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

EXTRAORDINARY COMBINATION OF QUALITIES. 415his influence is employed to strengthen the Church of whichhe is a minister. To that Church he becomes as stronglyattached as any of the cardinals whose scarlet carriages andliveries crowd the entrance of the palace on the Quirinal.In this way the 'Church of Rome unites in herself all thestrength of establishment and all the strength of dissent.With the utmost pomp of a dominant hierarchy above, shehas all the energy of the voluntary system below."*But we have been able to unfold but a tithe of the wonderfuland unrivalled genius of the Papacy. When onethinks of the amazing variety and endless diversity of qualitieswhich here entered into combination, he feels as if thePapacy had summoned from their grave allthe systems ofpolicy and all the schemes of dominion which had everexisted, and, compelling them to lay bare the springs of theirsuccess and the elements of their strength, had selectedthe choicest qualities of each, and combined them intoonesystem of unrivalled power. It united the subtile intellectof Greece with the iron strength of Rome. Qualities whichnever met before, Popery found out the means of reconcilingand joining in harmonious action. The wildest enthusiasmand the soberest reason, tlie grossest sensuality and themost rigid asceticism, the most visionary genius and the coolestand most practical sagacity, the extreme of fanaticismand the extreme of moderation. Popery taught to dwelltogetherin peace, and to work together in harmony.Nothingwas so exalted as to be beyond its reach ; nothing was solow as to be beneath its care. It accepted the labours ofthe peasant and the serf, and it taught the titled noble tostoop to its service. It arrayed itself in purple, and dweltin the palace of kings ; it put on rags, and comjjanied withthe outcast. Its marvellous flexibility made either characterequally easy and equally natural. It entered with likeavidity into the projects of princes, the intrigues of statesmen,the speculations of the learned, and the homely pur-Macaulay's Critical and Historical Essays, vol. iii. p. 241.