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has been accidently made to hasten, and nurture their mushroom growth. The Gentleman, to whom I allude (Sheil) had the impudent affrontery, to declare, in the British House of Commons, in a speech on the Tithe question, -" the Democracy will become gigantic, and the people will have their revenge." Such

are only delivered per se, or ex-cathedra. All this, however, is of little consequence, among the infallible authorities of Romanism; for, we find innumerable examples of Popes against Popes; Councils against Councils; Churches against Churches; Sects against Sects; one Century against another Century'; Doctors against Doctors; Theologians against Theologians; and Decrees against Decrees!!! But it is an undeniable fact, that the First Four General Councils, early, and most strenuously, resisted the arrogant claims and pretensions, of the dominant Monarchical authority, and Ecclesiastical Supremacy, of the See, and Popes of Rome. As for example, the General Council of Nice, held A. D. 325, which marked out the respective jurisdictions of the independant, and coëqual Bishops of Alexandria, and Rome; and also, with regard to Antioch, and the other Eparchies, decreed, that, “their Privileges be severally preserved to the Churches;" -“ τὰ πρεσβεῖα σώζεσθαι ταῖς ἐκκλησίαις." - (See Concil. Nic. I. can. vi. in the very valuable "Synodicon; sive Pandectæ Canonum S. S. Apostolorum et Conciliorum ab Eccles. Græcâ receptorum,” by Bishop Beveridge, vol. i. p. 66. Le Clerc's Bibliotheque Universelle, tom. x. p. 435-454. And particularly Euseb. Renaudot, in his Historia Patriarcharum Alexand. Jacobit. p. 69.) The next General Council, that, held at Constantinople, -received by the Latin Church, as absolutely infallible, as all the other General Councils are held in similar estimation; -was convened, A. D. 381, and consisted of one hundred and fifty Bishops. It ordained, that Rome, should have first rank or precedence of order (τὰ πρεσβεῖα τῆς τιμῆς); as to sit first, vote first, in the General Councils; on account of its Ancient Imperial Dignity, and having once been the Metropolis of the Pagan Roman Empire; but allotted the next to Constantinople, as the Present Seat of Empire: -And this Council expressly prohibited appeals to Rome from the other Dioceses. From which it appears, that the Precedence of Rank given to Rome, was perfectly irrespective of Spirituals, or Ecclesiastical claims; not only, from considering the alledged reason of this Infallible Council, but also from its assigning to Constantinople, -the secularly appointed Metropolis of the Western World, and Seat of Roman temporal Sovereignty, -a participation of equal honour with the Bishop of Rome. The words of the Council are, -“ μετὰ τὸν τῆς Ῥώμης ἐπίσκοπον, διὰ τὸ εἶναι αὐτὴν νέαν Ῥώμην,—i. e. "next to the Bishop of Rome, because (Constantinople being the present Metropolis of the Empire) of its being New Rome." In this exposition all the writers of Antiquity concur. Balsamon and Aristenus, being the most prominent and oracular, of the commentators upon the Decrees

political Mountebanks as these, Sir, assisted by their Spiritual, Episcopal guides, who occasionally exhibit in their Pious Pastorals, the artillery, of popular excitation; and skilfully whirl about their croziers, like the wand of Prospero, to raise a whirlwind of contentious elements;-may goad on still further, to

of Synods, it may not be superfluous to add, teach precisely the same thing. Balsamon refers the preposition μετὰ or “next," to chronological succession; inasmuch, as Rome, being prior to Constantinople in mere order of time, was also the superior, as to the Antiquity and Magnitude of the respective cities. (See Balsam. Comment. upon Concil. Constan. can. iii. p. 89; in Bp. Beveridge's Synodicon.) Likewise Aristenus, (Comment. ibid. p. 90.) explains the decree thus, "The Bishop of Constantinople was held in honour next to the Bishop of Rome. And the Bishop of Constantinople will participate in the very same privileges, and in the very same honour (τῶν αὐτῶν πρεσβείων καὶ τῆς αὐτῆς μεθέξει τιμῆς) with the Bishop of Rome. In the same manner also, the twenty-eighth canon of the Council of Chalcedon interpreted this very canon, because of the Eastern Capital being New Rome, and honoured with the seat of Imperial Dignity (by Constantine the Great, A. D. 330 or 334), and the other appendages of royalty and government. For "next" (μετὰ) is manifestly used here in allusion, not to honour but to time (οὐ τῆς τιμῆς, ἀλλὰ τοῦ χρόνου); just as if one were to say that after (μετὰ) a considerable lapse of time, the Bishop of Constantinople, became a Partaker of Equal(ἴσης) honour with the Bishop of Rome." (Socrates, Hist. Eccles. lib. v. cap. viii. Sozomen, Hist. Eccles. lib. vii. cap. vii.) As I may here observe, that nothing is more true, than the wise man's saying, that, "only by pride cometh contention" (Prov. xiii. 10.); so by this sudden revolution in the ecclesiastical government, and this unexpected promotion of the Eastern Bishop to a higher rank, to the detriment of other prelates of the first eminence in the church; there resulted the most disagreeable effects produced by that religious and national animosity, which still divides the two largest communions in the Christian World. For this promotion, not only filled the bishops of Alexandria with the bitterest aversion to those of Constantinople, since the former as well as the Bishops of Antioch, were reduced in the scale of precedency by the decrees of this Council; but also excited those deplorable contentions and disputes between the Eastern Patriarchs and Roman Pontiffs, which were carried on, for many ages, with such various success; and concluded, at length, in the entire separation of the Latin and Greek churches, which very speedily followed the translation or restoration of the Western Empire by Charlemagne, after he had conquered the kingdom of Lombardy (A. D. 774); when he was received in the Capital of Italy, by Pope Adrian the First, in a public procession, amidst the greatest exultation and triumph, as the Deliverer of Rome; accompanied by a vast procession, and met by

deeds of blood, their infatuated vassals;-and in the broad light of mid-day, stain our hallowed altars with more of the blood of the venerable Ministers of our Sanctuaries; and with the co-operation of the CHURCHLESS members of the schismatical and republican Babel of Dissenterism, may for a season, share the

the Holy Father at the head of his Clergy; mutually embracing as friends and equals; and as a victorious Monarch, assuming, in their march to the altar, the right hand of the Pope. (See Liber Pontificalis, tom. iii. pars. i.) But Adrian's joy, surely, would have been diminished, if he had known, that, though he had been rescued by the sword of Charlemagne; still, for years, that he, and his successors, were to be subject to the Conqueror's sceptre: -in whose name, money was to be coined, justice administered, and the very election of the Popes themselves, examined and confirmed by his authority. And at the expiration of twenty-six years after the conquest of Lombardy; Charlemagne, to the previously assumed and exercised prerogatives of Monarchical power, at length received the Imperial Coronation, in the church of St. Peter, from the hands of Pope Leo III. (A. D. 800.); whilst the dome resounded with the acclamations of the people, "long life and victory to Charles, the most pious Augustus, crowned by God, the great and pacific emperor of the Romans!" It may not be inapplicable to my present design, to mention, as a subsidiary incident, illustrative of the subjectmatter of thenote, attached to ("CHAMPION," No. 1, Page 5.), that, the partisans of the Roman Pontiffs, generally maintain, that, Leo III., who prostituted his Sacred Keys, and the liberties of the Roman People, to the ambitious hero of the Carlovingian race; -by a divine right vested in him as Bishop of Rome, transported, the western empire from the Greeks to the Franks, and conferred it upon Charlemagne, the monarch of the latter. From hence they conclude that the Roman Pontiff, as the Vicar of Christ, is the Supreme Lord of the whole earth, and, in a particular manner of the Roman Empire. But, here, as usual, is Blasphemy, Usurpation, and Intrigue, raised on a pedestal of similar materials. These absurd sycophants and minions of Papal supremacy and Romish ascendancy, should have known and recollected by what a sacrilegious outrage, the Father of Charlemagne--Pepin, obtained the government of the Franks. They should have borne in mind, the infamous stratagem, by which, the lawful King, Childeric III., the last descendant of Clovis, -in whose veins flowed the pure and sacred blood of the only surviving representative of the ancient Merovingian race, was unlawfully disposessed of his throne, by an ambitious usurper. If they disguised the origin of the Carlovingian dynasty, the authentic page of history readily supplies the want. Pepin was mayor of the Palace of Childeric, of enterprizing genius, and a boundless ambition. Though hewas bound, as well as all the other Nobles, by the sanctity of their oaths to their unoffending Monarch, yet Pope Zachary

pillage of ecclesiastical plunder, in despite of the infantile imbecility, the unprincipled policy, and the hollow attempts of the Executive Government of the country:-but, most assuredly, they who have stooped from their high estate, to be the abettors of villany, and of murder, will keenly feel the effects of the deadly

I., to satiate his ambition likewise, was readily persuaded to dispel their scruples in the work of usurpation, and Absolve them from their most sacred promises and oaths. The unfortunate Childeric became the victim of policy, treachery, and perjury; was degraded, shaved, and confined in the hapless solitude of a Monastery, and of exile; to drag through a wearisome existence, the remainder of his melancholy days. And we have here before our eyes, such a despicable farce, as was acted full one thousand years afterwards, under circumstances as parallel, as they were barbarous and impious; when Buonaparte, the despotic usurper of modern times, dragged Pope Pius VII., from the proud pinnacle of his Infallibility; and made his Holiness, gladly bow the knee to the Baal of Usurpation, Apostacy, and Blasphemy in Notre-Dame, at the coronation of himself and his wife. In the same manner, Pepin received the Crown of usurpation, from the hands of Pope Stephen III. (A. D. 753.); the Franks were absolved from their ancient oath; and a thundering anathema was pronounced against them and their posterity, if they should dare to renew the same freedom of choice, or to elect a king, except in the holy and meritorious race of the Carlovingian princes. (See Spanheim, De fictâ translatione Imperii in Carolum M. per Leonem III. tom. Oper. p. 557. Eginhard, in Vita Caroli Magni, c. i. p. 9, &c. c. iii. p. 24. In these two very learned and interesting works,-written in most elegant Latin; the former, one of the most profound and elegant scholars of the seventeenth century, -the latter, the Secretary of Charlemagne; -will be found a most interesting account of all the various incidents, which mainly contributed to introduce the Carlovingian race, to the Government of the Franks; with an impartial discussion of the conduct of the Popes, in their intrigues to facilitate the usurpation of Pepin, and establish his successor in the Empire of the West.) In the investigation of this remarkable Era, and still more remarkable event, -in which, the sacred legitimacy of a lawful Monarch was cancelled, the allegiance of his subjects dissolved, the sanctity of oaths impiously violated, and the usurpation of an ambitious Adventurer, received the approving sanction, and inviting co-operation of three Popes-Zachary, Stephen, and Leo, with the useful assistance of the Sainted Boniface, -the apostle of Germany, the archbishop of Mentz, the primate of Germany and Belgium, the partaker of the wealth, munificence, and un-platonic, un-monastic regards of the handsome Aglae! (Ruinart, p. 283-291); -it will be found that some of the ultra-partizans of Infallibility and Supremacy, endeavour to soften the conduct of these abettors of Rebellion and Perjury, into the more acceptable language of only Papal appro

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Malaria of popular plunder, and the unshackled licentiousness of an equalizing, levelling mob ;-who, when they have once tasted the food of sacrilegious prey, will quickly, with their greedy and gaping Chiefs, become more fierce and ravenous ;-and soon will they rush on, with a headlong impetuosity, and

bation, advice, and recommendation; among whom are to be found the names of Launoy, Caron, Du Pin. But the powerful testimonies of Eginhard-the Secretary of Charlemagne, with those of Regino, Aimon, Marian, Sigebert, Otho, Æmilius, Gianonne, Bruys, Labbé, Mezeray, and many other celebrated writers, incontrovertibly, establish the fact, that, Italy was severed, by Papal intrigues and treason, from Eastern sovereignty; and that, by the direct agency, and mandatory authority, of the Roman Pontiffs, the dethronization of Childeric was hallowed, and the usurpation of Pepin authorized. Among the celebrated writers, of the latter class, I cannot pass over, the ingenuous remarks of the distinguished Condillac, a Roman author of great celebrity, who was Abbè of Mureaux, a member of the French Academy, and the Preceptor of Don Ferdinand, Duke of Parma; for whose use, he wrote the well-known work, " Cours d'Etude pour l'instruction du Prince de Parme." In the eighth vol. of that work, Condillac says, "Pepin was an usurper: and Zachary, in place of consulting merely the justice of the case, consulted, in truth, his own interests. Father Daniel, would wish to exculpate the Pope; and St. Boniface; on whom devolved, as is pretended, this negociation."-The Abbé Condillac then states the arguments, used by Daniel to justify St. Boniface, which are terminated in the following pointed terms. St. Boniface, "imagined by all these reasons, that the good of the church would be promoted, and likewise that of the state; and so would redound to the greatest glory of God." On this Mon. Condillac energetically remarks." The greatest glory of God; in injustice! he is much deceived. He ought not to have been afraid about religion: for, he knew well that neither the Emperors, nor the Saracens, nor the idolaters, were able to destroy it. It is true, that the temporal interests of the Popes were in danger, this is what so affected them (c'est aussi ce qui les touchoit); and we shall presently see how they confounded that vile interest with the sacred interests of Religion. It appears to me that Father Daniel had done much better, not to have exerted himself, to justify Boniface." After all this, the reflecting Christian observer, cannot but be struck, and instructed, with this practical exemplification, so curiously furnished to us, by the page of history, of the truth of the Royal Psalmist's warning, that, they who would not have God to rule over them, are "given up unto their own hearts' lusts." (Ps. lxxxi. 12.) For, we find, that as soon, as this infamous maxim, gained ground, and was universally adopted, in the church, in the fourth century, ----"that it was an act of virtue to deceive and lie, when by that means the interests of the church might be promoted"

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