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

—1 IS FOUNDATION AND EXTENT OF THE SUPREMACY.to present to the last a forehead of brass to the wrath ofman and the bolts of heaven. This concordat has beenshelved, meanwhile,—no thanks to the imbeciles who exchangedratifications with Rome, but to the revolutionwhich broke out at that moment in Portugal, and to themutterings, not loud, but deep, which began to be heard inSpain itself, and which convinced its rulers that even a concordatwith the Pope might be bought at too great a price.Not in the high despotic countries of Italy and Spain onlydo we meet these lofty notions of the sacerdotal power :constitutional and semi-Protestant Germany we find thebishops of the Church of Rome advancing the same exclusiveand intolerant claims. The triumph of Austrian armsand of Austrian politics in the south of Germany has alreadymade the Romish priesthood of that region predominant,and led them to aspire to the supremacy. Accordingly,demands utterly incompatible with any government, andespecially constitutional and Protestant government, havebeen put forth by the bishops of the two Hesses, Wurtemberg,Nassau, Hamburg, Frankfort,—all Protestant States ;and of Baden, a semi-Protestant State. The document inwhich these demands are contained is entitled, " The AssembledBishops of the Ecclesiastical Province of the Haut-Rhin, to the several Governments." A copy has been sentover by our ambassador. Lord Cowley, and published byorder of Parliament.* Its leading claims are as follows :" The repeal of all religious concessions made since March1848." The free nomination to all ecclesiastical employmentsand benefices by the several bishops in their respective dioceses." The right of the bishops to subject their subordinatesto a special examination, and tothe canon law.inpunish them according to" The abolition, in the exercise of the ecclesiastical penal* Juue 1S51.