The Sun.
London, England, 1865-11-25 00:00:00

that law the mightiest consequences may depend. On
this obedience to the successor of S. Peter depended
unity and truth ; and on these depended the divine
grant of jurisdiction over souls, on which again de-
pended the authority of the Pastors over their flock,
and the obedience of the flock to the Pastors. With
the Shepherd's garment all these come or go. The
divisions of England, external and internal, spiritual
and intellectual, show that with the symbol de-
parted also the reality.

These thoughts forced themselves upon us all the
more the other day in the beautiful Catholic city of
Florence. Again and again the incoherences of the
Reformation• endeavoured to wind their way into
Italy. They who translate and print Protestantism
for the use of the Italians know little of the people
of Italy. Christ or Anti-christ is an intelligible
alternative : the " Summa" of S. Thomas or the
philosophy of Voltaire ; the Christianity of the
world or the naturalism of the human reason ; the
Sacrifice of the Mass or no divine worship ; the
Pastoral jurisdiction of two hundred and fifty Pon-
tiffs or every man his own guide. This is intelligible
and coherent. But a religion without supreme
power, a theology in fragments, a Christianity out
of square with the Christian world, ministers without
Priesthood, or Priests without Altars, or obedience
without a divine jurisdiction—these things are only
not ridiculed because of the courtesy which lets them
pass, or the venality which feeds upon them. What
remains now of the Synod of Pistoia except the Bull
" Auctorem Fidei" ? What will spring from this
tampering with its faith but a new, indignant, and
authoritatve declaration of the Catholic religion of
Italy ? The people of Italy are profoundly Chris-
tian and Catholic ; of which their calm, and mutual
respect in this season of prolonged and terrific
temptation is abundant proof. May God in His in-
finite mercy send them peace. And who that has
seen their churches more full at this day than ever
before—and more full, above all, in those very cities
where the revolution has fallen heaviest—can doubt

that the prayers of Italy are heard ; and that if scourges
are impending, those scourges will restore to it that
which is above all price, the perfectunion of all hearts
in the paternal love of the Vicar of Jesus Christ. It
was but the other day that, with the voice and
heart of the Good Shepherd, he called once more
those who are wandering to return to his pastoral
care ; and at once a million voices were raised up to
answer with a protestation of fidelity.
Thus much, dear Children in Jesus Christ, we
have been almost forced to say, with the cities of
Italy fresh before us, the centres of so many glories
of the Saints, the Statesmen, the leaders of Italian
history, and therefore of the Christian civilisation
of the world. And if this had not been enough,
another memory would constrain us, the image of
the Vicar of our Lord, whom a few days ago we
saw in the majesty of his confidence and calm, with
all the sorrows of the Church full upon him, greater
in the isolation of his poverty and in the freedom
of his speech, to which all nations listen, than
Pontiffs who in the height of power led the
monarchies of past ages, because more like to their
Lord and ours in humility and loneliness of heart.
In him the whole Christian world may learn to trust
in justice and in God, and to measure the perils of
this hour as we do the stress of a little storm, sharp
for a time, but soon overcast. For what are the
sorrows of a Pontificate in the eighteen centuries
of the imperishable See of Peter, the sole fountain of
jurisdiction to the Pastors of Jesus Christ.

And may the God of Peace, who brought again

from the dead the Great Pastor of the Sheep, our
Lord Jesus Christ, in the blood of the Everlasting
Testament, fit you in all goodness that you may do
His will : doing in you that which is well pleasing

in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom is
glory for ever and ever. Amen."—Hebrews
20, 21.

Given at Westminster this Fourteenth day of
November, 1863, and ordered to be read in all
Churches and Chapels of the Diocese on Sunday
the 19th instant, being the Twenty-fourth Sunday
after Pentecost.

t HENRY EDWARD,
Archbishop of Westminster.

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