DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.62267#0427
APPENDIX.
417
the Catholic Church. Therefore, to taunt Ca-
tholics with papal infallibility as an article of
their faith, or to urge it as a proof of their neces-
sary and inevitable subserviency to the determi-
nations of the Roman court, argues either a great
want of candor, or a great want of information,
Before we close these observations, we will
indulge in a momentary retrospect of past ages,
and contemplate the consequences of pontifical
domination during the middle centuries, when
there was much barbarism and more ignorance
in Europe, and when its provinces were, with
little variation, abandoned to misrule and to
devastation. The ambition of the Popes is a
threadbare subject, and their pride, their cruelty,
and their debauchery, have been the theme of
many a declamation, and lengthened many a
limping verse. But the candid reader who, in
spite of prejudices howsoever early instilled, and
howsoever deeply impressed, can contemplate
truth, oculo irretorto, will perhaps agree with
me in the following reflections, and acknowledge
in the first place ; that if amidst the confusion of
a falling empire, of barbarian invasion, and of
increasing anarchy some and even many dis-
orders should find their way into episcopal pa-
laces, and infect the morals even of bishops
VOL. IV. E E
417
the Catholic Church. Therefore, to taunt Ca-
tholics with papal infallibility as an article of
their faith, or to urge it as a proof of their neces-
sary and inevitable subserviency to the determi-
nations of the Roman court, argues either a great
want of candor, or a great want of information,
Before we close these observations, we will
indulge in a momentary retrospect of past ages,
and contemplate the consequences of pontifical
domination during the middle centuries, when
there was much barbarism and more ignorance
in Europe, and when its provinces were, with
little variation, abandoned to misrule and to
devastation. The ambition of the Popes is a
threadbare subject, and their pride, their cruelty,
and their debauchery, have been the theme of
many a declamation, and lengthened many a
limping verse. But the candid reader who, in
spite of prejudices howsoever early instilled, and
howsoever deeply impressed, can contemplate
truth, oculo irretorto, will perhaps agree with
me in the following reflections, and acknowledge
in the first place ; that if amidst the confusion of
a falling empire, of barbarian invasion, and of
increasing anarchy some and even many dis-
orders should find their way into episcopal pa-
laces, and infect the morals even of bishops
VOL. IV. E E