are the source of wars and divisions in the church and in the
state." This treatise was published in Germany about the year 1700,
from a manuscript in Trinity College, Cambridge; and may be found at
the end of Van der Hardt's work on the Council of Constance. It
consists chiefly of petitions for the remedy of abuses, and is full
from beginning to end of the true spirit of genuine evangelical
religion. Dr. Ullerston remained in uninterrupted and perfect
communion with the church of Rome; and yet no Protestant, who ever
suffered at the stake for his opposition to her, could have more
faithfully exposed the practical grievances under which Christendom
then mourned in consequence of her dereliction of duty, whilst she
assumed to herself all supreme authority, and paralyzed the efforts of
national churches to remedy the crying evils of the time. The heads of
Ullerston's petitions abound with salutary suggestions; by many of the
items we are apprised of the grievances then chiefly complained of, or
the departments in which those grievances were found.

1. On the election of a Pope.

2. On the suppression of simony.

3. On the exaltation of the law of Christ above all human (p. 054)
authority.

4. Against appropriations, _i.e._ assigning the proceeds of parochial
cures to monasteries.

5. On appointing only fit persons to ecclesiastical stations.

6. Against exemptions of monasteries and individuals from episcopal
jurisdiction.

7. Against dispensations,--those, among others, by which benefices and
bishoprics were given to children.

8. Against pluralities.

9. Against appeals to Rome.

10. Against the abuse of privileges.

11. Against the clergy devoting themselves to secular affairs.

12. Against the prerogatives of chanters[46] and other officers in the
houses of the great.

[Footnote 46: In his arguments on this article Dr.
Ullerston offers some excellent reflections upon
the use and abuse of singing in the church. The
sentiments of Augustin, which he quotes, are truly
judicious and edifying. That eloquent father
lamented that often the beauty of the singing
withdrew his mind from the divine matter and
substance of what was sung; but when he remembered
how, on occasions of peculiar interest to him