The Power Of The Popes

le of bold aggressions, defends itself by intrigue, and no longer attacks but by secret machinations. The reforms which separated from the Romish Church one part of Christendom, se

t part of their interest. We shall therefore only have to collect into this chapter a very limited number of facts, after we shall hav

p to Charles II. The inconstancy and contradictions which accumulated during this new reign, disclose the indecisive influence of the Roman court; the catholics are tolerated, accused, protected, excluded from employments; five Jesuits are decapitated; the king dissolves the parliament, and signs the act of Habeas Corpus; an anti-papistical oath is enacted, and the duke of York, who refuses to take it, is, nevertheless, appointed to the rank of high admiral; soon after he succeeds Charles his brother, under the name of James II. and wearies by barbarous executions the patience of his subjects. James without friends, even among the catholics whom he loaded

rs escaped from the dominion of the Holy See. The king of Spain, Philip III. also lost Artois, which Louis XIV. became master of, and Portugal which crowned the duke of Braganza king. Charles II. son of Philip IV. lost Franche Comte, died witho

d II. had disgusted the Germans and the North of Europe, we behold the imperial authority decline in the hands of Ferdinand III.; and Leopold, ruled for

d of Cinq-Mars; and, finishing by unworthy means what Henry IV. had not time to perfect, he established in the interior of France the monarchical power. His death, and that of Louis XIII. led to a stormy minority: the Fronde repulsed Mazarin; Mazarin wearied out the Fronde, and applied himself to ruling carelessly a frivolous people. What he most neglected was the education of the young king, that Louis XIV. who, from 1661 to 1716 reigned over the French, and for awhile gave law to Europe. The revocation of the edict of Nantes, in 1685, divides this long reign into two parts: good services, and triumphs, immortalize the first: hypocrisy, fanatacism, vain glory, and misfortunes, filled the l

Italy. Never was the country more disposed to bear and to extend the dominion of the popes: but the popes failed in the address necessary to draw the full advantage from this disposition: they suffered the fine arts to languish and decay about them, while th

ere Paul V. Urban VIII. Innocent X. Alexander VII. Cle

but through all the Venetian dominions; and, it was enjoined on all patriarchs, archbishops, bishops, vicars-general, and others, under pun of suspension, and deprivation of their revenues, to publish and affix in the churches this pontifical decree, which Paul pronounced, as he said, by the authority of God, the apostles, and his own. The Capuchins, the Theatins, and the Jesuits, obeyed the interdict, which was disregarded by the rest of the Venetian clergy as it was by the people. Little attention was paid to the Theatins and Capuchins; but the Jesuits, more powerful and more culpable, were banished for ever. A protest against the anathemas of Paul was addressed by the doge to the prelates and clergy; and the senate wrote on the same head to all the cities and communes of the state. These two pieces are distinguished for thei

ed the interests of the excommunicated republic. Sigismund, king of Poland, also declared that it was the cause of his kingdom; and the duke of Savoy, that it was that of every sovereign in Christendom. The court of Vienna blamed the pope's conduct, and invited Sorance, the Venetian ambassador, to a procession of the holy sacrament, in despite of the apostolic nuncio, who refused to be present at it. The nuncio Barberini did not succeed better in France when he required that entrance into the c

ge of anathemas.315 The pretensions of this pope gave rise to many publications on the pontifical power. The 8th of June, 1610, twenty-four days after the assassination of Henry IV. the parliament of Paris condemned to the flames a book in which t

h? What dogma is more sacred than that of the sovereignty of popes over kings; direct sovereignty in religious matters, and not less efficacious though indirect in political ones? Even if some inaccuracies had glided into the book of father Suarez, did it not belong to the Holy See, alone, to perceive and ratify them? Such is the substance, during one entire year, of the letters written

the Valtaline; intrigues to support the inquisition at Naples, and to favour the Jesuits in Spain: these trifling det

are other examples, had for its source the excommunication and deposition of John d'Albret by Julius II319 To support the sentence of Jul

uke Francis Maria, the last branch of the house of Rovere. But cardinal Richlieu kept his eyes fixed on the designs of the pontiff; he refused an audience to the nuncio Scoti, and never suffered him to be ignorant, that the court of France would not consent to a dependence on the Holy See. The parliament had a publication of an Italian Jesuit, Santarelli, burned, which ascribed to the pope the right of deposing kings, condemning them to temporal punishments and loosing their subjects from their oath of allegiance. The work of Peter de Marca, on the concor

s city, a column was raised with tills inscription, "Here Castro was."320 When a terrible war in which two great states engage, two powerful princes, or two blind and numerous factions, leads to such disasters, humanity must lament it: but, when a pecuniary interest, an obscure and trifling quarrel between two petty rivals, leads to the destruction of a city, the depression of its inhabitants, and the ruin of their families, and that this useless devastation was coolly ordered by one who had conquered without danger, and almost without an effort, we are filled with more astonishment than indignation; and we could not anticipate such gratuitous severity in a prince,

ognize this new monarch. John consulted the universities of his States: they replied, if the pope persisted in his refusal, they had only to dispense with his bulls.-This was also the opinion of the assembly of the French clergy, interrogated on the same point by the Portuguese ambassador. This assembly did more, it wrote to the pope, respectfully representing to him, that it was but right to grant the bulls to the pr

was one of the causes which prevented his success. We shall observe, that there did not exist at this period any sort of alliance or friendship between the courts of France and of Rome. Innocent X. having commanded all the cardinals to reside in the capital of Christendom, with a prohibition to quit the territories of the Holy See, without the permission of

given up ecclesiastical property to the reformed; they have permitted to the reprobate the exercise of civil employments; they have, without the permission of the Holy See, encreased the number of electors; they have preserved privileges in the states to those who have ceased to have them in the church; the church abrogates these odious articles, these rash concessions, these heretical conventions. Innocent, no doubt, suspected, that war would afford more chances to the cou

ecline of his credit in Europe, when, after having attempted to mingle in the negociations between France and Spain, he found they had treated without him. Nevertheless he ventured three years after to displease the most powerful monarch of the age. Crequi, the ambassador of Louis XIV. at Rome, was insulted by the pontifical guard, which killed one of his pages and fired on the carriage of his lady. Obtaining no satisfaction of the pope or of his ministers, Crequi retired to the Florentine territories. Louis demanded a solemn reparation: and, not considering that adequate which he had been made wait four months for, he marched some troops against Rome, and took possession

iched, and the Roman people loaded with nine new subsidies b

ed the church under the name of Clement X. his uncle Odescalchi, or Innocent XI. bore with him to the chair of St Peter more energy and ambition. He felt for Louis

hat the 'regale' applied to all the bishoprics of the kingdom. Two bishops protested against this edict; those of Pamiers and of Aleth, known by their opposition to the formulary of Alexander VII. These two prelates, refractories to the decrees of the popes, were supported by Innocent XI. in their resistance to the w

th is not an infallible rule, until after having received the approbation of the church; that the laws and customs of the Gallican church ought to be maintained: such is the substance of the four articles. Innoc

ne speaks in these lines, address

velles d

pire tons

seigneur,

de la

Saint-pere

empirer

, vérita

nous ni saint

Eng

e news f

day grows wo

score o

rd this stran

her sense

line woul

fear the ma

us no other

the same pope in these lines

rant tout de ses

plus saints aje

ngli

darkness spread

k film o'er the

. Amauld replied to this proposal as to an insult: it became necessary to, he says, "have not concealed the fact, that it depended on himself alone to be clothed with the Roman purple, and, that to attain a dignity which would have

already repentant for their firmness in 1682. A more correct edition of the work of Bos-suet, and a French translation accompanied by notes, appeared in 1745, without privilege, and as issued from the press of Amsterdam. No direction of Louis XIV. if we except those of his will, has been worse executed than the edict by which he commanded that the doctrine of the four articles should be annually taught in the schools of theology. The Jesuits have never professed them, and the idea of abrogating them has been often entertained from the year 1700 to the end of cardinal Fleury's ministry. If this abrogation has not taken place it was, that they feared the remonstrances of the Jansenists, and foresaw the credit it would give them, by constituting them sole defenders of the liberties of the Gallican church. In the matter of the franchises Louis XIV. was p

icles of 1682. Innocent XII. after him, persevered in refusing bulls to the bishops, favourers of the fo

t

have been held de

l power, ought to

ey had no intent

oing prejudice to

a disposition to abandon them. This letter, but little creditable, was one of the effects of the revocation of the edict of Nantes, one of the evidences of the decaying character of Lou

whom the Gallican church owes the maintenance of her ancient doctrine, at this era, the advocate general Talon is distinguished, author of a treatise on the authority of kings in the administration of the church, one of t

held on the su

bishops, aware

nd the emissarie

no care to sp

doctrines of th

the indirect pow

rp over the temp

mbly, we say, do

n on a doubtful

render publie an

blished truth, t

church; confirme

cially by those

as

owever with ast

on this declarat

authority; insmu

d to the episcop

nt at this asse

rom their piety a

and learning, o

sions given proo

r pretence that

n of a sou

hich has not th

fail to occasion

ularities we can

r suppose that

p to us as the

hould remain so w

of the shadow of

leaves the third

because we are n

e his inf

ue the pope wi

ne they can ma

are they so bli

are no longer i

grossest ignora

vernments, and

rees of the pope

y may have been;

kerings, far from

serve to excite

usurpations, an

the veneratio

ore: the bad us

y occasions of

he depositories,

t that of their

lmost innumerabl

een afflicted, an

the heresies and

e last century,

rection of Paul

n, at present, t

y and indirect po

Italian doctors

e * temporal* of

tacles which is o

ndividuals alone,

nnot too strong

ons are no part

versal c

the Vatican hav

se are transient

hich do neither

ose who la

the pope to gran

ed by the king,

eases daily, and

icacious remedy

f Basle having l

on the usurpation

onfusion which w

of benefices, the

compiled from th

he popes, seeing

t, exerted eveiy

and by the conco

I. and pope Leo

he vacant sees a

y the devolution,

se, but the rever

h power to admit

als, and many oth

nsome on the ord

opposed to the

cestors for a lo

nst the concorda

estored the elect

ous if all ecclesi

kingdom, withou

to Rome. In the

as acted on fait

ive that the pop

es now to compel

es which the cou

y so advantag

e who, before th

clergy and peopl

in presence of a k

ordained by t

bishops of the pr

ved of the elec

king in the con

he tacit consent o

firmed by a poss

ought so much th

ttack, as, during

, they did not r

ents to benefices

ose which became

r monarchs almost

hopricks; and, if

ergy or the people

r, they more freq

hemselves; and

oncern in it,

immediately co

following these

principle, that t

originally in th

could no longer

o the hands of t

had conferred t

which the churc

ar

ct to the pope,

king's nominati

y, we may presum

ng himself from a

presses him; and

ting his extending

art of his univers

s takes place i

the superior to

s to confer the i

the king shall

laci