The-papacy-its-history-dogmas-genius-and-prospects-wylie

;80 PROGRESS OF ECCLESIASTICAL SUPREMACY.it was realized, the loss would be more than counterbalancedby the greatly enlarged spiritual action which was now securedto the Church. The election of bishops, in which theemperors had ceased to interfere, was now devolved, notupon the laity and clergy, whose sufiFrages had been deemedessential in former times, but upon the chapters of cathedralchurches,* which tended to enlarge the power of the pontiffand the higher clergy. In this way was the conflict carriedon. The extent of supremacy involved in the principlethat the Pope is Chrisfs Vicar, had been fully and boldly propoundedto the world by Gregory ;and, what was more, hadbeen all but realized. Rome had tasted of dominion overkings, and was never to rest till she had securely seatedherself in the lofty seat which she had been permitted for sobrief a season to occupy, and which she only, as she believed,had a right to possess, or could worthily and usefully fill.The popes had to sustain many humiliations and defeatsnevertheless, their policy continued to be progressively triumphant.The power of the empire gradually sank, andthat of the pontificate steadily advanced. All the greatevents of the age contributed to the power of the popedom.The ecclesiastical element was universally diffused, enteredinto all movements, and turned to its own purposes all enterprises.There never perhaps was an age which was socompletely ecclesiastical and so little spiritual. Spain wasreclaimed from Islamism, Prussia was rescued from Paganism,and both submitted to the authority of the Romanpontiff. The crusades broke out, and, being religious enterprises,they tended to the predominance of the ecclesiasticalelement, and silently moulded the minds and the habits ofmen to submission to the Church. Moreover, they tendedto exhaust the resources and break the spiritof kingdoms,and rendered it easier for Rome to carry out her scheme ofaofofrandizement. The same effect attended the wars andconvulsions which disturbed Europe, and which grew out of* Ilallam's Middle Ages, vol. i. p. 546.