Faith of the Portuguese

6. Now if We consider the sources of these evils, We conclude that the desire for impiety, which grew so greatly during the preceding century, was not primary, even though it penetrated your minds too as by the contagion of disease and by its presence gave rise to serious problems. Nevertheless those who maintain that greater harm was done by internal discord in the conduct of political parties and by the upheavals of seditious mobs seem close to the truth. For no force could extinguish and no means could shake the belief and the ancient faith in the Roman Pontiff of the Portuguese people. In the very midst of the storms in your state, your people always held that concord with the Church is the great beginning on which Christian states ought to be ruled. For this reason the holy bond of religious unity not only remained unbroken, but by the authority and consent of the law, this bond afforded the foundation for political regulation. These consoling facts show that the Catholic cause can be easily strengthened with suitable remedies. Good seeds are still alive; when in constancy of mind and concord they have matured the will, they will produce an abundance of the desired fruit.