The Tablet to Pope Pius IX

*A retelling based on **The Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh**, volume 3, by Adib Taherzadeh, which describes the Tablet Bahá'u'lláh addressed to Pope Pius IX. The words of the Tablet are quoted as published in **The Summons of the Lord of Hosts**.*

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Pius IX was elected Pope two years after the Declaration of the Báb, and his pontificate lasted longer than that of any Pope before him. He was the head of the Catholic Church and also a temporal ruler: the Popes had governed Rome and the Papal States of central Italy for centuries.

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Around the same time as His second Tablet to Napoleon III, while He was a prisoner in 'Akká, Bahá'u'lláh revealed a Tablet in Arabic addressed to the Pope. In it, Taherzadeh writes, Bahá'u'lláh identifies Himself as the Lord of Lords, proclaims the promised return of Christ in the glory of the Father, and summons the Pope to leave his palaces.

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The Tablet opens: "O Pope! Rend the veils asunder. He Who is the Lord of Lords is come overshadowed with clouds, and the decree hath been fulfilled by God, the Almighty, the Unrestrained." It continues: "He, verily, hath again come down from Heaven even as He came down from it the first time. Beware that thou dispute not with Him even as the Pharisees disputed with Him without a clear token or proof."

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Bahá'u'lláh then contrasts the Pope's dwelling with His own: "Dwellest thou in palaces whilst He Who is the King of Revelation liveth in the most desolate of abodes? Leave them unto such as desire them, and set thy face with joy and delight towards the Kingdom."

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He reminds the Pope of how Christ was received: "Call thou to remembrance Him Who was the Spirit, Who, when He came, the most learned of His age pronounced judgement against Him in His own country, whilst he who was only a fisherman believed in Him."

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Later in the Tablet He addresses him again: "O Supreme Pontiff! Incline thine ear unto that which the Fashioner of mouldering bones counselleth thee, as voiced by Him Who is His Most Great Name. Sell all the embellished ornaments thou dost possess, and expend them in the path of God, Who causeth the night to return upon the day, and the day to return upon the night.

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Abandon thy kingdom unto the kings, and emerge from thy habitation, with thy face set towards the Kingdom, and, detached from the world, then speak forth the praises of thy Lord betwixt earth and heaven."

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Very soon after the Tablet was revealed, Taherzadeh notes, the temporal power of the Pope came to an end. He quotes Shoghi Effendi's account: in 1870 the King of Italy went to war with the Papal States, and his troops entered Rome and seized it.

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On the eve of its fall the Pope, despite his age, climbed the Scala Santa on his knees; the next morning, as the bombardment began, he ordered the white flag raised over the dome of St. Peter's. Rome, over which the Popes had ruled for ten centuries, became the capital of the new kingdom. Pius IX refused to recognize it and remained within the Vatican, the first Pope to be called its prisoner.

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*This is a retelling. For the fuller account, see **The Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh**, volume 3, by Adib Taherzadeh.*

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