erect, are in conformity with what I have said,* not in opposition to it. Only this condition is required for making absolute despotism the best of all possible governments, that the Prince should be all-good, omniscient and infallible; who is there, then, that would not wish him to be omnipotent? That great good arose at one time from the papal system, surely, Sir, I have shown as fully and fairly as the most devoted adherent of that system can desire. Are you able either to deny or to extenuate the evils which afterwards arose from it? When you say, that the Popes who claimed the supreme authority in temporal affairs were "lesst blameable than the sovereigns who conceded it, for that the latter were silly, but the former not to be condemned by worldly wisdom," what is this but advancing that the knave is not so censurable as the dupe?..what is it but preferring wickedness to weakness? but not by me.' Once we promised unto him all the kingdoms of the world if he would fall down and worship us; but he would not, saying, my kingdom is not of this world; and went his way, when the multitude would have made him a temporal king. But to you truly, that serve us on the earth, is that my promise fulfilled."-Fox, i. 572. * Book of the Church, i. 283-288. Life of Wesley, i. 308, 9. + Page 96. Will history bear you out in your assertion, Sir, when you say, that "in the action and reaction of the Pope's aggression and the Monarch's resistance, it must be admitted that the clergy generally supported the monarch?" Far from making any such admission, I affirm that the secular clergy generally supported the papal usurpations, and the regulars uniformly and always. When you tell me afterwards that we are indebted to the Roman Catholic religiont for Magna Charta, had you forgotten, Sir, that the Pope, as he whom God had appointed over nations and kingdoms, reprobated and condemned that charter; pronounced it, in all its clauses, null and void; forbade the King to observe it; inhibited the Barons (who, being instigated by the Devil, he said, had extorted these concessions in degradation of the crown) from requiring its execution,.. and suspended the Primate Langton for refusing to excommunicate them on this account? To Langton indeed we are deeply indebted for the noble part which he took in obtaining the charter from the King, and for his yet nobler conduct in maintaining it against the Pope. But to the Roman Catholic religion, as acting under its acknow * Page 96. + Page 168. B B ledged head, these are our obligations on the score of Magna Charta! Where, Sir, was your memory when you claimed our gratitude to the papal church for this great charter of our liberties;..or where did you suppose was mine? Had you forgotten that another Pope, in the plenitude of his power, absolved another King of England from his solemn engagement to observe that charter, pronouncing that, if the King should have sworn to observe it, he had sworn, previously, to maintain the rights of the crown; to those rights the charter was derogatory, and to that prior oath regard must first be paid; and, therefore, Pope Clement V. released Edward I. from all promises prejudicial to his ancient* prerogative. I have usually to thank you, Sir, when you send me to my books. These, I repeat it, are our obligations to the Romish religion on the score of Magna Charta! And, it is worth noting by the way, you have here the opinion of the Pope er cathedra that the King's Coronation oath is paramount to all other engagements and considerations. Voltaire, you say, has observed that during * Collier, i. 499. The authority referred to is Conventiones Literæ, &c. t. ii. p. 379. ! the dark ages, there was less of barbarism and ignorance in the papal dominions than in any other European state. Less ignorance I should think, and less rudeness, but certainly not less ferocity. The papal states must have been much in the same condition as the other parts of Italy. Amid all the spoliations and sackages which Rome had endured, it still remained a great and splendid city; and as the whole population had never been transplanted or destroyed by one of those dreadful acts of remorseless hostility, which were frequent in the ancient world, much of the manners and something of the knowledge also of better times was preserved there through ages of continuous degradation. ..I do not seek to detract from the utility of the papacy in those ages: far from it. The more beneficial the papal power can be shown to have been, the better would its history accord with my persuasion that all things, upon the great scale, have tended to the general good, and the developement of the great scheme of Providence: enough may be perceived to indicate this, dimly as we see, and limited as is our sight. But surely, Sir, the Popes were at one time as much the enemies of learning, as they were the patrons at another; and when we call to mind, what works of the ancients have been obliterated by the monkish transcribers, and what the writings are which were transferred to the vellum in their stead, some-. thing must be set off against the debt which literature owes to the monastic institutions. You speak of what the Popes did to preserve peace among princes, and to alleviate the general calamity of the times.* Was this the disposition, Sir, which Hildebrand and his successors manifested? Were their efforts directed to save men's lives, or to destroy? Did they bring peace into the world, or a sword? I think, Sir, if you call to mind the age of the Guelphs and Ghibellines, and the wars of persecution from the confederation against the Albigenses to the last convulsions of their desperate and maddened descendants in the Cevennes, you will find that the Romish Church has instigated more wars than it ever succeeded in terminating, or even attempted to terminate. Those wars must be added to the account, which the Popes promoted merely from political views, to enlarge their territory, to aggrandize their nephews, or to form an establishment for their bastards, or to maintain their own disputed election to the chair of St. Peter. During the * Page 97. |