that the Druidical superstitions were cherished in a later age. After the Saxons had become a Christian people, a fresh flood of heathenism came in with the Danes; and from the time of Alfred there existed a heathen party in the country, which continued sometimes in strength and always in hope, till the Conquest: after that time it received no recruits from Scandinavia, and therefore it disappeared; but it may rather be said to have died away for want of support, than to have been eradicated by the care of the government, or the exertions of the clergy.

During the first centuries of the Saxon church there were no parochial divisions. The clergy resided in episcopal monasteries under the superintendence of the bishop as they had been brought up: they were sent from thence to instruct the country people and administer the offices of religion in the few churches which existed, or where there was no church at a cross in the open air; when they had executed their commission they returned, and others went out to perform the same course of duty. The means of instruction were few and precarious under such a system, and those lords who were desirous of having spiritual aid always at hand for themselves, or who saw the advantage of having their vassals trained in a faith which inculcated obedience, industry, patience and contentment, built churches and endowed them for the maintenance of a resident priest. The bishops promoted such establishments: parishes were thus formed which were usually co-extensive with the

domain of the patron, and as these became general, the system of itinerancy fell into disuse. The alteration was well intended, and has produced great good; yet it may have contributed in no slight degree to that decay of knowledge and dissoluteness of life which are known after this time to have ensued among the Saxon clergy. They were removed from the eye of authority, from the opportunities of learning, and from the society of their equals.

The Norman conquest produced more good than evil by bringing our Church into a closer connection with Rome, for the light of the world was there,-dim indeed and offuscated, untrimmed and wavering in the socket, but living and burning still. A fairer ideal of Utopian policy can scarcely be contemplated than the papal scheme, if it could be regarded apart from the abuses, the frauds, and the crimes to which it has given birth. An empire was to be erected, not of force but of intellect, which should bind together all nations in the unity of faith, and in the bond of peace. Its members were to direct the councils of princes and the consciences of all men; for this purpose they were chosen from the rest of mankind in early youth, and trained accordingly, or they volunteered in maturer life when weaned from the world and weary of its vanities. They were relieved by a. liberal provision from any care for their own support; the obligation of celibacy precluded those prudential anxieties which might otherwise have employed too large a portion of their time and of

their thoughts, or have interfered in any way with that service to which they were devoted; and they were exempted from the secular power, that they might discharge their religious duty freely and without fear. By the wise and admirable institution of tythes, a tenth part of all property was rescued from the ordinary course of descent in which it would else have been absorbed, and formed into an ample establishment for the members of this intellectual aristocracy, in their different degrees. He who entered the church, possessing the requisite knowledge, ability, and discretion, however humble his birth, might aspire to wealth, rank, and honours which would make the haughtiest barons acknowledge him for their peer, and to authority before which kings trembled, and against which emperors struggled in vain.

Let us confess that human ambition never proposed to itself a grander aim, and that all other schemes of empire for which mankind have bled appear mean and contemptible when compared to this magnificent conception. And much was accomplished for which all succeeding ages have reason to be grateful. For by their union with Rome (and that union could only be preserved by their dependence) the distant churches were saved from sinking into a state of utter ignorance and degradation like that of the Abyssinians or Armenians; Christendom, because of this union, was more than a name; and therefore, notwithstanding its internal divisions and dissensions, on the great occasion when its vital interests were at stake, felt

that it had one heart, one life, and acted with one impulse. Had it not been for the crusades Mahommedanism would have barbarized the world. And had it not been for the elevation of the clerical character, Christendom itself would have continued in a state of barbarism, and even retrograded farther; for birth would have been the only distinction, and arms the only honourable pursuit.

The Church could not have effected all this good, if it had not employed means which have been too indiscriminately condemned. A religion of rites and ceremonies was as necessary for the rude and ferocious nations which overthrew the Roman empire, as for the Israelites when they were brought out of Egypt. Pomp, and wealth, and authority were essential for its success. Through these it triumphed, but by these it was corrupted; for they brought it into too close an union with the world. These temptations drew into its ranks men who disgraced by their vices the high offices which they obtained by their birth. The celibacy of the clergy was another cause of corruption. When persecution under the heathen emperors was to be braved, or the preachers of the gospel were to expose themselves to the caprice and cruelty of barbarous idolaters, it was desireable that they should hold their lives loose, and, as far as possible, keep themselves disengaged from earth. But the imposition of celibacy upon all the ministers of the Church, was unauthorised by the letter of Scripture, and contrary to its spirit, and in its general consequences beyond all doubt detrimental to

public morals. By a system of confession, favourable indeed to its ambitious views, but still more injurious to morality, the Church intruded upon the sacredness of private life. It disguised the sublime and salutary truths of revelation beneath a mass of fables more gross and monstrous than the very Heathens had feigned; and arrogating to itself the power of forgiving sins, it substituted, in the place of Christian duties, a routine of practices borrowed from the Manichæans, Pagans of every kind, and even the Mahommedans; and established it as a t principle, that by these worthless works a man might not only secure salvation for himself, but accumulate a stock of surplus merits, which were disposable by gift or sale. Men were easily persuaded, that as the merit of good works might be bought, so might the account for evil ones be settled by pecuniary payment, and the rich be their own redeemers. Every thing on earth had long been venal, and the scheme of corruption was completed, by putting the kingdom of heaven at a price. Yet was this whole system well adapted

* La nature avoit posé deux barrières, pour maintenir la chasteté chez les femmes, la pudeur et les remords: le prêtre les anéantit toutes les deux, par la confession et l'absolution. (Maranda, Tableau du Piemont.) St. Evremond observes, that the Protestant religion is as favourable to husbands, as the Catholic is to what he calls lovers.

† « Learn,” says Bishop Burnet, " to view Popery in a true light, as a conspiracy to exalt the power of the clergy, even by subjecting the most sacred truths of religion to contrivances for raising their authority, and by offering to the world another method of being saved, besides that presented in the Gospel. Popery is a mass of impostures, supported by men who manage them with great advantages, and impose them with inexpressible severities on those who dare call any thing in question that they dictate to them."