over whom they are fet: fome for the amend"ment and benefit of their fubjects: and fome "for fear and punishment: for reproof and contempt as the people fhall have deferved: "the juft judgment of God reaching equally to "all." Tertullian, St. Ambrose, St. Augustin,St. Gregory Nyffen, Optatus Milevitanus, in fine, all the fathers declare, "that kings have none "above them but God alone, who made them, "kings: that God beftows the heavenly feli'city on the godly only, but the kingdoms of "the earth on both godly and ungodly and "that to him alone, the cruel Marius and the gracious Cæfar, Auguftus the best of prin t ❝ces, Nero one of the worst, Conftantine the "Chriftian, and Julian the apoftate are equally "indebted for their authority and power." If from the fathers you continue the long chain of venerable antiquity through the fuc⚫ceflive reigns of the Roman pontiffs, you will find the depofing power affumed by few; the pre-eminence of kings, and their dependence on God alone, afferted by the mildeft and moft learned, and thofe by far the greatest number. St. Gregory the Great, not only disclaims any temporal power over kings, but even acknowledges himself their fubject: The em peror peror infifts on the publication of a law. The pope writes, to him: "I being fubject to your "command, have caufed the law to be fent "into feveral parts, and because the law agrees "not with God omnipotent, I have by letter "informed my ferene lord. Wherefore I have "in both done what I ought, obeyed the em66 peror, and not concealed what I thought "for God." Eleutherius, Anaftafius 2, Gelafius, Symmachus, Gregory 2, Leo 4, 4, Nicholas 3, Adrian 1, Nicholas 2, John 8, and Celeftin 3, call the king "God's vicar on earth:" forbid the priest to "ufurp the regal dignity;" and confine the power of the church" to the "difpenfation of divine, that of the prince to "the administration of temporal things." If you confult cardinals, who have heightened the glory of their purple by their learning and piety, you will meet with numerous and fteady afferters of regal independence. "I pre fuppofe what is known even to the vulgar," fays cardinal Cufanus, "that the imperial cel"fitude is independent of the facerdotal power, "having an immediate dependence on God.* "Between the kingdom and priesthood, the proper offices of each are diftinct, that the "king may make use of the arms of the world, 66 *Cuf. 1. 3. Conc. c. 5. " and "and the priest be girt with the fword of the * fpirit, which is the word of God," fays cardinal Damianus.* In anfwer to fome objections drawn from the conduct of a pope, regular and exemplary in other refpects, but too ready to interfere in temporal concerns, this great man replies: "I fay what I think, that "neither Peter obtained the apoftolical princi pality, because he denied Chrift; nor David "deferved the oracle of prophecy, because he "defiled another mrn's bed." As much as to fay, that this pope committed a fault, which he afterwards cancelled by repentance. If you still fear that the long-fam'd British throne should be overturned by fyllogifms, or that the jars of schoolmen may filence the English cannon, (for you have nothing more to apprehend from the pope) I can march to your aid a formidable army of fcholaftic divines armed cap-a-pee in fupport of regal pre-eminence.-Navar, Durandus, Joan. Paris, Almain. Gerfon, Victoria, Thom. Wald. Anton. de Rofelli, Ægidius Rom. Ambros. Catharinus, &c. &c. fome of whom qualify the depofing power with the epithets of horrible and feditious : and others ftyle it downright madness.† Add to the foregoing authorities, the council of Conftance *Damianus, Lib. iv. Epift. 9. Ambros. Cathar. in 13 Rom. Rofelli, de pot. pap. ftance in the year 1415. The declaration of the provincial congregation of the Jesuits at Ghent in the year 1681, and that of the clergy of France in 1682; who declare that "kings "and princes by God's ordinance are not sub"ject in temporals to any ecclefiaftical power, and that they cannot be depofed directly nor "indirectly, by the authority of the keys of the church, neither can their fubjects be "freed from fealty and obedience, nor ab"folved from their oath of allegiance."Re66 ges ergo et principes in temporalibus nulli "ecclefiafticæ poteftati Dei ordinatione fubjici, 66 neque authoritate clavium ecclefiæ directe vel "indirecte, deponi, aut illorum fubditos eximi a fide atque obedientia, ac præftito fidelitatis "facramento folvi poffe: eamque fententiam, "ut verbo Dei, patrum traditioni, et fanctorum "exemplis confonam, omnio retinendam." * Even in the canon law it is declared, that "kings acknowledge no fuperior in tempo"rals" and that "appeals concerning temporals fhould not be brought to the pope's "tribunal." t In fine, the depofing power was fo unknown in primitive times, that Bellarmin, who has ranfacked the works of the fathers, and enriched, • Declaratio Cleri Gallicani, anno 1682. † Cap. fi duobus. Extra de appel. him himself with their spoils, in defending the doctrine of the church, could cite none but St. Bernard in fupport of the novel doctrine of depofition and yet this father, who mentions two fwords in the church, only means that in the church are Chriftian princes invested with the right of the fword: For, in writing to pope Eugenius, the faint ufes thefe remarkable words; Earthly kingdoms have their judges, princes and kings. Why do you thrust your "fickle into another man's harvest? St. Peter "could not give 'what he had not: did he give "dominion? It is the faying of the Lord in the "gofpel, the kings of the gentiles have domi 66 nion over them, but you not fo. It is plain, dominion is forbid to apoftles. Go now and "dare ufurp either dominion with the apostleship, or with the apoftleship dominion. You are plainly forbid the one. If you will have both, you will lofe both; you will be of the "number of thofe of whom God complains, they have been princes, and I knew them "not." Bellarmin's mifapplication of St. Bernard's text, was not the only mistake his antagonists have cenfured. His wild conjecture, that "the "Chriftians would have depofed Nero and Ju"lian the Apoftate, and the like, had they had St. Bernard, Lib. 2. de Confid, "the |