VIII.
IN the controversy waged as to what Pius IX. should have done in regard to recent events, the advocates of a policy of acquiescence in what befell his temporal estate, have been freely met by the assertion that as Pope he was bound by oaths which absolutely interdicted his doing so. On looking into the matter it will appear, however, that this is not correct. Whatever oaths Pius IX. took were sworn to by him freely, and of his own accord, in the plenitude of his authority, and not at all as conditional to his acquisition thereof. Cardinals are invested with the berretta only, after having repeated a prescribed oath, but no Pope is subjected to any oath whatever, on being elevated to his supreme dignity, and if, at a later moment, it has been customary for
