the claim of a permanent
aristocratic government by the Council of Basel, and to the democratic
extravagance of the Observants in the fourteenth century.

If in the stress of conflicting opinions we seek repose and shelter in
the view that the kingdom of God is not of this world; that the Church,
belonging to a different order, has no interest in political forms,
tolerates them all, and is dangerous to none; if we try to rescue her
from the dangers of political controversy by this method of retreat and
evasion, we are compelled to admit her inferiority, in point of temporal
influence, to every other religious system. Every other religion
impresses its image on the society that professes it, and the government
always follows the changes of religion. Pantheism and Polytheism,
Judaism and Islamism, Protestantism, and even the various Protestant as
well as Mahometan sects, call forth corresponding social and political
forms. All power is from God, and is exercised by men in His stead. As
men's notions are, therefore, in respect to their position towards God,
such must their notion of temporal power and obedience also be. The
relation of man to man corresponds with his relations to God--most of
all his relations towards the direct representative of God.

The view we are discussing is one founded on timidity and a desire of
peace. But peace is not a good great enough to be purchased by such
sacrifices. We must be prepared to do battle for our religious system in
every other sphere as well as in that of doctrine. Theological error
affects men's ideas on all other subjects, and we cannot accept in
politics the consequences of a system which is hateful to us in its
religious aspect. These questions cannot be decided by mere reasoning,
but we may obtain some light by inquiring of the experience of history;
our only sure guide is the example of the Church herself.
"Insolentissima est insania, non modo disputare, contra id quod videmus
universam ecclesiam credere sed etiam contra id quod videmus eam facere.
Fides enim ecclesiae non modo regula est fidei nostrae, sed etiam
actiones ipsius actionum nostrarum, consuetudo ipsius consuetudinis quam
observare debemus."[304]

The Church which our Lord came to establish had a twofold mission to
fulfil. Her system of doctrine, on the one hand, had to be defined and
perpetually maintained. But it was also necessary that it should prove
itself more than a mere matter of theory,--that it sho