historian. The first reformers and their emissaries, dispatched from all parts to propagate their doctrine, had flattered themselves that by filling the world with furious declamations against the pretended tyranny of the pope and the bishops, they should insensibly substitute themselves in their place, and should draw to themselves all the consideration and authority they should succeed in withdrawing from them. The illusion did not last long, and there was no necessity for waiting much to be convinced in what their noble experiments terminated. All those who had given into their ideas had set themselves to comment upon the scriptures, to search them, to compare passages, to reason upon the old and new testament: for they had been at great pains in preparing versions of them in different languages, each being seasoned to the taste of the translator, and according to the opinion that he wished to bring into repute."

Papin, who was a long time attached to their principles, ultimately became frightened at their consequences; he saw that they must absolutely open the Church to the Socinians, and even extend salvation out of Jesus Christ.-He stopped at the brink of the abyss; and there, measuring all its terrific depth, and afterwards fixing his eyes upon the divine and infallible authority of the Church, he acknowledged it, humbled himself before it, and came to surrender himself up to Bossuet.

'Luther made a version of the scripture into he vulgar language. (a) Zuinglius after having examined it, publicly announced that it corrupted the word of God. The Lutherans said the same of the version of Zuinglius. Ecolampadius and the theologians of Bâle, made another version: but, according to the famous Beza, it was impious in many parts; the divines of Bâle said the same of Beza's version. In fact, adds Dumoulin, another

(a) The learned Emser, doctor of Leipsick, discovered in it more than a thousand errors.

The rage for controversy had then gained all states and conditions; the courtier and the magistrate, those engaged in the profession of arms, and those immersed in business; females even, particularly those who prided themselves on their wit and learning, all must meddle with theology. The monk, tired of his cell, threw aside his habit, gained his liberty, and proceeded, like a good protestant, with edifying zeal to dictate to the successors of the apostles: the village schoolmaster did not think himself less clever than the new ministers. In vain did these latter remonstrate against such presumption; very soon they listened no more to them: no one understood how to obey all claimed their rights, their independence, and that liberty of the children of God, that had been so much extolled to them from the beginning. Thus the arms with which the ministers had overturned the legitimate authority of their superiors, were turned against themselves. They had advanced from liberty to licentiousness and anarchy, each one pulling his own way, shaping the Church to his fancy, inventing and forging doctrines according to his inclination. "The autho"rity of the ministers is entirely abolished; all is "lost, all is going to ruin. There is no Church

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among us, not even a single one, in which there is discipline.............; the people tell us boldly;

learned minister, he changes in it the text of scripture; and speaking of Calvin's translation, he says, that Calvin does violence to the letter of the gospel, which he has changed, making also additions of his own. The ministers of Geneva believed themselves obliged to make an exact version, but James I. King of England, declared in the conference at Hampton Court, that of all the versions it was the most wicked and the most unfaithful.

"You wish to act the part of tyrants in a Church "that is free; you wish to establish a new papacy.". "God gives me to know what it is to be a pastor, "and the wrong we have done to the Church by the precipitate judgment and inconsiderate vehemence "that has induced us to reject the pope. For the people accustomed, and as it were trained to licentiousness, have entirely thrown off the rein; "............ they cry out to us: I know the gospel "well enough; what need have I of your assistance "to find Jesus Christ? Go and preach to those "who are willing to hear you." Bucer, Capito's colleague at Strasburgh, made the same confession, in 1549, and added, that in embracing the reformation they had sought for nothing so much, "as the

pleasure of living in it according to their inclina❝tion." Myco, the successor of Ecolampadius in the ministry at Bâle, indulges in the same complaints: "The laics attribute every thing to them

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selves, and the magistrate has created himself into "a pope." And the peaceable and unfortunate Melanchton, who spent half his life in lamenting the part in which he had been engaged, and died without having sufficient courage to abandon it; "The Elbe (wrote he in confidence to a friend) 'the "Elbe with all its waves could not furnish tears "enough to weep over the miseries of the distracted "reformation." "You see the violence of the mul❝titude and its blind desires," wrote he again to his friend Camerarius.

'Capito, Bucer's colleague at Strasburgh, writing to his friend Farrell.-Int. Ep. Calv. p. 5.—Ibid. p. 509, 510.-1Ibid. p. 52, Lib. II. ep. 202.

So much excess, so many crimes, which were daily committed in the reform, at last opened the eyes of the leaders upon the principles which they had at first put forward, and made them understand that they must change both their method and their language. Blinded creatures! not to have known sooner, that to destroy, there is nothing more required than that enthusiasm and intoxication to which the multitude is so prone; whereas when they wish to rebuild, they know not in what manner to bring back to order and subordination the minds that have been once infatuated with their religious independence! However that may be, the reformers employed for this purpose all the resources of their mind, the credit they enjoyed with princes, and the little controul they still retained over the people. See with what ardour poor Melanchton set himself about it: "Would to God, would to God, said he, "that I might be able, not indeed to confirm the "domination of the bishops, but to re-establish their "administration! for I see what kind of a Church "we are going to have, if we overturn the eccle"siastical government. I see that tyranny will be << more insupportable than ever. What will "be the condition of the Church (continues he) if we change all the ancient customs and there be "no longer any fixed prelates and conductors?"

"Our brethren blame me because I give juris"diction to the bishops. The people accustomed "to liberty, after having once shaken off the yoke, are unwilling to receive it any more, and it is the "towns of the empire that hate this dominion the

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Book III. ep. 104.

"most. They do not trouble themselves about "doctrine and religion, but only about power and "liberty.""

Some time after this, it appears that the ministers and the principal persons of the party struck in with his opinion: for instead of saying, our brethren blame me, he says now: "Our brethren are agreed "that the ecclesiastical mode of government by

which bishops are recognised as the superiors “of many Churches, and the bishop of Rome "superior over all the bishops, is permitted. It has "also been permitted to kings to give revenues to "the Churches: so there is no dispute about the "superiority of the pope and the authority of the "bishops; and the pope as well as the bishops may "easily preserve this authority. For the Church "stands in need of conductors to maintain order, to "have an eye over those who are called to the "ecclesiastical ministry and over the doctrine taught "by the priests, and to exercise ecclesiastical judg"ments: so that, if there were no bishops, we must "needs make them. The monarchy of the pope "would also tend very much to preserve agreement "in doctrine among many nations. Thus we should

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easily agree upon the superiority of the pope,

if

we were agreed upon all the rest, and kings might "themselves easily check the incroachments of the

pope upon the temporalities of their kingdom." What reflections does this passage, and many others which I could produce, occasion on the irresistible force of experience and truth, which oblige men to recognise the principles which they themselves had

Book 1. ep. 17, addressed to Luther. Resp. ad Bel.