jure the persons, or infringe the rights of any of his pagan or christian subjects, till his zeal heightened into an exorbitant thirst to be instrumental in rendering the church he had espoused respected for her grandeur, magnificence, and riches. Here lies the root of the evil.-In this single principle were generated every calamity, all the wickedness, bloodshed, and tyranny that unbelievers have so wantonly and so unjustly thrown in the teeth of christianity. The religion of Christ is in its very essence simple and unassuming. It connects not itself with the kingdoms of this world.-It requires not the officious hands of an imperial Uzza to support it. To adopt the words of a late spirited writer of the Church of England, "it wants nothing but fair play. Human mixtures pollute it. Human aids disgrace it."* But Constantine

disfigured the lovely form of christianity, when he bedecked her in the gaudy trappings of worldly grandeur.† He himself became a preacher, and the church gratefully acknowledged him as her temporal head. This unfortunate honour confirmed the evil which his officious piety had already introduced. The

The Rev. D. Simpson's Key to the Prophecies, pref. p. xvi. Ed. 1809.

"When kings interfere in matters of religion, they don't protect it, they enslave it."-Fenelon's Letter to Charles, son of our James II., in Mr. Butler's interesting Life of that great and good man.

Euseb. in Vit. Const, 1, 4. c. 15, 32.

ministers of a religion, of which the greatest emperor in the world was the temporal head and protector, could not with decency any longer remain in obscurity or poverty; nor was it becoming, that those whose sacred duties led them daily to temples ornamented with whatever the refined taste of the ancients could suggest, with the richest treasures of the arts, and all that an elegant superstition could invent, should themselves appear before a courtly auditory dressed in plain and simple garments, respected for their virtues only, and loved but for their holy office' and good works' sake: other honours, and on other grounds, awaited them.

From this time, the superior rank of the Bishop of Rome in the Christian hierarchy was visible to all the Roman world. His right to it, the object of these pages does not require me to discuss I shall content myself with presenting the reader with a succinct statement, put into my hands by Charles Butler, Esq. a wellknown Roman Catholic gentleman, which professes to shew, that in point of fact, the Bishop of Rome has, in every age of Christianity, uninterruptedly enjoyed this splendid pre-eminence, with the universal consent of Christendom.

"THE first distinction among christians, is of those who believe, and those who disbelieve, the supremacy, in jurisdiction and rank, of the Pope. Leaving at present, out of considera

tion, the point of his right to this supremacy, the following deduction seems to shew that, in point of fact, he has been in the actual possession and exercise of it, from the dawn of christianity to the present time. It is observable, that Mr. Gibbon* remarks, that till the great 'division of the Church, in consequence of the 'Greek schism, the Roman bishop had ever 'been considered by the orientalists, as the 'first of the five patriarchs.'

“I.—A. D. 500. With the exception of the schismatics of the Greek church, the sects. in the east, a few Waldenses in Lucerne, a few Hussites in Bohemia, and a few obscure Paulicians, the whole christian world, at the beginning of the 16th century, acknowledged the supremacy of the Pope. Luther himself in 1518, prostrated himself at the feet of his holiness, resigned himself to him, for his absolution or 'condemnation, and professed to receive his

decision, as he should use the word of Jesus • Christ himself.'t In 1519, he declares, that ' it never had been his design, either to attack

the Pope or the Church of Rome; that the • Church of Rome was superior over all; that, C except Jesus Christ himself, there was nothing in heaven or earth that could be preferred to • her.'‡

→ Dec. and Fall, Vol. VI. p. 400. † Ed. Jen. t. i. p. 58.

t I. i. 144.

" II.-A. D. 1439. From this time, advancing upwards to the commencement of the christian era, the first event of importance on which we alight, is the Council of Florence. It was there defined, that full power was de'legated to the bishop of Rome, in the person

of St. Peter, to feed, regulate, and govern the 'universal church, as expressed in the general 'councils and the holy canons.'*

" III.-A. D. 860. The object of the Council of Florence, was to re-unite the Greek and Latin Churches: this leads to The Schism which separated them. All persons conversant in ecclesiastical history know, that the schism had its origin in the deposition of St. Ignatius, the patriarch of Constantinople, and the election of Photius in his place. Now, as soon as Photius was elected, he himself sent his four metropolitans to Rome, to inform the Pope of the deposition of St. Ignatius, and of his own election, and to solicit the Pope's confirmation of his election. But if the Pope had not an acknowledged supremacy of jurisdiction, in the the general opinion of the Eastern empire, this deputation to Rome could have answered no purpose, and would never have been thought of. The Pope's answer to it was expressed in the genuine style of admitted and undisputed

* Sess. 10.

authority. He addressed a letter to all the faithful of the East; and, particularly addressing himself to the patriarchs of Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem, You,' says his holiness, ' in virtue of my apostolic authority, I order to 'think as I do, of the merits of the cause be'tween Ignatius and Photius, and I enjoin you to have these letters read through your respective dioceses, that their contents may be 'made known to all.' Thus, then, at the commencement of the schism, the supremacy of the Pope was as much acknowledged by the Greek, as it was by the Latin Church.

" IV.-A. D. 750. If we continue our advances, the next period which engages our attention, is the Translation of the Empire of the West to the Latins, the important event which connects ancient and modern Rome. Turning from the part which the Popes took in the temporal causes and effects of that momentous event, their spiritual power was there most fully and unequivocally recognized. The political revolution which it occasioned, had necessarily a considerable degree of influence on the spiritual concerns of the church, and gave rise to much conscientious doubt. In that state of general scruple and uncertainty, the universal resort was to Rome. The French did not apply to their primate at Lyons, or to the bishop of the metropolis, the Germans to Vienna, the Hungarians to Strigonium, or the Bohe