Vitæ non Pontifi cum Ro manorum menti, & Manna cæleftis faporis requiefcunt, illius enim, qui quod ligat nemo folvit,quod folvit nemaligat, qui aperit,& nemo claudit; claudit, & nemo aperit; ac vicem in terris poffidet Dei, &c. These are the Titles bestowed upon the Popes by an Author, whom Mr. Blondel is pleafed to call a Writer of incorrupt Sincerity. Baronius, Bellarmine, and other Roman Catholic Writers, 'lay great stress on this Book, in order to prove the Antiquity of the Ceremonies, Difcipline, and Tenets of the Church of Rome. They ftrive, tanquam pro aris & focis, to establish its Authority, and to convince us, that the firft Part of it, compri zing the Lives of the first twelve Popes, was compofed by S. Irenæus Bifhop of Lyons, who flourished about the middle of the fecond Century. But all the Arguments they could produce, have been learnedly confuted by Her mannus Conringius, in his Treatife de Electoribus Rom. Imperii, Hofpinianus in his Treatife de Origine Temporum, Lib. 2. cap. 14. §. 7. by Car rolus Molinaus, and chiefly by Dr. Pearson Bi fhop of Chester, in his firft Differtation on the Succeffion of the Popes, cap. 12Anuth. 12. where -he fhews that the Author of the Liber Ponti ficalis, or the Lives of the Popes, lived in the fixth Century, and was altogether ignorant of the State of the primitive Church. 2 2. To the Lives of the Popes from St. Peter, nullorum to Nicholas I. commonly afcribed to Anaftafius Bibliothecarius, are added the Lives of feveral other Popes, by Nicholas Roffelius, Pandulphus a Nicolao Pifanus, and Bernardus Guidonis. Nicholas Rof Aragoniæ felius was a Native of the Kingdom of Arra Cardinali gon, flourished in the Pontificate of Innocent VI, confcrip- and was created Cardinal in 1356. If we be tæ, &c. lieve Baronius, thefe Lives were written by di S.R.E. vers vers Authors, and only collected by the Cardinal of Arragon. Pandulphus Pifanus was a Native of Pifa in Tuscany, and flourished about the Beginning of the 12th Century. Bernardus Guidonis, that is, Bernard Son of Guido, was born in a Village of Limofin near Rocher Abeille, about the Year 1260; and, having embraced a religious Life among the Dominicans, was created Inquifitor against the Albigenfes in 1305; Bishop of Tuy in Gallicia in 1323, and from thence tranflated to the See of Lodeve in 1324. He died in 1331. The Author of his Life, honours him with the following Panegyric; Vir magni confilii, magnæ experientiæ expertæque prudentiae, ac Religionis prabate; vir modeftus atque fenfatus, ac humilitate profundus; fama, gratia, fcientia ac eloquentia clarus; affimilatus infuper in fidei fervore, in zelo, ac finceritate Religionis, Patribus Primitivis. An Inquifitor, that is, a Man who was obliged, by his Office, to diveft himfelf of all Senfe of Humanity, could hardly deserve such an Elogy. THE Reader will find, in the Life of Pope Alexander III. the Form of the Oath of Innoconce, as it is called there, which Henry II, took at Caen in Normandy, in the prefence of the Pope's Legates, in order to clear himself from all fufpicion of his being privy to the Death of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury. The Form of the Oath was as follows." I "Henry, King, fwear upon the Holy Evan gelifts, that I never entertained any thoughts of putting S. Thomas to death, nor was "any ways privy to that Crime, but as much VI concerned, when I heard it had been per petrated, as if news had been brought me 5 of the Death of my own Son. I own, howcolangit *2 ever, ! "ever, that the wrath and indignation I fhewed against the holy Prelate, were the occafion * of his being murdered. For which Crime I * promise to fend, at my own expence, and " without delay, three hundred Soldiers to the Holy-Land, and either to maintain them there a whole Year, or to pay fuch a Sum $6 as may maintain the like number. Moreover, I promise to wear the Crofs for three Years, and to go in Perfon to the Holy"Land, if the Pope does not give me leave "to remain at home. Befides, I abolish, and "from this moment forbid and annul all the "unlawful Cuftoms, which I have eftablished throughout all my Dominions. I will allow Appeals to be made to the Apoftolic See, and hinder no body from appealing to "Rome. I likewife fwear, together with the King, my eldeft Son, that we will receive, 66 is and hold the Kingdom of England, of Pope "Alexander, and his Catholic Succeffors; "nor will we or our Succeffors ever look up❝ on ourselves as lawful Kings of England, till "Pope Alexander and his Succeffors fhall have acknowledged us as fuch." None of our Hiftorians mention the Article, wherein King Henry obliges himself to hold his Kingdom of the Pope, which certainly they would have done, had he taken any fuch Oath. But moft part of thefe Lives are Panegyrics, rather than Hiftories; the main drift of their Author's (who were the Pope's Servants) being to raife the Papal Dignity above the Regal, and fet forth the Power and Authority of the Popes. AT the end of the Life of Pope Leo IV. Mr. Muratori has inferted the following Remark. In the Manufcripts of a latter date, (he speaks fpeaks of the Manuscripts of the Ambrofian Library) marked B and C, which we have hitherto made ufe of to correct the Lives of the Popes generally afcribed to Anaftafius, we find next to LeoÏV. Johannes Anglicus, who is faid to have been a Woman, and to have governed the Church of Rome for the space of two Years. But that notorious Fable has been already exploded with fuch weighty and convincing Arguments, not only by Roman Catholic Writers, but by the Proteftants themselves, that it is not worth our while to take any further notice of it. This, we muft own, is a great commendation of the Manufcript Copies, which Mr. Muratori has made ufe of, in order to give us a more correct Edition of Anaftafius's Works. If he looked upon thefe Manufcripts as genuine, he ought not to have ftruck the Name of this Lady out of his Catalogue of the Popes; if he took them to be fpurious, how came he to make use of them at all? We know, that feveral Proteftant Writers have given up this Point, and now look upon the Hiftory of the Female Pope as a meer Fable. Nay, Mr. Blondel was fo fully convinced (by Silver Arguments, fay fome) that there never was a fhe Pope, that he could not help efpoufing, in this debate, out of pure love to truth, the Cause of the Church of Rome. Since Mr. Muratori is pleafed to call the Arguments, which have been produced against the Hiftory of Pope Joan, weighty, convincing, and invincible, it will not perhaps be amifs to take a fhort view of them, that the Reader may judge whether or not they deferve fuch glorious and high-founding Epithets. No XIV. 1731. N THE THE firft unanswerable Argument, ufed by Baronius, Bellarmin, Onupbrius, &c. is this. No Writer makes any mention of Pope JOAN before the middle of the 13th Century, when this Story was fet abroad by MARTINUS POLONUS, a filly Monk, who is guilty of a great many other very grofs Miftakes. This Argument is far from being invincible for Anaftafius Bibliothecarius (or) whoever was the Author of the Work that paffes under his Name) makes exprefs mention of Pope Joan; as appears from the Manufcript Copies of the Ambrofian Library, from those of the Library of the Duke of Modena, and of the Cathedral Church of Milan, which contain the Hiftory of Pope Joan, and are tacitly ac knowledged by Mr. Muratori himself to be genuine fince he has made ufe of them to give us a more correct Edition of Anaftafius's Hiftory of the Popes. 'Tis true, that in fome ancient Manufcript, Copies of Anaftafius no mention is made of our fhe-Pope; but in others, no lefs, antient, fhe is ranked with the other Popes, and her History related at length. Salmafius and Freher atteft to have feen in Augsburg two very antient Copies of Anaftafius, containing a diftinct Account of a Female Pope. Befides thefe two Copies we are affured by Mr. le Sueur, in his Ecclefiaftical History, and Colomefius in his Hiftorical Mifcellanies, that another very antient one is lodged in the French King's Library, which relates the fame Fact. Now were that Hiftory to be found only in. one antient Manufcript, that would be a strong proof of its being true; fince it is not at all probable that any one would have forged a Story fo prejudicial to the See of Rome in thofe Days, when the Roman Chatholic Religion prevailed all |