Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	council_n	pope_n	power_n	4,584	5	5.4437	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A64321	Miscellanea. The second part in four essays / by Sir William Temple ...	Temple, William, Sir, 1628-1699.	1690 (1690)	Wing T653; ESTC R38801	129,830	346

the oldest Books we have are still in their kind the best The two most ancient that I know of in Prose among those we call prophane Authors are Aesop's Fables and Phalaris's Epistles both living near the same time which was that of Cyrus and Pythagoras As the first has been agreed by all Ages since for the greatest Master in his kind and all others of that sort have been but imitations of his Original so I think the Epistles of Phalaris to have more Race more Spirit more Force of Wit and Genius than any others I have ever seen either antient or modern I know several Learned Men or that usually pass for such under the Name of Criticks have not esteemed them Genuine and Politian with some others have attributed them to Lucian But I think he must have little skill in Painting that cannot find out this to be an Original such diversity of Passions upon such variety of Actions and Passages of Life and Government such Freedom of Thought such Boldness of Expression such Bounty to his Friends such Scorn of his Enemies such Honor of Learned Men such Esteem of Good such Knowledg of Life such Contempt of Death with such Fierceness of Nature and Cruelty of Revenge could never be represented but by him that possessed them and I esteem Lucian to have been no more Capable of Writing than of Acting what Phalaris did In all one Writ you find the Scholar or the Sophist and in all the other the Tyrant and the Commander The next to these in Time are Herodotus Thucidides Hypocrates Plato Xenophon and Aristotle of whom I shall say no more than what I think is allowed by all that they are in their several kinds inimitable So are Caesar Salust and Cicero in theirs who are the Antientest of the Latin I speak still of Prose unless it be some little of old Cato upon Rustick Affairs The Height and Purity of the Roman Style as it began towards the Time of Lucretius which was about that of the Jugurthin War so it ended about that of Tyberius and the last strain of it seems to have been Velleius Paterculus The Purity of the Greek lasted a great deal longer and must be allowed till Trajan's Time when Plutarch wrote Whose Greek is much more estimable than the Latin of Tacitus his Contemporary After this last I know none that deserves the Name of Latin in comparison of what went before them especially in the Augustan Age If any 't is the little Treatise of Minutius Foelix All Latin Books that we have till the end of Trajan and all Greek till the end of Marcus Antoninus have a true and very esteemable value All written since that time seem to me to have little more than what comes from the Relation of Events we are glad to know or the Controversy of Opinions in Religion or Laws wherein the busie World has been so much imployed The great Wits among the moderns have been in my Opinion and in their several kinds of the Italians Boccace Machiavel and Padre Paolo Among the Spaniards Cervantes that writ Don Quixot and Guevara Among the French Rablais and Montagne Among the English Sir Philip Sydney Bacon and Selden I mention nothing of what is written upon the Subject of Divinity wherein the Spanish and English Pens have been most Conversant and most Excelled The modern French are Voiture Rochfaucalt's Memoirs Bussy's Amours de Gaul with several other little Relations or Memoirs that have run this Age which are very Pleasant and Entertaining and seem to have Refined the French Language to a degree that cannot be well exceeded I doubt it may have happened there as it does in all Works that the more they are filed and polished the less they have of weight and of strength and as that Language has much more fineness and smoothness at this time so I take it to have had much more force spirit and compass in Montagne's Age. Since those accidents which contributed to the Restoration of Learning almost extinguished in the Western Parts of Europe have been observed it will be just to mention some that may have hindred the advancement of it in proportion to what might have been expected from the mighty growth and Progress made in the first Age after its Recovery One great reason may have been that very soon after the entry of Learning upon the Scene of Christendom another was made by many of the New-Learned Men into the inquiries and contests about Matters of Religion the Manners and Maxims and Institutions introduced by the Clergy for seven or eight Centuries past The Authority of Scripture and Tradition Of Popes and of Councils Of the antient Fathers and of the later School-Men and Casuists Of Ecclesiastical and Civil Power The humour of ravelling into all these mystical or entangled Matters mingling with the Interests and Passions of Princes and of Parties and thereby heightened or inflamed produced infinite Disputes raised violent Heats throughout all Parts of Christendom and soon ended in many Defections or Reformations from the Roman Church and in several New Institutions both Ecclesiastical and Civil in diverse Countries which have been since Rooted and Established in almost all the North-West Parts The endless Disputes and litigious Quarrels upon all these Subjects favoured and encouraged by the Interests of the several Princes engaged in them either took up wholly or generally employed the Thoughts the Studies the Applications the Endeavours of all or most of the finest Wits the deepest Scholars and the most Learned Writers that the Age produced Many excellent Spirits and the most penetrating Genys that might have made admirable Progresses and Advances in many other Sciences were sunk and over whelmed in the abyss of Disputes about Matters of Religion without ever turning their Looks or Thoughts any other way To these Disputes of the Pen succeeded those of the Sword and the ambition of Great Princes and Ministers mingled with the Zeal or covered with the Pretences of Religion has for a Hundred Years past infested Christendom with almost a perpetual Course or Succession either of Civil or of Foreign Wars the noise and disorders whereof have been ever the most capital Enemies of the Muses who are seated by the antient Fables upon the top of Parnassus that is in a place of safety and of quiet from the reach of all noises and disturbances of the Regions below Another circumstance that may have hindered the advancement of Learning has been a want or decay of Favour in Great Kings and Princes to encourage or applaud it Upon the first return or recovery of this fair Stranger among us all were fond of seeing her apt to applaud her she was lodged in Palaces instead of Cells and the greatest Kings and Princes of the Age took either a pleasure in courting her or a vanity in admiring her and in favouring all her Train The Courts of Italy and Germany of England of France of Popes and of Emperors thought themselves