Note 705 — Chapter VI

It is usual for protestant writers to inveigh against the Tridentine fathers. I do not assent to their decision, which is not to the purpose, nor vindicate the intrigues of the papal party. But I must presume to say, that, reading their proceedings in the pages of that very able and not very lenient historian, to whom we have generally recourse, an adversary as decided as any that could have come from the reformed churches, I find proofs of much ability, considering the embarrassments with which they had to struggle, and of an honest desire of reformation, among a large body, as to those matters which, in their judgment, ought to be reformed. The notes of Courayer on Sarpi’s history, though he is not much less of a protestant than his original, are more candid, and generally very judicious. Pallavicini I have not read: but what is valuable in him will doubtless be found in the continuation of Fleury, vol. xxix. et alibi.