“Promotions and collations to benefices shall be “made according to common right and the decrees “of councils. “The intolerable exactions, by which the court of “Rome has impoverished to such a wretched de− “gree the kingdom, shall cease, save in cases of “urgent necessity, and by consent of the king, and “of the Gallican church. “The liberties, franchises, immunities, rights and “privileges, granted by the sovereigns to churches “and monasteries are confirmed.” ²⁵⁰ “Nothing proves better,” says a modern author, “the influence of superstition......than the number of crusades preached by order of Clement IV. A crusade into Spain against the Moors, whom they wished to exterminate; a crusade into Hungary, Bohemia and elsewhere, against the Tartars, whose incursions they dreaded; a crusade in favor of the Teutonic knights, against the Pagans of Livonia, of Prussia and of Courland, over whom they Wished to reign; a crusade into England against the barons, whom Henry III. could not subject; a crusade into France and into Italy, to deprive the house of Swabia of the kingdom of Naples and Sicily; a general crusade for the conquest of the Holy Land. The crusaders were often opposed; they were loosed from the obligation to the one, when pressed to the execution of another; indulgences were distributed at the will of the pope; the expenses of the war exhausted kingdoms, and the pope’s bulls kindled flames throughout Europe.” — Millot’s Elements of General History.—Mod. Hist. vol. ii. p. 184, 186. This act is so important, and does so much honour to Louis IX. that the Jesuit Griffet²⁵⁰ disputes its authenticity. We may oppose to Griffet, the authority of his brethren Labbe and Cossart;²⁵¹ of Bouchel, of Tillet, Fontanon, Pinson, Girard, Lauriere, Egasse du Boulay, in fine, that of all the jurisconsults, historians, and even theologians, who have had occasion to speak of the pragmatic sanction of St. Louis. But further, we see it cited in 1491, by the University of Paris; in 1483, in the states held at Tours; in 1461 by the parliament Charles VII. on the occasion of the pragmatic published by this king, expresses himself in these words: in 1440, by John Juvenal des Ursins,: “You are not the first who has done “such things; thus did St. Louis, who is sainted and “canonized, and we must acknowledge he did well, “your father and others have approved it.” ²⁵¹ Note upon P. Daniel’s History of France, vol. iv. p. 563 ²⁵² Concilior. vol. ii. Proofs of the liberties of the Gall. Church, vol. i. pt. 2. p. 28, 60, 66, 76,—pt. 3, p. 41, and, Real’s Science of Government, vol. vii. p. 72.