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

a434 INFLUENCE OF POPERY ON GOVERNMENT.rights and liberties, the conscience and the intellect, !—thesouls and the bodies, of men. Such was the Papacymonstrous compound of spiritual and temporal power,—of oldidolatries and Christian forms,—of secret frauds and openforce,—of roguery and simplicity,—of perfidies, hypocrisies,and villanies of all sorts and degrees,—of priests and soldiers,—of knaves and fools,—of monks, friars, cardinals, kings, andpopes,—of mountebanks of every kind, hypocrites of everyclass, and villains of every grade,—all banded together in onefearful conspiracy, to defy God and ruin man !So deeply did Popery corrupt the theory of government.First of all, it confounded the two jurisdictions, and thenset over them a head claiming to be divine and infallible,thus paving the way for encroachments to any extent on theconscience on the one hand, and on civil rights and libertieson the other.It enabled the sacerdotal autocrat to supporthis temporal usurpations by spiritualsanctions, and his spiritualdomination by secular arms. And this form of government,moreover, necessarily implied the accumulationof all authority in the hands of one man, forming a centralizeddespotism such as had never before existed. It wasalso of the nature of this government that itabsolutely excludedevery iota of the constitutional or democratic element.Farther, being based on an element of a spiritualkind, itwas not confined within political boundaries, but extendedequally over all states, making Home everywhere, and theworld but one vast province, and its various governmentsbut one irresponsible despotism.These corruptions in the theory of government led necessarilyand directly to grievous corruptions in its practice.In truth, the government of the Papacy,—the only governmentknown for ages to Europe,—was but one enormousabuse. First, the Papacy, in self-defence, was compelledto retain its subjects in profound darkness. It knew thatshould light break in, its reign must terminate, seeing itspretensions were incapable of standing an hour's scrutiny.Obeying, therefore, the instincts of self-preservation, the