My exile was not similar to that of other emigrants who were left in peace by all parties. I had never given cause of offence to my government in political matters, but I had done so with respect to its religion. I had not designated the monarch as a knave, but I had stigmatized the Pope as an impostor: it would have been a small matter for me to unmask the character of a man who has always been a slave to ambition and self-interest; I rather chose the task of disclosing to the world the presumptuous iniquity of one who calls himself holy and infallible as God Himself; the Spiritual Father of all men; the Lord over all believers; placed above all; with the power to save and to destroy; to open heaven, and to close the gates of hell. Such a centre of blasphemy, such an exalted idol, I resolved to combat and overthrow; I felt an enmity towards this enemy of God, this falsifier of holy truth, this opposer of every moral and civil improvement: I determined to wage such an incessant warfare against him that he should finally be obliged to succumb, and while life remains to me I will continue so to do. Let the Jesuits, the Inquisition, the priests, and all their spies combine their efforts against me. I heed them not, neither do I fear them, however numerous they may be. The power of hell has no influence over those who are commissioned to preach the kingdom of heaven. Against them, as it is written, "the gates of hell shall not prevail." CHAPTER XIV. THE ITALIAN CHURCH. WHEN I left Rome, and threw myself as an exile into the Ionian Islands, I confess I had not at first a clear idea of the task that Providence had assigned me. Still I felt as if I was destined for some high purpose. I acknowledged the hand that was guiding me through new ways and unknown paths, and in my humble prayers to the Lord I repeated the words of the prophet: "Speak, LORD; for thy servant heareth."[93] Often did I meditate on the designs of Providence. But how can man comprehend the ways of God? It was with me as with the great German Reformer Luther: he felt that he was in the hands of the Lord; he felt the necessity of obeying the voice which called on him to reform the Church; and he was obedient, without knowing what he performed. I, too, obeyed a divine call when I separated myself from Rome, and, renouncing her honours and her dignities, quitted Italy for a foreign land, where I knew not what awaited me from the hand of the Lord: I only knew that I was ready to execute His will.