rent to a landlord who is not of the same denomination of Christians as himself. The clergy of the church of England are not supported by the people, but by their own property; and therefore the people have the Gospel from them as a free giftthey have received freely and they give freely. The ministers of other denominations are generally supported by pew-rents, and often by what may be called extorted contributions; but not so the clergy of the church of England, generally; for they teach Christianity to the people, from the monarch downwards to the lowest subject, freely and gratuitously. The endowments of our church are parochial endowments, given so many ages ago as far to exceed in antiquity all other kinds of property. She is, therefore, eminently, in this respect, a voluntary church, and admirably fulfils our Lord's words-" freely ye have received, freely give." She does not wring from the pockets, either of poor or rich, money for preaching; but subsists upon her own property, upon her own parochial endowments, and offers the Gospel freely. Would, then, men see the voluntary system in its greatest perfection, they must look to the church of England, and not to dissenters. There they will see the reality and not the name, unless entire perversion of understanding has seized them. If, then, to preach the Gospel freely-if, then, to teach Christianity to all, without money and without price, be agreeable to Christianity itself, then is a church establishment, such as that of the church of England, in perfect agreement with it; and since Christianity is true, and all are bound to receive and believe it, our national church, by offering it to all so freely, leaves them without excuse if they neglect or despise it.

6. But so far from a national establishment of Christianity being contrary to it, I maintain that it goes to the completion of those prophecies which describe the Christian dispensation in its most glorious and triumphant condition. And here our argument receives an accumulation of weight which ought to silence every objection, and put to shame every objector. In the prospect of the times of the Messiah, of the Christian dispensation, the Psalmist says-" Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession... the Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion. Rule thou in the midst of thine enemies." (Ps. ii. 8, cx. 2.) And Isaiah thus describes the Gospel times-" It shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills, and ALL NATIONS SHALL FLOW INTO IT.... And he [Christ] shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people." And of the Gospel church he says, "Kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers." (Isaiah ii. 2, 4.

xlix. 23.) And Daniel is still more to our purpose, who thus predicts the kingdom and church of Christ" And there was given him"-Christ, the Son of Man-" dominion and glory, and a kingdom, that ALL PEOPLE, NATIONS, AND LANGUAGES, SHALL SERVE HIM. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed." (Daniel, vii. 14.) But, if possible, St. John is still more in point, when he says-" And the seventh angel sounded, and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever." (Rev. xi. 15.) Now, without entering into any minute interpretation of these prophecies, surely it is clear that the nations and kingdoms of the earth, as such, are to be Christianized, and therefore must NATIONALLY embrace Christianity. But the national act of any kingdom is that of its government; and therefore governments, as such, must become Christian, and therefore, as such, establish Christianity-i. e., a Christian church. For it is perfectly impossible to establish Christianity without a Christian church of some kind or another. The most glorious and triumphant state of Christ's church will be, when it is established in all the dominions of the earth, and when the kings and legislators of all nations shall make it the religion of their people. So far, then, from a church establishment of Christianity being contrary to it, the universal establishment of that church will be its triumphant state. Nay, I go further, and maintain, with Isaiah, that "the nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish; yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted." (lx. 12.) It is nothing else, then, but blind infatuation, or infidelity, which leads men to oppose the establishment of a Christian church in a nation: for to unchristianize a nation, or to prevent its being Christianized in its government, its laws, its institutions, and worship, is to expose it to certain ruin. It was from these very considerations the Psalmist says-" Be wise now, therefore, O ye KINGS; be instructed ye JUDGES of the earth; serve the Lord with fear... Kiss the son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him." What blind infatuation, then, is it, in any who profess to believe Christianity, to consider the establishment of a Christian church in a nation as antichristian, when that very establishment is its most glorious and triumphant state on earth! To unchristianize a government, as such, is to unchristianize a nation, in fact and reality; for the government is the head and director of the nation. It is to prepare the way for infidelity and immorality; to open the floodgates of impiety; to undermine the foundations of laws and moral obligations; to loosen the strongest ties which bind the government and the people together in mutual confidence and

affection; to expose the mass of mankind to become the prey of tyrants and infidels; it is in fact to sap the foundation of every thing that is good and holy, and to prepare the way for anarchy. MENTOR.

MEMORIALS OF THE INQUISITION.

CHAP. II.

Scheme of the Institution—its Progress in different Countries.

THE determination to erect what has since been designated the tribunal of the Inquisition was not come to till after many and grave deliberations. Bold as he was, Innocent would not venture upon such a procedure without taking the advice of his cardinals; and these pointed out to him very plainly the obstacles with which he must be prepared to contend. In the first place, the bishops, to a man, would oppose him. Already they felt that their influence was too much overshadowed by that of the holy see, and if the power of judging in cases of heresy were taken away from them, then would they be fallen indeed. For almost the only mark of independent jurisdiction left to them was this, which the decisions of more than one general council had confirmed; and if that were withdrawn, then would the people cease to regard them except as puppets, moveable at the will of the supreme pontiff.

In the next place, both the lay judges and the monarchs by whom these were nominated would be sure to object to the establishment of the inquisition. The former must see that if the pope had power to bar them from the right of passing sentence in cases of heresy, he, in point of fact, tied up their hands from the free exercise of their functions, because nothing would be more easy than to claim an accused party as a heretic, and so to remove him, at any moment, either for his weal or his woe, out of the civil courts. The latter, justly regarding the power of life and death as a privilege vested exclusively in the supreme ruler of the state, could not be expected willingly to share it with the church. It was clear, therefore, that nothing short of exertions, to which as yet human nature had been inadequate, would suffice to bring about his holiness's favourite device; and the probability is, that, almost any other man than Pope Innocent III. would have abandoned it. But Innocent was one of those whose zeal difficulties serve only to sharpen. He set himself diligently to find out means for overcoming these; and he brought forward the following with extraordinary effect:

The bishops had hitherto been invested with exclusive authority to inquire into cases of supposed heresy. He proposed that the

inquisitors should be considered as nothing more than their assistants; that the bishop of each diocese should have the right of being present, if it so pleased him, at every trial, and that it should be competent to him, at any moment, to stay the proceedings. Still, should the bishop neglect or decline taking part in the investigation, whatever the inquisitors might determine upon was to be regarded as law. In a word, believing that the bishops had more regard to the honour of the office than to the laborious discharge of its functions, he affected to treat them as the sole judges still, while, by placing at the disposal of the inquisitors all subordinate appointments, as well as all proceedings demanding time and attention, he threw, in point of fact, the powers of this court entirely into their hands. Innocent was, as has been stated, a careful student of human nature; and, in this particular, he studied it to some purpose. And he dealt not less wisely with the other difficulties, which the prejudices of kings and lay judges threatened to cast in his way. He did not withdraw from the civilians the exclusive right of passing sentence on such parties as the inquisitors might have previously tried. To be sure, matters were so arranged that the final punishment, whatever it might be, of which the inquisitors deemed the culprit deserving, must be allotted him by the civil magistrate, that is to say, the civil magistrate was deprived of all discretionary power after the culprits should be arrayed in the dresses allotted to them, and the minds of the spiritual judges made up as to the fate which they had earned. Nevertheless, the semblance of authority being still left to them, as well as the right of appointing to minor offices, their self-satisfaction would, it was assumed, be appeased,—and they would be content to act the part of executors to the holy office, supposing all the while that they were independent functionaries.

The pope, having persuaded himself, as the event proved not unreasonably, that these obstacles were surmounted, found that there was yet another, to the full as formidable, with which it would be necessary to grapple. How were the expenses of the several establishments to be defrayed? There must needs be inquisitors so remunerated as to command the respect of the community; there must be officers of subordinate ranks, familiars, agents, troops, there must be houses in which to lodge all these, as well as prisons for the safe-keeping of the accused, and a fund disposable for the purpose of espionage, and other general service. How were such funds to be raised? Many methods of surmounting the difficulty were suggested; but that on which the conclave finally determined was this: They agreed that each commune should be prevailed upon to supply funds for the discharge of immediate expenses, and that, of whatever confiscations might occur, one-half should be returned to the public au

thorities as a compensation. Finally, it was resolved to make a commencement in the provinces of Lombardy, Romagna, and Ancona, where the civil authority of the holy see being supreme, acquiescence was naturally counted upon as certain.

The reasons assigned by Innocent for dealing thus tenderly with the three provinces above mentioned were first, their proximity to Rome; next, the peculiar interest which, as their liege lord, he was bound to take in their welfare. His real motive, as need scarcely be stated, was, that they seemed incapable of resisting his will. In calculating upon their weakness, however, he somewhat overshot the mark. In spite of his bull, extending to thirty-one chapters, in which the rules for the management of the institution were laid down at length; in which each city and district was required, on pain of excommunication, to register the deed without delay, and act upon it, not one paid obedience to the mandate. On the contrary, though the popes had, on all occasions, highly favoured these three states, and, of course, had in each a party devotedly attached to themselves, so great an alarm was produced by the threatened invasion on men's liberties, and fortunes, that Innocent died ere his bull made the smallest progress. In like manner, his successor, Alexander the Fourth, though in various particulars he consented to remodel the bull, made no progress in enforcing compliance with it; indeed four popes strove in this same arena before success attended their efforts. At last, however, papal perseverance prevailed. Of the nobles, some were gained over by promises of reward, some were intimidated, some crushed, till the people, deprived of leaders, finally gave way, and the inquisition obtained a footing. Nor was their acquiescence obtained at last without drawing largely on their credulity. They had principally objected to the expense with which the maintenance of the new tribunal must burthen them, seeing that even the original inquisitors were not maintained gratis, and they pathetically reminded his holiness of the large sums which they had contributed to maintain his cause against the emperor. The pope got rid of that difficulty by conceding that no demand should be made on the public revenues for the support of the new office. So far from it, he remitted the charges hitherto made for the payment of the inquisitors in all those places where the tribunal gained a footing; and took upon himself the costs of his favourite establishment. In every point of view, this arrangement worked well for the pope. Not only did the people submit without murmuring, but the officials, being altogether independent of popular favour, became more and more devoted to the pontiff. Thus, in Rome, Lombardy, Ancona, Tuscany, the states of Geneva, and throughout Italy in general, with the exception of Naples and Venice, was the inquisition quietly established. How it proceeded elsewhere, a few words will suffice to explain.