TER XII.

PRIESTLY GOVERNMENT.

If the Pope were merely the head of the Roman Catholic Church; if,
limiting his action to the interior of temples, he would renounce the
sway over temporal matters about which he knows nothing, his
countrymen of Rome, Ancona, and Bologna might govern themselves as
people do in London or in Paris. The administration would be lay, the
laws would be lay, the nation would provide for its own wants with its
own revenues, as is the custom in all civilized countries.

As for the general expenses of the Roman Catholic worship, which in
point of fact no more _specially_ concern the Romans than they do the
Champenois, a voluntary contribution made by one hundred and
thirty-nine millions of men would amply provide for them. If each
individual among the faithful were to give a halfpenny _per annum_,
the head of the Church would have something like L300,000 to spend
upon his wax tapers and his incense, his choristers and his
sacristans, and the repairs of the basilica of St. Peter's. No Roman
Catholic would think of refusing his quota, because the Holy Father,
entirely separated from worldly interests, would not be in a position
to offend anybody. This small tax would, therefore, restore
independence to the Romans without diminishing the independence of the
Pope.

Unfortunately the Pope is a king. In this capacity he must have a
Court, or something approaching to it. He selects his courtiers among
men of his own faith, his own opinions, and his own profession:
nothing can be more reasonable. These courtiers, in their turn,
dispose of the different offices of state, spiritual or temporal, just
as it may happen. Nor can the Sovereign object to this pretension as
being ridiculous. Moreover he naturally hopes to be more faithfully
served by priests than laymen; while he feels that the salaries
attached to the best-paid places are necessary to the splendour of his
Court.

Thence it follows that to preach the secularization of the government
to the Pope, is to preach to the winds. Here you have a man who would
not be a layman, who pities laymen simply because they are laymen,
regarding them as a caste inferior to his own; who has received an
anti-lay education; who thinks differently to laymen on all important
points; and you expect this man will share his power with laymen, in
an empire where he is absolute master of all and everything! You
require him to surround himself with laymen, to summon th