"And more! The most sacred right of the Roman Pontiff to confirm or reject the bishops elected in Spain is clearly excluded; and the punishment of exile is to be inflicted as well on all priests designated to any episcopal church, who shall seek confirmation or letters apostolic from this Holy See, as on all metropolitans who shall demand the pallium from it. "After this, it is indeed to be wondered at, that the Roman Pontiff himself is in that law asserted to be, as it were, the centre of the Church, since room for communication with him is not left, save by the license and under the inspection of the government. "Desiring then to restrain, as much as in us lies, the evils, which in this great perturbation of the Catholic religion throughout Spain are growing more heavy; and to give our assistance to those most dear of the faithful, who, long since, are stretching forth suppliant hands towards us, we have determined, after the example of our predecessors, to resort to the prayers of the universal Church, and most studiously to excite the piety of all Catholics toward that nation. "Therefore, while we renew and confirm, by these letters apostolic, the complaints and expostulations published in the allocutions before mentioned, and abrogate and declare to be of no force all acts hitherto done by the government of Madrid against the rights and dignity of the Church and of this most Holy See, we again exhort all ... to implore the mercy of the omnipotent God for the unhappy Spanish nation." _BALMES AND CORTES._ The government in turn endeavored to suppress the Encyclical, but its efforts in that direction only resulted in spreading it the more throughout the land. A veritable awakening followed. Both clergy and people publicly demonstrated their loyalty to the persecuted Church, whose defence was ably taken up by such writers and orators as the celebrated Father James Balmes and Donoso Cortes. In 1843, the young Isabella, then being thirteen years of age, was declared of age, and made independent of any regency. The reign of Espartero was, for the time at least, at an end. Espartero, during his ascendancy, proved himself a scourge to the Catholic Church in Spain. When he fell, the Catholics began to breathe more freely. A stop was put to the sale of ecclesiastical property. In 1845, whatever remained was used to give some little maintenance to the clergy, but the real and personal estate had already been disposed of in great part, and could not be recalled. To arrange matters a concordat was drawn up, and Castillo y Ayensa was sent to Gregory XVI. for that purpose. But the good will of the government evaporated before anything definite could be concluded, and the concordat was rejected by the Cortes. _CONCORDAT OF 1851._