BOOK which were substituted for what was abolished-and II. the final defeat of the papal agents and conspiracies, that were put in action to prevent or extinguish the national improvement. It was the resolution and perseverance of the English government and people, which encouraged and enabled the Northern hemisphere of Europe to throw off the yoke of Rome, and to complete its religious independence; and it is this result which gives a lasting importance to the reigns of those princes of the Tudor line, by whom the difficult victory was achieved, and to whom this continuation of our history is devoted. It has been repeatedly the destiny of England, that her councils and conduct should operate powerfully, and for the most part profitably, on the rest of mankind. No country has less planned, or wished, to throw others into agitation; but, from the talents of the nation, from its political wealth, its emulous population, their continual improvements, their social importance and their relative position, it has seldom been possible even for its own forbearance to diminish the effects of its prosperous existence. If any one part of its history displays its influence on the state of other countries, more impressively and more serviceably than another, the completion of its religious emancipation may be selected as the most distinguishing transaction. It is this result which has prevented sacerdotal despotism and debilitating superstitions from debasing the British people, and a large portion of the continent, to that depression of mind and loss of all former greatness, power and celebrity, which Italy, Spain and Portugal, have so largely and so long ex II. perienced. If England's efforts had failed to main- CHAP. tain the liberation which it had commenced within itself and promoted elsewhere, the European world would have been subjected, with unpitying rigor, to that reign and inquisitorial tyranny of a jealous papacy and its vindictive hierarchy and to that compulsory retention and veneration of puerile The principles on which M. Frayssinous, the bishop of Hermopolis, a member of M.Villele's late cabinet, and one of the ablest and most enlightened of the French church, of the Jesuit party, vindicates in 1825, the Inquisition, evince from what government mankind have been rescued by the Protestant reformation: We cannot deny to the two powers, the ecclesiastical and the civil, the right of taking measures and of concerting together to oppose themselves to the fatal novelties which never compromise the repose of the church, without altering that of the state. In civil societies there are not only tribunals of justice to punish committed crimes, but also others of safety, of surveillance to anticipate crimes; to prevent des ecarts et des complots which might trouble the public tranquillity. Pontiffs and magistrates should be allowed to think that bad doctrines conduct to bad actions; that no one has a right to be seditious under pretext of liberty of opinions, and that in general violence may be repelled by violence.' Defense du Christ. v. 3. p. 131. Ed. Paris, 1825. What persecutor would desire a larger latitude, or a more excusing apology? He quotes with visible satisfaction, if the citation with the distinction of Italics in the printing may be thought to indicate such a feeling, these two passages from another congenial mind, in defence of the Spanish Inquisition: Our legislators saw Europe smoking, in the sixteenth century, and to save themselves from the general conflagration, they employed the Inquisition, which is the political means they used to maintain religious unity, and to prevent religious wars.- - - During the three last ages, there has been, in virtue of the Inquisition, more peace and happiness in Spain than in the other countries of Europe.' Ib. p. 135 This is extracted from Letters to a Russian Gentleman, which seem to have been written to persuade Russia to adopt the Inquisition. There is a peace of desolation, of a desert, of a dungeon, and of the tomb,-as well as a peace of virtue, reason and piety. What sort of a peace the Inquisition produced in Spain, we may judge from a short sentence of Zopf: The Inquisition was introduced into Spain in 1478. Scarcely had this horrible tribunal been established, when 2000 persons were burnt by order of the Grand Inquisitor, Jon de Torquemada.' Precis Hist. 2. p. 624. The distinction which M. Frayssinous takes against Montesquieu, on the Jews who were burnt by it, is also very refined: Montesquieu supposes that the Jews were punished for the simple fact of their religion; this is not exact: the Inquisition sought only after Jews, who, after having professed Christianity, publicly apostatized to become Jews again.' Ib. p. 137. This distinction is certainly logically correct. BOOK legends, and of many mercenary rites and doctrines, II. which, by confounding religion with much popular absurdity, had deteriorated Christianity and the human intellect; and were continually tempting the enlightened understanding to that general incredulity, which it is one of the sins of the papal system, in its vulgar and practical form, to be ever tending to produce in a cultivated age.' In presenting the English Reformation in this character, it is not intended to depreciate or deny any of the real merits of the Roman Catholic church, or the high and deserved character of its many illustrious ornaments, or to perpetuate animosities which ought by this time to have expired. Mankind have reached a stage of society, in which it is the prevailing desire that all passion and enmities should be separated from religion for ever; and in which, even the least educated feel, that with such human infirmities it has no affinity, and that it has never been benefited by their discreditable association. If the papal church had been what it was in the mind and conduct of a Fenelon, a Contarini or a Ganga 7 St. Austin's description of the character and effects.of superstition, with Charron's commentary, are fully applicable to those practices, which our ancestors abolished in England at the Reformation; but many of which are still continued in Ireland and elsewhere: 'Superstitio error insanus; amandos timet; quos colit, violat; morbus pusilli animi; qui superstitione imbutus est, quietus esse nusquam potest. Varro ait Deum a religioso vereri; a superstitioso timeri.' August.- La superstition craint, tremble et injurie Dieu; trouble homme, et est maladie d'ame foible, vile et paoureuse.' La Sagesse, L. 2. c. 5. The facts that will be mentioned in this chapter will illustrate, if not justify, Machiavel's sarcasm: By the corrupt examples of the papal court, Italy has lost all its religion and all its devotion: so that we Italians have this obligation to the church and to its ministers, that by their means we have become heathenish and irreligious.' Liv. c. 12. p. 284. II. nelli, and what they, if unrestricted, might have made CHAP. it; or if the present English Catholic gentry could be its parliamentary legislators, and could abolish what their rectitude and piety, abstracted from the selfish interests of the political part of their priesthood, would be unwilling to retain, there would have been no Protestant revolution in the sixteenth century, nor would unchristian schism and hatreds agitate or divide us now. The objectionable would be expunged; and mutual kindness and equal sincerity would tolerate in each other the intellectual differences, which the enlightened and the honorable on both sides would conscientiously maintain. It is not to the real worth and truth which the Roman Catholic church comprises; but to the abuses and degrading appendages which the governing part of its institution has so often attached to it, and by which, whenever unrestrained, some of its leaders still seek to govern and subject mankind, that the representations in these pages apply. The imperfections alluded to, relate to the Romish hierarchy as it was over all Europe in the middle ages, and seems still to be in Spain and Italy; and not to the improved and enlightened episcopacy and more Their actions and writings shew that two descriptions of minds exist in the papal hierarchy-the pious and the political. It was by the latter that the Reformation was chiefly resisted, and at length extinguished in France and Italy. If the influence of the former only had governed, there might have been no hostile or implacable schism. "The marble tombstone found at Salernum, with the effigy of a heathen priest upon it, has an inscription which expresses, in a few words, that spirit which actuated the Roman hierarchy so much to its disadvantage, from the twelfth to the sixteenth century, and in some countries since :-Ne gustato, quas sacerdos non gustaverit. Taste not what the priest shall not have tasted.' Orellius Inscrip. Lat. Se' ct. p. 430. II. in BOOK liberal system of constitutional France and Bavaria, or of English Catholics, whose minds have no congeniality with most of the delusions by which the others are affected. With all its defects, the church of Europe, during the middle ages, was a venerable and splendid pile of moral and mental architecture, which had been from pure philanthropy built up this country and in France by the Popedom itself; 10 as it was in Germany and Friesland by English missionaries," and in Switzerland by Irish coadjutors, acting as the agents of their Roman chief. But the original fabric became incumbered and defaced by many additions, which enlarged its wealth and extended its dominion; but which, by also corrupting the virtue and dwindling the intellect of its rulers and order, diminished its popularity and curtailed its duration.13 For ages it had been the 12 10 The memory of Gregory the Great deserves our kindest respect, as the immediate cause of the introduction of Christianity among the Anglo-Saxons in our island. Anglo-Sax. Hist. vol. 3. The abbé Bergier remarks, that for 200 years after Clovis, there were no clerici in France, but Romans. Encyc. Theol. 1. p. 191. " Of these, Boniface, who became archbishop of Mentz, and founded the great monastery of Fulda of English monks and others, and four great German bishoprics, and converted 100,000 of the pagan Germans, was the most successful. Other Englishmen were active in Friesland, and in Westphalia. Hist. Anglo-Sax. v. 3. book 10. c. 2. 12 Anglo-Sax. ib. 13 It is manifest that the Papal court, in the middle ages, was acting, and has acted since, on the derogating sentiment of Strabo: Women, and the promiscuous crowd, cannot be actuated by the lessons of philosophy, nor by these be led to religion, sanctity and faith. They must be urged by superstitions. Yet this cannot be done without legends and miracles (μvooπoias kai TEPETEIC.) The thunder, the ægis, the trident, the torches and the serpents; the ivy-circled spears, and the fabled arms of the gods, were used by the founders of polities, as hobgoblins, (μoppoλvkaç) for infantile minds. The philosophical belongs to the few, but poetical inventions are popular deceptions, and can always fill a public theatre.' Geog. 1. 1. p. 13. That the practical machinery of Popery has been framed, and is kept in present use, on this principle, who that contemplates it can doubt? And who can observe the fact, |