The Temporal Power of the Vicar of Jesus Christ

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GENERAL PREFACE.

In reprinting the three small Treatises which form the present volume, it may be well to prefix a few words to excuse their insufficiency as compared with the great subject of the Temporal Power,—of which no one is more aware than I am. I am not ashamed of saying, that when this, which has become the leading and critical question of these times, not only for Catholics, but for the nations of Europe, first was forced upon us, I was but little prepared to conceive its vast extent and its vital importance. I had been used to regard it as a sacred institution of Divine Providence, related chiefly to the beautiful confederation of Europe in the ages of Faith, surviving into present times as an object of veneration rather than as a vital power of government. It seemed rather to be a monument of the majesty, beauty, and splendour of the past, than an instrument of energy in the present, fitted for the vehement action of our modern world, and mingling with all the conflicts of the nineteenth century. Neither am I ashamed to confess that I did not apprehend the reasons of the Divine conduct in its institution, nor its titles of just and sovereign right, nor its relation to the future action of the Church upon the world, as I have learned to perceive them now. They grew upon me as I read, and have manifested themselves with such a light of evidence and such a continually-increasing importance, that I had hardly finished any part of the following pages without at once feeling dissatisfied. And when I had reached the end, I wished that I might have, begun all over again. I believe, however, that in the following treatises the full outline of the subject is described, and that no error in principle will be found; but that every thing ought to be treated with a far greater fulness of illustration, expansion, and detail, I am altogether aware. Nevertheless, such as they are, I am compelled to let them stand, forasmuch as I see no hope of finding the leisure necessary to begin them afresh. All that I can now do, is to prefix a few words in which I may in some degree supply what is wanting.
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