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ESSAYS ON MODERN HISTORY

point de crimes, auxquels on n'ait trouvé des palliations et des excuses." He quotes with approval the words of Godeau : "Les Docteurs se sont multipliez et la bonne doctrine s'est presque toute perdue. On a traité exactement des cas de conscience ; on a tout examiné, on a tout réglé ; et l’on a perdu la conscience." On his travels he is careful not to commit himself about the authenticity of relics, rebukes superstition, and tells with a touch of humour the tricks that were played with "Corpi Santi. Catenae beati Petri de more ostensae sunt. — Miranda majorum nostrorum pia simplicitas, a moribus nostrae aetatis longe diversa, qui ejusmodi ossa pro veris reliquiis habebant. — Utinam hanc (Baronii) religionem imitarentur, qui sanctorum recens absque certis nominibus inventorum fictas historias comminiscuntur, atque in lucem obtrudunt ad confusionem (ne quid amplius dicarn) verarum historiarum : immo et qui paganorum inscriptiones aliquando pro Christianis vulgant. — Recurrisse in mentem Sixto quod Felici acciderat, ac meditari coepisse quo pacto Canonicos Sancti Hieronymi corpore, quod in ea cappella asservatur, spoliaret. Ideo sub Sancti Doctoris patrocinio ecclesiam, quae Sixto titulus Cardinalitius fuerat, ad ripam Tiberis a fundamentis instaurasse, ut in eam sacras reliquias transferret. Sed Canonicos fraudem subodoratos, eas in locum secretum abdidisse : sicque dolum dolo fuisse delusum." At a time when Petavius could not be reprinted in England, lest the Socinians should help themselves to his ante-Nicene quotations, Mabillon speaks of Rome in such terms as these : "Apostolicam sedem paullo minus reveriti sunt fideles praecipue aliarum Ecclesiarum episcopi etiam religiosissimi, atque saeculares Principes, quantumvis perditae famae et vitae essent Romani antistites. Hinc Sergius Coloniensis archiepiscopus, et Rogerus Hammaburgensis, pallium a Sergio III. (Deus bone quali monstro !) modeste petierunt." Nor is this an utterance of anti-Roman spirit, for he goes on to say of the Bavarian bishops : "Sic illi sedem Petri tamquam errori haud obnoxiam suspiciebant." Having convinced himself on his visit to Rome that there was a practice of