Monastic institutions.

in the early days of Catholicism, was felt by contemplative minds to disengage themselves from the excessive dissipation and corruption of contemporary society, these special institutions, which we now know chiefly through the abuses of their declining period, were the cradle whence issued by anticipation the chief Christian conceptions, dogmatic and practical. Their discipline became afterwards the permanent apprenticeship of the speculative class, and the foundation whence issued the reformation of orders; a provision for the beneficial exercise of political genius which it has been impossible to appreciate, since the inevitable decay of this vast provisional system of spiritual organization. It is clear that the Catholic system could not have preserved, among its European relations, the attribute of generality, secure from absorption by the spirit of nationality inherent in its local clergy, if these contemplative train-bands, who were placed by their very nature at the universal point of view, had not been for ever reproducing direct thought, while exhibiting an example of independence which thereby became more generally practicable."

Special education of the

clergy.

The chief condition of efficacy common to all the political qualities of the Catholic constitution was the powerful special education of the Clergy, which rendered the ecclesiastical genius habitually superior to every other, not only in knowledge of all kinds, but in political aptitude. The modern defenders of Catholicism, while proving that this education was always kept up to the most advanced point of general philosophy, have overlooked the importance of the introduction into that education of the new element of History, which, at least in the form of the history of the Church, became a part of ecclesiastical study. If we consider the filiation which connected Catholicism on the one hand with the Roman, and on the other with the Greek régime, and even, through Judaism, with the most ancient theocracies; and again, if we remember its continuous intervention in all great human affairs, we shall see that, from the time of its full maturity under the great Hildebrand, the history of the Church was a kind of fundamental history of humanity, in its social aspect. Whatever was

THE INTELLECTUAL INFLUENCE OF CATHOLICISM.

95

narrow in this view was compensated for by the unity of conception and composition which belonged to it, and which could not have been otherwise obtained: so that it should be no surprise that the philosophical origin of universal historical speculation is due to the genius of modern Catholicism. Taking for granted the political superiority which must have belonged to disciplined and meditative thinkers in the midst of an ignorant temporal aristocracy, who cared for nothing else in history than the genealogy of their houses, or some provincial or national chronicles, we may further admit that the prerogative still rests where it did, for want of being claimed by any other body. Amidst the intellectual and social decay of Catholicism, we shall probably find, in the higher ranks of its hierarchy, more minds than we can find elsewhere which are capable of assuming the true point of view of human affairs as a whole, though the political destruction of their corporation prevents their manifesting, or perhaps cultivating the quality.

Restriction of inspiration.

One more quality of their political philosophy, hitherto unnoticed, remains to be pointed out; I mean the discipline by which Catholicism, in the days of its greatness, diminished the political dangers of the religious spirit by restricting more and more that right of supernatural inspiration which no theological system can dispense with entirely, but which the Catholic organization reduced, and shackled by wise and powerful ordinances, the importance of which can be understood only by a comparison with the preceding, and in some sort, with the following state. Polytheism was never at a loss for a deity to protect some inspiration or other: and though monotheism reduced its extent, and modified its exercise, it still allowed a dangerous scope to inspiration, as we see by the case of the Jews, among whom prophets and seers abounded, and had even a certain recognized though irregular function. Catholicism, as the organ of a more advanced state, represented the privilege of inspiration as eminently exceptional, limiting it to instances more and more serious, to fewer and fewer chosen persons, at more and more distant intervals, and subjecting it to tests of growing severity: and it reached its

last degree of possible restriction when divine communications were generally reserved for the supreme ecclesiastical authority exclusively. This papal infallibility, which has been regarded as such a reproach to Catholicism, was thus, in fact, a great intellectual and social advance. As De Maistre observed, it was simply the religious condition of the final jurisdiction, without which society would have been for ever troubled by the inexhaustible disputes generated by such vague doctrines. It will at once occur to the thoughtful observer that we find here a striking confirmation of the great proposition of historical philosophy before laid down, that, in the passage from polytheism to monotheism, the religious spirit underwent an intellectual decline; for we find Catholicism constantly employed in actual life in extending the domain of human wisdom at the expense of that, once so vast, of divine inspiration.

I cannot afford space to dwell on the special institutions of Catholicism, however great their importance in the working of the organism; such, for instance, as the employment of a kind of sacred language, by the preservation of Latin in the sacerdotal corporation, when it was no longer the popular language; a means of facilitating communication and concentration, within and without, and also of putting off the inevitable day when the spirit of individual criticism should attack the noble social edifice, whose intellectual bases were so precarious. But there are still two eminent conditions, the one moral and the other political, which, without being so essential as those I have just noticed, are yet indispensably connected with Catholicism. Both were ordained by the special nature of the period and the system, rather than by the general nature of the spiritual organization: a distinction which is important to their clearness and relevancy in this place. They are, the institution of ecclesiastical celibacy, and the annexation of a temporal principality to the centre of spiritual authority, in order to secure its European independence.

Ecclesiastical celibacy.

The institution of ecclesiastical celibacy, long repressed, but at length established by the powerful Hildebrand, has ever been justly regarded as one of the essential bases of sacerdotal dis

ECCLESIASTICAL CELIBACY.

97

cipline. Its favourable influence on the performance of spiritual and social functions, in a general way, is well understood; and, with regard to Catholicism in particular, it is seen to be necessary to the common discharge of the chief moral offices of the clergy, especially confession. In a political view, we have only to imagine a state of society in which, without celibacy, the Catholic hierarchy could certainly never have acquired or maintained either the social independence or the freedom of mind necessary to the accomplishment of their great provisional mission. The hereditary principle was still prevalent and in vigour, everywhere but in the ecclesiastical organization; and the clergy would have been drawn away by it, but for the institution of celibacy. Whatever nepotism there was, was exceptional; but there was enough to show what would have been the consequences if the division of the two social powers had been put to risk by such a transmutation as the popes found it so difficult to restrain, of bishops into barons, and priests into knights. We have never done justice to the bold and radical innovation wrought by Catholicism in the social organism, when it superseded the hereditary principle in the priesthood, which was incorporated with the social economy, not only of theocracies, but of the Greeks and Romans, among whom pontifical offices of importance were the exclusive patrimony of some privileged families, or at least of a caste. The great political service of Catholicism in aiming this fatal blow at the system of caste is a sufficient evidence how far it was in advance of the society on which it had to operate. Yet the blind opponents of Catholicism may be seen to confound the Catholic régime with the ancient theocracies, while reproaching it with that ecclesiastical celibacy which renders pure theocracy impossible by guaranteeing a legítimate access to sacerdotal dignities for all ranks of society. As for the temporal sovereignty of the Head of the Church,-it must not be forgotten that the Catholic system arose at a time when the two powers were confounded, and that it would have been absorbed or politically annulled by the temporal power, if the seat of its authority had been included in any particular jurisdiction, whose lord would

Temporal sovereignty of the Popes.

:

presently, after the manner of his time, have humbled the pope into a sort of chaplain: unless, indeed, we resort to the artless supposition of a miraculous succession of Charlemagnes, sagacious, like him, to discern the true spirit of European organization in the Middle Ages, and therefore disposed to respect and guard the independence of the pope. Though monotheism favoured the separation of the two powers, it could not be with such energy and precision as would enable it to dispense with the aid of political conditions and of these the most evident and important was the possession of a territorial sovereignty, containing a population which might be provisionally sufficient to itself, and which might thus offer a secure refuge to all members of the vast hierarchy, in case of collision with the temporal powers which, but for such a resource, would have held them in close local dependence. The seat of this exceptional principality was hardly a matter of choice. The centre of the authority that was henceforth to rule the civilized world must be in that one city in which alone the ancient order merged without interruption into the modern, by means of the rooted habits which for long ages had directed thither the social ideas and hopes of the human race. De Maistre has shown us how, in the famous removal to Byzantium, Constantine fled morally before the Church, no less than politically before the barbarians. The necessity of this temporal appendage to the supreme spiritual dignity must not however make us forget the serious evils arising from it, both towards the sacerdotal authority itself, and for the portion of Europe set apart to be this political anomaly. The purity, and even the dignity of the pontifical character were compromised by the permanent incorporation of the lofty prerogatives of the papacy with the secondary operations of provincial government. Through this very discordance, the popes have ruled so little in Rome, even in the most splendid period of Catholicism, as to have been unable to repress the factions of great families, whose disgraceful conflicts so often defied and injured the temporal authority of the papacy. Italian ambition had at first favoured the papal system; but in this way, it helped to disorganize it; and the spiritual Head of Europe is now seen transformed into a petty