1 (return) [ This curious instruction was transcribed (I believe) from the Vatican archives, by Odoricus Raynaldus, in his Continuation of the Annals of Baronius, (Romæ, 1646—1677, in x. volumes in folio.) I have contented myself with the Abbé Fleury, (Hist. Ecclésiastique. tom. xx. p. 1—8,) whose abstracts I have always found to be clear, accurate, and impartial.]
2 (return) [ The ambiguity of this title is happy or ingenious; and _moderator_, as synonymous to _rector_, _gubernator_, is a word of classical, and even Ciceronian, Latinity, which may be found, not in the Glossary of Ducange, but in the Thesaurus of Robert Stephens.]
3 (return) [ The first epistle (sine titulo) of Petrarch exposes the danger of the _bark_, and the incapacity of the _pilot_. Hæc inter, vino madidus, ævo gravis, ac soporifero rore perfusus, jamjam nutitat, dormitat, jam somno præceps, atque (utinam solus) ruit..... Heu quanto felicius patrio terram sulcasset aratro, quam scalmum piscatorium ascendisset! This satire engages his biographer to weigh the virtues and vices of Benedict XII. which have been exaggerated by Guelphs and Ghibe lines, by Papists and Protestants, (see Mémoires sur la Vie de Pétrarque, tom. i. p. 259, ii. not. xv. p. 13—16.) He gave occasion to the saying, Bibamus papaliter.]