PAPAL POWER.

The power which the popes have attained, is more admirable than the vast monarchy of ancient Rome; so that it may be said, this great city was to be in two different manners the spring of the most sublime qualities that are requisite for the foundation of a very great state. If this do not prove that the Romans equalled other nations in moral virtue, it shews at least that they had more courage and industry. It is an amazing thing that a church, which pretends to have no arms but the spiritual ones of the word of God, and which grounds her rights only upon the gospel, that teaches everywhere humility and poverty, should have been so bold as to aspire to an absolute dominion over all the kings of the earth. It is still more amazing that she should have been so successful in such a chimerical design. If ancient Rome, which pretended only to conquests and military virtue, subdued so many nations, it is a noble and glorious thing in the eyes of the world; but any one who reflects upon it will not wonder at it. It is much more surprising to see new Rome, pretending only to an apostolical ministry, arrive to so great a power, that the greatest monarchs have been forced to submit to it; for it may be said, that there is hardly any emperor who opposed the popes, but found himself

the worse for it at last. At this very day, the quarrels of the most potent princes with the court of Rome generally end to their confusion. We have such fresh instances of it, that I need not mention them. In the eyes of the world such a conquest is a more glorious work than those of the Alexanders and Cæsa’rs, and therefore Gregory VII, who was the chief promoter of it, ought to be placed among the great conquerors, who had the most eminent qualities.

The author of an able work, entitled L’Esprit des Cours de l’Europe, pretends that the popes’ conquests were not so difficult as I imagine. “I find nothing,” he observes, “that is very surprising in the pope’s greatness. By the help of some passages of holy writ, they have persuaded the world of their divinity. Is this a new thing? Is it not usual with men to suffer themselves to be imposed upon in point of religion? Above all things they love to deify their fellow creatures, as paganism makes it plain. Now, if it be once supposed that the popes could easily establish the divine privileges of their dignity, was it not natural for people to declare for them against all other powers? For my part, I am so far from admiring their elevation, that I wonder how they did not arrive at a universal monarchy. The great number of princes who have shaken off the Roman yoke, confounds me, and when I enquire into the reason of it, I can only think of these two causes, which are very general and well known,—that men do not always act according to their principles, and that this present life makes a deeper impression upon them than the future.”

Now suppose, with this ingenious writer, that the popes could easily make the world believe they were Gods upon earth, that is to say, that being the visible heads of the church, they might authoritatively declare what is heretical or orthodox, regulate ceremonies, and command all the bishops of the Christian world, will it therefore follow that they could easily

set up their authority over kings, and bring them under their yoke without any difficulty? I confess I do not see this consequence. On the contrary, it seems to me, that, in all appearance, their spiritual authority would run a great danger by their attempts upon the temporalities of kings. The Athenians were told one day: have a care that your concern for heaven do not make you lose the earth. The popes might have been told in a contrary sense; have a care that your great desire of getting the earth do not make you lose heaven: you will be deprived of the spiritual power, if you pretend to usurp the temporal. It is well known, that the most orthodox princes are more tender of their sovereignty than of religion; a thousand examples ancient and modern prove it; and therefore it was not likely they should suffer the church to invade their demesnes and rights. They would rather increase their authority to the prejudice of the church, than suffer the power of the church to increase to the prejudice of their temporal power. Princes, who understand the art of reigning, have generally the gentry and the soldiery at their command; and when that part of their subjects remain faithful to them, they need not be afraid of the clergy; their troops will fight for them against all sorts of enemies. The army of Charles V made war against Clement VII. The troops of France fought against Julius II for Lewis XII, and would have done the same for Lewis XIV against Alexander VII, not long before the peace of Pisa delivered the pope from the storm ready to fall upon him. I was at Mr Justel’s at Paris, in the year 1675, when it was affirmed, that the count de Vignori, governor of Triers, made this answer to the monks, who represented to him, that the convents he pulled down, to fortify the town, had been founded by Charlemagne:—“I only execute the king’s orders, and, if he should command me to raise a battery against the holy sacrament, I would do it. Francis Mendoza de Corduba was not so passionate in the answer he made to a letter of the emperor, the thirtieth of December, 1598; but he did not want much of it. He wrote to him, “that if his imperial majesty were with his power on the one side, and the holy father the pope with his excommunication on the other, commanding him once more to retire, he would not do it, since he had a master who had ordered him to perform his exploits, unless he were obliged by force of arms to act otherwise.” We may add, that kings and emperors are able to bestow favours and noble rewards upon so many people, that they may easily bring over to their party even prelates and monks, and put them upon writing against the pretensions of the court of Rome. This paper war, in all appearance, must needs be very prejudicial to the pontiffs, who usurp a temporal authority; for it is easy to shew, by several express texts of scripture, by the spirit of the gospel, by ancient tradition, and the practice of the first centuries, that the popes have no manner of ground to pretend to dispose of crowns, and to share, in so many things the rights of. sovereignty. Nay, this may serve to bring into question their spiritual authority; and, being thus upon the defensive, as to that point, they must needs be reduced to great straits. Nay, the very articles, which the people came to believe by degrees, will run a great hazard. Besides, the clergy, whom the court of Rome will force to abstain from marriage, will be thereby disposed to serve their princes, which is no inconsiderable thing.

But, in order to know, whether such conjectures about the obstacles the popes would meet in their way, are strong and well grounded, we must have recourse to experience, and consult history; whereby it will appear that they would probably be right as to the obstacles, though perhaps wrong in pretending that those obstacles would prove

insurmountable. Read Du Plessis’s book, entitled, Le Mystere d’Iniquit&ea;, ou l’Histoire de la Papauté, and you will find, in every chapter, the progress and the opposition. The popes cannot go forward, and get ground, but by overcoming the obstacles they meet with at every step. Armies and books, sermons, libels, and prophecies, have been made use of against them; nothing was left unattempted to put a stop to their conquests, and at last every thing proved insignificant. Why? Because they used all imaginable means to succeed in their designs. Their excommunications have been supported with arms and crusades, and by the tribunals of the inquisition: craft, violence, courage, and artifice, have concurred to protect them. Their conquests have cost the lives of as many men, or nearly as many, as those of the commonwealth of Rome. Many writers apply to new Rome what Virgil observes concerning the old:

Multa quoque et bello passus dum conderet urbem,
Inferretque Deos Latio ...

Virgil. Æn. lib. i, ver. 5.

Tants molis erat Romanam condere gentem.

Virgil. Æn. lib. i, ver. 33.

Much suffer’d he in war ...
Till settl’d, with his gods, on Latian ground:

So arduous was the task the Roman name to found.

Zipporah told Moses, “Surely a bloody husband art thou to me;" Exod.iv. 25. ¹ but if the church of Rome were the spouse of Jesus Christ, he might tell her with much more reason, “Surely a bloody spouse art thou to me.”

I think this sufficient to justify my propositions. I am still persuaded, that the power the popes have attained to, is one of the greatest prodigies of human history, and one of those things which never happen twice. If it had never happened, I believe it could never be. Future ages would not afford a time so

proper for such an enterprize as past ages have been; and if that great structure should be destroyed, it were in vain to undertake to raise it up again. AU that the court of Rome can do now, with the greatest policy in the world, is to maintain herself. Her conquests are at an end. She dares not excommunicate a crowned head; and how often is she obliged to dissemble her resentment against the Catholic party, who deny the superiority and infallibility of the popes, and bum the books that are most favourable to them? If there was now an anti-papacy, I mean a schism, like those which have been so frequent in former times, when a pope set up against a pope, and a council against a council;

- - - infestisque obvia signis
Signa, pares aquilas, et pila minantia pilis.

Lucan. Phars. lib. 1, v. 6.

Standards in hostile form 'gainst standards rais’d,
Eagles 'gainst eagles, piles to piles oppos’d.

She would not come off with honour, she would be confounded, and at her wit’s end. Such a contrast, in such an age as ours, would prove destructive. Observe by the bye, in order to have a right notion of the great obstacles above mentioned, that the popes were obliged to make themselves masters of many general councils. This was a very difficult task; for the more numerous a council is, the more it is like a ship tossed with contrary winds, and exposed to violent storms. The steering of such a ship requires the utmost art and skill; and if the best working is sufficient to bring it into the designed harbour, it is still wonderful.—Art. Gregory VII.