catholic empire of the Pope. In every particular they answer to the character of horns, being two distinct regularly organized bodies, subject first to their own particular superiors, and ultimately to the Pope the head of the whole empire.

The manner, in which these two ecclesiastical kingdoms of the papal empire were erected, will best appear by adverting to history.

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"The imperious pontiffs," says Mosheim, " always fond of exerting their authority, exempted by degrees the monastic orders from the jurisdic"tion of the bishops. The monks, in return for "this important service, devoted themselves wholly to advance the interests, and to maintain the dignity of the bishop of Rome. They made his cause their own; and represented him as a sort "of god to the ignorant multitude, over whom they had gained a prodigious ascendant by the notion that generally prevailed of the sanctity of "the monastic order." The same historian further observes, "The monastic orders and religious so• "cieties have always been considered by the Roman pontiffs as the principal support of their authority and dominion. It is chiefly by them "that they rule the Church, maintain their influence on the minds of the people, and augment "the number of their votaries." This he instances

in the following manner. "The power of the Do"minicans and Franciscans greatly surpassed that "of the other two orders, and rendered them sin. gularly conspicuous in the eyes of the world."

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"During

During three centuries these two fraternities "governed, with an almost universal and absolute ἐσ sway, both church and state; 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 of the Roman pontiffs against kings, princes, bishops, and he"retics, with incredible ardour and 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 the state, the secret springs of the motions of the one and of the "other, and the authors and directors of every

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great and important event both in the religious "and political world." The complete distinctness of this first horn or ecclesiastical kingdom of the beast from the other, by means of their exemption from episcopal jurisdiction, will appear yet more evidently from the following passage. "While the pontiff's accumulated upon the men"dicants the most honourable distinctions and the

envy

most valuable privileges which they had to be"stow, they exposed them still more and more to 66 the and hatred of the rest of the clergy; " and this hatred was considerably increased by "the audacious arrogance that discovered itself "every where in the conduct of these supercilious "orders. They had the presumption to declare "publicly, that they had a divine impulse and

66 com

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commission to illustrate and maintain the reli

gion of Jesus; they treated with the utmost in"solence and contempt all the different ranks and "orders of the priesthood; they affirmed without

a blush, that the true method of obtaining sal"vation was revealed to them alone; proclaimed with ostentation the superior efficacy and virtue "of their indulgences; and vaunted, beyond measure, their interests at the court of heaven, and "their familiar connections with the Supreme Being, the Virgin Mary, and the saints in glory. By "these impious wiles they so deluded and capti"vated the miserable and blinded multitude, that

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they would not intrust any others but the men"dicants with the care of their souls, their spiri"tual and eternal concerns." Thus it Thus it appears, that the monastic orders constituted a well organized body, governed by their own laws, exempt from episcopal jurisdiction, subject to their respective generals or superiors, but paying at the same time an implicit obedience to the Pope. In short they perfectly answer to every idea that we can form of an ecclesiastical kingdom under the controul of the head of an ecclesiastical empire,

beast I suppose to be As the monks were sub

The second horn of the the secular popish clergy. ject, first to the superiors of their orders, and ultimately to the Pope; so the secular or parochial clergy were subject, first to their respective bishops, and ultimately to the sovereign pontiff. Various preparatory steps were taken towards the erecting

of

of this second ecclesiastical horn or kingdom before the year 606, when the Pope was declared universal Bishop, and whence therefore I date the rise of the second beast or the papal catholic empire. The decrees of the Emperors, and the metropolitan dignity of Rome, gradually conferred upon the Popes an archiepiscopal authority over the western bishops, previous to the time when they were formally declared by Phocas the head of the universal Church*. In the eighth century Germany was reduced under the yoke by an English friar named Boniface, whom Gregory the third consecrated Archbishop of Mentz; constituting him at the same time his vicar, with full power to call councils, and to constitute bishops in those places, which were by his assistance converted to the Christian faith. In the first of these councils, Boniface presiding in quality of legate of the Roman chair, the clergy signed a certain confession of faith, whereby they obliged themselves, not only to maintain the catholic faith, but also to remain in constant union with the Roman church, and to be obedient to the successors of St. Peter. "This "Boniface," says Puffendorff, was the first, who "put it upon the bishops of Germany to receive "the episcopal pall from the Pope, who sent it to "the bishops of France without their request,

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* The reader will find a very circumstantial account of the manner in which the Bishops of Rome gradually extended their authority over the West, in Sir Isaac Newton's Observ. on Daniel Chap. viii.

"thereby

thereby to unite them with the Roman chair. "And, when once these ornaments were become

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customary amongst them, they were put upon "them afterwards as of absolute necessity; and "the episcopal function was forbidden to be exer"cised by them before they had received these 66 ornaments The same author further observes, "Besides this, the Popes assumed to them"selves an authority of giving leave to the bishops to remove from one episcopal see to another, "and obliged all the western bishops to receive "their confirmation from Rome, for which they "were obliged to pay a certain sum of money as an acknowledgment, which was since converted CC to annats. The Popes also, by making void the "decisions of the provincial synods or assemblies, "overthrew their authority: wherefore, when

every body plainly perceived that the decrees of "these assemblies could produce no other effects "but to be continually annulled by the Popes, "without so much as hearkening to any reasons, they were by degrees quite abolished. Pope Gregory the seventh also forced the bishops to swear an oath of fealty to the Pope, and by a decree for bad †, that none should dare to con"demn any one that had appealed to the Pope. "They were also not forgetful in sending legates

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or nuncios to all places; whose business was to

* Introduct, to Hist. of Eur. cited by Whitaker P. 404.

† Enacted.

"exercise