heretics from the territories subject to their jurisdiction. So that henceforward, whosoever shall be set in any office, whether spiritual or temporal, may be bound to confirm this article.

"If however the temporal lord, when required and admonished by the church, neglect to free his territory from this heretical foulness, let him be excommunicated by the Metropolitan and Bishops of the province. And if he neglect to make a satisfaction within the year, let this be signified to the Pope, that he may declare his vassals from that time absolved from their allegiance to him, and give his territory to be occupied by Catholics, who, having exterminated the heretics, may possess it, and preserve it in the purity of the faith; saving the rights of the lord paramount, provided that he oppose no obstacle or impediment. The same law nevertheless being observed as to those who have no lords paramount."

This Canon then confirms the doctrine that the Pope has power to dispense with oaths of allegiance; it enjoins the extermination of those who dissent from the church of Rome, in the literal sense of the word extermination, that is, expulsion from the territories of Roman Catholics, and that all who undertake any office, spiritual or temporal, should take an oath to do their utmost to exterminate them. Such an oath then having been taken, is a full justification of the Protestants when they object to those, who have taken it, the principle of not keeping faith with them. For what reliance can there be, if it is held that the Pope, or any one else, can dispense with

such an oath as that of allegiance, or with any oath, whatsoever it be? Certainly none.

The natural effect of such a Canon was such as must have been foreseen, so far as that it must have brought on a contest, in which, if it were maintained to the utmost, one of the parties must have been utterly ruined. The party to be so must also have been, in the conception of those who established the canon, the reformed. If it were not the very essence of enthusiasm and superstition to discard and reject the appeal to reason and common sense, it would excite astonishment that any portion of mankind could be induced to believe that the Deity had ever empowered any of his creatures thus to dissolve fundamental principles of moral obligation. Nevertheless it was the general belief of the Romish church, and, as it affected those who differed in doctrine from that church, at least was steadily adhered to in general, and the practice was conformable to it, till the last century, when' the diffusion of information lessened the respect paid to it, and the execrable treatment of the innocent Calas and his family created a disgust throughout Europe at the principles which excited it.

From the time that this Canon was enacted, to that of the council of Trent, the manner in which the Papal excommunications were employed was frequently such as to raise opposition from sovereigns of the Romish religion, and in this country particularly, as it was oppressed by exactions for Rome, and foreigners intruded into the most lu

crative stations in the church. It required no great share of common sense to see that religion was made the stalking-horse of ambition and avarice. But it required a knowledge, which those times did not possess, to define the true nature of episcopal power. The idea of it was confused, and, though the natural right of self-defence obliged the Sovereigns to oppose the Popes, they did it with a reluctance which was always injurious to themselves. Of this the Popes were perfectly aware, and did not fail to convert the prejudice to their advantage.

In England, happily for it, the deference of its Kings, from the time of William the Conqueror, was not always very submissive. The rough grasp of the Norman line would cede nothing of the sway of the sceptre to Papal pretensions. Neither of the Williams would let the Papacy reach to them. It was by means of those whose title to the crown was disputable, both here and in France, that Rome was able to extend and establish power. To Henry I. Stephen, and John, the whole influence of the favour of the church was necessary, and Rome did not lose the occasion of profiting by it.

The idea of the Papal power, at the time, was the most extravagant. The multitude, taught to believe it in the most literal, though false acceptation of absolving or condemning, were panic-struck with dread of it; and even men of the boldest minds deferred to it, and sometimes found it convenient to obtain so accredited an absolution from oaths. Rome, however, had it ever in view to subject the whole of the

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clergy to itself entirely. Hence it first introduced Appeals to Rome. This was a protection to them frequently found beneficial, and particularly to a rebellious subject, who could thus make his cause the cause of the church. But it would have been of small advantage, without those master-strokes of policy, the exempting the whole body of the clergy from the temporal tribunal; the cutting them off from the temporal charities of life, by celibacy; and the extent of the secresy of the confessional, by which it was informed of the secrets of others, without disclosing its own, and the reservation to itself of the ratification of spiritual promotion. Of these three, the first was by far the most important. It was a concession that enervated the arm of the sovereign, took half its sway from the sceptre of justice, and obtruncated the municipal rights, and legislative authority, of every 'country that was unwise enough to admit of it. The ambition and policy of Rome, when thus far was unhappily obtained, was however soon found, even by the clergy of England, to have somewhat more than merely spiritual advantage in view; and that England, when bound to her altar, was to exhaust its vitality for her favourites to banquet on it. The clergy of England in vain remonstrated against her rapacious exactions, and the intrusion of foreigners; neither could it quite forget the liberty it had enjoyed, or that it owed some duties to the state. But its bonds were too strong to be broken by the breath of remonstrance.

In the reign of the violent and unprincipled John, its sufferings were moreover aggravated to a calami

tous distress by his extortions; and the ferocity with which he plundered it naturally made it seek its security in joining the Barons; and thus united they obtained Magna Charta. This circumstance has been much insisted on as a proof that the Romish religion is favourable to, or at least not inconsistent with, the British constitution. Let it then be considered whether that religion, as such, did favour it ; and whether it proves any thing more, than that, when power is exerted in an oppressive and arbitrary manner, it will rouse a spirit of resistance. mind of King John, unhappily for himself, was too much bent on commanding, to trouble itself much with the study of the art of government, and probably, as weak or ignorant men are apt to confound the two, he was not aware of the very essential difference that subsists between them. He appears to have been equally destitute of foresight and proper resource; and therefore, in difficulty, hurried on to embrace inconsiderate measures to remedy inconsiderate conduct.

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But still the evils of his reign originated not less with Rome than with himself. The Pope had determined to intrude Stephen Langton into the See of Canterbury, contrary to the avowed disapprobation of John; and John, very naturally and rightly, as to the principle, opposed it. Thus the power of the King of England and of the Pope were brought to a trial of strength. Irritated by the King's opposition, the Pope laid the kingdom under an interdict, which taught the King's subjects to withdraw their allegiance, and made them rise against him. The King at length, to appease the Pope, was