, by
being married, living under little restraint, and having no particular
education suited to their function, are universally fallen into such
contempt that they are never permitted to aspire to the dignities of
their own Church. It is not held respectful to call them _Papas_, their
true and ancient appellation, but those who wish to address them with
civility always call them _Hieromonachi_. In consequence of this
disrespect, which I venture to say, in such a Church, must be the
consequence of a secular life, a very great degeneracy from reputable
Christian manners has taken place throughout almost the whole of that
great member of the Christian Church.

It was so with the Latin Church, before the restraint on marriage. Even
that restraint gave rise to the greatest disorders before the Council of
Trent, which, together with the emulation raised and the good examples
given by the Reformed churches, wherever they were in view of each
other, has brought on that happy amendment which we see in the Latin
communion, both at home and abroad.

The Council of Trent has wisely introduced the discipline of seminaries,
by which priests are not trusted for a clerical institution even to the
severe discipline of their colleges, but, after they pass through them,
are frequently, if not for the greater part, obliged to pass through
peculiar methods, having their particular ritual function in view. It is
in a great measure to this, and to similar methods used in foreign
education, that the Roman Catholic clergy of Ireland, miserably provided
for, living among low and ill-regulated people, without any discipline
of sufficient force to secure good manners, have been prevented from
becoming an intolerable nuisance to the country, instead of being, as I
conceive they generally are, a very great service to it.

The ministers of Protestant churches require a different mode of
education, more liberal, and more fit for the ordinary intercourse of
life. That religion having little hold on the minds of people by
external ceremonies and extraordinary observances, or separate habits of
living, the clergy make up the deficiency by cultivating their minds
with all kinds of ornamental learning, which the liberal provision made
in England and Ireland for the parochial clergy, (to say nothing of the
ample Church preferments, with little or no duties annexed,) and the
comparative lightness of parochial duties, enables the greater part of
them in so