LECTURE II. PAGE The Vicar of Jesus Christ in his twofold sovereignty the The persecution of the head of iniquity against the Vicar GENERAL PREFACE. IN reprinting the three small Treatises which form the present volume, it may be well to prefix a few words to excuse their insufficiency as compared with the great subject of the Temporal Power,-of which no one is more aware than I am. I am not ashamed of saying, that when this, which has become the leading and critical question of these times, not only for Catholics, but for the nations of Europe, first was forced upon us, I was but little prepared to conceive its vast extent and its vital importance. I had been used to regard it as a sacred institution of Divine Providence, related chiefly to the beautiful confederation of Europe in the ages of Faith, surviving into present times as an object of veneration rather than as a vital power of government. It seemed rather to be a monument of the majesty, beauty, and splendour of the past, than an instrument of energy in the present, fitted for the vehement action of our modern world, and mingling with all the conflicts of the nineteenth century. Neither am I ashamed to confess that I did not apprehend the reasons of the Divine conduct in its institution, nor its titles of just and sovereign right, nor its relation to the future action of the Church upon the world, as I have learned to perceive them now. They grew upon me as I read, and have manifested themselves with such a light of evidence and such a continually-increasing importance, that I had hardly finished any part of the following pages without at once feeling dissatisfied. And when I had reached the end, I wished that I might have begun all over again. I believe, however, that in the following treatises the full outline of the subject is described, and that no error in principle will be found; but that every thing ought to be treated with a far greater fulness of illustration, expansion, and detail, I am altogether aware. Nevertheless, such as they are, I am compelled to let them stand, forasmuch as I see no hope of finding the leisure necessary to begin them afresh. All that I can now do, is to prefix a few words in which I may in some degree supply what is wanting. I have therefore reviewed, in a summary way, the periods of the formation of the Temporal Power, tracing out its attitude under Paganism, and under the Byzantine Emperors and the abandonment of Italy, from which dates its proper ma nifestation, when it was finally liberated from all civil subjection, and left to be the sole occupant of Rome; until it was clothed by the necessity of events with a supreme administration, and finally by the voice of the people with a proper sovereignty. Now although this is but a tracing in outline, it indicates the points and the connexion of the evidence. But, in treating of this subject in the present day, it is necessary to bear in mind the condition of the social and political system of Europe, and to meet the modern theories of revolution and of popular rights. To do so, as it ought to be done, single paragraphs in the following lectures would become treatises, and single lectures volumes. Nevertheless I have endeavoured to bear these points in mind, touching them as I could by the way, and not losing sight of them even when not explicitly stated. . Inasmuch as they were addressed to Englishmen, it was necessary that certain matters and modes of speech should be admitted which would be hardly intelligible in Catholic or in other countries. There is perhaps no people in the world among whom it is more difficult to speak of the Temporal Power of the Pope than among EnglishThe first axioms of the Christian ecclesiastical polity, which in Catholic countries all men men. believe, in England have been simply effaced by the Reformation. The state of political opinion in England is even more opposed to it than that of the United States: for among us there is not only less indifference, but there is a traditional animosity against the Holy See, especially in its relations to Temporal Power, which Englishmen draw with their first breath, and cherish by all their education, literature, and prejudice. But besides these special features of the political condition of this country, there is also a general law in the history of Christian and Catholic truth which must be taken into the account. There is a certain progression in the manifestation of error. The Gnosticism of the East pervaded the early ages, and threw out a whole line of heresies in opposition to the mysteries of the Holy Trinity and of the Incarnation. The Councils of Nice and of Florence may be taken as the two wings of the Church's array against the heresies of the East. The materialism of the West has occupied the later ages with a line of heresies, all of which more or less deny the supernatural order. Pelagianism and Protestantism may be taken as the two extremes, and the Councils of Orange and of Trent as the right and the left of the Catholic Theology, by which the Church has |