It  did  indeed  mount  the  throne  of  the  Caesars,
but   only    to    replace   secular    by   ecclesiastical

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Christianity  and  the  Social  Order

tyranny.  The  present  Church  of  Rome  is  but
the  shadow  of  the  old  Empire  ;  it  is  the  Empire
perpetuated  under  ecclesiastical  forms.  It  is  one
of  the  great  contradictions  of  history  that  the
religion  which  started  as  the  promise  of  universal
brotherhood  should  have  come  to  be  the  chief
bulwark  of  authority  and  the  foe  of  liberty.  The
transition  was  perfectly  simple.  All  that  had  to
be  done  was  to  transfer  the  expectation  of  com-
munal happiness  from  this  world  to  the  next,  and
the  thing  was  done.  Henceforth  the  advice  to
the  poor  and  oppressed  would  be  that  they
should  remain  passive  under  existing  injustice,
in  order  that  they  might  receive  compensation
in  heaven.  A  greater  travesty  of  the  original
meaning  and  purpose  of  the  religion  of  Jesus
could  not  well  be  imagined.
