The Sun.
London, England, 1861-01-01 00:00:00

ALLOCUTION OF POPE PIUS IX.

The following Address was pronounced in Secre
Consistory on the 17th of December, 1860 :

(Translation.)
Venerable Brothers,—The Church, from its origin
assailed by fierce and continual tempests, is in our
day the sad object of the attacks of enemies so great
and so numerous that their hatred, long since exist •
ing, their rage, swollen to its height, appear to be
let loose all entire against our Pontificate. There
is no need, venerable brothers, to repeat one by
one the sad and cruel events -which have come
to pass within a few years, and the recollection
of which fills with anguish our heart and yours.
We cannot deceive ourselves that, without pre-
judging the impenetrable designs of God, no
bounds have yet been placed to calamities so
great. I❑ fact, we have to deplore the invasion
of perverse doctrine which, sprung from the
principles of the disastrous Reformation, has
acquired almost the force of public law, on the one
band by the perversity of impious men, who pro-
claim themselves the sons of the Church, and whom
we must call the sons of darkness, and on the other
hand by the firy of the Pagans, which, in the lands
of the East, has burst forth with such vehemence
as to cause the massacre and extermination of the
faithful.

In truth, it is impossible not to deplore in how
many countries of Europe have penetrated the most
pernicious errors on the power and rights of the
Church. In one they labour incessantly to invali-
date the Concordats concluded by the Apostolic
See on ecclesiastical matters; in another they de-
vote all pains to prevent for the future the conclu-
sion of Concordats with the view of regulating the
affairs of the Church, or at least that the civil au-
thority should interfere for the conclusion of such
treaties. We have experienced all these recent
contrarieties, venerable brothers, not without seri-
ous regret. During the last year, as you know,
while fulfilling a duty of our Apostolic charge, in
order to improve the condition of the Church in
the Grand Duchy of Baden, we concluded a treaty
with his Serene Highness the Duke of Baden, and
after its ratification we waited, as was just, until it
should be executed.

But, in presence of the opposition given by the
Chamber of this Duchy, an edict was published by
the Grand Duke in virtue of which the Concordat
lost all its force, and a law was substituted for it
which is in the highest degree contrary to the
liberty of the Chinch. This state of things, as we
know, is the result of the false doctrine .ofthe Pro-
testants, who think that the Church is a sort. of
corporation (collegiunt) existing in civil society,
enjoying no right with the exception of those which
are gninted to it by the civil power. But who does
not understaud how much such a conception differs
front the truth?- In reality the Church has been
instituted by its Divine Founder as a true and per-
fect society, which is not circumscribed by the
boundaries of any State, or subject to any civil
power, and which exercises its power freely, and for
the salvation of men, in all quarters of the world.
In truth, those solemn words addressed by Christ
our Lord to his Apostles have.no other significa-
tion :—" All power has been given to me in heaven
and on earth ; go and teach all nations, instructing
them to observe all that I have ordained to you."
Inflamed with these words, the heralds of the
Gospel, the Apostles, despite of kings and princes
who opposed them, despite of threats and punish-
ments, exercised courageonSly the ministry which
had been imposed upon them.
We, also, most anxious for the preservation of
the salutary rights of the Church. no sooner learned
that it was attempted to invalidate the Concordat
in question than we sent letters to the Grand Duke,
exhorting him to remove that scandal ; and we have
given the necessary orders to the Cardinal charged
with foreign affairs to remonstrate with the Go-
vernment of Baden, in. order that the Concordat
should he put into execution, as of right. But, as
all our endeavours and all our anxiety have come
to nu result, we have deplored in your midst,
as is our duty, -that that Convention had been
abolished, contrary to all the laws of justice,
and without the consent of the other party,
and we have protested, within the limits
of our power, against the rights of the' Catholic
Church and of the Apostolic See being violated—
outrageously annihilated. We have ordered that.
these protestations should be transmitted to the
Government of Baden, and we have prescribed to
the Bishop of Fribourg the conduct he ought to
pursue to the midst of these difficulties. We could
not sufficiently recommend to that illustrious chief
and his clergy to protect with censtancy the liberty
of the Church, and we have full confidence that
they will not fail even in circumstances the most
critical.

While a lively grief had seized us on account of
the state of the Church, anew placed in peril in the
Grand Duchy, another source of grief, produced by
a most infamous pamphlet lately published in
Paris, has come to add to our sadness. In that
publication there are so many things so completely
opposed to truth, so many absurdities and contra-
dictions combined by the author, that it is more fit-
ting to throw aside and despise it than to refute it.
What is, however, intolerable is the audacity and
inipiety .of • this writer, who. not having feared to
attack the Civiland Ecclesiastical Principality of the
Roman Church, has endeavoured to contrive a par-
ticular Species of Church, to be founded in the
French Empire, and organised so that it should be
removed from the authority of the Sovereign Pon-
tiff and completely separated from it. But what
else is this than to overturn. and •rend the unity of
the Church ? Behold the words which Christ our
Lord hai &Idiessed tolfie "Faber on the necessity
of this .uuity I pray not only for them, but also
for those who shall believe in their words, that all
may be one, as Thou, my Father, Thou art in me