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

SIMULTANEOUS CRUSADE AGAINST LIBERTY. 511must be trodden out, else the conflagration will blaze afresh.Now, in this war the infallible Church presents herself to theabsolutist state as by far its oldest and staunchest ally. Herorganization, which is the most flexible that exists ; her influence,which operates in a domain from which that of thestate is shut out,— for, till the intellect and the conscience areblindfolded by superstition, power cannot succeed in permanentlyenslaving men; are all now made available.Moi'eover,it is equally the interest of both to quell this revolt; andwhat so likely as that a community of interest should suggestunity of action? A priori, then, we might infer the existenceof a grand conspiracy against the liberties of Europe,even did not the facts already stated, and those we now proceedto state, render the existence of such a conspiracy undoubted.We do not, of course, know the day or the hourwhen this criminal confederacy was formed,—such transactionsbelong to the darkness ; but the public measures ofthe conspirators enable us to read the history of their mostsecret hours, and to unveil the character of their deepestplots.A crusade has been undertaken simultaneously incountries of Europe against civil and religious liberty.all theThisbespeaks concert. The agents who conduct that crusadeare the same everywhere,—the priest and the sbirro.Doesnot this denote confederacy between the ecclesiastical andthe civil authorities for their joint domination ? The catechismand the bayonet,—the Jesuit and the gendarme,—theChurch and the army,—are in combined and vigorous actionall over Europe. Look at Rome. Under Pius IX. the eraof the worst popes has been revived. The return fromGaeta formed the commencement of a policy as astute in itsforeign relations, and more oppressive in its home administration,than even that of Hildebrand.Infallibility sits behinda hedge of bayonets ; Its assessors are described as" assassins, galley-slaves, and thieves ;"and the subordinateagents of Its government are undoubtedly spies and police.The patriot, the scholar, the constitutionalist, have all been