172 APPENDIX IV

pedum Regum Schismatici et in

humill imâm servitutem redacti:

ignorantes, senescentes et coecu-

tientes in eo pulvere et servitute

gloriam suam firmitatemqne col-

locant. Ecclesia autem catholica

antiquissima, at numqnâm sene-

scëns, immo semper iuvenis, quo-

vis saeculo eam conspicias- iu-

venis erat, quum vestem cogere-

tur induere totam suo sanguine

tinctam, ut fide susceptam imma-

culatam servaret: iuvenis erat,

quüm,victoriis innumeris repleta,

crines capitis sui dispersos com-

posuit, eamque Reges honoris

causa salutarunt : iuvenis erat,

quum vexillo fidei receptae elátó

inscripsit: qui mecum non est con-

tra Christum est : iuvenis erat,

quum Reges et populi sapientiam

auctoritatemque eius excelsam ad-

mira i , collum eius non solum

aureis monilibus ornarunt sed

regale quoque sceptrum in manu

eius composuerunt: iuvenis erà^

and when camelopards and tigers bounded in the Flavian amphithéâtre. The proudest royal houses are but of yesterday, when compard with the ilné of the Supreme Pontiffs. Thal line we trace back in an unbroken series, from the Pope who crowned Napoleon in the nineteenth Century to the Pope who crowned Pepin in the eighth; and far beyond the time öf Pepin the august dynasty extends, tili it is lost in the twilight of fable. The republic of Venice came next in antiquity. But the republic of Venice was modern when com- pared with the Papacy; and the republic of Venice is gone, and the Papacy remains. The Papacy remains, not in decay, not a mere antique, but full of life and youthful vigour. The catholic Church is still sending forth to the farthest ends of the world missionari es as zealous as those who landed in Kent vith Augustin, and still conffonting hostile kings with the same spirit with which she confrohted Attila. The number of her children is greater than in any former age. Her acquisitions in the New World have more than com- pensated for what she has lost in the Old. Her spiritual ascendancy extends ovei the vast countries which He between the plains of the Missouri and Cape Horn, countries which, a Century henee, may not improbably contain a popu- lation as large as that which how inhabits Europe. The members of her com- munion are certainly not fewer than a hundred and fifty millions; and iL will be diffìcult to show that ali other Christian seets united amount to a hundred and twenty millions. Nor do we see any sign which indicates that the term of her long dominion is approaching. She saw the commencement of ali the governments and of ali the ecclesiastical establishment that now exist in the world; and we feel no assurance that she is not destined to eee the end of them all. She was great and respected before the Saxon had set foot on Bri tai n, before the Frank had passed the Rhine, when Grecian éloquence still flou- rished at Antioch, when idols were stili worshipped in the tempie of Mecca. And she may stili exist in undimìnished vigour when some traveller from New Zealand shall, in the midst of a vast solitude, take his stand on a broken #rch of London Bridge to sketch the ruins of St. Paul'?. »