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Rh it was impossible for any thing of this Nature to have prosper'd: And in so vast an Inundation of Ignorance, which carry'd away with it the very grown and aged Trees themselves (those Parts of Learning which had taken Root, so many Generations past) it would have been in vain, to have committed any new Plants to the Ground. Such Studies as these, as they must receive Encouragement from the Sovereign Authority, so they must come up in a peaceful Time, when Men's Minds are at Ease, and their Imaginations not disturb'd, with the Cares of preserving their Lives, and Fortunes.

To go on therefore with the Matter of Fact: Having left that dismal bloody Age we come into a Course of Time, which was indeed far quieter: But it was like the Quiet of the Night, which is dark withal. The Bishops of Rome taking the Opportunity of the Decay of the Roman Empire, had wrested from it so many Privileges, as did at last wholly destroy it: And while it was gasping for Life, forc'd it to make what Will and Testament they pleas'd. Being thus establish'd, and making Rome, whose Name was still venerable, the Seat of their Dominion, they soon obtained a Supremacy over the Western World. Under them for a long Space together Men lay in a profound Sleep. Of the universal Ignorance of those Times, let it suffice to take the Testimony of William of Malmsbury, one of our ancient English Historians, who says, that even amongst the Priests themselves, he was a Miracle that could understand Latin. Thus they continued; till at last, that Church adopted, and cherish'd some of the Peripatetic Opinions, which the most ingenious of the Monks,