The Tablet to Pope Pius IX

In the third volume of *The Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh,* Adib Taherzadeh writes of the Tablet that Bahá’u’lláh, a prisoner in ‘Akká, addressed in Arabic to Pope Pius IX. It was revealed, he notes, around the same time as the second Tablet to Napoleon III, which was sent in 1869.

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Pius IX was then not only the head of the Roman Catholic Church but also the temporal ruler of the Papal States in central Italy, which the popes had ruled for some ten centuries.

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In the Tablet, Bahá’u’lláh identifies Himself as the Lord of Lords and proclaims the return of Christ in the glory of the Father:

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> O Pope! Rend the veils asunder. He Who is the Lord of Lords is > come overshadowed with clouds...

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The Tablet declares:

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> The Word which the Son concealed is made manifest. It hath been > sent down in the form of the human temple in this day.

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It warns the Pope not to dispute with Him as the Pharisees disputed with Jesus, and it calls him to leave his palaces: *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.* It recalls that when Christ came, the most learned of His age pronounced judgement against Him, while a fisherman believed in Him.

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It counsels the Pope directly about the wealth and power of his office:

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> 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. > Abandon thy kingdom unto the kings...

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Very soon afterwards, Taherzadeh observes, the temporal sovereignty of the papacy was dramatically extinguished. In September 1870 the troops of King Victor Emmanuel II entered Rome. The Papal States were annexed to the new Kingdom of Italy, and Pius IX, refusing to recognize the new order, withdrew into the Vatican, where he regarded himself as a prisoner for the rest of his life.

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*A retelling based on **The Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh, Vol. 3 — 'Akká, the Early Years** (Adib Taherzadeh). For the fuller account, see the original.*

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