HE Papal Church presents two aspects quite different from each other. The one is that of a spiritual and practical religion, in which that branch of the Church of Christ has furnished some of the most lovely exhibitions of piety the world has ever seen. Fénelon and Pascal were among the noblest of the disciples of the Redeemer. Through all the darkest ages of the Church there have been a multitude, which no man can number, who have followed their Saviour, even to the cross, in his lowly life of benevolence, and his self-sacrifice for others.
The Catholic Church was, for centuries, almost the only organized representative of the religion of Jesus. It contained within its bosom all the piety there was on earth. These humble Christians, sometimes buried and almost smothered beneath the ceremonies which the Church imposed upon them, manifested through life the true spirit of Jesus, and passed away, in death, triumphant to their crowns.
But there is another aspect in which the Papal Church presents itself on the pages of history. It is that of a politicalorganization, grasped by ambitions men, and wielded by them as an instrument of personal aggrandizement.
The Bishop of Rome, claiming to stand in God’s stead, with power to admit to heaven or to consign to hell, became, in many cases, a conspirator with kings and princes to inthrall mankind. As an illustration of this infamous perversion of Christianity, it may be mentioned, that, early in the fourteenth century, Pope Boniface designed to get up a magnificent celebration in honor of the popedom.
He appointed a jubilee at Rome. As an inducement to lead an innumerable band to cluster in homage around him, he promised that all who came to Rome to attend the jubilee should not only have their past sins pardoned, but should also receive an indulgence, or, as it was popularly understood, permission to commit any sins they wished for a limited time to come. We easily believe that which we wish to believe. The proud and dissolute barons of Europe were glad to accept a doctrine by which they could so easily escape the penalty of their enormous sins. They were also only too eager to support the pope in all his pretensions, receiving in return his powerful, almost supernatural influence in holding the fanatic peasantry in subjection to their will.
At this magnificent jubilee the pope led the procession, dressed in imperial robes. Two swords, the emblems of temporal and of spiritual power, and the globe, the emblem of universal sovereignty, were carried before him. A herald went in advance, crying,—
“Peter, behold thy successor! Christ, behold thy vicar upon earth!” Such crimes not unfrequently in this life meet with conspicuous punishment. Pope Boniface became insane, broke from his keepers, and foaming at the mouth, and gnashing his teeth, died uttering the most horrid blasphemies.
After the death of Boniface, Philip, King of France, surnamed the Handsome, who was then the most powerful monarch in Christendom, bribed a majority of the cardinals to elect one of his creatures to the pontifical chair. There was a vile, unscrupulous courtier in the palace, who had been promoted tothe high ecclesiastical position of Archbishop of Bordeaux. He made as little pretence to piety as did the hounds he followed in the chase. The king summoned the archbishop, whose name was Bernard de Goth, to meet him at one of his hunting-lodges in the forest. There he said to him,—
“Archbishop, I have power to make you pope if I choose. If you will promise me six favors which I shall ask of you as pope, I will confer upon you that dignity.”
The astonished and overjoyed archbishop threw himself at the king’s feet, saying, “My lord, it is for you to command, for me to obey. I shall be always ready to do your will.”