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they did not ruin it. They did not prevent its aiding the contemporary progression of the race, nor its establishment as a precedent for the future improvement of the social organism; these being the two aspects in which we have now to examine it. It is incompatible with the limits of this Work to give such an account of the economy of the Catholic system of the Middle Ages as could convey any idea of the profound admiration I entertain for it; but it is the positive philosophy which will first render justice to this greatest political achievement of human wisdom. Hitherto it has been examined by panegyrists, who were necessarily under a sort of fanaticism on the subject, or by blind detractors, who saw nothing of its social destination. The positive philosophy, as free from monotheistic as from polytheistic or fetich belief, can be equally impartial in all the cases, and, being provided with a theory, can judge of the participation of Catholicism in human progress, in the way that institutions, like men, can alone be truly judged: that is, after the full accomplishment of their principal mission.

We have seen that hitherto morals had always been subordinated Transposition to political considerations. The grand social characof morals and teristic of Catholicism was that by constituting a politics. moral power, wholly independent of the political, it infused morality into political government; and this was done so naturally in the course of human progress, that it has survived the decay of the system which was its first organ; and with such vigour, that it marks, amidst all fluctuations, and more than any other characteristic whatever, the radical superiority of modern civilization over that of antiquity. From the outset, this new power took up a position equally remote from the foolish political pretensions of the Greek philosophy, and the degrading servility of the theocratic spirit, prescribing submission to established governments, while subjecting these governments to a universal morality of growing strictness. Whether, as at first, under Roman sway, or, as afterwards, under that of the forces of the North, it certainly aimed at nothing more than modifying by moral influence a pre-existing and independent political power. If the conflicts between the two powers which abounded so much in the Middle Ages are duly examined, it will be found that they were almost defensive on the part of the spiritual power, which had to contend, and did contend nobly, though often with only partial success, for the independence which was necessary to the discharge of its mission. The tragical story of Thomas à Becket, with a multitude more, less famous in history, proves that the aim of the clergy in such conflicts was to guard their choice of their own functionaries from temporal usurpation; a pretension which must be admitted to be legitimate and modest enough. Any rational theory about the boundaries of the two powers must, it seems to me, rest on the general principle that, as the spiritual power relates

Function of each.

THE SPECULATIVE CLASS.

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to education, and the temporal one to action, the influence of each must be sovereign in its own department, and only consultative in that of the other. Thus, the function of the spiritual power is, in the first place, to educate, according to the ordinary sense of the word, and then to keep up and apply, in the social practice of individuals and classes, the principles which education had prepared for the guidance of their life. As to still wider, even international relations, by which this power was chiefly characterized in the Middle Ages, they were simply an extension of the same operation to peoples so remote and so various as to require distinct and independent temporal government; and which would therefore have been without any regular political connection if the spiritual power, equally at home among all nations, had not employed its universal privilege in arbitrating in all their disputes, and, on occasion, promoting their collective activity. When once we have summed up all its prerogatives under the principle of Education, which enables us to take a single comprehensive view of the whole vast organism, we shall be so far from imputing to the Catholic power any serious usurpation of temporal authority, that we shall admit that it rarely obtained such freedom of action as was essential to the proper accomplishment of its mission, even in the days of its greatest splendour,

from about the middle of the eleventh to the end of the thirteenth century. Through all obstacles, however, Catholicism fulfilled its great provisional office, giving to the world, by its mere existence, an example which will never be lost of the inestimable influence on the improvement of society of a genuine spiritual authority, such as we have need of now, and shall obtain, when we have ascertained an intellectual basis for it, more direct, broader, and more durable than that of Catholicism.

It was under Catholicism that the speculative class began to assume the character assigned to it by the immut- The speculaable laws of human nature, neither engrossing politi- tive class. cal sway, as in theocracies, nor remaining outside of the social organization, as under the Greek régime. Henceforth its post was one of calm and enlightened, but not indifferent observation of practical life, in which it could interpose only in an indirect manner, by its moral influence. Thus placed at the true point of view of the general economy, being the spontaneous, faithful organ, and the natural adviser of its needs, it was eminently adapted, by speaking to each in the name of all, to introduce into the active life of individuals, classes, and nations, the abstract consideration of the common good, which would otherwise have been effaced amidst the divergences and discordance of the activity of the age. From this memorable period, a regular division between theory and its application began to be established, in the case of social ideas, as it had already been, with more or less success, in the case of simpler conceptions: political principles were no longer empirically constructed

system.

as required by practical urgency: social necessities came to be wisely considered in advance; and a legitimate expansion was afforded to the spirit of social, and even of political improvement: in short, political action began to assume, in its intellectual relations, a character of wisdom, extent, and even rationality which had never existed before, and which would have been more marked already, but for the misfortune that the philosophy involved in the operation was the theological. Morally regarded, there can be no doubt that this modification of the social organism developed among even the lowest ranks of the nations concerned in it a sense of dignity and elevation before almost unknown: for the universal morality, thus established by general conviction outside of and above the political sphere of action, authorized the meanest Christian to adduce, on occasion, to the most powerful noble, the inflexible prescriptions of that common doctrine which was the basis of obedience and respect; an obedience and respect which were now due to the function, and no longer to the person; so that submission might henceforth cease to be servile, and remonstrance to The Catholic be hostile. In a purely political view, this happy regeneration realized the great Utopia of the Greek philosophers, in all that was useful and reasonable, while excluding its follies and extravagances; since it constituted, in the midst of an order founded upon birth, fortune, or military valour, an immense and powerful class in which intellectual and moral superiority was openly entitled to ascendency, and often led to the most eminent positions in the hierarchy; so that the same capacity which would have been disturbing or oppressive according to Greek notions, thenceforth became the ordained guide of the general progress a settlement so satisfactory that we have only to follow its lead in reconstructing the same system on a better foundation.— In the international view, we cannot but perceive the aptitude of the spiritual organization for an almost indefinite territorial extension, wherever there was an analogous civilization admitting of a system of continuous relations, while the temporal could not, from its very nature, transcend its much narrower limits, without such intolerable tyranny as induced its own destruction. The papal hierarchy, in fact, constituted, in the Middle Ages, the main bond among the various European nations, after the decline of the Roman sway: and, in this view, the Catholic influence ought to be judged, as De Maistre truly remarked, not only by the ostensible good which it produced, but yet more by the imminent evil which it silently obviated, and which, on that account, we can only inadequately appreciate. If we measure the value of such an organization by the Catholicity from which it derives its title, we shall find that it allows us, better than any other, to estimate both the superiority and the imperfection of Catholicism in comparison with the system which preceded and with that which must follow it. For, on the one

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hand, the Catholic organization, extending to India and America, embraced an extent of territory and population far exceeding that of the Roman dominion, which became unmanageable by the disjunction and remoteness of its extremities from its active centre: and, on the other hand, Catholicism could incorporate with itself, in the days of its greatest splendour, only a small portion of the civilized world; since, before it was matured, the Mohammedan monotheism had taken possession of a large portion of the white race; and, some centuries afterwards, the Byzantine monotheism, which was almost as unlike it, had alienated from it for ever the half of the Roman world. These restrictions, so far from being accidental, must be philosophically regarded as an inevitable consequence of the vague and arbitrary character of theological belief, which, while laboriously organizing a dangerous, but temporary intellectual depression, could never occasion a satisfactory mental convergence among numerous and remote peoples, which can enter into durable communion only through a purely positive philosophy, amidst any possible elevation of the human race.

Having thus ascertained the social destination of the Catholic power, we must next briefly review the conditions of that action by which it achieved the moral results that remain imperishable after the decay of its intellectual basis.

Ecclesiastical

These conditions naturally divide themselves into the two classes of statical and dynamical conditions; the first class relating to the proper organization of the Catholic organization. hierarchy; and the other to the accomplishment of its destination. Taking the statical conditions first,-we cannot be surprised at the universal political ascendency of the ecclesiastical organization in the Middle Ages, superior as it was to all that surrounded it, and to all that had preceded it. Directly based upon intellectual and moral desert, at once flexible and stable, connected in all its chief parts, without repressing the proper activity of any, this admirable hierarchy could not but inspire in the humblest of its worthy members a sense of superiority, just, though sometimes too haughty, towards the ruder organisms with which it was at first connected, and which rested chiefly on birth, modified by fortune or military ability. When it took its true form, the Catholic organization, on the one hand, extended the elective principle by Elective admitting to choice of office the whole of society, the lowest ranks of which have supplied cardinals, and even popes; and, on the other hand, it advanced the nature of this political principle by reversing the order of election, by causing the superiors to be chosen by the inferiors. The characteristic method of election to the supreme spiritual dignity must ever, it seems to me, be regarded as a masterpiece of political wisdom, in which the guarantees of stability and due preparation must be more secure than they could be by the empirical expedient of hereditary succession,

principle.

while the soundness of the choice must be favoured both by the superior wisdom of the well-adapted electors, and by the careful encouragement given to the capacity, wherever found, for ecclesiastical rule, proved by an active noviciate; these collective precautions being in full accordance with the extreme importance of the eminent function which Catholic philosophers have ever justly regarded as the nucleus of their ecclesiastical system.

We must also recognize the political bearing of the monastic Monastic in- institutions, which, apart from their intellectual stitutions. services, certainly were one of the most indispensable elements of the vast organism. Arising out of the urgent need which, in the early days of Catholicism, was felt by contemplative minds to disengage themselves from the excessive dissipation and corruption of contemporary society, these special institutions, which we now know chiefly through the abuses of their declining period, were the cradle whence issued by anticipation the chief Christian conceptions, dogmatic and practical. Their discipline became afterwards the permanent apprenticeship of the speculative class, and the foundation whence issued the reformation of orders; a provision for the beneficial exercise of political genius which it has been impossible to appreciate, since the inevitable decay of this vast provisional system of spiritual organization. It is clear that the Catholic system could not have preserved, among its European relations, the attribute of generality, secure from absorption by the spirit of nationality inherent in its local clergy, if these contemplative train-bands, who were placed by their very nature at the universal point of view, had not been for ever reproducing direct thought, while exhibiting an example of independence which thereby became more generally practicable.

clergy.

The chief condition of efficacy common to all the political Special educa- qualities of the Catholic constitution was the powertion of the ful special education of the Clergy, which rendered the ecclesiastical genius habitually superior to every other, not only in knowledge of all kinds, but in political aptitude. The modern defenders of Catholicism, while proving that this education was always kept up to the most advanced point of general philosophy, have overlooked the importance of the introduction into that education of the new element of History, which, at least in the form of the history of the Church, became a part of ecclesiastical study. If we consider the filiation which connected Catholicism on the one hand with the Roman, and on the other with the Greek régime, and even, through Judaism, with the most ancient theocracies; and again, if we remember its continuous. intervention in all great human affairs, we shall see that, from the time of its full maturity under the great Hildebrand, the history of the Church was a kind of fundamental history of humanity, in its social aspect. Whatever was narrow in this view was com

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