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his ambition ·bad obfcurely before begun. For
elfe,
I.
His old power had died, when he was
no Member of the Empire, and fo from under
the ancient Government and Laws: And
all
mufl:
have been built on a new uncertain Foundation.
:2.
And when all the old Eafiern Empire was
gone, his Power and Primacy would have been
confined to a nart'ow compafs. VVherefore he
ferved his prefent interefi;
J.
By fetcing 'up . the
French
Empire, and
2.
·By pretending to a.right
of
Univerfal Soveraignty over the VV
orld
as the
Succeffor of St.
Peter.
:For a General bath no firength without his Ar-
\
'my, who mufi have their Part in the Fight, the
Victory, and the Prey: Popes always ruled but
in
and by thefe Councils : Thefe therefore muft,
as
Church Parliaments have their Power in the
, llniverf2lSoveraigncy, -and the Pope as Univerfal
_Monarch rnufl: Rule not abfolutely; but in and
by thefe Law-makers and their Laws.
How this
Land
was brought to Popery by de–
grees, and how much the mofi Religious Men
did towards
it,
I
mufi not tell Hifiorically left
I
be
too long. He that readeth but
Beda,
and
Malmesbury,
and
HuntingtoJJ,
and
Hoveden,
and
Matthew Paris,
may fee how the
Roman
Grandeur
drew on the change, and how good people took
the advancement of the Bifi1ops
in
Wealth and
, Power, .and the ·Number and Endowments of
Monafierie's to be the chief firengch of the Chri–
:fiian Church, while Princes
\V
ere hardly refirain–
ed
from Rapacity, Sacriledge, and from
the
Crimes that
co~nmonly
breed in ·worldly Power,
.Wealth and Plea.fure. The wickednefs of fome
1
Princes made the Power of
the
Prelates
feem
ne-
·
·
~'
.ceffary