were re-opened, and divine service was again performed with great ceremony. The clergy, since that time, have never been molested in France; but their power and influence were greatly diminished; for though the Moderees, or Boisotine party, recalled them, no establishment was made for them, until Bonaparte, as First Consul, procured the pope's consent to the Concordat, which the old Catholics assert, surrendered all the rights and privileges of the church to the secular head.

By degrees the pope of Rome has continued to lose his influence in France. The number of Catholic clergy is now very considerably reduced; and all the religious orders in France, the Sisters of Charity excepted, are abolished, together with all public processions, pilgrimages, &c. The French general, Bonaparte, drove the last pope, Pius 6th, from Rome, and compelled him to take shelter in a Carthusian monastery, about two miles from Florence, where he died, August 19th, 1797. The French army, who took possession of Rome, made no ceremony in abolishing many of those rites, which for centuries had been regarded as sacred. A new pope, however, has been elected, who has taken the name of Pius 7th. This pontiff at present resides at Rome, the seat of his ancestors and has often officiated in the Vatican. But his power is probably gone forever. Bonoparte has lately seized on his temporal dominions, and driven his friends and counsellors, the cardinals, from his presence.

On the 19th of April, 1808, a most curious and interesting state paper was published by the pope, entitled "Answer of his Eminence, Cardinal Gabrielli, first Secretary of State, to the note of his excellency M. Champagny, addressed to M. Le Fevre, Charge d'Affairs from the Emperor of France." We lament that our limits will not permit us to preserve the whole of this curious document in our pages. We may, however, remark, that this paper is in upon his answer to a demand which the French ruler had made holiness, to enter into an offensive and defensive league with the other powers of Italy, against all the enemies of France, and also that the pope should dismiss from his court the Cardinals. To these demands, his holiness replies in a spirited but highly pathetic strain. He declares in one part of his paper, that "his holiness, unlike other princes, is invested with a twofold character, namely, sovereign pontiff, and of temporal sovereign, and has given repeated evidence, that he cannot by virtue of this second qualification, enter upon engagements which would lead to results militating against his first and most important office, and injuring the religion of which he is the head, the propagator and the avenger." The French emperor had declared that in casè the pope would not accede to his demands, he would seize upor

the temporal dominions of the holy see. To which his holiness replies, that "If in spite of all this, his Majesty shall take posssession, as he has threatened, of the papal dominions, respected by all, even the most powerful monarchs, during a space of ten centuries and upwards, and shall overturn the goverment, his holiness will be unable to prevent this spoliation, and only in bitter afliction of heart, to lament the evil which his majesty will commit in the sight of God, trusting in whose protection, his holiness will remain in perfect tranquility, enjoying the consciousness of not having brought on this disaster by imprudence, or by contumacy, but to preserve the independence of that sovereignty, which he ought to transmit uninjured to his successors, as he received it; and to maintain in its integrity, that conduct, which may secure the universal concurrence of all princes, so necessary to the welfare of religion." What the final result of these negociations will be, time only can determine; this, however, is certain, at present, that the Roman pontiff has lost his power and authority in France, Nor are his prospects much more favourable in other countries. There is scarcely a Catholic state in Europe that does not, every year, relax in its observances of the Romish laws, and obedience to the holy see. The terrors of the Inquisition no longer exist; the thunders of the Vatican are ceased or disregarded; some of the most offensive maxims of popery, are not only destroyed by the liberal spirit of the times, but even publicly disavowed by numerous and respectable bodies of Catholics: in short, little more now remains of the Romish faith and practice; especially in our own country, that ought to give serious offence to liberal Protestants of the church of England. There is, indeed, nothing remaining among these people of a nature dangerous to the peace and happiness of the community at large.

The question concerning the Catholic emancipation in England and Ireland, being as yet, undecided, we must omit any fur ther notice of it; at the same time, most ardently wishing that the period may soon commence, when no difference of opinion whatever, no variation in our worship, shall prove a barrier to the full exercise of all those rights, both civil and religious, to which all men are born, and to which all good and peaceable men have an equal claim.

CHAPTER IX.

THE REFORMATION.

THE Reformation, in church history, is that amazing change in the religion and politics of a great part of Europe, which began to take place in the early part of the sixteenth century. An event of such magnitude, with which the progress of the arts and universal learning are so intimately connected, demands a more enlarged and detailed account than the prescribed limits of our work will admit. It would, nevertheless, be highly improper wholly to omit the notice of so very important an era in the history of Europe.

At a time when the peace and harmony of the Romish Church seemed fully established, and when the authority of the holy see, had just received a most signal triumph by the labor of the council of the Lateran; when the address and perseverance of Leo X. had surmounted a thousand difficulties, and given peace to his dominions, when Rome had begun once more to assume its ancient grandeur, and was again become the centre of genius, letters, and the arts; when the dark clouds of the middle ages were scattered before the rays of science, and the light of genius had begun to illumine the moral horizon, the attention of the whole Christian world was directed to an event, that threatened nothing less than the speedy ruin of the papal authority, and the complete demolition of that fabric of religious magnificence, which the labour of myriads had united to raise, and which the lapse of centuries had left rather established than impaired. It is curious to reflect that what bid fair to have been the glory and security of the church, conspired to her destruction, and threatened her overthrow. Leo X. in aiming to enhance the glory of his pontificate by the encouragement of literature and the patronage of the arts, was fostering in his bosom an enemy to destroy his peace, and degrade his power. The seeds of learning, which his father, Lorenzo de Medici, had sown and he so plentifully watered, sprung up to choak his pleasures, and reward him with trouble. No sooner had the human mind begun to be emancipated from its slavery, than it employed it: sewly restored liberty in bold and presumptuous investigations into the conduct of the Roman pontifis, the extravagancies of the papal court, the foundation of church governments, and the truth of established doctrines. The errors and misconduct of the clergy were ex

posed to the shafts of ridicule and the remonstrances of reason. The hardy and intrepid genius of Dante, which placed the vicars of Christ in the infernal regions, lighted up the fire of Petrarch, and encouraged him to identify the court of Rome with that of ancient Babylon. He made the vices and errors of the church the subjects of his sonnets, and the constant theme of his abuse. Protected by their genius, and respected for their character, these two great men not only escaped the censures of the holy see, but emboldened the populace to question the infallibility of a church, which had nothing but luxury in its train, and learning for its boast. The entertaining work of Boccaccio, exposed the debaucheries of the religious, and opened the eyes of the peor ple; and the emancipation of the human race from the ignominious shackles of ignorance and priestcraft, was hastened by the celebrated Facetiae of Poggio, and the writings of Burchiello Pulci and Franco. To the light which these men threw upon the corruptions of the church and the licentiousness of the holy see, the patronage of painters, sculptors, and poets, and the protection and maintenance of buffoons and jesters afforded but a poor defence. Leo X. liked and admired men of learning, notwithstanding their learning was often employed to expose his extravagancies, and endanger the church.

These exposures had begun to be made during the pontificiate of Sextus IV. and the pope and his immediate successors, less remiss to the concerns of the church than Leo X. had taken some measures to ward off the danger; but instead of applying the only preventative, by reforming their morals and their lives, the heads of the church sought to stifle investigation by threatenings and punishment. Several very severe restrictions had been laid upon the publication of those works, which had a tendency to open the eyes of the people, and expose the errors and vices of the church. These restrictions were, however, in a great measure neglected, by the ardent love of literature which so eminently characterised the conduct of Leo X. That pontiff forgot even his own safety amidst poets, painters, sculptors, wits, and enter

tainments.

What tended also to pave the way for the reformation, was the rage which at that time prevailed among the learned for the Grecian literature, and the Pagan mythology. The barbarous latinity of the middle ages gave way to the refined beauties of poetry and classical learning. The paganism of Cicero, and the beauties of Virgil, were made to illustrate and adorn the sublime mysteries of the Christian faith; and Jupiter, Apollo, and Diana, were deemed fit representatives of the persons of the blessed Trinity, and luminous illustrations of Christian platon

The doctrine of atonement, by the suffering of Christ, was explained and enforced by the examples of the Decii, and of Curtius, of Cecrops, Menæcius, and Iphigenia, of Socrates, and Phocion; of Epaminondas, Scipio, and Aristides. The doctrines and practices of paganism being thus honoured by the ministers of church, no wonder that the poets, particularly Pantano, Sanazzaro, and Marullus, should constantly endeavour to adorn even their sacred poems with a reference to the mythology of Greece and Rome.

With a mixture of paganism and Christianity, the mysteries of the Platonic philosophy were incorporated. Those refinements of the Platonists, which were so ingeniously infused into the devotion of Lorenzo de Medici, and propagated among the learned, by the labours of Marsilio, of Ficino, of Pico, of Mirandula, of his nephew Gian Francesco, of Girolama, Benevieni, and others.

The liberties thus taken with the Christian faith, and with the peculiar dogmas of the Romish church, naturally begat a degree of scepticism in the minds of those by whom they were indulged; and from them it spread more or less over the minds of the multitude, and prepared the way for a general reformation in the creed and discipline of the church. At length the danger arising from these unbounded speculations became too evident to pass any longer unnoticed; accordingly in the eighth session of the council of the Lateran several decrees were passed, tending to restrain ecclesiastical students in their pursuits relative to poetry and philosophy; but these restraints and prohibitions were made too late, a spirit of speculation and research had gone abroad, and it was not to be checked by decrees and councils, fulminations and threats.

In addition to the causes of the reformation which we have just enumerated, there were others more obvious, which are said to have been, "the long schism of the church of Rome in the fourteenth century; the misconduct of Alexander V1. and of Julius II. the encroachments of the clergy on the rights of the laity; the venality of the Roman court; and above all, perhaps, the general progress of liberal studies, and the happy invention of the art of printing."

The spirit of enquiry, aided by the light of science and the invention of printing, had more or less diffused itself over the minds of christians in every part of Europe, but no where had this spirit more successfully made its approaches than in SaxonyIntoxicated with the luxury and dazzled with the magnificence of the Roman court, the Italians satisfied themselves with ridiculing the vices of the church in poems and visions, but took no