Life of Ahmad — Page 27
as WORLD PREPARATIONS 27 a little later. They solemnly declared and published 'in the face of the whole world their fixed resolution. . . to take for their sole guide the precepts of that Holy Religion. . . which must have an immediate influence on the Councils of the Princes, and guide all their steps, as being the only means of consolidating human institutions. ' They did their utmost to serve and uphold their 'Holy Religion'; but it was not to be; God had ordained otherwise. The Prince of peace was earning to break the Cross. Therefore the object of their Holy Alliance was frustrated by the vigorous diplomacy of Castlereagh, and the experiment came to an end in 1823. The Revolution of Paris in 1830 dealt a severe blow to the Holy Religion and further weakened its prestige. It established a bourgeois monarchy in France, and Catholicism lost its privileged position as the State religion. The repercussions of the Paris Revolution were felt all over Europe. The provinces of Romagna and the Marches in Italy rose in 1831 and shook off the papal yoke with surprising ease. The liberal movement also progressed throughout Europe. Turkey had been looked upon as the seat of the Muslim Caliphate, and a religious halo was supposed to surround the Turkish Sultan. But as the time had come to establish in the world a true caliphate by the birth of the Promised Mahdi as , Turkey had to be divested of much of her glory and power. In 1832 she lost Greece, which became an independent State by