^94 LIBERTY OF REASONING 



anity and its eccleliafticai conftitution have been con- 

 ftantly declining farther and farther from the fpirit of 

 him after whom it is named — fo that at length it is 

 become almoft in all things the direct reverfe of what 

 he intended it mould be, — and that a general and 

 fundamental reform fhould now be the grand object of 

 an (however fruitlefs) eccleliaftical council, as it is the 

 ardent wifh of all the laity ; nay even of a considerable 

 part of the clergy. 



The church-reformation, which had already been 

 long thought neceffary, had feveral times been at- 

 tempted, and as often ftaved off by the arts of Rome ; 

 for which, however, the minds of men well prepared 

 by the influence of all thefe motives, no lefs than by 

 the revival of the greek and latin literature, mewed it- 

 felf, at length, in the former half of the. Sixteenth cen- 

 tury, with all thofe confequences which are known to 

 every one. This reformation, however, was effected 

 amidft fuch violent ftruggles, amidft fo obitinate an op- 

 pohtion from the predominant party, amidft fo many 

 furious failles of fanatical paffions on both fides, that 

 the benefit accruing from it, bore no proportion to 

 the price it coft. The reformation ftopt fhort about 

 the half way, and no more real gain arofe from it to 

 mankind, than that they were fatisfled with the notion 

 that all farther improvement and reformation were ab- 

 folutely needlefs ; which they carried fo far^ as even to 

 declare that the mere opinion, " that the work now 

 begun was yet very far from its completion," was con- 

 tumacious and unworthy of attention. In no other cen- 

 tury, ; not even in the horrible times of the crufades, 



the 



