orthodox bishops were depofed, and the Arians fubftituted in their room, these changes were accompanied with the murder of thousands. Had not the emperor Julian reafon to fay? Nullas infeftas hominibus beftias, ut funt fibi ferales plerique chriftianorum, expertus" He found by experience, that fa"vage beafts are lefs furious against man"kind, than the generality of chriftians against one another." And the emperor Jovian feemed to be well acquainted with the principal object of the devotion of too many of them, when he faid, "that they worshipped not God, but the purple." Ammianus Marcellinus; a pagan hiftorian above-mentioned, giving an account of the bloody conteft at Rome for the bishopric of that city, appeared alfo to fee clearly, what thefe mens chief aim was, when he declared, "It was no wonder that thofe, who were દ ambitious of human grandeur, contended "with fo much heat and animofity for that dignity; becaufe, when they had obtained "it, they were fute to be enriched by the

re

offerings of the matrons, of appearing "abroad in great fplendor, of being admired for their coftly coaches, fumptuous feafts,

re

and for outdoing fovereign princes in the expences of their tables." Might not

M 2

↳ Ammianus Marcellinus, L. xxii. c. v.

Grotius

с

Grotius justly fay, Qui ecclefiafticam hiftoriam legit, quid legit, nifi episcoporum vitia ? And as ecclefiaftical history abounds to fuch a degree in accounts of nonfenfical, unintelligible, and ridiculous disputes between the heads of the church, and the outrageous quarrels, and violent, bloody perfecutions they carried on against each other; may it not likewife be truly faid, that the feverest fatire ever written against the church is the history of the church?

SECTION VIII.

UNT

NTIL the Roman empire, which included a great part of the civilized world, was wholly, or principally at leaft, converted to chriftianity, the church, which had been long militant, did not come fully to her triumphant ftate; neither did the clergy, particularly the bishops of Rome, arrive at that plenitude of power they afterwards enjoyed.

FOR fome time after the establishment of christianity in the empire, tho' many of the emperors indulged the clergy in an exorbi tant degree of power, yet the latter were fre

* Epift. xxii.

quently

quently restrained by the former from doing fo much mischief, and going fuch lengths in perfecution and cruelty, as they were apparently inclined to: but soon after the bishop of Rome gained his point of being acknowledged œcumenical, or univerfal bishop, he then fet himself up, not only above princes, kings, and emperors, but above all that is called God: he not only gave laws to princes, deposed them at his pleasure, trod on their necks, literally speaking, inflicted on them the most ignominious punishments, and put them to death when they would not be fubfervient to his cruel and tyrannical purposes; but, as much as in him lay, he dethroned the Almighty, by erecting a dominion in thé confciences of men, over which God alone has a right to reign.

Hoftienfis afferts, that the facerdotal office is 7644 times above the regal, that being the proportion of magnitude between the fun and the moon.

e

Pope Alexander III, in the year 1159, fet his foot -upon the neck of the emperor Barbaroffa, and at the fame time used this expreffion: Super afpidem et bafilifcum ambulabis.

Pope Gregory VII obliged the emperor Henry IV, in very fevere cold weather, to stand for three days in the court-yard of a castle in the Modenese in fack-cloth, and bare-footed, without either meat or drink, and with tears to beg for pardon, before the pope could be prevailed on to restore him into the bofom of the church. Keyfer's Travels, Vol. III. p. 149.

THIS unlimited power, thus unjustly and wickedly ufurped by the pope, was made ufe of to fpread terrors, calamities, and religious cruelties, first through all Chriftendom, and afterwards to the remotest parts of the earth; for multitudes of poor Indians have also been made to drink large draughts of the bitter cup of chriftian, or rather antichriftian perfecution. O balloo

WHEN part of the fubjects of any christian prince refufed their, affent to the abfurd, unchristian doctrines, or to practife the ridicu lous, ungodly 'forms of worship, which this defpotic pontiff or his haughty coadjutors would impofe upon them, the prince was commanded to force them to a compliance: and if the people remained obftinate, that is, if they were determined to perfevere in be lieving and acting as their confciences directed, then these princes were obliged, on pain of being excommunicated and deprived of their dominions, to become fuch mean and despicable tools of the church, as to perform the vile and wicked drudgery of perfecuting their own fubjects, by banishments, murders, &c. Princes were thus brought to

the

In ftruggling for this power, and in other quarrels, there were no less than feventy-eight battles fought be tween the popes and their rightful fovereigns the emperors. Preface to Mr. Bower's Hiftory of the Popes, p. 7.

the dilemma, either of weakening their dominions, by driving away or deftroying many! of, perhaps, the best and most useful of their fubjects, and frequently acting against their own confciences alfo, or running the rifque, of being themselves feverely, and in an infamous manner, even corporally punished by order of the pope, murdered by some of their own bigotted fubjects or dethroned by for reign powers inftigated against them for their deftruction.d Rejdi det paitch

10

Bur if whole nations, or at least the ma jority and governing part of them, were fo tenacious of their natural and legal rights and privileges, as not to allow the fupremacy or dominion of this fervus fervorum Dei, that is, being papally interpreted, this king of kings and lord of lords; and fo irreligious, as not to receive the foolifh and ridiculous inven-s tions of men, as the dictates and oracles of God; then fuch were declared heretics, configned to the devil, and, as in the former cafe, the government bestowed upon some popish prince who could gain it by his fword.

THUS did pope Sixtus Quintus act by our queen Elizabeth and this nation, declaring her and her people heretics, curfing them to the

M 4

h That most excellent prince, Henry IV of France, was in this manner murdered, and fo likewife have other kings been.