and political opinion was contrary to church doctrine. The Institut Canadien unsuccessfully attempted to reconcile with Bourget in 1864, and a petition seeking reconciliation was addressed to Pope Pius IX by 17 Catholic members of the Institut in 1865, to no effect. Bourget made further unfavourable reports to the Holy Office regarding the Institut in 1866 and 1869, and in July 1869 the Annuaire de l’Institut Canadien pour 1868 was placed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum (Vatican list of banned books). The Guibord case (see below) and the events of 1869 to 1874 marked the final decline of the Institut. Its membership, which in 1858 had numbered 700, was by 1867 reduced to 300 and by 1875 only 165. In 1871 the Institut closed its debating room, and in 1880 it closed its library. The fall of the Papal States Bourget was concerned not only with politics in Montreal, but also with politics in Italy, which directly affected the affairs of the Roman Catholic Church as a whole. Between 1849 and 1870, the Italian peninsula underwent dramatic political changes, culminating in the unification of Italy into one nation. This had severe consequences for the Vatican and for the Roman Catholic Church. In 1848 Pope Pius IX was evacuated from Rome, and on September 20, 1870, the Papal States were annexed to the Kingdom of Italy, effectively ending their sovereignty. These upheavals were a source of great concern to many Catholics, and they were of particular importance to Bourget, who as an ultramontane believed firmly in the supreme authority of the Pope in all matters both temporal and spiritual. On October 23, 1854, Bourget travelled to Europe, where he remained until July 29, 1856. He visited Rome to represent the ecclesiastical province at the proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception on December 8, 1854, and then spent time in Italy and France. While in France he published a book on Roman liturgy entitled Ceremonial des évêques commenté et expliqué par les usages et traditions de la sainte Eglise romaine avec le texte latin, par un évêque suffragant de la province ecclésiastique de Québec, au Canada, anciennement appelé Nouvelle-France, complimentary copies of which he distributed to all the French bishops. In a series of pastoral letters in 1860, Bourget addressed the ongoing unification of Italy. He argued that the revolution in Italy was attacking the Church "in order next to