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

96 FOUNDATION AND EXTENT OP THE SUPREMACY.the effort to realize this claim, and five centuries more ofwars and bloodshed in the effort to retain and consolidateit. It was promulgated from the doctor's chair, ratified bysynodical acts, embodied in the instructions of nuncios, andthundered from the pontifical throne in the dreadful sentenceof interdictby which monarchs were deposed, their crownstransferred to others, their subjects loosed from their allegiance,and theirfire and sword.kingdoms not unfrequently ravaged withActs so monstrous may appear to be the mere wantonnessof ambition, or the irresponsible doings of men in whom thelust of power had overborne every other consideration. Theman who reasons in this way either does not understand thePapacy, or wilfully perverts the question.This was but thesober and logical action of the popedom ; it was the fairworking of the evil principles of the system, and no chanceebullition of the destructive passions of the man who hadbeen placed at its head ; and nothing is capable of a morecomplete and convincing demonstration. The foundation ofour proof must of course be the constitution of the Papacy.As is the nature of the thing,—as are the elements and principlesof which it is made up,—so inevitably must be the characterand extent of its claims, and the nature of its actionand influence. What, then, is the Papacy ? Is it a purelyspiritual society, or a purely secular society ? It is neither.The Papacy is a mixed society : the secular element entersquite as largely into its constitution as does the spiritual.It is a compound of both elements in equal proportions; and,being so, must necessarily possess secular as well as spiritualjurisdiction, and be necessitated to adopt civil as well asecclesiastical action. But how does it appear that theChurch of Rome combines in one essence the secular andspiritual elements ? for the point lies here. It appears fromthe fundamental axiom on which she rests.a few links in the chain of her infernal logic ;links are of adamant ;There are butbut these fewand they so bind up together, in onecomposite body, the two principles, the spiritual and the tern-