664 



ROMAX CATHOLIC CHURCH. 



arising from party spirit and the voluptuousness of 

 revenue are left unpunished ; and the same impunity 

 is extended to the base and unworthy contumely 

 launched, to the sorrow of all honest men, against 

 the faithful battalions of our soldiers, so highly de- 

 serving of religion and society. 



Finally, the orders and decrees recently published 

 in regari of the property of the Church, show with 

 sufficient clearness the ultimate designs of the usurp- 

 ers. Against which things which have been already 

 accomplished, and the worse deeds that may yet bo 

 perpetrated, wo mean to protest in the fulness of our 

 supreme authority, as we now protest in these our 

 letters, in which we make known to you, our beloved 

 son, and to each one in particular of the cardinals of 

 the Holy Koman Church, this exposition of events 

 briefly alluded to, reserving to some other time a 

 more detailed statement. 



Meanwhile let us pray to the Almighty God, with 

 fervent and incessant supplications, that He may 

 deign to illumine the minds of our enemies ; that 

 they may cease to find their souls, more and more, 

 day after day, in the bonds of ecclesiastical censures, 

 and drawn down upon themselves the terrible anger 

 of the living God, who sees every thing, and from 

 whom no one can escape. 



For our part, then, with a firm mind, and in all 

 humility, we implore the Divine Majesty, invoking 

 the intercession of the Immaculate Mother of God, ana 

 of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and we do so 

 founded upon a firm confidence of obtaining what 

 we ask ; for " God is near to those who suffer tribula- 

 tion, and close beside those who invoke Him in truth." 



Again wishing you, our beloved son, the joy and 

 peace of our Lord Jesus Christ, from the recesses of 

 our heart, we impart to you most lovingly the apos- 

 tolic benediction. 



Given at Eome, near St. Peter's, on the 29th of 

 September, sacred to the Archangel St. Michael, the 

 25th year of our Pontificate. PIUS P. P. IX. 



On November 1st, the Pope issued the fol- 

 lowing encyclical, which was followed oy pub- 

 lic protests against the occupation by Catholics 

 in all countries : 



PlDS IX., BY DIVINE PROVIDENCE POPE, TO ALL PA- 

 TRIARCHS, PRIMATES, ARCHBISHOPS, AND BISHOPS, 

 AND TO OTHER LOCAL ORDINARIES HAVING FAVOR 

 AND COMMUNION WITH THE APOSTOLICAL SEE. 



Venerable Brethren, Health and Apostolical Bene- 

 diction : Having regard to all the proceedings taken 

 for many years past by the Piedmontese Govern- 

 ment, with incessant plots aiming at the overthrow 

 of the civil principality granted by the singular 

 providence of God to the Apostolic See, in order 

 that the successors of blessed Peter might enjoy full 

 liberty and security in the exercise of their spiritual 

 .jurisdiction, it is impossible, venerable brethren, but 

 that our inmost heart should be grieved at such a 

 conspiracy against the Church of God and this Holy 

 See ; and at this calamitous period, when the said 

 Government, following the counsels of sects of per- 

 dition, has for a long time meditated a sacrilegious 

 invasion of our beloved city, and of the remaining 

 states, of which the dominion was left to us from 

 the former usurpation, and has now carried that de- 

 sign into eifect, by force of arms, against all law and 

 right ; while we, prostrate before Almighty God, 

 adore His mysterious dejigns, and say with the 

 Prophet : Ego plorans et oculus meus deducens aquas, 

 quia longe /actu* est a me consolator, convertens ani- 

 mam meant, facti sunt jilii mei perditi quoniamprae- 

 valuit inimicus, (Jer., Thren., 1, 16.) 



Venerable brethren, the history of this nefarious 

 war has been sufficiently explained and published 

 long ago to the whole Catholic world. We have 

 done it in our encyclical allocutions and briefs de- 

 livered or dated at different times ; namely, on the 

 1st of November, 1850 ; on the 22d of January and 



26th of June, 1855; on the 18'.h and 28th of June, 

 and 26th of September, 1859 ; on the 19th of Janu- 

 ary, 1860, and in the letters apostolical, March 26, 

 1860. Also in allocutions of 28th of September, 

 1860 ; 18th of March and 30th of September, 1861 ; 

 20th of September, 17th of October, and 14th of No- 

 vember, 1867. In this series ot documents are 

 viewed and explained the very grievous injuries in- 

 flicted by the Piedmontese Government on the sov- 

 ereign authority of us, and of this Apostolic See, in 

 the years prior to the commencement of the occupa- 

 tion of the ecclesiastical dominion; laws being 

 enacted against natural, against divine, and against 

 ecclesiastical right; the ministers of religion, the 

 religious communities, and even the bishops them- 

 selves being subjected to unworthy vexations ; the 

 faith pledged to this Holy See in solemn treaties 

 being forfeited, and the sacred obligation of those 

 treaties being curtly repudiated at the very time 

 when the said Government was signifying its desire 

 to conclude new treaties with us. In those docu- 

 ments, venerable brethren, it is evidenced, and pos- 

 terity will see, with what arts and by what cunning 

 and unworthy plots the said Government has gone 

 the length of overbearing jtistice and the sacredness 

 of the rights of this Apostolic See ; and at the same 

 time it will be known what exertion we have made 

 to restrain, so far as in us lay, such lawless conduct, 

 that daily grew worse, and to defend the cause of the 

 Church. You are well aware how, in the year 1859, 

 the chief cities of the yEmilia were stirred up to re- 

 bellion by the Piedmonteso authorities, who sent in 

 writings, conspirators, arms, and money; and how, 

 not long afterward, assemblies of the people having 

 been convened, and suffrages having Been taken, a 

 pretended plebiscite was got up, and by that trick- 

 ery and pretence our provinces situate in that region 

 were wrested from our paternal government, all good 

 men in vain protesting against the act. You are also 

 well acquainted with the fact that, during the year 

 following, the said Government made prey of other 

 provinces situate in Picenum, in Umbria, and in the 

 Patrimony, and turned them to its own profit, al- 

 leging crafty pretexts, and with a large army attacked 

 by surprise our troops and the volunteer band of 

 Catholic youths, who, induced by the spirit of re- 

 ligion and piety toward their common father, had 

 hastened from all parts of the world to our defence, 

 and routed them in a murderous battle, they being 

 taken at unawares, yet fighting bravely for their re- 

 ligion to the last. 



Neither is any man ignorant of the extraordinary 

 insolence and hypocrisy of this Government, which, 

 in order to extenuate the odium of their sacrilegious 

 usurpation, has not hesitated to give out that it had 

 invaded those provinces to restore in them the prin- 

 ciples of moral order, while in reality it everywhere 

 promoted the diffusion and cultivation of every false 

 doctrine, and everywhere relaxed the restraints of 

 lust and impiety ; likewise inflicting undeserved 

 penalties on Catholic bishops and on ecclesiastics of 

 every grade, whom it threw into prison and allowed 

 to be harassed with public insults, while at the same 

 time it granted impunity to those persecutors, and 

 even to the assailants of the supreme pontifical dig- 

 nity in the person of our humility. It is, moreover, 

 true that we, in the due discharge of our office, have 

 not only all along resisted reiterated counsels and 

 demands offered to us, to the effect that we should 

 basely betray our duty, throwing over forsooth and 

 surrendering the rights and possessions _ of the 

 Church, or entering into a sinful compromise with 

 the usurpers. Also, it is true that we have opposed 

 to these wicked attempts and crimes so perpetrated 

 contrary to all law, human and divine, our solemn 

 protests before God and man ; and that we have de- 

 clared their authors and abettors to be involved in 

 ecclesiastical censures, and, as far as the case re- 

 quired, we inflicted anew those censures upon them : 

 lastly, it is a well-known fact that the aforesaid 



