Rome: Papal and Republican [pp. 547-551]

1849.1 Rome: Papal and Republican. 551
This was to deprive them of the right of confirming the Popes, after they had been elected
by the Roman clergy, and this was effected a few
years afterwards. Machiavelli thus records it:
"While the Pontiffs were making all the West
tremble with their censures they could not keep
their own subjects from rebellion. Accordingly
when Nicholas II. was raised to the Pontificate
like Gregory V. who had taken from the Romans
the power of choosing their Emperors, he deprived them of their right of confirming the Popes
and confined their election to the Cardinals. Not
content with this he entered into a treaty with
the princes who governed Puglia and Calabria,
and for reasons to be presently explained, obliged
all the magistrates, sent by the Romans into
places under their jurisdiction, to render obedience
to the Pope, and some be deprived of their
places."
We have now reached that point in the history of papal supremacy at Rome where we
might with confidence lay down the pen, and
with reason ask, why have not the Roman people the right to escape from a thraldom so debasing as that of papal rule? But there is still
another depth in their abyss of degradation.
The Pontiffs not satisfied with rendering them
subservient to themselves have made them the
slaves of the whole world.
Not the priesthood of Rome alone govern
Rome, but Austria, France, Spain and Portugal
have each the right to veto one nomination of
the holy conclave, and by the mouths of their
ambassadors to decide who shall sit astride the
necks of Romnans, oppress them with tyrannical
laws and rob them by a burdensome taxation of
the hard earned fruits of their labors.
It has been owing entirely to the misconduct
of the Pontiffs, that these foreigners have more
privileges in Rome than her own citizens.
"Thus it will appear," indignantly exclaims
Machiavelli, "that all the wars foreigners afterwards made upon Italy were caused principally
by the Roman Pontiffs. Mostof the Barbarians
that poured themselves into the peninsula came
at their instigation: and what is still more lamentable, is practised in our own times-the
Popes, first by their ecclesiastical censures, then
by the union of temporal and spiritual power,
and lastly by indulgences contrived to excite the
veneration and terror of mankind: but by making an ill use of that terror and reverence they
have entirely lost the one, and lie at the discretion of the world for the other."
It is not the design of this essay to pursue this
subject any further. Indeed the notoriety of the
late occurrences at Rome renders it unnecessary.
The whole scope of our investigations was bound
ed by the single question, announced at the outset, whence did the Pope derive his power, and
to whom was he responsible for its exercise?
For upon this, at last, must rest the defence of
the Roman people. That question has now
been answered, and answered in such a manner
that Roman Catholics themselves must admit
the truth of the reply or deny the authority of
their own historians.
There have been of late inflammatory appeals
made to the religious prejudices of a portion of
our population. They have been told that it
was a part of their religious duty to succor, in as
far as their means would permit, the cause of
the Roman Pontiff and the necessities of the
first bishops of their church. Many have even
affirmed that it would be justifiable for them to
embark in a crusade to restore the Pope to his
dominions and reerect his throne upon an unwilling people; and upon the specious ground that
temporal power is absolutely necessary to maintain his spiritual authority and independence.
Unfortunately the History of the Church does
not bear them out in this assertion. On the contrary every good christian, Catholic or Protestant, must look back to the early ages as the period when christianity was most prosperous and
pure. Peter held no sceptre, and his successors
for seven hundred years after him wore no glittering tiara. Yet was the Roman church perectly independent, and what is more, it rose in
glory amid the ruins, and shone in splendor amid
the gloom of the darkest ages of the world.
Let Pius IX. accede to the propositions of
the Roman Republic; let him return to the city
he desired to free from many of the oppressions
of his predecessors, and acquiesce in, if he cannot lead and direct, the reforms imperatively demanded by the misrule of a thousand years; let
him cast aside forever the empty sheen of earth's
baubles and devote every energy of his nature to
the purification and regeneration of the Catholic
world,-and though no imperial purple wrap his
form and no triple crown adorn his brows, though
no subject millions look up to him as their prince
and chief magistrate, and no hungry officials
fawn upon and flatter him as the source of their
misused power, still when he shall lie down in
his last sleep, with the great and the good who
have gone before him, in the opinions of millions who now distrust him, he will rest,
"Pure as the holiest in the long array,.
Of hooded, muitred, or tiaraed clay."
W. H. R.
Rome: Papal and Republican.
551
1849.]