Was it true then that this pope, whose opportunist tendencies were so freely displayed, was one of them, a mere docile instrument in their hands, though he fancied himself penetrated with the doctrines of St.Thomas Aquinas?
In any case, like them he compounded with the century, made approaches to the world, and was willing to flatter it in order that he might possess it.

Never before had Pierre so cruelly realised that the Church was now so reduced that she could only live by dint of concessions and diplomacy.

And he could at last distinctly picture that Roman clergy which at first is so difficult of comprehension to a French priest, that Government of the Church, represented by the pope, the cardinals, and the prelates, whom the Deity has appointed to govern and administer His mundane possessions--mankind and the earth.

They begin by setting that very Deity on one side, in the depths of the tabernacle, and impose whatever dogmas they please as so many essential truths.

That the Deity exists is evident, since they govern in His name which is sufficient for everything.