he result that
his kingdom was filled with darkness--a symbol drawn from nature--points
to the downfall of the Pope as a temporal ruler. Thus he would be
deprived of his "seat."

We have already seen that each plague prepares the way for a succeeding
one. Under the reign of Napoleon the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved
(1806). This was the beginning of the end of the Pope's temporal
authority; for the two had in a great measure been for ages
interdependent upon each other. Pius VII. was made a prisoner and the
temporal sovereignty of the Roman See declared to be at an end; while
the Pope himself was forced to disown all claim to rank as a temporal
ruler. Of course, this was but a temporary overthrow; for when the
period of Reaction came, the Pope recovered also temporal authority. But
the vast territories of Avignon, Venaissin, Bologna, Ferrara, and the
Romagna--representing fully _a third_ of all the Papal dominions--which
had been forcibly ceded to France under Napoleon, was never restored to
the Roman See. From that time the sun of the Pope's temporal kingdom
rapidly approached the horizon; while the inhabitants of his dominions
continued to blaspheme God through the atheistical Jacobinism that
infested to so great an extent the whole mass of society--symbolized by
their "sores"--and the firm supporters of Popery were filled with
excessive chagrin and mortification of mind--symbolized by their
"pains"--because the power of their leader, who professed temporal
sovereignty over the whole earth, was being suddenly destroyed and his
kingdom left in darkness. Concerning this matter the People's
Cyclopaedia, after speaking of the blow the Pope's spiritual supremacy
received at the Reformation, says: "But in her relations to the State
the Roman church has since passed through _a long and critical
struggle_. The new theories _to which the French Revolution gave
currency_ have still further modified these relations." In the second
revolution of 1848 the Pope's temporal authority was about to be
entirely destroyed by the attempted establishment of the republic of
Italy; but at this juncture France, who, notwithstanding her plagues,
had not repented of her former deeds, not willing to desert entirely the
Papal cause after upholding it faithfully for centuries, interfered, and
the Pope was sustained in his position by a French garrison until 1870
(except a short time in 1867), at which time the success of King Victor
Emmanuel an