from aspiring masses of men generally in narrow circumstances, like the revolutionary legislators of France. They would not even listen to arguments in favour of the inviolability of church-property, founded on its gradual acquisition from the pious munificence of individuals. Nothing could be patiently heard, but assertions that it was all public property: a convenient view, which placed it entirely at the disposal of the dominant party. Ecclesiastical revenues having been seized, the church itself was quickly placed upon a new footing; bishoprics were reduced to the same number as the departments; both prelates and inferior incumbents were to be chosen by the same electors that chose the deputies; and chapters were suppressed. These encroachments upon the church were quickly followed by an order that all incumbents, under pain of deprivation, should swear to maintain the new constitution. This oath was refused by a great majority of the clerical body; and that proscription immediately began, which plunged churchmen in extreme misery, and confirmed the obstinate irreligion of France. The consummation of this fatal process, was reserved for the November of 1793, when Gobet, the bishop of Paris, who had taken the oath to the existing constitution, appeared at the bar of the Assembly, attended by some of the clergy, and abjured the Christian faith. These infamous wretches declared no other national religion to be required than that of liberty, equality, and morality. Equal depravity and folly were exhibited by others of the revolutionary bishops and clergy; religion was now openly trampled under foot in all parts of France; the plate and every thing else of any value in churches were seized; religious offices of every kind were discontinued; and, to complete the mad insults heaped upon all that really benefits mankind, an impudent opera-singer was triumphantly drawn from the National Assembly to the cathedral of Notre Dame, and installed there as the Goddess of Reason. Henceforth, that venerable church was to be known by no other name than the Temple of Reason. In 1794, this war against revelation was completed by the formal abolition of the Christian Sabbath. Not only the names of the months and days were changed, and thus traces of anterior heathenism abolished, but also the hebdomadal division of time

2 Alison, 216.

3 Nov. 27. 1790. Ibid. 231.

4

• Ibid. ii. 80.

5

was abandoned, months being divided into three decades, instead of four weeks. Every tenth day was to be one of rest, instead of every seventh: an immense loss to the labouring classes, who were thus defrauded of one-fourth of the repose for which they had been immemorially indebted to Christianity. Surely such of them as had any space left in their hearts for sound feeling, or in their heads for sound reasoning, must have now begun to suspect that their real friends were not among the vociferous claimants of philanthropy and philosophy, but among believers in the Gospel. As a substitute for this holy system, a theatrical sect arose, which professedly adopted its morality, and took the name of Theophilanthropists. They opened four temples in Paris, where a sort of liturgy was chaunted, and moral discourses preached, the ancient attractions of an altar being supplied by an immense basket filled with beautiful flowers, as an emblem of the creation. The vain coxcombs, however, who figured in these pretended religious observances, rapidly fell into contempt, when the first novelty of their performances was gone. So ephemeral, indeed, was their importance, that all mention of them would be almost superfluous, were not their appearance at such a time an undeniable evidence that men must have a religion of some

sort.

§ 10. This truth was forcibly shown in 1797, when clergymen were relieved from the penalties of imprisonment, or transportation, to which they had been rendered liable. Attempts were also made to allow the open use of the ancient worship, and even of bells to announce it; to permit crosses again over graves, and to relieve the clergy from the revolutionary oaths. The professed friends to the rights of man were not, however, as yet sufficiently leavened by any respect for the rights of conscience to pass such laws; but it was impossible to have them discussed with some prospect of success, until a reaction had begun in the public mind. Of this improvement in their prospects, great numbers, even of the emigrant laity, immediately took advantage. Among the clergy a still larger proportion returned to their flocks. They were generally received with extreme joy, especially in the western departments, and the long-intermitted offices of religion were eagerly resumed."

5 Alison, 598.

• Ibid. iii. 329.

7 Ibid. iii. 345.

Public worship, however, was wholly dependent upon the contributions of an irreligious nation, and consequently, most serious difficulties were found in keeping the churches open. Elderly females formed, in fact, the great bulk of the congregations. At the outset of this religious revival, an ecclesiastical council, consisting of thirty-eight prelates, and fifty-three representatives of the inferior clergy, met in Paris. It agreed to a profession of faith, based on the creed of pope Pius IV.; maintained episcopacy to be needful for the proper government of the church; and so far courted the ruling powers, as to allow that an oath against the restoration of royalty was not incompatible with the Gospel. The proceedings were closed by an order for the communication of them to the pope, coupled with a request for the convocation of a general council. Such an assembly, however, has very rarely been popular at Rome, and it was then obviously impracticable.

§ 11. The pope then actually possessed a mere shadow of his former power: being driven into active warfare against the French republic, its troops invaded his territories, and his own troops, like other Italian armies, fled on the enemy's first onset. In consequence, Pius concluded the peace of Tolentino, on the 19th of February, 1797. By this humiliating treaty, he ceded the French territories attached to his see, and left the republic virtually master of all the rest: agreeing besides, to pay an enormous pecuniary contribution, and to surrender one hundred of those first-rate works of art, which had long been the pride and a leading attraction of Rome. The payment of the contribution reduced his people to beggary, and the general misery was augmented by constant intrigues to rouse the populace into a revolt and establish a republic. These took full effect in February, 1798, when the papal government was formally overthrown. Pius was first removed into Tuscany, and eventually, after various changes, to Valence, in Dauphiny. He died there, on the 29th of August, 1799, in the eighty-second year of his age, after having exhibited a dignified firmness and a Christian resignation in his adversity, of which the vanity of his earlier years, fed by a fine person and extraordinary professional suc

Alison, iv. 669. • Coote, 240.

Alison, iii. 113.
Ibid. 542.

cess, gave but slender promise. It was wished by the French Directory that no successor should be appointed 3, and the century closed with the pontifical throne vacant.

§ 12. In England the Hanoverian succession extinguished effectually, as to protestants, that national intolerance which had been the bane and disgrace of former times. On the very day of Anne's demise, the Schism Act was to have come into operation: an odious measure, intended to place all but the commonest education wholly in the hands of the church. The queen's death rendered this proposed infraction of man's indubitable rights a dead letter, no lawyer now being likely to sue for penalties under it, or the government to enforce them. In 1719 it was formally repealed, together with another act, passed in 1711, against Occasional Conformity. This unjust and impolitic law, was meant to drive from office all those religious professors who generally worshipped with dissenters, and, no doubt, were very much of their opinion, but not so bigotedly as to induce an insurmountable objection against receiving the sacrament at church. Hence these persons made no scruple about this degree of conformity for the purpose of qualifying for office. To repel such dubious nonconformists, and thus drive them into obstinate dissent, was, undoubtedly, that palpable folly on the part of churchmen, which nothing but the violence of party spirit raging on both sides, and the intolerant habits of all former ages, can account for. When these oppressive and short-sighted statutes were repealed, a repeal also of the Test Act was in contemplation. But even the Whig party, then, as long afterwards, in the ascendant, was not satisfied that concession could be safely carried so far. That party then contained within itself many elements of disunion, and its proscribed opponents might have successfully used a step, extensively unpopular, for overthrowing its monopoly of power and patronage.4 The government, indeed, very early, under the new dynasty, stood by no means on a satisfactory footing. When

"Lareveillere Lepaux, the President of the Directory, wrote to Napoleon In regard to Rome, the Directory cordially approve of the instructions you have given to your brother to prevent a successor being appointed to Pius VI.

We must lay hold of the present favourable circumstances to deliver Europe from the pretended papal supremacy." Ibid. 536.

4" The disunion then prevailing among the Whigs, had caused so formidable an opposition, even to the former measures, that it was found necessary to abandon that project." Hallam's Const. Hist. iii. 333.

5 "The strong symptoms of disaffection which broke out in a few months after the king's accession, and which

George I. obtained possession of the throne, Tories appeared pleased no less than the Whigs. But he cast them wholly aside, and gave himself up unreservedly to the latter. Their modern apologists assign plausible reasons for this; but excluded contemporaries naturally regarded it as caused by a selfish deceit put upon an ignorant foreigner. Nor did Walpole, during his long possession of power, either abate anything of that narrow spirit of party exclusion, which disgusted the nation generally, on the Hanoverian succession, or of a reluct