritical scheme, or any degrading compromise. 
 
 We have also seen the wonderful ways in which God 
 established this temporal sovereignty. And, finally, what 
 Rome, Italy, and Europe would be without the Pope. 
 
 We would now add, that it has given us deep pain to see 
 worthy persons, and even some Christians, led astray by 
 sad delusions on these points, settle these great questions 
 with a stroke of their pen, throw out for the discussion of 
 the ignorant, and give a most dangerous publicity to the 
 rashest suggestions, and sacrifice, with inconceivable pre- 
 sumption, interests and principles, which bishops assembled 
 in council would only enter on with trembling, and which, 
 as the pillars of the temple, they would shrink from 
 touching ! 
 
 Assuredly, the Roman Church could remain suspended 
 between heaven and earth, depending on nothing but the 
 invisible hand which supports her : the Vicar of Jesus 
 Christ could, assuredly, like Jesus Christ himself, become 
 an apostolic pilgrim, not having where to lay his head, 
 while the foxes have holes, and the birds of the air nests ! 
 And such a state would be certainly preferable to that 
 proposed in a certain too well-known publication. But let 
 our brothers in the faith, who have entertained such ideas, 
 permit me to say that they have come to their conclusion 
 with too philosophical an indifference. Sure to have assist- 
 ance in their last moments, and a priest to give them a 
 
150 EUROPE WITHOUT THE PAPACY. 
 
 parting benediction, they have forgotten what great, what 
 immense, interests would be compromised by such cala- 
 mities, they have failed to see 'that conscience and charity 
 can permit no one so coolly to accept the disastrous pro- 
 spects which the humiliation of the Roman Church would 
 open upon Rome, Italy, and the whole of Europe. 
 
 No ; experiments are unsafe here. Let us all learn at least 
 to profit by the lessons which Providence has given us, and 
 let the thunders which roar in the distance awaken us 
 from our dreams. When the earth trembles under our 
 feet, it is time to abandon our wild and hazardous specu- 
 lations, and to return to true principles, to the eternal laws 
 of order, and the essential conditions of society, which, 
 can never be violated with impunity. We must admit, that, 
 even for the interests of the people, sovereignty has rights 
 which are the safeguard and the life of nations ; that autho- 
 rity is entitled to respect ; that there are duties towards it ; 
 that there are apostolic precepts which command obedience 
 and respect ; that the apostles are not vain speculators and 
 declaimers ; that there was a St. Paul who said : Let every 
 soul be subject to higher powers Omnis anima potestatibus 
 sublimioribus subdita sit; that there was a prince of 
 apostles who forbids to use liberty as a hypocritical veil to 
 cover malice velamen habentes malitia libertatem ; that 
 there was a St. Jude who has condemned those perverse 
 men who despise authority and blaspheme majesty 
 dominationem spernunt, majestatem blasphemant ; and, 
 finally, that there is a Son of God, who has commanded 
 to render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to 
 God the things which are God's. 
 
 It must be confessed that these principles have been 
 strangely ignored of late. To dissipate the fatal doctrines 
 current throughout Europe, those appalling shocks and 
 convulsions were perhaps necessary (terrible oportet ! as 
 Bossuet says) which have agitated our time for more than 
 sixty years. Are these principles to be again violated in 
 the person of their most august representative, of the 
 gentlest and most paternal of sovereigns? After such 
 .great and terrible lessons, let us not clap' our hands, in the 
 
FRANCE AND THE HOLY SEE IN 184-9. 151 
 
 name of a spurious Christianity, at each new revolution 
 which shakes European soil ; let us not pursute with our 
 anathemas the powers which dare to defend themselves, 
 and to resist wrong and disorder ; for so we should render 
 ourselves guilty, at the very least, of infinite temerity; 
 guilty of a sad forgetfuluess of the evangelical precepts, 
 guilty, and the real accomplices, of those odious senti- 
 ments which look behind all revolutionary passions ! May 
 Heaven breathe a new calm into the minds of men after 
 so many tempests ; may the eternal majesty of truth be 
 henceforth the safeguard of their reason and their hearts ; 
 may such great woes not be without their fruits ; may 
 they be redeemed by a return to wisdom, order, and peace, 
 with liberty and justice ! 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 FRANCE AND THE HOLY SEE IN 1849. 
 
 NOTHING of what we have written is new : all has been 
 felt and proclaimed on every occasion when, during its 
 long existence, the temporal sovereignty of the popes has 
 been called in question; it has been proclaimed, and it 
 has triumphed, and never more gloriously than in France, 
 in the great crisis of 1849. After the laborious discussions 
 of the foregoing chapters, it will be a pleasure to review 
 what France then so nobly accomplished for a cause 
 which is now, as ever, dearer to us in proportion to the 
 unjust outrages which are heaped upon it. 
 
 i. 
 
 I must own that, personally, I have no taste for repub- 
 lican institutions, nor has the fresh trial France made of 
 them in 1848 succeeded in reconciling me to them. Still 
 I must admit that, under the republic, two great things 
 were done, and in accomplishing them great courage and 
 
152 FRANCE AND THE HOLY SEE IN 1849. 
 
 noble qualities were displayed ; I mean, what was then 
 done for the liberty of education, and the Roman expedi- 
 tion. Parental rights proclaimed and secured in their 
 most sacred province, the education of children; reli- 
 gious bodies freed from several of their disabilities, and 
 enabled freely to exercise their self-denying zeal in the 
 pious education of youth ; the Roman Church delivered, 
 and the independence of the Universal Church secured in 
 that of her supreme head : such are the great things 
 which will remain the eternal honour of those who accom- 
 plished them, and will shine in the eyes of posterity as a 
 ray of light upon a sombre horizon. 
 
 To speak here only of the Roman expedition, I know 
 of nothing, in the parliamentary annals of any nation, 
 grander than the debate it occasioned. Looking back 
 upon those memorable days, and the great victories then 
 gained by reason and justice, it seems to me that never 
 did the power of human eloquence show more gloriously ; 
 never did political orators more nobly combat in the 
 defence of a more august cause. The difficulties of that 
 terrible period, when social order was so deeply shaken 
 throughout all Europe ; the unlooked-for union of eminent 
 men of different parties under the same standard; the 
 hallowed cause which was defended, the paramount in- 
 terests which were rescued ; the intrepidity of the de- 
 fenders, the determination of the assailants ; the fury of 
 the multitude, the energy of the good, closing into a com- 
 pact phalanx both within and without the Assembly, 
 supporting their combatants in the struggle by the moral 
 force of their powerful union ; and, lastly, their success, 
 that consummation so desirable, though often wanting to 
 just causes : everything in those memorable debates was 
 grand ; their memory can never perish. I do not hesitate 
 to say, that an example was there given a salutary and 
 seasonable example how the good in all countries 
 should act, in the face of the perils of revolution ; of the 
 stern resistance with which the torrent of violence must 
 be met, in the name of reason and justice, and of the 
 blessing God accords to a society which deserves it by 
 
FRANCE AND THE HOLY SEE IN 1849. 153 
 
 its efforts to save itself. This great cause, too, was nobly 
 supported under the walls of Rome by our army, so worthy 
 of the French name ; its courage and discipline, its con- 
 sideration during the struggle, and its moderation after 
 the victory, were, as M. Thiers says, a real consolation to 
 the country. 
 
 One of the things which most jars upon my feelings is, 
 to hear the enemies of the Holy Seee attack us, as they 
 do at present, in the name of liberty ! They cry : "You are 
 a superannuated institution, made for other times, and in- 
 compatible with the liberal ideas of our day. Stragglers 
 from another age, drags upon modern civilization, you 
 know nothing of the wants of our time ; you are sup- 
 porters of theocracy and the divine right : we know you, 
 and all liberals disclaim you." 
 
 Well, I know what you are too ! I know your pretended 
 love for liberty ; I know your works and the means you 
 employ, and your detestable principle of the sovereignty of 
 the end ; and I know that you use a generous name to cover 
 an odious thing. And, therefore, it seems to me very 
 seasonable here to recall to you, and to those whom you 
 are leading astray, what was then done and said by liberals 
 of somewhat more sincerity, who have stood severer tests 
 than you ; what was then sanctioned by the great assem- 
 blies of republican France, by men sent to power by the 
 most democratic and freest universal suffrage that ever was ; 
 at a time when the entire press said what it thought fit, 
 when religion was attacked, but also defended, with per- 
 fect liberty. You want to oppose liberalism to the Papacy ! 
 Well, you shall be answered by liberals, genuine liberals, 
 who still live, and whose liberalism has been proof against 
 temptations and ordeals which few have been able to resist 
 
 I shall now endeavour briefly to expose the political 
 circumstances of the Holy See at that period. 
 
 ii. 
 
 A fortnight after the death of Gregory XVI., on the 
 16th of June, 1846, the day after the opening of the 
 
154 FRANCE AND THE HOLY SEE IN 1849. 
 
 Conclave, Pius IX. ascends the Pontifical throne; on 
 the 21st, he is solemnly crowned at St. Peter's. His elec- 
 tion is received with welcome in Italy, and the whole 
 Catholic world. The virtues of the new Pope, his zeal for 
 all that is good, and his love for his people, are known ; 
 people look towards him with hope and confidence. 
 
 A decisive act soon declares to the world what his 
 policy will be. On the 16th July, the most wide and 
 complete amnesty is granted. It is received with a chorus 
 of acclamations ; Rome makes holiday for three days ; 
 when Pius IX. passes in the streets, the horses are taken 
 from his carriage, and he is drawn along by the people. 
 Every day the popular enthusiasm for the kind and holy 
 Pontiff increases. The concessions he has made only 
 reveal the bold ideas and the new benefits which he is 
 meditating. The amnesty is but the prelude to the rest. 
 Of his own accord he plans great and beneficial conces- 
 sions to his people ; not one of his words or actions but 
 shows the most liberal intentions on his part. The enthu- 
 siasm of the Italians spreads to the whole of Europe ; in 
 France, more particularly, the friends of liberty applaud 
 this noble example ; all hearts are touched by the con- 
 fidence of the Pontiff in his people; the fears of some 
 timid and cautious spirits are not listened to ; everything 
 is hoped for from this good understanding between the 
 ruler and his subjects. The princes of the peninsula, 
 moved by his example, prepare to imitate it. From the 
 French Chamber; M. Thiers cries to Pius IX., " Courage, 
 Holy Father, courage ! " This movement of admiration 
 even reaches the Sultan, who sends ambassadors to the 
 Koman Pontiff. Facts soon justify this universal con- 
 fidence. 
 
 On the 19th April, a Consulta of state, or represen- 
 tative of the provinces, is created. 
 
 The* 5th of July, a civic guard. 
 
 The 1st of October, a senate and municipal council at 
 Rome. 
 
 The Mth October, the Consulta is organized, and it is 
 opened in state on the 15th -of November. 
 
FRANCE AND THE HOLY SEE IN 1849. 155 
 
 Pleased with these benevolent institutions, and confident 
 in the gratitude of his people, Pius IX. thus speaks, at the 
 opening of the Consulta : " Three millions of my subjects 
 are witnesses the whole of Europe is a witnessof what 
 
 I have done to draw my people closer to me I am 
 
 confident of their fidelity and their gratitude ; I know 
 that their hearts sympathize with mine." On the 21st of 
 November the Consulta answers him : " The institution 
 of the Consulta is the greatest of the boons which your 
 Holiness has granted to your people. By it you have given 
 laymen a share in the administration of public affairs, and 
 have given one of those solid guarantees which in no way 
 compromise the essential conditions of the Pontifical 
 Government. We are gratified by the confidence with 
 which you have honoured us, and will strive to show our- 
 selves worthy of it." Having thanked the Pope for the 
 reforms accorded, they add : " But to complete so great 
 and difficult a work requires mature deliberation, much 
 time, and profound peace. We are assured that your 
 people will wait with patience for the salutary fruits of the 
 seeds which you are now casting with a generous hand. 
 The world has too often seen reforms extorted by a 
 menacing populace, and costing many tears and much 
 blood. With us, Holy Father, it is the sovereign himself 
 who guides us with gentle and measured steps towards 
 what should be the final object of a people the reign of 
 justice and truth upon earth." 
 
 On the 29th of December, the motu proprio is published, 
 which organizes the council of his Holiness upon a new 
 plan, changing considerably the ministerial departments ; 
 laymen are rendered eligible to it. The enthusiasm is at 
 its climax. 
 
 While the Pontiff is generously pursuing the course of 
 his reforms, while his name is honoured everywhere, all 
 of a sudden alarming symptoms show themselves in his 
 dominions ; the presence of a malignant influence, of the 
 genius of evil, of the spirit of revolution is felt : the men 
 of the revolution mingle their hypocritical acclamations 
 with the hearty applauses of the friends of liberty, and 
 
156 FRANCE AND THE HOLY SEE IN 1849. 
 
 plot how they may turn the benefits of Pius IX. against 
 himself. The 24th of February, 1848, arrives; the Re- 
 public is proclaimed in France ; Italy and the whole of 
 Europe vibrates to the shock. Soon the movement which 
 Pius IX. was directing is violently diverted from it course : 
 Pius IX., grieved, but not discouraged, perseveres, and 
 strives to complete his work. The 14th of March, he 
 publishes the fundamental statute : Rome has a parlia- 
 mentary government, and a press. The Pontiff went so 
 far; but it was too far for the people, better fitted to 
 desire liberty than to bear it. The measure of benefits 
 heaped up, the measure of ingratitude and of trials com- 
 mences. The demonstrations of loved are changed into / 
 demonstrations of discontent. The 1st of May, violence 
 forces him to change his ministry. The new ministry 
 attempts to control the Pontiff: Pius IX. nobly resists, 
 and calls to power M. Rossi, the late ambassador of France, 
 a genuine liberal, assuredly, but a liberal who loved liberty 
 and not anarchy. 
 
 The revolution throws off the mask, and calls the dagger 
 into requisition. On the 15th of November, the intrepid 
 minister of Pius IX. is murdered upon the very steps of 
 the Chamber of Deputies, which has been just opened. 
 The assembly coolly passes to business, and continues its 
 sitting ; and the civic guard quietly stands with arms 
 grounded, while the murderers proceed in triumph through 
 the streets of Rome, shouting, "The democratic dagger 
 for ever ! " 
 
 The rest is known. The next day the Quirinal is in- 
 vested and besieged by the civic guard and the populace; 
 cannon is pointed against the Pope's palace : one of his 
 friends is killed a few steps from him ; an hour is given 
 to Pius IX. to accept a ministry. The Duke d'Harcourt, 
 the French ambassador, writes to Paris : " The Pope is 
 only a sovereign in name : none of his acts can be free" 
 Finally, imprisoned in his palace under the tyranny of 
 the rebels, Pius IX. leaves Rome on the 24th of Novem- 
 ber, and takes refuge upon the rock of Gae'ta ; the 
 ambassadors of Europe follow him there respectfully. 
 
FRANCE AND THE HOLY SEE IN 1819. 157 
 
 The news of this catastrophe rouses the whole of 
 Europe : at Paris the old name of Eldest Daughter of 
 the Church, of which France has always been so proud, 
 occurs to the government of the republic ; and General 
 Cavaignac, the head of the executive, instantly, not even 
 waiting to consult the sovereign Assembly, moved only by 
 the immemorial traditions of the country of Charlemagne, 
 and by all that was noble within his own bosom, offers to 
 the Sovereign Pontiff the sword of France, and imme- 
 diately orders the march of a body of troops, despatching 
 also an envoy extraordinary, M. de Corcelles, with in- 
 structions to protect the liberty of the Holy Father, and 
 to offer him, if necessary, the hospitality of the republic. 
 Soon afterwards a solemn declaration was addressed at 
 Paris to the Apostolic Nuncio. " The maintenance of 
 the temporal sovereignty of the revered head of the 
 Catholic Church has a necessary connection with the 
 honour of Catholicism, as well as with the liberty and 
 independence of Italy." A few days after, the suffrages 
 of 7,000,000 Frenchmen raised to the presidency of the 
 republic the prince whose hand had traced these lines, 
 and had offered this pledge to the votes of Catholic 
 France. 
 
 Widowed of her Pontiff, in the grasp of Mazzini and 
 Garibaldi, Rome suffers all the violence and outrages of 
 the demagogues who oppress her, as well as numbers of 
 cosmopolite revolutionists, attracted from all quarters 
 towards her walls, as towards a prey. The supreme junta 
 being dissolved, a constituent assembly succeeds, which 
 crowns the work of iniquity, and votes the dethronement 
 of the Pope, and a Roman republic. Pius IX., however, 
 is king at Gaeta as at Rome, and sees around him the 
 representatives of the Great Powers ; but, while diplo- 
 matists are negotiating, the war is continued in Upper 
 Italy : Novara soon justifies the sad forebodings of Pius 
 IX. ; the time of negotiations is over ; the Catholic 
 powers are preparing to interfere Austria, Naples, Spain, 
 and France. France hastens to appropriate to herself 
 this great honour. A French army lands in Italy: 
 
158 FRANCE AND THE HOLY SEE IN 1849. 
 
 the heir of one the military celebrities of the Empire, 
 General Oudinot, is at its head. 
 
 The incidents of this glorious expedition are known ; 
 the vote of blame in the National Assembly on the 7th of 
 May ; the noble letter of Louis Napoleon to comfort and 
 encourage the general, the very day after this unhappy 
 vote ; that memorable siege ; the storms which it excited 
 in the new legislative Assembly ; the appeal to arms made 
 by the Mountain on the 12th of June ; the insurrection 
 the next day, in order to avenge what was called the vio- 
 lation of the constitution; the Roman republic over- 
 come on the 13th of June at Paris, and soon after at 
 Rome, and, finally, Rome delivered and restored to 
 Pius IX. 
 
 But the ministry which had besieged Rome and re- 
 stored the Pope, is again summoned to the bar of the 
 Assembly to account for their glorious conduct ; several 
 questions are announced for the 6th of August. Never 
 was there a more angry excitement, never was the 
 Mountain more threatening ; but never did the revolu- 
 tion receive such a check. M. Jules Favre occupies the. 
 tribune, on the 6th and 7th of August, for more than five 
 hours, and hurls against a ministry which had deluded the 
 country, as he said, violated the constitution, and placed 
 the sword of France in the hands of Austria, all the 
 virulent invectives and unsparing accusations that anger 
 and rancour could suggest. 
 
 On the 7th of August, M. de Falloux ascends the 
 tribune to reply to M. Jules Favre : it is he, one of the 
 principal promoters of the expedition, he who, on the 24th 
 of May, like a warrior (as the Democratic Pacifique said) 
 upon a bridge, alone keeping his assailants at bay, crushed 
 with his eloquence the same men who are there again 
 before him, on the 7th of August, upon the benches of 
 the Mountain, these men whose cars still ring with the 
 invective of the intrepid minister against revolutionists 
 who are capable of any t /tiny and capable of nothing, it is 
 he who is to reply to them upon the Roman expedition. 
 On the ministerial benches are observed MM. Odilon- 
 
SPEECH OF M. DE FALLOVX. 159 
 
 Barrot, De Tocqueville, and Dufaure. M. Dupin is 
 president. 
 
 I cannot think of what I saw that day without profound 
 emotion. What a debate ! what a conflict ! What prin- 
 ciples and actions were on their trial ! and before what 
 a tribunal ! 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 TRANCE AND THE HOLY SEE IN 1849. SPEECH OF 
 
 M. DE FALLOUX. 
 
 THE question before the assembly is whether the victory 
 gained by France is an honour or a disgrace ; a deliverance 
 or a crime against liberty and the law of nations ; a noble 
 vindication of the rights of Catholics and of society, or an 
 odious act of violence. 
 
 M. de Falloux showed himself equal to the greatness of 
 his subject; rarely did the eloquence of a statesman more 
 powerfully influence an assembly. He begins his trium- 
 phant apology by chastising the abusive language used by 
 his opponent. 
 
 " Insults follow the physical law of falling bodies this the 
 honourable M. Favre perhaps is not aware of, and as he seems 
 partial to such a mode of argument, he will doubtless be glad to 
 learnand only acquire force in proportion to the height from 
 which they fall." (Continued cheering on the right. Murmurs on 
 the left.) 
 
 Before entering upon the essential part of the question 
 the speaker, wishing to dissipate the false accusation of 
 want of patriotism, exclaims with generous indignation: 
 
 " We have been taunted with treachery to what this country is 
 most keenly alive to ; I mean its military honour. It has been said 
 that we have placed the sword of France in the hands of Austria. 
 JN"o, we have not done this ; we have refused the sword of France 
 
160 FRANCE AND THE HOLY SEE JN 1849. 
 
 to Mazzini. We thought that the sword of France should not be 
 wielded by hands which have held or sanctioned the dagger." 
 (Violent murmurs on the left.) 
 
 Several voices. " It's an infamous accusation." 
 
 Other voices. " It's a Jesuitical calumny." 
 
 The PBESIDENT. " The minister is defending France and the 
 army, and you are defending their enemies." (Marked approba- 
 tion on the right. Murmurs on the left.) 
 
 A member on the left, in the midst of the tumult. " You have 
 placed the sword of France in incompetent hands." 
 
 M. DE FALLOUX. " No, the sword of France was never in the 
 hands of more gallant and able Frenchmen, and all Europe has 
 admired them ; Europe has recognized in them the chivalrous and 
 
 generous qualities which distinguish the true French soldier j they 
 ave been misjudged by none, except the honourable speaker who 
 has preceded me." (Applause on the right.) 
 
 Entering then into the vital part of the question, the 
 speaker directly attacks the objection : "You have crushed 
 liberty at Rome ! you have trampled under foot the aspi- 
 rations and the rights of a people ! " 
 
 " No, we went to Rome as liberators ; we went to Some because 
 we felt that this interposition was looked for from us, and that it 
 was our duty ; we felt so, and we have not been deceived. . . . 
 M. de Tocqueville read to you yesterday some despatches of one of 
 our colleagues, whose veracity and scrupulous accuracy will not be 
 questioned by any in this assembly." 
 t 
 
 M. de Faljoux then rapidly read some despatches of 
 M. de Corcelles; despatches pregnant with meaning, 
 and which would now again amply repay a perusal ; for 
 it was the same individuals who then were firing upon 
 our soldiers, and from whom our soldiers rescued Rome 
 and Italy, whom we now again find oppressing the 
 Romagna, plotting the ruin of Italy and of Europe, if 
 Europe does not resist them the same leaders, the same 
 soldiers : 
 
 " On the 12th of June, 1849, having scarcely touched Italian soil, 
 M. de Corcelles wrote to the French government : 
 
 " ' It seems clear that the resistance of the besieged is only kept up 
 by the energy and the despair of a great number of foreign refugees 
 who are now in Home. N"o later than yesterday, a band of 3,000 
 
SPEECH OF M. DE FALLOUX. 161 
 
 men, under ]\Iasi, found means to throw themselves into the city. 
 I am able to add to this hasty despatch, that nearly all the prisoners 
 are Lombards, Genoese, &c. All here are convinced that this 
 ivsistance is in no way favoured by far the greater majority of the 
 Roman population. We have to do here with the scum of all the 
 Polish and Italian revolutionists ; with the refugees of all nations, 
 who consider Rome as their last stronghold.' ' 
 
 M. de Falloux next read the following letter from 
 M. de Corcelles to the chancellor of our consulate at 
 Rome, which well defines the great object which was 
 then pursued ; and the work which ought now again 
 to be undertaken : 
 
 " * Head Quarters, Santucci, June 13, 1849. 
 
 " * France has but one end in view in this painful conflict : the 
 liberty of the revered Head of the Church, the liberty of the Roman 
 States, and the peace of the world. The nature of my mission is 
 essentially liberal, and tends to protect a population which has 
 been reduced to such an extremity by external agency.' 
 
 " M. de Coreelles added (June 15) : 
 
 " ' The patriotism of our brave soldiers is above all praise. The 
 letter of the President of the Republic to General Oudinot, and 
 which has been placed by him in the order of the day, has pro- 
 duced an excellent effect. It is very necessary thus to give moral 
 support to our troops in their arduous task. On arriving at Civita 
 Vecchia, I found the message of the 6th of June, which will tend 
 to preserve the army from the despondency which certain bad 
 citizens are endeavouring to create, by a number of publications 
 and manoeuvres, whose authors evidently act in concert at Rome 
 and Paris. The Italian question is admirably stated in the message.' 
 
 " The message," resumed M. de Falloux, " is a document which 
 the honourable M. Favre seems to have quite forgotten, when he 
 accuses us of having kept our policy secret from the assemblies and 
 the country." 
 
 In fact, no one could have expressed himself more 
 clearly and frankly than the President of the republic 
 in this message, upon the motives and the end of the 
 Italian expedition. Prince Louis Napoleon thus speaks 
 of Pius IX. : 
 
 " People had seen, for two years, a Pontiff in the 
 
 M 
 
162 FRANCE AND THE HOLY SEE IN 1849. 
 
 Holy See voluntarily introducing admirable reforms, his 
 name celebrated in songs of gratitude, from one end of 
 Italy to the other, as the symbol and the hope of liberty, 
 when all at once we were taken by surprise to hear that 
 this sovereign, so lately the idol of his people, had been 
 forced to fly in disguise from his capital. And Europe 
 naturally concluded that the acts of aggression which 
 obliged Pius IX. to quit Rome, were the work of a con- 
 piracy, not the movement of a people who could not 
 have passed in a moment from such lively enthusiasm 
 to such base ingratitude." 
 
 The President of the Republic also stated in this 
 message, according to the pledge he had given to the 
 French Catholics in his letter to the nuncio, that the 
 result aimed at in the French expedition to Rome was 
 to guarantee to Pope Pius IX. the integrity of his territory. 
 M. de Corcelles then, the worthy representative of France 
 and of the president, very properly called attention to this 
 important message in his despatches; and he gave the 
 true account of the Roman revolution in the following 
 words, which M. de Falloux read amid profound silence : 
 
 " ' The enemy is principally composed of about 20,000 foreigners,, 
 who do not caVe what injuries are done to the city, and would feel 
 a malevolent satisfaction in being able to impute them to us. Up 
 to this neither negotiation nor any intimidation from without can 
 have any effect upon the Komans, who are under the immediate 
 terrorism of the foreign adventurers who have successively accumu- 
 mulated within this unfortunate city. There may possibly be some 
 thousands of Komans who zealously support them ; but you may 
 rest assured that the chief enemy is not Koman, but socialist. They 
 
 reckon upon a general war they reckon upon the violent 
 
 co-operation of their friends and brother-conspirators in all other 
 countries ; and, far from really representing the city of Rome, they 
 are sacrificing it as a holocaust to their furious passions.' " 
 
 These official documents crushed the violence of the 
 opposition by the irresistible logic of facts; and they 
 still contain all that requires to be known about the 
 new revolution. The conspirators are the same men; it 
 is the same individual who, in 1849, directed the defence 
 
SPEECH OF M. DE FALLOUX. 163 
 
 of Rome against our troops, .that now, with the same 
 bands of men, threatens the pontificial troops at Ravenna 
 and Rimini, oppresses the loyal inhabitants, and who only 
 quits the struggle for a moment to issue incendiary pro- 
 clamations, to seek everywhere for munitions of war, and 
 to arm, if he can, a million of hands with a million of 
 muskets against Rome, and very probably against Europe. 
 
 " Rome then has been delivered by us," exclaims M. de Falloux, 
 " and she has blessed the day of her deliverance ! I say she has 
 blessed the day of her deliverance, and I should have been greatly 
 surprised if she had not. For, permit me to point out to you the 
 difference between her position, as you would have it, and that 
 which we have formed for her. You called for a Roman republic, 
 isolated among states which either do not recognize it, or formally 
 rejected it ; you would place it among all the opposing influences 
 of the Italian states, between Tuscany, Piedmont, and Naples ; 
 you would leave isolated, before Austria, a republic menaced on all 
 hands, and scarcely equal to the third-rate states of Europe. Such 
 is the grand part you would have Rome to play. 
 
 " Well, what is the part we would assign to her, which she has 
 now accepted, and which has ever been hers ? It is not that of a 
 Roman republic, the folly, the peril, and the emptiness of which, 
 she well understands. !No, it is the part which she has played in 
 the world for eighteen centuries, and which we have restored to 
 her ; it is that of capital of the universal Christian republic. (Groans 
 on the left. On the right, ' Hear, hear.') It is that of the first 
 city in the world ! " 
 
 The speaker then proceeded to repel and demolish 
 without mercy the pitiful accusations which certain 
 deputies had ventured to utter. M. Arnault had men- 
 tioned the word slavery, when speaking of the restora- 
 tion of the Pope; M. Jules Favre had said ignorance, 
 degradation. 
 
 " Slavery ! " exclaims M. de Falloux, " but what do the Romans 
 themselves, in their eloquent and religious language, call the 
 slavery, the captivity of Babylon? The time when Rome was 
 without her Popes. When one walks about Rome, among monu- 
 ments of all epochs, among those great historical personages as. 
 they style the monuments of Rome, one often asks, ' How is it that 
 here are no monuments of the middle age among all these superb 
 masterpieces of paganism, and those of the renaissance?' The 
 
 M 2 
 
164 FRANCE AND THE HOLY SEE IN 1849. 
 
 Homan, the genuine Roman, will answer you mournfully, ' Ah ! 
 that was the time of our captivity ; the Pope was then at Avignon ! ' 
 Home had pined away ; not a trace, not a token. of greatness, no 
 architecture, no sculpture, marks the period when the Popes were 
 absent ; nothing but ruin and desolation. (Loud applause.) Another 
 reproach has been addressed to us, not by M. Arnault, but by 
 M. Favre ; he said that to restore the former government of Eome 
 was to condemn the country to ignorance and degradation. I 
 wonder that in using this hackneyed argument he did not also name 
 Spain, and other peculiarly Catholic nations, as is usually done. I 
 will do so for him ; what he means is that Catholicism abases and 
 degrades a people ! " 
 
 A Member. " Not Catholicism, but the temporal power." 
 M. DE FALLOUX. " I hear a correction, it is not Catholicism, 
 but the temporal power. Yes, but up to this, though distinct, they 
 have been designedly confounded, and I shall reply to the real 
 meaning of the taunt we have received. I would ask you to look 
 back to the origin of Catholicism, and to note the period when its 
 unity was severed into two ; see on one hand the unfaithful empire 
 of Constantinople and of Moscow, on the other the orthodox 
 empire of Charlemagne ; on which side is the abasement, and on 
 which the civilization, the enlightenment, and the liberty? (Hear, 
 hear.) Say on which side is the ignorance and the slavery : these 
 two great parallel lines are easy to follow, they stand out in eloquent 
 and clear relief. 
 
 " And as to the inhabitants of Italy, would you have them mis- 
 take themselves for what they are not ? Do you think they can 
 regard themselves as a degraded population, when Italy is the 
 mother of all sciences and all arts ? And was she not most brilliant 
 at the period when she was most Catholic ? Have Catholicism and 
 the temporal power degraded Dante and Tasso P Did not all the 
 great geniuses of Italy flourish under the temporal power of the 
 Popes? Are Manzoni and Pellico, in our own times, men of 
 degenerate mind ? " 
 
 We might now repeat these arguments to our present 
 opponents. Not only did great geniuses and great works 
 appear under the temporal rule of the papacy, but it was 
 the Popes who encouraged and patronized, we may even 
 say, produced them. Who called to Rome Michael 
 Angelo and Raphael? Who built St. Peter's? Who 
 created the library of the Vatican ? Who has preserved 
 and restored so many masterpieces of art ? Who founded 
 all the Italian universities ? Yet this is what is branded 
 as ignorance and debasement ! 
 
SPEECH OF M. DE FALLOUX. 165 
 
 Looking at the question, then, from a still higher point 
 of view, M. de Falloux continues : 
 
 " We had, then, a great end in view, and we have attained it; 
 a Catholic end, to restore to the Holy See the independence of 
 which all Catholics stand in need ; and to use the sword of France 
 to accomplish this great and European design. We had, further- 
 more, another end ; to lend the protection of France to the people 
 of Home, not, indeed, against their father, Pius IX., the author 
 and promoter of all liberal movements that have taken place in 
 Italy for the last two years ; against him, whom you saluted with 
 so many acclamations ; him against whom you seem to have devised 
 the conspiracy of ovations ; whom you led from one triumph to 
 another till the day when you overthrew him. (Hepeated cheering 
 on the right.) Yes, he who had nothing to defend him but the 
 majesty of his office, no barrier to arrest his enemies but the ram- 
 part alas ! too feeble of his benefits, was extolled and eulogized 
 by you, in recurring demonstrations of gratitude and exultation, 
 till your day came, and the dagger and the torch flashed upon the 
 threshold of his palace ! " 
 
 Alluding to the crime which was the first step towards 
 the establishment of the Roman republic, M. de Falloux 
 remarks, with equal truth and eloquence, that this crime 
 itself proves the minority and the weakness of the revolu- 
 tionary faction of Rome : those who are strong do not 
 require to use the dagger. 
 
 May I be permitted here to pause for a moment, and 
 to remark, that real eloquence is in facts ; when abused 
 by evil men, eloquence is a deadly weapon, and has pro- 
 duced the most ruinous effects ; but when employed by 
 noble lips in the service of justice and of right, when it 
 faithfully expresses the sentiments of the heart, and dis- 
 interestedly asserts the eternal principles of order ; when 
 it speaks in a great assembly, at a great crisis, to point 
 out the true course or discover an unseen precipice ; it is 
 then a noble and sacred power, one of the most sublime 
 upon earth. History records, and religiously transmits it 
 to future generations. And such, I am happy to say, was 
 the eloquence so gloriously displayed by the champions of 
 religion and society in the French Assembly during the 
 years 1848, 1849, and 1850. 
 
166 FRANCE AND THE HOLY SEE IN 1849. 
 
 " A crime in morals," exclaims M. de Falloux, " is to violate the 
 law ; but in politics it is also a confession that one is weak, un- 
 popular, in the minority. If the men who struck that blow had 
 felt behind them a whole population in ferment, ripe for the institu- 
 tions they wanted to give them, panting to enter on the venture- 
 some career that was opened for them, they would not have stained 
 their history and their institutions with so abominable a crime. 
 They would not have contaminated at their source the blessings 
 they could soon have won in an honourable way, with the consent 
 of the people and the sanction of the majority. I repeat, that 
 crime in politics is a confession of weakness. Had we no indica- 
 tion but this of the real sentiments of the people, I should say that 
 we were justified in concluding that the Pope has been the object 
 of a shameless and ungrateful conspiracy, which has nothing in 
 common with the genuine and justifiable desires of the people." 
 (Hear, hear.) 
 
 Having thus stigmatized the odious manoeuvres of the 
 revolution, M. de Falloux reveals its real and ultimate 
 aims, and directly attacks the infatuated dream of a forced 
 unity among different peoples, to which socialists and revo- 
 lutionists would immolate everything else ; whose impos- 
 sible realization they would pursue at any price, and in 
 spite of any obstacles ; then, opposing immutable laws to 
 wild chimeras, and showing what must be the sanguinary 
 and inevitable issue of such a desperate conflict with the 
 nature of men and things, he concludes his speech in 
 these eloquent words, which the modern partisans of 
 Italian unitarism would do well to study : 
 
 " Is unity always a guarantee for peace P Unity has been seen 
 before now in Europe ; for several centuries it was entirely feudal ; 
 yet more blood was never shed than then. Was not Europe entirely 
 monarchical in the time of Louis XIV P Did not monarchical 
 unity prevail there for several centuries? and were those centuries 
 free from battles and bloodshed ? No, such a universal peace has 
 never existed, and never will exist, because for this we should have 
 to abrogate the fundamental laws of the human face. Such is the 
 rock upon which your policy must always strike. . . . 
 
 "In foreign affairs your policy involves the same contradictions, 
 the same impossibilities. ... I repeat, you are not attacking 
 such or such a political system, monarchical or republican govern- 
 ment ; you are attacking, and fruitlessly, the primordial laws of the 
 human species and the human heart. (Murmurs on the left. 
 Approbation on the right.) Yes, since you oblige me to insist upon 
 
107 
 
 an argument which I had thought so evident and so common- 
 place, since you contest what I say ; yes, till you have abolished 
 all commercial and international interests, till you have reversed 
 the course of passions and of rivers, till you have stopped the 
 S-heldt from rolling in one direction its waters and the interests 
 they carry, and the Danube from rolling in the opposite ; till you 
 have here removed the obstacle of a mountain, and there the con- 
 venience of a river, distributed unevenly among men, and impeding 
 or facilitating their undertakings ; till you have stopped the sun 
 from imprinting here a more, there a less manly character upon 
 nations ; yes, till you have modified the configuration of the 
 globe, changed the conflicting interests of nations, and the ad- 
 vantages which they envy one another, till you have changed the 
 laws of climates and of races, your system of unity must remain 
 without effect. (Hear, hear on the right and centre.) This is 
 just the course upon which we are determined not to enter. Yes, 
 we desire to improve what is; to extract from our alliances 
 and our institutions all the benefits, the -liberty, and the improve- 
 ments they can yield ; but as to this superhuman struggle against 
 the traditions and the nature of the countries which surround us, 
 against the customs and traditions of our own, we have not under- 
 taken and will never undertake it. (Acclamations.) We will not 
 undertake it, because it has been the ruin of all who have ever 
 entered on it." ( Continued applause on the benches of the majority. 
 A. croiod of representatives press around and congratulate the 
 speaker.) 
 
 After this speech, the order of the day was voted by the 
 large majority of 428 against 176. The parliamentary 
 annals of France registered another masterpiece ; and what 
 was more important,, good sense, justice, and honour 
 received a new and brilliant triumph. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 FRANCE AND THE HOLY SEE IN 1849. M. THIERS* 
 
 REPORT. 
 
 REVOLUTIONS, by agitating society, by stirring up and 
 bringing to the surface what had long been slumbering at 
 the bottom, and by disclosing unlooked-for perils, some- 
 times awaken us from a false security, and teach sad but 
 salutary lessons. From these political storms the light- 
 
168 FRANCE AND THE HOLY SEE IN 1849. 
 
 ning flashes upon precipices which lay across our path ; a 
 sinister light gleams upon what before we could not see ; 
 by its glare we discover prospects hitherto wrapped in 
 night; Providence reveals, in these great social commo- 
 tions, lessons which are never entirely unfruitful. 
 
 Thus the great revolution of February was the means of 
 enlightening many a great mind in France arid the rest of 
 Europe, manifested more clearly to all the real foundations 
 of social peace and order, the necessity to society of the 
 great principles of religion, and caused a happy revival of 
 Christianity, which would have been still more general 
 than it was, had not the passions of men again interfered 
 to check it. 
 
 At all events, history will proclaim, that after the earth- 
 quake of 1848, which shook society to its centre, a rare 
 and grand sight was seen in our assemblies and in the 
 country : a sudden and striking union took place, which 
 could little have been anticipated a few months previously, 
 amid the stirring conflicts of the period : the sincere and 
 the good of all parties nobly united, forgetting their old 
 quarrels, to struggle in concert against one of the most 
 violent outbreaks of anarchical passions the world has ever 
 seen ; France rallied around her all her most generous 
 sons to face the common danger ; she put forth all her 
 vital strength, and succeeded in extricating herself by one 
 of those supreme efforts which call for the blessings of 
 Providence, and save a nation. It was then felt that there 
 was a necessary ally, without whose aid the struggle must 
 have been hopeless. Mere political measures were evi- 
 dently inadequate ; moral causes having chiefly originated 
 the social war, moral force was indispensable to secure a 
 peace. The war against religion ceased ; peace was made 
 with the Church ; and France was -saved. 
 
 M. Thiers was certainly in the first rank of the defenders 
 of society, and of the new ;uid eminent allies whom the 
 Church then acquired. No one gave a more energetic 
 and honest support to M. dc Montalembert, M. de Falloux, 
 and the Catholic cnnse : and, for my part, I shall never 
 forget that the three greatest measures of that time, the 
 
1G9 
 
 liberty of education, the liberty of religious congregations, 
 and the Roman expedition, were heartily espoused and 
 defended by M. Thiers. 
 
 The expedition to Rome had already given M. Thiers a 
 new opportunity of proving the rare superiority of his 
 mind, how readily he can grasp and master a great subject, 
 and with what moral courage he strikes out his course, 
 and inflexibly pursues it. The Roman cause, which M. de 
 Falloux had so brilliantly gained, was, however, to be again 
 brought forward, and to provoke a fresh conflict, which 
 ended likewise in a complete victory for the defenders of 
 the Roman expedition. We were at Rome: but what were 
 we to do there ? What was the Pope to do when we had 
 restored him ? What were to be his relations with France? 
 What were to be the results of the expedition ? Such were 
 the questions asked in the assembly. 
 
 The government, at the first meeting of the assembly 
 after the recess (1st October, 1849), spontaneously antici- 
 pated these demands ; presented a bill to provide for the 
 expenses of the Roman expedition ; and appointed a com- 
 mittee to discuss anew that expedition under every point 
 of view, moral, religious, and political : the committee con- 
 sisted of M. Mole, president ; MM. de Broglie, de Mon- 
 talembert, d'Hautpoul, Beugnot, Casabianca, Janvier, de 
 laMoskowa, Chapot, Huber de PIsle, de Lagrenee, Thuriot 
 de la Rosiere, Thiers, and Victor' Hugo. M. Thiers was 
 reporter, and his report, which we shall shortly proceed to 
 analyze, was a masterpiece of clearness, logic, good sense, 
 and political wisdom. 
 
 In the committee, M. Thiers eloquently defended the 
 cause of the Pope. He replied to M. Victor Hugo in these 
 terms : 
 
 "You are a republican ; you call for a republic. Well, I say the 
 Papal government is one, and of the best ! Yes, the best ; for it is 
 the most ancient, the most genuine, the most beneficent, and the 
 most inoffensive. The most ancient ; it is eighteen hundred years 
 old ! Do you know of any which has lasted so long, either in anti- 
 quity or in modern times P K" ame one, if you can, among the most 
 potent, the most flourishing : take not only Pisa or Florence, but 
 Genoa and Venice ; those great sovereigns of the seas, where are 
 
170 FRANCE AND THE HOLY SEE IN 1849. 
 
 they now? Yet Rome and its Pope remain. Whence comes this 
 wondrous vitality ? 
 
 " It is, besides, the most genuine republic. How are its sove- 
 reigns appointed ? By election, and that the best kind of election, 
 the electors being really qualified to make a choice. Among whom 
 are they chosen F Among everybody the people, the middle class, 
 the nobility : sons of shepherds and of artisans have been popes. 
 You accuse them of nepotism. Religion may blame them for it, 
 but you cannot. What is the nepotism of the popes ? It is the 
 elevation of democracy. When the Pope is a man of the people, a 
 plebeian family rises with him, and enters the ranks of the Roman 
 aristocracy, itself the daughter of democracy. What has been the 
 origin of the families of the Roman princes ? frequently the ele- 
 vation of a humble family by the Papacy. But you democrats, when 
 you rise to power, how do you act ? You act like the popes, when- 
 ever it is in your power. What father, who rises in the world, does 
 not raise his family ? It is human nature. The popes have done 
 like you, they have elevated their nephews. Again, I say, religion 
 may desire to see them more sublimely disinterested, but you cannot 
 reproach them. Besides, they have had, and elevated, other nephews, 
 the glory of the human race ; Michael Angelo, Raphael, and many 
 other such, were the protegees of the popes : would you blame them 
 for this ? 
 
 " It is, again, the most beneficent republic. There are a few 
 popes whom we give up to you .... but how many, out of two hun- 
 dred and seventy-five ? It was the Papacy that saved Rome in the 
 barbarian invasions ; that saved civilization in the middle ages ; that 
 inspired Charlemagne with a taste for letters ; that has had manu- 
 scripts copied ; that has preserved for us the classics, the arts, and 
 sciences. You know this, yet you choose to forget and to ignore 
 it .... 
 
 " It is also the most inoffensive republic. The Pope cannot, and 
 ought not to make war. He is the common father of the faithful. 
 By choice, as well as by necessity, he is pacific and friendly : for he 
 is a priest. Who is he interested in attacking? and how could he 
 attack any one ? He cannot even defend himself. What is most 
 wanting to him, whether in his foreign or domestic affairs, is force. 
 I mean material force ; for he has a force, which you have not, his 
 moral force ; he is enthroned in the consciences of 200,000,000 
 of Christians ; and this force you cannot take from him. But he 
 has yet another force which also defies you. Suppose, now that 
 we are at Rome, you were to wish us to do violence to the Pope, 
 you could not seriously propose it. If li<> wen- strong, you might ; 
 but he is weak, and you cannot. You see his weakness is a force ; 
 it is an invincible weakness. Were you to do violence to the Pope, 
 you would not only be like a soldier beating a priest, which is vile 
 and cowardly, but like a man beating a woman, an indignity which 
 has not a name." 
 
171 
 
 M. dc Montalembert was present when these noble 
 words were pronounced : his oratorical mind must have 
 been struck by them : he treasured them up ; and we shall 
 see, when we refer to his speech, with what emphasis he 
 expressed them at the tribune. 
 
 On the 13th of October, M. Thiers read his report to the 
 National Assembly. Let us first quote the just homage, 
 which he pays to the holy Father, and the sage counsels 
 he gives to Italy : 
 
 " When, three years ago, a noble Pontiff, who has since been so 
 cruelly repaid for his generous intentions, gave from the Vatican the 
 signal for political and social reform to the princes of Italy, all great 
 men hoped to see Italy enter with prudence upon the path traced 
 for her by Pius IX., and walk in it with steady and measured steps ; 
 they trusted she would not again compromise her prospects by reck- 
 less precipitation ; that, in certain of her states, she would content 
 herself with administrative reforms, as a means of arriving at poli- 
 tical ; that, in the most liberal, she would not think of passing the 
 bounds of representative monarchy, which was as much as she could 
 bear ; that in all, she would cultivate union and concord, so as to 
 insure the advantages of a powerful confederation, as it was not in 
 her power to create an absolute unity ; and, above all, that she would 
 not rashly risk a war of independence, which must be premature 
 and hopeless, unless Europe should have the misfortune to be en- 
 gaged in a general war. 
 
 " Such were, we have said, the hopes of enlightened minds, friends 
 of true liberty, and of that fair and ancient Italy, in which they saw 
 a second country. And they were expressed at the time ; they were 
 not the fruits of a prudence which comes too late, and only forms 
 its unprofitable reflections after the events : no, they were "uttered 
 in this house, in the presence of a throne which has ceased to exist, 
 when we were all sanguine as to the results of a general movement, 
 extending from Naples to Berlin and Vienna, which, unfortunately, 
 instead of the benefits it promised, has yielded but convulsions. 
 (Applause on the right.) 
 
 " An intemperate faction, which thought more of the gratification 
 of its passions than of the true interests of its cause, has possessed 
 itself of Italy, and hurried it into ruin. It has urged the people to 
 demand institutions unsuited to the habits and ideas of the country ; 
 it has pressed into republicanism, populations who were unfitted for 
 more than municipal and provincial liberty. But this is not all ; it 
 has committed a fatal and ruinous mistake, in provoking prematurely 
 the war of independence ; and having done this, it has added the 
 still more fatal error of turning against Italian governments the 
 arms of the Italian people. 
 
172 FRANCE AND THE HOLY SEE IN 1849. 
 
 " You are aware of the consequences of these mistakes. Austria, 
 using the unquestionable rights of war, has reconquered Lombardy, 
 invaded Piedmont, the duchies of Parma and Modena, Tuscany, 
 and a part of the Roman states. The independence of Italy, so far 
 from making progress, has retrograded, and her liberty has retro- 
 graded as well as her independence." (Dissent on the left ; on the 
 right, " It is matter of history.") 
 
 In fact, Pius IX. was at Gaeta, solely because he had 
 always resisted the policy thus reprobated by M. Thiers; 
 because he proposed to realize the independence of Italy 
 by the union of all the Italian governments and popula- 
 tions, that is, by just means instead of by revolution ; 
 because he 1 negotiated for the independence of Italy, while 
 his devoted minister, Count Rossi, fell under the democra- 
 tic steel, on the steps of the parliament founded at Rome 
 by the Pontiff. Having thus referred to the origin of the 
 troubles of Italy, M. Thiers had no difficulty in proving 
 that the interposition of France was necessary and justi- 
 fiable. 
 
 " It was the triple interest of France, Christendom, and Italian 
 liberty, that it should be so." 
 
 The acute mind of M. Thiers clearly distinguished 
 the two sides of the question the political and the 
 religious : 
 
 " In a political point of view, an interposition was imperatively 
 called for by the interests of Italy and Italian liberty ; for the Pope 
 would have been restored without us, and that by Austria. Austria, 
 using the unquestionable rights of war, had reconquered Lombardy, 
 invaded Piedmont, the duchies of Parma and Modena, Tuscany, 
 and a part of the Roman states. The governments, having met 
 with an ill return for the concessions they had made, were not dis- 
 posed to renew them : the enemies of liberal reforms found a pow- 
 erful argument in the excesses which had been committed ; sensible 
 persons were discouraged, and the masses, after so much dangerous 
 excitement, were reduced to submission by the pressure of physical 
 force. 
 
 1 I shall soon have occasion to cile the letter of Pius IX. to the 
 emperor of Austria. 
 
173 
 
 "' " Still, in the midst of this vast wreck, was there no resource but 
 despair ? Were no fragments of the hopes conceived in 1847 to be 
 saved ? Were all efforts useless to found in Italy an equilibrium, 
 to be watched over by all the powers, and which had been broken, 
 to the advantage of one of them, by the fault of those who had 
 attacked her ? Prance did not think so, and such was the origin 
 and the reason of her expedition to Home ; to judjje of which aright, 
 one should examine the circumstances under which it tbok plaoe. 
 An Austrian army being on the point of marching on Rome, the 
 question was whether France should suffer Austria to push her in- 
 vasion as far as Home, and thus to become, both morally and mate- 
 rially, the mistress of almost the whole of Italy. To prevent this, 
 there were but two courses to follow war, or the occupation of 
 Rome by a French army. War was a means which our govern- 
 ment was unwilling to employ, even at the time of its greatest zeal 
 for the independence of Italy, and when success was probable, as 
 the Austrians had been driven beyond the Adige. It would have 
 been insane to enter upon war now, when the favourable moment 
 was past ; when a juster estimate of the real interests of France 
 had cooled the dangerous excitement of men's minds. War, then, 
 being out of the question, one course, and only one, remained that 
 France should enter Italy too. 
 
 " Italian liberty was interested in her doing so ; for, without 
 pausing to inquire what is the measure of liberty desirable or suit- 
 able for the Italians a grave question, but which here would be 
 out of place, no one will question but such measure would have 
 been more restricted under Austrian than under French influence. 
 
 " Whether, then, I consider French, Catholic, or liberal interests, 
 it seems to me that we could not have held back, and that it was 
 better that an interposition, which the fatal mistakes of Italy had 
 necessitated, should be effected by the arms of France than by those 
 of Austria." 
 
 However great the force and good sense of this reason- 
 ing, religious considerations had a still more vital con- 
 nection with the question than political. And we shall 
 now see with what acuteness M. Thiers seizes, and with 
 what courage he proclaims the real solution of the diffi- 
 culty, the true argument which disperses the two great 
 objections brought against the Roman expedition, namely, 
 the apparent injustice of one people interfering in the 
 affairs of another, and the strangeness of one republic 
 going to overthrow another : 
 
 " The Catholic powers had assembled at Gaeta, to plan the re- 
 establishment of an authority which is necessary to the Christian 
 
174 FRANCE AND THE HOLY SEE IN 1849. 
 
 universe. In truth, without the authority of the Sovereign Pontiff, 
 Catholic unity would be dissolved ; Catholicism would be severed 
 into sects, and perish ; and the moral world, already so rudely shaken, 
 would fall into universal ruin. (Hear, hear, on the right. Murmurs 
 on the left.) 
 
 " . . . . But Catholic unity, requiring a certain spiritual submis- 
 sion from Christian nations, would be inadmissible, if the Pontiff, 
 in whom it is embodied, were not perfectly independent ; if, upon 
 the territory which ages have assigned to him, and which all nations 
 nave respected, another sovereign, whether prince or people, were 
 to rise to dictate laws to him. For the Papacy, there can be no 
 other independence but sovereignty. We have here an interest of 
 a paramount nature, which is rightly made to overrule the private 
 interests of nations, just as, in a state, the public interest overrules 
 what is individual ; and it fully justified the Catholic powers in re- 
 establishing Pius IX. upon the pontifical throne." 
 
 The whole question is summed up in these few words. 
 No one could state more clearly and correctly what it is 
 which causes and justifies this exceptional position of the 
 Roman States, which puzzles certain, minds, who look at 
 it from a wrong point of view. M. Thiers took the true 
 view of it ; as a politician, he casts his eye over Europe ; 
 he sees there, as living facts, the Catholic Church, and 
 the Catholic nations, one of which is the Roman state; 
 and, having learnt what the supreme and common interest 
 of all these nations requires, he pronounces fearlessly, and, 
 in accordance with all writers on the law of nations, that 
 this interest should take precedence of the others : though, 
 in fact, as we have shown, and will shortly have occasion 
 to repeat, the real interests of the Roman people are in 
 no way injured. As to that paltry policy that only looks 
 to forms and appearances, M. Thiers demolishes it with a 
 word : 
 
 " Our constitution would be contrary to common sense, if it 
 monnt that such or such a form of government should render a 
 neighbouring state either odious or sacred to us. We should be 
 friendly or unfriendly to governments, not because of their form, but 
 for their conduct." 
 
 This is practical common sense. M. Thiers has reason 
 to conclude that 
 
 " Thus political, moral, and religious considerations concurred in 
 
175 
 
 calling upon France to interfere at Borne. She sent an army there. 
 The faction which has held the destinies of Italy for the last two 
 years, instead of accepting France as an umpire, violently resisted 
 her. Our soldiers, ever worthy of themselves, have carried every 
 obstacle, as they did of old at Lodi and Arcola : but, more orderly 
 and disciplined than ever, they have been the admiration of Europe 
 for the forbearance and humanity of their conduct. (Hear.) And 
 had we gained nothing by our expedition but this new manifestation 
 of the military virtues of our army, we ought not to regret it ; for, 
 among the painful spectacles we are now forced to witness, the con- 
 duct of our troops is a real consolation." (Hear, hear, on the benches 
 of the majority.) 
 
 So ends the first part of M. Thiers' report, relating to 
 the reasons of the expedition. The second discusses its 
 consequences, and this part has, even now, lost none of 
 its importance, for the same question is being put at this 
 moment : 
 
 " Are these consequences good, honourable, and conformable to 
 the end laid down ? And what remains to be done, to attain all 
 that was contemplated in sending an expedition which involved 
 certain military difficulties, and very serious political ones ? " 
 
 Such is the question. But M. Thiers very properly 
 places one consideration before and above all others, 
 respect for the liberty of the Holy Father : 
 
 " France, once present at Rome by her army, could not be guilty 
 of the inconsistency of doing violence to the holy Father, whom she 
 had delivered from the violence of a faction. Her business was to 
 restore to him his throne and his liberty, his full and unrestricted 
 liberty. But the circumstances of the case invested her with a 
 right, a very uncommon right, that of giving advice. If, in ordi- 
 nary cases, one sovereign were to venture to say to another, ' You 
 are behaving wrong, you should adopt such or such a course,' he 
 would be guilty of an impropriety, and a sort of usurpation. But a 
 sovereign who has come to restore another, maintaining thereby the 
 common interests of order, of religion, and of political tranquillity, 
 receives from the gravity of the motives which have brought him, 
 and the magnitude of the service rendered, the right to offer his 
 advice." 
 
 The advice alluded to here by M. Thiers refers to the 
 improvements and reforms which might be possible and 
 
176 FRANCE AND THE HOLY SEE IN 1849. 
 
 desirable in the Roman States. But let us see how he 
 means these improvements to be proposed to the Holy 
 Father : 
 
 "This should be accomplished by an influence brought to bear 
 with patience, with gentleness, and with respect (hear), an influence 
 which, I repeat, would be an inadmissible pretension, had not extra- 
 ordiuary circumstances, as it were, forced it upon us ; but which, 
 confined within due limits is perfectly compatible with the inde- 
 pendence and dignity of the Holy See." (Hear, hear.) 
 
 M. Thiers, moreover, renders a twofold justice to the 
 Holy Father ; he admits how enduring were his good and 
 liberal dispositions, and he makes allowance, as was just, 
 for the new and vast difficulties the revolution had accu- 
 mulated before him. Many now lose sight of this, or do 
 not choose to see it ; M. Thiers was fairer : 
 
 " France did not find the holy Father less generous or less liberal 
 than he was in 1847 ; but circumstances are unhappily changed." 
 
 What was the change which now so embarrassed the 
 Holy Father's progress as a reformer, and necessitated 
 such prudence on his part ? 
 
 " Those who made use of his benefits to convulse Italy, and to 
 drive liberal princes from their capitals, have been the means of 
 deepening the prejudices of all the enemies of Italian liberty, whose 
 reluctance Pius IX. had braved at the outset of his reign. Not to 
 suffer the source to be reopened whence so many evils had flowed, 
 has become almost the exclusive anxiety of all who have part in the 
 Roman government. The difficulties in the way of lloman liberty, 
 though considerable at the commencement, have singularly in- 
 creased, through the use made of that liberty during the last two 
 years." 
 
 Such difficulties, and many more, had been bequeathed 
 to Pius IX. by the revolution which had undone his work. 
 And if M. Thiers is too much of a liberal not to encourage 
 the generous intentions that still animate the Pontiff, he 
 has, nevertheless, too much sense to urge him blindfold 
 upon a dangerous course, where precipices have now 
 opened before his feet, or to require from him reforms 
 
177 
 
 which have become for the time being impossible. Still, 
 Pius IX. had begun to act, in the measure which was 
 allowed him ; the Roman expedition was already bearing 
 fruit, and M. Thiers was enabled to say : 
 
 " The results already obtained render it impossible for us to 
 regret that our troops are at the Vatican, as they occupy a place 
 there which otherwise would be filled by Austrian troops ; as they 
 have behaved with so much gallantry and humanity ; and, finally, 
 as it is evident that they are the means of preserving to the people 
 the chief benefits which Pius IX. had so liberally dispensed to them 
 on his accession." 
 
 What were the results which had been obtained, which 
 satisfied alike M. Thiers, the committee, and the As- 
 sembly itself, as it declared by a large majority? What 
 were these results, the value' of which could not be 
 denied, as M. Thiers says, unless by unjust prejudice? 
 They were contained in the motu proprio of the 12th of 
 September, on which M. Thiers comments as follows : 
 
 " This act gives all desirable municipal and provincial liberties. 
 As to political liberty, that of regulating the affairs of a country, 
 in one or two assemblies, in concert with the executive power, as in 
 England, for instance, it is true that the inotu proprio grants none 
 at least, it only grants the first rudiments, in the shape of a private 
 consulta, with the power of deliberation. The question is, whether 
 the Eoman states are capable of the constitution which England has 
 at length formed for herself after two centuries of exertions and 
 experience. It is a question of profound importance, which it was 
 for the holy Father to resolve, and which demanded from him the 
 utmost caution, as the interests of the whole Christian world were 
 involved. If he has preferred the more prudent course ; if, after 
 the experiments he has made, he has thought it wiser not to reopen 
 the career of political agitation to a people which showed itself so 
 unfit for it, we do not arrogate to ourselves the right to censure 
 him, nor do we see that he deserves it. 
 
 " Municipal and provincial liberties are a sort of education, 
 through which it is well that a people should pass ; and it is dan- 
 gerous to introduce them violently and prematurely into the turmoil 
 of political liberty. 
 
 " Furthermore, the important act styled the motu proprio sup- 
 poses a code of laws which will reform civil legislation, insure the 
 equity of the courts, share public offices evenly among the various 
 classes of citizens, and, in short, procure for the Komans the advan- 
 
 N 
 
178 TRANCE AND THE HOLY SEE IN 1849. 
 
 tages of a prudently liberal government. These measures are pro- 
 mised, and the word of Pius IX. suffices to dissipate all doubts." 
 
 Such was the celebrated report of M. Thiers. The 
 closeness of his reasoning, the clearness of his diction, 
 his practised eloquence, his capacious, statesmanlike 
 views, so free from all narrowness and prejudice, every- 
 thing, in short, rendered this speech worthy of the great 
 cause which M. Thiers was defending, and of the accla- 
 mations of the great majority of the assembly in which 
 he spoke. All the great principles of the question which 
 still occupies Europe were there denned and proclaimed ; 
 all homage rendered to the cause of truth and justice, to 
 the virtue and the generosity of Pius IX. ; useful lessons 
 and advice given to reformers ; to the too precipitate as 
 well as the too backward ; to the ingratitude and passions 
 of the revolution ; to princes and people ; and the reso- 
 lutions of the sovereign assemblies of republican France 
 ratified this wise and noble policy. 
 
 It would, however, be a mistake to suppose that such 
 triumphs were gained by justice, good sense, and elo- 
 quence, at such a period, and in such an assembly, 
 without occasionally causing fearful conflicts; but such 
 struggles were an honour to the generous courage which 
 did not shrink from meeting them. The excitement of 
 men's minds, and the fury of the passions of that unhappy 
 time, caused the parliamentary debates to present the 
 most agitated and tumultuous spectacle ; the representa- 
 tive assembly was an arena where the struggle between 
 good and evil was violent and inn emitting. The good 
 fought with unflinching courage, for they were defending 
 the most grand and sacred interests those of religion and 
 society; they were fighting pro aris et focis. The cham- 
 pions were there face to face, with menacing look, voice, 
 and gesture. Murmurs, interruptions, clamour, loud and 
 ironical laughter, fell thick like missiles in a combat : that 
 angry and troubled multitude of men waved and vibrated 
 to the voice of the speaker. Sometimes, in that part of 
 
M. THIERS' REPORT. 179 
 
 the Assembly which, from a sinister association, was called 
 the " Mountain/' certain telling expressions of the great 
 orators of the party of order would call forth, as it were, 
 an eruption of a volcano ; the representatives on the left 
 would start up and gesticulate from their seats; they 
 seemed ready to rush upon the other side of the Assembly; 
 but honour, the liberty of speech, and the rights of attack 
 and defence, succeded, like an invisible barrier, in re- 
 pressing their fury. The Roman question was one of 
 those which most irritated certain parties, and excited the 
 most disturbance. From such tumults one may judge of 
 the difficulties which had to be overcome, and of the 
 merit of those whose energy overcame them. In order 
 rightly to estimate the character of the struggle, and to 
 render to every one his clue, it is necessary to take into 
 account the tempestuous scenes amid which the speeches 
 of the party of order were delivered. 
 
 M. Thiers was admirable, while delivering his report. 
 In vain did the "Mountain" struggle to swamp that telling 
 report; so much so, that some members even of the right, 
 weariecj. out and disgusted, called to him, " Put down 
 the report, M. Thiers ; such conduct is really too scan- 
 dalous." M. Thiers persisted ; he said, turning towards 
 the left : 
 
 " Gentlemen, if I were debating, I could reply to your interrup- 
 tions ; but I am only authorized to read my report to you, and my 
 report cannot answer you, so you must only hear me out." (Hear, 
 hear, on the right.) 
 
 And the left had to hear the report to the end. Soon, 
 however, new interruptions are heard : " Loyola ! " cries 
 one from the " Mountain." M. Thiers replies : 
 
 " Gentlemen, I have already told you that I will soon argue the 
 point with you. You know, by experience, that your objections 
 do not silence me so easily, and that I can sometimes make a reply ; 
 why not wait for a day when I may do so P " 
 
 The left kept quiet for a few minutes, but soon a new 
 disturbance arose. M. Thiers had employed a respectful 
 
 N 2 
 
180 FRANCE AND THE HOLY SEE IN 1849. 
 
 expression, when speaking of the relations of France with 
 the Holy See, which immediately produced the most 
 indecent interruptions, and words like the offensive ones 
 which the revolutionary press is now again, uttering against 
 Pius IX. : he had said, " France had a right to beg of the 
 Holy Father." " Beg upon her knees" cried a member 
 from the left. " That's the Capuchin style," said another ; 
 " M. de Montalambert ought to be pleased." M. Thiers, 
 turning, and looking full at the interrupters, said : 
 
 " I am supprised at the interruption ; yes, I am surprised that 
 any one should have so little delicacy as not to understand the 
 propriety of respectful expression towards a power which has not 
 500,000 soldiers." (Hear, hear. Confusion on the left.) 
 
 M. Dupin, the President of the Assembly, boldly ful- 
 filling his part, then addresses himself to the extreme 
 left, with the mingled causticity and energy which were 
 peculiar to his manner : 
 
 " What do these interruptions mean ? what purpose do they 
 serve ? You ought to listen to the speaker ; silence compromises 
 nobody, but an imprudent word often does." (Laughter on the 
 right. Uproar on the left.) 
 i A voice. " The maxim is a wise one ! " 
 
 M. DUPIN. " Sometimes there is an intolerable succession of 
 interruptions ; it is my duty to notice them publicly, and call atten- 
 tion to them ; it is a reparation which I owe to the Assembly. (Hear, 
 hear.) You cannot restrain yourselves a moment ! " 
 
 M. ANTONY THOURET. "That's not an easy matter." 
 
 M. DUPIN. " I beg your pardon, it is easy." 
 
 M. THIERS. " Do you think you never put our patience to a 
 severe trial ? " (Oh, oh ! New cries on the extreme left.) 
 
 M. DUPIN. " Come ! allow people to speak. You think your- 
 selves bound to interrupt ; but it leads to nothing. Do you imagine 
 it would compromise vou to listen ? (Laughter. New confusion 
 on the extreme left.) In former assemblies, a report has never been 
 interrupted ! " 
 
 At last M. Dupin went so far as to say to the inter- 
 rupters : 
 
 " Those are public-house expressions it would be better not to 
 indulge in. Such things really have but one name ; and I am happy 
 
SPEECH OF M. DE MONTALEMBERT. 181 
 
 not to know the name of the person who uttered such a shameful 
 expression : it is really indecent ! " 
 
 We thought it would not be uninteresting to give here 
 some idea of these stormy scenes ; while they give some 
 insight into the peculiar features of these great debates, 
 they also furnish the opportunity of rendering a piece of 
 justice which has been well merited : I think it right, 
 then, to state, that a most important and necessary part, 
 in these great discussions on which the fate of France 
 depended, was most ably discharged ; I mean, that of 
 President of that agitated Assembly, whose difficult duty 
 it was to maintain the order and dignity of the proceed- 
 ings, to see that the speakers had a fair hearing, to put 
 down interruptions, and make the Assembly respected. It 
 gives me pleasure to pay this homage to M. Dupin, whose 
 answers were celebrated at the time, and who, by his 
 courageous impartiality, his firmness, his replies, full of 
 good sense, and even eloquence, though so sharp and 
 laconic, rendered services which were appreciated by the 
 country, arid which, for my part, I am unwilling to forget. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 FRANCE AND THE HOLY SEE IN 1849. SPEECH OF 
 
 M. DE MONTALEMBERT. 
 
 SUCH, then, were the assemblies, such the difficulties of 
 the speakers. But the most violent tumults, the most 
 obstinate interruption of any was provoked by the open- 
 ing of the famous speech of M. de Montalembert, at the 
 sitting of October 19th, a speech which has been read 
 throughout all Europe, and will remain as one of the most 
 illustrious specimens of parliamentary eloquence, defend- 
 ing the grandest and holiest of causes. M. de Montalembert 
 
182 FRANCE AND THE HOLY SEE IN 1849. 
 
 was replying to M. Victor Hugo, who, it must be said, had 
 passed all bounds in his attacks upon the Pope. Ascend- 
 ing the tribune under the immediate impression of this 
 speech, and carried away too much, perhaps, by his emo- 
 tion, M.de Montalembert had begun by strongly expressing 
 his indignation : " Gentlemen," said he, " the speech you 
 have just heard has already received the chastisement it 
 deserved, in the applause which followed it." 
 
 I shall not attempt to describe the scene of disorder 
 that broke out at these words ; the firm attitude of M. 
 Dupin, and the word recompense substituted for chastise- 
 ment. I come at once to the speech itself; and shall first 
 extract the following words, addressed to M. Hugo, and 
 which the latter must have felt as a bitter reproach, 
 though there is nothing in them of insult. Now that M. 
 Hugo is an exile, that he has experienced those disap- 
 pointments and reverses of politics, which M. de Mon- 
 talembert then alluded to, with emotion rather than 
 anger, these words must touch him deeply; and pro- 
 bably he could not peruse them now without some 
 regret, and without looking with a more favourable eye 
 upon that hospitable Rome, the city of refuge of all 
 misfortunes : 
 
 " I wish to observe to the honourable speaker who has preceded 
 me, that perhaps he will go himself one day to Rome, to that un- 
 rivalled city, to seek there peace, repose, dignity in retirement, and 
 all the advantages secured to that Eternal City, by that very clerical 
 government which he has just no\v insulted from this tribune. One 
 day, perhaps, it will be his lot to seek these benefits there : he will 
 find them, and then he will bless Heaven for having inspired Chris- 
 tian nations with the idea of maintaining in Europe at least one 
 such precious asylum, sheltered from the storms, the calumnies, the 
 disappointments, and the agitations of political life, in which his 
 inexperience would now seem to place the supreme good of nations 
 and individuals. Well, then he will repent of the speech he has 
 now pronounced, and his repentance will be his punishment. I 
 wish nim no other. (Murmurs on the left.) 
 
 " He \\\\\ then ivjirnt <>f having given utterance to affronts and, 
 permit me to add. cakmniefl n^ainst the revered head of the Church, 
 the living oracle of our hearts and of our consciences. Yes, calum- 
 nies. It is to calumniate France to attribute to her the instincts 
 
SPEECH OF M. DE MONTALEMBERT. 183 
 
 and the desires of which he has been the mouthpiece at this tri- 
 bune. And, moreover, it is to calumniate the Pope to suppose him 
 capable of the injustice with which that speech reproached him." 
 (Approbation on the right. Murmurs on the left.) 
 
 The speakers of the " Mountain," as at present the revo- 
 lutionary press (for in France, as well as in Italy, we are 
 continuing the struggle against the same foes), had not 
 shrunk from insulting Pius IX. after his benefits ; worse 
 again, after his misfortunes, after all that generous Pope 
 had suffered for having attempted to set an example of 
 reform to the Italian princes, and to regenerate his country. 
 Such baseness revolted M. de Montalembert ; he ex- 
 claims : 
 
 " Gentlemen, Bossuet has spoken of a certain finishing grace 
 which suffering lends to virtue. Pius IX. has received it ; he has 
 known suffering, and he has known, too, the most cutting and bitter 
 of misfortunes ingratitude. Still, I cannot say I pity him ; I honour 
 him, nay, I would almost say I envy him for this. It is not every 
 one who can suffer ingratitude ; to do so, one must have done good 
 to one's fellow-creatures, one must have attempted great things for 
 humanity. Blessed, then, are they who render others ungrateful ; 
 but woe to those who are ungrateful, and to those who make them- 
 selves the mouthpieces, the orators, of ingratitude ! (Warm applause 
 on the right.) 
 
 " He met with ingratitude not only at Rome, not only in Italy, 
 but in Europe, and in this Assembly ! ' For it is sovereign ingrati- 
 tude towards the Sovereign Pontiff to ignore his services and his 
 virtues, as has been done here. It is ingratitude towards him, to 
 requite his conduct and the whole tenor of his life by the virulent 
 attacks of the last speaker, and by the coarse insults which were the 
 other day stigmatized with proper severity by our president, and 
 which the Moniteur will hand down to the indignation of posterity. 
 (Cheers on the right.) Well, allow me here to oppose to such in- 
 gratitude, whose cause has been so deplorably advocated from this 
 very tribune, the solemn tribute of my admiration, my gratitude, 
 and my love." (Hear, hear, on the right.) 
 
 People had presumed to speak, as they are again speak- 
 ing now, and as a Piedmontese minister, too, had pre- 
 sumed to speak, of the cruelty and proscriptions of the 
 Papal government; they cast doubts upon the amnesty 
 granted by Pius IX. But what had Pius IX. done then ? 
 
184 FRANCE AND THE HOLY SEE IN 1849. 
 
 What had he done the very day after his election ? M. 
 de Montalembert answers : 
 
 " You know well that the Pope always pardons ; he is obliged to 
 pardon. And it is for this very reason that he has heen obliged, in 
 the amnesty which you have slanderously styled a proscription, not 
 to deliver up such and such individuals, whom he has excepted from 
 it, to the executioner, or even to the prisons, but simply to exclude 
 them from the dominions you have just reconquered for him, in 
 order to prevent them from again seeking to render his government 
 an impossibility. And he acts thus because he cannot punish them 
 as other powers can, and as has been done even in France. He 
 is obliged to resort to the preventive system, because the repressive 
 one is more difficult and more impracticable for him than any one 
 else." l (Cheers on the right.) 
 
 The speaker next enters on an important point of 
 the question, the extent of the liberties and reforms 
 granted by the motu proprio, which was, so to speak, the 
 programme of Pius IX. ; and this part of his speech is so 
 much the more interesting to us, as it is the same pretext 
 which now is alleged against the Pope : 
 
 " This act gives four principal guarantees : first, the reform of 
 civil legislation ; secondly, that of the tribunals ; thirdly, extensive 
 provincial and municipal liberties ; liberties greater, as the presi- 
 dent of the council seemed to say yesterday, than what we have 
 had, and even have now, in Prance ; so great, that you hare not 
 ventured, up to this, to grant them, to the city of Paria itself : and 
 you are quite right. (Laughter on the right.) Fourthly, the motu 
 proprio establishes the secularization of the administration, in this 
 sense, that ecclesiastics are not excluded, but laymen admitted. It 
 is well to remark, too, that this admission of laymen, under Pius IX., 
 has already become so general, that, in a statistical return of all the 
 offices of the Roman states, lately published at Naples, there are 
 holding legal, administrative, and political employments, in all 109 
 
 1 The Pope always pardons ; lie is olliycd to pardon. We cannot 
 help quoting, in connection with this line expression, another, not 
 less happy nor less true, of Cardinal Consalvi, prime minister of 
 Pius VII.: "Falsehood is the habitual rule of courts. But one 
 falsehood at Home would at once be the ruin of a whole reign : 
 it would make another Pope necessary." Artaud, Histoire de 
 Leon XII. torn. i. p. 167. 
 
SPEECH OF M. DE MONTALEMBERT. 185 
 
 ecclesiastics only, and 5,059 laymen. Such is the present pro- 
 portion." 
 
 A member of the committee. "There are 243 ecclesiastics." 
 M. DE MONTALEMBERT. " Yes ; but that number includes 143 
 chaplains of prisons. Now, it seems to me that no one can think of 
 excluding ecclesiastics from the small number of elevated positions 
 they hold at present ; I say elevated, because the sovereign him- 
 self being an ecclesiastic unless, perhaps, you want the Pope 
 to be a layman (laughter on the right) he must necessarily have 
 about him, as his chief ministers, ecclesiastics like himself. In fact, 
 to propose that the Pope should be obliged to exclude ecclesiastics 
 from the high offices of his states, would be something like compelling 
 the emperor of Russia, who is essentially a military sovereign, to 
 govern exclusively by lawyers. (Laughter on the right.) Instead 
 of that, how does the emperor of Russia manage ? He always has 
 at the head of his principal civil departments military men like him- 
 self ; he has had for a long time a general of infantry as minister of 
 finance, and I believe his finances have not suffered by it." (Excla- 
 mations and laughter.) 
 
 A voice on the left. " He had not the title of general." 
 M. DE MONTALEMBEBT. " He had General Cancrine. Observe, 
 too, that the motw proprio leaves room for the development and for 
 manifold applications of the principles, the concessions, and the liber- 
 ties which are contained in it, in embryo, as the Minister of Foreign 
 Affairs has remarked." 
 
 But political liberties, and parliamentary institutions 
 properly so called, were not in the motu proprio. Are all 
 such institutions compatible with the peculiar character of 
 the Papal sovereignty ? And was it advisable that such 
 even as are, and which Pius IX. had formerly accorded, 
 should be now fully renewed and kept up ? The question 
 was an important one, and has not yet been decided. M. 
 de Montalembert replies to it : 
 
 " I would first clearly state why, and in what, certain liberties 
 are incompatible with the Pope's temporal sovereignty. It is not 
 that liberty in itself is incompatible with it. This was clearly shown 
 in the middle ages ; very extensive liberties local, individual, and 
 general then co-existed in the Roman states with the temporal 
 sovereignty of the popes, as in other states they co-existed with the 
 sovereignty of kings. But a change has taken place in later days. 
 Modern democracy considers liberty as almost completely synony- 
 mous with sovereignty of the people. This synonymy is certainly 
 not founded in the nature of things, for there exists very great 
 liberty in England without the sovereignty of the people ; and there 
 
186 FRANCE AND THE HOLY SEE IN 1849. 
 
 was great political liberty in France under the Restoration, though _ 
 the principle of the sovereignty of the people was not recognized. 
 It is this principle of the sovereignty of the people which, as General 
 Cavaignac has ably proved at this tribune, is absolutely incompatible 
 with the temporal sovereignty of the Pope : and it is because liberty 
 is constantly confounded with the sovereignty of the people that 
 men have been able to assert and to prove that certain liberties, now 
 so much in vogue, are incompatible with the authority of the Pope." 
 (Approbation on the right.) 
 
 But who were those who demanded, and who still 
 demand, these parliamentary institutions, and this poli- 
 tical liberty for the Romans ? 
 
 " There are two classes of men who call for these institutions ; 
 the first are those who have abolished them in France. How can 
 they call for institutions in Italy which they have destroyed in 
 France P (Laughter on the right.) I suppose the explanation of 
 such inconsistency is to be found in the following extract from a 
 republican journal of the 12th September, 1849, the same date as 
 the motu proprio : 
 
 " 'Whatever measures Pius IX. may adopt, the Eoman people 
 will not contentedly accept the new liberties he may grant them : 
 they will only use them to overturn the prince who thought fit to 
 grant them, and to rid themselves of his authority.'" (Oh, oh! 
 Prolonged laughter on the right.) 
 
 But is not this what the revolutionary press is now 
 again declaring ? so true is it that the same struggle is 
 still going on, and the same end aimed at. It is the very 
 existence of the Papacy that is menaced. The real ques- 
 tion is not to impose upon it liberties and reforms: no, 
 but total dispossession, degradation, annihilation ! 
 
 M. DE MONTALEMBEBT. " Such men, in my opinion, speak very 
 logically. I would even say that they show most acute judgment 
 in the matter. Only, I think, the conclusion they nrrive at renders 
 their advice somewhat suspicious, and the Pope and his counsellors 
 must be very blind, if their eyes are not opened by suc-h frank and 
 logical avowals. So much for the first class of those who call for 
 parliamentary government in Italy. 
 
 " However, there is another ; and they belong to that numerous 
 body who had no hand in overturning parliamentary government 
 in France, but who, on the contrary, loved, served, and carried it 
 into practice. I have done BO myself. I loved that government, 
 
SPEECH OF M. DE MONTALEMBERT. 187 
 
 and I did more than love it, I believed in it. I honestly believed 
 in it, and if I am to say what I think, I still believe in it." 
 
 M. de Montalembert proceeds to show, that if many of 
 these partisans of liberty do not now call upon Pius IX. 
 to renew institutions which they had loved, served, and 
 believed in, it is that a trial has been made, which has 
 shaken their faith, and that by Pius IX. himself: 
 
 " Had he not given to his country, as I said just now, all the 
 liberties now demanded, and even more? He had given it the 
 liberty of the press, and a civic guard. He had given it two cham- 
 bers, and a constitutional statute. Well, what return did he receive P 
 The press had morally dethroned him before he was dethroned, in 
 fact. The civic guard besieged him in his palace of the Quirinal. 
 The two chambers remained dumb and unmoved when his minister 
 was assassinated ; and it was the leader of the constitutional party, 
 Mamiani, that became the successor of the murdered minister, and 
 the gaoler of the holy Father. Such was the Pope's experience of 
 constitutional government." (Assent on the right. Clamours on 
 the left.) 
 
 Has the Pope changed ? or was he mistaken ? The 
 Speaker replies : 
 
 " Neither the one nor the other ; but he has had a lesson from 
 experience. Pius IX. has neither changed nor erred ; he was not 
 mistaken, nor is he transformed. 
 
 " He was not mistaken in attempting to endow his country and 
 Italy with liberty ; in inviting, not, indeed, as has been said, the 
 Church to become reconciled to liberty, but modern liberty to be- 
 come reconciled to the Church, which it had too long slighted. If 
 he had not made this trial, this noble experiment, and that with 
 incomparable sincerity and straightforwardness, his magnanimity 
 might have been suspected : some might have thought, some narrow 
 minds might have concluded, that the Papal power was systemati- 
 cally antagonistic to progress, civilization, and liberty. But now, 
 after the trial that he has made, it is unquestionable, that if liberty 
 has not struck its roots at Rome, it is not through the fault of 
 Pius IX., but of those to whom he had accorded that liberty. 
 (Marked approbation on the right.) He was not, then, mistaken 
 in undertaking the noble and great work which will immortalize 
 him, and on which, for my part, I still congratulate him. 
 
 " Nor has he changed : I am convinced that he is by no means 
 disposed to sacrifice liberty ; that he has no wish to see true liberty 
 superseded by the reign of physical force ; but he has seen, he has 
 
188 FRANCE AND THE HOLY SEE IN 1849. 
 
 been enlightened, his eyes have been opened ; he has profited by 
 the lesson which God intended him to learn from events ; and he 
 would be inexcusable had he not done so." 
 
 Such reflections are equally to the purpose at present, 
 when Pius IX. is censured for his delay in resuming a 
 course which, as experience has taught him, necessitates 
 greater precautions against the wickedness of men than 
 his heart had at first anticipated. Moreover, experience 
 has given this lesson not only to Pius IX., not only to 
 Rome and Italy, but also to us, and to all Europe. 
 Accordingly, we now find many whose love for liberty, 
 though not weakened, has grown more cautious and re- 
 served. What ! is it for you to approach us with too 
 feeble a love for liberty, you whose sole endeavour seems 
 to be to render it odious by your profanations, and impos- 
 sible, by degrading it into licentiousness ? 
 
 The speech of M. de Montalembert here still grows 
 more animated ; the orator seems to outdo himself, and 
 these passages will bear a comparison with the grandest 
 and most touching models of parliamentary eloquence : 
 
 " Allusion was made yesterday to the apostasy of the great liberal 
 party. Well, gentlemen, do you forget all that has happened in 
 the world during the last few years P Can you fancy that men of 
 sense, of humanity, and of conscience, still love and believe in 
 liberty, and hope for an indefinite progress in civilization, as they 
 did two or three years ago P (Agitation.) Do you think that, in 
 France and in Europe, men's hearts and feelings have received no 
 shock P Do you imagine that a ghastly light has not broken upon 
 many an intelligence and many a conscience ? (Applause on the 
 right.) 
 
 " And, if you doubt the competence and impartiality of us public 
 men, if you think that we are spent, and our judgments warped by 
 the routine of political life, I would say to you, Go and sound the 
 heart of nations, enter any humble dwelling and question any 
 obscure but honest and patriotic citizen ; ask men who meddle not 
 with politics, who have ever lived remote from the turmoil and the 
 vexations of public life ; knock at the door of their heart, sound 
 their conscience, and ask them if they now feel the same love for 
 liberty and progress they once did ; or, if they still love them, ask 
 whether they have the same faith and confidence in them as before. 
 You will not find one in a hundred, no, not one in a thousand, to 
 
SPEECH OF M. DE MONTALEMBERT. 189 
 
 answer ' Yes.' (Repeated applause on the right. Dissent and mur- 
 murs on the left.) 
 
 "Ah! it is sad, but it is the truth; lean conceive the grief it 
 causes you, and I share it myself ; but it is the truth, and I challenge 
 any one to deny it. Make the inquiries which I propose to you ; 
 sound the opinions of the people, and you will not find one in a hun- 
 dred, not one in a thousand, of those who were ardent liberals, who 
 now feel the zeal and the confidence they did two years ago. (Hear, 
 hear. No, no.) But you admitted it yesterday. One of your 
 speakers, whom we listened to with the silence of respect, it not 
 with that of sympathy, admitted it himself yesterday at this tri- 
 bune ; he called attention to it, dwelt upon it, and designated it as 
 the apostasy of the great liberal party, I rise to endeavour to 
 account to you for this phenomenon, and you interrupt me ! 
 you look upon it as an affront ! But I have not done with this 
 subject : I say that the phenomenon is universal, and I am now 
 going to tell you what has caused it. Why such a sudden change P 
 Because the name and the standard of liberty have been usurped by 
 foul and incorrigible demagogues who have profaned it, and have 
 only used it as a sanction for their crimes. (Violent exclamations 
 on the left. Marked approbation on the right.) 
 
 " Why, gentlemen (the speaker turns towards the left), take to 
 yourselves what I have said ? (Laughter on the right.) Why 
 will you not listen to me ? I am stating an historical fact. 
 
 " I say that the cause of liberty has been everywhere profaned 
 by foul and incorrigible demagogues. (Fresh interruption on the 
 left. A voice. " By the Jesuits.") 
 
 " I say that everywhere at the foot of the Capitol at Rome, as 
 at the barrier of Fontainebleau ; in the suburbs of Frankfort, as on 
 the bridge of Pesth the cause of liberty has been defiled by the 
 foul aid of the democratic dagger." (New and louder applause on 
 the right. Strong marks of disapprobation on the left.) 
 
 And, notwithstanding the contradictions of the left, 
 could not M. de Montalembert add, if he were speaking 
 now : " At Naples, at Parma, at Vienna, and again at 
 Parma, and at Paris, on the 14th of January, 1858." 
 
 M. Dupin replied to the interrupters : 
 
 " Allmv people, at least, to speak against assassination ! " 
 M. DE MONTALEMBERT. " Would you learn what it is that ex- 
 tinguishes in men's hearts the vital and glowing flame of liberty ? 
 It is not the fetters of the tyrant. Look at Poland : has this flame 
 of liberty been quenched there yet, in spite of the threefold oppres- 
 sion which has weighed upon her for three-quarters of a century ? 
 No , would you know what does extinguish it ? It is they ! they, 
 
190 FRANCE AND THE HOLY SEE IN 1849. 
 
 those demagogues of whom I spoke just now, those anarchists 
 (Long-continued applause on the right. Dissent on the left) those 
 men who declare an unholy and implacable war against human 
 nature, against the fundamental conditions of society, against the 
 eternal principles of truth, of justice, and of law. It is they who 
 quench the love of liberty ! (Applause.) 
 
 " Look, I entreat, at the state of Europe three years ago. Liberty 
 was gradually extending her empire in all directions ; kings were 
 coming, by turns with a bad grace, if you will, but they were all 
 coming to lay, in some sort, their crowns at the feet of liberty, to 
 sue from her for a new sanction, a new investiture. The Pope him- 
 self, the living symbol of authority, the incarnation of the most 
 ancient and august power . . . ." (Ironical laughter at the extreme 
 left.) 
 
 M. DUPIN. " It is my duty to call attention to the fact, with, 
 whoever the blame may lie, that to attack demagogues, assassina- 
 tion, and anarchy, has excited displeasure and contradiction, but 
 that to pay honour to what is respectable has been a signal for 
 laughter and derision ! (Loud cheers on all the benches at the 
 right. Murmurs on the extreme left.) You shock all the feelings 
 of the country." (Renewed cheers.) 
 
 M. DE MONTALEMBERT. " Pius IX. himself, the representative 
 of the most august and ancient authority upon earth, thought that 
 he might borrow another jewel for his tiara from liberty, demo- 
 cracy, and the modern ideas. Has he succeeded ? You have put 
 a stop to all that ; you have arrested, obstructed, diverted from its 
 course, the current which inspired us old liberals, as you say, with 
 such confidence and admiration. That current has ceased to flow. 
 It is true, you have dethroned a few kings, but you have far more 
 effectually dethroned liberty. (Cheers on the right.) The kings 
 are again upon their thrones, but liberty has not returned to hers. 
 She has not been reinstated upon the throne which she had pos- 
 sessed in our hearts. Oh ! I am well aware that you write up her 
 name everywhere, in all your laws, on every wall, on every ceiling. 
 (The speaker points to the roof of the chamber. Long merriment 
 and applause on the right.) But in our hearts her name is blotted 
 out. Yes, the lovely, the pure, the hallowed, the noble liberty that 
 we have so loved, so cherished, so long served .... (Violent 
 murmurs on the left.) Yes, served, before you, longer than you, 
 better than you (Renewed clamours) ; that liberty is not dead, I 
 hope, but she is stifled, crushed, ravaged, trampled down ! " 
 
 Fresh disturbances were just then heard upon the left, 
 but they were soon lulled. One felt that these energetic 
 words were telling upon the enemy; under the invectives 
 of the orator, they looked like wounded lions, struggling 
 
SPEECH OF M. DE MONTALEMBERT. 191 
 
 in vain to shake off the terrible steel which had struck too 
 deep. 
 
 " Yes, crushed between what one of you has dared to call the 
 sovereignty of the end that is, the sovereignty of evil and the 
 necessary revival of the severities of authority, to which you forced 
 human nature, society, and the human heart, appalled at your ex- 
 cesses. (Approbation and renewed applause from the benches of 
 the majority.) 
 
 "And the same change which I have pointed out, which you 
 admit and point out yourselves, in the political world, the same 
 change has taken place in the Church and that Catholic world, the 
 destinies of which at present occupy us. 
 
 " When Pius IX. ascended the throne, and when, seeing before 
 him modern liberty and democracy, he embraced them as his 
 daughters, and called himself their father ; from that day a differ- 
 ence of opinion sprang up within the Catholic Church. Some 
 and they were the minority cautious, timid, somewhat diplomatic 
 spirits, people generally of years and experience, said, The Pope 
 is risking a very dangerous experiment, which may turn out very 
 badly for him. Others and they were the great majority, and I 
 was of the number myself, gentlemen ; yes, I and my friends, who 
 were then called the Catholic party received with delight and en- 
 thusiasm this initiative of the Pope. Well, we are obliged to say 
 that we have received a cruel disappointment. The issue of the 
 experiment has turned, not against Pius IX. or us, but against 
 liberty. (Hear, hear, on the right.) Would that I had here before 
 me all those demagogues, those firebrands, of whom I spoke just 
 now ; I would say the truth to them once for all. (Approbation on 
 the right. Murmurs on the left. On the right, " Go on, go on ! ") 
 
 " Here is the truth I would tell them, if I had them all together 
 here : I would ask them, Do you know what is the greatest of your 
 crimes against the human race ? It is not only the innocent blood 
 you have shed, though it is crying to Heaven for vengeance against 
 you ; it is not only that you have sown broad-cast ruin over Europe, 
 though that is the most formidable argument against your doc- 
 trines : no ; it is that you have disenchanted the world with liberty ! 
 (Cheers on the right. Hear, hear.) It is that you have taught men 
 to curse what they had loved ! It is that you have compromised, or 
 shaken, or extinguished, the noblest aspiration of all generous hearts ! 
 It is that you have dashed back upon itself the torrent of the desti- 
 nies of mankind ! " (Enthusiastic cheering on the benches of the 
 majority.) 
 
 It is surely superfluous to point out to my readers the 
 force and conclusiveness of this language; or to remind 
 them at what epoch it was uttered from the tribune of the 
 
192 FRANCE AND THE HOLY SEE IN 1849. 
 
 French parliament ; just after those ill-omened days, 
 which had stained Paris with blood, and horrified the 
 world ; when the earth had scarcely ceased from shaking 
 under men's feet ; and just before those new convulsions, 
 which were destined to transfer France, in her despair, 
 from the arms of the republic to the hands of the imperial 
 power. The speaker continues : 
 
 " I cherish the belief that Pius IX. does not yet feel himself 
 reduced to the deplorable alternative which I have alluded to ; I 
 am confident he feels that there is a middle course, between that 
 sovereignty of evil which a false liberty demands, and a complete 
 and aggravated return to despotism. But do you, at least, faith- 
 ful friends of genuine and suffering liberty, the perils and the woes 
 of which I have been delineating, aid kirn in his task ; do not em- 
 barrass, do not discourage him ; his position is already sufficiently 
 arduous and painful, take care not to multiply its complications : 
 lend him the support of your sympathy and your respect, concur 
 with his pure intentions and his conscientious zeal, in tracing out 
 that middle course for which we long all we whose faith in liberty 
 has not been even yet annihilated." (Loud cheers on the right.) 
 
 Alas ! I cannot but pause here to ask, with grief 
 forgetting for a moment the time when such grand senti- 
 ments were proclaimed amid the acclamations of France, 
 and my attention being painfully recalled to our own day 
 has all this been done ? I ask those who have been for 
 ten years unremittingly provoking a revolt in the Roman 
 States, who have never ceased to menace the Pontiff with 
 their conspiracies, I ask them, have they aided the Pope 
 in his task ? Or have they not rather striven to multiply the 
 complications of his position, already arduous and painful 
 enough ? Far from lending him the support of their 
 sympathy and respect, have they not been ever renewing 
 their outrages against him ? Far from concurring with 
 his pure intentions and his conscientious zeal to trace out 
 that middle course which the true friends of liberty longed 
 to see, have they not laid snares for his feet, and done all 
 that depended on them to render his Government impos- 
 sible? All this we shall soon have occasion to examine in 
 the fullest detail. 13ut to return to M. de Montalcmbert. 
 
SPEECH OF M. DE MONTALEMBERT. 193 
 
 A great and final question remained. There were those 
 had said, the Pope must be coerced. Such was the 
 odious, the ungenerous proposal, which remained to be 
 held up to reprobation : and here the soul of the speaker 
 kindles : his faith, his love, and devotion to the Church, 
 his inmost and liveliest emotions, break forth into words. 
 The counsels he gives, too, are those of profound and 
 enlightened polity; and statesmen, kings, and the con- 
 gress, if one is ever to assemble, would do well to weigh 
 these passages of M. de Moatalembert's speech : 
 
 " Let us see first, how you would set about coercing him, for it 
 would be folly to enter, as has been often done of late, upon a vague, 
 undefined course, without examining whither it leads, or antici- 
 pating its inevitable consequences. I am convinced that there is 
 not one here present who would propose to employ personal violence. 
 As to the government, it is clear, from the generous language used 
 yesterday by the minister of foreign affairs, that it does not con- 
 template for an instant a recourse to constraint or violence. Nay, 
 I am convinced that no one here, whether in the majority, or even 
 the minority, entertains such an idea. Do not tell me I am wrong, 
 I would implore of you." (Interruptions.) 
 
 A voice on the left. " Ah ! comme c'est gentilhomme ! " 
 
 M. DE MOXTALEMBERT. " I say that no one here, on either side, 
 would deliberately propose to employ personal violence ngainst the 
 Holy Father. (On the left, ' No ! ') We are then agreed. 
 
 " Well then, since you disclaim, without exception, the intention 
 of renewing against Pius IX. the violent measures which have been, 
 used towards Boniface VIII. , and so many other popes, avoid 
 entering upon a road which may conduct you to the violence you 
 have disavowed beforehand. Allow me to ask you whether you 
 imagine that they who ended by laying violent hands upon the 
 Holy See, and upon the sovereign Pontiffs themselves, commenced 
 their strife with the Holy See with suc-h an intention ? Do you 
 think they said to themselves on starting, I will make the Pope 
 prisoner, I will proceed to extremities against, him P I am con- 
 vinced that it was not so : but that they drifted into it, as you 
 would do yourselves, through vexation, through impatience, or 
 through wounded pride, urging them to carry out threats which 
 had been uttered lightly and imprudently, and which had had no 
 effect. It was in this way they were led on to violence. (Sensation.) 
 
 " Do you think that, at the outset of the struggle between 
 Napoleon and Pius VII., the former foresaw the necessity in which 
 he would, as he considered, ultimately be placed, of dragging the 
 Pope prisoner to Savona and Fontainebleau ? I am convinced of 
 
 o 
 
194 FRANCE AND THE HOLY SEE IN 1849. 
 
 the contrary : and as I have cited these names and incidents, which 
 have been already brought forward in this debate by General 
 Cavaignac, I shall pause a moment. I know that this defeat of 
 Napoleon by Pius VII. is one of the commonplaces of history; 
 but it conveys great lessons : and first of all the following, which 
 seems very generally overlooked : people say, after all, our 
 difference with the Holy See concerns only a temporal question, 
 in no way connected with spiritual authority or dogmatic truth. 
 Yes; but was it a spiritual or dogmatic object which actuated 
 ]N"apoleon in his controversy with Pius VII. P Far from it : it was. 
 purely and simply a temporal object, relating to police regulations 
 and declarations of war. Pius VII. would not shut his ports against 
 the English, and refused to declare war against them, just like 
 Pius IX., who has been dethroned by his subjects because he would 
 not make war upon the Austrians. Still, for all that, the world has 
 seen in Pius VII. a martyr of the rights of the Church ! 
 
 " And what has been the result of this conflict between Napoleon 
 and Pius VII. ? To the great emperor it resulted in discredit and 
 loss of influence, and finally, in a complete defeat. For, and this 
 is most important to remark, and should strike even the most pre- 
 judiced minds, even those who least share the predilections which 
 you probably imagine are now predominant in me, it is not only 
 discredit and loss of influence which sooner or later attach to those 
 who combat the Holy See, but defeat too ! Yes, nothing is more 
 certain than their failure ! 
 
 " And why is failure certain ? Ah ! because note this carefully 
 the odds are not equal between the Holy See and you, or any 
 others who would contend against it. And learn that these odds 
 are not for you, but against you. You have 500,000 bayonets, 
 artillery, fleets, and all the resources which physical force can 
 supply. True ; and the Pope has none ; but he has what you have 
 not : a moral force, an empire over men's souls and consciences, to 
 which you can never pretend, and that empire is immortal ! " (Dis- 
 sent on the left. Marked cheers on the right.) 
 
 All who were present on that memorable day can re- 
 member the irritation here displayed by the " Mountain ;" 
 still their empty clamour could not altogether conceal 
 their shame and vexation, and their presentiment of a 
 defeat; they ucre evidently cowed. The speaker con- 
 tinued, returning to a happy comparison of M. Thiers : 
 
 " You deny moral force, you deny faith, you deny the empire of 
 the Papal power over souls, that power bei\>ro which tlu> proudest 
 emperors h;ive bowed. Yes. hut one thing you cannot deny the 
 weakness of the Holy See. Now, kiiow that this weakness gives it 
 
SPEECH OF M. DE MONTALEMBEUT. 195 
 
 an invincible force against you. Yes, there is not in the history of 
 the world a grander or more consoling sight than the perplexities 
 of force when it enters the lists against weakness. (Applause on 
 the right.) 
 
 " Allow me a familiar comparison : when a man comes to contend 
 with a woman, if she be not the most degraded of beings, she can 
 brave him with impunity : she says, ' Strike, you only dishonour 
 yourself, and you do not conquer me.' (Hear, hear.) Well ! the 
 Church is more than a woman : she is a mother ! " (Hear, hear. 
 A triple round of applause is called forth by this expression of the 
 speaker.) 
 
 This put an end to the contest ; the admiration of the 
 Assembly extended even to the extreme left ; some of the 
 " Mountain/' carried away by the general enthusiasm, were 
 seen to applaud and clap. The victory was complete. It 
 only remained for M. de Montalembert, in conclusion, to 
 attack the vain pretensions of his adversaries to elevate 
 ideas to the place of dogmas ; and to pay a well-merited 
 tribute to the French army. 
 
 " You are perhaps aware, gentlemen, that the Church has an old 
 text, non possumus, in an old book called the Acts of the Apostles ; 
 that text was first used by an old Pope named St. Peter. (General 
 laughter and approbation.) And, rely on it, with that phrase she 
 will go on to the end of the world without yielding. (Clamour on 
 the left.) 
 
 " I feel that it is time to conclude, still I should wish to say one 
 word more in reply to M. Victor Hugo, and to denounce his prin- 
 ciple that ideas are as invincible and durable as dogmas. To create 
 ideas, and to attribute to them the eternity and immutability of 
 dogmas, is indeed, nowadays, a right too generally asserted. Well, 
 allow me to say that it is a chimerical pretension. (Murmurs on 
 the left.) Yes, chimerical. There is no idea which can resist 
 cannon and physical force so firmly as M. Victor Hugo supposes ; 
 and that for three reasons : first, because ideas are variable, and 
 dogmas are immutable. (Hear, hear.) Secondly, because ideas are 
 cut out by you or me, we know in what laboratories they are 
 compounded. (General laughter, and cheers on the right.) Dogmas, 
 on the contrary, have a mysterious and supernatural origin. (Oh! 
 oh ! on the left. Hear, hear, on the right.) And, lastly, the reign 
 of ideas is temporary ; and they only reign over the imagination, or 
 at most, over the passions and the reason : while dogmas reign over 
 the conscience. Such is their difference. (Long cheering on the 
 right.) When M. Victor Hugo finds me an idea which has lasted 
 eighteen centuries, and which numbers a hundred millions of devo- 
 
 o 2 
 
196 FRANCE AND THE HOLY SEE IN 1849. 
 
 tees, I am ready to recognize in bis idea the rights I am now claim- 
 ing for the Church. (Laughter on the right.) 
 
 " I cannot conclude without noticing a taunt which I have felt as 
 deeply as any here : it has been said that the honour of our flag has 
 been compromised by the expedition against Rome, intended to 
 destroy the Roman republic and restore the authority of the Pope. 
 (Hear, hear, on the left.) As I have said, every one here ought to 
 be alive to such a reproach, and to repudiate it with me. No, the 
 honour of our flag has not been compromised ; the colours of France 
 never waved over a more glorious enterprise. (Dissent on the left. 
 Cheers on the right.) History will decide. I appeal with con- 
 fidence to her decision. (So do we ! on the left.) So do you ; 
 well, let us all appeal to her. If I am not mistaken, history will 
 cast a veil over all those indecisions, those tergiversations, and those 
 disputes, which you pointed out so bitterly and so eagerly, in the 
 hope of creating dissensions amongst us (hear) ; she will cast a veil 
 over all these, or will record them only to magnify the enterprise 
 by the number and the nature of the difficulties w T hich had been 
 overcome. (Renewed cheers on the right.) 
 
 " But history will say that a thousand years after Charlemagne, 
 and fifty after Napoleon a thousand years from the epoch when 
 Charlemagne immortalized himself by restoring the Papal power, 
 and fifty from that, when Napoleon, at the zenith of his glory, fell 
 for having attempted to undo the work of his immortal predecessor, 
 France was true to her traditions, and deaf to the odious sugges- 
 tions made to her. She will say, that 30,000 Frenchmen, com- 
 manded by the worthy heir of one of the giant names of our 
 imperial glory (loud cheers on the right), left the shores of their 
 country to restore, at Rome, in the person of the Pope, law, equity, 
 and the interests of France and of Europe. (Cheers on the right. 
 Murmurs on the left.) She will say that which Pius IX. himself 
 said in his letter of thanks to General Oudinot : ' The victory won 
 by the French arms has been won against the enemies of human 
 society.' Yes, such will be the sentence of history, and it will be 
 one of her brightest pages. 
 
 " Who would now dim, tarnish, or attenuate such glory, and 
 precipitate us into a maze of complications, contradictions, and 
 inextricable inconsistencies H Would you know what would for 
 ever stain the glory of the French flag ? To raise it against the 
 Cross, against the tiara which it has just set free ; to transform the 
 French soldier from the Pope's protector into his oppressor ; in 
 short, to prefer a poor imitation of Garibaldi to the mission and 
 the glory of Charlemagne." (Loud and long applause on the right.) 
 
 This speech, says the Journal des Debats, was followed 
 by applause such as no one ever remembers to have heard 
 in the deliberative Assemblies. 
 
SPEECH OF M. DE MONTALEMBERT. 197 
 
 I must conclude; but I would first add, to the honour 
 of M. de Montalembert and of those in our two National 
 Assemblies who fought by his side in that great and 
 memorable conflict, that, if never speeches were more 
 applauded, never did any better deserve it. Never was 
 enthusiasm better justified, never was human oratory more 
 nobly used. People might well exclaim, honour, all 
 honour to such eloquence, and to the efficacy which 
 God at times accords to it, in the conflict of good and 
 evil, in the struggle of conscience against evil passions ! 
 Honour to the men who place such eloquence at the ser- 
 vice of a noble and holy cause ! It is consoling and 
 glorious to think that arms are not the only rampart of 
 human society, and that speech can, at times, combat and 
 conquer as effectually. It was generally felt indeed at 
 that epoch, that the success of such speeches was not an 
 idle oratorical triumph ; that it was the victory of society ; 
 that order in Europe was deeply interested in the signal 
 defeat of the revolutionary principle in our National 
 Assembly, as well as in its defeat at Rome by our soldiers. 
 And it was for this reason that these successes were 
 echoed throughout Paris, throughout France, and the 
 whole world. The good rejoiced. I can still remeinber 
 how people congratulated each other on leaving the 
 Assembly; they spoke without being acquainted, or 
 rather they felt as if they knew each other, as if they 
 were united by common sentiments of admiration, of joy, 
 and of confidence : they felt a new strength, they foresaw 
 better days in the future ; their souls seemed to expand 
 with hope. 
 
 And they were right; for France had done great 
 things : she had both spoken and acted gloriously. She 
 had shown herself courageously true to her history, her 
 ancient traditions, and her providential vocation ; and by 
 her hands, chivalrous as in other days, a new and grand 
 page had been added to the Gesta Dei per Francos. 
 
 Providence, in fact, chooses the noblest peoples here below 
 to execute its divine counsels ; or rather Providence raises 
 up noble peoples and great races, and prepares them for the 
 
FRANCE AND THE HOLY SEE IN 1849. 
 
 great missions it has destined for them. " The Son of 
 God/' a Pope has written, " whose commands the universe 
 obeys, has constituted the different empires ; according to 
 the distinctions of tongues and races, He has raised up the 
 different peoples, to be the ministers of His heavenly will ; 
 and as the tribe of Juda received a special benediction 
 above the other sons of the patriarch, so the kingdom of 
 France has been distinguished by the Lord with a pecu- 
 liar prerogative of honour and favour." J And what is 
 this prerogative, this mission of France? It is easy to 
 see that her great mission upon earth has always been to 
 serve as sword and shield to the Church, and thereby to 
 European civilization. 
 
 In the eighth century the popes had recognized and 
 signified to the Frank kings this great choice of Provi- 
 dence : " Consider, O my son," wrote Pope Stephen to 
 Pepin the Short, "consider and reflect carefully, I conjure 
 you in the name of the living God : reflect that, after 
 God and the Prince of His Apostles, our future and that 
 of the Roman people principally depends upon you, whom 
 Providence has so favoured, and upon the French nation." 
 The triumphs of Pepin soon justified the confidence of the 
 Pontiff; and Stephen II., gloriously restored to the eternal 
 city by the Franks, again wrote to his deliverer: 
 "Our tongue, beloved son, cannot express the consola- 
 tion which your actions and your courage have afforded 
 us. We have, in fact, seen the Divine Omnipotence work 
 miracles by you, and deliver the lloman Church. May 
 we be permitted to exclaim with the angels of the Lord : 
 Glory to God in the highest ; and on earth peace to wen of 
 
 1 " Dei filius cujus imperils totus orbis obsequiiur, cujus benepla- 
 citis coelcstis rxnvit us a^niina lamulantur. sivundum clivisiones 
 linguarum et gentium si^uuni divina- potent i;o diversa regna consti- 
 tuit, diversa populurum rr^imiiui in ininisterium mumlatorum 
 ccelestium oniinavit : inter qu;r sicnt trilnis Jiula inter cctcros Jili.>s 
 patriarchs ad specialis brni-ilirlionis dona suscipitur, sic re^num 
 Franciac ceteris terrarum populis a Domino prcTrogativ/i honoris et 
 gratia insignitur." 
 
SPEECH OF M. DE MONTALEMBERT. 199 
 
 good will. For but one year ago, at this season, sur- 
 rounded as we arc by our enemies, \ve were mourning in 
 sadness, we were defenceless against their attacks ; but 
 now your powerful aid has delivered us from the dangers 
 which threatened us, and we feel a boundless joy; we 
 bless the Lord, and cry with the Psalmist : This is the 
 Lord's doing ; and it is wonderful in our eyes" 1 
 
 Pius IX. himself repeated to General Oudinot, after our 
 victorious expedition of 1849, the touching language 
 addressed by Stephen II. to Pepin : and it was glorious 
 for our country to hear the successor of Stephen II., ten 
 centuries after Pepin and Charlemagne, recall these ancient 
 and grand reminiscences, and address the same language 
 to the chief of our gallant army. 
 
 "The children of France are a chosen generation! 
 and we shall never cease to proclaim the praises of your 
 name throughout the world. What thanks shall we render 
 to your army ? No language could do justice to your 
 deserts; but there is in heaven a just judge, the Lord our 
 God, who will reward you according to your works. Yes, 
 you have raised the name of your country above the name 
 and glory of many nations, and the honour of the kingdom 
 of the Franks shines with a grateful light in the eyes of 
 the Lord." Thus to thank and to honour France, Pius IX. 
 had only to recall her ancient deeds, and to borrow the 
 language of his predecessors, protected and liberated, as 
 himself, by France. Like Leo III. addressing Charlemagne, 
 Pius IX. adds these words, to the undying honour of the 
 French name : " There is in heaven a God who sounds 
 the hearts and reins, and knows the love we bear you; 
 it delights me to convey to you those sentiments of my 
 paternal affection, and to tell you of the prayers which I 
 unceasingly offer to the Lord for the army and the govern- 
 ment of France, and for the whole nation. For the victory 
 of the French arms has been won against the foes of 
 
 1 Letter VI. of Pope Stephen to Pepin the Short, SS. Concil. 
 Coll. torn. xii. 
 
200 FRANCE; 1849-1859. 
 
 human society, and for this reason it ought ever to 
 excite the grateful feelings of every honest man in Europe 
 and throughout the world." 
 
 May France never be false to these grand memories of 
 her past, which so eloquently lay down for her her duty, 
 as regard both the present and the future ! If she ever 
 departs from them, she will inevitably incur the retribu- 
 tion which, as history declares, awaits such nations as are 
 traitors to their mission. If she but continue herself, she 
 will preserve inviolate the noblest and purest glory that 
 has ever graced a people's brow. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 FRANCE; 1849-1859. 
 WHY IS THERE STILL A ROMAN QUESTION? 
 
 WE have assuredly a right to ask, after the events 
 detailed in the preceding chapters, Why should there 
 be still a Roman question ? Why is the question of the 
 temporal sovereignty of the Holy See argued among us 
 still? How is it that 1859 has rekindled a controversy 
 that 1849 had settled amid the applauses of assembled 
 France ? 
 
 As we have seen and felt, it was indubitably the heart of 
 France that beat in 1849, and her voice thai pronounced, 
 as the Bishop of Arras has expressed it. Can the heart 
 of France have changed since then ? 
 
 I can understand that the honour and independence of 
 the Church should be for ever contested by her eternal 
 enemies; but that the temporal sovereignty of the Pope 
 should still be an open question with us, Catholic French, 
 with any man of honour and good faith, with true states- 
 men, or with European governments that after the 
 
WHY IS THERE STILL A ROMAN QUESTION? 201 
 
 noble solution which it received from France and Europe 
 in 1819, we should now seem about to solve it in a directly 
 opposite sense, is to me an enigma which I confess I 
 cannot decipher. 
 
 Are we to understand that the principles on which 
 France then acted, in vindicating the rights of the Holy 
 See, by her sword, by the discerning policy of her states- 
 men, and by the eloquence of her orators, were the miser- 
 able ones of political expediency, which every breath can 
 alter ? Or were they the eternal, immutable principles of 
 reason, of honour, and of right? Is it not true that the 
 great religious and social interests which were at issue in 
 those memorable debates, all those grand principles of 
 justice, of Catholic and European law, which then merged 
 all differences, drew together all the sections of the great 
 party of order, and impelled republican France, in spite of 
 formidable difficulties, to vindicate the rights of the Holy 
 See, that all these reasons still remain unchanged, and 
 now command us, as imperatively as then, to respect the 
 Papal sovereignty ? 
 
 I repeat, why is there still a Roman question to resolve? 
 
 After having done such great things, why must we 
 quietly see them undone? Why should the France of 
 1859, more powerful, more united than she then was, 
 having defeated Austria, her camps still pitched in Italy, 
 renounce, with miserable inconsistency, the glory she had 
 acquired at the expense of such magnanimous exertions, 
 and in less propitious times ? Is the " Mountain," whose 
 fury was then foiled by the energy of reason, honour, 
 justice, and eloquence, to win to-day, to the amazement 
 and dismay of the Catholic world, a triumph for which it 
 struggled in vain in its most palmy days ? And are the 
 pernicious ideas, the subversive theories, so solemnly dis- 
 avowed by republican France, as contrary to her tradi- 
 tionary policy, to her patriotism, her sincerity, and her 
 religious faith, now to rise from their ashes and to reign 
 in Italy, under the eyes of our army ? 
 
 No; however may be appearances, what is now doing 
 cannot be the definitive solution of the difficulty : it can- 
 
202 FRANCE; 1849-1859. 
 
 not be, that after having delivered Pius IX. from his 
 afflictions with the sword of Charlemagne, as M. de Mon- 
 talembert said amid the cheers of the Assembly, we are 
 now to swell the triumph of Garibaldi. It is written in 
 our annals and in those of the Church,, that,, ten years 
 ago, thirty thousand Frenchmen left their country in order 
 to restore, at Rome, and in the person of one of the most 
 holy pontiffs of his age, the law, the equity, and the inter- 
 ests of Europe. As Pius IX. wrote to General Oudinot, 
 that triumph of the French arms will be recorded by 
 history as a glory of France and the nineteenth century. 
 I can understand that those who were then conquered 
 should wish to efface this glory of the French flag ; that the 
 irreconcilable foes of the Holy See should return to their 
 old conspiracies, and send Garibaldi in arms to threaten 
 the Roman States ; that they should presume to speak of 
 dismembering them, though in the presence of our camps 
 and our sword ; all this I can conceive ; but what I never 
 will admit is, that we, the restorers of the Pope, the 
 champio7is, too, of the true liberty of Italy, are in any 
 way to be associated with such odious schemes, or that 
 any one is to pretend, directly or indirectly, to represent 
 us as accomplices in a policy and a usurpation which 
 justice condemns and history will reprobate. 
 
 What ought we to demand, what do we demand, at so 
 sad a juncture we Catholic French? 
 
 We require that no one shall lay his hand upon the 
 pontifical sovereignty, that ambition shall be prevented 
 from dispossessing the Church of her states, that our 
 national glory remain inviolate, that it be not betrayed 
 or curtailed by any; in a word, that we continue the 
 work and mission of Charlemagne. We ask that France 
 turn, as in 1849, a deaf ear to the odious suggestions 
 made to her, and remain true to herself, and to the real 
 interests of Italy, of Europe, and of Catholir' 
 
 Such were the loity considerations which, in the parlia- 
 mentary conflicts of 1849, and in the counsels of the 
 governments of France and other countries, frustrated the 
 , revolutionary, and irreligious policy represented by 
 
WHY IS THERE STILL A ROMAN QUESTION ? 203 
 
 the " Mountain," which, having paralyzed the Constituent, 
 and even extorted from the Assembly a vote of blame 
 against our army, broke out into menacing invectives and 
 furious interruptions, in the journals and the Assembly ; 
 thus evidently showing that the enemies of public order 
 fully appreciated the anti-revolutionary import of the 
 Koman expedition, and felt that a reaction against dis- 
 order in France and the rest of Europe would inevitably 
 be inaugurated by the triumph of our army. 
 
 And, we would ask, has any one argument which tri- 
 umphed in 1849 now lost its cogency, and have the 
 sophisms, then exposed by the speakers on the side of 
 order, suddenly grown into logical truths ? Has the essence 
 of the things changed ? Have the immutable principles 
 of right varied ? Has not the Papal sovereignty still the 
 same origin, the same nature, the same necessity, both 
 political and religious ? Is the Pope no longer the Pope ? 
 Is Pius IX. no longer Pius IX.? Has the revolution 
 ceased to be the revolution ? Is what the Prince Presi- 
 dent of the French Republic proclaimed, what his minis- 
 ters and ambassadors said of Pius IX., of his generous 
 initiative, of his efforts to give liberty to his subjects, 
 and hopes of a better lot to Italy, and what they added 
 as to the ingratitude of which he was, and is, the victim, 
 is all this no longer historical, no longer true ? Is not 
 he the Pontiff, then so insulted, and still so calumniated, 
 who, as M. Thiers said, gave from the Vatican the signal 
 of reforms to the Italian princes? Was he not the 
 author and promoter of the whole liberal movement in 
 Italy for the two years after his accession ? as M. de 
 Falloux said ; he whom they saluted with such acclama- 
 tions ; he to continue that orator's description against 
 whom they invented the conspiracy of ovations, and whom 
 they conducted from one triumph to another, till the day 
 when the dagger and torch flashed upon the threshold of 
 his palace. 
 
 Are we now asking for anything that was not then 
 asked for? We went to Italy to guard the interests of 
 Catholicism, and in them those of France ; so it was pro- 
 
204 FRANCE; 1849-1859. 
 
 claimed in the National and Legislative Assemblies, in spite 
 of passions, violence, and tergiversation. It was said : " The 
 Papacy is not an Italian institution, but an institution of 
 public, universal law, the maintenance of which is inti- 
 mately connected with that of order and the creed of the 
 West." We say so still, and with equal truth. It was 
 said again : " The question is not Italian, nor French, nor 
 even European, only, but Catholic, that is, the most 
 vast and elevated one that can be put: it regards the 
 spiritual sovereign of two hundred millions of souls, and 
 the state which is the centre of that sovereignty; it re- 
 gards the liberty of the Catholic idea, of the Catholic 
 conscience." Such were the sentiments then expressed; 
 we now repeat them, and they will for ever compel assent. 
 It was then proposed that France " should impose a debt 
 of admiration and gratitude upon the hearts and con- 
 sciences of two hundred millions of men, scattered over 
 the face of the whole earth." Well, we ask that France 
 continue to merit such an honour. 
 
 As a right due to Catholics, people then demanded the 
 maintenance of the rights, liberty, and sovereignty of the 
 Pope. They said : " The liberty of the Pope is an essen- 
 tial condition, sine qua non, of the religious liberty of 
 Catholics; for if the Pope, the supreme judge, the living 
 organ, of the law and the faith of Catholics, is not free, 
 we cease to be so ourselves." It was well explained, and 
 well understood, that we were going to Rome to defend 
 the independence and inviolability of the Pope's temporal 
 power ; to uphold that noble and sacred cause, accord- 
 ing to the traditional policy of France for more than a 
 thousand years ! and all this we now but repeat. 
 
 The noble letter to General Oudinot, the commander- 
 in-chief of the Roman expedition, the very day after a 
 hostile vote (7th of May) associated Prince Louis Napo- 
 leon with this religious and truly French policy. The 
 message of the President of the Republic, as his plenipo- 
 tentiary at Rome, M. de Corcelles, remarked, clearly 
 stated the Italian question, and accurately specified the 
 object which France had pursued in Italy. "In fact," 
 
WHY IS THERE STILL A ROMAN QUESTION? 205 
 
 runs the message, " our presence resulted in the return 
 of Pius IX., and that sovereign, true to himself, brought 
 back with him liberty and reconciliation; once at Rome, 
 we secured the integrity of the territory of the Holy See, 
 and the re-establishment of the Papal authority in the 
 towns which had thrown it off." What more do we wish 
 or ask for at present ? 
 
 It was shown, in fine, with overwhelming eloquence 
 and sagacious political discernment, that the Roman 
 States, the States of the Church, have, as their very name 
 indicates, received from Providence, from history, from 
 Catholic Christianity, a special destination, whence result 
 for them special, exceptional, inviolable rights ; and also 
 with some drawbacks, it is true, as everything human 
 has a greatness without a parallel and without a rival. 
 
 Let us recapitulate, and again inquire : How is it that 
 there is still a Roman question ? 
 
 It is easy to see that Mazzini and Garibaldi will not 
 consider the Roman question settled as long as the Pope 
 is at the Vatican. We know what they want. Europe is 
 aware of what their ends are ; and till they gain them, 
 the Roman question, and others too, will be regarded by 
 them as still open. They failed in 1849 : well, they have 
 returned to the charge in 1859; no power, of course, can 
 settle the question for them, if not in their own way. 
 But the case should be somewhat different as regards 
 France and Europe. Why does a question which was 
 examined, discussed, and decided in 1849, recur in 1859? 
 In the great councils of international polity, is there never 
 to be an end to suits, is the law never to be, once for all, 
 laid down? Why should the Roman question receive 
 now a solution directly opposed to that which it so recently 
 received ? 
 
 Once more, what is it that has changed during this 
 short interval of ten years ? Is it principles ? Is it 
 facts ? 
 
 It is not principles : reasons based upon fundamental 
 principles and the very nature of things cannot change 
 so readily. 
 
206 FRANCE; 1849-1859. 
 
 Is it facts ? All the changes in facts that have come 
 about, so far from controverting the solution of 1849, speak 
 in its favour, and render such a solution of the difficulty 
 easier and not less necessary in 1860. 
 
 What are these changes? The insurrection in the 
 Romagna? But in 1849 insurrection had triumphed at 
 Rome and in all the Papal States. Affairs were in a far 
 worse state ; greater obstacles were in the way. The power 
 of the Holy Father has now only to be upheld ; then it 
 had to be restored. The Pope is now at Rome, but in 
 1849 he was a fugitive at Gaeta. 
 
 The political changes in France ? France was then a 
 republic. It was republican hands which were asked to 
 demolish the Roman republic and restore the Pope. Now 
 she is an empire : her government is active, vigorous, and 
 concentrated. It has no assembly to combat; no " Moun- 
 tain" to overawe. 
 
 The general state of Europe? In 1849 Europe was on 
 fire, over a volcano, shaken by endless revolutions. At 
 present it is incomparably calmer. The cause of order, 
 though still threatened, has gained considerable stability ; 
 the friends of order are more numerous, its enemies much 
 weaker. We have gained some grounds at least one 
 would hope so in ten years ; and why should we spon- 
 taneously yield what we have gained ? Are we tired of 
 the little order and peace that we have recovered ? We 
 are, then, to begin over again every ten years : the revo- 
 lutionary principle was overpowered yesterday, only to 
 be let loose upon Europe again to-day ! And it is idle to 
 say : Why, Piedmont is a monarchy, it is not the revo- 
 lution. I shall soon have occasion to study this momen- 
 tous point : for the present I shall merely say, that it 
 cannot be denied that the principle of revolution is 
 triumphing, and that therefore France and Europe are 
 in peril. 
 
 England, indeed, may be indifferent to continental revo- 
 lutions, which have seemed hitherto not to touch her : let us 
 leave her to admire them, to second them, or seek to turn 
 them to account, if she will. But is it desirable for us, 
 
WHY IS THERE STILL A ROMAN QUESTION? 207 
 
 a great continental power, who have suffered so much 
 ourselves, and been the cause of such suffering to others, 
 by our revolutions for the last sixty years, and who have 
 still within our bosom so many revolutionary elements, 
 that the conflagration should burst out again at our doors, 
 when we are so inflammable within ? It was an act of 
 prudence, in 1849, to go to extinguish it at Rome : let us 
 not be so infatuated as to rekindle it in 1860. 
 
 No ; neither the principles put forward in 1849, which 
 are unchanged, nor the facts, which now are more in our 
 favour, justify a reconsideration of the Roman question. 
 The cause has been heard, and the judgment executed. 
 France cannot, after a lapse of ten years, stultify herself, 
 and undo what she has done. 
 
 What, then, can be the cause that has again started 
 the Roman question ? Why are we reconsidering the 
 finah decision we had come to ? The cause is not in the 
 things themselves ; it is not at Rome, nor even in France : 
 it must be looked for elsewhere. I will state what it is. 
 There is still a Roman question, and the interests of 
 religion and society are suffering in Italy, because there 
 is a great revolutionary ambition in Piedmont. 
 
 Nor is this my private opinion only ; the famous pam- 
 phlet, " Napoleon III. et Fltalie," has already said most 
 truly : " The interests of religion suffer in Piedmont : it 
 is urgent, for many reasons, to put a stop, in a Catholic 
 country, to a rupture with the court of Rome, which is 
 an encouragement to revolutionary passions, an affliction 
 and a trouble to consciences, and a real danger to govern- 
 ments." 
 
 Indeed, religious schism and social revolution must 
 necessarily result from such a state of things ; and, as the 
 pamphlet we cite from continues, " it was pregnant with 
 dangers, not only to Piedmont, but to the whole of Italy 
 and to Europe, which it would be the height of political 
 folly to overlook." 
 
 The celebrated pamphlet also called attention to the 
 danger of rousing " the revolutionary element, of letting 
 loose subversive theories and indomitable passions, alike 
 
208 PIEDMONT. 
 
 incompatible with European order, the laws of civilization, 
 religious interests, and the political independence of the 
 Papacy." 
 
 No one could speak more admirably than this ; for my 
 part, I can but commend such counsels ; and in entering 
 upon the historical details which follow, I recur to them 
 with feelings of gratitude. But I do so with sadness too, 
 because they have been unfruitful, and because, in spite of 
 them, a great revolutionary ambition has broken out in 
 Italy, which is alike incompatible with European order, the 
 laws of civilization, and the independence of the Papacy : 
 and this is why there is still a Roman question ! 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 PIEDMONT. 
 
 FIRST PERIOD I HOSTILITY TO THE HOLY SEE LAWS 
 
 AGAINST THE CHURCH RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION. 
 
 IN this long task, nothing has been so painful to me as 
 what I am now entering on. 
 
 Hitherto it has been a consolation to me, though 
 engaged in a painful controversy, to pay homage to, and 
 to feel myself supported by, illustrious men, noble cha- 
 racters, and great actions. In this way, the contest was 
 not without its consolations. But now I must deny 
 myself everything that is cheering, and follow my adver- 
 saries into regions unknown to honour, to dignity, and to 
 justice. I have now to discuss degrading actions, to 
 unmask subterfuges, to reveal the cravings of ambition, 
 and to denounce violence and outrage. 
 
 I shall endeavour to render this sad task as short as 
 possible, and confine myself to the duties of a mere 
 historian. I shall cite facts and dates, without comments ; 
 acts and words, neither more nor less ; in short, I shall 
 
RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION. 209 
 
 record the policy of the Piedmontese ministry for the last 
 ten years all that it has done against the Church, against 
 France, against all the principles of equity which are 
 recognised in Europe. 
 
 It may, perhaps, appear surprising that a French bishop, 
 and a native of Savoy, should write these pages upon 
 Piedmont; I have, however, some right to do so, and 
 perhaps am not doing more than my duty. France is my 
 country. I owe her much, and she is dear to me. 
 Piedmont has not done honour to her alliance, nor kept 
 faith with her. I love and esteem Savoy ; Piedmont has 
 been disquieting it for the last ten years, and has suc- 
 ceeded in alienating it from the noble and ancient house, 
 whose cradle was in Savoy, which bears its name, and was 
 so long an honour to it. I have a second, and still holier 
 country, the Church ; Piedmont is an affliction to her. 
 Eminent men have said, as we have seen in the preceding 
 pages, that Italy is a hallowed land, where every one feels 
 himself the most at home, after his own country, in faith, 
 in sympathies, and feelings. Even the pamphlet, "Napo- 
 leon III. et PItalie," says, " Italy represents in history 
 something greater than a nationality : it represents civili- 
 zation. From this chosen land have sprung the immortal 
 principles and the glorious examples which have formed 
 men and peoples." Well, I am deeply grieved to see that 
 irreligious and anarchical passions are on the point of 
 again causing the ruin of Italy. 
 
 Whatever, then, has been touched by the blighting in- 
 fluence of Piedmontese policy has suffered. Savoy, France, 
 Italy, the Church; all that is most delicate and most 
 sacred, faith and conscience, bear its traces. There was a 
 Pope of whom it was said, " Italian patriotism in him is 
 united to all the virtues of a Christian ; he was worthy to 
 regenerate Italy. Such was his first idea after bis 
 accession : his name was the symbol of liberty, and a 
 warrant for every hope." 1 Well, it is against this Pope 
 
 1 Napoleon III. et 1'Italie. 
 p 
 
210 PIEDMONT. 
 
 that the policy of Piedmont has pronounced and has 
 conspired. Yet he was the Pope who " addressed the 
 Emperor of Austria while the Austrians were carrying on, 
 against the Lombardo-Venetians, a conflict so painful to 
 his patriotism as an Italian prince, and to his heart as a 
 pontiff; and who laid down in these terms the duties and 
 the vocation of Germany : 'We trust that the German 
 people, who feel such a noble pride in. their own nation- 
 ality, will not think that their honour obliges them to 
 sanguinary assaults upon the Italian nation ; but will 
 rather feel it becoming to recognise her nobly as a sister ; 
 and that both our daughters, each so dear to our heart, 
 will agree each to inhabit her own territory, where they 
 shall live a life honourable and blessed of the Lord/" 1 
 All this has been shamelessly forgotten to the gentle and 
 great pontiff, and the future of Italy abandoned to the 
 hazards of the revolution aiy tempest. 
 
 Why has this been so? Who is the evil genius of 
 Piedmont and of Italy ? Who has been the real pro- 
 moter of this deplorable series of attacks upon religion, 
 upon justice, upon all the feelings that are dear to a 
 Christian heart ? Who is he of whom it was just to say, 
 that when he disappears from the scene, the good begin to 
 hope, and the wicked are dismayed ; and that, when the 
 current of revolution wafts him back to it, the good 
 tremble, and the men of anarchy exult? Facts will 
 supply the answers to these questions ; not hidden facts 
 and private documents, but facts and documents of public 
 notoriety, chronicled in all the journals of Europe, but yet 
 which seem strangely overlooked : in them may neverthe- 
 less be traced, in unmistakable characters, the workings of 
 a deep and nefarious plot; and, to use an expression which 
 is not new, but which indicated an acute perception of the 
 real state of things, they demonstrated that ail the acts of 
 aggression against Pius IX. are not the movement of a 
 people, but the work of a conspiracy* 
 
 1 Napoleon III. ct 1'Itnlio. 
 
 2 Message of Prince Louis Napoleon, in 1849. 
 
11ELIGIOUS PERSECUTION. 211 
 
 In what I am going to review here, as to the policy 
 pursued by Piedmont during the last twelve years, I shall 
 distinguish three periods : 
 
 In the first, this policy is concealed, but is being 
 organized; in the second, it unmasks itself; in the third, 
 it explodes. Will Europe sanction the result at which it 
 has arrived? 
 
 However that may be, by the following plain and 
 faithful statement of facts, I shall have defended a sacred 
 and innocent cause ; I shall have proved to the least intel- 
 ligent whether the invasion of the Papal States by an 
 ambitious neighbour dates only from the insurrection in 
 the Bomagna, and who are the true authors of that insur- 
 rection ; whether everything has not been done to stir up 
 impious and anarchical passions in Italy, under the 
 pretence of quieting them by concessions; whether it is 
 not those who exclaim at the state of things in the Papal 
 dominions who have themselves created and maintained 
 it ; whether they have not arrested, by incessant agitation, 
 the reforms and improvements which were, and are still, 
 contemplated and desired by the Pope; in a word, whether 
 any efforts have been spared to swell a few malcontents 
 into a nation of rebels, to change a tranquil and contented 
 people into a revolutionary populace. And I would 
 repeat, I am going now to write history ; so that, if any 
 find that it condemns them, it is not I who am their 
 accuser. 
 
 i. 
 
 Far be it from me to wish to attack Piedmontese insti- 
 tutions, or the natural progress of liberty in a nation, or 
 even their ambition for legitimate aggrandizement. No ; 
 Piedmont forms a part of that noble Italy whose inde- 
 pendence is so dear to us all ; and I shall never consider 
 liberty responsible for the crimes of a nefarious policy, or 
 the crying injustice of its usurpations. I am far from 
 pretending that Piedmont had not an important vocation, 
 both before and after the disaster of Novara. By the 
 natural development of liberal institutions and a growing 
 
 p 2 
 
212 PIEDMONT. 
 
 prosperity, by respecting the rights of others, and by 
 concord and union with the only living greatness of Italy, 
 Piedmont might have placed itself at the head of the whole 
 Italian nation, and have brought about, by such a peaceful 
 and noble influence, the true independence and liberty of 
 the whole Peninsula. But she preferred revolutionary 
 methods. It was from the moment when the liberal 
 movement so generously inaugurated by Pius IX. began 
 to propagate itself throughout the states of Italy, that 
 Piedmont declared war against the Church; and far from 
 drawing closer to Pius IX., became the avowed enemy of 
 the Papacy. As if it were necessary to prepare the way 
 for the usurpation of provinces by the oppression and 
 spoliation of the clergy, the establishment of Piedmontese 
 liberty was the commencement and the signal for the 
 bondage and the persecution of religion in Piedmont. 
 
 When Charles Albert granted his constitution, the 
 Episcopate of the Sardinian kingdom, as was admitted by 
 one of M. Cavour's admirers, M. Chiala, received with 
 approbation the reforms and the constitutional statute. 
 Mazzini himself applauded, on this point, the Piedmontese 
 and Italian clergy. In 1848 he wrote : " The clergy is 
 
 by no means hostile to liberal institutions Do 
 
 not attack the clergy; promise them liberty, and they 
 will side with you." Ricotti and others have said, " II 
 clero si mostrava, e forse era piutosto propenso alia mo- 
 narchia costituzionale." 
 
 How were these sympathies of the clergy for the 
 constitutional monarchy requited? No Piedmontese is 
 ignorant of the laws made by his country against the 
 liberty of Catholics, the liberty of the bishops, against the 
 most unquestionable rights of episcopal authority and 
 teaching, and the most sacred commands of the Church; 
 against the treaties and concordats solemnly concluded 
 with her; against bishops, priests, and religious; even 
 against poor women, the servants of the sick, of children, 
 and of the poor. 
 
 Thus, it was at the moment when the liberty of the 
 press was proclaimed in Piedmont (Oct., 1847) that all 
 
RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION. 213 
 
 acts published by the bishops were rendered subject to 
 the Censure. A year later (Oct., 1848) lay boards are 
 appointed to superintend the schools and the education of 
 youth in general, their powers extending to religious 
 instruction, catechisms, and the choice of spiritual di- 
 rectors ; and it was in virtue of this law that, on the 23rd 
 of October, the minister of public instruction, M. Buon- 
 compagni, since governor of Central Italy, appointed 
 spiritual directors, without consulting the bishops, and 
 replied to the prelates who remonstrated, that if the 
 Episcopate were against him, he had the support of others. 
 In December, 1848, it is decided that the theses for the 
 public examinations in the University of Turin shall no 
 longer be submitted to the bishops for their approbation. 
 
 Continuing to carry out their ideas, the Government 
 attempt, in May 1851, to found a state theology; they 
 propose to subject the diocesan schools of theology to the 
 inspection of government delegates, and to oblige the 
 professors of theology in the ecclesiastical seminaries to 
 follow the programmes of the University of Turin. Now, 
 in this University of Turin, whose teaching is attempted to 
 be imposed upon the bishops, after all checks upon it have 
 been taken out of their hands, a professor of canon law 
 then maintained, among other errors, the following theses : 
 The omnipotence of the state over the Church ; the im- 
 possibility of proving marriage to be a sacrament ; that 
 the Church has no right to pronounce upon the impedi- 
 ments to marriage. The same professor accused the 
 Catholic Church, and particularly the Holy See, of having 
 caused the schism of the East ; and, as if to open the 
 question of the spoliation of the Papal sovereignty, he 
 disserted upon the incompatibility of the Pope's temporal 
 power with his spiritual. The Holy See, the guardian of 
 faith, and of the rights of the Church, condemned this 
 professor by a decree of the 22nd August, 1851. The 
 Papal condemnation, and the complaints of the bishops, 
 had no other effect, as to the culprit, than to move him, 
 in the same university, from the chair of canon law to that 
 of Roman law. 
 
214 PIEDMONT. 
 
 The doctrine proscribed by the Holy See continuing to 
 be taught in the university, the bishops, as was their duty, 
 warned their clergy of it. How did the ministry treat 
 this salutary warning of the bishops ? By a circular 
 (Oct., 1851), in which they signified to all clerks that they 
 could not be appointed to benefices without having fre- 
 quented these universities. 
 
 But all this, and much more, was but the prelude to 
 new and graver changes, and still more audacious mea- 
 sures. I shall only mention the principal : the law which 
 abolished all ecclesiastical immunities, and reduced the 
 number of feasts recognised by law (9th April, 1850) ; 
 the bill relating to civil marriage (12th June, 1852) ; the 
 law suppressing the religious orders, and confiscating their 
 property (22nd May, 1855) ; and the violation of all the 
 concordats. 
 
 What was the intention of the Sardinian Government in 
 all these measures ? What ultimate end was such policy 
 aiming at ? What latent designs animated it, whose pro- 
 motion, it would seem, required to deaden in advance all 
 religious sentiment, and all influence of Catholicism among 
 the people ? We shall see in the sequel. In the mean 
 time, I will merely state the facts, remarking, with a 
 French magistrate, M. Foisset, that they wantonly com- 
 mitted at Turin the grievous mistake of the Constituent 
 Assembly in France, namely, the simultaneous establish- 
 ment of the parliamentary system and of schism; and that 
 in the face of the sympathy which the clergy had expressed 
 for liberal institutions. In a word, they sowed the wind, 
 because they wanted the whirlwind. 
 
 ii. 
 
 But one is not so much struck by what is fatal, irre- 
 ligious, and schisinatical in these measures, as what is 
 almost more painful to observe, the profound duplicity 
 with which the (lovmimcnt acted towards the Holy See. 
 To cuter on such a course without even pretending to 
 negotiate with the Holy See, to declare open war against 
 
RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION. 215 
 
 religion, to break publicly and fully with Home, would 
 have revealed their purposes too clearly ; and this did not 
 suit them. They negotiated, therefore; but during the 
 negotiations, continued to act as if they were a mockery ; 
 not troubling themselves about the word or the honour of 
 their plenipotentiaries which had been pledged, they settled 
 all pending questions in their own way ; they proceeded 
 from encroachment to encroachment, ever gaining ground, 
 never yielding but in appearance, violating past, and ren- 
 dering future concordats impossible. 1 Thus negotiations 
 were proposed by Piedmont to the Holy Father in an 
 official note, dated the 6th of June, 1848 ; and before even 
 resuming the conferences which had been interrupted 
 by the dispersion of the sacred college, and the afflictions 
 and exile of the Pope, they voted the law of the 4th of 
 October. 
 
 Thus, too, after the law of the 25th of August, 1849, 
 which was the first step towards the expulsion of the 
 religious, and the sequestration of their property ; before 
 the Papal protest on the matter, expressed by the Cardi- 
 nal Secretary of State, in an official note dated the 22nd 
 of September, had even been answered; while, in conse- 
 quence of the law of the 25th of April, 1848, relating to 
 the royal exequatur another formal violation of concor- 
 dats the envoys of Piedmont were officially addressing 
 insulting notes to the Holy See ; while other bills, new 
 violations of the rights of the Church, were being pre- 
 sented to the Chamber of Deputies ; it was then (October, 
 
 1 The history of these negotiations has been put forth by the 
 Holy See in an authentic statement, published after the Pontifical 
 allocution of January 22, 1855, which places in its true light this 
 diplomacy, with which the Sardinian Government thought to amuse 
 Rome and the Catholics, without wishing or caring to come to any 
 conclusion, and not meaning the concordats it was negotiating. Is 
 it that peace with Home would have been a hindrance to too many 
 of their schemes? perhaps the annexionist policy felt it necessary 
 first to declare war against the spiritual power before laying its 
 hand upon the temporal. 
 
216 PIEDMONT. 
 
 1849) that Count Siccardi was sent as a special envoy to 
 the Holy Father, to Portici, to inform him that they were 
 ready to resume the negotiations relating to the Con- 
 cordat, but requiring that, previously, the bishops of 
 Turin and of Asti, guilty of having protested against the 
 encroachments of the civil power, should be directed to 
 give up their sees. 1 Canonical reasons rendering it im- 
 possible for the Pope to satisfy the court of Turin upon 
 this head, Count Siccardi left Portici in November, with- 
 out having said anything more about the Concordat. 
 The Holy Father then deputed, himself, to Turin, Mgr. 
 Charvaz, Archbishop of Sebasta, now Archbishop of Genoa, 
 to explain to the king the grounds of his refusal. The 
 king, in his answer to His Holiness (25th of January, 1850), 
 promised him his protection for the two prelates, and 
 stated that, on a more favourable occasion, the nego- 
 tiations touching the Concordat should be resumed. One 
 month later (25th of February), how was the king's word 
 kept? By bringing forward the famous Siccardi bill, 
 relating to ecclesiastical immunities and legal holidays, 
 the reason alleged being, that Rome, having obstinately 
 refused a concordat, the Government were forced to take 
 their measures in consequence ! " 
 
 Assuredly, such conduct was monstrous; and I can 
 understand the Holy Father when he says, as he did a 
 few days ago, " If I had, like St. Peter, the power of 
 striking down men of the character of Ananias and 
 Sapphira, and were I to use it, the Vatican would serve 
 as a tomb for all the diplomatists, who have always come 
 to deceive me/' 
 
 And it should be remembered that all this was done 
 against a Pope who was not only weak and unarmed, but 
 in exile and affliction ! So the bishops of Savoy and all 
 those of Piedmont observed in their address to the king : 
 
 1 Expose des relations diplomatiques. 
 
 - Expose des ncgoeiations suivies entre le Saint-Siege ct le 
 Gouvernement Sarde. 
 
RELIGIOUS PERSECUTIOX. 217 
 
 "To break the concordats made with the Holy See, to 
 take no account of the most solemn treaties signed with 
 it by the august predecessors of His Majesty, and particu- 
 larly by his most pious father of glorious memory in 1841, 
 (Art. 8 of the Concordat of March 27), to unsettle con- 
 sciences, to hurt and grieve all those who desire to live 
 
 and die in obedience to the Catholic Church And 
 
 what moment is chosen for all these violations, this formal 
 contempt of the Church, this open rupture with the Holy 
 See, this commencement of schism? A moment when 
 the Father of Christendom, Pope Pius IX., is exiled from 
 Eome, and is drinking the chalice of sorrow in a foreign 
 land ! " " Perhaps," boldly added the bishops of Savoy, 
 " if treaties with a great European power were in question, 
 more caution would have been employed; those powers 
 have effectual means of making themselves respected ; but 
 Pius IX. has no army, Pius IX. is in exile." 
 
 The Holy Father, however, raised his voice, and by his 
 order the Cardinal Secretary of State, in a protest dated 
 Portici, March 9th, 1850, after calling attention to the 
 readiness the Sovereign Pontiff had shown to open nego- 
 tiations, asked under what pretence important questions 
 had been summarily decided, in a sense directly opposed 
 to concordats ; and a law passed, " the general tendency 
 of which was to deprive the Church of the right of ac- 
 quiring property, which even the constitution of the state 
 secured to her." * They could say, no doubt, that some 
 articles had been communicated to the Holy See ; but 
 that the Holy See might see that this communication was 
 a mere mockery, they took care to inform it at the same 
 time that the decision of the Government was irrevocable. 
 It is true, too, that the Holy See was invited to resume 
 the negotiations relative to the Concordat, but at Turin 
 only, in order, it would seem, that a pontifical representa- 
 
 1 Expose des negotiations suivies entre le Saint-Siege et le 
 Gouvernement Sarde. 
 
218 PIEDMONT. 
 
 tive might sanction, by his presence, the irrevocable deci- 
 sions arid laws against the Church. 1 
 
 The law was passed. In vain it had been proposed to 
 suspend its execution until the negotiations with the Holy 
 See had been concluded ; the amendment was rejected. 
 Anything that tended to pave the way to an accommoda- 
 tion with the Holy See would have been too much opposed 
 to the policy of Piedmont. The joy of the populace and 
 the revolutionary papers was extreme : there were cries in 
 the streets of " The law of Siccardi for ever ! " " Down 
 with the priests ! " 
 
 Soon after this (12th of June, 1852) came the civil 
 marriage bill, introduced by M. Buoncompagni. On the 
 5th of July, this bill was passed by the Chamber of De- 
 puties. The bishops remonstrated, in an address to the 
 Senate, asking if it was just " completely to alter and to 
 cancel, by the sole action of the civil power, rules which 
 had been laid down and mutually agreed to by the two 
 powers, and especially the conventions passed between 
 King Charles Albert and the Holy See in 1836." Poor 
 bishops ! they were still appealing to justice and the laws 
 of nations ! 
 
 The Pope, too, in a letter to the king (19th of Septem- 
 ber), complained that such a bill should have been intro- 
 duced, " while the negotiations were pending, which had 
 been opened in order to satisfy the violated rights of the 
 Church." The bill having met a sharp resistance in the 
 Senate, was withdrawn, to be renewed at a more con- 
 venient time. 
 
 m. 
 
 I pass rapidly over this and many other deplorable 
 transactions ; but the violence offered to the bishops 
 cannot be overlooked. The Archbishop of Turin is seized 
 and dragged before the courts : why ? For having ad- 
 
 1 Expos des negotiations suivies entre le Saint-Siege et le 
 Gouvernement Sarde. 
 
RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION. 219 
 
 dressed to his clergy (18th of April, 1850) a circular, in 
 which he traced for them, according to the laws of the 
 Church, the line of conduct they should pursue. A tribu- 
 nal of three councillors was to decide if there were grounds 
 for a trial. One of them, M. Giriodi, refuses to sit ; three 
 other councillors are named. 1 The trial takes place, 
 and Mgr. Fransoni is condemned to be imprisoned for a 
 month, and to be fined 500 francs ! Upon this, a captain 
 and brigadier of carabineers present themselves at the arch- 
 bishop's palace, and order the prelate to follow them to the 
 citadel of Turin. The archbishop, with his breviary under 
 his arm, is led away prisoner by the officers of justice. The 
 Government would have been better pleased if the prelate 
 had voluntarily quitted the city, and he was formally re- 
 quested by letter to do so. 2 But St. Paul had given him 
 the example of leaving to the authorities the full responsi- 
 bility of carrying out their own decrees ; and Mgr. Fran- 
 soni imitated St. Paul. The bishops of Savoy wrote to 
 the archbishop in his prison : " The principles which you 
 have professed, Monseigneur, are those of the whole 
 episcopate ; they are those of the Catholic Church. Toge- 
 ther with all our priests, we applaud your firmness/' 
 (24th of May, 1850). Nothing was attempted against 
 the bishops of Savoy. 
 
 M. Siccardi having declared in the Senate, on the 16th, 
 that the great majority of the national clergy regarded 
 the law of the 9th of April as a benefit, the archbishop, 
 from his prison, in a letter dated the 19th, contradicted 
 the offensive assertion : " I cannot imagine," said the 
 prelate, " that any one can hazard such a statement 
 within walls which still echo to the solemn protest of the 
 whole episcopal body of the kingdom!" A few days 
 afterwards, all the bishops of the two ecclesiastical pro- 
 
 1 Ami de la Religion, torn, cxlviii. p. 39. 
 
 2 See in the Ami de la Keligion, torn, cxlviii. p. 76, the minister's 
 letter and the noble answer of the archbishop. See also the admi- 
 rable letter of the clergy of Geneva to Mgr. Fransoni. 
 
220 PIEDMONT. 
 
 vinces of Turin and Genoa protested in their turn. 
 " Knowing," say they, " that the immense majority of 
 the ecclesiastics of our respective dioceses are, through 
 the mercy of God, closely united in opinions and senti- 
 ments with their bishops, as well as with the Roman 
 Pontiff, the supreme head of the whole hierarchical order, 
 we consider ourselves bound in conscience to declare that 
 we fully adhere to the protest of the Archbishop of Turin, 
 dated the 19th of May, and published in the journals," 
 The signatures follow of the seventeen bishops of the two 
 provinces, and that of the vicar capitular of Genoa, the 
 see being vacant. The bishops of Savoy did the same. 
 
 Before long, Monseigneur Varesini, archbishop of 
 Sassari, guilty of the same offence as the archbishop of 
 Turin, suffers the same treatment. " He, too, was 
 accused of having traced out to his clergy the conduct 
 they should follow, for the security of consciences, rela- 
 tively to the anti-canonical laws, and was judicially 
 summoned before the court of justice of Sassari. After- 
 wards, a warrant was issued for his arrest, which was to be 
 put in execution by armed force." (Note of Cardinal 
 Antonelli to the Charge d' Affairs of his Sardinian Majesty. 
 The Vatican, 26th June, 1850.) The bishops of Saluzzi 
 and Cuneo having written to the same effect as Monseig- 
 neur Fransoni, the Piedmontese Government intimated to 
 them that they must retract; if not, the courts were 
 ordered to seize the property of their sees. (Gazetta del 
 Popolo, cited by the Ami de la Religion, t. cxlix., p. 247.) 
 
 On the 7th of August, 1850, the archbishop of Turin is 
 again seized by carabineers, and thrown into the prison of 
 Fenestrelles, where the memory still lived of Cardinal 
 Pacca and other confessors of the faith, the glory of the 
 Church. There Mgr. Fransoni is kept in close confine- 
 ment, his vicar-general is forbidden to write to him, and 
 he is only allowed to speak to his secretary and his 
 servant in the presence of a carabineer. Very shortly, 
 one outrage preparing the way for another, prayers and 
 lamentations even are regarded as crimes; as Tacitus says, 
 Liber gemitus non fuit : a chaplain of the prisons had 
 
RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION. 221 
 
 recommended to pray for the archbishop ; he is dismissed 
 without a moment's warning. Finally, the 25th of Sep- 
 tember, 1850, Mgr. Fransoni is condemned to banishment, 
 the revenues of the archbishopric of Turin are sequestrated, 
 and the Catholics are not even allowed to send to the 
 illustrious exile a testimonial of their sympathy and their 
 grief. On the 18th April, 1851, the police of Genoa make 
 a search on board the steamer Castor, and seize upon a 
 chalice and a mitre which some Catholics were sending to 
 the proscribed archbishop. 
 
 Nor is he the only one who has to suffer imprisonment 
 and exile for the holy cause of the Church : in the same 
 year, 1851, Mgr. Marongini, archbishop of Cagliari, is in 
 his turn arrested, despoiled of his property, and condemned 
 to exile. The exile of these two archbishops has now 
 lasted ten years, as all Europe knows, and all Catholics 
 deplore ; and there are at the present moment fifteen sees 
 vacant in the Sardinian states, either by the death or 
 exile of their prelates : by death, and that for a long time, 
 the sees of Alexandria, Alba, Fossano, Sarzana, and more 
 lately Aosta, Annecy, Vigevano, on the continent and 
 Nuovo, Ogliastro, Ampusia, and Tempio, Bosa, Bisarcio, 
 in Sardinia ; and by exile, those of Turin and of Cagliari 
 for ten years, and the see of Asti for one year. Fifteen 
 bishoprics vacant out of forty-one that is, over a third ; 
 and without the Holy See having once refused canonical 
 institution ! 
 
 However, the attacks of the revolutionists against the 
 clergy are redoubled. The chamber of deputies rings 
 with accusations against the bishops. 1 Government cir- 
 culars threaten the priests, and place them all under the 
 surveillance of the police ; the most odious measures are 
 directed against them ; the clergy are even accused as 
 accomplices in the riots caused by the scarcity of corn ; 
 
 1 Particularly in the meetings of June 10, 1848, August 22, 1849, 
 February 15, 1850, January 10, 1853, and many others. 
 
222 PIEDMONT. 
 
 they are pointed out as objects for the indignation of the 
 populace ! 
 
 A confidential circular of the intendant of Aosta (3rd 
 division, most confidential circular No. 3) is posted up, 
 in an excess of zeal, by a syndic, an ardent democrat : 
 <c I have to direct you to observe carefully whether any 
 pastorals, or any notices of the kind, should be published 
 or distributed, either publicly or clandestinely ; and if any 
 body, without distinction of persons, should let fall obser- 
 vations savouring of insubordination from the pulpit. In 
 any such case, you will inform me of it without delay ; 
 you will likewise inform the magistrate of the place, and 
 order the immediate arrest of the author of such discourse/' 1 
 "Disturbances had taken place in different towns; a popular 
 demonstration had been made against Count Cavour, at 
 Turin, on the 18th October, 1853, and the elections were 
 coming on. Count Cavour publishes, on the 21st of 
 October, a circular calling for a statistical return of all 
 convents ; threatening that if any foreign religious was 
 not given accurately in the list, to have him instantly 
 arrested arid conducted to the frontier. And, in another 
 circular (27th Oct.), the clergy were accused, not confi- 
 dentially, but publicly, of having taken part in the riots 
 relative to the scarcity of corn, and were held up to the 
 vigilance of the police. " The syndics are aware that 
 certain extreme parties are seeking to foment disorders, 
 under pretext of the rise in the price of corn. In some 
 cases the pastors of souls, instead of confining themselves 
 to their ministry of peace and charity, have been carried 
 
 away by party passions The syndics should 
 
 act, "in this respect, with due vigilance and zeal. The 
 
 priests must be carefully watched "Words 
 
 should 1)0 taken down, facts recorded, and the law officers 
 should indict. In the more serious cases, the ministers of 
 religion should be immediately arrested." 
 
 In this way the popular irritation was to be diverted 
 
 Ami dc la lleligion, torn, cxlviii. p. 90. 
 
RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION. 223 
 
 from Count Cavour. The police act according to these 
 instructions ; priests are arrested on all sides, though often 
 released after a precautionary imprisonment, the charges 
 against them being declared void. Thus the Abbe 
 Gagliardi, Lent preacher at Mondovi, was imprisoned for 
 two months, and afterwards declared innocent, on the 
 17th of March, 1850; thus the preacher, Louis Piola, was 
 arrested on the 13th of September, and set free after forty- 
 five days of unjust confinement ; thus the priest who 
 administered the parish of Malanghero was imprisoned 
 from May till September, and then declared innocent ; 
 and fifteen priests of the valley of Aosta were accused of 
 having fomented riots, while it was proved on the trial 
 that, on the contrary, they had only interfered in order to 
 pacify the people. The Armenia, of 20th December, 1859, 
 contains the long list of the ecclesiastics who had been 
 falsely accused and unjustly imprisoned. 
 
 And while bishops are being exiled and priests im- 
 prisoned, while the acts of the bishops are stigmatized in 
 parliament, and the whole clergy placed under the sur- 
 veillance of the police, the impious and revolutionary press 
 is allowed to propagate insults of unparalleled effrontery 
 against the clergy, the Pope, and religion in general. 
 That religion which the constitutional statute declared to 
 be the religion of the state is continually outraged, shame- 
 lessly and with impunity : at Turin, sermons are inter- 
 rupted by hisses ; parodies of the Via Crucis, of the 
 Stabat Mater, turn our most august mysteries into 
 derision ; the complete works of the most scandalous 
 writers are published, with obscene engravings; a " Letter 
 of St. Peter," " Spiritual Exercises for the Clergy," 
 " Pius IX. before God/' " Dom Pirlone," &c., are pub- 
 lished. . . . The Pope is represented at the theatre and 
 at balls, in the company of abandoned women ! An ass's 
 head is drawn, crowned with the tiara; the Pope is repre- 
 sented wrestling, nearly naked ; with a thousand other 
 insults. And while the revolutionary papers were thus 
 attacking religion in the most abominable language, and 
 the most obscene caricatures, and were not even interfered 
 
224 PIEDMONT. 
 
 with, as the Bianchi Giovini or were acquitted, as had 
 been the Strega and the Lanterna del Diavolo, a Catholic 
 paper, the Campana, was condemned; and the Armenia, 
 the Courrier des Alpes, the Cattolico of Genoa, &c., were 
 suspended. Assuredly,, M. Sawzet, in his celebrated pub- 
 lication upon marriage, in 1853, had grounds for addressing 
 this severe language to Piedmont : " Some fatal influence 
 seems to have blighted Piedmont ; the art of engraving 
 seems to vie there with that of printing in corrupting the 
 people by their abominations." 
 
 In vain did the Holy Father, in a letter to the King of 
 Piedmont (19th Sept., 1852), remonstrate with Victor 
 Emmanuel on these scandalous excesses. The ministry 
 continued its course, taking good care not to give the Pope 
 any satisfaction ; a war against religion, and hostility to 
 Rome, answered too well the purposes of their ambitious 
 policy. As if the insults of the theatres and of the streets 
 were not enough, M. Brofferio whom the Government 
 afterwards supported as their candidate, in opposition to 
 the excellent M. Revel applauds the demonstration of 
 the mob of Nice against the bishop ; and exclaims, in the 
 chamber of deputies, " Let us show these haughty prelates 
 that the people, too, have their thunders and anathemas." 
 
 Of course, in such relations with Rome, the offering of 
 a gold chalice and paten, which the princes of Savoy had 
 always presented to the Holy See for the feast of St. Peter 
 and St. Paul, was suppressed. Ancient courtesies were 
 now out of the question ; a very different line of conduct 
 was now imposed, by a minister who was himself grand- 
 nephew of St. Francis of Sales, upon the son of the pious 
 and chivalrous Charles Albert, the royal heir of the illus- 
 trious house of Savoy. 
 
 \ Cry different ideas prevailed now : a policy was being 
 carried out which called for great resources, and would 
 call for still greater. The treasures and the reserve of 
 Charles Albert were exhausted. The Government was 
 short of money. The Sardinian clergy was not, indeed, 
 rich; they had already contributed to the expenses of 
 several revolutions ; still, however, they had something, 
 
RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION. 225 
 
 and could not be allowed to retain it ; for the great finan- 
 cial resource of the revolutionary principle is always the 
 same spoliation. On the 29th of November, the Courrier 
 des Alpes contained a letter to the following effect : " It 
 is alarming to see the forty millions voted last session 
 already gone, before the end of the year, and a fresh loan 
 spoken of. The want of money is hurrying the operations 
 of the commissioners for regulating ecclesiastical property ; 
 it is stated that the final and complete expulsion of the 
 Oblates of the Consolata is but the prelude to similar 
 proceedings against all convents and churches which 
 possess riches." 
 
 I will not speak of the financial measures, which were 
 only the prelude to this plan of spoliation ; of the tax, 
 equivalent to a tenth of their net revenue, put (31st 
 March, 1851) upon all houses and buildings of the clergy 
 and religious, except rural buildings and those intended 
 for worship; 'nor of the tax of half per cent, imposed 
 (23rd May) upon charitable and benevolent institutions, 
 and of four per cent, upon all other religious establish- 
 ments ; nor of the special tax, called mortmain, which the 
 same law charged all the possessions of the Church. Nor 
 shall I dwell upon the secularization of the royal econo- 
 mate, arbitrarily effected, in contempt of two concordats 
 (13th August, 1853) ; nor upon the circumstance that the 
 municipal council of Chambery were obliged (March 2nd, 
 1852) to vote unanimously the suppression, in the muni- 
 cipal accounts, of the part of the salary of the clergy due 
 by the government ; finding Inat it violated, besides 
 treaties, the engagements by which, on becoming possessor 
 of the Church property which was not alienated in 1814, 
 it undertook to become responsible for the expenses of 
 Divine worship. 
 
 I have still graver facts to record. The 21st of March, 
 1853, a law takes from the bishops and invests the Crown 
 with the right of 'regulating the number of young clerks 
 exempted from the conscription. I have been myself 
 witness, in the diocese of Annecy, in Savoy, to the dis- 
 astrous effects of this measure. Another decree (May 23, 
 
 Q 
 
226 PIEDMONT. 
 
 1853) renders the brothers of the Christian Schools- 
 liable to military service, thus opposing an almost insur- 
 mountable obstacle to the recruitment of these zealous 
 teachers of the children of the people. The exiled arch- 
 bishop not being on the spot to protect his seminary, the 
 property of the ecclesiastical seminary of Turin is seques- 
 trated (March 10, 1854) ; the archbishop, in banishment, 
 remonstrates to no purpose. They were judicious in 
 banishing people before seizing their property. 
 
 On the] 15th of October, 1852, M. Ratazzi applauded 
 the Carthusians of Collegno for having, with true Christian 
 charity, temporarily given the spare part of their house 
 to accommodate some insane patients; on the 10th of 
 August, 1854, the minister turns them out of doors. The 
 Carthusian fathers, having been expelled without notice, 
 were received in a private house : thus, but for private 
 charity, they would have been left in the streets. And 
 so were expelled in turn the religious of the Consolata 
 and of St. Dominic, the priests of the mission of St. 
 Vincent of Paul at Casal, the Oblates of Pignerol, the 
 Servite fathers of Alexandria, who had just sent two of 
 their number to Genoa to replace four other fathers who 
 had perished in attending the victims of the cholera. In 
 vain did the Holy See with which negotiations were 
 still pending address to the court of Turin an eloquent 
 protest against such persecutions, : it was listened to now 
 as little as on former occasions. 
 
 Even women were not jpared. In the beginning of the 
 year 1853, an edict had Abolished an ancient and peaceful 
 benevolent institution, buried in the mountains of Savoy, 
 the Sisters of Charity, known by the name of Ladies of 
 the Compassion, whose occupation was to teach poor 
 children, and to attend the sick. Thus the nuns of the 
 Holy Cross were, expelled from their convent by cara- 
 bineers, at night, on the 18th of August, 1854. " I thank 
 God," wrote the abbess, " that none of my daughters died 
 in the street." Some years before (Augest 25, 1848), the 
 Ladies of the Sacred Heart had been proscribed through- 
 out the Sardinian dominions; all their houses had been, 
 
RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION. 227 
 
 dissolved, their pupils dispersed, and their property, 
 whether in land or money, confiscated to the public 
 treasury. 
 
 All this having been arbitrarily effected, the religious 
 having previously been plundered and expelled, it was 
 considered well to promulgate a law, to justify, legalize, 
 and consummate all these iniquities. On the meeting of 
 the Chamber of Deputies (November 25, 1854), the 
 ministry introduced a bill for the suppression of religious 
 communities and corporations, and the sequestration of 
 their property. This law, as unconstitutional as it was 
 unjust, put the seal to the long series of violence and spolia- 
 tion committed by the Piedmontese government. It was a 
 law based on the most false and fatal principles : for it 
 disallowed to the Church the right of property, a right 
 which even pagan governments had not disputed to her; 
 for, as we have already said, whenever paganism allowed 
 to the Church the right of existing, it also allowed to her 
 the right of possessing ; so essentially co-related are these 
 two rights. 
 
 The debate was a long and stormy one, and will be remem- 
 bered as one of the most memorable in the parliamentary 
 annals of Sardinia ; the success of the bill was long uncer- 
 tain. It was denounced by the most solemn protests of the 
 bishops and of the Holy See, and combated in parliament 
 by influential members. The bishops offered to make a 
 generous compromise; but it was carried at length by 
 means of a stratagem. Among the speakers who de- 
 fended the religious orders and the rights of property, 
 M. Revel and M. Solar della Margarita displayed the 
 highest courage and eloquence. M. Kevel, formerly 
 minister of Charles Albert, called attention to the fact 
 that, in the 29th article of the Statute (the Constitution) 
 which says, "All property, without exception of any 
 kind, is inviolable," the words, without exception of any 
 kind, which are found in no other constitution, had been 
 introduced by the king chiefly for the purpose of securing 
 the property of ecclesiastical establishments. And M. 
 Revel added these words, which caused a profound sensa- 
 
 Q2 
 
228 PIEDMONT. 
 
 tion in the Assembly : " Most certainly, gentlemen, if 
 King Charles Albert, whose portrait is before us (here the 
 speaker raised his voice), if King Charles Albert had known 
 how men would one day dare to interpret his intentions 
 and his actions, he would have drawn back that hand which 
 he is stretching out there to swear fidelity to the consti- 
 tution ; yes, gentlemen, he would have drawn it back." 
 
 In the Senate, the old Marshal de la Tour and the 
 Marquis de Brignole supported the cause of right with all 
 the weight of their high reputation. But all these noble 
 efforts were without effect ; the law, modified by a com- 
 mittee of the Senate, was passed by the two chambers, 
 and immediately sanctioned by the king (May, 1855). 
 
 Thirty- five religious orders were proscribed ; 7,850 re- 
 ligious were deprived of their property. Neither the learned 
 orders, nor the charitable; neither the humblest, nor the 
 most illustrious, were spared. Piedmont possessed a noble 
 institution, the Academy of the Superga, the greatest school 
 of ecclesiastical learning in the kingdom, founded by the 
 discerning liberality of her kings; it was suppressed. The 
 religious of Hautecombe had been the guardians of the 
 tombs of the house of Savoy ; the post was a sacred one, 
 but it was not respected. 
 
 'IV. 
 
 I should be wanting to the truth and the dignity of his- 
 tory if I did not say that bold voices were raised to protest 
 against such misdeeds; an energetic resistance was made, 
 as we have seen, in the Sardinian parliament ; the deputies 
 of Savoy showed an unswerving fidelity to the cause of 
 honour and religion; and I am happy to render this 
 homage, after so many afflicting details, to these generous 
 advocates of the contemned rights of the Church. 
 
 On the 6th of May, 1854, Count Solar dclla Margarita 
 summed up in an eloquent speech all the grievances of 
 the Catholics, and I will quote from it what follows : 
 
 "What is the state of our relations with the Holy Sec? We 
 must say what we think on this subject, lest our silence be inter- 
 
RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION. 229 
 
 preted against us, and lest it be pretended that we do not dare 
 loudly to proclaim the sentiments of the numerous part of the 
 nation who feel grieved by an antagonism between the Church and 
 the State. A real peace with the Holy See, and the recognition of 
 the principle now so audaciously denied, that concordats with Rome 
 have equal force and oblige equally with treaties made with other 
 powers, nothing but this, I say, can quiet the just and deep alarm 
 of those who ask if this Catholic country is rushing into schism. 
 Brave against a sovereign who has neither numerous subjects nor 
 an army, whose sole defence is the justice of his cause, which is our 
 cause too, his enemies multiply their acts of hostility : they con- 
 tinue a war against him, which, by the perturbation it creates, 
 really involves evils not less terrible than do those wars where blood 
 and gold are poured out like water. In such a conflict easy victories 
 are gained : but what are their results ? Troubles and discord in 
 all classes, in all ranks, throughout the whole country. 
 
 " While the radicals of Switzerland are persecuting the Church, 
 the pretended defenders, the so-called guardians of our liberty, do 
 not hesitate to imitate them, and while parading their toleration for 
 all other sects, they raise against us the standard of religious 
 intolerance. The statute guarantees the liberty of the individual ; 
 but the liberty of the individual does not exist for those who belong 
 to the Church. The statute guarantees the rights of property ; but 
 this right is ignored for the property of the Church. The statute 
 establishes the equality of all before the law ; but, in contempt of this 
 principle so solemnly proclaimed, the archbishops of Turin and 
 Cagliari have been banished, and still are in exile. I have done. I 
 am unwilling to prolong these sad details, and to unroll before 
 you the long history of these evils. I do not wish to renounce all 
 hope ; as long as a ray of hope is left, I will hope." 
 
 Unfortunately, this last ray of* hope was soon quenched ; 
 affairs only grew worse, and the long parliamentary debates 
 of 1855 had the sad issue which we have related. 
 
 To conclude. 
 
 Laws against the Church, concordats violated, sham 
 negotiations ; the violent execution of the law pronouncing 
 the suppression of convents and religious congregations ; 
 the tyrannical measures against so many religious and 
 ecclesiastics; the neglect of the Government in paying' 
 the clergy the pittance necessary to their bare support ; 
 the clergy so impoverished that I have seen numbers of 
 priests in Savoy obliged to borrow money to buy bread, 
 
230 PIEDMONT. 
 
 some having received nothing for a year, others for 
 eighteen months; and that a Sardinian paper stated, 
 " We know of curates who receive yearly, in compensation 
 for tithes which have been suppressed, but 50 or 60 
 francs ; " the prolonged and multiplied vacancies of epis- 
 copal sees ; the obstacles offered to the nomination of 
 canons; the deplorable education bill introduced by M. 
 Lanza ; the repeated imprisonment of priests ; the circu- 
 lars of M. Eatazzi, particularly that against the letter of 
 the bishop of Ivrea relative to sacrilegious robberies in 
 churches ; finally, the odious accusations of M. Cavour in 
 the Chamber of Deputies against the clergy; all these 
 facts, and many others, superabundantly demonstrate the 
 sad and incredible obstinacy of Piedmontese policy in its 
 hostility against the Church. 
 
 This avowed and flagrant hostility was a scandal and a 
 profound affliction to the Catholics of that state, the 
 delight of the anarchists, the triumph of the enemies of 
 religion : the Avenir de Nice of the 10th February, 1855, 
 contained these fearful words : " Piedmont has quite 
 gained my heart since I see her make war upon the 
 black gowns. The wretch has been but very imperfectly 
 crushed by Voltaire. The business must be finished. At 
 all events, it is a comfort to us to see crowned heads 
 setting about this difficult task. Piedmont just now is 
 giving an excellent example." It must be said that such 
 language reveals the peril, as well as speaks the shame, of 
 the government which provoked such homage. And the 
 famous pamphlet Napoleon III. et V Italic was right in 
 calling the policy of Piedmont " an encouragement to 
 revolutionary passions, an embarrassment to consciences, 
 a real and grave danger, not only to Piedmont, but to 
 Italy and the whole of Europe." 
 
 That Piedmont has not shrunk from evoking these 
 perils ; that it has obstinately continued its persecution 
 of the clergy, and its encouragement of revolution ; that 
 it has trampled upon all that is sacred in the pursuit of 
 the objects which its ambition coveted, these are facts 
 but too clearly established, and which history will lay to 
 
CONGRESS OF 1856. 231 
 
 the charge of those who were guilty of them. But what 
 were the objects and the grounds of such policy? What 
 final results did it aim at? What were its real motives 
 in breaking with Rome, laying hands on the property of 
 the Church, persecuting the priests, expelling the religious, 
 while it made common cause and linked itself more and 
 more closely with the revolution? Was Mazzini right 
 when he wrote, so far back as 1846, " Piedmont will enter 
 on the right path, from the prospect of the crown of 
 Italy" ? 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 PIEDMONT. 
 
 SECOND PERIOD : CONGRESS OF 1856 ; MEMORANDUM OF 
 COUNT CAVOUR, AND ITS CONSEQUENCES. 
 
 I. 
 
 HOWEVER it may be as to the anticipations of Mazzini, 
 all that we have seen having been effected, and these anti- 
 religious schemes having been carried into execution, the 
 ground appeared sufficiently prepared. Having, then, 
 kept the Holy See and the Papal states in alarm for eight 
 years ; having welcomed all the malcontents and refugees 
 of Italy; having fomented agitation and disturbance by 
 irritating language and fatal encouragement of every de- 
 scription ; having grieved the Holy Father by so many 
 outrages, and tricked him by so much pretended negotia- 
 tion, on the 27th of March, 1856, Count Cavour thought 
 the opportunity favourable, and brought public accusa- 
 tions against the Pope before Europe, in such terms, that 
 the Times declared that nothing said at a Puritan meeting 
 in Edinburgh or Belfast could go further than the diplo- 
 
232 PIEDMONT. 
 
 matic representations now solemnly made by a Catholic 
 and Italian state. And the Times was right. 
 
 In fact, Count Cavour asserted that the Papal govern- 
 ment was radically bad, and incapable of real or genuine 
 reform. He stated " the difficulty, or, to speak more cor- 
 rectly, the impossibility, of a complete reform of the Papal 
 government suited to the needs of the -times and the 
 reasonable wishes of the people." In order the better to 
 prove his assertion, he, of all people, ventured to accuse 
 the insincerity and duplicity of the Papal government, 
 and to declare that it would seek and find a way never to 
 effect its promised reforms, and to elude the beneficial effects 
 of any new arrangement which miyht be come to. " It is 
 evident/' he added, "that the court of Rome will resist to 
 the last, and by every means in its power. It may, indeed, 
 accept in appearance civil and even political reforms, 
 reserving to itself to render them illusory in practice." He 
 asserted, in short, that the pontifical government was 
 intolerable, "a permanent cause of disorder in Italy, a 
 scandal and a peril to Europe ; " and he hoped " that the 
 congress would not separate without taking. all this into 
 serious consideration, and devising a remedy for it." 
 
 These charges, and the principles of Count Cavour's 
 memorandum, evidently aimed at the total extinction of 
 the Papal power, of the clerical yoke, the clerical domina- 
 tion, as he called it; for a power which is a permanent 
 cause of disorder and anarchy I quote his own words 
 a power which places a country in a deplorable situation, 
 which only grows worse ; which is for ever repudiated by 
 its own subjects ; which is opposed to any improvement ; 
 which only apparently favours anything good, and is ready 
 to use any means to elude <nxl nullify desirable reforms; 
 a power which, even if it had the will, is radically inca- 
 jxible of any reform suited to the needs of the .times, and 
 the just desires of its people ; a power which is a source of 
 perturbation to the tranquillity in Europe, a scandal to 
 Europe, a focus of disorder in the centre of Italy ; a power, 
 in fine, whose cMtf ntpportl are such, that if they arc left 
 to it, it is in danger of perishing, and that they cannot 
 
CONGRESS OF 1856. 233 
 
 be removed without undermining and upsetting it, is clearly 
 a power which cannot continue to exist, and must dis- 
 appear. However, Count Cavour, as yet, only proposed 
 the separation of the provinces bounded by the Po, the 
 Adriatic, and the Apennines, under the government of a 
 pontifical lay vicar. But he took care to observe that 
 such a solution could be but temporary. He could not 
 flatter himself that such an arrangement could last long : 
 it must necessarily one day bring on another, which at 
 that time lie did .not venture to hint at, but which is now 
 disclosed. In the mean time it will, said he, "pacify those 
 provinces, give a legitimate satisfaction to the popular 
 demands, and in this way secure the temporal government 
 of the Holy See, and do away with the necessity of a per- 
 manent foreign occupation" 
 
 And that no argument might be withheld from the con- 
 gress, and that his representations might gain the favour 
 of the revolution, Count Cavour threw out the most odious 
 and calumnious accusation against the Holy See : 
 
 " Never were the galleys and the prisons more crowded 
 with political offenders ; never was there a greater number 
 of outlaws ; never were more cruel measures carried out, 
 as is proved superabundantly by what is taking place at 
 Parma. Such a government must necessarily keep the 
 people in a state of continual irritation and revolutionary 
 fermentation. Such has been the state of Italy for these 
 seven years." 
 
 u. 
 
 Of course, we are not taking a purely retrospective view 
 of history, without any reference to present affairs, and the 
 late rising in the Legations : we are rather pointing out the 
 true and evident causes of the evils which soon followed. 
 It would surely show but little acquaintance with the his- 
 tory of revolutions, it would be to estimate inadequately 
 the effect of words and actions, not to feel what excitement 
 such language must have created among a people, and 
 what fuel it must have added to the revolutionary passions 
 
234 PIEDMONT. 
 
 of Italy. Was this, as M. Walewski said himself who 
 committed, by the way, the grave error of bringing before 
 the congress, as its president, the affairs of the Pope, 
 who had no one there to represent or to defend him was 
 this to dissipate the clouds which still darkened the political 
 horizon ? Or, according to the fears expressed by the 
 representative of Prussia, who maintained an impartial 
 attitude on this question, was it not rather " to provoke in 
 the country a spirit of opposition and revolutionary agita- 
 tion, instead of seconding the good ideas and intentions 
 which had been attempted to be realized? " Mr. Gladstone 
 declared, too, in the British Parliament, that the policy 
 contained in the protocol tended, not to clear up the poli- 
 tical horizon, but, on the contrary, to accumulate fresh 
 storms. Count Buol also replies later to Count Cavour, 
 in a sharp note (18th May, 1856) : " The enemies of 
 society will not cease their warfare against the legitimate 
 governments of Italy, so long as they find powers which 
 back and protect them, and statesmen who appeal to those 
 passions and those efforts which aim at the overthrow of 
 all authority/' 
 
 M. Massimo d'Azeglio himself, afterwards military 
 governor of the Romagna, was far from fully approving, in 
 the Piedmontese senate, of the memorandum of the 27th 
 of March : tf I must confess that I have some doubts as 
 to the advantages expected from the proposed arrange- 
 ment of separating the Legations from the Papal states. 
 What is to be done with the remainder of those states ? 
 Must the other provinces renounce all hope of reforms ? 
 You are proposing, on the one hand, to establish order 
 and concord, and on the other, are sowing the seeds 
 of rivalry and dissension. In my opinion; these things 
 should be left to the action of time ; allow this action to 
 operate freely in politics, as the gradual action of the sun 
 produces its effects upon the fruits of the earth." (Sitting 
 in May 10, 185(1.) 
 
 As regards international relations, the memorandum of 
 Count Cavour was not more to be regretted than the 
 favour which it found with the congress, though it was 
 
CONGRESS OF 1850. 235 
 
 not accepted unconditionally. The congress in this con- 
 tradicted itself, and laid down a most serious precedent 
 in European politics. te By a series of inconsistencies as 
 striking as unlocked for," remarked M. de Montalembert, 
 " the rights of nations, which had been so nobly vindi- 
 cated in the East, were slighted in the West. Powers 
 equally independent and sovereign with the deliberating 
 powers, but who were unrepresented, and had not even 
 received notice of the character in which they were to be 
 made to appear, were placed on their trial before them. 
 It is proclaimed, in the most solemn manner, on the 18th 
 of March, that none of the contracting powers has a right 
 to meddle, individually or collectively, in the relations of 
 any sovereign with his subjects, nor in the internal ad- 
 ministration of his states ; and the next day the congress 
 constitutes itself the judge of the conduct of these absent 
 potentates, and gives a most improper and wide-spread 
 publicity to its criticisms on their authority, and its 
 censures of their conduct. It begins by asserting the 
 principle of the essential independence and autonomy of 
 sovereigns; to the advantage of whom? of Turkey, which 
 till then had never been recognized as one of the Euro- 
 pean family of nations. Then, with the same pen which 
 had just signed this singular innovation, whose propriety 
 was unquestionable, and which had been sealed with the 
 blood of thousands of Christians, the congress records in 
 its acts a violation of the universal, fundamental, and sacred 
 principle; and to the detriment of whom? of the most 
 ancient and legitimate sovereignty in the Christian world, 
 whose very weakness should secure for it the most scru- 
 pulous deference and the most delicate reserve. 
 
 The protocol of the 8th of April created a sensation in 
 all the parliaments and journals of Europe. 
 
 Count Cavour cannot have been serious in complaining, 
 in his note of the 16th of April, of the little attention 
 which the congress had paid to the Roman question ; in 
 deploring " that the assembly, towards which the eyes of 
 Europe were directed, had separated, not only without 
 having in the least relieved the distresses of Italy, but 
 
236 PIEDMONT. 
 
 without having held out beyond the Alps a single ray of 
 hope calculated to tranquillize people's minds, and to 
 encourage them to suffer with resignation." The encou- 
 ragement which he received from the British and Pied- 
 montese parliaments, and the applause of the anarchical 
 journals, proved clearly enough the fatal success of the 
 memorandum, how well its import had been understood, 
 and what hopes it had elicited beyond the Alps, and 
 among the revolutionists of Europe. It is known what 
 acclamations welcomed it in England, and what anti- 
 Catholic virulence was displayed on the occasion in her 
 press and parliament ; nor have the odious words of Lord 
 Palmerston been forgotten, in which he commends the 
 Mazzinian government of the Roman republic in 1848 as 
 superior to that of Pius IX., declaring that the holy city 
 had never been better governed than during the absence 
 of the Pope. History cannot forget such language, and 
 posterity will unite with the present generation in repro- 
 bating it. 
 
 In Piedmont, Count Cavour gives an exulting account 
 of his conduct to the Chamber of Deputies on the 7th of 
 May, and to the Senate on the 10th. The Senate pro- 
 nounces the following resolution : " The Senate, con- 
 vinced of the happy results which must follow the treaty 
 of Paris, both as to civilization in general, and the esta- 
 blishment of order and tranquillity in the Peninsula, and 
 fully sensible of how far the policy of the king's govern- 
 ment, and the conduct of the plenipotentiaries at the 
 Congress of Paris, have contributed to bring about such 
 desirable results, votes its entire satisfaction." 
 
 But to catch the real import and bearing of Count 
 Cavour's proceedings at the congress, one should consult 
 the contemporary numbers of the democratic journals of 
 Piedmont, and sec what was their triumph and exultation. 
 " The protocol of the 8th of April is the first spark of an 
 irresistible conflagration," said the Risuryinu'nto, Count 
 Cavour's own paper. The avowal was a frank one at 
 least. " For the first time," said the Opinione, " a diplo- 
 matic congress has admitted the wrongs of governments, 
 
CONGRESS OF 185G. 237 
 
 and justified the indignation of the people/' " We are 
 again espousing the cause of the revolution !" exclaimed 
 approvingly // Cittadino d'Asti, a ministerial paper. 
 Another, 77 Tempo di Casale, added : " Italy should rise, 
 without waiting any longer for succour from European 
 governments." " If the Italians think they can reconcile 
 themselves to their present condition, well; if not, let 
 them revolt ! " exclaimed // Diritto di Torino. " Let 
 them rise, and take care to accept no compromise with 
 the power they revolt against, whatever its nature may 
 be/' repeated the Italia e Popolo of Genoa, in its 113th 
 number. 
 
 As to Count Cavour, he stated that he was ready to 
 give any explanation which might be desired, hinting, 
 however, that he would have to pass over in silence certain 
 things, whether from the delicate nature of the questions, 
 or to avoid compromising, by imprudent disclosures, 
 certain negotiations, which had not been yet concluded. 
 He named the 6th of May for any questions which de- 
 puties might wish to put to him. On that day, the 
 minister, according to the expression of an Italian paper, 
 sowed the dragon's teeth, and delineated the programme, 
 whose realization we have now witnessed. He said that 
 he had presented a note upon the situation of the Pope's 
 states, which had been cordially received by England, and 
 accepted by France. " But/' he added, " France is 
 obliged to proceed with caution, for the Pope is not only 
 the temporal sovereign of a state of three millions of 
 people, but also the spiritual sovereign of thirty-three 
 millions of French subjects." The deputy Lorenzo 
 Yalerio, speaking of the language used by Count Cavour 
 , in this sitting of May 6th, exclaimed, " Our words, and 
 words of a far higher* importance those of the President 
 of the Council will certainly be heard out of this assembly, 
 and even on the other side of the Ticino. Neither 
 frontiers, nor the bayonets of the police agents which 
 hem in the other provinces of Italy, can arrest their 
 progress." 
 
 Count Cavour made a similar speech in the Senate, on 
 
238 PIEDMONT. 
 
 the 10th of May : it was such, that M. Massimo d'Azeglio 
 thought it necessary to recommend the Italians not to 
 revolt yet. " Our debates," said he, " our journals, and 
 all that we say here, pass the frontiers, frustrate the vigi- 
 lance of the police, and are read elsewhere with perhaps 
 more avidity than at home/-' It is notorious that M. de 
 Cavour and the Piedmontese agitators had thousands of 
 copies of the speeches then uttered in the Senate and the 
 Chamber pf Deputies immediately struck off, and dissemi- 
 nated throughout all the provinces of Italy, along with 
 other revolutionary tracts, such as the " Piccolo Cor- 
 riere ; " they were sent under cover, as letters ; also a 
 protest printed with the title of " Last Protest of the 
 Italians." The Romagna was inundated with them. 
 
 in. 
 
 The leaders of the revolution, feeling that their time 
 was drawing near, and that M. de Cavour had prepared 
 the way, began to trace out their plan. A sketch of it 
 was found in the papers of Manin (" Manin et PItalie," 
 Pagnerre, 1859). 
 
 In case of a war, of France and Piedmont against 
 Austria, " nothing must be done to displease Piedmont 
 or France, whatever its government may be. For instance, 
 as long as the Pope is maintained at Home by the French 
 arms, we can attempt no insurrection there, as this would 
 oblige us to combat our ally ; but if France should decide 
 on overthrowing the Pope, we will second her with all our 
 heart." "The arms of the insurrection should be joined, 
 but not confounded, with the French and Sardinian arms." 
 Daniel Manin also wrote from Paris to the Diritto 
 ' ' Agitate ! agitate ! " 
 
 To feed and maintain the agitation, addresses and 
 presents to Count Cavour were thought of: the revolu- 
 tionists of Tuscany presented him with a bust, and saluted 
 him as the avowed champion of Italy; those of the Papal 
 States, Farini and Mamiani at their head, presented a gold 
 medal to the count, accompanied by an animated address. 
 
CONGRESS OF 185G. 239 
 
 And the count received all these demonstrations with 
 thanks and encouragement. 
 
 From Paris Manin continued his correspondence with 
 Turin; and it is instructive to peruse his letters. The 
 programme which he then sketched, on the banks of the 
 Seine, was The Unification of Italy : Victor Emmanuel II. 
 king of Italy! Manin was disposed to spare the Pied- 
 montese monarchy, for a time, " because it has resisted the 
 eternal enemies of Italy, the Pope and Austria." (Letter 
 of May llth, 1856.) And he continued : " Agitate ! 
 agitate ! Agitation is not exactly insurrection, but it pre- 
 cedes and paves the way for it Harass the enemy 
 
 with a thousand pricks of needles, while waiting for the 
 moment when vou can stab him to the heart with the 
 sword/' (Letter of May 23rd.) Again, on the 28th of 
 May, he wrote : " The revolution is practicable in Italy, 
 and perhaps very near !" But he cautions the Romans : 
 " While there is a French garrison at Rome,, Rome should 
 attempt nothing." 
 
 On the 8th of July, it was proposed to the parliament 
 to fortify Alexandria " An eloquent evidence of the new 
 and patriotic tendencies of Piedmont," said the People's 
 Gazette (llth of July, 1856). The measure was introduced 
 by M. Norberto Rosa, and approved and seconded by Count 
 Cavour, as also the subscription for a hundred cannon for 
 Alexandria, a subscription in which all Italy was to take 
 part. " The Memorandum of M. de Cavour," said 72 
 Cittadino d'Asty, " has given a vigorous impulse to agita- 
 tion, and now we have only to take care that it does not 
 flag, and to keep it up till the decisive day arrives." "When, 
 on the night of the 25th of July, 1856, a band of insur- 
 gents left Sarzana to provoke a rising in the duchy of 
 Modena, the Maga di Genova of the 29th of July de- 
 fended the attempt, on the authority of Count Cavour : 
 " Did not M. de Cavour state in parliament, in his Memo- 
 randum and in his verbal notes, that if things continued 
 as they are much longer, the Sardinian government would 
 consider itself bound to join with the revolution to rescue 
 Italy ?" The Italia e Popolo of July 30th, 1856, in its 
 
240 PIEDMONT. 
 
 defence of the conspirators of Sarzana, writes : " It will 
 be remembered that after the memorable parliamentary 
 discussion, the Sardinian government, in order to re- 
 kindle the fire which slumbered in the other provinces of 
 Italy, had the speeches of Cavour and Bufta printed and 
 disseminated in thousands throughout the duchies, the 
 Romagna, Lombardy, Naples, and Sicily. Nay, it excited 
 by its emissaries the inhabitants of these states ; and the 
 words, ' Long live Victor Emmanuel ! ' were written 
 on the walls and doors of houses at Carrara by Pied- 
 montese agents. Still more flattering and more explicit 
 assurances were given to the partisans of Piedmontese 
 rule who came to Turin." 
 
 On the same occasion, 77 Risorgimento } a paper founded 
 by Count Cavour, writes : " The revolution will never 
 take place in Italy, unless the people are assured of the 
 assistance of Piedmont. It is, therefore, important to 
 keep up among them a firm confidence that behind the 
 people in revolt will be found the Piedmontese army." The 
 same journal continues : " The moment the revolution 
 breaks out in any part of Italy will be the signal for a 
 universal conflagration. Austria will interpose, and Pied- 
 mont then will have a right to interfere, in order to 
 counterbalance the preponderance of Austria, and it will 
 not interfere alone. Such is, in our opinion, the only 
 possible solution of the Italian question." 
 
 Such was the way in which Count Cavour, on his 
 return from the Peace Congress, calmed people's minds, 
 pacified the populations, ameliorated the anomalous condi- 
 tion of the Papal States, secured the temporal power of the 
 Holy See, rendering it independent of foreign support, and 
 remedied the disorder and anarchy of which he accused 
 the Pope's power as the permanent cause! Such were the 
 methods he adopted to insure the security and tran- 
 quillity necessary to a government from which he called 
 for reforms ! 
 
 I know nothing of politics, or the artifices or secrets of 
 politicians ; but if politics arc not altogether foreign to 
 all justice, all truth, all honesty, and all hpnour, I would 
 
CONGRESS OF 1856. 241 
 
 demand what name is to be given to the conduct which 
 we have been depicting. Yon accuse the Holy See ; you 
 accuse it in its absence, before all Europe ; you dwell 
 upon what you call its anomalous position. But, I ask, 
 was, and is, not Europe bound injustice to examine what 
 are the real causes of this anomalous position, who are 
 its promoters, and who are really guilty ? I ask, if it is 
 not just to inquire whence the revolutions spring which 
 nicmmce the Pontifical power, and if you are not your- 
 selves, as Lord Norman by expresses it, guilty of high 
 treason against the Holy See, against the rights of Catholics, 
 and the laws of European justice? And to enter into the 
 details of your accusation, you speak of secularization and 
 the Code Napoleon, and you pretend thus to explain to 
 Europe the revolutionary perils which threaten the Holy 
 See; but was not the government which fell in France, in 
 1848, a secularized government, such as you demand at 
 Rome, and which enjoyed the blessings of a Code Na- 
 poleon ? and did this prevent its fall ? Is it not clear to 
 the most humble capacity, that it is your own revolu- 
 tionary manoeuvres for the last ten years, and not the 
 want of a Code Napoleon at Rome, that have caused the 
 dangers which prompt your lamentations before Europe? 
 
 Is not Europe still bound, in strict justice, to con- 
 sider whether, instead of encouraging the agitation of 
 populations, of denouncing governments, and of pro- 
 voking insurrection everywhere, contrary to the com- 
 monest political prudence and honest}'', it would not be 
 better to maintain treaties and the faith of Europe which 
 has been solemnly pledged ; and to fortify, once for all, 
 by a collective, effectual, and solid protection, the Papal 
 power, precisely because it is weak, menaced, and neces- 
 sary ? 
 
 Ah, no ! that was not what you wanted at the congress. 
 You were not particularly anxious to see the reforms you 
 called upon the Pope for : they would have been in your 
 way ; and accordingly you declared, and rendered them 
 at the same time impossible. Why, reforms fully adapted 
 to the reasonable wishes of a people, reforms perhaps too 
 
242 PIEDMONT. 
 
 extended and too liberal for a people to whom they were 
 strange, had been conceded before the French occupation. 
 Who rejected these reforms, and rendered the occupation 
 necessary? The revolution; the most unjust, base, and 
 ungrateful of revolutions. What has fettered, for ten 
 years, the good-will and generous intentions of the Holy 
 Father? The revolution, encouraged and fomented by 
 you, a revolution which your support has raised into a 
 standing institution. And what renders necessary, at the 
 present moment, the French occupation, which the Pope 
 himself had asked France to withdraw a year ago ? The 
 revolution which publicly burst forth, on the same day as 
 the war, under your auspices. 
 
 In fact, while M. Cavour was keeping up an agitation 
 in the Papal provinces, by the occult and incessant opera- 
 tions of his agents, while he was thus directly contributing 
 to the perpetuation of a state of things which he had 
 himself so harshly and bitterly denounced as anomalous, 
 another result of his diplomatic aggressions was to embitter 
 the relations of Piedmont and Austria; and to bring about 
 a war, in which his alliance with France and his engage- 
 ments with the revolutionists justified him in hoping for 
 success. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Undoubtedly, as I have before remarked, Piedmont 
 might have played a happier part, and taken on her a 
 nobler office. As Ca3sar Balbo said, " As an honest 
 family earns for itself a good reception and rights of 
 citizenship in a town, so Piedmont should moderate her 
 ambition, and content herself with being received as a 
 respectable member of the great European republic. 
 Nowhere, I am convinced, was it easier to establish a free 
 monarchy. For Piedmont is a Catholic and monarchical 
 land ; anarchy lias there no roots, nor any real power." 
 
 To this upright course, M. Cavour preferred violence 
 and anarchy. Immediately after the Congress of Paris, 
 the first words of Count Cavour in the Sardinian Cham- 
 bers, as we have seen, intimated clearly enough that, the 
 
CONGRESS OF 185(5. 243 
 
 Eastern question having been hushed, if not settled, the 
 Italian question was soon to take its place, and to convulse 
 and appal the world still more. In his note of April 16, 
 he said, almost in a tone of menace, " Convinced that 
 they have nothing more to expect from diplomacy, or the 
 efforts of the Powers who affect to take an interest in their 
 fate, the Italians will incorporate themselves, with their 
 southern ardour, in the ranks of the revolutionary and 
 subversive party ; and Italy will become anew a focus of 
 conspiracies and strife." We shall see, by-and-by, when 
 treating of the plot of Genoa, in what sense Mazzini un- 
 derstood these words. 
 
 Whatever their true sense, however, it is certain that 
 from that time men, whose names notoriously belonged to 
 the revolution, began to flock into Piedmont, where they 
 met with the most gracious reception from M. Cavour. 
 Mazzini had an organ there, V Italia e Popolo. It would 
 appear that he resided himself in Piedmont, where he 
 made, at times, terrible denunciations; he revealed, for 
 instance, that a certain Italian refugee, naturalized in 
 Sardinia, member of parliament, knight of the order of 
 St. Maurice and St. Lazarus, was a regicide, who had 
 attempted to assassinate Charles Albert, in 1833. The 
 man who had recommended this refugee to Mazzini had 
 formerly been president of young Italy, and now lived at 
 Turin, where he was a ministerial deputy, had received 
 decorations, and held a professorship in the university. 
 Farini, the author of the revolutionary proclamations at 
 Rimini, in 1844, was also at Turin, and enjoyed the inti- 
 macy and favours of the government, which named him 
 dictator after the insurrection of Parma ; his later dis- 
 tinctions are notorious enough. Terenzio Mamiani, the 
 suit instituted against whom at Naples, in 1849, proves 
 him to have been one of the chiefs of the revolution in 
 Italy, was likewise a ministerial deputy, and now is 
 minister of public instruction at Turin. I have been told 
 myself, by French officers, that about half the officers in 
 the Piedmontese army were refugees. I will not do more 
 than mention Garibaldi. 
 
 R 2 
 
244 PIEDMONT. 
 
 And it was the minister who welcomed and promoted 
 such men that accused the Pontifical government before 
 Europe as a permanent cause of disorder and' anarchy. 
 And the representative of England seconded such accusa- 
 tions ! And Lord Palmerston repeated them in the British 
 parliament, in language yet more odious ! Naturally enough, 
 the revolution, finding itself so powerfully supported, began 
 to hatch new plots at London and Genoa. An English- 
 woman, an enthusiastic admirer of Mazzini, organized at 
 Genoa the unhappy revolt of June 29, 1857 ; the shock of 
 which was felt at Leghorn, and which the conspirators of 
 the Cagliari attempted to propagate at Naples. 
 
 The Piedmontese government prosecuted the conspi- 
 rators, but Mazzini raised his voice in their defence; the 
 Italia e Popolo published a letter from the chief of the 
 revolution to the judges of the Court of Appeal at Genoa, 
 a letter most galling to the ministry, who brought it before 
 the courts ; but in vain, a verdict of acquittal was given. 
 Mazzini, in this letter which was Implicitly sanctioned 
 by the judgment of the court accused the Piedmontese 
 ministers of pursuing a tortuous and Machiavelian policy ; 
 and designate/1 them, with impunity, as conspirators, and 
 the abettors of conspiracies. His words are : 
 
 " I have already exposed the tortuous and Machiavelian 
 policy of the government. It is my duty to insist further 
 upon* this point. The government has played the part of 
 an instigating agent. The Sardinian government is at 
 times the enemy, at others the manipulator, of the revo- 
 lutionary clement conspirator and persecutor by turns. 
 
 " Conspirator, as often as it fears to see the Italian 
 party slip completely from its grasp, as often as it sees any 
 likelihood of a disturbance in some other part of Italy, as 
 often as the republican element seems to gain ground. 
 Conspirator, as far as suits its purposes, on the one hand 
 to excite people's minds by some visionary project, or to 
 appear to favour what is threatening to become a reality; 
 on the other, in order to be' able to say, in case such a 
 hope is realized, I was with you ! and to become master of 
 the movement. Persecutor, on the contrary, as often as 
 
CONGUESS OF 1856. 245 
 
 a failure affords it an opportunity of weakening more and 
 more that fraction of the party which will not be governed 
 by it; and thus to put in a claim to the favour of 
 absolute governments, which but yesterday it affected to 
 threaten." 
 
 But the Genoese agitator did not content himself with 
 accusing the ministry, he brought forward proofs and 
 facts; and the jury considered the testimony of Joseph 
 Mazzini as of great weight in a question of conspirators 
 and conspiracies. He continues : 
 
 " This monarchico-Piedmontese conspiracy lives, or 
 rather agitates in Italy, with no other object but that 
 already pointed out, to thwart every attempt at insurrec- 
 tion, or to appropriate to itself any which may succeed ; 
 yet still it continues its intrigues, through its travellers 
 and agents, with obstinacy and duplicity; it carries on 
 intrigues, after a diplomatic fashion, with centres of pro- 
 pagandism and agitation, which I could indicate, with the 
 names arid details. Monarchico-Piedmontese committees 
 exist at Rome, Bologna, Florence, and several cities of 
 the Lornbardo- Venetian kingdom ; and there are second? 
 ary centres in several other towns. I could name to you 
 the persons, several of them deputies, who are the agents 
 between the poor dupes and the personages of the govern- 
 ment. These intrigues scatter in profusion as before 
 1848 encouragements to trust in the house of Savoy, 
 advice to moderate and delay all popular movements, 
 sometimes throw out hints of the deep designs of the Sar- 
 dinian government, and always hold forth hopes. At 
 times, when the impatience of the dupes, at nothing being 
 done, threatens to break out, they distribute little medals 
 and organize subscriptions. The conspiracy fraternizes 
 with foreig;n pretenders, and I could mention the names 
 of some who are going to Savoy, with a recommendation, 
 to offer their homage to Murat. But it is not only to 
 him, who is Italian at the bottom of his heart, -and in 
 whom one feels confidence at first sight," &c. 
 
 Of course, we leave the responsibility of these allega- 
 tions and facts to Joseph Mazzini, who published them, 
 
246 PIEDMONT. 
 
 and to the Genoese jurors, who have, in some sort, con- 
 firmed them, by declaring not guilty the letter in the 
 Italia e Popolo ; but can such revelations be read without 
 sad and -absorbing interest, and even without awe ? It is 
 difficult not to admit the conclusiveness of Mazzini's 
 argument in what follows : 
 
 " The agitation created by the men of the government 
 is to us nothing but a snare ; but it debars them, and you 
 too, gentlemen, if you are honest, from the right of 
 accusing or of punishing. 
 
 " Suppose that one of the individuals against whom the 
 public accuser is calling for the severest penalties were to 
 rise and say, Gentlemen, for what do you propose to 
 punish me ? I have but reduced to practice the reiterated 
 suggestions of your government. I have but attempted to 
 procure for it the opportunity which it has sought, to give 
 effect to the longings it has been uttering for ten years, 
 through its agents and its semi-official organs. Was it 
 not the minister who pronounced these solemn words : 
 Great solutions are not effected with the pen ? Diplomacy 
 is powerless to change the condition of a people, it can but 
 sanction accomplished facts ? Did not his journals impress 
 upon us that the Memorandum was intended to insinuate 
 a deeper meaning than it expressed ? You tell me that 
 all this was mere words ; that he who uttered them did 
 not intend that they should be embodied in facts ; in 
 short, that the minister was deceiving both Italy and 
 diplomacy. Well, what is that to me ? Am I guilty, 
 because, touched by the sufferings of my brethren, and 
 called upon by the friends of humanity, I thought it my 
 duty to prepare to put in practice the creed inculcated on 
 mt; by the minister, and which was ratified by the voice of 
 my own heart ? Which, do you imagine, has acted most 
 uprightly? The minister who, beginning by rousing and 
 stimulating our feelings, draws back, and soon after 
 confirms, in other words, the treaties of 1815; or I, who, 
 embracing his first declarations, was preparing to seal 
 them with my blood, and was marching to join the first 
 champions of the war of emancipation? Judges, .what 
 could you answer to such an appeal ?" 
 
CONGRESS OF IS.*)*). 247 
 
 
 
 The conspirators of the 29th of June were condemned 
 nevertheless : but the jurors did not find the words of 
 Joseph Mazzini guilty. As for us, while we respect the 
 first sentence, we may, for the same reason, accept the 
 second. 
 
 Some months after the insurrection at Genoa, on 
 January 14, 1858, we had another terrible revelation, the 
 bombs of Orsini, manufactured in England, burst at the 
 emperor's feet in Paris, and elicited long and deep sen- 
 timents of horror. The English people were irritated by 
 what they thought the dictatorial tone of the French 
 government; but they also showed, only too clearly, by 
 their determination to maintain a law which guaranteed 
 the impunity of assassins, by the scandalous acquittal of 
 Simon Bernard, the accomplice of Orsini, and the expres- 
 sions of popular approbation which were showered on him, 
 the sympathy which is felt, across the Channel, for those 
 whose object is to set the continent in a flame. The 
 letter and the will of Orsini were published,, and disclosed 
 strange revelations. 1 
 
 Piedmont, however, persisted in its warlike attitude ; a 
 mysterious journey of Count Cavour to Plombieres, and 
 his interview with the Emperor Napoleon, were the sub- 
 ject of much curiosity. Certain words, also said to have 
 
 1 The Siecle of February 28, 1858, published a letter written by 
 Orsini from his prison to" the emperor. The conspirator says : 
 " I conjure your majesty to restore to Italy the independence which, 
 her children lost in 1849, by the fault of the French. May your 
 majesty remember that the Italians, and my father among the rest, 
 shed their blood joyfully for Napoleon the Great, wherever he 
 chose to lead them ; that they were faithful to him up to his fall ; 
 that so long as Italy shall not be independent, the tranquillity of 
 Europe and that of "your majesty will be but a chimera." Orsini 
 did not even ask for an armed intervention : " Do I ask that, to 
 deliver my country, the blood of the French should flow for the 
 Italians ? No, I do not go so far. Italy asks that France do not 
 interfere against her ; she asks that France do not allow Germany 
 to support Austria in the conflict which will probably soon com- 
 mence." 
 
248 PIEDMONT. 
 
 been pronounced by King Victor Emmanuel, at a review, 
 assisted in exciting apprehensions. 
 
 Still, notwithstanding the mysterious secrecy of the 
 Plombieres interview, the evident helplessness of Pied- 
 mont, by itself, seemed calculated to allay misgivings; 
 and calm, if not security, had revived in Europe, when, 
 all at once, at the official reception at the Tuileries on 
 the 1st of January, 1859, some words addressed by the 
 emperor to the Austrian ambassador informed Europe 
 that the relations of France with that power had altered. 
 
 These words echoed like a clap of thunder in a calm 
 sky ; the Bourse took the alarm ; public opinion declared 
 against war with extraordinary energy and unanimity. 
 People would not believe it, because they thought it im- 
 possible ; they foresaw the most alarming contingencies, 
 before which, as they recollected, even the republic of 
 1848 had recoiled. 
 
 In England, the ministry and the opposition agreed in 
 deprecating the intervention of our arms in Italy, and in 
 appealing to treaties; and Lord Derby, on the 3rd of 
 February, in the House of Lords, sharply animadverted 
 on the policy of Piedmont ; and declared that her simple 
 and natural course was to attend entirely to her internal 
 improvement ; and instead of maintaining an army quite 
 out of proportion with her territory, to trust for her 
 defence to the sympathies of Europe, and to the treaties 
 in virtue of which she held her states, as Austria did hers. 
 
 The Catholics were not blind for an instant to the con- 
 sequences of the Italian war, namely, an explosion of 
 revolution in Italy, and peril to the Papal power : " They 
 who would urge France upon such a course/' wrote 
 M. de Falloux (February 25, 1859), "are neither friends 
 to the Imperial government, nor to Italy. They are the 
 
 friends and accomplices of European demagogy 
 
 Can we forget that those who now advocate so warmly 
 French interposition beyond the Alps, arc the very men 
 who opposed it ten years ago by every means in their 
 power, because it would have then favoured the Pope's- 
 authority ? No ; it is not the counterpart of the expedi- 
 
CONGRESS OF 18~)(>. 211) 
 
 tion of 1849 that they demand from the Imperial govern- 
 ment ; they want their revenge upon the president and 
 the votes of a free assembly." We know now whether 
 the forebodings of M. de Falloux have been justified by 
 events. 
 
 Amidst such general alarm, and so general a manifesta- 
 tion of opinion, the French government assumed a pru- 
 dent and reserved attitude, endeavouring to calm men's 
 minds and restore confidence. 
 
 On the 7th January, a note appeared in the Moniteur, 
 tending to quiet the emotion created by the emperor's 
 words to the Austrian ambassador: "For some days 
 public opinion has been troubled by alarming rumours, 
 to which the government feels itself bound to put an end, 
 by declaring that there is nothing in our diplomatic rela- 
 tions to justify the fears which such rumours tend to 
 excite." And the emperor, in his address at the opening 
 of the legislative session (7th February, 1859), pronounced 
 himself these words : " The excitement which has been 
 displayed, without any appearance of imminent danger, 
 justly surprises, for it bespeaks an excess, both of distrust 
 and dismay. Far from us be false alarms. Peace, I hope, 
 will not be disturbed." 
 
 But the king of Sardinia, on the contrary, had inaugu- 
 rated the opening of his parliament by warlike language : 
 " Strong in the experience of the past, let us resolutely 
 
 meet the contingencies of the future Our position 
 
 is not devoid of danger, since, while we respect treaties, 
 \ve cannot be insensible to the cry of grief which rises 
 upon our ears from every part of Italy." 
 
 A Milanese refugee, M. Correnti, who had been chief 
 secretary to the government of Milan in 1818, was com- 
 missioned to reply to the royal speech, in the name of the 
 Chamber of Deputies : " Sire," said they, " the elective 
 chamber, encouraged by your approbation and your 
 advice, wishes to offer the only thanks which are worthy 
 of you, namely, to second with promptitude and unanimity 
 the noble resolutions which have been matured in your 
 mind, as they have been in the desires of the nation. 
 
250 PIEDMONT. 
 
 The whole nation will rally round you, and show that it 
 has learnt the antique secret of reconciling the obedience 
 of the soldier with the liberty of the citizen." 
 
 Some days later, the Sardinian chambers voted a new 
 loan of fifty millions of francs, proposed by Count Cavour, 
 in anticipation of the war. Refugees flocked into Piedmont 
 from Lombardy, and every point of Italy. The declara- 
 tion of M. 'Cavour at the congress was being accom- 
 plished : " The Italians will incorporate themselves, with 
 their southern ardour, in the ranks of the revolutionary 
 and subversive party." Piedmont organized them as 
 volunteers; all Austrian deserters were welcomed and 
 enrolled, and Garibaldi (March 20) swore allegiance, as 
 general, to Victor Emmanuel. 
 
 Austria replied to these preparations for war by con- 
 centrating troops in Lombardy ; and Europe continued to 
 negotiate to the clash of arms. While Piedmont and 
 Austria, in the diplomatic notes of Count Cavour and 
 Count Buol, mutually reproached each other with provo- 
 cations and aggression ; while England was attempting to 
 interpose; and Russia was proposing a congress; while 
 the various cabinets were discussing the programme and 
 the conditions of the future congress ; while public opinion , 
 in alarm and agitation, was floating, according to the 
 varying phases of diplomacy, from peace to war, and from 
 war to peace, the war at length suddenly broke out, and 
 at the same instant the revolutionary movements, all 
 arranged beforehand, exploded in the states of Central 
 Italy. 
 
 This, too, was but the realization of the prophecies and 
 lamentations of M. Cavour at the Paris congress. It is 
 rcrffiin that the irritation, though lulled for a time, ivill 
 break out again with more violence than ever. The world 
 saw at length kindle into flame those sparks of conspiracy 
 and disorder, so loiii^ kq>t in, and so skilfully fanned, 
 which the least European commotion would swell into a 
 devouring conflagration. 
 
251 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 PIEDMONT. 
 THIRD PERIOD REVOLUTIONARY VIOLENCE. 
 
 A MOST serious question here presents itself: one which 
 France is bound in equity, and Europe in prudence, to 
 consider. 
 
 It is a question which has already received a sufficient 
 answer in the last two chapters ; but it is one of such a 
 character, and relates to so flagrant a violation of the 
 rights of peoples, as well as of those of sovereigns, that we 
 think it necessary to propound it again, in order again to 
 answer it, more thoroughly and decisively. 
 
 What was the real cause of the revolutionary explosions 
 which simultaneously took place in Italy ? Was it the 
 war ? Or was the war simply the unhappy occasion, and 
 Count Cavour their principal and culpable author ? 
 
 Ought we to view in them a spontaneous expression of 
 the people's wishes ? Or had all that we have seen been 
 organized long beforehand, by underhand intrigues and 
 darkly-laid plots? And, at the time, were they not, under 
 the auspices of our victories, and, as it were, under the 
 protection of our flag, violently provoked by foreign agency, 
 and carried into effect by emissaries of Piedmont ? 
 
 Whether should we consider them, in fairness, as a 
 genuine popular and Italian movement, or as the violent 
 triumph of a faction, and the tyrannical domination of a 
 Piedmontese dictatorship ? 
 
 When the populations were called upon to pronounce, 
 were they permitted to do so freely ? Or did not the 
 dictatorship which had been imposed on them, and the 
 pressure of the revolutionary party, anticipate and stifle 
 any expression of different sentiments ? In a word, first 
 in the insurrections, and afterwards in the ostentatious 
 exhibitions of popular suffrage, was not justice glaringly 
 
252 PIEDMONT. 
 
 violated, and the people made a tool of? Whether was it 
 the voice of the nation or that of the agitators that was 
 heard ? Will there not rest for ever a twofold stigma 
 upon all these transactions the foreign provocation, and 
 the revolutionary oppression ? 
 
 The official despatches of the French ambassador at 
 Rome, in 1849, stated that the great majority of the popu- 
 lation ware opposed to the movement which we were 
 combating; and that the Romans were influenced by the 
 immediate terrorism of bands of foreigners. In this 
 respect, was it not in 1859 as in 1849 ? 
 
 Well, I affirm, and mean to prove, that the Pope, in 
 his consistorial allocutions and his last Encyclical, had 
 good grounds for calling attention to and cond'emning the 
 odious plots of native and foreign agitators, and pointing 
 out by means of what men, what money, and what support, 
 the late revolts had been effected, while far the greater 
 part of the population remained as if thunderstruck. Nor 
 was it groundlessly that a note of the Holy See asserted 
 again (12th July, 1859), " Facts take place daily, before 
 the eyes of the Holy Father and his government, which 
 argue a behaviour more and more outrageous on the part 
 of the Sardinian cabinet towards the Holy See; and evi- 
 dently reveal an intention to deprive it of an integral part 
 of its temporal dominions. Piedmontese officers are 
 introducing thousands of muskets and cannon, to arm the 
 rebels and volunteers, to augment the disturbance of the 
 revolted provinces, and the audacity of the enemies of 
 order." 
 
 No ; Piedmont, which now claims the benefit of these 
 insurrections and the annexation of the provinces, could 
 not, as the Emperor Napoleon has done in the case of 
 Savoy, declare to the great Powers that it has arrived at 
 such an aggrandisement neither by military occupation, 
 nor by encouragements offered to revolt, nor by under- 
 hand intrigues. (Speech at the opening of the Chambers, 
 March 1, 1860.) 
 
 Piedmont has done quite the contrary. Its hand has 
 been in all these revolutions. It has organized, provoked, 
 
REVOLUTIONARY VIOLENCE. 253 
 
 and hurried them on ; and that contrary to the declared 
 wishes of France, which it has disregarded ; in opposition 
 to so many declarations of the emperor, which have not 
 even stayed its hand an instant ; and in the face of our 
 flag and our victories. 
 
 Such is the grave question which here forces itself upon 
 France and upon Europe, and to which palpable facts 
 furnish a most convincing answer. But in order fully to 
 see this, we must enter into details ; exhibit carefully the 
 French policy, as it is given in official documents ; as well 
 as the conduct of Piedmont, represented by its notorious 
 and public actions. 
 
 Undoubtedly, it will one day be a matter of astonish- 
 ment for historians how an all-powerful ally can have had 
 so little influence over a power which owed it everything, 
 and would have been powerless without it. For my part, 
 without attempting to solve this problem, I shall confine 
 mvself to the collection and arrangement of the facts. 
 
 I. 
 
 We have just heard the revelations of Mazzini touching 
 that monarchico-Piedmontese conspiracy, which had its 
 centres of action at Bologna, Florence, Parma, and all over 
 Central Italy ; but perhaps Mazzini, and the jurors who 
 would not condemn him, may not be considered trust- 
 worthy. 
 
 Well, we will produce something that may : the diplo- 
 matic notes of Count Cavour, and his speeches in the 
 Sardinian parliament. We have seen how these notes and 
 speeches were distributed throughout the duchies and the 
 Romagna, in order to keep up the agitation and disturb- 
 ance which are the forerunners of revolution. We have 
 seen the attitude adopted by the Piedmontese government 
 and its journals, pointing to the sword of Piedmont glit- 
 tering behind the popular movements. Still, up to this, 
 nothing overt or tangible had been done. 
 
 Now, however, we shall see the campaign opened, 
 disguise thrown aside, pre-arranged schemes boldly carried 
 
254 PIEDMONT. 
 
 into practice; and all this in a manner as notorious as it 
 was opposed to all international law and justice. 
 
 Instructions are sent (March 1, 1859) to the heads of a 
 society in the different states of Italy, which, as is well 
 known, covered all Italy before the war, the National 
 Italian Society ; l their import was as follows: 1. Before 
 hostilities have commenced between Piedmont and Austria, 
 you are to rise to the cry of " Italy for ever ! Victor 
 Emmanuel for ever!" 2. Wherever the insurrection 
 triumphs, he among you who enjoys most public esteem 
 and confidence is to take the military and civil command, 
 with the title of provisional commissioner, acting for King 
 Victor Emmanuel, which he is to retain till the arrival of 
 a commissioner sent by the Sardinian government. Who 
 signed these instructions, or rather this programme, which, 
 as we shall see, was so literally carried out in Italy during 
 the war? A Piedmontese general, Garibaldi; also La 
 Farina, another revolutionist, who had been covered with 
 honours by the Piedmontese government. 
 
 At Florence, in what locality was the plot, or rather the 
 unparalleled treason, matured, which issued in the corrup- 
 tion of the grand-duke's troops and his abdication ? In 
 the very house of the Sardinian ambassador, M. Buoncom- 
 pagni, who since has governed in the name of Piedmont, 
 Florence and the states of Central Italy. Here, then, 
 was an ambassador, accredited at a sovereign's court, con- 
 spiring against him, and turning his embassy into the 
 head- quarters of the conspiracy ! By what name would 
 such conduct be called in any civilized nation ? Well, it 
 was publicly, in the British parliament, that Lord Nor- 
 manby, ambassador at Florence, called attention to this 
 odious fact : 
 
 " Immediately after the expressions used by the em- 
 peror of the French to the Austrian ambassador, meetings 
 of the party called ' Constitutionalists/ or ' Piedmontese/ 
 began to be held at the house of the Sardinian minister in 
 
 1 M. de Riancey, Madame la Duchesse de Parme et les derniers 
 6v6nements. 
 
REVOLUTIONARY VIOLENCE. 255 
 
 Tuscany, and a set of pamphlets were circulated among 
 the subjects of the grand-duke by the persons attending 
 these meetings ; besides, the most numerous and active 
 attempts were made to seduce the allegiance of the 
 Tuscan troops. 1 
 
 " There have been various accounts of the disposition of 
 the Tuscan troops in favour of Piedmont ; " but, in fact, it 
 was so unfavourable, that, since the withdrawal of the 
 grand-duke, the Piedmontese government had threatened 
 them with decimation, to prevent them from returning to 
 the allegiance of the prince regnant." 3 
 
 To the evidence of Lord Normanby we may add that 
 of Mr. Scarlett, the representative of Great Britain in 
 Tuscany and at Parma, who forwards the following details 
 to his government, on the 29th April, 1859, that is to say, 
 two days after the revolution at Florence : 
 
 " The Piedmontese minister, Signer Buoncompagni, 
 seems to have been the first leader and director of the 
 late revolt. He was constantly, I am informed, going to, 
 and receiving instructions from, the Secret Committee; 
 and must have been perfectly aware that, by the influence 
 of that committee, the troops had been bribed and tam- 
 pered with, until their allegiance to the grand-duke was 
 utterly destroyed. His mission to Florence may be the 
 
 1 After the grand-duke's departure, the crowd assembled under 
 the -windows of M. Buoncompagni, the Sardinian ambassador, who 
 in an harangue, given in the Tuscan Moniteur, expressed his admira- 
 tion for the conduct of Tuscany. Such are the terms in which a 
 minister accredited to the grand-duke speaks of the treason of his 
 army and his subjects. And he added, " King Victor Emmanuel 
 is deeply interested in the fate of Tuscany ,- he will take care of 
 public tranquillity, and meet the contingencies of war." Could an 
 ambassador violate more overtly the law of nations ? 
 
 2 Twenty-five francs a-head had been distributed to the troops by 
 the ringleaders the day before the revolution. La PaixdeVillafranca 
 et les Conferences de Zurich, par le Chevalier L. Debrauz. 
 
 3 Speech of Lord Normanby, formerly ambassador at Florence, 
 on the events of the Romagna, in the House of Peers, June, 1859. 
 See V Ami de la Religion, of 14th June, 1859. 
 
256 PIEDMONT. 
 
 cause of Italian independence ; but as an accredited 
 minister to the grand-duke of Tuscany, his career will 
 not appear very favourably. 
 
 " It is my belief that the insurrection which occurred 
 at Parma was only part and parcel of an elaborate Pied- 
 montese conspiracy, aided by the republican party, and 
 having its ramifications throughout every town in Italy " 
 (this is precisely what Mazzini said) ; " although the 
 success of this movement is now confined to Tuscany, 
 Massa, and Carrara. It will be seen, by the circular I 
 enclose attributed to Garibaldi, and stated to have been 
 sent to all the committees and sub-committees in the 
 Italian towns, and since published in the Journal des 
 Debats that as soon as ever war became certain, an in- 
 surrection was to take place wherever it was possible, and 
 a government immediately proclaimed in the name of 
 King Victor Emmanuel, under a Piedmontese commis- 
 sioner. It is clear, then, that the plan which had long 
 been prepared, and took effect here, is the link in the 
 chain of a wide-spread conspiracy throughout the penin- 
 sula, a work ably promoted by the activity of Piedmontese 
 emissaries." 1 
 
 Thus, then, a vast conspiracy had been organized long 
 in advance by Piedmont, embracing the whole of Central 
 Italy ; Piedmontese emissaries are busy everywhere ; the 
 day for the outbreaks is named beforehand ; they wait but 
 for the declaration of war. Immediately after that signal, 
 Massa and Carrara, Modena, Florence, and Parma, suc- 
 cessively revolt. A rising is evidently imminent in the 
 Romagna; after the victory of Magenta, it takes place. Facts 
 everywhere speak a clearer language than any testimony. 
 
 1 Further correspondence respecting the affairs of Italy presented 
 to both Houses of Parliament by command of her Majesty, 1859. 
 
 In his despatch of J-Yhruary *J!. (he Cardinal Secretary of State 
 has openly made these charges against the late Piedmontese 
 ambassador at Florence. I am aware that M. Buoncompagui has 
 protested, but he has not even attempted to answer the positive 
 testimony we have just cited. 
 
REVOLUTIONARY VIOLENCE. 257 
 
 As to Parma, Mr. Scarlett, again writes to London, 
 to the Foreign Secretary, that the conspirators are kept 
 in check there solely by the popularity of the Princess 
 Regent. In fact, the spontaneous recall of the duchess 
 by her subjects, and her triumphal return, was an unmis- 
 takable proof that the revolution which had expelled her 
 was not the work of the country, but that of a minority, 
 who were intriguing with the Piedmontese party. How- 
 ever, M. Cavour did not despair; emissaries from Turin 
 continued to manoeuvre in the duchy, and the regent was 
 obliged a second time to withdraw. The conduct of 
 M. Cavour, in other respects, towards the Duchess Regent 
 of Parma, at the beginning of the Italian war, was most 
 odious. In flagrant violation of the neutrality which had 
 been proclaimed, he invades her territory, and occupies 
 Pontremoli with Sardinian troops ; on what pretext ? He 
 gives himself the singular reason, in a note, in which he 
 accuses the regent, before Europe, of having herself 
 violated the neutrality, by not having prevented, with her 
 5,000 soldiers, the Austrians from occupying Placenza as 
 a base of operations. 
 
 Let us see how the British cabinet viewed this conduct, 
 in their reply to the note. The Earl of Malmesbury, 
 Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, writes, in a despatch 
 dated June 7th, 1859, to the English minister at Turin, 
 and which was communicated to Count Cavour, 
 
 " The Duchess of Parma has not in any way departed 
 from the strict line of neutrality which she has announced 
 her intention to pursue, and Austria has not set the 
 example of disregarding that neutrality. Notwithstanding 
 these circumstances, the Sardinian government has not 
 scrupled to endeavour to supplant the lawful authority 
 of the duchess, and to occupy Pontremoli by Sardinian 
 troops. But such proceeding, on the part of Sardinia, 
 having no foundation, either on alleged sympathy for a 
 people suffering from misgovernment and tyranny, or on 
 strategetical considerations, can only be looked upon as a 
 cruel and unwarrantable exercise of force against a small 
 and weak state } administered by a female sovereign, un- 
 
258 PIEDMONT. 
 
 provided with sufficient resources to maintain her inde- 
 pendence against an invading army ; though anxious to 
 avoid taking any part in the devastating warfare on the 
 borders of her dominions, and striving to the best of her 
 ability to govern her people with humanity and justice." 
 
 But, indeed, the similarity of the facts which every- 
 where took place indicated an identity in the means 
 employed. Was it not everywhere the same programme, 
 arranged beforehand the programme of M. Cavour and 
 Garibaldi which was being carried out? Was not the 
 presence and the alliance of the Piedmontese and revolu- 
 tionary element everywhere visible ? And when the 
 protests of the Holy See called the attention of Europe to 
 the intermeddling and intrigues of Piedmont in the pro- 
 vinces which had revolted, did they encounter a single 
 contradiction? No; M. Cavour did not even take the 
 trouble to answer the complaints of the Pope. (Note of 
 Cardinal Antonelli, May 19. Consistorial Allocution of 
 June 8.) 
 
 Indeed, it was no longer mere intrigues and underhand 
 influence that were brought to bear, but something very 
 different. Our victories had emboldened the Sardinian 
 minister ; and he carried out his policy with such spirit, 
 that the Pope soon had again to appeal to Europe, as 
 follows : 
 
 " Things have come to such a pass, that Piedmontese troops have 
 already entered the Pontifical territory, and have occupied Sorte, 
 Urbano, and Castelfrano; the Besaglieri and a part of the brigade 
 of Real Navi are there now : their object is to join the rebels in 
 opposing an energetic resistance to the Pontifical troops, sent to 
 maintain our authority, which has been violated in the revolted 
 provinces, and to raise new obstacles to the execution of this just 
 design. Finally, to complete the usurpation of the legitimate 
 sovereignty, two engineer officers, one of whom is a Piedmontese, 
 have been sent to Ferrara to mine and destroy that fortress." 
 
 But why be surprised ? Were not all these monarchico- 
 revolutionary agitations, these intrigues and this violence, 
 the necessary consequences of the famous notes presented 
 by M. Cavour to the Paris congress, and the execution of 
 
REVOLUTIONARY VIOLENCE. 259 
 
 his plan for the dismemberment of the Papal states ? 
 Does not his .haste, in turning to his own account the 
 triumphs of our soldiers, suffice to betray and unveil his 
 policy of plunder ? Thus, a revolution corresponds to each 
 of our victories ; and 110 sooner has it broken out, than 
 a Piedmontese commissioner immediately takes the go- 
 vernment of the country into his hands, in the name of 
 King Victor Emmanuel ; Sardinian troops, in contempt 
 of the rights of neutrals, as well as of all other rights, and 
 despite the protests of the dispossessed sovereigns, invade it; 
 decrees are issued in the name of King Victor Emmanuel; 
 M. Cavour despatches 1 circulars to all the Piedmontese 
 commissioners, declaring that the countries in revolt are, 
 some simply under the protection of Piedmont, others de 
 facto annexed, but all henceforth to be governed by it. 
 
 It must be confessed that it was something extraordinary 
 to see this minister, while our brave troops were shedding 
 their blood upon the fields of battle, despatching from his 
 cabinet, at Novara or Turin, his commissioners and dic- 
 tators to all the countries conquered, and even to those 
 destined to remain unconquered. 
 
 However, all of a sudden an unexpected event momen- 
 tarily deranges this current of invasion, and forces M. Cavour 
 to adjourn his plans, at least for a time. The emperor, 
 victorious at Solferino, suddenly halts, and makes peace at 
 Villafranca. Among the grave reasons which brought about 
 this unhoped-for peace, the emperor has himself enumerated 
 the necessity in which he would have been placed "of openly 
 accepting the assistance of the revolution" M. Cavour 
 judges that there is no place for him, now that the march 
 of the revolution is suspended. He retires from the scene. 
 
 ii. 
 
 There is one feature in the occurrences we have been 
 reviewing, as well as in those which remain to be consi- 
 dered, which strikes us as most inexplicable. The pfficial 
 declarations of France strangely contrast with the overt 
 acts of Piedmont : it is difficult to view the latter other- 
 
 s 2 
 
200 PIEDMONT. 
 
 wise than as a continual contradiction of the conservative 
 policy professed ;by France. It seems, indeed, hard to 
 explain how Piedmont, that ally to whom victory would 
 have been hopeless without us as was evident from 
 Novara and Solferino, has been able to carry out a policy 
 so opposed to ours, and to act continually before our eyes, 
 and in the presence of our army, in a manner so contrary 
 to our intentions : it is hard to conceive that a word from 
 France, if firm and distinct, would have had no effect on a 
 Sardinian minister. There is surely some mystery here, 
 which history will perhaps one day clear up. In the mean 
 time, I shall simply relate what occurred. Far from aggra- 
 vating anything, I shall endeavour to present as doubtful 
 whatever is not absolutely certain ; I shall suppress with 
 pleasure, and endeavour to conceal, even from myself, all 
 that conjecture, a too rigorous induction, or an unhappy 
 readiness to censure, might discover; I shall still more 
 jealously avoid whatever may tend to render separations 
 more lasting, divisions bitterer, or reconciliations more 
 difficult. God is my witness, that if it depended upon a 
 word of mine to change the dispositions of those who 
 influence the course of events, and to cause Christian hope 
 to succeed to the evils of revolution, God is my witness 
 that I would utter it with joy and gratitude. But, as I 
 am here to be an historian only, I shall endeavour to dis- 
 charge my more modest part with fairness and sincerity. 
 
 The declarations, then, of the French government, after 
 the peace as before the war, were explicit : Piedmont could 
 not mistake them; nor could it have more completely dis- 
 regarded or more openly trifled with them than it has done. 
 
 What were these declarations ? 
 
 The war had broken out ; our regiments had already 
 passed the frontier ; the honour of our flag was en- 
 gaged. It was in such critical circumstances that the 
 legislative body opened its session of 1859, and that the 
 government had to expose its policy before the deputies of 
 France. Strong apprehensions as to the possible conse- 
 quences of the war were expressed, and explanations called 
 for by several deputies, and in particular by Viscount 
 
REVOLUTIONARY VIOLENCE. 261 
 
 Lemercier, at the memorable sitting of April 30th. He 
 stated that te he was convinced that the government would 
 not hesitate to satisfy the Catholics of the world as to the 
 emperor's determination, whatever might happen, to see 
 that the independence and the states of the Holy See 
 were respected." 
 
 The distinct and categorical answer oi M. Baroche, the 
 president of the Conseil d'Etat, was as tallows : 
 
 " The last speaker has given the answer to his own 
 question, by referring to recollections which the govern- 
 ment of the emperor can never forget .... Any doubt on 
 this head is inadmissible. The government will adopt all 
 the measures necessary to secure the independence of the 
 Holy Father during any agitations which may break out in 
 Italy." * 
 
 On the 3rd of May, the emperor spoke himself : a pro- 
 clamation to the French people announced the war. In 
 this proclamation the emperor gave two solemn pledges ; 
 he affirmed that we were not going to Italy to foment 
 disorders ; and he promised that the war should not shake 
 the throne of the Holy Father. 
 
 Such were the emperor's words, and such the official 
 policy of France from the commencement. Piedmont 
 could not pretend to mistake it : and, moreover, though 
 insurrections had been projected and organized in ad- 
 vance, still nothing had been done ; the difficulty of arrest- 
 ing an impetus once given could not be pleaded. Well, 
 did the declarations of France prevent even 'one of the 
 revolutions which Piedmont had prepared ? No. Has 
 not the word of France been wholly null and void ? Yes. 
 Piedmont, by its intrigues and its revolutionary instiga- 
 tions, has been the main agent in overthrowing the esta- 
 
 1 .AI. Baroche added, that " had M. Lemercier not refuted himself, 
 as he had done, the president of the Conseil d'Etat would have felt 
 himself bound to express before the chamber his astonishment that 
 such a doubt could have been entertained for a moment as to the 
 conduct of the government." 
 
262 PIEDMONT. 
 
 blished governments in four states, and in depriving the 
 Holy Father of four provinces. 
 
 The day after the imperial proclamation, as if to give 
 a still more direct assurance to the Catholics, and to 
 " satisfy the clergy as to the consequences of a conflict 
 which had become unavoidable," his excellency the mi- 
 nister of public worship addressed a circular to all the 
 bishops of France* It ran to this effect : 
 
 " The emperor has considered the matter before God, and 
 his well-known prudence, energy, and sincerity, will not 
 be found wanting either to religion or the country. The 
 prince who has given so many proofs of his reverence and 
 attachment for religion, who has restored the Holy Father 
 to the Vatican, means that the supreme head of the Church 
 shall be respected in all his rights as a temporal sovereign. 
 The prince who has saved France from the schemes of 
 demagogues cannot become a partisan of their doctrines 
 or their domination in Italy/' 1 
 
 "Well, what consideration has Piedmont shown for these 
 intentions of the emperor ? Has it respected the supreme 
 head of the Church in all his rights as a temporal sove- 
 reign ? Has it kept aloof from the doctrines of demagogy 
 in Italy ? To say so would be simply ridiculous. No, 
 Piedmont has taken its stand upon the revolution : it has 
 scouted and usurped the rights of the Holy See ; it has 
 commenced, obstinately pursued, and finally consummated 
 the annexation of four of its provinces. 
 
 However/ while Piedmont and the revolution are about 
 their work, while insurrections are succeeding one another, 
 and Italian sovereigns being dispossessed, the imperial 
 
 1 The minister added : " These practical, generous, and Christian 
 ideas will tend to establish on solid foundations the public order of 
 the Italian states, and to promote a due respect for sovereign 
 power. Sueli arc the sentiments of Ins majesty; for wliieh his 
 actions have so often vouehed. and which he has RgaktfOOnfiraied l>y 
 the noble manifest.) In- Ins .-id-ires-ed to the nation. They slnmld 
 all at/ the anxieties as icclL as prompt the gratitude of the French 
 clergy." 
 
IlEVOLUTIOXARY VIOLENCE. 263 
 
 government repeats its professions. It repeats them to 
 Italy : in France it repeats them to the religious and other 
 journals; it reiterates them to the nation; it solemnly 
 renews them to the Holy Father himself. 
 
 Thus, in his proclamation dated from Milan, June 8, 
 before the revolt in the Homagria had broken out, the 
 emperor said to the Italians : " I do not come here with a 
 preconceived system to dispossess sovereigns" l Shortly 
 after, the Pontifical government was overthrown in the 
 Komagna, and Piedmont sent there a military governor. 
 
 In France, too, the language of the government con- 
 tinued to contrast with the doings of Piedmont before our 
 eyes in Italy. On the 18th of June, an official commu- 
 nique, to the Ami de la Religion, again affirmed, in accord- 
 ance with all preceding declarations, that " the emperor's 
 proclamation to the French people, as well as the Milan 
 proclamation, had repudiated any preconceived system of 
 dispossessing sovereigns; that the emperor had besides 
 formally recognized the neutrality of the Holy Father ; 
 that to refer to this declaration was sufficient to enable 
 public opinion to judge how reprehensible it was to insinuate 
 that France was seeking to disturb the political authority of 
 the Holy Father, which she had upheld ten years before, 
 and which was still under the respectful protection of her 
 arms." 
 
 At the same time, the Sitcle, which, on the retaking of 
 Perugia, had insulted the Holy Father and the Church, 
 received, on the 2nd of July, the following communique : 
 " The Siecle newspaper, in its attacks to-day upon the 
 political power of the Papacy, and upon the doctrines of 
 which it is the august personification, confounds the noble 
 cause of Italian independence with that of the revolution. 
 
 1 It is true that the proclamation also contained the words "Be 
 soldiers to-day ; to-morrow you will be the free citizens of a great 
 country." It is a] so true that Tuscany was occupied by the 5th 
 corps d'armee ; and the last manifesto of the Holy See has shown, 
 by the very words of the prince who commanded that corps, the 
 effects of that occupation upon the affairs of the Eomagna. 
 
264 PIEDMONT. 
 
 The government of the emperor considers it necessary to 
 protest against such misconceptions, which tend to excite 
 the worst passions, to disturb consciences, and to deceive 
 public opinion as to the principles of the French policy. 
 To respect and to protect the Papacy is part of the pro- 
 gramme which the emperor trusts to see realized in Italy, 
 where he hopes to establish order by respecting all legiti- 
 mate interests. Those journals which represent the import 
 of the glorious war on which we have entered, are abusing 
 their influence to mislead the sentiments of the nation." l 
 Finally, the emperor himself conveyed to His Holiness 
 the most positive assurances that he would protect and 
 uphold, as he had always promised, the temporal power of 
 the Holy See. " Our beloved son in Jesus Christ, the 
 Emperor of the French, has declared to us that the French 
 armies which are in Italy not only will do nothing against 
 our temporal power, but, on the contrary, will protect 
 and preserve it in the Romagna tuebuntur atque serva- 
 
 Nothing can equal the distinctness of these declarations, 
 except the persistence and the coolness with which Pied- 
 mont has falsified and mocked them. Has it not kept up, 
 carried on, and realized, before our eyes, and contrary to 
 our most express intentions, " a preconceived system of 
 dispossessing sovereigns/' including the Holy Father? 
 Has Piedmont, has M. Cavour, respected the neutrality of 
 the Holy Father, according to the formal promises of the 
 emperor ? Has he not perseveringly and flagrantly violated, 
 now with subtlety, now with audacity, that sacred neu- 
 
 1 The communiqud added : " If a Bad conflict has taken place at 
 Perugia, the responsibility lies with those who have forced the 
 Papal government to have recourse to force in its just defence. The 
 political independence and spiritual sovereignty which are united in 
 the Papacy render it doubly respectable, and morally condemn 
 such attacks ; the government might, if so disposed, have used its 
 Ic^al powers in repressing them; but it prefers to invoke against 
 them the justice of public opinion." 
 
 2 Consistorial allocution of June 20, 1859. 
 
REVOLUTIONARY VIOLENCE. 265 
 
 trality which the emperor so loudly proclaimed, and those 
 sovereign rights which he declared were under his protec- 
 tion ? Has he paid a moment's attention to that respectful 
 protection of our arms, to which the French government 
 alludes? 
 
 While Count Cavour is eagerly accepting the dictator- 
 ship in the duchies and the Romagna, and exercising it 
 through his commissioners; and while he is encouraging, 
 in guarded language, the proposals of annexation, a note 
 in the Moniteur of the 24th of June contains the follow- 
 ing declaration : " The public seems not exactly to com- 
 prehend the nature of the dictatorship which has been 
 offered to the king of Sardinia from various quarters in 
 Italy ; some have inferred that Piedmont intends, through 
 the support of the French arms, and without consulting 
 either the voices of the people or the great powers, to unite 
 all Italy into a single state. Such conjectures are quite 
 groundless. The dictatorship is a merely temporary autho- 
 rity, which, while concentrating all powers in the hands 
 of an individual, has this advantage, that it in no way 
 predetermines the ultimate combinations which may arise." 
 
 It is certainly not easy to imagine, after all the official 
 documents we have cited, how a journal could say, " We 
 defy all those who speak of a guarantee given to the Holy 
 See, to produce a single document, sentence, or word 
 in which such a guarantee has been published." (The 
 Siecle.) We might rather ask if any one can produce a 
 single official document in which this guarantee is not 
 proclaimed. 
 
 In short, Piedmont, far from conforming, as might have 
 been expected from an honourable and grateful ally, to 
 such distinct statements of our wishes, has all along con- 
 tradicted and nullified them. Let me act, and I will let 
 you speak, would appear to have been its insulting motto. 
 In fact, who will venture to assert that Piedmont has not, 
 notwithstanding our declarations, sought to predetermine 
 the combinations of the future : that it has not attempted 
 to bias, by the united weight of its clubs, its agents, and 
 its armed presence, the resolutions of the revolutionary 
 
266 PIEDMONT. 
 
 governments in the duchies and the Romagna ? It is quite 
 clear that Piedmont had but one end in view, which, it 
 pursued by every means at its disposal ; namely, to render 
 definitive and permanent its provisional dictatorship, and 
 to expedite and hurry forward the final annexation, under 
 one pretext or another. The populations, as we shall see, 
 were not fairly consulted, and did not speak freely ; the 
 answers of the Sardinian cabinet to the ambassadors of 
 the countries administered by the Sardinian commissioners 
 were neither clear nor frank, and but thinly disguised its 
 ambition; a semblance of popular suffrage theatrically 
 got up before the eyes of Europe, in order to colour and 
 to legalize a revolutionary spoliation : in fine, events were 
 everywhere pressed forward with ominous precipitation, in 
 order to be able to appeal to the grand plea of accom- 
 plished facts. It must be added, that France and Europe 
 looked on far too unconcernedlv. 
 
 in. 
 
 A flagrant contradiction, then, was given to the empe- 
 ror's declarations before the peace of Villafranca. Let us 
 now see how they were respected after that peace. 
 
 True, that unlooked-for, but wise and necessary peace, left 
 unaccomplished a part of the emperor's programme ; Italy 
 was to have been free, that is, free from the Austrian yoke, 
 from the Alps to the Adriatic. It seemed a formal dis- 
 avowal of the aggressive policy of Piedmont, a skilful 
 retreat before the fury of revolution and a threatened 
 coalition, a happy return to the policy followed before the 
 war. M. Cavour was so sensible of this, that he felt his 
 resignation indispensable. 
 
 How was this peace, by which the emperor of the 
 French cedes to the kin^ of Piedmont a province equal to 
 his kingdom, yet which is so distasteful to M. Cavour, 
 that he resigns, received by the Picdmontese commis- 
 sioners in the provinces which revolted? "Tuscans!" 
 says a proclamation on the 13th August, issued by M. 
 liuoncompagni, extraordinary commissioner of the king of 
 
REVOLUTIONARY VIOLENCE. 267 
 
 Sardinia, and by the members cf the provisional govern- 
 ment, " Tuscans ; the news of events which mar our 
 fondest hopes has filled our souls with sadness ! . . . . 
 The Consulta will meet to-morrow ; the voice of Tuscany 
 will be raised; its appeal will be heard by Victor Emma- 
 nuel, in whom our confidence is placed." Such was the 
 gratitude of the Sardinian commissioners towards the 
 emperor and France, which had just sacrificed for Italy 
 the lives of fifty thousand of her sons ! Such is the defer- 
 ence shown to our policy ! L 
 
 In fact, where are now the articles of Villafranca and 
 of Zurich? Four points have been stipulated at Villa- 
 franca : Lombardy was ceded to Piedmont ; Venetia was 
 to form part of an Italian confederation ; the rights of 
 the archdukes to the duchies were recognized ; and a com- 
 plete amnesty was granted. Furthermore, the two empe- 
 rors agreed to employ their influence at Rome, in order to 
 obtain reforms from the Pope, which indeed he was quite 
 willing to accord. 
 
 It is clear that the two emperors, by undertaking, 
 in favour of a general pacification, to act as friendly ad- 
 visers to the Pope, tacitly engaged to fulfil the obligations 
 towards him, which had been publicly contracted before 
 Europe, when, before the opening of hostilities, the neutra- 
 lity, the independence, and the integrity of his states were 
 so solemnly guaranteed. With what face could reforms 
 have been demanded from the Pope, if it were intended to 
 strip him of his possessions ? Besides, in placing the 
 Italian confederation under his presidency, it could not 
 have been intended to offer him a derisive homage, to be 
 followed by spoliation. Common sense and common 
 honesty forbid the supposition. 
 
 1 It must be allowed, however, that some of the Turin papers, in 
 particular the Independente, took a different view of the conse- 
 quences of the peace, and that they thanked the emperor of the 
 French, not only for what he had done in Italy, but for what he 
 would allow to be done. 
 
268 PIEDMONT. 
 
 The article relating to the restoration of the sovereign 
 houses indicated still more clearly, if possible, the policy 
 adopted by the two august negotiators. What Piedmont 
 wanted was the monarchical unity of Italy under its own 
 sceptre ; what the revolution wanted was a republican 
 unity ; what the two emperors stipulated was a federative 
 unity. To this end, it was clearly necessary to repudiate 
 the dangerous support of the revolution. It was necessary 
 to reconstitute power upon solid bases, which might 
 satisfy the legitimate desires of the people, but also pre- 
 clude those perpetual changes and disorders which always 
 end, with nations recently emancipated, in despotism or in 
 anarchy. 
 
 The note in the Moniteur of September 9th informed 
 Europe of the condition insisted on as a sine qua non by 
 the Emperor Francis Joseph at the peace of Villafranca, 
 and accepted by the Emperor Napoleon. What had 
 happened in the mean time? No sooner had the tele- 
 graph acquainted M. Cavour with the news of the armistice 
 of the 8th July, than, anticipating the intentions of the 
 Emperor Napoleon, he hurried to his head-quarters, to 
 endeavour, if possible, to thwart the negotiations. On 
 the conclusion of peace, he instantly gave notice to the 
 Piedmontese commissioners and the revolutionary govern- 
 ment, who hastened to organize (we shall shortly examine 
 in what way) a vote of the deposal of the sovereign and 
 the annexation of the country to Piedmont; the votes 
 took place at Florence on the IGth August, at Parma on 
 the 22nd August, and at Bologna on the 6th of September. 
 
 In the note of September 9th, published not before, but 
 after these votes of annexation, the Emperor Napoleon 
 was then justified in complaining that " the destinies of 
 Italy had been confided to men intent rather on petty, 
 partial successes, than the good of the common country, 
 and whose efforts tended not to develop, but to impede 
 the good effects of the treaty of Villafranca." He justly 
 regretted that he had reckoned in vain " upon the good 
 sense and patriotism of Italy," and " appealed to the 
 sound part of the nation." It was with reason that he 
 
REVOLUTIONARY VIOLENCE. 2G9 
 
 pointed out to the Italians how they were endangering the 
 peace of Europe by running counter to his policy. In fact, 
 if the archdukes were not to receive back their dominions, 
 tf a part of the Villafranca treaty being unexecuted, the 
 emperor of Austria will be released from his obligations 
 with regard to Yenetia. If disturbed by hostile demon- 
 strations upon the right bank of the Po, he will maintain 
 himself on* a war footing on the left; and instead of a 
 policy of peace and civilization, a state of mutual distrust 
 and rancour will be renewed, which must end in fresh 
 troubles ancl fresh disasters." 
 
 Such language, as might have been anticipated, did not 
 check the Piedmontese policy, which never ceased to aim 
 at the expulsion of Austria from Venice. 
 
 But how could the Romagnol deputation which was 
 received by the Emperor Napoleon, as well as the govern- 
 ment council, MM. Pepoli, Montanari, Gamba, Albiani, 
 and Pinelli, in their proclamation of August 2nd, give a 
 colour favourable to their designs to the sympathetic 
 words of the French sovereign ? What is to be thought 
 of the following extract from a proclamation of Cipriani, 
 the governor of the Romagna ? " Let us rather die than 
 yield! Europe looks on us with admiration; the mag- 
 nanimous Emperor Napoleon is on our side ; Victor 
 Emmanuel is the protector of Italian liberty ! " l What ! 
 can those who have falsified all its promises and declara- 
 tions identify the imperial policy with their own and that 
 of Piedmont? 
 
 No ; we cannot admit that the imperial policy is to be 
 deduced from the stories of Italian deputations which have 
 been received at the Tuileries, or from the proclamations 
 of insurrectionary governments : were it so, we must neces- 
 sarily conclude that there are two policies, one secret 
 and one official. This I, for my part, decline to admit : 
 I mean to go by solemn, authentic documents ; and I find 
 
 1 Histoire des Etats de 1'Eglise depuis la premiere Revolution, 
 p. 275. 
 
270 PIEDMONT. 
 
 one more, which seems a last effort to stay the policy of 
 Piedmont, which, however, treats it as lightly as the 
 others, continuing to trifle, as unaccountably as before, 
 with its potent ally, and with treaties. The Emperor 
 Napoleon himself writes (20th October, 1849) the follow- 
 ing letter to King Victor Emmanuel : 
 
 " MONSIEUB MON 
 
 " I write to your majesty to lay before you the state of 
 affairs, to remind you of the past, and to advise with you as to the 
 best course to adopt as regards the future. The emergency is a 
 serious one ; illusions and idle regrets must be laid aside, and the 
 actual state of things carefully examined. Thus, it is now beside 
 the question to inquire whether I have acted well or ill in making 
 peace at Villafranca; but it is essential to turn the treaty to the 
 best account in promoting the pacification of Italy and the tran- 
 quillity of Europe. . . . 
 
 " A treaty had to be made, as favourable as possible to the inde- 
 pendence of Italy, satisfactory to Piedmont and to the aspirations 
 of the Italian people, yet which should not hurt the feelings of 
 Catholics, nor prejudice the rights of sovereigns who had the 
 sympathies of a great part of Europe. It occurred to me that if the 
 emperor of Austria would frankly enter into my views and second 
 me in bringing about so important a result, the causes of dissension 
 which have divided these two empires for two hundred years would 
 disappear, and the regeneration of Italy would follow by common 
 accord, without any fresh effusion of blood." 
 
 Then, entering into details, the emperor went over the 
 different clauses of the treaty of Villafranca, particularly 
 insisting upon the honorary presidency of the Italian con- 
 federation with which the Pope was to be invested, in 
 order to satisfy the religious feelings of Catholic Europe, 
 which had been deeply wounded by the Piedmontese 
 policy, and to increase the moral influence of the Pope. 
 The emperor then added : 
 
 "This plan, which I had formed at the conclusion of peace, may 
 yet be realized if your majesty will use your influence m carrying 
 it out. The real interest of your majesty and of the Peninsula is 
 to second me in developing this plan and turning it to the best 
 account; for you must not forget that lam bound by the treaty" 
 
 What we have since seen renders it superfluous to add, 
 
REVOLUTIONARY VIOLENCE. 271 
 
 that this language of the emperor was, as usual, unheeded ; 
 and that Piedmontese policy continued its course. By it 
 the treaties, which bound the victorious ruler of thirty-five 
 millions of subjects, were treated as a laughing-stock. 
 
 IV. 
 
 The emperor had particularly promised two things with 
 regard to the Papal government : 1. That the neutrality 
 of the Holy Father should be respected. 2. That the 
 dictatorship of Victor Emmanuel should only be pro- 
 visional. 
 
 It was in this sense that even the journals which now 
 advocate the dismemberment of the Papal States, then un- 
 derstood the emperor's purpose, when they were endeavour- 
 ing to soothe the anxiety of the Catholics, after the revolt 
 in the Romagna. Thus the Patrie, now so opposed to the 
 sentiments it then expressed, replied to the Univers and the 
 Ami de la Religion, as follows : " They forget (these papers) 
 that the French government has expressly declared that 
 the dictatorship of Victor Emmanuel was merely pro- 
 visional, and that the rights of the Holy See had nothing 
 to fear for the future .... The provisional dictatorship 
 of Victor Emmanuel is no more a disavowal of the Pope's 
 temporal sovereignty than is the presence of our soldiers 
 at Rome" (June 30th, 1859). 
 
 It was M . Massimo d'Azeglio that M. Cavour chose, 
 and despatched to Bologna as Piedmontese commissioner 
 and military commander, to exercise there the provisional 
 dictatorship. It must be said that, as military com- 
 mander, the choice was a singular one. The Sardinian 
 troops arrived at Bologna before M. d'Azeglio, and the 
 revolutionary authorities gave him a most brilliant recep- 
 tion. We find in the " Histoire des Etats de PEglise 
 depuis la premiere Revolution Franaise jusqu'jl nos 
 jours" (a translation from the German, p. 172), that his 
 entry cost large sums of money, and a gratuitous distri- 
 bution of wine, to excite the enthusiasm of the indifferent 
 and apathetic populace. Before three days had elapsed, 
 
272 PIEDMONT. 
 
 M. d'Azeglio had intermeddled in all sorts of affairs, 
 financial and adminstrative as well as military, and not 
 excepting ecclesiastical. The following is the note which 
 the Pontifical government addressed, on the 12th of July, 
 1859, to the representatives of foreign powers : 
 
 " Palace of the Vatican, July 12, 1859. 
 
 " It had seemed to the Holy See that it might remain tranquil 
 amidst the alarms and anxieties occasioned by the present deplorable 
 war, after the repeated assurances it had received : assurances con- 
 firmed by the declaration that the king of Piedmont, by the advice 
 of his ally, the emperor of the French, had refused the dictator- 
 ship offered him in the provinces of the Pontifical States, which 
 have revolted. But it is painful to find that things are turning out 
 quite differently, and that facts are occurring before the eyes of the 
 Holy Father and his government, which indicate a line of conduct 
 on the part of the Sardinian cabinet altogether unprecedented, 
 clearly showing that it is meant to deprive the Holy See of an 
 integral part of its temporal dominions. 
 
 " Since the revolt of Bologna, which His Holiness has already had 
 occasion to deplore in his allocution of the 20th of June, that city 
 has become the rendezvous of a crowd of Piedmontese officers from 
 Tuscany or Modena, who are preparing accommodation for Pied- 
 montese troops. From these foreign states they are introducing 
 thousands of muskets to arm the rebels and volunteers, and cannon, 
 in order to increase the disorder of those unhappy provinces, and 
 the audacity of the enemies of authority. Another fact, which 
 renders the refusal of the dictatorship altogether illusory, has 
 crowned this flagrant violation of neutrality, and this active co- 
 operation in perpetuating the insurrection in the States of the 
 Church. The appointment of the Marquis d'Azeglio as commissioner 
 extraordinary in the Komagna (as appears from the decree of 
 H.R..H. Prince Eugene of Savoy, of June 23, and from the letter 
 of Count Cavour of the same date) is a formal violation of the rights 
 of the territorial sovereign." 
 
 And, I would ask, when M. d'Azeglio laid down, in his 
 proclamations to the Ilomagnols, the strange principles as 
 to the right of insurrection, which the Pope denounced 
 and formally condemned in his letter to Cardinal Patrizi ; 
 when, ignoring all acquired rights, and applying to an 
 established society with a legitimate government, reason- 
 ing suited only to the case of a new people emerging from 
 a state of nature, he proclaimed the absolute liberty of a 
 
REVOLUTIONARY VIOLENCE. 273 
 
 people iii a political and even a religious point of view; 
 whether was the representative of Victor Emmanuel, 
 seeking to maintain the provisional character of his dicta- 
 torship, alluded to by the Emperor Napoleon, or to 
 detach from the Holy Father even those populations who 
 had remained faithful to him? 
 
 Again, was the intention of the league concluded be- 
 tween the revolutionists of Bologna, Florence, and Parma, 
 to uphold the rights of the Holy Father ? Who now com- 
 mands the troops of that league? General Fanti, at the 
 same time Sardinian minister of war. 
 
 v. 
 
 But it is in the arrangements made for the elections 
 to the Komagnol Assembly that the sincerity of Count 
 Cavour's declarations as to the provisional character of tho 
 Piedmontese dictatorship appears in its true colours, as 
 also the liberty of those popular' votes of which we have 
 heard so much. It is true that, having accomplished 
 his task, and, on a hint from head-quarters, M. Massimo 
 d'Azeglio withdrew from the scene, in order to give, as he 
 said, to the inhabitants a full and unrestricted liberty in 
 expressing their wishes ; but he took care to leave behind 
 him a successor, Colonel Kenaud de Falicon, of Nice, war 
 minister. At Modena, M. Farini did still better ; when 
 his office of Sardinian commissioner expired, he succeeded 
 himself as dictator. 
 
 I would ask those who view these votes of annexation 
 as the spontaneous and unanimous impulse of the people, 
 if the press was free, and if every one could fearlessly 
 express his opinion ? Were the assemblies who pronounced 
 these votes elected by the majority of the population? or 
 was their election the exclusive fruit of the violence of a 
 minority which had seized upon the power ? Did not the 
 voting take place under the protection of foreign bayonets, 
 in the armed presence of Piedmont? If I open the in- 
 structions addressed by Garibaldi and La Farina to the 
 chiefs of the Italian National Society, I find in the 10th 
 
 T 
 
274 PIEDMONT. 
 
 article, " The foundation of clubs and political journals 
 is not to be permitted ; an official bulletin only is to be 
 published." Is not this exactly what was done, especially 
 at Bologna, after the insurrection ? The first step was to 
 suppress all the journals, except the official one. 1 
 
 " The press is shackled and the post-office rifled," Lord 
 Normanby says expressly ; 2 and he proves it by facts. I 
 let him speak for himself : 
 
 " One of the first persons in Tuscany was, even before 
 the elections, sent for by the prefet, and asked if it was 
 true he was advocating the return of the archduke; he 
 replied boldly that it was so, for he thought it best for his 
 country. The prefet told him that if he did not change 
 his tone in a few days he would send him to prison ! 
 
 " The Avocato Andriozzi," continues Lord Normanby, 
 " was arrested, with many others, on a charge of con- 
 spiring against the existing government. No evidence 
 whatever was produced against him ; but he has since 
 been tried in his dungeon by the prefet, 011 what is called 
 ( Via economical which means by a secret tribunal, without 
 witnesses or power of defence, and has been condemned to 
 two years' imprisonment in a fortress ! " 
 
 The Times itself admits this tyrannical pressure : " This 
 government," it says, " is always ready to pounce upon any 
 paper, pamphlet, squib, or caricature which is distasteful 
 to it." " Such," adds Lord Normanby, " is positive, and 
 emanates from an authority not to be suspected favourable 
 to the cause. As to the post-office," he continues, " I 
 myself received a letter the other day, sent by a private 
 hand, announcing the appointment of two new officers, 
 called ( Verificatori,' whose duty is to open and suppress, 
 at their pleasure, all letters containing anything the go- 
 vernment would dislike." 
 
 This, truly, is what styles itself a liberal government, 
 
 1 Ilistoirc des Etats do 1'Eglise dcpuis la Premiere Revolution 
 rancaisc, p. 261. 
 
 2 The Congress and the Cabinet, p. 35. 
 
REVOLUTIONARY VIOLENCE. 275 
 
 and one favourable to the free and spontaneous wishes of 
 the people ! 
 
 " Such," the noble lord proceeds to say, " is the intimi- 
 dation by which the so-called popular vote of annexation 
 was obtained ! The amount of the population which alone 
 took part in it has been admitted by those who fixed the 
 constituency to have been intended to comprise only 
 one twenty-fifth of the population ; and as one-half of 
 those intended to poll refused to take any part, the ex- 
 tinction of the country, the absorption of all its Athenian 
 glories in brave but Boeotian Piedmont, was only voted by 
 one in fifty of the population. ' } 
 
 Here Lord Normanby is rigidly accurate, and official 
 figures confirm his testimony. The secretary of the Con- 
 stituent Assembly in Tuscany, M. Galeotti, has himself 
 positively admitted, in his report, that out of a population 
 of 1,806,740 souls only 35,210 electors took part in the 
 vote of forfeiture. 1 
 
 Well might the noble lord say, 
 
 " The vote w r as obtained by every variety of intimida- 
 tion and wholesale corruption, under the protection of the 
 Sardinian flag. The constituency was arbitrarily limited; 
 not more than half of those selected of the classes favour- 
 able to the change actually voted. But more ; these electors 
 were never told and did not know for what their deputies 
 were summoned : and those deputies, on that deliberation 
 or explanation, in a silent sitting of a few minutes, voted 
 the extinction of their country, which during the last five 
 hundred years has boasted citizens proud of that country 
 and worthy of it, somewhat superior to the Piedmontese 
 tools which now fill the benches of the Palazzo Vecchio." 
 . Lord Normanby adds, with the sound sense of honesty 
 and justice, as an excuse for the Tuscans taking no part 
 in the elections : "It would be hard to expect a people 
 who have never known what political existence meant to 
 
 1 La Paix de Villafranca et Ics Conferences de Zurich, par le 
 Chevalier Louis Debrauz, p. 41. 
 
 T 2 
 
276 PIEDMONT. 
 
 be ready to risk ruin, to say nothing of the dungeon or 
 the dagger." 
 
 The atrocities committed at Parma before the eyes of 
 the Sardinian authorities, and which are still unpunished, 
 show what the infuriated passions of a populace are capable 
 of, and confirm Lord Normanby's assertions, where he 
 speaks of ruin, prisons, and daggers. The rigorous inti- 
 midation enforced in the Romagna against what were called 
 manipulations in favour of the Pope, and the execrable 
 scenes at Verachio, show too clearly whether opinions con- 
 trary to those of the revolution could be expressed with 
 safety. The thousand manoeuvres employed to agitate the 
 inhabitants of the Romagna arc notorious ; and, in parti- 
 cular, the pressure of itinerant agents, who wrote upon 
 the doors of houses, "We are for King Victor Emma- 
 nuel/' and went about into cafes to collect names and 
 signatures, even taking those of schoolboys ; l while the 
 slightest* manifestation in favour of restoring the Pope's 
 authority was rigorously put down. 2 
 
 Things, then, passed in the Romagna precisely as they 
 did in Tuscany; and on this point we have the formal 
 testimony of an English gentleman, Mr. Bo\vyer, who 
 states, in a letter to the Times , that the pretended govern- 
 ment of the Romagna exists, in spite of the formal wishes 
 of the inhabitants ; that no one is allowed to read, to 
 write, or to utter a word against the reigning faction and 
 the secret societies ; that the so-called parliament of the 
 Romagna does not represent a sixtieth of the population ; 
 and that the total number of electors allowed is only 
 18,000, while of this number not a third could be prevailed 
 on to vote by force, intimidation, or bribery. 
 
 We could cite many other authorities as to the voting 
 in the Romagna and the duchies ; and none of the rcvo- 
 
 1 Histoire des Etats de 1'Eglise depuis la Premiere Eevolutiou 
 Prangaise, p. 274. 
 
 2 Order of the day of General Mezzacapo, dated Forli, August 2. 
 
REVOLUTIONARY VIOLENCE. 277 
 
 lutionary journals, whether official or not, have ventured 
 to contradict these assertions. 
 
 We learn from the Journal of Rome (10th September), 
 that in the Romagna hut a tenth of the population was 
 inscribed on the list of electors; that two-thirds of this 
 tenth refused to take part in a vote which must offend the 
 Holy Father ; and that, of the third which did vote, several 
 voted for the Papal government. 
 
 It is clear that the elections which were paraded as the 
 unanimous work of the population were, on the contrary, 
 the doing of an utterly insignificant fraction. 
 
 In the case of Modena, the Vienna Gazette has charged 
 M. Farini with having knowingly and intentionally ex- 
 cluded the country population: and he has not denied 
 the charge. But, allowing for such exclusion, it has been 
 proved that there still remained 72,000 electors in the 
 duchy of Modena. Out of this number, how many voted ? 
 scarcely 4,000. Yet what right had these four thousand 
 to force the choice of all the inhabitants of the duchy ? 
 
 The duchy of Modena had already, in 1848, been called 
 upon to vote its annexation to Piedmont. A spirited 
 Modenese had then the courage to expose, before the 
 Chamber of Deputies at Turin, the way in which the voting 
 was carried on. His petition, presented to the chamber 
 011 the 13th November, 1848, speaks in these terms : 
 " If, gentlemen, you will take the trouble to examine the 
 grounds upon which the annexation of Modena to your 
 kingdom rests, you cannot avoid concluding that act to be 
 illegal; liberty was wanting, the voting was vicious, and 
 there was not a majority : the right of voting was granted 
 to minors, to criminals, to persons degraded and disquali- 
 fied from all political rights : double votes were received, 
 and innumerable intrigues carried on by those whose office 
 it was to watch over the legality of the voting/' 
 
 But the Dictator Farini himself has enabled us, in his 
 history of the Roman state, to appreciate the worth of 
 these Italian elections. He himself has informed us of 
 the methods pursued in the elections at Rome to the Con- 
 stituent Assembly : " All power was in the hands of the 
 
278 PIEDMONT. 
 
 clubs ; they alone turned the elections as they pleased ; 
 and they neglected no measure to insure the success of 
 their candidates. They used as tools a number of young 
 men blinded by their enthusiasm/ and fanatics of the 
 lowest class, whose ignorance supplied the place of courage. 
 They gave out that should the results of the elections be 
 hostile to them, they did not care, and would find means 
 in any case of arriving at their ends." (The Roman 
 State, by Louis Farini. Florence, 1851.) M. Farini adds, 
 that at the elections of the Capitol the agitators were 
 feed from the public treasury, that the numbers were 
 altered, and that in these ways the clubs triumphed. 
 When a man of spirit dared to vote according to his con- 
 science, he was publicly denounced. 
 
 So that, according to the Dictator Farini, three prin- 
 cipal measures were adopted in order to secure the success 
 of the elections : votes were bought with the public money ; 
 the numbers were tampered with ; and they who would not 
 vote with the revolution were menaced. It is well known 
 that at the elections to the constituent assembly at Rome a 
 considerable number of voters, instead of putting one ticket 
 into the urn, threw in several, some as many as thirty, 
 filled up with names of all kinds, including those of aban- 
 doned women ; they merely substituted a masculine ter- 
 mination for the feminine one : and this completed the 
 number of votes required to render the elections valid. 1 
 
 1 At first the bulletins were read out publicly, one by one, after 
 the balloting. But the populace, whose taste tor fun and laughter 
 had survived the sad events of those days, had taken care that every 
 now and then the readers should come to, some piece of coarse 
 ;.lry, which eau>ed the spectators to forget the gravity which 
 becomes a people who ;ire presiding ever their o vn future destinies. 
 l'"ir instance: "7 vote for /'i-jic ^/.i-/n* \\Jlm! In m<i>/ Jnnic/ you'' 
 
 Another: "For the </rril. Hint lie may roast you." A third : " I 
 vote for Master IMla" (this meant the hangman). A fourth: ' / 
 choose the rope thai /.v In /nrnr/ you" with others of similar taste. 
 These bulletins when read ont caused such bursts of laughter, that 
 the criers, pretending that some bulletins were so badly written that 
 
REVOLUTIONARY VIOLENCE. 279 
 
 Such is tlie truth about these aspirations of the Italians, 
 these popular suffrages, which are held up to us as an 
 argument fatal to the rights of the former sovereigns, and 
 as a paramount and unanswerable reason for the annexa- 
 tion to Piedmont. 
 
 And now we would ask, Is it not easy to discern for 
 what end Piedmont has been working for the last ten 
 years ? Is not the march of her policy now clear ? 
 Without her alliance with the revolution, she could not 
 have used it to overthrow the governments which were in 
 her way ; without previously oppressing and persecuting 
 the Church and the Holy See, she could not well have 
 plundered them. The Sardinian cabinet has made a pro- 
 fitable speculation of the noble idea of Italian independence 
 and nationality ; to them it meant the absorption of all 
 the states and governments of the Peninsula into the 
 Piedmontese monarchy ; the declarations of the emperor, 
 instead of meeting with respect, having been obstinately 
 ignored by their insatiable ambition ; ignored during the 
 war, and ignored after the peace. And, at the present 
 moment, the chances seem to be in favour of the em- 
 peror's reiterated assurances, which the Pope and the 
 bishops received with so much confidence, remaining a 
 dead letter ; and that after we have gained six victories, 
 and sacrificed 50,000 of our soldiers ! "What have we 
 gained in return? We have seen the principles of revo- 
 lution triumph, monarchies overturned, the Papacy hum- 
 bled, two hundred millions of Catholics wounded to the 
 quick, long troubles excited in the Church and in the 
 world, and the menace of a new war as the imperial 
 note of the 9th September states and of new commo- 
 tions left suspended over Europe ! For it is obvious that, 
 as long as Austria is encamped in her quadrilateral, and 
 
 it was too difficult to read them publicly, decided that for the future 
 the urns should be opened privately, and the result afterwards 
 published. It was then, probably, that the tampering with the 
 results of the balloting, alluded to by Dictator Farini, commenced. 
 
280 PIEDMONT. 
 
 remains mistress of Venice,, Piedmont will pursue her 
 old policy, and Austria will one day try a second time the 
 fate of battles, perhaps not without allies. 
 
 But does Piedmont think to chain France for ever to 
 her destinies, and to fall back upon us in all the emer- 
 gencies which her grasping ambition may create ? Im- 
 possible : for the emperor, in the same note of the 9th of 
 September, addressed a solemn declaration to Piedmont 
 and Italy : " Let Italy not deceive herself : there is but 
 one power in Europe which will go to war for an idea ; 
 that is France, and France has accomplished her task." 
 
 Such, then, was the deeply-laid and far-reaching scheme 
 of Piedmontese policy : appearing first in a systematic 
 hostility to the Church, and partially enunciated in a 
 European congress; understood from the beginning and 
 welcomed with enthusiasm by the whole revolutionary 
 party in Italy ; and finally carried into execution, contrary 
 to our declarations, but by means of our victories. Such 
 was, too, amid the agitations of war, and under the 
 pressure of Piedmontese dictators, the deceit and the 
 precipitation which characterized the first votes of annexa- 
 tion. After a long tenure of the governments, and after 
 new diplomatic phases which we shall soon describe, the 
 annexation has been again, I will not say submitted to, 
 but imposed upon, popular suffrage by Piedmont. We 
 shall see if this second vote was more genuine than the 
 former ; we shall give the necessary details as to the 
 manner in which it was organized and taken. But before 
 arriving, I do not say at the final catastrophe of the Italian 
 revolution for, unless something unforeseen arrests its 
 march, we have not yet seen the end but at what we may 
 call the close of the first act, let us leave Piedmont for a 
 time, and speak of another intervention, another inter- 
 ference, which has also exerted a fatal influence upon the 
 affairs of Italy. It is time now to speak of England, 
 and the part she has played in this important question. 
 
281 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 ENGLAND. 
 
 I CANNOT avoid speaking here of England ; the part she 
 plays in the Roman question is too important to be passed 
 by in silence. But, since I have before me that great and 
 illustrious nation, I shall speak my whole mind about her, 
 openly but not bitterly not to excite passions, but, on 
 the contrary, to extinguish, if possible, the. hatred which, 
 has been too long fostered in her bosom, and thus to 
 prepare from afar the reconciliation and pacification, of 
 the future. 
 
 No ! I do not write these pages to make a blind attack 
 on the inhabitants of the most celebrated island in the 
 world, to use the expression of Bossuet; and I cannot 
 but join with that great bishop in hoping for better days 
 for England and the Church, and for a reconciliation of 
 which the destinies of the English people and the future 
 of Christian civilization throughout the world have equal 
 need. 
 
 " Alas ! " said M. de Montalembert, with sound sense 
 and in accents of the most just and lively regret, " the 
 Church is wanting to England, and England is wanting 
 to the Church. With their indefatigable activity and indo- 
 mitable energy, what would not the English people have 
 done for the faith, had they remained faithful to their 
 religion ! What strength, what support, what an abundant 
 harvest would not the Roman Church have found in that 
 race which gave to her in former times St. Anselm, St. 
 Thomas, St. Edmund, the bravest champions of her liberty, 
 and which now devotes to the propagation of a false and 
 powerless Christianity so much wealth and so much 
 perseverence ! And in return, what a salutary and blessed 
 influence would not Catholicism have exercised on the 
 heart of the English people, in bending its obstinacy, 
 
282 ENGLAND. 
 
 softening its acrimony, and, above all, diminishing its 
 unyielding selfishness ! " 
 
 It is under the inspiration of those noble and religious 
 feelings, and with the most sincere and ardent wish for 
 peace and reconciliation, that I take up this delicate and 
 important subject. It is true I shall point out the evident 
 influence on the policy of England of her anti-Catholic 
 rancour, and her manifest injustice and ingratitude towards 
 the Church from whom she received the faith ; but, on the 
 other hand, despite present persecution and so much deep- 
 rooted prejudice, I shall express the hopes that it is per- 
 mitted to found upon the claims of justice, and upon the 
 power of honour over a nation formerly so fruitful in great 
 saints, and always so fruitful in great men ; from such a 
 nation we may always hope for a better policy, and a 
 return to truth and justice in a happier future. 
 
 TheEnglish nation are, assuredly, great in many respects; 
 they possess eminent qualities of mind and character ; but 
 it is on account of that very greatness that I am struck 
 with the more wonder and sadness, when I behold the per- 
 sistency of obsolete rancours and the passions of another 
 age. It is manifest that with some men, at least, in Eng- 
 land, the hatred of popery does not grow old ; time seems 
 only to add new vigour to it in the hearts of several. - 
 
 But, may I ask, "What is there in the Catholic Papacy 
 that can be to England an eternal reproach or a perpetual 
 danger ? The political passions which were formerly 
 mixed up with religious struggles have long since dis- 
 appeared. The reigning dynasty has nothing to fear 
 from the Catholics: it reckons amongst them its most 
 loyal subjects I might say its most intrepid soldiers. 
 .No pretender to the crown could now shelter ambitious 
 designs under the flag of religion. Three centuries have 
 passed over the usurpation of the Church property, and 
 no one dreams of disturbing its present owners. "Why, 
 then, ;ire some Englishmen obstinately bent on stirring 
 up in the nincteeth century all the anti-Catholic passions 
 of the worst days of Henry VIII. and Elizabeth ? AVliy 
 do we see with them this implacable and undying hatred 
 
ENGLAND. 283 
 
 which has no longer any reason for its existence, and 
 which neither religious dogmatism nor political passions 
 can sufficiently explain? Have not Pitt, Canning, Sir 
 Robert Peel, the Duke of "Wellington, Lord Macaulay, 
 Lord Lansdowne, proved clearly enough that the duty of 
 true statesmen is not to revive and to perpetuate hatred 
 in the hearts of nations, but to bring back those who are 
 worthy to the ever-glorious and ever-open paths of truth 
 and justice. 
 
 There is something truly monstrous in this hatred of 
 Anglicanism. England, unfortunately, is not the only 
 country in Europe spiritually separated from the Holy 
 See ; but neither in Prussia, nor in Protestant Germany, 
 nor in Russia, do we see this persevering hatred of which 
 I speak. 
 
 For my part, I cannot believe that this hatred has its 
 root in the very heart of the English nation, nor that it is 
 an inspiration of its genius, a consequence of its laws and 
 habits, nor that it can be looked upon as necessary when 
 it is not even profitable to it. 
 
 No ! such sentiments do not become such a people : 
 they would bind them down to an unjust and inglorious 
 policy, which, I may be allowed to ask them, if it is not 
 time to abandon ; and, in doing so, I do not mean to 
 offend Englishmen ; I appeal to themselves alone. It is 
 no offence to say to a people : Listen to justice rather 
 than your passions; be guided by your noble instincts, 
 and by your real and great interests : you go astray when 
 you pursue a course unworthy of you, because it is devoid 
 of justice and of greatness. Be what you can be a just 
 and generous people. 
 
 I hope that the noble good sense of the English people 
 will at length understand these things, and will shake off 
 the yoke of ancient prejudices. This enmity will not last 
 for ever ; I love to repeat the words of Bossuet : " I 
 cannot believe that this learned and illustrious nation will 
 persist in the hatred she has conceived for the chair of 
 Saint Peter, whence she received Christianity. No doubt 
 God has allowed her to commit such geat excesses only 
 
284 ENGLAND. 
 
 that she may more easily discover her error. Her days of 
 blindness will at length go by, and God will hear the 
 prayers and the groans of His saints." 
 
 It is with this wish and in this hope that I begin. I 
 have but one object in view, it is to place the English 
 face to face with themselves; to ask of them to judge 
 themselves in their consciences, calmly and honestly, and 
 to recognize in what they are doing against Rome old 
 prejudices which ought at length to cease, and an in- 
 justice which it would be worthy of them to redeem by a 
 generous reparation. 
 
 MALEVOLENT PREJUDICES. 
 
 " One must have courage to do justice to England at 
 the present time, and to remain faithful to the admiration 
 with which she has inspired of old the lovers of liberty. 
 In all her relations with foreign nations, her fickleness, 
 her ingratitude, her strange partialities, her revolting 
 selfishness, the abuse of her own strength, her contempt 
 for the weakness of others, her utter indifference to 
 justice whenever there was no interest to be forwarded 
 and no power to be respected, all these are more than 
 enough to rouse against her the indignation of honest 
 minds." 1 
 
 1 M. de Montalcmlert, on the Political future of England. ]\r. 
 de Montalembert repeated in this book what he had said eight 
 years before, on the contrast between the foreign policy of England 
 aud that of France : "We, too, have sad pages in our history. lm> 
 I know of nothing that can be compared with this odious policy. 
 We have, indeed, made foreign nations bear the yoke of despotism, 
 but we had begun by loving it, and taking it upon ourselves. \\'e 
 have even carried, with our bayonets, anarchy and devastation into 
 many countries of Europe, but we had first been intoxicated cur- 
 selves with that frenzy we were propagating abroad. But what we 
 have never done, is to keep for ourselves the blessings of order, 
 justice, liberty of the social hierarchy, and to foment and abet 
 
MALEVOLENT PREJUDICES. 285 
 
 It is an undoubted friend of England that has written 
 those lines. Well, cannot England at length see that the 
 hostile policy she has been made to pursue against the 
 Pope but too well justifies all those reproaches. 
 
 It is especially Lord Palmerston that I accuse here. 
 I must say it is in him that the animosity I deplore seems 
 personified. I am told that Lord Palmerston, in religious 
 matters, is more noted for indifference than fanaticism. 
 If so, he is the more culpable in my eyes ; for I know of 
 nothing more criminal and more odious, than to affect 
 through policy and personify in oneself passions one does 
 not feel. At all events, it is Lord Palmerston,, his baleful 
 influence, his evil genius, his detestable policy, that the Holy 
 See has long had to contend with. Before 1848 ; during 
 the Congress of Paris ; before and after the last war ; at 
 all times, and in all places, has Lord Palmerston accused, 
 traduced, and slandered the Holy See. 
 
 Before the catastrophe of 1848, I shall only mention the 
 mission given to Lord Minto, " that incendiary excursion," 
 as M. de Montalembert says, " of a semi-official plenipo- 
 tentiary, everywhere assuming the right to censure pub- 
 licly the sovereigns, and to inflame populations already so 
 excitable." * But during the congress of Paris, what 
 course did Lord Palmerston pursue ? And in Parliament, 
 in the speeches he made after the congress, what was his 
 language ? I do not hesitate to say, that never in the 
 conduct nor in the language of M. de Cavour himself was 
 there shown more passion or more injustice. For instance, 
 how could the plenipotentiary sent by Lord Palmerston to 
 
 disorder or tyranny in other countries. No, thank God ! France 
 has not to reproach herself with such selfishness or such blindness. 
 I am happy to pay her this homage, not in a mean and narrow spirit 
 of exclusive patriotism, which I have ever condemned, but in 
 obedience to the dictater of my conscience, and to vindicate the 
 outraged majesty of justice, which forces from me a cry of indigna- 
 tion that I had long repressed." Speech of the 14th of January, 
 1848, in the Chamber of Peers, on the affairs of Switzerland. 
 1 M. de Montalembert, Pius IX. and Lord Palmerston. 
 
286 ENGLAND. 
 
 the congress write these words, as insulting to France as 
 they are void of truth and justice : " The occupation of 
 the Papal dominions sanctions a bad government" And 
 how was it that he was not afraid " of exciting discontent 
 amongst the people, and a disposition to rebel" when he 
 himself urged them on? Was it possible to denounce 
 more openly a sovereign to his people, or to encourage 
 rebellion more expressly ? 
 
 The official speeches of Lord Palmerston's colleagues 
 were in keeping with the diplomatic notes. We know in 
 what way Lord John Russell commented, in the House of 
 Commons, on the Memorandum of M. de Cavour, and 
 spoke " of the intolerable tyranny of the Roman Govern- 
 ment." 
 
 If it ill becomes a statesman, speaking in the British 
 Parliament, thus to forget the rights of justice and the 
 respect due to the weak, how are we to explain, except by 
 sentiments too unworthy to be avowed, those persevering 
 attacks on the Pope, and that complete silence about the 
 Government of Austria, whose tyranny M. de Cavour had 
 also denounced in his Memorandum of the 25th of March ? 
 What ! English ministers had not one word to say against 
 the military dictatorship which weighed upon Lombardy, 
 and they could stoop to the lowest invectives to crush an 
 absent and unarmed Pope ? 
 
 Lord Palmerston went farther still, and, indeed, .passed 
 all limits : he forgot all truths, I might say all decency, 
 when, in the House of Parliament, he a minister of the 
 crown, and invested with the highest authority a subject 
 can possess in the world dared to pronounce these words 
 in honour of the revolutionary Government of Rome : 
 " The Holy City was never better governed than in the 
 absence of the Pope." 
 
 I may well say, with M. de Montalembert : " The 
 bitterest enemies of England could not wish her a more 
 cruel insult than to see her prime minister thus making 
 himself the posthumous apologist of a government which 
 sprang from and ended in murder. ' J 
 
 To what iniquitous comparisons has not Lord Palmerston 
 
MALEVOLENT PREJUDICES. 287 
 
 been carried away by his blind animosity ! Is there in 
 England a man of honour that does not blush when he 
 sets those words side by side with the facts known to the 
 world ? 
 
 " Before, during, and after the siege of Rome, the 
 dagger was the arm and the symbol of the so-called liberty, 
 and the so-called Roman nationality. The stab that killed 
 Rossi gave birth to the Roman republic, and that demo- 
 cratic and blessed dagger, as they called it, was carried in 
 triumph and with singing through the streets of dis- 
 honoured Rome. And while that new republic lasted, 
 assassination, was the usual expedient of the secret societies 
 to keep down, the people by terrorism ; and priests, offi- 
 cers, and citizens of all classes, were their victims. Nor 
 was one of those assassins arrested or punished under the 
 republic, not even that wretch Zambianchi, the colonel of 
 ihcfinauzieri, who had so many unoffending persons mur- 
 dered at his barracks of San Calisto, and who, the worthy 
 rival of Carrier, caused the venerable priest of the Minerva 
 to be shot in his presence, at the end of a supper at which he 
 had forced that venerable ecclesiastic to be present. (Vide 
 Constitutionnel, Sept. 23, 1849.) After the taking of Rome, 
 they swore, and strictly kept their oath, to assassinate all 
 who showed their joy, or favoured the French army. It 
 is not likely that Lord Palmerston would dare to call into 
 question the honesty of the French commanders. The 
 orders of the day of General Rostolan and General Bara- 
 guey d'Hilliers, and many other documents besides, are 
 there to show all the care and energy that were required 
 to prevent the French soldiers themselves from falling 
 under the steel of the assassins/'' * 
 
 Such was the government which the prime minister of 
 England dared in the British Parliament to prefer to that 
 of the Pope. 
 
 But enough of the past : let us see if what is said and 
 done at the present time in England under the baleful 
 
 1 M. de Montalcidbert, Pius IX. and Lord Palmerston. 
 
288 ENGLAND. 
 
 influence of Lord Palmerston is less iniquitous or less 
 revolting. 
 
 Would the English press make use towards the dead- 
 liest foe of England, or the worst government on earth, 
 of the insults and calumnies it heaps day after day on the 
 Pope ? "Englishmen," says M. de Montalembert, " what 
 would you say if the highest authorities and the most in- 
 fluential men in France were constantly to insult and decry 
 the Anglican Church and its head ? " 1 But that is not 
 all : the hand of England, as well as of Piedmont, is but 
 too plainly visible in all that is going on in Italy. Angli- 
 canism, installed at Turin by M. de Cavour, seeks to spread 
 itself over the whole country by the most active propa- 
 gandism. To what lengths have they not gone ? And what 
 do not disclose to us these words of Lord Ellenborough, 
 in his letter to Lord Brougham : " I am ready, as a peer 
 of England, to send arms to Garibaldi?" 
 
 Yes, it must be said, a hatred to the Pope, implacable 
 because he is the Pope, and arrogant because he is weak, 
 is all I can discover in that unbounded animosity, and in 
 that pernicious policy, to which Lord Palmerston seems 
 anxious to give up England, contrary to her true dignity, 
 and consequently to her highest interests. For who does 
 not see that this policy will be without glory and without 
 profit, because it is without danger and without courage ? 
 For my part, when I contrast the greatness and power of 
 England with the weakness of the peaceful sovereign of 
 Rome ; I shall even say, when I compare the conduct of 
 Lord Palmerston towards the pontifical government with 
 his policy towards other governments, I cannot help won- 
 dering how the noble English people have not yiet under- 
 stood that they have been too long made to play a part 
 which degrades them. 
 
 ""Treat the Pope as if he had two hundred thousand 
 soldiers," said the First Consul to his ambassador at Rome. 
 If the Pope had them, Lord Palmerston would not have 
 
 M. de Montalemlcrt, Piux IX. and Lord Palmerston. 
 
MALEVOLENT PREJUDICES. 289 
 
 used the revolting language I have mentioned : he took 
 good care not to use it towards Austria, at least before her 
 defeat. He would not have summoned to his bar, con- 
 trary to all justice and to all honour, a sovereign from 
 whom he has received no offence, and from whom he 
 has nothing to fear, absolutely nothing : neither mili- 
 tary force, for he is without an army; nor even diplo- 
 matic notes, for the Pope has no accredited agent at the 
 court of England. You may say what you please against 
 him in your parliament, he is not there to defend him- 
 self; and you may say everything with impunity, for he 
 has not, like the United States, fleets to send against 
 yours. You may, you and your press, forgetful in his 
 case alone of the safeguards with which you ever surround 
 the accused in England, put him on his trial without 
 examining his cause, condemn him without giving him a 
 hearing, and dishonour him before all Europe without his 
 having an opportunity to contradict you : you may at your 
 ease insult, denounce, and threaten him with lofty arro- 
 gance ; but you know how to bend your proud head, alter 
 your tone, and lower your voice, when you are in presence 
 of a power that can look you in the face. But history 
 will one day say whether such conduct towards the weak 
 was glorious, whether such animosity was in any way 
 reconcilable with justice ; and, in fine, whether such a 
 policy was worthy of so great a nation. 
 
 You put forward the independence of Italy ; when, may 
 I ask, have you shown real anxiety about it ? Was it in 
 1848, when Charles- Albert, left to himself, could only say, 
 in the delusion of his blind heroism : L' Italia fara da se ! 
 when Venice, in distress, held out to you her hand, from 
 which you turned away, was your flag then seen in the 
 Peninsula, or on the Adriatic ? Was it in 1859, in the 
 last war, when every one of you, statesmen of England, 
 joined unanimously to avert the coming conflagration, and 
 when you, Lord Palmerston, were seen to unite, in order 
 to prevent the war, with the leader of your rivals, Lord 
 Derby, who then inflicted on the policy of Piedmont a 
 sharp censure which you did not hesitate to approve : 
 
 u 
 
290 ENGLAND. 
 
 " We have intimated to Sardinia," said Lord Derby, " the 
 regret she has caused us, by a course calculated to destroy 
 the sympathies she had won by her late conduct." 
 (Speech in the House of Lords, 3rd of February, 1859.) 
 
 The orator who pronounced those words took pleasure 
 in referring, at the conclusion of his speech, to the una- 
 nimity of opinion in the House ; and your own language 
 " was neither less precise nor less pacific." You reminded 
 the House that " Austria held Lombardy by virtue of 
 treaties," and you added, that tf rights consecrated by 
 treaties ought to be respected." If, then, it had depended 
 on you, Austria would still be at Milan. 
 
 But if it is for the political regeneration of Italy that 
 you are concerned, if you are not the enemies of the Pope 
 still more than the friends of Italy, is it not strange that a 
 small state of Italy, that has been governed for the last thou- 
 sand years by an Italian sovereign, should, with the king- 
 dom of Naples, which you can also attack with impunity, 
 have wholly taken up your attention, whilst you looked 
 on with indifference at the sufferings of Lombardy and 
 Venetia, that were ruled by a sway very different from the 
 mild and paternal government of the Holy Father ? It 
 is with that indifference that M. de Cavour bitterly re- 
 proached you on the 9th of February, 1859 : " The 
 Austrian Alps," said he, "do not allow the groans of 
 Venice and of Milan to reach the heart of England ! " 
 
 The fact is, you have done but one thing for Italy, and 
 that was, not to draw your sword and shed your blood, 
 but to attack, to insult, to calumniate, without danger and 
 without a possibility of retaliation, the unoffending sove- 
 reign of the Roman States, the head of the Catholic 
 Church. And now, when France alone has aided the 
 Italians, and driven back Austria; when she has trained 
 for them six victories, and shed the blood of f)0,()()() of 
 her soldiers; when she has an undoubted right to say on 
 what conditions she laboured to free Italy : when France 
 has done all this France, the eldest daughter of the 
 Church ; France, who has a traditional policy to support 
 in Italy ; who restored the throne of the Holy Father, and 
 
MALEVOLENT PREJUDICES. 291 
 
 took it under her safeguard, and promised to protect it, 
 Low can you, Lord Palmerston, with no other title but 
 the insults you have heaped on the august sovereign of 
 the States of the Church, be permitted to say to France : 
 No, France has no right here ; she shall reap no benefit 
 from the victories she has gained and the blood she has 
 shed ; she shall not be allowed to follow in Italy her 
 Catholic instincts and traditions, nor to keep her word : 
 I, Lord Palmerston, have proclaimed the Papal govern- 
 ment to be a bad one, and it must be treated as such ; I 
 have declared that France cannot protect it, and this she 
 must clearly understand. Such language wounds us 
 deeply : we feel that the honour of France is wounded by 
 such words, no less than justice is outraged by such 
 calumnies. 
 
 But I must dwell a little longer on this point, and ex- 
 plain myself more fully. I do not intend to censure 
 England for having done all in her power to prevent the 
 war, and for having remained in a strict neutrality after 
 it has broken out, any more than I make myself the apo- 
 logist of the treaties of 1815 : but I may well ask if Lord 
 Palmerston's policy is consistent with itself; if his is not 
 a double policy, very different towards the powerful and 
 the weak, towards Austria and Rome ? In the name of 
 what principles did England wish to prevent the Italian 
 war? In the name of the treaties she had signed, and by 
 virtue of which the Emperor of Austria, held his Italian 
 provinces; and she herself remained neutral on the prin- 
 ciple of non-intervention. Well, but, on the principles 
 of the treaties, in what should the interference of France 
 I do not even say an armed one to restore to the Pope 
 the provinces guaranteed to him by treaties signed by 
 England, be more open to the censure of England than 
 the armed interference of France to expel Austria from 
 the territories which she possessed by virtue of the same 
 treaties ? 
 
 Nevertheless', in the face of that armed interference, 
 England stands aloof, entrenches herself in a strict neu- 
 trality, and allows France to act. Why does she not still 
 
 u 2 
 
29.2 ENGLAND. 
 
 stand aloof at present ? All ! the reason is, that the time 
 has come to sacrifice the Pope, arid that the Pope is weak. 
 Lord Palmerston now recovers all his energy, and, as far 
 as in him lies, endeavours to influence our policy in the 
 Romagna, and to embarrass in the settlement of the affairs 
 of the Peninsula the victorious power whose intervention 
 he did not dare to hinder. 
 
 It must be confessed, all this is in keeping, and shows 
 a like courage. Most certainly it is not becoming in a 
 Frenchman to inveigh now against Austria ; but, notwith- 
 standing, how can I help making, for the last time, this 
 statement, which no one can disprove, that whilst it was 
 unblushingly proclaimed in the British Parliament that 
 the Pope alone was the cause of the misery of Italy, not a 
 murmur, not a word was heard in England against Austrian 
 rule ? They spoke of the Austrian just as they did of the 
 French occupation ; but of the Austrian system of govern- 
 ment in Lombardy, which M. de Cavour had so strongly 
 attacked, not one word did we hear. Their insults and 
 calumnies were directed against Rome alone : and in the 
 speech in which a minister of the Crown said that the Pope 
 alone was the cause of the misery of Italy, he added : 
 " Whether Austrian rule in Italy be wise or un^se, severe 
 or gentle, is no concern of ours ; " nor did Lord Pamerston 
 nor Lord John Russell protest against such words. 
 
 What, then, did the Pope do? You accused him of 
 being the cause of war by having his states occupied by 
 foreign troops : he called upon France and Austria to 
 withdraw simultaneously their soldiers, thus proving to 
 the world the injustice of your accusations. The people 
 at that time, despite your encouragement, had not yet 
 been stirred up to rebellion by the emissaries of Piedmont : 
 not long before, the Holy Father, passing through those 
 provinces, had received the most touching proofs of affec- 
 tion and of respect ; but now things have altered. And 
 you, having showed such forbearance before Austria, rise 
 up boldly against the Pope, and fearlessly declare that you 
 will not permit other nations to think of restoring to him 
 his possessions, although you had guaranteed them to him 
 
HER BLINDNESS AND INJUSTICE. 293 
 
 by those very treaties which you appealed to in favour of 
 Austria, but which you willingly ignore when the interests 
 of the Pope are at stake, Where can we discover, in all 
 this policy, a semblance of courage, or of the commonest 
 good faith ? 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 ENGLAND. 
 
 HER BLINDNESS AND INJUSTICE. 
 I. 
 
 I SHALL even add : What can England gain by all this ? 
 What high interest has she that impels her to wage war 
 to the death on the head of the Catholic Church ? For 
 my part, I can perceive none, unless, as the accusation 
 has often been made against her, her selfishness finds its 
 profit in continental disturbances. But if Lord Palmerston 
 made such a calculation, it was no less revolting than 
 fatal ; and sooner or later the noble lord would thereby 
 bring down upon his country not only disgrace, but dis- 
 aster and ruin. Yes, if he had speculated on the peril of 
 European order; if he had undertaken the task of adding 
 fuel on the continent to the still smouldering fire of revo- 
 lution; if, indeed, we must look upon him as the abettor 
 of subversive principles and of anarchy, his guilty impru- 
 dence may cost his country dear. England, in her turn, 
 might learn too soon that tempests cannot be let loose 
 with impunity, and that the revolutionary blasts might 
 one day blow back upon her island the storms she had 
 gathered on the continent. 
 
 Can Lord Palmerston declare, before God and before 
 men, that for the last ten years he has given no support to 
 the spirit of disorder, that he has favoured no attempt at 
 rebellion, and, in a word, that he is quite guiltless of all 
 
294 ENGLAND. 
 
 that revolution has done in Italy since 1850 ? I do not 
 go farther back. Can lie, the apologist of that Roman 
 republic to which the dagger that killed M. Rossi gave 
 birth, and the universal aggressor, not of strong govern- 
 ments,, but of weak and threatened states can he, I say, 
 pretend that he has had no influence on the hopes of 
 Garibaldi and Mazzini ? Or can he dare to say that 
 England has anything to gain by the success of their san- 
 guinary designs ? 
 
 But if you are not, as they say you are, the secret 
 abettor of the revolutionists; if you do not trifle, in your 
 selfishness, with the very principles of public order and of 
 European peace ; if social authority seems to you worthy 
 of respect, why is it that you delight, not in upholding, 
 but in lowering it, in the person of him who represents 
 the highest moral power in Europe ? It is true, indeed, 
 that you do not believe in this moral power of the Papacy ; 
 but there are two hundred millions of men in the world 
 who do, and that fact you do not deny. How is it pos- 
 sible that such a fact does not inspire you with some 
 respect for the Pontiff whom those two hundred millions 
 of men revere as the guide of their souls, and the teacher 
 of their faith ? Compare your language with that of one 
 of your most illustrious contemporaries, who is a statesman 
 and a Liberal as well as you, who, like you, has not the 
 happiness of being a son of the Catholic Church, to the 
 greatness of which he lias borne witness in the sincerity of 
 his noble heart : M. Guizot loved liberty -without ever con- 
 spiring with demagogy, and always understood the essential 
 condition of social order respect : " Catholicism," said he, 
 one day, in one of the highest efforts of his eloqiH'iuv, 
 " is the greatest, the holiest school of respect the world 
 has ever seen/' Such is the sacred power you take plea- 
 sure every day in si-oiling at, bitterly Mid unsparingly. 
 Let honest men in England compare dispassionately the 
 noble language i have just quoted with the tone of your 
 habitual attacks, and the unbecoming articles of your 
 papers, and 1 have confidence enough in their generosity 
 and good faith to believe that they will blush for you and 
 for their nation, whose prime minister you are. 
 
HER BLINDNESS AND INJUSTICE. 295 
 
 If, leaving aside the interests of Europe, I were to speak 
 to you on behalf of the interests of England, I should ask 
 you whether it is a wise policy wantonly to wound the 
 deepest, most tender, and sacred affections of two hundred 
 millions of men, and of a considerable number of British 
 subjects? 
 
 One day in 1848, at the French Tribune, in a memor- 
 able debate on the Eoman expedition, an orator thus 
 nobly expressed himself, amidst the cheers of the Assembly : 
 " It is a great honour and a great happiness for the French 
 republic to have inaugurated, if I may say so, its action 
 upon the political world and foreign affairs, by preserving 
 the independence of the Head of the Catholic Church ; 
 for my part, I congratulate my country with all my heart 
 for having, by doing so, been able to impose a debt of ad- 
 miration and gratitude on the hearts and consciences of 
 so many millions of men scattered over the world/' 
 (Speech of M. de Montalembert, November 30, 1848.) 
 
 Well, the words we have been accustomed to hear from 
 the lips of Lord Palmerston, all that reaches us every day 
 from England on the Italian question, this supercilious 
 language, these wanton insults, these revolting calumnies, 
 wound our hearts and rouse our indignation. Is it no 
 injury, I would say in my turn, to the prospects of a 
 people, to have imposed a debt of ingratitude and injustice 
 upon the justly irritated consciences of all the Catholics 
 upon earth? 
 
 Not to speak of other continental nations, are not the 
 vast majority of Frenchmen Catholics? "You boast of 
 your firm alliance with France, and you are right. 
 But do you not fear that your perpetual invectives against 
 the religion she professes will finally weaken this alliance ?" 
 
 Such were the words M. de Montalembert addressed to 
 you with the soundest good sense, and he added, " Some 
 time ago, during the twenty years that the desperate war 
 lasted which you waged against revolutionary France, you 
 offered a generous hospitality (which nothing ought ever 
 to make us forget) to the French priests and bishops exiled 
 or their faith. 
 
 "And now, by a sad contrast, when the highest inter- 
 
296 ENGLAND. 
 
 ests and main strength of your policy lie in your alliance 
 with France, which has now become perhaps more Catholic 
 than she was in the days of Louis XIV., you are not 
 afraid to display on all occasions your deep animosity 
 towards the head and living symbol of the religion she 
 professes. 
 
 " And what is true of France is no less so of all the 
 other Catholic nations with whom you have relations to 
 keep up." 
 
 Such also were the reflections which the most venerable 
 leader of the Whigs wished to impress on you : ft Every 
 country," said Lord Lansdowne, " with Roman Catholic 
 subjects has an interest in the condition of the Roman 
 States, and must take care that the Pope may exercise 
 his authority without being impeded by any temporal in- 
 fluence of a nature to affect his spiritual authority/' 
 
 "There," added M. de Montalembert, " there is the 
 truth told you by one whom you cannot suspect, by an 
 Englishman and an Anglican, a politician and not a 
 churchman, a lover of liberty and not of despotism." 
 
 It is true, indeed, that the Catholics are a minority in 
 England ; but ought not that very fact to be a motive for 
 treating them with regard ? However, leaving aside that 
 motive suggested by honour alone, is not the number 
 of British subjects whom Lord Palmerston's conduct 
 towards the Pope grieves and revolts large enough to 
 make it most unwise not to take them into consideration ? 
 Who does not know that Catholicism is steadily progressing 
 throughout the British empire ? Since Catholic emanci- 
 pation was won by O'Connell, it is not only in Ireland, 
 but in England, and even in Scotland, and especially 
 throughout the vast English colonies, that the number of 
 dioceses, parishes, churches, monasteries, and Catholic 
 congregations is ever on the increase. What good can 
 come from wounding all those consciences, and irritating 
 all these souls? What are the English Catholics to think 
 of the strange animosity of their Government towards the 
 Pontiff whom they love and revere ? What becomes of 
 their freedom of conscience, if the religion which they 
 
HER BLINDNESS AND INJUSTICE. 297 
 
 have a right to profess, is unceasingly insulted and calum- 
 niated in its Head by the prime minister of their country ? 
 
 Moreover, how deep is the wound inflicted by your 
 policy on Catholic hearts, you may see yourselves, by the 
 great public manifestations that have lately taken place in 
 Ireland and elsewhere. 
 
 Ireland. Ah ! you have heaped on her oppression and 
 disaster, and there is no people in the world, not even the 
 helots of Sparta, who have been treated by their con- 
 querors with more pitiless barbarity. But I do not intend 
 to go over all the wrongs and misfortunes of that unhappy 
 country, nor to call up in judgment against you the blood 
 you have shed, and the tears you have caused to flow. 
 Ireland has suffered all, and, thanks to God, the dawn of 
 her deliverance has come, at least I hope so : the liberty 
 she has won, stronger than your hatred, will do the rest, 
 with time : Ireland has suffered all with heroic patience, 
 and your horrible tyranny has not disheartened her 
 fidelity. 
 
 Well ! do you know what is harder for Ireland to bear 
 than proscription and spoliation, than famine and death, 
 than the dreadful emigration which is still her sad lot 
 every day ? It is the outrages you offer to the chair of 
 Peter, the wanton insults and base calumnies you shower 
 down on Pius IX. What wounds her to her inmost soul, 
 and makes her feel most keenly all your contempt for her, 
 is your conduct towards the Pontiff, whom she holds in 
 veneration, and who came to her assistance in the days of 
 her most cruel sufferings ; she has not forgotten that 
 Pius IX. raised his voice to implore in her behalf the com- 
 passion of the Catholic world, when she was starving 
 beside your opulence and disdain. How is it possible that 
 you do not see the deep wound you inflict on the Irish 
 heart by insulting what it loves, and traducing what it 
 reveres? All Ireland was moved when she saw the 
 danger that threatened Pius IX., and by the mighty 
 voice of her meetings she protested against your conduct. 
 At the great meeting of Dublin, so numerous and so en- 
 thusiastic, we felt that it was the heart of Ireland that 
 
298 ENGLAND. 
 
 beat in unison with all Catholic hearts in the world ; l 
 and the loud cheers which generous and faithful Ireland 
 then gave, which were re-echoed by her mountains, and 
 came even to our ears in distant lands, drowned for a while 
 the noise of your fierce and bitter outrages. 
 
 The congress was about to meet ; the line of conduct 
 you intend to pursue was no secret; and Ireland pro- 
 tested in the way I shall relate. It was a grand and 
 noble spectacle, well worthy to be contemplated, and I 
 wish to give a moment's rest to my soul by dwelling 
 on it. 
 
 A young member of the British Parliament presided 
 over the great meeting, and was the first to speak : ~ 
 
 " The moment is come," said he, " to prove that Ireland still 
 retains her ancient faith. (Prolonged cheers.) No true Catholic 
 can hesitate as to the course which it is his duty to take in this 
 crisis in the affairs of the world. All Catholics are agreed in think- 
 ing that the preservation of the temporal power of the Pope is 
 essential to the interests of religion. (Cheers.) 
 
 "It becomes the duty the solemn duty of every Catholic com- 
 munity to raise the voice of indignation, and, if necessary, of con- 
 demnation. (Loud cheers.) 
 
 " If, then, countrymen, it is the duty of Catholic nations generally 
 to avow their determination to maintain the territorial independence 
 of His Holiness, how much more is it the duty of Irishmen, from the 
 peculiar nature of their position, to be explicit on this point. (Hear, 
 hear.) We are associated with Protestant England we are said 
 by English statesmen and English writers to form part of a united 
 kingdom, and in the attempt made to overshadow the distinct 
 nationality with which Ireland has undoubtedly been stamped by 
 the hand of God, we arc alternately governed by contending 
 factions of oligarchy, that cannot sympathize with us as a people, 
 and that are hostile to us on account of our religion. Hence it is 
 
 1 The Itight Rev. Dr. Moriarty, Bishop of Kerry, speaking of 
 the emotion of the Irish Catholics and of all Catholu-s through- 
 out the world, the moment they heard of the threatened attack on 
 the Holy Father, made use of this beautiful expression: "They 
 had risen, as the arm rises instinctively to protect the head when it 
 is in danger." 
 
 2 Vide H'< <//;/ Freeman s Journal, November 19, 1859. 
 
IIEll" BLINDNESS AND INJUSTICE. 299 
 
 that at this critical juncture it is imperative upon Ireland to raise 
 her voice, in order that she may preserve her identity among the 
 nations. She must raise her voice loud enough to be heard at the 
 remote ends of the earth, in order that it may be proclaimed that 
 there are even yet five millions of Irishmen faithful, as were their 
 fathers of old, in their allegiance to the chair of Peter. Five 
 millions of Irishmen " (A voice : " Six millions.") " Six millions, 
 if you like (cheers) six millions of Irishmen, who disavow all 
 connection with the traducers of the Holy Father, in order that it 
 may be known that the government that would despoil him of his 
 immemorial patrimony, although it may be strong enough to hold 
 Ireland down, is most certainly not the government of her selec- 
 tion. (Cheers.) 
 
 " AYe shall call on Europe to witness that the policy of those men 
 is not our policy ; we shall protest, by the memory of those who are 
 gone and who carried the banner of Catholicity in triumph through 
 storms and persecutions, that Catholic Ireland has neither hand, 
 act, or part in the policy that would deprive the Holy Father of 
 any portion of his dominions." (Tremendous cheering.) 
 
 Thus spoke The O'Donoghue at the great meeting of 
 the Catholic Young Men's Society in Dublin on the I6th 
 of November, 1859. Later in the evening Mr. Sullivan 
 spoke, and ended a noble speech by these words, which 
 were received with most enthusiastic cheering : 
 
 " Standing here to-night in the capital of this old Catholic land ; 
 standing here in the presence of its faithful sons in presence too 
 of one who well and nobly represents the ancient chieftains of our 
 country (cheering for The O'Donoghue of the Glens) standing 
 here, I say, as an Irishman and a Catholic, I lift up my hands and 
 protest against, impeach, and denounce the wrong and outrage 
 offered to the just and rightful, mild and liberty-loving sovereign, 
 Pio Nono. I protest against and impeach it in the name of com- 
 mon humanity, in the name of progress, civilization, social order, 
 and true liberty. I impeach it before heaven, before earth, before 
 God, before man. I am here to say that come what may to that 
 Pontiff, so dear to our hearts, Ireland will ever be found faithful to 
 the Holy See ! " 
 
 " Here," says the paper from which we extract the 
 account of this meeting, " as Mr. Sullivan retired, the 
 entire meeting rose to their feet, with a deafening burst 
 of cheering, and a scene of indescribable enthusiasm fol- 
 lowed ; cheering, waving of hats, scarfs, and handkerchiefs, 
 
300 ENGLAND. 
 
 prolonged with apparently inexhaustible fervour, and it 
 was only after a long interval that even partial silence was 
 restored." 
 
 Another member of Parliament, Mr. John Pope Hennessy, 
 came forward in his turn : 
 
 " I have come," said he, " three hundred miles to meet you, and 
 willingly, indeed, would I travel from one end of Europe to tho 
 other to assist at deliberations such as yours : for what is it we are 
 met here to-night to do ? We are met to discharge the greatest 
 task that Irishmen have undertaken since the days of O'Connell ; 
 and when I mention his name, and think of the objects of this 
 meeting, I do feel most keenly that Ireland sustained by his death 
 a loss that centuries may not supply. Beneath the dome of St. 
 Peter's his heart is enshrined, and in the sacred cause you are here 
 to defend, that heart, in his lifetime, ever beat with the most filial 
 devotion. (Cheers.) You are, I am happy to say, like your chair- 
 man and myself, young men. It is young men we want now 
 (cheers) ; for when young men sympathize, let us not forget that 
 youthful sympathy is but the prelude to action. 
 
 " We have lately seen the anti-papal ranks recruited by one who 
 was a cabinet minister of the late government, Lord Ellenborough. 
 Lord Ellenborough has done us, I think, a good service. In writing 
 to Lord Brougham he said : ' I am prepared, as an English peer 
 of the realm, to send arms from England to Garibaldi.' (Groans.) 
 Now, I want you, as young men, to give to that the proper answer. I 
 know only one answer, and it is this that not only will you send 
 arms, but that you will send men also. (Enthusiastic and prolonged 
 cheering.) My reply to Lord Ellenborough is a very short and 
 simple piece of advice to you arm (cheers), arm in defence of the 
 Sovereign Pontiff, the mildest of rulers, one who has for you the 
 deepest sympathy, and who has been so grossly insulted by English 
 statesmen in the face of Europe. Let me tell you, too, that on the 
 day after the publication of Lord Ellenborough's letter I was 
 writing to Lord Brougham about some private affairs, and I took 
 occasion to refer to that letter. I told him, relying on what I know 
 of the Irish people, that if Lord Ellenborough and the other friends 
 of liberalism sent arms to the insurgents in Italy, that the people of 
 Ireland would do what I have now asked you to do. (Hear, hear, 
 and cheers.) I also told Lord Brougham what most of you, 
 perhaps, are not aware of, that Garibaldi, to whom Lord Ellen- 
 borough proposes to send arms, was a member of a secret society 
 in Italy, the 33rd rule of which is as follows : " If the victim 
 whom we as secret judges condemn, escape, he shall be incessantly 
 pursued, and shall be struck, were he to shelter on the bosom of his 
 mother, or on the tabernacle of Christ.' (Sensation, and cries of 
 
HER BLINDNESS AND INJUSTICE. 301 
 
 ' oh ! oh ! ') ]Sow, that is the style of politicians with whom English 
 statesmen sympathize. . . ." 
 
 The speaker ended by calling upon Ireland to proclaim 
 aloud her calm but settled determination to defend the 
 Holy See. 
 
 It is indeed with admiration that we relate such scenes : 
 our heart is moved by them, and our love for the noble 
 and unhappy country which gave birth to such generous 
 and faithful men would be increased if possible. 
 
 ii. 
 
 Bossuet says somewhere that " when people do not 
 place justice on their side,, they always remain weak on 
 that point." Let England forgive me for telling her this 
 is her weakness. Thanks be to God, violated right and 
 outraged justice rise up against iniquity with overwhelming 
 and imperishable force. At the very moment of its ephe- 
 meral triumph injustice receives a fatal wound, which 
 sooner or later must unnerve and lay low the conqueror. 
 
 And this should console us when we meditate with un- 
 availing sadness on the wrongs which so often triumph 
 here below. Who has not at times been tempted to fear, 
 at the sight of what takes place upon the earth, that this 
 world has been hopelessly given over to the empire of 
 force? But no ! justice is not exiled from it for ever. 
 Banished as it often is from public affairs, it takes refuge 
 in the consciences of men : it finds there a stronghold 
 where it may await the day of reparation, when it will in- 
 evitably be reinstated in its rightful empire over souls. 
 
 These thoughts naturally occur to my mind when I re- 
 flect upon the contrast which the Pope and England at 
 this moment offer to the world ; when I behold on one 
 side that weak, inoffensive, and unarmed sovereignty, 
 which neither threatens nor oppresses, the only power on 
 earth that blesses ; and on the other, that haughty, super- 
 cilious, arrogant policy, which, like the stern hero of 
 Homer, Jura net/at sibi nata ; when I behold that impe- 
 rious hostility, those leagued animosities, those bitter ac- 
 
302 ENGLAND. 
 
 cusations, those unwearied attacks on the august old man 
 who sits in the Vatican : yes, when I see before me this 
 picture, representing in its saddest colours the vile and 
 odious empire of force, the eternal oppression here below 
 of the weak by the strong, ah ! it is then my only conso- 
 lation to remember the inviolable asylum of the human 
 conscience, the avenging tears of oppressed innocence, and 
 the unforeseen but inevitable victory of justice ! 
 
 This peaceful sovereign of the States of the Church, the 
 father still more than the king of his people, who has done 
 so much for them, for Italy, and for the peace of Europe, and 
 whose benefits have been all turned against himself, he it 
 is who is accused of disturbing the world, of being the 
 cause of dissensions, the only obstacle to peace. Yes, you 
 dared to use these words in your parliament. In vain he 
 answered you, " Peace, peace ! but who wishes for it 
 more than I ? who has done more to obtain it ? who 
 represents it on earth if not I ? " And you reply, as the 
 wolf did to the lamb, " I say you are disturbing it ; and if 
 it is not you, it is yours." 
 
 Do we not find this monstrous injustice in all the 
 speeches and invectives of English statesmen against the 
 Holy Father? From their high position, whence they 
 may accuse and threaten with impunity, they condescend 
 to acknowledge that the Pope is humane and kind, a sort 
 of lamb ; but they hasten to add, that those who govern In 
 the name of His Holiness are wretches, who create dis- 
 turbances on all sides by their tyranical acts. 
 
 " In good truth, my lord/' said M. de Montalembcrt to 
 Lord Palmerston in 1856, "tell us where are those tyran- 
 nical acts. When, where, how, and by whom committed ! 
 Relate them to us, point out the tyranny, and name the 
 tyrants. We defy you to do so : you cannot. You repeat 
 some idle declamations whined forth in your antechambers 
 by unknown refugees or apostates. You would not suffer 
 in England the presence of an official representative of the 
 power which you do not cease to denounce ; you are not 
 supposed officially to be aware of his existence ; but you are 
 far from honouring him with your indifference. You are 
 
HER BLINDNESS AND INJUSTICE. 303 
 
 without accredited and official agents in the Roman States 
 to report to you what takes place there : but you have 
 there clandestine and more than suspicious agents. 1 .... 
 Since when do you, English, claim the right of condemning 
 people unheard ? In this instance, where the destinies of 
 a people and the honour of a world are at stake, and in 
 presence of that august defendant whom you presume to 
 call to your bar, where are your witnesses? Where are 
 your proofs ? Where are your scruples ? Where are your 
 precautions? What has become of the traditional in- 
 tegrity of your tribunals ? Where is your natural sense 
 of right ? " 
 
 Assuredly these reproachful questions and these wither- 
 ing sarcasms are not uncalled for. When, in fact, has 
 Lord Palmerston treated the sovereign of the Roman 
 States, I will not say with deference, but with common 
 justice ? When did he attempt a straightforward discus- 
 sion, based not on vague and lying accusations, but on a 
 conscientious and impartial study of the facts ? Where 
 can we find in those bitter and violent speeches, repeated 
 after him by the English press, even the semblance of 
 impartiality, or the shadow of the forbearance to which, 
 doubtless, a sovereignty is entitled, which so many ages 
 have venerated, and even the schismatical Emperor of 
 Russia has treated with respect ? 
 
 They speak of reforms ; but, candidly speaking, are 
 reforms, what Lord Palmerston desires ? Or do those 
 desire them whom he upholds in Italy the revolutionists 
 or Piedmontese? No; it is easy to see, this is not what 
 they want. Lord Palmerston, as well as the revolutionists, 
 have their minds made up : " Whatever Pius IX. may do, 
 
 1 M. de Montalembert mentions here a certain Mr. Freeborn, 
 " accused and convicted of calumny against France and the French 
 army, in the famous memorandum of the consuls at Home, which 
 was got up and signed by himself after the siege, in which, with 
 affected regret, the injuries and dilapidations were represented as 
 effected by our artillery, which had been entirely committed by the 
 besieged themselves, whom he honoured with his sympathy and 
 encouragement." 
 
304 ENGLAND. 
 
 we will use his concessions only to overturn him," said 
 one of their papers on the very day when he issued his 
 motu proprio of reform. They have but too faithfully 
 kept their word. 
 
 Moreover, the official documents of English diplomacy 
 have themselves informed us that on the very day after 
 the treaty of Villafranca, Count Walewski stated to Lord 
 Cowley that "the Pope had spontaneously declared his 
 readiness to follow the counsels which France might offer 
 him." And in the month of September, when the Duke 
 de Grammont proposed a plan of reforms to the Pope, he 
 was answered " that His Holiness was quite willing to adopt 
 them, provided the integrity of the States of the Church 
 were guaranteed." l 
 
 After all, I may be allowed to ask Lord Palmerston, 
 why do you assert this right of interference in the affairs 
 of a foreign government only in the case of the Pope, as 
 if his dominions alone required reforms ? But, throughout 
 all Germany, I hear loud demands for a great reform in the 
 conditions of the federal compact : has ,the Emperor of 
 Austria no need of reform in his states? or has Russia 
 none ? And what of many other great nations? How is 
 it that you, who are so inquisitorial, so censorious towards 
 the Pope, have no fault to find with other governments ? I 
 repeat, it is that they are strong and that the Pope is weak. 
 
 But, is your own legislation perfect, and are your poli- 
 tical institutions irreproachable? Some two years ago, 
 an omission, a serious omission, was pointed out in the 
 British legislation, which threatened the security of 
 governments : and this reform was proposed, Lord Pal- 
 merston was prime minister, and brought it forward as 
 necessary to his policy ; but the country, considering the 
 tone of the French Government as dictatorial, refused its 
 consent, and the noble lord fell from power. But the 
 Pope, though less strong, has an equal right to deprecate 
 interference, and this right becomes a duty when he resists 
 injustice. 
 
 1 Lord Cowley 's Despatch to Lord John Russel]. 
 
HER BLINDNESS AND INJUSTICE. 305 
 
 And as to the voice of the people, if it is, indeed, 
 honestly, and without sinister motives, that you appeal 
 to it against the Pope, why do you not listen to it else- 
 where ? 
 
 Look at the Sultan, Turkey, a government and a 
 country that are a disgrace to Europe : look at the Christ- 
 ians of the East groaning under cruel bondage. Has 
 Lord Palmerston ever said of the Sultan what he has 
 dared to say of the Pope ? Has he ever asked for the 
 suppression of the decrepit empire of the Turks, as he 
 now asks for the dispossession of the Pope ? Does he 
 concern himself about the wishes of those Christian popu- 
 lations of the East, labouring under ill-treatment and 
 oppression, he who makes such a noise about the suspi- 
 cious votes of an assembly sprung from insurrection, and 
 about a universal suffrage pronounced under the two- 
 fold coercion of Piedmontese arms and of revolutionary 
 violence ? 
 
 " Kemember Poland," I would say with M. de Monta- 
 lembert, " the greatest and most illustrious of oppressed 
 and suppressed nationalities, Poland, of old the watch- 
 word of the liberals of all shades and of all nations. Has 
 its lot been bettered ? has its life begun to bloom again ? 
 Has eternal justice, outraged by this murder of a people, 
 been appeased ? No ! And yet you are all silent." 
 
 If Lord Palmerston is animated by a zeal for the wishes 
 of population, and not by his hatred of popery, why did 
 he repress, ten years ago, with implacable severity, the 
 mere symptoms of a revolt in the Ionian Islands, " where," 
 as M. de Montalembert says, " religion, habits, traditions, 
 interests, language, everything, in short, is opposed to 
 British rule ? " 
 
 This enormous inconsistency, this flagrant injustice, has 
 been pointed out even in England. 
 
 " Within this very year," writes, with the frankness of 
 conviction, a distinguished member of the House of Lords, 
 Lord Norm anby, " another assembly has voted annexation 
 to another state ; but this is an act which affects the 
 interests and hurts the prestige of England. In vain, 
 
 x 
 
306 ENGLAND. 
 
 then; would it be urged that there a parliament is regularly 
 constituted ; that we could not complain of the electoral 
 law, for it had been framed by ourselves ; that the ques- 
 tion of nationality was much more clear and definite; 
 and that it was not here as in Tuscany, a question of 
 the absorption of the purest Italians by a mixed race, for 
 military purposes, but that the desire of Greeks was for 
 union with the kingdom of Greece, a kingdom created 
 by European arrangement, to which we were parties, sub- 
 sequent to the time when the Ionian Islands were placed 
 under the protection of England. Have we been flatter- 
 ing ourselves that this is a question of which we shall hear 
 no more?" 1 "And it is you who dare at present, on the 
 opposite shore of the Adriatic, to throw all the weight of 
 your unjust partiality into the balance which is to regulate 
 wrongs a hundredfold less grievous, and aversions a hun- 
 dredfold less justifiable than those which you have drowned 
 in blood in Corfu." 2 
 
 No ; you have evidently two mouths and two measures, 
 as the Scripture says. I seek in vain, I shall not say for 
 a motive, but even for a plausible pretext, for what you 
 are doing against the Pope : I can find nothing but male- 
 volent partiality and crying injustice. 
 
 Ah ! were you in your turn put upon your trial, with 
 what justice might not the solemn injunction of the Gospel 
 be applied to you : " Cast out first the beam out of thy 
 own eye, and then shalt thou see to cast out the mote out 
 of thy brother's eye." 
 
 AVc constantly hear your papers speaking of the tyranny 
 of the Pope, of clerical despotism, and the clerical yoke. 
 Have you, then, forgotten your own history, the history 
 even of late years ? Having done what you have done, 
 how is it possible to speak as you speak ? 
 
 1 The Congress and the Cabinet, by the Marquis of Normanby, 
 E.G. London : John Murray, Albemarle Street. 
 
 2 Pius IX. and France in 1849 and 1859, by M. de Montalem- 
 bert. 
 
II KR BLINDNESS AND INJUSTICE. 307 
 
 You have just been reminded of the cruelty with which 
 you crushed the revolt in the Ionian" Islands. And 
 India! You, who reproached Pius IX. so bitterly with 
 having retaken a city that had rebelled, how did you act 
 in the late war in India? But let us cast a veil over 
 these horrors, the enormity of which a portion of the 
 English press could not help stigmatizing. 
 
 At home, in England, Scotland, and Ireland, what have 
 you done ? I do not speak of the middle ages, nor of the 
 stormy days of the civil wars, but " hardly a century ago, 
 in the age of philosophy and enlightenment, did you not 
 crush, with the most pitiless barbarity, the revolt of the 
 last partisans of the Stuarts? Did you not put to death 
 the heads of the noblest houses in Scotland, and others 
 less known, with a cruelty surpassed^ only by the atro- 
 cities of Pombal about the same time? And, sixty years 
 ago, when Ireland, almost worn out with six centuries of 
 oppression and suffering, rose up again in rebellion, and 
 opened her arms to the French revolution, did not your 
 scaffolds, the brutal outrages of an unbridled soldiery, 
 and the cold-hearted cruelty of partial judges, exhaust all 
 the horrors that implacable conquest can inflict upon an 
 alien and vanquished race ?" x 
 
 Ah ! when a people has before them Ireland such a 
 name and such recollections how is it possible that they 
 do not, for very shame, moderate their language. 
 
 I shrjnk from all I should have to relate, were I to give 
 the history of English misgovernment in Ireland. "The 
 policy of Cromwell," says Lord Macaulay, " was comprised 
 in one word, which, as Lord Clarendon tells us, was often 
 in the mouths of the Englishry of that time. That word 
 was extirpation/" 2 
 
 " The statute-book of Ireland was filled with enactments 
 which furnish to the Roman Catholics but too good a 
 
 1 Pius IX. and Lord Palmcrston. 
 
 2 Speeches of the Eight Hon. T. B. Macaulay, M.P., corrected 
 by himself, p. 296. London : Longman & Co. 1854. 
 
 x 2 
 
308 ENGLAND. 
 
 ground for recriminating on us when we talk of the bar- 
 barities of Bonner and Gardiner; and the harshness of 
 those odious laws was aggravated by a more odious 
 administration. For, bad as the legislators were, the 
 magistrates were still worse." l 
 
 ' And, in the opening passage of his celebrated history, 
 the same noble author, referring to the events he is about 
 to record, says : " It will be seen how, in two important 
 dependencies of the crown, wrong was followed by just 
 retribution ; how Ireland, cursed by the domi- 
 nation of race over race, and of religion over religion, 
 remained, indeed, a member of the empire, but a withered 
 
 1 " So great and so loner has been the misgovernment of Ireland," 
 says the Rev. Sydney Smith, in the Edinburgh Review, Novem- 
 ber, 1820, " that we verily believe the empire would be much 
 stronger if everything was open sea between England and the 
 Atlantic, aijd if skates and codfish swam over the fair land of 
 Ulster. Such jobbing, such profligacy so much direct tyranny 
 and oppression such an abuse of God's gifts such a profanation 
 of God's name for the purposes of bigotry and party spirit, cannot 
 be exceeded in the history of civilized Europe, and will long remain 
 a monument of infamy and shame to England. . . . The great mis- 
 fortune of Ireland is, that the mass of the people have been given 
 up for a century to a handful of Protestants, by whom they have 
 been treated as helots, and subjected to every species of persecution 
 and disgrace. The sufferings of the Catholics have been so loudly 
 chanted in the very streets, that it is almost needless to remind our 
 readers, that, during the reigns of George I. and George II., the 
 Irish Roman Catholics were disabled from holding any civil or 
 military office, from voting at elections, from admission into corpo- 
 rations, from practising law or physic. A younger brother, by 
 turning Protestant, might deprive his elder brother of his birth- 
 right. . . . A Papist was disabled from purchasing freehold lands, 
 and even from holding long leases ; and any person might take his 
 Catholic neighbour's horse by paying five pounds for it. If the 
 child of a Catholic father turned Protestant, he was taken away 
 from his father and put into the hands of a Protestant relation. 
 Persons plundered by privateers during a war \\itli any Popish 
 prince Were reimbursed by a levy on the Catholic inhabitants where 
 they lived. . . . The greater part of these incapacities," adds the 
 writer, " are removed : but the grand misfortune is, that the spirit 
 which these oppressive laws engendered remains." 
 
HER BLINDNESS AND INJUSTICE. 309 
 
 and distorted member, adding no strength to the body 
 politic, and reproachfully pointed at by all who feared or 
 envied the greatness of England." l 
 
 What unhappy Ireland suffered under such a domina- 
 tion, and under the twofold tyranny of barbarous laws, 
 and a still more barbarous administration, it is easier to 
 fancy than to relate. " No," said to me a few days ago 
 an Irish Catholic, " I do not think that a generous Irish- 
 man can write the history of his country without blood 
 and tears on every page." " There never has been a 
 country," exclaimed one day, in the English Parliament, 
 the Duke of Wellington, with the accent of emotion we 
 might expect from his great soul, <c there never has been 
 a country in which poverty and destitution have existed 
 to the degree they exist in Ireland ! " 
 
 What may give some idea of this wretchedness is, that 
 in 1835, the Poor Law Commissioners stated, in their re- 
 port, that there were in Ireland two million three hundred 
 and eighty-five thousand persons in danger of starvation. 
 
 It must be known that in Ireland, notwithstanding the 
 wonderful fertility of the soil, which might, if properly 
 cultivated,, support twenty-five millions of inhabitants, as 
 it has been proved by economists, in consequence of 
 English misrule, famines frequently occur, and last gene- 
 rally from three to four months. At all times, the great 
 mass of the people have no other food than the potatoes 
 called "lumpers," which were used in the last century to 
 fatten pigs. In some districts, the peasants eat, in times of 
 distress, a seed-weed called doulamaun. The famine begins 
 towards the end of May, when the stock of potatoes begins 
 to run short, and lasts till the end of August, when the 
 new crop comes in. 
 
 Such is the wretched food of the poor Irish. With 
 regard to the other details of life, " there are in Donegal," 
 said a Protestant journal two years ago, " about four 
 
 1 History of England from the Accession of James II., by Lord 
 Macaulay, p. 2. London : Longman & Co. 1858. 
 
310 ENGLAND. 
 
 thousand adults,, of both sexes, obliged to go barefooted 
 through the snow : pregnant women and aged persons are 
 
 in constant danger of dying of cold It is seldom 
 
 that a man has a cotton shirt .... two persons use the 
 same clothes ; when one goes out the other stays at home 
 .... but the destitution of the women is still greater, if 
 possible. There are several hundred families in which two 
 or three grown-up girls have but one gown between them." 1 
 But without speaking of past times, is not the un- 
 speakable misery which crushed this unhappy country in 
 1847 sufficient to raise the most terrible accusation 
 against the tyranny of her oppressors ? God alone can 
 know the sufferings of those millions of broken hearts. 
 " A great deal has been written," says Captain Mann, in 
 his "Narrative of the Events of 1847," "and many an 
 account given, of the dreadful sufferings endured by the 
 poor, but the reality, in most cases, far exceeded descrip- 
 
 1 In 1835, a celebrated French writer, M. Gustave de Beaumont, 
 travelling through the county Mayo, comes to the parish of New- 
 port-Pratt. " Wishing," says he, " to form an accurate idea of the 
 degree of misery in this parish, I entered a great number of cabins, 
 and here are some of the statistical details I collected whilst visiting 
 them : Out of the 11,761 inhabitants of this parish, 9,338 have no 
 other bed than straw or grass, and 7,531 lie upon the ground. Out 
 of the 206 inhabitants of Derry-Laken, a small hamlet in the parish, 
 only 39 have a blanket for the night ; the others are exposed to die 
 of cold as well as of hunger : and whilst I was going through the 
 parish, I found, in the middle of the day, twelve families who had 
 not yet broken their fast for want of food. As to their houses, 
 picture to yourselves four walls of dried mud, covered in witli thatch 
 or sods of grass ; no chimney, but a hole in the roof, and in many 
 cases tin 1 sni'>ke finds no other issue than the door : in the same 
 room arc huddled together father, mother, children, and grand- 
 father : no furniture in this wretched hovel, but one bed, made up 
 generally of straw or grass, and serving for the whole family. You 
 see five or six half-naked children squatting down over the dying 
 embers in the hearth, and in a corner a pig, the only inmate that 
 has nothing to complain of, as he delights in dirt. One is at first 
 inclined to look upon the presence of the pig in a cabin as a sign of 
 poverty; but such is not the case, and the destitution is extreme 
 indeed where lie is not seen. Such a dwelling is wretched, and yet 
 it is not that of the pauper, but of the Irish tenant." 
 
HER BLINDNESS AND INJUSTICE. 311 
 
 tion. Indeed, noue can conceive what it was but those 
 who were in it. For my part, I frequently look back on 
 it as a fearful and horrid dream, scarcely knowing how 
 sufficiently to express gratitude to the Almighty for having 
 brought this country through it, even as it has." 
 
 In a few years, the eight millions of inhabitants that 
 peopled this land, so celebrated for its fertility, were re- 
 duced by famine and emigration to six millions. It was 
 a heart-rending sight for those who travelled through the 
 country to see along the roadside the ruins of the deserted 
 cabins and villages. A little later, and the English papers 
 congratulated themselves on the tranquillity of Ireland. 
 She was quiet, indeed : but it was the quiet of the tomb : 
 two millions of the Irish had disappeared. " Ubi soli- 
 tudinem faciunt " says Tacitus, " pacem appellant." 
 
 According to the official statistics, 269,253 cabins were 
 pulled down from 1841 to 1851 ; and, in the single year 
 1849, upwards of 50,000 families were evicted from their 
 homes, and the lands they cultivated. 
 
 In order thoroughly to understand what this eviction 
 means, we must recollect that, from the days of Elizabeth 
 to those of William III., from 1586 to 1692, ten- elevenths 
 of the soil of Ireland have been violently taken from the 
 Catholics, confiscated, and then given to the Protestants. 
 Hence we behold at present the enormous injustice, that 
 the Protestants, who are barely a sixth of the total popu- 
 lation of Ireland, are the owners of seven-eighths of 
 the country, and the mass of the Catholics are at their 
 service, to cultivate the land which once belonged to their 
 fathers. 
 
 Moreover, the land is let on such conditions, that the 
 Times itself said, in 1857, that in Ireland, property was 
 ruled with savage and tyrannical sway ; that the landlords 
 exercise their rights with an iron hand, and deny their 
 duties with a brazen face. 1 And the Times added, that old 
 age, infirmity, and sickness are there doomed to death. 
 
 1 Times, 25tli of February, 1857. 
 
312 ENGLAND. 
 
 In the month of November last, two members of par- 
 liament, Mr. Maguire and The O'Donoghue, wrote to 
 Mr. Cardwell, the Chief Secretary for Ireland: "The 
 great mass of the tenants of our country have no legal 
 title whatever to the land they cultivate, and, despite old 
 ties and fond recollections, may be driven from it as easily 
 as the cattle that feed on its surface/' 
 
 And this is done with the iron hand and brazen face 
 which the Times spoke of: the landlords, using their hor- 
 rible right of legal eviction, sweep the poor tenants from 
 their land, and reduce them to the most frightful misery, 1 
 or compel them to emigrate. 
 
 1 The most awful poverty is the lot of these unhappy evicted 
 tenants : of their misery we may form some idea from the following 
 facts. 
 
 In the Blue Book for 1837, we find that the annual exportations 
 from Ireland amounted to 20,000,000, and that of that sum 
 15,000,000 were derived from the exportation of cattle, corn, 
 butter, and eggs, which the poor Irish farmers never taste them- 
 selves, but sell to pay their rents : for themselves they have no 
 food but " lumpers." 
 
 "Millions of Irishmen," says M. de Beaumont, "eat meat but 
 once a year, on Christmas day." 
 
 " One day," says M. Perrand, in his excellent article in the 
 Correspondent, of the 25th of March, 1860, on the Irish Tenant 
 Bill, " a tenant of Lord Leitrim's came to complain to him that his 
 demands reduced him to the lowest distress : 'You might as well,' 
 said he, ' cut off my head once for all, as treat me in this fashion.' 
 ' No,' answered the landlord, ' I won't cut off your head, my boy, 
 but I'll shave you as close as possible.' 
 
 " In the month of October last, the Irish journals gave us the sad 
 list of the tenants whom a member of parliament, Mr. John A. 
 Wynne, member for Sligo, had evicted from his property for the 
 crime of electoral independence. (Connaught Patriot, 22nd Octo- 
 ber, 1859, quoting the Sligo Champion.} 
 
 " One of those evictions was made under such circumstances that 
 we nnnnot pass it by in silence. A man named Bernard Flynn had 
 thought it his duty to vote for another candidate than Mr. Wynne. 
 A notice of ejectment was served. His wife was then dangerously 
 ill ; Flynn thought the situation one of a nature to touch the heart 
 of the landlord and his agents. The doctor gave a written certifi- 
 cate that there would be danger of death if the woman were removed, 
 
HER BLINDNESS AND INJUSTICE. 313 
 
 But, I may be told, has not Lord Palmerston, of whom 
 you complain so bitterly, endeavoured to remedy the 
 evils you deplore ? Was it not he who, on the 4th of 
 April, 1856, laid before the House of Commons a bill to 
 amend this frightful state of things ? 
 
 All that is true; and on that very day he said that 
 " the members of the House must know that Ireland has 
 for a long series of years been the victim of the misgovern- 
 ment of this country. And it was because Ireland was the 
 victim of sectarian oppression and class legislation that the 
 government were entitled to ask exceptional legislation of 
 the House." 
 
 Such were the words of Lord Palmer ston. I might 
 also quote Lord Derby, who said, on the 9th of June, 
 1845, that the remedy for the evils of Ireland is not 
 emigration, but a legislation which should make it the 
 tenant's interest to spend on the land his capital and his 
 labour. " Up to this day," added the noble lord, " this 
 legislation has not been tried, and we are told it is farther 
 off than ever." 
 
 If these noble lords have a right to tell me they have 
 spoken of, and promised to do away with those abomin- 
 able abuses, I have a right to ask them in my turn, What 
 have you done to keep your word ? Hitherto, nothing. 
 But, you will say, for reforms, time is required. Well, 
 perhaps so. Yet, except the Sultan, you do not grant to 
 the princes who wish to reform their states that time you 
 
 and Flynn hastened to show it to the agent. The only answer he 
 received was, ' We have nothing to say to your wife, it is your house 
 we want.' The unfortunate woman was then removed, and died 
 almost immediately. 
 
 " It was also on the property of Mr. Wynne that took place the 
 eviction of a poor man who had only made up his mind, after long 
 hesitation, to vote against his landlord. When the notice of eject- 
 ment was served, his wife hurried off to the agent to beg for mercy. 
 'Forgive us,' said she, 'we will not do it again.' 'Off with you, 
 woman,' answered one of the landlord's drivers, with cruel mockery ; 
 ' go to your priests, who say they have power to forgive ; we have 
 not.' " 
 
314 ENGLAND. 
 
 Q 
 
 claim for yourselves. But, is it indeed time that you 
 want ? The horrible oppression of Ireland has now lasted 
 for centuries : even under the reign of James I., Sir John 
 Davies said that the "Irishman was more miserable than 
 a bond slave, because the bond slave was fed by the lord, 
 but in this case the lord was fed by the bond slave." And, 
 in 1859, Dr. MacHale, archbishop of Tuam, wrote again 
 to Lord Palmerston : " Not only do those evils subsist in 
 
 all their force, but they are even aggravated The 
 
 evils accumulated by the oppression of past ages extend 
 their influence over the country as widely as ever." 
 
 I know that for the last fifty years, without going 
 farther back, there has hardly been a parliament that was 
 not called upon to remedy those evils, so much did they 
 revolt all good men ! But we also know that hitherto 
 nothing, as I said before, absolutely nothing has been 
 done. I shall even add that since the beginning of this 
 century, sixteen laws have been promulgated by the 
 British Parliament to consolidate and extend the tyran- 
 nical power of the landlords, so bent does the English 
 government seem on persisting in its detestable policy 
 towards Ireland. 1 And you dare to speak of the wrongs 
 of Italy ! 
 
 And what am I to say of the coercion bills a sort of 
 martial law sometimes proclaimed by the British Par- 
 liament, probably to better the condition of the Irish ? 
 Since the beginning of this century, there have been no 
 less than thirty-three ! Here are some provisions of 
 the bill proposed by the government in 1846, at the 
 commencement of the famine, on the motion of Sir James 
 Graham : 
 
 Art. 15. Whoever shall be found outside his dwelling one hour 
 after sunset may be put into prison, and kept there till his trial. 
 Art. 16. Whoever shall have been imprisoned for such cause, may 
 
 1 Vide Bichino, quoted in the Repeal Prize Essay of Alderman 
 Stan ton, 1845, p. 76, and the Law Magazine, May, 1841. 
 
HER BLINDNESS AND INJUSTICE. 315 
 
 be punished with fifteen years' transportation, unless lie can prove 
 that he had gone out on business authorized by la\v. 
 
 Art. 18. The police may enter any dwelling from an hour after 
 sunset till the following morning. 
 
 It was by such means, and under the awful pressure of 
 a tyranny almost unparalleled in history, that in ten years 
 almost 270,000 cabins of Irish peasants have been levelled 
 with the ground; that in one year more than 50,000 
 families have been evicted; and, finally, that the total 
 population of Ireland, which was 8,200,000 souls in 1841, 
 was reduced to 6,500,000 in 1851, arid does not exceed at 
 present 6,000,000. The remainder died of starvation, or 
 emigrated. 
 
 Of that fearful emigration, what am I to say ? 
 
 A writer in the Edinburgh Review 1 says, "The emigra- 
 tion of 1846 from the United Kingdom, which was the 
 largest ever known up to that time, amounted to 129,851 
 persons; the emigration of the first three quarters of 1847 
 was 240,461 ; and almost the whole of it was from Ireland 
 to Canada and the United States. 
 
 " Even this does not represent the full extent of the 
 outpouring of the population of Ireland which took place 
 in this eventful year. From the 13th January to the 
 1st November, 278,005 immigrants arrived at Liverpool 
 from Ireland, of whom only 122,981 sailed from that port 
 to foreign countries." And a little farther on, 2 he adds, 
 "that of those who emigrated in 1847 from Ireland to 
 Canada, 9,634 died on the passage, at the Marine Hos- 
 pital, or while the vessels were detained in quarantine." 
 
 These are the horrors which are known to all Europe, 
 and of which she has never said a word up to the present, 
 even when assembled in congress ! M. de Cavour and 
 Lord Palmerston had other things to think of in 1856. 5 
 
 1 Edinburgh Review, January, 1848, p. 291. 
 
 2 Idem, ibid. p. 294, note. 
 
 3 When I think of Ireland, I cannot help remembering those 
 words of the Scriptures (Eceles. xiii.) : 
 
316 ENGLAND. 
 
 But what is known only to the witnesses of those sad 
 scenes, is the pangs with which these poor people tear 
 themselves away from their friends and the dear old 
 country, to use their own expressions, which they can 
 never cease to love. Amongst the boxes that contained 
 the wretched clothes that still remained to them, there 
 was often one that held a sod of their native village ; they 
 hoped to lay it down one day by their hut in the forests 
 of Australia, or of the Far West, where they go to die 
 to have the consolation of seeing themselves, and of show- 
 ing to their children, a portion of a land so beloved. 
 
 For my part, when I transport myself in spirit to Dublin 
 and Cork, and picture to my mind the heartrending 
 scenes which accompany the sailing of the emigrant vessels 
 on which so many thousands of poor people are borne off 
 to distant lands, I cannot help thinking that the quays of 
 Dublin and of Cork are the spots of the earth where most 
 tears have been shed. 
 
 How often were fathers and mothers seen parting, with 
 sobs and bitter tears, from children, whom they were never 
 to meet again ! Old men, broken down by age and want, 
 
 " The rich man hath done wrong, and yet he will fume : but the 
 poor is wronged, and must hold his peace. 
 
 " If he have need of thee, he will deceive thee, and smiling upon 
 thee, will put thee in hope j he will speak thee fair, and will say : 
 What wantest thou ? 
 
 " And he will shame thee by his meats, till he have drawn thee 
 dry twice or thrice, and at last he will laugh at thee : and after\v:ml 
 when he seeth thee, he will forsake thee, and shake his head at 
 thee. 
 
 " The wild ass is the lion's prey in the desert : so also the poor 
 are devoured bv the rich. And as humility is an abomination to 
 the proud, so also the rich man abhorreth the poor. 
 
 " The rich man spoke, and all held their peace, and what he said 
 they extol even to the clouds. The poor man spoke, and they say : 
 Who is this P And if he stumble, they will overthrow him." 
 
 Such are the powerful and their friends .... To the oppressed, I 
 shall say with the wise man : 
 
 " Humble thyself to God, and wait for his hands." 
 
 And" Riches are good to him that hath no sin in his conscience." 
 
HER BLINDNESS AND INJUSTICE. 317 
 
 accompanying their sons to the vessel, and returning to 
 die alone in their cabin, because they had not strength 
 nor money enough to emigrate ! Young women obliged 
 to go off alone and unprotected, amidst dangers to which, 
 alas ! they have often fallen victims. 
 
 The English papers said a great deal lately of those 
 Tuscan peasants who went to vote, headed by their priests, 
 and gave up to Piedmont the name and glory of their 
 country ; they did not speak so much of those Irish villagers 
 that went off, headed also by their priests, as it happened, 
 more than once exiles never to return. 
 
 Poor, affectionate, self-sacrificing people ! After this 
 long night you will have your day, for your faithful heart 
 has preserved its youthful ardour and enthusiasm, and he 
 God whom you ever blessed in your sufferings is with 
 you. He remained three days in his tomb, and then He 
 rose again. Irishmen ! your three days have been three 
 centuries, but the third is drawing to a close. 
 
 However, let us not dwell on our feelings and our 
 hopes, but come back again to the sad discussion we are 
 engaged in. I have a right to ask the English nation, 
 Have not the Irish deep wounds and dreadful wrongs to 
 complain of? And in what is the lot of the Eomagna, for 
 which you made show of so much sympathy at the famous 
 congress of 1856, to be compared with that of poor 
 Ireland ? l I do not say that the Irish ought to separate 
 from you, but I say that you give them by your principles 
 a strict right, and by your Italian policy a most powerful 
 temptation to do so. Well ! you will perhaps answer, But 
 we will crush them once more. It may be ; but were I to 
 be crushed with them, I shall not be deterred from saying, 
 those who govern a country as you have governed and still 
 govern Ireland, ought to be prevented by common decency 
 from speaking as you speak. No ! so long as you shall 
 
 1 The Irish have been compared to slaves and helots : but " it 
 would be a lucky day for them," says Mr. Cochrane, "when they 
 might change their condition for that of the convicts of Siberia." 
 
318 ENGLAND. 
 
 not have removed that beam from your own eye,, your 
 sight will not be clear, and you can have no right what- 
 ever to judge of the failings of your neighbour. Ejice 
 primum trabem de oculo tuo ! 
 
 If the unheard-of calamities which sweep off the chil- 
 dren of unhappy Ireland 1 by hundreds of thousands were 
 to be witnessed but one day in the States of the Pope, if 
 you could only point out there some of the horrible 
 iniquities which still weigh down that Catholic land sub- 
 ject to your sceptre, what dreadful accusations should we 
 not hear in your Parliament and your papers ! 
 
 You speak of Roman intolerance. But, at the present 
 day, and notwithstanding the tardy concessions you have 
 made at length, does nothing remain of your old penal 
 laws, I do not say in Ireland only, but even in England 
 and Scotland ? Do we not still see acts of intolerance 
 which nothing can justify ? 
 
 What are we to say of your system of packing juries, as 
 it is called, to which you occasionally resort when you are 
 specially anxious to obtain a conviction ? Some years 
 ago, what a shameful instance of this abuse do we not find 
 in the famous trial of O'Connell? "Unhappily/' said 
 Macaulay, in a well-known speech, " you were too much 
 bent on gaining the victory ; and you have gained a vic- 
 tory more disgraceful and disastrous than any defeat. Mr. 
 O'Connell has been convicted ; but you cannot deny that 
 
 he has been wronged Yes, you have obtained a 
 
 verdict of guilty ; but you have obtained that verdict from 
 twelve men brought together by illegal means, and selected 
 in such a manner that their decision can inspire no con- 
 fidence." 2 
 
 I know that verdict was afterwards set aside, and we 
 
 1 In those last years, from 1851 io 1857, the number of persons 
 who emigrated from Ireland was 932,861, or 11,673 a month, and 
 376 a day. 
 
 2 Speeches of the Hi;ht lion. T. B. Macaulay, M.P. London: 
 Longman & Co., 1851. ]>. '.\\'2. 
 
HER BLINDNESS AND INJUSTICE. 319 
 
 had a too rare instance of impartiality ; but had you not 
 recourse to the same disgraceful system in April, 1859, in 
 the case of a crown prosecution in the county of Kerry ? 
 Only two Catholics could find a place on the jury ; and 
 when the jury disagreed, another jury was impanelled, 
 from which every Catholic was excluded. This is the 
 more remarkable and the more revolting, as Kerry is 
 almost a purely Catholic county, and of those qualified to 
 serve on juries, the great majority are Catholics. And if 
 I am told that the English government are not answerable 
 for all that, I shall answer that it was Mr. Whiteside, the 
 Attorney- General for Ireland, who did it. 
 
 What I wish to be particularly remarked is, that I am 
 not calling your attention to the intolerance of old times, 
 but to cases of most flagrant injustice which we have still 
 before our eyes. 
 
 For instance, the Catholic University of Dublin has 
 been established since 1854 : since then, the Catholics 
 have been constantly praying for a charter, that their 
 university may be empowered to confer degrees, and 
 hitherto "they have not obtained it. If that university 
 gives learning, why do you not allow it to give degrees ? 
 
 A Catholic cannot be a fellow either at Oxford or Cam- 
 bridge, and yet most of their colleges were founded by 
 Catholics, and their officers receive large sums of money 
 left for masses to be celebrated for the souls of the 
 founders. 1 
 
 You who cry out against the masses of the Roman 
 Church, what say you to these, and to the money that 
 pays for them ? 
 
 You speak of the ignorance of the lower classes in the 
 States of the Church : have you forgotten that a dignitary 
 of the Anglican Church declared, not many months ago, 
 that immense numbers, in many districts of England and 
 Wales, " were steeped in worse than heathen ignorance 
 
 Edinburgh Keview, July, 1852, p. 250. 
 
320 ENGLAND. 
 
 and superstition" ? What are your clergy doing ? What 
 is the use of all your rich livings ? 
 
 You who declaim so eloquently in favour of liberty of 
 conscience, why do you refuse the Catholic children in 
 your hospitals, your prisons, and your houses of correction 
 the full benefit of a religious education ? Why was the 
 bishop of Glasgow compelled to write a letter in which 
 we read the following statements : " Of the ninety-four 
 inmates, natives of Ireland, in the principal male reforma- 
 tory of Glasgow, eighty are Catholics, and no priest is 
 allowed to enter the building upon any pretext whatever. 
 In the year 1858, a poor lad named Mooney was dying in 
 the institution from the effects of consumption, and he 
 implored an old Catholic pensioner, employed to train the 
 boys, but whose Catholicity was unknown to the autho- 
 rities, to procure for him the presence of a priest of his 
 own religion. The governor of the reformatory refused 
 to grant the required permission; the board of superin- 
 tendence also refused, and the Home Secretary was subse- 
 quently appealed to, but with similar results. One of this 
 poor boy's companions subsequently declared that he had 
 died screaming for a priest." 
 
 This letter of the bishop of Glasgow was read by the 
 Hon. Charles Langdale at a numerous and important 
 meeting of the Catholic clergy and laity, held in London 
 on the 8th of June, 1859. Amongst those present were 
 Lord Stafford, Lord Herries, Lord Edward Howard, M.P., 
 Lord Campden, the Right Hon. W. Monsell, M.P., Count 
 Vaughan, the Eight Rev. Dr. Gillis, bishop of Edin- 
 burgh, the Very Rev. Dr. Manning, Mr. Wilberforce, 
 brother to the bishop of Oxford, &c. 
 
 I have now before me the Times of October 2Gth, 1859, 
 containing a letter from Mr. Langdale, and the answer of 
 the Times. Mr. Langdale complains " of the local power 
 which, in England, takes the child from a starving parent 
 and assigns it to the custody of a stranger's hand, there to 
 be educated in a faith contrary to its parents's will, or 
 still more painfully invades the last moments of a widowed 
 mother, with the assurance that the law will assign her 
 
HER BLINDNESS AND INJUSTICE. 321 
 
 orphan to a custody, where again it will be educated in a 
 faith contrary to its dying parent's will." The Times, in 
 its answer, after speaking of ecclesiastical tyranny in Italy, 
 thinks it only fair that, if a parent is unable to support 
 a child from sickness or poverty, and that the child, is 
 placed in a workhouse, " it should be instructed togethar 
 with the other children, and learn such religion as is taught 
 there as part of its education." 1 
 
 No ! till you have clone away with, and made amends 
 for, so many indignities, for so many past and present 
 iniquities, you are not entitled to a hearing in questions 
 of justice and oppression. 
 
 " By no artifice of ingenuity," says Lord Macaulay, 
 " can the stigma of persecution, the worst blemish of the 
 English Church, be effaced or patched over." ' 
 
 Not many months ago, one of the bishops of the 
 Established Church, rich holders of the lands of Catholic 
 Ireland, committed, by virtue of the existing legislation, 
 such acts of bigotry that an outcry of indignation would 
 have been raised all over Europe, had the like happened in 
 France or in Italy. I speak of the sixty Catholic families 
 upon whom notices of ejectment were served, and of the 
 Christian Brothers evicted by Lord Plunket from the plot 
 of waste church land on which their school had been 
 erected, at a cost of 800, for the education of the Catho- 
 lic poor: children, parents, religion, justice, nothing was 
 listened to. 3 
 
 1 It has been proved tliat the great Foundling Hospital of Dublin 
 gave in tins manner, in the space of 134 years, 56,000 children to 
 Protestantism. 
 
 - Edinburgh Review, September, 1828, art. Hallam's Constitu- 
 tional History. 
 
 3 "As a non-Catholic member of the community," says Mr. Wil- 
 liam Smith O'Brien, in a letter to the Most Rev. Dr. MacHale, 
 which I read in the Freeman s Journal, October 18, 1859, " who 
 feels a deep interest in everything that concerns the welfare of Ire- 
 land, I have no hesitation in declaring that I consider the proceed- 
 ings of the Protestant bishop, in regard to your Catholic school- 
 house, as a/i act of simple robbery committed under ike name of law" 
 
 Y 
 
322 ENGLAND. 
 
 I say, with Lord Macaulay, " I am not speaking in 
 anger, nor with any wish to excite anger in others ; I am 
 not speaking with rhetorical exaggeration; I am calmly 
 and deliberately expressing, in the only appropriate terms, 
 an opinion which I formed many years ago, which all my 
 observations and reflections have confirmed, and which I 
 am prepared to support by reasons, when I say that of all 
 the institutions now existing in the civilized world, the 
 Established Church of Ireland seems to me the most 
 absurd." l 
 
 " Is there anything else like it ? " says the same elo- 
 quent speaker a little further on, " was there eve,r any- 
 thing else like it? The world is fall of ecclesiastical 
 establishments : but such a portent as this Church of 
 Ireland is nowhere to be found. Look round the conti- 
 nent of Europe. Ecclesiastical establishments, from the 
 White Sea to the Mediterranean ; ecclesiastical establish- 
 ments, from the Volga to the Atlantic ; but nowhere the 
 church of a small minority enjoying exclusive establish- 
 ment In one country alone is to be seen the 
 
 spectacle of a community of eight millions of human 
 beings, with a church which is the church of only eight 
 hundred thousand." " 
 
 Sydney Smith expresses himself on the same subject 
 in terms perhaps still more energetic : 
 
 " This is English legislation for Ireland ! There is no 
 abuse like it in all Europe, in all Asia, in all the discovered 
 parts of Africa, and in all we have heard of Timbuctoo ! 
 It is an error that requires 20,000 armed men for its pro- 
 tection in time of peace ; which costs more than a million 
 n year; and which, in the first French war, in spite of the 
 pulling and punting of fighting steamers, will, and must, 
 break out into desperate rebellion." 3 
 
 . l Speeches of the ili^lit Hon. T. R lUurnulay. London, 1S.5I, 
 p. 380. - Idem, ib'nl. p. 
 
 :t Tin- W..rks of Sydney Smith. London : Longman & Co., 1854, 
 vol. iii. p. 531. 
 
in: it BLIXDXKSS AND INJUSTICE. 323 
 
 Those are not my words, but the words of your fellow- 
 countrymen and co-religionists : it was Englishmen, and 
 Protestant Englishmen, that published those sentiments 
 to the world ! And the reason they do so is, that neither 
 national nor religious prejudices can stifle, in honourable 
 and noble hearts, a cry of indignation at the sight of such 
 enormities. 
 
 For my part, I hope most sincerely there will be no 
 revolt in Ireland ; but I hope, also, that the honour and 
 good sense of the English people will not permit them to 
 disgrace themselves for ever by such extraordinary in- 
 justice ! One day there will be peace for all in truth and 
 in justice : God grant the day may soon come ! Yes, 
 noble Catholic land, old island of saints, brave and patient 
 Ireland ! the world has known thy sorrows, admired thy 
 constancy, applauded thy unshaken fidelity to the religion 
 of thy fathers ; and there is not a generous heart upon 
 earth that did not hail with joy the first signs of thy 
 resurrection, and of the new era of liberty inaugurated by 
 thy O'Connell ! England has learnt at length to blush 
 for lier long iniquity ; and if too many remains of ancient 
 intolerance still subsist, the liberties thou hast won must 
 soon make them disappear for ever. No, such abuses 
 cannot endure in this age. The private interests of a rich 
 and powerful clergy cannot screen them much 'longer 
 from the indignation of good men. And when once this 
 abuse is abolished, England will be the first to congratu- 
 late herself, and she will then acknowledge the truth of 
 these words of one of her most celebrated statesmen : 
 
 " I love the Irish nation," said Charles Fox, at the 
 beginning of this century. " I know a good deal of that 
 people. I know much of Ireland from having seen it ; I 
 know more from private friendship with individuals. The 
 Irish may have their faults, like others. They may have 
 a quick feeling of injury, and not be very patient under 
 it ; but I do affirm that, in all their characteristics, there 
 is not one feature more predominant, in every class of the 
 country, from the highest to the lowest order, than grati- 
 tude for benefactions, and sensibility to kindness. Change 
 
 Y 2 
 
324 ENGLAND. 
 
 your system towards that country, and you will find them 
 another sort of men. Let impartiality, justice, and cle- 
 mency take place of prejudice, oppression, and vengeance, 
 and you will not want the aid of martial law, or the terror 
 of military execution." 
 
 CHAPTER XXL 
 
 ENGLAND. 
 RELIGIOUS PACIFICATION. 
 
 THERE is another reparation which the world expects, 
 another act of justice, which the Church hopes for from 
 the honour of the English people. On the day they shall 
 at length acknowledge that the Catholich Church, from 
 which they are so unhappily separated, does not deserve 
 their hatred nor their disdain, any more than Ireland 
 which they have so cruelly wronged ; on the day they 
 shall .understand that the august Pontiff, whom two 
 hundred millions of men love and venerate, is worthy 
 of the regard of a great nation, were it only on account 
 of his very weakness ; on the day they shall consent to 
 treat him and us with common justice on that day, 
 prejudice and intolerance will suffer a great defeat, 
 and a great act of reparation will be accomplished 
 upon earth. 
 
 And to obtain that result, all we ask of England is, not 
 to forget entirely bygone days, and the most religious and 
 touching passages of her history. Instead of seeking in 
 the contentions of the present day groundless motives for 
 the gratuitous hatred she bears us, had she not better go 
 back to other times, and rise with us into a region calm 
 and serene, where no cloud may overcast our meeting, 
 
RELIGIOUS PACIFICATION. 325 
 
 and our hands join with all the fervour of hope ! Is there 
 amongst men a more revered and beloved memory than 
 that of St. Gregory the Great, to whom England owed the 
 blessing of the faith and the pure light of Christian civil- 
 ization ? Moved even to tears at the sight of the young 
 Angles, who were sold as slaves in the Roman Forum, and 
 who appeared to him beautiful as angels, this great Pope 
 resolved to rescue their country from the chains of bar- 
 barians and the darkness of heathenism ; and therefore he 
 sent to their land the holy monk Augustine with his mis- 
 sionaries. 
 
 The history of the Church contains nothing more beau- 
 tiful than the landing of Augustine in Kent with his forty 
 companions, who, headed by the cross and the image of 
 the great King our Lord Jesus Christ, offered up vows to 
 heaven for the conversion of England. 1 
 
 Bertha, the daughter of Charibert, king of Paris, brought 
 over King Ethelbert, her husband, to Christianity : our 
 kings protected the new mission; our bishops had also 
 their part in this admirable work, and the archbishop of 
 Aries consecrated St. Augustine. St. Lupus of Troyes, 
 St. Germanus of Auxerre, our most illustrious prede- 
 cessors, esteemed it ever an honour to visit the Church of 
 England, and to become the friends of its bishops. And 
 it was thus that the English Church was founded and 
 raised up. And it is those remembrances, which we can 
 110 more blot out from our hearts than from our histories, 
 that make us still hope for peace and better times : in 
 spem I shall never consent to add, contra spem. 
 
 In the mean time the new Church, strengthened by the 
 care of Pope Boniface V. and Honorius, was becoming 
 celebrated throughout the world. Miracles and virtues 
 nourished there, says Bossuet, as in the days of the 
 apostles ; nothing was more admirable than the wonders 
 of her conversion, nothing more glorious than the piety 
 of her bishops, her religious, and her kings. Edwin em- 
 
 1 Bossuet, Universal History. 
 
326 ENGLAND. 
 
 braced with liis whole people the faith that had made him 
 victorious, and he converted his neighbours. Oswald acted 
 as the interpreter of the preachers of the Gospel, and pre- 
 ferred his title of Christian to the glory he had won on 
 the field of battle. The Mercians were converted by the 
 king of Northumberland : their neighbours and successors 
 followed in their steps, and their good works were incal- 
 culable. 1 I do not speak of Alfred the Great, St. Edward, 
 and so many others. 
 
 The English Church was fruitful at that time, and gave 
 birth to other churches. St. Wilfrid, bishop of York, 
 went to convert Fricsland ; Winfrid, as a token of all the 
 good he had done, received from Pope Gregory II. the 
 name of Boniface, and became the apostle of Germany. 
 To recall the names of St. Dunstan, St. Edmund, the 
 Venerable Bede, Lanfranc, St. Anselm the latter two 
 given to England by Italy, and, in fine, the glorious 
 name of St. Thomas of Canterbury, is it not to celebrate 
 learning and virtue, charity and apostolic courage ? 
 
 During a thousand years, that is, for a period three times 
 the length of that which has elapsed since she became 
 Protestant, England remained united to her mother, the 
 Roman Church. In that lapse of time, what benefits did 
 she not receive from her ! In the middle ages, the pre- 
 servation and progress of civilization were, in England as 
 everywhere else, the work of the Catholic clergy. And 
 Ihe remains that are still to be seen on all sides through- 
 out the land bear witness to the ancient and glorious 
 empire of Catholicism. If my testimony in this matter 
 were looked upon as suspicious, I might offer to Great 
 Britain that of one of her most illustrious sons, perhaps 
 the ablest llii^li-li writer of our days, Lord Macaulay, 
 who was three times a member of a Whig administration, 
 twice a cabinet minister, and created a peer of the realm 
 a short time before his lamented death, not only in con- 
 sideration of his parliamentary services, but of the lustre 
 
 . I'niviTsul History. 
 
RELIGIOUS PACIFICATION. 327 
 
 he had shed on English literature. If this great states- 
 man did not come to know the truth of Catholicity, he 
 rose far above the prejudices and the hatred of which I 
 have shown to England the blindness and injustice, and 
 wrote on the Catholic Church pages 011 which his fellow- 
 countrymen ought to meditate. For instance, he admitted, 
 in the following terms, the beneficial influence of the 
 Church during the ages which preceded the revival of 
 letters : 
 
 " The ascendancy of the sacerdotal order was long the ascend- 
 ancy which naturally and properly belongs to intellectual supe- 
 riority. The priests, with all their .faults, were by far the wisest 
 portion of society. It was, therefore, on the whole, good that they 
 should be respected and obeyed. The encroachments of the eccle- 
 siastical power on the province of the civil power produced much 
 more happiness than misery, while the ecclesiastical power was in 
 the hands of the only class that had studied history, philosophy, and 
 public law, and while the civil power was in the hands of savage 
 chiefs, who could not read their own grants and edicts." 1 
 
 It was also Lord Macaulay that wrote on the Catholic 
 Church the following eloquent page, which may well 
 inspire all honest minds with admiration and love, or at 
 least with moderation and respect : 
 
 "There is not, and there never was, on this earth a work of 
 human policy so well deserving of examination as the Roman 
 Catholic Church. The history of that Church joins together the two 
 great ages of human civilization. !No other institution is left stand- 
 ing which carries the mind back to the times when the smoke of 
 sacrifice rose from the Pantheon, and when leopards and tigers 
 bounded in the Flavian amphitheatre. The proudest royal houses 
 are but of yesterday, when compared with the line of the Supreme 
 Pontiffs. That line we trace back in an unbroken series from the 
 Pope who crowned Napoleon in the nineteenth century, to the Pope 
 who crowned Pepiu in the eighth ; and far beyond the time of Pepin 
 the august dynasty extends, till it is lost in the twilight of fable. 
 The republic of Venice came next in antiquity. But the republic 
 of Venice was modern, when compared with the Papacy ; and the 
 
 1 History of England from the Accession of James II. Bj r Lord 
 Macaulay. London : Longman & Co., 185S, p. 43. 
 
328 ENGLAND. 
 
 republic of Venice is gone, and the Papacy remains. The Papacy 
 remains, not in decay, not a mere antique, but full of life and youth- 
 ful vigour. The Catholic Church is still sending forth to the fur- 
 thest ends of the world missionaries as zealous as those who landed 
 in Kent with Augustine, and still confronting hostile kings with the 
 same spirit with which she confronted Attila. The number of her 
 children is greater than in any former age. Her acquisitions in 
 the New World have more than compensated her for what she has 
 lost in the Old. Her spiritual ascendancy extends over the vast 
 countries which lie between the plains of the Missouri and Cape 
 Horn countries which, a century hence, may not improbably con- 
 tain a population as large as that which now inhabits Europe. The 
 members of her communion are certainly not fewer than a hundred 
 and fifty millions, and it will be difficult to show that all the other' 
 Christian sects united amount to a hundred and twenty millions. 
 Jor do we see any sign which indicates that the term of her long 
 dominion is approaching. She saw the commencement of all the 
 governments, and of all the ecclesiastical establishments, that now 
 exist in the world ; and we feel no assurance that she is not destined 
 to see the end of them all." 1 
 
 I take peculiar delight in quoting this great man, whoso 
 generous impartiality soared so far above the prejudices of 
 his fellow-countrymen, and the shallow judgments of vulgar 
 writers, and whose example proves, a great deal better than 
 I could or would attempt to do, ho\v much base ingratitude 
 is mixed up with that unaccountable hatred which I now 
 beseech England to abjure. For it was by reasoning on 
 positive facts, and after an enlightened and' impartial study 
 of history, and guided by his immense learning, that Lord 
 Macaulay formed his opinion concerning the beneficial in- 
 fluence of Catholicism in his country. 
 
 There are, indeed, many other English names that would 
 bear witness to the truth of my statements. Dr. Newman, 
 Dr. Manning, the t\vo Wilberforees, all those noble hearts, 
 who, giving up so generously fortune, honours, their youth- 
 ful friendships, worldly interests, the most inveterate pre- 
 judices, and the dearest affections, devoted themselves to 
 the cause of truth, and rendered to the Catholic Church, 
 in those works where their undisputed k-arning shines 
 
 luryh Review, October, 1840, p. 225 
 
RELIGIOUS PACIFICATION. 329 
 
 forth, a homage of which no one has hitherto called into 
 question the heroic sincerity, all those great men, I say, 
 thought as did Lord Macaulay ; but, more consistent than 
 he, they moved on in the path of light, and their conver- 
 sion is assuredly the most glorious testimony that can be 
 given in favour of Catholicism. However, error and pre- 
 judice would except to their testimony, by reason of its 
 source ; and, therefore, I have preferred appealing to Lord 
 Macaulay, who remained a Protestant, notwithstanding all 
 the respect and admiration he professed for the Catholic 
 Church : at any rate, every one must admit that words 
 such as I have just quoted could only have been dictated 
 by the most conscientious conviction. 
 
 There are in the works of this illustrious historian 
 many other pages l which I recommend to all Englishmen, 
 and to all true lovers of freedom and human dignity. 
 
 1 I may be allowed to copy from the beginning of his history the fol- 
 lowing passage, in which Macaulay shows in Catholicity an influence 
 and operation worthy of something else than insult and disdain : 
 
 " It is remarkable that the two greatest and most salutary social 
 revolutions which have taken place in England, that revolution 
 which, in the thirteenth century, put an end to the tyranny of 
 nation over nation, and that revolution which, a few generations 
 later, put an end to the'property of man in man, were silently and 
 imperceptibly effected .... 
 
 " It would be most unjust not to acknowledge that the chief agent 
 in these two great deliverances was religion ; and it may perhaps 
 be doubted whether a purer religion might not have been found a 
 less efficient agent. The benevolent spirit of the Christian morality 
 is undoubtedly adverse to distinctions of caste. But to the Church 
 of Rome such distinctions are peculiarly odious, for they are incom- 
 
 Eatible with other distinctions which are essential to her system, 
 he ascribes to every priest a mysterious dignity which entitles him 
 to the reverence of every layman, and she does not consider any 
 man as disqualified, by reason of his nation or of his family, for the 
 priesthood. Her doctrines respecting the sacerdotal character, how- 
 ever erroneous they may be, have repeatedly mitigated some of the 
 worst evils which can afflict society. That superstition cannot be 
 regarded as unmixingly noxious which, in regions cursed by the 
 tyranny of race over race, creates an aristocracy altogether inde- 
 pendent of race, inverts the relation between the oppressor and the 
 oppressed, and compels the hereditary master to kneel before the 
 
330 ENGLAND. 
 
 True, indeed, it is not a son of the Catholic Church that 
 speaks in these pages, as many of his sentiments show most 
 clearly, but a man of high intelligence and noble heart, 
 who is not carried away by blind hatred, and has courage 
 to do justice to whom it is due : it is in that spirit, and 
 with those feelings, that I conjure Englishmen to examine 
 and judge us : and in their history, and throughout the 
 land they live in, they will find many other proofs of the 
 benefits conferred on them of yore by Catholicism, which 
 ought to open their eyes, and show them the ingratitude of 
 so unjust and persevering a hatred. " The most venerable 
 institutions of England/' it has been said by an illustrious 
 Catholic, whose testimony the English may well receive, 
 for he has done homage to their greatness more than any 
 one else in France, " her most popular and purest titles 
 of glory, are connected with Catholicism. Trial by jury, 
 parliament, the universities, were established in those days 
 when she was the dutiful daughter of the Holy See. It 
 was Catholic barons that extorted Magna Charta from 
 King John, and Catholic Irishmen that constituted the 
 main strength of the English armies in the Peninsula and 
 the Crimea. Except Queen Elizabeth, the only sovereigns 
 
 spiritual tribunal of the hereditary bondman. To this day, in some 
 countries where negro slavery exists, Popery appears in advan- 
 tageous contrast to other forms of Christianity. It is notorious that 
 the antipathy between the European and African races is by no 
 means so strong at Rio Janeiro as at Washington. In our own 
 country this peculiarity of the Roman Catholic system produced, 
 daring the middle ages, many excellent effects. It is true that, 
 shortly after the battle of Hastings, Saxon prelates and abbots 
 were violently deposed, and that ecclesiastical adventurers from the 
 continent were intruded by hundreds into lucrative benefices. Yet 
 even then pious divines of Norman blood raised their voices :ig:unst 
 such ;i violation of the constitution of the Church, refused to anvpt, 
 mitres from the hands of the conqueror, and charged him, un the 
 peril of his soul, not to forget that the vanquished islanders were 
 his fellow-Christians. 
 
 " The first protector whom the English found among the domi- 
 nant race was Archbishop Anselm. At a time when the English 
 name was a reproach, and when all the civil and military dignitaries 
 
RELIGIOUS PACIFICATION. 331 
 
 whom the people remember are Catholic kings : Alfred, 
 Edward the Confessor, llichard the Lion-hearted, Ed- 
 ward III., Henry V. The cathedrals, the churches, the 
 castles, all those ecclesiastical and feudal buildings, which 
 England restores or preserves with such religious care, are 
 exclusively the work of Catholic generations. The fervent 
 piety of the converts to Catholicism finds heaven peopled 
 with English saints, from St. Wilfrid and St. Boniface to 
 St. Thomas of Canterbury." * 
 
 And when I recall the benefits which Catholicism con- 
 ferred on England, and which she seems to have forgotten, 
 I wish to say but one thing to the English : You have 
 broken the time-honoured tie which bound you to Rome 
 and to unity ; you have insisted upon having, contrary to 
 the order of Christ, your religious independence ; you have 
 got it, and what has been the consequence ? you know 
 as well as I. " Religion," says Bossuet, " was with you 
 purely political ; you obeyed the wishes of your kings, and 
 your faith was fashioned to their caprices/" It was a great 
 misfortune ; it was a great misfortune for you and for the 
 Church ; it was the most humiliating slavery of souls in 
 the freest country in the world. Well ! w r e still hope, with 
 
 of the kingdom were supposed to belong exclusively to the country- 
 men of the conqueror, the despised race learned, with transports 
 of delight, that one of themselves, Nicholas Breakspear, had been 
 elected to the papal throne, and had held out his foot to -be kissed 
 by ambassadors sprung from the noblest houses of Normandy. It 
 was a national as well as a religious feeling that drew great multi- 
 tudes to the shrine of Becket, the first Englishman who, since the 
 conquest, had been terrible to the foreign tyrants. 
 
 " A successor of Becket was foremost among those who obtained 
 that charter which secured at once the privileges of the Norman 
 barons and of the Saxon yeomanry. 
 
 " How great a part the Catholic ecclesiastics subsequently had in 
 the abolition of villenage we learn from the unexceptionable testi- 
 mony of Sir Thomas Smith, one of the ablest Protestant counsellors 
 of Elizabeth. "When the dying slaveholder asked for the last sacra- 
 ments, his spiritual attendant regularly adjured him, as he loved his 
 soul, to emancipate his brethren for whom Christ had died." 
 
 1 M. de Montalembert, on the political future of England. 
 
332 ENGLAND. 
 
 that great bishop, that the days of delusion will pass by, 
 and that so learned a nation will not always remain blinded 
 by error. At least, if the dawn of truth is still far off, may 
 that of justice soon come, and let not England persist in 
 her hatred. Without speaking of the eminent scholars of 
 her great universities, whom, as Bossuet foretold, " their 
 respect for the Fathers, and their profound and unwearied 
 study of antiquity, have brought back to the doctrines of the 
 first ages, }} how many other distinguished Englishmen, 
 though still attached to the Anglican Church, protest 
 against the persistence and ingratitude of this hatred, and 
 begin to speak of the Roman Church without passion, and 
 even with a grateful heart. 
 
 Nor is it even necessary to go back to ancient times to 
 find motives which should induce the English to alter 
 their conduct towards the Papacy, and to lay by their 
 implacable and gratuitous hostility : the recollections of 
 our own times ought to suffice. Since the English, at the 
 beginning of the nineteenth century, contributed, in con- 
 cert with the other great powers of Europe, to the restora- 
 tion of the Papacy, what wrong have they had to avenge 
 on the Roman Pontiff? I might even recall his claims to 
 their deference and respect. The noble conduct of Pius VII. 
 towards them would seem to deserve a better requital. 
 When the Emperor Napoleon wanted to draw him into 
 the continental league against England, and to prove to 
 him that this heretical nation, so hostile to the Church, 
 was in no wise entitled to his affection, what did the mild 
 and courageous Pontiff answer ? It has surely not been 
 forgotten. A few years before, during the famous discus- 
 sions which took place in the British Parliament on the 
 emancipation of the Catholics, a member of the House of 
 Lords, imbued with those prejudices which are still so 
 strong in some of the English statesmen of the present 
 day, used the following words: "I believe, nay more, I 
 am certain, that the Pope is but a wretched puppet in the 
 hands of the usurper of the throne of the Bourbons ; that 
 he dare not stir without Napoleon's order, and that if the 
 latter asked of him a bull calling on the Irish priests to 
 
RELIGIOUS PACIFICATION. 333 
 
 rouse their flocks to insurrection against the English 
 government, he would not refuse it to the despot/ 7 
 S'ow, to use the expressive language of M. de Maistre, 
 " The ink certainly was scarcely dry on the paper that 
 informed us of this strange conviction, when the Pope, 
 summoned with all the authority of menace to favour the 
 designs of Bonaparte against the English, answers that, 
 being the common father of all Christians, he could have 
 no enemies amongst them : and, rather than comply, he 
 lets himself be insulted, driven from his capital, and 
 thrown into prison, and begins that long martyrdom that 
 entitles him to the respect of the entire world." Why 
 must we except England ? 
 
 What real motive, I ask it again, can they plead for 
 this ill-will, for this inexorable animosity ? In what has 
 Rome, directly or indirectly, thwarted the policy, or hurt 
 the interests, of the English people ? I am told that the 
 great, the national grievance against the Papacy is the 
 re-establishment, in 1850, of the Catholic hierarchy in 
 England. Well, I ask, What man of sound sense and 
 common honesty ever thought that the Established Church 
 was threatened by this hierarchy ? Was it not English 
 pride much more than Protestant faith which broke out 
 with such violence ? Interested and clever politicians 
 turned to account those noble instincts of English patriot- 
 ism which sometimes degenerate into unworthy defects ; 
 and Great Britain rose up against what was represented 
 as the usurpation of its land and Church by the Catholic 
 episcopate. But, in reality, what was then done was but 
 a homage paid to the institutions of free England, a mark 
 of confidence in the liberty of English citizens, an act by 
 which the constitution was not threatened, and no one 
 should have been rendered uneasy. How was it possible 
 to misapprehend so simple and inoffensive a use of the 
 first of all liberties ? 
 
 The English would fall even below Russian intolerance, 
 were they to proscribe the Catholic religion : but this reli- 
 gion cannot exist without the fundamental conditions of 
 its existence, its spiritual hierarchy. The episcopate is 
 
334 ENGLAND. 
 
 essential to it ; you must accept it : but is it not better 
 that it should be amongst you in its hierarchical, recog- 
 nized, and normal form, than in the anomalous one of 
 apostolic-vicariates ? 
 
 But should you not rather commend the new arrange- 
 ment proposed by Rome? Although bishops are sub- 
 ordinate to the Pope, as they ought to be, they are, in 
 one sense, less directly dependent on him than vicars- 
 apostolic, who are nothing but his revocable delegates. 
 There was no violation of the English law, no challenge, 
 no threat : and all the lovers of liberty throughout Europe 
 saw, with amazement, the bitter prejudices and the pas- 
 sions of another age which then broke forth in England. 1 
 
 " All that has been said, to frighten Protestant states, of 
 the influence of a foreign power/' says M. de Maistre, "is 
 a vain chimera, a bugbear got up in the sixteenth century, 
 and which has no meaning in ours. The age of passions 
 has gone by ; we can speak to one another without hatred, 
 and even without anger." 
 
 "The English/' adds the same writer, "in their prejudices 
 against us, are only mistaken with regard to time : their 
 infatuation is a mere anachronism. They read in some 
 Catholic boojv that heretical princes are not to be obeyed : 
 immediately they are frightened, and raise the cry of No 
 Popery. All this flame would soon be quenched if they 
 deigned to look at the date of the book, which would be 
 surely found to coincide with the sad epoch of religious 
 wars, and changes in dynasties." 
 
 In good truth, is Catholicism opposed to a single one of 
 England's institutions, to her prosperity, to her love of 
 liberty? Read over the pages of Lord Macaulay, which 
 I quoted to you just now. Why should not an English 
 Catholic be as faithful to his country, as true an English- 
 man, as any other ? For my part, I cannot discover the 
 
 1 The English thcnisrlvr^ s.vm to be aware of their injustice, for 
 the Errlrs'nK.ti^il Tit'i.; />/// has been a dead letter since the day 
 it ^as passed. 
 
RELIGIOUS PACIFICATION. 335 
 
 shadow of a reason. Assuredly the author of the work,, 
 "On the Political Future of England," is one of the 
 most devoted, one of the most dauntless lovers of liberty, 
 and it was he that said to the English : 
 
 " The glory of the Catholic Church, one of the coif- 
 ditious and consequences of her immortality, is to be all 
 to all, to adapt herself to the institutions, the manners, 
 the ideas of all countries and all ages, to whatever is not 
 incompatible with faith and Christian virtue, and to allow 
 all her children to have, as it were, a home, to possess a 
 patrimony of their own within the pale of her matchless 
 unity, which triumphs over, and survives all earthly insti- 
 tutions only by its elasticity and its universality." 
 
 I shall therefore say, with confidence, to the English, 
 when they have mastered themselves and their prejudices, 
 Reflect, in the calm of your consciences, how strange were 
 the prejudices which you have hitherto obeyed, and how 
 glorious it would be for you to do justice at last to that 
 church who was your mother in the faith ! Three cen- 
 turies ago you were the first and fiercest enemies of unity ! 
 What an honour it would be for you to establish it again 
 in Europe. It would indeed become your greatness to 
 raise up the standard of Christian unity^ and to bear it 
 beyond the seas over those lands which are waiting for 
 you, and expect you from afar ! It would be a sacred and 
 immortal period in your history, a new era inaugurated 
 by you in the annals of mankind ! 
 
 Happy they to whom it shall be given to behold those 
 better times which, perhaps, are not far off ! Happy they 
 whose lot it shall have been to prepare them, even by 
 their aspirations and their prayers ! 
 
 This I have attempted to do, feebly indeed, but to the 
 best of my power, and in all the sincerity of my heart. I 
 have not come to sow disunion where such painful anta- 
 gonism already exists ; these pages are only a call to peace 
 in the name of liberty and of justice. 
 
 The day will come, I hope, for truth cannot be obscured 
 for ever ; the day will come, and who can prevent it ? 
 Is it not an absolute necessity that it should? This 
 
336 ENGLAND. 
 
 enmity between two great powers, that seem made for one 
 another, is too grievous and too bitter not to create a 
 longing for pacification, nor to suggest kindly and honest 
 reflections, conciliatory words, and, finally, to bring about 
 a* generous and welcome reparation. 
 
 Yes, the hour will come, nay, has come, to understand 
 one another, and to argue no longer with passion and 
 bitterness, but quiet, confidence, and respect. 
 
 The reconciliation would be happy in proportion to the 
 sadness of the separation. When two great influences, 
 which had been enemies, cease their strife, they both 
 prosper in peace ; they expand freely, each in its vast and 
 noble sphere. The most precious resources, the noblest 
 gifts of humanity, all that is grand and fruitful, then find 
 a wide and glorious space for its development, where pro- 
 gress is arrested by no impediment. 
 
 What good accrues to the world from the continuation 
 of conflicts, from the deepening of hatred, from the ad- 
 journment of reconciliation? Eternal dissension between 
 the noblest nations, is civil war within the very bosom of 
 humanity ! And alas ! victories cost as dear to the victors 
 as to the vanquished ! and England has made this sad 
 experience perhaps oftener than any other nation. Is it 
 not time that such scenes should end ? 
 
 Assuredly, when so many new links of connection tend 
 to draw mankind closer together, is it not time to effect a 
 deep and hearty union of minds and hearts? We are 
 making commercial treaties ; perhaps we shall soon see 
 treaties of navigation ; would it not be better still to ratify 
 a grand and novel treaty of faith and charity, in unity, for 
 the propagation of the Gospel throughout the world ? 
 
 Yes, I would say to you, my brethren of England, with 
 emotion and with love, if one day your prejudices were to 
 cease, your eyes to open to the light, your hearts to be 
 softened by the sweetness of the Gospel ; if you were to 
 be reconciled with the Church, the past would be for- 
 gotten, and your glory be unstained ; no more accusations 
 of abetting the disorders, the revolutions, and the troubles 
 of so many nations, would be raised against you : those 
 
RELIGIOUS PACIFICATION. 337 
 
 voices would be silenced which for ever question your dis- 
 interestedness, and taunt you with selfishness. Ireland 
 would no longer be a thorn in your side ; she would no 
 longer be pointed at as your eternal reproach and oppro- 
 brium. Your influence in the councils of Europe would 
 then be more respected and powerful. What could you 
 not then do for the peace of the world ; and at this moment 
 what could you not do for Italy ? What could not France 
 and you effect, if, rendering a tardy justice to the Pontiff, 
 who is in reality the best friend of unhappy Italy, and the 
 most essential to her prosperity and independence, if you 
 were to agree to rescue the Italian cause from the op- 
 pression of the nefarious party .which is undoing Italy 
 and shaking Europe to its centre ? 
 
 But, alas ! I am allowing myself to be carried away by 
 hopes and longings I too fondly cherish. " A reconcilia- 
 tion has not been yet accomplished. The spirit of evil 
 still triumphs. The bond which had united England to 
 Rome for a thousand years has been violently severed. 
 Rome and England are still at war. Thus two souls made 
 to love one another, but divided by some fatal error, in 
 some unhappy moment, become strangers to one another, 
 and carry on a life-long combat throughout a course where 
 union would have crowned them with prosperity and joy. 
 And yet, a ray of light, an accident, one of those junc- 
 tures where the mysterious hand of Omnipotence is dis- 
 cerned, would be as powerful for good, as a moment had 
 been for evil: and of all the reconciliations which the 
 world has witnessed, this would be the happiest and most 
 fruitful." > 
 
 Shall it one day be our lot to see it? For my part, I 
 will hope for it, and, two centuries after Bossuet, it grati- 
 fies me to share his generous illusion when he said, "I 
 will hope, as do wiser men, that the days of blindness are 
 drawing to a close, and that it is time for the light to 
 dawn." Indeed, schisms and heresies can never be more 
 
 1 On the Political Future of England, by M. de Montalembert. 
 
 z 
 
338 ENGLAND. 
 
 than transitory scandals ; because, being the work of man, 
 they are unsustained by the only force which can conquer 
 time. Twelve centuries have now passed over the last 
 ruins of that powerful Arian heresy, which seemed, at one 
 time, destined to last for ever; and the error which for 
 more than three hundred years disputed with the Catholic 
 Church the empire of the world, exists now only in the 
 annals of the wanderings of the human mind. 
 
 If, however, worldly wisdom were here to object that 
 my impatient hopes prescribe too narrow a limit to 
 the action of time, and that the wished-for return of 
 England to Catholic unity is an event not yet mature, then, 
 without giving up those hopes, I would offer these last 
 suggestions to the English nation ; I would propose to 
 them this compromise, if I may use the expression, on 
 behalf of the peace which is so dear to our hearts : 
 
 Nothing in the world, I would say, is so strange and 
 repugnant to all Catholic ideas as to see a woman in- 
 vested with spiritual supremacy ; and it inspires us with 
 pity to see your Queen Victoria the legal and unlooked-for 
 heir of the noble title of Defender of the Faith, awarded, 
 perhaps too precipitately, by Pope Leo X. to Henry VIII. 
 Still, together with our Catholic brethren of the three 
 kingdoms, we cannot but personally respect that queen, 
 the worthy object of your affection, and we feel pleasure 
 in rendering homage to her royal qualities, and to the 
 domestic virtues of which she is, on the throne, such a 
 noble model. Well ! what we ask from you in return 
 is to respect too the virtues, the august old age, and, as 
 we already said, the weakness of the Pontiff-king, in whom 
 you may not indeed acknowledge the supreme prerogatives 
 of the successor of Peter ; but whom the rights of an 
 ancient and venerable sovereignty, the unanimous senti- 
 ments of the Catholic world ; the prayers and the sorrows 
 of Ireland, the most honoured recollections of your own 
 history, and, I shall add, his very trials, the bitter portion 
 which has befallen him, and the indescribable grace which 
 suffering lends to virtue, recommend to your justice, to 
 your generosity, and to your respect. 
 
THE DISMEMHEKMKXT. 339 
 
 At present, I ask for nothing more : charity, patience, 
 prayer, learned and friendly discussion, the preaching of 
 the Gospel, the study of the Fathers, the groans of the 
 saints, the grace of God will do the remainder for your 
 happiness and the progress of civilization, of which France 
 will be glad to share with you the immortal glory. 
 
 Will you refuse a peace, offered on such fair conditions? 
 
 9 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 THE DISMEMBERMENT. 
 
 WE are now come to the vital question, and right in 
 front of the revolution. Our work must draw to a close. 
 
 In the preceding chapters we have shown the profound 
 reasons which prove the providential legitimacy and the 
 religious necessity of the temporal sovereignty of the 
 popes. We have shown the indisputable right of the 
 Supreme Head of the Church to the possession of the 
 Pontifical States, and the inviolability of those august 
 titles, that have been consecrated, during so many cen- 
 turies, by the law of Europe and the veneration of the 
 faithful. 
 
 We have also related, as history will hereafter, the 
 origin, the causes, and the first attempts of the revolution 
 which, during the last war, broke out of a sudden in the 
 States of the Church. We have seen the part played in 
 those great and sad events, by Piedmont, England, and 
 France. 
 
 Doctrine and fundamental principles, history and in- 
 delible facts, policy and its different stages we have 
 endeavoured to leave out nothing in this'great and im- 
 portant study. 
 
 These pages were printed, and were on the eve of publica- 
 z 2 
 
340 THE DISMEMBERMENT. 
 
 tion, when the recent vote of Central Italy, the accept- 
 ance of this vote by Piedmont, and the silence of Europe, 
 have consummated, for awhile at least, the iniquity \ve 
 should have wished to avert. We have published them, 
 nevertheless, because the principles which have been scan- 
 dalously sacrificed still subsist, and will rise up again 
 victorious, when their day comes ; and also because the 
 true history of this memorable spoliation will always carry 
 with it useful lessons. 
 
 No ; what is called the Roman question is not settled 
 by the annexation of the Duchies and of four provinces 
 of the Pontifical States to the Piedmontese crown. It is 
 neither settled for the Catholics, who protest with all the 
 energy of their soul, nor for the revolutionists, who wisli 
 that more had been done, and done differently, and for 
 the benefit of a power dearer to them than the Pied- 
 montese throne. The formidable question still remains 
 as a cloud overcasting Europe, because violated justice is 
 still justice, and principles, though trodden underfoot, will 
 rise again, sooner or later, at the time appointed by Provi- 
 dence, and also because the passions that are victorious are 
 satiated. Of this they make no secret, and already they 
 cry out loudly for the final solution which policy is putting 
 off for the present the total suppression of the temporal 
 authority of the Papacy. 
 
 Nor does this surprise us: the irresistible logic, the 
 necessary connection of principles and facts do not allow 
 of a moment's doubt to good and enlightened men. To 
 many worthy but unenlightened people, the present par- 
 tial dismemberment of the States of the Pope is, no doubt, 
 a fact to be regretted, but of slight consequence; but to 
 whoever discerns and understands, it is an immense, deci- 
 sive, and disastrous fact ; it is the whole Roman question. 
 To limit the question to the four separated provinces, is 
 not to see the effects in their causes, nor the consequences 
 in the principles ; it is to stop at the surface of words and 
 things. No; the Pope's whole dominions are here at 
 stake ; for the principle, in the name of which he is par- 
 
THE DISMEMBERMENT. 341 
 
 tially despoiled, is the same which calls for his entire dis- 
 possession, and the right which the Pope would sacrifice by 
 giving up the separated provinces, would place at the 
 mercy of all the irreligious and anarchical passions the 
 grand principles of European and universal law, without 
 which the Pontifical sovereignty has no longer any founda- 
 tion in the world, and every throne in Europe would he 
 shaken. 
 
 In vain do they urge historical considerations to induce 
 Europe and the Pope to resign themselves to this sacrifice. 
 Never, in the past, was the question put as it is now. 
 Never, in any of the changes which the Pontifical States 
 underwent, in the course of ages, did men invoke the 
 principles which are appealed to now. At present the 
 whole is in question. Whether they will or no, what has 
 been done will lead them on farther -shall I say, than 
 they think, or, than they wish? God alone knows. But 
 what human foresight may assert is, that in this fatal 
 career, it has scarcely ever been possible to stop ; it is 
 easy enough to enter on it, but none can say where or 
 how it may end. 
 
 This, is what the Pope lately stated himself, with all the 
 luminous evidence of good sense and good faith, by answer- 
 ing to the objection taken from the treaty of Tolentino. 
 " The Holy See had then to meet only the violence of 
 a material fact, but at present it has .to contend with an 
 odious principle, which is authoritatively urged against it. 
 Now, material force is only a fact. Of its nature, it is 
 limited, and its action is only felt in a narrow sphere, 
 which it cannot exceed ; but it is quite different with 
 principles. Of their nature, they are universal, and ex- 
 tend to all things ; their fruitfulness cannot be exhausted ; 
 they never stop at the point where men wish to limit their 
 action, but they imperatively claim to be applied to every- 
 thing." 
 
 I repeat it : do what they will, they cannot stop. The 
 dismemberment accomplished in this way, calls for other 
 dismemberments. One member is first torn away, and 
 then another, and then all ; and then follows death. As 
 
342 THE DISMEMBERMENT. 
 
 Bossuet says : " Principles cry out,, Onward, onward ; " 
 the revolutionary menaces forbid to pause,, and men hurry 
 on until they meet the precipice, and are hurled into it by 
 the avenging hand of God. Moreover, the future will 
 teach presumptuous men, and sooner perhaps than they 
 imagine, whether the present settlement of the Roman 
 question is final or momentary, whether it is war or 
 peace, the stability of order, or a long and radical per- 
 turbation. 
 
 It is, then, not only for the present, but also for the 
 future, for the time when these questions will be raised 
 again, that I wish to set clown, not in fugitive pages, but 
 in a book that may remain, the invincible reasons that 
 have made me stand out to the last for the inviolability of 
 the pontifical right, and that dictated to Pope Pius IX. 
 that noble refusal which history will celebrate, and which 
 the Holy Father expressed with no less firmness than 
 mildness in these beautiful words of his Encyclical Letter : 
 " Relying on the 'aid of Him who said, ' In the world you 
 shall have distress ; but have confidence, I have overcome 
 the world;' and again, ' Blessed are they who suffer 
 persecution for justice sake \ } We are ready to walk in 
 the glorious steps of our predecessors, and, after their 
 example, to suffer the severest and most bitter trials, and 
 to sacrifice even life itself, rather than ever abandon the 
 cause of God, the Church, apd of justice." 
 
 Let us then enter upon the subject. 
 
 THE THEORY OF SPOLIATION. 
 
 The spoliation of the Pope by the dismemberment of 
 liis provinces \vas so evidently a work of intrigue and 
 violence, so tainted in its very source, that men could not 
 but feel the want of colouring and justifying it. They 
 have therefore appealed to principles, and contrived 
 theories ; and these theories and principles are precisely 
 those which do not permit to halt in mid career, and call 
 for a total usurpation, as well as for a partial spoliation. 
 
THE THEORY OF SPOLIATION. 313 
 
 As to the spoliation itself, they long hesitated about the 
 way of accomplishing it, ar.d also about the sanction to be 
 given to it. They first asked for, and then laid aside, a 
 European congress ; they tried to bring the Pope to the 
 voluntary surrender of his dominions ; they wavered 
 between an unconditional annexation to Piedmont and 
 a sort of lay Piedmontese vicariate. Were they to invade 
 at once the whole Pontifical territory, or only the Lega- 
 tions and the Marches ? or were they to leave to the Pope 
 only Rome and the Roman Campagna ? They finally 
 committed the decision of these momentous questions to 
 the doubtful votes of a people, tired of anarchy, and that 
 Lad been ruled for eight months by the revolutionary 
 faction, and the armed promoters of annexation. 
 
 The first theory of a dismemberment of the States of the > 
 Church was expounded in a celebrated pamphlet, the author 
 of which was unknown, but which created an immense 
 sensation, and wrung from all Catholic hearts throughout 
 the world a loud and unanimous burst of reprobation. At 
 first sight, this pamphlet seemed only to ask for the sepa- 
 ration of the provinces that had rebelled ; but the prin- 
 ciples it laid down went far beyond this conclusion, and 
 undermined the very foundations of the pontifical power. 
 Under the "question of the Romagua, it comprised and 
 settled the ultimate question which the revolutionary 
 press boldly stated soon after, and which impending revo- 
 lutions will soon inevitably propose the utter ruin of the 
 sovereignty of the Holy See. The truth must be told. 
 The high origin which men affected to assign to this 
 pamphlet, the wide circulation that was provided for it, 
 the mystery of its source, everything, in short, contributed 
 to make it a terrible attack on the very principle of the 
 temporal power of tire Pope; and, indeed, it was more 
 dangerous than an open attack, for a momentary triumph 
 of force is not irreparable, but the powers that are brought 
 into discredit and ruined in their principle, are ruined for 
 ever. 
 
 It was my duty to oppose, and I opposed with energy and 
 
344 THE DISMEMBERMENT. 
 
 unsparingly, this perfidious work, on its first appearance. 
 As far as in me lay, I exposed its subterfuges and un- 
 masked its sophisms ; and if I cannot help repeating here 
 something of what I then said, it is that I look upon what 
 is going on at present in Italy as the triumph of the 
 pamphlet, and that we are advancing with rapid strides 
 towards' the great end it pointed out. As the revolu- 
 tionary press says, loudly and distinctly, what has been 
 done is but a first step in the way that has been chalked 
 out : Piedmont cannot stop short in so grand a career, 
 said M. Seracco a short time ago, with the unanimous 
 approbation of the Piedmontese Chamber. They will, 
 therefore, soon go to work again ; the consequences of 
 the principle that has been laid down will be developed, 
 and the same theories will be invoked to justify new 
 crimes. 
 
 At all events, I have done what I could, that, when 
 these theories are again advanced, a refutation may be at 
 hand : the protests of the French bishops and of the whole 
 Catholic episcopate will yet speak; and right, though 
 to-day unheeded, may, to-morrow, be reinstated. No, I 
 shall yet hope that our struggles for truth and justice 
 have not been unavailing. 
 
 I said at the time, and I will here repeat, that'I rarely met 
 in my life with pages where sophisms, flagrant contradic- 
 tions, and, if the whole truth must be told, the most 
 palpable absurdities, were solemnly lai down as principles 
 by a publicist, with more self-confidence, and a more 
 perfect conviction of his own powers and of the simplicity 
 of his readers, than in that famous pamphlet. 
 
 An enormous and radical contradiction struck one at 
 first sight. The author styled himself a sincere Catholic, 
 spoke only of his respect and love for the Church, and 
 wrote but to save it ; yet his first panegyrist was the Times, 
 and the revolutionary and infidel press of Italy and of 
 France hailed his work with unanimous commendation. 
 I can well understand why it was so : as a sincere Catholic, 
 and reasoning in this point of view, he proclaimed the 
 
T.HE THEORY OF SPOLIATION. 345 
 
 temporal power of the Pope to be indispensable ; but, at 
 the same time, he did all in his power to prove that it was 
 impossible. He extolled, even more than we, the divine 
 character of the Pontiff; but it was to use it as an argu- 
 ment against the sovereign. No one could have confessed 
 more explicitly how absolutely necessary this power is for 
 the liberty and honour of the Church ; no one could have 
 striven more assiduously in every way, to prove its utter 
 impossibility, not only politically, but even morally and 
 spiritually. 
 
 The pamphlet laid clown as a principle, " This power 
 can be possible only if it is exempt from the ordinary 
 conditions of power, from all that constitutes its activity, 
 its development, its progress." Exactly what M. de 
 Cavour had said at the congress. But, I may ask, who 
 can live here below, exempt from all the ordinary condi- 
 tions of existence ? What is this activity, this development, 
 this progress of power, which you declare to be radically 
 incompatible with the pontifical government? Is it the 
 activity, the development, the progress of good or evil ? 
 What do you mean by it ? 
 
 First of all, " the pontifical government" you say, " must 
 exist without an army. 3 ' And wherefore ? What principle 
 prevents it from having an army, not to attack others, 
 but to defend itself, and protect public order? Why 
 should it be refused the right of legitimate self-defence ? 
 I know, indeed, that it existed for many centuries without 
 an army, and that its position was honourable enough in 
 Europe, and in the world; but now things are altered. 
 After the revolutionists have set all Italy on fire, and sixty 
 years of political and social convulsions have perverted all 
 notions of right, and disturbed European order, armies of 
 five hundred thousand men become necessary in time of 
 peace to the most powerful states : at Rome, as everywhere 
 else, c( material force must make up for the insufficiency of 
 moral authority" In such times, why should not the 
 pontifical government have a force to protect order and 
 justice in its states? Fenelon and Bossuet wished Chris- 
 tian princes to be the fathers of their subjects. Did they 
 
346 THE DISMEMBERMENT. 
 
 mean thereby to take out of their hands the sword of the 
 law, and to disarm justice ? 
 
 You ask, How can the man of the Gospel, who forgives, 
 be the man of the law, who punishes ? arid you remind us 
 that the Church is a mother. But, as the bishop of Per- 
 pignan asked you, in his turn, " Are we discussing a ques- 
 tion .of doctrine, or a question of feelings ?" Are you, 
 then, unacquainted with the simple, elementary distinction 
 between charity and justice ? The virtues are not sisters 
 at war with one another. Does the Christian magistrate 
 cease to be the disciple of faith and the man of the Gospel, 
 because he is the man of the law, and the defender of 
 society ? 
 
 Moreover, is there on earth, or in heaven, a power that 
 always forgives? Such power "would be imbecility ! Saint 
 Louis, who established and administered so firmly justice 
 in the kingdom of France, was, nevertheless, the good and 
 holy king. Louis XII., to whom history ascribes the merit 
 of having been a good dispenser of justice, was called, 
 nevertheless, the father of the people. 
 
 Is it not in behalf of the good, and to defend them 
 against the wicked, that justice should be made to reign? 
 And how does that interfere with the due exercise of the 
 evangelical charity which pardons ? 
 
 But has paternal and maternal authority, instituted to 
 bless, never any other more painful duty to discharge ? 
 Does not maternal love itself, when it has been outraged 
 and overcome, let fall on the guilty a curse, terrible 
 because sanctioned by God? Maledictio matris eradicat, 
 says the Scripture : yes, the curse of a mother roots up, 
 and kills. And therefore it has been said to you : " If 
 the tears of the Church move only her dutiful children, 
 and if her thunders appal those only whom they do not 
 threaten, they are, nevertheless, the tears of innocence 
 and the thunderbolts of justice. Neither do the former 
 always remain unfruitful, nor the latter always power- 
 less." 1 
 
 1 M. dc Montalembert Pius IX. and FraDce. 
 
THE THEORY OF SPOLIATION. 317 
 
 And besides, does not God, the Father of men, some- 
 times punish and curse ungrateful children ? Is not God, 
 who is love, Deus charitas cst, justice also, and is he not 
 called the God of judgment ? 
 
 You would, then, wish to deprive us even of the right of 
 self-defence, because we are Christians ! 
 
 No, you answer, we do not intend to go so far; but 
 still we'maintain that " the temporal power of the Pope is 
 only possible without activity and progress ; it must live 
 ivithout magistrates, and almost without a code, and 
 without justice" And why so? "Because under this 
 government dogmas are laws. 33 Assuredly, the answer is 
 a strange one. What ! do Catholic dogmas dispense any 
 nation from having laws and a code of justice ? Or is it, 
 that good laws and a good administration of justice are 
 incompatible with Catholic dogmas ? It would be hard to 
 offend more wantonly common sense. 
 
 In spite of everything, added the author, " its laws will 
 be bound down to the dogmas ; its activity paralyzed by its 
 traditions ; its patriotism condemned by its faith." The 
 pamphlet, " Napoleon III. and Italy/' had already said : 
 " Canon law is inflexible as the dogma." But, why do 
 you wrong us so outrageously ? I asked it at the time, 
 and I ask it again, of this Frenchman, who calls himself 
 a sincere Catholic : Since when does faith condemn 
 patriotism? For my part, I undertake to prove that, 
 during ten centuries, there were not in Italy more pa- 
 triotic Italians than the Popes ; and what I say has been 
 proclaimed by Csesar Balbo, an Italian patriot, worthy of 
 that glorious title : without the popes, Italy would long 
 since have become German. 
 
 Indeed, I know not if the author understood his own 
 meaning, when he wrote that, ' ' under that form of govern- 
 ment dogmas are laws." Of course, dogmas are laws 
 for the understanding ; but civil laws have ever been dis- 
 tinct from religious dogmas; and when the writer spoke 
 of the dogmatical inflexibility of canon law, he was com- 
 pletely ignorant of the first elements of the things he 
 treated of, and of the very language he tried to speak. 
 
348 THE DISMEMBERMENT. 
 
 " The Pope," added he, " must, on account of tliose 
 dogmas, submit to remain always stationary." What ! you 
 call yourself a Catholic you do not allow us to doubt it 
 for a moment, the inflexibility of dogmas is, therefore, 
 in your creed as well as in ours : do you think you are, on 
 that account, comdemned to remain stationary? In your 
 country, does the inflexibility of dogmas impede the pro- 
 gress of all material improvements, of agriculture, of 
 trade, of industry, of electric telegraphs and railways ? 
 England had anticipated us in all that. Would she have 
 had a right to say to us : It is the inflexibility of your 
 dogmas that hinders the establishment of telegraphs and 
 railways in your country ? Fortunately, other Catholic 
 countries were not behind England in these respects, so 
 that this splendid argument was refuted before it was 
 thought of. 1 
 
 But there are other improvements besides material ones. 
 In what is the inflexibility of dogma prejudicial to art, to 
 science, to literature, to all intellectual and moral pro- 
 gress ; and how can you presume to say, " The Pope can 
 never profit by the conquests of science, and the progress 
 of the human mind ; his laws are chained down to dogmas ?" 
 
 It is like a dream to read such things ! 
 
 It was these dogmas, these popes chained down to 
 
 1 What is there in Home that renders it so utterly incapable of 
 all progress, that it must be destroyed and not reformed ? What ! 
 is this fatal immobility more fatal than that of the Turks ? Here 
 is the phrase used, I shall not say the idea ; let whoever can, make 
 out its meaning : " At Home, theology chains down progress. The 
 dogmas are laws, and render the laws as unchangeable ;ts they." 
 
 "Which means, I suppose (for we must be clear and precise), that 
 in Rome, as God is in three persons (a dogma), the mortgage regu- 
 lations (a law) cannot be altered. 
 
 Or, in Homo, as God created heaven and earth (a dogma), the 
 Jacquart-loom (an improvement ) cannot be introduced. 
 
 Or, again, in Rome, as the Church is one and apostolical, steam- 
 navigation cannot be allowed. 
 
 If that is not the meaning, let them mention a single dogma of 
 the Church incompatible uith any serious improvement. / Y << tin- 
 excellent article of M. le Comtc de Champagny, in the Ami dc la 
 Religion, from which I have made this extract. 
 
THE THEORY OF SPOLIATION. 319 
 
 dogmas, that conferred on you, and preserved all those 
 blessings for you, ungrateful Italy, and for you, Europe, 
 forgetful of your most sacred interests ! 
 
 Such are the absurdities which have been echoed all 
 over the world ! Such are the ridiculous calumnies which 
 the French public have been asked to believe ! 
 
 It is not with the obstinate zeal of a devotee that I 
 say these things : Voltaire and M. Chateaubriand said 
 them before me : " Europe owes to the Holy See its civil- 
 ization, a part of its best laws, and almost all its arts and 
 sciences." Our adversaries themselves have said the same 
 thing elsewhere ; but self-contradiction does not embarrass 
 them much. 
 
 AVas it the inflexibility of canon law or dogmas that 
 chained down Pius IX., when he gave to the Italian 
 princes the signal of reforms, and to the people of the 
 Horn an States those liberties which the revolutionists so 
 soon availed themselves of to upset his throne ? As M. 
 Saint-Marc Girardin said so well with Csesar Balbo : " The 
 great national movement in Italy began with the temporal 
 power of the popes. Did Pius IX., when he strove to 
 place new institutions beside the venerable authority of 
 the Papacy, cease to be a pope ? Did he, in any way, 
 derogate from the immutability of Catholic dogmas ? Or, 
 was he then no longer a prince? Was he not acting by 
 virtue of his temporal authority? The Popes may be very 
 intelligent and civilized princes without being, on that 
 account, unworthy priests. They may introduce political 
 and administrative reforms without injuring the Catholic 
 faith." 
 
 It is idle to talk to us of religious toleration ; is there 
 not a state religion maintained in those countries where 
 political liberty and constitutional institutions prevail? 
 Is civil toleration contrary to any dogma of the Gospel? 
 Do not, then, seek to persuade us that there is any radical 
 incompatibility in what is a mere question of prudence 
 and expedience. The Decalogue is inflexible : but is it 
 not so as much for you as for all others ? Are there in 
 the Decalogue any laws which vou would dare to touch ? 
 
350 THE DISMEMBERMENT. 
 
 And if any of your laws were contrary to that divine 
 code, would they not be dejure null and void ? 
 
 It was said to you with truth ; the logical consequence 
 to be drawn from your reasoning is that no one would be 
 fit to reign in the world but desperadoes without law or 
 honour. 
 
 No, said the pamphlet ; in spite of all that, ' ' the activity 
 of the Pope will be paralyzed by tradition" 
 
 But of what tradition did it speak? Which is the 
 Catholic tradition that paralyzes any praiseworthy activity ? 
 
 It is an old tradition, it is true, in Christianity, that 
 trade and industry must respect the laws of justice, and 
 that writers must respect the laws of truth ; is this para- 
 lyzing trade, industry, or intellect ? 
 
 And what did the writer mean by antitheses such as the 
 following : " The Pontiff is tied down by principles of the 
 divine order which he cannot violate. The prince is- 
 bound by exigencies of the social order which he cannot 
 disavow." 
 
 But since when are the social and the divine orders at 
 war with one another? What is the social order, and 
 how are we to understand it ? Is not human society also of 
 divine right? What is this novel incompatibility which, 
 after eighteen hundred centuries of Christian civilization, 
 you come to proclaim between Christianity and social 
 order ? 
 
 Do you not see that you are repeating the most odious 
 accusations of ancient paganism ? As Tacitus said formerly, 
 you accuse the Church of being the enemy of mankind, 
 odium generis humani : but now, it is no longer from 
 Rome, nor from Italy, nor from Europe, but from the 
 whole world, that the Catholics must be expelled ! 
 
 Whoever you are, Rousseau is your great master in social 
 and religious systems ; but Rousseau was more frank 
 than you ; he distinctly declared, after having, it is true, 
 declared quite the contrary, but what matter contradic- 
 tions in these deplorable times, when all public spirit has 
 sunk so low that hardly do the most absurd contradic- 
 tions find a contradictor, Rousseau distinctly declared 
 
THE THEORY OF SPOLIATION. 351 
 
 that a Christian people is incapable of progress, and that, 
 too, on account of its dogmas. 
 
 Is that what you meant by opposing the divine to the 
 social order, by proclaiming that dogmas condemn to 
 immobility ? 
 
 . No, we shall not let ourselves be imposed upon by 
 such absurdities ! 
 
 There is, as was said at the French tribune, the revolu- 
 tionary progress of the ball which rolls about in every 
 direction, and never stands still ; and there is the immo- 
 bility of the milestone, which never stirs. We wish 
 neither for one nor for the other. 
 
 . But there is also the glorious immobility of the sun, 
 fixed in the centre of the universe, vivifying and illumin- 
 ing all things, around which the earth and the heavenly 
 bodies move in majestic order, and whose light never fails. 
 Such is the image of Catholicism. 
 
 These were the strange principles on which the cele- 
 brated pamphlet based its system of dismemberment, or 
 rather of utter ruin for the Pontifical sovereignty; the 
 odious preambles of an odious judgment; a sentence of 
 incapacity passed on the Pope; wretched sophisms, by 
 which writers deceive themselves and the public, and lead 
 on governments to perdition. 
 
 In reality, it was the abolition of the temporal power of 
 the Holy Father that such principles proclaimed; not- 
 withstanding all the efforts of the pamphlet to cast a veil 
 over it, this odious purpose involuntarily transpired. 
 
 In vain did the writer begin by saying, "We wish 
 the congress to admit as an essential principle of Euro- 
 pean order, the necessity of the temporal power of the 
 Pope. That seems to us the essential point." 
 
 That essential point, that necessity so expressly declared, 
 did not prevent the author from maintaining, soon after, 
 that the temporal power of the Pope is neither essential nor 
 necessary to anything whatever ; that it is a temporal in- 
 terest in no way affecting the spiritual, and which religion 
 has no need of. 
 
352 THE DISMEMBERMENT. 
 
 "VYhat matter, as I said before, contradictions ? These 
 fine professions of feigned respect did not surprise us ; 
 before robbing the Pope, and declaring him incapable of 
 reigning, it behoved at least to do him homage, to kiss his 
 feet and to tie his hands, as Voltaire said in the eighteenth 
 century. In the nineteenth, they wish to take off, in 
 mercy, his crown of thorns. 
 
 " As to the territorial possessions," they said, " what is 
 of importance is that he should keep the city of Rome. 
 The remainder (not only the Romagna, but the remainder} 
 is of secondary importance." " Only the remainder ! that 
 touch completes the picture," exclaims the bishop of 
 Perpignan. 
 
 Well ! we have it at last ! Rome and the gardens of 
 the Vatican; we were prepared for this; we were aware it 
 had been said. 
 
 This is what M. Dupin repeated not long ago in the 
 Senate : " Those provinces," said he, " have never con- 
 stituted but very imperfectly a real domain for the Church, 
 whose essential seat is Rome and the Campagna." 
 
 The temporal sovereignty of the Holy See would thus 
 be soon reduced to the city of Rome and its suburbium. 
 Nothing could be better; for, as the author of the pam- 
 phlet very wittily added, " In what can square leagues con- 
 tribute to the greatness of the Sovereign Pontiff? Does he 
 need extensive territories to be loved and respected? The 
 smaller the territory, the greater will be the sovereign. 3 ' 1 
 
 The Papal dominions being thus curtailed, and the Pope 
 
 1 " It is not enough to have taken away one province from him : 
 if he still has two he must be deprived of one : he will be so much 
 the greater. Do not pause ; rob him of that last province : must 
 
 Sm not always labour for his greatness ? He still has Rome, but 
 ome is too large : when he shall retain but a part of Rome, his 
 spiritual sovereignty will have made new progress. Take from him 
 this part, shut him uj> in tin- Vatican : his spiritual power will be 
 as wide ns the world. Expel him from the Vatican, cast him into 
 a cell, lie will be greater than the world!" M. Nellement, in his 
 eloquent refutation of the pamphlet " The Pope and the Congress." 
 
THE THEORY OF SPOLIATION. 353 
 
 seated, as the pamphlet says, immovable, on the holy rock, 
 he must be watched over and protected. To that end, 
 there sJiall be an Italian militia, chosen from the elite of 
 the federal army, and whose mission will be to insure the 
 tranquillity and inviolability of the Holy See. As lie 
 cannot have an army, he must, to be free, have guards. 
 
 And that all may be perfect, " a municipal liberty, as 
 extensive as possible, must free the Pontifical Goverm/. 
 from all the details of administration." 
 
 Thus, the Pope will reign, the Commons will govern. 
 This is the compensation offered to those whom the 
 pamphlet calls the disinherited of political life (les des- 
 herites de la vie politique) . 
 
 Finally, and to crown the system, the Papacy shall be 
 pensioned by Europe, as priests are by the State. It will 
 have in this way a large revenue. 1 The Pope would thus 
 
 1 The wretched sophistry and the contradictions of tlie pamphlet 
 have been luminously set forth by the bishop of Perpignan 171 the 
 following page : " Two opinions are in the field : the one wanting 
 to restore everything to the Pope, the other wanting to take every- 
 thing away from him. I know the way to arrange all that by a 
 third ingenious theory, which holds a just medium, between the 
 other two. Why do the Catholics wish for the maintenance of the 
 temporal sovereignty of the Pope ? Because the political independ- 
 ence of the head of the Church is necessary to the Church. I am 
 quite of their opinion, and am as anxious as they can be for the 
 maintenance of this temporal power : I call God to witness ! Why 
 arc the others (les autres) anxious for its destruction ? Because 
 they say the political power of the Pope is in itself a bad and 
 dangerous thing. Candidly speaking, I am of their opinion. 
 
 " But then, how are we to find a point on which the Catholics 
 will a^ree with the others ? It seems difficult, and yet it is ex- 
 tremely simple. It suffices to reduce the temporal sovereignty of 
 tlie Pope to a shadow, and to obtain from Europe a solemn declara- 
 tion that this shadow is inviolable. That being laid down, it is 
 evident, in the first place, that this sovereignty will not be done 
 away with : for a shadow is something. But this something can 
 make no one uneasy ; for what harm can a shadow do ? Who will 
 fear the power of a shadow ? 
 
 " The others will then be perfectly tranquillized, whilst the Catho- 
 lics will be most happy to see the sovereignty of tlie Pope borne up, 
 
 2 A 
 
354 THE DISMEMBERMENT. 
 
 be changed into the first high functionary of public worship 
 in Europe, whose quarterly salary might be stopped when 
 it should please or suit his paymasters. 
 
 For my part, I have no hesitation in saying, I prefer 
 black bread and the catacombs. We will not give them 
 to you, I have been answered ; you get on too well with 
 them. In that case we shall take them. 
 
 But I must leave aside my feelings and my thoughts. 
 
 We now see to \vhat would be reduced, in the end, that 
 sovereignty of which the author of the pamphlet said so 
 pompously in the earlier pages : " In a religious point of 
 view, it is essential that the Pope should be a sovereign ; 
 in a political point of view, it is necessary that the head 
 of two hundred millions of Catholics should belong to no 
 one, that he should be subject to no power, and that the 
 august hand which governs those souls should not be tied 
 down, and should be able to rise above all human passions. 
 If the Pope were not an independent sovereign, he would 
 be a Frenchman, an Austrian, a Spaniard, or an Italian, 
 and the title of his nationality would take away from him 
 his character of Universal Pontiff. The Holy See would 
 be no more than the support of a throne at Paris, Vienna, 
 or Madrid .... It is of importance for England, for Russia, 
 for Prussia, as well as for France and Austria, that the 
 
 in its character of shadow, into a superior region, far above the incon- 
 veniences of reality. Everything is thus made smooth and easy, 
 all interests are reconciled, and the temporal sovereignty is saved, 
 to the satisfaction of everybody. 
 
 " All that is as clear as noon-day : if you do not see it, you are 
 the blind friends of the Papacy ; if you will not allow it, you are its 
 open enemies : make your choice." 
 
 " Shall we be told now," adds Monseigneur Gerbet, "that we 
 made use of an improper term, when we said it was wanted to re- 
 duce to (t slutiiiiii' the temporal sovereignty of the Papacy P Is it not 
 evident that the Head of the Universal Church would be lowered to 
 the legal condition of the Dairi of Japan ! Rome wonl<! !>< t/- M<<^"> 
 of Ike Catholic world. AVe have not spoken of the millions that 
 are promised to the shadow: we shall therefore add, that our 
 account may be complete, that the author of the pamphlet proposes 
 to make of the Pope a gilded shadw" 
 
THE THEORY OF SPOLIATION. 
 
 august representative of Catholic unity should neither be 
 constrained, nor humbled, nor subordinate." 
 
 After those fine propositions, lest he should be con- 
 strained, a portion of his states was violently taken from 
 him. Lest he should be humbled, he was placed in the 
 position of the father of a family, whose children get him 
 declared incapable of managing his affairs, on condition 
 that they shall pay him a yearly allowance, with this dif- 
 ference, however, that there will be no tribunal to oblige 
 them, if one of them refuses to pay his share. Finally, 
 lest he should be subordinate or dependent, he was con- 
 demned to have no means of his own, and to lie at the 
 mercy of everybody of his Roman subjects, if ever they 
 rebelled ; of the Roman municipal council, if the Pope 
 happened to displease them ; of the federal army, who, if 
 the Pope was ever forced by his conscience to thwart the 
 wishes of the Federation, might throw him into the castle 
 of St. Angelo on the first signal of their sovereigns : and 
 I shall add, notwithstanding my respect for the great 
 Catholic powers, at the mercy of France, Austria, and 
 Spain; for no one can answer for the impossibility of 
 revolutions, nor for discontent and caprices too easily 
 foreseen. 
 
 Humiliation and dependence, debasement and servi- 
 tude, were, then, what they wanted, " to secure to the 
 august head of Catholicity his safety and greatness" And 
 the author was " pious but independent," " a sincere 
 Catholic"! 
 
 Moreover, towards the end of his pamphlet, he pointed 
 out, with religious solicitude, their new duties to the few 
 hundred thousand souls whom he still left as subjects to 
 the Pope. After refusing to the power of the Pope all 
 the ordinary conditions of power, he wished, in order to 
 conciliate everything, to refuse the people all the ordi- 
 nary conditions of a people's existence. He made of Rome 
 a city by itself, a sort of monastery where the Pope was to 
 be shut up, as imbecile kings sometimes were, formerly, in 
 some convent ; and of the Roman citizens a monkish people, 
 " a people far removed from all the interests and passions 
 
 2 A 2 
 
356 THE DISMEMBERMENT. 
 
 that disturb other peoples, and consecrated exclusively to 
 the glory of God ; a people without any other occupation 
 "but meditation, the arts, the recollection of a glorious past, 
 and prayer; a people passing a life of quiet and contem- 
 plation in a sort of oasis, where political passions and in- 
 terests were not to be allowed to enter, and enjoying the 
 sweet and ealm prospects of the spiritual world, each indi- 
 vidual of this people having, however, the honour of calling 
 himself a Roman citizen, civis Romanus." 
 
 Admirable f What delicate pleasantry ! But if, not- 
 withstanding your poetry and your flattering irony, this 
 people understood differently its title of Roman citizen ; 
 if they one day had enough of your oasis and these sweet 
 and calm prospects of the spiritual world; if it did not 
 please them always to live in a monastery ; if they grew 
 tired of being, as you say, " for ever disinherited from that 
 noble part of activity which in all countries is the stimulus 
 to patriotism, and opens a field to the highest moral and 
 intellectual faculties of man ; " if, in fine, they would no 
 longer submit to the Pope's rule, what would you do? 
 you would compel them, for here you allow of compul- 
 sion. And what will become of the people in this strange 
 and unprecedented existence you have invented for them ? 
 .... But what is that to you ? you will not live there ; 
 but the Pope will, and such a life is very well for him. 
 As the -Pope is a father, and the Church a mother, they 
 can live, you say, surrounded by the hatred and insults of 
 their subjects, who will be reduced, by your preposterous 
 and abominable system, to be as Pariahs in the very heart 
 of Italy, and the last of men kept down to a life of medi- 
 tation and prayer, which they loathe. 1 
 
 Such is your aim. Why did you not say so from the 
 beginning, and without circumlocution ? 
 
 Fortunately, this will not come to pass ! Such a system 
 
 1 It was curious to road the English papers of the time, who 
 persisted, cleverly enough, in looking upon the pamphlet as a mani- 
 festo of the French government. 
 
THE THEORY OF SPOLIATION. 357 
 
 could never triumph in a great council of Europe, espe- 
 cially if it were held in Paris, and if Catholic and victo- 
 rious France were called to the honour of presiding over 
 it. No, France would not allow it ; she would not allow 
 it to be said that it was to obtain such a result " that she 
 had run the risks of a great war, won four victories, lost 
 fifty thousand men, spent three hundred millions of francs, 
 and shaken all Europe." 
 
 Enough, your object is exposed. It is worthy of the 
 absurdity of your principles, and the iniquity of your 
 means. 
 
 " To treat a power in this way," said the Presse, can- 
 didly, " is to declare it abolished." But to destroy at one 
 blow the Pontifical power would have been an act of brutal 
 violence, to which the world is not yet accustomed ; to 
 carry off the Pope from Rome can scarcely be again at- 
 tempted ; to proclaim his incompetency in his provinces 
 by suppressing his power there, and his competency at 
 Rome while degrading him, was too precious an invention 
 for the discoverer not to share with the world, while he 
 flattered himself that he arrived at his end with little noise, 
 smoothly but infallibly. 
 
 It was the same policy as in 1809, with the only difference 
 that in 1809 the Pope was carried off by violence, and 
 that the pamphlet merely proposed to extinguish him in 
 Rome. 
 
 Another pamphlet, which has also been famous in its 
 way, The Roman Question, arrived at the same con- 
 clusions : 
 
 "At the worst," said the pamphlet, "the Pope would still keep 
 the city of Rome, his palaces, his temples, his cardinals, his prelates, 
 his monks, his princes, and his lackeys. Europe would send food 
 to this little isolated colony. 
 
 "Rome surrounded by the respect of the universe, as by a wall of 
 China, would be, as it \vere, a foreign body in the centre of free and 
 living Italy." 
 
 Moreover : 
 : " Princes will study history. They will see that the strong 
 
358 THE DISMEMBERMENT. 
 
 governments are those who held religion with a firm hand : that 
 the Roman senate did not grant to the Carthaginian priests the 
 privilege of preaching in Italy ; that the queen of England and the 
 emperor of Russia are the heads of the Anglican and Russian 
 churches, and that Paris ought logically to be the metropolis of all 
 the churches of Prance." 
 
 One must confess all this would be amusing if it were 
 not frightful, and that we have skilful adversaries. We 
 exert ourselves to prove to them that the Pope must be 
 free, independent, respected, a sovereign : they answer 
 that he must undoubtedly, and that they proclaim it as 
 loudly as we do ourselves : and to that end, what do they 
 do with the Pope ? They make of him a sort of deaf and 
 dumb idol, chained down in the middle of ancient Rome, 
 " immovable on his holy rock." 
 
 These gentlemen have, I must confess, a strange way of 
 interpreting " Tu es Petrus, et super hanc petram" But 
 let them take care : it is written of that rock that it will 
 crush whomsoever it falls upon. Super quern ceciderit, 
 conteretur. 
 
 We labour to prove to them that Rome, that Italy, that 
 Europe, cannot do without the Pope, and they answer us : 
 We are entirely of your opinion, and we shall keep so well 
 the Pope at Rome, in the centre of Italy and of Europe, 
 that he cannot escape from us. We shall keep him there 
 in such a close embrace, that no one can question either 
 our love or his power. There is but one difficulty in all 
 this it is, that the best-contrived schemes do not succeed 
 very well against God. God from the high heavens watches 
 over His Church, and by unforeseen plans, or, if necessary, 
 by His thunders, as Bossuet says, delivers her from the 
 greatest dangers, and baffles earthly skill. He enlightens 
 when He pleases human wisdom, so short-sighted by itself; 
 and, again, when it turns aside from Him, "He gives it up 
 to its ignorance, He blinds it, and dashes it to the earth; 
 it is entangled in its own toils, and ensnared in its own 
 precautions. The days of trial go by, and the Church 
 remains. It has often been seen, and will be seen again." 
 
 You think the Pope is vanquished, because within these 
 
THE THEORY OP SPOLIATION. 359 
 
 last few months his provinces have been made to rebel 
 auainst him. Your views are narrow, allow me to say, and 
 your prophecies show little penetration. We do not yield 
 so easily. The Popes have gone through other trials, and 
 still hold out. You think the Pope is ruined, because the 
 revolutionists, after adding to his expenses, declare his 
 finances to be in a bad state ; and on that account you 
 offer him a maintenance. Well ! it is not from your hands 
 he will accept it : you would be too haughty benefactors ; 
 one day, perhaps, you might taunt him with your munifi- 
 cence, or make him pay too dear for it. 
 
 An alms ! Ah, if the Father of the Faithful is to be 
 brought so low, he will receive it with a better grace from 
 the hands of the poor than from you. Five hundred bishops 
 throughout the world, who have raised their voices' in his 
 behalf, would collect, if it were necessary, the old and 
 venerable tribute of the Peter-pence; and the Catholic 
 world would give him soldiers, if he wanted them. 
 
 Do you think that Christian blood has ceased to flow in 
 our veins, and our hearts to beat in our breasts ? Beware, 
 you will wound us at last. I do not know if our eyes 
 required to be opened ; but you succeeded admirably in 
 doing so. 
 
 At all events, we hope and we pray, full of bitterness at 
 the deeds of men, but full of confidence in the succour of 
 Omnipotence. 
 
360 THE DISMEMBERMENT. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 THE DISMEMBERMENT. 
 
 THE THEORY OF SPOLIATION. CONTINUATION OF THE 
 
 SUBJECT. 
 
 SUCH, then, were the sad conclusions which were de- 
 duced from odious and fallacious principles, applied to the 
 question of the Romagna, and thus were they paraded 
 on the eve of a congress, which was to give a final and 
 irreversible decision. In examining the practical reasons 
 which were to influence that decision, the author was not 
 more happy than in his statement of theoretical principles. 
 These practical reasons have been so often insisted upon 
 since, that it will be well here to dwell upon them in 
 detail. The author begins by invoking the authority of 
 the accomplished fact. Ah ! the accomplished fact is now 
 at once the sword and shield, the means and the argument 
 of the revolution. Well, it is therefore doubly necessary 
 to hinder the accomplishment of such facts ; and, before the 
 appearance of the pamphlet, I had myself called attention 
 in my "Protest" to the indifference of those who stood 
 and looked on, while others were precipitating events with 
 ardour, in order to be able to appeal to accomplished facts. 
 We know, indeed, the way in which these facts were accom- 
 plished ; we know what agents and what funds were 
 employed in the Romagna. Lord Normanby, Mr. Scarlett, 
 and others, have told us all. And the writer of the pam- 
 phlet knew all this as well as we ; only it suited his purpose 
 to ignore it. However, it is important that the world 
 know the truth upon the matter; and we shall continue 
 to proclaim it, as the Holy Father himself has been 
 obliged to do, repeatedly and emphatically. 
 
 All that we had asserted has been recently confirmed 
 by the Encyclical of the Holy Father, and airain by the 
 reply of the Pontifical government to the circular of M 
 
THE THEORY OF SPOLIATION. 361 
 
 Thouvenel of the 8th of February. " It would seem/' says 
 the Pontifical despatch, " that the French Minister of 
 Foreign Affairs had not inquired fully enough into the facts, 
 when he stated that, by the mere fact of the Austrians re- 
 tiring, the inhabitants of the Romagna found themselves 
 independent without any need for foreign support or 
 agitation. The truth is, that no sooner had the garrison, 
 withdrawn, than the revolutionary party, which had every- 
 thing ready, owing to its previous manoeuvres, and was 
 emboldened by the proclamation of one of the belligerents, 
 seized upon the power, and imposed its yoke upon the 
 people, who still continue under the same tyranny. Per- 
 haps it is not going too far to say that there is not a capital 
 in Europe where what has happened at Bologna would 
 not occur, if the garrison which protects it were suddenly 
 withdrawn." 
 
 But apart from any particular circumstances such as 
 the Piedmontese intrigues and a revolutionary terrorism- 
 what is the theory of the accomplished fact, as laid down 
 in the pamphlet, but an elevation of injustice into a 
 principle, and a substitution of brute force for right? 
 The writer appeals to an argument as novel as it is replete 
 with danger, when he opposes to the authority of the Pope 
 what he has presumed to call the authority of the accom- 
 plished fact. " The Romagna," he says, " has been sepa- 
 rated for some months, in fact, from the Papal government. 
 Thus this separation has in its favour the authority of the 
 accomplished fact." This fact, then, this disgraceful fact, 
 is now appealed to as an authority against a right recog- 
 nized and proclaimed by France and the rest of Europe. 
 We have long been aware, indeed, of the violence and 
 brutality of accomplished facts ; but hitherto we had not 
 heard of their authority. 
 
 Authority, that grand and sacred idea, founded upon 
 law and right, and which is one with them, how has it 
 been dishonoured ! It is now declared to spring from 
 infamy and wrong ! Such is the strange source and 
 foundation assigned to it, such the bad company in which 
 we are to seek it. I can understand that, after expressing 
 
362 THE DISMEMBERMENT. 
 
 such a sentiment, the author should not have hesitated 
 to propose to a European congress to sanction such 
 enormities, and to state that its task would be a light 
 one, merely " to record an accomplished fact.' 3 
 
 So that, for the future, an insurrection kept on foot for 
 a few months by the hirelings and the revolutionary 
 ambition of a neighbouring state, is to be looked upon by 
 Europe as a glorious fact, soon rising into a right, which 
 must not be further discussed. To record it is sufficient. 
 Let a revolt only be kept up for six months, and a vene- 
 rable right, numbering more than a thousand years, founded 
 and sanctioned by all European nations, ceases ipso facto 
 to exist ! 
 
 But passing over the question of right, and the viola- 
 tion of moral and social law, is not history against you 
 here ? How many accomplished facts have been recon- 
 sidered and differently arranged, at all periods, in Europe. 
 Had not the oppression of Greece been an accomplished 
 fact for centuries when France broke her chains in 1827 ? 
 Without going further, had not the French republic been 
 an accomplished fact for four years on the 2nd of Decem- 
 ber, 1852 ? When we laid siege to Rome, was not the 
 Roman republic an accomplished fact, and a more de- 
 cisively established one than the present, for the Pope 
 was then at Gaeta, and now he is at Rome; and the 
 Roman republic had constituted and defended itself, while 
 Central Italy was and is still occupied by foreign armies ? 
 On the 18th Brumaire, had not General Bonaparte a 
 constituted government and an accomplished fact before 
 him ? 
 
 Moreover, the fact was so far from being accomplished 
 when the pamphlet uppcaivd, that Piedmont had not yet 
 accepted the annexation which had been voted, and the 
 new state of things was universally regarded as tem- 
 porary. 
 
 It may be said, however, all this is very well upon 
 paper, but in practice one must accept an accomplished 
 fact, when it cannot be annulled ; our advice having 
 been spurned, and armed interference being inadmissible, 
 
THE THEORY OF SPOLIATION. 363 
 
 1 will answer, with one of ray colleagues, Mgr. de Per- 
 !>iirnun : "No, I do not accept this alternative; even 
 supposing that the fact cannot be annulled, I deny that 
 we are forced to accept it. There is evidently another 
 attitude, another course which remains to be taken ; to 
 proclaim the right in firm and distinct accents, to refuse 
 to recognize anything which has been done contrary to it, 
 and to maintain such refusal in all its political conse- 
 quences. The reasoning of our opponent is the sophism 
 of incomplete enumeration, employed to the prejudice of a 
 right which he recognizes himself. The grand mistake of 
 this advocate of organized and armed rebellions is, that he 
 seems to believe too much in the justice of force, and not 
 enough in the force of justice. In the latter, however, we 
 shall persist in believing, till it is proved to us that Europe, 
 in spite of her vaunted progress, has fallen so low, that 
 she must either accept an injustice, or avow her help- 
 lessness/' 
 
 And, what is most inconsistent and iniquitous in all 
 this, the congress was declared, at one and the same time, 
 with regard to the same legitimate sovereignty, helpless 
 to maintain its rights, and omnipotent to overthrow it ! 
 
 For the omnipotence of the congress was the means 
 proposed, to elevate the accomplished fact into a right : 
 its omnipotence, when opposed to the weakness of the 
 Holy Father ! 
 
 " A congress has every power" it was said ; but as it 
 was well answered, has it therefore every right? One 
 may be omnipotent and yet commit injustice. 
 
 A congress omnipotent ! Thus a congress might at 
 pleasure decree annexations, destroy autonomies, take 
 away provinces, and bestow them upon others ; take 
 Ireland from England, Alsace from France, Sicily from 
 Naples, Geneva from Switzerland, &c. And no law or 
 justice is superior to its omnipotence ! 
 
 You expressly admit that the insurrection in the 
 Romagna is " a revolt against right." The accomplished 
 fact was then unjust : well, if one is weak like the Pope, 
 one may submit to an unjust fact; but when one is omni- 
 
364 THE DISMEMBERMENT. 
 
 potent like the congress, one cannot record it, at least, 
 without dishonour. 
 
 The congress would not have dishonoured itself; and, 
 for my part, though the pamphlet sought to hamper it 
 beforehand, and to trace out for it its course, I should 
 still have felt implicit confidence in the great minds, the 
 illustrious diplomatists whom Europe was sending there. 
 The congress, on the eve of its meeting, was dispersed; 
 and I regret it. It would not have accepted the office 
 proposed to it ; which was to sanction injustice and rebel- 
 lion, solemnly to introduce the revolutionary principle into 
 European law, to insult all sovereignties, to consecrate 
 brute force, and basely to abandon weakness. What 
 were the arguments by which, as was supposed, it was to 
 be conducted to such a resolution ? 
 
 It was said, " Europe, which sacrificed Italy in 1815, 
 has a right to save it in I860." Thus to save Italy was 
 to deliver it from the authority of the Pope ! 
 
 It was added : Europe, in 1815, gave the Pope the 
 Pontifical States and the Romagna ; in 1860, she may 
 come to a different decision. But can any one name one 
 of the sovereigns who were dispossessed of their states 
 before 1815, who will admit that the Congress of Vienna 
 gave him his dominions, and that a future congress may 
 take them away? Does the king of Sardinia, for in- 
 stance, all whose provinces were then French depart- 
 ments, recognize the right of a congress to restore them 
 to France ? 
 
 Europe, in 1815, was emerging from a long earthquake 
 from wars, revolutions, and conquests. She meant to 
 restore the rights which had been violated. 
 
 Moreover, what did you mean by pretending, in the 
 name of European jurisdiction, to forbid a Catholic power 
 from offering aid to the Pope'." 
 
 What, then, was it that France did in 1849 ? Did she 
 not bring back the Pope to Home ? What was then the 
 behaviour of Europe herself ? Was she not present with 
 Pius IX. at Gaeta, in her representatives? 
 
 Will you inform us why a European, a Catholic power, 
 
THE THEORY OF SPOLIATION. 3G3 
 
 should be prohibited from upholding a sovereign whom all 
 Europe recognizes, a sovereign who is the supreme head of 
 the Catholic Church ? 
 
 TVill you inform us on what grounds attacks are to be 
 sanctioned, while defence is to be prohibited ? 
 
 At what period did civilized Europe decide that the 
 weak have no right to protection or assistance ? 
 
 It was on this ground, however, that an ancestor of 
 Victor Emmanuel, in 1818, whom revolutionists had 
 dethroned, was restored by the intervention of a great 
 power. 
 
 You have informed us that France cannot aid the Pope. 
 " As a Catholic nation, she cannot consent to compromise 
 so seriously the moral power of Catholicism. As a liberal 
 one, she cannot consent to force a people to submit to a 
 government in opposition to their wishes." 
 
 Ah ! the argument is an old one. In 1848 and 1849 
 we had men as uneasy as you about the moral power of 
 Catholicism, and who could not bear that France should 
 destroy the Roman republic ; thus prejudicing the rights 
 of peoples, and contradicting its own principles. These 
 men spoke of filing an accusation against the President of 
 the republic, and even rose in arms in the streets, to 
 avenge, as they said, the violation of the constitution. 
 Their names were Ledru Rollin, Louis Blanc, Caussidiere, 
 Pierre Leroux, Sergeant Rattier, &c. It was they who 
 then pleaded the cause of Mazzini and Garibaldi against 
 us. 
 
 "Well, the Roman expedition was carried without them, 
 and in spite of them ; and M. Dupin has just declared to 
 the senate that the restoration of the Pope by the French 
 armies, in 1849, is one of those speaking facts which can 
 never be effaced from the hearts of Catholics. It is true 
 that this does not prevent M. Dupin from adopting the 
 strange opinion of the pamphlet as to the injury we should 
 do the moral power of Catholicism, if we went to the aid 
 of the Pope. 
 
 But it is again objected to us that the Pope has not 
 granted the necessary liberties to his subjects; and that 
 
366 THE DISMEMBERMENT. 
 
 they have, therefore, revolted. To this I have two very 
 plain answers to give. 
 
 First, if there are any new liberties, practicable and ad- 
 visable, to be accorded in the Papal States, such grave 
 questions are not surely to be discussed amidst outrages 
 and revolutions ; but, on the contrary, in a spirit of con- 
 ciliation on both sides, with a friendly understanding 
 between liberty and authority, so difficult to realize in 
 these stormy times. Even in France, have all difficulties 
 of this kind been yet resolved ? 
 
 Secondly, the Pope is bound, like all temporal princes, 
 and more than they, to study the welfare of his subjects, 
 and to dispense to them, in just measure, the benefits of a 
 wise liberty with those of a regular and paternal adminis- 
 tration. Well, Pius IX. has not been wanting to these 
 duties; M. Saint-Marc Girardin lately referred to the 
 noble testimony borne on this head to Pius IX. by Count 
 Cresar Balbo, in the Sardinian parliament : " The im- 
 portant act which was the initiative of our restoration, the 
 immortal act of amnesty originated, not from Pius IX. as 
 Pontiff, but from Pius IX. as Prince ; the amnesty and 
 the reforms owed their being to the sovereignty of 
 Pius IX. ; his sovereignty, his temporal power, was un- 
 questionably the germ of our great national movement. 
 Whatever varying phases that movement may hereafter 
 present, it is certain that its source was the temporal 
 power of the Popes/' As I have already said, when 
 Pius IX. left Rome, on the approach of the bands of 
 Garibaldi, he might, on first touching foreign soil, have 
 solemnly called to witness the city which had expelled him, 
 and the whole world with it, that he had done, of his own 
 accord, more for the liberty of his people than any other 
 European sovereign had then done. 
 
 But our opponents rejoin, " You are attributing to us 
 intentions which we disclaim ; we are seeking to preserve 
 his spiritual authority by abandoning to the flames a part 
 of his temporal power. After all, the territory of the 
 Church is not indivisible. No one proposes to deprive the 
 Pope of his temporal dominions ; the question is, whether 
 they may not be curtailed." 
 
THE THEORY OF SPOLIATION. 367 
 
 I will reply with Father Lacordairc, whom you have 
 slanderously represented as an ally of your unhappy 
 cause : " What would France say if it were proposed to 
 degrade her crown ? Territory is divisible, but right is 
 not. Territory is a field which may be parcelled out ; but 
 honour is an idea which must either remain intacC or 
 perish." 
 
 I would add, Where is the territory which force or a 
 triumphant insurrection cannot divide ? Is there a single 
 nationality, sovereignty, or property which is naturally in- 
 divisible ? The principle you are laying down is a perilous 
 one ; take care that it does not turn against yourselves. 
 
 Is it not because Poland was not naturally indivisible 
 that it was so miserably parcelled out between Russia, 
 Prussia, and Austria ? And France and the rest of Europe 
 stood by, in the enlightened eighteenth century, and 
 congresses have vainly protested or tacitly acquiesced. 
 
 The argument, however, has become fashionable; and, 
 the other day, was complacently advanced in the Senate 
 by M. Dupin. And, by the way, what was M. Dupin's 
 object in telling us that these provinces were the latest 
 addition made to the Papal States, first by war, and after- 
 wards by negotiation ? First of all, this is a formal 
 contradiction of history. The Legations constituted pre- 
 cisely the ancient Exarchate of Ravenna, which was given 
 to the Holy See by the Frank kings. But, even granting 
 the truth of his statement, what does it prove ? What 
 would be said if a member of the English House of Lords 
 were to advocate the separation from France of Alsace or 
 Lorraine, on the ground that they were the last provinces 
 we had acquired ? No ; it is absurd for M. Dupin to 
 insinuate that for this reason the Pope has not now a full, 
 real, and incontestable right to those provinces. In the 
 words of a celebrated writer : <c The Romagna is a per- 
 fectly legitimate possession of the Pontifical government, 
 and belongs to it by a title sanctioned by history and by 
 treaties;" and, as the emperor himself has said in his 
 letter, " The powers of Europe must admit that the rights 
 of the Holy See to the Legations are indisputable." The 
 
368 THE DISMEMBERMENT. 
 
 emperor, as well as the rest of Europe, saw here " one of 
 those established rights, to which the most profound respect 
 is due." 1 
 
 Unhappily,, to the grief and scandal of the Church and 
 the friends of order in Europe, such respect has been 
 wanting on the part of a monarchy, which has been 
 hurried by its ambition into a contempt of all rights, a 
 neglect of all its duties, and, I will add, all its true 
 interests. 
 
 I fully concur in the following sagacious and profound 
 reflections of the bishop of Perpignan : " I can under- 
 stand that a revolutionary dictatorship, which declares war 
 against all monarchies, like the Convention in France, 
 should publicly exult in the overthrow of the legitimate 
 power in the countries which it had excited to revolt; 
 but that a government which calls itself monarchical should 
 solemnly accept, from its throne, in the face of the world, 
 a call to approve and profit by the overthrow of another 
 government, with which it is at peace, and whose inde- 
 pendence it had promised to respect ; that it should con- 
 gratulate the perpetrators of the deed, caress, extol, and 
 exhort them to persevere, promising them its support iu 
 the counsels of Europe nothing like this can we recall in 
 the history of civilized nations. If such an enormity pass 
 unpunished, if what can never be it receive a general 
 sanction, one would be moved to ask whether all shame, 
 as well as all good faith, had not taken leave of the political 
 world." 
 
 1 It is also contrary to history to say, as the dictator of Bologna 
 has done, that "the temporal power of the Popes has under^om- in 
 the course of ages various and essential modifications." On the 
 contrary, it lins scarcely at all varied, and the Pope is perhaps the 
 only sovereign in Europe \vho now possesses nearly what he did a 
 thousand years ago. 
 
369 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 THE DISMEMBERMENT. 
 
 THE RELIGIOUS QUESTION. 
 
 I. 
 
 THE idea of a European congress was soon abandoned; 
 the prudence of submitting the question of the dispos- 
 session of the Pope to the decision of Europe appeared 
 questionable ; people were scarcely sanguine enough to 
 hope that such an assembly would take upon it to sanction 
 insurrection, and to lay down a precedent of spoliation. 
 The question then entered a new phase : a voluntary 
 cession was demanded from the Holy Father by the 
 emperor,, in his letter of December 31, 1859; inexorable 
 necessity being still the great argument appealed to. 
 
 The Holy Father's reply was what might have been ex- 
 pected from that mild but firm Pontiff; and an encyclical 
 immediately informed the world of his refusal, and the 
 motives which had imperatively prompted it. He said : 
 
 " The most noble emperor counsels us voluntarily to 
 forfeit our claim to these provinces, pleading that he 
 can see no other means of remedying the present disorders. 
 We have not delayed to reply to him ; and, with the 
 apostolic liberty of our heart, have declared to him that 
 we could in no wise comply with his advice, inasmuch as 
 it presents insurmountable difficulties connected with the 
 rights of the Holy See, which belong, not to the hereditary 
 succession of a royal family, but to all Catholics. 
 
 " We have declared that we could not cede what 
 belonged to the Church, not to us; and that to sanction 
 and approve the insurrection in the Emilia would urge on 
 the native and foreign agitators in the other provinces of 
 
 2 B 
 
370 THE DISMEMBERMENT. 
 
 the Pontifical States to renew the same attempts, encou- 
 raged by the success of the former rebellion. 
 
 " Finally, we have informed the emperor that we could 
 not abandon those provinces without violating the solemn 
 oaths which bind us, without exciting complaints and 
 risings in our other provinces, without deserting our duties 
 to all the Catholics of the universe, and, moreover, with- 
 out prejudicing the rights, not only of the Italian princes, 
 who have been unjustly dispossessed, but of all the princes 
 of Christendom, who could not behold with indifference 
 the triumph of most dangerous principles, which we are 
 now asked to consecrate." 
 
 One of the most generous champions of the Pontifical 
 independence, M. Augustin Cochin, has well summed up 
 in a few words the unanswerable reasoning of the Pope's 
 reply : " A sacrifice which might lead to poverty, if justi- 
 fiable, and favourable to the peace of the world, would 
 be an act of virtue/' worthy, undoubtedly, of the Vicar of 
 Jesus Christ ; " but a sacrifice involving the violation of 
 an oath, the consecration of rebellion, the abandonment 
 of the rights of others, and which must compromise even 
 what is retained, would be an act of weakness/' of which 
 the Sovereign Pontiff is incapable. 
 
 Another eloquent and fearless defender of the Holy See, 
 Prince Albert de Broglie, has expressed the same ideas, as 
 follows : 
 
 " It is clear, from what has been proposed to the Pope, 
 and what is publicly proclaimed throughout Europe, that 
 what is asked from him is not the mere cession of a pro- 
 vince, but an avowal of his own indignity ; he is asked to 
 sign the act of his own degradation, an act which will be 
 executed wherever the Papal arms, the tiara, and the keys 
 are still displayed. It is the whole human power of the 
 Papacy ; that fabric which has withstood the action of 
 time, which has survived so many usurpations of despotism, 
 and so many popular revolutions, sanctioned by the honi;; 
 of all the higto-tntnded statesmen of Europe, and under 
 whose shadow so many millions of consciences have reposed 
 in freedom for a thousand years ; which is now undermined 
 
THE RELIGIOUS QUESTION*. 371 
 
 to the centre, and is tottering to its fall. The point which 
 is now argued is not in what way the head of the Church 
 is to govern, nor who are to be, or not to be, his subjects ; 
 but whether he is to descend from the rank of sovereign/ 
 and to choose between the lot of a subject and that of an 
 outcast/' 
 
 However, the encyclical was accused with having intro- 
 duced considerations foreign to the controversy, with view- 
 ing the subject in an exclusive manner, and converting a 
 purely political question into a religious one. The same 
 grounds were alleged for very unwarrantable censures, con- 
 demning the zeal and emotion which the Catholics dis- 
 played, and the public protests they had made. 
 
 To the impossibility proclaimed by the Holy Father 
 were opposed the origin of his oath, a few historical pre- 
 cedents, and certain instances of partial dispossession or 
 voluntary renunciation, but without replying to the fun- 
 damental and irrefutable arguments of the encyclical. 
 
 But a close examination must convince us that the Holy 
 Father, far from looking at the question from an exclusive 
 point of view, had, on the contrary, most perspicuously 
 distinguished and pointed out its double aspect. 
 
 In fact, no one has ever asserted that the terrestrial 
 rule of the Holy See was of a spiritual nature ; what is 
 earthly is earthly. It has only been said (and our most 
 avowed antagonists have agreed with us in saying) that 
 the question of the Pope's temporal power concerns reli- 
 gion, and that in this sense it is a religious question. 
 Why ? Because that temporal power has a religious use, 
 a religious purpose ; it is necessary, not politically, but 
 religiously, because it insures the spiritual independence 
 of the Pope, who, as has been so well remarked, is a Prince 
 only because he is a Pontiff. And with the spiritual inde- 
 pendence of the Pope, the liberty of the consciences of all 
 Catholics is secured, which must suffer, if their guide were 
 not in the possession, the evident possession, of his liberty ; 
 if the supreme doctor of their faith were himself oppressed 
 and dependent. 
 
 All this I have superabundantly demonstrated in the 
 2 B 2 
 
372 THE DISMEMBERMENT. 
 
 earlier chapters of this volume. I have cited, besides, the 
 most eminent Catholic theologians, Protestants, philoso- 
 phers, publicists, heterodox sovereigns, and statesmen, all 
 admitting and recognizing, with us, the paramount nature 
 of the religious and spiritual interests involved in the 
 question of the temporal power of the Papacy. And I 
 must confess, for my part, that I cannot understand how 
 any one can now publicly affirm that it is a merely political 
 question, which in no way concerns religion. 
 
 But our present opponents, who with monstrous incon- 
 sistency, for which their motive is but too plain, will not 
 see in the dismemberment of the States of the Church 
 anything but an exclusively political question, have been 
 obliged to make admissions which condemn them. The 
 pamphlet, Le Pape et le Congres, having propounded the 
 question, " Is the temporal power of the Pope necessary 
 to the exercise of his spiritual ? " answers : " Catholic 
 doctrine here agrees with political reasoning in giving an 
 affirmative answer. It is necessary that the chief of two 
 hundred millions of Catholics be dependent on none." 
 And the pamphlet, Napoleon III. et I'ltalie, stated as 
 decisively that "the cause of the Pope involves the 
 greatest religious interests of Europe ; " and that " the 
 political power of the Papacy is necessary to its independ- 
 ence, and on account of the greatness of its spiritual 
 mission." 
 
 It must be allowed that it is not difficult to argue with 
 opponents who thus contradict themselves ; yet, unhappily, 
 such contradictions create, in practical matters, unexpected 
 and disheartening difficulties. 
 
 Every one knows tke expressive terms in which the first 
 emperor declared that the Pope's temporal sovereignty was 
 indispensable to the exercise of his spiritual power, adding 
 that it was the work, the glorious work, of centur'nx. 
 
 A man must assuredly be in an awkward dilemma, and 
 feel strangely puzzled for arguments, who, in opposition to 
 every authority as well as to common sense, can volunteer 
 the novel assertion, that the question of the Pope's tem- 
 poral power is an exclusively political one, in no way 
 
THE RELIGIOUS QUESTION. 373 
 
 concerns religious interests, and bears only upon lay and 
 material affairs. 1 
 
 The Papal government, in its reply to the French 
 Minister of Foreign Affairs, maintains, with unanswerable 
 logic, the essentially spiritual character of the question : 
 
 " Without referring to the manner in which the Pon- 
 tifical States were formed, under the influence of religious 
 motives, and for an essentially religious end, the very 
 name of these states, the States of the Church, a name so 
 thoroughly in accordance with their real destination, the 
 securities and the means which they afford the Vicar of 
 Christ for preserving the independence necessary to the 
 exercise of his apostolic ministry, the patrimony which 
 they furnish to the head of the Church, who, unlike other 
 sovereigns, who declare themselves, as princes, the heads 
 of their churches, is a prince only because he is a Pontiff, 
 all these considerations should suffice to demonstrate that 
 the present question is essentially a religious one, and has 
 an intimate connection with the most vital interests of the 
 Catholic Church, and with those of all her members, both 
 in general and in particular." 
 
 And such was the sentiment of all Catholics ; their souls 
 kindled, and they instinctively assumed an attitude of de- 
 fence : and those are really to be pitied who, like M. Dupin, 
 
 1 One of my colleagues, the bishop of Perpignan, whose modera- 
 tion has been eulogized by our opponents, and whose talent and 
 firmness I, for my part, also admire, has likewise energetically 
 refuted the preposterous assumption that the question is simply 
 political, and in no way concerns religion. "What! the temporal 
 sovereignty of the Pope, instituted to insure the liberty of his 
 universal mission, is not a religious question ! The violation of the 
 faitk sworn to him, of the oaths of fidelity made to him, not a 
 religious question ! The excommunication pronounced by the last 
 general council, the Council of Trent, against all who violate the 
 ecclesiastical dominions, not a religious question ! The demonstra- 
 tions of impiety stirred up by the chiefs of the spoliating faction 
 wherever their footsteps pass, are not religious questions ! In its 
 causes, in its immediate effects, and its future consequences, the 
 present state of affairs vitally involves the very highest interests of 
 religion." 
 
374 THE DISMEMBERMENT. 
 
 can only see, in such a noble and religious solicitude, the 
 vulgar anxieties of shareholders in alarm about a common 
 fund. The Pontifical despatch continues : 
 
 "Now, if the interests of the Catholics are deeply in- 
 volved in this question, it follows that they have a right, 
 nay, that they are bound, to take a greater part in its 
 discussion than if it were of a purely political nature. Is it 
 not clear, that the fact of the separation of the Romagna, 
 and still more, the evils which must flow from such a wrong 
 and unjust precedent, must prejudice the rights of all 
 Catholics, as far as they have a right, in the present order 
 of things which Providence has established, to see their 
 supreme doctor uncontrolled by any human authority, and 
 fully independent in the exercise of his apostolic ministry ? 
 It was but just to warn Catholics of the injury with which 
 they were threatened; and such warning could only be 
 given under a religious point of view, for the right we 
 allude to is based upon religion ; its exclusive object being 
 the dignity and independence of Catholic consciences. 1 
 
 " The Holy Father was then bound to declare to the 
 Catholic world the real state of the question ; and in his 
 encyclical, the political and the religious questions have 
 not been confounded, but carefully distinguished. The 
 religious question is there treated separately, and at the 
 same time it declares to all, the celestial mission which the 
 Vicar of Jesus Christ has received, of reminding sovereigns 
 and people of the eternal rules of truth and justice. As 
 to the multitude of the faithful, His Holiness has sought 
 from them no other assistance than their prayers." 
 
 Who here takes the most narrow and exclusive view, the 
 Pope, or they who persist in asserting, with regard to a 
 controversy which evidently concerns, deeply and vitally, 
 religious interests, which, indeed, they have admitted as 
 
 1 A writer, thoroughly devoted to the government, wrote as 
 follows in a ministerial paper, some time ago : " Rome is not only 
 the natural capital of Catholicism, but also, in npiity and accord- 
 ing to good sense, the property of the Catholic world."" Le Pays. 
 
THE RELIGIOUS QUESTION. 375 
 
 distinctly themselves as we, that the question between the 
 Pope and the emperor is an exclusively political one ? 
 
 In vain has reference been made, in support of this asser- 
 tion, to the confusion, of the two orders, civil and religious, 
 caused by the theocratic tendencies of the early ages of 
 the Church. History says the contrary. Neither did the 
 Christian emperors, from Constantine, accept such confu- 
 sion, coming from the popes; nor did the popes accept 
 it, coming from the emperors. In reality, the distinction 
 between the two powers was ever taught and professed by 
 the popes ; it is formally laid down by St. Gregory the 
 Great, by Gregory II., by Symmachus, and St. Gelasius. 
 I have before cited the letter of the last-mentioned to the 
 Emperor Anastasius : " This world, august emperor, is 
 principally governed by two powers, that of the pontiffs 
 and that of kings .... The ministers of religion obey your 
 laws in all that regards the temporal order, because you 
 have received your power from above ; but in what regards 
 religion, you confess that you have no right to control 
 them by your will, but are bound to hear them." 
 
 We find the same doctrine distinctly stated in one of 
 the Novella of Justinian. They have always been familiar to 
 the Catholic Church, and indeed were introduced into 
 the world by her ; for, before the Catholic Church, no 
 spiritual power existed independently of the temporal, 
 which then arrogated all authority to itself. 
 
 "The separation of the two powers," says M. Thou- 
 venel, "is an advantage to the world." This, for my 
 part, I do not deny ; but it is an advantage contingent 
 upon one condition, which alone can prevent the oppres- 
 sion of men's consciences, by opposing the otherwise in- 
 evitable absorption of spiritual power by temporal; and 
 that condition is, the temporal and spiritual independ- 
 ence of the supreme head of the Church. 
 
 As M. Odilon-Barrot well remarked in 1849, " It is in 
 order that the two powers may be separate everywhere else, 
 that it is necessary they should be united at Rome." 
 Otherwise, disputes are unavoidable, the spiritual power 
 must be in bondage to, or even altogether absorbed by 
 
376 THE DISMEMBERMENT. 
 
 the temporal, as history has proved, and as is now seen at 
 Constantinople and Moscow. 
 
 I say, with M. Barrot, united, not confounded ; for they 
 remain distinct. But it does not follow that they are 
 altogether foreign to each other, that they have no con- 
 nection, or that one may be overturned without affecting 
 the essence of the other. 1 Caesar Balbo had replied in 
 advance to these strange deductions from true premises : 
 " Doubtless the temporal power is not of the essence of 
 the spiritual ; " children could tell us that ; " but it is in- 
 dispensable to its exercise," to the necessary liberty and 
 independence of the spiritual power. In a word, as the 
 Pontifical despatch so well expressed it, " The Pope is a 
 prince, because he is a pontiff: " he is a king, because he 
 cannot be a subject, because our souls and bodies would 
 be in subjection with him. 2 
 
 And this you have all confessed and proclaimed your- 
 
 1 This reasoning is to be found in the Memorandums of Cipriani 
 and Pepoli, in the French diplomatic despatches, and in the speeches 
 made in the Senate. All present the most remarkable analogy on 
 this point. 
 
 2 This is the period to which Prince de Broglie called attention 
 some time ago, in energetic and eloquent language. After giving 
 a description of the imperial system in France, that powerful 
 organization, which has a thousand arms in its ramifications, and a 
 single head in its centralization, whose will is executed with the 
 rapidity of lightning, and which, by a sage combination of old with 
 nc'\v legislation, retains in its grasp all the sources of and all the 
 checks on, social activity ; the administration of justice, the press, 
 and the financial resources of the country he adds : " I know of 
 but one equal to this power, which is, however, superior to it as 
 well, the power of the Catholic Church. I know of but one 
 authority which is not dependent on it ; and that is the Church. I 
 know of but one door of which it has not the key ; that is the con- 
 science. It is not difficult to conceive that in presence of such a 
 power it must be hazardous to lower, if only by a little, the only 
 head which is on a level \\ ith it, and can look it in the face ; or to 
 concede to it any fresh advantage over the representative of the 
 only domain upon which it has been, as yet. unable to intrude. 
 And such danger ought to seem more pressing to those who do not 
 believe in the promises made to the Church." 
 
THE RELIGIOUS QUESTION. 377 
 
 selves ; and if you are now recanting, and contradicting 
 yourselves, you are actuated by expediency, not by a love 
 for truth. 
 
 At all events, it is clear that nothing but the imperative 
 voice of his conscience could have dictated to so peacefully 
 disposed a Pontiff so formal a refusal, or repressed upon 
 the lips of a sovereign who had been so severely tried, the 
 word, the only word, which instantly at least so he was 
 told would have ended the strife, and lulled the storms 
 which threatened him. 
 
 Vain were the efforts made to shake the non possumus 
 of the Pope, and to invalidate the oath by which he de- 
 clared his conscience bound. M. Dupin has stated that 
 that oath was never imposed on the popes till 1692, in 
 order to check the abuses of nepotism. But, a hundred 
 years before Innocent XII., Innocent IX., in the bull 
 Quce sub hac sancta, in 1592; before Innocent IX.,, 
 Sixtus V., in the bull Quanta apostolica, in 1586 ; before 
 Sixtus V., Gregory XIII., in the bull Inter ccetera, in 
 1572; before Gregory XIII., St. Pius V., in the bull 
 Admonet, in 15"67; and before St. Pius V., all the popes 
 to whom he refers, had spoken the same language. And, 
 moreover, the repression of a petty and particular abuse 
 is evidently inferior and subordinate to the grand and 
 universal obligation of the popes to preserve intact the 
 states of the Holy See. 1 
 
 Vainly, too, were appeals made to the past, and history 
 ransacked for precedents. Why? For what object? 
 
 From the harshness and contumely of Louis XIV. 
 towards Innocent XI. ; from the annexation of the country 
 of Avignon to France in the revolution ; from the spolia- 
 tion inflicted by force of arms at Tolentino ; from unjust 
 
 1 See M. Dupin's speech in the Senate. Having paid a deserved 
 tribute to M. Dupin in this volume, it will be perhaps allowed that 
 I have a right to say here what I think of his late speech. How- 
 ever, I will not do so in this place. A fitting answer to suck a speech 
 could not be given in a note. 
 
378 THE DISMEMBERMENT. 
 
 compensations sought by sucli or such a power, at such or 
 such a date ; what conclusion was it endeavoured to draw ? 
 Was it the exclusively temporal character of the present 
 question of dismemberment? But these facts cannot 
 change the nature of things, and all that we have proved 
 as to the great spiritual interests it involves still holds. 
 Was it the legitimacy of the annexation, once it is con- 
 summated? But, "accumulate as many unjust facts as 
 you will," replies the Holy See, with unanswerable logic, 
 " you never can extract from them one just fact." Was 
 it the possibility of the abdication demanded ? But in 
 that case you should prove that the precedents you cite 
 bear in some way upon the present question. You have 
 not done so., arid you could not. In 1797, by the treaty 
 of Tolentino, about which so much is said, the Pope 
 yielded to a fact, to war, to superior force ; but to-day, by 
 voluntarily giving up his provinces, he would be recog- 
 nizing a principle which tends to destroy his power alto- 
 gether. " Pius VI.," says the Pontifical despatch, " under 
 circumstances wholly different from the present, had to deal 
 with irresistible violence and overwhelming material force ; 
 but were the reigning Sovereign Pontiff to acquiesce in a 
 pretended principle, he would thereby virtually abdicate 
 the sovereignty of all his states, and authorize a spoliation 
 opposed to all the rules of justice and reason. The in- 
 stance adduced by the French Minister of Foreign Affairs 
 conducts them to a conclusion directly opposed to that 
 which he had in view." 
 
 I must add, that to revive the recollections of Tolentino, 
 is not to remind the world of a good faith and an upright- 
 ness which did us honour. The precedent was the less 
 conclusive, in that Pius \ 1 . was shamefully deceived ; by 
 yielding, he hoped to preserve the rest of his states, and 
 two years after he died at Valence, stripped of everything. 1 
 
 1 Pius VI. asked his persecutors, \vithtouchingmeekness, at least 
 to allow him to die at Koine. " Y--u may die where you are going," 
 answered Haller, the agent of the Directory. Pius VI. died at 
 
THE RELIGIOUS QUESTION. 379 
 
 General Bonaparte wrote to the Holy Father, on the 
 1st of Ventose, year V. : "All Europe knows the pacific 
 intentions and virtues of your Holiness. The French re- 
 public will be, I trust, one of the truest friends of Rome." 
 And he wrote, on the same day, to the Directory : " My 
 opinion is that Home, once deprived of Bologna, Ferrara, 
 the Romagna, and the thirty millions which we are taking 
 from it, can no longer exist ; the whole machine will go 
 to pieces of itself." 1 General Bonaparte was at least clear- 
 sighted enough to see the importance of the provinces 
 which were torn from the Holy See. 
 
 It is, then, undeniable that the question, in the form 
 under which it has been propounded by events and by the 
 insurgents, is not a simple question of fact, but one of 
 right ; that, in the present case, it was not the acceptance 
 of a fact, but the abandonment of a principle, which was 
 demanded from the Pope ; of a principle all-important, 
 and which must carry everything with it in its ruin. 
 
 Again, when Rome pleaded that " the Pope cannot do 
 what is asked from him, because the reasons for abandon- 
 ing the Romagna apply equally to the rest of his states : 
 such renunciation would imply the renunciation of the 
 
 Valence, having pronounced a touching prayer, which was heard 
 both by God and men : " O Lord Jesus Christ, behold before Thee 
 Thy Vicar, the Pastor of the Catholic flock, a captive and a mourner, 
 joyfully dying for his sheep. From Thee, O tender Father and 
 Master, I beg and ardently implore two last graces : first, that 
 Thou wouldst grant the most ample pardon to all my enemies and 
 persecutors, and to each of them in particular ; secondly, that Thou 
 \vouldst restore to Home the chair and throne of St. Peter ; to 
 Europe peace, and especially to France, which is dear to me, and 
 which has ever laboured for the good of the Christian Church, 
 Thy holy religion." 
 
 1 It is true that, on its part, the French government sent these 
 instructions to its general : " You will shake the tiara of the pre- 
 tended head of the universal Church." And again : " You have 
 two objects to keep in view ; to prevent the king of Naples from 
 inarching on Eome, and to foster, far from discouraging, the good 
 dispositions of those who may be of opinion that it is high time for 
 the reign of the popes to end." 
 
380 THE DISMEMBERMENf. 
 
 whole patrimony of the Church ; " no reply was given, 
 either in the diplomatic despatches, or in the speeches in 
 the Senate and the Corps Legislatif. No more were these 
 arguments answered : " The Pope cannot, because, being 
 the common father of all his subjects, and king of his 
 twenty-one provinces, he is bound either to procure for 
 all what is required from him as a benefit for the four 
 provinces of the Romagna, or to ward off from these the 
 evils which he would grieve to see inflicted upon the 
 others; he cannot, finally, because of the scandal which 
 would result, to the prejudice of all Christian princes, and 
 of civilized society in general, if felony were to be crowned 
 by prosperity and approbation." 
 
 If there be persons who may smile at these words, for 
 my part, I honour them ; and I do not hesitate to say, 
 that, in my opinion even apart from the great spiritual 
 interests which here take precedence of everything else 
 so grand a view of political duties, investing them with 
 all the solemnity of the highest questions of morality, 
 elevates them into his jurisdiction, who has received from 
 God the exalted mission of enlightening souls and guiding 
 consciences. 
 
 ii. 
 
 No ; the plan of a voluntary renunciation was no so- 
 lution to the question ; it was an expedient, by which 
 nothing could be saved, yet which must compromise the 
 whole. It was wantonly to sacrifice an indisputable right, 
 and a capital principle. It was, under the circumstances 
 which had occurred, morally an abdication, entailing 
 rapid, inevitable, and irretrievable ruin. It was neces- 
 sarily a pledge, not of order and peace, but of war and 
 confusion. J5y it a passing difficulty might have been 
 i.vrdi-d, speedily to reappear under a form more pressing 
 and perplexing than even what we now behold. 
 
 In fact, the pretext for a quarrel with the Pope is not 
 the extent of the Pontifical States; it is of a very different 
 nature ; by dismembering his states, the grievances, real 
 or iin aginary, of his remaining subjects, would not be re- 
 
THE RELIGIOUS QUESTION. 381 
 
 dressed; but, on the contrary, sanctioned, and thereby 
 aggravated ; affairs must continue in the same, or a worse 
 state than before : the Pope, stripped of a province, and 
 the prestige of his firmness and moral courage gone, would 
 be simply left surrounded by the same enemies and the 
 same dangers, or probably greater. 
 
 It was, therefore, here most essential not to be led away 
 by appearances, or by a semblance of conciliation and 
 generosity : it would have been foolish to mistake, through 
 impatience or faint-hearted ness, for a salutary concession, 
 what was simply a bootless and fatal sacrifice of a sacred 
 and indisputable right. 
 
 Undoubtedly the states of the Holy See might, like any 
 others, have had different territorial boundaries from what 
 they have; the Romagna might not have belonged to it : 
 but, as it is, it does belong to it ; in the name of what 
 principle do you propose to take it away ? By taking 
 it away, what dangers do you obviate ? What new 
 principle of right are you inaugurating ? Such is the 
 real question. 
 
 The Pope, it is true, can but feebly defend his rights ; 
 yet, when weakness has justice on its side, it is only the 
 more worthy of respect. Now, as a bold and eloquent 
 writer has just inquired, " Is there a sovereignty in 
 Europe which rests on a more ancient basis, or can refer 
 to a more unexceptionable origin than the Papacy ? Is 
 there one which has weathered ruder trials, which has 
 been oftener accepted and approved by the voice of its 
 people, or which, finally, has been more solemnly guaran- 
 teed by treaties, which it has not violated, and which, even 
 humanly speaking, none have a right to violate to its 
 prejudice?" And, relatively to the very provinces in 
 revolt, I will repeat the emperor's declaration, that " the 
 European powers must admit that the right of the Holy See 
 to the Legations is indisputable." Its possession of them 
 is, therefore, guaranteed by the public law of Europe. 
 Assuredly, no existing sovereignty can refer to more solid 
 and better-established titles, merely in an historical and 
 political point of view, setting aside the religious argu- 
 ment entirely. 
 
382 THE DISMEMBERMENT. 
 
 But what is there which may invalidate a right of 
 sovereignty ? Is it war ? But the belligerent powers had 
 solemnly proclaimed the neutrality of the Holy See; 
 the Holy Father has strictly observed that neutrality, and 
 France has declared that she would protect the Holy 
 Father and his neutrality against all attacks. It is a 
 thing never heard of, that a war should entail the spolia- 
 tion of a power declared neuter by the belligerents, and 
 taken under the special protection of the conqueror. Is 
 it the discontent of the revolted provinces? On this 
 point, I will say freely, not meaning to express a stricture, 
 but merely to state a fact, that if these provinces have 
 passed from a real or factitious discontent, to insurrection, 
 the occasion was our entry into Italy. From the first, the 
 danger was foreseen and distinctly pointed out by the 
 Catholics; and it was in order to avert it, and to warn 
 the revolution that we did not mean to serve its ends, 
 that the French government solemnly declared that it was 
 not our intention, in entering Italy, to foment disorder or 
 disturb the power of the Holy Father ; and that his rights 
 continued guaranteed in all their integrity. Such was the 
 formal assurance repeated to the faithful by all the bishops 
 of France, with unhesitating confidence. 
 
 We have, therefore, imposed on ourselves a responsi- 
 bility which we cannot shake off; our word has been 
 given, how can we refuse to keep it ? A responsibility 
 once incurred, continues; and has not our promise become 
 futile, if, what was apprehended on the one hand, and dis- 
 avowed upon the other, is to be carried into effect before 
 our eyes, and in opposition to our demands ? 
 
 I ask if it is worthy of us to stand by and behold the final 
 dismemberment of a sovereignty which we had taken under 
 our protection, and which had a right to count upon us. 
 This, indeed, is all that the revolution wants. Its journals 
 have told us that it views with gratitude and satisfaction, 
 not only what we have done for Italy, but also what we 
 may allow to be done. It asks us to hold aloof it asks for 
 nothing more. We had said that we. would not accept if. ft 
 co-operation ; but if now we passively acquiesce, we shall 
 have lent it ours. 
 
THE RELIGIOUS QUESTION. 383 
 
 No; it was France, the first Catholic nation in the 
 world, which founded the temporal sovereignty of the 
 Pope, and has been its unfailing supporter. Ten years 
 ago she restored it, and for ten years she has upheld it. 
 Before the late war, she gave her guarantee for its in- 
 tegrity. She has never asked the permission of Europe to 
 fulfil her immemorial duty ; she might as well have asked 
 for the permission to call herself France. 
 
 Public promises, traditional precedents, and services 
 already rendered, oblige the French government to such 
 a line of conduct. It is powerful enough to maintain it 
 before Italy or before a congress. It stands in need of no 
 permission from Europe, and Italy can refuse it nothing. 
 No one has prevented Piedmont from doing as it listed ; 
 who shall forbid France from executing her mission? 
 
 But to console us for the present dispossession, and to 
 render us easy as to the future, we are promised a guaran- 
 tee for the remainder of the Papal States. We are told 
 that Europe, in return for this sacrifice to the insurrection, 
 will guarantee to the Holy Father the peaceful possession 
 of the States of the Church. What ! has he not already 
 this guarantee ? At the present moment all the powers 
 of Europe are solemnly bound to maintain the integrity 
 of these states ; and the Pope might call upon them to do 
 so, in the name of treaties and of public European law. 
 Yes, if there is still a public law in Europe, the Pope 
 might to-day summon France, England, Russia, Prussia, 
 Spain, Sweden, and Portugal to execute the guarantees to 
 which they have pledged themselves by oath. 
 
 Any guarantee which may now be offered him must be 
 given under less solemn circumstances, and would assuredly 
 carry less weight : and if the existing European guarantee 
 is of no avail, what is the new security held out to him, but 
 paper upon paper? 
 
 Europe is to guarantee to the Pope the peaceable posses- 
 sion of the remainder of his states ; but either Europe 
 has, or has not, the right and the power to secure his 
 states against revolutionary aggression. If Europe has 
 such right and power, why does she not now exercise it ? If 
 
384 THE DISMEMBERMENT. 
 
 she Las not, how can she exercise it by-and-by ? If she 
 has this right as regards the whole, which is undeniable, 
 I cannot see why she has it not, with regard to a part. 
 If, again, Europe has no right to guarantee to the Pope 
 those provinces over which she, nevertheless, admits that 
 his rights are indisputable, what right can she have to 
 secure to him the remainder ? 
 
 These are the conclusions of good faith and common 
 sense : the right is as certain for the whole as the part, 
 for the present as for the future ; and as to the means, I 
 have already pointed out that a right, when recognized 
 and proclaimed by the whole of Europe, acquires a force 
 before which all resistance collapses, more readily than we 
 might imagine. In the words of M. Villemain, " The 
 victorious power which has interfered in Italy would not 
 need to employ force against any of the insurgent dis- 
 tricts. If it merely refuse to recognize any transfer of 
 power, a state of things must cease to be, which never could 
 have long subsisted, and which is contrary to the interests 
 of France." 
 
 But if the revolution is allowed to pursue its course, if 
 it is to remain unchecked, I do not say by force of arms, 
 but by a firm assertion of right, by a distinct refusal to 
 recognize an unjust dispossession, an impolitic and violent 
 dismemberment, how can any effectual guarantee be given 
 as to the future? 1 TVhat ! at the very moment when 
 you declare the existing guarantee futile, you promise a 
 new one : what confidence do you imagine it can give us? 
 
 Here is already an organ of the English ministry, the 
 
 1 M. Cochin, too, ably remarks: "Are we to call for another 
 Roman expedition? Not at all. It is sufficient to ask that the 
 Holy See be treated as Denmark or Portugual would be. No 
 violent measures are requisite. It is not even necessary that a 
 congress should meet to discuss an indisputable right. Let no 
 power recogni/.e the annexation of the Romagna to Piedmont, let 
 France set the example, let Piedmont not usurp whnt is not hers, 
 and one may foresee that in a lev. months the dispute between the 
 sovereign and his people will inevitably end in a compromise, which 
 may satisfy all rights and settle the complaints of both parties." 
 
THE RELIGIONS QUESTION. 385 
 
 Morning Post, declaring that England ivi/l guarantee 
 nothing. When citing this expression of Lord Palmer- 
 ston's paper, I do not mean to say that here are oppo- 
 nents of the Church, whose conduct is guided by the 
 passions of the moment, politicians without principle, 
 without respect for themselves or others, the slaves of 
 circumstance ; hut I cannot help recollecting that Lord 
 Palmerston, in a despatch to Lord Ponsonby, in Septem- 
 ber, 1847, stated that the integrity of the Roman States 
 ought to be considered as an element essential to the 
 independence of the peninsula. 
 
 However, I do not yet despair of the efficacy of European 
 law, as recognized ami proclaimed ; provided Europe do 
 not abdicate its rights, by permitting them to be trampled 
 under foot ; and provided she refuses to recognize force as 
 the only right. 
 
 Moreover, the minister of the Holy See has justly 
 asserted, that if the Sardinians and all foreign anarchists 
 had been removed from the Romagna, the Papal govern- 
 ment could have maintained order there, without other 
 resources than it possessed. Indeed, it is self-evident that 
 if Count Pepoli and the other revolutionary Romagnols 
 had thought that the people were with them, they would 
 not have sought so eagerly and obtained from Piedmont 
 troops, commissioners, functionaries of all kinds, police 
 agents, and all the paraphernalia of the Piedmontese 
 dictatorship. 
 
 In fact, as one of the most distinguished representatives 
 of France had already shown, " The revolutionists of Italy 
 invariably rely on foreign aid for the accomplishment of 
 their plans. If such support failed them, they would 
 resign themselves to their present situation more readily 
 than might be imagined. The English and Sardinian 
 press should cease to stimulate their passions, and the 
 Catholic powers should give marked proofs of their sym- 
 pathy with the Holy See. But it would be vain to hope 
 that such virulent enemies of the Holy See should desist 
 from their attacks )} while they continue to receive such 
 encouragement. 
 
386 THE DISMEMBERMENT. 
 
 We see, in these judicious reflections,, what might have 
 remedied the evil. But to expect that a sacrifice made to 
 the revolution will restore order and peace to the Pon- 
 tifical States, would be a sad delusion. The Pope, by 
 yielding up his provinces to the revolution, would sign 
 his abdication, and the irreparable ruin of his sovereignty. 
 To approve and consecrate to-day the revolt in the lio- 
 magna, would be to desire the other provinces to revolt 
 to-morrow in their turn. If one province has a right to 
 rebel, why not another? 
 
 Not only is the right the same, but the cases are identi- 
 cal. Moreover, the danger would be imminent ; the con- 
 flagration is too close at hand. To speak plainly, the 
 example would be too good not to follow, and the success 
 too flattering not to dazzle new competitors. 
 
 What ! do you fancy that the storm would suddenly 
 subside, as if by enchantment, because the Pope had 
 given his fiat to the insurrection, because a triumphant 
 rebellion had received his sanction ? 
 
 Garibaldi, it is true, is not just now threatening the 
 Papal frontier ; he has given in a temporary resignation ; 
 but he is still addressing to the revolutionists, not only of 
 the duchies and the Eomagna, but of the other Papal 
 States and of Italy in general, proclamations, 1 exhorta- 
 tions, and calls to arms, which we read every day in the 
 
 1 All the papers have published, and as far as I am aware, with- 
 out contradiction, the proclamation of Garibaldi to the students of 
 Pavia; it contains the following exhortations :; "Every man upon 
 this earth should snatch the paving-stones from the streets, and 
 avenge upon those miserable hypocrites in black soutanes the 
 the insults, and the sufferings of twenty generations. Yet this 
 .Mived race but a yet more terrible enemy exists, the most for- 
 midable, of any ; Formidable because diffused amoni_ r the ignorant 
 masses, which it hoodwinkl by its lies! formidable because saeri- 
 li-gioii.xly wrapt in the cloak of religion ! lie smiles upon you with 
 :iie smile In- is slippery as the serpent when preparing to 
 bite! And tin- nnidable enemy, my young friends, is 
 
 the priest! with scarcely an exception, under whatever form he 
 appears ! " 
 
THE RELIGIOUS QIl.sTlON. 387 
 
 newspapers, and in which he represents the Papacy as 
 the yanyrcne, of Italy, which must be plucked out at any 
 price, declaring that no pause should be made till the: 
 whole of Italy is in revolt : and for this he asks for a 
 million of muskets from the revolutionists of Europe. 
 
 And while these muskets are being got ready and for- 
 warded, the British press is generously insisting that 
 France ought to withdraw her troops from Rome. 
 
 It is manifest, then, that the renunciation proposed to 
 the Pope was not a solution ; it would have left Europe in 
 amazement, Catholic France in grief, the Italian revolu- 
 tion triumphing in the north and smouldering in the 
 south ; and the Pope, pressed and invested by it on all 
 sides, would have remained in more imminent peril and 
 closer to the verge of the precipice than ever. By signing 
 his own degradation, he would merely have given his 
 sanction to insurrection. From that time forward discord 
 and disturbance would have taken a wider range, after 
 right had been sacrificed; whereas at present, owing to 
 the firmness of the Pontiff, right still abides. 
 
 I again affirm that, supposing the circumstances just as 
 they are at present, the sacrifice of the Romagna, or any 
 other revolted province of the Papal States, would not 
 merely have been useless, but must logically and fatally 
 have entailed the total ruin of the temporal sovereignty of 
 the Holy See ; and its consequences would not have even 
 ceased there. Nor would its operation have been slow ; 
 for, in our day, revolutions are not long about their work. 
 
 Moreover, the revolutionists were alive to this, and 
 some of the more plain-spoken openly stated their opinion. 
 " This is but the first stage/' said the Siecle ; " the second 
 will bring us something better." " It is but the first 
 step/' said another journal, " but it is a great one." Yes, 
 this was just why it was a step that should not have been 
 taken; because it led straight to where men did not 
 intend, and ought not to go. 
 
 But, it is again asked, Are we to take no account of the 
 discontent of the Italians ? I answer, first, Have they set 
 themselves free ? If it is we who have set them free, we 
 
 2 c 2 
 
388 THE DISMEMBERMENT. 
 
 have surely a right to specify to them under what under- 
 standing and on what conditions we have done so. They 
 cannot insist on our conceding to them, contrary to the 
 ancient faith of France and her most evident interests, a 
 right to degrade and curtail the sovereignty of the common 
 Father of the Faithful, and that we should make ourselves 
 the tools of English Protestantism. The Times has stated 
 that it was gratifying to think that Protestant England 
 should find hearty and effectual support from the emperor 
 of Catholic France. Yes, such offensive and unwarranted 
 imputations may suit the Times, but how painful they are 
 to us. 
 
 Let the Italians and their friends the revolutions 
 which have succeeded, and those which are in preparation 
 reflect, too, that if, as they imagine, the reign of demo- 
 cracy is at hand, democracy, of all possible social arrange- 
 ments, stands most in need of Christianity. Its partisans 
 would, then, be sadly imprudent to create a breach between 
 them. They will see into what their democracy will 
 develop, if they bind or repel the hand which bears the 
 Gospel. As for the Church, she fears not such conflicts ; 
 she obtains in them an increase of glory ; those for whom 
 she mourns are not her defenders, whose ardour and 
 generous* devotion are only enhanced by danger, but her 
 assailants, who are estranged from her and lost for ever. 
 
 But, as to the discontent of the Italians, I would also 
 ask, what Italians are alluded to ? A great noise has been 
 made about the voice of 'the Italian populations. Assem- 
 blies, the offspring of the revolt, have pretended to express 
 in their votes the 'wishes of the people; and deputations 
 from those assemblies have laid these votes at the feet of 
 a new sovereign. A great deal has to be said about these 
 votes, and we shall by-and-by have to consider them. 
 
 At presi'iit, however, can what is passing in Italy allow 
 us to doubt for a moment as to the import of the proposed 
 dismemberment? It is too clear that the utter ruin of 
 the Papacy is contemplated. In the intoxication of suc- 
 cess, Piedmont no longer conceals her intentions ; the 
 time of disguise and mystery has passed away. " May 
 
THE RELIGIOUS QUESTION. 389 
 
 our glorious king accept, may Italy too accept, Me oath which 
 wi take on this grand and solemn day, not to stop short 
 in so grand a career." Such is the language used by the 
 deputies of Turin, when sanctioning by their votes the 
 royal decrees relative to the annexation of Central Italy. 
 
 The address to the king is not less significant. Having 
 spoken of the new destinies of Central Italy, and the suf- 
 ferings and troubles of the rest of the peninsula, which 
 daily become more notorious, it adds " The moment has 
 (irr'ired for the whole of Italy to have a common destiny " 
 (Sitting of April 14.) So all the states of Italy are to 
 have henceforth a new and common destiny. Those as 
 yet unannexed to the Piedmontese kingdom form, by their 
 sufferings, too painful a contrast to the lot of the others; 
 that contrast must be effaced ; who can stop short in so 
 grand a career ? The moment has arrived to hurry the 
 whole of Italy, from Turin to Home and Palermo, into a 
 universal revolution. 
 
 If such provocations and such unambiguous signals of 
 revolt issue from the Piedmontese Parliament, why should 
 the revolution use more measured or guarded language? 
 Read the following proclamation, and say if a doubt 
 remains as to the projects of the revolution in Italy. The 
 storm cannot be far distant, when we can already see the 
 first lightnings play on the verge of the horizon : 
 
 NATIONAL ITALIAN SOCIETY. 
 
 " To the soldiers of the Pojje and of the Bourbon of Naples. 
 
 " The Italic kingdom is now firmly established. The tricolour, 
 that sacred banner, waves glorious from Susa to Rimini, fromSondrio 
 to Cagliari, from Eavenna to Leghorn. The Emilia and Tuscany 
 have chosen to be Italian. The Marches, Umbria, Naples, and 
 Sicily would certainly have followed this example, had not you 
 prevented them. Who is it then that retains the south of Italy in 
 fetters ? Who renders that unhappy land the most miserable in 
 Europe, if not you, Italian soldiers of the Bourbon of Naples and 
 the Pope ? You alone prevent Italy from rising to the front rank 
 among nations. ITALY AND VICTOR EMMANUEL ! that is our cry. 
 
 " Turin, March 22, 1860." 
 
390 THE DISMEMBERMENT. 
 
 This document bears the signature of La Farina, an 
 especial favourite of Count Cavour. 
 
 What room remains for doubt, when the men who 
 publish such proclamations, when the members of the 
 National Italian Society, whose manifesto we have just 
 seen, express in their addresses to the head of the new 
 Italian kingdom their desire for a complete and absolute 
 unification of Italy, in spite of all rights, and at the 
 expense of all sovereignties, and when the king's prime 
 minister replies to them as follows : " The govern- 
 ment of the king can but applaud the sentiments you 
 express ; he cannot conceal his satisfaction, seeing the 
 Neapolitans and Sicilians determined to unite, in order to 
 carry out the great work commenced by Piedmont, the 
 regeneration of Italy." 
 
 Sicily has responded to these revolutionary war-cries 
 from Turin, by taking up arms. And while the conflict 
 was raging, and blood flowing, incendiary proclamations 
 to the following effect were distributed at Naples : 
 
 " NEAPOLITANS, At the very moment when King 
 Victor Emmanuel was pronouncing in the Sardinian Par- 
 liament his solemn declaration as to the present and the 
 future of Italy, our brave brethren of Sicily were shaking 
 off' the degrading yoke which has long oppressed and 
 shamed us. The initiative of the movement was bold, the 
 struggle gigantic. The flag of Italy floats over the barri- 
 cades of the invincible Palermo. Our hour has come. 
 To overturn the government is the grand duty which 
 presses on us at this critical moment." 
 
 And, but yesterday, that flay of Italy, wrapped in fune- 
 real crape, was carried before King Victor Emmanuel, at 
 Florence, by the rufugees of Rome, Venice, and Naples, 
 who came to ask him to fight in their behalf. The news, 
 he answeml, are not as favourable as you think : and, for 
 his part, he would only interpose when called upon by the 
 majority of the populations in insurrection. 
 
 Finally, to the mayors of towns, who offer him then- 
 money and their arms for the regeneration of Italy, he 
 
THE EUROPEAN QUESTION. 391 
 
 answers that he accepts them : and adds, his hand upon 
 his sword, " In the name of God, we will yo through with 
 it ! Viva Dio ! andremo alfundo !" 
 
 Tims, the tide of revolution is swelling every day. How 
 long will it be before the dykes which keep it in give way ? 
 And if it overflows, where will its ravages stop ? . AY hat 
 the Pope and the Catholics had foreseen is coming to pass ; 
 and it at least justifies, for ever, their warnings and their 
 unflinching resistance. 
 
 CHAPTER XXY. 
 
 THE DISMEMBERMENT. 
 THE EUROPEAN QUESTION. 
 
 HITHERTO we have been viewing the question of the 
 dismemberment solely from a Catholic point of view ; but 
 it has another important bearing. Feeble and imperilled 
 as is the power of the Roman Pontiff, it is still of so 
 general an importance, and so interwoven with other most 
 momentous matters, that everything else seems unsettled 
 when it is questioned, everything trembles when it is 
 shaken. 
 
 In reality, the grandest principles of public law are here 
 on their trial; and for this reason we have just seen 
 Catholics, Protestants, and philosophers leagued under 
 the same standard, to the amazement of short-sighted 
 journalists and shallow politicians : just as, in 1849, the 
 most distinguished partisans of order, whatever their poli- 
 tical watchword, and even their religious creed, united 
 *with like cordiality in the defence of the Sovereign 
 Pontiff, so again to-day, notwithstanding a few sad but 
 not unexpected desertions, their accord is equally striking. 
 
392 THE DISMEMBERMENT. 
 
 But, without dwelling on these cases of interested defec- 
 tion, let us state the question fully. 
 
 What really is serious in the present Italian revolutions, 
 is far less the remodellings of territory, the annexations 
 or disannexations which are being effected, than the new- 
 fangled principles of public law which are broached, and 
 inculcated upon listening Europe. It is nothing less than 
 the whole of received European law which is undermined 
 by and totters under these attacks upon Catholicism. 
 
 Not only are the ancient limits of all nations menaced ; 
 not only is an ominous panic as to the fixity of tenure of 
 territory becoming rife in Europe ; the danger is yet 
 deeper and more vital ; government itself is now aban- 
 doned to the caprices of a popular vote ; the very prin- 
 ciple of power is aimed at ; and, consequently, social 
 peace and European order are radically compromised by 
 the principles now in vogue. This the Holy See has dis- 
 cerned, looking down upon political questions from the 
 commanding ground of eternal moral truth : for this 
 reason, too, it perceived a connection between the purely 
 political question of the duchies and the political and 
 religious question of the Romagna ; and this justifies me 
 in speaking of the simultaneous overthrow of Catholic and 
 European law. 
 
 I do not mean, however, and I wish here distinctly to 
 say so, to compare the annexation of Savoy to that of 
 the Romagna. France has not, as stated in the imperial 
 address of March 1, fomented a revolution in the country 
 which is giving itself to us ; she has not employed a mili- 
 tary occupation, nor provoked an insurrection ; she has 
 proceeded to the annexation with the consent of the legi- 
 timate sovereign, and after having consulted Europe. 
 
 But the annexations, as effected by Piedmont, arc the 
 triumph of the revolutionary principle and the inaugura- 
 tion of a new right, as fraught with peril to the people as 
 to sovereigns themselves. It would be a delusion to con- 
 fine our view to the revolutions which are now in progress; 
 ii way is being paved for revolutions more widespread and 
 overwhelming. 
 
Till-: EUROPEAN QUESTION. 393 
 
 For, in fact, two weights, two measures cannot be 
 applied to human affairs. To grant to one people what is 
 it fused to another, to proclaim a principle here which we 
 should tremble to apply elsewhere, is a contradiction which 
 political speculators may tolerate and uphold for a time, 
 but which the logic of revolutions, no more than truth 
 and justice, will never admit. 
 
 \Vhcn has Europe laid down, that political dissatisfac- 
 tion, fomented by the ambitious views of some and the 
 revolutionary visions of others, gives a province a right to 
 insurrection and separation? If so novel a right is to be 
 introduced into the international code of Europe, is it 
 not easy to see whither it must lead? If any are to have 
 such a right, why not all? If, for instance, Prussian 
 Silesia one day should complain, and demand a separa- 
 tion, what would Prussia say ? If Franche Gomte desired 
 to separate from France and become a Swiss canton, as 
 many proposed in 1830, or if Corsica called for its annexa- 
 tion to Italy, what would France say ? If Jersey and 
 Guernsey wished to be annexed to France, what would 
 England say? Again, would Lord Palmerston admit that 
 if war broke out between England and France, for instance, 
 such or such a part of the United Kingdom which could 
 point to grievances of greater or less gravity, thereby 
 acquired a right to revolt and throw off British rule? 
 
 Or if, in time of peace, the French were, just as England 
 has done in the case of Italy, to subscribe for a million 
 of muskets for the Irish, would the prime minister of 
 England think it perfectly natural? 
 
 No, no ; when we lay down a principle, we must not 
 shut our eyes to its consequences. It is because a great 
 principle is invoked to justify the violation of a great right, 
 that the Pope and the Catholics have inflexibly main- 
 tained the right and resisted the principle. 
 
 I repeat, those who imagine that only a province more 
 or less is affected by this portentous question, deceive 
 themselves. Once more, it is not the fact which is so 
 deplorable, as the principle in the name of which it is 
 accomplished. 
 
394. THE DISMEMBERMENT. 
 
 Moreover, when a fraction of a people set about detach- 
 ing themselves from the nation of which they form, a part, 
 to incorporate themselves with another state, not only is 
 the right of the sovereign infringed, but the territorial 
 right of the nation violated. Thus, by the annexation of 
 the Romagna to Piedmont, the States of the Church are 
 dismembered, not by the general act of the Roman people, 
 but by that of a province, which has not consulted the 
 state on which it depends. As M. Sauzet observes, this 
 is a singular application of universal suffrage. He asks, 
 " Ought not, before detaching these provinces from the 
 common bond of union, the universal suffrage of the state 
 of which they form an integral part, as established by 
 treaties as well as by immemorial usage, to have been 
 consulted ? Henceforth is a simple wish on the part of a 
 province which hankers after separation to suffice to 
 sever bonds formed by mutual engagements and ratified 
 by the operation of time ? If so, majorities will be as 
 little obeyed as minorities are protected ; traditions, insti- 
 tutions, the respective boundaries of empires, the mutual 
 engagements of kings and peoples, may be annulled by 
 the caprices of a popular deliberation. Republics will be 
 as little protected as monarchies ; confederations as mili- 
 tary states. Basle may break from Switzerland to offer 
 itself to Germany ; New York from the great American 
 union to form an independent republic. The most power- 
 ful as well as the humblest societies will find their peace, 
 their resources, and their verv existence continually im- 
 perilled." 
 
 These anomalous annexations, therefore, seriously com- 
 promise the equilibrium of Europe. Europe, in fact, 
 forms a society, whose parts hang together, each con- 
 tributing to sustain the whole. Neither can a province 
 mutilate at pleasure the political corporation to which 
 it belongs, nor a nation disturb the equilibrium of the 
 general society of which it is a member. Thus, in 
 1830, Belgium was not allowed to amalgamate itself with 
 France. Europe decided to the contrary. It must be 
 admitted that there are principles which overrule private 
 
THE EUROPEAN QUESTION. 395 
 
 interests, and from which we cannot arbitrarily derogate. 
 Treaties and laws themselves take for granted this mu- 
 tual dependence among nations. As M. Sauzet correctly 
 observes, " we must choose between, the sanctity of en- 
 gagements and endless disunion and partition." 
 
 Some vaguely dwell upon incapacity and reforms, to 
 justify the dispossession of the Pope, and tell us that the 
 revolution in the Romagna is an exceptional and unim- 
 portant case, which must be passed over ! But if the 
 capacity of every government is to be put on its trial, if 
 reforms are to be an adequate pretext for abolishing a 
 sovereignty, where will such an examination of conscience 
 end, made, too, by the subjects themselves, or by inter- 
 ested neighbours ? What a loophole does it not afford- 
 to revolutions in every state in Europe ! * As to the 
 Pope, I shall shortly consider the grievances which have 
 been so much harped upon; at present, I shall merely 
 ask, Is there a throne in Europe which has been filled by 
 so many men of genius as his ? What is to be thought 
 of the capacity of Leo the Great, Gregory the Great, 
 Gregory VII., Gregory IX., Leo IV., Alexander III., 
 Innocent III. ; or, in modern times, of Nicholas V., 
 Paul III., Paul V., Julius II. even, and Sixtus V., among 
 many others ? 2 
 
 1 " It is idle to repeat that a sovereign should be sustained by the 
 adhesion of his subjects. The vast suffrage which founded the 
 present power in France does not render the support of an immense 
 army superfluous. If Alsace wished to separate, regiments, not 
 arguments, would be despatched there. Are Ireland, the Rhenish 
 provinces, or Poland, bound to England, Prussia, and Russia by 
 chains of love P Is the parliament of the Ionian Islands less unani- 
 mous or less competent than that of Bologna ? " M. Cochin. 
 
 2 Are we to consider also as inferior politicians, Cardinal de 
 Richelieu, who humbled the house of Austria ; Cardinal de Fleury, 
 who gave us Lorraine, by the peace of Vienna ; and Mazarin, who 
 consummated the union of Alsace with France, and also negotiated 
 that of Roussillon and Artois, and fourteen towns in Flandr 
 Hainault ? To go farther back, look at Hincmar of Rheims, Suger, 
 the immortal minister of Louis VI. and Louis VII., called the father 
 of his country ; and the Cardinals d'Amboise, de Lorraine, du Per- 
 
396 THE DISMEMBERMENT. 
 
 
 
 Do our opponents believe there is as hopeless a divorce 
 between virtue and genius, as a late pamphlet has ven- 
 tured to pronounce between Christian faith and civiliza- 
 tion? 
 
 But enough of this ; it is not only the Pontifical ad- 
 ministration, or the independence of Italy, which are now 
 in question : European order is menaced, and a traitorous 
 and deadly weapon has been forged for its enemies. 
 
 There is ground now for asking if it be patriotism to 
 cut one's country in two, to satisfy a caprice ; if it be 
 lawful to revolt and deliver up a province to a neighbour- 
 ing sovereign; if a conspiracy unblushingly stirred up 
 and sustained by foreigners can truly be called a national 
 movement. 
 
 The congress we were looking for has not met ; but 
 perhaps one may meet hereafter. Well, whatever the 
 nations which compose it, Russians, Swedes, Prussians, or 
 English, with French, Austrians, and Spaniards, I shall 
 feel the fullest confidence in their decision, provided the 
 plenipotentiaries do not forget the first article of the 
 moral law : Do not to others what you would not wish 
 done to yourselves. 
 
 But, after all, the Pope has not granted any reforms ! 
 First, this is not true ; as I have already proved, and shall 
 soon have occasion to show again ; but ought the Pope, as 
 part of these reforms, to cede his provinces, and make of 
 the ancient Romagna a new Piedmontese department? 
 Ah ! Piedmont and the writers who are for ever vaguely 
 
 ron, d'Ossat, and the Chancellor Duprat. Cardinal Xiraenes and 
 Alberoni, in Spain ; Cardinal de Granvclle, in the Low Countries ; 
 Wolscy. in England; Commendon and Posscvin, in Germany ; in 
 Switzerland, Matthew Schinner, Cardinal of Sion ; at IV-MIH-. 
 Cardinal Albornoa and Consalvi ; with many others, assuredly have 
 governed their country, or represented their sovereign abroad, 
 creditably enough. 
 
 It may be said the Church produces no Ximencs or Supers now- 
 adays. I answer, with nn historian : Are the councils of kings 
 encumbered with Sullys, Oxenstierns, Colberts, or Pitts P 
 
THE EUROPEAN QUESTION. 397 
 
 
 
 declaiming about reforms, would be very sorry to sec 
 them realized ; they would feel sadly disappointed if every 
 pretext for their attacks were to disappear. Reforms are 
 not what they wanted; their object was a more definite, 
 but less honourable one to possess themselves of a pro- 
 vince. 
 
 A German comes to Strasburg and decries the insti- 
 tutions of France; he is perhaps abusing hospitality. 
 Still he is free to do so ; his strictures may be bad taste, 
 without being crimes. But if he stirs up the inhabitants 
 or the garrison to expel the prefect, he is a felon. If he 
 comes as the agent of a neighbouring prince to excite a 
 revolt in Alsace, that prince is a usurper. He may declaim 
 about liberty like a knight-errant, but he is respecting, 
 justice like a pirate. Everything done under his compul- 
 sion is null and void. 
 
 These men promise wonders to their dupes ; they per- 
 suade them that, under a new master, they shall no longer 
 suffer. -Those who yield to such enticements will repent 
 it. But even were such expectations well founded, if the 
 change were for the better, the injustice would remain. 
 
 It is, we are told, the new right of peoples ! Yes, of 
 those of South America. Probably Texas is better pleased 
 to belong to the United States than to Mexico : yet the 
 voice of a great American citizen, Channing, was raised to 
 denounce as a monstrous iniquity the pretended war of 
 independence, which transferred Texas to his country. It 
 cannot be said here that it is a bishop defending exploded 
 and mediaeval ideas ; it is a republican who speaks : " But 
 if every town or every canton may declare itself a sove- 
 reign state whenever it suffers a wrong, society will be ever 
 in convulsion, and history will be merely a relation of 
 sanguinary revolutions .... Nothing easier for a people 
 than to draw up a list of grievances ; nothing more fatal 
 to them than to revolt whenever a complaint is not at- 
 tended to." * 
 
 1 CLanning continues : "In the army of 800 men who gained 
 the victory, broke the Mexican forces, and made their chief a 
 
398 THE DISMEMBE11MEXT. 
 
 There are those who have not shrunk from mentioning 
 the Papal government in connection with that of the 
 Grand Turk. Let us admit, for an instant, this unbe- 
 coming allusion. Did not England and Piedmont unite 
 with France to prevent the Christian subjects of the Grand 
 Turk from seeking good fortune under the sceptre of the 
 Czar ? The Turk was supported,, not because he was the 
 Turk, but because he was oppressed. At present England 
 and Piedmont propose to despoil the Pope, although he is 
 oppressed, because he is the Pope. 
 
 But our opponents rejoin, We go upon the same prin- 
 ciple in upholding the Grand Turk and dispossessing the 
 Pope. By maintaining the integrity of the Ottoman ter- 
 ritory, we saved the equilibrium of Europe, and the peace 
 of the world ; while the possession of the Romagna by the 
 Pope was an unending source of disorder and perturbation 
 to Europe. 
 
 I have shown, at length, that the cause of revolutionary 
 perturbation lies elsewhere ; but let it pass. Well, you 
 fancy that all this would have grown calm, as if by magic, 
 because the principle of insurrection had triumphed, be- 
 cause revolt had been transformed into right ! No ; after 
 having let loose such fiery passions, to natter oneself that 
 it would be possible to appease the genius of revolution in 
 Italy and Europe by throwing to it, as a prey, a part of 
 the Papal States, would argue but slight knowledge of 
 human nature. 
 
 Garibaldi is calling upon the revolutionists of Europe 
 
 prisoner, tin-re were not found more than 50 Texans who had 
 wrongs to avenge upon a field of battle. In this war. tin- Tcxans 
 are a mere name, a pretext, which the adventurers of another 
 country ha\v u>rd 1" .-riven themselves while about their work of 
 plunder. There an- crimes, whose enormity touches on the sublime : 
 the taking <>f Texas by our countrymen is entitled to that honour. 
 Modern times afford no instance of pillage committed by individuals 
 on so great a scale. It is nothing less than the BOBBERY OF A 
 STATE. The pirate seizes a ship ; our colonists and their associates 
 are not content with less than an empire." / '// Clay. 
 
THE EUROPEAN QUESTION. 399 
 
 for a milUoH of muskets. A Veil, I would ask, in my turn, 
 What steps is Europe going to take to protect the Roman 
 States and the rest of Italy against this million of muskets? 
 I will even put a more serious question : What steps will 
 Europe take to defend herself against this million of re- 
 volutionary muskets, when the hour of the conflagration 
 comes ? Garibaldi has resigned his commaud ; but he is 
 in the Sardinian parliament ; he speaks and protests, and 
 that not alone ; we know what he and his call for. The 
 whole of that parliament, indeed, has just declared to the 
 king that they could not stop short in so grand a career. 
 Sicily has already risen ; an explosion at Naples is not 
 improbable, as the result of the machinations of Piedmont, 
 and of the revolutionary successes in the north. 
 
 We are told that we must take account of nationalities : 
 I will answer by borrowing the sentiments of Mr. Glad- 
 stone : " I am sensible of the respect due to the idea of 
 nationality, when confined within the limits of what is 
 possible and just. But they who, disregarding times, 
 persons, circumstances, or consequences, in a word, pro- 
 foundly indifferent to all existing facts, think that senti- 
 ments of nationality alone are to dispose of the affairs of 
 mankind, are madmen. I will add, that the doctrines 
 of nationality, enunciated in certain terms, become doc- 
 trines of disorder and anarchy." 
 
 Lord Granville, in the Upper House, used similar lan- 
 guage : he stated that the Italians were not agreed among 
 themselves ; that some wished for despotism, some for con- 
 stitutional monarchy, and some for the wildest republics. 
 Also, that the means they employed were as dissimilar as 
 the ends : some were for continual agitation, others for 
 war, and others for assassination in its most odious form. 
 Was this last statement of Lord Granville suggested to 
 his mind by the following expression of a Piedmontese 
 deputy : " Let Europe take warning, and not attempt to 
 break our sword in our hands ; for a broken sword be- 
 comes a dagger. UNA SPADA SPEZZATA DIVENTA UN 
 PUGNALE." 
 
 It is said that we must sacrifice something to the fire. 
 
400 THE DISMEMBERMENT. 
 
 I answer, Certainly, if it will extinguish the fire ; but such 
 is not the nature of the revolutionary fire. 
 
 We in France have learned, by sad experience, that it is 
 not always safe to place arms in the hands of the masses : 
 and so the government judged, when it disarmed part of 
 the people of Paris. 
 
 The present revolution is not Romagnol, but European. 
 
 t It is the most malignant form of revolution, that which 
 
 was crushed by the First Consul. The men who cheer 
 
 Garibaldi and Mazzini are everywhere ; the hands which 
 
 are waiting for the muskets are everywhere. 
 
 I do not intend to exaggerate ; I do not mean to say 
 that all the Romagnols are Mazzinians. I know that there 
 are in Italy a number of honest and noble hearts, which 
 justly and sincerely long for the legitimate independence, 
 the glory and prosperity of their country. But we cannot 
 blind ourselves to the advance of demagogy : in Italy, it 
 triumphs; in France, it applauds; in Europe, it hopes. 
 And what encouragement for it if, by 'the consent of 
 Europe, " an ancient and rightful sovereignty, notoriously 
 weak and inoffensive, confirmed by centuries, and sanc- 
 tioned by existing treaties, be mutilated and reduced, at 
 pleasure, by disturbances fomented and directed by design- 
 ing foreigners ! Such a simplification of European law 
 is fraught with grave consequences to every established 
 throne. Let all the sovereignties in Europe, all the reign- 
 ing houses, understand that henceforth there is no real 
 right resulting from the duration, the unbroken descent, 
 or the moderation of their power; that their only true right 
 is their present force, the number of their soldiers ; and, 
 in novel or doubtful cases, right is the result of a universal 
 suffrage/' l which may, as we have seen in Italy, be a 
 compulsory and erroneous test of the popular will. 
 
 Yes; on the day that Europe ratifies the annexation of 
 the lloniagna to Piedmont, the most ancient and venerable 
 of sovereigns will have fallen by an iniquitous aggression ; 
 
 1 J/. Til lew a in, 1'Europe et la Papaute. 
 
THE EUROPEAN QUESTION. 401 
 
 the principle of compulsory abdication will be recorded in 
 the law of nations, and the past and present policy of 
 Europe will be annulled. For what sovereign is here dis- 
 possessed ? Who is it confessedly intended to reduce 
 shortly to complete abdication ? Is he a foreign prince ? 
 No, for the sovereign of the Roman State is Italian, tho- 
 roughly Italian. If the separated provinces, integral parts 
 of a state restored by France, and recognized by Europe, 
 are allowed to detach themselves from it by violence, and 
 amalgamate themselves with another; if such a right is 
 recognized and sanctioned by sovereigns themselves, we 
 will say that not only the principle of the inviolability of 
 the Pontifical dominions perishes, but the revolution makes 
 its triumphal entry into public European law ; the bases 
 of all treaties are shaken ; the principle of authority, the 
 safeguard of social order, is overthrown ; sovereignty is 
 humiliated, and spoiled by sovereignty ; and this in Europe, 
 where the soil, undermined by so many revolutions, still 
 trembles ; and anarchical passions, though overawed for a 
 moment, never cease to swell. 
 
 Moreover, the most shameful, as well as the most dan- 
 gerous, feature of this revolutionary triumph, is that the 
 sovereignty which is thus to succumb is not only sacred 
 and venerable in the eyes of Catholics, but is also that 
 which is most deserving of the sympathy of every civilized 
 nation, because of the principle of moral dignity which it 
 represents, and that which is most worthy of assistance 
 and respect, because it is weak, innocent, and oppressed. 
 
 In truth, the more I reflect, the less can I understand 
 this new right of sovereigns, which entitles them to reform 
 their neighbours, and if they refuse, to seize upon their 
 states. The influence of free institutions in a country may 
 extend beyond its frontiers; public opinion may applaud 
 and diplomacy second it ; all this is but fair : but an occu- 
 pation by the bayonet, on pretence of governing better, is 
 too like enslaving a free people under pretence of conferring 
 a benefit upon them : and, happily, such a proceeding 
 has not yet found a place in the practice of the law of 
 nations. 
 
 2 D 
 
402 THE DISMEMBERMENT. 
 
 However, as, in the depressing times in which we live, 
 so many fluctuations,, in opinions as well as facts, occur ; 
 as reason and the moral sense appear so easily warped and 
 altered ; as the most commonplace truths fade so rapidly 
 from the conscience, it is well to hear, on these grand 
 principles of public law, men whose opinions are, from one 
 reason or another, entitled to some degree of respect. The 
 following are the sentiments expressed by Talleyrand upon 
 a case analogous to the present : he writes in a note, dated 
 December 19, 1814: "In order to recognize such an ar- 
 rangement as legitimate, we must take for granted that 
 the nations of Europe are bound together by no stronger 
 links than those which unite them to the South-Sea 
 Islanders ; that their relations with one another remain, as 
 it were, in a state of nature, and that what is called the 
 public law of Europe does not exist ; that, although all 
 civil societies throughout the world are wholly or in part 
 regulated by customs which are to them laws, still the 
 customs which have grown up among the nations of Europe, 
 and which they have universally and constantly observed 
 among themselves for three centuries, are not binding on 
 them ; in short, that everything is lawful to the stroM/rsi." 
 
 Let us now see how a publicist, as eminent as he was 
 upright, Count Joseph de Maistre, defends the same right : 
 " A king dethroned by a deliberation, a formal sentence of 
 his colleagues ! The idea is a thousand times more terrible 
 than anything ever uttered from the tribunal of the Jaco- 
 bins, for they were but playing their part ; but when the 
 most sacred principles are violated by their natural de- 
 fenders, one begins to despair .... I should be sorry, 
 indeed, if the most august of assemblies, a senate of kings, 
 as wu may call it, were to act like a lodge of Swedish 
 Freemasons. It is idle ft> refer to kings who have been 
 dethroned, to partitions, to expediency, or to draw a dis- 
 tinction between irreat and petty sovereigns. Sovereignty 
 is neither great nor small ; it is what it is " (October 2(3, 
 1814). 
 
 Or, in the profound words addressed by Pius VII. to 
 Napoleon : " Great or small, sovereignties stand towards. 
 
THE EUROPEAN QUESTION. 403 
 
 one another on a like footing of independence. Other- 
 wise, yb/vr /.v made to fill the place of reason." 
 
 However,, it will be said, the population has pro- 
 nounced : they have been twice consulted, and have twice 
 voted for annexation. I have already spoken at length 
 as to the first vote : the conclusive evidence of Lord Nor- 
 inanby, Mr. Scarlett, Mr. Bowyer, and others, has been 
 officially corroborated by the Italian revolutionists them- 
 selves. AVe read in an official despatch addressed to the 
 Dictator Cipriani, and printed verbatim in the papers of 
 Upper and Central Italy : " In all the united provinces 
 lists are to be drawn up, this task being intrusted to the 
 good faith of honest and trustworthy friends, enjoining 
 them to circumscribe their operations principally to the 
 populous centres only " (Per tutte le unite provincie, si 
 diramarono le liste, raccomandandole alia fede di probi ed 
 onesti amid, ingiungendo loro di circoscrivere principal- 
 mento I'asione ai soli centri popolosi}. So here are electoral 
 lists, to be drawn up prudently by friends and brothers, 
 who are directed to confine the elections almost entirely to 
 populous centres only, that is, to centres where agitation 
 is easiest, to the exclusion of the country population, that 
 is, the great majority and the soundest part of the inha- 
 bitants. 
 
 AVhat a barefaced deception ! I appeal to every honest 
 and conscientious man, if this is not a mockery and an 
 outrage offered to that people, whose wishes are thus 
 cared for, as well as to the principles upon which social 
 order in Europe reposes. 
 
 But it is said the business has been begun afresh ; and, 
 if the first votes were objectionable, the second leave no 
 room for doubt. For my part, I am far from thinking so. 
 It is necessary here to guard against being dazzled, or 
 carried away by one's feelings. The noble cause of true 
 Italian independence evokes so much just sympathy, that 
 nothing is easier than to forget here, through a sort of 
 fascination, the principles of right and justice ; but, 
 indeed, a man must be very blind who applauds the farce 
 that has been just played in Central Italy, or fancies that 
 
 2 D 2 
 
404 THE DISMEMBERMENT. 
 
 such a suffrage, under such circumstances, is to be viewed 
 as the genuine manifestation of the will of a people, acting 
 with perfect independence, according to the sole dictates 
 of its convictions and its wisdom. 
 
 What, then, has lately occurred in Italy? And how 
 were the notorious flaws of the previous vote redeemed by 
 the new and noisy demonstrations which we have wit- 
 nessed, by which Piedmont has hastened to profit, and of 
 which such numerous populations have been the dupes or 
 the victims? 
 
 I would ask, first of all, if the previous vote was con- 
 fessedly defective, ought the same men who had organized 
 it, who had governed the country despotically for eight 
 months in a word, ought the Piedmontese dictators, 
 backed by the tyrannical pressure of a military occupation, 
 to have received full latitude (the expression used by Count 
 Cavour to M. Farini) to prepare and superintend a new 
 suffrage ? Was this an honest way of consulting a people ? 
 If Piedmontese influence had been carefully neutralized, 
 if the Tuscans and the Romagnols had been bond fide left 
 to themselves and to their own reflections or even if the 
 voting had been superintended by French authorities, 
 whose honesty and impartiality no one would have sus- 
 pected then, indeed, it might have been regarded as a 
 test of the people's genuine wishes ; but does not the 
 pressure of Piedmont throw as much suspicion on the 
 second vote as on the first? It is not easy to convince 
 us that Piedmont, present in arms, became all of a sudden 
 passive and impartial, at the most critical moment of an 
 affair so interesting to its policy and so enticing to its 
 rapacity. 
 
 \Ve ought to know something about popular votes. We 
 learned, in February, 1848, how they may be biassed and 
 moulded at will ; how a people may be lured, deluded, 
 and led blindfold. No, wo have seen all this ; others may 
 be hoodwinked, but not we. 1 
 
 1 " France," says Mgr. Gorln-t (bishop of Perpignan), " is a 
 military nation, inured to political troubles. Still, at the com- 
 
THE EUROPEAN QUESTION. 405 
 
 But enough of the details have reached us, though we 
 have not heard all, to corroborate, by definite facts, what 
 the very circumstances under which the voting took place 
 were sufficient to render more than probable. Was the 
 press free before the election ? Had the inhabitants full 
 liberty to vote against Piedmont ? Doubtless these are 
 two important questions. 
 
 And first, was the press free before the election ? A 
 letter from Florence, dated March 19, answers : 
 
 " It is now a month since our dictators have refused to admit 
 here any of the Ptedmontese opposition papers. They have, at the 
 same -time, prohibited all the works published in France relating to 
 the Pope in short, every publication which might enlighten the 
 Tuscans ; they have also forbidden all the partisans of right to 
 speak or express their opinions." 
 
 Another letter states : 
 
 "At the same time, we were deluged with circulars from the 
 revolutionary authorities, and also with a multitude of letters, signed 
 and anonymous, printed and manuscript, , all to the same effect, 
 backing their advice by threats. There is not a single person of 
 any property who has not received several ; which also inform him 
 that he will be held responsible for the votes even of his tenants 
 and servants. While the good were forbidden to speak or publish 
 anything, the provisional government forwarded unceasingly in- 
 structions to its subordinates to agitate and issue proclamations on 
 the other side. A number of itinerant agents were despatched 
 throughout all Tuscany to distribute money to all who would vote 
 for Piedmont. To facilitate the voting, tickets were struck off and 
 distributed gratuitously everywhere. But it was forbidden to 
 print any against the annexation." 
 
 I am aware that the liberty of the press was apparently 
 restored for a moment in Tuscany, by a decree of the dic- 
 
 mencement of the revolution of 1848, certain proconsuls, sent to 
 the departments, succeeded in overawing apart of France. Imagine 
 then the effect which must have been produced upon populations 
 quite unused to resistance, by the dictators of a well-disciplined 
 party, escorted by Sardinian bayonets, and with the veterans of 
 Mazzini as a rear-guard." 
 
406 THE DISMEMBERMENT. 
 
 tator Ricasoli, having been carefully suppressed at the 
 very commencement of the revolution. 
 
 "But the decree, dated March 5, was only made public at 
 Florence on the 7th, at 10 o'clock in the morning. In several 
 provinces it was only published on t/ie very day of the voting" 
 
 What a mockery ! But let us see what follows : 
 
 " Although this edict appeared so late, still those hostile to the 
 annexation attempted to take advantage of it, and print some docu- 
 ments at Florence. Impossible ! all the printing-offices were mon- 
 opolized, or rather confiscated to the use of the revolutionary 
 government ! The government had all the voting-tickets printed 
 throughout all Tuscany, all, of course, for the annexation." 
 
 The following incident, related in the Arm de la Religion, 
 enables us to estimate the value of this concession : 
 
 " A writer named Alberi, having observed that this concession, 
 granted three days before the opening of the ballot, was utterly 
 futile, he was not allowed to publish his paper, under pretence that 
 public order would be disturbed by it. But, on the very morning 
 of the ballot, the official Gazette publishes the reflections of M. 
 Alberi, accompanied by invectives, and threats of violence to any 
 who might be of his opinion. Thus was received the only free 
 opinion which was expressed." 
 
 Again, under this crushing oppression, this vast system 
 of organized intimidation, it being literally impossible to 
 utter an independent opinion, in what way was the ques- 
 tion propounded? In a subtle and perplexing form, 
 artfully leaving no alternative but one of a vague and 
 suspicious nature. 
 
 " Annexation to Piedmont, or M i>t>r<ife kinrnlom, such was the 
 alternative. What was to be understood bv the two word.*. 
 separata ? Did they mean that we were to DC Italian or Austrian r 
 J)ul they mean government or anarchy, peace or war? The pre- 
 tended alternative offered us left all this uncertain." 
 
 But let us examine the voting itself; if anything is un- 
 mistakable, it is the odious constraint and intimidation 
 which were everywhere brought to bear upon it. To 
 
THE EUROPEAN QUESTION. 407 
 
 speak of the functionaries is unnecessary ; their votes were 
 already promised ; for 
 
 " It is to be remarked that the military, the civic guard, those 
 employed in all the public offices, the mayors and municipal 
 councillors, the judges and magistrates of all * sorts, all those 
 employed in public instruction, the deputies in short, all func- 
 tionaries of whatever rank, all who had any part, direct or indirect, 
 in the machinery of government, had long ago sworn allegiance to 
 the king of Sardinia, in whose name the state had been administered 
 for several months past : and the government did not even think of 
 releasing them from their oath in order to give their vote a sem- 
 blance of liberty." 
 
 I have before me a letter from the commander of the 
 company of the national guard of Coriano to one of his 
 lieutenants, dated March 8, 1860 ; it contains the follow- 
 ing significant instructions : 
 
 " The voting will take place here. If all the national guards 
 cannot come on Sunday, they are to be invited for Monday, and 
 I enjoin you to have any arrested who do not appear, at least on 
 that day, and brought to Coriano, to be dealt with by me" 
 
 A letter from Florence informs us that in an order of 
 the day, addressed to all the national guards of the grand- 
 duchy, every citizen is declared to be an Austrian who 
 votes for a separate kingdom. 
 
 As to the troops, we find that, in the duchy of 
 Moclena, 
 
 " The decree which organizes the universal vote specifies that the 
 officers, non-commissioned officers, and soldiers are to vote under 
 the superintendence of the officer highest in rank, at the place where 
 they are quartered." 
 
 Now it must be recollected that, as all the officers of 
 the duke's troops had emigrated with their prince, these 
 officers highest in rank were mostly foreigners from Pied- 
 mont. 
 
 " These free citizens, then, were marched to the vote as to a 
 parade, and obliged, before the eyes of their officers, to place in the 
 
4Q8 THE DISMEMBERMENT. 
 
 urn the open tickets which each had received on leaving the 
 barracks, which of course all were for the annexation." 
 
 But perhaps the people at least were left free ; we shall 
 see: 
 
 " The word was given, the very day that the decision as to the 
 vote was come to, to force every one to wear a tricolour cockade, 
 on the white of which was printed the word annexation. Some 
 days later people had to add to this cockade a large square of paper, 
 on which was likewise printed, but in larger letters, the whole form 
 of annexation to the constitutional monarchy, &c., and those who 
 dared to cross their threshold without this pledge to vote for Pied- 
 mont fastened to their hat, soon had reason to rue their folly. 
 Insults, hisses, and violence taught them that they must not think 
 for themselves ." 
 
 Intimidation was carried so far, that 
 
 " Unfortunate peasants, threatened with eviction by their masters, 
 and with imprisonment by the authorities, had to consent, to save 
 their families from starvation, to place the ticket given them in the 
 urn. As to those who were in a less dependent position, or whose 
 masters were suspected of apathy or disaffection, the municipal 
 authorities interfered directly. They had distributed, from, house 
 to house, the tickets of annexation, accompanied by a threatening 
 injunction to carry them to the place of voting, and, above all, not 
 to change them. 1 
 
 1 At Modena, during the two days of voting, the approaches to 
 the town-hall were besieged by the clamorous populace, which 
 always plays its part in times of anarchy ; other like bands were 
 stationed at the gates of the town, to watch the inhabitants of the 
 suburbs. The latter were not allowed to come singly, they were 
 assembled by sections, and so marched into town, conducted by a 
 municipal agent, and escorted by a file of the national guard, the 
 ticket of annexation in their hand, and the cockade and placard of 
 annexation in their hat. The whole way from the gate to the town- 
 hall they were saluted by cries from the populace of " the annexa- 
 tion for ever ! " and they had to cry the same, whether they liked 
 it or no. And still under the same superintendence and the same 
 pressure they defiled, before tho urn. where each throw in the fatal 
 paper, on which often depended tho fate of their families as well as 
 their own security. 
 
 The bands ranged around the town-hall looked more particularly 
 
THE EUROPEAN QUESTION. 409 
 
 " A good many functionaries, holding each several appointments, 
 gave each several votes, iu person or by proxy. One citizen, for 
 instance, was professor at Modena, engineer in another commune, 
 landholder in another, officer of the national guard, and member of 
 the municipal council, in others such pluralities are not uncom- 
 mon well, this good citizen gave, or had given in his name, votes 
 in each of the communes where his name was on the register." 
 
 The following fact gives the finishing-stroke to these 
 scenes, and reveals to us at the same time the impression 
 produced by sucli doings even on the warmest partisans of 
 Italian independence, who disapproved of dishonesty and 
 unfairness. It took place at the Old Palace in Florence. 
 The National Assembly, which had sat since the first days 
 of the revolution, was convoked in order to vote a general 
 approbation of the acts of the dictatorship, and to declare 
 itself dissolved. Montanelli, the celebrated Italian patriot, 
 rose and declared, with just indignation, that " such appro- 
 bation was neither becoming nor genuine where freedom 
 of parliamentary discussion and the liberty of the press 
 were extinct ; that the government might, indeed, go 
 through the form of dissolving the Chamber ; but that, 
 in reality, lie had long looked upon it as dead ; it had 
 
 after the people of the town. The boldest citizen durst not 
 approach or pass them without the cockade and the placard. No 
 one was rash enough to refuse to cry hurrah for the annexation, 
 and thus give the populace a pledge of the vote he was going to 
 pronounce ; and what vociferations, what hootings and menaces 
 greeted those whose anti-Piedmontese sympathies were known ! 
 Had they even hesitated so far, they could not, once they entered 
 the hall. The voting, which should have been secret, was com- 
 pletely public : it took place under the undisguised control and the 
 minute inspection of Piedmontese agents. Such are some of the 
 means by which a majority was secured for Piedmont. 
 
 " It is surely astonishing," says the bishop of Perpignan, " that 
 the French papers which support the imperial government should 
 use the same expression, volonte natlonale, with regard to what 
 took place in France (the universal suffrage for Napoleon III.) and 
 the job perpetrated in the Romagna. Do they not see that such a 
 way of speaking lowers one of the greatest demonstrations ever 
 made of a nation's will to the level of a political juggle ! " 
 
410 THE DISMEMBERMENT. 
 
 died with Tuscany, and with the dearest hopes of her 
 good citizens" 
 
 Let us recapitulate these details, and sum up, in a few 
 words, the characteristic features of this vote. 
 
 The population of Tuscany is, in round numbers, 
 1,800,000 souls. Those over twenty-one years of age are 
 more than a quarter of the whole, which gives 500,000. 
 Such, then, should have been the number of electors. 
 360,000 voted ; so that 140,000 kept aloof. 
 
 Now, those who voted did so under the most formidable 
 intimidation, for the state functionaries and the peasants 
 and farmers were threatened with dismissal Or ejection if 
 they did not vote for Piedmont. 
 
 The government had completely monopolized the press 
 for ten months, and granted, three days before the vote, a 
 liberty which was utterly nugatory, and which they even 
 refused to those who proposed to take advantage of it. 
 
 The voters were, particularly in the country, conducted 
 in ranks by the authorities, with music and banners, their 
 tickets open, or in their hats, thus completely obviating 
 any possibility of adverse votes or demonstrations. 
 
 The opponents of annexation were decried, traduced, 
 and insulted, in all the journals, whether official or not, 
 and represented as traitors in foreign pay. 
 
 The balloting urns remained for twenty-four hours in 
 the hands of the mayors, who were creatures of the govern- 
 ment, without any sort of supervision. 
 
 There was not the shadow of a check as to age of the 
 voters, their identity, or registration ; so that many, in 
 fact, voted who were under twenty-one, and several voted 
 twice, or oftener, in different places, and under borrowed 
 names. 
 
 Such is the truth about this popular suffrage : no free 
 discussion, intimidation, threats, manoeuvres of all sorts, 
 and finally, success. Nor is this surprising; it wus but 
 what might have boon foretold, and one might safrly 
 predict a like success to any question submitted in a like 
 jnauncr to a popular vote. 
 
 shall quote, as confirming our statements, the 
 
THE EUROPEAN QUESTION. 411 
 
 follow letter from M. de Larochefoucault to the Union 
 newspaper : 
 
 " SIR, A person above suspicion, whose candour and independ- 
 ence no one can question, has just arrived from Italy, having 
 made some stay at Iloine and Turin. He says, with just indigna- 
 tion, ' that it is impossible to conceive the intrigues, the jobbing, 
 and even the coercion, resorted to by the revolutionary despotism 
 to gain for Piedmont this mockery of a universal suffrage.' He 
 adds that ' the great majority in Tuscany would be favourable to 
 the return of the former sovereign, if the people were fairly con- 
 sulted.' Woe to Europe if such culpable manoeuvring to justify 
 spoliation is allowed to pass without severe censure, and is not put 
 down ! Woe to Piedmont itself, for sooner or later it will be the 
 victim of the revolutionary spirit with which it has allied itself, in 
 obedience to a grasping and insatiable ambition ! If such doings are 
 allowed to pass, no sovereign for the future can sit unshaken on his 
 throne, no nation will be proof against revolutions." 
 
 But enough of this unhappy triumph of Piedmont and 
 its dictators. Let us turn our thoughts elsewhere, and 
 judge, from the very confessions of our antagonists, what 
 conclusions France and Europe ought to draw from these 
 events. 
 
 This theory of annexation by vote has been condemned 
 by those very persons who have imagined and put it in 
 practice : and we cannot reflect more strongly upon the 
 worthlessness and compulsory nature of the Italian suf- 
 frage, than the Piedmontese revolutionists themselves and 
 Garibaldi, Lord John Russell, and England, the Swiss 
 federal council and Russia. It is true that the wrath of 
 our opponents is only directed against the votes of Savoy 
 and Nice; but their strictures cut both ways, and apply 
 inevitably, and far more effectively, to those of Central 
 Italy ; so that we need only combat our enemies with their 
 own arguments. 
 
 In particular, how could England help seeing that, as the 
 French Foreign Minister remarked, the events of Italy neces- 
 sarily brought on the Savoy question ? I fear that the real 
 sympathy felt by England for the Italian cause was some- 
 what lukewarm, or served as a rather thin covering for 
 her hatred of the Pope, and also her jealousy of France. 
 
412 THE DISMEMBERMENT. 
 
 It could not have been disagreeable to her to see a power- 
 ful kingdom rise along our frontiers, promising to form a 
 potent element in a coalition against us, when necessary, 
 after having humbled the Pope and popery. Our claim 
 of the French side of the mountains took her by surprise, 
 and was a reproach to her usual perspicacity. Her eyes 
 are opened, and having smiled upon all that was done" in 
 the Romagna, she begins to find fault with what took 
 place in Savoy, though undeniably less objectionable. 
 The more value we appear to set on Savoy, the more does 
 it seem to our neighbours a precious, an inestimable jewel, 
 and they are inconsolable to see it passing over to France. 
 All of a sudden the British ministers perceive that " the 
 settlement of affairs in Europe cannot be secure, nor 
 peace reckoned upon, if Europe is to be exposed to con- 
 tinual violations of territory, and incessant fears of annexa- 
 tion and disannexation." (Reply of Lord John Russell to 
 Mr. Horsman, March 26, 1 860.) But how was it that Eng- 
 land did not think of this before ? How can she complain 
 of what is, in Savoy and Nice, merely the sequel of what, 
 in the Romagna, had her best wishes and congratulations ? 
 How is it that she is never scandalized at the maxims 
 which now are current, except when they benefit France? 
 Such are the inconsistencies and reproaches which one 
 incurs, by sacrificing justice to one's interests or 
 passions. 
 
 Lord John Russell further states, in a despatch to Lord 
 Cowley (March 22, 1860), " that if a great military power 
 like France may claim the territory of a neighbouring 
 state, which it may judge, on its own theory, necessary 
 to its geographical system of defence, it is obvious that 
 no state can be safe from aggression on the part of a 
 powerful neighbour ; that force, and not right, must become 
 the safeguard of territorial possessions, and that the in- 
 tegrity and independence of the small states of Europe 
 would be continually imperilled." 
 
 Now, is not the English statesman's remonstrance quite 
 as applicable to the case of Piedmont and the small Italian 
 states, as to that of France and Savoy, with this distiuc- 
 
THE EUROPEAN QUESTION. 413 
 
 tion, that a coercion was used in the Piedmontese annexa- 
 tions, which was wanting in the French? 
 
 Lord John Russell acquiesces in the annexation of 
 Tuscany. Why? Because, he says, first, the whole 
 nation spoke ; secondly, the throne was vacant. Well, 
 we would ask, is the Roraagna the whole Roman nation ? 
 Was the sovereign, Pius IX., not upon his throne? And, 
 indeed, had he been at Gaeta, would that have altered vhis 
 right ? 
 
 Lord John Russell's respect for treaties will not allow 
 him to approve of the separation of Savoy. Are there 
 not treaties which guarantee the States of the Church? 
 He fears that France may become too strong. Has the 
 peace of ^Europe nothing to fear from Piedmont becoming 
 also too strong? He reminds us that France had promised 
 not to extend its territory. But had it not also promised 
 to maintain the Pope's temporal power in its integrity ? 
 And did not England endeavour, by all the means in its 
 power, to prevent that promise from being kept? He 
 considers that the question of Nice and Savoy concerns, 
 not the contracting parties only, but Europe also, inas- 
 much as it affects the balance of power on the continent. 
 But is this less affected by the changes in Italy ? He is 
 incredulous as to the freedom of voting in Savoy and 
 Nice, if France is to be present. In the Romagna, who 
 held the urns ? Piedmont. He appeals to the rights of 
 the people, in the Romagna, against the Pope. Is their 
 right less valid elsewhere ? 
 
 The Swiss Federal Council wrote, in its turn, to Captain 
 Harris, on the 27th of March, as follows : " Any prelimi- 
 nary occupation of the territory, whether military or civil, 
 would be a violation of the rights of Switzerland, and 
 might, moreover, be considered as an obstacle to the free 
 expression of the wishes of the people." But is not this 
 just what the Pope said of Piedmont, with far more justice 
 than Switzerland could say it of France? 
 
 Finally, Russia considers that the consent of the legiti- 
 mate sovereign ratifies and justifies the cession of Savoy, 
 but that it cannot supersede the rights of Europe. There- 
 
414 THE DISMEMBERMENT. 
 
 fore, the disapprobation of the legitimate sovereign is of 
 some value,, especially when it is confirmed by the law of 
 Europe : and I might inquire why Switzerland and Russia 
 kept back these opinions in the case of the Romagna ? 
 
 By accepting at Bologna what she deprecates at Cham- 
 bery, England is caught in her own words, and others 
 with her : the analogy is too palpable. But here we have 
 something more than the inconsistencies of England and of 
 European policy : it would really seem as if Providence had 
 meant to give us, in Piedmont itself, a complete illustration 
 of the truth of the inspired maxim, Mentita est iniquitas 
 sibi. We find Garibaldi coming forward as the accuser 
 of the vote of Central Italy, and in the novel character of 
 defender of treaties, of the rights of sovereign^, and the 
 law of nations. Every one has heard of the angry invec- 
 tives uttered by him in the Piedmontese parliament, and 
 of his energetic protest against the annexation of Nice to 
 France, as contrary to all international law ; so much so, 
 that the universal conscience of mankind exclaims at it : yet 
 he calls legitimate and necessary the annexation to Pied- 
 mont of the whole of Italy, Rome and Palermo included. 
 Pitiful, but avenging self-contradictions ! Garibaldi in- 
 vokes against us a treaty of 1365, as Switzerland alleges 
 one of 1564; and he slights a treaty of 1815, and twenty 
 others ! He cannot believe in the genuineness of the vote 
 of Savoy and Nice, on account of the presence of the 
 senators Pietri and Laity ; but he is quite satisfied as to 
 that of the vote of Bologna and Modena, taken under the 
 armed pressure of Piedmont, and controlled by the dicta- 
 tors Farini, Pepoli, and the rest. 
 
 Indeed it is saddening and disheartening to listen to 
 such incredible self-contradictions; and I do not allude 
 to Garibaldi only his inconsistencies go for little and 
 do not surprise one but to the statesmen of England 
 and other countries. 
 
 It would seCm really as if there were periods of general 
 confusion for poor humanity, when the reason becomes 
 bewildered, when truth seems put aside, and men's con- 
 sciences utterly deranged. Everything is unsettled and 
 
THE EUROPEAN QUESTION. 415 
 
 unstable: principles become a 'dead letter; people invoke 
 them when it serves their purpose, and trample them 
 under foot when they are in their way : men wander at 
 random without a compass and without a guide. Is there, 
 then, no polestar in sigjit whereby to direct our steps 
 during such storms, and do such earthquakes also hide 
 the face of heaven? No; truth and justice will survive 
 the passions of men, and sooner or later must be exalted. 
 God grant that it may not be after appalling catas- 
 trophes. 
 
 The powers of Europe ought, at all events, to be con- 
 vinced now, that the Italian revolution, such as it has 
 shown itself, and as it is being followed out at this 
 moment from one end of Italy to the other, is one of 
 the most violent shocks that the law of nations has ever 
 received in Europe. What parallel to it can be found in 
 the annals of civilized nations ? When has history seen a 
 like alliance between sovereignty and revolution, leagued 
 together for the overthrow of sovereigns ? Where is the 
 nation strong enough to resist such machinations, or the 
 power skilful enough to disentangle itself from their 
 grasp ? No ; the old sovereignties may still hold together 
 for a time, longer or shorter, by their own weight ; but 
 their foundations have been undermined, and henceforth 
 the first shock may overturn them : the Piedmontese 
 monarchy as well as the rest, and perhaps sooner than 
 they. 
 
 " I see in the air a shower of wretched republics and 
 new disasters," said Silvio Pellico. . " What is to be done ? " 
 added he. "Never despond. If I have little hope in 
 men, I have much in God." 
 
 Like that honest and generous soul, I will yet hope. 
 God always leaves to nations and sovereignties a principle 
 of recovery. I believe in the power of right and justice. 
 I believe in reason and good sense. I believe in the 
 virtue of truth when set before men. 
 
416 THE REFORMS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 THE REFORMS DEMANDED FROM THE PAPAL GOVERNMENT. 
 ARE THOSE SINCERE WHO DEMAND THEM? 
 
 MUCH noise has been made in France, as well as in the 
 rest of Europe, about the question of reforms in the Papal 
 States. It has been not indeed the cause of, but a pretext- 
 for all the threats and wrongs which have assailed the 
 Holy See in our time. 
 
 I have therefore considered myself bound to study this 
 question minutely and thoroughly. I have done my 
 best to gain information, by every means within my 
 reach. I have sought particularly to put aside any pre- 
 conceived opinions, and to investigate the truth upon this 
 question from the most authentic documents, from the 
 most admitted facts, from things themselves; to distin- 
 guish what is true from what is false in the reports cur- 
 rent on the subject ; what can, or ought to be effected 
 at Rome in the way of reforms, from what cannot, or 
 ought not. Finally, I have endeavoured to arrive, not 
 merely at a probable opinion, but at an imperative convic- 
 tion, and I think I have succeeded. 
 
 To this end, I have questioned the most competent and 
 most well-informed Frenchmen, including those who had, 
 in 1849, treated themselves the question at Rome and 
 Gacta, in the name of France, whose representatives and 
 plenipotentiaries they were. I have frequently conversed 
 with men who have resided at Rome during the greater 
 part of the last ten years, statesmen, ex-ministers, who 
 have formed their opinions on the spot, and who were un- 
 deniably well qualified to observe facts with discernment, 
 and to draw judicious conclusions. More than this, I 
 have read the publications most hostile to the papal 
 government ; the answers ol'M. M to M. dc Rayncval ; 
 
ARE THOSE SINCERE WHO DEMAND THEM? 417 
 
 the most anti-Catholic journals, and the manifestoes of 
 the different dictators. I have gone over the last work of 
 M. d'Azeglio, and the long statement of Count Pepoli, 
 of Bologna. I have even forced myself to read the work 
 entitled La Question Romaine, whose author I need not 
 here name. Finally, I am not personally a stranger to 
 the question; I have sojourned long and frequently at 
 Rome ; I have seen with my own eyes. 
 
 Well, before going farther, I will candidly say that my 
 impartial and thorough researches have had the effect 
 of invalidating, in a remarkable degree, all the angry re- 
 proaches addressed to the Pontifical government, which 
 had met with some credence even from myself. I saw 
 that it was impossible not to admit the incredible injustice 
 of which the Holy See has been the victim, or to fail to 
 recognize here the agency of those implacable passions, 
 which, misrepresenting or suppressing all facts that 
 galled or condemned them, hurried on a separation which 
 had ever been their real object, when a judicious con- 
 ciliation might easily have re-established and preserved 
 harmony and friendship between the subjects and their 
 sovereign. 
 
 Accordingly, I had at first intended to conclude this 
 volume by a thorough examination of the reforms de- 
 manded from the Pontifical government, entering fully into 
 the minutest details. But it now occurs to me, would 
 such an examination be opportune, considering what has 
 been done and what is now doing in Italy ? Silent leges 
 inter arma, says the Roman orator. It is not reforms 
 which are now demanded from the Pope by the revolu- 
 tionists ; the first spoliation has been accomplished, and 
 imminent and utter ruin threatens him at the present 
 hour. In such a state of things, a lengthened discussion 
 of the practical details of reforms already granted, or to 
 come, would seem out of place; besides, I am ready here- 
 after to undertake it, should better times permit. 
 
 However, it will be well, even now, to take at least a 
 general view of the question ; were it only to dissipate the 
 vague and erroneous impressions which prevail, which 
 
 2 E 
 
418 THE REFORMS. 
 
 have but too much misled public opinion, and secure too 
 ready a hearing for sophisms and calumnies. 
 
 Such a general discussion is also a necessary preliminary 
 to the consideration of details ; and such a review of the 
 heads of the subject will form an excellent introduction 
 to the work which I may one day publish. 
 
 And, first of all, are improvements and reforms desir- 
 able in the Roman States ? Are those sincere who call 
 for them ? 
 
 i. 
 
 ARE ANY IMPROVEMENTS OR REFORMS TO BE DESIRED 
 IN THE GOVERNMENT OF THE PAPAL STATES ? 
 
 Without entering into the question at all, one might 
 answer ; I cannot say for certain, but I should think there 
 are. I think so, for I do not know of a state, a family, or 
 a man upon earth, who does not stand in need of reforms. 
 
 I think so, for Pius IX. thought so himself, and, as we 
 all know, led the way towards reforms among the princes 
 of the Italian peninsula. Nor has his conviction altered ; 
 if revolutions had given him the time and the peace ne- 
 cessary to carry out, in calmness and wisdom, the reforms 
 which he contemplated, Pius IX. would by this have 
 finished his great work. 
 
 I think so, for I believe with Bossuet that men have 
 necessarily human defects. I believe that no institution, 
 confided to human hands, is clear of earthly imperfections. 
 
 I think so, not only as regards the temporal govern- 
 ment of the earthly possessions which Providence has 
 intrusted to the Church, but as regards the spiritual 
 ijovennnent of the Church, and that great divine institu- 
 tion itself; and that simply because it is confided to the 
 hands of men. Men, not angels, have been placed by 
 God over his Church ; and if a divine promise insure the 
 infallibility of Catholic teaching, as to dogmas, morality, 
 and general discipline, that promise does not fetter 
 human liberty ; and that liberty, so noble, so meritorious, 
 
ARE THOSE SINCERE WHO DEMAND THEM ? 419 
 
 so fruitful,, when well used, may also be employed with 
 sad efficiency in the service of evil ; and hence evil may 
 at all times be expected to creep even into the Church. 
 Hence, also, the Church is a society which is ever reform- 
 ing itself; no society has laboured as much as she at its 
 own reformation, and it is for this reason that she endures. 
 The Christian Church is the most admirable of all societies, 
 because she has within her a principle of continual self- 
 reformation, which no other society possesses, a principle 
 of regeneration which has never suffered any abuse to 
 take root within her pale and to prevail against her. 
 
 During eighteen centuries, the Church has held eighteen 
 O3cumenical councils, and more than a thousand synods, 
 in which reform of discipline and morals has at all times 
 kept pace with dogmatic teaching and the condemnation 
 of errors. Nor did the last general council, the Council 
 of Trent, act differently from those which had preceded it. 
 At the very time when the word reformation was con- 
 vulsing Europe and separating whole nations from the 
 Church, that immortal council, well knowing that true 
 reformation in the Church can only be accomplished by 
 herself, and can never mean schism or separation, boldly 
 prefixed to its decrees the title DE REFORMATIONS, thus 
 confounding the innovators by the spectacle of the only 
 true and genuine reformation within the bosom of Catholic 
 unity. 
 
 And we all, children of the Church, priests and faithful, 
 profess, and are bound to profess, to be people who labour 
 without ceasing to reform ourselves; we need continual 
 reformation ; and whenever, yielding to human weakness, 
 we forget this, we are sure to suffer ; for then Providence, 
 which means us to reform ourselves unceasingly, because 
 it calls us to perfection, makes a sign, and unexpected 
 reformers appear; and the world, that world of which 
 Tacitus has given the same definition as St. Paul, cor- 
 rumpere et corrumpi, s&culum vocatur the world and re- 
 volutions reform us by crimes, when we will not reform, 
 ourselves by virtues. 
 
 We make, then, no difficulty in accepting the word 
 2 E 2 
 
420 THE REFORMS. 
 
 reform, as applied to the Pope's temporal government, not 
 however meaning by this to concede more than the un- 
 avoidable imperfections of all human things. We will 
 even add, that if perfection might be looked for upon earth, 
 it ought to be in the States of the Church. Yes, I have 
 no objection to more being expected from the Pontifical 
 government than from any other, and I look upon such 
 requirements as an involuntary homage which does us 
 honour, and of which we have no right to complain. Let 
 people be severe upon the priest; they are right; it is 
 but to assert what is true, that, being the minister of God, 
 he ought, as such, td be the most striking personification 
 of truth and justice upon earth. 
 
 We are not afraid, then, to attack the question of re- 
 forms : this much is certain. But I feel some suspicions 
 as to the sincerity of those who call for them. I cannot, 
 therefore, avoid putting the following question : 
 
 ii. 
 
 ARE THOSE SINCERE WHO CALL UPON THE PAPAL 
 GOVERNMENT FOR REFORMS ? 
 
 The Pontifical government has been bitterly censured, 
 and a vast deal hns been said about its need of reform ; 
 but, somehow, I cannot satisfy myself that those who call 
 so loudly for reforms sincerely desire them; it even seems 
 clear to me that what they wanted, and what they still 
 want, is something quite different. The word reform played 
 nearly the same part in the Italian revolution that it 
 played in France in February 1848. It was used to rouse 
 and agitate men's minds; the impetus once given, the 
 clever conjurer's trick followed, alluded to by an adept in 
 such matters, M. Ledru-Rollin, and then even the short- 
 sighted saw that something else had been aimed at, and 
 that behind reform was revolution. 
 
 Who can honestly believe that the party which was 
 worsted at Rome in 1849 really wanted reforms in 1859, 
 when they spurned them beforehand, and proclaimed in 
 
ARE THOSE SINCERE WHO DEMAND THEM? 421 
 
 one of their organs which I have before cited, " Whatever 
 Pope Pius IX. may do, the Roman people will not accept 
 the new liberties which may be accorded to them ; they 
 will only use them to overthrow the prince who resolved to 
 grant them?" Is it not clear that such men neither 
 honestly suggest reforms, nor propose to use them for 
 good ? They cry out for them as a means to undermine 
 the power they detest, as a first step, as a stage, upon the 
 road they mean to travel; why, they tell us themselves 
 they cannot stop short in so grand a career. Do we not 
 see them already, after a moment's rest, taking up arms 
 again ? and has not Garibaldi, on starting for Sicily, told 
 the Pope and all Europe distinctly enough what they have 
 to expect ? 
 
 Who can believe in his conscience that Piedmont ever 
 sincerely wished for peaceful reforms, or tranquillity, in 
 the Roman States ? The ten years' history which we have 
 gone over has sufficiently shown the contrary. 
 
 Or who imagines that Lord Palmerston would really be 
 delighted never to have for the future anything but praises 
 to bestow on the government of the Holy See ? 
 
 We have seen M. Cavour, at the Paris congress, bitterly 
 attacking the Pontifical government, in concert with the 
 British plenipotentiaries, and denouncing it as a permanent 
 cause of disorder and anarchy ; but with what intention ? 
 To bring about reforms ? It would be difficult to think 
 so, as M. Cavour, at the same time that he declared the 
 necessity of reforms, pronounced them absolutely impos- 
 sible. Not only this, but to show clearly to the Italian 
 revolutionists that the question was not meant to be 
 seriously considered, that none of them need trouble 
 themselves about it, and that it was a mere feint necessary 
 to their tactics, M. Cavour declared that these reforms, 
 without which the Papal sovereignty could not last, were 
 reforms which the Pope not only could not, but would not 
 effect; against which he would struggle to the last; to 
 which he would lend himself only apparently and insin- 
 cerely, his mind made up to do nothing honest or sincere, 
 and resolved to render all the reforms nugatory in practice. 
 
422 THE REFORMS. 
 
 No ; it is time to cease to trifle with our good faith. 
 Possible reforms you do not ask for, and if they are granted 
 you, you accept them only as instruments of destruction ; 
 impossible ones you call for loudly enough, certainly ; but 
 you proclaim, along with their radical impossibility, the 
 absolute impotence and the incurable insincerity of the 
 power which refuses them. 
 
 After such declarations, it is a mere mockery to talk 
 about reform. It is but too clear that the real question 
 at issue is the dismemberment, or rather the total confis- 
 cation, of the Papal States. Improvements, which you 
 declare beforehand illusory and treacherous, cannot as- 
 suredly disarm or satisfy you. 
 
 In fact, so Count Cavour declared, in unambiguous 
 terms. He proposed to begin by separating the Romagna ; 
 the Marches, Umbria, and Rome were shortly to follow; 
 time alone was speedily to complete the ruin of the ponti- 
 fical sovereignty. The pamphlet, Le Pape et le Congres, 
 as well as the Sardinian Memorandum, had no other 
 object. 
 
 Well, follow up your object, but do not expect us to be 
 your dupes as well as your victims ; do not imagine that 
 you can impose upon us by your affected lamentations for 
 having failed to obtain reforms you did not wish for. It 
 is clear to every one who has watched you, that what you 
 want is revolution, and not reform. The Pope is ready 
 enough to grant reforms ; but you want to overturn his 
 throne. 
 
 It is curious to see the pains you have taken to prove 
 to the Pope that these reforms arc beyond the reach of his 
 power, and even inconsistent with his religion. And how, 
 -ribing in the pamphlet the doctrines of the Mana- 
 randum, you there pretend that the Pope cannot reform 
 his government without abrogating all the principles, the 
 dogmas, and the ln\vs of the Church. In vain it was 
 shown to you that this was contrary to truth and common 
 sense. It served your ends too well not to hear us. 
 
 If you were in earnest, what you should ask for is the 
 reform of men, if they require it, and of abuses, if any 
 
ARE THOSE SINCERE WHO DEMAND THEM? 423 
 
 exist ; but no ; you say it is not men who are to be secula- 
 rized, but principles ; it is not abuses which must be 
 reformed, but dogmas. Abuses are invested with the 
 same character as dogmas; they are even essential to, and 
 absolutely inseparable from them. Could audacity and 
 hypocrisy go further ? 
 
 But I hear you answer, We only came to that after 
 having asked everything else, at the proper time, without 
 obtaining anything. Now it is too late ; nothing will do 
 now but separation. It is too late ! But I answer that, 
 in 1847, when many people thought it too soon, when the 
 Pope, the present Pope for we have the good fortune to 
 be able to refer back to the same man gave a signal of 
 liberty and reform to Italy as well as to Rome, then great 
 and solid reforms came to pass ; soon to prove insufficient 
 to satisfy those whom no reform will ever satisfy, unless 
 one suppressing the Papacy as a sovereign and independent 
 power. 
 
 How did you then act ? You' accepted these reforms, 
 but used them only, first to coerce, and then to expel, 
 their author. 
 
 In the present case, you have commenced by destroying, 
 and insist upon a pretended refusal of reforms as a justi- 
 cation of your work of destruction; you have unblushingly 
 advanced this pretext for a partial separation, which is but 
 a step towards a total confiscation ; for, as you say, the 
 reasons for separating one province apply to all the others, 
 and one day will be urged by them also. 
 
 As I have heard a great man say, if subversive or peril- 
 ous reforms are suggested, they are good for no one, and 
 would be even more fatal in the Legations than elsewhere, 
 for there they must appear as a premium for past, and an. 
 encouragement to future revolts; but if the reforms sought 
 be wise and fruitful, all the Roman states ought to benefit 
 by them ; no province should be excluded from the bless- 
 ings of good, nor any be exposed to the evils of bad 
 reforms. 
 
 Is it possible for the Pope to grant desirable reforms ? 
 That is, can he, while stopping short of concessions which 
 
4.24 THE REFORMS. 
 
 would be a virtual abdication of his supreme authority, 
 mould his government to the new needs of the times, and 
 the legitimate desires of his people? Such is the real 
 question. If, alleging the immutability of dogmas, it is 
 to be decided in the negative, then reforms are out of the 
 question; the Pontifical power must be abolished. If, 
 however, it is answered in the affirmative, in the name 
 of honesty and common sense, the question of reforms is 
 raised indeed, but at the same time, the insurrection in 
 the Romagna and the annexation to Piedmont are con- 
 demned. For if anything is clear, it is that what the 
 insurgents in the Romagna sought was not liberty, but 
 annexation. The aspiration of these generous patriots 
 was to surrender themselves to Count Cavour. 
 
 That there are in the Papal States, as in other countries, 
 questions undecided, works unfinished, and improvements 
 checked, is what no one denies. But is this astonishing, 
 and whose is the fault ? Pius IX. has not been given one 
 hour of peace, for the last ten years, to carry out the 
 benefits he designed for his people. You continue to cry 
 out for lay, instead of ecclesiastical government ; you 
 complain of delays ; but, once more, who has delayed 
 everything, if not they who murdered the lay prime 
 minister of Pius IX., upon the threshold of a house of 
 parliament, which was but inaugurating the reign of 
 reform? And you cannot understand that, after such a 
 lesson, statesmen should hesitate, or a sovereign pause to 
 reflect ! 
 
 Why, even in France, that powerful and prosperous 
 country, no government neither the first empire, nor the 
 monarchy, nor the republic has been able to realize every 
 improvement which the people might justly desire ; yet 
 you cannot conceive why the States of the Church, 
 hampered and embarrassed by extraneous influences, ha- 
 rassed without intermission by Piedmont and the revolu- 
 tion, could not, in spite of such obstacles, reform all present 
 imperfections, and leave no future progress to be wished 
 for; and you refuse the time and tranquillity which such 
 task demands. 
 
ARE THOSE SINCERE WHO DEMAND THEM ? 425 
 
 However, as I, like the Pope, am for improvements and 
 reforms,, though opposed to separation and revolution, let 
 us examine what reforms you demand. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 THE REFORMS DEMANDED FROM THE PAPAL 
 GOVERNMENT. 
 
 IT is stated that we are sorely puzzled by the question 
 of reforms ; but our opponents are far more so than we, 
 when one turns and asks them flatly, What reforms 
 would you have ? 
 
 Some talk vaguely of liberty and emancipation. Apropos 
 of this, an English speaker wittily observed, " We have 
 here an absolute sovereign explaining to another absolute 
 sovereign what liberties it may be proper to introduce in 
 states which belong to neither of them." * The most con- 
 tradictory charges are brought against the Papal govern- 
 ment. If one asks a Paris journalist what is wanting in 
 the Roman government, he will most probably say, liberty. 
 Ask a native of the Roman States the same question, he 
 will answer, security. That government is too tyrannical, 
 according to the former ; too good-natured, according to 
 the latter. Which is to be believed, he who sees things 
 on the spot, or he who imagines them, at a distance? 
 Without losing time in endeavouring to reconcile them, 
 let us, if possible, single out one or two definite points 
 from the torrent of declamation. All the memorandums 
 
 1 Alluding to the article of the treaty of Zurich, whereby the 
 emperor of the French and the emperor of Austria undertake to 
 recommend reforms to the Pope. 
 
426 THE REFORMS DEMANDED FROM 
 
 of diplomacy, with all the polemical pamphlets and speeches 
 on the subject, seem to insist, as if by concert, upon three 
 words to be found in a famous document,, the letter to 
 Colonel Ney, in 1849 secularization, Code Napoleon, 
 liberal government. Let us consider them one by one. 
 
 i. 
 
 SECULARIZATION. 
 
 What is the precise meaning of this word ? Is it the 
 absolute separation of the spiritual from the temporal, 
 which now are united at Rome in the same person ? In 
 fact, is the Pontiff to cease to be a prince ? If so, do not 
 talk of reforms; ask boldly for the destruction of the 
 Pontifical power. 
 
 Does secularization mean the decentralization of the 
 administration of public affairs, so that laymen in pro- 
 vinces and parishes may manage themselves their local 
 interests ? Well, in this respect, affairs are less centralized 
 in the Roman states than in France; nowhere are the 
 liberties of provinces and communes more ancient and 
 more comprehensive. 
 
 Does it mean the administration of the Romagna by 
 a lay viceroy ? But why the Romagna only ? Can a 
 country have two laws, a nation two forms of government, 
 or authority two heads ? This would be absurd anywhere, 
 but how much more in a little state of three millions of 
 souls. And who was to have been the viceroy of the 
 Romagna? The king of Piedmont? But could the Pope 
 have been required to give himself up thus to his declared 
 enemy ? 
 
 Or is it meant absolutely to exclude all churchmen from 
 the government of the States of the Church ? But this is 
 not to abolish a clerical privilege; it is unreasonably and 
 unjustly to create a secular monopoly. " It is not 
 enough," observes M. Saint-iMurc Girardin, " to be a 
 layman, to have a capacity for government ; nor have 
 history and experience >hnwii that ecclesiastics are unfitted 
 to conduct public aft"; 
 
THE PAPAL GOVERNMENT. 
 
 But no, it will be said ; what we ask is, that laymen may 
 have an extensive share in the administration of the 
 country, and that they be eligible to all public functions ; 
 such a claim is but reasonable. Yes, but it has been fully 
 attended to. We appeal to facts and figures : our former 
 ambassador at Rome, M. de Rayneval, stated in 1856 : l 
 
 " Outside Rome, how many ecclesiastics do people imagine the 
 court of Rome employs, in all the eighteen provinces of the Papal 
 States, the Legations, the Marches, Umbria, and the rest ? Their 
 number does not exceed fifteen, one for each province, except three, 
 which do not reckon even one. They are delegates or prefects, as 
 we should say. Under them, magistrates, councillors, functionaries 
 of all descriptions, are laymen. There are in all 2,313 civil, and 
 620 judicial functionaries, giving a total of 2,933, or but one eccle- 
 siastical to 195 lay officials. Can the most prejudiced mind object 
 as a grievance to an ecclesiastical government so slender a propor- 
 tion of men of its own cloth, employed as depositaries of its authority 
 throughout all its provinces? Who can call this an intolerable 
 abuse? " 
 
 In the city of Rome, the centre of government, the 
 number of prelates, whether in priests' orders or no, em- 
 ployed in the administration, is necessarily more consider- 
 able than in the provinces. Still, the numerical superiority 
 in favour of laymen is striking, and leads to the same 
 conclusions. 
 
 "'The Council of State numbers three ecclesiastics to ten laymen. 
 The Home Office reckons seven ecclesiastics, besides fifteen prefects 
 of provinces I have already mentioned : in all, 22 ecclesiastics to 
 1,411 laymen. Finance gives employment to 3 ecclesiastics and 
 2,017 laymen. Police to 2 ecclesiastics and 404 laymen. In the 
 offices of war there is not a single ecclesiastic. As to judicial 
 employments, reckoning the superior courts, which are of a mixed 
 nature, there are 59 ecclesiastics to 927 laymen." 
 
 It is clear, then, that neither the evil nor the remedy 
 
 1 His report has been published more than once, and recently in 
 the Recueil des Traites et Actes diplematiques concernant V Autriclie 
 et V Italic. Aniyot, Rue de la Paix, Paris. 
 
428 THE REFORMS DEMANDED FROM 
 
 lies here. The secularization pointed to as a femedy has 
 long been a mere blind , employed to captivate foreign 
 sympathy, and to pave the way for an attack on the very 
 principle of the Pontifical government. The revolutionists 
 did not presume to cry out, at first, Down with the Pope ! 
 Such a cry would have excited alarm. They contented 
 themselves with saying, Down with priests ! 
 
 And now, when they are answered, You called for lay 
 officials ; they have been appointed on all sides ; they 
 reply, That is not what we wanted : ' ' The Pope cannot 
 accord a genuine secularization ; for that does not consist 
 in admitting a few laymen (a few laymen, 5,000 to 100 
 ecclesiastics !) to government offices, but in introducing 
 the modern spirit into all the institutions of the country. 
 That spirit is incompatible with the clerical government." 
 (Bologna Memorandum.) 
 
 Which means, in other words, Down with the Pope ! 
 Well, but why could you not say so frankly at once ? We 
 knew well that was what you wanted, and you have more 
 than once involuntarily allowed it to transpire. But cease, 
 at least, to talk about a viceroy, or secularization, or 
 reforms. 
 
 What is most painful throughout this controversy is 
 the double-dealing one meets with at every step ; but it is 
 nowhere more striking or more odious than in this matter 
 of secularization. And what is almost as bad, is the silly 
 thoughtlessness of those well-meaning people who make 
 themselves the mouthpieces of such deceit and hypocrisy : 
 " Let those/' justly observes M. Saint-Marc Girardin, 
 " who desire the destruction of the great Catholic Pontifi- 
 cate, repeat, on all occasions, that the Roman administra- 
 tion must be secularized; I can understand them; but 
 what I cannot understand is, that any who wish to main- 
 tain the Papal sovereignty can fancy it possible for the 
 Pope to be the only priest in his government. If we arc 
 ever to see secularization carried out at Rome until the 
 Pope remains the only ecclesiastic, the Papacy itself will 
 have been secularized. The bishop must become a prince, 
 and found an hereditary principality, if he is sufficiently 
 
THE PAPAL GOVERNMENT. 429 
 
 powerful, or else Rome must fall into foreign hands, and 
 the Pope become a mere parish priest." (Revue des Deux- 
 Mondes, May 15, 1860.) This is the language of honesty 
 and good sense. 
 
 Assuredly Lord Palmerston himself did not agree with 
 the opinions of M. Pepoli, when he said in the House of 
 Commons, on the 15th of July, 1856, that it was difficult 
 to conceive that a government like the Pope's, having at 
 its head a man who had already given such proofs of his 
 generous intentions and enlightened views, was incapable of 
 so managing its affairs as to destroy any causes of discontent. 
 
 But let us go on to examine, notwithstanding the asser- 
 tions of M. Pepoli, how and in what the Papal government 
 can and ought to admit the modern spirit. We come, then, 
 to the second point of the reforms, the Code Napoleon. 
 
 ii. 
 
 THE CODE NAPOLEON. 
 
 Who first spoke of the Code Napoleon ? I shall, per- 
 haps, somewhat surprise those who reckon the Code Napo- 
 leon among those victories of the modern spirit with which, 
 as they say, the Pope's temporal power is incompatible, by 
 informing them that it was Pius IX. himself who first in- 
 troduced the question of the Code Napoleon at the con- 
 ferences at Gaeta, and that the representatives of Europe, 
 for grave reasons, disapproved of such a reform : the diplo- 
 matists who were present at those conferences can testify 
 to this. 
 
 I shall mention, in connection with this fact, another 
 more generally known. When the author of the Code 
 Napoleon, in whose person Italian genius and French good 
 sense were united, founded the Court of Cassation, in order 
 to give greater authority to the sentences of justice, and 
 to insure the law being applied in its real sense, he called 
 in the aid of Roman lawyers. 1 
 
 1 I may name M. Lasajjni, and, if I recollect right, M. Zangiacomi, 
 who is now so honourably represented among us by the heir to his 
 
 name. 
 
430 THE REFORMS DEMANDED FROM 
 
 So that men would impose this code on the Pope, and 
 yet he proposed it himself : it is to be granted as a boon 
 to the Romans, yet its .author was aided by Romans in its 
 construction. I will add, that to substitute the Code Napo- 
 leon for the civil law of Rome would not even be so great 
 a change as people fancy. What is the Code Napoleon ? 
 a compound of Roman law, French customs, and ideas 
 of equality borrowed from the Gospel. What is the law 
 of modern Rome ? a compound of Roman law, Italian 
 customs, and the rules of the Church, the guardian of the 
 Gospel. 
 
 The old Roman law, of which it has been said that it 
 was written reason, is the foundation of the present laws 
 of Rome, as it is of ours, of which it forms more than half : 
 not, indeed, the brutal law of the twelve tables, but Roman 
 law as transformed by the Christian spirit, the law of 
 Justinian, a law converted by the Gospel, and breathed 
 upon by the heavenly justice and charity which descended 
 among men eighteen hundred years ago. 1 
 
 Thus the laws of Paris, as those of Rome, have sprung 
 from the alliance of the Christian spirit with Roman law : 
 they are of the same family. 
 
 It would not, by the way, be becoming in me, bishop of 
 Orleans, to pass over the fact that the present French civil 
 code was, in great part, dictated beforehand by a fervent 
 Catholic of Orleans, our illustrious Pothier, who served or 
 heard mass every morning in the cathedral of Sainte- 
 
 1 Sec, on this great subject, the memoir by M. Troplong, " De 
 riniluencc du Ohristianisme sur le Droit Civil des Eomains." See, 
 too, on the Iloman law, Cujas, Domat, and Pothier, who have 
 immortalized it among us. 
 
 Tin- fact is, that tlu\lioman law has governed for centuries the 
 greater part of the civilized world, and is still the foundation of all Eu- 
 ropean legislation. It is true that the Iloman law has been modified 
 at Rome in certain points by the canon law; but it must not be for- 
 gotten that that canon law is so far from contemptible that its study 
 has kept pace, almost down to our own times, with that of the 
 Roman law, in most of the universities of Europe ; it is well-known, 
 too, that all our modern codes have borrowed largely from it. 
 
THE PAPAL GOVERNMENT. 431 
 
 Croix, before retiring to his humble lodging to collate the 
 Pandects. 
 
 I honour and share the attachment of the French nation 
 to their civil laws ; but 1 should be sorry to see it carried 
 to the length of superstition, founded, like all superstition, 
 on ignorance. What ! people cry out against forcing even 
 on a child the Gospel, a perfect work of a Divine Legis- 
 lator ; yet they are for forcing the French code upon a 
 sovereign, under pain of deposal ! * Are we, then, because 
 we are French, to fancy ourselves the ideal, the ne plus 
 ultra, of perfection in all things ? And is that code per- 
 fect, which our opponents consider as the first reform to 
 be introduced ? How often has it not been reformed itself ? 
 Even now, contradictions, omissions, and imperfections are 
 to be detected in it. Our good opinion of ourselves should 
 not be carried so far as to prevent us admitting that there 
 are laws, and good ones, at Rome ; and not only a civil 
 code, like the Code Napoleon, but others, which competent 
 but impartial judges are far from despising. 
 
 Let us here, again, listen to one who speaks of what he 
 saw : M. de Rayneval says, " I have carefully studied the 
 different codes (of the Roman states), civil, criminal, and 
 commercial; they are beyond the reach of criticism. The 
 code of mortgages has been instanced to me as a model 
 one by French lawyers who have examined it." 
 
 Where, again, is the study of law more fostered than at 
 Rome, and in the seven Roman universities ? 
 
 M. Pepoli speaks of the modern spirit, without troubling 
 himself to tell us what he understands by the term : is the 
 Code Napoleon synonymous with the modern spirit, so 
 that the latter cannot exist where the Code Napoleon is 
 not in force ? The English, then, have not the modern 
 spirit. A remark of M. Sainte-Marc Girardin, whom I 
 must say I consider better qualified than M. Pepoli to 
 define the modern spirit, is very apposite here : " To bring 
 about great and general improvements in society, it is not 
 advisable to substitute the spirit of our age for that of past 
 ages." 
 
 The Code Napoleon : but which ? for, as I have s.aid, 
 
432 THE REFORMS DEMANDED FROM 
 
 it has undergone frequent reforms and modifications. Is 
 it the original unreformed one ? or the new one, with the 
 past reforms and modifications ? And would you propose 
 the future modifications also ? The modern spirit,, in 1792, 
 introduced divorce into the civil code ; in 1816, the modern 
 spirit abolished it. The Christian spirit had always con- 
 demned it. And how many other serious modifications I 
 could instance ! l And, in what remains, how much is 
 there which morality and religion have to regret, and how 
 much which jurisconsults and political economists con- 
 demn. I would here refer my readers to the able work 
 just published by M. Sauzet, in defence of the Holy See ; 
 where \rill be found a minute and masterly comparison of 
 the Roman with the French laws. c (Rome devant V Europe. 
 Lecoffre, Paris, 1860.) 
 
 # * * * * * 
 
 Still, notwithstanding these serious defects in the French 
 law, our codes might be consulted with advantage by 
 Roman reformers ; just as we ourselves would do well to 
 adopt, in certain points, the Roman civil code : and I should 
 be the first to desire such a useful interchange of laws, 
 whereby, aided by the united experience and intelligence 
 of various men and countries, we might hope ultimately to 
 eliminate all injustice and imperfection from our laws. But 
 no one at Rome objects to such an interchange. Nor is 
 there any radical incompatibility between our laws and 
 those of Rome. We would repeat, wliat men seem dis- 
 posed to forget,. that Rome is the country of the two sources 
 of our laws, the Gospel and the Digest : to send our laws 
 to Rome is to return them to the place which gave them 
 
 1 The bishop hero enumerates several changes made in the Code 
 Napoleon; but as they arc rhirily of a technical description, and 
 possess but slight interest for the general, and particularly the 
 foreign reader, I have thought it best to omit them. Translator. 
 
 2 Here follow details of several causes of complaint against the 
 French laws, such as the non-recognition of the religious character 
 of marriage, &c., which I have omitted for the same reasons. Idem. 
 
THE PAPAL GOVERNMENT. 433 
 
 birth. But, as two brothers, in dividing an inheritance, 
 may not display equal judgment in their choice, so Rome 
 may have chosen the better part of the Christian spirit, 
 while Paris, perhaps, has accepted, in its portion, certain 
 articles of less sterling value. At all events, before de- 
 ciding on substituting laws which perhaps are superior 
 as to their precise and scientific arrangement for others 
 which are probably at bottom more consonant with Chris- 
 tian morality, a careful comparative study is imperatively 
 required, and each side should depute jurisconsults some- 
 what better qualified for such an examination than a French 
 colonel or an English gentleman. 
 
 But I have also to ask, by what right are all the civil laws 
 of one country to be forced upon another ? and why the 
 French civil laws, not the English, Belgian, Spanish, Aus- 
 trian, or Russian ? Are not these nations civilized ? Where 
 do we find it written, Outside the Code Napoleon there is 
 no salvation ? No ; unfair advantage is taken of the weak- 
 ness of the Holy Father. Such tyrannical conditions are 
 only imposed upon him. To what other sovereig^n do 
 people presume to say, Accept a foreign code, or abdicate. 
 
 Again, as M. Sauzet most reasonably asks, Why does 
 not Piedmont, for instance, which demands the acceptance 
 of the Code Napoleon at Rome, adopt it at Turin ? And 
 why does it not endow Tuscany with it ? M. Sauzet is 
 convinced that Turin would obstinately resist, and that 
 Florence would be still more tenacious of certain customs 
 bound up with its very existence. It i*s not easy to con- 
 ceive that Rome, too, may have a distinctive character of 
 her own, and are we to lay down as a principle that all 
 nations are to be moulded after the same model ? 
 
 But is it not monstrous to see England proposing to 
 force the Code Napoleon upon the Pope, she who has no 
 code, neither that of Napoleon nor any other ? England, 
 with her partial legislation, so unjust, in some respects, as 
 to the laws of inheritance ; her inefficient and defective 
 penitentiary system, her poor-rates, and her canker of 
 pauperism I do not mention the confusion and chaos 
 presented by the laws of William the Conqueror, Elizabeth, 
 
 2 F 
 
434 THE REFORMS DEMANDED FROM 
 
 and Victoria, all huddled together. Bentham has said, 
 speaking of the common law of England, its usages, and 
 jurisprudence, so often clashing together, that it is a field 
 set with snares, a disgrace and a curse to a civilized 
 country. 1 
 
 Not only, however, are the laws of Rome censured, but 
 also the manner in which they are administered. The 
 administration of justice at Rome has afforded a fertile 
 theme for declamation and misrepresentation. For my 
 part, I feel no difficulty in admitting that the French 
 judicial system is perhaps preferable. But I cannot admit 
 that we are right in so exclusively admiring the judicial 
 forms of our country as to be unjust towards others. If 
 we will but judge dispassionately, inquire into facts, and 
 not be guided only by hearsay, we shall see that, in reality, 
 in Rome every precaution is taken calculated to enlighten 
 justice and to exclude any possibility of error. Such is 
 even the distinguishing feature of the judicial institutions 
 of the country ; and it is well known that the decisions of 
 the celebrated tribunal of the Rota have often called forth 
 the universal approbation of Europe. 
 
 " In fact," says a high-minded and trustworthy autho- 
 rity, M. de Rayneval, "justice is impartially adminis- 
 tered in the Roman states, making allowance for human 
 and unavoidable errors. For my part, no decision has 
 come to my knowledge of which the most renowned 
 tribunal in Europe need have been ashamed. In criminal 
 matters I may make the same assertion. I have followed 
 some trials throughout all their details, and it was evident 
 to me that all the precautions necessary as to the estab- 
 lishment of facts, all possible securities to insure the free 
 
 1 The laws of all countries have their own usages. Should the 
 queen of England be dethroned because the degrading punishment 
 of flogging is permitted in her army ? I am aware that it has been 
 restricted by an order of the duke of Cambridge, dated the Oth of 
 November last : but the new regulations still sanction its infliction 
 upon men already found guilty of certain offences therein specified. 
 
THT PAPAL GOVERNMENT. 4-35 
 
 defence of the accused, including the publicity of the 
 proceedings, were scrupulously observed." 
 
 Much is said about the rigour and cruelty of the Papal 
 courts, of their sentences, their prisons, and their victims. 
 These high-sounding words were made the most of by M. 
 de Cavour at the Paris congress, and by Lord Palmerston 
 in the British parliament. M. Pepoli has even presumed 
 to say : " We doubt whether there is a country in Europe 
 which, in proportion to its extent, numbers so many con- 
 demnations to death, to the galleys, and to exile, as the 
 Romagna." (Memorandum of October 3, 1859.) One 
 does not know what name to give to such language. The 
 fact is, on the contrary, that Pope Pius IX., on his return 
 from Gaeta, granted the most generous and most compre- 
 hensive of amnesties ; that no chastisement was inflicted 
 on those who had overthrown the Pontifical government, 
 and that not a drop of blood was shed. And if any 
 general accusation can be brought against the Roman 
 courts, I have always heard that it was rather an excess 
 of clemency than an excess of rigour. 
 
 But, to descend to details,, what is the exact meaning of 
 these vague accusations ? They cannot refer to the 
 penalties inflicted for ordinary offences; murderers and 
 thieves cannot be allowed to go unpunished, whether in 
 the Romagna or elsewhere. It is only, then, political 
 offences that can be alluded to. Well, these offences are 
 put down in Rome as they are in England, in Russia, in 
 France, and everywhere else, only with far greater indul- 
 gence. Are people serious in bringing such a charge? 
 Since when have any states, whether monarchical or 
 republican, been able to do without repressive measures ? 
 Is all punishment unnecessary, when it is public order 
 that is attacked ? Is there a government upon earth 
 against which conspiracies are to be permitted, and which 
 is to be forbidden to defend itself? 
 
 Look, not only at what Austria has done in Hungary, 
 but at the conduct of Piedmont towards the insurgents of - 
 Genoa ; what has England done in the Ionian Islands, and 
 at home, against the Chartists ? How did republican 
 
 2 F 2 
 
436 THE REFORMS DEMANDED FROM THE 
 
 France act after the 15th of May after the bloody days 
 of June,, 1848_, and imperial France after the 2nd of 
 December? Is what is looked upon elsewhere as a matter 
 of course, criminal at Rome ? However, in fact, nothing 
 of the kind has ever taken place in the Roman States. 
 Enough has been now said upon laws and justice; let us 
 pass on to another article of the reforms liberal 
 government. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 THE REFORMS DEMANDED FROM THE PAPAL GOVERNMENT, 
 CONTINUED. 
 
 LIBERAL GOVERNMENT. 
 I. 
 
 THE great powers of Europe have, at different times, 
 demanded from the Pope a more liberal government for 
 his subjects. What is deficient in the Roman government 
 in this respect ? Is it a liberal form or a liberal spirit ? 
 Let us examine these two points successively. 
 
 1. The form. But what do the different European 
 powers understand by a liberal form of government ? Is 
 the same sense attached to these words at St. Petersburg 
 and Paris, at London and at Vienna? To take France 
 alone, what do we mean by them ourselves ? Have they 
 always been taken in the same sense at Paris in 1830, 
 in 1840, in 1850, and 1860? To which of these forms, 
 liberal in so many different senses, is Rome to conform ? 
 It is clear that they who are the most pressing in their 
 requirements on this head are neither consistent with 
 themselves, nor in harmony with one another. 
 
 But to attack the question directly, I do not hesitate to 
 affirm that free institutions, municipal and provincial 
 
PAPAL GOVERNMENT, CONTINUED. -137 
 
 liberties, equality before the law, an even distribution of 
 taxes and public employments, the most large development 
 of industry and commerce, as well as the progress of 
 letters, arts, and sciences in short, that civil and political 
 liberty and equality, and all the great ideas contained in 
 what is called a liberal and progressive government, are 
 not disapproved by a single syllable of the Gospel, or a 
 single definition of the Church ; it is even notorious that 
 it is the Gospel and the Church which have conferred them 
 upon European society. 
 
 I know that these things are sadly abused ; but what is 
 not capable of abuse ? I know that certain writers have 
 pushed them to unwarrantable lengths, and I certainly do 
 not mean to approve of all that men have understood by 
 these terms ; still, however, they are not empty sounds ; 
 they correspond to ideas which Catholics, as well as others, 
 are free to accept and put in practice. The majority of 
 minds in Europe now regard these ideas as true and 
 salutary. I consider it, therefore, important that it should 
 be understood that religion here presents no difficulty ; 
 any difficulty which exists is wholly political. What 
 nations are able to bear these liberties, in what measure, 
 and with what restrictions ? Such is the only point to be 
 cleared up. 
 
 But I must ask, can we, whose liberalism alters every 
 ten years, at the breath of each revolution, pretend to 
 impose upon Home every new constitution conferred upon 
 us by each successful outbreak, or each bold coup d'etat ? 
 As to the liberty of the press, is it to be absolute and un- 
 limited? Shall it be what we had in 1846 or 1849, or 
 what we have now in I860? 1 Again, whether shall it be 
 
 1 Apropos of the press, it is worth remarking that the Holy See 
 exposed as it is to the continual attacks and strictures of every 
 newspaper and parliament in the world, is undoubtedly the most 
 criticised government on earth. If the king of Denmark had thus 
 at his heels all the pamphleteers, the orators, the diplomatists, and 
 all the public prosecutors of mankind, he would not remain two 
 years upon his throne. 
 
438 THE REFORMS DEMANDED FROM THE 
 
 that of England, Russia, or France ? Is there to be free 
 .parliamentary discussion ? Why, it is extinct among our- 
 selves. Pius IX. had granted extensive parliamentary 
 liberties; who suppressed them? The revolution. In 
 1849, when we had restored the Pope, and were discussing 
 the measures advisable for him to adopt, the representa- 
 tives of Europe were far from recommending him to 
 re-establish the parliamentary regime which Rome had 
 proved itself unfit for. 
 
 Still Pius IX., on his return, issued a motu proprio 
 which satisfied Lord Palmerston himself, 1 as well as 
 M. Thiers and republican France; though it did not re- 
 establish the parliament, it must be admitted that it 
 conferred extensive and precious liberties municipal 
 liberties, provincial liberties, and even political liberties 
 as to the regulation of taxes and finance. Yes, that bar- 
 barous country, which cannot be esteemed civilized, as 
 M. Pepoli shamelessly asserted, enjoys all these liberties ; 
 Europe considered them sufficient ; and the Pope not only 
 freely and generously promised them, but has faithfully 
 carried them into execution; in many respects he has 
 even gone beyond what he had promised. 
 
 We have been told that the motu proprio remained a 
 dead letter ; but what do facts say ? I find that 
 
 The municipal organization has been radically reformed. 
 The ratepayers of the commune, along with those who have 
 taken degrees in the different Roman universities, form an 
 electoral body, who directly name the municipal coun- 
 cillors. The latter draw up, in their turn, a list of candi- 
 dates, from which the government selects the members of 
 the provincial council. These last present, in like manner, 
 a list of names, among which the Holy Father chooses the 
 members of the finance consulta of state. 
 
 Great latitude is given, both to the municipal and pro- 
 vincial councils, in the collection and allocation of funds. 
 It is not the represent tftives of the <j< it who dispose. 
 
 See his speech in the House of Commons, July 15, 18-50. 
 
PAPAL GOVERNMENT, CONTINUED. 439 
 
 of the funds of the commune or the province ; this duty rests 
 with an executive committee, elected by the council for which 
 it acts, and which continues its sittings during the interval 
 between the sessions. The delegates, or prefects, have 
 only a right of supervision, and take no direct part in the 
 management of municipal or provincial affairs. 
 
 Such are the municipal liberties in the Roman States ; 
 would Piedmont present them with better ? Have we 
 ourselves, in France, more extended municipal liberties ? 
 They have suffered with us, like all our other liberties, 
 from our revolutions. Has not the government reserved 
 to itself, and does it not use, the right of appointing 
 municipal authorities in our towns, without consulting the 
 councils elected by the citizens ? Frequently, indeed, the 
 elected councils are superseded by government commis- 
 sioners. Nor do we make the remark in a spirit of 
 censure ; we know that allowance must be made for the 
 necessities of the times ; but it is very much to the point 
 to show that it is not only in the Papal States that the 
 spirit of revolution has retarded public liberties; and it 
 seems to me but a poor compliment to France to pronounce 
 Italy ripe for institutions which still require so many pre- 
 cautions among ourselves, and are subjected to such strict 
 and jealous regulations. 
 
 Moreover, centralization is not the old Roman system : 
 it is the offspring of the French revolution and the empire. 
 The creation of the department of the Tiber destroyed 
 many an ancient liberty, which it was found impossible to 
 restore after fifteen years of French centralization ; but 
 municipal liberty is now as flourishing under Pius IX. 
 for all that M. Pepoli says as in the most civilized coun- 
 tries in the world. That more still may be done, is 
 possible; but to say that nothing has been done, is a calumny. 
 
 Let us now consider the Finance Consulta. This 
 Finance Consulta is a supreme audit office, instituted to 
 revise the expenditure of public money, and to give its 
 opinion l as to the budgets, and, in general, as to all 
 
 The opinion of the Gonsulta upon the budget is, in fact, decisive ; 
 
440 THE REFORMS DEMANDED FROM THE 
 
 matters connected with taxation, income, and expenditure. 
 It is a general financial council, whose members are taken 
 from a list presented by the provincial councils, which 
 themselves are appointed in the same manner by the 
 municipal councils, elected in their turn by electors whose 
 right of voting only depends upon certain qualifications. 
 
 It is sufficient to run one's eye over a Papal budget 
 to become immediately sensible of the efficacious and sa- 
 lutary operation of the consulta. I have before me a 
 summary of the amendments recommended by it, to the 
 budgets from 1853 to 1859, and almost all of which were 
 approved by the Holy Father ; these amendments amount 
 to 1,500. The budget of 1853 contained nearly 730 
 items ; the Consulta amended nearly half. 1 
 
 M. Pepoli asks, " How is it that the savings proposed 
 by the Consulta have not been realized ? " But if I glance 
 at the tables placed at the head of each budget to indicate 
 the general result of the amendments of the session, I find 
 that the savings effected upon the two budgets of 1853 and 
 1854 amount to 130,320 ; that is, one-sixteenth of the 
 expenditure. An equivalent saving upon the last French 
 budget would amount, as has been remarked, to 
 112,000,000 francs. 
 
 Still, you say, the Papal finances are greatly embar- 
 rassed. Indeed, it is easy to conceive that they must be : 
 you have done your best to render them so. One thing 
 should not be forgotten when we hear the Pope's govern- 
 ment impeached on the ground of its finances ; namely, 
 that its debts have solely been caused by revolution. As 
 M. Sauzet observes, " one is struck, in the States of the 
 Church, by a sort of rivalry between the revolution and 
 
 because the Pope's assent is almost always given as a matter of 
 course. 
 
 1 We abridge, preferring to refer to the laborious and able 
 articles of M. de Corcelles in the Correspondent (" La Ve'rite' sur le 
 Gouvernement Pontifical"). He is an eye-witness, whose testimony 
 is the more valuable on account of his great experience and high 
 character. 
 
PAPAL GOVERNMENT, CONTINUED. 441 
 
 the sovereigns ; the one in destroying, the other in repair- 
 ing the ravages of the former. Pius VIII. left his finances 
 flourishing in 1830. The insurrection of 1831 imposed 
 severe sacrifices on Gregory XVI., whose whole reign was 
 occupied in doing away with the embarrassments they 
 occasioned." But, not to go further back, look at the 
 state in which the republic of 1848 left Pius IX. ; a sum 
 equivalent to 1,720,000 had been issued in paper money 
 by Mazzini and Garibaldi; how did the Holy Father act? 
 He made himself responsible for, and paid this .1,720,000. 
 Notwithstanding this heavy sacrifice, and the increase of 
 expenditure occasioned by the foreign occupations, and 
 the necessary maintenance of a larger army than before, 
 this decried financial administration had succeeded in 
 establishing an equilibrium between income and expen- 
 diture in the budget of 1858, and that of 1859 presented 
 a surplus in favour of the former, when M. Pepoli and 
 Piedmont, appeared, to derange all calculations, seized on 
 the Romagna, and threatened the remainder of the Papal 
 states. Yet it is M. Pepoli and Piedmont whom we now 
 find accusing the Pontifical government ! 
 
 The Pope has made three great concessions with regard 
 to finance, which had not even been promised in the motu 
 proprio. 
 
 1. He gave the Consulta a vote, in fact, as to the 
 budgets brought forward, and a full control over the most 
 delicate and complicated financial measures of his govern- 
 ment. 
 
 2. For the information of his people, he had the votes 
 of the Consulta published in juxtaposition with the finan- 
 cial measures proposed by the ministers ; and with them 
 the Pope's decisions, item by item ; which decisions almost 
 always confirmed the amendments of the Consulta. 
 
 3. He arranged that the Consulta should be represented 
 during the recess by a permanent committee, in order 
 that no financial measures might be taken without its 
 co-operation. 
 
 And all this is as little taken account of, as if it never 
 had been done. 
 
442 THE REFORMS DEMANDED FROM THE 
 
 In France, the Etnperor Napoleon, when introducing cer- 
 tain restrictions, serious ones, too, to our liberties, pro- 
 mised that one day these restrictions should end, and the 
 fabric of the French constitution be completed. It is now 
 ten years since that promise was made, and we have not 
 yet seen the wished-for consummation. Should we revolt 
 in order to obtain it ? 
 
 Be, then, candid, and admit what has been done at 
 Rome, in the face of such obstacles : and if much still re- 
 mains to be done, whose is the fault, if not that of the 
 eternal enemies of order in Europe? Pius IX., finding 
 the great political liberties he had granted his people 
 undone by the revolution, has again endowed them with 
 such as were possible ; and he is ready still to grant 
 others on a greater scale. True, the Roman government, 
 though in reality essentially liberal in its spirit and its in- 
 stitutions, is not of the same political form as the French 
 government, which itself differs in form from the English. 
 But surely we are not to be taught that there is but one 
 orthodox liberal form, into which all the governments of 
 the earth must be moulded. 
 
 2. Liberal spirit. Enough has been said as to forms. 
 They are but a means. What is really of importance is 
 ,the spirit in which this means is used, and the end to 
 which it tends. Now, is the spirit of the Roman govern- 
 ment liberal ? Or, in other words, does it tend to further 
 the moral and material progress of its subjects? Let us 
 examine this capital point. 
 
 M. Pepoli states that " the general rule of the Pontifical 
 government is repression and not prevention. No im- 
 provements are introduced, either in education or adminis- 
 tration ; but punishment is ever on the increase." So 
 nothing is done for education at Rome ! Surely this is 
 the most wanton calumny that could be uttered. M. 
 Pepoli is perhaps the only man who is not aware that the 
 popes have at all times encouraged letters, arts, and 
 sciences, more than any sovereigns or parliaments, lie 
 has never heard that at Rome numerous institutions, 
 chairs, and libraries bespeak the care which is taken of 
 
PAPAL GOVERNMENT, CONTINUED. 443 
 
 arts, sciences, and letters ; and that, in particular, the 
 education of the poor is so far from being neglected, that 
 there is a schoolmaster in every commune, as there is a 
 physician and a surgeon, who may be consulted gratui- 
 tously. 1 
 
 Rome itself possesses more than four hundred elementary 
 or grammar schools, and twice as many children as in 
 Paris, in proportion, receive elementary instruction. As 
 to higher studies, the difference is equally remarkable. 
 In this little state of three millions of souls, there are seven 
 universities with all their faculties complete, and fre- 
 quented by more than 1,700 students : 2 that is, in pro- 
 portion, twice as many as in France. Yet M. Pepoli dares 
 to say that the Papal government has done nothing for the 
 instruction of its people ! No, in spite of these audacious 
 calumnies, which unfortunately are too often acquiesced 
 in, or at least not stigmatized by well-disposed people, 
 Rome is, and ever will remain, the great metropolis of 
 letters, arts, and sciences, as it is of faith and charity. 
 
 "What is said of the ignorance of Rome is of a piece 
 with what is said of its misery and oppression. The in- 
 habitants of Rome ignorant, miserable, and oppressed ! 
 At all events, they do not seem aware of their unhappy 
 lot, and to see them, on their holidays, so full of spirits 
 and gaiety, one would set them down as one of the hap- 
 piest of peoples, if enjoyment is a sign of happiness. 
 
 I must confess, for my part, that when, in the great 
 manufacturing towns of England and Scotland, I saw a 
 
 1 In one of our French departments, in which I am bishop, one 
 of our prefects, M. Dubessey, whose memory will ever be dear to 
 me, succeeded, with great difficulty, in establishing a physician and 
 an apothecary, not in each commune, but in each canton ; and for 
 this he receiyed encomiums from all parts of France. 
 
 2 Of these, there are about 700 in law, and the same nnmber in 
 medicine. The numbers of the medical profession in the Roman 
 States are about 7,000; the number of those occupied in the study 
 and practice of law, exclusive of the magistrates, is 4,500. 
 M. Sauzet. 
 
444 THE REFORMS DEMANDED FROM THE 
 
 ragged, pale, and emaciated crowd issue from the mills ; 
 or when, in the public thoroughfares, I beheld those throngs 
 of miserable beings, walking barefooted in the mud, half 
 naked, alongside of those sumptuous equipages, the sight 
 was far from convincing me that the condition of the 
 masses in England was one greatly to be envied by the 
 Romans. 
 
 My recollections of what I have seen are too lively to 
 allow me to lend a ready ear to what is told us about the 
 misery of that people. I have seen and observed them 
 closely more than once ; I have also seen and observed 
 other peoples : I have seen the Romans on their holidays, 
 in the midst of their favourite sports; I have seen, too, 
 the amusements of other nations ; but, at least for dignity, 
 self-respect, and decorum, no less than for complete 
 freedom from stiffness or constraint, no people can be 
 compared to the Roman. Every Sunday in the month of 
 October the whole population drive out to the country ; 
 not merely to the suburbs, as in certain great cities ; they 
 spend their holidays in the real country, amid the most 
 lovely scenery on the hills of Frascati, Tivoli, and Albano. 
 I have seen all this people assembled, on a Sunday after- 
 noon in autumn, at the noble villa of Prince Borghese ; I 
 have been a spectator of their games, their chariot-races ; 
 it was most interesting to witness their high spirits, their 
 joyous shouts, their eager applause; and impossible not 
 to be struck by something noble and dignified in their 
 demeanour. The carnival is particularly remarkable. I 
 do not think one could conceive greater self-command 
 and even politeness, combined with more unrestrained 
 joyousness. Rarely has the police to interfere. Their 
 whole heart is in their amusements, but their amusements 
 are innocent : they enjoy, but do not forget themselves. 
 Nothing is more curious or more picturesque. Moreover, 
 the nobility, too, share these diversions ; and the common 
 mirth seems, as it were, to create a charming equality 
 among all classes of society. 
 
 However, another topic is broached, and this people 
 accused of indolence and sloth ; they neglect, it is said, 
 
PAPAL GOVERNMENT, CONTINUED. 445 
 
 agriculture arid industry. I do not pretend to say that 
 the people of the south work like those of the north. The 
 sun demands less assistance from the former than the 
 latter. Still, in the Adriatic provinces, which people now 
 want to take from the Pope, the crops are as fine as in any 
 other country ; it is true, that in other parts of the Pon- 
 tifical states, pasturage which is found indeed to pay 
 well prevails more extensively than tillage; but this is a 
 very old habit, difficult to change, and which, as M. Sauzet 
 proves, the Popes were far from encouraging. It is also a 
 manifest injustice and exaggeration to complain of the 
 state of industry at Rome. Every country has its own 
 arts and manufactures. In some, Rome is even superior 
 to many, if not all, other nations. The arts of the gold- 
 smith and jeweller, painting, sculpture, engraving, mosaic, 
 architecture, are perhaps more flourishing at Rome than 
 anywhere else. 
 
 In fact, any dispassionate inquirer, who attentively 
 compares the lot of the Pope's subjects, and more espe- 
 cially that of the poor, the labourers and artisans, with 
 the condition of the corresponding classes in most other 
 nations, needs some self-command not indignantly to 
 retort their own accusations upon the traducers of the 
 Pontifical government. 
 
 The necessaries of life are remarkably cheap and abun- 
 dant in the Papal states ; the bread of the poor is incom- 
 parably superior to what we have in France ; the lowest 
 classes have always been able to afford themselves wine, 
 until several successive failures of the vines occurred ; and, 
 what is scarcely to be found elsewhere, all classes eat 
 meat. 
 
 Extreme poverty is certainly unfavourable to the in- 
 crease of the population; yet the population of the Pope's 
 states has increased during the last ten years, much more, 
 in proportion, than that of France. I find in M. Sauzet's 
 work, that, from 1833 to 1853, the population of France 
 has only increased seven per cent., while that of the 
 States of the Church has increased fourteen per cent, in 
 the same period. 
 
446 THE REFORMS DEMANDED FROM THE 
 
 Indigence undoubtedly exists at Rome ; but such is the 
 number of hackneyed falsehoods which have been reiterated 
 on this topic, that I shall perhaps surprise many people 
 by stating that indigence, at Rome and in the Roman 
 States, is much, less prevalent than elsewhere, and is more 
 effectually relieved. Still this is but the truth. The 
 numbers of poor at Rome and Paris have been compared,, 
 and have been found relatively less in the capital of the 
 Catholic world. According to M. Sauzet, there is not at 
 Rome, as there is at Paris, one indigent person to fifteen 
 inhabitants, and he adds, that " Londpn alone contains 
 eight times as many as the whole of the States of the 
 Church." There are poor at Rome as elsewhere, but we 
 do not find there, as in England and other places, the 
 hideous canker of pauperism. Public and private charity 
 are so generously exercised, that there is no need of forced 
 rates and taxes for the poor. 
 
 "The charitable resources of Rome are unrivalled. Her 
 hospitals contain 4,500 beds for patients, to a population 
 of 180,000 souls, while Paris has only 8,000 beds for a 
 population of eight times the amount. London, with its 
 2,000,000 of souls, has only 6,000." (M. Sauzet.) There 
 are hospitals at Rome for all diseases, for men of all 
 nations, whether from the east or north ; asylums for 
 every affliction, for the convalescent, orphans, and the 
 aged; refuges, penitentiaries, shelters for exiles, succour 
 for pilgrims. Another fact which may surprise, but is 
 nevertheless beyond question, is, that the mortality is less 
 in the Roman hospitals than in those of Paris, so admir- 
 ably kept. M. Sauzet states that "it amounts to one- 
 ninth in the Paris hospitals, and scarcely to one-twelfth 
 in those of Rome." 
 
 M. Sauzet also says, " Everything at Rome is organized 
 for the good of the people." Not only is this true, with 
 regard 'to the relief provided for distress, but also in that 
 no people in the world arc burdened with fewer taxes. 
 They do not pay one-half of what is exacted in France. 
 We pay a multitude of taxes which are not even known at 
 Rome, such as the personal tax, the door and window 
 
PAPAL GOVERNMENT, CONTINUED. 117 
 
 tax, &c. : there are no duties on legacies to one's children, 
 as with us ; the duties on sales and exchanges are much 
 lower than we pay ; the duty on licenses, quite recently 
 established, is not relatively the quarter of what it is in 
 Trance. 
 
 The Pope's government is one which costs the country 
 very little ; it is a cheap government, in the true sense of 
 the term. The pomp of the cardinals has been a theme 
 for declamation ; yet the stipend of a cardinal is far from 
 equal to that of a senator in France ; several members of 
 the Sacred College lodge in monasteries, and owe it to the 
 great simplicity of their life that they are able to keep up 
 the appearance necessary to their rank. What is the 
 outlay required for the stipends of the cardinals; the 
 Pope's civil list; the ecclesiastical congregations; the 
 keeping in repair of the churches, galleries, museums; 
 for the nuncios, the whole foreign diplomatic corps, and 
 even for the guards of the Holy Father ? Hardly 120,000. 
 The expenditure for the Pope's household, which is in- 
 cluded in it, is not 4,000, and his personal expenses do 
 not amount to a quarter of this sum. " The expenses of 
 government, of the administration of justice, of public 
 works, of public instruction, and those required to keep 
 up the monuments of faith and the arts, scarcely come 
 to 1,600,000, for a population of 3,200,000 souls." 
 
 Equality before the law is, doubtless, one of the prin- 
 ciples of a liberal government. But it is unnecessary to 
 introduce it at Rome. It is the universal principle of the 
 Roman government. " Nothing can pretend to immu- 
 nity from the empire of the law : equality before it is 
 the soul of all institutions. The prince is subject to the 
 same taxes as the artisan : everybody pays in proportion 
 to his fortune, without overcharge or privilege. Entailed 
 properties are subject to the land-tax as well as others. 
 The lands of ecclesiastics pay it like those of laymen. 
 Equality before the law, as well as equality of taxation, 
 are, and have been from time immemorial, enjoyed at 
 Rome. The nobility there possess only honours, and 
 even-handed justice reigned over all the citizens, even in 
 
448 THE REFORMS DEMANDED FROM THE 
 
 those times when Europe was still groaning under the 
 burden of privileges and exclusions." (M. Sauzet, "Rome 
 devant PEurope.") 
 
 I wish to conclude this chapter by some remarks upon 
 a question which is entitled, from its importance, to a 
 separate consideration, I mean the liberty of conscience. 
 
 n. 
 
 The confusion of ideas upon this point is very great ; 
 many unjust accusations have been raised against the 
 Church, through misconception of her principles. With- 
 out pretending to exhaust so wide a subject, I will en- 
 deavour to represent in its true colours the Roman 
 doctrine on the subject. And, in the first place, if any 
 imagine that there can be no liberty of conscience at 
 Rome, and that, in fact, there is none, they are wrong. 
 It is well known that the Jews have synagogues at Rome, 
 and the Protestants a church. " Rome," says M. Sauzet, 
 " has been at all times the refuge of the Jews, and they 
 called it themselves their paradise, in the middle ages, 
 when they were persecuted with ignorant barbarity all 
 over Europe." ] 
 
 Is it out of place to recall here that Pius IX. gave the 
 marble for the statue of Washington, and sent alms to the 
 Protestants of the Low Countries, during the inundations, 
 and to the Mahometans ruined by the earthquake at 
 Corinth, as well as to the Catholic Irish ? As M. Sauzet 
 remarks, " The heart of Pius IX. is not less paternal 
 towards his strayed than his faithful children : it may 
 be truly said that he relieves whatever is wretched, as he 
 admires whatever is great." 
 
 But let us enter upon the essential matter of the qucs- 
 
 1 " The Jews have a quarter in Home set apart for themselves, 
 they may compel the owners of houses to receive them ; still 
 
 they mav remove from this quarter and live in other parts of the 
 city, if they please." M. Sauzet. 
 
PAPAL GOVERNMENT, CONTINUED. 449 
 
 tiou. If by liberty of conscience is meant the absurd 
 principle of indifferentism, or the equality of all religions, 
 then certainly it is in vain to ask the Pope's government 
 to adopt it. It is .a self-evident axiom that truth is dif- 
 ferent from error, as day is different from night. In this 
 sense that is, in a dogmatic sense the true religion is, 
 and ought to be, exclusive. Nay, more, in this sense 
 every truth, even of the natural order, is exclusive and 
 absolute, or else it is not a truth. I add, that the dis- 
 tinction between true and false, and the moral obligation 
 to seek and adhere to truth, and to eschew falsehood, is 
 precisely what constitutes the philosophical spirit and 
 duty, as well as the religious spirit, and the duty religion 
 imposes. The Church, therefore, cannot be asked to 
 declare that error is something indifferent and morally 
 irresponsible. No; and were she to do so, philosophy 
 herself, and common sense, would exclaim. But while 
 maintaining the rights and the royal majesty of truth, 
 while elevating it above error, and proclaiming it the 
 duty of the reason to search for, and to submit to it 
 when found, ought we to go so far as to force it upon 
 others? Should we impose the faith by force upon 
 mankind ? 
 
 I answer, first, that this is impossible. To force a person 
 to believe is a thing we never can accomplish : so that 
 constraint here can only lead to hypocrisy and subterfuge. 
 I shall add, that such is not the doctrine of our masters in 
 Christianity, to whom the eternal glory belongs of having 
 founded and propagated the faith upon earth. Mahome- 
 tanism was established by the sword ; but Christianity by 
 persuasion. St. Paul entertained the sublime ambition of 
 reducing all minds, even the most stubborn, to the obe- 
 dience of Jesus Christ, Redigentes omnem intellectum in 
 obsequium Christi. But how? By violence? No;- by 
 the divine virtue of preaching and of Jesus crucified. 
 Nos aiitem prcedicamus Christum crucifixum. The divine 
 Pounder of Christianity himself had not pointed out other 
 methods to his apostles : Euntes doccte omnes yentes. 
 Predicate Evangelium omni creature. 
 
 2 G 
 
450 THE REFORMS DEMANDED FROM THE 
 
 " The truth is not preached/' says St. Athanasius, 
 " with swords or javelins, or by the force of armies, but 
 by persuasion and advice. The nature of religion is not 
 to constrain but to persuade." l Tertullian, that austere 
 genius, says, Cf It is not the spirit of religion, to impose 
 religion upon others ; it ought to be willingly accepted, 
 not suffered through ""violence ; the victim of a willing 
 heart is what is sought." 2 And the great convert, St. 
 Augustin, addressing the heretics of his day, said, "Let 
 those treat you harshly, who know not with what labour 
 truth is found. But I, who have only been atye to see 
 the true light after having been long and severely tossed 
 on the waves of error, cannot be severe towards you." 3 
 St. Hilary of Poitiers, in his own name and in that of his 
 colleagues in the episcopate, wrote : " If such violence 
 were to be used in the service of the true faith, the 
 doctrine of the bishops would oppose it, and say, God 
 does not desire a forced confession. He is to be sought 
 with pure intention, and to be held fast by good will 
 only." 4 Fenelon speaks the same language as these great 
 bishops : " What is the object of the apostolic ministry ? 
 If you only seek to overawe men, and cause them to 
 perform certain outward actions, raise the sword ; all 
 tremble, and you are obeyed. In this you have an effi- 
 cient police, but not true religion. Men must be per- 
 suaded, and induced to love God freely, and independently 
 
 1 Non enirn gladiis aut tclis, non militum inanu, veritas praedi- 
 catur, eed suasione et consilio. Religionis proprium est non cogere, 
 aed persuadere. S. Athan. ad Solitaries. 
 
 2 Non religionis est cogere religionem, qua3 sponte suscipi debet, 
 non vi, cum et hostio; ab animo volenti expostulentur. 
 
 3 Jlli in vos sseviant qui nesciunt cum quo labore verum invenia- 
 tur. Ego autem, qui diu nmltumque jactatus tandem rcspicere po- 
 tui, Sffivire in vos oninino non possum. $. August, contra Manich. 
 
 4 Si ad fidem vc-nnn istius modi vis adhiberetur, episcopalis doc- 
 trina obviatn pcrgrivt, diceretque : Deus non requirit coactam con- 
 fessionem. Simplicitate qua-rcndus est, voluntatis probitate reti- 
 'neudus. S. Hilar. ad Coiift. i. >. 
 
PAPAL GOVERNMENT, CONTINUED. 451 
 
 of servile fear. Can force persuade men ? Can it make 
 them love what they do not love ? No human power can 
 force the impregnable intrenchment of the liberty of the 
 heart." (" Discourse for the Coronation of the Elector of 
 Cologne.") 
 
 Such is our doctrine, such our principles. If instances 
 of a conduct opposed to them are on record, if certain 
 ages, countries, or sovereigns, have, since the origin of 
 Christianity, preferred severity to liberty, in religion as 
 well as other things, it is to be observed that this very 
 diversity proves that the question is not one of principle, 
 but simply what is called a political question, with regard 
 to which the fluctuations of opinion, in different ages and 
 nations, have suggested different lines of conduct. 
 
 AVhat is certain is, on the one hand, that liberty of 
 faith and conscience is not religious indifferentism ; and, 
 on the other, that in this liberty, which in no way affects 
 moral obligation, there is nothing incompatible with the 
 truth and integrity of Catholic doctrine. 
 
 I will say the same as to the civil liberty of different 
 religions. To grant civil toleration to dissenting sects in 
 no way implies assent to their doctrines, and does not 
 contradict the dogmas of faith. As Fenelon said to the 
 son of James II. : " Grant civil toleration to all, not ap- 
 proving of everything as indifferent, but patiently suffer- 
 ing what God suffers, and endeavour to bring men back to 
 the truth by gentle persuasion." These principles are 
 admitted at Rome as elsewhere. 
 
 But it must also be granted that the civil liberty of 
 sects does not necessarily exclude a state religion, no 
 more than a state religion is incompatible with the 
 liberty of others. ,These things may co-exist in the 
 same state. 
 
 Is it advisable that there should be a religion of state ? 
 What relations is it wisest to establish between the Church 
 and the state? These are difficult questions, in which 
 politics have a large share, and which have been differently 
 resolved by us Catholics, as well as by those who differ 
 from us. Are all religious persuasions on a footing of 
 
 2 G 2 
 
452 THE REFORMS DEMANDED FROM THE 
 
 equality in free England ? Has she not a state religion ? 
 How long is it since she, who now so loudly advocates 
 toleration, granted it to the Irish ? How long is it since 
 she admitted the Jews, and the Catholics, into her parlia- 
 ment ? A state religion always existed in France under 
 the old monarchy ; and was re-established under the 
 Restoration, without excluding the widest liberty of all 
 other creeds. A state religion still exists in almost every 
 nation in Europe. Look at the map of Europe. Which 
 are the countries which at present maintain a religion of 
 the state ? If I do not mistake, of schismatical nations, 
 all; of Protestant, the majority, of Catholic, a minority. 
 Why are schismatical and Protestant nations obliged to 
 establish a state religion ? Because, if they did not raise 
 religion into a political institution, it would be a purely 
 individual concern, acknowledging no authority, spiritual 
 or temporal, and therefore must speedily come to nought. 
 Why have Catholic countries more readily admitted abso- 
 lute religious equality ? Precisely because their religion 
 has elsewhere an imperishable seat, because they possess a 
 religious authority and hierarchy of divine institution. 
 
 The question, then, admits of no general, absolute solu- 
 tion, which will hold for all particular cases. Account 
 must be taken of times, places, and circumstances. But, 
 whatever may be done elsewhere, it is easy to see what 
 must be the state religion at Rome, nor can it be a cause 
 of offence to any one : on the contrary, a different arrange- 
 ment would be incongruous and absurd. The Catholic 
 religion evidently should be the religion of the state, 
 where is the sovereign and essential seat of Catholicism, 
 at the centre of the religion of all Catholic states. 
 
 I will add, that if ever not mere liberty of worship, but 
 an indiscriminate equality between all religious persuasions 
 were universally established, even in Catholic countries, 
 from political considerations, which we have not to discuss 
 here, it would be an honour and a great benefit to humanity 
 that one spot at least should remain upon earth where, 
 without prejudicing liberty or charity, a living protest 
 might ever be raised against the determination of govern- 
 
PAPAL GOVERNMENT, CONTINUED. 453 
 
 ments publicly to refuse to recognize any distinction be- 
 tween the truth of God and the errors of nien, between 
 Jesus Christ and Mahomet, between the Gospel and the 
 Indian fables. We must either admit this, or conclude 
 that truth is valueless and superfluous upon earth, and that 
 Christian civilization can do no more for mankind than 
 pagan idolatry. 
 
 As to the practical toleration which prevails at Rome, 
 we can refer to evidence which is above suspicion. More 
 than a century ago, in 1740, the President De Brosses, a 
 man of learning and a wit, who did not spare the Church, 
 wrote to a friend, " There prevails at Rome, at least, as 
 great freedom of thought, and sometimes even of speech, 
 as to religion, as in any city I know of. I have not heard 
 of an instance of people brought before the Inquisition, or 
 treated with rigour." All Protestant or schismatical tra- 
 vellers, English or Prussian, since the time of President 
 De Brosses, speak the same language. Let us hear what 
 Voltaire said, in one of his rare moments of impartiality : 
 " The best answer to make to the detractors of the Holy 
 See is the mildness and wisdom with which, at present, 
 the bishops of Rome exercise their authority." (Art. 
 SAINT-PIERRE, Diction. Philosophique.} 
 
 We may recapitulate, then, what we have been examin- 
 ing, under three heads : 
 
 1. As ministers of the Church, our duty is to teach 
 publicly that the Gospel is the truth, the kingdom of 
 heaven, and eternal salvation. Such is the duty, the 
 right, the meaning, the end of a ministry to which our 
 life, our faith, our whole being, are devoted. I will add, 
 that the interests of mankind require this from us. Man 
 needs a light in his darkness, a rule in his passions, a 
 tranquillizing influence in his agitations, which are only to 
 be found in consistent, unvarying, dogmatic teaching. As 
 has been happily remarked, man does not require the aid 
 of masters to doubt. In the maze of opinions which en- 
 virons him, he looks to us for guidance, and our hearts 
 and consciences alike impel us to enlighten his uncertain- 
 ties, and point out to him, clearly and authoritatively, the 
 
454- THE REFORMS. 
 
 way of salvation. As far, then, as regards doctrine, we 
 are and ought to be exclusive and uncompromising. 
 
 2. But what is the best means of inducing men to 
 receive the truth ? The answer to this question concerns 
 not only the nature of truth, but also the nature of men, 
 and the obstacles to their discerning and embracing what 
 is for their good : for God has created the soul of man 
 free. Sublime and divine design ! God would not be 
 served mechanically by man, as by an unreasoning slave, 
 without liberty, merit, virtue, or glory. To bring back 
 men to the truth, the best means is, then, loving zeal, free 
 and charitable persuasion. 
 
 3. Again, what course is it wisest to adopt, when several 
 modes of belief exist in a society ? For my part while I 
 esteem that people the happiest who form but one heart 
 and one soul, freely professing the same faith, the same 
 hope, and the same love when such happiness cannot be 
 had, I confess that, though I know the dangers of con- 
 troversy for weak minds, yet even for them I dread free 
 discussion less than tyranny : because I believe truth and 
 charity efficacious and beautiful enough to triumph in 
 controversy, and tyranny odious enough to make even 
 truth hated ; and this is, in my mind, the worst of all 
 evils. I am fully sensible of the difficulties which the 
 question presents in practice at all times : still I take my 
 stand with St. Athanasius and St. Hilary, and would 
 repeat with them, " God desires not a forced confession : 
 it is not by the sword that the truth is preached." 
 
455 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 THE REFORMS DEMANDED FROM THE PAPAL GOVERNMENT. 
 THE QUESTION OF RIGHT. 
 
 WHO has the right to require reforms at Rome ? 
 
 I do not hesitate to answer, No one has a right, nor is 
 any one called on, to constrain the Sovereign Pontiff in 
 this respect, or to force his ideas upon him. The first 
 thing required is the liberty of the sovereign. Reforms 
 extorted by threats, improvements effected under compul- 
 sion, are neither meritorious nor \vell received, and conse- 
 quently fail to pacify men's minds, or to re-establish order. 
 Their only effect is to degrade the sovereign power, to 
 coerce authority ; and this can benefit neither party. The 
 interests of the people themselves require the sovereign 
 power to respect itself, and to impose respect upon others. 
 
 Pius IX., as I have often said already, is most willing 
 to grant voluntary, practical, and fruitful reforms, but not 
 compulsory, sterile, and chimerical ones ; because he 
 knows that the former alone honour the prince, and 
 benefit the people, while the latter degrade the crown, 
 and never content the people. 
 
 All questions of reform, then, ought to be treated of 
 respectfully and without compulsion, with the legitimate 
 sovereign, who is at the same time, in the present in- 
 stance, the august head of the Church. 
 
 But no one has a right to intermeddle in the domestic 
 affairs of any government, to exercise a control over its 
 laws and administration, or to decide between its subjects 
 and it. Such was the conclusion arrived at by the last 
 congress of Paris. And even had the congress not told 
 us so, the principle is assuredly essential to the dignity 
 of nations and the peace of Europe, has been asserted by 
 peoples with just pride, as well as by sovereigns, and is 
 daily confirmed by examples. Now, when a feeble sove- 
 
456 THE REFORMS. 
 
 reign is in question, this principle of the law of nations 
 becomes a law of' honour as well as of justice. What! 
 have the sacred words of right and honour no meaning 
 when applied to Rome and the Holy See ? Js what else- 
 where would be called iniquity to be considered here a 
 legitimate interposition ? Are we to call that obstinacy 
 in the present case which elsewhere would be the spirited 
 language of a high-minded sovereign, repelling the affront 
 offered to his nation and his person by a violent and un- 
 warrantable foreign intervention ? 
 
 But we are told that Rome is an exceptional state, and 
 that it belongs to us all. This is an unanswerable argument 
 in defence of the Holy See, which our opponents too easily 
 forget when it is in their way ; but who has a right to 
 urge it as a reason for coercing the Pope, and imposing 
 reforms upon him ? Those who disbelieve Catholicism ? 
 Why, it cannot concern them. Those who believe in it? 
 But not a word of reproach has fallen from them. Those 
 who want to seize on the Papal states ? They certainly 
 have made bitter complaints ; but, coming from them, 
 were they honourable or graceful ? 
 
 But, at least, has not France a special right to use her 
 influence with the Pope, and even more than a right a 
 duty? 
 
 M. Thiers has already answered this question : " France, 
 present at Rome in her army, could not commit the incon- 
 gruity of herself coercing the Holy Father, whom she had 
 delivered from the violence of a faction. Her duty was to 
 restore to him his throne and his liberty, his full and un- 
 restricted liberty, while offering him respectful advice, 
 for this she had a right to do." Yes, it is rejoined ; but, 
 at least, we may withdraw our troops from Rome : no one 
 can call that an act of violence. I answer, that before the 
 war broke out in Italy, and occasioned the revolt in the 
 Romagna, Pius IX. himself had proposed to the French 
 government to evacuate the Pontifical territory : that 
 government did not then think fit to do so : and now, 
 after all that has occurred, the victories of the revolution, 
 and the ebullition of such furious passions, it cannot be 
 
THE QUESTION OF RIGHT. 157 
 
 justifiable to recall the French army before Pius IX. again 
 requests it. We have every reason to believe that he soon 
 will do so : but till then honour forbids it ; at least such 
 are my feelings. If the revolutionists complain, they must 
 know that we did not interfere in Italy to give them a tri- 
 umph ; if England grumbles, let her be told that France 
 did not win the battles of Magenta and Solferino to obey 
 her ; if honest Italy, which seeks for wise liberties and just 
 reforms, looks to us and implores our influence, she must 
 acknowledge her error in looking to the revolution for 
 what she can effectually obtain only from the parental 
 authority and the noble heart of Pius IX. . 
 
 But it will be said, if sovereigns have their rights, the 
 people have theirs also. True ; and we shall proceed to 
 consider them. 
 
 I altogether deny the charge brought against us of ha- 
 bitually sacrificing, in all questions of the present descrip- 
 tion, the rights of the people to those of the sovereign. 
 I fully admit the sacredness of both these rights, and 
 would shrink from sacrificing either. 
 
 Have the people rights relatively to those who govern 
 them, and ought their legitimate wishes to be consulted V 
 I have not a doubt on this head. To give a negative 
 answer would be to sanction all tyranny, oppression, and 
 enslavement : this I should shudder to do. Bossuet has 
 truly said, after St. Thomas, The prince is not born for him- 
 self, he exists for others. In other words, the power is for 
 the people, not the people for the power. Bossuet says 
 again, The true part of the prince is to provide for the wants 
 of the people. The prince who is useless to his people is 
 culpable, as well as the cruel prince who oppresses them. 
 The essential object, then, of the supreme power is the 
 good of the people. Bossuet adds : God's intention in 
 establishing such great distinctions was not that some 
 should be proud and the rest slaves. Our Sovereign 
 Master has said that he came not to be ministered unto y 
 but to minister. To serve, to sacrifice oneself to the good 
 of those who are governed, is the end, the obligation, the 
 sole reason of a social authority. And it is for this reason 
 
458 THE REFORMS. 
 
 that it is entitled to the respect, the obedience, and even 
 the gratitude of the people. 
 
 All this is indisputable : but Providence, which has 
 established sovereign power for the good of the people, 
 cannot have intended that there should exist in states an 
 unceasing intestine war between the rights of the people 
 and those of the sovereign : we might then expect, and 
 there do exist, regular, peaceful, and efficacious means of 
 arriving at just, useful, and necessary reforms. Ought 
 not the people to prefer these to violent, subversive, and 
 revolutionary remedies ? And this is the true question 
 in the present case. Are we to assume that the progress 
 of the human race, that social improvements, are never 
 possible without disorders, convulsions, and revolutions ? 
 The rights of the people ! We assert them : but are they 
 only to serve to hurl the people into revolt and anarchy, 
 into war and disaster ? The rights of the people ! But 
 are not those rights subject to the essential conditions of 
 all other rights ? Should they not be freely and honestly 
 exercised, without injury to the rights of others ? This 
 is equally indisputable. 
 
 I confess that in the present controversy no tyranny 
 seems to me more revolting than the tyranny of high- 
 sounding words : all my sentiments of liberty, of honesty, 
 and of justice are fired by the conduct of certain indivi- 
 duals, adroit enough so far to distort the sense of words, 
 as to succeed, under their shadow, in crushing the very 
 rights which they extol. How disheartening to hear the 
 transparent sophisms, the solemn falsehoods, which these 
 great words are made to countenance, which meet with so 
 wide a credence, and not unfrequently decide the destinies 
 of nations ! How can any man of upright and noble 
 heart patiently tolerate the injustice and calumnies of 
 those who, under cover of hacknied and sonorous phrases, 
 pretend to monopolize the credit and the profit which 
 justly attach to all generous doctrines ! 
 
 Thus it is that we are taunted with want of patriotism ; 
 with antiquated views ; with seeking liberty to use it in 
 the service of despotism ; we are said to be strangers to 
 
THE QUESTION OF RIGHT. 459 
 
 national spirit, to carry on an underhand and implacable 
 war against the progress of modern society, which we 
 wish to convert into a miserable retrogression. I confess 
 I cannot tolerate these odious accusations. Allow me, 
 therefore, at the close of this volume, to offer some neces- 
 sary explanations upon so grave a subject, which will, at 
 the same time, carry with them the condemnation of the 
 revolution which has seized upon the Pontifical states. 
 
 And, first of all, what is a revolution ? I open a dic- 
 tionary, and I find, as the sense which public opinion 
 attaches to the word, a sudden and violent change in the 
 government of a nation. The definition appears to me 
 narrow and incomplete. Are we to conclude that sage and 
 beneficial changes and reforms can never take place in a 
 society without violence prompted by a true philan- 
 thropy, and presided over by the discrimination and 
 sagacity of genius ? Are we to despair of ever finding in 
 the hearts of men a love of justice and humanity sufficiently 
 deep and pure to preclude the necessity of violence ? 
 
 Surely Alfred the Great, Charlemagne, St. Louis, Louis 
 le Gros have effected admirable reforms revolutions in 
 legislation and national institutions and that without 
 convulsions or disturbance. Again, when did the world 
 see a reform, a revolution, more profound and wide-spread 
 than that effected by the Gospel ? The sword was used 
 against it, but it did not resist with the sword. Without 
 causing those to shed a tear whose principles it upset, 
 whose traditions it superseded, its victory was the most 
 decisive that history records. 
 
 Still, narrow and incomplete as is the above definition, 
 it is sad to be forced to admit that it has been too often 
 justified by the history of most revolutions which the 
 world has witnessed. 
 
 Yet it is both true and consoling to assert, that happy 
 and peaceful changes may take place in the lot of peoples : 
 there may be mild and wise, as well as savage and violent 
 revolutions; there may be honourable and glorious, as 
 well as false and noxious reforms. Some revolutions 
 proceed by sanguinary revolts, and even by pillage, scaf- 
 
160 THE REFORMS. 
 
 folds, and death; others by the commanding influence of 
 superior genius and superior virtue. The Gospel did not 
 counsel to slaves a sanguinary retaliation upon their 
 masters ; yet it disenthralled them more effectually than 
 Spartacus. A true and genuine revolution is the victory 
 of reason, not of force. 
 
 Two things are to be distinguished in a revolution the 
 ideas and the facts ; that is to say, principles and events ; 
 and these are not always reprehensible. Thus, to take a 
 celebrated example, in the French revolution, reasonable 
 principles of equality and just liberty were asserted, indis- 
 putable rights were recognized, free institutions founded. 
 But there were, and there are still among us, sons of the 
 French revolution who set but little store by such things. 
 What, in fact, they long for, are such social disorders as 
 may give them individually a prospect of arriving at 
 power and fortune, and a prominent part in public affairs. 
 
 In their principles and sentiments, Fenelon and the 
 Duke of Burgundy, Massillon, Bourdaloue, and other 
 illustrious Christians, and even Bossuet, in some degree, 
 were not indeed revolutionists the sinister associations, 
 which have for ever dishonoured the name, forbid one to 
 apply it to such men ; but, if one considers only what 
 there is of generous, of truly liberal, and of noble, at 
 times, in similar great social transformations, I do not 
 hesitate to say that, in the good sense of the term, these 
 great men were liberals : and that in the seventeenth 
 century, when liberalism was not fashionable that is, 
 partisans of those beneficial reforms, those wise and mea- 
 sured developments of liberty, which sages have at all 
 epochs declared conducive to the welfare and dignity of 
 nations. 
 
 I will subjoin some of the lessons given by Bossuet to 
 the son of Louis XIV.; perhaps nobler or franker language 
 never reached royal ears : 
 
 " Under a just God, there can be no such thing as 
 arbitrary power. 
 
 " Since absolute power has been established, there 
 exists no barrier against it ; it receives no homage which 
 
THE QUESTION OF RIGHT. 461 
 
 is not insincere ; no sure bulwark protects chastity, nor is 
 human life secure. 
 
 " Do not, then, fancy yourself of a different clay from 
 your subjects; be to them what you wish them to be to 
 you ; be among them as one of them." 
 
 Bossuet added, indeed, " In reality nothing is less free 
 than anarchy, which recognizes to men no legitimate right, 
 and where force is the only law." 
 
 The lessons given, in his turn, by the great archbishop 
 of Cambrai to the grandson of Louis XIV., were in har- 
 mony with the solemn teachings of Bossuet ; and tended 
 eventual!;' to secure for France, by glorious and peaceful 
 methods, the enjoyment of those just liberties we were 
 destined to purchase so dearly, though we still possess 
 them but imperfectly. 
 
 But a severer Providence had other lessons in store for 
 us ; we were not to be saved by wisdom and virtue. The 
 disorders of the regency, the ignominious age of Louis XV., 
 an eighteenth century of sophisms, falsehoods, and corrupt 
 morals, sowed over the surface of our land the wind of 
 impiety. We have reaped the whirlwind ; it was but 
 just. And now, sixty years of sufferings and anxieties 
 authorize me in saying that the liberty of a great people 
 is but ill nurtured under the breath of impiety, and amid 
 the tempests of revolution. 
 
 Undoubtedly, Catholicism is eminently distinguished by 
 the spirit of authority ; but as eminently by the spirit of 
 liberty. 
 
 Our apostles were the first to proclaim, in language 
 strange to the world, the sacred and inviolable claims of 
 every kind of just liberty, and to advocate the abolition of 
 the varied forms of slavery which can oppress and lower 
 the dignity of man. 
 
 St. Paul exclaimed one day, " I am a Horn an citizen, 
 Civis Romanus sum : I appeal to CaBsar." And Caesar re- 
 ceived his appeal. Yes, we may say to our adversaries, of 
 liberty as well as philosophy, what J. J. Rousseau said to 
 his contemporaries " All this was in the Gospel before it 
 was in your books." 
 
462 THE REFORMS. 
 
 The measure, greater or less, of liberty civil, political, 
 or religious to be accorded to a people is always a ques- 
 tion of justice; but always, too, a question of prudence. 
 The wisdom of the ruling power, the father of the people, 
 is shown in not withholding from a society which is worthy 
 of them the liberties which are suited to its enlightenment, 
 its tastes, and its real wants ; in furthering those changes 
 which are justly and naturally called for by the varying 
 exigencies of a nation's life ; for, by so doing, it lends 
 itself to, it seconds the operation of Providence. Such 
 changes may at times be seen to dawn upon the horizon of 
 human affairs ; genius descries them from afar. Happy 
 the people, when wisdom prepares their way, and virtue 
 hallows their peaceful triumph ! Such revolutions are 
 honourable and glorious, and history does not blush to 
 record them. 
 
 The illustrious men whom I have named Fenelon, the 
 duke of Burgundy, the dukes of Beauvilliers and of 
 Chevreuse, Massillon, Bossuet had they lived in the 
 nineteenth century, conforming to the new condition of 
 society, would have approved whatever was noble and 
 generous in its maxims ; and like all the French bishops, 
 ten years ago, would have, with the unanimous approba- 
 tion of the Church, asked for those legitimate and necessary 
 liberties, many of which are still wanting to us. 
 
 And the power which opposed their wishes would have 
 been unwise : its resistance would have been ill-judged, 
 and even culpable ; for it is the duty, not less than the 
 interest of the ruling power in a nation to satisfy its wants, 
 and thereby dissipate the dangers of social order. To 
 yield to legitimate demands redounds to the honour and 
 strengthens the foundations of the supreme power, exactly 
 in proportion to the degradation and weakening it is sure 
 to incur, by giving way to unjust requirements. To resist 
 justice is blindness, not firmness, says Bossuet : such stij)'- 
 ness is fatal-, what will not bend must break. 
 
 And it is the part of the ruling power to do what is 
 just and necessary in this respect; it alone can make 
 changes beneficially ; if it will not, others will make them, 
 
THE QUESTION OF RIGHT. 
 
 but in a noxious manner. Alternate displays of weakness 
 and violence, of license and tyranny, must result : autho- 
 rity and liberty will alike be trodden under foot. Un- 
 happy people ! their woes will be unending ; ages will 
 scarcely restore peace among them : nay, human means 
 can never do so ; the influence of religion alone can seal, 
 in peace and justice, the alliance of genuine and generous 
 liberty with respected and efficient authority. 
 
 Triie, the crimes of the French revolution had so dis- 
 honoured the principles in the name of which they were 
 committed, that many of the good long regarded all those 
 principles with suspicion. But it now is time for the 
 liacknied accusations against us to cease. We unre- 
 servedly accept, for ourselves, as for others, these liberties, 
 so dear to those who taunt us with not loving them. We 
 desire genuine toleration for all, free and generous discus- 
 sion for all opinions. But, strange to say, all that we 
 thus accept is at the present moment encroached upon 
 and slighted by the leading organs of the party among 
 us which takes the name of liberal, but which is, in 
 truth, revolutionary and despotic. That party is ever 
 revolving through a fatal cycle of mistakes and revolu- 
 tionary excesses, while we, holding on our course, amidst 
 the dust of revolutions, march straight for our end of true 
 liberty, as it is understood and sanctioned by the Gospel. 
 
 I do not hesitate to say that all that is said by our 
 opponents is injurious to liberty. Throughout all their 
 doctrine, one can trace a sort of pantheism, an idolatry of 
 the state, which threatens to ingulf all else : the individual, 
 the child, the father, the mother, are nothing ; the Church 
 is nothing ; the conscience, souls, are nothing : the state 
 is everything, swallows up everything. Their warmest 
 applause is reserved for the most complete absorptions of 
 personal entity, the most inexorable overruling of indi- 
 vidual liberty ; they tell us that this is the spirit of revo- 
 lution which they volunteer to defend and propagate. 
 
 Yes, but in their idea, the Revolution, then, is something 
 opposed to liberty ! It is not even that equality which 
 the laws of nature and Christianity proclaim ; it is not the 
 
464 THE REFORMS. 
 
 triumph of the rights of conscience : no, it is tyranny and 
 despotism, the despotism which befits only the first and 
 the last childhood of nations; it is a social convulsion., 
 turning men and things upside down, deranging the order 
 and gradation of society, dethroning talent and virtue to 
 elevate reckless and incompetent ambition to their place, 
 wafting to a tyrannic, though ephemeral supremacy, in 
 contempt alike of the liberties of the people and the rights 
 of sovereigns, the demagogues, the adventurers, or the 
 condoltieri, whom their good fortune or their audacity 
 may befriend. 
 
 But enough of these general considerations, the gravity 
 and deep interest of which have led me into this digression. 
 Let us speak of Rome. 
 
 The Roman people have, like all others, an indisputable 
 right to be well governed. And surely the Papacy would 
 give proof of strange and unprecedented inconsistency, 
 and would disavow all the traditions of its long history, if 
 it were to slight, in the nineteenth century, the rights 
 of the people, after having, for so many ages, been the 
 sole asylum of the people against the tyranny of power ; 
 the only free voice which ever defend'ed right in days 
 when the sway of oppression and domineering force was 
 undisputed. 
 
 But the Papacy has not altered. We know what Pius 
 IX. has done for his people, with a perseverance which 
 the tempests of revolution could not dishearten. If im- 
 perfections still exist in the Roman Government, if every 
 possible reform has not yet been realized, we have seen 
 what is the worth of this hacknied objection. People ask 
 reforms from the Pope, which they do not desire. They 
 ask for them, and they say that he cannot grant them; 
 they declare them necessary, and at the same time im- 
 possible. Such as are impossible they cry out for, that he 
 may refuse them; and then they taunt him with such 
 refusal, which, in fact, is a reproach to themselves alone. 
 Such as are possible they spurn, or only seek in order to 
 overthrow the sovereign who accords them. They wish 
 for forced, compulsory reforms, because, if meritorious or 
 
THE QUESTION OF RIGHT. 
 
 beneficial, they would not suit their purpose. And what- 
 ever he may do, whatever concessions he grant, they shut 
 their eyes and will not see ; they insist that he has done 
 nothing. They cannot even define what it is they would 
 exact. They declaim about a liberal government, but 
 they do not venture to indicate to Pius IX. which he 
 should adopt among the many which are in operation; 
 they ask him for what they do not grant themselves. 
 
 Unfairness, inconsistencies, incongruities are multiplied : 
 men speak as if, in condemning the Pope, they did not 
 condemn themselves. They exact perfection from him, 
 as if they were themselves perfect. Yet who among his 
 accusers is without reproach ? Who has a right to cast 
 the first stone at Rome? Let England give redress to 
 Ireland; let Sweden, Denmark, and Russia replace des- 
 potism by liberty ; let France rid herself of her periodical 
 revolutions; let Piedmont curb her insatiable rapacity, 
 before any of them volunteer to judge or to instruct Rome. 
 
 Ah ! you long for a liberal government at Rome ; well, 
 I wish for a government free to be liberal. Such freedom 
 has long been wanting to the Pope : leave him free, and 
 he will be liberal. Let us try to come to an arrangement ; 
 begin by removing hatred, and love will have liberty to 
 act. Who does not know the magnanimity, the equity, 
 the generosity of Pius IX. ? He has now a right to say, 
 I intended to grant all the benefits you desired, and more ; 
 but I have not been permitted to do so : may God en- 
 lighten those who violently prevented me, and move them 
 soon to lend me their co-operation, that we may together 
 plan and carry out the great enterprise which my duty 
 and inclination alike urge upon me ! All, doubtless, has not 
 been done at Rome ; but what can the best of sovereigns 
 effect without the confidence and the co-operation which 
 is his due. 
 
 A change of laws cannot do everything. Naples pos- 
 sesses the French civil code and the French organization, 
 yet you attack Naples. You must people Italy with 
 French, if it is to be modelled in all respects after France ; 
 otherwise your reforms will be a failure. 
 
 2 H 
 
466 
 
 THE REFORMS. 
 
 I will admit, as to the army, that I believe it was but 
 imperfectly organized ; I will even add, that I was simple 
 enough to be glad of it. I felt happy that there existed 
 one government upon earth which, by its principles, could 
 not make war, and which imposed neither a conscription 
 nor a war budget upon its subjects. The Roman army 
 was laughed at, and, for my part, I did not complain. 
 The revolution has proved to*me my error; and the brave 
 General Lamoriciere will perhaps cause admiration to 
 succeed to contempt. 
 
 As to public works, I will admit that they, too, are 
 behindhand ; and that Rome has paid more attention to the 
 fine arts than to railways, though indeed several are now 
 in progress. I grant that the journey from Rome to 
 Ancona ought not to require two days ; or rather, I leave 
 such matters to persons better qualified than I am. Still, 
 there are two things which cannot be questioned ; first, 
 that we never can make Rome a great state, having a 
 large revenue at its disposal ; next, that the Papacy is not 
 such a petty institution that it is to be weighed against 
 questions of roads and engineering. 
 
 The Papacy ! Ah ! were I arguing with great and 
 honest souls, if I might abandon myself to pleasing con- 
 templations, and, borrowing the light of the philosophy of 
 history, cast a prophetic glance upon the future were I 
 not continually recalled to vulgar and unwelcome prose, 
 by the roll of drums, by the articles of journals, by the 
 proclamations of Garibaldi it would be my delight to 
 anticipate and shadow forth a new transformation of the 
 Papal sovereignty. In the political order, I might picture 
 to myself a Papacy placed under the common guarantee of 
 the European powers, secure in the love of Catholics, and 
 the honour even of schismatical powers, who would at 
 least respect it as a man of honour respects the wife of 
 another ; a Papacy unarmed, peaceful and secure ; a bright 
 example of peace to all nations, a standing protest against 
 wars, invasions, and revolutions. I might contemplate the 
 Romans as esteemed and honoured by all their brethren 
 in the faith, receiving the homage of all Catholic lands, 
 
/ THE QUESTION OF RIGHT. 467 
 
 and having no reason to regret the narrow limits of their 
 frontier ; and all Catholics, on the other hand, citizens of 
 Rome, eligible even to all functions there ; and Rome, in 
 this way, thoroughly Italian, and yet universal. 
 
 I will add yet another wish. There was once a great 
 Pope, who conceived the idea of raising the sovereign 
 Pontificate to the suhlime office of universal arbitrator ; 
 his idea was frustrated by political considerations, but a 
 great philosophical genius did not hesitate to say that it 
 would have brought back the golden age, and no one can 
 contest its unrivalled sublimity. Well, I imagine to 
 myself, or rather I have before my eyes a Pope, whose 
 generous ambition it was to render the states of the Church 
 a model for other states, the most flourishing and free 
 among the nations ; where travellers might come from far 
 to see for once a happy people, wise laws, tranquil liberty, 
 the fruitful efficacy of the Gospel and of Catholic piety, and 
 a solution of those social problems, which fatally perplex and 
 consume the energies of modern nations : just as those who 
 now are attracted to Rome by their admiration for the 
 masterpieces of art, and their desire to form their genius. 
 Is this a dream of mine ? At all events, I am not the only 
 one to whom it has occurred : there beats a noble heart 
 whom this dream has enchanted also, and which still 
 dwells upon it ; and if the ineffable sweetness of that soul 
 is tinged with bitterness, it is that it has failed to realize 
 this desire. There lives a Pope who had one day hoped 
 to render this ideal a reality. He can say with truth, I 
 was pacific, liberal, Italian, national : I am forced against 
 my will to arm, to mistrust, to resist ; evil has been re- 
 turned to me for good, hatred for love. O my people, 
 my people, what had I done to thee to be so requited ? 
 
 Ah ! the cause of this great and holy Pontiff would be 
 already gained, did right and justice always triumph upon 
 earth. 
 
 A vast conspiracy has been planned against him, and 
 everything would seem to forebode the success of his 
 enemies, if enduring success could ever be expected in the 
 conflict against God and the Church. In spite of their 
 
468 THE REFORMS. 
 
 increasing audacity, and the unhappy progress of their 
 plans, a divine and invincible force sustains the weakness 
 of the Papacy. God determines, in His unfathomable 
 wisdom, the measure of the sufferings which He wills His 
 Church to undergo, and will proportion the remedy to the 
 evil. 
 
 The success of the wicked is often undone by their 
 crimes, and their own agency suffices to baffle their de- 
 signs. The most skilful and experienced fall into fatal 
 mistakes, and the presumptuous prudence which had 
 arrogated to itself infallibility, finds itself crushed by 
 what it has done, and by what it has omitted to do. 
 
 No; the blindness of a people is not always incurable; 
 and one day, when God's time comes, the cause of right 
 will overcome ; for " there is no wisdom, there is no pru- 
 dence, there is no counsel against the Lord." (Prov. 
 xxi. 30.) 
 
 THE END. 
 
 


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