III.—Attitude of the Pontiff.
Amidst the fearful tempest which now threatens with shipwreck the feeble bark of Peter, the attitude of the humble Successor of the Fisherman is calm, collected, imperturbable, verging even on the sublime! It is the living embodiment of moral power clad in the panoply of heaven, contending hopefully and heroically against overwhelming physical force, armed with all the terrible appliances of modern warfare. A feeble old man, the weakest of all the sovereigns of Europe, despoiled by brute force of the better and richer portion of the small domain which had descended to him in peaceful and unquestioned succession for more than a thousand years, and which he held in sacred trust for the benefit of all Christendom; his status determined, and his possessions—or rather those of the Church—bartered away by diplomatic negotiations and conventions, coolly entered into without either his participation or consent, by powerful neighbors calling themselves children of the Church; brought to bay, at length, by the approaching crisis in his affairs, is he cast down, is he overwhelmed? No; but he rises buoyantly on the wave which threatens to ingulph him, and elevating himself to the full height of the emergency, he dares proclaim to emperors, kings, and peoples great truths and principles, which they appear to have forgotten, which it was not pleasant for them to hear, but which it was his duty to utter. With calm dignity becoming his station, he alludes not directly to his own particular grievances, but he takes in, at a glance, the evil principles and influences which threaten the subversion of all Society and of all Religion; and he boldly proclaims, that might does not consecrate right, that God and His Church are not to be banished with impunity from the government of the world, that human legislation is not to overbear divine principles and institutions, and that infidelity and radicalism will destroy, while Keligion alone can save human society from the deluge of evils which threatens its disorganization.
