infallible "master of truth," and was entitled to uninquiring and absolute obedience, not merely in spirituals, but in such temporal matters as he alone should declare to be essential to the preservation and exercise of his imperial prerogatives. They had endured the evils of that form of government long enough, and having contrasted their condition with that of peoples who had entered upon the experiment of governing themselves--such as those of the United States--they became convinced that they owed to themselves and their posterity the duty of undertaking the same experiment, even at the cost of revolution. All they could hope to do, under the conditions surrounding them, was to separate Church and State, disavow and discard the doctrine of the divine right of kings as temporal rulers, whether ecclesiastical or secular, and substitute constitutional governments for absolute monarchism; in other words, to try political institutions of their own creation in place of the "paternal government" by which the papacy had kept them from advancing along with the progressive peoples who had asserted and maintained the right of self-government. Had not these populations the right to do this? The American Declaration of Independence asserts that this right is derived from the law of nature, and is inalienable. The "Holy Alliance" of European sovereigns was organized to suppress it. The papacy and the Jesuits combined their energies to resist it as heresy. There was, therefore, no middle ground between constitutional government and submission--between the continuance of the old order of things and the infusion of new life into decrepit and decaying institutions. Consequently, the people of Southern Europe had to make choice between these alternatives, at the risk of being denounced and punished as unfaithful and heretical revolutionists. They patriotically chose the latter. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 161: This gave rise to what is known as the _Monroe Doctrine_, which declares that the United States will consider it threatening to their own independence if European Governments shall interfere with that of any of the American States.] [Footnote 162: Greisinger, pp. 670 to 674.] [Footnote 163: Cormenin, Vol. II, pp. 424-425.] [Footnote 164: De Montor, Vol. II, pp. 614 to 620.] [Footnote 165: Cormenin, Vol. II, pp. 426-427.] [Footnote 166: Cormenin, Vol. II, p. 428.] [Footnote 167: Cormenin, Vol. II, p. 429.] [Footnote 168: History of France. By White. Page 540.] CHAPTER XVI. REVOLUTIONS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE.