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

THE SUPKEilACY NOT ACCIDENTAL. 99in which he lived ; as is manifest from the fact, that its developmentwas the work of five centuries, and the joint operationof many hundreds of minds who were successively employedupon it.It was the logical consequence of principleswhich had been engrafted in the Papacy, or rather, as wehave just shown, which liesystem ;at the foundation of the wholeand accordingly, it was steadily and systematicallypursued through a succession of centuries, and engaged thegenius and ambition of innumerable minds. As the seedbursts the clod and struggles into light, so we behold theprinciple of papal supremacy struggling for developmentthrough the slow centuries, and in its efforts overturningthrones and convulsing society. We can discover the supreraac}'in embryo as early as the fifth century, and cantrace its logical development till the times of Hildebrand.We see it passing through the consecutive stages of thedogma, the synodical decree, the papal missive, and the interdict,which shook the thrones of monarchs, and laid theiroccupants prostrate in the dust. The gnarled oak, whoselofty stature and thick foliage darken the earth for roodsaround, is not more really a development of the acorn depositedin the soil centuries before, than were the arrogantpretensions and domineering acts of the Papacy in the ageof Innocent the result of the principle deposited in the Papacyin the fifth century, that the Pope is Christ's vicar.The Pope's absolute dominion over priests is not a morelegitimate inference from this doctrine than is his dominionover kings. If the pontiffs have renounced the temporalsupremacy, it is on one of two grounds,—either they are notChrist's vicars, or Christ is not a King of kings. But theyhave claimed all along, and do still claim, to be the vicarsof Christ ;and they have likewise held all along, and do stillhold, that Christ is Head of the world as well as Head ofthe Church. The conclusion is inevitable, that it is not onlyover the Church that they bear rule, but over the world also;and that they have as good a right to dispose of crowns, andto meddle in the temporal affairs of kingdoms, as they have