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Untitled Article
for the accomplishment of its purpose ' of overwhelming , not only the apostclical see , but the catholic religion , with obloquy and opprobrium * He has executed his task with all possible ingenuity .
and employs his copious resources of learning and his strong powers of sarcasm , with something of the eloquence , and more than all the insidious malignancy , which characterize the attacks that Gibbon
lias made upon Christianity . The Spanisli mask which the author assumes , was intended to have the effect of promoting the circulation , and strengthening the authority of his book , not only among the less
sagacious class of readers in France , but particularly among those of Italy and Germany , where a philippic against the catholic religion xvould be opened with less
suspicion , and perused with more deference , when supposed to come from a Spanish author of nine years back , than when announced as the work of a member of the
legislative body of Paris . Or , perhaps , it is intended to palm upon the Spanish nation a Spanish version of this work , as an original ^ in order to render it more acceptable to a people who have no very exquisite relish either for French theology or French government .
Two or three short extracts will serve to show , the manner and spirit of this writer . Speaking of Hildehrand , so celebrated in the ecclesiastical annals ; who governed the church under six
different pontiffs , and afterwards ascended the papal throne hirnself , under the name of Gregory the Seventh , he says : — Cfc etait h Tagrandissement illimite de la puissance pontificate , feien plus cju'k son elevation per-
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sonelle , que Tentrainaient ses opinions . et son caractere * On ne remarque dans sa conduite aucun de ces menagemens que l'interet prive conseille : elle a toute la roideur d ' un systeme inflexible , dont il n ' est jatnais permit de
compromettre 1 integnte , par des concessions ou des- complaisances . Son zele qui n ' est pas seulement actif , mais audacieux , opiniatre , inconsidere lui vient d'une persuasion incurable . Hildebrande aurait ete le martyr de la theocra - tie , si les circonstances Temsent
exige ; et il ne s ' enfallut guere . Corame tdus les entbousiastesricn . des , ilsecrutdesinteres 3 e , etfutsan $ remords le fleau du monde . Sans doute que les inter £ ts sont le mobile des action humaines ; mais le
triomphe d ' une opinion est aussi un interet;—et sacrifier 4 celui . li tous les autres , c ' est , dans chaque siecle , la destin ^ e de quelques homines . II en est qui , attentifsi ne rien troubles autour d '
ne compromettent que leurs propres jouissances ; ceux-lk sont d ' autant plus excusables , quec ' est peutetre a la verite qu ' eJs offrenf un si pur et si moderate sacrifice , D ' autres comme Hildebrande ,
pensent acqenr , par les privations qu'ils s ' irnposent , le droit d ' ebranler et de tourmenter les peup les ; etleur sombres erreurs content des desastres a la terre . ^ And , again , after having traced the history and character of Innocent the Third , he expresses himself thus : —
u Tous les historiens rapportent que , dans une vision mysteneuse , saint Lutgarde vit Innocent III . au milieu des flammes , etqu « lui ayant demahde pourquoi i | etoit ainsi tourmente , le pontife w repondit qu i \ continuerai t df
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32 $ Buonaparte ' s Religious Projects .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1811, page 328, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2417/page/8/
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