Cylchgronau Cymru

THB WREXHAM REGISTRAR POPERY AND ITALY. It may at first sight occasion some surprise that the spirit which has recently revolutionized Europe, should have had its rise in Italy, and that, too, in the Papal States; and that one of its chief and early results should have been the deposi¬ tion of the sacred dynasty of those States of 1500 years standing; a litte reflection, however, in -which it is interesting to indulge, will excite the contrary surprise,—that popery should have had its seat so long, and, in fact, that it ever should have had it at ail in that peninsula. One might have thought that that superstitious and ascetic system w®uld have suited better the effeminacy of the Eastern world than the vigor of the West, and that it would have established its seat, at the outset, at Constanti¬ nople, when the Imperial Court was removed thither by Constantine. Or, even in Europe, Italy seemed the most unlikely country for its estab¬ lishment ; for popery owed its chief strength, if not its existence, to the feudal system, but that system pre¬ vailed in Italy, in consequence of the popular spirit and independence that country had acquired by commerce, in which its geographical position gave it the lead in the middle ages, less than in any other State. One would there¬ fore have thought France, or some °ther part of more central Europe, where feudalism grew to maturity, the most favourable place for the erection of the Papal See. The fact is that it was by a singular concur¬ rence of accidental circumstances, not from anything congenial in the civil or religious state of the country, that Italy became the head quarters of the papacy. The tendencies of Italy- have always been against it; and those tendencies are now taking their course, and overcoming the circum¬ stances which accidentally, thougb for so long a time, checked and sup¬ pressed them. The chief of these circumstances was, that Italy contained the seat of the Roman empire. The Papal See is the ghost, or rather, the rotten but decorated corpse of the imperial government. As the eccle¬ siastical organization of the first ages was gradually adjusted, with great precision, to the political system of the empire, the church at Rome be¬ came the Metropolitan Church, and its bishop advanced, by rapid strides, towards a spiritual pre-eminence cor¬ responding with the imperial power. And then just as that prelate had reached that point in his elevation at which the presence of the imperial dignity would have checked rather than aided him, namely, just as he had acquired temporal authority under Constantine, that dignity was.remov¬ ed to Constantinople. This took place in the beginning of the fourth . century. Thus the see of .Rome benefitted as much by the departure of the imperial court, as it had pre¬ viously by its presence. The Empe¬ ror resided at Rome just long enough to raise its bishop to affluence and power, and to a condition for rivalry, and then departed, leaving the field to him. The influence of the Court, now transferred to Constantinople, produced, indeed, the same elevating