Year: 1868

Ihe temporal FOWeT-ANeSeO


Letter from Pope Plus 10 the


Emperor Francis Joseph of


Austria.


The Journal des Debats, of April g.,
gives the following letter, addressed to
the Emporer FRANCIS JOSEPH by Pope
Plus, as wholly authentic


ROME, Monday, March %, 1868.


My Belooed Son and August apostolic


Majesty:


If the title (Apostolic) which I give
you, and which has been accorded you
by the Almighty and by the representa-
tives of the Holy Roman See, does not
awake in your heart the sentiments
which hitherto have distinguished you
among all other Monarchs, and which
your badly-inspired Senators have
known how, not to extinguish in you,
but to weaken, as chief of the great
and holy Christian association, believe
myself obliged to employ all the means
at my disposal, as Vicar of Christ, to
bring you back to your duty. 1 consid-
er that course the more necessary that l
know that all your august family and
yourself, oh Majesty, have in reality on
ly disdain for these concessions which
every Christian will reprove. You, oh
Majesty, have believed, in the midst of
the circumstances occurring, that your
duty required you to conform to the ext
gencies of modern demands, and instead
of grasping with hand of iron the reins
of Government in your own Empire,
you have allowed them to float inert
And now you can no longer repress the
factions which at this moment no longer
pray, as they ought to do, but menace
your Majesty. Content these profane
desires, since you think yourself obliged
to bow to the will of savage men, losing
at the same time the respect you owe to
the will of God Destroy, thanks to the
new laws which you are preparing to
sanction, the religious sentiments and
the confidence of the world, by sapping
in that way the principle base of regu-
lar State-namely, morality and by
drawing down on yourself the celestial
wrath as well as our own and that of all
good and true Christians Your sire, in
the desire you have toretain your Grown
deny the Almighty who accorded it to
you; in order to satisfy your rebellious
subjects you expose your august children
to the thunderbolts of Heaven, and you
do not reflect, Sire, that these means do
not content an irritated people, but awake
in them the determination to obtain still
more. You will, therefore, remain, in
face of menacing population, without
being sustained by pure conscience,
and without the support of the Church.
You have rejected the prayers of your
august family and of able men, in order
to follow the counsels of your present
Ministers, and you have turned deaf
ear to the paternal advice which my
Nuncio at Vienna has given you on my
part. In spite of all this, once more
implore you, in the name of the Father,
Son and Holy Ghost, to remember the
word "Apostofic" which distinguishes
your title to follow the example of the
Apostles who shed their blood for theil
religion; to not belle an appellation
the ambition of every Christian, and
which was accorded to your ancestor o.
Hapsburg, because he had known how moi
only to exaIt but still more to defend the
sacred faith which procures eternal hap
piness. Do not think only of yourself
Sire. Cast also a glance on your nu
merous family, on your consort, who il
awaiting painful but happy event; re
fleet, Sire, that all these persons will
hereafter lay ON you the responsibilit.