And I take the ground that the Papacy was an institution of which very much may be said in its favor in the dark ages of European society, especially in restraining the tyranny of kings and the turbulence of nobles.

The reformed Papacy was good fortune for believing children of the Church, but what here concerns us is that one of its chief objects was to repress freedom more effectually.

The Papacy was not politically a great power until the time of Hildebrand, nor a rich temporal power till nearly the era of the Reformation.

Et concludebat, Nonne miseria dignus est qui pro tanta pugnat miseria?" "The Papacy, if it be well borne, is the chief of honors, of burdens, of servitudes, and of labors; but if ill, it is the chief of perils for the soul, the chief of evils, of miseries, and of shames.

If the Papacy were a mere despotism, having nothing else in view than the inthralment of mankind,of which it has been accused,then mankind long ago, in lofty indignation, would have hurled it from its venerable throne.

The papacy, then, was a church clothed with civil power, an ecclesiastical body, having authority to punish all dissenters with confiscation, imprisonment, torture, and death.