Papal Pretensions and Italy
SPEAKING of the pretensions of the Papacy, both moral and political, America pertinently says:— It is somewhat late in the world's history for the Pope to claim that he is the greatest moral power in that world. We read that "righteousness exalteth a nation." Where, in the history of the past, is there an instance of submission to the supremacy of Rome exalting either a people or a nation? The intelligence of this century judges institutions and dogmas by their fruits. So long as Italy rested under the shadow of "the real sovereignty" of the Romish Church, civilization slumbered within her borders, while ignorance and depravity paralyzed her progress. There is not an exception from the experience of Italy in history to sustain the Pope's pretensions, that it would be for the advancement of that or any other country that his temporal rights should be vindicated.