the inimical power to forbid any one the power of ingress, or, if it prefer, to expel the individual from the city, and thus save him the trouble of the journey to the Vatican.
In addition to these facts, the stonings, menaces, hootings, and similar acts of urbanity practised in the streets of Rome and in the neighborhood of St. Peter’s toward the numerous Catholic deputations which came this year to pay their homage to the august prisoner, by the rabble introduced through the breach of the Porta Pia—these attest how great is that beautiful liberty enjoyed by the Pope in receiving visitors, whether they come of their own accord or that he sends for them.
6. Pius IX. in Rome will not long be at liberty to regulate the religious institutions, and to employ them in the service of the churches, as is right and proper he should do; because the inimical power is already on the alert to deprive the Holy See of this strong spiritual garrison: it is abolishing the orders, and depriving them of their property. The superiors-general of these orders, which are immediately subject to the Pontiff, will in a short time have no bread to eat, no room to shelter them; they will wander homeless over the earth, and lose their subjects on all sides. In this way, one of the instruments of the Pontiff, most useful to him in the administration of the church, will be, as it were, broken in his hand, and in the city in which the Head of the Catholic Church has his seat the profession of the evangelical state will be prohibited; and the Pope will not be even able to give shelter to the various missionaries who are toiling in the cause of Christianity among the heathen of Asia and America, when they come to render an account of their newly founded missions; for in all Rome he will no
longer have a religious house of hospitality at his disposal.
We will not lengthen details in order to enumerate the various other particular modes of liberty which the Holy Father can no longer exercise in the fulfilment of his supreme office. The exposition we have already given suffices to prove that he has no liberty, save such as the author of his affliction permits, either from his own authority or from other causes; the permission being compulsory on the part of the enemy, and most unwillingly given. And this is the marvellous liberty now enjoyed by the Sovereign Pontiff, thanks to the Subalpinists, who have dethroned him and uncrowned him in Rome itself, out of love, as they say, for the holy church!
VIII.
Let us be just. Our Holy Father might be in a much worse condition than the present one. His jailers as yet do not do him all the wrong they would wish, but are not able to do him. This is true enough. They have not as yet assailed the Vatican, and dragged Pius IX. to the Fortress of Ancona, as they have done to the illustrious Cardinal Morichini, Bishop of Jesi; or to a convent of Turin, as they have done to the imperturbable Cardinal de Angelis. We repeat it: they would like to do this, but are not able; they would like to do this and worse, but the governments of Europe have absolutely forbidden them to set foot in the Vatican, or to lay hands on the Sovereign Pontiff. This and nothing else restrains them in the frenzy of their hatred from beheading him at once. This and nothing else constrains them to moderate the impetuosity of their hatred in carrying on their persecutions against the Papacy. Fear compels these little Neros to don the mantle
of Julian; for, while under the eyes of two diplomatic bodies in Rome, they dare not carry their outrages on the Pope and his dignity beyond a certain limit.
From this we may infer that the only and ultimate safeguard remaining at the present moment to the Holy Father in the Vatican is not the law called the law of the Guarantees, nor is it trust in the governors, but the corps of diplomatists who have received from their various governments instructions to maintain inviolate the asylum of the octogenarian Pontiff, and to protect his august person.
Were it not for this only and ultimate safeguard, Catholics throughout the world would now be weeping over their Father exiled from Rome, and perhaps as having already expired from the bullets or sword of the enemy.