dinal Mattei, dean of the Sacred College, replied in the name of all
the bishops. Three points chiefly, among others, were affirmed in his
declaration. First of all, the supreme doctrinal authority and
infallibility of the Roman Pontiff. "You are in our regard the master of
sound doctrine. You are the centre of unity. You are the foundation of the
church itself, against which the gates of hell shall not prevail. When you
speak, we hear Peter. When you decree, we obey Jesus Christ. We admire you
in the midst of so many trials and tempests, with a serene brow and
unshaken mind, invincibly fulfilling your sacred ministry." Next, the
temporal sovereignty of the Holy See. "We acknowledge that your temporal
sovereignty is necessary, and that it was established in fulfilment of a
manifest design of Divine Providence. We hesitate not to declare that this
temporal sovereignty is required for the good of the church and the free
government of souls. It was necessary that the Supreme Pontiff should be
neither the subject nor even the guest of any prince. There was required
in the centre of Europe a sacred bond, placed between the three continents
of the ancient world, an august seat, whence arises in turns, for peoples
and for princes, a great and powerful voice, the voice of justice and of
truth, impartial and without preference, free from all arbitrary
influence, and which can neither be repressed by fear nor circumvented by
artifice. How could it have been that at this very moment the prelates of
the church, arriving from all points of the universe, should have come
here in order to represent all peoples, and confer in security on the
gravest interests, if they had found any prince whomsoever ruling in this
land who had suspicions of their princes, or who was suspected by them on
account of his hostility? In such case their duties as citizens might have
conflicted with their duties as bishops." Finally, the intimate union of
the Catholic world with the Pope. "We condemn the errors which you have
condemned. We reprove the sacrilegious acts, the violations of
ecclesiastical immunity, and the other crimes committed against the chair
of Peter. We give utterance to this protest, which we claim shall be
inserted in the annals of the church, in all sincerity, in the name of our
brethren who are absent, in the name of those who, detained at home by
force, lament and are silent, in the name of those whom the state of their
health or importa