Page:Rambles in Germany and Italy in 1840, 1842, and 1843 - Volume 2.djvu/261

 imminent, the compact between the head of a religion that preached equality, and the sovereigns who aimed at despotism, was sealed: while as the revenues of the Church, so lately swollen by tributes from all the Christian world, decreased, the pontiffs clung more tenaciously to the few miles of territory which they claimed as their own.

Before the first French Revolution, English travellers denounced the temporal rule of the Popes