not to study in the present case, as chronologers compute, backward. Should we persist to carry our researches much higher, and to push them even to some other period of the same kind, we should misemploy our time: the causes then laid having spent themselves, the series of effects derived from them being over, and our concern in both consequently at an end. But a new system of causes and effects, that subsists in our time, and whereof our conduct is to be a part, arising at the last period, and all that passes in our time being dependent on what has passed since that period, or being immediately relative to it, we are extremely concerned to be well informed about all those passages. To be entirely ignorant about the ages that precede this era would be shameful. Nay some indulgence may be had to a temperate curiosity in the review of them. But to be learned about them is a ridiculous affectation in any man who means to be useful to the present age. Down to this era let us read history: from this era, and down to our own time, let us study it. The end of the fifteenth century seems to be just such a period as I have been describing, for those who live in the eighteenth, and who inhabit the western parts of Europe. A little before, or a little after this point of time, all those events happened, and all those revolutions began, that have produced so vast a change in the manners, customs, and interests of particular nations, and in the whole policy ecclesiastical and civil of these parts of the world. I must descend here into some detail, not of histories, collections, or memorials; for all these are well enough known: and though the contents are in the heads of few, the books are in the hands of many. But instead of showing your lordship where to look, I shall contribute more to your instruction, by marking out, as well as my memory will serve me to do it, what you are to look for, and by furnishing a kind of clue to your studies. I shall give, according to custom, the first place to religion. A view of the ecclesiastical government of Europe from the beginning of the sixteenth century. Observe then, my lord, that the demolition of the papal throne was not attempted with success till the beginning of the sixteenth century. If you are curious to cast your eyes back, you will find Berenger in the cleventh, who was soon silenced; Arnoldus in the same, who was soon hanged; Valdo in the twelfth, and our Wickliff in the fourteenth, as well as others perhaps whom I do not recollect. Sometimes the doctrines of the church were alone attacked, and sometimes the doctrine, the discipline, and the usurpations of the pope. But little fires, kindled in corners of a dark world, were soon stifled by that great abettor of Christian unity, the hangman. When they spread and blazed out, as 52 THE SCHISM AND SCANDALS OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. in the case of the Albigeois and of the Hussites, armies were raised to extinguish them by torrents of blood; and such saints as Dominic, with the crucifix in their hands, instigated the troops to the utmost barbarity. Your lordship will find that the church of Rome was maintained by such charitable and salutary means, among others, till the period spoken of; and you will be curious, I am sure, to inquire how this period came to be more fatal to her than any former conjuncture. A multitude of circumstances, which you will easily trace in the histories of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, to go no further back, concurred to bring about this great event; and a multitude of others, as easy to be traced, concurred to hinder the demolition from becoming total, and to prop the tottering fabric. Among these circumstances, there is one less complicated and more obvious than others, which was of principal and universal influence. The art of printing had been invented about forty or fifty years before the period we fix; from that time, the resurrection of letters hastened on apace; and at this period they had made great progress, and were cultivated with great application. Mahomet II. drove them out of the east into the west; and the popes proved worse politicians than the mufties in this respect. Nicholas V. encouraged learning and learned men. Sixtus IV. was, if I mistake not, a great collector of books at least ; and Leo X. was the patron of every art and science. The magicians themselves broke the charm by which they had bound mankind for so many ages; and the adventure of that knight-errant, who, thinking himself happy in the arms of a celestial nymph, found that he was the miserable slave of an infernal hag, was in some sort renewed. As soon as the means of acquiring and spreading information grew common, it is no wonder that a system was unravelled, which could not have been woven with success in any ages, but those of gross ignorance and credulous superstition. I might point out to your lordship many other immediate causes, some general like this that have mentioned, and some particular. The great schism, for instance, that ended in the beginning of the fifteenth century, and in the council of Constance, had occasioned prodigious scandal. Two or three vicars of Christ, two or three infallible heads of the church, roaming about the world at a time, furnished matter of ridicule as well as scandal; and whilst they appealed, for so they did in effect, to the laity, and reproached and excommunicated one another, they taught the world what to think of the institution as well as exercise of the papal authority. The same lesson was taught by the council of Pisa that preceded, and by that of Basle that followed, the council of Constance. The horrid crimes of Alexander VI., the saucy ambition of Julius II., the immense profusion and scandalous exactions of Leo X.-all these events and characters, following in a continued series from the beginning of one century, prepared the way for the revolution that happened in the beginning of the next. The state of Germany, the state of England, and that of the North, were particular causes, in these several countries, of this revolution. Such were many remarkable events that happened about the same time, and a little before it, in these and in other nations; and such were likewise the characters of many of the princes of that age, some of whom favoured the reformation like the elector of Saxony, on a principle of conscience, and most of whom favoured it, just as others opposed it, on a principle of interest. This your lordship will discover manifestly to have been the case; and the sole difference you will find between Henry VIII. and Francis I., one of whom separated from the pope as the other adhered to him, is this: Henry VIII. divided, with the secular clergy and his people, the spoil of the pope and his satellites, the monks; Francis I. divided, with the pope, the spoil of his clergy, secular and regular, and of his people. With the same impartial eye that your lordship surveys the abuses of religion, and the corrruptions of the church as well as court of Rome, which brought on the reformation at this period, you will observe the characters and conduct of those who began, who propagated, and who favoured the reformation; and from your observation of these, as well as of the unsystematical manner in which it was carried on at the same time in various places, and of the want of concert, nay even of charity, among the reformers, you will learn what to think of the several religions that unite in their opposition to the Roman, and yet hate one another most heartily; what to think of the several sects that have sprouted, like suckers, from the same great roots; and what the true principles are of Protestant ecclesiastical policy. This policy had no being till Luther made his establishment in Germany; till Zwinglius began another in Switzerland, which Calvin carried on and, like Americus Vesputius who followed Christopher Columbus, robbed the first adventurer of his honour; and till the reformation in our country was perfected under Edward VI. and Elizabeth. Even popish ecclesiastical policy is no longer the same since that era. His holiness is no longer at the head of the whole western church; and to keep the part that adheres to him, he is obliged to loosen their chains, and to lighten his yoke. The spirit and pretensions of his court are the same, but not the power. He governs by expedient and management more, and by authority less. His decrees and his briefs are in danger of being refused, explained away, or evaded, unless he negociates their acceptance before he gives them, governs in concert with his flock, and feeds his sheep according to their humour and interest. In short, his excommunications, that made the greatest emperors tremble, are despised by the lowest members of his own communion; and the remaining attachment to him has been, from this era, rather a political expedient to preserve an appearance of unity, than a principle of conscience, whatever some bigoted princes may have thought, whatever ambitious 52 THE SCHISM AND SCANDALS OF THE CA. 1 in the case of the Albigeois and of the Hussite. state of Germany, the state particular cases, in these se were many markable event a little before in these and the characters of many em favoured the formation La conscience, and most of wor on a principle of interest to have been the case: ant Henry VIIL and Francis the other adhered to him. secular cler and his pern the monks; Francis 1 èr secular and rear, an... that your lordship surve" of the church as well as tion at this period, you r. those who began, who and from your observat manner in which it was. and of the want of concer you will learn what t domestic troubles of his reign, and the defecgundy from his alliance, much more than by the who seems to have been neither a greater hero than Henry VI.; and even than by the vigour h nobility in his service. After Lewis came to made a show of carrying the war again into returned home, and your lordship will not be at tter reasons for his doing so, in the situation of racters of his allies, than those which Philip of m the artifice of Lewis, from his good cheer and from this time our pretensions on France were in Charles the Bold, the last prince of the house of led, Lewis had no vassal able to molest him. He of Burgundy and Artois to his crown, he acquired d his son Brittany by marriage: and thus France of a few years into that great and compact body at this time. The history of France, before this it of Germany, a complicated history of several interests; sometimes concurring like members of the and sometimes warring on one another. Since history of France is the history of one state niform and orderly government; the history of a n the prince is possessor of some, as well as lord of fes; and, the authority of many tyrants centring in people are not become more free, yet the whole system licy is entirely changed. Peace at home is better e nation grown fitter to carry war abroad. The goverprovinces and of strong fortresses have opposed their n arms against his authority and commission since that there is no more resemblance between the authority and f these governors, or the nature and occasions of these the authority and pretensions of the vassals of the crown ys, or the nature and occasions of their disputes with the vith one another, than there is between the ancient and the rs of France. In a word, the constitution is so altered, owledge we can acquire about it, in the history that preperiod, will serve to little purpose in our study of the history s it, and to less purpose still in assisting us to judge of what the present age. The kings of France since that time, more it home, have been able to exert themselves more abroad: began to do so immediately; for Charles VIII., son and sucf Lewis XI., formed great designs of foreign conquest, though re disappointed by his inability, by the levity of the nation, and r causes. Lewis XII. and Francis I., but especially Francis, opposition to the what to think of the ge Edward VI an longer the same head of the heres to him his yoke. The not the powe by authority refused, expe ance before be his sheep ac communica by the ow attachme preser ever s only in the affairs of Europe, and though the superior genius |