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them the hypocritical slang of popery is pithily expressed. On the emperor's efforts, to purify the church from the pollution of image-worship, his holiness thus vents his venomous piety" You assault us, O tyrant! with a carnal and military hand: naked and unarmed we can only implore the Christ, the prince of the heavenly host, that he will send unto you a devil, for the destruction of your body, and the salvation of your soul."

Imprecation is the language of impotent malice, and Gregory lisped the accents of infant popery; but the young fiend had not always to bemoan that her piety was naked and unarmed. When the maturity of her claws and fangs had outgrown all need of the assistance of a devil in (strange employment for him!) the salvation of souls, her charitable zeal, no longer restricted to the dubious issue of her prayers "to the Christ, the prince of the heavenly host," was gorged with the blood of martyred millions. But the mask, first worn by "the founder of the monarchy," has been piously preserved among the pontifical regalia, and, together with a fictitious name, is assumed by every successor to the tiara.

Hume indeed, in the eighth chapter of his history, says, that in the twelfth century "The claims of the church were open and visible. After a gradual and insensible progress through many centuries, the mask had at last been taken off"--but it was kept always ready to be resumed whenever occasion required.

It has, in truth, been one of the most efficient engines of the papal armoury.

The Norman and papal conquests of England and of Ireland were effected, in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, by memorable confederations of temporal and spiritual tyranny and fraud, concerning which, as illustrative of my present subject, I must entreat the indulgent attention of my reader to a few extracts from Hume's history.

"The most important ally, whom William gained by his negotiations, was the pope, who had a mighty influence over the ancient barons, no less devout in their religious principles than valorous in their military enterprizes. The Roman pontiff, after an insensible progress during several ages of darkness and ignorance, began now to lift his head openly above all the princes of Europe; to assume the office of a mediator, or even an arbiter, in the quarrels of the greatest monarchs; to interpose himself in all secular affairs; and to obtrude his dictates as sovereign laws on his obsequious disciples. It was a sufficient motive to Alexander the second, the reigning pope, for embracing William's quarrel, that he alone had made an appeal to his tribunal, and rendered him umpire of the dispute between him and Harold: but there were other advantages, which, that pontiff foresaw, must result from the conquest of England by the Norman arms. That kingdom, though at first converted by Romish missionaries, though it had afterwards advanced some farther steps towards subjection under Rome, maintained still a great independence in its ecclesiastical administration; and forming a world within itself, entirely separated from the rest

of Europe, it had hitherto proved inaccessible to those exorbitant claims, which supported the grandeur of the papacy. Alexander, therefore, hoped, that the French and Norman barons, if successful in their enterprize, might import into that country a more devoted reverence to the holy see, and bring the English churches to a nearer conformity with those of the rest of Europe. He declared immediately in favour of William's claim; pronounced Harold a perjured usurper; denounced excommunication against him and his adherents; and the more to encourage the duke of Normandy in his enterprize, he sent him a consecrated banner, and a ring with one of St. Peter's hairs in it. Thus were all the ambition and violence of that invasion covered over

safely with the broad mantle of religion."

William, considering that his new throne would be insecure while any englishman remained in any station of authority, determined to depose Archbishop Stigand from the metropolitan see of Canterbury. The violence necessary for the perpetration of this tyrannical outrage required and readily received a reinforcement of hypocrisy from his spiritual ally. "Pope Alexander who had assisted William in his conquest of England, reasonably expected that the French and Normans would import into England the same reverence for his character, with which they were imbued in their own country; and would break the spiritual, as well as civil independency of the Saxons, who had hitherto conducted their ecclesiastical government, with an acknowledgment indeed of

primacy in the see of Rome, but without much idea of its title to dominion or authority. As soon, therefore, as the Norman prince seemed fully established on the throne, the Pope dispatched Ermenfroy, bishop of Sion, as his legate into England; and this prelate was the first who had ever appeared with that character in any part of the British islands. The King, though he was probably led by principle to pay this submission to Rome, determined, as is usual, to employ the incident as a means of serving his political purposes, and of degrading those English prelates, who were become obnoxious to him. The legate submitted to become the instrument of his tyranny; and naturally thought, that the more violent the exertion of power, the more certainly did it confirm the authority of that court from which he derived his commission. He summoned, therefore, a council of the prelates and abbots at Winchester; and being assisted by two cardinals, Peter and John, he cited before him Stigand, Archbishop of Canterbury, to answer for his conduct. The primate was accused of three crimes; the holding the see of Winchester together with that of Canterbury; the officiating in the pall of Robert, his predecessor; and the having received his own pall from Benedict the ninth, who was afterwards deposed for simony, and for intrusion into the papacy. These crimes of Stigand were mere pretences; Stigand's ruin, however, was resolved on, and was prosecuted with great severity. The legate degraded him from his dignity, and the King confiscated his estate, and cast him into prison,

where he continued in great poverty and want during the remainder of his life."

He was succeeded in the primacy of England, not by a Norman, but by an Italian monk, devoted to the pope.

So far the interests of both of the conspirators were concurrently promoted. But "William, the most potent, the most haughty, and the most vigorous prince in Europe," soon experienced that, in the royal game of tyrannous usurpation, he was no match for his playfellow. "The industry and perseverance are surprising, with which the popes had been treasuring up powers and pretensions during so many ages of ignorance; while each pontiff employed every fraud for advancing purposes of imaginary piety." The conqueror was surprised to find that the fisherman's net which his arms had cast over his kingdom had, at the same time, passed over his own head, and caught himself. As soon as he felt the first pulls he endeavoured to escape-but the net was held by a hand too skilful to let slip such a valuable prize.

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Though the King showed this vigour in supporting the royal dignity, he was infected with the general superstition of the age, and he did not discover the ambitious scope of those institutions, which, under cover of strictness in religion, were introduced or promoted by the Roman pontiff." Their uses were better understood by William's successors, and particularly by Henry the Second and John.

A subsequent and similar compact, if possible more flagrantly atrocious, between the same parties (the