DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.71133#0069
FOR ROME, ITALY, AND EUROPE 37
4. They rescued Italy over and over again, in successive
ages, from Goths, Vandals, Lombards, Saracens, &c. Even
the infidel Gibbon is forced to confess that but for the Popes
the name of Rome might have been erased from the earth.
5. They converted and civilized the wild barbarian hordes
that rushed in from the north on the decaying Roman Empire.
6. They covered Europe with churches, minsters, colleges,
universities, and beneficent institutions.
7. They rescued Europe once more from hopeless slavery,
when barbarism, brutal feuds, and tyranny replaced the Carlo-
vingian Empire.
8. They projected and organized the Crusades, persuading
the Christian sovereigns of Europe to abandon rapine, violence,
internecine conflict, and “to take the cross” against the
common enemy of Christendom.
9. They planned the victories of Lepanto, Vienna, and
Temeswar, without which Europe at this day might have
formed part of one vast Ottoman Empire.
10. They humbled tyrants like Henry IV, and the three
Fredericks of Germany, and defended, pacified, preserved the
oppressed States of mediaeval Italy.
11. During their absence at Avignon, Rome fell into a state
of decay, misery, and barbarism. At their return the city
revived, and a new and remarkable era opened with the accession
of Nicholas V.
12. They preserved the ancient monuments of Rome. But
for them the Colosseum, the Pantheon, and Hadrian’s Mauso-
leum, &c., might have long since disappeared. In recent times
they preserved the art treasures of Rome and the Papal States,
which enterprising agents were trying to secure for the museums
of England, France, and Germany.
13. They fostered the arts of music, painting, sculpture,
architecture, &c., and attracted to Rome the mightiest geniuses
in these arts the world has ever seen.
14. Above all, they have upheld the light of faith, shining
clear with undimmed splendour amid the darkness with which
Gnostics, Manicheans, Arians, Hussites, Lutherans, Calvinists,
Jansenists overspread the world.
In his allocution of April 21, 1878, Leo XIII says : “ It was
this Holy See that gathered and moulded the remnants of the
old society that had fallen into decay (after the fall of the
Roman empire). It was the friendly torch that showed the
way to the humane kindness that beamed over Christian ages.
It was the anchor of safety in cruel tempests by which the
human race was tossed. It was the one sacred bond of concord
that held together nations otherwise separated, and differing in
4. They rescued Italy over and over again, in successive
ages, from Goths, Vandals, Lombards, Saracens, &c. Even
the infidel Gibbon is forced to confess that but for the Popes
the name of Rome might have been erased from the earth.
5. They converted and civilized the wild barbarian hordes
that rushed in from the north on the decaying Roman Empire.
6. They covered Europe with churches, minsters, colleges,
universities, and beneficent institutions.
7. They rescued Europe once more from hopeless slavery,
when barbarism, brutal feuds, and tyranny replaced the Carlo-
vingian Empire.
8. They projected and organized the Crusades, persuading
the Christian sovereigns of Europe to abandon rapine, violence,
internecine conflict, and “to take the cross” against the
common enemy of Christendom.
9. They planned the victories of Lepanto, Vienna, and
Temeswar, without which Europe at this day might have
formed part of one vast Ottoman Empire.
10. They humbled tyrants like Henry IV, and the three
Fredericks of Germany, and defended, pacified, preserved the
oppressed States of mediaeval Italy.
11. During their absence at Avignon, Rome fell into a state
of decay, misery, and barbarism. At their return the city
revived, and a new and remarkable era opened with the accession
of Nicholas V.
12. They preserved the ancient monuments of Rome. But
for them the Colosseum, the Pantheon, and Hadrian’s Mauso-
leum, &c., might have long since disappeared. In recent times
they preserved the art treasures of Rome and the Papal States,
which enterprising agents were trying to secure for the museums
of England, France, and Germany.
13. They fostered the arts of music, painting, sculpture,
architecture, &c., and attracted to Rome the mightiest geniuses
in these arts the world has ever seen.
14. Above all, they have upheld the light of faith, shining
clear with undimmed splendour amid the darkness with which
Gnostics, Manicheans, Arians, Hussites, Lutherans, Calvinists,
Jansenists overspread the world.
In his allocution of April 21, 1878, Leo XIII says : “ It was
this Holy See that gathered and moulded the remnants of the
old society that had fallen into decay (after the fall of the
Roman empire). It was the friendly torch that showed the
way to the humane kindness that beamed over Christian ages.
It was the anchor of safety in cruel tempests by which the
human race was tossed. It was the one sacred bond of concord
that held together nations otherwise separated, and differing in