But if the thing is criminal, if, for instance, it is a license to commit adultery, the person who authorises the act shares the guilt of the person … - John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton

Great men are almost always bad men.

If you will bear in mind that Socrates, the best of the pagans, knew
of no higher criterion for men, of no better guide of conduct, than the
laws of each country; that Plato, whose sublime doctrine was so near an
anticipation of Christianity that celebrated theologians wished his works
to be forbidden, lest men should be content with them, and indifferent to
any higher dogma — ​​​​​​​to whom was granted that prophetic vision of the
Just Man, accused, condemned and scourged, and dying on a Cross — ​​​​​​​
nevertheless employed the most splendid intellect ever bestowed on man
to advocate the abolition of the family and the exposure of infants; that
Aristotle, the ablest moralist of antiquity, saw no harm in making raids
upon a neighbouring people, for the sake of reducing them to slavery — ​​​​​​​
still more, if you will consider that, among the moderns, men of genius
equal to these have held political doctrines not less criminal or absurd — ​​​​​​​it will be apparent to you how stubborn a phalanx of error blocks the
paths of truth

It is the story of a man who started in life believing himself a sincere Catholic and a sincere Liberal; who therefore renounced everything in Catholicism that was not compatible with liberty, and everything in politics which was not compatible with Catholicity.