is a sacrament. Pius IX. issued a condemnation of his
anti-Catholic writings. The sentence did not move him. Nor did it stay the
hand of the Sardinian government which was raised against the church and
her institutions. It continued the preparation of its anti-marriage law.
In addition, accusations were laid against the clergy. The king himself,
evading the real question at issue, accused them of disloyalty, and
declared that they were warring against the monarchy. The Holy Father, in
the following letter to the king, distinctly set forth the real state of
the case:

"If by words provoking insubordination are meant the writings of
the clergy against the proposed marriage law, we declare, without
endorsing the language which some may have adopted, that in
opposing it the clergy simply did their duty. We write to your
Majesty that the law is not Catholic. Now, if the law is not
Catholic, the clergy are bound to warn the faithful, even though
by doing so they incur the greatest dangers. It is in the name of
Jesus Christ, whose Vicar, though unworthy, we are, that we speak,
and we tell your Majesty, in His sacred name, not to sanction this
law, which will be the source of a thousand disorders. We also beg
your Majesty to put a check to the press which is constantly
vomiting forth blasphemy and immorality. Your Majesty complains of
the clergy. But these last years the clergy have been persistently
outraged, mocked, calumniated, reviled and derided by almost all
the papers published in Piedmont."

That country, unfortunately, appears to have been entirely at the mercy of
the party of unbelief. It was ever ready to inflict new wrongs on the
church, and occasion anxiety and sorrow to the Holy Father.

(M42) There are few readers of ecclesiastical history who are not deeply
interested in that portion of India which was the first field of the
extraordinary apostolic labors of Saint Francis Xavier. The blessing of
the Saint appears to have rested on the land of Goa; for after many years
of trial and difficulty and schism, this Portuguese settlement, once so
great and important, still remains a province of the church. The
Portuguese government, by unjustly claiming right of patronage, originated
the schism which, unfortunately, was of such long continuance. It was
reserved for Pius IX. to restore harmony to the Colonial church of Goa.
Happily, in 1851, the schism was