De sacrarum stationum veteri instituto a Xisto Quinto pont. max. revocato oratio habita in templo S. Sabinae in die Cinerum

offense might be contracted. For this reason, in this most important time, our loins must be girded in truth, our feet shod in preparation for the Gospel of peace, and we must take up the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of justice, and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. And now, in the first place, as Stationarijs stational soldiers, we must stand as if in the camp of God, in the safest and most holy Stationes Stations. So it must be, that if any Lent is to be observed, it is especially this one, which we begin today. Why so? Because the times of the Church are now especially mournful, wretched, unhappy, and calamitous. Because in many places, the affairs of the Christian Republic seem doubtful, frightening, and indeed afflicted and nearly prostrate. Because the most flourishing kingdoms are being torn apart by the impious enemies of the Christian name with all wickedness and cruelty. Because heresies are spreading everywhere, and most wicked men walk in a circuit, who, shooting in the dark at the upright in heart, twist and bend the law of almighty God to their own desires. Because, among the faithful themselves, so few understand or seek God that, if God were to look down from heaven, he would see all men made useless, and there is not one who does good. All these things are indeed most grave, yet they are not so peculiar to the present time that they were not common to previous ones; would that they were not also for those to come. I, however, am about to bring forward something by which I suspect you, Most Blessed Father, will be moved, because of your inherent modesty. But I humbly and earnestly pray that you restrain the impulse of your spirit until I have very briefly added those things by which I will demonstrate that I have spoken not only opportunely but almost by necessity. For it does not escape me, Most Eminent Fathers, that the more worthy someone is of praise, the less willingly they hear their own praises, and that this speech—which would professedly treat of the immense virtues and excellent merits of the most holy Father toward the Church—would undoubtedly be troublesome to him. How in all parts of his life, according to the requirements of his age and duties, he has shown himself worthy of the Pontificate.