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chorets can with no more propriety be esteemed a horn or regular ecclesiastical government, than men in a nomade state can be considered as constituting a regular secular government-Perhaps this part of the scheme may be given up, and it may be asserted that the Dominicans and Franciscans are the two horns exclusively, neither of those two orders being liable to be charged with the disqualification of the Anachorets. Here again fresh objections still arise. Both those orders are comparatively of a late date: and are we to suppose, notwithstanding the early rise of monasticism, that the beast had no horns till the days of Dominic and Francis? Or even, if we venture to adopt such a supposition, were the Dominicans and Franciscans the only orders? That they were the most conspicuous orders during three centuries is no doubt perfectly true, but they were certainly very far from standing alone. As the ten horns of the secular beast represent precisely that number of kingdoms, though some of them were strong and some wcak; so, arguing at least from analogy, had the horns of the ecclesiastical beast been designed to represent the monastic orders, there would surely have been just as many horns as there were orders, though some of those were strong and some weak-In opposition then to this scheme which seems to me to be clogged with too many difficulties to be admissible, I am more inclined to think with Bp. Newton, that the two horns are the Romish clergy, regular and secular. The first of

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these classes comprehends all the various monastic orders; the second comprehends the whole body of parochial clergy. These two classes I conceive to be the two ecclesiastical horns or kingdoms of the catholic empire of the Pope. In every particular they answer to the character of horns, being two distinct regularly organized bodies, subject first to their own particular superiors, and ultimately to the Pope the head of the whole empire*.

The manner, in which these two ecclesiastical kingdoms of the papal empire were erected, will best appear by adverting to history:

"The imperious pontiffs," says Mosheim, "alGC ways fond of exerting their authority, exempted “ "by degrees the monastic orders from the juris"diction of the bishops. The monks, in return

for this important service, devoted themselves "wholly to advance the interests, and to main"tain the dignity of the bishop of Rome. They "made his cause their own; and represented "him as a sort of god to the ignorant multitude, "over whom they had gained a prodigious as"cendant by the notion that generally prevailed "of the sanctity of the monastic ordert." The same historian further observes," The monastic

* Mr. Mede thinks, that the two-horns mean the twofold power of binding and loosing claimed by the Popes as vicars of Christ and successors of the Apostles. But such an idea is incongruous with the analogy of symbolical language, in which horns denote kingdoms.

+ Mosheim's Eccles. Hist. vol. ii. p. 172.

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"orders and religious societies have always been "considered by the Roman pontiffs as the prin

cipal support of their authority and dominion. "It is chiefly by them that they rule the Church, "maintain their influence on the minds of the "people, and augment the number of their vo"taries." Of this the following passage affords a remarkable instance. "The power of the "Dominicans and Franciscans greatly surpassed "that of the other two orders, and rendered "them singularly conspicuous in the eyes of the "world. During three centuries these two fra"ternities governed, with an almost universal "and absolute sway, both church and state; "filled the most eminent posts ecclesiastical and "civil; taught in the universities and churches "with an authority, before which all opposition "was silent; and maintained the pretended ma

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jesty of the Roman pontiffs against kings, prin"ces, bishops, and heretics, with incredible ardor " and success. The Dominicans and Franciscans "were before the Reformation what the Jesuits "have been since that happy and glorious period; "the very soul of the hierarchy, the engines of "the state, the secret springs of the motions of "the one and of the other, and the authors and "directors of every great and important event "both in the religious and political world."

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The complete distinctness of this first horn or ecclesiastical kingdom of the beast from the other, by means of their exemption from episcopal jurisdiction, will appear yet more evidently from the following passage. "While the pontiffs accumu “lated upon the mendicants the most honourable "distinctions and the most valuable privileges "which they had to bestow, they exposed them "still more and more to the envy and hatred of "the rest of the clergy; and this hatred was "considerably increased by the audacious arro

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gance that discovered itself every where in the "conduct of these supercilious orders. They "had the presumption to declare publicly, that they had a divine impulse and commission to "illustrate and maintain the religion of Jesus; .66 they treated with the utmost insolence and con

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tempt all the different ranks and orders of the "priesthood; they affirmed without a blush, that "the true method of obtaining salvation was "revealed to them alone; proclaimed with os

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tentation the superior efficacy and virtue of their indulgences; and vaunted, beyond measure, their interests at the court of heaven, and "their familiar connections with the Supreme Being, the Virgin Mary, and the saints in glory. By these impious wiles they so deluded and captivated the miserable and blinded multitude, that they would not intrust any others but the mendicants with the care of their souls, ૬ their

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"their spiritual and eternal concerns." Thus it appears, that the monastic orders constituted a well organized body, governed by their own laws, exempt from episcopal jurisdiction, subject to their respective generals or superiors, but paying at the same time an implicit obedience to the Pope. In short they perfectly answer to every idea that we can form of an ecclesiastical kingdom under the control of the head of an ecclesiastical empire.

The second horn of the beast I suppose to be the secular popish clergy. As the monks were subject, first to the superiors of their orders, and ultimately to the Pope; so the secular or parochial clergy were subject, first to their respective bishops, and ultimately to the sovereign pontiff. Various preparatory steps were taken towards the erecting of this second ecclesiastical horn or kingdom before the year 606, when the Pope was declared universal Bishop, and whence therefore I date the rise of the second beast or the papal catholic empire. The decrees of the Emperors, and the metropolitan dignity of Rome, gradually conferred upon the Popes an archiepiscopal authority over the western bishops, previous to the time when they were formally declaredby Phocas the head of the universal Churcht. In the eighth century Germany was

* Mosheim's Eccles. Hist. vol. iii. p. 204.

The reader will find a very circumstantial account of the manner in which the Bishops of Rome gradually extended their authority over the West, in Sir Isaac Newton's Observ. on Daniel, Chap. viii.

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