When the dominion was gone he made concordats, or compacts, with the different states; in which, with varying conditions, it was agreed that he should uphold them by his spiritual power, and they uphold him by the secular arm. It is a most remarkable fact, that within the last fifteen years almost all of these concordats have been brought abruptly to a violent end: those with Naples, Tuscany, and the Italian Duchies in 1858; that with Austria, including Venice, in 1866; with Spain in 1868; with France in 1870; and with Bavaria in 1873. There may be others remaining in force, but I know of none. According to the best information I can obtain all are dissolved. The Papacy has lost all its political power. The ten kings have shaken off his government, and there is not one left that submits to his authority. But more than that. The Pope of Rome used to be king over a considerable portion of Italy. But he is now deposed. The States of the Church are incorporated with united Italy, and the Pope is king no more. They have taken away his dominion. His sovereignty is at an end; it has received its death-blow, and shall we not acknowledge that the consuming process is begun? But further still. The Church of Rome used to have vast estates. The convents which used to swarm through Italy were richly endowed with landed property. But as soon as the kingdom of Italy was well established, those convents were broken up and their property confiscated. And now that the Pope has been dethroned in Rome, a similar measure has been passed for all those within the city, and on the 20th of October, 1874, they received notice of their dissolution. It looks very much as if the kings were eating up the flesh of the woman. But some will say, ‘Ah, but in religious matters Popery is making progress, for it is winning so many perverts to its errors.’ I know there are perverts, and I am deeply grieved at it, but I doubt whether Rome’s progress is as great as many think. It has been calculated that in the year 1801 there were in Great Britain and Ireland twenty-seven Romanists out of every hundred of the population, but that in 1869 there were only eighteen. The proportion, therefore, had actually diminished from twenty-seven to eighteen per cent. {28}