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

112 FOUNDATION AND EXTENT OF THE SUPREMACY.Maistre, fine as its edge is,has but lopped off the branchesof the tree of supremacy ; the root is in the earth, fastenedwith a band of iron and brass. The artillery of Romanistlogic plays harmlessly upon the fabric of the papal power.It veils it in clouds of smoke, but it does not throw down asingle stone of the building. The spectator, because it isblotted from his sight, thinks it is demolished. Anon thesmoke clears away, and it is seen standing unscathed, andstrong as ever.History is a great bar in the way of the reception of thistheory, or rather of the general conclusion to which its authorsseek to lead thepublic mind, namely, that the pontificaldirection is not connected, either directly or consequentially,with temporal power ; and that the popes simplypronounce judgment in abstract questions of right and wrong,leaving their award, as any other moral and religiousbodywould do, to exercise its legitimate influence upon the opinionand action of the age. The reception of such a view of thesupremacy as this is much impeded, we say, by the monumentsof history. But what can be neither blotted out norforgotten, it may be possible to explain away ; and this isthe task which De Maistre, and especially Gosselinand othermodern Romanist writers, have imposed upon themselves.De Maistre admits, as it would be madness to deny, thatthe popes of a former age did depose sovereigns and loosesubjects from their oath of allegiance;'"'to which these actsbut to the amountembodied temporal jurisdiction, or differedin their mode from direction, the adherents of the moderntheory maintain that they grew out of the spirit andviewsof the middle ages, and that they were founded, noton divine right, but on public right, that is, on the generalconsent of the sovereigns and people of those days.-f-Now,many and insuperableto this view of the subject there areobjections. The popes themselves give quite a different accomitof the matter.When they pronounced sentence of* Du Pape, liv. ii. chap. ix. p. 230. f Idem, pp. 231, 232.