Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1870-11-11

| "naI Is iur Inoro ihportanC, Splrltual 1reeuOm
from tho ecclesiastical power of the Papacy
The temporal power Of the Popes was op
posed by liberal Catholics even in the middle
ages. Foremost among these opponents ia
Dante (Jerno, Canto 10, verses ll2-118),
who (alluding to the fictitious donation of Cou,
stantine, then not yet disputed) exclaims, in
just indignation against avaricious Popes:
''Your gods ye make of silver and gold;
And wherein differ from idolitors
Save that hcir god is onc--yours hundred old {?
Ah, Constantine, of how much i'll was cause,
Not thy conversation but those rich domains
That the first wealthy Pope received Of thee ?"
Tho samo great poet in another passage
thus addresses the Church of Rome:
Founded in chaso and humble poverty
'Gainst them that raised thee docst thou lift thy
Impudent whore, where hast thou placed thy hope :?
In thy adulterers, or thy ill-got wealth
| Another Constantine comes not in haste"
The temporal dominion of the Popc was in
creased, from time to time, by donation and
purchase, and attained its height under Ju
Illus H., (l503-l5l2), who was bottcr dip
lomatist and warrior than bishop. lie ac
quired, in hot conflict with the Vcnetans,
Parma, Piaccnza to Tcrracina over the finest
territory of Europe. But few years after
ward came the Reformation as a sweeping
Judgment of God on the secularization and
corraptions of the Church, and with it set u
a movement for religious liberty, which slow.
y but surely undermined the medieval union
Of Church and State, religion and politics.
The opposition to the temporal dominion
Of the Pope, however, proceeded from Cath
olic nations and Catholic governments Con.
siderable portions of it were Incorporated by
the French in the cisalpinc republic, 1877.
year later the republic was proclaimed in
Rome, and Pope Plus VI. carried away
prisoner. Napoleon l. had project to keep
the Pope (then Plus Wis in Paris under
his immediate control, and to divide with him
the dominion of the world But the Con.
gress of Vienna restored the greater part of
the temporal power in 1915, and Plus VII.
returned in triumph to Rome. During the
revolutions of 1913, Rome was again pro
claimed a republic, and the present Pope fed,
in the disguise Of a servant behind a coach, to
to the protection the OK king of Naples
With the aid of the French republic, the
Roman republic was soon ovcrthrown, and
the Pope permitted to return Ever since
he has been supported by French bayoncts
against the repeated attempts of his own sub
jccts and of the Italian patriots to overthrow
his temporal power. The uniication and
reconstruction Of Italy, Victor Emmanual
and Garibaldi have since been his greatest
foe. He lost .bout two thirds of his posses
sions in 1860, and retained little more than
Rome and the surrounding barren country to
Civita Vccchia on the Mediterranean shore,
with less t'an million Inhabitants
| Now he has lost even this remnant of secu-
lar dominion, and will have to look for re-
sidcnce in Malta or Ireland, or on Washing
ton Heights, where Mr.. Bennett, ofthe New
York Hcrald, years ago, offered him fine
farm and villa, that he "might live and die
| like gentleman" The Italians will never
be satisfied except with Rome as the natural
capital of Italy, and the Pope can hardly live
in Rome as subject of King Emmanuel, or
a Republican government, which before long
may take the place of the present monarchy.
Nobody but the Pope aud ultra-papists will
regret this change. The Papal government
was provcrbially the worst in Europe, and a
disgrace to the Catholic Church. The sooner
she gets rid Of this burden, the better for her
own sake. 1t may lead to very important
changes in connection with the mighty events
now transpiring in Europe
1t is certainly most remarkable providcn
tial concurrence that the last 0Icumcnical
Council and the proclamation of the dogma
Of Papal Iufalibility were swiftly followed by
the brilliant triumph of Protestant Prussia,
by the downfall of Napoleon ILL.,, ''the oldest
son of the Churc'," the political pillar of Po-
perry. by the deep humiliation of France, the
greatest Catholic nation, and by the over.
throw of the temporal power of the Pope
through the Catholic Italians. Truly, there
is God in honesty, and history of the
world is judgment of the world
CoNsIsTENcY.- There is a sense in Which
consistency is equity, impartiality and true
jewel. If negro suffrage is blessing, it
ought to be extended to Massachusetts as well
as to South Carolina. If one State should be
prevented by the bavonet or the fpar of rooop