BOOKS.
THE PAPACY.* THE Papal power in its relations to European civilization is the subject of the sixth volume of M. Laurent's Histoire du Drat des Genii, tte. The topic, however philosophically treated, is one of close and concrete interest._ To uuderstand the present we must consult the past. How far are we influenced by the spirit of antiquity ? How far are the old pretensions of the Papacy still asseited ? Does Pius IX. oppose or favour the popular de- velopments? M. Laurent argues responsively, that the genius of an elder day yet survives ; that the spiritual sovereign of Chris- tendom arrogates to himself the old ecclesiastical functions; that. the present occupant of St. Peter's chair resists the State authori- ties whenever he conceives their enactments inimical to the welfare of the Church. Nor does he think Pius IX. logically wrong: in declaring, as he did on the 22d June 1853, the anti-Papal or anti-religions legislation of Sardinia null and void, or in main- taining, as in the case of the Archbishop of Turin, that the civil laws cannot prejudice those of the Church. In these and all similar instances of contumacy he pronounces the Pope logically right. The Pope does the Pope's function, in part at least. His error is that he does not go far enough. To be consistent he ought to claim absolute power, temporal as well as spiritual. This' of course, is not M. Laurent's ultimate conviction. His ultimate conviction is that the Papacy has outlived the purpose of its institution. Once it had a destination—to moralize barbarian Europe, to oppose the establishment of a universal German empire, and thus to permit the free growth of distinct nationalities. Now its mission is fulfilled ; and, so far from aiding the development of humanity, the Papacy directly obstructs it. The Pope is not for but against the people ; against national individuality, and national self-govern- ment. Secular society will not tolerate the political and, intel- lectual tyranny of Rome ; the concentration of ecclesiastical and Papal power will create a formidable reaction against the Church and even against Christianity. The issue of the struggle cannot be doubted. The Papacy will fall.
Though such is M. Laurent's antagonistic attitude towards the Holy See, we shall find him an appreciating and even eulo- gistic chronicler of its earlier history. His work, in fact, is a philosophic elaboration, displaying large research and calm sus- tained reflection. In it he endeavours to estimate the unity of the Middle Ages, the mission of the Papal power, and its relation to the empire. He describes the aims and achievements of Gregory VII. and Innocent III., and pourtrays the contest be- tween that splendid successor of the magnificent Hildebrand and Frederic, the greatest temporal sovereign of the medimval period. The dissolution of the unity of the Middle Ages, through the ,growing social and mental emancipation with the attempts ofthe church to meet the converging hostility of individuals and nations, forms the concluding portion of this volume.
We have not discovered in any part of the work a systematic statement of our author's philosophical views. A collation of passages, however, enables us to give a proximately, if not pre- cisely correct, presentment of them, and thus to make his histori- cal propositions sufficiently intelligible. The realization of peace and harmony is the leading want and aspiration of human nature. The craving for unity is instinctive and irresistible. Empire founded on conquest appears to satisfy this want. Hence the idea of a universal monarchy, as represented by Rome, or its medireval successor, or Christian cosmopolitanism, or the Papal sovereignty, has always been celebrated by thinkers and poets. This tendency of our nature to unity and universality ha a been almost effaced in modern civilization, from the enormous development of its complementary or opposing element, the tendency to liberty or individuality. This conception of individual freedom is the pre- dominant thought of our age ; but it does not and cannot replace the conception of empire. The fact is, a new idea is in process of development ; an idea which will conciliate all the exigencies of our nature, which will establish harmony without absorbing in- dividuality, and will respect national idiosyncracies without for- getting that nations are members of one great whole. Ms is the modern ideal, to which it is our duty and privilege eternally to approximate, but which we can never completely realize, because the laws of humanity forbid us to hope for an absolute perfection. Such is the primary conception of M. Laurent. A. secondary notion is that of political or social polarity ; or, roughly and familiarly, "progress by antagonism." The great forces of society have hitherto been in a state of conflict. Each social power has its own aim, and seeks to conquer it even to the extrusion of every other power ; often, however, being justified, by the circumstances of the time, in asserting its exclusive pre- tensions ; and eventually approving itself by its actual though kartial accomplishment of the highest work of the human race. bometimes two great social forces are pitted against each other, where the predominance of either would ,be fatal to the interests of mankind.; each representing a portion of what is right or ex- pedient but neither representing the whole. Sometimes their fanction is mainly negative. Imperfectly symbolizing a common
• Etudes sur PHistoire de PITurdan;tS ; La Papantd at rEmpire. Par F. Lau- rent, Professeur de Ptinivetsite de Gand.
La Rome des Papes ; son Origine, sea Phases sueeessives, sea Mccurs intimes, son Gouvernement, son System Administratif. Par no linden Alembic de la Con- stituante Romaine. Treduction de rummage italien inedit. Premier volume. Published by John Chapman.
truth, they mutually check each other. Thus the Papacy pre- vented the material tyranny of the universal monarchy to which the German emperors aspired ; and imperial opposition to Papal claims prohibited the growth of an intellectual despotism.. . In his application of these principles of historical criticisms M. Laurent carries us back to the Roman empire. The fact which so powerfully impressed the barbarians was the magnifi- cent unity of that incorporation. It afforded them an ideal which they strove to realize. To this Pagan conception was superadded that of Christianity. Christianity ennobled it, but it could not remove all traces of its origin. The empire remained an empire of soldiership and conquest. Remitted to Charle- magne, it fell to pieces on his death. Under the name of the German empire, it was reconstituted by Otho. Subsequently it combated the ambition of the Pope, precluded the establishment of a Catholic theocracy, the worst of universal monarchies, and even favoured natural culture and the progress of the race. The Emperors of the Middle Ages were the heroes of humanity. On the other hand, the spiritual and temporal domination of the • Church and its organ the Papacy was a providential event. Chris- tianity was an educative instrument intended to elevate and moralize the Germanic populations. In an age of brutal force the Church was the asylum of intellect. The barbarity of society justified the usurpations of the Papacy. The great Popes, the Gregories and the Innocents, were also the heroes of humanity. Their reign however, like that of the Emperors, was provisional. And now mania no longer a minor. Nations have attained their majority, and the power which has passed from papal to royal hands, will ultimately pass from the hands of kings to the hands of nations.
M. Laurent anticipates objection. Is it not a self-stultification to applaud the Papacy in the eleventh, to condemn it in the nine- teenth century ? He answers that, in this philosophic apprecia- tion there is neither fatalism or contradiction. At least the con- tradiction is not in the historian but in the facts. The facts are the consequences of human liberty ; and the results of man's free agency necessarily bear the marks of his inherent imperfec- tion. Institutions are the inevitable products of a given social state. To perpetuate what is suitable to one era, is to convert a furtherance into an obstruction.
The Roman Empire was a frightful phasis in the life of hu- manity. Yet the fathers of the church celebrated it. Applauding its triumph, moreover, they applauded its fall. Still there is no contradiction. As a gigantic essay at universal empire, it deserves reprobation : and from this point of view the barbarians were the saviours of the human race. But as the sole possible expedient for terminating the anarchy of the republic and arresting the dis- solution of the ancient world, it is entitled to the respect of the politician. The unity of the Roman empire saved Christianity, and facilitated its diffusion. The same reasoning applies to the Papacy. The religion of Jesus has served as the instrument of modern civilization. Both were threatened with extinction in the eleventh century. Gregory VII. concentrated ecclesiastical power, and preserved them. Thus the Pontifical monarchy was both necessary and legitimate. On the other hand, its necessity was provisional, its value purely temporary. Perpetuated it would have been more fatal to mankind than the Roman empire. In fact, it did compromise both national independence and indi- vidual freedom. Hence a reaction, first imperial, then national, against the Papacy, followed by heresy or intellectual reaction, which was in its turn succeeded by an intestine resistance to the extravagant pretensions of papal power. Rapidly recapitulating, M. Laurent maintains that Pagan Rome prepared the ground for Christianity, while Christian Rome propagated and consolidated it among the German populations. The function of each was alike temporary ; and with its fulfilment each loses the right to exist. The Papacy of the Middle Ages was a genuine spiritual power, based on the moral and intellectual superiority of the Church over feudal society. Very different was that of the fifteenth century. The clergy, then, had become at once ignorant and corrupt, and thus practically pronounced its own deposition. More enlightened and more moral, lay society is quite capable of directing its own destinies. Decrease of ecclesiastical and increase of civil sove- reignty, is the law of the approaching epoch.
Such is a brief exposition of M. Laiirent's historical conclusions. We regret that we have not been able to give a minute analysis of this profound and interesting work ; the copious illustration and elaborate estimate of the great historical epoch which he delineates, requiring more time and space than we can well af- ford for their adequate presentment. Still more fugitive must be our notice of a somewhat distantly related book, though on a cognate if not identical subject. In the Rome of the Popes, of which one volume lies on our table, its origin, successive phases, morals, manners, government, and ad- ministrative system, are passed in review. The work purports to be written by an ex-member of the Roman Constituent Assembly, now a prescript and exile. Regarding the publication of his book as a sacred duty, he believes himself both by position and character specially qualified for his task. The Roman States he describes as the property of an ecclesiastical family, whose head is the Pope. That Pope, moreover, is a king ; and ecclesiastics are his ministers. In their view the Law of the Church overrules that of the State, and ought to be recognized as superior to the latter by every existing Government. All the civil institutions of Rome are subjected to ecclesiastical domination. The only hope for Rome, Italy and mankind, continues our author, lies in their emancipation from the papal yoke ; and the sole chance of effect- ing this emancipation lies in the destruction of the Papacy. The Pope once removed from Rome, and deprived of his temporal power' the desired unity would be spontaneously evolved. Thus, what today is a vital and passionate question, would be trans- formed tomorrow into a subject for philosophical or possibly even archeological discussion.
We have said enough to indicate the author's general point of view. The work of dissection can scarcely be a pleasant one ; and the anatomy of moral corruption, the history of the vice of a moribund ecclesiasticism, is, as the historian would himself allow, at least as nauseating as edifying. Those, however, whom pleasure or business may incline to a closer scrutiny, will find in this volume a fund of information on the Roman and Provincial clergy, bishops and vicars, the ancient and modern religious Orders, the central ecclesiastical Government, and the sacred congregations of Cardinals. Miracles, beatification, the Devil's advocate, and the "Index expurgatorius' " are among the topics which are discussed in the pages of this long indictment against the Rome of the Popes.
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