excommunicate the king when he enters the city; and shall calmly
await my death."

I thought already, in April, that I could perceive, what has become
still more clear in October, that the enemies of the secular power of
the Papacy are determined, united, predominant, and that there is
nowhere a protecting power which possesses the will, and at the same
time the means, of averting the catastrophe. I considered it
therefore probable that an interruption of the temporal dominion
would soon ensue--an interruption which, like others before it, would
also come to an end, and would be followed by a restoration. I
resolved, therefore, to take the opportunity, which the lectures gave
me, to prepare the public for the coming events, which already cast
their shadows upon us, and thus to prevent the scandals, the doubt,
and the offence which must inevitably arise if the States of the
Church should pass into other hands, although the pastorals of the
Bishops had so energetically asserted that they belonged to the
integrity of the Church. I meant, therefore, to say, the Church by
her nature can very well exist, and did exist for seven centuries,
without the territorial possessions of the Popes; afterwards this
possession became necessary, and, in spite of great changes and
vicissitudes, has discharged in most cases its function of serving as
a foundation for the independence and freedom of the Popes. As long
as the present state and arrangement of Europe endures, we can
discover no other means to secure to the Holy See its freedom, and
with it the confidence of all. But the knowledge and the power of God
reach farther than ours, and we must not presume to set bounds to the
Divine wisdom and omnipotence, or to say to it, In this way and no
other! Should, nevertheless, the threatening consummation ensue, and
should the Pope be robbed of his land, one of three eventualities
will assuredly come to pass. Either the loss of the State is only
temporary, and the territory will revert, after some intervening
casualties, either whole or in part, to its legitimate sovereign; or
Providence will bring about, by ways unknown to us, and combinations
which we cannot divine, a state of things in which the object,
namely, the independence and free action of the Holy See, will be
attained without the means which have hitherto served; or else we