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more and more influence in the civil affairs of the Latin world. Here he is represented as having obtained the direction and management of all the power of the first beast, or secular Latin empire, before him, váriov άurou, in his presence. That the false-prophet had the extensive power here spoken of is evident from history; and it is well known that the civil power was in subjection to the ecclesiastical. "Many (German) bishops," Mr. Lowman observes, "had large temporal dominions bestowed upon them, in which they had regal and sovereign authority: they receive homage, and an oath of fealty from their subjects: they have the supreme power of the sword, both in the punishment of their subjects, and in making war; they coin money, levy taxes, make treaties with the other princes of the empire, and with foreign princes; and have all the rights of sovereignty, in as full manner as any of the se

ers, and made a profitable commerce of this new devotion. The latter paid considerable sums for legs and arms, skulls and jawbones, (several of which were Pagan, and some not human,) and others that were supposed to have belonged to the primitive worthies of the Christian church; and thus the Latin churches came to the possession of those celebrated relics of St. Mark, St. James, St. Bartholomew, Cyprian, Pantaleon, and others, which they shew at this day with so much ostentation. But there were many, who, unable to procure for themselves these spiritual treasures by voyages and prayers, had recourse to violence and theft; for all sorts of means, and all sorts of attempts, in a cause of this nature were considered, when successful, as pious and acceptable to the Supreme Being." Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History, Cent. IX. Part 11. chap. 3, § 3, 4, 5, 6.

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eular electors, or princes of the empire. A very great part of Germany is thus in the hands of ecclesiastical persons, with temporal jurisdiction. It has been observed, that in about seventy years, from A. D. 936 to 1002, the three Othos, who succeeded each other in the empire, gave two-thirds of the estates of Germany to ecclesiastics, as Heiss, a Roman Catholic historian, informs us."* Extraordinary as the power of the secular clergy has been in all parts of the Latin empire, it was but feeble when compared with that of the monastic orders, especially the Mendicant Friars, who first made their appearance in the early part of the thirteenth century. These friars were divided by Gregory X. in a general council which he assembled at Lyons in 1272, into the four following societies or denominations, viz. the Dominicans, the Franciscans, the Carmelites, and the Hermits of St. Augustine. All these orders were very highly venerated by all orders and degrees of people. Mosheim's account of them is as follows: "As the pontiffs allowed these four Mendicant orders the liberty of travelling wherever they thought proper, of conversing with persons of all ranks, of instructing the youth and the multitude wherever they went; and as these monks exhibited, in their outward appearance and manner of life, more striking marks of gravity and holiness, than were observable in

See his Paraphrase and Notes on the Revelation of St. *John, in los.

the other monastic societies, they arose all at once to the very summit of fame, and were regarded with the utmost esteem and veneration throughout all the countries of Europe. The enthusiastic attachment to these sanctimonious beggars went so far, that, as we learn from the most authentic records, several cities were divided, or cantoned out, into four parts, with a view to these four orders; the first part was assigned to the Dominicans, the second to the Franciscans, the third to the Carmelites, and the fourth to the Augustinians. The people were unwilling to receive the sacraments from any other hands than those of the Mendicants, to whose churches they crowded to perform their devotions, while living; and were extremely desirous to deposit there also their remains after death; all which, occasioned grievous complaints among the ordinary priests, to whom the cure of souls was committed, and who considered themselves as the spiritual guides of the multitude. Nor did the influence and credit of the Mendicants end here; for we find, in the history of this and the succeeding ages, that they were employed not only in spiritual matters, but also in temporal and political affairs of the greatest consequence, in composing the differences of princes, concluding treaties of peace, concerting alliances, presiding in cabinetcouncils, governing courts, levying taxes, and other occupations, not only remote from, but absolutely inconsistent with, the monastic character and profession. We must not, however, imagine that all

the Mendicant friars attained to the same degree of reputation and authority; for the power of the Dominicans and Franciscans surpassed greatly that of the other two orders, and rendered them singularly conspicuous in the eyes of the world. During three centuries these two fraternities governed, with an almost universal and absolute sway, both state and church, filled the most eminent posts ecclesiastical and civil; taught in the universities and churches with an authority, before which all opposition was silent, and maintained the pretended majesty and prerogatives of the Roman pontiffs against' kings, princes, bishops, and heretics, with incredible ardour and equal success. The Dominicans and Franciscans were, before the Reformation, what the Jesuits have been since that happy and glorious period, the very soul of the hierarchy, the engines of state, the secret springs of all the motions of the one and the other, and the authors or directors of every great and important event both in the religious and political world."* Hence it is evident that the false-prophet has exercised "all the power of the first beast in his sight," both temporal and spiritual; and therefore, with such astonishing influence as this, over secular princes, it was no difficult matter for him to cause "the earth, and them which dwell therein, to worship the first beast whose deadly wound was healed." That is, he causes the whole Latin world to submit to the

* Cent. XIII. Part 11. chap. 2. § 23, 24.

authority of the Latin empire, with the revived. western empire at its head; persuading them that such submission is beneficial to their spiritual inte, rests, and absolutely necessary for their salvation. Here it is observable, that both Beasts have dominion over the same earth, for it is expressly said, that the second Beast" causeth the earth and them that dwell therein to worship the first beast;" therefore it is, as Bishop Newton and others have judiciously observed, imperium in imperio, "an empire within an empire:" we have, consequently, the greatest reason to assert, without running any risk of being successfully contradicted, that the two Beasts consist in the division of the great Latin empire, by the usurpation of the Latin clergy, into two distinct empires, the one secular, the other spiritual; and both united in one grand Antichristian design, viz. to diffuse their most abominable system of idolatry over the whole earth, and to extend the sphere of their domination.

"And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven upon the earth in the sight of men, and deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast which had the wound by a sword, and did live." In order to establish the Latin church upon a foundation that can never fail, the false-prophet" doeth great wonders;" he attempts the most wonderful and prodigious exploits,

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