"in a council affembled at Valence in Dauphiny, "A. D. 855." The contefts for civil power and dominion between Berenger Duke of Friuli, and Guy Duke of Spoletto, aflicted all Italy with great calamities, in which Rome itself shared very deep, from A. D. 888, to A. D. 960. The Popes themselves had a great hand in exciting thefe troubles, and had also a great share in them. The parties of Pope Formofus and Sergius raged against each other, with a difgraceful fury. Pope Stephen caused the dead body of Pope Formofus to be dug out of the grave, and after condemnation, to be thrown into the river Tyber. He made all his acts null and void, and took care to have an emperor made of his own party. These contefts and calamities, went fo far that Pope John XII. A. D. 960, felt himself, the church of Rome, and Italy, in fuch imminent danger from Berenger and his fon Adelbert, that he fent ambassadors to Otho the Great, in Saxony, giving the most pitiful and abject defcription of his fituation and of his forces, and intreating him for the love of the preservation of the Christian religion and of Italy, to lead his army back to Italy, and, after the example of Charlemagne, to rescue the church and Italy from their cruel tyranny. Thefe facts are recorded, at length, by Sigonius a Roman catholic hiftorian of high character in his Hift. de regno Italia, lib. 6, from page 139 to page 166. For the fatisfaction of those who have not an opportunity of confulting that hiftorian, I fhall here transcribe a few paffages from these pages, which, in the Latin language, in which he writes, contain the fubftance of what I have faid on this fubject. 66 Speaking of Berenger and Guy he fays, "Hi "fummam fibi rerum haud malo confilio afciffere nixi, inteftinis populorum difcordiis Italiam perturbarunt, ac feipfos prorfus una cum ecclefia perdiderunt. Ea tempora in rempublicam inferentes, quibus nulla alia tetriora, ac fœdiora fuiffe, vel principium nequitia, vel populorum infania, in tota antiquitate inveniuntur.” 66 66 66 66 In these words, this Roman Catholic writer gives a most exact comment on the noisome and grievous fore, when he calls these times, tetriora ac fœdiora. 66 Speaking of the hand which the Pope had in. these civil contefts he fays, " Major pars, licet Berengerii caufa juftior effet, pontificis, credo "auctoritate impulfa, ad Vidonem fe contulit." 66 It is worthy of remark that this Roman Catholic writer, fays here, that he believes that the pontiff fupported Guy, whilft the caufe of Berenger, his opponent, was the more righteous. 66 "Ac violato Formofi fepulchro, cadaver ejus extraxerunt, ac juffu Stephani in confpectum con "ventus 66 66 "ventus produxerunt. Quod oculis epifcoporum ' objectum Stephanus pontificialibus veftibus exui, "et laicalibus indui juffit; et conventum metu " minifque; ut Formofum tanquam fimoniæ compertum damnaret, adegit. Damnatum inde Sergiani ira, ac libidine inflammati projicierunt "in Tiberim. Neque vero hac injuria contentus Stephanus fuit, quin etiam omnia Formofi pon“tificatus acta refcidit, atque in primis, eos, qui "initiati ab eo fuerunt, exauctoravit, et Amulfum 66 66 46 regem, quem Formofus metu confecrarat impe"ratorem vitio factum effe pronunciavit, Lamber"tum vero regem Italiæ, factionis fuæ partes ex“emplo patris foventum inunxit imperatorem." It is fcarce poffible to conceive words more fit for predicting this event than "a noifome and "grievous fore upon the men, who had the mark "of the beaft, and who worshipped his image." "In Italiam vero furentibus in dies vehementi us regibus cum nemo omnium effet, qui non ex"terno cuicunque obedire imperio, quam huic do"mefticæ fervire tyrannidi mallet; Joannes ponti"fex indigna omnia paffus Joannem diaconum cardinalem, et Azonem fcriniarium ad Othonem legatos cum literis in Saxoniam mifit. Summa legationis fuit; Berengarium atque Adelbertum "occafione occupationum ejus impulfos multo, 66 66 66 66 quam ante, truculentius, ecclefiam, atque adeo "totam Italiam divexare, pertinere ad ejus non "dignitatem "dignitatem folum, fed fecuritatem etiam, ipfo"rum adeo infirmas opes effe ut nemini aut nocu"mento, aut formidini effe poffint. Quo circa "orare eum fe, ut pro Chriftianæ religionis atque "Italiæ falutis amore exercitum de integro in Ita"liam adduceret, atque ecclefiam Italiamque, Ca"roli Magni exemplo, ab fæva eorum tyrannidi "vindicaret." Sigonius tells us that, in the year 846, the Saracens marched up to the city of Rome, plundered the rich churches of the apoftles Peter and Paul, and carried away all their precious ornaments, and alfo the filver doors of the Vatican. 66 86 His own words are as follow:-Lib. 5, page 120. Quippe Saraceni prædæ libidine stimulati ex Africa claffem, Romanis littoribus intulerunt; et procurfu ad urbem facto, opimas apoftolorum "Petri et Pauli fuburbanas bafilicas, nemine vim propulfante, diripuerunt, ac preciofis omnibus "earum ornamentis ablatis; ipfas etiam bafilicæ "Vaticanæ valvas argenteas abfportarunt." 66 Mofheim, cent. x. vol. i. pages 447,—451, gives a very particular and long hiftory of the Popes during the tenth century, to which the reader is referred, and from which he will fee, that that hiftory well deserved this his introduction to it.-—"The hiftory of the Roman pontiffs, that lived in "this century, is a history of so many monsters, "and not of men; and exhibits a horrible series of "the "the most flagitious, tremenduous, and compli"cated crimes, as all writers, even thofe of the "Romish communion, unanimoufly confefs." The reader is alfo defired to confult Mosheim, Hift. cent. viii. Vol. i. pages 354, 413, 414, and 415, for the keen controverfies in doctrine and worfhip which distracted the church of Rome in that century. Thefe events, thus fully established from authentic history, fall in fo exactly with the period of the first vial; give such a shock to the vaunted conftitution of the Papal government; were felt with fuch pain and fhame by the votaries of Rome in that period; and are still so severely felt by them who live in the present and every period of their hiftory, that they exactly agree to, and minutely accomplish the prediction of a "vial poured out upon the earth, and a noisome and grievous fore 66 upon the men who had the mark of the beaft, "and upon them who worshipped his image." Verse 3d. And the fecond angel poured out his vial upon the fea; and it became as the blood of a dead man: and every living foul died in the fea. The fecond judgement was to fall upon the fea, upon that element by which intercourfe is carried |