der the pretence
of defending their rights and those of their people, civil rulers have
endeavored to subjugate the Church, enslave her ministers, make her, in
a word, merely a piece of government machinery, to register their
decrees, and enforce them with her anathemas. Had they succeeded, the
only bulwark of freedom would have been swept away; for as man has no
right higher or holier than freedom of conscience, that is, freedom to
serve God rather than man, had this right been sacrificed to the
imperious demands of the civil power, other rights less important, such
as those which constitute civil liberty, would have been lost with it.

Thus the medieval Pontiffs--living in exile, wandering from one city to
another, often in prison, rarely suffered to live in peace--were the
martyrs of the highest and truest freedom. To their indomitable
courage, untiring perseverance, and clear-sighted intelligence, we owe
whatever idea of true freedom (that is of the existence of the rights
of man independently of the permission, toleration, or concession of
the civil power) still survives in modern society.

These fundamental truths are well illustrated in the following pages.
The special period of history chosen, serves to show clearly the real
points of dispute. Even Voltaire acknowledged that it was the "wisdom"
of Alexander III. that triumphed over the "violence" of Barbarossa. As
the same writer observes:--"Alexander revived the rights of the people
and suppressed the crimes of Kings." A Pontiff to whom such testimony
is borne by Voltaire, cannot fairly be accused of ambitious designs. In
his contest with Frederic, from the beginning to the end, he simply
asserted the independence of the Church. Antipope after antipope was
opposed to him, all of them were puppets of the Emperor; but in the
end, even Frederic was obliged to yield, and to acknowledge the patient
but determined Alexander as the Vicar of Christ.

The subserviency of these pretended Pontiffs is well described by our
author. There is no exaggeration here. These men were merely Vicars of
the Emperor, existing by his favor, the creatures of his breath. They
cared little for the ratification of their decrees in Heaven; so that
they knew that they pleased the rulers of this world! What the Emperor
wished bound, they did bind, and what he wished loosed, they did loose,
even the holy bonds of matrimony. Their degradation and that of the
courtier bishops, so graphically d