

UMMAN CATHOLIC 



003 



HEADQUARTERS or TIIC GERMAN ARMIES, ) 

 NEAB RHEIHS, September 8, 1670. j 

 Mott Holy Father: Mn>i^iu>r the Bishop of Pater- 

 liorn ha.-, presented t-> iu- the litter in which your 

 Holiness informs mo thut you huvc reason to believe 

 < lie Kin^ of Italy may. perhaps, send an 

 iirmy Into tli-' I'oinitWI State* ami into BMM itM-lf. 

 ^ our Holiness re.iue-.ts me to hinder the King of 

 Italy in tin- exeeuticn of the project and also asks for 

 an ilmud intervention of my troops in case your Ho- 

 linens should have need of protection. 1 regret that 

 the policy always adopted by myself and my govern- 

 ment prevents mo absolutely from intervention in 

 any such <[ne.-tion. I urn, besides, on the best of 

 terms with my lirother the Kinjj of Italy, and I could 

 not imperil the relations that exist between Germany 

 and Ituly for a political interest which does not, in 

 any way, as your Holiness seems to think, touch upon 

 the interest of Prussia. I have no doubt, besides, 

 that his Majesty the King of Italy and his Govern- 

 ment, if they should bo forced to enter the states of 

 your Holiness, in order to avert the excess of the 

 revolutionary party in Europe, would give to your 

 Holiness every guarantee which can assure the free 

 exercise of that spiritual authority which your Holi- 

 ness ought to exert in the interest of the Church, of 

 which you are the acknowledged head. With the 

 most earnest desire that peace and order may be 

 shortly reestablished in all parts of Europe, I beg 

 your Holiness to believe me your sincere friend. 



WILLIAM. 



Still later, on October Yth, after the occu- 

 pation (see ITALY) by the Italians, the Pope 

 sent, by the hand of Count von Arnim, to Ver- 

 sailles, to know if the government of the King, 

 in case he (the Pope) wished to abandon Rome, 

 would take the necessary measures with the 

 Government of Florence, in order that this 

 might be done with all convenience. The re- 

 plies of the Prussian Government sent by tele- 

 graph were as follows: 



VERSAILLES, October 8, 1870. 



The federal Chancellor to the Envoy Count -von Ar- 

 M, at Rome : 



To the first part of the telegram of yesterday, I re- 

 ply affirmatively, after having taken the orders of 

 his Majesty the King. The intercession demanded 

 will soon be sent by telegraph to Florence.' 



(Signed) VON BISMARCK. 



VERSAILLES, October 8, 1870. 



The Fedtral Chancellor to the Envoy Count Brassier, at 

 Florence : 



Cardinal Antonelli has asked of the royal envoy to 

 the Pope, if the Pope, in case he wished to abandon 

 Borne, should count upon the support of his Majesty 

 so that he might leave in a proper manner and with- 

 out hinderance. His Majesty the King has ordered 

 me to reply in the affirmative to this demand. His 

 Maiesty is convinced that the Italian Government 

 will respect in every circumstance the liberty and the 

 dignity of the Pope, even when the Pope, against 

 every expectation, should have the intention to trans- 

 fer his residence elsewhere. 



The King charges your Excellency to manifest this 

 hope, ills Majesty the King does not maintain that 

 the Confederation of the North has the obligation of 

 meddling with the political affairs of other countries 

 without being asked ; he considers himself, however, 

 to be under obligation toward the Germans of North- 

 ern Germany, to make sure that the dignity and in- 

 dependence of the supremo head of the Catholic 

 Church be maintained. 



(Signed) VON BISMARCK. 



On the 29th of September the Pope issued 

 the following protest, addressed to each of the 

 cardinals : 



Piut I\ipa IX. to our wtll-ltloted Son, htalth and 

 Apottolie Hentdi' 



Our Lord Jesui ChrUt, who humbles /id exalts, 

 inflicts death and restore* life, chastises and save*, 

 has permitted, for the present, that the city of Home, 

 scat of the supremo Pontificate, should fall into the 

 hands of enemies, together with the remainder of 

 the states of the Church, which those enemies them- 

 selves judged prudent to leave for some time longer 

 free from usurpation. Moved by a feeling of pater- 

 nal charity toward our beloved sons, the cardinals 

 of the Holy Roman Church, and regarding them as 

 corporators in this our Supreme Aj>otolate, we have 

 determined this day, afflicted and in team, to declare 

 to them, as is our duty, and as the voice of conscience 

 commands us, the inmost sentiments of our soul, 

 with which we publicly and openly detest and repro- 

 bate the present state of affairs. 



For whereas we, although unworthily and above 

 our merit, exercise upon earth the power of Vicar of 

 Chri.-t our Lord, and ore the pastor of the entire 

 Church, we now feel that we are deprived of that 

 liberty which is above all things necessary to us to 

 govern the same Church of God, and to sustain its 

 reasons : and we feel it to be our duty to make this 

 protest, having the intention ? also, of printing it, that 

 it may become known, as is proper, to the entire 

 Catholic world. 



Nor, when we declare that our liberty has been 

 wrested and torn from us (ertptam ademptamque). can 

 our enemies reply that this declaration and complaint 

 are without foundation ? For surely there is no person 

 of sane mind who cannot understand, and must con- 

 fess, that, being deprived of that supreme and free 

 authority over the postal department, and conse- 

 quently over the public transmission of letters, 

 which we enjoyed by virtue of our civil principality, 

 and not daring to trust that Government which has 

 robbed us of this power, we find ourselves deprived 

 of that necessary and expeditious means and the un- 

 restricted facility of treating those affairs which the 

 Vicar of Jesus Christ and common Father of the 

 Faithful must necessarily treat about and expedite to 

 all and every pne of his children who may nave re- 

 course to him from any portion of the globe. This 

 observation is still more forcibly verified by a recent 

 fact which has occurred during the past few days, 

 when, forsooth, those who passed out across the 

 threshold of our residence in the Vatican were sub- 

 jected to bodily search, the soldiers of the new gov- 

 ernment narrowly examining them, lest they might 

 have any thing concealed under their garments. A 

 complaint was made of this, and an apology came in 

 reply, stating that it was done through mistake. But 

 who is ignorant that these mistakes may be renewed 

 and many similar one's perpetrated ? 



Moreover, a terrible visitation is overhanging this 

 beloved city in the matter of public instruction, for 

 in a few days the course of studies will be resumed 

 in the Roman University, and this seat of learning, 

 illustrious for the immense number of nearly one 

 thousand two hundred young men who attend it, 

 hitherto examples of tranquillity and order, and the 

 only refuge to so many honest Christian parents, 

 who sent their sons to be educated there, without 

 danger of their being corrupted this hallowed spot, 

 what with the false and erroneous doctrines that will 

 be henceforward taught there, and the utter inca- 

 pacity of those who shall be selected to teach, will 

 rapidly fall into a condition, as we may well imagine, 

 very different from that of old. 



Moreover, it was asserted that the laws actually in 

 force in Rome, even after the occupation, would re- 

 main unaltered and inviolate; and yet, falsityine 

 these assertions, the parochial registries are seized 

 by force and searched through and through, clearly 

 for the purpose of compiling thence what may, per- 

 haps, serve later on for making out the lists .tor tho 

 conscription, or for other ends that we can easily 

 guess. We may add that the outrages and injuries 



