ceived in the person of Saint Peter, to confirm Our brethren.[1]—But you were not ignorant of the gathering calamities and anxieties which burst upon Us in the very first moments of Our pontificate, when had not the right hand of God supported Us, you must ere now have lamented Our having fallen a victim to the dark conspiracy of impious men. But Our mind shrinks from the memory of troubles, whose sad recital would be only re-opening the sources of sorrow; and We rather bless the God of all consolation, who in subduing the rebels hath shielded Us from impending danger; and who, in stilling the tempest, hath granted a pause to our apprehensions. Hereupon We resolved to delay no longer to communicate Our advice to you for curing the bruises of Israel: but again the fulfilment of Our desires was impeded, by the weight of care imposed on Us in the reinstatement of public order.
Meanwhile, another cause for Our silence arose, from the insolence of faction, which laboured again to raise the standard of rebellion. Finding that long endurance and mildness, instead of softening, appeared rather to foment the spirit of licentiousness, We were at last, With extreme sorrow of heart, compelled to raise the scourge entrusted to Us by the Almighty, for subduing the obstinacy of men;[2] Hence you will easily conclude that Our anxieties have been every day multiplied.
But having at length taken possession of Our See in the Lateran Basilic, according to the custom and institution of our predecessors, We turn to you without delay. Venerable brethren, and in testimony of Our feelings towards you, We select for the date of our letter this most joyful day on which We celebrate the solemn festival of the Most Blessed Virgin's triumphant Assumption into Heaven, that She who has been through every great calamity Our Patroness and Protectress, may watch over Us, writing to you, and lead Our mind by Her heavenly influence to those counsels which may prove most salutary to Christ's flock.
In sorrow, and with a mind broken with grief, We address you—you, whom We know from your devotedness to religion, to have suffered proportional anxiety of mind in witnessing the depravity of the times with which religion has now to struggle. For We may truly say, this is the hour and power of darkness to sift as wheat the sons of election.[3] Truly "hath the earth mourned and faded away … infected by the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, they have changed the ordinance, they have broken the everlasting covenant."[4]
