they played the part of impostors in it themselves, and the daring impiety of their unbelief displayed itself not more in the blasphemy of their claims, than in the desperate flagitiousness of their lives. Nicholas the Fifth's truism* that they who do not believe in God, stand in no fear of him, was never more plainly exemplified than in the conduct of his immediate predecessors.†

Some of the Popes have been charged with offences of which they were innocent. Silvester, for example, was no magician; and it

* Lenfant, C. de Basle, ii. 284.

† All writers of that age were not so cautious as Olivier de la Marche, who says, when speaking of the Council of Basil, singulierement fust creé iceluy Concile à l'encontre et à la reformation de Pape Eugene; et publiquement luy mirent avant a l' encontre de sa vie et de sa personne plusieurs cas tels et de tels gestes que je n'en veux escrire ne ramentevoir, mais je laisse reciter et escrire a ceux qui plus sagement sçavent coucher et mettre en souvenir, ou ramentevance chose de tel poix et de telle efficace: car à toucher à la fame et au renom de si sainte et haute personne en Chrestienté comme nostre Sainct Pere le Pape, l'entendement se doit arrester de frayeur, la langue doit barbusser de crainte, l'encre seicher, le papier fendre, et la plume pleyer par doute dangereux et plain de peril d'encourir, ou encherir au danger d'inobedience et de faute, a l'encontre des commandemens et ordonnances de nostre sainte et salutaire mere et ressourse l'Eglise triumphante.-L. i. c. vi. p. 160. Lovain, 1645.

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may be doubted whether John XII. actually drank the Devil's health; for if he did, it was

*

extremely ungrateful in the Devil to knock him on the head. But John XXIII. denied none of the crimes† for which he was deposed; he assented to and ratified "of his certain knowledge" the sentence in which they were enumerated, and I think, Sir, you cannot but recollect what the catalogue contained. Yet, after this public conviction, with all his fresh and flagrant infamy upon him, his successor made him a Bishop and a Cardinal, appointed him Dean of the Sacred College, and gave him a place next to himself in all public ceremonies. The ashes of Hus and of Jerome were cast into the Rhine, but the remains of this man were

This was by no means the worst offence for which he was deposed. Having reinstated himself by force, he began to cut off hands and noses, and to cut out tongues, when he was cut off himself, being caught in bed with a Roman Lady, and knocked in the head. The Devil is said to have struck the fatal blow; but it is well observed, in the Universal History, that the authors who say this have not mentioned whether be appeared in the form of the lady's husband. (vol. ix. 543. folio edition.) The husband, however, and not the Devil, is mentioned by Illescas, t. i. ff. 160. Barcelona, 1606.

Lenfant, C. of Constance, i. 309.

F. Maimbourg calls the submission of this monster to his

honoured by Cosmo de' Medici with sumptuous obsequies! In what unequal balances, Sir, have you weighed the Popes and the Reformers! What double weights and measures have you used when Dunstan or Luther, Becket or Cranmer, a head of the English or of the Romish Church is in the scale! When you hint at the failings of certain Popes, who but must admire the edifying tenderness of your expressions! "It is not denied," you say, "that a few of them in the long list were stained with vice." A few, Sir, and stained only! In what part of their characters is the white spot to be found? Were you thinking, when this delicate phraseology was penned, of those who flourished under favour of Theodora and Marozia? of those who contended for the chair of St. Peter during the long schism, when their actions were noted by each other? or of their successors who lived in the broader day-light of the fifteenth century? Sir, there have been so many of them so bad, that the boldest and best-armed advocates of your cause, conscious of what Muratori calls

sentence "so christian, so heroical an action, and so worthy of a holy penitent, that even if he had committed greater crimes, it was enough to have cancelled the remembrance of them, and procured him a crown of immortal glory!"-Lenfant, C. of Constance, i. 310.

the brutte conseguenze,* have been fain to deduce an argument from their very crimes, that the Papacy is of divine appointment! Baronius+ and Bellarmine reason from the wickedness of some, as the un-queen'd, un-sexed, un-Lutheranized Christina did from the imbecility of others, that when such men were at the head

* Annali, t. v. p. 2. 51.

+ Attesa la mancanza delle memorie storiche di que' tempi, si rende a noi impossibile il formare un giusto carattere de' Romani Pontefici, che nel secolo decimo governarono la Chiesa universale. Ma posto ancora che ammetter si debba per vero tutto ciò, che de' loro vizii e difetti si racconta, la sregolata condotta de' medesimi nulla pregiudica allo splendore, ed all' autorità della cattedra di S. Pietro. Anzi come opportunamente avvertono i venerabili Cardinali Baronio e Bellarmino (quegli ad ann. 900, num. i. e ad ann. 912. num. viii. seqq. e altrove; questi in præfat. ad libros de Summo Pontifice) un fortissimo argomento si ricava a mostrare evidentemente, che il Romano Pontificato non è opera umana, ma divina, contro cui le porte dell' Inferno in niun modo possono prevalere, giacchè se opera umana fosse, non avrebbe retto ad urti e scosse tanto violenti.

In this manner does the Roman editor of Muratori's Annals (t. v. p. 2. 112.) endeavour to counteract the impression which the narrative of that faithful writer, cold and dry as his narrative is, cannot but make upon every ingenuous and reflecting mind. What Jeremy Taylor says of the Expurgatory Indices is applicable to this subject also: "the serpent, by being so curious a defender of his head, shows where his danger is, and by what he can be most readily destroyed." (Vol. x. 135. Bp. Heber's edition.)

of the Romish Church, nothing but the immediate protection of Heaven could have preserved it. You have told us, Sir, that you love a strong argument; but methinks this is too strong even for your palate. It is above proof.

The ship, says Baronius, must have foundered in the storm, if Christ had not been asleep on board.* Never was the porporato

* The passage is curious, the facts being as fairly confessed as the argument is unsound. "Quæ tunc facies sanctæ Ecclesiæ Romanæ ! quam fœdissima cùm Romæ dominarentur potentissimæ æquè ac sordidissima meretrices! quarum arbitrio mutarentur sedes, darentur Episcopi, et quod auditu horrendum et infandum est, intruderentur in Sedem Petri earum amasi pseudopontifices, qui non sint nisi ad consignanda tantùm tempora in catalogo Romanorum Pontificum scripti. Quis enim à scortis hujusmodi intrusos sine lege legitimos dicere posset Romanos fuisse Pontifices? Nusquam Cleri eligentis, vel postea consentientis aliqua mentio, Canones omnes pressi silentio, decreta Pontificum suffocata, proscriptæ antiquæ traditiones, veteresque in eligendo summo Pontifice consuetudines, sacrique ritus, et pristinus usus prorsus extincti. Sic vendicaverat omnia sibi libido, sæculari potentiâ freta, insaniens, astro percita dominandi. Dormiebat tunc planè alto (ut apparet) sopore Christus in navi, cùm hisce flantibus validis ventis, navis ipsa fluctibus operiretur. Dormiebat, inquam, qui ista non videre dissimulans, sineret sic fieri, dum non exurgeret vindex. Et quod deterius videbatur, deerant qui Dominum sic dormientem clamoribus excitarent discipuli, stertantibus omnibus. Qualesnam reris delectos ab hisce monstris presbyteros et diaconos Cardinales fuisse putandum; cum nihil tam naturæ insitum sit, quàm unumquemque sibi similem generare? quos in omnibus iis à quibus delecti