no other "throne," or power to which the princes of this world are subject but there is a silly priest in Rome, called the pope, who modestly gives himself out as occupying the throne of the King eternal, immortal, and invisible; and who therefore claims to have authority over the princes of this world. I again request my readers to remember, that this is not the language of a monk of the dark ages. It is the language of the man, who, at this moment, presides over what is called the Catholic church,-of the man, to whom every popish priest in Britain and Ireland, has sworn implicit obedience and subjection. He does not at present mention the British throne by name, as subject to his throne; but it is implied in his general reference to all temporal thrones. He did formerly declare the British throne to be subject to his. He has never yet withdrawn the claim; and the army of priests who have sworn allegiance to him, are watching their opportunity of again asserting the sovereignty of their spiritual head, who was never yet known to relinquish a claim of power and authority which he or his predecessors had made.

Let us reflect then for a moment, what would be the consequence, if we had one or two hundred Papists in our houses of Parliament, and, perhaps, a dozen of them in the privy council. Every one of them would be the humble servant of his priest and confessor, and every priest is the sworn vassal of Pope Pius VII., who publicly declares, that he has a throne that is above all earthly thrones, and therefore, above that of Great Britain; whose predecessors excommunicated and deposed our sovereigns at their pleasure, and gave the kingdom to others; the right and authority of doing which, has never, by the popes, been relinquished but by the present pope, re-asserted in the deed which I have under consideration. Then surely, every Papist who should have power, would feel it to be his bounden duty to re-establish the glory of his church, and of the head of his church, in this kingdom, which he must, and really does consider, as having been unjustly and most wickedly separated from the dominion of the holy see of St. Peter.

It will be replied, that our English Papists declare upon oath, that the pope of Rome hath no civil power or authority in Great Britain or Ireland; but this declaration is of no value, seeing the pope himself has not made it. Innocent III. excommunicated and deposed King John, and laid England under an interdict. Both Clement VII. and Paul III. excommunicated Henry VIII. Pius V. excommunicated queen Elizabeth, and commanded her subjects to rebel against her; and there is scarcely a kingdom in Europe whose sovereign did not at one time or other suffer the same indignity. Now the pope has never yet said, that the throne of Britain is not subject to his throne. He has never condemned the deeds of his predecessors, who excommunicated and deposed our sovereigns. He is just as ready to urge his claim of sovereignty over Britain as over France, when he shall see a favourable opportunity: and let his subjects swear what they will, there is a prior and more sacred oath, which at least every priest has sworn, which binds him above all earthly things, to obey, and promote the interest of the holy see. The binding obligation of this oath cannot be set aside by an oath of allegiance to any secular prince, or by any declaratory oath with regard to the authority which the pope has or

ought to have in this kingdom. It binds him to support every measure that shall promote the honour of the pope, and the interest of popery, if it should even be the setting up of a popish pretender to the crown. I do not say that this is likely to happen in our day; but let Papists get into power, and it will not be their fault if it do not happen: nay, they are under the most solemn obligations to bring it about if they can; and from a speech by Dr. Dromgoole, one of their Irish demagogues, we learn that they are not without the hope of seeing it at no very distant period. See PROT. vol. i. p. 217.

CHAPTER CVIII.

REMARKS ON THE EXCOMMUNICATION CONTINUED. INTRIGUE IN THE ELECTION OF A POPE. CASE OF SIXTUS V. MODE OF ELECTING A POPE. CHANGING THE NAME OF

THE POPE-ORIGIN OF THE PRACTICE. SUMMARY VIEW OF THE CHARACTER OF A NUMBER OF THE POPES. CRUELTY OF SIXTUS V.

SATURDAY, August 5th, 1820.

It was not because Bonaparte was a usurper and a wholesale and retail murderer, that the pope denounced against him the dreadful sentence of excommunication which occupies the greater part of my last two numbers. He might have gone on plundering and massacreing the nations of Europe one after another, and yet have enjoyed full communion with the holy see, in all the spiritual privileges which belong to it. It was his invasion of the holy see itself, and of the city of Rome, that was the heinous offence that brought upon his head the thunder of the Vatican. "Therefore," says the pope, "by the authority of Almighty God, and of the most holy apostles Peter and Paul, and by our own, we declare all those who, after the invasion of this holy city, and the ecclesiastical dominions, and the sacrilegious violation of the patrimony of the blessed Peter, the prince of the apostles," &c. &c., "we decree, that they have incurred the GREATER EXCOMMUNICATION, &c."

I need not inquire what Peter or Paul had to do with such paltry patrimony as a few thousand acres of Italian ground, after they had obtained the crown of life, and an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away: but it is worth while to point out the gross impiety of his holiness, in interposing the authority of the Almighty in the manner he has done. He seems to have the same notions of the true God as the Syrians had; "He is the god of the hills but not the god of the valleys." He is the god of Italy and of the ecclesiastical dominions, but not the god of Holland, or of Prussia; else why not be called upon to interpose on behalf of these kingdoms, when they were invaded and plundered by the French troops? The Almighty is the God of the whole earth; and Bonaparte's depredations upon the Netherlands must have been as offensive to him, as the invasion of the ecclesiastical dominions; but the unworthy representative of God on the earth, as the pope modestly styles himself, took no interest in the misery of other countries; he did not think of applying his spiritual power for the correction of the invader, until his ambition began to affect himself, and his dominions. Then, indeed, it was a different matter. He could

"spare the rod" no longer. The rod, he says, was given to him "with the charge of the whole flock of the Lord, in the person of the most blessed Peter, from the prince of pastors, for the correction and the punishment of wanderers, and of obdurate sheep." But it appears that Bonaparte was not looked upon by his holiness as a wanderer from the right path, or an obdurate sheep, notwithstanding his manifold crimes, till he invaded the dominions of the holy see. From that day, he was unworthy of the communion of the faithful; and he fell of course to be excommunicated.

As it is time to be drawing the subject of the pope and his supremacy to a close, I shall endeavour to comprise what I have farther to say within the present number. It would be easy to show from the mode of electing men to be popes, and from the conduct of the greater part of them after they were elected, that there is nothing heavenly or divine in the system; but that the whole is tainted by the most disgusting of this world's politics. I refer to the life of Pope Sixtus V., written in Italian by Gregorio Leti, and translated into English by Ellis Farneworth, as affording a full view of the mode of electing to the holy chair; and such a scene of caballing and deceit will not readily be witnessed in those who conduct the affairs of the worst secular government in the world. The moral character of Sixtus was superior to that of most of his predecessors; yet he acquired the pontificate by means of a system of cunning and falsehood, practised for many years. By his talents and address he raised himself from being a swineherd, to the dignity of a cardinal; and then, by seeming to renounce all the cares of this world, by affecting the feebleness of an old man, with one foot in the grave, and the other lifted up to follow, he succeeded in procuring himself to be elected to the pontificate. He had long foreseen, that when the chair should become vacant, it would be difficult to fill it, as the cardinals were divided into different parties almost equally balanced. He saw that none of the parties were sufficiently confident of their own strength, and that they would probably unite in the choice of some crazy old man, merely to keep the chair occupied for a few months, each party expecting to gather more strength before the old man should die. Such a crazy subject appeared the Cardinal Montalto, for that was the name he bore in the conclave.

"During the ten days that the funeral ceremonies of the deceased pope lasted," says the biographer of Sixtus V., "they that had any pretensions to the papacy were carrying on their schemes and intrigues, running about to solicit the suffrages and interest of their friends; whilst Montalto did not seem to give himself the least trouble or concern. He took so uncommon a road to it, that nobody suspected he had any design at all of the kind. Some of the cardinals out of contempt called him the Ass of La Marca, (which he pretended not to hear, or take notice of,) looking upon his faculties and intellects as entirely gone; and others seeing him bent down with disease and old age, did not in the least dream of his ever being elected. But we must take notice, by the by, that he was the youngest of all those who aspired to the pontificate; and though he often used to say, that an old fellow of seventy, was fit for nothing in this world; it is certain, that at that time, he was only in his sixty-fourth year. Indeed, hardly any one could have imagined, that the cardinals would turn their eyes upon a person that could

scarcely stand upon his legs, whom they thought little better than a dotard and a driveller; as the government of the holy see requires a man of sound and strong faculties, both of body and mind. Yet it was to these very failings that Montalto owed his exaltation." p. 172. When he was incidentally mentioned as having as good a chance as any other, he replied, "The cardinals would be very wrong-headed, indeed, to think of such a poor object as him, who had it not in his power to do any one thing but wish well to his patrons and friends." When the thing was more seriously proposed to him, he fell into such a violent fit of coughing, that his friends thought he would have died upon the spot, and he said, as soon as he could speak, "that his reign would be but of a few days; that, besides the continual difficulty with which he drew his breath, he had not strength enough to support such a weight; and that his small experience in affairs, made him altogether unfit for a charge of so important a nature, except he could depend upon the assistance of others." They answered, that God would give him strength sufficient to govern his church; to which he replied, "that he never would accept of it upon any terms whatsoever, except they would all three promise not to abandon him, but take the greatest part of the weight off his shoulders, as he was neither able, nor could in conscience pretend, to take the whole of it upon himself." The other cardinals (three in number) assuring him that they would, he said, "If you are resolved to make me pope, it will only be placing yourselves upon the throne; we must share the pontificate; for my part I shall be content with the bare title; let them call me pope, and you are heartily welcome to the power and authority." Afterwards he told his brother cardinals, "Let me conjure you not to think of choosing me, except you will be content to bear the whole burden of the government yourselves." This was just what these cardinals wanted, and they determined to support him in the election.

The election of a pope is performed in one of three ways; by scrutiny, which resembles what we call ballot; by access, which is thus explained: When one of the cardinals proposes a name, those who are for the same person rise from their seats; and go to the place where the proposer sits. The third way is by adoration, and is thus performed: "That cardinal who is the candidate's chief friend, goes up to him, and making a low reverence, cries out, A pope, a pope! when it happens that two-thirds of them do the same, he is then acknowledged as such; but if there wants only one of that number, the election is void." Thus after a pope elect has been adored, it is sometimes necessary to make a scrutiny, to ascertain whether he has had the requisite number of adorers. "Whilst they were crowding towards Montalto to congratulate him, he sat coughing and weeping, as if some great misfortune had befallen him. But when the Cardinal Dean ordered them to retire to their respective places, that they might proceed to a regular scrutiny, he drew near to St. Sixtus, and whispered in his ear, "Pray take care that the scrutiny is of no prejudice to the adoration;" which was the first discovery he made of his ambition. It was observed, that after the scrutiny was begun, Montalto walked backwards and forwards, and seemed to be in great agitation of spirit; but when he perceived there was a sufficient number of votes to secure his election, he threw the staff with which he used to support himself, into the middle of the

chapel, stretched himself up, and appeared taller, by almost a foot, than he had done for several years, hawking and spitting with as much strength as a man of thirty years old. The cardinals, astonished at so sudden an alteration, looked at him with amazement, and Farnese, observing by some signs that St. Sixtus and Alexandrino already began to repent of their forwardness in this election, said aloud, "Stay a little, softly, there is a mistake in the scrutiny." But Montalto, with a stern look, boldly answered, "there is no mistake, the scrutiny is good, and in due form;" and immediately thundered out the Te Deum himself, in a voice that made the chapel shake.

The first master of the ceremonies came to him, as is usual, and said, "My Lord Cardinal Montalto, your eminence is duly elected pope; the holy college desires to know whether you please to accept the papacy;" to which he replied, somewhat sharply, "It is trifling and impertinent to ask, whether I will accept that which I have already accepted, as I have sufficiently shown by singing the Te Deum. However, to satisfy any scruple that may arise, I tell you that I accept it with great pleasure, and would accept another, if I could get it; for I find myself strong enough, by the divine assistance, to manage two papacies.

Farnese who stood near him, hearing this, said to St. Saverino, "The gentlemen that took upon them to conduct this election, thought to have engrossed the whole administration of affairs to themselves, by choosing a fool and idiot; but I plainly see, we have got a pope that I will make fools and idiots both of them and us." St. Severino only shrugged up his shoulders, and said, "Lord have mercy on us all." Thus the poor frogs had chosen a serpent for their king, and they were not able to shake him off.

When he was asked what name he would take, he answered, Sixtus V., which he did in honour of Pope Sixtus IV., who had been a monk of the same order. It was observed, that whilst the cardinals were putting on his pontifical robes, he stretched out his arms with great vigour and activity; upon which Rusticucci, who was surprised by such a metamorphosis, said to him in a familiar way, "I perceive, holy father, the pontificate is a sovereign panacea, since it can restore youth and health to old sick cardinals;" to which he replied, in a grave and majestic manner, "So I find it." The very moment the scrutiny was ended, he laid aside that appearance of humility he had so long worn; and instead of his former civility and complaisance, he behaved with great state and reserve to every body; but, more particularly to them to whom he had been most obliged for his exaltation.

Dressed in his robes, and seated on the pontifical throne, the cardinals advanced two and two to adore him. His holiness gave them, separately, the kiss of charity on both cheeks; and then admitted every body who was in the conclave to the honour of kissing his feet. It is said, when Farnese came among the rest, to perform that ceremony, he did it with great reluctance, and showed particular signs of disgust at prostrating himself before a person of his mean birth. Some people thought he said in his heart, "Non tibi, sed Petro," "Not to thee, but St. Peter." Be that as it will, when he beheld him sitting so erect, and with so much majesty upon the throne, he said to him, "Your holiness seems a quite different sort of a man from what you were a few hours ago." "Yes," said he, "I was then looking for the VOL. II.-4