and to promote union, was not to nourish the || flames of discord by disputes and conferences, but to see whether their systems might not be reconciled, and apparent inconsistencies removed, by proper and candid explications. They imagined that a plausible and artful exposition of those doctrines of the church of Rome, which appeared the most shocking to the Protestants, would tend much to conquer their aversion to popery. Such was the general principle in which the Romish peacemakers agreed, and such the basis on which they proposed to carry on their pacific operations; but they differed so widely in their manner of applying this general principle, and pursued such different methods in the execution of this nice and hazardous stratagem, that the event did not answer their expectations. In the way they proceeded, instead of promoting the desired union by their representations of things, by their exhortations and counsels, this union seemed to be previously necessary, in order to render their explications and exhortations acceptable, or even supportable; so little were the means proportioned to the end! though with less dexterity and success, by Dezius, a Jesuit of Strasbourg, who wrote a book expressly to prove, that there was little if any difference between the doctrine of the council of Trent, and that of the confession of Augsburg, than which no two systems can be more irreconcilably opposite.* It is, however, remarkable, that all these pacific atten pts to reunite the two churches, were made by the persons now mentioned on their own private authority; they were not avowed by the higher powers, who alone were qualified to remove, modify, or explain away those doctrines and rites of the Romish church, that shocked the protestants and justified their separation. It is true, that, in 1686, this plan of reconciliation was warmly recommended by a person properly commissioned, or, at least, who gave himself out for such. This pacificator was Christopher de Roxas, bishop of Tinia, in the district of Bosnia; who, during several years, frequented, with these reconciling views, the courts of the protestant princes in Germany; intimated the assembling of a new council, that was to be more impartial in its decisions, The first, as well as the most eminent, of and less restrained in its proceedings, than the those who tried the force of their genius in council of Trent; and even assured the prothis arduous enterprise, was cardinal Riche- testants, that they might obtain, without diffilieu, that great minister, who employed all the culty, whatever rights, privileges, and immuinfluence of promises and threats, all the pow-nities, they should think proper to demand ers of sophistry and eloquence, all the arts of from the Roman pontiff, provided they would persuasion, in order to bring back the French protestants into the bosom of the Romish church. The example of this illustrious prelate was followed, with less dignity and less influence, by Masenius, a German Jesuit,† Volusius, a theologian of Mentz, Prætorius, a Prussian,§ Gibbon de Burg, an Irish doctor, who was professor at Erfort,|| Marcellus, a Jesuit, and other divines of inferior note. But, of all modern adepts in controversy, none pur-contained in that book, though by a late edict we sued this method with such dexterity and art as Bossuet, bishop of Meaux, a man of true genius, directed by the most consummate circumspection and prudence. The famous Ex-formity in doctrinal matters. The artifice that was position of the Roman Catholic Faith, that was drawn up by this subtle and insinuating author, was designed to show the protestants, that their reasons against returning to the bosom of the Romish church would be easily removed, if they would view the doctrines of that church in their true light, and not as they had been erroneously represented by protestant writers.** This notion was propagated, * Rich. Simon, Lettres Choisies, tom. i.-Bayle's Dictionary, at the articles Amyraut, Beaulieu, Ferry, and Milletiere. † See F. Spanhemii Stricturæ ad Bossueti Expositionem Fidei Catholicæ, tom. iii. op. Theolog. pars ii. p. 1042. There is extant a book composed by this writer under the following title: Aurora Pacis religiosa di vinæ Veritate amica. In his Tuba Pacis, of which the reader may see a curious account in Bayle's Nouvelles de la Repub lique des Lettres for the year 1685. In a treatise, entitled, Luthero Calvinismus schismaticus quidem sed reconciliabilis. The book of Marcellus, entitled, Sapientia Pacifica, was refuted by Seldius, at the express desire of the duke of Saxe-Gotha. **This book might furnish topics for a multitude of reflections. See a particular account of its history and its effects in Pfaff's Historia Literaria Theolo. gia, tom. ii., and Le Clerc's Bibliotheque Universelle et Historique, tom. xi. It is remarkable, that nine years passed before this work could obtain the pope's approbation. Clement X. refused it positively; and several Catholic priests were rigorously treated, and severely persecuted, for preaching the doc trine contained in the Exposition, which was, moreover, formally condemned by the university of Louvain, in 1685, and declared to be scandalous and per nicious. The Sorbonne also disavowed the doctrine learn, that the fathers of that theological seminary have changed their opinion on that head, and this given a new instance of the variations that reign in the Romish church, which boasts so much of its uniemployed in the composition of this book, and the tricks that were used in the suppression and alterabeen detected with great sagacity and evidence by the learned and excellent archbishop Wake, in the Introduction to his Exposition of the Doctrine of the Church of England. See also his two Defences of of Bossuet is unmasked and refuted in the most sathat Exposition, in which the perfidious sophistry tisfactory manner. There was an excellent answer to Bossuet's book published by M. de la Bastide, one of the most eminent protestant ministers in France. Of this answer the French prelate took no notice during eight years; at the end of which, he published an advertisement, in a new edition of his Exposition, which was designed to remove the objections of Bastide. The latter replied in such a demonstra tive and victorious manner, that the learned bishop, notwithstanding all his eloquence and art, was obliged to quit the field of controversy. See a very interesting account of this insidious work of Bossuet, and the controversies it occasioned, in the Bibliotheque des Sciences, published at the Hague, vol. xviii. This account, which is curious, accurate, ample, and learned, was given partly on occasion of a new edition of the Exposition, printed in 1761, and accompanied with a Latin translation by Fleury, and partly on occasion of Burigny's Life of Bossuet. tion of the first edition that was given of it, have *This book is entitled, La Re-union des Protes tans de Strasbourg a l'Eglise Romaine, and was pub lished in 1689.-See Phil. Jac. Speneri Consilia Theol. German. in parte iii. p. €50, 662. what peculiar zeal he endeavoured to reform some enormities of the church of Rome, and to excuse others. But these, and all the other arbitrators, whose names and whose efforts in this pacific cause it would be tedious to mention, derived no other fruit from their (per acknowledge his paternal authority, and no || the re-union of all Christian churches in one longer refuse submission to his mild and gen-general bond of charity and concord, and with tle empire. But the artifice and designs of this specious missionary were easily detected; the protestant doctors, and also their sovereigns, soon perceived that a fair and candid plan of reconciliation and union was not what the court of Rome had in view; but that a scheme was in agitation for restoring its pon-haps, well-intended) labours, than the displeatiffs to their former despotic dominion over the Christian world.* sure of both the contending parties, and the bitter reproaches of their respective churches. In the number of the protestant doctors who betrayed an inconsiderate zeal for the re-union of these churches, many writers place George Calixtus, a man of eminent learning, and professor of divinity in the university of Helmstadt. It is nevertheless certain, that this great man discovered and exposed the errors and corruptions of popery with a degree of learning and perspicuity scarcely surpassed by any writer in this century, and persisted in maintaining that the decrees and anathemas of the council of Trent had banished all hopes of a reconciliation between the protestant churches and the see of Rome. He looked, indeed, upon some of the controversies that divided the two communions with much greater indulgence than was usually shown, and decided them in a manner that did not seem suited to the taste and spirit of the times; he was also of XIV. The Romish peace-makers found among the protestants, and more especially among those of the reformed church, certain doctors, who, by a natural propensity to union and concord, seconded perhaps, in some, by views of interest, or by the suggestions of ambition, were disposed to enter into their plan, and to assist them in the execution of it. These theologians maintained, that the points in debate between the churches were not of sufficient importance to justify their separation. Among the French protestants, Louis Le Blanc, and his disciples, were suspected of a strong inclination to go too far in this matter. The same accusation was brought, with fuller evidence, against Huisseaux, professor of divinity at Saumur, Milletiere, Le Fevre, and others of less note. Among the British divines, this excessive propensity to diminish the shocking absurdities of popery was less re-opinion that the church of Rome had not demarkable; William Forbes was the principal person who discovered an extreme facility to compose a considerable number of the differences that contributed to perpetuate the separation between the churches. With respect to the Dutch, it is abundantly known, how ardently the great and learned Grotius desired * See Jo. Wolf. Jaegeri Historia Ecclesiast. Sæculi XVII. Christ. Eberhardi Weismanni. Hist. Ec clesiast. Sæc. XVII. p. 735. The reader will find, in the Commercium Epistolico-Leibnitianum of Gruberus, vol. i. an account of the particular conditions of reconciliation that were proposed to the German courts in 1660, by the elector of Mentz, authorised, as it is alleged, by the Roman pontiff. See a particular and interesting account of Le Blanc, in Bayle's Dictionary, at the article Beaulieu. See the above-mentioned Dictionary, at the article Milletiere. For an account of Huisseaux, and his pacific counsels, see Rich. Simon's Lettres Choisies, tom. iii., and Aymon's Synodes Nationaux des Eglises Reformees en France, tom. ii. The labours of Le Fevre, father to the famous Madame Dacier, in the same cause, are mentioned by Morhoff, in his Polyhistor, tom. i. stroyed the genuine principles of Christianity, but had only deformed them with its senseless fictions, and buried them under a heap of rubbish, under a motley multitude of the most extravagant and intolerable doctrines and ceremonies. It was undoubtedly on this account, that he has been ranked by some in the class of the imprudent peace-makers already mentioned. XV. It was no difficult matter to defeat the purposes, and ruin the credit of these pacific arbitrators, who, upon the whole, made up but by intestine discords. It required more dexa motley and ill composed society, weakened terity, and greater efforts of genius, to oppose the progress, and disconcert the sophistry of a set of men who had invented new methods of defending popery, and attacking its adversaries. This new species of polemic doctors were called Methodists, and the most eminent of them arose in France, where a perpetual scene of controversy, carried on with the most learned See Forbes' "Considerationes modeste et pa-among the Huguenots, had augmented the dexcifica Controversiarum de Justificatione, Purgatorio," &c., which were published at London in 1858, and afterwards more correctly in Germany, under the inspection of John Fabricius, professor of divinity at Helmstadt. Forbes is mentioned by Grabe with the highest encomiums, in his Notæ ad Bulli Harmoniam Apostolicam; and, if we consider his probity, and the exemplary regularity of his life and conversation, he must be allowed to deserve the praise that is due to piety and good morals. Never theless, he had his infirmities, and the wiser part of the English doctors acknowledge, that his propensity toward a reconciliation with the church of Rome, was carried too far. See Burnet's History of his own Time, vol. i. On this account he has been lavishly praised by the catholic writers; see R. Simon's Lettres Choisies, tom. iii. lettre xvii.-He was undoubt edly one of those who contributed most to spread among the English a notion, (the truth or falsehood of which we shall not here examine,) that king Charles I. and archbishop Laud had formed the design of restoring popery in England. terity, and improved the theological talents of the catholic disputants. The Methodists, from their different manner of treating the controversy in question, may be divided into two classes. In one we may place those doctors whose method of disputing was disingenuous and unreasonable, and who followed the examples of those military chiefs, who shut up their troops in entrenchments and strong-holds, in order to cover them from the attacks of the enemy. Such was the manner of proceeding of the Jesuit Veron, who was of opinion that the protestants should be obliged to prove the tenets of their church by plain passages of * More especially the doctrines that peculiarly oppose the decrees and tenets of the council of Trent. it was followed by many of the disputants of the church of Rome, who were so fully persuaded of its irresistible influence, that they looked upon any one of the general points already Scripture, without being allowed to have the liberty of illustrating these passages, reasoning upon them, or drawing any conclusions from them. In the same class may be ranked Nihusius, an apostate from the protestant reli-mentioned as sufficient, when properly handled, gion, the two Walenburgs, and other pole- to overturn the whole protestant cause. Hence mics, who, looking upon it as an easier matter it was, that some of these polemics rested the to maintain their pretensions, than to show defence of popery upon the single principle of upon what principles they were originally prescription; others upon the vicious lives of founded, obliged their adversaries to prove all several of those princes who had withdrawn their assertions and objections, whether of an their dominions from the yoke of Rome; and affirmative or negative kind, and confined some upon the criminal nature of religious themselves to the mere business of answering schism, with which they reproached the proobjections, and repelling attacks. We may moters of the Reformation; and they were all also place among this kind of Methodists car- convinced, that, by urging their respective ardinal Richelieu, who judged it the shortest and guments, and making good their respective best way to attend little to the multitude of charges, the mouths of their adversaries must accusations, objections, and reproaches, with be stopped, and the cause of Rome and its ponwhich the protestants loaded the various tiff triumph. The famous Bossuet stood forebranches of the Romish government, discipline, most in this class, which he peculiarly adorned, doctrine, and worship, and to confine the whole by the superiority of his genius and the insinucontroversy to the single article of the di-ating charms of his eloquence. His arguvine institution and authority of the church, which he thought it essential to establish by the strongest arguments, as the grand principle that would render popery impregnable.§ ments, indeed, were more specious than solid, and the circumstances from which they were drawn were imprudently chosen. From the variety of opinions which had taken place among the protestant doctors, and the changes which had happened in their discipline and doctrine, he endeavoured to demonstrate, that the church founded by Luther was not the true The Methodists of the second class were of opinion, that the most expedient manner of reducing the protestants to silence, was not to attack them partially, but to overwhelm them at once, by the weight of some general princi-church; and, on the other hand, from the perple or presumption, some universal argument, which comprehended, or might be applied to, all the points contested between the churches. They imitated the conduct of those military leaders, who, instead of spending their time and strength in sieges and skirmishes, endeavour to put an end to a war by a general and decisive action. This method, if not invented, was at least improved and seconded, with all the aids of eloquence and genius, by Nicole, a celebrated doctor among the Jansenists; and Museus de Usu Principiorum Rationis in Controversiis Theologicis, lib. i. c. iv.-G. Calixti Digressio de Arte nova, p. 125. Simon's Lettres Choisies, tom. i. † See a particular account of this vain and super. ficial doctor in Bayle's Dictionary. His work, entitled Ars nova dicto Sacræ Scripturæ unico lucrandi a Pontificiis plurimas in partes Lutheranorum detecta, &c., was refuted in the most satisfactory manner by Calixtus, in his digressio de Arte Nova contra Nihusium, a curious and learned work, published at Helmstadt in 1634. That is to say, in other words, that they pleaded prescription in favour of popery, and acted like one who, having been for a long time in possession of an estate, refused to produce his title, and requires that those who question it should prove its insufficiency or falsehood. petual sameness and uniformity that prevailed in the tenets and worship of the church of Rome, he pretended to prove its divine original. Such an argument must indeed surthat some of the principal arguments employed in this book against the protestants, are precisely the same that the deists make use of to show that it is impossible for the general body of Christians to believe upon a rational foundation. The learned Claude, in his Defence of the Reformation, showed in a demonstrative manner, that the difficulties arising from the incapacity of the multitude to examine the grounds and principles of the protestant religion, are much less than those which occur to a papist, whose faith is founded, not on the plain word of God alone, but on the dictates of tradition, on the decrees of councils, and a variety of antiquated records that are beyond his reach. The protestant divine goes still farther, and proves that there are arguments in favour of Christianity and the protestant faith, that are intelligible by the lowest capacity, and, at the same time, sufficient to satisfy an upright and unprejudiced mind. Fred. Spanhemii Diss. de Præscriptione, in Rebus Fidei, adversus novos Methodistas, tom. iii. par. ii. op. p. 1079. †This is the purpose of Bossuet's Historie des Variations des Eglises Protestantes, which was published in 1688, and is still considered by the catholics as one of the strongest bulwarks of popery. Let them go on in their delusions, and boast of this fa§ For a more ample account of these methods of mous champion and defender; but, if they have any controversy, and of others used by the church of Rome, true zeal for the cause he defends, or any regard for the curious reader may consult Fred. Spanheim's the authority of the supreme head of their church, Strictur. ad Expositionem Fidei Bossueti, tom. iii. op. they will bury in oblivion that maxim of this their par. ii. p. 1037.-Heidegger's Histor. Papatus, Period. champion, that "the church, which frequently movii. sect. ccxviii. p. 316.-Walchii Introduct. ad Con-difies, varies, and changes its doctrines, is destitute trovers. Theolog. tom. ii.-Weismanni Histor. Ec- of the direction of the Holy Spirit." This obclesiastica, sæc. xvii. p. 726. servation might be verified by numberless instances of variations in the doctrine and worship of Rome, that must strike every one who has any tolerable acquaintance with the history of that church.-But, without going any farther than one instance, we may observe, that Bossuet had a striking proof of the variations of his own church, in the different recep tion that his Exposition of the Roman Catholic Faith met with from different persons, and at different times. It was disapproved by one pope, and approv led by another; it was applauded by the archbishop This method certainly was not the invention of Nicole, for it seems to differ little, if at all, from the method of cardinal Richelieu. We may observe farther, that Richelieu seems rather to be. long to the second class of Methodists than to the first, where Dr. Mosheim has placed him. Nicole is supposed to be the author of a book entitled, "Prejugez legitimes contre les Calvinistes," which was answered in a satisfactory manner by several learned men. It is very remarkable, 192 HISTORY OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. prise, coming from a man of learning, who could not be ignorant of the temporising spirit of the Roman pontiffs, or of the changes they had permitted in their discipline and doctrine, according to the genius of time and place, and the different characters of those whom they were desirous to gain over to their interest. It was still more surprising in a French prelate, since the doctors of that nation generally maintain, that the leaden age does not differ more from the age of gold, than the modern church of Rome differs from the ancient and primitive church of that famous city. XVI. These various attempts of the votaries of Rome, though they gave abundant exercise to the activity and vigilance of the protestant doctors, were not, however, attended with any important revolutions, or any considerable fruits. Some princes, indeed, and a few learned men, were thereby seduced into the communion of that church, from whose superstition and tyranny their ancestors had delivered themselves and others; but these defections were only personal, nor could any people or province be persuaded to follow these examples. Among the more illustrious deserters of the Protestant religion, we may place Christina, queen of Sweden, who was a princess of great spirit and genius, but was precipitate and vehement in almost all her proceedings, and preferred her ease, pleasure, and liberty, to all other considerations; Wolfgang William, count Palatine of the Rhine; Christian William, marquis of Brandenburg; Ernest, prince of Hesse; John Frederic, duke of Brunswick; and Frederic Augustus, king of Poland. || of Rheims, and condemned by the university of Louvain; it was censured by the Sorbonne in 1671, and declared by the same society a true exposition of the catholic faith in the following century. For a full proof of the truth of these and other variations, see Wake's Exposition, &c.--the Biblioth. Univ. of Le Clerc, tom. xi. p. 438.-the General Dictionary, at the article Wake, in the note, and the Biblioth. des Sci ences, tom. xviii. See Archenholtz, Memoires de la Reine Chris tine, which contain a variety of agreeable and interesting anecdotes. The candid and impartial writer, mentioned in the preceding note, has given an ample account of the circumstances that attended this queen's change of religion, and of the causes that might have contributed to determine her to a step so unexpected and inexcusable. It was neither the subtlety of DesCartes, nor the dexterity of Canut, that brought about this event, as Baillet would persuade us. The true state of the case seems to have been this: Christina, having had her sentiments of religion in general considerably perverted by the licentious insinuations of her favourite Bourdelot, was prepared for embracing any particular religion, that pleasure, interest, or ambition, should recommend to her. Upon this foundation, the Jesuits Macedo, Malines, and Cassati, under the immediate protection of Pimentel, and encouraged by the courts of Rome, Spain, and Portugal, employed their labours and dexterity in the conversion of this princess, whose passion for Italy, together with that taste for the fine arts and the precious remains of antiquity, which rendered her desirous of sojourning there, may have contributed not a little to make her embrace the religion of that country. SECT. II. The learned men that embraced the communion of the church of Rome were, baron Boineburg, secretary to the elector of Mentz, and a zealous patron of erudition and genius, Christopher Ranzow, a knight of Holstein,† Caspar Scioppius, Peter Bertius, Christopher Besold, Ulric Hunnius, Nicolas Stenon, a Danish physician, of great reputation in his profession, John Philip Pfeiffer, professor at Konigsberg, Luke Holstenius, Peter Lambecius, Henry Blumius, professor at Helmstadt, a man of learning, and of excessive vanity, Daniel Nesselius, Andrew Fromius, Barthold Nihusius, Christopher Hellwigius, Matthew Prætorius, and a few others of inferior renk in the learned world. But these conversions, when considered with the motives that produced them, will be found, in reality, less honourable to the church of Rome than they are in appearance; for if, from this list of princes and learned men, we efface those whom the temptations of adversity, the impulse of avarice and ambition, the suggestions of levity, the effects of personal attachments, the power of superstition upon a feeble and irresolute mind, and other motives of like merit, engaged to embrace the Romish religion, these proselytes will be reduced to a number too small to excite the envy of the protestant churches.§ XVII. The Christian churches in the East, which were not dependent on the yoke of Rome, did not stand less firm against the attempts of the papal missionaries than those of Europe. The pompous accounts which several Roman catholic writers have given of the wonderful success of the missionaries among the Nestorians and Monophysites, are little else than splendid fables, designed to amuse and dazzle the multitude; and many of the wisest and best of the Romish doctors acknow ledge, that they ought to be considered in no other light. As little credit is to be given to those who mention the strong propensity discovered by several of the heads and superin however, to be observed, that this prince, with Anthony Ulric, duke of Brunswick, and several others, who went over to the church of Rome, did not go over to that church of Rome which is now exhibited to us in the odious forms of superstition and tyranny, but to another kind of church, which, perhaps, never existed but in their idea, and which at least has long ceased to exist. That this was the case appears evidently from the theological writings of prince Ernest. *This eminent man, who had more learning than philosophy, and who was more remarkable for the extent of his memory than for the rectitude of his judgment, followed the example of the prince of Hesse, in 1653. See Gruberi Commercium Epistol. Leibnitianum, in which his letters, and those of Conringius, are published, tom. i. † See Molleri Cimbria Literata, tom. i. p. 520. 1 Blumius deserted the protestant church in 1654. See Burckhardi Historia Biblioth. Augustæ, pars iii. p. 223.-Gruberi Comm. Epist. tom. i. p. 41, 95, &c. In some of these letters he is called Florus, probably in allusion to his German name Blum, which signifies a flower. This learned and well-meaning prince was en- § See, for a particular account of these proselytes gaged, by the conversation and importunities of to popery, Weisman's Historia Eccles. sec. XVII. p. Valerius Magnus, a celebrated monk of the Capu 738.-Walchius' Introductio in Controversias, tom. chin order, to embrace popery, in 1651. See Gruberiii. p. 728.-Arnold's Kirchen und Ketzer Historie, Commercium Epistol. Leibnitianum, t. i. p. 27, 35. pars ii. p. 912, and other writers of civil and literary Memoires de la Reine Christine, t. i. p. 216.-It is, history. tendents of the Christian sects in those remote regions, to submit to the jurisdiction of the Roman pontiff. It is evident, on the contrary, that Rome, in two remarkable instances, suffered a considerable diminution of its influence and authority in the eastern world during this century. One instance was the dreadful revolution in Japan, which has been already related, and which was unhappily followed by the total extinction of Christianity in that great monarchy. The other was the downfall of popery by the extirpation of its missionaries in the empire of Abyssinia, of which it will not be improper, or foreign from our purpose, to give here a brief account. looked upon as a shocking insult to the religi ous discipline of their ancestors, as even more provoking than the violence and barbarities practised against those who refused to submit to the papal yoke. Nor did the insolent patriarch rest satisfied with these arbitrary and despotic proceedings in the church; he excited tumults ard factions in the state, and, with an unparalleled spirit of rebellion and arrogance, encroached upon the prerogatives of the throne, and attempted to give law to the emperor himself. Hence arose civil commotions, conspiracies, and seditions, which excited in a little time the indignation of the emperor, and the hatred of the people against the Jesuits, About the commencement of the seven- and produced, at length, in 1631, a public teenth century, the Portuguese Jesuits renew-declaration from the throne, by which the ed, under the most auspicious encouragement, Abyssinian monarch annulled the orders he the mission to Abyssinia that had been for some had formerly given in favour of popery, and time interrupted and suspended; for the empe- left his subjects at liberty, either to persevere ror Susneius or Socinios, who assumed the de- in the doctrine of their ancestors, or to emnomination of Sultan Segued, after the defeat brace the faith of Rome. This rational declaof his enemies and his accession to the throne, ration was mild and indulgent toward the covered the missionaries with his peculiar pro- Jesuits, considering the treatment which their tection. Gained over to their cause, partly by insolence and presumption had so justly dethe eloquence of the Jesuits, and partly by the served; but, in the following reign, much hopes of maintaining himself upon the throne severer measures were employed against them. by the succours of the Portuguese, he com- Basilides or Facilidas, the son of Segued, who mitted the whole government of the church to succeeded his father in 1632, thought it exAlphonso Mendez, a missionary from that na-pedient to free his dominions from these troution; created him patriarch of the Abyssinians; and, in 1626, not only swore, in a public manner, allegiance to the Roman pontiff, but also obliged his subjects to abandon the religious rites and tenets of their ancestors, and to embrace the doctrine and worship of the Romish church. But the new patriarch, by his intemperate zeal, imprudence, and arrogance, ruined the cause in which he had embarked, and occasioned the total subversion of the Roman pontiff's authority and jurisdiction, which seemed to have been established upon solid foundations. He began his ministry with the most inconsiderate acts of violence and despotism. Following the spirit of the Spanish inquisition, he employed formidable threatenings and cruel tortures to convert the Abyssinians; the greatest part of whom, together with their priests and ministers, held the religion of their ancestors in the highest veneration, and were willing to part with their lives and fortunes rather than forsake it. He also ordered those to be re-baptized, who, in compliance with the orders of the emperor, had embraced the faith of Rome, as if their former religion had been nothing more than a system of Paganism. This the Abyssinian clergy * See the remarks made by Chardin in several places of the last edition of his travels. See also what Cerri, in his Etat Present de l'Eglise Romaine, says of the Armenians and Copts. It is true, that, among these sects, the papal missionaries sometimes form congregations that are obedient to the see of Rome: but these congregations are poor, and composed only of a very small number of individuals. Thus the Capuchins, about the middle of the century now under consideration, founded a small congregation among the Monophysites of Asia, whose bishop resided at Aleppo. See Lequien, Oriens Christianus, t. ii. p. 1408. The reader will recollect, that the Abyssinians differ very little from the Copts, and acknowledge the patriarch of Alexandria as their spirituall VOL. II.-25 blesome and despotic guests; and accordingly, |