Taken as a whole the three Pastorals present at least an outline of this revealed truth, now happily for ever placed beyond controversy or doubt by the divine authority of the Church.

They record, also, the indiction, the prelude, and the first four sessions of the first Council of the Vatican, the nineteenth Œcumenical Synod of the Catholic Church, which will leave its indelible mark upon the future, as the Council of Trent has left its impression upon the past and present, of the Christian world.

Christmas 1870.