the intellectual influence of the papacy.] Thus we
have seen that the personal immoralities and heresy of the popes brought
on the interference of the King of France, who not only shook the papal
system to its basis but destroyed its prestige by inflicting the most
conspicuous indignity upon it. For seventy years Rome was disfranchised,
and the rivalries of France and Italy produced the great schism, than
which nothing could be more prejudicial to the papal power. We have seen
that, aided by the pecuniary difficulties of the papacy, the rising
intellect of Europe made good its influence and absolutely deposed the
pope. It was in vain to deny the authenticity of such a council; there
stood the accomplished fact. At this moment there seemed no other
prospect for the Italian system than utter ruin; yet, wonderful to be
said, a momentary deliverance came from a quarter whence no man would
have expected. The Turks were the saviours of the papacy.

At this point is the true end of the Italian system--that system which
had pressed upon Europe like a nightmare. The great men of the
times--the statesmen, the philosophers, the merchants, the lawyers, the
governing classes--those whose weight of opinion is recognized by the
uneducated people at last, had shaken off the incubus and opened their
eyes. A glimmering of the true state of things was breaking upon the
clergy. No more with the vigour it once possessed was the papacy again
to domineer over human thought and be the controlling agent of European
affairs. Convulsive struggles it might make, but they were only
death-throes. The sovereign pontiff must now descend from the autocracy
he had for so many ages possessed, and become a small potentate,
tolerated by kings in that subordinate position only because of the
remnant of his influence on the uneducated multitude and those of feeble
minds.

CHAPTER IV.

THE AGE OF FAITH IN THE WEST--(_Concluded_).

EFFECT OF THE EASTERN OR MILITARY ATTACK.--GENERAL REVIEW OF THE AGE OF
FAITH.

_The Fall of Constantinople.--Its momentary Effect on the Italian
System._

GENERAL REVIEW OF THE INTELLECTUAL CONDITION IN THE AGE OF
FAITH.--_Supernaturalism and its Logic spread all over Europe.--It is
destroyed by the Jews and Arabians.--Its total Extinction._

_The Jewish Physicians.--Their Acquirements and Influence.--Their
Collision with the Imposture-medicine of Europe.--Their Effect on the
higher Classes.--Opposition to them._