they pretended to cure... that they acted more like successors of Simon Magus than of Simon Peter.

grooms and boys.

Benefices are as publicly sold at Rome as goods in a market. So much for the Pope's signature: so much for a dispensation, or leave to hold benefices that are incompatible: so much for an indult: so much for taking off an excommunication so much for such and such indulgencies."-L'Enfant, Council of Constance. Eng. Translation. vol. i. 369.

"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 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 whatsoever in a benefice whilst there was any one to whom the Pope had granted by his authority an expectance for it. Graces expectative came in then from all sides.

They do not (says Clemangis) 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 nor 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 Scripture 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

CELIBACY OF THE CLERGY.

POPE Hildebrand, according to Dr. Milner, succeeded not only in extirpating simony, but in completely remedying the incontinency of the clergy; and we are to infer that the Romish Church has from that time been immaculate on this score. He was indeed as successful in the one attempt as in the other, and the Romish Church proved itself about as immaculate in morals as it was infallible in doctrine.

It might have been thought that the question concerning the celibacy of the clergy had been set at rest throughout Protestant Europe. You

is exposed to the raillery and the 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 vilified that they are ashamed to exercise it."

Ignorance was yet the least evil. One may judge of the morals of people thus ill brought up. The author makes a frightful picture of it. There was nothing but lewdness, debaucheries, gambling, and quarrels. The utmost contempt was the necessary consequence of such conduct.-L'Enfant, Hist. du Concile de Pise, t. i. p. 67.

however suppose it to be " abundantly demonstrated that Bishops, Priests, and Deacons, were obliged, from the very infancy of the Church, to observe the law of continency;" and that this law "was taught by the Apostles." This bold assertion is made in the teeth of the Apostle Paul, who tells us that a Bishop must be "the husband of one wife,... one that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity;"...who says, "Let the Deacons be the husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well;" and who prophetically warned the Church against those who in latter times, "giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils," should speak "lies in hypocrisy, having their consciences seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry."§...I do not wonder, Sir, that your Church should be so solicitous to withhold the Bible from its people!

A Synod held in this country, and in the eleventh century, ascribed the prohibition of marriage to Christ himself, because, said they, he says in a certain Gospel, "he who hateth not his wife is not worthy to be my disciple."||

* Page 64.

1 Tim. iii. 12.

+1 Tim. iii. 2-4.

§ Ib. c. iv. 1-3.

"Christus ipse stabilivit Christianismum et castitatem; om

The Romish Clergy, when they had a purpose to serve, have sometimes interpolated* Scrip

nes etiam qui ambulaverint in við ejus cum ipso, deserant mundana omnia, uxores non respicientes, quoniam ipse dicebat in aliquo Evangelio, "Qui uxorem suam non odit, non est dignus meus esse discipulus."-Liber Canonum Ecclesiasticorum, apud Canciani, t. iv. p. 314.

These same Canons show in what manner the celibacy of the clergy was connected with the mysteries of the mass. The example of the priests under the old law, they say, is not to be admitted... bene in illis diebus uxores habere poterant, quoniam nec missam celebrabant, nec Sacram Eucharistiam hominibus dabant; sed sacrificabant animalia veteri modo.—Ibid. 315.

I leave the Romanists to reconcile the following extract from the same Synod, which expresses the doctrine of the Church of England at this day...with their dogma of transubstantiation.

"Eucharistia est corpus Christi NON CORPORALITEr sed spiRITUALITER: NON CORPUS IN QUO PASSUS EST, sed corpus de quo loquebatur, cum panem et vinum benediceret ad Eucharistiam, nocte illá ante passionem suam, et dicebat de benedicto pane, Hoc est corpus meum; et deinde de consecrato vino, Hic est sanguis meus qui pro multis effundetur in remissionem peccatorum. Intelligite ergo, quod si Dominus mutare potuisset panem illum ante passionem suam in corpus suum, et vinum in sanguinem suum SPIRITUALITER, quilibet quotidie per manus Sacerdotis panem et vinum benedicat ad SPIRITUALE Suum corpus et sanguinem.” -Ibid. p. 317.

*For example, the following passage respecting extreme unction occurs in Lyndwood: " Effectus enim istius Sacramenti patet ex verbis Apostoli Jacobi, dicentis, Si infirmatur quis ex vobis, inducat Presbyteros Ecclesiæ, et orent super illum, ungentes

ture as boldly as they still continue to interpret it. These frauds were practised when it had been determined to enforce upon the secular clergy a regulation which they long resisted. The causes which led to a prohibition so expressly condemned by the Apostle have been distinctly traced. In many systems of heathen superstition it was supposed that holiness was connected with celibacy in those who were devoted to the service of the Gods. It was held also in the schools of philosophy that married men were more subject than others to the influence of malignant Dæmons,* for philosophy had then allied itself with the popular superstition, from which, in the better ages

eum Oleo Sancto in nomine Domini; et oratio fidei salvabit infirmum, et alleviabit eum Dominus: et si in peccatis sit, demittentur ei."-Provinciale, p. 36. Ed. 1679.

The flagrant case of the Bourdeaux New Testament will be noticed hereafter. Lanfranc may be suspected of having set a notable example in this way. His biographer, Milo Crispin, says of him... quia Scripturæ scriptorum vitio erant nimium corruptæ, omnes tam veteris quàm novi Testamenti libros, nec non etiam scripta sanctorum Patrum, secundum orthodoxam fidem studuit corrigere.-Acta SS. Mai. t. vi. 846.

Were one of these corrected copies to be discovered, it is not unlikely that the text quoted by the Synod might be found there,... and perhaps some readings equally bold and novel in favour of transubstantiation.