ABSTRACT
The pope found little comfort at home where Italian nationalists posed a threat to his spiritual and temporary power. In the pontiff's mind the two were inextricably intertwined, for he regarded the sovereignty of the Papal States as a crucial guarantee of his spiritual independence. In 1869 the Allgemeine Zeitung published a series of unsigned, anti-papal articles, written by Doellinger, who included them in the volume The Pope and the Council by Janus, which rejected not only the infallibility of the pontiff but that of councils. The powers were less than pleased by the prospect of the council, fearing that the pope would have himself declared infallible, and the strictures of the Syllabus, with its condemnation of modern civilization and liberalism, assured a form of divine sanction. Pius, who invoked traditionalism and centralization in the church against the evils of secularism, liberalism and nationalism, addressed the bishops in the first public session.
