This conclusion is a short _resume_ of Papal history, which
will somewhat surprise the readers of Ranke and Gibbon.
"After the death of Constantine, the almost regal authority of the Popes
in reality commenced. Gregory the Great, created Pope 440 A.D. was
compelled for the safety of Italy to exercise this authority against the
Lombards on one hand, and the rapacious Exarchs on the other. About 726
A.D. Gregory II. declined the offer of Ravenna, Venice, and the other
Italian States, who conferred upon him, in name as well as in fact, the
sovereignty of Italy. At last, in 741 A.D. when Italy was not only
deserted in her need, but threatened from Byzantium with desolation and
heresy, Gregory III. called in the aid of Charles Martel, that Italy
might not perish; and by this law, a law of life and preservation, and
through the decree of Providence, the Popes became Italian sovereigns,
both in right and fact." On this very lucid and satisfactory account of
the origin of the Papal power, S is convinced at once, and is finally
dismissed shamefaced, with the unanswerable interrogation, "whether the
real object of the Revolution is not to create new men, new nations, new
reason, new humanity, and a new God?"
The three abstractions, S, M, D, then re-assemble to recant their errors.
One and all avow themselves confuted, and convicted of folly or worse.
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