686 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 



guns from eight to ten, thirteen, fifteen, and, 

 finally, in February, 1864, to a twenty-inch 

 bore, the last weighing, in the first specimen, 

 116,000 pounds, and subsequent guns still more. 

 The thirteen and fifteen-inch guns were in 

 constant demand both for the monitors and 

 the forts on the coast, and along the entrance 

 to our best harbors; while the twenty-inch 

 monsters were mounted on the forts of the 

 lower bay, in New York Harbor, New York 

 City being at that time supposed to be in some 

 danger of a naval attack. The laborious study 

 and patient investigation which led to this final 

 grand result are Rodman's best title to distinc- 

 tion. In 1865 he was made " brevet lieutenant- 

 colonel for faithful, meritorious, and distin- 

 guished services in the Ordnance Department," 

 also the same date brevet colonel and brevet 

 brigadier-general. At the time of his death, 

 General Rodman was devoting his energies to 

 the completion of the arsenal and armory at 

 Rock Island, which are the offspring of his sug- 

 gestion. His projects included the removal 

 of the present railroad bridge across the Missis- 

 sippi at that point, with a view to improving 

 the navigation of the river, and making the 

 water-power in the Government works effec- 

 tive. 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. During 

 the year 1871, Pope Pius IX. exercised no 

 authority as a temporal prince ; all his acts 

 relate to the affairs of the Church. 



Although frequent rumors prevailed that he 

 would leave Rome, he remained at the Vatican, 

 which was guarded without by troops of Vic- 

 tor Emmanuel so strictly that Mgr. Merode, 

 his chaplain, stepping out on a balcony, was 

 aimed at by a soldier with his musket. 



The revenues of the Pope, including those 

 accruing from private sources, were all taken 

 possession of by the new government ; and 

 the support of the Church government at 

 Rome devolved on the Universal Church. To 

 meet this, a systematic collection was estab- 

 lished in various countries. 



No new promotion of cardinals was made 

 in the year 1871. 



The Pope retained his ministry and his rep- 

 resentatives at foreign courts, and received 

 their ambassadors. 



The various foreign colleges and convents 

 remained in .Rome under the. protection of 

 their own governments ; but many of the 

 others were seized by the new government, 

 with their archives and libraries. The foreign 

 colleges in February protested against the 

 seizure of the Roman College, of which they 

 formed a part. The religious in the convents 

 yielded only to force, and were expelled by 

 troops. 



A feeling of hostility was cultivated by a 

 number of papers caricaturing and ridiculing 

 the Pope and clergy; one of the results of 

 which was a violent invasion of the Church 

 of the Gesu in March. 



Pius IX., by a brief dated March 2d, ad- 



dressed to Cardinal Patrizi, defended the Jes- 

 uits, and in advance rejected all the proposed 

 guarantees, saying : " It is of the nature of a 

 concession that there is a certain power in him 

 that concedes over him to whom the conces- 

 sion is made. Therefore, the one to whom 

 the concession is made, at least as to the mat- 

 ter of the concession, is truly subordinate to 

 the authority and will of the power conceding." 

 The following is an extract from this brief : 



The spoilers seem to wish the suppression of all 

 religious houses, by commencing with the fathers of 

 the Society of Jesus. To prepare the way for such 

 a crime, they strive to stir up hatred among the 

 people against them. They accuse them of hostile 

 proceedings against the present domination; and, 

 especially, they pretend the power and favor with 

 us, of the society, as making us more inimical to that 

 rule ; and that we are so in the hands of those fathers 

 that, except at their advice, we can do nothing. 



Such a foolish calumny would turn into thelowest 

 contempt our person, as too weak and unskilful to 

 initiate any counsel, of our own motion, though all 

 might t know that the Koman Pontiff, having implored 

 the Divine light and aid, does and commands that 

 which he shall have judged right and useful for the 

 Church ; but that, in graver matters, it has always 

 been his custom to use the help of those, of whatever 

 rank or condition, or of whatever regular order, whom 

 he thinks, as more skilled in the matter in hand, may 

 offer the wiser and more prudent opinion. Thus, 

 indeed, we often employ the fathers of the Society 

 of Jesus, we intrust them with sundry charges 

 especially in the sacred ministry ; and they acquit 

 themselves with attention and zeal that are always 

 more agreeable to us, and which have merited for 

 them the frequent and abundant praises of our pred- 



But this our most just love and esteem of a society 

 that has merited excellently of the Church of Christ, 

 of this Holy See, and of the Christian people, are far 

 from that servile submission to it that its defamers 

 feign, whose calumny we indignantly repel from us, 

 and from the modest devotion of these most excellent 

 fathers. These things we have thought proper to 

 state to you, our venerable brother, that the snares 

 framed against the society may be exposed, to set 

 right our sentiments so basely and foolishly traves- 

 tied, and to give a new testimony of our most ready 

 affection toward the same illustrious society. 



Willingly would we take this occasion of speaking 

 of other causes of pur grief, every day growing in 

 number. But the limits of a letter would not con- 

 tain them. We will make but one comment on the 

 concessions that they call guarantigie (guarantees), 

 in which it is hard to say whether the absurdity, or 

 the guile, or the ridiculousness, holds the first place, 

 and which, nevertheless, the subalpine moderators 

 are laboriously and uselessly studying out. For, 

 compelled by the common expostulation of Catholics, 

 and by political necessity, to keep a little show of 

 our sovereign power reserved, lest we should seem 

 subject to any one in the exercise of the supreme 

 government of the Church, they have imagined they 

 can make a show of this, by their concessions. But 

 it is of the nature of a concession that there is a certain 

 power in him that concedes over him to whom the 

 concession is made. Therefore, the one to whom 

 the concession is made, at least as to the matter of 

 the concession, is truly subordinate to the authority 

 and the will of the power conceding. So it is clear 

 that they labor in vain when they study how to guar- 

 antee our sovereign power, by help of props that can 

 only overturn and ruin it. But such is the character 

 of these concessions that each one bears in itself a 

 special servitude, which grows harder by the succes- 

 sive amendments. And, at length, the hostile and 

 treacherous meaning, however veiled, that breaks 



