ome knowledge of Europe and gentlemanly tact, and are
able at least to speak French.

To return to the Pope, although the shadow that has fallen on his
popularity is in a great measure the work of his enemies, yet there is
real cause for it too. His conduct in deposing for a time one of the
Censors, about the banners of the 15th of December, his speech to the
Council the same day, his extreme displeasure at the sympathy of a
few persons with the triumph of the Swiss Diet, because it was a
Protestant triumph, and, above all, his speech to the Consistory, so
deplorably weak in thought and absolute in manner, show a man less
strong against domestic than foreign foes, instigated by a generous,
humane heart to advance, but fettered by the prejudices of education,
and terribly afraid to be or seem to be less the Pope of Rome, in
becoming a reform prince, and father to the fatherless. I insert a
passage of this speech, which seems to say that, whenever there shall
be collision between the priest and the reformer, the priest shall
triumph:--

"Another subject there is which profoundly afflicts and harasses our
mind. It is not certainly unknown to you, Venerable Brethren, that
many enemies of Catholic truth have, in our times especially, directed
their efforts by the desire to place certain monstrous offsprings
of opinion on a par with the doctrine of Christ, or to blend them
therewith, seeking to propagate more and more that impious system of
_indifference_ toward all religion whatever.

"And lately some have been found, dreadful to narrate! who have
offered such an insult to our name and Apostolic dignity, as
slanderously to represent us participators in their folly, and
favorers of that most iniquitous system above named. These have been
pleased to infer from, the counsels (certainly not foreign to
the sanctity of the Catholic religion) which, in certain affairs
pertaining to the civil exercise of the Pontific sway, we had benignly
embraced for the increase of public prosperity and good, and also from
the pardon bestowed in clemency upon certain persons subject to that
sway, in the very beginning of our Pontificate, that we had such
benevolent sentiments toward every description of persons as to
believe that not only the sons of the Church, but others also,
remaining aliens from Catholic unity, are alike in the way of
salvation, and may attain eternal life. Words are wanting to us, from
horror, to repel this new and atroc