Essays on Freedom and Power
(1948)
Lord Acton
You may not have heard of Lord Acton, but you will certainly know something he said.
In 1877 Mandell Creighton published his History of the Popes, and in a private letter Acton told Creighton that he could have been a lot harder on papal power grabs and rampant Vatican corruption, not to mention their siring of illegitimate children. Acton was a well-known campaigner against the concept of ‘papal infallibility’, which had let popes do pretty much what they wanted to for centuries. He said:
“I cannot accept your canon that we are to judge Pope and King unlike other men, with a favourable presumption that they did no wrong. If there is any presumption it is the other way, against the holders of power, increasing as the power increases. Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
He continued…
“Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence not authority: still more when you add the tendency or the certainty of corruption by authority. There is no worse heresy than that the office sanctifies the holder of it.”
Thus the famous ‘power corrupts’ line must be seen within the context of papal infallibility, which Acton vigorously opposed at the First Vatican Council in 1870. As a staunch Catholic he believed the moral laws of the Church were perfect, but human beings certainly were not. To stay in power a good person may need to become bad, and when their power is great so grows the potential for badness.
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(1948)
Lord Acton
You may not have heard of Lord Acton, but you will certainly know something he said.
In 1877 Mandell Creighton published his History of the Popes, and in a private letter Acton told Creighton that he could have been a lot harder on papal power grabs and rampant Vatican corruption, not to mention their siring of illegitimate children. Acton was a well-known campaigner against the concept of ‘papal infallibility’, which had let popes do pretty much what they wanted to for centuries. He said:
“I cannot accept your canon that we are to judge Pope and King unlike other men, with a favourable presumption that they did no wrong. If there is any presumption it is the other way, against the holders of power, increasing as the power increases. Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
He continued…
“Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence not authority: still more when you add the tendency or the certainty of corruption by authority. There is no worse heresy than that the office sanctifies the holder of it.”
Thus the famous ‘power corrupts’ line must be seen within the context of papal infallibility, which Acton vigorously opposed at the First Vatican Council in 1870. As a staunch Catholic he believed the moral laws of the Church were perfect, but human beings certainly were not. To stay in power a good person may need to become bad, and when their power is great so grows the potential for badness.
Read more...