"t "*
 
 THE 
 
 POPE AND THE REVOLUTION: 
 
 A SERMON, 
 
 IN THE ORATORY CHURCH, BIRMINGHAM, 
 
 ON SUNDAY, OCTOBER 7, 1866. 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN HENRY NEWMAN, D.D. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 LONGMANS, GREEN, READER, AND DYER. 
 1866. 
 
 \The right of Translation is reserved.']
 
 ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 THIS Sermon is given to the world in consequence 
 of its having been made the subject in the public 
 prints of various reports and comments, which, 
 though both friendly and fair to the author, as 
 far as he has seen them, nevertheless, from the 
 necessity of the case, have proceeded from in- 
 formation inexact in points of detail. 
 
 It is now published from the copy written be- 
 forehand, and does not differ from that copy, as 
 delivered, except in such corrections of a critical 
 nature as are imperative when a composition, 
 written currente calamo, has to be prepared for 
 the press. There is one passage, however, which 
 it has been found necessary to enlarge 9 with a 
 view of expressing more exactly the sentiment 
 which it contained; viz. the comparison made at 
 pp. 43, 44, between Italian and English Catholics. 
 
 The author submits the whole, as he does all 
 his publications, to the judgment of Holy Church. 
 
 October 13, 1866. 
 
 A 2
 
 The Church shone brightly in her youthful days, 
 
 Ere the world on her smiled ; 
 So now, an outcast, she would pour her rays 
 
 Keen, free, and undefiled ; 
 Yet would I not that arm of force were mine, 
 To thrust her from her awful ancient shrine. 
 
 'Twas duty bound each convert-king to rear 
 
 His Mother from the dust ; 
 And pious was it to enrich, nor fear 
 
 Christ for the rest to trust : 
 And who shall dare make common or unclean, 
 What once has on the Holy Altar been ? 
 
 Dear Brothers ! hence, while ye for ill prepare, 
 
 Triumph is still your own ; 
 Blest is a pilgrim Church ! yet shrink to share 
 
 The curse of throwing down. 
 So will we toil in our old place to stand, 
 Watching, not dreading, the despoiler's hand. 
 
 Vid. LYRA APOSTOLICA.
 
 SERMON. 
 
 THIS day, the feast of the Holy Rosary of the 
 Blessed Virgin Mary, has been specially devoted 
 by our ecclesiastical superiors to be a day of prayer 
 for the Sovereign Pontiff, our Holy Father, Pope 
 Pius the Ninth. 
 
 His Lordship, our Bishop, has addressed a 
 Pastoral Letter to his clergy upon the subject, 
 and at the end of it he says, " Than that Festival 
 none can be more appropriate, as it is especially 
 devoted to celebrating the triumphs of the Holy 
 See obtained by prayer. We therefore propose 
 and direct that on the Festival of the Rosary, the 
 chief Mass in each church and chapel of our 
 diocese be celebrated with as much solemnity as 
 circumstances will allow of. And that after the 
 Mass the Psalm Miserere and the Litany of the 
 Saints be sung or recited. That the faithful be 
 invited to offer one communion for the Pope's 
 intention. And that, where it can be done, one
 
 6 THE POPE AND THE REVOLUTION. 
 
 part at least of the Rosary be publicly said at 
 some convenient time in the church, for the same 
 intention." 
 
 Then he adds : " In the Sermon at the Mass of 
 the Festival, it is our wish that the preacher 
 should instruct the faithful on their obligations to 
 the Holy See, and on the duty especially incum- 
 bent on us at this time of praying for the Pope." 
 
 I. " Our obligations to the Holy See." What 
 Catholic can doubt of our obligations to the Holy 
 See ? especially what Catholic under the shadow 
 and teaching of St. Philip Neri can doubt those 
 obligations, in both senses of the word " obliga- 
 tion," the tie of duty and the tie of gratitude ? 
 
 1. For first as to duty. Our duty to the Holy 
 See, to the Chair of St. Peter, is to be measured 
 by what the Church teaches us concerning that 
 Holy See and of him who sits in it. Now St. 
 Peter, who first occupied it, was the Vicar of 
 Christ. You know well, my Brethren,, our Lord 
 p.nd Saviour Jesus Christ, who suffered on the 
 Cross for us, thereby bought for us the kingdom 
 of heaven. "When Thou hadst overcome the 
 sting of death," says the hymn, " Thou didst 
 open the kingdom of heaven to those who believe." 
 He opens, and He shuts; He gives grace, He 
 withdraws it; He judges, He pardons, He con- 
 demns. Accordingly, He speaks -of Himself in 
 the Apocalypse as "Him who is the Holy and 
 the True, Him that hath the key of David, (the
 
 THE POPE AND THE REVOLUTION. 7 
 
 key, that is, of the chosen king of the chosen 
 people,) Him that openeth and no man shutteth, 
 that shutteth and no man openeth." And what our 
 Lord, the Supreme Judge, is in heaven, that was 
 St. Peter on earth ; he had the keys of the king- 
 dom, according to the text, " Thou art Peter, and 
 upon this rock I will build My Church, and the 
 gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And 
 I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of 
 heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt bind upon 
 earth, shall be bound also in heaven; and what- 
 soever thou shalt loose on earth, shall be loosed 
 also in heaven." 
 
 Next, let it be considered, the kingdom which 
 our Lord set up with St. Peter at its head was 
 decreed in the counsels of God to last to the end 
 of all things, according to the words I have just 
 quoted, " The gates of hell shall not prevail 
 against it." And again, " Behold, I am with you 
 all days, even to the consummation of the world." 
 And in the words of the prophet Isaias, speaking 
 of that divinely established Church, then in the 
 future, " This is My covenant with them, My 
 Spirit that is in thee, and My words which I 
 have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of 
 thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor 
 out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith the 
 Lord, from henceforth and for ever." And the 
 prophet Daniel says, " The God of heaven will set 
 up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed . . .
 
 8 THE POPE AND THE BEVOLUTION. 
 
 and it shall break in pieces and shall consume all 
 those kingdoms (of the earth, which went before 
 it), and itself shall stand for ever." 
 
 That kingdom our Lord set up when He came 
 on earth, and especially after His resurrection; 
 for we are told by St. Luke that this was His 
 gracious employment, when He visited the Apos- 
 tles from time to time, during the forty days which 
 intervened between Easter Day and the day of 
 His Ascension. " He showed Himself alive to 
 the Apostles," says the Evangelist, "after His 
 passion by many proofs, for forty days appearing 
 to them and speaking of the kingdom of God." 
 And accordingly, when at length He had ascended 
 on high, and had sent down " the promise of His 
 Father," the Holy Ghost, upon His Apostles, they 
 forthwith entered upon their high duties, and 
 brought that kingdom or Church into shape, and 
 supplied it with members, and enlarged it, and 
 carried it into all lands. As to St. Peter, he 
 acted as the head of the Church, according to 
 the previous words of Christ ; and, still accord- 
 ing to his Lord's supreme will, he at length placed 
 himself in the see of Rome, where he was mar- 
 tyred. And what was then done, in its substance 
 cannot be undone. " God is not as a man that 
 He should lie, nor as the son of man, that He 
 should change. Hath He said then,, and shall He 
 not do ? hath He spoken, and will He not fulfil ?" 
 And, as St. Paul says, " The gifts and the calling
 
 THE POPE AND THE REVOLUTION. 9 
 
 of God are without repentance." His Church 
 then, in all necessary matters, is as unchangeable 
 as He. Its framework, its polity, its ranks, its 
 offices, its creed, its privileges, the promises made 
 to it, its fortunes in the world, are ever what they 
 have been. 
 
 Therefore, as it was in the world, but not of 
 the world, in the Apostles' times, so it is now : 
 as it was " in honour and dishonour, in evil report 
 and good report, as chastised but not killed, as 
 having nothing and possessing all things," in the 
 Apostles' times, so it is now : as then it taught 
 the truth, so it does now; as then it had the 
 sacraments of grace, so has it now ; as then it had 
 a hierarchy or holy government of Bishops, priests, 
 and deacons, so has it now ; and as it had a Head 
 then, so must it have a head now. Who is that 
 visible Head? who is the Vicar of Christ? who 
 has now the keys of the kingdom of heaven, as St. 
 Peter had then ? Who is it who binds and looses 
 on earth, that our Lord may bind and loose in 
 heaven? Who, I say, is the successor to St. 
 Peter, since a successor there must be, in his 
 sovereign authority over the Church? It is he 
 who sits in St. Peter's Chair; it is the Bishop of 
 Rome. We all know this ; it is part of our faith ; I 
 am not proving it to you, my Brethren. The visible 
 headship of the Church, which was with St. Peter 
 while he lived, has been lodged ever since in his 
 Chair ; the successors in his headship are the sue-
 
 10 THE POPE AND THE REVOLUTION. 
 
 cessors in his Chair, the continuous line of Bishops 
 of Eome, or Popes, as they are called, one after 
 another, as years have rolled on, one dying and 
 another coming, down to this day, when we see 
 Pius the Ninth sustaining the weight of the glo- 
 rious Apostolate, and that for twenty years past, 
 a tremendous weight, a ministry involving mo- 
 mentous duties, innumerable anxieties, and im- 
 mense responsibilities, as it ever has done. 
 
 And now, though I might say much more about 
 the prerogatives of the Holy Father, the visible head 
 of the Church, I have said more than enough for 
 the purpose which has led to my speaking about 
 him at all. I have said that, like St. Peter, he is 
 the Vicar of his Lord. He can judge, and he can 
 acquit ; he can pardon, and he can condemn ; he 
 can command, and he can permit ; he can forbid, 
 and he can punish. He has a supreme jurisdiction 
 over the people of God. He can stop the ordinary 
 course of sacramental mercies; he can excom- 
 municate from the ordinary grace of redemption ; 
 and he can remove again the ban which he has 
 inflicted. It is the rule of Christ's providence, 
 that what His Vicar does in severity or in mercy 
 upon earth, He Himself confirms in heaven. And 
 in saying all this I have said enough for my pur- 
 pose, because that purpose is to define our obli- 
 gations to him. That is the point on which our 
 Bishop has fixed our attention ; " our obligations 
 to the Holy See ;" and what need I say more to
 
 THE POPE AND THE REVOLUTION. 11 
 
 measure our own duty to it and to him who sits in 
 it, than to say that, in his administration of Christ's 
 kingdom, in his religious acts, we must never 
 oppose his will, or dispute his word, or criti- 
 cize his policy, or shrink from his side ? There 
 are kings of the earth who have despotic autho- 
 rity, which their subjects obey indeed and disown 
 in their hearts; but we must never murmur at 
 that absolute rule which the Sovereign Pontiff has 
 over us, because it is given to him by Christ, and, 
 in obeying him, we are obeying his Lord. We must 
 never suffer ourselves to doubt, that, in his govern- 
 ment of the Church, he is guided by an intelligence 
 more than human. His yoke is the yoke of Christ, 
 he has the responsibility of his own acts, not we ; 
 and to his Lord must he render account, not to us. 
 Even in secular matters it is ever safe to be on his 
 side, dangerous to be on the side of his enemies. 
 Our duty is, not indeed to mix up Christ's Vicar 
 with this or that party of men, because he in his 
 high station is above all parties, but to look at 
 his acts, and to follow him, whither he goeth, and 
 never to desert him, however we may be tried, but 
 to defend him at all hazards, and against all 
 comers, as a son would a father, and as a wife 
 a husband, knowing that his cause is the cause 
 of God. And so, as regards his successors, if we 
 live to see them ; it is our duty to give them in 
 like manner our dutiful allegiance and our un- 
 feigned service, and to follow them also whither-
 
 12 THE POPE AND THE REVOLUTION. 
 
 soever they go, having that same confidence that 
 each in his turn and in his own day will do God's 
 work and will, which we felt in their predecessors, 
 now taken away to their eternal reward. . 
 
 2. And now let us consider our obligations to 
 the Sovereign Pontiff in the second sense, which is 
 contained under the word " obligation." " In the 
 Sermon in the Mass," says the Bishop, " it is our 
 wish that the preacher should instruct the faith- 
 ful on their obligations to the Holy See;" and 
 certainly those obligations, that is, the claims of 
 the Holy See upon our gratitude, are very great. 
 We in this country owe our highest blessings to 
 the See of St. Peter, to the succession of Bishops 
 who have filled his Apostolic chair. For first it 
 was a Pope who sent missionaries to this island in 
 the beginning of the Church, when the island was 
 yet in pagan darkness. Then again, when our 
 barbarous ancestors, the Saxons, crossed over 
 from the Continent and overran the country, who 
 but a Pope, St. Gregory the First, sent over St. 
 Augustine and his companions to convert them to 
 Christianity ? and by God's grace they and their 
 successors did this great work in the course of a 
 hundred years. From that time, twelve hundred 
 years ago, our nation has ever been Christian. 
 And then in the lawless times which followed, and 
 the break up of the old world all over Europe, 
 and the formation of the new, it was the Popes, 
 humanly speaking, who saved the religion of Christ
 
 THE POPE AND THE REVOLUTION. 13 
 
 from being utterly lost and coming to an end, and 
 not in England only, but on the Continent ; that 
 is, our Lord made use of that succession of His 
 Vicars, to fulfil His gracious promise, that His 
 religion should never fail. The Pope and the 
 Bishops of the Church, acting together in that 
 miserable time, rescued from destruction all that 
 makes up our present happiness, spiritual and 
 temporal. Without them the world would have 
 relapsed into barbarism but God willed other- 
 wise ; and especially the Roman Pontiffs, the suc- 
 cessors of St. Peter, the centre of Catholic Unity, 
 the Vicars of Christ, wrought manfully in the 
 cause of faith and charity, fulfilling in their own 
 persons the divine prophecy anew, which primarily 
 related to the Almighty Redeemer Himself: "I 
 have laid help upon One that is mighty, and I 
 have exalted One chosen out of the people. I 
 have found David My servant, with My holy oil 
 have I anointed him. For My hand shall help him, 
 and My arm shall strengthen him. The enemy 
 shall have no advantage over him, nor the son of 
 iniquity have power to hurt him. I will put to 
 flight his enemies before his face, and them that 
 hate him I will put to flight. And My truth 
 and My mercy shall be with him, and in My Name 
 shall his horn be exalted. He shall cry out to Me, 
 Thou art my Father, my God, and the support of 
 my salvation. And I will make him My first-born, 
 high above the kings of the earth. I will keep
 
 14 THE POPE AND THE REVOLUTION. 
 
 My mercy for him for ever, and My covenant shall 
 be faithful to him." 
 
 And the Almighty did this in pity towards His 
 people, and for the sake of His religion, and by 
 virtue of His promise, and for the merits of the 
 most precious blood of His own dearly-beloved 
 Son, whom the Popes represented. As Moses and 
 Aaron, as Josue, as Samuel, as David, were the 
 leaders of the Lord's host in the old time, and 
 carried on the chosen people of Israel from age to 
 age, in spite of their enemies round about, so have 
 the Popes from the beginning of the Gospel, and 
 especially in those middle ages when anarchy pre- 
 vailed, been faithful servants of their Lord, watch- 
 ing and fighting against sin and injustice and 
 unbelief and ignorance, and spreading abroad far 
 and wide the knowledge of Christian truth. 
 
 Such they have been in every age, and such are 
 the obligations which mankind owes to them; 
 and, if I am to pass on to speak of the present 
 Pontiff, and of our own obligations to him, then I 
 would have you recollect, my Brethren, that it is 
 he who has taken the Catholics of England out of 
 their unformed state and made them a Church. 
 He it is who has redressed a misfortune of nearly 
 three hundred years' standing. Twenty years ago 
 we were a mere collection of individuals ; but Pope 
 Pius has brought us together, has given us Bishops, 
 and created out of us a body politic, which (please 
 God), as time goes on, will play an important part
 
 THE POPE AND THE REVOLUTION. 15 
 
 in Christendom, with a character, an intellect, 
 and a power of its own, with schools of its own, 
 with a definite influence in the counsels of the 
 Holy Church Catholic, as England had of old 
 time. 
 
 This has been his great act towards our country ; 
 and then specially, as to his great act towards us 
 here, towards me. One of his first acts after he 
 was Pope was, in his great condescension, to call 
 me to Rome ; then, when I got there, he bade me 
 send for my friends to be with me ; and he formed 
 us into an Oratory. And thus it came to pass 
 that, on my return to England, I was able to 
 associate myself with others who had not gone to 
 Rome, till we were so many in number, that not 
 only did we establish our own Oratory here, 
 whither the Pope had specially sent us, but we 
 found we could throw off from us, a colony of 
 zealous and able priests into the metropolis, and 
 establish there, with the powers with which the 
 Pope had furnished me, and the sanction of the 
 late Cardinal, that Oratory which has done and 
 still does so much good among the Catholics of 
 London, 
 
 Such is the Pope now happily reigning in the 
 chair of St. Peter; such are our personal obli- 
 gations to him ; such has he been towards Eng- 
 land, such towards us, towards you, my Brethren. 
 Such he is in his benefits, and, great as are the 
 claims of those benefits upon us, great equally are
 
 16 THE POPE AND THE REVOLUTION. 
 
 the claims on us of his personal character and of 
 his many virtues. He is one whom to see is to 
 love; one who overcomes even strangers, even 
 enemies, by his very look and voice; whose pre- 
 sence subdues, whose memory haunts, even the 
 sturdy resolute mind of the English Protestant. 
 Such is the Holy Father of Christendom, the 
 worthy successor of a long and glorious line. 
 Such is he ; and, great as he is in office, and in 
 his beneficent acts and virtuous life, as great is he 
 in the severity of his trials, in the complication of 
 his duties, and in the gravity of his perils, perils, 
 which are at this moment closing Vn'm in on every 
 side ; and therefore it is, on account of the crisis 
 of the long-protracted troubles of his Pontificate 
 which seems near at hand, that our Bishop has 
 set apart this day for special solemnities, the 
 Feast of the Holy Rosary, and has directed us to 
 "instruct the faithful on their obligations to the 
 Holy See," and not only so, but also " on the duty 
 especially incumbent on us at this time of praying 
 for the Pope." 
 
 II. This then is the second point to which I have 
 to direct your attention, my Brethren the duty of 
 praying for the Holy Father ; but, before doing so, 
 I must tell you what the Pope's long-protracted 
 troubles are about, and what the crisis is, which 
 seems approaching : I will do it in as few words 
 as I can. 
 
 More than a thousand years ago, nay near upon
 
 THE POPE AND THE REVOLUTION. 17 
 
 fifteen hundred, began that great struggle, which 
 I spoke of just now, between the old and the new 
 inhabitants of this part of the world. Whole 
 populations of barbarians overran the whole face 
 of the country, that is, of England, France, Ger- 
 many, Spain, Italy, and the rest of Europe. They 
 were heathens, and they got the better of the 
 Christians ; and religion seemed likely to fail to- 
 gether with that old Christian stock. But, as I 
 have said, the Pope and the Bishops of the Church 
 took heart, and set about converting the new 
 comers, as in a former age they had converted 
 those who now had come to misfortune; and, 
 through God's mercy, they succeeded. The Saxon 
 English, Anglo-Saxons, as they are called,' are 
 among those whom the Pope converted, as I said 
 just now. The new convert people, as you may 
 suppose, were very grateful to the Pope and 
 Bishops, and they showed their gratitude by 
 giving them large possessions, which were of 
 great use, in the bad times that followed, in main- 
 taining the influence of Christianity in the world, 
 Thus the Catholic Church became rich and power- 
 ful. The Bishops became princes, and the Pope 
 became a Sovereign Ruler, with a large extent of 
 country all his own. This state of things lasted 
 for many hundred years; and the Pope and 
 Bishops became richer and richer, more and more 
 powerful, until at length the Protestant revolt 
 took place, three hundred years ago, and ever 
 
 B
 
 18 THE POPE AND THE REVOLUTION. 
 
 since that time, in a temporal point of view, they 
 have become of less and less importance, and less 
 and less prosperous. Generation after generation 
 the enemies of the Church, on the other hand, 
 have become bolder and bolder, more powerful, 
 and more successful in their measures against the 
 Catholic faith. By this time the Church has well- 
 nigh lost all its wealth and all its power; its 
 Bishops have been degraded from their high places 
 in the world, and in many countries have scarcely 
 more, or not more, of weight or of privilege than 
 the ministers of the sects which have split off 
 from it. However, though the Bishops lost, as 
 time went on, their temporal rank, the Pope did not 
 lose his ; he has been an exception to the rule ; ac- 
 cording to the Providence of God, he has retained 
 Rome, and the territories round about Rome, far 
 and wide, as his own possession without let or 
 hindrance. But now at length, by the operation 
 of the same causes which have destroyed the 
 power of the Bishops, the Holy Father is in 
 danger of losing his temporal possessions. For the 
 last hundred years he has had from time to time 
 serious reverses, but he recovered his ground. Six 
 years ago he lost the greater part of his dominions, 
 all but Rome and the country immediately about 
 it, and now the worst of difficulties has occurred 
 as regards the territory which remains to him. 
 His enemies have succeeded, as it would seem, in 
 persuading at least a large portion of his subjects
 
 THE POPE AND THE REVOLUTION. 19 
 
 to side with them. This is a real and very trying 
 difficulty, While his subjects are for him, no 
 one can have a word to say against his temporal 
 rule ; but who can force a Sovereign on a people 
 which deliberately rejects him ? You may attempt 
 it for a while, but at length the people, if they 
 persist, will get their way. 
 
 'They give out then, that the Pope's government 
 is behind the age, that once indeed it was as good 
 as other governments, but that now other govern- 
 ments have got better, and his has not, that he can 
 neither keep order within his territory, nor defend 
 it from attacks from without, that his police and 
 his finances are in a bad state, that his people 
 are discontented within, that he does not show 
 them how to become rich, that he keeps them 
 from improving their minds, that he treats them 
 as children, that he opens no career for young 
 and energetic minds, but condemns them to in- 
 activity and sloth, that he is an old man, that 
 he is an ecclesiastic, -that, considering his great 
 spiritual duties, he has no time left him for tem- 
 poral concerns, and that a bad religious govern- 
 ment is a scandal to religion. 
 
 I have stated their arguments as fairly as I can, 
 but you must not for an instant suppose, my 
 Brethren, that I admit either their principles or" 
 their facts. It is a simple paradox to say that 
 ecclesiastical and temporal power cannot lawfully, 
 religiously, and usefully be joined together. Look 
 B 2
 
 20 THE POPE AND THE REVOLUTION. 
 
 at what are called the middle ages, that is, the 
 period which intervenes between the old Roman 
 Empire and the modern world ; as I have said, the 
 Pope and the Bishops saved religion and civil order 
 from destruction in those tempestuous times, and 
 they did so by means of the secular power which they 
 possessed. And next, going on to the principles 
 which the Pope's enemies lay down as so very 
 certain, who will grant to them, who has any pre- 
 tension to be a religious man, that progress in 
 temporal prosperity is the greatest of goods, and 
 that every thing else, however sacred, must give 
 way before it ? On the contrary, health, long life, 
 security, liberty, knowledge, are certainly great 
 goods, but the possession of heaven is a far greater 
 good than all of them together. With all the 
 progress in worldly happiness which we possibly 
 could make, we could not make ourselves im- 
 mortal, death must come; that will be a time 
 when riches and worldly knowledge will avail us 
 nothing, and true faith, and divine love, and a past 
 life of obedience will be all in all to us. If we 
 were driven to choose between the two, it would 
 be a hundred times better to be Lazarus in this 
 world, than to be Dives in the next. 
 
 However, the best answer to then 1 arguments 
 is contained in- sacred history, which supplies trs 
 with a very apposite and instructive lesson on the 
 subject, and to it I am now going to refer. 
 
 Now observe in the first place, no Catholic
 
 THE POPE AND THE REVOLUTION. 21 
 
 maintains that that rule of the Pope as a king, in 
 Rome and its provinces, which men are now hoping 
 to take from him, is, strictly speaking, what is 
 called a Theocracy, that is, a Divine Government. 
 His government, indeed, in spiritual matters, in 
 the Catholic Church throughout the world, might 
 be called a Theocracy, because he is the Vicar of 
 Christ, and has the assistance of the Holy Ghost ; 
 but not such is his kingly rule in his own domi- 
 nions. On the other hand, the rule exercised over 
 the chosen people, the Israelites, by Moses, .Josue, 
 Gideon, Eli, and Samuel, was a Theocracy : God 
 was the king of the Israelites, not Moses and the 
 rest, they were but Vicars or Vicegerents of the 
 Eternal Lord who brought the nation out of 
 Egypt. Now, when men object that the Pope's 
 government of his own States is not what it should 
 be, and that therefore he ought to lose them, be- 
 cause, forsooth, a religious rule should be perfect 
 or not at all, I take them at their word, if they 
 are Christians, and refer them to the state of 
 things among the Israelites after the time of 
 Moses, during the very centuries when they had 
 God for their king. Was that a period of peace, 
 prosperity, and contentment ? Is it an argument 
 against the Divine Perfections, -that it was not such 
 a period ? Why is it then to be the condemnation 
 of the Popes, who are but men, that their rule is 
 but parallel in its characteristics to that of the
 
 22 THE POPE AKD THE REVOLUTION, 
 
 King of Israel, who was God ? He indeed has His 
 own all-wise purposes for what He does; He 
 knows the end from the beginning; He could 
 have made His government as perfect and as 
 prosperous as might have been expected from the 
 words of Moses concerning it, as perfect and 
 prosperous as, from the words of the Prophets, 
 our anticipations might have been about the earthly 
 reign of the Messias. But this He did not do, 
 because from the first He made that perfection 
 and that prosperity dependent upon the free will, 
 upon the co-operation of His people. Their loyal 
 obedience to Him was the condition, expressly 
 declared by Him, of His fulfilling His promises. 
 He proposed to work out His purposes through 
 them, and, when they refused their share in the 
 work, every thing went wrong. Now they did 
 refuse from the first ; so that from the very first, 
 He says of them emphatically, they were a " stiff- 
 necked people." This was at the beginning of 
 their history; and close upon the end of it, St. 
 Stephen, inspired by the Holy Ghost, repeats the 
 divine account of them: "You stiffnecked and 
 uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist 
 the Holy Ghost ; as your fathers did, so do you 
 also." In consequence of this obstinate disobe- 
 dience, I say, God's promises were not fulfilled to 
 them. That long lapse of five or six hundred 
 years, during which God was their King, was in
 
 THE POPE AND THE REVOLUTION. 23 
 
 good part a time, not of well-being, but of 
 calamity. 
 
 Now, turning to the history of the Papal monarchy 
 for the last thousand years, the Roman people 
 have not certainly the guilt of the Israelites, 
 because they were not opposing the direct rule of 
 God ; and I would not attribute to them now a 
 liability to the same dreadful crimes which stain 
 the annals of their ancestors ; but still, after all, 
 they have been a singularly stiffnecked people in 
 time past, and in consequence, there has been 
 extreme confusion, I may say anarchy, under 
 the reign of the Popes; and the restless im- 
 patience of his rule which exists in the Roman 
 territory now, is only what has shown itself age 
 after age in times past. The Roman people not 
 seldom offered bodily violence to their Popes, 
 killed some Popes, wounded others, drove others 
 from the city. On one occasion they assaulted 
 the Pope at the very altar in St. Peter's, and he 
 was obliged to take to flight in his pontifical vest- 
 ments. Another time they insulted the clergy of 
 Rome ; at another, they attacked and robbed the 
 pilgrims who brought offerings from a distance 
 to the shrine of St. Peter. Sometimes they sided 
 with the German Emperors against the Pope; 
 sometimes with other enemies of his in Italy itself. 
 As many as thirty-six Popes endured this dreadful 
 contest with their own subjects, till at last, in 
 anger and disgust with Rome and Italy, they took
 
 24 THE POPE AND THE REVOLUTION. 
 
 refuge, in France, where they remained for seventy 
 years, during the reigns of eight of their number . 
 
 That I may not be supposed to rest what I have 
 said on insufficient authorities, I will quote the 
 words of that great Saint, St. Bernard, about the 
 Roman people, seven hundred years ago. 
 
 Writing to Pope Eugenius during the troubles 
 of the day, he says, "What shall I say of the 
 people? why, that it is the Roman people. I 
 could not more concisely or fully express what I 
 think of your subjects. What has been so noto- 
 rious for ages as the wantonness and haughtiness 
 of the Romans? a race unaccustomed to peace, 
 accustomed to tumult ; a race cruel and unmanage- 
 able up to this day, which knows not to submit, 
 unless when it is unable to make fight. ... I know 
 the hardened heart of this people, but God is 
 powerful even of these stones to raise up children 
 to Abraham. . . . Whom will you find for me out of 
 the whole of that populous city, who received you 
 as Pope without bribe or hope of bribe? And 
 then especially are they wishing to be masters, 
 when they have professed to be servants. They 
 promise to be trustworthy, that they may have 
 the opportunity of injuring those who trust them. 
 . . . They are wise for evil, but they are ignorant 
 
 O l>n> A >''* .i! {! ;lM|<!;fr ill M'fJV? ^BilJ ffltV) . 
 
 1 I take these facts as I find them in Gibbon's History, the 
 
 work which I have immediately at hand ; but it would not be 
 
 difficult to collect a multitude of such instances from the 
 
 original historians of those times.
 
 THE POPE AND THE REVOLUTION. 25 
 
 for good, Odious to earth and heaven, they have 
 assailed both the one and the other; impious 
 towards God, reckless towards things sacred, 
 factious among themselves, envious of their neigh- 
 bours, inhuman towards foreigners, . . . they love 
 none, and by none are loved. Too impatient for 
 submission, too helpless for rule ; . . . importunate 
 to gain an end, restless till they gain it, ungrateful 
 when they have gained it. They have taught their 
 tongue to speak big words, while their perform- 
 ances are scanty indeed V 
 
 Thus I begin, and now let us continue the 
 parallel between the Israelites and the Romans. 
 
 I have said that, while the Israelites had God 
 for their King, they had a succession of great 
 national disasters, arising indeed really from their 
 falling off from Him ; but this they would have been 
 slow to acknowledge. They fell into idolatry; 
 then, in consequence, they fell into the power of 
 their enemies; then God in His mercy visited 
 them, and raised up for them a deliverer and ruler, 
 a Judge, as he was called, who brought them 
 to repentance, and then brought them out of their 
 troubles ; however, when the Judge died, they fell 
 back into idolatry, and then they fell under the 
 power of their enemies again. Thus for eight 
 years they were in subjection to the King of Meso- 
 potamia ; for eighteen years to the King of Moab ; 
 for twenty years to the King of Canaan ; for seven 
 
 2 De Consid. iv. 2. Vide note at the end.
 
 26 THE POPE AND THE REVOLUTION. 
 
 years to the Madianites ; for eighteen years to the 
 Ammonites ; and for forty years to the Philistines. 
 Afterwards Eli, the high priest, became their 
 judge, and then disorders of another kind com- 
 menced. His sons, who were priests also, com- 
 mitted grievous acts of impurity in the holy place, 
 and in other ways caused great scandal. In con- 
 sequence a heavy judgment came upon the people ; 
 they were beaten in battle by the Philistines, and 
 the Ark of God was taken. Then Samuel was 
 raised up, a holy prophet and a judge, and in the 
 time of his vigour all went well ; but he became 
 old, and then he appointed his sons to take his 
 place. They, however, were not like him, and 
 every thing went wrong again. " His sons walked 
 not in his ways," says the sacred record, "but 
 they turned aside after lucre, and took bribes, and 
 perverted judgment." This reduced the Israel- 
 ites to despair; they thought they never should 
 have a good government, while things were as they 
 were ; and they came to the conclusion that they 
 had better not be governed by such men as 
 Samuel, however holy he might be, that public 
 affairs ought to be put on an intelligible footing, 
 and be carried on upon system, which had never 
 yet been done. So they came to the conclusion 
 that they had better have a king, like the nations 
 around them. They deliberately preferred the 
 rule of man to the rule of Grod. They did not 
 like to repent and give up their sins, as the true
 
 THE POPE AND THE REVOLUTION. 27 
 
 means of being prosperous; they thought it an 
 easier way to temporal prosperity to have a king 
 like the nations, than to " pray and live virtuously. 
 And not only the common people, but even the 
 grave and venerable seniors of the nation took up 
 this view of what was expedient for them. " All 
 the ancients of Israel, being assembled, came to 
 Samuel, . . . and they said to him . . . Make us a 
 king to judge us, as all nations have." Observe, 
 my Brethren, this is just what the Roman people 
 are saying now. They .wish to throw off the 
 authority of the Pope, on the plea of the disorders 
 which they attribute to his government, and to 
 join themselves to the rest of Italy, and to have 
 the King of Italy for their king. Some of them, 
 indeed, wish to be without any king at all ; but, 
 whether they wish to have a king or no, at least 
 they wish to get free from the Pope. 
 
 Now let us continue the parallel. When the 
 prophet Samuel heard this request urged from 
 such a quarter, and supported by the people gene- 
 rally, he was much moved. " The word was dis- 
 pleasing in the eyes of Samuel," says the inspired 
 writer, "that they should say, Give us a king. 
 And Samuel prayed to the Lord." Almighty God 
 answered him by saying, " They have not rejected 
 thee, but Me;" and He bade the prophet warn 
 the people, what the king they sought after would 
 be to them, when at . length they had him. 
 Samuel accordingly put before them explicitly
 
 28 THE POPE AND THE REVOLUTION. 
 
 what treatment they would receive from him. 
 " He will take your sons," he said, " and will put 
 them in his chariots ; and he will make them his 
 horsemen, and his running footmen to go before 
 his chariots. He will take the tenth of your corn 
 and the revenues of your vineyards. Your flocks 
 also he will take, and you shall be his servants." 
 Then the narrative proceeds, "But the people would 
 not hear the voice of Samuel, and they said, Nay, 
 but there shall be a king over us. And we also will 
 be like all nations, and our king shall judge us, and 
 go out before us, and fight our battles for us." 
 
 Now here the parallel I am drawing is very 
 exact. It is happier, I think, for the bulk of a 
 people, to belong to a small State which makes 
 little noise in the world, than to a large one. At 
 least in this day we find small states, such as 
 Holland, Belgium, and Switzerland, have special 
 and singular temporal advantages. And the Ro- 
 man people, too, under the sway of the Popes, at 
 least have had a very easy time of it ; but, alas, 
 that people is not sensible of this, or does not 
 allow itself to keep it in mind. The Romans have 
 not had those civil inconveniences, which fall so 
 heavy on the members of a first-class Power. The 
 Pontifical Government has been very gentle with 
 them ; but, if once they were joined to the king- 
 dom of Italy, they would at length find what it is 
 to attain temporal greatness. The words of Samuel 
 to the Israelites would be fulfilled in them to the
 
 THE POPE AND THE E EVOLUTION. 29 
 
 letter. Heavy taxes would be laid on them ; their 
 children would be torn from them for the army; 
 and they would incur the other penalties of an 
 ambition which prefers to have a share in a poli- 
 tical adventure to being at the head of Catholic 
 citizenship. We cannot have all things to our 
 wish in this world; we must take our choice 
 between this advantage and that; perhaps the 
 Roman people would like both to secure this world 
 and the next, if they could ; perhaps, in seeking 
 both, they may lose both ; and perhaps, when they 
 have lost more than they have gained, they may 
 wish their old Sovereign back again, as they have 
 done in other centuries before this, and may regret 
 that they have caused such grievous disturbance 
 for what at length they find out is little worth it. 
 ''In truth, after all, the question which they have 
 to determine is, as I have intimated, not one of 
 worldly prosperity and adversity, of greatness ' orr 
 insignificance, of despotism or liberty, of position in 
 the world or in the Church; but a question of 
 spiritual life or death. The sin of the Israelites 
 was not that they desired good government, but 
 that they rejected God as their King. Their 
 choosing to have " a king like the nations " around 
 them was, in matter of fact, the first step in a 
 series of acts, which at length led them to their 
 rejection of the Almighty as their God. When 
 in spite of Samuel's remonstrances they were 
 obstinate, God let them have their way, and then
 
 30 THE POPE AND THE REVOLUTION. 
 
 in time they became dissatisfied with their king 
 for the very reasons which the old Prophet had set 
 before them in vain. On Solomon's death, about 
 a hundred and twenty years after, the greater part 
 of the nation broke off from his son on the very 
 plea of Solomon's tyranny, and chose a new king, 
 who at once established idolatry all through their 
 country. 
 
 Now, I grant, to reject the Holy Father of 
 course is not the sin of the Israelites, for they re- 
 jected Almighty God Himself: yet I wish I was 
 not forced to believe that a hatred of the Catholic 
 Religion is in fact at the bottom of that revolu- 
 tionary spirit which at present seems so powerful 
 in Rome. Progress, in the mouth of some people, 
 of a great many people, means apostasy. Not 
 that I would deny that there are sincere Catholics 
 so dissatisfied with things as they were in Italy, 
 as they are in Rome, that they are brought to think 
 that no social change can be for the worse. Nor 
 as if I pretended to be able to answer all the ob- 
 jections of those- who take a political and secular 
 view of the subject. But here I have nothing to 
 do with secular politics. In a sacred place I have 
 only to view the matter religiously. It would ill 
 become me, in my station in the Church and my 
 imperfect knowledge of the facts of the case, to 
 speak for or against statesmen and governments, 
 lines of policy or public acts, as if I were invested 
 with any particular mission to give my judgment, or
 
 THE POPE AND THE REVOLUTION. 31 
 
 had any access to sources of special information. 
 I have not here to determine what may be politically 
 more wise, or what may be socially more advan- 
 tageous, or what in a civil point of view would work 
 more happily, or what in an intellectual would tell 
 better ; my duty is to lead you, my Brethren, to 
 look at what is happening, as the sacred writers 
 would now view it and describe it, were they on 
 earth now to do so, and to attempt this by means 
 of the light thrown upon present occurrences by 
 what they actually have written whether in the 
 Old Testament or the New. 
 
 We must remove, I say, the veil off the face of 
 events, as Scripture enables us to do, and try to 
 speak of them as Scripture interprets them for us. 
 Speaking then in the sanctuary, I say that theories 
 and schemes about government and administration, 
 be they better or worse, and the aims of mere 
 statesmen and politicians, be they honest or be they 
 deceitful, these are not the determining causes of 
 that series of misfortunes under which the Holy See 
 has so long been suffering. There is something 
 deeper at work than any thing human. It is not 
 any refusal of the Pope to put his administration 
 on a new footing, it is not any craft or force of 
 men high in public affairs, it is not any cowardice 
 or frenzy of the people, which is the sufficient ex- 
 planation of the present confusion. What it is our 
 duty here to bear in mind, is the constant restless 
 agency over the earth of that bad angel who was
 
 32 THE POPE AND THE EEVOLUTION. 
 
 a liar from the beginning, of whom Scripture 
 speaks so much. The real motive cause of the 
 world's troubles is the abiding presence in it of the 
 apostate spirit, " The prince of the power of this 
 air," as St. Paul calls him, " The spirit that now 
 worketh on the children of unbelief." 
 
 Things would go on well enough but for him. He 
 it is who perverts to evil what is in itself good and 
 right, sowing cockle amid the wheat. Advance 
 in knowledge, in science, in education, in the arts 
 of life, in domestic economy, in municipal ad- 
 ministration, in the conduct of public affairs, is all 
 good and from God, and might be conducted in 
 a religious way; but the e^dl spirit, jealous of 
 good, makes use of it for - a bad end. And 
 much more able is he to turn to his account the 
 designs and measures of worldly politicians. He 
 it is who spreads suspicions and dislikes between 
 class and class, between sovereigns and subjects, 
 who makes men confuse together things good and 
 bad, who inspires bigotry, party spirit, obstinacy, 
 resentment, arrogance and self-will, and hinders 
 things from righting themselves, finding their 
 level, and running smooth. His one purpose is 
 so to match, and arrange, and combine, and direct 
 the opinions and the measures of Catholics and 
 unbelievers, of Eomans and foreigners, of sove- 
 reigns and popular leaders all that is good, all 
 that is bad, all that is violent or lukewarm in the 
 good, all that is morally great and intellectually
 
 THE POPE AND THE REVOLUTION. 33 
 
 persuasive in the bad as to inflict the widest 
 possible damage, and utter ruin, if that were 
 possible, on the Church of God. 
 
 Doubtless in St. Paul's time, in the age of 
 heathen persecution, the persecutors had various 
 good political arguments in behalf of their cruelty. 
 Mobs indeed, or local magistrates, might be pur- 
 posely cruel towards the Christians ; but the great 
 Roman Government at a distance, the great rulers 
 and wise lawyers of the day, acted from views of 
 large policy ; they had reasons of State, as the kings 
 of the earth have now ; still our Lord and His Apos- 
 tles do not hesitate to pass these by, and declare 
 plainly that the persecution which they sanctioned 
 or commanded was the work, not of man, but of 
 Satan. And now in like manner we are not en- 
 gaged in a mere conflict between progress and 
 reaction, modern ideas and new, philosophy and 
 theology, but in one scene of the never-ending 
 conflict between the anointed Mediator and the 
 devil, the Church and the world ; and, in St. Paul's 
 words, "we wrestle not against flesh and blood, 
 but against principalities and powers, against the 
 world-rulers of this darkness, against the spirits 
 of wickedness in the high places." 
 
 Such is the Apostle's judgment, and how, after 
 giving it, does he proceed ? " Therefore," he 
 says, " take unto you the armour of God, that you 
 may be able to resist in the evil day and to stand 
 in all things perfect. Stand therefore, having
 
 34 THE POPE AND THE REVOLUTION. 
 
 your loins girt about with truth, and having on 
 the breast-plate of justice, and your feet shod with 
 the preparation of the gospel of peace; in all 
 things taking the shield of faith, whereby you may 
 be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. 
 And take unto you the helmet of salvation and 
 the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of 
 God." And then he concludes his exhortation 
 with words which most appositely bear upon the 
 point towards which all that I have been saying 
 is directed, " praying at all times with all prayer 
 and supplication in the spirit, and watching there- 
 in with all instance and supplication for all the 
 Saints, and for me," that is, for the Apostle him- 
 self, " that speech may be given me, that I may 
 open my mouth with confidence to make known 
 the mystery of the Gospel." 
 
 Here, then, we are brought at length to the 
 consideration of the duty of prayer for our living 
 Apostle and Bishop of Bishops, the Pope. I shall 
 attempt to state distinctly what is to be the object 
 of our prayers for him, and, secondly, what the 
 spirit in which we should pray, and so I shall bring 
 my remarks on this great subject to an end. 
 
 1. In order to ascertain the exact object of our 
 prayers at this time, we must ascertain what is 
 the occasion of them. You know, my Brethren, 
 and I have already observed, that the Holy Father 
 has been attacked in his temporal possessions 
 again and again in these last years, and we have
 
 THE POPE AXD THE BEVOLUTION. 35 
 
 all along been saying prayers daily in the Mass in 
 his behalf. About six years ago the northern por- 
 tion of his States threw off his authority. Shortly 
 after, a large foreign force, uninvited, as it would 
 seem, by his people at large, robbers I will call 
 them, (this is not a political sentiment, but an 
 historical statement, for I never heard any one, 
 whatever his politics, who defended their act in 
 itself, but only on the plea of its supreme expe- 
 dience, of some State necessity, or some theory of 
 patriotism,) a force of sacrilegious robbers, 
 broke into provinces nearer to Rome by a sudden 
 movement, and, without any right except that of 
 the stronger, got possession of them, and keeps 
 them to this day. 3 Past outrages, such as these, are 
 never to be forgotten ; but still they are not the 
 occasion, nor do they give the matter, of our 
 present prayers. What that occasion, what that 
 object is, we seem to learn from his Lordship's letter 
 to his clergy, in which our prayers are required. 
 After speaking of the Pope's being " stripped of 
 part of his dominions," and " deprived of all the 
 rest, with the exception of the marshes and deserts 
 that surround the Roman capital," he fastens our 
 attention on the fact, that "now at last is the 
 Pope to be left standing alone, and standing face 
 to face with those unscrupulous adversaries, whose 
 boast and whose vow to all the world it is, not to 
 leave to him one single foot of Italian ground except 
 3 Vide Note at the end. 
 C 2
 
 86 THE POPE AND THE EE VOLUTION. 
 
 beneath their sovereign sway." I understand, then, 
 that the exact object of our prayers is, that the 
 territory still his should not be violently taken 
 from him, as have been those larger portions of his 
 dominions of which I have already spoken. 
 
 This too, I conceive, is what is meant by praying 
 for the Holy See. " The duty of every true child 
 of Holy Church," says the Bishop, "is to offer 
 continuous and humble prayer for the Father of 
 Christendom, and for the protection of the Holy 
 See." By the Holy See we may understand Rome, 
 considered as the seat of Pontifical government. 
 We are to pray for Rome, the see, or seat, or 
 metropolis of St. Peter and his successors. Fur- 
 ther, we are to pray for Rome as the seat, not 
 only of his spiritual government, but of his tem- 
 poral. We are to pray that he may continue king 
 of Rome ; that his subjects may come to a better 
 mind; that, instead of threatening and assailing 
 him, or being too cowardly to withstand those 
 who do, they may defend and obey him; that, 
 instead of being the heartless tormentors of an 
 old and venerable man, they may pay a willing 
 homage to the Apostle of God; that, instead of 
 needing to be kept down year after year by troops 
 from afar, as has been the case for so long a time, 
 they may, "with a great heart and a willing 
 mind," form themselves into the glorious body-guard 
 of a glorious Master; that they may obliterate 
 and expiate what is so great a scandal to the
 
 THE POPE AND THE REVOLUTION. 37 
 
 world, so great an indignity to themselves, so 
 great a grief to their Father and king, that 
 foreigners are kinder to him than his own flesh 
 and blood ; that now at least, though in the end 
 of days, they may reverse the past, and, after the 
 ingratitude of centuries, may unlearn the pattern 
 of that rebellious people, who began by rejecting 
 their God and ended by crucifying their Redeemer. 
 2. So much for the object of our prayers; 
 secondly, as to the spirit in which we should pray. 
 As we ever say in prayer " Thy will be done," so 
 we must say now. We do not absolutely know 
 God's will in this matter ; we know indeed it is 
 His will that we should ask; we are not abso- 
 lutely sure that it is His will that He should 
 grant. The very fact of our praying shows that 
 we are uncertain about the event. We pray when 
 we are uncertain, not when we are certain. If we 
 were quite sure what God intended to do, whether 
 to continue the temporal power of the Pope or to 
 end it, we should not pray. It is quite true 
 indeed that the event may depend upon our prayer, 
 but by such prayer is meant perseverance in prayer 
 and union of prayers ; and we never can be cer- 
 tain that this condition of numbers and of fervour 
 has been sufficiently secured. We shall indeed 
 gain our prayer if we pray enough ; but, since it 
 is ever uncertain what is enough, it is ever uncer- 
 tain what will be the event. There are Eastern 
 superstitions, in which it is taught that, by means
 
 38 THE POPE AND THE REVOLUTION. 
 
 of a certain number of religious acts, by sacrifices, 
 prayers, penances, a man of necessity extorts from 
 God what he wishes to gain, so that he may rise to 
 supernatural greatness even against the will of 
 God. Far be from us such blasphemous thoughts ! 
 We pray to God, we address the Blessed Virgin 
 and the Holy Apostles and the other guardians of 
 Rome, to defend the Holy City ; but we know the 
 event lies absolutely in the hands of the Allwise, 
 whose ways are not as our ways, whose thoughts 
 are not as our thoughts, and, unless we had been 
 furnished with a special revelation on the matter, to 
 be simply confident or to predict would be pre- 
 sumption. Such is Christian prayer; it implies 
 hope and fear. We are not certain we shall gain 
 our petition, we are not certain we shall not gain 
 it. Were we certain that we should not, we should 
 give ourselves to resignation, not to prayer; were 
 we certain we should, we should employ ourselves, 
 not in prayer, but in praise and thanksgiving. 
 While we pray then in behalf of the Pope's tem- 
 poral power, we contemplate both sides of the 
 alternative, his retaining it, and his losing it ; and 
 we prepare ourselves both for thanksgiving and 
 resignation, as the event may be. I conclude by 
 considering each of these issues of his present 
 difficulty. 
 
 (1.) First, as to the event of his retaining his 
 temporal power. I think this side of the alter- 
 native (humanly speaking) to be highly probable.
 
 THE POPE AND THE REVOLUTION. 39 
 
 I should be very mucli surprised if in the event he 
 did not keep it. I think the Romans will not be 
 able to do without him ; it is only a minority even 
 now which is against him; the majority of his 
 subjects are not wicked, so much as cowardly and 
 incapable. Even if they renounce him now for a 
 while, they will change their minds and wish for 
 him again. They will find out that he is their real 
 greatness. Their city is a place of ruins, except 
 so far as it is a place of holy shrines. It is the 
 tomb and charnel-house of pagan impiety, except 
 so far as it is sanctified and quickened by the 
 blood of martyrs and the relics of saints. To 
 inhabit it would be a penance, were it not for the 
 presence of religion. Babylon is gone, Memphis 
 is gone, Persepolis is gone ; Rome would go, if the 
 Pope went. Its very life is the light of the sanc- 
 tuary. It never could be a suitable capital of a 
 modern kingdom without a sweeping away of all 
 that makes it beautiful and venerable to the world 
 at large. And then, when its new rulers had made 
 of it a trim and brilliant city, they would find 
 themselves on an unhealthy soil and a defenceless 
 plain. But, in truth, the tradition of ages and 
 inveteracy of associations make such a vast change 
 in Rome impossible. All mankind are parties to 
 the inviolable union of the Pope and his city. His 
 autonomy is a first principle in European politics, 
 whether among Catholics or Protestants; and 
 where can it be secured so well as in that city,
 
 40 THE POPE AND THE REVOLUTION. 
 
 which has so long been the seat of its exercise ? 
 Moreover, the desolateness of Rome is as befitting 
 to a kingdom which is not of this world as it is 
 incompatible with a creation of modern political 
 theories. It is the religious centre of millions all 
 over the earth, who care nothing for the Romans 
 who happen to live there, and much for the mar- 
 tyred Apostles who so long have lain buried 
 there; and its claim to have an integral place in 
 the very idea of Catholicity is recognized not 
 only by Catholics, but by the whole world. 
 
 It is cheering to begin our prayers with these 
 signs of God's providence in our favour. He ex- 
 pressly encourages us to pray, for before we have 
 begun our petition, He has begun to fulfil it. And 
 at the same time, by beginning the work of mercy 
 ivitlwut us, He seems to remind us of that usual 
 course of His providence, viz. that He means to 
 finish it with us. Let us fear to be the cause of a 
 triumph being lost to the Church, because we 
 would not pray for it. 
 
 (2.) And now, lastly, to take the other side of 
 the alternative. Let us suppose that the Pope 
 loses his temporal power, and returns to the con- 
 dition of St. Sylvester, St. Julius, St. Innocent, 
 and other great Popes of early times. Are we 
 therefore to suppose that he and the Church will 
 come to nought ? God forbid ! To say that the 
 Church can fail, or the See of St. Peter can fail, is 
 to deny the faithfulness of Almighty God to His
 
 THE POPE AND THE EEVOLUTION. 41 
 
 word. "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock 
 will I build my Church, and the gates of hell shall 
 not prevail against it." To say that the Church 
 cannot live except in a particular way, is to make 
 it " subject to elements of the earth." The Church 
 is not the creature of times and places, of temporal 
 politics or popular caprice. Our Lord maintains 
 her by means of this world, but these means are 
 necessary to her only while He gives them ; when 
 He takes them away, they are no longer neces- 
 sary. He works by means, but He is not 
 bound to means. He has a thousand ways of 
 maintaining her ; He can support her life, not by 
 bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out 
 of His mouth. If He takes away one defence, He 
 will give another instead. We know nothing of 
 the future : our duty is to direct our course ac- 
 cording to our day; not to give up of our own 
 act the means which God has given us to main- 
 tain His Church withal, but not to lament over 
 their loss, when He has taken them away. Tem- 
 poral power has been the means of the Church's 
 independence for a very long period ; but, as her 
 Bishops have lost it a long while, and are not the 
 less Bishops still, so would it be as regards her 
 Head, if he also lost his. The Eternal God is her 
 refuge, and as He has delivered her out of so 
 many perils hitherto, so will He deliver her still. 
 The glorious chapters of her past history are but 
 anticipations of other glorious chapters still to
 
 42 THE POPE AND THE BE VOLUTION. 
 
 come. See how it lias been with her from the 
 very beginning down to this day. First, the 
 heathen populations persecuted her children for 
 three centuries, but she did not come to an end. 
 Then a flood of heresies was poured out upon her, 
 but still she did not come to an end. Then the 
 savage tribes of the North and East came down 
 upon her and overran her territory, but she did 
 not come to an end. Next, darkness of mind, 
 ignorance, torpor, stupidity, reckless corruption, 
 fell upon the holy place, still she did not come to 
 an end. Then the craft and violence of her own 
 strong and haughty children did their worst against 
 her, but still she did not come to an end. Then 
 came a time when the riches of the world flowed 
 in upon her, and the pride of life, and the refine- 
 ments and the luxuries of human reason ; and lulled 
 her rulers into an unfaithful security, till they 
 thought their high position in the world would 
 never be lost to them, and almost fancied that it 
 was good to enjoy themselves here below; but 
 still she did not come to an end. And then came 
 the so-called Reformation, and the rise of Protes- 
 tantism, and men said that the Church had dis- 
 appeared and they could not find her place. Yet, 
 now three centuries after that event, has, my Bre- 
 thren, the Holy Church come to an end ? has Pro- 
 testantism weakened her powers, terrible enemy 
 as it seemed to be when it arose ? has Protestant- 
 ism, that bitter energetic enemy of the Holy See,
 
 THE POPE AND THE REVOLUTION. 43 
 
 harmed the Holy See? Why, there never has 
 been a time, since the first age of the Church, 
 when there has been such a succession of holy 
 Popes, as since the Reformation. Protestantism 
 has been a great infliction on such as have suc- 
 cumbed to it ; but it has even wrought benefits for 
 those whom it has failed to seduce. By the mercy 
 of God it has been turned into a spiritual gain to 
 the members of Holy Church. 
 
 Take again Italy, into which Protestantism has 
 not entered, and England, of which it has gained 
 possession : now I know well that, when Catho- 
 lics are good in Italy, they are very good ; I would 
 not deny that they attain there to a height and a 
 force of saintliness of which we seem to have no 
 specimens here. This, however, is the case of 
 souls, whom neither the presence nor the absence 
 of religious enemies would affect for the better or 
 the worse. Nor will I attempt the impossible 
 task of determining the amount of faith and obe- 
 dience among Catholics respectively in two coun- 
 tries so different from each other. But, looking at 
 Italian and English Catholics externally and in their 
 length and breadth, I may leave any Protestant to 
 decide, in which of the two there is at this moment 
 a more demonstrative faith, a more impressive re- 
 ligiousness, a more generous piety, a more steady 
 adherence to the cause of the Holy Father. The 
 English are multiplying religious buildings, de- 
 corating churches, endowing monasteries, educat-
 
 44 THE POPE AND THE KEVOLUTION. 
 
 ing, preaching, and converting, and carrying off in 
 the current of their enthusiasm numbers even of 
 those who are external to the Church ; the Italian 
 statesmen, on the contrary, in our Bishop's words, 
 "imprison and exile the bishops and clergy, leave the 
 flocks without shepherds, confiscate the Church's 
 revenues, suppress the monasteries and convents, 
 incorporate ecclesiastics and religious in the army, 
 plunder the churches and monastic libraries, and 
 expose Religion herself, stripped and bleeding in 
 every limb, the Catholic Religion in the person of 
 her ministers, her sacraments, her most devoted 
 members, to be objects of profane and blasphemous 
 ridicule." In so brave, intelligent, vigorous- 
 minded a race as the Italians, and in the 19th 
 century not the 16th, and in the absence of any 
 formal protest of classes or places, the act of the 
 rulers is the act of the people. At the end of 
 three centuries Protestant England contains more 
 Catholics who are loyal and energetic in word and 
 deed, than Catholic Italy. So harmless has been 
 the violence of the Reformation ; it professed to 
 eliminate from the Church doctrinal corruptions, 
 and it has failed both in what it has done and in 
 what it has not done ; it has bred infidels, to its 
 confusion ; and, to its dismay, it has succeeded in 
 purifying and strengthening Catholic commu- 
 nities. 
 
 It is with these thoughts then, my Brethren, 
 with these feelings of solemn expectation, of joyful
 
 THE POPE AND THE REVOLUTION. 45 
 
 confidence, that we now come before our God, and 
 pray Him to have mercy on His chosen Servant, 
 His own Yicar, in this hour of trial. We come to 
 Him, like the prophet Daniel, in humiliation for 
 our own sins and the sins of our kings, our princes, 
 our fathers, and our people in all parts of the 
 Church; and therefore we say the Miserere and 
 the Litany of the Saints, as in a time of fast. 
 And we come before Him in the bright and glad 
 spirit of soldiers who know they are under the 
 leading of an Invincible King, and wait with beat- 
 ing hearts to see what He is about to do ; and 
 therefore it is that we adorn our sanctuary, bring- 
 ing out our hangings and multiplying our lights, as 
 on a day of festival. We know well we are on the 
 winning side, and that the prayers of the poor, 
 and the weak, and despised, can do more, when 
 offered in a true spirit, than all the wisdom and 
 all the resources of the world. This seventh of 
 October is the very anniversary of that day 
 on which the prayers of St. Pius, and the Holy 
 Rosary said by thousands of the faithful at his 
 bidding, broke for ever the domination of the 
 Turks in the great battle of Lepanto. God will 
 give us what we ask, or He will give us something 
 better. In this spirit let us proceed with the 
 holy rites which we have begun, in the presence 
 of innumerable witnesses, of God the Judge of all, 
 of Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant, of 
 His Mother Mary our Immaculate Protectress, of
 
 46 THE POPE AND THE REVOLUTION. 
 
 all the Angels of Holy Church, of all the blessed 
 Saints, of Apostles and Evangelists, Martyrs and 
 Confessors, holy preachers, holy recluses, holy 
 virgins, of holy innocents taken away before actual 
 sin, and of all other holy souls who have been 
 purified by suffering, and have already reached 
 their heavenly home. 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 NOTE I., on p. 25. 
 
 St. Bernard is led to say this to the Pope in consequence of 
 the troubles created in Rome by Arnold of Brescia." Ab obitu 
 Cselestini hoc anno invalescere coepit istiusmodi rebellio Roma- 
 norum adversus Pontificem, eodemque haeresis dicta Politicorum, 
 sive Arnaldistarum. Ea erant tempora infelicissima, cum Ro- 
 mani ipsi, quorum fides in universo orbe jam a tempore Aposto- 
 lorum annunciata semper fuit, resilientes modo a Pontifice, 
 dominandi cupidiue, ex filiis Petri et discipulis Christi, fiunt 
 soboles et alumni pestilentissimi Arnaldi de Brixia. Verum, 
 cum tu Romanos audis, ne putes omnes eadem insania percitos, 
 nam complures ex nobilium Romanorum famiHis, iis relictis, pro 
 Pontifice rem agebant, &c." Baron. Annal. in ann. 1144. 4. 
 
 NOTE II., on p. 35. 
 
 The following Telegram in the Times of September 13, 1860, 
 containing Victor Emmanuel's formal justification of his in- 
 vasion and occupation of Umbria and the Marches in a time 
 of peace, is a document for after times : 
 
 Turin, Sept. 11, evening. 
 
 The King received to-day a deputation from the inhabitants 
 of Umbria and the Marches. 
 
 His Majesty granted the protection which the deputation 
 solicited, and orders have been given to the Sardinian troops to 
 enter those provinces by the following Proclamation :
 
 NOTES. 47 
 
 " Soldiers ! You are about to enter the Marches and Umbria, 
 in order to establish civil order in the towns now desolated by 
 misrule, and to give to the people the liberty of expressing their 
 own wishes. You will not fight against the armies of any of 
 the Powers, but will free those unhappy Italian provinces from 
 the bands of foreign adventurers which infest them. You do 
 not go to revenge injuries done to me and Italy, but to prevent 
 the popular hatred from unloosing itself against the oppressors 
 of the country. 
 
 " By your example you will teach the people forgiveness of 
 offences, and Christian tolerance to the man who compared the 
 love of the Italian fatherland to Islamism. 
 
 " At peace with all the great Powers, and holding myself 
 aloof from any provocation, I intend to rid Central Italy of one 
 continual cause of trouble and discord. I intend to respect -the 
 seat of the Chief of the Church, to whom I am ever ready 
 to give, in accordance with the allied and friendly Powers, all 
 the guarantees of independence and security, which his mis- 
 guided advisers have in vain hoped to obtain for him from the 
 fanaticism of the wicked sect which conspires against my autho- 
 rity and against the liberties of the nation. 
 
 " Soldiers ! I am accused of ambition. Yes ; I have one am- 
 bition, and it is to re-establish the principles of moral order in 
 Italy, and to preserve Europe from the continual dangers of 
 revolution and war." 
 
 The next day the Times, in a leading article, thus commented 
 on the above : 
 
 " Victor Emmanuel has in Garibaldi a most formidable com- 
 petitor. . . .' [Piedmont] must therefore, at whatever cost or 
 risk, make herself once more mistress of the revolution. She 
 must lead, that she may not be forced to follow. She must 
 revolutionize the Papal States, in order that she may put 
 herself in a position to arrest a dangerous revolutionary move- 
 ment against Venetia. . . . These motives are amply sufficient 
 to account for the decisive movement of Victor Emmanuel. 
 He lives in revolutionary times, when self-preservation has 
 superseded all other considerations, and it would be childish to 
 apply to his situation the maxims of international law which are 
 applicable to periods of tranquillity.
 
 48 NOTES. 
 
 " These being the motives which have impelled Piedmont to 
 draw the sword, we have next to see what are the grounds on 
 which she justifies the step. These grounds are two, the ex- 
 traordinary misrule and oppression of the Papal Government, 
 and the presence of large hands of foreign mercenaries, by which 
 the country is oppressed and terrorized. The object is said to 
 be to give the people an opportunity of expressing their own 
 wishes and the re-establishment of civil order. The king pro- 
 mises to respect the seat of the Chief of the Church, Rome, we 
 suppose, and its immediate environs ; but, while holding out 
 this assurance, the manifesto speaks of the Pope and his advisers 
 in terms of bitterness and acrimony unusual in the present age, 
 even in a declaration of war. He will teach the people forgive- 
 ness of offences, and Christian tolerance to the Pope and his 
 general. He denounces the misguided advisers of the Pontiff, 
 and the fanaticism of the wicked sect which conspires against 
 his authority and the liberties of the nation. This is harsh 
 language, and is not inconsistently seconded by the advance 
 into the States of the Church of an army of 50,000 men." 
 
 It was the old Fable of the Wolf and the Lamb. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 GILBERT AND RIVINGTON, PRINTERS, ST. JOHN'S SQUARE, LONDON.
 
 POPE HONORIUS 
 
 BKl'OKE THE 
 
 TRIBUNAL OF REASON AND HISTORY. 
 
 REV. PAUL BOTTALLA, S.J. 
 
 PROFESSOR OP THEOLOGY IN ST. BEUNO'S COLLEGE, 
 KORTH WALES. 
 
 LONDON: 
 BURNS, GATES, AND COMPANY, 
 
 PORTMAN STREET, PORTMAN SQUARE. 
 1868.
 
 A 000 031 297 5
 
 
 
 :"