d laws of Rothar and their free forefathers, become
the leading race of a free and united Italy!

LECTURE XI--THE POPES AND THE LOMBARDS

'Our Lady the Mother of God, even Virgin Maria, together with us,
protests to you, adjuring you with great obligations, and admonishes and
commands you, and with her the thrones, dominations, all the heavenly
angels, the martyrs and confessors of Christ, on behalf of the Roman
city, committed to us by the Lord God, and the sheep of the Lord dwelling
in it. Defend and free it speedily from the hands of the persecuting
Lombards, lest my body which suffered torments for Christ, and my home in
which it rests by the command of God, be contaminated by the people of
the Lombards, who are guilty of such iniquitous perjury, and are proud
transgressors of the divine scripture. So will I at the day of judgment
reward you with my patronage, and prepare for you in the kingdom of God
most shining and glorious tabernacles, promising you the reward of
eternal retribution, and the infinite joys of paradise.

'Run, by the true and living God I exhort you, run, and help; before the
living fountain, whence you were consecrated and born again, shall dry
up: before the little spark remaining of that brilliant flame, from which
you knew the light, be extinguished; before your spiritual mother, the
holy Church of God, in which you hope to receive eternal life, shall be
humiliated, invaded, violated, and defiled by the impious.

'But if not, may your provinces in return, and your possessions, be
invaded by people whom you know not. Separate not yourselves from my
Roman people; so you will not be aliens, and separate from the kingdom of
God, and eternal life. For whatever you shall ask of me, I will surely
give you, and be your patron. Assist my Roman people, your brothers; and
strive more perfectly; for it is written, No man receiveth the crown,
unless he strive lawfully.

'I conjure you, most beloved, by the living God, leave not this my city
of Rome to be any longer torn by the Lombards, lest your bodies and souls
be torn and tormented for ever, in inextinguishable and Tartarian fire
with the devil and his pestiferous angels; and let not the sheep of the
Lord's flock, which are the Roman people, be dispersed any more, lest the
Lord disperse you, and cast you forth as the people of Israel was
dispersed.'

You will conclude, doubtless, that this curious document can be nothing
but a papal a