formed a congregation, under the name of St. John the Baptist. It was approved by pope Pascal the second. In 1113, Raymond du Puy, the successor of Gerard, divided the order into three classes; to the nobles, he assigned the profession of arms, for the defence of the faith, and the protection of pilgrims; the ecclesiastics, were to exercise the religrous functions, for the benefit of the order; the laybrothers were to take care of the pilgrims and sick. These regulations were approved by pope Calixtus the second; and the order then took the name of Knights of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem. After the loss of the Holy Land they retired to Cyprus; thence, to Rhodes: in 1522, that island was taken from them, by Solyman the great : Malta was then given them by the emperor Charles the fifth; from that time they have generally been known by the appellation of Knights of Malta.

VIII. 2. The order of the Knights Templars was established nearly about the same time, and for the same purposes as that of the knights of Malta. They took their name from a monastery given them by Baldwin, the second king of Jerusalem, which immediately joined the temple in his palace. They were suppressed by the council of Vienne in 1312.

VIII. 3. The Teutonic Order was founded on the model of that of the Knights Templars. It was confirmed by pope Celestine, in 1191. The

head seat of their order at Marienburgh. In 1525, the grand master embraced the protestant religion ; since which time, the head seat of the order has been at Margentheim, in Franconia.

VIII. 4. The original object of the Order of St. Lazarus, was to take care of persons infected with leprosy; in the course of time it became a military order. The whole body returned with St. Lewis into Europe, in 1254. Afterwards, it was united in France, with the order of our Lady of Mount Carmel, and in Savoy, with the order of St. Maurice. All these orders displayed heroic acts of valour in the enterprises of the crusaders, to recover the Holy Land.

For the history of the military orders of the church of Rome, the reader may consult, Histoire des Ordres Militaires seculiers et reguliers de l'un et de l'autre sexe, tirées des differens auteurs, et principalement de l'Abbé Giustiniani, avec des figures gravées en taille douce, qui representent leurs habillemens. Ams. 1721, 4 vols. in 8vo.

ESSAY II.

On the Discipline of the CHURCH of ROME, respecting the general PERUSAL of the SCRIPTURES in the vulgar tongue, by the Laity.

THIS essay comprises, with some additions, the

whole of a first, and extracts from a second and third letter, addressed to Thomas Stonor, Esq. and published in the Gentleman's Magazine for the month of December, 1813, and the months of February and September in the following year. Several replies to them appeared in different numbers of the same valuable repository. To those, the writer, being perfectly satisfied with the ground, on which they left the question, made no replication.

As they are now offered to the reader, the substance of these letters may be found to contain

some account :

I. Of the ancient discipline of the church of Rome, respecting the general perusal of the scriptures by the laity. II. Some account of the change made in the ancient discipline, in consequence of the troubles occasioned by the Waldenses and Albigenses. III. Some account of the actual

this respect. IV. A short statement of the sentiments of some respectable protestant writers on the unrestricted perusal of the scriptures. V. Some observations on the notion, entertained by several protestants, of its being considered by the romancatholics to be unlawful to print a translation of the scriptures, in a vulgar tongue without notes. VI. Some facts, which show the earnest wish of the church of Rome to promote the circulation of the scriptures, both in the original languages and in translations. VII. Some facts, which show the groundlessness of the charge brought against the church of Rome, that she did not allow translations of the Bible, into vulgar tongues, to be printed, till she was forced to it, against her will, by the protestant translations. VIII. Some account of the English roman-catholic versions of the Bible. IX. Some observations on the harsh expressions, charged on the notes to the Rhemish version of the Bible, and the edition of it by Doctor Challoner. X. A suggestion of the rules which should be constantly observed in polemic controversy. XI. And of a rule, particularly to be observed in controversies. with roman-catholics.-These observations having been drawn up originally in the nature of a letter, it is hoped that the frequent introduction in them of the pronoun of the first person will be excused.

I.

The early discipline of the church of Rome in

respect to the perusal of the scripture, by the general body of the laity, has varied. On this head, I cannot do better than extract the following passages from a letter of Fenelon to the bishop of Arras, (Oeuvres Spirituels de Fenelon, 8vo. tom. 4, p. 241); a translation of which, by the rev. Edw. Peach, the pastor of the roman-catholic chapel at Birmingham, printed for Andrews, Orangestreet, Red-Lion-square, has recently appeared. "I think," says the illustrious prelate, "that much trouble has been taken in our times very unnecessarily, to prove what is incontestable, that, in the first ages of the church the laity read the holy scriptures. It is clear as day-light, that all people read the Bible and liturgy in their native languages: that, as a part of good education, children were made to read them; that, in their sermons, the ministers of the church regularly explained to their flocks, whole books of the sacred volumes; that the sacred text of the scriptures was very familiar to the people; that the clergy exhorted the people to read them; that the clergy blamed the people for not reading them; and considered the neglect of the perusal of them as a source of heresy and immorality. But, in all this," continues the illustrious prelate, "the church used a wise œconomy; adapting the general practice to the circumstances and wants of individuals. It did not, however, think that a person could not be a christian, or not