Page:History of Freedom.djvu/413

 DÖLLINGER ON THE TEMPORAL POWER 369

for the unity and greatness of their country, or as a just consequence of incurable defects. The time \vill come, ho\vever, when they \vill be reconciled with the Papacy, and with its presence as a Power among them. It \vas the dependence of the Pope on the Austrian arms, and his identification in popular opinion with the cause of the detested foreigner, that obscured his lofty position as the moral bulwark and protector of the nation. For I 500 years the Holy See was the pivot of I talian history, and the source of the Italian influence in Europe. The nation and the See shared the same fortunes, and grew p\:nverful or feeble together. It was not until the vices of Alexander VI. and his predecessors had destroyed the reverence which ,vas the protection of Italy, that she became the prey of the invaders. N one of the great Italian historians has failed to see that they would ruin themselves in raising their hands against Rome. The old prophecy of the Paþa Angelico, of an Angel Pope, who was to rise up to put an end to discord and disorder, and to restore piety and peace and happiness in Italy, was but the significant token of the popular belief that the Papacy and the nation were bound up together, and that one was the guardian of the other. That belief slumbers, now that the idea of I unity prevails, \vhilst the Italians are attempting to put , the roof on a building without walls and ,vithout founda- tions, but it \vill revive again, \vhen centralisation is compelled to yield to federalism, and the road to the practicable has been found in the search after im- possibilities. The tyrannical character of the Piedmontese Govern- ment, its contempt for the sanctity of public law, the principles on which it treats the clergy at home, and the manner in which it has trampled on the rights of the Pope and the interests of religion, the perfidy and despotism it exhibits, render it impossible that any securities it may offer to the Pope can possess a real value. Moreover, in the unsettled state of the kingdom, the uncertain succession of parties, and the fluctuation of power, whatever guarantee is proposed by the ministry, there is nobody to guarantee 2 B