her, believed Soave's hiftory to be a flanderous libel, made up of malicious forgerys; but she was now fatisfyed, that the Council of

and difcontented Father Paul defigned by his hiftory to beat down. In this manner Pallavicin infinuats and dictates. The work is thought excellent at Rome, tho it is too ridiculous to be confuted. There was a fine answer published to Pallavicin, intitulé, Nouvelle Evangile du Cardinal Pallavicini. And in 1678, an English translation of this ingenious and witty performance was published in London; with an excellent hiftorical preface by the tranflator. This treatife, in French or English, is hard to be met with now. You will find an account of it, and fome remarks on the Trent-Council, in a note, at the end of my letter. As to Scipio's book, it is called, Cenfura theologica et biftorica, and confifts of two parts. In the firft part, we have a history of the council of Trent made up of thofe good things which the jefuit could find in Soave's work: And in the 2d part, five fections of what the jefuit calls tares, which he tells us he gathered out of Father Paul's hiftory, and bound up in order to their being burnt. But then we have only his own word for it, that the things taken from Soave, which make Scipio's fecond part, are, tares. He does not attempt to prove them lies. He only calls them fo. And, as to the two thirds of Father Paul's hiftory, which make up Scipio's first part, he allows fo much to be the wheat of catholic faith, as he exprefles it, and therefore lays it up in the granary of Christ. It follows then, that the jefuit's Cenfura, where nothing is proved against Paul, and the greatest part is praised, is really a confirmation of Soave's hiftory of the council of Trent. And as Pierre Francois le courayer obferves in his preface to his tranflation of this hiftory, there is reafon to believe, that Scipio only added his fecond part, Pour donner le change au monde, to fcreen himfelf, and make it look as if he

had

of Trent was a mere management of political arts, to establish the power of the fovereign cheat, and advance the interest of the fupreme

had written against Father Paul, tho that was far from his thoughts. For, in a book afterwards published, under the feigned name of Aquilinus, the author, in reporting his judgment of the three hiftorys of the Council of Trent, to wit, Paul's, Pallavicin's, and Scipio's, not only gives the preference to Soave, but praifes his work in a high manner. And this fame Aquilinus was Scipio himfelt; as hath been difcovered fince. So that take the matter any way, it is ridiculous for a catholic to mention the book of Scipio the jefuit, against Father Paul's hiftory; as I have heard fome Romanifts do. This jefuit was an honeft fellow you will fay. The order, Fewks, is as bad as bad can be: but, there have been friends to truth and goodnefs in it. There is a jefuit. now living, with whom I am well acquainted, a learned, upright man, who is just as much a Roman catholic in his heart as I am. Nor is this fo odd a thing, as fome people think. Many great profeffors have their inward and their outward doctrine. Maldonat the jefuit was a great writer for the Romish faith; and yet Baluze, a catholic, who writ the Hiftory of the popes of Avignon, informs us that, this jefuit in his laft agony, confeffed he then was, and ever had been a few.

N. B. The popes who fat at Avignon were seven, to wit, Bertrand de Got, archbishop of Bourdeaux, called Clement the Fifth, who removed the chair from Rome, A. D. 1305. John XXII. Benedict XII. Clement VI. Innocent VI. Urban V. and Pierre Roger de Maumont, called Gregory the Eleventh, who, in the year 1377, reftored the fee to Rome again; after a tranflation of feventy-two years. And upon the death of Pope Roger, alias Clement XI, a fchifm of two popes at a time enfued for fifty years. For this period, On y-voit tout ce qu'on peut imaginer de plus horrible, des meur

E 4

tres

preme pontiff, in oppofition to the spirit of Chrift. She faw that, the immortal writer

tres & des brigandes de toutes fortes, fays a catholic hiftorian. Les deux pades s'excommunioient l'un l'autre, & fe difoient leurs veritez; car, ils s'appelloient reciproquemont ante-chrifts, fchifmatiques, heretiques, voleurs, traitres, tyrans, enfans de Belial, toutes trop bien fondées chaque parti aiant de grands perfonages, des faints, des miracles, des revelations; dit Mezerai. And fo the fchifm went on till the Council of Pifa, A. D. 1409, depofed Peter de Luna, called Benedict XIII, and Angelo Corario, called Gregory XII, and elected Peter Philargi, who took the name of Alexander the Fifth. You obferve, to be fure, Jewks, that this act of the Pifan council knocks up two pontifical topics, to wit, that none but the bishop of Rome can call a general council and that, the bishop of Rome is above the cenfure of a council. For, this council, confifting of 180 archbishops and bishops, 300 abbots, 120 profeffors of divinity, and 300 doctors, did meet contrary to the minds of Luna and Coriario: And they gave a definitive fentence against the two popes; tho one of them, to wit, Coriario, Gregory XII. is allowed by the church of Rome to have been a true pope; and purfuant to the sentence fo given by Pifa, the cardinals immediately elected Alexander V; and neither Coriario or Luna were any longer confidered as popes; tho they continued to plague the church while they lived. There were three acting popes at once, Peter of Candia, Coriario, and Luna; tho Candia, who came by the Pifan Council, was called true pope. And fo we have done

with the popes.

N. B. Though I have mentioned but two writers against Father Paul, yet one Philippe Quorli appeared firft, in what he calls a confutation of Soave's history: but this despicable thing is scarce known in the world. La réputation même de l'ouvrage qu'il attaque n'a pu lui procurer la glorie que les auteurs médiocres tirent ordinairement du nom des adverfaires qu'ils combattent.

might well call the Trent conventicle l'Iliade de Notre Siecle (H).

From the hiftory of the council of Trent, fhe turned next to Claude, Pajon, Jurieu, the character of France intirely catholic, Les plaintes des Proteftans, and the general criticifm of Bayle. These noble works foon fatisfied her, that the church of Rome had apoftatized from the holy doctrine of Christ, was full of abominable corruptions, and of confequence, not built upon the rock the pretended to ftand on. With astonishment

mifs Janfon faw that, the boly Roman catholic religion was a deteftable impofition, that wrefted the plane meaning of holy writ, and intirely perverted the genius and natural tendency of christianity itself: that her pietys are the most finful innovations; and her crueltys not only a scandal to the religion of Fefus, but a reproach to human nature. Thefe confiderations infpired Elife with a due and pious indignation against the Romish communion: The refolved to renounce a religion, whose fury and malice, and fuperftition knew not any bounds; and was determined, as foon as it was poffible, to fly to that land of liberty, where the magiftrate does not interpofe for the defence of chriftianity, but within the shelter, and under the fecurity of law, men enjoy the right of examining freely, and of thinking and acting agreeably to the dic

tates

tates of natural reason, and the nature of that bleffed religion, which breaths an univerfal love to all mankind, and forbids its preachers to lift up the rod of perfecution against fuch as differ from them in their fentiments of revelation, Chacun tranquille à l'abri des loix, (fays Monfieur le Courayer, to the honor of our country) peut fuivre au gré de fa confcience ce que fes lumieres lui reprefentent de plus raifonable & de plus vrai; & que fans craindre la violence d'une autorité arbitraires fur les confciences il peut fervir Dieu dans la fimplicité de fon cœur, & s'acquiter des devoirs que lui dictent la raison & l'evangile (I).

But how to get to England with a few jewels fhe had of her own, and her cloaths, was the queftion. Elife knew if the was taken, as there would be strict enquiry made after her, or was even fufpected, before the ftirred, of a defign to turn Proteftant, fhe would be lodged in a convent for life, fuch zealous Catholics were her parents, and all her friends. This perplexed her for fome time. But at last, by the means of a Proteftant lady, with whom by accident she got acquainted, there was contrived a safe way to escape. She went with Mrs. Norris from Paris to Geneva, and from Geneva to Rome, and feveral parts of Italy. From Italy fhe