public acts, and in the unanimous declaration of great Catholic principles. A consciousness of absolute unanimity and mutual support pervades the episcopate of all nations at this time more intensely than, perhaps, at any period in past history. The Church has acted and spoken three times in these last years; and the unity of mind and spirit which, by the grace of Divine faith, pervades it, has been extended even to matters which, though not of faith, are in contact with faith. It may be affirmed, therefore, that there never was a moment when the episcopate was so compact, so prepared for action, and so closely united to its head. Of this it is thoroughly conscious, and this consciousness gives a vast force to all its acts. Firm and inflexible as the Sovereign Pontiff has ever been, he has not hesitated to declare that the unanimous support of the bishops has added to him a greater courage and strength. The bishops of Italy, in these last ten years, have exhibited a fortitude and a fidelity, in the midst of every kind of danger, which sets a luminous example to the world. The presence and sympathy of their colleagues from all parts of the earth cannot fail to sustain them. The great Churches of France and Spain, and the younger Churches of England and America, still more the Missionary Churches in the ends of the earth, all both give and receive an impulse of conscious power from their contact with each other and with Rome. It is impossible that this should not react powerfully upon the whole Church throughout the world. All who have
