Though they purported to declare the usages on the subject which prevailed in the reign of Henry I.
In France a law of the Revolution (September 1790) purported to suppress all ecclesiastical jurisdictions.
All the while, however, the patents of the admiralty judge purported to confer on him a far ampler jurisdiction than the jealousy of the other courts would concede to him.
At a very critical moment, when the Kaiser had actually mesmerized Nicholas II into the conclusion of a secret and personal convention at Bjdrko, which purported to aim at a defensive agreement, but would have led by necessity to the disruption of the FrancoRussian Alliance and to the vassalage of Russia in a continental league against England, Count Benckendorff was invited to Copenhagen and had an opportunity of serving as a confidential intermediary between Russia and Great Britain.
Its hold upon the object involved the discernment that it could but be that which it purported to be.