Note 133 — THE PRESENT GREATNESS OF THE PAPACY.
Reading edition
No. 360 of the journal Il Precursore, of Palermo, dared lately to apply to the Sovereign Pontiff Pius IX. the names sacristan-pontiff, blockhead, dullard, swindler, huckster, dotard, and other epithets so coarse that the pen refuses to transcribe them. But the Italian Exchequer, notwithstanding the law which declares the Pope to be as inviolable as the king, found nothing to say against this foul sheet. And the government pretends that the so-called law of guarantees is scrupulously observed by it. We appeal to the common sense, not of Christians, but of persons simply not barbarians like the Hottentots.