She is urged on by the pressure of nineteen centuries.

But, if the irresistible indicates itself in her action, the inevitable manifests itself in her life.

For it is with the papacy as with a man.

It has passed through the struggles of infancy, it has displayed the energies of maturity, and, its work completed, it must sink into the feebleness and querulousness of old age.

Its youth can never be renewed.