consequence of this was obvious. The other Bishops and Churches had often recourse to Rome, as novices have to their teachers, for advice in the explanation and use of the Canons. The Popes, therefore, under pretence that, Rome being the first and chief See in Christendom, it became the duty of her Bishop to see that the Canons and Ecclesiastical Laws were observed and executed, took upon themselves to appoint Judges of the differences that arose between the other Bishops,-encroached upon the jurisdiction of the Metropolitans,-deposed Bishops that were not regularly consecrated, or that were accused of any great crime; and compelled them to come to Rome in person, to plead their causes.

Not, but that there were "many of the Bishops" (as Puffendorf observes,) " well enough content to submit to this slavery, in hopes of sharing the prey with their Chief; and because they were thereby freed from the Jurisdiction of their Temporal princes, whose power they more dreaded than that of a distant Tribunal; the Judges whereof, being of the same trade as themselves, were not so terrible to them. For one crow will not pick-out it's fellow's eyes."Some of these indulgent, and very accommodating, Canons, the reader may see in the note *.

* The following decrees for exempting Ecclesiastics from Lay jurisdiction, are taken from the Corpus Juris Canonici, Decret. Greg. Tit. 1, p. 76.

The last, and not the least powerful, cause of the Bishops not resisting the growing power of

DE JUDICIIS.

Eugenius Papa.

Cap. 2-Decernimus, ut Laici Ecclesiastica tractare negotia non præsumant,

Cap, 4.-Et si Clerici coràm sæculari judice convicti fuerint, vel confessi,de crimine,non sunt propter hoc, à suo Epis copo aliquatenùs condemnandi. Sicut enim sententia à non suo judice lata non tenet, et ita confessio coràm eo.

De adulteriis verò et aliis criminibus quæ sunt minora, potest Episcopus cum Clericis, post peractam pænitentiam, dispensare. Sed non debet quemlibet depositum pro suis excessibus (cum suo sit functus officio, nec duplici debeat ipsum contritione conterere) judici tradere sæculari.

Cap. 10-A nobis fuit ex parte tuâ quæsitum-" utrum liceat Regi, vel alicui sæculari persona, judicare Clericos cujuscunque ordinis, sive in furto, sive in homicidio, vel perjurio, seu quibuscunque fuerint criminibus deprehensi ??? Consultationi tu taliter respondeo: Quod si Clericus, in quocunque ordine constitutus, in furto, vel homicidio, vel perjurio, vel alio crimine fuerit deprehensus, legitimè atque convictus; ab Ecclesiastico judice deponendus est: qui, si depo. situs, incorrigibilis fuerit, excommunicari debet: deinde contumacia crescente, anathematis mucrone feriri : postmodùm verò, si in profundum malorum veniens, contempserit; (quum ecclesia non habeat ultrà quid faciat) ne possit esse ultrà perditio plurimorum, per sæcularem comprimendus est potestatem ita quod ei deputetur exilium, vel alia legitima pæna inferatur.

the Popes, was the establishment of the various orders of Monks and Friars in the Roman Church. From these Monks," says Puffendorf,

has the Pope formed his Prætorian band, or regiment of guards, whom he has not only quartered, as troublesome companions, upon the Laity; but makes use of them as Spies over the actions of the Bishops and the rest of the Clergy. Therefore it is, that the Popes have maintained with so much zeal, the privileges of the Monks, especially in the thirteenth Century, when they endeavoured to force themselves from the Bishops' Jurisdiction, and subject themselves immediately to the Pope. And, although there are great jealousies betwixt their Orders, (as, for example,

Innocentius III.

Cap. 17.-Præcipiatis ex parte nostrâ Prælatis, ut Laicis de Clericis, conquerentibus, plenam faciant justitiam exhi. beri, non obstantibus appellationibus frustratoriis, quas in eorum gravamine, Clerici frequenter opponunt: ne pro defectu justitiæ, Clerici trahantur à Laicis ad judicium sœculare: quod omninò fieri prohibemus.

Cap. 11, 12.-Ad sacerdotes DEUS voluit quæ in Ecclesia disponenda sunt, pertinere; non ad sæculi potestates; quas, si fideles sunt, Ecclesiæ suæ Sacerdotibus voluît esse sub. jectas. Imperatores Christiani subdere debent executiones suas Ecclesiasticis presulibus, non præferre. Obsequi solere principes Christianos decretis Ecclesiæ, non suam præponere potestatem. Episcopis caput subdere principem solitum, non de eorum capitibus judicare.

betwixt the Franciscans and the Dominicans,) yet he contrives to hold the balance so evenly, and to dispense his favours so impartially, that one Order cannot be oppressed by another; nor has reason to complain of the Pope's injustice."

And, to crown all, these Monks and Friars were usually Confessors to all the Crowned Heads in Europe, and therefore were masters of their secrets. By the artful and dexterous combination of all these engines, and political machines, with the humours and passions, the hopes and the fears of mankind, both temporal and eternal, 1. Lofty and arrogant pretensions of Supremacy and Infal libility; 2. Appeals to Rome; 3. The Institution of Legates; 4. The ancient and venerable authority of the Pagan Pontiffs and Augurs; 5. The Oaths; and 6. The Investiture of Bishops; 7. The Introduction of the Canons and Decretals, and the exemption of the Clergy from Secular Jurisdiction; 8, The Institution of the several Orders of Monks and Friars, under the Pope's immediate jurisdiction; who were usually 9. Confessors to all the Sovereign Princes of Christendom, who were in communion with the Church of Rome; 10. the Pontiff's gained a paramount influence and controul in the general Councils convened from time to time, pretendedly for the suppression of Heresies, and the reformation of Morals, but, in reality, for the extension of the Papal power and jurisdiction.

For such were the deleterious decrees of the great General Councils of Lateran, A.D. 1139, 1179, and 1215; of Constance, A. D. 1414; of Basil, A. D. 1431;` and of Trent, A.D. 1549; which only riveted the Papal Yoke upon the necks of their slaves!!!

I shall close this Introduction with the Reflexions of a great Traveller and accomplished Scholar, Sir Edwin Sandys, on this Subject, in his Speculum Europe; or, Survey of the State of Religion in the Western part of the World, written at Paris, in 1509. A work, that, in point of nervous composition, of concise, yet flowing eloquence, and of masterly reasoning, has not, perhaps, been exceeded by any later work, whatsoever, even of the present age.

dys' Descrip tion of the

Rome.

“But to come now, to the view of their Eccle- Sir Edwin Sansiastical Government-as addressed to the up- Government of holding of the worldly power and glory of their the Church of order. I think I may truly say: There was never yet STATE framed by man's wit in this World, more powerful and forcible to work these effects; neyer any more wisely contrived and plotted, or more constantly and diligently put in practice and execution; insomuch that, but for the natural weakness of untruth and dishonesty, which (being rotten at the heart,) abate the force of whatever is founded thereon, their outward means were sufficient to subdue a whole world."

66

The particular ways they hold to ravish all