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

cosselin's theory or direction. 109tation. A third opinion is that of those who hold thepope's indirect temporal power in its most mitigated andattenuated form,—in so very attenuated a form, indeed, thatit is all but invisible ; and accordingly the authors of thisopinion take leavetemporal power at all.to deny that they grant to the pope anyThese are the views propounded byCount de Maistre and Abbe Gosselin on the Continent, andby Dr Wiseman in this country, and now generally receivedby all Roman Catholics. De Maistre strongly condemnsthe use of the term temporal supremacy to indicate thepower which the popes claim over sovereigns; and maintainsthat it is in virtue of a power entirely and eminently spiritualthat they believe themselves to be possessed of the rightexcommunicate sovereigns guilty of certain crimes, without,however, any temporal encroachment, or any interferencewith their sovereignty. He instances the case of the presentPope, who is possessed of so little temporal power,that he is compelled to submit to the ridicule of the Romancitizens.* De Maistre conveniently forgets that the questionis not what the popes possess, but what they claim,either directly or by implication. The matter is stated inalmost precisely similar terms by Dr Wiseman, in his" Lectures on the Doctrines and Practices of the CatholicChurch." " The supremacy which I have described," says he," is of a character purely spiritual, and has no connexionwith the possession of any temporal jurisdiction.Nor has this spiritual supremacy any relation to the widersway once held by the pontiffs over the destinies of Europe.That the headship of the Church won naturally the highestweight and authority, in a social and political state, groundedto* " L'exercise d'un pouvoir purement et eminemment spirituel, en vertuduquel ils se croyaicnt en droit de frapper d'excommunication dcs princescoupables des certains crimes, sans aucune usurpation materiolle, sansaucune suspension de la souverainete, et sans aucune derogation an dogniede son origine divine. . . . Je crois que la verity ne se trouve quedans la proposition contraire, savoir, gwe la 2^'uissaiice dont il s'agit est purements^irititelle." (Du Pape, liv. ii. chap. viii. pp. 225, 226.)