indolence, which corrupted their taste, extinguished their zeal, and
rendered them incapable of performing the solemn duties of their
function; while the inferior clergy were sunk in licentiousness, minded
nothing but sensual gratifications, and infected with the most heinous
vices the flock whom it was the very business of their ministry to
preserve, or to deliver from the contagion of iniquity. Besides, the
ignorance of the sacred order was, in many places, so deplorable that
few of them could either read or write, and still fewer were capable of
expressing their wretched notions with any degree of method or
perspicuity" (p. 193). "Many other causes also contributed to dishonour
the Church, by introducing into it a corrupt ministry. A nobleman who,
through want of talents, activity, or courage, was rendered incapable of
appearing with dignity in the cabinet, or with honour in the field,
immediately turned his views towards the Church, aimed at a
distinguished place among its chiefs and rulers, and became, in
consequence, a contagious example of stupidity and vice to the inferior
clergy. The patrons of churches, in whom resided the right of election,
unwilling to submit their disorderly conduct to the keen censure of
zealous and upright pastors, industriously looked for the most abject,
ignorant, and worthless ecclesiastics, to whom they committed the cure
of souls" (p. 193). Of the Roman pontiffs, Mosheim says: "The greatest
part of them are only known by the flagitious actions that have
transmitted their names with infamy to our times" (p. 194). And "the
enormous vices that must have covered so many pontiffs with infamy in
the judgment of the wise, formed not the least obstacle to their
ambition in these memorable times, nor hindered them from extending
their influence and augmenting their authority both in church and state"
(p. 195). Among the vast mass of forgeries which gradually built up the
supremacy of the Roman see, the famous Isidorian Decretals deserve a
word of notice. They were issued about A.D. 845, and consisted of "about