estored to her much of that which the
principle of unity took away. It was not, as our author imagines (p.
119), by the protection of Lewis XIV. that she was formidable; nor is it
true that in consequence of the loss of temporalities, "the chill of
death is gathering round the heart of the great theocracy" (p. 94); nor
that "the visible decline of the papacy" is at hand because it no longer
wields "the more efficacious arms of the great Catholic monarchies" (p.
190).

The same appeal to force, the same principles of intolerance which
expelled Catholicism from Protestant countries, gave rise in Catholic
countries to the growth of infidelity. The Revolutions of 1789 in
France, and of 1859 in Italy, attest the danger of a practice which
requires for its support the doctrines of another religion, or the
circumstances of a different age. Not till the Church had lost those
props in which Mr. Goldwin Smith sees the secret of her power, did she
recover her elasticity and her expansive vigour. Catholics may have
learnt this truth late, but Protestants, it appears, have yet to learn
it.

In one point Mr. Goldwin Smith is not so very far from the views of the
Orange party. He thinks, indeed, that the Church is no longer dangerous,
and would not therefore have Catholics maltreated; but this is due, not
to her merits, but to her weakness.

Popes might now be as willing as ever, if they had the power, to step
between a Protestant State and the allegiance of its subjects (p.
190).

Mr. Smith seems to think that the Popes claim the same authority over
the rulers of a Protestant State that they formerly possessed over the
princes of Catholic countries. Yet this political power of the Holy See
was never a universal right of jurisdiction over States, but a special
and positive right, which it is as absurd to censure as to fear or to
regret at the present time. Directly, it extended only over territories
which were held by feudal tenure of the Pope, like the Sicilian
monarchy. Elsewhere the authority was indirect, not political but
religious, and its political consequences were due to the laws of the
land. The Catholic countries would no more submit to a king not of their
communion than Protestant countries, England for instance, or Denmark.
This is as natural and inevitable in a country where the whole
population is of one religion, as it is artificial and unjust in a
country where no sort of religious unity prevails, and wh