Page:Essays on Catholicism, Liberalism, and Socialism.djvu/39

Jesus Christ: "Scitis quia hi, qui videntur principari gentibus, dominantur eis; et principes eorum potestatem habent ipsorum. Non ita est autem in vobis, sed quicumque voluerit fieri major, erit vester minister: et quicumque voluerit in vobis primus esse, erit omnium servus. Nam et Filius hominis non venit ut ministraretur ei, sed ut ministraret, et daret animam suam redemptionem pro multis."^[1]

People and rulers alike gained by this happy revolution. The latter, because their former power only extended over the bodies of men, and they had reigned by the right of force; while now they exercised a lawful authority over both bodies and minds. The former gained, because obedience to God is preferable to obedience to man, and because a willing compliance is better than an imposed consent; and this proves that the results of this revolution were more favorable for the people than for their rulers; for while princes, by the very act of governing in the name of God, represented humanity as impotent to constitute a legitimate authority of itself, and in its own name, the people, who only submitted to their princes in obedience to the divine command, became the representatives of the highest and the most glorious of human prerogatives, that of submitting to no yoke except the divine authority. This serves to explain, on the one hand, the singular modesty for which those happy princes are eminent in history, whom men call great, and the Church holy; and, on the other hand, the singular dignity and elevation for which truly Catholic nations are conspicuous. A voice of peace, consolation, and mercy had been