proofs that absolutism was destined to prove fatal to the liberty of
the Church and the authority of the Holy See.

Finally, the universal discontent of the masses, and the great social
revolutions of the first quarter of the sixteenth century were likely
to prove dangerous to ecclesiastical authority. In all revolutions the
most extreme men are certain to assume control at least in the earlier
stages of the movement, and their wildest onslaughts on Church and
State are sure to receive the applause of the crowd. But there was
special danger that these popular outbreaks might be turned into anti-
religious channels at a time when so many of the bishops were secular
princes, and when the Church appeared to be so closely identified with
the very interests against which the peasants took up arms. In these
circumstances it was not difficult for designing men to push forward
their plans of a religious reform under guise of a campaign for
liberty and equality.[2]
----------

[1] /Cambridge Modern History/, ii., p. 176. Janssen, op. cit., Eng.
Trans., ii., chap. ii.

[2] Janssen, op. cit. Eng. Trans., vols. i.-iii. Pastor, op. cit.,
Eng. Trans., vols. i.-iii.


(c) The Religious Condition of Europe.

Pastor, op. cit. Janssen, op. cit. Creighton, /History of the
Papacy from the Great Western Schism to the Sack of Rome/, 2nd
edition, 1897. Ranke, /Die Romische Papste im 16 und 17