tion of whomsoever daring to
become guilty of whatsoever attempt against the temporal sovereignty
of the Supreme Pontiff, this we declare to have been already unhappily
incurred by all those who have given aid to the above-named act, and
others preceding, intended to prejudice the same sovereignty, and in
other modes and under false pretexts have, perturbed, violated,
and usurped our authority. Yet, though we feel ourselves obliged by
conscience to guard the sacred deposit of the patrimony of the Spouse
of Jesus Christ, confided to our care, by using the sword of severity
given to us for that purpose, we cannot therefore forget that we are
on earth the representative of Him who in exercise of his justice does
not forget mercy. Raising, therefore, our hands to Heaven, while we
to it recommend a cause which is indeed more Heaven's than ours, and
while anew we declare ourselves ready, with the aid of its powerful
grace, to drink even to the dregs, for the defence and glory of the
Catholic Church, the cup of persecution which He first wished to drink
for the salvation of the same, we shall not desist from supplicating
Him benignly to hear the fervent prayers which day and night we
unceasingly offer for the salvation of the misguided. No day certainly
could be more joyful for us, than that in which it shall be granted to
see return into the fold of the Lord our sons from whom now we derive
so much bitterness and so great tribulations. The hope of enjoying
soon the happiness of such a day is strengthened in us by the
reflection, that universal are the prayers which, united to ours,
ascend to the throne of Divine Mercy from the lips and the heart of
the faithful throughout the Catholic world, urging it continually to
change the hearts of sinners, and reconduct them into the paths of
truth and of justice.

"Gaeta, January 6, 1849."

The silliness, bigotry, and ungenerous tone of this manifesto excited
a simultaneous movement in the population. The procession which
carried it, mumbling chants, for deposit in places provided for lowest
uses, and then, taking from, the doors of the hatters' shops the
cardinals' hats, threw them into the Tiber, was a real and general
expression of popular disgust. From that hour the power of the scarlet
hierarchy fell to rise no more. No authority can survive a universal
movement of derision. From that hour tongues and pens were loosed, the
leaven of Machiavellism, which still polluted the prod