me of
philosophy was given to a puerile and complicated dialectic which had
neither the merit of ingenious classification, nor that subtlety of
argument which distinguished the school of Aristotle.

It is easy to conceive from this situation in which the clergy was
placed, that, in point of ecclesiastical discipline, Spaniards were
extreme ultramontanes. The clergy acknowledged the Pope, not only as the
vicar of Jesus Christ,--not only as the head of the visible church, but
as superior to all councils and kings, as the possessor of the keys of
heaven and as the absolute legislator in all matters of faith and
conscience. On many occasions the bishops and the cathedral authorities
consulted the court of Rome as to whether they ought to obey or disregard
the authority of the monarch; at other times they disobeyed it openly;
and, in spite of the efforts made by the Chamber of Castille to maintain
the cause of the throne and of the law, the fear of provoking a
revolution on the part of the lower classes, entirely the creatures of
the clergy, paralysed, on more than one occasion, the zeal of the
magistrates and the action of the military chiefs.

The Spanish laws required that, in order to give validity to a pontifical
bull, it should have the approbation, or, as it was called, _the pass_ of
the crown. Sometimes, and by virtue of the representation of the Chamber
of Castille, the government refused that pass, and on such occasions the
clergy became greatly irritated, the bishops energetically insisting upon
its being given, but urging their demands with such vehemence, as even to
threaten the monarch himself with the terrible penalty of
excommunication.

The clergy sustained the excesses of the pontifical authority, and
acknowledged the principle of the universal sovereignty of the Pope. All
notions or opinions that proposed to re-establish the discipline of the
first ages of the church and to defend the rights of the bishops,
considering their authority as equal to that of the Pope in jurisdiction,
and inferior only in dignity in the hierarchy, were considered as
dangerous and as heretical as that heresy most opposed to the articles of
the faith. Yet, at the beginning of the reign of Charles III., the
progress of Jansenism in France had a considerable influence on the
opinions of the Spanish clergy. The ministers, Campomanes, Aranda, and
Floridablanca, embraced with ardour the doctrines of Port-Royal; the
canonries