Henry Edward Cardinal Manning wrote these pastoral letters after the Vatican Council closed in 1870. This book contains the first, which was written in 1867 prior to the Council. The other two are published in separate books. Manning begins: "I should not rightly fulfil the office which binds me to you, and to the flock committed to my charge, if I were not to endeavour to make you share, so far as I am able, in the great events which have marked the Eighteenth Centenary of S. Peter's Martyrdom. I need hardly tell you that, next after the feeling of joy which filled my mind, as I looked upon the assembly of more than half the bishops of the world gathered around the throne of the Vicar of our Lord, there was nothing more present to me than the wish that you could have been eye-witnesses, with me, of these great acts of the Church; or, at least, that I might be able to convey to you somewhat of the consolation, confidence, and light which I trust they bestowed on me. This I will endeavour now to do. But at the outset I must disclaim both the intention and the power to set before you any adequate picture of the beauty, majesty, and splendour of those solemnities. I can only say that all was proportionate to the greatest kingdom upon earth, theHoly Catholic Church. Of all that spoke to the eye, therefore, I shall be silent. I could not describe it if I would; and I leave it to others who have the gifts of observation, and memory, and delineation required for the task. Some have already written of these great solemnities; others will do so hereafter. I shall confine myself entirely to that which did not meet the eye. I mean the moral significance, and, I may say, the moral beauty, majesty, and splendour of the the events in Rome."