The Irish standard., 1908-04-11
IS lINDES1RUCTIBLE
The Papacy and tho Peace fthe
World.
Vain to Fight What Cannot Be
Destroyed.


peace of the world" writes John j.
O'Shea in a thoughtful article. Me
dieval Mercenaries, Modern Brigands
and the Papacy," in the current Amer
lean Catholic Quarterly Review. 1t is
suggested by Prof Salembier's work,
"The Great Schism of the West" and
! 1t is wonderful showing of Gods
protection over His Church in the
darkest hours of history, amid the most
dangerous political conditions. Ever
| since the Church came up out of the
catacombs, fifteen centuries ago. to en-
JOY an imperial protection that often
times had its grave disadvantages, she
has suffered from the foes of the house.
hold as we'll as from the foes without.
But, as the writer above named con-
tinues:
"The Papacy is indestructible by l1u-
man power, because it rests on a found
alton not of the earth. The destruc-
tion Of Rome as city never meant the
destruction of the Papacy; the seizure
and imprisonment of Pope, the chain
ing Of one to the chariot wheels of a
conqueror, as more than once was af-
fected, almost in a literal sense. meant
nothing more than a transient victory
of brute force over the impalpable and
Intangible power of the spiritual soul
of the world. We have among the
Catholic body many who believe that
the temporal power is dead beyond
hope of restoration. 1t were we'll that
they read the history of the past five
hundred years. Several times during
that period it was believed that Rome
had fallen forever and the Papacy as
dead as the ancient Caesardom. When
Bonaparte seized Rome, hauled the
Papal flag down from the Castle of
San Angelo and ran up the tricolor in
its place, most people believed that the
prophecy of the Coliseum was about
to be negatived by the fact. Rome had
fallen and the Coliseum still stood.
But few years showed that it was
not Rome that fell. but the bubble en-
pire that decreed its fall The milk
white hind, oft doomed to death, vet
fated not to die was realized, allie
gorically, in the relation of the Papacy
to Rome, and in the case of Rome
again and the outside world. It's me-
cessity to that worlds well-beins and
tranquility was recognized and con-
fessed when the allied powers met in
council at Vienna, after the overthrow
of Napoleon at Waterloo.
THE statistics of great city's pop
ulation from decade to decade may be
likened to the breathing of the human
system ON the Doctors stethoscope.
They record the rise and fall of the
country's health with equal mathe-
matical regularity. The fluctuations
in the Roman census for the past few
centuries tell of the violent seismic
movements in the great world of poiti-
cal action and social struggle, on the
Italian peninsula as we'll as the conti-
nent Of Europe, in very remarkable
way. In speaking of the population of
Rome. it is necessary to be as circum-
spect as in adverting to the popula-
tion of seaside resorts; both are affect
ed by the seasons, by sudden invasions
of tourists, by causes outside the or
binary everyday life of humdrum, quiet
places of human settlement. No city
OF first rank has encountered such
radical fluctuations in regard to num-
bers and well-being as the city of Rome
since the removal of the imperial capi-
tai to the banks of the Bosphorus. Old
chroniclers estimated it's population, in
the heyday of its pagan glory, at a
couple of millions. The first reliable
census since the beginning of the mod
ern epoch was that of 1893, under Pope
Innocent Ill, which showed the popu-
lation to be $4,000 only This was low
enough estate for the place that had
for centuries been known as the mis-
tress of the world, but lower still came
when the Popes held court at Avie-
non. Then the nadir was touched in
the figures 1900. When the Pope re-
turned in 1877, there was an immediate
rise in the tide. until in the time of
Leo X, the census showed a total of
$4,000. The storlning of the city by the
French, under the Constable of Bour-
bon. in 1927, made great gap in the
population. either by death or flight F:
only $4,000 showed on the succeeding
census. Under the vigorous rule of
Sixtus ", city and country were given
security and peace, and the urban
numbers rose again and kept steadily
increasing from that period onward to
the first French invasion Of the revo-
lutionary epoch. At the beginning of
the eighteenth century the population
of the city was 132OOO havinr o,,od