Innocent — it  may  be  thus  represented
— upheld  the  existing  rights  of  the
Church,  and  administered  his  supremo
spiritual  government,  with  the  same
inflexible  spirit  that  we  admire  in  the
civil  judge  who  maintains,  at  whatever
cost,  the  integrity  of  the  law,  or  in  the
patriot  minister  who  scruples  at  no
measure,  however  bold,  which  the
safety  and  honour  of  his  country  de-
mand. If  we  object,  that  pride  and  lovo
of  power  mingled  in  his  breast — we
may  be  answered  that  they  mingle  in
the  breast  of  every  man  who  has  to  play
a  great  part  in  life.  The  nature  of
humanity  cannot  be  altered— men  can-
not be  other  than  men — because  the
cause  of  religion  is  concerned.  If  we
cannot  apprehend  how  a  man  may,
with  all  his  native  impetuosity  of
temper,  with  all  his  domineering  pas-
sions thick  about  him,  pursue  some
great  idea  as  the  guide  und  object  of
his  life — some  purpose  far  too  large
for  selfishness  to  grasp — we  may  close
at  once  the  volume  of  ecclesiastical
history,  for  we  cannot  understand  a
page  of  it.  The  spiritual  government
of  the  Pope,  such  as  it  was  declared
to  be  in  the  days  of  Innocent,  was  the
snblimest  conception  that  a  human
polity  ever  attempted  to  realize,  and
to  uphold  it  might  well  have  captiva-
ted and  engrossed  the  most  exalted  of
minds.  Surely  the  supreme  magis-
trate of  the  faith — the  great  adminis-
trator of  Christianity — the  visible  re-
presentative of  Christ — should  have
Kings  and  princes  for  the  ministers  of
bis  decrees,  and  all  the  earth  should
he  subject  to  him.  It  was  a  grand
conception — it  was  only  too  grand — it
placed  the  man  where  the  god  should
oe*


St  Louis.
