ate any alteration in those portions of the discipline
which are directly ordained by Jesus Christ; or in those which, by
their nature, are connected with dogma, or in those which heretics
assail in support of their innovations.

The chief points urged against the ambition of Rome are the claim of the
deposing Power, according to the theory that all kinds of power are
united in the Church, and the protest against the Peace of Westphalia,
the basis of the public law and political order of modern Europe. It is
enough to cite one of the many authorities which may be cited in
refutation of the first objection. Cardinal Antonelli, Prefect of
Propaganda, states in his letter to the Irish bishops, 1791, that "the
See of Rome has never taught that faith is not to be kept with those of
another religion, or that an oath sworn to kings who are separated from
the Catholic communion may be broken, or that the Pope is permitted to
touch their temporal rights and possessions." The Bull in which Boniface
VIII. set up the theory of the supremacy of the spiritual over the
secular power was retracted soon after his death.

The protest of Innocent X. against the Peace of Westphalia is one of the
glories of the Papacy. That peace was concluded on an unchristian and
tyrannical principle, introduced by the Reformation, that the subjects
may be compelled to follow the religion of the ruler. This was very
different in principle and in effect from the intolerance of the ages of
faith, when prince and people were members of one religion, and all were
agreed that no other could be permitted in the State. Every heresy that
arose in the Middle Ages involved revolutionary consequences, and would
inevitably have overthrown State and society, as well as Church,
wherever it prevailed. The Albigenses, who provoked the cruel
legislation against heretics, and who were exterminated by fire and
sword, were the Socialists of those days. They assailed the fundamental
institutions of society, marriage, family, and property, and their
triumph would have plunged Europe into the barbarism and licence of
pagan times. The principles of the Waldenses and the Lollards were
likewise incompatible with European civilisation. In those days the law
relating to religion was the same for all. The Pope as well as the king
would have lost his crown if he had fallen into heresy. During a
thousand years, from the fall of Rome to the appearance of Luther, no
Catholic pr