Christendom at the Opening of the Sixteenth Century - James Aitken Wylie

and teaching them obedience to her behests; but
her proudest triumphs in this field were eclipsed by
the yet greater success of Papal Rome. The latter
found a more powerful principle of cohesion
wherewith to cement the nations than any known to
the former, and she had, moreover, the art to imbue
them with a spirit of profounder submission than
was ever yielded to her pagan predecessor; and, as
a consequence, while the Empire of the Caesars
preserved its unity unbroken, and its strength
unimpaired, for only a brief space, that of the
Popes has continued to flourish in power and great
glory for well-nigh a thousand years.
Such was the constitution of Christendom as
fully developed at the end of the fifteenth and
beginning of the sixteenth century. The verdict of
Adam Smith, pronounced on Rome, viewed as the
head and mistress of this vast confederation,
expresses only the sober truth: "The Church of
Rome," said he, "is the most formidable
combination that ever was formed against the
authority and security of civil government, as well
as against the liberty, reason, and happiness of
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