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

LEANS ON HUMAN GOVERNMENT. 411Seven Hills. No doubt the members of that confederationsometimes quarrelled among themselves, and sometimes revoltedagainst their sacerdotal master ;but even when theyhated the person of the Pope, they remained true to his system.They warred, it might be, against the pontiff, but theystill wore the yoke of the Papacy. They were revoltersagainst Hildebrand or against Clement, but all the whilethey were obedient sons of the Church. In nothing doesthe genius of Popery appear more wonderful than in that itcould bind to its chariot-wheel so many powerful and independentprinces, and reconcile so many diverse and conflictinginterests, and unite them all in support of itself.If Popery has leant for aid upon civil government, andhas known how to convert its functions into organs of itsown, it has leant not less decidedly upon human nature, andhas had the art to draw from it most substantial support.The nature of man it has profoundly studied, and thoroughlyunderstands. There is not a faculty of his soul, nor a feelingof his heart, which is not known to it.There is not aphase of character nor a diversity of taste among the wholehuman race, of which it is not cognizant. Whatever talentit be which any of the sons of men possess. Popery willspeedily discover it, and instantly find a fitting sphere forits exercise. Whether the faculty in question be a good oran evil one, matters wonderfully little, seeing Popery knowsthe secret of making both alike serviceable. It is a systemadapted to man as he is. It runs parallel with the entirerange of his hopes and his fears, his virtues and his passions,his eccentricities, his foibles, his tastes. There is no onetherefore who will not find in Popery something that correspondswith his own predominant quality and taste.It isthe most accommodating of all systems, and has thereforereceived an equal measure of attachment and support frommen differing widely in their intellectual powers, their acquiredtastes, and their moral dispositions.To the man ofthe world who delights in the glitter of show, and yields hissubmission only where he is dazzled by the splendour of