They compelled the people to submit, by the forfeiture of all their civil rights, to the Pope's authority, in its most extravagant and unbounded sense, as a giver of kingdoms; and now they refuse even to tolerate them in the most moderate and chastised sentiments concerning it.
Burke condemns the extreme measures taken against people for their religious beliefs, highlighting the severity of their oppression.
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When such an unwarrantable maxim is once established, that no throne is lawful but the elective, no one act of the princes who preceded this era of fictitious election can be valid.
Who could flatter himself that these men, suddenly, and as it were by enchantment, snatched from the humblest rank of subordination, would not be intoxicated with their unprepared greatness?
Those who are servants in name, as well as in effect, do not like to be told of their situation, their duty, and their obligations.
A state without the means of some change is without the means of its conservation.
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