“After all, those who, before the concordat, were “elected by the clergy and people, and afterwards “by the chapters, in presence of a king’s commissioner, “were they not ordained by the metropolitan, “assisted by the bishops of the province, after the “king had approved of the election? The right “acquired by the king in the concordat, authorised “in this case by the tacit consent of all the Gallican “church, and confirmed by a possession of near two “hundred years, ought so much the less be subject− “ed to change or attack, as, during the four first ages “of the monarchy, they did not resort to Rome to “ask for appointments to benefices; the bishops dis− “posed of all those which became vacant in their “dioceses, and our monarchs almost invariably nomi− “nated to the bishopricks; and, if they occasionally “granted to the clergy or the people, the privilege of “electing a pastor, they more frequently reserved the “selection to themselves; and without the pope “having any concern in it, those who they “elected were immediately consecrated. What “prevents us from following these examples, founded “on this excellent principle, that the right, which all “the faithful had originally in the appointment of a “head, when it could no longer be so exercised, “should pass into the hands of the sovereign, on “whom the people had conferred the government of “the state, of which the church is the nobler “part.” “But, with respect to the pope, since he declines “to grant to the king’s nomination the concurrence “of his authority, we may presume that he is de− “sirous of relieving himself from a part of the painful “burden which oppresses him; and, that his infir− “mities not permitting his extending his pastoral vigi− “lance overevery part of his universal church, the lapse "which sometimes takes place in cases of negli− “gence, even of the superior to the inferior, may “authorize bishops to confer the imposition of hands “on those whom the king shall nominate to the “prelacies.” CHAPTER XI. EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.