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

440 INFLUENCE OF POPERY ON GOVERNMENT.was maintained, doubtless, during the middle ages. Butcivil government as distinct from spiritual government wasscarcely known in these times. There was, in fact, duringthe dominancy of the Papacy but one government in Europe,as we have already shown,—a heterogeneous compound oftemporal and spiritualauthority, which took cognizance ofall causes, and arrogated jurisdiction over all persons andall kingdoms. The Papacy was the uniting bond and theanimating spirit of this system. But from this parent corruption,which we have already illustrated, there sprung innumerablelesser corruptions. One of these was the subjectionand prostitution of the civil power to the ecclesiastical,and the perpetration of acts of tyranny in the State, in orderto uphold a yet more odious tyranny in the Church. TheChurch of Rome felt that she could not reign by enlighteningthe conscience, and therefore she reigned by coercing it.Her union with the State enabled her to employ, as oftenas she would, the secular arm for the somewhat anomalouspurpose of compelling obedience and enforcing belief. Thepolicy of every government within the limits of the RomanCatholic Church was prompted by Rome, was papal in itsessence, and insidiously managed for the interests of theVatican. Not only were kings themselves the slaves ofRome, and not only did they feel that to rebel against herwas to rebel against heaven; but they laboured to make theirsubjects her slaves also, feeling that a people bound in thefettersof the Church were thereby more amenable to regalauthority. This supposed identification of their interestswith that of Rome made them zealous supporters of herpretensions. They willingly gave the force of law to herbulls ; they lent the pageantry of state to her worship ; wellknowing that nothing awes the mind of the vulgar like stateauthority. The Pope and the King were the two divinitieswhich the Europe of the dark ages adored. But furtiicr,not only did the vicious element of sacerdotalism infect thesecular government, but that government was to a largedegree administered by sacerdotal persons. Cardinals and