thee.' ' Thus, my fair firs, c faid friar John to the cardinals, c will it happen to you. The empe-rors, kings, and princes of the earth, have given you wealth, and power and poffeffions, that you may ferve God, but you expend it in pomp, luxury, and all extravagancies. Why do you not read the life of St. Silvefter*, the fir ft pope who fucceeded St. Peter ? and weigh well the conditions on which the emperor Conftantine gave the tythes to the church. St.Silvefter did not travel with two or three hundred attendants on horfeback, but lived fimply and retired at Rome, folely with his churchmen, when the angel, through God's grace, appeared, to an- nounce that the emperor Conftantine, then an infidel and unbeliever, had fent for him. It had likewife been revealed to the emperor, by the angel of the lord, that Silvefter would put him in the way of being cured of his leprofy ; for he was fo ill of that diforder his limbs were rotting. On his arrival, he pointed out to him his cure, by means of baptifm. He was baptifed and cured, which fo ftrongly imprefled his mind with the goodnefs of God, that he believed, and made his •mpire believe alfo. He gave to Silvefter and to the church, all tythes, which he had before held himfelf, with many other rich gifts and territo-ries, for thé augmentation of our faith and church. •c It was his intention that thefe fhould be pnir dently and properly governed, and not with pomp * Silvefter was the thirty-second pope.—Art de Verifier les Pates. A a 2 p.ncl 8Ô5