people in Egypt, and hearing their groans, plunged the cruel Pharao with his whole army into the sea; for it is he who, having cast the above-mentioned proud Nabuchodonosor not only from his throne, but also from the society of men, changed him into a beast. Nor is his hand shortened so that he could not now liberate his people from their tyrants; for he promises, by the mouth of the prophet Isaias, that he will give his people rest from the labour, and confusion, and hard servitude in which they have been plunged, and in xxxiv. 10. of Ezechiel, he says, 'I will deliver my flock from their mouth,' that is, of those pastors who feed themselves. But that people may deserve to receive this benefit from God, they ought to refrain from sin.

"The government of tyrants cannot be long lived, since it is hateful to the public; for that cannot be of long continuance, which is repugnant to the wishes of the many. The present life never passes without adversity, wherefore an opportunity cannot be wanted for revolting against a tyrant; and when a favourable opportunity occurs, then also is found some one to profit by it, for the people will very willingly follow him who revolts. And the revolution will scarcely be void of effect, since it is accompanied with the good will of the public. Wherefore the dominion of a tyrant can scarcely be prolonged for any length of time. This is also very evident to any person who considers whence or how it is that the dominion of tyrants is preserved; for it is not preserved by love, since the friendship of the subject multitude for the tyrant is evidently either very slight or none at all.

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Tyrants cannot trust the loyalty of their subjects, for among the populace, virtue is not found to exist to such an extent as to hinder them from shaking off the yoke of extraordinary oppression.........

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Wherefore it follows, that the rule of tyrants is to be supported by fear alone; and their whole aim is to have themselves feared by their subjects. But fear is a weak foundation, because those who are kept under obedience by fear, never let any opportunity escape, in which they can hope for impunity, of rebelling against their rulers, and that too with proportionably greater ardour, as by fear they were restrained, just like water, shut up by force, which gushes out the more impetuously when a passage has been opened for its escape. Nor is fear itself free from danger, since

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from too great a fear many fall into despair; but despair of safety precipitates people boldly to attempt any thing.* Wherefore a tyrant's government cannot be of long continuance. This is apparent, no less from example than reason, to any one who takes the trouble of reflecting on the actions of the ancients and the events of modern times."

The doctrine, that tyranny is oftener found in the government of many than that of one, and therefore that the latter is to be preferred, is advocated, if not successfully, at least with great ability, in the fifth chapter of his treatise.

"When we must select between two things, to each of which danger is attached, we ought to take that from which the smallest evil follows. But from monarchy, even though it should be converted into tyranny, less evil results than from the government of many nobles, when it is corrupted. For dissension, which for the most part arises from the government of many, is opposed to the well-being of peace, which is the principal thing in a social multitude, and which at least is not destroyed by tyranny; only something that is the good of individuals is threatened, unless there should have been an excess of tyranny which would attack the entire community. Therefore the government of an individual is preferable to that of many, although evils should spring from both. Besides, it seems that we ought to avoid that from which great evils can oftener arise; but greatest evils for the multitude follow more frequently from the government of many than from that of one. Because it oftener happens that out of many, some one falls off from the intention of the common good than if there were one only. But if any one out of many governors should turn away from the intention of the common good, the danger of dissension hangs over the multitude of their subjects; because it follows, that when dissension exists among the heads it should exist also among the members. But if one should have the government, he would for the most part regard the common good; or if he should divert his attention from it, it does not immediately follow that he intends the oppression of his subjects, which is an excess of tyranny, and holds, as

*Had Bacon those words in remembrance when he said in his Essay on Seditions: "For they are most dangerous discontents where the fear is greater than the feeling; grief has bounds, but fear has none?"

was already shown, the highest step in bad government. Therefore the dangers which spring from the government of one, are more to be guarded against. Nay, it does not less. often occur that the government of many is turned into tyranny than that of one, but perhaps more frequently. For it often happens, in the government of many, that when any dissension arises, one vanquishes the others and usurps to himself the government of the people."

Finally, the resume of all the reasoning in the treatise just quoted, is to be found in his Summa Theologiæ, a work of unequalled excellence. In that work we find the following proposition, in plain intelligible language, which Paley never could have ventured to put forth in the same explicit terms, and yet which is the doctrine of the rebel lords and prelates who became "the patriots" of 1688.

"A tyrannical government is unjust, being administered not for the common good, but for the private good of the ruler. Therefore the disturbance of this rule is not sedition, unless when the overthrow of tyranny is so inordinately pursued, that the multitude suffers more from the disturbance than from the existence of the Government. Magis autem tyrannus sæditiosus est, qui in populo sibi subjecto discordias et seditiones nutrit, ut tutius dominari possit; hoc enim tyrannicum est, cum sit ordinatum ad bonum proprium præsidentis cum multitudinis nocumento."t

Away then with the trash of the political theologians, which is poured forth in solemn, specious, sanctimonious language in the pulpit, in the press, and in public assemblies, on the subject of the tendencies of the Church of the great body of the christian world, and of the teaching of the master spirits of it of bye gone ages. Nothing unfavourable to the moral or material interests of mankind will be found in either. They will stand the scrutiny of modern lore and science, as they have stood the test of time and persecution. They are happily separable from the acts, the policy, and the abuses of the State power of Italian Potentates.

* Cap. v. p. 163. Ibidem.

+ Vol. xvii. page 186. Ed. fol. Ven. 1787.

CHAPTER III.

THE FIRST FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT THAT ANIMATED THE
REFORMERS.

THE evils that beset the Church at the period of Luther's assumption of the character of a Reformer, the glaring abuses that needed reformation, have been freely pointed out in the preceding chapter. More freely, perhaps, than many may deem it was necessary thus to deal with them.

In the same spirit, however, which has truth and truth only for the aim and end of its pursuit, the following observations are made on the character of those who set themselves up to remove the scandals that had been brought on religion by ministers unworthy of it.

Happy would it have been for religion had these scandals to it only been dealt with, and had those who set about the removal of them been men of holy lives, of high purposes, and actuated solely by pure motives of piety towards God and of love towards their fellow-men.

The Reformers of the 16th century carried on their work as if they were animated by a spirit of deadly hatred to a large portion of mankind, and of jealousy and ill-will towards one another. The wise counsel of Joseph to his brethren-" be not angry on the way," was in no esteem with them. Abraham's saying to Lot-" let there be no contention between us, between your shepherds and my shepherds, we are brothers," was too primitive for them. These pastors acted as if their principal duty was to wrangle and jangle with one another, and these contentions were looked upon by them as the fair fruits of the spirit of free enquiry.

They walked not in the paths of peace, but in the highways and bye-ways of polemical strife, in various directions, and each one said, "viam veritatis veni," and scolded his brother-traveller for stopping short on the road, or taking a different rout to his own.

The Reformers of Germany treated the ministers and

members of the Church from which they seceded, with unparalleled acrimony; but before we are in a condition to appreciate their denunciations, it is requisite we should know how they maltreated and vilified one another.

"The bold rough man of Germany, as Luther is termed, called his majesty of England a "Thomistical tub," but the latter had imprudently begun throwing missiles at the windows of the wedded monk's character for chastity, when his majesty's own repute for morality was lodged in a glass house, penetrable to the smallest pebble, to say nothing of the argumentative paving stones that polemical disputants were then wont to fling at each other. To begin with the first supreme head of the Church of England we find our royal theologian, the bluff king, thus reviling Luther for his marriage: "An abominable crime, for which, if you lived in a state only governed by learned pagans, the object of your obscene passion would have been buried alive; and as to you, they would have cut you to pieces with rods, till you expired under the blows."*"

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The peculiar amenities of Luther's style of argument are happily exhibited in his various references and apostrophes to Henry:

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"Thou liest, thou sacrilegious and foolish king."†

"I speak to a lying scoundrel."

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You, Henry, not even a king without sacrilege."

"This doating illiterate beast."

"This trifling impertinent king."

Luther to Pope Paul:

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'Gently, my dear little Paul; have a care, my ass, of stumbling. Have a care, my Pope ass. Go no further, my dear little ass, lest thou fall, and break a leg. For there has been this year so little wind ahead, that the ice is mighty slippery."

The language that follows is so indecent as to be unfit for perusal.

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Luther's mode of improving things and persons at Rome: Well, were I master of the empire, I would order all those profligate rogues, the pope and cardinals and their families, to be fagotted up together and carried to Ostia, seven

*Coch. Apud Ruff. Epist. i. Cum Lib. i. Hen. 8vo. de Sacram. P. 340. Luther's Works, Wittenburgh Ed. Vol. ii. p. 331, 337. Ibid. vol. vii. fol. 452,