"time, be nameless), that bought the contents of "two noble libraries, for forty shillings price. A "shame it is to be spoken! This stuff has been "occupied instead of grey paper. I judge this to "be true, and utter it with heaviness,-that nei"ther the Britains, under the Romans and Saxons; ❝ nor yet the English people, under the Danes and "Normans, had ever such damage of their learned "monuments, as we have, in this our time. Our ટ્ર posterity may well curse the wicked fall of our age; this unreasonable sport of England's most "noble antiquities."

CHAP. XVIII.

POPE PAUL THE THIRD EXCOMMUNICATES HENRY THE EIGHTH.

pope

IT has been related, that, when Clement the seventh pronounced his sentence for the validity of Henry's marriage with Katharine of Arragon, it was accompanied with a threat of excommunication, in case he refused to adhere to the marriage: "But the lived not," says Echard*, "to execute any censures against the king: so, "that, instead of the matters being past reconci"liation, there was only a sentence, annulling "what the archbishop of Canterbury had done." Moderate men, therefore, still hoped, that an ami* History of England, vol. ii. p. 281.

cable adjustment between the parties might yet be effected.

Clement the seventh died about six months after he had pronounced the sentence on the divorce. He was succeeded by Paul the third, of the illustrious family of Farnese: the hopes of a satisfactory arrangement between the monarch and the see of Rome were increased by his elevation; as, when cardinal, he had favoured the cause of Henry; but they vanished on the execution of bishop Fisher. Soon after the news of this event had reached Rome, the pope issued a bull, by which he cited Henry to appear before him within ninety days. As soon as these expired, he declared the monarch excommunicated, and laid the whole kingdom under an interdict. Whatever a catholic may think of the prudence of the excommunication, he must admit, thus far,—that a right to excommunicate a member of the catholic church, be he sovereign, or be he subject, belongs to the pope: but, unfortunately, the pontiff did not confine himself to excommunication: by an assumption of authority, of which, subsequently to the elevation of Gregory the seventh, the papal history affords too many examples, he deprived Henry of his crown, dissolved all leagues of catholic princes with him, gave away his kingdom to any invader, commanded his nobility to take up arms against him, freed his subjects from all oaths of allegiance, cut off their commerce with foreign states, and declared it lawful for any one to seize

them, to make slaves of their persons, and to convert their effects to their own use.

He withheld, however, the publication of the bull till the act of parliament for the dissolution of the greater monasteries was passed, and carried into execution. Then, by another bull, he confirmed. and established the former*.

The separation from the church was now consummated. May the writer be permitted to suggest, that, among the various causes of this great calamity, not any, perhaps, had greater influence, than the mistaken notions, entertained on both sides, respecting the nature of spiritual and temporal power? When the pope assumed the temporal, and the king assumed the spiritual, supremacy, each was equally in the wrong.-If, by a happy anticipation, a Bossuet had arisen, and explained to the pope, that he had no right to legislate in temporal concerns, or to enforce his spiritual legislation by temporal power,-and to the monarch, that he had no right to legislate in spiritual concerns, or to enforce his temporal legislation by spiritual power,-it is possible, that the schism would have been avoided, and a moderate scheme of reformation adopted, which would have satisfied the wise and the good of both parties.

A late respectable writer, the honourable Daines Barrington, in his learned and entertaining

* A full account of each of these bulls is given by Dodd, vol. i. p. 294, 297.

“Observations on the Ancient Statutes," thus expresses himself on the subject of the papal power during the middle ages:

"Protestantism hath been so long established "in this country, and to its so very great improve

ment, that one may venture to mention a sup

posed advantage to christendom, from the great "influence of the popes in former centuries, with"out being suspected of being tainted with the gross absurdity of the popish doctrines, or a "wish to see them re-established. As English

men, we are, with reason, indignant at the sub"mission made by king John of his crown and 'rights to the see of Rome; but still there was a

great use to Europe in general, from there being "a common referee in all national controversies, "who could not himself ever think of extending "his dominions, though he often might make a "most improper use of his power as a mediator. "The ancients seem to have found the same con"venience in referring disputes to the oracle at Delphi.

"Must not a protestant, then, admit, that (when "the weaker power was oppressed by the more powerful, and when there were no alliances be"tween the different parts of Europe to support "each other with a certain number of troops, in "case of an attack) there was often convenience "in appealing to a mediator, who by the terror "of his anathemas might say with effect, your conquest and oppression must not extend any 31 Hen. VIII. p. 509.

*

"further: I have taken the oppressed under my "protection?' And was not England delivered "from a foreign army in possession of the capital, by the intercession and menaces of the pope?"

tr

CHAP. XIX.

ECCLESIASTICAL REGULATIONS IN THE REIGN OF HENRY.

To give the reader a notion of the religious alterations introduced into England by Henry, and his successors, it seems proper to state, succinctly, I. The different religious systems of the primitive Lutherans, Zuinglians, Calvinists, and Anabaptists: II. A summary account of the ecclesiastical regulations, in the reign of Henry the eighth, respecting the election of bishops: III. And the general reading of the Bible in the English language, by the laity: IV. His guidance of the faith and devotions of his subjects: V. His persecutions VI. and death.

XIX. 1.

Preliminary View of the different Religious Systems;-of the Lutherans, Zuinglians, and Calvinists.

THE author's historical and literary Account of the Formularies, Confessions of Faith, or Symbolic Books, of the Roman-catholic, Greek, and principal