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GENEVA

IT is said that the strict church-discipline which Calvin introduced in this republic immediately after the reformation, is now no more; that infidelity prevails, and is accompanied with a general corruption of manners. How

ever, we are informed that many of the clergy in Geneva are men of distinguished abilities, amiable characters, and excellent writers on the deistical controversy, and other subjects.*

SPAIN.

THE Roman Catholic is the exclusive religion of the Spanish monarchy, and the king is distinguished with the epithet of most catholic. All other denominations of christians, as well as the jews, were formerly exposed to all the severities of persecution; and the least deviation from what is called the orthodox faith, was liable to be punished with loss of liberty, and even of life. The court of inquisition was first introduced in Spain

in 1478, by King Ferdinand, the catholic. At Madrid it consists of an inquisitor general and six counsellors; one of whom is always a dominican; two judges, one fiscal, and several other officers and assistants. The number of the families who are dispersed all over Spain as spies and informers, are computed at about twenty thousand. Under this supreme court are others in the principal cities in the kingdom, and even in the

*Erskine's Sketches, p. 234.

The inquisition was erected about the year 1212, by Dominic, a Spaniard by birth. Those who are desirous to see a particular account of the rise, progress, and cruelties practised in this tribunal, may consult Limborch's History of the Inquisition.

Mr. Howel, a young gentleman who lately travelled in Spain, observes that the powers of the inquisition are now much confined. The abolition of the order of jesuits, weakened the nerves of this ecclesiastical engine. None of the inhuman powers originally vested in this tribunal have either been ceded or annulled; but though the Spanish nation has been the least illuminated by the strong rays of the sun of toleration, lenient rather than violent measures have lately been pursued. Although the full powers of the tribunal remain, yet, like the acts passed in the latter end of the last century by the British parliament against the dissenters, they have long been dormant. The manners and tempers of the times are so altered, that even the dark dungeons of superstition have been enlightened by the change. The inquisition is now what it was when first established in essence, though not in effect; and probably we shall soon either see it eradicated. or merely a bug-bear to frighten the ignorant and pusillanimous.

Canary islands, Mexico, Carthagena, and Lima.* The power of the inquisition has however been diminished in some respects by the interference of the civil power.†

The king of Spain has at length stripped the inquisition of the powers which rendered it odious and terrible. It will in future be little more than a college of inquiry in religious matters. Its jurisdictions and prisons are taken from it, and those powers happily restored to civil tribunals. This measure will have an extraordinary effect in promoting arts, manufactures, commerce, and learning. Spain in future will be a secure and happy residence for strangers. The power of the clergy has been much reduced of late years. A royal edict has also been issued, to prevent the admission of noviciates into the different convents without special permission, which has a great ten

dency to reduce the monastic orders.§

The public worship in Spain is loaded with an enormous number of ceremonies. The whole of the canon law is here in force, and the power of the pope is still very extensive. It is supposed that the clergy of this kingdom amount at present to two hundred thousand persons, half of whom are monks and nuns, distributed through three thousand convents. The possessions of the clergy are very ample. The revenue of the archbishop of Toledo amounts to three hundred thousand Spanish ducats. There are in the kingdom of Spain, eight archbishops, and forty-six bishops; in America six archbishops, and twenty-eight bishops; in the Philippine islands one archbishop, and three bishops. All those dignities are in the gift of the king. Fifty-two inferior ecclesiastical dignities and offices are in the gift of the pope.¶

PORTUGAL.

are several tribunals of inquisition in Portugal; viz. at Lisbon, Coimbre, Evora, and

THE established religion in this kingdom is the Roman Catholic, to the exclusion of any other profession. There at Goa, in the East Indies.

* Payne's Epitome of History, vol. i. p. 245.

+ Zimmermann, Annual Register for 1774, p. 89. $ Guthrie. The canon law consisted originally of the decrees of general councils and synods, and then of the constitution of popes, and decisions of the court of Romne.

¶Zimmermann, p. 320-323,

A great number of jews are, however, in the country, who conform outwardly with the established religion: it is said that many of them are even among the clergy.

hundred and forty-five convents. The proportion of the number of clerical persons to that of the laymen, is as one to eleven.*

The pope's authority in Portugal has been of late so much curtailed, that it is difficult to describe the religious state of this country. The royal revenues are greatly increased, at the expense of the religious institutions in this kingdom. The power of the inquisition is now taken out of the hands of the ecclesiastics, and converted to the

The Portuguese clergy consist of one patriarch, a dignity granted to the church of Portugal in the year 1716; of three archbishops, and fifteen bishops. The number of the ecclesiastical persons, on the whole, amounts to two hundred thousand, thirty thousand of whom are monks and nuns. According to others, there are sixty thousand benefit of the crown.† monks and nuns, and seven

ITALY.

THE religion of the Italians is the Roman Catholic. Hence it spread over Europe. Many volumes have been employed in describing the ecclesiastical government of the papacy. The pope, as the visible head of the church, and the successor of St. Peter, is supposed to be the fountain

of ecclesiastical dignity. He gives bulls for the installing bishops and archbishops.‡ He has power to convoke general councils, to grant dispensations and indulgences, to excommunicate offenders, and to canonize those whom the church deems worthy of that honour.§ His jurisdiction is

*Zimmermann, pp. 537, 538. + Notwithstanding this terrific institution, great numbers of protestants, particularly English, live in Portugal, and openly profess their religion unmolested.

In some Roman Catholic states, the sovereign nominates persons to bishoprics, and great benefices; but bulls from Rome are necessary to enable them to enter into the exercise of their functions. See Vattel's Law of Nations.

§ Canonization is a ceremony in the Romish church, by which persons deceased are ranked in the catalogue of saints.-The beatification of a saint is previous to his canonization. Before that can take place, attestations of virtues and miracles are necessary. These are examined, sometimes for several years, by the congregation of rites. Before a beatified person is canonized, the qualifications of the candidate are strictly examined into in consistories held for that purpose. After this the pope decrees the ceremony, and appoints the day,.

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not, like that of other bishops, confined to particular countries, but extends through the whole body of Roman Catholics in the christian world.* The cardinals, who are next in dignity to the pope, are seventy, in allusion to the seventy disciples of our Saviour, and are chosen by the Roman pontiff. The government devolves on them during the vacancy of the holy see. These cardinals elect the pope, and are the only persons on whom the choice can fall; the election is determined by the plurality of voices. The election of a pope is followed by his coronation; and that ceremony is performed in the lateran church, where they put a triple crown on his head. The provinces which depend on the holy see are governed by legates; and there are few countries where the pope has not ambassadors, who are styled nuncios. The title given to the pope is his holiness, and the cardinals have that of eminence. All the numerous ecclesiastics and religious orders who profess the Roman Catholic religion, are under the pope; and every one of these orders has its general at Rome, by whom the pope is acquainted with every thing that passes in the world.

The Ceremonies which are observed at the election and coronation of a pope cannot be abridged in the narrow limits of this work. A modern traveller asserts that no ceremony can be better calculated for striking the senses, and imposing on the understanding, than that of the supreme pontiff giving the blessing from the balcony of St. Peter. This ceremony, at which he was present, he describes in the following manner: "It was a remarkable fine day; an im mense multitude filled that spacious and magnificent area; the horse and foot-guards were drawn up in their most showy uniform. The pope, seated in an open, portable chair, in all the splendour which his wardrobe could give, with the tiara on his head, was carried out of a large window, which opens on a balcony in the front of St. Peter's. The silk hangings and gold trappings with which the chair was embellished, concealed the men who carried it; so that to those who viewed him from the area below, his holiness seemed to sail forward from the window, self-balanced in the air, like a celestial being. The instant he appeared the music struck up, the bells rung from every

This peculiarly distinguishes the bishop of Rome from other bishops.

church, and the cannon thundered from the castle of St. Angelo in repeated peals. During the intervals the church of St. Peter, the palace of the Vatican, and the banks of the Tiber, reechoed the acclamations of the populace. At length his holiness arose from his seat, when an immediate and awful silence ensued. The multitude fell upon their knees, with their hands and eyes raised towards his holiness, as to a benign deity. After a solemn pause he pronounced the benediction with great fervour, elevating his out-stretched arms as high as he could, then closing them together, and bringing them back to his breast with a slow motion, as if he had got hold of the blessing, and was drawing it gently from heaven. Finally: he threw his arms open, waving them for some time, as if his intention had been to scatter the benediction with impartiality among the people.*"

Of late the papal authority has evidently been at a low ebb, and is not respected as it was in former ages. The late celebrated pope Ganganelli, known by the name of Clement the fourteenth, who has been

styled the phenix of ages,‡ after the maturest deliberation, signed a brief, July 21. 1773, which suppressed the famous order of the jesuits, who have been the warmest asserters of the papal power, and whose cabals and intrigues have made them formidable for ages to every court in Europe, and enabled them to establish a powerful and wellregulated sovereignty in another hemisphere.§ As the jesuits had a great share in the education of youth, the shutting up of their schools might have proved of bad consequences, if this pontiff had not prevented it. After having sketched out a plan of education worthy of the greatest master, he cast a rapid eye upon some priests and friars, who by their talents and example were capable of replacing the jesuit teachers, and immediately instituted them professors. To the astonishment of Rome, there seemed to be scarce an interval between the departure of the jesuits, and the coming of their successors.||

In the Roman Catholic kingdoms Rome has no administration but what is purely spiritual. It is only in the ecclesiastical state that she

*More's Travels through Italy, vol. ii. pp. 158, 159. Guthrie, p. 626. Stiles's Sermon, p. 18. Paraguay, in South America. Ganganelli's Letters, vol. ii. p. 203.

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