He had drawn in the Bishops of _Rome_ to set up the ridiculous Pageantry of the KEY; and while he, the DEVIL, set open the Gates of Hell to them all, set them upon locking up the Gates of Heaven, and giving the Bishop the Key; a Cheat which, as gross as it was, the DEVIL so gilded over, or so blinded the Age to receive it, that like _Gideon's Ephod_, all the Catholick World went a whoring after the Idol; and the Bishop of _Rome sent_ more Fools to the _Devil_ by it than ever he pretended to let into Heaven, though he open'd the Door as wide as his Key was able to do.
The Story of this Key being given to the Bishop of _Rome_ by St. _Peter_, (who, by the way, never had it himself,) and of its being lost by Somebody or other, (the _Devil_ it seems did not tell them who) and its being found again by a _Lombard_ Soldier in the Army of King _Antharis_, who attempting to cut it with his Knife, was miraculously forced to direct the Wound to himself, and cut his own Throat; that King _Antharis_ and his Nobles happened to see the Fellow do it, and were converted to Christianity by it, and that the King sent the Key, with another made like it, to Pope _Pelagius_, then Bishop of _Rome_, who thereupon assum'd the Power of opening and shutting Heaven's Gates; and he afterwards setting a Price or Toll upon the Entrance, as we do here at passing a Turn-pike; these fine things, I say, were successfully managed for some Years before this I am now speaking of, and the Devil got a great deal of Ground by it too; but now he triumph'd openly, and having set up a Murtherer upon the temporal Throne, and a Church Emperor upon the Ecclesiastic Throne, and both of his own choosing, the _Devil_ may be said to begin his new Kingdom from this Epocha, and call it the _Restoration_.
Since this time indeed the Devil's Affairs went very merrily on, and the Clergy brought so many Gewgaws into their Worship, and such devilish Principles were mixt with that which we call'd the Christian Faith, that in a Word, from this Time the Bishop of _Rome_ commenc'd _Whore of Babylon_, in all the most express Terms that could be imagin'd: Tyranny of the worst sort crept into the Pontificate, Errors of all sorts into the Profession, and they proceeded from one thing to another, till the very Popes, for so the Bishop of _Rome_ was now called, by way of Distinction; I say, the Popes themselves, their spiritual Guides, profess'd openly to confederate with the _Devil_, and to carry on a personal and private Correspondence with him at the same time, taking upon them the Title of Christ's Vicar, and the infallible Guide of the Consciences of Christians.