FROM ROME!
Toward the middle of the eighteenth century, the great non- Catholic states of Europe had gained the upper hand over Spain, France, Austria and Poland, the Catholic states. Whatever may have been the cause of this reversal, the peoples who now found themselves at a disadvantage began to voice disapproval of "clerical" influence on their affairs, and tore at the bonds which associated them with central Roman authority. While the Papacy was not an important factor in the political antagonisms and the shifting balances of power which characterized the century, it was necessarily compelled to reckon seriously with the change in attitude of Catholic states and govern- ments. This change was bound up with the dynastic history of these countries, above all with the extension of Bourbon power over the thrones of Spain, Sicily, Naples and Parma. The Bourbon family signed a pact (1761) , which obliged these countries to form an alliance with France against England. It also gave expression to a concept of government hostile to Rome i. e., that same enlightened ab- solutism which dominated Austria, Prussia and Russia.
In the new conception of Church and State, Gallicanism, liberalistic philosophy and Jansenism were blended. The secularization of the intellect made inroads on religion, paradoxical though that may seem; and the object was, after having changed the character of religion, to make it serve the natural order. Christianity was adjudged all right as a moral teaching, as a pedagogical influence upon the common people, and as a curb of instincts which if left to themselves would lead to chaos. But it was considered evil if it pointed out a realm beyond reason and nature by giving utterance to dogmas, mysteries, and ideas of revelation and the supernatural life. Through the secret anti-Church of Freemasonry this spirit of a humanism compounded of denatured religious impulses gained an influence upon ruling cabinets, which it hoped to use as instruments for re-educating the masses still loyal to the Church. Later on, of course, this spirit re- acted against governments and monarchs as the spirit of revolution. Every kind of enthusiasm, particularly the enthusiasm of faith, was an- noying to this humanitarian enlightenment; but the fact that it still
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