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    Some centuries ago the Popes considered themselves authorized , bylhefr temporal sovereignty , to give the same exhibitions and tournaments , and to display the

    same scenes pf festivity and magnificence in the Vatican , as were beheld at the courts and in the palaces of other princes ; nor did such ill-placed pageants seem at that period to have excited

    surprise or censure . But the influence of the Council of Trent , though its direct interference was ftrongly repelled , reached the recesses of the pontifical palace , and the general rigour of

    discipline established by it , ascended from the members to the head , and at length pervaded the whole body . Hence the austere features of the papal court , and the monastic silence that reigns through the vast apartments of the Vatican

    and of the Quirtnal palaces ; and hence also the solitary repasts and the perpetual abstemiousness of the Pontiff's table . ( P . 624—626 . ) We proceed to the College of Cardinals , the real senate of modern Rome , and the council of the Pontiff . The title of Cardinal

    wai originally given to the parochial clergy of Rome : it seems to have been taken from the imperial court , where , in the time of The-© doaius , the principal officers of the state had that appellation added as a distinction to their

    respective dignities . The number of titles , or churches which give title to this dignity , is seventy , two , including the six suburban bishopri cs ; their principal and ffiost

    honourable privilege is that of Acting the Pope , and it is My to conceive that their dignity * tad * "importance increased with *** to * i tk « Roman See itself , and

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    that they shared alike its temporal and its spiritual pre-eminencfe . As- they are the counsellors , so they are the officers of the Pontiff , and are thus entrusted with fhe

    management of the church at large and of the Roman State in particular . In the middle ages , when the Roman Bishop seemed to engross

    to himself the government , both spiritual and temporal , of Christendom , and acted at once with all the power and authority of Emperor and of Pontiff , the cardinalate became the next most

    conspicuous dignity , and rivalled , sometimes eclipsed , the splendor of royalty itself . Even after the plenitude of papal power had been retrenched , and the Reformation had with

    drawn so many provinces from its dominion , the purple retained its lustre , and a cardinal still continued to rank with princes of the blood royal . This honour they possess even in our times , and in spite of the Revolution itself , they

    enjoy it in such courts as are not immediately under French controul . Thus the College of Cardinals has made a conspicuous figure in Europe for the space of at least one thousand years . The Roman Senate itself can scarce be

    said to have supported its fame and grandeur for so long a period $ in fact , in dignity , rank , talent ?* and majesty , the sacred College is worthy to succeed and to represent that august assembl y * One of the advantages or rather the peculiar glory of this body is , that it admits men of eminence in

    virtue , talents , or rank , without any regard to country or nation , thus paying & tribute to merit in opposition to local prejudices , and

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    Account of the Court and Pope of Rome . 6 f )§

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1813, page 699, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2434/page/7/