Page:Life in the Old World - Vol. II.djvu/190

200 church, still how small is the power of that church, compared with what it was formerly, over either nations or the human mind! And this power decreases in outward authority, every day. And must it not be so, when she herself loses sight of the highest? Is it God in Christ which this church now proclaims? Is it not much more the Holy Virgin? The present Pope, Pio Nono, who considers himself to have received especial help, in a time of great need, from the intercession of the Virgin, has promulgated, in St. Peter's, the dogma of her perfect immaculation, consequently, divinity; and it is to her honor, and La Colonna, which has been erected in its glorification, that the successor of St. Peter this year commanded all tongues should give praise at the great annual festival of the Roman Propaganda! And yet Pio Nono insists that people must believe in the Pope—must regard him as the representative of Christ on earth, and infallible as our Lord! But the Holy Scriptures, and thoughtful Christianity, and sound reason!—no, it will not do!

I cannot deny myself the satisfaction of giving here an extract which struck me, from a book which I am now reading, namely: The Roman Pontifical Monuments. “There will come a time when the Pontifical monuments will have a significance like that of the busts and statues of the Roman emperors at the present time. There then will be no longer any Popes. Religion will then have assumed a new form, to us, as