New Old Book

New Old Book in the Bibliography.

GILL, THOMAS H. – The Papal Drama, A Historical Essay – London 1866

In his Introduction he states.

Now and then in private life and personal character a Gregory, an Urban, a Clement, an Innocent, a Boniface, a Benedict, a Pius and a Celestine have been not un-meetly named; but as a body these loftily designated sovereigns of the Roman Church  have by no means transcended in mercy, beneficence and godliness the Henries, Edwards, Charleses and Fredericks of this world. There has been no dearth of reckless Gregories, brawling Urbans, ruthless Clements, harmful Innocents, and Benedicts of anything but blessed memory; there has been more than one malefactor Boniface, more than one ungodly Pius and more than one earthly-minded Celestine. This pretension to transcend, and this failure to reach ordinary human virtue, form the great peculiarity of the papal dynasty, and the chief strangeness of the papal story.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.