l'OLITICAL THOUGH1'S ON THE CHURCH 207
were simply an adaptation of Catholicism to a political system incompatible with it in its integrity; an artifice to accommodate the Church to the requirements of absolute government, and to furnish absolute princes with a resource which \vas else\vhere supplied by Protestantism. The consequence has been, that the Church is at this day more free under Protestant than under Catholic governments-in Prussia or England than in France or Piedmont, Naples or Bavaria. As we have said that the Church commonly allied herself with the political elements which happened to be insufficiently represented, and to temper the predominant principle by encouraging the others, it might seem hardly unfair to conclude that that kind of government in which they are all supposed to be combined,-u aequatum et temperatum ex tribus optimis rerum publicarum modis J) (Cicero, Rep. i. 4S),-must be particularly suited to her. Practically-and we are not here pursuing a theory- this is a mere fallacy. If we look at Catholic countries, we find that in Spain and Piedmont the constitution has served only to pillage, oppress, and insult the Church; whilst in Austria, since the empire has been purified in the fiery ordeal of the revolution, she is free, secure, and on the highroad of self-improvement. In constitutional Bavaria she has but little protection against the Cro\vn, or in Belgium against the mob. The royal power is against her in one place, the popular element in the other. Turning to Protestant countries, we find that in Prussia the Church is comparatively free; whilst the more popular Government of Baden has exhibited the most conspicuous instance of oppression \vhich has occurred in our time. The popular Government of Sweden, again, has renewed the refusal of religious toleration at the very time \vhen despotic Russia begins to make a show, at least, of conceding it. In the presence of these facts, it would surely be absurd to assume that the Church must look with favour on the feeble and transitory constitutions \vith which the revolu- tion has covered half the Continent. It does not actually
