[81]

THE

CRITICAL REVIEW.

For the Month of August, 1765.

ARTICLE I.

An Ecclefiaftical Hiftory, Antient and Modern, from the Birth of Chrift, to the Beginning of the prefent Century: in which the Rife, Progrefs, and Variations of Church Power are confidered in their Connection with the State of Learning and Philofophy, and the Political Hiftory of Europe during that Period. By the late learned John Lawrence Mosheim, D. D. and Chancellor of the University of Gottingen. Tranflated from the Original, and accompanied with Notes and Chronological Tables, by Archibald Maclaine, M. A. Minister of the English Church at the Hague. To the whole is added an accurate Index. Two Vols. Pr. 21. 25. bound. Millar. [Concluded.]

THE HE encreafing divifions amongst chriftians after the Reformation rendered it impoffible for Dr. Mofheim to exhibit the history of the church which falls within this volume, in the fame order and method which he observed in the former; he therefore divides his account of this period under two principal heads; one containing the general, the other the particular history of the chriftian religion. The History of the Reformation employs the first fection; and our author has been obliged, because it is fo ample and extenfive, to divide it into four parts. The first contains an account of the state. of Chriftianity before the commencement of the Reformation. The fecond comprehends the period from that commencement to the date of the confeffion of Augsburgh. The third continues the fame hiftory from the last mentioned date to the Smalcaldian war. The fourth carries it to the peace entered into with the reformers in 1555.

One irrefragable principle, confirmed by history and experience, runs through the whole of Dr. Mofheim's work, and VOL. XX. Auguft 1765.

G

has

has its exiflence at this day in the minds of the most fanguine oppofers of the defpotifm and fuperftition of the Romish communion, which is, that the reformation of religion never could have taken, nor never can take, its rife from minds impressed with notions of any fuperiority of the Romish pontiff or church in matters of religion. The idea of this fuperiority always carries with it a degree of credit that muft deftroy all attempts towards reformation, which ought, in fact, to begin by destroying all prepoffeflions of that fort. Let us look into the ecclefiaftical hiftories previous to the times of Luther, and we shall find that the notions of preferring the Romish to other pontiffs and bishops, or appealing to general councils that admitted in any degree (as all of them did) of fuch preference, blafted the moft vigorous efforts of kings and emperors for reducing the power of the popedom either in temporals or fpirituals, and brought thofe fpirited emperors and kings who oppofed his ufurpations, from being his tyrants in fome matters, to become at laft his flaves in all.

Modern history confirms this obfervation ftill more firongly. Who could have thought that while L wis XIV. feemed devoted, even to enthusiasm, to the maintenance of his regale and the rights of the Gallican church, whofe ambaffadors patrolled through Rome at the head of an army, and confined the pope within the walls of the Vatican; that while he was doing all this, he himself was trembling in confeffion at the feet of one of that very pope's janizaries, a jefuit, and obliged to difcipline himfelt for the empty triumphs he was enjoying over the fneering pontiff? And yet this certainly was the cafe in the event, because Lewis believed in the pope's fupremacy as to matters of religion. When one reads of that fpirited oppofition which Paul V. met with from fo refpect.ble a body as the republic of Venice, who could imagine every page he turns. over that the next does not prefent him with an account of the utter annihilation of the papal power in that republic? But what was the confequence? Though Paul was as uninformed as he was tyrannical, furious, and inconfiderate, yet in the end he and his fucceffors triumphed, notwithstanding a few mortifications he met with. The fame may be faid of the emperors of Germany and the kings of Portugal, who bullied the popes fometimes, but were ftill forced to refume their tameness, because beret lateri lethalis arundo the notion of the pope's fupremacy in fpirituals has entered into their brains and blood.

No work conveys to us what we have already called the philofophy of hiftory (See p. 4.) more effectually than that before us. We imagine our proteftant reader is thanking heaven

for

for the diminution of the papal power among the Roman cas tholic princes and states in general, and, above all, for the expulsion of the jefuits out of France and Portugal. Let him perufe Dr. Mofheim's hiftory, and he will, in every Romani catholic country now under the fun, meet with the like fitua tion in former times. He will find clergymen, monks, priors, and jefuits punished, fometimes hanged, for obeying the pope rather than their témporal sovereigns. He will find cafes in which princes have erected batteries that mounted more heavy artillery against the walls of Rome, than even that now brought before it by the parliament of Paris. The religion of Rome, however, has always kept its ground; and where that is the cafe, the influence of the popedom must follow of course. Even in the days of the groffeft ignorance, ftorms have been raised against the papacy; and though the pontiffs then were befriended by that powerful mist, yet they were fometimes obliged to give way; but they never touched the ground without rifing from it, like Antæus, with redoubled ftrength. The reason was, because their enemies never pulled out of their eye the beam of papal supremacy.

Dr. Mofheim has drawn the indolence, the security, and unbounded profligacy of the popes immediately preceding the Reformation, with great juftice.

'We must not, however, conclude from this apparent tranquility and fecurity of the pontiffs and their adherents, that their measures were applauded, or their chains worn without reluctance. This was far from being the cafe. Not only private perfonis, but alfo the moft powerful princes and fovereign ftates exclaimed loudly against the defpotic dominion of the pontifs, the fraud, violence, avarice and injuftice that prevailed in their counfels, the arrogance, tyranny, and extortion of their legates, the unbridled licentioufnefs and enormous crimes of the clergy and monks of all denominations, the unrighteous feverity and partiality of the Roman laws, and demanded publickly, as their ancestors had done before them, a reformation of the church in its head and in its members, and a general council to accomplish that neceffary and happy purpose. But thefe complaints and demands were not carried fo far as to produce any good effect; fince they came from perfons who never prefumed to entertain the leaft doubt of the fupreme authority of the pope in religious matters, and who, of confequence, instead of attempting, themfelves, to bring about that reformation that was fo ardently defired, remained entirely unactive, and looked for redrefs to the court of Rome, or to a general council. As long as the authority of the Roman pontif was held facred, and his jurifdi&tion fupreme, there could Be

no reason to expect any confiderable reformation either of the corruptions of the church or of the manners of the clergy.

If any thing feemed proper to deftroy the gloomy empire of fuperftition, and to alarm the fecurity of the lordly pontiffs, it was the reftoration of learning in Europe, and the number of men of genius that arofe, of a fudden, under the benign influence of that aufpicious revolution. But even this new scene of things was infufficient to terrify the lords of the church, or to make them apprehend the decline of their power. It is true, indeed, this happy revolution in the republic of letters difpelled the gloom of ignorance, and kindled in the minds of many the love of truth and facred liberty. Nay, it is alfo certain that many of these great men, fuch as Erafmus and others, pointed the delicacy of their wit, or levelled the fury of their indignation at the fuperftitions of the times, the corruptions of the priesthood, the abufes that reigned in the court of Rome, and the brutish manners of the monaftic orders. But this was not fufficient, fince none had the courage to ftrike at the root of the evil, to attack the papal jurifdiction and ftatutes, which were abfurdly, yet artfully fan&tified by the title of canon-law, or to call in question that ancient and most pernicious opinion, that Chrift had established a vice-gerent at Rome, clothed with his fupreme and unlimited authority. Entrenched, therefore, within thefe ftrong-holds, the pontiffs looked upon their own authority, and the peace of the church as beyond the reach of danger, and treated with indifference the threats and invectives of their enemies. Armed, moreover, with power to punish, and abundantly furnished with the means of rewarding in the most alluring manner, they were ready, on every commotion, to crush the obftinate, and to gain over the mercenary to their cause; and this indeed could not but contribute confiderably to the ftability of their dominion.'

Dr.Mofheim preferves the fame moderate impartiality in drawing particular characters, for he is lefs fevere on the memory of Leo X. than fome Roman catholic authors have been. To fpecify the heads of every chapter of this work would far exceed the bounds of our Review, and yet every page is fo fruitful of information, that we are doubtful what to omit or what to mention. Moft of our readers, we apprehend, have a general idea of the degeneracy of the papal religion when the Reformation took place but the difputes between the Dominican and Franeifcan friars may not be fo thoroughly or univerfally known, though it must confirm every rational mind in the most rooted contempt he can have of the wickedness of the monks, and the credulity of the people, in the beginning of the fixteenth century. The Dominicans had then a moft unbounded

fway over the consciences of men; their order was the feminary of confeffors to almost all the kings and courts of Christendom, and they prefided in all the tribunals of the tremendous inquifition. Being as it were wanton in the full enjoyment of power, they gradually loft fight of that referve and caution, or rather of that hypocrify, which was fo neceffary for their profeffion, and thereby expofed themfelves to the cenfure of their rivals, the Francifcans. This reduced the Dominicans to the practice of many infamous impoftures to fupport their credit; but one particularly was carried on with such amazing effrontery and villainy as, were it not unexceptionably attefted, would, to a rational mind, appear incredible. This, or fomewhat like it, perhaps was the reafon why Dr. Mofhein has omitted it in the body of his history; but the defect has been amply fupplied in a note by his tranflator, Mr. Maclaine.

The ftratagem in queftion was the confequence of a rivalhip between the Franciscans and Dominicans, and more especially of their controverfy concerning the immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary. The former maintained, that she was born without the blemish of original fin; the latter afferted the contrary. The doctrine of the Francifcans, in an age of dark. nefs and fuperftition, could not but be popular; and hence the Dominicans loft ground from day to day. To fupport the cre dit of their order, they refolved, at a chapter held at Vimpfen in the year 1504, to have recourfe to fictitious vifions and dreams, in which the people at that time had an easy faith; and they determined to make Bern the scene of their operations. A perfon named Jetzer, who was extremely fimple, and much inclined to aufterities, and who had taken their habit, as a lay-brother, was chofen as the inftrument of the delufions they were contriving. One of the four Dominicans who had undertaken the management of the plot, conveyed himself fecretly into Jetzer's cell, and about midnight appeared to him in a horrid figure, furrounded with howling dogs, and seeming to blow fire from his noftrils, by the means of a box of combuftibles which he held near his mouth. In this frightful form he approached Jetzer's bed, told him that he was the ghoft of a Dominican who had been killed at Paris, as a judgment of heaven for laying afide his monaftic habit; that he was condemned to purgatory for this crime, adding, at the fame time, that, by his means, he might be rescued from his mifery, which was beyond expreffion. This story, accompanied with horrible cries and howlings, frighted poor Jetzer out of the little wits he had, and engaged him to promife to do all that was in his power to deliver the Dominican from his torment. Upon this, the impoftor told him, that nothing but the most extraordinary

G 3

mora