The Express.
London, England, 1866-09-14 00:00:00

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LONDON, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 14.

As the temporal power of the POPE draw'
towards its close the reasons urged in its support
seem to sympathise with its declining fortunes,
and to share the hopeless decrepitude and confu-
sion that has fallen on the Roman State. In its
latest and moat authoritative form the argument
for the Temporal Power is developed in a series of
propositions, each of which is, if possible, more
erroneous, inconsequent, and historically incorrect
than the other. We are told that the spiritual
office of the Head of the Church requires for its
free and full exercise the perfect independence of
his person, that this cannot be secured without ex-
emption from all temporal superiors, that this
exemption requires a space of its own, and that
to meet this requirement, the providence of GOD
has given to the HOLY FATHER, as the space of his
independence, the City of Rome and its provinces.
In other words, tho argument, or rather asser-
tion, in its condensed form is, that the temporal
possessions of the POPE are essential to the exer-
cise of his spiritual functions. We fail to see the
inseparable connection between the two kinds of
power, and cannot understand the grounds on
which the possession of the one is said to be essen-
tial to the exercise of the other. Nor does the
history of the Church at all help to clear
up the point. Assuming the truth of the state-
ment, it is certain, for example, that ST.
Pyres never exercised, never could have exer-
cised, the power which, according to the Romish
theory, he transmitted to his successors. In the
Apostolic age, when Christianity went forth in the
plenitude of its spiritual power, and covered the
Mediterranean frontier of the Roman empire with
its triumphs, neither Sr. Prrea nor any of his as-
sociates enjoyed that exemption from temporal
superiors and that independent temporal sphere
which is now represented as indispensable to the
exercise of the highest spiritual functions. And
for centuries afterwards, during the purest ages
of the Church, while it still retained its missionary
character, the Bishops of Rome bad no temporal
power. Imperial patronage first checked the free
exercise of the Church's highest spiritual functions,
and in proportion as the Bishops of Rome became
ambitious of temporal dominion, and intrigued to
secure it, the exercise of their spiritual office was
corrupted and depraved, until the vices and pro-
fligacy of the Roman Court became a European
scandal, and the Reformation an ecclestisatical ne-
cessity. To those, indeed, who remember the
sinister means by which the Papal dominions
were obtained under successive Pontiffs, and the
way in which the Roman Court has used its tem-
poral power, the assertion that the providence of
Goa actually gave these provinces to the Holy See
for spiritual purposes, will appear not unlike
blasphemy.

Again, if the Head of the Church requires for
the free exercise of his spiritual office,
exemption front all temporal superiors, it
is equally certain that no Pope in re-
cent times has exercised this office, since none
has been exempt from external protection
and control. If the temporal power of the
Pops had not been upheld by a secular arm
stronger than his own, it would have disappeared
long ago. And the European Power that upheld
the Port has always more or less controlled its
liberty of action, destroying altogether that
sphere of perfect temporal independence
which is now declared to be indispensable to the
exercise of his spiritual functions, but which, in
fact, exists only in the imagination of enthusiastic
and simple-minded ecclesiastics. During the past
oenturythe Court of Rome has alternately furnished
the spectacle of a Pontiff supported by Austrian
bayonets, and obliged to negotiate with their Im-
perial master on behalf of the Romish Church, and
sign concordats regulating its position in the Em-
pire • or supported by French bayonets, and
obliged to acquiesce in the loss of his territories
and the diminution of his power at the will of his
temporal superior.

The history of the Papacy thus seems to show
that the temporal power, so far from being any
help, is a most serious hindrance to the free exer-
cise of the POPE'S spiritual power. And if we re-
flect on the elements of spiritual power this is pre-
cisely what we should be led to expect. The
spiritual power of the Head of the Church
resides in the loyalty of his ecclesias-
tical subjects, in the spirit of reverence,
devotion, and obedience prevailing amongst the
clergy and the laity. If this spirit pervades the
Church the Pox-•rirr may exercise his supreme
ecclesiastical power without possessing a rood of
land or enjoying the coveted but absolutely un-
attainable exemption from temporal superiors.
Dr. MANNINO, for example, is not independent of
temporal superiors and secular control. He is
subject to the laws of the land in which
he lives hut does this subjection at all in-
terfere with the full exercise of his spiritual
office 1 On the contrary, is he not at perfect
liberty to discharge in his own way all his eccle-
siastical functions ? In a Protestant country,
surrounded by heretics, he enjoys the most com-
plete spiritual freedom. There is no reason
whatever why the POP; as supreme Head of
the Church, should not do the same in a Catholic
country. While subject to its laws in temporal