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

64) RISE OF THE TEMPORAL SUPREMACY.scripts of the early councils and popes, the object of theirinfamous author, who is unknown, being to show that thesee of Rome possessed from the very beginning all the prerogativeswith which the intrigues of eight centuries had investedit. Their style was so barbarous, and their anachronismsand solecisms were so flagrant, that in no age butthe most ignorant couldthey have escaped detection for asingle hour. Rome, nevertheless, infallibly decreed thetruth of what is now universally acknowledged to be false.These decretals supported her pretensions, and that with herdecided the question of their authenticity or spuriousness.There are few who have earned so well the honours of canonizationas this unknown forger. For ages the decretalspossessed the authority of precedents, and furnished Romewith appropriate weapons in her contests with bishopsandkings.*The French power was declining ; that of the Germanshad not yet risen. The pontifical influence was, on thewhole, the predominating element in Europe; and the popes,having now no superior, and freed from allrestraint, beganto use the ample license which the times afforded them, forpurposes sowell-nigh belief. With the tenth century commence the darkannals of the Papacy. The popes, although wholly devotedinfamous, that they transcend description, andto selfish and ambitious pursuits, had found it prudent hithertoto maintain the semblance of piet}' ; but now eventhat pretence was laid aside. Thanks to Rome, the worldwas now prepared to see the mask thrown off. Europe hadreached a pitch of ignorance and superstition, and the Papacya height of insolence and truculence, which enabled thepopes to defy with impunity the fear of man and the powerof God. Not only were the forms of religion contemned;the ordinary decencies of manhood were flasfrantlv outraged.We dare not pollute our page with such things as the pontiffsof this ago practised in the face of Rome and the world.• See Du Pin, cent. ix. j Hallam, vol. i. pp. 523, 524.