g looks on them as good subjects
and employs them on several occasions." He publicly took their part in
some of his works. He maintains in his pieces against Rivetus[575] that
the Society had produced very able men of an irreproachable life, and
that there were more such among them than among others. "I know many of
them, he says, who are very desirous to see the abuses abolished, and
the church restored to its primitive unity. The King entrusts them with
his most valuable concerns." Father Petau, among others, possessed his
confidence, as we have already observed, and shall see again.

FOOTNOTES:

[560] Ep. 85. p. 780.

[561] Ep. 935. p. 120.

[562] Ep. 487. p. 864.

[563] Ep. 1004. p. 641.

[564] Ep. 593. p. 913.

[565] Ep. 534. p. 914. 537. p. 916. & 1520, p. 689.

[566] Ep. 1570. p. 709.

[567] Ep. 1078. p. 711.

[568] Ep. 607. p. 938.

[569] Ep. 610. p. 939.

[570] Ep. 613. p. 940.

[571] Ep. 674. p. 959.

[572] Ep. 677. p. 959.

[573] Animad. in animad. Riveti, p. 640.

[574] Ep. 628. p. 915.

[575] Animad in anim. Riveti, ad Art. 6. p. 658. Discussio Rivet.
Apolog. p. 694. & p. 681.

XIX. His great knowledge of antiquity and that singular veneration which
he always paid to the primitive church made him even in his youth look
upon the abolition of episcopacy, and of a visible head of the church,
as something very monstrous. He went much farther in the sequel; shewing
that[576] Melancton himself wanted the Pope to be left in the Church,
and that King James of England and several able Protestants acknowledged
the utility of the primacy of the Bishop of Rome: adding, "If several
Protestants had made the same reflection, we should have had a church
more reformed."

He thinks that this Monarchy (these are his own terms[577]) is of use in
the church for maintaining its unity. In fine, in a piece against
Rivetus[578], he proves the primacy of the Pope from a passage of St.
Cyprian, and adds, "You see that the primacy is hereby established; and
this name in every society implies some jurisdiction. The Bishop of
Rome, says he[579], is Prince of the Christian Aristocrasy, as it has
been called before our time by the Bishop of Fossombrone. This primacy
is under Jesus Christ, and may be exercised without tyranny, and without
destroying the rights which the Bishops have over the churches committed
to them." He entertained favourable sentiments of the Episcopal
authority even before his embassy; an