The case against the Church in Italy in the time of Pio Nono was not the case which a rationalist would urge against the Church of the time of St.Louis, but diametrically the opposite case.

Against the mediaeval Church it might be said that she was too fantastic, too visionary, too dogmatic about the destiny of man, too indifferent to all things but the devotional side of the soul.

Against the Church of Pio Nono the main thing to be said was that it was simply and supremely cynical; that it was not founded on the unworldly instinct for distorting life, but on the worldly counsel to leave life as it is; that it was not the inspirer of insane hopes, of reward and miracle, but the enemy, the cool and sceptical enemy, of hope of any kind or description.

The same was true of the monarchical systems of Prussia and Austria and Russia at this time.

Their philosophy was not the philosophy of the cavaliers who rode after Charles I.or Louis XIII.