nce, dominion, and royalty? This is
a much higher thing than royalty--this is divinity. It is to be the
god of another.

If there be in this world an occasion on which we may become mad, it is
this. The thought of the man who has reached this point, in whatever
humility he may cloak himself, is that of the pagan: "Deus factus sum!"
I was a man, I am God!

More than God. He will say to his creature, "God had created you so,
and I have made you another person; so that being no longer His, but
mine, you are myself, my inferior self, who are only to be
distinguished from myself by your adoring me."

Dependent creature, how could you have helped yielding?--God yields to
my word when I make Him descend to the altar. Christ becomes humble
and docile, and comes down at my hour, at my sign, to take the place of
the bread that is no more.[1]

We are no longer surprised at the furious pride of the priest, who, in
his royalty of Rome, has often carried it to greater extremes than all
the follies of the emperors, making him despise not only men and
things, but his own oath, and the word which he gave as infallible.
Every priest being able to make God, can just as well make odd even, or
things done things undone, things said things unsaid. The angel is
afraid of so much power, and stands back respectfully before this man
to see him pass.[2]

Go, boast to me now of your privations and mortifications! I am indeed
much touched by them!--Do you think, then, that through that plain robe
and meagre body, ay, in that pale heart I do not see the deep,
exquisite and maddening enjoyment of pride, which composes the very
being of a priest? What he carries within his robe, and broods over so
jealously, is a treasure of terrific pride. His hands tremble with it:
a bright ray of delight gleams in his downcast eyes.

Oh! with what fervour he hates everything that is an obstacle to him,
everything that prevents his infinity from being indeed infinite! How
does he desire with all his infinite heart to annihilate it! Oh! how
diabolical it is to hate in God!

A great suffering is connected with this great enjoyment of being the
god of another soul: all that is wanting to complete this divinity
causes horrible pangs. You cannot be surprised if this man pursues
with an insatiable ardour the absorption of a soul which he hopes to
assimilate. You may easily understand the real and profound cause of
this strange avidity, which wants to