Never has the Church despaired, even when, beaten and despoiled, she seemed to be at the last gasp.

Never will she abdicate, never will she renounce the promises of the Christ, for she believes in a boundless future and declares herself to be both indestructible and eternal.

Grant her but a pebble on which to rest her head, and she will hope to possess, first the field in which that pebble lies, and then the empire in which the field is situated.

If one pope cannot achieve the recovery of the inheritance, another pope, ten, twenty other popes will continue the work.

The centuries do not count.