in CENT. every one of which, one or more cardinals pre XVI. PART I. side. SECT. III. prerogatives of the pontiff, has been long suppressed, or rather distributed among the cardinals who belong to this congregation, and whose decisions come under the supreme cognizance of his Holiness. III. The congregation for the propagation of the Roman Catholic Faith, founded under the pontificate of Gregory XV. composed of eighteen cardinals, one of the secretaries of state, a prothonotary, a secretary of the inquisition, and other members of less rank. Here it is that the deliberations are carried on, which relate to the extirpation of heresy, the appointment of missionaries, &c. This congregation has built a most beautiful and magnificent palace in one of the most agreeable situations that could be chosen at Rome, where proselytes to popery from foreign countries are lodged and nourished gratis, in a manner suitable to their rank and condition, and instructed in those branches of know ledge to which the bent of their genius points. The prelates, curates, and vicars also, who are obliged, without any fault of theirs, to abandon the places of their residence, are entertained charitably in this noble edifice in a manner proportioned to their station in the church. IV. The congregation designed to explain the decisions of the council of Trent. V. The congregation of the Index, whose principal business is to examine manuscripts and books that are designed for publication, to decide whether the people may be permitted to read them, to correct those books whose errors are not numerous, and which contain useful and salutary truths, to condemn those whose principles are heretical and pernicious, and to grant the peculiar privilege of perusing heretical books to certain persons. This congregation, which is sometimes held in the presence of the pope, but generally in the palace of the car dinal-president, has a more extensive jurisdiction than that of the inquisition, as it not only takes cognizance of those books that contain doctrines contrary to the Roman Catholic faith, but of those also that concern the duties of morality, the discipline of the church, and the interests of society. Its name is derived from the alphabetical tables, or indexes of heretical books and authors, which have been composed by its appointment. VI. The congregation for maintaining the rights and immunities of the clergy, and of the Knights of Malta. This congregation was formed by Urban VIII. to decide the disputes, and remove the difficulties and inconveniences that arose from the trials of ecclesiastics, before princes, or other lay-judges. VII. The congregations relating to the Bishops and regular Clergy, instituted by Sixtus V. to decide the debates which arise between the bishops and their diocesans, and to compose the differences that happened so frequently XVI. SECT. III. PART side [d]. The decisions of these societies are ge- CENT. nerally approved of by the Roman pontiff, who has not a right, without alleging the most weighty frequently among the monastic orders. VIII. The congregation, appointed by Gregory XIV. for examining into the capacity and learning of the bishops. IX. Another for enquir ing into their lives and morals. X. A third for obliging them to reside in their dioceses, or to dispense them from that ob ligation. XI. The congregation for suppressing monasteries, i. e. such whose revenues are exhausted, and who thereby become a charge upon the public. XII. The congregation of the Apostolic Visitation, which names the visitors, who perform the duties and visitations of the churches and convents within the district of Rome, to which the pope is obliged as archbishop of that city. XIII. The congregation of Relics, designed to examine the marks, and to augment the number of these instruments of superstition. XIV. The congregations of indulgences, designed to examine the case of those who have recourse to this method of quieting the conscience. XV. The congregation of Rites, which Sixtus V. appointed to regulate and invent the religious ceremonies that are to be observed in the worship of each new saint that is added to the Kalendar. These are the congregations of cardinals, set apart for administering the spiritual affairs of the church; and they are undoubtedly, in some respects, a check upon the power of the pontiff, enormous as it may be. There are six more, which relate to the temporal government of the papal territories. In these congregations, where the pope is never present, all things are transacted which relate to the execution of public justice in civil or criminal matters, the levying of taxes, the providing the cities and provinces with good governors, the relieving those who are unjustly oppressed by subordinate magistrates, the coinage, the care of the rivers, aqueducts, bridges, roads, churches, and public edifices. [d] The court of Rome is very particularly and accurately described by Aymon (who had been, before his conversion to the protestant religion, domestic chaplain to Innocent XI.) in a book entitled, Tableau de la Cour de Rome, of which the first edition was published at the Hague, in 8vo, in the year 1707, and the second in 1726.-See also Relation de la Cour de Rome, et des Ceremonies qui s'y observent, which father Labat has translated into French, from the Italian of Jerome Limadoro, and subjoined to his Voyages en Espagne et Italie, tom. viii. p. 105.-For an account of the Roman congrega tions, &c. see Doroth. Ascian. De Montibus Pietatis Romanis. p. 510. as also Hunold. Plettenberg, Notitia Tribunal. et Congregat. Curiæ Romanæ, Hildesiæ, in Svo, 1693. XVI. PART I. CENT. weighty and evident reasons, to reverse what they pronounce to be just and expedient. This form SECT. III. of ecclesiastical government is, doubtless, a check to the authority of the pope; and hence it is, that many things are transacted at Rome in a manner that is in direct opposition to the sentiments of its spiritual ruler. This may serve to shew us, that those persons are little acquainted with the nature and limits of the papal hierarchy, who pretend, that all the iniquitous proceedings of the court of Rome, the calamities it has occasioned, the contentions, rebellions, and tumults it has excited, are to be entirely and wholly laid to the charge of the Roman pontiff [e]. Debates arise conpower of cerning the the Roman pontiff. III. The power of the Roman pontiff hath excited debates even among those that are under the papal hierarchy; and the spiritual subjects of this pretended head of the church, are very far from being agreed with respect to the extent of his authority and jurisdiction. Hence it happens, that this authority and dominion are not the same in all places, having a larger scope in some provinces, and being reduced within narrower bounds in others. If, indeed, we consider only the pretensions of the pontiff, then we shall find that his power is unlimited and supreme; for there are no prerogatives that can flatter ambition, which he does not claim for himself and his court. He not only pretends, that the whole power and majesty of [e] Hence arises that important distinction, frequently em ployed by the French and other nations in their debates with the Roman pontiff; I mean, the distinction between the Pope of Rome and the Court of Rome. The latter is often loaded with the bitterest reproaches and the heaviest accusations, while the former is spared, and in some measure excused. Nor is this distinction by any means groundless; since the cardinals and congregations, whose rights and privileges are held sacred, undertake and execute many projects without the knowledge, and sometimes against the will and consent, of the Roman pontiff. of the church reside in his person, and are transmitted into certain portions, from him to the inferior bishops, but moreover asserts the absolute infallibility of all decisions and decrees that he pronounces from his lordly tribunal. These arrogant pretensions are, however, opposed by many, and chiefly by the French nation, which expressly maintains, that every bishop receives immediately from Christ himself a portion of that spiritual power which is imparted to the church; that the collective sum, or whole of this power, is lodged in the collective body of its pastors, or, which is the same thing, in a general council, lawfully assembled; and that the pontiff, considered personally, and as distinct from the church, is liable to error. This complicated and important controversy may be easily brought within narrower bounds, and may be reduced to the following plain question; viz. Is the Roman pontiff, properly Speaking, the Lawgiver of the church, or, is he no more than the Guardian and Depositary of the laws enacted by Christ and the church? There is no prospect of seeing this question decided, nor the debates terminated to which it has given rise; since the contending parties are not even agreed about the proper and lawful judge of this important controversy [f]. Some great revolution can only effect the decision of this matter. IV. The church of Rome lost much of its an- Thedeclencient splendor and majesty, as soon as Luther, sion of the church of and Rome. [f] The arguments employed by the creatures of the Roman pontiff in defence of his unlimited authority, may be seen in Bellarmine and other writers, of which an enormous collection has been made by Roccaberti; and what is not a little extraordinary, a French writer, named Petitdidier, appeared in defence of the pope's pretensions, in a book published at Luxemburg, in the year 1724. Sur l'Authorité et Infallibilité des Papes. The sentiments of the Gallican church, and the arguments by which it opposes the pretensions of Rome, may be seen in the writings of Richer and Launoy. SECT. III. CENT. and the other luminaries of the Reformation, had XVI. exhibited to the view of the European nations the Christian religion restored, at least to a consider wable part of its native purity, and delivered from PART I. many of the superstitions under which it had lain so long disfigured. Among the most opu lent states of Europe, several withdrew entirely from the jurisdiction of Rome; in others, certain provinces threw off the yoke of papal tyranny; and upon the whole, this defection produced a striking diminution both of the wealth and power of the Roman pontiffs. It must also be observed, that even the kings, princes, and sovereign states, who adhered to the religion of Rome, yet changed their sentiments with respect to the claims and pretensions of its bishop. If they were not per suaded by the writings of the protestants to re nounce the superstitions of popery, yet they re ceived most useful instructions from them in other matters of very great moment. They drew from these writings important discoveries of the ground. less claims and unlawful usurpations of the Roman pontiffs, and came, at length, to perceive, that, if the jurisdiction and authority of Rome continued the same that it was before the rise of Luther, the rights of temporal princes, and the majesty of civil government would, sooner or later, be ab sorbed in the gulf of papal avarice and ambition. Hence it was, that most of the sovereign states of Europe, partly by secret and prudent measures, partly by public negociations and remonstrances, set bounds to the daring ambition of Rome, which aimed at nothing less than universal dominion both in ecclesiastical and civil affairs; nor did the Roman pontiff think it either safe or expedient to have recourse to the ancient arms of the church, war and excommunication, in order to repel these attacks upon his authority. Even those very kingdoms, who acknowledged the Roman pontiff as |