Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from A Popular History of the Reformation and Modern Protestantism
But the Papacy had not been always in the hands of unworthy or contemptible tenants. Again and again it had been occupied by men who, judged merely as statesmen, were a match for kings like Temporalpowe, Frederick I. Of Germany, Henry II. Of England, and Louis IX. f the Papwy' of France. From being a nominee of the Frankish emperor, needing also his confirmation when elected, the Pope had come to be elected, inde pendently of any outside power, by the College of Cardinals, and claimed, and Often exercised a practical dictatorship over the haughtiest and most powerful temporal princes. This was made effectual by the judicious use of pecuniary in?uence, by skilfully playing off prince against prince, by utilising rivalries, jealousies and suspicions, and above all'by the terrors of the power of the keys, which - extended from the terrestrial to the supernal sphere - could forbid all church services for the living or for the dead, and, it was fondly believed, exclude from or admit to heaven, or shorten or intensify the sufferings of purgatorial purification. A church that could not err, popes above all judgment claiming to depose emperors, and to absolve subjects from their allegiance - is it to be wondered at that the triumph of such ideas marked the beginning of their downfall - that human nature, when completely trodden under foot, should turn and gathering strength, rend its tyrant?
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