y of the
inconveniences which belong to an order of priests, trusting entirely to
their own art and invention for obtaining a subsistence.

The advantages attending the Romish hierarchy were but a small
compensation for its inconveniences. The ecclesiastical privileges,
during barbarous times, had served as a check on the despotism of
kings. The union of all the western churches under the supreme pontiff
facilitated the intercourse of nations, and tended to bind all the parts
of Europe into a close connection with each other. And the pomp and
splendor of worship which belonged to so opulent an establishment,
contributed in some respect to the encouragement of the fine arts,
and began to diffuse a general elegance of taste by uniting it with
religion.

It will easily be conceived that, though the balance of evil prevailed
in the Romish church, this was not the chief reason which produced the
reformation. A concurrence of incidents must have contributed to forward
that great revolution.

Leo X., by his generous and enterprising temper, had much exhausted his
treasury, and was obliged to employ every invention which might yield
money, in order to support his projects, pleasures, and liberalities.
The scheme of selling indulgences was suggested to him, as an expedient
which had often served in former times to draw money from the Christian
world, and make devout people willing contributors to the grandeur and
riches of the court of Rome. The church, it was supposed, was possessed
of a great stock of merit, as being entitled to all the good works of
all the saints, beyond what were employed in their own justification;
and even to the merits of Christ himself, which were infinite and
unbounded; and from this unexhausted treasury the pope might retail
particular portions, and by that traffic acquire money to be employed in
pious purposes, in resisting the infidels, or subduing schismatics. When
the money came into his exchequer, the greater part of it was usually
diverted to other purposes.[*]

It is commonly believed that Leo, from the penetration of his genius,
and his familiarity with ancient literature, was fully acquainted with
the ridicule and falsity of the doctrines which, as supreme pontiff,
he was obliged by his interest to promote: it is the less wonder,
therefore, that he employed for his profit those pious frauds which
his predecessors, the most ignorant and credulous, had always, under
plausible pretences, ma