the zeal and orthodoxy of these apostolical men. 26 The modern champions of Rome are eager to accept the praise and the precedent: this great and glorious example of the deposition of royal heretics is celebrated by the cardinals Baronius and Bellarmine; 27 and if they are asked, why the same thunders were not hurled against the Neros and Julians of antiquity, they reply, that the weakness of the primitive church was the sole cause of her patient loyalty. 28 On this occasion the effects of love and hatred are the same; and the zealous Protestants, who seek to kindle the indignation, and to alarm the fears, of princes and magistrates, expatiate on the insolence and treason of the two Gregories against their lawful sovereign. 29 They are defended only by the moderate Catholics, for the most part, of the Gallican church, 30 who respect the saint, without approving the sin. These common advocates of the crown and the mitre circumscribe the truth of facts by the rule of equity, Scripture, and tradition, and appeal to the evidence of the Latins, 31 and the lives 32 and epistles of the popes; themselves. 26 (return) [ Theophanes. (Chronograph. p. 343.) For this Gregory is styled by Cedrenus. (p. 450.) Zonaras specifies the thunder, (tom. ii. l. xv. p. 104, 105.) It may be observed, that the Greeks are apt to confound the times and actions of two Gregories.] 27 (return) [ See Baronius, Annal. Eccles. A.D. 730, No. 4, 5; dignum exemplum! Bellarmin. de Romano Pontifice, l. v. c. 8: mulctavit eum parte imperii. Sigonius, de Regno Italiae, l. iii. Opera, tom. ii. p. 169. Yet such is the change of Italy, that Sigonius is corrected by the editor of Milan, Philipus Argelatus, a Bolognese, and subject of the pope.] 28 (return) [ Quod si Christiani olim non deposuerunt Neronem aut Julianum, id fuit quia deerant vires temporales Christianis, (honest Bellarmine, de Rom. Pont. l. v. c. 7.) Cardinal Perron adds a distinction more honorable to the first Christians, but not more satisfactory to modern princes—the treason of heretics and apostates, who break their oath, belie their coin, and renounce their allegiance to Christ and his vicar, (Perroniana, p. 89.)] 29 (return) [ Take, as a specimen, the cautious Basnage (Hist. d’Eglise, p. 1350, 1351) and the vehement Spanheim, (Hist. Imaginum,) who, with a hundred more, tread in the footsteps of the centuriators of Magdeburgh.]