Page:The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII.djvu/345

Rh wrenched from communication with the Apostolic See, and then was bereft of that holy faith in which for long centuries it had rejoiced and found liberty. It was a sad defection; and Our predecessors, while lamenting it in their earnest love, made every prudent effort to put an end to it, and to mitigate the many evils consequent upon it. It would take long, and it is not necessary, to detail the sedulous and increasing care taken by Our predecessors in those circumstances. But by far the most valuable and effective assistance they afforded lies in their having so repeatedly urged on the faithful the practice of special prayer to God that He would look with compassion on England. In the number of those who devoted themselves to this special work of charity there were some venerable and saintly men, especially St. Charles Borromeo and St. Philip Neri, and, in the last century, Paul, the founder of the Society of the Passion of Christ, who, not without a certain divine impulse, it is said, was instant in supplication "at the throne of divine grace"; and this all the more earnestly that the times seemed less favorable to the realization of his hopes. We, indeed, long before being raised to the Supreme Pontificate, were deeply sensible also of the importance of holy prayer offered for this cause, and heartily approved of it. For, as We gladly recall, at the time when We were Nuncio in Belgium, becoming acquainted with an Englishman, Ignatius Spencer, himself a devout son of the same St. Paul of the Cross, he laid before Us the project he had already initiated for extending a society of pious people, to pray for the return of the English nation to the Church.

We can hardly say how cordially We entered into this design, wholly inspired by faith and charity, and how We helped forward this cause, anticipating that the