Page:Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent Buckley.djvu/299

266 you, Julius, now dead, I call, to witness how long and with now great earnestness ye longed to behold what we behold! how many expenses, how many labours ye bestowed for that purpose! Wherefore, most holy and blessed Pius, we truly and with our genuine feelings congratulate thee, because the Lord (which is the greatest proof of the divine goodwill towards thee) hath reserved so great joy for thee, so great a praise for thy name. Him do we, suppliant with all prayers and vows, beseech that he will with all haste restore thee, and for as long a time as possible preserve thee safe, for the advantage and honour of his holy Church. We ought also, with the best reason, to return thanks and congratulations to our most serene emperor. He, representing the disposition, as he did the place, of the most powerful Cæsars, who burned with a certain wondrous desire to propagate the Christian religion, preserved this city free from all danger, and by watchfulness contrived that we should enjoy a safe and tranquil peace, and, by the presence, and almost by the pledge, of three of his legates, most excellent men, inspired great feeling of safety in our minds. He, in his surpassing piety, was wondrously anxious on this our behalf.

He laboured greatly to draw forth men from the most misty darkness in which they were dwelling, and to lead them to behold the most brilliant light of this holy synod. Yet further, the especially pious goodwill of the Christian kings and princes in adorning this council with their most important embassies, and in submitting their insignia of state to your authority, is to be cherished by grateful remembrance on our part. But now who is there, most illustrious legates and cardinals, who does not confess that he is much indebted to you? Ye have been the best leaders and regulators of our actions. You have, with incredible patience and diligence, taken care lest our liberty, either in speaking or in decreeing should in any respect be infringed. You have spared no labour of body, no exertion of mind, to the end that the matter might as quickly as possible be brought to the wished-for result, which many others like you had vainly striven to attain. In which matter you, most illustrious and accomplished Morone, ought to have a certain chief and