82 PERILS. — IIOMAXISM. 



cepts the Pope's right to dictate his behefs and acts, of 

 what avail are his Hberal sympathies? He is simply the 

 instrument of the absolute and intolerant papal will. His 

 sympathies can assert themselves and control his life only 

 as he breaks with the Pope, that is, ceases to be a Roman 

 Catholic. I fear we have little ground to expect that 

 many would thus break with the Pope, were a distinct 

 issue raised. Everyone born a Roman Catholic is suck- 

 led on authority. His training affects every fiber of his 

 mental constitution. He has been taught that he must 

 not judge for himself, nor trust to his own convictions. 

 If he finds his sympathies, his judgment and convictions 

 in conflict with a papal decree, it is the perfectly natural 

 result of his training for him to distrust himself. His 

 will, accustomed all his life to yield to authorit}' without 

 question, is not equal to the conflict that would follow 

 disobedience. How can he withstand a power able to 

 inflict most serious punishment in this life, and infinite 

 penalties in the next? Onl}^ now and then will one 

 resist and suffer the consequences, in the spirit of the 

 Captain in Beaumont and Fletcher's poem ' ' The Sea 

 Voyage." Juletta tells the Captain and his company: 



" Why, slaves, 'tis in our power to hang ye." 



The Captain replies : 



"Very Hkely. 

 'Tis in our powers, then, to be hanged and scorn ye." 



Modern times afford an excellent illustration of Avhat 

 may be expected when liberal prelates, strongly opposed 

 to ultramontanism, are brought to the crucial test. 

 Many members of the Vatican Council (1870) vigorously 

 withstood the dogma of papal infallibility, among whom, 

 says Professor Schaff, "were the prelates most distin- 

 guished for learning and position." Many of them 

 spoke and wrote against the dogma. Archbishop Ken- 

 drick, of St. Louis, published in Naples an ' ' irrefragable 

 argument " ^ against it. The day before the decisive vote 



1 Dr. Schaff. 



