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King, that His Majesty cannot satisfy his Redeemer without this inexorability to all who should petition him in their behalf; a combination of ideas so incongruous, that it drives us into the supposition that the New Testament was a book which, if not unknown to Pius V., had, at least, been either unread or wholly forgotton by him, amid the more pleasing duties of his beloved Inquisition. Yet how natural were such sentiments to the sainted head of an institution, which existed solely on such principles! how congenial to a system which interprets the Scriptures by its convenient traditions, and not the traditions by the unalterable, and therefore less expedient, Scriptures!

No human sympathies seem to have reigned in this Pontiff's soul: he entreated the French sovereign not to listen to the claims either of blood or of friendship, and repeated his solicitation that His Majesty would not forgive those who should petition for his mercy on behalf of an heretic. "Sin not by indulgence," was the lesson; and to diminish any necessity for doing so, he sent to Charles all the cavalry and infantry which he could provide, and regretted that his treasury did not enable him to do more; he inveighed against the timehonoured and long respected Admiral of France, de Coligny, as the most execrable of men, and doubted if he were a human being, because the ablest supporter of the Huguenot cause; and he also disclosed the great, the horrible principle, on which he urged his incentives and vituperations: this was, that other Catholic Princes would be guided and stimulated by the example of Charles IX. to act in the same manner towards the heretics in their dominions. Thus the spirit and aims of Pius V. extended to the gigantic effect of exterminating, as soon as possible, all the Protestants in Europe.

To state of any man, that he is the advocate or author of murder, is to ascribe to him such a lamentable exemplification of human depravity, in its most revolting sense, that the mind dislikes, on any evidence, to express, and even to conceive, the imputation: and yet the preceding facts press the judgment towards that conclusion; nor is their effect abated, when we observe the directions and wishes of Pius V. as to the

French General de Assier. The Pope's conduct, on his capture, seems to furnish an additional illustration of what is possible in men of the highest station, when mercy, pity, charity, forgiveness, and benevolence are superseded by a misconception of sacerdotal duty; which, separating itself from the moral obligations of life, and extinguishing all human sympathies, seeks to acquire a supposed merit by its unsocial and desolating intolerance. Wonderful perversion of a religion, whose benevolence is, above all others, adapted to make mankind an affectionate family of gentle and generous brothers! strange contradiction to its clearest and most indissoluble precepts!

He published a severe edict against loose and abandoned women, whose numbers and impudence had so increased, that they occupied the best portion of the Roman city. The chief men opposing him, he threatened to remove his court from the city if they persisted. He at last allowed them an obscure corner in the city, and appointed two or three churches for their especial use.

Pius was carried off by an attack of the stone in 1572, when he was about sixty-eight years of age; and it is said of him, that, when dying, he exclaimed, (and if he did so, he felt as a man who had done what he had done ought to have felt, when he reviewed all the actions of his Pontifical life,) "When I was in a low condition, I had some hopes of salvation; after I had been advanced to be a Cardinal, I greatly doubted it; but since I came to be Pope, I have no hope at all." It is a re markable fact, that this implacable exterminator of heretics should be himself an object of attack and depreciation in the Spanish Inquisition. Llorente says, the death of Pius has been attributed to the agents of the Inquisition.

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ON occasion of Gregory's election to the Popedom, he was addressed with freedom and faithfulness by Nicholas Clemanges, on the subject of investitures. The right of nomination to vacant Sees, had originally been the exclusive prerogative of the monarch, but in process of time had been gradually usurped by the Pope, on the pretence that their revenues might be enjoyed by the crown. The Popes, in turn, made the nomination the means of furthering their own power and influence. It was on this subject, that Clemanges thus writes: "The burthen with which you are charged," says the honest counsellor, "is so much the heavier, because you and your predecessors have taken upon yourselves many charges from which the Lord and the Church had exempted you. In making yourselves the masters of elections to benefices, of collations, dispensations, and all which was formerly done by the Archdeacons and Patrons, you have infinitely increased the account which you will have to render. True it is, that if you acquit yourself faithfully of your administration, there is no empire upon earth, which can approach the glory of your servitude: but if you make your dignity subservient to your profit, to pomp, to haughtiness; if you love better to command than to serve, you will, in fact, become the vilest of all slaves; you will be the servant, not of the servants of God, but of cupidity, of avarice, of pride, of ambition, which are the servants of the devil;-in a word, of as many masters as there are vices."

""Tis incredible," says Paul, the Englishman, "how many mischiefs the sale of offices has done to the Church. From thence have proceeded worthless, ignorant, scandalous, am

bitious, and violent Bishops; the other benefices have been disposed of to all manner of persons indifferently, to pimps, cooks, grooms, and boys. Benefices are as publicly sold at Rome, as goods in a market.* So much for the Pope's sig

nature, so much for a dispensation, or leave to hold benefices that are incompatible, so much for an induct, so much for taking off an excommunication, so much for such and such indulgences."

One might believe, that the Sovereign Pontiffs had drawn to themselves these elections and collations, for the sake of giving better pastors to the Church; nothing, however, less than that since that time, they chose not those who were most capable of instructing and of ruling the Church, but those who were able to pay best. Thus the Church found itself filled with ignorant and incapable pastors. This was not sufficient: they took away from patrons the privilege of presenting persons to a benefice, and the liberty of conferring it; threatening these patrons with anathema, if, by an audacious rashness, they undertook to establish any person whatever in a benefice, whilst there was any one to whom the Pope had granted by his authority an expectance for it. Graces expective came in then from all sides. "They do not," says Cle

Does not this charge apply, with increased severity, to the Reformed Church of England and Ireland? Are not the souls of men, and the responsibilities of the Christian Ministry, daily put up to sale with as much indifference, except as to the price, as that with which pigs, cattle, old chairs and tables are usually sold? Parliamentary interest-the favour of a kept mistress-a loan to the patron-good fellowship at a horse race-conviviality over the bottle, are the general merits on which the hunters after preferment ground their respective claims to advancement in their professional career. Unwearied diligence, Christian fidelity, apostolic zeal, long services, indefatigable labours, and blameless lives, may commend the servant of God and of the Church to the consciences of his hearers, and to the approbation of the GREAT SHEPHERD AND BISHOP; with worldly patrons these qualifications have but little or no weight. For the truth of this assertion, evidence is to be found in the condition and experience of those laborious and faithful men, who labour in season and out of season, through a long and wearisome life, as stipendiary Curates, with incomes much less than those of journeymen mechanics.

The whole of the text under review, will be found not unworthy the perusal

mangis, "take pastors from the schools or universities, but from the plough, and from the most vile professions. We see those who know no more of Latin than of Arabic, some, even, who scarcely know how to read or distinguish A from B. There is nothing more unworthy than to see a Pope, or any other Ecclesiastic in an eminent station, not knowing even how to read the Holy Scriptures readily, and never touching it, but by the cover, although in their installation they are obliged to swear, that they have the knowledge of it. If by chance they meet with any pastor of another character, he is exposed to the raillery and slanders of others, and found only fit to be put in a cloister; thus, the study of the Holy Word passes for folly; those who make profession of it are the sport of all the world, and, particularly, of the Popes, who prefer their traditions to the commandments of God. The glorious and holy employ of preaching, which was formerly a privilege particular to Bishops, is so villified, that they are ashamed to exercise it."

Ignorance was yet the least evil: one may judge of the morals of the people, thus ill brought up; our author draws a frightful picture of it. There was nothing but lewdness, debaucheries, gamblings, and quarrels. The utmost contempt was the necessary consequence of such conduct.

The excessive liberality of Gregory to his natural son Jacob, gave great offence to his Cardinals, by whom he was perpetually opposed. This circumstance, added to the reluctance with which Protestant States admitted his Reformation of the Calendar, which he sought to impose on their adoption, by the force of Papal authority, was matter of great regret and vexation to Gregory.

It was during Gregory's Pontificate, that the horrible massacre of Saint Bartholomew's Day took place; by which the French Protestants were nearly annihilated, and the Roman Church covered with eternal infamy; the Duke de Guise, in conjunction with the Duke de Anjou, having plotted the destruction of the heads of the Protestant party, with a view to deter the King from co-operating with the Prince of Orange, in favor of the Protestants of the Netherlands. Being induced

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