bishop of Rome, in the fecond century, to raise so many broils in fupport of his opinion, upon a question of no more importance than this, On what day the Paffover ought to be celebrated, and even to excommunicate all the churches of the leffer Afia, because they celebrated that feftival on the 14th day of the First Month, and not on the First day of the week following, as he would have had it?

And again, upon the fame principle, what else but pride was the origin of thofe great contentions we read of, that the Chriftians in the fourth century fell into about their creeds?

And moreover, certain external accidents attending the church feem to have had no fmall share in fostering this pride incident to some of her members, that is to say, outward ease, liberty and an affluence of the riches of this world. When the church's fortune grew better, her fons grew worse, and some of her fathers, (as a learned author obferves) worst of all: and indeed, as far as I have learned, the most memorable æra from whence we may date the corruption of Christians was, when the church, through the favour of Emperors, became endowed with lands, poffeffions, and patrimonies, fo that (in the words of Fox, in his Acts and Monuments, Vol. I. p. 716.) the bishops thereof, feeling the fmack of wealth, eafe, and profperity, began to fwell in pomp and pride,' where I alfo read, that about this time a voice was heard, as it were from Heaven, over the city of Conftantinople, faying, "This day is poifon poured forth into the churches.'

That lordly impofing fpirit, which I have hinted at as creeping in among fome of the leading men, even in the early times, grew much more flagrant in fucceeding ages; and to fuch a degree, that in procefs of time, upon the growing pride of the prelates and corruption of the people, a fpiritual fovereignty was erected, a feparate jurifdiction was established and tyrannically exercifed over the reft of mankind. Thus

the word Church, which, in Scripture language, fignifies any number of perfons who embraced the doctrine of the gofpel, and worfhipped God in the name of Jefus Chrift, was in procefs of time wrested from the people, and appropriated, together with the power thereto belonging, to a certaiu fet of men who called themselves the clergy. Now this was a mere novelty, and utterly inconfiftent with the primitive example. For, in the apoftolick age, the laity bore a part in the most folemn deliberations which concerned the interest and government of the church. The whole number of believers was confulted in the choice of a fit perfon to fucceed in the apostleship after Judas. The apoftles, elders, and brethren, or as it is otherwife expreffed in the 15th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, the church, or all the multitude affembled at Jerufalem to deliberate on the great queftion, How far the gentile converts were obliged to fubmit to the law of Mofes and after the affembly had proceeded, not by apoftolical authority, but in the way of a rational and free debate, they came to a refolution, which they communicated to the churches, convened in the name of the whole body. Nor indeed did any of the bifhops of the first three hundred years after Chrift claim any separate exclufive powers for the exercise of church difcipline, but left these matters to the provincial and diocefan confiftories, which, in the purer ages of the church, were composed of bishops, clergy, and laity.'*

Hence, in the laws of the Anglo Saxons, we find a perpetual mixture of ecclefiaftical and civil laws +; nor was it until the papal power grew to a monstrous heighth, under the Norman kings, that the clergy claimed a privilege of debating apart all matters, that in any wife related to religion, in ecclefiaftical affem

Examination of the bishop of London's Codex Juris Ecclesiastiçi ́. Anglicani,' published in London, 1735.

tRapin's History of England.

blies or fynods. Even in the time of king Henry I. we meet with plain proofs of the civil court retaining their ancient jurifdiction in ecclefiaftical causes; but in the time of king Henry II. the two courts, ecclefiaftical and civil, are conftantly fpoken of as diftinct, and enjoying feparate jurisdictions: and herein the clergy had the countenance and authority of pope Innocent II. (who began his reign A. D. 1130, and died 1143), who at this very juncture excluded the laity from all pontifical affemblies at Rome.*

And here it feems worthy of obfervation, that the celibacy of the clergy was not established until this time, or pretty near it; for in the New Teftament, (1 Tim.iv. 1,3) the prohibition of marriage is reckoned among the marks of apoftacy and doctrines of devils, and even in the year of our Lord 601, marriage was allowed to priests that could not live continently; but in the year 1102, in the reign of king Henry I. a national fynod was held, of which the fourth canon forbids the clergy to marry, or to live with their wives already married; and this point once gained was a great step towards putting in execution the project the pope had formed, of rendering the clergy independent of the civil power, and incorporating them into a fociety apart, which fhould be governed by its own laws and indeed whilft the priests had children of their own, it was a hard matter to prevent them from having fome dependence on their princes, whose favour has fo great an influence on the fortune of private perfons; but being without families, and confequently in expectation of no great matters from their fovereign, they were more at liberty to stick by the pope, who would be looked upon as the fovereign of the clergy.t

This however he did not attain to, till after a feries

See the place before cited. + Rapin's Hiftory of England, Vol. II.

‡ Ibid. Vol. II. ̧

For

of ages of growing darkness and ignorance. the bishop of Rome at first had no more authority than others, nor was Rome deemed a mother church until the time of Boniface III. who did not begin to prefide till after the year of our Lord 60c, and obtained from the emperor Phocas, that the fee of Rome should be acknowledged the head of all other churches for before that, the Conftantinopolitan church was accounted the highest, as Jerufalem was before: nor did the church of Rome remarkably exercise her fway over England until the 7th or 8th century. The ancient Britons had been converted to Christianity by the apoftles, or fome of their disciples, and adhered to the rites prefcribed to them by their firft teachers: and when Auftin the monk came into England, being fent by pope Gregory I, chiefly urging this one point, that they fhould fubmit to the authority of the pope, the church of Rome having made feveral innovations in the celebrating divine fervice, to which they pretended all other churches ought to conform, the Britifh bifhops refused to fubmit to any alterations, profeffing that they owed no more deference to the bifhop of Rome than to any other Christian bishop: however, by and by, they fubmitted their necks to the yoke, for A. D. 669, Theodore, archbishop of Canterbury, as foon as he came into England, made a vifit to all the churches in his jurifdiction, and brought the people to a thorough conformity to the ufages of the church of Rome; and A. D. 735, the English archbishops went to Rome to receive the pall.+

Befides the celibacy of the clergy, there was yet another ftratagem, by which the dominion of this

"The first springing of Chrift's gofpel in England was in the time of king Lucius, in the year of our Lord 180, and the continuance of it from thence to the entrance of the Infidel Saxons, was 302 years. The decay of the fame, to the entrance of Austin the monk, was 143 years." Fox's Acts and Monuments, Vol. I. P. 104.

Rapin's Hiftory of England, Vol. I.

mighty prince was extended far and near; of which Puffendorf, in his Spiritual Monarchy of the Church of Rome, gives us the following account:

"The popes claimed the fupreme direction over the univerfities, whereby these were rendered mainly inftrumental in maintaining the popish fovereignty. For, in the univerfities, men are firft tinctured with fuch opinions as they are afterwards to make use of during their whole life, and inftil them into others: and it was for this reafon, that the fciences there to be taught were fure to be accommodated to the pope's intereft. Here the profeffors of divinity, thofe of the canon law, and even the philofophers, were the creatures and flaves of the pope; and indeed the divinity and philofophy profeffed in these univerfities, were not taught with an intention to make the young students more learned and understanding, but that the ingenious, by confufed and idle terms, might be diverted from thoroughly canvaffing thofe matters which would have led them to the whole discovery of the popish intrigues: for their school-divinity is not employed in fearching the Holy Scripture, but for the most part entangled in useless queftions, invented chiefly by Peter Lombard, Thomas Aquinas, Scotus, and other patriarchs of pedantry: and what they call philofophy is nothing elfe but a collection of foolish chimeras, empty terms, and very bad Latin, the knowledge of which is rather hurtful than profitable. So that all their aim was, to take care that the sciences fhould not be fundamentally taught; and above all the rest, the most useful of all, the doctrine of morality is much misinterpreted, and entangled in an endless labyrinth, that the fathers confeffors may not want means to domineer over laymen's confciences, and that these may be rendered incapable to examine and rule their actions according to folid principles, but be obliged to be guided blindfold, at the pleafare of their fathers confeffors." So far Puffendorf.