ORIGIN OF THE TEMPORAL POWER.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVII, Issue 30, 15 November 1889, Page 23

ORIGIN OF THE TEMPORAL POWER.

(From a paper read by Mr. W. J. Sparrow, L.L.D., at the Conference of ihe Catholic V ung Men's bociety of England, in Hull, on Monday, Augusts) For 3 )0 yeiiM the Uurisiia is continued to be the most loyal of the But.jicsof the empire, aud m all things lawful to render obedience to the Emperor <f Rome. But from the time when Coostantine removed the seat or. tr Je c upiie to Constantinople, there never reigaed in Home a temporal pr.nce to whom the Poniff owed a permanent all-giance. From Uiat, mom-at God libera c i his Cnurch. The donati ju of Constantino as it is cat c 1, does not m:au, as is generally supposed, a deed of tuft, h for.ua ly swnei p ccc of parchment, noi aiy other charter ; it c msiste i m the fac- th it, move. 1 by God, the Emperor Conbtantiue departed fiom Rome to Constantinople, and removed the beat of tne Ro «a i Empire to tue latter city. It i« sometime* vr o 'ed that v >m<i wa-. inclu led in ihe empire of the Gr. ek Emperors, and appeared in ih ■ .ist of teiritoiies subj ct to mer sway; but, ahh.ugo. it ra iy have b -en so described by ourtly syc )pbams,.»nd aih .vga rbe ril npjr . s ntv bay ■ oai c I th mselves uvn uens oi a uomam whic i included R in; within its ambit, yet, in trmb and in Ucr, tiorn ■ c ] ly.-il complete iv I •pc » i n ■- under iheßumiu Pontiff Horn the aine when Cxistantiue depirtel from Italy. An it widely iis-,im «i ,t i eot facts <-xi ted in tae cis^ or ourowuc uot<y (&• gUn I). B, U;u w s included in th.- finnan Empire, and tbf iwm m Emp i .rs p'Oressed to r s-ir I it as p irt ot the luni ovei wh eh they exercised d.,m moa long- after the la>t of the Kum«u Jegiunaiies bad dep.u eJ from its hhoits, and, never!beless, all hidtori.ins agree th.tt irom thaLm imenr Britain become iudep. ndent Why should anyone, then, husitate to apply the same principles of reasoning to the city ot home ? Koma itself was save 1 iruru the barl.aiwma, both Gr. ek and Hun, only by the fortitude of us Bishops wrjo turned back Attila and Genteuc when in sight ot its w .11s. We find tins fact— hat is, the independence of the Roman P. n iff -i (counsel again a d agam m the histury of the world. Wuen Pi-pin drove out the Lombards, we are expressly told that he mane restitution to 'he Chur h .tad the Oommonwealth of the city ot Home or .he lemtory that had been wroDg'ully taken from them by the Lombards. Again, when Unarlemange delivered Rome from its foes, he expressly declares that he restored it, not gave it, tc the Pope: that he male a le-Jtitution, not a donation. Rome and the surrounding corn-try hive, from tha time when the seat of empire waeremjv^d to tbe E uf, stool clear of all sjvereignties. Resting on a sjvdcrguty ot tln'ir own, they have owed alle^iaice to none — have been included in no Empin . Fr nn that time thi Pope has reigned as a temp ir.il punce. No man has given him his rights. He is first <md earliest in the Us' of Christian soveteigns. When Bntain was a mixture of swamp and roiest, amid which the painted savages wandered and fought, the Vicar of Chnsc was a temp ,ral prince. If th.-ie be any property sacred upon this earth ihe patrimony of t ne Church .s pre eminently sacre 1 The patnmonv of tbe Chuich consis ed originally vi twenty-three distiuct portions, and whertverwas trie pntrim ,ny of the Cuurch there wai the seed of civilisation, th> rf wer > h ay.-a fre>d,ar s and liarnin^ fijunshed, and order ro-.e out of chaos s»o unj/ertHctly are Engiishmon, even of the educ-ttid cl»sses, acqu tinted wit'i history that alth >u_'h the .story of Eurore teema with countless examples of the works of love aad charny of the Church from which her temporal -an i political power aro^e, few of our ompat iots have any knowledge ot thg fact, but regard the Pap.l power .is the growth of despotism and darkness, raise 1 by the u-urping -.mbitio i of ny r.cious Pontiff* and the txercise i f whit tuey cad prestcraft. The Popi, then, claims his temporal power and th • Papal dominions by title? such as nuoiher Bovereign cm show. We are som times tjld by our opponents that St. Peter had no temporal power, ttut the early Church poss ssed neither patnm< ny norhovereigotv, and this is true. Tn»> Church will fl jurish without the temporal power, but it will flourish in strife and persecution. The choice is bitween the Vatican and the Catacombs. A picture is sometim.s held u» to us d ( f the Pope without any t mporal domini i ,-, ruling his Cnurch rt a a p jraly spi-itual ptince, free fiom all eauhly c ires and independent ol a'l earthly princes; and ttns piciure tias> its altripti ns for soma Call o'.ica ; but, alluring 'hou^h it may b>,it is ([.ntelmp issibie ot lealisa'ion. Tbe Pope cou'd nor be ih t subj -ct of any sovereign a'ld if he ie^i led in the do nin ous of any pri ice he must cither be subject to him, or possess temporal power and be an independent fco^ereign. It the Pope were residing iv the dominions of some monarch, perpetual difficulties would arise as to Edalions with that monarch, all the existing questions between the Church aad the State would in his person arise in tenfold, nay, in a thousandfold greater degree. Bat

those who desire the attainment of this drearo more commonly propose to themselves the idea of the Pope with absolute independence, although with no special locality under hii temporal domiuion. Knowing what we do of the history an! feelings of mankind, we can hardly think that tha authors of this scheme have ever seriously considered the possibility of its realisation. That earthly priace who wonll permit the S >vereign Pontiff to reside in his dominion without attempting to exercise any pressure upon him, without attempting to interfere with his spiritual functions, has never yet existed, and nt;v L -r will exist fo long as human Dature remains what it is. In short, it is a dilemma. It ths Pope ia to be subject to the civil power of some one else, he cannot exercise his spiritual functions, and if, " assuming it to be possible, which it is not," he were not to be subject, he would be an independent sovereign. The terrible complications that would ensue if the Vicar of Christ were resident in the dominions of some other prince transcend description, nay, almost surpass imaginatioD. What political intrigues ! what treachery I what confusion 1 The temporal power is the shelter, the guardian and protector of the spiritual. Destroy the temporal power, and you return to the times of persecution. The Church will not perish, the gates of hell will uct prevail against her, but she will have, as in the beginning, to exercise her spiritual power through s;as of fire and waves of blood, through ctnstant struggles, and through endless persecutions. At the present moment, in this year of Our Lord, 1889, the rulers of the Kingdom of Italy daie not grant to the people the right of voting. Their Parliament is elected by an insignificant minority of the nation, and the reason for this miserable mockery of free lorn is, as they themselves admit, the inteuse Citholicity of the great mass of the community. The real people of Italy are Catholic to their hearts' core, and were they allowed to express their wishes, were they but entrusted with a constitution like England or America, they would speedily sweep out the swarm of infidels and renegades who are masquerading as the reprt-senta'ives of the Italian people. But even if the tacts were the reverse of wtiat they are, it is probably the firßt time in the History of the world that the desire of a robber for the goods of his victim wa3 solrtnuly urged as a justification of his lobbery. The inhabitants of the Papal S'a"ea were well contented with their lot, as indeed they hid good reason to be. A r«volution may ba lawful under certaiu circumsiances. If the people find their rulers actiug in such a way as to involve in fact the moral and social existence of the State, the people in self-iefence are justified in protecting themselves. And so han the Jhuicu julg'd again and again ; bu not only was tbeie no j i^tifijation for a xevolution in the Papil Btat<s, but in fact theie w.B no revolution. By force, by the i^uile and arms of foreiguers was the Holy F ither deprived of his djmi iions, But lhm is uo new or s'range experience. Nine times h.is the city of H >me been in the hands of u-^urpeis. Thirty Popes nave been compelled to leave Kmnu ; fjui weie imprisoned; seven reigned in qs.,L- at Avignon ; four were un.ble rven to visit the Eternal City. There his h -»r«ily been a century during whirch the P^pal dominions have not i e-;n ravaged, dismembered or usurped. The IVuQfjOial Sovereigity, as hi t try teaches us, is always being assailed, but history always teaches uh it i ivariably h restoied. Nowh re is tbe mai veil >us manner of Providence shown more clearly tban in the story of these restorations. Tue hands used to do this service have often been the most unlikely, humanly speaking, for the purpose. Olton has the Pope bern restored by those who, judging by the world's standard of reason and policy, weic most interested in hi destruction.