fasting was early used in the church;
the observance of Lent was a very early practice: the sign of the cross
had something respectable in it; the fathers held virginity a more
perfect state than marriage; and the celibacy of the priests conformable
to the antient discipline of the church:[058]

And

"that those, who shall read the decrees of the Council of Trent,
with a mind disposed to peace, will find that every thing is wisely
explained in them: and agreeable to what is taught by the
Scriptures and the antient fathers."[059]

It is certain, that Grotius was intimate with Father Petau, a Jesuit,
inferior to none of his society, in genius and learning; that the good
father used all his endeavours to convert Grotius to the Roman Catholic
religion; and was, at length, so much persuaded of his friend's
catholicity, that, when he heard of his death, he said prayers for the
repose of his soul.[060]

[Sidenote: XII. 3. His Project of Religious Pacification.]

As the religion of Grotius was a problem to many, Menage wrote the
following Epigram upon it: the sense of it is, that--

"As many sects claimed the religion of Grotius, as the towns, which
contended for the birth of Homer."

_Smyrna, Rhodos, Colophon, Salamis, Chios, Argos, Athenae,
Siderei certant vatis de patria Homeri:
Grotiadae certant de religione, Socinus,
Arrius, Arminius, Calvinus, Roma, Lutherus_.

XII. 3.

_Grotius's Project of Religious Pacification._

A wish for religious peace among Christians grew with the growth and
strengthened with the strength of Grotius. It was known, before his
imprisonment at Louvestein, that he entertained these sentiments: he
avows them in the dedication to Lewis XIII. of his treatise _de Jure
Belli et Pacis_.

"I shall never cease," he says in a letter to his brother,[061] "to
use my utmost endeavours for establishing peace among Christians;
And, if I should not succeed, it will be honourable to die in such
an enterprise." "I am not the only one, who has conceived such
projects," he writes in another letter to his brother:[062]
"Erasmus, Cassander; Wicelius and Casaubon had the same design. La
Meletiere is employed at present in it. Cardinal de Richelieu
declares that he will protect the coalition; and he is such a
fortunate man, that he never undertakes any thing, in which he
does not succeed. If the