The history of Pius IX. will always be read with interest. His Pontificate
was, indeed, eventful. In no preceding age were the annals of the Church
so grandly illustrated.
The spiritual sovereignty, “with which,” to use the words of a British
statesman, “there is nothing on this earth that can at all compare,” was
crowned with surpassing glory. Doctrines which, hitherto, had been open to
theological discussion, were ascertained and pronounced to be in
accordance with the belief of all preceding Christian ages. The Church was
enabled, through the labors of her Chief and the zeal of her Priesthood,
to extend vastly the place of her tent. The life of Pius IX. himself was a
marvel and a glory. None of his predecessors, not even Peter, attained to
his length of days.
On the other hand, the venerable Pontiff, and, together with him, the
Catholic people, were doomed to behold and lament the loss of the
time-honored patrimony of St. Peter. The Papacy, however, unlike all
temporal sovereignties, was able to sustain so great a loss. More ancient
than its temporal power, it still survives; “not a mere antique, but in
undiminished vigor.”