Macaulay on the Church

In conclusion, it might be well to recall the words written more than a hundred years ago by Lord Macaulay, who was a Protestant. They were written to be the introduction to the English translation of von Ranke's History of the Popes. He said:

"There is not and never was on earth a work of human policy so well-deserving of examination as the Roman Catholic Church. The history of that Church joins together the two great ages of human civilisation. No other institution is left standing which carries the mind back to the time when the smoke of sacrifice rose from the Pantheon, and when camelopards and tigers bounded in the Flavian amphitheatre. The proudest royal houses are of yesterday when compared with the line of Supreme Pontiffs…. The republic of Venice was modern when compared with the papacy. The republic of Venice is gone; the papacy remains, not in decay, not a mere antique, but full of life and youthful vigor. The Catholic Church is still sending to the farthest ends of the world missionaries as zealous as those which landed in Kent with Augustine, still confronting hostile kings with the same spirit with which she confronted Attila.… She saw the commencement of all the governments and all the ecclesiastical establishments that now exist in the world and we feel no assurance that she is not destined to see the end of them all."