On the 26th July the Pope pronounced two allocutions to
the Consist- tory ; one on the affairs of Sardinia, the other relating to Spain and Switzerland. In the first, he condemns anew and again declares null and of no effect the laws which "have taken place in Piedmont to the detriment of religion"- and the power and liberty of the Church ; and he declares that all who supported them have "incurred the major excom- munication"; but the Pontiff is mindful that he "occupies the place of Him who in wrath remembers mercy," and he therefore only prays that the "degenerate children of the Holy Church in Sardinia" may be brought back to better sentiments. In the second allocution the Holy Pather declares the recent laws enacted in Spain respecting Church pro- perty "null and of no effect " ; and states that he "suffers indescribably at the deplorable state to which our holy religion is reduced in Switzer- land," espenially in the Catholic Cantons.
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