with regard to the rest of the world; we cannot Anonymous. travel with the crescent of the east, in its unmeasurable devastations from the Euxine to the Ganges; nor tell by what other incantations mankind have been inflamed with the luft of laughter, from thence to the north of Siberia, or to the fouth of Africa.

Could we form an eftimate of the lives loft in the wars and perfecutions of the chriftian church alone, it must be nearly equal to the number of fouls now exifting in Europe. But it is perhaps in mercy to mankind, that we are not able to calculate, with any accuracy, even this portion of human calamities. When Conftantine ordered that the bierarchy should affume the name of Christ, we are not to confider him as forming a new weapon. of deftruction; he only changed a name which had grown into difrepute, and would ferve the purpofe no longer, for one that was gaining an extenfive reputation; it being built on a faith that was likely to meet the affent of a confiderable portion of mankind. The cold-hearted* cruelty of that monarch's

* The report of Zofimus, refpecting the motives which induced Conftantine to embrace chriftianity, has not been generally credited, though the circumstance is probable in itself, and the author is confidered in other refpects an hiftorian of undoubted veracity; having written the history of all the emperors down to his own time, which was the beginning of the fifth century. His account is, That Conftantine could not be admitted into the old eftablished church of Ceres at Eleufis, on account of the enormity of his crimes, in the murder of many of his own family. But on his demanding admiffion, the hierophant cried out with

horror,

Anonymous. monarch's character, and his embracing the new doctrines with a temper hardened in the flaughter of his relations, were omens unfavourable to the future complexion of the hierarchy; though he had thus coupled it with a name that had hitherto been remarkable for its mildnefs and humiliation. This transaction has therefore given colour to a scene of enormities, which may be regarded as nothing more than the genuine offspring of the alliance of church and ftate.

This fatal deviation from the principles of the first founder of the faith, who declared that his kingdom was not of this world, has deluged Europe in blood for a long fucceffion of ages, and carried occafional ravages into all the other quarters of the globe. The pretence of extirpating the idolatries

horror, "Begone, thou parricide, whom the gods will not pardon.' The chriftian doctors feized this occafion to administer to the wants of the emperor, on condition that he would administer to theirs; the bargain was advantageous on both fides; he declared himself a chriftian, and took the church under his protection, and they pronounced his pardon.

The fawning fervility of the new church, and the blunt feverity of the old, on that occafion, mark the precise character of the ecclefiaftical policy of all ages; and both examples have been followed in numerous inftances. The manoeuvres of the pope on the converfion of Clovis, on fanctioning the ufurpation of Pepin, and on the coronation of Charlemagne, are among the imitations of the former; the ridiculous chastisement of Henry the fecond of England, and the numerous anathemas fulminated against whole kingdoms, are proofs of the latter. We may likewife remark, that the conduct of Conftantine has been copied in all its effential points by Henry the eighth.

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of ancient establishments, and the innumerable here- Anonymous. fies of the new, has been the never-failing argument of princes as well as pontiffs, from the wars of Conftantine down to the pitiful, ftill-born rebellion of Calonne and the count d'Artois.

From the time of the converfion of Clovis, through all the Merovingian race, France and Germany groaned under the fury of ecclefiaftical monsters, hunting down the Druids, overturning the temples of the Roman polytheists, and drenching the plains with the blood of Arians. The wars of Charlemagne against the Saxons, the Huns, the Lombards, and the Moors, which defolated Europe for forty years, had for their principal object the extending and purifying of the christian faith. The crufades, which drained Europe of its young men at eight fucceffive periods, must have facrificed, including Afiatics and Africans, at least four millions of lives. The wars of the Guelfs and Gibelins, or pope and anti-pope, ravaged Italy, and involved half Europe in factions for two centuries together. The expulfion of the Moors from Spain depopulated that kingdom by a war of feven hundred years, and established the inquifition to interdict the refurrection of fociety; while millions of the natives of South America have been deftroyed by attempting to convert them.

In this enumeration, we have taken no notice of that train of calamities which attended the reconverfion of the eastern empire, and attaching it to the faith of Mahomet; nor of the various havoc

Anonymous.

which followed the difmemberment of the catholic church by that fortunate fchifm, which by fome is denominated the Lutheran herefy, and by others the proteftant reformation.

But thefe, it will be faid, are only general traits of uncivilifed character, which we all contemplate with equal horror, and which, among enlightened nations, there can be no danger of seeing renewed. It is true, that in feveral countries the glooms of intolerance seem to be pierced by the rays of phi lofophy; and we may foon expect to fee Europe univerfally disclaiming the right of one man to interfere in the religion of another. We may remark however, first, that this is far from being the cafe at this moment; and fecondly, that it is a bleffing which never can originate from any ftateestablishment of religion. For proofs of the former, we need not penetrate into Spain or Italy, nor recall the history of the late fanatical management of the war in Brabant-but look to the two most enlightened countries in Europe; fee the riots at Birming ham, and the conduct of the refractory priests in France.

kind

With regard to the fecond remark-we may as well own the truth at firft as at laft, and have sense this year as the next: the existence of any of liberty is incompatible with the existence of any kind of church. By liberty I mean the enjoyment of equal rights, and by church I mean any mode of worship declared to be national, or declared to have any preference in the eyeof the law.

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To render this truth a little more familiar to Anonymous. the mind of any reader who fhall find himself ftartled with it, we will take a view of the church in a different light from what we have yet confidered it. We have noticed hitherto only its moft ftriking characteristics, in which it appears like a giant, stalking over fociety, and wielding the fword of flaughter; but it likewise performs the office of filent disease and of unperceived decay; where we may contemplate it as a canker, corroding the vitals of the moral world, and debafing all that is noble in man.

than

If I mention fome traits which are rather peculiar to the Roman catholic conftitution, it is becaufe that is the predominant church in those parts of Europe where revolutions are fooneft expected; and not because it is any worfe or any better any other that ever has or ever can exift. I hinted before, and it may not be amiss to repeat, that the hierarchy is every where the fame, so far as the circumftances of fociety will permit; for it borrows and lends, and interchanges its features in fome measure with the age and nation with which it has to deal, without ever lofing fight of its object. It is every where the fame engine of state; and whether it be guided by a lama or a mufti, by a pontifex or a pope, by a bramin, a bishop, or a druid, it is entitled to an equal share of respect.

The first great object of the priest is to establish a belief in the minds of the people, that he himself

is