east, by the imposture of Mohammed, as the predicted “FALSE PROPHET.” (Rev. xvi. 13-xvii.) Mohammedanism reigned, in all its savage bigotry, in the _eighth_, _ninth_, and _tenth_ centuries, under the Saracen and Turkish military leaders, over the finest parts of Asia and Africa, and in several kingdoms of Europe; and as image-worship prevailed among professing Christians, with endless priestly abuses and pious frauds, the Scriptures being almost unknown to the people, many families, nominally Christian, relinquished the name of Christ, assuming that of the false prophet, Mohammed. Popery still advanced in the west; and the barbarous nations proselyted from paganism, being kept in ignorance of the Holy Scriptures, were unable to detect the gross impositions of the priests, who pretended to possess the power of forgiving the sins of men. Hence, many of the princes and nobles, having acquired wealth by rapine and murder, gave large donations to their religious instructors, to save them from the torments in the future world due to their crimes. These gifts were commonly called “The price of transgression for the redemption of souls!” Pepin, king of France, transferred to Pope Stephen III., A.D. 756, the Italian provinces, which he had conquered from the Lombards; and this was enlarged by the addition of Rome itself, by Charlemagne, a few years after. From that time to the present, that territory has been regarded as “the temporal patrimony of St. Peter.” Immense riches were by this means soon possessed by the priesthood. Emperors, kings, and princes invested bishops with the possession of whole provinces, cities, castles, and fortresses, with the rights of sovereignty! But, among all these, the Pope maintained his pre-eminence; and this was willingly conceded, as essential to the usurped dominations of the inferior prelates. The western barbarians who received the name of Christ, looked upon the bishop of Rome as they had regarded their arch-druid; and the ignorant people yielded to the bishops a boundless authority, which they had given to their priests in paganism. The consequences of this superstition were most pernicious; for it gave to the Roman pontiff a despotic power in civil affairs; and hence arose the horrible notion, _that all those who were excommunicated by the Pope forfeited thereby all their rights as citizens, and the common claims of humanity_.