For reason, also, is of God's gift--lower than
faith and love, yet a very needful part of man while God leaveth him in
his human habitation. There hath come an answer to the prayer, though
thou see'st it not."
"Is it written, my father, in the cruel words of the interdict?" she
gasped.
"She is tortured out of reverence," Santorio exclaimed apart, and would
have hushed her.
But Fra Paolo, overhearing, said gently:
"For this I came, to hearken all thy trouble, if perchance I might give
thee rest. The answer to thy prayer is not written in those unjust
words. For they--mark well, it is here that thy reason faileth thee--for
they were uttered by a human will, striving to coerce obedience in a
matter beyond its province. The power which God hath given to priests
and princes is not arbitrary, but to be regulated by the law of God;
neither is obedience toward those in authority to be stolid and blind,
but yielded only when the command is within this divine law. The Holy
Father hath no power to command disobedience to the Prince in his
rightful realm,--which thus he seeketh to do.
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