Everybody at all familiar with history understands how necessary it was considered by the "Allied Powers" to recast the history of Europe after the escape of Napoleon from the Island of Elba. For this purpose their representatives assembled at the Congress of Vienna, and took to themselves the name of the "Holy Alliance," which, according to Prince Metternich--who was its leading spirit--was induced by "the overflow of the pietistic feeling of the Emperor Alexander [of Russia], and _the application of Christian principles to politics_;" in other words, "_a union of religious and political-liberal ideas_."[152] This effort, on the part of the monarchists of Europe was designed to give renewed prominence to the idea that kings governed by divine right; in other words, to establish the union between Church and State so completely that it could never be again disturbed. It was intended to teach the people that all the liberties they were entitled to possess were such only as the governing monarchs deemed it expedient to grant them; that they were entitled to none whatsoever by virtue of the natural law; that the attempt to establish representative and liberal government, like that of the United States, was an unpardonable sin against God; and that the highest duty of citizenship was obedience to monarchical authority. Not the least conspicuous among the maneuvering sovereigns and politicians of Europe at this time was Pius VII, who felt himself to be the most illustrious and important representative of the divine right of kings. He hated Napoleon intensely, if for no other reason, because the "little Corsican" had arrested and held him in confinement. In casting about to discover by what means he, as pope, could render the most conspicuous aid to the cause of monarchism, and the suppression of liberal and popular government, he naturally turned in the direction of the Jesuits, whose fidelity to the principles of absolutism was vouched for by the constitution of their society and their intense devotion to the memory of Loyola. He, accordingly, whilst the monarchs were preparing for the Congress of Vienna, and only a few months before its assembling, anticipated their action by re-establishing the society of the Jesuits. His prompt action commended him to the allied sovereigns, who could not have failed to see in it sufficient to assure them of his hostility to popular government and his fidelity to the monarchical cause. His purposes may be inferred from the language of his decree. He declared that he should be derelict of duty, "if placed in the bark of Peter, tossed and assailed by continual storms, we [he] refused to employ _the vigorous and experienced rowers_ [the Jesuits], who volunteered their services, in order to break the waves of a sea which threatened every moment shipwreck and death."[153] What did he mean by the storms that tossed and assailed the bark of Peter? The Governments were agitated by