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

—536 PROSPECTS OF THE PAPACY.CHAPTER IV.PROSPECTS OF THE PAPACY.Societies, not less than individuals, reap as they have sowed;and in the convulsions and revolutions of our times, Rome isreaping the fruit of ages of superstition and despotism. ThePapacy at this moment is fighting its third great battle. Itsfirst was with the empire ; in that it was victorious. Itssecond was with Christianity, inthe persons of its Albigensianand Waldensian confessors; and in that, too, it wasvictoi-ious. Its third great war is that which it is nowwaging with an atheistic communism, which has risen contemporaneously,and with extraordinary intensity and power,in all the Catholic countries of Europe.Whence has comethis new and destructive principle ? It is the natural issueof the bondage in which the human mind has so long beenretained,—of the violence done to reason and faith,—forsuperstition is the parent of atheism. The national mindin France long struggled to find vent through means ofChristianity. This was denied it. It next sought libertyin scepticism, which speedily terminated in atheism. WithFrench infidelity came French democracy. We have alreadysaid that the democratic element entered the worldwith Christianity, and revived again in the Reformation ofJohn Calvin. There is this difference, however, that whereasthe doctrine of Calvin would have given true liberty,