Page:Life in the Old World - Vol. II.djvu/184

194 of the Popedom to a supernatural, all-dominant temporal power,—how this power increased and increased, partly from outer necessity, partly from inner worldliness—the power of the old serpent in the human heart—until five centuries after the first Gregory, a second of the same name, also great in disposition and will,—although, as it appears to me,—less pure, less free from selfishness than the first—could, with firm faith and will, regard himself as the representative of a domination, the greatest and the most absolute which ever ruled on earth. This domination is excellently described in the following words taken from a letter written by Gregory VII., and given by Johannes Voigt, whose history of the Pope, even Catholics highly esteem.

“The church of God must be free from all earthly, human sway; the altar is only for him who eternally succeeds St. Peter; the sword of the ruler is below the church, its power is merely derived from it because it is a human thing; the altar, the chair of St. Peter, is only below God, and only from God. The church is now sinful because she is not free; because she is firmly fettered to the world, and to worldly men; her servants are not the right servants because they are appointed by worldly men, and are by this means what they are. Therefore, sinful desires and passions prevail in the persons consecrated to Christ, who are called overseers of the communities; therefore they strive alone after earthly things, because bound to the word; they require that which is earthly