ier to all the healthy, permanent, and free
development of nations was thus broken down; the blessings, the
privileges of society, were made equally attainable by the masses, and
ceased to be the special monopoly of a few, who, for the most part, had
nothing to recommend them except their wealth.

If any doubt remain as to the favorable influence of Catholicity on
civil liberty, it would be dispelled by the express teaching of the
theologians, writing in accordance with the principles and the spirit of
the Church. Not to extend this point too much, I will confine myself to
the authority of the great St. Thomas Aquinas, who, as a theologian,
has perhaps had greater weight in the Catholic Church than any other
man. His testimony may also show us what were the general sentiments of
the school-men in the thirteenth century, when he wrote.

Speaking of the origin of civil power and the objects of law, he lays
down these principles: "The law, strictly speaking, is directed
primarily and principally to the common good; and to decree anything for
the common benefit _belongs either to the whole body of the people, or
to some one acting in their place_." (Summa Theologiae, i. 2, I. Quaest.
Art. iii., Resp.) He pronounces the following opinion as to the best
form of government: "Wherefore the choice of rulers in any state or
kingdom is best, when one is _chosen for his merit to preside over all_,
and under him are other rulers _chosen for their merit; and the
government belongs to all, because the rulers may be chosen from any
class of society; and the choice is made by all_." (Ibid, Quaest. cv.
Art. 1.) One would think that he is hearing a Democrat of the modern
stamp, and yet it is a monk of the dark ages! Many other testimonies of
similar import might be cited, but these will suffice.

And what has Protestantism done for human freedom? The Reformation
dawned on the world in the year 1517. What did it do for the cause of
freedom from that date down to 1776--when our Republic arose? Did it
strike one blow for liberty during these two centuries and a half? Did
it originate one republican principle, or found one solitary republic?
Not one. In Germany, where it had full sway, it ruthlessly trampled in
the dust all the noble franchises of the Catholic middle ages; it
established political despotism everywhere; it united church and state;
in a word, it brought about that very state of things which continues to
exist, with but slight