f the earth. After a contest of
fifty years, the first of these designs was accomplished by the firm
support of the ecclesiastical order, whose liberty was connected with
that of their chief. But the second attempt, though it was crowned with
some partial and apparent success, has been vigorously resisted by the
secular power, and finally extinguished by the improvement of human
reason.

[Footnote 126: The origin and progress of the title of cardinal may be
found in Themassin, (Discipline de l'Eglise, tom. i. p. 1261-1298,)
Muratori, (Antiquitat. Italiae Medii Aevi, tom. vi. Dissert. lxi. p.
159-182,) and Mosheim, (Institut. Hist. Eccles. p. 345-347,)
who accurately remarks the form and changes of the election. The
cardinal-bishops so highly exalted by Peter Damianus, are sunk to a
level with the rest of the sacred college.]

[Footnote 127: Firmiter jurantes, nunquam se papam electuros aut
audinaturos, praeter consensum et electionem Othonis et filii sui.
(Liutprand, l. vi. c. 6, p. 472.) This important concession may either
supply or confirm the decree of the clergy and people of Rome, so
fiercely rejected by Baronius, Pagi, and Muratori, (A.D. 964,) and so
well defended and explained by St. Marc, (Abrege, tom. ii. p. 808-816,
tom. iv. p. 1167-1185.) Consult the historical critic, and the Annals
of Muratori, for for the election and confirmation of each pope.]

[Footnote 128: The oppression and vices of the Roman church, in the xth
century, are strongly painted in the history and legation of Liutprand,
(see p. 440, 450, 471-476, 479, &c.;) and it is whimsical enough to
observe Muratori tempering the invectives of Baronius against the
popes. But these popes had been chosen, not by the cardinals, but by
lay-patrons.]

[Footnote 129: The time of Pope Joan (papissa Joanna) is placed somewhat
earlier than Theodora or Marozia; and the two years of her imaginary
reign are forcibly inserted between Leo IV. and Benedict III. But the
contemporary Anastasius indissolubly links the death of Leo and
the elevation of Benedict, (illico, mox, p. 247;) and the accurate
chronology of Pagi, Muratori, and Leibnitz, fixes both events to the
year 857.]

[Footnote 130: The advocates for Pope Joan produce one hundred and fifty
witnesses, or rather echoes, of the xivth, xvth, and xvith centuries.
They bear testimony against themselves and the legend, by multiplying
the proof that so curious a story must have been repeated by writers
of