cumstances such as history gives no example of, and with a magnanimity and fortitude worthy the noble line of Pontiffs, this was done; and the allocutions, apostolic letters, and encyclicals in which this was done, and which range from the reign of Pius VI. to that of Pius IX., but chiefly of Pius IX., from the nature of the case, are not aggressive, but defensive. Each one of these documents is addressed either to the Cardinals or to the Bishops upon the errors or events that had arisen at the period of its publication; and from the text of these documents the now famous Syllabus was extracted.
It is important to observe that the Syllabus was published on the 8th of December 1864, exactly five years before the Vatican Council commenced, and that in July 1867 the Bishops assembled in Rome, to the amount of two hundred and sixty-five, for celebrating the canonisation of the Japanese Martyrs, presented a joint address to his Holiness, to which most of the Catholic Bishops of the world sent their adhesion, in which they solemnly accepted the doctrines of the Pontiff in the following terms: 'We have come free to the free Pontiff King, with equal good-will, devoted as pastors to the interests of the Church, and as citizens to the interests of our several countries. … That impiety may not pretend to ignore this, or dare to deny it, we Bishops condemn the errors that you have condemned, and reject and detest the new and strange doctrines that are everywhere propagated to the injury of the Church of Jesus Christ; we reprobate and condemn the sacrileges, rapines, violations of ecclesiastical immunity, and other crimes committed against the
