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

406 GENIUS OF THE PAPACY.of means to their end, and the relation of each part to thewhole. There is not one of its arrangements, however minute,nor one of its doctrines, however unimportant it mayseem, but has a direct reference to and a powerful bearingupon the object of the Papacy, In the vast and complicatedmachine there is not a useless cord or a superfluouswheel. The object of the Papacy is, in brief, to exalt a man,or rather a class of men, to the supreme, undivided, and absolutecontrol of the world and its affairs.So vast a schemeof dominion the genius of Alexander had never dared to entertain.The ambition of the popes far outstripped that ofthe Csesars, and looked down with contempt upon their empireas insignificant and narrow. They aspired to be godsupon the earth. It was the majesty of the Eternal whichthey plotted to usurp. Pride can go no higher. Ambitionfinds nothing beyond for which it may pant. They reignedwith equal power over the minds and over the bodies of men.They grasped the reins of secular as well as of ecclesiasticaljurisdiction. They made their opinions the standard ofmorals, and their wills the standard of law, to the universe.They claimed not merely to be obeyed, but to be worshipped.They were not monarchs, but divinities. We do not affirmthat this object was definitely proposed by the bishops ofRome from the outset. Nay, had they seen to what theirearly departures from the faith would lead,—that the principleswhich they adopted contained within them the germof a despotism beneath which the religion and the libertiesof theworld would lie crushed for ages,—they would havestopt short in their career. The Omniscient eye alone cantrace things to their issues.It was not till ages had passedaway, and numerous usurpations had taken place, that theobject of their policy was clearly seen by the pontiffs themselves,though the invisible prompter of that policy haddoubtless proposed that end from the first. But by thetime that object came to be clearly understood, all scruplewas at an end. The pontiff" panted to place himself uponthe throne of the universe, and to prostrate beneath his