kind; for to the strictest discipline of the ritual and observances of the church he added doctrines of no very inviting tendency; and to this impracticability and unfitness for that more liberal sort of reform which the Austrian and Tuscan courts would have preferred, he probably mainly owed his want of success, and his final abandonment by his former patrons.

The Emperor Joseph's reforms in the administration of religion throughout the Austrian dominions have been often described, and still form a durable monument to his memory, and a subject of grateful regard from his country. The abolition of useless convents, and the due regulation of others, the proper equalization and administration of the ecclesiastical revenues to more legitimate purposes, the prohibition of all references and appeals to Rome, and the establishment of the independent authority of domestic councils, dissevered all that part of the connexion with the Papal court which could give inconvenience to a government; and the remonstrance and efforts of Pius VI., even on a personal journey taken for the purpose to Vienna, were found perfectly powerless against a monarch who was resolute in his object. The following is an instance of the cool manner in which this Sovereign replied to the remonstrances of the Pope against his supposed intention of selling all the ecclesiastical property, and making the clergy simple pensionaries of the State. It is dated 2d August, 1782.

"HOLY FATHER,

"I have the honour to reply by return of the same courier to the letter which your Holiness has just written me, relative to my alleged project of seizing all the property of churches and ecclesiastics, and reducing these last to simple pensionaries. Doubtless these reports come from the same persons to whom I am indebted for the singular honour of having seen your Holiness here, and who have now given me this new proof in writing of your friendship for me, and of your truly apostolic zeal.

"Not to fatigue you with useless details, I will content myself with saying, that the rumours which (to use your Holiness's words) have reached your ears are wholly false. Without quoting, in justification of what I do, either from Scripture or the holy fathers, texts which are always subject to difference of interpretation, and must be understood in connexion with various circumstances, I content myself with saying, that I have within me a voice which clearly points out to me what I ought and ought not to do as a legislator and as a protector of religion. This voice, with the assistance of Divine grace, and of that character of justice and honesty which I may, I trust, say I possess, will preserve me from falling into error. Trusting that your Holiness will rely upon this assurance, I pray you to believe me, with the greatest attachment and respect, &c."

In Tuscany, Joseph's brother Leopold was at the head of the Government, and had imbibed the same spirit of reform, and the same desire to set himself and his subjects free from the continued practical interference of the court of Rome, not merely in all matters which could be considered as in any way of a spiritual character, but in fact in the internal regulations of the state in the exercise of its authority over its subjects. Determined to free himself from this bondage, to dissolve the imperium in imperio created by the numberless affairs over which the Papal court claimed cognizance, Ricci (who was in the year 1779 consecrated Bishop of Pistoia, and was well known for his Jansenist opinions) was encouraged by the Government to communicate his views of reform, and to co-operate in the plans of establishing the practical independence of the Church and State from foreign controul. The first matter which brought Ricci into conflict with the ecclesiastical authorities, and led to placing the conventual establishments under

the supervision of the Government, instead of mere spiritual visitation from the heads of the order, subject to appeal to Rome, were certain disorders among some nuns, whose absurdities make a great figure in the Memoirs, and occupy a space which decency and good taste would rather have abridged. The exposures, however, to which they gave rise, shewed the remissness of those who vindicated to themselves the sole authority over these matters, and the extent to which corruption, or a desire of concealing scandals, induced the authorities at Rome to screen offenders.

Ricci's next efforts were successively directed to co-operating in measures by which, sometimes with vigour on the part of the Government and sometimes much vacillation, the Inquisition was abolished, the education of the clergy improved by ecclesiastical academies in which they could be educated at home,-the catechisms and other books of instructions reformed (of course, according to Ricci's peculiar views, by a plentiful admixture of Jansenism),—the abuse of the feasts of the Church remedied,―ecclesiastical synods of the clergy of each state appointed to meet every two years for the regulation of all spiritual matters without reference to Rome,—the patrimony of the Church equally administered, for the adequate but moderate support of every department of the clergy, under the superintendence of the State, and independent of all controul or influence from the court of Rome,-provision made for the secularization of those whose vows had been improperly obtained,-matrimonial dispensations placed in the controul of the diocesans so as to prevent one heavy source of pecuniary tribute to the tribunals of Rome,-the authority and privileges of the clergy in temporals altogether abolished, and that of the state recognized to the full extent necessary to its effectual authority over every class of its subjects,and, in short, every measure adopted to counteract the authority and interference of the Bishop of Rome, whose infallibility Ricci altogether denied, and whose encroachments on the free exercise of the power of the civil authorities over their subjects, and of the liberty of the latter, he stoutly re

sisted.

To most of Leopold's measures of reform, the Pope, finding no prospect of successful resistance, had been obliged to submit; and, as a final blow at the allegiance attempted to be enforced by Rome over the subjects of other states, the oaths of allegiance to that court required of the bishops were under consideration, for the purpose of being remodelled, when circumstances occurred to defeat the whole scheme of reformation. It may well be expected that the Grand Duke, situated so near the focus of power end intrigue, and with a population long enslaved and easily excited to a subserviency to the views of the Church, met with obstinate resistance, and it would appear that Ricci's peculiar and ascetic views were not the best calculated (notwithstanding the zeal with which he united in most of the views of the head of the Government) to ensure its cordiality, or to enlist on his side those whose views were more liberal. We can easily imagine that many were inclined to hesitate whether they should gain, by exchanging even the extortions, coupled with the practical laxities and indulgencies, of the Roman system, for the severe internal discipline and Calvinistic dogmatism of the Reformer.

A Synod of the clergy of the diocese was held at Pistoia in 1786, at which the Bishop's reforms were digested and established; but a general meeting of the higher clergy, held soon after, was indiscreetly dealt with and found unmanageable. Leopold followed up his work feebly; his ministry had been found to cabal against the innovations, and he himself was called

away by the Emperor Joseph's illness. The French Revolution was industriously seized upon for the purpose of alarming the Austrian Court with the belief, that its encouragement of new ideas and plans had tended to produce revolt and anarchy. The Church made good use of the opportunity to ally itself against all innovation, and to crush reform wherever it could, as the creature of Jacobinism. Leopold, called to the imperial throne, abandoned Ricci and his plans, and died in 1792; and the Bishop, persecuted and degraded, relinquished his see in 1791. His system was entirely overthrown; for the Austrian Government, though it had maintained Joseph's reforms, abandoned those in Tuscany, glad to purchase support at any price. The Pope taking courage, at last, in 1794, ventured to launch the bull Auctorem fidei against the acts of the Synod of Pistoia, though even to this period his pretensions were so little relished, that in most Catholic countries,-in Spain, Germany, France, Naples, Turin, Venice, Milan,-his Bull was suppressed by authority, and even at Rome was openly libelled and condemned. We are ashamed to add, that the English leagued themselves with all the bigotry and ruffian fanaticism of the most bigoted part of the Italian population, to overthrow, persecute and destroy all resistance to what was now called legitimate authority; and though the presence of the French at times revived spirit of resistance to the Papal encroachments, there has since been no government in Italy but what has thought it its interest to maintain its dominion by encouraging every thing that tends to depress and destroy a popular spirit. Ricci himself ultimately submitted somewhat tamely to the Bull, and was reconciled to Pius VII. on his return from crowning Napoleon, soon after which he died in the performance of the most ascetic observances of his church, blended with great practical piety and active benevolence.

Some curious details are preserved in these volumes of the efforts made to persecute and destroy the Leopoldists, as they were called, i. e. all those who were implicated in the reforms conducted under the Government of that Prince, and who were also, after the irruption of the French, confounded in the general name and opprobrium of Jacobins. The most wild and savage of these efforts took place in 1799, by the insurrection of the inhabitants of Arrezzo, who formally chose the Madonna generalissimo of their bands, and set her image on their banners. Ornamented with this decoration, it appears that even the English Minister, Windham, and another person of ambiguous fame who accompanied him, did not scruple to appear at the head of these fanatics at their entrance into Florence. One of the first consequences was the imprisonment of the Bishop.

The most savage measures were pursued against all contemners of legitimate authority, whether temporal or ecclesiastical, and a formal theological defence of these atrocities was put forth, as by authority, by a man who had held and continued to hold a distinguished literary situation. The author of this precious document investigates several questions which he supposes raised on the subject of the propriety of the course pursued. He first proceeds to inquire "whether those who denounce or arrest those whom he calls Jacobins, transgress the divine commandment of pardoning offences, renouncing vengeance, and loving one's neighbour," which he answers by shewing, that their principles take them out of social relations and deliver them over to the people to be condemned, executed, and declared infamous. Princes and magistrates, he argues, are the gods of the people, the vicars and lieutenants of the Supreme Being. He compares the Jacobins to the unbelieving Jews and the rebel angels, and quotes the authority of St.

Michael for courtesy even towards the devil, which he rendered, the author states, because "he knew that he (Satan) was clothed with legitimate authority;" and he justifies a war of extermination by the example of the punishment by the Jews of the Canaanite nations. "Let us," he concludes, "take a just vengeance on this abominable race of monsters, or resolve to be rebels to our prince and our God; for rebellion consists not only in doing what is forbidden, but in omitting what is cominanded;" for which he quotes the transgression incurred by sparing Agag.

We have already observed that the book before us contains a fund of documentary information on the progress made throughout Europe in putting an end to all inconvenient interference, on the part of the Papal court, with the internal administration even of Catholic states, and that these details are well worthy of consideration by those who (though in reality the most instrumental for the last forty years in repressing the natural progress towards suppressing this interference) oppose the admission of Catholics to equal rights even in a Protestant state, under the notion that its worst abuses follow as an inevitable consequence, and have never been acknowledged and remedied even by Catholics themselves. The book, however, is put together in a most inconvenient and rambling manner, mixing up a great deal of curious matter with what is often worse than worthless. We observe that a translation, or more properly a compilation from it, is announced in the English language, and we hope that it will be put into a more useful form, and one better calculated to attract the attention which its importance deserves.

The grand political ject of the statesmen who headed the reforms in question we can easily imagine to have been, to knit the Church more closely with the State, an operation which is perhaps not much calculated to favour the progress of civil liberty. There have been many advantages derived in critical periods from a separation, rather than an identity of interest between Church and State, if we are condemned to have an establishment; and the great drawback upon the blessings of the Reformation, in some countries, has been its turning the Church, more completely even than it was before, into the mere instrument of the State-subservient at all times to its political purposes. It is true that Joseph and Leopold provided some sort of antidote to this mischief by diminishing the wealth of the Church, an object of absolute necessity under Protestant principles. A rich hierarchy differs little from a standing army, and the more dependent upon and subservient to the Crown the worse, inasmuch as it is the better suited to despotic purposes. The Church of England, knit in with the State, and endowed with all the wealth which it possessed when its Catholicism placed it in a state of more qualified subserviency and sometimes even of resistance to the views of the Crown, has been found to have been, ever since its intimate connexion with a domestic head, the constant tool of corruption and influence, directed against popular interests, to an extent to make it very questionable with us whether (if we must have an establishment) less political evil is not to be apprehended from a church in connexion with a foreign head, than from one founded on subserviency to the power and interests of domestic authorities, and ready to offer its priesthood at all times to serve the purposes of power and to resist popular rights; unless, indeed, care be taken to reduce the wealth of such a church to such limits as will be sufficient, and only sufficient, to support its moderate and necessary exigencies, and thereby preserve at once its innocence and usefulness.

1

ART. II.-The Ecclesiastical History of the Second and Third Centuries illustrated from the Writings of Tertullian. By John, Bishop, of Bristol, [Lincoln,] &c.

(Concluded from p. 359.)

It is well observed by Mosheim, when about to describe the ceremonies used in the Church during the second century, which form the subject of the sixth chapter of the work before us, that "there is no institution so pure and excellent, which the corruption and folly of men will not, in time, alter for the worse, and load with additions foreign to its nature and original design. Such, in a particular manner," he adds, "was the fate of Christianity. In this century many unnecessary rites and ceremonies were added to the Christian worship, the introduction of which was extremely offensive to wise and good men." This remark is fully confirmed and illustrated by various passages in the writings of Tertullian, who speaks, not always with the disapprobation they deserved, of many superstitious practices which even in his time destroyed the purity and simplicity of primitive Christian worship. Thus it appears that it was customary in prayer to turn the face to the East, to expand the arms in imitation of the mode in which our Saviour's arms were stretched upon the cross, and to vary the posture of the body, on different days and at different periods of the year. Numerous fasts were observed, not by the Montanists alone, but by the orthodox, some of them as enjoined by the church, or by the bishops, others as voluntary exercises of mistaken piety. Offerings were made at the tombs of martyrs on the anniversary of their martyrdom; and no one ventured to perform the most trivial act, not even to light a candle, or to put on his shoes, without marking his forehead with the sign of the cross. Sunday was not kept as a fast, even by the Montanists, but that day and the seventh were observed as days of rejoicing; and although the festivals of Easter and Whitsuntide are frequently mentioned by Tertullian, it is observable that no notice is taken by him of the celebration of our Lord's nativity.

The two principal rites of the Christian Church at this time were Baptism and the Lord's Supper; and in considering Tertullian's account of these, especially of the former, this chapter is chiefly employed. Besides the incidental mention of this rite in various parts of his works, we have an express treatise upon the subject, entitled De Baptismo, and written in confutation of a certain female, named Quintilla, who denied the necessity of baptism, and affirmed that faith alone was sufficient for salvation. Of the efficacy of this rite Tertullian every where speaks in strong terms. He calls it "the sacrament of washing-the blessed sacrament of water-the sacrament of faith-the laver of regeneration, by which men are cleansed from all their sins, regain the spirit of God which Adam received at his creation, and lost by his transgression; by which also they are delivered from death, and rendered capable of attaining to everlasting life. That the water may be enabled to convey these spiritual gifts, he supposes it to be sanctified by the miraculous descent and immediate agency of the Holy Spirit." Thus early, it appears, were the scriptural terms and phrases relating to this rite, employed, without any regard to their original import, or any consideration of the very different circumstances in which Christians of the apostolic and succeeding ages were placed; and in such a sense as to express or sanction opinions of which the sacred writers themselves had no conception. From a similar misapplication of other scriptural phraseology,