Great Encyclical Letters (incl. Aeterni Patris, Providentissimus Deus, etc.)

Would that this healing authority had never been slighted or set aside! Assuredly neither would the civil power have lost that venerable and sacred glory, the lustrous gift of religion, which alone renders the state of subjection noble and worthy of man; nor would so many revolutions and wars have been fomented to ravage the world with desolation and bloodshed; nor would kingdoms, once so flourishing, but now fallen from the height of prosperity, lie crushed beneath the weight of every kind of calamity. Of this the peoples of the East also furnish an example, who, by breaking the most sweet yoke that bound them to this Apostolic See, forfeited the splendor of their former greatness, their renown in science and art, and the dignity of their sway. Of these remarkable benefits, however, which illustrious monuments of all ages prove to have flowed upon every quarter of the world from the Apostolic See, this land of Italy has had the most abounding experience. For it has derived advantages from the See of Rome proportionate to the greater nearness of its natural situation. Unquestionably to the Roman Pontiffs it is that Italy must own herself indebted for the substantial glory and majesty by which she has been pre-eminent amongst nations. The influence and fatherly care of the Popes have upon many occasions shielded her from hostile attack and brought her relief and aid, the effect of which is that the Catholic faith has been ever maintained inviolate in the hearts of Italians. These services of Our predecessors, to omit mention of many others, have been witnessed to in a special manner by the records of the times of St. Leo the Great, Alexander III., Innocent III., St. Pius V., Leo X.…