' 
 
: 
 

INTRODUCTORY LECTURES 
 
 THE STUDY OF HISTORY, 
 
 DELIVERED BEVORE 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY OF DURHAM, 
 
 THOMAS GREENWOOD, ESQ., M.A., 
 
 BARRISTER-AT-LAW, AND FELLOW AND READER OF HISTORY IN 
 THE UNIVERSITY. 
 
 [PUBLISHED BY DESIRE.] 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 JOHN COCHRAN, STRAND; 
 
 F. ANDREWS, DURHAM; AND E. CHARNLEY, NEWCASTLE 
 UPON-TYNE. 
 
 1835. 
 
Q 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 Printed by Wir LIAM Cr.owEs, 
 Duke-street, Lambeth. 
 
LECTURE I 
 
 ey of I 1 i " ' n roduc 
 
 e are 
 
 ERRATA. r ^ we 
 
 P. 25, line 10, /or utmost, read almost. both 
 32, the marginal note should be placed at the beginning of the 
 
 llth line, " But the point," &c. HlOSt 
 
 EMENDATION. P. 10, line 14, instead of" such, for instance," read 
 i( as do such incidents " 
 
 utility, tiieiii iimi LU wmcn i nave had the honour 
 to be appointed your reader. I am fully conscious 
 of my inability to extricate myself from the dilemma. 
 But if I succeed in conveying useful instruction to 
 the junior portion of my auditors, I feel no doubt of 
 the kind indulgence of those whose maturer attain- 
 ments could receive little addition from any observa- 
 tions I am able to offer upon a subject so familiar to 
 their studies as that of History. 
 
 The first difficulty we encounter is, the want of 
 any precise notions of the scope and extent of the FTHESUB " 
 subject. In the whole range of literature, it would 
 be difficult to point out one upon which the notions of 
 men are more unsettled than upon that of History. 
 
 B 
 
i Thus it has happened that almost every thing which 
 | can be made the subject of narrative, and much 
 | besides, has been historically treated. In this way 
 the arts and sciences have afforded matter for histo- 
 rical inquiry ; astronomy, mathematics, chemistry, 
 poetry, painting, romance ; districts, cities, towns, 
 villages, even single buildings, have had their histo- 
 rians ; nations, races, families, even individuals, have 
 in like manner furnished materials for similar 
 compositions : so likewise morals, religion, civiliza- 
 tion, literature, and many other topics, have been 
 treated in the same way. Again, subjects which are 
 not suited to narrative have borrowed the name of 
 history; the conduct and habits of animals for 
 instance, every part and portion of matter, animate 
 and inanimate, is brought within the domain of 
 what is called natural history. And if, in this 
 application of the word, we have regard only to the 
 primitive meaning, we cannot object ; the Greek 
 word f 'I(TTopioL is derived from^Itrrwp, one having or 
 possessing knowledge, and this again from ' l(ra<rSa/, to 
 know ; consequently History might be justly defined, 
 not merely as the record of things done, of deeds or 
 of facts, but of every thing that may be known ; 
 consequently it might be regarded as a register of 
 facts of every description, and not as restricted to the 
 actions of rational agents, or the events which affect 
 Natural human society. Thus, that which we call natural 
 eluded by history, though a mere register of facts, would be 
 MS* properly entitled to the distinction conferred upon it. 
 
And in this light it has been regarded by Lord list of the 
 Bacon,* in whose laborious analysis of historical *Hut*<!?y. 
 science, natural history forms the first and principal 
 
 UMll ^Jk^,^,,,^^******"!"" " 1i ii li lain 1 f mi-i 
 
 division ; though it be only incidentally, and in a very 
 limited degree, the subject of narrative at all. 
 
 But those who take this extensive view of the Bacon docs 
 
 not regard 
 
 scope and range ot History must be prepared to narrative as 
 
 , . .,,.., essential to 
 
 maintain that narrative is not essential to historical Historical 
 composition ; and that mere description, or statement c 
 of fact, relative to any individual object of inquiry, 
 is sufficient. It is obvious that Lord Bacon did not 
 regard narrative as an essential quality of historical 
 composition ; since the compass he has assigned to 
 the science included many subjects which are matters 
 of description only things which are constant and 
 invariable in themselves, 'governed by laws esta- 
 blished by nature herself; having for the most part 
 no reference to time or succession, and in no degree 
 analogous to those events which have their origin in 
 human society. 
 
 But though we exclude compositions of this cha- But even if 
 
 T . . / i i .11 natural his- 
 
 racter from the province or History, the field still t ory be ex - 
 
 . , 1*1 eluded, the 
 
 remains far too extensive to be surveyed with any scope of the 
 
 science re- 
 
 f. i i ii A sciene re 
 
 degree of accuracy by a single eye ; the prospect is mains too 
 confused and disheartening a chaos which no single 
 mind would attempt to master or even to reduce into to 
 order. And though we consent to restrict it to such 
 subjects only as admit of narrative in some shape 
 
 * De Augm. Sclent, lib. ii. c. 2 ; Works, vol. vii. p. 105. 
 
 B 2 
 
or other, still it is obvious that every branch of 
 human knowledge, like the affairs of a state or 
 a kingdom, has had a beginning, a progress 
 perhaps an end ; and may therefore become the 
 proper subject of narrative. Thus then we have the 
 history of astronomy, of mathematics, of witchcraft, 
 of the steam-engine, and of other useful or ingenious 
 inventions. Manufactures, commerce, music, paint- 
 ing, &c. have all had their historians ; and if the 
 mere exposition of any series of facts succeeding 
 each other in the order of time, or the more essential 
 one of cause and effect, be all that is necessary to 
 entitle a work to the denomination of History, it is 
 quite clear that not a single art or science, or inven- 
 tion, or institution, or prevalent habit, or mode of 
 thought and action, but must be regarded as the 
 proper subject of historical science. 
 We must Now there is no harm in all this, provided the 
 
 therefore 
 
 exclude bi- subjects just enumerated, and a host of others which 
 and the his- might have been added, be kept clear and distinct 
 aril and from that which I shall presently attempt to exhibit 
 the triMstor, in the sense in which 
 
 as 
 
 it is received in common language, and in general 
 literature. The first view is all that is so very dis- 
 couraging ; and we shall I think find that the 
 proper application of one or two very simple rules 
 is all that is necessary to reduce our matter within 
 such a compass as not to overmatch the powers of an 
 attentive and zealous student. 
 Definitions. But in order to define correctly the requisite 
 
5 
 
 limitations,[it is necessary to attend a little to the 
 meaning of words. By the word fact we mean any- Fact. 
 \ thing which is the subject of true statement ; by the 
 5 word event, we mean something resulting from pre- Event. 
 \ ceding fact ; it is a relative term, implying time and 
 
 ! ! dependent succession. The same observation applies 
 in a still greater degree to the term transaction ; Tranac~ 
 and this latter word moreover implies human agency ; 
 naked facts having no relation to time or succession Facts hav- 
 
 . . ing no rela- 
 
 cannot be matter or historical narrative ; and the tion to time 
 same may be said of the effects these facts sometimes s ion. 
 produce; namely, such events as are beyond the 
 j control or agency of human powers ; thus a general 
 \ history of earthquakes or of storms, or of any other 
 J series of natural phenomena, would be at least a 
 very questionable title for a bookT] It is true that 
 the steps by which men arrive at a competent know- 
 ledge of such facts and events are properly the 
 subjects of narrative. But then those steps are the 
 results of human agency ; they are genuine trans- 
 actions. It is not therefore the particular art or 
 science itself, but the various stages it has passed 
 through in the course of improvement, which con- 
 stitute its history. __ ^ 
 
 But though the common consent of mankind stil J Events not 
 permits naturalists, physicians, mathematicians, and 
 
 artists, to apply the term History to their narratives 
 of the progress or decline of the several subjects of 
 their studies, yet it has still further limited the mean- 
 ing of the word in common language. When 
 
Definition 
 of Dion 
 
 conversation we speak of History, no one thinks of 
 applying the term to any other class of facts than 
 that which has human society for its object, and 
 human agency for its source, however much those 
 facts may have been affected by events independent 
 of the will or the control of man. According to this 
 view of the subject, the properties of natural bodies,* 
 the phenomena of nature,! the advance of art or 
 science, J enter into History only as they affect 
 human conduct, and the welfare of society, as they 
 serve to elucidate the progress or decline of political 
 institutions, wealth, population and civilization. 
 Dionysius of Halicarnassus defines History as 
 
 ot Uiony- 
 
 sius of Ha- Philosophy teaching by examples." But, consist - 
 
 licarnassus 
 
 too large, ently with the view I have taken the liberty to 
 suggest, this definition is far too large : it includes 
 every class and kind of facts, whether directly or 
 indirectly connected with the state of civil society ; 
 it does not strictly imply narrative at all, since the 
 examples or events are treated merely as the instru- 
 ments, not as the subject, of research. Philosophy 
 takes her examples wherever she finds them, with- 
 out much regard to the order of their occurrence ; 
 and judges of them by their fitness to illustrate the 
 
 * E. g. Gunpowder, steam, the magnetic needle, &e. &c. 
 
 t E, g. Climate, soil, atmosphere ; rivers, mountains, forests, 
 surface of the country generally ; earthquakes, accretions of the 
 coast, changes in the course of rivers, &c. &c. 
 
 t E. (j. The invention of the steam-engine, improvements in 
 astronomy, navigation, &c, &c. 
 
lessons she desires to inculcate, rather than by their 
 connection with, and dependence upon, each other ; 
 which connection and dependence are however the 
 main object of all well- written history. Again, we may 
 observe that very many of the best historians whose 
 works we possess lay no claim to the character of phi- 
 losophers. Herodotus in one age, Froissart in another, 
 would have been surprised at the designation ; Tacitus, 
 and Philip de Commines, might not have objected ; 
 Hume, Gibbon, and Voltaire, would have accepted 
 the compliment ; but however this may^ be, ghilosp- 
 phical history is only one kind of history ; not always 
 the most instructive, rarely the most amusing. Gib- 
 bon's history would have been much better without 
 his philosophy ; that of Hume very little encumbers 
 his narrative ; Voltaire's only object is to be amusing; 
 and the main design of all these great writers was 
 to tell their story well, leaving the philosophy to be 
 extracted from it to their readers. 
 
 After all, it is the narrative which constitutes the The narra- 
 
 . . ^ T"T 
 
 charm of History. " Sunt enim homines, ' says Pliny, tutes both 
 
 A ATI IA the charm 
 
 te natura curiosi, et qualibet nuda rerum cogmtione and the uti- 
 capiuntur, ut qui sermunculis etiam fabellisque du- t ory. 
 cantur." * The naked statement of events is in itself 
 pleasing ; if well put together, it cannot fail to be 
 instructive. Not only the distinctive nature, but the 
 utility of History consists in the narrative, and not 
 necessarily in anything else ; the philosophy, how- 
 
 * Plin. lib. v. Ep. 8. 
 
ever beautiful and instructive, is the adjunct merely, 
 
 - the means, but not the end of History. And in this 
 
 spirit, Cicero does not scruple to apply the name of 
 
 History to the dry chronicles of Cato, Fabius Pictor, 
 
 and Piso, and to those of the Greeks, Pherecydes, 
 
 Hellenicus, and Acusilas *. 
 
 Definition j wcm ld therefore confine your historical studies to 
 
 proposed. * 
 
 events and transactions of which men are the agents, 
 and human society the subject ; and in conformity 
 with this recommendation, I shall propose the fol- 
 lowing short definition : " History is the authentic 
 register of the social and political experience of 
 mankind digested into the form of a narrative'' 
 This proposition will serve, I think, both to define 
 the limits of the subject, and to indicate the direction 
 of your studies. Experience is a familiar acquaint- 
 ance with facts, and a just perception of the inferences 
 they suggest for the direction of our public or private 
 conduct. Consistently therefore with our definition, 
 History aims at nothing less than the establishment of 
 sound rules, and the suggestion of just inferences for 
 the government of man in his political and social 
 capacity : it supplies, elucidates, and arranges all 
 the materials of political knowledge, and borrows 
 from every other art or science all that may be useful 
 to explain the events it undertakes to recount, or to 
 render more readily perceptible the inferences and 
 principles those events are capable of suggesting 
 
 * De Oral. lib. ii. c. 12. 
 
9 
 
 and this, whether it undertakes to suggest them 
 itself or not. Hence it defies all arbitrary confine- 
 ment : it wanders freely, yet sedately and thought- 
 fully, over the whole range of human knowledge ; 
 and, like that indefatigable insect which we regard 
 as the emblem of sagacious and contriving industry, 
 the historian often draws the materials of his structure 
 from the most remote and apparently unpromising 
 sources ; and those who would confine him in his 
 choice within any bounds but those prescribed by his 
 own judgment and sagacity, would find his hive less 
 amply stored, and the produce of a far inferior flavour. 
 
 Though the experience which the historian re- The i 
 cords may, and must often be useful to individuals, 
 
 yet it is mankind in the mass which forms the sub- mankfnd in 
 ject of his inquiry and the object of his instructions. l 
 He considers human events with reference to jiuman 
 society ; so that though he should find it necessary to 
 dwell at large upon the incidents of any individual 
 life, it will be done always with reference to the 
 influence which those incidents and that life have 
 exercised upon the fortunes of society ; leaving to the 
 biographer all that is purely personal or merely cha- 
 racteristic of the individual, however striking or 
 amusing such incidents may be in themselves. Re- 
 garding man as destined to live and move and have 
 his being in society, his attention is mainly directed to 
 those circumstances which affect him as a member of 
 society. Thus, the progress of civil government, war The histo- 
 
 , rian selects 
 
 and peace, the state ol laws and national manners, public 
 
10 
 
 events and the influence and interests of religion and its minis- 
 public cha- 
 
 racters. ters, the arts or life, commerce, navigation, agricul- 
 ture, and many other subjects intimately connected 
 with the progress of public events lay the earliest 
 claims to his attention ; and if he roves into the 
 domain of science, it is rather for the purposes of 
 illustration and explanation, than to bring away any 
 
 substantive materials for his work. He therefore 
 * 
 
 excludes biography, as far as it is the mere record of 
 private life, because it does not immediately concern 
 mankind in the mass ; he excludes all detailed ac- 
 
 tWf***-,....^ ^ 
 
 counts of the progress of arts, science, or literature, 
 wherever they do not assume the character of in- 
 
 J7 ^V<.-^L J+ts^^&^^fa-^^l 
 
 fluential public events : such, for instance, as the 
 
 discovery of the mariner's compass, the invention of 
 
 gunpowder, of printing, of the Greek fire. In short, 
 
 he bounds his research primarily to those events and 
 
 transactions in which men are the agents, and of 
 
 which human society is the subject ; he collects and 
 
 He collects arranges the social and political experience of man- 
 
 ranges the kind, in order to extract sound rules and precepts for 
 
 political the direction oj *his future conduct. A steady regard 
 
 of mankind, to this principle introduces unity into the practice of 
 
 historical research, and is equally beneficial to the 
 
 writer and to the student. 
 
 ii. RANK jj j h ave dwelt with more minuteness upon this 
 
 AND DIGNI- 
 TY OF HIS- p ar t of the subject, because it appeared to me that 
 
 TORY IN THE A 
 
 SCALE OF the study of History, like that of every other branch 
 
 HUMAN 
 
 PURSUITS, of knowledge, must be very much impeded by the 
 
11 
 
 want of a precise notion of what it is we are called 
 upon to devote our attention to. I have done all that 
 is in my power to indicate the direction of your 
 studies, and to reduce them within practicable limits. 
 I shall now endeavour to point out shortly the true 
 rank and dignity of the pursuit in the scale of human 
 attainments, and its inherent utility in enlarging 
 and expanding your views of social improvement. 
 
 If it be true that History is the register of ex- Dignity of 
 
 ^^ Z ~* .. -5 **** . H istory : 
 
 perience in all which concerns man in his social and c*ro and 
 
 * "- - T i 11 ! i Tacitus up- 
 
 political existence, little more need be said to exalt on History. 
 it to the first rank among human attainments. Cicero, 
 to whom no acquirement seemed comparable in point 
 of excellence to that of eloquence, yet honours History 
 with his profound reverence and his fervid admira- 
 tion. "Historia vero testis temporum, lux veritatis, vita 
 memorise, nuntia vetustatis, qua voce alia nisi oratoris 
 immortalitati commendatur?"* The greatest and 
 noblest of lessons, he thought, could only be ade- 
 quately conveyed by the most splendid and engaging 
 of the arts. Tacitus, upon whose mind the contrasts 
 of virtue and vice in the conduct of men appear to 
 have made the deepest impression, assigns a severer 
 but not less exalted function to History. " Prse- 
 cipuum munus annalium reor, ne virtutes sileantur, 
 atque pravis dictis factisque ex posteritate et infamia, 
 metus sit." t If indeed she be as these great men 
 believed her to be the witness of ages, the light of 
 
 * De Oratore, lib. ii. c. 9. t Annal. lib. iii. c. 65. 
 
12 
 
 truth, the life of memory, the herald of antiquity, 
 the champion of virtue, and the avenger of vice, 
 where shall we find in the whole catalogue of science 
 one which possesses stronger claims upon our atten- 
 tion ? The justice of this encomium must, I admit, 
 depend upon the truth of the high character which 
 these writers ascribe to History. If the witness be 
 found fraudulent, the light she sheds be the mere glare 
 of an ignis fatuus ; if her records be the frail recol- 
 lections of ignorance or cunning, or the mere echo of 
 prejudice and party spirit, History must fall from the 
 setherial eminence to which she has been exalted by the 
 wise and the good of past ages ; she must sink to the 
 rank of romance, and henceforth serve as a repertory 
 to the story-teller, or as a thread for fine writers to 
 string their phrases upon. The blows which have been 
 aimed at her fair fame by modern scepticism cannot 
 be wholly passed over. I shall hazard a few re- 
 marks upon this subject presently, to enable you to 
 judge for yourselves, whether the charges of her ad- 
 versaries have a substantial foundation, and whether 
 you are to smile at, or to applaud, the enthusiasm of 
 Cicero, and the reverential homage of Tacitus. 
 History in- For the moment, however, I shall leave her in 
 aii. undisputed possession of the throne inherited from 
 time immemorial, and of a title acknowledged by 
 the suffrage of all generations down to the eighteenth 
 century of the Christian sera. Up to that period, the 
 study of History was recommended as a main branch 
 of liberal education to all ; particularly to princes and 
 
13 
 
 statesmen, as containing the very rudiments of their 
 important duties. "If," says Bossuet*, " History TO princes 
 
 and rulers 
 
 were useless to all other men. it would be never- indispensa- 
 ble, 
 theless necessary to force it upon the attention of 
 
 princes : there is no better method of [displaying to 
 them the power of passion and interest, of times and 
 junctures, of good and of evil counsels. History 
 is itself compounded of the very acts in which they 
 themselves are engaged, and every thing it contains 
 seems expressly designed for their instruction." To so also to 
 
 . , . , the mem- 
 
 a nation like ours, where every man is, by his birth- bers of a 
 
 i t i i i t* 11 free com- 
 
 right, entitled to a share in the government of all ; 
 where every man may, by the exercise of talent, or 
 perseverance, or industry, for good or for evil, set up 
 for a ruler of men, the observation of the Bishop of 
 Meaux may be addressed with almost as much force 
 as it was to the heir of an absolute throne. Each of 
 us is daily called upon, as we value the stability of 
 our political system, the permanence of our laws, 
 the maintenance of our liberties against royal or 
 popular encroachment, to make ourselves familiar 
 with all the calculable operations of passion and 
 interest ; to obtain an insight into the character of 
 the times, the tendency of junctures ; and above all, 
 of the counsels by which our country is governed, 
 whether they be for good or for evil. History is in 
 truth hardly less obviously designed for the education 
 of each individual member of a free community, than 
 it is for the instruction of an absolute prince. 
 
 * Disc, sur 1'Hist. Univ., vol. i. p. 7. 
 
14 
 utility of There is no argument, I think, more likely to es- 
 
 Historyasa m & m 
 
 body of tablish the true dignity of History in well-disposed 
 and thoughtful minds, than that which may be ex- 
 tracted from the common adage, " Example is better 
 than precept." " Pauci" says Tacitus, " prudentia 
 honesta ab deterioribus, utilia ab noxiis discernunt ; 
 plures aliorum eventis docentur." The application 
 of this maxim to private conduct is a matter of every- 
 day practice. Every observing and well-disposed 
 person can carry away in his memory as many ex- 
 amples of private life as he may have occasion for 
 to direct his own conduct, and to enable him to 
 imitate the virtues, and to avoid the errors of others. 
 But History stands, in this respect, in a different, and 
 perhaps a less advantageous position than private ex- 
 perience. As in the latter case the utility of the expe- 
 rience depends upon the strength and accuracy of the 
 individual memory, so in the former it depends upon 
 the fulness and faithfulness of the report. But then 
 private experience is very largely compounded of per- 
 sonal observation we are eye-witnesses of the exam- 
 ples by which we purpose to be guided ; we perceive 
 their effects, or at least we have the opportunity of sift- 
 ing the evidence, and cross-examining the witnesses. 
 But in historical testimony, such opportunities very 
 rarely present themselves. Again, the lessons of 
 History are of a more comprehensive character, and 
 are not of such easy application. They do not ad- 
 dress themselves so much to the immediate and per- 
 sonal interests of men, as to their remoter but not 
 less important social interests. Yet History is to 
 
15 
 
 nations what observation is to individuals ; it is the 
 only record of national and social experience ; all 
 the lessons society has to learn, every means men 
 possess of comparing their present condition with the 
 past, and gathering rules and precepts for the future, 
 are to he sought there, and there only. Would it 
 not then he something more than preposterous to 
 reject the assistance of that experience in our public 
 conduct, to which we look as the surest guide to 
 success and happiness in our private lives ? 
 
 The power which the study of History possesses to Power of 
 enlarge the mind of the student, to expand his enlarge the 
 
 , _ . i.Ti 
 
 views, and to subdue his prejudices, has been highly student, to 
 
 
 and deservedly extolled. A man living all his life v, and 
 
 in a secluded country parish, and familiar with no prejudice* 
 greater or more important objects than those he sees 
 around him, is incapable of forming any conception 
 of a higher and more improved state of society than 
 that to which he belongs. It is precisely the same 
 with the student of mankind who refuses to receive 
 or neglects to seek for any other information than 
 that which may be gathered within the limited com- 
 pass of a single life, or even of a single age. He 
 cannot hope to behold society in all, or even a few 
 of the varied forms through which it has passed 
 in the course of ages ; he falls inevitably into innu- 
 merable errors in judging of the conduct and motives 
 of men, the tendency of public opinion, and the pro- 
 bable result of public measures. This state of igno- 
 rance is a most fertile source of inconvenience to so- 
 
16 
 
 ciety, and of disturbance to social enjoyments hence 
 much of that loud and confident, that insolent and 
 
 ; brawling tone assumed by the half-informed politi- 
 cians of the day ; men who, with a tenacious memory 
 for the common-places of the hour, have no memory 
 for what they read, if it go back to any period remoter 
 than a yesterday's newspaper, or the last published 
 party pamphlet. Their self-sufficiency is in exact pro- 
 portion to their ignorance of the complicated structure 
 and profound mind of the social system ; a mind differ- 
 ing in many respects from that of the individual man, 
 yet demanding at every step the most careful compa- 
 rison with it, in order to discover the causes of that 
 discrepancy we often meet with between the views 
 and tempers of a people taken individually, and their 
 public conduct. Do we not find the noblest and the 
 most generous aspirations, the purest and mobt bene- 
 volent intentions, leading by the admixture of other 
 views and other motives, by the operation of occult 
 forces, under-currents of public opinion, accidental 
 passions, and weaknesses, to the ruin of a whole 
 generation, the overthrow of order, religion, and 
 humanity* ? Nothing but the most extensive study 
 
 * E. g. Towards the decline of the Roman republic the 
 love of liberty in the mass of the people led to the ascendancy 
 of popular leaders, and the ultimate establishment of the impe- 
 rial tyranny so in England during the first half of the 1 7th 
 century so in France prior to the year 1793. A multitude of 
 instances might be selected of the apparently inexplicable dis- 
 crepancy between the private mind and the public conduct of 
 
17 
 
 of the human heart in its actual manifestations can it enables 
 reveal to us any portion of its numberless occult the wea k- 
 
 i -. , , ,, nesses and 
 
 weaknesses and vices ; enable us to form a correct vices, and 
 
 .- n . i 11 .,. . . to estimate 
 
 estimate 01 its real powers and capabilities of im- rightly the 
 
 provement, or point out the right method of dealing 
 with it. All the most remarkable of these manifest- of 
 ations are to be found in the annals of past ages ; 
 and I will undertake to affirm that, in proportion as 
 our acquaintance with them becomes more familiar, 
 we shall by degrees abandon that loud, and confident, 
 and self-sufficient tone upon political subjects, so 
 lamentably prevalent even among the best informed 
 classes in European society. I am persuaded that 
 a universal and profound study of History, with 
 the views I have just suggested, would go a great it tends to 
 way towards obliterating political differences, by ren- or recon. 
 tiering our knowledge far more accurate and com- cai e differ-" 
 prehensive, and by fostering in our politicians and er 
 statesmen a spirit of thoughtful diffidence, modesty, 
 and accommodation, now so rarely met with in the 
 world. Nothing so effectually subdues the vehe- 
 mence of preconceived opinions as the perpetual, 
 and I own it the irritating checks and contradic- 
 tions they encounter in the history of the past. 
 
 nations. Thus we find republican states to be the greatest and 
 most tenacious slave-holders the most anxious to make sub- 
 jects to hold conquests and to rule with absolute sway over 
 the conquered. So the Athenians. So the Romans. So the 
 Italian republics of the middle ages. So also the Confederate 
 republics of Switzerland in more modern times. 
 
 C 
 
18 
 
 Every one who has proceeded but a step or two in 
 this engrossing and elevating study, must have felt 
 the benefit of the severe but wholesome discipline he 
 is compelled to undergo. In every page we meet 
 with cause enough to deplore our ignorance, to sus- 
 the mind. p ect our p rev i ous opinions, to detect prejudices till 
 the corrected and enlightened spirit takes a volun- 
 tary refuge in humble research. 
 
 in. ORIGIN m. There has arisen in the world a class of 
 
 OF HISTORI- 
 CAL SCEP- persons who bend with extreme reluctance to the 
 
 discipline of History. Their systems and theories 
 first obtained extensive authority in France, and have 
 since made great impression all over Europe. In 
 their hands History has suffered such degradation as 
 almost to threaten her expulsion from the counsels of 
 nations. Towards the close of the last century, they 
 made surprising progress in substituting their own 
 speculations for her lessons ; a page of the Contrat 
 Social of Rousseau became of more weight than all 
 the works of Livy or of Tacitus, of Du Thou, Me- 
 zeray Rollin, or Bossuet. The same indisposition to 
 be guided by the experience of past ages prevails at 
 this moment very widely in this country. It is now 
 almost thought discreditable to a man's understand- 
 wisdom ing to defer to the se wisdom of his ancestors ;" and 
 
 of our an- . . 
 
 cestors." the phrase is treated not merely as an empty com- 
 mon-place, but as conveying a positive falsehood. 
 But would the expression be so objectionable if we 
 
19 
 
 exchanged the word "wisdom" for the equivalent 
 "experience?" Would Jeremy Bentham himself 
 have as boldly rejected the experience of former ages 
 as he denied their wisdom ? Another distinguished J - J - Rous - 
 
 seau's use 
 
 champion of the great crusade against prejudices, of History. 
 Jean Jaques Rousseau, we know would not. No man 
 more anxious than he to support himself upon the ex- 
 ample, if not by the experience, of the past, whenever 
 a reference to history offered a chance-prop to his 
 theoretical abstractions. But the boldest attack upon 
 the dignity of History was made only a very few years 
 back in our own House of Commons. Historv, it was Mod * rn / 
 
 J scepticism. / 
 
 then said was of little more value than a last year's 
 almanac. I question much whether the phrase 
 really implied all the ignominy and contempt the 
 speaker intended ; since by the application of rules 
 analogous to those by which past events may be 
 converted into a tolerably trusty guide for present con- 
 duct, a last year's almanac might be turned into a very 
 useful one for the current year always supposing 
 the possessor willing and able to apply the necessary 
 corrections. Here, however, lies the real difficulty 
 in both cases. It is not given to every one to make 
 those corrections. It is much easier to build up a 
 system upon a few general principles, than to verify 
 and compare many facts. It is much more satisfac- Progress of 
 
 abstract po- 
 
 tory to contemplate the symmetrical exterior which micai spe- 
 culation. 
 such systems present, than the complicated and 
 
 clumsy adaptations which experience suggests as 
 best suited to the fluctuating wants of society, and 
 
 c2 
 
20 
 
 the ever- varying condition of the great human fa- 
 mily. When the revolutionary philosophers of 
 France had established as incontrovertible and eter- 
 nal truths, the maxims that all men are born free 
 an ^ e( L ua ^ that all sovereignty resides in the 
 people^ and that every man ought to be his own 
 governor^, it must have been mortifying to find 
 History thrusting in objections, experience con- 
 testing each proposition, examples the most accom- 
 modating that could be selected failing in the very 
 points they were intended to support or to illustrate. 
 It must have been irksome to be told that the most 
 renowned democracy of ancient times, that of Athens, 
 possessed 350,000 slaves to a population of about 
 170,000 free citizens of both sexes and all ages. 
 When the axiom was proclaimed, and re-echoed 
 throughout all France " the people are always just!" 
 it could not but have been very discouraging to find 
 by reference to history, that the people of the most 
 
 * See Contrat Social, liv. i. c. 4. 
 
 f Ibid., liv. i. c. 7, and liv. iii. c. 1. 
 
 | " He must be so, or he is a slave," liv. i. c. 4. 
 
 Wachsmuth Hellenische Alterthiimer, vol i. part ii. pp. 
 32, 44. According to the census made by Pericles in the 
 first year of the Peloponnesian war, there were 13,000 heavy- 
 armed (citizens), 16,000 more doing garrison duty (inclusive 
 ofMetoecs), and 12,000 mounted bowmen, whom Wachsmuth 
 does not reckon among the citizens. Accounting one in' six 
 as capable of bearing arms, this would give the number of 
 174,000 freemen of Athens. Conf. Thucyd. lib. ii. c. 13, vol. i. 
 p. 273. Ed. Baveri. 
 
caution 
 his fol- 
 
 21 
 
 perfect of republics Athens again were vain, capri- 
 cious, tyrannical, and cruel to perceive that popular 
 governments are quite as anxious to make subjects as 
 the veriest despot, and extremely loath to share with 
 the conquered any of the benefits of citizenship.* The J^. 
 writer who followed up these abstractions with the lower 
 most brilliant effect I allude to J. J. Rousseau was 
 himself so struck with the numberless checks and con- 
 tradictions which experience opposed to the practical 
 working of his system, that he was compelled in 
 express terms to limit its applicability to states 
 where the governing body was small enough for every 
 one to take a direct share in the sovereigntvt ; and Annuls llis 
 
 c5 J \ entire sys- 
 
 thus to proclaim his scheme what it really was, tem> 
 the day dream of an ingenious political speculator. 
 But the followers of Rousseau lost sight of t 
 parting admonition of their master. They pro- [,* 
 claimed the sovereignty of the people with all its con- j* 
 sequences and corollaries. The deplorable result f xt< ; nt > ;il ' (l 
 
 leads to the 
 
 has, I fear, not yet cured us of repeating a proposi- mosi de P ! - 
 tion inaccurate, if not untrue in itself; one, at least, suits, 
 which the people of every old and settled community 
 cannot be too cautious in adopting J. 
 
 * See the conduct of the Athenians towards their subject 
 allies, of the Romans towards their provinces, of the Swiss 
 in their dependent balliages. Zschockke Gesch. der Schweitz, 
 c. 64, p. 500. Ed. Aarau, 1831, 18mo. 
 
 t Contr. Social, liv. iii. c. 15. 
 
 I To the best of my recollection Rousseau himself adds this 
 very caution. The words have escaped my memory. 
 
'22 
 
 aversion f tne political speculators to 
 systems to the test of past experience i& 
 leads to easily accounted for, on the score of the intractabi- 
 
 historical 
 
 scepticism, lity of history. It became necessary to pass by or 
 to discredit facts too obstinate to be bent to their 
 purposes they would not submit to her as the " ma- 
 gistra vitse " whom they would be willing enough to 
 take as their handmaiden. The result of their la- 
 bours, however, was a very widely spread spirit of 
 historical scepticism which ran through society, and 
 which is not even now much upon the decline. And 
 as it is impossible that in the course of your reading 
 you should not often meet with arguments and insi- 
 nuations against the authority and the utility of the 
 noble study which is to form a portion of your aca- 
 demical education, it becomes almost a duty or my 
 part shortly to notice the error in question, and to> 
 point out its source. 
 
 It is customary for reasoners of this class to 
 express the most profound repugnance for the fables 
 and falsehoods by which History is so often disfi- 
 gured, and to deplore, pathetically enough, the state 
 of doubt and uncertainty into which they are 
 plunged by the unfaithfulness of historians. To 
 every human mind, they observe, some infirmities of 
 passion or prejudice must cling ; from all human 
 knowledge large deductions must be made for the 
 impossibility of correcting error ; and from this they 
 infer that amid the inextricable tissue of truth and 
 falsehood, it is not possible to get at the truth with 
 
23 
 
 a degree of accuracy sufficient for practical appli- 
 cation. History, they add, thus becomes a source 
 of error rather than of knowledge, and there is no 
 refuge for the student but in general scepticism. 
 
 But this reasoning is extremely inconclusive ; and 
 moreover the motive of it is exceedingly plain. r . ical SCC P- 
 
 ^^r**"--"'^- > _ nr Iu -.^M, ; __ ,, ^ O J tics incon- 
 
 Admitting the premises to the full extent, ac- elusive. 
 knowledging freely that in almost all history there 
 are mistakes designed and undesigned, proceeding 
 from ignorance and from passion, from prejudice 
 and party feeling ; yet it does not follow that it is 
 impossible to get at the truth even in the very ques- 
 tions and matters to which these objections most 
 strongly apply. But to arrive at this desirable J'' 8 " va ' 
 
 & J r J hd objec- 
 
 object often requires the most diligent research, and tion to the 
 the exercise of great talent. To take the early truth of His- 
 
 L~~~- ~- .^ ' ' ' """ '""' toi 7 that il 
 
 History of Rome as an example ; there is no period requires re- 
 
 ; search and 
 
 involved in doubt more profound, or m confusion, talent to get 
 more inextricable; yet by a right application of a^- 
 general principle which pervades all traditions, how- 
 ever untrustworthy and fabulous, as to particular 
 facts, namely ; that " such traditions do convey 
 faithful information respecting the primitive laws, 
 institutions, and religion of the people " the indefa- 
 tigable historian Niebuhr has succeeded to the satis- 
 faction of all who have the leisure and ability to 
 follow him through his laborious researches, in eli- 
 citing many interesting truths from the mass of 
 traditions and fables which he has undertaken to 
 dissect and explain. 
 
24 
 
 tt ^hecom- When you hear complaints of the unfaithfulness of 
 Mattel ^i stor y> y ou should first ascertain whether they pro- 
 the dispo- ceed from persons who show a disposition to inquiry 
 
 sitioQofthe 
 
 complain- next whether they possess the talents and the industry 
 
 ants for in- 
 
 dustry and necessary to carry them through a laborious series of 
 research. For surely until the objectors shall have 
 shown, upon the most solid grounds, that wo research, 
 or industry, or talent can avail for the discovery of 
 the truth, their protest can have no validity. But 
 you will find that there are very few of the numerous 
 class of historical sceptics who have condescended to 
 submit their doubts to the same test as that to which 
 we are willing to submit the general truth of history. 
 When they inculcate caution, you will find them 
 relying upon particular instances of error or of dis- 
 honesty, of which, we admit, there is ample store. 
 The historian goes along with them in inculcating 
 caution. But here, as in the ordinary mode adopted 
 by sciolists in dealing with general maxims, they 
 push a salutary principle to the extreme, and con- 
 vert it into a pernicious absurdity ; for what greater 
 practical absurdity can be imagined than the plung- 
 ing into scepticism as a refuge against uncertainty? 
 
 We reply If the obiectors had contented themselves by telling 
 
 that after all J 
 
 deductions us that we cannot hope to get at the whole truth that 
 
 are made 1 . .... i j ! i 
 
 for error, there is much uncertainty in historical detail, much 
 and fraud, fraud and falsehood in individual writers ; many 
 
 - errors incident to particular states of the public mind 
 fuHd o"ex- which infect the annalist as much as they infect the 
 penence. a g e j n wn i c |) } ie lived ; that we should be wary and 
 
25 
 
 cautious in examining the statements of party 
 men ; in scrutinizing documents which come out of 
 suspected custody, and in guarding generally against 
 the ignorance and prejudices of historical writers, 
 we should have offered no contradiction. But we affirm 
 that, after all these deductions are made after re- 
 jecting all that is manifestly false or unfair, and 
 setting down a great deal more as douhtful, there 
 remains a vast fund of truth, a rich treasury of 
 experience, to answer the utmost unlimited drafts of 
 the historical, political, and moral philosopher. 
 
 The great question between the believer in history The histori- 
 (if I may use the term) and the sceptic, has played a 
 very serious part in the affairs of the world within 
 the last half century. A large class of political 
 reasoners resolved upon treating politics without re- 
 ference to experience, and reforming the world with- 
 out asking counsel of History. They regarded man 
 in the light of a creature possessing reason and 
 claiming certain rights. But they in a great degree 
 neglected the other half of his nature : after some 
 general admissions, they in substance chose to forget 
 that he is also a creature with many passions, and 
 therefore often doing wrong. They did not choose to The y mis - 
 
 . . took the 
 
 observe that his passions and desires are the moving character of 
 
 r n i 11 hum *n na- 
 
 torces in all his actions ; that reason is only the ture. 
 directing power, a power, as far as men in the ~ 
 
 - _ >**' *-* * 
 
 mass are concerned, always subordinate, sometimes 
 wholly impotent. Hence it happens that writers of 
 this class, instead of beginning by checks and con- 
 
26 
 
 trols, exhaust themselves upon speculative rights, 
 neglecting positive and practical wrongs. Viewing 
 things in this light, it is not to be wondered at that 
 they should have formed extravagant notions of the 
 dignity of human nature and of the inherent virtues 
 Neglected o f the human character; that they should have 
 
 all those f * 
 
 checks by despised and neglected in their several systems all 
 
 which his ' . 
 
 evil pas- the necessary coercive checks by which the predo- 
 
 sions might . ...,. 
 
 be con- mmant evil principle might be restrained, and the 
 
 his reaso^ directing power strengthened and elevated. And 
 
 enedf hence it happened that in the perilous attempt to 
 
 pi n u d ri ged re s b o- carry their theories into practice, all the ancient 
 
 antrch'yand bonds of society were torn asunder, and anarchy of 
 
 disorder. ^e mos t appalling character introduced. The most 
 
 zealous of these speculators became the earliest 
 
 victims of their own refinements ; and to the rest no 
 
 refuge presented itself but in the coarse and vulgar 
 
 expedient of military despotism. 
 
 History Nothing of this could have happened had they 
 furnish us condescended to consult the experience of mankind 
 as recorded in the history of past ages. It is from 
 History alone that we derive our knowledge of that 
 ror ' important half of human nature which they omitted 
 out of their calculations it is from a diligent study 
 of History alone that we become familiar with the 
 practical working of the human character, as mani- 
 fested in the mass of mankind ; and it is only by 
 regarding that character under this aspect that we 
 can expect to obtain sound practical rules for the 
 establishment of any beneficial scheme of social polity. 
 
27 
 
 IV. But after exposing to the best of my ability, IV -SOURCES 
 what I believe to be the errors of historical sceptics, RICAL ER - 
 
 _ ROR AND 
 
 and their practical consequences, it may be expected GROUNDS 
 
 , T , , , , UPONWHICH 
 
 that 1 should at least notice the grounds upon which THE CAUSE 
 the cause of historical truth mainly rests. I begin by CAL TRUTH 
 adverting to the principal sources of error. These may 
 be conveniently arranged in three classes : 1 . The 
 adulteration of truth by the admixture of fable : 
 2. The effects of prejudice, passion, and party spirit; 
 and 3rd. The errors of ignorance, credulity, and 
 conceit. 
 
 1. With regard to the first cause of error, namely, K^" 1 ' 6 * 
 
 J ration of 
 
 the adulteration of truth by the admixture of fable, trulh b x lhe 
 
 f . . admixture 
 
 we may remark that it principally affects the primi- f faW - 
 tive ages of the world, and the periods antecedent to 
 the rise of letters, when all that could be known of 
 former ages was contained in popular traditions and 
 the lays of poets. These ages have been generally, 
 though I think wrongly, called the unhistorical 
 periods. The distinction and it is a very marked 
 one between fable and falsehood has been often Fablc not 
 
 J J % m falsehood. 
 
 overlooked. In the most fabulous traditions, provided 
 they are genuine traditions, there is generally a very 
 distinguishable foundation of truth. The poems of 
 Homer are made up of such traditions ; and though 
 the incidents they recount, taken as naked facts, can- 
 not be too cautiously received, yet even in this respect 
 they are not without their historical value. But view 
 them in another light, and they assume a much higher 
 degree of importance in the eye of the historian. They 
 
28 
 
 picture of the primitive condition of the 
 th^ sutler most interesting nation of antiquity; they present us 
 laws and with much curious and instructive information upon 
 
 govern- 
 ment, mo- the state of laws and government, of morals, arts, and 
 
 rals, arts, 
 
 and religion religion among the old Hellenic tribes. Indeed the 
 
 of the na- 
 tions among works of Homer, together with those of Hesiod, the 
 
 sprung up. Orphic poems, and a few other sacred lays, may be 
 regarded as the sacred canon of the Greek poly- 
 theism*. And indeed however little we may be 
 disposed to rely upon mere traditions for specific 
 facts or classes of facts, we cannot avoid perceiving 
 that they stand in a very different position with 
 respect to the two most important interests of so- 
 ciety, namely, Government and Religion. The Mythic 
 traditions of Greeks and Romans, of Egyptians, 
 Persians, Hindus, Chinese, and many other nations, 
 often point with surprising distinctness to the origin 
 of laws and public institutions ; they absolutely 
 identify themselves with the religion of the people, 
 and we may generally rely upon them for a tolerably 
 correct estimate of the moral, intellectual, and politi- 
 cal state of the society to which they relate. I have 
 already observed that one writer at least has made 
 an admirable use of this observation to introduce 
 light and order into the primitive history of the most 
 
 renowned nation of antiquity f. 
 i 
 
 * So at least they were regarded by Herodotus (Euterpe, 
 c. 53, p. 153. Ed. Reiz. Oxf. 1814.) See also Mitford, vol. i. 
 p. 63. 4to. edit. 
 
 t See p. 25. 
 
29 
 2. As the admixture of fable is the principal 2 b>ro r rs 
 
 1 arising irom 
 
 difficulty we encounter, in investigating: the earlier P assion > 
 
 J prejudice, 
 
 stages of society, so there is scarcely any period in and party 
 which the purity of History is not in some degree , 
 contaminated by passion, prejudice, and party spirit* 
 This source of error, however, flows most abundantly 
 in those turbulent periods when the minds of men 
 are thrown off their balance by violent political or 
 religious differences. In such times the progress of 
 inquiry is not only impeded by misstatement, distor- 
 
 tion and suppression of fact, but by inventions and tortion an<l 
 
 suppression 
 
 forgeries injurious to the credit of the most important of facU: - 
 
 Forgeries. 
 
 and indispensable documents. Thus, during the age 
 of the Gnostic and Arian controversies, we are 
 importuned by spurious gospels and epistles forged 
 for the support of party dogmas : again, during the 
 struggle between the papacy and the metropolitan 
 bishops, which took place very early in the middle 
 ages, the forged decretals imputed . to Isidor of 
 Seville were brought to light, for the purpose of 
 exalting the papal prerogative upon the ruins of the 
 archiepiscopal jurisdiction.* In like manner, during 
 the contest about investitures, and in the course of 
 the long struggle between the spiritual and secular 
 powers for temporal dominion, we meet with the 
 forged donations of Constantine, forged rescripts of 
 Roman emperors, and a variety of other spurious 
 documents, which the Church of Rome put forward 
 as the title deeds of her usurped dominion. 
 
 * Schmidt's Hist, of the Germans, vol. ii, p. 674. Ed. Ulm. 1785. 
 
30 
 
 * Forgeries But these inventions and forgeries are far less 
 
 ? far less pre- 
 
 ' judicial prejudicial to the general truth of History, than the 
 statements inisstatements and suppressions we have constantly 
 
 and sup- 
 pressions, to contend with in more authentic documents. When 
 
 a forgery is fairly proved, we are at liberty to reject 
 it at once, as evidence of the particular facts it was 
 intended to support. It is not so that we can deal 
 with the misrepresentations of passion, prejudice, and 
 party spirit, as observed in the writings of professed 
 historians. Here we have to separate matter of fact 
 from matter of opinion, to sift each statement by 
 itself, to supply omissions, to reject that which is 
 inconsistent or improbable, and, if possible, to restore 
 the integrity of the series of events. This is an 
 exceedingly difficult and delicate task, and the skilful 
 performance of it is perhaps the greatest merit of the 
 historian, 
 j JJcr^s? c " *t * s one thing to detect error, another,, to find 
 
 statements ou t the truth. We have at present to do with the 
 
 and sup- 
 pressions. f ormer only. There are two precautions which 
 
 seem to me quite sufficient to protect us against 
 
 1. Allow for deception. The first of these precautions is to 
 
 the preju- 
 dices of the observe carefully the temper of the times, and of 
 
 age and of - . , . 
 
 the writer, the particular annalist upon whom we rely. Ihere 
 is generally no great difficulty in discerning the bias 
 of inclination or opinion, and in making the necessary 
 allowances. The particular class of facts for which 
 any given writer may be trusted, is then easily dis- 
 tinguished from that in which it would be dangerous 
 
 2. Compare to take him at his word. The second precaution 
 
 all extant 
 
transaction. 
 
 31 
 consists in a diligent comparison of all the extant documents 
 
 3 relative to 
 
 documents which treat of the same transaction, lhe same 
 wherever that transaction is disputed or disputable 
 in any particular. By the due observance of these 
 rules, we may not only avoid mistakes of many kinds, 
 but cannot fail to collect a vast store of facts, free 
 from those imputations to which the very authorities 
 from which we derive them may themselves be liable. 
 Finally, In replying to those who object to the 
 general credibility and utility of History, I may 
 advert to an argument by no means unlikely to 
 make an impression upon inadvertent readers. " If," 
 they ask, " historical testimony be acknowledged to 
 be contaminated by fraud, falsehood, and forgery, 
 how can we tell what to believe? Again: they ob- 
 serve, that a witness who in any one instance tells a 
 wilful falsehood discredits the whole of his evidence, 
 and that then we may with propriety reject all he 
 has said." Though it be admitted that, in the ordi- 
 nary practice of courts of justice, this is a safe rule; 
 yet even there it may be carried too far and work 
 injustice. But we contend and contend boldly, that 
 it is not applicable to historical documents, to any- 
 thing like the extent proposed by the objectors. 
 There is no ground for disbelieving even the most 
 corrupt testimony, where the fact deposed to makes falsehoods, 
 
 * suppres- 
 
 against the interest of the witness, or where he island 
 
 forgeries, 
 
 indifferent, or where he is obviously ignorant of are in them- 
 
 J ! selves histo- 
 
 the bearing of his own statements. Now as courts ricai facts 
 
 of theut- 
 
 of justice try only single issues, the very mode of most im- 
 
32 
 
 proceeding so greatly narrows the credibility of a 
 biassed witness/" that judges and juries often find 
 it most convenient to reject such evidence altoge- 
 T t * ier ' But History involves many issues of fact 
 effects of O f ver y different descriptions ; and it would be 
 
 false opiin- V 
 
 ons and imputing such an abstract love of falsehood, as is 
 
 impressions 
 
 upon the not to be found in human nature, to affirm, that 
 
 welfare of 
 
 society. because a man will tell a lie upon one point, he will 
 do so on every other, without a motive and without 
 advantage to himself. 
 
 But the point in which both objectors and advo- 
 \ cates must agree, is, that the errors of historians are in 
 themselves true substantive facts, and facts too of the 
 utmost importance. The writer is bound to collect 
 and register them, not merely as a measure of pre- 
 caution, but as a means of elucidating the character 
 and explaining the conduct of men, and of pointing 
 out the effects of false opinions and impressions upon 
 the fortunes of ages and nations. Thus it often 
 
 " *q *<>>, 
 
 happens that the mere truth of an alleged fact is of 
 far less importance than the motives which prompted 
 
 m-***** # < rtL*^**-****tfC*.uf*-' 
 
 the allegation, and the credit which it obtained in 
 the world. The belief, for instance, in the pretended 
 donation of Constantine to the Roman Church, so 
 prevalent during the dark ages, gave considerable 
 
 * A witness can come prepared to support by falsehood any 
 single issue; he may affirm and deny what he pleases, with 
 much greater boldness than where he undertakes to state a great 
 variety of facts ; and it is the ordinary practice in cross-exami- 
 nation, to lead a suspected witness into extraneous detail, for 
 the purpose of trying his veracity. 
 
33 
 
 strength to the papal claims. So likewise the belief in 
 false miracles, pretended inspiration ; in the re-advent 
 of remarkahle persons, as Sebastian of Portugal, the 
 emperor Frederick Barbarossa, Richard duke of 
 York ; in witchcraft, alchemy, astrology ; in fabulous 
 descents, invented to support unfounded claims to 
 sovereign authority, and a vast number of other 
 delusions, by which the minds of writers and readers 
 were equally swayed, belongs to the most remarkable 
 historical phenomena ; and the effects it brings forth 
 disclose, with the greatest vividness, the most important They dis- 
 phases and forms of public opinion. How much may forms and 
 we not learn from the mutual slanders of party men ? public opi- 
 From the calumnies of faction, and the falsehoods obvi- ni 
 ously invented to throw discredit upon opponents, or 
 to ruin individual character ? In modern times, the 
 lie of the day often produces a powerful effect upon 
 public conduct. In most of these instances, it would 
 be a mere waste of labour to inquire into the truth 
 of the alleged facts themselves ; since their whole 
 importance consists in the insight they afford into 
 the state of the public mind, and the causes of public 
 events. 
 
 3. The last source of error to which I shall 3. Errors of 
 
 TVT IT ignorance 
 
 advert, is ignorance. Now simple ignorance would and conceit. 
 have no worse effect than that of leaving us in doubt 
 and uncertainty. It manifests itself by silence upon 
 points of importance to the narrative, by confusion 
 and want of connection, by a poor and dry and unin- 
 teresting style. Pliny somewhat hastily observes, 
 
 D 
 
 I 
 
34 
 The histori- that " History however ill-written is always agree- 
 
 ans of the . J 
 
 middle ages able. I am willing to submit this proposition to 
 
 afford many 
 
 instances of the judgment of those who have been compelled to 
 
 these de- , . . 
 
 fects. wade through the monkish chronicles of the middle 
 ages, where if the bushel of chaff yield the two 
 grains of wheat, the harvest of facts must not be 
 regarded as below the average. But as far as these 
 documents go, they are generally correct ; they there- 
 fore afford considerable assistance in determining 
 dates, and in verifying many important transactions, 
 drawn from other and perhaps less authentic sources. 
 Yet even these meagre and uninstructive registers are 
 often tainted by credulity, and disfigured by the most 
 laughable conceit. The annalists of a half-learned 
 age are peculiarly liable to these defects. The 
 II consciousness of ignorance produces a constant effort 
 II to swell out their scanty stock of facts by the assist- 
 ance of vague and unmeaning traditions, by attempts 
 to reconcile what the writers know with what they 
 hear, and to bring fable and fact into an unnatural alli- 
 ance. The early historians of France and Germany, 
 of England and Scotland, abound in specimens of 
 this mixture of ignorance, credulity, and conceit. 
 The best of them, such as Jornandes, Paul Warne- 
 frid, Gregory of Tours, Witichind of Corvey, the 
 Chroniques de St. Denys, Matthew Paris, are by no 
 means free from these defects ; the rest irritate and 
 weary and disgust the reader by turns, so that 
 nothing but the stoutest determination can suffice to 
 carry him through his task. This is indeed the 
 
35 
 
 Sahara of literature ; few are the adventurers who 
 dare to traverse it, and none but the strongest literary 
 constitutions can withstand the privations and 
 fatigues which it entails upon them. 
 
 But even where ignorance cannot be charged, Livy, Dio. 
 credulity and conceit sometimes make their appear- SSi 
 ance. Even Livy himself may not unfairly be accused 
 of giving currency to many fables, and with adorning 
 the history of Rome with many stories which be 
 himself did not believe. Dionysius of Halicarnassus, 
 Diodorus Siculus, and Plutarch, are frequently very 
 credulous ; they adopted every attractive fable ; and 
 instead of drawing from them the instruction they 
 were capable of yielding, chose to treat them as 
 matters of fact, and to expend their ingenuity in the 
 vain attempt to arrange, and reconcile, and bring 
 them into some kind of historical congruity. 
 
 I shall now entreat your attention to a short plan 
 of preliminary study, intended as an introduction to 
 historical reading. 
 
 The object of this plan is to furnish you with the 
 apparatus necessary for the understanding of the 
 oldest and most venerable of all historical monuments, 
 the Hebrew Scriptures ; and after that, to put you in 
 the way of deriving the utmost benefit from the Greek 
 and Roman historians, which will of course form a 
 very considerable portion of your classical studies. 
 
 It is a principle of English law that every state- 
 ment of fact shall contain a distinct indication of 
 
 D 2 
 
36 
 
 time_andL place. The precept is equally applicable 
 to History. The events of past times can no more 
 be fitted for their proper use without the accurate 
 determination of the times when, and the places 
 where they occurred, than the material facts of a 
 declaration or an indictment. In both cases the 
 inferences must, in a great degree, rest upon the 
 precision with which these two points are ascertained. 
 Your attention, therefore, must, in the first instance, 
 be directed to the elementary studies of Chronology 
 and Historical Geography. 
 
 Elementary works upon these two subjects are 
 much wanted. I am acquainted with but one work 
 in the English language which can be made to 
 answer the purpose of a manual to the junior student. 
 The book I allude to was printed for the first time 
 about twenty years ago. A second edition, with 
 considerable additions, appeared in the year 1830. 
 It is entitled 
 
 1 . A New Analysis of Chronology and Geography, 
 History and Prophecy, in which their elements 
 are attempted to be explained, harmonized and 
 vindicated upon scriptural and scientific prin- 
 ciples, &c. By the Rev. W. Hales, DD., 
 Professor of Oriental Languages in the Univer- 
 sity of Dublin. 
 
 This very learned and elaborate work is printed 
 in four rather thick octavo volumes. The second 
 and third volumes comprise a complete chronological 
 analysis of Scripture History, both of the Old and 
 
37 
 
 New Testament. The fourth volume treats of An- 
 cient Profane History, but touches only incidentally 
 and partially upon that of Greece and Rome. But 
 it is to the first volume alone that I would primarily 
 direct your attention. That volume contains the 
 elements of Technical and Historical Chronology, and 
 of Ancient Geography, with a series of twenty-two 
 tables of astronomical, civil, and historical periods 
 and computations in use among the Ancients, Greek, 
 Roman, Syrian, Persian, and Egyptian ; to which 
 the author has added a table of the years of the 
 Hejira or Mahomeddan period. The treatment of the 
 chronological portion is more full than that of the 
 geographical. It did not enter into the plan of 
 Dr. Hales to furnish a complete system of Ancient 
 Geography ; he has therefore confined himself to 
 those countries most connected with Scripture His- 
 tory, namely, Armenia, Egypt, Ethiopia, Palestine, 
 Phoenicia, Assyria, Medea, and Persia. But as far 
 as it extends, the treatise is very compact and clear. 
 Thus the only work in the English language 
 which I am at present prepared to recommend is 
 defective in the two most essential portions of an- 
 cient historical geography, namely, that of Greece 
 and Italy. The chronology of profane History 
 contained in the fourth volume is confined in the 
 same way to the Oriental nations. The Greek and 
 Roman computations are treated solely with reference 
 to Scripture History, and not as distinct subjects. 
 Still, such as they are, they are very useful, and in 
 the conjunction in which they stand indispensable. 
 
38 
 
 For the best compendium of the ancient modes of 
 computation in use among the Greeks and Romans, 
 I must refer you to the celebrated, 
 
 2. Art de verifier les Dates, 
 
 published by that truly admirable and profoundly 
 learned society, the Benedictines of St. Maur, and 
 completed and published by them about ten years 
 before the ruthless revolution put an end to their 
 labours. The learned world cannot be too grateful 
 for this invaluable acquisition, in which learning, 
 modesty, candour, and indefatigable industry, are 
 more conspicuous than in any contemporary work. 
 
 The book was originally printed in three folio 
 volumes ; a fourth was published in 1820, from 
 MSS. left behind him by Dom. Clement, one of the 
 editors of the great work. This volume contains 
 the Synopsis of Ancient History ; the original was 
 restricted to the Christian era, and terminated at 
 the death of Louis XV., in the year 1774. In the 
 whole catalogue of books of reference, there is none 
 more convenient and more agreeable. But in the 
 first instance, your attention will be directed to the 
 copious and beautifully arranged introductory essay. 
 It is true that this essay was originally composed for 
 the purpose of illustrating Chartularies, Chronicles, and 
 other ancient documents relating to the periods sub- 
 sequent to the Christian era ; but the task has been 
 performed with so much ability as to render it equally 
 useful to the students of Ancient and of Modern 
 History. It consists of an explanation of many dif- 
 ferent epochs, eras, cycles of time, and modes of 
 
39 
 
 computation in use among the Greeks and Romans, 
 together with all the various methods of dating which 
 arose upon them during the middle ages. The pre- 
 liminary volume (that which relates to the period 
 preceding the birth of Christ,) contains an element- 
 ary dissertation upon the Julian period, the vulgar 
 era, the eras of Nabonassar and the Seleucidse, &c., 
 together with an invaluable table, in which almost 
 all these different eras, cycles, and modes of com- 
 putation are so arranged as to show any date of any 
 given system in terms of any other. In the first 
 volume of the original work, the table is calculated 
 down to the year 2000 of the vulgar era. These 
 two treatises are indispensable to the historical 
 student ; they are short, clear, and entertaining, and 
 may be mastered within the space of one academical 
 year without difficulty. He will immediately per- 
 ceive their importance to the understanding of the 
 elements of Sacred and Profane History therefore 
 both to his scriptural and his classical studies. To those 
 who have not arrived at a sufficient knowledge of the 
 French language to read them in the original, I may 
 recommend an extract from them lately published by 
 Dr. Lardner in his Cabinet Cyclopaedia, entitled 
 3. The Chronology of History, containing tables, 
 calculations, and statements, indispensable for 
 ascertaining the dates of historical events, 
 public and private documents, from the earliest 
 periods to the present time, by Sir Harris, 
 Nicholas. 
 This work contains many useful tables ; but the 
 
40 
 
 student would do best to refer to the original from 
 which it is compiled. 
 
 But by far the most complete and scientific intro- 
 ductory treatise upon Chronology, is that of Pro- 
 fessor Ideler, Astronomer Royal of the King of 
 Prussia. It is entitled 
 
 4. A Manual of Mathematical and Technical 
 Chronology, collected exclusively from the works 
 of original writers. By Dr. Louis Ideler. 
 
 The work has, I believe, been translated into 
 French, but not hitherto into English. The reputa- 
 tion of Dr. Ideler for solidity of learning and clear- 
 ness of arrangement stands at the highest point. 
 The editors of the preliminary volume of the Art de 
 verifier les Dates, have inserted an essay of this 
 author upon the linear and superficial measures of 
 the Ancients, in the introduction to that important 
 work. The Manual consists of two divisions. The 
 first treats purely of Astronomical measures of time, 
 and the mathematical principles which may serve to 
 rectify and reconcile all other merely customary or 
 arbitrary computations. The second part consists of 
 treatises upon the civil and historical modes of com- 
 putation in use among the Egyptians, Babylonians, 
 Greeks, Macedonians, Syrians, and Hebrews. He then 
 proceeds to those of the Romans, Christians, Arabs, 
 Persians, and Turks. The only defect in the work 
 is the omission of the Eastern Asiatic systems of 
 Chronology, and in particular those of the Hindus 
 and Chinese ; for which omission he apologizes in 
 the preface, and puts it upon a ground which the 
 
41 
 
 thoroughly learned will readily understand : namely, 
 his ignorance of the languages of those countries, 
 and the impossibility of arriving at a satisfactory 
 acquaintance with the subject without the power of 
 consulting the original writers. 
 
 To those who are sufficiently familiar with the 
 German language, I should recommend the perusal 
 of the introduction to Professor Wackier s 
 
 5. Manual of Historical Study, for the use of 
 academical students. Fifth edition. 
 
 With respect both to Chronology and Historical 
 Geography* this is by far the most compendious 
 treatise I am acquainted with. It contains refer- 
 ences to a vast mass of works in every branch of 
 historical knowledge ; most of them are, however, in 
 German or in French. It is really melancholy to 
 contemplate the paucity of English works upon 
 matters connected with the study of History. With 
 the exception of Dr. Hales 's work, we have not a 
 single elementary treatise which could be recom- 
 mended to the attention of beginners or learners. 
 Our chronological tables are very defective in almost 
 every respect. France abounds in works of this 
 nature. Their treatises are succinct, clear, and 
 agreeably written ; their tables are copious, generally 
 well arranged, and extremely methodical. But after 
 all, we must resort to the Germans for the soundest 
 and most systematic discussion. The diligence of 
 their writers is unrivalled ; their acquaintance with 
 their subject is almost universal ; their zeal for the 
 
42 
 
 cause of learning renders them regardless of labour, 
 and patient in research ; and their power of com- 
 pression is unrivalled. It must, however, be ad- 
 mitted as some abatement to their practical utility, 
 that their profundity sometimes verges on obscurity 
 at least so it appears to the foreign student who is 
 unaccustomed to their peculiar modes of thought and 
 expression. I cannot help thinking that their love 
 of system too often seduces them into distinctions 
 and refinements which rather incumber than elucidate 
 their arrangement. They always lay claim to the 
 most concentrated attention : they take it for granted 
 that the zeal of the student is equal to their own, and 
 that he is willing to bestow an amount of labour in 
 making use of their instructions commensurate to 
 that they themselves had expended in preparing 
 them*. But here our strictures must end. No 
 literature in Europe rivals that of Germany for co- 
 piousness and extent of research ; for the great 
 breadth of treatment, the variety and extent of the 
 prospects disclosed to the student, and the almost 
 unlimited choice of views they offer to his acceptance. 
 
 For the use of those who wish to plunge more 
 deeply into the depths of chronological research, 
 I shall enumerate a few of the most celebrated 
 treatises. 
 In English and Latin 
 
 1. Sir I. Newton s Chronology of Ancient King- 
 
 * They are of Rousseau's mind " Je ne sais pas Part d'etre 
 clair pour qui ne veut pas etre attentif." Cont. Soc. liv. iii. c. 1. 
 
43 
 
 doms, amended ; forming the 5th vol. of his 
 collected works. 
 
 2. Archbishop Usher s " Annales Veteris Testa- 
 menti," published in 1650 and 1654. 
 
 3. Fasti Hellenici. The civil and literary chro- 
 nology of Greece, from the earliest accounts, to the 
 death of Augustus. By H. Fynes Clinton, Esq. 
 In three vols. 4to. A work of profound learning 
 and research, got up with a typographical splendour 
 and beauty rarely surpassed. 
 
 4. Scaligers great work " De Emendatione Teni- 
 porum," and his " Thesaurus Temporum ;" of 
 both which works there are several editions. 
 
 5. Bishop Beveridges Institutiones Chronolo- 
 gicse ; several editions. 
 
 6. /. G. Frank's Nova Systema Chronologise fun- 
 damental! s. Gottingen, 1778. 
 
 The best chronological tables in the English language 
 are 
 
 1. Blair's Chronology. 
 
 2. Play fair's Chronological Tables. 
 In French 
 
 1. Bury de Longchamps "Pastes Universels," 
 a wonderfully copious storehouse of political 
 events, and literary and philosophical history ; 
 pretty well arranged, and of easy reference. 
 2. Le Sage's Atlas Historique, Genealogique et Geo- 
 graphique, lately published at Paris. This work 
 contains a great number of tables synchronis- 
 tically arranged, so as to exhibit contempo- 
 
44 
 
 raneous events in parallel columns. It also 
 shows the geographical positions, the changes 
 and revolutions of nations, in a series of maps 
 answering to the most remarkable historical 
 epochs. 
 In German 
 
 Kruses Atlas, or Synoptical View of the History 
 of all the European Nations and States, from 
 their first settlement down to the present times. 
 The last edition was published at Halle in 1827. 
 This is by far the best synopsis of chronology 
 and historical geography I have any knowledge 
 of. It is beautifully simple and comprehensive, 
 and of exceedingly easy reference. It is fur- 
 nished with very good maps, exhibiting the 
 changes and revolutions of nations, froir the 
 downfall of the Roman Empire down to the 
 peace of Paris in 1814. But it is not so copious 
 in chronological detail as Bury de Longchamp's, 
 or Le Sage's. 
 
 Historical, Geography, as a subject of practical 
 investigation, has been treated by a great number of 
 writers. I shall first enumerate those whom I con- 
 sider most accessible and most easy of reference. 
 The first in order to the English reader, are 
 
 1. A Geographical and Historical Description of 
 Ancient Greece, with a Map, &c. By the Rev. 
 I. A. Cramer, M.A., late student of Christchurch. 
 In three volumes. 
 
 2. A Geographical and Historical Description of 
 
45 
 
 Ancient Italy, with a Map and a Plan of Rome. 
 By the same Author. In two volumes. 
 
 3. A Geographical and Historical Description of 
 Asia Minor, with a Map. By the same author. 
 In two vols. 
 
 The three maps attached to this elaborate, useful 
 and agreeable work, are beautifully executed, and 
 upon a very considerable scale. We cannot but hope 
 that the learned and industrious author will extend 
 his researches to those regions of the ancient world 
 which remain to complete a system of Ancient Geo- 
 graphy, of which the literature of this country would 
 have good reason to be proud. 
 
 4. The Elements of Historical Geography in the 
 work of Dr. Hales already referred to. 
 
 5. Recherches sur la Geographic Systematique et 
 Positive des Anciens, pour servir de base a 
 1'Histoire de la Geographic Ancienne. Par 
 P. F. T. Gosselin, de 1'Institut de France. In 
 four volumes 4to., from 1799 to 1813. 
 
 The work of Gosselin does not lay claim to the 
 character of a complete system of Ancient Geo- 
 graphy. But it is a book of great authority in 
 determining the character of the different geogra- 
 phical systems of the ancients, particularly those of 
 Hipparchus, Strabo, Ptolemy, Polybius, arid others. 
 The indices are very good, and the work is accom- 
 panied with a complete collection of maps, exhibiting 
 the erroneous conceptions of the ancients relative to 
 the trending of the coasts, the course of rivers and 
 
46 
 
 mountains, side by side with the rectified outlines 
 of the coasts and the true directions of rivers and 
 mountains, as ascertained by more modern research. 
 In all that concerns the History of Ancient Geogra- 
 phy, and of course in many of its details, this may be 
 regarded as the standard work. 
 
 But by far the most extensive body of Ancient 
 Geography is that of Professor Mannert, in the 
 German language. It is entitled 
 
 6. Geography of the Greeks and Romans, in 
 
 ten volumes, usually bound in 14 vols. 
 It contains a full account, general and particular, 
 of all that is known to us of the ancient world, col- 
 lected from the works of the Greek and Roman 
 geographers, historians, and poets. Professor Man- 
 nert is esteemed among his countrymen, not only for 
 his laborious and useful researches, but for the 
 clearness of his arrangement, the excellence of his 
 method, and the acuteness of his criticisms. I have 
 had very frequent occasion to consult this work, and 
 I may say I was never disappointed. Dr. Cramer 
 is in some respects fuller upon Greece, Italy, and 
 Asia Minor, but certainly not more clear or more 
 methodical than his great predecessor in this branch 
 of study. Mannert employed forty years of his life 
 upon this vast undertaking. He is well known for 
 other historical and geographical productions, parti- 
 cularly for an admirable edition of that singular 
 monument of Ancient Roman Geography, the Tabula 
 Peutingeriana. The " Geography of the Greeks and 
 
47 
 
 Romans " ought at least to be brought under the 
 notice of every historical student. 
 
 I abstain from referring you to any of the older 
 and more elaborate treatises on Historical Geogra- 
 phy, such as Cellarius and Cluver, Rennell and 
 Vincent, because I believe you will find in the 
 authors already named quite enough for your pre- 
 sent purpose, which I presume to be restricted to the 
 study of scripture history, and of the classical writers 
 of antiquity. At a future period I hope to lay before 
 you a much more complete body of historical litera- 
 ture. I shall conclude this list of elementary works, 
 by enumerating a few of the best collections of maps 
 of Ancient Geography. Those most used in the 
 universities of England are 
 
 1. Smith's Ancient Atlas, comprising distinct 
 maps of the countries described in Ancient 
 History, both sacred and profane. Published 
 in 1809. 
 
 2. Brues Atlas Universel de Geographic An- 
 cienne et Moderne. Lately published at Paris. 
 
 The whole work consists of 65 maps beautifully 
 executed, only 14 of which are dedicated to the 
 ancient world. But it contains two maps of great 
 utility. The first is A Map of the World known to 
 the Hebrews, which is an attempt to embody the 
 Mosaic description of the dispersion of the nations 
 after the deluge, in the shape of a chart. The ma- 
 terials are taken chiefly from the 10th chapter of 
 Genesis. The second is a Map of the Empire of 
 Charles the Great, or Charlemagne. 
 
48 
 
 3. Blair's Chronology also contains a series of 
 ancient maps. But the two first-mentioned 
 atlases are the best. 
 
 To those who desire to add a course of reading in 
 Ancient History to their classical and biblical studies, 
 I cannot recommend any better text-book in the 
 
 English language than 
 
 1. Rollins Ancient History in the English 
 
 translation ; but they may substitute 
 
 2. Bossuet's Discours sur 1'Histoire Ancienne. A 
 very compendious work, but agreeably written, 
 and furnished with references and dates through- 
 out ; a pains which the French writers do not 
 often take. Or, 
 
 3. John Von Mutters Universal History, in the 
 English translation. But this work seems to me 
 too recondite and metaphysical for an elementary 
 text-book of general History. 
 
 The student, in reading these works, should have 
 by his side the Art de verifier les Dates, or Dr. 
 Hales's work, and studiously compare the dates as- 
 signed with the chronological system of those learned 
 writers. He should pass over no portion of History 
 without making himself thoroughly acquainted with 
 the countries in which the events recorded took place. 
 And to that end, he should have the map always by 
 his side. 
 
 On the next occasion I hope to be able to lay before 
 you some considerations on the Method of Historical 
 Investigation, the Laws of Historical Evidence, 
 and those critical rules by which the historian him- 
 
49 
 
 self must be guided, and by which the reader of 
 History ought to judge of the works of others. 
 These may in time be followed up by a series of 
 readings upon the most distinguished periods of 
 general History. Your attention will then be so- 
 licited chiefly to the original writers the sources, 
 as the Germans call them and their critical exami- 
 nation to the philosophical character of each period ; 
 that is, its tendency to promote or to retard the pro- 
 gress of mind, manners, government, laws, literature, 
 and religion. These several portions or periods will 
 be accompanied with a list of original or primary 
 authorities, and of such secondary or merely aux- 
 iliary matter as may be needful to exhibit as com- 
 plete a body of study as possible. Indeed the perusal 
 of original works cannot be too earnestly recom- 
 mended. Second-hand knowledge, like all second-hand 
 wares, will seldom bear the wear and tear of practical 
 application : it soon exhibits rents and chasms where 
 we least expect to find them ; and we are often com- 
 pelled to repair it at great cost of time and labour, 
 by resorting at last to the very storehouses from 
 which we ought at the outset to have fetched our 
 materials. 
 
LECTURE II. 
 
 introduo IN the course of the preceding Lecture, I expressed 
 my intention to lay before you some reflections I. 
 Upon the Method of Historical Investigation, and 
 the Laws of Historical Evidence: and II. Upon 
 those critical rules by which the historian himself 
 must be guided both in his own compositions, and in 
 judging of the works of others. On that occasion I 
 likewise alluded to a plan for a series of readings 
 upon the most distinguished periods of General His- 
 tory, with reference to the philosophical character of 
 each period, or, as then explained, its tendency to 
 promote or retard the progress of mind, manners, 
 government, laws, literature, and religion. I shall, 
 therefore, append to this Lecture the necessary out- 
 line of subjects and periods, confining myself, in the 
 first instance, to Ancient History, commencing with 
 the patriarchal ages, and terminating at the revival 
 of the Western Roman Empire by Charles the Great, 
 in the last year of the eighth century of the Christian 
 era. 
 
 i. METHOD I. In the first place, then, permit me to call your 
 attention to a few remarks upon the Method of His- 
 
 OF STUDY 
 
 LAWS OF 
 
51 
 torical -Study, and the Laws of Historical Evidence. HISTORICAL 
 
 r EVIDENCE. 
 
 The sources from which we derive our information of 
 facts and events are so exceedingly numerous, that, 
 if for no other reasons, yet for this alone, order and 
 method become absolutely necessary. We jmust Dis- 
 tinguish that information which is positive and direct, 
 from that which is merely incidental and confirmatory 
 that which is original or contemporary, from that 
 which is borrowed and secondary. Thus we often 1. Different 
 
 , . c ... . character of 
 
 derive important assistance irom antiquities, coins, the sources 
 inscriptions, literary anecdotes and occasional allu- ineness and 
 sions in works of a non-historical character, though, c!ty! en 
 without other sources, we should never be able to ta i inform". 
 make up from them a history of the periods to which 
 they belong. We therefore regard these incidental bf* 
 notices (valuable as they undoubtedly are) as confir- c t - 
 matory evidence only ; without denying that they do A ^ 
 occasionally supply single links in the chain of events 
 of great importance to the connexion and consistency 
 of the narrative. But for the present it would lead 
 us too far out of our way to discuss the mode in 
 which these helps to historical investigation ought to 
 be made use of, our attention must therefore, in the 
 first instance, be confined to professed Annalists 
 and Historians. 
 
 Writers of this description are divisible into two ! Original 
 
 authorities. 
 
 classes of very different character and value. The a. 
 
 . . . nesses. 
 
 first class we distinguish as original authorities, and b. Actors. 
 
 , . -*e> i n , .MI - i . .1 1 .~-~** Ct Contem- 
 
 they consist first ol eye-witnesses of events they re- porary or 
 cord ; and secondly, of actors in the transactions they 
 
 8 2 
 
52 
 suchasiivcd narrate, or lastly, of those who lived nearest in point 
 
 nearest to 
 
 the period of time to the ages in which the events occurred, and 
 
 in contem- 
 plation, may therefore be supposed to have possessed the best 
 
 and most authentic sources of information with re- 
 2.prof C ssed gard to them. The second class consists of professed 
 cofggjgfjj^ or such as derive the materials of their 
 story from others, and put them together with more 
 or less talent, industry, and fidelity. These persons 
 we cannot help regarding in the light of hearsay 
 witnesses, and of using them therefore with those 
 precautions which that kind of evidence demands. 
 Reasons for Men of independent habits of study naturally give 
 preference to the former class. But as many 
 sw^ich original works are written in foreign languages, or 
 in an obsolete and difficult style, or in a dry, per- 
 plexed, and uninteresting manner, the mass of readers 
 is generally very grateful to the compiler who will 
 undertake the toil of reducing them to a readable 
 shape. But you, gentlemen, are students, and the 
 very name you assume imports that you will not be 
 satisfied with skimming lightly over the surface of a 
 subject, particularly of one which connects itself so 
 closely with the ministry of the gospel, the service of 
 your country, and the dispensing of sound learning 
 and religious education to those who shall come after 
 you. For this reason it is that I wish to call your 
 attention rather to the original sources of historical 
 knowledge, than to those which are merely deri- 
 vative, however valuable they may be. What that 
 value is I shall presently take occasion to point out 
 to you. 
 
 are deriva- 
 tive. " 
 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
53 
 
 I do not mean to conceal from you that original Difficulties N ; 
 investigation is a difficult nay, in some cases a dis- ? n vest?ga- - 
 couraging task : that it requires perseverance, in- ' 
 dustry, assiduity and thought fulness : exertion of 
 memory and a power of comparing, combining and 
 connecting, which cannot be attained to without a 
 good deal of practice and zeal for the study. We 
 often find that what we always believed to be true is 
 in reality unauthentic doubtful false. There is in 
 the best of the original historians so much to dis- oisappoint- 
 appoint expectation, so much that, without close m 
 examination, leads to error, so much is left without 
 explanation, because in the age to which the writer 
 belonged and for which he wrote such explanation 
 was not requisite, that the sanguine reader will often 
 be induced to turn away from them in mere vexation';, Weariness. 
 or to read on for amusement rather than for instruc- 
 tion. I have heard very intelligent, and even learned 
 men complain of this kind of disappointment or dis- 
 satisfaction ; and I have observed that it frequently 
 induces even thoughtful readers to regard History in 
 the light of a great romance with rather more truth 
 of particular colouring and perhaps of incident 
 (thus much they liberally concede where it agrees 
 with their own observation and experience) than is 
 usually found in that species of composition. The 
 beauty of the style, the talent of the author, his dili- 
 gence as a compiler, the ingenuity of his arrange- 
 ment, the acuteness of his criticism are admitted and 
 admired ; but the abstract truth of his facts, and the 
 
54 
 
 lessons of experience which they ought to inculcate, 
 are neglected, because the reader does not regard 
 them as matters of experience, or because he prefers 
 a state of supercilious doubt to the trouble and fa- 
 tigue of investigation. Hence it happens that when 
 Scepticism, tempted for a moment into the path of inquiry, doubt, 
 instead of the regulating, becomes, as it were, the 
 moving, force of his mind, and the machine of course 
 soon stands still. 
 
 To obviate A diligent and inquiring mind one that will 
 cuuTesin- contend stoutly and bravely against doubts and dif- 
 tTe'Tg^in ficulties, one that will suffer no repulse, nor be beaten 
 author lilTed down by any disappointment is the first requisite of 
 trtUThe historical investigation. And in order to put aside 
 wrote. S ome of the earliest difficulties we have to encounter 
 in the study of the original writers, we shouH en- 
 deavour to obain a previous knowledge of the age in 
 which the particular historian lived and of the public 
 for which he wrote. For this purpose, some degree 
 of antiquarian research, or at least a frequent refer- 
 ence to works which treat of the manners, habits, 
 and usages of the period or people under contem- 
 plation, is indispensable. With such assistance, 
 many obscurities vanish ; many dark allusions are 
 explained ; we become more familiar with the style 
 of thought and expression ; we learn to think as the 
 writer thought, and place ourselves in a condition to 
 view events in the light in which he viewed them, 
 without partaking of his errors or partialities. In 
 forming our estimate of the value of the information 
 
55 
 
 he imparts, we are materially assisted by the insight 
 thus obtained into his moral character, his attach- 
 ment to truth, the soundness and acuteness of his 
 judgment and the fidelity of his colouring. I ought 
 not to omit, as a strong ground of credit, the esti- 
 mation in which he was held by his contemporaries. 
 Pliny was not merely doing justice to the character 
 of his friend Tacitus as an historian, in his letters to 
 that admirable writer*; he has also rendered an 
 essential service to posterity in his lively picture of 
 the faith and reliance with which his statements 
 were received by the most competent judges of his 
 own times. Such approval imparts a stamp of au- 
 thenticity of a character the more authoritative, as it 
 implies the judgment of an age and nation upon a 
 matter peculiarly within their knowledge, and pro- 
 nounced at a time when the means of correcting 
 errors which have now perished were within the 
 reach of every one. 
 
 But after acquiring this preliminary information Amount of 
 
 .. ... our de- 
 
 and indeed in the very act 01 acquiring it we mands upon 
 shall find ourselves called upon to make some allow- historian" 51 
 ances. We have no right to demand, as the price i 
 of our belief, that the author should have suppressed 
 or renounced his national character, his notions of 
 patriotism, his religious prepossessions, or the pe- 
 culiar form of thinking common to the age in which 
 
 * Lib. vi. Ep. 16. Lib. vii. Ep. 20. more particularly Lib. 
 vii. Ep. 33. 
 
I 
 
 56 
 
 he lived, the rank of society in which lie moved, or 
 
 the people to which he belonged. On the other 
 
 hand, we are fully entitled to require at his hands 
 
 Candour, candour, justice, and love of truth. In proportion 
 
 Justice. J . 
 
 Love of as we perceive these qualities pervading the narrative 
 truth. r 
 
 our confidence increases. And when as in the case 
 
 Tacitus, of Tacitus we find the historian guided by steady 
 attachment to all that is noble and exalted in prin- 
 ciple and feeling, unmoved by obvious or latent 
 partialities, caprices, or prejudices, our confidence 
 becomes implicit, and whatever doubts may arise as 
 to particular facts, whatever errors may be imputable 
 to particular opinions, the veracity of the writer rises 
 
 The Chris- above suspicion. There are no documents which 
 en jy this character in so high a degree as the his- 
 torical portions of the Jewish and Christian scrip- 
 tures. The ardent love of goodness, truth, and 
 justice, are conspicuous in every page of them ; and 
 regarding them merely in a secular point of view, 
 the historian may congratulate himself upon the 
 possession of a guide of uncorrupted impartiality 
 and fidelity. 
 
 Diligent ex- But the presence of all these qualities does not 
 
 animation 
 
 necessary exempt us from the duty oi examination, or wholly 
 flow for exclude the salutary office of doubt. In all that 
 bie bias in- regards the moral character of human motives and 
 tge, birth, conduct, contemporary writers always exhibit them 
 
 with that unavoidable bias which the prevailing 
 " niodes of thought, the peculiar tone of moral feeling 
 ignorance, indent t o the age and stage of civilization upon 
 
57 
 
 which the writer stood, always imparts. The rank 
 in society, the political or religious party to which 
 he belonged, contribute in the same way to tinge 
 his narrative with their own peculiar colouring 
 without justly subjecting him to the charge of false- 
 hood. Thus Gregory, the orthodox bishop of Tours, instances in 
 in alluding to the character of King Clovis, whom 
 he rightly regarded as the champion of his religious 
 creed, after narrating the complicated scene of trea- 
 chery and cruelty by which that detestable prince 
 had got rid of all the surviving claimants to the 
 throne of the Franks, concludes by telling us that 
 he was successful in this, as in all his other under- 
 takings, " because God was with him, and because 
 he did that which was well pleasing in His sight*." 
 In the same way we may be assured that Tacitus 
 would not have passed his harsh and unjust stric- 
 tures upon the Roman Christiansf , if his philoso- 
 phic pride had not prevented him from examining 
 into the conduct and principles of that humble com- 
 munity. It was the great fault of that stage of 
 learning and civilization to overlook most things 
 that did not put forth some pretensions to literary or 
 political distinction. The learned of that age would 
 have dreamt as little of a serious and truly philoso- 
 phical inquiry into the state and tenets, the numbers 
 and character of the religious sects in their vast 
 
 * Greg. Turon., lib. ii. c. 40. D. Bouquet, Ss. Rr. Gall., 
 torn. ii. p. 184. 
 
 t Tac. Ann., lib. xv. c. 44. 
 

 58 
 
 empire, as they did of a minute investigation into the 
 numbers, condition, and treatment of the countless 
 myriads of their own slave-population. 
 Errors of Errors arising from such sources as these are 
 
 this kind 
 
 frequent in most frequent, precisely in the narratives of those 
 
 the writings . "*'. 
 
 of contem- who have taken the most intimate share and interest 
 
 porary an- . . """ T* n. , . . ,, 
 
 naiistsand in the transactions ol their own times, or who, from 
 their station in society, have been the closest ob- 
 servers of what was passing around them. With 
 reference to the great series of events they undertake 
 to record, these writers are much in the condition of 
 the private soldier who attempts to describe a ge- 
 neral action in which he was himself engaged : he 
 will write down all that passed within his immediate 
 observation with great truth and vividness of de- 
 scription ; but he almost always fails when he aims at 
 a more general statement. We then find that he 
 knows little more than the result; and even that 
 often imperfectly. For all that passed in other parts 
 of the field he is obliged to rely upon the report of 
 others not better informed than himself; and is in 
 the end more liable to error than one who, at a 
 j proper distance of time and place, collects and conir- 
 L pares different accounts. The very vividness of the 
 wJucheye-1 impression which passing events are calculated to pro- 
 IncUctors duce, confuses and dazzles the eye-witness ; it casts 
 labour. ^ QQ ^ ee p a shadow upon all that passes at a distance 
 from the scene before him, however important to 
 Complete the picture, not to distract his attention ; or, 
 at least it prevents him from duly and deliberately 
 
59 
 
 observing it. And indeed it is at all times a very hard 
 task for one mind to grasp, for one eye to take in, the 
 whole scope and extent of any long or complicated 
 series of events ; and certainly not less so even when 
 the writer has enjoyed the otherwise inestimable ad- 
 vantage of being placed in the very focus of the trans- 
 actions themselves. Thus they who are most favor- 
 ably situated for personal observation, are not so for 
 generalization ; their story is very often deficient in 
 compass, owing to the difficulty they labour under 
 of withdrawing their attention from that which they 
 have witnessed themselves ; their inaptitude for 
 perceiving the connexion of things present with the 
 things past, and the impossibility of comparing them 
 with those which were to come. 
 
 These considerations lead me naturally to advert Avowed 
 to the advantages possessed by the avowed compiler ; 
 the second class of historical writers in the general 
 division which we have adopted. In speaking of 
 this class, I advert only to those who have derived 
 their information from original sources, and not from 
 any secondary authority. A double hearsay cannot 
 be tolerated in History where the originals are ac- 
 cessible. The subjects therefore of remark at present what class 
 are those who have diligently collected and compared meant by 
 the original materials such as they are, and put them 
 \ together in the form of a continuous and connected 
 narrative. Our opinion of this class of historians 
 I must be guided by the number and the character 
 | of the sources from which they have drawn, and 
 
60 
 
 Amount of 
 the de- 
 mands we 
 are entitled 
 to make 
 upon the 
 non-original 
 historian. 
 
 Compari- 
 son of ad- 
 vantages 
 
 by contem- 
 porary and 
 non-con- 
 temporary 
 writers. 
 
 by the ability and integrity with which they have 
 used them. If we find that they have fulfilled all 
 the duties of diligent collection, careful comparison 
 and inquiry, and perspicuous arrangement ; if they 
 have evinced incorruptible integrity, an intimate love 
 of truth, and freedom from vulgar prejudices in the 
 use of their materials, we may regard them as having 
 made their own all that which constitutes the pecu- 
 liar value of the originals. In some respects these 
 writers stand upon a much higher ground than those 
 from whom they derive their information ; they com- 
 mand a more extensive prospect around them ; they 
 obtain a greater variety of matter for comparison, a 
 greater number of helps for criticism, a greater 
 diversity of views and comments to assist their own 
 judgment, than any single contemporary observer can 
 possess. Hence it happens that distance of time and 
 place is so far from being regarded as a disadvan- 
 tage, that we are accustomed to censure those who 
 undertake to write the History of a period too near 
 to that in which they live, and before the whole 
 truth can have had time to transpire ; or the world 
 to shake off the prepossessions which recent injuries, 
 or sufferings, or passions are sure to leave behind 
 them. 
 
 Still I wish it to be clearly understood that the 
 advantages enjoyed by the professed compiler do no 
 more for him than to place him in a more elevated 
 station ; they enable him to take a more comprehen- 
 sive survey, and afford him a greater choice of 
 
01 
 
 authorities. No non - contemporary writer^an hope to 
 rival the eye-witness in the individuality of charac- 
 ter, in the liveliness of description, in the truth of the 
 particular colouring, or in that interest and sym- 
 pathy which almost always accompanies a personal 
 narrative. 
 
 HULES FOR 
 WRITING 
 
 THE WORKS 
 OF OTHERS. 
 
 II. We are now to consider History as a literary n. CRITICAL 
 art; and in this part of our subject, arrangement 
 and diction are the principal points to which our 
 attention ought to be directed. Yet it may not be 
 amiss first to advert very shortly to the dispositions 
 and attainments necessary to qualify the writer for 
 his task. At the head of the catalogue of attain- Attain- 
 ments, stands Philosophical and Philological criti- cessary'to 
 cism. An acquaintance with the main principles of Trite^r' 
 these sciences is essential to enable him to detect 
 errors of transcribers, designed or undesigned mis- 
 statements or suppressions, the interpolations of ac- 
 cident, ignorance, or dishonesty. The successful 
 cultivation of the historical art moreover calls for a 
 familiar acquaintance with the natural operations 
 of the human mind, a practised eye for discerning 
 motives, appreciating and making allowances for 
 errors, delusions, and prejudices ; and an expertness, 
 derived from long observation and reflection, in 
 bringing out the truth in its own genuine and un- 
 adulterated form, and presenting all that is worthy 
 of observation in the world of human events, the 
 
6-2 
 
 whole experience of the past time, in one bright 
 and lucid picture to the mind. 
 I Extent of But to this end it is necessary that he should have 
 
 survey. 
 
 previously obtained a complete survey of his matter 
 <l/ statement in its utmost extent : next, that the statement of 
 
 of fact. 
 
 each fact should contain in itself a distinct and 
 
 determinate reference to the time, place, and person 
 
 Combina- to which it relates. By the proper combination of such 
 
 *3 Event. ac ** statements of fact, the event, that is, the resulting 
 
 relation of the several incidents to each other, is 
 
 historically expressed. By this process we get at the 
 
 Combina- true character of the past ; we obtain results, each of 
 
 tion of . . 
 
 events. which may in its turn be viewed and treated as a 
 
 simple fact or incident ; or as a fixed station from 
 
 which we may observe the bearing of each individual 
 
 event upon the whole series before us, and thus 
 
 r* Resulting obtain the great resulting- events upon which de- 
 
 events. 
 
 pends the historical character of the period, the 
 concentrated experience and instruction it is capable 
 of conveying. 
 
 Aiiinstruc- There are not many historians who have made 
 10 nmst exhi- y this kind of instruction their professed object. Yet 
 Sonof cause ^ our notions of the true dignity of the science be 
 and effect. eorrec t_if indeed History be regarded as an au- 
 thentic register of the political experience of man- 
 kind, I know of no other systematic mode of con- 
 veying it rightly. It seems to me that the narrative 
 ought, wherever it is possible, to exhibit the relation 
 of cause and effect in the arrangement of the events 
 recorded ; and that when this duty is performed 
 
63 
 
 without attachment to preconceived theory, in a 
 natural and convincing manner, the story will gain 
 as much even in point of mere amusement as of 
 intrinsic value. The most superficial readers of 
 History, even they who take it up as a mere story- 
 book to pass away an idle hour, like to find things 
 accounted for. It may be entertaining to read the 
 description of any particular event ; but it is much 
 more so to be told how it was brought about. And, This need 
 indeed, I can see no reason why the results of the ,Tof 
 profoundest study, and of the most acute investiga- 
 tion, should not be made to contribute quite as much 
 to the entertainment as to the instruction of the 
 reader. In fact all the best examples of historical 
 compositions we possess are essentially popular. 
 Among the ancient historians, this is strikingly the 
 case. Herodotus, Xenophon, Livy, and Csesar are 
 models of easy simplicity and perspicuity, whom it 
 would be very difficult to equal, and by no means 
 desirable to go beyond. If we were to aim at any 
 greater degree of simplicity, we should probably fall 
 into feebleness, or what, in colloquial language, is 
 sometimes called namby-pamby. It strikes me that 
 Southey has very happily hit the medium between 
 the grandiloquence of Gibbon and the artless sim- 
 plicity of the Tales of a Grandfather. He writes 
 for grown-up men and women in possession of all 
 their faculties in their maturity; he makes no greater 
 call upon their understandings than they are capable 
 of answering, and hence the great popularity of his 
 

 64 
 
 works, even though he often boldly stems the current 
 of public opinion. 
 
 judicious A judicious arrangement is quite as necessary to 
 Jent neces- engage and hold fast the attention of the reader, as 
 gage Tnd"" an eloquent, flowing, and perspicuous style of narra- 
 tive. The former occupies his understanding, the 
 latter engages his imagination and his feelings, keeps 
 alive his curiosity, and assists his memory. Both 
 these qualities in union constitute the perfect histo- 
 rical composition, and when combined with industry, 
 Perfect His- integrity, and impartiality, the perfect History. But 
 Difficulties this duty of arrangement is by far the most difficult 
 menC^ " part of the historian's task. The labour which it 
 demands, in any long or complicated series of events, 
 is incredible to all who have not undergone it. The 
 principal difficulty to be overcome is that of finding 
 out one or more fixed points or natural stations, 
 where the various threads of the story come together 
 of themselves ; and from whence, as from a hill top, 
 the writer may survey the matter before him, and 
 clearly discern his onward path. A judicious 
 it must pro- arrangement should proceed upon the real, not upon 
 
 ceed upon .. . 7 , . f A n i 
 
 the reo/and the accidental, connexion ot events. All the great 
 'dental- and prominent transaction^ should be unfolded in 
 events! f their origin, progress, and results, wherever it is 
 necessary, with geographical and chronological pre- 
 cision. The mere episodic or explanatory matter- 
 must be so interwoven as to interrupt the narrative 
 as little as possible, and to contribute to, instead of 
 injuring, the clearness of the statement. 
 
05 
 
 Selection is another important duty of the accom- 
 plished historian. And this is one of the great 
 excellencies of the work of Gibbon. He has not 
 neglected much of importance to the fulness of his 
 narrative, nor inserted anything that could overload 
 it, or impede its progress. Inferior writers are very 
 liable to diffuseness, an error more fatal to the Diffuseness. 
 interest of historical composition, than to any other. 
 It enfeebles, distracts, and flattens the interest ; it 
 inflicts an irreparable injury upon the narrative, and 
 is alone sufficient to rob the author of the credit due 
 to exemplary diligence, honesty and learning. But 
 fulness is not diffuseness. Every particular, however 
 minute, if it really contribute to the result, is interest- 
 ing. The fulness of the narrative should not suffer Fulness not 
 from the fear of diffuseness. Upon this point Pliny's 
 rule seems to me exceedingly sensible. " Primum ego 
 scriptoria officium existimo, ut titulum suum legat; 
 atque idemtidem interroget se quid coeperit scribere. 
 Sciatque si materice immoratur non esse longum ; 
 longissimum si aliquid accersit atque attrahit. Vides 
 quot versibus Homerus, quot Virgilius, arma hie 
 ^Eneae, Achillis ille describat : brevis tamen uterque 
 est, quia facit quod institute."* In every kind of 
 writing, if we first well consider our subject, and 
 inser^jiojMngJb^^ to it, there is 
 
 no fear of being diffuse. Conciseness is in some re- 
 spects less difficult to attain in History, than in any other 
 
 * Plin. Lib. v. Ep. 6. 
 
66 
 
 species of composition ; since, strictly taken, nothing 
 belongs to it but recorded facts ; all matter of obser- 
 vation must be confined to what is merely necessary 
 to explain the relationship and connexion of those 
 facts with each other. 
 
 illustration. In this respect, a history seems to me to resemble 
 the summing up of the evidence by a judge to a jury, 
 The judge re-states every fact in the least material 
 to the issue, or point in question, between the parties, 
 with no other remarks of his own than such as are 
 absolutely necessary to explain the bearing of the 
 several facts upon each other, and to show how they 
 contribute to the conclusion either one way or the 
 other. Like the judge, the historian is privileged to 
 enounce his own opinion, but he would be, equally 
 with the former, guilty of a gross breach of duty 
 if he were to withhold from his readers the means of 
 forming an independent judgment for themselves, 
 with respect to all questionable points. And as he 
 cannot tell beforehand what doubts or difficulties may 
 arise in their minds, he would not be chargeable with 
 difFuseness even though he inserted facts, the con- 
 nexion of which with his subject is not very clear in 
 his own mind, if such facts really did accompany the 
 principal transaction. And this renders selection a 
 very delicate operation. We often do not know 
 whether in throwing out an apparently unimportant 
 fact, we are not losing our hold of the clue to 
 important explanations. An incidental expression, 
 a chance-word, often affords a world of matter for 
 
67 
 
 reflection, and the assiduous historical student is 
 always upon the look-out for such helps as these. 
 Everything that bears any resemblance to a fact, 
 even though it be but a shadowy allusion, is of value 
 to him ; because he is always in hope that it may 
 receive light itself, or bestow it upon other similar 
 facts, and so contribute a link to the great chain of 
 historical deduction. 
 
 These duties then of arrangement and selection are Effect of a 
 the mostjy:dujju^po^ under- formanceof 
 
 taking. But when successfully executed, the merit f e arr U ange- 
 of the performance is so universally acknowledged, flection, 
 that in our gratitude for the benefit conferred upon us, 
 we are too apt to lose sight of the still higher quali- 
 ties of candour and justice. I have already more 
 than once alluded to the great work of Gibbon, and 
 shall be pardoned for doing so again, by all but the 
 blind admirers of that extraordinary performance, in 
 connexion with the propensity just adverted to. I 
 know indeed of no more striking exemplification of 
 that kind of partiality which the mass of readers dis- 
 play towards those who succeed in telling them a 
 long story amusingly and well, than the exalted 
 character which that work still enjoys, and the 
 facility with which his errors have been forgiven, 
 and his un-English diction passed over. 
 
 In concluding this portion of our subiect, I may Delineation 
 
 * . J of character. 
 
 be allowed a few short remarks upon another delicate 
 part of the historian's task ; that is, the delineation of 
 character. There are very few of his duties which 
 
 F2 
 
68 
 
 require more caution than this. He has to put him- 
 self upon his guard, not merely against the power of 
 imagination, but against his own private and peculiar 
 antipathies and predilections. We are very apt to 
 admire in others what we like best in ourselves ; we 
 apply our own standard of moral and intellectual 
 excellence to all the rest of mankind ; and if our 
 notions on these matters be narrow, or exclusive, or 
 morose, or erroneous, our descriptions of character 
 Qualities of will surely partake of these defects. A cheerful, 
 
 mind requi- . . 
 
 site to a true strong, and healthy moral character in the writer is 
 
 estimate of... ,, ., . r , r-i 
 
 the cha- indispensable to a right estimate or that of others. 
 And so we find it in public as in private life ; the 
 most enlarged and vigorous minds are the most acute 
 in discerning the character of those about them, and 
 setting them to the precise work they are fit for. In 
 like manner the historian should be in a condition to 
 assign to each of his personages their right station, 
 in conformity with the real, and not with any fanciful 
 or ideal standard of importance. He should not 
 ascribe to the character of the acting person, that 
 which belongs to the circumstances under which he 
 acted. Thus if we were to attribute the overthrow 
 of the kingly power in Rome, exclusively to the 
 tyrannous character of Tarquin, or of the republic to 
 the unprincipled ambition of Caesar ; the destruction 
 of the reign of equality in France, solely to the indi- 
 vidual character of Napoleon ; or the fall of that 
 extraordinary man to his blind and headlong lust of 
 power, we should impart a very partial if not a very 
 
09 
 
 incorrect view both of the characters of the acting 
 persons, and of the events themselves. On the other 
 hand, if we were to describe these remarkable men 
 as the mere creatures of circumstances, we should do 
 them great injustice, and deprive History of one of 
 its greatest attractions its personal interest. The 
 characters of the acting personages in the great histo- 
 rical drama should, as much as possible, be made to 
 flow out of the events in which they are concerned, 
 or the acts attributed to them, so that the mere state- 
 ment of those acts and events should suffice to convey 
 a clear notion of the share ascribable to their own 
 peculiar agency, in producing the result. What they 
 designed and executed should be fairly assigned to 
 them ; while, on the other hand, the control which 
 great ability and distinguished powers of mind have 
 exercised over circumstances, should not be exagger- 
 ated for the sake of imparting a false lustre to a 
 favorite character. 
 
 I have been far less specific upon the Laws of 
 historical evidence, than perhaps I ought to have 
 been. The detailed discussion which so extensive 
 and important a subject requires, appeared to me 
 hardly consistent with the character, or the limits of 
 an elementary lecture. But I hope to have other 
 opportunities of adverting, with greater particularity ? 
 to the rules to be observed in judging of the authen- 
 ti^city and credibility of historical writers, and of 
 
70 
 
 illustrating them by examples deduced from those 
 writers themselves, which I think will be a more 
 instructive and a more agreeable mode of dealing 
 with a dry subject. 
 Plan of a Allow me now to call your attention to the plan jf a 
 
 course of _ i i T i i i / 
 
 lectures, course oi readings which 1 think best fitted to excite 
 your curiosity, assist your memory, and convey a 
 lively conception of the true dignity and value of our 
 study. It is fortunate for us that the general history 
 Natural of our race is divisible into several natural periods ; 
 there are times and epochs at which the tide of human 
 affairs takes a perceptible turn. Sometimes the 
 direction is determined by a change in the ruling 
 powers; at one period the current of civilization 
 advances, at another it recedes ; and there are epochs 
 at which a change is effected in the whole system of 
 religious, moral, and political principles, upon which 
 society is framed, and by which the world is governed. 
 These are what I wish to designate by the words 
 " Natural periods." In one view they resemble the 
 ages of man : there is a rise, a progress, and a 
 human life decline ; there is a transition from simplicity and 
 r ignorance to maturity and knowledge ; there are 
 changes of principles arid views ; alterations of posi- 
 tion ; there is poverty and wealth, there is alternate 
 activity and sloth; in short, the parallel might be 
 carried even into the minutiae of the human life. It 
 is therefore exceedingly useful, not merely as an 
 illustration, but in some respects as a guide, in 
 distinguishing the various natural periods of social 
 
 nations. 
 
71 
 
 progress and decline. The difference, when it arises 
 to our view, is so broad, that we are not likely to be 
 led into any error. When we speak of the childhood 
 of mankind, for instance, we cannot be supposed to 
 impute to the whole race that weakness of the intel- 
 lectual faculties incident to infancy. We merely 
 ascribe to it the ignorance and simplicity, the irra- 
 tionality, the eager desires, the headstrong will, the 
 violent passions of the child. So likewise when we 
 speak of the old age of a state or nation, we do not 
 mean to indicate any decay in the mental or physical 
 powers of the individual man, but merely a relapse 
 into ignorance or supineness of mind. No one would 
 think of attributing these several stages of progress 
 and decay in the social system, to the same causes, 
 as those which produce the physical changes in the 
 condition of the individual human being. With 
 these broad distinctions before us, it must indeed be 
 our own fault if we are ever misled by the terms 
 ' childhood/ ' youth,' { manhood,' old age,' as 
 they are applied to the history of man ; and the 
 analogy, though in every respect accidental, becomes 
 both useful and safe as a practical aid to arrange- 
 ment. In the sense here limited, every nation has 
 had its several periods of childhood, and youth, and 
 maturity, and frequently also of age and decrepitude. 
 And this observation directs us to one of the most 
 important uses of History : it directs our curiosity 
 to the means of ascertaining the causes of these 
 fluctuations in the moral and intellectual condition 
 
72 
 
 of our race. How, for instance, does it happen that 
 at the discovery of the American continent, the inha- 
 bitants were found to be for the most part savages, 
 while those of Europe and Asia, living under the 
 same degrees of latitude, and in a similar climate, 
 have at all times evinced so singular an aptitude for 
 civilization ? How are we to account for the sudden 
 relapse into barbarism of nations which had at one 
 time attained to so surprising a height of culture in 
 art and science, in taste and literature ? Where 
 are we to search for the causes of that most extra- 
 ordinary revolution in the history of the human race, 
 which, about the period of the fall of the Western 
 empire, overthrew an entire system of social culture, 
 embracing nearly the whole civilized world, suddenly 
 plunging the moral and intellectual being of man- 
 kind into that primaeval darkness, from which a 
 thousand years of assiduous cultivation had hardly 
 then sufficed to withdraw it ? 
 
 These questions, and others of a similar import 
 as, for instance, those which relate to the progress 
 of the science of government, to the accumulation or 
 decline of wealth, to the intercourse of nations 
 whether commercial or political, or merely social 
 must, in conformity with the views laid before you in 
 my first Lecture, be ever regarded as the main points 
 to which your attention should be directed. It will 
 therefore be my endeavour, in this course of Lectures, 
 to give the answers to these problems in the shortest 
 and most perspicuous manner I am able to do; and 
 
73 
 
 to put you in a way to obtain more detailed and more 
 satisfactory solutions for yourselves. 
 
 Period I. Our first period embraces that which, PERIOD i. 
 agreeably to the notion just adverted to, I have chosen MANKIND. 
 to call the Infancy of Mankind: it comprehends 
 the rise, the birth-place, the original divisions, and 
 the dissemination of the human species. I shall 
 shortly advert to each of these topics ; but in order 
 to do so with profit, it will be necessary to combine 
 with them a general geographical sketch of the 
 countries in which the aboriginal domicile of man 
 was fixed, and in which he may be said to have 
 received his earliest education, physical as well as 
 moral. The earliest forms which society assumed 
 while it remained confined to the high levels of 
 Central Asia, to the mountain regions of Hindu 
 Coosh, or of the Armenian Ararat, or to the plains 
 of Aram, Palestine, Syria and Egypt, will form a 
 principal branch of our inquiry. I shall not assign 
 any precise number of years, or any certain terminal 
 epoch to this period ; but I shall endeavour to mark, 
 with as much precision as I can, the natural symptoms 
 of transition from this to the next following period or 
 series of historical phenomena. 
 
 Period II. Our next period embraces the rise of PERIOD H. 
 the great Asiatic monarchies the Assyrian, Baby- 
 lonian and Median empires, the character arid habits 
 
 DOWN FA L OF 
 
LONIAN,AND 
 
 MEDIANMO- 
 
 NARCHIES. 
 
 74 
 of the nations by whom they were erected, the 
 
 . 
 
 original nature of their power ; the state of society 
 among them, and the causes of their sudden growth, 
 their feverish duration, and their equally sudden dis- 
 appearance from the scene. And here I purpose to 
 make extensive use of a work as yet little known to 
 the British public, and which I shall feel a pride in 
 introducing to your notice ; I allude to Professor 
 Heerens celebrated essay upon the " Political Con- 
 dition, the Intercourse and Commerce of the ancient 
 Nations" The earlier periods of our inquiries will 
 lead us nearly over the same tract which that ex- 
 cellent writer has so admirably illustrated. 
 The Israel- The rise, progress and downfal of the Israelitish 
 
 itish mo- 
 
 narchy. monarchy falls naturally and chronologically within 
 this period. The same may be said of the vast 
 
 Egypt. fabric of Egyptian civilization, as also of the won- 
 derful power, riches and commerce of the Phoenician 
 cities of Tyre and Sidon, and their numerous co- 
 lonies, extending from the mouth of the Persian 
 Gulf and from the Ezion-Geber of the Hebrews 
 even unto Tarshish the Tartessus of the Greeks, 
 the Bsetica of the later Romans, the Andalusia and 
 Estremadura of the modern Spaniards. And even 
 beyond the extremities of the ancient world, to the 
 happy islands of the Atlantic, to the shores of Britain, 
 and the amber coasts of the Baltic. Without paying 
 some attention to the commerce of the ancient 
 nations, their history is I may say obscure from 
 end to end. We cannot otherwise account for those 
 
75 
 
 prodigious displays of wealth and power, those 
 enormous cities such as Babylon and Susa and 
 Nineveh and Thebes and Ecbatana that unbounded 
 pomp and luxury, attested by the concurrent evi- 
 dence of prophets and sacred annalists, as well as of 
 profane historians and poets. Commerce and in- 
 dustry are the great sources of wealth. Where the 
 precious metals abound I mean in countries which 
 do not actually produce them we may be sure that 
 they are brought together by commerce, and by the 
 ever-increasing demands of comfort, convenience and 
 luxury y which the industry of any large class in 
 society is sure to generate in the remainder. The 
 populousness, not less than the wealth of the ancient 
 nations, must be accounted for by collecting all that 
 can be gleaned respecting their produce home or 
 imported their trade, industry and manufactures. 
 Great masses of population collected together upon 
 one spot can only be supported by great industry. 
 Take London as an instance. There, within a small 
 district of 30 or 40 square miles, are collected 
 a million and a half of human beings. The amount 
 of labour necessary for their maintenance is almost 
 incalculable ; yet a ramble through the streets of our 
 great metropolis would suffice to convince any intel- 
 ligent person, that if any one of the numerous branches 
 of industry there carried on were taken away, the 
 defalcation must of necessity be attended with a 
 decrease of the means of support ; and unless 
 the industry thus disengaged could be, within a very 
 
76 
 
 limited time, transferred to some other trade or han- 
 dicraft, with a decrease of population likewise. 
 Yet, if we are to believe the witnesses of the olden 
 time, Babylon contained at least an equal number of 
 inhabitants * ; Rome even a greater number f . The 
 same remark applies to the Diospolis Magna of the 
 Egyptians, the Nineveh of the Assyrians, the Jeru- 
 salem of the Hebrews, the Tyre and the Sidon of 
 the Phoenicians, and that crowd of rich and populous 
 cities whose origin is hid in the mists of hoar an- 
 tiquity. Of late years this important subject has 
 been divested of a good deal of that obscurity which 
 previously hung over it ; and all the information that 
 can be relied upon, has been collected and arranged 
 with extraordinary industry and sagacity. I shall 
 have much pleasure in laying before you, as suc- 
 cinctly as possible, the results of those interesting 
 inquiries ; and that under the twofold impression 
 that the details in question are indispensable to the 
 right understanding of Ancient History, and that 
 they will add variety to the subject of this period 
 which, without it, might appear both too dry and too 
 obscure to engage as much of the student's attention 
 as it deserves. 
 
 PERIOD in. Period III. The next period will be called the 
 
 * Rennel, Geog. of Herod, Sect. 14, p. 341, 342. Conf. 
 Mannert Geog., vol. v., pt. ii., p. 300. 
 
 t Gibbon (Vol. iii., c. 31, p. 219, 4to ed.) departs from the 
 usual computations, and will not allow Rome more than 
 1,200,000 in the times of her greatest prosperity. 
 
PERIOD ' 
 
 77 
 
 Persian and Grecian period. The earlier history ofT HE p E R- 
 Persia will fall naturally within the preceding divi- 
 sion ; that of Greece belongs wholly to this. In this 
 place therefore we shall dispose of the heroic ages of 
 the Hellenic tribes, and endeavour to convey such an 
 account of their origin and connexion as shall be 
 essential to the comprehension of their subsequent 
 history. We proceed next to the rise and progress Political 
 of the political system of the Grecian commonwealths, SfaSee 
 including the contests and wars by which the balance 
 of power was at various times established or over- 
 thrown ; we shall shortly advert to the Grecian 
 notion of liberty, the nature of their laws, civil and Laws. 
 criminal, and the main features of their social orga- 
 nization. I do not of course engage to treat of these 
 several subjects either at any length, or in the order 
 in which I have just enumerated them, but rather as 
 they arise, and in their natural connexion with the 
 events by which our attention is drawn to them. 
 Thus when we have to speak of the laws of Ly- 
 curgus and of Solon, it is requisite that we should 
 advert to the general notions of legislation prevalent 
 among the Greeks : when we arrive at the period of 
 Pericles, some remarks upon the state of art and Art and 
 science, of which that excellent person was so emi- 
 nent a patron, will naturally obtrude themselves: 
 the names of Demosthenes, ^Eschines, Socrates, Eloquence 
 Plato, Aristippus, and Diogenes, call up the history sophy. 
 of eloquence and philosophy : the foundation of the 
 numerous colonies on the shores of Thrace, the colonies. 
 
78 
 
 Euxine and the Palus Mseotis, or the settlement of 
 those flourishing offsets of Grecian civilization which 
 took root in Sicily and Magna Greecia, naturally 
 direct our attention to the Greek system of coloniza- 
 tion, the causes of emigration and the means adopted 
 hy the parent state for transporting the colonists to 
 such extraordinary distances, and maintaining them 
 so successfully against the numerous enemies with 
 whom all new settlers have to contend ; and this 
 again leads to the no less interesting inquiry into 
 the character of that intercourse which almost uni- 
 versally existed between the metropolis and her 
 colonies, the state of navigation, the course of trade, 
 the community of religious worship upon which that 
 connexion was grounded, and by which it was sus- 
 tained. 
 
 struggle This period will moreover embrace the two great 
 GreEYnd 6 eras of the struggle between the Hellenic republics 
 Persians. and the Asiatic despots of Persia. The first of these 
 eras describes those defensive wars in which the 
 Greeks vindicated their national independence, and 
 arrested the Asiatic torrent at the very threshold of 
 Europe. The second era takes up the struggle at 
 some distance of time, and displays the triumphant 
 progress of civilized and systematic warfare against 
 the countless numbers which, from time to time, 
 threw themselves in the path of the conqueror ; it 
 will enable us to point to a few of the causes of that 
 loose coherence so observable in all the great Asiatic 
 monarchies, whether of ancient or of modern date 
 
79 
 
 whether in the empire of Cyrus, or in that of Djen- 
 gis Khan or of Timour. 
 
 This period closes naturally with the dissolution of Extinction 
 the empire of Alexander the Great ; but we shall ?e f pubHcs. ek 
 extend it to the taking of Corinth by Mummius, in 
 the year 147 B.C., for the purpose of indicating 
 those defects in the political and social system of the 
 Greeks, by which they forfeited their ascendancy 
 among the civilized nations of the world, and were 
 compelled to yield to the insatiate ambition of re- 
 publican Rome. 
 
 Period IV. Our fourth period comprehends the PERIOD iv. 
 
 111* r-r f r> ROME AS A 
 
 whole history ot Home from the origin or that state MONARCHY 
 to the subversion of the republic, and the gradual PUBLIC. 
 absorption of all the powers of government into that 
 of one great irresponsible officer. In considering 
 this great period, I shall feel myself bound, in the 
 first instance, to advert shortly to the changes which 
 have been introduced into the mode of treating the 
 earlier ages of Roman history, by the ingenious and 
 indefatigable Niebuhr. I have been unable to per- 
 suade myself, and I shall not undertake to persuade 
 others, that this distinguished writer has furnished 
 the true key to the mass of legend, and tradition, 
 and poetry of which Livy has so skilfully availed 
 himself to weave together a history of the kings of 
 Rome. But no one who has read his work with 
 attention can, I think, doubt that he has been but 
 too successful in disturbing all our notions respecting 
 
80 
 
 the origin and early history of that extraordinary 
 people. 
 causes of After a brief allusion to that which must now be 
 
 the Roman 
 
 ascendancy, regarded as the uncertain and nebulous period of 
 Roman history, our attention will be directed to 
 that internal structure and external policy by which 
 the republic was enabled to extend its dominion 
 over the various nations of Italy and Europe. The 
 Romans assumed, at a very early period, certain 
 well-defined maxims of state- policy. These maxims 
 became, as it were, the form and mould in which 
 the opinions and feelings of the people were cast, 
 and from which they departed with great reluctance, 
 and only in cases of extreme necessity ; always re- 
 verting to them with the pertinacity of habit, when- 
 ever the temporaiy pressure which occasioned the 
 departure was removed. We know of no people 
 among whom the idea of conquest and dominion 
 entered so intimately into the opinions and habits of 
 each individual citizen as it did among the Romans. 
 This notion led naturally and inevitably to the most 
 perfect military organization known to the ancient 
 world ; but it likewise led to the most thorough 
 disregard of all rights which might interfere with 
 the unlimited extension of their dominion. The 
 formation of this state of public opinion, and the de- 
 velopment of the maxims of state-policy which 
 flowed out of it, must be distinctly adverted to. The 
 organization of the armies, the distribution of the 
 powers of government, the state of the law, civil, 
 
criminal, and constitutional, cannot be wholly passed 
 over ; the principal historical epochs must be marked, 
 and the causes of the decay of the republican insti- 
 tutions shortly indicated. Some remarks upon the 
 state of arts, commerce, industry, and literature 
 among the republican Romans may close the period. 
 
 Period V. Though the republican constitution of PERIOD v. 
 
 ROMAN EM- 
 
 Rome had received many a rude shock prior to the HRE. 
 decisive battle of Actium, which seated the most 
 astute and fortunate of the Triumvirs upon the 
 throne of the world, yet upon the whole it is most 
 convenient to fix upon that event as the initial epoch 
 of the empire, and of our fifth period. The events 
 of the century and a quarter which had elapsed 
 since the destruction of Carthage, connected with 
 those of the century succeeding our terminal epoch, 
 viz. the battle of Actium afford some very import- 
 ant political views. By one sect of historical poli- Policy of 
 ticians, the Csesar Octavianus has been treated with 
 great indulgence. His power proceeded from the 
 same source as that of his adoptive father Julius 
 Caesar, or that of Napoleon Buonaparte in our own 
 times. All these great men were carried upon the 
 shoulders of the people and of the army to the pin- 
 nacle of imperial power ; their dominion was based 
 upon the ruins of the political institutions of their 
 ancestors ; yet in all three cases the success of these 
 mighty political adventurers and we might add that 
 of our own Cromwell was unequivocally beneficial 
 
82 
 
 to the people. The first step towards the loss of 
 liberty is the disregard of those ancient institutions 
 upon which it is based, and from which it derives its 
 only authoritative exposition. The Romans, like 
 many other nations, lost sight of the balancing prin- 
 ciple of their constitution ; and, in the vain struggle 
 to better their condition, plunged into the vortex of 
 faction, from which the strong arm of military des- 
 potism alone could^rescue them. But, at first, enough 
 of the old frame of government was allowed to stand, 
 to impart a certain stability and sanction to the new 
 regime ; the citizens of Rome were encouraged, by 
 the cunning policy of Augustus, to confound the 
 shadow of liberty with the departed substance, until 
 they had forgotten the very nature of freedom itself. 
 But the Romans, though they had relinquished the 
 substance, had not learnt to despise the forms of their 
 ancient government : they adhered to them even 
 when they saw the powers of the state all transferred 
 LOSS of P o- into the hands of one man. That man then became the 
 
 litical li- 
 berty, representative of the whole Roman people ; from the 
 
 people his power was legally deduced; and, this 
 principle once established, the total extinction of all 
 popular rights inevitably followed. But some time 
 elapsed before this consequence was fully perceived ; 
 and when it was, the people found themselves dis- 
 armed and delivered over, bound hand and foot, into 
 the hands of a standing army, and its irresponsible 
 chief. 
 R m P and ^ u * ^ v ^ ar tne mos t engrossing topic belonging to 
 
83 
 
 this period, is the rise, progress, and establishment 
 
 * . . . ment f 
 
 of Christianity. I cannot help regarding the sepa- c*m/i- 
 
 ration of religious from secular History as arbitrary 
 and inexpedient. The strongest motives of human 
 conduct are derived from religion ; and therefore 
 where religious opinions are the causes of political 
 events, it is impossible to avoid scrutinizing them to 
 a certain extent, without sacrificing the perspicuity 
 and coherence of History. It may be admitted that 
 in the earlier ages of the Roman empire, the intro- 
 duction of Christianity was not attended with any 
 very conspicuous political effects. Up to the period 
 of its triumph under Constantine the Great, the 
 heathen historians of the period take very little 
 notice of its progress ; and even the ecclesiastical 
 writers, from whom our knowledge of the three first 
 centuries of that progress is derived, represent the 
 religion of Christ as an unobtrusive and unworldly 
 faith, aiming at the improvement of society at large, 
 by improving and purifying the character of each 
 individual member of it. But though it should be Causes of 
 
 i i ^i ... the victory 
 
 an inadmissible supposition that Christianity had, 
 during this long period, been wholly without politi- 
 cal influence, yet I think it capable of distinct proof 
 that that influence was derived not from the ordi- 
 nary causes to which the ascendancy of particular 
 religious and political sects is to be ascribed, but 
 first and foremost to the convincing nature of the 
 evidence upon which the truth of the Gospel rested ; 
 next to that, to the numbers and respectability of its 
 
 G 2 
 
84 
 
 adherents ; and lastly, to the strong and well di- 
 gested system of doctrine and discipline which it 
 was enabled to oppose to the loose and incoherent 
 superstitions of the pagan. 
 Advantage A religious feeling lies no doubt at the root of 
 
 possessed j r i- i i 
 
 by religion every mode of worship, however monstrous or de- 
 founded 
 upon set- grading its external form, or its moral effect may 
 
 trine or be. But objects of worship and rites of worship are, 
 cuments. ln m y apprehension, not enough to constitute a reli- 
 gion. There ought, I think, to be some settled tradi- 
 tional doctrine or written document to appeal to, to 
 merit the appellation. Thus I should class among 
 the religions of the earth Hinduism, where religious 
 faith and practice such as it is is based upon the 
 Vedas and Puranas; Mohammedanism, which has 
 its Koran ; the Zend religion, which has its Zenda- 
 vesta ; Buddhism, which likewise has its sacred 
 books. All others are mere superstitions, not easily 
 to be rooted out, it is true, but very easily shifted 
 and transferred from one object to another, and thus 
 gradually mitigated and enfeebled. All documen- 
 tary religions if I may use the term treat with a 
 greater or less degree of perspicuity, and always dog- 
 matically, of the nature of God and of man, and of 
 the relation of the creature to the Creator: the sacred 
 writings are the standing codes appealed to in all mat- 
 ters of doctrine and ritual. The religious notions of 
 That of the the Romans were founded upon no such documents : 
 
 Romans not 
 
 founded every man was at liberty to think as he pleased, or 
 
 upon either. . 
 
 not at all, upon those points which nearly affected 
 
85 
 
 his condition here and hereafter : the religious mind 
 of the people had nothing to attach itself to ; and 
 was therefore soon made to feel its own feebleness 
 when opposed to so strong and unvarying a system 
 of doctrine as that of the written Word ; wherein 
 the true relation of man to his Maker and Redeemer 
 is marked with a precision and an emphasis which 
 must have disarmed the Roman poly t heist. And Therefore it 
 
 yielded to 
 
 accordingly, when the more urgent worldly motives christi- 
 of adherence to his own infirm superstitions were 
 removed, Christianity was permitted to mount her 
 rightful throne. It may perhaps be stated generally 
 that every form of worship, consisting of a mere 
 aggregate of loose religious opinions and practices, 
 must yield to the assaults of a religion based upon a 
 digested system of doctrine and discipline, however 
 remote that system may be from the truth ; and that 
 that religion which most powerfully and convinc- 
 ingly expounds the all- important questions of the 
 nature of man, his relation to his Creator, his 
 present condition and his future prospects, must in 
 the end prevail over every other. 
 
 This observation will, if I am not greatly in error, 
 furnish the key to explain the triumph of Chris- 
 tianity over the Roman polytheism. I have lately 
 had an opportunity of trying it upon the religions of 
 the Teutonic nations, and find that it accounts very 
 satisfactorily for the rapid victory which the Gospel 
 obtained over the superstitions in question. I hope 
 for an opportunity of dwelling rather longer upon 
 
86 
 
 this important subject, when the event just alluded 
 to comes under consideration ; at present it is neces- 
 sary to proceed to the sixth and closing period of 
 Ancient History. 
 
 PERIOD vi. Period VI. This I shall denominate the period 
 
 GREAT Mi- . . 
 
 ORATION OF of the great migration of nations. Ihis branch 
 
 NATIONS. . r 
 
 oi our subject will open with a short account 01 
 the external causes of the decline and fall of the 
 Roman empire of the West. And though the in- 
 trinsic symptoms of decay fall properly within the 
 preceding period and will there be briefly noticed, 
 yet it will be necessary to recall to your recollection 
 such parts of this latter topic as bear most closely 
 upon the great event in question. I have already 
 expressed my dislike of merely arbitrary or theoretic 
 separation as applied to subjects which, both in 
 respect of time and character, form but a part of the 
 same series of transactions ; and I shall not there- 
 fore hesitate to repeat, whenever repetition becomes 
 necessary to the full elucidation of the matter in 
 hand. 
 
 Preliminary But the external condition of Rome in the fifth 
 century cannot be adequately described without a 
 general notion of the character, habits, and distribu- 
 tion of the various Teutonic families by which the 
 empire was overrun. Neither can that distribution 
 be comprehended without taking into account the 
 movements of the Scythian, Sarmatian, Finnic, 
 Mongul, and Turkish hordes of central Europe and 
 
87 
 
 of Western Asia prior to the close of the fourth cen- 
 tury. By this previous inquiry we shall be enabled 
 to trace the downfal of the ancient civilization 
 to its principal causes, and perhaps to indicate the 
 earliest germs of that social system which sprang up 
 spontaneously from the vigorous root of barbarism. 
 
 I shall not however scruple to carry this period full This period 
 two centuries beyond that space of time which its ried down 
 title indicates. The great migration of nations com- r!^ beyomi 
 mences with the invasion of Gaul by the Vandals, the great 
 Suevi and Alani, in the year 407, and is usually migration> 
 regarded as brought to a close by the settlement of 
 the Longobardi in Italy, under their king Alboin, 
 in the year 568, comprehending therefore a term of 
 one hundred and sixty-one years. But as I design 
 to bring together within this period all the elements 
 of the great European commonwealth of nations, as 
 it exists in the present day, I find it impossible to 
 stop short of the accession of Charles the Great to 
 the throne of the revived empire of the West, in the 
 year 800. Up to this epoch, not any one of those 
 great institutions which imparted a peculiar character 
 to the history of the middle ages, had attained to a 
 definite form. But after it we are able to define 
 feudalism, to describe with some degree of accuracy 
 the system of ecclesiastical despotism which was 
 rapidly overflowing the feeble bulwarks which tem- 
 poral interests from time to time threw up against it ; 
 we are in a condition to point out new and specific 
 forms of social polity, a new distribution of rights, a 
 
88 
 
 new series of ranks in society; all of them topics 
 essentially necessary to the exposition of that pro- 
 digious revolution which had been operated through 
 the instrumentality of the northern nations; and all 
 of them equally so to indicate the birth, and to deduce 
 the pedigree of modern civilization. 
 Rise of the A second reason for prolonging this period of time 
 
 religion of - . . . . _ ... 
 
 Moham- is, the necessity of noticing the rise of a new religion. 
 Mohammed, the son of Abdallah, was born at Mecca 
 in Arabia, in the year 569, that is, in the year follow- 
 ing the closing scene of the great migration. The 
 religion he taught spread itself at first slowly ; after- 
 its rapid wards with accelerated velocity. Within a few years 
 of his death, the dominion of his successors extended 
 over Syria, and Persia, and Egypt; and within a 
 century, over the whole of Africa and Spain, except- 
 ing, in the latter country, a narrow tract of mountain 
 territory upon the northern coast. Mohammed pro- 
 mulgated his religion in the form of a series of 
 revelations from Heaven, suggested to him by the 
 angel Gabriel. These successive communications he 
 committed to writing, in the order in which he 
 believed or pretended to have received them. His 
 religion therefore, from the first, enjoyed the advan- 
 tage of a written code of doctrine and discipline, a 
 fixed ritual, and a settled form of public worship. 
 He adopted the divine Unity as the basis of his 
 doctrine, and selected from the religion of the Jews 
 and Christians, such portions as might strengthen 
 his theological scheme, without interfering with his 
 
89 
 
 own pretensions to be the immediate messenger of 
 God, and the inspired patriarch and prophet of his 
 people. 
 
 These compliances and accommodations tended to Causes of 
 
 that pro- 
 remove many obstacles to conversion. At the same gress. 
 
 time he dexterously availed himself of the manifold 
 corruptions, and the notorious image-worship of the 
 Eastern churches, to class Christianity among the 
 list of idolatrous religions which he was commissioned 
 to extirpate. The principle which gave strength to Unswerv- 
 
 ing faith of 
 
 the arm of the Moslem was the same as that which the new 
 had upheld the Church of Christ against centuries of 
 ignominy and persecution, a firm and unswerving 
 faith. But the principle had become greatly obscured Dissentions 
 among the Christians, by sectarian disputes and Christians. 
 idolatrous practices ; while Charity, the sister of Faith 
 had deserted the earth, and the bonds of Christian 
 union were dissolved by strife, contention, and mur- 
 muring, and bv mutual hatred and persecution. But Zeal of te 
 
 Moslem. 
 
 among the new converts to the religion of Mohammed, 
 faith was in its first fervour ; and constituted both 
 the connecting bond and the moving power of the 
 system. Before that fervour subsided, the empire of 
 the Koran was founded and established ; and it has 
 maintained itself down to the present day ; shaken 
 indeed, and here and there encroached upon by the 
 ascendancy which Christianity exercises over every 
 other religion with which it has hitherto come into * 
 collision ; but the duration of Mohammedanism 
 evinces at least the sagacity with which its founda- 
 
 H 
 
90 
 
 tions were laid in the religious wants, and the 
 prevalent feelings and passions of human nature. 
 
 As civilization advances, Mohammedanism must 
 recede : a durable civilization must rest upon much 
 stronger checks to the evil and irregular passions of 
 mankind, than any which that religion imposes. I 
 feel much inclined to think that the Egyptian, Greek, 
 and Roman culture owed their downfal to the want 
 of these checks ; they did not endure, because no 
 strong and sound moral system lay at the bottom of 
 them. 
 Ancient With the accession of the Emperor Charles the 
 
 History 
 
 closes with Great, I shall contrary perhaps to the accepted 
 
 the acces- ... .* . 
 
 sionof historical divisions close the Ancient History 
 
 Charles the ^ . . 
 
 Great, A . D. of the world. My reason is, that at this epoch, 
 the results of the transition from one social and 
 religious condition to another become for the first 
 time historically discernible. Previous to this 
 point of time, I hope to be able to show that few 
 important institutions, whether of a spiritual or of a 
 secular nature, had attained to any definite form ; and 
 surely a transition state is the least proper that could 
 be selected to afford a fit station from which to look 
 back upon, to survey, and to comprehend the totality 
 of bygone events, and to judge of them in the mass, 
 and in their relative bearing upon each other. And 
 yet without such a survey, very little advantage can 
 be derived from the study of History. It is astonish- 
 ing what an amount of error has been produced by 
 partial views of past ages. There are not many, 
 
91 
 
 even amongst the most renowned political reasoners, 
 who are quite free from them. If our own Histo- 
 rians and those of France had chosen to extend 
 their views beyond individual facts upon which 
 they are all too apt to rely they need never have 
 fallen into the errors with which many of them 
 are now fairly chargeable. The German histo- 
 rians are rarely wanting in comprehensiveness, 
 but they are, with one or two distinguished excep- 
 tions, too fond of generalization, too much attracted 
 by novelty and paradox, and, up to this period, too 
 little versed in the practice of government, to adapt 
 their theories to the actual condition of men, social 
 or political. 
 
 With these remarks I shall close this Lecture. I 
 hope hereafter to have it in my power to lay before 
 you the promised observations upon the birth-place, 
 and the dissemination of the human species, together 
 with a general sketch of the countries in which the 
 original domicile of man was fixed, and where he 
 received those early lessons, and that primaeval reve- 
 lation, which it pleased the Almighty to bestow 
 upon him. 
 
LONDON : 
 
 Printed by W. CLOWES, Duke Street, 
 Stamford Street, Lambeth. 
 
POSITION AND PROSPECTS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 PROTESTANT CHURCHES 
 
 OF 
 
 GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, 
 
 WITH REFERENCE TO THE 
 
 PROPOSED ESTABLISHMENT 
 
 OF A 
 
 ROMAN CATHOLIC HIERARCHY 
 
 IN THIS COUNTRY. 
 
 BY 
 
 T. GREENWOOD, M.A. 
 
 BARRISTER AT LAW. 
 
 SECOND EDITION. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 JAMES RIDGWAY, PICCADILLY. 
 1851. 
 
ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 THE shortness of the time allowed before the 
 meeting* of Parliament for the composition of the 
 following- sheets, must form the writer's apology for 
 the many imperfections perhaps, errors they may 
 contain. An original copy of the Bull, (e Univer- 
 salis Ecclesise," could not be procured from Rome 
 in time to be before him during- the whole progress 
 of the work. But this circumstance is the less to be 
 regretted, as he has upon comparison found Dr. 
 Ullathorne's version to be substantially correct. 
 
 The author beg-s leave to assure those who may 
 peruse his pag-es, that he will receive and con- 
 sider any strictures or corrections, by whatever 
 spirit they may be dictated, if not with equal plea- 
 sure, yet at least with equal attention ; and if an 
 opportunity should be afforded, hasten to adopt 
 such of them as upon reflection he shall think well 
 grounded. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 SECT. 1 . Object of this Statement 
 
 SECT. 2. Increase of Romanism in England 
 
 SECT. 3. The Tractarian School ... .5 
 
 SECT. 4. Tractarian Secession .... 
 
 SECT. 5. Movement among the Roman Catholic Clergy 1 1 
 
 SECT. 6. Some disadvantages of our position . . 15 
 
 SECT. 7. Supremacy of the Queen .... 29 
 
 SECT. 8. Struggle between Canonism and Prerogative . 48 
 
 SECT. 9. The State of the Law 87 
 
 SFCT. 10. The Bull 94 
 
 SECT. 11. Dr. Wiseman's Pastoral Letter . . .129 
 
 SECT. 12. Mr. Bowyer's Pamphlet . . . .139 
 
 SECT. 13. Synoptical Statement . . . .164 
 
 SECT. 14. Remedial Suggestions . . . .170 
 
To THE MEMBERS OF THE BRITISH LEGISLATURE, 
 
 THE CLERGY AND LAITY OF THE ESTABLISHED 
 CHURCHES OF ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND, AND TO 
 THE SEVERAL PROTESTANT CHURCHES AND 
 COMMUNIONS THROUHOUT THE EMPIRE. * 
 
 . 1. Object of this Statement. 
 
 THE object I have in view in thus boldly ad- 
 dressing' all classes and denominations of my 
 countrymen, is to place before them, as shortly as 
 possible, their real position in relation to the recent 
 attempt of the Bishop of Rome and his friends, to 
 establish an organized territorial hierarchy in this 
 country. 
 
 It is to be hoped, that by the time Parliament 
 meets, the violent effervescence through which the 
 mind of the Protestant public has passed, will have 
 so far subsided, as to leave us in a more favourable 
 state for a rational inquiry into the real position of 
 the Protestant communions towards the claims of 
 the rival church ; and to enable us, in arriving- at 
 our conclusions, to make our religious. and political 
 duties, rather than our prepossessions and preju- 
 dices the measure of our demands for redress upon 
 our Queen and legislature. 
 
 Setting aside the remoter causes of the advance 
 of the Papacy towards a permanent footing in these 
 islands, I will now point out a few circumstances, 
 
 A 2 
 
which I believe it is pretty well agreed on all hands, 
 have given the first impulses to this movement. 
 
 .2. Increase of Romanism in England. 
 
 Within the last twenty years, there has been an 
 observable increase of Romanism in England. 
 Crowds of our countrymen flocked annually to the 
 Continent, greedy of novelty, and eager for amuse- 
 ment. Churches, and the religious exhibitions they 
 afford, were objects of great attraction to the idle 
 crowd. They witnessed the gaudy ritual of the 
 Roman Church, at first with vacant curiosity ; but 
 they soon learnt to relish the multifarious symbo- 
 lism of the ritual to contemplate the images of the 
 Virgin and saints with complacency to enjoy the 
 polished conversation of Jesuits and churchmen 
 to be charmed with their manner and address to 
 listen to the pleasing descriptions they gave of the 
 religious privileges their penitents enjoyed, their 
 implicit faith, their active charity, their blameless 
 lives till they were gradually brought to mistake 
 the samples exhibited for genuine specimens of the 
 unseen commodity, and to think, at least with 
 charity, of a religious system which, besides pro- 
 ducing so much ostensible good, brought salvation 
 home to every man's door, without the trouble of 
 going very far to seek it. 
 
 But it was chiefly in Rome, the city of temples 
 and religious pageants, that these butterflies flut- 
 tered with the most intense delight. Having no 
 leisure, and very little ability, to examine what lay 
 beneath the surface, they took all for gold that 
 
glittered, and were soon plucked clean of the little 
 Protestant plumage they might have carried out with 
 them. On their return to England, they were glad 
 to find some provision made for their entertainment 
 at home something to fill up the vacancy in their 
 imaginations, which the sober aspect of our national 
 worship could not supply. They joined the outcry 
 against Protestantism which had within that period 
 arisen among certain ostensible members of the 
 national church : they encouraged by their presence 
 and by exaggerated observance, that multiplication 
 of devotional forms which this party had introduced ; 
 and therein found something to supply the want of 
 that religious excitement to which they had been 
 accustomed abroad, yet without the inconveniences 
 of an honest renunciation of the profession in which 
 they had been born and bred, 
 
 . 3. The Tractarian School. 
 
 After the passing of the Roman Catholic Relief 
 Bill in 1829, the leading men of all parties, in their 
 anxiety to promote its healing effects, diligently 
 strove to obliterate the landmarks which severed the 
 two professions. The past was to be absolutely 
 forgotten ; and all who were heard to whisper an 
 alarm, were dismissed with silent contempt or open 
 ridicule. The Protestant spirit was laid fast asleep ; 
 but another inmate of the undisciplined human 
 heart awoke in full vigour. The half-educated 
 the most self-sufficient and vain of all classes the 
 diffident and the timid began to ask the question, 
 "What is truth?" and to crave an answer that 
 
should save them all further trouble. The Church 
 replied, " Search the Scriptures, for in them ye 
 believe you have the words of eternal life." But 
 this was a hard saying 1 5 a more soothing 1 note was 
 heard not afar off, " Come to us, and we will shew 
 you the way ; Scripture is for us, not for you 
 without us you must miss your path, for we are 
 your appointed glides and instructors." This was 
 good news, and very many persons followed the 
 sound, and traced it to the Halls of Oxford. 
 
 With the spirit of increasing 1 activity and zeal 
 among 1 our younger clergy, a more exalted notion 
 of sacerdotal dignity and authority had sprung up. 
 They gradually adopted a conception of their office, 
 approaching 1 closely to that of a mediatorial and 
 sacrificing- priesthood. In this they were en- 
 couraged by that restlessness of spirit among the 
 laity, springing from the combined effects of 
 ignorance, supineness, and love of novelty. With 
 the demand for more definite assurance than the 
 modest pretensions of the National Church could 
 afford, a longing arose after more positive forms, 
 more authoritative promises, more splendid ritual. 
 This demand, the New School undertook to supply. 
 They drew forth from our ancient rubrics and ser- 
 vices, many ceremonial observances which had in 
 process of time become obsolete, tending* to formal- 
 ism, and inconsistent with that spirituality which is 
 of the essence of Protestant worship, because no 
 longer required to smooth the path of reformation. 
 
 As the views of this party among the clergy 
 expanded, they endeavoured to lift the Church into 
 
a position of authority and power, never yet claimed 
 by any Protestant communion; they ascribed to 
 the priesthood all, or nearly all, the attributes 
 imported by the Church of Rome from the Jewish 
 hierarchy into her own ; and, inasmuch as it was 
 soon perceived that the principles of the Reformation 
 stood in direct contradiction to these pretensions, 
 they began very cordially to hate, and very sedu- 
 lously to depreciate that great event. 
 
 Finding-, however, in the older formularies rubrics 
 and ritual of the Reformed Church neither enough 
 to satisfy their desire for a greater multiplicity and 
 splendour of devotional forms, nor any sufficient 
 sanction for their exalted notion of the sacerdotal 
 character, they naturally beg'an to doubt whether a 
 Church which granted them so little was any 
 Church at all. They contended that all the powers 
 imparted by Christ to his Apostles were transmitted 
 to the bishops and the clergy their successors to the 
 fullest extent of the original grant; and among 1 
 these, more particularly the powers of binding- and 
 loosing-. The Church of England, they said, makes 
 salvation in no degree dependent upon the exercise 
 of this power, but rests it simply upon the personal 
 disposition of the sinner, giving, it is true, to the 
 priest a power to declare, but not to impart, any 
 official assurance of pardon. But this view of his 
 official character amounts to an abandonment of 
 the apostolic office cast upon him by his Lord, 
 and deprives the body of the principal outward mark 
 of a true visible Church. Every true Church, they 
 affirmed, must maintain its entire character, the 
 
abandonment of any one article destroys it ; but the 
 Establishment has relinquished the power of the 
 keys y the Church of England has renounced those 
 miraculous gifts, as necessary now as ever, to con- 
 vince the gainsay er and the infidel, to confound heresy 
 and schism, and to ground her upon that Rock upon 
 which Christ himself placed her, promising 1 that " He 
 would be with her to the end of the world/' so that 
 she should never want any of those good gifts to which 
 she owed her birth, and by which she was maintained 
 in her infancy; all these good gifts the Church of Eng- 
 land had wilfully thrown aw ay; she had renounced her 
 birthright for that mess of pottage, state connexion, 
 and the time had therefore arrived to renounce her. 
 
 .4. Tractarian Secession. 
 
 Upon these grounds many clergymen of the 
 Oxford School went over to the Church of Home. 
 And it is the more important to state them clearly, 
 because they are the basis of those identical errors 
 which the Reformation protested against and 
 swept away. At that period the idea of a sacri- 
 ficing and mediatorial office in the priest, was 
 substantially disavowed, and he descended into 
 the humbler character of an appointed minister 
 and instructor of the Christian people. The altar 
 dwindled into a table covered with a pure white 
 linen cloth, the elements of sacrifice into simple 
 bread and wine ; the efficacy the real presence of 
 the Saviour dependent in an infinitely higher 
 degree upon the spiritual state of the recipient than 
 upon the hand that hallowed the sacred feast. 
 
9 
 
 With the bread and wine Christ verily and indeed 
 entered into the temple of the Christian heart, hut 
 only when swept and garnished by the besom of 
 repentance, and not by that of sacerdotal absolution. 
 This degradation from the potential to the merely 
 ministerial office mortified and irritated the ambitious 
 spirits which our Church had for a long 1 time past 
 nourished in her bosom, it must be confessed, with 
 that degree of indulgence which is almost always 
 extended to those who stand up for corporate 
 privileges by the members of their own body. But 
 as the views of these gentlemen expanded, dating, 
 perhaps, from the publication of the 90th tract, that 
 indulgence was in a great degree withdrawn. In 
 proportion as they felt the ground slip from under 
 them within the pale of the Establishment, their 
 doubts increased, and their views veered naturally 
 towards that communion which could alone lift 
 them into a position upon a level with their spiritual 
 pretensions. And in that communion they finally 
 sought a refuge from disappointment and disg'race. 
 And now, as usual in all such cases, no better way 
 to justify their defection to themselves and their 
 former friends could be hit upon than to second 
 with more than ordinary zeal the efforts of their 
 new allies for the overthrow of the principles they 
 had betrayed and deserted. 
 
 It may be mentioned here that opportunely 
 enough for their scheme, while the hankering after 
 religious display and pageantry before alluded to 
 was gaining ground, a variety of other tastes con- 
 nected with mediaeval antiquity occupied the atten- 
 
10 
 
 tion of artists and ticltled the fancies of amateurs 
 and idlers of all ranks. The former plunged head- 
 long- into the mysteries of church architecture , the 
 walls of the Royal Academy were covered with 
 Gothic designs of all styles and periods,, almost to 
 the exclusion of every other architectural study. 
 The table of the boudoir was garnished with illumi- 
 nated missals, lives of saints, legendary stories and 
 novels, deriving their chief interest from connexion 
 with Romish forms and ideas, or directly recom- 
 mending Romish principles and practice. In con- 
 versation the high-church tone came into vogue, 
 and the manufacture of altar cloths and church 
 ornaments was esteemed a fashionable occupation. 
 To minds thus prepared it was now much easier to 
 impart an exalted idea of the significance and 
 importance of religious forms and ceremonies, and 
 to connect them with the source from which they 
 were originally derived. The Reformation was 
 already brought into disesteem ; Protestantism was 
 loudly condemned, the name of Rome was uttered 
 with reverence ; all attacks upon her deprecated as 
 schismatic, and every obstacle to a reunion with her 
 cleared away, as soon as a decent opportunity could 
 be found or created for slipping quietly through 
 the open portals into the fold of Popery. Pope 
 Pius IX was, chiefly by the instrumentality of the 
 new converts, led to believe that the time for throw- 
 ing them wide open had arrived ; the bull " Univer- 
 salis Ecclesise" was issued and England graciously 
 received into the arms of the only true church. 
 
11 
 
 . 5. Movement among the Roman Catholic clergy. 
 
 Whether encouraged by these prospects, or 
 prompted simply by a desire for an increase of 
 personal power and dignity, or, it may well be, by 
 an anxiety to be placed in a more favourable 
 position to take advantage of the increase of libe- 
 ralism in religion as in politics for the extension of 
 their peculiar church principles whatever their 
 motive may have been, it is certain that for some 
 years prior to this, the Roman Catholic clergy in 
 this country expressed to the Pope a strong desire 
 to be released from the dependent position in which 
 they then stood, and to exchange it for that of a 
 self-existent canonical hierarchy. Hitherto the 
 Roman Catholic bishops and clergy had appeared 
 among us as simple missionaries appointed by the 
 Pope for service " in partibus haereticorum ;" con- 
 sequently with no other than a delegated office 
 confined to the spiritual superintendence of the 
 scattered flocks of their communion in these king- 
 doms. And in this light they were regarded by 
 the legislature and the public. The bishops were 
 liable to be shifted from one district to another by 
 the Pope, just as an itinerant preacher of the 
 Methodist connexion may be removed from his 
 circuit by the fiat of the Conference; and even 
 within that district they had no ordinary authority 
 but what they derived from the Pope's instructions. 
 
 Their complaint, therefore, was, that in the true 
 sense of the word, they were not really bishops ; 
 for they were provided neither with sees nor dioceses, 
 
12 
 
 The common or canon law of the Roman church, as 
 of our own, places every diocesan bishop upon an 
 independent ground. Subject only to papal visita- 
 tion, he is his own master ; and every interference, 
 except by the canonical modes and procedures is 
 excluded.* As vicars, the} r held only the personal, 
 but none of the territorial attributes of bishops. In 
 this precise light they had been regarded in Pro- 
 testant England for nearly three centuries; and 
 under this view of their status and condition, and no 
 other, all our legislative enactments relating to 
 Roman Catholics had been passed. Never till 
 now had the Bishop of Rome suffered a suspicion to 
 get abroad that he himself contemplated them in any 
 other light, or thought of giving them an episcopal 
 character identical with that of the national 
 hierarchy. 
 
 It was, therefore, in the humble garb of a Mission- 
 ary communion that the Roman Catholic clergy and 
 laity presented themselves in 1829 to the British 
 legislature, petitioning for the restoration of their 
 civil rights. All they asked was that a particular 
 oath called the "Oath of Supremacy," in the 
 form in which it stood on the Statute book, should 
 be removed out of their way. By that oath the 
 King was declared to be fe in all causes ecclesiastical 
 as well as civil in these his dominions supreme." 
 To this they objected that they could not conscienti- 
 ously make such a declaration ; but expressed their 
 willingness to acknowledge the temporal supremacy 
 of the crown in the amplest terms. Without any 
 
 * Dr. Ullathorne's letter, Times, 24th Oct. 1850. 
 
13 
 
 legislative notice of their peculiar religious objections, 
 the Parliament released from this oath, every one 
 who should declare himself a Roman Catholic and 
 substituted another with which they expressed them- 
 selves satisfied. The country thereupon admitted 
 them without suspicion, and almost without limit, 
 to every privilege of British subjects. The incon- 
 veniences which have flowed out of this heedless 
 proceeding will be a subject of our future considera- 
 tion. 
 
 It is very probable that the Romish bishops, when 
 in 1848 they petitioned the Pope to assign to them 
 sees and dioceses in England, may have persuaded 
 themselves that the proceedings of 1829 implied a 
 legislative licence and authority to uphold the spi- 
 ritual supremacy of Rome in opposition to that of 
 the Engiish crown. 
 
 Be this as it may, in 1850 we find that proposi- 
 tion boldly maintained and practically carried out. 
 Dr. Nicholas Wiseman, a very distinguished Roman 
 Catholic prelate, stood godfather to the scheme, and 
 produced to our astonished vision a Bull or " Letter 
 ApostolicaP from Rome, erecting the whole of 
 England into one huge Archiepiscopal province, with 
 himself at the head, by the title of Archbishop of 
 Westminster, and the additional decoration no 
 doubt out of compliment to our mediaeval tastes of 
 recent growth of a Cardinal's hat. The eight 
 Vicars Apostolic are by this wonderful instrument 
 installed in eight new bishoprics carved out of, 
 though not conterminous with the ancient dioceses 
 of this country. A ninth diocese, that of South- 
 
14 
 
 wark, is for the present to be held in commendam 
 with the Metropolitan See of Westminster- and 
 three other sees, all set out by metes and bounds, 
 remain, we believe, up to this time at the disposal 
 of his Holiness. The vicars were thus converted 
 from the status of simple missionary priests into 
 that of a territorial spiritual magistracy, with high 
 rank, local habitation and defined jurisdiction, ready 
 to measure themselves in all these respects, and 
 upon their own ground, with the bishops and clergy 
 of the Established Church. 
 
 It is not necessary to describe the effect of this 
 extraordinary measure upon the Protestant com- 
 munions of this country. It is sufficient to state 
 that our hearts, which since the year 1829 had been 
 ever open to the just claims of our Roman Catholic 
 countrymen, were closed for the present. The 
 whole kingdom resounded from end to end with one 
 loud and indignant protest, and petitions without 
 number poured in upon the Queen, beseeching her 
 to hasten to the rescue of her violated rights, and 
 of the civil and religious liberties of her subjects. 
 For, that the publication of a papal Bull in this 
 country, more especially one of a nature like that 
 with which Dr. Wiseman has presented us, was a 
 violation of the entire policy and spirit, if not of 
 the letter of our law, was the all but universal im- 
 pression of English Protestants an impression, it 
 must be remembered, manifesting itself at a moment 
 when the spirit and the practice of toleration had 
 become a habit of the Protestant mind in this 
 country at a period following close upon the heels 
 
15 
 
 of that in which we had, by the repeal of nineteen 
 or twenty almost forgotten statutes, removed, as we 
 believed, the last shadow which intercepted the full 
 sunshine of Romish g'ratitude and affection. That 
 we acted under a very serious mista.ke will I con- 
 ceive appear in the sequel of this treatise. 
 
 . 6. Some disadvantages of our position. 
 
 The contest, however, has begun under some dis- 
 advantages on our side which it is necessary to 
 specify. Let it be remembered in the mean time 
 that it is not my design to offer any new informa- 
 tion or argument, but simply to arrange that 
 already produced, and often eloquently produced, at 
 public meetings and lectures, as well as from the 
 pulpit ; and, if possible, to do it without wearying 
 the reader with a twice-told tale. 
 
 1. The first disadvantage to which I solicit your 
 attention is that of Irish immigration. 
 
 It is well known that within the last eight or 
 ten years, but especially since the occurrence 
 of the late potato famines in Ireland, many hun- 
 dred thousand Irish, exclusively of the most in- 
 digent classes, and devoted to the religion of Rome 
 under the tuition of priests brought up in the Go- 
 vernment College of Maynooth, have settled in 
 London and in the greater manufacturing cities of 
 England, e. g. Manchester, Liverpool, and Glasgow. 
 These multitudes have been followed by priests of 
 their own communion, who have managed to esta- 
 blish among them the same unbounded influence as 
 that exercised by the same class of men at home. 
 
16 
 
 The bitter fruits of that influence in Ireland the 
 irreclaimable barbarism of the rural population the 
 agrarian murders and pillaging^ which mig'ht have 
 been prevented the education so freely offered, 
 repudiated at the suggestion of the priests the 
 clamour for self-gwernment, which must have 
 proved the bitterest of curses to them in their actual 
 condition the undisguised use of political authority 
 by these self-styled ministers of Christ, for the pur- 
 pose of creating 1 among 1 their flocks hatred and con- 
 tempt of their Saxon fellow-subjects these results, 
 we maintain, convey at least a serious warning 1 to 
 as how we permit a similar system to be introduced 
 into this country. That it has been attempted is 
 a matter of notoriety. Superintendants and con- 
 tractors on railroads have been murdered by g'ang's 
 of Irish labourers, others have been waylaid, beaten, 
 and maltreated, yet not a witness to these sangui- 
 nary outrages was to be obtained from among" their 
 fellows ; not a whisper of exhortation or rebuke was 
 heard from the altars or the pulpits to which these 
 ignorant and misg-uided men resorted for moral and 
 spiritual instruction. 
 
 Silence often affords proof as pregnant as words. 
 They who could if they pleased have prevented 
 crimes, those in particular whose special duty it is 
 so to do, and do it not, are responsible in foro con- 
 scientite for the result of their wilful neg-lig-ence. 
 We need g-o no further back than the late meeting- 
 at Birkenhead to test both the sangninary temper 
 of the newly-imported Irish labourer, and the in- 
 fluence, for gwd or for evil, his priest possesses and 
 
17 
 
 exercises over him. The influence ot such a class, 
 if permitted to fasten itself upon this country, must 
 be unspeakably calamitous. Even as it now stands, 
 if at any time it should suit the policy of their 
 sacerdotal leaders - themselves well-skilled in the 
 art of keeping- out of harm's way to let loose the 
 fanatical masses upon the Protestant communities 
 of the populous towns, the amount of crime, blood- 
 shed, and destruction of property is beyond all 
 estimate. The calculations of religious leaders, as 
 we learn but too clearly from the history of the 
 past, are never materially disturbed by considera- 
 tions of that nature. When we look back to the 
 history of St. Peter of Castelnau, the Saints of St. 
 Bartholomew, and the martyrs to the heretical 
 vigilance of Queen Elizabeth, we feel instinctively 
 that fanaticised masses like these care as little for 
 their own lives as for those of their opponents. They 
 are amply rewarded by the anticipated honour of 
 martyrdom in the holy warfare. 
 
 But though it might not come to this, the mere 
 consciousness th#t such a power existed close to 
 their own doors, must tend to lame the magistracy, 
 to trammel the administration of justice, and to 
 perplex the legislature. A large class of timid 
 persons in our towns would be induced to deprecate 
 at any cost the most obvious measures of repression. 
 All who have any thing to lose would abstain from 
 lending their aid or their names to the most urgent 
 precautions if it should be thought displeasing to 
 the ghostly advisers of the congregated Irish. The 
 eyes of Chartists and disturbers of all sorts - 
 
 B 
 
18 
 
 the hopes of mob orators and pot politicians- 
 would turn naturally towards the rising 1 sun of 
 Romanism. The conditions of the alliance would 
 give neither party any serious trouble. But what 
 should we say of the condition of England, if com- 
 pelled to resort to the same measures here for the 
 defence of our laws, our homes, and our pro- 
 perty, as those we were driven to adopt in Ireland 
 in 1848 ? 
 
 This question suggests a second consideration of 
 the same dangerous character. 
 
 It is well known to the police magistracy of this 
 great city, that in the eastern outskirts and in many 
 other parts and portions of the town, there are con- 
 gregated nearly 300,000 persons who are either 
 absolute heathens, i.e. destitute of all religion, or 
 Irish Roman Catholics. These two classes are 
 associated with each other by the bonds of common 
 poverty, labour, and suffering. But the Roman 
 Catholic has a positive creed ; he has, in his way, a 
 certain sense of religious obligation, though its 
 external manifestation may depend altogether upon 
 the will of his priest. But men, even the most 
 degraded of the species, will have a religion; the 
 worst, if no better presents itself to their notice. 
 Following the instinct of the human character, 
 multitudes of these non-christians adopt the Roman 
 profession, though it were only for form's sake ; and 
 in this manner the spread of Romanism in those 
 districts has been rapid beyond all former example. 
 Such localities as these are the chosen arenas of 
 Romish labours, infinite the good they mig'ht do, 
 
19 
 
 infinite the mischief they may perpetrate, if (as is 
 but too much to he apprehended) they should listen 
 to the suggestions of ambition and religious hatred, 
 and to infuse into their English penitents that 
 fanatical spirit which they have so successfully pro- 
 pagated in unhappy Ireland. 
 
 The same observation applies to other large por- 
 tions of the industrial districts of this country, more 
 especially perhaps to the West Riding of Yorkshire, 
 the towns of Liverpool, Glasgow, Manchester, and 
 other populous manufacturing places. Of this dis- 
 couraging symptom very little notice has hitherto 
 been taken. The ultra-liberalism of these later times 
 has derided the notion of danger from such a quar- 
 ter. The natural alliance between ignorance and 
 superstition, has been wholly overlooked, and this 
 vast incursion of barbarism has been regarded 
 only in its bearing upon statistics, upon the means 
 of support, the increase of pauperism, the danger to 
 the public peace from casual outbursts of the Irish 
 national character, and other considerations having 
 no connexion with the moral or religious conse- 
 quences to the invaded regions and their poorer 
 inhabitants. 
 
 We have, as yet, no sufficient data by which to 
 calculate the accession of political strength, the 
 Roman priesthood may have derived from this 
 source, but we know that it is very considerable, 
 and of exactly the same character as that which 
 they exercise over the native Irish. We have, it is 
 true, the remedy against this evil in our own hands ; 
 but the expense of erecting churches, endowing 
 
 B 2 
 
20 
 
 them for working" clergymen, building- schools, and 
 paying* teachers, would, I am convinced, fall upon 
 the ear of the parishes, hundreds and counties 
 where it is required, like the knell of another in- 
 come tax, overtopping 1 all that has been hitherto 
 spent in churches and schools for the last ten years. 
 Those who are best acquainted with the districts, I 
 am naming*, speak of them as of an ig-nited mass of 
 volcanic matter, ready to burst forth in ruinous 
 explosion, as soon as the superincumbent weig-ht of 
 law, authority and order shall be disturbed or shifted 
 from its present basis. What course of conduct 
 could more effectually tend to such a crisis, than one 
 which should engender in the minds of the Protes- 
 tant population, a suspicion that their dearest reli- 
 gious interests mig'ht any day become the mere 
 subjects of party calculation, or the sport of factious 
 politicians, either within or without the walls of 
 Parliament? Some impression of this kind has 
 already gx>t abroad. A few successful attempts 
 have been made by the ultra-dissenting- party, in 
 alliance with chartists and republicans, to check the 
 movement against Popery. By all these classes 
 the overthrow of the Church of England is regarded 
 as a very material step towards the accomplish- 
 ment of their ulterior plans. In the pursuit of these 
 plans they address the popular plea of unlimited 
 toleration, to the larg*e class of timid, conscientious 
 and puzzle-headed men, who cannot see that there 
 are few rules of conduct, however excellent in them- 
 selves, which, if pushed to extremes, do not lead 
 men into pernicious absurdities. To these either 
 
21 
 
 among- their own body, or elsewhere, who Mill en- 
 tertain some lurking- suspicion, that after granting 
 everything- the Papists may for the present ask, we 
 may not yet have seen the end of their demands, 
 nor meet with that reciprocity of toleration on their 
 part, we have a rig-lit to expect, they urg-e the vast 
 advances of civilization and knowledg-e, as a suffi- 
 cient safeguard against the intrig-ues and encroach- 
 ments of Popery : while the pious and trusting- are 
 tranquillized by quoting- the remonstrance of Gama- 
 liel to the Jewish Sanhedrin, against the intended 
 persecution of the Apostles of Christ.* 
 
 A third disadvantage in our position arises out of 
 the undoubted existence, coupled with the semi- 
 official recognition, of a Romish hierarchical estab- 
 lishment in Ireland. Some years ago, in our zeal 
 for extreme principles of toleration, we dealt C( a 
 heavy blow and a serious discouragement" to Pro- 
 testantism in that country by the abolition of twelve 
 bishoprics belonging* to the establishment ; thereby 
 leaving the Roman Catholic titulars in unrivalled 
 possession of all the moral and religious influence 
 which an active Protestant episcopacy might have 
 retrieved and established. I do not remember 
 whether it occurred to any one to suggest the pos- 
 sibility of converting the twelve bishoprics it was 
 intended to suppress, into the means of strengthening 
 the interests of Protestantism the only interest in 
 the island to which we can look with any confidence 
 for the maintenance of the union with this country. 
 
 * Acts v. 38, 39. 
 
22 
 
 Certain it is, however, that that interest was in the 
 minds of our rulers identified with Qrangeism, and 
 decried with a bitterness of sarcasm and an intensity 
 of aversion which indicated the source from which 
 it proceeded, and the alliance of which such mani- 
 festations of zeal were the indispensable conditions. 
 That alliance was, in fact, the creature of a tem- 
 porary political expediency. It is now acknowledged 
 that not one of the advantages so confidently pre- 
 dicted from it have been realized. Every effort for 
 the improvement and instruction of the people has 
 been invariably thwarted by the Irish episcopacy ; 
 every act of private charity or public beneficence 
 has been neutralized by false representations, or by 
 systematic depreciation; and every expedient that 
 ingenuity could devise has been resorted to to ob- 
 struct the healing* influence of time and improved 
 intercourse upon the festering wounds inflicted by 
 ancient differences of race, creed and civilization. 
 
 We cannot be surprised at these lamentable results 
 of our efforts to reconcile Romish ascendancy with 
 our projects of improvement. The state of Ireland 
 exhibits the normal condition of every country where 
 Romanism prevails without the sharp control of 
 Government. We have substituted coaxings and 
 favours for the pressure of control ; we desired to 
 conciliate ; we shewed ourselves inordinately anxious 
 to blot out every appearance of coercion ; we gave 
 a rich endowment to a College for the education of 
 their priesthood ; we offered them general education 
 divested of every obstacle to the inculcation of their 
 own religious opinions among the children of their 
 
23 
 
 communion. Everything- was objected to : all that 
 brought with it any immediate advantage was 
 accepted, but without the conditions annexed with- 
 out gratitude without acknowledgment as an 
 instalment of a greater debt to be exacted hereafter 
 to the uttermost farthing. The amount, though not 
 very precisely stated, may be easily guessed at. 
 
 The opinions of the Irish hierarchy are in the 
 highest degree ultramontane, and in that respect at 
 least there is a perfect sympathy between them and 
 the projected papal establishment in England. They 
 will naturally afford each other mutual aid and 
 counsel, for the common purpose of overthrowing 
 the Established Church. Whatever measures we 
 in this country may think fit to adopt against Dr. 
 Wiseman's scheme, will be resented as an insult to 
 Ireland. A promising beginning has been already 
 made ; our public meetings have been stigmatised 
 with the bitterest derision and contempt, and the 
 unlucky letter of our liberal Premier has run the 
 gauntlet of Irish vituperation to the exhaustion of 
 the copious vocabulary of abuse so familiar to that 
 lively and imaginative race. 
 
 All these disadvantages of our position, are, 
 however, light in comparison with those arising out 
 of the conduct of our government towards the Roman 
 Catholic hierarchs in Great Britain, and in the 
 Colonies. Our legislature has sanctioned the illegal 
 presumption of the Irish Roman Catholic prelates, 
 in naming them by the designations or rank hitherto 
 appropriated to the prelates of the Established 
 Church, in the Charitable Bequests Act of 1845 ; 
 
24 ; 
 
 md this in the teeth of an express clause in the Act 
 of 1829, which made it a misdemeanor punishable 
 by severe fines, to assume the style and title of any 
 existing* archbishopric, bishopric, or deanery, in the 
 occupation of a bishop or dig'iiitary of the United 
 Churches of England and Ireland. 
 
 In the British Colonies, as it has been correctly 
 stated,* the See of Rome has repeatedly created 
 archbishoprics, and bishoprics with territorial titles, 
 setting- out provinces and dioceses, and appointing- 
 diocesan archbishops, and bishops, without the 
 consent of the British Government without re- 
 monstrance on their part, and in one ca'se (that of 
 Melbourne in Australia), with the express sanction 
 of the Officers of the Colony, for the assumption of 
 the local title by the Romish prelate. It is also 
 added, and I believe, correctly, that the Government 
 has in Ireland, and elsewhere recognised the rank 
 of those prelates as archbishops and bishops, by 
 giving- them the honorary prefixes of " My Lord," 
 and " Your Grace," which the law or usage assigns 
 to the archbishops and bishops of the Established 
 Church. From all these and many other acts of 
 culpable neg-lig-ence or settled purpose, a strong- 
 presumption has been drawn that the Government 
 of this country has practically abandoned and vir- 
 tually repealed the only protective clause in the Bill 
 of 1829 j that, namely, which was intended to pro- 
 hibit an open and public assumption of equality of 
 
 * See Mr. Bowyer's pamphlet published by "authority," 
 p. 13. 
 
25 
 
 rank and station-^important in every social state 
 on the part of the Roman Catholic hierarchs. 
 
 But to this topic we shall have to refer hereafter. 
 Hitherto my only purpose has been to place before 
 my Protestant fellow-subjects some of the external 
 disadvantages of their position, not with a view to 
 abate their courage, but to make known the weak 
 points of their line ; to shew from what quarter the 
 attack is likely to proceed, and to direct them, if pos- 
 sible, to the best modes of defence. But besides those 
 already enumerated, there is a disadvantage against 
 which we cannot be too much upon our guard : that 
 is, the absence of unity of effort among- ourselves. 
 Parties have always run high in this country, yet 
 there has been generally at bottom a fund of good 
 sense which has neutralized the effects of faction. 
 Dissenters and Churchmen have fought for their 
 respective theories of Church government and disci- 
 pline, upon Protestant ground. Though divided in 
 their ideas of the Church, in their interests and their 
 feeling's, both parties adhered to the Reformation as 
 zealously as to their Bible. Let us now, like the 
 antagonist parties in the country who in 1660 com- 
 bined to restore the monarchy, adjourn our dissen- 
 sions, if such there must be between us, to the day 
 of success ; let us reduce our peculiar ideas, interests 
 and feeling's, to that single idea, and interest, and 
 feeling-, which we hold in common. Receding- for 
 the moment from extreme grounds, let us fix our 
 undivided attention upon the common object ; giving 
 up what we should prefer, for the sake of what we 
 all so earnestly desire. " This," says M. Guizot in 
 
26 
 
 his last work; " is the true touchstone of political 
 good sense and intelligence among- opposing- par- 
 ties."* 
 
 As these pag-es are exclusively addressed to those 
 who hold by the principles of the Reformation, it 
 may be as well perhaps to state what I believe this 
 common ground to be. If I mistake not, the great 
 idea fostered by our Reformers was that the univer- 
 sal Church of Christ is not necessarily connected 
 with any unvarying- form of Church government, 
 discipline, or ritual observance \ and that as long- as 
 there are no differences as to the main principles of 
 Christian truth, as they stand recorded in the Scrip- 
 tures, disagreements in externals cannot shut out 
 any denomination of Christians from its place among 
 the members of that one great Catholic and Apos- 
 tolic body of which Jesus Christ is the only supreme 
 Head and Ruler. The external particulars to which 
 I have alluded will be reg-arded by all parties as at 
 best no more than means to an end \ and though 
 Dissenters may earnestly desire to reduce the Church 
 of England to their platform, yet if they are honest 
 in their adherence to Reformation principles, they 
 will not permit the enemy of the common faith to 
 deal the blow that shall strike her to the earth. There 
 is an internal union, a catholicity of the heart, in 
 the relation between the Church and the orthodox 
 Dissenters, which to my mind no external differ- 
 ences ought to affect. The same may be said of 
 the national Church of Scotland. All these assert 
 the right of private judgment, which the Church of 
 * " Monk," in the preface, p. vii. 
 
27 
 
 Home denounces ; all demand the free use of the 
 Scriptures, which the Church of Rome prohibits; 
 all alike protest against the introduction of a erro- 
 neous and strange doctrines contrary to God's word," 
 such as many of those introduced hy the Church of 
 Rome. This, I believe, is the common ground upon 
 which all may fight the battle of their faith ; and 
 from this ground we may reconnoitre our enemy, 
 examine his position and tactics, ascertain our own 
 vulnerable points, and hasten to the assistance of 
 our allies, whether they be of the Churches of Eng- 
 land or Scotland, or of our Protestant brethren, 
 whatever denomination they may have adopted. 
 
 It must, however, be quite clear to all, that the 
 Church of England stands in the first line of the 
 battle array ; that the first shaft of Rome has been 
 aimed at her; and that every advantage gained 
 over her will be regarded as a battle won without 
 further notice of her allies. The truth is undeniable, 
 that as in physical warfare little account is taken of 
 any but the disciplined portion of the enemy's line, 
 so in spiritual warfare organization and discipline 
 must afford decisive advantages. This advantage 
 the Church of Rome possesses in an eminent degree. 
 Whatever can be done by courage, zeal, strict sub- 
 ordination and obedience, will be accomplished. The 
 carnal apparatus of warfare at her disposal is as 
 immeasurably superior to ours, as we believe our 
 spiritual panoply to be above hers in excellence. The 
 Established Church is the only portion of our line 
 which presents the semblance of discipline. It is 
 indeed weak; the commanding officers have little 
 
28 
 
 power over their juniors ; but there is a corporate 
 aptitude there which the late assault of Rome has 
 called into life and activity. A spirit of combination 
 has been displayed by the laity of her communion 
 which promises well, and it has met with no trifling 
 encouragement from the most enlightened members 
 and ministers of the several dissenting- bodies. 
 
 Yet it will appear in the sequel that the first 
 attack has been levelled at the Church throug-h the 
 Queen's supremacy, against which, whatever theo- 
 retical objections it may be open to, it is perfectly 
 manifest a victory would be decisive. It would be 
 a victory, not only over the Church, but over the law 
 of the land. No party, whether ecclesiastical or lay, 
 has affected to deny that it is the law of the land, 
 that the Queen of these realms is, " under God, in all 
 causes, ecclesiastical as well as civil, in these her 
 dominions supreme." The court of Borne regard 
 this as our weak point. Many dissenting- bodies 
 deny it in the ecclesiastical sense ; a large portion 
 of our Roman Catholic fellow-subjects have been 
 released from acknowledging it in that sense ; and 
 for the most part confidently believe that the Church 
 will find no allies to defend it out of her own body, 
 of which many members, they know, have secretly 
 protested against it, and carried many of the laity 
 along with them. 
 
 In order, therefore, that no misunderstanding 
 may exist as to the character and capabilities of the 
 position thus selected as the first object of attack, 
 we must first ascertain what this supremacy amounts 
 to in the law and practice of the constitution. We 
 
29 
 
 may then inquire with better effect what that supre- 
 macy is which the Papists set up against it ; whe- 
 ther it be of the same, or of a different nature more 
 or less extensive or despotic more or less liberal or 
 restrictive of the religious liberties of the subject. 
 It may be speculatively of greater importance to 
 estimate rightly the character of this latter, than of 
 the former kind of supremacy ; but practically, the 
 question is, whether by the overthrow of the one, a 
 path might not be opened for the admission of the 
 other, as has been done already in Ireland with such 
 calamitous success. 
 
 7. Supremacy of the Queen. 
 
 We therefore proceed to inquire what is the 
 nature and extent of her Majesty's supremacy as 
 head of the Church according to the law and prac- 
 tice of the British Constitution ? This preliminary 
 question must receive an answer before we can 
 determine the legal character of the late Papal 
 measure ; that is, before we can ascertain its con- 
 sistency or antagonism to the Common and Statute 
 Law of the land, by which alone be it remembered 
 we, the clergy and laity of England are, or will 
 ever consent to be bound. 
 
 For the sake of perspicuity it will not be amiss to 
 adopt the distinction as to ecclesiastical jurisdiction 
 proposed by Cardinal Bellarmine.* According to that 
 celebrated divine, whose works have always been ad- 
 mitted as of great weight in his church, the aggregate I 
 of ecclesiastical powers is two-fold. 1. The Potestas I 
 
 * De Pont. Rom. Lib. iv. c. 22. 
 
30 
 
 Ordinis, and 2. The Potestas Jurisdictions. The 
 Jlrst of these includes the powers requisite to determine 
 the doctrines and administer the sacraments of the 
 church j the second comprises two distinct powers, 
 viz. that of preaching- or instruction, which is called 
 the internal jurisdiction, and the right to execute or 
 enforce the ordinances of the church, to watch over 
 the due performance of their duties by the clergy, 
 and to defend the ecclesiastical system from all 
 harm both from within and from without; and 
 this is called the power of External jurisdiction. 
 This second item of the " Potestas Jurisdictionis" is 
 clearly a matter external to all that is material to 
 the constitution of a church it belongs entirely to 
 that outward political authority, by which the 
 internal and essential character of the church, its 
 spiritual powers and attributes are preserved; it 
 watches over the purity of doctrine, restrains those 
 who violate ecclesiastical law, checks encroachments 
 upon the laws of the land, and takes care that the 
 officials of all orders neither fall short of, nor 
 transgress the limits of the duty assigned to them.* 
 The history of English constitutional law shews 
 that our monarchs have uniformly claimed and 
 exercised this external jurisdiction, scrupulously 
 reserving- to the churchmen the entire internal 
 jurisdiction both of order and of indoctrination. 
 
 * This was the doctrine of the Gallican Church, as we 
 learn from the treatises of Claude Fauchet (Libertes de 
 Peglise Gallicam, Par. 1612, p. 234, et ed. 1639, p. 179), 
 and from that of Charles le Faye, (ed. 1649, p. 230.) 
 
31 
 
 This view of their ecclesiastical prerogative is clearly 
 discernible in the laws of the Saxon princes of this 
 country from the age of Ina* to that of Edward 
 the Confessor. King- Edgar (A.D. 9C6) told his 
 clergy, that " they wielded the sword of Peter, he, 
 the sword of Constantine ;" he declared that he was 
 in his kingdom as " the diligent husbandman of the 
 Lord, the pastor of pastors the vicegerent of 
 Christ upon earth."')' The same conception of the 
 plenitude of this external jurisdiction is every where 
 traceable in the laws and capitularies of the Prank- 
 ish kings ] in none so clearly as in those of Charle- 
 magne and of his saintly son Louis the Pious.J 
 The laws of our Saxon sovereigns respecting 
 ecclesiastical affairs are numerous; they were in- 
 differently called "Leges" and "Canones," and 
 were all enacted by the king, with the advice and 
 assistance of his clergy of every degree. In all 
 cases the first movement appears to proceed from 
 him, and from him they derive their legal character 
 and effect. It is true that the distinctions between 
 the internal and the external jurisdictions were not 
 always very accurately discerned, nor that some 
 trespasses on the proper domain of the hierarchy 
 may not be detected. But whenever this occurs 
 it was cured by the concurrence and assent of the 
 
 * King of Wessex ; he flourished between the years 687 
 and 725. 
 
 f Wilkins Concil. Vol. I. p. 242, col. i. " Agens, Christo 
 favente, in terris quod ipse juste egit in coelis." 
 
 J The French writers usually designate him by the 
 name of Louis Le Debonnaire. The authorities for this 
 statement are before me. 
 
32 
 
 latter, and no complaint is heard of such trespasses 
 from any quarter. 
 
 The powers thus exercised without contradiction 
 by the princes of France and England in the period 
 intervening* between the conversion of the Saxons 
 and the Norman invasion are best expressed by 
 what we understand by the Visitatorial powers 
 the right, namely, and the duty to carry into exe- 
 cution the laws of the church by the temporal 
 authority of the prince ; to hold the officers of the 
 church to the performance of their duties, if need be, 
 by penalties and by deprivation of the temporalities ; 
 and to remove and punish abuses of every kind 
 without any other ecclesiastical authorization than 
 that implied in his sovereign office. In the same 
 power was also uniformly included the right to 
 nominate and translate bishops, to call national 
 councils and to preside over them in person. 
 
 Meanwhile, however, a great change had occurred 
 on the continent of Europe. The Papal authority, 
 effete and dormant during almost the entire course 
 of the 10th century, had arisen from its long sleep 
 with a power hitherto unprecedented. The laws 
 and canons of the church had been diligently col- 
 lected and arranged mostly from Roman sources,* 
 by ecclesiastics devoted to the extension of papal 
 
 * By Rhegino of Frames, Burchard of Worms, and 
 Anselm of Lucca, all living between the beginning of the 
 10th and the latter half of the llth century. These com- 
 pilers were followed towards the close of that century by 
 Ivo of Chartres, and a few years later by Gratian of Chiusa 
 Tuscany. 
 
33 
 
 influence, with a view to which they had embodied in 
 their digests the whole substance of the most unjusti- 
 fiable fraud and forgery ever imposed upon the igno- 
 rance and credulity of mankind the so-called Isi- 
 dorian Decretals. The principles of ecclesiastical 
 domination put forth in these documents were incon- 
 sistent with the exercise of any kind of jurisdiction by 
 the laity indeed the utter exclusion of the latter from 
 all church membership, except as an inert and passive 
 herd, was one of the principal objects of that cele- 
 brated imposture. After a long struggle the pseudo- 
 Isidorian code maintained its g'round, and notwith- 
 standing some instances of isolated resistance, was 
 generally acknowledged by the clergy as the binding 
 law of the church.* 
 
 Though less completely perhaps than elsewhere, 
 the Eoman canon law in this form was very commonly \ 
 received in the churches of France, more especially 
 in that of Normandy, where a complete separation 
 of the secular and ecclesiastical jurisdictions had 
 already taken place. On the other hand in England 
 the only canons known to the clergy were those 
 enacted by the national church herself, with the 
 assent and concurrence of the sovereign. The 
 Bishop's Court was not distinguished from the Court 
 of the Hundred over which he presided, and in which 
 causes civil and ecclesiastical were indiscriminately 
 
 * The several collectors inserted into their digests 
 every thing material to their purpose that they could find 
 in the Isidorian forgeries. See more particularly the 
 " Decretum Gratiani," and the subsequent compilation of 
 Pope Gregory IX. 
 
 C 
 
34 
 
 decided.* But William of Normandy, it is well 
 known, had solicited and obtained from Pope 
 Alexander II. a confirmation of his title to the 
 crown of England; and was not disinclined to 
 oblige him or the Romanizing 1 clergy in any matter 
 not involving 1 the present surrender of substantial 
 power. Many Norman bishops and clerks followed 
 him into his newly conquered kingdom ; and, 
 with their decretal education, it is not surprising 
 that they should take offence at the profane contact 
 into which they were brought with the laity in the 
 course of their ecclesiastical ministrations. 
 
 We may fix upon this point of time as the com- 
 mencement of the struggle between the Civil laws 
 of England and the Canon or Decretal law of 
 Rome. And it ought not to be forgotten that the 
 latter is, with little exception, of Papal enactment ; 
 that it is compounded in nine parts out of ten of the 
 arbitrary decretals of the Popes, intermixed with 
 forgeries and fictions, fraudulently, ignorantly, or 
 heedlessly introduced into the authorized collections, 
 and that, in the absence of all contemporaneous con- 
 currence on the part of churches or people of Chris- 
 tendom, this code remains to the present day the 
 standard of ecclesiastical law for the Roman com- 
 munion. 
 
 * Twysden, Historical Vindication of the Church of 
 England, p. 99. Leges Hen. I. c. ? The Judges in these 
 Courts were, the Bishop, the Earl and the Sheriff, (vice- 
 dominus), and the order of proceeding was to take first 
 " the administration of the Law Christian, next the King's 
 Pleas, and lastly the Pleas of private persons." 
 
35 
 
 But the earlier ordinances of William the Nor- 
 man for the separation of the ecclesiastical from the 
 lay tribunals were not fully carried out till the 
 reign of King 1 Stephen.* In that reign a success- 
 ful attempt was made to withdraw a clerk charged 
 with murder from the cognizance of the lay 
 judge.f But the ecclesiastical jurisdiction was 
 never acknowledged by the king's courts. No 
 principle of law was more zealously inculcated 
 than that, when any question arose between the 
 courts spiritual and temporal, to which of the 
 two jurisdictions a cause belonged ; the decision 
 always rested with the king's judges.^ There is 
 good ground for believing that William himself had 
 no intention to surrender to the church this impor- 
 tant branch of the rights of his crown. Eadmer 
 says of him that ff all affairs, ecclesiastical as well 
 as secular, were made to depend upon his pleasure." 
 Both the Conqueror and his successors down to John 
 endeavoured indeed to steer a middle course between 
 canonism and prerogative. In their ignorant 
 anxiety to stand well with their Romanizing 
 
 * Twysden, Vindication, &c. p. 101. 
 
 t The case of Symphorian, a clerk of the Cathedral at 
 York, charged with the murder of Archbishop William by 
 poison in the year 1154. 
 
 J Bracton, Lib. v. c. 15. 3. "ludex ecclesiasticus cum 
 prohibitionem a rege susceperit, supersedere debet in omni 
 casu; saltern donee consteterit in curid regis ad quern 
 pertineat jurisdictio." 
 
 Eadmer, p. 6, 21. " Cuncta, divina simul et humana 
 ejus nutum expectabat." 
 
 c 2 
 
clergy, they unconsciously took steps which may 
 have endangered, hut could not vary either the law 
 of the land, or the rights of the Crown. Not one 
 of these princes was to he driven to any legislative 
 measure in any degree trenching upon the law as it 
 stood. In the bitter quarrel between Henry I. and 
 Archbishop Anselm of Canterbury, that prince 
 stoutly maintained his prerogative right to deter- 
 mine which of two rival pretenders to the Papacy 
 the clergy of his dominions should acknowledge.* 
 And when Anselm without the king's consent in- 
 sisted upon transferring his allegiance to Urban II. 
 in preference of his rival Clement III. and asserted 
 his right to sue out his pallium from the former in 
 preference to the latter of these Pontiffs, Henry 
 bluntly informed him that "he knew of no law or 
 custom entitling any subject without his (the king's) 
 licence to set up a Pope of his own over the kingdom 
 of England ; and that any man who should presume 
 to take out of his hands the decision of that question 
 might as well take the crown from his head." The 
 Archbishop, still persisting in his disobedience, was 
 informed that the act would be regarded as a viola- 
 tion of his allegiance, and " that it would be vain to 
 attempt to reconcile his fealty to the king with 
 obedience to the Apostolical See against the 
 will of the Sovereign."! The Archbishop, however 
 
 * Eadmer, Ed. 1623, p. 25. 
 
 t " Nequaquam fidem quam regi debebat, siimil et 
 Apostolicae sedis obedientiam contra ejus (Regis) volunta- 
 tem servare." Eadmer, ubi sup. Anselm himself in his 
 
57 
 
 persisted, and quitted the kingdom on "his i way to 
 Rome. The temporalities of his see were immedi- 
 ately and leg-ally seized into the hands of the king-. 
 
 The struggle between Henry I. and Anselm, was" 
 long' and obstinate. In the sequel it came to turri 
 upon the question of investitures. The king's of 
 England like their continental neighbours, had 
 hitherto been in the habit of giving investiture of 
 bishoprics, abbeys, and higher ecclesiastical ap- 
 pointments by the delivery of the emblematic ring 
 and crozier. These, it was contended by the Court 
 6f Rome, were spiritual tokens, and the transmission 
 of them by lay hands, a desecration and a sacrilege. 
 Anselm therefore refused to receive investiture in 
 this form ; but in the end, with, the consent of Pas- 
 chal II., agreed to do homage to the king for the 
 temporalities of his see, Henry abandoning investi- 
 ture by the ring and crozier. The only change 
 effected in the ecclesiastical practice in England by 
 this step, was the substitution of personal homage 
 and fealty for the prior form of investiture. The 
 real object of the Pope was defeated, the disposal 
 of the temporalities remained in the Crown, and 
 with it effectively the power of appointment to the 
 sees of his kingdom.* 
 
 While the contest between Henry and Anselm 
 
 address to the Synod at Ilingham, near Shaftesbury, 
 reports the expressions of the king even more strongly. 
 
 * The Pope's consent was given with a very bad grace. 
 He permitted the prelate to do homage, but only " donee 
 per omnipotentis Domini gratiam ad hoc omittendum cor 
 regium moHiatur." 
 
38 
 
 wes undecided, a Papal minister arrived on the 
 coast; alleging that he was entrusted with a legantine 
 power over all England; from the Pope. The ting' 
 however held it to be a special prerogative of his 
 Crown; to accept or to reject at his pleasure such 
 interferences with the ordinary ecclesiastical govern- 
 ment of the country by a foreign prince j and the 
 legate was sent out of the country; without having 
 been admitted to the presence of the king. 
 
 About fifteen years after this; the same Pope 
 (Paschal II.) made a second attempt to introduce 
 the legantine power into the kingdom ; but with no 
 better success. The interposition of a foreign juris- 
 diction superseding 1 the ordinary powers of the 
 Church; was equally unpopular among- the clergy 
 and the laity. This legate; like his predecessor; was 
 not permitted to land in England. The king indeed 
 thought fit subsequently to permit his clergy to 
 attend a Council convoked by Pope Calixtus II. at 
 Eheims (A.B. 11 19); but with an express prohibition 
 to carry their causes either original; or in the shape 
 of appeals; before the Pope. " Go" he said; " salute 
 the Pope in my name; listen humbly to the Apostolic 
 precepts, but beware how he or you attempt to 
 introduce innovations into my kingdom." The 
 principle of Henry's conduct in truth was; that 
 commands from Eome were of no force in England; 
 unless they came with the stamp of the royal 
 approbation and consent. 
 
 A third attempt of the same kind by the same 
 pontiff was equally unsuccessful. It was indeed 
 by this time pretty well understood that the law 
 
39 
 
 and custom of England repudiated the legantine 
 commission as an illegal interference with the ordi- 
 nary course of ecclesiastical government which the 
 law had placed under the superintendance of the 
 sovereign.* That the popes should in the preced- 
 ing, as in subsequent ages, hold language implying 
 that the rights exercised by the kings of England 
 in the government of the Church were so exercised 
 by virtue of grants or concessions from them- 
 selves cannot alter the fact that they were claimed 
 by the sovereign and admitted by the nation, in 
 virtue of the law and custom of the realm ; an au- 
 thority abhorrent from all claim of superiority or 
 equality, whether proceeding from foreign priest or 
 prince, or any other external power. The law upon 
 this subject is well expressed in a letter of the Angli- 
 can prelates to Thomas & Becket in the year 1167 : 
 " The king," say they, " is set up by God that he 
 may above all things provide for the peace of the 
 churches, and of the people entrusted to him, that 
 he may preserve the prerogatives of the crown 
 enjoyed by his predecessors, and compel their ob- 
 servance to himself personally ." And in fact, as to 
 
 * Although the writers of the age in describing or al- 
 luding to the acts of the crown in ecclesiastical affairs some- 
 times use the terms "collata," " impetrata," "permissa" 
 which may be thought to imply a delegated power from 
 the Holy See for what they did; yet they as often de- 
 scribe acts of authority by the King as " antiques Anglia3 
 consuetudines," "libertates regni, &c. Henry himself 
 certainly knew them by no other description than " digni- 
 tates, usus, consuetudines quas Pater ejus in regno habuit." 
 
40 
 
 all matters pertaining* to the external police of the 
 church the supremacy of the crown was acknow- 
 ledged, even in that age of struggles and animosities, 
 both by clergy and laity. 
 
 Until the anarchical reign of Stephen the efforts 
 of the crown for the preservation of its ecclesias- 
 tical prerogative were tolerably successful. In the 
 second year of the pontificate of Honorius II. 
 (A. D. 1125), it is true, a Cardinal legate made his 
 appearance in England, and with unheard of inso- 
 lence presumed to take precedence of the Arch- 
 bishop of Canterbury in his own cathedral, thereby 
 superseding- the Primate and setting- up the supre- 
 macy of a commission derived immediately from a 
 foreig-n court. The Anglican prelates fully under- 
 stood the drift of the Papal movement ; and at a 
 Synod held in London under the presidency of the 
 leg-ate himself, protested vehemently ag-ainst the 
 presumptuous arrog-ance of a foreig-n priest in 
 taking- upon himself to occupy the presidential 
 throne above archbishops, bishops and abbots, and 
 the assembled nobility of the whole realm of Eng- 
 land. But Henry I., then in Normandy, had im- 
 prudently given his permission to the legate to pass 
 into England, and thereby afforded an advantage to 
 the Roman enemy which, thoug-h legally ineffectual, 
 could not but operate to the disadvantage of his 
 church. A timid and time-serving spirit was creep- 
 ing into the heart of the Anglican Church. The 
 Archbishop, instead of boldly availing himself of the 
 public indignation at the outrage inflicted upon the 
 lawful dignity and jurisdiction of his primacy, re- 
 
41 
 
 sorted to Rome for his remedy/ and fetched from 
 thence a full legantine commission for himself, by 
 which step, at least during* his own lifetime, he 
 secured himself against further interference from 
 that quarter, but withal sacrificed for his own per- 
 son the independence of his See, together with the 
 prescriptive legal rights thereunto annexed. 
 
 It would be absurd, however, to contend, that this 
 treasonable act could operate in any way to vary or 
 affect the civil or ecclesiastical polity of England, or 
 the prerogatives of the See of Canterbury founded 
 upon that polity, unless it could be shewn that an 
 act of the Pope was of authority to change the law 
 of the land without the concurrence of the Sovereign 
 and the body of the realm.* Certainly no English 
 subject will, I apprehend, be found now-a-days to 
 look to any other authorities than the laws and cus- 
 toms of the kingdom to ascertain the rights of the 
 Crown of England in respect of the Church of Eng- 
 land.! The historical student need not, I think, be 
 
 * Twysden, ubi supr. p. 22 to 25. 
 
 t Henry V., a monarch who cannot be accused of want 
 of reverence for the Papacy, entertained no meaner 
 opinion of his own supremacy. When the envoys of that 
 prince demanded the assent of Pope Martin V. to several 
 particulars touching the Church of England, the hesitations 
 of the Pontiff were put an end to by the declaration of the 
 envoys, that if he refused his concurrence they were in- 
 structed to assure him that the king would nevertheless, 
 in all these particulars, act upon his own prerogative, and 
 that in preferring this request the king had acted, not 
 from any presumed necessity, but simply out of respect 
 and deference for the Pope. Twysden, ubi supr. p. 17- 
 
42 
 
 reminded that periods of national discord and con- 
 fusion are precisely those in which the greatest 
 advances of the Papal power have been effected. 
 The profligate and tyrannical conduct of many of 
 our princes afforded invaluable opportunities for en- 
 croachment. The unsettled condition of the people 
 under the earlier king's of the Norman line, the pre- 
 vailing* ig-norance and superstition of the masses, 
 diverted the nation's attention from the movements 
 of Home, and prevented any clear perception of their 
 pernicious and unconstitutional character. The 
 king's, on the other hand, were so intimidated by 
 the temporal influence derived by the Popes from 
 party connections and intrigues both in Church and 
 State^ as rarely to oppose decisive resistance to the 
 most obvious attempts to subjug*ate both. During* 
 the entire period which elapsed between the acces- 
 sion of Stephen and that of Edward I. (A. D. 1135 
 to 1273) their opportunities for disturbing 1 the 
 Government, exciting* discontent among 1 its subjects, 
 and unsettling* the public conscience their unspar- 
 ing 1 use of spiritual censures and excommunications 
 their inveterate habit of treating- the civil powers 
 as simple instruments for the promotion of ecclesias- 
 tical despotism all these thing's kept the State and 
 Government of the country in perpetual fever of 
 agitation and alarm. Every year of this period 
 unfolds some fresh proof of the temporal tendency 
 of the Papal system. The history of the Church of 
 Rome within this century and a half exhibits a series 
 of purely political advances, disgrdsed under her 
 spiritual claims, which, but for her own errors, must 
 
43 
 
 have consummated the gigantic scheme of theocratic 
 policy first broached by Hildebrand, and brought to 
 perfection by the daring genius of Innocent III. 
 
 In the reign of Stephen the legantine power was 
 fastened upon the kingdom in the person of his bro- 
 ther Henry bishop of Winchester. As legate of 
 the Holy See that prelate took upon himself, in fraud 
 of the king's prerogative and of the bishops' courts, to 
 hear and determine appeals to Rome in ecclesiastical 
 causes. Though till now unknown in England, 
 appeals to the Pope became so frequent in this reign 
 that both clergy and laity began to regard them as 
 an oppressive innovation upon the rights of the 
 national Church. At length, in the llth year of 
 Henry II. (1164), the general discontent found its 
 proper issue in a solemn act of the national legis- 
 lature, declaratory of the ancient law and custom of 
 the realm, and utterly subversive of all the later 
 encroachments of Rome. This statute is known to 
 us as the celebrated Constitutions of Clarendon. 
 
 By this enactment the King, with the assent of 
 his barons and lieges, ecclesiastical and lay, set out 
 and declared certain parts and portions of the customs 
 and liberties of his predecessors in respect of the 
 Church of England, more especially those of his 
 grandfather Henry I., and recited those of them 
 which of right ought to be observed in this kingdom; 
 with a view to settle the dissensions and discords 
 whichhad then of late so frequently arisen between the 
 clergy, the Justiciaries of the king and the nobility of 
 the realm. It was therefore enacted, 1. That all suits 
 respecting presentations and advowsons of churches 
 
44 
 
 Snould be heard in the first instance, in the king's' 
 Courts : 2. That no churches in fee of the king- 
 should be given away without his consent : 3. Clerks 
 accused in any matter before the king's justiciaries, 
 shall come into his court and make answer to all 
 such things as shall be objected to them ; and if the; 
 matter shall appear to be of ecclesiastical cognizance, 
 it shall be by them remitted to the spiritual court : 
 4. Archbishops, bishops, and office-bearers of the 
 crown, shall not depart the realm to go to Borne or 
 elsewhere, without the king's licence : 5. No person 
 holding in capite of the crown, nor any of his ser- 
 vants shall be excommunicated, or their lands placed 
 under interdict without advising with the king there- 
 upon : 6. All appeals in ecclesiastical causes shall 
 proceed in regular gradation from the court of the 
 archdeacon to that of the bishop ; from him there 
 ghall be an appeal to the archbishop ; and if there 
 shall be a failure of justice in the last of these courts, 
 appeal shall be had to the king himself in the court 
 of the archbishop ; no further appeal to be lawful 
 without express consent of the crown : 7. All actions 
 respecting lands to be brought, in the first instance, 
 in the lords' court or that of the king; if the land 
 be there found to be of lay tenure, the decision to 
 rest with the temporal courts ; if of spiritual tenure, 
 the plea of right to be remitted to the court Christian : 
 8. Archbishops and bishops shall hold their sees of 
 the king by tenure of barony; they shall be responsible 
 for their conduct as barons to the justiciaries and 
 ministers of the king ; they shall follow and perform 
 all the dues and duties of their baronies, and shall 
 
45 
 
 attend the king's courts and person like other barons : 
 9. The rents and profits of all vacant sees, abbeys, 
 and priories shall, during* vacancy, flow into the 
 king's exchequer : 10. When such a vacancy shall 
 occur, the chief clergy of the church to be filled up 
 shall appear to the king's summons, and there in 
 his chapel, by his consent, and by the advice of the 
 persons whom he shall appoint, proceed to elect a 
 successor to the benefice ; the person so elected, then 
 and there to do homage to the king- for the same.* 
 
 Becket was for the moment driven out of his 
 course of resistance by the unanimity of the National 
 Council, and reluctantly subscribed the Constitutions 
 of Clarendon. But Henry imprudently permitted 
 him to resort to Pope Alexander III., who was 
 at that moment holding- a Council at Sens in 
 France. Becket applied to the pontiff for a pardon 
 and dispensation from the uncanonical obligation 
 he had incurred by assenting' to the Constitutions 
 of Clarendon. Alexander readily granted both, 
 and in the " fulness of his pontifical authority," 
 set aside and annulled a statute of the realm of 
 England. Henry II. did his best to exasperate 
 the quarrel ; he stopped the payment of the bene- 
 volence annually paid to Rome under the name of 
 c Peter's pence ;' sequestered all the temporalities of 
 the See of Canterbury, and banished the adherents 
 and relatives of the archbishop. 
 
 No man living more thoroughly understood, or 
 more heartily adopted the whole spirit of the papal 
 scheme than Archbishop Becket.. The canons of 
 
 * Matth. Paris. Ed. Watts, 1784, p. 84, 85. 
 
46 
 
 Rome were his gospel, and none had more diligently 
 studied them ; no one had more faithfully devoted 
 himself to their advocacy. He replied to the un- 
 worthy persecutions of Henry II. in a tone of 
 haughty defiance. He reminded the king that 
 "sovereigns were after all but the creatures and 
 servants of the church ; priests, he said, were the 
 fathers and the masters of all earthly princes and 
 people $ sons cannot hold their fathers, or pupils 
 their masters, in bondage ; neither may kings hind 
 or loose those by whom they themselves are to be 
 finally bound and loosed ; no human law hath any 
 power over a priest ; no human judge, be he king or 
 noble, shall dare to lay hands upon him ; for it is 
 the duty of kings and nobles humbly to bow before 
 him and cherish him; yea, kings and emperors 
 have been, before now, bound by him in the bond 
 of excommunication.''* 
 
 This language was strictly canonical, although it 
 was not yet fully comprehended by Government, or 
 Church in England. But Becket sacrificed his 
 life in the cause of canonism, and no man can doubt 
 the sincerity of his convictions. A better witness 
 could not be desired ; but his testimony, though at 
 first it terrified a prince of infirm moral habits, 
 and alarmed the superstition of the community, 
 made few converts in this country. Scarcely six 
 years after the murder of Becket, the Constitutions 
 
 * Becket alluded here to the excommunication of the 
 Emperor Henry IV. by Gregory VII. in 1076, and the 
 like course then lately pursued by Pope Alexander III. 
 against the Emperor Frederick I, (Barbarossa) in 1161. 
 
47 
 
 of Clarendon were again confirmed by the great 
 council of the kingdom, and severe penalties were 
 enacted against persons quitting the realm to 
 carry appeals to Rome the very cause in which 
 Becket suffered martyrdom.* The statutes of Cla- 
 rendon remained unaltered during the reign of 
 Richard Coeur de Lion. But in that of his wretched 
 brother John the power of the crown suffered a 
 defeat which under other circumstances might have 
 been fatal. John surrendered his crown into the 
 hands of the Pope to purchase the privilege of 
 worrying and plundering his subjects. But the 
 Barons who had assented to this base act, to protect 
 themselves against his tyranny, were now deserted 
 by their patron the Pope, and were driven to assert 
 the ancient rights of the kingdom by their own 
 unaided efforts against both Pope and king. John 
 was compelled to sign the Great Charter declaratory 
 of the national liberties. The first article of that act 
 provided that the Church of England should be free, 
 and enjoy all its rights and liberties inviolable, a 
 provision levelled against the lawless invasion of 
 ecclesiastical endowments committed by the tyrant 
 on the throne.f The Great Charter at the same 
 
 * How perfectly the language and conduct of Becket 
 tallied with the language held by Innocent III. to king 
 John appears from Southey's extracts from the letter of 
 that Pope to the King upon the arbitrary appointment of 
 Cardinal Langton to the See of Canterbury in defiance 
 of the Chapter of Canterbury, the bishops of the province 
 and the royal will. See Southey, Book of the Church, 
 vol. i. p. 269. t Coke's 2 Inst. p. 3. 
 
48 
 
 time repealed the prohibition ag-ainst carrying* 
 appeals to Rome, and opened a door to numerous 
 abuses which must be referred to in the sequel. In 
 this place it is particularly to be observed that 
 Innocent III. who now reg-arded Engiand as a fief 
 of the Holy See, and John as his sworn servant and 
 vassal, took upon himself to annul the Great Charter 
 and to excommunicate the members of the National 
 Council by whom it had been enacted ; thus undis- 
 guisedly, and with every form of sovereign authority 
 with which the act could be clothed, repealing 1 a 
 solemn statute of the realm, and claiming- secular 
 power within the king-dom, overriding 1 all law, and 
 equally inconsistent with the existence of either civil 
 or religious liberty. 1 * 
 
 .8. Struggle between Canonism and Prerogative. 
 
 The Constitutions of Clarendon fairly represent the 
 state of the royal prerogative in ecclesiastical matters 
 down to the date of Magna Charta. But that 
 great document of liberties was extorted from King- 
 
 * The provision in . 50 of the Great Charter was, it is 
 believed, made expressly to prevent any impediment to 
 resorting to Rome in order to enter appeals in ecclesias- 
 tical causes. See Twysden, p. 33. The bull against the 
 Barons declares that England is a fief of the Holy See ; 
 that the Barons have no right to give away the rights of 
 the crown without the assent of the feudal lord ; they 
 were therefore rebels : wherefore as he " whom God had 
 appointed over nations and kingdoms to pluck up and to 
 destroy, to build and to plant, he annulled what they had 
 done, &c." 
 
49 
 
 John by an unhappy alliance with Rome, an 
 alliance which began and ended in the degradation 
 of the crown, and a vast extension of the Papal 
 influence in ecclesiastical affairs. 
 
 But all this time the law of the land fortunately 
 remained untouched, though its practice was in a 
 great degree obscured by the prevalence of Canon- 
 ism, introduced by the Romanizing clergy. When- 
 ever any abuse became intolerable, the law, 
 imprinted in the hearts and memories of the people, 
 was at hand to strengthen remonstrance by arg*u- 
 ment, and to encounter the presumption that any 
 lengih of practice can legalize an abuse. 
 
 The first malpractice which drew on it the atten- 
 tion of the crown and people of England was that of 
 appeals to Borne. The envoys of Henry III. to 
 the Council of Lyons in 1245, presented a spirited 
 remonstrance to Pope Innocent IV. upon the 
 gTievance of appeals, and at .the same time invoked 
 the law of the land against the admission of Papal 
 legates into the kingdom without the king's licence. 
 No one, they declared, was liable or ought by law to 
 be dragged out of the kingdom to answer to a foreign 
 judge for his conduct at home. This remonstrance, 
 however, produced no adequate remedy. Little im- 
 provement in the practice took place until Edward 
 I. in his renewal of the Great Charter, omitted the 
 clause by which the subject was allowed to go 
 beyond seas without the consent of the king; 
 thus reviving the law as it stood under the Consti- 
 tutions of Clarendon. Thenceforward no one could 
 arbitrarily withdraw his cause from the cognizance 
 
 D 
 
50 
 
 of the king's courts, or that of the ordinary spiritual 
 tribunals, without the express licence of the crown ; 
 and all who thus far presumed might be compelled 
 to sue out a pardon for the offence. 
 
 But this abuse dwindled into insignificance when 
 compared with others brought upon the people by 
 the state of spiritual thraldom into which they had 
 been plunged by the combined influence of ignorance, 
 oppression, and tyranny. The systematic efforts to 
 reduce the Church and clergy of England to the 
 level of subserviency to which the kingdom had 
 fallen under the government of John, ended in the 
 transfer of all the richest benefices, including arch- 
 bishoprics, bishoprics, and abbeys, into the absolute 
 disposal of the Pope. The process by which this 
 consummation was accomplished is remarkable for 
 its illegal and surreptitious character. 
 
 The Archbishop of Canterbury, as Primate of 
 England, enjoyed by law the completest exemp- 
 tion from all foreign control. But the Popes 
 availing themselves of the respectful homage 
 paid to them, as the senior bishops of Christendom, 
 received every such act of reverential attachment, 
 as an acknowledgment of spiritual supremacy. The 
 primates of England had in this way kept up an 
 intercourse of mutual advice and affection, almost 
 from the first establishment of Christianity in the 
 island. The account against them for all this ran 
 up at Borne to a fearful amount ; and as soon as 
 the Conquest had smoothed the path, payment was 
 demanded to the uttermost farthing. Though it was 
 not very easy at once to recover the whole debt, 
 
51 
 
 yet the two Hildebrandine archbishops Lanfranc 
 and Anselm, lent them no inconsiderable assistance 
 in bearding- the crown, and building* up a strong* 
 canonist party among* the clergy of England. A 
 beginning was made with the monasteries. Lan- 
 franc procured the exemption of many of the greater 
 conventual bodies from episcopal control. The 
 ambition of these bodies had always been to be their 
 own ordinaries ; they preferred a distant master to 
 one on the spot j and for that consideration sold 
 themselves without reservation to Eome. By this 
 means the Pope obtained a numerous and able 
 body of adherents, always acting* under the con- 
 sciousness of inability to maintain their long 1 coveted 
 exemptions without his aid. 
 
 Innocent III., to whom the largest strides towards 
 the accomplishment of the entire Papal scheme may 
 be attributed, had managed to effect the transfer 
 of the election of the Archbishop primate, from the 
 bishops of the province to the monks and canons of 
 the convent of St. Augustine attached to the Metro- 
 politan Church. The same process gradually threw 
 the episcopal elections throughout both provinces, . 
 into the hands of the canons regular of the eathe- / 
 dral churches. The Hildebrandine scheme was / 
 beginning to fructify in an accession of power / 
 and wealth to Eome. The freedom of election, for 
 which Gregory VII. had fought with infinite 
 resolution and pertinacity, was by this device 
 effectually overthrown ; the king was divested of his 
 customary right of nomination to vacant sees and 
 abbeys, but without restoring it to the bishops, 
 
 D 2 
 
52 
 
 clergy, and commonalty of provinces and dioceses, 
 
 to whom, by the common law of the Church, it be- 
 
 A longed. The regulars upon whom that right had 
 
 I now devolved were devoted canonists, the humblest 
 
 f class of dependants upon Rome; and soon were 
 
 themselves made to drink deeply of the bitter cup 
 
 they had administered to the bishops. The Popes, 
 
 after a brief pause, began to set aside all forms of 
 
 election, " ex concesso plenitudinis ecclesiastics 
 
 potestatis," and to grant out in various ways all 
 
 the richest benefices in the kingdom to favourites 
 
 and dependants.* 
 
 But the chain which was to fetter the Church of 
 England to the footstool of the Papacy, was not 
 yet deemed strong enough to break the neck of re- 
 sistance among the headstrong* population of Britain. 
 The invention of the Pallium, a very ancient symbol 
 of the metropolitan dignity was made subservient 
 to that purpose. The nature and significance of 
 this ornament must come under consideration here- 
 after, in connection with the principal subject of 
 this discourse. It is sufficient to observe in this 
 place that it was holden by the Canonists that with- 
 out it there can be no valid exercise of the archie- 
 piscopal powers. The pallium, though originally 
 regarded as a simple testimonial of spiritual regard 
 and affection from the first bishop of the Christian 
 
 * See Bulla Greg. IX. ap. Matth. Paris, Ed. Watts, 
 p. 299, 300. It is said by Matth. Paris that during the 
 three years, that Otho, the legate of Gregory IX. sojourned 
 in England, he bestowed more than 300 ecclesiastical 
 benefices. 
 
58 
 
 world to his favoured brethren at a distance, became 
 at leng'th a mode of conveying" such a share of the 
 plenitude of the Apostolic authority residing 1 in the 
 See of Peter, as was deemed essential to the exercise 
 of the metropolitan office. Since the Conquest, 
 every Archbishop of Canterbury or York sued out 
 his pallium at Rome ; most frequently in person. 
 The Popes at a very early period* beg'an to annex 
 to the delivery of the pallium a specific oath of 
 temporal allegiance to the Holy See. Within a 
 little more than a century from this time, the same 
 oath was exacted from all bishops and abbots, in 
 addition to the money price then usually paid for the 
 Papal confirmation.^ But more than this ; bishops 
 and abbots were at length compelled, under grievous 
 penalties, spiritual and temporal, to appear before 
 the Pope in person, to sue for the confirmation of 
 their elections \ and to that end several severe canons 
 were enBctecfin the so-called General Councils of 
 1215 and 1245. J All these measures answered the 
 double purpose of extending the Papal influence and 
 
 * That of Ralph or Radulph, Archb. of Canterbury is 
 the first case on record. (A.D. 1115.) 
 
 t The words of this oath as reported by Matth. Paris, 
 (Hist. Maj. Ed. Watts, p. 349, 35), are almost word for 
 word a transcript of the oath of feudal allegiance of sub- 
 jects to their sovereigns. " I swear that I will be faithful 
 and obedient to the Holy Roman church, and to our 
 Lord N. and his successors canonically appointed." 
 See also Matth. Paris, Vita? Abbat. S. Alban, p. 1067, 
 1069. 
 
 Under Innocent III. and Innocent IV. 
 
54 
 
 enriching:, the Papal treasury by an organized sys- 
 tem of assessment and collection, agreeing* with 
 the then current canonical theory of the chair of 
 Peter. We must refer to that theory hereafter for 
 another purpose, observing- only in this place that 
 the Papacy was, under the fostering- care of the 
 Canonists, fast growing to the full stature, and as- 
 suming all the attributes of a universal temporal 
 sovereignty, to which the idea of territorial revenue 
 commensurate with the extent of its presumed 
 dominion naturally necessarily, attached itself. 
 Several kingdoms in Europe, among the rest Eng- 
 land, were regarded at Rome as tributary states, 
 and in that capacity as much a part and portion of 
 the patrimony of St. Peter as the Italian territories 
 comprised in the donations of Pepin or Charie- 
 magne. We have now to inquire how that theory 
 worked in practice ; we shall trace to its operation 
 the establishment of a system of rapacity, venality 
 and extortion without a parallel in the history of 
 nations ; and probably in the end convince ourselves 
 that to the intolerable abuses it introduced, we are 
 indebted for the restoration of the lawful supremacy 
 of the crown and the ultimate liberation of the 
 country from the incubus of Papal tyranny. 
 
 Bearing, then, in mind that by the systematic 
 } disparagement of the metropolitan jurisdiction ; by 
 fettering archbishops and bishops with the oath of 
 fealty; by removing abbots, priors and convents 
 from episcopal control; by placing perpetual im- 
 pediments in the way of the " common law" of the 
 church through the interposition of legates a 
 
55 
 
 more than all, by taking- advantage of the internal 
 distempers of the state, arraying* king against nobles, 
 and nobles against the king, the court of Rome had 
 succeeded, first in wresting investitures out of the 
 hands of the sovereigns of Europe, and afterwards 
 appropriating all the richest and most important 
 benefices to itself we have now to see what use 
 it made of the enormous powers thus usurped. 
 
 The earliest financial claim of that court upon 
 England, was based upon the payment of ' Peter's 
 pence/ This payment arose in the Saxon era, and 
 was regarded strictly as a benevolence or almsgiving 
 from the monarch to the See of Peter for the benefit 
 of his own soul, and the spiritual welfare of his 
 people.* Some of our own early writers described this 
 impost as the "Tributum S. Petri." The Canonists 
 improved upon the idea suggested by this word, and 
 at length contended that the payment implied an 
 acknowledgement by the king, on behalf of his king- 
 dom, that he was " Tributarius feudatarius S. Petro 
 ejusque successoribus."t Indeed, the antiquity of 
 the payment, the unfrequent interruptions, and those 
 owing rather to political quarrels with the see of 
 Eoni8, than to any denial of the charitable obligation, 
 
 * Hoveden. " De Denario S. Petri, qui Anglice dicitur 
 ' Romescot/ " Savile, p. 603. 
 
 t Twysden, p. 74. from Will, of Malmsbury. That 
 writer says, that the envoy of Henry I. to Rome in the 
 cause of Ansehn of Canterbury, acknowledged " Angliam 
 peculiarem esse Romance ecclesise provinciam, et ei quo- 
 tannis tributum pensitare." Malmsb. ap. Savile, p. 226, 20 
 to 30. 
 
56 
 
 gave it the semblance of a debt or annuity of right 
 .due from the kingdom of England to the chair of 
 Peter. But a donation of a charitable nature, however 
 binding- or imperative, cannot be converted into a tri- 
 bute implying- political subjection. Yet when taken 
 in conjunction with the surrender of his crown by 
 King- John, it mig-ht furnish a case for argument, 
 more especially upon canonical principles by which 
 the most trivial presumptions of fact are constantly 
 substituted for conclusions of law provided it could 
 be shewn that John could leg-ally transfer his crown 
 to a strang-er. On any other supposition the pay- 
 ment of Peter's pence by him and his successors is 
 valueless in argument.* 
 
 But the mind of Rome was made up upon this 
 subject sometime before the successful mission of 
 Cardinal Pandulph in Eng-land. In the year 1183 
 Pope Lucius III. called upon King- Henry II. 
 the clergy and all other Christian people to supply 
 him with a subsidy to carry on the war in which he 
 was engaged with his own rebellious subjects. 
 The clergy, not as yet quite broken in to the yoke, 
 declined any direct contribution to the necessities of 
 the Pope, but offered the King- a sum of money to 
 be transmitted to Rome as from himself, alleging 
 as their reason that they did not wish to see any 
 Nuncio of the Pope in England to fleece them.f 
 This advice was followed and the money was paid. 
 So likewise a year or two afterwards Pope Clement 
 
 * Twysden, 76. 
 
 t Hoveden ap. Savile, p. 622, 14 to 25, 
 
5? 
 
 III. addressed the like application to Henry (1187) ; 
 and Pope Innocent III., to king John in 1201 for 
 the carrying 1 on of the Holy Wars in Palestine, < 
 But the latter pontiff always in advance of his pre- 
 decessors in the career of encroachment managed 
 upon this occasion to introduce his agents and 
 collectors into the country to assist in the levy, 
 whereby he was enabled to appropriate a portion of 
 the funds to his own use, and to furnish a profitable 
 job for his dependants.* The same process was 
 repeated in 1206,f and the contemptible coward 
 upon the throne bespoke the favourable consideration 
 of the haughty Innocent upon the ground that 
 the monarch of a kingdom from which both he and 
 his courtiers derived a richer revenue than from all 
 the regions on that side of the Alps taken together, 
 was entitled to more regard than to have an Arch- 
 bishop (Langton) whom he did not know forced 
 upon him.J In the year 1229 again, Gregory IX. 
 demanded of the kingdom a tenth of all revenues, 
 both lay and ecclesiastical, to enable him to carry on 
 his internecine war with the imperial house of Ho- I 
 henstauffen. The laity declined \ the clergy yielded I 
 with reluctance, and about eleven years afterwards I 
 
 * Matth. Paris, Ann. 1202, p. 174, 62, 63. 
 
 t Matth. Paris, Ann. 1206, p. 180, 25 to 30. " Johannes 
 Ferentinus Apost. Sed. legatus veniens in Angliam, 
 eamque perlustrans, magnam pecuniae summam congessit. -. 
 quo facto, sarcinulis cum magna cautela dispositis et pru- 
 denter commendatis, festinus viator ad mare perveniens, 
 Angliam a tergo salutavit." 
 
 t M. Paris, Ann. 1207, p. 188, 34 to 38. 
 
58 
 
 were rewarded by a second demand of a Jlftk of all 
 their moveables to make up, so we conjecture, for 
 the total absence of fidelity and obedience, estima- 
 ted in hard cash, for which the English were so 
 severely censured by the Roman Curia.* Henry 
 III. was indeed anxious to g*et rid of the Papal 
 legate, but the latter clung- to his lucrative office, 
 and the King- when pressed upon the subject by the 
 envoys of the Emperor Frederick II. declared that 
 as liegeman and vassal of Rome he could not interfere 
 with the legate's proceeding's. In the result the 
 Pope carried his point ; clergy and laity were 
 assessed alike to enable him to carry on a war of 
 purely secular ambition against a foreign sovereign, 
 the ally and relative of their king. At the departure 
 of the legate in the following year, it was said, he 
 carried away as much ready cash as he left behind in 
 the kingdom. Not long afterwards, Innocent IV. 
 (A.D. 1246), levied an impost upon the religious 
 houses in this country for the undisguised purpose 
 of paying the troops engaged in his own domestic 
 and foreign wars. 
 
 These precedents of general taxation were more 
 than sufficient for the canonists. At Rome, a bona 
 Jlde conviction prevailed that England was part and 
 portion of the patrimony of St. Peter, and the im- 
 patience of the Curia was exasperated to fury at 
 the obstacles they encountered in drawing ad 
 libitum both upon clergy and laity .f But fortu- 
 
 * M. Paris, Ann. 1229, p. 304, 305. Id. Ann. 1240, 
 p. 469, 20 to 60. 
 
 f See M. Paris, Ann. 1229, 304, 305. 
 
59 
 
 nately the English law and lawyers took as little 
 heed of their claims as they of any other law than 
 the canons, and the principles deducible from them^ 
 The common law still opposed an insurmountable 
 barrier to any regular well organized scheme of 
 taxation, other than that sanctioned by Magna 
 Charta and the usages of the realm. The Popes 
 were therefore driven to irregular, and perhaps on 
 that account more vexatious modes of filling their 
 treasury, and satisfying the insatiable cravings of 
 their creatures and dependants. 
 
 The transfer of benefices under a variety of 
 pretexts from the king and lay patrons to the Curia, 
 the extortions for the pallium, for confirmations and 
 the expenses attendant upon frequent journeys to 
 Rome a very convenient expedient for ascertaining 
 the squeezable character and capacities of the 
 country exhausted the patience both of clergy 
 and laity. At the Council of Lyons in 1245, the 
 English prelates complained that not less than 
 60,000 marks were annually carried out of the 
 country by the Pope's Italian beneficiaries, besides 
 other sums from different sources. In the follow- 
 ing year they reiterated their complaints, but 
 with like ill success on both occasions.* 
 
 The indignation of all classes had, however, by 
 this time become loud and general enough to awaken 
 Henry from his lethargic submission. In 1246 he 
 plucked up courag'e to prohibit the payment of all 
 talliages and aids to the Pope.f All Europe, in 
 
 * Matth. Paris, Ann. 1245, p. 585, 586. Id. Ann. 
 1246, p. 618, 619. f Ibid. Ann. 1246, p. 619. 
 
60 
 
 about this time rang- with bitter invectives 
 against the rapacity of the Pontiffs, and the bound- 
 less extortions of the Roman curia.* 
 
 But aids and talliages were not in themselves 
 sufficient to account for the drain of specie com- 
 plained of. Yet as on the one hand they implied a 
 more serious attack upon the temporal prerogative 
 of the crown, the power of levying 1 them was the 
 more flattering- to the pretensions of the Pope to 
 paramount sovereignty over the kingdom. After the 
 above mentioned reproof, however, we hear of no 
 similar attempts on the part of Rome. But through- 
 out the reigns of Henry III. and his successors Ed- 
 ward I. and Edward II. little improvement is to be 
 traced in the state of the Anglican Church. The 
 favourite modes of disposing of the Church revenues 
 were those of provisions and reservations. A provision 
 was a grant of survivorship of a particular benefice 
 by the Pope to an ecclesiastic thereunto previously 
 named sometimes to youths or children, occasion- 
 ally to persons as yet unborn. Reservation was 
 effected by keeping a benefice open until it suited 
 the Pope to appoint to it, with a claim to the reve- 
 nues accruing during the period of vacancy .f 
 
 * See Matth. Paris's naive description of the deputation 
 of the monks of St, Albans to Rome in the cause of 
 Abbot John. Vitse Abbot. S. Alb. p. 1067- 
 
 f Provisions, as the name imports, were modes of pro- 
 viding for those who served the papacy with zeal or 
 ability, or of enriching favourites and relatives at the ex- 
 pense of sovereigns and private patrons ; sometimes they 
 assumed the shape of annuities reserved upon the reve- 
 
01 
 
 A very ancient benevolence to the See of Rome 
 generally, though perhaps in the earlier periods not 
 universally paid, was known by the namejxf ^First- 
 fruits, and consisted of a sum equal to the first 
 year's income of every benefice in the hands of a 
 new incumbent. Annates or Tenths, were the 
 tythe of the annual revenue of all sees and livings, 
 like Peter's pence and First-fruits, originally a 
 simple eleemosynary payment, but in the same way 
 gradually converted into a canonical tax, were 
 imposts submitted to by the clergy, and connived at 
 by the king. The pontiffs were in the habit of main- 
 taining a number of agents in this country, known by 
 the name of procurators and collectors, with a view 
 to the more effectual collection of the revenue arising 
 from these sources. But these officers did not escape 
 the vigilance of the English princes. Under the 
 pretence of collecting for him they shared the spoil 
 with the Pope, and to this circumstance we may 
 attribute the long continuance of abuses which must 
 otherwise have sunk under their own weight. 
 
 At length a better era seemed to dawn upon the 
 Anglican Church. The publication of Papal bulls 
 had proved a serious obstacle to the administration 
 of justice ; excommunications and interdicts against 
 princes and ministers of the crown irritated and 
 
 nues of abbeys and other benefices ; they were universal 
 throughout the Latin communion during the middle ages, 
 and rested solely upon the " plenitude of the apostolical 
 authority/' by simply annulling and setting at naught all 
 other public or private rights. Comp. Du Cange, Gloss. 
 Vocibus ' Provisio' and ' Reservation 
 
62 
 
 perplexed the Government ; bulls of provision, 
 reservation, survivorships, and annuities ; bulls for 
 the exemption of monasteries from episcopal super- 
 vision ; for the appointment of procurators and 
 collectors, and a variety of other objects connected 
 with the system of illegal taxation established upon 
 the sole authority of Rome \ the custom of inter- 
 fering- with the ordinary course of Church Govern- 
 ment, and pushing the Sovereign and the Primate 
 from the seat they had always occupied in the 
 ecclesiastical Synods of the realm ; the frightful 
 results of the immunities from secular responsibility 
 claimed by the Papal canonists for the clergy ; and 
 lastly, the extortions of the Pope and his agents, 
 the drain of specie out of the country to enrich the 
 minions of a foreign court, all these indignities 
 operated at length to recall the attention of the 
 people to the laws of the land, and to convince them 
 of the necessity of preventing the pernicious system, 
 growing out of their own superstitions and discords, 
 from expanding itself to the total overthrow of 
 their laws and liberties. 
 
 The law of England always looked upon the in- 
 troduction and publication of Papal bulls in this 
 country with extreme jealousy. There is no prin- 
 ciple of the common law clearer than that no such 
 instrument could be legally brought into this coun- 
 try without the express permission of the Sovereign.* 
 
 * See the proceedings against the Bishops of Norwich 
 and London for interdicting the lands of Hugh, Earl of 
 Chester, in obedience to the Pope's bull, and in contempt 
 
63 
 
 King* Edward I. could with difficulty be persuaded 
 to spare the life of a person who had dared to intro- 
 duce a bull calculated to create disturbance in the 
 king-dom j and his grandson^ Edward III. actually 
 put to death several persons for the like offence.* 
 In the reig'n of the latter the complaints of the 
 nation became more frequent. In the lists of 
 grievances exhibited in the rolls of Parliament 
 under that prince none appears more frequently 
 than that of Papal provisions. The king 1 himself 
 became incensed at the surreptitious abstraction of 
 those presentations and advowsons which had been 
 from all times, and still were by law attached to 
 the crown. He directed Pope Clement VI. to be 
 informed that it was the law and custom of the 
 realm of England that all elections to vacant sees 
 should take place with the consent and in the 
 presence of the Sovereign. In the Parliament of 
 the 25 Ed. III. the Commons expressed bitter 
 resentment ag-ainst provisions ; they told the 
 king- that the Court of Rome had by such 
 instruments reserved to itself all the abbeys and 
 priories, all the prebends of cathedral churches 
 and all the richest benefices of the kingdom.! 
 This remonstrance produced the first Statute of 
 
 of the Constitutions of Clarendon (A.D. 1164), Matth. 
 Paris. Ed. Watts, p. 86, 87. 
 
 * Twysden, p. 6?. Walsingham, Hist. Angl. Ann. 
 1358, p. 145, ap. Camden, Anglica, Hybernica, &c. p. 522, 
 Ed. Frankf. 1602. 
 
 t Rot, Parl. 25 Ed. III. Ed. of Rec. Comm. vol. ii. p. 
 228. 
 
64 
 
 Provisors which is annexed to the roll of that Par- 
 liament.* The preamble states that "the Pope 
 hath ( accroached' to himself not merely the presen- 
 tation but the sovereign right or lordship over 
 bishoprics, abbeys, priories, benefices, and religious 
 foundations of every kind : that he had given and 
 granted the same to aliens not domiciled in the 
 country, and to Cardinals who could not reside 
 there, in the same manner and as fully as if he were 
 in rightful possession of the patronage and ad vow- 
 son of the said dignities and benefices, the which is 
 contrary to the law of England, and in prejudice of 
 the rightful owners ; so that if such practice be 
 allowed to prevail, soon there will not remain a 
 single living in England which, by the method of 
 Provision, shall not have fallen into the hands of 
 aliens or denizens, against the intention of the 
 founders, to the ruin of the Church of England, the 
 disinherison of the king and his heirs, as also of the 
 nobility, the patrons and founders kin, to the scandal 
 and overthrow of the law, and franchises of the 
 kingdom, the great injury of souls, and the ultimate 
 ruin of the kingdom." Reciting further that prior , 
 to the grant of free election to the chapters of 
 cathedrals and abbeys, the free disposal and pre- 
 sentment to all churches of royal foundation was 
 absolutely vested in the king as prime grants ; the 
 statute enacts, that the chapters shall in all cases 
 apply to the crown for a conge d'elire, and present 
 the clerk of their choice to the king for his approval; 
 
 t Ibid. n. 46. p. 232. 
 
G5 
 
 reserving 1 to him the free presentation, for that 
 turn, of all such benefices as should have been at 
 that time the subjects of any unexecuted Papal 
 reservation or provision. 
 
 This led to the statutes of 27th and 28th Edward 
 III.,, in pari materid. In the latter years of his 
 reign however, Edward III. came to an understand- 
 ing with Pope Gregory XI., whereby it was agreed 
 that the latter should not in future make any more 
 reservations in this kingdom. But the Parliaments 
 declined placing any confidence in Rome, and 
 petitioned the king not to permit either Pope or 
 Cardinal, to maintain any procurators or collectors 
 in England, upon pain of life and limb.* Yet the 
 concordat or agreement appears to have given little 
 satisfaction to the country } and in the 50th Edward 
 III., the Commons renewed their complaints. The 
 petition presented on that occasion, contains a full 
 statement of the law of the land regarding advow- 
 sons and presentations, and proceeds to set forth the 
 consequences of the Papal aggressions, in terms of 
 the severest reprobation. " It should be considered," 
 say they, "that the Church of England was in 
 ancient times -founded by the kings, nobles, and 
 Christian people of this realm, and by them endowed 
 with rich rentals, lands, and great possessions, 
 together with many franchises, and all other tem- 
 poralities thereunto annexed; which possessions, 
 together with those given and granted by the king, 
 amount to more than a third part of the kingdom ; 
 
 * Twysden, p. 62, 64. 
 E 
 
66 
 
 that all these thing's were given to the intent that 
 the profits arising* therefrom should be expended on 
 the spots where they are produced, to the honour 
 of God, the maintenance of churches, and in hospi- 
 tality, alms and works of charity : that the kings 
 and other great men of the realm had heretofore, in 
 consideration of these great gifts to holy Church, 
 been in peaceable possession of the rights of ad- 
 vowson and presentation to the said churches and 
 benefices, so by them founded and endowed : that 
 afterwards, indeed, at the suit of the Pope, and 
 with the consent of the king, the bishops were 
 freely elected by the chapters of their churches, and 
 resided upon their sees, instructing the people, and 
 spending their revenues there, as in duty bound ; 
 that as long as this good custom lasted, the king- 
 dom was wealthy and prosperous ; but when they 
 were laid aside, and the revenues arising from them 
 were diverted to the purposes of covetousness and 
 simony, the kingdom fell into all manner of adver- 
 sities ; wars, pestilence, famines, murrains, and 
 poverty so afflicted and ruined the country, that 
 that there is now scarcely the third part of the 
 population, or the wealth it once possessed left in it : 
 That the court of Rome hath so subtlely and cun- 
 ningiy, by little and little, and advancing from less 
 to more, in the process of time, and by the sufferance 
 and abettings of evil-disposed persons, out of all 
 measure of times past, drawn to itself the collation 
 to bishoprics, abbeys, dignities, livings, and other 
 benefices to the amount of more than five times the 
 rents and profits of the King in England : That of 
 
67 
 
 every benefice so given away by the Pope, he re- 
 serves to himself a tax or sum of money therefrom, 
 so that if a bishop die before paying- the assessment, 
 that assessment is levied together with a second 
 upon the successor. That with a view to make a 
 pretext for more taxings, the Pope, by means of 
 translations, makes two or three vacancies out of 
 one, levying 1 a tax for each translation, so that 
 when a bishop has got his bulls, he is often so much 
 in debt for the tax and other payments to the Court 
 of Rome, that he is obliged to cut down the woods 
 of his see, to borrow from his friends, to levy aids 
 from his poor tenants, and subsidies from his clergy; 
 thereby greatly distressing the Church and people 
 of England.* 
 
 But the Statute of Provisors (25 Ed. III.) con- 
 tained a blot which rendered it almost inoperative. 
 The king might at any time legalize every one of 
 the abuses complained of by his royal licence. The 
 statute, therefore, merely operated to enable him to 
 make a better bargain with the Pope; but con- 
 tributed little to the abolition of the abuses com- 
 plained of. In the third year of Richard II. the 
 Commons renewed their remonstrances against the 
 concordat of the late reign, which, they said, had 
 resulted in no real benefit to the country. They 
 then present that the reigning Pope, Urban VI. 
 had lately given the priory of Deerhurst to an 
 
 * Rot. Parl. 50 Ed. III. n. 94. Records, vol. ii. p. 
 The petition goes on to expose the vile traffic in benefices, 
 provisions, reservations, &c. in the corrupt court of Avignon, 
 carried on by brokers and procurers, &c. 
 
 E 2 
 
68 
 
 alien Cardinal, the like of which was never before 
 endured in this country, and had granted to another 
 Cardinal the archdeaconry of Bath, together with 
 the first expectation that should fall vacant within 
 the province of Canterbury, at and for the price of 
 4000 florins j and that he is in the daily habit of 
 selling* to other aliens, reservations and provisions 
 upon the revenues of English benefices. 
 
 The king's answer, and the enactment thereupon 
 fell far short of the first expectation of the Commons. 
 ( He would write to the Pope/ he replied, e to put an 
 end to such encroachments ;' in the meantime it was 
 enacted, that no persons should receive letters of 
 procuration, or attorney to act for the Pope or his 
 nominees, nor take any benefice to farm, excepting 
 the king-'s lieges, and that no more money should 
 be remitted to the alien beneficiaries. This statute 
 imposes the same penalties for disturbing the 
 presentees of the legitimate patrons under colour 
 of provisions or reservations as those "annexed to a 
 breach of statute, 25 Edw. III. ; all such offenders 
 to be attached by their bodies, and if convicted, 
 to remain in prison without bail or mainprize at 
 the king-'s mercy, until they shall have made due 
 fine and redemption at his pleasure, and compen- 
 sated the parties aggrieved for their damages.* 
 
 The grievance of licences, however, still remained 
 unredressed, and the evil continued unabated. In 
 the 7th Rich. II. a remonstrance similar to the 
 foregoing was addressed to the king ; but he was 
 
 * Rot. Parl. vol. iii. p. 82. col. 1. 
 
60 
 
 unwilling* to abandon the profits derivable from this 
 iniquitous invasion of the rights of his subjects, and 
 returned a snappish answer to the application of the 
 Commons. He desired them not to molest him further 
 with petitions on that head, but promised for the 
 future to be circumspect in granting- licences.* The 
 King- and the Pope were in truth the lion and the 
 wolf; the King- got the lion's share, and the Pope, 
 though not without many a snarl, was obliged to put 
 up with that of the wolf. In the year 1245, as we 
 have seen, the amount of the money sent out of the 
 kingdom on this score, was 60,000 marks. In 1252 
 it amounted to 70,000 ; about a century afterwards 
 the Commons complained that the drain of money 
 for this cause was greater than that resulting* from 
 all the wars of the king (Edward III) ! So late as 
 the last year but one of that prince's reign (A.D. 
 1376), they allege that notwithstanding the late 
 statutes, the Pope's collector, besides maintaining 
 a state equal to that of a prince or duke, sent 
 20,000 marks to Eome, for procuration of abbeys, 
 priories, firstfruits, &c. and to cardinals and other 
 foreign beneficed clerks in England, as much more, 
 besides what w T as remitted to English clerks resid- 
 ing 1 at the Pope's court, to solicit the affairs of 
 those at home. Certain cardinals, they said, the 
 notorious enemies of the kingdom, had procured 
 expectancies to certain benefices within the pro- 
 vinces of Canterbury and York ; and that the 
 Pope's collector, besides living upon the people's 
 
 * Rot. Parl. 7 Rich. II. n. 54. vol. iii. p. 163. 
 
70 
 
 money, was in fact a mere spy to worm out the 
 secrets of the State, and to report the vacancies of 
 benefices that he might make them known to the 
 Court of Rome, and by ascertaining- the rackrents 
 upon oath, and raising- them beyond the customary 
 valuation, make the collection of firstfruits of all 
 dignities and living's both easier and more profit- 
 able. They accordingly desired the king- to send 
 all strange clerks and others out of the king-dom, 
 and to prohibit all his subjects from acting- without 
 the king's licence as proctors, attornies, or farmers 
 to any such alien, upon pain of life and member, 
 and loss of g-oods, and of being- dealt with as com- 
 mon thieves and robbers.* 
 
 Throug-hout the reig-n of the feeble Richard, the 
 public discontent went on increasing-. In the 10th 
 year of his reign, the king- inhibited the newly- 
 elected abbot of St. Augustine of Canterbury from 
 going to Rome for confirmation. The abbot made 
 his excuses to the Pope on that ground. The Pope 
 replied laconically: "Your king commands you 
 not to come, I command you to come." No excuse 
 was admitted, least of all the prohibition of his 
 sovereign, and it was intimated to him that there 
 were other objections to his election behind. The 
 abbot at length disobeyed his temporal, in deference 
 to his spiritual superior, and went to Rome, where 
 he was detained for three whole years. Soon after 
 
 * Rot. Parl. 51 Ed. III. n. 36. Rec. Com. vol. ii. p. 36?. 
 And see in pari materia the petitions of the 1 Rich. II. 
 and the 3 and 5 Rich. II. Rot. Parl. p. 124, 125, as also 
 7th Rich. II. ubi supra. 
 
his return, the statute of the 13th Rich. II. was 
 passed, which denounced the penalty of preemunire 
 perpetual imprisonment, forfeiture of life and 
 limb, lands and tenements, goods and chattels, at 
 the king's mercy against any persons bringing 
 into the kingdom, after the 20th of January of that 
 year, any bull from the Pope, for conferring any 
 benefices in England, or serving any summons or 
 sentence of excommunication for disobeying such 
 bulls.* 
 
 The papal writers of that age fully understood 
 the object of this statute to be the total exclusion of 
 the papal influence in this country as to all matters 
 not of purely spiritual concernment, and to make it 
 unlawful for the future to have any transactions 
 with the Pope in matters of that nature.^ This 
 statute was followed by the 16 Rich. II. c. 5, now 
 generally known as the Statute of Prtemunire, 
 which is more specific. It recites that whereas 
 the legal remedy to recover advowsons and presen- 
 tations to benefices is in the King's Courts alone, 
 execution whereof is to be made by the bishops ; 
 and whereas the Pope hath awarded processes and 
 sentences of excommunication against bishops and 
 others for executing judgments given in the King's 
 Courts, and has assumed power to cite prelates and 
 others out of the realm, and to translate them from 
 one see to another, to the detriment and danger of 
 the royal prerogative ; and whereas the Lords 
 
 * Rot. Parl. 13 Rich. II. c. 2, 3. K. ii. Rec. Com. vol. 
 iii. p. 266. 
 
 t Twysden, p. 90, quoting Pol. Virgil, lib. xx. p. 417- 
 
72 
 
 temporal and spiritual and the Commons are under 
 engagement to the King- to assist him in the defence 
 of the liberties of his Crown ; it is ordained that 
 any one purchasing- and suing- out or causing 1 to be 
 purchased and sued out at the Court of Koine or 
 elsewhere any such citation, process, sentence of 
 excommunication, bull, instrument or other thing- 
 touching- the king-, ag-ainst him, his crown, and 
 royalty, or any persons bringing- the same into the 
 realm, or receiving- or making- notification, or doing 
 anything in execution thereof within or without the 
 realm, they, their notaries, proctors, maintainers, 
 abettors, fautors, and counsellors shall be put out of 
 the King* ? s protection, their lands and tenements 
 goods and chattels shall be forfeit to the King-, 
 and they be attached by their bodies, if they may 
 be found, and brought before the King and his 
 Council there to answer the causes aforesaid, and 
 that process be made against them by writ of 
 (f Prcemunire facias" in manner as it is ordained in 
 the Statute of Provisors (25 Ed. III.) and other 
 statutes against those who act in derogation of the 
 King's royal dignity.* 
 
 It is not possible to ascertain at this distance of 
 time how far these statutes contributed to mitig'ate 
 the evils complained of. It is, however, to be re- 
 marked that some of the principal sources of papal 
 revenues, e. g. confirmations, firstfruits and annates, 
 remained untouched by them. The latter statute 
 appears to have been mainly designed to protect 
 
 * Statutes of the Realm, vol. ii. p. 85. 
 
73 
 
 the rights of the crown, of which in that age the 
 King- was regarded as the rightful guardian. This 
 view seems to have left him at liberty, as far 
 as those rights were concerned, to treat with the 
 Pope for the best terms. It is to be further noticed 
 that as the power of taxing themselves was in 
 the hands of the Church, the King might make 
 the Pope a convenient instrument for extracting 
 contributions, he would have found it much more 
 difficult to obtain from the convocations. This ob- 
 servation may explain the reluctance of Richard II. 
 to send the papal agents out of the kingdom.* 
 There is, in fact, every reason to believe that how- 
 ever unwillingly the kings of England submitted 
 to part with, their church patronage, they, like the 
 contemporary kings of France, were in a great de- 
 gree reconciled to it by the share of the spoils they 
 contrived to extort from the popes. The statutes 
 of praemunire did not stand much in their way ; the 
 trick could be performed as cleverly and more conve- 
 niently by English as by papal agents. The sus- 
 
 * In the 13 Rich. II. the Commons petitioned that the 
 Pope's collector, an alien, might have notice to quit the 
 kingdom within 40 days upon pain of being put to ransom 
 as an enemy to the king and kingdom, and that in future 
 none but a natural born subject should be resident there as 
 collector ; and that such person be allowed to do nothing 
 contrary to the Statutes of Provisors under the penalty of 
 praemunire without plea of pardon. Rot. Par 1. 13 Rich. II. 
 n. 43; Rec. Com. Vol. iii. p. 270. This petition did not 
 suit the king's convenience or policy, and received no 
 satisfactory answer. 
 
74 
 
 picions of the people are strongly indicated by their 
 desiring- the King to renounce his prerogative of 
 pardon against evil doers of this class. As long as 
 this power remained in the crown he might connive 
 at letters of provision from the Pope, and even 
 legalize them by suit to himself for licence or pardon 
 to the holder for carrying the Pope's bull into 
 execution. But there is no feature which more 
 strikingly distinguishes the constitutional history 
 of England from that of any other nation under 
 the sun, than that the law of the land was neither 
 the creature of the will of the monarch, nor 
 subject to be altered or bewrayed by his conduct 
 under it or against it. The French forfeited their 
 chances at one time far more favourable than our 
 own of constitutional liberty, by pursuing the 
 opposite course, and allowing the ancient laws of the 
 realm to dwindle into the simple expression of the 
 king's will. Our kings might, Meed, for their per- 
 sonal accommodation relinquish the rights of the 
 crown one by one, as did king John and Henry III. 
 when they acknowledged themselves feudatories of 
 Eome. But the law was in all these instances 
 ready to step in to the rescue of their prerogative, 
 and to save the crown harmless against the mis- 
 deeds of the possessor. The corrupt bargains our 
 princes struck with the Pope could neither legalize 
 these transactions nor operate to deprive the crown 
 of any of the rights in ecclesiastical matters, le- 
 gally vested in it. The king's rights, as well as 
 that of private patrons remained as they were from 
 the earliest periods of our national history. Against 
 
75 
 
 such a spirit of the law as this, the favourite argu- 
 ment of the canonists from adverse precedent was 
 of no avail ; and indeed we perceive that through- 
 out the struggle between the canon and the com- 
 mon law, the kings and people of England often 
 flung themselves back upon the King's Courts when 
 outwitted or intimidated by those of the Church. 
 
 And with the view to strengthen themselves by 
 alliance with the law of the land many of our kings 
 strove to protect the administrative powers vested in 
 them and their judges with extraordinary zeal. As 
 already noticed, they refused to countenance the 
 encroachments of the ecclesiastical courts upon the 
 jurisdiction of the curia regis.* True it is that 
 Edward III. assented to the petition of the clergy 
 that archbishops and bishops should not be made 
 amenable to the king's justiciaries, but to the Pope 
 only ; yet he added a reservation which shewed the 
 boon granted to be a mere relaxation, not an abro- 
 gation of the law in their favour. They were to be 
 exempt only until another remedy should be 
 directed,! and the law was left as it stood before 
 the king assented to its temporary suspension. But 
 there was no consideration which drew the bond of 
 union between the Clergy of England and the 
 Court of Rome closer than that of exemption from 
 secular jurisdiction. The canonical maxim that 
 clergy and prelates could not be arraigned before 
 the king's judges was, however, never established in 
 
 * Vide sup. p. 34. 
 
 f " Tantque autre remede soit ordeinee." Rot, Pail. 
 18 Ed. III. vol. ii. p. 151, 152. 
 
76 
 
 this country. The progress of crime and profligacy 
 among- the lower orders of the clergy had gone on 
 increasing- in a ratio equal to the chances of impu- 
 nity afforded by the loose practice of the ecclesias- 
 tical courts. The struggle between these courts 
 and the king's tribunals was long- and arduous, but 
 the latter prevailed ; and clerical offenders escaped 
 with no other advantages than those involved in 
 the " benefit of clergy/' which exempted them in 
 most cases from capital punishment. 
 
 The Papacy, meanwhile, never desisted from its 
 claim to share the judicial powers with the lay 
 courts. As heads of the Church the Popes vindi- 
 cated to themselves an absolute power of revising 
 all ecclesiastical sentences, and a visitatorial juris- 
 diction over all ecclesiastical courts. This claim 
 they based expressly upon the " plenitude of the 
 Apostolical authority," thereby plainly establishing 
 our proposition that that authority involves in its 
 very nature a temporal sovereignt}^ claiming- not 
 merely to share but to supersede secular g-overnment 
 whenever the merely worldly interests of its peculiar 
 subjects a fortiori those of its own power should 
 require it. And such in principle is its constitution 
 at the present day. 
 
 One or two observations remain to be made upon 
 the state of the papal power in the reigns of the 
 Henrys. The bringing in of Bulls was always 
 regarded as the most dangerous defiance of our laws 
 to which the Pontiffs were in the habit of resorting. 
 The Popes were frequently requested by the Kings 
 to put an end to this practice : and for this cause, the 
 
77 
 
 latter in the earlier ages, from time to time prohibited 
 all intercourse with Rome.* In the reig'n of Henry 
 IV. this nuisance appears to have once more excited 
 the attention of the crown. The court of Rome, 
 under colour of its visitatorial authority, quashed 
 the appointments of the King- as well as those of 
 private persons, to the great damage of the patrons 
 arid the clerks of their choice. A statute was there- 
 fore passed to invalidate all such proceedings, and 
 to confirm the nominees in the possession of their 
 benefices.f In the third year of Henry V. a re- 
 markable provision was made, shewing- how little 
 the crown and the legislature had thoug-ht of re- 
 linquishing 1 those general powers of ecclesiastical 
 superintendence with which the law of the land had 
 clothed them. An act was passed for filling- all 
 ecclesiastical benefices ; archbishoprics, bishoprics, 
 abbeys, &c. during 1 the then vacancy of the holy 
 See, and for dispensing- with the papal confirmation. 
 By the 7th Hen. IV. c. 8, and the 3rd Hen. V. c. 4, 
 it was at length enacted that no licences for pro- 
 visions should be available against any clerk pos- 
 sessed of a benefice at the day of the dates of those 
 statutes, and all such licences antecedently issued 
 were declared void. From this period the nuisances 
 of provisions and reservations were legally, though 
 not always practically got rid of. 
 
 It is singular to observe, amid the multiplicity of 
 papal aggressions during the middle periods of our 
 
 * Twysden, p. 67, quoting Hoveden. 
 t Rot. Parl. 9 Hen. IV. p. 614, 615. 
 
78 
 
 history, how little doubt rested upon the mind of 
 lawgivers and lawyers in this country, that the 
 external government of the church was vested in 
 the crown, and that its administration in that respect 
 was the subject of ordinary legislation. The very 
 form of the king's writ for the convocation of 
 Parliament takes it for granted* that the welfare 
 and defence of the church was a matter as fully 
 within their competency as those of the state. And 
 thus in the reign of Richard II. the Commons, 
 apprehending danger from the spread of the heresy of 
 the Lollards, petitioned the king to take measures for 
 the suppression of those opinions ; whereupon he 
 commanded the archbishops and bishops to take all 
 proper measures for the chastisement of the heretics, 
 and especially to attend more diligently and zeal- 
 ously to the execution of their duties than thereto- 
 fore, to search for and f burn heretical books, 
 particularly those written in English, and to seize 
 and commit the heretics to prison, there to await 
 the proper canonical judgment. After which a 
 commission was issued by the king by the style and 
 title of " Defender of the Catholic Faith," to carry 
 out these measures against the Lollards.f A 
 
 * The ancient Parliaments were summoned "pro qui- 
 busdam arduis et urgentibus negotiis nos, statum et defen- 
 sionem regni nostri Anglise et Ecclesice Anglicancc con- 
 cernentibus." Rot. Parl. 20 Bich. II. n. 1. 
 
 f Twysden, p. 112. This author quotes the preamble of 
 a stat. of Henry V. to shew how strongly the principle 
 contended for was impressed upon the minds of our princes. 
 It runs thus : " Item it is declared that our sovereign Lord 
 
79 
 
 similar petition, presented by the Commons, 14 
 years afterwards, to Henry IV. very plainly indicates 
 that they regarded the king 1 as the constitutional 
 guardian and visitor of the church, with powers, 
 not merely to watch over the working- of the ecclesi- 
 astical machinery, but to visit departures from its 
 settled doctrine, discipline and ritual with condign 
 punishment. It is material to observe that among- 
 all the petitions of the Commons to which I have 
 drawn attention, not one is to be found in which 
 mention or allusion is made to any other tribunal 
 than that of the king', to whom that duty might of 
 right belong. Neither Pope, archbishops, or bishops 
 are appealed to for authority or aid in the work of 
 purifying the church from error ; but the king only. 
 The prelates themselves partook of the general 
 impression, and in the 2nd year of Henry IV. pe- 
 titioned the crown, as of its own special duty and 
 prerogative, to provide a proper remedy for the 
 disorders, divisions and perils which had crept 
 into the church by occasion of Lollardy.* 
 
 The laity, on the other hand, uniformly resorted 
 to the crown for redress and protection against the 
 irregularities of the clergy ; as when the Ecclesi- 
 astical Courts oppressed them with exorbitant fees 
 
 the King, being animated with an ardent desire for the 
 good estate of his church and kingdom, in all matters 
 wherein there is need of amendment, for the honour of 
 God and the peace and common profit of the Holy Church 
 of England, and of all his kingdom, by the advice, &c. 
 hath enacted," &c. 
 
 * Rot. Parl 2 Hen. IV. n. 48. 
 
80 
 
 in spiritual suits j* or when the pecuniary penalties 
 imposed were too heavy ;t or when aggrieved by 
 papal provisions, or by neglect of duty on the part 
 of the inferior clergy, by non-residence, by the 
 frequency of excommunications and of the writ cc de 
 excommunicato capiendo,"J or by the arbitrary and 
 illegal proceeding's of the Spiritual Courts. It 
 was, indeed, thoug'ht that the pastoral authority of 
 the Pope might materially assist in ridding- the 
 country of those abuses; accordingly, it was not 
 uncommon to petition the King- to call upon the 
 Pontiff to aid in redressing* them, nor for the- kings 
 to decline interfering of their sole authority in many 
 matters in which it might be more convenient to act 
 in conjunction with him. Yet, when their prerogative 
 was concerned, they rarely scrupled to apply the 
 remedy without consulting him. In reply to a 
 petition of the Commons against ecclesiastical abuses, 
 presented to Henry VI., he told them that he had 
 delivered their bill to the Archbishop of Canterbury 
 to remedy their grievances within his province, and 
 that he would write to the Church of York to do 
 the like within its jurisdiction. The current, indeed, 
 of all these acts of the Crown and Parliament is so 
 uniform and consistent, that it would be vain any 
 
 * Rot. Parl 50 Edw. III. n. 84, and 1 Kick II. 
 n. 108. 
 
 t 25 Edw. III. n. 35. 
 
 J Rot. Parl 2 Hen. V. n. 5, and 46 Ed. III. n, 36, 
 37, 41, 42. 
 
 2 Hen. V. ubi sup. 1? Ricli. II. n. 43, and 7 Hen. 
 IV. n. 114. 
 
81 
 
 longer to contend that the Common Law of Eng- 
 land had not vested in the Crown an independent 
 power to redress abuses in the external government 
 of the Church, and to provide a remedy against 
 dissensions, scandals, and divisions arising in the 
 Church, as well as to arrest the progress of false 
 doctrine, or what it might deem such, and to 
 sustain the established religion of the State by 
 enforcing the performance of their duty by the 
 clergy. 
 
 The closer we come down to the era of the 
 Reformation, the greater appears to have been the 
 jealousy of the Papal officials in this country. The 
 appearance of a Cardinal here startled the public, 
 and put the Government upon its guard. In the 
 reign of Henry VI., the King's uncle, Henry, 
 bishop of Winchester, had been elevated by Pope 
 Martin V. to the cardinalate, and in that character 
 returned to England in the year 1431. Having 
 accepted a commission from the Pope to serve 
 against the Hussites in Bohemia without the King*'s 
 licence, he had incurred penalties against which he 
 thought it requisite to protect himself by petitioning 
 Parliament that he might not be vexed or prose- 
 cuted by reason of his having acted under a Papal 
 bull. The reason for this application probably was, 
 that when Henry V. was informed that the bishop, 
 his brother, had applied for that dignity, he had 
 said "he would rather set his crown beside him 
 than see him wear the hat of a cardinal." The 
 petition of the King's uncle was, of course, granted ; 
 but as the sworn servant of a foreign prince, pre- 
 
 F 
 
82 
 
 cautions were thought requisite against divided 
 allegiance, and the bishop was not admitted to his 
 birthright as a privy counsellor until he had taken 
 an oath that he would bear no part in any matter 
 or cause in which the Pope or the Apostolic See 
 should be in any manner concerned.* 
 
 It cannot, I think, be denied, that all these 
 petitions would have been merely empty words, if 
 the framer of them, had not really held it to be 
 settled law that the King was endowed with a 
 power of reforming the Church and redressing 
 grievances in its government. But our kings never 
 took upon themselves to meddle with the internal 
 government of sacred things. The potestas ordinis 
 and the administration of religious rites were never 
 interfered with except by the advice and enact- 
 ment of national councils or convocation. The 
 monarchs of this country claimed not to control 
 doctrine or discipline except as the guardians and 
 conservators of their integrity and their purity, and 
 then only by and through the instrumentality of 
 the highest officers of the Church itself. It was in 
 
 * Rot.Parl 8 Hen. VI. vol. iv. p. 338, n. IJ. The 
 wording of this entry is curious : " Memorandum, quod 
 licet transactis tempoiibus in regno Anglise visum non 
 fuerit, ut speratur, quod aliqui Anglicae nationis ad statum 
 et dignitatem Cardinalis per sedem Apostolicam sublimati, 
 post susceptum hujusmodi dignitatem ad interessendum 
 conciliis regiis veluti regis et regni conciliarii hactenus 
 admissi exteterunt ;" yet, the entry proceeds, considering 
 his near kindred to the king, &c. he is to be admitted, but 
 with the condition stated in the text. 
 
83 
 
 this sense and this only, that Henry VIII., 
 Edward VI. and Elizabeth took to themselves the 
 title of Head of the Church. And in this sense 
 they did no more than exercise the powers vested in 
 them by the law and custom of England, against 
 which no foreign law or custom, whatever its. 
 spiritual authority and sanctity, was allowed to 
 prevail. In this sense it was that the clergy in 
 Convocation styled Henry VIII. "The sole pro- 
 tector and supreme ruler, and as far as the law of 
 Christ permitted, supreme head of the Anglican 
 Church." And in so doing they added nothing 
 unto him but a title, for neither he nor his successors 
 ever exercised any authority in ecclesiastical govern- 
 ment not warranted by constitutional precedent 
 and immemorial custom. As supreme heads and 
 governors of the Church under Christ, the Divine 
 Head, they rightfully claimed to "visit, reform, 
 and redress all errors, heresies, schisms and abuses/' 
 They nominated ecclesiastical commissioners to 
 examine the canons, and to report upon them, with a 
 view to their correction by the proper ecclesiastical 
 authorities,* arid executed all those functions of 
 external government for which during several 
 preceding centuries they had to contend for with the 
 Bishop of Eome. 
 
 The rejection of the spiritual supremacy of the 
 Pope rested upon totally different grounds. That 
 was strictly a national movement, a religious 
 revolution, which, when accomplished, drew after it 
 
 * See 25 Henry VIII. c. 1. 25 Hen. VIII. c. 19. 2? 
 Hen. VIII. c. 15. 35 Hen. VIII. c. 16. 3 & 4 Ed. VI. 
 c. 11. 1 Eliz. c. 1. 
 
 F 2 
 
84 
 
 the natural legal consequences. Those consequences 
 were already determined, and the Reformation was 
 no other than the application of existing law to the 
 exigencies of the case. The question whether the 
 Pope is or is not the Vicar of Christ and the 
 supreme head of His Church on earth does not 
 even come into question. The people of England 
 with their prince at their head, had (right or wrong) 
 determined it against the Pope. They disowned 
 and rejected him upon clear theological grounds; 
 and having satisfied themselves that the Papal 
 system was unsupported by Scripture, that it was 
 an invasion of the rights of conscience, and that it 
 was in practice utterly corrupt and incapahle of 
 correction, they confirmed their sovereign in the 
 position assigned to him by the law and custom of 
 England, leaving all matters of faith, doctrine and 
 discipline to the ecclesiastical powers, and investing 
 him with the general rights of superintendence, 
 visitation and control in respect of titles, sees, 
 jurisdictions and exemptions, without which there 
 could have been neither unity nor consistency in 
 the cooperation of Church and State. 
 
 In all this great care was taken not to alter the 
 essential constitution of the Church. The persons 
 only underwent a change \ bishops and clergy were 
 selected from among those who rejected the cor- 
 ruptions of Popery. It was the same body cor- 
 porate under the same officers, after removing those 
 deemed unfit for their duties. It was the same 
 household, but swept and garnished, and provided 
 with servants who were found willing to open the 
 
85 
 
 doors to the rightful occupants, the religious people 
 of this country, and to admit them to all the privi- 
 leges of the sacred edifice, from which the former 
 occupants had excluded them. When our Roman 
 Catholic adversaries deny the identity of the Church 
 of England, subsequently to the Reformation, they 
 can do so only upon the ground that the supremacy 
 of the Pope is an article of the Catholic faith. But 
 upon this ground, we do not desire to meet them. 
 The Church of England has settled that question in 
 the negative as positively and as unalterably as. the 
 Church of Rome has settled it in the affirmative. 
 As an intellectual amusement, or as a means of 
 producing conviction, our Church does not repudiate 
 the discussion, but as an expedient for unsettling 
 the foundations of her faith, she heeds such con- 
 troversies as little as her adversary. What she 
 really fears is an invasion of the laws upon which 
 she grounds her rights. She apprehends injury 
 from the gradual sapping and mining process she is 
 sensible her opponents have brought to very great 
 perfection. In her external organization she takes 
 her stand upon the Law and Custom of England ; 
 as to her internal welfare she commits it devoutly 
 to Him whom, when she rejected the Roman de- 
 ceiver, she replaced upon the throne of His rightful 
 empire, the hearts, the consciences, and the con- 
 gregations of the faithful. 
 
 We affirm, therefore, that the same legitimate 
 authority, which in times past, interfered to check 
 the Papal ambition, interposed at the Reformation, 
 by the same right and upon the same principles of 
 
86 
 
 law, to put an end to it, and to liberate the national 
 Church from the illegal dominations of a chief, who 
 had broken every condition and set at nought every 
 duty of a Christian pastor. 
 
 The persevering" efforts of the Roman advocates 
 to sustain their proposition that our separation from 
 the so-called " Centre of Unity" has unchurched us 
 required these observations. Our only answer must 
 be, that we have decided that the Bishop of Rome is 
 not in any sense a centre of Unity though he may, 
 perhaps, with a better grace maintain his place as 
 the centre of uniformity. But when we have said 
 that uniformity is not unity, we have said all that is 
 requisite. We know that our scheme is at least as 
 favourable to the ( unity of the spirit in the bond of 
 peace' as that of Rome. We believe and hold that 
 our spiritual identity is far more perfectly sustained 
 than that of Rome ; nay, wq maintain that it was 
 restored and confirmed by that very act to which 
 our adversaries ascribe our fall from Church member- 
 ship. In every respect, therefore, of unity, stability, 
 and identity, the body corporate of the Church of 
 England claims to be one and the same after its re- 
 storation to the liberty of the Gospel, as it was when 
 it lay grovelling at the feet of the Bishop of Rome. 
 Her spiritual sameness is, we say, as little liable to 
 doubt as her legal identity. As to the former, we 
 believe she would remain the same were she to- 
 morrow to be separated from State connexion ; for 
 we hold that the essential qualities of a Christian 
 Church, do not consist in its outward form, but in 
 its inward and spiritual graces. Bishops, priests, 
 
87 
 
 and deacons, \ve think, have come down to us recom- 
 mended by Apostolical example and authority, as 
 well as by the practice of the Church, in all ages 
 prior to the Reformation, and we hold fast by them 
 as the most approved means for effecting- all the 
 essential ends of Christian association. But instead 
 of denying- to other associations, who do not adopt 
 those forms, the character of true Christian churches, 
 we simply predicate of them that they are not 
 members of that specific body, which under the 
 name of the Church of England, has maintained an 
 identity of national existence from the first intro- 
 duction of Christianity into these islands. We may 
 lament this secession once we persecuted its ad- 
 vocates, an act we lament far more deeply, for it 
 was a leaf taken out of our adversary's book but 
 acknowledging* humbly that as no human being is 
 infallible so there can be no infallible aggregate, we 
 have renounced on behalf of our Church, all preten- 
 sion to be the sole judge and arbiters of catholicity ; 
 and have cordially committed the differences be- 
 tween ourselves and our dissenting brother Pro- 
 testants, to the arbitrament of Him, who, without 
 dispute among us all, is the Supreme Head of the 
 Christian Church on earth and in heaven. 
 
 . 9. The State of the Law. 
 
 Having brought the sketch of the struggle be- 
 tween canonism and prerogative down to the period 
 of the Reformation, and taken my stand upon the 
 law of the land as the test of legality in the contro- 
 
88 
 
 versy now on foot, I proceed to examine the late 
 bull of Pope Pius IX. for the establishment of a 
 canonical Roman Catholic hierarchy in England. 
 
 The first inquiry which suggests itself is whether 
 the law of England, relative to the introduction of 
 Papal bulls into this country, has been altered since 
 the Reformation. The reverse seems to be the case. 
 For by the 13th Elizabeth, c. 2, entitled, "An Act 
 ag-ainst the bringing in and putting* in execution of 
 bulls, writings, or instruments, and other supersti- 
 tious thing's from the See of Rome/' it is enacted 
 that e{ if any person shall obtain from the Bishop of 
 Rome any manner of bull, writing, or instrument 
 written or printed containing any thing, matter, or 
 cause whatsoever ; or shall publish or by any means 
 put in use any such bull, writing, or instrument ; 
 he, his procurers, abettors, and counsellors, to the 
 fact of the committing of #he said offence, being- 
 attainted according to the course of the laws of this 
 realm, shall be adjudged guilty of high treason. 
 And all aiders, comforters, or maintainers of any 
 of the said offenders, after the committing of the 
 said offence, to the intent to set forth, uphold, or 
 allow the execution of the said usurped power, shall 
 incur a preemunire." 
 
 The difference between this statute and the 16 
 Rich. II. is that in the latter case the penalty is 
 different, the crime being that of a simple mis- 
 demeanor with the heaviest punishment known to 
 the law ; the 13 Eliz. on the other hand declaring 
 the act to be in the principals, high treason, 
 
89 
 
 and in the accessories after the fact a misdemeanor* 
 of the same nature as that created by the statute of 
 pnemunire.* Therefore before the introduction of 
 Mr. Watson's Act (9 and 10 Viet. c. 59) passed in 
 the year 1846, only four years ago, the act of 
 Dr. Wiseman and his confederates would have 
 amounted to high treason, and every one of the 
 bishops and others who have published and made 
 known the Bull "Universalis Ecclesise," would 
 have incurred the penalties of a praemunire. But 
 by the latter Act the several statutes therein men- 
 tioned, twenty-eight in number, and passed between 
 the years 1270 and 1793, mostly for restraining 
 Papal aggressions, are repealed ; amongst the rest, 
 the 13 Eliz. c. 2, "but so far only as the same 
 imposes the penalties or punishments therein men- 
 tioned; and it is thereby declared that nothing in 
 that enactment contained shall authorise or render 
 it lawful for any person or persons to import, 
 bring in, or put in execution within the realm any 
 such bulls, writings, or instruments, and that in all 
 respects, save as to the said penalties or punishments 
 the law shall continue the same as if this enactment 
 had not been made." 
 
 Again we notice in this place a clause in the stat. 
 10 Geo. IV. c. 7, sect. 24, commonly called the 
 Roman Catholic Emancipation Act, the words of 
 which run as follows : " And whereas the Protes- 
 tant Episcopal Church of England and Ireland, and 
 likewise the Presbyterian Church of Scotland, and 
 the doctrine, discipline, and government thereof 
 
 * See p. 64. 
 
90 
 
 are by the respective Acts of Union of England 
 and Scotland, and of Great Britain and Ireland, 
 established permanently and inviolably ; and 
 whereas the right and title of Archbishops of their 
 respective provinces, of Bishops of their sees, and 
 Deans of their deaneries, as well in England as in 
 Ireland, have been settled and established by law ; 
 be it therefore enacted, that if any person after the 
 commencement of this act, other than the person 
 thereunto authorized by law, shall assume or use 
 the name, style, or title of Archbishop of any 
 province, Bishop of any bishopric, or Dean of any 
 deanery in England or Ireland, he shall for every 
 such offence forfeit and pay the sum of one hundred 
 pounds." 
 
 The same statute (10 Geo. IV. c. 7) substitutes 
 for the legal oath of supremacy a declaration to be 
 made by all persons professing to be Roman 
 Catholics, which relieves them from the necessity of 
 taking the usual oath. By the substituted oath the 
 Roman Catholic declares that it is no part of his 
 faith, and therefore that he renounces, rejects, and 
 abjures the opinion not, however, as "impious" 
 and " heretical" that princes excommunicated or 
 deprived by the Pope may be deposed or murdered 
 by their subjects, or by any other whatsoever. He 
 declares, moreover, that he does " not believe that 
 the Pope of Rome, or any other foreign prince, 
 prelate, person, state or potentate, hath or ought to 
 have any temporal or civil jurisdiction, power, 
 superiority, or pre-eminence, directly or indirectly, 
 in this realm." 
 
91 
 
 Now this is, to say the least of it, a very dis- 
 graceful state of the law. The only excuse I can 
 imagine for it is the total ignorance of the true 
 character of the Papal scheme under which our 
 legislators went to their work. If they had taken 
 any pains to inform themselves, they would have 
 seen at a glance that the substituted oath is no 
 security at all they would have perceived that a 
 sincere adherent of Eome can only take it by dis- 
 pensation or by connivance, and that it is binding 
 only "till further orders" from head-quarters. 
 This, I think, will clearly appear in the sequel. 
 
 But the great grievance we have to complain of 
 is the 9th and 10th Victoria, because that statute 
 is not imputable to ignorance. Its errors are 
 wilful in all respects. It overthrew at a blow 
 almost all the protections thrown around the con- 
 stitution of the Church of England by the common 
 law of the land, while it affected to leave that law 
 as it stood. I believe that it was the intention of 
 the father of this Bill to repeal the 13th Elizabeth 
 as remorselessly as he swept away the other twenty- 
 seven acts therein specified. Had he succeeded, he 
 would have preserved the consistency of the mea- 
 sure, and would not have left the law against 
 bringing in and putting in execution Papal bulls 
 in this country a helpless rump, with a voice to 
 denounce, but without an arm to execute its sen- 
 tence. No doubt it is still illegal to bring in Bulls 
 from Rome ; but who would prosecute under the 
 statute as it now stands ? This was rank hypocrisy 
 or fraud. " Take your clause," said the advocates 
 
92 
 
 of the Bill to their opponents, " hut we will take 
 care to make it of little use to you ; we will repeal 
 the penalties we will introduce an ambiguity 
 that shall puzzle the sharpest lawyer to unravel." 
 And they carried out the threat. Is it, or is it not, 
 still high treason to act as principal, or as accessory 
 before the fact, in bringing- Papal Bulls into Eng- 
 land ? Is the penalty of high treason, though not 
 named in the 13th Elizabeth, repealed together with 
 the penalties therein named and expressed ? What 
 lawyer would, in the teeth of these difficulties, 
 advise a prosecution under this act? That an 
 indictment of some kind might be maintained, there 
 can be little doubt, but under disadvantages that no 
 private person would encounter, and which unques- 
 tionably the Government which patronized the 9th 
 and 10th Viet, will themselves allege as an excuse 
 for not putting the law i$i force. 
 
 Let it be remembered, that unless there be an 
 effective power provided to prevent the introduction 
 of Bulls and other writings mandatory of the Bishop 
 of Home, all the zeal displayed against the late 
 measure of the Pope will only serve to cast 
 ineffable disgrace and ridicule upon the nation. 
 Our protests and petitions will, in the eye of every 
 reasonable being, dwindle into a mere noisy expres- 
 sion of Protestant vexation at being outwitted by the 
 Papists. After ignorantly disarming ourselves, to 
 complain of being attacked, is indeed puerile and 
 absurd. If the 13th Elizabeth be not re-enacted, 
 or some equivalent measure introduced for preventing* 
 the nuisance and the danger our wiser ancestors 
 
93 
 
 foresaw and provided against, the defeat of the great 
 Protestant communities of Great Britain will be 
 irretrievable, and their disgrace complete. We 
 have taken up a position from which to retreat with 
 credit is impossible. Our consolation under these 
 difficulties of our own creating- is twofold : we are 
 conscious of our danger ; and the legal principle, 
 however denuded of its proper guarantees, is pre- 
 served to us. It is still a misdemeanor to bring* 
 in, publish, or execute Papal Bulls in England. If 
 our late protests are to go for anything, it is our 
 plain duty to defend this position to the uttermost, 
 and to strengthen it by such provisions and 
 penalties as shall effectually repel and avenge the 
 insult we have endured, and prevent any recur- 
 rence of a like attack for the future. There is no 
 middle path between this course and the disgrace 
 and ruin of the Protestant cause, the ultimate loss 
 of our religious liberties, and serious danger to our 
 civil rights. 
 
 That the Papal system involves a powerful scheme 
 of temporal dominion under the disguise of a purely 
 religious polity, and so cunningly contrived and 
 managed as to present either aspect at the will and 
 convenience of the movers, has already to some 
 extent appeared in the analysis of our bygone con- 
 tests with Rome which I have ventured to lay before 
 you. The struggle lay, as we have seen, between the 
 constitutional powers of the Crown and the efforts 
 of the Popes to establish territorial, administrative, 
 civil, criminal, arid financial jurisdiction in this 
 country. This observation should, one would think, 
 
94 
 
 give us pause before we abandon the narrow 
 defensible ground to which, by our imprudence, we 
 have confined ourselves. But the few glimpses of 
 the internal character of the Papal scheme, which 
 in examining- the contents of the late Bull, and the 
 defences set up for it, I shall have occasion to pre- 
 sent, will, I think, dissipate all doubt as to the 
 invariable and unvarying 1 drift and tendency of that 
 scheme, and, I trust, convince you that Rome can 
 offer you no security for your civil and religious 
 liberties, which as rational being's you would be 
 justified in accepting 1 . 
 
 . 10. The Bull 
 
 I have before me a little pamphlet, price three- 
 halfpence, entitled " Letters Apostolical of our most 
 Holy Father, Pope Pius IX, establishing* the Epis- 
 copal Hierarchy in England." Underneath this 
 title are the words, " Pius P. P, IX ;" and under 
 these ag-ain, the words " For a perpetual remem- 
 brance of the thing*" with remarks on the above 
 by the Rt. Rev. Dr. Ullathorne. To the Latin 
 original, of which this is an authentic translation, 
 there is appended a Bulla or pendant seal impressed 
 with the " Fisherman's ring 1 ," the most solemn 
 mode of authentication known to the Court of Rome. 
 The translation is in a form, and is published at a 
 price, shewing 1 clearly that it is intended for the 
 most g-eneral circulation ; and it is set forth under 
 the warranty of a Romish bishop, with a view to 
 dissipate all doubt as to its authenticity, and to 
 
95 
 
 bring 1 its contents to the knowledge of all Her 
 Majesty's subjects. 
 
 It appears to be an instrument containing 1 " Let- 
 ters Apostolical/' issued from the (C plenitude of the 
 Apostolic power/' and in virtue of that power orders 
 and directs that the "kingdom of England" be divided 
 into certain ecclesiastical districts, to be presided 
 over by an archbishop, whose see, it says, shall be 
 in the city of Westminster, and twelve suffragan 
 bishops, whose sees shall be respectively the towns 
 f or cities' therein specified, none of which are in 
 point of fact as yet occupied by bishops of the 
 Established Church. 
 
 The first thing that strikes us in reading this 
 document, is the unaccountable ignorance of the 
 framer, that such a religious establishment as the 
 Church of England, of which our Queen is, under 
 God, the supreme governor, hath any existence. 
 He is equally ignorant of a Church of Scotland, or 
 of any other Christian association within these 
 realms. But his ignorance is still more profound 
 than all this. He does not know that there is no 
 longer any such region as the ' kingdom of Eng- 
 land / it has clean slipped his memory that about a 
 century and a half ago, that kingdom by an act of 
 the British legislature ceased to exist, and merged 
 in the united kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. 
 It is to be noted that equally little notice is taken 
 of Queen, Parliament, or people, excepting of those 
 called Catholics, who for ought that appears in the 
 Bull, are the only known inhabitants of the said 
 kingdom. 
 
96 
 
 Recollecting, however, that there was a time when 
 the Bishop of Rome claimed what was then the 
 'kingdom of England' as a fief or feudal dependency 
 of his see a time when he held the crown of England 
 in his hand, levying tribute, disposing of ecclesiasti- 
 cal revenues and preferments, and controlling the 
 government by orders emanating from himself; 
 remembering, moreover, that this claim still stands 
 recorded in the archives of his pontificate, and that 
 it is still in full force and effect, and in no wise 
 cancelled, renounced, or annulled; and taking 
 further into account, the sacred and unalterable 
 principle of the Papacy, that what has once been 
 annexed to the patrimony of St. Peter can by no 
 earthly power be severed from it ; and furthermore, 
 recollecting that at the Reformation, and since that 
 time, all these claims and powers have been utterly 
 abolished and annulled by the legislature of this 
 country, and all communication with the Court of 
 Rome forbidden under the severest penalties the 
 whole mystery vanishes of itself. 
 
 That the court of Rome could be, de facto, 
 ignorant of this great historical fact, no man believes. 
 It must, therefore, be taken for granted, that the 
 omission of all allusion to Church, Queen and 
 government of England was intentional. And when 
 it is considered that the sovereigns of this country, 
 as heads of an heretical state, are, ipso facto, excom- 
 municate, we perceive a good reason for the omission. 
 The recognition of a Queen and government of Great 
 Britain, as subsisting powers, might, upon canon- 
 ical reasoning, operate to weaken, or to raise a 
 
07 
 
 presumption against the temporal supremacy of the 
 Pope over England, as part and parcel of the 
 Petrine patrimony. The Pope, therefore, has no 
 official knowledge of any other national designation 
 than that of the " Kingdom of England/' and ac- 
 cordingly professes absolute ignorance of everything 
 that has been done either there or in any part of the 
 British dominions since the first year of Elizabeth, at 
 which time, now about three centuries ago, his 
 power was legally abrogated, and his agents expelled 
 the country. Since then there has been in the con- 
 templation of Rome no Church, no Queen, no Par- 
 liament in that part of the empire called England. 
 None of these things could be noticed in the late 
 Bull without injury to claims to which the see of 
 Rome is bound by chains of adamant, and must 
 reduce into possession whenever the power so to do 
 shall be forthcoming. 
 
 We are, therefore, at full liberty to discern in 
 this designed misnomer, and in these significant 
 omissions, a precaution to avoid any incidental 
 acknowledgment of a style and title annulled by 
 the predecessors of Pius IX. The u glorious king- 
 dom of England" therefore, stands as the only region 
 officially known to him, because 800 years ago, 
 there was no other ; and because there could be no 
 other without his consent as Lord paramount of 
 that realm. 
 
 Those who are acquainted with the character of 
 ultramontane Popery, upon which of late years, 
 perhaps, more than at any former period the Court 
 of Rome and its adherents in this and other coun- 
 
 O 
 
98 
 
 tries, have flung- themselves back, will reject the 
 plea so frequently urged, that the Pope can have 
 no hope of sustaining* demands so obsolete and so 
 out of all apparent probability as these. They 
 know the astonishing- effects produced the enduring- 
 vitality imparted to every system of government, 
 more especially to one into which the religious ele- 
 ment so larg-ely enters, by incessant, unvarying-, per- 
 severing- claim. These persons plainly perceive that 
 Pius IX. will not know us will not recognize us, or 
 any one of our national institutions even by a passing- 
 word, because we are heretics and rebels, our Queen 
 a pretender, our Church a pandemonium. Whether 
 that elation of spirits which the apparent increase 
 of the Roman communion in England eng-endered 
 encourag-ed the Pope to hazard this extraordinary 
 step, at a juncture when his own government is 
 alone upheld by foreign bayonets, we can only 
 conjecture ; at all events the document before us 
 exhibits no symptom of condescension to the great 
 British nation, its feeling's, or even its prejudices, 
 which could weig-h a grain against the most anti- 
 quated and obsolete of the Papal pretensions. What- 
 ever the result of the experiment, not a word has 
 escaped the pontifical pen which could be construed 
 to the detriment of the most extravagant of these 
 claims. As a nation, a government, a people, 
 a church, we are a nullity, and known only to the 
 Court of Rome by the appellation we bore as part 
 and parcel of the Roman state. 
 
 Our suspicions are confirmed by the mode of 
 publication adopted. We observe that these so- 
 
99 
 
 called " Letters Apostolical" are addressed to no one 
 in particular. They are " ad perpetuam rei memo- 
 riarn" as universal in their address as that " Ple- 
 nitude of Apostolical authority" from which they 
 are supposed to emanate. Such documents when 
 intended to have a special operation are always 
 directed to the persons whom it may concern, and 
 not, like this document, (C ad perpetuam rei memo- 
 riam," or ee ad universum." The form adopted, 
 therefore, plainly shews that it was not, as is now 
 pretended by the Roman Catholic advocates, de- 
 signed solely for the government of the Pope's com- 
 munion in this country. For if it had really been 
 so intended, what more would have been requisite 
 than a simple rescript, in the shape of a Bull, if 
 you please, addressed to the Roman Catholic vicars 
 in this country, emancipating" them from the direct 
 control of Rome, and placing 1 them upon the footing 
 of a canonical hierarchy. Such a mode of accom- 
 plishing the ostensible object thus put forward, must 
 have amply satisfied the Romish clergy and laity of 
 this country, if nothing more had been thought of 
 than the better government of the Pope's spiritual 
 subjects. It is manifest, therefore, upon the face 
 of this instrument, that such special operation was 
 neither the only nor the principal object of the 
 Bull. 
 
 The Bull, moreover, directs that printed copies, 
 properly authenticated, shall be taken as evidence 
 of the pontifical will therein expressed. In confor- 
 mity with this hint the Bull has been printed, 
 translated and dispersed in the cheapest possible 
 
 G 2 
 
100 
 
 form. Thus, it has been officially brought under 
 the notice of the Crown, the Government, the 
 Church, and the whole Protestant people of Eng- 
 land ; and by it they are authentically informed 
 that a foreign prince has divided out their country 
 among certain officers, named by himself, and 
 governing in his name. Where, we may ask, 
 was the necessity for all this, if nothing more 
 had been intended than the spiritual welfare of 
 a particular community? Why address it to all, 
 when a few only were to be affected by it? We 
 have, therefore, a clear right to set down the 
 plea just adverted to as a false pretence; and to 
 adopt the conclusion, that in thus over-stepping the 
 limits prescribed by the specific purpose alleged, 
 the Court of Eome has manifested an ulterior de- 
 sign, which, though not expressed in words, may be 
 very clearly collected from the conduct of the whole 
 business. We have no doubt^that the Pope ima- 
 gined that the time had arrived for setting up a 
 standard in England, around which the real or imagi- 
 nary host of converts and half-converts might rally, 
 and for extorting from the ignorance or the supineness 
 of the nation such pregnant admissions of papal 
 supremacy as might shut the mouths of the Protes- 
 tant Church and Government, and prove a material 
 step in the gradual transition from toleration to 
 ascendancy. 
 
 We may, I think, safely defy any rational man 
 to believe that the habitual caution of the Papal 
 Court, would have incurred the terrible risk it has 
 incurred, if it had no other object in view than to 
 
101 
 
 impart to its own communion in this country, the 
 blessing- of an ordinary hierarchy, We believe 
 therefore the truth to be, that Rome, with full 
 knowledge of the strong- Protestant feeling-, and 
 deep, yet somewhat versatile religious disposition 
 of the people of this country generally, thoug-ht 
 herself strong- enoug-h at this juncture to brave the 
 popular indignation, and by the substitution of a 
 regularly constituted hierarchy for the feebler sys- 
 tem of missionary bishops, aided by gradual 
 acquiescence and superinduced habit, by soothing- 
 assurances, suppression of the most offensive, and 
 ostentatious production of the most attractive forms 
 and tenets of Romanism, to establish a strong- 
 foundation for the restoration of that unbounded 
 influence she once enjoyed in these realms. 
 
 In the next place we observe that the new Papal 
 measure is described in the bull as a " Re-edification 
 of the Church of England/' after her overthrow by 
 a " great calamity." The event so described is the 
 Reformation of the 16th century, and the expression 
 amounts to a direct intimation that since that event, 
 there has been no Church of England, but only a 
 missionary establishment as there might be among 
 Chinese, Hindus, Mohammedans, or South Sea 
 Island savages. This great calamity, it is said, 
 furnished special reasons for adopting the vicarial 
 or missionary form of Church government ; and 
 these special reasons were, that heretofore the 
 heathen people of these islands were so much more 
 numerous and powerful than the Christians, that 
 a regular hierarchy was not required, but only 
 
102 
 
 missionaries with episcopal powers, to keep together 
 the few that were found faithful, and if possible, 
 gain over others to their ranks. Now however, 
 says the Pope, this " great calamity has passed 
 away." But how passed away ? One would sup- 
 pose, by the conversion of England to Romanism. 
 Yet neither Pius IX. nor his adviser Wiseman, is 
 bold enough to assert such an absurdity in plain 
 terms. In looking out of the bull itself, to the 
 explanations of its official interpreters, we find that 
 this " passing away" of the Great Calamity (the 
 Reformation), amounts to this : that by our folly, 
 our ignorance, and our puerile confidence in 
 promises and professions we ought never to have 
 trusted ; we have disabled ourselves from offering 
 effectual legal resistance to the insatiate claims our 
 ancestors repudiated, and our Government struggled 
 against, for centuries prior to the Reformation. 
 
 But to this subject we shall have to recur here- 
 after. It is sufficient for tKe present to observe 
 that the reasoning of the Papists is throughout 
 inferential ; we have repealed, because we have not 
 enforced ; we have abandoned, because we have not 
 insisted ; we have given up much, therefore we have 
 surrendered all. We will inquire how this matter 
 stands when we come to deal with Mr. Bowyer. 
 
 The authority by which the re-edification of the 
 Church of England there being as yet[no Church 
 of England was to be effected, is thus indicated : 
 "The whole matter, viz. the re-edification in ques- 
 tion, therefore having been carefully consulted upon, 
 we, of our own motion, on certain knowledge, and of 
 
103 
 
 the plenitude of the Apostolical power, constitute and 
 decree, that in the kingdom of England, according 
 to the common rules of the church, there be restored 
 the hierarchy of ordinary bishops, who shall be 
 named from Sees which rve constitute in these our 
 letters, in the several districts of the Apostolic 
 vicariates." Then follow the territorial divisions in 
 genuine legislative form. 
 
 Upon this clause I think it only necessary to 
 observe that it bears upon its face every character 
 of a public legislative act, proceeding from a com- 
 petently constituted legislative power, to be taken 
 notice of by all, without exception of Romanist or 
 Protestant. It is the most public and notorious 
 act of Pontifical supremacy that could be devised ; 
 and this constitutes the essential difference between 
 this bull and any instrument or instruction for the 
 internal organization of particular religious asso- 
 ciations. The Methodists, for instance, have divided 
 out the country into districts for the convenience of 
 their preachers. This they probably did by letters 
 of instruction under the direction of the President 
 of the Conference, and addressed by him to those 
 whom it might concern ; but he did not issue a bull, 
 nor did he address his letters of instruction or con- 
 struction to the people at large as if they were as 
 much interested in it, and as much bound by it as 
 his own preachers. In addition to this the Presi- 
 dent of the Conference is not a foreigner j he 
 pretends to no Apostolical authority, does nothing 
 of his " own mere motion," or " on his own certain 
 knowledge," but he acts by the advice of others, 
 
104 
 
 every one of whom is amenable to the law of the 
 land for his public conduct. The President does 
 not take it for granted that Methodism is the 
 religion of the country he is not entirely ignorant 
 that there is a Church of England by law estab- 
 lished 5 he acknowledges the power of Parliament 
 to divide, combine, and reconstitute the territories 
 of the empire; he knows of no "kingdom of 
 England/' neither does he directly or implicitly 
 deny the right of the legislature to eliminate that 
 kingdom, and to reconstitute it in conjunction 
 with other, dependencies of the British crown under 
 the name of the " United Empire of Great Britain 
 and Ireland." 
 
 If this instrument be indeed, as we are called 
 upon to believe it is, no more than a bylaw of the 
 great religious association of the Roman Catholic 
 subjects of her Majesty, it is certainly set forth in a 
 form as little resembling such an instrument as can 
 well be conceived. A bylaw is a regulation issuing 
 from a body whose original powers to make such 
 regulations is derived from the law of the land. The 
 authority upon which this bull appears among us is 
 that of a law and a lawgiver resident out of the 
 land, irresponsible to and incontrollable by the law 
 of the land. It comes in all the state and pomp of 
 an original enactment proceeding from a legislator 
 superior to all earthly jurisdiction or dominion. 
 The more forbearing among us Protestants may 
 smile internally at the affected humility with which 
 the Roman Catholic advocates would abase them- 
 selves and their communion to the level of a simple 
 
105 
 
 dissenting- sect, and soothe or overreach us by 
 presenting* this imperial decree of their Pontiff as no 
 more than a simple bylaw, a mere regulation for 
 the internal spiritual government of their own body. 
 Those among- us whose patience is not proof against 
 so severe a trial will exclaim, " Out upon such 
 hypocrisy !" 
 
 The student of Papal history, or any one at all 
 familiar with the habitual vices of the ultramontane 
 canonists will perceive a peculiar danger in this 
 attempt to tamper with the established territorial 
 divisions of this country, whether ecclesiastical or 
 secular. The Roman casuists are never very nice 
 in distinguishing- the powers of spiritual from those 
 of temporal jurisdiction. In fact the former, in 
 their view, always draws after it the latter as a 
 necessary consequence ; and wherever they succeed 
 in establishing the spiritual authority of their Pon- 
 tiff, they always presume that his temporal power to 
 enforce it is accurately commensurate with its extent 
 and requirements. Thus when they talk of an act 
 of a purely spiritual nature, it is always with a 
 mental reservation of all the physical and temporal 
 powers requisite to carry it into effect. If it should 
 happen that the necessary force is not immediately 
 at hand, that circumstance makes no difference in 
 their language, no change in their conception of the 
 thing to be done. From the age of Gregory VII. 
 downwards it has ever been their custom, in like 
 cases, to treat the princes and monarchs of Europe 
 as the ministers and servants of the Pontiff, for the 
 execution of his spiritual behests, without betraying 
 
106 
 
 the smallest apparent consciousness, that in so 
 doing* they were in fact accroaching- to themselves 
 the entire temporal power of the State. Now there 
 can be no doubt that a public act dividing- out a 
 country in which there is a subsisting- government, 
 by metes and bounds topographically defined, is an 
 act of a strictly temporal and political character : 
 and if we admit it on the plea that it is requisite to 
 carry out the spiritual or religious measure of the 
 Pope, the canonists will return us their best thanks, 
 and in the mode in which their thanks are usually 
 expressed, namely, by converting- our simplicity to 
 their advantag-e, and spinning- it into a cord to bind 
 us to the stake. 
 
 It is said in seriousness of spirit if we once ad- 
 mit the exercise of the " plenitude of the Apostolical 
 power" in any sense, or allow the Pope to " consti- 
 tute and decree" in any form of words within these 
 king-doms, we shall be told that we did so with the 
 full knowledg-e of the prerogative under which such 
 jurisdiction was claimed and exercised, and have 
 thereby precluded ourselves from g-ainsaying- it in 
 future. "If," they will say, "you look into the 
 bull ' universalis Ecclesiae/ by which it was intro- 
 duced, you must have seen that England is there 
 treated as a spiritual dependency of the Holy See. 
 His Holiness therein condescends to pass over every 
 thing- that has happened among-st you for these 
 three centuries back, and now condescends to treat 
 you as what you were before your rebellion a Chris- 
 tian kingdom. Hitherto, it is true, you were 
 heretics and outcasts; the path is, however, now 
 
107 
 
 open before you, and you have frankly acknowledged 
 the boon by accepting- it. If at any time hereafter 
 you should hesitate, you cannot murmur should the 
 Pope deem it requisite to resort to some other branch 
 of prerogative essentially included in the supremacy 
 you have admitted to compel you to come in." 
 
 In truth there is some reason for asserting that 
 what men do with a full knowledge of the principle 
 upon which they are acting, is generally binding 
 upon them in like cases for the future. Consequently 
 the Papists tell us, that when we emancipated our 
 Roman Catholic fellow-subjects, we well knew that 
 they acknowledged no spiritual supremacy, but 
 that of the Pope; and that, with that knowledge 
 on our minds, we in their favour dispensed with the 
 oath which asserts the spiritual supremacy of the 
 Queen, thereby permitting them to acknowledge 
 that of the Pope. I conceive that no such per- 
 mission was implied. But admitting for the moment 
 that it was, they would not, if they had stopped 
 there, have gone very far wrong. But they went a 
 step further, and affirmed that by that enactment 
 we introduced the Pope's supremacy into this 
 country, as a power or prerogative known to the law 
 of the land. A little want of caution on this point 
 will drive us into the dilemma of either recognizing 
 a spiritual supremacy, in its nature ambiguous and 
 indefinite, and therefore abhorrent from the law and 
 constitution of this country, or of reimposing the 
 oath which stood between our Roman Catholic 
 fellow-subjects, and the enjoyment of their civil 
 rights. 
 
 But of this more in the sequel. The matter is 
 
108 
 
 only mentioned here, to point out the position hi 
 which we stand , as to this alleged " plenitude of 
 Apostolical power/' and the pretensions by virtue 
 of that power, to " constitute and decree" things in 
 their nature secular and territorial, and thus to 
 trespass upon the department of temporal govern- 
 ment under cover of a simply spiritual operation. 
 
 The Bull further decrees that the new hierarchy 
 thus constituted, is to be governed according to the 
 " common ordinance of the sacred canons, and 
 Apostolical constitutions of the Roman Catholic 
 Church -" by which clause the said canons and Apos- 
 tolical constitutions are made the rules by which the 
 hierarchs of the re-edified Church are henceforward 
 to be directed in their management of the " Church 
 of England" and of all baptized persons, whether 
 Protestants, heretics or infidels, within these realms. 
 We are therefore entitled before we take this new 
 establishment to our bosoms, to inquire what these 
 canons, &c. really are, and to resort to the accredited 
 sources of Roman Canon Law for that purpose. 
 
 We should premise that in the sense of the Roman 
 Church, there is no real difference between "Canons" 
 and "Apostolical constitutions." After the process 
 which the ancient canons of the Christian Church 
 have gone through in her hands, there remains little 
 of genuine Canon Law that is not of her own 
 making. It is not possible, without swelling this 
 pamphlet to the size of a volume, to go through the 
 process requisite to substantiate this proposition. 
 If needful, however, they are at hand, and may be 
 readily produced. 
 
 The main features of these canons and constitu- 
 
109 
 
 tions is, their utter intolerance in religion, and their 
 inconsistency with civil independence and personal 
 liberty in politics. I shall consider these two articles 
 of charge chronologically, and without affecting to 
 separate them from each other. 
 
 It would be possible to produce many Apostolical 
 constitutions anterior to the reign of Gregory VII. 
 (A. D. 1073 to 1086) of a persecuting character. 
 But from that period to the pontificate of Boniface 
 VIII. (A. D. 1294) they multiplied to a bulk which 
 would fill an ordinary volume. In the year 1179, 
 Pope Alexander III. pronounced a solemn curse 
 against the Albigensian Protestants in Provence 
 and Languedoc, the most prosperous, learned, and 
 religious region in Europe.* The fourth General 
 Council of the Lateran (A. D. 1215), held by Inno- 
 cent III., after a sweeping condemnation of all 
 heretics, proceeds thus : " And being so condemned, 
 let them be handed over to the secular power to be 
 duly punished ; and let the said powers, whatsoever 
 office they may hold, be compelled, if need be, by 
 ecclesiastical censures (excommunications and inter- 
 dicts), to promise upon oath, all such heretics so 
 pointed out to them by the church, in good faith 
 and to the utmost of their power to expel, and 
 utterly to exterminate from the lands subject to 
 their jurisdiction/'^ 
 
 This execrable statute stands to this day unre- 
 
 * Corp. Jur. Canon. Decret. Greg. IX. Lib. v. tit. vii. 
 c . 7- Richter's ed. p. 751. 
 
 t Corp. Jur. Canon, ubi sup. Lib. v. tit. vii. c. 13. 
 ibid. p. 758. 
 
110 
 
 pealed, as one of those " sacred canons/ 7 and " apos- 
 tolical constitutions/ 7 by which the new Eoman 
 Catholic hierarchy of England is to be governed. 
 
 Credible history,, not impugned by the advocates 
 of the Roman Church, attests that between the 
 years 1209 and 1215, at least a million of Protes- 
 tant Christians were massacred in obedience to this 
 precept. It remained in active operation under 
 papal patronag-e down to the close of the seventeenth 
 century. Within thirty years of the institution of 
 the order of the Jesuits, no fewer than 900,000 
 Christians became the victims of this bloody ordi- 
 nance. The Duke of Alva boasted that he had, 
 during his government of the Netherlands, delivered 
 36,000 Protestants to the hands of the common 
 hangman. Within thirty years of its institution, 
 the Inquisition, first established by Innocent III., 
 the author of the statute in question, destroyed 
 150,000 victims ; and in the year 1572 the Bishop 
 of Rome offered up public thanksgiving to the God 
 of all Mercy, for the cowardly assassination of 
 100,000 French Protestants, on St. Bartholomew's 
 and the two following days, a crime, be it noted, 
 committed in strict conformity with the ee sacred 
 canon " and (( apostolical constitution " just ad- 
 verted to. 
 
 This canon was confirmed and re-enacted in several 
 successive Councils down to the year 1514.* The 
 Council of Trent, which was held between the years 
 
 * In the Council of Constance, held between the years 
 1414 and 1418; by those of Sienna and Basle in 1423; 
 and by the 5th General Council of the Lateran in 1514. 
 
Ill 
 
 1545 and 1563, republished the antecedent decrees, 
 whereby all heretics who have received the rite of 
 baptism, whether from orthodox or heretical admi- 
 nistration, are brought under the control of the 
 Roman Church. The canon runs thus : (( If any 
 one shall say that any baptised infant is permitted, 
 when arrived at maturity, to choose whether he will 
 abide by his baptismal vow made for him by his 
 sponsors, and that he cannot be compelled by pu- 
 nishment to lead a Christian life, except by the use 
 of the sacraments, until he repent, let him be ac- 
 cursed."* And if an excommunicated person shall 
 for one whole year remain obdurate under ecclesias- 
 tical censures, he is to be proceeded against as a 
 person charged with heresy .f 
 
 The canonical precept of persecution is admitted 
 and taught down to this day by the Roman canon- 
 ists wherever they can obtain a chair or hearers. 
 Thomas of Aquinse, in the thirteenth, and the 
 Jesuit Robert Bellarmine in the sixteenth century, 
 and many other doctors of the Roman Church, of 
 scarcely inferior renown, laboured to establish it 
 upon grounds of reason and experience.^ Since 
 the death of Bellarmine the ablest as well as the 
 
 * Cone. Trident. Canones et Decreta, Sess. vii. De 
 Baptism. Canon 4, Le Plat, p. 65. See also Can. 14, 
 ibid. p. 67. 
 
 f " Tanquam de hseresi suspectus." Ibid. De Reform. 
 Sess. xxv. c. 4 ; Le Plat, p. 303. 
 
 J S. Thorn. Aquin. Summa Summarum, Lib. ii. c. 
 10, 11, 42, et Lib. iii. 48. Bellarm. De Laicis, Lib. iii. 
 21, 22. 
 
112 
 
 most accredited of the official expositors of the 
 S sacred canons/' and " Apostolical constitutions" of 
 his church^ no change has occurred in this or any 
 other respect in the opinion and practice of the 
 Eoman Church where she has the power.* To this 
 day the same doctrine is tang-lit in the Irish 
 college of Maynooth from the work of Peter Dens, 
 there adopted as a text-book of theological instruc- 
 tion. Dens, upon the authority of Aquinas, affirms 
 it to be lawful to put heretics to death. " Inas- 
 much/' says he, " as forgers of money and other 
 disturbers of the State are justly punished with death, 
 therefore also heretics jwho are forgers ojblie.-iaith 
 , . . this is confirmed by the command of God under 
 the old law that false prophets be slain . . . the 
 same is proved by the condemnation of John Huss 
 by the Council of Constance."f 
 
 But in reply to the allegation of lay Papists that 
 these detestable principles are no longer professed 
 or held by their Church, and that to repeat them 
 answers no purpose but to render them odious to 
 their fellow-subjects, it is to be observed that not only 
 do these precepts still remain unrepealed upon the 
 statute-book of Rome, and are there enrolled among 
 the ce sacred canons" and " Apostolical constitutions" 
 by which the soi-disant " Church of England" is to 
 be governed under its new hierarchs, but that as 
 
 * Bellarmine died in the year 1621. 
 
 t Dens Theology, vol. ii. p. 88, 89. See to the same 
 effect Delahogue's Treatise on the Church; likewise a 
 class book at Maynooth. Devoti on the " Canon Law/' 
 vol. iv. sect. 1 . 
 
113 
 
 late as the year 1832 Pope Gregory XVL, in his 
 Encyclical letter, admonishes us Protestants, and 
 the Christian world in general, to bear in mind that 
 nothing- that has been once regularly defined ought 
 to be retrenched, changed, or added to, but that all 
 should be preserved entire and incorrupt both in 
 sense and expression.* 
 
 We have it, therefore, upon the testimony of the 
 Eoman Church herself that the duty of persecuting 
 heretics to death is part and parcel of that body of 
 canons and constitutions by which the new hierarchy 
 are to be directed and governed in their management 
 of the re-edified Church of England ; and we Pro- 
 testants are moreover officially informed that by our 
 baptism we are drawn within the wide circle of 
 capital responsibility to the Church so re-edified, if, 
 after preliminary censure, we shall continue for a 
 year and a day to adhere to our old errors. 
 
 It is almost needless to observe that these re- 
 marks on the actual state of the Roman canon law, 
 are not intended to raise any apprehension that the 
 most unlimited acquiescence in the recent measure 
 
 * And compare with this the proceedings of Pope Pius 
 VI. against the excellent Bishop of Pistoia, Scipio Kicci, 
 for affirming, among other heretical opinions, that the 
 Church hath no power beyond the limits of doctrine and 
 morals, nor to exact obedience to her decrees by any other 
 means than persuasion. This is declared in the sentence 
 upon the Bishop to be at variance with the decree of Pope 
 Benedict XIV. in his Brief "Ad Assiduas," A. D. 1755, 
 Corp. Jur. Canon. Bichter, vol. ii. p. 148 of the Appendix 
 to the Council of Trent. 
 
 H 
 
114 
 
 of Pope Pius IX. would rekindle the fires of 
 Smithfield. We all know that any attempt to 
 drive us into the fold of Popery, by 'active persecu- 
 tion, would be followed by the instant expulsion of 
 the entire Roman drove from this country. But 
 we know the nature of the Demon Persecution; 
 that his name is ( Legion/ and that his forms 
 are as various as those of the fabled Proteus. The 
 deri of Jesuitism is among* the favourite haunts of 
 
 o 
 
 this malignant spirit 5 he lurks in every corner of 
 the unexplored labyrinth of the canon law of 
 Rome y and when, presuming- upon our ignorance 
 and simplicity, that prodigious storehouse of chains 
 and racks and fetters is thrown open for our in- 
 spection, we have a good right to take a survey of 
 its contents, and to form a judgment of the temper 
 and disposition of the proprietors and inventors. 
 Surely after the glimpse we have had of what under 
 conceivable circumstances may be our fate, we are 
 entitled to say to them, before we yield them our 
 confidence : Cf First clear out these unseemly imple- 
 ments ; cart them off to their own place that 
 place to which your champion Bellarmine desired 
 to consign us heretics,* put it out of your own 
 
 * "If," says the Cardinal, "you threaten them (the 
 heretics) they neither fear God nor regard man, knowing 
 that there will not be wanting fools who believe them, 
 and by whom they will be maintained if you put them in 
 prison or banish them; they corrupt their neighbours 
 with words, and those at a distance with books. There- 
 fore the only remedy is to send them speedily to their own 
 
 j '* 
 place. 
 
115 
 
 power to apply these detestable maxims to us or 
 our posterity ; repeal laws written in the blood of 
 our brethren in the faith all over the world ; repeal 
 them by the same authority and with the same 
 publicity, as that with which they were promul- 
 gated. When this is done we withdraw our oppo- 
 sition, and lay open to you the whole field of 
 proselytism. Make as many converts as you can, 
 provided you set about it as your own excellent 
 Bishop Bicci proposed : by the sword of the Spirit ; 
 by g-entleness and persuasion ; by learning- and 
 diligence in your vocation ; and by the example of 
 a holy and religious life. But as long- as the stake, 
 and the rack, and the thumbscrew, are visible in 
 the background of the landscape, however faint the 
 outline, we will neither approach you nor suffer you 
 to approach us. For we know that there are more 
 ways of torturing- the consciences than the bodies of 
 men, and that the spirit and the temper, tha,t dictates 
 both the one and the other, are the offspring- of the 
 same parent. When you ask us not merely to 
 tolerate you, but to give you every chance and 
 opportunity of ascendancy, it is no unreasonable 
 demand that you should give us some solid security 
 for reciprocal toleration. Neither is it any answer 
 to our counter-claim, to alleg-e that you have put it 
 out of your own power to grant it that your 
 church is infallible, its maxims recorded beyond 
 human chang-e, its decrees fixed as fate that they 
 are as the writing- upon the tables of stone, which 
 Moses brought down from Mount Sinai stead fast 
 as the rock of ag-es upon which they are based 
 
 H 2 
 
116 
 
 we admit that the chasm between us is a great 
 gulf, greater far than appears upon this secular 
 view of our relative positions. Be it so. We have 
 advanced to the very edge of the precipice in the 
 vain attempt to g*rasp the hand of fellowship across 
 it. Another step, we feel, would plunge us into 
 that annihilation to which the recent Bull of your 
 Pontiff has by anticipation consigned us." 
 
 Again : we learn from the same testimony that 
 it is part and parcel of the { sacred canons' and 
 ' Apostolical constitutions 7 of the Roman Church, 
 that no true son of that Church is bound by any 
 oath, promise, or engagement, that is or may be 
 prejudicial to its interests and that faith is not to 
 be kept with heretics. 
 
 During 1 the ruthless persecution of the Alhignnses 
 in the 13th century by Pope Innocent III. and his 
 successors, that pontiff excommunicated Count 
 Raymond of Thoulouse for his criminal reluctance 
 to shed the blood of the most learned, industrious, 
 and virtuous body of men within his dominions. 
 The motive and the rule upon which the anathema 
 was grounded is thus given : " Inasmuch as following 
 the canonical sanctions of the holy fathers (sacred 
 canons and Apostolical constitutions) we are not 
 justified in keeping faith with those who keep not 
 faith towards God, or are separated from the 
 communion of the faithful, we discharge by Apos- 
 tolical authority all those who believe themselves 
 bound to the said Count by any oath of allegiance 
 or fidelity ; we permit every Catholic man to pursue 
 liis person, and to occupy and detain his lands, 
 
117 
 
 more especially with' a view to the extermination of 
 heresy."* 
 
 I do not quote the terms in which the Council of 
 Constance justified the treacherous murder of John 
 Huss in violation of the safe-conduct granted by 
 the Emperor Sigismund, because, though uncon- 
 tradicted, I do not find them upon the authentic 
 roll of the church of Rome.t But in the year 
 1421, Pope Martin V. addressed (C Letters Apos- 
 tolical" to the Duke of Lithuania exhorting- him to 
 persecute heretics within his dominions; assuring 
 him that if perchance he should have tied himself 
 down by any promise or engagement to such 
 wretches he would commit a mortal sin if he kept 
 his faith with them, who were themselves violators 
 of the holy faith of God.J 
 
 In the year 1487, Pope Innocent VIII. issued 
 " Letters Apostolical" for the extermination of the 
 descendants of the remnant which had escaped the 
 slaughter of the Albigenses in 1209 and the follow- 
 ing years, and assigning the lands and property of 
 the heretics to those who should do good service in 
 
 * Sismondij Hist, de France, torn. vi. p. 270. Compare 
 with this Pet. Vallium Sarnaii Monum. Hist. Albig. c. 8, 
 ap. Dom. Bouquet, Hist, des Gaules, torn. xix. p. 23. 
 
 f L' Enfant Hist, du Concil. de Constance, torn. ii. p. 
 491. 
 
 J Quod si tu aliquo modo inductus, defensionem eorum 
 suscipere promisisti, scito, te dare fidem haereticis viola- 
 toribus fidei sanctse non potuisse; et idcirco peccare 
 mortaliter, si servabis ; quia fideli ad infidelem non potest 
 ulla communio. Cochlceus, lib. v. p. 212. 
 
118 
 
 exterminating- them j declaring 1 at the same time all 
 persons bound to them hy tenure, service, promise, 
 or engagement of any kind, discharged from any and 
 ev ery obligation theretofore or thereafter contracted. 
 Then, after depriving- ecclesiastics, if any such there 
 should be found among- them, of their dignities, offices 
 and benefices, and the laity of their honours, titles, 
 feoffs and privileges, the Papal commissioners under 
 the Bull were directed further to absolve such as 
 might wish to return to the bosom of the church, 
 althoug-h they may have sworn to favour the heretics, 
 provided that by taking- a contrary oath they give 
 sufficient security for the breach of the first oath.* 
 
 In the Decretals of Greg-ory IX. this maxim is 
 thus expressed, " Be it known to those who are in 
 any manner bound in obligation to persons who kave 
 fallen into heresy, by whatever assurance or solem- 
 nity such engagement may have been fortified, that 
 they are absolutely absolved from all fidelity of 
 homage, or observance towards such persons."f 
 
 It is unquestionable that the Queen, the Legisla- 
 ture, the Church, and the entire Protestant popula- 
 tion of this empire, are in the predicament of these 
 unfortunate " lapsi in hseresim." When the Pope 
 shall please to declare any terms we may have en- 
 tered into with our Roman Catholic fellow-subjects, 
 to be so disadvantageous to the interests of his 
 
 * Leger, Hist, des Egl. Vaudoises, vol. ii. c. 2. The 
 original of this Bull is, it is said, in the University library 
 at Cambridge. 
 
 f Decret. Greg. IX. lib. v. : tit. vii. c. 16, ap. Richter, 
 Corp. Jur. Can. torn. ii. p. 760. 
 
119 
 
 Church as to require a change, there would be no 
 canonical difficulty in the way. Not that we appre- 
 hend any such public declaration at this moment, or 
 at any assignable period hence ; but where a prin- 
 ciple of such a nature is not merely entertained, but 
 laid up in the sacred storehouse of religious precept, 
 its secret influence upon the minds of its professors 
 must undermine every sentiment of truth and good 
 faith. It is not that they would not, but that they 
 dare not bring it into practical operation. We 
 must treat them as we would a man whom we know 
 to have concealed about his person a deadly weapon, 
 which, on being required so to do, he refuses to cast 
 from him. What, we might ask, has he to do with 
 such an instrument about him in a time of peace, if 
 he does not intend to injure, or at least to intimidate 
 us ? He may be too weak or too timid to use it 
 with effect, and therefore we apprehend no imme- 
 diate attack but we know that the fact by itself 
 indicates a malignant mind; we therefore decline 
 all intercourse with him, under the conviction that 
 if he cannot wound us in one way he will in another. 
 
 I submit, therefore, that until this precept of Pope 
 Gregory IX. is repealed, we cannot safely permit 
 the introduction of a hierarchy whom we can bind 
 to no terms inconvenient to Borne, or the interests 
 of their church. 
 
 There are, however, some of these c sacred canons' 
 and ' Apostolical constitutions' to which the Bull of 
 Pope Pius IX. points our attention, more particu- 
 larly claiming notice as proofs of that temporal and 
 political tendency which never for a moment escapes 
 
120 
 
 the eye of the attentive student of papal history. 
 I allude to the bulls " Unam Sanetam," "Clericis 
 Laicos," and " In Coena Domini." The first of these 
 was an ancient statute of the Roman church repub- 
 lished by Boniface VIII. in the year 1302.* " We 
 are instructed/' says this document, " in Scripture, 
 that this (the Roman) church hath in its power and 
 disposal two swords, the sword spiritual and the 
 sword temporal. For when the Apostles, addressing 1 
 the Lord said to him, f Here that is, in this church 
 are two swords/ the Lord did not reply ' it is 
 more than enough/ but simply, f it is enough.' Of 
 a surety, therefore, he that denies that the temporal 
 sword is entrusted to Peter, pays little heed to the 
 words of the Lord, saying, (Matth. xxvi. 52,) 
 ' Return thy sword into the scabbard.'f Both these 
 swords, therefore, are at the disposal of the Church, 
 the spiritual sword namely, and the material ; but 
 the latter is to be wielded ? /0r the church, the former 
 by the church ; the spiritual by the priesthood, the 
 carnal by the hand of kings and warriors ; but at 
 the beck and by the permission of the priesthood. J 
 But it must needs be that srvord be subject unto 
 
 * Extravagant. Commun. lib. i. tit. viii. c. 1, ap. Richter, 
 Corp. Jur. Civ. vol. ii. p. 1139. Comp. Fleury Hist. Eccles. 
 torn. xix. p. 34. 
 
 f A marvellous exposition ! After this fashion there is 
 indeed no knowing what may be made of Scripture. The 
 concluding words of the verse are very prudently sup- 
 pressed. 
 
 J " llle sacerdotes, is (materialis gladius) manu regum 
 et militum, sed ad nutum et patientiam sacerdotis." 
 
121 
 
 sword, and that the temporal authority be subject to 
 the spiritual power/' &c. The document goes on 
 by the most grotesque exposition of Scripture, to 
 inculcate the propositions that by as much as the 
 spiritual power excels the temporal in dignity 
 and excellence, by so much must the latter be sub- 
 ordinate to the former ; that it is proved by the 
 Word of God that the temporal powers are under 
 the tutelage and judicial correction of the spiritual; 
 that the spiritual is the natural judge of the temporal ; 
 that the former, though placed in the hands of a 
 man like ourselves, is really divine and not human ; 
 that he who resists this power resists the ordinance 
 of God ; and lastly, t hat every human creature must 
 be subject to the Roman Pontiff. 
 
 The Bull " Clericis Laicos," the production of the 
 same pontiff, Boniface VIII., was issued some six 
 years before the former. It recites the vexatious 
 imposts, talliages, forced loans, &c. under which 
 the clergy had greatly suffered in their purses ; and 
 it goes on to enact that if any ecclesiastic, of what- 
 ever rank, should dare to pay, or any " emperor, 
 king, prince, duke, baron, officer, bailiff, or other 
 layman, should dare to impose or levy any tax or 
 impost of any kind upon the clergy of his empire^ 
 kingdom, principality, &c. they, their aiders, abet- 
 tors, and comforters should be ipso facto excommu- 
 nicate." It threatens all nations (universitates), 
 laymen as well as ecclesiastics, with the Interdict, 
 if they pay or countenance the payment of any 
 such tax or impost; and enjoins them, without 
 scruple, to break any promise or engagement they 
 
may have come under to levy or to pay prior to the 
 promulgation of that ordinance.* 
 
 The king's of England and France, Edward I. 
 and Philip le Bel, returned the only sensible 
 answers to this pernicious and insolent attempt to 
 exempt the larg'est masses of property in both 
 kingdoms from their share of the national burthens. 
 Edward I. sealed up the granaries of the clergy 
 who refused to pay ; and Philip prohibited the 
 export of bullion, money, gold or silver, plate, 
 jewelry, and all other valuable articles of a portable 
 character out of his kingdom without a special 
 licence from himself. 
 
 The date of the Bull " In Coena Domini" is not 
 quite certain. It was republished, and made of 
 perpetual obligation, by Julius II. early in the 
 16th century. It was revived by Pius V. in 1568 ; 
 again by Benedict XIV. in the middle of the 18th 
 century j Pius VI. quotes it at the close of that 
 century, and it has ever since been a great favourite 
 of the court of Rome. It takes a wide sweep over 
 the entire domain of spiritual superintendence, e. g. 
 the treatment of heretics and their abettors, of 
 pirates and maritime depredators, clerical taxation, 
 abuse or ill usage of prelates, &c. It censures more 
 particularly those who attempt to restrain the 
 ecclesiastical tribunals, though it be to prevent 
 their excesses, whether the persons so offending* be 
 the counsellors or attornies-general of emperors, 
 
 * Sexti Decret. lib. iii. tit. xxiii. c. 3. ap. Richter, 
 ii. p. 1000. 
 
123 
 
 kiiig-s ; or dukes ; as also all who shall usurp the 
 estates of the Church ; and lastly, it exempts all 
 ecclesiastics from the tributes, charges, and imposts 
 which lay subjects usually pay to their sovereigns.* 
 What share in the temporal powers of the State 
 would be left to the governments of Christendom, 
 if the principles involved in these enactments w r ere 
 fully established, it is extremely difficult to con- 
 jecture. Again, however, the reader must be 
 reminded that they are part and parcel of those 
 " sacred canons" and " Apostolical constitutions," 
 embodied by reference with the general instructions 
 to the new hierarchy for the government of their 
 churches. Calling to mind that the ultramontane 
 doctors to whom the management of the ee re-edified 
 church of England" is entrusted will probably not 
 shrink from the principles involved in the documents 
 above adverted to, we may form some idea of the 
 kind of subjects her Majesty is likely to find in 
 them and their pupils whether they will be dis- 
 posed to submit tamely to the temporal sword, 
 neither placed in her hands by the Pope, nor 
 wielded at his beck or for his benefit whether they 
 will tolerate mortmain, or taxation, or legal restric- 
 tions upon landed acquisition, or tithes in other 
 hands than their own whether they will not strain 
 every nerve, and put in practice every device which 
 turbulence, agitation, cunning, persuasion, or 
 canonical simulation can suggest to obtain an 
 
 * Fleury, Hist. Eccles. torn, xxxiv. p. 545. This Bull 
 was rejected by Spain, France, and Venice, and very ill 
 received in Germany and elsewhere. 
 
124 
 
 influence in the legislature, and to supplant the 
 national prelacy. I am firmly convinced they will 
 resort to all these expedients by turns. I helieve 
 that warfare with all who resist is as much the 
 element of their ecclesiastical, as the air they 
 breathe of their physical existence. 
 
 I now beg 1 leave to draw the reader's attention to 
 a clause of the Bull which is chiefly worthy of atten- 
 tion on account of its studied ambiguity. By this 
 clause " All regulations, constitutions, privileges, or 
 customs in the ancient system of the Anglican 
 churches are, by the plenitude of the Apostolical 
 power, repealed and abrogated, and that all power 
 whatsoever of imposing obligation or conferring 
 right in those regulations, privileges, or customs, by 
 whomsoever and at whatsoever most ancient and 
 immemorial times brought in, be altogether void and 
 of none effect for the future." And this clause 
 stands in connexion with another which directs that 
 "all rights and privileges of the ancient sees of 
 England, and all other things contravening the 
 foregoing ordinance be annulled and repealed j" and 
 concludes thus : " Moreover we decree that if in 
 any other manner, any other attempt shall be made 
 by any person, or by any authority, knowingly or 
 ignorantly to set aside these enactments such attempt 
 shall be null and void." 
 
 The question we have to sift is simply how do 
 these expressions affect the civil and ecclesiastical 
 constitution, and the liberties, political and religi- 
 ous, of the people of these realms ? 
 
 After returning thanks to God, the Virgin Mary, 
 
125 
 
 and the saints-patrons of England, that it has been 
 granted to him to restore the Episcopal sees of 
 England, this foreign prince and prelate goes on to 
 decree that the instrument shall under no imagin- 
 able circumstances be impugned, or its validity be in 
 any way affected. The words used are as general 
 and comprehensive as it is possible to make them. 
 
 Are they restricted satisfactorily restricted by 
 what follows ? " All g'eneral or special enactments, 
 notwithstanding-, whether apostolical (papal) or is- 
 sued in synodal, provincial, and universal councils." 
 It may perhaps be contended that this clause over- 
 rides and controls all that follows. To my under- 
 standing it is no more than an item a general one, 
 perhaps in the list of possible objections to the va- 
 lidity of the Bull, which the Pope desires to clear 
 out of the way. If so, it stands unconnected with all 
 the following non olstante clauses. These clauses then 
 go on to remove all impediments arising out of the 
 rights of the ancient sees of England those, namely, 
 now held by the bishops of the establishment also 
 all obstacles which the late missionary or vicarial 
 system, or which the rights of churches, and places of 
 worship of any sort may present ; " lastly, notwith- 
 standing all other things to the contrary whatso- 
 ever." We ask, are all these things annulled in 
 substance, or to be only inoperative as against the 
 Bull and its eventualities ? This question, I think, 
 is pretty well explained by the preceding clause, 
 repealing and abrogating " all regulations, consti- 
 tutions, privileges, or customs in the ancient s}'stem 
 of the Anglican churches " that very system, be it 
 
126 
 
 remembered upon which the regulations, constitu- 
 tions, privileges, and customs of that institution 
 which we alone know by the name of the Anglican 
 Church actually rest. It cannot be alleged, on the 
 part of the Pope, that his Anglican church is 
 another and a different church from ours, and that 
 his regulations relate only to his Anglican church, 
 and not to ours. For, in the first place, he takes 
 upon himself to push aside the rights of the ancient 
 sees of England, and of course those of the present 
 tenants ; and in the second, he presents himself as 
 the restorer and re-edifier of the ancient Church of 
 England. But finding, that in order to accommodate 
 himself to the exigencies of the times, it is requisite 
 to change the constitution of that Church in the most 
 material particulars, he presumes to strike a way the 
 very foundations upon which the existing National 
 Church reposes. The rights of the ancient sees of 
 England are by law vested in the actual archbishops 
 and bishops of those sees. The law which thus vests 
 them, is the ancient Common Law of the Church 
 and State of England. The rights of the ancient 
 sees of England extend over every part and portion 
 of English territory. The new hierarchy is in every 
 respect commensurate with the old \ it embraces 
 territorially all the ancient sees ; and in any other 
 state of things these rights would present insupera- 
 ble obstacles to its establishment. In this view of 
 the question, the least that can be said of the clause 
 is, that it presumes to repeal the ancient Common 
 Law of the realm, as far as it stands in the way of 
 the papal project. But the repeal of one jot or 
 
127 
 
 tittle of any law or legal system implies a power to 
 repeal the whole. If we tamely suffer this assumption 
 to pass, no rational man can doubt what language 
 these ultramontane canonists will hold hereafter. 
 
 But we shall be told, that the rights of the two 
 episcopal systems cannot clash, for that those with- 
 drawn, as well as those assumed, are purely spiritual. 
 But I would ask, by what authority does this stran- 
 ger presume to abrogate even the spiritual rights of 
 the ancient sees of England ? These spiritual rights 
 are, we presume, still under the protection of the law, 
 quite as much as the temporal rights of those sees. 
 All those rights, whether spiritual or temporal, are 
 still vested in the Queen and the bishops, as they have 
 been from time whereof the memory of man runneth 
 not to the contrary, without equal or rival. If indeed 
 our Church was but of yesterday's date, as Papists 
 delight in representing it, they might reasonably 
 enough say to us " You have nothing to do with 
 the ancient sees of England, for they are our con- 
 cern, not yours." And this observation discloses to 
 us the importance of not permitting these ingenious 
 sophists to heave the National Church out of its 
 natural foundation in the ancient, common and 
 ecclesiastical law of the land. 
 
 At all events there lurks in this clause of the 
 Bull a very serious, and a very suspicious ambi- 
 guity. It is an ambiguity that might and ought 
 to have been avoided an ambiguity, therefore, 
 which raises a strong presumption that it was in- 
 troduced by design. And knowing that the non- 
 official expositions of the Papal advocates never 
 
128 
 
 have been held to bind the Holy See, we are thrown 
 back without resource upon the Papal instrument 
 itself, and must endeavour in the best way we can 
 to determine therefrom its latent as well as its 
 manifest drift and meaning 1 . 
 
 We maintain that the Anglican Church not this 
 new creation of pontifical arrogance stands upon 
 those very " constitutions, privileges, and customs, 
 in most ancient times brought in upon those rights 
 and privileges of the ancient sees of England," 
 which (till he officially contradicts us) we affirm 
 that the Pope has repealed and abrogated. But in 
 these things it is that its strength lies ; upon these 
 depend its prescriptive rights ; its claim upon legal 
 recognition and protection, and its hold upon the 
 affections of a large majority of the people , We 
 must not therefore permit any power external to 
 the Church and legislature of the country, more 
 especially an alien to our laws, a stranger to our 
 people, an enemy to our religion, a { foreign prince 
 and potentate/ to hold language like this without 
 such explanations as shall accurately and positively 
 disclose the latent meaning of his ambiguous ex- 
 pressions, leaving us at liberty to accept or reject 
 them, even when we have them under the only 
 warranty we will accept under the fisherman's 
 ring. 
 
 We must acknowledge that to give such explana- 
 tions, without in some shape or other admitting the 
 existence of a national Church, hitherto so anxiously 
 and ingeniously avoided, would be a sore puzzle to 
 Pius IX. as well as to his able adviser, Dr. Wise- 
 
129 
 
 man. But that is their affair. The intromission of 
 Mr. Shiel at Florence must be absolutely protested 
 ag-ainst. Whether he be clothed with an official 
 character in his intercourse with the court of Rome 
 or not; matters not a pin. No semi-official assurances 
 or explanations can chang'e one jot or tittle of an 
 infallible Bull. Nothing- but Infallibility II. can 
 make that clear which Infallibility I. hath left in 
 doubt. 
 
 Quitting- this subject, let us very shortly examine 
 the mode in which this Bull has been used and 
 justified by its organs and advocates. 
 
 .11. Dr. Wiseman's Pastoral Letter. 
 
 I select this document for examination next after 
 that of the Papal Bull, because it seems to offer the 
 most authentic exposition of the drift and meaning- 
 of that instrument. I propose, however, to notice 
 it only in those points in which it seems to throw 
 lig-ht upon the principal object of inquiry before 
 mentioned. 
 
 "Wiseman's address, like the Bull, to which we 
 may reg-ard it as a sort of rider, removes the Church 
 of Eng-land out of sig-ht altogether, as if it were a 
 nonentity, and treats the novel establishment as if 
 already not merely in the ascendant, but standing- 
 alone in the land. By this mode of dealing- with 
 the establishment, some advantag-e is gained. 
 By neither admitting- nor denying- anything-, it 
 g-ave the g-o by to all controversy it declined 
 placing 1 the new hierarchy in competition with a 
 canonical nonentity and at once established the 
 
 I 
 
130 
 
 Papal decree upon the only ground that was 
 thought suitable to its transcendent claims, and 
 most likely to impress the minds of the masses with 
 awe and admiration. 
 
 The Pastoral, therefore, knows nothing 1 of any 
 ee Anglican Church," but that of the Bull ; and as 
 absolutely ignores the Queen and her constitutional 
 rights, as if both were non-existent. But upon the 
 non obstante clauses, Dr. Wiseman is very circum- 
 spect. According to his exposition of them, they 
 are no more than a setting aside of all dispositions 
 and enactments made for England by the Holy 
 See, with reference to the missionary or vicarial 
 state. And this, I believe, is the understanding the 
 Papal hierarchs desire, for the present, to estab- 
 lish in the minds of Protestants. I would merely 
 call upon the reader to re-peruse the plain words 
 of these clauses, and ask him, after reading them, 
 whether the restriction contended for can be main- 
 tained. Again, it cannot be too strongly borne in 
 our minds that Dr. Wiseman has no authority so 
 to restrict the meaning of his infallible master. As 
 no one can judge, so no one can fully understand or 
 explain what the Pope says but himself. But we 
 who see no religious reason to give any credit to 
 this transcendental document but what it appears 
 upon the face of it to deserve, must be allowed to 
 put the natural interpretation upon these clauses. 
 
 In the same way, when the writer informs us 
 that in conformity with his appointment to the 
 Archiepiscopal see of Westminster, "he governs, 
 and will continue to govern the counties of Mid- 
 
131 
 
 dlesex, Hertford, and Essex as ordinary thereof;" 
 we interpret the words in their natural sense. 
 Agreeably to the main policy of the measure, they 
 must he taken to imply a sole and exclusive go- 
 vernment, not of the Roman Catholics within the 
 counties in question, but of the population in the 
 aggregate. Considering that it would have re- 
 quired merely the insertion of a few words to make 
 the writer's meaning quite clear, and to shut out all 
 misapprehension on our part, we have a full right 
 to assume that the words used mean neither more 
 nor less than they naturally import. Now the 
 words used exclude every other government of the 
 same kind ; consequently that of the Anglican 
 prelates, whose spiritual jurisdiction extends over 
 those counties. This exposition, moreover, is placed 
 beyond controversy by the well known principle 
 of the Roman church, that there cannot be two 
 archbishops within the same province, nor of two 
 bishops within the same diocese.* As the official 
 interpreter and executive officer of the Pope, we 
 therefore understand him to affirm of himself that 
 he is the sole archbishop of the province of West- 
 minster, as well as the sole bishop of the diocese 
 thereunto annexed as ordinary, with jurisdiction 
 over the entire population, without distinction of 
 Roman Catholics and Protestants. The law of 
 England, however, recognizes and maintains two 
 other archbishops, and several other bishops, whose 
 lawful jurisdiction extends over the whole of this 
 
 * Gratian. Decret. Dist. ci. ; c. un. p 304 -Comp. Van 
 Espen Opera, torn. iii. p. 88 and 554. 
 
 I 2 
 
132 
 
 pretended province of Westminster, as also over 
 that district which the Bull annexes to Dr. Wise- 
 man's Archiepiscopal see. The obvious intention, 
 therefore, of the Pope and his chosen interpreter is 
 quietly to set aside the law of the land ; and, as in 
 times past, to steal a recognition, which shall make 
 it difficult, if not impracticable, to resist its universal 
 and exclusive pretensions. 
 
 The pretended cardinal-archbishop next informs 
 us, in a tone of no little self-complacency, that the 
 Pope has been pleased to confer upon him the Pal- 
 lium, which he rightly describes as the badge of 
 the metropolitan jurisdiction. But we should al- 
 wa}^s bear in mind that it is likewise the badge of 
 his absolute dependence upon a foreign sovereign,* 
 and that it is granted to a subject of that sovereign 
 and a prince of his State and Church ; that it is 
 borne by one who has contracted temporal and 
 spiritual obligations, beyond all account transcend- 
 ing- his natural allegiance : that the Pallium per se 
 is the symbol of the Pope's " Plenitude of Aposto- 
 lical power;" that it is a visible delegation of a 
 station, entitling the recipient to temporal rank 
 and title those, for instance, of "Your Grace/' 
 and f( My Lord " and these he demands solely 
 f virtute Pallii.' 
 
 We have here, therefore, the sworn servant and 
 liegeman of a foreign prince, selected to re-edify 
 
 * On the Pallium and its attendant obligations, see Du 
 Canye, as quoted above. Twysden, p. 47 ; and compare 
 Decret. Greg. IX. lib. i. tit. viii. c. 3, 4; ap. JRichter, ii. 
 p. 97. Gratian. Decret. Dist. C. c. 1. Richter, i. p. 300. 
 
138 
 
 our Church the "Church of England." And it is 
 surprising with how little trouble this great work is 
 effected. The new cardinal-archbishop is himself 
 quite astonished at it. "He has not leisure to 
 relate how wonderfully all this has been brought 
 about/' And yet he tells us that " the great work 
 is complete that our beloved country has received a 
 place among the fair churches which, normally 
 (papally) constituted, form the splendid aggregate 
 of the Catholic communion. Catholic England has 
 been restored to its orbit in the ecclesiastical firma- 
 ment, from which its light had long vanished, 
 and begins now anew its course of regularly ad- 
 justed action round the centre of union, the source 
 of 'jurisdiction, of light, and of vigour." 
 
 I do not believe that there is to be found in the 
 whole body of the Eoman Decretals a fuller and 
 more pregnant expression of the entire spirit and 
 moral of the great imposture. No man knows 
 better than Dr. Wiseman, that what he states in 
 this passage, is, in the ordinary sense of the words 
 used, an unqualified falsehood. He knows full 
 well that " our beloved country" is still Protestant 
 England ; that it is not, in his sense, " Catholic 
 England " at all ; and yet we shall soon find him 
 "authorising" his extra-official advocate, Mr. Bow- 
 yer, to admit that his " Catholic England" is only one 
 of many dissenting communions in this country,* and 
 to claim for it no other privileges than are enjoyed 
 by any other dissidents from the National Church. 
 
 * Mr. Bowyer publishes " By Authority," beyond all 
 doubt, by the authority of his cardinal-archbishop. 
 
134 
 
 Yet some excuse might be alleged for this un- 
 truth, if he had not in the elation of mind, produced 
 by his gTeat elevation, gone a step beyond the Bull 
 itself. It might be excuseable in him not to know 
 or say more than his master knew and said. As 
 the Pope had resolved to be quite ignorant of the 
 existence of any Anglican hierarchy, of any supre- 
 macy, or of any laws but his own " sacred canons 
 and apostolical constitutions," his official organ 
 would not have been much to blame for pursuing- 
 the like course. But he has shot a shaft a-head of 
 his master. He tells us that by a stroke of the 
 Papal pen our " beloved country" is no longer Pro- 
 testant, but " Catholic England," and that we, who 
 had long vanished from " the ecclesiastical firma- 
 ment," have at length found a place there suited to 
 our rank and station among the " Catholic " nations 
 of the earth. This shameful falsehood imposed 
 upon Dr. Wiseman the necessity of employing 
 another hand to plaister up the wound he had 
 inflicted at once upon the Protestant mind and his 
 own character ; and in eifect to unsay what his prin- 
 cipal had proclaimed ex cathedra, and humbly to 
 crave for his cardinal's " Catholic England " a place 
 among the dissenting churches of Great Britain. 
 
 In a word, the impression which the new prince- 
 primate intended to produce was: that the late 
 acts of our legislature, and of the ministers who 
 have subsequently carried out the various measures 
 for the relief of the Roman Catholics, are to be 
 taken as equivalent to a formal national reconcilia- 
 tion with Rome. The Pastoral, like the Bull, is 
 
135 
 
 addressed to all the Queen's subjects, without dis- 
 tinguishing- between Roman Catholics and others. 
 Rome has thereby thrown her arms wide open; 
 she has called to us by the endearing name of 
 " Catholic England," she will henceforward or for 
 a time at least know of none but " the faithful '" 
 she has ranged us all on the right hand of her throne ; 
 she has exhorted us all there to pasture together 
 in peace, till she shall be at leisure to separate the 
 sheep from the goats. The Pastoral is therefore 
 directed to be read "in all churches and chapels 
 of this our archdiocese of Westminster " not, it is 
 to be observed, of the Roman communion, but in 
 " all churches and chapels." Why, we ask, was 
 this matter left in doubt, if the measure was really 
 intended solely for the benefit of that single com- 
 munion ? Why was our " beloved country " left in 
 ambiguous conjunction with " Catholic England 1" 
 Why was all distinction between the " Church of 
 England" and the Protestant establishment so 
 carefully avoided ? Why, the " plenitude of apos- 
 tolical authority," in its extent and application, left 
 in such studied vagueness? Why all this; if a 
 single word would have made the drift of the 
 measure clear, and taken away that suspicious 
 ambiguity which lurks in every paragraph both 
 of Bull and Pastoral? We, therefore, boldly 
 affirm that the object alleged, and the justification 
 set up for this insolent attempt to subvert our 
 religious liberties, is a mere deceit a simple false 
 pretence ; and we proceed to shew that it is so by 
 
136 
 
 other witnesses, whom Rome will not be allowed to 
 disavow. 
 
 Mr. Newman, the zealous proselyte, the father 
 superior of the Oratorians of Birmingham, upon the 
 occasion of the installation of Bishop Ullathorne in 
 his new see, preached a sermon, in which the fol- 
 lowing* passage occurs : " The people of England, 
 who for so many years have been separated from 
 the see of Rome, are now about of their own free 
 will, to be again added to the Holy Church. Ca- 
 tholic bishops may now go forth with their croziers 
 in their hands, and children clad in white may 
 testify to the revivification of the true church. 
 The whole face of society is changed. Three hun- 
 dred years ago the Catholics of England became 
 tired of the blessings they enjoyed, and they were 
 separated from the hierarchy. The mystery of 
 God's Providence is now, however, fulfilled. I do 
 not recollect any people on earth but those of Great 
 Britain who, having once rejected the religion of 
 God, were again restored to the bosom of the 
 Church. But what has God done for them? It 
 is wonderful in their eyes ! The holy hierarchy 
 has been restored. The grave is opened, and Christ 
 is come out."* 
 
 Now we will pin this choice scrap of oracular 
 affectation to the Bull and Pastoral, and interpret 
 the three documents together. No man in his 
 senses would say other than that the measure is 
 general ; that it supersedes, and is intended to su- 
 persede the law of the land, as applicable to the 
 * "Times," 29th Got. 1850. 
 
137 
 
 Church of England by that law established. We 
 therefore reject Bishop Ullathorne's, or even Dr. 
 Wiseman's explanation in the teeth of documents so 
 plainly holding- a different language. These gen- 
 tlemen, as well as their chosen advocate, Mr. Bow- 
 yer, tell us, in their character of volunteer ex- 
 positors, that " the Bull is an act solely between 
 the Pope and his own spiritual subjects those who 
 are recognised as such by the Emancipation Act ; 
 that it reg'ards only spiritual interests, and that in . 
 all temporal matters, they (the Romanists) are sub- 
 ject to and are guided by the laws of the land." 
 This cannot be : for in the documents before us, the 
 Pope claims the entire kingdom as his spiritual 
 domain and in conformity with that claim, its sub- 
 jects cannot, without breach of their allegiance, 
 have any other religious church establishment, dis- 
 cipline, or ritual than his. If Dr. Ullathorne's 
 definition of the terms " spiritual subjects " be iden- 
 tical with that of the Bull, the Pastoral, and the 
 Sermon of the oratorian chief, his exposition is a 
 simple imposition ; for upon the face of those docu- 
 ments we all Churchmen, Presbyterians, Indepen- 
 dents, Baptists, &c. stand as the " spiritual sub- 
 jects " of the Pope. 
 
 To the Bishop's remonstrance : C( that it is unfair 
 to confound the boon to the Catholic church in 
 England with ideas of aggression upon the English 
 Government and people" we reply, that neither 
 the Bull nor the Pastoral mention their hierarchy 
 in any other terms than the " English Church," the 
 " Church of England," or the Anglican Church." 
 
138 
 
 They have never once used the words " Church in 
 England." The proclamation, therefore, of the new 
 establishment of bishops for England, clearly de- 
 notes an agg'ressive intention ; and when we find 
 that it is to be accomplished by a new territorial 
 division of the entirety of the ancient kingdom of 
 England, over the whole of which the spiritual ju- 
 risdiction of the bishops of the Established Church 
 actually extends ; what ingredients, we may ask, are 
 still wanting to convert such language explained by 
 such acts into an aggression upon the Government, 
 and the laws of the land ?* 
 
 I had prepared some comments upon Dr. TJlla- 
 thorne's pastoral letter to his two dioceses of Bir- 
 mingham and Nottingham,! and had proposed to 
 myself to examine rather more minutely the address 
 of Dr. Briggs, the new titular of Beverley. My 
 attention was also drawn to a sermon preached by 
 Dr. Doyle, at St. George's Chapel, Southwark,^ 
 in which some expressions occurred, strongly illus- 
 trative of the ultimate design of this movement. 
 But reflecting, that upon the whole there was little 
 novelty in these exhibitions of mingled pride, spleen, 
 and cunning, and that what they have enunciated 
 does not in any degree vary the views of the 
 Bull, its scope, and intent, already laid before the 
 reader, I pass on to the manifesto of the accom- 
 plished lawyer, whom the Pope and Dr. Wiseman 
 
 * See Dr. Ullathorne's letter of the 22d Oct. pub- 
 lished in the "Times " of the 24th of that month, 
 t " Times," 28th Nov. 1850. 
 t " Morning Chronicle," Monday, 28th Oct. 1850. 
 
139 
 
 have retained to plead their cause before the tribu- 
 nal of British common sense and justice. 
 
 .12. Mr. Bonyer's Pamphlet. 
 
 I will state at once what seems to me to be the 
 argument of the learned gentleman. It is shortly 
 this : " You have abolished the oath of supremacy 
 as against Roman Catholics, and by that act you 
 have legislatively admitted the religious supremacy 
 of the Pope in this country, and have legalized all 
 the consequences that naturally flow from that re- 
 cog'nition." 
 
 We deny, however, that the Act of 1829 does 
 admit the spiritual supremacy of the Pope in any 
 legislative sense. We also deny, even were it so, 
 that that would be sufficient to legalize the conse- 
 quence Mr. Bowyer regards as the natural results 
 of such recognition. We protest more particularly 
 against this latter inference; and trust that we shall 
 be able to shew that it implies a total surrender of 
 our religious, and of a large portion of our political 
 liberties not so much to our Roman Catholic 
 fellow-subjects, as to the Pope and his active agents, 
 the newly established hierarchs. 
 
 In the first place, there could be no occasion for 
 any parliamentary license for Roman Catholics to 
 believe in the spiritual supremacy of their Pope. In 
 this country any man may believe what he pleases ; 
 therefore the Act of 1829 could not have contem- 
 plated giving them a right they had before. That 
 Act went no further than to substitute for the oath 
 of supremacy taken by Protestants, such an oath 
 as should not deprive a portion of our fellow-sub- 
 
140 
 
 jects of their civil rights, by reason of a scruple of 
 conscience on their part to recognise the spiritual 
 supremacy of the Queen. In this there is no other 
 recognition of the Roman Catholic church, or its 
 head, than in the legislative measure relieving 
 Quakers and Moravians from taking oaths, there was 
 a design to recognise a Quaker or Moravian church 
 government as legally established in this kingdom, 
 or to permit them to hold any tenet subversive of 
 the royal prerogative, 
 
 But says Mr. Bowyer : " The Roman Catholic 
 church, being not only tolerated but recognised, 
 unless it be so with the features essential to its 
 proper nature and constitution, such toleration is a 
 manifest absurdity." We think the absurdity would 
 be all the other way. We have shewn that it is a 
 feature essential to the proper nature of Romanism 
 to hold, that heretics are to be coerced and pu- 
 nished ;* that by the Bull, " Unam Sanctam," the 
 Pope is held to have temporal supremacy whenever 
 its exercise is requisite to the fulfilment of his ec- 
 clesiastical purposes : that promises and oaths are 
 not binding upon the faithful, when they shall turn 
 out to be disadvantageous to the schemes of the 
 Pontiff, or the interests of his church. If, therefore, 
 Mr. Bowyer's argument be good for any thing, we 
 have, by the simple repeal of an oath, burthensome 
 to the consciences of Romanists, legalized and per- 
 mitted them to carry out all these " essential fea- 
 tures" of their religious creed ; in other words, to 
 trample under foot the law and constitution of 
 England. 
 
 * See pages 109113. 
 
141 
 
 Without dwelling* further upon this extravagant 
 assertion, I will only remark, that though we are 
 pretty confident that the Roman Catholics cannot, 
 very few of them probably would, if they could, 
 attempt to carry it out in practice, yet we know, 
 likewise, that within these extreme limits of ambi- 
 tious pretension, intolerance, and persecution, there 
 is a vast range of mischief to which we may well 
 hesitate to expose the Crown, the Church, and the 
 laws of our country. Indeed, if we look at these 
 " essential features," with reference to the law and 
 practice of the constitution, we find them to be pro- 
 foundly illegal in their nature and operation and 
 moreover, that they are neither obsolete nor re- 
 voked, but that, on the contrary, they have been, 
 down to the latest times, solemnly avowed and re- 
 published by the very authority from which the late 
 Bull proceeded.* 
 
 We must beware how we permit the malignant 
 spirit, lurking in these {c essential features," to 
 poison the life-blood of our social existence. Ad- 
 mitting* that, under existing* circumstances, its spe- 
 cific operation must be very gradual ; yet if we 
 allow the demoniacal influence to become natu- 
 ralized among us, the difference will only be between 
 a slow and a quick poison. It cannot be doubted 
 that the hierarchs and their emissaries will spare 
 no pains, fair or foul, for the overthrow of (he 
 national establishment.! We know that for this 
 
 * See pp. 112, 113. 
 
 f See the joyous anticipations of Dr. Doyle in his 
 sermon of the 20th Oct. 1850. 
 
142 
 
 purpose they will urge upon the consciences of 
 their laity, a gTeat variety of ordinances and prac- 
 tices upon which neither their judgment nor their 
 loyalty will be consulted. But as this circumstance 
 makes no difference in the obligation on their part 
 to obey, they can give us no assurance to-day what 
 will be their duty to-morrow. But obedience to 
 the supreme pastor and his accredited ministers, is 
 one of the " distinctive features " of the Roman 
 Catholic persuasion; and thus, if we admit Mr. 
 Bowyer's conclusions, we shall have denuded our- 
 selves of the means of knowing- or measuring- the 
 amount of the obligations we have contracted to- 
 wards our Roman Catholic fellow-subjects. But 
 Mr. Bowyer boldly contends that the Church of 
 Rome is not only tolerated, but recog-nised by the 
 law of the land as a body known to the law, and as 
 having- certain characteristic features of its own, 
 essential to its existence as such. That our legisla- 
 tors knew of the existence de facto of such a body, 
 I am not disposed to deny ; but I do emphatically 
 deny that they knew of, or acknowledged its exis- 
 tence as a body dejure endowed with any attributes 
 at all ; for not only does it so happen that the law 
 neither does nor can officially know what those 
 attributes are, but that when the lawgivers come 
 to examine the repertories of canonism, they find 
 that the principles there set down, stand in direct 
 and irreconcilable contradiction to the law and con- 
 stitution of the king-dom, and to the liberties, civil 
 and religious, of the people of this country. These, 
 therefore, cannot be leg-ally taken notice of by the 
 
143 
 
 legislature, and yet they stand, written in letters of 
 adamant, as the " essential attributes/' the " charac- 
 teristic features " of Popery. 
 
 But the Roman advocate takes care to leave these 
 his favourite expressions in all their obscurity of 
 meaning-. He tells us that it is absurd to talk of 
 toleration, a ad yet not permit the tolerated to hold 
 and practically carry out the essential principles of 
 their faith. He dischargees us from this presumed 
 absurdity, by taking* it for granted that the mere 
 repeal of the oath of supremacy amounts to as direct 
 an establishment of his Church, as if there had been 
 inserted in the Act of 1829 a clause to the following- 
 effect : " And be it further enacted by the authority 
 aforesaid, that the Bom an Catholic communion is 
 hereby recog-nised as a church known to the law, and 
 as possessing- certain essential features, without which 
 it would cease to be the Roman Catholic church ; all 
 which features, however numerous, whether known 
 or unknown, published or unpublished, are at all 
 times, and by all courts of law and equity in this 
 kingdom to be taken and deemed to be the legal 
 attributes and features of the same church, and to 
 be judicially taken notice of as such." 
 
 Mr. Bow} r er in words, reduces his demand to the 
 modest one of toleration, such as that enjoyed by all 
 other dissenting- bodies. How could it be imagined, 
 he urg-es, that so noble, so influential a community 
 as the Roman Catholics of this great country would 
 be contented to remain in the degraded state of a 
 mere missionary church, as if it were planted in 
 China, or some other heathen country ? Besides, 
 
144 
 
 would not their continuance in such a state have 
 been a positive lihel upon the justice, liberality, and 
 toleration of public opinion ! 
 
 This sort of " fie for shame " argument cannot 
 go for much, when we consider who it is that urges 
 it, and what they really ask for. This lowering- of 
 tone sits ill upon a community, whose organs hold 
 one language at one time and in one place, and 
 another when and where circumstances are different. 
 In Ireland the Roman Catholic organs repudiate 
 toleration with bitter scorn and contempt. They 
 claim ascendancy as their right, arid demand it with 
 a voice of thunder. In England Mr. Bowyer is 
 instructed to sing* small. But we know that the 
 late Mr. O'Connell, and John of Tuam have held the 
 genuine language of their church, a language she 
 never lays aside but when some preponderating ex- 
 pediency prescribes another tone. But in truth, the 
 drift of Mr. Bowyer does perfectly coincide with 
 the avowed object of the Irish hierarchs. His tole- 
 ration is no other than establishment organization 
 legalization - supremacy. The elimination of our 
 National Church follows, as a matter of course, 
 from the recognition of the " essential features " of 
 his own ; it is one of the natural consequences of 
 the repeal of the oath of supremacy, which repeal, 
 he tells us, made it lawful to deny the Queen's 
 headship, and to transfer that prerogative to the 
 Pope. 
 
 Now, as before observed, it is one of the " essen- 
 tial features " of the Church of Rome, that " there 
 cannot be two archbishops of the same province, nor 
 
145 
 
 two bishops of the same see/'* The overthrow of 
 the archiepiscopal sees of Canterbury and York, and 
 of all the sees of England is, therefore, one of those 
 measures of " internal government," which the Roman 
 Catholics acquired a perfect right to effect by the 
 Act of 1829. But the law of England has adopted 
 those sees into itself. The Church of England and 
 its hierarchy are part and parcel of the law of the 
 land. Has then the Act of 1829 repealed the law 
 as it stood before ? We cannot have both hierar- 
 chies, for we perceive that they of necessity exclude 
 each other. Both cannot be lawful, and either the 
 National Establishment has been cast away by the 
 State, or it is not true that the Act of Parliament 
 in question gave any such right as that contended 
 for. 
 
 It is singular that Rome now claims recognition 
 in this country upon grounds, the very absence of 
 which in other sects, makes it perfectly safe to ad- 
 mit them among the ec religiones licitae " of the 
 country. I believe it to be true in law that every 
 act or course of conduct which may, upon reason- 
 able evidence, be proved to be designed for, or tend 
 necessarily to overthrow or weaken any part or 
 portion of our Constitution in Church and State, is 
 illegal. The law cannot be supposed to legalize 
 any power or authority at variance with itself. 
 But the " essential features " just commented 
 upon, are provably inconsistent with the religion 
 of the Queen and the State, and with that Protes- 
 
 * Vide sup. p. 131. 
 K 
 
146 
 
 tantism which is the rule of Her Majesty's duties, 
 and the basis of our political system. 
 
 We have no space here to deal with the remon- 
 strances of Mr. Bowyer, founded upon the conduct 
 of Her Majesty's present advisers in Ireland and in 
 the Colonies. I have no intention to anticipate their 
 defence. My business is solely with the law of the 
 land as it stands, and the measures requisite to sup- 
 ply its verbal defects, and to carry out that intent 
 and policy which, though it may have been tram- 
 melled in its operation, has been in nowise altered in 
 principle by the acts of the Legislature, or the con- 
 duct of the Ministers of the Crown. 
 
 Adverting" to the strongest point the learned gen- 
 tleman has made in defence of the new hierarchy, 
 we shall have to make good this proposition. In 
 the Act of the 10 Geo. IV. c. 7, 24, it is enacted 
 that e( Whereas the right and title of archbishops 
 of their respective provinces, of bishops of their sees, 
 and deans of their deaneries, as well in England as 
 in Ireland, have been settled and established by 
 law, &c. it shall be unlawful to assume the title of 
 archbishop of any province, bishop of any bishopric, 
 or dean of any deanery, &c." From these words 
 an argument is raised for legalizing the new pro- 
 vince and dioceses established by the Bull. It is 
 said by the words " archbishops of their respective 
 provinces, bishops of their respective bishoprics, and 
 deans of their respective deaneries," the existing 
 provinces and dioceses must be alone intended; con- 
 sequently the enacting part of the clause, which 
 makes it penal to assume the style or title of any of 
 
147 
 
 these dignities in England or Ireland, is restricted 
 to the precise limits of the existing" ecclesiastical 
 districts ; and that any other divisions of the same 
 aggregate territory, and the titles that may be 
 thereunto appended, although they may comprise 
 the whole of one or more provinces, and actually 
 embrace the entirety of the existing dioceses, dean- 
 eries, &c. are by legitimate inference admitted and 
 legalized by the Act. For it is contended, the re- 
 cital which goes before it, controls and defines the 
 meaning of the enacting part of the clause, restrict- 
 ing it to the respective provinces, bishoprics, and 
 deaneries by the law set out and defined ; so that 
 any deviation whatever in the name of the see, or 
 the limits of the diocese, makes it another and dif- 
 ferent title, province, diocese, and deanery from that 
 intended in the penal clause of the Act. 
 
 Taking the argument as it stands: we say in 
 reply, that nothing can be more manifest than that 
 no such intent was present in the mind of the Legis- 
 lature, when the Act in question passed. Parlia- 
 ment with that carelessness, occurring so com- 
 monly in our modern statutes, apprehending that 
 the persons then filling the office of vicar of the 
 Bishop of Rome in this country would do the very 
 thing they have done, but not suspecting that there 
 were more ways of doing it than one, thought they 
 had amply provided against the danger and incon- 
 venience of an organized Roman hierarchy in this 
 country, by prohibiting the assumption of the titles 
 of our ancient sees, under the penalty of 100. 
 But this intent has been defeated by the very simple 
 
 K 2 
 
148 
 
 expedient of shifting- the limits of the dioceses, and 
 transferring- the sees to towns and places which do 
 not at this moment give title either to archbishop or 
 bishop. 
 
 I do not propose to discuss the question, whether 
 the penalty has been incurred or not. But I do 
 mean to affirm that the success of so shallow a trick 
 to evade the manifest intention of the Legisla- 
 ture, can be imputed to no other cause than luke- 
 warmness, ignorance, or political connivance on the 
 part of the framers of this clause. That it was not 
 in the mind of Parliament to legalize this paltry 
 evasion, appears clearly from the preamble to the 
 clause. " And whereas the right and title of arch- 
 bishops of their respective provinces, bishops of their 
 respective bishoprics, and deans of their respective 
 deaneries, have been settled and established by law, 
 &c." It is therefore not merely the title, but the 
 right and title that it is intended to protect. But 
 is there a man bold enoug-h to affirm that that right 
 is not invaded by the intrusion of another prelate 
 into the same province or diocese, or any part of it? 
 Observe : it is not merely the title b'ut the rig-ht, not 
 merely the rig-ht, but the exclusive rig-ht that is 
 " established and settled by law '" and as this right 
 cannot be shared with any other persons, it follows 
 that the act of claiming- such share, by whatever 
 metes and bounds set out or described, is within the 
 intendment of the clause ; though, through the in- 
 advertency just alluded to, the offenders may have 
 escaped the penalties they would otherwise have 
 incurred. 
 
149 
 
 If, therefore, it should turn out that the Romish 
 titulars of Westminster, Liverpool, Birmingham, 
 Beverley, &c. are safe from the penalties of the 
 clause in question, the worst that has happened to 
 us is, that we are for the present thrown back upon 
 the 13th of Elizabeth, which, though mutilated by 
 the Act of 1846, is still operative in principle^ 
 Mr. Watson's Act left it in this state ; and it has 
 become an imperative duty on our part to demand, 
 and on that of the Legislature to grant the execu- 
 tory powers requisite to carry the principle into 
 effect. It is our duty to call for the protection 
 promised in the clause of the Emancipation Act 
 above referred to protection for the rights, as well 
 as the titles of our archbishops and bishops. The 
 great Protestant communities of this country will 
 not, I am persuaded, permit themselves to be thus 
 miserably trifled with. We demand that the mani- 
 fest intent and spirit of the law be forthwith ade- 
 quately vindicated, that a remedy, an easy inex- 
 pensive remedy be enacted, co-extensive with the 
 promise held out ; and that the engagement of the 
 legislature to protect both the rights and titles of 
 the national hierarchy be redeemed to the letter. 
 
 Now before the year 1829,- the assumption of the 
 titles of archbishop, bishop, or dean, by any one not 
 thereunto entitled by law, was illegal upon two 
 grounds : First, it was an invasion of the Queen's 
 prerogative, by taking a title of high honour and 
 dignity, a title borne only by peers of Parliament, 
 a title closely connected with one of the most pre- 
 cious prerogatives of the British Crown, that of 
 
150 
 
 appointing* archbishops, bishops, and deans, a title 
 which confers social rank, honorary designations, 
 and precedence in the presence of the Sovereign, as 
 well as in every society in the kingdom ; and, 
 Secondly y in as much as the law recognised no 
 bishops but those of the Established Church, and 
 secured to them exclusively all the rights, dignities, 
 honours, and possessions annexed to the episcopal 
 rank and title, it was both a direct infraction of the 
 letter, and an invasion of the policy of the law, 
 an open defiance of its spirit and intent to take such 
 titles, or any other in the sole appointment of the 
 Crown. 
 
 That all this had before then been done, that 
 Roman Catholic prelates had assumed such titles 
 in England and in Ireland is nothing to the pur- 
 pose. It amounts to no more than that the law 
 was not put in force against the delinquents. An 
 offence is not the less an offence because it has been 
 connived at. But if before the statute of 1829 it 
 was not only illegal to assume local and territorial 
 jurisdiction, but even to take any episcopal titles 
 whatever, what is there in that statute to empower 
 them to do so now ? There are no words in the 
 clause legalizing anything that was illegal before. 
 It does, in fact, no more than annex a penalty to a 
 particular specified breach of the law ; it is simply 
 declaratory of the law as to that particular of- 
 fence ; leaving it in other respects precisely as it 
 stood before. 
 
 But Mr. Boywer urges that the law maxim 
 "Expressio unius est exclusio alterius," operates 
 
151 
 
 here to legalize the whole transaction. Now, the 
 assuming- the style and title of archbishop or bishop 
 of any existing province or diocese, is made punish- 
 able by a fine of one hundred pounds; but the Act 
 does not now for the first time make such assump- 
 tion of title illegal. It was illegal before ; and a 
 penalty was annexed merely to give a more ready 
 mode of punishing it j but this raises no presump- 
 tion of law, that any other mode of contriving the 
 matter, e. g. a new division of the country into pro- 
 vinces and dioceses, differing in their territorial 
 limits from those assigned by law to the Established 
 Church would legalize the titles now assumed. 
 
 In support of his application of the legal maxim 
 above quoted, Mr. Bowyer cites two cases from our 
 Law books.* The real question in both these cases 
 was, whether any other mines than coal mines were 
 rateable to the poor ? It appears that before the 
 43 Eliz. c. 2. no kind of mines were so rateable j 
 but that statute made coal mines by name subject 
 to rate, mentioning no others. And upon the gene- 
 ral principle that " Expressio unius est exclusio 
 alterius," the court held that all but coal mines 
 were excluded, and therefore not to be rated to the 
 poor. But what if other mines had been rateable 
 before the 43 Eliz., that statute simply omitting to 
 mention any but coal mines, would any lawyer con- 
 tend for the application of the maxim to such a state 
 
 * Gov. and Comp. for smelting lead &c. v. Richardson 
 and others : 3 Burrow's Reports, p. 1344. R. v. Cunning- 
 ham : 5 East, p, 4 78. 
 
152 
 
 of things ? So in the case before us, the act of 
 taking 1 any episcopal title, whether territorial or 
 otherwise, was illegal before the statute of 1829, 
 and the clause was only intended to declare the 
 penalty for a particular breach of the law, conse- 
 quently took no notice of others ejusdem generis. 
 
 "The argument," says Mr. Bowyer, "drawn 
 from the fact that the Pope is a foreign prince and 
 potentate, and that therefore the rights of the na- 
 tion and the sovereignty of the crown are violated, 
 is worth nothing unless his opponents can shew that 
 the acts of authority in question are temporal or 
 civil, as distinguished from acts of spiritual juris- 
 diction." 
 
 But, to use lawyer's language, we decline to be 
 thus stated out of court. No doubt if these acts of 
 authority were of a purely religious or spiritual cha- 
 racter if they drew after them no civil or political 
 consequences implied nothing more than what is 
 expressed on the face of them, it would be of no 
 consequence whatever from what source they might 
 proceed. But, in thejirst place, we deny that any 
 organized religious association, consisting of a 
 powerful body of men fully imbued with the princi- 
 ples of their persuasion, ever was or can be so free 
 from political bias and design as Mr. Bowyer's pro- 
 position assumes. Consequently, it is at all times 
 incumbent upon the state or government to be vigi- 
 lant lest that d bias and design acquire a preponderance 
 dangerous to the equilibrium of those political powers 
 and institutions it is the duty of the rulers to main- 
 tain. No organized religious association can there- 
 
153 
 
 fore be allowed to withdraw itself from the super- 
 intendence and visitation of the state, on the naked 
 plea that it is a merely spiritual body, or its acts of 
 a merely spiritual character. The state will and 
 must enquire into the nature of the jurisdiction 
 claimed. 
 
 In the second place we observe, as a matter of ex- 
 perience, that civil governments never can behold 
 with indifference a spiritual power independent of 
 the state mastering 1 the consciences of its subjects. 
 For we believe that the vaunted civilization of this 
 our nineteenth century is as little proof against the 
 practices of the simplest priestcraft as any other 
 period of human history. The matter must, indeed, 
 be differently managed now ; the process must be 
 more gradual; care must be taken to gild the 
 fetters of conscientious submission ; coercion must 
 be avoided as long as possible ; a prudent economy 
 of spiritual thunders must be observed ; the eye and 
 the ear must be filled ; the taste gratified ; the 
 senses enthralled ; a high value must be set upon 
 devotional impulses, and the outward observances 
 requisite to produce them. And the process must be 
 continued until the soul of man is transferred from the 
 hands of his Saviour to those of his priest. At this 
 stage of conversion no machine is more obedient to 
 the touch of the machinist no sumpter-beast more 
 eager to do the behests of his driver. When such a 
 power has once fixed its talons firmly in the con- 
 sciences of men, loyalty, honour, virtue, and every 
 other obligation, civil, political, social or religious, 
 
154 
 
 sinks, fades, and perishes beneath the terrorism of 
 sacerdotal domination. 
 
 I have already endeavoured to shew that the acts 
 for which Mr. Bowyer claims the character of purely 
 religious regulation are in their inmost nature mea- 
 sures of a temporal, fully as much as of a spiritual 
 description. It is not denied that they emanate 
 from a foreign temporal prince, and I think I have 
 shewn that the spiritual character with which he is 
 invested k no security to us that his acts will be of 
 that purely spiritual design and tendency we are now 
 called upon to believe they will turn out to be. The 
 law of the land must therefore take upon itself to 
 determine what acts shall be deemedpurely spiritual; 
 or, if it has not already performed that duty, the 
 legislation must be urged now to fulfil it promptly 
 and effectually. If Parliament shall be of opinion 
 that what no other Christian profession in this 
 country has ever attempted is lawful in the Roman 
 communion if it shall think that body justified in 
 planting their new hierarchs at the portals of our 
 cathedrals and at the gates of our royal palaces, and 
 by a contemptible law quibble, bearding the bishops 
 of the National Church in their own dioceses ; it will 
 at no very distant period be called upon by the 
 Papists to give effect to that opinion, and to ac- 
 complish Dr. Doyle's triumphant prophecy. If, 
 hereafter, we should be so irrational as to grumble 
 at these hard terms, the Pope and his friends will 
 open their eyes wide with wonder and astonishment : 
 "What have you to complain of?" they will ask 
 
155 
 
 " Have we not told you all along- that it is one 
 of the e distinctive features' that it is a { funda- 
 mental principle' of our religion that the supremacy 
 of the Pope is exclusive of every other jurisdiction, 
 and that it will not endure two archbishops in one 
 and the same province ? When you permitted us to 
 acknowledge the Pope's supremacy and to establish 
 our hierarchy, you knew all this; and we must 
 therefore presume that you were from that moment 
 prepared to abide by the canonical consequences 
 that you were ready to abandon your heretical es- 
 tablishment, and to put ours in its place. After 
 pledging- yourselves to the adoption of our ' dis- 
 tinctive features' our e fundamental principles,' how 
 can you complain that we insist upon the implied, 
 as well as the express terms of our compact. You 
 were not ignorant that it always was our intention 
 to pull down your Establishment. If you were not 
 idiots the Bull itself must have disclosed that design 
 to you. But if you are dull enough or unfortunate 
 enough to think you have made a blunder, you can- 
 not urge your errors as an argument against the 
 necessary results of your own conduct. You knew 
 that our religious principles prevented us from 
 tolerating such an establishment as yours; why 
 then did you tolerate ours, except it were that you 
 contemplated an unconditional surrender I' 9 
 
 And in fact the power to create archbishoprics 
 and bishoprics is regarded by the Roman canonists 
 as an integral and an essential part of the Pope's 
 spiritual prerogative. On the other hand, the law 
 of England vests that prerogative solely and ex- 
 
156 
 
 clusively in the crown and the legislature. And if 
 to-morrow an Act of Parliament were to pass 
 establishing- bishops in all the towns pitched upon 
 by the Pope for his new hierarchs, every one of the 
 latter would be obliged to drop his title, or for every 
 act of user forfeit 100. Mr. Bowyer would probably 
 in that case contend that the penalty extended only 
 to the taking the titles of the ancient sees of Eng- 
 land ; and that it is inapplicable to any subsequently 
 erected gees. If successful in his argument, what 
 an absurd state of things would be introduced ! If 
 any thing were wanting to convince us that the in- 
 tention of the legislature when it introduced clause 
 24 into the Emancipation Act has been allowed to 
 be miserably defeated, it is this. For it should be 
 remembered, that it is quite as abhorrent from the 
 principles of the Church of England that there 
 should be two archbishops in the same province, or 
 two bishops in the same diocese, as it is from that 
 of the Church of Rome. Such an arrangement 
 could not, therefore, have been contemplated by the 
 legislature ; yet, if Mr. Bowyer's argument were to 
 prevail, any new bishopricks we might choose to erect 
 would be precisely in the same predicament as that 
 against which Parliament thought it requisite to pro- 
 tect the old sees. No one can, I think, doubt that the 
 clause was intended for the protection of our national 
 hierarchy as a whole. But our sagacious lawgivers, 
 losing sight of any future extension becoming neces- 
 sary, made no provision for such a contingency. This 
 error must be redeemed. If the Protestant people 
 of this country allow another Session of Parliament 
 
157 
 
 to pass over without vigorous remonstrance, they 
 will then be reasonably supposed to have acquiesced 
 in the establishment of the new Popish hierarchy. 
 If their remonstrances are neglected, they will have 
 obtained ample proof that they are betrayed. 
 
 Mr. Bowyer's assertion that cf the theological 
 claims of his church do not affect his argument/' 
 and that " those claims belong- to the inviolable 
 rights of liberty of conscience, over which no 
 human power can exercise jurisdiction," requires 
 no further reply than that which has been already 
 given to the claim of supremacy. For we cannot 
 understand these "theological" claims to be any other 
 than those of the boundless jurisdiction founded on 
 the theory of the Cathedra Petri ; which theory 
 is summed up in the single maxim that " every 
 human being must be subject to the Roman Pon- 
 tiff." 
 
 We are further taught by the Popish apologist, 
 that "the British Government having diplomati- 
 cally ignored the Pope, except as sovereign of the 
 Romish states, ought not to complain that his 
 Holiness did not ask a consent that the Crown 
 could not give." We reply, that the Crown in 
 Parliament can do anything 5 and if we are not 
 much mistaken, the Pope had through his agents 
 quite sufficient opportunity of consulting the official 
 advisers of the Crown, the leaders of the Impe- 
 rial Parliament, and the most influential members 
 of the party which has hitherto supported itself 
 upon the votes of the Papists in that assembly. 
 At all events, the Acts of 1829 and 1840 must 
 
158 
 
 have held out great encouragement for such an 
 application. But all this is nothing- to the purpose, 
 or rather, it can only have been put forward to 
 throw dust in our eyes. If Mr. Bowyer, though 
 but a recent convert, has but superficially studied 
 the scheme, of which he has become the victim and 
 the advocate, he must have known, that if the Queen, 
 without the consent of Parliament was not com- 
 petent to grant such license, the Pope was by the 
 " fundamental principles " of his church altogether 
 precluded from asking it. He could not ask per- 
 mission of any human being to do that which he 
 claims a right to do "jure divino," as of his own 
 transcendental prerogative.* And assuredly he 
 shewed no disposition to wait for any such per- 
 mission. 
 
 But a bishop, Mr. Bowyer tells us, is not a title 
 of honour, and therefore not within the prerogative 
 of the Crown. It was not so, he observes, in the 
 Primitive Church; and for this he quotes our 
 Hooker. Again : Cruise on dignities says nothing 
 of bishops ; and Selden does not include them 
 among his " titles of honour." But this is empty 
 special-pleading. Let any Roman Catholic gen- 
 tleman be asked whether he does not regard the title 
 of bishop as conferring upon the possessor the high- 
 est rank in his society ; whether he does not assign 
 
 * See Bull, p. 8, Ed. Rom. Typis Sac. Congreg. de 
 Propag. Fide, p. 8, " Itaque post rem universam a Nobis 
 etiam accurata consideratioiie perpensam, motu proprio 3 
 certa scientia, ac de plenitudine Apostolica Nostrce potes- 
 tails j constituimus ac decernimus, &c/' 
 
159 
 
 to him the chief seat at his board and in his draw- 
 ing-room ; whether he does not address him as 
 " Your Grace/ 7 or " My Lord " and whether the 
 bishop in question does not accept such address as 
 rightfully due to his rank and station in society 
 aye, and whether he does not accept it under as 
 absolute a claim of right, as any prelate of the 
 establishment ? We know that he does j and that 
 he only abstains from complaint when it is withheld, 
 because he knows that the claim is illegal, and 
 cannot be enforced. The mere office of bishop, no 
 doubt, gives no rank or dignity ; but when he as- 
 sumes or demands the honorary distinctions enjoyed 
 by those bishops, who are either peers of Parlia- 
 ment, or derive them from the appointment of the 
 Crown, they are properly chargeable with an inva- 
 sion of the royal prerogative. 
 
 Let, therefore, the Romish bishops not only drop, 
 but discountenance the attribution of these social 
 distinctions ; let Dr. Wiseman publish another Pas- 
 toral, repudiating for himself and his so-called suf- 
 fragans, the address of " Your Grace/ 7 and " My 
 Lord/ 7 and we shall cease to charge either him or 
 his friends with this peculiar infraction of the Queen's 
 prerogative. Considering, moreover, that this pre- 
 rogative forms a very important link in that chain 
 which connects our Queen with the intimate rela- 
 tions of private society, we are bound by our respect 
 and allegiance to her, as the sole source of social 
 honours, to watch with jealousy the unauthorized 
 assumption of any rank or title whatever ; but more 
 especially such as connect themselves with offices 
 
160 
 
 and functions conferring- great power and influence 
 in society. 
 
 That occasional breaches of this prerogative are 
 tolerated or connived at, is often attributable to an 
 unwilling-ness to interfere needlessly with the cour- 
 tesies of society. But when she apprehends either 
 danger or inconvenience from this irregular prac- 
 tice, it would be puerile to contend, that Her Ma- 
 jesty has not a full right to put an end to it, and to 
 call upon her subjects by proclamation to abstain 
 from the like error in future. 
 
 Our Eoman Catholic advocate, "by authority/' 
 further urges, that the admission of Eoman Arch- 
 bishops and Bishops into the American Republic, 
 shews that the Government of that country under- 
 stands the spiritual character of their ecclesiastical 
 offices better than we do in England ; and, there- 
 fore, never regarded their introduction as a violation 
 of the constitution, or an invasion of the sovereignty 
 of the people. But this is beside the question at 
 issue. In this country the contest lies in the first in- 
 stance at least between the Church of England and 
 the Church of Rome. The Republicans of America 
 have no national church; they have no specific 
 religious system to defend; they have renounced 
 the hallowing influence of religion upon their state 
 establishments ; and they have thrown the gates 
 wide open for the reception of every variety of 
 religion, superstition, or fanaticism that might turn 
 up ; we have closed ours to a competition which we 
 believe to be injurious to the best interests of religion 
 
161 
 
 and society. Their government acknowledges no 
 dignities, and treats the assumption of rank and 
 title with neglect or contempt. Our constitution 
 not only admits and honours them, but places them 
 under the guardianship of the law, and makes it 
 illegal to assume them without the licence of the 
 crown. If America chooses to run the risk of such 
 practices, it is all but absurd to insist upon this as 
 an argument imperative upon us, who have a very 
 different system to uphold. 
 
 From Mr. Bowyer's manifesto, we perceive that 
 we shall have to defend our position not against 
 direct but collateral attacks against objections de- 
 rived rather from real or supposed inconsistencies in 
 our own conduct, than from the inherent weakness 
 of our cause. The Eoman Catholic advocates well 
 know that unless they can get rid of the two objec- 
 tions to their scheme upon which we rely, viz. that 
 it proceeds from a foreign prince, whose jurisdiction 
 within these realms the law expressly denies and 
 repudiates ; and, secondly, that the system he has 
 attempted to introduce, though ecclesiastical in 
 name, is in its nature temporal and political, they 
 can make no impression upon the main body of our 
 defences. Supposing it to be true which w r e alto- 
 gether deny that there are some anomalies in our 
 own conduct, say with reference to the establishment 
 of a Bishop at Jerusalem, or at Malta, or in Canada, 
 ( where Mr. Bowyer tells us there were Roman 
 Catholic Bishops before,) we deny that any over- 
 sights of this kind can vary the character of the 
 
 L 
 
162 
 
 new hierarchy, or that they are of any force to alter 
 the law of England, or to commit the people to 
 acquiescence in the dangerous and unconstitutional 
 design of the Papists. These supposed anomalies 
 have been answered over and over again. We 
 shall, therefore, content ourselves with referring the 
 reader to the public newspapers, in which such 
 objections have been discussed and answered. 
 
 We do, however, repeat, in reply to a statement 
 at p. 30 of his pamphlet, that the " Cardinal Arch- 
 bishop of Westminster" is set over Roman Catholics 
 only. The terms and ordinances of the Papal Bull are 
 in direct contradiction to this assertion. The com- 
 mentaries of Dr. Wiseman, Dr. Newman, Dr. Doyle, 
 and Dr. Gillies, and the organ of the ultra Papal party 
 in France, the ( Univers/ prove in the plainest terms 
 that the first of these gentlemen is set over the whole 
 kingdom of England, without distinction of Roman 
 Catholics or Protestants universal jurisdiction is 
 plainly claimed ; and if we wanted a practical com- 
 mentary upon the drift of Romanism in this country 
 we have it in the daily conduct of the Romish 
 hierarchy in Ireland, where, for twenty years past, 
 the M'Hales, et id genus omnc, have been the great- 
 est political agitators ; the prime movers and sup- 
 porters of the Repeal movement, the leaders of po- 
 litical mobs, and the main obstacles to the restora- 
 tion of civil tranquillity in that distracted country. 
 These persons have never ceased to appeal to the 
 universality of the jurisdiction they exercise in the 
 name of their Church and its head. They have, on 
 that principle, thwarted every effort of Government 
 
103 
 
 for the education of the wretched people and the 
 improvement of their condition. 
 
 There is no part of his subject Mr. Bowyer la- 
 bours so hard as this about the Bishops of Gibraltar 
 and Jerusalem. But all this, we contend, is beside 
 the real question. That question we take to be 
 simply whether we have, by the Act, 5 Viet. c. 6, 
 set up arbitrarily, and without the consent of the 
 governments of the countries in which they are per- 
 mitted to act, spiritual officers, with powers, juris- 
 dictions, rank, title, and territorial authority, incon- 
 sistent with the character and attributes of the 
 governments and people among- whom they are 
 settled and within which they are allowed to act? 
 If Mr. Bowyer can persuade any rational being 1 
 that we have done all this, let him have the benefit 
 of his convert. 
 
 I have now laid bare the position assumed by Mr. 
 Bowyer on behalf, and " by the authority," of his 
 Church in all material points. Time does not per- 
 mit the discussion of a great variety of topics con- 
 nected with our subject topics which would no 
 doubt render the discussion far more complete, and 
 tend to dissipate many shadows which still hang- 
 about our position and prospects. But I must take 
 my stand upon what has been already said, and con- 
 clude with a short synopsis of statements and in- 
 ferences, together with one or two suggestions as to 
 the remedies it is at this stage of the controversy 
 incumbent upon us to call for at the hands of the 
 legislature. 
 
 L 2 
 
164 
 
 . 13. Synoptical Statement. 
 
 The facts, then, of our case as laid before you in 
 the preceding- pages, are shortly the following 1 : 
 
 1. There has been of late years, a very marked 
 increase of Romanism and Romanizing 1 teachers in 
 England. 
 
 2. The proximate cause of this increase is two- 
 fojJd : 1. A g'iddy love of novelty, stimulated by the 
 shows, the pageants, and the seductive conversation 
 of the Papists operating 1 upon the carnal and un- 
 spiritual mind of the vast mass of our travelled 
 countrymen and women. 2, The extravagant 
 sacerdotal ambition which has of late years become 
 so strongly developed in the minds of the junior 
 clergy of the Establishment, pushing 1 them by little 
 and little, from Tract No. 1 to Tract No. 90, into the 
 arms of Rome; where they found a welcome refugee 
 against all their disappointments and disgusts. 
 
 3. Almost contemporaneously with this move- 
 ment among- our own clergy, the missionary hierarchs 
 of Rome in this country because dissatisfied with 
 their condition, and petitioned the Pope to emanci- 
 pate them from their immediate dependence upon 
 himself, and to raise them to the rank and station 
 of a canonical establishment. The Pope, at that 
 moment, distressed by the disesteem into which his 
 political and religious government at home had 
 fallen, hesitated for a time ; but, in conformity with 
 the practice of his predecessors in times past, when 
 politically weakest at home, to avail themselves to 
 the utmost of their spiritual influence abroad, and 
 
165 
 
 doubtless allured by the prospect of adding- this 
 g-lorious Empire to the list of the spiritual perhaps 
 of the temporal appendages of his ecclesiastical 
 state^ he acceded to the petitions of his Bishops in 
 England and in Scotland, and issued the Bull 
 a Universalis Ecclesiae," erecting- the " king-dom of 
 England" into an hierarchical department of his 
 spiritual empire. 
 
 4. For the purpose of carrying- this measure into 
 effect, he enacted, formally and legislatively, a new 
 territorial division of the so-called " king-dom of 
 England," an act in its very nature political, what- 
 ever may have been the purpose it was intended to 
 answer. And all this was done, not only without 
 consulting- the Queen, the legislature, or the law of 
 the land, but in words studiously selected to exclude 
 all authority or participation but his own ; it was 
 accomplished (f Motu proprio, certa scientia, ac de 
 plenitudine Apostolicse Nostrae potestatis." By 
 this announcement, the people of this country were 
 officially informed that the " Apostolic power" in 
 question was competent to the performance of any 
 political operation that the Pope mig-ht deem neces- 
 sary to the fulfilment of his spiritual purpose. 
 
 5. The g-auntlet thus thrown down to us, the 
 Protestant government and people of this country, 
 it was requisite that we should reflect upon the true 
 nature of our position, and among- other considera- 
 tions, advert to the disadvantages to ourselves, 
 and the use our adversaries mig'ht make of the 
 recent multitudinous immigration of Irish Roman 
 Catholics into this country, the progress made by 
 
166 
 
 the Romish missionaries and their converts among 
 the lowest and most ignorant portions of our own 
 population; the existence in Ireland of a Popish 
 hierarchy, exercising- boundless influence over a 
 semi-barbarous majority, and possessed with a fana- 
 tical and vindictive hatred towards the Protestant 
 Government, churches, and people of that country ; 
 the (C heavy blow and serious discouragement" awhile 
 ag> inflicted by our legislature by the abolition of 
 twelve Protestant bishoprics, thereby turning their 
 backs upon their own profession, and yielding the 
 field to their religious adversary ; the sanction given 
 to the illegal assumption of episcopal titles by the 
 Irish hierarchs, and the voluntary concessions of 
 precedence to the Roman Catholic Bishops in our 
 colonies by the ministers of the crown. 
 
 6. The Church of England, being the Protestant 
 body against which the first attack is levelled, 
 claims the united * efforts of all denominations of 
 Protestants, not to support her peculiar form of 
 church government, but, for the defence of the law 
 of the land, the prerogative of the crown, and the 
 religious liberties of the great majority of the 
 people. 
 
 7. But as the Queen's supremacy is selected by 
 our adversary as the weak point of our ecclesias- 
 tical position, it becomes us to acquire a more 
 accurate knowledge of the law and practice of the 
 constitution upon this subject ; and inasmuch as it 
 must be our fixed determination to uphold, improve, 
 and abide by the ancient principles upon which the 
 whole fabric of our civil and religious liberties is 
 
167 
 
 erected, we declined all foreign or adventitious pre- 
 cept or example in arriving- at our conclusion, 
 abjuring- and excluding- all precedents but such 
 as may be clearly exhibited in, or be identifiable 
 with that same constitution, law, and practice of 
 England. 
 
 8. We therefore ascertained that the kings of 
 this country have from all time claimed and 
 exercised external jurisdiction in and over the 
 Church of England, and that for a long period of 
 our history the law and crown of this country main- 
 tained^ and at length brought to a successful close, 
 the desperate struggle with Roman Canonism, a 
 foreign law, introduced by a foreign prince, for his 
 own temporal aggrandizement, against the best 
 interests of the country, and against the will of the 
 people, the legislature, and the legal tribunals of 
 the land. 
 
 9. Our short glance at the state of the law as it 
 stood at the close of this struggle, shewed further 
 that, although the general principle of law exclud- 
 ing Papal interference, religious or political, in this 
 country has been allowed to stand, yet that it has 
 been so stripped of all executive power as to have 
 become almost useless as a protection against 
 Romish aggression, and well nigh incapable of 
 defending itself against the ultramontane sophistry 
 of the Canonists. This state of things must there- 
 fore be remedied, and our legislators must be called 
 upon to choose their part between the principle and 
 its enemies. This will at all events disclose to us 
 our real position, and probably suggest remedies 
 
168 
 
 which, for the present, perhaps, we had better not 
 anticipate. 
 
 10. Under the presumption that this state of the 
 law would oppose no serious obstacle to the con- 
 templated coup d'etat, the Papal Bull was issued, 
 brought into this country, and published in the 
 cheapest of all forms, with a view to give it the 
 most extensive circulation among- all classes of her 
 Majesty's subjects. This instrument is drawn up 
 in a genuine legislative form ; it acknowledges no 
 authority, asks for no sanction, proceeds upon no 
 principle but that of a transcendental irresponsible 
 power, lodged in the hands of a foreign prince, en- 
 titling- him to command the unqualified obedience 
 of all mankind, without distinction" of race, nation, 
 religion, or g-overnment. It ignores, passes by as 
 if they had no existence, Queen, arid Government, 
 Church and State, religious bodies and associations 
 of every kind : with studied ing-enuity all recog- 
 nition of the state of the law, or the religious con- 
 dition subsisting since the Reformation, is avoided 
 a territorial denomination long since abolished by 
 law, is significantly adopted three centuries, and 
 those the most glorious and prosperous of our 
 history, are blotted out of ecclesiastical memory, 
 and we are forcibly carried back to an age of com- 
 parative darkness, superstition, and tyranny to 
 obtain a glimpse of the principle upon which the 
 " re-edified " church is henceforward to be go- 
 verned. We therefore go back to the point of 
 time to which the Pope himself has conducted us ; 
 we examine the principles in question, and find 
 
169 
 
 their " essential features/' their " distinguishing 
 attributes/' to be, intolerance in religion, temporal 
 ambition, transcending- all worldly might; majesty, 
 or dominion, manifest incompatibility with social 
 honesty, integrity, and good faith, and' inconsis- 
 tency with the existence of civil or religious li- 
 berty in the world. 
 
 11. After expounding the Bull by itself, and 
 with the aids to which the instrument itself refers 
 us, we went on to consider how it had been inter- 
 preted by those who procured it, and are now 
 eng-aged in carrying it into execution. And we 
 find in their public addresses and writings all our 
 previous inferences confirmed to the letter. Almost 
 every line of these performances is stamped with 
 the impress of ultramontane canonism, leaving no 
 doubt upon our minds that nothing short of an 
 absolute submission of conscience, and with it, of 
 all religious rights, (with just such a chance for our 
 civil liberties as may remain, after the surrender 
 of our will and conscience to the absolute dis- 
 posal of a foreign priest,) will be accepted in 
 satisfaction of the fictitious bond now put in suit 
 ag'ainst us. 
 
 12. In the last place we adverted to the legal 
 arguments of the advocate selected by Dr. Wiseman 
 and his associates, and submitted that the inferences 
 he draws from the 10th Geo. IV. c. 7, 24, and 
 the oath in that statute prescribed to be taken by 
 Roman Catholics, are untenable in law. We con- 
 tended that his protest against inference from the 
 " spirit of the law " is without foundation, and 
 
170 
 
 amounts to no more than an attempt to persuade us 
 to consent to be cheated with our eyes open ; so that 
 in calling- upon our legislature to correct a blunder 
 of their predecessors,, we do not ask them to make 
 an ex post-facto law, but simply to arm the law, as it 
 stands, with the powers necessary to maintain itself. 
 The 24th clause of the " Emancipation Act" was, 
 we say, intended to protect the RIGHT as well as the 
 title of the national hierarchy 5 but, by a palpable 
 oversight, the latter object only was effected ; and 
 we now say to them, " Do both effectually ; perform 
 your promise \ rectify this clause, and obliterate 
 from the Statute-book every vestige of recognition 
 from which an inference favourable to the preten- 
 sions of the Roman hierarchs could be drawn. For 
 thus also has the Pope of Rome dealt with you. He 
 is a dangerous acquaintance \ you must not know 
 him ; you have no chance against him in spiritual 
 diplomacy; you are plain men, and nothing* but 
 plain dealing 1 can sustain you against that artillery 
 of knavery and guile, in the use of which he has 
 the advantage of many centuries of familiar prac- 
 tice." 
 
 .14. Remedial Suggestions. 
 
 Under all these considerations, the great question 
 arises how are we to reconcile the safety of our 
 national religious edifice, with the maintenance of 
 the civil rights of the Pope's spiritual subjects 
 within these kingdoms ? The difficulty is consider- 
 able, and under many conceivable circumstances may 
 become insurmountable, But the difficulty is of 
 
171 
 
 their own making". They were safe ; they lived and 
 worshipped in peace and honour amongst us ; the 
 thought of molesting" them was abhorrent to us \ 
 but the ambition of their leaders put an end to this 
 desirable relation, and opened the old sores afresh. 
 The sword of religious strife has been unsheathed, 
 and neither party can now withdraw with honour 
 from the contest. Still the Papists know that their 
 faith is in no danger from the carnal weapon in our 
 hands ; this we have for the last thirty or forty years 
 proclaimed from our housetops; but beyond all 
 doubt, ours would not be permitted to subsist one 
 moment after that weapon should be transferred 
 from our possession to theirs. Our position is, 
 therefore, in the strictest sense defensive ; and, until 
 some new phasis of the contest shall make a dif- 
 ferent set of measures necessary, our efforts must 
 be confined to the steps requisite to reduce the 
 Roman communion in this country as nearly as 
 may be to the position they held before the publica- 
 tion of the Pope's Bull. 
 
 With this view I take leave to call the attention 
 of the Protestants of this country to the following 
 scheme of resistance to the project of the Pope and 
 Dr. Wiseman. 
 
 I should propose early in the ensuing session of 
 Parliament, that a bill be brought in to declare and 
 amend the laws relating to the ministers and per- 
 sons professing the Roman Catholic religion ; and 
 that it should contain among others the following 
 provisions: 
 
 1. Reciting as a matter of experience, that when 
 
172 
 
 religious or other associations, bodies and professions, 
 are mentioned in acts of Parliament by name, a 
 danger arises that the name may be mistaken for 
 the thing itself, and that by some ambiguity of 
 language the law may be made to legalize or estab- 
 lish that which it only intended to describe ; and 
 that for this reason the Acts of the 10 Geo. IV. c. 
 7 } and the 9 & 10 Viet. c. 59, require such ex- 
 planation, and amendments as may effectually rebut 
 every presumption of law that might be drawn from 
 the words of those acts, tending to legalize, establish 
 or endow the persons acting as ministers of the 
 Roman Catholic religion, with any privileges, rank, 
 title, or precedence, ecclesiastical, civil, or social, 
 whatsoever : it be enacted that wherever in any act 
 or acts of Parliament, any names or descriptions 
 of such associations, bodies or professions, or 
 any titles or distinctive designations, ecclesiastical 
 or civil, are named or specified, such titles, desig- 
 nations, or names, shall hereafter be taken and 
 deemed in law to be simply descriptive, and not as 
 implying any legal or legislative recognition, right or 
 title, or as conferring any honorary, social, ecclesias- 
 tical, civil, or political precedence, rank, or privilege, 
 other than those which the same persons, associa- 
 tions, bodies, or professions, do and have heretofore 
 enjoyed in common with all Her Majesty's subjects. 
 2. Reciting that whereas during the late recess 
 of Parliament, the Bishop of Rome has through his 
 agents in this country, illegally issued and pub- 
 lished in Great Britain, a certain printed paper or 
 instrument, commonly called a Bull, in Latin, 
 
173 
 
 entitled, " Letters Apostolical of our Most Holy 
 Lord, Pope Pius IX. by wbich the Episcopal 
 Hierarchy is restored in England " and whereas, 
 by an act passed in the 13th year of Queen Eliza- 
 beth, entitled, &c. it is enacted that if any person 
 shall obtain from the Bishop of Rome any manner 
 of bull, writing- or instrument, written or printed, 
 containing* any thing-, matter or cause whatsoever ] 
 or shall publish, or by any means put in ure any 
 such bull, writing-, or instrument, he, his procurers, 
 abettors, and counsellors to the fact and committing- 
 of the said offence, being 1 attainted according- to the 
 course of the laws of this realm, shall be adjudg-ed 
 guilty of high treason ; and all aiders, comforters, 
 and maintainers of any of the said offenders, after 
 the committing- of the said offences, &c. shall incur 
 a prcemunire f and whereas by an Act passed in 
 the 9th and 10th years of Her present Majesty, 
 entitled, &c. the penalties for the said offences have 
 been repealed,* be it enacted, that from and after 
 the passing- of this Act, every person who shall 
 obtain, &c. [following- the words of the Stat. of 
 Eliz.] or shall publish, &c. any such Bull, &c. ; he, 
 his procurers, &c. being- thereof legally convicted, 
 shall for every such offence incur a fine of not more 
 than 1,000, and not less than 100, and be com- 
 mitted to prison for the term of one month, provided 
 that within one month from the date of conviction 
 it shall be lawful for Her Majesty in council to 
 order and direct the said offender to be carried and 
 
 *~ See pp. 88, 89. 
 
174 
 
 conveyed to any parts beyond seas out of Her 
 Majesty's dominions, there to abide, &c. until it 
 shall please Her Majesty to revoke the said order 
 of banishment. 
 
 A provision should be added for the punishment 
 of persons so banished, who shall be found within 
 the realm without the Queen's licence. 
 
 3. The 24th section of the 10 Geo. IV. c. 7, should 
 be carried out in conformity with its true intent and 
 meaning-, so as to protect not only the titles, but the 
 rights of the national hierarchy, by declaring- the 
 Papal division of the kingdom into ecclesiastical dis- 
 tricts unknown to the law to be illeg-al, and by quash- 
 ing- the same ; as well as, by extending- the penalty 
 of that section to any public assumption of ecclesi- 
 astical title or titular jurisdiction within the leg-al 
 dioceses, or any part or portion thereof. 
 
 4. The Government officials having- thought pro- 
 per, in the Commission issued under the Charitable 
 Bequests Bill, to yield to the Eoman Catholic pre- 
 lates in Ireland, associated in that Commission, the 
 style and title of Archbishops, and to give them 
 precedence above an Earl, I should sug-g-est a peti- 
 tion to the Queen that this mistake of the Irish 
 Government should be rectified, by inserting* in the 
 Commission, in lieu of the title, such simple designa- 
 tions as " Dr. Cullen," " Dr. Murray, &c."* 
 
 * Nothing, I conceive, more fully proves the necessity 
 of ihe first of the measures I have ventured to propose, 
 than the attempt of Mr. Bowyer to confound the " Govern- 
 ment" with the governors of Ireland; "The style and 
 
175 
 
 5. The Pope having 1 in his Bull studiously severed 
 the Church of Bug-land" from the " Church of 
 Ireland/' it is our duty to convince him that the 
 drift of this part of his scheme is as well understood 
 as the rest. We perceive in it a manifest, though 
 latent, contradiction to the legislative union of the 
 Established Churches. It is therefore suggested 
 that all remedial measures must embrace Ireland as 
 well as Great Britain. If we were put to our elec- 
 tion between the dissolution of the Union and the 
 severance of the ecclesiastical polities of the two 
 divisions of the Empire, it would vastly puzzle us 
 which to choose. What is law in England must be 
 law in Ireland ; neither the prerogative of the 
 Crown, nor the Union of the two countries, can be 
 maintained, if what is right here be wrong 1 
 there, or the reverse. Much of what has been 
 done in that country is in every sense illeg'al and 
 impolitic. We must retrace our steps ; and we 
 must do so in a manner, and to such an extent, as 
 shall convince our adversaries in that country that 
 we are as firmly determined to maintain the union 
 of the two Churches as of the two islands ; and that 
 furtive recognitions of Romish usurpations, repulsive 
 to the common sense of the people, and contrary to 
 
 title," he tells us (p. 14 of his pamphlet), "of the Irish 
 Catholic prelates has been recognized by the Government 
 in the Commission issued under the Charitable Bequests 
 Act." If, instead of " Government," he had put " go- 
 vernors" of Ireland, his inference would not have been 
 worth a pin. This is not honest. Mr. Bowyer is too good 
 a canonist to he quite fair. 
 
176 
 
 the law and policy of the Empire, are no longer to 
 be picked up in the by-ways of a shifty administra- 
 tion, or in the thickets of legal quibble. 
 
 The measures above sketched are with the utmost 
 diffidence recommended to the attention of my Pro- 
 testant fellow-countrymen. Much more time would 
 be required than that which remains before the 
 meeting of Parliament to correct and reduce them 
 into proper form. No man can have felt the diffi- 
 culty of legislating for the present crisis more 
 acutely than myself. No one among the number- 
 less addressers, writers, correspondents, or speech- 
 makers has yet ventured to propose any specific 
 remedy. Of what I have here proposed I say 
 " valeat quantum." If it do but furnish a hint for 
 abler heads and readier pens than mine, it w^ll have 
 amply answered my purpose. 
 
 In conclusion, permit me to observe, that neither 
 my Protestant nor my Roman Catholic fellow- 
 countrymen possess any adequate knowledge of the 
 true spirit of Popery. To the Romanist I should 
 say, " Peruse the exordium to one of your own 
 periodicals for this month, and learn, what I trust 
 nay, I am sure, many of you never dreamt of be- 
 fore." To the Protestant I would say, " Do the 
 like, and then look to your throat !"* 
 
 * See ' Morning Herald' of Saturday, Jan. 11, 1851. 
 THE END. 
 
 NORMAN AND SKEEN, PRINTERS, MAIDEN LANE, COVENT GARDEN. 
 
INTRODUCTORY LECTURES 
 
 ON 
 
 THE STUDY OF HISTORY, 
 
 BY 
 
 THOMAS GREENWOOD, ESQ. 
 
/// the. Press, and shortly will be Published, in 4/o., 
 BOOK THE FIRST 
 
 OF THK 
 
 HISTORY OF THE GERMANS. 
 
 BY 
 
 THOMAS GREENWOOD, ESQ. 
 
 1. THE Work announced above was originally intended as an Introduc- 
 tory Essay to the History of Modern Germany. But the author soon 
 perceived that the Barbaric Ages contained the key to many important 
 explanations, and that, without a much more detailed account of that 
 preliminary period than was at first contemplated, the history itself 
 must be deficient both in fulness and perspicuity. 
 
 2. Each successive consideration of the subject having suggested 
 various alterations and additions, and enforced the necessity of a more 
 extensive and elaborate treatment, the work has been, in most of its 
 parts, wholly re-cast and re-written ; and it may now be stated, in 
 general terms, that it embraces, The Downfall of the Roman system 
 of Civilization and Polity; and the rudiments of those Institutions and 
 forms of Government which constitute the original material, and in 
 some respects the very framework, of the social structure in modern 
 Europe. 
 
 3. The author does not think that, by selecting so wide a field of in- 
 quiry, he has rendered himself liable to the charge of departing from 
 the subject proposed in his title ; though he is fully sensible that he has 
 exposed himself to the danger of overrating his own powers. But he 
 saw no middle course, and, therefore, ventures to abide the judgment 
 of the public both upon the propriety of the plan, and the sufficiency 
 of the execution. 
 
 4. The first seven chapters comprise the history of the Barbaric 
 Tribes congregated upon the northern and north-eastern frontiers of 
 the Roman Empire a chain of nations extending from the Tanais and 
 the Palus Moeotis to the German Ocean ; the wars of Marius, Caesar, 
 Drusus, Varus, Germanicus, M. Aurelius, Maximin, Aurelian, Probus, 
 Constantine, Julian and Valentinian I. in Germany. With a view to ob- 
 tain a comprehensive notion of the connexion between the subject of the 
 narrative and the history of the Fall of the Western Empire, it has been 
 thought expedient to append to the eighth chapter a short review of 
 those internal causes of decay which had been, for many ages past, 
 seconding the attacks of the foreign enemy whose history this work 
 professes to recount. This synopsis is followed by an account of the 
 first inundation of the Barbaric Nations, which took place in the year 
 407, commonly called " The Great Migration," the conquest of Gaul, 
 the abandonment of Britain, the loss of Spain and Africa, the invasion 
 of Italy by Alaric, the first sack of Rome, the settlement of the Visi- 
 gothic Nation in Spain and southern Gaul, and of the Franks in the 
 northern regions of the latter country. 
 
 5. The rise, progress, and temporary successes of the Hunnic Nation 
 are next adverted to with a particularity justified, as the author believes, 
 
History of the Germans. 
 
 by the great effects produced by the intrusion of that extraordinary 
 race among the barbaric elements of the future population of Europe. 
 The dissolution of the Empire of Attila sent forth a cloud of nations 
 destined to effect the final dismemberment of the Empire of the West, 
 and to share the fragments among them. To that point each separate 
 swarm may be traced back with the greatest certainty; and for that 
 reason it has been thought necessary to draw the reader's attention to 
 the juncture in question with the greater minuteness. 
 
 6. The progress of the Frankish nations introduces us to the next 
 great series of events. The period in contemplation exhibits the total 
 extinction of the Roman dominion in Gaul, the overthrow of the 
 Roman institutions, and the first steps in that important revolution 
 in the character of property in land, out of which arose, in the first 
 instance, the system of" Benefices," and subsequently that of " Feuds." 
 
 7. Within the same period falls the expiring effort of that migratory 
 spirit which had hitherto distinguished the Germanic nations. The 
 Longobardi became the lords of Italy; and Pope Gregory the Great 
 laid the foundation of a spiritual dominion which, concurrently with 
 the spirit of feudalism, determined the direction of all great political 
 events during the middle ages. 
 
 8. The last subject in the volume embraces the progress of Chris- 
 tianity, and the establishment of the Papal authority in France and 
 Germany, the rudiments, in short, of that great spiritual monarchy 
 which in process of time comprehended nearly the whole of Europe. This 
 subject presents us with a proper terminus for the first book of the His- 
 tory of the Germans. The influence of the Church contributed mainly to 
 the exaltation of the Carlovingian family to the throne 01 France and 
 Germany, and the revival of the empire of the West, in the person of 
 Charles the Great, more commonly called Charlemagne. This inci- 
 dent, it is thought, affords a more convenient close of ancient history, 
 and a fitter commencement for that of the middle ages, than the termi- 
 nus more commonly adopted. 
 
 9. It will be seen, therefore, that the period comprised within this 
 First Book extends over nearly nine centuries of time, commencing 
 w ^ ^ e ^ rs * i rru Ption of the Teutones anctCimbri, in the year 113 B.C. 
 and closing with the .UKiOJjiuii uf Oluwkij the Cfcutfct, in the year of Christ 
 77&' It has been, however, thought proper to reserve the actual His- 
 tory of the revival of the Western Empire in the year 800, for the next 
 Book ; in order that an event of such paramount, importance to the 
 right historical exposition of the subsequent period may not stand dis- 
 connected from it, and likewise in order not to break in upon the 
 History of the Political Life of Charles the Great, which is necessarily 
 reserved for the following Book. But the circumstances which led to 
 that event are traced out, and the event itself is distinctly pointed to 
 at the close of the Volume. 
 
 10. The whole of this long period it is proposed with reference to 
 the History of the Germans to distinguish by the name of the " Bar- 
 baric Period." Not only every material matter of fact, but also of opinion, 
 or criticism, other than those for which the author may fairly take 
 credit to himself, is accompanied with a citation of the authority 
 from which it is derived. 
 
 London, May, 1835. 
 

 
 
 POSITION AND PROSPECTS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 PROTESTANT CHURCHES 
 
 <reat Britain an& Ireland, 
 
 WITH REFERENCE 
 
 TO THE PROPOSED ESTABLISHMENT OF A 
 
 ROMAN CATHOLIC HIERARCHY 
 
 IN THIS COUNTRY. 
 
 BY T. GREENWOOD, M.A. 
 
 BAERISTER-AT-LAW. 
 
 Second Edition. 
 
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