were calculated to favour, exerting all their Authority to bring them into Repute, they were in the End universally received, and inserted into all the Collections of Canons. At present they are so universally exploded, that there is not a single Writer, no, not even in the Church of _Rome_, who is not ashamed to patronize or defend them. But the Work is done, for which they were intended; and now that the Edifice can stand by itself, no matter what becomes of the Stays that supported it, when it could not. These Decretals may be justly looked upon as a standing Monument of the Ignorance, Superstition, and Credulity, that universally prevailed in the Church, from the Beginning of the Ninth Century to the Time of the Reformation. I shall conclude with observing, that, from these Decretals, _Anastasius_ the _Bibliothecarian_, and after him _Platina_, have chiefly copied what they relate of the first Popes, supposing them to have really done what, in those spurious Pieces, they are said to have done. Footnote N3.1: Bell. de Rom. Pont. l. 2. c. 14. Footnote N3.2: Nic. I. ep. 42. ----- ----- Footnote 94: Martyrol. Roman. Footnote 95: Euseb. l. 5. c. 28. Pearson posthum. p. 147, 148. Footnote 96: Bar. ad ann. 69. Footnote 97: Halloix in vit. Iren. p. 646. Footnote 98: Bar. ad ann. 69. Footnote 99: Bolland. Pont. p. 217. Footnote 100: Vide Pears. posthum. p. 19. Footnote 101: Bolland. Pont. p. 217. Footnote 102: Euseb. l. 3. c. 15. Footnote 103: Bolland. 26 Apr. 410, 411. Footnote 104: Vide Card. Bon. liturg. l. 1. c. 3. et Natal. Alexand. hist. Eccles. p. 743, &c. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- DOMITIAN, CLEMENT, TRAJAN. NERVA, _Third_ BISHOP _of_ Rome. [Sidenote: Year of Christ 91. Clement _mentioned by St._ Paul.]