t.

Second--His civil authority was established not by the sword of conquest,
nor the violence of usurpation. He did not mount the throne upon the ruins
of outraged liberties or violated treaties; but he was called to rule by
the unanimous voice of a grateful people. Always the devoted spiritual
Father of Rome, he providentially became its civil defender; and the
temporal power he had possessed already by popular suffrage was ratified
and sanctioned by the sovereign act of the Frankish monarch. In a word,
the ship of state was in danger of being engulfed beneath the fierce waves
of foreign invasion. The captain, meantime, folded his arms and abandoned
the ship to her fate. The Pope was called to the helm in the emergency,
and he saved the vessel from shipwreck and the people from destruction.
Hence, even Gibbon, the English historian, who cannot be suspected of
partiality, has the candor to use the following language in discussing
this subject: "Their (the Pope's) temporal dominion is now confirmed by
the reverence of a thousand years, and their noblest title is the free
choice of a people whom they had redeemed from slavery."

Third--What is the use or advantage of the temporal power? This is well
worth considering, as many have erroneous notions on the subject.

The object is not to aggrandize or enrich the Pope. He ascends the Papal
chair generally an old man, when human passion and human ambition, if any
did exist, are on the wane. His personal expenses do not exceed a few
dollars a day. He eats alone and very abstemiously. He has no wife, no
children to enrich with the spoils of office, as he is an unmarried man.
The Popedom is not hereditary, like the sovereignty of England, but
elective, like the office of our President, and the Holy Father is
succeeded by a Pontiff to whom he was bound by no family ties. What
personal motive, therefore, can he have in desiring temporal sovereignty?
I am sure, indeed, that if the Holy Father were to consult his own taste
and feelings, he would much rather be free from the trammels of civil
government. But he has higher interests to subserve. He must vindicate the
eternal laws of justice which have been violated in his own person.

As the Popes were not actuated by a love of gain in possessing temporal
dominion, neither had they any desire to enlarge their territory, small as
it was. The temporalities of the Pope were not much larger than the State
of Maryland before he was depr