There is, perhaps, hardly any Pontiff who has governed the Church with more frequent exercises of supreme authority than Pius the Ninth. The creation of Hierarchies, the definition of the Immaculate Conception, the declarations on the Temporal Power, the condemnations in the Encyclical of 1864, manifest, in a singular degree, the plenitude of his supreme office as the Ruler and Doctor of the Universal Church. Nevertheless there is, perhaps, no Pontiff who has united the whole episcopate so closely to himself, or has called them so often to his side. In 1854 the bishops were invited to assist at the declaration of the dogma, for which the whole Church had so long waited with desire. Two hundred and fifty assembled about his throne in witness of the faith of the Universal Church in the Immaculate Conception of our Blessed Mother; and bore home to their flocks the pious belief of their hearts as an article of faith defined by the Vicar of her Divine Son.
Again, in 1862, when the conflict of the temporal power was at itshighest, Pius the Ninth proclaimed the canonisation of the martyrs of Japan, and invited the bishops once more to Rome. About two hundred bishops obeyed his bidding, and, in words never to be forgotten, united themselves to him in the conflict he had so long sustained for the rights and liberties of the Holy See; which are the rights and liberties of the Universal Church.
And now a third time he has summoned the bishops of the whole world. You will all remember
