the excessive, the profane use of these anathemas, brought them into such discredit, that in the present day it would be as ridiculous to fear them as it would be to renew them. Stripped of all temporal power, and become the subject of one of the princes of Europe, will the pope excommunicate his own sovereign? Such audacity or extravagance is not by any means probable. It is true that past ages offer examples of it; but, at the present time, too just an idea is formed of such anathemas; it would now be regarded but as a seditious libel, a public instigation to revolt, an insult on the majesty of the sovereign and of the laws, a penal though an impotent attempt. Will the sovereign under whom the pope shall live, permit him to excommunicate foreign princes, whether allies or enemies? we cannot imagine such an imprudence. We have, no doubt, beheld monarchs thus direct against their rivals those spiritual arms which were soon after turned against themselves: but experience has sufficed to deter them from a description of warfare as uncertain as it is ungenerous. Besides, where shall we now find a nation, a mob even, ignorant enough not to be aware that they are only expressive of pontifical caprice or spleen, or a puerile regret for some foolish prerogative? In fine, will the sovereign of the pope permit his other subjects, magistrates, public officers, or private individuals, to be struck by ecclesiastical censures? we will never suppose it. In a regulated state every condemnation is pronounced in the name of the prince, by the officers specially appointed for this description of judicial functions; and no public censure should emanate from an authority foreign to his.—Let us add, that from the moment the church becomes incorporated with the state, it ceases to be a distinct association: Christianity becomes an institution recognized by the laws: and the acts of the religious ‘regime,’ from the time they require publicity, belong to the general administration. Thenceforward if it belong to the bishops, the pope, or the councils, to condemn dogmatical errors, without the intervention of the sovereign, at least their persons remain under his protection, and ought not to be officially marked out or disgraced, but agreeable to the forms prescribed by him. It now remains for us to speak of canonical institution.