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act of sin, with all the circumstances attending it. When the pe-nitent has so done, the priest pronounces an absolution; which isnot conditional or declarative onlv, hut absolute and judicial.This secret, or auricular confession, was first decreed and esta-blished in the fourth council of Lateran, under Innocent III, , in1215, (cap. 21.) And the decree of this council was afterwardsconfirmed and enlarged in the council of Florence, and in that ofTrent; which ordains, that confession was instituted by Christ,that by the law of God it is necessary to salvation, and that it hasbeen always practised in the Christian church. As for the pe-nances imposed on the penitent by way of satisfaction, they havebeen commonly the repetition of certain forms of devotion, as pa-ternosters, or ave-marias, the payment of stipulated sums, pilgrim-ages, fasts, or various species ot corporal discipline. But the mostformidable penance, in the estimation of many who have belongedto the Romish communion, has been the temporary pains of purga-tory. S, But under all the penalties which are indicted or threat-ened in the Romish church, it lias provided relief by its indul-gences, and by its prayers or masses for the dead, performed pro-fessedly for relieving and rescuing the souls that are detained inpurgatory. 9. Another article that has been long authoritatively en-joined and observed in the church of. Rome , is the celibacy of herclergy. This was enjoined pt Rome by Gregory VII . about 1074,and established in England by Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury,about 1 175 ; though bis predecessor i.anl'ranc had imposed it uponthe prebendaries and clergy that lived in towns. And though thecouncil of Trent was repeatedly petitioned by several princes andstates to abolish this restraint, the obligation of celibacy was ratherestablished than relaxed by this council; for they decreed, thatmarriage, contracted after a vow of continence, is neither lawfulnor valid; and thus deprived the church of the possibility of everrestoring marriage to the clergy. For if marriage, after a vow, bein itself unlawful, the greatest authority upon earth cannot dispensewith it, nor permit marriage to the clergy, who have already-vowed continence. 10. To the doctrines and practices above re-cited may be farther added the worship of images, of which Pro-testants accuse the Papists. But to this accusation the Papist re-plies, that he keeps images by him to preserve in his mind the me-mory ot the persons represented by them ; as people are wont topreserve the memory of their deceased friends by keeping theirpictures. 11. The. council of Trent likewise decreed that allbishops and pastors who have the cure of souls, do diligently in-struct their flocks, that it is good and profitable to desire the inter-cession of saints reigning with Christ in heaven. And this decreethe Papists endeavour to defend by the following observations.They- confess that we have but one Mediator of redemption ; butaffirm that it is acceptable to God that we should have many me-diators of intercession. Moses (say they,) was such a mediator forthe Israelites ; Job for his three friends; Stephen for his perse-cutors. The Romans were thus desired by St. Paul to be his me-diators ; so were the Corinthians, so the Ephesians , Ep. ad Rom.Cov. Eph. so almost every sick man desires the congregation tobe his mediators, by remembering him in their prayers. And sothe Papist desires the blessed in heaven to be his mediators; thatis, that they would pray to God for him. But between these livingand dead mediators there is no similarity: the living mediator ispresent, and certainly hears the request of those who desire him tointercede for them; the dead mediator is as certainly absent, andcannot possibly- hear the requests of all those who, at the same in-stant, may be begging him to intercede for them, unless lie be pos-sessed of the divine attribute of omnipresence; and he who givesthat attribute to any creature is unquestionably guilty- of idolatry.And us this decree is contrary to one of the first principles of natu-ral religion, so does it receive no countenance from Scripture, orany Christian writer of the three first centuries. 12. Other prac-tices peculiar to the Papists are the religious honour and respectthat they pay to sacred relics ; by which they understand not onlythe bodies and parts of the bodies of the saints, but any of thosethings that appertained to them, and which they touched ; and 13.the celebration of divine service in an unknown tongue: to whichpurpose the council of Trent has denounced an anathema on anyone who shall say that mass ought to be celebrated only in thevulgar tongue: ’(sess. 25, and sess. 22, can. 9.) Though thecouncil of Lateran under Innocent III . in 1215, (can. 9,) had ex-pressly decreed, that because in many parts within the same cityvol. iv.— no. 181.

and diocese there are many people of different manners and ritesmixed together, but of one faith, the bishops of such cities or dio-ceses should provide fit men for celebrating divine offices, accord-ing to the diversity of tongues and rites, and for administering thesacraments. 14. The church of Rome also maintains, that un-written traditions ought to be added to the holy Scriptures, to sup-ply their defect, and to be regarded as of equal authority. 15.That the books of the Apocrypha are canonical Scripture. 16,That the vulgate edition of the Bible is to be deemed authentic.18. And that the Scriptures are to be received and interpreted ac-cording to that sense which the holy mother church, to whom itbelongs to judge of the true sense, has held, and does hold, andaccording to the unanimous consent of the fathers. Such are theprincipal and distinguishing doctrines of Popery, most of whichhave received the sanction of the council of'l'rent, and that of thecreed of pope Pius IV. which is received, professed, and sworn to,by every one who enters into holy orders in the church of Rome ;and at the close of this creed, we are told that the faith containedin it is so absolutely and. indispensably necessary, that no man canbe saved without it. Many of the doctrines of Popery were re-laxed and very favourably interpreted by M. de Meaux, bishop ofCondom, in his Exposition of the Doctrine of the CatholicChurch , first printed in 1671 : but this edition, which was chargedwith perverting, in endeavouring to palliate, the doctrine, of thechurch, was censured by the doctors of the Sorbonne, and actuallysuppressed; nor does it appear that they ever testified their approbation in the usual form of subsequent and altered editions.

POPLAR, m botany. See Popui.us.

POPL1T.-EUS, in anatomy, a small muscle, obliquely pyrami-dal, situated under the ham. See Anatomy.

POPO, a small kingdom of Africa, on the Slave Coast,about twenty-four miles in extent. The soil is level, sandv,and poorly cultivated, the people being dreadfully harrassedby the slave-trade, and often seized and carried off by theirneighbours.

POPPY, in botany. See Opium, and Papaver .

POPULATION , the proportion of inhabitants which a countryor district contains. The increase or diminution of the membersof a state has, at all periods, been thought an object deserving theattention of governments; hut very-different opinions have beenentertained on the subject. However, the progress of the popula-tion of the world, audits present total amount, cannot he ascer-tained with much precision ; as there are no sufficient grounds onwhich such a computation can be formed, till within a very lateperiod, and that only in a few countries. Sir W. Petty, in 16S2,slated the population of the world at only 320 millions ; it hasbeen estimated by some writers at about 730 millions, by others atupwards of 900 millions. Mr. Wallace, of Edinburgh , conjecturedit might amount to 1000 millions; and this number has since beengenerally adopted by those who have noticed the subject. It is apoint on which accuracy cannot be expected, but a nearer ap-proximation to the truth appeal's by no means impracticable. Astrong presumption that the inhabitants of the earth at present ex-ceed considerably 1000 millions, arises from the circumstance,that, in almost every country where the people have been num-bered, or sufficient (lata furnished for computing their number, itlias been found considerably greater than it had been previouslysupposed. In Great Britain, the most correct estimates did notmake the population exceed seven or eight millions ; whereas, bythe late enumeration, it appears to amount to very nearly elevenmillions. France , the population of which was estimated by Mr.Susinilth at sixteen millions, by M. Deslandes, and by Mr. Gib-bon, at 20 millions, and which M. Messauce endeavoured toprove amounted to twenty-four millions, appeared from the returnsof births and burials, to contain at the commencement of the revo-lution near thirty millions of inhabitants. Spain which, with Por-tugal , had been estimated by M. Deslandes to contain only sixmillions of persons, and by Mr. Gibbon eight millions, was foundby tlie enumeration in 1787, to contain alone 10,409,879. Russia ,about tlie year 1765, was supposed to contain about fifteen millionsof inhabitants; but according to the calculation given by Mr.Coxe, grounded upon'-an authentic list of tire persons paying thepoll-tax, they amounted to 26,766,360, and including the provincesnot subject to the poll-tax, the calculation for the year 1796amounted to thirty-six millions of inhabitants. A great part of5 D this