The-papacy-its-history-dogmas-genius-and-prospects-wylie

;ENCYCLICAL LETTER OF PIUS IX. 157tificatc, was the primary principle of the Papacy more vigorouslyor unequivocally asserted, than it has been by thepresent pontiff. In his encyclical letter against the circulationof the Bible* we find Pius IX. thus speaking :— " Allwho labour with you for the defence of the faith will haveespecially an eye to this, that they confirm, defend, anddeeply fix in the minds of your faithful people that piety,veneration, and respect towards this supreme seein which you, venerable brothers, so greatly excel.of Peter,Let thefaithful people remember that there here lives and presides,in the person of his successors, Peter, the prince of the apostles,whose dignity faileth not even in his unworthy heir.Let them remember that Christ the Lord hath placed inthis chair of Peter the unshaken foundation of his Churchand that he gives to Peter himself the keys of the kingdomof heaven; and that he prayed, therefore, that his faithnn'ffht failnot, and commanded him to confirm his brethrentherein ; so that the successor of St Peter holds the primacyover the whole world, and is the true vicar of Christ andhead of the whole Church, and father and doctor of allChristians." There is not a false dogma or a persecutingprinciple which Rome ever taught or practised, which is notcontained, avowedly or implicitly, in this declaration. ThePope herein sets no limits to his spiritual sway but those ofthe world,—of courseexcommunicating all who do not belongto his Church ;and claims a character,— " true vicar ofChrist and head of the whole Church,"—which vests in himtemporal dominion equally unbounded and supreme.The popes do not now send their legates a latere to thecourt of London or of Paris, to summon monarchs todo homage to Peter or transmit tribute to Rome. ThePapacy is too sagacious needlessly to awaken the fears ofprinces, or to send its messengers on what, meanwhile, wouldbe a very bootless errand. But has the Pope renounced* Letter to the archbishops aud bishops of Italy, dated Portici, DecemberS, 1849.