176.] [Footnote 6: NOTE F, p.61.This year, the council of Trent was dissolved, which had sitten from 1545.

The publication of its decrees excited anew the general ferment in Europe, while the Catholics endeavored to enforce the acceptance of them, and the Protestants rejected them.

The religious controversies were too far advanced to expect that any conviction would result from the decrees of this council.

It is the only general council which has been held in an age truly learned and inquisitive; and as the history of it has been written with great penetration and Judgment, it has tended very much to expose clerical usurpations and intrigues, and may serve us as a specimen of more ancient councils.

No one expects to see another general council, till the decay of learning and the progress of ignorance shall again fit mankind for these great impostures.] [Footnote 7: NOTE G, p.69.It appears, however, from Randolfs Letters, (see Keith, p.