clearly expressed by the Greeks, who beheld the accomplishment of
the papal triumphs; and as they are more strongly attached to
their religion than to their country, they praise, instead of
blaming, the zeal and orthodoxy of these apostolical men. ^26 The
modern champions of Rome are eager to accept the praise and the
precedent: this great and glorious example of the deposition of
royal heretics is celebrated by the cardinals Baronius and
Bellarmine; ^27 and if they are asked, why the same thunders were
not hurled against the Neros and Julians of antiquity, they
reply, that the weakness of the primitive church was the sole
cause of her patient loyalty. ^28 On this occasion the effects of
love and hatred are the same; and the zealous Protestants, who
seek to kindle the indignation, and to alarm the fears, of
princes and magistrates, expatiate on the insolence and treason
of the two Gregories against their lawful sovereign. ^29 They are
defended only by the moderate Catholics, for the most part, of
the Gallican church, ^30 who respect the saint, without approving
the sin. These common advocates of the crown and the mitre
circumscribe the truth of facts by the rule of equity, Scripture,
and tradition, and appeal to the evidence of the Latins, ^31 and
the lives ^32 and epistles of the popes themselves.

[Footnote 26: Theophanes. (Chronograph. p. 343.) For this Gregory
is styled by Cedrenus . (p. 450.) Zonaras specifies the thunder,
(tom. ii. l. xv. p. 104, 105.) It may be observed, that the
Greeks are apt to confound the times and actions of two
Gregories.]

[Footnote 27: See Baronius, Annal. Eccles. A.D. 730, No. 4, 5;
dignum exemplum! Bellarmin. de Romano Pontifice, l. v. c. 8: