of us have made on our oaths, was graciously received by his present Holiness. Can any further evidence be required that the authority which we recognise in him is spiritual, and nowise inconsistent with the most unqualified allegiance to the civil government?

dere, utpote, ut falso asserunt, sub alieni principis, Pontificis scilicet Romani, ditione politica et civili in servitutem redactos, ideoque Reipublicæ infidos." Conc. Balt. V.

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CHAPTER XXVII.

LIVES OF THE POPES.

Ir may scarcely be allowed me to close this treatise without noticing the personal conduct of the Popes. Their vices, indeed, cannot take from the authority of their office, which is derived from Christ; nor can their virtues increase their claims on our obedience, as rulers of His kingdom on earth: but it is interesting and useful to review their history, and consider how many of them shone with brilliancy on the high eminence on which they were placed; and what examples of weakness, or depravity, were afforded by others.

It is unnecessary to give a biographical sketch of the Popes of the first three ages, all of whom are honored as saints and martyrs. Clement, one of the immediate successors of Peter, is designated by St. Paul one of those whose names are written in the book of life. The charity of those early Pontiffs, and their paternal care of the faithful in the East, as well as of those immediately subject to them, is manifest from the letter of Denys, bishop of Corinth, addressed to the Roman Church, in the pontificate of Soter. "You were wont," he says, "from the beginning to bestow favors on the brethren, and to send means of subsistence to the poor of other Churches; here you come to the relief of the indigent faithful, especially of those who are occupied in the mines, and as becomes genuine Romans, you keep up the ancient custom of your ancestors. The blessed Bishop Soter was not content with pressing on in the footsteps of the fathers: besides taking on himself the charge of sending your generous offerings to the faithful, he comforted the brethren who had come to him with pious words uttered with the tenderest affection of a fond father towards his children." St. Denys, Bishop of Rome, in the decline of the third century, sent alms to Cesarea in Cappadocia, for the ransom of slaves, with consolatory letters to the afflicted Church. From the earliest

* Apud Euseb. lib. iv. c. xxiii.

† St. Basil. Ep. lxx. al. ccxx.

period the universal authority of the Popes was manifested, more by the paternal affection wherewith they embraced and succored the most distant portions of the Church, than by their mandates, or censures, although they did not hesitate to isssue these when the integrity of faith was endangered.

The Christian fortitude and lively faith of the Roman Bishops during the three first ages were displayed in their cheerful endurance of martyrdom. When about the middle of the third century, the aged Xystus was led to execution, his deacon Lawrence lamented that he was not deemed worthy to accompany the Pontiff, whom he was wont to assist in the celebration of the sacred mysteries. Xystus comforted him by the assurance that in three days he would receive the martyr's crown, by torments more excruciating than those prepared for himself. The composure with which the holy bishop uttered this prediction marked him as the favorite of Heaven. Almost each one of the occupants of the apostolic chair gave like examples of fortitude, as Ranke has admitted: "During the persecutions, the bishops of Rome had displayed extraordinary firmness and courage; their succession had often been rather to martyrdom and death, than to office."*

An exception to the general character of the Popes at this early period was supposed to exist in the person of Marcellinus, whose pontificate closed the third century, and opened the fourth. It was reported by the Donatists that he had yielded to the persecutors, and offered incense to idols. To give to the charge a coloring of truth, the acts of a council, alleged to have been held at Sinuessa, were fabricated, in which the penitent Pontiff was represented as deploring his fall in the presence of his colleagues. St. Augustin, however, did not hesitate to reject the tale as a groundless calumny. "What need have we," he cried, "of answering the charges brought by Petilian against the bishops of the Roman Church, whom he has attacked with incredible calumnies? Marcellinus and his priests are accused by him of betraying the divine books, and of offering incense: but does this prove them to be guilty, or is any authentic document produced to shew that they were convicted of doing so? He declares them wicked and sacrilegious I pronounce them innocent."+

The adoption of the acts of the council of Sinuessa by the compilers of the Roman Breviary, can give them no weight; whilst so ancient a writer, within a century of the time when the fact is alleged to have taken place, denies that there was any foundation for the charge.

* Ranke's history of the Popes 1. i. ch. 1. p. 29. American edit. † L. de unico Bapt. contra Petil.

It only shews that no fears were entertained by the compilers lest the admission should derogate from the authority of the See, since the greatest prevarication would only prove the weakness of the individual.

The fourth century was illustrated by a series of Popes zealous for the integrity of the faith, and adorned with personal virtues. Melchiades, Silvester, Julius and Damasus, are illustrious names among the successors of Peter. Liberius, although he also suffered from reports circulated by the Arians, which gained credence with Catholics, was an admirable Pontiff, tried in suffering, and ever strenuous in the maintenance of truth.

A galaxy of holy Popes shed their light on the fifth century. Anastasius, was, according to St. Jerom, a man rich in his poverty, and burning with apostolic zeal.* Innocent, Boniface, Celestine, Leo the Great, are names which need no eulogy. Gelasius was as the servant of all men, but especially of the poor of Christ. Symmachus was in vain assailed by the calumnies of a schismatical rival. The council to which he voluntarily submitted the judgment of his case, unanimously attested his innocence.

Passing over St. John I., whose sanctity was attested by the cure of a blind man, St. Felix IV., St. Agapitus I., and many others who were adorned with all virtues, the name of St. Gregory I., who lived at the close of the sixth century, is a splendid evidence that the See was still illustrious for the sanctity of its occupants, and for their zeal in extending the kingdom of Christ.

The same character of holiness shines forth in the Popes of the seventh century. Each one of them was remarkable for his charity to the poor, which may be truly said to be the distinguishing virtue of all the Popes in every age, scarcely one failing in this respect. John IV. sent a large sum of money to Istria, to be employed in the ransom of prisoners, in which he was imitated by John VI. when Gisulph, the Lombard duke of Benevento, had led away many captives from Campania. St. Martin I. by his sufferings for the integrity of faith, for which he was banished by the emperor to Crimea of Thrace, gained the glorious title of martyr.

The eighth century possessed two Gregories, who are numbered among the saints, and who emulated the virtues of the first, who bore that name in the Papal chair. The sanctity of Gregory II. concurred with his high office in determining Luitprand, the Lombard king, to desist from the siege of Rome, and to lay his sword on the tomb of

* Ep. cxxx. alias viii. ad Demetriad § viii.

the apostle. At the persuasion of Pope Zacharias, Rachis, a successor of Luitprand, left the battle-field for the peaceful retreat of the cloister. Pope Paul I. paid the debts of prisoners out of his own purse, and used clemency towards criminals. Hadrian I. was distinguished by the like clemency. The severity of Leo III. against the conspirators, who attempting to assassinate, wounded and mutilated him, has has not prevented the Church from acknowledging his sanctity, since he was impelled by a sense of what he owed to public order and justice. St. Paschal I. was unjustly charged with causing the death of two traitors, who were slain by his attendants, without his participation, but who, as he did not hesitate to aver, had drawn on themselves their untimely end. At the expense of this munificent Pontiff, a house for the reception of English pilgrims was built at Rome, on the site of a similar institution which had been destroyed by fire.

The good odor of Jesus Christ continued to be shed abroad by the Popes of the ninth century. Eugenius II., Gregory IV., and Sergius II., were humble, charitable, and pious. Leo IV. and Benedict III. were raised to the pontificate entirely against their will; their humility shrinking from a burden for which their eminent merit qualified them. Hadrian II. was a man of prayer. Nicholas the Great was distinguished by inflexible attachment to justice, and by all the qualities of a holy and great Pontiff.

The first serious scandal that occurs in the history of the Popes, took place at the close of the ninth century, when Stephen, who had forcibly taken possession of the See, offered indignities to the corpse of Formosus, under the pretext that in passing from the See of Porto to that of Rome, he had violated the sacred canons, and indulged lawless ambition. Graveson, a judicious ecclesiastical historian, is of opinion that Stephen should be regarded as an intruder, and not be numbered among the Pontiffs; in which case the barbarity of his proceeding may shock, without distressing us: but if any insist that he must enter into the number, I shall only observe with St. Leo, that the merit of the prince of the apostles does not utterly fail in the unworthy heir of his authority. The body of Formosus was restored to its resting place by Pope Theodore, who, on the death of Stephen, occupied the See during twenty days, when he passed to the reward of a virtuous life. John IX., in a Roman synod, formally rescinded the acts of the conventicle, in which the memory of Formosus had been dishonored, and he subjected to anathema the accomplices of Stephen.

The opening of the tenth century was marked by the pontificate of Benedict IV., who is praised by a contemporary writer for his attention