dispute, I could not abandon its defence, without failing in an essential duty, without the guilt of perjury.

Your letter was accompanied by that of Cardinal Maury, and at the same time a third letter from the Bishop of Cazal was put into my hands, all three upon the same subject. Pray acknowledge the receipt of them to those gentlemen, at the same time communicating to them this answer: I shall take an opportunity of greater leisure to answer Cardinal Maury more at length; in the mean time assure them of my sentiments of esteem, and receive my paternal and apostolic benediction.

Savona, 26th August, 1809.

PIUS VII. Pope.

LETTER II.

To the Venerable Brother CARDINAL JEAN MAURY, Bishop of Montefiascone and Corneto, at Paris. Venerable Brother, Salutation and Apostolic Benediction.

FIVE days have now elapsed, since we received the letter by which you inform us of your nomination to the Archbishopric of Paris, and your installation in the government of that diocese. This intelligence has completed our other calamities, and has inflicted upon

us sufferings scarcely to be borne, and impossible to be expressed. You were fully informed of our letter to the Cardinal Caprara, at that time Archbishop of Milan, in which we set forth the powerful motives which made it incumbent upon us, in the actual state of things, to refuse canonical institution to the bishops nominated by the Emperor. You were not ignorant, that not only circumstances remained precisely the same, but that they have become, and are becoming daily, more and more alarming, from the sovereign contempt which is affected against the authority of the Church. Since in Italy audacity and boldness has been carried so far as to cause the gene ral destruction of the religious communities of both sexes, suppressing rectories and bishoprics, reuniting them, amalgamating them, giving them new limits, not even excepting the suburbicary sees; all which acts have been performed solely in virtue of the imperial and royal authority: for we do not speak of the sufferings of the clergy of the Roman Church, the mother and mistress of all other churches, nor of so many other aggressions. You were not ignorant, we again repeat, of all these events; but, on the contrary, were well acquainted with their minutest details; and with such knowledge, we should never have thought it possible that you could have accepted from the Em

peror the nomination to which you allude, nor that your joy in announcing it to us would have been the same as if your appointment had been the circumstance most agreeable and conformable to your wishes.

Is it thus then, that, after having so courageously and eloquently pleaded the cause of the Catholic Church, in the most stormy period of the French revolution, you abandon that same Church, now that you are loaded with its dignities and favours, and are strictly bound to it by the religious obligation of an oath? Is it thus that without a blush you take part against us in a cause in which we are solely engaged for the maintenance of the dignity of the Church? Is it thus lightly that you treat our authority, as to dare, in some measure, by this public act, to pronounce sentence against us to whom you owe fidelity and obedience? But what still more afflicts us, is to see that after having begged an archbishopric of the Chapter, you have, of your own authority and without consulting us, taken upon you the direction of another church; far from imitating the pious example of the cardinal Joseph Fesch, archbishop of Lyons; who, having been nominated previously to yourself to the same archbishopric of Paris, so wisely thought it his duty to deny himself all spiritual government of that Church, notwithstanding the invitation of the Chapter.

We will not here observe that in the ecclesiastical annals no example has been found of a priest, nominated to any bishopric, being prevailed upon by the Chapter to enter upon the government of his diocese before he received canonical institution: we will not examine (and no one knows better than yourself, whether it is so) if the capitular vicar elected before you has voluntarily and freely resigned his office, and if he has not yielded to threats, fear, or promises, and consequently, whether your election has been free, unanimous, and regular; we are as little anxious to know if there were in the Chapter a person capable of performing functions so important; for, in short, what is the desired object? It is wished to introduce into the Church a custom as novel as it is dangerous, by means of which the civil power may insensibly succeed in nominating to the vacant sees such persons only as are entirely devoted to it. Who does not evidently see that such a course is not only calculated to destroy the liberty of the Church, but also to open the door to schism, and facilitate invalid elections? But, moreover, who has loosed you from that spiritual tie by which you were united to the church of Montefiascone; or who has granted you dispensations, in order to be elected by the Chapter, and to assume the direction of another diocese? Quit, therefore, immediately that

direction: not only do we command, but, urged by parental affection, we beg, we entreat you, in order that we may not be forced to proceed against our own wishes and with the utmost regret, conformably to the statutes of the Holy Canons; and no one is ignorant of the penalties pronounced against those, who being set over one church, undertake the direction of another, before they are disengaged from their former ties. We hope that you will voluntarily accede to our wishes, if you sufficiently consider the evil which such an example upon your part will do the Church, and the dignity with which you are invested. We write to you with all the freedom our duty requires; and if you receive our letter with the same sentiments which have dictated it, you will acknowledge it as a striking proof of our tenderness for you. In the mean time we shall not cease to address to the Holy and Almighty God, fervent prayers that He will deign to calm by one word, the winds and tempests let loose with so much fury against the bark of St. Peter; and that he will at length conduct us to that wished-for shore where we can freely exercise the functions of our ministry. We heartily bestow upon you our apostolic benediction.

Given at Savona, 5th of November, 1810, in the

eleventh year of our Pontificate.

PIUS VII. Pope.