Yet in truth it was only the customary inference from an accepted principle, that it is the business or the right of governments to guide thought and regulate its expression.

The Jesuits acted on this theory, and resorted to repressive power and the secular arm whenever they could.

The Jansenists repudiated the principle, but eagerly practised it whenever the turn of intrigue gave them the chance.
An extraordinary and unforeseen circumstance changed the external bearings of this critical conflict of ideas.

The conception of the duties of the temporal authority in the spiritual sphere had been associated hitherto with Catholic doctrine.

The decay of that doctrine was rapidly discrediting the conception allied with it.