the Roman name became firmly rooted in the breasts of the Abyssinians, that they most cautiously guard their frontiers, lest some Jesuit or other priest of the Romish communion should creep into the country and again embroil their commonwealth. The Roman pontiffs at first sought to repair the damage done by the Jesuits by sending out two French Capuchin monks and these being stoned to death by the Abyssinians, as soon as they were discovered, recourse was had to more secret methods; and at last, the authority of Lewis XIV., king of France, was resorted to, in order to open a door for the access of their missionaries to Ethiopia. But, to the present time, they have not been able, so far as we know, to calm the wakeful indignation of that highly incensed nation3.

p. 116. 130. 144. and Henry le Grand's Additions to it, p. 173. and his fourth Dissertation, subjoined to vol. ii. p. 32. The judgment of this learned man respecting the Jesuit Mendez, in this Diss. iv. p. 36. is worth transcribing. "Il eût été à souhaiter que le Patriarche ne se fut pas chargé de tant d'affaires, (thus cautiously does he speak of Mendez's lust of power, and intrusion into the affairs of the civil government,) et qu'il n'eût pas fait tant valoir son autorité, en se conduisant en Abyssinie, comme dans un pays d'Inquisition. I révolta tout la monde, et rendit les Catholiques, et en particulier les Jésuites, si odieux, que la haine qu'on a conçue contre eux dure encore aujourd'hui."-[" The third Book of La Croze's History, which relates to the progress and ruin of this mission, is translated by Mr. Lockman into English, and inserted in The Travels of the Jesuits, vol. i. p. 308, &c. as also is Poncet's Voyage, mentioned in the following note." Macl.]

2 These projects are mentioned by Urban Cerry, Etat présent de l'Eglise Romaine, p. 217, &c. Henry le Grand, Supplement to Lobo's Itinerarium Ethiopicum, tom. i. p. 181, &c. tom. ii. p. 108, &c. ["Father Lobo, who resided nine years in Ethiopia, has given an elegant and lively, though simple and succinct description of that vast empire, in his Itinerarium Æthiopicum. This Itinerary was translated

into French by M. le Grand, and enriched by him with several curious anecdotes and dissertations. Hence Dr. Mosheim sometimes quotes the Itinerarium under the title of Voyage d'Abyssinie, referring to le Grand's French translation of it." Mad.]-1 would have the reader compare, what this papist, [le Grand,] who was not unfriendly to the Jesuits, states, from documents that are above all dubitation, with the Voyage of the French physician, Charles James Poncet, who travelled into Ethiopia in the year 1698, in company with the Jesuit Brevedent, who died on the way; which Voyage was published by the Jesuits, in the fourth volume of the Lettres Curieuses et édifiantes des Missions étrangères, Paris, 1713. 8vo. The discerning reader may thus learn how much reliance is to be put on the statements which the Jesuits give us of the friendly disposition of the Asiatic and African christians towards the see of Rome. After ingenuously and candidly making this comparison, he will perhaps declare that Grecian, and even Punic faith, is more to be trusted than that of the Jesuits.

3 The biographers of Clement XI. and especially Lafitau and Reboulet, amuse us with fables, invented perhaps by the Jesuits and their friends, when they tell us of the Abyssinian emperor's embracing the Romish religion in the year 1712; or of his petitioning the

§ 18. We have thus far spoken of the external prosperity or adversity of the Romish church, and of the zeal of the pontiffs to extend the limits of their empire: we now proceed to examine its internal state. The ancient form of government was in no respects changed: yet the officers of the church, in most countries, were abridged of no small part of their ancient power by the civil authorities. For that happy age was every where gone by, when the clergy might excite public commotions, engage in civil affairs at their pleasure, terrify with their sacred denunciations, and impose contributions and other burdens upon the citizens. The supreme pontiff himself, though saluted with the same appellations and titles as formerly, often experienced, with vast regret, that names had lost much of their ancient power and import, and were still losing more and more. The principle formerly held only by the French, that the power of the Roman pontiff was wholly and exclusively confined to sacred and ecclesiastical affairs, and by no means extended to secular things, the property, the persons, and the business of the citizens, had now become well nigh the universal opinion of all kings and princes. The schools, indeed, in most parts of the Romish world, with the public writers, extolled the majesty of the pontiff to the utmost of their ability; and the Jesuits, who wished to be thought among the first defenders of the Romish see and power, did the same; and even the courts of princes sometimes used magnificent language respecting the dignity and authority of the head and father of the church. But the misfortune was, that in this, as in other cases,

Roman pontiff in 1703, to send him teachers, to instruct him and his people. On the contrary, it is fully ascertained, that but a few years ago, the Abyssinians most rigorously denied, not only to all Europeans, but also to the Turks, all access to their country: nay, they would not allow Egyptian Monophysites, who entered Ethiopia, to return again. This is confirmed by the best possible testimony in such a case, that of Benedict Maillet, who long filled the office of French consul in Egypt, and was appointed by Louis XIV. ambassador to the emperor of Abyssinia: in his Description de l'Egypte, pt. i. p. 325, Paris, 1735. 4to. To him we

add Henry le Grand, who, in his Additions to Jerome Lobo's Itinerarium, p. 222, (published in 1728,) after faithfully detailing all the projects of the French and the popes in our age, for introducing Romish priests into Abyssinia, subjoins that all such projects must necessarily appear vain and chimerical, to persons acquainted with the state of things in Ethiopia: "Toutes ces entreprises paroitront chimeriques à ceux qui connoitront l'Abissinie et les Abissins." Perhaps the mission which is now fitting out at Rome to the Abyssinians, will add new confirmation to this opinion.

men's language did not accord with their's; and sovereign princes, when any question or controversy arose with the court of Rome, measured the rights and prerogatives of the pontiff not as formerly, by the decisions of the schools, but by their own convenience and interests.

§ 19. This the sovereign pontiffs experienced, to their great detriment, as often as they ventured in this age to resume their former pretensions, and to encroach upon the jurisdiction of sovereign states. In the year 1606, Paul V., a haughty pontiff, laid the Venetians under an interdict; because they presumed to punish certain priests who had committed crimes, and forbade the erection of any more sacred edifices in their territories, without the consent of the senate, and prohibited all further transfers of estates to the clergy, without permission from the government. But the senate of Venice most firmly and vigourously resisted this wrong. For, first, they would not allow the priests to intermit the sacred services which the pontiff commanded; and the Jesuits and Capuchins, who chose to obey the pontiff rather than the senate, were banished the country. In the next place, they ordered, Paul Sarpi, a theologian of the republic, who was a monk of the order of Servitors, and a man of very great genius, and other persons deeply learned in civil and ecclesiastical law, to demonstrate the justice of their cause in several treatises; and to inquire with great freedom into the just limits of the papal power: and their attacks were so powerful, that Cæsar Baronius, and the other writers to whom the Roman pontiff trusted the defence of his cause, could with difficulty stand up against them. When at length Paul V. prepared for war against the Venetians, Henry IV., king of France, interposed, and brought about a peace, but on terms that were not very honourable to the pontiff. For the Venetians could not be induced to

Besides Thuanus (de Thou), and other historians, see Gabr. Daniel's Histoire de France, tom. x. p. 358, &c. of the recent edit. Jo. Hen. Heidegger's Historia Papatus, period vii. Seexx. p. 322, &c. Jo. Wolfg. Jaeger's Historia Eccles. secul. xvii, decenn. i. p. 108. But especially the writings of the celebrated Paul Sarpi and of the

other Venetian theologians, deserve a careful perusal. For being written with no less solidity, than erudition and elegance, these works contributed most to open the eyes of kings and magistrates, and lead them no longer to yield entire obedience to the will of the pontiffs, as had formerly been done. Preeminent among these writings, is

rescind entirely those decrees which had given offence to the Romish bishop, nor to allow the banished Jesuits to return to their country. The senate of Venice, at that time, contemplated a secession from the Romish church: and the English and Dutch ambassadors endeavoured to persuade them to such a step. But many causes of great weight prevented the measure; nor did the sagacious and circumspect Sarpi himself, though he was no friend to the Romish court, appear to approve the thing ‘.

§ 20. If the Portuguese had possessed as much wisdom and courage as the Venetians, equally unsuccessful would have been the contest which Urban VIII. waged with them in 1641,

and continued till the year 1666. The Portuguese, having driven out the Spaniards, made John, duke of Braganza, their king. Urban and his successors pertinaciously refused either to acknowledge John as king of Portugal, or to confirm the bishops appointed by him, though urged to it in a thousand ways both by the Portuguese and the French. The consequence was, that the greatest part of the Portuguese territories was for a long time without bishops. The vicar of Christ, who above all things should have no fear of man, had such a dread of Spanish resentment, that rather than offend the king of Spain, he chose to violate his most sacred duty, and leave great numbers of churches without pastors. The king of Portugal was advised from various quarters, and especially by the French, to imitate the example of the Venetians; and to cause his bishops to be consecrated by a national council of Portugal, in despite of the pontiff: and he seemed, at times, disposed to act with vigour. But the ascendency of the Inquisition, and the amazing superstition of the people, and their devotion to the will of the pontiff, prevented his adopting energetic measures. Thus it was not till after the lapse of twenty-five years, and the conclusion of a peace with the Spaniards, that Clement IX. confirmed the bishops appointed by the king. Yet in this the Portuguese showed themselves men, that they strenuously resisted the pontiff, who endeavoured to take advantage of this contest to extend his power in Portugal; nor would they suffer the ancient prerogative of their kings, to designate the bishops of the country, to be at all abridged'.

§ 21. For many centuries there had been almost perpetual controversy between the French nation and the popes: which as in other periods, so also in this century, sometimes came to an open rupture. If the pontiffs ever employed cunning and perseverance in any cause, they certainly did so, throughout this century, in their endeavours to subdue the feelings of the French, which were much opposed to the high claims of the papal power; and to destroy or gradually under

7 See Mich. Geddes, History of the pope's behaviour towards Portugal, from 1641 to 1666; which is in his Miscellaneous Tracts, vol. ii. p. 73–186. The cause of the Portuguese in this

contest, is learnedly defended, among the French, by Ism. Buliald, whose Libelli duo, pro Ecclesiis Lusitanis, ad Clerum Gallicanum, were reprinted at Helmstadt, 1700. 4to.