Note 441 — Chapter XX · 1848-1852. THE JESUITS IN AND AFTER 1848.

We have to lament the decease of this illustrious Italian, which has happened while we were writing these pages. His country has not forgotten that it is due to him, perhaps more than to anything else, that Piedmont is without Jesuits. Monuments are to be erected to him, and his mortal remains will be transported from Paris to Turin at the public expense. But while all Italy is unanimous in regretting his loss, a Jesuit newspaper, the Armonia, attributing his sudden death to the judgment of God, exclaims, “See what it is to wage war against Heaven! Gioberti died like Simon the magician, like Arius!” A Jesuit in Rome asserted the same thing from the pulpit; while the Romans repeat that the Jesuits have poisoned him. He was firm to the end in his hostility to the fathers, and in the last letter he wrote to the author of this history, encouraging him to proceed with the work, he adds, “You will render a good service to our country.”