The faith of our fathers - Carmel Apologetics

"CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY.27Scost him his life. The Emperor invaded Rome,drove Gregory from his See, who died utteringthese words with his last breath : I have lovedjustice and hated iniquity, and therefore I die inexile."For the same cause, Thomas a Becket, Archbishopof Canterbury, was slain at the altar by the hiredassassins of Henry II., of England.And observe how Pius VII. was treated by thefirstNapoleon in the beginning of the present century. The day-dream of Napoleon was to be masterof Europe, and to place his brothers and friends onthe thrones of the continent, that they might revolve, like so many satellites, around his throne inFrance. Napoleon makes two demands on thevenerable Pontiff: 1. That he dissolve the marriagewhich had been contracted between the Emperor sbrother, Jerome, and Miss Patterson, of Baltimore.His ostensible reason for having the marriage dissolved was because Miss Patterson was a Protestant ;but his real motive was to secure a royal bride forhis brother instead of an American lady. 2. Thathe close his ports against the commerce of England,with which nation Napoleon was then at war, andmake common cause with the Emperor against hisenemies. The Pope rejected both demands. Hetold the Emperor that the Church held all marriages performed by her as indissoluble, even whenone of the parties was not a Catholic ;and that, asthe common father of Christendom, he could closehis port against no Christian power. For refusing