e should have undertaken
the task of subduing a republican movement, just when she had come
out of a similar revolution, or rather many such,--and of reseating
the Pope on his throne, when she had been more impatient of the
restraints of all religion than any other nation in Europe,--is
perfectly incredible! Not less improbable is it that, supposing (as
may perhaps be true) that there was a basis of fact in the asserted
rebellion of the Romans, and Pio Nono's restoration to his dominions
(though not by France, that the intelligent reader will on
politico-logical grounds pronounce impossible, but more probably by
the Spaniards),--yet can we suppose that a power which was always
celebrated for its astuteness and subtlety would choose that very
moment of humiliation and ignominy to rush into an act so audacious
as that of reestablishing the Romish hierarchy in England,--in a
nation by far the most powerful in the world at that time,--a nation
which, if it had pleased, could have blown Rome into the air in
three months? It must needs have strengthened a thousand-fold the
strong antipathies of the English to the See of Rome. It would,
indeed, have justified that storm of indignation with which it is
said to have been met.

____

* Dr. Dickkopf may be here supposed to refer to the "Historic Doubts"
of Archbishop Whately, which may well deceive even more astute
critics.--Ed.
____

"'There is much that is palpably improbable in many other parts of
the statement (simple as it seems to be) when submitted to the
searching spirit of modern criticism. How ridiculous is the story of
Cardinal Wiseman's pretending that the oath in receiving the Pallium
had been modified for his convenience; little less so, indeed, than
his challenge to his Presbyterian antagonist to examine it, and that,
too, in the very book in which the contested clause was not cancelled!
All this is such a maze of absurdity, that it is impossible to believe
it. In the first place, do we not know that, throughout the whole
history of the Papal power, the inflexible character, not only of
its doctrines, but of its official forms and solemnities, was always
maintained, and that this pertinacity was continually placing it at
a disadvantage in the contest with the more flexible spirit of
Protestantism? It would not renounce, in terms or words, the very
things which it did renounce in deeds, and never could prevail upon
itself to get over this unaccommodating spirit