The Archbishop accepted both the insult and the calumny without a word of protest. A month later he changed his name and assumed that of Pius IX. Learning that his old enemy was in Rome with his family at the time, he sent him word that although he had refused to allow the Archbishop of Imola to stand godfather to his child, he might not feel the same objection to the Pope, who, if the infant were not yet baptized, would be glad to be its sponsor. _En passant_ one is struck with wonder that amid all the preoccupation and inevitable excitement of that great change in his life, Pius IX should have found time to think of the man at all. Naturally he had conquered, and his old enemy could scarcely express his gratitude at receiving such an honour. Even then the Pope remembered him again, and very soon afterwards seized an opportunity of conferring on him a great material benefit. That is how the Saints forgive! Naturally he had conquered, and the favour was received with almost unbelieving joy. Oh, they were a good family, those Mastai-Ferrettis. After the accession of Pius IX, his brother, Cardinal Ferretti, a most wise and saintly man, acted as his Prime Minister for a time, before the revolution. His memory was greatly venerated in Rieti, of which place he was Cardinal-Bishop. A terrible thing happened while he was there. One of the churches was broken into at night, the Tabernacle violated, and the pyx containing the Blessed Sacrament stolen. On learning of this frightful sacrilege, the next morning, the Cardinal called all his clergy together, and he and they, with bare feet and ropes round their necks, went in procession to the public square. The entire population gathered round them, and then the Cardinal, standing bare-headed and barefooted under the noonday sun, preached a sermon, taking for his text the cry of Mary Magdalene on Easter morning, “They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid Him.” When the sermon ended, the people were kneeling on the stones, sobbing like children. That night the door of the church was left open, and the pyx was restored; its sacred contents were intact.