These sentiments of generous gallantry were fostered by the institution of chivalry, which lifted women yet higher in the scale of life. Instead of being nobody in society, she became its PRIMUM MOBILE. Every knight devoting himself to danger, declared himself the humble servant of some lady, and that lady was often the object of his love. Her honor was supposed to be intimately connected with his, and her smile was the reward of his valor. For her he attacked, for her he defended, and for her he shed his blood. Courage, animated by so powerful a motive, lost sight of every thing but enterprize. Incredible toils were cheerfully endured; incredible actions were performed; and adventures, seeming fabulous, were more than realized.

The effect was reciprocal. Women, proud of their influence, became worthy of the heroism which they had inspired. They were not to be approached, but by the high-minded and the brave; and men then could only be admitted to the bosom of the chaste fair, after proving their fidelity and affection by years of perseverance and of peril.

CHAP. XLVII.

Of the State of Society and Manners in England, about the middle of the Fourteenth Century.

THE English court was, at that time, the most splendid in Europe, and one of the most

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polished. Thither many accomplished foreigners resorted, to behold the grandeur, and to enjoy the bounty of the third Edward. The spoils of France swelled the pomp of England; while a captive king, and his unfortunate nobles civilized its manners, by accustoming its haughty and insolent barons to the exercise of mutual complaisance.

Edward, himself, and his illustrious son, the Black Prince, were the examples of all that was great in arms, or gallant in courtesy. They were the patrons and the mirrors of chivalry. Tilts, tournaments, and pageants were constantly exhibited; and with a magnificence formerly unknown.

The ladies who thronged the court of Edward, and crouded to such spectacles, arrayed in the richest habits, were judges in those peaceable, though not always bloodless combats. And the victorious knight receiving from the hand of beauty the reward of his prowess, became desirous of exciting other passions, besides that of admiration. He began to turn his eyes from fancy to the heart. He aspired at an interest in the seat of her affections. Instead of the cold consent of virtue, he sought the warm return of love. Instead of acquiescence, he demanded sensibility.

Female pride was roused at such a request. Assiduities and attentions were employed to soothe it; and nature and custom, vanity and feeling, were long at war in the breast of women.

During the course of this sentimental struggle, which had its rise in a more rational mode of

thinking, which opened more freedom of intercourse, and terminated in our present familiar manners, the two sexes mutually polished each other; the men acquired more softness and address, the women more knowledge and graces.

CHAP. XLVIII.

Of the Reformation of Religion.

AFTER that enormous privilege, which the Roman pontiff assumed, of disposing of crowns, and of releasing nations from their oath of allegiance, the most pernicious to society was that of absolving individuals from the ties of moral duty. This dangerous power, or one equivalent to it, the pope claimed as the successor of St. Peter, and the keeper of the spiritual treasury of the church, supposed to contain the superabounding good works of the saints, together with the infinite merits of Jesus Christ. Out of this inexhaustible store-house of super-abundant merit, his Holiness might retail, at pleasure, particular portions to those who were deficient. He assumed, in short, and directly exercised the right of pardoning sins; which was, in other words, granting permission to commit them. For if it is known, as had long been the case in the Romish church, at what price any crime can be bought off, the encouragement to vice is the same, as if a dispensation had been granted

before-hand. And even that was frequently practised.

The influence of such an abuse upon morals, may easily be imagined; particularly in ages when superstition had silenced the voice of conscience, and reason was bewildered in Gothic darkness; when the church had every where provided sanctuaries, which not only screened from the arm of the civil magistrate, persons guilty of the greatest enormities, but often ena. bled them to live in affluence.

These indulgencies, or plenary pardons, which not only served as a remission of sins to the living, but as a release to the dead from the pains of purgatory, were first invented by Urban II. as a recompence for those who engaged in the wild expedition to the Holy Land. They were afterwards granted to such as contributed money for that, or any other pious purpose; and the sums so raised were frequently converted to other uses. They were employed to swell the state, to furnish the luxuries, or accomplish the ambitious enterprizes of the

popes.

Leo the Tenth, that great patron of arts and letters, having exhausted the papal treasury in rewards to men of genius, in magnificent works, and expensive pleasures, thought that he might employ, without danger, those pious frauds so successfully practised by the most ignorant of his predecessors. Accordingly, he published a general sale of indulgencies.

Ifany thing could apologize for a religious cheat, which tends to the subversion of morals, Leo's apology was ready. He was engaged in build

ing that superb temple, the church of St. Peter, founded by his predecessors; and the Turks were preparing to enter Germany. He had no occasion to forge pretences for this extension of papal authority. But Leo, though a polite scholar and a fine gentleman, was but a pitiful pope. Liberal-minded himself, and surrounded by liberal-minded men, he did not foresee that the lamp of knowledge, which he held up to mankind, would light them to the abode of superstition, would shew them her errors, her impostures, her usurpations, and their own slavish condition. He did not reflect, that impositions practised with success in one age, may prove a dangerous experiment in another. But he had soon occasion to remember it.

Luther Writes and Preaches against Indulgencies, A. D. 1517.

THE abuse of the sale of indulgencies in Germany, where they were publicly retailed in ale-houses, and where the produce of particular districts was farmed out, in the manner of a toll or custom, awakened the indignation of Martin Luther, an Augustine friar, and professor of theology in the university of Wittemburg. Luther was also incensed, it is said, that the privi lege of vending this spiritual merchandize had been taken from his order, and given to the Do