the church—the error on which all others hung flapping to and fro as the winds of the passions listed-on a sunny sea of temptation. Temporal power assumed or received by the spiritual guides of men, was contrary to the will of Him who sent them forth to be "ministers" -servants, not to "exercise dominion."1 In open defiance of the sacred counsel, the shepherd of the flock became a prince of many people, even as "the princes of the Gentiles," and how could the promise be kept, that "the gates of hell should not prevail against the church," if its very head was in direct contravention of the most urgent of these conditions, all of which were to be complied with to eventuate that fulfilment ? And, alas how fearfully did the popes do as "the princes of the Gentiles!" They were kings-and the vices of kings had long ceased to be exceptions to the general rule; if not a matter of course, these vices were certainly a matter of notoriety. Long before Alexander VI. there had been popes of reprobate character, and yet enjoying, as heads of the Christian Church, the name and prerogatives of sanctity. But who could deem holy that Urban VI., who, to glut his revenge against those cardinals who opposed his election, had them tied up in a sack and drowned in the sea of Genoa? Who could deem holy that Boniface VIII., of whom it was truly said that he entered the papacy 1 "But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them: but it shall not be so among you but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant-even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many."-Matt. xx. 25, et seq. 2 "Quibus dum Genuam pontifex defertur, ex septem cardinalibus Nuceriæ captis, quinque saccis involutos, in mare demersit."-Plat. de Vit. Pont. p. 206. And like a wolf, ruled like a lion, and died like a dog,-the terror he lived of all kings and nations, and an insatiate lover of gold?1 In the ages of faith flourished these "vicars of Christ." Verily, notorious and infamous crimes have immortalised the memory of popes. early did the human mind shrink back, horror-stricken at the awful inconsistency. Even in the fourteenth century, when men had scarcely dreamed of shaking off the bonds of superstition-in the age of vagabond pilgrimages and hobgoblins-it was one of the first glad tidings of coming freedom, when the earliest promoters of literature, in bold and daring numbers, sang the crimes and punishments of lawless, godless popes. In the realms of woe eternal, the genius of poesy found them. Ineffectual wails, unsatisfying torments, embodied the poetic conception, the infernal merits of those who abused the sacred sentiment of religion in the human breast, to suit their selfish purposes, their guilty passions at the sight of whom Dante invoked the name of Simon Magus, and sounded forth his terrible trumpet.2 Pope Anastasius in the deep abysm by an "Moritur hoc modo Bonifacius ille, qui imperatoribus, regibus, principibus, nationibus, populis, terrorem potiùs quam religionem injicere conabatur; quique dare regna et auferre, pellere homines ac reducere pro arbitrio animi conabatur, aurum undique conquisitum plus quam dici potest, sitiens."-Plat. de Vit. Pont. p. 187; Leti, Vit. de Sist. V. i. 15. A curious anecdote is related of this pope, by the same honest Catholic: "We certainly know," says Platina, "what he said to Prochetus, the Archbishop of Genoa, who was kneeling before him on a certain Ash-Wednesday. For whereas it is customary for the priest on that occasion to say, 'Remember, man, that thou art ashes, and into ashes shalt return ;' Boniface exclaimed, substituting the words, Remember, man, that thou art a Gibelline, and with the Gibellines into ashes shalt return;' whereupon he flung the ashes into his eyes, and not on his head, as is usual."- Plat. de Vit. Pont. p. 186. 2 "O Simon Mago, O miseri sequaci, Che le cose di Dio, che di bontate Or convien che per voi suoni la tromba," &c.-Infern, c. xix. inscription he recognised,' whilst his church on earth, as he found her, was "sunk under the weight of her crimes, and polluted with mire and filth." In hell he found Nicholas III. planted with his heels upwards, waiting till Boniface VIII. arrives, who is to take his place to be in his turn relieved by Clement V., un pastor senza legge, a lawless shepherd.2 The milder spirit of Petrarca is roused on this subject of Roman depravity, to a higher pitch of indignation. In one of his sonnets he assimilates the papal court to Babylon "L'avara Babilonia ha colmo 'l sacco D'ira di Dio, e di vizj empj e rei Tanto, che scoppia; ed ha fatti suoi Dei To him, Rome is a fountain of grief, the dwelling of wrath, the school of error, and the temple of unbelief. He pours forth with wrathful energy every epithet of disgrace against the putta sfacciata-the unblushing thing of iniquity.* The holy see and the court of Rome. Catholics easily account for their devotion to the holy see, in spite of its historical abominations, which, however, very few of them are aware of -their accredited histories in common use, "with permission of authority," veiling the subject with painful dexterity. When the matter is alluded to, a specious argument, with its clever distinctions, satisfies at least the bold propounders of theory against fact. They will tell you: we distinguish the holy see from the court of Rome. The pope, when representing the former in the spiritual 1 Inferno, c. xi. 2 Ib. xix. 83. 3 Sonn. xv. + Sonn. xvi.; Rosc. Leo X. ii. 84. See also, Rosetti, Disquisit. passim. government of the church, cannot err, being inspired by the Holy Ghost, and having received his impeccability, in that capacity, from Christ, when he said: "I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not." And when the pope goes astray, it is as prince of the Roman Courtthe famous, or rather infamous, Corte di Roma-which is subject to all the passions, to all worldly interests, all the maxims of state policy, so often pernicious in their results-all the tortuous shifts of hireling machinations -the urgency of war-revenge, secret and public— display, pomp, factions, cliques-in fine, to all the pas sions notorious and infamous in the worst rulers of men.1 What the requires. Why not, then, elect two popes? Let one be king of Rome and its court. Let the other be Dairi, as in Japan, only concerned with spirituals-faith, present time morals, bulls, and dispensations. By such a plan we might almost go back to the apostolic simplicity of church-government. The present time urgently requires something of the sort already we begin to see how impossible it is, in spite of splendid promise, for a pope of Rome to shake off utterly his ancient self. 2 1 Leti, Sisto V. lib. i. 2 There is an old prophecy, known perhaps to the learned of the Catholic church, under the name of Prophetia Malachia, professing to give, by symbols, the characteristic of each successive pope or his pontificate. The symbol of Pius IX., the present pope, turns out to be very striking; it is De balucis Ethruriæ, that is, out of the drinking-pots of Etruria. Perhaps some will find it as difficult to accord the "promises" of the present pope with what he can, or means to do, in the way of "regeneration," as it is to explain the meaning of his mysterious motto, as conceived by Malachy at least. . . . . It is, moreover, very curious to find that there will be only eleven more popes! At all events, there remains only that number of symbols. Whether we are approaching the end of the popedom, or of the world so nearly, is the serious question. However, after the last motto, we are told that "the Roman Peter will sit in the last persecution and the tremendous judge will judge his people-Finis--the End." See the Jesuit Arsdekin, Theol. Trip. p. 78. The source of papal domi its expansion. The The disreputable characters of the popes interfered not with their spiritual pretensions-their power over the nations of earth and her princes. These pretensions have sent down their names to posterity, coupled with the humiliation of nation, and kings and popentates, impelled by "public opinion" which was guided by the superstitions of the age, to kiss the hand that hurled them to the dust. Public opinion was led away captive by the arts which practised on the religious instinct of men. acknowledged Father of the Faithful, Vicar of Jesus Christ, Temple of the Holy Ghost, and Keeper of the Keys of Heaven and Hell, triumphed aloft on the clouds of Public Opinion. That was the fact-the natural fact for it is absurd to suppose that such spiritual domination could be simply usurped. It was the accumulated result of skilful management; and was finally dreaded, if not universally revered, or conscientiously conceded. The arms of that power were forged on the anvil of superstition, in the midst of barbarism— midnight darkness of mind. Scarcely remarkable in the first ages of the church, the See of Rome continued the struggle for supremacy over other Sees: but from the beginning of the seventh century to the middle of the eighth, the bishop of Rome was acknowledged the Head of the Church. From that period to the middle of the eleventh century, he was not only the Head of the Church, but a temporal prince of Italy :—and thenceforward to the present time, the pope has been the "Vicar of Jesus Christ," and sovereign of the ecclesiastical states of Italy, with more or less of "temporal power" in other kingdoms, according to circumstances.1 Zopf, t. i. 357. |