task to curb resentment, hatred, and avarice; and it is very certain that men are corrupted by being freed from salutary restraints. When you take into consideration the different views by which mankind are actuated, the hopes of the public benefit which you expect to derive from this council should not render you insensible of the danger with which it is attended. You ought therefore to dread incurring a weight of responsibility by obstinately persevering in your own opinion. In explaining to the pontiff the reasons which convince you of the expediency of summoning a council, you have acted as becomes a virtuous and prudent man. His holiness is, however, of opinion, that the present is not a proper time for the holding of such an assembly.—Do you think it right to maintain your sentiments by arms and violence? Plato says that we ought not bear arms against our native country or our parents—And who is more truly our parent than the earthly representative of our Father in Heaven; and what country is more dear to us than the church in which we are saved? You and the pontiff are aiming at the same end, but by different means—Which of you ought to give way to the other? Consider, I entreat you, the dispositions and views of those who countenance this assembly, and you will be convinced that they entertain the most pernicious designs. If you do not recede, you will inflict upon the church a wound, which, however you may wish, you will be unable to heal.”[196] The doctrine of passive obedience may be seriously maintained by those who bask in the sunshine of princely favour, and by those who are pleased or satisfied with the conduct of the powers that be; for men feel no disposition to resist measures which operate to their own advantage, or which they themselves approve. But when they are required to do that which is subversive of their interests, or repugnant to their feelings, they generally find reasons, to themselves at least satisfactory, for opposing the dictates even of long established authority. So it was with the cardinal of St. Angelo. Dazzled by the splendours which beamed around the presidential throne, he could not see the cogency of the reasons which urged him to forego his newly acquired honours; and the arguments of Poggio had no influence upon his conduct. On the contrary, he deemed it strictly compatible with his duty to the common father of the faithful still to preside in the rebellious synod, which on the eleventh day of September again met in solemn assembly. [A. D. 1433.] In this session, the procurators of the council, after representing, that notwithstanding the lenity which had been exercised towards Eugenius, in deferring the process which his obstinacy justly merited, the pontiff still refused to submit to the ordinances of the august representatives of the Christian church, demanded, that without any delay, he should be put upon his trial, as being impeached of contumacious opposition to