of our soul, have lifted up our hands with tears and sighs to the Lord, and have besought Him with all our heart that He would be with us in the power of His grace, in order that we may be able effectually to fulfil our duty in so arduous an act of the apostolic office committed to us: and moved by the thought lest we, who are soon to render account of our stewardship to the Supreme Judge, should be convicted of negligence in the trust committed to us'—'following in the footsteps of Innocent, our predecessor of happy memory, who,'—'in certain letters in the form of brief, on the 11th day of April 1682, condemned, rescinded, and annulled whatsoever was done in the aforesaid assemblies in the affair of the Regale of our own motion we declare and decree that all and every one of the things which were done in the aforesaid assemblies of the Gallican clergy in the year 1682, as well concerning the extension of the Regale—as also concerning the declaration in respect to the ecclesiastical power, and the four propositions contained therein, together with all and each of the mandates, arrests, &c., are by the force of law null, invalid, and void, and destitute of all force and effect from the first, and now, and hereafter[1] …' &c. Dated on the 4th day of August 1690, and published as above in January 1691. At the same time, and from his death-bed, the Pontiff addressed to Louis XIV. a pathetic letter of paternal authority, in which he says:
- ↑ Romanus Pontifex tanquam Primas Eccles. Roskovány, tom. ii. p. 237. Nitriæ et Comaromii, 1867.
