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

—DIRECTION BUT DISGUISED SUPREMACY.Illare banished, and a count* of the realm, along withwhose only crime isothers,attendance at Protestant worship, andreadinsr the Word of God in Italian, are thrown into theBargello or common prison.The sentence of excommunicationthundered from Gaeta against the Romans was theprecursor of the French cannon which the Jesuits of thecabinet of the Elysee sent to Rome. The excommunicationwas a purely spiritual act; but the gaps in the Roman wall,filled with gory masses of Roman and French corpses, had.not much of a spiritual character. Laws favourable to tolerationand Protestantism, the succession of Protestantsovereigns, and all other acts of the same kind, must becondemned by this supreme spiritual judge, as hostile to theinterests of religion. Of course, every Catholic consciencethroughout the world is directed by the judgment of thepontiff, and must feel bound tocarry that judgment out tothe best of his power. Were the Catholics of Ireland topropound such a case of casuistry as this to the papal see,Whether it is for the good of the Church in Ireland that aheretic like Queen Victoria should bear sway over thatisland,—who can doubt what the reply would be \ Nor canit be doubted that Irish Catholic consciences would takethe direction which infallibility indicated, if they thoughtthey could do so to good purpose. This autocrat ofall consciences in and out of Christendom may disclaimall temporal power, and affect toorganization ;be head of but a spiritualbut well he knows that, on the right and leftof Peter's chair, as turnkey and hangman to the holy apostolicsee, stand Naples and Austria. The knife of Do* Guicciardini (May 1851). His story is well known. He is thedescendant of the great historian of that name.His ancestors had renderedimportant services to the Roman see. The present Count Guicciardinihas been a Protestant for years ; he is of unblemished reputation,has never meddled with politics ; and simply for reading Diodati's Biblewith a few fellow-citizens, he was sentenced to die in the poisonous air ofthe Maremme. He was permitted, however, with six others, to make hisescape.