HISTORY OF THE POPES.

(EDINBURGH REVIEW, OCTOBER, 1840.)

The Ecclesiastical and Political History of the Popes of Rome, during

the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. Professor in the University of Berlin. German by SARAH AUSTIN. 3 vols. 8vo.

It is hardly necessary for us to say that this is an excellent book excellently transValue of the lated. The original work of work and Professor Ranke is known translation. and esteemed wherever German literature is studied, and has been found interesting even in a most inaccurate and dishonest French version. It is, indeed, the work of a mind fitted both for minute researches and for large speculations. It is written also in an admirable spirit, equally remote from levity and bigotry; serious and earnest, yet tolerant and impartial. It is, therefore, with the greatest pleasure that we now see it take its place among the English classics. Of the translation we need only say, that it is such as might be expected from the skill, the taste, and the scrupulous integrity of the accomplished lady who, as an interpreter between the mind of Germany and the mind of Britain, has already deserved so well of both countries. The subject of this book has always appeared to us singularly interesting. How it was that Protestantism did so much, yet did no more-how it was that the Church of Rome, having lost a large part of Europe, not only ceased to lose, but actually regained nearly half of what she had lost-is certainly a most curious and important question; and on this question Professor Ranke has thrown far more light than any other person who has written on it.

There is not, and there never was, on this earth, a work of human policy so well deserving of examination as the Roman Catholic Church. The history of that Church joins together the two great ages of human civilization. No other institution is left standing which carries the mind back to the times when the smoke of

By LEOPOLD RANKE, Translated from the London 1840.

:

Antiquity of

sacrifice rose from the Pantheon, and
when camelopards and tigers bounded in
the Flavian amphitheatre. The proudest
royal houses are but of yesterday, when
compared with the line of the Supreme
Pontiffs. That line we trace back in an
unbroken series, from the Pope who
crowned Napoleon in the nineteenth cen-
tury, to the Pope who crowned Pepin in
the eighth; and far beyond the time of
Pepin the august dynasty extends, till it
is lost in the twilight of fable. The re-
public of Venice came next in antiquity.
But the republic of Venice was modern
when compared with the
Papacy; and the republic the Papacy.
of Venice is gone, and the
Papacy remains. The Papacy remains,
not in decay, not a mere antique, but full
of life and youthful vigour. The Catholic
Church is still sending forth to the furthest
ends of the world missionaries as zealous
as those who landed in Kent with Augus-
tin, and still confronting hostile kings
with the same spirit with which she con-
fronted Attila. The number of her children
is greater than in any former age. Her
acquisitions in the New World have more
than compensated her for what she has
lost in the Old. Her spiritual ascendency
extends over the vast countries which lie
between the plains of the Missouri and
Cape Horn-countries which, a century
hence, may not improbably contain a
population as large as that which now in-
habits Europe. The members of her
communion are certainly Vast extent of
not fewer than a hundred the Romish
and fifty millions; and it
Church.
will be difficult to show that all the other
Christian sects united, amount to a hun-
dred and twenty millions. Nor do we see
any sign which indicates that the term of

on the contrary, are in a peculiar manner
the delight of intelligent children and of
half-civilized men. The number of boys
is not small who, at fourteen, have thought
enough on these questions to be fully en-
titled to the praise which Voltaire gives to
Zadig, "Il en savait ce qu'on en a su dans
tous les âges; c'est-à-dire, fort peu de
chose."
The Book of Job shows that
long before letters and arts were known
to Ionia these vexing questions were
debated with no common skill and elo-
quence, under the tents of the Idumean
Emirs; nor has human reason, in the
course of three thousand years, discovered
any satisfactory solution of the riddles
which perplexed Eliphaz and Zophar.

tiation.

sound conclusion which are within our reach, and which secure people, who would not have been worthy to mend his pens, from falling into his mistakes. But we are very differently affected, when we reflect that Sir Thomas More was ready to die for the doctrine of transubstantiation. He was a man of eminent talents. He had all the information on the subject that we have, or that, while the world lasts, any human being will have. The text, "This is my body," was in his New Testament as it is in ours. The absurdity of the literal interpretation was as great and as obvious in the sixteenth century as it is now. No progress that science has made, or will make, can add to what Natural theology, then, is not a pro- seems to us the overwhelming force of the gressive science. That knowledge of our argument against the real presence. We origin and of our destiny which we derive are, therefore, unable to understand why from revelation is indeed of very different what Sir Thomas More be- Belief in clearness, and very different importance. lieved respecting transub- transubstanBut neither is revealed religion of the stantiation may not be nature of a progressive science. All believed to the end of time by men equal Divine truth Divine truth is, according in abilities and honesty to Sir Thomas not affected by to the doctrine of the Pro-More. But Sir Thomas More is one of the discoveries. testant Churches, recorded in certain books. It is equally open to all who, in any age, can read those books; nor can all the discoveries of all the philosophers in the world add a single verse to any of those books. It is plain, therefore, that in divinity there cannot be a progress analogous to that which is constantly taking place in pharmacy, geology, and navigation. A Christian of the fifth century with a Bible is on a par with a Christian of the nineteenth century with a Bible, candour and natural acuteness being, of course, supposed equal. It matters not at all that the compass, printing, gunpowder, steam, gas, vaccination, and a thousand other discoveries and inventions, which were unknown in the fifth century, are familiar to the nineteenth. None of these discoveries and inventions have the smallest bearing on the question whether man is justified by faith alone, or whether the invocation of saints is an orthodox practice. It seems to us, therefore, that we have no security for the future against the prevalence of any theological error that ever has prevailed in time past among Christian men. We are confident that the world will never go back to the solar system of Ptolemy; nor is our confidence in the least shaken by the circumstance that even so great a man as Bacon rejected the theory of Galileo with scorn; for Bacon had not all the means of arriving at a

choice specimens of human wisdom and virtue, and the doctrine of transubstantiation is a kind of proof charge. A faith which stands that test will stand any test. The prophecies of Brothers, and the miracles of Prince Hohenlohe, sink to trifles in the comparison. One reservation, indeed, must be made. The books and traditions of a sect may contain, mingled with propositions strictly theological, other propositions, purporting to rest on the same authority which relate to physics. If new discoveries should throw discredit on the physical propositions, the theological propositions, unless they can be separated from the physical propositions, will share in that discredit. In this way, undoubtedly, the progress of science may indirectly serve the cause of religious truth. The Hindoo mythology, for example, is bound up with a most absurd geography. Every young Brahmin, therefore, who learns geography in our colleges learns to smile at the Hindoo mythology. If Catholicism has not suffered to an equal degree from the Papal decision that the sun goes round the earth, this is because all intelligent Catholics now hold, with Pascal, that in deciding the point at all the Church exceeded her powers, and was, therefore, justly left destitute of that supernatural assistance which, in the exercise of her legitimate functions, the promise of her Founder authorized her to expect.

This reservation affects not at all the truth of our proposition, that divinity, properly so called, is not a Credulity and superstition. progressive science. A very common knowledge of history, a very little observation of life, will suffice to prove that no learning, no sagacity, affords a security against the greatest errors on subjects relating to the invisible world. Bayle and Chillingworth, two of the most sceptical of mankind, turned Catholics from sincere conviction. Johnson, incredulous on all other points, was a ready believer in miracles and apparitions. He would not believe in Ossian; but he believed in the second sight. He would not believe in the earthquake of Lisbon; but he believed in the Cock Lane ghost.

Joanna Southcote.

no

For these reasons we have ceased to wonder at any vagaries of superstition. We have seen men, not of mean intellect or neglected education, but qualified by their talents and acquirements to attain eminence either in active or speculative pursuits, well-read scholars, expert logicians, keen observers of life and manners, prophesying, interpreting, talking unknown tongues, working miraculous cures, coming down with messages from God to the House of Commons. We have seen an old woman, with talents beyond the cunning of a fortune-teller, and with the education of a scullion, exalted into a prophetess, and surrounded by tens of thousands of devoted followers, many of whom were, in station and knowledge, immeasurably her superiors; and all this in the nineteenth century; and all this in London. Yet why not? For of the dealings of God with man no more has been revealed to the nineteenth century than to the first, or to London than to the wildest parish in the Hebrides. It is true that, in those things which concern this life and this world, man constantly becomes wiser and wiser. But it is no less true that, as respects a higher power and a future state, man, in the language of Goethe's scoffing fiend,

that long period is a history of movement to and fro. Four times since the authority of the Church of Rome was established in Western Christendom has the human intellect risen up against her yoke. Twice she remained completely victorious. Twice she came forth from the conflict bearing the marks of cruel wounds, but with the principle of life still strong within her. When we reflect on the tremendous assaults which she has survived we find it difficult to conceive in what way she is to perish.

The first of these insurrections broke out in the region where the beautiful language of Oc was spoken. That country, singularly sian heresy. The Albigenfavoured by nature, was, in the twelfth century, the most flourishing and civilized part of Western Europe. It was in no wise a part of France. It had a distinct political existence, a distinct national character, distinct usages, and a distinct speech. The soil was fruitful and well cultivated; and amidst the cornfields and vineyards arose many rich cities, each of which was a little republic; and many stately castles, each of which contained a miniature of an imperial court. It was there that the spirit of chivalry first laid aside its terrors, first took a humane and graceful form, first appeared as the inseparable associate of art and literature, of courtesy and love. The other vernacular dialects which, since the fifth century, had sprung up in the ancient provinces of the Roman Empire were still rude and imperfect. The sweet Tuscan, the rich and energetic English, were abandoned to artizans and shepherds. No clerk had ever condescended to use such barbarous jargon for the teaching of science, for the recording of great events, or for the painting of life and manners. But the language of Provence was already the language of the learned and polite, and was employed by numerous writers, studious of all the arts of composition and versification. A literature rich in ballads, in war songs, in satire, and, above all, in amatory poetry, amused the leisure of the knights and ladies whose fortified mansions adorned the banks of the Rhone and Garonne. The history of Catholicism strikingly With civilization had come freedom of illustrates these observations. During the thought. Use had taken away the horror last seven centuries the public mind of with which misbelievers were elsewhere Europe has made constant progress in regarded. No Norman or Breton ever every department of secular knowledge. saw a Mussulman, except to give and reBut in religion we can trace no constant ceive blows on some Syrian field of progress. The ecclesiastical history of battle. But the people of the rich coun

"bleibt stets von gleichem Schlag, Und ist so wunderlich als wie am ersten Tag."

tries which lay under the Pyrenees lived the Languedocian provinces were far

Crusade preached

against the Albigenses.

in habits of courteous and profitable in-
tercourse with the Moorish kingdoms of
Spain; and gave a hospitable welcome to
skilful teachers and mathematicians, who,
in the schools of Cordova and Granada,
had become versed in all the learning of
the Arabians. The Greek, still pre-
serving, in the midst of political degrada-
tion, the ready wit and the inquiring spirit
of his fathers, still able to read the most
perfect of human compositions, still speak-
ing the most powerful and flexible of
human languages, brought to the marts
of Narbonne and Toulouse, together with
the drugs and silks of remote climates,
bold and subtle theories, long unknown
to the ignorant and credulous West. The
Paulician theology-a theology in which,
as it should seem, many of the doctrines
of the modern Calvinists were mingled
with some doctrines derived from the
ancient Manichees spread rapidly
through Provence and Languedoc. The
clergy of the Catholic Church were re-
garded with loathing and contempt.
"Viler than a priest "-"I would as soon
be a priest "--became proverbial expres-
sions. The Papacy had lost all authority
with all classes, from the great feudal
princes down to the cultivators of the soil.
The danger to the hierarchy was indeed
formidable. Only one transalpine nation
had emerged from barbarism, and that
nation had thrown off all respect for
Rome. Only one of the vernacular
languages of Europe had yet been ex-
tensively employed for literary purposes,
and that language was a machine in the
hands of heretics. The geographical
position of the sectaries made the danger
peculiarly formidable. They occupied a
central region communicating directly
with France, with Italy, and with Spain.
The provinces which were still untainted
were separated from each other by this
infected district. Under these circum-generations which followed the Albigen-
stances it seemed probable that a single
generation would suffice to spread the
reformed doctrine to Lisbon, to London,
and to Naples. But this was not to be.
Rome cried for help to the warriors of
northern France. She appealed at once
to their superstition and to their cupidity.
To the devout believer she promised par-
dons as ample as those with which she
had rewarded the deliverers of the Holy
Sepulchre. To the rapacious and profli-
gate she offered the plunder of fertile
plains and wealthy cities. Unhappily,
the ingenious and polished inhabitants of

better qualified to enrich and embellish
their country than to defend it. Eminent
in the arts of peace, unrivalled in the
"gay science," elevated above many vul-
gar superstitions, they wanted that iron
courage and that skill in martial exercises
which distinguished the chivalry of the
region beyond the Loire, and were ill-
fitted to face enemies, who, in every
country from Ireland to Palestine, had
been victorious against tenfold odds.
A war, distinguished even
among wars of religion
by its merciless atrocity,
destroyed the Albigensian
heresy; and with that heresy the pros-
perity, the civilization, the literature, the
national existence, of what was once the
most opulent and enlightened part of the
great European family. Rome, in the
meantime, warned by that fearful danger
from which the exterminating swords of
her crusaders had narrowly saved her,
proceeded to revise and to strengthen her
whole system of polity. At this period
were instituted the Order of Francis, the
Order of Dominic, the Tribunal of the
Inquisition. The new spiritual police was
everywhere. No alley in a great city, no
hamlet on a remote mountain, was un-
visited by the begging friar. The simple
Catholic, who was content to be no wiser
than his fathers, found, wherever he
turned, a friendly voice to encourage him.
The path of the heretic was beset by in-
numerable spies; and the Church, lately
in danger of utter subversion, now ap-
peared to be impregnably fortified by the
love, the reverence, and the terror of
mankind.

A century and a half passed away, and then came the second great rising up of the human intellect against The Papal the spiritual domination of power at its Rome. During the two height.

sian crusade the power of the Papacy had been at its height. Frederick II.- the ablest and most accomplished of the long line of German Cæsars-had in vain exhausted all the resources of military and political skill in the attempt to defend the rights of the civil power against the encroachments of the Church. The vengeance of the priesthood had pursued his house to the third generation. Manfred had perished on the field of battle; Conradin on the scaffold. Then a turn took place. The secular authority, long unduly depressed, regained the ascendant with