Here we go, with an oldie but goodie:
“I cannot accept, your canon that
we are to judge pope and king unlike other men, with a favorable presumption that they do no wrong. If there is any presumption, it is the other way against holders of power …
Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
He did labor long and hard to head off the infallibility resolution at Vatican Council I, managing to get away with his opposition without being excommunicated.
To this end, he had convinced his local bishop, who was also his former teacher, that his position was sound as to essentials. In addition, as an intimate of the prime minister, Gladstone, Acton was too good a card for the Vatican to throw away.
The historian Gertrude Himmelfarb has that fascinating story here.
Blithe Spirit 