[154] See Note XIV. Part I. page [156].
[155] The gallows.
[156] By the Blatant Beast, we are generally to understand slander; see Spenser's Legend of Courtesy. But it is here taken for the Wolf, or Presbyterian clergy, whose violent declamations against the church of Rome filled up many sermons.
[157] The Presbyterian church utterly rejects traditions, and appeals to the scripture as the sole rule of faith.
[159] It is probable, that from this passage Swift took the idea of comparing the scripture to a testament in his "Tale of a Tub."
[160] By this asseveration the author seems to infer, that, because the church of Rome avers her own infallibility, she is therefore infallible.
[161] In a Polish Diet, where unanimity was necessary, the mode adopted of ensuring it was for the majority to hew to pieces the first individual who expressed his dissent by the fatal veto.
[162] "The church, according to the articles of faith, hath power to decree rites and ceremonies, and authority in controversies of faith; and yet it is not lawful for the church to ordain any thing that is contrary to God's word written, neither may it so expound one place of scripture, that it be repugnant to another." Article xx.
[163] This romantic name is given to the sword of mercy; which wants a point, and is said to have been that of Edward the Confessor. It is borne at the coronation. The sword of Ogier the Dane, famous in romance, the work of Galand, who made Joyeuse and Durandal, was also called Curtana.