Here you have a man who would
not be a layman, who pities laymen simply because they are laymen,
regarding them as a caste inferior to his own; who has received an
anti-lay education; who thinks differently to laymen on all important
points; and you expect this man will share his power with laymen, in
an empire where he is absolute master of all and everything! You
require him to surround himself with laymen, to summon them to his
councils, and to confide to them the execution of his behests!
Supposing, however, that for some reason or other he fears you, and
wishes to humour you a little, see what he will do. He will seek in
the outer offices of his ministers some lay secretary, or assistant,
or clerk, a man without character or talent; he will employ him, and
take care that his incapacity shall be universally known and admitted.
After which, he will say to you sadly, "I have done what I could." But
if he were to speak the honest truth, he would at once say, "If you
wish to secularize anything, begin by putting laymen in _my_ place."
It is not in 1859 that the Pope will venture to speak so haughtily.
Intimidated by the protection of France, deafened by the unanimous
complaints of his subjects, obliged to reckon with public opinion, he
declares that he has secularized everything. "Count my functionaries,"
he says:
"I have 14,576 laymen in my service. You have been told that
ecclesiastics monopolize the public service.
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