"of the sanctity of the monastic order*" The same historian further observes, "The monastic "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 Do"minicans 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 fraternities "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 majesty of the Roman pontiffs against kings, princes, bishops, and he

་

retics, 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 arrògance 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; "they treated with the utmost insolence and contempt 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"tentation the superior efficacy and virtue of "their indulgences; and vaunted, beyond mea"sure, 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

* Mosheim's Eccles. Hist. vol. iii. p. 195.

" and

"and captivated the miserable and blinded multitude, that they would not intrust any others "but the mendicants with the care of their souls, "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.

(2.) 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 ecclesias-tical horn or kingdom before the year 606, when the Pope was declared universal Bishop, and when 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 formerly declared by Phocas

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

the

the head of the universal Church*. In the eighth century Germany was reduced under the yoke by an English friar named Boniface, whom Gregory the third consecrated Archbishop of Mentz; constituting him at the same time his vicar, with full power to call councils, and to constitute bishops in those places, which were by his assistance converted to the Christian faith. In the first of these councils, Boniface presiding in quality of legate of the Roman chair, the clergy signed a certain confession of faith, whereby they obliged themselves, not only to maintain the catholic faith, but also to remain in constant union with the Roman church and to be obedient to the successors of St. Peter. "This Boniface," says Puffendorf, was the first "who put it upon the bishops of Germany to "receive the episcopal pall from the Pope, who "sent it to the bishops of France without their

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request, thereby to unite them with the Roman "chair. And, when once these ornaments were "become customary amongst them, they were

put upon them afterwards as of absolute ne"cessity; and the episcopal function was for"bidden to be exercised by them before they had "received these ornaments t." The same author further observes, "Besides this, the Popes assumed

* 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.

+ Introduct. to Hist. of Eur. cited by Whitaker, p. 404.

"to

"B to themselves an authority of giving leave to "the bishops to remove from one episcopal see?

to another, and obliged all the western bishops

to receive their confirmation from Rome, for "which they were obliged to pay a certain sum "of money as an acknowledgment, which was "since converted to annats. The Popes also, by

making void the decisions of the provincial synods or assemblies, overthrew their authority: wherefore, when every body plainly per"ceived that the decrees of these assemblies "could produce no other effects but to be conti

nually annulled by the Popes, without so much "as hearkening to any reasons, they were by degrees quite abolished. Pope Gregory the seventh also forced the bishops to swear an oath "of fealty to the Pope, and by a decree forbad *,* "that none should dare to condemn any one that' "had appealed to the Pope. They were also not forgetful in sending legates or nuncios to all "places; whose business was to exercise in the name of the Pope the same authority, which "had formerly belonged to the bishops, metro

politans, and provincial assembies †." In this passage mention is made of the oath of fealty exacted by Gregory the seventh from the bishops. A similar oath has been imposed, even since the Reformation, by Pius the fourth on all the bene

* Enacted.

Introduct, to Hist. of Eur. cited by Whitaker, p. 406.

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ficed