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

;POPERY THE MOTHER OF REVOLUTIONS. 537constitutional government,—to Europe, the doctrine of Voltairegave it an anarchy which baptized itself in blood.Scepticism,engendered thus from superstition, has overspreadEurope, and set free the masses from all divine control, and,by necessary consequence, from all earthly authority. Thebrood of revolutions which now torments Europe is the progenyof Rome. From her own loins has sprung the hydrathat threatens to tear her in pieces. The sorceress of theSeven Hills, like the Hag of Pandemonium, is now« " With terrors and with clamours compass'd roundOf mine own brood, that on my bowels feed."Herein lies the grand difficulty of governments, and especiallyof the popedom,—tliat the superstition which, whileit was a principle of belief, enabled them to govern themasses as they would, is a principle of belief no longer.With superstition their power has departed. The elementwhich endowed the Papacy, as the governing power of Europe,with a sort of omnipotence, is extinct. Both governmentsand the popedom have meanwhile replaced thespiritualelement by the merely physical.Everywhere a paternaldespotism has given way to a military tyranny. Buthow long can this last ? When the habit of blind, unreasoningobedience has been destroyed, it cannot last longso at least it appears to us. Were any great change tooccur, of a nature fitted to bring about a mental enthralmentthroughout Europe, the Papacy might become asstrong as before, and might govern Europe for centuries tocome ; but so long as it continues to lean upon the sword,and to be hated by the masses as at once an impostor andan oppressor,the chances are not great that it will regainits power. The alliance of the priesthood with an expiringand worn-out despotism will not tend to the strengtheningof the popedom. The popular vengeance was directedfull against the priesthood in the first French Revolution,because the priesthood had been thoroughly identified withthe government.In 1880 the priests were again the objectsof attack, because the elder Bourbons had made them poll-