ment supressed the order of Jesuits, in spite of the remonstrances of the pope and bishops. They were soon after suppressed by the civil power in Spain, Portugal, Italy, &c.; and, in fine, the order was extinguished by Pope A.D. 1773. Clement XIV. This was a grievous blow to the papacy, of which the Jesuits were most devoted partisans. In the course of the present century, this dangerous order has been revived by Pope Pius VII., is beginning again to trouble the Church.*

and

A.D. 1814.

A spirit of infidelity had long been spreading itself in France and other parts of the continent, under the influence of Voltaire, D'Alembert, and others. Many of these infidels were members, and even clergy, of the Roman churches. In 1789 the French Revolution broke out, and led to the immediate suppression of monasteries, and the destruction of Church property. ganised by the power of the republic; all the bishops were driven from their sees, in consequence of their refusing to acquiesce in this alteration, by which the number of bishoprics was reduced more than one half, and the papal power suppressed. A body of new bishops were then appointed, and consecrated by Talleyrand, bishop of Autun. Before long, several of these Gallican bishops declared themselves atheists, and renounced the wor

The Gallican Church was then re-or

A.D. 1792.

A.D. 1801.

ship of God. All religion was then proscribed. When Buonaparte became first consul, he negotiated for the restoration of the Church with Pope Pi›us VII., and the latter, in consequence, insisted on all the old royalist bishops and the constitutional prelates resigning their sees. On the refusal of many of the former, he declared their consent needless, annihilated 159 bishoprics, and created in their place 60 new ones. Buonaparte then enacted laws,

* [It is spreading itself both openly and secretly in the United States of America, and with its wonted policy seeming to adapt itself to the institu tions of the country, while by getting the control of education, it prepares to modify and direct those institutions at its will.-Am. ED.]

placing the new Gallican Church entirely under the control of government, as it continues to be to the present day. The adherents of the deprived bishops declared these acts schismatical, and they form a distinct communion from the rest of the Roman Church. Some years afterwards, Buonaparte extinguished the temporal power of the pope; which, however, was restored again at the peace in 1814.

The monasteries were also suppressed in France, Italy, Germany; and in the course of the last few years, they have been suppressed in Spain and Portugal by the temporal rulers in those countries. The pope has now entirely lost that tem poral power over the princes of Europe, which in the middle ages filled the world with confusion. The recent acts of the King of Prussia, in imprisoning some bishops who had violated the laws, and their own engagements, with reference to marriages between persons of different communions, would á few centuries since have been followed by his deposition from the throne, and the proclamation of a crusade against him.

The limits of the Roman Churches were much enlarged about the time of the Reformation by the conquests of the Portuguese and Spanish in the east and west. A great number of converts from heathenism in the east were made by the pious zeal of Francis Xavier, who sailed for the A.D. 1542. Portuguese settlements in India, and in a very short time succeeded in spreading the Christian religion throughout that vast country and the adjoining islands. In 1549 he went to Japan, and established there numerous churches, which continued to flourish for many years, until they were brought into persecution, and destroyed by the intrigues of the Jesuits. He died in 1552, as he was about to attempt the conversion of the Chinese; but after his death, Matthew Ricci, and other Jesuits, penetrated into that empire; and having made themselves very acceptable to the emperor by their skill in science, they were permitted to instruct the people in the Christian religion; and thus the foundation of the

A.D. 1599.

church was laid amongst the Chinese, which still continues, under much persecution, to exist among them. The Nestorians of St. Thomas were also forced to unite themselves with the Roman Church by Menezes, archbishop of Goa. Christianity, which was now introduced into South America by the Spanish and Portuguese, obtained numerous converts there, and took deep and perma

nent root.

The synod of Trent reformed some of the grosser abuses in discipline; but its canons of discipline were not universally received. The controversies with the advocates of reformation led to some amelioration of doctrine amongst the wellinformed members of the Roman Church. In the seventeenth century it became their object to represent their doctrines in the form which was most moderate, most conformable to Scripture, and most approximating to the tenets of the Reformation. One object in this new system of argument was to convict the Protestants of schism in voluntarily forsaking the communion of the Church,—an offence which was imputed to them by their antagonists, and too oftén admitted by themselves, in direct opposition to the facts of history, This mode of argument, however—in the hands of the cele. brated Roman theologians Bossuet and Veron-had the effect of producing sounder and more moderate views on many subjects in the Romish Church itself, though it is unhappily but too certain that the great mass of that community are still involved in superstitions and errors very injurious to true religion. The principles of morality have also become very much relaxed amongst them by the influence of the Jesuits; and the system of questioning adopted at confession seems calculated for the dissemination of vice,

CHAPTER XXV.

FRUITS OF FAITH IN THE ROMAN CHURCHES,

A.D. 1530-1660.

HOWEVER deeply we may deplore the abuses and corrup tions which exist in the Roman Churches, and however certain it be that many errors injurious to Christian piety, and many offences against Christian morality, are found in that communion, still it would argue a prejudiced and uncharitable mind to close our eyes on several bright examples of Christian holiness which have adorned the Roman communion in the latter ages, and to refuse to recognise the impress of Divine grace on lives adorned by every virtue which can flow from a lively faith and charity. The contemplation of such examples will tend to remove any feelings of spiritual pride which might arise from imagining that virtue and goodness are restrained to some particular branch of the Church of Christ, while the great mass of Christendom is given over entirely to darkness and to sin.

FRANCIS XAVIER, the apostle of the Indies, was born in 1506, in Navarre, of an illustrious family, and was pursuing his studies at the University of Paris, when he became the friend, and ultimately one of the disciples of Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the order of Jesuits, a man of an enthusiastic turn of mind, and of a piety which was deeply tinged with superstition. In 1537 Xavier was ordained priest, and took the vows as a member of the new order. The following year, while Ignatius and his disciples were at Rome, whither they had gone to place themselves under the directions of the pope as to their future destination, an application was made by the King of Portugal for the assistance of some of these zealous men to preach the Gospel in the East Indies. In compli

A.D. 1540.

ance with this request, Francis Xavier was sent to Portugal, whence, in the following year, he sailed for India, with various powers and recommendations from the pope. During the voyage, he considered the crew of the vessel in which he sailed as intrusted to his peculiar care. He instructed the sailors in their catechism, preached every Sunday before the main-mast, visited the sick, converted his own cabin into an infirmary, while he himself lay on the deck; and, with the ascetic spirit of his order at that time, subsisted entirely on charity, being possessed of nothing himself. In short, during the whole voyage, he evinced a spirit of zeal and piety which afforded a pledge of the success of that great work which he was about to undertake.

In 1542 he landed at Goa; and having obtained the sanction of the bishop, he commenced his mission. The state of religion amongst professing Christians in that place was most lamentable. The Portuguese inhabitants were full of revenge, ambition, avarice, and every description of wickedness; all sentiments of religion seemed extinguished in them. The sacraments were neglected; there were scarcely any preachers; and the heathen, immersed in every sin, were ́neither led by precept nor example to forsake their errors and superstitions. Xavier beheld with grief the scandalous example of the nominal Christians around him; and he resolved to labour for their conversion and reformation in the first instance.

He began by instructing them in the principles of religion, and by forming the youth in the practice of piety. Having spent the morning of each day in the hospitals and prisons, assisting and comforting the distressed, he walked through the streets of Goa, with a bell in his hand, summoning all masters, for the love of God, to send their children and slaves to be catechised. The children gathered in crowds around him: he led them to church, taught them the creed and practices of devotion, and impressed on them strong sentiments