the throne of Old Rome, on account of her being the imperial city; and the one hundred and fifty bishops, most beloved of God, acting with the same view, have given the like privileges to the most Holy Throne of New Rome: rightly judging, that the city which is the seat of empire and of a senate, and is equal to the old imperial Rome in other privileges, should be also honoured as she is in ecclesiastical concerns, as being the second and next after her; and that the metropolitans not only of the Pontic, Asian, and Thracian dioceses be ordained by the most holy Throne of Constantinople; but even the bishops of the said dioceses which lie among the barbarians; the metropolitans of the said dioceses ordaining bishops subject to them, and the Archbishop of Constantinople ordaining the said metropolitans, after the elections have been first made according to custom, and reported to him."

It is true, this canon, or more properly, this synodical act, has never been admitted by the canonists of the ancient Latin Church; hence it is omitted in the Latin code of Dionysius Exiguus; but it is found in the more ancient collection of Justellus, among the Constantinopolitan canons, which were decreed at a General Council, A. D. 381–382. It is a most important document, and ought not to be overlooked in an inquiry into the primitive jurisdiction of the see of Rome; especially as the sixth

of the Nicene Canons evidently conveys the same general idea, that the See of Rome had precedence of those of Alexandria and Antioch, solely: as being the most ancient imperial metropolis.

View of the state of the Church, and the attempts at Reform previous to the time of Luther.

THE extraordinary power and growing ambition of the Roman court had so completely blinded the eyes and darkened the understanding of men, as to occasion, even as early as the eighth century, a melancholy falling away from the purity and simplicity of the Christian discipline. But this defection was not unnoticed by the wise and discerning portion of Christian writers. The calamities, which were evidently coming on the Church, roused the zeal and excited the pious sorrows of many. "Who will grant me," exclaimed St. Bernard, in the 12th century, "to see before I die the Church of God, such as she was in primitive times ?"* "Through his whole life," as Bossuet informs us, "did this eminent saint bemoan the grievances of the Church. He never ceased giving notice of them to the people, the clergy, the bishops,

* History of the Variations of the Protestant Churches, i. 2.

and popes themselves. Nor did he conceal his sentiments on this head from his own religious, who partook of his affliction in their solitude, and so much the more gratefully extolled the divine goodness, which had prompted them to it, as the world was more generally corrupted."

In the Council of Vienne, in Dauphiny, held during the pontificate of Clement V., A. D. 1311, an attempt was made, through the resolute zeal, or vindictive courage, of Philip the Fair, to reform the morals and discipline of the Church. The protection which this French monarch gave to the person of William de Nogaret, the infuriate and implacable enemy of Boniface VIII., is well known; and the stand which he made against the usurpations of the papal power is creditable to his independence and his courage. Perhaps, his enmity towards the Knights Templars was greater than his abhorrence of the immorality of the clergy; but he so contrived it, that even the obsequious Pope himself" laid it down for a ground-work to the Holy Assembly at Vienne, that they ought to reform the Church in her Head and Members." This mode of expression soon became extremely common; and every writer of credit and character protested, though, alas! in vain, against the depravity, the pride, and extravagance of the Church; and the immorality and laxity of many of her children. Even Peter d'Ailly, the redoubted champion of the Pope

and well known opponent of Huss, at the Council of Constance, did not omit to forewarn the Church of the dangers that threatened her if she did not reform herself. The more amiable and excellent Charlier, or, as he is generally called, Gerson, exerted his great talents and excellent qualities to save the Church from the impending storm. At the Council of Pisa, A. D. 1409, it was declared by some of the members, that the universal Church absolutely required a reform both in regard to her chief and her whole discipline. Mosheim remarks, that the most eminent writers of the time unanimously lament the miserable condition to which the Christian Church was reduced by the corruption of its ministers, and which seemed to portend nothing less than its total ruin, if Providence did not interpose, by extraordinary means, for its deliverance and preservation. The vices that reigned among the Roman pontiffs, and, indeed, among all the ecclesiastical order, were so flagrant, that the complaints of these good men did not appear at all exagge rated, or their apprehensions ill-founded; 1; nor had any of the corrupt advocates of the clergy the courage to call them to an account for the sharpness of their censures, and of their complaints. Nay, the more eminent rulers of the Church, who lived in a luxurious indolence, and the impious practice of all kinds of vice, were obliged to hear, with a placid countenance, and even to commend these bold censors, who de

claimed against the degeneracy of the Church, and declared that there was almost nothing sound, either in its visible head, or in its members; and demanded the aid of the secular arm, and the destroying sword, to lop off the parts that were infected with this grievous and deplorable contagion. Things, in short, were brought to such a pass, that they were deemed the best Christians, and the most useful members of society, who, braving the terrors of persecution, and triumphing over the fear of man, inveighed, with the greatest freedom and fervour, against the court of Rome, its lordly pontiff, and the whole tribe of his followers and votaries.*

The

This deplorable state of things commenced with the Church's temporal greatness. Every century, and every year, discovered some new source of complaint,—some fresh departure from the purity of christian morality, or the relaxation of some point of Christian discipline. fifth general council of Vienne, already mentioned, appears to have been the first venerable assembly of the kind that condescended to remark upon and censure a falling off so foul and dangerous: yet nothing was done in that Council to any purpose. The Holy Prelates, with the Pope at their head, seemed to think they had done quite sufficient when they had abolish

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* Mosheim's Eccles. Hist. iii. 400.

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