which nature has allotted to him, wherein he may exert his tendency towards moral perfection. Thus he has an earthly country, which he defends from unjust attacks, on the same principles of right and duty, which bind him to protect the earthly tenement of his soul against injury and destruction.

During the middle ages we see this tendency of Christianity to lead mankind to a great union-its definitive moral aim-represented in the form of hierarchy, but in a human manner, and, therefore, imperfectly and perishably. The appearance of the papacy, or hierarchy, during the middle ages, with its all-crushing power, has indeed something revolting for our present notions, in the state of moral and religious cultivation to which we have arrived. But our historical opinions should not be formed from the point where we now stand; we ought to trace the life of mankind through its various degrees and periods;-in a word, we should follow history, and not strive to form it.

The European peoples of the middle ages were in the first stage of youth, when the sensual impulses predominate, notwithstanding the existence of an exalted moral tendency. These impulses frequently threaten the annihilation of the spiritual strength; and it is necessary to work upon the sensual man by sensual means. During the ferment accompanying the destruction of the Roman empire in the west, the papacy had gradually arisen from small beginnings; but, during the fifth, sixth, and seventh

centuries, the European nations were too unsettled for the hierarchical power to gain a decided form. The violent commotions of these peoples undulated irresistibly towards that political state when social connexions, or, in other words, christian states, arose, which, however, were of very short duration, and served only as a transition to those more recent. Thus the empires of Odoacer and of Theodric, erected out of the ruins of Roman power, perished. The Lombardian empire fell beneath the iron arm of Charles the Great; and he was the first who, taking a comprehensive view of the wants of his time, united the nations, fatigued by such multifarious struggles, into one common social form, and led them to the somuch-wished repose. With the consolidation of the temporal power, that of the spiritual kept pace; and as, by the nature of the christian doctrine, no materials for an external structure could be furnished thereby, it being a moral institution, without any prescribed form, paganism and Judaism were placed in requisition for this purpose. Yet at the time of Charles the Great, the pope was but the humble "servant of the servants of the Lord," without earthly importance, till that great monarch himself planted the germ of the future power, which became so dangerous to his successors. By confirming the donation of the exarchate, made by Pepin to Pope Zachary, the emperor gave to the bishops of Rome a temporal arm, with which, at a later period, the spiritual thunders were most effectually wielded. The

empire of Charlemagne owed its speedy dissolution to the discordant elements of which it was composed; a cause which, more frequently than family events, leads to the division of great empires.

During the tenth and eleventh centuries, we see the foundation of our present political institutions laid down; for all the modern states were at this period either formed, or about to be so. The feudal system, which grew out of the warlike and wandering life of the German nations, may be called the primary principle in the formation of most of the modern European states. The power of the princes increased with the erection of cities, and the establishment of the third class, the burgesses, which, particularly for the German emperor, became an instrument of incalculable power. The knights were opposed to the civilians, and ready to forward the ambitious views of the ruling monarch, and at the same time to gratify that passion for military adventure, which seems to have been inherent among the German tribes. Emperors who, like Henry I. and Otho the Great, regarded themselves as the chiefs of the European sovereigns, and were acknowledged as such, gave so great a preponderance to earthly power and majesty, that the rising freedom of the various European nations might have been smothered by the constitution of an universal monarchy, like that of Rome, had not a counterpoise been furnished in the power of the church. The German emperor, and at the same time king of the Romans, stood at the head of

European chivalry and monarchy; and being the first knight, as well as first prince, of his age, he is to be considered as the great representative of that earthly honour which was the ruling idea of the time, and which, in the later periods of the middle ages, subdued and softened by faith and charity, gave to events so flourishing a character. Could this feeling of honour have taken a separate and exclusive direction among the European peoples, all the noble faculties of mind must have yielded to its ascendancy, and the blessings of Christianity would have been neutralized by the prevalence of earthly ambition. But in the form of hierarchy, which developed itself in the same proportion as the imperial power, faith gained a representative, which counterbalanced the earthly power, and kept the fiery youth within the limits of moderation. I have already mentioned, and would here repeat, that, as sin in the individual man, so an injurious tendency in an entire epoch, must always serve the purposes of Providence, and eventually lead to wholesome results. The hierarchical establishment, as. we find it completed during the middle ages, is undoubtedly opposed to the spirit of Christianity. Its form is throughout unchristian. The power of the popes was modelled after that of the high priest of the Jews, and many of their ceremonies and prescripts, but particularly their spiritual weapons of excommunication and tithes, were taken from the Levitical observances of the time after Moses. In the New Testament no mention is made of a

visible church; but what is there said of one internal and invisible was applied to the external form of the Romish church, which had constituted itself during successive centuries; the popes always being careful to strengthen their spiritual and political influence in an equal degree.

If we carefully observe the course taken by the history of mankind through the first thousand years after Christ, it is evident that the sensual or earthly tendency of the European nations threatened to become all-ruling; and the danger was the more imminent, inasmuch as it arose, after European national life had gained a systematic form by the establishment of particular states. The people must inevitably have sunk into barbarism and ignorance, had not the visible arm of the spiritual power counteracted the principle of worldly might and earthly honour, which were the chief manifestations of the sensual tendency. In order the more effectually to exercise its influence, this spiritual power employed all temporal means, pure and impure; yet Providence failed not to guide it to favourable issues. The formation of the hierarchy, as here described, was not occasioned solely by the genius of certain men who filled the papal chair: it resulted from the public feeling of the times, especially as regarded the clergy; a body which gradually possessed itself of extensive power, and omitted no opportunity of strengthening it by constant use. When eminent members of the church became more intimately acquainted with the secret