Russia in 1839 -Empire of the Czar: A Journey Through Eternal Russia

338THE FALLIBILITY

The monstrous credit of Russia at Rome is one of the effects of the influence against which I would have us prepared.* Rome and. Catholicism have no greater, no more dangerous enemy than the Emperor of Russia. Sooner or later, under the auspices of the Greek autocracy, schism will reign alone at Constantinople ; and then the Christian world, divided into two camps, will recognise the wrong done to the Roman church by the political blindness of its head.

That prince, alarmed by the disorder into which the nations were falling on his elevation to the pontifical throne, terrified by the moral evils inflicted upon Europe by our revolutions, without support, alone in the midst of an indifferent or scoffing world, feared nothing so much as the popular commotions from which he had suffered, and seen his contemporaries suffer: ceding, therefore, to the fatal influence of certain narrow minds, he took human prudence for his guide; he became wise according to the fashion of the world, skilful after the manner of men; that is to say, blind and weak in the sight of God: and thus was the cause of Catholicism in Poland deserted by its natural advocate, the visible head of the orthodox church. Are there полу many nations who would sacrifice their soldiers for Rome ? And yet, when, in his nakedness and poverty, the pope still found a people ready to die for him — he excommunicated them ! — he, the only prince on earth who was bound to assist them at the risk of his own life, excommunicated them to please the sovereign of a schismatic nation! The faithful asked each other in dismay, what had become of the indefatigable