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34 the palm from all others. For in these not only is the dignity and full liberty of the Council assailed with the basest falsehoods, and the rights of the Holy See overthrown, but even the august person of our Holy Father is attacked with the gravest insults. Wherefore we, being mindful of our office, lest our silence if longer maintained, should be perversely interpreted by men of evil will, are compelled to lift up our voice, and before you all, Most Reverend Fathers, to protest and to declare all such things as have been uttered in the aforesaid newspapers and pamphlets to be altogether false and calumnious, whether in contempt of our Holy Father and of the Apostolic See, or the dishonour of this Holy Synod, and on the score of its asserted want of legitimate liberty.

'From the Hall of the Council, the 16th day of July, 1870.

We have thus carried down our narrative to the eve of the Definition, and with one or two general remarks I will conclude this part of the subject.

A strange accusation has been brought against the Council of the Vatican, or, to speak more truly, against the Head of the Church, who summoned it; namely, that its one object was to define the Infallibility of