Page:History of Freedom.djvu/405

 DÖLLINGER ON THE TET\IPORAL POWER 361

serious change, and ,vere resolved to uphold the old principles, and to concede nothing to the lay party, "because, if anything was voluntarily conceded, there \vould be no right 01 recalling it after\\'ards." Two things in particular it ,vas determined not to grant-elective Còuncils in the towns and provinces, and a lay Council of Sta.'te beside the Sacred College. In a general way, vague :reforms were promised; but the prolnise was not redeemed. Austria \vould not tolerate any liberal con- cessions in Italy \vhich \vere in contradiction with her own system and her own interests; thus an Italian aspirations for reforms \vere concentrated in the wish to get rid of the foreign yoke, and A ustria never succeeded - in forming a party amongst the Italians favourable to her po,ver. Yet Gregory XVI. kne that great changes \vere needed. In 1843 he said :-

The civil administration requires a great reforn1. I was too old when I was elected; I did not expect to live so long, and had not the courage to begin the undertaking, For whoever begins, must ac- complish it, I have now only a few more years to live; perhaps only a few days. After me they will choose a young Pope, whose mission it will be to perform the act, without which it is impossible to go on.

The Austrian occupation caused the Roman Govern- ment to be identified with the foreign supremacy, and transferred to it the hatred of the patriots. The dis- affection of the subjects of the Pope had deeper motives. Except the clergy, that overshado\vs all, there are no distinct orders in the society of the Roman State; no country nobility, no wealthy class of peasant proprietors; nothing but the population of the towns, and a degenerate - class of patricians. These were generally hostile to the ecclesiastical system. The offices are so distributed, that the clergy govern, and the laity are their instruments. In the principal departments, no amount of services or ability could raise a layman above a certain level, beyond which younger and less competent ecclesiastics were promoted over his head. This subordination, which led to a regular dependence of the lay officials on