Knowledge of Church history is one of the most helpful things in keeping our balance as Catholics. A few hours’ reading will make clear that nearly all the things that disturb faithful Catholics have happened before. The first encyclical of Pius VII, Diu Satis (May 15, 1800), gives us an excellent example. At the outset we might be puzzled by the place where the encyclical was issued. “Given at Venice in the monastery of San Giorgio Maggiore.” Why in the world was the pope there? Pius VI had died in exile in August of the preceding year. In France the Church was outlawed, Rome itself was occupied by French troops, the cardinals imprisoned or scattered. To many, both friends and foes of Catholicism, it seemed that the end had finally come. The German poet Novalis, admirer of medieval Christendom, wrote toward the end of 1799 that “The old Papacy lies in its grave and Rome for the second time has become a ruin.” But it was not to be. Under the protection of the Holy Roman Emperor, 35 cardinals painfully assembled near Venice and elected the new pope. Before he left Venice he addressed the bishops of the Catholic world in his first encyclical. In the midst of ruin on every side, Pius could say nothing better than to repeat truths which every Catholic should know.