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ECCLESIASTICAL. HISTORY, 
 
 ABTCIEJVT AND mODERN; 
 
 m WHICH 
 
 THE USE, FKOCRESS, AND VARIATIONS OP CHURCB POWER, ARE CONSIDERED IN TBEBt 
 
 CONNEXION WITH THE STATE OF LEARNING AND FHILOSOFBT, AND THE 
 
 POLITICAL HISTORY OF EUROPE DrRING THAT PEBIODj 
 
 BY THE LATE LEARNED 
 
 JOHN LAURENCE MOSHEIM, D.D. 
 
 CHANCELLOR OP THE UNIVBESITY OF 60TTINGEN; 
 
 TEAHBLATED FKOli THE pRISINAL LATIN, 
 AND ILLVSTRATED WITH NOTES, tJHRONOLOCICAL TABLES, AND AN APPBKDIZ, 
 
 BY ARCHIBALD MACLAINE, D. D. 
 
 A NEW EDITION— IN TWO VOLUMES, 
 
 CONTINUED TO THE YEAR 1836. 
 BY CHARLES COOTE, L. L. D. 
 
 AND FITRNISHED WITH, 
 
 4 DISSERTATION ON THE STATE OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH, 
 
 BY THE RIGHT REV. 
 
 DR. GEORGE GLEIG, OF STIRLING. 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 BALTIMORE: 
 PLASKITT & eUGLE, 
 
 184^, 
 
THE TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 1 CANNOT persuade myself,' that the complaints which we hear frequently 
 of the" frivolous nature of the public taste in matters of literature, are so far 
 to be relied on,, as to make me despair of a favourable reception of the fol- 
 lowing work, A History of the Christian Church, composed with judgment, 
 taste,, and candour, drawn with uncommon discernment and industry from the 
 best sources, enriched with much useful , learning and several important dis- 
 coveries, and conMCted with the history of arts, philosophy, and civil 
 government, is an object that will very .probably attract the attention of many, 
 and- most undoubtedly excite the curiosity of the judicious and the wise. A 
 work of this nature will be considered by the philosopher) as an important 
 branch of the history of the human mind; and I need not mention a multitude 
 of reasons that render it peculiarly interesting to the Christian. Besides, 
 there has not hitherto appeared, in -English, any complete history of the 
 church, that represents its revolutions, its divisions, and doctrines, with im- 
 partiality and truth, Exposes the delusions of popish legends, breathes a spirit 
 of mpderation and freedom, and, keeping perpetually, in the view of the 
 reader the true nature and design of the Christian religion, points 'out those 
 deviationsfrom its beautiful simplicity, which have been too frequent among 
 all orders of men and in all ages of the world.* 
 
 « « , * * * * • 
 
 « « * * * , « • . 
 
 How far justice lias been done to this excellent work, in the following 
 translation, is a point that must be left to the decision of those who may think 
 proper to peruse it with attention. I can say, with the strictest truth, that I 
 have spared no pains to render it worthy of their gracious acceptance; and 
 this consideration gives me some claim to their candour and indulgence, for 
 any defects they may find in it. I have endeavoured to render my translation 
 faithful, but nev^er proposed to render it entirely literal. The style of the 
 original is by no'* means a model to imitate, in a work designed for general, 
 use. Dr. Mosheim afiiected brevity, and laboured to crowd many things into 
 few words; thus his diction, though pure and correct, became sententious and 
 harsh, without that harmony which pleases the ear, or those transitions 
 which make a narration flow with ease. This being the case, I have some- 
 times taken considerable liberties with my author, and followed the spirit of 
 his narrative without adhering strictly to the letter. Where, indeed, the 
 Latin phrase appeared to me elegant, expressive, and compatible with the 
 English idiom, T have constantly followed it; but, in all other cases, I have 
 departed from it, and have often added a few sentences, to render an observa- 
 tion more striking, a fact more clear, a portrait more finished. JIad I been 
 translating Cicero or Tacitus," I should- not have thought such freedom par- 
 donable. The tr-anslation of a classic author, like the copy of a capital pic- 
 ture, must exhibit not only the subject but also the manner of the original: 
 this rule, however, is not applica:ble to the work now under consideration. 
 
 When I entered upon this undertaking, I proposed rendering the additional 
 notes more numerous and ample, than the reader will find them. I soon 
 perceived that the prosecution" of my original plan would render this work 
 too voluminous; and this induced me to alter my purpose The nt)tes I have 
 given are not, however, inconsiderable in number; I wish I could say as much 
 with respect to their merit and importance. I would only hope that some of 
 them will be looked upon as not altogether unnecessary, 
 Hague, Dec. 4, 17'64. 
 
 • We omit the intervening part of Dr. Maclainc's Preface, because its insertion is rendered 
 unnecessary by the biographical sketch whichlthe Editor has given. 
 
THE EDITOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 In evefy civilized , country, the - ministers of religion, from the nature of 
 their education, may be expected to be conversant in literature: but in no 
 country do they appear to be so fond of imparting their thoughts to the world, 
 by the medium of the press, as in Germany. The greater part of their pro- 
 ductions, indeed, pass silently into the gulf of oblivion, while some remain, 
 and excite continued attention. To the latter class may be assigned the His- 
 tory of the Christian Church, written by Dr. John Laurence von Mosheim. 
 
 Academical honours and ecclesiastical dignities have frequently been ob- 
 tained by persons who were born in the lowes'f sphere of life; and' it may 
 therefore be supposed that Mosheim might have obtained such honours and 
 rewards by his abilities and erudition, even if he had been' the son of an 
 ordinary tradesman, of a low mechanic, or a rude peasant: but ^ that was not 
 his fate; for he was born (in the year 1695) of a family' that boasted of high 
 rank and noble blood. Lubeck was the place of his birth; but, in the short 
 accounts of him wJiich have fallen under our notice, the scene of his academi- 
 cal education is not mentioned. He gave early judications of a promising 
 capacity, and of a strong desire of mental and literary improvement; and, 
 when his parents proposed to him the choice of a profession, the church 
 suggested itself to him as a proper department for the exeycise of that zeal 
 which disposed him to be useful to society. 
 
 Being ordained a minister of the Lutheran church, he soon distinguished 
 himself as a preacher. His eloquence was impressive: he could wield with 
 force the weapons of argumentation; and his language was neat, perspicuous, 
 and accurate. He did not bewilder his auditors in the refinements of doctrine, 
 or the-profun'dities.of speculation, but generally contented himself with stating 
 the chief doctrinal points of Christianity, while he enforced the useful pre- 
 cepts of practical religion, recommending pious feelings, benevolent affections, 
 an orderly demeanour, correct morals, and virtuous habits. 
 
 His reputation as a preacher, however high, was local and confined: but 
 the fame of his literary ability diffused itself among all the nations of Chris- 
 tendom. The Danish court invited him to Copenhagen, and rewarded his 
 merit by the grant of a prqfessoirship in. the university of that capital. The 
 duke of Brunswick-Wolffenbuttel afterwards patronised him; and, having 
 solicited his return to Germany, not only procured for him ths theological 
 chair at Helmstadt,. but appointed him counsellor to the court in the affairs of 
 the churchj and invested him with authority over all the seminaries of learn- 
 ing in the duchy. Even king George the Second, who, though a respectable 
 prince, was /not distinguished as an encourager of literary merit, entertained 
 a' high opinion of the character of Dr. Mosheim, and selected him for the 
 dignified office of chancellor or president of the university of Gottingen. He 
 discharged the duties of that station with zeal and propriety, and his conduct 
 gave general satisfaction. His death, therefore, was sincerely lamented by 
 all ranks of people, particularly as it did not occur in the extremity of age; 
 for he had not completed his sixty-first year. 
 
 His literary labours were principally connected with his theological profes- 
 sion. He wrote, in the language of ancient Rome, an account of the affairs 
 and state of the Christians before the reign of Constantine the Great; — a vin- 
 dication of the early discipline of those votaries of pure religion;^ — a narrative 
 of the chief incidents of the life of the unfortunate Servetus, the martyr of 
 
vyaiviinsiiu -uigwu'^j— uisaeriauuiia un vanuus auujcuis ui a aauicu iiaiujicj^— 
 
 and a translation of t^e celebrated- work of Dr. Ralph Cud worth upon the 
 intellectual system of the universe, accompanied with erudite remarks and 
 judicious illustrations. ' ' 
 
 His history of the church was at first a small work, which appeared uncjer 
 the title of Institutiones Historias Christianae, and passed through several 
 editions. He was repeatedly urged by his learned friends to extend a work 
 which they represented as too meagre for theimportance of the' subject. He 
 acknowledged the applicability of the objection; but alleged various avoca- 
 tions, as an excuse for. non-compliance. To "the wish of the public he at 
 tength acceded; and, having employed two years in the augmentation and im- 
 provement of his history, he published it in the' year 17.55, with a dedication 
 to Burchard Christian baron Behr, one of the counsellors of regency to his 
 Britanic majesty for the 'electorate of Hanover. In the preface, he solemnly 
 thanked God- for having -given him strength and ability, to finish a difiieult and 
 tedious work (opus difficile, non undde causd, et twdii plenum.) He, at the 
 same' time, -lamented that he was almost worn' out with labours and cares. 
 Thus did he seemingly pfedict his speedy dissolution; aiTd, before the end of 
 that year, his honourable and useful life was closed by the wjU of Providence. 
 
 Being desirous of pi*b6uring, for-a' work' so replete with 'information, a more 
 general perusal than its Latin dress would allow. Dr. Maclaine, a learned 
 minister of the English church m-HoUand, undertook" fhe task of translating 
 it; and the attempt was by no means unsuccessful, • For his translation there 
 is a permanent demand;' and a new edition is therefore submitted to the public 
 eye, after that revision and correction which appeared to be necessary. A 
 continuation is subjoined, that the reader might riot regret tlie want of a re- 
 ligious and ecclesiastical history of recent times; and the translator's appendix 
 has been enriched with a judicious essay, the offspring of the spontaneous 
 Zeal of a distinguished divine of the Episcopal church in Scotland. 
 
 , - C. COOTE. 
 
 JUdy 15, 1826. 
 
THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 The different editions of my Elements of the Christian History met with 
 such a favourable reception, and so great was the demand for them, that they 
 were soon out of print. On this occasion, the worthy person, at whose- ex- 
 pense they had been presented to the public, advised'lhat a new edition should 
 be given of the same work, improved and enlarged. The other occupations in 
 which I was engage^, and a prudent consideration of the labour I must undergo 
 in the correction and augmentation of a work in which I myself perceived 
 so many iinperfections, prevented my yielding, for a long time, to his earnest 
 solicitations. But the importunities of my friends at length,; prevailed upon 
 me to undertake the difficult task; and I have assiduously eiilployed my hours 
 of leisure, during two years, in bringing the work to as high a degree of per- 
 fection as I am capable of giving to it;' so that now these Elements of Eccle- 
 siastical History appear under a new form, and the changes they have under- 
 gone are certainly advantageous in avery respect. I have still retained the 
 division of the whole* into certain periods; for, though a continued narration 
 would have been more agreeable to my own taste, and had also several cir- 
 cumstances to recommend it, yet the counsels of some learned men who have 
 experienced the great advantages of this division, engaged me to prefer the 
 former to every other method; and indeed, when we examine this matter with 
 due attention, we shall be disposed to allow, that the author, who proposes 
 comprehending in one work all the observations and facts which are necess_ary 
 to an acquaintance with the state, of Christianity in the different ages of the 
 church, will find it impossible to execute this design, without adopting cer- 
 tain general divisions of time, and others of a more particular kind, naturally 
 ■ pointed out by the variety of objects that demand a place in his history. And, 
 as this was my design in the following work, I have left its- primitive form 
 entire, and made it my principal business to correct, improve, and augment it 
 in such a manner, as to render it more instructive and entertaining to the reader. 
 My principal care has been employed in establishing upon the most solid 
 foundations, and confirming by the most respectable authority, the credit of 
 the facts related in this history. For this purpose,'"! have drawn irom the 
 fountain-head, and have gone to those genuine sources from w^hich the pure 
 and uncorrupted streams of evidence flow. , I have consulted the best authors 
 of every age, and chiefly those who were contemporary with the events 
 which they record, or lived near the periods in which they happened; and 
 I have endeavoured to report their contents with brevity, perspicuity, and 
 precision. Abbreviators, generally speaking, do little more than reduce to a 
 short and narrow compass those large bodies of history, which have been 
 compiled from original authors. This method may be, in some measure, 
 justified by several reasons, and therefore is not to be entirely disapproved: 
 hence, nevertheless, it happens, that the errors, which almost always abound 
 in large and voluminous productions, are propagated with facility, and, pass- 
 ing from onfe book into many, are unhappily handed down from age to age^ 
 This I had formerly observed in several abridgements; and I had lately the 
 mortification to find some instances of this in my work, when I examined it 
 by the pure lamps of antiquity, and compared it willi those original records 
 which are considered as the genuine sources of sacred history. It was then 
 that I perceived tlie danger of confiding implicitly even in those who are the 
 most generally esteemed on account of their fidelity, penetration, and dili- 
 
THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE. vii 
 
 gence; and it was .then also that I became sensible of the necessity of adding, 
 suppressing, changing, and correcting several things in the small work (al- 
 ready mentioned) which I formerly publlshedi - In the execution of this 
 necessary task, I can affirm with truth, that I have, not been deficient in per- 
 severance, industry, or attention; and yet, with all these, it is exceedingly 
 difficult to avoids mistakes of every kind, as those who- are acquainted with 
 the nature of historical researches abundantly know. How far I have ap- 
 proached to that -inaccessible degree of exactness, which is chargeable with 
 no error, must be Igft to the decision of those whose extensive knowledge of 
 the Christian history entitles -them to pronounce "judgment in this matter. 
 That such may judge witTi the greater, facility, I have mentioned the authors 
 who have been my guides; and, if I have in any respect misrepresented their 
 accounts or their sentiments, I must confess that I am much more inexcusable 
 than some other historians, who have met with and deserved the same re- 
 proach, since I have attentively perused and compared the various authors fo 
 whose testimony I appeal, having formed a resolution of trusting to no au- 
 thority inferior to that of the original sources of historical truth. In order 
 to execute, with some degree of success, the design I formed of rendering 
 my abridgement more perfect, and of giving the history of the church as it 
 stands in the most authentic records", and in the writings of those 'whose 
 authority is most respectaWe, I, found rhyself obliged to m^ke many changes 
 and additions. These will be visible through the whole of the following 
 work, but more especially in the third book, which comprehends the history 
 of the Christian,, and 'particularly of the Latin of western church, from 
 Charlemagne to the rise of Luther and the commencement of the Reforma- 
 tion. This period of histpry, though it abound with shining examples, 
 though it be uiispeakably useful as a key to the knowledge of the political as 
 well as religious state of Europe, though it be singularly adapted to unfold the 
 origin and explain the reasons of many modern transactions, has nevertheless 
 been hitherto treated with less perspicuity, solidity, and elegance, than any 
 other branch of the history of the churqh. • Many writers have attempted to 
 throw light upon this interesting period; but the barbarous style of one part 
 of the number, the profound ignorance of some, and the -partial and factious 
 spirit of others, are such as render them by no means inviting; and the enor- 
 mous bulk and excessive price of the pfoductions of' some of the best of these 
 writers must necessarily rhake thein scarce. It" is farther to be observed, that 
 some of the most valuable records that belong to the period now under con- 
 sideration, remain yet in manuscript in the collections of the curious (or the 
 opulent, who are willing to pass for such,) and are thus concealed' from public 
 view. Those who consider the'se cilrcumstances will no longer be surprised, 
 that, in this part of the subject, the most learned and laborious writers have 
 omitted many things of consequence, and treated others without success. 
 Amongst these, the analists and other historians, so highly celebrated by the 
 church of Rome, such as Baronius, Raynaldus, Bzovius, Manriques, and 
 "Wadding, though they were amply furnished with ancient manuscripts and 
 records, have nevertheless committed more faiilts, and fallen into errors of 
 greater consequence, than other writers, «who were far inferior to them in 
 learning and credit, and had much less access to original records than they 
 were favoured with. ^ ^ 
 
 These considerations induce me to Hope, that the work which I now pre- 
 sent to the public will neither appear superfluous nor be found useless. For, 
 as I have employed many years in the most laborious researches, in order to 
 acquire a thorough acquaintance with the history of Christianity from the 
 eighth century downwards, and as I flatter myself that, by the aid both of 
 printed works and' manuscripts too little consulted, I have arrived at a more 
 certain and satisfactory knowledge of that period than ia to be found in the 
 
yiii THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 generality of writers, I cannot but think that it will be doing real service to 
 this branch of history to produce some of these discoveries^ as this may eh- 
 courage the learned and industrious to pursue the plan that I have thus begun, 
 and to complete the history of the Latin chu,rch, by. dispelling the darkness 
 of what is called the Middle Age. And, indeed I may venture to affirm, that 
 I have brought to light several things hitherto unknown; corrected from 
 records of undoubted authority accounts of other things imperfectly known, 
 and expressed with perplexity and confusion; and exposed the fabulous natuie 
 of many pretended. events that deform the annals of sacred history. I here 
 perhaps carry too far, that self-praise, which J,he candour and indulgence of the 
 public are disposed either to overlook as the infirmity, or to regard as the 
 privilege of old age. Those, however, who are. curious to know how far 
 this self-applause is just and well grounded, have only to cast an eye on the 
 illustrations I have given on <the subject of Constantine's donation, as also 
 with respect to the Cathari and Albigenses,4he Beghards and BegUiries, the 
 Brethren and Sisters of the Free Spirit (whose pestilential fanaticism was~a 
 public nuisance to many countries in Europe during a period of four hundred 
 years,} the Fratricelli or Little Brethren, the controversies between the Fran- 
 ciscans and the Roman pontiffs, the history of Berenger and the LoUards, and 
 other matters. When my illustrations of these-subjecls and points of histoiy 
 are compared with what we find concerning- them in other writers, it will, 
 perhaps appear, that my pretensions to the merit of some interesting dis- 
 coveries are not entirely without foundation. 
 
 The accessions to ecclesiastical history could not be exhibited with the 
 same brevity that I have observed In treating other subjects, which had been 
 amply enlarged upon by others; for this would have been incompatible with 
 the information* of. the curious, who would have received irnperfect and con- 
 fused notions of these subjects, and would have made me, perhaps, pass for a 
 fabulous writer, who advanced novelties, without mentioning either my guides 
 or my authorities.-- I have, therefore, not only explained all those points of 
 history which carry with them an air of novelty or recede considerably from 
 the notions commonly received, but have also*' confirmed them by a sufficient 
 number of observations and testimonies, so as to establish their credibility on 
 a solid foundation. The illustrations and enlargements, which, generally 
 speaking, have an appearance of disproportion and siiperfluity~in an historical 
 abridgement, were absolutely necessary in the present case. 
 
 These reasons engaged me to change the plan laid down in my former 
 work, and one peculiar consideration induced me to render the present history 
 more ample and voluminous. The elements before mentioned^ were princi- 
 pally intended for the use of those who are appointed to instruct the studious 
 youth in the history and vicissitudes of the Christian Church, and -veho stand 
 in need of a compendious tpxt ^to give a .certain order and method to th^ir 
 prelections.' In this view I treated each subject with the utmost brevity, and 
 left, as was natural and fitting, much to the learning and abilities of those 
 who might think proper to make use of these elements in their course of 
 instruction. But, in reviewing this compendious work with an intention of 
 presenting it anew to the public, I imagined it might be rendered more ac- 
 ceptable to many, by such improvements and enlargements as might adapt it 
 not only to the use of thos^who teach -others, but also of those who are de- 
 sirous of acquiring, by their own application, a general knowledge of eccle- 
 siastical history. It was with this view, that I made considerable additions 
 to my former work, illustrated many things that had been there obscurely ex- 
 pressed -for the salie of brevity, and reduced to a regular and perspicuous 
 order a variety, of facts, the recital of which had been more or less attended 
 with perplexity and confusion. Hence it is, that, in the following work, the 
 histoi'y of the calamities, in which the Christians of the first ages were in 
 
THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE. ix 
 
 volyed, and' the origin and progress of the sects and heresies which troubled 
 the church, are exhibited with an uncommon degree of accuracy and 
 precision. 
 
 Pence the various forms of religion, which have, sprung from the excessive 
 love of novelty, are represented without prejudice or partiality, and with all 
 possible perspicuity and truth. It is also in consequence of this change of 
 my original design, that I have taken the utmost pains to state more clearly 
 religious controversies, to estimate their respective moment and importaifce, 
 and to exhibit the. arguments. alleged on both sides; nor must I omit mention- 
 ing the care and labour I have employed in. giving. an exact narration of the 
 transactions, wars, and enterprising measures, of the Roman pontiffs, from 
 the reign of Charlemagne to the present time. ■ 
 
 Those, therefore, who are • prevented from applying themselves to a regu- 
 lar study of ecclesiastic^' history through want of leisure, or by not having 
 at hand the sources of instruction, and are nevertheless desirous of acquiring 
 a distinct knowledge of certaiti events, doctrines, or ceremonies, may consult 
 the following work, in which they will find the information they want; and 
 those who are inclined to push their inquiries still farther, will see the course 
 they must pursue, and find the authbrs mentioned whom it will be proper for 
 them to. consult. 
 
 It would?'betray an unpardonable presumption in me to imagine, that in a 
 work, whose plan is so extensive, and- whose contents are so various, I have 
 never fallen into any mistakes. But, as I am conscious to myself of having 
 conducted this undertaking with the most upright intentions, and of having 
 employed all those means which are generally looked upon as the best pre- 
 servavites against the seductions ,of error, I would-hope that the mistakes I 
 may have comrnitted are neither so frequent nor so momentous as to be pro- 
 ductive of any pernicious effects. * 
 I might add more; but nothing more is necessary to enable those to judge 
 of this work, who judge with knowledge, impartiality, and candour. I there- 
 fore conclude, by offering th§. just tribute of my gratitude to Almighty God, 
 who, amidst the infirmities of my advanced years and other pressures under 
 which I have labo'ured, has i^upplied me with strength to bring this difficult 
 work to Or conclusion. 
 
 Gottingen, March 23, 1755. 
 Vol.1.— 2 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 I. The Ecclesiastical History of the New Te.stament is a clear and faithful narration of tb« 
 transactions, revolutions, and events, that relate to that large community, vrhich bears the luLmit 
 of Jesus Christ, and is commonly known under the denomination of the Church. It com- 
 prehends both the external and internal condition of this community, and so connects each 
 event with the causes from which it proceeds, and the instruments which have been concemeJ 
 in, its production, that the attentive reader may be led to observe the displays of procidentia ( 
 wisdom and goodness in the preservation of the church, and thus find his piety Improved, hs 
 well as his knowledge. 
 
 II. The church, founded by the ministry and death of Christ, cannot he represented ■wiitr 
 greater perspicuity and propriety than under the notion of a society subjected to a lawful d(L 
 minion, and governed by certain laws and institutions, mostly of a moral and spiritual ten 
 dency. To such a society many external events must happen, which will advance or opposn 
 its interests, and accelerate or retard its progress toward perfection, in consequence of its un- 
 avoidable connexTon with the course and revolutions of human affairs. , Moreover, as nothing 
 is stable and uniform where the imperfections of humanity take place, this religious societj, 
 besides the vicissitudes to which it must be exposed from the influence of external events, mus 
 be hable to various charges in its internal constitution. In this view of things, then, it ap- 
 pears, that the history of the church', like that of the state, maybe divided with propriety intc 
 two general branches, whicli we may call its External' a.nd Internal RistOTy. 
 
 III. The External History of the Church comprehends all the changes, vicissitudes, and 
 events, that have diversified" the external state and condition of tliis sacred coriimunity. And 
 asallpnblicsocietieshave their periods of lustre and decay, and are exposed to revolutions 
 both of a happy and calamitous natujte, so this first branch of Ecclesiastical History may ht 
 subdivided into two, comprehending, respectively, the prosperous- and calamitous events tht( 
 liave happened to the church. 
 
 IV. The prosperous events that have contributed to extend the limits, or to augment the in 
 fluence, of the Christian church, have proceeded either from its rulers and leaders, or from the 
 subordinate members of this great community. "Under the former" dass, we rank its public 
 rulers, such as princes, magistrates, and pontiffs, who, by their authority and laws, their liber^ 
 ahty, and even their arms, have maintained its cause and extended its borders; as also, its 
 more private leaders, its learned and pious doctors', whose wise counsels, pious exploits, emi- 
 nent examples, and distinguished abilities, have contributed most to promote its true prosperity 
 and lustre. Under the latter class, we may comprehend the advantages which the cause of 
 Christianity has derived from the active faith, the invincible constancy, .the fervent piety, and 
 extensive charity, of its genuine professors, who, by the attractive lustre of these amiable vir- 
 tues, have led many into the way of truth, and engaged them to submit themselves to the em- 
 pire of the Messiah. 
 
 V. Under the caiamiioMS events that have happened to the church, may be comprehended 
 the injuries it has received ftom the vices and passions of its friends, and the bitter Opposition 
 and insidious stratagems of its ehemies. '^ The professors of Christiaiiity, and more especially 
 the doctors and rulers of the church, have done unspeakable detriment to the cause of religion, 
 by their ignorance and sloth, their luxury and ambition, their uncharitable zeal, animosities 
 and contentions, of which many shocking examples will be exhibited in the course of this his- 
 tory. Christianity had public enemies to encounter, even princes, and magistrates, who oppos- 
 ed its progress by penal laws, and blood-thirsty persecution; it had also private and inveterate 
 adversaries in a certain set of philosophers, or rather sophists, who, enslaved by superstition, 
 or abandoned to atheism, endeavoured to blast the rising church by their perfidious accusa- 
 tions, and their virulent writings. ' . 
 
 VI. Such then are the events that are exhibited to -our view in the external history of the 
 church. Its Internal History comprehends the changes and vicissitudes that have happened in 
 its inward constitution, in that system of discipline and doctrine by which it stands distinguish- 
 ed from all other religious societies. This branch may be properly termed the History of the 
 Christian Religion. The causes of these internal jihangea are to be sought principally in the 
 conduct and measures of those whQ^ have presided and borne rule in the church. It has been 
 too frequently their practice to interpret the truths and precepts of rehgion in a manner ac- 
 commodated to their particular systems, or even to their private interests; and, while they have 
 found, in some, implicit obedience, they have met with warm opposition from others. Hence 
 have proceeded theological broils and civil conimotions, in which the cause of religion has 
 
 -often been defended at the expense both of justice and humanity. All these things must be 
 observed with the strictest attention by an ecclesiastical historian. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 1 1 
 
 " HI. Tie first thing, therefore, that should be naturally treated in the Interrud Hisliyry of the 
 *-'*<ch, is the history of its ministers, rulers, and form of government. When we look back 
 Kv i-he commencement of the Christian church, we find its government administered jointly 
 by the pastel's and -the people. - But, in process of time, the scene changes, and we see these 
 pajtors affecting- an air of pre-eminence and superiority, tramphng upoil the rights and privi- 
 leges of the community, and assum,uig to themselves a supreme authority, both in civil and 
 religious matters. This invasion of the rights of the people was at length carried to sueh a 
 height, that a single man administered, or at least claimed a right to administer, the aifairs 
 of the whole church with an unlimited sway. Among the doctors of these ea^ly times, there 
 were some who acquired, by their learned labours, a shining reputation and an universal in- 
 fluence; they were regarded as otacles; their decisions were handed down to posterity as sacred 
 rules'of faith and practice; and they thus deserve to be mentioned, with particular distinction^ 
 among the governors of the church, though no part of its public administration was actually 
 in their hands.* , ~^ 
 
 VIII. After giving an account of the rulers and doctors of the church, the ecclesiastical 
 historianjiroceeds to exhibit a view of the iaws that are peculiar to tliis sacred, community, 
 which form, as it were, its centre of union, and distinguish it from all other religious societies. 
 These laws are of two kinds. "The first are properly called divine, because they are immedi» 
 ately enacted by God himseff, and are contained in those sacred books, which carry the most 
 striking marks of a divine origin. They consist of those doctrines that are the olgects of faith 
 
 -pjid reason, and those precepts which are addressed to the heart and the affections. To the 
 second kind belong those Jato? which are merely of human institution, and derive their, au- 
 thority only from the injunctions of the rulers of the church. ' ~ 
 
 IX. In Uiat part of the sacred history which relates to the doctrines of Christianity, it is 
 necessary, above all things, to inquire particularly into the degree of authority tiiat has been 
 attributed to the sacred writings in the different periods ofj^he church, and also into the man- 
 ner in which the di^e doctrines they contain, liave been pxplained and illustrated. For tho 
 true state of religion m every age can o'nly be learned from ^e point of view in which these 
 celestial oracles were considered, and from the manner in which they were expounded to the 
 people. As long as they were the only rule of faith, religion preserved its native purity; and, 
 in proportion as their decisions were either neglected or postponed to the inventions of men, 
 
 . it degenerated from its prinutive and divine simplicity. It is farther necessary to show, under 
 this head, what was the fate of the pure- laws and doctrines of Christianity — how they were 
 interpreted and explained — how they were defended against the enemies of tlie Gospel — ^how 
 they were corrupted and adulterated by the ignorance and licentiousness of men. And, finally, 
 it will be proper to inquire here, how far the liv^s and manners of Christians have been con- 
 formable to the dictates of the^e sacred laws, and to the influenjbe that these sublime doctrines 
 ought to have upon the hearts of men; as also to examine the rules of discipline prescribed by 
 the spiritual governors of the church, in order to correct and restrain the vices and irregularl? 
 ties of its rnembers. 
 
 X. The Human Lmbs, that constitute a part of ecclesiastical government, consist in pre- 
 cepts concerning the external worship of the Deity, and in certain rites, either confirmed by 
 custom, or introduced by positive and express authority. Rites and ceremonies regard religion 
 either directly or iridirectly; by the former, we understand those which are used in the imme- 
 diate worship of the Supreme Being, whether in public or in private; by the latter, such pious 
 and decent institutions as, beside direct acts of worsllip, have prevailed in the church. This 
 
 -part of sacred history is of a vast extent, both on account of the great diversity of these cere- 
 monies, and the-ftequent, chaiiges and modifications through which they have passed. This 
 consideration will justify our treating them with brevity, in a work which is only intended for 
 a compendious view of ecclesiastical history. • -„ 
 
 XI. As bodies politic are sometimes distracted with wars and seditions, so has the Christian 
 church, though designed to be the mansion of charity and cbucord, been unhappily perplexed 
 by intestine divisions, occasioned sometimes by points of doctrine, a,t others: by a variety of 
 sentiments about certain rites and eeremonies. The principal authors of these divi.sions have 
 been stigmatized with the title of Hereiics, and their peculiar aj>inions of- consequence distin- 
 guished by the appellation of lleremi.\ The nature therefore and progress of these intestine 
 divisions or Iwresies are to be carefully unfolded; and, if this be done with judgment and im- 
 partiality, it must prove useful and interesting in the highest degree, though at the same tune 
 it must be observed, that no branch of ecclesiastical history is so painful and difficult, on ac- 
 count of the sagacity, candour, and application that it requires, in order to its being treated in a 
 satisfactory manner. The difficulty of arriving at the truth, in researches of tms nature, is 
 extreme, on account of the injurious treatment that ha^ been shown to the heads of religious 
 sects, and the unfair representations that have been made of their tenets and opinions; and this 
 difficulty has been considerably augmented by this particular circumstance, that the greatest 
 part of the writings of those who were branded with the name of heretics have not reached 
 
 * By these our author means the J\rfAers, whose writings form still a rule of faith ia the Romish church, frhile, 
 in the Protestant churches, their authority diminishes from day to day. 
 
 t A term innocent in its primitiTe ^signification, though become odious by the enormity of some errors, to which 
 it has been applied, and also by the use that haabeenmadeof it^ togire vent to'the malignity of enthusiasts aiitl 
 higota. 
 
18 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 emi times. It is therefore the duty of a candid historian to avoid attaching to this term the 
 invidious sense in which it is too often used, since it is the invective of all contending parties, 
 and is employed against truth as frequently as against error. The wisest method is to take 
 the word Heretic in its general signification, as denoting a person, who, either directly or in- 
 directly, has been the occasion of «xciting divisions and dissensions among Christians. 
 
 XII. After thus considering what constitutes the matter of Ecclesiastical History, it will be 
 proper to bestow a few thoughts on the manner of treating it, as this As a point of too much 
 importance not to deserve some ^ittention. And here we may observe, that, in order to ren- 
 der both the External and Internal History of the Church truly interesting and useful, it is 
 absolutely necessary to trace effects to their causes, and to connect events with the circum- 
 stances, views, principles, and instruments that have contributed to their existence. A bare 
 recital of facts can at best but enrich the memory, and furnish a certain degree of amusement; 
 but the historian who enters into the secret springs that direct the course of outward events, 
 and views things in their various relatidns; connexions, and tendencies, gives thus a proper ex- 
 ercise to the judgment of the reader, and administers, on many occasions, the most useful les- 
 sons of wisdom and prudence. It is true, s. high degree of caution is to be observed here; lest, 
 in disclosing the secret springs of public events, we substitute imaginary causes in the place of 
 real, and attribute the actions of men to principles they never professed. 
 
 XIII. In order to discover the secret causes of public events, some general, succours are to 
 be derived from the History of the Times in which they happened, and the Testimonies of the 
 Avihms by whom they are recorded. But, beside thepe, a considerable acquaintance with hvr 
 ■man nature, founded on long observation and experience, is extremely useful in researches of 
 this kind. The historian, who has acquired a competent knowledge of the views that occupy 
 th^ generality of men, who has studied a great variety of characters, and attentively observed 
 the S)rce and violence of human passions, togetlier with the infirmities and contradictions they 
 produce in the conduct of life, will find, iii this knowledge,, a key to the secret reasons and 
 motives which gave rise to inany of the most important eveiits of ancient times. An acquaint- 
 ance also with the manners and opmions of the persons concerned in the events that are related, 
 will contribute much to lead us to the true origin of things. 
 
 XIV. There are, however, beside thesq general views, particular considerations, wliich will 
 assist us still farther in tracing up to their true causes the various events of sacred history. 
 We must, for exBunple, in the external history of tlie church, attend carefully to two things; 
 first, to the political state of those kingdoms and nations in which, tlie Christian religion has 
 been embraced or rejected; and, secondly, to their religious state, i. e. the opinions they have 
 entertained concerning the divine nature, and theworship that is to be addressed to God. For 
 we shall then perceive, with grekter certainty and less difiiculty, the reason's of the different 
 receptioii Christianity has met»with in different nations, when we are acquainted with the re- 
 spective forms of civil government, the political maxims, and the public forms of religion that 
 prevailed in those cormtries and a.t those periods in which the Gospel receiyed encouragement, 
 or met with opposition. . __ ^ 
 
 XV. With respect -to the Internal History of the Church, nothing is more adapted to lay open 
 to view the hidden sprites of its various changes, than an acquaintance with the History, of 
 Learning and Philosophy in ancient times. For it is certain, that human learning and philo- 
 sophy have, in all times, pretended to modify the doctrines of Christianity; and that these pre- 
 tensions have extended. farther than belongs to the province of philosophy on the one hand, or 
 is consistent with the purity and simplicity of the Gospel on the other. It may also be ob- 
 served, that a knowledge of the forms of civil government, and of the supersjjtious rites and 
 institutions of ancient times, is not only useful, as we reinarked above, to illustrate several 
 things in the external history of the church, but also to render a satisfactory account of its irir 
 temal variations, 'both in point of doctrine and -worship. For the genius of human laws; and 
 the maxims of civil rulers, have undoubtedly had a great influence in forming the constitution 
 of tlie church; and even its spiritual leaders have, in too many instances, from an ill-judged 
 prudence, modelled its discipline and worship after the ancient superstitions. 
 
 XVi. We cannot be at any loss to know the sources from which this irnportant knowledge 
 is to bederived. The best writers of every age, who make mention of ecclesierstical affairs, 
 and particularly those who were contemporary with the events they relate, are to be carefully 
 consulted, since it is from credible testimonies and respectable authorities that history derives 
 a solid and permanent foundation. Our esteem for those writers, who may be considered as 
 the sources of historical knowledge, ought not however to lead us to treat with neglect the 
 historians and annalists, who haTe already made use of these original records, since it betrays 
 a foolish sort of vanity to reject the advantages that may be derived from the succours and 
 labours of those who have preceded us in their endeavours to cast light upon points that have 
 been for many ages covered with obscurity.* 
 
 XVII. From all this we shall easily discern the qualifications that are essential to a good 
 writer of ecclesiastical history. His knowledge of human affairs must be ponsiderable, and 
 his learning extensive. He must be endowed with a spirit of observation and sagacity; a habit 
 of reasoning with evidence and facility; a faithful memory; and a judgment matured by ex- 
 
 * The various writers of ecclesiastical history are enumerated by Sever. "Walt. Sluterijs, in his Propylaeum Hi»- 
 toriae Christians, published at Lunenburg, in 4to., in the year 1696; and by Gasp. Sagittarius, in his Introductio ad 
 Historiara EcclesiasUcam, singulasque ejus partes. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 13 
 
 perience, and strengthened by exercise. Such are the intellectual -endowments that are re- 
 quired in the character of a-good historian; and the moral qualities necessary to complete it, 
 are, a persevering and inflexihle attachment to truth and virtue, a freedom from the servitude 
 of prejudice and' passion, and a laborious and patient turn of mind. 
 
 XVIII. Those who undertake to write the history of the Chiistian dhurch are exposed to 
 the reception of a bias from three different sources; from times, persons, and opinions. The 
 times, in which \^e live, have often so great an influence on our manner of judging as to make 
 us consider the events which happen in our days, as a rule by which we are to edStaaXe the 
 probability or evidence of those that are recorded in the history of past ages. The persons, on 
 whose testimonies we think we have reason to depend, acquire an imperceptible authority over 
 our sentiments, that too frequentjy seduces us to adopt their errors, especially if these persons 
 have been distinguished by eminent degrees of sanctity and virtue. And an attachment to 
 favourite opinions, leads authors sometimes to pervert, or, at least, to modify,Hract^ in favour of 
 those who have embraced these opinions, or to the disadvantage of such as have opposed 
 them. These kinds of seduction are so much the more dangerous, as those whom they de- 
 ceive are, in innumerable cases, insensible of their delusion, and of the false representations 
 of thiiigs to which it leads them. It is riot necessary to observe the solemn obligations that 
 bind an historian to guard against these three sources of error with the most delicate circum- 
 spection, and the most scrupulous attention. 
 
 XIX.' It is well known, nevertheless, how far ecclesiastical historians, in all ages, have de- 
 parted from these riJles, and from others of equal evidence and importance. For, not to men- 
 tion those who lay* claim to a high Tank amorig the writei-s of history in. consequence of a 
 Jiappy- memory, loaded with an ample heap'of materials, or those wht)se pens are ratl\er guided 
 by sordid views of interest than by a generous love of truth, it is too evident, hOw few in num- 
 ber the unprejudiced and impartial historians are, whom neither the influence of the sect to 
 which they belong, nor the venerable and imposing names of antiquity, nor the spirit of the 
 times and the torrent of prevailing -opinion, can turn aside from the rigid pursuit of truth 
 alone. In the "present age, morejespecially, the spirit of the times, and the influence of pre- 
 dominaxii opinions, have gained with many an incredible ascendency. Hence we find fre- 
 quently in the writings, even of learned men, such wretched arguments as thesei^SttcA an 
 opiriion is true; therefore it rmst of necessity have been adopted kg the primitive Christians. — Christ 
 -has commanded us to liv^e in such a manner; tlier^ore it is undoubtedly certain, that the Christian^ 
 of ancient timzs lived so.^^ certaijii custom does not take place now; therefore it did not prevail in 
 farmer times. 
 
 XX. If those who apply themselves to the composition, of Ecclesiastical History be careful 
 to avo'd the sources of error mentioned above, their labours will be eminently useful to man- 
 kind, and more -especially to those who are called to the important oflice of instructing others 
 in the sacred truths and duties of Christianity. The history of the church presents to our 
 view a variety of objects that are every way adapted to coimrm our faith. When we con- 
 template here the discouraging obstacles, united, eiforts of Jkingdoras and empires, and the 
 dreadJ^il calamities whiclbi Christianity, in its very iniimoy, was obliged to encounter, and over 
 'which it gained an immortal victory, this will be sufiicient to fortify its true and zealous pro- 
 fessors against all the threats, cavils, and stratagems, of profane and impious men. The great 
 and shining examples also, whiclb display their lustre, more or -less, in every period of the 
 Christian history, must have an admirable tendency to inflame our piety, and to excite, even 
 in the coldest and pipst insensible hearts, the love of God and virtue. Those amazing revo- 
 lutions and events that distinguished every -age of the church, and often seemed to arise from 
 small beginnings, and causes of little consequence, proclain), with a solemn and respectable 
 voice, the empire of Providence, and also the inconstancy and vanity of human affairs. And, 
 among- the many advantages that arise from the study of Ecclesiastical History, it is none of 
 the least, that We shall see therein the origin and occasions of those ridiculous rites, absurd 
 opinions,'foolish superstitions, and pemicioiis errors, with which Christianity is yet disfigured 
 in too many parts of the world. Tbis knowledge will natmally lead us to a view of the truth 
 in its beautiful simplicity, will engage us to love it, and render us zealous in its defence; not 
 to mention the pleasure and satis&ction that we must feel in researches and discoveries of such 
 an interesting kind. ^ ■ 
 
 _ XXI. They, more especially, who are appointed to instruct the youth in the public imiver- 
 sities, and also such as are professionally devoted to the service of the church, will derive from 
 this study the most useful lessons of wisdom and prudence, to direct them in the discharge of 
 their respective ofiices. On the one hand, the inconsiderate zeal and temerity of others, and 
 the pernicious consequences with which they have been attended, will teach circumspection; 
 and in the mistakes into which even men of eminent merit and abilities have fallen, they will 
 . often see the things they are obliged to avoid, and the sacrifices it will be prudent to make, in 
 order to maintain peace and concord in tlie church. On the other hand, illustrious examples 
 and salutary measures will hold forth to them a rule of conductj a lamp to show them the 
 paths they must pursue. It may be farther observed, that, if we except the arms which Scrips 
 ture and reason furnish against superstition and error, there is nothing that will enable us to 
 combat them with more efficacy than the view of their deplorable "effects, as they are repre- 
 sented to us in the history of the church. It would be endless to enumerate all the advanta- 
 ges that result from the study of Ecclesiastipal History^ experience alone can display these in 
 
14 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 all their extent; nor shall we mention the benefits that may be derived &om it by those who 
 have turned their views to other sciences than that of theology, and its more peculiar utility 
 to such as are engaged in the study of the civil law. All this would lead us too far from our 
 present design. 
 
 XXII. As the history of the church is External or Internal, so the manner of treating \t must 
 be suited to tliat division. As to the first, when the narration is long, and the thread of the 
 history runs through a great number of ages, it is proper to divide it into certain periods, which 
 will give tlie reader time to breathe, assist memory, and also introduce a certain method and 
 order into the work. In tlie following histoSy tlie usual division into centuries is adopted in 
 preference to all others, because most generally approved, though it may be attended with dif- 
 ficulties and inconveniences. 
 
 XXIII. A considerable part of these inconveniences will bo however removed, if, beside this 
 smaller division into centuries, we adopt a larger one, and divide the space of time that elapsed 
 between the birth of Christ and our days into certain grand periods, whith were distinguished 
 by signal revolutions or remarkable events. It is on this account that we have judged it ex- 
 pedient to comprehend the following History in Four Books, which will embrace four remark- 
 able periods. The First will be employed in exhibiting the state and vicissitudes of the Chris- 
 tian church, from its commencement to the time of Constantine'the Great. The Second will 
 comprehend the period that extends from the reign of Constantino to that of Charlemagne, 
 which produced such a remarkable change in the face of Europe. The Third will contain the 
 History of the Church, fi:om the time of Charlemagne to the memorable period when Luther 
 arose in Germany, to oppose the tyranny of Rome, and to deliver divine truth from the dark- 
 ness that covered it. And the Fourth will cany down the same history, &om the rise of Lu- 
 ther to the present times. 
 
 XXIV. We have seen above, that the sphere of Ecclesiastical History is extensiye, that it 
 comprehends a great variety of objects, and embraces political as well as religious matters, so 
 far as the fermer are related to the latter, either as causes or effects. But, however great the 
 diversity of these objects may be, they are'closely connected; and it is the particular business 
 of an ecclesiastical historian to observe a method that will show. this connexion in the most 
 conspicuous point of view, and form into one regular wlwle a variety of parts that seem hete- 
 rogeneous and discordant. Different writers on this subject have followed different methods, 
 according to the diversity of their views and their peculiar manner of thinking. The order I 
 have observed will be seen above in that part of this Introdwetiim, which treats of the subject- 
 matter of Ecclesiastical History; the mention of It is tbereibre~oinitted here, to avoid uuiie- 
 cessary repetitions. 
 
AN 
 
 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 
 
 BOOK I. 
 
 CONTAINIM} THE fflSTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH, FROM ITS 
 ORIGIN, TO THE TIME OF CONSTANTINE THE GREAT- 
 
 PART I. 
 
 COMPREHENDING THE EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH, 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Concerning the Civil and Religious State'of the 
 World at the Birth of Christ. 
 
 I. A GREAT part of the world was >suhject 
 to the Roman empire, when Jesus Christ 
 made his appearance upon earth. Th^ re- 
 moter nations which had submitted to the yoke 
 of fliis mighty empire, were ruled either by 
 Roman , governors invested with temporary 
 commissions, or by their own princes and laws, 
 m slibOTdination to the- republic, whose sove- 
 reignty was to.be acknowledged, and from 
 wMch the conqueredkings,,whd were continued 
 in their dominioiis, derived their borrowed 
 majesty. At the same time, the Roman peo- 
 ple and their venerable senate,'- though they 
 had not lost all shadow of liberty,, were iii 
 reality reduced to a state of servile submis- 
 sion to Augustus CsBsar,. who, by artiiioe, per- 
 fidy, and bloodshed, hsid acquired an enor- 
 mous degree of power, and united in his own. 
 person tiie pompous titles of emperor, sove- 
 reign, pontiff, censor, tribune of the people, 
 proconsul; in a word, all the great offices of 
 the state.* 
 
 II. The Roman government, considered both 
 with respect to its form . and its laws, was 
 certainly mil(| and equitable.f But the in- 
 justice and avarice of the prsetors and pro- 
 consuls, and the ambitious lust of conquest 
 and dominion, which was the predomiiant 
 passion of the Roman people, together with 
 the rapacious proceedings of the publicans, by 
 whom the taxes of the empire were levied, 
 were tfie occasions of perpetual tumidts and in- 
 supportable grievances; and among the many 
 
 * Sec'for this purpose the learned work oJF Augustin 
 Campianua, entitled, De Officio et Fotestate Magistratuum 
 . Komanorum et Jurisdictioue, lib. i. cap. i. p. 3, 4, &c. 
 Gencvae, 1725. 
 
 f See Moyle's Essay on the Constitution of the Roman 
 OoTernment, in^the posthumous works of that author, 
 vol* ii as also Scip. Maffei Verona illustrata, lib. ii. 
 
 evils which thence arose we may justly reckon 
 the formidable armies, that were necessary to 
 support these ejctortions in the provinces, and 
 the civil wars which frequ^tly broke out be- 
 tween the oppressed nations and their haughty 
 conquerors. 
 
 III. It must,- at the same time, be acknow- 
 ledged, that this supreme dominion of one 
 fleople, or rather of one man, over so many 
 kingdoms, was attended with many considera- 
 ble advantages to mankind in general, tod ta 
 the. propagation and advancement of Christ!-^ 
 anity in particular; for, by the means of this- 
 ahnost universal empire, many nations, differ- 
 ent in- their languages and their manners, were 
 more intimately united in social intercourse. 
 Hence a "passage was opened to the remotest 
 countries, by the communications vvhich the 
 Romans formed between the conquered pro- 
 vinces.* Hence also the nations, whose miui- 
 ners were savage and barbarous, were civilized 
 by the laws and commerce of the Romans. 
 And by this, in short, the benign influence of 
 letters and philosophy was spread abroad in 
 countries which had lain before under the 
 darkest ignorance. ' All this contributed, n» 
 doubt, in a singular manner, to facilifote the 
 progress of the Gospel, and to crown the la 
 hours of its first ministers and heralds with 
 success.f 
 
 IV. The Roinan empire, at the birth of 
 Christ, was less agitated by wars and tumults, 
 than it had been for many years before; for,., 
 though I cannot assent to the opinion of those 
 wlio, following the account of Orosius, main- 
 tain that the" temple of Janus was then shut, 
 and that wars and discords absolutely ceased 
 
 * See; for an illustration of this point, Kistoire des 
 grands Chemins, de I'Empire Romaln, par Nicol. Ber- 
 gicr, printed in the year 1728. See also the very learned 
 Brerard Otto, De tutela Viarurn publicarum, part li. 
 
 t Origen, among others, makes particular mention of 
 this, inHhe second baoll of his answer to Gelius. 
 
16 
 
 EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part I. 
 
 throughout the world,* yet it is certain, that 
 the period, in which our Saviour descended 
 upon earth, may be justly styled the Pacific 
 •Sge, if we compare it with the preceding times; 
 and indeed the tranquillity that then reigned, 
 was necessary to enable the ministers of Christ 
 to execute, with success, their subliine com- 
 mission to tlie human race. 
 
 V. The want of ancient records renders it 
 impossible to say any thing satisfactory or cer- 
 tain cBncerning the state of those nations. 
 who did not receive the Roman yoke; nor, in- 
 deed, is their history essential to our present 
 pnrf)0se. It is sufficient to observe, with re- 
 spect to them, that those who inhabited the 
 eastern regions were strangers to the sweets 
 of liberty, and groaned, under the burthen of 
 an oppressive yoke. Their softness and effemi- 
 nacy, both in point of manners and bodily 
 constitution, contributed to make them sup- 
 port their slavery with an unmanly patience; 
 and even the religion they professed riveted 
 their chains. On the contrary, the northern 
 nations enjoyed, in their frozen dwellings, the 
 blessings of sacred freedom, which their go- 
 vernment, theirjeligion; a robust and vigorous 
 frame of body' and spirit, derived from the in- 
 clemency and severity of > their climate, all 
 united to preserve and maintain.f 
 
 VI. Ail these nations lived in the practice 
 of the most abominable superstitions; for, 
 thoug]|;the notion of one Supreme Being was 
 hot entirely effaced in the human mind, but 
 showed itself frequently, even through the 
 darkness of the grossest idolatry; yet all na- 
 tions, except tliat of the Jews, aclaiowledged 
 a number of governing powers, whom they 
 called gods, and one or more of which they 
 supposed to preside over each particular pro- 
 vince or people. They worshipped these ficti- 
 tious deities vvjth various rites; they considered 
 them as widely different from each other in 
 sex and power, in their nature, and also in 
 their respective offices; ana they appeased 
 them by a multiplicity of ceremonies and of- 
 ferings, in order to obtain their protection and 
 favour; so that, however different the degrees 
 of enormity might be, with which tliis Ttbsurd 
 and impious theology appeared in different 
 countries, yet there was no nation, whose sa- 
 cred rites and religious worship did not -dis- 
 cover a manifest abuse of . reason, and very 
 striking marks of extravagance and folly. 
 
 , Vn. Every nation th^n h^d its respective 
 gods, over which presided one more excellent 
 than the rest, yet in such a manner that this 
 supreme deity was himself controlled by' the 
 rigid empire of the fates, or what the philoso- 
 phers called Eternal JVccessify. The gods of 
 the East were- different from those of the 
 Gauls, the Geimdns, and other northern na- 
 tions. The Grecian divinities differed widely 
 from those of the Egyptians, who deified plants, 
 animals, a,nd a great variety of the produc- 
 
 * See Jo. Massoni Tempi um Jaui, Chrjsto uascente, 
 reseratum, Roterodami, 1706. 
 
 t " Fere itaque itnperia (says Seneca)_ penes eos fu'ere 
 
 popul(0, qui miliore coelo utuntur: in frjgora septemtri- 
 
 onemque vergentibus immausuela ingcnia sunt, ut ait 
 
 poeta, suoque simillima coelo." .Seneca de Ira^ lib. ii. 
 
 - rap. xri. 
 
 tions both of nature and art.* Each people 
 also had a particular manner of worshipping 
 and appeasing their respective deities, entirely 
 different from the sacred rites of other coun- 
 tries. In process of time, however, the Greeks 
 and Romaiis became as ambitious in their re- 
 ligious pretensions, as in their political claims. 
 They maintained that i7te»r gods, though un- ^ 
 der -different names, were' the objects of reli- 
 gious worship in all nations, and therefore they 
 gave the names of their deities to those of 
 other countries.f This pretension, whether 
 supported by ignorance or other means, intro- 
 duced inexpressible darkness and perplexity 
 into the history of ths ancient superstitions, 
 and has been also the occasion of innumera- 
 ble errors in the writings of the learned. 
 , VIII. One thing, indeed, which, at first 
 sight,' appears very^emarkable, is, that this 
 variety of religions and of gods neither pro- \ 
 duce^vwars nor dissensions among the different 
 hationsj^e Egyptians exceptodi.J Nor is it, 
 perhaps, necessary to except even them, since 
 their wars undertaken for their gods cannot, 
 with propriety, be considered as wholly of a 
 religious nature. § Each nation suffered its 
 neighbours to follow their own method of wor- 
 ship, to adore their own gods, to enjoy their 
 own rites and ceremonies; and discovered no dis- 
 pleasure at their diversity of sentiments in re- 
 ligious matters. There is, however, little 
 wonderful in this spirit 5f mutual toleration, 
 when we consider, that they all looked upon 
 the world as one great empire, divided into 
 various provinces, over every one of which a 
 
 See the discourse of Athanasius,- entitled, Oratio 
 contra Gentes, in the first volume of his works. 
 
 f This fact affords a satisfactory account of the vast 
 number of gods who bore the name of Jupiter, and the 
 multitudes that passed under those of Mercury, Ve- 
 nus, Hercules, Juno, &c. The Greeks, -when they found, 
 in other countries, deities that resembled their own, 
 persuaded the worshippers of these foreign gods, that 
 their deities were the same with those who were honour- 
 ed in GreecET, and were, indeed, themselves convinced 
 that this Was the case. In consequence of this, they gave 
 the names of their gods to those of other ilationfi, and 
 the Romans in tliis followed thUr example. Hence we 
 fiiid the names of Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, Venus,^c 
 frequently mentioned in the more recent -monuments and 
 inscriptions which have been found among the Gauls and 
 Germans, though the ancient inhabitants, of those coun- 
 tries worshipped no gods under such denominations. 1 ^ 
 cannot think that this method of the Greeks and RonianB 
 has introduced so much -confusion into mythology as Dr. 
 Mosheim here imagines. If indeed there had been no 
 resemblance between the Greek and Roman deities, and 
 those of other nations, and if the iiames of the deities of 
 the former had been given to those of th'e latter in an 
 arbitrary and undistinguishing manner, the reflection o,f . 
 our historian would be undeniably true, But it 1^ been 
 alleged by many learned men, with a high degree of 
 probability, that-the principal deities of all nations. resem- 
 bled each other extremely in their essential characters,., 
 and if so, their receiving the same nainer could not in- 
 troduce much confusion into mythology, since they wqre 
 probably derived from one CQmmon source. If the Thor 
 of the ancient Celts was the same in dignity, character, 
 and attributes, with the Jupiter of the Greeks and Bo- 
 mans, where was the impropriety of giving the same 
 name? 
 
 X Ingenious observations are to be found upon this head 
 in the Expositio Mensse Isiacse of Fignorius. 
 
 ^ The religious wars of the Egyptians were not under- 
 taken to compel others to adopt their worship, but to 
 avenge the slaughter that was made of their gods, such " 
 as cfrocodiles, Sec, by the neighbouring nations. They 
 were not offended at their neighbours for serving other 
 divinities, but could ngt bear mat they should put theirs 
 to deatji. . 
 
Chap, I. 
 
 THE STATE OF THE WORLD. 
 
 17 
 
 certain order of divinities presided; and that, 
 therefore, none could behold with contempt tiie 
 
 foda of other nations, or force strangers to pay 
 oniage to theirs. The Romans exercised this 
 toleration in the amplest manner; for, though 
 they would not allow any changes to fee-rhade 
 in the. religions that were publicly professed in 
 the empire, nor any new form of worship to 
 be openly introduced, yet they granted to their 
 citizens a filll liherty of observing, in private, 
 the sacred rites of other nations, and of 
 " honouring foreign deities (whose worship con- 
 tained nothing inconsistent with the interests 
 and laws of l£e repuHjo) with feasts, temples, 
 consecrated groves, and the like testimonies 
 of homage ajid respect.* 
 IX. The deities of- almost all nations were 
 (either ancient heroes, renowned for noble ex- 
 Vloitsajad beneficent deeds, or kings'and gene- 
 rals who had founded empires, or women 
 rendered iUuatrious by remarkable actions or 
 useful inventions. The merit of these distin- 
 guished and eminent persons, contemplated by 
 their posterity with an enthusiastic gratitude, 
 was the reason of their being exalted to ce- 
 lestial, honours. The natural world fomished 
 another kind of deities, who were added to 
 these by some nations; and as the sun, moon 
 and stamr, shine forth with a lustre superior to 
 that of all other material beings, so, it is.cer 
 tain, that they particularly attracted the atten- 
 tion of mankind, and received religious hom- 
 iige from almost all the nations of the world. f 
 From these beings of a nobler kinif, idolatry 
 descended into an enormous multiplication of 
 inferior powers; so that, in many countries, 
 mountains, trees, and' rivers; the earth, the sea, 
 and the winds, and even virtues, vices., and 
 diseases, had their shrines attended by devout 
 and zealous worshippers. | 
 
 X. These deities were -honoured with rites 
 and sacriiices of various kinds, according to 
 their respective nature and offices. § The rites 
 used in their worship were absurd and ridicu- 
 
 * See concerning this interesting subject, a very curious 
 and learned treatise of the famous Bynlfershoek, entitled, 
 Dissertatio de cultu peregpinae religionis apud Ko.uianos. 
 This dissertation is to. he found in the Opuscula of that 
 excellent author, which were published at Leyden in the 
 year 1719. . •- _ . 
 
 f The ingenious editor of ^he> Ruins .6f Balbec has 
 given us, in the preface to that noble work, a very curi- 
 ous account- of the origin of the religious worship' that 
 was offered to the heavenly bodies by the, Syrians and 
 Arabians. In those uncotAfortable deserts, wlrere the 
 day presents nothing to the view, but' the uniform, tedr 
 ous, and melancholy prospect of barren sands, the night 
 discloses a most delightful and magnificent spectacle, and 
 appears arrayed with charms of the most attractive kind; 
 for the -most jiart unclouded and serene, it- exhibits to 
 the wondering eye the host of heaven, in all their amaz- 
 ing variety and glory. In the view-of this stupendous 
 scene, the transition from admiration to idolatry was too 
 easy to uninstructed minds; and a people, whose climate 
 offered no beauties to contemplate out those- of. the 
 - liripament, would- naturally be disposed tg look thither 
 for the objects of their worship. The form of idolatry, 
 in (xreece, was. different -from that, of the Syrians; and 
 Mr. Wood ingeniously attributes this to that sniiling and 
 variegated scene of mountains, valleys, rivers, groves, 
 woods, and fountains, which the transported imagination, 
 in thejnidst of its pleasing astonishment, supposed ^ be 
 the seats of invisible deities. See a farther account of 
 this matter in the elegant work above mentioned. 
 X See the learned work of J. G. Vossius, de idololatria, 
 6 See J. Saubertus, de sacrificiis veterum. Lug. Bat. 
 1699. 
 
 Vol. I.— 3 
 
 lous, and frequently cruel and obscene. Moat 
 nations offered animals, and some proceeded 
 to the enormity pf human sacrifices. As to 
 their prayers, they were void of piety and 
 sense, both with respect to tlMi matter and 
 their form.* Pontiffs, priest^,%.nd ministers,- 
 distributed into several classes, presided in this 
 strange worship, and were .appointed to pre- 
 vent disorder in the performance of the sacred 
 ptes; but, pretending to be distinguished by ' 
 an immediate intercourse and friendship -with 
 the gods, they abused their authority in the 
 basest ipanner, to deceive an ignorant and 
 wretched people. 
 
 Xr. The religious worship we have now . 
 been considering, was confined to stated times I 
 and places. The statues and other represen- 
 tations of the gods were placed in the temples,f 
 and supposed to be animated in an incompre- 
 hensible manner; for the votaries of these 
 fictitious deities, Ijowever destitute they might 
 be of reason in other respects, avoided carefialy 
 the imputation of worshipping inanimate be- 
 ings, such as brass, wood, and stone, and 
 therefore pretended that the divinity, repre- 
 sented by the statue, was reafijr present in it, 
 if the dedication was duly and- properly made, j 
 Xn. But, besides the public worship of the 
 gods, to which, a,ll without exception were ad- 
 mitted, certain rites were practised in secret by ^ 
 the -Greeks and several eastern nations, to 
 whifch a very small number had accesss These . 
 were coramonlycalled mysteries; and'Hie per- 
 sons who desired to be initiated therein, were 
 obliged previously to exhibit satisfactory proofs 
 of their fid.elity ^nd patience, by passing 
 through various trials and ceremonies of the 
 niost disagreeable kind. These secrets were 
 kept in f£e strictest manner, as the initi- 
 ated could not reveal any thing that passed on 
 those occasions, without exposing their lives 
 to the most imminent danger;§ and that is the 
 reason why< at this time, we are so little ac- 
 quainted with the true nature, and the real 
 design of these hidden rites. It is, however, 
 well known, that -in some of those mysteries, 
 many things were transacted which were con- 
 trary both to real modesty and outward de- 
 c,ericy. And, indeed, from the whole of the 
 pagan rites,, the intelligent few rtiight easily 
 learn, that the divinities generally worshipped 
 were rather men famous for their -vices, than 
 distinguished by virtuous and worthy deeds. || 
 
 Xm. It is, at least, certain, that this reli- 
 gion had not the least influence towards ex- 
 citing- or nourishing solid and true virtue in 
 the minds of-rneri. For the gods and goddesses, 
 to whom pubhc homage was paid, exhibited to . 
 their worshippers rather examples of egreg ious ( 
 crimes, than of .useful and illustrious vir- 
 
 * See M. Broi^erius a IViedeck, de adorationibus vete- 
 rum Fopiilorum, printed at Utrecht in 1711. 
 
 f Some nations were without temples, such as the Fer- 
 sians, Gauls, Germans, andHritons, who performed their 
 religious worship in the open air,' or in the shadowy re- 
 treats-of consecrated groves. 
 
 t See Arnobius adv. Gentes, lib. vi. — Au^uatin de civi- 
 tate Bei, lib. viir cap. xzxiii. and. the Misopogon of the 
 Emperor Julian.. 
 
 .$ See Clarkaon on the Liturgies, sect. iv. flnd'Meursiuf 
 de Mystefiis Eleusiniis. 
 
 U See Cicero, Disput. TuBCulan. lib. ii. cap. xiii' 
 
18 
 
 EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part I. 
 
 tues.* The gods, moreover, were esteemed 
 Buperior to men in power and immortality; 
 butj in every tiling else, they were considered 
 as their equaJs. — The priests were little solicit- 
 ous to animate the people to a virtuous con- 
 duct, either by their precepts or their exam- 
 ple. They plainly enough declared, that 
 whatever was essential to the true worship of 
 the gods, was contained only in the rites and 
 institutions which the people had received by 
 tradition from their ancestors.! -And as to 
 what regarded the rewards of virtue and the 
 punishment of vice after the present life, the 
 general notions were partly uncertain, partly 
 licentious, and often more calculated to ad- 
 minister indulgence to vice, than encourage- 
 ment to virtue. Hence, the wiser part of 
 mankind, about the time of Christ's birth, 
 looked upon this whole system of religion as a 
 just object of ridicule, and contempt. 
 
 XIV. The consequences of this . wretched 
 theology were a universal corruption and de- 
 pravity of manners,' which appeared in the 
 impunity of the most flagitious crimes.J Ju- 
 venal and Persius among the Latins, and Lu- 
 cian among the Greeks, bea.r testimony to the 
 justice of this heavy accusation. It is also 
 well known, that no public law prohibited the 
 sports of the gladiators, the exercise of un- 
 natural lusts, the licentiousness of divorce, 
 the custom of exposing infants, and of pro- 
 curing abortions, or the frontless atrocity of 
 publicly consecrating. stews and brothels to 
 certain divinities. § 
 
 XV. Such as were not sunk in an unac- 
 countable and brutish stupidity, perceived the 
 deformity of these religfcus systems. -To 
 these, the crafty priests addressed two conside- 
 rations, to prevent their incredulity, and to 
 dispel their doubts. The first was drawn from 
 the miracles and prodigies which they pre- 
 tended were daily wrought in the'temples, be- 
 fore the statues of the gods, and heroes that 
 were placed there; and tfte second was de- 
 duced from oracles and divination, by which 
 they maintained, that the secrets of futurity 
 were unfolded through the interposition of 
 the god?. In both these points the cunning 
 of the priests imposed miserably upon the 
 ^norance of the people; and, if the discerning 
 
 few saw the cheat, they were obliged, "{rom a 
 regard to their own safety, to langli with'cau- 
 4;ion, since tire-priests were ever ready to ac- 
 cuse, before a raging and superstitious multi- 
 tude, those' who disbovered their religious 
 frauds, as rebels against the majesty of- the 
 immortal gods. . 
 
 XVI. At the time of Christ's appearance 
 upon, earth, the religion of the Romans, as ' 
 well as their arms, had extended itself over a \ 
 great part of the world. This religion must I 
 be known to those who are acquainted with 
 the Grecian supei-stitions.* In some things, i 
 indeed, it differs from them; for the Romans, ] 
 
 * There is a very remarkable passage to this purpose 
 ia the Tristia_of Ovidj-lib. ii. 
 
 *' Qyis locus est templjs augusUor.^ haec quoque vitet, 
 
 . In culpam si quse est ingeniosa suam. 
 
 Cum steterit Jdvis aede, Jovis succurretin sede, 
 Q,uam multas m^res fecerit ille Deus. 
 
 Froxima adoranti Junonia templlsubibit, 
 S^icibus multis hail? dolufsse Beam. 
 
 Fallade couspect^, natum de erimine virgo 
 Sustiilerit-quare quzeret Erichthonium." 
 ■ t See Barbeyrac's Preface to hia French translation of 
 PufFendorf »s System of the Law of Nature and Nations, 
 sect. vi. ' 
 
 J The corrupt manners of those who then lay in the 
 darkness of idolatry are described in an ample and af- 
 fecting mannej, in the first of Cyprian's epistles. See' 
 also, pn thik subjeoE, Cornel. Adami Exercitatio de malis 
 fiomahorum antep^aedicationem Evangelii moribus. This 
 is the fifth, discourse. of a- collection published by that 
 iearned -writer at Groningen, in 1712. ^ 
 
 § See Dr. Jo'hn Leland's excellent account of the re- 
 lieiOUB sentiments, moral conduct, and future prospects 
 of the pagans, in his large work, entitled, The Advantage 
 and Ifecessity of the Christian Revelation. 
 
 beside the institutions which Numa and.others / 
 had invented with politicajl- views, added seve- 
 ral Italian fictions to the Grecian fables, and 
 gave also to the Egyptian deities a place 
 among their own.f 
 
 XVII. In the provinces subjected to the Ro- 
 man government, there arose a new kiiid of 
 religion, formed by a mixture of the ancient . 
 rites of the conquered nations with those of 
 the Romans. These nations, who, before their 
 subjection, had their own gods, and their own 
 particular religious institutions, were persuad- 
 ed, by degrees, to admit into their worship a 
 great number of the sacred rites and customs 
 of their conquerors. The view of the Romans, 
 in this change, was not only to confirm their 
 authority by the powerful aid of religion, but 
 also to abolish the inhuman rites wliich were 
 performed by.many of the ba,rbarous nations 
 who had received their yoke; and this change 
 was effected "partly by the prudence . of the 
 victors, partly by the levity of the vanquished, 
 and by their ambition to please' their new, 
 masters. 
 
 XVIII. When, from the sacred rites of the 
 ancient Romans, we pass to a review of the 
 other religions that prevailed in the world, -vve 
 shall find, that the most remarkable may be 
 properly divided into two classes. Ofte of 
 these will comprehend the religious systems 
 that owed their existence to ' yolit ical views; - 
 and the other, those which seem to have been 
 formed for military purposes. — ^In the'ibrmer 
 class may be'ranked the religions of most of 
 the eastern nations, especially of the Persians, 
 Egyptians, and Indians, wliich appear to have 
 been solely calculated for the preservation of 
 the state, the support of the royal authority 
 and grandeur, the maintenance of public peace, 
 and the advancement of civil virtues. Under 
 the military class may be comprehended the 
 rehgious system of the northern nations, since 
 all the traditions that we find among the Ger- 
 mans, the Britons, the Celts, and the Goths, 
 concerning their divinities, have a manifest 
 tendency to excite and nourish fortitude and 
 ferocity, an insensibility of danger, and a 
 contempt *^of life. An attentive inquiry into 
 the religions of these respective nations, will 
 a*bimdantly verify what is here asserted. 
 
 XIX. None of these nations, indeed, ever 
 arrived at such-a universal excess of barbarism | 
 and ignorance, as not to have some discerning " 
 
 * See Dionysius Halicarn. Antiq. Rom. lib. vii. cap. 
 Ixxii. 
 
 f See Petit ad leges Attica^, lib. i. tit. i. 
 
Chap. I. 
 
 THE STATE OF THE WORLD. 
 
 19 
 
 I men among them,' who were sensible of the 
 extravagance of all these religions. But, of 
 these sagacious observers, some wera destitute 
 
 - of the weight and aiithority that wore neces- 
 sary to -remedy those overgrown Bvilsj and 
 others wanted the will to exert themselves in 
 such a glorious cause. And the truth is, none 
 
 , of them had wisdom equal to such a solemn 
 and arduous enterprise. This appears mani- 
 festly from the laborious but useless efforts of 
 some of the Greek and Roman philosophers 
 against the vulgar superstitions. These venera- 
 ble sages delivered, in their writings, rnaiiy 
 sublime things concerning the nature of God, 
 and the duties incu^ibent upon men; they dis- 
 puted with sagiJiCity against the popular reli- 
 gion; but to all .this they added such chimeri- 
 cal notions and such absurd subtilties of their 
 own, as may serve to convince us that it be- 
 longs to God alone, and not to man, to reveal 
 the ttutli without any mixture of impurity or 
 error. , 
 
 XX. About the time of Christ's-appearance 
 upon earth, there were two kinds of philoso- 
 phy which prevailed among the civilized na- 
 
 ' tions. One was the philosophy of the "Greeks, 
 adoptedalso by the Romans; and the other, 
 that of the orientals, which had a great num- 
 ber of , votaries in .Persia, Syria, Chaldea, 
 Egypt, and even among the Jews. Thefof- 
 mer was distinguished by the simple title of 
 philosophy. The latter was honotired with the 
 more pompous appellation of science or Jcnow- 
 hdge,* since those who embraced the latter 
 sect pretended to be the restorers of the know- 
 ledge of God, which was lost in the worId.,f 
 "The followers of both these systems, in bonse^ 
 quence of vehement disputes and dissentions 
 about several points, subdivided themselves 
 into a variety of sects. It is, however, to be 
 observedj that all the sects of the oriental phi- 
 losophy deduced their various tenets &om one 
 fundamental principle. Which they held in com- 
 mon; whereas the Greeks were much divided 
 even about the first principles of .science. 
 
 As we shall have occasion hereaffer to speak 
 of the oriental philosophy, we shall -confine 
 ourselTOS here to the doctrines taught by the 
 Grecian sages, and shall give some accojint 
 of the varipus sects into which they w,ere 
 divided. , 
 
 XXI. Of the Grecian sects, some declared 
 openly against all religion; arid others, though 
 they aclmowledge'd a deity, and admitted a re- 
 ligion, yet cast a cloud over the truth,; instead 
 of exhibiting it in its genuine beauty 'and 
 lustre. - 
 
 Of the former kind- were the Epicureans 
 and Academics. The Epicureans ma,intained, 
 " That the worl^ arose from chance; that the 
 gods (whose existence they did not dare to 
 deny) neither did nor could extend their provi- 
 dential care to human affairs; that the soul 
 
 * ri/wiri5 (gTWeis) in the Greek signifies science' or 
 hnoviledge; and hence came the title of Gnostics, which 
 this presumptuous sect claimed as due to their, superior 
 light and penetration in divine things. 
 
 f St. Paul mentions and condemns both these kinds of 
 philosophy; the Greek, in the Epistle -to the Colossians, 
 .i. 8., and the Oriental, or Gnosis, in the First Epistle to 
 "Hmothy, vi. 20. 
 
 was mortal; that pkasure* was to'be regarded 
 as the -ultimate end of man; and thai mrtue 
 was neither worthy of esteem nor of choice, 
 biit with a., vie* to its attainment." The 
 Academics asserted^he impossibility of arriving 
 at truth, and held it uncertaiii, "whether 
 the gods existed pr not; whether the soul was 
 mortal or immortal5:-whether-virtue ought- to 
 be preferred to vice, oi: vice to virtue " These 
 two sects, though 'they struck at the founda- 
 tions of all religion, were the most numerous 
 of all at the birth of Christ, and were particu- 
 larly encouraged by the liberality of the rich, 
 and tl)e protection of "^hose wjio were in 
 j)0Wer..t - ' ' • 
 
 XXII. We Observed in the preceding section, 
 that there was_another kind of philosophy, in 
 which religion was admitted, but which was, 
 at the same time, deficient by the obscurity it 
 cast upon truth. Under the philosophers of 
 this class, may be reckoned the Platbnists, the . 
 Stoics, and' the followers of Aristotle, whose 
 subtile disputations concerniijg God; religion, 
 and the social d-iities, were of little solid use 
 to mankind. The nature of God, as it is ex- 
 plained by Aristotle,, resembles the principle 
 that gives motion to a machine; it is a nature 
 happy in the contemplation of itself,- and En- 
 tirely regardless of human affairs; and such a 
 divinity. Who differs but little from" the god of 
 Epicuriis, cannot reasonably be the object 
 either of love or fear. With respect to the 
 doctrine of this philosopher concerning the 
 human soul,, it is uncertain,, to say no more, 
 whether he believed ' its immortality or not.| 
 What then could be expected from siich a 
 philosophy? could any thing solid and satisfac- 
 tory, in favour of piety and virtucj be hoped 
 for from a. system which excluded from the 
 universe a divine Providence, and insinuated 
 the mortality of the human souL' ■ 
 
 XXIII. The god of the Stoics has some- 
 what more maj^tythan the' divinity of Aris- 
 totle; nor is he represented by those philoso- 
 phersas sitting above the starry heavens in a 
 supine indolMice, and a perfect inattention to 
 the affairs of the universe. Yet he is described 
 as a corporeal being. United to matter by"a 
 necessary connexion, and subject to the de- 
 terminations of an immutable fate, so that 
 neither rewards nor punishments can properly 
 
 -* The ambiguity of this word-has.poduced many dia- 
 putfes in the explication of thejjlpicurean system. If 
 by pleamre be understood only Senegal gratifications, the 
 tenet here advanced is indispufabty ^monstrous. But if 
 it be taken in a larger sense, and extended to -intellectual 
 and moral objects,_m ■wlwAj.^oes the^ scheme of Epicurus, 
 ■with- respect to virtue, araer -from the opinions oi" those 
 Christian philosophers, -who maintain that self-love is the 
 orill/spring of all human afiections^and actions.''* 
 - i.The Epicurean sect was, however, the more numerous 
 of the two, as'^ppears from the testimony of Cicero de 
 Finibus, &c. lib. i. cap. vii. lib. ii. cap. xiv. Disput. Tus- 
 culan. lib. v. cap. x.. Hence the complaint which Juvenal 
 makes in his xiiith Satii^e, of the atheism that prevailed at 
 Rome, in thos^ excellent words: 
 
 '* Sunt in fortunaa qui casibus omnia ponant, 
 Et nullo credant mundiim recto're moveri, 
 Natura Volvente vices et lucis et anni; 
 ■ Atque ideo intrepidi quaecunque altaria tangunt." 
 
 t See the Notes upon Cudworth's Intellectu^ System 
 of the JJniverse, whjch Dr. Mosheim subjoined to his 
 Latin translation of that learned work, vol. i. p. 66, 500; 
 vol. ii. p. 1171. See also, upon the same subject, Mour- 
 guB's Plan Theologique du Pythagorismd, torn. i. 
 
20 
 
 EXTERNAL HISTORY (.*' THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part I. 
 
 proceed from hirp.* The learned also know 
 that, in the philosophy of this sect, the exist- 
 ence of the soul was confined to a certain pe- 
 riod. Jfow it is manifest, that these tenets re- 
 move, at once, the strongest motiyes to virtue, 
 and the most powerful restraints upon vice; 
 and, therefore, the Stoical system may be con- 
 sidered as a body of specious and pompous doc- 
 trine, but, at the same time, as a body without 
 nerves, or any principles of consistency and 
 vigour. 
 
 XXIV. Plato is generally looked upon as 
 superior to all the 'other philosophers in wisr 
 dom; and this eminent rank does not seem to 
 have been undeservedly conferred upon him. 
 He taught that the universe was governed by 
 a Being, glorious in power and wisdom, and 
 possessing perfect liberty and independence- 
 He extended also the views of mortals beyond 
 the grave, and showed them, in futurity, pros- 
 pects adapted to excite their hopes, and to 
 work upon their feai's. His doctrine, however, 
 besides the wealcness of the foundations on 
 which it rests, arid the obscurity with which it 
 is often expressed, has' other considerable de- 
 fects. , It represents the Supireme Creator of 
 the world as destitute of many perfections,! 
 and confined to a certain determinate portion 
 of space.' Its decisions,' with respect to the 
 soul and dtenions, seem calculated to beget and 
 nourish superstition. Nor will the moral phi- 
 losophy of Plato appear worthy of such a high 
 degree of admiration, if we attentively exam- 
 ine and compare its various parts, and reduce 
 them to their prhiciples.| 
 
 XX V. As then, by these different sects, there 
 were many thiiigs maintained that were highly 
 unreasonable and absurd, .and as a contentious 
 spirit of opposition and dispute prevailed among 
 them all, some men of true discernment, and 
 of moderate characters, "were of opinion, tliat 
 none of these sects ought to be adhered to in 
 all points, but tliat it was rather wise to choose 
 and, extract out of eaeh of them such tenets 
 and doctrines as were good and reasonable, and 
 
 *Thii9 13 the Stoical doctrine oi fata generally repre- 
 Gented, but not more generally- than unjustly. Theiryo- 
 tuTn, when carefully and attentively examined, seems to 
 have sighified no more in the intention of the wisest of 
 that sect, than the plan of government formed originally 
 in the divine mind, a plan all-wise and perfect, and from 
 which, of coQsequeiice, the Supreme Being, morally sp'eEtk- 
 ing, can never depart; so tha^t,, when Jupitecis said by the 
 Stoics to be subject to immu^ble/a£e, tiiis means no more 
 than that be is subject to the wisdom of his own counsels, 
 and ever acts in con'for^iity with his supreme perfections. 
 The following remarkable passage of Seneca, drawn from 
 the 5th chapter- of his book de-j^ovidentia, is sufficient to 
 coufirm the explication we h'^i^ylere given of the stoical 
 fate. ^* Ille ipse omnium CDnditoi* et-rector scrijjsit qui- 
 deni fata, sed sequitur. Scnlper paret, semel jussit.^' 
 
 t This accusation seems to be carried too far by Dr. 
 Mosheim. It is not strictly true, that, the doctrine of 
 Flato represeute the Supreme Being as destitute of many 
 perfections. - On the contrary,- all the divine perfections 
 are frequently acknowledged by that philosopher-. What 
 probably gave occasion to this animadversion of our learn- 
 ed author, was the erroneous notion of Flato, concerning 
 ihe invincihls ^naU^mty and corruption of ma^er7 which 
 the divine power had not been sufficient to reduce entirely 
 " to order. Though this notion is,indeed, iujurious to the 
 omuipotence of God, it is nt>t sufficient to justify the cen- 
 sure now under consideration. 
 
 \ There is an ample account of the defects of the Pla- 
 tonic 'philosophy in a work entitled Defense des Peres ac- 
 ' cuses ae Platonlsme, par Franc. Baltus; but there is more 
 learning than accuracy in that performance 
 
 to abandon and reject the rest. Tliis gave rise 
 to a new form of philosophy in Egypt, and 
 principally at Alexandria, which was called 
 ihe-EcUcUc, whose foilnder, according to some, 
 was Potamon, an Alexandrian, though, this 
 opinion is not without its difficulties. It ma- 
 nifestly appears from the testimony of Philo, 
 the Jew, who was himself one of this sect, that 
 this philosophy was in a flourishing state at 
 Alexandria, when our Saviour was upon the 
 earth. The Eclectics held Plato in thp highest 
 esteem, though they made no scruple to join, 
 with his doctrines, whatever they thought con- 
 formable to reason in the tenets arid opinicns 
 of the other philosophers.* 
 
 XXVI. The attentive reader will easily con- 
 clude, from the short view which we have here 
 given of theTniserable state of the world at the 
 birth of Christ, that mankind, in this period of 
 darluiess and corruption, stood highly in need 
 oi some divine teacher to convey to the miiwi ~^ 
 true and certain prindples of religion and wis- 
 dom, and to recall wandering mortals to the 
 sublime paths of piety and virtue. The con- 
 sideraiion of this wret'che'd condition of man- 
 kind will be also singularly useful to those who 
 are not sufficiently acquainted with the advan- 
 tages, the comforts, and the support which the 
 siiblime doctrines of Christianity are so proper 
 to administer in every state, relation, and cir- 
 cumstance of life. A set.of miserable andim- 
 thihldng ctgatures treat with negligence, and 
 sometimes -with contempt, the religion of Jesus, 
 not considering that they are indebted to it for 
 all the good things which they so ungratefully 
 enjoy. 
 
 CHAPTER n. 
 
 Concerning the CivU and Religious State of the 
 Jewish Juration at the Birth ojf Christ. 
 
 I. The state of the Jews was not much bet- ^ 
 ter than that of the other nations at the time ^^ 
 of Christ's ' appearance in the world. They 
 were governed by Herodj who was himself a T^ 
 tributary to the Roman people. This prince / X 
 was siimamed the Great, surely from no other '"' 
 circmnstance than the greatness of his vices; 
 an<^ his goyernmerit was a yoke of the most 
 vexatious and oppressive kind. By a cruel, sus- 
 picious, and overbearing temper, he drew upon 
 himself the aversion of all, not excepting those 
 who Jived upon his bounty. By a mad luxury 
 and an affectation of magnificence far above 
 his fortune, together with the most profuse and 
 immoderate largesses, he exhausted the trea- 
 sures of that miserable nation. Under his ad- 
 ministration, and by his m&ans, the Roman 
 luxury was received in Palestine, accompanied 
 with the worst vices of that licentious people.f 
 In ^word, Judea, governed byHerod, groaned 
 under all that corruption, which might be ex- 
 pected from the authority and the ^example of 
 
 *See Godof. Olearius de Fhilosophia Eclectica, Jac. 
 Brucker, and others. 
 
 f'See, on this subject, Christ. Noldii Historia Idumsea, 
 which is annexed to Havercamp's edition of Josephus, 
 vol. ii. p. 333. See also Basnage, Histoire Des Juiis, torn. 
 
 i. part i. — Noris, Cenotaph. Pisan Prideaux, History 
 
 of; the Jews. — Cellarius, Historia Heroduin, in the first 
 part of his Academical Dissertations, and, above all, Jo- 
 sephus the Jewish historiaJl. 
 
Chap. II. 
 
 THE STATE OF THE JEWS. 
 
 21 
 
 a prince, who, though a Jew in outward pro- 
 fession, was in point of morals and praolice, a 
 contemner of all laws, divine and human. 
 
 II. After the death of this tyrant, the Ro- 
 mans divided the government gf Palestine 
 among his sons. In this division, one half of 
 Judea was given to Arohelaus, with the title of 
 exarch; and the other was divided between his 
 brothers, Antipas and Philip. Archelaus was 
 a corrupt and wicked prince, and followed the 
 example of his father's crimes in such a man- 
 ner, that the Jews, weary of his iniquitous ad- 
 ministration, laid their complaints and-grtev-' 
 ances before Augustus, who delivered them 
 from their oppressor, by banishing him from his 
 dominions, about ten years after the death of 
 Herod the Great. ThB kingdom of this de- 
 throned prince was reduced to the &rm of a 
 province, and added to the jurisdiction of the 
 governor ;of Syria, to the great detriment of 
 the Jews,whose heaviest calamities arose from 
 this change, and "whose final c^truction was 
 its undoubted effect in the appointment of Pro- 
 vidence. 
 
 III. However severe was the authority whicK' 
 the Romans exercised over the Jews, it did not 
 extend to the entire suppression of" their civil 
 and religious privileges. — The Jews were, in 
 some measure, governed by_ their own laws; 
 and they were tolerated in the enjoyment of 
 the religion theyhad received from the glort^ 
 ous founder of their church and state. The 
 administration of rehgious ceremonies was com- 
 mitted, as before, to, the high priest, and to the 
 sanhedrim, to the former of whom the priests 
 and Levites were in the usual subordinationj 
 
 ' and the form of outward worship, excepfin a 
 very few points, had suffered no visible change. 
 But, on the other hand, it ifimpossible to ex- 
 press the inquietude and disgust, the calamities 
 and vexations, which this unhappy nation suf- 
 fered from the presence of the Romans, whom' 
 their religion obliged- them to look upon as a 
 polluted and idolatrous people, and Tn a more 
 particular manner,, from the avarice and cruel- 
 ty, of the prastors aiid the frauds and extortions 
 of the pubhcans; so that,.all things considered, 
 the condition of those, who lived under the go- 
 vernment of the other sons of Herod, was much 
 more supportable than the state of those who 
 were immediately subject to the Roman juris- 
 diction. 
 
 IV. It was not, however, from the Romans 
 alone, that the calamities of this miserable peo- 
 ple, proceeded. Their own rulers multiplied 
 their vexations, and hindered them fromenjoy- 
 ing any little comforts that were left to them 
 by the Roman magistrates. The leadars.0f the 
 people, and the chief priests, were, according 
 to the account of Josephus,-profligate wretches, 
 who had purchased tneir places by bribes, or by 
 acts of iniquity, and who maintained their-iU 
 acquired authority by the most flagitious and 
 abominable crimes. The subordinate and in- 
 ferior members were infected with the corriip- 
 tion of the head; the priests, and those who 
 possessed atty shadow of authority, were disso- 
 lute and abandoned to the highest degree; 
 while the people, seduced by these corrupt ex- 
 amples, ran headlong into every sort of iniqui- 
 ty, and by their endless seditions, robberies, and I 
 
 extortions, armed against them both the jus- 
 tice of God and the vengeance of men. 
 
 V. Two rehgious flourished at thisitime in 
 Palestine, mz. the Jewish and the Samaritan, 
 vyhose respective followers beheld thosToTthe 
 opposite sect with the utmost aversion. The 
 Jewish religion stands exposed to our yiew in 
 the books of the Old Testament; but, at the 
 time of Christ's appearance, it had lost much 
 of its original nature and of its primitive as- 
 pect; Errors of a very pefnicipiis kind had in:^-. 
 ftcted the-whole body of the people, and the 
 more learned part of the nation were divided 
 upon points of -the highest consequence. All 
 looked for a deliverer; but not for such a one 
 as God had promised. Instead of a meek and 
 spiritual Saviour, they expected a formidable 
 and warlike prince, to break off their chains, 
 and set them at liberty from the Roman yoke. 
 Alfregarded the whole of religion, as consisting 
 in the rites appointed by Moses, and in the per^ 
 formance of some "external acts of duty to- 
 wards the Gentiles. They 'were all horribly 
 unanimous in excluding from the hopes of 
 eternal life all the other nations of the world; 
 and,' as a consequence of this odious system, 
 they treated them with the utmos^ rigour and 
 inhiimanity, when any occasion was offered. 
 And, besides these corrupt and vicious princi- 
 ples, there prevailed among- them several ab- 
 surd and superstitious notions concerning the 
 divine, nature, invisible powers, magic, &c. 
 which they had partdy brought with them from 
 the ■ Babjrlonian captivity, and partly derived 
 'from the Egyptians, Syrians, and Arabians, 
 who lived in their neighbourhood. 
 
 VI. Rehgion had not a better fate among 
 the Igajngi than amo'ng- the multitude. The 
 supercilious doctors, who vaunffiST their pro- 
 found Imowledge of the law, and their deep 
 science in spiritual and divine things, were con- 
 stantly, showing their fallibility and their igno- 
 rance hy their religious differences, and were 
 divided into a great variety of sects. Of these 
 sects, three, in a great measure eclipsed the 
 rest, both by the number of their adherents, 
 and also by the 'Weight and authority which 
 they acquired. These were the Pharisees, the 
 Sadducees, and the Essenes.* There is fre- 
 quent mention made of the two former in the 
 sacred writings; but the knowledge of the rites 
 and doctrines of the last, is to be derived from 
 Josephiis, Philo, and other historians. These 
 three illustrious sects agreed in the fundamen- 
 tal principles of the Jewish religion, and, at 
 the same time, were involved in endless dis- 
 putes upon points of the highest importance, 
 and about matters'"6i which the salvatipn of 
 mankind was directly concerned; and their, 
 controversies coulf not but be highly detri- 
 mental to the' rude and illiterate mi3titude, as 
 every one must easily perceive. 
 
 VII, It may. not be improper to mention 
 here some of the principal matters that were 
 
 \ 
 
 * Besides these more illustribua sects, there were seve- 
 ral of inferior note, which prevailed amoDg the Jews at 
 th»tim^ of Christ's Appearance- The Herodiaiis are 
 mentioned by the sacred writers, the Gaulonites by Jose- 
 phusj and others by Epiphanius and Hegeaipnus in £u9&- 
 bins; and we cannot reasonably look upon aU these secU 
 as flctitioua. 
 
23 
 
 EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part 1. 
 
 debated among these famous sects. A main 
 poin^ of controversy was, whether the written 
 law alone . was of divine authority. The 
 Pharisees added to this law another, which had 
 been received by oral tradition. This the 
 Sadducees and Essenes rejected as of no au- 
 thority, and adhered^ to the written law as the 
 only divine rule of obedience. They differed 
 also in their opinions concerning the true sense 
 of the law. For, while the Pharisees attributed 
 to the sacred text a double sense, one of which 
 was obvious, regarding only the words, and 
 another mysterious, relating to the intimate 
 nature of the things expressed; and while the 
 Sadducees maintained that nothing farther was 
 delivered by the law, than that which was con- 
 tained in the signification of the words; the 
 Essenes, at least the greatest part of that seet, 
 entertained an. opinion different from both of 
 these. They asserted, in their jargon, that 
 the words of the law were absolutely void of 
 all power, and that the things expressed by 
 them, were the images of "holy and celestial 
 objects. These litigious subtilties and unin- 
 telligible wranglings, about the nature and 
 sense of the divine word, were succeeded by a 
 controversy of the greatest moment, concern- 
 ing the rewards and punishments of the law, 
 particularly with respect to their-extent. The 
 Pharisees were of opinion, that these rewards 
 and punishments extended both to the soul and. 
 body, and that their _ duration was prolonged 
 beyond the limits of thij transitory state. -The 
 Sa-dducees assigned' to them the same period 
 that concjudes this mortal life. The Essenes' 
 difiered from both, and maintained that future 
 rewards and punishments extended to the soul 
 alone, arid not to the body, which they con- 
 sidered as a mass of malignant matter, and as 
 the. prison of the immortal spirit. 
 
 VIII. These differences,-in matters of such 
 high importance, among the ■ three- famous 
 sects above mentioned, produced none of those 
 injurious and malignant effects which are. too 
 often seen .to arise from religious controver- 
 sies. — But such as have any acquaintance 'with 
 the history of these fiiaes, will not be so far 
 deceived by this specious appearance of mode- 
 ration, as to attribute it to noble or generous 
 principles. They will 'look through the fair 
 outside, and see that mutual fears were the 
 latent cause of this apparent charity and re- 
 ciprocal forbearaijce. The Sadducees enjoyed 
 the favour and protection of the great: the 
 Pharisees, on. the other hand, were exceedingly 
 high in the esteem- of th& multitude; arid'hence 
 they were "both secured against the attempts 
 of each othpr, and 'lived in peace,, notwith- 
 standing the. diversity of their religious senti- 
 ments. The government of the Romans con- 
 . tributed also to the maintenance of this mutual 
 toleration and tranquillity, as" they were ever 
 ready to suppress and punish whatever had- 
 the appearance of tumult and sedition. We 
 may add to all this, that the Sadduoean priii- 
 ciples rendered that sect naturally averse to 
 altercation and tumult. Libertinism has for 
 Its objects ease and pleasure, and chooses 
 rather to slumber iii the arms of a fallacious 
 security, than, to expose itself to the painful 
 
 activity, which is,required both m the search 
 andjn the defence of truth. 
 
 IX. The Essenes Tiad little occasion to qnaiv 
 rel with the other sects, as they dwelt gene- 
 rally in rural solitude, far removed from the 
 view and commerce of men.-:-This singular 
 sect, which was spread abroad through Syria, 
 Egypt, and the iieighbouring countries, main- 
 tained, that religion consisted wholly, in con- 
 templation and silence. — By a rigorous absEF' 
 nence also, and a variety of penitential exer- 
 cises and mortifications, which they seem to 
 have borrowed from the Egyptians,* they en- 
 deavoured to arrive at still higher degrees of 
 excellence in ■\rirtue. There prevailed, how- 
 ever, among the members of this seet, a con- 
 siderable difference both in point" of opinion 
 and discipline. — Some passed their lives iii a 
 state of celibacy, and employed their time in 
 educating the children of others. Some em- 
 braced the state of matrimony, which they 
 considered as lawful; when contracted witii 
 the sole view of propagating the species, and 
 not to Satisfy the demands of lust. Those of ' 
 the Essenes who dwelt in Syria, held the pos- 
 sibility of appeasing tlje Deity by sacrifices, 
 though in a manner ^ite different from that 
 of the Jews; by which, however, it appears 
 that they had not utterly rejected the literal 
 sense of the Mosaic law. But those who 
 wandered in the deserts of Egypt were of 
 very, different sentiments; they jnaintained, 
 that no offering was acceptable to God but 
 that of a serene and composed mind, intent 
 on. the contemplation of divine thin^ and 
 heuee it is manifest thatjthey looked upon the 
 law of .Moses as an allegorical system of' 
 spiritual and mysterious truths, and renounced 
 in its explication all regard to the outward 
 letter.f , -■ . 
 
 X. The TherapeutEe, of whom Philo the 
 Jew makes particular mention in his treatise 
 concefciing contemplative life, are supposed to 
 have been a branch of this sect. From this 
 notion arose the . division of the Essenes into 
 theoretical and practical. The former of these 
 were wholly devoted to contemplation, and 
 are the same with the Thera,peutse, while the 
 latter employed a part of tlffiir time in the per- 
 formance of the duties of actiVe hfe. Whether 
 this division be accurate or not, is a point 
 which I will not pretend to determirie. But I 
 see npthing in' the Jaws or manners of the 
 Therapeutae, that should lead US' to consider 
 them as a branch of^he Essenes; nor, indeed, 
 ha,s Philo asserted any such thing. There may 
 have been, surely, many other fanatical tribes 
 among the Jews, besides, that of the Essenes; 
 nor should a resemblance of principles always 
 induce us to make a coalition of sects. It is, 
 however, certain, that the '/Hierapeutse were 
 neither Christians nor Egyptians, as some 
 have erroneously imagined. They were un- 
 doubtedly Jews: they gloried in that title, and 
 styled themselves, with particular affectation. 
 
 * See Jhe Annotations of Holstenius upon Porphyry's 
 Life of Pythagoras, p. 11, ot Kuster's edition. 
 
 t See MoSheim'a observations on a small, treatise, writ- 
 ten by the learned Cud worth, concerning the true notion 
 of the Lord's Supper, 
 
Chap. It. 
 
 THE STATE OF THE JEWS. 
 
 the true disciplea of Moses, though their man- 
 ner o£ hfe was equally repugndnt to the instir 
 tutiona of that great lawgiver and to the dic- 
 tates of right reason, and showed them to be 
 a tribe of melaacholy and wrong-headed en- 
 thusiasts.* 
 
 XI. None of these sects,, indeed, seemed to 
 have the interests of r^i and trus- p iety at 
 heart; nor were their pnnoiples and discipline 
 
 • at all adapted to the advancement.of pure and 
 substantial yirtue. The Pharisees coxirted 
 popular applause by a vain ostentation of pre- 
 tended sanctity, and an austere method of 
 living, while, in reality, they, were strangers 
 to true holiness, and were inwardly defiled 
 with the most criminal dispositions, with- which 
 our Saviour frequently reproaches th©rn. They 
 also treated with greater veneration the com- 
 mandmlents and traditions of men, than .the 
 sacred pretepte anff laws of God.f The Sad- 
 ducees, by denying a future state of rewards 
 and punishments, removedj at once, the most 
 pbwerful' incentives to virtue, and the most 
 effectual restraints upoii vice,, and thus gave 
 new vigour to every "sinful phssion, and a full 
 encouragement to the indulgence of. every ir- 
 regular desire. ' As to the Egsenes, they wjere 
 a fanatical and superstitious tribe, who placed 
 religion in a certain sort of seraphic indolenc e, 
 and looking upon piety to ' God a^ incompati- 
 ble with any social, attachment to men, dis- 
 solved, by this pernicious doctrine, all' the 
 great bonds of hum^n society. 
 
 XII. While such darkness, such errors and 
 dissensions, prevailed ^jnong those who as- 
 sumed the character and authority of. persons 
 distinguished by their superior sanctity and 
 wisdom, it will not.be diffio^t to imagitfe, how 
 'totally corrupt the religion and morals of the 
 Jnj^itude inust have been. Tfiey^ereJ ac- 
 cordingly, sunk in the most, depiorable igno- 
 rance of God_ arid of divide things, and had 
 no nation of aluy other way of rendering them- 
 selves acceptable to the Supreme Being, tlian 
 by. sacrifices, ablutions, and the other external 
 ceremonies of the Mosiac law. Hence pro- 
 ceeded that laxity of manners, and that profli- 
 gate wickedness, which prevailed among the 
 Jews during Christ's ministryupon earth; and 
 hence the Divine Saviour compares that peo- 
 ple to a flock of sheep which wandered with- 
 out a shepherd, and their doctors to men who, 
 though deprived of sight', yet pretended. to 
 show the way to others.! 
 
 XIII. To all these corruptions, both in, point 
 of doctrine and practice, which reigned among 
 the Jews at the time of Clrtist's coming, we 
 may add the attachment which many of them 
 discovered to .the tenets of the oriental philoso- 
 phy concerning the origin of the world, and 
 to" the doctrine of the Cabbala, which was un- 
 doubtedly derived from that system. That 
 co^iderable numbers of the Jews had imbibed 
 the errors of this fantastic theory, evidently 
 appears both from the books of" the New Tes- 
 
 * The principal writers, who liave given accounts of 
 the Therapeut'ae, are mentioned by Jo. Albert 'Fabricius, 
 m the fourth chapter df his Lux Salutaris Evangelii 
 toto orbe exoriens. 
 
 t Matt, xxiii. 13—30. 
 
 i Matt. X. 6; xv. 24. John ii. 39. 
 
 tament, and from -the ancient history of the 
 Christian church,* and it is_ also certain, that 
 many of the Gnostic sects were founded by 
 Jews. Those among that degenerate people, 
 who adopted this chimerical philosophy, must 
 have widely differed from the rest in their 
 opinions concerning the God of the Old Tes- 
 tament, the origin of the world, the character 
 and doctrme of Moses, and the nature and 
 ministry of the Messiah, since they- maintained 
 that the creator of this world was a being dif- 
 ferent from the Supreme God, and that his 
 dominion over the human race was to be de- 
 stroyed by the Messiah. Every one must see 
 that this enormous system Was fruitful of er- 
 rors, destructive of the,, very foundations of 
 Judaism. 
 
 XIV. If any part of the Jewish religion was 
 less disfigured and corrupted than the rest, it i 
 was, certainly, the form of external worship, 
 which was established by the-Jaw of^Moses. '^ 
 And yet many learned men have observed, that 
 
 a gi-eat variety of rites were introduced into , 
 the service ^f the temple, of which no traces 
 are to be found in the sacred writings. These 
 additional ceremonies manifestly proceeded 
 from those changes and revolutions which ren- 
 dered the Jews more conversant with ^^ 
 neighbouring nations, than they had formerly 
 been;" for, when they saw the sacred rites of 
 the Greeks and Romans, they were pleased 
 with severaljpf the ceremonies that were used 
 in the worship of the heathen deities, and did 
 not hesitate to a3opt them in the service of. 
 the true God, and add them as ornaments to 
 the rites which they, had received by divine ap- 
 pointment.! 
 
 XV. But whence arose such enormous de- 
 grees of corruption in that very nation which 
 God had, in a peculiar manner, separated from 
 an idolatrous world to be the depository of di- 
 vine truth' Various causes may be assigned, 
 in order to give a satisfactory account of 'this 
 matter. In the first place, it is certain, that 
 the ancestors of. those Jews, Who lived in the 
 time of our- Savjour, had brought, from -Chal-.fl , 
 dea and the neighbouring jcountries, many' ex- ' 
 travagsnt and idle fancies, which^ere utterly A 
 unknown to the original foimdeirs of the na- 
 tion.J The conquest of Asia by Alexander 
 the Great, was ako anj.'fevent from wJiich we 
 may date a new accession of errors to the , 
 Jewish system, Bince,Sn consequence of that 
 revolution,' the manners and opinions of the 
 Greeks began to spread themselves among the 
 Persians, Syrians, Arabians, and hkewise 
 among, the Jews, who before that period, were 
 entfrejy unacquainted with letters and philoso- 
 phy. , We may, farther, rank among the 
 causes that contributed to corrupt the religion, 
 and manners of the Jews, their voyages into 
 the adjacent countries, especially E^pt and 
 
 See Joh. Chr. Wolf. Biblioth. Ehraica, vol. ii. lib. 
 Tii. cap. i. sect. ix. " 
 
 f ,See the learned -work of Spencer, De Le^bus Heb- 
 FBEtorum, in the fourth book of which he treats, expresslv 
 of those Hebrew rites which were borrowed 'from £h« 
 Gentile worship., , 
 
 4 See- Gale's obserrations on Jamblichus> de Mjsteriis 
 -Egyptiornm, p. 206. Josef hus acknowledges the same- 
 thing in his Jewish Antiquities, book iil. chap. vii. sect. 3, ' 
 
24 
 
 EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part I. 
 
 PhoBnicia, in pursuit of wealth; for, wiUi the 
 treasures of those corrupt and superstitious 
 nations, they brought home also their pernici- 
 ous errors, and their idle fictions, which were 
 imperceptibly blended with their religious sys- 
 tem. 'Nor ought we^o omit, in this enuipera- 
 tion, the pestilential influence of the wicked 
 reigns of Herod and his sons, and the enor- 
 mous instances of idolatry, error, and licen- 
 tiousness, which this unhappy people had con- 
 stantly before their eyes in the religion and 
 manners of the Roman governors and soldiers, 
 which, no doubt, contributed much to the pro- 
 gress of their national superstition and corrup- 
 tion of manners. We might add here many 
 other facts and circumstances, to illustrate more 
 fully the matter under consideration; but these 
 will be readily suggested to such as have the 
 least acquaintance with the Jewish history from 
 the time of the Maccabees. 
 
 XVI.^It is indeed worthy of observation, 
 that, corrupted as the Jews were with the er- 
 rors and superstitions of the neighboming na- 
 tions, they still preserved a zeajous attachment 
 to the law of Moses, and were exceedingly 
 careful that it should not suffer any diminution 
 of its credit, or lose the least degree of the ve- 
 neration due to its divine authority. Hence 
 synagogues were erected throughout the proj 
 vince of Judea, in which the peopleassembled 
 for the purposes of divine worship, and' to hear 
 their doctors interpret and explain the holy 
 scriptures. There were besides,, in the more 
 populous towns, public schools, in which leam- 
 edtien were appointed to instruct the youth in 
 the knowledge of divine things, and also in 
 other branches pf'science.* And it is beyotid 
 all doubt, that these institutions contributed to 
 maintain the law in its primitive authority, and 
 to stem the torrent of abounding iniquity. • 
 
 XVII. The Samaritans, who celebrated di- 
 vine worship in the temple that was biiilt on 
 mount Gerizim, lay under the burthen of the 
 same evils that oppressed the Jews, with whom 
 they lived in the bitterest enmity, and were 
 also, like them, highly instrumental in increas- 
 ing their own calamities. We learn from the 
 most authenjic histories of those times, that the 
 Samaritans suffered as much as ,tlje Jews, from 
 -troubles and divisions fomented by the intrigues 
 of factious spirits, though their religious sects 
 were yet less numerous than those of the latter. 
 Their-religion, also, was much more corrupted 
 than that of the Jews, as Christ himself de- 
 clares in his conversation with the woman of 
 Samaria, though it appears, at the same time, 
 that their'notions concerning the offices and 
 ministry of the Messiah, were much more just 
 and conformable to truth, than those^ which 
 Were entertained at Jerusalem. f Upon the 
 
 * See Camp. Vitrinea. de Synagoga vetere, lib. iii. cap. 
 T. and lib. i.'cap. V. vli. 
 
 f Christ insinuates, on the contrary, i« the strongest 
 manner, the superiority of the Jewish worship to that of 
 the Samaritans, John iv. 23. See also, on this head, 2 
 Kings xvii^ 29. . The passage to which Dr. Mosheim re- 
 fers, as a proof that the Samaritans' had juster notions of 
 the Messiah than the Jews, is the 25th verse of the chap- 
 ter of St. John already cited, where the woraan of Sama- 
 ria says to Jesus, "Il<now that -Messiah cometh, which 
 is called Christ; when he is come, he will tell us all 
 things.'' But this passage seems much too vague to jus- 
 tify uie conclusion of our learned historian. Besides the 
 
 whole, It is certain that the Samaritans jniied 
 the profane errors of the Gentiles with the sa- 
 cred doctrines of the Jews, and were excessive- 
 ly corrupted by the idolatrous customs of the 
 pagan nations.* 
 
 XVIII. The Jews multiplied so prodigioiisly, 
 that the narrow bounds of Palestine were no 
 longer sufEcient to contain them. They pour- 
 ed,- therefore, their increasing numbers into tho 
 neighbouring countries with such rapidity, that, 
 at the time of Christ's birth, there was scarcely 
 a province in,the empire, where they were not 
 found carrying on commerce and exercising 
 other lucrative arts. They were maintained, 
 in foreign countries, against injurious treatihent 
 and violence, by the special edicts and proteo- 
 tioii of the magistrates;^ and this, indeed, was 
 absolutely necessary, since, in most places, the 
 remarkable difference in their religion and man- 
 ners, from those of the other nations, exposed 
 them to the hatred and indi^iation of the ig- 
 norant and bigoted multitude. AH this- ap- 
 pears to have been most singularly and wisely 
 directed by the adorable hadd of an intei^osihg 
 Providence, to the end that this people, which 
 was the sole depositply of the true rehgion, and 
 of the knowledge of one Supreme Jjod, being 
 spread abroad through the whole earth, might 
 be every where, by theibrce of example, a re- 
 proach to superstition, might contribute in some 
 measure to check it, a,nd ttius prepare the way 
 for that yet fuller discovery of divine truth, 
 which was to shine upon the world from the 
 ministry and Gospel of the Son of God. 
 
 CHAPTER in. 
 Concerning (he Life ani Actions of Jesus 
 Christ. ' 
 
 I. The errors and disorders that we have 
 now been considering, required something far 
 above human wisdom and power to dispel and 
 remove them, and to deliver mankind from the 
 miserable state to which they were reduced by 
 them. Therefore, towards the conclusion of 
 the reign of Herod the' Great, the. Son of God 
 descended upon earth, and, assuming the hu- 
 man nature, appeared to men under the sublime 
 characters of an infaUible teacher, an all-suffi- q/[ 
 cient mediator, and a spiritual and immortal ^ 
 king. The place of his birth wasBethlehem, ■, / 
 in Palestine. The year in which it happened, ' " 
 has not hitherto been ascertained, notwith- 
 standing the deep and laborious researches of 
 the 'learned. There is nothing surprising in) 
 this, when we consider that the first Christians 
 laboured under the same difficulties, and were 
 divided in their opinions concerning the time 
 
 confession of one person who maypossiblyhave hadsomc 
 singular and extraordinary advantages, is not a proof that 
 the nation in general entertained the same sentiments, es- 
 pecially since we know that the Samaritans had corrupted 
 Xh&fieryice of God by a proiane mixture of the grossest 
 idolatries. 
 
 * Those vvho desire an exact account of the principal 
 authors who have written concerning the Samaritans, will 
 find it in the learned work of Jo. Gottlob Carpzovius, eu - 
 titled, Critica S. Vet. Testam. part ii. cap. iv. 
 
 f See the account published at Leyden, in 171S, by 
 James Gronovius, of the Roman and Asiatic edicts in ia- 
 vour of the Jews, allowing them the free and secure ex- 
 ercise of their religion in all -the cities of Asia Minor 
 
cbap. m. 
 
 THE STATE OF THE JEWS. 
 
 25 
 
 of Christ's birth.* _That which appears most 
 probable^ is, that it happened about a year and 
 six months before 1iie death of Herod, in the 
 ^i* of, Rome 748 or 749.t The uncertainty, 
 however, of this point, is of no great conse- 
 quence. We know tliat thp Sun of Righte- 
 ousness has shined upon the world; and though 
 we cannot fix the precise period in which he 
 arose, this will not preclude us from .enjoying 
 the direction and influence of his vital and sa- 
 lutary beams. ,;: 
 
 li. Four . insai red writers, who have trans- 
 mitted to us an account of the life and actions 
 of Jesus Christ, mention particularly his birth, 
 lineage, family, and parents; but they say veiy 
 little respecting his infancy and his early youth. 
 Not long after his birth, he was conducted by 
 his parents into Egypt, that he might be out of 
 the reach of Herod's cruelty. J At the age of 
 twelve years, he disputed in the temple, with 
 the most learned of the Jewish doctors. Con- 
 cerning the .sublime.truths of religion; and the 
 rest of his life, until the thirtieth year of Jiis 
 age, was spent in the obscurity of a private 
 condition, and consecrated to the-duties of filial 
 obedience.! Tliis is all that the wisdom of Grod 
 hathperinitted us to know, with certainty, of 
 Clirist, before he entered upon his public minis- 
 try; nor is the story of his having followed the 
 trade of his adoptive father Joseph built upon 
 any sure foundation.*- There have been, indeed, 
 several writers. Who, either through thelevity 
 of a wanton imagination, or with a view of ex-' 
 citing the admiration of the multitude, have 
 invented a series of the most extravagarit and 
 ridiculous fables, in order to give an account 
 of this obscure part of the Saviour's life.|| ' 
 ni. Jesus began his public ministry in the 
 / ^Uftigth year of his age; and, to render it more 
 solCTmi and affectfng to the Jews, a man, whose 
 name was John, the 'son of a Jewish priest, a 
 person of great gravity also, and much respect- 
 ed on account of the austere dignity of his life 
 and manners, was commanded by God to pro- 
 claim to the people the coming of the long pro- 
 mised Messiarh, of whom this extraordinary 
 man called himself the forerunner. Filled 
 with a holy zeal and a divine fervour, he cried 
 aloud to the Jews, exhorting them to depart 
 from their transgressions, and to purify their 
 heartjs, that . they might thus partake of the 
 blessings which the Son of God.vva^nowcome 
 to offer to the world. The exhortations of this 
 respectable messenger were not without effect;; 
 and those who, moved by his solemn admoni-^ 
 tions, had formed the resglution of correcting 
 their evil dispositions, and amending their lives, 
 were initiated into the kingdom of the Re- 
 deemer by the ceremony of immersion, or bap- 
 tism.lT Christ himself, before he began his mi- 
 nistry, desired to be solemnly baptized by. Joh^ 
 in the waters of Jordan, that he might not, in 
 
 * The learned John Albert Fabricius has collected all 
 the opinions of the learned, concerning the year of Christ's 
 birth, in his Bibliograph. Antiquar. cap. vii. sect. x. 
 
 f Matt. iii. S, 8tc. John i. 32, &c. 
 
 i Matt. ii. 13. 
 
 §Lulieii. S1,S3. 
 
 Ij See the account which the above mentioned Albert 
 Fabricius has given of these romantic- triflers, in his Co- 
 dex Apocryphus JVovi Testamenti^ torn. i. 
 
 T Matt. iii. 6. John i. 32. 
 
 Vol. 1,-4 
 
 any point, neglect to answer the demiuids of 
 the Jewish' law. 
 
 IV. It is not necessaiy to enfer here into a 
 detail of the life and actions of Jesus Christ.- 
 AU Christians must be perfectly acquainted 
 with them. They must know, that, during the 
 space of three year^, and amidst the deepest 
 trials of affliction and distress, he instructed the 
 Jewish nation in the will and counsels of the 
 Most High, and omitted .pothing in the course 
 of Kia ministry, that could contribute efther to 
 gain the multitude or to chafin the Vf ise. Every 
 one knows, that his life was a continued scene 
 of perfect sanctity, of the purest and most ac- 
 tive virtue; not. only without spot, but also be- 
 yond the reach of suspicion; and it is also well 
 kiiown, that by miracles of the most stupen- 
 dous kind, and not more stilpendousthan salu- 
 tary and beneficent, he displayed to the uni- 
 verse the truth of that religion whicli he 
 brought with him from above, and demonstrat- 
 ed in the most illustrious manner the reality of 
 his divine commission. . • 
 
 V. As this system of religion was t»be pro- 
 pagated to the extremities of the earth, it was 
 necessary that Christ should choose a certain 
 number of persons to accompanyjiim constant- 
 ly through the whole course of his ministry;.* 
 that thus they might be-Eiithful and respecta- 
 ble witnesses of fte sanctity 6f his life, and the 
 grandeur of his niiracles,-to,the remotest na- 
 tions; and al3d4ransmit to the latest posterity 
 a genuine account of his sublime doctrines, 
 and of the nature and end of the Gospel dis- 
 pensation. Therefore Jesus chose, out of the 
 multitude that attended his discourses, t welve. > 
 persons whom he separated from the rest hy _,. 
 the name df iSposths. These men were illite- 
 rate,, poor, andTDfTHean extraetion; and such 
 alone were truly proper to answer his views. 
 
 He avoided making use of the rainistir of per-' 
 sons endowed with the advantages oi fortune 
 and birth, or enriched with the treasures of elo- 
 quence and learning, lest the fruits of this em- 
 bassy, and the progress of the Gospel, should 
 be attributed to human and natural causes.* 
 These apostles were sent but once to preach to 
 the -Jews during the life of Cbrist.f He chose 
 to keep l^em about his own person, that they 
 might be thoroughly instructed itttbe affairs of 
 his kingdom. » That the multitude, however, 
 might not be destitute of teachers to enlighten 
 them with the knowledge of the trutj^ifihrist 
 appointed s^enty disciples to preach the'^ad 
 
 f dings of' eternal life throughout the whole 
 rovince of Judea.f ' . 
 
 VI. The researches of the learned have been 
 employed to find out the reason of Christ's fix- 
 ing the number of the apostles to twelve, and 
 that of the disciples to seventy; and various 
 conjectures iiave been applied to the solution 
 of this question. But since It is manifesffeom 
 his own words,! that he inti^ded the number 
 of the twelve apostles as an. allusion to that ot 
 the tribes of Israel, it can scarcely be doubted, 
 that he was willing to insinuate by this ap- 
 pointment that he was the supreme lord and 
 high-priest of the twelve tribes into which the 
 
 ♦ 1 Cor. i. 31. " t Matt. i.!7. 
 i Matt. viz. 38. Lilke xiii. 30. 
 
 }Liikex. i 
 
26 
 
 EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part I. 
 
 Jewish nation was divided; and, as tlie num- 
 ber of disciples answers evidently to that of the 
 senators, of whom the council of the people 
 (or the sanliedrim) was composed, there is a 
 high degree of probability in the conjecture of 
 those, who think that Christ, by the choice of 
 the seventy, designed to admonish the Jews 
 that the authority of their sanhedrim was now 
 at an end, and that all poVer, with respecftb 
 religious matters, was vested in-him alone. 
 
 VII. The ministry of Jesus was'confined to 
 ^isJes^s; nor, while he remained upon dearth 
 Old he permit his apostles or disciples to ex- 
 tend their labours beyond this distinguished na- 
 tion.* At the same time, if we consider the 
 illustrious acts of mercy and omnipotence that 
 were performed by Christ, it will be natural to 
 conclude that his fame must have been very 
 Boon spread abroad in other countries^ We 
 
 ^ learn, from writers of no small note, that Afe 
 ^arus. kiny of Edessa, being seized with a g^ 
 vere and dangerous illness, wrote to our bless- 
 ed Lord to implore his assistance; and that Je- 
 sus not only sent him a gracious answer, but 
 also accompanied it with his picturcj as a mark 
 of his esteem for that pious prince.f These 
 letters, it is said, are still extant. But they are 
 justly looked upon as fictitious by most writers, 
 who also go yet farther, and treat the whole 
 story of Abgarus as entirely fabulous, and un- 
 worthy of credit.J I wUl not pretend to , as- 
 sert the genuineness of these letters; but I see 
 no reason of sufficient weight to destroy the 
 credibihty of that story ..iwhich is supposed to 
 have given occasion to them.§ 
 
 VIII. A great number of the Jews, influ- 
 enced by those illustrious marks of a divine 
 authority and power, which.shone forth in the 
 ministry and actions of Christ, regarded him as 
 the Son of God, the true Messiah. The rulers 
 of the people, and more especially the chief 
 priests and Pharisees, whose hcentiousness and 
 
 » Matl. X. 5, 6; XT. 24. 
 
 t Euseb. Hisl. Eccl. lib. i. xiii. — Jo. Albert Fabric. Co- 
 dex Apocryphus" N. T.tom. i. p. 317. 
 
 X See BasDage, Histoire des Juiis, vol, i. cap. xviii.— 
 also Theoph. Sigef. Bayerus, Historia Edessena et Osroe- 
 na, lib. iii.. — Jos. Simon Asaemanus, Biblioth. Orieotal. 
 Clement. Vatican, torn. i. 
 
 § There is no author -who has discussed this question 
 (concerning the authenticity of the letters of Christ and 
 Abgarus, and the truth of the whole story), with such 
 learning and judgment, as the late Mr., Jones, in the se- 
 cond volume of his. excellent work, entitled, A New and 
 Full Method of settling the Canonical Authority of the 
 New Testament. Notwithstanding the opinions of such 
 celebrated names, as Parker, Cave, and Grabe, in favour" 
 of these letters, and the history to, which they relate, 
 Mr. Jones has offered reasons to prove the whole' ficti- 
 tious, wTiich seem unanswerable, independent of the 
 authorities of Rivet, Chemnitiu3,-Walther, Simon, Du- 
 TiUj Wake, Spanheim, Fahricius, and Le Clerc, which 
 he opposes to the three above mentioned. It is remarka- 
 ble that the.storyis not -mentioned by any writer before 
 Eusebius; that it is little noticed by succeeding authors; 
 that the whole afiair was unknown to Christ's apostles,' 
 and to the Christians, their contemporaries, as is mani- 
 fest from the early disputes about the method of receiving 
 Gentile converts into the cl^urch, which 'this story, had 
 it been true, must have entirely decided. ' As to the let- 
 ters, no doubt can be made of their spuriousness, since, 
 if Christ had written- a letter to Abgarus, it would have 
 been a part of sacred Scripture, and would have been 
 vlaced at the head of all the books of the New Testa- 
 ment. See Lardner's Collection of Ancient Jewish and 
 Heathen Testimonies, vol. i. p. 297, &c. It must be" ob- 
 served in behalf of Eusebius, that heTelates this story as 
 drawn from the archives, of Edessa. 
 
 hypocrisy he censured with a noble and gene- 
 rous freedom, laboured with success, by the 
 help of their passions, to e;xtinguish in their 
 breasts the conviction of his celestial mission; 
 or at least, to suppress the effects it was adapt- 
 ed to -produce upon their" conduct. Fearing 
 also that his ministry might tend to diminish 
 their credit, and to deprive them of the advan- 
 tages they derived from the impious ^buse of 
 their authority in religious matters, they laid 
 snares for liis life, which, for a considerable 
 titne, were without effecjfr,^ They succeeded, 
 at length,_by the infernal treason of an apos- 
 tate disciple, by the treachery of Judas, who 
 discovering the retreat which Tils divine master 
 had chosen for the purposes of meditation and 
 repose, delivered him into the mercifess hands 
 of a brutal soldiery. 
 
 IX. In consequence of this, Jesus W51S pro- 
 duced as a criminal before" the Jewish ' high- 
 priest and sanhedrim, being accused of having 
 violated the law, and blasphemed the majesty 
 of God, Dragged- thence to" the tribunal of 
 Pilate the Roman prsetor, he was charged with 
 seditious .enteirprises, aiid with treason against 
 ^^esar. Both these accusationrTpere so evi- 
 dently false, and destitute even of every ap- 
 pearance of truth, that they must have been 
 rejected by any judge, who acted upon the prin- 
 ciples of common equity. But the clamours 
 of an enraged populace, iq^amed by the impi- 
 ous instigations of their priests and rulers, in- 
 timidated Pilate, and engaged him, though 
 with the utmost reluctance, and in opposition 
 to the dictates of his conscience, to pronounce 
 a capital sentence against Christ. The Re- 
 deemer of mankind behaved with inexpressi- 
 ble dignity under this heavy trial. As the end 
 of his mission was to make expiation for the 
 sins of men, so when all things were ready, 
 and when he had finished the work of his glo- 
 rious ministry, he placidly submitted; to the 
 death of the cross, and, with a serene and vo- 
 luntary resignation, committed his -,^irit into 
 ,the hands of the Father; 
 
 X. After Jesus had' remained three days in 
 the sepulchre, he resumed that life which he 
 had voluntarily laid down; and, rising from the 
 dead, declared to- the universe, by that trimn- 
 phant act, that the divine justice wasjatisfied, 
 and the paths of salvalfon"afia""finmor5lity 
 were rendered a(;g essible to the humag, race. 
 He conversed TythTSs^sciples dunng'lS^c_ 
 days after his resurrection, and employed tHat 
 time in instructiag them more fuUy w^th regard 
 to the nature of his kingdom. Many wise and 
 important reasons prevented his shbvring him- 
 self publicly at Jerusalem, to confound the ma- 
 lignity and unbelief of his enemies. He con- 
 tented himself with manifesting the certaintv 
 of his glorious resurrection to a sufifcient num- 
 ber of faithful and credible witnesses, being 
 aware that, if he should appear in public, those 
 malicious unbelievers, who had formerly attri 
 buted his miracles to the power of magic, would 
 represent his resurrection as a phantom, or vi- 
 sion, produced by the influence of infernal 
 powers. After liaving remained upon earth 
 during the space of time above mentioned, and 
 given to his disciples a divine commission to 
 preach the glad tidings of salvation and im 
 
PROSPEROUS EVENTS. 
 
 ChAp.IV. 
 
 mortality- to the human race, he ascended jnto 
 heaven, in their presence, and resumed the to- 
 ioyment of Jhat glory which he had possessed 
 before the worlds were created: ' - 
 
 ■ CHAPTER IV. 
 Concerning the prosperous Events that happened 
 to the Chvrch during this Century. 
 I. Jesus, having ascended into heaven, soon 
 showed the afflicted disciples, that; though in- 
 visible to mortal eyes, he wag. still their om- 
 nipotent protector, and their benevolent guide. 
 About fifty days after hiadepEiture ffigjg them 
 he gave theni the first proof of that 'majesty 
 and power to which he was exalted, by the ef- 
 fusion of the Holy Ghost upon them according 
 to his promise.* The consequences ■ of this 
 grand event were surprising- and glorians, in- 
 finitely honourablte to the- Christian ■ religion, 
 arid the divine mission of its triumphant au- 
 thor. For no soone* had the apostles received 
 this precious gift, this celestial guide, than 
 their ignorance was turned into light, their 
 doubts into xjertainty, their fears into a firm 
 and invincible fortitude, Snd their former back- 
 wardness into an ardent and inextinauishable 
 zeal, whiph led them to undertake their sacred 
 oflice with the litmost intrepidity and alacrity 
 of mind. This marvellous event was attended 
 with a variety of pfts; particularly the gift of 
 tongues; so indispensably liecessary to qualify 
 the apostles to preach the Gospel to the dif- 
 ferent-nations. These holy apostles were also 
 I filled with,. a perfect persuasion, founded on 
 I Christ's express proinise, that the Divine pre- 
 sence would perpetually accompany them, and 
 show itself by miraculous interpositions, as of- 
 ten as the state of their ministry should ren- 
 der this necessary. 
 
 II. -Relying upon these celestial succours, the 
 apostles'' began their glorious ministry, by 
 preaching the Gospel, according to Christ's 
 positive command, &gt to the iJews, ajid by 
 
 I endeavoming to bni^ that delffleQ people to 
 the knowledge of the truth.f Nor were their 
 labours unsuceessfiil, since, in a very short time, 
 many thousands were converted, by the influ- 
 ence of their' ministry, to the Christian faith.| 
 From. the Jews, they passed to the Samaritans , 
 
 L- to whom they preached with such, ettcacy, that 
 great numbers bf that nation- acknowledged 
 the Messiah.^ And, when they had exercised 
 their ministiy, during Several years, at Jerusa- 
 lem, and brought to a sufficient degree ef con- 
 sistence and maturity the Christian churches 
 which were fdunded in Palestine and the adja- 
 cent countries, they extended their views, car- 
 ried the divine lamp of the Gospel to all the 
 
 ■i nations of the w orld, and saw their labours 
 
 1 crowned almost every where, with the most 
 abundant fruits. 
 
 III. No sooner was Christ exalted in the 
 heavens, than the apostles determined to ren- 
 der their number complete, as it had been fixed 
 
 I by their divine Master, and accordingly to 
 choose in the place of Judas, ;whd had despe- 
 
 27 
 
 * Acts ii. 1, &c. 
 
 f Luke xxiv. 47. Acts i. 8; xiii. 46. ' 
 
 \ Acts ii. 41; iv. 4. § Acts i. 8; Tiii. 14. - 
 
 rately perished by his own hands, a man en- 
 dowed with such degrees of sanctity and wis- 
 dom, as were necessary in a station of fiuch 
 high importance. When, therefore they had 
 assembled the Christians who were then at 
 Jerusalem, two men remarkable for their piety 
 and faith, were proposed as the most worthy 
 to stand candidates for this, sacred office. 
 These men were Matthias and B arnab as, the / 
 former of whom waSTSither by lot, (-which is 
 the most general opinion,) or by a plurality of 
 voices of the assembly there present, chosen 
 toJihe dignity of an apostle.* 
 
 IV. AJl these apostles were ipen without 
 education, and ahsolutejyjgsgrgjjt of letters 
 and philosophy; aiid yet in the infancy of the 
 Christian church, it was necessary that there 
 should.be atleast, some one defender of the 
 Gospel, who, versed in the learned arts, might 
 be able to combatthe Jewish doctors and the 
 ps^gan philosophers with their own arms. For 
 this purpose, JesHS-himself, by an extraordinary 
 voice from heaven, called to his Service a 
 th irteenth apo stle,, whose name was Saul (af- - 
 feJwards Faiil,') and, whose acquaintance both 
 with Jewish and Grecian learning was very 
 considerable.f This extraordinary man, who 
 had been one of the most virulent enemies of 
 the Christians, became their most glorious 
 and triumphant defender. Independently of 
 the i(iraculous gifts with which he weis en- 
 riched, he possessed an invincible couratge, an 
 amazing force of genius, and a spirit of pa- 
 tierice, which no fatigue tould overcome, and 
 which no sufferings or trials could exhaust. 
 To these tlie cause of the Gospel, under the 
 divine appointment, owed a considerable part 
 of its rapid progress and surprising success, as 
 the acts of Ihe' Apostles, and the Epistles of St. 
 Paul, abundantly testify. 
 
 V. The first Christian church, founded by 
 the apostles, was that of Jerusalem, the model, 
 of all those which were afterwards erected , 
 during the first century. This church was, 
 indeed, 'governed by the apostles themselves, 
 to whom both the elders, and those who were 
 entrusted with the care of the poor, even the 
 dciacbns, were subject. The people, though 
 they had not abandoned the Jewish worship, 
 held, however, separate Etssemblies, in which 
 they were instructed by the apostles and elders, 
 prayed together, celebrated the holy Supper in 
 remembrance of Christ, of his death and suf- 
 ferings, and the salvation offel-ed to mankind 
 through hihi; and at the conclusion of these 
 meetings, they testified their mutual love, 
 partly by their liberality to the poor, and- partly 
 by sober and friendly repasts,| which thence 
 were 'called feasts of charity. . Among the 
 virtues which distinguished the rising church 
 in this its infimcy, thatuf charity to the poor 
 and needy shone in the first rank, and with 
 the brightest lustre. The rich supplied the 
 wants of their, indigent brethren with such 
 liberality and readiness, that, as St. l%uke tells 
 us, among the' pHmitive disciples of Christ, all 
 things were in'common.^ This expression has, 
 hov?ever, been greatly abused,' and has been 
 
 * Acts i. 36. 
 i Acts ii. 43. 
 
 t Act^ ix. 1. --.^ 
 $ Actfl'ii. 44; IT. ^j 
 
28 
 
 EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part. 1 
 
 made to signify a community of nghts, goods, 
 or possessions, than which interpretation nothing 
 is more groundless-or more false; for, from a 
 multitude of reasons, as well as from the ex- 
 press words of St. Peter,* It is abundantly 
 manifest that the community, which is irn-^ 
 plied in mutual use and mutuaL liberality, is 
 the only thing- intended in this passage'.j 
 
 VI. The apostles, having finished their work 
 at Jerusalem, went to diffuse their labours 
 among other nations, visited with that intent a 
 groat part of the known world, and in a short 
 time planted a vast number of churches among 
 the Gentiles. Several of these arementipned 
 
 , in the sacred writings, particularly, in the ^cts 
 / of the tSpostles;l though these are, undoubtedly, 
 only a small part of th# churches which were 
 founded, either by the apostles themselves, or 
 by their disciples under theii; immediate direc- 
 tion. The distance of time, and the want of 
 records, leave us at a loss with respect to many 
 interesting circumstances of the peregrinations 
 of the apostles', nor have we any certain or 
 precise accounii of thexlimits of their voyages, 
 of the particular countries where they so- 
 journed, or. of the times and places in which 
 fliey finished their glorious course. The stories 
 that are told concerning their, arrival and ex- 
 ■)ploits among the AJauls^ Britons, Spaniards, 
 ( Germans, Americans, Chinese, Indians, and 
 ( Russiansjare too romantic in their nature, and 
 of too recent a date, to be received by an ini- 
 " partial inquirer after truth. The greatest 
 i.partof these fables were forged after IJfe time 
 y»f Charlemagne, when most of the Christian 
 J^hurches contended about the antiquity of their 
 I origin with as much vehemence as the Arcadi- 
 ' ans, Egyptians, Greeks, and other nations, dis- 
 puted formerly about their seniority and pre- 
 cedence. ,^'/ 
 
 VII. At the same time, the beauty and ex- 
 cellence of the Christian religion excited the 
 admiration of the reflecting part of mankind, 
 wherevej the apostles directed their course. 
 Many, who were not willing -to adopt the 
 whole of its doctrines, were, nevertheless, as 
 appears from undoubted records, so struck-with 
 the account of Cln-ist'slife'and actions, and so 
 charmed with the sublime piirity of his pre- 
 cepts, that they ranked him in the number of 
 the greatest heroes, or even among the gods, 
 themselves. Great numbers kept with the ut- 
 most care, in their houses, pictures or images 
 of the divine Redeemer and his apostles, 
 which they treated with the highest . marks of 
 veneration and respect. § And so illustrious 
 was the fame of his power after his resurrec- 
 tion, and of the miraculous gifts shed upon 
 
 * Acts V. 4. 
 
 f This is proved with the strongest evidence by Dr. 
 Mosheim, in a dissertation cdncerning.the true nature of 
 that community of-goods, ,which is said to have taken 
 place in the church of .Jerusalem. This learned dis- 
 course is to be found in the second volume of our author's 
 -incomparable worlc, entMled, Dissertationes ad -Historiam 
 Ecclesiasticam pertineritesi ' ^ ' " 
 
 i The names of the churches -planted by the apostles 
 in different countries, are specified in a Tvork of Phil. 
 James Hartman, de rebus gestis Christianorum sub Apos- 
 tolls, cap. vii. and also in that of F. Albert Fabricius,, en- 
 titled, Lux Evangelii toti orbi exoriens, cap. v. 
 
 ^.-This is particularly mentioned by Eusebius, Hist. 
 Eccl. lib. vii. fap. xviii. and by Irenseus lib i. c. xxv. 
 
 his apostles, that the- emperor Tiberius is said 
 to have proposed his being enrolled among the 
 gods of Rome, which the opposition of the 
 senate prevented from taking jeffect. Many 
 have doubted of-the truth of this story: there 
 are, however, several authors of the first note 
 who have declared, that the reasons alleged 
 for its truth are such as have removed their 
 doubts, and appeared to them satisfactory and 
 conclusive.* 
 
 VIII. When we consider the rapid progress 
 of. Cluistianity among tlje .Gentile nations, 
 and the poor and feeble instruments by which 
 this great and amazing event was immediately . 
 effected, we must naturally have recourse to. ^^ 
 an omnipotent and invisible jiand, as its true 
 etnd proper cause. For, unless, we suppose , /_ 
 here a divine interposition, how was it possible jf 
 that men, destitute of all human aid, without 
 credit or riches^ learning or eloquence, could, 
 in so short a time, persuade a considerable-part 
 of mankind to abandon the religion ^f their 
 ancestors? How was it possible, that a hand- 
 ful of apostles, who, as fishermen and publi- 
 cans, must have been contemned by their own 
 nation, and as Jews, must have been odious to 
 allothers, could engage the learned and the 
 mighty, as Well as the simple and those of 
 low degree, to . foirsake their favourite preju- 
 dices, and to embrace a new religion which 
 was an enemy to their corrupt passions? And, 
 indeed, there were undoubted marks of a ce- 
 lestial' power perpetually attending their mi- 
 nistry. Their very language possessed an in- 
 credible energy, an amazing power of sending 
 light into the understanding and conviction 
 into the heart.. To this were added, the com- 
 manding influence of stupenduous miracles, 
 the foretelling of future events, the power of 
 discerning the secret thoughts and intentions 
 of the heart, a magnanimity superior to all 
 difficulties, a contempt of riches and honours, 
 a serene tranquillity in the face of death, and 
 an invincible patience under torments still 
 more dreadful than death itself; and all this 
 accompanied with lives free frorn stain, and 
 adorned with the constant practice of sublime 
 
 * See Tbeod. Hasseus, de decreto Tiberii, quo Chris- 
 tum referrfe voluit in numeriim Deorum; as also a v^ry 
 learned letter, written in defence of the truth of- this 
 fact, l)y the celebrated Christopher lelius, and published 
 in the Bibliotheque Germanique, torn, xxxii. [We may 
 add to this note of Dr. Mosheim, that the late learned 
 professor Altmann published at Bern, in 1755, an ingeni-- 
 ous pamphlet on this subject, entitled, Disquisito Histori- 
 eo-critica de Epistola Pontii- Filati ad Tiberium, qua 
 Christi- Miracula, Mors, et Resurrectio, recensebantur 
 This author makes- it appear, that though the letter, 
 which some have attributed to Pilate, and which is extant 
 in several authors, be manifestly spurious, yet it is iio 
 less certain, that Pilate sent to Tiberius ^n account of the 
 death -and resurrection of Christ. See the Biblioth. des 
 Sciences el des beaux Arts, published at the Hague, tome 
 vi. This matter has been examined with his usual dili- 
 gence an4t, accuracy by the learned Dr. Lardner, in the 
 third volume of his Collection of Jewish and Heathen 
 Testimonies to the truth of the Christian Heligion. He 
 thinks that the testimonies of Justin Martyr and Tertul^ 
 lian, who, in apologies for' Christianity, presented or at 
 least addressed to the emperor and senate of Rome, or 
 to Magistrates of high autjiority in the empire, atfirm, 
 that Pilate sent to Tiberius an account of the death and 
 resurrection of Christ, deserve some regard; though 
 some writers, and particularly Orosius, have made such 
 alterations and additions in the original narration of .Ter- 
 tuUian, as tend to diminish the credibility of the whole.J 
 
Chap. V. 
 
 CALAMITOUS EVENTS. 
 
 29 
 
 virtue. Thus were the messengers of Christ, 
 the heralds of his spiritual and immortal king- 
 dom, furnished for their glorious work, as the 
 unanimous voice of ancient history so loudly 
 testifies. The event sufficiently declares this; 
 for, without these remarkahle and extraordi- 
 nary circumstances no rational account can be 
 given of the rapid propagation of the Gospel* 
 throughout the world. 
 
 IX. What indeed contributed still farther to 
 this glorious event, was the power vested in 
 the apostles of transmitting to their disciples 
 theae_n!Jraculouj_^j£l^ for many of the first 
 Christians were no sooner baptized according 
 to Christ's appointment, and dedicated to the 
 service of God. -by solemn' prayer and the im- 
 position of hands, than they spo^g^aQgi^^ges 
 which they had never known or learnedE^reJ 
 
 ' fdtetold future events, healed the sick by pro- 
 nouncing the name of Jesus, restored the dead 
 to Hfe, and performed many things above the 
 reach of human power.* And it is no wonder 
 ff men, who had the power of communicating 
 to others these marvellous gifts, appeared great 
 and respectable, wherever they exercised their 
 glorious ministry. " - , 
 
 X. Such then were the true causes of tfiat 
 amazing rapidity with which the Christian re^ 
 ligion spread itself upon the- earth; and those 
 who pretend to assign o}her reasons of this 
 surprising event, indulge themselves in idle 
 fictions, which must disgust every attentive 
 observerof men and things. In Vain, there- 
 fore, have some imagined, that the extraordi- 
 nary liberahtjtiof the Christians to their poor, 
 was'a temptation to the more indolent and 
 corrupt pjjt^of the multitude to embrace the 
 (j-ospel. Such malignant and superficial rea- 
 soners do not consider, that those who em- 
 braced this divine religion exposed their lives 
 to great danger; nor have they attention 
 enough to recollect, that neither lazy nor vi- 
 cious mepabers were suffered to remain- in the 
 society of -Christians. Equally vain is the 
 fancy of those, !who imagine, that the proflir 
 gate lives of tjie Heathen priests occasioned 
 the conversion of many to Christianity; ftr, 
 though this might indeed give them a disgust 
 to the religion of those unworthy ministers, 
 yet it could not,' alone, attach jtheiA to th^ of- 
 Jesus, which offered them from the world no 
 other prospects than those of poverty, infamy, 
 and death. The person who could embiace 
 the* Gospel, solely &om the motive now men- 
 tioned, must have reasoned in this senseles&and 
 
 _ •''extravagant manner: " The ministers of that 
 religion which I have professed from my in- 
 fancy, lead "profligate lives: therefore,' I will 
 become a Christian, join myself "to that body 
 of men who are condemned by the laws of" 
 the state, and thus expose my life and~fortune 
 to the most imdinent danger." 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Concerning tAe Calamitous Events that happened 
 to the Church. 
 I. The innocence and virtue that dis- 
 tinguished so eminently the lives of Christ's 
 
 * See Ffanner'a learned treatise, De Charismatibus 
 sire Donis miraciilosis antiquae Eccleslae, publiahcd at 
 Francfort, 1683. 
 
 servants, and the spotless purity' of the doc- 
 trine they taught, were not sufficient to defend 
 them against the virulence and malignity of 
 the Jews. The priests and rulers of that 
 abandoned pe^le, not only loaded with inju- ^ 
 ries and reproaches the apostles of Jesus,'~and 
 their disciples, biit condemned as many of 
 them as they' could to death, and executed in 
 the must irregaistr and barbarous manner their 
 sanguinary decrees. ~TTie"murder of Stephen, 
 of Jalnes the son. o|j:Hfebedee, and of James, . 
 sumamed the Just, bishop, of Jerusalem, fur- 
 nish dreadful examples of the truth of what i 
 we here advance.* This odious malignity of 
 the Jewish doctors, against the heralds of^ the 
 .Gospel, tuidoubtedly originated in a secret ap- 
 prehension that the progress of JI!hristianity 
 would destroy the credit of Judaism, and lead ' 
 to the abolition of their pompous ceremonies. 
 
 II. The Jews who lived out of' Palestine, , 
 in the Roman provinces, did iiot yield to those 
 of Jerusalem in point of cruelty to the inno- 
 cent disciples of Christ. "We learn from the 
 history of the Acts of the Apostles, and other 
 records of unquestionable authority, that they 
 spared -no lalwur, but zealously seized every 
 occasion of aiiimating the magistrates against 
 the Christians, and instigating the multitude 
 to demand their destriJbtion. . The high priest 
 of the nation; and the Jews who dwelt in 
 Pale^ihe, were instrumental in exciting the 
 rage of these foreign Jews' against the infant 
 church, by seiading messengers to exhort them, 
 not only to avoid all intercourse with the 
 Christians, but also to persScute them in the 
 most vehement manner.f For this inhuman 
 order, they endeavoured to find out the most 
 plausible pretexts; and, therefore, they gave , 
 out, that the Christians were enemies to the 
 Roman emperor, since they acknowledged the' 
 authority of a certain pffl2,on whose name was 
 Jesus, whom Pilate had'pmisHfed capitally as 
 
 a malefactor by a most righteous sentence", and 
 on "whoin, nevertheless, they conferred the 
 royal dignity. The^e perfidious insinuations 
 had the" intended effect, and the rage of the 
 Jews against the Christians was conveyed 
 from father to son, from agto to age; so that 
 the church of Christ had, in no period, more 
 bitter and desperate enemies than the very 
 people, to whom the immortal Saviour weis 
 more especially sent. 
 
 III. The Supreme Judge of the world did 
 not suffer the barbarous conduct of this perfi- 
 dious natioii to go unpunished. . The most .sig- 
 nal marks of divine' justice pursued them; and , 
 the cruelties which they had exercised' upon j 
 Christ and his disciples, were dreadfully aveng- J 
 ed. The God,'who had for so many ages pro- 
 tected the Jews with an outstretched arm, 
 withdrew his aid. He permitte'd Jeru^alem^ 
 with its famous tejnple, to be destroyed by Vesy 
 pasian and his son Titus, an innumerable mut 
 titude of ^this devoted people to perish by tMe 
 
 * The martyrdom of Stephen is recorded ip the acts of 
 the Apostles, vii. 55; and that of Jame3;the^son of'Zebe- 
 dee, Acts'xii. 1, 9; thftt of James the Just is mentioned- 
 by Josephus in his Jewish Ai)tiquitics, boolc xx. chap, viii, 
 abd by Eusebius, in- his Eccles. History, book ii. chap. ' 
 -xlii. ■ * 
 
 ^ See the Dialogue of Justin Martyr, with Trypho 
 the Jew. 
 
30 
 
 EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part I. 
 
 sword, and tlie greatest part of those that re- 
 mained, to groan under the yoke of a severe 
 bondage. Nothing can be more affecting than 
 the account of this terrible event, and the cii> 
 cumstantial description of the tremendous ca- 
 lamities which attended it, as they are given by 
 Josephus, himself a Jew,^ and also a spectator 
 of this horrid scene. From tjhis period the 
 Jews experienced, in every place, the hatred 
 and contempt of the Gentile nations, still more 
 than they had formerly done; and in these 
 their calamities, the predictions of Christ were 
 amply fulfilled, and his divine mission farther 
 illustrated. 
 
 IV. However virulent the .lews were against 
 the Christians, yet, on many occasions, they 
 wanted power to execute their cruel purposes. 
 This was not the case with the heathen na- 
 tions; and, therefore, from them the Christians 
 suffered the severest calamities. The Romans 
 are said to have pursued the Christians with 
 the utmost violence in ten persecutions;* but 
 this nmnber is not verified by the ancient his- 
 tory of the church; for if, by these persecutions, 
 such only are meant as were extremely severe 
 and universal throughout the empire, then it is 
 certain, that these amount not to the number 
 above mentioned; and, ifwetake the-provin" 
 cial and less remarkable persecutions into the- 
 account, they far exceed it. In the fifth cen- 
 tury, certain Christians were led by some pas-, 
 sages of ibs Scriptures, and by one especially 
 in the Revelations,t to imagine thatt;he church 
 was to suffer ten calamities of a most grievous 
 nature. To this notion, therefore, they en- 
 deavoured, though not all in the same wayj to 
 accommodate the language xof history, even 
 against the testimony of those ancient.records, 
 from which alone lustory can speak with au- 
 thority.J 
 
 V. Nero was the first emperor who enacted 
 laws against the Christians. In this he was 
 followed by Domitian, Marcus Antoninus the 
 philosopher, Severus, -and the other emperors 
 who indulged the prejudices they had imbibed 
 against tliE dfsciples of Jesus. All the edicts 
 of these different princes were not, however, 
 equally unjust, nor framed with the same views, 
 or for the same reasons. Were they now ex- 
 tant as they were collected by the celebrated 
 lawyer Domitius, in his book concerning the 
 duty of a proconsul, they would undoubtedly 
 cast a great light upon the history of the 
 church, under t^e persecuting emperors. | At 
 present, we must, in many cases, be satisfied 
 with probable conjectureSj for want of certain, 
 evidence. 
 
 VI. Before we proceed in this part of our 
 history, a very natural curiosity calls us to in- 
 
 * The learned J. Albert Fabricius has given U3 a list of 
 the authors who, have written concerning these persecu- 
 tions, in his Lux Evangelii toti Orbi exorieus, cap. vii. 
 
 fRev. xvii. 14. 
 
 I See Sulpitius Severus, book ii. ch. xsxiii. as also Au- 
 gustin^ de Civlta^e Dei, book xviii. ch. lii. 
 
 '§ The collection of the imperial edicts against the 
 Christians, made by Domitius, and now lost, is mentioned 
 by Lactantius, in his Divine Institutes, book v. chap. xi. 
 Such of these edicts as have escaped the ^uins of time, are 
 learnedly illustrated by Franc. Balduinus, in his Com- 
 ment, ad Edicts ve.terun] Frincipum Romanorum de 
 Christianis 
 
 quire, how it happened that the Romans, who 
 were troublesome to no nation on account of 
 its religion, and who suffered even the Jews to 
 live under their own laws, and follow their own 
 method of worship, treated the Christians alone 
 with such severity. This important question 
 seems still more difficult to be solved, when we 
 consider, that the excellent nature of the Chris- 
 tian religion, and its admirable tendency to pro- 
 mote both the public welfare of the state, and 
 the private felicity of the individual, entitled 
 it, in a singular manner, to tljp favour and pro- 
 tection of the reigning powers. A principal 
 reason of the severity with which the Romans 
 persecuted the Christians, notwithstanding 
 these considerations, seems to liave been the 
 abhbrrence and contempt felt by the latter for 
 the religion of the empire, which was so inti- 
 mately connected with the formj and indeed, ' 
 with the very essence of its political consti- ^ 
 tution; for, thougM the Romans gave an un- / 
 limited toleration to all religions which had 
 nothing in their tpnets dangerous^to the com- 
 monwealth^ yet they would not permit that of 
 their ancestors, which was established by the 
 laws of the state, to be tmrned into d erision^ 
 nor thei people to be drawn away from ttieir at- _ 
 taohment to it. . These, however, werothe two' 
 things which the Christians were chai-ged with, 
 and that justly, though to their honour.' They 
 dared to ridicule the absurdities of the pagan 
 superstition, and they were ardent and assidu-^ 
 ous in gaining proselytes to the truth. Nor 
 did they only attack the religion of Rome, but 
 also ail the different shapes and forms under 
 which superstition appeared in the various 
 countries where they exercised their ministry. 
 Hence the Romans concluded, that tKe Chri^ 
 tian sect was not only insupportably daring 
 and arrogant, but, moreover, an enemy to the 
 public tranquillity, and ever ready to excite 
 civil wars and commotionsin the empire. , It 
 is probably on this acoount, that Tacitus re- 
 proaches them with the odious character of 
 haten of mankind,* and styles the religion of 
 Jesus a destructive superstition; and that Sueto- 
 nius speaks of the Christians, and their doc- 
 trine, in termS^of the samerkind.f 
 ' VII. Another circumstance that irritated the 
 Romans against the Christians, was the simpli- 
 citylof their worship, which resembled in no- / 
 Jhing the sacred rites of any other people. 
 They had no sacrifices, temples, images, ora- 
 cles, or Sacerdotal orders; and this was suffi- 
 cient to bring upon them the reproaches of an 
 ignorant multitude, who imagined that there 
 could be no ieligionwithout these. Thus they 
 were looked upon as a sort of atheists; and, by 
 the Roman laws, those who were chargeable 
 with atheism -were declared, the pests of hunian 
 society^ But this was not all: the sordid in- 
 
 * AnnaLlib. xv. cap. xljv.. 
 
 f In Nerdhe, cap.~ xvi. These odious epithets, which 
 Tacitus gives to the Christians and their religion, as like- 
 wise the language of Suetonius, who calls Christianity a 
 poisonous or malignant superstition (malejica supersti- 
 tion) are founded upon the same reasons. A sect, which 
 could not endure, and even laboured to abolish, the reli - 
 gious practices of the Romans, and also those of all thu 
 other nations of .the universe, appeared to the short-sight- 
 ed and superiicial observers of religioufl matterl, as the 
 determined enemies of mankind. 
 
Chap. V. 
 
 CALAMITOUS EVENTS. 
 
 81 
 
 terestsof a multitude of lazy and selfish pnests 
 were immediately comiected with the ruin and 
 oppression of the Christian cause. The public 
 worship of such an immense number of deities 
 was a source of subsistence, and even of riches, 
 to the whole rabble of priests and augurs, and 
 also to a multitude of merchants and artists. 
 And, as the progress of the gospel threatened 
 the ruin of that religious traffic, this consider- 
 ation raised up new enemies to the Christians, 
 and armed the rage of mercenary superstition 
 against their lives and their cause.'* . 
 
 VIII. To accomplish more speedily the ruin 
 of the Christians, all those persons whose in- 
 terests were incompatible with the progress of 
 the gospel, loaded them with the most oppro- 
 brious calumnies, which were too easily re- 
 ceived as truth, by the credulous and unthink- 
 ing multitude, among whom they were dis- 
 persed'with the utmost industry. We find a 
 sufficient account of these perfidious and ill- 
 grounded reproaches in the writings of the first 
 defenders of the Christian cause.f And these^ 
 indeed, were the only arms-the assailants had 
 to oppose the truth, since the excellence of the 
 Gospel, and the virtue of its ministers and fol- 
 
 ' lowers, left to its enemies no resources but ca- 
 lumny andpersecution. Nothing can be imar 
 gined, in point of virulence and fury, that they 
 did not. employ for the rujn of the Christians. 
 They even went so far as to persuade the mul- 
 titude, that all the calamities, wars, tempests, 
 and diseases that afflicted mankind, were judg- 
 ments sent down by the angry gods, because 
 the Christians, who contemned their authority, 
 were suffered in the empire. J 
 
 IX. The various kinds of punishment, both 
 capital and corrective, which were employed 
 against the Christians, are particularly describ- 
 ed by learned men jvho have written profes*. 
 edly on that subject.^ The forms of proceed- 
 ing, used in their condemnation, may be seen 
 in the •Sets of tlw Martyrs, in the letters of 
 Pliny and Trajan, and other anciedt menu- 
 ments.ll These judicial forms were very dif- 
 ferent at different times, and 'Changed, natu 
 rally, according to the mildness or severify of 
 the laws enacted by the different emperors 
 against the Christians. Thus, at one time, we 
 dbserve appearancesof the most diligent aearch 
 after the followers of Christ; at anothjra, we 
 find all perquisition suspended, and positive ac- 
 cusation and information, only allowed. Under 
 one reign we see them, on their being proved 
 Christians, or their confessing themselves such,' 
 immediately dragged away to execution,, unless 
 
 * This obserration is verified by the slory of Demetrius 
 the silversmith, Acts xix. 25, and by the following pas- 
 sage in the 97th letter of the xth book of Fliuy's epistles; 
 " The temples, which were alnujst deserted, begin to be 
 frequented again; and the sacred rites,. which have bebn 
 lon^.neglected, are again performed. The victims, which 
 have had hitherto /ew purchasers, begin to come again to 
 the market,'^ &c. 
 
 + See the laborious work of Christ. Kortholt, entitled, 
 Faganus Obtreclator, seu de Calumniis\Gentilium in 
 Christianos; to which ma^ be added, Jo. Jac. Huldricus, 
 de Calumniis Gentiliiun m Christianos, published afZu- 
 rich in 1744. 
 
 X See Arnobius contra (rentes. 
 
 II See for this purpose Ant. Gallonius and Gasp. Sagif>- 
 tariusj de Cruciatibus Martyrum. .-^ 
 
 § See Bohmer, Juris £ccle3. Protestant, torn, iv. lib. v. 
 Decretal, tit. 1. sec. 32. 
 
 they prevent their ..punishment by apostacy; 
 under another, we see inhuman magistrates 
 •endeavouring to compel them, by all sorts of 
 tortures,- to renounce their religious profession. 
 
 X. All who, in the perilous times of the 
 church, fell by the hand of bloody persecution, 
 and expired in thfe cause of the divine Saviour, 
 were called martyrs;' a, term borrowed from the 
 sapred writings, signifying witnesses, and thus 
 expressing the glorious testimony- which these 
 magnanimous believers bore tothe truth. The 
 title of c&nfessor was given to such, as, in the 
 face of dpath, and at the expense of honourS) 
 fortiuiB, and all the other advantages of the 
 world, had confessed with fortitude, before the 
 Roman tribunals, their firm attachment to the 
 religion of J.esus. Great was tb^veneration 
 that was paid both to martyrs and confessors; 
 and there was, no doubt, as much.wisdom as 
 justice in treating with profound respect these 
 Christian heroes, since nothing was more adapt- * 
 ed to encourage others to suiter with cheerful- 
 ness in the cause of- Christ. But, as the best 
 and wisest institutions are generally perverted, 
 
 by the weakness or corruption of men, fiom 
 their original purposes, so • the authority and 
 privileges granted, in the beginning, to mar- 
 tyrs and confessors, became in process of time, 
 a support to superstition, an incentive to en- 
 thusiasm, and a source of innumerable evils 
 and abuses. - 
 
 XI. The .prst three or four ages of the church 
 were stained with the blood of martyrs, who / 
 suffered for the name of Jesus, The greatness 
 of their number is acknowledged by all who 
 have a competent acquaintance with ancient 
 history, and who have examined that matter 
 with any degree of impartiality. It is true, 
 the learned Dodwell has endeavoured-to inva- 
 lidate tins unanimous decision of the ancient 
 historians,* and to diminisli considerably the 
 number of those who suffered death for the 
 gospelf and, after him, several writers have 
 maintained his opinion, and asserted, that 
 whatever may have been the calamities which 
 the Christians, in general, suffered for their 
 attachment to the Gospel, very few were put 
 to death pn . that account. This hypothesis 
 has been warmly opposed, as derogating from 
 that divine power which enabled Christians to 
 be faithful even unto death, and a contrary one 
 embraced, which augments prodigiously the 
 number of these heroic sufferers. It will be 
 wise to avoid both these extremes, and to hold 
 the middle path, which certainly Jeads nearest 
 to the truth. The martyrs were less in num- 
 ber than several of the ancient modem writers 
 have supposed them to be, but much more nu- 
 merous than Dodwell and his followers are 
 willing to believe; and this medium" will, be 
 easily admitted by such as have learned from 
 the ancient writers, that, in the dai-kest and 
 most calamitous times of the church, aU Chris- 
 tians were not equally or promiscuously dis- 
 turbed, or called before the public tribunals. , 
 Those Who were of the lowest rank of thepeo- ' 
 pie, escaped the' best; their obscurity, in some 
 measure, screened them from the fury of per. 
 
 * See Dodwell's J)issef tation, de Faucitate Martyrum 
 in his Dissertatioues Cyprianicae. 
 
33 
 
 EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part 1.' 
 
 BecatioD. The learned and eloquent, the doc- 
 tors and ministers, and chiefly the rich, for the 
 confiscation of whose fortunes the rapacious 
 magistrates were perpetually gaping, wete the 
 persons most exposed to the dangers of the 
 times. 
 
 '^' XII. The actions and sayings of these holy 
 martyrs, from the moment of their imprison- 
 ment to their last gasp, were ca.refully recorded, 
 in order to be read on certain days, and thus 
 proposed as models to future ages. Few, 
 however, of these ancient acts have reached 
 our times;* the greatest part of them having 
 been destroyed during that dreadful persecu- 
 tion which Diocletian carried on ten years 
 with such fury against the Christians: for a 
 most diligent search Was then made after aJl 
 their books and papers; and all of them that 
 were found were committed to the flames. 
 From the eighth century downwards, several 
 Greek and Latin writers endeavoured to make 
 up this loss, by compiling, with vast labour, 
 accounts of the lives and actions of the an- 
 cient martyrs. But most of them have given 
 us scarcely any thing more than a series of 
 fables, adorned with a profusion of. rhetorical 
 flowers and striking images, as the wiser, even' 
 among the Romish doctors, frankly acknow- 
 ledge. Nor are those records, which pass un- 
 der the name of jnartyrology, worthy of supe- 
 rior credit, since they bear the most evident 
 marks both of ignorance and falsehood; 
 that, upon the whole, this part of ecclesiastical 
 history, forwant -of . ancient and authentic 
 monuments, is extremely imperfect, and neces- 
 sarily attended with much obscurity. 
 
 Xin. It would have been surprising, if, un- 
 der such a monster of cruelty as Nero, the 
 Christians had enjoyed the sweets of tranquil- 
 lity and freedom. This, indeed, was far from 
 being the case; for the perfidious tyrant ac- 
 cused them of having set fire to the city of 
 Rome, that horrid crime which he hims&lf had 
 committed with . a barbarous pleasure. In 
 avenging this crime upon the^innocent Chris- 
 tians, he ordered matters so, that the punish- 
 ment should bear some resemblance to the 
 opence. He therefore wrapped up some of 
 them in combustible garments, and ordered 
 fire to be set to them when the darlmess came 
 on, that thus, like torches, they might dispel 
 the obscurity of the night: while others were 
 fastened to crosses, or torn to pieces by wild 
 beasts, or put to death in some such dreadful 
 manner. This horrid persecution- was set on 
 foot in the month of November,! in the 6-lth 
 year of Christ: and in it, according to some 
 ancient accounts, St. Paul and St. Peter suf- 
 fered martyrdom, though the latter assertion is. 
 contested by many, as being absolutely irrecon- 
 
 * Such of those acts as are w.orthy of credit have been 
 collected by the learned Ruinart, into one volume in 
 folio,,of a moderate size, entitled,.Selecla et sincera Mar- 
 tyrum Acta, Amstelod. 1713. .The, hypothesis of Dod- 
 well is amply refuted in the author's preface. 
 
 t See for a farther illustration of this point of chrono- 
 logy, two French Dissertations of the very learned Al- 
 phonite de Vigilbles, concerning the cause and the com- 
 mencement 'of the persecution under Nero, which are 
 printed in Masson's Histoire. critique de la Republique 
 des Lettres, torn. viii. p. 74—117; torn. ix. .p. 172—186. 
 See also Toinard ad Lactautium db Mortibus F«rBequut 
 J. 398 
 
 cilablo with chronology.* The death of Nero, 
 who perished miserably in the year 68, put an 
 end to the calamities of this first persecution, 
 under which, during the space of four years, the 
 Cliristians suffered every sort of torment and 
 affliction, which the ingenious cruelty of their 
 eneniies could invent. 
 
 XIV* Learned men are not entirely agreed 
 with regard to the extent of this persecution 
 under Nero. Some confine it to the city of 
 Rome, while others, represent it as having 
 raged through the whole empire. The latter 
 opinion, which is also the more ancient, f is 
 undoubtedly to be preferried, as it is certain, 
 that the laws enacted against the Christians 
 were enacted against the whole body, and not 
 against particular churches, and were conse- 
 qu^tly in fijrce in the remotest provinces. 
 The authority of Tertullian confirms this, 
 who tells us,' that Nero and Domitian had en- 
 acted laws against the Christians, of which 
 Trajan had, in part, taken away the force, and 
 rendered them, in some measure, without ef- 
 fect.^ We shall not have recourse for a con- 
 -firmation.of this opinion, to that famous Por- 
 ^guese or Spanish inscription, in which Nero 
 ^)raised for having purged that province firom 
 the new supej^tition; since that inscription is 
 justly suspected to be a mere forgery, and the 
 best-Spanish' authors consider it as such.§ We 
 may, however, make one observation, which 
 wjll tend to illustrate the point in question, 
 namely, that since the CBristians were con- 
 demned by Nero, not so much on account of 
 their religion, as for the falsely-imputed crime 
 of burning the city,|| it is scarcely to be im- 
 agined, that he would leave unmolested, even 
 beyojid the bounds of Rome, a sect whose 
 members were accused of such an abominable 
 deed. . , 
 
 XV. Though, immediately after the death 
 of Nero, the rage of this first persecution , 
 against the Christians ceased, yet the flame "^"^ 
 broke out anew in the year p3 or ^ under 
 Domitian, a. prince little inferior to Nero in 
 
 * See Tillemont, Histoire des Empereurs, torn. i. p. 
 504. — Baratier, de Sncce'ssione Romanor. Pontif. cap. v. 
 
 f This opinion -nras first defended by Franc3aldum, 
 in his Gomm. .ad . Edi6ta Imperatorum in Christiaoos. 
 -\fler ,him Lau'noy maintained the same opinion in his 
 Dissert.' qua Sulpitii Severi locus d.c prima Martyruiji 
 Galliae Epocha yindicatur, sect,-i, p. 139, 140; torn. ii. 
 part i. oper. This opinion is still more acutely and learn- 
 edly defended by Dodwell, in the xith of his Disser- 
 tationes Cyprianicas. ' 
 
 i Apologet. cap. iv. 
 
 § This celebrated inscription is published by the learn- 
 ed'G'ruter, in the first volume of his Inscriptions. It 
 must, however, be observed, that the best Spanish wri- 
 ters do not venture to defend -the genuineness and au- 
 thority-of this inscrip^on, as it was never seen by any 
 of them, and was first produced by Cyriae of Ancona, a 
 person universally known to be utterly unworthy of the 
 least credit. We shall add here the judgment which the 
 excellent historian of Spain, Jo. de Ferreras, has given 
 of this inscription; '* Je ne puis m'empecher (says he) 
 d'observer qiie Cyriae d'Anconc fut !e premier qui pul^- 
 lia cette inscription, et que c'estdeluiqueles autres Pout 
 tiree; mais comme la foi de cet ecrivain est suspecte au 
 jugement de tous- les scavaos, que d'ailleurs il n'y a ni 
 vestige ni souvenir de cett£ inscription dans les peaces on 
 I'on dit qu'elle s'est trouvee, et qu'on ne scait ou la 
 prendre a present, chacun pent en porter le jugetnent 
 qu'il voudra." 
 
 II See Theod. Ruinart, Frsef. ad Acta Martyrum sin- 
 cera et selecta, f, 31, &c. 
 
Chap. I. 
 
 STATE OF LEARNING AND PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 33 
 
 wickedness.* This persecution wa? occasioned, 
 if we may give credit to Hegesippus, by Do- 
 mitian's fear of losing the empire;t for he, had 
 beeilL informed, that, among the relatives of 
 Chrilt, a man should arise, who, possessing a 
 turbulent and ambitious spirit, was to excite 
 commotions in the state, and aim at supreme 
 domftiion. However that may have been, the 
 persecution renewed by this unworthy prince 
 was ^xtremely violent, though his untimely 
 deatH soon put a stop to it. Flavins Clemens, 
 
 * Praef. ad Acta Marljrrum,.&c. f. 33— Thorn. ICtigii 
 Select. Histor. Eccl. CapU. sxc. i. cap. vi. sect. 11. 
 f Euseb. Hist. Eccl: lio. iii. cap. xix. xx.. 
 
 a' man of consular dignity, and Flavia Domi- 
 tilla, his niece, or, as some say, his wife, were 
 the principal mart;^s that suffered in this 
 persecution, in which also the apbstle.John 
 was banished'to the isle of Patmos. Tertullian 
 and other writers inform us, that, before his 
 banishment, he was thrown, into a caldron of 
 boijing oil, from which he Same forth, "not only 
 living, but even unhurt. This story, however, 
 is not attested in such a manner as to preclude 
 all doiubt.* 
 
 * See Mosheim's, Synti^ma Dissert, ad Historiam 
 Eccles. pertiuentium, p. 497 — 54tJ. 
 
 PART H. 
 
 THE INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 CHAPTER L 
 
 CiMcerrAng an ^ccovnt of the State of Learning 
 and PhUosoph)!. -. 
 
 I. If we had any certain or satisfactory ac- 
 count of the doctrines which were received 
 among the wiser of the eastern nations. When 
 the light of the Gospel first rose upon the 
 world, this would contribute to illustrate many 
 important points in the ancient history of the 
 church. But the case is quite otherwise: the 
 fragments of the ancient oriental philosophy 
 that have come down to us, are, as every one 
 knows, fevir in number, and, such as they are, 
 they yet require the diligencOi emdition, and 
 sagacity of some learned man, to collect th^ 
 into a body, arrange them with method, and 
 explain them with perspicuity.* 
 
 II. The doctrine of the nwgi^-who believed 
 the universe to be governed by two principles^ 
 the one good, and the other evil, flourished in 
 Pereia. Their follower^, however, did iiot all 
 agree with respect to t{i nature of these prin- 
 ciples;! but this did not prevent the propaga- 
 tion of the main doctrine, which was- received 
 throughout a considerable part of Asia and 
 Africa, especially among the Chaldeans, As- 
 syrians, Syrian^, and Egyptians, thougb-with 
 different modifications, and had even infected 
 the Jews themselves, j The Arabians at that 
 time,jtnd evenvafterwards, were more remarka- 
 ble for strength and "courage, than for genius 
 and sagacity; nor do they seem, according, to 
 their own confession,^ to have acquired any 
 great reputation for wisdom, and philosophy 
 before the time of Mohammed. 
 
 * T^ie history of.tlie oriental philosophy by Mr. Stan- 
 ley, though it is not void of all.kind of nrient, is yet ex- 
 tremely uefectiveC ^T?hat learned autlior is so far from 
 having; exhausted His .sphject, that he has ''\eH it, en the 
 contrary, in many places, wholly untouched. The history 
 of philosophy, published in Germany by the very leajoed 
 Mr. Brucker, is vastly preferable to Mr. Stanley's work; 
 and the German author, indeed, much superior to the 
 English one, both in point of genius and of erudition. 
 
 f See Hyde's History of the Religion of the Ancient 
 Persians, a work full of erudition, but indigestf^ and in- 
 terspersed with conjectures of the most improl^qxile kind. 
 
 t See WoiPs Manichaeismus ante Manichaeos.F ', 
 
 9 See Abulpharagius de Moribus Arabum, published. 
 by Focock. 
 
 Vol. I.— 5 
 
 III. Froin the earliest times, the Indians 
 were distinguished by their taste for sublime 
 knowFedge and wisdom. We might,. perhaps, 
 be able to form a judgment of their philosophi- 
 cal tgjiets, if that inost ancient book, which 
 they^deemed particularly sacred, and which 
 they called veda,oi tlie law, should be brought 
 to light, and translated into some known lan- 
 guage. -Biit the accoimts which are given of 
 this remarkable book, by those who have" been 
 in the Indies, are so various and irreconcilable 
 with each other, that we must yet wait for 
 satisfaction on" this head.* As to -.the Egyp- 
 tians, they were divided, as every one knows, 
 into a multitude of sects and opinions. f-^ 
 Fruitless, therefore, are the labours of those 
 whd endeavour to reduce the philosophy of 
 this people to one system. ^ 
 
 IV. But^ of all the systems of philosophy 
 that were received in Asia and . Africa about 
 the time of ourSavioiir, no ofle was so detri- 
 mental to the Christian religion, as that which 
 was styled .gnosis, or sciencoj i. e. the way to 
 the triie "knowledge of the Deity", and which 
 we have above called the oriental doctrine, in 
 order to distinguish, it from the Grecian phi- 
 losophy. It was from the bosom of this, pre- 
 tended oriental Ycisdom, that the chiefs of 
 those sects, which, in the three first centuries 
 perplexed and afilicted the Christian church 
 priginally issued. These supercilious doctors, 
 endeavouring to accommodate to tlie tenets of 
 their fantastic philosophy, the pure, simple, 
 and sublime' doctrines of the Son of God, 
 brought forth, as the result of "this jarring 
 composition, a multitude of idle dreams and 
 fictions', and imposed upon their followers a 
 System .of opinions which .-were partly ludir 
 crous and partly pferplexed with intricate-sub- 
 tiitiesV, and covered with impenetrable obscuri- 
 ty. The ancient doctors, both Greek and 
 
 Some, parts of the Veda have been published; or, it 
 may rather be said that pretended portions of it have ap- 
 peared; bjit, whatever may be alleged by oriental en- 
 thusiasts, these- Brahminical remains do not evince the 
 " suMime knowledge or wisdom" which inany writers 
 attribute to the' ancient inhabitants of India.^jBdt£. 
 
 t See Dr. Moslicim's Observations on Cudworth's 
 System 
 
3i 
 
 INTERNAL HISTOKY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Pabt U. 
 
 Latin, who opposed these sects, considered 
 them as so many branches that derived their 
 origin from the Platonic philosophy. But this 
 was mere Illusion. An apparent resemblance 
 between certain opinions of Platd, and some 
 of the tenets of the eastern schools, deceived 
 these good men, who had no knowledge but 
 of the Grecian philosophy, and "were absolute- 
 ly ignorant of the oriental doctrines. Who- 
 ever compares the .Platonic with the Gnostic 
 philosophy, will easily perceive, the wide dif- 
 ference that exists between them. 
 
 V. The fii-st principles of the oriental jiliilo- 
 sophy seem to be perfectly consistent with the 
 dictates of reason; for'^its founder must un- 
 doubtedly have argued in the following man- 
 ner: " There arc many evils in this world, and 
 men seem impelled by a natural instinct to the 
 practice of those things which reason con- 
 demns; but that eternal mind, from which all 
 spirits derive their existence, ihust be inacces- 
 sible to all kinds of evil, and also of a most 
 perfect and beneficent nature; therefore the 
 origin of those evils, with which the universe 
 abounds, must be sought Somewhere else than 
 in the Deity. It cannot reside in hiiri who is 
 all perfection; and therefore it must be without 
 Lim. . Now, there is nothing willumt or beyond 
 the Deityj but matter; therefore mutter is' the 
 centre and source of all evil, .of all vice." 
 Having taken for granted these p.rincfpjes," they 
 proceeded- to affirm that matter was teternal, 
 and derived its present form, not from, the wilL 
 of the Supreme God, but from the creating 
 power of some inferior- intelligence, to whom 
 the world and its inhabitants' owed theiir exist- 
 ence. 1 As a proof of this asseitioH they alleg- 
 ed, that it wa§ incredible, that the Supreme 
 Deity, perfectly good,, and -infinitely removed 
 from all evil, should either create or modify 
 matter, which is essentially malignant and cor- 
 rupt, or bestow upon it, in any degree, the 
 riches of his wisdom and .liberality. They 
 were, howevej, aware of the insuperable dif- 
 ficulties that lay against their system; for, when 
 they were called to explainin an accurate and 
 satisfactory manner, how this rude and corrupt 
 matter came to be arranged into such a regu- 
 lar and harmonious frame as that of the uni- 
 verse, and, particularly, how celestial spirits 
 were joined to bodies formed out of- its malig- 
 nant, mass, they were sadly embarrassfed, and 
 found, that the plainest dictates pf reason de- 
 clared their system" incapable of "defencfe. In 
 this ^perplexity they' had recourse to wild fic- 
 tions and romantic fables, in order to give an 
 account of the formation of the world and the 
 origin of mankind, 
 
 VI. Those who, bymere dint of fancy, and 
 invention, endeavour to cast a.light upon ob- 
 scure points, or to solve great and intricate dif- 
 ficulties, are seldom agreed about the methods 
 of proceeding; and, by a necessary consequence, 
 separate into different sects. Such was the 
 case of the oriental philosophers, when they 
 set themselves to explain the difficulties men- 
 tioned above. Some imagined two eternal 
 principles from which all things proceeded, one 
 presiding over light and the other over matter; 
 and', by their perpetual conflict, explained the 
 mixture of good and evil, apparent in the uni- 
 
 verse. Others maintained, that the being 
 which presided over jnatter was not an eter- 
 nal pririciple, but a subordinate intelligence, 
 oneof those whom the Supreme God produced 
 from himself They supposed that this being 
 was moved by a sudden impulse to reduce to 
 order the rude mass of matter which lay e.x- 
 cluded from the mansions of the Deity, and 
 also to create the human race. A third sort 
 devised a system different from the two pre- 
 ceding^ and formed to themselves the notion of 
 a triumvirate of beings, in which the. Supreme 
 Deity was distinguished both from the- mate 
 rial evil principle, and from the creator of this 
 sublunaigf world. Tliese, then, were -the three 
 leading sects of the oriental philosophy, which 
 were subdivided into various factions, by the 
 disputes that arose when they came tD explain 
 more fully their respective opinions, and to 
 pursue them into all their monstrous conse- 
 quences. These multiplied divisions were the 
 natural and necessary consequences of a sys- 
 tem which had Ho solid foundation, and was no 
 more, indeed, than an airy phantom, blown up 
 by the , wanton fancies of self-sufficient men." 
 And that these divisions did really subsist, the 
 history of the Christian sects that embraced 
 this philosophy abundantly testifies. 
 
 VII. It is, however, to be observed, that, as 
 all these sects were founded upon one common 
 principle, their divisions did not prevent their 
 holding, in common, certain opinions concern- 
 ing the Deity, the, universe, the human race, 
 and several'- other subjects. They were all, 
 therefore, unanimous m acknowlec^rig the ex- 
 istence of a high and eternal nature, in whom 
 dwelt the fulness of wisdom, gooc^ess, and all 
 o%eT perfections, and of whom no mortal was 
 able to form a complete idea. This great be- 
 ing was considered by them as a.most pure and 
 radiant light, diffused through the immensity 
 of space, which they called pleroma, n. Greek 
 word that signifies fulness; and they taught the 
 following particillars concerning. Jiim, and his 
 operations: " The eternal nature, infinitely per- 
 fect, and- infinife-ly happy, having dwelt from 
 everlasting in a profound solitude, and in a 
 blessed tranquillity, produced, at length, from 
 itself, two minds of a different sex, which re- 
 sembled their supreme ^jarent in the most per- 
 fect manner. From the prolific union-of these 
 two beings others arose. Which were also fol- 
 lo"wed by, different generations; so that, in pro- 
 cess of time, a celestial family was formed in 
 the pleroma.* I'his divine progeny, being im- 
 mutable in its nature, and above the power of 
 mortality, was called by the philosophers ffion,"t 
 
 It appears .higlily prol3able that the apostle Paul had 
 an eye to this iantastic "mythology, wl>en, in his First 
 Epistle to Timothy, he exhorts him not to " give heed to 
 fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions,'' 
 &c. 
 
 f The -word a*uji', or (Eon, is commonly used by the 
 Greelt writers, but in different senses. Its signification 
 in 'the Gnostic system, ia. not very evident, and several 
 leai-ned men have despaired of Gnding out its true mean- 
 ing. , Af'.oi', or ffion, among the ancients, was used to sig- 
 nify the age of man, or the duration of human life. In 
 after-times, it was employed by philosophers to express 
 the duration of spiritual aiid invisible beings. These phi- 
 losopheWused the word zpo^oe, as the measure of corpo- 
 real and changing objects; and «»a>i', as the measure of 
 such as were immutable and eternal; and, as God is the 
 chief of those immutable beings which are spiritual, and, 
 
Chaf. I. 
 
 STATE OF. LEARNING AND PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 35 
 
 a term which signifies, in the Greek language, 
 an etehial nature. How many in number 
 these aons were, was a point much controvert- 
 ^ed among the oriental sages. 
 
 Vin. " Beyond the mansions of light, where 
 dwells the Deity with his celestial offspring, 
 there lies a rude and unwieldy mass of matter, 
 agitated by innate, turbulent, and irregular 
 motibns. One of the celestial natures der 
 scending from the pleroma, either, by a fortui- 
 tous impulse, or in consequence of a divine 
 commission, reduced to order this' unseemly 
 mass, adorned it with a rich variety of '" 
 creited men, and- inferior animals of dififerent 
 kinds, .to store it with inhabitants, and cprfect- 
 ed its malignity by mixing with it a certain 
 portion of .light, and also of a matter celestial 
 and divine. This creator of the world is dis- 
 tinguished from the Supreme Deity by the 
 najne of demhirge. His Character is- a com- 
 pound of shining qualities and insuppprtaljile 
 arrogance; and his excessive lust of empire 
 effaces his talents and his virtues. He claimS^ 
 dominion over the new world which -he has 
 formed, as his sovereign right; and, excluding 
 totally the Supreme Deity from all conpem in 
 it, he demands from 'mankind,rfor himself and 
 hb'associates, divine honours," 
 
 IX. " Man is a compound of a terrestrial 
 and corrupt body, and a soul which is of celes- 
 tial origin, and, in some measure,' an emana- 
 tion from the divinity. This nobler part is 
 miserably weighed down and" encumbered by 
 the "body, wmch is the seat of all irregular 
 lusts and impure desires. It is this body that 
 seduces the soul from tiie pursuit of truth, and 
 not only turns it from the contemplation and 
 worship of God, so as to confine its hoinage 
 and veneration to the creator of this world, 
 but also attaches it to terrestrial objects, and 
 to the immoderate pursuit of sensiu.1 pleasures, 
 by which- its nature is totally polluted. The 
 sovereign mind employs various m^ans tg de- 
 liver his offspring f^pm this deplorable servi- 
 tude, especif^lly the ministry of divine messen,- 
 gerB, whom he sends to enlighten,- to admonish, 
 and to reform the human race. In J;he mean- 
 time, the imperious demiurge exerts hig power 
 in opposition to the merciful purpose of the 
 
 cODsequeatly, not.to he pecceived by our outward senses',' 
 his infinite and eternal 'duration was expressed by.the 
 term aoni antt that is the sense in which' this word is now 
 commonly understood. It was, however, afterwards at- 
 tributed to other spiritual and invisible^beings; and the 
 oriental philosophers, who lived about the time "of Christ's 
 appearance upon earth, and made use of the- Greek lan- 
 guage, understood by it the duration of. eferiial and im- 
 mutabler things, or the period o£ time in wjiich th^ exist. 
 Nor did the variations, through which this^word passed, 
 end here; from expressing only the duration of beings, it 
 was, by a metonymy, employed to signify the beings them- 
 selves. Thus God was called icon, and the angels -were 
 distinguished also by the title of leoTis. ' All' this will-lead 
 us to the true meaning of that word among the Gnostics. 
 They had formed to themselves the notion of. an invisible 
 and spiritual world, composed of entities or virtues, pro- 
 ceeding from the Supreme Being, and succeeding - eacli 
 other at certain intervals of time, so as to form an eternal 
 ckaiil, of which our world was the terminating link; a 
 nt}tion of eternity very different "from that of the Platon- 
 ists, who represented it as stable, permanent, and void of 
 succession. To the beings that formed this eternal chain, 
 the Gnostics assigned a ce -tain term of duration, and a 
 certain sphere of action. Their'ferwM of duration Were 
 first called teons, and they themselves were ailerwards 
 metonymically distinguished by that title. 
 
 j Supreme Being, resists the influence 'of those 
 j solemn invitations by wiiioh he exhorts mati- 
 I kind to return to hiin, and ra,bourB to efface the 
 1 knowledge pf God in the minds of intelligent 
 j beings. In this conflict, sueh souls , as,-throw- 
 ing off the yoke of the creators and" rulers of 
 I this world, jase to their Supreme Parent, and 
 j subdue the turbulent and sinful .inotions which 
 I corrupt matter excites within them, shall, at the 
 ' dissolution .of tlieir mortal bpdies, ascend di- 
 rectly to the plermna. Tljtjse, on the contrary, 
 who remain in^the bondage of servile supersti- 
 tion and "corrupt matter, "shall, at the.end "of 
 this-life,-piss into" new-bodies, until they awake 
 from tlieir siirfiil lethargy. In the end, how 
 ever, God -shall come forth victorious, triumph 
 pver all opposition; and, having" delivered Trom 
 their servitude' the greatest part of those souls 
 that ar'e imprisoned in mortal bodies, ishall dis- 
 splve .the frame' of -this ; "visible world, and in- 
 volve it in a general I'uin. After this solemn 
 period, primitive tranquillity shall be restored 
 in the universe; and God sliall reign with happy 
 spirits, in undisturbed felicity, through- ever- 
 lasting ages." " , 
 
 ■^, -X. Such were the principal tenets of the 
 oriental philosophy. The state of letters and 
 of philosophy among-1;he Jews cornes next un- 
 der consideratioh; and of this we may form 
 some idea from what has been already said con - 
 cerning that nation. It is chiefly to be observ- 
 ed, that iJie dark and hidden science which 
 tliey called the Cabbala, was at this tim6 taught 
 and inculcated by many among that supersti- 
 tipus people".* This science, in many points, 
 "' bears a strong resemblance to the oriental phi- 
 losophy; br, tp-speak mpre accurately, it is in- 
 dee(i that same philpsophy accommodated to 
 the Jewish religion, and tempered with a cer^ 
 tain mixture eftiruth. Nor were "the doctrines 
 of the Grecian sages unknpwn to the Jews at 
 the period how before us; since, fibra the time 
 of Alexander the- Great,' soine of them, had 
 been admitted, even into the Mosaic relfgion'. 
 I We shall say nothing concerning the opinions 
 : which they OTopted from the philospphical and 
 theclpgical' systems of the Chaldeans, Egyp- 
 tians, and Syrians.f- - 
 
 XI. The Greeks, in the -opinion of most 
 
 writers, were yet in [iossession of the first rank 
 
 among the riatidns that cultivated letters and 
 
 I philosophy. In many places, and especially at 
 
 i Athens, there were a considerable number of 
 
 • men disfSngnished by their learning, aeutenesg, 
 
 . and eloquencepphilcsophers of all sects,- who 
 
 I taught tlie dpctrines cf Plato, Aristptle, ZenD, 
 
 and Epicurus; rhetoricians ako, and men of 
 
 genius, who instructed the youth in the rules 
 
 ;of eloquence, and formed their taste for the 
 
 liberal arts; so ths-t those "whp had'a passiph fpr 
 
 the study pf pratory, resprted. in multitudes ta 
 
 the Grecian schools, in order to perfect them- 
 
 "selyes in fliat iioble science. Alexandria, in 
 
 Egypt,' was also much frequented ftr the same 
 
 purpose, as a great number -of the Grecian phi- 
 
 ■ losophers and ri^toricians- dwelt in that city. 
 
 * See Jo. Franc. Buddtei introduetio in Historian 
 Philos. Hebrseorum; and also the works which B. 'Wolf 
 mentions, with encomiums, in his Bibliottiec^ Hebraim, 
 tom. iii. ' ■ ' '. ~ ' ' ' 
 
 t See the same publications; ." ' 
 
36 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part 11. 
 
 XII. The Romans also, at this time, made a 
 shining figiire among the polished and learned 
 nations. All the sciences flourished at Rome. 
 The youth of a higher ra.nk were early instruct- 
 ed in the Greek language and eloquence. Fwm 
 those pursuits they proceeded to the study of 
 pliilosophy, and the laws of their country; and 
 they ifinished their education by a voyage into 
 Greece, where they not only gave the last de- 
 gree of perfection toiheir philosophical studies, 
 but also acquired that refined wit and elegance 
 of taste, which served to set off their' more 
 solid attainments in the most advantageous 
 manner.* None of the philosophical sects 
 were more jn vogue among the Romans than 
 the. Epicureans and the Academics, which were 
 peculiarly favoured by the great, who, soothed 
 
 , by their doctrines into a false security, indulg- 
 ed their passions without remorse,.and continu- 
 ed in their vicious pursuits without terrbr., 
 During the reign of Augustus, the culture of 
 polite learning, and of the fine arts, was holden 
 in great honour, and those who contributed 
 with zeal and succSss to this, were eminently 
 distinguished by that prince. But after his 
 death, learning languished without encourage- 
 ment, and was iieglected, because the succeed- 
 ing emperors w6re more intent upon the arts 
 of war and rapinej than those more amiable 
 arts and inventions which are the fruits of lei- 
 sure and peace. 
 
 XIII. With respect to the other nations, such 
 as the Germans, Celts, and Britons, it is cer- 
 tain, that they were not destitute of learned 
 and ingenious men. Among the Gauls, the 
 people of Marseilles had long acquired a shi- 
 ning reputation for their progress inthe scien^ 
 ces;t and there is no doub^ that the neighbour- 
 ing countries received the benefit of their in- 
 structions. Among the Celts, the Druids, who 
 were priests, philosophers, and legislators, were 
 highly remarkable for their wisdom; but their 
 writings, at least such'', as are yet extant, are not 
 sufficient to inform us' of the nature of their 
 philosophy .J The Romans, indeed, introduced 
 letters and philosophy into all the provinces 
 which submitted* to their victorious armSj iji 
 order to soften the rough manner's of the sa- 
 vage nations, and form in them, imperceptibly, 
 the sentiments and feelings of humanity. § 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Concerning the Doctors <md~ Ministers of the 
 Charch, and its Form of Government. 
 
 I. The great end of Christ's missio.n was to 
 form an universal church, gathered out of all 
 the nations of the world, and to extend the. 
 limits of this ^eat .society from age to age. 
 But, in order to this, it was necessary, first, to 
 appoint extraordinary teachers, who, convert- 
 
 ing the Jews and Gentiles to the truth, should 
 erect, every where. Christian assemblies; and 
 then, to establish ordinary ministers, and in- 
 terpreters of the divine will, who should repeat 
 and enforce the doctrines delivered by the for- 
 mer, and maintain the people in their holy pro- 
 fession, and in the practice of the Christian 
 virtues; for the best system of religion must 
 necessarily either dwindle to nothing, or be 
 egregiously corrupted, if it be not perp'etually 
 inculcated and explained by a, regular and 
 standing ministry. 
 
 II. The extraordinary teachers whom Christ 
 employed to lay the foundations of his ever- 
 lasting kingdom, were the twelve apostles, and 
 "the seventy disciples, of whom mention has 
 been made above. To these the Evangelists 
 are to be added, by which title those were dis- 
 tinguished whom the apostles sent to instruct 
 the nations, or who, of their own accord, aban- 
 doned every worldly attachment, and conse- 
 crated themselves to the sacred office of propa- 
 gating the Gospel.* In this rank, also, we 
 must place those to whom, in the infancy of 
 the church, the marvellous power of speaking 
 in foreign languages which they had never 
 leaimed, was communicated from above; for the 
 person to whom the divine omnipotence and 
 liberality -had imparted the gift of tongues, 
 might conclude, with the utmost assurance, 
 from the gift itself, (which a wise being would 
 not bestow in vain,) that he was appointed by 
 God to propagate the truth, and employ his 
 talents in the service of Christianity.f 
 
 III. Many have undertaken to write the his- 
 tory of the apostles;]: a history which we find 
 loaded with fables, doubts, and difficulties, 
 when we pursue it farther than the books of 
 the New Testament, and the most ancient wri- 
 ters in the Christian church. In order to have 
 a just idea of the nature, pri'vileges, and au- 
 thority of the apostolic fimction, we must con- 
 sider an apostle as-a person who was honoured 
 with a divine commission, invested with the. 
 power of making laws, of restraining the wick- 
 ed, when that was expedient, and of working 
 miracles, when necessary; and sent to mankind, 
 to unfold to them the divine will, to open to 
 them the paths of salvation and immortali- 
 ty, and to separate from the multitude, and 
 unite in the bonds of one sacred society, those 
 who were attentive and obedient to the voice 
 of God, addressed to men by their ministry;| 
 
 IV. The accounts we have of the seventy 
 disciples" are still more obscure than those of 
 the apostles, since the former are only once 
 mentioned in the New Testament, Luke, x. 1. 
 The illustrations that we have yet remaining. 
 
 ■* ^ee Facfanini Gaudentii Liber de Fhilosophiae apud 
 Kotnanos initio et prQgressu,viii tertio fascicuk) Novaj 
 Collectionis 'Variorum Scriptorum. , Halae'1717. 
 
 1 See the Histoire Literaire de la France par des Ileli- 
 gieux Benedictins. Dissert. Prelim, p. 43, Sac. 
 
 \ Martin, Religion des Gaulois. 
 
 ^ Juvenal, Sat, iv. ver. 110. 
 
 " Nunc totus Graias noslrasque habetiirbis Athenas: 
 Gallia caujsidicos docuit.^acunda Britannos; 
 De conducendo loiiuitur jam rhetore Thule." 
 
 * See St. Paul's Epistle to the Ephcsians, iv. 11; ani 
 also Euseb. Hist.-Eccles. lib. iii. cap, xxxvii. 
 
 1 1 Cor, xiv. 23, 
 
 \ The authors who have given accounts of the apostles, 
 are enumerated by Sagittarius in his Introduction to Ec- 
 clesiastical History, and by Buddeus in his treatise de Ec- 
 clesia Apostolica. 
 
 _ §See Fred. Spanheim, de Apostolis et- Apostolatu, torn, 
 ii. op, p, 989, It is not without weighty reasons, and 
 without haviug considered the rfiatter attentively, that f 
 have supposed the apostles invested with the power of . 
 enacting laws. I am sensible that some very learned men 
 among the moderns have denied this power; but I appre- 
 hend they differ from me rather in words than in any ma 
 terial point. 
 
Chat. II. 
 
 DOCTORS, CHURCH GOVERNMENT, &c. 
 
 37 
 
 relative to their character and office, were cer-^ 
 tainly composed by the-more modern Greeks, 
 and, therefore, dan have little authority, or 
 credit.* Their commission extended no far- 
 ther than tlie Jewish nation, as appears from 
 the express words of St. Luke, though it is 
 highly probable, that, after Christ's ascension, 
 they performed the function of Evangelist^, 
 and' declared the glad tiding of salvation, and 
 - the means of obtaining it, through different 
 nations and provinces. 
 
 V. Neither Christ himself, nor his holy apos- 
 tles, have commanded any thing clearly or ex- 
 pressly conceming the external form of the 
 church, or the precise method according to 
 which it should be governed.^ Hence we may 
 
 * These' accounts are to be seen at the end of three 
 bodies concerning the life and death of Moses, which were 
 diacoverexl and illustrated by Gilh. Gaulminus, and re- 
 published by Fabricius in his Biblioth. Gvaec. 
 _ f Those who imagine, -that Christ himself, or the 
 aposlles^lly his direction and authdrity, appointed a cer- 
 tain fixdd-t^rm of church gdvernment, have not deter- 
 mined What that form -was. The principal opinions that 
 have; been adopted lipon^^is.head may be reduced to the 
 four following: TK&first'is that of the Roman GattiDlics, 
 who maintain, " That" :Glyri3t'a^decIated., intention was, 
 that his Ibllowers should'be collected into bfie sacred em- 
 pire, subjected to thei^governmerit pf St. Peter and his 
 successors, and dividedj^ like the. kingdoms of^this World, 
 into several provinces; that, in consequence thereof/ 
 Peter fixed the seat of ecclesiastical dominion at Rome, 
 but afterwards, to alleviate the burthen-of his office, di- 
 vided the church into three great, provinces, according to 
 the division of the world at thtit timej and appointed a 
 •-Ijerflon to .preside jn each, who was dignified, with the 
 tme of ^atriank; that the European patriarch' l-esided 
 at Rome, the Asiatic at Antioch, and. the African at Alex- 
 andria; that thebishops of eagh province, among whom 
 also there were various ranks, were to reverencfe the au^ 
 Ihority of, their respective patriarchs^ and that both 
 bishops and patriarchs were to be passively subject to 
 the supreme dominion of the Roman pontiff;*' [*J " This 
 romantic account scarcely deserves a serious refutation. 
 The second opinioa concerning the government of the 
 church, makes no mention of a supreme head, or of 
 patriarchs, constitute'd by. divine authority, but supposes 
 -that the apostles divided the Roman empire into eis many 
 ecclesiastical provinces as there were secular or civil onesj 
 that the metvopoUtan bishop, -i. e. the prelate who re- 
 sided in the capital city of each province, presided over 
 the clergy of that province, and that th§" other bishops 
 were ' sul^ect' to his authority. This' opinion lias been 
 adopted by some of. the most learned of' the Romish 
 church, [f] and has also been favoured by some of the 
 most eminent British divines. [{] Some Protestant wri- 
 ters of note have endeavoured to prove that it is not sup- 
 ported by sufficient evidence. [§] The-third opinion is that 
 Df thoseivho acknowledge, that^ when the Ghristians be- 
 gan to multiply exceedingly, metropolitans, -palria^chs, 
 and archbishops,, were indeed created, feut ouly by kuman 
 appointment and authority,. th6ugh they confess, at the 
 same time, that it is consonant to th~e orders and. intentions 
 of Christ and his apostles, that, in every Christiap church 
 there should be one person invested with the highest au- 
 thority, and clofhed with certain rights and privileged 
 above the oftver doctors .of thafasscmbly. Thiss opinion., 
 has been embraced by many English divined'- of the first 
 rank in the" learned world, and also by i^any^in other 
 countries and coinmunions. The fourth or last opinion 
 is that of the Presbyterians, who affirm, that Christ's in- 
 tention was, that the Christian doctors^ and ministers 
 should all enjoy the same rank and authority, without 
 
 [*} See Leo Allatius, de perpetua consens, Eecles. Ori- 
 ent. et'Occident. lib. i. cap. ii. — Morinus, Exercitat. Ec-. 
 clesiast. lib;i. exer. i. . 
 
 [f] P-etruff de Marca, de concord, sacerdot. et imperii, 
 Jib. vi. cap. i. — Morinus, Excrc. Eccl. lib. i, ex. xvili. — 
 Fagi Critica in annal. Earonii ad an. xxxvii. 
 
 ^J Hammondj Diss, de Episcop. — Beveregii Cod. 
 Canon. Vet. Eecles. Vindic, lib. ii. cap. v. tom. ii. Patr. 
 Apost. — Usser. de Qrigine E_piseop. et Metrogpl. , 
 
 [§] Baanage, Hist, de PEglise^ tome i. liv. i, cap. viii. — 
 Bohmer^ Anuot. ad Fetrum de Marca de concordia saeerd. 
 et imperii. 
 
 infer, that the regulation of this was, iu some 
 measure, to be accommodated to the time, and 
 left to the wisdom and prudence of the chief 
 rulers, botli of the state and of the church. If, 
 however, it be true, that the apostles acted by 
 divine inspiration, and in conformity with the 
 commands of their blessed Master, (and this no 
 Christian qan call in question,) it follows, that 
 the form of government which the prip^ttive 
 churches borroweii from that of Jerusalem, 
 the first Christian assembly established by the " 
 apostles themselves, must be- esteemed as of 
 ^divine. institution. But from this it would be 
 wrong to conclude that such ^ a form Is immu- 
 table, ,and ought to be invariably observed; for 
 this a great variety of events- may render im- 
 possible. -In those early times, every Christian 
 .church consisted of the people, their leaders, 
 and the ministers or 'deaconsj and these, in- 
 deed, belong essentially to every religious 
 society. '.The people were, undoubtedly, tlie 
 first in authority; for the apostles showed, by 
 their own example, that nothing of moment. 
 W35 to be carried on or determmed without the 
 consent of the assembly;* and such a method 
 of proceeding was both prudent and necessary 
 in those critical^rtimes. * \ , 
 
 Vi.. It was, therefore, the assembly of the 
 people, Which chose rulers and teachers, or 
 receive4 them, by a free and authoritative con- 
 sent, when recommended by others. The same 
 people rejected otconfirmed, by their suffirages, 
 the laws' that were proposed by their rulers to 
 the a^embly; excommunicated profligate and 
 unworthy members of the church;- restored."the 
 penitent tb th^ir forfeited privileges; passed 
 judgment upon the different subjects of con- 
 troversy and dissei^ion, that arose in their 
 community; examined and decided th6 dis- 
 putes which 'happened between the elders and 
 deacons; and, in a word, exercised all that au- 
 thority which belongs to such as are invested 
 with sovereign power. ^ The people^ indeed,, 
 had in some measure purchased these privi- 
 leges, by administering- to the support i)f their ' 
 
 any sort of pre-eminence or subordination, any distitictiOu - 
 of rights and privileges. The reader will find an. am- 
 ple account of these opinions with respect to. church 
 government in Dr. Mosheim'a Larger History" of tiie 
 firs't Century. This learned and impartial writei%who 
 condemnajvith" reason the Tourth' opinion, as it is ex- 
 plained by those Tiigoted Purijans, who look upon all 
 subordination and variety of rank among the doctors of 
 the church as condemnable. and antichristian, observes, 
 however, with eijual reason,, that this opinion may be ex- 
 plained alid modified so as to.jeconcile the moderate ad- 
 vocates "oT' the gjiscdpal discipline with the less rigid 
 -Presbyterians; , The opinion, modified by Dr. Mosheim, 
 amounts to th'is: "That the Christian doctors are eguoi 
 in "this sense: that Christ has left no positive and specjal 
 decree whicfii constitutes a distinction among them, "hdt 
 any divine commandmfent by which' those who, in conse- 
 quence of the appointments of human wisdom, are' in the 
 higher rank3,'ftan demand^by divine' right the obedience 
 and submission of'the inferior doctors or ministers, their 
 abstaining from the exercise of certain functions," &c. 
 
 The truth is, that,. ChrisI, by leaving this matter xm~ 
 determined^ has left to Christian societies a discretionary 
 power of modelling the government of the church in such 
 a manner, as the circumstantial reasons of times, places, ■ 
 &c. may require; and^ihereforc,.t£e wisest government 
 of the church is the best and mogt divine; and^eivery 
 Chriatiah society has a i:ight to make laws for itself, pro- 
 vided that these laws be consistent with charity and peace 
 and with the . fundamental doctriqes and principles o^ 
 Christianity. - " ' 
 
 * Acts i, 15; vi. 3j- xv. 4; xxi. 22. 
 
38 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part II 
 
 rulers, ministers, and poor, and by offering large 
 and generous contributions, when the safety 
 or interests of the community rendered them 
 necessary. In these supplies, each bore a part 
 proportioned to his circumstances; arid the 
 various gifts which were thus brouglit into the 
 public assemblies, were called ablations. 
 
 VII. There reigned among the members of 
 the Christian church, however distinguished 
 they were by worldly rank and titles, not oiily 
 an amiable harmony, but also a perfect equality. 
 This appeared by the feast of charity, in which 
 all were indiscriminately assembled; by the 
 names of brethren and sisters, with which they 
 saluted each other; and by several circum- 
 stances of a like nature. Nor, in this first 
 century, was the distinction made between 
 Christians, of a more or less perfect order, 
 which took place afterwards. Whoever ac- 
 knowledged Christ as the Saviour of mankind, 
 and made a solemn profession of his confi- 
 dence in him, was immediately baptized and 
 received into the church. But, when the 
 church began to flourish, and its members to 
 increase, it was thought prudent and necessary 
 to divide Christians into two orders, dis- 
 tinguished by the names of believers and cate- 
 chumens. The former were those who had 
 been solemnly admitted into the church by 
 baptism, and, in consequence thereof, were 
 instructed in aU the mysteries of religion, had 
 access to all the parts of divine worship, and 
 were authorized to vote in the ecclesiastical 
 assemblies. The latter were such as had not 
 yet been dedicated to God and Christ by bap- 
 tism, and were, therefore, neither admitted to. 
 the public prayers nor to the holy communion, 
 nor to the ecclesiastical assemblies. 
 
 The rulers of the church were called either 
 presbyters,* or bishops, — -titles which, in the new 
 Testament, are undoubtedly applied to . the 
 same order of men.f These were persons of 
 eminent gravity, and such as had distinguished 
 themselves by their superior sanctity afld 
 merit.t Their particular functions were not 
 always the same; for,' -while some of them 
 confined their labours to the instruction of the 
 people, others contributed in different .ways to 
 the edification of the church. Heiice the dis- 
 tinction between teaching and ruling presby- 
 ters has been adopted by certain learned men. 
 But if ever this distinction existed, which I 
 neither affirm nor deny, it certainly did not 
 continue long, since it is' manifest that St. 
 Paul requires,. that all bishops or presbyters be 
 qualified, and ready to teach and instruct.^ 
 
 IX. Among the first professors^of Chris- 
 tianity, there were few men of learning; few", 
 
 * Tlie word Presbyter, or e!der,is taken from the Jew- 
 ish institution, and G.ignifie9 lather the venerable pru- 
 dence and wisdom-of old age, than age itself. 
 
 t Acts XI. IV, 28. Phil. i. 1. Tit. i. 5, 7. 1 Titt. iii. 1. 
 
 J 1 Tim. iii. 1. Tit. 1. 5. 
 
 ^ 1 Tim. iii..S,~&c. See, concerning the word JVes- 
 byter, the illustrations given by the learned Vitringa, de 
 Synagoga vetere, lib.Jii. cap. i. p. 609; and by the vene- 
 rable Jo. Bened. Garpzovius, in his Exerc. in Epi&t. ad 
 Heoraeos ex Fhilone, p. 499. As to the presbyters 
 themselves, and the nature of thpir otfice, the reader.will 
 receive much satisfaction from the accounts given of that 
 order by.Bud^eus, de Ecclesia Apostolica, cap. vi. p. 719, 
 and by the most learned Flaffius de Originibus Juris 
 Eccles. p. 49. 
 
 who had capacity enough to insinuate, into the 
 minds of a gross and ignorant multitude,, the 
 knowledge of divine things. God, therefore, 
 in his iminite wisdom, judged it necessary to 
 raise up, in many churches, extraordinary 
 teachers, who were to discourse in the public 
 assemblies, upon the various points of the 
 Christian doctrine, and to treat with the peo- 
 ple, in bis name, aS' guided by his direction, 
 and clothed with his authority. Such were 
 the prophets of the New Testament,* an or- 
 der of men, whose commission is too much 
 limited by -the writers who confine it to the 
 interpretation of the books of the Old Testa- 
 ment, and especially the prophecies;! for it is 
 certain, that they, who claimed the rank of 
 prophets, were inv&ted with tlie power of 
 censuring publicly such as had been guilty of 
 any irregularity: but, td prevent the abuses 
 that designing men might make of this insti- 
 tution, by pretending -to this extraordinary 
 character, in order to execiite unworthy ends, 
 there were always present, in the public audi- 
 tories, judges divinely appointed, who, by cer- 
 tain and infiillible marks, were able to distin- 
 guish the false prophets from the true. The 
 order of prophets ceased, when the want of 
 teachers, which gave rise to it was abundantly 
 supplied. 
 
 X. The church was, undoubtedly, provided 
 from the beginning witii inferior ministers or 
 deacons. No society can be without its ser- 
 vants, and still less such societies as those of 
 the first Christians were. And it appears not 
 only probable but evident, that the young men, 
 who carried away the dead bodies of Ananias 
 and Sapphira, were the subordinate ministers, 
 or deacons, of the church of Jerusalem, who 
 attended the apostles to execute their orders.^ 
 
 * Rom. xiii. 6.. 1 Cor. xii,-28; xiv. 3, 29. Eph. iv. 11. 
 
 f See Mosheim's Dissertation de illis qui Prophctaa 
 vocantur in Novo Foedere, which is to be found m the 
 second volume of his Syntagma Dissertationum ad Histo- 
 riam Eccles. pertinentium. 
 
 {Actsv. 6, 10. 
 
 Those who may be surprised at my affirming that the 
 1/oung men, mentioned' in the passage here referred to, 
 were the deacons or ministers of the church of Jerusa- 
 lem, are desired to consider that the words fturtpot, 
 vestviff-xoi, i. e, young men, Are not always used 1o deter- 
 mine the ages of the persons to whom they are applied, 
 but are frequently employed to point out their offices, or 
 functions, both by the Greek and Latin writt^s. The 
 same rqje of interpretation, that diversifies {he sense of 
 the word presJnjter (which, as all know, signifies some- 
 times the age of a person, and, at other times his func-_ 
 tion,) is manifestly applicable to the words before us. As, 
 therefore, by the title of presljyters", the rulers of a so- 
 ciety are pointed out, without any regard to their ages 
 so, oy thfe expression young men, we are often to under- 
 stand, numisters, or servants, because such are generally 
 in the flower of youth. This interpretation may be con 
 firmed by examples taken from the New Testament. 
 Christ himself seems to attribute this sense to the wor.d 
 vewT(§05, Lulte xxii. 26. S /m^oiv iv v/^tv, j^ei-iio-flw ws 
 viMTs^oi, He explains the term ftn^am, by the word 
 ^yuftsvos, and it therefore signifies a presbyter, or ruler; 
 he also substitutes, a little after, o SiaAiviav in the place 
 of vemte^q;, which confirms our interpretation in the 
 most unanswerable manner: so that ftn^ov and v£wTEf9$ 
 are not here indications of certain ages, but of certain 
 functions, and the precept ~of Christ amounts to thil 
 '^JLet not him who performs the office of a presbyter 01 
 elder among you, think himself superior to tjie ministers 
 or deacons." The passage of 1 Fet. v. 5. is still more ex- 
 press to our purpose; '0/iOiuts, vewte^oi, uworeeyiiT* 
 Totg ^fEa-/Si>TEf □!?. It is evident from the preceding 
 verses, that presbyter here is the name of an office, and 
 points out a ruler or teacher of the church; and that the 
 
Chap. H. 
 
 DOCTORS, CHURCH GOVERNMENT, &c. 
 
 39 
 
 timse first deaoons,-tieiiig chosen from among 
 the Jews who wrere bom in Palestine, were 
 suspected by the foreign Jews of partiahty in 
 distributing the offerings which were presented 
 for the support of the poor.* To remedy this 
 disorder, seven- other deacons were chosen, by 
 order of the apostles, and employed in the ser- 
 vice of that part of tlie church at Jerusalem, 
 whi6h was composed of the foreign Jews con- 
 verted into Ciuristianity. Of these new minis- 
 ters six were foreigners, as, appears by their 
 names; the seventh was chosen out of the pro- 
 selytes, of Whom there were a certain number 
 among the first Christians at Jerasalem, and to 
 whom it was reasonahle that some regard 
 should be shown, in the election of the dea- 
 cons, as well as to the foreign Jews. All the 
 othSr Christian chtirches followed the example 
 of that of Jerusalem, in whatever related :to 
 the choice and office of the deacons. Some, 
 particularly the eastern churches, elected dea- 
 conesses, ani chose for that purpose matrons or 
 widows of eminent sanctity, who also minis- 
 tered to the necessities of tie poor, and pei^ 
 formed several other offices, that tended to the 
 maintenance of order and decency in the 
 church.f 
 
 XI. Such was the constitiition of ihe Chris- 
 tian church in its infancy, when its assemblies 
 were neither numerous nor splendid. Three 
 or four presbyters, men of remarkable piety 
 and wisdom, ruled these small coiigregations in- 
 perfect harmony; nor did they stand in need of 
 any president or superior to rnaintain concord 
 and order where "no dissensions were known- 
 But the number of the presbjrters and deacons 
 increasing with that of the churches, and the 
 sacred wojk of tlje ministry growing more 
 painful and weighty, by a number of additional 
 duties, these new circumstances required new 
 regulations. It was "then judged necessary, 
 that one man of distinguished gravity and wis-. 
 dom should preside iii the council of presby- 
 ters, in order to distribute among his colleagues 
 their several tasks, and to be a centre of union 
 to the whole society. This person was,-~at 
 first, styled the angell of the church to which 
 he belonged, but was afterwards distinguished 
 by the name of Ualwp, or inspector; a name 
 borrowed from the Greek language, and ex- 
 pressing the* principal part of the episcopal 
 function, which was to inspect and superintend 
 
 teriiL.Kea'TB^as is also to be interpreted, not A young ma/n 
 In point of age, but a miriistEr or servant of the chyrch. 
 St. Peter, having solemnly exhorted the presbyters not to 
 abuse the pOwer that was committed to them, addresses 
 his discourse to the ministers: ," But likewise, ye younger, 
 t. e. deacons, despise not the orders of the^presbyters or 
 elders, but perform cheerfully whatsoever they command 
 you-" In the same -sense S.t. Luke employs. tKis tcrjn. 
 Acts v.. 6,10. and hisTEwre^orand i'Essi'Krxorare'undoubt- 
 edly the deacons of the' church of.Jernsalein, of whom 
 the Greek Jews complain a-fterward s to the apostles, (Acts 
 vi. I, &c.) on account of the partial distribution oftlie 
 alms. I miG;ht confirm- this sense of the words young mCn, 
 by numberless citations-from Greek and lloman writers, 
 and a variety of authors, sacred and profane; but^this is 
 not the proper place for demonstrations of tKis nature. 
 
 * Acts vi. 1, &c. 
 
 fFor an ample account of the deacons and deaconesses 
 of the primitive church, see Zeigler, de Diaconis et Dia- 
 
 conissis, cap. xix. p. 347 Basnagii Annal. Polit. Eccles. 
 
 ad an. ixxv. torn. i. p. 450.— Bin'^am, Orig. Eccles. lib. 
 ii. cap. XX. 
 
 tRev. ii.,3. 
 
 the affairs of the church. It is highly proba- 
 ble that the churbh of Jerusalem, grown con- 
 siderably numerous, and deprived of the rrjinis- 
 try of the apostles, who. were gone to instruct 
 the other nations, was the first which chose a 
 president or bishop; and it is no less probable, 
 that the other churches followed by degrees 
 such a respectable example. . 
 
 XII. Let none, however, confound thebish- 
 ops of this primitive snaS golden perigd of the 
 church withtiiose of whom we read in the fol- 
 lowing ages; for, though they were both dis- 
 tinguished by the same name, yet they differed 
 in many respects. > A bi^op during the first 
 and second ceiitury, was a person who had the 
 care of one Christian assembly, which, at that 
 time was, generally speaking, small enough to 
 be. contained in a private house. In this as- 
 sembly he acted J not so much with the author- 
 ity of a master; as With the zeal and diligence 
 of a faithful servant. He instructed the people, 
 performed the several parts of divine worship, 
 attended the sick, and inspected the circum- 
 stances and supplies of the poor. He charged, 
 indeed, the presbyters with the performance of 
 those duties and' services, which the multipli- 
 .city of his engagements rendered it impossible 
 for him to fulfil; but he had not the power to 
 decide or enact any, thing without the consent 
 of the presbyters and people; and, though-the 
 episcopal office- was both laborious anii singu- 
 larly dangerous, yet its revenues were extreme- 
 ly smallj since the church had no certain in- 
 come; but depeijded on the gifts or oblations of 
 the multitude, which were, no doubt, inconsi- 
 derable, and were moreover to be divided 
 among the bishops, presbyters, deaqons, and 
 poor. 
 
 XIII. The power and jurisdiction of the 
 bishops were not long confined to tliese narrow 
 hmits, but were soon extended by the follow- 
 ing means. The bishops, who lived in the 
 cities,, had, either by their own ministry, or 
 that of' their presbyters, erected- new churches 
 in the neighbouring tovras and villages. These 
 churches, continuing under the inspection and 
 ministry of the bishops, by whose labours and 
 counsek theyliad been engaged to embrace the 
 Gospel, ^grew imperceptibly into ecclesiastical 
 provinces, which the Greeks afterwards called 
 Sioceses. But, as the bishop of the city could 
 not extend |iis~ labours and inspection to all 
 theser churches in the' country and in the villa- 
 ges, he apppjnted certain sufiragans or deputies 
 to govern and to instruct these new societies;' 
 and they were distinguished ty flip title, of 
 cAorepJscopi, i. e. country bishops.. This order 
 held the "middle rank between" bishops and 
 presbyters. 
 
 XIV. The churches, in those darty times , 
 were entirely independent, none of them being 
 subject to any foreign jurisdiction, but each go- 
 verned by its own rulers and its own laws; for, 
 though the churches founded by the apostle's 
 had tliis particular deference shown to them, 
 that they were consulted, in difficult and doubt- 
 ful cases, yet they had no juridical authority, 
 no sort of supremacy over the others, nor the 
 least right to enact laws for them. Nothing,- 
 on the contrary,, is more evident than th^ per- 
 fect equality that reigned among thp primitive 
 
40 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part It 
 
 churches; nor does there even appear, in this 
 first century, the smallest trace of that associa- 
 tion of provincial churches, from which coim- 
 cils and metropolitans derive their origin. It 
 was only in the second century that the custom 
 of holding councils commenced ,. in Greece, 
 whence it soon spread through the other pro- 
 vinces.* 
 
 XV. The principal place among the Chris- 
 tian Doctors, and among those also, who by 
 their vrritihgs were instrumental in -the pro- 
 gress of the truth, is due to the apostles and 
 some of their disciples, who were set apart and 
 inspired by God, to record the actions of Christ 
 and his apostles. The' writings of these holy 
 men, which are comprehended in the books of 
 the New Testament, are in the hands of all 
 who profess themselves Christians. .Those 
 who are desirous of particular information with 
 respect to the history ^of these sacred books, 
 and. the arguments which prove their divine 
 authority, their genuineness, and purity, must 
 consult the learned- authors who have written 
 -professedly upon that head.f 
 
 XVI. The opinions,, or rather the conjec- 
 tures of the learned, concerning the time when 
 the books of the New Testament were col- 
 lected into one volume, as also about the au- 
 thors of- that collection, are extremely differ- 
 ent. This important question is attended with 
 great and 'almost insuperable difficulties to. us 
 in these lattpr times. J It is, liowever, suffi- 
 cient for us to know, that, before the middle of 
 the second century, the greatest part of the 
 books of the New Testament were read in 
 every Christian society throughout the v^orld, 
 and received as a diviiis rule of faith and man- 
 ners. Hence it appears, that these sacred 
 writings were carefully separated from several 
 human compositions upon the same subject, 
 either by some of the apostles themselves, who 
 lived so long, or by, their disciples and succes- 
 sors.! ^® *'^® '^^^ assured,|| that the" four 
 Gospels were formed into a volume during the 
 life of St. John, and that- the three first receiv- 
 ed "the approbation of this divine apostle. And 
 why may we not suppose that the other books 
 of the New Testament were collected at the 
 same time? 
 
 ■ * The meeting of the church of Jerusalem, meotioned 
 in the xvth chapter of the Acts, is commonlyconsidered 
 as the first Christian council. But this notiou arises from 
 a manifest abuse of the wor^ council- That meetings was 
 only of one church; and-, if such a meeting be c^led a 
 council, it wijljbllow that there were innumerable coun- 
 .cils in the primitive times. ^ But, eveVy one knows, that a 
 council is an assembly of deputies, or commissioners, sent 
 from several churches associated by certain bonds in a ge- 
 neral body, and therefore the supposition- above mention- 
 ed falls to the ground. 
 
 f For the history of the books of the New Testament, 
 see particularly Jo. Alb. Fabricius, Biblioth. Graec. lib. 
 iv. cap. v. p. 1^—337. The same learned author has 
 given an accurate--list of, the writers, .who have defended 
 the divinity of these sacred books, in his Delectus.Argu- 
 mentorum ct Syllabus Scrfptorum proverit, relig.Chris- 
 tianae, cap. »xvi. p. 502. ^ . 
 
 \ See Jo. Ens, Bibliotheca S. sea Diatriba de li.brorum 
 N. T. Caiione, p^blished'at Amsterdam in 1710; as also 
 Jo. M.ill. Prolegomen. ad Nov^ Test. sect. I. 
 
 § See Fricklus, de Cura Veteris Ecclesis circa Canon, 
 cap. iii. 
 
 II This is expressly affirmed by EusebiuSj in the xxivth 
 chapter.of the-third book of his Ecclesiastical Historv. 
 
 XVII. What renders this highly probable is, 
 that the most urgent necessity required its be- 
 ing' done; for, not long after Christ's ascension 
 into heaven, several histories of his life and 
 doctrines, full of pious frauds and . fabulous 
 wonders, were composed by persons, whose in- 
 tentions, perhaps, were not bad, but whose 
 writings discovered the greatest superstition 
 and ignorance. Nor was this all: productions 
 appeared which were imposed upon the world 
 by fraudulent men, as the writings of the holy 
 apostles.* These 'apbcryphal and spurious 
 writings must have produced a sad confusion, 
 and rendered both the history and the doctrine 
 of Christ uncertain, had not the rulers of the 
 church used all possible care and diligence in 
 separating the books that were truly apostoli- 
 cal and divine from all that spurious trash, and 
 conveying them down to posterity in one vo- 
 lume. 
 
 XVin. The writer, whose fame surpassed 
 that of all others in this century, the apostles 
 excepted, was Clemens, bishop of Rome. The 
 accounts which remain of his life, actions, aiid 
 death, are for the most part uncertain.f Two 
 Epistles to the Corinthians,]; written in Greek, 
 have been attributed to him, of which the se- 
 cond is deemed spurious, and the first genuine, 
 by many learned writers.§ But even this 
 seems to have been corrupted atid interpolated 
 by some ignorant and presumptuous author, 
 who appears to have been displeased at ob- 
 serving a defect of learning and genius in the 
 writings of so great a man as Clemens. || 
 
 XIX. The learned are now unanimous in 
 regarding the other writings which bear the 
 name of Clemens, viz. the Apostolic Canons, 
 the Apostolic Constitutions, the Recognitions 
 of Clemens and Clenientina,§ as spurious pro- 
 
 * Such of these writings as are yet extant have been 
 carefully collected by Fabricius, in his. Codex Apocry- 
 phus Novi Testamenti. Many ingenious and learned ob 
 servations have been made on these spurious books by the 
 celebrated Beausobre, in his Histoire Critique des D.og- 
 mes de Manichee. 
 
 f After Tillemont, Cotelerius and Grabe have given 
 some accounts of this great man; and all that has been 
 said concerning Kim by the best and most credible writers, 
 has been collected by.Rondininl, in the former of two 
 books published at Rome, in 1706, under the following 
 title, Libri Duo Afi S. Clemente, Papa, et Martyre, ejus- 
 que Basilica in urbe Roma. . . 
 
 \ J. A. Fabricius, in the fourth book of his BibliotheCa 
 Graeea, mentions the editions that have Ifeeu given of St. 
 Clements' epistles. To this accbunt we must add the edi- 
 tion published at Cambridge, in 1718,'which is prefera- 
 ble to the preceding ones in many respects. 
 - Ct?"§ See the ample account that is given of these two 
 Greek-epistles of Clemens, by Dr. Lardner, in the first 
 voluine of the second part of his valuable-work, entitled, 
 the Credibility of the Gospel History. 
 
 II See J. Bapt. Cotelerii Patres Apost. tom. i.; and Ber- 
 ,nardi Adnotatiunculae in Clementcm, in the last edition 
 of these fathers of the church, published by Le Clerc; 
 The'learned Wotton has endeavoured", though without- 
 success, io his observations on the epistles of Clemens, to 
 refute the annotations above mentioned. 
 
 C(^ ^ Beside these writings attributed to Clemens, we 
 may reckon two epistles which the learned Wetslein 
 found in aSyriac version of the New Testament, which 
 he took the pains to translate from Syriac into Latin. He 
 has subjoined both the original arid the translation .to his 
 famous edition of the Greek Testament, published in 
 1753;, and the title is as follows: " Duae Epistolae S. de- 
 mentis Romani, Discipuli Petri Apostoli, quas ex Codice 
 Manuscripto Novi Test. Syriaci nunc primum erutas, cum 
 vcrsione Latinaadposita,edidit Jo. Jacobus Wetatenius." 
 The manuscript of the Syriac version, whence theseepis 
 
Chap. II. 
 
 DOCTORS/CHURCH GOVERNMENT, Stc. 
 
 41 
 
 ductions ascribed by some impostor lo this ve- 
 ntoablq prelate, inorder'toprooure'them a high 
 degree of authority.* The Aj)ostolical CanonSj 
 which consist of eighty-five ecclesiastical -laws, 
 contain a yiew'of thfr church government and 
 discipline received among the Greek and ori- 
 ental Christians in the seconcT and third centu- 
 ries. The eight books of Apostolical dbnsti- 
 . t^tions are the work of some austere and me"-' 
 lanoholy author, who, Tiaving taken it into his 
 head to reform the Christian worship, whi(^ 
 he lo9ked upon as degenejated from its original 
 purity, made no scruple to prefix to his rules 
 the names of the apostles, that thus they might 
 be more speedily and favourably received.] 
 The Repognitions of Clemens, which differ 
 very little from the Clementina, are the wiity 
 and agreeable productions of an Alexandrian 
 Jew, well versed in philosophy. They were 
 written in the third century, with a view of an- 
 swering, in a new manner, the objections of 
 the Jews, philosophers,' and Gnostics, against 
 the Christian religion; and the careful perusal 
 of them will be exceedingly useful to such as 
 are desirpiisof inforination with respect to the 
 state of the Christian church in the primitive 
 times.J , 
 
 XX. Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, succeeds 
 Clemens in the list of the apostolic &thers, 
 ' among whqpi were placed such Christian doB- 
 tors as had conversed With the aposUte them- 
 selves; .or their disciples. This_ pious .tad vp- 
 nerable man, who was 'the disciple and familiar 
 friend of the apostles, was,,-by the" order of Tra- 
 jan, exposed to wild beasts in the puhlic thea- 
 tre at Rome, where he suffered martyrdom 
 with the utmost fortitude.^ There are yet ex- 
 tant several, epistles, attributed to him, con- 
 cerning the authenticity of which there have 
 been, however, tedious ^and warm disputes 
 aniong the learned. Of these epistles, seven 
 are said to have been written hy this eminent 
 martyr, during his journey from Antioch to 
 Rome; and these the mjijority of learned men 
 acknowledge' to be genuine, as thdy stand in 
 the edition that was published in the seven- 
 teenth century, from a manuscripfin the Me- 
 
 tles wer'et^ken, was prqcXired by the good offices of Sir 
 Ja^mes Porter, a judicious patron of literature, who, at 
 that Cime,'was British amba3.8ador at Constantinople.' 
 Their authenticity is tioldWmaintaine'd by Welstein, and 
 learnedly opposed by Dr. Lardner. .The celebrated pro-' 
 fessor Venema, of Franeker, also considered them as 
 spurious. See an account of his controTeray'wit}k"We,t- 
 stein on that subject, in the Bibliotheque des'Sciences et 
 des Beaux Arts^ torn, ii.' ^- ■ ' 
 
 ♦ For an account of the fate, of these writings, and the 
 editions that have been given, of theni,4t -wilf be proper 
 to consult -two dissertat-i'ons of the iearned Ittigius; on^, 
 dc Patribus Apostolicis, whieh he -has prefixed to hia 
 ' Bibliotheca Fatrum Apostolicorum;', and the other, de 
 Pseudepi^raphis Apostolicis, which he has subjoined to 
 the Appendix of his book de Hseresiarchia -Mvi Apos^' 
 tolici. See also FaBricius, BibHotheca Gr.aeca, lib. v. 
 cap. i., and lib. vi. cap, i. 
 
 t Buddeus has collected the various opinions of the 
 learned concerning the Apostolical Canoils and Constitu- 
 tions, in his Isagoge in-Theologiaio.. 
 
 X See, for a full account of this work, Mosheinj'a Dis- 
 sertation, de turbata per receiitiores Platonicos Ecclesia, 
 fleet. 34. Ot^This Disssertation is in the first volume of 
 tliat learned work which our author jiublished under the 
 title Of Syntagma Dissertationum ad Historiam Ecclesias- 
 ticam pertineniium. 
 
 dicean library. The others are generally re- 
 jected as spurious. As to my own sentiments 
 of this matter, though I am willing to adopt 
 .this opinion as preferable to any other, I can- 
 not help looking Upon the authenticity of the 
 Epistle to- Polycarp as extremely dubious, on 
 account of the difference of style; and" indeed, 
 the whole question" relating to the episilesof 
 St. Ignatius in general, seems to ine to labour 
 under rhuch obscurity, and to be embarifassed 
 with many difficulties.* 
 
 XXI. The Epistle to the Philjppians, which 
 is ascribed to Polycarp bishop of Smyrna, who, 
 in tlie middle of the second century, suffered 
 martyrdom in a venerable and advanced age, 
 is cpnsidered by some as genuine; by others, as 
 spurious; audit is no easy matter to determine 
 this question.! The Epistle of Barnabas was 
 the production of some Jew, who, most pro- 
 bably, lived in this century, and whose mean 
 abilities and superstitious attachment to Jewish 
 fable%>sh6w, notwithstanding the uprightness 
 of his intentions, that he must have been a 
 very different person from the true Barnabas, 
 who was St. Paul's companion.! The work 
 Which is entitled the"^ Shepherd of Hermas, be- 
 cause the angel, who. bears the principal part 
 in it, is represented in the form and habit of a 
 shepherd, was composedJn the second century 
 by Hennas, -who was. brother to Pius, bishop of 
 Rome.§ This whimsical ■ a,nd visionary writer 
 has taken the liberty of inventing several dia- 
 logues or conversations between God and the 
 angels, in order to insinuate,- in a more easy 
 and agreeable rnanner, the precepts which he 
 thought useful and salutary, into the ininds of 
 his.readers. But indeed, the discourse, which 
 lie puts into the mouths of those celestial be- 
 ings, is more insipid and senseless, than-what 
 we commonly hear among the meanest of the 
 multitude.!! 
 
 XXII. y^e may here remark in general, 
 that- these apostolic fathers, and the other wri- 
 ters, who, in the infancy of the church, enf 
 ployed" their peps in the cause of Christianity, 
 were neither remarkable for their leariiing nor 
 for their eloquence. On the contrary, they 
 express -the most piotis and admirable senti- 
 Inents in the plainest and most illiterate style.T 
 This, indeed, is rather a matter of honour than 
 
 - * For an account of this controversy, it will be proper 
 to consult the Bibliotheca GrKca of Fabricius, Jib. v. cap. i. 
 t For an account of this martyrjjind of the epistle at- 
 tributed to him, see Tillemont's Memojres, torn, ii., and 
 Fabricii Biblio)h. Graeca, lib. v. 
 
 ' t See Tillemont's Mentoires, and Ittigius' Select. Hist. 
 Eccles. Capita, affic. i. 
 
 . § This.now appears with. tH« utmost evidence from a 
 very ancient fragment of a small book, concerning" the 
 canon of the Scriptures, which the learned Ltid. Anton. 
 Muratori published - from an ancient manuscript in ~ the 
 library at Milan, and which is to be found if the Antiq. 
 Italic, medii MA, torn; iii. diss, xliii.' 
 
 11 We areindebtcdfor the best editioji-of the Shepherd 
 of Hermas, to. Fabricius, who has added it to the third 
 volume of his Codex ApoCryjihuB N. Tesiamefati. We 
 find, also some account of this writer in the Biblioth. 
 Graeca of the saine learned author^ book v. chap. ix. and 
 also in Ittighis' dissertation de Patribus Apostclicis. 
 sect. 55. ' ^ - . • ' 
 
 T AH the wrilers'mentioned in this chapter are usuallr 
 caUed apostbUc fathers.- Of thf works of these authors, 
 Jo. Bap. Cotelerius, and after Tiim Le Clerc, have pub- 
 na-T-ii ., «« ■ „Tr- . . H I™.'" » '=<''k"'"»> in two volumes, accompanied with 
 
 A i„^V I ■'-' Memoirespour servir a I'Histoire their own annotations, and Ihe remarks of other learned 
 cie I'Jtiglise, torn. 11. II men. '^ -•»*->.*• 
 
 Vol. L— 6 
 
42 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part II. 
 
 of reproach to the Christian cause, since we 
 see, from the conversipn of a great part of 
 mankind by the ministry of weak and illite- 
 rate men, that the progress of Christianity is 
 not to be attributed to human- means but to a 
 divine power. 
 
 CHAPTER ni. 
 
 Concerning the Doctrine' of the Christian Cbiurch 
 
 in this Century. 
 
 I. The whole of the Christian religion is 
 comprehended in two great points, one , of 
 which regards what we are to belieye, and the 
 other relates to our-conduct and actions; or, in 
 a shorter plirase, the Gospel prfesents" to us ob- 
 jects of faith and rules of practice. The apos- 
 tles express the former by the term mystery, or 
 the triith, and the latter by that of godliness, or 
 piety.* Xhe rule and standard of both are 
 those books which contain the revelation that 
 God made of his' will to persons chosen for 
 that purpose^- whether before or after the birth 
 of Christ; ind these divine books, are usually 
 called the Old and J^ew Testament, 
 
 II. The apostles arid their disciples took ali 
 possible care, in the earliest times of the ohuroh, 
 that thbse sacred books might be in the -hands 
 of all Cliristians, that they might be read and 
 explained in the assemblies of the faithful, and 
 thus contribute, both in private and in pubhc, 
 to excite and nourish in the minds of Chris- 
 tians a'fervent zeal for the truth, and a firm at- 
 tachment to the ways .of piety and virtue. 
 Those whoperformed the office of interpreters 
 studied above all thfngs plainness and perspi- 
 cuity. At the same time it must be acknow- 
 ledged, that, even in this century, seyeral 
 Christians adopted the'absurd and corrupt cus- 
 tom, usied among the Jews, of darkening the 
 plain ^ords of the Holy Scriptures by insipid 
 and forced allegories, and of drawing tliem vio- 
 Itotly from their proper arid -natural meanings,- 
 in order- to extort from -them mysterious and 
 hidden si^jnifications. For a proof of this, we 
 need go no farther than the Epistle of Barna- 
 bas, which is yet extant. 
 
 III.- The method of teaching the sacred 
 doctrines of religion was, at this- time, most 
 simple, far. removed from all the subtle rules 
 of philosophy, and all the precepts of human 
 art. TJiis appears abundantly, not only in the 
 writings of tlie apostles, but also in all^those 
 of the second century, which have survived 
 the ruins of time. Neither did the apostles, 
 or their disciples, ever tliinkl of cbllect'ing into 
 a regular system the principal doctrines of the 
 Christian religio'n, oi; of demonstrating them 
 in a scientific and geometrical order. The 
 beautiful and candid simplicity of these early 
 ages rendered such philosophical niceties un- 
 necessary; and the great study of' those who 
 embraced the Gospel was rather to. express its 
 divine influence in their dispositions and ac- 
 tions, than to examine its doctrines with an ex- 
 cessive curiosity, or to explain them by the 
 rules of human wisdom. 
 
 IV. There is extant, indeed, a brief sum- 
 mary of the principal doctrines of Christianity 
 
 * ITim, iii. 9; Ti,3. Til. 1. 1. 
 
 in that form which bears the name of the 
 •Spostles^ Creed, arid which, from the fourth 
 century downwards, was almost generally con- 
 sidered as a production of the apostles. All, 
 however, who have the least knowledge of an- 
 tiquity, look upon this opinion as entirely false^ 
 and destitute of all foundation.* There is 
 miich more reason in the opinion of those who 
 think, that this creed was not all composed at 
 once, but, from small beginnings, was imper- 
 ceptibly augmented in proportion to the growth 
 of heresy, and according to the exigericies and 
 circumstances of the- church, from which it 
 was designed to banish the-errors that daily 
 arose. t 
 
 -V. In the earliest times of the church, all 
 who professed firmly to believe that Jesus was 
 the only redeertier of the world, and who in 
 Qonsequeuce of this profession, promised to 
 live in a maimer conformable to the purity of 
 his holy religion, were irrimediately received 
 among the (Esciples of Christ. TMs was all 
 the preparation for Ipaptism then required; and 
 a more accurate instruction in the doctrines 
 of Christianity was to be administered to them 
 after their reception. of that sacrament. But, 
 when Christianity had acquired more consist- 
 ence, and diurches rose to the true God emd 
 his eternal Son, almost in every nation, this 
 Custom Was changed for the wisest and most 
 solid reasons. Then-baptism was administered 
 to none but such as had been previously in- 
 structed in the principal points of Cljristianity, 
 and had also given satisfactory proofs of pious 
 dispositions and upright intentions. Hence 
 arose the distinction between catechumens, who 
 were in- a state of probation, and under the in- 
 struction of persons appointed for that pur- 
 pose; and believers, who were consecrated by 
 baptism, and thus initiated into all the myste- 
 ries of the Christian faith. 
 
 VI. The methods of instructing the cate- 
 chumens dilfered according to their various 
 capacities.^ To those, in whom the natural 
 force of reason was small, only, the fundamen- 
 tal principles and truths, which arc, as'it were, 
 "the basis of Christianity, were ta<ight. Those, 
 on the contrary, whom th6ir instructors judg- 
 ed capable of comprehending, in some measure, 
 the whole system of divine truth, were fiir- 
 nished with superior degrees -of knowledge; 
 and nothing was concealed from them, which 
 could have any tendency to render them firm 
 in their profession, and to assist them in arriv- 
 ing at Christian perfection. The care of in- 
 structing such was committed to persons who 
 were distinguished by their gravity and wis- 
 dom, and also by their learning and judgment. 
 Hencer'the ancient doctors generally divide 
 their flock into two classes; the one compre- 
 hending such as were solidjy and thoroughly 
 
 * See Buddei Isagoge ad Tlieologium, lib. i. cap. ii. 
 sect. 2. p. 441, as also Walchii Inlroductio in libros Syni- 
 bolicos, lib. i. cap. ii. p. 87. ' 
 
 - t JThis opiiiion is confirmed in the most learned and in- 
 genious manner by Sir Peter King^ in his history of the 
 Apostles'. Creed. Such, however, as read this valuable 
 work with pleasure, and with a certain degree of pre- 
 possession, would do well to consider that its author, 
 upon several occasions, has given us conjectures instead 
 
 01 proois; and also, that his conjectures" are not always 
 so nappy as justly to command our asseijt. 
 
Chap. III. 
 
 THE DOCTRINE OP THE CHURCH. 
 
 43 
 
 instructed; the other, ' those who were ao- ! 
 quainted with little more than the first prihci- \ 
 pies of religion; nor do they- deny that .the i 
 methods of instruction applied to liiese two ' 
 sorts of persons' were extremely differelit, j 
 
 VII. The Christians took all possihle c^te ' 
 to accustom their children to the study of the j 
 Scriptures, and to instruct them in the doc-j 
 trines o^ their holy religion; aaid schools werei 
 every where erected lor this purpose, even | 
 from the very, commencement of the Christian I 
 church. We must not, however, confound the i 
 schooU designed only. for~ children,' with the i 
 gymnasia or academies of the ancient Chris- 
 tians, erected in several large ' cities, m which 
 persons of riper years, especially such as as- 
 pired to be public teachers, were instructed in 
 the different branches, both of human learn- 
 ing and of sacred erudition. We may, un- 
 doubtedly, attribute to the apostles theriiselves, 
 and to the injunctions given to their disciples, I 
 the excellent establislunentS, in which theJ 
 youth destined to the holy ministry "received i 
 an education suitable to the.,solemn office they [ 
 were to undertake.* St. John erected a school i 
 of this kind at Ephesus, and one of the same i 
 nature was founded by Polycarp at Smyrna;t ! 
 but'these were not ingreater repute than that| 
 which was established at Alexandria',} com- 
 mtmly called the' catedietical school, iind gene- 
 ralfy supposed to have been erected by' St. 
 Mark;§ 
 
 VIII. The ancient Christians are supposed ^ 
 by many to have had a. secret doctrine; and if | 
 by this be meant, that they did not- teach all; 
 in the same manner, or reveal "all at once^ and ' 
 to all-indiscrimipatdy, the sublime mysteries! 
 of rfeligion, there is nothing in this that may | 
 not be fall'y justified. It would have been! 
 improper, for example, to propose to those who ; 
 were yet to be converted to Christianity, t^e ! 
 more difficult doctrines of the Gospel, which I 
 surpass the comprehension of imperfect' mor- 1 
 tals. Such Deere, therefore, first instructed iiii 
 those points which are more obvious and plain, I 
 until they became capable of higher and more-l 
 difficult attainments, in religious knowledge. | 
 And even .those who were already admitted i 
 into the society of Christians, were, in point ' 
 of instruction, diiferently dealt with according! 
 to their respective capacities. Those who con- \ 
 sider the secret doctrine of this century in any , 
 other light, or give to ita greater extent than 
 what w£ have, here attributed to it, confound 
 the superstitious ' practices of the. following 
 
 * 2 Tim. ii. 2. 
 . f Irenseus, adv. Hxres. lib. ii. cap. xxii. Eusebius; Hist. 
 Ecclea. lib. V. cap. xs. 
 
 3t?*.t The Alexandrian. 'School was renowned for a 
 succeasidn of learlied doctors, as wtffindbytne acco'unts, 
 of Eusebi'us and St. Jeromj for, after ', St. Marie, Pan- 
 taenus, Clejnens Alexandrinus, O.rigen, and many others, 
 taught in it \he doctrines of the Gqspel, and rendered, it 
 a famous seminary |br Christian phiTosophy and relic-ious 
 knowledge. There were also at Rome, Antioch, Csesa- 
 reaj Edessa, and in several other cities, schools of the 
 same nature, though not all of equal reputation. 
 
 ^ See the dissertation of Schmidius, de . Schola Cate- 
 chetica Alexandrina; as also Aulisius, delle Sciiole Sacre, 
 book ii. ch. i. ii. xxi. The curious reader -will find a 
 learned, account of the more famous Christian schools in 
 the eastern parts, at Edessa, IVisibis, and Seleucia; and, 
 indeed. Of the ancient schools in general, in 'Assemani 
 Biblioth. Oriental. Clement. Vaticanse, torn. iii. par.-ii. . 
 
 ages, with the simplicity of that discipline 
 which . prevailed, at the time of which we 
 write.* " - 
 
 •IX. The lives and manners ■ of the Chris- 
 tians in this century are highly celebrated by 
 mo"st atljhors, and recommended to succeeding 
 generations as unspotted models of piety and 
 virtue; and, if these encomiums be confined 
 to the greater part of those who embraced 
 Christianity inthe infancy of the church, they 
 are certainly distributed with justice: but many 
 run into extremes upanthis.head, and, festimat- 
 H5g> the lives and manners of all by the illus- 
 trious examples of some eminent saints, or the 
 sublime precepts and exhortations of certain 
 pious doctors, fondly irnagme, that every ap- 
 pearance of vice -and disorder was banished 
 fliom the first Christian societies. The greatest 
 part of those authors who have treated of the 
 innoce^nce and sanctity of the pririiitive Chris- 
 tians, have fallen ihto' this error; and agross 
 error indeed it is, as the strongest testimonies 
 too evidently prove. 
 
 X. One pf the circumstances which contri- 
 buted chiefly to preserve, at least, an external 
 appearance of sanctity in the Christian church, 
 was the right of excluding from it, and from 
 all' participation of the sacred, rites 4nd ordi- 
 nances of the Gospel, such as had been guilty 
 of enormou^ transgressions, and^toTvhom re- 
 peated exhortations to repentance and amend- 
 ment had been administered in v^in. This 
 right was vested iii tfie church frorii the ear- 
 liest period of its existence, by the apostles 
 themselves; and was exercised- by each Chris- 
 tian assembly upon its respective members. 
 The rulers, or doctors, de"nounced the persons 
 whom they thought unworthy of the privileges- 
 of church cominunion; arid the people, freely 
 approving or rejecting' their judgment,- pro- 
 nounced, the decisive ' sentence. 'It was not, 
 however, irrevocable; for such as gave un- 
 'doubted *igns of their sincere repentance,' and 
 declared their solemn resolutions of future re- 
 formation, were re-admitted into the church, 
 Jiowever enormous their crimes had been; but, 
 im:ase of a relapse, thfeir second exclusion be- 
 came absolutely jrreyersible.f ' . " . 
 
 XI. It will easily be imagilied, that unity 
 and peace could not Teign long' in the church, 
 since it was composed of Jews and Gentiles, 
 who regarded each other .with th^ bitterest 
 aversion. Besides, as the converts to Chris- 
 tianity could not extirpatp radically the -pre- 
 judices which had beenforragd in. their minds 
 by educatioii, ahd confirmed by time, they 
 brought with them into the bosom of the 
 church more or less of the errors of their for- 
 mer religion. Thus the seeds of discord and 
 controversy were early sown, and could not 
 fail to spring -up soon i'nto animosities and dfe- 
 sensions, which accordingly broke out, and di- 
 vided the church. . The ' first, of these contro- 
 versies arose in the church of Antioch. It re- 
 garded the necessity of observing- the law. of 
 
 * Many learned ofeorvations upon the secret discipline 
 have been collected by the celebrated Christoph. MatT.' 
 Pfaffins, in his Dissert, poster, de Fraiudiciis TheoIOr 
 Sect. 13, p. 149, &c. in Pjimifiis Tubihgcnsibus. 
 
 t S« Morinus, Comm. de Disciplina Poeaitentiij. lib. 
 IX. cip. XIX. p. 670' ■ ' - 
 
44 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part 11 
 
 Moses^and its issue is mentioned by St. Luke 
 m the Acts of the Apostles.* This controyei:sy 
 was followed by many others, either with the 
 Jews, who were violently attached to the wor- 
 ship of their ancestors, or with the Votaries of 
 a wild and fanatical sort of philosophy, or 
 with such as, mistaking the true genius of the 
 Christian religion, abused it monstrously to the 
 engouragement' of their vipes, and the indul- 
 gence of their appetites and passions.f St. 
 Paul and the other apostles have, in several 
 places of their writings, mentioned these con.?- 
 troversies, but with" such brevity, that it is dif^' 
 ficult, at this distance of time, to discover the 
 true state of the question in these various 
 disputes. . . ' 
 
 Xn. The most weighty and impprtant of all 
 these controversies, was that which some Jew- 
 ish .doctors raised at Rome, and in other 
 Christian- churches, concerning the means of 
 justification and acceptance with G od, an,d the 
 method of salvation pointed out in the word 
 ' of, God. The apostles, wherever they exer- 
 cised their ministry; .had constantly' declared 
 all hopes of acceptance a.nd salvation delusive, 
 except such as were founded on Jesus the Re- 
 deemer, and his all-sufficient merits, while the 
 Jewish "doctors maintained .the works of the 
 law to be the true, efficieni cause of the soul's 
 eternal salvation and felicity.- The latter sen- 
 timent not only-led to other errors prejudicial 
 to Christianity, but was particularly injurious 
 to the glory crfits diVine author; for those who 
 looked upon a^course of life confbrmia;ble to the 
 law, as a meritorious title to eternal happine'ss, 
 could not consider Christ as the Son of God, 
 and the Saviour of mankind, but only as aii 
 eminent prophet, or a divine messenger, sent 
 from above to enlighten and instruct a darken- 
 ed worjd. It is riot, therefore, surprising, 'that 
 St. Paul took so much pains in His Epistle to 
 the Romans, and ih his other writings, to ex-r 
 tirpate such a pernicious and capital error. 
 
 Xm. The controversy tdat had been raised 
 concerning the necessity of observing the cere- 
 monies of the Mosaic law, was determined by 
 the apostles in the wisest and most prudeiit 
 manner.} Their authority, however, respec- 
 table as it was, had not its .ftdl .efiect; for the 
 prejudices, which the Jews, - especially those 
 who lived in Palestine, entertained in favour 
 of the Mosaic law and their ancient worship, 
 were so deeply rooted in their minds, that they 
 could not be thoroughly removed. The force 
 of these prejudices was indeed, somewhat di 
 roinished after the destruction of Jerusalem 
 'and the ru|n of the temple, but not entirely 
 destroyed. And hence, as we shall see in its 
 place, a part of the judai'zing Christians sepa- 
 rated themselves from the rest, and formed a 
 particular sect, distinguished by their adhe- 
 rence to the law of M6ses._ 
 
 * Chap. XT. ' 
 
 f See, for an illustration of these points, Witsius' 
 Miasellanea Sacra^ torn. ii. £xercit. xx. xxi. xxii. p. 668., 
 and also Camp. Yltringa, Obserr. Sacrs, lib. ir.. cap. ix. 
 I. xi., p, 952. 
 - i Acts XV. - . 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Coniemmg the Rites and Ceremonies used in the 
 CImrch dvririg this Centwry. 
 
 I. The Christian religion was singiilarly 
 commendable .on account of its beautilur and 
 divine simphcity, which appears from its two 
 great and fundamental principles — ^faifli and 
 charity. This simplicity was, not, however, 
 incompatible with external ceremonies and 
 positive institutions, which, indeed', are neces- 
 sary, in this irhperfect state, to keep alive a 
 sense of religion in the minds of men. The 
 rites instituted by Christ himself were only two 
 in number; and these were intended to con- 
 tinue to the eiid of the church here below, 
 witliout any varFation. These rites weret bap- 
 tism andJJie holy supper, which are not to bo 
 considered as mere ceremonies, nor yet as sym- 
 bolic representations only, but also as ordinan- 
 ces accompanied with a sanctifying influence 
 upon the heart ' and the aifections of true 
 Christians. And we cannot help observing 
 here, that since the divine Saviour thought fit 
 to appoint no more than two plain institutions 
 in his church, this shows us that a great num- 
 ber of ceremonies are not essential to his reli- 
 gion, and that he left it to the free and pru- 
 dent choice of Christians to establish such rites 
 as the circumstances of the' times, or the exir 
 gencies of the church, might require. 
 
 II. There are several circvunstances, how- 
 ever, which incline us to think, that the frie;ads 
 and apostles of our blessed Lord either tolerate 
 ed through necessity, or- a.ppointed for wise 
 reasons, many other external rites in various 
 places. At:the same time, we are not to ima7 
 gine that they ever conferred upon any person 
 a perpetual, indelible, pontifical authority, of 
 that they enjoined the same rites in all churches. 
 We learn on the contrary, from authentic re- 
 cords, that the Clu-istian'worship was, from the 
 beginning, celebrated in a different manner in 
 different places, undoubtedly by the orders, or 
 at least with the approbation of the apostles 
 and their disciples. In those early times it was 
 both wise and- necessary to show, in the esta- 
 blishment of outward forms of worship, some 
 indulgence to the ancient opinions, manners, 
 and laws of the respective nations to which 
 the Gospel was preached. 
 
 III. Hence it follows that the opinion of 
 thosjtwho maintain that "the .Jewish rites were 
 adopted every where, in the Christian churches, 
 by order.of the apostles, or their disciples, is 
 destitute of all foundation, In those Christian 
 soSeties, which were totally or principally com- 
 posed of Jevrish coiiverts, it was natural to re- 
 tain as much of the Jewish ritual-as the genius 
 of Christianity vyould suffer; and a multitude 
 of examples testify that this was actually done. 
 But that the same traiislatidn of Jewish rites 
 should take place in Christian churches, where 
 there were no Jews, or a very small and incon- 
 siderable number, is utterly incredible, because 
 such an event was morally impossible. In a 
 word, the external ibrms of worship used in 
 ancient times, must necessarily have been re- 
 
Chap. IV. 
 
 RITES AND CEREMONIES. 
 
 45 
 
 gulated and modified according to the charac- 
 ter, genius, and manners ,of the diiferent na- 
 tions on which the h^ht of the Gospel arose; 
 
 IV. Since then there was such a variety 
 m tBe ritual and discipline of the primitive 
 churches, it must be very difficult to give sucfi 
 an ^account of the worship, manners, and in- 
 
 - stitutions, of the ancient Christians, as will 
 agree with what was practised in all those 
 countries where the Gospel flourished. There 
 are, notwithstanding, certain laws, whose au- 
 thority and obhgation were universal and in- 
 dispensable among Chri^ians; and of these we 
 shall here give a brief account. All Christians 
 were unanimous in settuig apart the first day 
 of the week, on which the triumphant Saviour 
 arose from the dead, for the solemn qejf Itta- 
 tioh of public worship. This pious custom, 
 which was derived from the example of the 
 church of Jerusalem, was founded^ upon the 
 express appointment of the apostles, Vpho con- 
 secrated that day to the. same sacred purpose, 
 and was observed universally throughout the 
 Christian churches, as appears from the united 
 testimonies of the most credible writers.* The 
 seventh day of the week was also observed as 
 a festival,t not by the Christians' in general, 
 but by "such churches only as were principally 
 composed of Jewish converts; nor did the other 
 Christians censure this custom as criminal or 
 unlawful. - It appears, moreover, that all the 
 Christian churches observed two great anniver- 
 sary festivals; one in memory of Christ's glo- 
 rious resurrection, and the other to commemo- 
 rate the descent of the Holy Ghost upon the 
 apostles.]: To these we may add the days oil 
 which the blessed martyrs laid down their lives 
 for the truth, which.days were probably digni- 
 fied with particvdar solemnities and marks of 
 veneration from the earliest times. 
 
 V. The places in which the first Christians 
 assembledto celebrate divine worship, were, no 
 doubt, the houses of private persons. Butjln 
 process of time,, it became necessary, that these 
 sacred assemblies should be confined, to one 
 fixed place in. which the books, tables, and 
 desks, required in divine service, inight be con^ 
 stantly kept, and the dangers avoided, whicli 
 
 ■* P^iil. Jac.Hartmannus, de rebus gestia ChristiaDorum 
 Bub Apostolis, cap. XT. p. 387. Just. Hen. Bohmer, Dis- 
 sert. l..Juris Eccles. Antiqui de' slato die Christianor. 
 . p. 20, &c. 
 
 t fiteph. CurcellaeuB, Diatriba'de JSsu Sanguinis, One- 
 rum Theologr p. 958- Gab._>lba3pinieus,_0Dservat. Ec- 
 cles. lib. j. Ooserv. xiii. l.t is in vain that many learned 
 men have" laboured to "prove, that, in aU the^rimitive 
 churches, both the first and" last day of the week were 
 observed as festivals. The cmirches of Bith"ynia, of which 
 Pliny speaks in his lettei^ to Trajan, had only one stated 
 day for the celebration of public worship; and that was, 
 undoubtedly, the first day of the week, or what "we-call 
 the Lord's day. 
 
 i There are, it is true, learned men, who look upon 
 it asadoubtful matter whether the day of Pentecost was 
 celebrated as a festival so early as the first century. See 
 Bingham's Antiquities of the Christian Church, book- 
 zx. chap. vi. But, notwithstanding this, there are some 
 weighty reasons for believing that' this festival was as 
 ancient as that of Easter, which was celebrated, as all 
 agree, from the very first rise of the churcn. It is also 
 probable that Friday, the day of Christ's crucifixion,"was 
 early distinguished "Dy particular honours from the other 
 days of the week. See Jac. Godofrcd, in ' Cadicem 
 Theodosii, tom. i. Asseman. Biblloth. Oriental. Vatican, 
 torn. i.'MarteiiDe, Thesaur. Anecdot. tom. v 
 
 in those perilous times, attended their Iranspor 
 tation from one place to ajiother. And then, 
 probably, the places of meeting, that had for- 
 merly belonged to private persons, became the 
 property Of the whole Christian community.* 
 These few remarks" are, in my opinion, suf- 
 ficient to deteimine that question, which 
 ■has been so long, and so tediously debated, — 
 whether the first Christians had churches or 
 'not;"f since if any are pleased to give the name 
 of church to a house, or the part of a house, 
 which, though appointed as th'eplace of reli- 
 gious worship, was neither separated from com- 
 mon use, nor considered as holy in the opinion 
 of the people; it will be readily granted, that 
 the most ancient Christians had churches. 
 
 VI. In these assemblies the holy scriptures" 
 were publicly read, and for that purpose were 
 divided into certain portions or lessons, ^his 
 part ef divine service was followed by a brief 
 exhortation to the people,. in which eloquence 
 and att gave place to the natural and fervent 
 expression of zeal and charity. ^ If any de- 
 clared themselves extraordinarily animated by 
 the Spirit; they were permitted, to explain suo 
 cessively the .divine will, whUe tlie other-pro^ 
 phets who' were present decided -how much 
 weight and authority were to be attributed to 
 T*hat they said-f- The prayers, .xbich formed 
 a considerable- part of the public worship, were 
 introduced at the -conclusion of these.discoOF- 
 ses, and were repeated by the people after the 
 bishop or presb3rter, who^presided in the ser- 
 vice. § To' these were add\ed certain hymns, 
 which 'were sung, "not by the whole assembly, 
 but by persons aippbinted for that purpose, dur- 
 ing the celebration of the'Lord's supper, and 
 the feasts of charity. Such were the -essential 
 parts of divine worship which were observed in 
 all Cbristian churches, though, ^perhaps . the ■ 
 method and order in which they were perform-' 
 ed vpere not the same in all.|| 
 
 VII. The prayers of the iirst Christians were 
 followed by oblations of bread, wine, and other 
 things; and hence both the ministers of the 
 chureh and the poor, derived tiieir subsistence. 
 Every Christian, who was in an opulent con- 
 dition, and indeed every one, according to his' 
 circmnstances, brought gifts and offered them, 
 as it were, to' the Lord.lT'. Of the bread and 
 Wine presented in these'offerings, such -a quan- 
 tity was separated from the rest as was requir- 
 ed in the administra-tiofl of the Lord's supper; 
 this was consecrated by certain prayers pror 
 nounced by the bishop alone, to which the 
 
 - * See Gamp.- "Viiriuga, de -Synagoga vetere, lib. i. par. 
 iii. cap. i. p. 433. 
 
 . -j- See Blondel, de Episcopis et ^esbyteris, sect. iii. p, 
 216, 243, 246. Just. Hen. Bohmer, Dissert, ii. Juris 
 Eccles". Antiqui, de Antelucanis Christianorum Ccetibus, 
 sect. 4. __ Bingham's Antiquities of the Christian Church, 
 book viii. chap. i. 
 
 1 1 Cor. xiv.6. 
 
 ^ See Justin Martyt'? second Apology, p. 98, &c. 
 
 II This must be iinderstood of ctiurches well esla"blislied, 
 and regula ed by fixed laWs; for, in the ^r'st Chrrslian 
 assemblies, which were y^el in an imperfect and fluctuating 
 s^ate, one or otber'Of these circumstapccs-of^viue wor- 
 ship may-po'ssibTy hagre been omitted. 
 
 IT See t&e dissertations of the venerable and learned 
 Pfaff, ' de .Oblatione et Gonsecratione Euchariatica, 
 which are contained in his Sjrntagma Dissertation. Theo. 
 logic, published at Stutgard in 1720. 
 
46 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part II. 
 
 people assented, by saying Ajnen.*. The holy 
 supper was distributed by the deacons; and 
 this sacred institution was followed by sobe? 
 repasts, denominated (from the excellent pur- 
 pose to which they were directed,) agapce, or 
 feasts of charity.j Many attempt? have been 
 made to fix precisely the nature of these social 
 feasts. But here it must he again consideredi 
 that the rites and customs of the primitive 
 Christians were very different in different 
 coiuitries, and that consequently tlieSe feasts, 
 like other institutions, were not every where 
 celebrated in the same planner. This is the 
 true an(|-only way of explaining all the "diffi- 
 culties that can arise upon this subject. _~ 
 
 VIII. The sacrament of baptism was ad- 
 ministered in this century, without the public 
 assemblies, in places appointed and prepared 
 for that purpose, i^and was performed by an im-' 
 mersion of the whole body in the baptismal 
 font.| At first it wag usual for all who labour- 
 ed, in the propagation of the Gospel, to be 
 present at that solemn ^ceremony; and it- was 
 also customary, that the converts should be. 
 baptized and received into the church by those 
 under whose ministry, they had embraced the 
 Christian doctrine, ^ut this custom was soon 
 changed. When the churcljeB were well esta- 
 blished, and governed by a system of fixed laws, 
 then the right of baptizing the converts was 
 vested in the bishop alone. This right, in- 
 deed, he conferred upon the presbyters and the^ 
 chorepiscopi (country bishops,) when the bounds 
 of the church were still farther enlarged; re- 
 servipg, however, to himself the confirmation 
 of that baptism which was administered by a 
 presbyter.§ There were, doubtless, several 
 circumstantial ceremonies observed in the ad- 
 ministration of. this sacrament for the sake of 
 order and decency. Of these, however, it is 
 not easy, nor perhaps is it possible to give a 
 certain or satisfactory account, ~sinc'e, on this 
 subject we are too mucli exposed, to the illu- 
 sion which arises from confounding the customs 
 of the primitive times with those of succeeding 
 ages. ^ 
 
 IX. Persons who were visited with violent 
 or .dangerous disorders, sent, according to the 
 apostle's direction, II for the rulers of the church, 
 and, after confessing 'their, sins, were recom- 
 mended by them to the divine mercy, in prayers 
 full -of piety and fervour, and were also anoint- 
 ed with ml. This rite has occasioned many 
 debates, and, indeed, they must be endless, 
 
 • Justin MartyPj Ajjologia. secunda. Tfie several au- 
 ihorfr who liave investigated the manner of celebrating 
 the Lord's supper, are mentioned by Jo. JClh. Fabricius, 
 in hrs Bibliogliaph. Autiquar. cap. xi. ' 
 
 • f The authors' who have described the agapie'^re men- 
 tioned by Ittigio,a, in Kis'Selfecta Historiae Eccles. Capita, 
 Saec. ii. cap. iii.i and also by Ffaflf, de Originibus Juris 
 Ecclcs. p. 68. , ■ . ■ 
 
 i See- the learned diasertation of Jo. Gerard Vossius' 
 concerning baptism, Disp. i. -Thes. vi. p. 31, &c. The 
 rtader will also find, in the xith 'chapter and xxvth section 
 of the Bibliogr. Antiquar. of Fabri'cius, an accouutof the 
 authors who have written upon this subject. 
 
 J.& These observations Svill .illustrate, and, perh^s, >de- 
 eidethe question concerning the right' of administering 
 baptism, which has been so long debated among the learn- 
 ed, and with such ardour and vehemeAce.' See Bohmer, 
 Dissert, xi. Juris- Eccles. p. 500; and. also Le Clerc, 
 Biblloth. Univ'ferselle et Histdrique, tom; iv. p. 93. 
 
 II James v. 14. ■ -~ ■ 
 
 since the Silence of the ancient writers upon 
 that head renders it impossible to decide the 
 matter with certainty. The anointing of the 
 sick is very rarely mentioned in the ancient 
 records of the church, though there iS no rea^ 
 son^ to ' doubt that it was an universal custom " 
 among Christians.*.- -- 
 
 X. Neither Christ nor his apostles enacted 
 any law. concerning fasting. A custom, how- 
 ever, prevailed ^mong many Christians, of 
 joiiiiiig- abstinence with their prayers, espe- 
 cially when they were engaged m affairs of 
 extraordinary importance.f As. this custom' 
 was authorized by no public law, the time that 
 was to be employed in these acts of abstinence 
 was left to every one's private judgment; nor 
 were those Ipoked upon as crirninal, who con- 
 tented themselves with observing the rules of 
 strict temperance, without going farther. J In 
 the most ancient times we fiiid no mention of 
 any public and solenm fasts, except on the an- 
 niversary of Christ's crucifixion. But, in pro- 
 cess of time, days of fasting were gradually 
 introduced, first by custom, and afterwards by , 
 positive appointment, though it is not certain 
 what those days were, or whethi^r they were 
 observed in the first century. Tbose, however; 
 who affirm, that in the time of the apostles, 
 or soon after,' the fourth and sixth days of the 
 week were observed as fasts, are not, it must 
 be aeknowledged, destitute of specious argu- 
 ments in favour ,of their opimou.§ 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 Concerning the Divisions and Heresies which 
 troviled the Church during this Century. 
 I. The Christian church was scarcely form- 
 ed,. when, in different places, -there started up 
 certain pretended reformers, who", not satisfied 
 with the simplicity of that religion which was 
 taught by the apostles, meditated changes of 
 doctrine and worship, and set up a new reli- 
 gion, drawn from their own licentious imagi- 
 nations. This we leam from the writings of 
 the^apostles, ajid particularly from the epistles 
 of St. Paul, where we find, that some were in- 
 clined to force the doctrines of Christianity into 
 a coiiformity with the philosophical systems 
 they had adopted,|| while others were as studi- 
 ous to blend with these doctrines the.^bpinions, 
 customs, and traditions of the Jews. Several 
 of these are mentioned by the apostles, such as 
 HyinenoBus, Alexander, Pliiletus, Hermogenes, 
 Demas, aiid Diotrephes; though the four last 
 are rather to be considered as apostates from 
 the truth', than as corrupters of it.lt 
 
 * The accounts which the ancient authors have given 
 of this custom are the most of them collected in a treatise 
 published by Launoy, de Sacraraentis Unctionis infirino- 
 rum, cap. i. p. 444. in the first volume of his worlts. 
 Among_ -these accounts there are very few drawn from 
 the writers of the first ages, and some passages applica- 
 ble to this subject have been omitted by that learned au- 
 thor. 
 
 t .1 Cor. vii. 5. 
 
 i See the Shepherd of Hermas, hoot iii. Similitud. v. 
 
 5 See Bevcrege's Vindication of the. Canon, in the 
 second volume of his edition of the Apostolic Fathers. 
 • II 1 Tim. vi. 20. 4 Tim. i. 3, 4. Tit. iii. 9. Col. ii. 8. 
 
 IT 9 Tim. ii. 18; and in other places. ^ See also the ac- 
 curate accounts given of these men by "Vitringa, Obscrv. 
 Sacr. lib. iv. cap. ix. p. 953. Ittigius, de Haeresiarchls 
 M\i Apostol. sect. i. cap. viii. Buddeus, de Ecclesi* 
 Apostolica,. cap. V. 
 
Chap. Y. 
 
 DIVISIONS AND HERESIES. 
 
 47 
 
 II. The influence of these new teachers was 
 at first inconsiderable. During the lives of the 
 apostles, their attempts toward the perversion 
 of Christianity were attended with little suc- 
 cess, and they had a very small number of fol- 
 lowers. They, however, acquired credit and 
 strength by degrees; arid, even frofti the first 
 dawn of the Oospel, imperceptibly laid the 
 foundations of those sects, whose animosities 
 and disputes produced afterwards such trouble 
 and perplexity in the Christian church. The 
 true state of these divisions is more involved 
 in darkness than' any other part of ecclesiasti- 
 cal history; and this obscurity proceeds, partly 
 from the want of ancient records, partly from 
 the abstruse and unintelligible nature of the 
 doctrines that distinguished these various sects; 
 and, finally, from the ignorance and prejudices 
 of those, 'who have transmitted to us the ap- 
 counts of then), which are yet extant; Of one 
 thing, indeed, we are certairi, and'that is, that 
 the greater part of these docljines were chime- 
 rical and extravagant in the highest degree; 
 and, far from containing any thing that could 
 recommend them to a-lover of truth, they ra- 
 ther deserve to occupy a place in the history of 
 human delusion and folly.* 
 
 III. Ajnong the various sects that troubled 
 the tranquillity of the Christian church, the 
 leading one was that of the Gnostics. These 
 enthusiastic and self-sufiicient philosophers 
 boasted of their being able to restore- mankind 
 to the knowledge (gnosis) of the true and Su- 
 preme Being, which had been lost in the world. 
 They also foretold the approaching defeat of 
 the einl principle, io whom they attributed the 
 creation of this globe, and declared, in the most 
 pompous terms, the destruction of his associ- 
 ates, and the ruin of his empire. An opinion 
 ■has prevailed, derived from the authority of 
 Clemens the Alexandrian, that the first, apr 
 pearance of the Gnostic sect is to be dated 
 after the death of the apostles, and placed in 
 the reign of the emperor Adrian; and it is also 
 allegfed, that, before this time,- the church en- 
 joyed a perfect tranquillity, undisturbed by dis- 
 
 ' sensions, or sects of any kind. But th? small- 
 est degree -of attention to the language of the 
 Scriptures, not to mention the authority of 
 other ancient records, will prevent us from 
 
 -adopting this groundless notion. For, from 
 several passages of the sacred writing3,t it evi- 
 dently appears, that, even in the-first century, 
 the general Christian meeting was deserted, 
 and separate assemblies were formed in several 
 
 * Certain authors have written professedly of 'the seels 
 thai divided the churcH in this, and the following century, 
 such as ntigius, in his treatise de . Haeresiarchis ^vi 
 Apostolici et Aposlolico proximi, and als^rin the Appendix 
 to the same work; Renatus Massuet, -in his Dissertations 
 prefixed to Irenaeus, and Tillemont, in his Memoires 
 pour servir a I'Histoire de I'JIglise. But these authors, 
 and others whom we shall not mention, have rather col- 
 lected the materials from which a history of the ancient 
 sects may be composed, than written their history. 
 Hinckelman, Thomasius, Dodwell, Horbius,and Basnage, 
 have some of them promised, others' of them attempted 
 such a history;, hut none of them finished this useful de- 
 sign. It is therefore, to be wished that some eminent 
 writer, who, with a competent knowledge of ancient 
 philosophy and literature, also possesses a penetrating 
 and unbiassed judgment, would nnderlakc this difficult 
 irt. 
 
 but interesting work 
 1 1 John ii. 18. 1 Timi vi. 20. 
 
 Col. ii. 8. 
 
 places, by persons infected with the Gnostic 
 heresy; though, at the same time, it must be 
 acknowledged, that this pernicious sect was 
 not. conspicuous, either for its number, or its 
 reputation, before the time of Adrian. It is 
 proper to observe here, that, under the general 
 appellation of Gnostics, are comprehended all 
 those who, in the first ages of Christianity, cor- 
 rupted the doctrine of the Gospelljy a profane 
 mixture of the tenets of the oriental philoso- 
 phy (concerning the origin of evil and the 
 creation of the world,) with its divine truths. 
 IV. It was from this oriental- philosophy, -of 
 which the leading principles have been Ulready 
 mentioned, that the Christian Gnostics deriv- 
 ed their origin. If it was one of the chief 
 tenets of this philosophy, that rational souls 
 were imprisoned in corrupt matter, contrary to 
 the will of the Supreme Deity, there were, 
 however, in this same system, other doctrines 
 which promised a deliverance from this deplo- 
 rable state of servitude and darkness. ^The 
 oriental sages expected the arrival of an extra- 
 ordinary messenger of the Most High upon 
 earth; a messenger invested with a divine au- 
 thority, endowed vrith the ihost eminent sanc- 
 tity and wisdom, and peculiarly commissioned 
 to enlighten, with the knowledge of the Sii; 
 preme Being,"the darkened minds of miserable 
 mortals,, and to deliver them froin the chains of 
 the tyrants, and usurpers of this world. When, 
 therefore, some of these philosophers perceived 
 that Christ and his followers wrought miracles 
 of the most amazing kind, and also of the most 
 salutary- nature to mankind, they were easily 
 induced to believe that he was the great Mes- 
 senger expected from above; to deliver men 
 from the power of the malignant genii, or 
 spirits, to which, according to their doctrine, 
 the world was subjected, and to free their souls 
 from~,the dominion of corrupt matter. — This 
 supposition once admitted^ they interpreted, 3r 
 rather corrupted, all the precepts and doctrines 
 of Christ and his apostles, in such a manner as 
 to reconcile them with their own pfemicious 
 tenets. ' 
 
 V. From the false principle above mention- 
 ed, arose, as it was natural to expect, a multi- 
 tude of sentiments and notions, most remote 
 from the tenor of the gospel doctrines, and the 
 nature of its precepts; The Gnostic doctrine, 
 concerning the creajtiori of the world liy one or 
 more inferior beings, of an evil, or, at least, of 
 an imperfect nature, led that sect to deny the 
 divine authority of the books of the Old Tes- 
 tament, whose accounts of the otigin of things 
 so palpably contradicted, this idle fiction. — 
 Through a frantic aversion to these sacred 
 books, they lavished their encomiums upon the 
 serpent, the first author of sin, and held in ve- 
 neration some of the most impious and, profli- 
 gate persons of whom mention is made in sa- 
 cred history.- The pernicious, influence of 
 their faiidamental principle i'arried them to all 
 sorts of extravagance, filled them with an ab- 
 liorrence of Moses and the religion he taught, 
 and induced them to assert, that in imposing 
 such a system of disagreeable and severe laws 
 upon the Jews, he was only actuated^ by the 
 malignant author of this world,'who consulted 
 his own glory and authority, and not the real 
 
48 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part II. 
 
 advantage of men. Their persuasion that evil 
 resided in matter, as its centre and source, pre- 
 vented their treating the body with the regaTd 
 that is due to it, rendered th^m unfavourable 
 to wedlock, asthe means by which clDrporeal 
 beings are multiplied, and led them to reject 
 the doctrine of the resurrection of the body, 
 and its future re-union with the immortal 
 spirit. Their notion that malevolent genii pre- 
 sided in nature, and that from them proceeded 
 all diseases and calamities, wars and desola- 
 - tioris, indueed them to apply~themse]ves to the 
 study of magic, to weaken the powers or sus- 
 pend the influences of these jnalignant agents. 
 I omit the mention of several other .extrava- 
 gances in their system, the enumeration of 
 which would be incompatible with the charac- 
 ter bf a compendious history. 
 
 VI. The notions of this sect concerning Je- 
 sus Christ were impious and extravagant. For, 
 though they considered him as .the Son of the 
 Supreme God, sent from the ykroma, or habi- 
 tation of the Everlasting Father, for the hap- 
 piness of miserable mortals, yet they enter- 
 tained unworthy ideas, both of his person and 
 offices. T-hey denied his deity, looking upon 
 him as the mere Son of Xxod, and consequent- 
 ly inferior to the Father; and they rejected his 
 humanity, upon, the supposition that every 
 thing concrete and corporeal is, in itself, essen- 
 tially and intrinsically evil. Hence the great- 
 est part of the Gnostics denied that Christ was 
 clothed with a real body, or that he suffered 
 reallyj for the sake of, mankind, the pains and 
 sorrows which be is said to have sustained in 
 the sacred history. They maintained -that he 
 came to mortals with, no other view, than to 
 deprive the tyrants of this world of their influ- 
 ence upon virtuous and heaven born souls, and; 
 destroying the empire of these wicked spirits, 
 to teach mankind how they-might separate the 
 divine mind from the impure body, and render 
 the former worthy of being united to the Fa- 
 ther of spirits. 
 
 VII. Their doctrine, relating to morals and 
 practice, was of two ' kinds, , which were ex- 
 tremely different from each other". The great- 
 est part of this sect adopted rules of life that 
 were full of austerity, recommended a strict 
 and rigorous abstinence, and prescribed the 
 most severe bodily mortifications, from a notion 
 that these observances had a happy influence 
 in purifying and enlarging the'mind, and in 
 disposing it'for jthe contemplation of celestial 
 things.: As they looked iipon it to be the uri- 
 happiness of the soul to have been associated, 
 at allj to a raaligiiant, terrestrial body, so they 
 imagined tliat the rhore the body was extenu- 
 ated, the less it would corrupt and degrade the 
 mind, or divert it from pursuits"of a spiritual 
 and divine nature: all the Gnostics, however, 
 were not so severe in their moral discipline. 
 Some maintained that there was no moral di& 
 ference iii human actions; and thus confound- 
 ing right and wrong, they gave a loose jein 
 to all the' passions, and asserted the innocence 
 of following blindly all their motions, and of 
 living by their tumultuous dictates.* There 
 
 * See the Stromota of Clemens Alexandrinus, lib. iii. 
 
 is nothing surprising or unaccountable in this 
 difference between the Gnostic moralists; for, 
 when wg" examine the matter with attention, 
 we shall find, that the same doctrine may very 
 naturally have given rise to these opposite sen- 
 timents. As they all deemed the body the 
 centre and source of evil, those of that sect, 
 who were of a morose and austere disposition, 
 would be hence naturally led to mortify and 
 combat the body as the enemy of the soul; and 
 those who were of a voluptuous turn,. might 
 also consider the actions bf the body as having 
 no relation, either of congruity or incongruity, 
 tp the state of a soul in communion with God. 
 
 VIII. Such extraordinary doctrines had cer- 
 tainly need of an undoubted authority to sup- 
 port them; and, as this authority was not to 
 be found in the writings of the evangelists or 
 apostles, recourse was had to fables anil strata- 
 gems. When the Gnostics were challenged 
 to product the sotirces whence they had drawn 
 such strange tenets, and an authority proper to 
 justify the confidence with which they taught 
 them, some referred to fictitious writings of 
 Abraham, Zoroaster, Christ, and his apostles; 
 others boasted of their having drawn these 
 opinions from certain secret doctrines of Christ, 
 which were not exposed to vulgar eyes; others 
 affirmed, that they had arrived at these sub- 
 lime degrees of wisdom by an innate force 
 and vigour of mind; and somb asserted, that 
 they were instructed in these mysterious parts 
 of theological science by Theudas, a disciple 
 of St. Paul, and by Matthias, one of the friends 
 of our Lord. As to those amt>ng the Gnostics 
 who did. not utterly reject the books of the 
 New Testament, it is proper to observe, that 
 they not only interpreted those sacred books - 
 most-absurdly., by neglecting the true spirit of 
 the words and the intention of the writers, but 
 also corrupted them, in the most perfidious 
 manner, by curtailing and.addingj in order to 
 remove what was unfavourable, or to produce 
 something conformable to their pernicious and 
 extravagant system. " 
 
 IX. It has been already observed, that the 
 Gnostics-were divided in their opinions before 
 they embraced. Christianity. This appears 
 from the account which has been given above 
 of -the oriental philosophy; and hence we may 
 see the reason why they were formed into so 
 many different sects after their receiving the 
 Christian faith. For, as all of them endea- 
 voured to force the doctrines of the Gospel 
 into a conformity with their particular senti- 
 ments and tenets,' so Christianity must have 
 appeared in various forms, among- the different 
 menibers of a sect, which passed, , however, ^ 
 under one general name. Another circum- 
 stance, which contributed to this diversity of 
 sects, was, that some, being Jews by birth (as 
 Cerinthus and others,) could not so easily as- 
 sume that contempt of Moses, and that aver- 
 sion to his history, which were so virulently 
 indulged by those who had no attachment to 
 the Jewish nation or to its religious institu- 
 tions. We may also observe, that the whole 
 Gnostic system was destitute of any sure or 
 sohd foundation, and depended both for its ex- 
 istence and support, upon tlie airy suggestions 
 of genius and fancy. This consideration alone 
 
Chap. V. 
 
 DIVISIONS AND HERESIES. 
 
 49 
 
 is a sufficient key to explain the divisions that 
 reigned in this sect, since vmformity can never 
 subsist, with assurance, but upon the basis of 
 evident and substantial truth; and variety must 
 naturally introduce itself into those system? 
 and institutions which are formed and conduct- 
 ed by the sole powers of invention and fancy. 
 
 X. As then the Christian religion was, in iis 
 rise, corrupted by the inixture of an impious 
 and chimerical- philosophy with its pure and 
 sublime doctrines, it will be proper to mention 
 here the heads of those sects, who, in the first 
 century, cast a cloud upoii the lustre of the 
 rising church. Among these, many have given 
 the first place to Dositheus, a Samaritan, It 
 is certain, that, about the time of onr Saviour, 
 a man so named, lived among the Samaritans, 
 and abandoned that sect; but "all the accounts 
 we have of him tend to show, that he is^ im- 
 properly placed, among mere heretics, and 
 should ra&er be ranked among the enemies Of 
 Christianity; for this delirious man set hiinself 
 up for the Messiah, whom God had promised 
 to the Jews, and" disowning^ in consequence, 
 the divine mission of Christ, could not be said 
 to corrupt his doctrine.* 
 
 XI. The same observation is applicable to 
 Simon Magus. This impious man is not to 
 be ranked among those who corrupted with 
 their errors^ the purity and simplicity of the 
 Christian doctrine; nor is he to be considered 
 as the parent and chief of the heretical tribe, 
 in which point of light he has been injudi- 
 ciously viewed by almost all ancient and mo- 
 dern writers. He is rather to be placed in the 
 number of those who were enemies to. the pro- 
 gress and advancement of Christianity; for it 
 is manifest,-from all the records we have con- 
 cerning him, that after his defection from the 
 Christians, he retained not the least attachment 
 to Christ, but opposed himself openly to that 
 divine personage, and assumed to himself blas- 
 phemously the title of the supreme yower of 
 God.t 
 
 XII. The accounts which ancient writers 
 give us of Simon the magician, and of his 
 opinions, seem so different and indeed so in- 
 consistent with eachx)ther, that several learn- 
 ed men have considered them as regarding two 
 diiferent persons, bearing the name of Simon; 
 the one a magician, and an apostate from Chris- 
 tianity; the other a Gnostic philosopher. This 
 opinion, which supposes a fact, without any 
 other proof than a seeming difference in the 
 narration of the ancient historians, ought not 
 to be too lightly adopted. To depart from the 
 authority of ancient writers in this matter is 
 by no means prudent: ' nor is it necessary to re- 
 concile the different accounts already mention- 
 ed, whose inconsistency is not real, but appa- 
 rent only. Simon was by birth a Samaritan, 
 or a Jew: when he had studied philosophy at 
 Alexandria,^ he made a public profession of 
 magic (which was hot a very uncommon cir- 
 ciunstance at that time,) and persuaded the 
 Samaritans, by fictitious miracles, that he had 
 
 • See Basnage, Histoire des Juifs, lib. ii. cap. xiii. and 
 Rich. Simon, tritique de la Bibliotheque des Autenrs 
 EccleBiasUques de M. Du-Pin, torn. iii. cap. mi. 
 
 t Orieen adv. Celaum, lib. t. '..„_. . 
 
 t Clemenlina Homil. li. p. 633, torn. u. FF. Apost. 
 Vol., I.— 7 
 
 received from God the power of commanding 
 and restraining those evil beings by ""which 
 manlund were tormented.* Having seen the 
 miracles- which Philip wrought by a divine 
 power, he joined himself to 4;his apostle, and 
 embraced the doctrine of Christ, but with no 
 other design than to receive the power of work- 
 ing miracles, in order to promote a Ipw inte- 
 rest, and to preserve and increase hi^ impious 
 authority over the minds • of men. Then St. 
 Peter pointed out to him solemnly the impiety 
 of his intentions and the vanity of his hopes, 
 in that severe discourse recorded in the eighth 
 chapter of the Acts of the Apostles: then the 
 vile impostor, not only returned to his former 
 ways by an entire defection from the Chris- 
 tians, But also opposed, wherever he came, 
 the progress of the Gospel, and even visited 
 different "countries with that odious intent. 
 Many things are recorded of this impostor, of 
 his tragical end, and of the statue erected to 
 him at Rome, which the greatest part of the 
 learned reject as fabulous. They are at least 
 uncertain, and destitute of all probabihty.t 
 
 XIII. It is beyond all doubt, that Simon 
 was in the class of those philosophers, who not 
 only maintained the eternity of matter, but 
 also the existence of an eml heine who presid- 
 ed, and thus shared the empire of the universe 
 with the supreme and beneficent Mind', and, 
 as there was a considerable variety in the sen- 
 timents of the different members of this sect, 
 it is more than probable,, that Simon embraced 
 the opinion of those who held that matter 
 moved from eternity by an intrinsic and ne- 
 cessary activity, had, by its innate 'force', pro- 
 duced at a certain period, from its own sub- 
 stance, the evil .principle which now exercises 
 dominion over it, with all his numerous train 
 of attendants. From this perniCious_ doctrine, 
 the other errors attributed to hini co'nceining 
 fate,, the indifference of human actions, the' 
 Impurity of the human body, the power of 
 las^a, and the like extravagances, flow natu- 
 rally, as from their true and genuine source.^ 
 But this odious magician still proceeded to 
 more shocking degrees of enormity in his mon- 
 
 * Acts viii. 9, 10. ■ ' 
 
 f See Beauaobre, Histoire de Manich. p. 903, 395.-« 
 .Van Dale's Dissertation, de Statua Simonis, subjoined to 
 his discourse concerning the ancient oracles; — Dellin^'us, 
 Obserrat. &cr. lib. i. observ. xiivi. TillemSit, Me- 
 -moires pour servir a I'Hisloire de PEglise, torn. i. 'p. 340. 
 g^ The circumstances of , Simon's tragical end; his 
 having pretended to fly by a miraculous power,.in order 
 to please the emperor Kero, who was fond of magic; his 
 falling to the ground, and breaking his limbs, in conse- 
 quence of the prayers of St. Peter and St. Paul; and his 
 -putting himself to death, through shame and despair, at 
 having been thus defeated by the superior power of the 
 apostles; all these romantic fictions have dtrived their 
 credit from a set of ecclesiastical writers, who^on many 
 occasion's, prefer the marvellous to the truth, as favoura- 
 ble to a system of religion, or rather superstition, which 
 truth and reason loudly disown. 
 
 \ The dissertation of Horbius, concern !Dg_ Simon^lhe 
 magician, which was published not long ago in the Bibli- 
 oth. Haeresjologica of Voigtius, torn. i. part iii. seems 
 preferable to any thing else upon ;that subject,' though it 
 be a juvenile performance, and not suflicicntly finished. 
 He follows the steps 'of his master, Thomasius, who, with 
 admirable penetration^ discovered the true source of that 
 multitude of errors with which the Gnos'tics,.and par- 
 ticularly Simon, wer.e so dismally po)lute.d.- 'Voigtius 
 gives a list of the other authors who nave made mention 
 of this impostor* 
 
50 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part II. 
 
 strous fictions; for he pretended, that in his 
 person resided the greatest and mfest powerful 
 of the divine sons; that another spon of the 
 female sex, the mother of all ^mhah souls, 
 dwelt in the person of his mistress Helena;,* 
 and that he came, by the command of G-od 
 upon earth, to abolish the empire of those who 
 had formed this material world, and to deliver 
 Helena from their power and dominion. 
 
 XIV. Another wrong-headed teacher, named 
 Menander, a Samaritan alSo by birth, appear- 
 ed in this century. He is" said to have been in- 
 structed by Simon; but this ffpinion has no 
 other foundation than the groundless notion; 
 that all the Gnostic sects derived their origin 
 fro m that magiciaii. He ouglit rather to be rank- 
 ed, with the lunatics, than with the heretics of 
 antiquity, since he also took it into his hea,d to 
 exhibit "himself to the world as' the promised 
 Saviour; for it appears, by the testimonies of 
 Ireneeus, Justin, and TertuUian, that he pre- 
 tended to be one of the seons sent from the ple- 
 roma or celestial regions, to Succour the souls 
 that lay groaning under bodily o.ppression and 
 servitude, and to maintain them against the vio- 
 lence and stratagems of the daemons who held 
 the reins of empire in this sublunary world. 
 As this doctrijie was built upon the same foun- 
 dation with that of Simon Magus, the ancient 
 writers looked lipon him as the instructor of 
 Menander. 
 
 XV. If then we separate these three persons 
 now successively mentioned, from the heretics 
 of the first century, vre may ranli; among the" 
 chief of the Christian sectaries, and particu- 
 lajly those who bear the general name of Gnos- 
 tics, the Nicolaitans, whom Christ himself men- 
 tions with..abhorrence -by the mouth of his apos- 
 tle.f It is true, indeed, that the divine Saviour 
 does not reproach them with erroneous opinions 
 concerning the deity, but with the licentious- 
 ness of their practice, and the contempt of 
 that solemn law which tlie apostles had enact- 
 ed (Acts, XV. 29.) against fornication, and the 
 use of meats offered to idols. It is, however, 
 certain, that the writers of the second' and the 
 following centuries, Irenseus, TertuUian, Cle- 
 mens, and others, atfirm, that the Nicolaitans 
 adopted the sentiments of the Gnostics con- 
 cerning the two principles of all. things, the' 
 seons, and the origin of this terrestrial globe. 
 The a«thority of these writers would be en- 
 tirely satisfactory in-this tnatter, were there 
 not some reason to imagine that they con- 
 founded, in their narratioiis, two sects very 
 different from each, other; that of the Nicolai- 
 tans, mentioned in the" Revelations; and an- 
 other, founded by a certain Nicolaus, in the 
 second century, upon the principles of the 
 Gnostics. - But this is a matter of too doubtful 
 a nature to justify a positive decision on either- 
 side. 
 
 XVI. There is no sort of doubt, that Ce- 
 renthus may be placed with propriety among 
 
 * Some very learned men have ^iven an allegoricar ex- 
 plication of what the ancient writers aaV concerning 
 Helena, the mistress of this magician, and imagine, that 
 by the name Helena is signified either matter or spirit. 
 But nothing is inore easy than to show upon what slight 
 foundations this opinion is built, 
 
 t Re?, ii. 6, 14, 15. 
 
 the Gnostics^ though the learned are not en-- 
 tirely agreed whether he belongs to the here- 
 tics of the first or the second century.* This man- 
 was by birth a Jew, and, having applied him- 
 self to letters aiid philosophy at Alexandria,] 
 attempted at length, to forma new and singu- ' 
 lar system of doctrine and discipline, by a mon-_ 
 strotis combination of tlie doctrines of Christ 
 with the opinions and errors of the Jews and 
 Gnostics. From the latter he borrowed the 
 plerom'a, their seons, their demiurge, &c. aaid 
 so modified and tempered these fictions, as 
 to give them an' air of Judaism, which must 
 have considerably favoured the progress of his 
 heresy. He taught " that the Creator of this 
 world, whom he considered also as tlTe sovereign 
 and lawgiver of the Jewish people, was a be- 
 ing endowed with the greatest virtues, and'de- 
 rived his birth from the Supreme God; that 
 he fell by degrees, from his native virtue and 
 his primitive dignity; that God in consequence 
 of this determined to destroy his empire, and 
 sent upon earth, for this purpose, one of the 
 ever-happy and gjprious seons, whose name 
 v/ks Christ; that this Christ chose for his ha- 
 bitation the person of Jesus, a man of the 
 most illustrious sanctity and justice, the son of 
 Joseph and Mary, and, descending in the forra 
 of a dove, entered into him while he was re- 
 ceiving baptism from John in the waters of 
 Jordali: that Jesus, after his union with Christ, 
 opposed himself with vigour to the God of the 
 Jews, ajid was by his instigation, seized and 
 crucified by the Hebrew chiefs; and tfiat, 
 when Jesus became a prisoner, Christ ascend- 
 ed into heaven, so that the roan Jesus alone 
 was subjected to the pains of an ignominious 
 death." Cerenthus required of his -followers, 
 that they should worship the Father of Christ, 
 even. the Supreme God, in conjunction with 
 the Son; that they should abandon the law- 
 giver of the Jews, whom he looked upon as 
 the Creator of the world; that they sb^ld re- 
 tain a part of the law grven by Mc^es, but 
 should,., nevertheless, employ their principal, 
 attention and care to regulate their lives by 
 the precepts of Christ. To encourage them- to' 
 this, he promised them the resurrection of this 
 mortal body, after which was to commence 
 a scene of the mogt exquisite delights, during 
 Christ's eartlily reign of a thousand years, 
 which 'would be succeeded by a happy and 
 never-ending life in the celestial world; for he 
 held, that Christ will one day return upon 
 earth, and, renewing his former union with the 
 man Jesus, will reign with his people in the 
 land of Palestine during a thousand years. 
 
 XVII. It has been already observed, that the 
 church was troubled with eaily disputes con- 
 cerning the law. of Moses and the Jewish rites. 
 Those, however, who considered the obser- 
 vance of the'Mosaic rites as necessary to sal- 
 vation, had not, in this first century, proceed- 
 ed so far as to break off all communion with 
 
 *-See Sam. Basnage, Annal. Polit. Eccles. torn, ii.; 
 and Faydit, EAIaircissemens sur I'Histoire Eccles. des 
 lieui premiers Siecles, cap. v. The opinion of these two 
 learned men is opposed by Buddeus,de Eccles. Apostolica, 
 cap. V. 
 
 t Theodoret. Fabul. Hieret. lib. ii. cap. ili. 
 
Chap. I. 
 
 PROSPEROUS EVENTS. 
 
 51 
 
 ■uch as differed from them in this matter; 
 therefore they were still regarded as brethren, 
 though of the weaker sort. But when, after 
 the second destruction of Jerusalem, under the 
 emperor Adrian, these zealots for the Jewish 
 rites deserted the ordinary assemblies of Chris- 
 tians, and established separate meetings among 
 themselves, they were numbered with those 
 sects who had departed irotn the pure doctrine 
 of Christ. Hence arose tlje names of Naza- 
 
 renes and Ebionites, by which the judaiziiig 
 Christians were distinguished from those who 
 looked upon the Mosaic worship and ceremo- 
 nies as entirely abolished by the appearance of 
 Christ upon earth. We shall only observe far- 
 ther under this head, that though the Nazarenes 
 and Ebionites are generally placed' among the 
 sects of the apostolic age, the.y really belong 
 to the second centiiry, which Was the earliest 
 period of their existence as a sect. 
 
 THE SECOND CENTURY. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 THE EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH! 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Concerning the prosperous Events that happened 
 to the Church during this Century. 
 
 ■ I. In -this century, the Roman sceptre was, 
 for the most pa,rt, swayed by princes of a mild 
 and mpclerate turn. Trajan, though too ea- 
 -.gerly bent upon the pursuit of glory, and not 
 always sufficiently attentive- to his conduct, or 
 prudent in his measures, was nevertheless en- 
 dowed with many virtues; and the predomi- 
 nant lines of his character were clemency and 
 benevolence. Adrian was of a more harsh and 
 intractable temper, yet far from deserving the 
 odious appellation of a wicked or unjust prince. 
 He was of a mixed character, chargeable, with 
 several vices, and estimable on account of some 
 excellent ■ qualities. The Antonines were il- 
 lustrious models of humanity, goodness, and 
 sublime virtue. , Sevenis himself, in whose 
 character and disposition such an unexpected 
 and disadvantageous change was effected,' was, 
 in the beginning of his reign, unjust toward 
 none; and even the Christians were treated by 
 him with eguity and mildness. 
 
 II. This lenity of the emperors proved ad- 
 vantageous to those Christians who lived un- 
 der the Rbihan sceptre; it sometimes suspend- 
 ed their suffering, and alleviated the burthen 
 of their distresses; for, though edicts of a se- 
 vere nature were issued out against them, and 
 the magistrates, animarted by the priests and by 
 the multitude, shed their blood with a cruelty 
 which frequently exceeded even the dictates -bf 
 the most barbarous laws, yet there was always 
 soipe remedy that accompanied these evils, and 
 softened their severity. Trajan, however con- 
 demnable in other respects, on account of his 
 conduct toward the Christians, was yet engag- 
 ed, by the representation that Pliny the younger 
 gave of them, to forbid a>ll search to be made 
 after them. "He also prohibited all anonymous 
 libels and accusations, by which they had so 
 
 often been perfidiously exposed to the greatest 
 sufferings.* Antoninus Pius went so far as to 
 enact penal laws against fheir accusers;! *"d 
 others, by various acts of beneficence and com- 
 passion, defended them from the injurious 
 treatment of the priests and people. ■ Hence 
 it came to .pass, that, in this century, the limits 
 of the church-were considerably enlarged, and 
 the nun)ber.of converts to Christianity prodi- 
 giously augmented. Of the truth of this, we 
 have the most respectable and authentic testi- 
 monies in the writing of the ancients; testi- 
 monies, .whose evidence and authority are 
 every way superior to the vain attempts which 
 some have made to obscure and weaken thern.| 
 III. It is not easy to point out particularly 
 the different countries on which the light of ■ 
 celestial truth first rose in this age. The an- 
 cient records that yet remain, do not give us 
 information sufficient to determine that point 
 with certainty; nor is it, indeed, a matter of 
 high impoi^ance. We are, however, assured,, 
 by the most unexceptionable testimonies, that 
 Christ was worshii^ed as God almost through- 
 out the^ whole East, as also among the Ger- 
 mans, Spaniards, Celts,- Britons, and many 
 Bther nations;! but which of them received the 
 Gospel in the first centui^ and. which in the 
 second, is a question unanswerable at this dis- 
 tance of lime; Pantaenus,- the head of the 
 Alexandrian school, is said to have conveyed 
 to fhe Indians the knowledge of Christ.{| But, 
 
 * See Pliny^s epistles, book x. let. xwiii, 
 
 .j -E^sebiiis^ Eccl. Hist. lib. iv. cap. xiii. 
 
 X See Moyle'sletlei's cSncerniue the thundering legioti. 
 with the remarks which Dr. Mosheim has annexed to his 
 Latin translation of them, published at the end of a 
 work entitled, Syntagma Dissert, ad Sanctiores Discipli- ' 
 nas pertinentium. See also the Dialogue. between Justin 
 Martyr and Trypho'the Jew. 
 
 ^ irensBus contra Hsres. Ub. 
 Judsos, cap. yjii. 
 
 'II Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. b. 
 Script. Eccl. c. xwvi. 
 
 i.cap.x.- -Teptullian adv. 
 .. -Jerome, Cativ]. 
 
52 
 
 EXTERNAL HISTORY, OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part I. 
 
 after an attentive examination of the account 
 which Eusebius gives of this point, it will ap- 
 pear that these supposed Indians were Jews, 
 inhabitants of the happy Arabia, whom Bar- 
 tholomew the apostle had before instructed in 
 the doctrines of Christianity; for, according to 
 the account of St. Jerome, Pantsenus found 
 among this people the Gospel of St. Matthew 
 which they had received from Bartholomew, 
 their first teacher. 
 
 IV. The Christian religion, having penetrat- 
 ed into the province of Gaul, seems to have 
 passed thence into that part of Germany 
 which was subject to the Romans, and after- 
 wards into Britain.* Certain German churches, 
 indeed, are fondly ambitious of deriving their 
 origin from St. Peter, and from the compan- 
 ions of the other apostles. The Britons also 
 are willing to believe, upon the authority of 
 Bede, that in this century, and under the reign I 
 of Marcus Antoninus, their king Lucius ad- j 
 dressed himself to Eleutherus, the Roman pon- J 
 tiff, for doctors to instruct him in the Chris- 1 
 tian religion, and,' having obtained his request,'' 
 embraced the Gospel.t But, after all,, these' 
 traditions, are extremely doubtful, and are, in- 
 deed, rejected by such as have learning suffi- 
 cient to weigh the credibility of ancient nar- 
 ra.tions. 
 
 V It is very possible that the light of Chris- 
 tianity may have reached Trans-Alpine Gaul, 
 now called France, before the conclusion of 
 the apostolic age, either by the ministry of tlie 
 apostles themselves, or their immediate succes- 
 sors. But we have no records that mention, 
 with certainty, the establishment of Christian 
 churches in this part of Europe before the se- 
 cond century. Pothinus, a man of exemplary 
 piety and zeal, set out from Asia in company 
 with Irenaeus and Others, and laboured in the 
 Christian cause with such success among the 
 Gauls, that churches were established at Lyons 
 and Vienne, of which PotMnus-'hirnself be- 
 came the first bishop. f 
 
 VI. The writers of this ceiitury attribute 
 this rapid-progress of Christianity to the power 
 of God, to the energy of divine truth, to" the 
 extraordinary gifts which were imparted to the 
 first Christians, and the miracles and prodi- 
 gies that were wrought in their behalf, and at 
 their command;, and they scarcely ascribe any 
 part of the amazing success that attended the 
 preaching of the Gospel, to the intervening 
 succours of human means, or second causes. 
 
 * TJ'rsinu3, Bcbelius and oLliers, }iave written learnedly 
 concerning the origin of the German clmrches, Vvhich 
 Tertullian and Irenxus mention as erected in this cen- 
 tury. ,Add to these the ample illustralions of thissubjeet, 
 which are to be found in Liron's Singularites Histor. et 
 Liter, tom. iv. -The-eelebrated- Dom. C&Imet has judi- 
 ciously refuted the common and' popular accounts of the 
 first Christian -doctors in Germany, rn his" Hist, de la- 
 Lprraiiie,'tom. i. Diss, aurles E'veques de Treves, par 
 . lii. iv. See also Bollandus, Act. Sanctor.,and HoDtheim, 
 Diss, de JEra Episcop. Trevir. tojn. i. 
 
 I See Usher's Atiticj. Eecles. Britann. cap. i.; as also 
 Godwin, de' Cohversione Britau. cap. i.; and Rapin's 
 History of England. 
 
 i See the epistle of Peter d^ Marca, conceriiing the 
 rise of Christianity in France, published among the dis- 
 sertations .of that author, and also by 'ValesiuSj in his- 
 cdition of Eusebiu's' Ecclesiastical History. See also 
 Histoire interaire db la France, tom. i., aurl Liron's 
 Singularites Histor. et Literaires, vol. iv. 
 
 But this is carrying the matter too far. The 
 wisdom of human counsels, and the useful ef- 
 forts of learning and prudence, are too incon- 
 siderately excluded from this account of things; 
 for it is beyond all doubt, that the pious dHi- 
 gence and zeal, with which marry learned and 
 worthy mtai recommended the sacred writings, 
 and spread them abroad in translations, so as 
 to render them useful to those who were igno- 
 rant of the language in which they were writ- 
 ten, contributed much to the success and pro- 
 pagation of the Christian doctrine. Latin ver- 
 sions of these sacred books were multiplied by 
 the pious labours of the learned, with particu- 
 lar diligence, because that language was now 
 more general than any other.* Among these 
 versions, that which was distinguished by the 
 name of the Italic obtained universally the pre- 
 ference, and was followed by the Sjo^iac, Egyp- 
 tian, and .ffithiopic versions, whose dates it is 
 impossible to fix with certainty.f 
 
 VII. Among the obstacles that retarded the 
 progress of Christianity, the impious calum- 
 nies of its enemies were the most considerable. 
 The persons, the characters, and religious sen- 
 timents of the first Christians, were most un- 
 justly treated, and most perfidiously misrepre- 
 sented to the^credulous multitude,J who were 
 restrained by this only from embracing the 
 Gospel. Those, therefore, who, by their apo- 
 logetic writings for the Christians, destroyed 
 the poisonous influence of detraction, render- 
 ed, no doubt, signal service to the doctrineof ' 
 Christ, by removing the chief impediment to 
 its progress. Nor were the writings of such 
 as combatfd with success the ancient heretics 
 without their use, especially in the early periods 
 of the church; for the insipid and extravatgant 
 doctrines of these sectaries, and the gross im- 
 morahties with which they were chargeable, 
 were extremely prejudicial to the Christian re- 
 ligion, by disgusting many at ' v/hatever bore 
 the Christian name; but, when it was known 
 by the writings of those who defended Chris- 
 tianity, that these corrupt heretics were held, 
 in aversion, instead of being patronized by the 
 true followers of Christ, the clouds that were 
 cEist over the religion of Jesus were dispersed, 
 and the prejudices that had been raised against 
 it were fully removed. 
 
 VIII. It is easier to conceive than to ex- 
 press, how much the miraculous powers and ex- 
 traordinary gifts, which were displayed in the 
 ininistiy of the first heralds of the Gospel, con- 
 tributed to enlarge the bounds of the church. 
 These gifts, however, which were bestowed for 
 wise and important reasons, began gradually 
 to diminish in proportion as the reasons ceased 
 for which they Were conferred. And, accord- 
 
 * See Augustin. de doctrina Christiana, lib. ij. cap. li. 
 
 t See Jo. Goltlob Cafpzov. Critica sacra 'Vet Test, 
 p.' 663. 
 
 OS- i Nothing more injurious can be conceived than 
 the terms of contempt, indignation, and reproach, which 
 the Heathen? employed in expressing their hatred against 
 the Christians, ^vho were called by them atheists, because 
 they derided the heathen Polytheism; ^nagicicms, because 
 they .wrought miracles; sei/'-mwttercra, becaiise they suf-' 
 fercd martyrdom cheerfully for the truth; haters of the 
 Ught, because, to avoid the fury of the persecutions raised 
 against them, they were obliged, at first, to hold their 
 religious assemblies in the night. See Bingham's An 
 tiquities of the Christian Church, book i. cap. ii. 
 
Chap. I. 
 
 PROSPEKOlJS EVENTS. 
 
 53 
 
 ingly, when almost all nations were enlighten- 
 ed with) the truth, aijdthe number of Chris- 
 tian churches daffy ipcreasBd,-tlie miractiloua 
 gift of tongues began gradually to decrease. 
 It appears at the same time, "from unexception- 
 able testimonies, that the other extraordinary 
 gifts with which the omnipotence and wisdom 
 of the Most High - had so richly endowed the 
 rising church, were in several places continued 
 during this century.* ' 
 
 IX. We cannot indeed place, with certainty, 
 among the effects of a mirapulou^ power yet 
 remaining in, the church, the story of- the 
 Christian legion, who, by their prayers, drew 
 from heaven a refreshing shower upon the army 
 of Marcus Antoninus, ready to perish with 
 thirst, when that empelror was at war with the 
 Marcomanni. This remarkable event (^hich 
 gave to the Christians, to whom it was attri- 
 
 * buted, the naime of the tinmdering legion, on 
 account of the thunder Eiud lightning that der 
 stroyed the enemy, while the shower revived 
 ,"*'the,-fainting Romans) has been mentioned by 
 many writers. But whether it was really mi- 
 raculous- or not, has been much disputed 
 among learned men. Some think tliat the 
 Christians, by a pioira sort of mistake-, attribut- 
 ed this unexpected and seasonable shower, 
 which saved the Roman army,' to a miraculous- 
 interposition; and this opinion is,, indeed, sup- 
 ported by the weightiest reasons, as' well as by 
 the most respectable,authorities;f _, 
 
 X. Let us distinguish what is dpubtfulin 
 this story, from that which is certain. , It is 
 undoubted, that the Roman troops, enclosed 
 by the"en^y, and reduced to the most deplo- 
 rable and' even desperate condition, by the 
 thirst_ under which they lfin§uished in" a parch- 
 ed desert, were revived by a sudden and jm- 
 
 j expected rain. It is also certain, that both the 
 Heathens and the Christians considered this 
 event as extraordinary and miraculous; the 
 former attributing it to Jupiter, Mercury, or 
 the power of magic; the latter to Christ, inter- 
 posing thus ^unexpectedly, in consequence of 
 their prayers. It is equally indisputable, tliat" 
 
 * Pfanner, de donis qiiraculosia; Spencer. Wot. s^d 
 Orig. contra Celsum; Mammachius, Origibes et Antiqui- 
 tafct Christian, torn. i.. 
 
 t Such readers as are desirous to know what learned 
 men have altered on both' sides of this curious question, 
 may consult Witsius'-Dissertat; de Legione Fulminatrice, 
 which is subjoined. to his ^gyptiaca, in- defence of this 
 miracle; as- also what is alleged against it by Dan. La 
 Roquc, iq. ^ discourse upon that subject subjoined to the 
 Adversaria Sacra of Malth. La Roque, his'father. -But, 
 above ail, the controversy between Sii-' Peter Kin^ [*] 
 md Mr. Walter Moyle, upon this subject, is w,orthy of 
 the attention of the curious; and-Jikewise the dissertation 
 Bf the learned Jablonski, inserted in the eighth volume 
 jf the Miscellanea iipsiensia, p. 417, under the title of 
 iSpicilegium de Legione Fulmiliatrice- The last men- 
 ioned author investigates, with great acutfeness', the rea- 
 sons and motives which induced the Christians to place 
 ^o-inconsiderately this shower in the list of miracles. 
 
 (b^ [*] It is by mistake that Dr. Mosheim confounds Sir 
 Peter King, lord Chancellor of Kngland, with the parson 
 who carried on the controversy with Moyle, concerning 
 the thundering legion. Moyle's adversary . was Mr. 
 King, rector of Topsham, near Exeter, which was the 
 place of his nativity, and also that of the famous chancel- 
 Jor who bore his name. See the letters addressed to the 
 Rev. Mr. King, in the posthumous collection of Locke's 
 r.etters, published by Collins. See also Lardner's Col- 
 lection of Heathen and Jewish Testimonies, &c., vol. u. 
 
 10 
 
 a considerable number of Christians served at 
 this tirrie in the Roman army; and^ it is- ex- 
 ceedingly probable, that, in such, trying cir-' 
 cumstanees of calamity and digress, they im- 
 plored the merciful interposition and" succour 
 of their God and Saviour; and, as the Chris- 
 tians of those times Tjaoked uppn.all extraordi- 
 nary events as miraeles, and ascribed to their 
 prayers all the_. uijcommou occurrences of an 
 advantageous nature that' happened to the" 
 Roman empire, it will not appear surprising, 
 that, on the- present occasion, they attributed 
 the deliverance pf Antoninus and his araBy to 
 a miraculous interposition which they had 'ob^ 
 tained from above. But, on the other hand, 
 it must be carefully observed, that it is an in- 
 varja-ble inaxim, universally adopted by the 
 wise and jndicious,.iJiat no events are to be es- 
 teemed miraculous, Which may be rationally 
 attributed to natural causes, and accounted for 
 Tiy a recourse to the ordinary dispensations of ' 
 Providence;' said, as the unexpected shpwer, 
 which- restored -the expiring force of the Ro- 
 mans, may be easily explained- without rising 
 beyond the usual, and ordinary course of nature, 
 the conclusion is manifest; nor can it be doubt- 
 ful in what light we are to fconsider that re- 
 markable event. 
 
 XI. The Jews were visited with new calami- 
 ties, first under Trajan, and then under Adrian, 
 when, under the standard of Baroochebas, who 
 ■gave himself out for the Messiah, they rose in 
 rebellion against the' Romans. In consequence 
 of thjs sedition, prodigious numbers -of that 
 miserable people were put to the sword; and a 
 new' city, called MVia. Capitolina, was raised 
 upon the ruins pf Jerusalem, into which no 
 Jew was permitted to enter.* This defeat of the 
 Jews tended to confirm, in some measure, the 
 external tranquillity Pf the. Christian Church; 
 for that turbulent and Jperfidious nation had , 
 hitherto vexed and oppressed the Christians, 
 not only by presenting every where to the Ro- 
 man magistrates complaints and accusations 
 against thgm, but also by treating them in the 
 most injurious manner in Palestine and the 
 .neighbouring countries, because they refused 
 to succour them against- the Romans. But 
 this new calamity, which fell upon that sedi- 
 tious nation, put it out of their power to exer^ 
 cise their malignity against tlie disciples of Je- 
 sus, as they had formerly done. 
 
 XII. Among other accessions to_ the splen- 
 dour ;and force of the growing church, we may 
 reckon the learned and ingenious labours pi 
 those philosophers "and literati, who were con 
 verted to Christianity in this century. I aii> 
 sensible -that the .advantages hence arising Xv 
 the cause of true religion will be disputed by 
 many; and, indee'di vvhen the question is thu» 
 proposed, whether, upon the whole, thcj inte- 
 I'ests of Christianity haVe gained or lost by- the; 
 writings pf the learned, and the speculations 
 of philpgophers who have, been emplpyed in 
 its defence; I confess mysfelf incapable of golv- 
 iiig it in a satisfactory manner; for, nothing is 
 more manifest than this truth, that the noble 
 simphcity and dignity of religion were sadly 
 corrupted in many "places; when the philcso- 
 
 • Justin Mart. Dial, cum Tryphone, p. 49, 278. 
 
64 
 
 EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part 1. 
 
 phers blended their opinions with its pure doc- 
 trines, and were so audacious as to submit that 
 divine system of faith and piety to be scruti- 
 nized and modified by the fallible rules of im- 
 perfect reason.. 
 
 CHAPTER II. * 
 
 Concerning; the calamitous Events that happened 
 to the Church during this Century. 
 
 -I. In the beginning of this century, there 
 were po laws in force against the Christians; 
 for the senate had annulled the cruel edicts of 
 Nero, and Nerva had abrogated the sanguinary 
 laws of his predecessor, Domitian. But not- 
 withstanding this, a horrid custom prevailed, 
 of persecuting the Christians, and even of put- 
 ting -them to death, as often as - sanguinary 
 priests, of an outrageous populace instigated 
 by those ecclesiastics, demanded their destruc- 
 tion. Hence- it happened, that, even under the 
 reign of the good Trajan, popular clamours* 
 were raised against the Clu:istians, many of 
 whom fell victims to the rage of a merciless 
 multitude. Such were the riotous proceed- 
 ings that happened in Bithynia, under the ad- 
 ministration of Pliny the younger, who, on 
 that occasion, wrote to the emperor,^ to know 
 in what, manner he was to conduct liimself 
 toward the Christians. The answer which he 
 received from Trajan amounted to this, " That 
 the Christians were not to be officiously-sought 
 after,! l"it that such as were accused and con- 
 victed of an adherence to Christianity were to 
 be put to death as"wicked citizens, if they did 
 not return to the religion of .their ancestors." 
 
 II. This edict of Trajan, being registered- 
 among the public and solemn laws of the Ro- 
 man empire, set bounds, indeed, to the fury of 
 those who persecuted the Christians, but was 
 the occasion of rnartyrdom to many, even un- 
 der the best emperors.. For, as often, as an ac- 
 cuser appeared, and the person accused of an 
 adherence to Christianity confessed the truth of 
 the charge, the alternative was apostasy or 
 death, since a magnanimous per-seyerance in 
 the Christian faith was, according to the" edict 
 of Trajan, a capital crime. . And, accordingly, 
 the venerable and- aged Simeon, son of Cleo- 
 phas, and bishop of Jerusalem, ' was, by this 
 very law, crucified in consequence of an accu-^ 
 satjon formed against ■ him \>y the Jews.J By 
 the same law, also",'was the great and pious 
 Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, ordered by Trajan 
 himself to expire in the Roman theatre, ex- 
 posed to the rapacity of furious b,easts;§ for, 
 as the law simply denounced death to such as 
 were convicted of an attachment to Christ, 
 the kind of punishment was left by the legis- 
 lator to the choice of the judge. ' 
 
 III. Such of the Christians as could conceal 
 their profession were indeed sheltered under 
 the law of Trajan, which was, therefore, a dis- 
 agreeable restraint upon the heathen priests. 
 
 * Eusel}ius, Hist. Eccles. Jib. iii. cap; xxxii. 
 
 f See Pliny's Lettersj'boolt x. lei. xcvii. and xcviri., 
 which have been illustrated- by mffny learned men, such 
 as Vossius, Bohiner, Baldwin, Hcuman, and others. 
 
 I Eusebius, Hist. Eccles. lib. iii. cap. xxxii. p. 103; 
 
 § See the Acta Martyrii Ignatiam, published by Ru- 
 mftrl, and also in the Collection of the Apostolic Fa'thera, 
 
 who breathed nothing but fury against the dis- 
 ciples of Jesus. The office of an accuser was 
 also become dangerous, and "very few were dis- 
 posed to undertake it, so that the sacerdotal craft 
 was now inventing new methods to oppress the 
 Christians. The law of Trajan was therefore 
 artfully evaded under the reign of his succes- 
 sor Adrian. The populace, set in motion by 
 the priests, demanded of the magistrates, with 
 one voice, during the public games, the de- 
 struction of the Qiristians; and the magis- 
 trates, fearing that a sedition might be the 
 consequence of despising or opposing these 
 popular clamours, were too much disposed . to 
 indulge them in their request. During these 
 commotions, Serenus Granianus, proconsul of 
 Asia, represented to the emperor how barba- 
 rous alnd unjusl it was to sacrifice, to the fury 
 of a lawless multitude, persons who had been 
 convicted of no crime. Nor were his wise and 
 equitable remonstrances fruitless; for Adrian, 
 by an edict issued out to these magistrates, 
 prohibited the putting the Christians to death, 
 unless they were re^arly accused and con- 
 victed of crimes committed against the laws; 
 and this edict appears to have been a solemn 
 renewal of the Jaw of Trajan.* The modera- 
 tion of the emperor, in this edict, may, per- 
 haps, have been produced by the admirable 
 apologies of Quadratus and AristideS, in fa- 
 vour of the Christians, which were every way 
 proper to dispel the angry prejudices of a mind 
 that had any sense of equity'and humanity left. 
 But it was not from the Romans alone, that 
 the disciples of- Christ were to feel' oppression;, 
 Barcochebas, the pretended king of the Jews, 
 whom 'Adrian afterwards defeated, vented 
 against them all his fury, because they re- 
 fused to join his standard, and second his 
 rebellion.! ♦ ■ - 
 
 IV. The ^aw of Adrian, according to its na- 
 tural sense, 'seemed to cover the Christians 
 frorn the fury of their enemies, since it -ren- 
 dered them punishable on, ho other account 
 thaii the commission of crimes, and since the 
 magistrates refused to interpret their religion 
 as the crime mentioned in the imperial. edict. 
 Therefore their enemies invented a nevv method, 
 of attacking them under the reign of Antoninus 
 JPius, even by accusing them of impiety and 
 atheism. This calumny was refuted in an 
 apology for the Christians, presented to the em- 
 peror by Justin Martyr; -in consequence of, 
 which, this equitable prince ordered-that all 
 proceedings against them should be regulated 
 by the law of Adrian .|- This, however, was 
 not sufficient to s.uppress the rage of blood- 
 thirsty persecution; for some time after this, 
 on occasion of some earthquakes which hap- 
 pened in Asia,' the people renewed their, vio- 
 lence against the Christians, whom they con- 
 sidered as the- authors of those calamities, and 
 treated consequently in the most cruel and in- 
 jurious manner. The emperor, informed of 
 these unjust and barbarous proceedings, ad- 
 dressed an edict to the whole province of Asia, 
 in which he denounced capital punishment 
 
 • Compare Eusebius, Hist. Eccles. jib. iv. cap. ix. with 
 Balduinus ad Edicta Princip. in Christianos, p. 73. 
 t Justin Mart. Apologia secunda, p. 72, edit. Colon. 
 } Eusebius, Hist. Eccles. lib. it. cap. xivi. p. 148. 
 
Chap. II. 
 
 CALAMITOUS EVENTS.. 
 
 56 
 
 against such as should, for the AiturS, accuse 
 the Christians, without being able to prove 
 them guilty of any crime.* , 
 
 ■V. This wortljy prince was succeeded by 
 Marcus Aurelius Antoninus," the philosopher, 
 whom most writers have celebrated beyond 
 measure on account of his extraordinary wis» 
 dom and virtue. It is not, however, in his 
 conduct toward the Christians that we must 
 look for the reasons of the^e pompous encomi- 
 ums; for, here the clemency and justice of that 
 emperor suffer a strange eclipse. He did not, 
 indeed, revoke the edict of- Antoninus Pius, or 
 abrogate the laws which the preceding empe- 
 rors had enacted in favour of the Christiansj 
 but he did what was equally pernicious to 
 them. Without examining impartially tlieir 
 cause, he lent an easy and attentive Jar to the 
 most virulent insinuations of their enemies, 
 especially to the malignant calumnies of the 
 philosophers, who accused them of the most 
 horrid crimes and the most monstrous impiety, 
 and charged them with renewing the shocking 
 feasts of Thyestes, and the incestuous amours of 
 the Theban prin e; so that, if we except that of 
 Nero, there was i 6 reign imder which the Chris- 
 tians were more injuriously and cruelly treated, 
 than under that of the v/ise and virtuous Marcus 
 Aurelius; and yet there was no reign under 
 which such numerous and victorious .Spologies 
 were published in their behalf. Those wliich 
 Justin Martyr, Athenagoras, and Tatian, 
 wrote upon this occasion, are still extant. 
 VI. This emperor issued against the Chris- 
 
 - tians, whom he regarded as a vain, obstinate, 
 and vicious set of men, edicts,! which, upon 
 the whole, were very unjust; though we do 
 not know, at this distance of time, their par- 
 ticular contents. In consequence of these im- 
 perial edicts, the judges and magistrates re- 
 ceived the accusations, which even slaves, and 
 the vilest of the perjured rabble, brought 
 against the followers of Jesus; and the Chris- 
 tians were put to the most cruel tortures and 
 were condemned to meet death in the most 
 
 ■ barbarous forms, notwithstanding their perfect 
 irmocence, arid their persevering. and solemn 
 denial of the horrid crimes Isgid to thrir charge. 
 The. imperial edicts were, so positive and ex- 
 press against inflicting punishment iipon such 
 of the ChristiiiJis as were guilty of no crime, 
 that the corrupt judges, who, throug;h motives 
 of interest or popularity, desire,d their destruc- 
 tion, were obliged to suborn ialse accusers to 
 charge them with actions: that might bring 
 them within the reach of the laws. Hence 
 
 * Eusebius, Hist. EtwHes.' lib. iv. cap. xiii. p.' 126. 
 Ql^lt i& proper to be observed, that the -word crime^in 
 sevei'al former edicts, had not been sufficiently determin- 
 ed in its signification; so that we find the enemies of the 
 Christians, and even the Roman magistrates, applying this 
 term to the profession of Christianity. ^But the equitable 
 edict of "this good emperor decided that point on the side 
 of humanity and justice, as appears from the letter' he 
 addressed to the province of Asia, in favour of the per- 
 secuted Christians, and which concludes with -the follow- 
 ing words: " Tf any one, for the future, shall molest the 
 Christians, and accuse them merely on account of their 
 religion, let the person thus accused be discharged, 
 though' he is found to be a Christian, and- the accuser 
 be punished according to the rigour of the law." 
 
 t See IMelflo ap. Euscb. Hist. Eccles. lib. iv. cap. %m. 
 p. 147. ■ 
 
 many fell victims to cruel superstition and po- 
 pular fury; seconded by the corruption of a 
 wicked -magistracy, iind the connivance of a 
 pruicOj who, with respect to one set .of men, 
 fdrgot those principles of justice and' clemency 
 which directed his conduet toward all others. 
 Among these victims, there were many men of 
 illustrious piety, and some of emineiit learning- 
 and abilities, such as the holy and venerable 
 Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, and Justin Mar- 
 tyr, so deservedly renowned for his erudition 
 and philosophy.* ■ Many churches, particularly 
 those of Lyqps and Vienne, were almost en- 
 tirely destroyed, during this violent persecu-; 
 tion, which raged in the year 177, and will be 
 an indelible stain upon the memory, of -the 
 prince by whose order it was carried on.f 
 
 VII. Dm-ing the reign of Commodus, the 
 Christians suffered very little; no general per- 
 secution raged against them; and any cruelties 
 which they endured were confined to a small 
 number, who had newly abandoned the Pagan 
 superstitions.t But the scene changed toward 
 the latter end of this century, when Severus 
 was declared emperor. Then Egypt and other 
 provinces were dyed with the blood of martyrs, 
 as appears from thetestimonies of TertuUian, 
 Clemens of Alexandria, and other writers.. 
 Those, tlierefore, are not to be followed, who 
 affipn, that .the Christians suffered nothing 
 under Severus," before the beginning of the 
 third century, which was distinguished by the 
 cruel edicts of this emperor against their lives 
 and fortunes; for, as the imperial-laws against 
 the Christi?,ns were not abrogated,, and . the 
 iniquitous edicts of Trajan and .Marcus Anto- 
 ninus were still in force, there' was a door, m 
 consequence, open to the fury and injustice of 
 corrupt magistr,ates, as often as < they were 
 pleased to exei-cise them upon the ohureh. It 
 was this series of calamities, under which it 
 groaned td^^ard the conclusion of the second 
 century, which engaged TertuUian to write his 
 Apology, and several o.th6r books, in defence 
 of the Christians. 
 
 VIII. It is very easy to account for the suf- 
 ferings and calamities with which the disciples 
 of Jesus were loaded, when we consider how 
 they were blackened and rendered odious by 
 the railings, the calumnies, and libels of the 
 Heathen priests, and the , other defenders of a 
 corrupt and jnost abominable system of super- 
 stition. The injurious imputations, tlie horrid 
 charges, of whidh we took notice above-, are 
 mentioned by all thbse who have written in 
 defence of the Christians, and ought indeed, 
 to stand always upon record, as proofs both of 
 the weakness and wickedness of their adversa- 
 ries Nothirig can be more frivolous and in- 
 Significant than the objections with wliich thp 
 most famous defenders of Paganism assailed 
 Christianity at this time;, and such as desire a 
 convincing proof of this assertion, have only 
 
 * A full account of their martyrdom" is to be found in 
 the, valuable wopk of Ruinart, entitled, Acta ;Sincera' 
 Martyrum. 
 
 ' t See the letter of the Christians at Lyons, concerning 
 this persecution, which is to be found in Eusebius' Ep- 
 clesiastical Histoi^,-book v. chap. ii. and also in Fox's 
 Martyrology, vol. i. 
 
 I Eusebius, lib. v. 
 
56 
 
 INTERN AJ, HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part II. 
 
 to read the arguments of Celsus on that sub- 
 ject. This philosopher wrote against the 
 Christians during the reign of Adrian, and was 
 admirably refuted, in the following century, by 
 Origen, who represents him aB an Epicurean, 
 (a mistake which has, been almost generally 
 ibllowed;) wheteas it appears with the utmost 
 probability, that he was a Platonic philosopher 
 of the sect of Ammonius.* Be that as it will, 
 
 Q(^ * The learned Dr. Lardner does not ^hink it pos- 
 sible that Celsus coijld have been of the sect of Am- 
 monius, since the former lived and wrote in the second 
 century, whereas the latter dild not flourish before the 
 third. And indeed we learn from Origen himself, that 
 he, knew of two only of the name of Celsus, one who 
 lived in the time of Nero, and the^other in the reign of 
 Adrian, and afterwards. The latter was the philosopher 
 Who wrote against Christianity, , 
 
 Celsus was a trifling caviller, as is rnaniftst 
 from the answer of Origen; nor do his writiifigs 
 against Christianity serve any other purpose, 
 than to show his malignant and' illiberal turn 
 of mind. ' ' 
 
 Fronto, the rhetorician, and Crescens, the 
 Cynic philosopher, made also some wretched 
 attempts against Chiistianity The efforts of 
 the former' are only known by the mention that 
 is made of them by Minutius Felix;* and the 
 enterprises of the latter were confined to A Ve- 
 hement 2eal for the ruin of the Christians, and 
 a virulent persecution of Justin Martyr, which 
 ended in the cruel death of that eminent saint.f 
 
 * Octavius, p. 266, edit. Heraldi. ' 
 ^f Jnstin Mart, Apologia secunda^p. SI. — Tatian, Orat. 
 contra Grajcos. 
 
 PART II. 
 
 THE INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 CHAPTER' I. 
 
 CotKeming the state of -Letters and Philosophy- 
 
 during this Century. 
 
 I. Undee the reign of Trajan, letters arid 
 pliilosophy came forth from the retreat where 
 ijiey had languished during the savage tyranny 
 of his ipredecessors, and, by the auspicious pro- 
 tection of that excellent prince, were in some 
 measure restored to their former lustre.* This 
 happy revolution in the republic of letters, was 
 indeed of a short duration, as.it was not sup- 
 ported by the following emperors, who. were; 
 for the most part, averse to literary pursuits. 
 Even Marcus Antoninus, who surpassed them 
 all in leamingi gave protection and encourage- 
 ment to the Stoics alone, and, after the exam- 
 ple of that supercilious sect, treated the arts 
 and sciences with indifference and contempt.^ 
 And here we see the true reason why the wri- 
 ters of this century are, in general, so much 
 inferior to those of the former in point of ele- 
 gance and purity, eloquence and taste. 
 
 II. It must be observed, at the same time, 
 that this degeneracy of erudition and taste did 
 not amouiit to an utter extinction of the one 
 and the other; for, even in this century, there 
 were, both among the Greeks and Homans, 
 men of eminent genius and abilities; who' «et 
 off, in the most advantageous manner, the 
 learning of the times in which they lived. 
 Among the learned Grecians, the first place is 
 due to Plutarch, a man of vast erudition, whose 
 knowledge was various, but indigested, and 
 whose philosophical taste was corrupted by the 
 sceptical tenets of th&academics. There ^vere, 
 likewise, in all the more considerable cities of 
 the Roman empire, rhetoricians, sophists, and 
 grammaria;ns, who, by a variety of learned ex- 
 ercises, seemed zealous in forming the youth 
 to their arts of eloquence and declamation, and 
 
 * Plin. epist, lib. iii. ep. 18. 
 
 T lu the first book of hia Meditations, sect. 7, 17. 
 
 in rendering them fit, by their talents and their 
 acquisitions, to be useful to their country. But 
 the instruction acquired in these schools was 
 more specious tha,h solid; and the youth who 
 receiv'ed'^their education in them, distinguished 
 themselves, at their entrance upon the active 
 stage of life, more by empty declamation, than 
 by 'true eloquence; more by pompous erudition, 
 than by wisdonr and dexterity in the manage- 
 ment of public affairs. The consequence of 
 this was, that the rhetoricians and sophists, 
 thoijgh agreealJle . to the corrupt taste of the 
 time, which was incapable, generally speaking, 
 of perceiving the native charms of truth, yet 
 fell into contempt among the prudent and the 
 wise, who held in derision the knowledge and 
 education acqujred in their auditories. Beside 
 the schools now 'mentioned, there vvere two 
 public academies in the empire; -one at Rcanej 
 founded by Adrian, in which all' the sciences 
 were taught; and the other at Berytus in Phce- 
 nicia, vphich was principally destined for the 
 education of youth in the science of law.* 
 
 in. 'Many philosophers of all the different 
 sects flourished at this time, whose names we 
 do' not think it necessary to mention.! Two, 
 however, there were, of such remarkable and 
 shuiing • merit, as rendered them real orna- 
 ments to the Stoic philosophy; which the me- 
 ditations of Marcus Antoninus and the manual 
 of Epictetus abundantly testify. These two 
 great men Tiad more admirers than disciples 
 and followers; for, in this century/ the Stoical 
 sect was not in the highest esteem, as the rigour 
 and austerity of its doctrine were by no means 
 suited to the dissolute manners of the times. 
 The Platonic schools were more frequented for 
 several reasons, and particularly for these two, 
 
 * See the Meditations of Marcus Antoninus, book i. 
 aebt. 7, 10. 
 
 t Justin'Mart. Dialog, cum Tryphone, op. p. S18, &c. 
 We find also many of these philosophers mentioned in 
 the meditations of Marcus .^toninuB. 
 
Chap. L 
 
 LEARNING AND PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 57 
 
 that their moral precepts were less rigorous and 
 soTere than those of the Stoics, "and their doc- 
 trines more' conformable to, ■or raj;her less in- 
 compatible with, the common -opinions con- 
 cerning the gods. But, of all the philosophers, 
 the Epicureans enjoyed the greatest reputa- 
 tion, and had undoubtedly the' greatest num- 
 ber of followers, because their opinions tended 
 to encourage the indolent security of a volup- 
 tuous and effeminate life, andlo banish the re^ 
 morse and terroi-s that haunt vice, and natu- 
 rally incommode the wicked^ in their sensual 
 pursuits.* 
 
 ~ IV. Toward the conclusion of this century, 
 a new sect of philosophers suddenly arose, 
 spread with amazing rapidity through the 
 greatest part of the Koman empirfe, Swallowed 
 up almost all other sects, and proved extremely 
 detrimental to the cause of Christianity. Alex- 
 andria in Egypt, which had been, for a long 
 time, the seat of learning, and, as it were, the 
 centre of all the liberal arts and sciences; gave 
 birth to this new philosophy. Its votaries 
 chose to" be called Platonists, though, far from 
 .adhering to all the tenets of Plato", they col- 
 lected from the different pects such doctrines as 
 they thoKght conformable to truth, and-formed 
 thereof one general system. The reason, then, 
 why they distinguished themselves by the title 
 of Platonists, was, that they .thought the senti- 
 ments of Plato, . concerning that most noble 
 part of plulosophy, which has the Deity and 
 things invisible for its objects, much more ra- 
 tional and sublime than those of the other phi- 
 losophers. , 
 
 JV. What ga^ve to this-new philosophy a su- 
 perior air of reason and dignity, was, the un- 
 prejudiced spirit of candour and impartiality on 
 which it seemed to .be founded. ' This recom- 
 mended it particularly to those real sages, 
 whose inquiries were accompanied with^wis- 
 dom and moderation^ and who were siok. of 
 those arrogant and contentious sects, which" re- 
 quired an invariable attachment to their parti- 
 cular systems. And, indeed,. nothing could 
 have a more engaging aspect than a set of men, 
 who,, abandoning all cavil, and all prejudices 
 in &,vour of any. party, professed searching aft^r 
 the truth alone, and were ready to 'adopt, from 
 all the different systeinS .and sects, such tenets 
 as they thought agreeable to it. Hence a,lso 
 they were called ^Eclectics. It i^ ho^wever, to 
 be observed, as we hinted in the foriner section,- 
 that though these philosophers were attached 
 to no particular sect, yet they preferred, as ap- 
 pears -from a variety of- testimonies, the sub- 
 lime Plato to all other sages, and . approved 
 most of his'bplnions concerning the Deity, the 
 universe, and the human soul. 
 
 VI. This new species of Plsrtonism was em- 
 braced by such of the Alexandrian Christians 
 as were desirous of retaining, .with the pro- 
 fession of the Gospel, the title, the dignity, and 
 the habit of- philosophers. It is also said to 
 have had the particular approbation of Athe- 
 nagoras, Pantaenus, Clemens the Alexandrian, 
 and of all those who,' in this century,^ were, 
 charged -with the care of the pubhc school-) 
 
 * Lucian^s Pseudomant. p. 763. torn. i. 05. 
 t The title and dignity of philosophers delighted so 
 much these honest men, that though they wore advanced 
 
 Vol. I.— 8 
 
 which the Christians had at Alexandria. These 
 sages weire of opinion, that true philosophy, 
 the greatest and most salutary gift o^ God to 
 mortals, was scattered in various portions 
 through all the different sects; and that it was, 
 consequently, the duty of every wis© man, and 
 more especially of every Christian doctor, to 
 gather -it from the several corners where it lay 
 dispersed," .and to employ it^thus re-united, in 
 the defence of religion, and in destroying the 
 dominion of impiety and vice. The, Christian 
 Eclectics had this also in common with the 
 others, Hiat they preferred Plafb to thp other 
 pha-osophers', and-looked upon his opinions oon- 
 cerning'God, the human soulj and things in- 
 visible, as conformable to the spirit and genius 
 of the Christian doctrine. 
 
 VII. This philosojihical system underwent 
 Some changesi 'when Ammonius Saccas, whD 
 taught, .with the hi"ghest applause, in the Alex- 
 andrian .school aboiit the conclusion of this 
 century, laid the foundations of that sect which 
 was distinguished by the name of the New 
 Platonists. f This learned man was bom of 
 Christian parents, and never, perhaps, gave up 
 entirely the outward profession of that divine 
 religion in which he had been educated.* ^As 
 -his genius was vast and comiSrehensive, so 
 were his projects bold and singular. For he 
 
 inihe church to the rank of presbyters, they would not 
 abandon the philosophers* cloak. Sec Origen, Kpist. ad^ 
 Eusebium, torn, j.'ojp. edit.- delEL Rue... . , ,' - 
 
 * Porphyry, in, his 'third book against the Christians, 
 maintains, that Ammonius deserted the Chn-ist^an religion 
 and went over' to Paganism as soon as he came to that time 
 of -life when 'the .mind is capable of making a wise and 
 judicious choice. £usebius, on the other hand, depiea 
 this assertion; maintaining, that Ammonius p^erseVered 
 constantly m~ the profession, of Gh;ristianity; and he is ^ 
 followed in this opinioii by Valesius, Bayle, Basns^e, and " 
 others. 'The learned Fabiricius is of opinion, that Euse- 
 bius eonfouud^d two persons'who bore the name of Am- 
 monius, on& of -whom was a Christian writer, and the 
 other a heathen -' philosopher. See Fabric. Biblioth. 
 Graeca, lib. iv. cap. 'xxvi. The truth of the matter 
 seems to have been, that Ammonius Saccas was a Chris- 
 tian, who ^opted with such dexterity the doctrines of .. 
 the pa^an philosophy, as to appear a Christian to the ' < 
 .Christians,' and .a.Pagan' to' the Fa^ns. .See Brucker's 
 Historia Critica Philosophic, vol. li. and iii. Since the 
 first edition of this work appeared, the learned- Dr. 
 Lardner has maint;ained, not 'without -A certain degree of 
 asperity, which' is unusual in his valuable writings, the 
 ppmion of Fabriclus, against Eusebius, and particularly 
 against Dr. Mosheim. §ee'his Collection of Heathen 
 and J^-wish Testimonies, vol. iii. Dr. Mosheim was 
 once of the same opinion with Fabricius, and he main- 
 tained it in a Dissertation, de ecclesia twrhata per re-^ 
 cenUores PlatdrUcos; but he^afterwards saw reason to 
 change his mind. .IJis reasons may be seen in his. book, 
 de rebus Christianorum, ante Const. Mag. p. .^1, &c. 
 T^iey indeed weigh little with Dr. Larduer, who, how-- - 
 .ever, opposes nothing to them but mere assertions, un- 
 supported by the sniallest glimpse of evidence. For the 
 letter of Ori§en,-whiph he quotes' from Eusebius, is so 
 far from ptpvlng; that Ammonius was merely Sl Heathen, 
 'philosopher, and hot a Christian, that it would not be , 
 sufficient to demonstrate that there was ever such a per- 
 .son as Ammonius in the woi:ld, since he is not so much as 
 named in~that letter. - But allowing with Valesius' that 
 it is Ammonius whom Origen has In view, when he talks 
 of the philosophical master iVom whom-he and Hereulcs 
 received instructiouj it seems very whimsical to conclude 
 from this ciroums.ianoe, that Ammonius was no Christian. 
 The coalition betv^eii Flatonism arid Christianity, in the 
 -sfcond and third centuries, is a fact (oo'fully proved. to 
 be rendered dubious by niere affirmations. The notion,, 
 therelbre, of two persons bcarinj^ the name, of Ammo- 
 nius, the one a Heathen philosopher, and the 'oihe'r .4$ 
 Christian writer, of which Dr^ -L.ardner seems so fond 
 rests upon little more than , an hypothesis forinecl tp '(^^ 
 move an imaginary difficulty. 
 
58 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THK CHURCH. 
 
 Part U. 
 
 attempted a general reconciliation or coalition 
 of all sects, whether philbsophiQal of religious, 
 and taught a doctrine which h@ looked updh 
 as proper, to unite them all, the Christians not 
 excepted, in the most perfect haiTnOny. And 
 herein lies the difference between this new sect 
 and the Eclectics, who had, before this time, 
 flourished in Egypt. The Eclectics held, that, 
 in every sect, there was a mixture of good and 
 bad, of truth and falsehood; and, accordingly, 
 they chose and adopted, out of each of them, 
 «uch tenets as seemed to them conformable to 
 reason and truth, and rejected such as they 
 thought repugnant to both. Ammonius, on 
 the contrary, maintained, that the great prin- 
 ciples of all philosophical and rehgious truth 
 were to be found equally in all sects; that they 
 differed from each other .only in their method 
 of expressing them, and in.some opinions of 
 little or no importance; and Jhat, by a proper 
 interpretation of their respective sentiments, 
 they might easily be united into one body. It 
 is farther to be observed, that the propensity 
 of Ammonius to singularity and paradfox, led 
 him to maintain, that all the Gentile religions, 
 and even: the Christian, were to b6 illustrated 
 and explained by the principles of this univer- 
 sal philosophy; but that, in order to this, the 
 fables of the priests were to be removed from 
 - Paganism, and the' comments and interpreta- 
 tions of the disciples of Jesus from Chris- 
 tianity. 
 /-VIII. This arduous design, which Ammo- 
 nius had formed, of bringing about a cpalition 
 of all the -philosophical sects, and all the sys^ 
 tems of religion that prevailed in the world, 
 required many difficult and disagreeable things 
 'n order to its execution. ' Every particular 
 sect or ^religiop must have several of its doc- 
 trines curtailed or distorted, before it could en- 
 ter into the general mass. The tenets of the 
 philosophers,Jhe superstitions of the Heathen 
 priests, the solemn doctrines of Chtistianityj 
 were all to suffer in this cause, and forced al- 
 legories were to be employed with subtilty in 
 removing t^e difficultifes with, which it was at- 
 tended. How this vast project was effected by 
 Ammonius, the' writings of his; disciples 'and 
 followers, that yet remain, abundantly testify. 
 In order to the accomplishment of his purpose,, 
 he supposed, that true philosophy derived its 
 origin and its consistence from the eastern' na- 
 tions; that it was taught to the Egyptians by 
 Hermes; that it was brought from them'to the 
 Greeks, by whose vain subtilties, and litigious 
 disputes, it was rendered somewhat obscure 
 arid deformed; .but was however, preserved in 
 its original purity by Plato, who was the best 
 interpreter ef Hermes, and of the .other orien- 
 tal sages. He maintained, that all the differ- 
 ent religions which prevailed in, the world, 
 wera,-in thfeir original integrity, conformable 
 to the genius, of this ancient philosophy; but 
 that it unfortunately happened, that Uie sym- 
 bols and fictions, under which, according to 
 the eastern manner, the ancients delivered 
 theirprecepts and their doctrines, were, in pro- 
 cess of time, erroneously understood both by 
 priests and people in a literal sense; that, in 
 consequence of this, the invisible beings and 
 demons, whom the Supreme Deity had placed 
 
 in the different parts of the universe as the 
 ministers of his providence, were, by the sug^ 
 gestions of superstition, converted into gods, 
 and worshipped with a multiplicity of vain cere- 
 I monies. He therefore insisted, that the reli- 
 gions of all nations should be restored to their 
 origmal purity, and reduced to their primitive 
 standard, viz. " The.ancient philosophy of the 
 east;" and he afiirmed, that this his project 
 was agreeable to the intentions of Jesus Christ, 
 whose sole view, in descending upon earth, 
 was, to set bounds to the reigning superstition, 
 and to remove the errors that had crept into 
 all religions, but not to abolish tlie. ancient 
 theology from which they were derived. 
 
 IX. Taking th,ese principles for granted, 
 Ammonius adopted, the doctrines which were 
 received in Egypt, the place of his birth and 
 education, ooncetning the universe and the 
 Deity, considered as constituting one great 
 while; as also concemiiig the eternity of the 
 world, the nature of souls, the empire of Pror 
 vidence, and the government of this world by 
 demons. For it seems evident, that the Egyp- 
 tian philosophy, which was said to be derived 
 ftoni Hermes, was the basis of that of Ammo- 
 
 Inius; or, as it is otherwise called, of inodem 
 Platonism; and the book of Jambliehus, con- 
 cerning the mysteries of the Egyptians, puts 
 the matter beyond dispute. Ainmonius, there- 
 foire, associated the sentiments' of the Egyp- ■ 
 tians with the doctrines of Plato, which was 
 easily done by adulterating some of the opin- 
 ions of the latter, imd Toircing his expressions 
 from their obvious and natural sense; and, to 
 finish this conciliatory scheme, he so interpret- 
 ed the doctrines of the other philosophical and 
 j religious sects, by the violent succours of art, 
 invention, and iJlegory, that they seemed,. at 
 length,' to bear some resemblance to the E^p- 
 tian and Platonic systems. 
 
 X. To this monstrous coalition of heterog^ 
 neous doctrines, its fanatical author added a 
 
 ixule of life and manners, which carried an as- 
 pect of high sanctity and uncommon austerity. 
 He, indeed,permitted the jeople to live ac- 
 cording to the laws of theij: country, and the 
 dictates of natinre; but a more^ sublime rule 
 was laid down- for the wise. -They were ,to 
 raise, above all terrestrial things, by the tow- 
 ering e'fibrts-of holy contemplation, those souls 
 whose origin was celestial and divine. They 
 i*ere ordered to extenuate, by hunger, thirst, 
 and other mortifications, the sluggish body, 
 which confines the activity, and restrains the 
 liberty of the immortal spirit; that thus, in this 
 life, they might enjoy communion'- -with the 
 gupretne Being, and ascend after death, active 
 and unencumbered, to the universal Parent, to 
 
 ilife in His presence for ever. As Ammonius 
 was born and educated among the Christians, 
 he embellished these injunctions, and even gave 
 them an air of authority, by expressing them 
 partly in terms borrowed from the sacred scrip- 
 tures, of which we find a vast number of cita- 
 tions also in the writings of his disciples. To 
 this austere discipline, he added the pretended 
 art of so purging and refining that faculty of 
 the mind'which receives the images of things, 
 as to render it capable of perceiving the de- 
 mons, and of performing many marvellous 
 
Chap. U. 
 
 DOCTORS, ChURCH GOVERNMENT, &p. 
 
 59 
 
 things, by their assistance. .This art, which 
 the disciples of Amihonius called thewgy, was 
 not, however, communicated to all the schools 
 of this fanatical philosopher, but only to those 
 of the' first rank. 
 
 XI. The extravagant attempts of Ammoiii- 
 us did not cease here. To reconcile the popu- 
 lar religions of different cpunbies, and parti- 
 cularly the Christian, with this new system, he 
 fell upon the following invention^; 1st, He 
 turned into a mere allegory the whole history 
 of -the geds, and maintained, that those beings 
 whom the priests and people dignified with this 
 title, were no more than celestial ministers, to 
 Whom a ,certain kind of worship was due, but 
 a worship inferior to that which was to be re- 
 served for the Supreme Deity. 2dly, H6 ac- 
 knowledged Christ to be a most excellent man, 
 the friend of God, the • admiTable theurge; he 
 denied, however, that Jesus intended to abol- 
 ish entirely the worship of demons, and of the 
 other ministers of -divine Providence; and af^ 
 firmed, on the contrary, that his only intention 
 was to purify the ancient religion, and. that his 
 followers had manifestly corrupted the doc- 
 (ririe of their divine master.* ■ 
 
 XH.-This new species of philosophy, im- 
 prudently adopted byOrigen and many other 
 Christians, was extremely prejudicial to the 
 cause qf the Gospel, and to the beautifiil sim- 
 plicity of its celestial doctrines. For hence it 
 was, that the Christian doctors began to intro- 
 duce their perplexed and obscure erudition into 
 the religion of Jesus; to involve, in the dark- 
 ness of a vain philosophy, some of the princi- 
 pal truths of Christianity, that had been re- 
 vealed with the utmost plainness, and were in- 
 deed obvious to the ^meanest capacity; and to 
 add, to the divine precepts of oiur Lord, many 
 of their own, which had no sort of foundation 
 in any part of the sacred-writings. From the 
 same source arose that melancholy set of men, 
 who have tbeen distinguished by the name of 
 Mystics, whose system, when separated from 
 the Platonic doctrine concerning the nature 
 and origin of the soul, is but a lifeless mass, 
 without any vigour, form, or consistence. Nor 
 did the evils, which sprang from' this Ammo- 
 nian philosophy^ end here. For, under the 
 specious pretext of the necessity of contempla- 
 tion, it gave occasion to that slothful and indo- 
 lent course of life, which continues to be led 
 by myriads of monks retired in cells, and se- 
 questered from society ,_ to which they are nei- 
 ther useful by their instructions, nor by their 
 examples. To this philosophy we may trace, 
 as to their source, a multitude- of vairt and 
 foolish ceremonies, calculatedT, only to cast a 
 veil over truth, and to nourish superstition; 
 and which are, for the most part, religiously 
 observed by many, even in the times in which 
 
 * What we, have- here mentioned concerning the doc- 
 trines and opinions of Ammonius; is gathered from the 
 writing;s and disputations of his disciples, who are linown 
 by the name of the Modern Platonists. This philoso- 
 pher has left nothing in writing behind him. He even 
 imposed a law upon his disciples not to divulge his doc- 
 trines among the multitude; which law, however, they 
 made no scruple to neglect and violate. See Porphyr. 
 Vit. Plotini, cap. iii. At the same time, there is no sort 
 of doubt, that all these inventions belong properly to Am- 
 monius, whom all the later Platonists acknowledge as the 
 founder of this sect, and the author of their philosophy. 
 
 we live. It would be endless to enumerate all 
 the pernicious consequences that may be justly 
 attributed to this new philosophy, or rather to 
 this monstrous attempt to reconcile falsehood 
 with truth, and light with darkness. Some of 
 its mo%t fatal ef^cts were, its alienating the 
 minds of many, in the following ages, from the 
 Christian religion; an^ its substituting, in the 
 place of the pure and sublime simplicity of the 
 Gospel, an unseemly mixture of Platonism 
 and Christianity. ~ 
 
 XIII. The number of learned men among 
 the Christians, which was very small in the 
 preceding century, increased considerably in 
 this. Among these tiigre were few rhetori- 
 cians, sophists, or orators. The majority were 
 philosophers attached to the Eclectic system, 
 though they were not all of the same senti- 
 ments concerning the utility of letters and phi- 
 losophy. ■ Those who were themselves initiat- 
 ed into the depths of philosophy, were desi- 
 rous that others, partici^arly such aM aspired to 
 the offices of bishops or doctors, should apply 
 themselves to the study of human wisdom, jn 
 order to their being the hotter quahfied for de- 
 fending the truth with vigour, and instructing 
 Qie jgnorant with success. Others were of a 
 quite different way of thinking upon this sub- 
 ject, and were for banishing al! argumentation 
 and philosophy from the limits of the church, 
 from a notion that erudition might prove detri- 
 mental to the true spirit of religion. Hence 
 the early.beginnings of that uiiEappy contest 
 between /aifft and renson,- reJtgioji and philoso- 
 phy, piety and genius, which' increased in the 
 succeeding ages, and is prolonged, even to our 
 times, with a violence that renders it extremely 
 difficult to be brought to a conclusion. Those 
 who maintained that learning and philosophy 
 were rather advantageous than detrimental td 
 the cause of religion, gained, by degrees, the 
 ascendant; and, in consequence thereof, laws 
 were enaot?d, which excluded the ignorant and 
 illiterate from the office of puhlic teachers. 
 The opposite side of the question was not, 
 however, without defenders; and the defects 
 and vices of learned men and philosophers con- 
 tributed much to inqrease their number, as will 
 appear in the progress of this history. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Concerning, the Doctors and Minivers of the 
 Church, and the Form of its Goiemntent. 
 
 I. The form of ecclesiastical government, 
 whose commencement we have seen in the last 
 century, was brought in this to a greater de- 
 gree of stability and consistence. . One inspec- 
 tor, or bishop, presided over each Christian as- 
 sembly, to which office ,he was elected by the 
 voices- of the whole people. In- this post he 
 was to be watchful and provident,..attentive to 
 the wants of the church, a-nd carefiil to supply 
 them. To assist him in 'this laborious pro- 
 vince, he formed a counoil of presbyters, which 
 was not confined to -any fixed number; ?ind to 
 each of these he distributed his task, and ap- 
 pointed a station, in which {le was to promote 
 the interests of the- church. To the-^ bishops 
 and presbyters, the ministers or deacons wore 
 
60 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OT THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part II. 
 
 subject; and the latter were divided into a va- 
 riety of classea, as the state of the church re- 
 quired. 
 
 n. During a great part of this century, the 
 Christian churches were independent with re- 
 spect to each other; nor "were they joiried by 
 association, confederacy, or any other bonds 
 than those of charity. Each Christian asseng- 
 blywasa little state, governed by its own laws, 
 which were either enacted, or at least, approv- 
 ed by the society. But, in process of time, 
 all the Christian churches of a^ province were 
 formed into one large ecclesiastical body, 
 which, like confederate states, assembled at 
 certain times in order to deliberate about the 
 common inte*e_sts of the whole. . This institu- 
 tion had its origin among the Greeks, wjth 
 whom nothing was more common than this- 
 confederacy of independent states, and the re- 
 gular assemblies "which met, in consequence 
 thereof, at fixed times, and were composed of 
 the deputies of each respective state. But 
 these ecclesiastical associations were not long 
 confined to the Greeks ; their great utility was' 
 no sooner perceived, than they became univer- 
 sal, and were formed in all places Where the 
 gospel had been planted.* To these assem-^ 
 blies, in which the deputies or commissioners 
 of seyeral churches consulted together, the 
 names of synods was appropriated ,by the 
 Greeks, and that of cowndk by the 'Latins; 
 arid the laws that were enacted in these gene- 
 ral meetings, were called canons, i. e. ruhs. 
 
 III. These cotmci/s of which we find not the 
 smallest trace before the middle of this century, 
 changed ike whole face of the church, and 
 gayfi it a new form: for by thfem the ancient 
 privileges of the people were considerably di- 
 minished,-and the power and authority of the 
 bishops greatly augmented. The humility, 
 indeed, and prudence of these pious prelates, 
 prevented their assuming all at pnce the power 
 with which they were afterward invested. . At 
 their first appearance in"these general councils, 
 they acknowledged that they were no more 
 tnan the delegates of their respective churches, 
 and that they acted in the name, and by the 
 appointinent of their people. But they soon 
 changed this humble tone, imperceptibly ex- 
 tended the limits of their authority, turned 
 their influence into dominion, and tneir coun- 
 , sels into laws; and openly asserted, at length, 
 that Christ had empowered them to prescribe 
 to his .people autho'ntati/v& rules o£ faith and 
 manners. Another effect of these councils 
 was, the gradual abolition of that perfect 
 equality vrhibh reigned among all bishops in 
 the primitive times. For the order and '^de- 
 cency of these atesemblies required, that some 
 one of the provincial bishops, meeting in coun- 
 > oil, should be invested with a superior degree 
 of.powerand" authority; and hence the rights 
 of Metropolitans derive tKeir origin. - In the 
 niean time the bounds of the church were en- 
 larged; the. custom of holding councils- was 
 followed wherever the sound of the Gospel 
 had reached; and the universal church had 
 now the appearance of toe vast republic, 
 formed by a combination of a great num- 
 
 -• Tertulliau, Lib. ds Jejuniis,eap. xiii. p. 711. 
 
 ber of little states. This occasioned the crer 
 ation of a new order of ecclesiastics, who 
 were appointed, in different parts of the *orId, 
 as heads of the church, and whose office it was 
 to preserve the consistence and union of that 
 immense body, whosei members were so widely 
 dispersed throughout the nations. Such were 
 the nature and-office of the patriarchs', among 
 whom, at length, ambition, having reached 
 its most insolent period, formed a new dig* 
 nity, investing- the bishop of Rome, and his 
 successors, with the title and authority of 
 pTince of the patriarchs. 
 
 IV. The Christian doctors had the good for- 
 tune to persuade the people; that the ministers 
 of the Christian church succeeded to the cha- 
 racter, rights, and privileges, of the Jewish 
 p7iesthood; and this persuasion-was a new 
 source both of honours and profit to the sacred 
 order. This notion was propagated with in- 
 dustry some time after the reign of Adrian, 
 when the second destruction of Jerusalem had 
 extinguished among the Jews all hopes of see- 
 ing their government restored to its former 
 lustre, and their country arising out of nuns. 
 And, accordingly, the bishops considered them- 
 selves as invested with a rank and character 
 similar .to those of the high priest among the 
 JeWs, while the-presbjrters represented the 
 priests, and the deacons the Levites. It is, 
 indeed, highly probable, that they who fu-st in- 
 troduced this absurd comparison of -offices, so' 
 entirely distinct, did it rather through igho.^ 
 ranee and error, than through artifice or de- 
 sign-. The notion, however, once entertained, 
 produced its' natural effects; and these effects 
 were pernicious. The errors to w:hich it gave 
 rise were many; and we may justly consider, 
 as one of its immediate consequences, the es- 
 tablishment of a grea,ter difierence between the 
 Christian pastors and their &oc}l, than the ge- 
 nius of the Gospel seems to adtnit. 
 
 V. From the government of the church, let 
 us turn otu- eyes to those who maintained its 
 cause by their learned and judicious writings. 
 Among these we may mention Justin, a main 
 of great piety and considerable learning, who, 
 fi-bm a pagan philosopher, became a Christian 
 martyr. He had frequented all the different 
 sects of philosophy in an ardent and impartial 
 pursuit of truth; and finding, neither among 
 Stoics nor Peripatetics, neither in the Pythago- 
 rean nor Platonic schools, any satisfactory ac- 
 count of the perfections of the Supreme Be- 
 ihg, and the nature and destination of the hu- 
 man soiil, he embraced Christianity on account 
 of -the liglit which it cast upon these interest- 
 ing subjects. — ^We have yet remaining his two 
 Apologies in behalf of the Christians, which 
 are highly esteemed, as they deserve to be, al- 
 though, in some passages of them, he shows 
 himself an incautious disputant, and betrays a 
 want of acquaintance with ancient history. 
 
 IrensBus, Bishop of Lyons, a Greek by bkth, 
 and probably bom of Christian parents, a dis- 
 ciple also of Polycarp, by whom he was sent 
 to preach the Gospel among the Gauls, is ano- 
 ther of the writers of this century, whose la- 
 bours were remarkably useful to the church. 
 He turned his pen against its internal and do- . 
 mestic enemies, by attacking the monstrous 
 
Chap. in. 
 
 errors Which had been adopted by many of the 
 primitive Christians, as appears by his fiv^ 
 Books against Heresies, which are yet preserv- 
 ed in a Latin translation,^ and are considered 
 as one of the most precious monuments of an- 
 cient erudition. 
 
 Athenogoras also deserves a place among 
 the estimable writers of this age. He was a 
 philosopher of no mean reputation; and his 
 apology for the Christians, and his treatise upon 
 tlie Resurrection, afford striking proofs of his 
 learning and genius. ■ 
 
 The works of Theophilusj bishop of Aritioch, 
 are more remarkable for their erudition, ihan 
 for their order and taethodj this, at least, ig, 
 true of his three Books in Defence of Chris- 
 tianity, addressed to Autolycus.f But the 
 most illustrious writer of this century, and the 
 most justly renowned for his various erudition, 
 and his perfect acquaintance with the ancient 
 sagos, was Clemens, the djsciple of Pantsenus, 
 and the head of the Alexandrian school, des^ 
 tined for the instruction of the catechumens. 
 His Stromata,' Pedagogue, and. Exhortation, 
 addressed to the Greeks, which, are'yet extant, 
 abundantly show the extent of his learning and 
 the force of his 'genius, though he. is neither to 
 be admired for the precision of his ideas, nor 
 for the pefSpicuity of his style. It is also to 
 be lamented, that his excessive attachment to 
 the reigning philosopliy led him into a variety 
 of pernicious errors. 
 
 ^.Hitherto we have ihade no mention of the 
 liatin writers, who employed their pens in the 
 Christian ca,use. And, indeed, the oidy one 
 of any note we find in this century, is Tertul- 
 lian, by birth a Garthagenian, who, having first 
 embraced the profession pf the law, became 
 afterwards a presbyter, and concluded by adopt- 
 ingthe heretical visions of MontanUs. " He was 
 a man of extensive learning, of a fine genius, 
 and highly admired for his elocution in the 
 Latin tongue. We have several works of his 
 yet remaining, which were designed to explain 
 and defend llie truth, and to ndarish pious if- 
 fections in the hearts of Christians. There 
 was, indeed, suph a mixture in the qualities of 
 this man, that it is difficult to fix his real cha- 
 racter, and to determine which of the two pre- 
 dominated-^-his virtues or his defects. He was 
 endowed with a great g«nius, but seemed defi- 
 cient in point of judgment. His -piety was 
 warm and vigorous, iut, at the same time, me- 
 lancholy and austere. His learning was ex- 
 tensive and profound; and yet his credulity and 
 superstition were such as Could only have been 
 expected from the darkest ignorance. And 
 with respect to his reasonings,' they had mdre 
 of the subtilty thsit dazzlfes the -imagination, 
 
 THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 61 
 
 lj(f- * The first book is yet extant in the original 
 Grceli; of the rest, we have only a Latin version, through 
 the barbarity df which, though excessive., it is easy to 
 discern the eloquence and erudition, that reign through- 
 out the original. See Hist. Liferaire de la France. ' . 
 
 (![i- t Theophilus was the author of several works, 
 beside those mentioned by Dr. Mosheim, particularly of 
 a commentary upon the Proverbs, another upon the Four 
 Evangelists, aijd of some Aort and pathetic discourses, 
 which he published from time to time for the use of his 
 flock. He also wrote against Marcion and Hermogencs, 
 and, in refuting the errors of these heretics, he quotes 
 several passages of the Revelations. 
 
 than of that solidity whick brings light and 
 conviction to the mind.* 
 
 CHAPTER in. 
 
 Ccncemmg the Doctrine of the Christian Chwch 
 in this Centv/nj. 
 
 I. The Christian -system, as it was hitjierto 
 taught, preserved its native and beautiful sim- 
 plicity,andWascompreljended.in a small num- 
 ^ler'of articles. The public teachers inculpat- 
 ed no othef doctrines, than those which are 
 contained in what is coimnonly called the 
 Apostles? CreSd; and in the method of illus- 
 trating them, all vain subtilties, all mysterious 
 researches, every thing that was beyond th& 
 reach of ftommon capacities, were carefully 
 avoided. This will not. appear surprising to 
 those who consider th?.t, at this time, there was 
 not the least controversy about those capital 
 doctrines of Christianity, which were after- 
 wards so . keenly debated in the church; and 
 who reflect, that the bishops of these priniitivo 
 times were, for the most part, plain and illite- 
 rate men, remarkable rather for their piety emd 
 zeal, than for their learning and eloquence. 
 
 II. This venerably simplicity was not, in-' 
 deed, of a long duration; its beauty was gra- 
 diialfy effaced :by the laborious efforts of hu- 
 man learning, and the dark subtilties of ima- 
 ginary science. Acute researches' were em- 
 ployed upon several religious ' subjects, con- 
 cerning which ingenious decisidns were pro- 
 nounced; and, what was worst of all, several 
 tenets of a chimerical philosophy were impru- 
 dently incorporated into the Christian system. 
 This disadvantageous change, this unhappy .: 
 "alteration of the " prunitive simplicity of ijie 
 Christian religion, arose partly from pride, ajid 
 partly from a sort of necessity. The former 
 cause was the eagerness of certain learned men 
 to bring about a union between the doctrines 
 of Christianity and the opinions of the philo- 
 sophers; for they thought it a very fine accom- 
 plishment, to be aWe to express the precepts of 
 Christ in the language o£ philosophers, Hmlians, 
 and rMis. ■ The other reason that contributed 
 to alter the simplicity rof theCliristian religionj 
 wis, the necessity of having recourse to lo^cal 
 definitions and nice distinctions, in order to 
 confound the sophistical arguments which the 
 infidel and •the hei:etib employed, one to over- 
 turn the Christian system, and the other to 
 eorrupt it. 3^ These philosophical arms, in 
 the hands of the judicious and wise, were both 
 -honourable and useful, to religion; but, when 
 they were handled by every ignorant and self 
 sufficient meddler, as was afterwards the case, 
 they produced nothing but perplexity and con- 
 fusion, under which genuine Christianity al- 
 most disappearedv- 
 
 in. Many examples might be'alleged, which 
 verify the observations we' have now been 
 
 * It is proper to point out, to such as are desirous o'f a 
 more particular account of the works, as also of the ex- 
 cellencifis and defects of thtese ancient 'writers, the au- 
 thors who have professedly written of them; and. the 
 principal are those who foljow: Jo. AJb. Fabricius, in 
 Biblioth. Graec. ct Latin.— Cave. Hist. Liter. Scriplor. 
 Eccl.— Su-Fia et Cellier, Biblitfth. des Auteur'g Eccleii 
 astiques. 
 
62 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part II. 
 
 making;, andj if the reader is desirous of a 
 striking one, he has only to take a yiew of the 
 doctrines which began to' be taught in this cen- 
 tury, concerning the stateof the soul after the 
 dissolution of the body. Je|us and^his disci- 
 ples had simply declared, that the sou Js of good 
 men were, at their departure from their bodies, 
 to be received into heaven, while those of the 
 wicked were to be sent to hell; and this was 
 sufficient for the first di^cipl^ of Christ to 
 know, as they had more piety than curiosity, 
 and were satisfied with the knowledge, of this 
 solemn fact, without any inclination to. pene- 
 trate its manner, or to pry into its secret rea- 
 sons. But this plain doctrine was soon dis- 
 guised, when Platonism began to infect Chris- 
 "tianity. Plato had taught that the' souls of 
 heroes, of illustrious men, and eminent philo- 
 sophers alone, ascended after deathiinto the 
 mansions of light and felicity, while thosp of 
 the generality,, wfeighed down by their lusts 
 and passions, sunkiiito the infernal regions, 
 whence, they were not permitted to emerge 
 before they were purified .from their turpitude 
 and corruption.* This doctrine was seized 
 with avidity by the Platonic- Christians, and 
 applied as a commentary upon that of Jesjls. 
 Hence a notjon prevailed, that only the mai> 
 tyrs entered upon a state of happiness imme- 
 diately after death, and that, for the re§t, a 
 certain obscure region was assigned, in which 
 they were to be ii^prisoned until the second 
 coming of Christ, or, at least, until they were 
 purified frota their various pollutions. This 
 doctrine, enlarged by the irregular fancies of 
 iitjudicious men, became- a source of innume- 
 rable errors, vain ceremonies, and monstrous 
 superstitions. ' , , 
 
 • IV., But, However the doctrines of the Gos- 
 pel may have been abused by the commenta- 
 ries and interpretations of different sects, all 
 were imanimous in regarding tlie Scriptures 
 with venferation, as the great rule of faitil and 
 manners; and hence arose the laudable and 
 pious zeal of adapting them to general use. 
 We have mentioned already the translatiotis 
 that were made of them into different lan- 
 guages, and it will not be improper to say 
 something here concerning those who employ- 
 ed their useful labours in explaining and inter- 
 preting them; Pantaenus, the -head of the 
 Alexandrian school, was probably the first who 
 enriched the church .with a version of the sa- 
 cred writings, which has been lost among the 
 ruins of time." The same fate attended the 
 commentary of Clemens the Alexandrian, upon 
 the canonical epistles; and also another cele- 
 brated workf of the same author, in wljich he 
 is said to have explained, in a compendious 
 manner, almost all the sacred writings. The 
 Harmony of- the Evangelists'j composed by Ta- 
 tian, is yet extant. But the Exposition of the 
 Revelations, by Justin Martyr, and of the fowr 
 Gospels by Theophilus bishop of Antioch, toge- 
 ther with several illustrations of the Mosaic 
 
 *See an Jiinple account of the opinions of the Platon- 
 ists and other ancient philosophers on this subject; in the 
 .notes which Dr. Mosheim has added to his Latin, transla- 
 tion of Cudworth's Intellectual System,Tol. ii. 
 
 t Viz. Clementijj Hypot-ifposei 
 
 history of the creation, by other ancient wri- 
 ters, are lost. 
 
 V. The loss of these ancient productions is 
 the less to be regretted as we know, with cer- 
 tainty, their vast inferiority to the expositions 
 of the holy Scriptures -that appeared in suc- 
 ceeding times. Among the persons abeady 
 mentioned, none deserved the name of an able - 
 and judicious interpreter of the sacred text. 
 They all attributed a donhle sense to the words 
 of Scripture; the one ohiious and literal, the 
 other hidden and mysterious, which lay con- 
 cealed, as it were underthe veil of the otitward 
 letter. The former they treated with the ut- 
 most neglect, and turned the whole force of 
 thgir genius and applicatiori to unfold theJat- 
 ter; or, in other word^, they were more studi- 
 ous to darken the Scriptures with their idle 
 fictions, than to investigate their true and na- 
 tural sense. Some of tiiem also forced the ex- 
 pressions of sacred' writ out of their obvious 
 meaning, in order to apply thein to the sup- 
 port of their philosophical systems; of which 
 dangerous and pernicious attempts, Clemens 
 of Alexandria is said- to, have given the first 
 example. With respect to the expositors of 
 the" Old Testament in this century, we ^all 
 oiily make this general remark, that their ex- 
 cessive veneration for the Alexandrianversion, 
 commonly called the Septuagmt, which they 
 regarded almost as of divine authority, con- 
 fined theirviews, fettered their critical spirit, 
 and hindered them from producing any thing 
 excellent in the way of sacred criticisra or in- 
 terpretation. 
 
 yi. If this age was not very fertile in sacred 
 critics, it was still less so in expositors of the 
 doctrinal parts of Teligion; for hitherto there 
 was no attempt made, at least that has come 
 to our knowledge, to compose a system or com- 
 pletp view of Sie Christian doctrine. Some 
 treatises of Arabians, relative to this subject, 
 are indeed mentioned; but, as they, are, lost, 
 and seeni not to have been much known by 
 aiiy pf tlie writers whose works have survived 
 them, we can form^no conclusions concerning 
 them-. The books of Fapias, concerning the 
 sayings of Christ and bis apostles, were ao- 
 cording to the account which Eusebius gives 
 of them, rather-an historical commentary,, than 
 a theological system.^ Melito, bishop of Sardis, 
 is said to have written several treatises; one 
 concerning faith, another on the creation, a 
 third respecting the church, and a fourth for 
 the illustration of truth; but it does not ap- 
 pear-from the titles o{ these writings,^whether 
 they were of a doctrinal or controversial na- 
 ture.* Several of the pblemic writers, indeed, 
 have "been naturally led, in the course of con- 
 troversy, to explain amply certain ^joints of 
 religion. But those doctrines which have not 
 been disputed, are very rarely defined with 
 
 -,JI?'* Melito,' beside his Apology for the Christians, 
 ana the treatises mentioned by Dr. Mosheim, wrote a 
 discourse upon Esther and several other dissertations, of 
 which we have only some scattered fragments remaining; 
 but what is worthy of remark here, is, that he is the 
 -first Christian writer who has given us a catalogue of the 
 boohs of the Old Testament. His catalogue, also; is 
 perfectly conformable to, that of the Jewsj except in this 
 poi^t only, that he has omitted it in the book of Esther. 
 
Chap. HI. 
 
 THE DOCTRINE OF THE. CHURCH. 
 
 63 
 
 such aocuiaey, by the suncient writers, as to 
 pomt out to us clearly what their opinions 
 concerning them were. Hence it ought not 
 to appear surprising, that all the different sects 
 of Christians pretend to find, in the writings 
 of the fathers, decisions favourable to their 
 rsspective tenets. 
 
 VII. The controversial writers, who shone 
 in this century, had three different sorts of ad- 
 versaries to combat; the Jews, the Pagans, and 
 those who, in the bosom of Christianity, cor- 
 rupted its-doctrines, and produced various sects 
 and divisions in the church. Justin- Martyr, 
 and TertuUian, embarked in a controversy with 
 the Jews, which it was not possible for them to 
 manage with the highest success and dexterity, 
 SIS they were very little acquainted with the 
 language, the history, and the.learningof the 
 Hebrews, and wrote with more levity and in- 
 accuracy, than such a subject w.ould justify. 
 Of those who managed -flie cause of Christi- 
 -inity against the Pagans, some performed ihis 
 mportant-task by composing apologies for the 
 Ckffistians, and others by addresang pathetic 
 ■exhortations to the Gentiles. Among the foiv 
 mer were Atheyiagoras, Melito, .Qiiadratus, 
 Miltiades, Aristides, Tatian, and Justin Mar- 
 tyr; and among the latter, Tertullian, Cle- 
 laens, Justin; and Theophilus bishop of An- 
 tioch. All these writers attacked, with judg- 
 ment, dexterity, and success, the pagan supeiv 
 stition, and also defended the Christians, in e^ 
 victorious manner, against all the calumnies 
 and aspersions of their enemies. But they did 
 not succeed so well in unfolding the true na- 
 ture and genius of Christiajiity, nor were the 
 arguments adduced by them to.'deinonstrate its 
 truth and, divinity so full of energy, so strik- 
 ing, and irresistible, as those by which they 
 overturned the pagan system. In a word, both 
 their explication and defence of jpany of the 
 doctrines of Christianity are defective and un- 
 satisfitctoryin several respects. As to those 
 who directed their polemic efforts a,gainst the 
 heretics, their number' was prodigious, though 
 few of their writings have come down to our 
 times. Irenaens refuted the whole tribe in a 
 work destined solely for that purpose. " Cle-, 
 mens,* Tertulhan,t and Justin Martyr, -vp-ote 
 also against all the sectaries; but the work of 
 the last, upon that subject, is not extant. It 
 would be eridlesS' to mention those who com- 
 bated particular errors; of whose writings also, 
 many have disappeared amidst the. decays of 
 time, and the revolutions that have happened 
 in the republic of letters. 
 ■ Vni. If the primitive defenders of Chris- 
 tianity were not always happy in the choice of 
 . their arguments, yet they discovered.inore can- 
 dour and probity than those of the following 
 ages. The artifice of sophistry, and the habit 
 of emplbying pious fiaiids in support of the 
 truth, had not, as yet; infected the Christians. 
 Arid this, indeed, is all that can be said in their 
 behalf; for they are worthyof little admiration 
 on account of the accuracy or depth of their 
 reasonings. The most of them appear tohave 
 been destitute of penetration, learning, oi:de.r, 
 
 * In his -work entitled, Stromata. ■ 
 
 f In his Praeacriptiones adversus Haeretico» 
 
 application aijd force. They freqOeiltly make 
 use of arguments void of all solidity, and much 
 more proper' to dazzle the fancy, than to en- 
 lighten and cpn-^ince the. mind. One, laying 
 aside the sacred writings, from Which all the 
 weapons of religious controversy ought to be 
 drawn, refers to the decisions .of those bishops 
 who ruled the apostolic churches. Another 
 thinks, that the antiquity of a doctrine is a 
 mark of its truth, and pleads prescription 
 against his adversaries, as if he was maintain- 
 ing his property befpre a civil magistrate; than 
 which method of disputing nothing can be 
 more pernicious to the cause of truth. A third 
 imitates those wrong-headed disputants among 
 the Jews, who, infatuated with their cabalistic 
 jargon, offered, as arguments, the imaginary 
 powers of certain mystic words and chosen 
 numbers.* Nor do they seem to err, who are 
 of opinion, that, in this century, that vicious 
 methodt of disputing, which afterwards ob- 
 tained the name of ceconotmcal, was first intror 
 duced.J 
 
 IX. The principal points of morality were 
 treated by Justin Martyr, or, at least, by the 
 writer of the Epistle to Zena and Serenus, 
 which is to be found among the works of that 
 celebrated author. Many other writers con- 
 fined themselves to particular branches of the 
 moral system, which they handled with much 
 attention and zeal. Thus Clemens of Alexan- 
 dria wrote several treatises coneeming calum- 
 ny, patience, continence, and other virtues, 
 which discourses have not reached our times. 
 Those of Tertullian upon chastity, upon flight 
 in the time of persecution, as also upon fast- 
 ing, shows, female ornaments, and prayer, 
 have survived the waste of time, and might: ' 
 be- read with much fruit, were the style in 
 which they are written less labored and diffi- 
 cult, and the spirit they breathe less melan- 
 choly and morose. 
 
 X. Learned men are not unanimous with 
 regard to the degree of esteem that is due to 
 tlie authors now mentioned, and the other an- 
 cient moralists. Some represent them as the 
 most excellent guides in the paths of piety and 
 virtue; >while others place them- in the lowest 
 rank of moral writers, consider them as the 
 worst of all instructors, and treat their pre- 
 cepts and decisions as perfectly insipid, and; in 
 many respects, pernicious. We leave the de- 
 termination of this point to such as are more 
 capable of^ pronouncing decisively upon, it, 
 than we pretend to be.§ It, however, appears 
 
 * Several examples of this senseless method of reason- 
 ing are to be found in different writers. See particularly 
 Basnage, Hiatoire dea Juifs, torn. iii. p. 660, 694. 
 
 g(^-f-The axovomicttl method of disputing was that 
 in which.the dlspatanta accommodated themselves, as far 
 as -was possible, to the taste arid prejudices of those 
 whom" they were endeavouring to gain over to the truth. 
 Somcofihe first Christians carried this condescension 
 .too farj and abused St. Paul's example, (I Cor. ix. 9(^ 
 21, 22.) to a degree inconsistent Vvith the purity and sim- 
 plicity of the Christfan doctrine. 
 
 t Rich.. Simon, Histoire Critique dea pnncipaui Com 
 inentateurs da N. T. cap. ii. p. 21. 
 
 § This question was warmly and learnedly debated be- 
 tween the deservedly celebrated Barbeyrac and CelUer, 
 a Benedictine monk. ' Buddeua has given us-a history of 
 this controversy, with his own judgment ©f -it, lu his laa 
 
 foge ad- Theologiam;' lib. ii. cap. iv. p. 690, &c.. Bar- 
 eyrac, however, published aBer this a particular treatise 
 
64 
 
 HJTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part II 
 
 to us incontestable, that in the writings of the 
 primitive fathers, there are several suBlime sen- 
 timents; judicious thoughts, and many things 
 ihat axe naturally adapted to fo;rm a. religious 
 temper, and" to excite pious and virtuous affec- 
 tions; while it must be confessed on the other 
 hand, that they abound still more with -pre- 
 cepts of an excessive and unreasonable auste- 
 rity, with stoical and academical dictates; 
 vague and indeterminate notions, and what is 
 yet worse, with' decisions that are absolutely, 
 false, and in evident opposition to the precepts 
 of Christ. Before the ques^on mentioned 
 above concerning the merit of the ancient fa- 
 thers, as moralists, be decided, a previous ques- 
 tion must be determined, namely, What is 
 meant by a bad director in point of morals? 
 and, if by such n, person be meant, one who 
 has no determinate notion of the nature and 
 limits of the duties incumbent upon Christians, 
 no clear and distinct ideas of virtue and vice; 
 who has not penetrated the spirit and genius of 
 those sacred books, to which alone we must 
 appeal in every dispute about Christian virtue, 
 and who, in consequence thereof, fluctuates 
 often -in uncertainty, or falls into error in ex- 
 plaining the divine laws, though be may fre- 
 quently administer sublime and pathetic in- 
 structions; if, by a bad guide -in morals, such a 
 person, as we have now delineated, be meant, 
 then it must be confessed-, that this title beloiigs 
 indisputably to many of- the fathers. 
 
 XI. The cause of morality, and indeed, of 
 Christianity in- general, suffered deeply by a 
 capital error which was received in, this centu- 
 ry; an error admitted without any sinister 
 views, but yet with great imprudence, and, 
 which, through every- period of the church, 
 even until the present time, has produced other 
 errors without number, and multiplied the evils 
 under which the Gospel has So often groaned. 
 Jesus Christ prescribed to all his disciples one 
 and the same rule of life and manners. But 
 certain Christian doctors, either through a de- 
 sire of imitating the nations among whom they 
 lived, or in consequence of a natural propensi-, 
 ty to a life of austerity (which is a disease not 
 uncommon in Syria, Egypt, and -other Eastern 
 provinces,) were induced to maintain, that 
 Christ had established a double rule of sanctity 
 and virtue, for two different orders of Chris- 
 tians. Of these rules- one was ordinary, the 
 other extraordinary; one of a lower dignity, 
 the other more sublime;' one for persons in the 
 active scenes of life, the other for those who, 
 in a sacred retreat, aspired to the glory of a ce- 
 lestial state. In consequence of "this wild sys- 
 tem, they divided into two parts all those nib- 
 ral doctrines and instructions which thSy had 
 received, either by writing' or tradition. ^ One 
 of these divisions they called precepts arid the 
 other counsels. They gave the nanie of pre- 
 cepts to those Jaws which were obligatory upoti 
 
 in defence -of the severe sentence he had pronounced 
 against the fathers. This ingenious performance was 
 printed at Amsterdam in 1720, under the title of Traite 
 sur la Morale des Peres; and is highly worthy of the pe- 
 rusal of those who have a taste for this interesting branch 
 of literature, though they will find in it some imputa- 
 tions cast upon the fathers, against which they may .be 
 easily defended. ■ ' 
 
 all.brders of men; and thatof counsds to such 
 as related to Christians of a more sublime rank, 
 who proposed tg themselves great ,and glori- 
 ous ends, and aspired, to an intimate commu- 
 nion with the Supreme Being. 
 
 Xli: This double doctrine suddenly produc- 
 ed a new set of men, who made profession of 
 uncommon degrees of sanctity and virtue, and 
 declared their Tesolution of obeying all. the 
 counsels of Christ, that they, might enjoy com- 
 munion with God here; and also, that, after 
 the dissolution' of their mortal bodies, they 
 might ascend to him with greater facility, and 
 find nothing to retard their approach to the 
 supreme centre of happiness and perfection. 
 They- looked upon themselves as prohibited 
 from the use of things which it was lawful for 
 other Chiistiaife to enjoy, such as -wine, flesh, 
 matrimony, and trade.* They thought it their 
 indispensable duty, to extenuate the body-by 
 watchings, abstinence,, labour and hunger. — 
 They looked for felicity in solitary retreats, in 
 desert places, where,- by severe and assiduous 
 efforts of subliine meditation, they raised the 
 soul above all external objects and all sensual 
 pleasures. Both men and womeri. imposed 
 upon ■themselves the most severe tasks, the 
 most austere discipline; all which however the 
 fruit of pious intention, was, in the issue, ex- 
 tremely detrimental to Christianity. These 
 persons were called Ascetics, Sa-sSaioi, 'Ejj.i«Toi_. 
 and philosophers; nor were they only distm- 
 guished by their title from other Christians, 
 but also by their garb.f In this century, in- 
 deed, such as embraced this austere kind of 
 life,, submitted themselves to all these mortifi-' 
 cations in private, without breaking asunder 
 theil^social-b6nt^s,. or withdrawing themselves 
 from the concourse of men. " But, in process 
 of time, they retired into deserts; and after the 
 example of the Essenes and TherapeutaB,,they 
 formed themselves into certain companies. 
 
 XIIIr-'Nothing is morfe obyiousthan the rea- 
 sons that gave rise-to this austere sect. One . 
 of the principal was, the ill judged ambition of 
 the Christians to resemble the Greeks and Ro- 
 mans, many of whose sages and philosophers 
 distinguished themselves from the generality 
 by their maxims, by their habits, and, indeed, 
 by the whole plan of life and manners which 
 they had formed to themselves, and by which 
 they acquired a' high degree of esteem and au- 
 thority. It is also well known^ that, of all 
 these philosophers, there were none whose sen- 
 timents and discipline were so well received by 
 the, ancient Christians as those of the Platon- 
 ists and Pythagoreans, who prescribed in their 
 lessons tWo nilesof conduct; one for the sages, 
 who aspired to the sublimest heights of virtue; 
 and another for the people, involved in the 
 cares and hurry of an active life.| The law 
 of moral conduct, which the Platonists pre- 
 scribed to the philosophers, was as follows: — 
 
 * Athenagoras, Apologia pro Christian, cap. xxviii. 
 
 \ See Saunas. Comm. in Tcrtullianum de rallio. 
 
 4 These famous sects made an important distinction 
 between Jiving accordiiLg to natme^Znv xi^rse $u(r*i', and 
 Uving ajbove nature, Ztjv uweg ^uo-tv. The former was 
 the.rulcprescribed to the vulgar; the latter.-that which 
 was to 'direct the conduct of the philosophers, who aimed 
 at superior degrees of virtue. See .^neas Gazeus in 
 Theophrast. 
 
Chap. HI. 
 
 THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. ' 
 
 63 
 
 " The soul of the wise man ought to be' remov- 
 ed to the greatest possible distaitce from -the 
 contagious influence of the body; and, as the 
 depressing weight of the.body, the force of its 
 ippetites, and i^s connexions with, a corrupt 
 world, are in direct opposition to this sacred- 
 obligation, all sensual pleasures are to be care- 
 f\illy avoided; the body is to be supported, or 
 rather extenuated, by a, slender diet; solitude is 
 to be sought as the true mansion of virtue, and 
 contemplation to be employed as the means of 
 raising the soul, as far as is possibte, to a sub- 
 lime freedoni from all corporeal ties, and to a 
 noble - elevation above all terrestrial things.* 
 The person who lives in this-manner, shall en- 
 joy, even in the present state, a certain degree 
 of communion with the Deit}%and, when the 
 corporeal mass is dissolved, shall immediately 
 ascend to -the sublime regions of felicity and 
 perfection, without passing througl) that state 
 of purification and trial, which awaits the ge- 
 nerality of mankind." It, is easy to perceive, 
 that this rigorous discipline weisa natural con- 
 sequence of the peculiar opiiiiohs which these 
 philosophers, and; some others who resembled 
 them, entertainedxonceming the nature of the 
 soul, the influence of matter, the-operations Of 
 invisible beings, or demons,' and the formation 
 a( the world; and, as these opinions were 
 adopted by th^ more learned among the Chris- 
 tians, it was natural" that they" should embrace 
 also the moral discipline which flowed from 
 them. 
 
 XIV. There is a particular consideration 
 that will enable, us to render a natural account 
 of the origin of those religious severities of 
 which we have been now speaking, and that is 
 drawn from the genius and temper-of the peo- 
 ple by whom they were first practised. It was 
 In Egypt that this morose disci^ine had its 
 rise. That country, we may observf, has in 
 all times, as it were by an -inmiutable law, or 
 disposition ,of nature, abounded with persons 
 of a melancholy complexion, and produced, in 
 proportion to its extent, more gloomy spirits, 
 than any other pirt of the world.f It was 
 here that the Essenes and Therapeutse, those 
 dismal and gloomy sects, dwelt principally, 
 long before the coming of Christ; as also many 
 others of the Ascetic tribe, who, led by a me- 
 lancholy turn of mind, and a delusive notion 
 of rendering themselves more acceptable to the 
 Deity by their austerities, withdrew themselves 
 from human society, and frorn all the innocent 
 pleasures and comforts gf life.J From Egypt, 
 this sour and insocial discipline passed- into Syr 
 ria, and the neighbouring countries, which also 
 abounded with persons of the same dismal con- 
 stitution with that of the Ii^yptians;§ and 
 thence, in process of time, its infection reach- 
 ed the European nations. Hence arose that 
 train of austere and superstitious, vows and 
 
 * The reader -will ffnd the principles of this fanatical 
 discipline, in Porphyry's book sriji xttizhs, i. e. con- 
 cerning abstinence. That celebrated Flatonist has ex- 
 plained at large the respective d uties that belong to active 
 and contemplatiM life, book i. sect. 27, and 41. 
 
 t See Maillet, Description de I'Egypte, ttimru. '' ^ 
 
 i Herodot. Histor. lib. ii.— Epiphanius, Enposit. Fid?i, 
 sect. 11.— Tertnllian, de Exhorlatione Castitat. cap. mm. 
 — Athanas. Vita Anfbnii. ... 
 
 & Voyages en Perse, par Jean Chardin, torn. iv. 
 
 Vol. I.— 9 
 
 rites, that still, in many places, throw a veil 
 over the beauty and simplicity of the Christian 
 religion. Hence the celibacy of the priestly 
 order, the rigour of unprofitable penances and 
 mortifictitions, the innumerable swarrns' of , 
 monks, who, in the senseless pursuit Of a vi- 
 sionary sort of perfection, refused their talents 
 and labours to society. Hence also that dis- 
 tinction between the theoretical and mystical 
 life, and many other fancies of a like nature, 
 which we shall have occasion to mention in 
 the course of this history. 
 
 XV. It is generally true, that delusions tra- 
 vel in a train, and tliat one mistake produces 
 many. The Christians who adopted this aus- 
 tere systeiri had certainly made a veiy false 
 step, and done much injury to their excellent 
 and most reasonable religion. But they did 
 not stop here; another erroneous, practice was 
 adppted by them, which, though it .was not so 
 general as the other, vpas yet extremely perni 
 cious, and proved a source of numberless evils 
 to the Christian church. The Platonists. and 
 Pythagoreans held it as a. maxim, that it was 
 not only lawfulj but even praisewortliy, to de- 
 ceive, and- even tb use the expedient of a lie, 
 in order tor advance the cause of truth and 
 piety. The Jews, who lived in Egypt, had learn- 
 ed and received this maxim from them, before 
 the coming of Christ, as appears incontestably 
 from a multitude of ancient records; and 
 the Christians were infected from, both these 
 sources with the same pernicious error, as ap- 
 pears from the number of books attributed 
 falsely to great and venerable names,- from the 
 Sibylhrle verses, and several supposititious pro- 
 ductions which were spread abroad in this^and 
 the following century. It does not indeed 
 seem probable, that all these pious frauds were 
 chargeable upon the professors of reai- Chris- 
 tianity, upon those who entertained just .arid 
 rational sentiinents of the religion of Jesus. 
 The greatest part of these fictitious writings 
 undoubtedly flowed from the fertile invention 
 of the Gnostic sects, though it carmot >be af- 
 firmed that even true Christians were entirely 
 innocent aind irreproachable in this respect. 
 
 XVI. As the boundaries of the church were 
 enlarged, the nmnbe'r of vicious and irregular 
 persons who entered into it, received a pro- 
 portional increase, as appears from the maiiy 
 complaints and censareS that we^nd in the 
 writers of this century. Several methods were 
 practised to stem the torrent of iniquity. Ex- 
 communication was peculiarly eipployed to 
 prevent or punish the most heinous and' enor- 
 mous crimes, and the crimes deemed such, 
 were murder, idolatry, and adultery, which 
 terms, how6ver, we must here understand in 
 their more full and extensive sense. In some 
 places, the commission of any of these sins ir- 
 revocably cut off the criminals from all hopes 
 of restoration to the privileges of church cora- 
 ihunion; in others, after a long, laborious, and 
 painful course of probation and discipline, they 
 were re-admitted into the bosom of the church.* 
 
 * By this distinction, we may easily reconcile the; dif- 
 ferent opinions of the learned concerning the effects of 
 excoinmunication. See Morinus, de Disciplina Poenitent. 
 lib. ix. capr xix. p. €7. — Sirmond, Historia Fcenitentie 
 publicac, cap. i.— Joseph. Augustin, Orsi^ Disserd de 
 
66 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part 11 
 
 XVn. It is here to be attentively observed, 
 that the form, used in the exclusion of heinous 
 oifendera from the society of Christians, vi'as, 
 at first, extremely simple. A small number 
 of plain, yet judicious rules, made up the 
 whole of this solemn institution, vifhich, how- 
 ever was imperceptibly altered, enlarged "by an 
 addition of a vast multitude of rites, and new- 
 modelled according to the discipline used in the 
 Heathen mysteries.* Those. who have any ac- 
 quaintance with- the singular reasons that 
 obliged the Christians of those ancient times 
 to be careful in restraining the progress of 
 vice, will readily grant, that it wa? incumbent 
 upon the rulers' of the church to perfect their 
 discipline, and to render the restraints upon 
 iniquity more severe. They will justify tlje 
 rulers of the primitive church in their refiising 
 to restore excommunicated members to their 
 forfeited privileges, before they had given in- 
 contestable marks of the sincerity of their re- 
 pentance. Yet it remains to^ be examined, 
 whetiier it was expedient to, borrow from the 
 enemies of the truth the rules of this salutary 
 discipline,-'and thus to sanctify in some mea- 
 sure, a part of the Heathen superstition. But, 
 however delicate suclr a question may be, 
 when determined with a view to all the indi- 
 rect or immediate consequences of the matter 
 in debate, the equitable and candid judge will 
 consider principally the good intentions of those 
 from whoin^these ceremonies and institutions 
 proceeded, and wUl overlook the rest from a 
 charitable condescension and indulgence to 
 human weakness. 
 
 CHAPTER. IV. 
 Of the Ceremonies •used in the Chwreh during 
 this Century. 
 I. There is no institution so pure and ex- 
 cellent which the corruption and foUy of man 
 will not in time alter for the worse, and load 
 with additions foreign to its nature and origi- 
 nal design. Such, in a particular manner, 
 was the fate of Christianity, In this century 
 mahy unnecessary rites and cerepionies were 
 added to the Christian worship, tllef introduc- 
 tion of which was extremely offensive to wise 
 and ,good men.f These changes, while they 
 destroyed the beautiful simplicity of the Gos- 
 pel, were natmrally pleasing to the gross mul- 
 titude, -who are more' delighted with the pomp 
 a,nd splendour of external institutions, than 
 with the native charms of rational and solid 
 piety, a:nd who generally give little attention 
 to any -objects but those which strike their 
 outward senses.J 'But other reasons may be 
 
 Griininum capital! um per tria priora Saecula Absolutione, 
 published at Milan in 1730. • - , ■• 
 
 * See Fabricius, Eibliograph. Anliquar. p. 397, and 
 Morinus, de PcBnitentia, lib.i. cap, xv, &c,. 
 
 t TertulIian,Lib. de Greatioae, p. 792, op. 
 
 QlJ=- 1 It is not improper to remark here, that this at- 
 tachment of the vulgar to the pomp of ceremonies, is a 
 circumstance that has always been favourable to the am- 
 bitious views of the Romish clergy, since the pomp of 
 religion naturally casts a part of its glory and magnifi-' 
 cence upon its ministers, and thereby eivea them, imper- 
 ceptibly, a vast ascendency over 'the minds of the people. 
 The late lord Bolingbroke, heing present at the elevation 
 of the host 'in the cathedral at Paris, expressed ta a no- 
 bleman who stood near him, his surprise that the king of 
 France s&ould commit the performance of such an august 
 and strildng ceremony to any subject. How- far ambi- 
 
 added to this, which, though they suppose no 
 bad intention, yet manifest a considerable de- 
 gree of precipitation- and imprudence. 
 
 11. And here we may observe, in the first 
 place, that there is a high degree of probability 
 ih the notion of those _who think that the . 
 bishops augmented the number of religious 
 rites in the Christian worship, by way of ac- 
 commodation to the infirmities and prejudices, 
 both of .TewB and heathens, in order to facili- 
 tate their conversion to Christianity. Both 
 Jews and heathens were accustomed to a great 
 variety of pontpous and magnificent ceremo- 
 nies in their religious service. And as .they 
 deemed these rites an essential part of religion, 
 it was natural that they should behold with 
 indifference, aiqjl even with contempt, the sim- 
 plicity of the Christian worship, which was 
 destitute of those idle ceremonies that rendered 
 their service so specious and striking. To re; 
 move then, in some measure, this prejudice 
 against Christianity, the bishops thought it ne- 
 cessary to- increase the number of ceremonies, 
 and' thus -to render the public worship more 
 striking to the outward senses.* 
 
 III. This addition of external rites was also 
 designed to remove the opprobrious calumnies 
 wMch the Jewish and pagan priests cast upon 
 the Christians on account of the simplicity of 
 their worship, considering them as little better 
 than atheists, because they liad no temples, al- 
 tars, victims, priests, nor any mark of that ex- 
 ternal pomp in which the vulgar are so prone 
 to place the essence of religion. The riilers 
 of the church adopteji, therefore, certain ex- 
 ternal ceremonies, that thus tl^ey might cap- 
 tivate the senses of the vulgar, and be able 
 to refute the reproaches of their adversaries. 
 ^:^This, it miist be confessed, was a very 
 awkward, apd indeed, a very pernicious. stra- 
 tagem; it was obscuring the native luistre of 
 ^e Gospel, in order to extend its influence, 
 and making it lose, in point of real excellence, 
 what it gained in point of popular esteem. 
 Some accommodations to the infirmities of 
 mankind, some prudenf instances of conde- 
 scension to their invincible prejudices, are ne- 
 cessary in ecclesiastical, as well as in civil in- 
 stitutions; but they must be of such' a natm'e 
 
 tion may, in this and the succeeding ages, have con- 
 tributed to the accumulation of gaudy ceremonies, is a 
 quesii'on not easily determined., . 
 
 * A remarkable p'assage in the life of Gregory, sur- 
 named THaumaturgus, i. e. the wonder worker, will il- 
 lustrate this point in the clearest manner. The passage 
 is as follows: " Gum ahimadvertisset (Gr-cgorius) quod 
 ob corporeal delectationes et voluptatcs simplex et im- 
 peritum vulgus in simiilacrorum cultus" errore perma- 
 nere't — permisit cis, ut in' memoriam et recordatiottem 
 sanctorum mar'tyrum sese oblcctarent, et in laetitiam ef- 
 funderentur, quod successu temporis aliquando futurem 
 esset, ut sua spo'nte. ad houestiorum et accuratiorem vita 
 rationem transirent." t. e. '*When Gregory perceived 
 that the ignorant multitude persisted in their idolatry, 
 on account of the pleasures and sensual gratifications 
 which they enjoyed at the pagan festivals, he granted tliem 
 a permission to'indulge themselves in the liKe pleasures, 
 in celebrating the memory of the holy martyrs, hoping 
 that, in process of time, they would return of their own 
 accord, to ;i more virtuous and regular course of life," 
 There is no sort of doubt, that, by this permission, 
 Gregory allowed the Christians to dance, sport, and feast 
 at the tombs of the martyrs, upon their respective festi- 
 ^Is, and to do every thing which the. pagans were ac- 
 customed to do in their temples, during the feasts cele- 
 brated in honour of their gods." ' 
 
Chap. IV. 
 
 RITES AND CEREMONIES. 
 
 67 
 
 as- not to inspire ideas, or encourage preju- 
 dices, incompatible with just sentiments of thte 
 great object of religious worship, and of the 
 ifundamentai truths which God has imparted 
 by reason and revelatjon to the human race. 
 How far this rule^has been disregarded and vi- 
 olated, will appear too plainly in tlie progress 
 of this history. 
 
 IV. A third cause of the mukiplioation of 
 ceremonies' in the Christian church, may be 
 deduced from the abuse of certain titles that 
 distinguished the sacerdotal orders among the 
 JeWs. Every one knows, that many terms 
 used in the Now Testament to express the dif- 
 ferent parts Of the Christian doctrine and wor-, 
 ship, are borrowed from the Jewish law,, or 
 bear a certain analogy to the forms and cere- 
 monies instituted by Moses, ^he Christian 
 doctors not only imitated this analogical man- 
 ner of speaking, but even extfenjled it farther 
 than the apostles had done; and though in this 
 there was hothing thaj; deserved reproach,' yet 
 the consequences of this method of speaking 
 became, through- abuse, detrimental to the pu- 
 rity of the Gospel; for, in process of time, 
 many assorted, (whether through ignor-ance or 
 artiiice is not easy to determine,) tliat these 
 forms of speech were not figurative, buthighly 
 proper, and exactly suitable to the nature of 
 the things they were designed tb express. The 
 bishops, by an innocent allusion to the Jewish 
 manner of speaking, had been called chief 
 .priests; the elders, or>-presbyters,, had received 
 the.title of priests, and the deacons that of Le- 
 vites. But, in a little, time, these titles were 
 abused by an aspiring clergy, who thought 
 proper to claim the same rank and station,- the 
 sa:me rights and privileges-, that were conferred 
 with those titles upon the ministers of rehgion 
 under the Mosaic dispensation. Hence the 
 rise of tithes, firstrfmUs, splendid garments, and 
 many other circumstances of external gran- 
 defir, by which ecclesiastics were eminently 
 distinguished. In like manner the comparison 
 of the Christian oblations with the Jewish vic- 
 tims and sacrifices, produced a'- multitude of 
 unnecessary-rites, and was the occasion of in- 
 troducing that erroneous notion of "the eucha- 
 rist, which represents it as a real sacrifice, and 
 not merely as a commemoration of the great 
 bfferirig that was once jnade upon the cross for 
 the sins of mortals. 
 
 V. The profound respect that was paid to 
 the Greek and Roman mysteries, and the ex- 
 traordinary sanctity that was ■ attributed to 
 them, were additional circumstances that in- 
 duced the Christians to ^ive their religion a 
 mystic air, in, order to put it upon aii equal 
 footing, in point of dignity, with tliat of the 
 Pagans. For this purpose, tliey gave the name 
 of mysteries to the institutions of the Gospel, 
 and decorated particularly the holy sacrament 
 with that solemn title. They used in that sa- 
 cred institution, as also in that of baptism, se- 
 veral of the terms employed in the Heathen 
 mysteries, and proceeded so far, at length, as 
 even to adopt some of the ceremonies of which 
 those renowned mysteries consisted.* This 
 
 * See, for many examples of this, Isaac Casaubon, 
 ^xercitat. xvi. in Annal. Cardin. Baronii, p. 388, edit. 
 
 imitation began in the eastern provinces; but,, 
 after the time of Adrian, who first introduced 
 th"e mysteries among the Latins,* it was fol- 
 lowed by the Christians who dwelt in the west- 
 ern pa,rts of the empire." A great part, there- 
 fore, of the service of the Church, in this cen- 
 tury, had a certain air of the Heathen myste- 
 ries, and resembled them considerably in many 
 particulars. _ , _- 
 
 VL It may be farther observed,^at the cus- 
 tom of teaching their,, religious doctrines by 
 images; actions, signs, and. other sensible repre- 
 sentations, which prevailed among the Egyp^ 
 tians, and, indeed, in almSst all the eastern nar 
 tions, was anotlier cause of the increase of ex- 
 ternal rites in the church. As there were many 
 persons of narrow capacities, whose compre- 
 hension scarcely e-xtended beyond sensible ob- 
 jects, the Christian doctors thought it advisable 
 to instruct such in the essential truths of the 
 Gospel, by placing these truths as it were, be- 
 fore their eyes, under sensible images. Thus 
 they administered milk and honey, the ordinary 
 food of infants, to such as were newly received 
 into the church, showing by this .sign, that by ^ 
 their baptism they were born again, and were 
 bound to manifest the simplicity and innocence 
 of infants in their lives and conversation. — ■ 
 Certain military forms were borrowed {q ex- 
 pi^ess the new and solemn engagements, by 
 which Christians attached themselves to Christ 
 as their, leader and their chief; arid the ancient 
 ceremony of manumission was used to -signify 
 the liberty of which they were made partakers, 
 in consequence of their redemption from -the 
 guilt and dominion of sin, and their deliver- 
 ance from the power of the prince of dafk- 
 ness.j 
 
 VII. If it be coijsidered,. in the first place, 
 that the Christians who composed the churph, 
 were Jew^ and Heathens, accustomed from 
 their birth, to various insi^iificant ceremonies 
 and-superstitious rites, — and if it be also con- 
 sidered, that such a long course of custom and 
 of educatioil forms prejudices-that are extreme- 
 ly obstinate and difii-cult to be conquered — it 
 will then appear, that nothing less than a conr 
 tinned rjir^cle could have totally prevented the 
 entrance of all superstitious 'mixtures into the 
 Gliristian worship. A single example will tend 
 to the' illustrations of this .matter. Before the 
 coming of Christ, all the eastern nations per- 
 formed divine worship with their faces turned 
 to that part of the heavens where the sun dis- 
 plays his rising _ beams. This custom was 
 founded upon a general opinion,' that God, 
 whose essence they looked upon to be %Af, and 
 whom they considered as being circiunscribed 
 within certain limits, dwelt in that part of the 
 firmament, from which he sends forth the smi, 
 the bright imsige of his benignity and glory. 
 The Christian converts, indeed, rejected thiS'^ 
 grqss error; but they retained the ancient' and 
 universal custoni of worshipping toward the 
 east, which sprang from it. Nor is that cus- 
 tom abolished even in our times, but still pre- 
 
 Genev. 1654. Tollius, Insig;n. itineris Italici, not. p. 
 151, 163.^Spanheim's notes to his.French translation of 
 Julian's' Ctesars, p. 133 — Clarkson on Liturgies, 
 '' * Spartian, 'Vit. Hadrianiv c. xiii. - 
 "t See Edin. Merillii Olseri/af. lib. iii..cap. iii. 
 
68 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part II. 
 
 vatls in a great number of Christian'churclies. 
 From the same source arose various- rites 
 among the Jews, which many Christians, espe- 
 cially those wlio live in the eastern countries, 
 observe religiously at this very day.* - 
 
 VIII. We shall take no more than a brief 
 view of these rites and ceremonies, since a par- 
 ticular consideration of them would lead us 
 into endless discussions, and open a field too 
 vast to be comprehended in such a compen- 
 dious history as we here give of the Christian 
 church. The first Christians assembled for the 
 purposes of divine worship, in private houses, 
 in caves, and in vaults, where th^ dead were 
 buried. Their meetings were on the first day 
 of the week; and, in some places, they assem- 
 bled also on the seventh, which was celebrated 
 by the Jews. Many also observed the fourth, 
 day of the week, on which Clirist was betrayed; 
 and the sixth, which was the day of, his cruci- 
 fixion. The hour of the day appointed for 
 holding these religious assemblies varied ac- 
 cording to the different times and circumstan- 
 ces of the church; but it was generally in the 
 evening aftersun-set, or in the morriijig before 
 the dawn. During, these sacred meetings, 
 prayers were repeated;! the holy scriptures 
 were publicly read; short discourses, upon the 
 duties of Ciuristians, were addressed to the 
 people; hymns were sung; and a portion of the 
 oblations, " presented by the faithful was em- 
 ployed in the celebration of the Lord's Supper 
 and the feast of charity. - 
 
 IX. The Christians of this century celebrat- 
 ed armiversary festivals in commemoration of 
 the death and resurrection of Christ, and of 
 the effusion of the Holy Ghost upon tlie apos- 
 tles. The day which was observed as the an- 
 niversary of Christ's death was called the pas- 
 chal day,' or passover, because it was looked 
 upon to be the same with that on which the 
 Jews celebrated the feast of that name. In 
 the manner, however, of observing this solemn 
 day,''the Christians of Asia Minor differed much 
 from the rest, and in a more especial manner 
 from those of Rome. - They both indeed, fast- 
 ed during the great week (so that wSs called in- 
 which Christ died,) and afterwards celebrated, 
 like the Jews, a sacred feast, at which they dis- 
 tributfed a paschal lamb in memory of the holy 
 supper. But the Asiatic Christians kept this 
 feast on the fourteenth day of the first Jewish 
 month, when the Jews celebrated their passo- 
 ver, and, three days after, commemorated the 
 resurrection of the triumphant Redeemer. — 
 
 "They affirmed, that they had derived this cus- 
 tom from the apostles John and Philip; and 
 pleaded, moreover, in its behalf, the example of 
 Christ himself, who held his paschal feast on 
 the day of the Jewish passovei*. The western 
 
 , ehurches observed a different -method; they 
 celebrated their paschal feast-on the night that 
 preceded the anniversary of Christ's resurrec- 
 tion, and thus connected the commemoration 
 of his crucifixion with that of his victory over 
 
 " See Spencer de Legibus ritualihus Hebraarumj Pro- 
 iegom, 
 
 t There is an excellent account given of these prayers, 
 and of the Christian worship in general, in Turtulhan'a 
 .Apology, chap, xxxix. which is one 'of the most, noble 
 productions of ancient times. 
 
 death and the grave. Nor -did they differ thus 
 from the Asiatics, without pleading also apos- 
 tolic authority for what they did; for they al- 
 leged that of St. Peter and St. Paul, as a jus- 
 tification of their conduct in this matter. 
 
 X. The Asiatic rule fbr keeping the paschal 
 feast, was attended with two great inconveni- 
 ences, to which, the Christians at Alexandria 
 aiid Rome, and stll the western churches, refus- 
 ed to submit; for, in the first place, as the Asia- 
 tics celebrated their festival on the same day 
 that Christ is said to have eaten the paschal 
 lamb with his disciples, this occasioned an ine- 
 vitable interruption in the fast of the gfreat 
 uieeS:,, which the -other churches looked upon as 
 almost criminal, at least as highly indecent. 
 Nor was this the only inconvenience arising 
 from this rule:'¥or, as they celebrated the me- 
 mory of Christ's resurrectionj precisely on the 
 third day afler their paschal supper, it happen- 
 ed for the most' part, that this great festival 
 (which afterwards was .Called by the Latins 
 p'ascha, and to which we give the name of Eas- 
 ter) was holden on other days of the week than 
 the. first. > This circumstance was extremely 
 displeasing to the greatest part of the Chris- 
 tians, who thojught it unlawful to celebrate the 
 resurrection of our Lord oh any iay but Sun- 
 day, as that was the day on which this glorious 
 event happened. Hence arose sharp, and ve- 
 hement contentions between the Asiatic and 
 western Christians^ About the middle of this 
 century-, during the reign of Antoninus Pius, 
 the venerable Polycarp went to Rome to con- 
 fer with Anicet," bishop of that see, upon this 
 matter, witli a view to terminate the warm dis- 
 putes which it Jiad Occasioned. But this con- 
 ference, though conducted with great decency 
 and moderation, was without effect. Polycarp 
 and Anicet only agreed in this, that the bonds 
 of charity, were not to be broken on account of 
 this contr yversy; bijt they respectively conti- 
 nued, at the same time, in their former senti- 
 ments; nor could the Asiatics be engaged by 
 any arguments to alter the rule which they 
 pretended to have received hy tradition from 
 St. John.* 
 
 XI. Toward the conclusion of this century, 
 Victor, bishop of Rome, endeavoured to force 
 the Asiatic Christians by the pretended autho- 
 rity of his laws and decrees, to follow the rule 
 which was -observed by the western churches 
 in this point. Accordingly, after having taken 
 the advice of some foreign bishops, he wrote 
 an imperious letter to the Asiatic prelates com- 
 manding them to imitate the example of the 
 western Christians with respect to the time of 
 celebrating the festival of Easter. The Asi- 
 atics answered this lordly requisition by the 
 pen of JPolycratcs, bishop of Ephesus, who de- 
 clared in their name, Vfith great spirit and reso- 
 lution, that they would by no means depart, in 
 this manner from the custom handed down to 
 them by their ancestors. Upon this the thun- 
 der of excommunication began to roar. Vic- 
 tor, exasperated by this resolute answer of the 
 Asiatic bishops, broke communion with them 
 pronounced them unworthy of the name of his 
 brethren, and excluded them firom all fellow- 
 
 * Eusebius, Hist. Eccles. lib. iv. 
 
Chap. V. 
 
 DIVISIONS AND HERESIES. 
 
 69 
 
 ship srith the church of .Rome. This excom 
 munication, indeed, extended no farther: nor 
 could it cut off the Asiatic bishops from com- 
 munion with the other churches, whose bishops 
 were far from approving the conduct of Vic- 
 tor.* The progress of Siis violent dissension 
 was stopped by the wise and moderate remon- 
 strances; which Irenceus, bishop of Lyons, ad- 
 dressed to the Roman prelate on this occasion, 
 in which he showed him the imprudence and 
 injustice of the step Jie had taken, and also by 
 the loflg letter which the Asiatic Christians 
 wrote in their own justification. In conse- 
 quence therefore of this cessation of arms, the 
 combatants retained each their own customs, 
 until the fourth century, wtfSn the CQTincil of 
 Nice abolished that of the Asiatics, and ren- 
 dered the time of the celebration of Easter the 
 same through all the Christian churches.f 
 
 XII. In these times, the" sacrament of the 
 Lord's Supper was celebratedj for the most 
 part, on Sundays, and the ceremonies observed 
 upon that occasion were such as follow. Of 
 the bread and wine, which were presente'd 
 among the other oblations dt the faithful, a 
 part was separated from the rest, and conse- 
 crated, by the prayers of the bishop. The 
 wine was niiixed with water, and the bread 
 was divided into several portions. A part of 
 the consecrated bread and wine was carried 
 to the sick or absent members. of the church, 
 as a testimony of fraternal love, sent -to them 
 by the whole society .| It appears by many and 
 uildoubted testimonies, that this holy rite was 
 looked upon as essential to- salvation; and,' 
 when this is -duly considered, we shall be less 
 disposed to censure, as erroneous, the opinion 
 of those who 'have affirmed, that the Lord's 
 Supper was administered to infants duriilg this 
 century.^ The feasts of charity, that followed 
 the celebration of the Lord's Supper, have 
 beep already mentioned. .. ■ 
 
 XIII. The sacrament of baptism was ad- 
 ministered publicly twice every year, at the 
 festivals of Easter and Pentecost or Whitsun- 
 tide,! either by the bishop, or, in consequence 
 of his authorization and appointment, by the 
 presbyters. The persons that- were td be bap- 
 tized, after they had repeated the Creed, con- 
 fessed and renounced their sins, and particu- 
 larly the devil and his pompous allurements, 
 "were immersed under water, and received into 
 Christ's kingdom by a solemn invocation of 
 
 ^ This whole affair furnishes a striking -arcument, 
 among; the multitude that may .be drawn from ecclesiasti- 
 cal history, against the supremacy and uniyersal au- 
 thority of the' bishop of Rome. 
 
 Q[^ f Dr. Mosheim, in a note, refers .us for a more 
 copious acconnt of this controversy to his Commentar. 
 de rebus Christianorum ante' Gonstantinum M; He had. 
 saiid in that work,--tKat Faydit had perceived theerrbr of 
 the common opinion, concerning the di&putes-which arose 
 in the church about the time of keeping- , Easter. But 
 here he retracts this encomium, and, after a second 
 reading of Faydit's book, finds himself obliged to declare, 
 that this writer has entirely missed the true state of the 
 question. See the account of this controversy, given by 
 flie learned Heuman, in one of the treatises of his.Sylloge, 
 or collection of small pieces. ■- ^ - -' 
 
 J Henricus Rixnerus, de Riti&us veterum Christiano- 
 rum circa Jlucharistini. 
 
 ^ See Jo. Frid. Mayer, Diss, de Eucharistia Infalitum; 
 a9 also Zornijis, Histor. Eucharist. Infantum. 
 
 II See Wall's History of Infant Baptism, and Vice- 
 comes de Kitibus Eaptismi. 
 
 Father, Son, and Holy-'Ghost, according to 
 the express command of our Blessed Lord. Aft 
 ter baptism, they received the sign of the cross, 
 were anointed, and by prayers and imposition 
 of hands, were solemenly reeomihended to the 
 mercy of God, and dedicated to his service; in 
 consequence of which they received milk and 
 honey, which concluded the ceremony.* The 
 reasons of this particular ritual coincide with 
 what we have said in general concerning" the 
 origin and causes of the multiplied ceremonies 
 that crept fi;om time to tiime into the church. 
 
 Adult persons were prepared for baptism by 
 abstinence, prayer, and other pious exercises. 
 It was to gjiswer for them that sponsors, or 
 godfathers, were first instituted, though they 
 were afterwards admitted also in the baptism 
 of infemts.f 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Concerning the Heresies and Divisions that if our 
 
 - bled the Chnrch dvnitigthis Century. 
 
 I. Among the many sects which divided the 
 Christian church during this century, it is nar 
 tural to mention, in the first place, that which 
 an attachment to the Mosaic law separated 
 from the rest of their Christian brethren. The 
 first rise of this sect is placed under the reign 
 of Adrian; for, when this emperor had, at 
 length," razed, Jerusalem, entirely destroyed 
 even its very foundatidris, and enacted laws 
 of the severest kind against the whole body of 
 the .Jewish -people, the greatest part of the 
 Christians, who lived in Palestine, 1,0 prevent 
 their being confounded with the Jews, aban-? 
 doned entirely the Mosaic rites, and chose a 
 bishop named Mark, a foreigner by nation, and 
 consequently an alien from the commonwealth 
 of Israel.^ This step was highly shocking to 
 those, whose 'attachment to the Mosaic rites 
 was violent and • invincible; and such was the 
 case of many. These, therefore, separated 
 themselves from the brethren, and founded in 
 PerEea, a country of Palestine, and in. the 
 neighbourning parts; particular assemblies, in 
 which the law of Moses maintained its primi- 
 tive dignity, authority, and lustre.| 
 
 II. This body of judaizing Christians, which 
 set Christ and Moses upon, an equal footing, in 
 point of authority, after wards divided itself into 
 two sects, extremely different both in their 
 rites and in their opinigns, and distinguished 
 hy the names of Nazarenes and Ebionites. The 
 former are not placed by the ancient Christians 
 in the heretical. registers^ but the latter were 
 considered as a sect,, whose tenets were de- 
 structive of the fundamental printSples of the - 
 
 * See Tertullian on Baptism. 
 
 f See Ger. a Maestricht, de Susceptoribus Infantium' 
 ex Baptismoj though he is of a different opinion in this 
 matter, 'and thinks that' sponsors were not used in the 
 baptism of adult persons. See also Wall's History of 
 Infant Baptism. Ol3» See moreover, upon this subjcet, 
 Isaaci Junat,Arg.deSusceptorum JBaptismalium Orlgine 
 Cottimentatio, published in 1755, of which an account 
 may be seen mvthe, Biblioth. des Sciences -et des Beaux 
 Arts, torn. vi. ^ . 
 
 \ See Sulpitius Severus, Hist. Sacr. lib. ii. cap. xxxi. 
 ' 6 Epiphanius wasthfe first writerVho placed the Naza- 
 renes iii' the list "pf heretics. ' He wrote in the .fourth 
 century, but is 'very far from being remarkable, eithMP 
 for his fidelity or judgment. 
 
70 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part II. 
 
 Christian religion. These sects made use of a 
 gospel, or history of Christ, different from that 
 which is received among us; and concerning 
 which there have been many disputes among 
 the learned;* The term Nazarine vpas not 
 originally the name of a sect, in that which 
 distinguished the disciples of Jesus but general; 
 and, as those whom the Greeks called Chris- 
 tians, received the naine of .Nazarenes among 
 the Jews, the latter name was not considered 
 as u mark of ignominy or contempt. Those, 
 indeed, who, after their separation from their 
 brethren, retained the title of Nazarenes, dif- 
 fered much from the true disciples of -Christ, 
 to vphom that name had been originally given: 
 " they held, that Christ was born'of a virgin, 
 and was also in a,- certain manner united to the 
 divine nature; they refused to abandon the 
 ceremonies prescribed bytlie law of Moses, but 
 were far from attempting to impose the obser- 
 vance of these ceremonies upon the Gentile 
 Christians; and they rejected all those addi- 
 tions which had been made to the Mosaic in- 
 stitutions, by the Pharisees and the doctors of 
 the law;"t and hence we maj. easily see the 
 reason why the greatest part of the Christians 
 treated the Nazarenes with a more than ordi- 
 nary degree of gentleness and forbearance. 
 
 III. It is doubtful whether the Ebionites de- 
 rived their name from one of their principal 
 doctors, or from their poverty.J One thing, 
 however, is certain,' that their sentiments and 
 doctrines were much more pertiiicious than those 
 of the Nazarenes;§ for, though they believed 
 the celestial mission of Christ, and his partici- 
 pation of a divine nature, yet they regarded 
 him as a man born of Joseph and Mary, ac- 
 cording to the ordinary course of nature. 
 They also asserted, that the ceremonial law, 
 instituted by Moses, was not only obligatory 
 upon the Jews, but upon all others, and that 
 the observance of it was essential to salvation; 
 and as St. Paul had very different sentiments 
 from them, concerning the obligation of the 
 ceremonial law, and had opposed the observ- 
 ance of it in the warmest manner, so, in eon- 
 sequence, they held this apostle in abhorrence, 
 and treated his writings with the utmost dis- 
 ' tespect. Nor were they only attached to the 
 rites instituted by Moses: they went still fat. 
 
 5l^ * This gospel, which was called indiscriminaiely 
 the gospel of ^the Nazarenes, or Hebrews, is certain]y-the 
 same with the' gospel of the Ebionites, and that of the 
 twelve apostles, and is, probably that which St. Paul re- 
 fers to, Qalatians, ch. i. ver. 6. Dr. Mosheitn refers his 
 readersj for an account of this gospel, to Fabricius, in. 
 his Codex, Apocryph. Nov. Test. torn. i. .p. 355, and to 
 a work of his own, entitled Vindiciie contra Tolandi 
 Nazarenum. 'The reader will, however, find a still more 
 accurate and satisfactory accoiint of this f^ospel, in the 
 first volume of the learned and judicious Mr. Jones' in- 
 comparable Method of settling the Canonical Authority 
 of the.New Testament. 
 
 t See Mich, le Q,uieii, Adnot. ad Bamascenum, torn-. 
 i as also a dissertation of the same author, de Nazarenis 
 et eorum Fide, which is the seventh of those that he has 
 Subjoined to his edilion of the' works oY Damascen'us. 
 
 X See-Fabric. ad Fhilostr. de Hseresibus; and Itigius, de 
 HEereaibas Mvi Apostolici. 
 
 9C^ § The learned Mr. Jon^es looked" upon these two 
 sects as differing- very little ' from one another. He -at- 
 tributes to them both much the same' doctrines, and al- 
 ledgcs,;that the Ebionites had only made some small ad- 
 ditions fx} the old Tf azaj'ene system. 
 
 ther, and received, with an equal degree of 
 veneration, the superstitions of their ancestors, 
 and the ceremonies an(} traditions which the 
 Pharisees presumptuously added to the law.* 
 IV. Tliese obscure and inafrequented here- 
 tical assemblies were very little detrimental ^.o 
 tl)e Christian cause, which suffered much ihore 
 from those sects, whose leaders explained the 
 doctrines of Christianity in a manner confor- 
 mable to the dictates of the oriental philosophy 
 concerning the origin of evil. The oriental 
 doctors, who, before this century, had lived in 
 the greatest obscurity, came forth from theii 
 retreat under the reign of Adrian,! exposed 
 themselves to public view, and collected, in 
 various provinces, assemblies, whose mimbei'S 
 were very considerable. The ancient records 
 mention a great number of these demi-chris- 
 tian sects, many of which are no farther known 
 than by their distinguishing names: which, per- 
 haps, is the. only cii'cumstance in which they 
 differ from each other. One division, howr 
 ever, of these oriental Christians, may be men- 
 tioned as real and important, , since the two 
 branches it produced were considerably superi- 
 or to the rest in reputation, and made more 
 noise in the world than the other multiplied 
 subdivisions of this pernicious sect. Of this 
 famous division, one branch which, arose in 
 Asia, preserved the oriental" doctrine concern- . 
 ing the origin of the world, unmixed with o.ther 
 sentiments and opinions; while the other, which 
 was formed in Egypt, made a motley mixture 
 of this philosophy, with the tenets and prodi- 
 gies adopted in the religious system of that 
 superstitious country. The doctrine of the 
 former surpassed in simplicity and perspicuity 
 that of the latter, which consisted of a vast 
 variety of parts, so artfully' combined, that the 
 explication of them became exceedingly diffi- 
 cult. 
 
 ■V. Among the doctors of the Asiatic branch, 
 the first place is due to t!lxai,-AvhO, during the 
 reign of Trajan, is said to have fprined the 
 sect of the Elcesaites. This heretic, though a 
 Jew, attached to the worship of pne God, and 
 full of veneration foi; Moses, corrupted the re- 
 ligion of his ancestors, by blending with it a 
 multitude of fictions drawn from the oriental 
 philosophy. Pretending also, after the exam- 
 ple of the Essenes, to give a rational explica- 
 tion of the law of Moses, he reduced it to a 
 mere allegoiry. It is, at the same time, proper 
 to observe, that some have doubted vAietUei 
 the Elcesaites are to be reckoned among the 
 Christian or the Jewish sects; and Epiphanius 
 who was acquainted with a certain production 
 of Elxai, expresses his uncertainty in this mat- - 
 ter. . Elxai, indeed, in that book, mentions 
 Christ with the highest encomiums, without, 
 however, adding any circumstance from which 
 it might be concluded with certainty, that Je- 
 
 * Irenseus, lib. i. contra Haeres. cap. xxvi. p. 105, edit. 
 Massueti. Epiphanfus gives a large account of the Ebio- 
 nites, Hseres. xxx. But he deserves little credit, since he 
 confesses, (sect. 3, p. 127, and sect. 4, p.. 141,) that he 
 had confounded the Sampseeans and Elcesaites with the 
 Ebionites, and alsp acknowledges that the first Ebionites 
 were strangers to the errors with which he charges them. 
 
 f 'Stromata of Clemens Alex. lib. viii. cap. xvii. p. 898. 
 Gypriani epist. IxxT. 
 
Chap. V. 
 
 DIVISIONS AND HERESIES. 
 
 71 
 
 sus of Nazareth was the Christ of whom he 
 spoke.* 
 
 VI. If, then, Elxai be improperly placed 
 among the leader^ of the sect now under con- 
 sideration, we may place at its head Satuini- 
 nus of Afitioch, who is one of the first Gnostic 
 chiefs mentioned in history. He held the doc- 
 trine of two principles, from which proceeded 
 all things; one a wise and benevolent deity; 
 and .the other, a principle essentially evil, 
 which he supposed to be under the superinten- 
 dence of a certain intelligence of a malignant 
 nature. " The world and its first inhabitants 
 were (according to the system of this raving 
 philosopher) created by seven angels, who pre^ 
 sided over the seven -planets. This worTt was 
 carried on without the knowledge of the bene-, 
 volent deity, and in opposition to the will of 
 the material principle. The former, however, 
 beheld it with approbation, and honoured it 
 with several marks of his beneficence. He en- 
 dowed with rational souls ■ the beings who in^ 
 habited this new system, to virhom their crea- 
 tors, had imparted nothing more than the mere 
 animal life; and, having divided the world into 
 seven parts^ he distributed them among the 
 sevCn angelic architects, one of whom was the 
 god of the Jews, and reserved to himself the 
 supreme empire over all. To these creatures, 
 whom the benevolent principle had endowed 
 with reasonable souls, and with dispositions 
 that led to goodness and virtue, the evil being, 
 to inaintain his empire, added another kind, 
 whom he formed of a wicked and maligmnt 
 character; and hence arose the difference ob- 
 servable among men. When the creators of 
 the world fell ftom their allegiance to the Su- 
 preme Deity, God sent from heaven, into our 
 globe, tt restorer of order, whose 'name was 
 Christ. This divine conqueror came clothed 
 with a corporeal appearance, but not with a 
 real body,* he came to destroy the empire of the 
 material principle, and to point out to virtuous 
 souls the way by which they must return to 
 God. This way is. beset with difficulties and 
 sufferings, since those soiils, who propose re- 
 turning to the Supreme^ Being after the /disso- 
 lution of this mortal body, must abstain from 
 wine, flesh, wedlock, and, in short, from, every 
 thing that tends to sensual gratification, or even 
 bodily refreshment." ' Saturninus taughtthese 
 extravagant doctrines in Syria,- but principally 
 at Antioch, and drew after him ma,ny disciples 
 by the pompous appearance of an extraordina- 
 ry virtue.f 
 
 VII. Cerdo the Syrian, and Marcion, son to 
 the bishop of Pontus, belong to the Asiatic 
 sect, though they began to estabhsh their doc- 
 trineat Rome, and, having givpn a turn some- 
 what different to the- oriental superstition, may 
 themselves be considered as the heads of a new 
 sect, which bears their names. Amidst the 
 obscurity and doubts that render so uncertain 
 the history of these two men, the following 
 fact is incontestable, viz. That Cerdo had been 
 
 * Euseb. Hist. Eccles. lib. vi.Tiap. lixviii.— Epipha- 
 nius, Haeres. xir.* sect. ill. Theodoretus. Fabul. Haeret. 
 lib. ii. cap. vii. 
 
 t Irenaeus, lib. i. c. xjiv.— Euseb. Hist. Eccles; hb. it. 
 cap. vii.— Thepdoret. Fabul. Haeret. lib. i. cap. ii.— 
 Epiphan. Haeres. xxxiii. 
 
 spreading his doctrine at Rome before the ar^ 
 rival of Marcion there; and that the latter hav 
 ing, through his own misconduct, forfeited a 
 place to which he aspired in the church of 
 Rome, attached hiinself through resentinent to 
 the impostor Cerdo, and propagated his impi- 
 ous doctrines with an astonishing success 
 throughout the world. " After the example of 
 the oriental doctors, they held the existence of 
 two principles, the one perfectly good, and the 
 other perfectly evil. Between these, they im- 
 agined an intermediate kind of deity, neither 
 perfectly good nor. perfectly evil, but-of a mix- 
 ed nature (so Marcion expresses it,) and so far 
 just and powerful, as to administer rewards and 
 inflict ;^unishments. This middle deity is the 
 creatoT of this inferior world, and the god and 
 "legislator of the Jewish nation; he wages per^ 
 petual war with the evil principle, and. one aiid 
 the other aspire to the place of the Supreme 
 Being, and ambitiously attempt to reduce un- 
 der their authority all- the inhabitants of the 
 world. The Jews are the subjects of that pow- 
 erful genius, who formed this^globe; the other 
 natidns, who worship a variety of -gods, are 
 under the. empire of the evil prineiple. Both 
 these conflicting powers exercise oppressions 
 upon rational and immortal souls, and keep 
 them in' a tedious and miserable captivity. — 
 Therefore the Supreme God, in order to ter- 
 niinate this war, and to deliver from their bond- 
 age those souls Whose origin is celestial and 
 divine,- sent to the Jews a being most like to 
 himself, even his son Jesus Christ, clothed with 
 a certain shadowy resemblance of a body, that 
 thus he might be visible to niortal eyes; The 
 commission of this celestial messenger was to 
 destroy the empire both of the evil- principle, 
 and of the author of this world, and to bring 
 back wandering souls to God. On this ac- 
 count, he was attacked with inexpressible vio- 
 lence and fiiryhy the prince of darkness, and 
 by the god of the Jews, but without effect, 
 since, . having a body only in appearance, he 
 was thereby rendered incapable of suffering. 
 Those who follow tl^e sacred directions of this 
 celestial conductor, mortify the body by fast- 
 ings and austerities, call off their minds from 
 the allurements of sense, and, renouncing the 
 precepts of the god of the Jews, and of the 
 prince of darkness, turn their eyestoXvard the 
 Supreme Being, shall, after death ascend to 
 the mansions of felicity and perfection." In 
 consequence of all this, the rule of maimers 
 which MaroiOn prescribed to his followers, was. 
 excessively austere, containing an express pro- 
 hibition of Wedlock, of the use of wine, flesh, 
 and of all the external comforts of life. Not- 
 withstanding the rigor of this discipline, great 
 numbers embraced the doctrines of Maj-cion, 
 of whom Lucan (called also.Lucian,) Severus, 
 BlaStes, and principally Apelles, . are said to 
 have varied, in sotae things, from the opinions 
 of their master, and to" have formed new sects-.* 
 VIII. Bardesanes and Tatian are commonly 
 
 * See Irenaeus, Epiphaniiis, and particularly Tertiil- 
 liaji's Five Books against the MarciSnites, -with his Poem 
 against Marcion, and the'Dialoguc against the Mal'cion- 
 ites, which is generally ascribed to Origen. See also 
 Tillemont's IN&mo. and Beausobre's Uist. du Mani- 
 cheisme, torn. ii. ' 
 
72 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part II. 
 
 supposed to have been of the school of Valen- 
 tine, the Egyptian. But this notion is entirely 
 without foundation, since their doctrine differs 
 In many things from that of the Valentinians, 
 approaching nearer to that of the oriental phi- 
 losophy concerning the two principles. Bar- 
 desanes, a native of Edessa, was a man of a 
 very acute geiiius, and acquired a shining re- 
 putation by his writings, which were in great 
 number,' and valuable for the profound erudi- 
 tion they contained. Seduced by tire fantastic 
 charms of the oriental philosophy, he adopted 
 it with zeal, but, at the same time, with certain 
 modifications, that rendered his' system less ex- 
 travagant than that of the Marcionites,ugainst 
 whom he wrote a- very learned treatise. The 
 siun of liis doctrine is . as follows: Tliere is a 
 Supreme God, pure and benevolent, absolutely 
 free from aH evil and imperfection; and there 
 -is also a prince of darkness, the-fountain of all 
 evil, disorder and misery. God created the 
 world without any mixture of evil in its com- 
 positiori; he gave existence also to its inhabi-' 
 tants, who came out Of his forming hand, pure 
 and incorhipt, endued with subtile etherial 
 bodies, .and spirits of a celestial nature. - But 
 when, in process of time, the prince of dark- 
 ness had enticed men to sin, God, permitted 
 them to fall into -sluggish and gross bodies, 
 formed of corrupt matter by the evil principle;- 
 he permitted^ also the depravation and disorder 
 which this maUgnant Ijeing introduced, both 
 into the natural and. the moral world, design- 
 ing, by this permission, to punislv the degene- 
 racy and rebellion of an apostate race; and 
 hence proceeds the perpetual conflict between 
 reason and passion ~in the mind of man. It 
 was on this account, that Jesus descended from 
 the upper regions, clothed, not with alreal, but 
 with a celestial ' and aerial body, and taught 
 mankind to subdue that body of corruption 
 which theycarry about with theiri^n this mor- 
 tal life, and, by abstinence, fasting and contem- 
 plation, to disengage themselves from the ser- 
 vitude and dominion 6f that malignant matter 
 which ch^iined' down the soul £0 low and igno- 
 ble pursuits. Those, who hear the Voice of 
 this divine instructor, and., submit themselves 
 to his discipline, shall, after the- dissolution of 
 this terrestrial bo'dy, mount up to the mansions 
 of felicity, clothed' with ethereal vehicleSj or 
 celestial bodies." Such was the doctrine of 
 Bardesanes, who afterwards abandoned the 
 chimerical part of this system, and returned to 
 a better mind; though lu^sect subsisted a long 
 time in Syria.* 
 
 IX. Tatian, by birth an Assyrian, and a dis- 
 ciple of Justin Martyr, is more distinguished, 
 by the ancient writers, on account of his ge- 
 nius and-J.eaming, and the excessive and in-' 
 credible austerity of his life and manners, than 
 by any remarkable errors or opinions which he 
 feught his followers. It appears, however, 
 from the testimony of cre^dible writers, that Ta- 
 tiein' looked^ upon iiiatter as the fountain of all 
 evil, and therefore recommended, in aparticu- 
 
 ^ * See the writers ^ho have given accounts of the an- 
 cient heresies, a^also Eusebius, Hiijt..£cclesl lib. iv. cap. 
 -Tixx. — ^^Origen, Dial, contra Mareionitas, sect. iii. — F. 
 Stirunziiis, HiBt, Bardesanis — Beausobre, Hist, du Ma- 
 nieh. vol. ii. 
 
 lar mariner, the mortification of the body; that 
 he distinguished the creator of the world from 
 the Supreme Being; denied the reality of 
 Christ's body; and corrupted the Christian 
 religion witli several, other tenets. of the orien- 
 tal pliilosophy. He had- a great number of 
 followers, who were, after him, called Ta- 
 tianists,* but were, nevertheless, more fre- 
 quently distinguished from other sects by 
 names relative to the austerity of their man- 
 ners; for, as they r&jected, with a sort of hor- 
 ror, all the comforts and conveniences of life, 
 jjid abstained from wine with such a rigorous 
 obstinacy, as to use nothing but water even at 
 t,he celebration of the Lord's, Supper; as they 
 macerated their bodies by continual fastings, 
 and lived a severe life of celiljacy and absti- 
 nence, so they were called Encratites, [*] Hy- 
 di-oparastates, [f] and Apotactites. [J]' .< 
 
 X. Hitherto, we have only considered vthe 
 doctrine of the Asiatic Gnostics. Th-Qse of 
 the Egyptian branch differ from them in gene- 
 ral in this, that they blended into one mass the 
 oriental philosophy and the Egyptian theoldgy; 
 the former of which 1;he Asiatic? preserved un- 
 mixed, in its original simplicity. The Egyp- 
 tians were, moreover, particularly distinguish- 
 ed from the Asiatic Gnostics by the following 
 difference in their religious system", viz. 1. 
 That thoughj beside .the existence of a deity, 
 they maintained that also of an eternal matter, 
 endued with life and- motion, yejCthey did not 
 acknowledge an eternal principle of -daricness, 
 or theevil principle of the Persians. 2. They 
 supposed that our blessed Saviour waS a com- 
 pound of two persons, of the man Jesus, and 
 of Christ, the Son of 'God; that the divine 
 nature entered into the man Jesus, when he 
 was baptized by John in the river Jordan, and 
 departed from him when he was seized by the 
 Jews. 3. They attributed to Christ a real not 
 an imaginary body; though it must be confessed, 
 that they were much divided in their sen- 
 timents on this head. 4. Their discipline., with 
 respect to life and manners, was much less se- 
 vere than that of the Asiatic sect, and seems, 
 ■in some points, to have been favourable to the 
 corruption and passions-of men. 
 
 XI.. Basilides has generaIly~obtained the first 
 place among the I^yptian Gnostics. "He 
 acknowledged the existence of one Supreme 
 God, perfect, in goodness and wisdom, who 
 produced-, from his own substance seven beings, 
 or seons, of a most excellent nature. Two of 
 these EBons called iDynamis and Sophia»(poWer 
 and wisdom,) engendered the angels of the 
 highest order. These angels formed a heaven ■ 
 for their habitation, and brought forth other 
 a'ngelic beings, of a nature somewhafinferio: 
 to their own. , Many other generations of an 
 gels followed these and new heavens were also 
 created, until the number of Etngelic orders, 
 and' of their respective heavens amounted to 
 three hundred and sixty-five, and thus equalled 
 
 * "We have yet remaining of the writings of Tatian, 
 an Oration addressed to the Greeks. Aa to his opinions 
 they may be gathered from Clemens Alezandrinus, Stro- 
 maf. lib. _ji. p. 460.^ — Epiphanius, Hseres. rlvi. cap. i p. 
 391. Ori^en de Oratione, cap. xiii. None, however, 
 of the ancients wrote professedly concerning the doctrine 
 of Tatian. 
 [*] Temperate, [f] Drinkers of water. [1] Renouncers. 
 
Chap. V. 
 
 DIVISIONS AND HERESIES. 
 
 73 
 
 the days of the' year. All liiese are under 
 tlie empire of an omnipotent Lord, whom Ba- 
 silides called. Abrsutas."* This word (whieh 
 was certainly- in use among Ihe Egyptians be- 
 fore his time) contains numeral letters to the 
 amount of 365, and thereby, expresses the num- 
 ber of heavens and angelic orders above-men- 
 tioned. " The inhabitants of the lowest hea- 
 vens, which touched upon the borders of the 
 eternal, malignant, and self-animated -matter, 
 conceived the design of forming a world 'from 
 that 'confused mass, and of creating an order 
 of beings to people, it. This design was car- 
 ried into execution, and was -approved by the 
 Supreme, God, who, to the animal, life with 
 which only the inhabitants of this new world 
 were at Srst endowed, added a reasonable soul, 
 giving, at the same time, to the angels, the em- 
 pire pVer them." ' 
 
 Xir. "These ^angelic beings, advanced to 
 the government of the world which they had 
 created, fell,' by degrees,_from their original 
 purity, and manifested the fatal marks of'their 
 depravity and corruption.' They not only en- 
 deavoured to efface frem the minds of men the 
 knowledge of the, Supreme Being, thatthey 
 might be Worshipped in his'ste-ad, bnt .also be- 
 gan to war against ^ne another, with an am- 
 bitious view to enlarge, every one, the boundS 
 of his respective dominion. The most arro- 
 gant and turbulent of all these angelic spirits, 
 was that which presided over- the Jewish na- 
 tion. Hence God, beholding with compassion 
 the miserable state of rational creatures, ,who 
 groaned under the contests of tliese ja.rrihg 
 ' powers^ -sent from -heaven his, son Nus,, or 
 .Christ, the chief of the bons, that, joined in a 
 substantial union with the man Jesus, he rajght 
 restore the knowledge of the Supreme Being, 
 and destroy the empire of those angelic na- 
 
 * We have remaining a great nuniber of gems, and 
 receive more from Eg^pt from time to time, on ivhich, 
 beside other figures of Egyptian taste, we find' the w.ord 
 Abraxas engraven. See, for this purpose, a work en- 
 titled*, M«capii Abraxas, sen de Gemmis Easilidianis 
 ijisquiaitfo, which ■'was.published at Antwerp with seve- 
 ral improvements, by M. Chijflet^ in 16.57; See also 
 Montfaucon, Palaeograph -Gfaec. lib.ii'. cap. yiii.. Ali 
 these .gems- are supposed- to come'frbm Basilides, and 
 therefore bear his name. Most of them, however, con>- 
 tain the marks of a superstilioii-too gross to be attributed 
 even to a half-Christam, and bear also emblematic ^char- 
 actcrs of-the Egyptian theology. It is not,' therefore, 
 just to attributt fhem all to Basilides (who, though erro- 
 nenua in, jnany of "his opinions, was -yet a follower of 
 Christ,) but such pf them only as exhibit some mark of 
 the Christian doctrine and discipline. — r- There is no 
 doubt that the old Egyptian word Abi^axas was appropri- 
 ated to the governor or lord of the heavens, and that 
 Basilides, having learned it from the philosophy of his 
 nation, retained it in his- religious system. See Beauso- 
 bre. Hist, dn Manicheisme. vol. ii.p. 51'., and also Jo. 
 Papt. Passerius, in his Dissert, de pemmes, Basilidianis, 
 which makes a part of the splendid work that he pub- 
 lished at Florence; 1750, de Gemmis stelliferis, torn. ii. 
 p. 221. See also the sentiments bf the learned Jablbn- 
 ski, concerning the signification of-the word.Abraxjis, as 
 they are delivered in a dissertation inserted in the seventh 
 volume of the Miscell. Leips. Nova. Pesserius affirms, 
 that none of these |;ems can properly be said to relate to 
 Basilides, but Ihal they concern only magicians, i. e. 
 sorcerers, fortune-tellers, and the like adventiirers. 
 Here, however, this learned man seems to go too far, since 
 he himself acknffwledges (p. 225,) that he had sometimes 
 found, on these gems, vestiges of the errors of BasBidea. 
 These famous monuments stand yet in need of an inter- 
 ,preter; but it must be one who can join circumspection 
 to diligence a-id erudition. 
 Vol. I.— 10 
 
 tures \fhi'ch presided over the vTOrld,-and par- 
 ticularly that of the arrogant leader of the 
 Jewish people; The god of the Jews, alarmed 
 at this, sent fpttii his ministers to seize the man 
 Jesus, and put him to death. Jhey executed 
 his. commands; but their cruelty could not ex- 
 tend to Christ, against whom their efforts were 
 vain.* Those souls, wlj^obey the pi-.ecepts 
 of the Son,of God, shal™fter. the dissolution 
 of their mortal frame, ascend to the Father, 
 while their bodies return to the . corrupt; mass 
 of matter froin which they were formed. Dis- 
 obedient spirits, -on the contra,ry, shall pass 
 Bucdessiyely into other bodies." _ ''• 
 
 XIII. The doctrine pf Basilides, in point of 
 morals, if we may credit the account of m,p'st 
 ancient writers, was favourable, to the lusts 
 and passions of mankind, and permitted the 
 practice of all sorts of wickedness. But those 
 whose testimonies- are the most worthy of re- 
 gard, give a quite different account of this 
 teacher, and represent him as recommending 
 the practice of virtue and piety iii-the strongest 
 manner, and. as having condemned not only 
 the actual commission of iniquity, but even 
 every inward propensity of the mind to a 
 vicious conduct. It'is true there were, in his 
 precepts relating to the conduct of life, some 
 points which gave great offence to all real 
 Christians; for he affirmed it to be lawfiil for ' 
 them to conceal their religion, to deny Christ, 
 when their lives wCTe iii danger, arid to par- 
 take of the feasts of the Gentiles that Were in- 
 stituted in consequence of the sacrifices oflered 
 to idols. "He endeavoured also to diminish the 
 glory of those who suffered martyrdom for the 
 cause of Christ "impiously maintaining, that 
 they were more heinous, sinners tha:n others, 
 and that their sufferings were to be looked 
 lipon as a ptinishmftnt inflicted upon them by 
 the divine justice.. He was led into this enor- 
 mous error, by. ail absurd notion that all the 
 calamities of, this life were ofa^pensl nature, 
 and thit men never suffered but in conse- 
 quence of their ihiquities; This rendered his 
 principles greatly suspected; and the irregular 
 lives of some of his disciples seemed to justify 
 the unfavonrahle opinion that was entertained 
 of their master-t 
 
 XIV. But whatever may be said of Basilides, 
 it is certain, that h6 was far surpassed in im- 
 piety by Carpocrates, who was also of Alex- 
 andria, and who carried; the Gnostic blasphe- 
 .miQS to a more enormous 'degree of .extrava- 
 gancy than they had ever. been brouglrt by any 
 of that sect. His pHlosophical tehets agree, 
 in general, with those of the Egyptian Gnbsr 
 tics. He acknowledged the existence of a 
 Supreme God; and of the aeons derived from 
 
 * Many of the an'cients have, upon, 'the "authority, of 
 Irenxus, accused Basilides of denying the reality of 
 Christ's body, and of maintaining that Simon the Cycc- 
 nian wras crucified jn his stead. But this accusation is 
 entirely groundless, as may be seen by consulting the 
 Commentar. de Tebu.s Christian, ante Constant, where it 
 is demonstrated, that Basilides considered the 'divin« 
 Saviour as compounded of the man Jesus, and Christ 
 the Son o£,God. It may be true, indeed,' that somepf 
 the disciples of. Sasilide^ entertained- tlie opinion -which 
 is here unjustly atE)rtbuted'to Iheir master. . _ - ^ 
 
 t For a farther account of Basilides, the reader iiaajr 
 consult Rem Massuety Dissert, in Ireuaeumyand Beauso- 
 bre Hist, du Manicheismc, v.ol. ii. 
 
7i 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part II. 
 
 him by successive generations. He maintain- 
 ed- the eternity of a corrupt matter, and the 
 creation of the world from it by angelic pow- 
 ers, as also the divine origin of souls .unhap- 
 pily imprisoned in mortal bodies, &c. But, 
 beside these, he propagated sentiments and 
 maxims of a horrid kind. He asserted, that 
 Jesus was born of Joseph and Mary, according 
 to the ordinary cofe^ of nature, aiid was dis- 
 tinguished from the Test of mankind by notliing 
 but his superior fortitude arid greatness of soul. 
 His doctrine, also, with respect to practice,. was 
 licentious in the highest degree; for he^npt 
 oiiTy allowed his, disciples a fuH liberty to sin7 
 but recommended to them a vicious course of 
 life, as a matter both of obhgation and neces- 
 sity; asserting, that eternal salvation was only 
 attainable' by those who had committed all 
 sorts of crimes, and had daringly filled up the 
 measure of iniquity. It is almost incredible, 
 that one who maintained the existence of a 
 Supreme Being, who acknowledged Christ as 
 the Saviour of mankind-, could entertain such 
 monstrous opinions. One might infer, indeed, 
 from certitin tenets of Carpocrates that he 
 adopted the common doctrine "of the Gnos- 
 tics concerning Christ, and acknowledged also 
 the laws which this divine Saviour imposed 
 upon his disciples. Notwithstan4ing. this,- it is 
 beyond aU doubt, that the precepts and opinions 
 of this Gnostic are full of impiety, since he 
 held, that lusts and passions being implanted 
 in our nature by God himself, were conse^ 
 quently void of guilt, and had nothing crimi- 
 nal in them; that all actions were indiiferent 
 in their own nature, and were rendered good 
 or evil only by 'the opinions of men, or by the 
 laws of the state; that it was the' will of God 
 that all things should be possessed in coniimon, 
 the female sex not excepted; but that human 
 laws, by an arbitrary tyranny, branded those 
 as robbers and adulterers, who only used their 
 natural riglits. It is easy to perceive, that, by 
 these tenets, all. the principles, of virtue were 
 destroyed, and a door opened, to the most hor- 
 rid licentiousness, and to the most profligate 
 and enormous wickedness.* 
 
 XV. 'Valentine, whp was likewise an Egyp- 
 tian by -birth, was eminently distinguised fi-om 
 all his brethren by the extent of his fame, and 
 the multitude of his followers. His sect, which 
 tools' rise at Rome, -grew up to a state of con- 
 sistence and vigour in the isle of Cyprus, and 
 spread" itself through Asia, Africa, and Europe, 
 ' with an "amazing rapidity. ' The' principles of 
 Valentine.-wefe, geijerally speaking, the s^me 
 with those of the Gnostics, whose name he 
 assumed; yet; in many points, lifi entertained 
 opinion's that were pecjilia:!' to himself. " He' 
 placed, for instance" in ihe^plermna (so the 
 Gnostics called the habitation of the Deity) 
 thirty. 6eons, of which the one half were male, 
 and the otlier fema.le. Tb. these he added lour 
 others, which- were of neither sex, viz. Horus, 
 who guarded the borders of the pleroma, Christ, 
 theJIoly Ghost, and Jesus. Tlie youngest of 
 the aBons, called Sophia (i. e. wisdom,) con- 
 ceiving an ardent deMre of comprehending the 
 
 * See. Iren. contra Hxres. -cap. xxy. Clemcntis Alex. 
 Stroinata, lib. iii. p. 5-11. ' • 
 
 nature of the Supreme Being, and by force of 
 this propensity, brought forth a daughter, 
 named. Aehamoth, who, being exilijd from the 
 pleroma, fell down into the rude and undigest- 
 ed mass of matter, to which she gave a certam 
 arrangement, and, by the assistance of Jgsus, 
 produced the (femitirg-Cj the lord and creator of 
 all things. This demiurge separated the sub- 
 tile or animal matter from that of the gr&sser 
 or more- terrestrial kipd; out of the former he 
 created the superior world, or the visible hei- 
 vens; and out'of the latter he formed the infe- 
 rior world, or this terraqueous globe. He also 
 made man, in whose composition thfe subtile, 
 and alsothe grosser matter, were both united- 
 in equal portions;, but Aehamoth, the mother 
 of the demiui"ge, added to these two substan- 
 ces, of wliich the human rac^ was formed, a, 
 spiritual and celestial substance." This is the 
 sum of that intricate and tedious fable, which 
 the extravagant brain of 'Valentitae impos'ed 
 upon the world- for a system of religious phi- 
 losophy; and from this it appears that, though, 
 he explained the origin of the world and of 
 the human race, ina more subtile manner than 
 the Gnostics, he did not differ from them ip. 
 reality. His imagination was mor^wild and 
 inventive than that of his brethretf; and this 
 is manifest in the whole of his doctrine, which 
 is no more than Gnosticism, set 6ut with some 
 supernumerary fringes^ as v^ill farther appear 
 from what follows. 
 
 XVI. " The Creator of this world, accord- 
 ing" to Valentine, arrived, by degrees, at such 
 a pitch of arrogance, that he either imagined 
 himself to be God alone, or, at least, was de- 
 sirous that mankind- should consider ..him as 
 such. For this purpose he sent forth prophets 
 to the Jewish nation, to declare his claim to 
 the honour that is due to the Supreme Being;- 
 and in this point the other angels who preside 
 over the different parts of the universe imine- 
 diately began to imitate his ambition. To 
 chastise thislawless arrogance, and to illumi- 
 nate the minds of rational beings with the 
 knowledge ofthe true and Supreme. Deity, 
 Christ appeared upon earth, composed of an 
 animal' aiid spiritual substance, and ' clothed 
 moreover; with an aerial body ^ This Redeemer, 
 in descending upon earth, passed through- the 
 womb of Mary, as the pure water flows through 
 the untainted conduit. Jesus, one of the su- 
 preme seons, was substantially united- to him, 
 when he was baptized by John in the waters oi 
 Jordan. The creator of this world, when he 
 perceived that the foundations of his empire 
 Were shaken by this divine man, caused him to 
 be apprehended and nailed to the cross. But 
 before Christ submitted to this punishment, 
 not only Jesus the Son of God, but also the 
 rational soul of Christ ascended on high, so 
 that onljnthe animal soul and the ethereal body 
 suffered crucifixion. Those who abandoning 
 the_ service of false deities, and the worship of 
 the God of the Jews, live according to the pre- 
 cepts of Christ, and submit the animal and sen- 
 sual soui to the discipline of reason, shall be 
 truly happy; their rational and also their sen- 
 sual souls shall ascend to those glorious seats 
 of bliss wliich border on the pleroma; and 
 when all the parts of the divine nature, or all 
 
Ohap. V. 
 
 DIVISIONS AND HERESIES. 
 
 75 
 
 souls are purified thoroughly, and separated 
 from matter, then a raging fire, let loose from 
 its . prison, shiiU spread its .flames throughout 
 the universe, and dissolve the frame'of this cor- 
 poreal world." Such is the doctrine of Va- 
 lentine and the Gnostics; such also are the 
 tenets of the oriental philosophy, and they may 
 he summed up in the foll6wing propositions; 
 "This world is a compound of good and evil. 
 Whatever is good' in it, comes down from the 
 Supreme God, the Father of light, and to"^ him 
 it shall return; and then -the world shall be en- 
 tirely destroyed."*^ 
 "XVII. We learn from ancient writers, that 
 the Valentiniaji sect was divided into many 
 branches. One was the sect of thePtolemit'es, 
 so called from their chief Ptolemy, who differ- 
 ed in opinion from his master Valentine, with 
 respect both to the number and nature of the 
 aeons, another wasihe sect of the Secundians, 
 whfcse chief Secundus, one of the principal 
 followers of Valentiiie, maintaiped the doc- 
 trine of two eternal principles; viz. light and 
 darhness, whence arose Jhe' good and evil that 
 are observable in' the universe. From the same 
 source arose the sect of Heracleon, from whose 
 writings Clemens and Origen have made many 
 extracts; as also that of the Marcosians, whose 
 leaders; Marc and Colarbasua, added many ab-' 
 surd fictions to those of Valentine; though it is 
 certain, at the same time, that many errors 
 were attributed to them, which they did not 
 maintain. I I omit the mention of some other 
 sects, to which the Valentinian lieresy is Said 
 to have given rise'. Whether, in reality, they 
 all sprang from this source, is a question of a 
 very ' doubtful kind, especially if we conside,r 
 the errors into which the. ancients have fallen, 
 in tracing out the origin of the various sects 
 that divided the church.f . 
 
 XVIII. It is not necessary to take ajjy parti- 
 cular notice of the more obscure and less con- 
 siderable of the. Gnostic sfects, of jvhich the 
 ancient writers scarcely mention any thing but 
 
 * It is proper to observe, for the information of those 
 who desire a InOre copious accouj^t of the Valeptinian 
 heresy, that many ancient writers have written' upon this 
 subject, especially Irenaeus, Tertullian, Clemens- Alex. 
 &C.'' Among; the moderns, see the dissertation of J. F. 
 Buddeus denaeresi 'Valentiniana,' which gave occasion to 
 -many disputes concerning the origin of this heresy. 
 Some of -the moderns Jiave endeavouted to reconcile, 
 with.Teason, this obscure^ and absurd doctrine of the 
 'Valentiniaios. See, fpr this -purpose, the following-au- 
 thors:' Souverain, Platonisme devoile, ch. .viii.' Camp. 
 Vitringa^'-Obse'rv. Sacr. lib. i. cap. ii. Beauso'b.re, Histoire 
 du Manicheisme, p. 548. Jac. Basnage, Hist, des Juifs, 
 torn. iii. p. 729. ^ Pierre Faydit, Eclaircissemeu's sur 
 PHist. -Ecclesiast. des deux premiers Siecles. How 
 vain all such endeavours are, migh^ easily be shown: and 
 Valentine himself has determmed the matter,- by ae- 
 .i.nowledging that his doctrine is absolutely and entirely 
 different from that" of other Christians. 
 
 {J^ f Marc did not certainly entertain all the opinions 
 that are . attributed^ to him. Tho^e, however, - which 
 we are certain that he adopted, are sufficient to convince 
 us Ihat he was Out of his senses. He maintained, among 
 other crude fancies,- that the plenitude and perfection ol. 
 truth resided in the Greek Alphabet, and alledges that 
 as the reason why Jesus Christ was called the Alpha and 
 the Omega. 
 
 1 Concerning these sects, the reader will jBnd some- 
 thmg fuller in Irenaeus and the other ancient writers, 
 and a yet more learned and satisfactory account in 
 Graebe's Spicilngiiim Eatr. et Haereticor. sec. 9. There 
 IS an ample account of the Marcosians in Irenaeus, contra 
 II»r,]ib. i. 
 
 the name, and one or two of their distinguish- 
 ing tenets. Such were the Adijmites, who are 
 said to have professed an exact iniitation.of the 
 primitive state of innocence; the Cainites, whd 
 treated as saints, with the utmost marks of ad- 
 miration arid respect,. Cajin, Cora, Dathan, the 
 inhabitants of Sodom, and even the traitor 
 Judas. .Sucli also were'the Abelites, who en- 
 tered into the bonds of matrimony, but neg- 
 lected to fulfil its principal end, even the pro- 
 creation of offspring; the Sethites, who honour- 
 ed Seth in a particular manner, and looked 
 upon him as tlie same person with Christ; the 
 Florinians, who had Florinus and Blastus for 
 their chiefs,* and several others. It is highly 
 probable, that the ancient doctors, deceived by 
 the variety of names that distinguished the 
 heretics, may with too much precipitation have 
 divided one sect into many; and it may be far- 
 ther questioned, whether they have, at all 
 times, represented accurately the nature and 
 tru'e meaning of several opinions concerning 
 which they have written. 
 
 XIX. The Ophites, or Serpentinians, a ridi- 
 culous sort-of heretics, who had fortheir leader 
 a man called Euphrates, deserve not the lowest 
 place among the Egyptian Gnostics. This 
 sect, which had its origin among the JewSj was 
 of a more" ancient date than the Christian re- 
 ligion. A part of its followers embraced the 
 Gospel, while the rest retained their primitive 
 superstition; and hence arose the divisioiuof 
 the Ophiteslnto Christian and anti-Christian. 
 The Christian Ophites entertained almost the 
 same fantastic opinions that . were holden by 
 the other .Egyptian Gnostics, concerning the 
 seons, -the eternal matter, the creation of the 
 world in opposition to the will of God, the 
 rulers of the seven planets that presided over 
 this^ world, the tyranny of the demiurge, and 
 also respecting Christ united to the man Jesus, 
 in order to destroy the empire of this usurper. 
 But, beside these,, they maintained the follow- 
 ing particular tenet (whence they received the 
 name of Ophites); "That the ^erpetrf, by which 
 our first parents were deceived, was either 
 Christ himself, or Sophia, concealed under the 
 form of that animal;" and, in consequence of 
 this~opinioii, they are said to have nourished a 
 certain number of serpents, which they looked 
 upon as sacred, and to which they offertd a 
 sort of worship, a subordinEi,te kind of divihfr 
 honours.. It was no difiicult matter for those, 
 who made a distinctiorr between the Supreme 
 Being and the Creator of the world, and who 
 looked upon every thing as divine", which was 
 in opposition to the deiniurge, to fall into these 
 extravagant notions. . ' 
 
 ' XX. The schisms and commotions that arose 
 in the church, from a mixture of the oriental 
 ■and Egyptian philosophy with the Christian 
 religion, were, in the second century, increased 
 by those Grecian philosophers who embracfed 
 the doctrine of Christ. The Christian doc- 
 trines concerning the Father, Son, and Holy 
 
 * Here Dr. Mosheim has fallen into a slight inaccuracy 
 in confounding the opinions of these two neretics, since 
 it is certain, that Blastus -was for restoring the Jewish 
 religion, and, celebrating the passover on -the fourteei^th 
 day; whereas Florinus was a ,'valentinian,,and maintained 
 the- doctrine /of the -two principles, with other .Quoitia 
 errors. 
 
76 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHUJICH. 
 
 Part 11. 
 
 Ghost, and the two natures united in our 
 blessed Savigui, were by no means reconeila-» 
 ble with the tenets of tlie sages and-doctors of 
 Greece, who therefore endeavoured to explain 
 them in such a manner as to render them i om 
 pi:ehensible. Praxeas, a man of genius anil 
 learning, began to propagate these explications 
 at Rome, and was severely persecuted for the 
 errors they contained. He denied any real 
 distinction between the Father, Son, and Holy 
 Ghost, and maintained that the Father, sole 
 creator of all things, had united to hiniself the 
 human nature of Christ. Hence his followers 
 were called Monarchians, because of their de- 
 nying a pluiality of persons in the Deity; and 
 also Pnlripassians, because, according to Ter- 
 tuUian's account, they believed that the Father 
 was so intimately united with the man Christ, 
 his son, that he suffered with him the anguish 
 of an afflicted life, and the torments of an ig- 
 nominious death. However ready many may 
 have been to embrace this erroneous doctrine, 
 it does not appear, that this sect formed to it- 
 self a separate place of worship, or removed 
 from the ordinary assemblies of Christians." 
 
 XXI. An opinion highly resembling that 
 now mentioned, was, about the same time, pro- 
 fessed at Rome by Theodotus, who, though a 
 tanner, was a man of profound learning, and 
 also by Artemas, or Artemon, from whom the 
 sect of the-Artemonites derived their origin. 
 The accounts given of'these two persons, by 
 the ancient writers, are not only few- in num- 
 ber, but are also extremely ambiguous and ob- 
 scure. "Their sejitiments, however, as far as 
 they can be collected from the best records, 
 amount to this; " That, at the birth of the man 
 Christ, a certain divine energy, or portion of the 
 divine nature (and not the fersmt of the Fa- 
 ther, as Praxeas imagined,) united itself to 
 him." 
 
 It is impossible to decide with certainty 
 which of the two was the more ancient, Theo- 
 dotus, or Artemon; as also whether they both 
 taught the same doctrine, or differed in their 
 opinions. One thing, indeed, is certain, that 
 the disciples of both applied the dictates of 
 philosophy, and even the science of geometry, 
 to the explication of the Christian doctrine^ 
 
 XXII, A hke attachment to the dictates of a 
 presumptuous philosophy, induced Hermoge- 
 nes, a painter by profession, to abandon the 
 doctrine of Christianity concerning the Origin 
 of the world, and the mature of the soul, and 
 thus to raise new troubles in the church. Re- 
 garding matter as the fountain of "all evil^he 
 could n6t 'persuade himself that God had cre- 
 ated it from nothing, by an almigjity act of his 
 will; and therefore he maintained, that the 
 world, with whatever it contains, as also- the 
 souls of men, and other spirits, were formed by 
 the Dei(;y from ah imcreated and eternal mass 
 of corrupt matter. In this doctrine there were 
 many intricate things, and it- manifestly jarred 
 with the opinions commonly received among 
 Christians relative to that difficult and almost 
 unsearchable subject.- ^ow Hermogenes ex- 
 plained those. doctrines of Christianity wliich 
 
 * .Tertulliani lib. contra Praxeamj as also- Petri Wes- 
 selingii Frobabilia, cap. ^xvi. 
 
 opjDosed his system, neither Tertullian, who re- 
 futed it, nor aiiy of the ancient writers, inform 
 us.* 
 
 XXIII. These sects, which we have now 
 Upon slightly surveying, may be justly regarded 
 as-tlie offspring of philosophy. But'they were 
 succeeded by' one in which ignorance reigned, 
 and which "was th» mortal enemy of philoso- 
 phy and letters. It was formed by Montanus, 
 an obscure man, without' any capacity or 
 strength of judgment, and who lived in a 
 Phrygian village called Pepuza. This weak 
 man was so foolish and extravagant as to ima- 
 gine and pretend, thsit he was the ■paraclete, or 
 comforter,t whom the divine Saviour, at- bis 
 departure from the earth, promised to send to 
 his disciples to lead them to all truth. Ha" 
 made no attempts upon the peculiar doctrines 
 of Christianity, but only declared, thathe was 
 sent with a divine commission, to give, to the 
 moral precepts delivered by Christ and his apos- 
 tles, the finishing touch that was to bring them 
 to perfection. He was of opinion, that Christ 
 and his -apostles made, in their precepts, many 
 allowances to Hie infirmities of those among 
 whom they lived, and that this condescending 
 indulgence rendered their system ornioral laws 
 imperfect and incomplete. He therefore added 
 to the laws of the Gospel many austere deci- 
 sions; inculcated the necessity of multiplying 
 fasts; prohibited second inarriages as unlawful; 
 maintained that the church should refuse abso- 
 lution to- those who had fallen into the com- 
 mission of enormous sins; a.nd condemned all 
 care of the -body, especially all nicety in dress-, 
 and all female orna.ments. The excessive au- 
 sterity of this ignorant fanatic did not stop 
 here; he showed the samo-aversioa to the ho- 
 
 * There is yet extant a book -written by Tertullian 
 against Hermogenes, in which the opinions of the latter 
 concerning matter, and the origin of the world, are 
 warmly opp6sed. We have lost another work of the 
 same author, in which he refuted the notion of Hermo- 
 genes concerning the soal. 
 
 f Those are undoubtedly in an error, who have assert- 
 ed that Montanus gave himself- out for the Holy Ghost. 
 However weak he may have been in point of capacity, he 
 was not fool enough to - push his pretensions so ' far. 
 JVeither have they, who inform us tliat Montanus pre- 
 tended to have -received from above the same spirit or 
 paraclete - which formerly animated the apostles, inter- 
 preted with accuracy the meaning of this heretic. It is, 
 therefore, necessary to observe here, that Montanus 
 made a distinction between the paraclete prdmlsed- by 
 Christ to-his apostles, and the Holy Spirit that was shed 
 upon- them gn the day of Pentecost; and understood, by 
 the former, a divine teacher pointed out by Christ, as a 
 comforter, who was to .perfects the Gospel by the addi- 
 tion; of some doctrines omitted by our Saviour, and to 
 cast a full light upon others which were expressed in an 
 obscure and imperfect manner, though for wise reasons 
 which subsisted during the ministry of Christ; and, in- 
 deed, Montanus was not the only person who made this 
 distinction. Other Christian doctors were of opinion, 
 that the paraclete promised by Jesus to his disciples, was 
 a d-ivine ambassador, entirely distinct from the Holy 
 Ghost which was shed upon the apostles. In the third 
 century. Manes interpreted the promise of Christ in this 
 manner; He pretended, moreover, that Jie himself was 
 the paraclete, and that, in his person, the prediction was 
 fulfilled. Every one knows, that Mohammed entertained 
 the same notion, and applied to himself the prediction 
 of Christ, It was, therefore, this divine messenger that 
 -Montanus pretended to be, and not the Holy Ghost. 
 This will appear with the utmost evidence, to those who 
 read with attention the account given of this -matter by 
 Terti^llian,-who was the most famous of all the disciples 
 of Montanus, and the most perfectly acquainted with 
 ever^point of his doctrine. 
 
Chap. I. 
 
 PROSPEROUS EVENTS. 
 
 77 
 
 blest employmeiits of the miijd, tlmt he did to 
 the innocent enjoyments of life; and gave' it 
 as his opinion, that I>hilosophy, arts, and what- 
 ever savoured of polite literature, should be 
 mercilessly banished from the Christian church. 
 He looked upon those Christians a? guilty of a 
 most heinous transgression, who saved their 
 lives by iliglit, from the persecuting sword, or i 
 who ransomed them by money, frolp the hands : 
 of their cruel and mercenary judges. I might j 
 mention many, other "precepts of. the samej 
 teacher, equal to these in severity and rigour, i 
 
 XXIV. It was -impossible to suffer, within j 
 the bounds of the church, an enthusiast, who j 
 gave himself out for a communicator of pre-j 
 cepts superior in sanctity to those of .Christ j 
 Jiimself, and who imposed his austere discipline 
 upon Christians, as enjoined by a divine au-i 
 thprity, and dictated by the oracle pf celestial 
 wisdono, which spoke to the world through 
 him. Besides, Ijis dismal predictions c'oncern- 
 mg tlie disasters that were to happen in. the 
 empire, and the approaching destruction of the 
 Roman republic, might be expected to render 
 him ohnoxious to the governing powers, and [ 
 also to excite their resentnjent against, the 
 church, which nourished such an inauspicious 
 prophet in its bosom. Montanus, therefore, 
 first by a decree of certailj assemblies, and af- 
 terwards by the unanimous voice of the whole 
 church, was solemnly separated from the body 
 of the faithful. 
 
 It is, however, certain, that the very severity 
 
 of his doctrines gained him the esteem and con- 
 fidence of manyf who were far from being of 
 the lowest order. The most eminent among 
 these were Priscilla and Maximilla', ladies more 
 remarkable for their opulence than, for their 
 virtue, and who fell with a high degree of 
 warmth andr^zealinto the visions of their fa- 
 natical chief, prophesied like him, and imitated 
 the pretended paraclete in all the variety ot 
 his extravagance and folly. Hence it became 
 an easy matter for Montanus to erect a new 
 church, '(vhich was first established at Pepiiza; 
 arid afterwards sptead abroad through Asia, 
 Africa, and a part of Eiardpe. The most emi- 
 nent and learned of all the .followers of this 
 rigid enthusiast was Tertullian, a man of great i^ 
 learning and genius, but of an austere and 
 melancholy temper. This greatman, by adopt- 
 ing the sentiments of Montanus, and maintain- 
 ing his cause with fortitude, and even vehe- 
 -mence, in a mlaltitude of books written upon 
 that occasion, has ex[iibited a mortifying spec- 
 tacle of the deviations of which human nature 
 is capable, even in those in whom it seems to 
 have approached the nearest to ^perfection.* 
 
 * For an account of the Montanists, see Eiiseb. Eccles. 
 History, boolc v. ch. xvl., and all the writers ancient and 
 modern (especially Tertullian) who have professedly 
 written, of the sects of the earlier ages. The learned 
 Theophiliis Wernsdorff published, In. 1751-, a most inge- 
 nious exposition of whatever regards -the sect of the 
 Montanists, under the following title; Cpmnxentatio d« 
 Montanists Sseculi secundi,' vulgo creditis Haeretiris 
 
 THE THIRD CENTURY 
 
 PART 1. 
 
 THE EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 CHAPTER I. ^^-- 
 Which contains the Pfosperom Events that ha^ 
 ' pened to the Church during this Centwhj. 
 
 J. That the Christians suffered, in this c^ni 
 tury, calamities and injuries of the most dread- 
 ful kind, Ts a matter that admits no debate; nor 
 was there, indeed, -any period in which they 
 were securcor free froili danger. For, not to 
 mention the fury of the people, set in motion 
 so often by the craft and zeal of their licentious 
 priests, the evil came Brom a higher source; the 
 p'reetors and magistrates, notwithstanding the| 
 ancient laws of the emperors in favor of the 
 Christians, had it in their power to pursue them 
 with all sorts of vexations, as often as avarice, 
 cruelty, or superstition roused up the infer- 
 nal spirit of persecution in their breasts. , At 
 the same time, it is certain that the rights and 
 
 privileges of the Christians were multiplied, in 
 this c^ntuiy, mucH more than some are apt to 
 imagine. In the army, at court, arid, indeed, 
 in all the orders of the nation, there were many 
 Christians who lived entirely unmolesfed; and, 
 what is still more, the profession of Christi- 
 anity was no obstacle to tlje public preferment 
 under most of the emperors that; reigned in 
 this century. It is also certain, that the Chris- 
 tians had, in, many places,' houses wherie they 
 assembled for the purposes of divine worship 
 with the knowledge and connivance of the em- 
 perors and magistrates. And- though it be 
 more than probable, -that this Uberty was, upon 
 various occasions, and even for.the most part, 
 purchased at a high r§te, yet it is manifest, 
 that some of the eriiperors were very favour 
 ably inclined toward the ChfistianS, and were 
 far from having any aversion, to lhe.ir religion. 
 
78 
 
 EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part I. 
 
 • II. Caracalla, the son of Severus, was pro- 
 claimed emperor in the year 211, and, during 
 the -six years of his government,, he neither 
 oppressed the Christians himself, nor permitted 
 ■^any others to treat them with cruelty or injus- 
 tice. Heliogabalus also, though in other re- 
 epeets the most 'infamous of all jjrinqes,* and, 
 perhaps, the most odious of all mortals, show- 
 ed no marks of bitterness or aversion to the 
 disciples of Jesus. His successor, Alexander 
 Severus, who- was a prince distinguished by a 
 noble assemblage <jf the most excellent and il- 
 lustrious virtues, did not, indeed, abrogate the 
 laws that had been enacted against the Chris- 
 tians; and this is the reason why we' have some 
 examples of ma^tyrdoin under his administra- 
 tion. It is nevertheless certain, that he show- 
 ed them, in many vpays, and upon every occa- 
 sion that was offered to ^him, the most un- 
 doubted marks of benignity: h^ is even said to 
 have gone so , far as to pay a certain sort of 
 worsliip to ths divine author of our religion. f 
 The friendly inclination of this prince toward 
 the Christians probably arose, at first, from the 
 instructions and counsels of his mother, Julia 
 Mammsea, for whom he had a high degree of 
 love and veneration. Julia had very favour- 
 able sentiments of the Christian rehgion: and, 
 being once at Antioch, sent for the famous 
 Origen from Alexandria, in order to enjoy the 
 pleasure and advantage of his conversation and 
 instructions.- Those who assert, that .lulia, 
 and her spn Alexander, embraced the Chris- 
 tian religion, are by no means furnished with 
 unexceptionable testimonies to confirni this 
 fact, though- we may alBrw, with confidence, 
 that this/victuous prince looked upon Christi- 
 anity as , meriting, beyond all other religions, 
 toleration and favour from the state, and con- 
 sidered its author as worthy of ^ place among 
 those who had -been distinguished'by their sub^ 
 lime virtues, and honoured with a commission 
 from above. I 
 
 III. Under; Gordian, the Christians lived in 
 tranquillity. His successors the Philips, father 
 and son, proved so favouraile, , and even 
 friendly to them, that these two emperors 
 passed, in the opinion of many, for Christians; 
 and, indeed, the arguments alleged to prove that 
 they embraced, though in a secret and clandes- 
 tine manner, the religion of Jesus, seem to ren- 
 der this point highly probable. But, as these ar- 
 guments are opposed by others equally spacious, 
 the famous question, relating to the religion of 
 Philip the Arabian and his 'son, must be left 
 undecided.§ JVeifher side offers reasons so 
 
 * LampridiuB, Vita Elagabali. 
 
 f Lamprjd. di Vita Severi, cap." xxhr. Vide Carol 
 Henr. Zeibichii Dis. de Christo ab Alexandre- in.larario 
 culto, in Miscellan. Lip3. nov. torn. iii. 
 
 J Vide F. Spanbemii Dig. de Lucii, Britonum Regis, 
 JuUs Mammffiae et Fhilipporum, conversionibus^tom. 
 ii. gp. p. 400. Item, Paul Jablonsk'i, J3is 'de Alexandre 
 S'evero sacris Christianis per Gnosticos initialo, in Mis- 
 cellan. Lips. nov. torn, iv.- ■ . 
 
 Ot^ §- The authors of the Universal History have de- 
 termined the question which Dr. Moshcim leaves here 
 undecided; and they think it maybe affirmed, that Philip 
 and his son einbraced the Gospel, since that opinion i» 
 built itpon such respectable authority-as that of Jerom, 
 Chrysoslflm, Dionysius of Alexandria, Zonaras,~ Nice- 
 phorus,^ Cedrenus, Jluffiuus,^ Syncellus, Orosiua, Jor- 
 nandes, Ammianus. MarccUinus, the learned* cardinal 
 Bono, S'inctotius' Lirineusis, Huetius", and others. Pr. 
 
 victorious and unanswerable, as to produce a 
 full and complete conviction; and this is there- 
 fore one of those maay ca^es, where a suspen- 
 sion of judgment is both - allowable and wise. 
 With respect to GalUenus, and §ome other em- 
 perors, of this century, if they did not pro- 
 fessedly favoiir the progress of Christianity, 
 they did not oppress its followers, or retard its 
 advancement. . , 
 
 IV. This clemency Snd benevolence,' wliich 
 the followers of Jesus, experienced- from great 
 men, and especially from thoseof imperial dig- 
 nity, must be placed, without doubt, among 
 the human means that contributed to multiply 
 the number of Christians, and to enlarge the 
 bounds of the church. Other causes, how- 
 ever, both divine and human, must be added 
 here,_to afford a complete and 'satisfkctory ac- 
 count of this matter. Among the causes which 
 belong to the. first of these classes, we do not 
 only reckon the intrinsic force of celestial truth, - 
 and the piety and fortitude of those who de- 
 clared it to the world, but also that especial and 
 interposing providence, which, by such dreams 
 and visions as were presented to the minds of 
 many, who were either inattentive to the Chris- 
 tian doctrine,-or its professed enemies, "touched 
 their hearts wi'th a conviction of its truth and 
 a sense of its importance, and engage^ them, 
 without delay, to profess themselves the dis- 
 ciples of Christ.* To this may also be added, 
 the healing of diseases, and other miracles, 
 which many Christians were yet enabled to 
 perform by invoking the name of the divine 
 Savioiir.f The number of miracles, however, 
 we find to have been much less in this than in 
 the preceeding century; nor must this altera- 
 tion be attributed only to the divine wisdom, 
 which rendered miraculolis interpositions less 
 frequent in proportion as tiiey became less ne- 
 cessary, but also to - that justice -which wag 
 provoked to diminish the frequency of gifls, 
 because some did jiot scruple to pervert them 
 to mercenary purposes. | - 
 
 V. If we turnjDUr view. to the human means 
 that contributed, at this time, to multiply<the 
 number of Christians, and extend the, limits of 
 the church", we shall find a great variety of 
 causes uniting their influence, and contributing 
 jointly to this happy ptu:pose. Among these 
 must be reckoned the translations of the sacred 
 writings into various languages, the zeal and 
 labours of Origen in spreading ibroad copies 
 of them, and the different ;works that were 
 published, by, leahled and pious men, in de- 
 fence of the Gospel.. We may add to this, that 
 the acts of benificence and liberality, -perform-' 
 ed by the Christians, even toward persons 
 whose religious principles they abhorred, had a 
 
 Mosheim refers his readers, for an account of this mat- 
 ter, to tlie following writers: Spanheim, de Christianis- 
 mo Philip, lom. ii; Dp. p. 400. — Entretiens Historiques 
 sur le Christianisme de I'Empereur Philippe, par P. De 
 L. F. — Mammachii Origines et Antiqu. ChnstianEe, torn, 
 ii. p. 952 — Fabric, de Luce Evang. &c. p. 952. 
 
 .* Sec, for an account of this matter, the following au- 
 thors: Origen, lib. i. a^v. Celsnm, p. 35. Homil. in Lucas 
 vii. p. 216, torn. ii. op. edit._Basil. — as also TertuUian, de 
 Anima, cap. xiv. and Eusebius, lib. vi. cap. v. ' > , 
 
 t Origen, contra .celsum; lib. i. Euseb. lib. T. cap. vii. 
 Cypriani Ep. 1. ad Donat. and the notes of Baluze upon 
 that passage. 
 I I Spencer, not in Origen. contra Celsiun. 
 
Chap. I. 
 
 CALAMITOUS EVENTS. 
 
 79 
 
 great influence in attracting the esteem, and 
 removing the prejudices of many, who were 
 thus prepared for examining with icandour tlje 
 Christian doctrine, and, consequently, for re- 
 ceiving its Hivlne light. The adorers of the 
 pagan deities inust have beendestitute of every 
 generous affection, of every humane feeling, if 
 the view of that boundless charity, which the 
 Christians exercised toward the poor,-.t-he love 
 they expressed even to their enemies, the ten- 
 der care they took of the sick and iniirm, the 
 humanity they discovered in the redemption of 
 captives, andihe other illustrious virtues, which 
 rendered, them so worthy of universal esteem, 
 had not touched their, "hearts, dispelled their 
 prepossessidns, and rendered them more fa- 
 vourable to the disciples of Jesus. -If, among 
 the causes of the propagation of Christianify, 
 thereis a,ny place due to pwus frauds, it-is cer- 
 tain that they merit a'very small pai^t of the 
 honour of having contributed, to this glorious 
 purpose, since they were practised by fe.w, and 
 that very rarely. . ^ - 
 
 VI. That the limits of tlje church were ex- 
 tended in this century, is a matter beyond all 
 contrbyetsy. It is, not, however, equally cer- 
 tain in what manner, by what persons, or in 
 what parts of Hie world, this was effected. 
 Origen, invited from Alexandria by art Arabian 
 prince, converted, by his: assiduous laboiirs, a 
 certain tribe of wandering Airabs to the Chris- 
 tian faith.* The Goths, a fierce and warlike 
 people, who inhabited the countries of Moesia' 
 and Thrace, and who, accustomed to rapine, 
 harassed the neighbouring provinces by .perpe- 
 tual incursions, received the knowledge of the 
 Gospel by the means of certain Christian- doc- 
 tors sent'thither from Asia. The liolyJives of 
 these venerable teachers, and the miraculous 
 powers with wiiich they were endowed, attract- 
 ed the esteem, even of a people educated to 
 nothing but plvmder and devastation, and ab- 
 solutely uncivilized by letters or science; and 
 their authority and iijfluence became, so great, 
 and prodheed, in.process of time, such remark- 
 able effects, that a great part of this barbarous 
 people professed .themselves the disciples of 
 Christ, and put off, in a" manner, that ferocity 
 which had been so natural to them.f - 
 ,, VII. "The Christian "assemblies, founded -in 
 Gaul by the Asiatic doctors in the -preceding 
 century, were few in number, and of very small 
 extent; but both their, number and their extent 
 were considerably increased from the time of 
 the emperor Decius. Under his sway, Diony- 
 sius, Gatian;' Trophimus, Paul, Saturninus, 
 JVIartial, Stremonius, mehbf exemplary piety, 
 passed into this province,and, amidst dangers 
 and trials of various kinds, erected churches 
 at Paris, Tours, Aries, and several other plage?. 
 This was followed by a rapid progress of the 
 Gospel among "the Gauls, as the disciples of 
 these pious teachers spread, in a short time, the 
 knowledge of Christianity through the whole 
 country.J We must also place in this century 
 
 * £usebius; Hist. Eccle?.. lib. iv; cap. xix. p. ^1. , 
 
 f Sozomelius, His. Eccletf. lib. ii. cap. vi. ' Faulua 
 
 Diaconus, Plist. Miscel. lib. ii. cap. xiv. Fhilostorgius, 
 
 ftisL ficcles. lib. ii. cap. v. p. 470. 
 i See the bistorj of the Franks by Gregory oT Tours, 
 
 book i. ch. xxvi]i. Theodor. Riimart, Acta Martyr. 
 
 sincera, p. 109. 
 
 the origin of several German churches, such 
 a» those of ColognCj Treves, Mentz, and others, 
 of which Eucharius, Valeriiis, Matemua, and 
 Clemens, were the principal founders.* The 
 historians of Scotland inform-us, that the light 
 of Christianity arose upon that country during 
 this century; but, though there be nothing im- 
 probable in this assertion, yet it is hot built 
 upon incontestable, authority .f- 
 
 CHAPTER, II. 
 Concerning the Calamitous Events _wkich hap- 
 ^ penedtothe^CkwchirithisCentvry. 
 
 I. In the beginning of this century, the 
 Christian church suffered calamities of various 
 kinds throughout the provinces of the Roijian 
 empire. ' These sufferings increased in a tejri^ 
 ble manner, jn consequence pf a law made, in 
 the year 203, by the emperor Severus (who, 
 in other respects, was certainly no enemy to 
 the Christians,) by which every subject of the 
 .empire Was prohibited ftom changing the reli- 
 gion'ef his ancestors for the Cliri^tian or Jew- 
 ish &ith.| This law was, in its effects, most 
 prejudicial to the Christians; for, though it did 
 not formally condemn them, aaid-seemed only 
 adapted to put a stop to the progress of the 
 Gospel,' yet it induced i^pacious and unjust 
 magistrates to' persecute even unto death the 
 poorer sort among the Christians, that thus the 
 richer might be led, through fear of the like 
 treatment, to purchase their tranquillity and 
 safety at an expensive rate. Hence r^any of 
 the disciples'of Qhrist, in several parts of Asia, 
 also in Egypt and other parts of Africa, were 
 put to death in consequence of this law. — 
 Among these Leonidas,,the father- of Origeii, 
 Perpetua, and Felicitas (those two famous 
 -African ladies; whose acts § are come down to 
 our times,) Potamiena -Marcella, and ' other 
 martyrs of both sexes, 'acquired an illustrious 
 name by the magnani'piity and tranquillity "with 
 which they endured the most cruel sufferings. 
 
 II. From the death of Severus to the jeign 
 pf Maximin, the condition of ^the Christians 
 was, in some .places; prosperous, and, in all, 
 supportable. But witliJViaximin the face. of 
 affairs changed. This unworthy emperor, hav- 
 ing animaied the R6man soldiers to assassinate 
 Alexander Severus, dreaded the resentment of 
 the Christians, whom that excellent prince had 
 favoured andprotected in a distinguished man- 
 ner; and, for this reason, he ordered the bishops^ 
 whom he knew that. Alexander, had always 
 treated as-his intimate friends, to be seized, and 
 put to death. II Diiring. his- reign; the Chris- 
 tians -suffered in -the most barbarous manner; 
 for, though the edict of this tyrant extended 
 only to the bishops and leaders, of the Chris- 
 tian church, yet its shocking effects reached 
 much farther, as it animated the heathen 
 
 • * See Atig. Calmet, Hist, de L.orraine, lom^ i. dissert, 
 i. p. 7. ,Jo, Nicol. ab Hontheim, Historia -Trevirenais, , 
 torn', i. ubi. Diss, de aera HiDdati Episcopatus Trevirensla. - 
 t See tjsher and Slillingfleet, Antiquit., et Oxigin. 
 Ecclesiar. But. ^ee also Sir George Mackenzie, de 
 Regali Scotorum prosapia, cap. viii. p. 119. 
 
 I Eus.ebius,.Histor. £ccles; lib. vU cap. i. Spartianu's 
 in Severe, cap. xvi. xvii^ 
 
 ■§ TheQd.-Ruinart, Acta Martyr, p. 90. 
 
 II Euseb. Hist. Ecolcs* lib. vi. cap. xxviii. p. £25. 
 Ordsiusj Hist. lib. Til. cap. xix. p. 509. 
 
EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 80 
 
 prieste, the magistrates, and- thff multitude, 
 "against Christiano of every rank and order.* 
 
 IIL This storm waS succeeded hy a calm, 'in 
 which the Christians enjoyed a happy tranquil- 
 lity for many years. The accession of Decius 
 Trajan to the imperial throne, in the year 249, 
 raised a new teH;pest, in which the fury of per- 
 secution fell in a dreadful manner upon the 
 church of Christ; for tliis emperor, either from 
 an illgrounded fear of the Christians, or from 
 a violent zeal for the superstition of his ances- 
 tors, published rhost -terrible and' cruel edicts; 
 by which the prsetorsVere ordered, on pain 
 of death, either to extirpate the whole body of 
 Christians without exception, or to force them, 
 by torments of various kinds, to retmn to the 
 pagan worship. Hence, in .all the provinces 
 of the empire, multitudes of Christians were, 
 in the course of two years, put to death by the 
 most horrid punishments! which an ingenious 
 barbarity could invent. Of all these cruelties 
 the most unhappy circumstance was, their fa- 
 tal influence upon the faith and constancy of 
 many of the sufferers; for as this persecution 
 was much more terrible than all those which 
 preceded it, so a great number of Christians, 
 dismayed, not at the approach of death, but at. 
 the aspect of. those dreadful and lingering tor- 
 ments, which a barbarous magistracy had pre- 
 paredf to combat their constancy, fell from the 
 profession of their faith, and secured them- 
 selves from punishment, either by' oifering sa- 
 crifices, 6r by burning, incense, before the- 
 images of the gods, or by purchasing certificates 
 from the pagan priests. Herjce arose the op- 
 probrious names of SaeHJicatl^ given to those 
 - who sacrificed; Tlmrificati; to those who burn- 
 ed incense; and Libellatici, to those who pro- 
 duced certificates.f 
 
 IV. -This .defection of such a prodigious 
 number of Christians .under Decius, was the 
 occasion of great commotions in the church, 
 and produced debates of a very difiicult and 
 delicate nature; for the lapsed, or those who. 
 had feUen from their Christian prdfessioii, were 
 desirous of being restored toths church-com- 
 munion, withoat'submitting to that painful 
 course of penitential discipline, which the "ec- 
 clesiastical laws indispensably requited. The 
 bishops were divided upon this matter: some 
 were for showing the desired indulgence, while 
 others opposed it with all their might.§ In 
 
 Part I. 
 
 *■ Origen, torn, sxviii. in Matth'. op. torn. i. p. 137. See 
 also Firmilianus in Cypriani Epistolis, p. 140. 
 
 f Eusebiu3^-lib. yi. cap. sxxix. xli. Gregorius JYyss. 
 invila Thaiimaturgi. Cyprianus, de Lapsia. _ 
 
 J These certificates were not all_equally criminal; nor 
 did all of them indicate a .degree' -of appstacy equally 
 enormops. It is therefore necessary to inform the rea- 
 der of the following distinctions omitted by Dr. Mosheim; 
 these certificates were sometimes no move than a permis- 
 sion to abstain from sacrificing, obtained by a fee given 
 to the judges, and were not looked upon as an act of 
 apost^cy, unless the Christians who demanded them had 
 declared to the judges that they had conformed them- 
 selves to.the emperor's edicts. But, at other times, they 
 - contained a profession of pagaMiam, and were either of- 
 fered.voluntarily by the aposlate,or were subscribed by 
 him,. when they were presented to him by the persecuting 
 magistrates. Many used certificatea,-a3 letters of sfecUrity 
 obtaiAed from the priests, at a high rate, and which 'dis- 
 penaed them from either professing or denying their pen- 
 time.nts. See Spanheim'a Histo.ria Christian^,; p, 732. 
 ^ce also Prud. Maranus in vita Cypriani, seci. 6. ' - 
 
 5 EusebiuB, lib. vi. cap. uliv. Cypr. Epjstpls. 
 
 Africa, many, in order to obtain more, speedily 
 the. pardon of their apo'stacy, interested the 
 martyrs iii their behalf, and received from them 
 letters of, reconciliation and peace, i. e. a forr 
 mal act, by which they (the martyrs) declared 
 in their last moments, that they looked upon 
 them as worthy of their -communion, and de- 
 sired, of consequence, that they should be re- 
 stored ■to.theirplaceam(3iig the brethren. Some 
 bishops and presbyters re-admitted into the 
 church, with too much facility, apostates and 
 transgressors, who produced such testimonies 
 as these. But Cyprian, bishop- of Carthage, 
 a man of severe wisdom and great digrtity of 
 character, acted in quite another way. Though 
 he had no intention of derogating from the-.au- 
 thority of the venerable martyrs, yet he op- 
 posed with vigour this unreasonable lenity, and 
 set limits to the efficacy of these letters of re- 
 conciliation and peace. Hence arose^a Keen 
 dispute between him and the martyrs, confes- 
 sors, presbyters, and lapsed, seconded by the 
 people: and yet, notwithstanding this formida- 
 ble -multitude of adversaries, tte venerable ^ 
 bishop came off victorious.* 
 
 V. Gallus, the successor of Decius, and 
 Volusianus, son of the former, re-animated the 
 flame of persecution, which was beginning to 
 burn with less fury;j and^ beside the siifferings 
 which the Christians had to undergo in con- 
 sequence, of their cruel edicts, they were als6 
 involved in the public calamities that prevailed 
 at tliis time^ anfl suffered grievously from a 
 terrible pestilence, which spread desolation 
 through many previous of the ejnpire.J This 
 pestileriee also was an occasion which the pa- 
 gan priests used- with dexterity to renew the 
 rage of persecution agaiiist them, by persuad- 
 ing the people that it was on account of the 
 lenity- used towards the Christians, that the 
 gods sent down their judgments upon the na- 
 tions. ' In the year 254, "Valeriani being de- 
 clared emperor, made the fury of persecution 
 cease, and restored the chilrch to a state of 
 tranquillity. " '■ "' 
 
 VI. The clemency and benevolence which 
 "Valerian showed to the Christians, continued 
 until the fifth year of his teign. Then the 
 scene began to change, and the change indeed 
 was sudden. Macrianus, a superstitious and 
 cruel bigot to paganism, had gained an .entire 
 ascendency over Valerian, and ivas chief coun- 
 sellor in every thmg that related to the affairs 
 of-govenitment. By.the persuasion of this im- 
 perious minister, the Christians were prohibited 
 from assembling, and their bishops and doctors 
 were sent into banislunent. This edict was 
 published in the year 257, and was followed, 
 the year after, by one still more severe; in con- 
 sequence of which, a considerable number of 
 Christian^, in the different provinces of the 
 empire, were put to death; and many of these 
 were subjected to such cruel modes of execu- 
 tion, as were more terrible than death itself. 
 Of those who stlffered in this persecution, the 
 
 * The whole history of this controversy may be gather- 
 ed from ' the epistles of Cyprian. See also Gabr. .^Ibas- 
 pinaeus, Qbsen'at. Eccles. lib. i. obserr. xx. and Dallaeua, 
 de l^cenis.et Satisfactionibus humania, lib. vii. cap. xvi. 
 
 t Euseb. lib. vii. cap. i. Cypriani. Epist. Ivii. Iviii. 
 
 \ "Vid. Cypriani Lib. ad Demetriauum. 
 
Cbap. II. 
 
 CALAMITOUS EVENTS. 
 
 81 
 
 most eminent' were Cyprian, bishbp of Cai^ 
 thage; Sixtus, bishop of'Rome; and Lauren- 
 tius, a Roman deacon, who was barbarously 
 consumed by a glow and lingering fire. ' An 
 unexpected event suspended, for- awhile, the 
 sufferings of the Christians. Valerian was 
 made prisoner in the war against the Persians; 
 and his son GalUerius, in the year 260, restor- 
 ed peace to the church.* 
 
 VII. The condition of the ,Christians was 
 rather supportable than Jiappy, under the reign 
 of Gallienus, which lasted eight years; as also 
 under the short administration of his successor 
 Claudius. Nor did they suffer much during 
 the first four years of the reign of Aurelian, 
 who was raised to the-empire in the year 270. 
 Butthe fifth year of this emperor's administra- 
 tion would have proved fatal to them, had not 
 his violent death prevented the execution of 
 his cruel purposes; for while, instigated by the 
 unjust suggestions of his own superstition, or 
 by the barbarous counsels of a, bigoted priest- 
 hood, he was preparing a formidable attack 
 upon the Christians, he was obliged to march 
 into Gaul, where he was murdered, in the year 
 275, before his edicts were pubUshed through- 
 out the empire.f Few, therefore, suffered 
 martyrdom under his reign; and indeed, diiring 
 the remainder of this century, the Christians 
 enjoyed a considerable measure of ease and 
 tranquillity. They were, at least, free, from 
 any violent attacks of oppression and injustice, 
 except in asmall number of cases, where the 
 avaricemnd superstition of the Roman magis- 
 trates interriipted their tranquillity.^ 
 
 VIII. While the emperor, and proconsuls 
 empldyed against-the Christians the tetror of 
 unrighteous edicts, and the edge of the destroy- 
 ing sword, the Platonic philosophers, who have 
 been described above, exhausted against Chris- 
 tianity all the force of their learning and elo- 
 quence, and all the resources of their art and 
 dexterity, in rhetorical declamations, subtile 
 writings, and ingenious stoatagems. Tliese 
 artful adversaries were soTBuch the more dan- 
 gerous and formidable, as they had adopted 
 several of the doctrines and institutions of the 
 Gospel, and, with a speciqus air of moderation 
 and impartiality, we're attempting,- after ' the 
 exEunple of their master 'Ammonius, to recon- 
 cile paganism with CMstianity, and form a 
 sort of coalition of the ancient and the new 
 religion. These philosophers had at their 
 head, in this century, Porphyry (a Syrian, or, 
 as some allege, a Tyrian, by birth,) who wrote 
 against 'the. ChristiaJiS a long and laborious 
 work, wjiich was destroyed Mterwards by an 
 imperial edict. § He was, imdoubtedly, a Wri- 
 ter of great dexterity, genius, and erudition, 
 as those of his works which yet remain suffi- 
 
 * Euseb. Hist. Eccles. lib..vii. cap. x. ti. p. 255. Acta 
 Cypriani, as they are to be found m Ruinartv Act. Marty- 
 rum, p. 216. C_ypnani Epist. Ixxvii. Ixxxii. 
 
 f Eusebius, lib. vii. Lactantius, de mortibus Perse- 
 cuutor. 
 
 } Among these vexations may be reckoned the cruelty 
 of Galerius Maximiam, who, toward the conclusion of 
 this century, persecuted the ministers of his court, and 
 the soldiers of his army, who had professed Christianity. 
 See Eusebius, lib. yiii. . _ , , 
 
 S See Holstenius dc vita Porphyr. cap. ii. Fabric. 
 Lux Erang. p. 154. Buddeus, Isagoge in Theologium, 
 torn. ii. 
 
 Vol. I.— 11 
 
 ciently testify. But those very works, and the 
 history of hisjife, show us, at the same time, 
 that he was a much more virulent, than formi- 
 dable enemy to the Christians; for by them it 
 appears, that he was much more attentive to 
 the suggestions of a sugerstitious spirit, and 
 the visions of a lively fancy, than to the sober 
 dictates of right reason and a sound judgment; 
 and it may be more especially observed of the 
 remaining fragments of his work against the 
 Christians,, that they are equally destitute of 
 judgment andequity, and are utterly unworthy 
 of a wise and a good man.* 
 
 IX. Many were the deceitful and perfidious 
 stratagems by wjiich this sect endeavoured to 
 obscure the lustre, and diminish theauthority 
 of the Christian doctrine. None of theseseem- 
 ed to be more dangerous than the seducing ar- 
 tifice with wtich they formed a comparison be- 
 tween tlie li&, actions, and miracles of Christ, 
 and the history of the ancient philosophers, and 
 placed the contending parties in such fallacious 
 points of view, as to make the pretended sages 
 of antiquity appear in nothing inferior to the 
 divine Saviour. With this view, Archytas of 
 Tarentum, Pythagoreis, of whom Porphyry 
 viTote the life, ApoUonius Tyanaeus, a Pytha- 
 gorean philosopher, whose miracles and pere- 
 ''grinations were highly celebrated by the vul- 
 gar, were brought upon the scfefie, and exhibit- 
 ed as divine teachers, and rivals of the glory 
 of the Son of God. Philostratus, one of the 
 most eminent rhetoricians of this age, compos- 
 ed apompous history of the life of ApoUonius, 
 who was little better than a cunning knave, 
 and did nothing but ape the austerity and sanc- 
 tity of Pythagoras. . This^istory appears ma- 
 iiifestly designed to draw a parallel between 
 Christ and the philosopher of Tyana; but the 
 impudent fictions and ' riidiculous fables, with 
 which this work is filled, must, one w.ould 
 think, have rendered it incapable, of deceiving 
 any who possessed a sound mind; any, -but 
 such as, through the corruption of vicious pre- 
 judices, were-willing to be deceived.f 
 
 X. But as there are no opinions, however 
 -absurd, and no stories^ however idle and im- 
 probable, that a weak arid ignorant multitude, 
 more attentive to the pomp of words than to 
 the trlith of lyings, will not easily swallow; so 
 it Tiappened, that many were ensnared by the 
 absurd attempts of these insidious philosophers. 
 Some were induced by these perfidio^us strata- 
 gems to abandon the Christian religion, which 
 
 . d^ * This work of Porphyry against the Christians 
 was burned, by an edict of Constanti'ne the Great." It was 
 divided ihto filleeif books, as we And in Eusebius, and 
 contained the blackest calumnies against the Christians.' 
 The first book treated of the contradictions which he 
 preteniled to' have found in the sacred writings. The 
 greatest part of the'twelfth.is employed in fixing the time 
 when^the prophecies of Daniel were written; for Totr 
 phyry himself fo^nd these - pr^ictions so clearly and 
 evidently fulfilled,, that, to avoid the force of the argu- 
 ment, thence deducible in favor of Christianity, he ^as 
 forced to have recourse to the absurd supposition^ that 
 these prophecies had been published under the name of 
 Daniel by one who lived in the time of Antiochus, and 
 wrote after the arrival of the eveots..foretold. Metho- 
 dius, Eusebius, and Apollinaris, wrote against Porphyry; 
 but thei): refutations have been long since lost. 
 . t See. Olerius' preface to . the Life of ApoUonius by 
 Philostratus; as alsd^ Mosheim's notes- to his Latin traiu- 
 lation of Cudworth'tr Intellectual System, f. 304^ tw. 
 
82 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OP THE CHURCH, 
 
 Part H. 
 
 they had embraced. Others, when they were 
 taught to believe that true Christianity (as it 
 was Inculcated by, Jesus, and not as it was af- 
 terwards corrupted by his disciples) differed in 
 few points from the pagan system, properly ex- 
 plained and restored to its primitive purity, j 
 determined to remain in the religion of their 
 ancestors, and in the worship of their gods. 
 A third sort were led, by these comparisons 
 between Christ and the ancient philosophers, 
 to form to themselves a motley system of reli- 
 gion composed of the tenets of both parties, 
 whom they treated with the same veneration 
 and respect. Such was, particularly, the me- 
 thod of Alexander Severus, who paid indis- 
 criminately divine honours to Christ and to 
 Orpheus, to ApoUonius, and the other philo- 
 sophers and heroes whose names were famous 
 in ancient times. 
 
 XI. The credit and power of the Jews were 
 now too much diminished to render them as 
 capable of injuring the Christians, by their in- 
 fluence over the magistrates,~as they had for- 
 merly been. This did not, however, discour- 
 
 age their raahcious efforts, as the books which 
 TertuUian and Cyprian have written against 
 them abundantly show, with several other 
 writings of the Christian doctors; who com- 
 plained' of the malignity of the Jews, and of 
 their sinister machinations.* Durifig the per- 
 secution under Severus, a certain person call- 
 ed Dominus, who had embraced Christianity, 
 deserted to the Jews, doubtless to avoid "the 
 punishments that were decreed against the 
 Christians; and it was to recall this.apdstateto 
 his duty and his profession, that Serapion, 
 bishop of Antioch, wrote a particular treatise 
 against the Jews.f We may easily conclude, 
 from this instance, that, when the Christians 
 were persecuted, the Jews were treated with 
 less severity and contempt, on account of their 
 enmity against the disciples of Jesus. From 
 the same fact we may also learn, that, though 
 they were in a state of great subjection arid 
 abasement, they were not entirely deprived of 
 all power of oppressing the Christians. 
 
 * Hippolytus, Serm. in Susann. et Daniel, torn. i. op. 
 f Eusebius, Hist. Ecclea. lib. vi. cap. xii. p. 313. 
 
 PART 11. 
 
 THE INTERNAL HISTORY QF THE CHURCH. 
 
 CHAPTER. I. 
 
 Concerning the State of Letters and Philosophy 
 during this Century. 
 
 I. The firts and sciences,, which, in the pre- 
 ceding century, were in a declining slate, seem- 
 ed, in this, ready to «xpire, and had lost all 
 their vigour smd lustre. The (felebrated rheto- 
 rician Lo'nginus, and the eminent historian Dio 
 Cassius, with a few others, were the last among 
 the Greeks, who stood in the breach against 
 the prevailing ignorance and barbarism of the 
 times. Men of learning and genius were still 
 less numerous in the western provinces of the 
 empire, though there were in seveiral places 
 flourishing schools, appropriated to the ad- 
 vancement of the sciences and the culture of 
 taste and genius. Different reasons contriT 
 buted to this decay of learning. Few of the 
 emperors patronised the sciences, or encour- 
 aged, by the prospect of their favour and pro- 
 tection, that emulation which is the soul of 
 literary excellence. Besides, the civil wars 
 that almost always distracted the empire, were 
 extremely unfavourable to the pursuit of sci- 
 ence; and the perpetual incursions of the bar- 
 barous nations interrupted that leisure and 
 tranquillity which are so essential to the pro- 
 gress of learning and knowledge; and extin- 
 guished, among a people accustomed to; the 
 din of arms, all desire of literary acquisitions.* 
 
 II. If we ^;urn our eyes toward the state of 
 philosophy,, the prospect will appeal: somewhat 
 less, desolate and comfoBtless. There were, as 
 
 * See the Literary Histoi'y of Frfmce, by the Benedic- 
 tine monks, vol. i.. part ii. 
 
 yet, in several of the Grecian sects, men of 
 considerable knowledge and reputation; of 
 whom Longinus Jias mentioned the greatest 
 part.* But all' these sects- were gradually 
 eclipsed by the school of Ammonius, whose 
 origin, and doctrines have been considered 
 abpve. This victorious sect, which- was for,m- 
 ed in Egypt, issued thence with such a rapid 
 progress, that, in a short time, it extended 
 itself almost throughout the Roman empire, 
 and drew into its. vortex the greatest part of 
 those who applied themselves, through incli- 
 nation, to the study of philosophy. TKis 
 amazing progress was due to Plotinus, the 
 most eminent disciple of Ammonius, a man of 
 a most subtile invention, endowed by nature 
 with a genius capajjle of the most profound 
 researches, and equal to the investigation of 
 the most abstruse and difficult subjects. This 
 penetrating and sublime philosophef taught 
 publicly, first in Persia, and afterwards at 
 Rome,^ and in Campania; in all which parts 
 the youth flbcked-in crowds to receive his in- 
 structions. He comprehended the precepts of 
 his philosophy in several books, most of which ■ 
 are yet extant, f 
 
 III. The number of disciples, formed in the 
 school of Plotinus, is almost beyond credibility. 
 The most famous was Porphyry ,J; who spread 
 
 ch. 
 
 *ln his life of Plotinus, epitomised by Porphyry, 
 
 f See Porphyrii vita Plotini, of which Fabricius has 
 given an edition in his Bibliotheca Grjeca, torn. iv. — 
 Bayle's Diction, torn. iii. — and B^ucker's Historia 
 Cntica Fhilosophiie. 
 
 Q^ t Porphyry vvas first the disciple of Longinus, au- 
 thor of the justly celebrated Treatise on the Sublime* 
 
Cbap. n. 
 
 DOCTORS, CHURCH GOVERNMENT, &c. 
 
 8 
 
 abroad through Sicily, and many other coun- 
 tries, the doctrine of his master^ revived with 
 great accuracy, adorned with the graces of a 
 flowing and elegant styloj' and enriched with 
 new inventions and curious improvelhents.* 
 From the time of Ammonias, until the sixth 
 century this was almost the only system of 
 philosophy that was publicly taught at Alex- 
 andria. A certain philosopher, wliose name 
 was Plutarch, having learned it there, brought 
 it into Grreece, and renewed, at Athens, the 
 celebrated Academy, from which issued a set 
 of" illustrious philosophers, whom we shall 
 have occasion to mention in the progress of 
 this^ work.'t 
 
 IV. We have unfolded, above, the nature 
 and doctrines of; this philosophy, as far as was 
 compatible with the brevity of our present de- 
 sign. It is, however, proper to add here, that 
 its votaries were not aU of the same senti- 
 ments, but thought Very difFereutly upon a va- 
 riety of subjects. This difference of opinion 
 was the natural consequence of that funda- 
 mental law, which the whole sect was obliged 
 to keep constantly in view, viz. That truth 
 was to be pursued with the. utmost Uberty, and 
 to he collected from all the different systems in 
 which it lay dispersed. Hence ^ it happened, 
 that the Athenians rejected certain opinioiis 
 that were entertained by the philosophers of 
 Alexandria: yet none of those who were am- 
 bitious to be i:anked among these new Plato- 
 nists, called in question the main doctrines 
 which formed the groundwork of their singu- 
 lar system; those, for example, which, regard- 
 ed the existence of one God, the fountain of 
 all things; the eternity of the world; the de- 
 pendence of matter upon the Supreme Being; 
 the nature of souls; the plurality of gods; the 
 method of interpreting the popular supersti- 
 tions, &c. 
 
 V. The famous question concerning the 
 excellence and utility of human learning, was 
 now debated with great warmth among the 
 Christians; and the contending parties, in this 
 controversy, seemed hitherto of equal force 
 in point of number, or nearly so. MaCny re- 
 commended the study of ghilosoiihy, and an 
 acquaintance with the Greek-ahd Roman lite- 
 rature; while others maintained, that these 
 were pernicious to the interests of genuine 
 Oiristianity, and the progress of true piety. 
 The cause of letters and philosophy triumphed, 
 however, by degrees; and those who Wished 
 well to them, continued to gain-ground, till at- 
 lehgth the superiority was manifestly decided 
 in their favour. This victory was principally 
 due to the influence andi authority of Origen, 
 who, having been early instructed in the new 
 kind of 'Platonism already mentioned,^ Mendid 
 it, though unhappily, with the purer and more 
 sublime tenets of 1. celestial doctrine, and re- 
 commended' it, in the warmest manner, to 
 the youth who attended his public lessons. 
 The fame of this philosoper increased daily 
 
 but, ha^ine passed from Greece to -Rome, where he 
 heard Plotinm, he was so charmed with the genius and 
 penetration of this philosopher, that he attached himself 
 entirely to him. See Plotin. vit. p. 3. Eunap. c. u. p. 17. 
 
 * Holstenius, vit. Pofphyrii, re^published by Fabricms. 
 
 t Marfni vita Proeii, c?p. xi. in. 
 
 among the Christians; and, in proportion to 
 his rising credit, his' method Of proposing and 
 explaining the doctrines of Christianity gained 
 authority, till it became almost universal. Be- 
 sides, some of the disciples of Plotinus having 
 embraced Christianity, on condition that they 
 should be allowed to retain such of the opinions 
 of their master as they thought of superior 
 excellence and merit,* this must also "have con- 
 tributed, in some measure, to turn the balance 
 in favour of the sciences. These Christian 
 philosophers, preserving still a fervent zeal for 
 the doctrines of their Heathen chief, would 
 naturally embrace every opportunity of spread- 
 ing them abroad, and instilling them into the 
 minds of the ignorant and the tmwary. 
 
 CHA,PTER 11. 
 
 Respecting the Doctors and Ministers of the 
 Church, and its Form of Government, dwring 
 this,Centunj. '' 
 
 I. The form of ecclesiastical goyermnent 
 that had been adopted by Christians in general, 
 had now acquired greater degrees of stability , 
 and force, both in particular. churches, and in 
 the general society of Christians. It appears 
 incontestable, from the most authentic records 
 and the best histories of this century, that, in 
 the larger cities, there was, at the head of each 
 church, a person to whom was given the title 
 of bishop, who ruled this sacred community 
 with a certain sort of authority, in concert, 
 however, with the body of presbyters, and con- 
 sultfng, in matters of moment, the opinions - 
 and the voices of the whole assembly.f It is 
 also equally evident, that, in every province, 
 one bishop was invested with a certain supe- 
 riority over the rest, in point of rank and au- 
 thority. This was necessary to the mainte- 
 nance of that association of churches which 
 had^been introduced in the preceding bentuiy; 
 and it cpnteibuted to facilitate the holding of 
 general councils, and to give a certain degree 
 of order and consistency to their proceedings. 
 It must, at the same time, be carefully observ- 
 ed, that the rights and privileges of these 
 primitive bisho|is were not every where accu- 
 rately fixed,- nor determined in such a manner 
 as to prevent encroachments and disputes; nor 
 does it appear, that the chief authority in the 
 province was always conferred upon that bishop 
 who presided over the church established in 
 the metropolis. It. may also be noticed, as a 
 matter beyond all dispute, that the bishops of 
 Rome, Antioch, and Alexandria, considered as 
 rules of primitive, and apostolic churches, |iad 
 a kind of pre-eininence over all others, and 
 were not only consulted frequently in affairs of 
 a difficult and momentous nature, but were 
 also distinguished by peculiar rights and pri- 
 yileffes. 
 
 if.' With respect, particularly, to the bishop 
 of. Rome, he'^is supposed by Cyprian to have 
 had, at this time, a certain pre-eminence in 
 
 Augustinus, Kpistola Ivi. ad Dioscor. p. S60, torn. 
 11. op. " . " 
 
 f A satisfactory account of this matter may be seen in 
 Blbndelli ^Apolo^ia pro Sentebtia Hieronymi de llpisco- 
 pis et Presbyteris, p.,136,.as that author has collected all 
 the testimonies of the an^^vs*' —'ailvft *« that Subject 
 
84 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Fart II. 
 
 the church;* nor does he stand alone in this 
 opinion. But it ou^ht to be observed, that 
 even those, who, with Cyprian, 4ttribut«i this 
 pre-eminence to the Roman prelate, insisted, at 
 the same time, with the utmost warmth, upon 
 the equality, in point of di^Hy and authorily, 
 that subsisted among" all the members of-the 
 episcopal order. In consequence of this opin- 
 ion' of an equality among all Christiq,n bishops, 
 they rejected, with contempt, the judgment of 
 the bishop of Rome, when they thought it ill- 
 founded or unjust, and followed their own 
 sense of things with a perfect independence. 
 Of this Cyprian himself gave an eminent ex- 
 ample, in his famous controversy with Stephen 
 bishop of Rome, concerning tte baptism of 
 heretics, in which he treated the arrogance of 
 tliat imperious prelate with a noble indigna- 
 tion, and also' with a perfect contempt. Who- 
 ever, therefore, compares these particulars, will 
 easily perceive, that the only dignity which' the 
 bishop of Rome could justly claim was a pre-' 
 eminence of order and . association,] , not of 
 power and avlhority. Or to explain the matter 
 yet more clearly, the pre-eminence of the bishop 
 of Rome, in the universal church, was such as 
 that of Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, was in 
 the African churches and every one knows, 
 that the precedency of this latter prelate di- 
 minished in nothing theiequality that subsisted 
 among the African bishops, and invalidated in 
 no instance their rights and liberties, but gave 
 only to Cyprian, as the president of their ge- 
 neral assemblies, a power of calling councils, 
 of presiding in them, of admonishing his bre- 
 thren in; a mild and fraternal manner, and of 
 executing, in short, such offices as the order 
 and purposes of these ecclesiastical meetings 
 necessarily required.| 
 
 in. The, face of things began now to change 
 in the Christian cliurch. The ancient method 
 of ecclesiastical government seemed, in general, 
 still to subsist, while, at the same time, by im- 
 perceptible steps, it varied froiii the primitive 
 rule, and degenerated toward the form of a re- 
 ligious monarchy; for ihe bishops aspired to 
 higher degrees of power and authority than 
 they had formerly possessed, and not only vio- 
 lated- the rights of the people, but also made 
 gradual encroachments upoii the privileges of 
 the presbyters; andthat they might cover these 
 usurpiitions with an air of justice, and an ap- 
 pearaiice of reason, they published' new doc- 
 trines concerning the nature of thefehurch, and 
 of the episcopal dignity, which,' however, were 
 in general so obscure, that , they themselves 
 seemed to have understood them as little as 
 those to whom they were delivered. One of 
 the principal authors of this cliange, in the go- 
 
 * Cyprian, Ep. Iv. et Ixxiii. ctiam <le Unilate Ecclesiae, 
 p. 19o, edit. Baluzii. 
 
 Q(^ t So I have, translated Prinoiptltvs ordinis et con- 
 aociationa, T«hich could not be otherwise rendered with- 
 out a lonE circumlocij'tion. The pre-eminence here men- 
 tioned, signifies the right "of convening councils, of pre- 
 siding in them, of collecting voices,_an(f such other things 
 as were essential to the order of these assemblies. 
 
 X See Steph. Baluzii adno. ad "Cypriani Epistolas, p. 
 387.389,400, Consult particularly Ihe seventy-first and 
 «venty-third epistles, of Cyprian, and the fifty-fiAh, ad- 
 dressed.-to Cornelius, bishop of Rome, in which letters 
 the Carthaginian prelate pleads vyilh warmth and ^vehe- 
 mence foruie eguality of all Christian bishops. 
 
 vemment of the church, was Cyprian, who 
 pleaded for the power of the bishops with more 
 zeal and vehemence than had ever been hith- 
 erto employed in that cause, though not with 
 an unshaken constancy and perseverance; for, 
 in difficult and perilous times, necessity some- 
 times obliged him to yield, and to submit seve- 
 ral things to the judgment and authority of the 
 chm-ch. 
 
 ' IV. This change ift the form of ecclesiasti- 
 cal government, was soon .followed by a train 
 of vices, which dishonoured the character and 
 authority of those to whom the administratioii 
 of the church was committed; for, though se- 
 veral yet continued to exhibit to the world ili- 
 lustrious examples of priinitive-pietyasnd Chris- 
 tian virtue, yet many were sunk in luxury and 
 voluptuousness, puffed up with vanity, arro- 
 gance, and ambition, possessed with a spirit of 
 contention and discord, and addicted to many 
 other vices that cast an undeserved reproach 
 upon the holy religion, of which they were the 
 unwortiiy- professors and ministers. This is 
 testified in siioh an ample manner, by the . re- 
 peated complaints of many of the most re- 
 spectable writers of this age,*^that truth will 
 not permit us to spread the Veil, which we 
 should'otherwise be desirous to cast over siich 
 enormities among an order so sacred. The 
 bishops assumed, in many places, a princely 
 authority, particularly those who had the greats 
 est rmmBer of churches under their inspectaon, 
 and who presided over the nwst opulent assem- 
 blies. They appropriated to their evangelical 
 function the splendid ensigns of temporal ma- 
 jesty; a throne, surrounded with ministers, ex- 
 alted above his equals the servant of the meek 
 and humble Jesus; and sumptuous garments 
 dazz]ed the eyes and the minds of the multi- 
 tude iiito an ignorant veneration for this usurp- 
 ed authority. An example which ought not 
 to have been fallowed, was ambitiouslyimitated 
 by the presbyters, who, neglecting the sacred 
 duties of their statical, abandoned themselves 
 to the indolence and delicacy of an effeminate 
 and luxurious life. The deacons, beholding 
 the presbyters thus deserting their fvmctions, 
 boldly invaded their rights and privileges; and 
 the effects of a corrupt ambition were spread 
 through every rank of the sacred order. 
 
 V. From what has been now observed, we 
 may come, perhaps, at the true origin of minor 
 or inferior orders, which were, in this century, 
 added every where to those of the bishops, 
 presbyters, and deacons; for, certainly, the titles 
 and offices' of svhdtacons, €tc6lythi, ostiarii, or 
 dooi>fceepers, readers, exorcists, and copiata, 
 would never have been heard of in the church, 
 if its rulers had been assiduously and zealously 
 employed in promoting the interests of truth 
 and piety, by their labours and their example. 
 But, wlien the honors and priviliges of the 
 bishops, and presbyters were augmented, the 
 deacons also beg8in to extend their ambitious 
 views, and to despise those lower functions and 
 employments which they had hitherto exer- 
 cised with such humility and zeal. The ad- 
 ditional orders that were now created to di- 
 
 * Origen. Comin. in Matthffium, par. i. op. p. 4S0, 441. 
 Eusebius, Hist. Ecr*es. lib. viii. cap. i. 
 
Chap. II. 
 
 DOCTORS, CHURCH GOVERNMENT, i&o. 
 
 85 
 
 minish the labours of the present rulers of the 
 church, had functions allotted to themj which 
 their names partly explain.* The institution 
 of exorcists was a consequence of the doctrine 
 ofthe New Platonlsts, which the Christians 
 adopted, and which taught, that the, evil genii, 
 or spirits, were continually hovering over hu- 
 man bodies, toward'which they were carried 
 by a natural and vehement desire; and that 
 vicious men were not sO much impelled-to sin 
 by an innate depravity, or by the seduction of 
 example, as by the interhalsuggestions of some 
 evil dffimon. The eopiata were employed in 
 providing for the decent interment of the dead. 
 VI. Marriage was permitted to all the va- 
 rious ranks and orders 'of the clergy. , Those, 
 however. Who continued in a state of celibacy, 
 obtained by this abstinence a higher reputation 
 lof sanctity and virtue than others. This was 
 owing to an almost general persuasion, that 
 they, whOjJnok wives, were . of all others the 
 most suHfect to the influence ^f, malignant 
 dsemons.f And as it was pf infiiiite - impor- 
 tance to the interests Of the church,, that no 
 impure or malevolent spirit should enter into 
 the bodies of such aswer? appointed to-govem, 
 or to instruct T)thers, so the people~were de- 
 sirous that the clergy should use their utmost 
 efforts to abstain from the pleasures of the con- 
 Xugal life. Many of the sacred order, espe- 
 cially in Africa, consented to satisfy the desires 
 of the pieopfe, and endeavoured to do" this < in 
 such a manner as not "to offer an entire violence 
 '.3 their own inclinations. For- this purpose, 
 they foiin'ed connexions with those women who 
 had made vows of perpetual chastity; and it 
 . was an ordinary thing for an ecclesiastic to ad- 
 mit one of^ these fair saints to the pa^rticipation 
 of hi^ be^; but stUl under the most solemn 
 
 ^^ *The sub^deacons were designed lo ease the deacons 
 Qf the 'mean'esLpart of their work. Their-office, co'nsec, 
 qnently, was to prepare the sacred vessels ^f the altar, 
 ai(d to deliver th«m to the deacons in time of (Iivine ser- 
 vice; to attend the doors of the church during the com- 
 munion service; to go on the bishop's embassies, with his 
 , letter's or messages tm foreign churches. - In a word, they 
 were so subordinate to the superior "rulers of th^ church,- 
 ihat by a canon of the council of /JL&odicea, they were 
 forbidden to sit in the presence of a deacon-without, his 
 leave. The .order of a^oh^Kl was peculiar to the, Latin 
 church; for there was no such order in theGreekohurch, 
 during the four first centuries. Their name signifies a£ 
 tendavts; and their principal office wasio light the can-, 
 dies of the church," and to attend the ministers with 
 wine for the cucharist. The ostiarii,,or door-keepers, 
 were appointed to open -and shut the doors, as officers 
 .and servanta-under the deacons and sub-deacons; to give 
 notice oi the times- of prayer and church assemblies, 
 which, in -time of perseculio'n," required a private signal 
 for fear of discovery; and lhat,,probably, was- the first 
 reason for instituting this order in the church of Komc, 
 whose example, by degrees, was soon followed - by other- 
 churcheSi^The readers were those who were ijir^ted 
 to read the scripture in. that part of divine service to 
 which. the catechumens were admitted.^The exorcists 
 were appointed to drive out evil spirits from the bQclies 
 of persons possessed; thCy had been long .known in the 
 church, but were not erected into an ecclesiastical order 
 before the latter lend of the thirdcentury. — The copiatte, 
 or fossarU, were an order of the inferior clergy, whose 
 business it was to take care of funerals, and .to provide 
 for the decent interment of the dead." ' In vain have JBa- 
 ronius and other Romish writers assserted, that these in- 
 ferior orders were of apostolical" institution. The con- 
 trary is evidently provefl, since these offices are not men- 
 tioned by authentic writers as having taken place before 
 the third century,and the origin canoe traced no higher 
 .han the fourth.- ^ ^ ' 
 
 Porphyriusj-jregi- «H-o%ifs, lib. iv. p. 417. 
 
 declarations, that nothing j*assed in this com- 
 merce that was contrary to the rulesof cha^ 
 tity and virtue.* - These holy concubines were 
 called, Ijy tlie Greeks, Sunifa«Ti>.; and by the 
 Latins, MuUeres wJiintrodiuiti. -This indecent 
 custom alarmed the zeal of the more pious 
 among the bishops, who employed' the utmost 
 efforts of their severity and vigilance to abolish 
 it, .though ilwasa longtime before they en- 
 tirely eJFected this laudable purpose. ^ ■ ^' 
 
 VII. Thus we have given a short, though 
 not a very pleasing view of the rulers of the 
 church during this century; and we ought now 
 to rnention the principal writers who distin- 
 guished themselves in it by their learned ^nd - 
 pious productions. The most eminent of these, 
 whether we_ consider the extent of his fame, <jr 
 the raultijpKcity of his labours, was Origen, a 
 presbyter and catechist. of Alexandria, a man 
 of vast and uncommon abilities, and the great- ' 
 es_t luminary of the Christian world that this 
 age exhibited- to view. Had the soundness of 
 his judgment been equaLto thfs immensity of 
 his.geniufe, the. fervour of his piety, hi^ inde- 
 fatigable patience, his extensive erudition, and 
 his other eminent and superior talents, all en- 
 cpmiums must ha-ye 'fallen- short of his merit. 
 Yet such as he was, his virtues andjiis labours 
 deserve the admiration of all ages; and his 
 name will be transmitted with honour through 
 the annals of time^ as long as learning and ge- 
 nius shall be esteemed among men.f 
 
 The second in renow.n, among the writers of 
 this century, was Julius Africanus, a. native of 
 Palestine, a man of the most profound erudi- 
 tion, but' the greatest part of whos9 learned 
 labours are iihhappily lost. ' 
 
 HippolytuSj whose history is much, involved in 
 darkness,^ is also esteemed among tlie most 
 aelebrated authors,and martyrs of this age; but 
 those writings which at present bear his name, 
 are justly looked upon, by many as either ex- 
 tremely corrupted, ;or entire^ spuripu's. - 
 
 Gregory, bislioj) of New-Ctesarea, acquired, 
 at tliis .time, the title of Tliaumaturgus, i. e. 
 wonder-worker, on account of the variety of 
 great and signal miracles, which he is said to 
 have wrought during the course of his minis- 
 try. Few of his works have come down" to 
 pur times, an^ his. miracles are called in ques- 
 tion by faiaiiy, as unsupported by sufficient evi- 
 dence.§ 
 
 It is to be wished that we had more of the 
 writings of Dionysius, bishop of Alexandria, 
 than those which have survived the ruins of 
 time, since the few remaining fragments of his 
 works -display the most consummate, wisdom 
 and prudence, and the most amiable spirit of 
 moderation and candor, and thi s abundantly 
 
 * Ctedat JudiKUS .Spetla. See however Dodwcll, Diss, 
 tertia Cyprianica, and Lud. An. jVIuratori'us, Diss, de 
 Synisactis et Agapetis, in his Anecdot. Grssc. p. 2X8; as 
 aUo Baluzius ad Cypriani Epistol. 
 
 - f See a very" learned and useful worlc of the famous 
 Huet,- bishop of" Avranches, entitled, O.rigeniana. See 
 also, Doucin, Histoire d'Origene et des Mouvemens ar- 
 rives dans PEglise au sujet dC sa Doctrine; add Bayle's 
 Dictionary. 
 
 ^The benedictine monks h^ve, with great labour and 
 erudition, endeavoured to dispel this darkness "in their 
 Histoire Literaire de la- France, torn..!,. p. 361. . 
 
 § See "Van-Dale's prelace to his Latin treatise concern . 
 ing Oracles. 
 
86 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part II. 
 
 vindicate from all suspicion of flattery, the an- 
 cients who mentioned him under the title of 
 Dionysius the Great.* 
 
 Methodius appears to have^been a man of 
 great piety, and highly respectable on accoimt 
 of his eminent virtue; but those of his works 
 which are yet extant, evince no great degree 
 of penetration and acuteness in handling con- 
 troversy and weighing opinions. 
 
 VIII. Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, a man 
 of the most eminent abilities and flowing elo- 
 quence, stands foremost in the list of 'Latin- 
 writers. His letters, and indeed the greater 
 part of his works breathe such a noble and, pa- 
 thetic spirit of piety, that, it is impossible to 
 read them without the warmest feelings of en- 
 thusiasm. We must however observe,- that he 
 would have been a ^better- writer, had. he been 
 less attentive to the ornaments of rhetoric; and 
 a better bishop, had' he been able to restrain 
 the vehemence of hfs temper and to distinguish 
 with greater acuteness, between truth and 
 falsehood. 
 
 The dialogue of Minucius, Felix, which bears 
 the title of Octavius, eflTaces with such judg- 
 ment, spirit and force, the calumnies and re- 
 proaches that were cast upon the Christians 
 by their adversaries, that it deserves an atten- 
 tive perusal from those . who are desirous of 
 knowing the state of the church during this 
 century. 
 
 The seven books of Amobius, the African, 
 written against the Gentiles, form a still more 
 copious and ample defence of the Christians, 
 and, though obscure in several" places, may yet 
 be read vrith pleasure and with profit. . It is true, 
 that this rhetorician, too little instructed in the 
 Christian religion, when he wrote this work, 
 has mingled great jeiiots with solemn and im- 
 portant truths, and has exhibited Christiajiity 
 under a certain philosophical form, very dif- 
 ferent fronf that in which it is commorily re- 
 ceived. 
 
 We refer our readers, for an accoimt of the 
 authors of inferior note, who lived in this cen- 
 tury, to those who have professedly given his- 
 tories or enumerations of the Christian writers. 
 
 CHAPTER m. 
 Coneendng the Doctrine of the Christian Church 
 in this Century. 
 I. The principal doctrines of Christianity 
 were now explained to the people in their na- 
 tive purity and simplicity, without any mixture 
 of abstract reasonings Or subtile.in'ventions; nor 
 were the feeble minds of the multitude loaded 
 with a great variety of precepts.f But the 
 Christian doctors -who had applied themselves 
 to the study of letters and philosophy, soon 
 abandoned the frequented paths, and wandered 
 in the devious wilds of fancy. The Egyptians 
 distinguished themselves in .this new^ethod 
 of explaining the truth. They looked upon it' 
 as a noble and a gloriouS-task to bring the.doc- 
 trincs of celestial yirisdom into a certain subjec- 
 
 * The hUtory of .Dionysius is particularly illustrated 
 by Jaques Basnage, iaiiis Histoire de I'Eglise, torn. i. ' 
 
 t See Orison, m Praef. Libro. de Frincipiis, torn. i. op. 
 p; 49j and lib. 1. de Frincipiis, cap. ii. See also the £x- 
 positio Fidei by DregoWus Neocaesariensis. 
 
 tion to the precepts of their phiiosopby, and to 
 make-'dCep and profound researches into the 
 intimate and hidden nature of those truths 
 which" the divine Saviour had delivered to his 
 disciples". Origen was at the head of this 
 speculative tribe. This great man, enchanted 
 by the charms of the Platonic philosophy, set 
 it up as the the test of all religion, and imagin- 
 ed that the reasons of each doctrine were to be 
 found in that favorite philosophy, and their 
 nature and extent to be determined by it.* It 
 must -be coqfessed that he handled this matter 
 with modesty and caution; but he still gave 
 an example to his disciples, the abuse of which 
 could not fail to be pernicious, and under the 
 authori.ty of which, they would naturally in- 
 dulge themselves without restraint in every 
 wanton fancy. And so, indeed, the case was; 
 for thp disciples„of Origen, breaking forth from 
 the limits fixed by their master, interpreted, in 
 the most licentious manner, the diyine truths 
 of religion according to the tenor of the Pla- 
 tonic philosophy. -From these teachers the 
 philosophical, or sclwlastic theology, as it is call- 
 ed, derived its origin'; and, proceeding Eence, 
 passed through various forms and modifications 
 according to the genius, turn, and erudition of 
 those who embraced it. 
 
 II. The same principles gave rise to another 
 species of theology, which was called mystic. 
 And what must seem at first Sght sm-prising 
 tere, is, that this mystic theology , though form- 
 ed at the same time, and derived from the same 
 source with the scholastic, had a natural ten- 
 dency to overturn and destroy it. The authors 
 of this mystic science are not known; but, the 
 principles from which it sprang are manifest. _ 
 Its first promoters argued from that known 
 dpctrille of the Platonic school, which also 
 was adopted by Origen and his disciples that the 
 divine nature was' diffused through all human 
 souls; or in other words' tha^ the faculty of 
 reason, from which the health and vigour of 
 the mind proceed, was an emanation from God 
 into the human soul, and comprehended in it 
 the prinpiples and elements of all truth, human 
 and divine. They denied that men cpnld, by 
 labour or study, excite this celestial flame in 
 their breasts; and, therefore, they highly dis- 
 approved the attempts of those who, by defi- 
 nitions,- abstract theorems, and profound spe» 
 culations, endeavourtd to form distinct notions 
 of truth, and to discover its hidden natuire. 
 On the contrary, they maintained, that silence, 
 trajiquillity, repose, and solitude, accompanied 
 with such acts of mortification' as might tend 
 to extenuate and exhaust the body, were the 
 means by wlrich the internal word was excited 
 to produce its latent virtues, and to instruct 
 men in the knowledge of divine things. For 
 thus they reasoned: "'They who behold with 
 a noble contempt all human affairs, they who 
 turn away their eyes from terrestrial vanities, 
 and shut all the avenues of the outward senses 
 against the contagious influences of a material 
 world, must necessarily return to God, ■when 
 the spirit is tlius disengaged from the impedi- 
 ments that prevented that happy union; and 
 
 * This is manifest from what remains of bis Stromata; 
 as also from his books de Principiis, which are still pre- 
 served in a Latin translation of them by Itufinus. 
 
CsAr. m. 
 
 THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 87 
 
 in this blessed fcame, they not only enjoy in- 
 expressible raptures from their communion 
 with the Supreme Being, but are also invested 
 with the inestimable privilege of conteriipkting 
 truth, undisguised and uncorrupted, in its na- 
 tive purity, while others behold it in a vitiated 
 and delusive form." 
 
 ni. This method of reasoning produced 
 strange' eCfects, and drove many into caves and 
 deserts, where they macerated their bodies 
 with hunger and thirst, and submitted to all 
 the miseries of the severest discipline that a_ 
 gloomy imagination could prescribe; and it is. 
 not improbable, thatPaul, the first hermit, was 
 rather engaged by this fanatical system, than 
 by the persecution under Decius, to fly into the 
 most solitary deserts of Thebais, where he led, 
 during the space of ninety years, a life mor« 
 worthy of a savage animal than of a rational 
 being.* It is,- however, to be observed, that 
 though Paul is placed at the head of the order 
 of Hermits, yet that ihsqcial manner of life 
 was very common in Egypt, Syria, India, and 
 Mesopotamia, not only long before his' time, 
 but even before the coming of Christ; ajidit is 
 still practised ainong the Mohammedans, as 
 well as the Christiajis, in-those arid and burn- 
 ing climates;t for the glowing atmosphere, that 
 surrounds these countries, is a natural cause of 
 that love of solitude and repose, of. that indo- 
 lent and melancholy disposition, which are re- 
 , markably common among' their languid inha- 
 bitants. I 
 
 IV.'But let us tarn away our eyes from 
 these scenes of fanaticism, whieh are so oppro- 
 brious to human nature, and consider some- 
 other circumstaiices that, belong more or less 
 to the history of the Christian -doctrine during 
 this century. And here it is proper to mqnfion 
 the useful labours of those who manifested 
 ^ their _zeal' for the holy scriptures by the care 
 they took to have accurate copies of them mul- 
 tiplied every where, and offered at such mode- 
 rate prices, as rendered them of easy purchase; 
 as ^.Iso to have them; transla,ted into various 
 languages, and published in 'correct editions. 
 Many of th)& more opulent among the Chris- 
 tians generously contributed a great part of 
 their substance to the prosecution of .these pi- 
 ous and excellent undertakiiigs. Pierius aiid 
 Hesychius in Egypt, and Lucian at Ahtioch. 
 employed muchpaihs in correcting the copies 
 of the Septuagint; and Pamphilus of Csesarea 
 laboured with great diligence and success in 
 works of the same nature, until a glorious 
 martyrdom iinished his course. But Origen 
 surpassed all others in diligence and assiduity; 
 and his famous Hexapla, though almost entire- 
 ly destroyed by the waste of time, will, even 
 in its fragments, remain an eternal monument 
 of the incredible application with which that 
 great man laboured to remove those obstacles 
 which retarded the progress of the Gospel.j: 
 
 ■y. After the encomiums we have given to 
 Origen, who has an undoubted right to the first 
 
 * The life of this hermit was written by Jer^ome. 
 
 t See the travels pf LuCas, in 1714, vol. ii. 
 
 }. The fragments that yet remain of OrieeB's HexapTa, 
 were collected and published, by the learned Montfaucon, 
 in folio, at Paris, in 1713. See also upon this head 
 Buddei fsagoge in Theolog. torn. ii. and Carpzovii Critic. 
 Sacr. Voter. Testam. p. 574. 
 
 .place among the interpreters of the Scriptures 
 in this century, it is not without a dee'p concern 
 that we are obliged to add, that he also, by an 
 unhappy method, opened a, secure retreat for 
 all ?orts of errors that a wild and irregular 
 imagination could bring forth. Having enteiv 
 tained a notion that it was extremely difficult, 
 if not impossible, to defend every tiling con- 
 tained in the sacred writings from the cavils of 
 heretics and infidels, so Idng as they were ex- 
 plained literally, according to the real import 
 of the terms', he had recourse to the fecundity 
 of a lively imagination, and maintained^ that 
 they were to be interpreted in the same allego- 
 rical ma.rmetm which the Platonists explained 
 the history of the gods. In consequence of 
 this pernicious- rule of interpretation, he allege 
 ed, that the words of Scripture were, in tnany 
 places, absolutely void of sense; and that 
 though in othiers there were, ind^d, certain 
 notions conveyed under the outward terms ac- 
 cording to their literal force and import, yet it 
 was not in these that the true meanings of the 
 sacred writers were tobe soiight, but in a mys- 
 terious and hidden sense, arising from the na- 
 ture of the things themselves.* This hidden 
 sense he endeavours to investigate throughout 
 his commentaries, neglecting and despising, for 
 the most part, the outward letter; and in this 
 devious path he displays the most ingenious 
 strokes of fancy, tljgugh generally at the ex- 
 pense qf truth, whose divine simplicity-is rare- 
 ly discernible through the cobweb veil of alle- 
 gory.f Nor" did the inventions of Origen end 
 here. He divided this hidden sense, which he 
 pursued with such, eagerness into moral and 
 mystical, or spiritual. The moral sense of 
 Scripture displays those doctrines that relate 
 to the inward state of the soul and the conduct 
 of life. . The mystical or spiritual sense repre- 
 sents the nature, the laws, and the history of 
 the spiritual or mystical world. We ace not 
 yet at the end of the labypnth; for he subdi- 
 vided this mystical world of his own creation 
 into two distinct regions, one of which he call- 
 
 * For a farther -illustration of this matter, the>eade:. 
 may consult the excellent.preface- of .M. de la Rue, to the 
 second volume - of the works of Origen, published at 
 Paris in 1733. An accurate and full account of Origen's 
 method of mterpreting the Scripture may be found in"the 
 work entitled Commentar. de rebus Chrii^tian. ante Con- 
 stantinum M. p. 639; where the philosophy and theology 
 of that great man, and his .controversy with Demetrius 
 bishop of Alexandria, are ' treated of professedly, and at 
 larger 
 
 t Origen^ in his Stromatd; book x., expresses himself 
 in the'following manner: " The source of many evils lies 
 in adhering to the carnal or external part of Scripture,^ 
 Those who do so, shall not attain to the kingdom jjf, God.' 
 Letus,'therefore, seek after the spirit and the substantial 
 fruit ■ of the word, which are ^hidden and mysterious." 
 Atxd again, " The Scriptures are of little use to those 
 who understand them as they are written." One Would 
 think it impossible that sudh expressions should drop 
 from the pen of a wise man.. But the philosophy, which 
 this great man embraced with such zeal, was one of the 
 sources of his delusion.- He could not find- in the bible, 
 the opinions he" had adopted, as long as he interpreted 
 that sacred book according tolts literal sense. But Plato, 
 Aristotle, Zeno, and,' indeed, the whole philosophical 
 tribe, could not fail to obtain, for -their sentiments, a 
 place in the Gospel, when it was interpreted by the wan- 
 ton inventions of .fancy, and upon the supposition of a 
 hidden sense, to which it was possible to give B^li sorts 
 of forms. Hence all who desired to 'modc^ Christianity 
 according to their fancy, or their favourite system of phi- 
 losophy, embraced Origen's method of interpretation. 
 
88 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Pam II. 
 
 ed fliB superior,, i. e. heaven, and the other^the 
 inferior, by which he meant the chiiroh. This 
 led to another division of tlie mystical sense 
 into an earthly or allegorical sense, ad.apled to 
 the~ inferior world, and a celestial or analogical 
 one, adapted to the superior region. This chi- 
 merical method of explaining the Scripture 
 was, before Origen, received by many Chris- 
 tians, who were deluded into it by the example 
 of the Jews. But, as' this learned man reduced 
 it into a system, and founded it upon fixed and 
 deterraiued rii}es, he is, on tliat account j- com- 
 monly considered as its principal author. - 
 
 VI. A prodigious number of interpreters, 
 both in this and the succeeding ages, followed 
 the method of Origen, though vpith some va- 
 riations; nor could the jew, vifho explained the 
 sacred writings -with judgment and a true 
 spirit of criticism, oppose with success the tor- 
 rent of allegory that was overflowing the 
 church. The commentaries "of Hippolytus, 
 which are yet extant, show manifestly, that 
 this good .man was entirely addicted to the sys- 
 tem of Origen, and the same judgment may.be 
 hazarded concerning Victorinua' explications 
 of certain books of the Old and New Testa- 
 5ient, though-these explications are, long iince; 
 lost. The translation of the Ecclesiastgs by 
 Gregory Thaumaturgus, which is yet reniain- 
 ing,- is hot chargeable with thi^ reproach, not- 
 withstanding the tender and warm attachment 
 of its author to' Origen. The book of Genesis 
 and the Song of Solomon were lexplained by 
 Methodius, whose .work is lost; and Ammonius 
 composed a Harmony of the Gospels, 
 t Vn. Thedoctrinal part of theology employ- 
 ed the pens of many learned men in this cen- 
 tury. 'In his Stromata, and his four books of 
 Elements, Origen illustrated the'greatest part 
 of the doctrines of Christianity, or; to speak 
 more properly, rather disguised them under 
 the lines of a vain philosophy. These -books 
 of elements, or principles, were the first sketch 
 that appeared of the scholastic or philoisophi- 
 cal theology. Something of'the same nature 
 was attempted by Theognostus, in his seven 
 books of Hypotyposes, vdiioh are only known 
 at present by the extracts of them in Pliotius, 
 
 • who represents them, as the work of one who 
 was infected with the notions of Origen. — 
 Gregory 'Thaumaturgus drew up -a brief sum- 
 mary of the Christian religion, in his Exposi- 
 tion of the Faith; and many treated, in a more 
 ample manner, particular points of doctrine in 
 opposition to the «nemies and corrupfors of 
 Christianity. Thus Hippoly^fus wrote of the 
 Deity, the resurrection, Ailti-Christ, and the 
 end' of the world; Methodius, of. free-will; and 
 Liician, of faith. It is doubtful in what class 
 
 . these productions are to be placed, as most of 
 them have perished, among the ruins of. time. 
 "VIII. Among the moral writers, the first 
 place,ajter TertuUian,of whom we have al- 
 ready spoken, is due to Cyprian, a prelate of 
 eminent inerit, who published several treatises 
 concerning patience, mortality, works, alms, as 
 also an exhortation to martyrdom. In these 
 dissertation^, tliere are many excellent things; 
 but they, are destitute of order, precision-, and 
 method; nor do' we always fmd solid proofs in 
 
 favour of the decisions they contain.* Origen 
 has written many treatises of this kind, Euid, 
 among others, an exhortntion, to suffer martyr- 
 dom for the truth; a subject handled by many 
 authors in this century, but with unequal elo- 
 quence, and penetration, Methodius treated 
 of chastity, in a work entitled, 'Symposium 
 Virginum, or, the Fe^t of Virgins: but this 
 treatise is full .of confusion and disorder. — 
 Dionysins handled the doctrine of penance and 
 temptations. The other moral writers of this 
 period are too obscure and trivial to render the 
 mention of therh nece^pary. 
 
 IX. The controversial writers were exceed- 
 ingly numerous in, this century. The Pagans 
 were attacked,- in a -victorious manner, by Mi- 
 nucius Fehx, in his dialogue called Octavius;. 
 by Grigen; in his writings against Celsus; by 
 Arnobius' in his seven books against the Gen- 
 tiles; and by Cyprian, in his treatise concern- 
 ing the vanity of idols; The chronicle of Hip- 
 polytus in opposition .to the Gentiles, and the 
 worli of Methodius against Porphyry, that bit- 
 ter adversary of the Christians, are both lost. 
 
 We may also" reckon, jn the number of the 
 polemic writers, those who wrote agamst the 
 philosophers, or who treated any subjects that 
 were disputed between different sects.- Such 
 was Hippolytus, who wrote against Plato, and 
 who -also .treated the nicest, the most difH'cuK, 
 and the most controverted subjects, such as 
 fate, free-will, and 'the origin of evil, Which 
 exercised, likewise," the pens of Methodius arid 
 other acute writers. What Hippolytus wrote 
 agaiilst the .Tews, has not .reached our. times; 
 but the work of Cyprian, upon that subject, yet 
 remains.! Origen, Victorinus, and Hippoly- 
 tus, attacked, in general, the various sects' a'nd 
 heresies that divided the church; but their la- 
 bours in that immense field have entirely dis- 
 appeared; and as to those who only turned 
 their cpntroversial arms against some few sects 
 and particular doctrines, we think it not neces-^ 
 sary to enumerate them here. ' .. , 
 
 X. Jt is, however, proper to observe, that the 
 methods now used of 4efending Christianity, 
 and attacking Judaism and idolatry, degenerat- 
 ed much from the primitive simplicity, and the 
 true rules of controversy. The Christian doc- 
 tors, who had been educated in the schools of 
 the rhetoriciaiis and sophists, rashly employed 
 the arts and fevasions-of their subtile masters 
 in the service of Christianity; and, intent only 
 upon defeating the enemy, they were too little 
 attentive to the means, of victory, indifferent 
 whether they acquired it by artifice or plain 
 dealing. This method of disputing, which the 
 ancients called ceconomical,^ and which had 
 victory for its object, rather than truth, was in 
 consequence of the prevailing taste for rhetoric 
 and sophistry, almost universally approved. 
 The Flatonists cohtributed to the support and 
 encouragement of this ungenerous method of 
 
 * See Barbbeyrac, de la Morale des Feres, chap. -piii. 
 
 QQ=- f This work is entitled Testimonia contra Judasos. 
 
 JSouverain, Platonisme devoile, p. 344. .Daille, d* 
 vet, usu Fatrum, lib. i.- p. 160." Jo.^Christ. "Wolfii Casau- 
 bon; p. 100. 3Vilh regard' to the famous rule, to do a 
 thingj ««t' oixovo^jMi', or teconoTnicaUyj see particularly 
 the ample illustrations of Ciafaker, ad Mare. Antoninum, 
 lib, xi, . 
 
Chap. HJ. 
 
 THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 89 
 
 disputing,' by that maxim which asserted "the 
 imioceuce of defending the truthhy artifice and 
 falsehood. This will appear manifest to those 
 vpho have read, with , any manner of penetra- 
 tion and judgment, the arguments of ■Origen 
 against Celsus, and those of the other Clwis- 
 tian disputants against the idolatrous Gentiles. 
 The method of T.ertuUian, who used to plead 
 proscription- agUinst erroneous doctrines, was 
 notj perhaps, unfair in this century} but they 
 must be unacquainted both with the times,: and; 
 indeed, with the nature of things, who imagine 
 that it is always allowable to employ this 
 method.* 
 
 XI. -This disingenuous arid vicious method 
 of surprising their adversaries by artifice, and 
 striking them down, as it were, by lies and fic- 
 tions, produced among other disagreeable ef- 
 fects, a great number of hooks, which were 
 falsely attributed to certain great men, in order 
 .to give these spurious productions inorecredit 
 and weight; for, as the greatest part of man- 
 kind are less governed- by reason than by au- 
 thority, and pifefer, in many cases, the de- 
 cisions of failible mortals to- the unerring dic- 
 tates of .the divine word, the disputants,' of 
 whom we are now speaking, thought they 
 could not serve the truth more effectually than 
 by opposing illustrious names and respectable 
 authorities to the attacks of its adversaries. 
 Hence eirose the book of cmums, which certain 
 artfiil men ascribed falsely to the apostles; 
 hence, the apostolical constituUdns, of which 
 Clement, bishop of TRoiiie,. is said to have 
 formed a ,cpllection; hence the recognitions 
 aiid the ClenuMina, which are also q.ttributed 
 to Clement,t and many other productions of 
 that nature, which, for a long tinxe, were too 
 much esteemed by credulous men. 
 
 Nor were the managers of controversy the 
 only persons who employed -these stratagems; 
 the Mystics had recourse to the same pious 
 frauds to supp6rt their sect. .Aiid accordingly, 
 when the/were asked froiii what chief their 
 establishment took its rise, to get clear o£ this 
 perplexing question, they feigned a chief, and 
 chose, for that purpose, Dionysius the Arcopa- 
 gite, a man .of almost apostolical weight and 
 authority, who was converted to Christianity, 
 in the first century, by the preael(ing of St. 
 P?,ul at Athens. ' To render this fiction more 
 specious, they attributed to tljis great man va- 
 rious treatises concerning the monastic life, the 
 mystic theology, and other subjects of that na- 
 ture," which were the productions of some sense- 
 less and insipid writers of after-times. Thus 
 itliappened, through the pernicious influence 
 
 3^ * We scarcely know any -case in which the plea 
 of prescription can be admitted as a satisfactory argument; 
 in favour of religious tenets, or articles of faith, unless by 
 prescription be meant, a doctrine's being established in 
 the time, aud by the authority of the ■ apostles. In all 
 other cases, prescription is no argument at all: it cannot 
 recommend- error, and truth has no need of its support. 
 
 QCd'^lt is- not with the utmost accuracy, that _Dr. 
 Hosheim places the recognitions among the spurious- 
 works of antiquity, since they are quoted by Origen, 
 Epiphanius, and Rufinus, as the work of Clement. 11 is 
 true, indeed, that these writers own them to have been 
 altered in several places, and falsified by the heretics; anfl 
 Epiphanius particularly, tells us, that the Ebionites 
 scarcely left any thing sound in themi As to the Clemen- 
 tina, they were undoubtedly spurious. 
 Vol. I.— 12 
 
 of human, passions, which too ' often mangle 
 themselves with theexecution of the best pur- 
 poses and the most upright intentions^ that 
 they, who . were desirous of surpassing all 
 others in piety, looked upon it as lawful, and 
 even laudable, to advance the cause of piety 
 by artifice and fraud. . 
 
 XII. The piost famous controversies that 
 divided the Christians during this century, 
 were tliose concerning the Milleimivm, or reign * 
 of a thousand years; the baptism of heretics, 
 and the doctrine of Origen. 
 
 Long before this period, an opinion had pre- 
 vailed, that Christ was to come and reign a 
 thousand years among men, before the entire 
 and final dissolution of this world. This 
 opinion, which had hitherto met with no op- 
 position, was variously interpreted by different 
 persons: nor did all' promise themselves the 
 same kind of enjoyments in that future and 
 glorious kingdom.* But, in this century, its 
 credit began to decline, principally through the 
 influence and authority of Origen, who op- 
 posed it with l^he greatest warmth, because it 
 was incompatible with some of his £ivouxite. 
 sentiments.f Nepos, an Egyptian bishop, en- 
 deavoured to restore this opinion to its former 
 credit, in a book written against the Mlegmists, 
 for so he called, by way of,contempt, the ad- 
 versaries of the Millennarian system. This 
 work, and the hypothesis jt defendedj.were ex- 
 ceedingly well received by great numbers in 
 the canton of Arsmoe; and among others by^ 
 Coracion, a presbyter of no mean influence 
 and reputation. But Dionysius of Alexandria, 
 a disciple of Origen, stopped the growing pro- 
 gress of this doctrine by his private discourse,-^ 
 and also by two learned and judicious disser- 
 tations concerning the divine promisesjj 
 
 XIII. The disputes concerning the baptism 
 of heretics were not carried on with that ami- 
 able spirit of candour, moderation, and impar- 
 tiality, with which Dionysius oppos.ed the doc- 
 trine of the Millennium. The warmth and 
 violence that were exerted in this controversy, 
 were far from being edifying to such as were 
 acquainted with the true genius Of Christianity, 
 and with that meekness and forbearance that 
 should particularly distinguish its doctors. ■ 
 
 ' As there was no express law which deter- 
 mined the manner and form, accordiiig to 
 which those who abandoned the heretical sects 
 were to be received into the. communion of the 
 church, the rules practised in this matter were 
 not the same in all Christian churches. Many 
 of the Oriental and African Christians placed 
 recanting heretics in the rank of catechumens, 
 aiid admitted them, by baptism, into the com- 
 munion of the faithful; while the greatest part 
 of the European churches, considering the 
 baptism of heretics as valid, used .rio other 
 
 (^ * See the learned TreaUse ' concerning: the true 
 Millermivm, which ir. Whitby has subjoined to the 
 second volume of his commentary upon the New Testa- 
 ment. See also, for an account of the doctrine of the 
 ancient Milleunarians, the fourth, fifth, seventh, and 
 ninth volumes of jLardner'a-Credibility, &c;' 
 
 t See Origen, de FrincipiiSjlib. ii. cap.xi> p. 104. torn. 
 
 op. 
 
 \ See Euiehius. Hist. Eccles. lib. vii. cap. zxiv. p. 371, 
 as also Gennadius, d« dogmatibui EccleaiMtlcis, c*p. Ir 
 p. ^. edit'EIinenhorst. 
 
90 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part II 
 
 form in their reception than the imposition of 
 haiids, accompanied with solemn prayer. This 
 diversity prevailed for a long tiirie without 
 e.TOJting contentions or animosities. ■ But, at 
 Itength, charity waxed cold, and the fire of ec- 
 clesiastical discord broke out. In this century, 
 the Asiatic Christians came to a determination 
 iiji a point that was hitherto, in some measure 
 Undecided; and in more than one council es- 
 tablished it as a law, that all heretics were to 
 1)0 re-baptised before their admission, to the 
 communion of the true church.* When Ste- 
 phen bishop of Rome,' was informed of this 
 determmation, he behaved with the niost un- 
 christian violence and arrogance toward the 
 Asiatic Christians, broke communion with 
 them, stnd excluded them from the commu- 
 nion of the church of Rome. These haughty 
 ]3roceedings made bo impression upon Cyprian 
 bishop of Carthage, who,, notwithstanding the 
 menacps of the Romari pontiff, assembled a 
 council on this occasion, adopted with the rest 
 of the African bishops, the opinion'of the Asiat- 
 ics, and gave "notice thereof to .the imperious 
 Stephen. The fury of the latter was redoubled 
 at this notification, and produced many threat- 
 enings a!nd invectives against Cyprian, who 
 replied with great force and resolution, and in 
 a second council holden at Carthage, declared 
 tlie haptisiii, administered by heretics, void of 
 all efficacy and validity. Upon this tlie wrath 
 of Stephen was inflam.ed beyond measure; and, 
 by a decree full 'of invectives,\yhich was re- 
 ceived "with contempt, he ex,conimunicated the 
 African bishops, whose moderation on the one 
 hand, and the death- of their imperious antago- 
 nist on the other, put' an end to the violent 
 contest.t 
 
 XIV. The controversy concemmg Origen 
 was set in motion by Demetrius, bishop of 
 AlexandiiaJ aniniated as some say, by a princi- 
 ple of envy and hatred against that learned 
 man, with _whom he had formerly lived in ar^ 
 intimate friendship. The -assertion, however. 
 of those who attribute the opposition of De- 
 metrius to this^odious principle, appears more 
 than doubtful; for, in the whole of his coftduct 
 toward Origen, there are no visible marks of 
 envy, though many indeed of passion and ar- 
 rogance, of violence and injustice. The oc- 
 casion of all this was as follows. In the year 
 228, Origen having set oiit for Achaia, was in 
 his journey thither, received with singular 
 marks of affection and esteem by the bishops 
 of Csesarea and Jerusalem, who ordained him 
 presbyter by imposition of hands. This pro- 
 ceeding gave high offence to Demetrius, -who 
 declared Origen unworthy of the priesthood, 
 because he'Ha^ castrated himself, and main- 
 tained, at the same time, that it was not law- 
 ful to advance,'to a higher dignity, the princi- 
 pal of the Alexandrian school, which was 
 under his episcopal inspection, without his 
 knowledge and approbation. A conclusion, 
 however was put to these warm debates, and 
 
 * Euseb. lib. vii. cap. t. vii. Firmilianus, Epistol. ad 
 J!!ypriaDUm, priftted among Cyprian's Letters. 
 
 t Cyprian, Epist. Ixx. Ixxiii — ^Augustin, 3e Baptismo 
 contra Honatistas, lib. v. vii. torn. 1;g,. op. where are to be 
 foiind, the. acts or the council of Carthsige, A:. D. 256. — 
 Prild. Maraui vita Cyprimi, p." 107. 
 
 Origen returned to Alexandria. This calm 
 was indeed, but of short duration, being soon 
 succeeded by a new breach between him and 
 Demetrius, the occasion of which is not known, 
 but which grew to such a height' as obliged 
 Origen, in the year 231, to abandon bis charge 
 at Aleiandria and retire to Caesarea. His ab- 
 sence, however, did not appease the resent- 
 ment of Demetrius, who continued to perse- 
 cute him wjth the utmost violence. ' To satisfy 
 fully his vengeance against Origen, he assem- 
 bled two councils, in the first of which he con-, 
 demned him unheard r and deprived him of his 
 office, and, in the second, procured his degra- 
 dation from the sacerdotal dignity. It is pro- 
 ba6le, that in one of these, councils, especially 
 the latter, Demetrius accused him Qf erroneous 
 sentiments in matters of religion; for it was 
 about this time that Origen published his Book 
 of Principles, containing several opinions of a 
 dangerous tendency.* The greatest part of 
 the Christian bishops'approved the proceedings 
 of the Alexandrian council, against which the 
 bishops of tlie churches of Achaia, Palestine, 
 Fhcenicia, and Arabia, declared at the same 
 time the highest displeasure.f 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Concemi'ftg the Rites and Ceremimiesmed in the 
 Church during this Century. 
 
 I.. All the records of this century mention' 
 the multiplication of rites and ceremonies, in 
 the Christian church. ' Several of the causes 
 that contributed to this, have been already 
 pointed out; to which we may add, as a prin- 
 cipal one, the -passion which now reigned for 
 the Platonic philosophy, or,\ather, for the po- 
 pular Oriental superstition concerning demons 
 adopted by the Platdnists, and borrowed from 
 them, unhappily. By tlie Cliristjan^ doctors. 
 For there is hot the least doubt, that many of 
 the rites, now introduced into the church, de- 
 rived their origin from the reigning opinions 
 concerning the nature of demons, and the 
 powers and operations of invisible beings. — 
 Hence ; arose Wie use of exorcisms and spells, 
 the frequency of fasts," and the aversion to 
 wedlock; hence the custom of avoiding'all con- 
 nexion with those who were not as yet baptized, 
 or who lay under the penalty of excommuni- 
 cation, as persons supposed to be under the 
 
 {!{^ * This Vvork, which was a sort of introduction to 
 theology; has only come down to us in the translation of 
 Rufinusj who corrected and maimed it, in order to ren- 
 der it more conformable to the orthodox doctrine of the 
 church than Origen had leit it. It contains, however, 
 even in its present form, several bold and singular 
 opinions, such as "the pre-existence of souls, and their 
 fall into mortal bodies, in consequence of their deviation 
 from the laws of order in, their first state, and the final 
 restoration of all intelligent bcings,to order and happi- 
 ness. Rufinus, in his apology for Orieen, alleges, that 
 his writings were maliciously falsified by the heretics; 
 and that, m consequence thereof, maiiy errors were at- 
 tributed to him which he did not adopt; as also, that the 
 opinions, in which he difi'ered from the doctrines of the 
 church, were only proposed byhim as curious qonjectures. 
 
 fXhe accounts here given of the persecution of Origen, 
 are drawn from the most early and authentic sources,— 
 from Eusebius' History, the Bibliotheca of Photius 
 Jerome's Catalogue of Ecclesiastical Authors, and Origen 
 himself; and they differ in some respects Iroin those which 
 common writers, such as Doucin, J [upt, and d.thers, give 
 of tliis matter. 
 
Chaj . IV. 
 
 RITES AND CEREMONIES. 
 
 91 
 
 dominion of eome malignant spirit; aJid hence 
 the rigoui and severity of the penance imposed 
 upon those who had incurred by their iramo 
 raUties, the censures of the church.* 
 
 II. In most of the provinces there were, at 
 this time, some fixed places set apart for public 
 vyorship among the Christians as will appear 
 'evident to every iiftpartial inquirer into these 
 matters. Nor is it absolutely improbable, that 
 these cliurches were, in- several places^ embel- 
 lished with images and other ornaments. ~ 
 
 With respect to the form of divine worship, 
 and the times appointed for its celebration, 
 there were few innovations made in this cen- 
 tury. Two things, however, deservei to be 
 noticed here: the first is, that " the discourses, 
 or sermons, addressed to the people, were very 
 different from those of the earlier times of the 
 church, and degenerated much from the an- 
 cient simplicity; for, not to say any thing of 
 Origen, who introduced long sermons, and was 
 the first who explained the Scriptures in his 
 discourses, several bishops, who had received 
 their education m the schools- of the rhetori- 
 cians) were exactly scrupulous in adiiptihg their 
 public exhortations and discourses to the rules 
 of Grecian eloquence^, and this method gained 
 such credit, as to be soon almost universally 
 followed. The secoiid thing that we proposed 
 to mention as. worthy of notice, isj that about 
 this time,' the use of incense was introduced, 
 at least into many churches. This has been 
 deiijed by some meii of eminent learning; the 
 factr however, is rendered evident by the most 
 unexceptionable testimonies.f- 
 
 III. Several" alterations were now fntro- 
 diiced in the celebration of the Lord's supper, 
 by those who had tlip direction of divine wor- 
 ship". The prayers', used upon this occasion, 
 were lengthened; and the solemnity and pomp, 
 with which this important institution was cele- 
 brated, were considerably increased; no doubt/ 
 with a pious intention to render it still more 
 respectable. Those who were in a penitential 
 state and those also who had not received the 
 sacrament of baptism, were not -admitted to 
 this holy supper; andit is not difficult to per- 
 ceive, that these exclusions Were an imitation 
 of what was^practised in the heathen myste- 
 ries. We find, by the- accounts of Prudentiust 
 and others, that gold and silver vessels were 
 now used in the administration of the Lord's 
 supper; nor is there any reason why' we should 
 not adopt this opinion, since it is very natural 
 to, imagine, that those churches, which were 
 composed of the most opulent members, would 
 readily indulge themselves in this piece of- re- 
 ligious pomp. As to the time of celebrating 
 this solemn ordinance, it must be carefully ob- 
 served, that there was a. considerable variation 
 in different churches, arising from their differ- 
 ent circumstances, and founded upon reasons 
 
 * For a more ample account of this matter, the reader 
 may consult Porphyry's treatise concerning abstinence, 
 and compare what that writer has said on the suliiject,- 
 with the customs received among the Christians. Several 
 curious things are also to be found in Theodoret and 
 Eusebiua upon this head. 
 
 f See Bishop Beverege ad Canon, iii. Apostol. p. 461; 
 as also another work of the same author, entitled, Codex 
 Canon, vindicatus, p. 78. „ . .. 
 
 } n<f I {iif an. Hymn ii. n. 60, edit, Hemsn. 
 
 of prudence a.ti& necessity. In some, it was 
 celebrated in the morning;' in othets, at noon; 
 and in others, in the evenmg. It was also 
 more frequently repeated in some churches, 
 than in others; but was considered in all as of 
 the highest importance, and as essential to sal- 
 vation; for which reason it was even though*: 
 proper to administer it to infants. The sacrefl 
 feasts, which accon\panied this' venerable in- 
 stitution, - preceded its celebration iii some 
 churches, and followed it in others. . 
 
 IV. There were, twice a year, stated tiihea 
 when baptism was administered to such ag,' 
 after a long coxirse of trial and p^paration, 
 offered -thomselveg as candidates for the pro- 
 fession of Christianity. This ceremony was 
 performed only in the presence of such as 
 were already initiated into the Christian mys- 
 teries. The remission of sin was thought to 
 be its immediate and happy fruit; while the 
 bishop, by prayer and the imposition of hands, 
 was supposed to confer those sancti^ing gifts 
 of the Holy Ghost, which are necessary to a 
 life of righteousness and virtue.* We have 
 already mentioned the principal rites that were 
 used in the administration of baptism; and we 
 have only to add, that no persons were admitted 
 to this solemn ordinance, ^til, by the me- 
 nacing aiid formidable shouts and declamation^ 
 of the. exorcist, they had been delivered Gowl 
 the -dominion of the prince of durkness, and 
 consecrated to the service of God. The origin 
 pf-this superstitious ceremony may be easily 
 traced, when we consider the prevailing, opi- 
 nions Qf the times'. The Christians, in gen&- • 
 ral, were persuaded, that rational souls, deny 
 ing their existence -from God, must conse- 
 quently be in themselves pure, holy, and en- 
 dowed with the noble principles Of liberty and 
 virtue. But, upon this supposition, it was dif-- 
 ficult to account for the corrupt propensities 
 and actions of men in any other way, than by 
 attributing them either to the malignant na- 
 ture of inattir, or the influence and impulse of 
 some evil spirit, who-'was perpetually compell- 
 ing them to sin. The former opinion was em- 
 braced by the Gnostics, but was rejected by 
 true Christians, iwho denied the eternity of mat- 
 ter, Considered it as -a creature of Godj and 
 therefore adopted the latter notion, that in all 
 vicious persons there was a certain evil being, 
 the author and source of their corrupt dispo- 
 sitionu and their unrighteous deeds.f The ex- 
 
 * That such was the notion prevalent at this time, is 
 evident from testimonies of sumcieht wcie;ht. And as 
 this pt}int is of great consequence, in order to our un- 
 derstanding th^ theology of the anciAits, which differs 
 from ours in many respects, we- shall mention one of 
 these testimonies, even that of Cyprian, who, in liis 73d 
 letter, expresses himself thus: " It is manifest where, 
 and by whom the remission of sin, conferred in baptism 
 i^ administered. — They who are presented to the rulers 
 of the church, Dbtain, by our prayers and inlpositioQ of 
 hands, the Holy Ghost." See also Euseb. lib. vii, 
 cap. viii. .^ 
 
 f It is demonstrably evident^,, that exorcism vr^s added 
 to the other baptismal rites in the third centUry, alter 
 the- introduction of the Platonic philosophy into tKe 
 church; for, before this time, we hear no mention made 
 of it. Justin Martyr, in his second, apology, and Ter- 
 luUian, in his book concerning the military crown, give 
 us an- actroqnt of the ceremonies used in baptism during 
 the second century, withoufr^any mention of exorcism. 
 This is^ very strong argument of its being posterior to 
 these two great men; and is every way proper to persuadtf 
 
92 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 us, that it made its. entrance into the Christian church in 
 the third century, aai probably first in Egypt. 
 
 * Clementiu. Hoinil. ix. sect. 9. Forphyr. de abstinen- 
 iia, lib. iv. 
 
 pulsion of this demon was now considered, as 
 an essential preparation for baptism, after the. 
 administration of which, the candidates re- 
 turned home, adorned with crowns, and array- 
 ed in white garments, as sacred emblems; the 
 former, of their victory over sin and the world; 
 the latter, of their mwstrd purity and inno- 
 cence. 
 
 V. Fasting began now to be held in more 
 esteem than it had formerly been; a high de- 
 gree of sanctity was attributed to this prac- 
 tice, and it was even looked upon as of mdis- 
 pensable necessity, from a notion that the 
 demons directed their stratagems principally 
 against those who pampered themselves with 
 delicious fare, alid were less troublesome to 
 the lean and hungry, who lived under the 
 severities of a rigorous abstinence.* The Latins, 
 contrary to the general custom, fasted on the 
 seventh day of the week; and, as the Greeks 
 and Orientals refused to follow their example 
 in this respect, a new subject, of contention 
 arose between them. 
 
 "The Christians oifered up their ordinary 
 prayers at three stated times of the day, viz. 
 at the third, the sixth, and the ninth hour, ac- 
 cording to the custom observed among the 
 Jews. But, beside tliese stated devotions; true 
 believers were assiduous in their addresses to 
 the Supreme Being, and poured forth fre-' 
 quently their vows and supplications before his 
 throne, because they considered^ prayer as the 
 most essential duty, as well as the noblest em- 
 ployment, -of a sanctified nature. At those 
 festivals, which recalled the memory of some 
 joyful event, and were to be celebrated with 
 expressions of thanksgiving and "praise, they 
 prayed standing, as they thought that posture 
 the fittest to express'their joy and their confi- 
 dence.. On days of contrition and fasting, 
 they presented themselves upon their knees 
 before the Uirone of the Most High, to express 
 their profound humiliation and sdf-abasement. 
 Certain forms of prayer were, undoubtedly, 
 used in" many "places both In public and in pri- 
 vate; but many also expressed their piousfeel- 
 ing in the natural effusions "of an unpremedi- 
 tated eloquence. , 
 
 The sign of the cross was supposed' to ad- 
 minister a victorious power OYcr all sorts of 
 trials and calamities, and was more especially 
 considered as the surest defence against, the 
 snares and stratagems of mahgnant spirits; 
 and, hence it was, that no Christian undertook 
 any thing of monient, without arming himself 
 with the influence of this triumphant sign. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 Concerning the Divisions and Heresies that trou- 
 bled the Church during this Century. 
 
 I. The same sects that, in tlie former ages, 
 had produced such disorder and perplexity in 
 the Christian church, continued, in this, to 
 create new troubles, and to foment new divi- 
 sions. The Montanists, Valentinians, Mar- 
 cionites, and the other Gnostics, continued 
 
 Part II 
 
 still to draw out their forces, notwithstanding 
 the repeated defeats they had met with; and 
 their obstinacy remained even when their 
 strength was gone, as it often happens in reli- 
 gious controversy. Adelphius and Aquilintis, 
 ivho were of the Gnostic tribe, endeavoured to 
 insinuate themselves and their doctrine in^o the 
 esteem of the public, at Rome, and in other 
 parts of Italy.* ' They vrere, however, check- 
 ed, not only by the- Christians, but also by Plo- 
 tinus, the greatest Platonic philosopher of this 
 age, who, followed by a numerous train of dis- 
 ciples, opposed these two cliimerical teachers, 
 and others of the same kfnd, with as much vi- 
 gour and success as the most enlightened Chris- 
 tians could have done- The philosophical 
 opinions which this faction entertained con- 
 cerning the Supreme Being, the origin of the 
 world, the. nature of evil, and several other 
 subjects, were entirely opposite to the doctrines ' 
 of Plato. Hence the disciples of JesUs, and 
 the followers of Plotinus, united their efforts 
 against the progress of Gnosticism: and there 
 iff no doubt that their conjunct force soon de- ■ 
 stroyed the ore'dit and authority of this fantas^ 
 tic sect, and rendered it contemptible in the 
 estimation of the wise.^ 
 
 II. .While the Christians were struggling 
 with tliese corrupters of the truth, and upon 
 the jioint of obtaining a complete and decisive 
 victory, a new enemy, more vehement and odi- 
 ous than the Test, started up suddenly, ajid en- 
 gaged in the contest. This was Manes (or - 
 ManichsBus, as he sometimes is called by his " 
 disciples,) .by birth a Persian; eduQated among 
 the Magi, and himself on6 of that number, be- 
 fore he «mbraced the profession of Christianity. 
 Instructed in all those arts and scipnces, which 
 the PersianSj and the neighbouring nations, 
 held in the highest esteem,"he had penetrated 
 into the depths of astronomy in the midst of a 
 rural life; studied the art of healing, and ap-^ 
 plied himself to painting and philosophy. His 
 genSus was vigorous and sublime, but redun- 
 dant and ungovemed;^ and his mind, destitute 
 of a proper temperature, seemed to border on 
 fanaticism and madness. He was so adventu- 
 rous as to attempt an amalgamation of the 
 doctrine of tlie Magi with the Christian sys- 
 tem,' or- rather the explication of one by the 
 other; and, in order to succeed in this audaci- 
 ous enterprise, he affirmed that Christ had left 
 the doctriue of salvation unfinished and imper-- 
 feet, and that he was the comforter whom t^e 
 departing Saviour had promised to. his disci- 
 ples to lead them into all truth. Many were 
 deceived hj the eloquence of this enthusiast, 
 by the gravity of his countenance, and the in- 
 nocence and simplicity of his manners; so that, 
 in a short time, he formed a. sect not utterly 
 inconsiderable in point of number. He was 
 put to death by Varanes I. king of the Persians; 
 though historians are not agreed with respect 
 to the cause, time, and manner, of his execu- 
 fion.J 
 
 * Forphyr. rita Flotini, cap. xvi. p. 118. 
 
 f Flotinus' book against the. Gnostics is extant in his 
 work, Ennead. ii. lib. ix. 
 
 Q(^ i Some allege, that Manes, having undertaken to 
 cure the son of the .Persian monarch of a dangerous dis- 
 ease, by his medicinal art or his miraculous power, failed 
 
Cbai". V. 
 
 DIVISIONS AND HERESIES. 
 
 03 
 
 III. The docttine of Manes was a motley 
 mixture bf the tenets of Christianity with the 
 ancient philosophy of the Persians, in, which 
 he had been instrufcted during his youth. He 
 combined these two systems, and applied' and 
 accommodated to Jesus Christ the characters 
 • arid actions which the Persians attributed to 
 the god Mitliras. The principal doctrines of 
 Manes are cjomprehended in the following sum- 
 mary: - 
 
 " There are two principles from which all 
 things proceed;, the one is ,a most pure and sub- 
 tile matter, called lAglU; and the other a gross" 
 and eorrupt substance, called Darkness. Both 
 are subject to _the dominion of ii superintend- 
 ing being, whose existence is from all eternity. 
 The being who presides oyer the iight, is call- 
 ed God; he. that- rules the land of darkness, 
 bears the title of Hyle or Demon. The ruler 
 of the light is supremely happy; and, in con- 
 sequence thereof, benevolent and good; the 
 , piinceof dafknessis unhappy in hiraselfj and', 
 desiring to render others partakers of his misery, 
 is evil and malignant. These two beings have 
 produced an immense multitude of creatures, 
 resembling themselves, and distributed them 
 through their respective JroVinces. 
 
 JV.. " The priri<:e 6f darkness knew .not, for 
 a long series of ages, that-light existed in.the 
 universe; and he no sooner pesceived it, by the 
 nfeahs of a war that was kindled in his domin- 
 ions, than he bent his endeavours toward the' 
 subjection of it to his empire. -The ruler of 
 the liglit opposed to his efforts an arm^ com- 
 manded by tte first man, but not with the high- 
 est success; for the generals of the prince of 
 tlarluiess seized a considerable portion of the 
 celestial elements, and of ^he- light itself, and 
 mingled them in the mass of corrupt matter. 
 The second general of the ruler of the light, 
 whose name was the living ^irit, made war 
 with greater success against the prince of dark- 
 ness, but could not entirely disengage the pure 
 particles of the celestial matter, from the cor- 
 rupt mass, through which they-had beendis^ 
 persed. The prince of darlmess, after his de- 
 feat, produced the fost-parents of the human 
 race. The beings engendered from this origi- 
 nal stock, consists of a body formed out of the- 
 corrupt matter of the kingdom of darknesSj 
 and of two souls; one of which is sensitive and 
 lustful, and owes its existence to the evil prin- 
 ciple; the other rational and immortal, a par- 
 
 inthe attempt, pr^ipitated the de^th of the prince, and, 
 thus incurrmg the indignation of the king his father, 
 was put to a cruel death. Thisaceountis scarcely proba- 
 ble, as it' is mentioned by none of the Oriental writers 
 .cited hy M- d'Herbelot, and as^Bar-Hebrffina speaks of it 
 in terms whiph show that^ it was only an uncertain ru- 
 mour. -The death of Manes is generally attributed to 
 another- cause by the'Oriental writers. They tell us, 
 that (after having been protected in a singular manner liy 
 Hormizdas, who succeeded -^apor on the Persian throne, 
 but who was not able to defend him, at length, against the 
 united hatred of the Christians, the Magi^ Che Jews, and 
 the Pagans) he ^as shut' up in a strong castle, Vhich 
 Hormizdas had erected between Baghdad' and Susa, to 
 serve him as a refuge against those who persecuted hini 
 on account of his doctrine. They add, that after the 
 death of Hormizdas, Varanes I., his successor, first pro- 
 tected Manes, but afterwards gave hiin-up to the fury of 
 the M&gi, vvhose resentment against him arose from his 
 Iiaving adopted the Saddueean principles, as some say, 
 while others attributed it to his having mingled the tenets 
 of the Magi with the doctrines of Christianity. 
 
 title of that' divine light, which was carried : 
 away by the arjny of darknes8,-and- immersed -|| 
 into the mass of malignant matter. 
 
 V. " Mankind being thus formed by the 
 prince of darkness, and those minds which 
 were the productions of thri eternal light, J)e- 
 ing united to theii; mortal bodies, God created 
 the earth out of the corrupt- mass of .matter, 
 by that- living spirit, who had vanquished the 
 prince of darkness. The design of this crea- 
 tion was to furnish a dwelling for the "human 
 race, to .deliver, l)y degrees, the captiVe souls 
 from their corporeal prisons, and to extract the 
 celestial elements from the gross substance in 
 wliiph they were involved. ' In order to carry 
 this design into execution, God produced two 
 beings of ■^eminent dignity from his own sub- 
 stattcpj who were to -lend their auspicious suc- 
 cour to imprisoned spuls; of these sublime en- 
 tities one "was Christ; and the other, the Holy 
 Gnost. Christ is that glorious intelligence 
 which the Persians called Mithras: he is a most 
 splendid substance; consisting of th.^ brightness 
 of the.eternal light; subsisting in and by him- 
 self, endowed with life, and enriched with in- 
 finite wisdom; and his residence is in the sun. ^ 
 •The Holy Ghost is also a lunlinous and a;ni- 
 mated body, diffused throughout every part of 
 the atmosphere which surrounds this terrestrial 
 globe. TMs genial principle warms and illu- 
 minates ' the minds of men, renders also the 
 earth fruitful, and draws forth gra,dually from 
 its bosom the latpnt particles of celestial iire, 
 which it wafts up on high to their primitive 
 station. , ' 
 
 VI. "When the Supreme Bemg had, for a 
 long time, admonished and exhqrted the -caji- 
 tive souls,' by the ministry of the angels, and 
 of the holy men, appointed for that piupose, 
 he ordered Ghnst to leave the solar regions, 
 and to descend upon earth,' in order to accele-^ 
 rate the return of those imprisoned spirits to 
 their celestial country." In obedience to this 
 divine cranmand, Christ appeared among'the 
 Jews, clothed with th? shadowy form of ahu- 
 man body^and not with the real substance. 
 During his ministry, he ta;ugh't inortals how to 
 disengage the rational soul from . the corrupt 
 body, and to conquer the violence of maligtiant 
 •matter; and he demonstrated his divine mission 
 by stuperidous miracles. On the .othSr hand, 
 the prince of darkness used every method to 
 iiilame the Jews against this divine messen- 
 ger, and incited them at length to put him to 
 death with ignominy upoji a cross; which -pun- 
 ishment, however he suffered not in reality, 
 but only in appearance, and in the opinion of 
 men. When Christ had fulfilled the purposes 
 of his mission he'retumed to his:throne in the 
 sun, and a,ppointed a certain number of cho- 
 sen apostles to propagate through the world 
 the religion he had taught during the course 
 of his mim'stry. But. .before his^departure, he 
 promised, that,-at a. certain time, he would 
 send an apostle superior to. all others in emi-; 
 nence and diggity, whom he called the para- 
 clete or comforter, vvho' should add many things 
 to the precepts he had delivered, and dispel all 
 the errors under which his servants laboured 
 concerning divine things. This comforter, thus 
 expressly promised bv Christ, is Manes, the 
 
94 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part II 
 
 Persian, who, by the order of the Most High, 
 declared to mortals the whole doctrine of sal- 
 vation, without exception, and without con- 
 cealing any of its truths under the veil of 
 metaphor or any other covering. 
 
 VII. " Those soub, who believe Jesus Christ 
 to be the Son of God, who renounce the Wor- 
 ship of the God of the Jews (the prince of 
 darkness,) obey the laws delivered by Christ 
 SIS they are enlarged and illustrated by the 
 comforter, Manes, and combat, with perse- 
 vering fortitude, the lusts and appetites of a 
 corrupt nature, derive from this faith and obc; 
 dienee the inestinuible advantage of being gra- 
 dually purified from the contagion of matter. 
 The total purification of souls "cannot, indeed 
 be accomplished during this mortal life. Hence 
 it is, that the souls of men, aftier death, must 
 pass through two states more of probation and 
 trial, by water and fire,_before they can ascend 
 to the regions of light. They mount, there- 
 fore, first into the moon, which consists of be- 
 nign and salutary water; vifhence, after a lus- 
 tration of fifteen days; they proceed to the 
 sun, whose purifying fire entirely removes their 
 corruption, and effaces all their stains. The 
 bodiesj composed 'of malignant matter, wliich 
 they have left behind them, return to their 
 ■first state,~and enter into their original mass. 
 
 VIIL " On the other hand, those souls who 
 have neglected the salutary work of their pu- 
 rification, pass, after death-, into the bodies of. 
 animals, or other natures, where they remain 
 until they have expiated their guilt, and ac- 
 complished their probation. Some, on account 
 of their , peculiar obstinacy and perverseness,' 
 pa^ through a severer course of trial, being 
 delivered over, for a certain time, to the power 
 of serial spirits, who torment them in various 
 ways. When the greatest part of the captive 
 souls are restored to liberty, and to the regions 
 of light, then a devouring fire shall break forth 
 at the divine command, from the caverns in 
 which it is at present confined, and, shall de- 
 stroy an4 consume the frame of the v/orld. 
 After this tremendous event, the prince and 
 powers of darkness shall be forced to return to 
 their primitive seats of anguish and misery, in 
 which they shall dwell for ever; for, to prevent 
 their ever renewing this war in the regions of 
 light, God shall surround the mansions of dark- 
 ness with an invincible guard, composed of 
 those souls who have fallen irrecoverably from 
 the hopes of salvation, and who, set in array, 
 like a mihtary band, shall surround those 
 gloomy seats of wo, and' hinder any of their 
 wretched inhabitants from' coming forth again 
 to the light." ■ ^ 
 
 IX. In order to remove the strongest obsta- 
 cles that lay against the belief of this mon- 
 strous system. Manes rejected almost all the 
 sacred books into which Christians look for 
 the sublime-truths. of their holy rehgion. He 
 affirmed, in -the first place, that the Old Testa- 
 ment-was not the word of God, but of the 
 prince of darkness, who was substituted by the 
 Jews in the place of the true God. He main- 
 tained farther that the Four Gospels, which 
 contain the history of Christ, were not written 
 by the apostles, or, at least, that they were 
 corrupted and interpolated by designing and 
 
 artful men, and were augmented with Jewish 
 fables and fictions. He therefore supplied their 
 place by a gospel which he said was dictated to 
 him by God himself, and which he distinguish- 
 ed by the title of Erteng. He rejected also 
 the Acts of the Apostles; and though he ac- 
 knowledged the epistks, that are attributed to „ 
 St. Paul, to be the productions of that-divine 
 apostle, yet he looked upon them as grossly 
 corrupted and falsified in a variety of passages. 
 We have not any certain account of the judg- 
 ment which he formed concerning the other 
 books of 'the New Testament. 
 
 X. The rules of life and manners that Manes 
 prescribed to his disciples were extravagantly 
 rigorous and austere. He commanded them 
 to mortify and macerate the body, which he 
 looked upon as intruisicq,lly evil, and essen- 
 tially corrupt; to deprive it of all those objects 
 which could contribute either to its conveni- 
 enoy or dehght; to extirpate a)U those desires 
 that lead to the pursuit of external objects; 
 and to divest themselves of all the passions 
 and instincts of natucp. Such were the unna- 
 tural rules of practice which this absurd fana- 
 tic prescribed to his followers; but foreseeing, 
 at the same time, that his sect could not be- 
 come numerous, if this severe manner of liv- 
 ing should be imposed without distinction upon 
 all his adlierents, he divided his disciples into 
 two classes; one of which comprehended the 
 perfect Chi:istians, under the name of the elect; 
 and the other,-the imperfect aiid feeble, under 
 the title of hearers. The elect were .bound to 
 a rigorous and entire abstinence from flesh, 
 eggs, milk, fish, wine, all intoxicating ilrink,- 
 wedlock, and all amorous gratifications, and 
 were required to live in a state of the^harpest 
 penury, nourishing their shrivelled and emaci- 
 ated bodies with bread, herbs, pulse, and 
 melons, and depriving themselves of all the 
 comforts that arise from the moderate indul- 
 gence of natural passions, arid also from a va- 
 riety of innocent and agreeable pursuits. The 
 discipline, appointed for the hearers, was -of a 
 milder nature. They were allowed to possess 
 houses, lands, and wealth, to feed upon flesh, 
 and to enter into the bonds of conjugal ten- 
 derness; but tills liberty was granted to them 
 with many limitations, and under the strictest 
 conditions of moderation and temperance. 
 
 The general Manichean assembly was head- 
 ed by a president, who represented Jesus 
 Christ. There were joined to him twelve 
 rulers, or masters, who were designed to re- 
 nresent the twelve apostles; and these were 
 Tollowed by seventy-two bishops, the images of 
 the seventy-two disciples of our Lord. These 
 bishops had presbyters and^ deacons . under 
 them, and all the members of these religious 
 orders were chosen out of the class of the 
 elect.* 
 
 XI. The sect of the Hieracites was formed 
 in Egypt, toward the conclusion of this century, 
 by Hierax of Leontium, a bookseller by pro- 
 fession, distinguished eminently by his exten- 
 sive learning, and a venerable air of sanctity 
 and virtue. Some have considered 'this as a 
 
 * See all thia amply proved in the work entitled Com. 
 mentarii de rebus Christianorum ante GonataDtinum 
 Magnum. 
 
Chap. V. 
 
 DIVISIONS AND HERESIES. 
 
 95 
 
 branch of the Maniehaean sect, but without 
 foundation ; since, notwithstanding the agree- 
 ment of Manes and Hierax in some points of 
 doctrine, it is certain that they differed \n many 
 respects. Hierax maintained, that tlje prin- 
 cipal object of Christ's ofBoe and ministry was 
 the pi-omulgation of a new law,' more .seyere 
 and perfect than that of Moses: aftd hence hfe 
 contJuded, that theuse of flesh and wine, wed- 
 lock, and other things agreeable to the outward 
 senses, whieh had been permitted under the 
 ' -Mosaife dispensation, were absolutely proliibit- 
 ed and abrogated hy Christ; If, indeed; we 
 look attentively into his doctrine, we shall find, 
 tha);, hke Manes, he did not think that these, 
 austere acts of self-denial were imposed by 
 Christ indisbriminately upon all, but on such 
 bijiy as were ambitious of aspiring to the high- 
 est suliunit of Virtue. To this leading error 
 he added some othera, which were partly the. 
 consequences of this illusion, and were, in 
 part, derived from other sources. He excluded, 
 for example, from the kingdom of heaven, chil- 
 dren who died before they had arrived at the 
 use of jeason, upon the supposition that God 
 was bpund to administer the 'rewards of futu- 
 rity to those only .who had fairly 'finished their, 
 victorious CQnflict with the body of its lusts. 
 He maintained also, that Melchizedec,.king of 
 Salem, who bliessed Abraham, was the Holy 
 Ghost; denied the resurrection of the body;" 
 and oast a oloud of obscurity over the sacred 
 scrlptures^by his allegoJiioal fictions.* 
 
 XII. The controversies relating to the divine 
 Trinity, which took their rise iii the former, 
 century, fi^om the introduction of the Grecian 
 philosophy into the CMristian church, were now 
 spreading with- considerable vigor, and pro- 
 duced various methdds of explainiijg that in-~ 
 explicable doctrine. - -One of the first who en- 
 gaged in this idte and perilous attempt of ex- 
 plaining What every mortal must acknowledge 
 to be ipcomprehenslble, was JVootus of Smyrna, 
 an obscure man, and of mean abilities. He 
 nfiirmed, that the Supreme God, \vhora he 
 called the Father, and considered as absolutely 
 itidivisible, united himself to the man Christ, 
 whom he ealleij. the Son, and was borri, and 
 crucified with him. From this opinion, Noetns 
 and his followers we're distinguished by the 
 title of Patripassians, i. e. persons who believe 
 that the Siipreme Father of the universe, and, 
 not any other divine person, had expiated the. 
 gnilt of the human race; a.nd, indeed, this ap- 
 pellation belongs to them justly, if the accounts 
 which ancient writers ^ve us of their-opinijjns 
 
 ^be accurate and impartial.! 
 
 XIII. About the middle of tlys century arose 
 Sabellius, an African bishop or presbyter, who 
 in Pentapolis, a province of Oyrenaica, and in 
 Ptolemais or Barce, its principal city, explain- 
 ed, in a manner very little different from that 
 of Noetus, the doctrine of Scripture concern- 
 ing the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. This 
 dogmatist had a considerable number of fol- 
 lowers, who adhered to him, notwithstanding 
 
 * Epiphan. H<eres. Ixvii. Hieracitarum, p. 710, &c.' 
 
 t See the discourse of Hippolytus against the 
 
 Heresy of Noetus, in the second volume of his works, 
 
 published by Fabricrus; as also Epiphan. Hfercs. Ivii. 
 
 loai. i.; and Theodoret. Hseret. Fabul. lib. iii. cap. iii. 
 
 that his opinions were refuted by -Dionyslus, 
 bishop of Alexandria. His sentiments were, 
 in some respects, different from those of Noe- 
 tus; for the latter was of .opinion, that the 
 person of the Father had assumed the human 
 nature of Christ; whereas Sabellius maintain- 
 ed, that a certain energy only, proceeding from 
 the Supreme Parent, or a certain ptfftion pf 
 the divine nature, was united to the Son of 
 Grijd, the man Jesus; and he considered, in the 
 same manner, the Holy, Ghost, as a portion of 
 the ^everlasting Father.* Hence it appears, 
 that the Sabellians, though they might with' 
 justice be called Patripassians, were yet called 
 so by the ancienis in a different sense from that 
 in which this name was given to the Noetians. 
 
 XIV. At this same period, Beryllus an Ara- 
 bian.blshop of Bozrah, and a man of eminent 
 piety andsleaming, taught that Christ, before 
 his birth, had no proper subsistence, nor any 
 other divinity, than that ofthe Father, which 
 opinion,- when considered with attention, 
 amouhts to this: that Christ did not exist be- 
 fore Mary, but that a spirit issuing from God- 
 himself, and therefore superior to all human 
 soulsj as beinga portion of the divine natiire, 
 was united to him, at the time c»f his birth. 
 Beryllus, however, was refuted' by Origin, 
 
 .with such a victorious power of argument and 
 zeal, that he yielded up the cause, and returned 
 into the bosoiu of the church.f 
 
 XV. Paul, of Saraosata. bishon of Antioch. 
 and also a magistrate, or civil--]udge, was very 
 different from the pious and candid Benrllus, 
 both in point of morals and doctrine. He was 
 a vain and arrogant man; whom riches had ren- 
 dered insolent and self-sufficient.t- He intro^ 
 duced great confusion aiid trouble into the 
 eastern churches, by his new explication of the 
 doctrine of the Gospel concerning the nature 
 of God and Christ, and left behind him a seet, 
 
 , that assumed the title of Paulians, or Paulian- 
 ists. As far as we can judge of his doctrine, 
 by the accounts of it that havelieen transmit- 
 ted to iis, it seems to have amounted to this : — ■ 
 " That tie Son and the Holy Ghost exist in 
 God, in the same manner as the feeulties of 
 reasoi} and activity do in man; that Ohrist was 
 bom a mere nian; but that the reason or wis- 
 dom of the Father descended into him, and by 
 him wrought miracles upon'earth, a*id instroat- 
 ed the nations ; and finally, that, oil account 
 of this union of the divine word With the man 
 Jesus, Christ might, though improperly,,' ba 
 called God." : ■ ■ 
 
 Siich were the real sentiments of Paul. He 
 involved them, however, in such deep obscu- 
 rity, by the ambiguous forms of speech with 
 which he affected to eixplain and defend them> 
 that, in several councils convoked for an inqui- 
 
 * Almost all tbe historiang, who give accounts of 
 the ancient heresies, have- made particular mention 
 of Sabellius. Among others, see Euseb. Hist. Eccles. 
 lib. vi. cap.'vi. p. 252. Athanas. Lib. de sententia 
 Diojiysii.- An the passages ofthe ancient authors, re- 
 lating to Sabellius, are carefully collected by the learn- 
 ed Christopher Wotmius, in lii5.HistoriaSabeIUan3. 
 - 1 Euseb. lib.vi. cap. xx. xxxiii. Hieronym. Catarlog.--- 
 Scriptor. Eccles. cap. Ix. . Socrates, Hist, liiccles.'lib. 
 iii. cap. vii.; and; among the moderns,-le Glerc, Ara 
 Critlca, vol. impart ii. sect. i. cap. xiv. Chauffepied, 
 Nouveau Dicti'on. Hist, et Crit. torn. i. 
 I Euseb. lib. vii. cap. xxx. 
 
96 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part II. 
 
 ly into his errors, he. could not be convicted of 
 heresy. At length, however, a council was 
 assembled in the year 269j in which Malchion, 
 the rhetorician, drew him forth from his obscu- 
 rity, detected his evasions, and exposed him in 
 his true colours; in consequence of which he 
 Ivas degraded from the, episcopal order.* 
 
 -XVI. It was not only in the point now men- 
 tioned, that the doctrine of the Gbspel suffer- 
 ed, at this time, from the erroneous fancies of 
 wrong-headed doctors; for there sprang up 
 now, in Arabia, a certain sort of minute phi- 
 losophers, the disciples of a master, whose ob- 
 scurity has concealed him from the knowledge 
 of aftei^ages, who denied the immortality of 
 the soul, aiid believed that it perished with the 
 body; but maintained, at the same time, that it 
 was to be recalled to life with the body, by the 
 power of God. The philosophers, who held 
 tliis opinion, were denominated Arabians from 
 their country. Origen was called from Egypt, 
 to make head Jigainst this rising sect, and dis- 
 puted against them, in a full council, with such 
 remarkable success, that they abandoned their 
 erroneous sentiments, and returned to the re- 
 ceived doctrine of the church. 
 
 XVn. Among the sects that arose in this 
 century, we place that of the Npvatians the 
 last. - This sect cannot bp charged with having 
 corrupted the doctrine of Christianity by their 
 opinions; their crime was, that, Ijy the unrea- 
 sonable severity of their discipline, they gave 
 occasion to the most deplorable divisions, and 
 made an unhappy schism in the church. No- 
 ^atian, a presbyter^of the church of Rome, a 
 man of uncommon learning and eloquence, 
 but of an austere and rigid character, enter- 
 tained" the inost unfavourable sentiments of 
 those who had Jjeen separated from the com- 
 munion of the church. He indulged his in- 
 chnation to severity so far, as to deny that such 
 as had fallen into the commission of grievous 
 transgressions, especially those who had apos- 
 tatised from the faith, rmder the persecution 
 set on foot by Decius, were to be a^ain receiv- 
 ed into the bosom of. the church. The great- 
 est part of the presbyters were of a dift'erent 
 opinion in this matter, especially Cornelius, 
 w^ose credit and influence were raised to the 
 highest pitch by the esteem and admiration^ 
 which his eminent virtues so naturally excited. 
 Hence it happened, that when a bishop was to 
 be chosen, in the year 250, to succeed Fabianus 
 in the see of Rome, Novatian opposed the 
 election of Corneliiis, with the greatest activity 
 and bitterness. His opposition, however, was 
 in vain; for Cornelius was chosen to that emi- 
 
 » Epistol. Concil. Antiochl ad Paulum in Biblidtheca 
 Fatrum, torn, xi, p. 303. Dionjsii Alex. £p. ad Fauhim. 
 Pecem Fauli Samosateni Qusestiones. 
 
 nent office of which his distinguished merit 
 rendered him so highly worthy. Novatian, 
 upon this, separated himself froin the jurisdic- 
 tion of Cornelius, who, in his turn, called a 
 council at Rome, in the year 251, and cut off 
 Novatian and his partisans from the commu- 
 nion of the church. This turbulent man, be- 
 ing thus excommunicated, erected a new so- 
 ciety, of which he was the first bishop; and, 
 which, on account of the severity of its disfcip- 
 line, was followed by many, and flourished, 
 until the iifth century, in the greatest "part of 
 those provinces which had received foe Gospel. 
 The chief person who assisted him in this en- 
 terprise was Novatus, a Carthagenian presby- 
 ter, a man pf no sound principles, who,-during 
 the heat of this controversy, had come from 
 Carthage to Rome, to escape the resentment 
 and excommunication of _Cyprian, his bishop, 
 with whom he was highly at variance. 
 
 XVIII. There was no difference, in point 
 of doctrine, between the Novatians and other 
 Christians. What peculiarly distinguished 
 them, was their refusing' to re-admit, to the 
 communion of the church, those, who, after 
 baptism, had fallen into the commission of 
 heinous crimes, though they did not pretend, 
 th^t even such were excluded from all p'ossi- 
 bihty or hopes of salvation. They considered 
 the Christian church as a society where virtue 
 and innocence reigned imiversally, 'and none 
 of whose members, from their entrance -into it, 
 had defiled theinselves with any enormous 
 crime; and, in consequence, they looked upon 
 every society, which re-admitted heinous of- 
 fenders to its communion, as unworthy of the 
 title of a true Christian Church. For that 
 reason, also, they assumed the title of Cathari, 
 i. e. -the pure; and what showed a still more 
 extravagant degree of vanity and arrogance, 
 they obliged such as came over to them from 
 the general body of Christians, to submit to be 
 baptised a" second time,' as a necessary prepa- 
 ration for entering into their society; for such 
 deep root" had their favourite opinion concern- 
 ing the irrevocable rejection of heinous of 
 fenders taken in their minds, and^o great was 
 its influence upon the sentiments they enter- 
 tained of other Christian societies, that they 
 considered the baptism administered in those 
 churches, which received the lapsed to their 
 communion, even after the most sincere and 
 undoubted repentance, as absolutely, divested 
 of^the power of imparting the remission of 
 sins.* 
 
 * Euseliius, lib. Ti. cap. xliii. Cyprianus, in variis 
 Epistolia, ilix. &c. Albaspinasus', Obsenrat. Ecdes. lib. 
 ii. cap. XX. xxi. Job. Aug. ffrsi, ie Criminum capital, 
 inter veteres Chriatianos Absolutioue, p. 954. Kenckel 
 de Haercfii 19'oTatiaDa. 
 
AN 
 
 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY; 
 
 BOOK THE SECOND, 
 CONTAINING THE STATE OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH 
 
 pnoM THE TIME or 
 
 CONStANTINE THE GREAT TO CHARLEMAGNE. 
 
 THE FOURTH CENTURY. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 THE EXTERNAL, HISTORY -OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Cdnceming the prosperous and calamitous Eoents 
 iohich happened to the Church' during this 
 Centiei:y. 
 
 L That I may- not separate facts, which are 
 intimately connected with each otlier, I have 
 judged it expedient to combine, in the same 
 chapter, the-prosperoua and calamitous events 
 that happened to the church during this cen- 
 tury, instead of treating them separately, as I 
 have hitherto done. This combination, which 
 presents things in their natural relations, is 
 causes or effects, is undoubtedly the principal 
 circumstance that renders history truly interest- 
 ing. In following, however, this plan, the or- 
 der of time shall also be observed with as much 
 accuracy as the combination of events will_ 
 allow. ' ■ ~ . I 
 
 In the beginning of the century, the Roman 
 empirg was under the dominion Of four chiefs, 
 of whom two, Diocletian and Maxim'ian Her- 
 culiiis, were of superior dignity, and were se- 
 vera,lly distinguished by the title of Augustus; 
 while the other two, Constantius Chlorus and 
 Maximian Galerius, were in a certain degree 
 of subordination to the former, and were- ho-' 
 noured with the appellation of Cajsars. Under 
 these four emperors, the church enjoyed an 
 agreeable calm.* Diocletian, though much ad- 
 dicted to superstition, did not entertain any 
 aversion to the Christians; and Constantius 
 Chlorus, who, following the dictates of reason 
 alone in the worship of the Deity, had abandon- 
 ed the absurdities of polytheism, treated them 
 
 * Eusebius, lib. viii. cap. i. p. 291, &c. 
 Vol.. I.— 13 
 
 with condescension and benevolence. This 
 alarmed the pagan priests, whose interests were 
 so closely connected with the continuance of the 
 ancient superstitions, - and who apprehended, 
 not without cause, tha:t to tlieir great detri- 
 ment the Christian religion would become 
 daily more general and triumphant throughout 
 the empire. Under these anxious feais of the 
 downfall of their authority, they addressed 
 themselves to Diocletian, whom they knew to 
 be, of a timorous and credulous disposition, a:nd 
 by fictitious oracles, and other perfidious stra- 
 tagems, endeavoured to engage him to perse- 
 cute the Christians.* 
 
 II. Diocletian, however, stood for some time 
 unmoved by the treacherous arts of these self^ 
 ish and superstitious priests, who, when. they 
 perceived the ill success of their cruel efforts, 
 addressed themselves to Maximian Galerius,' 
 one of the Caesars, and also son-in-law to Dio- 
 cletian, in order to accomplish their unrighte- 
 ous purposes. This prince, whose gross igno- 
 rance of every thing but military affairs wag 
 accompanied with a fierce and savage temper, 
 was a proper instrument for executing , their 
 designs. Set on, therefore, by the malicious 
 insinuations of the heathen priests, the sug- 
 gestions of a superatitious mother, and the fe- 
 rocity of his own natural dispositioii, he soli- 
 cited Diocletian, with such urgent and inde- 
 fatigable importunity, for an edict against the 
 Christians, that he, at length, obtained his 
 horrid purpose; for in the year SOS, when this 
 emperor was at Nioomedia, an ordea: was ob- 
 
 * Eusebius; cle vila Constantini, lib. ii. cap. i. p. 467. 
 Lactaiitii InaULut. divin. lib. iv, cap. xxrii. et de Morti 
 bus Fersequutorum, cap. x. 
 
08 
 
 EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part I. 
 
 tained from him to pull down the churches of 
 the Christians, to burn all their books and 
 writings, and to take from them all their.civil 
 rights and privileges, and render them incapa- 
 ble of any honoura or civil promotion.* This 
 first edict, though rigorous and severe, extend- 
 ed not to the lives of the Christians, for Dio- 
 cletian was extremely averse to slaughter and 
 bloodshed; it was, however, destructive to 
 many of them, particularly to those who re- 
 fused to deliver the sacred books into the hands 
 of the magistrates.f Many Christians, there- 
 fore, and, among them several bishops and 
 presbyters, seeing the consequences of this re- 
 fusal, delivered up all the religious books, and 
 other sacred things that were in their posses-, 
 sion, in order to save their lives. This con- 
 duct was highly condemned by the most steady 
 and resolute Christians, who looked upon this 
 compliance as sacrilegious, and branded those 
 who were guilty of it with the ignominious 
 appellation of traditors.l 
 
 III. Not long after the publication of this 
 first edict against the Christians, a fire broke 
 out twice in the palace of NicoBjedia, where 
 Galerius lodged with Diocletian. The Chris-. 
 tians were accused, ,by their enemies, as the 
 authors of this conflagration;^ and the credu- 
 lous Diocletian, toO easily persuaded of the 
 truth of this charge, caused vast numbers of 
 them to suffer, at Nicomedia, the punishment 
 of incendiaries, and to be tormented in the 
 . most inhuman and infamous manner. |[ About 
 the same time, there arose tumults and sedi- 
 tions in Armenia and in Syria,' which were 
 also attributed to the Christians by their irre- 
 concilable enemies, who took advantage of 
 those disturbances to inflame the emperor's 
 fury. And, accordingly, Diocletian, by a new 
 edict, ordered all the bishops and nnnisters of 
 the Christian church to be thrown into prison. 
 Nor did his inhuman violence end here; for a 
 third edict was soon issued, by which it was or- 
 dered,, that all sorts of torments should be Em- 
 ployed, -and the most insupportable punish- 
 ments invented, to force these venerable cap- 
 tiveSlo -renounce their profession, by sacrificing 
 to.the heatheii godsjIF for it was hoped,that, if 
 the bishops and doctors of the church could be 
 brought to yield, their respective flocks would 
 be easily induced to follow their example. An 
 immense number of persons, illustriously dis- 
 tinguished 6y their piety and learning, became 
 the victims of this cruel stratageni through the 
 whole Ronian empire, Gaul excepted, which 
 was under the mild and equitable dominion of 
 
 ^Lactanlius, de Mortibus Persequutoruih,~c. xi. Eusc- 
 bius, lib. Tiii. cap. ii. 
 
 I Augustinus,- Brev. collat. cum Donatistis, cap. xt. 
 XTii. Baluzii Miscellan. torn. ii. 
 
 X OptafuB Milevit. de- Schismate Donatistarnm, lib. i. 
 sect. xiii. -^ 
 
 Ot^ § Lai:taiitius assures us, that Galerius caused ^re 
 to be privately set to the palace, that he might laj the 
 blame of it upon the Christians, and thus incense Diocle- 
 tian still more against them; in, which horrid stratagem 
 he succeeded; for never was^ any persecution so bloody 
 and ^uman, as that -which this credulous emperor now 
 set on foot against them. 
 
 II Euseb. Hist, Eccles. lib. viii. cap. vi. Lactant. de 
 Mortibus Fersequut. cap. xix. Constant. Mag. Oratio ad 
 sanntor. Coetum, cap. xxv. 
 
 ? Euseb. Hist, Eccles, lib, viii, cap. vii. et de Martyri- 
 Inu Faicestius, 
 
 Constantius Chlorus,* Some were punished 
 ill such a shameful manner, as the rules of de- 
 cency oblige us to pass in silence; some were 
 put to death after having had their constancy 
 tried by tedious and inexpressible tortures; and 
 some were sent to the, mines to 4raw out the 
 remains of a miserable life in poverty and 
 bondage. 
 
 IV. In the second year of this horrible per- 
 secution, the 304th of the , Christian cera, a 
 fourth edict was published by Diocletian, at the 
 instigation of Galerius, and the other invete- 
 rate enemjes of the Christian name. By it the 
 magistrates were ordersd and commissioned to 
 force all Christians, without distinction of rank 
 or sex,, to sacrifice to the gods,-and were au-. 
 thorised to employvall sorts of torments, in. orr 
 der to drivp them to this act Of apostasy .j — 
 The diligence and zeal of the" Roman magis- 
 trates, in the execution of this inhuman edict, 
 nearly proved fatal to the Christian cause.J 
 
 Galerius now made no longer a mystery of 
 the ambitious project which he had been re- 
 volving in his mind. Finding his scheme ripe 
 fox execution, he pbliged Diocletian and Maxi- 
 mian Herculius to resign the imperial dignity, 
 and declared Mmself emperor of thei east; 
 leaving in the west Constantius Chlorus, with 
 the ill state of whose health he was well ac- 
 quainted. He chose colleagues according to- 
 liis own fancy; and rejecting the proposal of 
 Diocletian, who. recommended Maxentiiis and 
 Constantino (the son of Constantius) to tfcat 
 dignity, he made choice of Severus and Daza, 
 his sister's son, to whom he had a little before 
 given the name of Ma«imin.§ This revolu 
 tion Testored peace to those Christians who 
 lived in the western provinces, under the ad- 
 ministration_ of Constantius;|| while those of 
 the east, under the tyranny of Galerius, had 
 their sufferings and calamities dreadfully aug- 
 ipented.lT " ^ 
 
 V. The divine providence, however, was 
 preparing more serene and hgppy days for the 
 church. . In order to this, it confounded the 
 ^schemes of Galerius, and brought his cotrasels 
 to nothing. In tlie year 306, Constantius 
 Chlorus dying in Britain, the army saluted, 
 with the title of Augustus, his son Constan- 
 tino, surnamed afterMvards the Great on account 
 of his illustrious exploits, and forced him to 
 accept the purple. This proceeding, which 
 ijiust have stung the tyrant Galerius to the 
 heart, he was, nevertheless. Obliged to bear with 
 patience, and even to confirm with the out- 
 ward marks of his approbation. Soon after, 
 a civil war IJroke out, the occasion of wliich 
 was as follovvs: Maximian Galerius, inwardly 
 enraged at the election of Constantine by the 
 soldiers, sent him, indeed, the purple, but gave 
 him only the title of Ccesar, and created Seve- 
 rus' emperor. Maxentius, the son of Maxi- 
 mian Herculius, and BOn-in-laiw to Galerius, 
 provoked at the preference given to Severus, 
 
 * Lactantius; cap. xv. — Kuseb. Hist. Eccles. lib. viii, 
 cap. xiii. xviii. 
 f Eusebius, de Martyribus Falsstinse, cap. iii. 
 X Lactantiiis, Instttui. divin. lib', v. cap. xi. 
 ^ Lactant. de Mortibus Fersequut-. cap. xvii. xx. 
 II Euseb. de Martyribus Falacstinse, cap. xiii. 
 ^ Lactant. cap. xxi-. 
 
Crap. 1. 
 
 PROSPEROUS AND CALAMJTOUS EVENTS. 
 
 99 
 
 assumed the imperial' digaity, and found the 
 less difficulty in making good this usurpation, 
 as the Roman people hoped,'by his means, to 
 deliver themselves from the insupportable ty- 
 ranny of Galeriua. Having caused himself 
 to be proclaimed emperor, he chose his father 
 Maximian for his colleague, who, receiving the 
 purple from the hands of his son, was univer- 
 sally acknowledged in that character by the 
 senate and the people. Amidst all these trou- 
 bles and commotions, Constantine, beyond all 
 human expectation, made his way to the impe- 
 rial throne. 
 
 The "western Christians, those of Italy and 
 Africa excepted,* enjoyed some degree of tran- 
 quillity and liberty during these civil tumults. 
 Those, of the east seldom > continued for any 
 considerable time in the same situation. They 
 were subject to various changes and revolu- 
 tioiis; their condition was sometimes adverse 
 and sometimes tolerably easy, accordirig to the 
 different scenes that were presented by the fluc- 
 tuating state of public affairs. At length, 
 however, Maximian Galerius, who had been 
 the author of their heaviest calamities, being 
 brought to the brink of the grave by a most 
 dreadful and lingering disease^! whose compli- 
 cated horrors no language can express, pub- 
 lished, in the year 311, a solemn edict, order- 
 ing the persecution to cease, and restoring free- 
 dom and repose to the Christians, against 
 whom he had exercised such horrible cruelties. J 
 
 VI. After the death of Galerius, his domin- 
 ions fell into the hands of Maximin and Lici- 
 nius, who divided between them tlie provinces 
 he had possessed. At the same time, Maxen- 
 tius, who had usurped the government of 
 Africa and Italy, determined to rrtake war upon 
 Constantine (who was now master of Spain 
 and Gaul,) -with the ambitipus view' of reduc- 
 ing, under .his dominion, the whole western 
 empire. Constantine, apprised of this design, 
 marched with a part of his army into, Italy, 
 gave battle to Maxentius at a small distance 
 from Rome, and totally defecated that abomi- 
 nable tyrant, who, in his precipitate flight, fell 
 into the Tiber, and was drowned. After this 
 victory, which happened in the year 312, Con- 
 stantine, and his colleague Licinius, immedt. 
 ately grai ted to the Cliristians a full power of 
 living according to their own laws and institu- 
 tions; which power was specified still more 
 clearly in another edict, drawn up at Milan, in- 
 the following year. § Maximin, indeed, who 
 ruled in the cast, was preparing new calami- 
 ties for the Christians, and threatening also 
 with destruction the western emperors. But 
 his projects were disconcerted by the victory 
 which Licinius gained over his array, and, 
 through distraction and despair, he ended his 
 life by poison, in the year 313. 
 
 VII. About the same' time, Constantine the 
 Great, who had hitherto manifested no reli- 
 gious principles of any kind, embraced Chris- 
 
 (K^ * The reason of this exception is, that the pro- 
 vinces of Italy and Africa, thoug;h nominally under the 
 goTernment of Severus, were yet in fart ruled T>y Galerius 
 with an iron sceptre. - - 
 
 {K^ f See a lively description of the disease of Ga- 
 lerius in the Universal History. 
 
 - Euseb. lib. viii. cap. svi. Lactantius, cap. xxxm. 
 
 { Euseb. lib. x. cap. v.— Lactant. cap. xlviii. 
 
 tianity, in consequence, as it Is said, of a mi- 
 rucviom cross, which appeared to him in the 
 air, as he was marching toward Rome to at> 
 tack Maxentius. But that this extraordinary 
 event was the reason of his conversion, is a 
 matter that has never yet been placed in such 
 a light, as to dispel all doubts and diSiculties. 
 For the first edict of Constantine in favour of 
 the Christians, and many other circumstances 
 that might be here, alleged, show, indeed, that 
 he was well-disposed to them and to their wor- 
 ship, but axe no proof that he looked upon 
 Chi'istianity as the only true religion; which, 
 however, would hav& been the natural effect 
 of a miraculous conversion. It appears evi- 
 dent, on the contrary, that this emperor con- 
 sidered the other religions, and particularly 
 that which was handed down from the an- 
 cient Romans, as also true and useful to 
 mankind; and declaredjt to be his intention and 
 desire, that- they should all be exercised and 
 professed in the empire, leaving to each indi- 
 vidual the liberty of adhering to that which 
 he thought the best. It is true that he did not 
 remain always in this state of indifference. In 
 process of time, he acquired more extensive 
 views of the excellence and importance of the 
 Christian rehgion, and gradually arrived at an 
 entire persuasion of its bearing alone the sa- 
 cred marks of celestial truth and a divine origin- 
 He was convinced of the falsehood and im- 
 piety of all other religious institutions; and, 
 acting in consequence of this conviction, he 
 exhorted earnestly all his subjects to embrace 
 the Gospel, and at length employed all the 
 force of his' authority in the abolition of the 
 ancient superstition. ■ It is not, indeed, easy, 
 nor perhaps is it possible, to iix precisely the 
 time when tlie religious sentiments of Constan- 
 tine were so far changed, as to render all re- 
 ligions, but that of Christ, the objects of his 
 aversion. All that we know, with certainty, 
 concerning this matter is, that this change, was 
 first publidied to the world by the laws and 
 edicts* which he issued in the year 324, when, 
 after the defeat and death of Licinius, he 
 reigned as the sole lord of the Roman einpire. 
 His designs, however, with respect to the abo- 
 lition of the ancient religion of the Romans, 
 and the toleration of no other form of worship . 
 than the Cliristian, were only made known 
 toward tlie latter end of his life, by his, edicts 
 for destroying the heathen temples, and pro- 
 hibiting sacrifices.f 
 
 VIIL The sincerity of Constantino's zeal 
 for Christianity can scarcely be doubted, unless 
 it be maintained that the outward actions of 
 men are, in no degree, a proof of their inward 
 sentiments. It must, indeed, be confessed, 
 that the life and actions of this prince were not 
 such as the Christian religioni demands from 
 those who profess to believe its sublime doc- 
 trines. It is also certain, that, from his con- 
 version to the last period of his life, he con- 
 tinued in the state pf a catechumen, and was 
 not received by baptism into the number pf the 
 faithful, until a few days before his death, when 
 that sacred rite was administered 'to him at 
 
 * Eusebius, de vita Constant. lib. ii. cap; xx., xliv. 
 f See Godofred ad Codic. Theodosian. torn. vi. part l. 
 
100 
 
 EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part I. 
 
 Nieomedia, by Eiisebius, bishop of that place.* 
 But these circumBtances are not sufficient to 
 prove that he doubted the divinity of the Chris- 
 tian religion, or that his profession of the Gos- 
 pfel Was an act of mere dissimulation; for it 
 was a custom with many, in this century, to 
 , put off their baptism to the last hour, that thus, 
 immediately after receiving bythia rite the re- 
 mission of their sins, they might ascend pure 
 and spotless to the mansions of life and immor- 
 tality. Nor are the crimes of Constantino any 
 proof of the insincerity of his profession, since 
 nothing is more evident,, though it be strange 
 and miaccountable,^than that" many who be- 
 lieve, in the firmest manner, the truth and di- 
 vjnity of the Gospel, violate its laws by 
 repeated transgressioi^, and live in contradic- 
 tion to their own inward principles. Another 
 question of a different nature might be propos- 
 ed here, viz. Whether motives of a worldly- 
 kind did not contribute, in a ceitain measui'e, 
 to give Christianity, in the esteem of Constan- 
 tine, a.preference to all other religious systems? 
 It is indeed probable, that this prince perceived 
 the admirable tendency of the Christian doc- 
 trine and precepts to promote the stability of 
 government, by preserving the citizens in their 
 obedience to the reigning powers, and in the 
 practice of those virtues which render a state 
 happy; and he must naturally have observed, 
 how defective the Roman superstition was in 
 this important point.f 
 
 IX. The doubts and diiEculties that natu- 
 rally arise in the mind, concerning tlie mwacyr 
 lous cross that Constantine solemnly declared 
 he had seen, about noon, in the air, are many 
 and considerable. It is easy, indeed, to refute 
 the opinion of those who look upon this pro- 
 digy as a cunning fiction, invented by tli^em- 
 peror to animate his troops in the ensuing bat- 
 tle, or who consider >th"i^ narration as wholly 
 fabulous.J The sentiment also of those, who 
 imagine that this pretended^cross was no, more 
 
 * £use[)ius,.de vita Coustantini, lib. ir. cap. 1st. Ixii. 
 Those who, upon the authority of^ certain ' records 
 (whose date'is modern, &nd whose credit ib extremely du^ 
 pious) aiffirni, that Constantine was baptised in the year 
 334, at Rome, by Sylvester, the bishop of that city, are 
 evidently in an error.. Those, even of the Romish 
 church, who ai*^ ^^^e most eminent for their learning; and 
 sa^^ity, reject this- notion.'^ See Noris, Hist. Donatist. 
 tom. iv. op. p. 650. Thorn. Mariae Mamachii Origin, et 
 Antiquit. Christian, tom. ii. p. 232. 
 
 f Eusebius, de vita Constant, lib. i. cap. xxvii. Qt^ Ii 
 has been sometimes remarked by the more eminent wri- 
 ters of th'e Roman history, that the superstition of that 
 Seople, contrary to what Dr. Mosheim here observes, 
 ad a great influence in keeping them in .their subordina- 
 tion and allegiance. It. is .more particularly observed,' 
 that in no. other nation was the solemn obligation of an 
 oath treated with such respect, or fulfilled with such a 
 religious circumspection, and such an inviolable fidelity. 
 But, notwithstanding all this, it is certain, that supersti- 
 tion, if it maybe dexterously turned 'tp good purposes, 
 may be equally employed to bad. The artifice of an au- 
 ,gur could have rendered superstition as useful to the in-: 
 fernal designs of a Tarquin and a Catiline, as to the noble 
 and virtuous purposes of a Fublicola, ot a Trajan. But 
 true Christianity can animate or encourage to nothing 
 except what is just and good. It tends to support go- 
 . vernment by the principles of piety and justice, and not 
 by the ambiguous flight of birds, orthe like delusions. 
 
 ^ Hornbeck. Comment, ^d Bullam ITrbaui - viii. de 
 ImE^in. cultu, p. 1^. .Oiselius, Thesaur. Numism. 
 AnUq; p. 463. Tollius, Preface to the French Transla- 
 tion or Longinus, as als,o his Adnot. ad Lactantium de 
 Mort. Persequut. cap. xliv.-Christ. Thomasius, Observat. 
 Hallens. tom. i. p. 380. 
 
 than a natural phtenomenon in a solar halo, is, 
 perhaps, more ingenious, than solid and con- 
 vincing.* Nor, in the third place, do we think 
 it sufficiently proved, that the divine power in- 
 terposed here to confirm the wavering faith of 
 Constantine by a stupendous miracle. The 
 only hypothesis, then,t which remains, is, tliat 
 we consider this famous cross as a vision repre- 
 sented to the emperor-in a dream, with the- re- 
 markable inscription, Hac vince, i. e. In this 
 conquer; and this opinion is maintained- by 
 authors of considerable weight.f 
 
 X. The joy with which the Christians Were 
 elated on account of the favQurable edicts of 
 Constantine and Licinius, was s'oon interrupt- 
 ed by the war which broke out between thescT' 
 princes. Licinius, being defeated in a pitched 
 battle, in the year 314, concluded a treaty of 
 peace with Constantine, and observed it during 
 tne space of nine years. But his turbulent 
 spirit rendered him an enemy to repose; and 
 liis natural violence, seconded, and still farther 
 incensed, by the si^gestions of the heathen 
 priests, armed him against Constantine, in the 
 year 324, for the second time. During" this 
 war-, he endeavoured to engage in his cause all 
 who remained attached to the ancient supersti- 
 tion, that thus he.anight oppresshis adversary 
 
 * Jo. 'And. Schmidius, Dfsser. de luna in Cruce visa. 
 Jo. Alb. Fabricitis, Disser. de Cruce a Constantino visa. 
 
 Ql^ t This hypothesis of Dr. Mosheim is not more 
 credible than the' real appearance of a cross in the alr.-:- 
 Both events are recorded by the same authority; and, if 
 the veracity of Constantine Or of Eusebius be questioned 
 with respect to the appearance df a cross in the day, they 
 can scjircely be confided in with respect to Uie truth of 
 the. nocturnal vision, II is vei:y surprising "to See the 
 learned authors of the Universal History adopt, without 
 exception, all the^ accounts of Eusebius, concerning this 
 cross, which are extremely liable to suspicion, which, 
 Eusebius himself seems to nave believe4 but in part, and 
 for the truth of all which he is careful not to make him- 
 self answerable. (See that author's Life of Constantine, 
 lib. ii. caj). ix.) 
 
 This whole story is attended with difficulties which 
 render it, both as. a miraclt and as a fact, extremely dijbi- 
 ous, to say no more. — It will necessarily be 4sked, whence 
 it comes to pass, .that the^ relation of a fact, which if eaid 
 to 'have been seen By the whole army, is delivered by 
 Eusebius, upon the sole credit of Constantine.^ This is -. 
 the more unaccountable, as Eusebius lived and bonVersed 
 with many who miist have been spectator^ of this event, 
 had it really happened, and whose , unanimous testimony ' 
 would have prevented'the necessity of Constantine's con- 
 firming it to him by an oath. The.snle relation of one 
 man, concerning a'public ai>pearance, is no*, sufficient to 
 give complete conviction; nor doe's it app. ar, that this 
 story was generally believed by the Christians, or bjr 
 others, since several ecclesiastical historians, who wrote 
 after Eusebius, particularly RufiU and Sozomen, inake'no 
 mention of this appearance of a cross in the heavens* 
 The nocturnaj insion was, it must be confessed, more . 
 generally known und believed; upon which Dr. JJardner 
 makes this conjecture, that when Constantine flret in- 
 formed the people .of the reason that induced him to make 
 use of the sign of the cross in his army, he alleged * 
 nothing but a dream for that purpose; but that, in the 
 latter p^rt of bis life, when he was acquainted with 
 Eusebius, he added the other 'particular, of a huminous 
 (,TOs§, seen someujAere by him and his army in the day- 
 time (for the place is not mentioned;) and that, the empe- 
 ror having related this in the most solemn manner, Eu 
 sebius thought himself obliged to mention it. 
 
 X All the writers, who have given any accounts of Con- 
 stantine the Great, are carefully enumerated by J. A. Fa- 
 bricius, inhia Lux Salut. Evaug.toti Orbi exor. cap. %\\. 
 pi S60, who also mentions, cap. xiii. p. 337, the laws con- 
 cerning religious matters, which were enacted by thia 
 emperor, "and digested into four parts. For a full ac 
 count of these raws, see Jac.' Godofred. Adnotat, ad 
 Codic. Theodos., and Balduinus in his Constantin. Magn. 
 sen de Lcgibus Constantini eccles. et civilibus, lib. ii. 
 
Chap.1. 
 
 PROSPEROUS AND CALAMITOUS EVENTS. 
 
 101 
 
 with numbers; and, in order to this, he perse- 
 cuted the Christians in a cruel manner, and 
 put to death many of their, bishops, after try- 
 ing thera with torments of the most barbarous 
 nature.* But all his enterprises proved abor- 
 tive; for, after several unsuccessful battles, he 
 was reduced to the necessity of throwing bim- 
 self at the victor's feet, arid imploring his cle- 
 mency; whicli, however, he did not Ions enjoy; 
 for he was strangled, by.'the order pf Constari- 
 tine, in the year" 325. After the defeat of Li- 
 cinius, the empire was ruled by Constantino 
 alone until his death; and' tlie Christian cause 
 expeijenoed, \A its happy progress, the effects 
 of his auspicious administration. This zealous 
 prince employed all the resources of his genius, 
 all the authority of his laws, and all tlie engaging 
 charms of his munificence and liberality, to 
 effac6j by degrees, the superstitions of Pagan- 
 ism, and to propagate Christianity in every 
 corner of the Rpman empire. He had learn- 
 ed, no doubt, from tlie disturbances continually 
 excited by Licinius, tliat neither liimself nor 
 the empire could enjoy a fixed state of tran- 
 quillity and safety as long as the ancient super^- 
 stitions subsisted; and therefor^, from this 
 period, he openly opposed the sacred rites of 
 Paganism, as a religion detrimental to the in- 
 terests of the state. 
 
 XI. After the death of Constantino, which 
 happened in the year SSI, his three sons. Con-, 
 stantine II. Constantius, and Constans, were, 
 in consequence of iiis appointment, put in pos- 
 session o£^ the empire, and-were all saluted as 
 ■ emperors and jlilgmti by the Roman senate. 
 There were yet living two brothers of the late 
 emperor, namely, Constantius Daltnatius and 
 Julius Constantius, and they had many' sons. 
 These the sons of Constantino ordered to be 
 put to death, lest their ambitious views should 
 excite troubles in the empire;! and they all fell 
 victims to this barbarous order, except Gallus 
 and Julian, .the sons of Julius Coii8ta];itius, the 
 latter of whom rose afterwards tothe imperial 
 dignity. The dominions allotted , to .Cpnstaa- 
 tine were Britain, Gaul, and Spain; but he did 
 not possess them long; for, when he had made 
 
 . * EaaebiHs, Hist. ■ EceleS. lib. x. cap. viii. et'de vita 
 ' (^nstaviini^Vi^. i. 'cap. xliK.' Julian himself, whose bit- 
 tii: aversion .to Oonstahtine gives a singular degree pf 
 credibility to his testimony in this matter, could not help 
 confessing that Licinius was an infamous tyrant and a 
 profligate, abandoned to all sortsof wickedness. Seethe 
 Caesars of Julian. And here I beg leave to make a re- 
 mark whicb has escaped tlie learned. Aurelius Victor, 
 in' \\s book de^ Caesaribus^ cap.-xU. h^H mentioned the 
 ]ierseculton under Licinius in the following terms: '.'jA- 
 , cinio ne. insontium quidem ac nobilium philosophorum' 
 pervili more cruciatuB adhibiti modum jeccre." The 
 philosophers, whom Licinius -is here said to have tor- 
 mented, were, doubtless, the Christians, whom many, 
 through Ignorance, looked upon as i philosophical sect. 
 This passage of Aurelius has not. been touched by the 
 commentators, who arc. generally more intent upon the 
 knowledge pf words than of things, 
 dt^ ^ It is more probaW'e tliat th« principaj design of, 
 . this massacre *as to recover -the provinces of Thrace,. 
 Macedon, and Achaia, which, in the division of the em- 
 pire, Constantine the Great had given to young Dalmatius, 
 son to his brother of the same name; and also Pontus and 
 Cappadocia, which he had granted to Annibalianus, the 
 brother of young Dalmatius.- Be that as it will. Dr. 
 Moaheim has attributed this massacre equally to the 
 three sons of Constantine; whereas, almost ..all authors 
 ngree, that neither young Constantine, uor Constans, had 
 any concern in it. 
 
 himself master, by force, of several places bo 
 longing to Constans, this occasioned a wai 
 between the brothers, in the year 340, in which 
 Constantine lost his life. Constans, who had 
 received at first, for his portion, Ulyrioiua, 
 Italy, and Africa, added now the dominions of 
 the deceased prince to his own, and thus be- 
 came sole master of all the western provinces. 
 He remained in possession of this vast territory 
 until tlie year 360, when he was cruelly assas- 
 sinated by the ordgr of Magnentius, one of 
 his commanders, who had revested and de- 
 clared himself emperor, jyiagnentius, in his 
 turn, met with the fate he deserved: transport- 
 ed with rage and despair at his ill success in 
 the war against Constantius, and apprehend-r 
 ing the most telrible and ignominious death 
 from the just resentment of the conqueror, he 
 laid violent hands upon himself. Thus Con- 
 stantius, who had, before this, posseted the 
 provinces of Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt, 
 became, in the year 353, sole lord of the Ro- 
 man empire, which he ruled -uijitil the year 361, 
 when he died at Mopsucrene,,on the borders 
 of Cilicia, as he was marching against Julian. 
 None of these three - brothers possessed the 
 spirit and genius of their father. They all, 
 indeed, followed his example, in continuing to 
 abrogate, and elFace the ancient superstitions 
 of "the Romans and other Idolatrous nations, 
 and' to accelerate the progress of the Christian 
 religion throughout the empire." This zeal 
 was, no doubt, laudable; its end was excellent; 
 bat, in the means used to accomplish it, there 
 were many things not altogether laudable. 
 
 XII. This flourishing progress of the Chris- 
 tian rehgion was, gieatly interrupted, .and the 
 church reduced to the Tirink . of destruction, 
 when Julian, the son of Julius Constantius, 
 and the only remaining branch of the imperial 
 family, was placed at the head of aifaiis. This 
 active and adventurous prince, after iaving 
 been declared emperor by the army, in the 
 year 360, in consequence of his exploits' among 
 'the Gauls, was, upon the deathjjf Constantius, 
 in the following year, conTirmed in the undi- 
 vided possession of the empire. No event 
 could, be less favourable to the Christians; for, 
 though he had been educated in the principles 
 of Christianity, he apostatised from that divine 
 religion, and employed all his efforts to restore 
 the expiritig superstitions of polytheism to 
 their former vigour, credit, "and lustre. His 
 apostasy was imputable, partly to his aversion 
 to the Constantine family, who had murdered 
 his father, brother, and kiiismen; and partly to 
 the artifices of the Platonic philosophers^ vyho 
 abused his credulity, arid' flattered his ambi- 
 tion, by fictitious miracles, and pompous pre- 
 dictions. It is true, this prince seemed, averse 
 to the use of violence, in propagating super- 
 stition, and suppressing the truth:, indeed, -he 
 carried the appearances of moderation and im- 
 partiality so far, as to allOw his subjects a full 
 power of judging for themselves in religious 
 matters, and of worshipping the Deity in the 
 manner they thought the most rational.-; But, 
 Ondfer this, mask of moderation, he attacked 
 Christianity with the utmost bitterness, and, at 
 the same time, with the most oonsummatedex- 
 terity Ey art and straiagem he undermined 
 
102 
 
 EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part 1. 
 
 thp church, annulling the privileges which had 
 been granted to Christians and their spiritual 
 rulers; shutting up the schools in which they 
 taught philosophy and the liberal arts; en- 
 couraging the sectaries and schismatics, who 
 brought dishonour upon the Gospel by their 
 divisions; composing books against the Chris- 
 tians, and using a variety of other means to 
 bring the religion of Jesus to ruin and con- 
 tempt. Julian extended his views yet farther,, 
 and was meditating projects of a still more for- 
 midable nature against the Christian church, 
 which would have felt, no doubt, the fatal or 
 ruinous effects of his inveterate hatred, if he 
 had returned victorious from the- Persian war, 
 into which; he entered immediately after his 
 accession to the empire. But in this war, 
 which was rashly undertaken and imprudently 
 conducted, he fell by the lance of a Persian 
 soldier, and expired in his tent in the S2d year 
 of his age, having reigned, alone, after the 
 death of Constantius, twenty months.*' 
 
 XIII. It is to me just matter of surprise, to 
 6nd Julian placed, by many learned and judi- 
 cious writers,! among the greatest heroes that 
 shine forth in the annals-of- time, and even ex- 
 alted above all the princes and legislators who 
 have been distinguished by the wisdom of their 
 government. Such writers must either be too 
 far blinded by prejudice, to perceive the truth; 
 or they cannot have perused, with any degree 
 of attention,- those works of Juhan which ate 
 still extant; or, if neither of these be their 
 case, they must, at least; be ignorant of that 
 which constitutes true greatness. The real 
 character'of Julian has few lines of that un- 
 common merit which has been attributed to it; 
 for, if we set aside .his genius, of which his 
 works give no very high idea; if we except,, 
 moreover, his military courage, his love of let- 
 ters, and his acquaintance with that vain and 
 fanatical philosophy which was known by the 
 name of modern Platbtfism, we shall find 
 nothing remaining, that is in any measure 
 worthy of praise, or productive of esteem. 
 Besides, the qualities now mentioned, were, 
 in him, counterbalanced by the most oppro- 
 brious defects. He was^a slaye, to supersti- 
 tion, than which nothing is a. more evident 
 mark of a^ narrow soul,, of a mean and abject 
 spirit. His thirst of glory and eagerness for 
 popular applause were excessive, even to pue- 
 rility; his credulity and levity surpass the 
 powers of description; a low cunning, and a 
 profound dissimulation and duplicity, had ac- 
 quired, in his mind, the force of predominant 
 habits; and all this was accompanied with a 
 total ignorancf of true philosophy:]; so that. 
 
 * For a full account of this emperor, it'will be proper 
 to consult (beside Tillemont and other common writers) 
 La Vie de Julien, par I'Abbe Bleterie, which is a most 
 accurate and elegant production. See also The Life and 
 Character of Julian, illustrated in seven Dissertations by 
 Des-Voeux; Ezcch. Spanheim, Praefat. et adnot. ad op. 
 Juliani; and Fabricius, Lux E\;angel. toti orbi exoriens, 
 cap. xiv. p. 294. 
 
 f Montesquieu, in chap. x. of the twenty-fourth book 
 of his work, entitled, L'EspritdfisLoix, speaks' of Julian 
 in the following terms: "11 h'y a point eu apres lul "de 
 prince plus digne de gouverner des hommes.^' 
 
 Qi^ % Nothmg'can afford ^ more evident proof of Juli- 
 an's ignorance of the true philosophy, than his known 
 ittachmeut to the study of magic, which Dr. Mosheim 
 
 though, in some things, JuKan may be allow- 
 ed to have excelled- the sons of Constantine. 
 the Great, yet it must be granted, on the other 
 hand, that he was, in many respects, inferior 
 to Constantino himself, whom, upon all occa- 
 sions, he loads with the most licentious invec- 
 tives, and treats with the utmost disdain. 
 
 XIV. As Julian affected, in general, ~to ap- 
 pear moderate in rehgious matters, unwilling 
 to trouble any on account of their faith, or to 
 seem averse to any sect or party, so to the Jews, 
 in particular, he extended so far the marks, of 
 his indulgence, as to permit^ them to rebuild 
 the terriple of Jerusalem. The Jews set about 
 this important work; fi-om which, however; 
 they were oMiged to desist, before they had 
 even begun to lay the foundations of the sacred 
 edifice; for, while they were removing the rub- 
 bish, formidable balls of fire, issuing out of the 
 ground with a dreadful noise, dispersed both 
 the works and the workmen, and repeated 
 earthquakes filled the spectators of this pTiee- 
 nomenon with terror and dismay. This signal 
 event is attested in a maimer that renders its 
 "evidence irresistible,* though, as usually hap- 
 pens in cases of that nature, the Christians 
 have embellished it by augmenting rashly the 
 number of the miracles which are supposed to 
 have been wrought upon that occasion. The 
 causes of thisphteriomenon mayflimish matter 
 of dispute; and learned men have, in effect, 
 been divided upon that point. All, however, 
 who consider the matter with attention and 
 impartiality, will perceive the strongest rea- 
 sons for embracing the- opinion of those who 
 attribute this event to the almighty interposi- 
 tion of the Supreme Being; nor do the argu- 
 ments offered by some, to prove it the effect of 
 natural causes, or those alleged by others td 
 persuade ,us that it was the result of artifice 
 and imposture, contain any thing that may not 
 be refuted with the utmost facility .f 
 
 XVt Upon the death of Julian, the suffrages 
 of the army were united in favour of Jovian, 
 who, accordingly, succeeded him in the impe- 
 rial dignity. After a reign of seven months, 
 Jovian died in the year 364, and, therefore, 
 had not time to execute any thing of import- 
 ance.f The emperors who succeeded him, in 
 this century, were Valentinian I., Valens, Gra- 
 tian, Valentinian H., and Honorius, who pro- 
 fessed Christianity, promoted its progress, and 
 endeavoured, though not all with equal zeal, 
 to root oiit entirely the Gentile superstitions. 
 In this they were all surpassed by the last of 
 
 has omitted in his enumeration of the defects.aud extra- 
 vagances of this prince. 
 
 * See Jo. Alb. Fabricii Lux EvaYig. toti orbi exoriestS, 
 p. 134, where all the testimonies of this remarkable event 
 are carefully assembled; see also Moyle's Posthumous 
 Works. 
 
 t The truth of this miracle is denied by the famous 
 Basnage, Histoire des Juifs, tom. iv., against whom 
 Cuper has taken the affirmative, and defended it in his 
 Letters published by Bayer. A most ingenious discourEe 
 was published, in defence of this miracle, by tlie learned 
 Dr. Warburton, under the title of Julian, or a Discourse 
 concerning the Earthquake and Fiery Eruption, 8lc., in. 
 which the objections- of Basnage are particularly ex- 
 amined and refuted. 
 
 X See Bleterie, Vie de Jovien, -vol. ii. in which the 
 Life of Julianw by the same author, is farther illustrated, 
 and some productions of that emperor are translated into 
 French. 
 
Crap. I. 
 
 PROSPEROUS AND CALAMITOUS EVENTS. 
 
 103 
 
 the emperors who reigned in tliis century, viz.' 
 Theodoaius the Great, who began to reign in 
 tlie year 379, and died in 3,96. As long as 
 this prince lived, he exerted himself, in the 
 most vigorous and effectual manner, for the 
 extirpation of the pagan superstitions through- 
 out-ajl the provinces, and enacted severe Jaws 
 and penalties against such as adhered to them. 
 His sons, Arcadius and Honorius, pursiled 
 with zefil, and pot witho it success, the same 
 end; so liiat, toward the conclusion" of this 
 century, tlie Gentile religions declined apace, 
 and had also no prospect left of recovering 
 tlieir primitive authority and splendour. 
 
 XVI. It is true, that^ notwithstanding all 
 this zeal and severity or the Christian empe- 
 rors, there still remained in several places, and 
 especially in the remoter provinces, temples 
 and religious rites, consecrated to the service 
 of the pagan deities. And, indeed, when we 
 look attentively into the matter, we shall find, 
 that the execution of those rigorous laws, 
 which were enacted against the worshippers of 
 the gods; was rather levelled at the multitude, 
 than at persons of eminence and di^inction; 
 for it appears, that, both during the reign, and 
 after the death of Theodosius, many of the 
 most honourable and important posts were 
 filled by persons, whose aversion to Christi- 
 anity and attachiiaent to Paganism were suffi- 
 ciently known. The example of Libanius 
 alone is an evident proof- of this, since, not- 
 withstanding his avowed and open enmity to 
 the Christians, he was raised- by Theodosius 
 himself to the high dignity of prtefect, or chief 
 of the Praetorian guards. It is extremely pro- 
 bable, therefore; that, in the execution of the 
 severe laws enacted against the Pagans, there 
 was an exception made in favour .of philoso- 
 phers, rhetoricians, and military leaders, on ac- 
 count of the important services which they were 
 supposed to render to the state, and that they 
 of consequence enjoyed more liberty in reli- 
 gious matters, than the inferior orders of men. 
 
 XVII. This peculiar regard shown to the 
 philosophers and rhetoricians will, no doubt, 
 appear surprising when it is considered, that 
 all' the force of their genius, 'and all the re- 
 sources of their art, were employed against 
 Christianity; and that those very sages, whose 
 schools Were reputed of such utility to the 
 state, were the very persons who opposed the 
 progress of the truth, with the greatest vehe- 
 mence and contention of mind. Hierocles, 
 the great ornament of the Platonic school, 
 wrote, in the beginning of this century, two 
 books against the Christians,in which he went 
 so far as to draw a parallel between Jesus 
 Christ and ApoUonius Tyanaeus. This pre- 
 sumption was chastised with great spirit, by 
 Eusebius, in a treatise written expressly in an- 
 swer to Hierocles. Lactantius takes .notice 
 of another philosopher, who composed three 
 books to detect the pretended errors of the 
 Christians,* but does not mention his name. 
 After the time of Constantino the Great, 
 beside the^ long and laborious work which 
 Julian wrote against the followers of Christ, 
 Himeriusf and Libanius, in their public ha- 
 
 * Institut. Divin. lib. t. cap. ii. p. 535. ' 
 
 t See rhotius, Biblioth..Cod. cap. Ixr. p. 3S5. 
 
 rangues, and Eunapius, in his lives of the phi- 
 losophers, exliausted all their rage and bitter^ 
 nessin their efforts to defame the Christian 
 religion, while the calumnies that abounded in 
 the discourses of the one, and the writings of 
 the other, passed unpunished. 
 
 XVIII. The prejudice which the Christian 
 cause received in this century, from the stra- 
 tagems of these philosophers and rhetoricians, 
 who were elated with a presumptuous notion 
 ofstheir knowledge, and prepossessed with a 
 bitter aversion to the Gospel, was certainly 
 very considerable. Many examples concur to 
 prove this point; and particularly that of Ju- 
 lian, who was seduced by the artifices of these 
 corrupt sophists. The effects of their disputes 
 and declamations were not^jndeed, the same 
 upon all; some who eissumed the appearance 
 of superior wisdom, and who, eitlier from mo- 
 deration or indifference, professed to pursue a 
 middle way in, these religious controversies,- 
 composed matters in the following manner: 
 they so far listened to the interpretations and 
 discourses of the rhetoricians, as to form to 
 themselves a middle kind of religion, between 
 the ancient theology and the new doctrine that 
 was now propagated in the empire; and they 
 persuaded themselves, that the same truths 
 which Christ taught, had been for a long tim© 
 concealed by tlie priests of the gods, under 
 the veil of ceremonies, fables, and allegorieal 
 representations.* Of this number were Am- 
 mianus Marcellinus, a man of singular mierit; 
 Themistius, a»i Orator highly distinguished by 
 his uncommon eloquence Eind the eminence of 
 his station; Chalcidius, a philosopher, and 
 others, who were all of opinion, that the two 
 religions, when properly interpreted and linder- 
 stood, agreed perfectly well in the main pointS; 
 and that,' therefore, neither the religion of 
 Christ, nor that oCthe gods, oughtto be treates 
 with contempt. 
 
 XIX. The zeal and diligence With which 
 Gonstantine and his successors exerted themi 
 
 'CC^ ^ Thisf 'notion, absurd as it is, has been rcYivei!, 
 ill the most extravagant .manner, in a worfc published ^t 
 Harderwylc, iu 1757, by Mr. Struchtmeyer, pr6f€s3or of 
 eloquence and languages in that university. In this work, 
 which bJars the, title of the Symbolical Hercules, the 
 learned but wrong-headed author maitt^ins (as he had 
 also done in a preceding work, entitled, "An Explication 
 of the Pagan Tbeologjr,) that all the doctrines 9f Chri.i- ■ 
 tianity were- emblematically represented in the Heathen 
 mythology; an4 not only so, but that the inventors of thaV 
 mythology knew that the Son of God was tcf descend 
 upon earth; believed in Christ as the only fountain of 
 salvatfon; were persuaded of his future incarnation, 
 death, and resurrection; and had acquired all this know- 
 ledge and faith bythe perusal of a Bible much older than 
 either the time of Moses or. Abraham, &c. The pagan 
 doctors, thus instructed (according to Mr. Struchtriieyer) 
 m the mysteries of Christianity, taueht these truths un- 
 der the veil of emblems, types-, and ligures. Jupiter,re- 
 presented the true God; .Juno, who was obstiilate and ' 
 ungovernable, was the emblem of the. ancient, Israel; 
 the chaste Diana was a type of the Christian church; 
 Hercules was the figure or fore-runner of Christ; Am- 
 phitryon was Joseph; the two Serpents, killed by Her 
 cules in his cradle, were the Pharisees and Sadducees, 
 &c. Such are the principal lines of Mr. Struchtmeyerjs 
 system, which shows the sad havock that a warm imagi- 
 nation, undirected by a just and solid judgment, makes 
 in religion. It is, however, honourable perhaps4o the 
 presenVage, that a system, from-which Ammianus l^ar^ 
 cellinus and other ancient philosophers derived applause, 
 will be generally looked upon, at present, as eutltliDg its 
 restorer to a place in Sefhlehcm hospital. 
 
104 
 
 EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE GHURCH. 
 
 Part I. 
 
 selves in the cause of Christianitjr^ and in ex- 
 tending the hmits of the church, prevent bur 
 suiprise at the number of barbarous .and nn- 
 civihsed nations, wliich j-eceived the Gospel.* 
 It appears highly probable, from many circum- 
 stances, that both the Major and the Minor 
 Antienia were enlightened with the luiow- 
 ledge of the truth, not long after the promulga- 
 tion of Christianity. The Armenian church 
 was not, however, cqmpletely formed and es- 
 tablished before this century; in the comr 
 menceraent of which, Gregory, the son of Anax^ 
 vvho is commonly called the Enlightener, from 
 his having dispelled the darkness of the Arme- 
 nian superstitions, converted to Christianity 
 Tiridates, kiqg of Armenia,and all the nobles 
 of his court. In consequence of this, Gregory 
 was consecrated bishop of the Armenians, by 
 Leontius, bishop of Cappadocia; and his minis- 
 try was crowned with such success, that -the 
 whole province was soon converted to the Chris- 
 tian faith.f 
 
 XX. Toward the middle of this ceptury, a 
 certain person, named Frumentius, went from 
 Egypt to Abyssinia or Ethiopia, whose inhabi- 
 tants derived the name of Axumitee from 
 Axuma, the capital city of that country. He 
 made }mown among this people the Gospel of 
 Christ, and administered the sacrament of bap- 
 tism to their king, and to several persons of the 
 first distinction at his court. As he was re- 
 , turning into Egypt, he received consecration, 
 as the first bishop of the Axumitee, or Ethiopi- 
 ans, froni Athanasius; and this is the reason 
 why the Ethiopian church has, even to our 
 times, been considered as the daughter of the 
 Alexandrian, from which it also receives its 
 bishop.J 
 
 The light of the Gospel was introduced into 
 Iberia, a province of Asia (now called Georgia,) 
 in the following manner: a certain.woman was 
 .carried into that country as a captive, during 
 the reign -of Cbnstantine; and by the grandeur 
 of her miiracles, and the remarkable sanctity 
 of her life and manners, she made such an im- 
 pression upon the king and queen, that they 
 abandoned their false gods, embraced the faith 
 of the Gospel, arid sent to Constantinople for 
 proper persons to give them and their people a 
 more satisfactory and complete knowledge of 
 the Christian religion. § 
 
 XXI. A considerable part of the Goths, who 
 had inhabited Thrace, McEsia, and Daciaj bad 
 received the knowledge and embraced the doc- 
 trines of Christianity before this c6nturyj and 
 Theophilas, their bishop, was present at the 
 
 * Gaudent. vita Fhilastrii, sect. 3. - Fliilast. de hsres. 
 - Prief. Socrat. Hist. Eccles. lib.- i.- cap. xix. -Georg. 
 Cedren.' Chrooograph.v 
 
 f Narralio de rsbus Armeniffl in Franc. Comdefisii 
 Auctarlo BibliothrF^trum Graecor. torn. ii. p. 987; Mich. 
 Lequienj Oriens Christianus, torn. i. p. 419, 1356. Jo. 
 Joach. Schrod. Thesaur. liuguse ArmenicEe, p. 149. 
 
 X Athanasius, Apolog. ad Gonstanlium, torn. i. op. part 
 ii. p. 315, edit. Benedict;. Socrates £t Sozomen, Hist. 
 Eccles. book i. chap. xix. of the former, book ii. ch.'xxiv. 
 of the latter. Theodoret. Hist. Ecclea. lib. i. cap. xxiii. 
 
 &' 54. Ludolf, Comment, ad Hist, .^thiopic. p. 281. 
 ier. Lobo,,Voyage d'Abysajnie, torn, ii.^p., 13. Justus 
 Foutaninu.s^ Hist. Liter. Aq_uileiEe,.p. 174^ 
 
 § Rufinusj Hist. Eccles. lib. i. cap. x. Sozomen, Hist. 
 Eccles Jib. li. cap. r. Lequien, Qriens Christ, torn. i. p. 
 1333. . - ' 
 
 council of Nice. Constantino, after having 
 vanquished them and the Sairmatians, engaged 
 great numbers of thera to become Christians:* 
 yet a large body continued in their attachment 
 to their ancient superstition, until the timeof 
 the emperor Valens. , This' prince permitted 
 them, indeed, to pass the Danube, and to in- 
 habit Dacia, Mcesia, and Thrace; but it was 
 on condition that they should live in subjec- 
 tion to the Roman laws, and embrace thfe pro- 
 fession of Chrislianity;t which stipulations 
 were accepted by their king Fritigern. The" 
 celebrated Ulphilas, bishop of those Goths 
 who dwelt in Mcesia, lived in this century, and 
 distinguished liimself by Kis genius and piety. 
 Among other eminent services which he ren- 
 dered to his countiy, he invented a. set of let- 
 ters for their peculiar use, and translated the 
 Scriptures into the Gothic language. J , 
 
 XXII. There remained still, in -the Em-o- 
 pean provinces, an incredible number of pei> 
 sons who adhered to the worship of the gods; 
 and though the Christian bishops continued 
 their pious eiforls to gain thera over to the Gos- 
 pel, yet the success was, by no means, propor- 
 tionable to their diligence and zeal, and the 
 work of conversion went on but slowly. In 
 Gaulj the great and venerable Martin, bishop . 
 of Tours, set about this important 'work with 
 tolerable success; for, in hia various journeys 
 among the Gauls, he converted many, every 
 where, by the energy of his discourses, and 
 by the power of his miracles, if we may rely 
 upon the testimony of Sulpitius Severus. -He 
 destroyed -also the temples of the gods, pulled 
 down their statues, § and on all these accounts 
 merited the high and honourable title of Aposr 
 tje of the Ga,uls. ' 
 
 XXIII. There is no doubt that the victories 
 of Constantino,, the fear of punishment, and 
 the desire of pleasing this mighty conqueror 
 and his imperial "successors, were the weighty 
 arguments that moved whole nations, as well 
 as particular persons, to embrace Christianity. 
 None, however, that have any acquaintance 
 with tile transactions of this period of time, 
 will attribute the whole progress of Christi- 
 anity to these causes; for it is undeniably mani- 
 fest, that the indefatigable zeal of the bishops 
 and other pious men, the innocence and sanc- 
 tity which shone forth with such lustre in the 
 lives, of many Christians, the translations that- 
 were published of the sacred writings, and the 
 intrinsic beauty and excellence of the Chris- 
 tian religion, made as strong and deep impres- 
 sions upon some, as worldly viewS and selfish 
 considerations did upon others. 
 
 As to the miracles attributed to Antony, 
 Paul the Hermit, and Martin, I give them up 
 without the least difficulty', and join with those 
 who treat these pretended prodigies with the 
 
 * Socrat. Hist. Eccles. lib-, i. cap. xviii. 
 
 f Socrat. Hist. Eccles. lib. iv. cap. xxxiii. Lequien, 
 Oriens Christ, torn. i. p. 1340. Eric. Benzelius, Fra&T. 
 ad Q,uatuor Evangelia Gothica, quae Ulphilae tribuuntur, 
 cap. V. p. 18, published at Oxford, in 1750. 
 
 I Jo. Jax:. MascoTii Histofia Germanorum, torn. i. p. 
 317; torn. ii. not. p. 49. Acta SS. Martii, torn. iii. p. 
 619. Ben7:elius, cap. viii. 
 
 ^ See Sulpit. Severus, Dial. i. de Vila Martini, cap. 
 xili. XV. xvii. et Dial. ii. 
 
Chap. I 
 
 LEARNING AND PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 105 
 
 nontempt they deserve.* I am also willing to 
 grant, that many events have been rp.shly 
 deemed miraculous, which were the result of. 
 the ordinary laws of nature; and also, that 
 pious frauds were sometimes used, for the pur- 
 pose of giving new degrees of weight and dig- 
 nity to the Christian cause. But I cannot, on 
 the other hand, assent to the opinions of those 
 who maintain, that, in this century, miracles 
 had entirely ceased; a,nd that, at this period, 
 the Christian church was not favoured with 
 any extraordinary or supernatural mark of a 
 divine power. engaged in its cause.f 
 
 XXIV. The Christians, who lived under the 
 Roman government, were not afflicted with 
 any severe calamities- from the time of Con- 
 stantino,, except those which they suffered 
 durmg the troubles and commotions raised by 
 Licinius, and under the transitory reign of Ju- 
 lian. Their tranquillity, however, was, at dif- 
 ferent times, .disturbed in several plfices. — 
 Among others, Athanaxio, king of the Goths, 
 persecuted, for some time, with great bitter- 
 ness, that part of the Gothic nation which had 
 embraced Christianity .J In the remoter pro- 
 vinces, the Pagans often defended their ancient 
 
 * Hier. a Prato, in his Preface -to Sulpitius Severus, 
 disputes warmly in favour of the miracles of Martin, and 
 also of the other prodigies of this century, 
 
 t See Eusebius' book against Hierocles, chap. iv. and 
 Henry Codwell's Diss. ' ii. in Irenaeum, sect. 55, p. 195. 
 QU" See Dr. Middletou's Free Inquiry into the Miracu- 
 lous Powers which are said to nave subsisted in the 
 Christian Church, &c. in which a very diiferent opinion 
 is maintained. See, however, on the other side, the 
 aBswers of Church and Dbdwell to Middletou's Inquiry. 
 
 ~} See Acta Martyr." sincera, published by Ruinart, and 
 (in Uiat collection,) Acta S. Sabae, p. 598. ■ 
 
 superstitions by the force of arms, and massa- 
 cred the Christians, who, in the propagatioA 
 of their religion, were not always sufficiently 
 attentive, either to the ^rules of prudence, or 
 the dictates of humanity.* The Christians 
 who lived beyond the limits of the Roman em- 
 pire, had a harder fate: Sapor II., king of Per- 
 sia, vented his rage against those of his domin-. 
 ioas, in three dreadful persecutions. The first 
 of these Iiappened in the eighteenth year of 
 the reign of that prince; the second, in the 
 thirtieth; and the third in the thirty-first year 
 of the same reign. This last was the most 
 cruel and destructive of tlie three; it catrjed 
 off an incredible number of- Cluristia(ns, - and 
 continued during tlie space of forty years, hav- 
 ing commenced in the year 330, and ceased 
 only in 310. It was not, however, the religion 
 of the Christians, but the ill-grounded suspi- 
 cion of tlieir treasonable designs against the 
 state, that drew upon them this tenible calani- 
 ity; for the Magi and the Jews persuaded the 
 Persian monarcli, that all the Christians were 
 devoted to the interest of the Roman emperorj 
 and that Simeon, archbishop of Seleucia and 
 of Ctesiphon, sent to Constantinople intelli- 
 gence of air that pass.ed in Persia.f 
 
 * See Ambrosias, de-OiSciis, lib. i. cap. xlii. sect. 17. 
 
 f See Sozomen. Hist. Eccles. lib. ii. cap. i. xiii. There 
 is a particular and express account of this persecution in 
 the Bibliothec. Oriental. Clement. Vatican, lom. i. p. 6, 
 16, 181; torn. iii. p. 52; with which it will be proper to 
 compare, the preiace to the Acta Martyrum Orientalium 
 et Occidentalium, by the learned Assemani, who has 
 published the Persian Martyrology in Syriae, with a 
 L^tin translation, and enriched this valtiable work "with 
 many excellent QbscrvatlQUS. ' 
 
 PART II. 
 
 THE INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 CHAPTER L 
 
 tVhich contains Ike History of Learning and 
 
 Philosophy. 
 
 I. Philology, eloquence, poetry, and his- 
 tory, were the branches of learning particu- 
 larly cultivated at this time, by those among 
 the Greeks and Latins, who were desirous of 
 acquiring fame. But',' though several persons 
 of both nations obtained reputation by their 
 literary pursuits, they came all far short of the 
 summit of fame. The best poets of tliis pe- 
 riod, such as Ausonius, appear insipid, harsh, 
 and inelegant, when compared with the sub- 
 lime bards of the Augustan age. The rheto- 
 ricians, departing now from the noble simplir 
 city and majesty of the ancients, instructed the 
 youth in the fallacious art of pompous decla- 
 mation; and^the majority of historical writers 
 were more intent upon embellishing their nar- 
 rations with vain and tawdry ornaments, than 
 upon rendering them interesting by their order, 
 perspicuity, and truth. ~ , 
 
 II. Almost all the philosophers of this age 
 were of that sect which we have already dis- 
 
 VoL. I.— 14 
 
 tinguished by the title of Modem Platonists. 
 It is not therefore surprising, that we find the 
 principles of Platonism in all the writings of 
 the Christians. Of these philosophers, how- 
 ever, the number was "no^ so considerable in the 
 west as in the eastern countries. Jarablichus 
 of Chalcis explained, in Syria, the philosophy 
 of Plato, or father propagated his own parti- 
 cular opinions under that respectable name. 
 Hs was an obscure and credulous man, and his 
 turn of mind was higljy superstitious and chi- 
 merical, as his writings abundantly testify.' 
 His successors were, Sidesius, Maxjmus, and 
 others, whose follies and puerilities are exposed 
 at length by Eunapius. Hypatia, a female 
 philosopher of distinguished merit and learn- 
 ing, Isidorus, Olympiodorus, Synesius, after- 
 wards a Semi-Christian, with others of infe- 
 rior reputation, .were the principal persons con- 
 
 * Dr. Mosheim speaJCs here of .only one Jamblichus, 
 though there were three persons who bore that name. 
 It is not easy to determine which of them wrote the. 
 woi-ks that have reached our times under the name of 
 Jamblichus; but, whoever it was, he does not certainly 
 deserve so mean a character as our learned hislorianfaere 
 gives him. 
 
106 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part II 
 
 cemed in piopogating this new modilication of 
 Platoniam. 
 
 III. As the emperor Juhan was passionately 
 attaclied to this sect (which his writings abun- 
 dantly prove,) he employed every method to 
 increase its authority and lustre; and, for that 
 purpose, engaged in its cause several men of 
 learning and genius, who vied with each other 
 in exalting its merit and excellence.* But, 
 after his de.ith, a dreadful storm of persecution 
 arose, in the reign of Valentinian, against the 
 Flatomsts; many of whom, being accused of 
 magical practices, and other heinous crimes, 
 were capitally convicted. During these com- 
 motions, Maximus, the master and favourite of 
 Julian, by whose persuasions this emperor had 
 been engaged to renounce Christianity, and to 
 apply hunself to the study of magic, was put 
 to death with several others.f It is probable, 
 indeed, that the friendship and intimacy that 
 had subsisted between the apostate emperor 
 and these pretended sages were greater crimes, 
 in the eye of Valentinian, than either their 
 philosophical system or their magic arts; and 
 hence it happened, that such of the sect as 
 lived at a distance from the court, were not in- 
 volved in the dangers or calamities of this per- 
 secution. 
 
 TV. FrMn the time of Constantine the Great, 
 the Christians appUed themselves with greater 
 zeal and diligence to the study of philosophy 
 and of the liberal arts, than they had formerly 
 done. The emperors encouraged this taste for 
 the sciences, and left no means unemployed to 
 excite and maintain a spirit of literary emula- 
 tion among the professors of Christianity. For 
 this purpose, schools, were established in many 
 cities: libraries were also erected, and men of 
 learning and genius were nobly recompensed 
 by the honours and advantages that were at- 
 tached to the culture of the sciences and arts.f 
 All this was indispensably necessary to the suc- 
 cessful execution of the scheme that was laid 
 for abrogating, by degrees, the worship of the 
 - gods; for the ancient religion was maintained, 
 and its credit supported by the erudition and 
 talents which distinguished in so many places 
 the sages of Paganism; and there was just rea- 
 son to apprehend, that the truth might suffer, 
 if the Christian youth, for want of proper mas- 
 ters and instructors of their own religion, 
 should have recourse, for their education, to 
 the schools of the pagan philosophers and rhe- 
 toricians. 
 
 'V. From what has been here said concern- 
 ing the state of learning among the Christians, 
 let not any reader conclude, that an acquaint- 
 ance with the sciences had become universal in 
 the church of Christ; for, as yet, there was no 
 law enacted, which excluded the ignorant and 
 
 * See the learned Spanheim's Preface to the works of 
 Julian; and that also which he has prefixed to his French 
 translation of Julian's Caesars, and his Annotations to the 
 latter; see also Bleterie, Vie de I'Empereur Julien, lib. 
 
 i. p. es. 
 
 T Ammian. MarcelHn. Hist. lib. xxix. cap. i. p. 556. 
 edit. Valesii. Bleterie, Vie de Julien, p. 30— 15S, 159, 
 and Vie de Jovien, torn. i. p.- 194, 
 
 i See Godofred. ad Codieis Theodos. lituloa de Frofes- 
 
 * Boribua et Artibue Liberalibus.' Franc. Ealduinus in 
 
 Constantino M. p. 139. Herm. Gonring. Dissert, de 
 
 Studiis Rom'« et Gonstahtinop. at the end of his Antiqui- 
 
 tatei AcademirsBf 
 
 illiterate from ecclesiastical preferments and 
 offices, and it is certain that the'greatest part, 
 both of the bishops and presbyters, were men 
 entirely destitute of learning and education. 
 Besides, that savage and illiterate party, who 
 looked upon all sorts of erudition, particularly 
 that of a philosophical kind, as pernicious, and 
 even destructive of true piety and religion, in- 
 creased both in number and authority. The - 
 ascetics, monks, and hermits, augmented the 
 strength of thisbarbarousfaction; and not only 
 the women, but also all who took solemn looks, 
 sordid garments, and a love of solitude, for real 
 piety (and in this number we comprehend the 
 generality of mankind,) were vehemently pre- 
 possessed in their favour. 
 
 CHAPTER n. 
 Concerning the Government of the Church, and 
 
 the Chmtian Doctors, during this Century. 
 
 1. Constantine the Great made no essen- 
 tial alterations in the form of government that 
 took place in the Christian church before his 
 time; he only corrected it in some particulars, 
 and gave it a greater extent. Although he per- 
 mitted the church to remain a body-politic, dis- 
 tinct from that of th6' state, as it had formerly 
 been, yet he assumed to himself the supVenie 
 power over this sacred body, and the right of 
 modelling and governing it in such a manner as 
 should be most conducive to the public good. 
 This right he enjoyed without any opposition, 
 as none of thfl bishops presumed to call his au- 
 thority in question. The people therefore con- 
 tinued, as usual, to choose freely their bishops 
 and their teachers. The bishop governed the 
 church, and managed the ecclesiastical affairs 
 of the city or district, where he presided in 
 council with the presbyters, not without a due 
 regard to the suffrages of -the whole assembly 
 of the people. The provincial bishops also 
 deliberated together upon those matters which 
 related to the interests of the churches of a 
 whole province, as also concerning religious 
 controversies, the forms and rites of divine ser- 
 vice, and other things of like moment. ■ To 
 these minor councils, which were composed of 
 the ecclesiastical deputies of one or more pro- 
 vinces, were afterwards added cecumenical cotin- 
 cils, consisting of commissioners from all the 
 churches in the Christian world, and which, 
 consequently, represented the church imiversal. 
 These were established by the authority of the 
 emperor, who assembled the firat of these coun- 
 cils at Nice. This prince thought it equitable, 
 that questions of superior importance, and such 
 as intimately concerned the interests of Chris- 
 tianity in general, should be examined and de- 
 cided in assembhes that represented the whole 
 body of the Christian church; and in this it is 
 highly probable, that his judgment was direct- 
 ed by that of the bishops. There were never, 
 indeed, any councils holden, which could, with 
 strict propriety, be called umverstd; those, 
 hov/ever, whose laws and decrees were approv- 
 ed and admitted by the universal church, or the 
 greatest part of that sacred body, are common- 
 ly called acwnenical or general councils. 
 
 II. The rights and privileges of the several 
 ecclesiastical orders were, however, gradually 
 
Chap. II. 
 
 DOCTORS, CHURCH GOVERNMENT, See. 
 
 107 
 
 changed and diminished, from the time that 
 the church began to be torn with divisions, and 
 agitated with those violent dissensions and tu- 
 mults, to which, the elections of bishops, the 
 diversity of religious opinions, and other tilings 
 of a like nature, too frequently gave rise. In 
 these religious quarrels, the weaker generally 
 fled to the court for protectionand succour; 
 and thereby furnished the emperors with op- 
 portunities of setting limits to the power of the 
 bi£>hops, of infringing the liberties of the peo- 
 ple, and of modifying, in various ways, the an- 
 cient customs according to their pleasure. — 
 And, indeed, even the bishops themselves, 
 whose opulence and authority were considera- 
 bly increased since the reign.of Constantine, 
 began to introduce innovations into the forrns 
 of ecclesiastical discipline, and to change the 
 ancient government of the church. Their first 
 step was an entire exclusion of the people 
 from all part in the administration of ecclesi- 
 astical affairs; and, afterwards, they by degrees 
 divested even the presbyters of their ancient 
 privilegfes, a,aA their primitive authority, that 
 they might have no importunate protesters to 
 control their ambition, or oppose their proceed- 
 ings; and, principally, that they might either 
 engross to themselves, or distribute as they 
 thought proper, the possessions and revenues 
 -of the church. Hence, at the conclusion Of 
 this century, there remained no more than a 
 mere' shadow of the ancient government of the 
 church. Many of the privileges which had 
 formerly belonged to the presbyters and people, 
 were usurped by the bishops; and many of the 
 lights, which had been formerly vested in the 
 universal church, were transferred to the em- 
 perors, and to subordinate officers and magis- 
 trates. 
 
 III. Constantine, in order to prevent civil 
 commotions, and to fix his authority upon solid 
 aiid stable' foundations, made severar changes, 
 not only in the laws of the empire, but also in 
 the form. of the Roman government;* and as 
 there were many important reasons, which in- 
 duced' hini" to suit the administration of the 
 church to these changes in the civil constitu- 
 tion, this necessarily introduced, among the 
 bishops, new • degrees of eminence and rank. 
 Three prelates had, before this, enjoyed a cer- 
 tain degree of pre-eminence over the rest of 
 the episcopal order, viz. the bishops of Rome, 
 Antioch, and Alexandria; and to these the 
 bishop of Constantinople was added, when the 
 imperial residence was transferred to that city. 
 These four p1:elates answered to the four Prae- 
 torian prsefects created by Constantine; and it 
 is possible that, in this very century^ they were 
 distinguished by the Jewish title of patriarchs. 
 After these, followed the exarchs, who had the 
 inspection over several provinces, and answer- 
 ed to the appointment of certain civil officers 
 who bore the same title. In a lower class 
 were the metropolitans, who had only the go- 
 vernment of one province; under whom were 
 the archbishops, whose inspection was confined 
 to certain districts. In this gradation, the 
 bishops brought up the rear; the sphere of their 
 
 *See Bos, Histoire de la Monarchie Francoise, torn. 
 I p. 64. Oiannone, Historia di JVapoIi, vol. i. 
 
 authority was not, in all places, equally exten- 
 sive; being in some considerably ample, and in 
 others confined within narrow limits. To these 
 various ecclesiastical orders, we might add that 
 of the cJtorepiscopi, or superintendants of the 
 country churches; but this order was, in most 
 places, suppressed by the bishops, with a design 
 to extend their own authority, and enlarge the 
 sphere of their power and jurisdiction.* 
 
 IV. The administration of the church was 
 divided, by Constantine himself, into an extern 
 lial and an internal inspection. f The latter, 
 which was committed to iishops and councils, 
 related to religious controversies, the forms of 
 divine worship, the offices of the priests, the 
 vices of the ecclesiastical orders, Stc. The ex- 
 ternal administration of the church, the em- 
 peror assumed to himself. This comprehended 
 all those things which relate to the outward 
 state and discipline of the church; it likewise 
 extended to all contests and debates that might 
 arise among the ministers of the church, supe- 
 rior as well as inferior, concerning their pos- 
 sessions, their reputation, their rights and pri- 
 vileges, their offences against the laws, and 
 things of a like nature;}: but no controversies 
 that related to matters purely religious were 
 cognisable by this external inspection. In con-, 
 sequence of this artful division of the ecclesi- 
 astical government, Constantine and his suc- 
 cessors called councils, presided in them, ap- 
 pointed the judges of religious controversies, 
 terminated the differences which arose between 
 the bishops and the people, fixed the limits of 
 the ecclesiastical provinces, took cognisance of 
 th^ civil causes that subsisted between the 
 ministers of the church, and punished the 
 crimes committed against the laws by the or- 
 dinary judges appointed for that purpose; leav- 
 ing all causes purely ecclesiastical to the cog- 
 nisance of bishops and councils. But this fa- 
 mous division of the administration of the 
 church was never explained with perspicuity, 
 or determined with a sufficient degree of accu- 
 racy and precision; sp that, both in this and 
 the following centuries, we find many transac-\ 
 tions that seem absolutely inconsistent with 
 it. We find the emperors, for example, fre- 
 quently determining matters purely ecclesias- 
 tical, which belonged to the internal jurisdic- 
 tion of the church; ^nd, on the other hand, 
 nothing is more frequent than the decisions of 
 bishops and couiicils concerning things that 
 relate merely to the external form and govern- 
 ment of the church. . , 
 
 V. In the episcopal order, the bishop of 
 Rome was the first in rank, and was distin- 
 guished by a sort of pre-eminence over all 
 other prelates. Prejudices, arising from a great 
 variety of causes, contributed to establish this 
 superiority; but it was chiefly owing to certain 
 circumstances of grandeur and opulence, by 
 which mortals, for the most part, form their 
 ideas 'of pre-eminence and dignity, and which 
 they generally confound with the reasons of a 
 
 * This appears from several passages in the useful work 
 of Lud. Thomassinus, entitled, Disciplina Ecclesis vet. 
 at novae circa Beneficia, torn. i. 
 
 f Euseb, de vita Constantini, lib. iv,'Cap. xxiv. p. 536. 
 
 \ See the imperial laws both in Justinian's Code, and 
 in the Theodosian; as also Godofred. ad Cpdic. Tlieodos. 
 torn. vi. 
 
108 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 PartIL 
 
 just and legal authority. The bishop of Rome 
 BUlpassed all his brethren in the magnificence 
 and splendour of the church over which he 
 presided; in the riches of his revenues and pos- 
 sessions; in the number and variety of his 
 ministers; in his credit with the people; a,nd 
 in his sumptuous and splendid manner of liv- 
 ing.* These dazzhng marks of human power, 
 these seeming proofs of true greatness and fe- 
 licity, had such a mighty influence upon the 
 minds of the multitude, that the see of Rome 
 became, in this century, a most seducing ob- 
 ject of sacerdotal ambition. Hence it hap- 
 pened, that when a new pontiff was to be 
 elected by the suifrages of the presbyters and 
 the people, the city of Rome was generally 
 agitated with dissensions, tumults, and cabals, 
 whose consequences were often deplorable and 
 fatal. The intrigues and disturbances that 
 prevailed in tliat city in the year 366, when, 
 upon the death of Liberius, another pontiff 
 was to be chosen in his place, are a sufficient 
 proof of what we have now advanced. Upon 
 this occasion, one faction elected Damasus to 
 that high dignity, while the opposite party 
 chose Ursicinus, a deacon of the vacant church, 
 to succeed Liberius. This double election gave 
 rise to a dangerous schism, and even to a civil 
 war within tlie city of Rome, which was "car- 
 ried on with the utmost barbarity and fury, 
 and produced the most cruel massacres and 
 desolation. This inhuman contest ended in 
 the victory of Damasus; but whether his 
 cause was more just than that of Ursicinus, 
 is a question not , so easy to determine. f To 
 neither, indeed, can we attribute such princi- 
 ples as constitute a good Christian, much less 
 that exemplary virtue which should distinguish 
 a Christian bishop. 
 
 VI. Notwithstanding the pomp and splen- 
 dour that surrounded the Roman see, it is cer- 
 tain that the bishops of that city had not ac- 
 quired, in this century, that pre-eminence of 
 power and jurisdiction in the cfem-ch which 
 they afterwards enjoyed, In the ecclesiastical 
 commonwealth, they were, indeed, the most 
 eminent order of citizens; but still they were 
 citizens, as well as their brethren, and subject, 
 like them, to the edicts and -laws of the em- 
 perors. All religious causes of extraordi- 
 nary importance were examined and deter- 
 mined, either by judges appointed by the em- 
 perors, or in councils assembled for that pur- 
 pose, while those of inferior moment were 
 decided, in each district, by its respective 
 bishop. The ecclesiastical laws were enacted, 
 either by the emperor, or by councils. None 
 of the bishops acknowledged that tliey derived 
 their autliority from the permission and ap- 
 pointment of the bishop of Rome, or that they 
 were created bishops by the favour of the apos- 
 tolic see. On the contrary, they all main- 
 tained, that they were the ambassadors and 
 ministers of Jesus Clurist, and that their au- 
 thority was derived from above.J It must, 
 
 * Ammianus Marcellinus gives aatriking descFiption of 
 the luxury in which the bishops of Rome lived. See 
 his Hist, lib. xxvii. cap. iii. 
 - f Among the other writers of the papal history, see 
 Bgwer's History of the Popes, vol. i. 
 
 X Those who desire a more ample account of this 
 matter, may consult. Pet. de Marca, de Concordia Sacer- 
 
 however, be observed, that, even in this cen- 
 tury, several of those steps were laid, by which 
 the bishops of Rome mounted afterwards to 
 tlie summit of ecclesiastical power and despo- 
 tism. These steps were partly laid by the 
 imprudence of- the emperors, partly by the 
 dexterity of the Roman prelates themselves, 
 and partly by the inconsiderate zeal and pre- 
 cipitate judgment of certain bishops.* The 
 fourth canon of the council, holden at Sardis 
 in the year 347, is considered, by the votaries 
 of the Roman pontiff, as the principal step to 
 his sovereignty in the' church; but, in my 
 opinion, it ought by no means to be looked 
 upon in this' point of view; for, not to insist 
 upon the reasons that prove the authority of 
 this council to be extremely dubious, or upon 
 those which have induced some to regard its 
 laws as grossly corrupted, and others, to con- 
 sider them as entirely fictitious and spurious,t 
 it will be sufficient to observe the impossibility 
 of proving, by the canon in question, that 
 the bishops of Sardis were of opinion, that, in 
 all cases,' an appeal might be made to the bishop 
 of Rome, in quality of supreme judge:J but if 
 we suppose, for a moment, that this was their 
 opinion, what would follow? Surely that pre- 
 text for assuming a supreme, authority, must 
 be very slender, which arises only from the 
 decree of one obscure council; 
 
 VII. Constantino the Great, by removing 
 the seat of the empire to Byzantium, and 
 building the city of Constantinople, raised up, 
 in the bishop of this new metropolis, a formi- 
 dable rival to the Roman pontiff, and a bul- 
 wark which menaced his growing authority 
 with vigorous apposition; for, as the emperor, 
 in order to render Constantinople a second 
 Rome, enriched it with all the rights and privi- 
 leges, honours, and ornaments, of the ancient 
 capital of the world; so its bishop, measuring 
 his own dignity and rank by the magnificence 
 of the new city, and by its eminence, as the 
 
 dotii et Imperii; Du-Pin, de antiqua Ecclesis discipfina; 
 and the very learned and judicious work O^Blondcl, de 
 la Primaute dans I'Eglise. 
 
 {i^p- The imprudence of the emperor, and the pre- 
 cipitation of the bishops, were singularly discovered in 
 the following event, which favoured extremely the rise 
 and the ambition of the Roman pontiff.. About the year 
 379, Valentinian enacted a law, empowering the occu- 
 pant of the see of Rome to examine and judge other 
 bishops, that religious disputes might not be decided by 
 profane or secular Judges. The bishops assembled in 
 council at Rome in 378, not considering the fatal" conse- 
 quences that must arise, from this imprudent law, both 
 to themselves and to the church, declared their appro- 
 bation of it in the strongest terms, and recommended 
 the execution of it in an address to the emperor Gratian. 
 — Some think, indeed, that this law authorised the Ro- 
 man prelate to judge only the bishops within the limits 
 of his jurisdiction, i, e. those of the suburbicarian pro- 
 vinces. Others are of opinion, that this power was 
 given only for a time, and extended to those bishops 
 alone, who were concerned in the present schism. The 
 latter notion seeins probable: but still this privilege was 
 an excellent instrument in the hands of sacerdot^ am- 
 bition. 
 
 f See Mich. Geddes,Di3s. de Canonibus Sardicensihus, 
 among his Miscellaneous Tracts, torn. ii. 
 
 i S(?" The fourth canon of the council of Sardis, sup- 
 posing it genuine and authentic, related only to the par- 
 ticular case of a bishop's being deposed by the neigh- 
 bouring prelates, and demanding permission to make nis 
 defence, lu that case, this canon prohibited the election 
 of a successor to the deposed individual, before the pon- 
 tiff had examined the cause, and pronounced seiitence. 
 
cbap. n. 
 
 DOCTORS, CHURCH GOVERNMENT, &c. 
 
 109 
 
 august residence of the emperor, assumed an 
 equal degree of dignity with the bishop. of 
 Rome, and claimed a superiority over all the 
 rest of the episcopal order. Nor did the em- 
 perors disapprove these high pretensions, since 
 they considered their own dignity as connected, 
 in a certain measure, with that of the bishop 
 of their imperial city. Accordingly, in a coun- 
 cil convoked.at Constantinopls in the year 381, 
 by the authority of Theodosius the Great, the 
 bishop of that city' was, during the absence of 
 tlie bishop of Alexandria, and against the con- 
 sent of the Roman prelate, placed, by the third 
 canon of that council, in the first rank after 
 tlie bishop of Rome, and, consequently, above 
 those of Ale.\andria and Antioch. Nectarius 
 was the first who enjoyed these new honours 
 accumulated upon the see of Constantinople. 
 His successor, the celebrated John Chrysos- 
 tom, extended the privileges of that see, and 
 subjected to its jurisdiction all Tlirace, Asia 
 Minor, and Pontus;* nor were the succeeding 
 bishops of that imperial city destitute of a fer- 
 vent zeal for the augmentation of their privi- 
 leges and the extension of their dominion. 
 
 This sudden revolution in the ecclesiastical 
 government, and this unexpected promotion 
 of the bishop of Byzantium to a higher rank, 
 to the detriment of other prelates of the first 
 eminence in the church, were productive of the 
 most disagreeable effect's; for this promotion 
 not only filled the bishops of Alexandria with 
 the bitterest aversion to those of Constantino- 
 ple, but also excited those deplorable conten- 
 tions and disputes between the latter and the 
 Roman pontiffs, which were carried on, tor 
 many ages, with such various success, and 
 concluded, at length, in the entire separation 
 of the Latin and Greek churches. 
 ■ VIII. The additions majde by the emperors 
 and others to the wealth, honours, and advan- 
 tages of the clergy, were followed by a pro- 
 portionable augmentation of vices and luxury, 
 particularly among those of tliat sacred order, 
 who lived in great and opulent cities; and that 
 many such additions were made to that order 
 after the time of 'Constantino, is a matter that 
 admits no dispute. The bishops, on one 
 hand,^ in the most scandalous manner, mu- 
 tually disputed the extent of jurisdiction; while, 
 on the other, they-trampled upon the rights of 
 the people, violated the privileges of the infe- 
 rior ministers, and imitated, in their conduct 
 and in their manner of living, the arrogance, 
 voluptuousness, and luxury of magistrates and 
 pririces.f This pernicious example was soon 
 imitated by the several ecclesiastical orders. 
 The presbyters, in many places, assumed an 
 equality with the bishops in point of rank and 
 
 * See Pet. de Marca, Diss, de Constantinop. Patriar-^ 
 chatus Institutione, subjoined to liia book de Concordia 
 Sacerdotii et Imperii; and Mich. Lequien, Oriens Christ 
 tianus, torn. i. see also an Account of iKe Qovernmcnt 
 of the Christian Church for the first six hundred years, 
 by Dr. Parker, bishop of Oxford. 
 
 f See Sulpit. Sever. Hist. Sacr. lib. i. cap. xxiii. lib. ii. 
 cap. xxxii. Dialog, i. cap. xxi. Add to this the account 
 given by Clarkson (in his Discourse upon Liturg;ies) of 
 the corrupt and profligate manners of the clergy, and, 
 particularly, of the unbounded ambition of the prelates, 
 to enlarge the sphere of their influence and authority, 
 
 authority. We find also many complaints 
 made, at this time, of the vanity and effemi- 
 nacy of the deacons. Those presbyters and 
 deacons, more particularly, who filled the first 
 stations of these orders, carried their preten- 
 sions to an extravagant length, and were of- 
 fended at the notion of being placed -upon an 
 equal footing with tlieir colleagues. For 'this 
 reason, they not only assumed the titles of 
 archpresbyters and archdeacons, but also claim- 
 ed a degree of authority and power much su- 
 perior to that . which was vested in the other 
 members of their respective drders. 
 
 IX. Several writers of great reputation lived 
 in this century, and~^were shining ornaments to 
 the countries to which they belonged. Among 
 those who flourished in Greece, and in the 
 eastern provinces, the following seem to de- 
 serve the first rank: ' 
 
 Eusebius Pamphilus, bishop of Csesarea in 
 Palestine, was a inan of immense reading, 
 justly famous for his- profound knowledge of 
 ecclesiastical history, and singularly versed in 
 other branches of literature, more especially 
 in all the different parts of sacred erudition. 
 Tiiese eminent talents and acquisitions were, 
 however, accompanied with errors and defects, 
 and he is said' to have inclined toward the sen- 
 timents of those, who looked upon the three 
 persons in the Godhead as different from each 
 other in rank and dignity. Some have repre- 
 sented this learned prelate as a thorough Arian, 
 but without foundation, if by an Arian be 
 meant one who embraces the doctrine taught 
 by Arius, presbyter of Alexandria.* 
 
 Peter of Alexandria is mentioned' by Euse- 
 bius with the highest encomiums.j 
 
 Athanasius, patriarch of Alexandria, is celer 
 brated on account of his learned and pious la*- 
 hours, and .particularly famous for his warm 
 and vigorous opposition- to the Arians.J 
 
 Basil, sumamed the Great, bishop of Csesa'- " 
 rea, in point of genius, controversial skill, and 
 a rich and flowing eloqueilce, was surpassed 
 by very few in this century. § 
 
 Cyril, bishop of Jerusalem, left some cate- 
 chetical discourses, which he delivered in that 
 city: he has been accused by many of intimate 
 connexions with the Semi-Ariana,|| 
 
 John, surnamed Chrysostom on account of 
 
 * No writer .has accused Eusebius of Arianism, with 
 more bitterness and erudition, than Le Clerc, in the second 
 of hts Epist, Eccles. et Crit. and Natalis Alexander, Hist. 
 Eccles. Nov. T. Sac; iv. All, however, that these wri- 
 ters prove, is, that Eusebius maintained that a certain 
 disparity and subordination subsisted between the pec- 
 sons of the Godhead. If we suppose this to Jiave been 
 his Opinion, it will not thence 'follow that he was an 
 ^\rian, unless that word be taken -n a very fex^tensive and 
 improper sense. Nothing is more common than the - 
 abusive application of- this term to persons, who have en- 
 tertained opinions opposite to those of Arius, though 
 perhaps they may have erred in other respects. 
 
 f Hist. Eccles. lib. ix. cap. vi. 
 
 I Eusebius Renaudot, in his History of the Patriarchs 
 of Alexandria, has collected all the accounts ^hich the 
 Oriental writers give of Athanasius, of whose works the. 
 learned and .justly celebrated Benedictine, Bernard de 
 Montfaucon, gave a splendid edition. 
 
 § The works of Basil were published at Paris by Julian 
 Gamier, a learned Benedictjne. 
 
 II The later editions of the works of this prelate, are 
 those published by Mr. Milles and by Augustus Toutee, 
 a Benedictine monV. 
 
110 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part II 
 
 his extraordinary eloquence, a man of a noble 
 genius, governed successively the churches' of 
 Antioch and Constantinople,* and left several 
 monuments of his profound and extensive eru- 
 dition; as also discoursesf which he had preach- 
 ed with great applause. ' 
 
 EpiphaniuB, bishop of Salamis, in the isle of 
 Cyprus, wrote a book against all the heresies 
 that had sprung up in the church until his 
 time. This work has little or- no reputation, 
 as it is full of inaccuracies and errors, and be- 
 trays in almost every page the levity and ig- 
 norance of its author. I 
 
 Gregory Naxianzen and Gregory of Nyssa 
 have obtained a very honourable place among 
 the celebrated theological and polemic writers 
 of this century, and not without foundation, 
 as their works sufficiently testify. § Their re- 
 putation, indeed, would have been yet more 
 confirmed, had they been less attached to the 
 writings of Origen,|| and leas infected with the 
 false and vicious eloquence of the sophists. 
 
 Ephraira the Syrian acquired an immortal 
 name by the sanctity of his conversation and 
 maimers, and by the multitude of those excel- 
 lent works in which he combated the sectaries, 
 explained the sacred writings, and unfolded 
 the moral duties and obligations of Christians.lT 
 
 Beside the learned men now mentioned, 
 there are several others, of whose writings but 
 a small number have survived the ruing of time; 
 such as Pamphilas, a martyr, and an intimate 
 friend of Eusebius; Diodorus, bishop of Tarsus; 
 Hosius, of Cordova; Didymus, of Alexandria;' 
 Eustathius, bishop of ^ntioch; Amphilochius, 
 bishop of Iconium; Palladius, the writer of the 
 Lausiac History;** Macarius, the elder and the 
 younger; Apollinaris the elder; and some others, 
 who are frequently mentioned on account of 
 their Brudition, and the remarkable, events in 
 which they were concerned^ 
 
 X. The Latins also were not without wri- 
 ters of considerable ndte, the principal of whom 
 we shall point out here. 
 
 * It must not be understood by this, that Chrysostom 
 was bishop of both .these churches; he was preachei? 
 at Antioch (a function,-indeed, which before him was al- 
 ways attached ^ the episcopal dignity,) and aflerwards 
 patriarch -of Constantinople. 
 
 t The .best edition of the works of Chrysostom, is that 
 published by Montfaucon, in eleven volumes folio. 
 
 t The- works of Epipbanius were translated into Latin, 
 aad published with notes, by the' learned Petau. His 
 life, written by Gervase, appeared at Paris in 1738. 
 
 § Thereare some good editions of these two writers, 
 which we owe tff the care and industry of two learned 
 French editors of the seventeenth century, — 0^^ namely, 
 the abbot Billy, who published the works of Gregory 
 Nazianzen at Paris, in 1609, with a Latin translation and 
 learned notes, and father Fronton dii Due, who published 
 those of Gregory of Nyssa in I6O5. ' 
 
 Q(^ 11 The charge of Origenism seems to have been 
 adduced by the ancient writers only against Gregory of 
 Nvssa; 
 
 'ir There is a large andaccnirate account, of this excel- 
 lent, writer in the Biblioth. Oriental. Vatic, of Joseph 
 Simon Asseman, tom. i. Several works of Ephraim 
 were published at Oxford in Greek; and of these Gerard 
 Vossius has given- a Latin translation. An edition of the 
 same works, in Syriac, appeared at Rome, under the 
 auspices of sleph.. Eiiod. Asseman. 
 
 rt^5»**.This IS the history of the solitaries, or hermits, 
 -which del-ived the name of Lausiac history from Lausus, 
 governor of Calipadocia, at whose request it was com- 
 posed, and to whom it was dedicated by Palladius. 
 
 Hilary, bishop of Pbictiers, acquired a name 
 by twelve books concerning the Trinity, which 
 he wrote against the Arians, and several other 
 productions. He was a man of penetration 
 and^enius; notwithstanding which, he has, for 
 the most part, rather copied in his writings 
 Tertullian and Origen, than given us the fruits 
 of his own study and invention.* 
 
 Lactantius,t the most eloquent of the Latin 
 writers in this century, exposed the absurdity 
 of the pagan superstitions in his Divine insti- 
 tutions, which are written with uncommon 
 purity and elegance. He wrote also upon other 
 subjects, but was much more successful in re- 
 futing the errors of others, than carefiil in ob- 
 serving and correcting his own.| 
 
 Ambrose, prffifect, and afterwards bishop of 
 Milan, was not destitute of a certain degree of 
 elegance both of genius and style; his senti- 
 ments of things were, by no means, absurd; 
 -but he did not escape the prevailing defect of 
 that. age, a, want of solidity,-- accuracy, and 
 order. § 
 
 Jerome, a monk of Palestine, rendered, by 
 his learned and .zealous labours, such eminent 
 services to the Christian cause, as will hand 
 down his name with'honour to the latest pos-.- 
 terity. But this superior and illustrious merit 
 was accompanied, and, in some measu,re, ob- 
 scured, by very, great defects. His complexion 
 was excessively warm and choleric, his bitter- 
 ness against those who difiered frpm him ex- 
 tremely keen, and his thirst of glory insatiable. 
 He was so prone to censure, that several per 
 sons, whose lives were not only irreproachable, 
 but even exemplary, became the objects of his- 
 unjtist accusations. All this, joiried to his su- 
 perstitious turn of mind, and the enthusiastic 
 encomiiims which hS lavished upon a false and 
 degenerate sort of piety which prevailed in his 
 time, sunk his reputation greatly ,even in the 
 esteem of the candid and the vvise. His writ- 
 ings are voluminous, but not -all equally adapt- 
 ed to instruct and edify; His interpretations 
 of the holy scriptures, and his epistles, are 
 those of his productions which seem the most 
 proper to be read with profit. || 
 
 The fame of Augustin, bishop of Hippo in 
 A&ica, filled the whole Christian world; and ' 
 not without reason; as a variety of great and 
 
 ■* There is avery accurate and ample accounlof Hilary, 
 in the Histoire Literaire de la France, tom. i. The best 
 edition we have of his works is that published . by the 
 French Benedictines. 
 
 -f See a complete account of Lactantius, Histoire Lite- 
 raire de -la France, tom. i. 
 
 Q^ X Lactantius considers Christ's mission as haying 
 no other end, than that of leading mankind to virtue by 
 the most sublime precepts and the most perfect example. 
 The 'charge of Manicheism, brought against ihfs eminent 
 writer, is refuted in the most evident and satisfactory 
 manner by Dr. Lardner, in the seventh volume of his 
 Credibility of the Gospel History, where the reader may 
 find an ample and' interesting account of his character and 
 writings. Among those who have been editors of the 
 works of Lactantius, the most reputed are BunemanUj 
 Heumann, Walchius, and Lenglet du Fre'snoy'. 
 
 § The works of St. Ambrose have been published, by 
 the Benedictines, in two volumes in folio. 
 
 II The defects of Jerome are exposed by Le Clerc, in 
 his Q.nEesf. Hieronym. published at Amsterdam in 1700. 
 The Benedictine monks have given an edition of the 
 works of this father in five volumes, republished at Ve- 
 rona by Vallarsius with considerable additions. 
 
Chap. HI. 
 
 THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHUiRCH. 
 
 Ill 
 
 shining qualities w6re united in the character 
 of that illustrious man. A sublime genius, an 
 uninterrupted and zealous pursuit or truth, an 
 indefatigable application, an invincible pa- 
 tience, a sincere piety, and a Subtile and lively 
 vpit, conspired to establish his fame upon the 
 most lasting foundations. It is, however, cei^ 
 tain, that the accuracy and solidity of his judg- 
 ,ment were, by no means, proportionable to the 
 eminent talents now mentioned; and that, on 
 many occasions, he was more guided by the 
 violent impulse of a warm imagination, than 
 by the cool dictates of reason and prudence. 
 Hence arose that ambiguity which appears in 
 his -writings, and which has sometjraes render- 
 ed the most attentive readers uncertain with 
 respect to hisureal sentiments; and hence also 
 the just complaints which many have made of 
 the contr/idictions that are so frequent in his 
 works, and oif the levity and precipitation with 
 wllich he set himself to write upon a variety 
 of subjects, before he had examined them with 
 'a sufficient degree of attention and diligence.* 
 
 Optatus, bishop of Milevi, in Numidia, ac- 
 quired no small degree of reputation, by a work 
 which he wrote against the schism of the Do- 
 natists.f- "■ 
 
 PauUnus', bishop ef Nqla, wrote sonie poems 
 and epistles, which are still extant. They are 
 not remarkable either for their excellence or 
 their meanness.J 
 
 Rufinus, presbyter of Aquileia, is famous on 
 account of his Latin translations of Origen 
 and othei: Greek writers, his commentaries on 
 several books of the holy scriptures, and his 
 bitter contest with Jerome. He would have 
 obtained a very honourable place among the 
 ~ Latin vpriters of this century,- had it not been 
 his misfortune to have the powerful and foul- 
 mouthed Jerome for his adversary. § 
 
 As to Phllastrius, Damasus, Juvencus, and 
 other writers of that obscure class, we refer the 
 reader, for an account of them, to those au- 
 thors whose principal object is to give an exact 
 enumeration of the Christian writers. We 
 shall add, nevertheless, to the list already given, 
 Sulpitius Severus, by birth- a Gaul, and the 
 most eminent historical writer of this century;]] 
 as also Pnlflentius, a Spaniard, a poet of a 
 happy and elegant genius. 
 
 * An accurale-and splendid edition of the works of 
 St. Augustin,-lias been given by the Benedictines, since 
 that of the divines of Xouvain. This elegant edition 
 bears the title of Antwerp, where it was published, with 
 some augmentations, by. Le Clerc, under the iietitious 
 name of Jo. Phereponus. The Jesuits, however, pretend 
 -to have found many defects in this edition. 
 
 t Since the edition of Optatus, published by Albas- 
 pinseus, another has appeared, which we owe to the care 
 and industry of M. Du-Pin, doctor of the Sorbonne. 
 
 I The best edition of Paulinus is that which was pqb- 
 lished at Paris, in 1685, by Le Brun. - 
 
 (0^ $ Rufinus and Jerome had lived for many years in 
 the most intimate and tender friendship, which ended in 
 a violent rupture, on occasion of a translation which the 
 former made of some of the vVorks of Origen, particularly 
 his Book of Principles. For an account of Rufinus, see 
 Rich. Simon, Critique de la Bibliotheque des Auteurs 
 Eccles. par M. Du-Pin, tom. i. An ample account of 
 the same writer is given by Justus Fontaniuus, Hist. Lite- 
 rar. Aquileiens. lib. v., 
 
 II See Histoire Literaire de la France, iom. ii.; and 
 consult also Hieron. a Prato, who has written, with great 
 accuracy the'life of this historian. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Confeming the Doctrine of the Christian Charch 
 
 in this Century. ■ 
 
 I. The fundamental principles of the Chris- 
 tian doctrine were preserved hitherto incorrupt 
 and entire in most churches, though it must be 
 confessed, that-they were often explained and 
 defended in a manner that discovered the great- 
 est ignorance, and an utter confusion of ideas. 
 The disputes can-ied on fnithe Council of Nice, 
 concerning the three persons in the Godhead, 
 afford a remarkable example of this,- particu- 
 larly in the language and explanations of those 
 who approved the decisions of that council. 
 So little light, precision, and order, reigned ifl 
 their discourses, that they appeared to substi- 
 tute three gods in the place of one. 
 
 Nor did the evil end here; for those Vain fic- 
 tions, which an attachment to the Platonic phi- 
 losophy, and to popular opinions, had engaged 
 the greatest part of the Christian doctors to. 
 adopt, before the timg of Constantino, were 
 now confirmed, enlarged, and embellished, in 
 various ways. - Hence arose that extravagant 
 veneration for departed saints, and those ab- 
 surd notions of a certain ^re destined to purify 
 separate souls, that now prevailed, eind of 
 which the public marks were everywhere to be 
 seen. Hence also the celibacy of priests, the 
 worship of images and relics, vvhich, in pro- 
 cess of time, almost utterly destroyed the Chris- 
 tian religion, or at least eclipsed its lustre, and 
 corrupted its very essence in the most deplora- 
 ble manner. 
 
 II. An enormous trp,in of "different supersti- 
 tions were gradually substituted for true reli- 
 gion and genuine piety. This odious revolu- 
 tion proceeded from a variety of causes. A 
 ridiculous precipitation in receiving nevy^ opin- 
 ions, a preposterous desire of imitating the 
 ■pagan rites, and of blending them with the 
 Christian worship, and that idle, propensity, 
 which the generality of .mankind have toward 
 a gaudy and ostentatious religion, all contribut- 
 ed to establish the reign of superstition upon 
 the ruins of Christianity. Accordingly,- fre- 
 quent pilgrimages were undertaken to Pales- 
 tine, and to the tombs of the martyrs; as if 
 there alone the sacred principles of virtue and 
 the certain hope of salvation, were to be ao 
 quired.* The reins beiiig orice let loose tg su 
 perstition, which knows no bounds, absurd no- 
 tions and idle ceremonies multiplied almost 
 every day! Quantities of dust andearthbroTight 
 from Palestine, and other places .remarkable 
 for their supposed sanctity, were handed about 
 as the most powerful remedies against the vio- 
 lence of wicked spirits, and vvere sold and 
 bought every where at enormous prioes.f The 
 public processions and supplications, by which 
 the Pagans endeavoured to appease their gods, 
 
 * See Gre^or. Nysseni Orat. ad cos qui Hierosolymam 
 adeunt,tom. lii. op.-r— Hieronym. Epist. xiii. ad Faulinum 
 de instituto Monachi^ tom. i.— Jac. Godofred. ad Codicem 
 Theodosian. tom. vi. — Petri Wesselingii Dissertat. de 
 causis Feregrinat. Hierosolymit. quam Itinerario Burdi- 
 galensi praemisif,' inter Vetera Romanor. Itineraria, p. 
 537. 
 
 I Augustinus, de pivitate Dei, lib. xxii. cap. viii. sect. 6, 
 
112 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part U. 
 
 were now adopted into the Christian worship, 
 and celebrated in many places with great pomp 
 and magnificencef. The virtues which had foi^ 
 marly been ascribed to the heathen temples,. 
 to their lustrations, to the statues of -their gods 
 and heroes, were now attributed to Cliristian 
 churches, to water- consecrated by certain forms 
 of prayer, and to the images of holy men. 
 And the same privileges, that the former en- 
 joyed under the darkness of Paganism, were 
 conferred upon the latter under the light of the 
 Gospel, or, rather, under that cloud of super- 
 stition which was obscuring its glory. It is 
 true, that, as yet, images were not . very^com- 
 raon; nor were there any statues at all. But 
 it is, at the same time, as undoubtedly certain, 
 as it is extravagant and monstrous, that the 
 worship of the martyrs was modelledj by de- 
 grees, according to the religious services that 
 were paid to the gods before the coming of 
 Christ.* ' 
 
 From these facts, which are but small speci- 
 mens of the state of Christianity at this time, 
 the discerning reader will easily perceive what 
 detriment the church received from the peace 
 and prosperity procured by Constaiitine, and 
 from the imprudent methods employed to al- 
 lure the different nations to embrace the Gos- 
 pel. The breyity we have proposed to observe 
 in this history, prevents our entering into an 
 ample detail of the dismal effects that arose 
 from the progress and the baneful influence of 
 superstition, which had now become universal. 
 
 III. This, indeed, among other unhappy ef- 
 fects, opened a wide door to the endless frauds 
 of those odious impostors, who were so far des- 
 titute of all principle, as to enrich themselves 
 by the ignorance and errors of the people. 
 Rumors were artfully spread abroad of prodi- 
 gies and miracles to Ipe seen in certaiij places" 
 (a trick'often practised by the heathen priests;) 
 and the design of these reports was to draw 
 the populace, in multitudes, to these places, 
 arid to impose upon their credulity. , These 
 stratagems were generally successful; for the 
 ignorance and slowness of apprehension of the 
 people, to whom every thing that is new and 
 singular appears miraculous, rendered them 
 easily the dupes of this abominable artifice-t 
 Nor was this all; certain tombs were falsely 
 given out for the sepulclnes of saints| and con- 
 fessors; the list of the saints was augmented 
 with fictitious names, and even robbers were 
 converted into martyrs.§ Some buried the 
 bones of dead men in certain retired places, 
 and then affirmed, that they were divinely ad- 
 monished, by a dream, that the body of some 
 friend of God lay there.)| Many, especially of 
 the monks, travelled through the different proJ 
 vinces; and not only sold, with the most front- 
 less impudence, their fictitious relics, but also 
 deceived the eyes of the multitude with ludi- 
 crous combats with evil spirits or genii.lT A 
 
 . * For a full account of this matter, see fieausobrc, 
 Hist, du Manicheisme, torn. ii. 
 
 f Heury Dodwell^ Dissert, ii. In Irenaauiri^ sect. 56. 
 LeClerc, in his Appendix Auguatinian. p. 492, 550,575. 
 
 i Concil. Carthag. y.Can. xiv. ~ 
 
 6 Sulpitius Severus, de vita S. Mar.tini^ cap. Till. 
 
 II Augustin. Serin, cccxviii. sect. i. torn. v. op. 
 
 IT See Godofred. ad cod. Thcod. torn. iii. — Augustin. 
 de opere Monachor. cap. xxviii. sect. 36. — Hieronymi- 
 K^ijit. ad,Ru3ticum^tom. i. op. 
 
 whole volume would be requisite to contain an 
 enumeration of the various frauds which artful 
 knaves practised, with success, to delude the 
 ignorant, when true religion was almost en- 
 tirely superseded by horrid superstition. 
 
 IV. Many of the learned, in this century, 
 undertook translations of the Scriptures; but 
 few succeeded in this arduo,us enterprise. — 
 Among the many Latin versions of the sacred 
 books, that of Jerome was distinguished by its 
 undoubted superiority.* The same ingenious 
 and indefatigable writer, whose skill in. the lan- 
 guages was by no means inconsiderable, era- 
 ployed much pains upon the Greek version of 
 the seventy interpreters, in order to givjs amore 
 ,correct edition of it than had appeared before 
 his time; and it is said", that Eusebius, Atliana- 
 sius, and Euthalius, had embarked in an un- 
 dertaking of the same nature.f Of interpre- 
 ters the number- was very considerable, among 
 whom Jerome, Hilary, Eusebius, Diodorus of 
 Tarsus, Rufinus, Ephraim the Syrian, Theo- 
 dore of Heraclea, Chrysostom, Athanasms, 
 and Didymus, are generally esteemed worthy 
 of the first rank. It is however certain, that, 
 even of these first-rate commentators, few have 
 discovered a just discernment, or a sound judg- 
 ment, in their laborious expositions of, the sa- 
 cred writings. Rufinus, Theodore, and Dio- 
 dorus, with some others, have, indeed, follow- 
 ed the natural signification of the words;| the 
 rest, after the example of Origen, are labori- 
 ous in the search of far-fetched interpretations, 
 and pervert the expressions of Scripture, which 
 they very imperfectly understand, by applying 
 them, or rather straining them, to points with 
 which they have no connexion. § St. Augus- 
 tin and Tychonius endeavoured to establish, 
 plaiii and wise rules for the interpretation of 
 Scripture; bnt their efforts were unsuccessful.|( 
 
 V. The doctrines of Christianity had not a 
 better fate than the sacred writings' trom which 
 they are drawn. Origen was the great model 
 whom the most eminent of the C&istian doc- 
 tors followed in their explications of the truths 
 of the Gospel, which were consequently ex- 
 plained, according to the rules of the, Platonic 
 philosophy, as it was corrected and modified 
 by that learned father for the instruction of the 
 youth. Those who desire a more ample and 
 accurate account oil this matter, may consult 
 Gregory Nazianzen among the Greeks, and 
 Augustin among the Latins, who were follow- 
 ed, for a long time, as the only patterns worthy 
 of imitation, and who, next to Origen, may be 
 considered as the parents and supporters of the 
 philasophical or scholastic theology. They were 
 both zealous Platonists; and holding, for cer- 
 tain, all the tenets of that philosopher which 
 were "not totally repugnant to the trutlis of 
 Christianity, they laid them down as funda- 
 mental principles, and drew ftom them a great 
 
 * Jo. Franc. Buddei Isagoge ad Theologiam, torn. ii. 
 
 t Frickius, de Cauone N. T. 
 
 j Simon, Critique de la Bihljotheque dcs Auteurs Ec- 
 clesiast. par Du-Pin, torn. i. iv. as also Hist. Critique des 
 principaux Commentateurs du N. T. cap. vi. 
 
 § See Gregor. Nazianz. Carmen de Seipso, in TolliuB* 
 Insignia Itineris Italici. 
 
 II This 'may be seen in the six books which Augustin 
 wrote conceriiing'the Christian doctrine, and in the rules 
 of interpretation laid down by Tychonius, which are to 
 be found in the Biblioth. Fatr. Maxim, torn. ri. 
 
Chap. m. 
 
 THE DOCTRINE OP THE CHURCH. 
 
 113 
 
 variety of subtile conclusiona, which neither 
 Oirist^or Plato' ever thought of. 
 
 This, however, was not the only sect that 
 flourished at tWa time. That order of fana- 
 tics,, who maintained that the knowledge of 
 divine truth was to be acquired, i»ot by reason- 
 ing, but by still contemplation, and by turning 
 the eye of the mind upon itself in an entire 
 absence from all external and sensible objects, 
 became now much more numerous. This ap- 
 pears from many circumstances, particularly 
 from the swarms of monks that almost over- 
 spread the Christian world, and also from the 
 books of Dionysius, the pretended chief of 
 the Mystics, which seem to have been forged 
 in this century, under that venerable name, by 
 some member of that fanatical tribe. 
 
 VI. Among the writeraof this century, who 
 published -expoaitiona of the Christian doctrine, 
 the first place is due to Cyril of Jerilsalem, 
 justly celebrated for his catechetical discfturaes, 
 which nothing but a partial blindness to the 
 truth could have induced any to attribute to a 
 more modem author.* Some have ranked 
 Lactantius in the class of writers now under 
 consideration j but without reason, since It is 
 well known, that tlie labouis of that eloquent 
 author were rather employed in refuting the 
 errors of idolatry, than in explaining the truths 
 of the Gospel. The system of Doctrine ad- 
 dressed to the Clergy and Laity, which, by 
 many, 'has been attributed to Athanasius, 
 seems tp be of a much later date. There are, 
 however, many, things in the wqrks of Chry- 
 ^ostom, Athanasius, the Oregories, and others, 
 by wliich we m*y be enabled to form a just 
 idea of the manner in which the principal 
 points of the Christian doctrine were explain- 
 ed by learned men in- this century. We may 
 more particularly be assisted in this matter 
 by the twelve books of Hilary, concerning the 
 Trinity; the Ancoratus ofEpiplianius, in which 
 the doctrine ^of Scriptlire, concerning Christ 
 and the Holy Ghost, is explained at large; the 
 treatise of Facian, concerning baptism, ad- 
 dressed to the catechumens; and tlio two books 
 of Chrysostom on the same subject. We need 
 not mention here the various works of Jerome 
 and Augnstin, in which appear the laborious 
 and noble efforts of those great men toinspire 
 into the minds of ^;he people just notions of 
 religion, and to detect and refute the errors of 
 those who were enemies of tlie truth. 
 
 VII. The controversial writings, tliat were 
 levelled against those who wore considered as 
 heretics, were entirely destitute of that ancient 
 simplicity, which is the natural and the beau- 
 tiful garb of truth. That simplicity was now 
 succeeded by logical subtilties, acute sophisms, 
 sharp invectives, and other disingenuous arts, 
 more worthy of the patrons of error, than of 
 the defenders of that " wisdom which is from 
 above." We find, accordingly, m.Tny great 
 and eminent men complaining of this abuse, 
 and endeavouring in vain to oppose the muddy 
 torrent of scurrility and dialectic that was 
 overflowing the Christian achools.j I pass in 
 
 * See Jo. Pechtii Comment, de Origine Missurum in 
 Honorem Saactorum, p. 404. 
 
 f Methodius apud- EpiphaDium, Haares. Ixiv. torn. i. op. 
 .— Oregon If azian. in many places; and otliere. 
 
 Vol. I.— 15 
 
 silence those rhetorical figures and ornaments, 
 by Tyhieh many evaded the arguments of their 
 iidversarifes, and artfully perplexed the truo 
 state of the case; that odious custom, also, 
 observed by some, of exciting the popular re- 
 sentment against those who differed from them, 
 and the total want of order and of perspicuity, 
 chargeable upon almost all. Several writers 
 of this age are so fir fl'om disowning these in- 
 decorous qualities, that they seem, on the con- 
 trary, to glory in them. It roust, indeed, be 
 observed, that the adversaries of the truth 
 used the same inglorious arms, though this 
 does not in the least diminish the reproach 
 which is on that account due to its friends. 
 
 VIII. New methods of disputing were.also 
 added to tiiose which wore practised in former 
 times: for the truth- of a doctrine was now 
 proved by the number of martyrs that'Jiad 
 professed it, by mufades, by the conffession of 
 (hsmans, i. e. of persons possessed with evil 
 spirits. The smallest degree of discernment 
 will persuade aiiy one how ambiguous this 
 method of reasoning was; how dangerous to 
 thq truth, by furnishing innumerable occasions 
 for" the exercise of fraud and imposture; and 1 
 apprehend, that the greatest part of those who 
 used such arguments, however illustrious and 
 respectable they may have been, will be found, 
 upon examination; chargeable with the dan- 
 gerous and criminal design of imposing upon 
 their bretlireu. Ambrose, in his disputes with 
 the Arians, produced men . possessed with 
 devils, who, on the approach of the relics of 
 Gervasius and Protasius, were obliged to ac- 
 knowledge, with loud cries, that the doctrine 
 of the council of Nice, concerning the three 
 persons of the godliead, was true; and that of 
 the Arians not only false, but also of most 
 dangei'ous consequence. This testimony of 
 the prince of darkness was regarded, by Am- 
 brose, as an unexceptionable argument in fa- 
 vour of his hypothesis. The Arians, on the 
 other hand, held this prodigy in the utmost de- 
 rision, and maintained that Ambrose had sub- 
 orned these infernal witnesses by. a weighty 
 bribe;* and I make no doubt, that many will 
 be more disposed to beheve the Arians, than 
 to credit Ambrose, though he be enrolled in 
 the order of the saints, and they stigmatised in 
 the list of heretios.f 
 
 IX. There were, in tliia century,; several 
 controversialisls of, considerable note; fbr, be- 
 side Apollinaris, Gregory Nazianzen, C^ril of 
 Alexandria, and others who distinguished them- 
 selves in the lists against the emperor Julian, 
 many otliers disputed, with victorious force and 
 a happy success, against the worshippers of the 
 gods. Of this number were, Lactantius, Atha- 
 nasiua, Julius Firmious Matemus, ApoUinaris 
 the younger, whose excellent writings against 
 Pqrphyry are unhappily lost; Augustin, in 
 those books of the City of God, and in the 
 three books against the Pagans, which have 
 also perished; and, above all, Eusebius of 
 Csesarea, in his Evangelical Preparation, and 
 his book against Hierocles. Eusebius Emese- 
 
 * Ambrus. £pist. xxii. -Fatiliiius, vita Ambrosii, p. 81. 
 
 f See Le Clerc, Appendix Augastiniana, J>. 375. Gre^or.. 
 Nysa; vita Gregorii Neocassariensis, tom. li. op. Sulpitius 
 Sererus, Hist. Sacr. lib-ii. cap. xxxviii. 
 
114 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part II. 
 
 nus, Diodorus of Tarsus, and St. Chrysostom, 
 whose treatise on the subject is still extant, 
 •eihployed their learned lahours to bring ftver 
 the Jews to the profession of Christianity. 
 Ephraim the Syrian,* James of Nisibis, Dldyr 
 mus and Audentius, attacked the whole body 
 of heretics; as did also Epiphanius, in his vo- 
 luminous work concerning heresies, entitled 
 Panarium, and Gregory Nazianzen with more 
 brevity in his discourse concerning faith. The 
 books of Augustin and Philastrius, on the 
 same subject, contain rather a list than a refu- 
 tation of the several sects. 
 
 X. If the growth and perfection of a science 
 were to be estimated by the .multitude of wrir 
 ters it produces, that of morals must have flour- 
 ished greatly at this time; for a very consider- 
 able number of persons apphed themselves to 
 that excellent study. Among the eastern wri- 
 ters, James, bishop of Nisibis,t and Ephraim, 
 bishop of Syria, became eminent for their zeal 
 and assiduity in inculcating the precepts of 
 morality. The writings of Basil the Great, 
 Gregory of Nyssa, Chrysostom, Ambrose, Au- 
 gustin, and several others, upon moral subjects, 
 are neither worthy of high encomiunis, nor of 
 entire contempt, as they contain a strange mix- 
 ture of excellent reflections, and insipid details, 
 coiiceming the duties of the Christian life. 
 Among the productions of these writers, many 
 give the preference to the three books of Am- 
 brose, concerning the duty of the ministers of 
 the church, which are written in tlie manner 
 of Cicero, and are justly commended for the 
 pious intention they discover, and the beauti- 
 ful sentiments they contain, though there be 
 many things in them worthy of reprehension. 
 Buit Macarius, an Egyptian monk,| undoubt- 
 edly deserves the first rank among the practi- 
 cal writers of this time, as his works display, 
 some few things excepted, § the brightest and 
 most lovely portraiture of sanctity and virtue. 
 
 XI. It must, however, be observed, that al- 
 most all the writers of this class are defective 
 in several respects. They have been entirely 
 negligent of order in their compositions, and 
 have taken no sort of care to treat with method 
 and precision the subjects they undertook to 
 explain. They seldom define their terms, and 
 pour out their pious but incoherent ideas in for- 
 tuitous combinations, just as ttiey offer them- 
 selves. They; moreover, neglect deducing the 
 duties of mankind from their true principles, 
 and even sometimes derive them from doctrines 
 and precepts which are either manifestly false, 
 or, at least, whose nature and meaning are not 
 determined with any degree of accuracy. And 
 hence it is, that the, greatest part of them are 
 
 * See -Job. Sim. Asseman. Biblioth. Oriental. Cle- 
 ment. Vatic, torn. i. p. 118, 125. From the extracts, 
 -vrhich this learned compiler has given of the works of 
 Ephraim, it appears, that he was more distinguished by 
 his piety and genius, than by his skill in the management 
 of controversy, 
 
 f Jos. Sim. Assemanus, in the work quoted in the pre- 
 ceding note, torn, i.^ thinks, that the writings attrihuted 
 to' the bishop of Nisibis, belong rather to the bishop of 
 Saruga; he however corrects, in 'some measure, this no- 
 tion in his Addenda, p. 558. 
 ji ji 1 See the Acta Sanctorum, tomi i. Januar. p. 1005. 
 
 y^ $ The things here excepted by Dr. Mosheim, are 
 come superstitious tenets that are to be found in the 
 writings of Macariu^, and also certain opinions that seem 
 tainted with Origenismi 
 
 extremely defective, when they come to de- 
 monstrate the obligations of virtue, and the in- 
 congruity and unfitness of vice. These pre- 
 tended demonstrations, instead of being deduc- 
 ed, by proper conclusiofis from the reason of 
 things and the divine laws,' are nothing more 
 than a collection of airy fancies, cold apd in- 
 sipid allegories, quaint and subtile conceits, 
 which are more proper to aflbrd amusement 
 to the imagination, than light to the under- 
 standing, or con'viction to the judgment. ' ■ 
 
 XII. But, however defective this method of 
 inculcating the duties of morahty may have 
 been, it was much more tolerable than that 
 which was followed by the amphibious disci- 
 ples of Christ and Plato, those Alexandrian 
 philosophers, of whom Amraonius Sacca wits 
 the chief. The double doctrine of morals 
 which they invented, and which was com- 
 pounded of two systems, one surpassing the 
 other in perfection, gained. much ground in this 
 century, to the great detriment of true reli- 
 gion. A circumstance that strongly tends to 
 convince us of the growth and progress of this 
 fanatical sect is, iJiat those who in former 
 times had inculcated a secret doctrine concern- 
 ing divine things, totally different.from that 
 which was publicly propagated among the mul- 
 titude, gave now the finishing touch to tWs 
 doctrine, and formed it into a system. The 
 famous Grecian fanatic, who declared himself 
 to beDionysius the Areopagite, disciple of St. 
 Paul, and who, under the protection' of this 
 venerable name, gave laws and instructions to 
 such as were desirous, of raising their souls 
 ahove all human things, in order to unite them 
 to their great source by sublime contemplation, 
 lived most probably in this century, though 
 some place him before, others after the present 
 period.* No sooner were the writings and in- 
 structions of this fanatic handed about among 
 the Greeks and Syrians, and particularly 
 among the solitaries and monks, than a gloomy 
 cloud of religious darkness began to spread it- 
 self over the minds of many. An incredible 
 number of proselytes joined thosfe chimerical 
 sectaries, who maintained that communion 
 with God was to be sought by mortifjsjng the 
 senses, by withdrawing the mind from all ex- 
 ternal objects, by macerating the body with 
 hunger and labour, and by a holy sort of indo- 
 lence, which confined all the activity of the 
 soul to a lazy contemplation of things spiptual. 
 and eternal. ' ' ' ' 
 
 XIII. The progress of thissect appears evi- 
 dently from the prodigious number of solitary 
 monks and sequestered virgins, which, upon 
 the return of tranquillity to the church, had 
 
 * Those who have written concerning this impostor, 
 are enumerated by Jo. Franc. Buddeus, in his Isagoge ad 
 Theologiam, lib. ii. cap. iv. See also Jo. Launou Ju-. 
 dicium de Scriptis X)ionysii, torn. ii. op. part.i. La Croze 
 (inJiisHistoiredu Christianisme d'Ethiopie,) endeavours 
 to prove, that Syupsius, an Egyptian bishop, and also the 
 most celebrated philosopher of the fifth century, com- 
 posed the writings attributed to Dionysius, in order to 
 defend the doctrine of those who held, that Clirist only 
 possessed one nature. Thcargumenta, however, of La 
 Croze are weak. Nor are those more satisfactory, which 
 the learnedBaratier has employed, in a dissertation added 
 to his book de Successione Rom. Episcop. p. S86, to prove 
 that Dionysius of Alexandria was the true author of 
 the writings in question, 
 
CiiAP. in. 
 
 THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 115 
 
 bverrun the whole Christian world with an 
 anjazing rapidity. Many^of this order of men 
 hadr for a long time, been known among the 
 Christians, aiid had led silent and solitary lives 
 in the deserts of .Egypt; hut Antony was the 
 &sl who formed them into a regular body, en- 
 gaged them to live in society with each other, 
 and prescribed rules to theiji for the direction 
 of their conduct.* These regulations, which 
 Antony brought forward in Egypt, in 305, 
 were, in the year following, introduced into 
 Palestine and Syria, by his disciple Hilarion. 
 Almost about the same time, Aones and Euge- 
 nius, with their companions, Gaddanas and 
 Azyzus, instituted the monastic order in Meso- 
 potamia and the adjacent countries;! ^nd tlieir 
 example was followed with such rapid success, 
 that, in a short time, the' east was filled with a 
 lazy set of mortals, who, abandoning all hu- 
 man connexions, advantages; pleasures, and 
 concerns, wore out a languishing arid misera- 
 ble life, amidst the hardships of want and va- 
 rious kinds Of BufTeringi in order to arrive at 
 a more close and rapturous communion with 
 God and angels. The Christian church would 
 never have 'been disgraced by this cruel and 
 insocial enthusiasm, nor would any have been 
 subjected to those keen torments of mind and 
 - body to which it gave rise, had not many Chris- 
 tians been unwarily caiught by the specious ap- 
 pearance and the pompous sound of that maxim 
 of the ancient philosophy, "That, in order to 
 the attainment of true felicity and comnjunion 
 with God, it was necessary that the soul should 
 be separated from the body, even here below, 
 and that. the Body was to be maCerated and 
 mortified for this purpose." 
 
 XIV. From the east this gloomy institution 
 passed into the west, and first into Italy, and' 
 its heighbouring islands, though it is utterly 
 uncertain who transplanted it thither.| St. 
 Martin, the celebrated bishop of Tours, erect- 
 ed the first monasteries in Gaul, and recom- 
 mended this religious solitude with such power 
 and efiica<sy, both by his instructions and his 
 exainple, that his funeral is said to have been 
 attended hy no less than two thousand monks.§ 
 Thence, the monastic discipline gradually ex- 
 tended its progress-through the other provinces 
 and coimtries of Europe. 
 
 It is, however, proper to observe, that there 
 
 * FoT. a full account of Antony, ahd-the diaciplineies- 
 tablished by him, see the Acta Sanctorum, lorn. ii. Januar. 
 ad d. 17. 
 
 f See Jos.'Simon. Asseman. Biblioth. Oriental. Clement. 
 Vatican, tom. iii. part ii. 
 
 i Most writers, following the opinion of Baronius, 
 maintain that St, Atbanasius-brought the monastic insti- 
 tution from Egypt into Italy, about the year 340, and was 
 'the first who built a monastery at Kome. See Mabillon, 
 
 Praef. ad Acta Sanctorum Ord. Bcned. tom. i The 
 
 learned Muratori (Antiq. Ital. tom. v.) combats this opin- 
 ion, and pretends that the first monastet^, kfiown in Eu- 
 rope, was erected at Mil'anj and Just. Fpnt&hiuus^ in his 
 Hist. Liter. Aquileiens. affirms, that th^ first society of 
 monks was formed at Aquileia. But these writers dp not 
 produce unexceptionable eridenoe for their ofiinions. If 
 we may give credit to the Ballerini (Dissert, ii. ad Zeno- 
 nem Veronensem,) the first convent of nuns waserected 
 toward the end of this century, at Verona, by Zeno, 
 bishop of that city. 
 
 § See Sulpit. Sever, de vita Martini, cap. x. p. 17, edit. 
 Veron., where the method of living, used By the Mar- 
 tinian monks, is accurately described. See aitd Hisloire 
 liiteraire de la France, tom, i. part ii. p. 42. 
 
 was a great difference in point of austerity be- 
 tween the western andoriental monks; the for- 
 mer of whom could never be brought to bear 
 the severe rules to which the latter voluntarily 
 submitted. And, indeed, the reason of this, 
 difference may be p3.rtly derived from the na- 
 ture of the respective climates in which they 
 dwelt. . The European countries abound not 
 so much withjdelirious-fanatics, or with persons 
 of a morose and austere'complexion, as those 
 arid regions that lie toward the burning east; 
 nor are our bodies capable of supporting that 
 rigid and abstemious method of living, which 
 is familiar and easy to those who are placed 
 under a glowing firmament, and breathe in a 
 sultryand scorching atmosphere. Itwas, there- 
 fore, rather the name only than the thing itself, 
 which was transported into the European coun- 
 tries,* though this name was indeed accompa- 
 nied with a certain resemblance or distant imi- 
 tation of the monastic life instituted by Anto- 
 ny and others in the east.. 
 
 XV. The monastic order, of which we have 
 been taking a general view, ■ was distributed 
 into several classes. It was first divided into 
 two distinct orders, of which one received the 
 denomination of Coenobites, the other that of 
 Eremites. The former lived together in a fix- 
 ed habitation, and made up one large .conunu- 
 nity under a chief, whom ttiey called father, or 
 abbot, which signifies the same thing in the 
 Egyptian language. T^ie. latter drSw out a 
 wretched life in perfect sohtude, and were scat- 
 tered here and there in caves, in^deserts, in the 
 cavities of rocks, sheltered from, the wild beasts 
 only by the cover of a miserable cottage, in 
 which each lived sequestered from the rest of 
 his species. ■ 
 
 The Anachoretes were yet more excessive 
 in the austerity of their manner of living than 
 the Eremites. They frequented , the wildest 
 deserts without either tents or cottages; nour- 
 ished themselves with the roots and herbs 
 which grew spontaneously out of the unculti- 
 vated ground; wandered about without hav- 
 ing any fixed abode, reposing wherever the ap- 
 proach of night happened to find them; and all 
 this, thg,t they might avoid the view and the 
 society of mortals.t '^ 
 
 Another order of monks- were those wan- 
 
 * This difference between the SiscipUne of the eastern 
 and western monks, and the cause of it, have been in- 
 geniously remarked by Sulpitius Severus, Dial. i. de Vita 
 Martini, where, one of the interlocutors, in the dialogue, 
 having mentioned th'e abstemious and wretched diet of 
 the Egyptian monks, adds what follows: " Placetne tibi 
 prandium, fasciculus herbarum et panis dimidius viris 
 quinque?" To this question- the Gaul answers, ".Faci% 
 tuo more, qui nuUam occasioiiem omitlis, quin nos _{i. eV) 
 (the Grallic monks) ed'acitatis fatiges. 'Sed facia in- 
 humane, qui nos Gallos homines cogla exemplo angeldrum 
 vivere — Sed contentus ^it hoc [|n av^io] Cyrenensis ille, 
 cui vel necessitas vel nalura est esurire: nos, quod tibi 
 sape testatussmn, GalU srimus." . The same speaker, 
 in the above mentioned dialogue, capr viii. reproaches 
 Jerome with having accused the monks of glutton)!; and 
 proceeds thus: "Sentio de opientalibus ilium polius 
 monachis, quam de occidentalibus disputasse; nam, edaci- 
 tas in Graicis et Orientalibus gula est, in Gallis natura.'* 
 It appears, therefore," that, immediately afttr the intro- 
 duction of the monastic order into Europe, the west&m 
 difieired.greatly from the eastern monk^ in thek manners 
 and discipline, and were, in consequence of this, accu'sed 
 by tile latter of voraciousness and gluttony.. 
 
 t See Sulpit. Sever, Dial, i. de vita Martini, cap. i. 
 
116 
 
 INTERNAL HlSTORV Oli' tttE CHURCH. 
 
 PAnt n. 
 
 dering fanatics, or rather impostois, whom the 
 Egyptians called Sarabaites, who, instead of 
 procuring a subsistence by honest industry, 
 travelled through various cities and provinces, 
 and gained a Maintenance by fictitious nlira^ 
 cles, by selling i-ellcs to the niultitudB) and 
 other frauds of a like nature. 
 
 Many of the Ccsnobltes Were chargeable 
 with vicious and scandalous practices. This 
 order, however, vtaa not so generally corrupt 
 as that of the Sarabaites, wlip were for the 
 niost part profligates of the most abandoned 
 kind. As to the Eremites, they Seem to have 
 deserved no other reproach than that of a de» 
 lirious and extravagant fanaticism.* Al! these 
 different orders were hitherto composed of the 
 laity, and were subject to the jurisdiction and 
 the inspection of tlie bishops. But many of 
 them were now adopted among the clergyj 
 even by the command of the emperors; and 
 the fame of monastic piety and Sanctity ))ecame 
 ■0 genera], that bishop's were frequently chosen 
 out of that fanatical order.f 
 
 XVI. If the enthusiastic phrensy of the 
 monks exaggerated, in a manner pernicious to 
 the interests of morality, the discipline that is 
 obligatory upon Christians, the interests of vii> 
 . tue and true refigion suffered yet more griev- 
 ously by two monstrous oirofs which were 
 almost universally adopted in this century, and 
 became a^ source of innumerable calamities 
 and mischiefs in the succeeding ages. Of these 
 maxims one was, " That it was an act of vir- 
 tue to deceive and lie, when by such means 
 the interest* of the church might be promoted'," 
 and the second, equally horrible, though in 
 another poiilt of view, was, that errors in re- 
 ligion, when maintained and adhered to after 
 proper admonition, Wefe punishable with civil 
 penalties and corporal tortures." Of these 
 erroneous maxims the former was now of a 
 long standing; it had been adopted for some 
 ages past, and had produced an incredible num- 
 ber of ridiculous fables, fictitious prodigies, and 
 pious frauds, to the unspeakable detriment of 
 that glorious cause in which they were em- 
 ployed. And it must be frankly confessed, 
 that the greatest men, and most eminent saints 
 of this century, were more or less tainted with 
 the infection of this corrupt principle, ajs will 
 appear evidently to such as look with- an at- 
 tentive eye into their writings and their ac- 
 tioris. We would willingly except, from this 
 charge, Ambrose and Hilary, Augustin, Gre- 
 gory Naziarizen, and Jerome; hut truth, 
 which is more respectable than these vener- 
 able fathers, obliges us to involve them in 
 the general accusation. We may add also, 
 that it was, probably, the contagion of this 
 pernicious maxim, that engaged Sulpitius Se- 
 verus, who is far from being, in general, a 
 puerile or credulous historian, to attribute so 
 
 * Whoever u denroas of a more -ample account jof the 
 vices of the monks in this ceAtury, may consult th'e above 
 mentioned "dialogue of &ulp. Sf^er. «ap. viii. p. 69, 70. 
 
 Bnd.Consultat. ApoUonii et Zachaei, published by Dache- 
 rius, Spicil'eg. torn. i. lib. iii. cap. iii. 
 t Seb J. Oodofrod-. ad Godicem Theodosianum, torn. vi. 
 
 many miracles to Sfc Martin. The other 
 maxim, relating to the justice and expediency 
 of punishing error, was introduced in those 
 serene and peaceful times .which the accessiorl 
 of Constanthie to the imperial throne procured 
 to the church. It was from that period ap- 
 proved by many, enforced by several examples 
 during the contests, tliat arose with the Priscil- 
 lianists and Donatists, confirmed-and establish- 
 ed by the authority of Augustin, and thus 
 transmitted to the following ages. 
 
 XVII. When we cast an eye toward the 
 lives and morals of Christians at this time, we 
 find, as formerly, a mixture of good and evil; 
 some eminent for their piety, others infamous 
 for their crimes. The number, however, of 
 immoral and unworthy Christians began so to 
 increase, thatr tlie examples of real piety said 
 virtue became extremely rare. When the ter- 
 rors of persecution were totally dispelled; 
 when the church, secured from the efforts of 
 its enemies, enjoyed the sweets of proqierity 
 and peace; when the major part of the bishops 
 exhibited to their flock the contagious exam- 
 ples of arrogance, luxury, effeminacy, animos- 
 ity, and strife, with other vices too numerous 
 to mention; when the inferior rulers and doc 
 tors of tlie church fell into a slothful and op- 
 probrious negligence of the duties of their 
 respective stations, and employed) in vain 
 wranglings and idle disputes, that zeal and at- 
 tention which were due to the culture of piety 
 and to the instruction of their people; and 
 when (to complete the enormity of this horrid 
 detail) multitudes were drawn into the profes- 
 sion of Christianity, not by the power of con- 
 viction and argument, but by the prospect of 
 gain orby the fearof punishment; then it was, 
 indeed, no wonder that the churCh was con- 
 taminated with shoals of profligate Christians, 
 and that the virtuous few were, in a manner, opi ' 
 pressed and overwhelmed by the superior num 
 bers of the wicked and licentious. It is true, 
 that the same rigorous penitence, which hao 
 taken place before the time of Constantifie 
 continued now in full force against flagrani 
 transgressors; but, when the reign of corruf)tion ' 
 becomes universal, the vigour of the law yield." 
 to its sway, and a weak execution defeats the 
 purposes of the most salutary discipline. Such 
 was now unhappily the case: the age was gra- 
 dually sinking fixim one period of corruption 
 to another; the great and the powerful sinned 
 With impunity; and the obscure and the indi' 
 gent alcaie felt the severity of the laws. 
 
 Xvm. Religious controversies among Chris- 
 tians were frequent in this century; and, as it 
 oflen happens in the course of civU affairs, ex- 
 ternal peace gave occasion and leisure for the 
 excatation of intestine troubles and dissensions. 
 We shall mention some of the principal of theSe 
 controversies, wWch produced violent and cHr- 
 stinate schisms, not so much, indeed, by their 
 natural tendency, as by incidental occurtences. 
 
 In the beginning of this century, about the 
 year 306, arose the famous Mdetian contro- 
 versy, 80 called) from its author, and which, 
 for a long tune, divided the church. Peter, 
 bBhop of Alexandria, had deposed, from the 
 episcopal office, Meletiua, bishop of Lycopolis 
 
Chap. III. 
 
 TirE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 117 
 
 th the Upper Egypt. The reasoiis that occa- 
 sioned this violent act of authority, have not 
 been sufficiently explained. 
 
 The partisans of Peter allege, that Meletius 
 had sacrificed tc; the gods, and charge him also 
 with various crimes;* while others affirm, that 
 his only- failing was an excessive severity 
 against the iapsed.f ' However that may be, 
 Meletitts treated the sentence of Peter with 
 theutrtost contempt, and-not only continued 
 to perform all the dutips of the episcopal func-. 
 tion, but even assumed the right of consecrat- 
 ing, presbyters; a privilege, which, by the laws 
 of-i%ypt, belonged only to -the bishop of Alex- 
 andria. The venerable gravity and eloquence 
 of Meletius . drew many to his party; and, 
 among otliers, a consfderaible number of monks 
 adhered to his cause. The council of Nice 
 made severai ineffectual attempts to heal this 
 breach; the Meletians, on the other hand, whose 
 chief aim was to oppose' the authority of the 
 bishop of Alexandria, joined themselves to the 
 Arians, who were his irreconcilable enemies. 
 Hence it happened, that a dispute, which had 
 for. its first object the authority and jurisdic- 
 lioh'of the bishop of Alexandria, gradually de- 
 
 fenerated into a religious controversyi The 
 leletian party was yet subsisting in the fifth 
 century.| ' 
 
 XIX. Some time after this, a^certain.perSon 
 Hamed Eustathius, was the occasion of great 
 disorders and divisions in Armenia, Pontus, 
 and the neighbouring countries; and he was 
 ■consequently condemned and excommunicated 
 by the council of Gangra, which soon follow- 
 ed that «f Nice. Whether this was the same 
 Eustathius, who was bishop of Sebastia In Ar- 
 menia, and the chief of the Semi-Arians; or 
 whether the ancient historians have confound- 
 ed two diiferent persons of the sanle name, is 
 a matter extremely difficult to determine.! 
 However that may be, the leader of theEusla- 
 thian sect does not seem so much chargeable 
 with the jBorruption of any religious doctrine, 
 as wllth iBiVingSet up a fanatical form of sanc- 
 tity, an extrava^nt system of practical dis- 
 cipline, destructive of the order and happiness 
 of society; for he prohibited marriage, the iise 
 'of wine and flesh, feasts «f charity, and other 
 things of that nature. He prescribed imme- 
 diate divorce to those who were joined in wed- 
 lock, and is said to have granted A6 children 
 and servants the liberty of violating the^m- 
 mahds of their parents and masters upon pre- 
 texts of a religious naturejl 
 
 XX. Lucifer; bishop of Cagliari in Sardinia, 
 a man remarkable for his prudence, the aus- 
 terity of his character, and the steadiness of 
 his resolution and courage, was banished bv 
 the emperor Constaritius, for having defended 
 the Nicene-dootrifie, ooHCMning'the thiee p^^ 
 
 ■* Alhanasros, Apolo^a secunda, torn. i. op. ,^ 
 
 f GbilAianiaB, Hieres. Ixvhi. torn. i. op. see also Z)ion. 
 Petavlos, Not. ;in ISpiplranimn, torn. it. and Sam. Bas-, 
 'Uagii Excjtcitat. &e Rcbua dacris contra Baronium. 
 
 f Socrates, Hist. Eccles. lib. i. c. »i. p. 14. Theodo- 
 ret. Hist Eccles. lib. i. cap. viii. p. 548. 
 
 ( Se« Sam. Basnage, Annal. Folit. Eccles. torn. ii. 
 
 11 Socrates, lib. i. cap. iliii.— Sozomen, lib. iii. cap. jiv. 
 lib. iv.-cap. xxiv. — Epiphan. Haeres. Isvi.' — FhiloBtorgius, 
 Hist. Kcdes. lib. iii. cap. xvi.— Wolfg. Qundling, Not. 
 ad Conciliuni Oaugrense, 
 
 sons in tjie. Godhead. . He broke the bonds of 
 fraternal communion with Eusebius, bishop of 
 Yerceil, in the year ,363, because the latter had 
 consecrated Paulinus, bishop of Antioch;_ and 
 he afterwards separated himself frpiri the 
 whole chursh, on account of the absolution 
 which it had decreed in favour of those who, 
 uilder CoBStantius, had deserted to the Arians.* 
 The small tribe, at least, that followed this pre- 
 late, under the title of Luciferians, scrupu- 
 lously and obstinately avoided all commerce 
 and fellowship, both with those bishops who 
 had declared themselves ill favour of the Ariaiis, 
 and with th6se also wlro consented to an abso' 
 lution for such as returned from this desertioii) 
 and acknowledged their error; and thus of con- 
 sequence they disBolvedthe bonds of their com- 
 munion with the church in generaLf The iu- 
 ciferians are also said to have entertained erro- 
 neous notions concerning the human soul^ 
 whose generation they considered as of a car- 
 nal nature, and maintained, that it was trans- 
 fused from the parents into the chtrdren.J 
 
 XXJ. About this time ^riiis, a presbyter 
 monk, and a Semi-Arian, erected a new sect^ 
 and excited divisions throughout Armenia, 
 Pontus, and Cappadooia, by, propagating opin- 
 ions .different from those which v^ere com- 
 monly received. His principal tenet was, that 
 bishops were not distinguished from presbyters 
 by any divine rightj but that, accqifding to the 
 institution of the New Testament, their offices, 
 and authority were absoltitely tht; same. How 
 far^rius pursued this opinion, tfirdugh its na- 
 tural consequences, is not certainly joiown;' but 
 we know, with' certainty, tha.t it wa^ highly 
 agreeable to many good Christians, who were 
 no longer' able to bear the tyranny and arro- 
 gance of the bishops of this century. There 
 were other things in which JCrius differed from 
 the common notions of the time; he condemn- 
 ed prayers for the dead, stated fasts, the cele- 
 bration of Easter, and other rites of that na- 
 ture, in which the multitude erroneously ima- 
 gine that the life and soul of rehgion consists.! 
 His great purpose seems to haverbeen that of 
 reducing Christianity to its primitive simplicity; 
 a purpose, indeed, laudable and noWe'when- con- 
 sidered in itself, though the principles whence 
 it springs, and the means by which it is exe- 
 cuted, may in some respects deserve censijre.|| 
 
 " RaSa. Hist, Eccles. lib. i. cap. xxxi^— Socrates, lib.-' 
 nr. cap. ix. ) See also TiHemontJs ^emoires pour servir 
 a PHistoire de PEglise, torn. vii. 
 
 f See, M tke vrorks of Sirmond, a book of Prayers, 
 addressed to Theodosius by Marcelliniis ^d Faustihu^ 
 who were Luciferians. ' ' ■ ^ 
 
 X Au^ustiii. de Hieres..cap. Ixxxi. with the obserrs tions 
 of Lamb, l^anams, p. '346. 
 
 § Ep'iphauius, Haeres. Ixxr. p. 905. — Augustin. de 
 Httres. cap. liii. ' ' ' 
 
 (jt^ II Thedesire of redncing religious, worship to the 
 greatest possible simpHcity, howe\'%r rational it inay ap- 
 pear in itself. When ab^ractedly considered, will be con- 
 siderably moderated in such as oestow a moment's atten- 
 tion, upon the imperfection and infirmities-of.human na- 
 ture in its present state.' Mankind, generally speaking, 
 have too little elevation of-mind to be much anected with 
 those forms and raethods of worship, in which there is 
 nothing striking to the outward senses. The great dif- 
 ficulty lies in determining the lengths, which It is pru- 
 dent to go in the accommodation of religious ceremonies 
 to-human infirmity^ and the grand point is, to fix a medium, 
 in which a due regard may be shown to the senses and 
 imagination, without violating the dictates of right rea- 
 
118 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part II. 
 
 XXn. The progress of superstition in this 
 century, and the erroneous notions that pre- 
 vailed concerning the true nature of religion, 
 excited the zeal and the eiTorts of many to stem 
 the torrent. But their labours only exposed 
 them to infamy and reproach. Of these wor- 
 thy opposers of the reigning superstitions, the 
 most einitient was Jovinian, an Italian monk, 
 who, toward the conclusion of this century, 
 taught first at Rome, and afterwards at Milan, 
 that all those who keptthe vows they made to 
 Christ at their baptism, and lived according to 
 the rules of piety and virtue laid down in the 
 Gospel, had an equal title to the rewards of 
 futurity; and that, consequently, those who 
 passed their days ininsocial celibacy, and se- 
 vere mortifications and fastings, were in no re- 
 spect more acceptable in the eye of God, than 
 those who lived virtuously in the bonds of mar- 
 riage, and nourished their bodies- with modera- 
 tion and temperance. These judicioua opin- 
 ions, -Which many began to adopt, were' first 
 condemned by the church of Rome; and after- 
 wards by Ambrose, in a council holden at Mi- 
 lan in the year 390.* . The emperor Honorius 
 seconded the, authoritative proceedings of the 
 bishops by the violence of the secular arm, An- 
 swered the judicious reasonings of JoVinian by 
 the terror of coercive and penal laws, and-ban- 
 ighedi this pietended heretic to the island of 
 Boa." Jovinian published his opinions in a 
 book, against which Jerome,' in the following 
 , century, wrote a most bitter and abusive trea- 
 tise, still-extant. t - ; * -' ' . - 
 
 XXIII. Among all, the religious^controvei'- 
 «ies that divided the church, themost celebrat- 
 ed, both for their importance and their dura- 
 tioHj were those-relating toOrigen and his doc- 
 trine. " ' ■ ' ^ ' \ 
 
 This iliustrious .maurthough he had been,. 
 for a long time, charged with many errors, was 
 ■deemed; by the gerieralHy of Christians, an ob- 
 ject of high veneratiprt; and his name was so 
 sacred as to give weight to the cause in which 
 it appeared. The Arians, who were sagacious. 
 in searching for succours on a.11 sides to main- 
 tain their sect, afiirmed tliat Origen had adopt- 
 ed their opinions. In this they were believed 
 by some, who consequently included this great 
 man in the hatred "which they entertained 
 against the sect of the Arians. But several 
 writers of the first leaming'and note' opposed 
 this report, and endeavoured to vindicate the 
 honour of their master from these injurious in- 
 siiiuations. Of these the most eminent was 
 
 son, or tarnishio^ the purity^of true religion. It has 
 been said, that the Romish church has gone thus far 
 solely in condescension to the infirmities.of manl^ind; and 
 this is what the ablest defenders of its motley worship 
 have alleged in- its behalf. But this observation is not 
 just: the church of Borne has notso much accoihmodated 
 itself to human weakness, as it has abused that weakness 
 by taking occasion from it to establish an absurd variety 
 of Wdiculous ceremonies, destructive of true religiqn; 
 and only adapted to promote the riches and despotism of 
 the clergy, and to Iceep the multitude still hoodwinked 
 in their ignorance and superstition. How far a just 
 antipathy to the chureh. puppet-shows of the Papists has 
 unjustly drivensome Protestant churches into the op- 
 posite 'extr'eme,,is a matter that I shall not now examine, 
 though it cei^tainl^ deserves a serious consideration. 
 
 *'Hieronymus in Jovinianuin, torn. ii. op. — Augustin. 
 de Hsres. cap. IxxxiL^Ambros. Epist. vi. 
 
 \ Codex TheodeManus, torn. iii. vi. 
 
 Eusebius, bishop of Csesarea, as appears hy.his 
 learned work, entitled, .An Apology for Ori- 
 gen. It is extremely probable, that these cla- 
 mours raised against the memory and reputa- 
 tion of a man, whom the whole Christian vporld 
 beheld with respect, would have been soon 
 hushed, had it, not been ,for the rise of new 
 commotions, which proceeded from another 
 source, and of which we shall' treat in the fol- 
 lowing section. " ■ . • 
 
 XXW. The moiiks in general, and the-Egyp- 
 tian monks in particular, were enthusiastically 
 devoiied to Origen, and spared no labour to 
 propagate his opinions in all places. Their 
 zeal, however, met \yith opposition, nor could 
 they convince all Christians of the truth and 
 soundness of the notions invented or adopted 
 hy that eminent vinriter. Hence arose a con- 
 troversy concerning the reasons and founda- 
 tions of Origenisra, which was at first manag- 
 ed in a private manner, but afterwards, by de- 
 grees, broke out into an open flame. Among . 
 the numerous partisans of Origen, was John, 
 bishop of Jerusalem; which furnished Epipha- 
 nius and Jerome with a pretext to cast an 
 odium upon this prelate, against whom they 
 had been previously exasperated on other ac-." 
 counts. But 'the ingenious bishop conducted 
 matters with such admirable dexterity, that, in 
 defending himself, -He vindicated, at the same 
 time, the reputation of Origen, and drew to 
 his party the whole monastic body, and also a 
 prodigious number of those vriio' were Bpecta- 
 -tors.-of this interesting -oOmbit.-; This was ' 
 merely the beginning of the vehement contests 
 concerning the doctrine of Origen, that vpere , 
 carried Dn-bt)th in-the eastern and western pro- 
 vinces'. These contests were particularly fo- 
 mented in.the west by Rufinus,.'a presbyter of 
 Aqiaileia, who- translated into= Latin several' 
 books "of Origen, and insinuated,' with; sufii- 
 eient 'plainnessi-that he acquiesced in the sen- 
 timents-they.contained,* which drew upon him 
 the implacable rage of the leamedand choleric 
 Jerome. Biit these commotions seemed to 
 cease in the west after the death of RufinusJ 
 and in consequence of the eiforts. which men 
 of the first order made to check, both by their 
 authority and by their writings, the progress of 
 OrigeiiTsm in those parts; 
 
 XXV. The troubles which the writings and 
 doctrines of Origen excited in the east were 
 more grievous and obstinate. Theophilus, 
 bishop of Alexandria, irritated for several rea- 
 sons- against the Nitrian monks, represented 
 them as infected with the contagion of Origen- 
 isiii, and ordered them to give up and abandon 
 all the productions of Origen. The monks re- 
 fused obedience to this command, and alleged 
 in their defence two considerations: one was, 
 that the passages in the writings of this holy 
 and venerable mad, which seemed to swerve 
 from the truth, were inserted in them by ill- 
 designing heretics; and the other, that a few 
 censurable things were not suiiicicnt to justify 
 the condemnation of the rest. Matters were 
 more exasperated by this refusal of submission 
 to the order of Theophilus; for this violent pre- 
 
 * See JusX Fontaninus, Historia Literar. Aquileiensi% 
 lib. iv. cap. iii. 
 
Chap. IV. 
 
 RITES ANi) CEREMONIES. 
 
 119 
 
 late called a council at Ale^candria, in the year 
 399, in which, having condemned the followers 
 of Origen, he sent a band of soldiers to drive 
 the monKs from their residence on mount Ni- 
 trift. Theposr monks, thus scattered abroad 
 by an armed force, fled first to Jerusalem 
 whence th^y retired to Scythopoli's; and, find- 
 ing that they could not live here m security 
 and peace, determined, at length, tq set sail for 
 Constantinople, and there plead their cause in 
 presence of the emperor.*- The issue of these 
 proceedings will come under the history of the 
 following century. 
 
 It is, however, necessary, to observe ■ here, 
 that we must not reduce to the same class all 
 those who are called Origenists in the records 
 of this century; for this ambiguous title i? ap- 
 plied to persons who differed widely in their 
 religious notions. Sometimes it merelysigni- 
 fies loich friends of Origen, as acknowledged 
 his writings to have been adulterated in many 
 places, and who were farfrom patronising the 
 errors of which he vvas accused; in other places, 
 this title is attributed to those who confess Ori- 
 gen to be the author of all the doctrines which 
 are imputed to him, and who resolutely sup- 
 port and defend his opinions; of which latter 
 ' there was a' considerable number among the 
 monastic orders. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Concerning the Ritesand Ceremonies used in the 
 ' Church during this Century.'( 
 
 I. While the Roman emperors were studi- 
 ous to promote the honour of Christiaiiity by 
 the auspicious protection they afforded to the 
 «hurch,and to advance its interests by their 
 mosf zealous eiffoits, the inconsiderate and ill- 
 directed piety of the bishpps cast a cloud over 
 the beauty and simplicity of the Gospel, by the 
 prodigious number of rites and' ceremonies 
 which they had invented to embellish it. And 
 here we may apply that well-known saying of 
 Augustin,t that •" the yoke under which the 
 Jews formerly groaned, wa.s more tolerable 
 than that imposed upon many Christians in his 
 time." The rites and institutions, by which' 
 the Greeks, Romans, and other nations, had 
 formerly testified their religious veneration for 
 fictitious deities, were now adopted, with some 
 slight alterations, by ' Christian bishops, and 
 enipl(^ed in the service of the true God. We 
 have already mentioned the reasons alleged for 
 this imitation, s6 likely to disgust all who have 
 S just sense of the native beauty of genuine 
 Christianity. These fervent : heralds of the 
 Gospelj whose zeal outran their candour and in- 
 tegrity, imagined that, the nations would re- 
 ceive Christianity with more facility, when they 
 saw the rites and Ceremonies to which they 
 were accustomed, adopted in the church, and 
 the same worship paid to Christ and his, mar- 
 tyrs, which they had formerly offered to their 
 idol deities. Hence it happened, that, in these 
 
 Louis 
 
 Origenis nomen ex Nitria totaijue ^Bgjrpto pulsls, p.273, 
 t Augustin. Epiat. cxix, ad Januarium, accordmg to 
 the- ancient dirisioii. 
 
 times, the religion of the Greeks and Romans 
 differed very little, in its external appearance, 
 from that of the Christians. They had both 
 a most pompous and splendid ritual.' Gorge- 
 oUs robes, mitres, tiaras, wax-tapers, crosiers,* 
 processions,! lustrations, images, gold and sil- 
 ver vases-, and many such circumstances of pa- 
 geantry, were equally to be seen, in the heathen 
 temples and in the Christian diurohes. 
 ' II. No sooner had Constantino abolished the 
 superstitions of his ancestprs, than magnificent 
 churches were every where erected for the 
 Clnistians, which were richly adorned with 
 pictures and images, and bore a striking re- 
 semblance to the pagan temples, both in their 
 outward ajid inward form.| . Of these churches 
 some were built over the tombs of martyrs, 
 and were frequejited oijly at stated times; while 
 others were set apart for the ordinary assem- 
 blies of Christians in divine worship. The 
 former were called Martyria, from the places 
 whare they were erected; and. the latter Tituli.^ 
 Both of them were consecrated with great 
 pomp, and with certain, rites borrowed mostly 
 from the ancient laws of the Roman pontifisi 
 But our wonder will not cease here; it will 
 rather be augmented when we learn, that, at 
 this time, it was looked upon as an essential 
 part of religion, to have in every country e[ 
 multitude of chui-ches; and here we piust look 
 for' the trueorigin of what is-called the right 
 of pafronage,- which-Was introduced among 
 Christians with no other view than to encom-- 
 age the opulent to erect a great number of 
 churches, by giving them the privilege of ap- 
 pointiiig the ministers that were to officiate in 
 them. II This was a new instance of that ser- 
 'vile imitation of the ancient sujierstitions which 
 reigned at this time; for it was a very common 
 notion among the people of old,- that nations 
 and provinces were happy and free 'from dan- 
 ger, in, proportioii to the number of fanes and. 
 temples, which they conseci'ated to the worship 
 of gods and heroes, whose protection and suc- 
 cour could not fail, as it was thought, to be 
 
 Qt|5-.fr Thelituus,. which, among the ancient Romans,- 
 was the chief ensign of the augurs, and derived its' name 
 from- its resemblance to the military tmanpetj became a 
 mark of episcopal dignity. We call it the crosier, or 
 bishop's staff. .' 
 
 (Jlj^ f. The -word suj>pUi;atiojies, which I have rendered 
 by that of processions, signified, among the pagans,- those 
 solemn and public acts of gratitude for national blessings, 
 or deprecation of national calamities, which were ex- 
 pressed by the whole body of the people by a religious 
 
 proachtothe temples of the gods, which, by a decree 
 
 the senate, were open to all without distinction. See 
 Cic. Calil. iii. 6.1,iv. 1!. 23. ■ 
 
 ' J See Ezek.Spanheira, Preuves sur les Cesars de Julien, 
 and particularly Le Bran's Explication literale ethistori- 
 que des Ceremonies, de la Messe_, torn. ii. A de,smptioil 
 of these churches may be 'found in Erisebius, devita Con- 
 stantini M. lib. iii. cap, xxxv. and an 6xaet plan" of their 
 interior structure is accurately engraven in bishop Bever- 
 ege's Adnotationes in Pan Jectas Canonum, torn. ii. and in 
 Frederic Spanheim's Institut. Hist Eccles. It must 
 also be observed, that certain parts of the Christian 
 churches were formed afterHhe model of the Jewish tem- 
 ples. See Camp. Vitringa de Synagoga vetere, lib. iii. 
 
 § Jo. MabiUon, Mus. Ital. torn., u. in Comment, ad 
 ordin. Uoman. p. xvi. 9(y=- The Tituli were the smaller 
 churches, ""sd called from this circiimstance, that the 
 presbyters, who officiated in- them, were called^ by the 
 names 'of the places where they were erected, i. e. re- 
 ceived titles, whichiixed them to those particular cures. 
 
 IJ Just. Hen. Bohmeri Jus Eccles. Protestant, torn. iii. 
 p. 466. — Bibliotheque Italique, tom.v. p. 166. 
 
120 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part II. 
 
 shed abundantly upon those who worshipped 
 them with sucli zeal, and honoured them with 
 so many marks of veneration and respect. The 
 Christians unhappily contracted the same efro» 
 neous way of thinking. The more numerous 
 were the temples which they erected in honour 
 of Christ, and his chosen friends and followers, 
 the more sanguine did their expectations grow 
 of powerful succours IVom them, and of a pfe- 
 cullar interest in the divine protection. They 
 were so weak as to imagine, that God, Christ, 
 and celestial intelligences, were delighted with 
 those marks and testimonies of respect, which 
 captivate the hearts of wretched mortals. 
 
 III. The Christian worship consisted in 
 hymns, prayers, the reading of the Scriptures, 
 and a discourse addressed to the people; and 
 concluded with this celebration of the Lord's 
 supper. ^To these were added varioQs rites, 
 more adapted to jlease the eyes, and strike the 
 imagination, than to kindle m the heart the 
 pureund sacred flame of genuine piety.^ .We 
 are not, however, to think, that the, same' 
 method of worship wasjiniformly followed in 
 every Christian society; for this was' far &om 
 betng the case. Every bishop, consulting his 
 own private judgment, and taking into consi- 
 deration the nature of the times, the genius of 
 the country in which he lived, and the character 
 and temper of those whom he was appointed 
 to rule and instruct, "formed such a plan of di- 
 vine worship as he thought the wisest and the 
 best. Hence arose tliat_ variety ^of liturgies 
 which were in use, before tlie bishop of Rome 
 had usurped the supreme power in religious 
 matters, and persuaded the credulous and un- 
 thinking, that the model, both of doctrine aiid 
 worship, was to be given by the mother-church, 
 and to be followed implicitly throughout the 
 Christian world. 
 
 IV. It would be almost endless to enter into 
 a minute detail of all the different parts of 
 
 -public worship, and to point out the disadvan- 
 tageous changes they underwent. A few ob- 
 servations will be sufficient upon this head. 
 The public prayer§ had lost much of the solemo 
 and majestic^irdplicity tliat characterised them 
 in the primitive times, and whielrnow began 
 to degenerate into a "vain and swelling bom- 
 bast. The- Psalms of David were now receiv- 
 ed amoiig the public hymns that were sung as 
 a part of diyine service.! The sermons, or 
 public discourses addressed to the people, were 
 composed according to the, rules of human 
 eloqusnce, and rather adapted to excite the 
 stupid ^iniration of the populace, who delight 
 in vain embellishments, than to enlighten the 
 understanding, or to' reform the heartT It 
 would even seem as if all possible ' means had 
 been industriously used, to give an air jjf folly 
 and extravagance to the Christian assembhes; 
 for the people were permitted, and even ex- 
 horted by the preacher himself, to crown his 
 
 « For a fuH account of the forms of nubJic worship, or 
 the Utwrgies of this century, the reader will do well to 
 consult the twenty-second catechetical discourse of CjrrH 
 of Jerusalem, and Uie apostolical constitutions, which 
 are falsely attributed'.to Clement of Rome. These ^wri- 
 ters are most learnedly illustrated and explained by 
 Fierre Le Bruu, in his Explication literale et historique 
 de la Messe, torn. ii. . . . -, - 
 
 t BeaUAObr«y Hist* ^^ Manicheisme, torn. ii. p. 614. 
 
 talents with clapping of hands and loud accla- 
 mations of applause;* a recompense that was 
 hitherto peculiar. to the actors on the thaatre, 
 and the orators in th» ibrum. How men, set 
 apart by their profession to exhibit examples 
 of the contempt of vain glory, and to demon- 
 strate to others the vanity and emptiness of all 
 temporal things, could indulge such a sensieless 
 and indecent ambition, is difficult to be con- 
 ceived, though it is highly to be deplored. 
 
 V. The first day of the week, which was the 
 ordinary and stated time for the public- assem- 
 blies of Christians, was, in consequence of a 
 peculiar law enacted by Constantino, observed 
 with greater solemnity than it had formerly 
 been.f The festivals celebrated in most of the 
 churches, were five in number; They were ap- 
 pointed in commemoration of the birth, the 
 sufferings and death, the resurrection and the 
 ascension of the divine Saviour; and also the 
 effusion of the Holy Ghost upon the. apostles 
 and first heralds of the Gospel on the day of 
 Pentecost. Of these festivals^ the Christians 
 kept none with so much solemnity and respect 
 as the fourteen days that were appointed for the 
 commemoration of the resurrection.! 
 
 The eastern Christians celebrated the memo- 
 ry of Christ's birth and baptism in one festival, 
 which was fixed on ihe sixth of January; and 
 this day was by, them called the Epiphany, as 
 on it the immortal Saviour was manifested to 
 the world.| Qn the other hand, the.Christians 
 of the w.est seem to have always celebrated the 
 birth of our Lord on the 2Sth of December; 
 for there appears to be very little certainty 
 in the accounts of those who allege, that the 
 Roman pontiff, Julius I., removed the festival 
 of Christ's birth from the 6th of-January to the 
 25th of J)ecember.|| 
 
 The unlucky success which some h!^d in dis- 
 covering the carcasses and remains of certain 
 holy men, multiplied -the festivals and com- 
 memorations of the martyrs in the most extra- 
 vagant manner. The increase of these festivals 
 would not have been offensive to the wise and 
 ,the good, if Christians had- employed the time 
 they topk up, in promoting their spiritual in- 
 terests, and in forming habits- of sanctity and 
 virtue. But the contrary happened. These 
 days,- which were set apart for pious exercises, 
 were squandered away in mdolence, voluptu- 
 ousness, and criminal pursuits,, and were less 
 consecrated to the service of God, than em- 
 ployed in the indulgence of sinful passions. It 
 is well known, among other things, what op- 
 portunities of sinning were offered to the licen- 
 tiousi, by what were called the, vigils of Easter 
 and Wltitsuntide, or Pentecost, 
 
 VI. Fastiiigwas consijlered, in this century, 
 as the most effectual and powerful means of 
 repelling the force, and disconcerting the strat- 
 agems of- evil spirits, and of appeasing the an- 
 ger of an offended Deity. Hence we may 
 easily understand what induced the Tulers of 
 
 * Franc. Bern. Ferrarius, de Veterum Acclamationi- 
 bus et Flausu, p. 66. 
 
 t Jac. Godofred. ad Codicem Theodos. torn. i. p. 135. 
 
 i Godofred. tot^. i. p. 143. 
 
 § Beausobre, Hi^U du Manicheisme, tom. ii. p. 693. 
 
 II See Jos. Sim. Asseman. Biblioth. Orient. Clement^ 
 Vatican, tom. i,i. and Alph. des Vignoles, Diss. d,i)ai la 
 Bibliotheque Germanique^ toi^. ii. 
 
Chap. V 
 
 DIVISIONS- AND HERESIES. 
 
 121 
 
 the church to establish this custom by express 
 laws, and to impose, as an indispensable duty, 
 an act o{ humiliation, the obsencance of which 
 had hitherto been left to every one's choice. 
 The Quadragesimal or Lent^ast was regarded 
 as more sacred than all the rest, though it was 
 not yet confined to a fixed num^r of days,* 
 We must,_ however, remark, that the fasts ob- 
 served in this century, were very different fkim 
 those which were solemnised in the preceding 
 times. Formerly those who submitted them- 
 selves to the discipline of fasting abstained 
 wljolly from meat and drink; but now a mere 
 abstinence from flesh and wine was, by many, 
 judged sufiicient for the purposes of fasting,f 
 and the latter opinion prevailed ftpm this time, 
 and became universal among the Latins. 
 
 ■ VII. Baptismal foilts Were now erected in 
 the porch of each church, for the more com- 
 modious administration of that initiating sa- 
 crament. Baptism was administered during 
 the vigils of Easter and Whitsuntide; with 
 lighted tapers, by the bishop, and the presby- 
 ters commissioned by him for that purpose. 
 In cases, however, of urgent necessity; and in 
 such only, a dispensation was granted for pei> 
 forming this sacred rite at other times than 
 those now mentioned.- In some places salt was 
 employed, as a symbol of purity and wisdom, 
 and was lirown, with this view, into the mouth 
 of the person baptised; -and a double unction 
 _was every where used jn.the celebration of this 
 ordinance, one preceding its administration, 
 and this other foUowingit. The persons who 
 were admitted into the church by baptism, 
 were obliged, after the celebration of that holy 
 ordinance, to go clothed in white garments 
 daring the space of seven <B.ys. Many other 
 rites and ceremonies might be mentioned here; 
 but, aJ ftiey neither acquired stability by their 
 duration, nor received the sanction of univer- 
 sal approbation and consent, we shall passthem 
 over in silence. 
 
 Vni. The institution of cateohmnen?, and 
 the discipline through which they passed, suf- 
 fered no variation in this century, but continu- 
 ed upon its ancient footing. It appears faiv 
 ther, by innumerable testimonies that the 
 Lord's supper was administered, (in some pla- 
 ces two or three times in a week, in others on 
 Sunday only,) to all those who were eissem- 
 bled to worship God. It v?as also sometimes 
 celebrated at the tombs qf martyrs and at fu- 
 nerals; which CHstom, undoubtedly, gave rise' 
 to the nuisse(, that were afterwards performed 
 in honour pf the saints, and for the benefit of 
 the dead. Jn many places, the bread and wine 
 were holden up to view before their distribu- 
 tion, that they might be seen by the people, 
 jind contemplated with religious respect; arid 
 hence, not long after, the adoration pf thesymr 
 bols was unquestionably derived. Neither 
 catechv^nens, penitents, nor those who were 
 supposed to be under the influence and impulse 
 of evil spirits, were admitte4 tp this hpjy or- 
 dinance; nor did the sacred orators in their 
 public discourses ever dare to unfold its true 
 ^nd genuine nature with freedom and simpli- 
 
 * Jo. Dallsus, de Jejuniis et Q,uadragesiina, lib. it. 
 t See Barbey rac, de la Morale des Feres, p. 350. 
 Vol. L— 16 
 
 cityr The reason of thus concealing it from 
 the loiowledge and observation of many, was a 
 very mean and shameful one, as we have al- 
 ready observed: many, indeed, offer a much 
 more decent and satisfactory argument in, fa 
 vour of this custom, when they allege, that, 
 by these mysterious proceedings, the desire pf 
 the catechumens would naturally bum to pene- 
 ti:at§, as sPon as was possible, the sublime se- 
 cret, and that they would thereby bo animated 
 to prepare themselves with 'double diligence 
 for receiving this privilege. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 Concerning the Divisions and Heresies that trou- 
 bled the Church dvnng this Century. 
 
 I. The sects which had sprung ap in the pre- 
 ceding ages, transmitted their contagious prin- 
 ciples to this century. Many of them yet re- 
 mained, particularly in the east, and, notwith- 
 standing their absurdity, continued to attract 
 followers. The Manichean faction surpassed 
 the rest in its influence and progress. The 
 very turpitude and enormity of its doctrines 
 seemed to seduce many into its snares; and, 
 what is still more surprising, men o? genius 
 and penetration were deluded by its enchant- 
 ments, as the example of Angustin sufficiently 
 testifies. It is true, the wisest and most learn- 
 ed writers of^ the times (and, among others, 
 AugUstin, when he returned from his errors,) 
 endeavoured to oppose the growth of this 
 spreading pestilence; npr were their efibrts en- 
 tirely unsuccessful. But the root of this hor- 
 rible disease was deep; and neither the force of 
 argument, nor the severity of the most'rigour- 
 pus laws, were sufficient to extirpate it tho- 
 roughly.*- For some time, indeed, it seemed 
 to (Ssappear, and many thought it utterly era- 
 dicated; but it gathered foi-cev secretly, and 
 broke out afterwards with new violence. To 
 avoid the severity of the laws, the Manicheans 
 concealed themselves under a variety of names, 
 which they adopted successively, and changed, 
 in proportion as they were discovered under 
 them. Thus-they assumed the names of En- 
 cratites, Apotactics, Saccophori, Hydroparas- 
 tates. Solitaries, and sevei:al others, under 
 which they lay concealed for a certain time, 
 but could not long escape the vigilance pf their 
 ehemies.f 
 
 n. The state had little danger to apprehend 
 from a sect, which the force of severe laws and 
 of penal restraints coiild not fail to undermine, 
 gradually, throughout theRomah empire. But 
 a new and much more formidable faption start- 
 ed up in Africa, which, though it arose from 
 small beginnings, afilicted mogt grievously both 
 the church and state for more l£an a century. 
 Its origin was as follows: 
 
 Mensurius (bishop of Carthage) dying in 
 
 -^ * The severe laws enacted by the emperoVs against the 
 Manicheans, are tp be. found in the Tlieodosian code, vol. 
 vi". part i. In 372, Valentinian the el^er prohibited their 
 assemblies, and ipiposed heavy penalties 'on their doctors. 
 In 381, Theodosius the Grreat branded th^m with in^my, 
 and deprived them of all the rights and privileges, of 
 citizens. Add, to these, several edicts more dreadfulj 
 ^hicli -may be seen in pages 137, 138, 170, of the" above- 
 inentioned work-, 
 f See the'law of Theodosius, tom. vi. p. 134, &c. 
 
182 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part II. 
 
 the year 311, the greatest part of the clergy 
 and the people chose, in his place, the arch- 
 deacon Caecilianus, who, without waiting for 
 the. assembly of the Numidian bishops, was 
 consecrated by those of Africa JWinor alone. 
 This hasty proceeding was the occasion of 
 much trouble. The Numidian prelates, who 
 had always been present at the consecration of 
 the bishops of Carthage, were highly offended 
 at their being excluded from this solemn cere- 
 mony, and, assembling at Carthage, called Cse- 
 ciHanus before them, to give an account of his 
 conduct. The flame, thus kindled, was greatly 
 augmented by several Carthaginian presbyters, 
 who were competitors with Ctecilianus, parti- 
 cularly Bofrus and Celesius. Lucilla, also, an 
 opulent lady, who had been reprimanded by 
 Csecilianus for her superstitious practices, and 
 had conceived against him a bitter enmity on 
 that account, was active in exasperating the 
 spirits of his adversaries, and distributed a large 
 sum of money among the Numidians, to en- 
 courage them in their opposition to the new 
 bishop. In consequence of all this, Csecilianus, 
 refusing to submit to the judgment of the Nu- 
 midians, was condemned in a council, assem- 
 bled hy Secundus, bishop of Tigisis, consisting 
 of seventy prelates, who, with the consent of 
 a considerable part of the clergy and people, 
 declared him unworthy of the episcopal dig- 
 nity, and chose his deacon Majorinus for Ms 
 successor. By this proceeding, the Carthagi- 
 
 ( nian church was divided into two factions, and 
 
 ( groaned under the contests of two rival bish- 
 ops, Caecilianus and Majorinus. 
 
 ) III.' The Numidians alleged two important 
 reasons to justify their sentence against Cseci- 
 lianusf first; that Felix of Aptungus, the chief 
 of the bishops who assisted at his consecration, 
 was a traditor (i. e. one of those who, during 
 the persecution under Diocletian, had deliver- 
 ed the, sacred writings and the pious books of 
 the Christians to the magistrates in order to be 
 burned;) and that, as he had thus apostatised 
 
 -from the service of Christ, it was not possible 
 that he could impart the Holy Ghost to the 
 new bishop. A second ;:eason for their sen- 
 tence against Ctecilianus was drawn from the 
 harshness and even cruelty that he had discov- 
 ered in his conduct, while he was a deacon, to- 
 wards the Christian confessors and martyrs 
 during the persecution abcive^^meutioned, whom 
 he abandoned,, in the most" merciless manner, 
 to aU the extremities of hunger and want, 
 leaving them without food in their prisons, and 
 precluding the grant of relief from those who 
 were wiUing to succour them. To these accu- 
 sations they added the insolent contumacy of 
 the new prelate, who refused to obey their sum- 
 mons, and- to appear before. them in council to 
 justify his conduct. 
 
 There was none of the Numidians who op- 
 posed CseciUanus with such bitterness and ve- 
 hemence, as Donatus, bishop of Casae Nigrse, 
 and hence the vriiole faction was called aller 
 him, as most writers think; though some are 
 of opinion, that they derived this name from 
 anotlier Donatus, whom the Donatists sumam- 
 ed the Great.* This controversy, in a short 
 
 * In the faction 4^the Douatists, there were two emineat 
 
 time, spread far and wide,-not only throughout 
 Nmnidia, but even through all the provinces 
 of Afric"a;-which entered so zealously into this 
 ecclesiastical war, that in most cities there were 
 two~bishops, one at the head of Csecilianus's 
 party, and the ether acknowledged by the fol- 
 lowers of Majorinus. 
 
 IV. The Donatists having brought this con- 
 troversy before Constantino, that prince, in the 
 year 313, commissioned Melchiades, bishop of 
 Rome, to examine the matter, and named threo 
 bishops of Gaul to assist him in this inquiry 
 The result of this examination was favourabls 
 to Caecilianus, who was entirely acquitted of 
 the crimes laid to his charge. The accusations 
 adduced- against Fehx, by whom he was conse- 
 crated, were at that time left out of the ques- 
 tion; but, in the year 314, the cause of that 
 prelate was examined_separately by .ffilian,.pro- 
 consul of Africa, by whose decision he was ab- 
 solved. The DonatistSf whose cause necessa- 
 rily suffered by these proceedings, complained 
 much of the judgment pronounced by Melchi- 
 ades and JSlian. The small number of bish- 
 ops, that had been appointed to examine their 
 cause jointly with Melchiades, excited, in apar- 
 ticularmanner, their reproaches, and even their 
 contempt. They looked upon the decision of 
 seventy venerable Numidian prelates as infi- 
 nitely more respectable than that pronouiiced 
 by nineteen bishops (for such was the number 
 assembled at* Rome,) who, besides the- infe- 
 riority of their number, were not sufficiently 
 acqfiainted with the African kffairs to/ be com- 
 petent judges in the present question. The in- 
 dulgent emperor, willing to remove these spe- 
 cious complaints, ordered a second and a much 
 more numerous assembly to meet at Aries in 
 the year 314, composed of bishops from vari- 
 ous provinces, from Italy, Gaul, Germany, and 
 Spain. Here again the Donatists lost their 
 cause, but renewed their efforts by appealing 
 to the immediate judgment of the emperor, who 
 condescended so far as to admit their appeal; 
 and, in consequence thereof, examined the 
 whole affair himself in the year 316, at Milan, 
 in presence of the contending parties. The 
 issue of this third trial was not more favourable 
 to the Donatists than that of the two preceding 
 councils, whose decisions the emperor confirm- 
 ed- by the sentence he pronounced.f Hence 
 
 persons of the name of Donatus; one was a Numidian, 
 and bishop of CasK-Nigrae; the other succeeded Majori- 
 nus, pishop of Carthage, as leader of the Donatists, and 
 received from this sect, on accountof his le-^rning and vir- 
 tue, the title of Donatus the Great, ' Hence it has been a 
 question among the learned, from which of these the sect 
 derived its'name.^ The arguments that support the dif- 
 ferent sides of this trivial question are nearly of equal 
 force; and why may we not decide it by supposing that 
 the Donatists were so called from them bothi' 
 
 Ql^ * The emperor,. in his letter to Melchiades, named 
 no more than three prelates, viz. Matemus, Kheticius, 
 and Marinus, bishops of Cologne, Autun, and Aries, to 
 sit with him as judges of this controvcrl^but afterwards 
 he ordered seven more to be added to the number, and as 
 many as could soon and conveniently assemble; so that 
 there were at last nineteen in all. 
 
 f The proofs of the supreme power of the emperors, in 
 religious matters, appear so incontestable in this contro- 
 versy, that it is amazmg it should ever have been called 
 in question. Certain it is, that, at this tiine, the notion 
 of a supreme judge set over the church universal, by the 
 appointment of Christ, never had entered into any one's 
 head. The assemblies- of the clergy at Borne and Arlu 
 
Chap. V. 
 
 DIVISIONS. AND HERESIES. 
 
 123 
 
 this perverse sect loaded Constantino with the 
 bitterest reproaches, and maliciously complain- 
 ed that Osius, bishop of Cordova, who was 
 honoured with his friendship, and was inti- 
 mately connected with CiBcilianus,iiad, by cor- 
 rtipt' insinuations, engaged him to pronounce 
 an Unrighteous sentence. The emperor, ani- 
 mated with a just indignation at suc.li odious 
 proceedings, deprived the Donatists of their 
 churbhes in Africa, and sent into banishment 
 their seditious bishops; and he carried his re- 
 sentment so far as to put some of them to death, 
 probably on account of the intolerable petu- 
 lance ■ and malignity they discovered, both in 
 their writings and in their discourses. Hence 
 arose violent commotions and tumults in Africa, 
 as the Uonatists were Exceedingly powerful and 
 numerous in that part of the empire, pon- 
 stantine endeavoured, by ambassies and nego- 
 tiations, to allay these disturbances; but his ef- 
 forts were fruitless. 
 
 V. These unhappy commotions gave rise, no 
 doiibt, to a horrible confederacy of desperate 
 ruffians, who passed under the name of Cir- 
 cumcelliones. This furious, fearless, and bloody 
 set of men, composed of the rough and savage 
 populace, who embraced the party of the Do- 
 natists, maintained their "cause by the foree of 
 arras, filled the African^ provinces with slaugh- 
 ter and rapine, and committed the most enor- 
 mous acts' of pferfidy and cruelty against the 
 followers of Csecihanus. This outrageous 
 multitude, whom no prospect of siiiferings 
 could terrify, and who, upon urgeVit occasions, 
 faced death itself with the most audacious 
 temerity, contributed to render the sect of the 
 Donatists an object of the utmost abhorrence; 
 •though it cannot be proved, by any records of 
 undoubted authority,' that the bishops of that 
 faction (those, at least, who had any reputation 
 for piety and Virtue) either approved the pro- 
 ceedings, or stirred up the violence of this 
 odious rabble. In the mean time, the flame of 
 discord gathered strength daily, and seemed to 
 portend the approaching horrors of a civil war; 
 to prevent which, Constantine, having tried jn 
 vain every other method of accommodation, 
 abrogated at last, by the advice of the govern- 
 ors of Africa, the laws that had been enacted 
 against the Donatists, and aUojved to the peo- 
 ple a full liberty of adhering to that party 
 which they iii their minds-preferred. 
 
 VI. After the death of Constantine the 
 Great, his son Constans, to whom Africa was 
 allotted in the division of the empire, sent Ma- 
 carius and Paulus into that province, with a 
 view to heal this deplorable schism, and to en- 
 gage the Donatists to conclude a peace. -Their 
 principal bishop opposed.all methods of recon- 
 ciliation with the utmost vehemence, .and his 
 example was followed- by the other prelates of 
 the party. The Circumcelliones also continued 
 to support the cause of the Donatists by assas- 
 smations and massacres, - executed with the 
 most unrelenting fury. jThey were, however, 
 stopped in their "career, and were defeated by 
 Maca*ius in the battle of Sagnia. Upon this, 
 the affairs of the Donatists rapidly declined: 
 
 are comifionly called counoils, but improperly, since, in 
 reality, they were nothing more than meetings of judger 
 or commist xnes appointed by the emperor. 
 
 and Macarius no longer used the soft voice of 
 persuasion to engage them to an accoramoda,- 
 tion, but employed itja authority for that pur 
 pose. A few subiisitted; the greatest part saved 
 themselves by flight; numbers, were sent into 
 banishment, among whom was Donatus the 
 Great; and many of them werepuuished with 
 the utmost severity. During these troubles, 
 which continued near thirteen yearS, several 
 steps were taken against the Donatists, which 
 the equitable and impartial will be at a loss to 
 reconcile with the dictates of humanity and 
 justice; nor, indeed, do the Catholics them- 
 selves deny the truth of this assertion.* " Such 
 treatment naturally excited, among the Dona- 
 tists, loud complaints of the cruelty of their ad- 
 versaries.f 
 
 VII. The emperor Julian, upon his accession 
 to the throne in the year 362, permitted the 
 exiled Donatists to return to their country, and 
 restored them to the enjdynrient of their former 
 liberty. This step so far renewed their vigour, 
 that they brought over, in a short time, the 
 majority of the African provincials to their in- 
 terests. Gratian, indeed, published several 
 edicts against them, and, 'in the year 377, de- 
 prived them of their churches, and prohibited 
 all their assemblies pubUc and private. Bijt the 
 fury of the Circnrhcelliones, who may be con- 
 sidered as the soldiery of the Donatists, and 
 the apprehension of intestine tumults, prevent- 
 ed, no doubt, the vigoroufe execution of these 
 laws. This appears from the number of 
 churches which this people had in Africa to- 
 ward the conclusion of the century, and which 
 were served by no less than four hundred * 
 bishops. Two "things, however, diininisbed _ 
 considerably the power and lustre of this flour- 
 ishing sect, and made it decline apace about the 
 end of this century: one Tvas, a violent divi- 
 sion that arose among them, on account of a 
 person named Maximin;. and this division, so 
 proper to weaken the common cause, was the 
 most eSectual instrument the Catholics could 
 use to combat the Donatists. But a secoiid 
 circumstance which precipitated their decline, 
 was the zealbus and fervent opposition of Au- 
 gustin, first presbyter, and afterwards hishop 
 of Hippo. This learned and ingenious prelate 
 attacked the Donatists in every way. Iii his 
 writings, in his public discourses, and in his 
 private conversjition, he exposed the dangerous 
 and seditious principles of this sect in the 
 strongest manner; and as he was of a warm 
 and active spirit, he animated agaiinst them the 
 whole Christian worid, as well as the imperial 
 court. 
 
 VIII. The doctrine of the Donatists was 
 
 * The testimony of Optatus of Milevi is beyond excep- 
 tion in this matter; it is quoted from the- third book of 
 his treatise, de Schismate Donatistarpm, and runs thus: 
 " Ab operariis Unitatis (t^c. the emperor's ambassadors 
 Macarjus and Paulus) multa quidem aspere gesta sunt, 
 -t^gcrunt omnes episeopi c\im cleriois suis; aliqui sunt 
 mortui; qui fortiores fuerunt, capli et loiige relegati sunt." 
 Optatus, through the whole of this work,-endeavours to 
 excuse the severities committed against the>Doaa(i&ts, of 
 which he lays the principal fault upon that sect itself, 
 confessing, however, that, in some instances, the proceed- 
 ings against them were too rigorous to deserve approba- 
 tion, or admiti^n excuse. 
 
 1 See CoUat, Catthag. diei tertiae, sect. 258, at the sxii 
 of Optatus. 
 
124 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Paut n. 
 
 oonfbnhable to that vf the cfiufth, as e^^en 
 their adversaries confesa; nor were 'their lives 
 less exemplary than those of other Christian 
 societies, if we except the enormous conduct 
 of the'Ciroumcelliones, which the greatest part 
 6f the sect regarded with the utmost detesta- 
 tion and abhorrence. The crime, thereforoj of 
 the Donatists lay properly in the following 
 points; in their declaring the church of Africa, 
 which adhered to CeeciKanus, fallen from the 
 dignity and privileges oi" a true church, and 
 deprived of the gifts of the Holy Ghost, on ac- 
 count of the offences with which the new 
 bishop, and Fehx, who had consecrated him, 
 were charged; in their pronouncing all the 
 churches, which held comrtunion with that of 
 Africa, corrupt and polluted; in maintaining, 
 
 - that the sanctity of their bishops gave their 
 community alone a full right to be considered 
 as the true, the pure, and holy church; and. in 
 their avoiding all communication with other 
 churches, from an apprehension of contracting 
 their impu'rity and corruption. This erroneous 
 principle was the source of tfiat most shocking 
 uncharitableness and presumption which ap- 
 peared in their conduct to other churches, 
 Hence they pronounced the sacred rites and in- 
 stitutions void of all virtue aiid efficacy among 
 those Christians who were not precisely of 
 their sentiments, and not only re'baptised those 
 who came over to their party from other 
 churches, but, even with respect to those who 
 had been ordained ministers of the Gospel, 
 they observed the severe custom, either of de- 
 
 ^.priving them of their office; or obligii^ them 
 to be ordained a second time. This schismatic 
 pestilence was almost wholly confined to Afri- 
 ca: for the few pitiful assemblies, which the 
 Ddnatists had formed in Spain and Italy, had 
 neither stability nor duration." 
 
 IX. The faction of the Donatists was not 
 the only one that troubled the church during 
 this centuJry. In the year 317, a contest arose 
 in Egypt upon a Subject of much higher im- 
 portance, and its consequences were of a yet 
 more pernicious nature. The subject of this 
 warm controversy, which kindled such deplo- 
 rable divisions throughout the Christian world, 
 was the doctrine of three persons in the Godr 
 head; a doctrine which, in the three preceding 
 centuries, had happily escaped the vain curiosi- 
 ty of human researches, and been lej; undefin- 
 ed and undetermined by any particular set_of 
 ideas. The church, indeed, had frequently 
 decided, against the Sabellians and others, 
 that there wai a real difference between the 
 Father and the Son, and that the Holy Ghost 
 was distinct from both; or, as we commonly 
 speak, that three distinct persons exist in the 
 Deity; bat the exact relation of these persons 
 to each other, and the nature of the distinction 
 
 * A more ample account of the Donatists will be found 
 in the following "writers: Henr. Valesius, dissert, de 
 Schismate DonattstaV-um, (subjoined to his edition of the 
 eeciesiaatieal"histotyof BusebiuB.)^^Thom.-Ittigius*-His- 
 tory of Donatism-, published in the Appendix to his book 
 concerning the Heresies of the apostolic age.. — Herm. 
 "Witsms,- Miscellanea Sacra, torn. i. lib. iv.; Henr. Woris, 
 Hist Donat. augmented by the Ballerini, op. torn. iv. — 
 Long's History of the Donatists, London, 16T7. These 
 are the 3ouri:es whence we have drawn the accounts that 
 wejiave given of this'troublesome sect. 
 
 that siibsists between them, are matters, that 
 hitherto were neither disputed nor expluned, 
 and with respect to which the, church had,' con- 
 sequently, observed a profound silence. No- 
 thing was dictated on this head to the faith ^of 
 Christians, nor were there any modes of ex- 
 pression prescribed as requisite to be used in 
 speaking of this mystery. Hence it happened, 
 that the Christian doctors entertained different 
 sentiments upon this subject without giving 
 the least offence, and discoiu-sed variously, con- 
 cerning the distinctions in the Godhead, each 
 following his respective opinion with the utmost 
 liberty. In Egypt, and the adjacent countries, 
 the greatest part embraced, in'this as well as 
 in other matters, the opinion of Origen, who 
 held that the Son was, in God, that vrfiich rea* 
 son is in man, and that the Holy Ghost was 
 nothing more than the divine energy, or active 
 force. This potion is attended with, many dif^ 
 ficuities; and, when it is not proposed wiOi the 
 utmost caution, tends, in a particular manner, 
 to remove all real distinction between the per* 
 sons in the God-head, or, in other words, leads 
 directly to Sabellianism. 
 
 X. In an assembly of the presbyters ofAlex" 
 andria, the bishop of that city, whose name 
 was Alexander, expressed his sentitnents on 
 this subject with" a high degree of freedorn and 
 confidence, maintaining, among other things, 
 that the Son was not only of the same emi- 
 nence and dignity, but also of the same essence, 
 with the Fatlier.* This assertion was opposed 
 by Arius, one of the presbyters, S man of a 
 subtile turn, and remarkable for his eloquence. 
 Whether his zeal for his own opinions, or per- 
 sonal resentment against. his bishop, WaS' the 
 motive that influenced him, is not very certain. 
 Be that as it will, he first treated, as false, the 
 assertion of Alexander, on account of its affi- 
 nity to the Sabellian errors, which had been 
 condemned by the church; and then, rushing 
 into the opposite extreme, he maintained, that 
 the Son was totally and essentially distinct 
 from the Father; that he was the first and no- 
 blest of those beings, whom God had created 
 out of nothing, the instrument by whose sub- 
 ordinate operation the Almighty Father form- 
 ed the universe, and therefore inferior to the 
 Father, both in nature and in dignity. His 
 opinions concerning the Holy Ghost are not so 
 well known. It is however certain,^that his 
 notion concerning the Son of God was accom- 
 panied and connected with other sentiments, 
 that were very different from those commonly 
 received among Christians, though none of the 
 ancient writers have given us a complete and 
 coherent system of those religious tenets which 
 Arius and his followers really held.f 
 
 * See Socrates, Hist. Eccles. lib; i. cap; v. and Theodo 
 ret, lib. i. 
 
 f For an account of the Arian controversy, the curiou. 
 reader must consult the Life of Constantine, by Eusebius 
 the various libels of Athanasius, which are to be found 
 in the first volume of his works; the Ecclesiastical Histo- 
 ries of Socrates, Sozomeii!, and Theodoret, the sixty-ninth 
 Heresy of Epiphanius, and other writers of this and the 
 following age. But, among all these, there is not one to 
 whom the merit of impartiality can be attributed with 
 justice; so th^t the Arian history stands yet in need of a 
 pen guided by integrity and candour, and unbiassed by 
 affection or Wtred. Both' sides have deserrea reproach 
 upon Oiis head; and those who have hitherto written the 
 
Cha*. V. 
 
 DIVISIONS AND HERESIES. 
 
 125 
 
 XI. The opinions of AtiuB wsi8 no spoijer 
 divulged, thah they. found in Egypt, and the 
 neighbouring provinces, a multitude of abet- 
 tors, and, among these, many who were distin- 
 guished as much by the superiority of their 
 learning and genius, as by the .eminence of 
 their rank and station. Alexander, on the 
 other hand, in two councils assembled at Alex- 
 andria, adcused Arius of impiety, and caused 
 him to be expelled from the communion of the 
 church. Arius received this severe and igno- 
 minious shock with grea,t firmness a,nd constan- 
 cy of mind; retired into Palestine; and tlienCE 
 wrote several letter^ to the most eminent men 
 of those^times, in which h& endeavoured to 
 demonstrate the truth of his opinions, and that 
 \vith such surprising success, that vast numbers 
 were drawn over to his party; and among 
 these EusebiUA, bishop of Nicomedia, a man 
 distinguished in the church by his influence and 
 authority. The emperor Constantinej looking 
 upon the Subject of this controversy as a mat- 
 ter of small importance, and as little connect- 
 ed with the.fundamental and essential doctrines 
 of religion, contented himself at first with ad- 
 dressing a letter to the contending parties, in 
 tvhich he admonished them to put an end to 
 their disputes. But when the prince saw that 
 his Sldmonitions were without effect, and that 
 the troubles aiid commotions, wliich the pas- 
 sions of men too often mingle with religious 
 dilutes, virtere Sjiteading and increasing daily 
 thwugjiout the empire, he convoked, in the 
 year 326, a'greatcomicil at Nice in Bitliynia, 
 hoping and desiring that the deputies "of tlie 
 church universal would put an end to this con- 
 troversy. In this general assembly, after many 
 keen debates, and' violent efforts of the two 
 parties-, the doctrine of Ariulwas condemned; 
 Christ was declared conmbstanUal,* or of the 
 same essence with the'"Father; the vanquished 
 presbyter was banished among the Illyrians, 
 and ms followers v?ere compelled to give their 
 assent to the creed,t or confession of faith, 
 which was composed on this occasion. 
 
 Xn. The council assembled by Constantine 
 at Nice, is one of the most famous and interest- 
 ing events that are presented to us in ecclesias- 
 tical history; and yet, what is most surprising, 
 scarcely any part of the history of the church 
 has been unfolded with such negligence, or ra-' 
 ther passed over with such rapi'dity.J The an- 
 cient writers are neither agreed with respect to 
 the time or place in which it was assembled. 
 
 history of the Arian controversy have only espied the 
 fhultsof one side; e.g.' it is acommon opinion, that Arius 
 was too-much,fttlached to the opinions of Plata and Ori- 
 
 fcn (see Petav. Dogm. Theo). torn. ii. IJb. i. rap. viii.;) 
 ut tins commQn opinion is a vulgar error. Origen.and 
 Plato entertained notions entirely different from those of 
 Arius; whereas Alexander, his antagonist, undoubtedly 
 followed the manner of OrigcUji^ explaining the doctrine 
 of the three persons. See Cudworth's Intellectual Sys- 
 tem of the Universe. 
 " 'OjUOKo-iog, 
 
 f John Christ. Suicer has illustrated this famous 
 creed from several important and ancient Records, in a 
 very-learned book published at Utrecht in 1718. 
 
 ( See Ittigius, Hist. Concilii Nicseni — Le Clerc, Bibli- 
 otheque Histor. et Univeraelle, tom. x. xxii. — Eeausobre, 
 Histoire du Manicheisme, tom. i. The accounts, which 
 Ute Oriental writers have given of this council, have been, 
 colketed by Euseb. Renaudot, in his history of the 
 Fatriarchi of Alexandria. 
 
 the number, of thoas who sat in the council, 
 nor the bishop who presided in- it;, and no au- 
 thentic acts of its fkmous sentence are now ex- 
 tant.* 
 
 The eastern Christians differ from all others 
 both with regard to the number arid the nature 
 of the laws which were enacted in this cele- 
 brated (iouncil. The Mter mention only twen- 
 ty canons; but, in the estimate of thefofinerj 
 they amount to a much greater number.f It 
 appears, however, by those laws which ail'par.' 
 ties have admitted ^s genuine, and also irom 
 other authentic records, not only -that Arius 
 was condemned^ in this council, but that some 
 other points were determined-, and certain mea- 
 sures agreed upon, to calm the religious tu- 
 mults that had so long troubled th? church. — 
 The controversy concerning tlie time of cele- 
 bta,ting Easter was terminated;}; the troubles 
 which Novatian had excited, by opposing the 
 re-admission of the lapsed to the communion 
 of the church, were composed; the Meletian 
 schism was condemned,§ and the jurisdiction 
 of- the greater bishops precisely defined and de- 
 termined, I]- with several other matters of alike 
 nature. But, while these good prelates were 
 employing all their zeal and attention to cor- 
 rect the errors of 'others, they were upon the 
 pointof falling into a very capital one them- 
 selves; for they had almost come to a resolu- 
 tion of imposing upon the clergy tlie yoke of 
 perpetual celibacy, when Paphnutius put a stop 
 to their proceedings, and warded off that un- 
 naturallaw.lT 
 
 XIII. But, notwithstanding all these, deter- 
 minatior)S; the commotions excited by this con- 
 troversy remajned yet in the minds of many, 
 
 * See the annotations of Valesius upon the Ecclesiasti- 
 cal History of Eusebius, and Jos. Sim. Asseman. Bib]. 
 Oriental. Clement. Vatican, tom. i. The history of this 
 council was written by Maruthas, a Syrian, but is long 
 since lost. » 
 
 f Th. Ittigius, Supplcm. op. Clement. Alex. — J. S. 
 Asseman. tom. i. — ^Euseb. Renaudot. 
 ■ Qt^' t The decision, with respect to Easter, was in 
 favour of the custom of the western churches; and a<>- 
 cordingly all churches were, ordered to qelebrate that 
 festival on the Sunday which immediately followed the 
 I4th of the first moon that happened after the vernal 
 equinox. 
 
 '(^(^ § Mele.tius, bishop of Lycopolis in Egypt, was 
 accused and convicted of having offered incense to idols; 
 and, in consec|uence iKereof, was deposed by Peter, bishop 
 of Alexandria, whose jurisdiction extended over all 
 Egypt. Melctius,^upon this, became the head of a schism 
 in the church, by assuming to himself the power- of 
 ordination, which was vested in the bishop of Alexandria, 
 and exercised by him in all the Egyptian churches. — 
 Epiphanins attributes the dissensions between. Meletius 
 and Peter to another cause (Hxr. 68.:) he alleges, that 
 the vigorous proceedings of Peter against Meletius were 
 ocvasioned by the latter's refusing to rCTadmit into the 
 church those who had fallen fi^om the faith during Dio- 
 cletian's persecution, before their penitential trl^l vyas 
 entirely finished. Tlie former opinion is maintained by 
 Socrates and Theodoret, whose authority is certainly 
 more respectable than that of Epiphanins. 
 
 Qn^ II The confusion that Meletius introduqed, by pre- 
 suming (as was observed in the preceding note)to violate 
 the jurisdiction of..Peter, the metropolitan of Alexandria, 
 by conferring ordination in a pi;ovince where, he alone 
 had a right' to ordain, was rectified by the council of 
 if ice, which determined, that the metropolitan bishops, 
 in their I'espective provinces, should have the same power 
 and authority that the bishops of Rome exercised over 
 the suburbicarian churches and countries. . 
 
 IT Socrates,. Hist. £ccles. lib. i. cap. viii. compared 
 with Franc. Balduinus, in Constant. Magn. and Georga 
 Calixtui, de Conjugio Clericorum. 
 
126 
 
 n'TTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part 11. 
 
 and the spirit of dissension triumphed both 
 over the decrees of the council and tlie authori- 
 ty of the emperor. For those who, in the main, 
 were far from being attached to tlie party of 
 Arius, found many things reprehensible, both 
 in the decrees of the council, and in the forms 
 of expression which it employed to explain the 
 controverted points; whiles the Arians, on the 
 other hand, left no means untried to heal their 
 ■ wounds,- and to recover their place and their 
 credit in the church. And their efforts were 
 crowned, with the desired success: for, a few 
 years after the council of Nice, an Arian priest, 
 who had been recommended to the emperor, in 
 the dying words of his sister Constantia, found 
 nieans to persuade him, that the condemnation 
 of Arius was utterly imjust, and was rather 
 occasioned by the malice of his enemies, than 
 by their zeal for the truth. In consequence of 
 this, the emperor recalled him from' banish- 
 ment in the year 330/ repealed the laws that 
 had been enacted against him, and .permitted 
 liis chief protector Eusebius of Nicomedia, and 
 his vindictive faction, to vex ■ and oppress the 
 partisans of the Wicene council in various 
 ways. Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, was 
 one of those who suffered most from the vio- 
 lent measures of the Arian party. Invincibly 
 firm in his purpose, and deaf to the most pow- 
 erful SQlicitg.tions and entreaties, he obstinately 
 refused to restore Arius to his former rank and 
 office. On this account he was deposed, by the 
 council holden at Tyre, in the year 336, and 
 was afterwards banished into Gaul, •vvhile Arius 
 and- his followers were; with great solemnity, 
 reinstated in their privileges, and received into. 
 the communion of the church. The people of 
 Alexandria, unmoved by these proceedings in 
 favour of Arius, persisted in refusing to grant 
 him a place among their presbyters; upon which 
 the emperor invited him to Constantinople in 
 the year 336, and ordered Alexander, the bishop 
 of that city, to admit hinl to his communion. 
 But, before this order could be put in execu- 
 tion, Arius died in the imperial city in a Tery 
 dismal manner;! and his sovereign did not long 
 survive hira. 
 
 0^* The precise time in whicli Arius was recalled from 
 banishment, has not been fixed with such perfect certainty 
 as to prevent a diversity of sentiment on that head. The 
 Annotations of the learned Valesius (or Valois) upon Sozo- 
 men's History, will throw- some light upon- this niatter, 
 aiid make it probable, thau^ ,Dr. Mosheim has placed the 
 recall of Arius too late, atP^least by two years. Valesius 
 has proved, from the authority of Fhilost^rgius^ and from 
 other jmost respectable monuments and records, that 
 £u8ebiu8 -of Nicomedia, and'Theognis, who were ba- 
 nished by the emperor about three months af\er the 
 council of Nice (i. e. in^fiSS) were -recalled in 398. JVow, 
 in the writing by which they obtained their return, they 
 pleaded the restoration of Arius, as an argument for 
 theirs, which proves that he was recalled before the year 
 330. The same Valesius proves, that Arius, the first 
 head of the Arian' sect, was dead before the council of 
 Tyre, which was transferred to Jerusalemj and that the 
 letters' which Constantine addressed to that council in 
 favour of Arius and his followers, were in behalf of a 
 second chief of that name, who put himself at the head 
 of the Arians, a:nd vfho, in conjunbtion with Euzoius, 
 presented to Constantino such a confession of their faith, 
 as made him imagine their doctrine to be orthodox, and 
 procured' their reco-ncilialion with the church at' the 
 council of Jerusalem. 
 
 ■Q]^ f Thfe dismal manner in which Arius is said to 
 have expired, by his entrails falling out as he was discharg- 
 ing one of the natural functions, is a fact that has been call- 
 
 XIV.- After . the death of Constantine the 
 Great, one of his sons, Const^ntius, who, in the- 
 division of the empire, became ruler of the east, 
 was warmly attached to the Arian party, whose 
 principles were also zealously adopted by the 
 empress, and, indeed, by the whole court. On 
 the other hand, Constantino and Constans, em- 
 perors of the west, maintained the decrees of 
 the council of Nice irt all the provinces over 
 which their jurisdiotioii extended. Hence 
 arose endless animosities and seditions, treache- 
 rous plots, and open acts of injustice and vio- 
 lence between the contending parties. Council 
 was assembled against council; and their -iar- 
 ripg and contradictory decrees spread .perplex- 
 ity and confusion through tile Christian world. 
 In the year 350, Constans was assassinated; 
 and, about two. years after this, a great part of 
 the western empire, particularly Rome and 
 Italy, fell into the hands of Constantius,- This 
 change was extremely unfavourable, to those 
 who adhered to the decrees of the council of 
 Nice. The emperor's attachment to the Ari- 
 ans. animated j&im against their adversaries, 
 whom he involved in various-troubles and ca- 
 lamities; and he obliged ' many of them,~ by 
 threats and' punishment, to come over to the 
 sect which he esteemed a^d protected. One 
 of these forced proselytes was ^Liberius, the 
 Roman pontiff; who was cOiiipelled to embrace 
 Aiianisra in the year 35,7. The Nicene party 
 meditalied reprisals, and waited only a conve- 
 nient time, a fit place, and a proper oacasion, 
 for executing their resentment. Thus the his- 
 tory of the church, under the emperor Con- 
 stantius, presents to the reader a ' perpetual 
 scene of tumult and violence, and the deplora- 
 ble spectacle of a war, carried on between 
 brothers, without rehgion, justice, or humanity. 
 XV. The death of .Constantius, in the year 
 362, changed considerably the face of religioiis 
 affairs, and diminished greatly the strength and 
 influence of the'Arian patty. Julian, who, by 
 his principles, was naturally prevented from ' 
 taking a part in the controversy, bestowed his 
 protectidn on neitlier side, but treated . them 
 both with an impartiality which was the result 
 of a ■ perfect indifference. Jovian, his succes- 
 sor, declared himself in favour of the Nicene 
 doctrine; and immediately the whole -west,., 
 with a considerable part of the eastern pto- 
 vinces, changed sides, conformed to the decrees 
 of the coimcil of Nice, and abjured the Arian 
 system. 
 
 The scene, however, changed again in the 
 year 364, when Valentinian, and his brother 
 Valens, were raised to the empire^ Valgntinian 
 
 ed in question by some modern writers, though without 
 foundation, since it is confirmed by the unexceptionable 
 testimonies of Socrates; Sozomen, Athanasius, and others. 
 The causes of this tragical de.ath have, however, furnish^ 
 ed much matter of dispute. The. ancient writers^ who 
 considered this event as a judgment of lieaven, miracu- 
 lously drawn down, by the jirayers of-the just to punish 
 the impiety of Arius, will find little credit in our times, 
 among such as have studied with attention and impar- 
 tiality the history of Arianism^ ' After having considered 
 this matter with the utmost care, it appears to me ex- 
 tremely pYobable, that this unhappy man was a victim to 
 the resentment of his enemies, and was destroyed'by poi- 
 son, or some such violent method. . A blind and fanatical 
 zeal for certain systems of faith, has in all ages produced 
 such horrible acts of cruelty and injusticq. 
 
Chap. V. 
 
 DIVISIONS AND tfERESJES. 
 
 127 
 
 adhered to the decrees of tlie Nicene council; 
 and hence tlje Arian sect, a few churches ex- 
 cepted, suiFered extirpation in the west. Va- 
 lens, on the other hand, favoured the Arians; 
 and his zeal for their cause exposed their ad- 
 versaries, the Niceniaiis, in the eastern pro- 
 vinces, to many severe trials and sufferings. 
 These troubles, however, ended with the reign 
 of this emperor, who fell in a battle which was 
 fought against the Goths in the year 378, and 
 was succeeded by G^atian, a friend to the Nice- 
 nians, and therestorer of their tranquillity. His 
 zeal for their interests, though' fervent and ac- 
 tive, was surpassed by that of his successor, 
 Theodosius the Great, who raised the secular 
 arm against the Arians, with a terrible degree 
 of violence; drove them from their churches; 
 enacted laws, whose severity e.xposed them to 
 the greatest calainities;* and rendered ,,through- 
 out his dominions, the decrees of the couhcil 
 trivmiphant over all opposition; so that the 
 public profession of the Arian doctrine was 
 confined to the barbarous and unconquered na- 
 tions, such as the Burgundians, Goths, arid 
 Vandals. 
 
 During this long and violent contest be- 
 tween the Niceniaiis and Arians, the attentive 
 and impartial will acknowledge, that unjustifi- 
 able measures were taken, and great excesses 
 committed on both sides: so that when, ab- 
 stractedly from the merits of the cause, we 
 only conSder with what temper, and by what 
 means the parties defended their respective 
 opinions, it will be dijficult to determine which 
 of the two exceeded inost the bounds of pro- 
 bity, charity, and moderation. 
 
 XVI. The eiforts of the Arians to maintain 
 their cause, would have been much more pre- 
 judicial to the church thaji they were in effect, 
 had not the members of that sect been divided 
 among themselves, arid tonj into factions, 
 which viewed each other with the .bitterest 
 aversion. Of these the-ancient writers make 
 mention imder the names of Semi-Arians, Eu- 
 sebians,-Aetians, Eunomians, Acacians, Psathy- 
 rians, and others; but they may all be ranked 
 with propriety in three classes. The firstof 
 these were the primitive and genuine AriaHs, 
 who, rejecting all those forms and modes of ex- 
 pression which the modems had invented to 
 render their opinions ■ less shocking to the 
 Nicenians, taught simply, " That the Son was 
 not begotten of the Father (i. e. produced out 
 of his substance,) but was only created out of 
 nothing." This class was opposed by the 
 Semi-Arians, who, in their turn, were aban- 
 doned by the Eunomians, or Anomaeans, the 
 disciples of Aetius and ,Eunomius, of whom 
 the latter was eminent for hiskiiowledge and 
 penetration. The Semi-Arians held, that the 
 Son was o^oiso-u;, i. e. similar to the Father in 
 his essence, not by nature but by a peculiar 
 privilege; and the leading men of this party 
 were George of Laodicea and Basilius of An- 
 oyra.f The Eunomians, who were also called 
 Aetlans and Exucontians, and may be reckon- 
 ed in the number of pure Arians, maiiitained. 
 
 • See the Theodosian Code, torn. vi. p. S, 10, 130, 146; 
 as also Godofred*s annotations upon it. 
 
 t See Frud. Maran's Dissert, sur les Semi-Arians, pub- 
 Ushed in Voigt's Biblioth. Haeresiolog. torn. ii. 
 
 that Christ was sT.posino!, or uvoficia;, i. e. un- 
 like the Father, as well in his essence, as in 
 other respects.* Under this general division, 
 many other subordinate sects were compre- 
 hended, whose subtilties and refinements have 
 not been clearly developed by the ancient 
 writers. The Arian cause suffered as much from 
 the discord and animosities that reigned among 
 these sects, as from the laboured confutations 
 and the zealous efforts of the orthodox parry. 
 
 XVII. The Arian controversy produced 
 new sects, occasioned by the indiscreet lengths 
 to which the contending parties pushedtheir 
 respective opinions; and such, int^ed, are too 
 generally the- unhappy effects of disputes^in 
 which human passions have so large a part. 
 Some, while they were careful in avoiding, and 
 zealous in opposing, the sentiments of Arius, ran 
 headlong into systems of doctrine of an equal- 
 ly dangerous and pernicious nature. Others, 
 in defending the Arian notions, went farther 
 than their chief, and thus fell into errors much 
 more extravagant than- those which he main- 
 tained. Thus does it generally happen in re- 
 ligious controversies: the human iriind, airiidst 
 its present imperfection and infirmity, and. its 
 unhappy subjection to the empire of imagina- 
 tion and the dictates of sense, rarely follows 
 the middle Way in the search of truth, or con- 
 templates spiritual and divine" things with that 
 accuracy and- simplicity, that integrity and 
 moderation, which alone can guard against 
 erroneous extremes. 
 
 Among those who fell into 'such"' extremes 
 by their inconsiderate violence in opposing the 
 Arian system, ApoUinaris the younger!, bishop 
 of Laodicea, may be justly plaoed, tjiough 
 otherwise a man of distinguished ' nierit, and 
 one whose learned labours had rendered to reli- 
 giott the most important services. He strenu- 
 ously defended the divinity of Christ agamst 
 the Arians; but,- by indulging himself too freely 
 in philosophical distinctions and subtilties, he 
 was carried-so far as to deny, in some measure, 
 his hv/manity. He maintained, that "the iody 
 which Christ assumed, was endowed Witii "a 
 sensitive, and not a rational, soul; and that the 
 Divine Nature performed the functions of rea- 
 son, and supplied the place of what we eaU tiia 
 mind, the spiritual and intellectual, principle in 
 man; and from this it seemed to follow, as a 
 natural consequence, that the divine nature in 
 Christ was Mended with the human, and suffer- 
 ed witli it the pains of crucifixion and death 
 itselff This great man was led astray, riot 
 only by his love of disputing, but also by an 
 immoderate attachment to the Platonic doc- 
 trine, concerning the two-fold nature of the 
 soul, which was too generally adopted by the 
 divines of this age; and which, undoubtedly, 
 perverted their judgment in several respects, 
 
 * See Basnage's Dissert, de Eunomio, in -the Lectiones 
 Antiquse of Canisius, torn. i. where we find the confes- 
 sion and apology of Eunomius yet extant. See also Jo. 
 Alb. Fabric. Bibliotbeca Gr3ec.-vol. Tlii. and the Codex 
 Theodos. 'torn', yi. 
 
 (St^ t However erroneous the hypothesis Of ApoUina- 
 ris may have been,'the consequences nere dra-wn from it 
 are not entirely just; for if it istrue,that the human soul 
 does not, in any respect, sufifer death by the dissolution 
 of the body, the same must hold good with respect to the 
 divine nature. 
 
128 
 
 INTERNAL HISTOR-i OF THfi CHURCH. 
 
 Part 11. 
 
 and led them into erroneous and extravagant 
 decisions on various^ subjects. 
 
 Other errors, beside' that now mentioned, 
 are imputed to ApoUinaris by certain ancient 
 writers; but it is not easy to determine how far 
 they deserve credit upon that head.* Be that 
 as it may, his doctrine was received by ^reat 
 numbers in almost all the eastern provinces, 
 though, by the different explications that were 
 given ef it, its votaries were, subdivided into 
 various sects. It did not, however, long main- 
 tain its ground; but, being attacked at the 
 same time by the laws of the emperors, the de- 
 crees of councils, and the writings of the leaixi- 
 ed, it sunk by degrees under their united force. 
 
 XVIII. Marfcellus, bishop of Ancyra, in Ga- 
 latia, may be ranked in tlie same class with 
 ApoUinaris, if we are to give credit to Euse-, 
 bins of Csesairea, and the rest of his adversa- 
 ries, who represent his explicati6n of the doc- 
 trine of the Trinity as bordering upon the Sa- 
 bellian'and Samosatenian errors. Many how- 
 ever are of opinion that this Eusebius, and 
 that bishop of Nicomedia who bore the same 
 name, represented' with partiality the senti- 
 ments of, Marcellus, on account of 'the bitter- 
 ness and vehemence which he discovered in 
 his opposition to the Arians, and their protec- 
 tors? ' But though it should be acknowledged, 
 that, in gome particulars, the accusations of his 
 enemies carried an aspect of partiality and re- 
 sentment, yet it is manifest that they 'were far 
 from being entirely groundless; for, if the doc- 
 trine of Marcellus be attentively examined, it 
 will appear, that he considered the Son and the 
 Holy Ghost as two emanations from the Di- 
 vine Nature, which, after performing their re- 
 spective offices, were aA length to return into 
 the substance of the Father; and every one 
 will perceive, at first sight, how incompatible 
 this opinion is with the belief of three distinct 
 Eersons in the Godhead. Beside this, a parti- 
 Qular circumstance, which augmented consider- 
 ably the aversion of many to 'Marcellus, and 
 strengthened the suspicion of his erring in a 
 capital manner, was his obstinately refusjng, 
 toward the conclusion of his life, to condemn 
 the tenets of his disciple Photinus.f 
 
 XIX. Photinus, bishop of Sirmium, may, 
 with propriety, be placed at the head of those 
 whpm the*A'rian coiitrpversy was ^e occasion 
 
 - of seducing into the most extravagaiit errors. 
 This prelate published, in the year S43, his 
 opinions concerning the Deity, which were 
 equally repugnant to the orthodox and Arian 
 systems. His notions, which have been ob- 
 scurely, and indeed sometimes inconsistently 
 represented by the ancient writers, amount to 
 this, when attentively examined: "That Jesus 
 Christ was bom of the Holy Ghost and the 
 Virgin Mary; that a certain, divine emanatio7ij 
 
 * See ^Basnage's Historia Hseres. Apollin., published 
 by Voigt in his Bibliotheca Hxresiologica, torn. i. iascic. 
 1, n, 1— 9^ and -improred bvsome learned and important 
 adaitiolis. See ajsp torn. i. fascic. iii. and p. 607 of the 
 latter 'work. The laws, enagted against, me followers 
 of ApollinaEis, are extant in m% Theodos'ian Code, torn, 
 vi. £lee an account of ApoUinaris, and his heresy, in the 
 English edition of Bayle's Dictionary. 
 
 t See l^oQtfaucpn^s Diatriba de Causa Marcelli in 
 . rjoTa Cpllectione Fatrum Graecorum, torn. ii. p. 5JL; as 
 ^ Oerraise, 'Vie de S. Epiphane, p. 42. 
 
 or ray (which he called the word)- descended 
 upon this extraordinary man; thatj on account 
 of the union of the divine wprd with his human 
 nature, Jesus waa called the Son of God, and 
 even God himself; and that the Holy Ghost 
 was not a distinct person, but a celestial virtue 
 proceeding from the Deity." The temerity, of 
 this bold iimovator was chastised, not only by 
 the orthodox in the councils,of Antiqch* and 
 Milan, holden in the years 345 and 347, and in 
 that of Sirmium, whose date is uncertain, but 
 also by the Arians in one of their assemblies at 
 Sirmium, convoked in 351. In consequence 
 of all this, Photinus was degraded" from the 
 episcopal dignity, and died in exile in 372.f 
 
 XX. After him arose Macedonius, bishop of 
 Constantinople, a very eminent Semi-Arian 
 doctor, who, through the influence of the Eu- 
 nomians, was deposed by the council of Con- 
 stantinople, in 360, and sent into exile, where 
 he formed the sect of the Macedonians, or 
 Pneumatomachians. In his exile, he declared 
 with the utmost freedom those sentiments 
 which he bad formerly either concealed, or, at 
 least, taught with much circumspection. He 
 consideredthe Holy Ghost as " a divine ener^, 
 diffused throughout the universe, and not as a 
 person distinct from the. Father and the Son. "J 
 This opinion had many partisans in the Asiatic 
 provinces; but the council assembled by Thep- 
 dosius, in 381, at Constantinople, (to which 
 the second rank, atnong the oecumenical or 
 general councils, is commonly attributed,) put 
 a stop by its authority to the growing evil, and 
 crushed this rising sect bfefore it Jiad arrived at 
 maturity. A huiidred and fifty bishops, who 
 were present at this council, gave the finishing 
 touch to what the council of Nice had left im- 
 perfect, and- fixed, in .a fUU and determinate 
 manner, the doctrine of three persons in one 
 God, which is still received among the gener 
 rality of Christians. ' Thi^ venerable eissembly 
 did not stop here; they branded, with infamjr,- 
 all the errors, and set a mark of execration 
 upon all the heresies, that were hitherto known; 
 they advanced the bishop of Constantinople, 
 on account of the eminence and extent of the 
 city in which he resided, to the first rank after 
 the Roman pontiff, and determined sevejal . 
 other points, which they looked upon as essen- 
 tial to the well-being of the church in general.§ 
 
 XXI. The phrensy of the ancient Gnostics, 
 which had been so often vanquished, and in ap- 
 pearance removed, by the various remedies that 
 had been used for that purpose, broke out anew 
 in Spain. It was transported thither, in the 
 beginning of this c^entury, by a certain person 
 named Marc, of Memphis in Egypt, whose con- 
 verts at first were not very numerous. They 
 increased, however, in process, of time, and 
 
 According to Dc Lardner's account, this council of 
 Antioch, iii Si.'J, w>as holdeu by the Ariana^c^ EJusebians, 
 and not by the Qrtho^px, as pur. author affirms. See 
 Lardner's Credibility, 8(c.vol.. ix. p. 1?; see also Athanas. 
 de Syribd. N, vi\ vii. compared with Socrat. li^. iL cap. 
 xviii. xix. 
 
 t Or in 375^ as is concluded from Jerome's Chronicle. 
 — Matt. Larroque, de Photino, et ejus multiplici con^ 
 demnation^.-r-Thom. Ittigius, HistoriaFhotini,ili Ap. ad 
 librum de Haeresiarchis M<vi Apostolic!. 
 
 1 Socrat. Hist. Eccles. lib, iv. cap. iv. 
 
 § Socrat. lib. v. cap. viii.. §ozomen, lib. yii. sap# vii* 
 
Chap. V. ■ DIVISIONS AN D HERESIES, 
 
 counted in their number several person^ighly 
 eminent for their Teaming and piety. Among 
 
 129 
 
 others, Priseillian; a layman, distinguished by 
 his birth,' fortune and eloqiience, and after- 
 wards bishgp of Abila, was infected with this 
 odious doctrine, and becariie its most zealous 
 and ardent defender. - Hence he was accused 
 by several" bishops,- and, by a rescript obtained 
 from the emferor Gfatian, he wa^ banished 
 witli his followers from Spain;* but he was re- 
 stofed,-eome time after, by an edict of the same. 
 prince, to his country and his functions. His 
 sufferings did not end here; for he was accused 
 a second time, in '384,1 before Maximus,- who 
 had procured tlie assassination of Gratian, and 
 made himself master of GaUl; and, by the or 
 der of that prince, he was put to death at Tre- 
 ves with some of his associates. The agents, 
 however, by whose barbarous-zeal this sentence 
 was obtained, were justly regarded with the lit 
 inost abhorrence by the bishops-^of Gaul and 
 Ifaly;| for Christians had not yet learned, that 
 giving over heretics.to-bepunished by theiha- 
 gistrates, Tyas either ah act of piety or justice. § 
 [No: this abominable doctrine was reserved 
 for those times, when religion was to .become 
 an instrument of despotism, or a pretext for 
 the exercise of pride, malevolence, and ven- 
 geaiice.] ■" ' 
 
 The death of" Priscillian was less pernicious 
 to the progress of his opinions, than might^na- 
 turally have been expected. His doctrine not 
 only survive'd him, but was propagated through 
 the greatest part of Spain and Gaiil; and even 
 so far down as the sixth century, the followers 
 of this unhippy man gave much trouble to the 
 bishops and clergy in those provinces. 
 
 XXn. No ancient- writer has given an accu- 
 rate account of the ■ doctrine of the Priscil- 
 lianists. Many authors, on the contrary, by 
 their. injudicious representations of it, have 
 highly disfigured it, and added new degrees of 
 obscurity to a system which was; before suffi- 
 ciently dark and perplexed. It appeairs, how- 
 ever, from authentic records, that the differ- 
 
 ■ Cl^ * This T}anishwieiit was the- effect of a sentence 
 pronounced againstPriscillian, an^ some of his followers, 
 by a s^nod convened at Saragossa in 380; in-coriseqiience 
 of which, Idacius and Ithactus, two cruel and persecuting 
 ecclesiastics, obtained from Gratian- the resci-ipt above- 
 menUoned.^ See .-'Sulpit. Sever. Hist. Sacr. lib. ii. cap. 
 xlviii ' . ' 
 
 - '^Il^ t Upon the 4eath of Gratian, who had favoijred 
 Fnscillian toward the latter end of his reign, Ithacius 
 presented to Maximus a petition against him; whereupon 
 this prince appointed a council to' be holden at Bour- 
 deaux, fifom which Priscillian appealed to the prince 
 himself. Snip. Sever, lib. ii. cap. xlix. p. S87. 
 
 ■ Olp-fit may be' interesting .to the reader to hear the 
 character of. the first person that introduced civil per- 
 secution into the Ghristiain .cliilrch. " He was a man 
 abandoned to the most corrupt inclQlencf , and without-the 
 least tincture of true piety. H« was talkative, audacious, 
 impudent, luxurious,, and a slave to his belly. He ac- 
 cused as heretics, and as protectors of Fnscillian, all 
 those whose lives were consecrated to the pursuit of 
 piety and knowledge, or distinguished by acts of morfcifi-' 
 cation and abstinence,'^ &c. Such is the character 
 which Sulpitius Severus, who had an extreme aversion 
 to the sentiments of Priscillian, gives us of Ithaciu^, 
 bishop of Sossuba, by whose means he was put to death. 
 
 { See Sulp. Sever. Hist. Sacr. edit. Leips. 1709, where 
 Martin, the truly apostolical bishop of Tours, says to 
 Maximus, " novum esse et inauditum nefas ut causam 
 ecclesiae judex seculi judicaret." See also Dial. iii. de 
 vita Martini, cap. xi. p. 495. 
 
 Vol. I.— 17 
 
 enoe between tjieir doctrine, and that of ths 
 Manicheans, was not very e'oneiderable. For 
 "they denied the reality of Christ's Birth and 
 incarnation; maintained, that the visible uni- 
 verse was not the production of the Supreme 
 Deity, but of some dsemon, or mahgnant prin- 
 ciple; adopted the doctrine of seons, or emana- 
 tions from the divine nature; considered human 
 bodies as prisons formed by tlie author 6f evil, 
 to enslave celestial minds; condemned . mar- 
 riage, and disbelieved the resurrection of the 
 bd.dy." Their rules of life-and manners were 
 rigid_and severe;, and the accounts which many . 
 have" given of their 'lascividusness and intem- 
 perance deserve not the least credit, as thdy are 
 totally destitute of evidence ^nd authority; 
 That the Priscillianists were guilty of dissimu-- 
 lation upon some, occasions, and deceived their 
 adversaries by cunning stritagems, is true; but 
 that they held it as a maxim, that lyiijg' and 
 perjury were lawful; is a most notorious false- 
 hood, without even the least shadow of proba- 
 bility,* however commonly this odious doctrine 
 has been laid" to IJieir charge. - In, the heat of 
 controversy, the 'eye of passion and of preju- 
 dice is too apt to confound' the . principles and 
 opiriiorts of men with their prs^ctice. 
 
 XXin. To, what we have here s4id concern- 
 ing those sects which made- a noise in the world, 
 it will not be improper to addsome account of 
 those of a less considerable.kind. 
 
 AudaeUs,.a man of remarkable virtue, being 
 excommunicated in S^yria, on account .of the 
 freedom and importunity with which he cen- 
 sured the corrupt and liceiitiqus manners of 
 the clergy, formed an assembly of thole who 
 .were attached to him, and bbcarae, by his own 
 appointment, " their bishop. Banished into 
 Scythia by the emperor, he went among the 
 Goths, where his sect flourished, and augment- 
 ed considerably. ■" The ancient writers are not. 
 agreed about the time in which we are to date 
 the .origin of this sect. With respect to its re- 
 ligious institutions, we know that they differed 
 in some point's from those observed by other 
 Christians; and, particularly, that the foUowera 
 of AudsBUS celebrated Easter,, or the Paschal 
 feast, with the Jews, in repugnance to the ex- 
 press decrefe of the council of Nice. With re- 
 spect to their doctrine, several errors have been 
 imputed- to them,f and this, among others, that , 
 they attributed to the Deity a hrtman form.. 
 
 XXIV. The Grecian arid Oriental ^writers 
 place, in this century, the rise of the sect of 
 thfi Messalians, of "Euchites, whose doctrine 
 and discipline were, indeed, mtich more an- 
 
 * See Simon.de Vries, Dissert. Cf itica- de Priscillian- - 
 istis, printed at Utrecht, in 1745. The only defect in 
 this dissertation is the implicit manner in which the 
 author follows Keausobre's History.'of the Manicheans^ 
 taking every thing, for granted - which is aifirmed in that 
 work. See also Franc. Girvesii Historia Friscillianista- , 
 rum Chronolog;ica,.published at Rdine in 1750. We find, 
 moreover, in tne twenty-seventh volume of the Opus^ula 
 Scientifica bf. Ang«lus Calogera, a.treatige entitled Bachi- 
 arius Illustratus, seu de Frispilliana Hseresi Dissertatio; 
 but this dissertation seems '^rather intended to clear up 
 the affairt)f Bachiariiis, than to give a full account of the . 
 Priscillianists and their doctrine. 
 
 f Epiphanius;: Haeres. Ixx. p. 811.— rAugustin. de 
 Hffires. cap. 1. — Theodoret. Fabul. Hseret. lib. iv. cap. 
 ix. — J. Joach. Schroder, Dissei'tat. de Audseanis, pub- 
 lished in "Voigt's BibliothecaHistoriseHacreElolog. torn.!. 
 
130 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THK CHURCH. 
 
 Part U. 
 
 cient, and subsisted, even before the birth of 
 Christ, in Syria, Egypt, and other eastern 
 countries, but who do not seem to have been 
 formed into a religious body before the latter 
 part of the century of which we now write. 
 These fanatics, who lived after the monkish 
 fashion, and withdrew from all commerce and 
 society with their fellow creatures, seem to 
 have derived their name from their habit of 
 continual pricyer. " They imagined that the 
 mind of every man was inhabited by an evil 
 dsmoh, whom it Tjjas impossible to expel by 
 any other means than by constant prayer and 
 singing of hymns; and that, when this malig- 
 nant spirit was cast out, the pure mind return- 
 ed to God, and was again united to the divine 
 essence from which it had been separated." 
 To this leading tenet they added many othei-. 
 enormous opinions, which bear a manifest re- 
 semblance to the Manichean doctrine, and are 
 evidently drawn from the same source whence 
 the Manicheans derived their errors, even from 
 the tenets of the Oriental philosophy.* In a 
 word, the Euchites were a sort of Mystics, who 
 imagined, according to the Oriental notion, 
 that two souls resided in man, the one good, 
 and the other evil; and who were zealous in 
 hastening the return of the good spirit to God, 
 
 * ^pi^anius, . H^res." -Ixit.- p. . 1067; — Thcodoret. 
 Hxret. Fabul. lib. iv. cap. i. p. 672 — Timotheus, Pres- 
 byter, de reccptione Haereticor. published in the third 
 volume of Cotelerius* Monumenta Ecclea. Graecffi. — 
 Tac. .ToUii. Insignia Itineris Italici, p. 11(K— Assemani 
 Bibliafheca Orientalis Vaticana, torn. i. et iii. 
 
 by contemplation and prayer. The external 
 air of piety and devotion, which accompanied 
 this sect, imposed upon many, while the Greeks, 
 on the other hand, opposed it with vehemence 
 in all succeeding ages. 
 
 It is proper to observe here, that the title of 
 Massalians or Euchites had a very extensive 
 application among the Greeks and the Orien- 
 tals, for they gave it to all those who endea- 
 voured to raisfe the, soul to God by recalling 
 and withdrawing it from terrestrial and^'sensi- 
 jble objects, however these enthusiasts might 
 differ from each other in their opinions upon 
 other subjects. 
 
 I XXV. Toward the conclusion of .this centu- 
 ry, two opposite sects involved Arabia and the 
 adjacent countries in the troubles and tumults 
 of a new controversy. These jarring factions 
 went by the names.of Aritidico-Marianites and 
 •Collyridians. The fqrmer maintained, that the 
 Virgin Mary did not always preserve her imma- 
 culate state, but received the embraces of her 
 husband Joseph after the birth of Christ. The 
 latter, on the- contrary, (who were singularly 
 favoured by the female sex,) running . into the . 
 opposite extreme, worshipped th&- Blessed Vir- 
 gin as a g(5ddess, and judged it necessary to 
 appeEise her anger, and seek her favour and pro- 
 tection, by libations, sacrifices, oblations of 
 cakes (coUyrida,)- and the like services;* 
 
 Other sects might be mentioned -here; but 
 they are too obscure" and inconsiderable to de- 
 serve notice. 
 
 ^ See Epiphan. Hsres. Uxviii. Ixxix. 
 
THE FIFTH CENTURY. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 THE EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 CHAPTER I. . 
 C(> « w i n ing (Ac Prosperom.Events that Imppined 
 to the Church. 
 
 . I. In order to arrive at a true knowledge of 
 the causes to which we are to attribute the out- 
 ward state of the chutch, and the events which 
 happened to it during the fifth century, we 
 must keep in view the tjvil history of this pe- 
 riod. It is, therefore, proper to.observe, that', 
 in the beginning of this century, the Roman 
 empire was divided into two sovereignties; one 
 of which comprehended the eastern provinces, 
 the other those of the west. Arcadius,-the em- 
 peror of the east, reigned at Constantinople;. 
 - and Honorius, who governed the western pro- 
 vinces, chose Ravennafor the place o^ his re- 
 • sideince. The latter prince, remarkable only 
 for the sweetness of •hisn.emper and the godd- 
 ness-of his heart, negleQted the great affairs bf 
 the empire; and, inattentive to the weighty 
 duties of his station, held the . reins qf govern- 
 ment with an unsteady hand. The Goths, 
 taking" advantage of tliis criminal indolence, 
 made incursions into Italy, laid waste its fair- 
 est provinces, and sometimes carried their de- 
 solations as far as Rome, which they ravaged 
 and plundered in the most dreadful manner. 
 These calamities, which fell upon the western 
 part of the empire, from tire Gothic depreda- 
 tions, were, followed by others stillmore dread- 
 ful under the succeeding emperors. A fierce 
 and warlike people, issuing from Germany, 
 overspread Italy, Gaul,' and Spain, the noblest 
 of all the European provinces, and erected new 
 kingdoms in these fertile countries; and Odoa- 
 cer, at last, at the head of the-Heruli, having 
 conquered Augustulus, in 476, gave the mor- 
 tal blow to the western einpire,"and reduced all 
 Italy under his dominion. About sixteen years 
 'after this, Theodorjc, king of the Ostrogoths, 
 made war uponlhese barbariannnvaders, at the 
 request of Zeno, emperor of the east; con- 
 quered Odoacer in several battles; and obtainr 
 ed, as the fruit of his victorieSj a kingdom for' 
 .-the Ostrogoths in ftaly, which subsisted under 
 various turns of fortune from the yeaT 493 to 
 562.* 
 
 These new monarchs of the west pretended 
 to aclcno^ledge th& supremacy of the empe- 
 rors who resided at Constantinople, and gave 
 some faint external marks of a disposition to 
 reign in subordination to them; but, in reality, 
 
 * Sec, for a fuller illustratiou of this branch of history, 
 the learned -work of M. de Bos, entitled, Histoire Criti- 
 
 Sue de la Monarchie Francoise, torn. i. p. SdS* as also 
 lascow's History of the Germans. 
 
 they ruled with an absolute independence, in 
 their respective governments;^ and, as appears 
 particulafly from the dominion exercised by 
 Theodoric in Italy, they left nothing to the 
 eastern emperors but. a mere shadow of power 
 and authority.* 
 
 II. These constant wars, and the inexpressi- 
 ble calamities with which they were attended, 
 were undoubtedly detrimental to the cause and 
 progress of Christianity. It must, however, 
 be acknowledged that the Christian emperors, 
 especially those who ruled jh the east, were ac- 
 tive and assiduous in extirpating the remains 
 of the ancient superstitions, Theodosius-the 
 younger, distinguished- himself in 'this pious 
 and noble work, and many remarkable monu- 
 ments of his zeal are still preserved;! such as 
 the laws which enjoined either the destruction 
 of the heathen temples, or the dedication of 
 them -to Christ and his saints; the edicts, by 
 which he abi-ogated the sacrilegious ritSs and 
 ceremonies of Paganism, and removed from all 
 offices and employments in the state such as 
 persisted in their attachment to the absurdities 
 of Polytheism. 
 
 This spirit of reformation appeared with less 
 vigour in the western empire. There the feasts 
 of -Saturn and Pan, the combats of the gladia- 
 tors, and other rites that were instituted in 
 honour of the pagan deities, were celebrated 
 with the utmost freedom and impunity; and 
 persons of the Iiighest rank and authority pub- . 
 licly professed the religion of (tlleir idolatrous ' 
 anc^tors.| This, liberty was, however, from 
 time to time, reduced within narrower limits; 
 and all those public sports and festivals, which 
 were more peculiarly incompatible with the 
 genius and sanctity of the, ChristiaOr religion, 
 were every where Abolished.§ * 
 
 III. The limits of the church continued to 
 extend themselves, and gained grouiid daily 
 upon the idolatrous natioiis, both in the eastern 
 and western' empires. In the east, the inhabi- 
 
 * Car. dii .Fresne, Dissert, xxiii. ad Histor. Ludovici S. 
 
 p. 280 Muralori, Antiqt Ital. torn. ii. p. 578, 832 
 
 Giannone, Hisloria di 'Napoli, torn. i. p. 207. — Vita 
 Theodorici Ostrogothqrum Regis, a .Johanne GochlEeo, 
 printed in- 1699, with the observations of Feringskiold. 
 
 f -See the Theodosian code, torn. vi. p. 327. 
 
 I See the Saturnalia tff Macrpbius,' lib. i — Scipio 
 Maffei delli Anfiteatri,* lib. i. p. 56.: — Pierre ]e Briin, Hist.. 
 Critique des PVatiqiies superstitieuses, torn. i. p. 037; and, 
 above ^II, Motitfaucon's Diss, de Moribus Tempdre 
 Theqdqsii M. ct Arcadii, which if to be found in Latin, 
 inrthe eleventh Jvolume of the works of St. Chrysostom, 
 and^n French, in the twentieth Volunle of the Memoires de 
 ''Academie des Inscriptions et des Belles Lettres, p. 197. 
 ^ Anastasius prohibited, toward the conclusion of this 
 century, the combats with the wild beasts, and oUier 
 shows. Asseman. BibliotlK Orient,. Vatic, torn. >. p. 246. 
 
132 
 
 EXTERNAL HISTOiU OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part I, 
 
 tants of the mountains Libanus and Anti-Li- 
 banus, being dreadfully infested with . wild 
 beasta, implored the assistanc&.and counsels of 
 the famous Simeon the Stylite, of whom we 
 shall have occasion to speak hereafter. Simeon 
 gave them for answer, that the only effectual 
 method of removiilg thfs calamity was, to aban- 
 don the superstitious worship of theirancestors, 
 and substitute the . Christian religion in its 
 place. Tile docility of this people, joined to 
 the extremities to .which they were reduced, 
 engaged them to follow the • counsels of this 
 holy man. They embraced Christianity, and, 
 in; consequence of their conversion, they had 
 the pleaajire of seeing their savage, enemies 
 abandon their habitations, if we may believe 
 the writers who affirm the truth of this pro- 
 digy. The same Simeon, by his influence.and 
 authority, introduced .the Christian worship 
 into a certain district of the Arabians: some 
 allege, that this also was effected by a miracle, 
 which to me appears more than doubtful.* To 
 these instances of the progress of tlie Gospel;. 
 we may add the conversion of a considerable 
 number of Jews in the isle bf Crete; finding 
 themselves grossly deluded by tlie impious pre- 
 tensions of an impostor, called Mos^s Creten- 
 sis,t who gave himself out for the Messiah, 
 they opened their eyes upon the. -truth, and 
 spontaneously embraced the Christian religion. J 
 rV. The Overman nations,. who rent in pieces 
 the Roman empire in the west, were not all 
 converted to Christianity at the same time. 
 Some of them had "embraced the tiruth before, 
 the ■ time of their incursion; and such, among 
 others, was the case of the Goths, ©thers, 
 afler having-erected their little kingdoms m the- 
 empire, embraced.the.Gospef, that they might 
 thus live Tirith more securtty amidst a, pfeople, 
 who,, in geijpral, professed the Christian reli- 
 gion. It is, however, uncertain (and likely to 
 Continue sO) at what time, and by whose min- 
 istry, the Vandals, Suevesj and Alans; were- 
 converted to Christianity. With respect.to the 
 Burgundians, who inhabited the banks of the 
 Rhine, and tlience passed into. Gaul, we are in- 
 formed, by S6cratee!,§ that they embraced the 
 Gospel of their own accord, from a nation that- 
 Chrigt, or the God of the Romans, who had 
 been represented to them as a most powerful 
 being, would defend them against, the rapines 
 and incursions of the Huns. They afterwards 
 sided with the Arian party, to which also the 
 Vandals, Sueves, and Goths, were zealously, 
 attached. All these fierce and warlifte nations 
 -considered areligion as excellent, in pro'portion 
 
 * -^ide idem Onus, torn. i. p. 246. 
 
 (^f We shall giVe th§-FcIation of Socrates, concern- 
 ing this impostor^ in the vvords of the learned and esti- 
 mat^e author-of tiieHemarks on Ecclesiastical Kistory. 
 *^In the'timeof.Theodosius .the younger, an impostor 
 arose, called Moses Cretensis. .He pretended to.be a 
 second JV[oscs,.sent to deliver the Jews . who dwelt in 
 Crete, and jwomised to divide the sea, ami give them a 
 safe passage througjh it, They^assembled together', with 
 th^ir wive§ and children, and. followed him id a promon- 
 tory. He there commsinded them to cast themselves into 
 the sea. Many of them obeyed, and perished in the 
 waters;. and many were taken up and saved by fisher- 
 men. Upon this, the deluded Jews would have torn the 
 impostor, to pieces;- but heescaped them, and wasseen no 
 more." See Jortin's Remarks, vol. iii. - . 
 
 1 Socrates, Hist. Eccles. lib. vii. cap. xzxviii. p. 383. 
 
 }. Socrat. lib. vii. cap. xxx. p. 371. 
 
 to the succe^ which crowned the arms of those 
 whp professed it; and, therefore, when they 
 saw the Romans iti possession of an empire 
 much more extensive than that of any other 
 people, they- .concluded that Christ,>their Qod, 
 was of all others the. most worthy of religious 
 homage. 
 
 V. It was-fhe same principle, as well as the 
 same views,' that engaged Clovis,* king of the 
 Salii, a nation of the Franks, to embrace- 
 Christianity. This prince, whose signal valour 
 was accompanied with barbarity, arrogance, 
 and" 'injustice, founded the kingdom of the , 
 Franks in Gaul, after having made himself 
 master of -a great part of that country, and- 
 meditated with remarkable eagerness and avi- 
 dity the ccftiquegt of the whole., . His conver- 
 sion to the Christian religion is dated from the 
 battle he fought-with the AlemanS, in 496, at a 
 village called Tolbiacumjf in which, when the 
 Franks began to gi-ve ground, and their ' affairs 
 seemed desperate, he implored the assistance of 
 Christ (whom his queen Clotildis, daughter of 
 the king of the Burgundians, had often repre- 
 sented to himj in vam, as the Son of the true 
 God,).q,nd solemnly engaged himself, by a.vow, 
 to worship him as his God, if he would ren'der 
 him victorious over his enemies. Victory .de- 
 cided in favour of the Franks; and Cl.o-yjjs, 
 faithful to his engagement, received baptism at- 
 Rheims,]; toward the conclusion of the same 
 year, after having been instructed hyJElemigius, 
 bishop of that city, in the doctrines of Christi- 
 anity.§ The example of the king had sucbii 
 powerful effect upon the minds of his subjects, 
 that three thous.ahd of them immediatelj" fol- 
 lowed it, and were .baptized with hiiti.' Maijy 
 are. of opirrion, that the desire, of extending h^ 
 dominions principally contributed to render 
 Clovis faithfiil to his engagement, though some 
 influence may also be flowed to the zeal and .- 
 exhortations of his queen Clotildis. ■ Be that as 
 it will, nothing is more certain-than that his , 
 profession of -Christianity was, iri effect, of' 
 great use lohimiboth in .confirming and -en- 
 larging his empire. ^ 
 
 The miracles,, whi"ch are said to have beeij 
 wrought at the baptism of Clovis, are unwor-" 
 thy. of the smallest degree of credit. Among 
 others, the principal prodigy, that of the phial 
 fulj of oil said to have 'been brought from hea- 
 ven .by a milk-white dove during the ceremony 
 of baptism, is a fiction, or rather, perhaps, an 
 imposture? a pretended miracle- contrived by 
 artifice and fraud. 11 Pious frauds of this na- 
 
 Qj^ * Beside the name of Cloyis, this .prince was also 
 called Clodiivffius, Hludovicus,' Ludovicus, and Ludicin. 
 
 (ftr°t Tolbiacum is thought to be the present Zulpick, 
 which'is about twelve miles from GoTogne. 
 
 \ See Gregory of Tours, Historia j? rancorum, lib. ii. 
 cap. XXX. xxxi. — Count Banau's Historia Imperit Ro- 
 mano-Germanici, .torn. i. p. 588 — Du Bos^ Histoirei 
 Critique de la Monarchic Francoise,'tom. ii. p. 340. ^ 
 
 Ql^ § The epitomiser of --the history of the Franks 
 tells.us, that Remigius having preached to Clovis, and 
 those who had been baptised with him, a sermonon the 
 passion of our Saviour, the king, in heaping him, coul^ 
 not forbear crying out, Jf If I nad been there with iny 
 Franks, that should uot-have happened." ' 
 ' II The truth of this miracle has been denied by-the 
 learned John James Chiflet, in his book De AmpuJIa 
 Rhemensf, printed at Antwerp, in 1651; and it, has Deen 
 affirmed by 'Vertot, in the Memoires de PAcademie des 
 Inscriptions et des Belles Lettre3,tom. iv. p. 350^' After 
 
Chap. I. 
 
 PROSPEROUS EVENTS. 
 
 133 
 
 ture were very frequently practised in Gaul and 
 in Spain at this time, in order to captivate, 
 with more facility, the minds of a rude aild 
 barbarous people, who wefe scarcely suscepti- 
 ble of a ratiohal conviction. ' . 
 The conversion of Clovis is loolted upon hy 
 
 . the learned as tlie origin of the titles of most 
 Christian King, and Eldest Son of the Church, 
 which have been so long attributed to the kiiigs 
 of France;* for, if we except this princ%, all the 
 
 4 kings of those barbarous ■ nations, who seized 
 the Roman provinces, were either yet involved 
 in the darkness of Paganism; or infected with 
 the Arian heresy.' 
 
 VI. Celestine, the Roman- pontiff, sent Pal- 
 ladius into Iceland, to propagate the Christian 
 religion among' the rude Inhabitants of that 
 island. This first missionf was not attended 
 with mvuSh fruit; nor did the success of Palla-. 
 diuB bear any proportion to. his laborious and 
 pious endeavours. After his death, the same 
 pontiff employed, in this mission, Succathus, a 
 nStive of Scotland, whose "name he changed 
 into that of Patrick, and who arrived among 
 tlie Irish in 432. The success of hig ministry, 
 and the number and importaiice of his pious 
 exploits, stand upon record as undoubted 'proofs, 
 not only of his resolution and patience, but 
 also of his dexterity and address. Having af> 
 tacked, with much more success than his pre- 
 decessor, the errors and superstitions of that 
 uncivilized people, "and brought great numbers 
 of them over to the Christian religion, he 
 founded, in 472, the archbishopric of Armagh^ 
 
 amatureiconsideration of tvhat h'aabeen alleged on both 
 sides oT the question, I can scarcely venture to deny the 
 , fact: I am therefore of Apiuion, that, in order .to confirm 
 aiidfix the wavering faitii of- tl^s barbarian prince, Re- 
 migias 'ha.i prepared his measures bA'ore-hand, and 
 trained a* pigeon, by;|;re"at Application and dexterity, In 
 such'a manner, tjiat, durins the..baptism-of Clovis, it de- 
 scended from the roof of the church with a phial of oil. 
 Among the records of this ceritUry, we find accounts of 
 ■ many -such miracles, gl^ There i? one circumstance, 
 which obliges me to differ from 'Br. Mosheim upon this 
 pointjand to look:upan' the story of the famous- phial 
 rather as a mere fiction, than' as a pious fraud, or pre- 
 tended miracle brought about by artifice; and that cir- 
 cumsfance is, that Gregory of Tours, from whom we 
 have a full account of the {;onve"rsion and baptisin of 
 'Clovis, and who, from, his proximity to this time," may 
 almost be called a contemporary writer, has not made the 
 least mention of this famous miracle. This omission, in 
 a writer whom the Roman catholics themselves 'consider 
 as an over-credulous historian, amounts to a proof, that, 
 in his time, this fable was not yet invented. 
 : *Se^ Gab.'i)anie'rct De Camps, Dissert, de Titulo 
 Regis Christianissimi,' iti the Journal des Scavans for the 
 
 . yearl7a0, p. 243, 336, 404,448 Memoires de I'Aeade- 
 
 mie des I-nseripl'ions, torn. xx. .p. 4G6. 
 
 9^^'t From the fragments of the lives of some Irish 
 
 -' bishops who are said to have converted many of. their 
 countrymen in the fourth century, archbishop Usher con- 
 dudes^ that Fallallius was not the first bishop of Ireland 
 {seehis Antiquities of the British Church;.) but it has been 
 evidently proved, among others by Bollandus, that these 
 fragments are of no earlier date than the twelilh century, 
 and are besides, for the most part, fabulous. Dr. Mo- 
 sheim's opinion is farther confirmed by the authority of 
 Prosper, which is decisive in this matter. 
 
 X See the Acta.Sanctor. tom. ii. Martii, p. 517, toiii. iii. 
 Februar. p. 131, 179; and the Hibefnia Sacra of Sir 
 James "Ware, printed at Dublin in 1717. The latter 
 published at London, in 1656, the. 'Works of St. Patrick. 
 Accounts of the synods, that were holden by this eminent, 
 missionary, are .to be found in 'Wilkins' Concilia Magnse 
 Brit, ct Hibernise, torn. i. 'With respect to the famous 
 cave, called the Purgatory :of St. Pati^ck, the reader may 
 
 which has ever since remain,ed the metropoli- 
 tan see of the Irish nation. Hence .this famous 
 missionary, though not the first who brought 
 among that pejjple the light of the Gospel, has 
 yet been justly, entitled the Apostle of the 
 Irish, and the father of the Htbernian church, 
 and is still generally acknowledged and revered 
 in that honourable character. 
 
 VII. The causes and circumstances by which 
 these different nations were engaged to aban- 
 dori the' superstition of their ancestors, and to 
 e.mbrace the religion .of Jesus, may be easily 
 deduced from the facts we have rela.ted in the 
 history of their conversion. It would, indeed, 
 lie an instance of the blindest and most per- 
 verse partiaUty, not to acknowledge, that the 
 labours and zeal of great and eminent men con- 
 tributed to this happy purpose, and were the 
 means by which .the darkness of many was 
 turned into light. But, on the other hand, 
 they must be very Inattentive and superficial 
 observers of things, who. do not perceive that 
 the fear of punishment, the prospect of honours 
 and advantages, and the desire of obtaining 
 succour against their eneinies from the coun- 
 tenance of the Christians, or the miraculous 
 influences of their religion, were the prevailing 
 motives that induced the greatest part to re- 
 nounce the service of their impotent gods. 
 
 How far these conversions were due to real 
 miracles attending the ministry of the early 
 preachers, is a matter extremely' difficult to be 
 .determined; for, thdugh I am persuaded that 
 those pious men, who, in the midst- oif many 
 dangers, and in the face of obstacles seemingly 
 invincible, endeavoured to'spre^ the light of 
 Christianity among the barbarous nations, were 
 sometimes accompatnied with the more peculiar 
 presence and succours of the Most High,* yet 
 I am equally convinced, that the greatest p»rt 
 of the prodigies, recorded in the histories of 
 this age, are liable to thestrongest suspicions 
 of falsehood or imposture. The simpliciiy and 
 ignorance of the .generality in those times fi- 
 nished the ■most favourable occasion fop the ex- 
 ercise of fraud, and, the. impudence of impos- 
 tors, in contriving false mirades, was' artfully 
 proportioned, to the credulity.<rf the vulgar,! 
 while the sagacious and the wise, who perceiv- 
 ed 4:hese cheats, were overawed i^to silence by 
 the dangers that threatened their lives and for- 
 tunes, if they should expose the srtiiSce.J: Thus 
 does it generally happen in human lift, that, 
 when danger attends the discoyery and pro- 
 fession of the. truth, the prudent are silenty the 
 multitude believe, and ^mpostors triv/mph.' 
 
 consult Le Brun, Histoire Critique des Pratiques super- 
 stiticusES, tom. iv. p. 34. - ■ _ 
 
 * There is a remarkable passage, relating to the mira- 
 cles of this century, in the 'diaTog|i'e-'of .^neas Gazseus 
 concerning the immortality of the' soul, entitled TAto ■ 
 phroBtus', See the controversy concerning the. lime when 
 miracles ceased in the church, that was carried on. about 
 the middle of the eighteenth century, on occasion of Dr. 
 Middleton's Free Inquiry. 
 
 " t This is ingenuously confessed by- the Benedictinfl 
 monks in their Literary history of France, torn. ii. p. 
 33, and happily expressed by Livy, -Hist. lib. xxiv. cap. 
 X. .sect. 6. " Frodigia 'multa nuntiata' sunt, quae quo 
 magis credebant simplices et religiosi homineSj'eo'plura 
 nuntiabantur.'-' 
 
 t gulpitius Severus, tlial. i. p. 438. Ep.l. p. 457; Dial 
 iii, cap. ii. p. 4B7. 
 
iu 
 
 EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part I. 
 
 CHAPTER n. 
 
 Concehiki^ the Calamitirus Events which hap- 
 pened to the Church dvnng Hits X!entwy. 
 
 I. It has been already observed, that the 
 Gotlis, Hernli, Franks, Huns, and Vandals, 
 with pther fierce and warlike nations, for the 
 most part strangers to Christianity, had in- 
 vaded the Roman empire, and rent it asunder 
 in the most deplorable manner. Ami3st these 
 calamities, the Christians were grievous '(we 
 may venture to say, the principal) sufferers. 
 It is true, these savage nations were much 
 more intent upon the acquisition of wealth and 
 dominion, than upon, the propagation or sup- 
 port of the pagan superstitions; nor did their 
 cruelty and opposition to the Cliristians arise 
 from any religious principle, or from an eiithu- 
 masticdesiretoruin the cause of Cluristianity;. 
 it,was merely by the instigation x)f the Pagans 
 who remained yet in the -empire, that they 
 were excited to treat with such severity and 
 violence the followers of Christ. The painful 
 consideration of~ their abrogated rites, and the 
 hopes of recovering their former liberty and 
 privileges by the means, ot their new masters, 
 induced the worshippers of the gods to seize 
 with avidity every opportunity, of inspiring 
 them with the most bitter aversion to the 
 Qhristians. ' Their endeayours, however, were 
 without the desired effect, and their expecta- 
 tions wer§ entirely disappointed. The "greatest 
 part of these barbarians embracedrChristiahity, 
 though it be ajso-true, tluCt, in- the begirming 
 of their usurpations, the professors of that re- 
 ligion suffered heavily under the rigour of 
 their government. 
 
 Ilr To destroy the credit of the Gospel, and 
 to excite the hatred of the multitude against 
 the Christians, the Pagans took occasion, from 
 the calairiities and tumults which distracted 
 the empire, to renew the obsolete complaint of 
 their ancestors against Christianity, as the 
 source of these complicated woes. They al- 
 leged, that, before the coming of Christ, the 
 world was blessed with peace and prosperity; 
 biitthat, since the progress of his rehgion every 
 where, the gods, filled with indignation to see 
 their worshipi neglected and their altars aban- 
 doned, Jiad. visited the earth with those plagues 
 and desolations, which increased every ;day. 
 This fwble objection waS entirely removed by. 
 Augustin, in his book de Cwitate Dei; a worlt 
 exceedingly rich and ample in point of matter, 
 and filled with the most profound and diversi- 
 fied eriidition. It alsp drew a complete confu- 
 tation from the learned pen of Orosius, who, 
 in a history written-expressly for that purpose, 
 showed, with the strongest evidence, that not 
 only the. same calamities now complained of, 
 but also jlagues of a much more dreadful kind, 
 had afflicted mankind before the Christian re- 
 ligion appeared in the world. . 
 
 The piisfortunes of the times produced, still 
 more pernicious effects upon the religious sen- 
 timents of the Gauls. They introduced among 
 that people the most desperate notions, andled 
 many of them to reject the belief of a super- 
 intending providence,' and to exclude the Deity 
 
 fromthegovernmentoftheuniverse. Against 
 tliese phrenetic infidels, Salvian wrote his book 
 concerning theiliyine government. _ 
 ,. . III. Hitherto we have given only a general 
 view of the sufferings of the Christians; it is, 
 however, proper, that we should enter into a 
 more distinct and particular account of those 
 misfortunes. •' . 
 
 In Gaul, and the neighbouring provinces, 
 the Goths and Vandals (whose cruel and saori'. 
 legious soldiery respected neither the majesty 
 of religion, "nor the ri^ts of humanity) com- 
 mitted acts of barbarity and violence against a 
 multitude of Christians. . 
 
 In Britaiii, a long series of tumults and divi" 
 sions involved the Christians, in many troubles. 
 When the affs^rs of the Romans declined in 
 that country, the Britons were tormented by 
 the Picts and Scots, nations remarkable for 
 their yiolence and ferocity. Hencerafter'many 
 sufferings and. disasters, they, chose, in 445, 
 Vortigem for. their kii^. This prince, finding 
 himself top weak to make bead against the ene- 
 mies of his country, i:alled the Anglo-Saxons 
 from Germany to his aid, about the /ear 449. 
 The consequences of this measure Were perni- 
 cious; and it soon appeared, that the warriors, 
 who came as auxiliaries Into Britain, oppressed 
 it with calamities more grievous than those 
 which it had suffered. -from its enemies; for the 
 Saxons aimed at liothing less than to subdue 
 the ancient inhabitants of the country, and to 
 reduce the whole island under their dominion. 
 Hence a most bloody and obstinate war arose 
 between the Britons and Saxons, which, after 
 having been carried on, during a hundred and 
 thirty years, with various success, ended in the 
 final defeat of the Britons, who were at length 
 constrained J;6 Seek a retreat in Wales. . During 
 these commotions^ the state of the British 
 church was deplorable lieyond expression; it 
 was almost totally overwhelmed and extin- 
 guished by the Anglo-Saxons, who adhered to 
 the wotship of the gods, and put an immense 
 numbei-'bf Christians to the most cruel deaths.* 
 
 IV. In. Persia, the Christians suffered griev- 
 ously by the imprudent zeal of Abdas, bishop 
 of Susa, wht) pulled down the Pyrasum, Which 
 was a temple dedicated to fire; for, when this 
 obstinate prelate was ordered by the king (Tez- 
 dejird) to rebuild that temple, he refused to 
 comply; for which he was put to death in 414, 
 and the churches of the Christians were derao- 
 Ushed. This persecution was not, however, of 
 long duration, but seems to have been extin- 
 guished soon after its commencement. 
 
 Wai:haran or Bahrara, the son of. the mo- 
 narch already mentioned, treated the Chris- 
 tians, in 421, in a manner yet more barbarous 
 and inhuman, to which he was led' partly by 
 the instigation of the Magi, and partly by his 
 keen aversion to the Romans, with whom he 
 was at war; for, as often as the Persians and 
 the Romans were at variance, the Christians, 
 whodwelt in Persia, felt new and redoubled 
 effects of their monarch's wrath; and this fi-om a 
 prevailing notion, not perhaps entirely ground- 
 
 * See, beside Bede and Oildas, archbishop Usher's 
 Autiquitat. Ecclesiae Britannicse, cap. xii. p. 415, and 
 Rapin's Histoire d'Angleterre, torn. i. livr, il. 
 
Chap. I. 
 
 LEARNING AND PHILOSOPHY, 
 
 135 
 
 less, that they favoured the Romans, and ren- 
 dered real services to their empire.* In this 
 persecution, a prodigious number of Christians. 
 perished in the most exquisite tortures, and by 
 various kinds of punishment. f But they were, 
 at length, delivered Irom these cruel oppres- 
 sions by the peace, that was made in 42 f, be- 
 tween Warharan and the emperor Theodosius 
 the younger.| 
 
 It was not from the Pagans only that the 
 Christians were exposed to suffering and per- 
 secution; they were also harassed and oppress- 
 ed in a variety of ways by the Jews, who lived 
 in great opulence, and enjoyed a highdesree 
 of favour and credit in several parts or,the 
 east.§ Among these, riorie treated them with 
 greater rigour and-arrogance than Gamaliel, 
 the patriarch of that natioii^, a man of the great- 
 est power and influence, whose authority and 
 
 * Theodoretj Hist. Eccles. Jib. v. cap. 'xxix. p, 245. 
 Bayle's Dictipuary, at the article Abdas. Barbeyrae, de 
 la Morale des Feres, p. '320. 
 
 f Jos. Sim. Assemaui Bibb'olh. Orieirtal. Vatican, torn. 
 !. p. 182, 248. 
 
 I Socratesj Hist. Eccles. lib. yii. cap. xx. 
 
 $Socrat. hbi vii. cap. xiiirxri. Godex Theodos. torn. 
 
 ri. icaes. 
 
 violence were, oh that account, restrained, ii 
 4lS, by an express edict of Theodosius.* 
 
 V. It does not appear, ftom extant records, 
 that any writings against Christ and his follow 
 ors were published, jn this century, unless we 
 consider as such the'liistories of Olympiodorusf' 
 and Zosimus, of whom the latter loses no, op 
 portunity of reviling the Christians, and load- 
 ing them with the most unjust and bitter re- 
 proaches. But, though so few booliS were 
 written against Christianity, we are not to sup 
 poseuthat its adversaries liad laid aside the spijrif 
 of opposition. The schools of the philoso- 
 phers and rhetoricians were yet open in Greece 
 Syria, and Egypt; and there is no doubt that 
 these artful teacheTs laboured assidviously t& 
 corrupt the minds of the youth, and to insti) 
 into them, at least some of tlie principles of 
 the ancient superstition.J The history of these 
 times, and the writings of several Christians 
 who lived in this century, exhibit evident proofs 
 of these clandestine methods of opposing the 
 progress of the Gospel. ' - 
 
 * Codex Theodos. torn. vi. p. 262. 
 
 t Photii Biblioth. cod. Ixxjt. 
 
 i Zacharias Mitylen. de Opificio D^i. 
 
 PART II. 
 
 THE INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 CHAPTER 1. , 
 
 Coneermmg the State of Learmmg and PhUasophy. 
 
 I. Thodgh; in this century, the illiterate 
 and ignorant were advanced to eminent and 
 important stations, both ecclesiastical and civil, 
 yet we must not thence conclude, that the sci- 
 ences were treated with universal contempt. 
 The value of learning, and the excellence of 
 the fine arts, were yet generally acknowledg- 
 ed among the - thinking part of mankind. — : 
 Hence public schools were 'erected in almost 
 all the great cities, such as Constantinop^e, 
 Rome, Marseilles; Edessa, Nisibisj^ Carthage, 
 Lyons, and Treves; and public instructors of 
 capacity and genius were set apart for the edti- 
 - cation of the youth, emd' maintained at the ex- 
 pense of the eihperors. Several bishops and 
 monks contributed aiso to the advancement of 
 knowledge, by imparting to others their small 
 stock of learning and science. But the infe^ 
 licity of the times, the incursions of the bar- 
 barous nations, and the scarcity of great ge- 
 nitoes, rendered the fruits of these excellent 
 establishments miich less important than their 
 generous founders and promoters expected. 
 
 n. In the western provinces, and especially 
 m Gaul, there were indeed some men eminent- 
 ly distinguished by their learning and talents^ 
 and every way proper to serve as models to the 
 lower orders in the republic of letters. Of 
 this we have abundant proof in the writings of 
 Macrobius, Salvian, Vinqentius bishop of Liris, 
 Ennodius, Sidonius ApoUinaris, Claudian, Ma- 
 mertus, Dracontius, and others, who, though 
 
 in some respects inferior to the celebrated au- 
 thors of antiquity, are yet far from being des- 
 titute of elegance, and discover in tiieir pro- 
 ductions a most laborious application to litera- 
 ry researches of various kinds. But the bar- 
 barous nations', which «ither spread desolation, 
 or formed settlements in the Roman territories, 
 choked the growth of those genial seeds, which 
 thp hand of science had sown in more auspici- 
 ous times. These savage invaders, who pos- 
 sessed no other ambition than that of conquest, 
 and considered military courage as' the only 
 source of true virtue and solid glory, beheld, 
 in consequence, the arts and sciences- with the 
 utmost contempt- Wherever therefore they 
 extended their conquests, ignorance and dark- 
 ness followed Jheir" steps; and the culture of 
 science was confined to the priests and monks 
 alone; and even among the^e, learning dege- 
 nerated from its primitive lustre, and put on 
 the most unseemly and fantastic form. Amidst 
 the seduction of 'corrupt examples, the alarms 
 of perpetual danger, and the horrors aild de- 
 vastations of war, the sacerdotq,l and monastic 
 orders gradually lost all taste for solid science, 
 in the place -of which they substituted a life- 
 less spectre, an enormous phantom of barba- 
 rous erudition. They indeed kept public 
 schools, and instructed the youth in what they 
 called the seven liberal arts;* but these, as we 
 learn from Augustin's account of them, con- 
 sisted only of a certain number of dry, subtile, 
 
 gi^ * Thefie arts were grammar, rhetoric, logic, 
 arithmetic, music, geometry, ^d astrouomy ' See cent 
 viii. part ii.eh. ii. in thisToloine. 
 
136 
 
 EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Pa^t I. 
 
 and uselcBS precepts,' and were consequently 
 more adapted to load and perplex the memory, 
 than to improve and strengthen the judgments 
 BO that, toward the conclusion of this century, 
 the sciences were almost totally extinguished; 
 at least, what remained of them was no more 
 than a shadowy form, without solidity or con- 
 sistence. 
 
 " HI. The few who applied themselves'to the 
 study of philosophy in this age, had not yet 
 embraced tlie doctrine or method of Aristotle. 
 They looked upon the system of this eminent 
 philosopher, as a labyrinth beset with thorns 
 and thistles;* and jet, had they been able to 
 read and understand his works, it is probable 
 that many of them would have become his fol- 
 lowers. The doctrine of Plato had a more 
 established reputation, which it had enjoyed 
 for several ages, and was considered, not only 
 as less subtile and difficult than, that of the 
 Stagirite, but also as more conforijiable to the 
 genius and spirit of the Christian religion. 
 Besides, the most valuable of Plato's works 
 were translated into Latin by Victorinus,'and 
 were thus adapted to general use;t and Sido- 
 nius ApollinarisJ informs uSj- that all those,, 
 among.the Latins, who had any inclination to 
 the study of truth, fell into the Platonic no- 
 tions, and followed that s?ge as their philoso- 
 phical guide. 
 
 IV. The fate of learning was less deplora- 
 ble among the Greeks and. Orientals, than in 
 the western provinces; and not only the seve- 
 ral branches of polite hterature, but also the 
 more solid and profound sciences, were culti- 
 vated by them with tolerable success. Hence 
 we find among them more writers of genius 
 and learning than <n other countries. Those, 
 who were inchned to the study of law,, resort- 
 ed generally to Berytus, famous for its learned 
 academy,^ or to Aleiandria,|| which was fre- 
 quented by the students of physic and chemis- 
 try. The professors of eloquence, poetry, phi- 
 losophy, and the other liberal arts, taught the 
 youth in public schools, which were erected in 
 almost every city. Those however of Alexan- 
 dria, Constantinople, and Edessa, were deem- 
 ed superior to all others, both in point of eru- 
 dition and method.lT 
 
 V. The doctrine and sect of the modem 
 Platonics, or Platonists, retained, among the 
 Syrians and Alexandrians, a considerable part 
 of tbeir ancient splendour. Olympiodorus, 
 Hero,** and ither philosophers of the first rank, 
 added a lustre to the Alexandrian school. That 
 of Athens was rendered famous by the talents 
 and erudition of Theophrastus, Plutarch, and 
 his successor Syrianus. These were the iiistruc- 
 
 * The passages of different writers, that prove what is 
 here advanced, are collected by Launoy, in his book, de 
 varia JlristoteUs'Forturui in *Ai.adeima Patisierm, 
 
 t See Augustini Confess, lib. i. cap. ii. sect. i. p. 105, 
 1D6. torn. i. op. . 
 
 X See his E^istles,book iv. ej). iii. xi. book ix. ep. iz, 
 
 ^ See Hassei Lib. de Academia Jureconsultorum..Bery- 
 tensi; ai also Mityleneeus, de Opificio Dei, p. 164. 
 
 II Mitylenaeus de Opificio Dei, p. 179. 
 
 4 JSneas Oazsos in Theophrasto. 
 
 ** MarinuS} Vita Frocli, cap. ix. 
 
 tors of the renowned Proclus, who far surpassed 
 the Platonic philosophers of this century, and 
 acquired such a high degree of the public es- 
 teem, as enabled him to give new life to the 
 doctrine of Plato, and restore it to its former 
 credit in Greece.* Marinus, of IVeapolis,' Am- 
 moniuB the son of Hermias, Isidorus and Da- 
 rriascius, the disciples of Proclus, followed, 
 with an ardent emulation, the traces of their 
 ipaster, and formed, successors Who resembled 
 them in all respects. But the imperial laws, 
 and the daily progress of the Christian reli- 
 gion, gradually dimijiished the lustre and au- 
 thority of these philosopherB;t and, as there 
 were many of the Christian doctors who 
 adopted the Platonic system, and were suffi- 
 ciently qualified to explain it to the youth, 
 this naturally prevented the schools of these 
 heathen sages from being so much frequented 
 as they had formerly been. 
 
 VI. The credit of the Platonic philosophy, 
 and the preference that-was given to it, as 
 more excellent in itself, and less repugnant to 
 the genius of the Gospel than other systems, 
 did not -prevent the doctrine of Aristotle from 
 coming' to light after a long struggle, and 
 forcing its way into the Christian church. 
 The Platonists themselves interpreted, in their 
 schools, some of 'the writings of Aristotle, .par- 
 ticularly his Dialectics, and recommended that 
 work to such of the youth as had a taste for lo- 
 gical discussions, and were fond of disputing. 
 In this, the Christian doctors imitated the man- 
 ner of the heathen schools; and this was the 
 first step to that universal dominion, which the 
 Stagirite afterwards obtained in the repuj)lic 
 of letters. A second and yet larger stride to- 
 ward tliis universal empire was made by the 
 Aristotelian philosophy during the controver- 
 sies which Origen had occasioned, and the 
 Arian, Eutychian, Nestorian, and Pelagian dis- 
 sensions, whrch, in this century, were so fruit- 
 ful of calamities to the Christian chUrch. Ori- 
 gen, as isSvell known, was zealously attached 
 to the Platonic systenL When, therefore, he 
 was publicly condemned, many, to avoid the 
 imputation of his errors, and to preclude their 
 being reckoned among the number of his fol- 
 lowers, adopted openly the philosophy of Aris- 
 totle, which was entirely different from that of 
 Origen. The N^torian, Arian, and Eutychian 
 controversies were managed, or rather drawn 
 out, on both sides, by a perpetual recourse to 
 subtile distinctions and captious sophisms; and 
 no philosophy was so proper to fiirnish.such 
 weapons, as that of Aristotle; for that of Plato 
 was far from being adapted to form the mind 
 to the polemic arts. Besides, the Pelagian doc- 
 trine bore a striking resemblance to the Plato- 
 nic opinions concerning God and the human 
 soul; and this was'an additional reason which 
 engaged many to desert the Platonists, and to 
 assume, at least, the name of Peripatetics. 
 
 * The life of Proclus, written by Marinus, was publish- 
 ed at Hamburg, in 1700, by John Albert Fabricius, and 
 was enriched by this famous editor, with a great number 
 of learned observations. 
 
 t See .^eas Gazaeus in Theophrasto. 
 
Chap. II. 
 
 DOCTORS, CHURCH GOVERNMENT, &c. 
 
 187 
 
 CHAPTER n. 
 
 Concerning the Doctors uhii Ministers of the 
 Christian Church, and its 'form of Govemr 
 ment. I ■ 
 
 I. SsvERAL causes contributed to bring 
 about a change in tlie external form of ecclesi- 
 astical government. The powerof_the bishops, 
 particularly those of tlie first order, was some- 
 times ^augmented, and sometimes diminished, 
 according as the times and the occasion offer- 
 ed; and in all these changes the intrigues of 
 the court and the political state of the empire 
 had much more influence, than ' the rules of 
 equity and wisdora- 
 
 These alterations were, indeedj matters of 
 small moment. But an affair of much greater 
 consequeiico now drew the general attention; 
 and this was the vast augmentation of honours 
 and rank, accumulated upon the bishops of 
 Corjatantinoplej in opposition to the most vigour- 
 ous efforts of the Roman- pontiff. In the pre- 
 ceding century, the council of Constantinople 
 had, on account of the dignity and privileges 
 of that, imperial city, conferred on.lts bishops a 
 place among the first rulers of the Christian 
 church. This liew dignity added-, fuel to their 
 ambition, they extended their views of authori- 
 ty and dominion; and, encouraged, no doubt. 
 by the consent of the emperor, rediiced the 
 provinces of Asia Minor,; Thrace, aild Pontus, 
 under their spiritual jurisdictidu. In this ceil- 
 tury, they grasped at still farther accessions of 
 power; so-that not only the whole eastern part 
 •of lUyricum was added to their former acquisi- 
 tions, but they were also, exalted to the highest 
 summit of -ecclesiastical authority; fbr, by the 
 28th canoii of the council holden at Ghialcedon 
 in 451, it was resolved, that thfe same rights 
 and honours, which had been conferred upon 
 the bishop of Rome, were due to the bishop of 
 Constantinople^on account of the equal digni- 
 ty ajid lustre of the two cities, in which- 'tliese 
 prelates exercised their authority. The same 
 council confirmed also, by a" solemn act, the 
 bishop of Constantinople in the spiritual gov- 
 ernment of those provinces over which he had 
 ambitiously usurped the jnrisdictigji. Pope Leo 
 the Great, bishop of Rome, opposed with ve- 
 hemence the passing of these decrees; and his 
 opposition was seconded by that- of several 
 other prelates: But their efforts were vain, as 
 the emperors threw Jtheir weight into the bal- 
 ance, and thus supported the decisions of the 
 Grecian bishops.* In consequence then of the 
 decrees of thife famous council, the prelate of 
 Constantinople begin to contend obstinately 
 for ..the supremacy with the Roman pontiff, and 
 to .Crush the- bishops of AlexE^ndria and An-, 
 tiocjb-, so as to make them feel the oppressive 
 effects of his pretended superiority; and no one 
 djistinguished himself moie by his ambition ^nd 
 j,rrogailce in this affair^ than Acacins;.! 
 
 II. It was much about this time that Juvenal, 
 bishop of Jerusalem, or rather of .^lia, at- 
 temfsted to withdraw himself ^nd his church 
 
 * Le Q.Uien, Oriens Christ, torn, i, p. 36. 
 f See Kyle's Dictionaire Hist(yri^ej at the article 
 Aeacius. 
 
 Vol. I.— 18 
 
 from the jurisdiction of the bishop of Caesarea, 
 and aspired to a place among the first prelates 
 of the Cliristian world. The. high degree of 
 veneration and-esteem, in which the church of 
 Jerusalem was holden amonfr-all other Chris- 
 tian societies (on account ofits rank among 
 the apostolical churches, and it* title to the ap- 
 pellation of mother-church, as having succeeded 
 the first Christian assembly founded by the 
 .ipostles,) was extremely favourable to the .am- 
 bition of Juvenal, and rendered his project 
 much more practicable than it would otherwise 
 have been. , Encouraged by this, and-anirnated 
 by the favour and protection of the younger 
 Theodosius, the aspiring prelate not only as- 
 suihed the dignity of patriarch of all Palestine,* 
 a rank that rendered him supreme and inde- 
 pendent of all spiritual authority, but also in- 
 vaded the rights of the bishop of Aiitioch, and 
 usurped , his jurisdiction over the provinces of 
 Phoenicia and Arabia. Hence arose a warm 
 contest between Juvenal and Maximus, bishop 
 of Antioch, which the council of Cljalcedon 
 decided, by restoring to the latter the provinces 
 of Phcenipia and Arabia, and confirming the 
 former "in the spiritual -possession of all Pales- 
 tine,!', and in the high rank which he had asr 
 Slimed in the church.J Thus were, created, in 
 the fifth century ,-five superior rulers of the 
 churdi, who were distinguished from the rest 
 by the title of Patriarclis.§ 'The oriental his- 
 toriajjs mention a sixth, yiz.- the bishop of Se- 
 leucia and Ctesiplion, to whom, according to 
 their aCcomvt, the bishop of Antioch volunta- 
 rily ceded'a part of his jurisdiction. |[ But this 
 addition to tlie number of the patriarchs is un- 
 worthy of credit, as the only proof of it is drawn 
 froni the Arabic laws of the council of, Nice, 
 which arcnotoriously destitute of all authority. 
 III. The patriarchs were distinguished by 
 considerable and extensive rights, and privile- 
 ges, that were annexed to their high station. 
 Tlicy alone consecrated the- bishops, who lived 
 in the provinces that belonged to their jurisdic- 
 tioji. They assembled- yearly in council the 
 clergy of their respective districts, in order to 
 regulate tlie -affairs of the church. The cog- 
 nisance of all impbrtant, causes, and the deter- 
 mination of thci'ipore weighty- controversies, 
 were referred to the patriarch of the province 
 where they arose. They also pronounced a 
 decisive jjidgment in those cases, where accu- 
 sations were brought against bishops; and, lijst 
 
 Q(^ * By tfll, Palestine, the reader is desired to under- 
 stand three distinct provinces, Of which eaeli bore thy. 
 haine^of Palestine; and accordingly the original is thus 
 express?^, l^rium PahjAHnaryi-m £i^iscopum seu'Patrt^^ 
 arcfui'irt. Alter the destruction of Jerusalem, the face 
 of Palestine was . almost totally changed; and it was so 
 parcelled -out and wasted by a succession of >vars and in- 
 vasfonsj that it scarcely preserved any trace of ita former 
 coiiditiou.' .Vnder the Christian eqjperors there. were 
 three Palestines formed out oT the ancient country of th^t ■- 
 natne,.je^ch of which was an cpieoopal see; and it T(ya3 of . 
 thesfi three dioceses that Ju.venal usurped and maintained 
 the jurisdiction. .See, for a farther account of the thret 
 P-alestines, Spanhemii Geographia Sacra. 
 
 t See also, for an account oi the Three Fatcstiaes, Ca- 
 roli-a S. Paulo Geographia Sacra, p.. 307. 
 
 i See Mich. Le Q,uien, Qriens Christianus, tojn. iii. 
 
 .§See the authors who -haye written of the pa^triarcha, 
 mentioned and recommended by the learned Fabriclus, in . 
 his Bibliograph.Antiquar. cap. xiii. p. 453. 
 
 " Aaseniani iJililiotli. Orieut. Vatican, torn, i- 
 
138 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part 11. 
 
 ly, they appointed vicars,* or depaties, clothed 
 with their authority, for the preservation of 
 order and tranquillity in the remoter provinces. 
 Sueh were the great and distinguishing privi- 
 leges of the patriarchs; and they were accom- 
 panied with others of less moment, which it is 
 needless to mention. 
 
 It must, however, be carefully observed, that 
 the authority of the patriarchs was not acknow- 
 ledged through all the provinces without ex: 
 ception^ Several districts, both in the eastern 
 and western empires, were exempted from their 
 jurisdiction.f The emperors, who reserved to 
 themselves the supreme power in the Christian 
 hierarchy, and received, with great facility and 
 readiness, the complaints of those who consid- 
 ered themselves as injured by the patriarchs; 
 and the councils also, in which the majesty and 
 legislative power of the church immediately 
 resided; were obstacles to the arbitrary pro- 
 ceedings of th6 patriarchal order. 
 
 IV. This constitution of ecclesiastical go- 
 vernment was so far from contributing to the 
 peace and prosperity of the Christian' church, 
 that it proved, on the contrary, a perpetual 
 source of dissensions and animosities, and was 
 productive of various inconveniences and griev- 
 ances. The patriarchs, who, by their exalted 
 rank and extensive authority, Were equally able 
 to do much good and much mischief, began to 
 encroach upon the rights, and trample upon 
 the prerogatives of their bishops, and thus in- 
 %troduced, gradually; a sort of spiritual bondage 
 into the church; and- that they might invade, 
 without opposition, the rights of the bigliops, 
 they permitted the latter, in their turn, to tram'-. 
 pie with impunity, upon the ancient rights and 
 privileges of the people; for, in proportion as 
 the bishops multiplied their privileges and ex- 
 tended their usurpations, the patriarchs gained 
 new accessions of power by the despotism which 
 they exercised over the episcopal order. They 
 fomented also divisions among the bishops, and 
 excited animosities between them and the other 
 ministers of the church. They went still far- 
 ther, and sowed the seeds of discord between 
 the clSrgy and the people, that all these com- 
 bustions might furnish them with perpetual, 
 matter for the exercise of their authority, and 
 procure them a multitude of clients and de- 
 pendents. They left no artifice unemployed 
 to strengthen their own authority, and to raise 
 opposition against the prelates from every quar- 
 ter. For this purpose it was that they engaged 
 in their cause by the most alluring promises, 
 and attached to their interests by the niostraag- 
 nificeht acts of liberality, whole swarms of 
 monks, who served as intestine eneinies to the 
 bishops, and as a dead weight on the sidaof 
 patriarchal tyraimy. The Sforts of these mo- 
 nastichirelings cpntributed more than any other 
 means to ruin, the ancient ecclesiastical discip- 
 line, to diminish the authority of the bishops, 
 and raise, to an enormous and excessive height,' 
 
 * DaT. Blondel, d^ la Frimaute de I'Eglise, chap. xxv. 
 p. 332. Theod. Ruinart, de fallio ■ Archi-Episcopali, p. 
 445; ioin..ii. of the pofthumous works of Mabillon. 
 
 t Brerewood'8 Diasprt. de Teleris Ecclesiae Ouberna- 
 tione patriarchal!, printed at the end of archbishop 
 Uiher't book, entitled, Opusculum de Origine Episco- 
 ^rum et Metropolitanorum. - 
 
 the power and Jjrerogatives of their insolent 
 and ambitious patrons. 
 
 V. To these lamentable evils, were added 
 the ambitious quarrels, and the bitter animosi- 
 ties, that rose among the patriarchs themselves, 
 and which produced the most bloody wars, and 
 the most detestable and horrid 'Srinles. The 
 patriarch of Constantinople distinguished him- 
 self in tliese odious contests. Elate with the 
 favour and proximity of the imperial court, he 
 cast a haughty eye on all sides, where any oh-- 
 jects were to he found on which he might ex- 
 ercise his lordly ambition. On one hand, he 
 reduced under his jurisdiction the patriarchs of 
 Alexandria and Antioch, asprelates only of the 
 second order; and, on the other, he invaded the 
 diocese, of the Roman pontiff, and ' despoiled 
 him of several provinces. The two former pre- 
 lates, though they stru^led with vehemence, 
 and raised considerabletumulta by their oppo-' 
 sition, laboured ineffectually, both for want of 
 strength, and likewise on adcount of a variety 
 of mifavourable circumstances. But the pope, 
 far superior to them in wealth and powe'r, con- 
 tended also with more vigour and obstinacy, 
 and, in his turn, gave a deadly wound to the 
 usurped supremacy of the Byzantine patriarch. 
 
 The attentive inquirer into the affairs of the 
 church, from this period, will find, in the events 
 now mentioned, the principal source of those 
 most scandalous and deplorable dissensions, 
 which divided first the eastern church into va- 
 nous sects, and afterwards separated it entirely 
 from tliat of the west. He will find, that these 
 ignominious schisms flowed chiefly from the 
 unchristian contentions for dominion and su- 
 premacy, which reigned among those who set 
 themselves up for the fathers and defenders of 
 the churcli. 
 
 VI. No one of the contending bishopS"found 
 the occurrences of the times so favourable to 
 his ambition, as the Roman pontiff. Notwithr 
 standing the redoubled efforts of the bishop of 
 Constantinople, a variety of circumstances con- 
 curred to augment his power and authority, 
 though he had not yet assumed the dignity of 
 supreme lawgiver and judge of the whole Chris- 
 tian church. The hishopsof Alexandria and 
 Antioch, unable to make head against the lord-, 
 ly prelate of Constantinople, often fled to the 
 Roman pontiff for succour against his violence; 
 and the inferior order of bishops used the same 
 method, when their rights were invaded by the 
 prelates of Alexandria and Antioch: so that 
 the bishop of Rome, by taking all these pre- 
 lates alternately, under his protection, daily 
 added new degrees of jufluence and autharity 
 to the Roman see, rendered it e-Kery where re- 
 spected, and was thus imperceptibly establish- 
 ing its supremacy. Such were the mean^ by 
 which that pontiff extended his dominio,n in 
 the east. In the west its increase arose fi-om 
 other causes. The declining power and tihe 
 supine indolence of the emperors, left the au- 
 thority of the bishop, -who presided iii their*,, 
 capital, almost without control. The incur- 
 sions, moreover, and triumphs of the barbari- 
 ans were so far from being prejudicial to his 
 rising dominion, that they rather contributed 
 to its advancement; for the kings, who pene- 
 trated into the empire, w^ere only solicitous 
 
Chap. II. 
 
 DOCTORS, CHURCH GOVERNMENT, &c. 
 
 139 
 
 icboTit the methods 6fg).ving{ir sufficient degree 
 of stability to their respective governments; 
 and when they perceived the subjectfon of the 
 multitude to the bishops, and the dependence 
 of the latter-upon the R6man pbntiif, they im- 
 mediately resolved ,to reconcile this ghostly 
 ruler to their interests, by loading him vifith be- 
 nefits and honours of various kinds. 
 
 'Among all the prelates who ruled the church 
 of Rome during this century, there was not 
 one who asserted his authority and pretensions 
 with Biich vigour and success, as Leo, sumam- 
 ed the Great. It must liowever be observed, 
 that neither he, nor the other promoters of the 
 sanie claims, were able to overcome all the ob- 
 -stacles that were laid in their way, or the vari- 
 ous checks which were given to their ambition. 
 Many examples might be alleged 'in proof of 
 this assertion, particularly the case of the Afri- 
 cans, whom no'threats or promises could en- 
 gage to submit the decision of their controver- 
 sies, -and the determination of their Causes, to 
 the Roman tribunal.* j 
 
 VII. The vices of the clergy wereupw car- 
 ried to the most enormous excess; and all the 
 writers of this century, whose probity and vir- 
 tue jender them worthy of credit, are unani- 
 mous in their accounts of the luxury, arro- 
 gance, avarice, and voluptuousness- of the sa- 
 cerdotal orders. The bishops, and particularly 
 ^ose of the first rank, created various dele- 
 gates, or ministers, who managed for them the 
 affairs of tlieir dioceses; and courts were gra- 
 dually formed, where these pompous_ecclesias- 
 tics gave audience, and received the homage of 
 a cringing multitude. ' The office of a presby- 
 ter wAs looked upon of such a high and emi- 
 nent nature, that Martin, bishop of Tours, au- 
 daciously maintained, at a pi^blic entertain- 
 ment, that the emperor was iriferiorrin dignity, 
 to one of that "order.f As to the deacons, their 
 pride and licentiousness occasioned many emd 
 grievous complaints, as appears from the de- 
 crees of several councils.J 
 
 These opprobrious stains, in the characters 
 of the clergy, would never have been endured, 
 had not tbe greatest part of mankind been 
 sunk in superstition and ignorance,^ ^nd people 
 in general -formed their ideas of "the rights and 
 liberties of Christian ministers from the model 
 exhibited by-the sacerdotal orders ampng the 
 Hebrews, during the prevalence of the law of 
 Moses, a^d among the Greeks and Romans in 
 the darkness of paganism. The barbarous na- 
 'tions also, which^on the ruin of the. Romans, 
 divided among themselves the western -empire, 
 bore, with the utmost patience and.moderation, 
 both the dominion and vices of the bishops and 
 priests, because, upon their conversion to Chris- 
 tianity, they became naturally subject to their 
 jurisdiction; and still more, because they con- 
 sidered the ministers of Christ as invested with 
 the same rights and privileges, which distin- 
 guished the priests of -their fictitious deities. 
 
 * Du-Fin, de Antiqua Ecclesiae .Disciplina, Diss. ii. p. 
 166. ' Mclch.-lieydfck. Historia Eccles. Arricaiis,tom. li. 
 Diss. ii. p. 505. 
 
 t Sulpitius Sererus, de Vita Martini, cap. xx. p. 339, 
 compared with Dialog, ii. cap. vi. p. 457. 
 
 \ See Dav. Blonde]. Apologia pro Senteutia Hieronymt 
 de Episcopis et Fresbyteria, p. 140. 
 
 VIII. The corruption of an order, appointed 
 to promote, by doctrine and example, the aa- 
 cred interests of piety and virtue, will appear 
 less surprising when we consider, that multi- 
 tudes of people were in every country admit 
 ted, without examination or choice,' into the 
 body of the clergy, the greatest part of whom 
 had no other view, than the enjoyment of a 
 lazy and inglorious repose. Many of these 
 ecclesiastics were confined to no fi^ced places oi 
 assemblies, and had no employment of any 
 kind, but sauntered about wherever they 
 pleased, gaining their rnaintenance by imposing 
 upon the ignorant multitude, and sometimes 
 by mean and dishonest practices. But if any 
 should ask', how this account is reconcileable 
 with the number of saints, who, according to 
 the testimonies both of the eastern and west- 
 ern writers, are said to have shone forth in this 
 century, the answer is obvious; these saints 
 were canonised- by the ignorance of the times; 
 for,, in an age of darkness and corruption, 
 those who distinguished themselves from the 
 Multitude, either by their genius, their writings, 
 or their, eloquence, by their prudence and dex- 
 terity in conducting affairs of importance, or 
 by their meekness and moderation, and the aS' 
 cendency which they had gained over their re-. 
 sentments and passions, were esteemed some- 
 thing more than men; they were reverenced as 
 gofls; or, to speak more properly, they appear- 
 ed to others as men divinely inspired, and foil 
 of. the Deity. 
 
 IX. The monks, who had formerly lived 
 only for themselves in solitary retreats, and 
 had never thought of assuming any rank 
 among the sacerdotal orders, were now gradu- 
 ally distinguished from the populace, and were 
 endowed with such opulence and such hdnotfr- 
 able privileges, that they found themselves in a 
 condition to claim an emineni; station among 
 the supports and pillajsof the Christian com- 
 munity.* The fame of their piety and sanctity 
 was at first so great, that bishops and presby- 
 ters were often chosen out of their order ;f and 
 the passion, of erecting edifices and convents, 
 in which the monks and holy virgins might 
 serve God iri the. most commodious manner, 
 was at this time carried beyond all bounds.;^ 
 
 The -monastic orders did not all observe the 
 same rule of discipline, pr'the same manner of 
 living. Some followed the- rule of Augustine, 
 others that ,of Basil, others that of Antony, 
 others that of Athanasius, others that of Pa- 
 chomius; but they must all have beconie ex- 
 tremely negligent and remiss in observing the 
 laws oE their respective orders', since the licen- 
 tiousness of the mgnks, even in this century, 
 was eveh-proverbial,§ and they are said to have 
 excited in various places the most dreadful tu- 
 mults and seditions. All the monastic orders 
 were under the protection of the bishops in 
 whose pro'irinces they lived; nor Aid the patr 
 archs claim ajiy authority over them, as ap- 
 
 * Eplphauius, Exposit. Fidei, torn. i. op. p. .1094.- — 
 MaMUon's Repoiise aux Ghanoines Reguliers. 
 
 f Severus, de 'Vita Martini, cap. x. p. 320. Dial. i. 
 cap. xxi. p. 436. 
 
 \ Severus, Dial. i. p. 419. — If orisiuS'^ Histor. Felae. 
 lib. i. cap. iii. p. 373. torn. i. op — Histoire Literaire us 
 la France, torn. ii. p.. 35. 
 
 § Snip. Severus, Dial. i. cap. viii. p..399. 
 
14fl 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part IL 
 
 pears with the utmost evidence from the de- 
 crees of the councils holden in this century.* 
 
 X. Several Writers of consldet^ble merit 
 adorned this century. Among the Greeks and 
 Orientals, the first place is due to Cyril, bishop 
 of Alexandria, so famous for his learned pro- 
 ductions, and the varioiis controve];sies in 
 which he was engaged. It would be unjust to 
 derogate from the p'raifces which are due to tliis 
 eminent man: but it would betray, on the other 
 hand, a criminal partidlity, if w6 should pass 
 uncensured the turbulent spirit, the litigious 
 and contentious temper, and other defects, 
 which are laid to his charge, j 
 
 After Cyril, we may place Theodoret, bishop 
 of Cyrus (or Cyropolis,)' an eloquent, copious, 
 and learned writer, eminent for his acquaint- 
 ajice with all the branches of sacred erudition, 
 but unfortmiate in his attaclunent to some of 
 the Nestorian errors.J 
 
 Isidore, of Pelusium, was a man of uncom- 
 mon learning and sanctity. A great l}ninber§ 
 of his epistles arc yet extant, and discover more 
 piety, genius, erudition, and wisdom, than are 
 to be found in the voluminous productions of 
 many other writers. || 
 
 Theophilus, bishop of Alexandria, few of 
 whose writings are now extant, acquired an 
 immortal name, l^y his violent Opposition to 
 Origen and Ms followers.H 
 
 FalladiuS deServqs a rank among the better 
 sort of authors by his Lausiac History and his 
 Life of Chrysostom. . • 
 
 Theodora of Mopsuestia, though accused af- 
 ter his death of the greatest errors, was one of 
 the most learned men of his time. Those who- 
 have read, with any attention, the fragments 
 of his writings, which are to be found in Pho- 
 ' tins, will lament the want of these excellent 
 compositions, which are either entirely lost, or, 
 if any remain,** are only extant among the 
 NeStorians, and in the Syriac kuiguage.ft 
 
 ' * See Jo. Launoii luquisitio in Chartam Imiiluiiitalis B. 
 
 ' Germain, op. torn, iii., part ii. p. 3. . In the ancient 
 records, poste^r 'to tli'is century-, tile monka are fre- 
 quently callea Clerks. (See Mabillon's Praef. ad Saec. ii. 
 Actor. Sanctor.Ord Benedicti.) And thia shows, that 
 they now began to be ranked among the clergy, or minis- 
 ters of the church. - - ' 
 ".f The works of 'Cyril jvere published^ at Paris by 
 Auhert, in six volumes, folio, in 1638. 
 - t The Jesuit Sirmond . gave at Paris, in 164^, a noble 
 edition of the works of this prelate in /our volumes; a 
 fifth was added by Garnier, in 1685. Q^ We must ob- 
 serve, in favour Of this excellent ecclesiastic, so renowned 
 
 -for the sanctity and simplicity of his manners, th^t he 
 abandoned the doctrines of Nestorius, and. thus . effaced 
 the stai^ he had contractetl by his personal attachmcnt~to 
 that heretic, and to John of AijCioch. , ^ 
 
 {j(j=- § These epistles amount to 2(M2, and are divided 
 into tive books. They are short, but admirably written, 
 and are equally recommendable for the solidity oT Oie 
 matter, and the _purity and elegance 'of their style. 
 
 _ II The b'est editioii of Isidore's Epistles, is that which 
 
 . was published by the Jesuit Scott, at' Paris, in 1638. 
 
 IT See Euseb. Kenaudot, Historia Patriarchar. Alexan- 
 drinor. p. 103. 
 
 " ** See Assemani Biblioth; -Oriental. Clement. Vatic. 
 tom.'iii. part ii. p. 327^ 
 
 (^» ft It appears by this account^of the works of 
 Theodore, that-Dr. Mosheim had not seen the Disserta 
 tioiis of Uie late duke of Orleans, in one of which that, 
 learned prince has demonstrated, that the commentary 
 upon the Fsalmsj which is to be found in the Chain or 
 Collection o/ Corderius,_and which bears the name of 
 Theodore, is the production of Theodore of Mopsuestia. 
 There exists, also, beside the fraf^ments that are to be 
 
 Nilus, disciple of ChryBostom,.composed se- 
 veral-treatises of a practical and pious kind; 
 but these performances derive more merit &piii 
 the worthy and laudable intention of their au- 
 thor than from any other circumstance. 
 
 We pass over in silence Basilius of Seleucia, 
 Theodotus of Ancyra,.and Gelasius of Cyzi- 
 cura, for the sake of brevity. 
 
 XI. A Roman pontiff, Leo I. surnamedthe 
 Great, shines fortli 'at the head of the Latin 
 writers of this century. He weis a man of un- 
 common genius and eloquence, which he em- 
 ployed however too much in extending liis au^ 
 thority; a point in which his ambition was both 
 indefatigable and excessive.* 
 
 Orosius acquired a considerable degree of re^ 
 putation by the History which he wrote to re^ 
 fiite the cavils of the Pagans against Christi- 
 anity, and by his books against the Pelagians 
 and Priscillianisfs.f^ . . ' - 
 
 Cassian, an illiterate and superstitious man, 
 inculcated in Gaul, both % his discourse and 
 his writings, the" discipline and manner of liv- 
 ing which prevailed among the Syrian and 
 Egyptian monlra, and was a sort of teacher to 
 those who were called Serni-Pelagians.J 
 
 Maximus of Turin publi^ed- several Homi 
 hes, which are yet extant, and, though short, 
 are for, the most part recommended- both by 
 elegance and pieiy. 
 
 Eucherius, bishop < of Lyons, was one of tha 
 most considerable moral writers that flourished 
 among, the Latins in this century. § 
 
 • Pontius of Nola,|| distinguished by his emi. 
 nent and fervent piety, is also esteemed for his 
 poems, and other good performances. 
 
 Peter, bishop of Raverma, obtained by his 
 eloquence the title of Chrysologus; nor are his 
 discourses entirely destitute of genius. IT 
 
 Salvian was ah eloquent, but, at ihe same 
 time, a melancholy and sour writer, who, in 
 his vehement declamations against the vices of 
 his times, unwarily discovers the defects of his 
 own- character.** 
 
 found in Photius, a manuscript commentary of this illus- 
 trious author upon the twelve minor prophets. 
 
 * AIL the works of Leo were published at Lyons,.in 
 1*706, 'by. the care of the celebrated Quesnel of the 
 Oratory. - - - , 
 
 t See Bayle's -Dictionary, at the article Orosvus. A 
 valuable edition of this author, enriched with ancient 
 coins and medala^jwas published at Leyden, in 1738, by 
 the learned Havercamp. ■ 
 
 i Histoire Literaire de 1^ France, torn. ii. p. 315. — 
 Simon, Critique de la Biblioth. Ecclesiastique par Du- 
 Pin, torn. i. p. J56. — The. works of Cassian were pub- 
 lished at Frankfort, in 1723, with a copious Commentary 
 by Alardus Gazaeus. 
 
 .§ See a satisfactory account of ,this prelate, in the 
 Histoire Literaire de la France^ tom.'ii. p. 275. 
 
 Qt^ II This- pious and ingenious ecclesiastic is more 
 
 tenerally known by the name of Paulin. See the Histoire 
 ttteraire de la France, tom. ii. p. 179. The best edition 
 of his. works is that' published by Le Brun, at Paris, in 
 1685. - . ' - 
 
 IT Agnelli Liber Fohtificalis Ecclesise Ravennatis, tom. 
 
 i. p. m. . 
 
 *' Hist. Liter, de la France, tom. ii. p. 517. g^ The 
 authors of the history here referred to, give a different 
 account of Salvian 's character. They acknowledge, that 
 his declamations against the vices of the age, in his 
 Treatise against Avarice, and his Discourse concerning 
 Providence, are warm and vehement; but they represent 
 him, notwithstanding^ as-one of the most humane and 
 benevolent men of his time. It is, however, beyond all 
 doubt, that he was extravagantly austere in the rules he 
 prescribed for the conduct of life. For what is more 
 
Chap. AI. 
 
 THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 141 
 
 Prosper of Aqnitaihe, and Marius.Mercator, 
 are abundantly knows to such'as have employ- 
 ed any part of their time and attention in the 
 study of. the Pelagian disputes,, and the otlisr 
 controversies that were agitated'in this century. 
 
 Vjncent.of Lerins gained a la'stmg reputa- 
 tion by his short, but excellent treatise against 
 the sects, entitled eommonitorium.* 
 
 Sidonius ApoUinaris, a tumid writer, though 
 not entirejy destitute of eloquence; Vigilins'of 
 Tapsus; Arnobius the younger, who wrote a 
 commentary on the book of Psalms; Dracon- 
 tius, and others of that class^ are of too little 
 tion^quence to deserve more particular notice. 
 
 CHAPTER m. 
 Concerniiig the Doctrine of the Church during 
 ihis-Hentury. 
 I. Many points of religion were more largely 
 explained, and many of its doctrines determin- 
 ed with more accuracy and piipcision, than they 
 had been in the preceding ages'. Tliis was one 
 result of the controveisies that were multi- 
 plied, at this time, throughput the Christian 
 world, concerning the person arid nature of 
 Christ; the innate corlfuption and depravity of 
 man; the natural ability of men to live accord- 
 ing to the-dictatES of Uie divine law; the. ne- 
 cessity of tlie divine grace in order to salvation; 
 the nature and existence of human liberty; arid 
 other such intricate and perplexing questions.. 
 The sacred and venerable simplicity of the 
 primitive times, which required no more than 
 a true feith in the word of God, and a sincere 
 obedience to- his holy laws,' appeared little bet- 
 ter than rusticity and ignorance to the subtile 
 "^doctors of, this quibbling age. ¥et so it hap- 
 pened, that many of the over-curious jlivines, 
 who attempted to 'explain the nature, and. re- 
 move the difficulties of these intricate doctrines, 
 succeeded 'very ill in this matter. Instead of 
 leading men into the paths of humble faith and 
 genuine piety, they bewildered them in the la- 
 byrinths of controversy and contention, and 
 rather darkened than illustrated the sacred 
 in3rsteries of religion by a thick cloud of unin- 
 telligible subtilties, ambiguous terms, and ob- 
 scure distinctions. Hence arose new njatter 
 of animosity and dispute, of bigotry, and ' un- 
 eharitableness, which flowed' like a torrent 
 through succeeding age?, and which all human 
 efforts seem unable to vanquish. In these dis- 
 putes, the heat of passion, and the excessive 
 force of religious antipathy and contradiction. 
 
 unnatural than to rettommend to Christians, as a nerpssary 
 coiuIition^C.salTatioi}, their leaving; their wl>ole subs.ance 
 to thp poor, to the utter ruin of their children.and rela- 
 tions? It must, hoivcver,.be,confessed, that his austei-ity 
 in point of -discipline was accompanied with the most 
 amiable moderation toward those who differed from^^im 
 in articles of faith. There is a most remarkable passage 
 to this purpose, in his Treatise conceriiinff Fj-ovidence, 
 bookT. p. 100. ,■ 
 
 dQf- * This work of Vincent, which is commended by 
 our author, seems siiarcely worthy of such applause. I 
 see nothing in it,, biit that blind veneration for ancient 
 opinions, whfch is so fatal io the discovery and progress 
 ' of truth, and an attempt to prove that nothing but the 
 voice of tradition is to be consulted in fixing the sense 
 of the Scriptures. , " ' 
 
 An ample account of Vincent, 'Prosper, and Arnobius, 
 is to be found in the Histoire liiteraire de.la France, torn. 
 ii. p. 305, 342, 369. 
 
 frequently .hurried tie contendin? parties, into 
 the most dangerous and dlsgracpEil extremes. 
 II. If, before -this time, the lustre pf religion 
 tvas clouds with superstition, and .its divine 
 precepts wore adulterated with a mixture of 
 human inventions, this evil, instead of dimin- 
 ishing, increased da,ily. The happy souls of 
 depsirted Christians were invoked by numbers, 
 and their aid implored by assiduous and fervent 
 prayers, while none ■stood up to censure or op- 
 pose this preposterous worship'. - The-question, 
 hew the prayers' of mortals ascended to the ce- 
 lestial spirits (a question which afterwardspro- 
 duced much wrangling, and many idle fancies,) 
 did not yet occasion any difficulty; for. the 
 Christians of this century did not imagine that 
 the souls of the saints were .so_ entirely confin- 
 ed to the celestial mansions, as to be deprived 
 of the privilege of visiting mortals, and tra 
 .veiling, when they pleased; through va,rious 
 countries. They Were farther of opinion, that 
 the places' most frequented by departed' spirits 
 ^were those wheire the bodies which they had 
 formerly ^aniiiiated' were interred; ajid this opin- 
 ion, borrSwed by the'Chriatians from the Greeks 
 and Romans, leiidered. the sepulchres 6f the 
 saints, the general rendezvljus of suppliant mul- 
 titudes.* The images of those who, dujing 
 their lives', had acquired tile reputation of un- 
 common sanctity, were now honoured with a 
 particular worship iii several places; and many 
 imagined tiiat this worship drew down into the- 
 images the propitidiis presence of the saints or 
 .celestial beings they represented; deliided, per- 
 haps, into lliis idle fancy by the crafty fictions 
 of the heathen priests, who had published the 
 same things concerning the statues .of Jupiter 
 an.d Mercm'y.f A-singular and irresistible efr 
 fipacy was also attributed to the bones of inar- 
 ,tyrs, and to tlie figure of the cross, in defeat- 
 ing tlie attempts of Satan,- renioving all sorts 
 of calamities, and in healing, not only the dis- 
 eases of the bc>dy,"but also those of the mind.J 
 We shall not enter into a particular account of 
 the public supplications, the holy pljgriihages, 
 the superstitious-services paid to departed souls, 
 the multiplication of temples, diapels, altars, 
 penitential garments, and a multitude, of otlier 
 circumstances, that showed the decline of gefi- 
 uinepiety," and the corrupt darkness that was 
 eclipsing the- lustre of primitive Christianity. 
 As none in these times forbade the- Christians 
 to retain the opinions of their pagan ancestors 
 concerning departed souls, heroes, demons, 
 temples, and other things, Or even to transfer 
 them into their religious services; and as, in- 
 stead of entirely abolishing.flie rites and insti- 
 tutions, of ancient time^; these institutions were 
 still observed,.with only soipe slight alterationsi 
 all this swelled of necessity the torrent of su- 
 perstition, and deformed the beauty of the 
 
 * See the Institutiones Divinae of Lactantius, lib. i. p. 
 164, and Heaiod's Op. et Dies, ver, 122. — Compare with 
 these, Sulp. Severus, Epist. ii. p; 2r71. Dial. ii..cap. xiii. 
 p. 474. Dial. iiJ. p. 5l2.T-:*neas Gazabos, in 3<heo- 
 phrasto. — Macarius - in Jac. Tollii lnsi^;i^bus Jtineris 
 Italic!, and' otherrwriters of this age. ^' 
 
 f Clementina, Homil. x. p'. 697, torn. i. PP; Apostolic. 
 
 .Arnobius adv. 'G'entes, lib. vi. p. 254.— ^asp. Barthius, 
 ad Rutilium-Numantian, p. 250. , ^ ' ^ .. 
 
 { ^rudentius, Hjmn m. de Coronis, p. 150,--Sidp,_ 
 Severus, Ep. i. p. &4.— .ffineas Gazieus, in Theophrasto 
 
142 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.- 
 
 Part II. 
 
 Christian religion and worship with those cor- 
 rupt remains of paganism, which still subsist 
 in -a certain church. • 
 
 It will not be improper to observe here, that 
 the famous pagan doctrine, concerning the-pu- 
 rific'ation of departed souls, by means of a cer- 
 tain kind of fire, was now more amply explain- 
 ed and established than it had formerly been.* 
 Every one knows, th^t this doctrine proved an 
 inexhaustible source of riches to the clergy 
 through the succeeding ages, and that it still 
 enriches the Romish church with its nutritious 
 streams. . ' 
 
 III. The , interpretation of the. Scriptures 
 employed fewer pens in this century than in 
 the preceding age, in which the Christian doc- 
 tors were less involved in the labyrinths of con- 
 troversy. Yet, notwithstanding the multipli- 
 cation of religious disputes, a considerable 
 number of learned men undertook this useful 
 and important task. We shall not mention 
 those who confined their Illustrations to some 
 one, or a few books of the divine word, such 
 as Victor of Antiooli, Polycjfironius, Philo Car- 
 pathius, Isidore' of Cordova^ Salonius, and An- 
 drew of Ctesarea. We must not, however, 
 pass over in silence Theodoret and Theodore, 
 bishops of Cyrus and Mopsuestia, the two most 
 famous expositors of this age J who illustrated 
 a great part of the Scriptures by their -pious 
 labours. They^ were trjjly eminent, both in 
 point of learning and genius; and, free and un- 
 prejudiced in their search after truth, they fol- 
 lowed the explications given by their predeces- 
 sors, only as far as they found them agreeable 
 to reason. -The commentaries of Theodoret 
 are yet extant, and in the hands of the learn- 
 ed;! those of Theodore are concealed iH the 
 east among the Nestorians, though on many 
 accounts worthy to see the light. | Cyril, of 
 Alexandria, deserves also a place among, the 
 commentators of this century; but a still higher 
 rankj among" that useful and learned body, is 
 due to Isidore of Pelu'sium, whose epistles con- 
 tain many observations, which cast a consider- 
 able degree of light upon several parts of Scrip- 
 ture.§ , , . ' ^ 
 
 ly. It is, however, to be lamented, that the 
 greatest part of the commentators, both Greek 
 and Latin, following the idle fancies of Ori- 
 
 * See, particularlji concerDing this matter, Au^'ustin's 
 boolc de Tiii. Q^uaestionibus ad Dulcitium, N. xiti'. torn. 
 vi. op. p. 138; de. fide et liperibus, cap. xvi. p. 182; de- 
 fide, spe, etcharitale, sect. 118^ p. 332. EnarratioQC Fsal. 
 xx'xr. sect. 3, &c.' 
 
 f See SiihoD^s "Histoire critique' des principaux Com- 
 mentateurs du 7f . Test. chap. xxii. p. 314; as also his 
 Critique de la Biblibth. Ecclesiast. de M. Du-Fin, torn. i. 
 p. 180.. {JC^ Theodoret wrote Commentaries upon, the 
 five books of Moses, Joshua, Judges, Ruth,. Samuel, 
 Kings, Chronicles^ the Psalms, 'the Canticles, Isaiah, 
 Jeremiah, Baruch, Lamentations, Ezekid, Danielj the 12 
 minor Prophets, And St. Paul's 14 Epistles. 
 
 i Assemad's Biblioth. Orient. Clem. Vatic, tom. iii. 
 sect. 3. p. 237 — Simon's Critique de la Biblioth. Eccles. 
 tom. i. p. 108, 677. Q^We are assured by Fabricius, 
 upon the testimony of Lambecius, that Theodore's com- 
 mentary upon the twelve Prophets is still exta'nt in MS, 
 in the emperor's library at Vienna. See Fabr. Bibl. 
 Grxc. tom. ix. p. 162. See also, for an ample and learned 
 account of the. writings of this author, Lardner's Credi- 
 bility, vol. i*. p. 389. 
 
 ^ See, for an account of these two authors, Simon's 
 Histoire des principaux ' Commentateurs du' rfouveau 
 TMtament, ch. ixi. p. 300. 
 
 gen, overlooked the true and natural sense of 
 the words, and hunted after subtile and hidden 
 significations, or mysteries (as the Latins then 
 termed them,) in the plainest precepts of the 
 Scriptures. . Seyeralqf the Greeks, and parti- 
 cXilarly Theodoret, laboured, with success and 
 precision, in illustrating the books of the New 
 Testatnent;, and' their success in that task is to 
 be principally attributed, to their perfect know- 
 ledge of the Greek language, which they had 
 learned from their infancy. But neither the 
 Greeks nor Latins threw much light upon the 
 Old Testament, which was cruelly tortured by 
 the allegorical pens of almost all who attempt- - 
 ed to illustrate and explain it; for nothing is. 
 more common, than .to see the interpreters of 
 the fifth' century strjlining all. the passages of 
 that sacred book, either to typify Christ, and 
 the blessings of his kingdom, or Antichrist, 
 and the wars and desolitions. which he was to 
 briiig upontWe earth,-^without the least, spark 
 of judgment, or the smallest air of prqbability. 
 
 V. A few chosen spirits, superior to . t%6 
 others in saga,city and wisdoin, were bold 
 enough to stand up-against these critical delu- 
 sions, and to point out a safer and plainer \yay 
 to divine truth. This we learn from the epis- 
 tles of Isidore of Pelusium, who, though he 
 was not himself entirely free from this allego- 
 rical contagion, censures judiciously, in many 
 places, such as abandoned the liistorical sense 
 of the Old Testament, .and applied its narra- 
 tidns and predictions to Christ alone. But 
 none went greater lengths in censuring the fan- 
 ciful followers of Origen, than Theodore -of 
 Mopsuestia, who not only wrote a book con- 
 cerning allegory and history, against Origen,* 
 but also, in his commentary on the prophets, ■ 
 did* not hesitate to apply the greater part of 
 their predictions, to various events in ancient 
 history.t This manner of interpreting Scrip- 
 ture was very ill received, and contributed, per- 
 haps, more to raise the general cry against 
 him, than all the erroneous doctrines with 
 ■which he was charged.J ' Tie Nestorians fol- 
 lowed the example of this remarkable and emi- 
 nent lnan;| and they continue to consider him 
 as a saint of the first order, and to preserve 'his 
 writings with the utmost care, as precious 
 monuments of his piety and learning. 
 
 VI. The doctrines of religion were, at this 
 time', understood and represented in a manner 
 that savoured little of their native puiity and 
 simplicity. They were drawn out by laboured 
 commentaries beyond the terms in which .the 
 
 * Facundus Hermianensis, de. tribus Capitulis, lib. iii, 
 ca|i, vi, — Llberatus in Breviario, cap, xx-iv. 
 
 t Acta Coiicilii Copstan^ingpol. 11. seu CEcumenici V. 
 torn. iii. Conciliorum, p,'5B, edit, Harduini, 
 
 Qt^ J Theodore, after his death, was considered as the 
 .parent of the Pelagian' and Nestorian heresies,' though 
 during his life he was an object of the liighest esteem, 
 and died in the communion of the church, ' 
 
 § This appears by the testimony of Cosmas IndicopIeu»- 
 tes, a writer of the sixth century, who was undoubtedly 
 a .Nc^itorian; for this author, in the fifth book of hii. 
 Christian Topography, which Mont&ucon published in 
 his new collection of the Greek fathers, maintains that, 
 of all the Psalms of David, four only are applicable to 
 Christ; and, to confirm this opinion, he boldly asserts, 
 that the writers of the New Testament, when they .apply 
 to Jesus the prophecies of the Old, do this by a mere ac- 
 commodation of the woi*ds, without any regard to their 
 true and genuine sense. 
 
Chap. IIL 
 
 THE aOCTRINE OF THE GHURCH. 
 
 143 
 
 divine wisdom had -thought fit to reveal them; 
 and were examined with that mmuteness and 
 subtilty which were only calculated to cover 
 them with obscurity; and (what was still worse) 
 the theological notions that generally prevail- 
 ed, were proved rather by the^authorities and 
 logical discussions of the ancient doctors, than 
 .by the unerring dictaterof tlie divine word. It 
 does not appear that in this century any at- 
 tempted to form a complete- system of theolo- 
 gy, unless we give that title to six books of in- 
 struction, which Nicaeas is said to have com- 
 posed for the use of the Neophytes.* But, as we 
 have already observed, the principal branches 
 of religion were, laborioiisly explained in the 
 various books that were written against the 
 Nestorians, Eutychians, Pelagians, and Arians. 
 
 YII. The number of those who disputed in 
 this century against paganism and infidelity, 
 was very considerable, yet not greater than the 
 exigency of the times, and the frequent attacks 
 made upon ChristiaRity, rendered necessary. 
 Theodoret in his ingenious and learned trea- 
 tise, , de Curandis -Grsecorum Affeotiohibus, 
 Orientius inhis'Commonitorium, and Bvagrius 
 in his Dispute between Zacheeus and Apollo- 
 nius, opposed, with fortitude and vigour, those 
 who worshipped images, and who cmered their 
 religious services to the pagan deities.f To 
 these we may add Philip Sidetes and Philostor- 
 gius, of whom the latter attacked Porphyry, 
 and-the former Julian.' Basilius of Seleucia, 
 Gregentius iii-his Controversy' with Herbanus, 
 and Evagrius in his Dialogue between Theo- 
 phllus and Judseus, exposed and refuted the 
 errors and cayils of the Jews. Vbconius the 
 African; Syagrius in . his book concerning 
 Faith, Geimadius of Marseilles, who deserves 
 to be placed in' the first rank, and Theodoret in 
 his Treatise concerning the-Fa.bles of the HeS 
 etics, opposed- all the diiFerent sects; not to 
 mention those ■^pho wrote only against the 
 errors of one or other party of sectaries. 
 
 VIII.' Those who disputed against the Chris- 
 tian sects, observed a most absurd and vicious 
 method of controversy. . They proceeded ra- 
 ther according to the rules of the ancient so- 
 phists, and, what is still more 'Burprisiiig, ac- 
 cording to the spirit of the Roman la\y, than 
 by the examples and instructions of Christ and 
 his apostles. In the Jloman courts, matters of 
 a difficult and doubtful nature were decided by 
 the authority of certain aged lawyers, who 
 were" distinguished' by their abilities and expe- 
 rience; and, when they happened to differ^ in 
 opinion,: the point was^termined eitheir by a 
 plurality of voices, or by the sentiments of the 
 more learned and illustrious members of that' 
 venerable body .| Thlsprocedure of the Jloman 
 tribunals, was, in this cebtury, admitted as a 
 standing law,both in the deliberations of coun- 
 cils, and in the managernent of religious con- 
 troversy, to the great and unspeakable detri- 
 ment of truth; for, by this, reason, and even 
 common sense, were in some measure excluded 
 
 * Gennadius Massiliensii, de Scriptor. Ecolesiast. cap, 
 nil. 
 
 t See, for an account of Orientius and Evagrius, the 
 Histoire Literaire de la France, torn. ii. p. 121, and 953. 
 
 ] See the Codex Theodos. Ub. i. lit. ir. de reaponsis 
 prudentum 
 
 from every question; and that was determined 
 as right and -true, which appeared juch to the 
 greatest nupiberj or had been approved by doo- 
 tOTs of the greatest note in 'preceding times. 
 The acts of the various councils, which are yet 
 extatit, manifestly show that this was the case; 
 and this circumstance, combined with what we 
 have already observed with respect to the dis- 
 putants of the. age now under considenttion, 
 will ma;k^ it easy for us to imagine the various 
 defects that must have prevailed in the methods 
 of defending truth, and opposing error. 
 
 IX. Tliis absurd imitation of the Roman 
 law in the management of religious controver- 
 sy, and this preposterous method of. deciding 
 ■truth by human authorities, were fruitful 
 sources of spurious and supposititious prodnc- - 
 tions; for maiiy audacious impostors were 
 hence encouraged to publish their own vi^ritings 
 under the ilames of ancient Christian worthies, 
 and even under the sacred names of Christ 
 himself and his holy apostles, that thus, in the 
 deliberations of councils, and. in the course of 
 controversy, they might have authorities to 
 oppose to authorities, in defence of their re- 
 spective opinions. Thewhole Christian church 
 was, in this century, overwhelmed with these 
 spurious productions, the'se infamous imposi- 
 tions. This is -said tq have engaged GelasiuS, 
 the Roman pontiff,- to call a- council, composed 
 of the bishops of the Latin. church; in which 
 assernbly, after a strict examination' of those 
 writings which appeared under great and vene- 
 rable names, the famous decree passed, that 
 deprived so many apocryphal books of their 
 borrowed authority. That something of this 
 kind really happened; it woiild be, perhaps, an 
 instance of temerity to dtoyf but ma.ny learn- 
 ed men assert, that the decree attributed to 
 Gelasins, labours under' the same iinputatioq 
 with the books which it condemns, and was by 
 no means the production of tl\at pofttiiF,'ljut of 
 some deceiver, who usurped clandestinely hia 
 name and authority."^ 
 
 X. Eucherius, Salvian, and Nilus, shine with 
 a superior lustre among the moral writers of 
 this century. . The epistle of Eudierius, con- 
 cerning the Contempt of the World and the 
 secular Philosophy, is an excellent perform- 
 ance, both in point of matter and style. The 
 wor^s of Mark the hermit breathe.a spirit of. 
 fervent yiety, Ijut are highly defective in many 
 respects: the matter is ill chosen, and is treat- 
 ed without order, perspicuity, or force of rea- 
 soning. Fastidius composed several discourses 
 concerning moral duties'; but they have not 
 survived the ruins of time. The works that are 
 ydt extant of Diadochus, Prosper, and Seve 
 rian, are extreniely pleasing. On account of 
 the solidity and elegance which are to be 
 found, for the most part, in their moral sen 
 lenoeSj though they, afford but indifferent en 
 tertainment.to such as are desirous of preci- 
 sion, metho.d;^ and sound argumentation; and 
 indeed this want of method in tiie distribution 
 and arrangement Of their matter, and a con- 
 stant neglect of -tracing their subject to its first 
 
 * Pearson, Vindicix Ig^atianse,'part i. cap. iv.p. 189.— 
 Cave, 'Hist Liter. Scriptor. Ecclesias. p..360.— Uvb, 
 Godoir. Siberus, Fraefat. ad Enchiridion Sextiy p.-79. > 
 
144 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part H. 
 
 principles, are defects common to almost all the 
 moral .writers of this century. 
 
 XI. Had this, indeed, been their only de- 
 fect, the candid and impartial would have sup- 
 ported it with patience, and attrihuted it chari- 
 tably to the infelicity of the times. But ma'ny 
 of the writers-and teachers of thi? age did. un- 
 speakable injury to the cause of tr.ue piety by 
 thisir cruiTe and enthusiastic inventions. The 
 Mystics, who .pretended to higher degrees of 
 perfectio.n than other Cliristians, drew every 
 where,to their party, particularly in the eastern 
 provinces, 'a vast number of the- ignorant and 
 inconsiderate multitude, by the striking ap- 
 pearance of their austere and singular piety. It 
 is impossible to describe the rigour and severi- 
 ty of the laws which these senseless fanatics 
 imposed upon themselves, in order, as they al- 
 leged, to appease the Deity, and to delivetthe 
 celestial spirit from the bondjige of this mortal 
 body. They not only lived among the wild 
 beasts, but also lived after the manner of these 
 savage animals; they ran naked through the 
 lonely deserts TVitb a furious aspect, and with 
 all the agitations of madness and phrSnsy; they 
 prolonged the ejdstence of their emaciated 
 bodies by the wretched nourishment of grass 
 and wild herbs, avoided the sight and conver- 
 sation of men, remained motionless in certain 
 places for severar years, exposed to the rigour 
 and inclemency of the seasons; and, toward 
 the conclusion of their lives; shut themselves 
 up in -narrow and rniserable huts; and all this 
 was considered as true piety, the. only accepta- 
 ble method of worshipping the Deity, and ren- 
 dering hint propitious.* The major part of the 
 Mystics were led into the absurdities of this. 
 extravagant, discipline, not so miichby the pre- 
 tended (prce of reason and argument, as by a 
 natural propensity to soUtude;. a gloomy and' 
 melancholy'cast ormind, and an implicit und 
 blind submission to the authority and examples 
 of others; for the diseases of the mind, as well 
 as those of the body,-are generally contagious, 
 and no pestilence spreads its infection with a 
 more dreadful rapidity than superstition, and 
 enthusiasm.. Several persons have committed 
 to writing the precepts of this severe discipUne, 
 and reduced its absurdities into a sort of sys- 
 tem, such as Julianus Popierius among' the 
 I,atins,t and many among the Syrians, whose 
 names it is needless to mention. ' ' 
 
 XII. Of all the instances of superstitious 
 phreiisy that disgraced this age, none obtained- 
 higher -veneration, or excited more the wonder 
 of the multitude, than that of a certain order. 
 of men, who were called Stylites by the Greeks, 
 and Sancti Columnai'es, or Pillar Saints; by the 
 Latins. These were persons of a most singu- 
 lar and extravagant turn of mind, who stood 
 motionless upon the/ tops of pillara, expressly 
 raise.d_for this exercise of their.patience, and 
 remained -there ibr several, jjears;; amidst the 
 ■admiration ind applause of the stupid popu- 
 lace. The inventor of this strange and ridicu- 
 Itius discipline" was Simeon Sisanites, a Syrian, 
 
 * See the Pfatum SpirUuale of Moaclius, the Lausiac 
 History of Palla'diTls, and SuJpitius SeveruB, Dial.i. 
 
 0^ t PomeViufl wrote a Lieatise," de Vita Contem- 
 plativa, in which the doctrines and precepts o( the Mys- 
 tics were carefully collected. 
 
 who began hie follies by changing the agreea- 
 ble employment of a shepherd for the senseless 
 austeritifes of the monlrish life. "But his enthu- 
 siasm carried him still greater lengths; for, in 
 order to climb as near heaven as he could, he 
 passed thirty-seven' years of his wretched life 
 upon five pillars, of the height of six, twelve, 
 twenty-two, thirty-six, and forty cubits, .emd 
 thus acquired a most shining reputation,^nd 
 attracted the veneration- of all about him.* 
 Many of the inhabitants of Syria and Pales- 
 tine, seduced by a false ambition, and an utter 
 ignorance of true religion, followed the exam- 
 ple of this fanatic, thbugh, iiat with the same 
 degTee of austerity;! and (-what is.altnost in- 
 credible) this superstitieus practice continued 
 in vogue until the,twelfth centuiy, when, how- 
 ever, it was totally" suppressed-! 
 
 The Latins had too much wisdom and pru'- 
 denceto imitate the Syrians and Orientals in_ 
 this whimsical superstition; and when a certain 
 fanatic, or impostor, named iWilIfilaicus, erect- 
 ed one of these pillars in.the country of Treves, 
 and proposed living upon it afte.r the manner 
 of Simeon, the neighbouring, bishops ordered 
 it to be pulled down, and thus nipped this spe- 
 cies of superstition in the bud.§' 
 
 XIII. The Mystift'. rules of discipline and 
 manners had a -bad .efFeet upon the moral wri- 
 ters, and those who wore ^et apart for the in- 
 struction of Cliristians. Thus, in instructing 
 the catechumens and others, they were more 
 diligent atid zealous in inculcating a regard for 
 the external parts of religion, and an -attach- 
 ment to todily exercise, than in forming the 
 heart and the affections to inw.ard ■ piety and 
 solid virtue. They even went so far, as to jJTe- 
 scribe Tijles of sanctity and virtue little differ- 
 ent from the unnatural rigour and &natical 
 piety of the Mystics. Salvian^ and 'other cele- 
 brated writers, gave it as their opinion, that 
 none could be truly. and perfectly holy, liut, 
 those who abandoned all richei and honour^ 
 abstained firom matrimony, banished alljoy and 
 cheerfulness from their hearts, and macerated 
 their bodies witii various sorts of torments and 
 mortifications: and," as all could not support 
 such inordinate degrees Of severity, those mad- 
 men, or fanatics, whose .robust constitutions 
 and savage tempers were the best adapted to 
 this kiiid. of life, were distinguishedby the pub- 
 
 See the Acta Sanctorum Mensis Januarii. torn. i..p. 
 361^-277, where the reader will find-the account we have 
 
 given of this whimsical discipline. Theodoret, indeed, 
 ad " before given several hints of it, alleging, among 
 other things, that Simeon had gradually added to the 
 height of his pillar ,'in.the hope of making nearer approach- 
 es to heaven. See ^i'iUemont's Memoires pour "scrvir a 
 I'Histoire de I'EgliSe, torn. xv. See alsoHhe Acts of 
 Simeon the Sty>ite, in Assemani Act. Marlyrum, vol. ii. 
 
 (IQ=-,\ The learned' Frederic Spanheim, in his Ecclesi- 
 astical History, p. 1154, speaks of a second^Simeon the 
 Stylile (mentioned, by Evagrius,) who lived in the sixth 
 eenWy. TJiis second f^atic seems to have carried his 
 austerities still farther than the ehief of the. sect^ for he 
 remained upon-his pillar sixty-eigkt years, and from it? 
 like the first Simeon, he ts^ught, or ra,ther deluded the 
 gazing multitude, declaimed ag"ainst heresy, pretendedHo 
 cast out devils, to heal diseases, and to foretell 'future 
 events. 
 
 i See Urb. Godofr. Siberi Diss, de Sanctis Colunuift- 
 ribus, and Caroli Majelli Diss, de Stylitis, published in 
 Assemani Act. Martyr, tom. ii. p."346-. 
 
 § Gregor. Turon.ens. ^istor, fraiicdr. lib. viii. cap. xv- 
 p. 3S7. 
 
Chap. III. 
 
 THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 145 
 
 lie applause, and saw their influence and au- 
 thority daily increase. Thus saints started, up 
 like mushrooms in almost every place. 
 
 XIV. A small number of ecclesiastics, ani- 
 mated by the' laudable spirit of reformation, 
 boldly attempted to pluck up the roots of this 
 growing superstition,- and to bring back the de- 
 luded multitude ^rom this vain and cjiimerical 
 discipline to the practice of solid and genuine 
 piety. But tlie votai-ies of superstition, who 
 were superior in number, reputation, and au- 
 thority, soon reduced them to silence, and ren- 
 dered their noble and Jiious efforts utterly in- 
 effectual.* We have an example of this in the 
 case of Vigilantius, a inan remarkable for his 
 learning and eloquence, whd was born in Gaul, 
 and thence went to_Spain, where he perform- 
 ed the functions of a presbyter. This ecclesi- 
 astic, on his return from a voyage he had made 
 into Palestine and Egypt, began, about the 
 commencement of this century, to propagate 
 several doctrines, and to publish repeated ex- 
 hortations quite opposite to the opinions and 
 manners of the, times. Among other things, 
 he denied that the tombs and the hones of the 
 martyrs ought to be honoured with any sort of 
 hojuage or worship, and therefore censured the 
 pilgrimages that were made to places vphich 
 were reputed holy. He turned into derisipn 
 the prodigies- which were said'to be wrought in 
 the temples consecrated to martyrs, and con- 
 demned the custom of performing vigils in 
 them. He asserted, and indeed with reason, 
 that the custom of burning tapers at the toinbs 
 of tlie martyrs in, broad day, was imprudently 
 borrowed from the ancient superstition of the 
 Pagans. He-maintained, moreover, that pray- 
 ers addressed to departed saints were void of 
 all efiicacy; and treated with contempt fasting 
 and mortifications, the celibacy of the clergy, 
 and the vanousausterities of the monastic life; 
 aJld, finally, he affirmed, that the conduct of 
 those who, distributing their substance among 
 the indigent, submitted to the hardships of a 
 voluntary poverty, or sent a part of their trea- 
 sures to Jerusalem -for devout purposes,- had 
 nothing in it acceptable to the Deity. 
 
 There were among the Gallic and Spanish 
 bishops several who approved the -opinions of 
 Vigilantius: but Jerome, the great monk of the 
 age, assailed this bold reformer of religion with 
 such bitterness and fury, that the honest pres- 
 byter soon found that nothing but his silence 
 could preserve his life from the intemperate. 
 rage of -bigotry and superstition. This project 
 then of reforming the corruptions, which a fa- 
 natical and superstitious zeal had introduced 
 into the church,- was chbked in its birth;t and 
 the name of the good Vigilantius remains still 
 in that list of heretics, which is atdoiowledged 
 as authentic by those who, without any regard 
 to their own judgment or the declarations of 
 Scripture, blindly follow the decisions of an- 
 tiquity. 
 
 '* Aueustin camplains'of this^ ia his famous epiatle to 
 Janiianus, No. ^ip. 
 
 t Bayle's Dictionary, at the article Vigil^tius. — Bar- 
 beyrac, de la Morale des Peres, p. 252. — Ger. Jo. Vos- 
 siua, Theses Historico-Theologicre, p. 170.^Histoice 
 Literaire de la France, torn. ii. pT 57. 
 Vol. I.— 19 
 
 , XV. The controversies, which had been 
 raised in Egypt, concerning Origen and his 
 doctrine, toward the conclusion of the preced- 
 ing century, were now renewed at Constanti- 
 nople, and carried on. without either decency or 
 prudence. The N-itrian monks, banished from 
 Egypt on Recount of their attachment" to_ Ori- 
 gen, took refuge at Constantinople, and were 
 treated by John Chiysostom, the bishop of that 
 city, with clemency and benignity. This no 
 sooner came to the knowledge of Theophilus, 
 patriarch of Alexandria, than he formed a per- 
 fidious project against the eloquent prelate, and 
 sent the famous Epiphariius, with several other 
 bishops, to Constantinople, to compass his fall, 
 and deprive l^ini of his episcopal dignity. No 
 time could be more favourable for the execu- 
 tion of this project than that in which it was 
 formed; for Chrysostora, by his austerity, and 
 his vehement declamations against the vices of 
 the people, and the corrupt manners of the la- 
 dies of the courtj had incurred the displeasure 
 of many, and had also excited, in a more par- 
 ticular manner, the resentment and indigna- 
 tion of the empress Eudoxia, wife of Arcodius. 
 This violent princess sent for Theophilus and 
 the Egyptian bishops, who, pursuant to her 
 orders, repaired to Constantinople, and, having 
 called a council, inquired into the religious senr 
 timents of Chrysostom, and examined his mo- 
 rals, and the whole course of his conduct and 
 ccfnversation, with the utmost severity. This 
 council,, which was holden in the suburbs of 
 Cha,lecdon, in 403, .with' Theophilus at its head, 
 declared Chrysostom unwortliy of his high 
 rank in the church, on account of his favoura- 
 ble inclinations tow.ard Origen and his follow- 
 ers; and, in consequence of this decree, con- 
 demned him" to banishment. The people of 
 Constantinople, who w6re tenderly attached to 
 their pious and worthy bishop, rose in ia. tu- 
 multuous manner, and prevented- the execution 
 of this unrighteous sentence.* When, this tu- 
 mult was entirely hushed, the same unrelent- 
 ing judges, in order to satisfy their vindictive 
 rage and that of Eudoxia, renewed their sen- 
 tence, in the following year, under another pre- 
 text,f and with greater effect; for the pious 
 Chrysostojn, yielding to the redoubled efforts 
 of his enemies, was banished to Cucusus, a city 
 of Cilicia, where he died about three years 
 after.} 
 
 The exile of this illustrious man was follow- 
 ed by a terrible' sedition of the Johannists (so 
 his votaries were called,) which was calmed, 
 though with much difficulty, by the edicts oif 
 
 (t(^' * This is. not quite exact; for. it appears, by the 
 accounts of the best historians, that this sentence was 
 really executed, and that the emperor confirmed' tlie de- 
 cree, of -this first synod, by banishing; Chrysostom into 
 Bithynia; or, as otliers allege, by ordering him to retire 
 into the country. A violent earthquake and a terrible 
 shower of hail, which were looked upon by the multitude 
 as judgments occasioned bythe unrighteous persecution 
 of their pious bishop, alarmed the court, and. engaged 
 themto recall Chrysostom to his office. ^ 
 
 9^ t This new pretext was the indecent manner, in 
 which Chrysostom is said to.have declaimed againa^ Eu- 
 doxia,, on ,accounl of her having erected her statli'i ia 
 silver near t)ie ch^ch. 
 
 \ See Xillemont anil Hermant, who have both written 
 the life of Chrysostoni^^s also Bavle's Dictionary, at the 
 article (^cactus. - .wn ' 
 
146 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHtJRCH. 
 
 Fart n. 
 
 Arcadius.* It is beyond all doubt, that the 
 proceedings against Chrysostora vtere cruel'and 
 unjust! in this however he was to blame, that 
 he assumed the authority and ranlj jwhicli had 
 been granted by the^ council of Constantinople, 
 to the bishops of that city, and even acted as 
 a judge . of the controversy between Theophi- 
 hjs and the Egyptian mon^s, which the-Alex- 
 andrian prelate «ould not behold without the 
 utmost impatience and resentment; These 
 monks, when they lost their protector, were 
 restored to the favour of Theophihis; but the 
 faction- of the Origenists continued, notwith- 
 standing all this, to flourish in Egypt, Syria, 
 and the adjacent countries, aniJ held their chief 
 residence at Jerusalem. 
 
 ' CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Concerning the Rites and Ceremonies used in the 
 Church dwring this Centwry. 
 
 I. To enumerate the rites and institutions 
 that were added, in this century, to the Chris- 
 tian worship, would require a volume of a con- 
 siderable size. The acts of councils, and the 
 records left us by the most celebrated ancient 
 writers, are. the sources from whifch the curious 
 may draw a particular and satisfactory account 
 of this inatter; and to these we refer such as 
 are desirbu? of something more than a general 
 view of the subject under consideration. Seve- 
 ral of these ancient writers, uncorrupted by th& 
 contagious e.'iam.ples of the times in which 
 they lived, have ingenuously acknowledged, 
 that true piety and^irtue were smothered, as 
 it were, under that enormous biifthen of cere- 
 monies under which they lay groaning in this 
 century. This evil was owing, partly to the 
 ignorance and dishonesty of the clergy, partly 
 to the calamities of the times, which were ex- 
 tremely unfavourable to the pursuit of know- 
 ledge, and to the culture of the inind; and 
 partly, indeed, to the natural depravity of im- 
 perfect mortals, who are much more disposed 
 to worship with- the eye than with the hfeart, 
 and are more ready to offer to the Deity the 
 laborious poihp of an outward service, than 
 the nobler, yet simple oblation of pious dispo-_ 
 sitions and holy affections. 
 
 II. Divine worship was now daily rising 
 from one degree of pomp to another, and de- 
 generating more and more into a gaudy spec- 
 tacle, only calculated to attract the stupid ad- 
 miration of a gazing populace. The sacerdo- 
 tal garrrlents were embellished with a variety. 
 of ornaments, with a view of exciting in the 
 minds Of the- multitude a greater -veneration 
 for the sacred order, ifew acts of devotion 
 were also celebrated. In Gaul, particularly,"^ 
 the solemn prayers and. supphcations, which 
 usually precede the anniversary of Christ's as- 
 cension, were now instituted for the-firsttime.1 
 In other places, perpetual acclamations of 
 praise to God were performed both night and 
 day by successive singers, so that the service 
 
 *Se* .CyriUi Vita Sabae in Cotelerii Monument. Ec- 
 clei. Graec. torn. ii.'p.274, Jos. Sim. Asseman. Biblfotli. 
 OViental; Vatican, torn. ii. p. 31. 
 
 i See Sidonius A'poUinaris, Epist. lib. r. Epist. xvi. 
 lib. Ti. Epist. i.; a? also Marteune, Thesaurus Anecdoto- 
 vuin> torn. Y. 
 
 suffered no interruption;* as if the Supremo 
 Being took pleasure in such noisy and turbu- 
 lent shouting, or received any gratification 
 from the blandishments of men. The riches 
 and magnificence of the churches exceeded all 
 bounds.f They were also adorned with costly 
 images, among which, in consequence of- the 
 Nestorian controversy, that of the Virgin Ma- 
 ry, holding the child Jesus in her arms, obtain- 
 ed the j)rincipal place. The altars, and the 
 chests in which the relics were preserved, were 
 in most places made of sohd silver; and ,from 
 this we may easily imagine the spl^dour and 
 expenses that, were lavished upon the other 
 utensils which wisre employed in the-service of 
 the church. ' 
 
 III. On the other hand, the agapa, or feasts 
 of charity, were now suppressed on account of 
 the abuses to which they gave occasion, amidst 
 the daily decline of that piety and virtue, 
 which had rendered these meetings useful and 
 edifying in the primitive ages. 
 
 A new method also of proceeding with peni- 
 tents was introducefl^into the Latin church; for 
 grievous offenders, who had ftrmerly been 
 obhged to- confess their guilt in the face of the. 
 congregation, were now, delivered, from , this 
 mortifying penalty, and' obtained, from Leo the 
 Great, a permission to confess their crimes pri- 
 vately to a priest appointed for that purpose. 
 By" this change of the ancient discipline, oi^ 
 of the greatest restraints ' upon licentiousness 
 (and the only remaining barrier of chastity,) 
 was entirely removed, and the actions of Chris- 
 tians were subject to no other scrutiny than 
 that of the clergy; a change, which was fre- 
 quently convenient for the sinner, and also ad- 
 vantageous in many respects to the sacred 
 order. _ 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Concerning the Dissensions and Heresies that 
 
 trovhlfd the Church during &is Centwry- 
 
 I. SpvERAL of those sects, which had di- 
 vidfed the church in the preceding ages, renew- 
 ed their efforts at this tinje, to propagate their 
 respective opinions, and introduced new tu- 
 mults and animosities among the Christians. 
 We sTiall say nothing of- the_Novatians, Ma,T- 
 cionites, and Manicheans, those inauspicious 
 and fatal names which disgrace the earlier an- 
 nals of the church, though it is evident, that 
 those sects still subsisted, and were even nu- 
 merous in many places. We shall confine our- 
 selves to an account of the Donatists and Ari- 
 ans, who were the pests of thfe preceding cen- 
 tury. 
 
 The Donatists had hitherto "maintained 
 themselves with a, successful obstinacyj and 
 their affairs were in a good state. But, about 
 the beginning of this century, the face of things 
 changed much to their disadvantage, by the 
 means of St. Augustine,' bishop of Hippo. 
 The catholic bishops of Africa, animated by 
 the exhortations, and conducted by the coun- 
 sels of this zealous prelate, exerted themselves 
 with the utmost vigour in the destruction of 
 
 * Gervais, Histoire de Soger, torn. i. p. 93. 
 
 t See Zacharias of Mitylenc,de Opi£cioMundi,p. 165, 
 
Chap. V. 
 
 DIVISIONS AND HERESIES. 
 
 147 
 
 those 'Seditious sectaries; whom they jqstly 
 looked ujjon, not only ecs troublesome to. the 
 church by their obstinacy, but also as a liui- 
 Bance to the state by the brutal soldiery* which 
 they employed in their cause. Accojxiingly 
 deputies were sent, in 404, from the council, of 
 Carthage to the emperor Honorius, to request, 
 that the laws enacted against heretics, by the 
 preceding emperors, might have force against 
 the Donatists, who denied that they belonged 
 to the heretical tribe; and also to desire, that' 
 bounds might be set to the barbarous fury of 
 theCircumcellibnes. The first step that the 
 emperor took, in consequence of this request, 
 was to impose a fine upon all the Donatists 
 who iJefused to return Jnto this bosom of the 
 church, ftnd to send their bishops and doctors 
 into banishment. In the following year, new 
 laws, much more severe than the former, were 
 enacted against this rebellious sect, under the 
 title of Acts of Uniformity ; ,and, as the magis- 
 trates were remiss in the execution of them, 
 the council of Carthage, in 407, sent a second 
 time deputies to the emperor, to desire that 
 certain persons might be appointed to execute 
 the new edicts .with Vigour and impartiality; 
 and this request was granted. 
 
 II. The Donatist faction, thpugh much bro- 
 ken by these repeated shocks,' was yet far from 
 being totally extinguished. It recovered a 
 part of its strength in 408, after Stilicho had 
 been put to death "by the order of Honorius, 
 aiid gained an accession of. vigour in the fol- 
 lowing year; in which the emperor published.a 
 law in favour of liberty of conscience, and pro- 
 hibited all compulsion in matters of religion. 
 This law, however, was'not of long duration. 
 It was abrogated at the earnest and repeated 
 soUcitations of the council j which met" at Car- 
 thage in 419; and Marcellinus the tribune was 
 Bent b^ Hoixorius.into Aiffioa, with full power 
 to bring to a conclusion .this> tedious and Un- 
 happy politest. Marcellinus, therefoire, held at 
 Carthage, in 4 11,. a solemn conference, in 
 which he examined the cause with miich at- 
 tention, heard the contending parties during 
 the space of three d^-ys, and, at length, pro- 
 nounced sentence in favovlr of the catholics.f 
 The catholic Mshops, who were present at this 
 conference, vrere 286 in numberj and those of 
 the Donatists were 219. TPhe latter; upon'their 
 ic&at, appealed to the .emperor, hut without, 
 effect. The glory of their. defeat' was due to 
 Augustine, who bore the principal part in this 
 controversy, and who, indeed, by his writings, 
 counsels, and admonitions, govei'ned almost 
 
 * The CircumcelUones already mentioned. - ^ 
 \ See Franc. Balduin, Hist. CoUationia Carthag. in 
 Optat. Milev. Pinian. p. 337. It is proper to "observe 
 here,'^hat this meeting, holden by Marcellinus, is "very 
 improperly termed a cOTiferencc {coUdtio;) for there w.as 
 no dispute carried on at this meeting, between the catho- 
 lics' and the Donatists, nor "did any of the parties en- 
 deavour to gain or defeat the other by superiority of af- 
 gument. This-'conference, then, was properly a judicial 
 trial, in which Marcellinus wa»- >*«^ *.hs emperor, ap- 
 pointed judge, or arbiter, o? this . religious controversy, 
 and accordingly .pronounced sentence after a proper hear- 
 ing of the cause. It appears, therefore, from this event, 
 that the notion .of a supreme spiritual judge of contro- 
 versy, and ruler of the church appointed by Christ, had 
 not yet entered into any one's head, since' we see the Afri- 
 can bishops themselves appealing to the- emperor in the 
 pregent religious question. 
 
 the whole African church, and also the princi- 
 pal and most illustrious heads of that extensive 
 province. ^ 
 
 . III. This conference greatly weakened the 
 party of ths-Donatists; nor cotild they ever get 
 th^ better Of this terrible shock, though the 
 'face of aifairs changed afterwards in a manner 
 that se'eraed to revive their hopes. The greatest 
 part of them; -through the' fear of punishment, 
 submitted to the emperor's decree, and return- 
 ed ipto the bosom-of the church; while the se- 
 verest penalties were inflicted upon thos,e who , 
 remained obstinate, and persisted in their re- 
 bellion. Fines, banishment, confiscation of 
 .goods, were "the ordinary punishments of the 
 obstinate Donatists; and even the pain of death 
 was inflicted upon such as surpassed the lest in 
 perverseness, and were the seditious ringleaders 
 of that stubborn faction. Some avoided these ■ 
 penalties by flight,.others by concealing them- 
 selves, and some were so desperate as to seek 
 deliverance by self-murder, to which the Do- 
 natists had a shocking propensity. In the mean 
 time, the CircumcelUones used more violent 
 methods of Warding. off the execution of the 
 sentence that was - pronounced against their 
 sect; for they ran up and down- -through the 
 province of Africa in the most outrageous 
 manner, committing "acts of great cruelty, and 
 defending tjiemselves by force of arms. 
 
 The Donati^t^, indeed, recovered afterwards 
 their former liberty and tranquillity by the suc- 
 cour and protection they received from the 
 'V^^and"als, who invaded Africa, with Gegseric 
 at their head, in 421, and took that province 
 out of the hands of the Romans. Thfe wounds, 
 however, which this sect had received from the 
 vigourous execution of the imperial laws, were 
 so deep, that, though it began to revive and 
 multiply by the assistancfe of the Vandals, .t 
 could never " regain its former strength and 
 lustre. ■ . , " 
 
 IV.- The Arians, oppressed and persecuted 
 by the imperial edict^, took refuge among those 
 fierce apd savage nations, who were gradually 
 overturning the western "empire, and found 
 among- the Goths; Suevi, Heruli, Vandals, and 
 Burgundians, a fixed residence and a peaceful 
 retreat; and,- as their security animated their 
 courage, they treated the catholics with the 
 same violence which the latter had employed 
 against them and other heretics, and harassed 
 and persecuted in various ways such as profess- 
 ed their adherence to the Nicene doctrines. 
 The Vandals, who reigned in Africa, surpass- 
 ed all the other savage nations in barbarity and , 
 injustice toward the catholics. The kings of 
 this, fierce, people, particularly Genseric' and 
 Huneric his son, pulled' down the churches of 
 those Christians who acknowledged the divini- 
 ty of Christ, sent their, bishops into exile, and 
 maimed and tormented such as were nobly 
 firm and inflexible in the profession of- their 
 faith.* They however declared, that, in using 
 these severe and violent methods, they, were 
 authorised by the example of the empefBrs, 
 who had enacted laws of the same rigorous 
 nature against the Donatists, the Allans, and 
 
 * See Victor 'Vitens. lib. iii. de Persequutione "Vandali- 
 ca,which Tlwod. Rulnart published at Paris in 1694, 
 with his own history of the same persecution. 
 
148 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH- 
 
 Part II. 
 
 oth^ sects who differed in opinion frojn the 
 Christians of Constantinople.* 
 
 We must not here omit -mentioning the stu- 
 pendous miracle, which is said to have been 
 wrought during these peraeputions ihAfricaj- 
 and by which the Supreme Being is supposed 
 to have declared his displeasure agali^t the 
 Allans, and his favour toward their adversa- 
 ries. This riiiracle consisted in enabling those 
 catholics, whose tongues had been cut out by 
 the Arian tjrrant Huneric, to speak distinctly, 
 and to proclaim aloud the divine majesty ot 
 the Saviour of the world. This remarkable 
 fact can scarcely be denied, since it is support- 
 ed by thel.estimony of the most credible and 
 Respectable witnesses;t but whether it is to be 
 
 * See the edict of Huneric, in the history of Victor, 
 lib. LT. cap. ii. p. 64. 
 
 ():^ -j^These witnesses, 'who had themselves ocular de- 
 monstration of the fact, were Victor of" Utica, ^neas of 
 Craza^who examined the mouths of the persons in question, 
 and found that their tongues were entirely rooted out,} 
 Procopius, Marcelliuus the count, and the emperor Jus- 
 tinian. Upon the autborily of such respectable testimo- 
 nies,, the learned Abbadie formed a laboured and dexter- 
 ous defence of the miraculous nature of this extraordinary 
 &ct, in his.work entitled^ La Triomphe de la Frovidence, 
 vol. iii. p. S55, where all the fire of his zeal, and all the 
 suhtilty of his logic^ seem to have been exhausted. Dr. 
 Berriman, in his Historical Account of the Trinitarian 
 Controversy, as also in his sermons, preached at Lady 
 Moycr's Lectures, in 1725, and Dr. Chapman,in his Mis^ 
 cellaneous Tracts, have maintained the same hypothesis. 
 To theformer, an answer was published by an anonymous 
 writer, under the following title: ** An Enquiry into the 
 Miracle said to have been wrought in the fifth century, 
 upon some orthodox Christians, in favour of the Doctrine 
 ol the Trinity, &c. in a Letter to a Friend." We may 
 venture to says that this answer ia utterly" unsatisfactory. 
 The author of it, after having labou-red to invalidatetne 
 testimony alleged in favour of the fact, seems hiftiself 
 scarcely convinced by his own arguments; . for he ac- 
 knowte^esat last-the possibility, of the event, but per- 
 sists in^denyii^ the -miracle, and supposes, that the cruel 
 operation was so imperfectly performed upon thfese con- 
 fessors, as to leave in some jjf them such a share of the 
 tongue, as was auflScient for the use of speech. Dr. JVIid- 
 dleton, (to whom some have attributed the above-men- 
 tioned answ'cr) maintains the same hypothesis, in his Free 
 inquiry into the Miraculous Powers, &c> supposing, that 
 the tongues -of the persons in question were not entirely 
 rooted out,. which he corroborates by the following' con- 
 sideration, that two of the sufferers are said :to have ut- 
 terly lost the faculty of a;pea1ctng; for, though this might 
 be ascribed to a peculiar judgment of 0od, punishing the 
 immoralities of which they were afterwards guilty, yet 
 this appears to -bea^orced and improbable solution of the 
 matter, in the opinion of the doctor, who imagines that 
 he solves it better by supposing, that they had not bpen 
 deprived of their entire- tongues. He goes yet farther, 
 and produces two cases from the Memoirs -of the Academy 
 of Sciences at Paris, which prOvej in his opinion, ''That 
 this pretended miracle owed its whole- credit to our igiio- 
 raoce of the powers of nature." The 'first is that of ^^ a 
 
 irl born without a tongue, who yet talked as easily.and 
 
 ,)stinclly,'a9 if she had enjoyed the full benefit oT-that 
 org^an;'* and the second, that of "a. hoy, who, at the age 
 of eight or nine years, lost his tongue by-a gangrene, or' 
 ulcer, and yet retained the faculty of speaking.*' . See 
 Middleton's Free Inquiry, p. 183, 184. 
 
 This, reasoning of the sceptical do'ctor of divinity ap- 
 peared superficial and unsatisfactory to the judicious Mr. 
 Dodwell, who (saying nothing about the case of the two 
 Trinitarians who remained dumb, after. tlTeir tongues 
 were cut out, and whose dumb&ess is but indifferently ac- 
 counted for by their immorality, sin6e gifts have been 
 oilen possessed without grace) confines himself to the 
 consideration of the two parallel facts drawn from the 
 Academical Meihoirs already mentioned. To show that 
 these facts prove little or nothing,againBt the mij-acle in 
 question, he justly observes, that though, in one' .or two 
 particular cases, a mouth may.be so singulaiiy formed as 
 to utter articulate sounds, without the usual instrument 
 of speech, (some excrescence probably supplying the de- 
 fect,) yet it cannot be auy thing less than miraculous. 
 
 % 
 
 attributed to ^ supernatural and miraculous 
 power, is a point which admits dispute.* 
 
 V. A new sect, wliich was th? source of 
 most fatal a&d deplorable 'divisions in the 
 Christian church, was formed by NestdriuSi 
 a Syrian bishop of Gctostantinople, a disciple 
 of the celebrated Theodore of Mopsuestia, and 
 
 man yemarkable for his learning "and elo- 
 quence, which were, however, accompanied 
 with much levity, and with intolerable arro- 
 gance. Before we enter into a particular ac- 
 .count of the doctrine of this sectary, it is pro- 
 
 that this'should hajlpen to a considerable number of per-. 
 sons, whose tongues were cut out to prevent thfeir preach- 
 ing a discountenanced doctrine. To deny the miracle 
 in question, we miMt- maintaiD,-J.hat it is as easy to speak 
 without a tongue, as with rt. See Mr, DodwelPs Free 
 Answer to Dr. Middleton'sFree Inquiry^ p. 56. 
 
 Mr. Toll, who defended Middleton's hypothesis, has 
 proposed an objection, a ipvtori, as it maybe justly call- 
 ed, to the truth of this miracle. He observes, that the 
 occasion on which it wasi wrought was not of sufficient 
 consequence or necessity to require a divine interposition; 
 for it was not wrought to convert infidels to Christianity, 
 but to bring over the followersjjf Arius to the Athanasian 
 faith; it, was wrought, in a word, for the explication of a 
 doctrine, whi,ch both sides allowed to be founded in the 
 New Testament. Now, as.the -Scriptures are a revela- 
 tion of the will of God, "it seems, (says Mr. Toll) to 
 cast a reflection on his wisdom, as if he did things by 
 halves, to suppose it necessary fpr him to work miracles, 
 in Order to ascertafn the sense of those Scriptures. This 
 (continues he) would he multiplying miracles , to an in-. 
 finite degree; — besides, it would destroy the universal 
 truth of thaC proposition from.'wbich we cannot depart, 
 namely,. That the Scriptures are sufficiently plain mall 
 things necessary to -salvation." See Mr. Toll's Defence 
 of Dr. Middleton's Force Inquiry, against Mr.' Dodwell's 
 Free Answer. To this specious olyection Mr. Dodwell 
 replies^ that on the doctrine in disgu_te between the Ari- 
 ans and the orthodox, t^e true notion, as well as the im- 
 portance and reality of our salvation, may be said to de- 
 peu4Jj that the doctrines, duties, ajid motives.-of Chris- 
 tianity, ^are exalted or debased j as' we embrace one or^ 
 the other of those systems; that, on the divinity of Christ, 
 ithe meriloriousness. of the propitiation offered -by him 
 must entirely re^t; and that, therefore, no occasion of 
 greater consequence can be assigned on which a miracle 
 might be expected. He. adds, that the disputes which 
 men have raised 'about certaiA doctrines, are no proof 
 that these doctrines are .not plainly revealed in Scrip- 
 ture, since this would prove that no'truth is there suffi- 
 ciently revealed, because, at one time or other, they have 
 been .all disputed; and he observes judiciously, that the - 
 expediency of jnterposjng bymirades, is what we always - 
 are not competent Judges of, since God alone knows the 
 times, seasons, and occasions, in whicl) it is proper to al- 
 ter the usual "cOurse of nattire, in order to maintain the 
 trutK, to support the oppressed, and to carry on the 
 g;reat purposes of his gospel kingdom. It is enough, that 
 the present interposition be not incvedihle, to remove Mr. 
 Toll's objection, without considering its particular use, 
 and the unexceptionable manner in lyhich it is attested." 
 See Mr. Dodwell's Full and filial Reply to 'Mr, Toll's 
 Defence, p. 270. 
 
 We must observe here that the latter ohjeclion ^nd 
 answer are merely hypothetical, «'. e. they draw their 
 force only from the different opinions, which the ingeni- 
 ous Mr. Toll and his learned antagonist entertain con- 
 cerning the importance of the doctrine,, in favour of 
 which this pretended miracle is said to have been wrought. 
 The-grand question, whose decision alone can finish this 
 controversy, is, whether the tongues of these African 
 confessors were entirely rooted out, or not. The case 
 of the tvpo who remained dumb furnishes a shrewd pre- 
 sumption, that the cruel operation was not equally per- 
 formed upon all. The immoralitv of these two, and the 
 judgment of G9d, suspending with respect to them the 
 influence of the miracle, do not solve this difficulty en- 
 tirely,.-since (as we observed above)' many have possessed 
 supernatural gifts without grace; and Christ tells us, that 
 many have cast out devils in his name, whom at the last 
 day he will not acknowledge as his faithful servants. 
 . * See Kuindrti Histor. Persequut. Vandal, part ii. cap. 
 vii. p. 483. See Bibliotheque Britannique, tom. iii. pari 
 ii. p. 339. lom. v. part i. p. 171. 
 
Chap. V. 
 
 DIVISIONS AND HERESIES. 
 
 149 
 
 per to oGserve, that though, by the decrees of 
 former councils, it bad been clearly and pe- 
 remptorily determined, that Christ was, at the 
 same time, true God and true man, yet .no 
 council had hitherto decreed any thing con- 
 cerning the manner and' effect of" this union of 
 the two natures in the divine Saviour; nor had 
 this point yet become a topic of inquiry or dis- 
 pute among Christians. The consequence of 
 this was, that the Christian doctors expressed 
 themselves differently on the subject of this 
 mystery. Some used such forms of expression 
 as seemed to widen the difference between the 
 Son of God and the son of man, and thus to 
 divide the nature of Christ into two distinct 
 persons. Others, on the contrary, seemed to 
 confound too much the Son of God with the 
 son of man, -and to suppose tKe nature of Christ 
 composed of his divinity and humanity blended 
 into one. 
 
 -The iieresyof ApoUinaris had given occa- 
 sion to . these different ways of speaking; for 
 he maintained that the manChrist wis noten^ 
 dpwed with a human soul, but with the divine 
 natur^, which was substituted in its place, and 
 performed its functions; and this doctjino mani- 
 festly supposed a confusion of the two natures 
 in the -Messiah. The Syrian doctors, there- 
 ■ fore, that they might avoid tlie-errors of Apol- 
 linajris,' and exclude his followers from the 
 communion of the church, were careful jn.es- 
 tablishing an accurate distinction between the 
 divine and the human nature in the Son of 
 iGod; and for this purpose they used such forms 
 of expression as sepmed to favour the notion 
 "of Christ's being composed of two distinct per- 
 sonsl The manner of speaking, adopted by 
 the Alexandrians and EgyptianSj'-had a differ- 
 ent tendency, and seemed to countenance the 
 doctrine of ApoUinaris, and, by a confusion of 
 the two natures, to, blend them into one. Nes- 
 torius, who was a Syrian, and had adopted-the 
 sentiments of the divines of his nation, was a 
 violent enemy to all the sects, but to -none so 
 much as to the ApoUinarian. faction, at whose 
 ruin he aimed vpith tin ardent and inextinguish^ 
 able zeal. He therefore discoursed of the two 
 natuf'es in Christ after the Syrian manner, and 
 commanded his disciples to distinguish ca,refijl- 
 ly between the actions arid perceptions* of the 
 Son of Godf and those of the son of man.f 
 
 VI. The occasion of this disagreeable con- 
 troversy was furnished by the presbyter Anas- 
 tasius, a friend of Nestorius. This_ ecclesias- 
 tic, in a jiublic discourse, delivered in 428, de- 
 claimed warmly against the title of ©raroxo;, or 
 mother-fif God, which was now more frequent- 
 ly attributed to the Virgin Mary, in the con- 
 
 {JQ- * The original word perfes^j which signiOes 
 properly suffering or passion, we have here translated by 
 the general term, perception,\)eC!iusc suffering or passion 
 cannot be, in any sense, attributed to the divine nature. 
 
 f The Jesuit Douc'in puBlished at Fari3,'in 1716, a His- 
 tory of Nestorianism; but. it Is such a history as migUt 
 he expected 'from a writer, who was obliged", byTiis pro- 
 fession, to place the arrogant Cyril among the saints, and 
 ]Ve8torius -among; the heretics. The ancient writers, on 
 both sides of wis controversy, are mentioned by Jor- 
 Franc. Baddeus, in his Isa^oge in Theologiam, torn.- ii. 
 •The accounts given of this dispute by the oriental writers, 
 are collected-Hjy Renaudot, m his Historia Patriarch. 
 Alexandrm. and by Jos. Sim. Assemanus, in his Biblioth. 
 Orient. Vatican. 
 
 troversy against the^rianS, than, it had for- 
 merly been, and was a favourite term with the 
 followers oif Apollinarifl. Ho, at the same 
 time, gave it as his opinion, that the Holy Vir- 
 gin was rather to bp called Xf isotoxos, i. ,e. 
 mother of Christy since the Deity can neither 
 be born nor die, and, of consequence, the son 
 of man alone could derive his birth from an 
 earthly pal'ent. Nestorius applauded these 
 sentiments, and explained and defended them 
 in several discburses.* But both he and hia 
 friend Anastasius were keenly opposed by cer- 
 tain monks of Constantinople, who maintain- 
 ed that the son of Mary was God incarnate, 
 and excited the zeal and fury of the populace 
 to maintain this doctrine against Nestorius. 
 Notwithstanding all this, the discourses of the 
 latter were extremely well received in many 
 places, and had the majority on their side. The 
 Egyptian monks had no sooner perused them, 
 than they were persuaded, by the weight of 
 the arguments they contained, to embrace the 
 opinions of Nestorius, and accordingly ceased 
 td call the Blessed Virgin the mother of God. 
 
 VII. The prelate who then ruled the see of 
 Alexandria, was Cyril, a man of a haughty, 
 turbulent, an^ imperious temper, and paiiifully 
 jealous of the rising power and authority of 
 the-bishop of Constantinople. As soon as thia^ 
 controversy came to his knowledge', hecensur 
 ed the lEgyptian monlis and Nestorius; and, 
 finding the latter little disposed to submit to 
 his censure, he proQeeded tp violent measures) 
 took counsel with Celestine, bishop of Rome, 
 whom_ he had engaged on his side; assembled 
 a council at Alexandria in 43Q; and hurled 
 twelve anathemas at the head of Nestorius. 
 The thunderstriokeri prelate-di4 not'sink imder 
 this violent shock; but, seeing himself unjustly 
 accused of derogating from the majesty of - 
 Christ, he. retorted the same accusation upon 
 his adversary, charged him with the ApoUina- 
 rian heresy, with confounding the two natures 
 in Christ, and loaded Cyril with as many ana^ 
 themas as he had' received from him. This 
 unhappy contest between prelates of the first 
 order, proceeded rather from, corrupt motives 
 of jealousy and ambition, than firOm a sincere 
 and disinterested zeal for the Iruth, and was 
 the source of unnumbered evils and calamities. 
 
 VIII. When the spirits were so exasperated 
 on both sideb, by- reciprocal excommunications 
 and polemic writings; that there was no pros- 
 pect of! an amicable issue to this unintelligible 
 controversy, Theodosius. the younger called a 
 Council at Ephesus, in 431, which was the third 
 general council iil the annals of, the church. 
 In this council Cyril presided, th.ough h% was 
 the party concerned, and the avowed enemy 
 of Nestorius; Etnd he proposed examining and 
 determining the matter in debate before John 
 of Antioch and the other eastern bishops ar- 
 rived. Nestorius objected to this proceeding, 
 as irregular and unjust; but, his. remonstrances 
 jDeing without effect, he refused to comply with 
 the summons which called him to appear be- 
 fore the council. Cyril, on the other hand, 
 pushing on matters with a lawless violence. 
 
 . *See Harduini Concilia. . ton), i.; and the Biblioth. 
 Orient, Vaticui. torn. iii. ' . 
 
150 
 
 INTERNAL fflSTORY OF THE CHURCli. 
 
 Part n. 
 
 Nestorius was judged without being heard; 
 and, during the absence of a great number pf 
 those bisliops who belonged to the council, he 
 was compared with the traitor Judas, charged 
 with blasphemy against the divine majesty, 
 deprived of his episcopal, dignity, and sent into 
 exile, where he finished his days.*- The trans- 
 actions of this council will appear to the can- 
 did and equitable reader in the most unfavour- 
 able light, as full .of low artifice, contrary to 
 all the rules of justice, and even destitute of 
 the least air- of common decency. The doc- 
 trine, however, that was established in it con- 
 cerning Christ, was that Which has been al- 
 ways acknowledged and adopted by the major- 
 ity of Christians, viz. "That Christ was- one 
 divine person, in whom two natures were most 
 olosejy and intimately united, but without be- 
 ing mixed or confounded." 
 
 IX. Nestorius, among accusations of less 
 moment, was Charged with dividing, the nature 
 of Christ into two distinct persons, and with 
 haying maintained, that the-di,vine Jiature was 
 superadded to the human nature of Jesus, after 
 it was formed, and Was no more than an aux- 
 ilioly support to the man Christ, through the 
 whole of his life. Negtorius denied, this.charge 
 even to the last, and solemnly professed his 
 entire disapprobation of this doctrine.! Nor 
 indeed was this opinion ever proposed by.him 
 in any of his writings: it was only charged 
 upon him by his iniquitous adversaries as a con- 
 sequence, drawn from some incautious-and- am- 
 biguous terms he used, and particularly from 
 his refusing to call the Virgin Mary the mother 
 of God.J Hence many, and indeed the major- 
 ity of writers, both ancient and modem, after 
 a thorough examination of this matter, have 
 positively concluded, that the opinions of Nes- 
 torius, artd of the council which condemned 
 them, were the same in effect; that their dif- 
 ference was in woi:ds oitly, and that the whole 
 blame of this unhappy controversy was to, be. 
 charged,upon the turbulent spirit of Cyril, and 
 his aversion to Nestorius.S 
 
 *.^hose who desire a more ample aceount of -this coun- 
 cil, may consult the Variorum Patrum Epistolas ad Con- 
 eiliutn Ephesinum pertin^tes, published at'Louvain in^ 
 1683, from some Valic.an and other manuscripts by 
 Christian Lupus. ' Nestorius, in dbnsequence of the sen- 
 tence pronounced against him in this council, was first 
 banished to Petra in 'Arabia, and aflerwards to .Oasis, a 
 solitary place in* the deserts .of Egypt, where he died in 
 i 4^. . 'pne- accounts given" of his tragical death by Eva- 
 griuB, in, his £ccl. Hist. lib. i.-cap. vii, and by Theodo- 
 nis.lhe Reader, Hist.' ,Eccl. lib. ii. p. €65; are. entirely 
 fabulgus, Ot^'Dr. Mosheim's, account of the ^ time. of. 
 IVestorius' death is -perhaps inexact; for it appears that 
 ffestorius was<at Oasis, wnen .Socrates wrote^ that is, in 
 439. ' See Socrat. lib. vii. cap. Xxxiv. 
 
 f See Garnier's edition of the works of Marius Mer- 
 cator, tomi ii. p.' 286. See also the fragments of some 
 letters from Nestorius, which- are to be found in 'the 
 Biblioth. Oriental. Vatican, torn. ii._ . 
 
 {tt^ t It is remarkable, that Cyril would not hear the 
 explanations which Nestorius oHered to give of his doc-' 
 tribe. The ,latter even offered to grant the title of Mo- 
 ther of God to the Virgin Mary, provi,ded that nothing 
 else was thereby meant, but that the man born of her 
 was nnited to- the" divinity. See Socrat. lib. vii. cap. 
 
 XXXIT. 
 
 $ Luther was the first of the modern writers, who 
 *^caffht thusf and he inveighed 'against Cyril, with the 
 _rS3»Bt bitterness, iff his' book de Conciliis, torn. viii. op. 
 Allenb. p. 965,366,373. Seel also Bayle's Dictionary, 
 It the articles Nestorius and Rodon.^Christ. August, 
 
 .This judgment may be just upon the whole; 
 but it is, however, true, that Nestorius com- 
 mitted two faults in the course of this contro- 
 versy. The first was,- his giving offence to 
 many Cluistians by abrogating a trite and in- 
 nocent term;* and the second, his presumptu- 
 ously attempting to explain, byi uncouth com- 
 parisons and improper expressions^ ^ mystery 
 which infinitely surpasses the -extent of our im- 
 perfect reason. If to these defects we add the 
 despotic spirit and ,the excessive warmth of this 
 persecuted prela.te, it will be difiiQult to decide 
 who is most to be blamed, as the principal- fo- 
 menter'of this violent contest, Cyril or Nesto^ 
 rius."| 
 
 - X. The council'of Ephesus, instead of heal- 
 ing these divisions, only inflamed them more 
 and more, and almost destroyed all. .hope of 
 restoring concord and tranquillity in the church. 
 John of Antioch, and the other eastern bish- 
 ops, for whose arrival Cyril had refusad to wkit, 
 met at Ephesus, and pronounced against him 
 and Memnon, the bishop of that city, who was 
 hi^-creatmre, as severe a sentence as they had 
 thundered against Nestorius. Hence arose a 
 new and obstinate dissension between Cyril 
 and the Orientals, With the bishop of Antioch 
 at their head. This flame indeed abated in 
 4SS, after Cyril had received the articles of 
 faith -drawn up by John, and abandoned cer- 
 tain "phrases and, expressions, of which the li- 
 tigious might make a pernicious use. Biit the 
 commotions, which arose from this fatal conr 
 troversy, were more durable in the east.f No- , 
 thing could oppose the' progress of Nestoriaii-. 
 ism in those parts. The disciples and friends 
 of the persecuted prelate carried his doctrine 
 through all the Oriental provinces, and erect- 
 ed every where,congr,egjitions which professed 
 an invincible opposition to the decrees of the" 
 council of Ephesus. The Persians, among 
 others, opposed Cyril in the most vigorous man- 
 ner, maintained that Nestorius -had been un- 
 justly condemned at Ephesus, and charged Cy- 
 ril with removing tjiat distinction which 'sub- 
 sists between the two natures in Christ. But 
 
 Salig, de Eutychianismo ante Eutychen. p 
 
 Ered. SehutziuB, de Vita Chy'traei, |ib.^ ii. t_^ ^. 
 
 'o. "Voigt Biblioth. Historiae Hseresiologicae, 
 iii.^ p. 457.— Paul. Erne'st^ Jablonshy, Exerc. 
 
 p. 200.--Otto( 
 cap. xxix. p. 
 
 190, 191.^. " • • " ' ""■■ • 
 
 torn. i. part i _ 
 
 de -Nestorianismo. — Thesaur. Epistolic. Crozianus, torn, 
 i, Pvl84, torn. iii. p. 175. — La Vie de la Croze, par Jpr- 
 danj p.'331, and many others. As to the' faults th&t have - 
 been laid to the charge of Nestorius, they are collected 
 by" Asseman-in his Biblioth. Orient. "Vatican, torn. iii. 
 part ii. p. 310. 
 
 (S(f- * The title of Mother vf'Qod, applied to the Vir- 
 ginMary, is not perhaps so innocent as Dr. Mosheim 
 takes it to be. To the judicious and learned it can pre- 
 sent no idea at all^ and,^to the ignorant and unwary it 
 may present the most absurd and monstrous notions. The 
 invention and use of such m,y^terious terms, as have no 
 place in Scripture, are undojibtedly pernicious to true 
 religion.-^ -■ 
 
 g(^. f.Tljcre is no difficulty at all in deciding this 
 question.' Nestorius, though possessed of an arrogant 
 apd persecuting spirit in general, yet does not seem to 
 deserve, in this particular case, the reproaches that are 
 -due to Cyril. Anastasius, not Nestorius, was the first 
 who kindled theilame, and Nestorius .was. the suffering 
 and persecuted pATty from the beginninl^ of the contro- 
 versy to his death. His offers of accommodation were 
 refused, his explanatiohs were not read, his submission 
 was rejected^ acd^e was condemned unl^eard. 
 
 X See Christ. Aug. Salig, de Eutyehianismo ante £utf- 
 chem p. 343. 
 
Chap. V. 
 
 DIVISIONS AND HEKESIES. 
 
 ISi 
 
 nothing, tended so much to propagate with ra- 
 pidity'the doctrine of Nestoriua, as its being 
 received' iii the famous school which had for a 
 Ifjng time flourished at Edessa. For the doc- 
 tors of liiis renowned academy not only in- 
 structed IKe youth in the Nestorian tenets, but 
 translated from the Greek into the Syriao lan- 
 guage the books pf Nestorius;- of his master 
 Th'eodorus of Mopsuestia, and the writings also 
 of Dio'dorus of Tarsus, and ipread them abroad 
 througjiout Assyria and Persia.* 
 
 XI. Of" all the prompters of the Nestorian 
 cause, there was not one to whom it has such 
 weighty obligations as to the famous Barsumas, 
 whoTvas remo'ved-ftom his place ih the school 
 of Edessa, and created hi^op of Nisijjis in 
 435, This zealous prelate laboured with incre- 
 dihle assiduity and dexterity, from the year 
 440 to 485, to procure, for the Nestofians, a 
 sohd and permanent settlement in ^ersia; and 
 he was vigorously seconded in this undertak- 
 •ingby Maanes bishop of Ardascira. So re- 
 markable was the success which crowned the 
 labours of Barsumas, that, his fame extended 
 tjiro.ughoiit the eaatj and those Nestorians who 
 still remain in Chaldtea, Persia, Assyria, and 
 the adjacent countries, consider him alone, and 
 not without reason, as their parent and foun- 
 der. . This indefatigable ecclesiastic riot only 
 persuaded Firouz, the Persian monarch, to ex- 
 pel from his dominions such Christians as had 
 adopted the opinions of the Greeks,, and to ad- 
 mit'the Nestorians in their place, but he even 
 engaged hira taput the tetter in possession of 
 the principal.seat of ecclesiastical authority in 
 Persia, the 'see of Seleucia, which thp .Patri- 
 arch, or Catholic of tlje Nestorians, has always- 
 filled even down to our time.f ' The zeal and 
 activity of Barsumas did not end here: he 
 erected a famous school at Nisibis, whence is- 
 sued those Nestorian doctors, who, in this .and 
 the following cientury, spread abroad their te- 
 nets through'Egypt, Syria, Arabia, India, Tar-, 
 tary, arid- China. J, •. ' '- 
 
 XII. The Nestorians, before their affairs 
 were thus happily settled, had been divided 
 among themselves with, respect to the method 
 of explaining their doctrine. Some maintain- 
 " ed, that the manner in which the two natures 
 were united in Christ, was absolutely unkiiown; 
 others that the union' oi^the divine nature with 
 the man Jesus was only an union of will, ope- 
 ration, and dignity.§ - This' dissension, how- 
 
 * 3fce Assemani Biblioth. torn. i. p. 351; torn. 'iii; part 
 ■ ii. p. 69.- This learued author may be adraritageously 
 Ufled to correct what Renaudot haa «aid (in the s'ecqnd^ 
 tome of hia Liturejae Orientales, p. 99,) conceroing .the 
 rise of the Westonan -doctrine in.the eastern provinces. 
 See also the Ecclesiastical History of Theodorus, the 
 Reader, book ii. p. 558. . 
 
 Qt^ t The bishop of Seleucia was, by the twenty-third, 
 canon of the council of IVice, honoured with peculiar 
 marks of distinction, and amon^ others with the title of 
 Catholic. H.e was invested witli the power of ordaining 
 archbishops (a privilege. which belonged to the patriarchs, 
 alone,} exalted above Ml the Grecian Eishops, honoured 
 as a patriarch, and, in the CBCunienical councils, vvas the 
 sixth in rank after the bishop of Jerusalem. See .Acta 
 Concilii Niceeni Arab. Alplions. Fisan. lih. iii. cap. 
 xxiii. xxxiv. 
 
 X See, for an ample account of this matter, Assemani 
 Biblioth. torn. iii. part ii. p. 77. 
 
 $ Leoutius Byzant. adversus Nestorian. et Eutychian. 
 p. 537, tom. i. Lection. Antiquar. Henr. Canisii.^-Jac. 
 Basnage, Frolfcgomen. ad Caniiium, tom. i. cap.ii. p. 19. 
 
 ever, entirely cc;ased, when the Nestorians were 
 gathered into one religious community,- and 
 lived in tranquillity under their own Ecclesias- 
 tical government and laws. Their doctrine, as 
 it was then determined in several councils as- 
 sembled at Seleucia, amounts to what follows: 
 "That in the Saviour , of the world,_there 
 were two persons, or un-o!«Tns; of which 
 one was divine, even the eternal word; and 
 the other, which was human, was .the man 
 Jesus; that these two persons had only one 
 aspect;'* that the unibn between the Son of 
 God and the son of man, was formed in the 
 moment of the Virgin's conceptjon, and was 
 never to be dissolved; that it was not, how- 
 ever, an.vmion of nature or of person, but only 
 of will and affection;-, that Christ 'was, there- 
 fore, to be carefully distinguished from God, 
 vfhb dwelt in him as in his temple; and that 
 Mary- was to be called the mother of Christ, 
 and ixot the mother of God." . 
 
 The" abettors of this- doctrine hold Nestorius 
 in the highest veneration, as. a man of sjhgular 
 and eminent sanctity, and worthy to be .had in 
 perpeftial remeinbrance: but they maintain, at 
 the same time, that the doctrine he taught was 
 much older than hiinself, and had been handed 
 down from the earliest times of the Christian 
 church"; and" for this reason they absolutely res- 
 fused the title of Nestorians; and, indeed, if 
 we examine the matter attentively^ we shall 
 find, that Bars.uihas and his followers, instead 
 of teaching their disciples precisely the doc- 
 trine of Nestorius, rather polished and 'im- 
 proved his uncouth system to their own taste, 
 and added to it several tenets of which the 
 good n^ari never dreamed. . 
 
 XIII. A violent aversion to the Nestorian 
 ferrors led many into the opposite extreme; 
 This was the case with the famous Eutyches, 
 an abbot at Constantinople, and foiinder of a 
 sect, which was in direct opposition to that' of , 
 Nestorius, yet equally prejudicial to the inter- 
 ests^of the Christiaji church, by the pestilential 
 discords and animosities dt produced. The 
 opinions of th;s new faction shot like lightning 
 through tie east: and it acquired, such strength 
 in itsprogress, as to create much uneasiness, both 
 to the Greelra and Nestorians, whose most vi- 
 gorous efforts were not sufficient to prevent 
 its rising to a high degree of credit and splen- 
 dour. Eutyches began -these troubles in 448, 
 when he Was far advanced in years; and", to 
 ex.ert his utmost force and vehemence in op- 
 posing the progress of- ttie Nestorian doctrine, 
 he expressed his sentiments ooncemiiig the 
 person 'of Christ, in the Very terms which the 
 Egyptians made use of for that purpose, and 
 taught, that in Christ there was only one na- 
 ture,' namely, that of the -incarnate word.f 
 
 J^ * This is. -the only way I know of translating the 
 word harsopa, whieh was .the term used by Nestorius, 
 and which the Greeks render l>y the term n-pocrtosroy, — 
 The word person would have done better in this unin- 
 telligible phrase, had it not been us'ed 'immediately before 
 in a different sense fron) that which Nestorius would 
 convey by the obscure term aspect, , 
 
 t "That Cyril expressed himself in thifl manner, and ap- 
 pealed, for his justification in so doingi to the authority^ 
 of Athanasius, is evident beyond all possibility of contra-^ 
 diction. Butitisuncertain whether this nianner of, ex- 
 pression 'ivas adopted, by Athanasius or not, since many 
 are of opinion, that th^ book, iu -which.it is found, has 
 
153 
 
 INTERNAL HISTOBY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part IT. 
 
 Hence he was thought to deny the existence of 
 the human nature in Christ, and was accused 
 of tills, by Eusebius of DorylsEum, in the coun- 
 cil that was assembled by Flavianus at Con- 
 stantinople, probably in this same year. By a 
 decree of this council he was ordered to re- 
 nounce the above mentioned opinion, which he 
 obstinately refused to dp, and was, on this ac- 
 count, excommunicated and deposed: unwill- 
 ing, however, to acquiesce in this sentence, he 
 appealed to the decision of a general council. 
 
 XIV. In consequence of this appeal, the 
 emperor I'heodosius assembled an oecumenical 
 council at E^ihesus,' in 449,' at the head of 
 which he placed Dioscprus, bishop" of Alexan-r 
 dria, the successor of -Cyril," the fiiithful imita- 
 tor of his arrogance and fury, and a declared 
 enemy to. thev bishop of Constantinople. . Acr 
 cordingly,- by the influence and cabaUing of 
 this turbulent man, matters' were carriecTon in 
 this assembly with the same want of equity 
 and of decency that had dishonoured a former 
 Ephesian*^ council, and characterised the pro- 
 ceedings of Cyril against Nestorius. Diosco- 
 rus, in whose church a doctrine, ~ almost the 
 same with that of the Eutychians, was ' con- 
 stantly taughtj confounded matters with such 
 artifice and dexterity,' that the doctrine of one 
 incarnate nature triumphed, and Eutyches was 
 acquitted of the charge of error that had been 
 brought against him. Flavianus,-oii the other 
 hand, was, by the order of this unrighteous 
 council, publicly scourged in the most barba- 
 rous manner, and banished to Epipas; a city of 
 Lydia, where he soon after ended his days.* 
 Tfie Greeks called this Ephesian council, a 
 band or assembly of robbers, ir<i»iiSa».^>io-Tp.in., to 
 signify that every thing was carried in it by 
 fraud or violencejf and many councils, indeed, 
 both in tins' and the following 4ges, are equally 
 entitled to the same dishonourable appellation. 
 
 X-V. Affairs soon changed, and assumed an 
 aspect utterly unfavourable to that partjf which 
 the Ephesian council had rendered triumphant. 
 Flavianus and his followers not only engaged 
 Leo the Great, bishop of Rpms, in their in- 
 terests (for the Roman pontiff was the ordi- 
 nary refuge of the oppressed and conquered 
 party in -this century,) but also remonstrated 
 to the emperor, that' a matter of such" an ardu- 
 ous and important nature required, in order to 
 its -decision, a council . composed out of the 
 church universal. Leo secondedthe latter re- 
 
 been falsely attEibuted to him. See ,Mich. Le Quien, 
 DisscYt. ii. in Dama5cenum;''aDd Christ, Aug.. Salig, dc 
 Eutychiamsmo aute Eutychcn, p. 113.'-- It appears, by 
 wh^t we read in- the Biblioth. Orieut., -that the Syrians 
 expressed themselves in this manner before Eutyches, 
 without intending thereby to broach any new doctrine, 
 but rather without well knowing what they- said..- We 
 are' yet in want of. a solid and accurate history of. the 
 Eutychian troubles, notwithstanding the labours of the 
 learned Salig upon that subject. _. 
 
 * See the Concilia Jo. Hafduini, torn. i. p. 82. — Li- 
 berati Breviarium, *cap. xii^ p. 76. — Leonis M. Epist. 
 xciii. — Nicephori Hist. Eccle6iast..lib. sir. cap. Ixvii. 
 '- fl(?- f Though Flavianus died soon after the council of 
 Ephiulis, of the bruises he had received. from Dioscorus, 
 and the other bishops of his party in that horrid assem- 
 bly, yet, befor^e his death-, he had appealed .to Leo; and 
 thts appeal, ptirsued by the pon'tifi', occasioned the coun- 
 cil; in which Eutyches was condemned, and the san- 
 guinary Dioscorus deposed. 
 
 quest, and demanded of Theodosiiis a general 
 council, which no -entreaties could persuade 
 this emperor to grant. Upon his death, how- 
 ever, his successor Marcian consented to Leo's 
 demand, arid called, in 451, the council of 
 Chalcedori,-*- which is reckoned the fourth ge- 
 neral or oecumenical council. The legates of 
 Leo, who, in his famous letter to Flavianus, 
 had already condemned the' Eutychian doc- 
 trine, presided in -this grand and crowded as- 
 sembly. . Dioscorus was Condemned, deposed, 
 and banished into Paphlagonia; the acts of the 
 council .of Ephesus were annulled; the epistle 
 of Leo was received as a rule of faithjf Euty- 
 ches, who had been already sent into' banish- 
 ment, and deprived of his sacerdotal "dignity 
 by the emperor, was no\y condemned, though 
 absent; and the following doctrine, which is at 
 this time almpst generally received, was, incul- 
 cated upon Christians as an object of faith, viz. 
 " That in Christ two distinct natures were unit- 
 ed in one person, without any change, mixture, 
 or confusion." 
 
 XVI. The remedy applied by this council, 
 to heal the wounds of a torn and divided 
 church, proved' really worse than the disease; 
 for a great number of Oriental and Egyptian 
 ddctors, though of various characters and dif- 
 ferent opinions in other respects, united in op- 
 posing, with the utmost vehemence, the coun- 
 cil of Chalcedon and the epistle of Leo, which 
 that' assembly had adopted as a rule of faith, 
 and were unanimous in mztintiaining an unity 
 of niiture, as well as df person, in Jesus Christ. 
 Hence arose deplorable discords and civil wars, 
 whose fury and barbarity were carried, to tlie 
 most excessive and 'incredible I'engths. On the 
 death-of the emperor Marcianf the populace 
 assembled tumultuously in Egypt, massacred 
 Proterius, the successor of Dioscorus, and sub- 
 stituted in his place Timotheus .ffilurus, wljo 
 was a zealous defender of tile Eutyphian doc- 
 trine of one incarnate nature in Christ. This 
 latter, indeed, was deposed and banished by the 
 emperor Leo; but, upon his death, was restor- 
 ed by Basilious both to his liberty and episco- 
 pal-dignity. 'After the death of 311urus, the 
 defend^s of the council of Chalcedon chose, 
 as his successor, Timotheus, surnamed Salo- 
 phaciolus^^ while the partisans of the Eutychi- 
 an doctrine elected scWsmatically Peter Mog- 
 gus to the same dignity. An edict of the em- 
 peror Zeno obliged the latter to yield. The 
 triumph, however, of the Chalcedonians, on 
 this occasion, was but transitory; for, on the 
 death of Timotheus, John Talaia, whoih thiy 
 had chosen in his place, was removed by the 
 
 Ol^ * This council was first assembled at Nice, but 
 aiXerwards removed to Chalcedon, that the emperor, who, 
 on account of the irruption of the Huns into Utyricum, 
 was unwilling to go far frojn Constantinople, might as- 
 sist at it in. person. 
 
 ' Ol?^ t This was the letter whicli Leo had written to 
 Flavianus, after having been informed by hhn of what 
 had passed in the- council of Constantinople. In this 
 epistle, Leo' approves the decisions of that council, de 
 Clares the doctrine of Eutyches heretical and impious, 
 and explains, with, great appearance of perspicuity, the 
 doetrine of the catholic church upon this perplexed sub- 
 ject; so that this letter was esteemed a masterpiece, both 
 of logic and eloquence, and was constantly read, during 
 the Advent, in the western churches. 
 
Chap. V. 
 
 DIVISIONS AND HERESIES. 
 
 153 
 
 same emperor;* and Moggus, or Mongus, by 
 an imperial edict, and ihe favour of A'caoius, 
 bishop of Ginstantinople, was, in 482, raised 
 to the see of Alexandria. ' 
 
 XVII. The abbot Barsiimas-(whom the reader 
 must 1)6 careful not to confound with Barsu- 
 mas of Nisibis, the famous promoter of the 
 Nestorian doctrines,) having been condemned 
 by the CO mcil of Chalcedon,f propagated the 
 Eutychian opinions in Syria, and, by the min- 
 istry of his disciple Samuel, spread them 
 amongst the Armenians about the year 460. 
 This doctrine, Iiowever, as it was commonly 
 explained, had something so liarsh and -shock- 
 ing in it, tliat tlie Syrians were easily engaged 
 to abandon it by the exhortations of Xenaias, 
 otherwise called Philoxenus, biabop of Hiera- 
 polis, and the.famous Peter Fullo. These doc- 
 tors rejected the opinion, attributed to Euty- 
 ches, that the human nature of Christ was ab- 
 sorbed by the divine,| and modified matters so 
 as to form the following hypothesis:" That, in- 
 the Son of. God, there was one nature, which, 
 notwithstanding its unity, was dovhU and com- 
 jiottnded." This notion was not less repug- 
 nant .to the decisions of the council of Clial- 
 cedon thari the Eutychian doctrine, and was 
 therefore strongly .'opposed by those who ac- 
 knowledged the authority of that council. | 
 
 XVIII. Peter, surnamed Fullo, from the 
 trade of* fuller, which he exercised in his mo- 
 nastic state, had usurped the see of^Antioch, 
 and, after having been several times deposed 
 and condemned on account of the bitterness of 
 his opposition to the council of Chalcedon, was 
 at last fixed in it, in 4S2, by the authority of, 
 the emperor Zeno, and the favour of Acacius, 
 bishop of Constantinople; I j This troublesome 
 and contentious nian exojted new discords in 
 the churph, and seemed ambitious of forming 
 a new sect under the name of Theopaschite^lT 
 for, to the words, " Q God most holy," &o. 
 in the famous hymn which the Greeks called 
 JVis-ogiwn, he ordered the following phrase to 
 be addfed in the easteirn churches, "who hast 
 suffered for us-upou the cross." His design in 
 this was manifestly to raise a new sect, and 
 also to fix more deeply, in the minds of the 
 people, the doctrine of one nature in Christ, to 
 which he was zealously attached. His adver- 
 saries, and especially Felix the Roman pontiff. 
 
 * SecLiberati Breviarium, cap, xvi. xvii. xviii — -Evagr. 
 Hisl. Eccles. lib; ii. cap. viii. lil». iii. cap. iii.— Le-ftuicn, 
 Oriens Christianua, torn. ii. p. 41Q. 
 
 Q^ f The 'Barsumas, here meptiojicd,washewhoaa- 
 sisted Ihe bishop of Alexaudria (Dioscorus) and the sol- 
 diers, in beating Flavianuatfe death in the council of Ephe- 
 sos, and to ehun whose fury, tjie orthodoi bishops were 
 forced to creep- into hqlea, and hide themselves under 
 benches, in that pious 'assernhly. 
 
 tp^ % Eutyches never aiQKrmed what is here attributed- 
 to him; he maintained simply, that ttie two natures, 
 which existed in Christ heiore his incarnation, .became 
 one after it, by the hypost^ticaj uniop. This miserable 
 dispute about words was nourished by the contending 
 parties, having no clear ideas of the terjits jtersonsna 
 riaiwe. as also by an invincible ignorance of the subject. 
 
 & Assoraani Biblioth. Orient. Vat. torn, ii.; and the 
 Dissertation of the same author, de Monophysltis. 
 
 II Valesii Dissertatio de Pet. FuUone, et de Synadis ad- 
 versus eum collcctis, which is added to the third volume 
 of the Scriplor. Hist. Ecdesiast. 
 
 Q(3m fl" This word expresses the enormous error of those 
 franlifi doctors, who imagined that the Godhead suffered. 
 in and with Christ. 
 
 Vol. I.— 20 
 
 interpreted this addition to the above-mention- 
 ed hymn in a quite different manner, and (^harg- 
 ed him witli maintaining, that all the three 
 persons of the Godhead were crucified; and 
 hence those who approved' his addition were 
 -called Tlieopasehites. The consequence of this 
 dispute was, tliat the western Christians reject- 
 ed the addition inserted by Fullo, which they 
 judged relative to the whole Trinity, while the 
 Orientals used it constantly after this period, 
 without -giving the least offence, because they 
 applied it to Qirist alone.* 
 
 XIX. To put an end to this controversy, 
 which had produced the most unhappy divi- 
 sions both in church and state, the emperor 
 Zeno, by the advice of Acacius, Bishop of Con- 
 stantinople, published, in 482, the famous. He- 
 Tiotwon, or Decree of Union, which was de- 
 signed to reconcile the contending parties.^ 
 This decree repeated and confirmed all that 
 had been enacted in the councils. of Nice, Con- 
 stantinople, Ephesus, and Chalcedon, against 
 the Arians, Nestorians, and Eutychians, with- 
 out making any particular mention of the coun- 
 cil of Chalcedonif for Acacius had persuaded 
 the emperor, that the present opposition was 
 not carried on against the decrees th^t had 
 passed in, the council of Chalcedon, but against 
 the assembly itself; with respect to which, 
 therefore, an entire silence was undoubtedly 
 prudent in a proposal, which, instead of reviv- 
 ing, was designed to put an end to all disputes, 
 and, to .reconcile the most jarring principles. 
 
 In the mean time, Monirus and Fullo, who 
 filled the sees of Ale.\andria and Antioch, and 
 headed the sect of the Monophysites,i sub- 
 scribed this Decree of Union, which. was alsp 
 approved by Acacius, and by all those of the 
 two contending parties' jfho> were ' at all -rei 
 markable for their candour and moderation. 
 ButjthiJre were on all sides violent and obsti- 
 nate bigots, who oppcised, with vigour, these 
 pacific measures, and complained, of the He- 
 noticon as injurious to the honour and authori- 
 ty of the most holy council of Chalcedon. § 
 Hence arose new^ contests and new divisions 
 not less deplorable than those which the de- 
 cree was designed to suppress. 
 
 XX. A considerable body of the Monophy- 
 sites, or Eutychians, looked i*pon the conduct 
 of Mongus, who had subscribed the depree, as 
 highly criminal, and cohse.quently formed them- 
 selves into a new faction, under the title of 
 Acephali, i.e. headless, because, by the submis- 
 sion - of Mongus, they had been deprived of 
 their chief. [| . Tliis sect was afterwards divided 
 into three others, who were called Ahthropo- 
 moi'phites, Barsanuphites,. and Esaianists; and 
 these again, in the following century, were the 
 
 - * See Norris, Lib. de iino ex Trinitate carne passo, 
 tomi iii. op. diss. i. cap. iii. 782,.-rAs^eman.. Bi.blioth. " 
 Orient. Vaticd.u.' tom. i. p. 51,8; tom. ii. p. 3&, 180..- 
 ' t Evagfii Hist. E.ccles. lib. iii. cap> xiv — -Ii.ib)Bra,ti 
 ]^eviarmm, cap. xviii. 
 
 Qt^'t Xii's word expresses the doctrii^e of thos^ wllo 
 believe^/ that in Christ there was but one nature, and is, 
 in niost respects, the.same wUh the term Eutychians. 
 
 -6 See Fecund. Hermiail. D^ns. trium ' Capituloi;. lib. 
 xii. cap. iv. ^^if 
 
 II Evagr. Hist. Eccles. lib. iiv,cap. xiii. — ^Leontlus By- 
 zant. de Sectis, tom. i. Lection. Antiq. Canisii, p. 537 — . 
 Timoth. in Cotelerii Monum,eat. £cclesi% Grseiise, toqi. 
 iii. p. 401). 
 
154 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OK THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part U 
 
 unhappy occasion of new factions, of which 
 the ancient writers make frequent mention.* 
 It is, ho\yever, necessary to observe here, for 
 the information of those whose curiosity in- 
 terests them iri inquiries of this nature, that 
 these subdivisions of the Eutyohian sect are 
 not to be adopted with too much faciUty. — 
 Some of them are entirely fictitious; others are 
 characterised by a nominal, and not by a real 
 diiference; the division-is in words, and not in 
 things; while a third sort are distinguished, 
 not by their peculiar doctrines, but by certain 
 rites and institutions, and matters of a merely 
 circumstantial nature. " Be that as it will, these 
 numerous branches of the Eutychian faction 
 did not flourish long; they declined gradually 
 in the following century; and the intiuence 
 and authority of the famous Baradsaus contri- 
 buted principally to their total extinction by 
 the union he established among the members 
 of that -sect. 
 
 XXI. The Roman pontiff, Felix II., having 
 assembled an Italian council, composed of six- 
 ty-seven bishops, condemned and deposed Aca- 
 cius, and excluded him from the communion 
 of the church, as a perfidious enemy 1;o the 
 truth. Several articles were alleged against 
 'him, to furnish a pretext for the severity of this 
 sentence; such as his attachment to the Mono- 
 physites, and their leaders Mongus and Fullo, 
 the contempt with which he treated the coun- 
 cil of Chalcedon,'and other accusations of a 
 like nature. But the true reasons of these pro- 
 ceedings, and of the irreconcileab'le hatred 
 which the Roman pontiffs indulged against 
 him, were his denying the supremacy of the 
 bishop of Rome,, his opposing it throughout the 
 whole course of his ministry ,t. and his ambi- 
 tious efforts to enlarge, beyond all bounds, the 
 authority and prerogatives of the see of Con- 
 stantinople. The Greeks, however, defended 
 the character and memory of their' bishop 
 against all the aspersions which were cast upon 
 him by the Romans. Hence arose a new 
 schism, and a new contest, which were carried 
 on with great violence, until the following 
 century, when the obstinacy and perseverance- 
 of the Latins triumphed over the opposition 
 of the oriental Christians, and brought about 
 an agreement, in coiisequence of which, the 
 
 *- These 8ecta are-enumerated by BasDage, in his Pro- 
 legom. ad Canisii Lection. Antiq. cap. iii..and by Asse- 
 man,'iD his Diasertatio de Monophysitis. 
 V Qt^ f This again is one of the periods of ecclesiastical 
 history, in which vre find a multitude of events, which 
 are Bo many proofs how far the supremacy of the pope 
 was from being universally acknowledged. Felix II. de- 
 poses and excommuaicates Acacfus the patriarch of Con- 
 stantinople, who not only receives this sentence with 
 contempt, but, in his turn-, anathematises and excommuni- 
 cates the pope, and orders his name to be stricken out of 
 the diptychs. This conduct of Acacius .is approved by 
 the emperor, the church of Constantinople, by almost all 
 the eastern bishops, and even by Andreas of Tnessalonica, 
 ■iplio was at that time the pope's vicar for East Illyricum. 
 This was the occasion of that general schism, which con- 
 tinued for twenty-five years, betwecn'tht eastern and west-- 
 ern churches. It is here worthy of observation, that the 
 eastern bishops did not adhere to the cause of Acacius, 
 from any other principle, as appears from the most au- 
 thentic records of those times, than a persuasion of the 
 illegality of his excommunication by the Roman pontiff, 
 who, in their judgment, had not a right to depose the 
 first bishop of the east, without the consent of a general 
 council. 
 
 names of Acacius and fullo were erased from 
 the diptychs, or-' sacred registers, and thus 
 branded with perpetual infamy.* 
 
 XXII. These deplorable dissensions and con- 
 tests had, for their object, a matter of the 
 smallest importance. Eutyches was generally 
 supposed to have maintained, " That the di- 
 vine nature of Christ had absorbed the human, 
 and that, consequeiitly, in him there was but 
 one nature, namely, the divine;", but the truth 
 of rthis supposition is destitute of suiEcient 
 evidence. However that may have been, this 
 opinion, and also- Eutyches, its pretenijled au- 
 thor, were rejected and condemned by those 
 who opposed the council of Chalcedon, and 
 principally indeed by Xenaias and Fullo, who 
 are, therefore, iinproperly called Eutychians, 
 and belong rather to the class of the Monophy- 
 sites. Theyi who assumed this latter title, 
 held, " That the divine and human nature of 
 Christ were so united, as to form only one na- 
 ture, yet without any change, confusion, or 
 mixture, of the two natures:" and that this 
 caution might be carefully observed, and their 
 meaning be well understood, they frequently 
 expressed themselves thus: " In -Christ there is 
 one nature;" but that nature is two-fold and 
 compounded- "f They disowned all relation and 
 attachment to" Eutyches; but regarded, with 
 the highest veneration, Dioscorus, Baisumas, ' 
 Xenaias and Fullo, as the pillars of their sect; _ 
 and rejected, not only the Epistle of Leo, but 
 also the decrees of the council nf Chalcedon. 
 The opinion of the Monophysites, if we judge 
 of it by the terins in which 4t is here delivered, 
 does not seem to differ in reality, but only in 
 the manner of expression, from that which was 
 established by the council.J But, if we attend 
 carefully to the metaphysical arguments and 
 subtilties which the former employed to con- 
 firm their , doctrine, § we shall, perhaps, be in- 
 duced trf think, that the controversy between 
 the Monophysites and Ghalcedonians is not 
 merely a dispute about words. 
 
 XXIII. A new controversy arose in the 
 church during this century,- and its pestilential 
 effects extended themselves through the follow- 
 ing ages. The authors rif if were Pelagius and 
 Coelestius, both monks; the fonher a Briton, 
 and the latter a native of Ireland.|| They^ived 
 
 Hen. Yalesius, Dissert, de Synodis Roman, m quibus 
 damnatus est Acacius, ad-calcem, torn. iii. Scripior. £c- 
 cles. p. 179. — Basnage, Histoire de I'Eglise; torn. i. p. 
 
 301, 380, 381.^Bayle's Dictionary David Blondel, de 
 
 la Primaute dans I'Egllse, p. 279 — Acta Sanctorum, torn.- 
 iii. Februar. p. 502. 
 
 f See the passages drawn from the writings of the Mo- 
 nophysites by the most learned, and, frequently, impar- 
 tial Asseman, in his Siblioth. Orient. Vatic, torn. iii. p. 
 25, 26, 29, &c. , _ - 
 
 I Many learned meu treat this controversy as a mere 
 dispute abodt words. Gregory Abulpharajius, himself a 
 Monophysite, and the most learned of the sect, declares 
 this as'his opinion. See the Biblioth. Italique, torn. xvil. 
 p. 285 — La Croze, Histoire du Christiauisme des Indes, 
 p. 23; and the Histoire du Christiauisme d'Ethiopie, 
 p. 14. Asseman, though a Roman by birth and by reli- 
 gion, seems, in a good measure, to have adopted the same 
 way of thinking, as appears by p. 297 in his second 
 Volume. 
 
 ^ See the subtile arguintentation of Abulpharajius, in 
 the Biblioth. Orient, torn. ii. p. 288. 
 
 (ft^ II Nothing very certain can be advanced with re- 
 spect to the native country of Ccelestius, which some say 
 was Scotland, and others Campania in Italy. We know 
 
Chap. V. 
 
 DIVISIONS AND HERESIES. 
 
 155 
 
 at Rome in the greatest reputation, and were 
 aniveraally esteemed for their extraordinary 
 piety and virtue.* These monks looked upon 
 the doctrines, which were conjmonly received, 
 " concerning the original corruption of human 
 nature, and the' necessity of divin? grace to, 
 enlighten the understanding, and purify the. 
 heart, as prejudicial to the progress of holiness 
 and virtue, and tending to lull mankind in a 
 presumptuous and fatal security. They main- 
 tained, that these doctrines were as false as 
 they were pernicious; tha,t the sins of our first 
 parents were imputed to them alone, and not 
 to their posterity; that -we derive no corrup- 
 tion from their, fall, but are bom as pure and 
 unspotted as Adam came out of the forming 
 hand of his Creator; that mankind, therefore, 
 are capable of repentance and amendment, and 
 of arriving at the highest deglrees of piety and 
 virtiie by the use of their natural "faculties and 
 powers; that, indeed, external grace is necesr 
 «ary to excite their endeavours, but that they 
 have no need of the internal succours of the 
 divine Spirit." These notions,- and others in- 
 timately connected with them,^ were propa- 
 gated at Rome, though in a private manner, by 
 the two monks already mentioned, who, retir- 
 ing fiiom that 'city, in 410, upon the approach 
 of the Goths, went first into Sicily, and after- 
 wards info Africa, where they published , their 
 doctrine. with greater freedom.. From Africa 
 Pekgius passed into 'Pa:lestine,.while Coelestiu? 
 remained' at Carthage with a view to prefer- 
 ment, desiring to be admitted among the pres- 
 bytets of that city. But the discovery of his 
 opinions having blasted his hopes, and his er- 
 rors being conifemned in a council holden at 
 Carthage, in 4!'2,_he departed from that city, 
 and went into the east. K was from this time 
 that A-ugustin,, the famous bishop of Hippo, 
 began to attack the tenets of Pelagius and 
 Ccelestius in his learned and eloquent writings; 
 and to him, indeed, is principally due tlie ^lory 
 of having suppressed thissect in itsvery.birth.J 
 
 however, that he was descended, of an illustrious family; 
 and that, afler having applied himself to the study of the 
 law for some time, he retired from the world, and em- 
 braced the monastic life. See Gennad. de Script. Socles, 
 cap. xliv. 
 
 9(J- *-The learned and furious Jerome, who never 
 once thought of doing common justice to those who had 
 the misfortune'^ to differ from him in opinion, accused 
 Pelagius of gluttony and intemperance, after he had 'heard 
 of his errors, though he had aUmired him before for his 
 exemplary virtue. Ai |;ustin, more candid and honest, 
 bears impartial testimony to the truth; and, even while 
 he writes against this heretic, acknowle^ges-that he had 
 mad& great progress in virtife and piety, that his life^was. 
 chast£ and his manners were blameless; aiidlhis, indeed, 
 is the truth. 
 
 Q^ t The doctrines that were more immediately con- 
 jected with the main principles of Pelagius, were, that 
 infant baptism was not a sign or seal of the' remission of 
 sins, but a mark of admission to the kingdom of heaven, 
 which was'onlyopen to the pure in heart; that good 
 works were meritorious, and the only conditions of salva- 
 tion; — with many others too tedious to mention. 
 
 1 The Pelagian controversy has been historically treat- 
 ed by many learned writers, such as Usher, in his Anti- 
 quit. Eccles. Britannicse; Laet; Ger. Vossius; Norpis; 
 Garnier, in his Supplement. Oper. Theodoreti; Janse- 
 nius in .Augustino, and.others. Longueval also, a French 
 Jesuit, wrote a History of the Pelagians. See the preface 
 to the ninth volume of his Historia Eccles, Ga.Ilicana3. 
 After all, it must be confessed, that these, learned writers 
 have not exhausted this interesting subject, or treated it 
 with a sufficient degree of impartiality. 
 
 XXIV. Things went more smoothly with 
 Pelagius in the east, wljpre be enjoyed the pro- 
 tection and favour of John, bishop of Jerusa- 
 lem,' whose attachment to the sentiments of 
 Origen led him natupally: to countenance those 
 of Pelagius, on account of the conformity that 
 seemed to exist between these systems. , Under 
 the shadow of this powerful protection, Pela- 
 gius made a public profession of his opinions, 
 and formed disciples in several places; and 
 though, in 41S, he was accused by Orosius, a 
 Spanish 'presbyter, whom. Augustin had sent 
 into Palestine for that purpose, before an as- 
 sembly of bishops who met at Jerusalem, yet 
 he Was dismissed without the least censure; 
 and not only so, but was soon after fully ac- 
 quitted of all errors by the. council of Dioa- 
 polis.* 
 
 This controversy was brought to Rome, and 
 referred by. Ccelestius and Pelagius to the deci- 
 sion of ZosiiBus,+ who was raised to the ponti- 
 ficate in 411. The new pontiff, gained over 
 by the ambiguous and seemingly orthodox con- 
 fession of faith, that Ccelestius, who was now 
 at Rome, had artfully drawn up, and.also by 
 the letters and protestations of PeltCgius, pro- 
 nounced in favour of these monks, declared 
 them sound iji the faith, and unjustly perse- 
 cuted by their adversaries. The African bishops, 
 with Augustin at their head, little affected with 
 this declaration, continued obstinately to main- 
 tain the judgment they had pronounced in this 
 matter, and to strengthen it by. their exhorta- 
 tions, their letters, and their writings. .Zosimus 
 yielded to the -perseverance of the Africans, 
 changed his mind, and condemned, with the 
 utnwst severity, Pelagius and Ccelestius, whom 
 he had honoured with his approbation, and 
 covered with his protection. This was followed 
 by a train of evils, which pursued these two 
 monks without interruption. They were con- 
 demned by the same Ephesian council which 
 had launched its thundpr at. the head of Nes- 
 torius; in short-, the Gauls, Britons, and Afri- 
 cans, by their councils, and the emperors, by 
 their edicts and penal laws, demolished this 
 sect in its infancy, and suppressed it entirely 
 before it had acquired any tolerable degree of 
 vigour or consistence.^ ' 
 
 XXV. The unhappy disputes about the opin- 
 ions of Pelagius occasioned, as usually hap- 
 pens, other controversies equally prejudicial to 
 
 * See Dan^l, Histoire'du'Concile de Diospolis, which 
 is to^be founS^in the Opuseula of that eloquent and learn- 
 ed Jesuit, published at Paris in 1734. Diospolis was a city 
 of Palestine, known in Scripture by the name of Lyd- 
 da; .and the bishop who presided in this council was £u- 
 logius of Ctesarea, metropolitan of Palestine. 
 
 (ff^ f To preserve Ihe thread of the history, and pre- 
 vent the reader's being surprised to find Pelagius and 
 Ccelestius appealing Lo Bome after having been acquitted 
 at Diospolis, it is necessary to observe, that these monks 
 were condemned anew, in 415, bv the African bishops as 
 sembled at Carthage,'and those of Numidia assembled at 
 Milevum; upon which they appealed to Rome. 
 
 I See the Historia Pelagiana of Ger. J. Vossius, lib. i. 
 cap. Iv.' p. 130; asal.so theiearned observations that have 
 been, made upon this controversy, in the Bibliotheque 
 ltalic[ue, torn. v. p. 74. The writers on both sides are 
 mentioned by Jo. Franc. Buddeus, in his Isagoge ad The- 
 dlogiam, tom. ii. 1071. The learned Wall, in his History 
 of Infant Baptism, vol. i. chap. xix. has given a concise 
 and elegant account of the Pelagian controversy; an ac- 
 count which, . tho'ugh imperfect in several respects, 
 abounds with solid and useful erudition. 
 
)S& 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY Of THE CHURCH. 
 
 Pam n. 
 
 the peace of the church, and the interests of 
 true Christianity. In, the course of this dis- 
 pute, Augustin had delivered his ppinion, con- 
 cerning the necessity of divine grace in order 
 to our salvation; and the decrees of God with 
 respect to the future conditions of men, with- 
 out being alwa;^s consistent with himself, or 
 intelligible to others. Hence ceTtain monks 
 of Adrumetum, and others, were led into a no- 
 tion, "That God not only predestinated the 
 wicked to eternal punishment, but also to the 
 guilt and transgression for which they- are pun- 
 ished; and that thus both the good and bad ac- 
 tions of all men were determined from eterni- 
 ty by a divine decree, and fixed by an Invinci- 
 ble necessity." Those who embraced this opin- 
 ion, were called Predestinarians. - Augusfin 
 used his utmost influence apd ajithorily to pre- 
 vent the spreading of this doctrine, and ■ ex- 
 plained his true sentiments with more perspi- 
 cuity, that it might not be attributed to him. 
 His efforts were seconded by the councils of 
 Aries and Lyons, in which the doctrine in 
 question was pubKcly rejected and condemn- 
 ed.* But we must not omit observing, that the 
 existence of this Predestinarian sect has been 
 denied by many learned men, and looked 
 upon as an .invention of the Semi-Pelagians, 
 designed to decry the followers of Augustin, by 
 attributing to them unjustly this dangerous and 
 pernicious error.f 
 
 XXVI. A new and different modification 
 was given to the doctrine of Augustin by the 
 monk Cassian, who came from the east into 
 France, and erected a monastery near Mar- 
 seilles. Nor was he the only one who atterapt- 
 ed-to fix upon a certain temperature bet#een 
 the errors of Pelagius and the opinions of the 
 African oracle; several persons embarked, in 
 this undertaking about the year 430, and hence 
 arose a new sect, the members of which were 
 called, by their adversaries, Semi-Pelagians. 
 _ The opinions of this sect have been misre- 
 presented, by-its enemies, upon several- occa- 
 sions; such is usually, the fate of all parties in 
 religious controversies. Their doctrine, as it 
 has been generally explained by the learned, 
 amounted to this: "That inward preventing 
 grace was not necessary to form in the soul the 
 beginnings of true repentance and amendment; 
 that every one was capable of producing' these 
 
 * See Jac. Sirmondi Histocia Praet]estinatiana,,tom."iv. 
 op. p. 971. — ^Basnage, Histoire &e I'Eglise, torn. i. livr. 
 xii. cap. ii. p. 698. t)ioQ. Petaviua, Dogmat. Thcol.' torn, 
 vi. p. 168, 174, &c. .: 
 
 ^ See Gilb. Mauguini Fabula Fraedestinaliana confu- 
 tala, which he subjoined to the second tome, of his leartied 
 work, entitled, Collectio Tariorum Scfiptorum qui Saec. 
 ix. de Prsedestinatione et Gratia scripscrunt. — ^Fred. 
 Spanhemius, Introd. ad Historiam £cc]es. torn. i. op. p. 
 993. — Jac. Basnag. Adnot. ad Prosperi Chronicon et 
 Praef. ad Faustum Kegiensem, toni. i. Lection. Antitfu. 
 Canisii, p. 315, 348. Granet (_who wt-ote the life of Lau- 
 noy) observes, that Sirmond had solicited Launoy to 
 write against Mauguin, who-denied the existence of the 
 predcstioariaD seetj but that the former, having examined 
 the matter with care and application, adopted the senti- 
 ment of Mauguin. The whole dispute about the ex- 
 istence of this sect will, when closely looked into, appear 
 to be little more, perhaps, than a dispute about words. 
 Q(^ It may be very true, that, about this time, or even 
 from tjic time of St. Paul, certain persons embraced the 
 predestinarian 'opinions here mentioned; but there is no 
 solid proof, that the abettors of tiiese opinions ever form- 
 ed themselves into a sect. See Basnage, torn, i. p. 700. 
 
 by the mere power of his natural facultiesj aa 
 also of exercising faith in Christ, and forming 
 the purposes of a holy and sincere obedience." 
 But they acknowledged, at the same time, 
 " That none could persever-e or oduaJice in' that 
 holy and virtuous course which they had tlie 
 power of Segitming', without the perpetual sup- 
 port and tlje powerful assistance of the divine 
 grace."* The disciples of Augustin, in Gaul, 
 attacTied the Semi'Pelagians with the utmost 
 vehenience, without being able to extu-pate or 
 overcome them.f The doctrine of this sect 
 was so suited to the capacities of the generali- 
 ty of men, so conformable to the way of think- 
 ing tha,t prevailed among the monastic orders, 
 and so well received among the gravest and 
 most learned Grecian- doctors, that neither the 
 zeal nor industry of its adversaries could ;stop 
 its rapid and extensive progress;!.^ Add ^o,its 
 other advantages, that neither Augustin, nor 
 his followers, had ventured to condemn it in 
 all its parts, or to brand it as an impious and 
 pernicious heresy. 
 
 XXVn. This was the commencement of 
 those unliappy contests, those subtile and per- 
 plexing disputes concerning grace, or the na- 
 ture and operation of that divine power, which 
 is essentially required in order to salvation,- 
 that rent tlie church into the most deplorable 
 divisions through the whole course of the suc- 
 ceeding age, and which, to the deepsorrow arid 
 regret of every true and generous Cluistian, 
 have been- continued to the present time. The~ 
 doctrine of Augustin, who was of opinion, that, 
 in the work of conversion and sanctification, 
 all was to be attributed to a divine energy^ and 
 nothing to human agency, h'ad many followers 
 in all ages, of the church, though his disciples 
 have never agreed entirely about the manner 
 of explaining' what he taught on that head.J 
 The followers of Cassian vvere, however, much 
 more numerous; and his dobtrine, though va- 
 riously explained, was-reoeived in the greatest 
 part of the monastic schools . in Gaul, whence 
 it spread itself through other parts of Europe. 
 As to the Greeks, and other Eastern Christians, 
 they had embraced the Semi-Peleigian doctrine 
 before Cassian, and still adhere firmly .to it 
 The generality of Christians looked upon the 
 opinions of Pelagius as daring and presumptu 
 
 Ql^ * The leading principles of the Semi-Pelagians 
 were ^he iive following: 1. That God did "not dispense 
 bis grace to one, more than another, in consequence of 
 predestination, i. e. an eternal and absolute decree, but 
 was willing to save all men, if they complied with the 
 terms of his Gospel; 2. That Christ died for all men; 3. 
 That, the grace purchased by Christ, and necessary to 
 salvation, was offered to all men; 4. That man, beforehe 
 received grace, was capable of faith and holy desires; 5. 
 .That man, born free, was consequently capable of resist- 
 ing the influences of grace, or complying with its sug- 
 gestions. See BaBnE^e,'tom. i. livr xii. 
 
 f-Basnage, torn. i. livr. xii. — Hist. Literaire de la 
 France,,tbm. if. praef. -p. 9 — Vossii,Histor. Pelagiana,lib. 
 V. p. 538. — Scipio l^ffei (under the 6ctitiou3 name of 
 Irenaeus Vcroncnsis,) de Haeresi Falagiaiia, torn. sxix. — ■ 
 Opuscul. Scientif. Angeli Calogerae, p. 399. 
 ' Ot?* 1 1^ " ^^'^ known that the Jansenisfs and Jesuits 
 both plead the authority of St. Augustin, in, behalf of 
 their opposite systems with respect to predestination and 
 grace. This knotty doctrine severely exercised the pre- 
 tended infallibility of the popes, and exposed it to the 
 laughter of the wise upon many occasions; and the & 
 mous bull Unigenitiis set Clement Xf. in direct opposi- 
 tion to several of the most celebrated Iloina.T pontic. 
 Which are we to bolieve? 
 
Chap. I 
 
 PROSPEROUS EVENTS. 
 
 157 
 
 ouS; aid even to those \*ho adopted th«m in 
 secret, they appeared too free and too-far re- 
 moved from the notions commonly received, 
 to render the public profession of them advise- 
 able and prudent. Certain, however, it is, that 
 
 iaall ages of the church there have been se- 
 veral persons, who, in conformity with the doc- 
 trine attributed to this heretic, have believed 
 mankind endowed with a natwral power ot pay- 
 ing, to the divine laws a perfect oiedienee. 
 
 THE SIXTH CENTURY. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 THE EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 Concerning tliePrdsperoxis Events which happen- 
 ed to the Church during this Century. 
 
 I. The zeal of the bishops of Constantino- 
 ple, seconded by, the protection and iniJuBnee 
 of the torrecian emperors, increased the num^ 
 her of Christians in the 6ast, and contributed 
 to the conversion of some, barbarous natic^is; 
 of those, particularly, who lived upon the bor- 
 ders 'of tlie EuX'ine sea, as appears from the 
 most authentic records of Grecian .history. 
 Among these nations were the Abasgi, who in- 
 habited the country lying between the coast of 
 tlieEuxine and mount Caucasus, and who em- 
 braced Christianity under" the reign of Justi- 
 nian;* the Heruli, who 4welt beyond the 
 Danube, and who werO" converted in'tlie same 
 reign;f as also the Alans, Lazi, and Zani, with. 
 other uncivilised people, whose situation, at 
 
 ■ this timej is only known- by vague and imper- 
 fect conjectures. These conversions, indeed, 
 however, pompously they may sound, were ex- 
 tremely suj)erfieial and imperfect; as we learn 
 frorn the most credible accounts that have been 
 givep of them. All that was required of these 
 darkened nations amounted to an oral profes- 
 sion of their faith in Ciirist, to their abstaining I 
 from sacrifices to the gods, and their commit- i 
 ting to memory certairrformsof doctrine, while ; 
 little care was taken to enrich their minds with | 
 pious sentiments, or to cultivate in their hearts ; 
 virtuous affections; so that, even aflef their; 
 Conversion to Christianity, they retained their i 
 
 -primitive ferocity and savage manners, and 
 continued to. distinguish themselves by horrid ■ 
 acts of cruelty and rapine, and the practice of i 
 all kinds of wickedness. In the greatest part 
 of the Grecian provinces, and even in the ca- 1 
 pital of the eastern empire, there were still , 
 multitudes who preserved a secret attachment | 
 to the pagan religion. Of these, however, vast 
 numbers were brought over to Christianity un- 
 der the reign of .Tustin, by the ministerial la- 
 bours of John, bishop of Asia.j: 
 
 * Procopius, dc Bcllo Oothico, lib. iv. cap. iii Le 
 
 Q,uien, Oricus Christianus, torn. i. p. 1351. 
 f Procopius, lib. ii. cap. xiv. - ' 
 
 I Aasemau. Biblioth. Oricot. Vatic, torn. ii. p. 85. 
 
 II. In the western parts, Remigius, or Remi, 
 bishop of Rheims, who is commonly called the 
 Apostle of the Gauls, signalised his zeal in the 
 conversion of those who still adhered to the 
 ancient superstitions;* and his .puccess was con- 
 siderable, particularly after that auspicious pe- 
 riod whetfClovis, king of the Franks, embrac- 
 ed the Gospel. 
 
 In Britain, seyerzJ circumstances concurred 
 to favour the propagation of Christianity.-^ 
 Ethelbert, king of Kent, the most considerable 
 of the Anglo-Saxon princes, among whom that 
 island was at this time divided, married Bertha, - 
 daughter of Cherebert, king of Paris, toward 
 the conclusion of this century. This princess, 
 partly By her own influence, and partly by the 
 pious efforts <^f the clergy who followed her 
 into Britain, gradually formed, in the mind of 
 Ethelbert, an inclination to the Christian reli- 
 gion. While the^ king was in this favourable 
 disposition, Gregory the Great, in 696, sent 
 over forty Benedictine n^onks, with Augustin 
 at their head ,f in order to bring to -peiifection 
 what the pious queen had so happily begun. 
 This inonk, seconded by the ^eal and assist- 
 ance of Bertha, converted the Jang, and the 
 greatest part of the inhabitants of Kent, and 
 laid anew the foundations of the British 
 church. t . " 
 
 •The labours of Columbus,^ an Irish monk, 
 were attended with success among the Picts 
 and Soots, many of whom embraced the Gos^ 
 pel.| 
 
 In Germany, the Bohemians, Tfeuringians, 
 and Boii, are said to have abandoned, in this 
 century, their aneieiit superstitions, || and to 
 
 * Histoire Lileraire de la France, torn. iii. p. 155. 
 
 Ol^ t This Britislr.aposlle was .prior of the Ben.edie- - 
 line monastery of St. Andrew at Rome. After his arri- 
 val in England, he converted the heathen temples into 
 places of Christian. worship, erected Christ-Church into 
 a cathedral, opened a seminaTy of learning-, fonnded the^ 
 abbeyof St. Augustin, received episcopal ordination from 
 ihe-primate of Aries, was invested by pope Gregory with 
 power over all the British b'ishops. and- Saxon prelates, 
 and was the fir6t.archbishop of Canterbury. 
 
 [ Bede's .Histor.- Eccles. Gentis Anglor. lib.-i. cap. 
 xxiii. — ^Rapin's History of England. — Acta Safictor, torn, 
 iii. Febrnar. p. 470. 
 
 § Bede's Histor. Eccles. lib. ifl. cap. iv. — ^ 
 
 II Henr. Canisii Lection. Antiquae, tom. iii. -part ii. p. 
 308. — Av^ntin. Annal. Boiorum, 
 
158 
 
 EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH 
 
 Part I. 
 
 have received the light of divine truth; 'b;it 
 this assertion appears extremely doubtful to 
 mhny. 
 
 All these conversions and sacred exploits 
 will lose much of their importance in the es- 
 teem of such as examine with attention the 
 acc^ounts which have been given of them by 
 the writers of this and the succeeding ages; 
 for by these accounts it appears, that the con- 
 verted nations now mentioned, retained a great 
 part of their former irapiety, superstition, and 
 licentiousness, and that, attached to Christ by 
 a mere outward and nominal profession, they, 
 in effect, renounced the purity gf his. doctrine, 
 and the authority of his^ Gospel, by their flagi- 
 tious lives, and the superstitious^and idolatrous 
 rites and institutions which they continued to 
 phserve.* 
 
 III. A vast ihultitude of Jews, converted to 
 Christianity in several places, were added to 
 the church during the course of this century. 
 Many of that race, particularly the inhabitants 
 of Borium in 'Libya, were^brought over to the 
 truth by the persuasion and influence of the 
 emperor Justinian.t In the west, tlie zeal and 
 authority of the Gallic and Spanish monarchs, 
 the efforts of Gregory the Great, and the la- 
 bours of Avitus, bishop of Vieime, engaged 
 numbers to receive the Gospel. It must, how- 
 ever, be acknowledged, that, pf these conver- 
 sions, the greatest part arose from the liberali- 
 ty of Christian princes, or the fear of punish- 
 ment, rather than from the force of argument 
 or the love of truth. In Gaul, the Jews were 
 compelled'by Childeric to receive the ordinance 
 of baptism; and tlie same despotic mode of 
 conversion was practised in Spain. { This me- 
 thod, however, was entirely disapproved by 
 Gregory the Great, who, though extremely se- 
 vere upon the heretics, would siifler no vio- 
 lence to be offered to tlifeJews.l 
 ■ IV. If credit is to be given to the writers of 
 this century, the conversion of these uncivilis- 
 ed nations to Christianity was principally eC- 
 fected by the prodigies and itiiracles which the 
 heralds of the Gospel were enabled to work in 
 its behalf. But the conduct of the converted 
 nations is sufficient to invalidate the force of 
 these testimonies; for certainly; if such mira^ 
 cles had been, wrought among them, their lives 
 would have been more suitable to their profes- 
 .sion, arid their attachment and obedience to the 
 docMnes and laws of the Gospel more stedfcist 
 and exemplary than they appear to have been. 
 Besides (as we have already had occasion to 
 observe,) in abandoning their ancient supersti- 
 tions, the greatest part of them were more in- 
 
 * This 19 iugenuously confessed by tlie Benedictine 
 monks, in -the Histoire Literaire de la France, torn. iii. 
 Introduc. See also theorders given to the Anglo-Saxons 
 by Gregory the Great, In hisKpisl. lib. xi. Ixxvi. where 
 yie find him permitting them to Sacrifice to the saints, on 
 their respective holidSLys, the victims which they had for- 
 merly offered to the gods. See' also- Wilkins' Concilia 
 Maense Britannise, torn. i. 
 
 JFrocopius, de .^dificiis Justiniani, lib. vi. cap. ii. 
 Greg. Turon. Histor. Francor. lib. vi. cap. xvii.— - 
 Launoius^de veteri More baptizandi Judaeos et Infideles, 
 cap. i. p. 700, 704, torn. ii. part ii. op. 
 
 § See his Epistles, particularly those which he wrote 
 to Vigilius of Aries, Theodore of Marseilles, and Teter 
 •f Terracina. 
 
 fluenced by the example and authority of their 
 princes, than by force of argument, or the power 
 of a rational conviction; -and, indeed, if we 
 consider the wretched manner in which many 
 of the first Christian missionaries performed 
 the solemn task they had undertaken, we shall 
 perceive that they wanted not many arguments 
 to enforce the doctrines they taught, and the 
 discipline they recommended; for they required 
 nothing of these barbarous people that was 
 difficult to be performed, or that laid any re- 
 markable, restraint upon their appetites and 
 passions. The principal injunctions they im- 
 posed upon fhese rude proselytes were, that 
 they should get by heart certain summaries of 
 doctrine, and pay to the images of Christ and 
 the saints the same religious services which 
 they had formerly offered to the statues of the 
 gods: Nor were they at all delicate or scrupu- 
 lous in choosing-the means of establishing tlieir 
 credit; for they deemed it lawful, 'and even 
 meritorious, to deceive an ignorant and inat- 
 tentive multitude, by repiesenting, as prodi- 
 gies, things that were merely natural, as we 
 learn from the most authentic records of these 
 times. • 
 
 CHAPTER n. 
 Goncemirig the calamitovs Events which happen- 
 ed to the Chvirch during this Century. 
 
 I. Thodgh the abjurationof Paganism was, 
 by the imperial laws, made a necessary step to 
 preferment, and to the exercising of all public 
 offices, yet. several persons, respected for their 
 erudition and gravity of manners, persisted in 
 tlieir adherence to the ancient superstition. 
 Tribonian,the famous compiler of the Roman 
 law, is thought, by some, to have been among 
 the number of those who continued in their 
 prejudices against the Christian religion; and 
 such also, in the opinion of many, was the case 
 of Procopius, the celebrated historian. It is at 
 least certain, that Agathias, who was an emi- 
 nent lawyer at Smyrna, arid who had also ac- 
 quired a considerable reputation as an . histori- 
 cal writer, persevered in his attachment to the 
 pagan worship. These illustrious Gentiles 
 were e.xempted from the severities which were 
 frequently etriployed to engage the lower or- 
 ders to abandon the service of the gods. The 
 rigour of" the laws, as it usually happens in 
 hitman life, fell only upon those who had 
 neither rank, fortune, nor court-favour, to ward 
 off .their execution. 
 
 II. Surprised as we maybe at the protection 
 granted to the persons now mentioned, at a 
 time when.,the Gospel was, in many instances, 
 propagated by micluistian methods, it will ap- 
 pear still more astonishing, that the Platonic 
 philosophers, whose opposition to Christianity 
 was universally known, should be permitted, 
 in Greece and Egypt, to teach publicly the te- 
 nets of their sect, which were absolutely in- 
 compatible with the doctrines of the Gospel. 
 These doctors indeed affected (generally speak- 
 ing) a high degree of moderation and pru- 
 dence, and, for the most part, modified their 
 expressions in such a manner, as to give' to the 
 pagan system an evangelical aspect, extremely 
 
Chap. II. 
 
 CALAMITOUS EVENTS. 
 
 159 
 
 adapted to deceive the unwary, as- the exam- 
 ples of Chalcldius,* and Alexander of Lyco- 
 polis, abundantly te|tify.t Some of them, how- 
 eyer, were less modest, and carried their audar 
 cious efforts against Christianity so far Us to 
 revile it publicly. Damascius, in the life of 
 Isidorus, and in other places, casts' upon the 
 Christians the most ignominious aspersions;]: 
 Simplicius, in his illustrations of the Aristote- 
 lian- philosophy, throws out several malignant 
 insinuations against the doctrines of thd Gos- 
 pel; and the Epicheiremata of Proclus, written 
 expressly against the idisciples of Jesus, were 
 univereally read, and were, on that account, 
 accurately refuted by Philoponus.§ All this 
 shows, that many of the magistrates, who were 
 witnesses of these calumnious attempts, were 
 not so much Christians in reality,' a» in appear- 
 ance; otherwise they would not have permitted 
 the'slanders of these licentious revilers to pass 
 without correction or restraint. 
 
 dl^ * The reli^Oli of Chalcidius has been much dig- 
 
 Euted among the learned* Cave seems inclined to' ran-k 
 im amo'ng the Christian writers, though he expresses 
 some un'certaihty about the matter. Huet,-G. J. Vossius, 
 Fabricius, and Geausobre, decide with greater assurance 
 Ihat Chalcidius was a Christian. Some learned men have 
 maintained, on the contrarjr, ^that many things in the 
 writings of this sage entitle him to a place among the pa- 
 gan philosophers. Our learned author, in his notes to 
 his Latin translation of Cudwo'rth's Intellectual Systein, 
 and in a Dissertation '' de turbata ner recentiores-Flatoni- 
 cos £cclesia," lays down an- hy-potheSis, which holds the 
 miaSie way 'between these extremes, He is of opinion 
 that Chalcidius neither rejected nor embraced the whole^ 
 system of the Christian doctrine, Blit selected, out of the 
 religiotiof Jesus and'the tenets of Plato, a bod^of divifii- 
 ty, in which, however, Flatonism was predominant; and 
 that he was one of those Syncretist or Eclectic philoso- 
 phers, who abounded in the: fourth and 0tth centuries, 
 ^ and who attempted to unite Paganism and Christianity 
 into one motley system. • This account of the matter, 
 however, appears too vague to the celebrated author of 
 the Critical History of Philosophy, M. Brucker. This 
 excellent writer agrees with l)r. Mosheim in this, that 
 Chalcidius ' followed the motley' method'of the eclectic 
 Flatonistsf but does not see any thing in this inconsistent 
 with his having publicly professed the Christian religion. 
 The question is not; whether this philosopher was asaund 
 an^ orthodox Christian, which M. Brufcker denies him to, 
 have been, but whether he had abandoned the p%an 
 rites, and lAade a public profession of Christianity; -and 
 this our philosophical historian looks upon as cvideiitj 
 for though, in the commeritarjr. upon Plato's Timseus, 
 Chalcidius teaches several doctrines that seem to striketlt 
 the foundations of our holy religion, yet the same may be 
 said of Origen,- Clemens Alexandrinus, Arnobius,^ and 
 others, who ai*e, nevertheless, reckoned among- the pro- 
 fessors 'of Christianity. The reader will find an excellent 
 view' of the different opinions concerning the religion or 
 - Chalcidius, ; in the third volume of^^Brucker's- Histoly. 
 The truth.oif the matter seems to be this, that the Eclec- 
 tics, before Christianity became the religion:of the state, 
 enriched theii^ system &om the Gospel, but ranged them- 
 selves under the standards of Plato; and that they-repair- 
 ' ed'to those of Christ, without any considerable change- 
 of their system, when the examples and authority of the 
 emperors rendered the profession of the Christian reli- 
 gion a matter of prudence, as well as its own excellence- 
 rendered it most 'justly a matter of choice. 
 
 QC^ f Alexander wrote a treatise against the Mani- 
 chsans, which is published by Combens, in the second 
 tome of his Auctor. IToviss. Biblioth. PP. Photius, Com- 
 befis, and our learned Cave, looked upon Alexander as a 
 proselyte to Christianity; but Beausobre has demonstrated 
 the contrary. See the Histoire du Manicheisme, par^ ii. 
 Discours Preliminaire, sect. 13, p. S36. 
 t Fhotii Bibliotheca, cod. ccxlii. p. 1037. 
 ^ Se^J. A. Fabricii Bibliotheca Grseca,voli iii. p. 522. 
 
 III. Notwithstanding the extensive progress 
 of the Gospel, the Christians, even in this cen- 
 tury, suffered grievously, in several countries, 
 from the savage cruelty and bitterness of their 
 enemies. The Anglo-Saxons, who were mas- 
 ters of the- greater part of Britain, involved a 
 multitude of its ancient inhabitants, who pro- 
 fessed Christianity, in the deepest distresses, 
 and tormented theni with all that variety of 
 suffering, which the injurious and malignant 
 spirit of persecution could invent.*-The Huns, 
 in their irruptions into Thrace, Greece, aiidthe 
 other provinces, during the rei^ of Justinian, 
 treated the Christians with great barbarity; not 
 so much, perliaps, from an aversion to Christi- 
 anity, as from' a spirit of hatred against the 
 Greeks; and a, desire of overturning and de- 
 stroying their empire. The face of afiairs was 
 totally changed in Italy, about the middle of 
 this century, by a grand revolution which hap- 
 pened in the reign of Justinian I. This empe- 
 ror, by the arm^ of Narses, overturned the 
 kingdom of the Ostrogoths, which had subsist- 
 ed ninety years; and subdued all Italy. The 
 political state, however, which this revolution 
 introduced, was not of a very long duration; 
 for the Lombards, a-fierce and warlike people, 
 headejl by Alboinus their king, and joined by 
 several other German nations, issued from'Pan- 
 nonia, in 568, Under the reign of Justin; in- 
 vaded Italy; and, having made themselves 
 masters, of the whole country, except Rome 
 and Ravenna, erected a new kingdom at Tici- 
 num. ,Under these new tyrants, who, to the 
 natural ferocity of their characters, added an 
 aversion to the religion of Jesus, the Christiaiis, 
 in the begimfting, endured calamities of every 
 kind. But the .fury of these savage' usurpers 
 gradually subsided; and their manners con- 
 tracted, from time to time, a milder character. 
 Autharis, the third monarch of the Lombards, 
 embraced Christianity, as it was professed by 
 the Arians,-in 581; but his successor AgiluMJ 
 who married his widow Theudelihda, was per? 
 suaded by that princess to abandon Arianism, 
 and to adopt the tenets of the Nicene cathb- 
 lics.-f 
 
 But the calamities of the Christians, in all' 
 other countries, were light and inconsiderable 
 in comparison of those which they suffered ^n 
 Persia under Chosroes, the inhuman monarch 
 of that nation This monster of impiety aim- 
 ed his audacious and desperate efforts against 
 heaven itself; for he publicly declared, that he 
 would make war not only upon Justinian, but 
 also upon the God of the Christians; and, in 
 consequence of tliis blasphemous menace, he 
 vented his rage against the followers of Jesus 
 in the most barbarous manner, and put multi- 
 tudes of them to thp most cruel and ignomin- 
 ious dealths.j; 
 
 '_ * Usher's Chrouolbgical Index to his Antiquit. Eccles. 
 Britann. ad annum Sfia. 
 
 f Paul. Diacon. de Gestis Jjongobardorum, lib. ii. cap. 
 ii. xxvii.-^Muratorii Antiq. Italiae, toib. i. ii, — Giannone, 
 ■Historia di Napoli, torn. i. 
 
 } Froiiopius, de Bello Fersico, lib. ii, cap. .xxvi. 
 
PART II. 
 
 THE INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Concerning the State of Letters and Philosophy,. 
 
 during this Century, 
 
 I. The incursions of the barbarous nations 
 into the greatest part of the western provinces 
 were "extremely prejudicial to the interests of 
 learning and philosophy, as must be known to 
 all lyho have any acquaintance witli the histo- 
 ry of those imhappy times. During those tu- 
 multuous scenes of desolation and horror, 'the 
 liberararta and sciences would have been total- 
 ly extinguished, had they not found a place of 
 refuge, such as it was, among the bishops, and 
 the monastic orders. Here they assembled 
 their scattered remains, and received a degree 
 of culture which just served to keep tliem from 
 perishing. Those churches, which were dis- 
 tinguished by the appellation of cathedrals, had 
 schools erected under their- jurisdiction, in 
 which the bishop, or a certain person appointed 
 by him, instructed the youth in the seven libe- 
 ral arts, as a preparatory introduction to the 
 study of the Scriptures,* Persons of both 
 sexes, who had devoted themselves to tlie mo- 
 nastic life, were obliged, by the founders of 
 their respective orders, to employ daily a cer- 
 tain portion of their time in reading the an- 
 cient doctors of the church, whose writings 
 were looked upon as the rich repertories of ce- 
 lestial wisdom, in which all the treasures of 
 theology were centred. f Hence libraries were 
 formed, in all' the monaste^-ies, and the pious 
 and learned profluctions of the Christian and 
 other writers were copied and dispersed by the 
 diligence of transcribers appointed for that 
 purpose; who were generally such monlis as, 
 by weakness of constitution, or other^ bodily 
 infirmities, were rendered incapable of more 
 severe labour. To these establishments we 
 owe the preservation and possession of all the 
 ancient authors, sacred and profane, who es- 
 caped in this manner the savage fury of Gothic 
 ignorance, and are happily transmitted to our 
 times. It is also to be observed, that, beside 
 the schools annexed to the cathedrals, semina- 
 ries were opened in the greater part of the mo- 
 nasteries, in which the youth who were set 
 apart for the monastic life were instructed by 
 the abbot, or some of his ecclesiastics, in the 
 arts and sciences. | 
 
 II. But these institutions and establi^ments, 
 however laudable, did not produce such happy 
 efiects as might have been expected from them. 
 For, not to speak of the indolence of certain 
 abbots and bishops, who neglected entirely the 
 duties of their stations, or of the bitter aver- 
 sion whiqh others discovered towards every 
 
 • Fleury, Discours sur PHfstoire Eccles.— Histoire 
 Liter, de la Fraucc, torn, iii, — Herpi. Couringii. AuUq. 
 Academicse. 
 
 f Benedict Aniauensis GoDcordia Regularum, lib. ii. 
 iii. — Jo. Mabillon, Frsef. ad Saec. i. Act. SS. Ord. Beued. 
 p. 44, . 
 
 ^Benedict. GoDcord. Reg. lib. ii. p. 233. — Mabillon, 
 Actft Ordt Bened. toin. i. 
 
 sort of learning and erudition, which they con- 
 sidered as pernicious to the progress of piety;* 
 not to speak of the illiberal ignorance which 
 several prelates affected, and which they inju- 
 diciously confounded with ChristiaM, simplicity;] 
 even those who applied themselves to the stu- 
 dy and propagation of the sciences, were, for 
 the most part, extremely unskilful and illite- 
 rate; and the branches of learning taught in 
 the schools were inconsiderable, both as to 
 their quality and theiriiumber.| Greek litera- 
 ture was almost every where neglected; and 
 those who, by profession, had devoted, them- 
 selves to the culture of Latin erudition, spent 
 their time and labour injgrammatical subtilties 
 and quibbles, as the pedantic examples of Isi- 
 dorus and Cassiodorus abundantly show. jElo- 
 quence was degraded' into a rhetorical bora- 
 bast, a noisy kind of declamation which was 
 composed of motley and frigid allegories and 
 barbarous terms, as may even appear from se- 
 veral parts of the writings of those superior 
 geniuses who Surpassed their contemporaries in 
 precision and elegance, such as Boethius, Cas- 
 siodorus, Ennodius, and others. As to the 
 other liberal arts, they shared the common ca- 
 lamity; and, from the mode in which they 
 were now cultivated, they had nothing very 
 liberal or elegant in their appearance, consist- 
 ing entirely of a few dry rijlea, which,' instead 
 of a complete and finished system, produced 
 only a ghastly and lifeless skeleton. . 
 
 III. The state of philosophy was still more 
 deplorable than that of literature; for it was 
 entirely banished from those seininaries which' 
 were under the inspection and government _of 
 the ecclesiastical order. The greatest part of 
 these zealots looked upon the study of philoso- 
 phy, not only as useless, but even pernicious to 
 those who had dedicated themselves to the ser- 
 vice of religion; The most eminent, indeed 
 almost .the'only Latin philosopher of this age, 
 was the celebrated Boethius, privy connsellor 
 to Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths. This 
 illustrious senator had embraced the Platonic 
 philosophy,! and approved also, as was usual 
 amoiig the modern Platonists, the doctrine of 
 Aristotle, -and illustrated it in his writings; and 
 it was u'ndoubtedly in consequence of the dili- 
 gence and zeal with which ne explained and 
 recommended the Aristotelian philosophy, that 
 it rose now among the Latins to a higher de- 
 gree of credit than it had before enjoyed. 
 
 IV. The state of the liberal arts, among the 
 
 * Gregory the Great is said to have been of this num- 
 ber, aod to liave ordered a multitude of the productions 
 of pa^an writers, and among others Livy's History, to be 
 committed to the flames. See Liron's Singularitcs Hist, 
 et Lit. torn. i. 
 
 - f Mabillon, Praef. ad Ssec. i. Benedict, p. 46. 
 ■ I See M. Aur. Cassiodori Liber de septelh Discipliuis, 
 which is extant among his woi^Ie?. 
 
 § This will appear evident to such as, with a competent 
 knowledge of modern Platonism, read attentively the 
 books of Boethius, de Consolationc; &c. See also, on 
 this subject, Renat. Vallin. p. 10, 50. Holstenius in 'Vit. 
 Forphyrii, and Mascov. Histor Germauor. tom. ii. 
 
Chap. II. 
 
 DOCTORS, CHURCH GOVERNMENT, &c. 
 
 161 
 
 Greeks; was, in several places, mucb more 
 flourishing than that in whi<^ we have left 
 them among the Latins: and the emperors 
 raised and nourished a spirit of literary emula- 
 tion, oy the noble rewards and the distinguish- 
 ed honours which they attached to the pursuit 
 of all the various branches of learning.*- It is, 
 however, certain, that, notwithstanding these 
 encouragements, the sciences were cultivated 
 with less ardour, and men of leafning and ge- 
 nius were less numerous than in the preceding 
 century. In the beginning of this, the modem 
 •Platonista y^t maintamed their credit, and their 
 philosophy was in -vogue. ' The Alexandrian 
 and Athenian schools flourished under the di- 
 rection of Damascius, Isidorus, Simfihcius, Eu- 
 lamius, Hermias, Priscianus, and others, who 
 were placed on the highest summit of literary 
 glory. But when the emperor Justinian, tiy a 
 particular edict, prohibited the teaching of phi- 
 losophy at Athens,t (which edict, no doubt, 
 was levelled at the modem Platonism already 
 mentioned,) and when his resentment began 
 to flame out against those who refused to aban- 
 don the pagan worship, all these celebrated 
 philosophers took refuge among the Persians, 
 who were at t|iat time the enemie^ of Rome.f 
 TheyJ indeed, returned from their voluntaiy 
 exile, when the peace was concluded between 
 the Persiaisand the Romans in 533;§ but they 
 could never recover their former credit, and 
 they gradually disappeared from the public 
 schools and seminaries, which ceased, at length, 
 to be under their direction. 
 , Thus expired that famous sect, which was 
 distinguished by the- title of the Modem or 
 Later Platonicj and which, for a series of ages, 
 had produced such divisions and tumults in the 
 Christian church, and been, in other respects, 
 prejudicial to the interests and progress of the 
 Gospel. It was succeeded by the Aristotelian 
 philosophy, which arose imperceptibly out of 
 its- obscurity, and was placed in an advantage- 
 ous light, by the illustrations of the learned, 
 but especially and principally by the" celebrated 
 commentaries of Philoponusj and, indeed, the 
 knowledge of this pliilosophy was necessary 
 for the Greeks, since it was from the depths of 
 this peripatetical wisdom, that the Monophy- 
 sites and Nestorians drew the subtilties with 
 which they endeavoured to overwhelm the 
 abettors of the EphesiiHi and Chalcedonian, 
 councils.. 
 
 V. The Nestorians and Monopliysites, who 
 lived in the east, equally turned their eyes to- 
 ward Aristotle, and, in order to train their re- 
 spective followers to the field of controversy, 
 and aim them witli the subtilties of a conten- 
 tious logic, translated the principal books of 
 that deep philosopher into their native languar 
 ges. Sergius, a Monophysite and philpsoplier. 
 
 * See tbe Codex Tbeodos. torn. n. lib. yi. and Herm. 
 Conringius, de Studiis Urbis Romae et ConstantinQp. in 
 9 Dissertation subjoined to his Antiquitates Academicae. 
 
 t Johannes. MalEila, Historia phronica, part ii, ,p. 187, 
 edit. Oxon., Another testimony concerning this matter 
 (S cited from a certain Chronicle, not yet published, by 
 Xfic. Alemannus, ad Frocopii Histor. Arcaoam, cap- xxvi. 
 ' 1 AgA^bias, de Rebus Justiniani, lib. ii. 
 
 t See Wesselingii Observat. Var. lib. i. cap. iviii. 
 Vol.. L— 21 . 
 
 translated the books of Aristotle into Syriac* 
 Uranirus, a Syrian, propagated the doctrines of 
 this philosopher in Persia, and disposed in their 
 favour Chosroes, tlie monarch of that nation, 
 who became a zealous abettor of the peripate- 
 tic system.! The same prince received from 
 one of the Nestorian faction (which, after hav- 
 ing procured the exclusion of the Greeks, tri- 
 umphed at this time unrivalled in Persia) a 
 translation of the Stagirite's works into tile 
 Persian language. { ^ ' 
 
 It is, however, to be observed, that among 
 these eastern Ciiristians there were some who 
 rejected both the Platonic ^nd Aristotelian doc- 
 trines, and who, unwilling to be obliged to 
 others for their philosophical knowledge, in-' 
 vented" systems of their own, which were in- 
 expressibly chimerical and pregnant with ab- 
 surdities. Of this class of original philoso- 
 phers was Cosmas, a Nestorian, commdnly call- 
 ed Indicopleustes, whose doctrines are singular, 
 and resemble more tlie notions of the Orientals 
 than, the opinions of the Greelts.§ Such also 
 ifras the writer, from whose Exposition of the 
 Octateuob Phptius has drawn several citations.|| 
 
 CHAPTER n. 
 Concerning the Doctors and Ministers of tfft 
 Chwrch, 
 I. The external form of church govern- 
 ment continued without any remarkable alter- 
 ation during the course of this century. But 
 the bishops of Rome and Constantinople, who 
 were considered as the most eminent anfl prin- 
 cipal rulers of the Christian church, were en- 
 gaged in perpetual' disputes about the extent 
 ahd limits of their respective jurisdictions; and 
 both seemed to aim at the supreme authority 
 in ecclesiastical afikirs. The latter prelate not 
 only claimed an uprivalled sovereignty over the 
 eastern churches, but also maintained, that his 
 church was, in poiijt . of dignify, no way 'infe- 
 rior -to that of Rome. The Roman pontifls 
 beheld, with impatience, these lordly preten- 
 sions, and warmly asserted the pre-eminence 
 of theii: church, and its superiority over that 
 of Constantinople.. - Gregorythe Great distin- 
 guished himself in this violent contest; and 
 the fdllowing event furnished him with an op- 
 portunity of exerting his zeal. In 688, John, 
 bisliop of Constantinople, surnamed the Faster, 
 on account of bis extraordinary abstinence, and 
 austerity, assembled a council, by his own au- 
 thority^ to inquire into an accusation, brought 
 against Peter, patriarch of Antioch; and, on 
 this occasion, assumed the title of cecumenical 
 or universal bishop.lT Now, although this title 
 
 See the Histor. Dynastiarum, by Abulpharajius, pub- 
 lished by Dr. Pocock, p. 94, 172. 
 
 f See Agathias, de Rebus Justiniani, lib., ii. p. 48 
 
 That Uranius piade use of the Aristotelian philosophy in 
 the- Eutychian controversy, is evident from' this circuia- 
 st^c'e, that Agathias represents him disputing concerning 
 tiie possibility (fn^y^mmiscii/ilitj/ of God (xk< to :tu^htov 
 
 t Agathias, ibjd. -. 
 
 I Bernard de Montfaucon, Prscfaf. ad Cosmam, p. 10; 
 torn, ii- Coliectionis novae Patrum Graecorum. 
 
 II Bibiioth. cod. xxxvi. 
 
 QC^ IT We cannot avoid taking notice of some mistakes 
 which have slipped froni the pen of Dr. Mosheim, in hu 
 
162 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part II. 
 
 had been formerly enjoyed by the bishopa of 
 Constantinople, and was also susceptible of an 
 interpretation that might have prevented its 
 giving umbrage or offence to any,* yet Grego- 
 ry suspected, i)oth from the time and the oc- 
 casion of John's renewing his claim to it, that 
 he was aiming at a supremacy over all the 
 Christian churches; and therefore he opposed 
 his claim in the most vigorous maimer, in let- 
 ^ters to that pm'pose, addressed to the emperor, 
 and to such persons as he judged proper to se- 
 cond his opposition. But all his efforts were 
 without effect; and the bishops of Constanti- 
 nople continued to assume the title in question, 
 though not in the sense in which it had alarm- 
 ed tlie pope.t ■ ^ 
 
 n. This pontiff, however, adhered tenaci- 
 ously to hiff purpose, opposed with vehejnence 
 the bishop of Constantinople, raised new tu- 
 mults and dissensions among the sacred order, 
 and aimed at no less than an unlimited supre- 
 macy over the Christian church. This ambi- 
 tious design succeeded in the west; while, in 
 the eastern provinces, his arrogant pretensions 
 were scarcely respected by uny but those who- 
 ■tvere at enmity with the bishop of Constanti- 
 nople; tuid this prelate was always in a condi- 
 tion to make head against the .progress of his 
 authority in the east. How much the opinions 
 of some were favourable to the lordly demands 
 of the Roman pontiffs, may be easily imagin- 
 ed from an expression of Ennodiu.-!, that infa- 
 mous and extravagant flatterer of Symmachus, 
 who vvas a prelate of ambiguous fame. This 
 parasitical panegyrist, among other impertinent 
 assertions, , maintained, that 'the pontiff was 
 constituted judge in the place of GQd,'which 
 helilled as the vicegerent of the Most High.J: 
 On the other hand, it is, certain, from a variety 
 of the most authentic records, that both the 
 eniperors and the nations in general were far 
 fronv being disposed to bear with patience the 
 yoke of servitude, which .the popes were im- 
 posing upon the Christian church. § The Gothic 
 princes set bounds to the power of those arro- 
 
 narration of this event. First, the council hereraen- 
 tioned was holden under the pontificate of..Pelagiu3 11. 
 and not of Gregory the Great, -who was not chosen 
 bishop of Rome before the year 590. Secondly, the per- 
 son accused beforethis council was not Peter, but Gregory, 
 bishopof'AjJtioch. I'hirdly, it does^not appear that the 
 council was summoned by John of Constantinople, but 
 by the emperor Mauricius, to whom Gregory had ap- 
 pealed from the governor of the east, before whom he 
 was first accused. 
 
 ■00- * The title of universal bishop, which had beeh 
 given by Leo and Justinian to the Patriarch, of Constanti- 
 nople, was not attended with any accession of power. 
 ,^t Gregor. Macni Epist. lib. iv. v. vii, All ,lhe passa- 
 ges in these epistles that relate to this faiilous contest, 
 nave bee:n extracted and illustrated by Launoy, in his As- 
 Bertio in Priyileg. S. Medardi, toih. iii. op. part ii. p. 
 266. See a]ao Xequien, Oriens Chrlstianus, tom.'i. p. 
 67. Pfaffi Dissertatio-de Titulo CEcuinen. in the Tcmpe 
 Helvetica^ torn. iv. p. 99. 
 
 i See his Apologeticum.«ro Synodb, in the xvth volume 
 of the Bibliotheca MagnaPatrum. _ (J^ Oiie would think 
 iha^ t^ia servile adulator had never read the 4th verse of 
 (hf^^iiiapterot St. Paul's 2d Epistlfto the Thessaloni- 
 ■ansTTPhcre the Anti-Christ, or man of sin, is described 
 in the^^y terms in which \>e represents the authority 
 of the pontiff Symmachus. 
 
 § See particularly the truth of this assertion, with 
 respect to Spain, in Geddes' Dissertation on the Papal 
 Supremacy, chiefly with relation to the ancient Spanish 
 Church, which is to be found in the second volume of 
 his MisceUaneous Tracts. 
 
 gant prelates iij Italy, permitted non9 to be 
 raised to tlie pontificate without their approbar 
 tion, and reserved 'to tjiemaelvea the right of 
 Judging of the legality of every new election.* 
 Theyenacted , spiritual laws,''C,alied the religi- 
 ous orders before their tribunals, and summon- 
 ed coimcils by their legal authority.! In con- 
 sequence of all tliis, the pontiffs, amidst all 
 their high pretensions, reverenced- the majesty 
 of their kings and emperors, and submitted to 
 tlieir authority with the most profound humili- 
 ty; nor were they yet so lost to all sense of 
 shame, as to aim at the subjection; of kings and 
 princes to their spiritual dominion.J 
 
 in. The rights and privileges of the clergy 
 were very considerable before this period, and 
 the riches, which they had accumulated, im- 
 mense: and both received daily augmentations 
 from the grbwth of superstition in this century. 
 The arts of a rapacious priestliood were prac- 
 tised upon the ignorant devotion of the simple; 
 and even the remorse of the wicked was made 
 an instrument of increasing 'the ecclesiastical 
 treasure; for an opinion was propagated with 
 industry among' the people, thata remission of 
 sin was to be purchased by their liberalities to 
 the churches and monks, and that the prayers 
 pf departed saints, whose efficacy wfas victori- 
 ous at' the throne of God, were to be bought 
 by offerings presented to the temples, which 
 were consecrated to these celestial mediators. 
 But, in proportion as the riches of the' church 
 increased, the various orders of the clergy were 
 infected with those vices which are too often 
 the consequences of an aflJuent jirosperitj . — 
 TIjis appears, with the utmost evidence, from 
 tlie imperial edicts and tlie decrees of councils, 
 which were so frequently levelled at the immo- 
 ralities of those who were distinguished by the - 
 appellation of cierfrs; for, what necessity would 
 there have been for the enactment of so many 
 laws to restrain the vices, and to preserve the 
 morals of the ecclesiastical orders, if they- had 
 fulfilled even the obligations of exl^ernal decen- 
 cy, or shown, in the general tenor of their lives, 
 a ceflain degree of respect for religion and vir- 
 tue.' Be that as it will, the effect of all these 
 laws and edicts was so. inconsiderable as to be 
 scarcely perceived; for so high was the- venera- 
 tion paid, at this time, to the clergy, that their 
 most flagitious crimes were corrected^ by the 
 slightest and gentlest punishments; an unhappy 
 circumstance, which added to -their presump- 
 tion, and Tendered them more daring and au~ 
 daci6us in iniquity. 
 
 IV. The bishops of Rome, who considered 
 themselves as the chiefs and fathers of the 
 Christian church, are not to be excepted from 
 this censure, any more than the clergy who 
 were under their jurisdiction. We may form 
 some notion of their humility and virtne by that 
 long and vehement contention, which arose in 
 498, between Symmachus and Laufentius, who . 
 were, on the same day, elected to the pontifi 
 
 * See Mascovii Histor. Germanor. torn. ii. not. p. 113. 
 
 t Basnage, Histoire des Eglises Keformees, torn. i. p. 
 381. .^ ^' '^ 
 
 X See'' the citations from Gregory the Great, colIecte4 
 by Launoy, de regia Potestate in Matrimon. torn. i. op. 
 part ii. p. 691, and in his Assertio in Privilegium S. 
 Medardi, |i. 272; torn. iii. op. part ii. See also Oiannonc, 
 Historia di Pfapoli^ torn. ii. 
 
Cha*;ii. 
 
 DOCTfORS, CHURCH, GOVERNMENT, Sec, 
 
 cate by different parties, and whose dispute 
 was, at length, decided by Tlieodoric king of the 
 Goths. Each of these ecclesiastics maintained 
 ob^na-tely the vftlidity .of his election; they 
 rec^rocally accused each other of the most^de- 
 testable crinies;,and, t6~their mutual dislTon- 
 our, their accusations didmot appear, on either 
 
 • side, entirely destitute of foundg,tion. Three 
 diiferent councils, assembled at Rome, endea- 
 voured to terminate this odious schism,* but 
 without success. A fourth was summoned, by 
 Theodoric,to examine the" accusations brought 
 against' Symmj,chus, to whom this prince had, 
 at the beginning of the. schism, adjudged the 
 
 . papal chair. ■ This council met about the com- 
 mencement of the century; and in it the Ro- 
 man pontiff was acquitted of the crimes laid 
 to his charge. But the adverse party refused 
 ■ to acquiesce in this decision; and this gave pp- 
 casion to Ennodius of Ticinum,(now"Pavia,) 
 to draw up his adulatory Apology for the Coun- 
 cirand Syrnmachus.t In this apology, which 
 disguises the truth under the seducing Golem's 
 of a gaudy, rbetorio, the reader will perceive 
 that the foundations of that enormous power, 
 which the popes afterwards acquired^ were now 
 laid; but ^e will in vain seek, in this.laborSed 
 production, any satisfactory proof of the injus- 
 tice of the charge brought against Symma- 
 chus.| 
 
 V. The numbpr, credit, and influence of the 
 monks augmented daily in all parts of the 
 Christian world. They multiplied so. prodi- 
 giously in the east, that- whole armies" might 
 have been raised out of the monastic order, 
 without any, sensible -diminution of ~that enor- 
 mous bo^y. The monastic life was also highly 
 honoured, ani^had ah incredible number of pa- 
 trons and followers in all the western pro- 
 vinces, as appeaj-s from tlie rules which were 
 prescribed in this century, by various doctors, 
 for directing the conduct of tlie cloistered 
 monks, and the holy virgins, who had sacri- 
 ficed their capacity of being useful in the world, 
 to the gloomy charms of a conveut.§ In .Great 
 Britain, a certain abbot, named Congal,.issaid 
 to have persuaded an incredible number of per- 
 sons to abandon the affairs, obligations, and 
 duties of social life, and to spend the4-emain- 
 der of their days in solitude, under a rule of 
 discipline, of which he was the inventor.|| His 
 disciples travelled through many countries, in 
 
 Q(^ * This schism may be truly termed odiovs, as it 
 was carried on- ,by assassinations, massacres, and all the 
 c^uel proceedings of a desperate civil war. See Faulus 
 Diaconus, lib. xyii. 
 
 f This apology may be seen id the iifleenth volum^e of 
 the Magn. BibJ. Patrum, p. 248. - ^ 
 
 Ot^fThat Symmachus was never fairly acquitted, 
 may be presumed from th€ first, and proved from the 
 second of the following circumstances: first, that The-' 
 odoric^ who was a -wise and equitable prince, and who 
 .-had attentively examined the charge brought against him, 
 would not have referred the decision to the bishops, if 
 the matter had been clear, but would have pronounced 
 judgment liimself, as he had formerly done with respect 
 to the legality of *hi3 election. The second circumstance 
 is, that the council acquitted .him without even heariug 
 those who Recused him, and he himself did not appear, 
 though frequently summoned. 
 
 § These rules are extant in Holst«nius' Codex Regu-, 
 lamin, part ii. published at Rome iii 1661. See also 
 Edm. ^Martenne et Ursin. Durabd. Thesaur. Anecdot. 
 3fov. torn. i. p. 4. 
 
 II Archbishop Usher's Antiq. Eccles. Britan~. 
 
 163 
 
 which they propagated, w.ith siich succesSj the 
 contagion of tliis monastic devotion, tliat, in a 
 short time, Ireland, Gaijlj Germany, and Swit- 
 zerlan4, sw;armed with those lazy orders, and 
 were, in a niannef, covered with convents. 
 The most illustrfous disciple of the abbot now 
 mentioned, was Columban, whose singular rule 
 of discipline is yet extant, and surpasses all the 
 rest in simplicity and brevity.* The monastic 
 orders, in general, abouiided with fanatics and 
 profligates; the latter were more numerous 
 than the former in the western convents, while, 
 in those of the east, the fanatics were predomi- 
 nant. - .V 
 
 VI. A new order, which in a manner ab- 
 sorbed all the qthers that were established in 
 the west, was instituted, in 629, by Benedict 
 of Nursia, a man of piety and reputation, for 
 the age lie lived in.. From hjs rule of discipline, 
 which is yet extant, we learn that it was not his 
 intention to impose it upon all the moilastic so- 
 cieties, but to form an order whose discipline 
 shoijld be milder, establishment more solid, an^ 
 manners more regular, than those of thfe other 
 monastic bodies; and whose meinbers, during 
 the coursevof a-holy and peaceffll life, were to 
 divide their time between prayer, reading, the 
 education of youth, and other pious and learn- 
 ed labours.f But, in process of time, the fol- 
 lowers of this celebrated ecclesiastic- degener- 
 ated sadly from the piety of their founder, and 
 lost sight of the duties of t)ieir stattqji, and the 
 great end of their establisfiinent. ,JJaving ac- 
 quired immense riches from the devout liberali- 
 ty of. the opulent, they sunk into luxury, intem- 
 perance, and sloth, abandoned themselves to all 
 sorts of vices, extended their .zeal and atteii- 
 tion to worldly ^.ffairs, insinuated theinselves 
 into the cabinets of princes,' took part in politi- 
 cal cabals and coUrf factions, made a vast aug- 
 mentation of superstitious cei-ertiohies in their 
 order, to blind the- multitude, and supply the 
 plaee of their expiring virtue; and, among 
 other meritorious enterprises, labpured" most 
 ardently to swell the arrogance, by enlarging 
 the power and authority oflhe Roman pontiff. 
 The good Benedict never dreamed that the 
 great purposes of his institution were to be thus 
 perverted; much less did he-give'any encour- 
 agement or permissioil to such flagrant abuses. 
 His rule of discipline was neither favourable to 
 luxury nor to ambition; and it-is still celebrated 
 on account of its excellence, though it ha^ not 
 been observed for many ag^s. :. ." 
 
 Jt is proper to remark here, that the institu- 
 tion of Benedict changed, in several respects, 
 the obligations and duties of the monastic life,^ 
 as it was regulated in the west. AraoOg other 
 things, he obliged those who entered into his 
 order to promise, at the time of their being re- 
 ceived as novices, and afterwards at their ad- 
 mission as members of the society, to persevere 
 in an obedience to-the rules he liad laid down, 
 without attempting to change tlieinin any re- 
 spect. As he was exceedingly .solicitous about 
 
 . * TJsserii Sylloge - Antiquar. Epistolar. Hibernicar. p. 
 5 — 15 — Holstenii Codex Re^ularum, torn. ii. p. 48 — 
 Mabillon, Praef. ad Sseculum li. Benedictinum.'p. 4. 
 
 f See Mabillon, Acta Sanetor. Ordr Bened. Saec. i. and • 
 Annates Or^in. Ben. torn. i. See also Helyot, and tbe other 
 writers who have given accounts of the monastic orders. 
 
)64 
 
 INTERNAL fflSTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part IL 
 
 the stability of his institution, this particular 
 regulation was wise and prudent; and it was so 
 much the more necessary, as, before his time, 
 the monks made no scruple of altering the 
 laws and rules of their founders whenfever they 
 thought proper.* 
 
 Vfl. This new order made a most rapid 
 progress in the west, and soon arrived at the 
 most flourisliing state. In Gaul, its intferests 
 were promoted by St. Maurus; in Sicily and 
 Sardinia, by Placiduaj in England, by Augus- 
 tin and Mellitus; in Italy, ajid other countries, 
 by Gregory the Great, who is himSelf report- 
 ed to have been for some time a member of this 
 societyjt and it was afterwards received in 
 Germany by the means of Boniface.t JThia 
 amazing progress of the new order was ascribed 
 by the Benedictines to the^wisSom and sancti- 
 ty of their discipline, and to the; miracles 
 wrdught by their founder and his followers. 
 But a more attentive view of things will con- 
 vince the impartial observer, that the protec- 
 tion of the pontiffs, to the advaiicemeiit of 
 whose grandeur and authority the Benedic- 
 tines were most servilely devoted, contributed 
 much more to the lustre and influence of their 
 order, than aiiy other circumstances, "and in- 
 deed more than all other considerations united. 
 But, however general their credit was, they did 
 not reign alone; other orders subsisted in seve- 
 ral countries until the ninth century. Then,. 
 hoW«Ver, the Benedictines Absorbed all the 
 other religious societies, and held, unrivalled, 
 the reins of the monastic empire. § 
 
 VIIL The most celebrated Greek and Ori- 
 ental writers that flourished in this century, 
 were the following: 
 
 Procopius of Gaza, who interpreted with 
 success 'several books of Scripture.|| 
 
 Max«ntius, a monk of Antioch, who, beside 
 several treatises against the sects of his time, 
 composed Scholia on DionySius the Areopagite. 
 
 Agapetus, whose Scheda Regia, addressed- 
 to the emperor Justinian, procured him a place 
 among the wisest . and most judicious writers 
 of this century. 
 
 Eulogius, a presbyter of Antioch, who was 
 the terror of heretics, and a warm and strenu- 
 otis defender of the orthodox faith. 
 
 John, patriarch of Constantinople, who, on 
 account of his austere method of life, was sur- 
 named the Faster, and who acquired a certain 
 degree of reputation by several little produc- 
 tions, afid more particularly by his Penitential. 
 
 Leontius of Byzantium, whose book against 
 the sects, and other writings, are yet extant. 
 
 Evagrius, a scholastic writer, whose Ecclesi- 
 astical History is, in many p^ces, corrupted 
 with fabulous narrations. 
 
 * See Milbillon, Prapf. ad Baec. iv. Benedict. 
 
 f .See Mabillon'a preface last mentioned, and Kis Dis- 
 sertatipn de Vita Monast'. Gregorii M. This circum- 
 stance, however, is denied by some writers;* and among 
 others by Gallonius^ concerning whose book upon that 
 subject, see Simon's Lettres ChoiSies, torn. iii. p. 63. 
 
 t Anton. Dadini Alteserrae, Origines rel Monastics, 
 lib. i. cap. is.. The propagation of the Benedictine order, 
 through the difierent provinces x>f Europe, is related by 
 Mabillon, Frsf. ad S-«c. i. et ad Ssec. iv. 
 
 § L'£nrant,'Histoire du Concile de Constance, torn. ii. 
 
 I] See Simon's Critique dela Bibliotheque Ecclesiasti- 
 que de M. Du-Pin, tom. i. p. 19?. 
 
 Anastasius of Sinai, whom most writers con- 
 sider as the author of a trifling performance, 
 written against a sort of heretics called Ace- 
 phali, of whom we shall have, occasion to 
 speak hereafter."^ . 
 
 IX. Among .the Latin Writers the following 
 are "principally worthy of mentions 
 
 Gregory the Great, bishop of Rome, who 
 united the most inconsistent and contradictory 
 qualities; as in some cases he discovered a 
 soimd and penetrating judgment, and in others 
 the most shameful and superstitious weakness; 
 and in general manifested an extreme aversion 
 to all kinds of learning, as his Epistles and 
 Dialogues sufiiciently testify, f 
 
 CeesariuB of Aries, who composed some moral 
 writings, and drew up a rule of conduct and 
 discipline for the Holy Virgins.J ^ - 
 
 Fulgentius, bishop of Ruspina; who attack-, 
 ed with great warmth the Arians and Pelagi- 
 ans in Africa; but whose style and manner 
 were harsh and uncouth, as was generally the 
 case of the African writers.^ 
 
 Ennodius, bishop of Ticiniun, who was not 
 one of the meanest -authors of this century, 
 whether we consider his compositions in prose 
 or in verse; though he disgraced his talents, 
 and dishonoured his eloquence, by his infamous 
 adulation. of the Roman pontifl?, whom he so 
 exalted above all mortals, as to maintain that 
 he was answerable to none upon earth for his 
 conduct, and subject to no human tribunal || 
 Benedict of Nursia," who acquired ,an inv- 
 mortal name, by the rules he laid dov?n for the 
 order which he instituted, and the multitude of 
 religious societies that submitted to his discip- 
 line. 
 
 Dionysius, who was sumamed the Little, on 
 account of his extraordinary humility, and was 
 deservedly esteemed for his Collection of Jthe 
 Ancient Canons, and also for his Chronologi- 
 cal Researches. 
 
 Fulgentius Ferrandus, an African, who ac- 
 quired a considerable degree of reputation by 
 several treatises, but especially by his Abridge- 
 ment of the Canons, though his style and dic- 
 tion were entirely destitute of harmony and 
 elegance. 
 
 Facundus, a strenuous defender of the Three 
 Chapters, of which we shall give an account 
 in their place. 
 
 Arator, who translated, with tolerable suc- 
 cess, the Acts of the Apostles into Latin verse. 
 Primasius of Adrumetum, whose Commen- 
 tary upon the Epistles of St. Paul, as also his 
 ^ook concerning Heresies, are yet extant. 
 
 Liberatus, whose Compendious History of 
 the- Nestorian and. Eutychian controversies, 
 must entitle him to an eminent rank among 
 the writers-of this century. 
 
 ■ See, for an account of this book, Simon, tom. i. p. 
 '233; as also Barat. Bibliotheque Choisie, tom. ii. p. 21. 
 
 i A spleiidid edition of the -works of Gregory was 
 .published at Paris, in 1705, by "father St, Marthe, a 
 Benedictine' monk. See an account of this pontiff, Acta 
 Sanctor. tom. ii. Martii, p. 121. 
 
 } Of this writer, the Betiedictine monks have given a 
 learned account, in their Hietoire Literaire de la France, 
 tom. iii. p. 190. 
 
 § See, for an account of Fulgentius, the Acta Sanctorum, 
 tom. i. Januar. p. 32, &c. 
 
 " Histoire Literaire de la France, tom. iii. p. 96 
 
Chap. Itt. 
 
 THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 165 
 
 Fortunatus, a man of various erudition, and 
 whose poetic compositions are fer from being 
 destitute of-eenius.* 
 
 Gregory of Tours, who is esteemed the fa- 
 ther of Gallic history; and who would have 
 descended with honoui- to posterity, did not his 
 Annals .of the Franks, and the rest of his writ- 
 iljgB, carry so many marks X)f levity,- credulity, 
 and weakness. t. 
 
 Gildaa, the most ancient of the British wri- 
 ters, who composed a book concerning the de- 
 struction of -Britain; in which there are several 
 tilings not altogether unworthy of the curiosity 
 of the learned. . ' 
 
 Columban, a native of Ireland, who became 
 famous on account of the monastic rules he 
 prescribed to his followers, his zeal for esta- 
 Wishing religious orders, and his poetical pro- 
 ductions.]: 
 
 Isidore, bi^op of Seville, wjiose grammati- 
 cal, theological, and historical productions, dis- 
 cover more learning and pedantry, than judg- 
 ment and taste. 
 
 We may conclude this enumeration of the 
 Latin Writers with the illustrious names of 
 Boethius and Cassiodorus, who far surpassed 
 all their contemporaries in learning and Ifnbw- 
 ledge. The former shoiie forth with the bright- 
 est lustre in the republic of letters, as a philo- 
 sopher, an orator, a; poet, and a divine, and 
 both in elegauice- and subtilty of -genius had no 
 superior, nor indeed any. equal in this^ientnry; 
 >-the latter, though in many respects inferior to 
 hira, was nevertheless. far from being destitute 
 of merit.§ Several productions of these wri- 
 ters have been transmitted to our times. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 Concerning the Doctrine, of the Church during 
 this Centwy. 
 I. When once the ministers of the church 
 had departed from' the ancient simplicity of re- 
 ligious worship, and sullied the native purity 
 of divine truth by a motley mixture of human 
 inventions, it was difficult to set bounds to this 
 growing corruption. Abuses were daily mul- 
 tiplied, and superstition drew from its horrid 
 fecundity an incredible number of absurdities, 
 which were added to the doctrine of Christ and 
 his apostles, The controversial writers in the 
 eastern provinces continued to render perplexed 
 and obscure some of the principal doctrines of 
 Christianity, by the subtile distinctions which 
 they borrowed from a vain and chimerical phi- 
 losophy. The public teachers and instructors 
 oT the people grievously degenerated^from the 
 apostolic character. They seemed to aiin at 
 nothing else, than to sink the multitude into 
 the most opprobrious ignorance and supersti- 
 
 * Histoire Literaire de la France, torn. iii. p. 464. , 
 
 f The life of Gregory of Tours is to be found in the 
 work last quoted, and his faults are mentioned -by Fagi, 
 in his Dissert, de Dionysio Fan's, sect. So, which is added 
 lo-the fourth tome of the Breviariiim Fontif. Romanor. 
 Launoy defends this historian in many things in his 
 works, torn. i. part ii. p. 131. 
 
 ,i Wo writers have given lilore' accurate accounts of 
 Gildas and Columban, than the learned Benedictines, in 
 the Hist. Lit. de la' France, torn. iii. p. 279, 505. 
 
 § See Simon's Critique de la Bibliotheque de M. Bu- 
 Fin, torn. i> p. 311. 
 
 tion, to eiface from their niinda all sense of the 
 beauty and excellence of genuine piety, and to 
 substitute, in the place of religious principles, 
 a blind veneration for the clergy, and a stupid 
 zeal for a senseless rouiid of ridiculous ceremo- 
 nies. This, perhaps, will appear less surprising, 
 when we consider, that "the blind led the 
 blind;" for the_ public ministers and teachers 
 of religion were, for the most part, grossly ig- 
 norant; indeed, almost as much so as the peo- 
 ple whom they were appointed to instruct. 
 
 II. To be convinqed of the truth of the dis- 
 mal representation -we have- here given of tlie 
 state of religion at this time, nothing more is 
 necessary than to cast an eye upon the doo- 
 ti'ines now taught concerning the worship' of 
 images and saints, the fire of purgatory, the 
 efficacy of good works, i. e. the observance of 
 human rites arid institutions, toward the at- 
 tainment of salvation, the power of relics, to 
 heal the diseases of body and^ mind; and the 
 like sordid and miserable fancies, which are in- 
 culcated in many of the superstitious produc- 
 tions of this century, and particularly in the 
 epistles and other writings of Gregoiy the 
 Great. Nothing could be more ridiculous on 
 one hand, than the solemnity and liberality 
 with which this good, but silly pontiff, distri- 
 buted the wonder-working relics; and nothing 
 more lamentable on the other, than the stupid 
 eagerness and devotion with which the deluded 
 multitude received them, and suffered thenfc 
 selves to be persuaded, that a portion of rajj- 
 cid oil, taken from the la>nps which burned at 
 the tombs of the martyrs, had a supernatural 
 efficacy to sanctify its possessors, and to defend 
 them from all dangers both of a temporal and 
 spiritual nature.* 
 
 III. Several attempts wete made in this cen- 
 tury to lay down a proper and judicious method 
 of explaining tfie Scriptures. Of this nature 
 w^re the two books of Junilius the African, 
 concerning the various parts of the divine 
 law;t a work destitute of precision and method,'- 
 and from which it appears that the author had 
 not sufficient knowledge and p.enetration for 
 the task he undejtook. 
 
 Cassigdorus also, in his two books concern- 
 ing the divine' lawSj has delivered several rules 
 for the right interpretation, of tlie Scriptures. 
 
 Phiioxenus the Syrian translated, mtq his 
 native language,.the Psalms -of David, and the 
 Books of the New Testament.| 
 
 Interpreters were numerous in this century. 
 Those who made the greatest figure among the 
 Greeks in this character, were Procopius of 
 Gaza, Severus of Antioch, Juliah^'and a few 
 others; the- first was an 'expositoi: of no mean 
 abilities.§ The most eminent rank, among the 
 Latin commentators, js due to Gregory the 
 Great, Cassiodorus, Primasius,{| Isidore of Se- 
 yille,ir arid Bellator. 
 
 ly. It must,' hovfever, be acknowledged, 
 
 * See the List of sacred Oils which Gregory the Great 
 sent to. the queen Theudelinda, in the work of Ruinar- 
 tus, entiticd. Acta Martyrum sincera et selecta., p. 619. 
 
 t'See, Simon's Critique, torn. i. p. SQ9. 
 
 I Asseman. Biblioth. Orient. .Vatican, torn. ii. p. 83. 
 ^ See Simon's Lettres Choisies, tom. iv. 
 
 II Simon's Critique, tolQ. i. p. f^; and his Histoire du 
 principaux Oonimentateurs du N. T. qhap. xxiv. p..337. 
 
 IT Simon's Critique, tom. i. p. S5ft; 
 
166 
 
 INTERNAL'HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 PartH 
 
 that these writers scarcely deserve tlje name 
 of ezposTtois, if we except a sma)l number of 
 them, and among these the eastern Nestorians, 
 who, following tlie example of Theodore of 
 Mopsuestia, were carefiil in exploring the true 
 sense and the native energy of the words era- 
 ployed in the Scriptures. We may, therefore, 
 divide the commentators of this age into two 
 classes. In the- first, we rank those who did 
 nothing more than collect the opinions and in- 
 terpretations which had been received by -the 
 ancient doctors of the church; which collect 
 tions were .afterwards called chains by the 
 Latins.* "Such were the chains of Olympio- 
 ddrus on Job, and of Victor of Capua on the 
 four Gospels; and the commentary of Prima- 
 sius on the Epistle to the Romans, which was 
 compiled from the works of Augustin, Jerome, 
 Ambrose, and others. Even Procopiils of 
 Gaza may be ranked in this class, though not 
 with so much reason as the mere compilers now 
 mentioned, since, in many cases, he has con- 
 sulted the dictates of his own judgment, and 
 npt followed, with a servile and implicit sub- 
 mission, the voice of antiquity. To the se- 
 cond class belong those fanciful expositors, 
 who, setting up Origen as their great model 
 rieglect-and overlook entirely the sense of the 
 words employed by the saored writers, lose 
 themselves in spiritual refinements and allego- 
 rical digressions, and,, by the aid of a lively and 
 luxuriant imagination, draw iVom the Scfip- 
 tures arguments in favour of every whim they 
 have thought proper to adopt. Such was 
 Anastasius.the Sinaite, whose Mysterious Con- 
 templations, upon the six-days' Creation,f Be- 
 tray tbe levity and ignorance of their author, 
 Such also was Gregory the Great, whose Mo- 
 ral Observations upon thg Book of Job, for- 
 merly met with unmerited commendations. 
 Such were Isidore pf Seville and Primasius, as 
 manifestly ajJpears from that Book of Allego- 
 ries upon the Holy Scriptures, J which was in- 
 vented by the former, and from the Mystical 
 Exposition of the book of the Revelation.^ 
 which was imagined by the latter. 
 
 V. It would be needless to expect, firom the 
 divines of this century, an accurate view, or a 
 clear and natural explanation, of the Christian 
 doctrine. ' The-^featest part of them reasoned 
 and disputed concerning the truths of the Gos- 
 pel, as the blind would .argue about light and 
 colours; and imagined that they had acquitted 
 themselves nobly, when they had thrown oi(t 
 a heap of crude and indigested notions, ana 
 o-verwhelmed their adversaries with a torrent 
 of words. 
 
 We may perceive, however, in the writers 
 of this age, - evident marks of the three differ- 
 ent methods of explaining and" inculcating the- 
 doetrines of religion which are yet practised 
 among the Greeks and Latins; for some col- 
 lected a heap, rather than a system of theolo- 
 gical opinions, from-the writings of the ancient 
 doctors, from the decrees of councils, and from 
 
 * Le Mpyne, -Prolegomena a^ varia Sacca, p. 53.— 
 Fabricii-Bibliolh. Graeca, lib. v. cap. xvii. 
 
 f The title kContemplationes Anagogicae in Hexaeme- 
 ron. 
 
 1 Liber Allegbriarum iD-Scripturam Sacrain. 
 
 I Expositio Mystica in Apocalypsin. 
 
 the Scriptures; such were Isidore of Seville 
 among the Latins (whose three books of sen- 
 tences or opinions are still extant,) and Leon- 
 .tius the Cyprian among the Greeks, whoss 
 common-place book of Jivinity was much es- 
 teemed. These authors gave rise to that spe- 
 cies of divinity, which the Latins afterwards 
 distinguished by the name of positive theology. 
 
 Others endeavoured to explain the various 
 doctrines of Christianity by reasoning upon 
 their nature, their excellency and fitness; and 
 thus it was, with the strong weapons of reason 
 and argument, that many of the Christian 
 doctors disputed against the Nestorians ♦ha 
 -Eutychians, and the Pelagians. These meta- 
 physical divines were called . schoolmen, and 
 their writings -were afterwards characterised 
 by the general terra of scholastic divinity. s 
 
 A tljird class of theological teachers, very 
 different from those alfeady mentioned, com- 
 prehended -a certain spebies of fanatics, who 
 maintained that the knowledge of divine truth 
 was only to be derived from inward feeling and 
 mental contemplation"; This class assumed 
 tjie appellation of mystics. These three' me 
 thods of deducing and unfolding the doctrines 
 of the- Gospel have been transmitted down to 
 our times. No writer of this century compos- 
 ed a judicious or complete system of divinity, 
 though several branches of that sacred science 
 were .occasionally illustrated. 
 
 VI. Those who consecrated their pious la- 
 bours to the advancement of practical religion 
 and moral virtue, aimed at the aecomplishm^t 
 of this good purpose, partly by laying down 
 precepts, and partly by exhibiting edifying ex- 
 amples. They who promoted the cause of 
 piety and virtue in the former way, modified 
 their instructions according to the state and 
 circumstances of the persons for whom they 
 were designed. Peculiar- precepts were ad- 
 dressed to those who had not abandoned the 
 connexions of civil society, but lived amidst the 
 hurry of worldly affairs; while different , rules 
 were administered to those who ^spired to 
 higher degrees of perfection, and lived- in a 
 state of seclusion from the contagion and vani- 
 ties of the world. The precepts, addressed to 
 the forraer, represent the Christian life, as con- 
 sisting in certain external virtues and acts of 
 religion; as appears from the Homilies and 
 Exhortations of Cffisarius, the Capita Partene- 
 tica of Agapetus,,&.nd especially, from the For- 
 raiila honestae Vitae, i. e. the Summary of a 
 Virtuous Life, drawn up by Martin, archbishop 
 of Braga.* "The rules administered to the lat- 
 ter soTf of Christians, were more sp^ritijial and 
 sublime: they were exhorted to separate, as far 
 as was possible, the soul from the body by di- 
 vine contemplation; and, for that purpose, to 
 enervate and emaciate the latter by watching, 
 fasting, peirpetual prayer, and singing of 
 •psalms; as we find in the dissertation of Ful- 
 gentius upon fasting, and those of Nicetius, 
 concerning the vigils of the servants of God, 
 .and the good effects of psalmody. The Greeks 
 adopted for their leader, in this mystic laby- 
 rinth, Dionysius, falsely called the Areopagite, 
 whose pretended writings John of Scythopolis 
 
 ^ See the Acta Sanctor. Martii, torn. iii. p. 
 
Chap. in. 
 
 THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 187 
 
 illustrated with annotations in this century. 
 We need not be at any pains in pointing out 
 the defects of these injudicious zealots; the 
 smallest 'acquainfanoe with that rational reli- 
 gion, which is contained in the Gospel, will be 
 sufficient to 'open the eyes of the impartial to 
 the absurdities of that chimerical devotion we 
 have now been describing. 
 
 Vn. They who enforced tlie duties of Chris-, 
 tianity, by exhibiting examples of piety and 
 viitue to the -view of those, for whom their in- 
 structions were designed, wrote; for this pur- 
 pose, the Lives of th? Saints; and there was a 
 considei^able number of this kind of biogi'a- 
 phers both among the Greeks and Latins, iln- 
 nodius, Eugypius, Cyril of ScythopoKs, Diony- 
 sius the Little, Cogitosus and others', are to be 
 ranked in this class, But, however pious the 
 intentions of these biographers may have been, 
 it must be acluiowledged, that they executed 
 their task in a most contemptible manner. No 
 models of rational piety are to be found among, 
 those pretended worthies, whom they propose 
 to Christians as objects of imitation. They 
 amuse their readers witlr gigantic fables and 
 trifling -romances; the examples they exhibit 
 are those of certain. delirious ^naiics, whom 
 .they Call samtSf men of a corrupt and pervert- 
 ed- judgment, who -oifered violence to reasoh 
 and nature by the .horrors of an extravagant 
 austerity in their own conduct, and by the se- 
 verity of those singular and inhuman rules 
 which they prescribed to others. For, by what 
 means were these men sainted.^ By starving 
 themselves with senseless obstinacy, and bear- 
 ing the useless. hardships of hunger, thirst, and 
 inclement seasons, with stedfastiiess and perse- 
 verajice; by running about the country, like 
 -madmen, in tattered garments, and sometimes 
 half-naked, or shutting themselves up in a nar- 
 row space, where they continued motionless; 
 by standing for a long time in oertiiin postures, 
 with their eyes closed, in' the enthusisCstic ex- 
 pectation of divine light. All this was " saint- 
 like, and glorious;" and the more any ambi- 
 tious fanatic departed trora the dictates of rea- 
 son and common sensoj arid counterfeited the 
 wild gestures, and the incoherent conduct of an 
 idiot or a lunatic, the surer was his prospect of 
 obtaining an. ^minent rank among the heroes 
 and demi-gods of a corrupt and degeiierate- 
 church. 
 
 VIII. Many, writers l^oured with diligence 
 to. terminate the reigning controversies, but 
 none with success. Nor shall we be much 
 surprised, that these efforts were ineffectual, 
 when 'we consider how they were conducted; 
 for scarcely can we name a single writer, -whose 
 opposition to the Eutychians, Nestorians, and 
 Pelagians, was carried* on with probity, mode- 
 ration, or prudence. Primasius and Philopo- 
 nus wrote concerning all the sects, but Uieir 
 works are lost; the treatise of Leontiu^, upon 
 the same extensive subject, is still extant, but 
 is scarcely worth perusing. Isidore of Seville, 
 and Leontius of Neapolis, disputed against the. 
 Jews; but with what success and dexterity will 
 be easily imagined by those who are acquaint- 
 ed with the. learning and logic of these times. 
 We omit, therefore, any farther mention of the 
 miserable disputants of this century, from a 
 
 persuasion thai it will be more usgful ii,nd enter- 
 taining to lay before the reader a brief account 
 of the controversies that now divided and trou- 
 bled the Christian churfth. 
 
 IX. Though the credit of Origen, and liis 
 system, seemed to lie expiring uhder the blowj 
 it had received from the zeal of the orthodox, 
 and the repeated thunder of sjntiods and coun- 
 cils, yet it was very far from being totally sunk. 
 On the contrary, this great man, and bis doc- 
 trine, were held by many, and especially by the 
 monks, in the highest veneration, and cherish- 
 ed witli a kind of enthusiasm,, which became 
 boundless and extravagant. In the west, Bel- 
 lator translated the works of Origen- into the 
 Latin language. In the eastern provinces, and 
 particularly in Syria and Palestine, which were 
 the principal- scats of Origenism,'.the monks, 
 seconded by several bishops, and chiefly by 
 Theodore of Ceesarea in Cappadocia, defended 
 the truth and authority of the doctriries of Ori- 
 gen against all his adversaries with incredible 
 vehemence.* The cause was-, at length, brought 
 before Justinian, who, in-a long and verbose 
 edict, addressed to Mennas, patriarch of Con-- 
 stantin6ple,t passed- a severe condemnation 
 upon Origen and his doctrine, and .ordered it 
 to be entirely suppressed-! The effects of this 
 edict were more violent than.durable; for,upon 
 the breaking out of the controversy concerning 
 the three chapters,^ soon after this tirfle, Origien 
 ism not only revived -in Palestine, but even re- 
 covered new vigour, and spread itself far and 
 wide. Hence njany commotions were raised 
 in the church, which were, however, termi- 
 nated by the fifth general council, assembled at 
 Constantinople by Justinian, in 633, in Vdiich 
 ■Origen "and his followers were again con- 
 demned. || 
 
 X. This controversy produced another, v/hich 
 QOntinned much longer, was carried on with 
 still more excessive degrees of animosity and 
 violence, and the subject of which was of much 
 less moment and importance. The emperor 
 Justinian was eagferly bent upon extirpating 
 that violent branch.of the Monophysites, which 
 was distinguished by the name of Acephali; 
 and consulted, upon this matter, -Theodore, 
 bishop of Ceesarea, who was a Monophysite, 
 and, at the same time, extremely attached to 
 the doctrine of Origen. The artful prelate con- 
 
 * Cyrrl. Scythop. Vit. Sabse, which is .to be found' in, 
 Cotelerius, Monunicnta Ecclesiae Graecae,p. 370.-=:Henr. 
 Norris, Dissertat. de Synodo Q,uinta, cap. i. ii."p. 554. 
 torn. J.,op. J ' ■ 
 
 f This edict is published in Harduini Concilia, torn, 
 iii. p. S43. 
 
 8^ j This edict was procured by. the. solicitation of 
 Pelagius, who was legate of Vigilius at the court 'of 
 Cohstantinople, with a view to confound, the Acephali, 
 who were admirers of Origen, and particularly to vex 
 Theodore, of whose credit with the emperor "Pelagius 
 was extremely jealous. It was.lo return this 4ffront,_ as 
 well-as "to effect tlie purposes mentioned in the following, 
 sectjon, that Theodore set on foot the controversy con- ' 
 cerning the three cliapters, which produced such tedious, 
 cruel, and fatal dissensions in the church. See Basnage, 
 Histoire de I'Eglise, liyr. x. ch. vi. p. 520. - 
 
 § For an explicatioji of what is meant by the thire^ 
 chapters, see note of (be xth section. - , ■ 
 
 II See Harduini Concilia, torn, iiitp. 283.— Evagrius, 
 Hist. Eccl. lib. iv. cap. xxxviii. — Basnage, liTr..x. chap. 
 
 yi. p.-517, &c Pet. Dan. Huetii Origeniana, lib. 11. p. 
 
 324.— Doucin's Singular, Dis. subjoined to his. HiltAria 
 Origeniana, p. 345. 
 
168 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OK THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part II. 
 
 sidered thisa^a favourable occasion for procur- 
 ing repose to the follower^ of Orjgen .by excit- 
 ing a new controversy, as also for tlirowing a 
 reproach upon the council of Chalcedon, and 
 giving a mortal blow to the Nestorians and 
 their tsause. In' order to effect these Ulree iniT 
 portant purposes, he persuaided the emperor, 
 that the Acephalf would return to the bosom 
 of the church, under the following easy and 
 reasonable conditions; namely, " That those 
 passages in the acts of the council of Chalce- 
 don, in which Theodore of Mopsuestia, Theo- 
 doret of Cyrus, andlbas of Edessa, had been 
 pronounced orthodox, should be effaced; and 
 that the productions of these prelates, which 
 were known by the appellation of the three 
 chapters,* as also other writings of theirs, which 
 discovered a manifest propensity toward the 
 Nestorian errors, should be condemned and 
 prohibited." The emperor lent a propitious ear 
 to the counsels of this prelSite; and, by an 
 edict, published in 544, ordered the three chap- 
 ters to be condemned and-effaced, without any 
 prejudice, however, to the authority of \he 
 council of Chalcedon.^ This edict was warm- 
 ly opposed by the African and western bishops, 
 and particularly by Vigilius, the Roman pon- 
 tiff, who considered it as highly injurious not 
 only to the authority of the council now men- 
 tioned, but also to the memory of those holy 
 men whose writings and characters it oouered 
 with reproach.J Upon this, Justinian ordered 
 Vigilius to repair immediately to Constantino- 
 ple, that, having him in his power, he might 
 compel him with greater facility to acquiesce 
 in the edict, and reject the three chapters; arid 
 this method was attended with success; for the 
 pontiff yielded. On the other hand, the bishops 
 of Africa and Illyricum obliged Vigilius to re- 
 tract his judicatwn, by which; in a council -of 
 seventy bishops, he had condemned the thiree 
 chapters in obedience to the emperor; for they 
 separated themselves froni the communion of 
 this pope, refused to acknowledge him as one 
 of their brethren, and even treated him as an 
 apostate, until he approved .what he had "been 
 obliged lo condemn. The effect of this retrac- 
 tion redoubled the zeal andTiolence of Justi- 
 nian, who, by a second edict, published in 551, 
 condemned anew the three chapters. 
 
 XI. After many cabals, commotions, and dis- 
 sensions-, which were occa.sioned by this trifling 
 controversy, it was thought proper to submit 
 
 g^^ * The pieces that were distinguished hy-the ap- 
 pellatioQ of the tliree chapters, were, 1. The ■writings,of 
 Theodore ot Mopsuestia; 3. The' books which Theodo- 
 retof Cyrus wrote against the twelve Anathemas, which 
 Cyril had published against the Nestorians; 3. The letter 
 which Ibas of Edessa had written to ohe Maris,.a Persian, 
 concerning the council of Ephesus and the condemnation 
 of Nestonus. These writings were supposed to favour 
 the Nestorian doctrine, and- such indeed was their ten- 
 dency. It is, hbwCver, to be observed, that Theodorfe of 
 Mopsuestia lived hefore the time of Tfestoi-ijis, and died, 
 not only in the communion of the church, but also in the 
 highest reputation for his sanctity. Nor were the writ- 
 ings of flie other twd either condemned or censured" i)y 
 the council Of Chalcedon; indeed, thk faith of Theodoret 
 and of Ibas was there declared cnlfrely orthodox. The 
 decisioh of the council of Constantinople, in opposition 
 to this, shows that councils, as well as doctors, diner. 
 
 t See Harduini Concilia; torn. iii. p. 387. — Evagrius, 
 Hist, gcclesiast. lib. iv. cap. zxxviii. p, 413. 
 
 } Hen. Norris,"de Synodo quinta, cap. x. p. 579, torn. i. 
 ep; — Sasnage, torn. i. livr. x. cap.vi. 
 
 the final decision of it to an assembly of the 
 universal church. This assembly was accord- 
 ingly convoked at Constantinople hy Justinian, 
 in 563, and is considered as the fifth cecumehical 
 or general council. The emperor now gained 
 his point; for, beside .the doctrines of Origen,* 
 the three chapters, the condemnation of which 
 he had solely in view, were, by the bishops of 
 the east (for there were very few western pre- 
 lates present at this council,) declared hereti- 
 cal and pernicious. Vigilius, who was now at 
 Constantinople, refused his assent to the de- 
 crees of this council; for which reason, after 
 having received various affronts, he was sent 
 into exile. He was not permitted to return be- 
 fore he had acquiesced in the decisions of this 
 assembly,! ^.nd, changing his sentirnentsibr the 
 fourth time, had declared the opinions contained 
 in the three chapters to be execrablei blasphe- 
 mies. His successor Pelagius, and all the .Ro- 
 man pontiffs that have since lolled in the papal 
 chair, adhered to the decrees of this council; 
 but neither their authority, nor that of the em- 
 peror, could prevail upon the western bishops 
 to follow their example rin this respect. Many 
 of these, on the contrary, carried matters so far 
 as to separate themselves from the communion 
 of the pope on this account; and the divisions, 
 that hence arose in the church, were too vio- 
 lent to admit an expeditious or easy reconcilia- 
 tion, and could only be healed by length of. 
 time.| _ .^ 
 
 XI-I. Another controversy, muclr more im- 
 portant, had been carried on before this period 
 among the Greeks; it was. first kindled in the 
 year 519, and it arose upon the following ques- 
 tion; Whether it could be said with propriety, 
 that one of the Trinity suffered on the cross.' 
 This was designed to embarrass the Nestori- 
 ans, who seemed to separate too much the two 
 natures in Christ; and the Scythian monks,- 
 who seconded flii^ design, and to whom the rise 
 of this controversy is principally to. be imputed, 
 maintained the affirmative of this nice and dif 
 ficult question. Others asserted, on the contra 
 ry, that this manner of speaking ought by no 
 
 5(^ * "We do not find in the acts of this council any 
 one which condemns the doctrines of Origen. It is, 
 however, generally imagined, that, these doctrines were 
 condemned by this assembly; and what gave rise to this 
 notion was probably the fifteen Greek canons yet extant, 
 in which the principal errors of Origen are cot}demned, 
 and which are entitled. The canons of the 160 fathers 
 assembled in the council of Constantinople. The tenets 
 of Origen, which gave the greatest unence, were the 
 following: 1. That, in thc_Trinity, the Father is greater 
 than the Son, and the Son than the -Holy Ghost; 3. The 
 pre-existence of Wuls, which Origen considered as sent 
 into mortal' bodies for the punishment of sins committed 
 in a former state of being; 3. That the soul of Christ 
 was united to the word before the incarnation; 4. That 
 the sun, moon, and stars, &c. were animated and en- 
 dowed with rational souls; 5. That after thcresurrection 
 all bodies will be of a round figure; 6. That the torments 
 of the damned will have an end; and that, as Christ had 
 been crucified in this world to save mankind, he is to be 
 crucified in the next to save the devils. 
 
 t See Petr. de Marca, Dissert, de Dccrcto Vigilii pro 
 Confirmatione Synodi Y, which is to be found among the 
 Dissertations subjoined to his learned work, de Concordia 
 Sacerdotii et Impei^i. 
 
 I The best account of this matter is to be found in 
 Norris, de Synodo quinta occumcnica, though even this 
 excellent autiior cannot be vindicated from, the imputa- 
 tion of a certain degree of partiality. See also Chrst, 
 Lupus, Not. ad Concilium quintum, in his Adnotat. ad 
 CouciUa. 
 
Chab, IV. 
 
 RITES AND CEREMONIES. 
 
 169 
 
 means to be adopted, since it borcjered upon 
 tlie erroneous /expressions and tenets oC the 
 Theopasohites, who oompoeed one of the sects 
 into which the Eutychians were subdivided.* 
 The latter opinion Was confirmed by Horanis- 
 das the Roman pontiff, to whom the Scythian 
 monlis had appealed, in vain; but this, instead 
 of: allaying the heat of -the present controvert 
 sy, only added new fuel to the flame. John II., 
 who was One of the successors of Hormisdas-, 
 apprCyed the proposition which the latterhad 
 condemned'; and, confirming^ the Opinion of 
 the Scythian monks, exposed'the decisions of 
 the papal oracle tp the laughter of the wise. 
 His sentence was afterwards sanctioned by^the 
 fifth general council; and thus peace -was ra- 
 stored to the church by the conclusion of these 
 imintelHgible disputes.! " 
 
 : Wifli the question now mentiqiied, there was 
 another closely and intimately connected, 
 namely, Whether the person of Christ could 
 be considered as cbmpourlded.' Of this ques- 
 tion the'Scythian monks maintained the af- 
 firmative, and their • adversaries the negative. 
 
 CHAPTER IV,, 
 Concerning the RUes and Ceremonies medin the 
 Chwch dmyng. this Centmy. 
 I. Im this century tlie cause of true religion 
 sunk apace, and the gloomy reign of supersti- 
 tion extended itself in proportiipn to the decay 
 ■of genuine piety. This lamentable decay' was 
 supplied by a multitude of rites, and cereftio^ 
 nies. -lA'the east the Nestorian and Eutychian 
 controversies gave occasion to the invention of 
 various rites and external institutip.ns", .which 
 were used as marks, to distihgrasllihe contend' 
 ing parties. ' The western churches wore load.' 
 .ed -withrites by Gregoiy the Great, who had a, 
 marvellous fecundity of genius in inventing, 
 and an irresistible force of eloquence in recbm- 
 mendiiig superstitious obs^vances." NOr will 
 this appear Surpjising to those who know^ that, 
 in the opinion of this pontiff, the words of the 
 sacred writings were ini«g;-es:o£ mj^terious'and 
 iiivisible things; for such as embrace tMs chi- 
 merical system will easily belled to express all 
 the doctrines and precepte- of religion by exter- 
 nal rites and symbols. Gregory, indeed; is 
 worthy of pf aise iii this, that he did not pre- 
 tend "to force' others to the, observance of his 
 inventions; diough-this forbearance, perhaps, 
 was as much occasioiied by a want of power, 
 aslgr a principle of moderation. 
 
 II. 'This p:rodigious augrpentation of rites 
 
 , {^tjr * The deacon "Viclor, and those whp pjipoged tHe 
 Scythian'monks, ejcpreBscfl their opinio,!! in the following 
 proposition: viz. One person of thp Triniiy suffered in 
 
 wledged two natures in Clirist, in opposition to 
 hes, and only one person in opposition to JV^s.tpj-ius; 
 ;t, by a torrfintof jargori, and a long chaiii of un- 
 
 the .flesh. Both sides received the council, of Ch^lcedon, 
 
 acknowledged ' " " 
 
 Eulychi 
 
 antl yet^ ^ _ „...., 
 
 intelligible ^yllogism^j the Scythian nxonks accused their 
 adversaries, of Westorianism, and, were ac^jused by them 
 of the Eutychian heresy. ', , 
 
 . f See. HistOria Controversise deuno ex Trinitate pAsso, 
 by Norris^ torn. iii. op- p. "771. The ancient writers, 
 who mention this controversy, call the monks who set it 
 on foot, Scythians. But La'Croze (Theaaur. Epist-.tom..- 
 iii.) imagines, that the country of these monks was Egypt, 
 
 and not Seythia; and this conjecture is s.upported by rea. 
 
 ' ch ' ' " ■■ ■ 
 
 probability. 
 
 whicfl carry in them, at least, a high degree of 
 
 Vol. I.— 22 
 
 and ceremonies rendered an; augmentation of 
 doctors and interpreters of these mysteries iji- 
 dispensably necessary. Hence a new kind of 
 science arose, which had, for its object, the ex- 
 plication of these ceremonies and the investiga- 
 tion of the causes and circumStanceB whence 
 they derived' their origin. .But most of those, 
 wh9 entered into these researches, never went 
 to the fountain-head, to the true sources of 
 these idle inventions, They- endeavoured' to 
 seek their -origin in reason and Christianity; 
 biit in this . they deceived •themselves, or, at 
 least, deluded othe.rs, and delivered to the world 
 their own fancies, instead of disclosing the true 
 causes of things. Had, they been acquainted 
 with the opinions and Customs of remote anti- 
 quity, or studied the pontifical law of the 
 Greeks; and Romans,, they would have discov- 
 ered the true origin of many institutions, -vriiich 
 were falsely looked upon aa. venerable and 
 sacred. , ' . , 
 
 III, The public worship of God was still ce- 
 lebrated by every nation in its own language, 
 but was enlarged, from time to time, by the ad- 
 dition of various hymns, and other things of 
 that nature, which were considered- as 'proper 
 to enhvfen devotion by-,the power of novelty. 
 Gregory the Great prescribed a new method 
 of administering" the Lord's supper, with a. 
 magnificent assemblage of pompous, ceremo- 
 nies. . This institution was called the canon of 
 tlie mass; arid, if any are unwilling to give it 
 the n.ame of a Tiew appointment, they must at 
 least 'acknowledge, that it was a coiisiderable 
 augmentation of the anciept canon . for cele-r 
 bratingtheeucharist, and occasioiied a rpraark- 
 ahle change in the. administration of that ordi- 
 nance. ^ Many ages, however, passed' before 
 this Gr'egorian . canon was adopted byall tha 
 Latin chlir'ches.*- 
 
 Baptism, except in cases of necessity, was 
 administered only on great festivals. "We omit 
 mentiL6ning, fbi*^the.sake of "brevity, the- lita- 
 nies thai were addressed to the saints, the dif- 
 ferent sorts .of supplications, the stations or as- 
 semblies of Gregory, the fopntis of consecration, 
 and other suqh institufigns, which were con^ 
 trived, in this century,_Jo excite a species of 
 external devotion, and' to engage* the outward 
 senses in religious worship. An inquiry -into 
 these topics, would of itself deserve to be made 
 the subject of a separate work. 
 
 IV. An" incredible number of ternples arose . 
 in honour of tlie saints, during "this century, 
 both ill the eastern and western .provin6es. 
 The places set apart for pubhc worship were 
 already 'rery numerous; , but it was now that. 
 Christ-ians. first began to''consider, these sacred 
 edifices as the means" of purchasing the favour 
 and protection of the saints, and to be persuad- 
 ed that' thes6 departed, sp^^ defended and 
 guarded, against evils and calamities of every 
 kind, the provinces, lands, cities, and villages, 
 in which they were honoured with temples. 
 The number of. festivals, which were np'w oti- 
 served in the Christian .xShu'rch, and many of 
 which seem to have been instituted - upon a^ 
 pagan model, nearly equalled the amount of the 
 temples. Tg those that wereoelebrated in the ■ 
 
 See Theod. Ghr.-L11ienthal,"(Ie Canone Missa Ore- 
 gon'aito. 
 
170 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part H. 
 
 precedingf century, were now added the festival 
 of the purificatibn of the -Wessed Virgin (in- 
 vented with a design to remove the uneasness 
 of the heathen converts on account of the loss 
 of their Lupercalia or feasts of Pan,) the fes- 
 tival of the immaculate conception, the day 
 set apart to- commemorate the birth of St. 
 John, and others less worthy of mention 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Concieming the Divmons und Heresieslliat trovr 
 
 hkdjlie Church during tliis. Certtury. 
 
 I. The various sects which had fomented 
 divisions among Christiiim in the early ages 
 of the church, were far from being eifectually 
 suppressed or totally extirpated. . Though they 
 hadi been persecuted and afflicted with a variety 
 of hardships, trials, and calamiti^,- yet they 
 
 sions and tumults in many places. The Mani' 
 cheans are s^id to liave gained such a degree 
 of iiiSuence among the Persians, as to have 
 corrupted even the son of Kobad, the monarch 
 of that nation, who repaid their zeal in making 
 proselytes) with a terrible massacre, in which 
 numbers of that impious sect perished in the 
 most dreadful manner. Nor was-Persia the 
 only country which was troubled with the at- 
 tempts of the Manicheans to spread their xidi- 
 ous doctrine; "other provinces' of the empire 
 were, undoubtedly, iirfected with their errors, 
 as we may judge from the book tliaf was writ- 
 ■ten against them by Heraclian, bishop of Chal- 
 cedoh.* In Gaul and Africa, dissensions of a 
 different kind prevailed; and the controversy 
 between the SemiTPelagians and the disciples 
 of Aiigustin continued to divide the western 
 churches. . 
 
 II. The Donatists enjoyed the sweets of 
 freedom and tranquillity, as long as the Van-, 
 dais reigned in Africa; but the scene was great- 
 ly changed with respect to them, when the em- 
 pire of these barbarians was overturned in 634. 
 They, Tiowever, still remained in a separate 
 body, and not" only held their churchi but, to- 
 ward the conclusion of this century, and par- 
 ticularly from the year 591,. defended- them- 
 selves with new degrees of animosity and vi- 
 gour, and were bold enough to attempt the 
 multiplication of their sect. Gregory , -the Ro- 
 man pontiff, opposed these efforts With great | 
 spirit and assiduity; and, as appears from his 
 epistleSg-f tried various 'methods of depressing 
 this faction, which was pluming its wings anew, 
 and aiming at liie revival of those lamentable 
 divisions which it had formerly excited in the 
 church. , Nor was the oppositioi^ of the zeaU 
 ous pontiff without effect; it seems on the con-^ 
 trary to have been' attended with the desired 
 success, since, in this century; the church of 
 the Donatists dwindled away to nothing, and 
 after this period no tra,ces of it are to be" found. 
 
 ni. About the commencement of this cen- 
 tury, the Arians were triumphant in several 
 parts of Asia, Africa, and Europe. Maiiy of 
 the Asiatic bishops favoured them secretly, 
 
 still subsisted, and continued to excite dissen- were easily induced to abandon, themselves, 
 
 while their opinions were openly professed, and 
 their cause maintained, by the Vandals in Afri- 
 ca, the Goths in Italy, the Spaniards, theBur- 
 gundians, the Suevi, and the greatest part of 
 the Gauls. It is true, that the Greeks, who 
 had received the decrees of the council of Nice, 
 persecuted and oppressed the Allans wherever 
 their influence and authority could jeach; but 
 the Nioenians, in their .turn, were not less ri- 
 gorously treated by their adversaries, particu- 
 larly in .^frica and Italy, where they felt, in a 
 very severe maimer, the weight of^the Arian 
 power, and the bitterness of hostile resent- 
 inent.* 
 
 The triumphs of Arianism were, however, 
 transitory, and its prosperous, days were entire- 
 ly eclipsed, when the Vandals were driven out 
 of Africa, and the Goths out of Italy, by the 
 arms of Justinian;f for the other Arian princes 
 
 "'SeePhotiua, Biblioth. cod. exiv. p. 291. .^ 
 
 t See his Epistles, lib. iv. ep. xxxiv. xxxv. p. 714; 715, 
 
 Jib. vi. ep. IfT. p. 841, 'ep. ixxvii. p. ^1, lib. ix, cp, liii. 
 
 p. 972, hb. ii. ep. xlviii. p. 611, iom. ii. op. 
 
 the doctrine of that sect; and not.only.so, but 
 to employ the forca of law's and the authority 
 of cQuncils to prevent.its progress among their 
 subjects; and to extirpate it entirely out of 
 their dominions. Such was the conduct of. 
 Sigismond king of the' Burgundians; eJso of 
 Theodimir king of the Suevi, who had settled 
 in Lusitania; and Recared king of Spain. — 
 Whether this change was produced by the 
 force of reason and argument, or by the influ- 
 ence of hopes and fears, is a question which we 
 shall not pretend to determine. One thing, 
 however, is certain, thst, from this period, the 
 Aria'n sect declined apace, and could never af- 
 ter recover any considerable degree of stability 
 and consistence. 
 
 IV., The Nestorians, after having, gained a 
 firm footing in Persia, and established the. pa- 
 triarch or head of their sect at Seleucia, ex- 
 tended their views, and spread their doctrines, 
 with a success equal to the ardour of their zeal, 
 through the provinces situated beyond the 
 Jiraits of the Roman empire. There are yet . 
 extant authentic records, from which it ap- 
 pears, that throughout Persia, as al^o in India, 
 Armenia, Arabia, Syria, and other cbiintries, 
 there were vast jiumbers of Nestorian churches, 
 all under the jurisdiction of the patriarch of 
 Seleucia. J. It is true, indeed, that the Persian 
 raonarchs were not all equally favourable to 
 this growing sect, and that some of them even 
 persecuted, with the utmost severity,,all those 
 who bore the Christian -name throughout their 
 dominions;^ but it is also trae, that such of 
 these princes, as were disposed to exercise mo- 
 deration and benignity toward the Christians, 
 were much more indulgent to the Nestorians, 
 than to their adversaries who adhered to the 
 council of Ephesos, since the latter were con- 
 
 * Procopius, de- Bello Vandal, lib. j. cap. Tiii. and de 
 'Bellp Gotbico, li^ ii. cap.'ii. — £Tagriu9,^is't^Ecclesia$t. 
 lib. iv-. cap. XV. 
 
 f See Mascovii Historia- German, torn. ii. p. 76, 91, 
 See also an account of the barbarian kings, -who aban- 
 doned Arianism, and received the doctrines of the Ni- 
 cene council, in the Acta Sanctorum, torn. ii. Martii, f, 
 275, and April- p. 134. 
 
 i Cosmas Indicopleustes, Topograph. Chrisiian. lib. ii. 
 p.- 1^, which is to be found in- Montfaucon's CoUectio 
 nova PF. Graecorum. 
 
 Ass'eman.. Bibli'oth. Orient. 'Vatic, torn. iii. part i. n. 
 109, 407, 411, 441, 449; torn. iii. part ii. cap. r, sect, u 
 p. 83* 
 
Chap. V. 
 
 DIVISIOJfS AND HERESIES. 
 
 171 
 
 sidered as spies employed by the, Greeks, with 
 whom they were connected by the ties of reli- 
 gion. • 
 , V. The Monophysites, or Eatychiaiis, flour- 
 ished also in this century, and had gained oyer 
 to thejr doctrine a considerable part of the 
 eastern province^. The emperor Anastasius 
 was warmly attached to the doctrine and sect 
 of the Acephali, who, were reckoned among 
 the more rigid Monophysitesj* and, in 513; he 
 created "patriarch of Antiooh (in the room of 
 Flavian, whom he had expelled from that see,) 
 Severus, a learii€d rnonk of Palestine, from 
 whom the Monophysites were called Severi- 
 ans.f This emperor exerted all his influence 
 and authority to destroy the credit of the coun- 
 cil of Chalcedon in the east, and to maintain 
 the cause of those who adhered to the doctrine 
 of one nature in Christ; and, by the ardour 
 and vehemence of his zeal, he excited theniost 
 depldrable seditions and tumults in the churcJi.j; 
 After the. death of Anastasius, -which happen- 
 ed iii 518, Severus was expelled in his turn; 
 - and the sect which the late emperor had main- 
 tained and propagated with such zeal and assi- 
 duity, was every where opposed and depressed 
 by his successor Justin, and the following eni- 
 perors, in such a manner, that it seemed to be 
 on the very brink of ruin, notwithstanding that 
 it had created Sergius.patriarch in the place of 
 Severus.§ ' 
 
 VI. When the affairs of the Monophysites 
 were in suc'h a desperate situation, that almost 
 all hope of their recovery had vanished, and 
 their bishops were reduced, by death and im- 
 prisonment, to a very small nuniber, an obscure 
 man .whose name was Jacob, and Who was dis- 
 tinguished from others so called, by ^hfe sur- 
 name of Baradseus, or Zanzalus, restored this 
 expiring sect to its former prosperity and lus- 
 tre.jf , This poor monk, the-^greatness of wh'o^e 
 views rose fiir above the obscurity of his sta-^ 
 tion,-and whose fortitiide and patience no, dan- 
 gers could daunt, nor any labours exhaust, was 
 ordained to the episcopal office by a handful- of 
 captive bistops, travelled on foot through the 
 whole east, established bishops and presbyters 
 every where, revived . the drooping spirits of 
 the ,Monophysites, and produced such an as- 
 tonishing change iii their affairs Jjy the power 
 of his eloquence, and by his incredible activity 
 and diligence,, that when he died bishop of 
 Edessa, in 578, he left his sect in a most flour- 
 ishing State in Syria, Mesopotaniia, Armenia. 
 
 - * Evagrius, Hist. Ecclesiast: lib. iii. cap. xxx. xliv., 
 &c. Thfeodori HisL ECclesiaat.'lib/ii.p. 562. See also 
 the Index Operum. Severi, as it stands collected from 
 ancient MSS. in Montiaucon's Bibliotheca Coisliniana, 
 p. 53. 
 
 f See Asseman. Biblioth. OTient. Vatican, torn. ii. p. 
 47, 321. — Euseb. Renandot, Historia' Patriarch. Alexan- 
 drinor. p. 127, &.C. ■ - '. 
 
 X Evagrius, Hist. Ecclesiast. lib. iii.^cap^ xxxiii.^Gy- 
 rillus, vjta Sabae in Jo. Bapt. Cotelerii Monument. Ec- 
 clesix Graeeae, torn. iii. p. 313. — Bayle's Dictionary, at 
 the article Anastasius. 
 
 § See Abulpharajii Series Patriarch. Antiochen. in 
 Biblioth. Orient. Vatican, torn. ii. 
 
 II See Biblioth. Orient. &c. torn. ii. caf. viii. p. 62, 72, 
 326, 331, 414. Eusebii Renaud. Hist. Patriarch. Alexandr. 
 p. 119, 133, 425, and ihe Liturgiae Orient, torn. ii. p. 333, 
 342.^-Fau3tuB Naironus, Euoplia Fidei Catholicae ex 
 Sfrorum Meaumentis, part i. p. 40, 41. 
 
 Egypt, Nubia, Abyssinia, and other countries.* 
 This ttextefous monk had prudence to contrive 
 thq means of success, as w^l as activity to ptit 
 them in execution; for he almost totally extin- 
 guished all the animosities, and reconciled all 
 Bie factions, that had divided the Monophy- 
 sites; and when their churches grew so nume- 
 rous in the east, that they-CQuld not all be con- 
 veniently comprehended under the sole juris- 
 diction of the patriarch of Anfioch, he appoint- 
 ed, as his assistant,.the primate of the east, 
 whoso residence, was at Tagritis, on the bor- 
 ders of Armenia.! The laborious effort^ of 
 Jacob were seconded, in Egypt and the adja- 
 cent countries, by Theodosius bishop of Alex- 
 andria; and he became so famous, that all the 
 Monophysites of the east considered him as 
 their second parent and founder, and are to 
 tlfis day' called Jacobites, in Tionour of their 
 new chief. 
 
 VII. Thus it happened, that, by the impru- 
 dent zeal and violence which the Greeks em- 
 ployed in defending the truth, the Monophy- 
 sites gained ^considerable advantages, and, at 
 length, obtained a solid and. permanent s^tle- 
 merit^ From this period their sect has been 
 under the -jurisdiction of the patriarchs of 
 Alexandria and Antioch, who, notwithstand- 
 ing the difference of opinion which subsists, 
 with respect to some points, between the Syrian 
 and Egyptian Monophysites, are exceedingly 
 careful to maintain communion with each 
 other, both by. letters, and by the exchange of 
 good offices. Tlie Abyssinian primate is sub- 
 ject to the patriarch of Alexandria; and the 
 primate of the east, who resides at Tagritis, is 
 (imder the jurisdiction of the patriarch of An- 
 tioch. ■ The Armenians are ruled* by a bishop 
 of their own, .and are distinguished by certain 
 opinions and rites from the rest of.the Mono- 
 physites. ■ 
 , VIII. The sect of the Monopjiysites, before 
 it was thus hajppily established, was torn with - 
 factions and intestine disputes, andsuffered, in 
 a particular manner, from that nice and subtile 
 controversy concerning the body of Christ, 
 which arose at Alexandria. Julian, bishop -of 
 Halicarnassus, affirmed, in 519, that the divine 
 nature had so insinuated- itself into the body 
 of Christ, from the very moment of the Vir- 
 gin's conception, that the body of our Lord 
 changed its nature, and became incorruptible 
 This opinion was also embraced by Cajanus, 
 bishop of Alexandria; from whom those who 
 "adopted it were called Caianists. They .were, 
 however, diviSed into three sects, two of .which 
 debated this question. Whether the body of 
 Christ was created or uncreated; whilethe third 
 asserted, that pur Lord's body was indeed cor- 
 ruptible, liut • never actually corrupted, since 
 the energy of the divine nature must have pre- 
 vented its-dissolVition. v, 
 
 This sect was warmly opposed iiy Severus. 
 of Antioch, "and Damiarms, who maintained 
 
 * With regard to. the Nubians and Abyssinians, see the 
 Biblioth. Orient, tojm. ii. p. 33.0. — Lobo, Voyage d.'Abys- 
 sinie, torn. ii. p. 36. — ^Ludolph. Commentar. ad Historiam 
 .^thiopicaoi, p. ^51. ' _ • ' _ 
 
 f Asseman. Biblioth. Orient, torn, ii; p. 419. , See also 
 this learned writer'* Disserlatio de Monophysitis. 
 
iTiS 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part n. 
 
 Ulat the body of Christ, Ijefore his resurrection, 
 was truly corrupiiile, i. e. subject to the affec- 
 tions and changes with which human nature is 
 generally attended^ Those who embraced the 
 dpinion of juhan, Were called Aphthartpdo- 
 cetae, Docete, Phantasiasts, and even. Mani- 
 cheans, Because it was supposed to follow from 
 their Jiy^pbthesis, that Christ did not suffer in 
 reality^ But only in appearance, hunger and 
 ■thirst, pain and death; and that hi did hot ac- 
 tually assume .the common affections and pro- 
 perties of human nature. On the other hand, 
 the votaries of Severus were distinguished by 
 the names Phthartolatree, Ktistolatrse, and Cre- 
 aticolse. This miserable controversy was car- 
 ried on with great warmth under the reign of 
 Justinian, who favoured the Aphthartodocetse; 
 soon after, it subsided gradually; and, at length, 
 was happily hushed In silence.* . Xenaias of 
 Hierapolis struck out an hypothesis upon this 
 knotty matter, which seemed equally remote 
 from those of the contending parties; for he 
 maintained that Christ had, indeed, truly .suf- 
 fered the various sensations to which humanity 
 is exposed, but that he suffered them not in his 
 nature, but by a submissive act of his will.^ 
 
 IX. Some of the Corrupticolae (for so they 
 were called who looked upon the body of Christ 
 to be corruptible,) particularly Themistius, a 
 deacon of Alexandria, and Theodosius, a bishop 
 of that city, Were led by the inconsiderate heat" 
 ot cotrtxoverSy into another opinion, which 
 produced new fiornmotions in the church to- 
 ward the condtlsion "of tMs century. They 
 afiirmei, that to the divine nature of Christ.all 
 things were known, but that from his Jiuman 
 nature many things were concealed.. The rest 
 of the sect charged the authors of this opinion 
 with imputing ignorance to thfr divine nature 
 of ■Christ, since they held, th^t tiiere Was but 
 one nature in the Son of God. Hence the 
 votaries of this heW doctrine were called Ag- 
 noetsS;]: but their sect was so wfeak and ill-sup- 
 ported, that, notwithstanding their eloquence 
 and activity , which seemed to piomisebetter suc- 
 cess, it graduaEy dsdined, and came to nothing. 
 
 * Timothelis, de Receptiotfe Haereticorum.in Cotelerii 
 Monumcntis £^cleaiae Graecae, torn. iii.:p. 400. — Libcra- 
 tua, in Breriario Contrdv. cap. xx — ^Forbesii Instruc- 
 tioues Historico-Theologicae, libr^iii. cap. xviii. p. 108,— 
 Asseman. Biblioth. Oriental, torn, iii, part ii. p. 457. 
 
 t Biblioth. Orient, torn, ii, p. 32, and 168. 
 
 X Cotelerius, ad Monumenta Ecclesiae GraecsEr,tom. iii. 
 p. 641, — Mich, le Q.uien, ad Damascenum de Hseresibus, 
 torn, i, p, 107, — Forbes, Instructiooes Hiatorico-Theolog. 
 lib. iii.cap, iii. p. 119— Fhotius, Biblioth. Cod. 330. 
 
 X. From the controversies with the Mono- 
 physites arose the sect of the Tritheists, whose 
 chief was John Ascusnage, a Syrian philoso- 
 pher, and, at the same time, a Monophysite.* 
 This man imagined in the "Deity three natures, 
 or substances j absolutely equal -in all respects, 
 and joined together by no common essence; to 
 which opinion his adversaries gave the name 
 of Tritheisra. Onq of the warmest defenders 
 of this doctrine was John Philoponus, an AleX' 
 andrian philosopher, and a grammarian of the 
 highest reputation; and hence he has been con- 
 sidered by many as the author ■ of this sect, . 
 whose noembers have consequently derived 
 from him the title" of Philoponists.f 
 
 This sect was divided into two parties, the 
 Philoponists and the Cononites; the latter of 
 whom were so called from Conon bishop of 
 Tarsus, their chief, j: They agreed in the doc- 
 trine of three persons in the Godhead, and dit- 
 fered only in their manner of explaining what 
 the Scriptures taught concerning the resurrec- 
 tion of the body, Philoponus maintained, that 
 the form tmd matter of all bodies were gener 
 ated and Corrupted, .and that both therefore 
 were to be restored in the resurrection. ConOu 
 held, on the contrary, that the body never lost 
 its form: that its matter alone was subject to 
 corruption and decay, and was consequently to 
 be restored when " this mortal shall put on im- 
 mortalityJ'. 
 
 A tliird . faction was that of the D&mianists, 
 who were so called from Damian bishop of 
 Alexandria, and whose opinion concemipg the 
 Trinity was different from those already men- 
 tioned. They distinguished the divine essence 
 ■from the three persons,and denied that each 
 person was .God,' when considered in itself, ab- 
 stractedly from the other twof^^but afihriied 
 that there was a common divinity, by the joint 
 participation of which each was God, They 
 therefore called the Father, Son, and Holy 
 Ghost, hypostases, or persons, and the Godhead, 
 which was Common to them all, svbstance or 
 Twture.^ 
 
 * See.(xregor, Abulpharajius, in Biblioth., Orient, torn, 
 i.p, 328, 
 
 t-See Fabricii BibiiDth",-Gnec. lib. v. cap. xixvii. p. 
 358. — ^Harduini Concilia, torn. iii. p. 1288.-^Timotheus, 
 de Receptione Hsreticorum, apud Cotelerii Monumenta 
 Ecclesiae ~Gr8ec8&^ torn. iii. p, 4l4.^-Jo. Damascenua, de 
 Hsresibus, torn. i. op. 
 
 1 Photii Biblioth. Cod. xxiv.— Biblibth. Orient, torn, ii 
 p. 329. - 
 
 ^ Biblioth. Orient, torn. ii. p. 78, 3^, &c. 
 
THE SEVENTH CENTURY. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 THE EXTERNAL flISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 •CHAPTER I. 
 
 Cmceming tlie frosperous £«)eiUs which, happen- 
 ed in the Chwrch duHng this Qentury. - 
 
 I. In this century the progress of Chf istjani- 
 j ty was greatly accelerated, both in the eastern 
 and western hemispheres; and its divine light 
 was widely diffused through the darkened na- 
 tions. The . Nestorians- who dwelt- in Syria) 
 Peraa, and India, contributed much to its pro- 
 pagation in the east, by the zeal and diligence,, 
 the laborious efforts and indefatigable assidui- 
 ty, with which they preached" it to those fierce 
 and barbarous nations,;who lived in the remot- 
 est regions and deserts of Asia, and among 
 whom, as we learn from authentic recoijjs, their 
 ministry was crowned with remarkable suc^ 
 cess. * It was by the labours of this sect, that 
 the light of the Gospel first penetrate'3 into tb6 
 immense empire^of'CHina, about the year .636,- 
 when Jesuiabas of Gadala was at the head of 
 the Nestorians, as v^ill appear probable to those 
 who consider as genuine' the fanious Chinese 
 monument,, which was discovered atiSiganfu 
 by the Jesuits! during the last century.* Some, 
 ■ indeed, look upon this monument as a mere 
 forgery of the Jesuits, though, perhaps, without 
 reason: there are,' however, sonie unexception- 
 able proofs, that the northern parts of China, 
 even tefore, this century, abounded with Chris- 
 tians, whO) £6p many succeeding .ages, were un- 
 der tile inspection of a metropolitaJi sent to 
 them by the Chaldean or Nestorian patriarch. f 
 
 * This celebrated monuitlent has heen published and 
 expTaiDed by severariearned -writers, particularly by Kir- 
 cher, in his China lllustrata^ by lAull^fj in a treatise pub- 
 lished at -Berlin in 1673; 'by Renaudot, in his Relations 
 anciennes d^s Indes et de la Chine, de deux Voyageurs, 
 ivIahometans,p.SS8^-S7l, published at Paris, in 1718;-and' 
 bjr Assemanus, in his Biblioth. Orient, torn, iii, in p^rt ii. 
 cap. iv-. 5ect.^7. p.-533. A still more accurate edition of 
 this famous.monument was promised to us by the learned 
 THeoph. Sigefred Bayer, the greatest proficient of -this 
 age in Chinese' erudition; but his death has blasted our 
 expectations. For mypa^-t, I sec no reason to ddubt the 
 g^enuineness of this monument; norcan I understand what 
 advantage could redound to the Jesnits from the inven- 
 tion of such a fable. See I iron,. Singularites Historiques 
 £t Literaire9,-tom. ii7 pi 500. 
 
 f See Renaudot, p.' 56, 68, &c. also Assemant Biblioth. . 
 cap. ix. p. 522; the learned Bayer, in th% Preface tq his 
 Mus'eum Sinicum, assures us, that he- had in -his -hands 
 'suck proofs of the truth of what is heire affirmed', as'put 
 the matter beyond all doubt. 'C(^ Sec"" .on this ^ubject a 
 very learned dissertation published by M. de Guides in 
 the thirtieth vol. of the Memoirea de- Literature, tires des- 
 Begistres de I'Academie Royale des Inscriptions et Belles 
 Lettres, in which he proves that the Christians wei e se> 
 -tied in China so early as the seventh century. He re- 
 marks indeed, that the Nestorians and other Christians 
 were fqjra longtime confounded in the Chinese anhals 
 with the -worshippers of Fo, an Indian idol, whose rites 
 -were introduced into China about 65 years ailer the birth 
 
 II. The attention and activity of the Greeks 
 were so entirely occupied by their intesline di- 
 visiori's, that they were'little solicitous about the 
 progress of .Christianity. In the west, Angus- 
 .till laboured to extend the Jimits'of the church, 
 and to spread the light of the Gospel among 
 the Anglo-Saxons; and, after his -death, other 
 raonl^ were sent from Rome, to exert them- , 
 selves in the same glorious cause. Their ef. ■ 
 forts were attended with the desired siiccess: 
 and the efficacy of their laboiirs was.manifesfc- 
 ed in the conversion of the six Anglo-Saxon 
 kings, who had hitherto remained under the 
 darkness of the ancient superstitions, to the 
 Chriiitian faith, which gained ground" by de- 
 grees, and was, at length, embraced universal- 
 ly in Britain.^ . We are not, howeTBTj to ima- 
 ging, that this general change in favour of 
 Christianity -was wholly due to the discourses 
 6f the Roman monks ajid doctors; for other 
 causes were certainly instrumental in accom- 
 plishing this great event; and it is not to be 
 doubted that the~ influence which some Chris- 
 tian queens, and ladieaof high disfinction, -had 
 .over their hysbands) and the pains th.ey took tb 
 convert them to Christianity,- as alsn the severe 
 and rigorous laws thati^ere aflerwajds enacted 
 against idolaters,! contributed much to the pro- 
 gress of "the ^Gospel. - ' 
 
 in. Many of the British, Scolish, and Irish 
 ecclessiastics travelled among the Batavian, Bel- 
 gic, and German nations, with the pious inten- 
 tion of jnropagating , the knowledge of the 
 truth, and of erecting chiwches, and forming 
 religious establishments. This was, the true rea- 
 son which induced the GermMjs, in after^times, 
 to ibuhd so many convents for the Scotch and 
 Irish, of which some yet remain.}. 
 
 Golumban,ranvIrishmpnk, seconded by the_ 
 labours of a--fev? companions, had happily ex- 
 tirpated, 4n the preceding century, the ancient 
 supersjitions in Gaul, and the parts adjacent, 
 where idolatry had taJten the "deepest root; he 
 also carried the lamp of celestial truth among 
 the Suevi, the Boii, the'Franks, and other Ger- 
 
 of Christ; and that this circumstance has deceived De la 
 Croze, Beausobre-, and jqme" other learned men, who have 
 raised specious objections against _ the' hypothesis that 
 m^ntains the early introduction of "Christianity, into this 
 great empire. A reader, "properly informed, will pay lit- 
 tle or no attention tothe account given of this matter by 
 "Voltaire jn the'Brst voluihe of his Essai- sur "PHistoire 
 Generate. A. poet, who recounts facts," or denies the'm, 
 without deigning- to produce his authorities, must not ex- 
 pect to meet with the credit that is due to an historian. 
 
 * Bedse-Historia Ecclesiast.. Gentis Ahglorr lib. ii." capj 
 ■iii.'-xiv. lib. iii. cap..itxi. — Rapin deThoyras, lom. i. 
 
 f "Willnns' Concilia Magnae Britannise, tom. i.. p. SS3. 
 
 [ Seethe Acta "Sanctoriim, tom. ii. Febr.-p 3^. 
 
174 
 
 EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part I. 
 
 man natioiur,* and persevered in these pious 
 and useful labours until his death, which hap- 
 pened in 615. St. Gal, whp was one of his 
 companions, preached the Gospel to the Hel- 
 vetii, and the Suevi.f St. Kilian set out from 
 Scotland, the place of his nativity, and exer- 
 cised the ministerial function with such success 
 among the eastern Franks, that vast numtyers of 
 them einbraced Christianity .J Toward the con- 
 clusion of this century, the famous Willebrod, 
 by birth an Anglo-Saxon, accompanied with 
 eleven of his countrymen, viz. Suidbert, Wig- 
 bert, Acca, VS^ilibald,Unibald, Lebwin, the two 
 Ewalds, Werenfrid, Maroejlin, and Adalbert, 
 crossed over intoBatavia, which lay opposite to 
 Britain, in order to convert the Friselanders to 
 the religion of JeSus. Hence, in 692, they went 
 into Fo^teland, which most writers look upon 
 to have been the •same witlj^ the isle of Heligo- 
 land, or Heilgiland; but,TDeing cruelly treated 
 there by Radbod, king of the Friselanders, who 
 put Wigbert, one of the company, to death, they 
 departed thence Tor Cimbria, and the adjacent 
 parts of Denmark. Tliey,'however,-retiirned 
 to Friseland in 693, and were much_ more suc- 
 cessful than they had fopnerly been in oppos- 
 ing the ancient superstitions, and propagating 
 the knowledge of divine truth. Willebrod was 
 ordained, by the Roman pontiff, archbishop of 
 Wiltebnrjg, now Utrecht, and died among the 
 Batavians in a good old age, while his associ.^ 
 ates continued to spread the-^light of the Gos- 
 pel among the Westphalians and the neigh- 
 bouring nations.§ 
 
 IV. These voyages, and many others, uiider- 
 taken in the cause- of Christ, carry, no doubt, 
 a specious appearance of piety and zeal; but 
 the impartial and attentive inquirer after trutli 
 will find it impossilde to form the same favour- 
 able judgment of them aJl, or to applaud, 
 Without distinction, the motived that animated 
 these laborious missionaries. Tliat the designs 
 of some of them were truly pious, and" tlteir 
 characters without reproach, is unquestionably 
 certain; but it is equally certaiii, that this was 
 not the , case of them all, or even .of the great- 
 est part of theiri. Many of them discovered, 
 in the course of their ministry, the most turbu- 
 - lent 'passions, and dishonoured the glorious 
 causein which they vvere engaged, by their ar-. 
 rogance and ambition, their avarice and crii- 
 elty. They abused the power which they -had 
 received &om the, Raman pontiffs, of forming 
 religious establishments among the supersti- 
 tious nations; and, instead of gaining rsouls to 
 Christ, they usurped a despotic dominion over 
 their obsequious proselytes, and exercised a, 
 princely authority over the countries , where' 
 their ministry had been successful; Nor are 
 we to consider, as entirely groundless, the sus- 
 picions of those who . allege that many of the 
 
 * Mabillon, Acta Sanctor. Qrdinia Benedict!, lorn. ii. 
 lii. — Adaman. lib. iii.- de S. Columbano, in CanisiT Lec- 
 tion. Antiq. torn. i. - '. 
 
 t Walafridi Strabonis Vil. S. Gialli in Actis S. Ord. 
 Benedict, torn., ii. — Canisii Lection. Antiq. toiri.i. 
 
 i Vita S. Kfliani in Canisii Lection. Antiq. torn. iii. — 
 Jo. Fet, de Ludewig, Scriptores Rerum Wurzburgens. 
 p. 966. 
 
 § Alcuini Vita Willebrodi in Mabillon, Act. SS. Ord. 
 ^nedict. and Molteri Cimbria Literata, loin. ii. p. 980. 
 
 monks, desirous of rule and authority, conceal- 
 ed their vices under the mask of religion, and 
 endiu'ed for a time the austerities of a rigi,d 
 mortification and ttb^tlnence, merely with a 
 view to rise to the episcbpal dignity. 
 
 V. The conversion of the Je*s seemed at 3 
 stand in this century; for few or none of tha 
 obstinate nation embraced the Gospel in coris' 
 quence of an inward conviction, of its. truth, 
 though in many places they were barbarously 
 compelled, by the Christians, to make an out- 
 ward and feigned profession of their faith in 
 Christ. The emperor Herach'us, incensed 
 against that miserable people- by the insinua- 
 tions, as it is said^ of tlie Christian doctors, per- 
 secuted them in a cruel manner, and ordered 
 multitudes of them to be inhumanly dragged 
 into the Christian churches, in order to be bap- 
 tized by violence and compulsion.* The same 
 odious method of converting was practised in 
 Spain and Gaul, by the monarchs of those na- 
 tions, against which even the bishops of Rome 
 expressed their displeasure and indignation. 
 Such were the horrid and abominable prac- 
 tices to which an ignorance of the true spirit 
 of Christianity, and the barbarous genius of 
 this age, led the heralds of that divine religion, 
 which was designed to spread abroad clmrity 
 upon earth, and to render mankind truly and 
 rationally free. ' 
 
 CHAPTER n. 
 
 C'oncemmg the calamitons Evmia thai happened 
 to the Church during Jthis Century. 
 
 I. The Christians suffered less in this, than 
 in the preceding centuries. They were some- 
 times persecuted by the Persian monarchs, but 
 ususally recovered their former tranquillity af- 
 ter transitory scenes of violeijce and opjires- 
 tion. In Englajid, the new converts to Chris- 
 tianity suffered various calamities mider the 
 petty kings, who governed in those bbistft'Ous 
 times; biit these kings' embraced the -Gospel 
 themselves, and then the sufferings of the Chris- 
 tians ceased. In the eastern countries, and par- 
 ticularly in Syria and Palestine, the Jews, at 
 certain "times, attacked the Christians with a 
 merciless fiiry,"! but with so little success, that 
 they always had reason to repent pf their te- 
 merity; which was severely chastised. It is 
 true, the church had other enemies, even those 
 who, under the treacherous profession of Chris- 
 tianity, were laying secret schemes for the re- 
 storation of Paganism;, but they were too weak 
 and too inconsiderable to form ^ny. attempts 
 that could endanger the Christian cause. 
 
 II, Rut a new and most powerful enemy to 
 the Christian cause started up in Arabia in 612, 
 under the reign of Heraclius. This was Ma- 
 homet, or Mohammed; an' illiterate man,J but 
 
 * Eutychii Annales Eccl^s. Alexandr. torn. ii. p. 212. 
 
 f Eutychii Annales, torn. ii. p. 936. Jo. Henr. Hot- 
 tiDgeri Historia Orientalis, lib. l. cap. iii. p. 139. 
 
 i Mohammed himself expressly declared, that he was 
 "totally ignorant of all branches of .learning Sind 'scietrce, 
 and was even unable either to write or read: and his fol- 
 lowers have drawn from this ignorance an argument in 
 favour of the divinity of his mission, and ot the religion 
 he^Tigh.t. It is, however, spftrcely credible, that his ig-.- 
 Dorauce was such as it is he<*e described; and several ol 
 
Chap. II. 
 
 CALAMITOUS EVENTS. 
 
 175 
 
 endowed by nature with the most flowing and 
 attractive eloquence, and with avast and pene- 
 trating geniuEt,* distinguished also by the ad- 
 vantages he enjoyed from the place of his birth, 
 which added a Justre to his, name and his un- 
 dertakings. This adventurous impostor puli- 
 hcly declared, that he was commissioned by 
 God to destroy polytheism and idolatry, arid' 
 then to reform, first the religion of the Arabi- 
 anSj and afterwards the Jewish and Christian 
 worship. For these purposes he delivered a 
 new law, which is known by the name of the 
 Koran, i. e. the book, by way of eminence;! arid,' 
 having gained several victories over his- ene- 
 mies, he compelled an incredible multitude of 
 persons, both in Arabiae and the neighbouring 
 nations, to receive his dottrinej and range 
 themselves under his standard. Elate with this 
 rapid and unexpected success, he greatly ex- 
 tended his- ambitious views^ and formed the 
 vast and arduous project of founding an em- 
 pire. Here again success crowned his adven- 
 turous efforts; and his plan was executed with 
 such intrepidity and impudenbe, that he died 
 master of all Arabia, beside several adjacent 
 provinces; , > 
 
 III. It is, perhaps, impossible, at this' time, 
 to form such an accurate judgment of the cha- 
 racter, views, and conduct of Mohammed, as 
 would entirely satisfy the curiosity of a saga- 
 cious inquirer after truth. To give entire cre- 
 dit to the- Grecian writers "in this matter, is 
 neitlierpi'udent nor safe, since their bitter re- 
 sentment agaiiist this hostile invader led theni 
 to invent. Without scruple or hesitation, fables 
 and, calumnies to blacken his character. Tlie 
 Arabians, on the other hand, are- as little to be 
 
 his sect have called in question the declarations of their 
 chief relating^ to this point. See Chardin's Voyages^en 
 Perse, torn. iv. If we consider that he carried on, for a 
 conaiderable time, a sticcessful commerce in -Arabia and 
 th^ adjacent countries, this alone will convince us, that he 
 must nave been,Jn some measure, in'structed in the arts 
 of reading, writing, and arithmetic, with the knowledge 
 of wliich a merchant cannot dispense. 
 
 * The writers, to whom we are indebted for the ac- 
 counts of the life and religion.of Mohammed, are enu- 
 merated by Fabricius, in his Delectus et Syllabus Argu- 
 mentorum, pro Vcritate B-eligionis Christianas; to which' 
 we may ad4 Boulainvilliers^ vie de M&homct, published 
 at London in 1730, which, however, desewes rather the 
 characiter of a Romance, than of a hisloryj Gagqief's Vie 
 de Mahomet, printed at Amsterdam in- 1733, and com- 
 mendable both- for the learning- and candour with .which 
 it appears to' have been -composed; 'and,'above all, the' 
 learned and Judicious Sale's Frieliminary Discourse, pre- 
 fixed to his English translation of the Koran, sect. ii. p. 
 37. , 
 
 f For an account of the Koran, see principally Sale's 
 -preface. See also Vertot's Discours sur PAIcoran, sub- 
 joined t:o the thir4 volume of his History 'of the Knights 
 of Malta, and Chardin's "Voyages en Perse, torn. ii. p. 
 S81. The book which the -Mohammedans call the Koran, 
 ia composed of several papers and discourses of the im- 
 postor, which were discovered and' collected after his 
 death, and is by no means that same law who^e excellence 
 he vaunted so highly. That some ^apts of the true Koran 
 may be copied in the modern one, is indeed very possible; 
 but that the Koran, or .Law, given- by Mohammed to the 
 Arabians, is entirely distinct from the modern Koran, is 
 manifest from this, that, in the Iat.ter, he appeals to, and 
 extols the former, and therefore they must be two differ- 
 ent compositions. May it not be conjectured, that the 
 true Koran was an Arabic poem, which he, recited to his 
 followers without giving it to them in writing, ordering 
 them' only to commit it to memory.^ Such were the laws, 
 of the- Druids id Gaul and Britain, and such also those of 
 the Indians, which the Bramins -receive by oral tradition, 
 and g^l by heart. 
 
 trusted to, as their historians are destitute of 
 veracity arid candour; they conceal the vices 
 and enormities of their chief, and represent him 
 as the most divine person that ever appeared 
 upon earth, and as the best gift of God to the 
 world. Add to this, that a considerable part 
 of his Kife, indeed, the part of it that would be^ . 
 the" most proper to lead us to a true knowledge 
 of his character, and of the motives from which 
 he apted, is absolutely unknown. It is highly 
 probable, that he 'was so deeply affected witJb 
 the-pdious and abominable^ superstition which 
 dishonoured his country, that it threw him in» 
 to a certain fanatical disorder of mind, and 
 made him really imagine that he was supema- 
 turally commissioned to reform' the religion of 
 the Arabians, and' to restore among them the 
 worship-of one God. It is, however, at the 
 same time, undnubtedly evident, that, when he 
 saw his enterprise crowned with the desired 
 success, he jnade use of impious frauds to es- 
 tablish the work he had so happily begun, de- 
 luded the giddy arid credulous multitude by 
 various' artifices, and even forged celestial vi- ' 
 sions to oojifinp his- authority, arid remove the 
 difficulties that frequently arose in the course 
 of his affairs. This mixture of Imposture is 
 by no means incompatible with'a spirit of en- 
 thusiasm; for the fanatifi, through the unguide^ 
 warmth of zeal, looks often upon the artifices 
 that are useful to his cause as pipus and accep- 
 table io the Supreme Being, and therefore de* 
 ceives when he can do it with impunity.* The 
 religion , whidi Mohammed taught, is certainly 
 difierent from what it would have been, if ho 
 had met with no opposition in the propagation 
 of his opinions; The difficulties he haH taeaiT 
 counter obliged him to yield, in some respects, 
 to the reigning systems; the obstinate attach-r 
 ment of the AraWans' to the religion of theii; 
 ancestors, on one haijd,'and the- fond hope Of' 
 gaining over to his cause both the Jews an4 
 Christians on the other, engaged, no doubt, 
 this fanatical impostor to admit into his system 
 several tenets, which he would have rejectet^ 
 without hesitation, had he been free from tha 
 restraints of ambition and artiifice. v 
 
 , IV. The rapid success which attended the' 
 propagation of this new religion, was produced 
 by causes that are plain and evident, and must 
 reiniove, or rather prevent our surprise, When 
 they are attentively considered. The terror of 
 Mohammed's anris, and the repeated victories 
 Which were gained by him and his successors, 
 were, without doubt, the "^irresistible argument 
 that persuaded such multitudes to embrace his 
 religion, and submit to his dominion. Besides, 
 his law was artfully and wonderfully adapted to 
 the (jorrUpt nature of man, and, in a more par; 
 ticular manner, to the manners and- opinions 
 of the eastern natiorisj drid the vices to Which , 
 they were naturally addicted; for the articles ' 
 of faith which it proposed were few in num- 
 ber, and extremely simple; and the duties it r&- 
 
 * This, perhaps, is- the best way of adjusting the con- 
 troversy that has been carried on by some learned men 
 upon this curious question, — whether Mohammed -wai 
 a fanatic or an impostor.' See Bayle's Dictionary; also 
 Ockley'a Con(^ue8t of Syria, Persia, and E^ypt, by the 
 Saracens, vol, 1.; and' Sale's" Fre&ce to his TranBliiUoa 
 of the Koran', sect, ii; 
 
176 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part II. 
 
 quiied were neither many nor difficult, nor such 
 as were incompatible with the empire of appe- 
 tites and passions.* It is to be observed fe.r- 1 
 ther, that the gross ignorance, imder which the ' 
 Arabians, Syrians, Persians, and the greatest 
 part of the eastern nations, laboured at this 
 time, rendered many an easy .prey to the arti- 
 fice and eloquence of- this bold adventurer. 
 To these causes oCthe progress of the Moham- 
 medan faith, wo may add the bitter dissensions- 
 and cruel animosities that reigned among the 
 Christian sects, particularly -the Greeks, Nes- 
 torians, Eutychians, and Monophysites, dissen- 
 sions that filled a grea:t part of the easf with 
 carnage, assassinations,, and -such detestable 
 enormities, as rendered the very name of Chris- 
 tianity odio.us to many'. We might add here, 
 that the Monophysites and Nestorians, full of 
 resentment against the Greeks, from whom 
 they had suffered the bitterest and most inju- 
 rious treatment, assisted the Arabians, in the 
 conquest of, several provinces,'! into which, 
 consequently, the. religion 6f Mohamined was 
 aftervvards introduced.,- -Other causes of the 
 sudden progress of tJiat religion, wiij naturally 
 occur to such as consider attentively its spfrit 
 and gonitis, and the state of the world at that 
 time. 
 
 v. After the death of the pseudo-prophet, 
 whieh happened in 632, his ibilowers, led on 
 by ajl amazing intrepidity and a fanatical fury, 
 and assisted, as we have already" observed, by 
 those Christians whom the Greeks had treated 
 with such severity, extended their conqaests 
 beyond the limits of Arabia, and subdued Sy- 
 ria, Persia, Egypt, and other countries. On 
 the other hand, the Greeks, exhausted with 
 civil discord, andTvhoUy oceupiied by intestine 
 troubles, were unable to stop these - intrepid 
 conquerors in their rapid career. 
 
 'For some time these enthusiastic invaders 
 used their prosperity with moderation, -and 
 treated the Christians, particu),arly those ,who 
 rejected the decrees of the councils of Ephesus 
 and Chalcedon, with the utmost indulgence 
 and lenity. But, as an uninterrupted course 
 of success and prosperity renders, too general- 
 ly, corrupt mortals insolent and imperious, so 
 the moderation of this victorious sect degene- 
 
 * See Reland, de Religione Mahumedicaj also Sale's 
 Preliminary Discourse. ■ 
 
 t See OcWey's Conquest of Syria,-Ecrsia, and, Egypt, 
 by the Saracens. 
 
 rated by degrees into severity; and they treated 
 the Christians, at length, rather like' slaves 
 than citizens, loading them with insupportable 
 taxes, and obliging them to submit to a variety 
 of vexatious and oppressive measures. 
 
 VI. The progress, however, of this trium- 
 phant sect received a considerable check by the 
 civil dissensions which arose among them im- 
 mediately after the death of Mohanuned. — - 
 Abubeker and Ali, the former the father-in- 
 law, and the latter the son-in-law, of this' pre- 
 tended prophet, aspired to succeed him in the 
 etiipire which he-had erected. Upon this arose 
 a tedious and cruel contest, whose flame reach- 
 ed to succeeding ages, and produced that 
 schism which^divided the Mohammedans into 
 two great factionSj' whose separation not only 
 gave ris? to a variety of opinions and rites, but 
 also excited the most implacable hatred and 
 the most deadly animosities. Of these factions, 
 one acknowledged Abubeker asJ;he true.fe&oK/, 
 or successor of Mohanimed, and Its iriembers 
 were distinguished by the name of Soimites; 
 while the other adhered to Ali, and received 
 the appellation of Shiites.* Both; however, 
 adhered to the Koran as a divine law, and as 
 the rule of faith and^ manners; to which, in- 
 deed, the former added, by Way of interpreta- 
 tion, the soma, i. e. a t^rtain law which they 
 looked Tipoji as derived -from Mohammed by 
 oral tradition, and which the Shiites' refused to 
 "admit. Among the Sonnites, or followers-qf 
 Abubeker, we are to reckon the Turks, Tar- 
 tars, 'Arabiaiw, Africans, and the greatest "part 
 of the Indian Moslems; whereas the Persians, 
 and the subjects, of the great Mogul, are gene- 
 rally considered as the foUpwers of Alij though 
 tHe latter indeed seem rather to observe a strict 
 neutrality in this contest. 
 
 Beside these two grand factions, tljpre are 
 several subordinate sects -among the Moslems, 
 which dispute jvith warmth upon several points 
 of religion, though without violating the rules 
 of mutual toleration. t Of these sects there 
 are four, which far surpass the rest in point of 
 reputation and importance. 
 
 *'See Reland, de Religione 'Turcica, lib. i. p. 36, 70, 
 74, 85; and Chardin's Voyages en Perse, torn. ii. p. 236. 
 
 f For an account of the Mohammedan sects, see Hot- 
 tingeri Histor. .Orient, lib^ii. c'ap. vi. p. 340. — Ricaut*g 
 -Etat de PEmpire Ottoman,, liv. ii.p. 942.— Chardin's 
 "Voyages 'en Perse^ lorn, ii.; and Sale's Preliminary Dis^ 
 course, sect. viii. ^ 
 
 PART II. 
 
 THE INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 Concerning the State of Letters and Philosophy 
 liming this Centwy. 
 I. Nothing can equal the ignorance and 
 darkness that reigned in this century; the most 
 impartial and accurate account of which will 
 appear incredible to those who are unacquaint- 
 
 ed with the productions of tliis barbarous p» 
 riod. Any remains of learning and philosophy 
 that yet survived, were, a few particular cases 
 excepted, t,o be found principally among the 
 Latins, in the obscure retreats of cloistered, 
 monks. The monastic institutions prohibited 
 the election of any abbot to the government 
 of a convent, who was not a man of leamipg, 
 
Chap. I. 
 
 LEARNING AND PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 177 
 
 or, at least, endowed with some shate of the 
 erudition of the times. The monks were 
 obliged to consecrate certain hours every day to 
 reading and study: and, that they miglit im- 
 prove this appointment to the most advantage- 
 ous purposes, tliere were, in most of the monas- 
 teries, stated times marked out, at which'^they 
 were to, assemble, in order to communicate to 
 each other the iVuits of their studies, and to 
 discuss the matters upon which they had been 
 reading.* "The youth also, who were destined 
 for the service of the church, were obliged to 
 prepare themselves for thsir ministry by a di- 
 ligent application to study; and in this they 
 were directed by the monks, one of whose prin- 
 cipal occupations it was to preside over tlie 
 education of the rising priesthood. 
 
 It must, however, be acknowledged, that all 
 these institutions w^re of little use to the ad- 
 vancement of solid learning, or of rational 
 theology, because very few in those days were 
 acquainted with the true nature of the liberal 
 arts and sciences, or with the important ends 
 which they were adapted to serve;, and the 
 greatest part of those who were looked upon 
 as learned men, threw away their time in read- 
 ing the marvellous lives of a parcel of fanati- 
 Qftl SEiints, instead of employing it in the peru- 
 sal of well-chosen and excellent authors. They, 
 who distinguished themselves most by their 
 taste and genius, carried their studies little far- 
 ther than the works^of Angustin and Gregory 
 the Great; and it was of scraps collected out 
 of these two writers, and patched together 
 without much-uniformity, that the best produc- 
 tions of this century were composed. 
 
 11. The sciences enjoyed no degree of pro- 
 tection, at this time, from kings ^nd -princes; 
 nor did they owe any thing to men of high and 
 eminent stations in the empire." On the other 
 hand, the schools which had been committed 
 to the caie and inspection of the bishops, whose 
 ignorance and indolence were' how become 
 enormous, began to decline apace, and had, in 
 many places;, fallen into ruin.f The bishops 
 in general were so illiterate, that few of them 
 were capable of composing the discourses which 
 they .delivered to the people. Such prelates as 
 were not totally destitute of genius composed, 
 .out of the writings of Augiistin .and Gregorys 
 a certam number of insipid homilies," which 
 they divided between themselves and their stu- 
 pid colleagues, that tliey might not be obliged 
 through -incapacity to discontinue preaching 
 the doctrines of ChriBtianity to the people, as 
 appears from the examples of Caesarius bishop 
 of Aries, and Eloi bishopof Noyon.J There 
 is yet extant a. summary of theological doc- 
 trine, which was unskilfully compiled byTaiori 
 bishop of Saragossii, from -the writings of Au- 
 gustin and Gregory; and which was so highly 
 
 * Mabillou, Acta Sanct. Ord. B^nedicti, torn. ii. p. 
 479, 513. 
 
 f Histoire Literaire de la France, torn. iii. p. 428. 
 
 (0^ i In the original we read Eligius Noviomagensis, 
 which is a mistake either of the author, or printer. It'is 
 
 Krobable that Woviomagensis slipped from the pen of Dr. 
 losheim, in the place of Noviodunensis; for Eloi was 
 bishop of Noyon, and not of J\imcguen. 
 Vol. I.— 2? 
 
 extolled in this illiterate age, that its author 
 was called, by the rest of the bishops, the true 
 salt of the earth, and a divine light that was 
 sent to illuminate the world.* Many such in- 
 stances of the ignorance and barbarity of this 
 century. will occur to those who have any ac- 
 quaintance with the writers. it produced. Eng- 
 land, it is true, was hippjer in this respect than 
 th6 other nations of Europe, which was princi- 
 pally owing to Theodore of Tarsus, of whom 
 we sjiall have occasion to speak afterwards, 
 who was appointed archbishop of Canterbury; 
 and contributed much to introduce, among the 
 English, a certain taste- for literary pursuits, 
 and to excite in that kingdom a zeal for thead- 
 vancement of learning, f 
 
 III. In Greece, the fete of the sciences was 
 truly lamentable. A turgid eloquence, and an 
 aflf^cted pomp and splendour of style, which 
 cast a perplexing obscurity over subjects in 
 themselTes the most clear and perspicuous, now 
 formed the highest point of perfection to which 
 both prose writers and poets aspired. The 
 Latin eloquence was still very considerably be- 
 low that of the Greeks; it had not spirit enough 
 even to be-turgid,'and, a few compositions ex- 
 cepted, it had sunk to the very lowest degree 
 of barbarity and corruption. Both the Greek 
 and Latin writers, who attempted historical 
 compositions, degraded most miserably that 
 important science. Moschus and Sopiironius 
 among the former; and a.mong the latter Brau- 
 lio, Jonas an Hibernian, Audoenus, Dado, and 
 Adamannus, wrote the lives of several saints, 
 or rather a heap of insipid and ridiculous fa- 
 bles, void of the least air of probability, and 
 without the smallest tiricture of £loq\ience. 
 The Greeks related, without discernment or 
 choice, the most vulgar reports that were hand- 
 ed about concerning the events of ancient 
 times: and hence arose that multitude of ab- 
 surd fables, which the Latins afterwards copied 
 from them with the utmost avidity. 
 
 IV. Among the Latins philosophy was at its 
 Joweat ebb. If there were any that retained 
 some feint reluctance to . abandon it entirely, 
 .such confined their studies to the writings of" 
 Boethius And Cassiodorus, from which they 
 committifd to memory a certain number of 
 phrases and sentences; and that was all their 
 philosophical stock. The Greeks, abandoning 
 Plato to the monks, gave themselves entirely 
 up to the direction of Aristotle, and studied, 
 with eagerness, the subtiltiesof his logic, which 
 were of signal use in the controversies carried - 
 on between the Monophysites, the Nestorians, 
 and Monothelites. AH these diiferent sects 
 called ""the Stagirite to their assistance, when 
 they were to plead their cause, and to defend 
 their doctrines. Hence it was that James, 
 bishop of Edessa, who was a Monophysite, 
 translated; in this century, the dialectics of 
 Aristotle into the Syriao language.| 
 
 * MabiUon, Analecta veteris M\i, torn. ii. p. 77. " 
 
 \ Wilkins' Concilia Magnae Britanniae, to^fl. i. p. 42.' — 
 
 Conriogii.Antiquitat. Aca^emicse, p. 277. 
 X See Assemani Biblioth. Ori^^utai. Vatican, torn. i. p*' 
 
 498. 
 
178 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part 11. 
 
 CHAPTER 11. 
 
 Conterning the Doctors and. 'Minislers of the 
 Church, and its Foim of Government during' 
 this Century. 
 
 I. The disputes about pre-eminence, that 
 had so long sujjsisted between the tishops of 
 RoBne and Constantinople, proceeded-, in this 
 century, to such violent lengths, as laid the 
 foundation of that deplorable schism, which 
 afterwards separated the Greek and Latin 
 chiurches. The most learned writers, and 
 those who are most remarkable for their know- 
 ledge of antiquity, are generally agreed that 
 .Boniface III. engaged Phocas, that abomina- 
 ble tyrant, who waded td the imperial throne 
 through the blood of the emperor Mauritius, 
 to take from the bishop of Constantinople the 
 title of (ecumenical or universal bishop, and to 
 confer it upon the Roman pontiff. They re- 
 late this, however, upon the sole authority of 
 Baronius; for none of the ancient writers have 
 mentioned it. If, indeed, We are to- give credit 
 to Anastasius and Paul the Deacon,* some- 
 thing Ijke what we have now related was, trans- 
 acted by Phocas: for, when th"e bishops of Con- 
 stantinople maintained that their church was 
 not only equal iii dignity and authority to that 
 of Rome, but also the head of all the Christian 
 churches, this tyrant opposed their pretensions, 
 and granted the pre-eminence to the church of 
 Rome: and thus was-the papal supremacy first 
 introduced. 
 
 II. The Roman pontiffs used all sorts of 
 " methods to maintain and enlarge the authority, 
 
 and .pre-eminence which they had acquired' by 
 a grant from the most odious tyrant that ever 
 disgraced the annals of history. We find, 
 however, in the most authentic accounts of the 
 transactions of this century, that Jiot only se- 
 veral emperors and princes, biit also whole na- 
 tions, opposed the ambitious views of the bish- 
 ops of Rorhe. The Byzantine history, and the 
 Formulary of Marculfusj contain many proofs 
 of the influence which the civil niagistrate yet 
 retained in religious matters, and of the subor- 
 dination of the Roman pontiffs to the regal 
 authority. It is true, the Roman writers af-- 
 feih, that Constantine Pogonatus abdicated the 
 privilege of confirming, by his approbation-, the 
 election of, the bishop of that city; and, as a 
 proof of this, they allege a passage of Anasta- 
 sius, in which it is said, that accordiiig to an' 
 edict of Pogonatus, the pontiff, who should be 
 elected, was' to be ordained immediately, andwith- 
 out the least delay.j But every one must see, 
 that this passage is "insufficient to prove what 
 these writers assert with such, confidence. It 
 is however certain, that this emperor abated, 
 some say remitted, the sum which, -from the 
 time of Theodoric, the bishops', of Rome had 
 been obliged to pay to. the imperial treasu;^? 
 before they 'could be ordained, or have their 
 election confirmed. | , 
 
 * Ana6ta8ius, de vitis Fontificum. Paul. Diacon. de 
 rebus' gestis Longobard. lib. iv. cap-, xxxvii. apud Mura- 
 torii Scriptor. rerum Italicar. torn. i. p. 465. 
 
 f Anastasii vit. Pontif. in Eened. p. 146, in Muratorii 
 Scriptor. rerum Italicar. torn. iii. 
 
 ' X Anastas. rit. Fontif. in Agathone, p. i44, compared 
 with Ma£COTii Hist, German, torn, ii. p. 121, in the an- 
 
 The ancient Britoiis and Scots persisted long 
 in the maintenance of their religious liberty; 
 and neither the threats nor prortiises of the le- 
 gates of Rome could engage them to submit 
 to the decrees and authority of, the ambitijous 
 pontiff, as appears. manifestly from the testi- 
 mony of Bede. . The clmrches of Gaul and 
 Spain attributed as much- authority to the 
 bishop of Rorne, as they thought suitable. to 
 their own dignity, and consistent with their in- 
 terests: even in Italy, his supreme authority 
 was obstinately rejected, since the bishop of 
 Raveijna, and other prelates, refused an impli- 
 cit submission to hi,s orders.'? Beside all this, 
 multitudes of private persons expressed pub- 
 licly, and without the least hesitation^their'ab- 
 horrence of the vfces, and partfcularly of the 
 lordly ambition of the Roman pontiffs: and it 
 is highly probable, that the Valdenses or -Vau- 
 dois had already, in this century, r^ired into 
 the valleys of .Piedmont, that .they might be 
 more at liberty to of^ose the tyranny of those 
 imperious prelates.f 
 
 In. The progress of vice, among the subor- 
 dinate rulers and ministers of the' church, was 
 at this time truly deplorable: neither bishops, 
 presbyters, deacons, nor, even the cloistered 
 monks, were exempt from- the general contar 
 gion, as appears firom the unanimous confes- 
 sion of all the writers of this century that are 
 worthy of credit. In -thbse very places, thai 
 were consecrated to the advancement of piety, 
 and the service of God^ there was little to b» 
 seen but spiritual ambition, insatiable avarice, 
 pious frauds, intQlerable pride, and a supercili- 
 ous contempt of the natural rights of the peo- 
 ple, with many other vices sUU more enormous. 
 There reigned also in many places the most 
 bitter dissensions between the bishops and the 
 monks. The .former had employed the greedy 
 hands of the latter to augment the episcopal 
 treasure, and to draw the contributions from all 
 parts to support them in their luiury, and the 
 indulgence of their lusts. The monks perceiv- 
 ing this, and also unwilling to serve the bish- 
 ops in such a dishonourable character, fled for 
 refuge to the emperors and princes, under whose 
 civil jurisdiction they^lived; and afterwards, for 
 their farther security, had recourse to the pro- 
 tection of the Roman pontiff.J This protec- 
 tion -they readily obtained; and the imperious 
 pontiffs, alwsiys fond of ekerting their Euthori- 
 ty, exempted, by degrees, the monastic orders 
 from tile juris^dictibn' of the "bishops. The 
 monks, in return for this important service, de- 
 voted themselves wholly to advance the inte- 
 rests, and to maintain the dignity of the bishop 
 
 notations, (ffj' It will not be improp'er to obserre here, 
 that by the same edict. Which diminished the ordination- 
 money paid by the bishops of Rome to. the emperor, Con- 
 stantine resumed the power of confirming the election of 
 the pope, which his predecessors had invested in the ex- 
 archs ot Ravenna; so that the bishop elect was not to be 
 ordained tillJiis election was notified to the court of Cou- 
 stantinojple,and the imperial decree confirming it was re- 
 ceived -by the electors at Rom6. See Anastasius, in his 
 life of Agatho. 
 
 * See Geddes' Miscellaneous Tracts, torn, ii. p.'G. 
 
 f See Antoine Lcger's Histoire dea Eglises Yaudoises, 
 liv. i. p. 15. 
 
 I See Launoii Assertio Inquisitionis in-Chartam Immu- 
 nitatis S. Germani, op. torn, iii; par. i. p. 50. Baluzii 
 Miscellan. torn. ii. p. 159; torn, ir, p, 108. Muratorii 
 Antiq. Italic, torn, ii, p, 944, 949. 
 
cbap. n. 
 
 DOCTORS, CHURCH GOVpRNMENT, &o. 
 
 179 
 
 of Rome. They made iua cause their own, 
 and represented him as a sort of god tothe igf- 
 norant multitude, over whom they liad gained 
 a prodigious ascendency by the notion that ge- 
 nerally prevailed of the sanctity of the monas- 
 tic order. It is, at the saine time, to be obr 
 served, that this humanity toward the monies 
 proved a fruitful source of hcentiousness and 
 disorder, and occasioned the greatest part of 
 the vices with which they were afterwards so 
 justly charged. Such, at least, is the judg- 
 ment of the best Writers upon this subject.* 
 
 IV. In the mean t,ime the monks were every 
 where in high repute, and their cause was ac- 
 companied with the most surprising success, 
 particularly ^mong the Latins, through the 
 protection and favour of the Roman pontiff, 
 and their pharisaical affectation of uncommon 
 piety and devotion. The ^eads of families, 
 striving to surpass each other in their zeal for 
 the propagation a.nd advancement of monkery, 
 dedicated their children to God, by shutting 
 them up in convents, and devoting them to a 
 solitary life, which they looked upon as Ihe 
 highest felicity;! nor did they fail to send with 
 these innocent victims a rich dowry. Aban- 
 doned profligates,- who had passed their days 
 in the most vicious pm'suits, and whose guilty 
 consciences Slled them with terror and remorse, 
 were comforted with the delusive hopes of ob- 
 taining'pardon, and making atonement for their 
 crimes^ by leaving the greatest pa.rt of their 
 fortune tosoraenionasticsociety. Multitudes, 
 impelled by.the unnatural dictates of aglopmy 
 superstition, degrived their children of fertile 
 lands and rich pairimoiiies, in favour of the 
 monks, by whose prayers they hoped to render 
 the. Deity propitious. SeveraL ecclesiastics 
 laid down rules for .the direction of the monas- 
 tic orders. Those among the Latins, who un- 
 dertook this pious task," were Fructuosus, -Isi- 
 dore, Johannes Gerundinensis, and Columban.^ 
 The rule of discipline, prescribed by St. Bene- 
 dict, was not yet universally followed, so as to 
 exclude all othei-s. 
 
 V. The writers of this age, who distinguish- 
 ed themselves by their genius or erudition, 
 were very few in number. Among the Greeks, 
 the first rank is due to Maximus, a monk, who 
 disputed with great obstinacy and warmth 
 against the Monothelltes, composed-some illus- 
 trations upon the Hply Scriptures, and was, 
 -Upon the whole, a man of no mean capacity,' 
 though unhappy through the impatience and 
 .violence of his natural temper. 
 
 Isychius, bishop of Jerusalem, explained se- 
 veral books of Scripture;! and left several hom- 
 ilies, and some productions of less, importance. 
 
 Dorotheus^ abbot of. Palestine, acquired a 
 considerable name by his Ascetic Dissertations, 
 in which he laid dowii a plan of monastic life 
 and manners. 
 
 * See Launoii Examen.FrivHegii S. Gcrmani, torn. iii. 
 par.-i. p. 383. Wilkins' Concilia Magnse-Britanais, torn. 
 1. p. 43, 44, 49, &c., 
 
 f Gervaia, Histoire Ae I'Abbe Suger^ torn. i. p. 9 — 16. 
 
 i Lucae Holstedii Codex Regular, torn. ii. p. S^5. 
 
 § See Simon's Critique de la " 
 
 Eccleniutiques de M. Du-Pin, I 
 
 Bibliotheque des Auteurs 
 tom. i. p. 361. 
 
 Antiochus, a monk of Saba in Palestine, and 
 a monk of a very superstitious complexion, 
 composed a Pandect of the Holy Scriptures^ 
 i. e. a summary or system of, the Christian 
 doctrine, which is by no means worthy of high 
 commendation. 
 
 Sophronius, bishop of Jerusalem, was ren- 
 dered illustrious, and attracted the veneration 
 of succeeding ages, by the controversies he 
 carried on against those who, at this time, were 
 branded with the name of heretics; and partic- 
 ularly against the Monothelltes, of whose doc* 
 trine he was thefirst opposer, and also. the fo- 
 ■menter of the dispute which it occasioned.* 
 
 Thece are yet extant several homilies, attri- 
 buted to Andrew, bishop of Crete, which are 
 destitute of true piety and eloquence, and 
 which are, moreover, considered by some wri- 
 ters as entirely spurious. 
 
 Gregory, surnamed Pisides, deacon of Con- 
 stantinople, beside the History of Heracliua 
 and the Avares, composed several poems, and 
 other pieces of too little moment to deserve 
 mention. 
 
 Theodore, abbot of Raithu, published a book 
 which is still extant, against those sects who 
 seemed to introduce corrupt innovations into 
 the Christian religion, by their doctrine relat- 
 ing to the person of Christ. ' 
 
 VI. Among the Latin writers, a certain num.* 
 ber were distinguished from the rest by their 
 superior abilities. Ildetbnso, archbishop of 
 Toledo; was in repute for his learning; the 
 Spaniards, however, attributfe to him without 
 foundation, certain treatises concerning the Vir 
 gin Mary.f 
 
 We have yet extant two books of Epistles, 
 written by Desiderius,' bishop of Cahors, and 
 published by the leamedJCairisius. 
 
 Ehgius, or Eloi, bishop of Limoges, left be- 
 hind him several hoiriilies, and some other pro- 
 ductions. 
 
 Marculf, a Gallic monk, composed two 
 books of ecclesiastical forms, which are highly 
 valuable, as they are extremely proper to give 
 us a just idea of the dgplorable state of reli- 
 gion and learning in. this century .| 
 
 Aldhelm, an English prelate, composed se- 
 veral ~ poems concerning the Christian life, 
 which exhibit but indifferent marks of genius 
 andfa;ncy.§ 
 
 1^ Julian Pomerius confuted the Jews, and ac- 
 quired a name by several other productions, 
 which are neither 'worthy of much applause 
 nor of utter contempt. To all these we might 
 add Cresconius, whose Abridgement of the 
 Canons is well known; Fredegarius the histo- 
 rian, and a few others. 
 
 65. 
 
 * See Ihe Acta Sanctorum, tom. ii. Martii ad d. xi. p 
 5. - 
 
 f See the Acta Sanctorum, Jauuar tom. ii. p. 535. 
 
 ; Histoirc Literairc de la France, tom. iii. p. 565. 
 
 Q{^§ This prelate certainly deserved a more honoura- 
 hle mention than is here made of him by Dr. Moshtfim. 
 His poetical talents -were by no means the most distin 
 guishing part of his character, lie was profoundly Ter» 
 ed in the-Greek, Latin, . and Saxon languages. He ap 
 peared also with dignity in the paschal controversy, that 
 so.long divided the Saxon and ^tish churchei. See Col- 
 lier's Ecclesiastical'Hist, vol. i. 
 
isb 
 
 INtERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part II, 
 
 CHAPTER m. 
 
 ^oncemin^ the Doctrine of tJie Christian Church 
 
 during this Centifry* 
 
 1. In this barbarous age, religion lay expir- 
 ing under a motley ^nd enortnoaS heap of su- 
 perstitious inventions, and had neither the 
 courage nor the force to raise her hfead, or to 
 display her nitiire charms, to a darkened and 
 deluded world. In tTte earlier periods of the 
 church, the Christian Avorship was confined to 
 the one Supreixie God, and his Son Jesus 
 Christ: but the Christians of this century mul- 
 tiplied the objects of their dcvq^ion, and paid 
 homage,to the remains of the true cross, to the 
 images of the saints^ and to bones, whose real 
 owners were extremely dubious.* The primi- 
 tive Christians, in order to excite men to a 
 course "of piety and virtue, set before them that 
 heavenly state, and those mAnsioris of misery, 
 which the Gospel has revealed as the different 
 portions of the righteous and the wicked; while 
 the Christians of this century talked of nothing 
 else but a certain fire whieh effaced the stains 
 of vice, a^d purified souls from theit corruption. 
 The former taught that Christ, by his suifer- 
 ings and death, had made atonement for the 
 sins of mortals; the latter seemed,^ by their sur 
 perstitious doctrine, to 6xdude, from the king- 
 dom of heaven, such as had not contributed, 
 by tHeir offerings, to aug;ment the riches of the 
 clergy or the church.t The formfer were only 
 
 *it ■♦fill not te amiss to qaote here a remarkable pas- 
 sage out of the Life of St. Eligiua, or EloL bishop of 
 Woyoil, which islo be found in,M. d'Achefy's Spicileg^- 
 umveter. Scriptpr. torn. ii. p.92. This pkssagej which 
 18 vety proper to give us a just idea of the piety of this 
 
 a^) 
 
 is as follows: ** Huic saactissimo viro, inter cetera 
 
 YU-tatiuA suarum miracula, id etiam a Doiftino concessum 
 erat, Ut sanctorum martyrum corpora, quae per tot s*cu- 
 la ahdita popblis hafetetfua habebantur, eo investigahte ac 
 nimio ardore fidci indagante, patefacta prodcrentur." It 
 appears hy this passage^ that St. fJioi was azealousTelic- 
 faunter; and, if we" may give credit to the writer of his 
 life, he was "Very successful at this ftind of-gamfe; for he 
 ■melt and "unkennelled the carcasses of St. Q,uintin, St. 
 Plato, SfOrispifi, St. Crispinian, St. Lucian, and many 
 more.' The bishops of this age, who were eithet ambi- 
 tiously desirous of popular applause, or intent upon accu- 
 mulating riches, and filling their coflfers With the oblations- 
 of a superstitious peoplcj pretended to he endowed with 
 a miraculous M^city in discovering the bodie;^ of saints 
 and martyrs.[*J , 
 
 f St. EiXoi expresses himself upon this nlatter in the 
 following manner- " Bonus Christianus est, (}ui ad e'ccle- 
 Biam frequentius venit, et jiblatibuem, quae in altari Deo 
 offeratur, exhibet; qui de fructibus suis non gustat, nisi 
 prius Deo aliquid ouerat; qui, quolies sancCs solemnita- 
 tes advenJuntj^nte dies plurcfs castitatetb etiam cutn pro- 
 pria uxore custodit, ut secUi^ conscrentia Domini altare 
 sceedere posSit; qili postremo ^mbolumvBl'orationemDo- 
 
 [*1 That much imposition was practised in this respect, 
 even the catholics must admit. The biographer of Eloi 
 eays, that "some relics were honoured with popular 
 worship in places where they did not exist, while no pne 
 knew, to a certainty, iff what spot they were to be found." 
 To supply this deficiency of knowledge, it became expe- 
 dient, in the opinion of the clerical zealots, to point out 
 the places of interment; and thus I'elicswrre wantonly 
 multiplied, many saints having two or three Jieads fopnd 
 for each person, and a great numbe'r of arms and le^^s. 
 . This reminds us of the remark df a lady, who, having 
 seen at a museum a relic which Was said to he Crom- 
 welPs scuil, 'asked the keeper of another repository, 
 whether he could produce a -scull of the same great per- 
 Boiia'^e. " No, Madam," he replied; '* we have nothing 
 of tl^ kind." — "That seems very odd," said the lady; 
 " I saw one at Oxibrd, and I should have thought that 
 you would have had another."— £irf. 
 
 studious to attain a virtuous simplicity, of life 
 and manners, and employed their principal zeal 
 and diligence in the culture of true and geilu- 
 ine piety, while the latter placed the whole of 
 religion in external rites and bodily exercises. 
 The methods also of solving the difficulties, 
 and dissipating the d6ubts,^hich often arose 
 in inquisitive minds, were of a piece with the 
 rest of tlie superstitious system that now pre- 
 vailed. The tiyo great and irresistible argu- 
 ments against all doubts, were the authority of , 
 
 minicam memoriler tenet. — Rfedimite animas vestras de 
 pceoa, dum habetiS in potestatfe rcmedia; oblationes et de- 
 cimas ecelesiis oiTerle, luminaria Sanctis loci^j juxta quod 
 habetis,exhibete; ad ecclesiam quoque frequenting convc- 
 nite, sanctorum, patrociniahumiliter expetite; quod siob- 
 servaveritis, securi in die iudicii ante tribunal seterui judi- 
 cis veuientes dicetis. Da, Domine, quia dedimus.'' Q(^ We 
 see here a large and ample description of the character of 
 a " good Christian," in which there is not the least men- 
 tion of the love of God, resignation to his will, obedience 
 to his laws, or of justice, benevolence, and charity-to- 
 ward men', and in which the whole of religion is made to 
 consist in coming often to the chupch, bringing offerings 
 to the altar) lighting candles iu coBse£rated -places, and 
 the like vain services.^*] ' . ^ 
 
 f * J Some modern writers of the Romish persuasion h&rt 
 exclaimed against these strictures in terms of severe repre- 
 hension; and DrV Lingard, in particular, saya, " This 
 citation from the wjitings of St. Eloi holds a distinguish- 
 ed place in every invective Which has been published ' 
 against Iheclergy of former ages; and this definition of 
 a good Christian has been' re-echoed a thousand times 
 by the credulity of writers and their readers;" but it ap- 
 pears, upon due investigation, he adds, that the " blshoj» 
 of Noy.on has been foully ccUuimUuted^^' for his defini- 
 tion of 4 gotfd Christian is of the following tenor: " ]Von 
 vobifi suflMit, charissimii quod Christianum nomenaccep- 
 iatis, si opera Christiana- non facitis. Illi enim prodest, 
 quod Christianus vocatur, qui semper Christi ^raecepta 
 mente retinet, et opere perficitj qui^furtum ^ -sciHcet, non 
 facit; qui falsumateatimonium non djcitj ijui ntC mentitnr, 
 nee pejeral; qui adtilterium non committit; qui, nullum 
 homin'em odit, sed omnes sicut semetipsum diH^it; qui 
 inimicis suis malum non reddit, sed magis pro ip?i8 orat; 
 qui Htes non con£itat, sed discordes ad concordiam I'evo- 
 cat." '*It is not- sufficient for .yom characters oi; your 
 credit,, my dearest friends, that you merely bear thename 
 of aChristian; you must perform theactsand dutleffofa 
 Christian. He alone is worthy of the name, who retains 
 in his miiid the precepts of religion, and carries them in- 
 to effect^ who avoids, as a 'crime, the commission of theft^ 
 who shuns the guilt of perjury or falsehood^ who does 
 not commit adultery; who hates Q6 one, but is ready^ to 
 serve even his enemies'; and who is so far from promoting 
 strife, that he is eager to prevent all disputes, and allay- 
 all animosities." Tne^e and other evidences of the Chris 
 tian character and temper, in the century to which Dr. 
 Mosheim refers feire given by the catholic historian in the 
 words of AQdbenus (St: Ouen,) bishop of Rouen, who 
 wrote the-life of St. Eloi; and We are bound to state, be- 
 cause we have ascertained the point, tliat he has quoted 
 the original /airij/ and cOTTec%, according to the best 
 edition of the Spicilegium. (Parisj 1723, 3 vols, folio.) 
 "We-kre induced to ihention this circumstance, because 
 some protestaht divines, have been so edgcrto exculpate 
 Dr. Mosheim, that they, have accused Dr. Lingard of fol- 
 lowing a spurious editidh, in which various interpolations 
 itffght. have been m&deby the Romanists to support the 
 tfrtditof the early church. We are aware that papists 
 seem to have a fellow-feeling with their religions' ances-' 
 tors, and are frequently hurried by their zeal into misre- 
 presentation, and sometime^ into gross deviations froln 
 truth; ibut it is certainly lUibeTaT to suspect them without 
 cause, or to condemn them without inquiry. 
 
 In the present case, we cannot conspientiously decide in 
 favour of Dr. Mosheinv. His general impartiality we rea- 
 dily admit; but he did not, on this occasion, strictly at- 
 tend to that duty. In tte very page from which he ex- 
 tracted the unfavourable passage, he must, we think, have 
 seen (for he was usually keen in his researches) the de- 
 tail of religious and moral duties quoted by Dr. Lingard, 
 and he ought to have given one as well as the other. 
 Some blame is also imputable Iq the translator, for not 
 making due inquiry into the validity of Dr. Mosheim's 
 charge against the churchmen of the seventh century. — 
 Editor 
 
Cha*. ra.- 
 
 THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 18) 
 
 the church and the working of miracles, and 
 the production of these prodigies required no 
 extraordinary degree of dexterity in an age of 
 suQh gross and universal ignorance. - 
 
 II. Few, either of the weeks or LatinSj-ap- 
 plied themselves to the tnterpretation of the 
 Scriptures during this Century. There are yet 
 extant some commentaries of Isychius, bishop 
 of Jerusalem, upon certktn books of the Old 
 Testament, and upon the Epistle to the He- 
 brews. Maximus published a solution of sixty- 
 five, 'questions relating to " the Scriptures, and 
 
 ~ot4i'er ptpductions.of the same nature. .Julian 
 Fomerius attempted, but -without success, to 
 reconcile the seeming contradictions that are 
 to be found in the sacred writings, and to ex- 
 plain the prophecy of Nahum! All these wri- 
 ters were manifestly inferior to the meanest ex- 
 positors of .modern times. The Grecian doc- 
 tors, "particularly those whb pretended to be 
 iriitiated in the most mysterious depths of theo- 
 logy, were continually hunting after fantastic 
 
 -allegories, as is evident from the Questions of 
 Maximus already mentioned. The Latinsj on 
 the contrary, were so diffident of their abili- 
 ties, that they did not dare to enter thesealle- 
 gorical labyrinths, but contented themselves 
 with what flowers they could pluck out of the 
 rich coUections 6f Gregory and Augustin. Of 
 this we see a manifest example in Paterius' 
 Exposition of the Old and New Testament, 
 which is entirely compiled irom the jvrjtings of 
 Gregory the Gfeat.^ Among the interpreters 
 of this century, we ruust not- forget Thonjas, 
 bishop of Heraclea, who gave a second Syriac 
 version of the New Testament.') 
 
 III. While philosophy and theology had 
 scarcely any remains of life, any marks of ex- 
 istence among the Latins, the Greeks were 
 wholly occiipied with fruitless controversies 
 about particular branches of religion, and did 
 not think of reduqing all the doctrines of Chris- 
 tianity into one regular and ratipnal system. 
 It is true, Aritiochus, a monk of Palestine, com- 
 posed a short summary of the Christian, doc- 
 trine, which he entitledj the Pandect of the 
 Holy Scriptures. It is, however, easy to per- 
 ceive what sort of an author he was, how void 
 of dignity and true judgment, from many cir; 
 cnmstances, xTnd particularly from that rueful 
 poem which- is subjoined to his work; ' in which 
 he deplores, in lamentable strains, the loss of 
 that precious fragment of the true cross, which 
 is said to have been carried away, bji the Per- 
 sians, among other spoils. The most elegant 
 and judicious summary of theology that ap- 
 peared amoiig the Latins in this century, was 
 the treatise of-'Ildefonso, de Cognitione Bap- 
 tism!, which was saved by Baluze from the 
 ruins of time; a work, indeed, which is not 
 extremely necessary, since the ignoble frauds 
 of superstition have been so fully brought to 
 light, though it contains remarkable proofs, 
 that many of the corrupt inventions and prac^ 
 tices, wliich disfigure Christianityin the popish 
 
 churches, were not contrived till after this pe- 
 riod.* The dry and insipid body of divinity 
 composed by Taio, or Tago, bishop of Sara- 
 gossa, under the -title of Five Books of Sen- 
 tences, and compiled from the writings of Gre- 
 gory and Augustin, is scarcely worthy of men- 
 tion, though, iri this century, it -was considered 
 as an admirable and immortal work.f 
 
 Several particular branches of doctrine were 
 treated by the theological writers of this age: 
 thus Maximus wrote of the nature of Theolo- 
 gy, and tlie Manifestation of the Son in the 
 Flesh, and also upon the Two Natures in Christ; 
 and Theodore Raithu composed a treatise con- 
 cerning Christ's Incarnation. But a small ac- 
 quaintance with the state of Isaming eind reli- 
 gion at this period, will enable us to form a 
 -just, though disadvantageous idea of the merit 
 of these performances, and also of their au- 
 thors.. 
 
 IV. The moral v?riters of this century, and 
 their miserable productions, show too plainly 
 to what a wretched state that noble and impor- 
 tant science was now reduced. Among these 
 moralists, the first rank is due to Dorotheus 
 (author of the Ascetic Dissertations,) Maxi- 
 mus, Aldhelm, Hesychius, 'Thalassius, and 
 some others:, yet, even in their productions, 
 what grovelling notions do we find! what rub- 
 bish, what a heap of superstitious fancies! and 
 how many marks of extravagance, perplexity, 
 and doubt! Besides, the laity had little reason 
 to complain of the severity of their moral dj- 
 rectord. Whose custom it was to* reduce all t^ie 
 obligations of Christianity to the practice of a 
 small number of virtues, as appears from Aid- 
 helm's Treatise concerning the -eight principal 
 Virtues. Nor was the neglect of these duties 
 attended with such penalties as were proper to 
 restrain < oBTenders.'- The false ' notions also, 
 which prevailed in this age, tended much to 
 diminish a just sense of the nature and obliga- 
 tion of virtue; for the solitude of the monastic 
 life, though accompanied with no marks of 
 solid and genuine piety, was deemed sufficieiit 
 to atone ^for all sorts of crimes, and was there- 
 fore honoured among the Latiils with the title 
 of the second baptism; which circumstance 
 alone may serve to show us th&miserable state 
 of Christianity at this time. The greatest part 
 of the Grecian and- Oriental monks laboured 
 to arrive at a state of perfection by mere con- 
 templation, and studiously endeavoured to form 
 their tempers and characters after the model 
 of Didnysius, the chief of the Mystics'. 
 
 V. Theodore of Tarsus, a Grecian monk, 
 restored among the Latins the discipline of 
 penance, as it is commonly termed, which, had 
 been for a long time almost totally neglected, 
 .and eiifprced it by a body of severe laws bor- 
 
 * This useless production has been usually publisiied, 
 with the works of Gregory the Great; io consequence 
 of which, the Benedictine monks have inserted it in their 
 •plendid edition of the works of that pontiif, torn. n. 
 part II. I „ — 
 
 t Assemani Biblioth. Orient. Vatican, torn. ii. p. 93,94. 
 
 * See Baluzii Miscellanea, torn. vi. p. J. From "the 
 work of Ildefonso it appears evident, that the monstrous 
 doctrine , of Transubstantiation was absolutely unknown 
 to the Latins in this deutury, and thatihe Scriptures were 
 in the hands of all Christians, and were perused by them 
 without the least molesj^tion or restraint.. {Idefonso,. it 
 is true, is zealous for banishing reason and philosophy 
 from religious matters; .he, however, establishes the 
 Scriptures, and the writings of the ancient doc.tors, as 
 the supreme tribunals before which all theological opin- 
 ions are to be trie'd, p. 14, S3. • ' _ 
 
 t See Mabillon's .Analecta reteris^ JEyi, torn. ii. p. Si. 
 
182 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 i'^ART II. 
 
 rowed from the Grecian canons. This zealous 
 prelate, being raised beyond liis expectation to 
 the see of Canterbury, m 668,foVmedand exe- 
 cuted several pious arjd laudablo projects; and, 
 among other tbings, reduced to a regular sci- 
 ence tbat branch of ecclesiastical law, which 
 is known by tli^name of penitential discipline. 
 He published a Peniktitial, which was entirely 
 new to the Latin worM, by which the clergy 
 were taught to distinguish sins into various 
 classes, according as they were more or less 
 heinous, private or public; to judge of them, 
 and determine the degrees of their guilt by 
 their nature and consequences, by the intention 
 of the offender, the time and place in which 
 they were committed, and the circumstances 
 with which they were attended. This new 
 Penitential contained also the methods of pro- 
 ceeding with respect to offenders; pointed out 
 the penalties that were suitable to the various 
 classes of transgressions; prescribed the forms 
 of consolation, exhortation, and absolution; 
 and described, in an ample and accurate man- 
 ner, tlie duties and obligations of those who 
 were to receive the confessions of the penitent.*? 
 This new discipline, though of Grecian origin, 
 was eagerly adopted by the Latin churches; 
 and, in a short "space of time, passed from Bri- 
 tain into all the western provinces, where the 
 book of Theodore became the mo3el of all 
 other penitentials, and was multiplied in a vast 
 number of copies. The duration of this dis- 
 cipline was transitory; for, in the eighth cen-- 
 tury, it began to decline, and wEfis, at length, 
 entirely supplanted by what was called the new 
 canon of indulgences. 
 
 VI. The doctors who opposed the various 
 sectsarescarcely worthy of mention, and would 
 still less deserve -an attentive perusal, did not 
 'their writings contribute to illustrate the histo- 
 ry of the times in which they lived. ' Nicias 
 composed two books against the,-Gentiles; and 
 Photius informs us, that a certain writer, whose 
 name is unknowh, embarked in the same con- 
 troversy, and supported the .good cause by a 
 prodigious number of arguments drawn from"^ 
 ancient' records and mon^ments.f Julian Po- 
 merius exerted his polemic talent against the 
 Jews. The views of Timotheus were yet more 
 extensive; for he gave an ample .description 
 and a laboured confutation of all the various 
 heresies that, divided the church, in his book 
 concerning the reception of Heretics. 
 " As to^the dissensions of the catholic' Chris- 
 tians among^hemselves, they produced, at this 
 time, few or no ^vents worthy of mention. — 
 We shall, therefore, only observe, that in this 
 century Were sown tlie seeds of those fatal dis- 
 cords, which rent asunder the bonds- of Chris- 
 tian communion between the Gr«ek and Latin 
 churches: indeed, thege seeds had already ta;ken 
 root in the minds of the Gjeeks, to whom the 
 Roman power became insupportable, and the 
 pretensions of the sovereign pontiff odious. 
 
 * The PfenifewiittZ of Theodore is yet extant, though 
 maimed and imperfect, in an cdi^ioa pDblished.at Paris in 
 1679, by Petit, aiid enriched with learned dissertations 
 and notes of t^e^cditor. We have also the cxx Capilula 
 Ecclesiastica Theodori, published ib.the- Spicilegium of- 
 M. d'Achery, and in the Concilia Hacdnini. 
 
 f Bibtioth. cod. clxx p. 379. 
 
 In Britain, warm controversies- concerning 
 baptism and the tonsure, and particularly the 
 famous dispute concerning the time of celebrat- 
 ing the Easter-festival, were carried on between 
 the'ancient Britons, and the new converts to 
 Christianity, which Au^ustinhad made among 
 the Anglo-Saxons.* -The fundamental doc- 
 trines of Christianity were not at all affectei? 
 by these controversies, which, on that account, 
 were more innocent, and less important than 
 they would have otherwise been. Besides, 
 they were entirely terminated in the eighth 
 century, in favour of the Anglo-Saxons, by the 
 Benedictine monks. f 
 
 HAPTER ly. 
 
 Vonceming the Rites and Ceremfmies used in the 
 Church during this Century, 
 
 I. IjT the council of Constantinople, which 
 was called Q,uinisextuiny^ the Greeks enacted 
 several laws concerning the ceremonies that 
 were to be observed in divine worship, which 
 rendered their ritual, in some respects, different 
 from- that of the Romans! These laws were 
 publicly received by all the churches, which 
 were established in^the dominions of the Gre- 
 cian emperors; and also by those which were 
 joined-with them in comrnunioh-and doctrine, 
 though under the civil jurisdiction of barba- 
 rian princes. Nor was this all: for every Ro- 
 man pontiff added something new to the an- 
 cient jites and institutions, as if each supposed 
 it to be an essential ipark of. zeal for religion,* 
 and of a. pious discharge of the ministerial 
 functions, .to divert the multitude with new 
 shews ^nd new spectacles of devout mumme- 
 ry; These superstitious inventions were, in 
 the time of Charlemagne, propagated from 
 Rome among the other Latin churches, whose 
 subjection to the Roman ritual was necessary 
 to satisly the ambitious demands of the lordly 
 pontiff.-' 
 
 11. It will not be improper to sel&ct here a 
 few, out of the many instances we could pro- 
 duce of the multiplication of. religious rites in 
 this centm-y. The number of festivals under 
 which the church already groaned, W£is now 
 augmented; a new festival was instituted in 
 honour of the true cross on which Clirist su& 
 fered, and another in com melioration of the 
 Saviour's ascension- into heaven. Boniface V. - 
 
 * Cummani Epistola in Jac. Usserii Sylloge Epiatolar.. 
 Hibernicar. p, 33.' — Bedx Historia Ecclesiast; gentis An- 
 gJor. lib. iii. cap. xxv. — Wilkins' poncilia Magnae. Bri- 
 tann. torn. i. p. 37, 42. — Acta Sanctor. Februar. torn- iii. 
 p. 21, 84. (tC^ See also Dr.^Warner's Ecclesiastical His*- 
 lory of England, books ii. and iii. This history, which 
 has lately appeared, deserves the highest applause, on ac- 
 count of the noble spirit of liberty, candpur,^nd modera- 
 tion, that seems to have guided the pen of the judicious 
 author. It is, at the same time, to oe wished, that' thi. 
 elegant historian had less avoided citing authorities, and 
 becna-little more lavish of that erudition which he C 
 known to possess: for then, afler having surpassed Collie 
 jn alt other respects, he would have equalled him iu tha* 
 depth of learning, which' is tlie only meritorious circunt< 
 stance of his partial and disagreeable history. 
 
 t Mabillon, Pra;f. ad Saec. iii. Benedictinum, P;."J-" 
 ^(^ See also Dr. Warner's Ecclesiastical Hist, book iii. 
 
 (fC^ \ This council was called Qfitinisextum, from id 
 being considered as a supplement to the fifth and lixth 
 councils of Constantinople, in which nothing -had been 
 decreed concerning the morals of Christian!, or religioui 
 ceremonies, 
 
Chap. V. 
 
 DIVISIONS AND HERESIES. 
 
 183 
 
 enacted that infamous law, by which the 
 churches became places of refuge to all who 
 fled thither for protection; a law which procur- 
 ed a sort of impunity to the most enormous 
 crimes, and gave indulgence to the licentious- 
 ness of the most abandoned profligates. Ho- 
 norius employed all his diligence and zeal in 
 embellishing churches, and other consecrated 
 . places, with the most pompous and magnifi-s 
 cent ornaments; for, "as neither Christ nor his 
 apostles had left any injunctions of this nature 
 to their followers, their pretended vicar thought 
 it but just to supply this defect by the most 
 splendid display of his ostentatious beneficence. 
 We shall pass in silence the richness and va- 
 riety of the sacerdotal garments that were now 
 used.at"the celebration of the eucharist, and in 
 the performance of divine worship, as this 
 would lead us inta a tedious detail of minute 
 and unimportant matters. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Concerning the Divisions and Heresies that trovr 
 bled the Church during this Century. 
 
 . I. The Greeks were engaged, during this, 
 cental^, in the most bitter and virulent con- 
 troversy with the Paulioians of Armenia, and 
 the adjacent cotintries, whom they considered 
 as a branch of the Manichean seSot. ' This dis- 
 pute Was carried to the greatest height under 
 the feigns of Constant, Constantihe Pogonatus, 
 and Justinian II.; and the Greeks were not 
 only arnied with arguments, but weie also aid- 
 ed by the. force of military legions, and the ter- 
 ror of penal laws. A certain person, \^hose 
 name was Constantine, revived, under the 
 reign of Constans, the drooping faction of the 
 raulicians, now ready to expire; and propa- 
 gated with great success its pestilential* doc- 
 trines. But this is not the place .to enlarge 
 upofl the tenets and history of thib sect, wTiose 
 origin is attributed tO' Paul and John, two 
 brothers, who revived and modified the doc- 
 trine of Manes. As it was in the ninth cen- 
 tury that the PauUcians flourished m6st,. and 
 acquired strength sufficient to support the ri- 
 gours of an open and cruel war with the Greeks, 
 we -shall reserve a more particular account of 
 them for our history of that period. 
 
 ^11. Jn Italy, the Lombards^ preferred the 
 opinions of the Ariaris to the doctrine which 
 was established-by the council of. Nice. In 
 Gaul a.nd in England, the Pelagian and Semi» 
 Pelagian controversies continued to excitfe the 
 warmest anirnosities arid dissensions. In the 
 eastern pravinces, the ancient sects, which bad 
 been weakened and oppressed by the' imperial 
 laws, but not extirpated or destr.oyed, began 
 in- many places to raise their heads, to recover 
 their vigour, and gain proselytes. The terror 
 of-penal laws had obliged them, for sonje time, 
 to seek safety in obscurity, and therefore to 
 conceal their opinions from the public eye; but,, 
 as soon as they saw the fury or the poller , of 
 their adversaries diminish, their hopes return- 
 ed, and their courage was renewed. 
 
 * Fhotius, lib. i. contra Manich. p. 61.— Petri Siculi 
 Hiatoria Manich. p. 41 — Geor{;. Cedrenus, Compend. 
 Hilt. 
 
 "III. The condition, both of the N.estoriang 
 and Moijophysites, was much more flourishing 
 under the Saracens, who had now bepome lords 
 of the east, than it had been hitherto under 
 the Christian emperors, or even the Persian 
 monarohs. These two sects met with a distin- 
 guished protection from their new masters, 
 while the Greeks suffered under the same 
 sceptre all the rigours of persecution and ban- 
 ishment. Jesuiabas, the sovereign pontiff" of 
 the Nestorians, concluded a treaty, first "with 
 Mohammed, and afterwards with- Omar, -by 
 which he obtained raany-sigiial advantages for 
 his sect.* There is yet extant a testamentary 
 diploma of -the pseudo-prophet, in which he 
 promises and bequeaths to the Christians, in 
 his domiijions, the quiet and undisturbed en 
 joyment of their religion, together with their 
 temporal advantages and. possessions. Some 
 learned men have," indeed,^ called in question 
 the authentieity of this deed; it is, however, 
 certain, that the Mohammedans unanimously 
 acknowledge it to be genuine.f Accordingly; 
 the successors of Mohammed in Persia em- 
 ployed the Nestorians in the most iinportant 
 affair^, both of the cabinet arid of the provin- 
 ces, and suffered the ^patriarch of that sect 
 alone to reside in the kingdom of Bagdad.:t 
 The Mdnophysites enjoyed in Syria and Egypt 
 an equal degree of favour and protection. — 
 Amrou, having -made himself master of Alex- 
 andria, in 644, fixed Benjamin, the pontifl? of 
 
 * Asscmapi Eiblioth. Orient. Vatican, torn. iii. part ii 
 p. 94. , - ^ . 
 
 , f This famous Testament was brought from the cast itt 
 the seventeenth century, by Pacifieus Scaliger, a .Capu- 
 chin monk, and was Jmblished first in Arabic, and Latin 
 at Paris, by Gabriel Sionita, in 1630; ailerwards.in Latin 
 by the learned FabriciuSjin" 1638; and'also-byHincliclmau, 
 in 1690.' See Henr. Hottinger. HisL-Orient. lib. ii. cap. 
 xs. p. 237. — ^^Assemani'Biblioth. torn. iii. Jiart ii. p. 95; 
 and Renaud.ot, Histor. Patriarcliar. Alexandr. p. 168. — 
 They.-wh'6, in conformity with the opinion of Grotius, 
 reject this testament,' suppose it to have been, forged by 
 the Syrian and Arabian mobksj with -a yiew. to soften the 
 Mohammed^ yok^ under which they grogned, and to 
 rrender theif despotic masters less.. seve?e. Wor is this 
 representation of the matter at all incredible; for it is 
 certain, that Ihe-nionks of mount fiiriai formerly shewed 
 an edict attributed to Mohammed, of the 'same iiature 
 with the one now under consideration, Which^theypre- 
 tend was drawn up by him while hc'was yet in a jirivate- 
 station. This edict was extremely advantageous to Ihem, 
 and was, undoubtedly, an artful piece of forgery. The 
 fraud- was plain; but the Moslems, in consequence of 
 their jgnorance and stupidity, believed it to be a genuine 
 pi'odu'ction of their chief, and continue-still in the same 
 opinion. There is an account of this fraud given by 
 Cantemir, in his -Histoire de I'Empire Ottoman, torn. ii. 
 p. 269. The argument therefore yvhich Renaudot and 
 others'draw in favour x>t the testament in question, from 
 the acknowledgement which the Moham.medans make of 
 fts authenticity, is of liLtle or ha weight, since thS^e infit. 
 dels of all others' are the most liable to be deceived in .< 
 things of this nature, by their gross,and unparalleled ig- . 
 norance. On the other hand, several of the ^rgumeBta^' - i 
 used by those who deny its authenticity, are equally un- 
 satisfactory; that, 'particularly,' which is drawn from the 
 difference between the style of this deed and that of tlie 
 Kofan,_proves absolutely nothin|; at 'all, since it is not- es- 
 sential to tlie genuineness of this-testament to suppose it 
 penned by Mohammed himself, because the impostor 
 might have' employed a secretary to compose it. But, 
 whether it be genuine or spurious, it is certain that its 
 contents were true, since many learned men have fully 
 provedj that the' pseudo-p'rophet, at his first setting out, . 
 prohibited, in the strongest manter, the commission-'of 
 all sorts of injuries against the Christians, and especially 
 the Nestorians. - ' 
 
 ' i Asseman, p. 97.— Renaud. Histor. Patriarch. Alex 
 andr. p. 163, 169. 
 
184 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 PartII 
 
 the Monophysites, ' in the episcopal residence 
 of that nobie city, and, from this period, the 
 Melchites* were without a bishop for almost a 
 whole oentury.f 
 
 IV. Though the Greek church was already 
 torn asunder by the most lamentable divisions, 
 yet its calamities were far from being at an end. 
 A new sect arose, in 630, under l^e reign of 
 the emperor Heraelius, which, in ashort course 
 of time, excited such violent commotions, as 
 engaged the eastern and western churches to 
 unite their forces in order to its extinction. 
 The source of this tumult was an "uriseasona- 
 ble p'laii of peace and union. Heraelius, con- 
 sidering, with pain, the detriment which the 
 Grecian empire had suffered by the emigration 
 Off the persecuted Nestprians, and their settle- 
 ment in Persia, was ardently desirous of re- 
 uniting the Monophysites to the bosom of the 
 Greek church, lest the empire should receive a 
 new wound by their departure from.it. He 
 therefore.held a conference during the Persian 
 war, in 622, with Paul, a man of great credit 
 and authority among the Armenian Monophy- 
 sites; and .another, at Hierapdlis, in 629, with 
 Athanasius, the Catholic or bishop of that secjt, 
 upon the methods that seemed most proper to 
 restore tranquillity and concord to a divided 
 church. Both these persons assured the em- 
 peror, that they who maintained the doctrine 
 of one nature might be induced to receive the 
 decrees of the cojincil of Chaloedon, and there- 
 by" to terminate their, controversy with the 
 Greeks, pro^'ided that the latter Would give 
 their assent to the truth of the foUiowing pro- 
 position, namely, that in Jesus Christ there ex- 
 isted, aftet the union of the" two natures, but 
 one will, and one operation. Heraelius com- 
 municated this suggestion to Sergius, patriarch 
 of Constantinople, who was a Syrian by birth, 
 and whose parents -adhered to the doctrine of 
 the Monophysites. This prelate gave it as his' 
 opinion, that the .doctrine of one will and one 
 operation, after "the union of the two natures, 
 might be safely adopted without the leasfinju- 
 ry to truth, or the smallest detriment to the 
 authority of the council of Chalcedon. Incon^ 
 sequence of this, the emperor published an 
 edict, in 630, in favour of that doctrine, and 
 hoped, "by this act. of autliority, to restore 
 peaq^ and concord, bo.th in church and state. J 
 
 V. The first reception of this new projecSt 
 was promising, arid things seemed to go on 
 smoothly, for, though sonie ecclesiastics re- 
 fused to submit to the imperial edict, Cyras and 
 Athanasius,. the patriarchs of Alexandria and 
 Antioch, received it without hesitation; and the 
 see of Jerusalem was at that time vacant.§ As 
 to the Roman pontiff, he was entirely overlook- 
 
 Q(^ -* The Melchites were those Christians in Syria, 
 E^pU *"^ ^^® Levant, who, though npt.Greelis, fullow- 
 ca the doctrines and ceremonies of the Greek church. 
 They were called Melchites, i. e. T^oyalists, by their ad- 
 versaries, hy way oC reproach, on account of their ir»- 
 jllicit submission to the ,edict'of the emperor Marcian, in 
 . favour of the council of Chalcedon. 
 
 f Renaud. Hi^t. Patriarch. Alexandr. p. 168. - 
 
 t The authors, vi^ho have written of this sect, are men- 
 tioned by Jo..Alh. Fabricius, in his-Eiblioth. Graec. vol. 
 X- p. 204. The account whic)i I have here given is drawn 
 from the fountain head, and is supported by the best au- 
 tlibritie^. 
 
 ^ Sea Lequien Oriens Christiaaus, torn. iii. p. 364. 
 
 ed in tha matter, as his consent was not deem- 
 ed necessarj^ in an affair that related only to 
 the eastern jchurch. In the mean time, Cyrus, 
 who had been promoted by Heraelius from the 
 see of Phasis to that of Alexandria, assembled 
 a council, by the seventh" decree of which, the 
 doctrine of Monothelitisra, or one will, which 
 the emperor had introduced by the edict alrea- 
 dy mentioned, was solemnly confirmed. This 
 new modification of the doctrine of the coun- 
 cil of Chalcedon, which seemed to bring it 
 nearer to the.Eutyohiari systerrj, had the desired 
 effect^uponthe Monothelites, and induced great 
 numbers of them, who were dispersed in Egypt, 
 Armenia, and other remote provinces, to re- 
 turn into the bosom of the church. They, 
 however, explained the perplexed and agibigu- 
 ous doctrine of one will in Christ, in a manner 
 peculiar to themselves, and not quite confor- 
 mable to the true principles of their sect. 
 
 VI. This smiling prospect of peace and con- 
 cord was, however, but transitory, and was tm- 
 happily succeeded by the most dreadful tu- 
 mults, excited by a monk of Palestine, whose 
 name was Sophronius. This monk, being pre- 
 sent at the council assembled at Alexandria by 
 Cyrus, in 633, had violently opposed the de- 
 cree, which confirmed the doctrine of one will • 
 in Christ. His opposition, which was then 
 treated with contempt, became more formi4able 
 in the following year; when, raised to the pa- 
 triarchal seeof Jerusalem, he summoned acoun- 
 eil, in whiph the Monothelites were condemn- 
 ed as heretics, who had revivedand propagated 
 the Eutychian errors concerning the mixture 
 and confusion of the two natures" in Christ. 
 Multitudes, alarmed, at the pry of heresy-raised 
 by this seditioiis monk, adopted his sentiments; 
 but it was Honorius, the Roman pontiff, tliat 
 he laboured principally to gain oyer to his.side. 
 His efforts, howe"ver, were vain: for Sergius, 
 the patriarsh of Constantinople, having iriform- 
 ed Honorius, by a long and artfiil letter, of 
 the true state of the quesGon, determined that 
 pontiff in favour of the doctrine, wliich main- 
 tained one will and one operation in Christ.* 
 Hence arose those obstinate contests, which 
 rent the church into two " sects; apd the state 
 into two factions. 
 
 VII. In order to put an end to these com- 
 motions, Heraelius promulgated, in 639, the 
 famous edict composed by.3ergius, and called 
 the Eelhesis, or exposition of" the faith, by- 
 which all controversies upon the question, 
 whether in Christ there were two operations, or 
 
 The Roman catholic writers have employed .all their 
 art and industry to represent the conduct of Honorius in 
 such a manner, as tb save his pretended infallibility from 
 the' charge of error in a question of such importance. 
 (See, among others, Harduin, de Sacramento Altaris, 
 published in his Opera. Selecta, p. 255.) And, indeed, it 
 IS easy to Hud both matter of accusation and defence in 
 the case of this nonliff. On one hand, it would appear 
 that he himself knew not his own sentiments, nor atr 
 tached any precise and definite meaning to the exprtes- 
 sionB he used in the course of this controversy. On the 
 other handjit is certain, that he gave it as his opinion, 
 that in Christ there existed only one will and one opera- 
 tion. It was for this that he was condemned in the chun-" 
 cil of Constantinople; and he must consequently have 
 been a heretic, if it is true, that general cou-ncils cannot 
 err. See Bossuet's Defence of the Declaration made by 
 the Gallican Clergy, in the year 16S2, concerning 'Eccltt- 
 siastical Power; and also Bainage, torn. i. - 
 
Chap. V. 
 
 DIVISIONS AND HERESIES. 
 
 185 
 
 only QttB, were strictly prohibited, though iii 
 the same edict, the doctrine of one will was 
 plainly inculcated. A considerable number of 
 the eastern bjshops declared their assent to this 
 new law, which was also submissively received, 
 .by their chief Pyrrhus, who, on the death of 
 Sergius in 639, was raised to the see of Con- 
 stantinople. In the west, -the case was quite 
 different. John, the fourth pontiff of that 
 name, assembled a council at Rome in 659, in 
 which the Ecthesis was rejected, and the Mor 
 nothelites were condemned, Nor was this all: 
 for, in the progress of this contest, a new^edict, 
 known by the name of TypfoT Fomiulaiy, was 
 published in 648 by, the emperor Constans, by 
 the advice of Paul of Constantinople,* by 
 which the Ecthesis was suppressed, and the 
 contending parties were commanded to termi- 
 nate their disputes' concerning one will and one 
 operation in Christ, by observing a profound 
 silence upon that difficult and ambiguous sub- 
 ject. This silence, so wisely commanded in a 
 matter which it was impossible to determine to 
 the satisfaction of the conteiiding parties, ap- 
 peared highly criminal to the angry and con- 
 tentious monks. They, therefore, excited 
 'Martin, bishop of Rome, to oppose his authori- 
 ty to. an edict which hindered tliem frpm pro- 
 pagating strife and contention jn the church; 
 and their importunities had. the- desired effebt; 
 for this prelate, in a counciLof a hundred and 
 five bishops assembled at Rome, in 649, Coji- 
 demned both tlie Ecthesis and the Type, though 
 without any mention of the names of the em- 
 perors who had published those edicts, and 
 thundered out the most dreadful anathemas 
 against the Monothelites and their patrons, 
 v?ho were solemnly consigned to the devil and 
 his angels. 
 
 Vill. The emperor Constans, justly irritated 
 at these haughty and impudent prqpeedings of 
 Martin, who treated the imperial laws with 
 such contempt, ordered him to be seised and 
 carried into the isle of Naxos, where he was 
 kept prisoner a whole year. This order, which 
 was followed by much cniel treatment, was 
 executed by Calliopas, exarch of Italy, in 650; 
 arid, at the "same time, Maxinius, the ringr 
 leader of the sediliotis moinks,-was banished to 
 Bizyca; and other ridters of the same tribe 
 were differently punished in proportion to the 
 part they had acted in this rebellion. These 
 resolute proceedings rendered Eugenius and 
 Vitalianus, the succeeding bishops of Rome, 
 more moderate and prudent than their prede- 
 cessor had been; especially the latter, who re- 
 ceived Constans, on his arrival at Rome in 663, 
 with the highest marks of distinction and re- 
 spect, and used the vpisest precautions to pre- 
 vent the flame of that unhappy controversy 
 from breaking out a Becond time. And thus, 
 for several years, it seemed to be extinguished; 
 but it was so only in appearsmce; it was a lurk- 
 ing flame, which spread ' itself secretly, and 
 
 Q(^ * It IB proper to ol^^rve h,cre, that Paul, who was 
 a Monothelite in hiVhej^rt, arid.ha(] maintained the Ec- 
 thesis with great zeal, devised this prudent nneasure with 
 a view to appease the Roman pontitf and the Afrlcaii 
 bishops, who were incensed against him to the higliest 
 degree, on accouut of his attachment to the doctriue of 
 one will. 
 
 Vol. I.— 24 
 
 gave reason, to those who examined things 
 with attention, tp dread now commotions both 
 in church'and state. To prevent these, Con- 
 stantine' Pogonatus, the son of Constans, in 
 pjirsiiance of the .advice of Agatho, the Roman 
 pontiff, summoned, 'in 680, the sixth ojcumeni- 
 cal or general council, in which he permitted 
 the Monothelites, and pope Honorius himself, 
 to be solemnly condemned - in presence of the 
 Roman legates, who represented Agatho in 
 that assembly, and confirmed the sentence pro- 
 nounced' by the council, by the sanction of 
 penal laws enact^' against such as should dare 
 to' oppose it. 
 
 IX. It is difficult t9 give a. clear and accu- 
 rate account of the sentiments of those who 
 were called Monothelites; nor is it easy to 
 point out the objections of their adversaries. 
 Neither of the contending parties express 
 themselves consistently with what seem to 
 have been their respective opinions; jmd they 
 boUi disavow the errors witii which they re' 
 ciprocally charge each other. The following 
 observations contain the clearest notion we can 
 form of the state of this subtile controversy. 
 1. The Monothelites declared, that they had 
 no connexion with the Eutyoliians and Mono- 
 physites; but maintained, in opposition to these 
 -two sectSr that in Christ there were two distinct 
 natures, which were so tmited, though witliout 
 the least mixture or confusion, as to form by 
 their union only one person: 2. They ac- 
 knowledged that the soul of Christ was enr 
 dewed with a will,, or faculty of volition, 
 which it still retained after its union with the 
 divine nature; for they taught that Christ was 
 not only perfect God, but also perfect man; 
 whence it followed; that his soul was endowed 
 with the faculty of volition: 3. They denied 
 that this faculty of voUtion in the soul of 
 Christ was absolutely inactive, maintaining, 
 on the contrary, that it co-operated with the 
 divine wiU: 4. They, therefore, in effect, at- 
 tributed to our Lord two wills, and these, 
 moreover, operating and active: -5. They, how- 
 ever, affirmed, that, in a certain sense, only 
 one will and one manner of operation were in 
 Christ. - . 
 
 X. We must not indeed imagine, that all, 
 who were distinguished' by the title of Mono- 
 thelites, were unanimous in their sentiments 
 with /respect to, the points now mentioned. 
 Some, as appears from undoubted testimonies, 
 meant no more than this, that the two-wills in 
 Christ were one, i. e. in perfect.harmony; that 
 the human will was in ■perpetual conformity 
 with the divine, and was, consequently, always 
 holy, just, and good; in which opinion there 
 is nothing reprehensible. Others, more nearly 
 approaching the sentiment, of the Monophy- 
 sites, imagined that the two wills or faculties 
 of volition in Christ were blended into one, 
 in that which they called the personal union- 
 acknowledging, at the same time, that the dis- 
 tinction between these wills,was perceivable 
 by reason, and that it was also necessary to 
 distinguish carefully in this matter. The great- 
 est part of tliis sect, and those who were also 
 the most remarkable for their siibtilty and 
 peijetration, were of opinion, that the human 
 will of Christ was the instrument of the di- 
 
186 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 PartII 
 
 vine; or, in other words, never operated or 
 acted of itself, but was always ruled, influenc- 
 ed, and impelled by the divine will; in such a 
 manner, however, that, when it was ' once set 
 in motion, it decreed and operated With the. 
 ruling principle. The doctrine of one will 
 and of one operation in Christ, which the Mo- 
 nothelites maintained with such invincible ob- 
 stinacy ,-'was a natural consequence of this hy- 
 pothesis, since the operation of afl instrument 
 and oT the being who employs it, is one simple 
 operation, and not two distinct operations or 
 energies. ' According to this view of things, 
 the Eutychian doctrifie was quite out of the 
 question; and the only point of controversy to 
 be determined, was, whether the human will 
 in Christ was a self-moving faculty determined 
 by its own internal impulse, or derived all its 
 motion and operations from the divine. 
 
 In the mean time,. we may learn from this 
 .controversy, that, nothing is more precarious, 
 and nothing more dangerous and deceitful, 
 than the religious peace and concord which 
 are fbmided upon ambiguous doctrines, and 
 cemented by obscure and - equivocal proposi- 
 tions, or articles of faith ._ . The partisans of 
 the council of Chalcedon "endeavoured to- en- 
 snare the Monophysites, by proposing their 
 doctrine m a manner that admitted a double 
 explication; and, by this imprudent piece of 
 cumung, which showed so little reverence for 
 the truth, they involved both the- church and 
 state in tedious and 'lamentable divisions. 
 
 XI. The doctrine of the Monothelites, con- 
 demned and exploded by the council of Con- 
 stantinople, found a place of refuge among the 
 Mardaites, a people who inhabited the mounts 
 Libanus and Anti-Libaniis, and who, about the 
 conclusion of this century, were called Maron- 
 ites, from Maro their first bishop, a name which 
 they stQl retain. No ancient writers give any 
 certain account of the first person who instruct- 
 ed these mountaineers in the doctrine of the 
 Monothelites; it is probable, however, from 
 several circumstances, that jt was John Maro, 
 whose naine they had adopted.* One thing, 
 indeed, we know, with the utmost . certainty, 
 frftm the testimony of Tyrius and otlier unex- 
 ceptionable witnesses, as also from the most 
 authentic records, — ^that the Maronites retain- 
 ed the opinions of the Monothelites until the 
 twelfth century, when, abandoning and re- 
 nouncing the doctrine of one will in Christ, 
 they were re-admitted, in 1 182, to the commu- 
 nion of the Romish chtirch. - The most learn- 
 ed of the modern Maronites have left no me- 
 thod unemployed to defend their church against 
 this accusation; they have laboured to prove, 
 by a variety of testimonies, that their ances- 
 tors always perseyered in the Catholiciaith and 
 in their attachment to the pope, without ever 
 adopting the doctrines, either of the Mcaio- 
 physites or Monothelites. .But all their efforts 
 are insufScient to prove the truth of these as- 
 
 * This eccleBiafitic received the name of Maro, from llis 
 i^ having lived ia the character of a monk in the famous con- 
 vent of St. Maro, upon the borders of the Oronte's, be- 
 fore his settlement among the Mardaites. For an ample 
 account of this prelate, see Assemani Eihiioth. Orient, 
 Clement, Vatic, torn. i. p. 49S. 
 
 sertions to such as hav.e any acquaintance with 
 the history of the church,- and the records-, of 
 ancient times; for, to all such, the testimonies 
 they allege will appear absolutely fictitious and 
 destitute-of Authority.* 
 
 XII. Neither the sixth general council, in 
 which the Monothelites were condemned, nor 
 the fifth, which had been assembled in the pre- 
 ceding century, had determined-any thing con- 
 cerning ecclesiastical discipline, or religious 
 ceremonies. To supply this defect, a new 
 episcopal assembly was holden in pursuance of 
 the order of Justinian 11. in a. spacious hall of 
 the imperial palaBb called TruUus, i. e. Cupola, 
 from the form of the building. This council, 
 which met in 692, was called Quinisextmn, as 
 we had occasion to observe formerly, from its 
 being considered, by the Greeks, as a supple- 
 ment to the fifth and sixth oscumenical coun- 
 cils, and as having given to the acts of these 
 assemblies the degree of perfectipn which they 
 had hitherto wanted. There are yet extajit a 
 hundred and two laws, which were enacted in 
 tliis council, and. which related to the external 
 celebration of divine worship, the government 
 of the church, and the lives and -manners of 
 Christians. Six of these are diametrically 
 opposite to several opinions and rites of the 
 Romish church; for which reason, the pontiffs 
 have refused to adopt, without restriction, the 
 decisions of this council, or to reckon it in the 
 number of those called oecumenical, though 
 they consider the -greatest part of its decrees as 
 worthy of applause. "f 
 
 * The cause of the Maronites has been pleaded by the 
 writers of tlia't nation, such as Abrahai£~£cchellensis,G£t- 
 briersionila, and others; but- the most ample defence of 
 their uninterrupted orthodoxy was made by Faustus Wai- 
 ron, partly in his Dissertatio de Origiiie, Nomine, ac Re- 
 tigione Maronilaruni, published at Rome in l&79,-aud 
 partly in his Euopjia Fidei Catholicse ex Syrorum et 
 ChaldEeorum Monumentis, published in 1694. IVone of 
 the learned, however, appeared to- be persuaded by his ap- - 
 guments, except Fagi [*] andLaRocque-, of whom the latr 
 ter has given us, in his Voyage de Syrie et de Mont-Li- 
 ban, torn. ii. p. 98 — 128, a long dissertation concerning 
 the origin of the Maronites. Even the learned Assema- 
 nus, himself a Maronite, and who has spared no pains to 
 defend his nation [f] against the reproach in question, inge- . 
 nuously acknowledges, that amoiis; the arguments'used by 
 Wairoji and others in favour of the Maronites, there are 
 many destitute of force. See -Jo. Moriuus, de Ordinat. 
 .Sacris, p. 380 — Rich. Simon, Histoire Critique des Chre- 
 tiens Orientaux, chap. xiii. p. 146. — Euseb. p.en!Ludot, 
 Historia Patriarchar^ Alexandrinor. p. 179., and Prsef. ad 
 Liturgias Orientales. — Le Brun, Explication de laMesse, 
 torn. li. The arguments of the contending parties.ar-e 
 enumerated impartially, in such a manner as leaves the 
 decision to the reader, by Le Q,uien,.in his Oriens Chris- 
 tianas, torn. iii. 
 
 f See Franc. Pagi Breviar. Pontif. Roman, torn. i. p. 
 486., and Christ. Lupus, Dissertat: de Concilio Trulliano, 
 in'Notis et Dissertat. ad Concilia, torn. iii. op. p. 168.— 
 The Roman Catholics reject the following decisions of 
 this council:-^l. The fifth canon, which approves the 
 eighty-tive apostolical canons commonly attributed to 
 Clement: — 9. ' The thirteeuth, which allows the priests to 
 marry:^.3. The fifty-fillh, which condemns the Sabbath 
 fast, that was an institution of the Latin church':^. The 
 sixty-seventh, which prescribes the most rigorous absti- 
 nence from blood and things strangled; — 5. The eighty, 
 second, which prohibits the representing of Christ under 
 the image of a lamb: — 6. The thirty-sixth, concerning 
 the equal rauk-and authority of the bishops of Rome uia 
 Constantinople. 
 
 [*] See Critica Baroniana ad A. 694. 
 
 [f] See Biblioth. Oriental. Vatican, torn. i. f. 4Uli. 
 
AN 
 
 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY; 
 
 BOOK THE THIRD, 
 CONTAINING THE HISTORY OF THE CHURCH 
 
 CHARLEMAGNE TO THE REFORMATION BY LUTHER. 
 
 THE EIGHTH CENTURY. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 THE EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Concerning the Prosperous Events which hwgpen- 
 edjto the Chwrch in this Century. 
 
 I. While the Mohammedans were infesting 
 with their arms, and adding to their conquests, 
 the most flourishing provinces of Asia,- and ob- 
 scuring, as far as' their influence could extend, 
 the lustre and glory, of the rising church, the 
 Nestorians of Chaldea were.carrying the lamp 
 of Christianity among those barbarous nations 
 cajled Scythians by the ancients, and by the 
 moderns, Tartars, who, unsubjeoted to the Sa- 
 racen yoke, had fixed their habitations within 
 the limits of mount Imaus.* It is^ now well 
 known, that Timotheus, the Nestdrian pontiff, 
 who had been raised to that dignity in 778, 
 converted to the Christian &ith, by the minis- 
 try of Subchal Jesu, whom he had consecrated 
 bishop, first the Gelse and Dailamites by whom 
 a part of Hyrcania was inhabited; and after- 
 wards, by the labours of other missionaries, 
 the rest of the nations, who had formed settle- 
 ments in Hyrcania, Bactria, Margiana, and 
 Sogdia-t It is alsa certain, that Christianity 
 enjpyed, in these vast regions, notwithstanding 
 occasional attacks from the Mohammedans, the 
 
 9^ * The southern regions of Scythia were divided 
 by the ancieuta (to whom the northern were unknown) 
 into three parts, namely, Scythia within, and Scythia be- 
 yond Imaus, and Sarmatia. It is of -the first of these 
 three that Dr. Mosheimspealis, as enlightened at this time 
 with the knowledge of the Gospel; and it comprehended 
 Turkestan, the jV^ngol, Usbecfc^ Kalmuck, and Nogaian 
 Tartary, which were peopled by the Eactrians, Sogdiaus, 
 Gandari, Siscs, and Massagetes, not to mention the land 
 of Siberia, Samoiedia, and Nova Zembla, which were 
 uninhabited in ancient times. 
 
 t Thomas Margensis, Historia Monastica,. lib, iii. in 
 Asiemani Biblioth. Orient. V tic. tom. iii. 
 
 advantages of a firm and solid ■ establishment 
 for a long course of ages; while the bishops, 
 by whose ministry it was propagated and sup- 
 ported, were all consecrated ,by the sole au- 
 thority of the Nestorian pontiff. 
 
 II. If we turn our eyes toward Europe, we 
 finds many nations that were yet unenlightened 
 with the knowledge of the Gospel. Almost 
 all the Germans, (if we except the Bavarians, 
 who had embraced Christianity under Theodo- 
 ric, or Thierry, the son of Clovis, and the 
 eastern Franks, with a few other provinces) 
 lay burfed in the grossest darkness of pagan 
 superstition. Many attempts were made, by 
 pious and holy men, to infuse the truth into 
 the jninds of these savage Germans; and va- 
 rioua efforts were used for the same purpose by 
 kings and princes, whose interest it was to pro- 
 pagate a religion that was so adapted to miti- 
 gate and tame the ferocity of those warlike 
 nations; but neither the attempts of pious zeal, 
 nor the efforts of policy, were attended with 
 success. This great work was, however, ef- 
 fected in this century, by the ministry of Win- 
 fred, a Benedictine monk, bom in England of 
 illustrious parents, and afterwards known by 
 the name of Boniface. This famous ecclesias- 
 tic, attended by two companions of his ■ pions 
 labours, passed over into Friseland in 715, to 
 preach the Gospel- to the people of that coun- 
 try;- but this &st attempt was unsuccessful; 
 and 'a war breaking out between Radbod, the 
 king of that country, and Charles Martel, our 
 zealous missionary returned to England. He 
 resumed, however, his pious undertaking in 
 719; and being solemnly empowered by the 
 Roman pontiff, Gregory II., to preach the 
 Gospel, not only in- Friseland, but all over Ger- 
 
)86 
 
 EXtERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part i. 
 
 many, he performed the functions of a Chris- 
 tian teacher among the Thuringians, Frise- 
 landers, and Hessians, with considerable Suc- 
 cess-.* 
 
 in. This eminent missionary was, in 723,con- 
 secrated bishop by Gregory II., who chapgfed 
 the name of Winfred into that of Boniface: 
 seconded also by th'e powerful protection, and 
 encouraged by the liberality of Charles Martel, 
 mayor of the palace to Chilp'eric, king of. 
 France, he resumed his ministerial labours 
 among the Hessians and Thuringians, and 
 finished with glory thte task h'e had undertaken, 
 in which he received considerable assistance 
 from a number of pious and learned men, 
 who repaired to him from England and 
 . France. As the Christian churches erected by 
 Boniface were too numerous to-be governed 
 by one bishop, this prelate was advanced to 
 the dignity of archbishop,'^ in 738, by Gregory 
 III., by whose authority, and the auspicious 
 protection of Carloman and -Pepin, the sons of 
 Charles Martel, he founded thi bishoprics- of 
 Wurtzburg, Buraburg, Erfort, and Eichstadt, 
 to which he added, -in 744, the famous monas- 
 tery of Fulda. His last promotion (the last 
 recompense of his assiduous labours in the 
 propagation of the ti:uth) was his advance- 
 ment to the -archiepiscopal see of Mentz, in 
 746, by Zichary, bishop of, Rome, by whom 
 he was, at th6 same time, cfeatftd primate of 
 Germany and Belgiuim In his old age, he 
 returned to Friseland, that he might finish his 
 ministry in the sanie place where he had en- 
 tered first upon its fVaictionsj but his piety wa§ 
 in rewarded by that barbarous people, by whom 
 he was murdered in 765, while iifty eccle'sias- 
 tics, who accompanied him in his journey, 
 shared the same unhappy fate. 
 
 IV. Boniface, on account of his ministerial 
 labours and holy- exploits, was distinguished 
 by the honourable title of the Apostle of the 
 Germans; nor, if we consider impartially the 
 eminent services he rendered to Christianity, 
 will this title appear to have been undeservedly 
 bestowed. But it is necessary to observe; that 
 this eroinfent pirelate was an apostle of modem 
 fashion, and had, in. many respects, departed 
 from the excellent model exhibited in the con- 
 duct and ministry of the primitive .and true 
 apostles. Beside his zeal for the glory arid 
 authority of the Roman pontiff, which equalled, 
 if it did not surpass, his zeal for the service 
 of Christ and the propagation of his religion,t 
 many other tilings unworthy of a truly Chris- 
 l.an minister are laid to his charge. In com- 
 bating the pagan superstitions, he did not al-' 
 w.ays use those arms with which the ancient her- 
 alds "of the Gospel gained such victories in be- 
 
 * An ample account of this eminent man is to be found 
 in a learned dissertation of Gudenius, de S. Bonifacio 
 Germanorum Apostolo, published at Helmstadt- in I'^a. 
 See also Fabricii Biblioth. Latina medii JEvi, torn. i. p, 
 709. — Hist. Liteir. de la France, torn, iv^ ji.-92, and Ma- 
 billon, in Annalibiis Benedictinis. 
 
 f The French Benedictine ni6nks ingenuously confess 
 that Boniface was an over-zealous partisan of the Roman 
 pontifi*, and attributed^ more authority to- him than was 
 
 i'usl and reasonable. Their words, in their Histoire 
 >iteraire de la France, torn. iv. p. 106, are as follow: 
 ' 11 exprlme son devouement pour le Saint Steee en des 
 termes qui ne sent pas assez proportionnes a la dignite du 
 earactere episcopal." 
 
 half of the truth; but often employe'd violence 
 and terror, and sometimes artifice and fraud, 
 in order to multiply the number of Christians. 
 His epistles, moreover, discover an imperious 
 and arrogant temper, a cunning and insidious 
 turn pf mind, an excessive zeal fbf increasing 
 the honours and pretensions of the sacerdotal 
 order, and a profound ignorance of many 
 things of which the knowledge was absolutely 
 necessary in an. apostle, and partictllarly of 
 the true nature and genius of the Christian re- 
 ligion. 
 
 V. The famous prelate, of whom we havS 
 been now speaking, was not the only .Christian 
 minister who attempted to deliver the German 
 nations from the miserable bondage of pji^an 
 superstition'; several, othets signalised their 
 z'edl in the same laudable and pious undertak- 
 ing. Corbinian, a French Benedictine monk, 
 after having laboured with great assiduity and 
 fervour in planting the Gospel among the Ba- 
 varians, and in other countries, became bishop 
 of Fi-eysingen.* firmili, a Gaul by birth, 
 preached the Gospel under various kinds of 
 sufiering and opposition in Alsatia, Bavaria, 
 and Helvetia, now Switzerland, an^ had in- 
 spection over "a considerable number of raonas- 
 teries.f Lebuin, an Englishman, laboured with 
 the most ardent zeal and assidnity to engage 
 the fierce and warlike Saxons, and also the 
 Friselanders, Belgae, and other nations, to re- 
 ceive the light of Christianity: but; his rriinis- 
 try was attended with very little fruit.f We 
 pass over in silence severaL apostles of less 
 fame; nor is.it necessary to mention WillibrocJ, 
 and others of superior reputation, T^ho persist- 
 ed now with great alacrity and constancy in 
 the labours they had undertaken in the preced- 
 ing century, in order to the propagation of di- 
 vine truth. 
 
 VI. A war broke out at this time between 
 Charlemagne and. the Saxons, which 'con- 
 tributed much to the propagation of Chris- 
 tianity, though not by the force of a rational 
 persuaaon. The Saxons of that Age were a 
 numerous and formidable people, who inhabit- 
 ed a considerable part of Germany, and were 
 engaged in perpetual quarrels with the Franks 
 concerning their-boundaries, and other matters 
 of complaint. Hence Charlemagne turned 
 his arms against this powerful nation, in 772, 
 with a design, not only to subdue that spirit of 
 revolt with which, they had so often troiibled 
 the empire, but also to abolish their idolatrous 
 worship, and engage them to embrace the 
 Christian religion. He hoped, by their con- 
 version, to vanquish their obstinacy, imagining 
 that the divine precepts of the Gospel would 
 assuage their impetuous and restless passions, 
 mitigate their ferocity, and induce them to 
 submit quietly to the government of the 
 Franks. These projects were great in idea, 
 but difiicult in execution; accordingly, the first 
 
 * Baroiiius, Annal. Ecclef.. torn. viii. ad annum 716. 
 sect. 10. Car. Maichelbeck, Historia Frisingensis, tom. i. 
 
 t Herm. Bruschii, Chronologia Monaster. German, p. 
 30. Anton. Fagi Critica in Aunales Baronii, tom. ii. ad- 
 annum 759, sect. ix. Histoire Literaire de la'France, tom 
 ■ . p. 124. 
 
 t Hucbaldi Vita S. Lebuini in Laur. Surii Vitis Sane- 
 tor, d. 12. Nov. p. 977. — Jo. Molleri Cimbria Literata 
 tom. ii. p. 464. 
 
Chap. I. 
 
 PROSPEROUS EVENTS. 
 
 189 
 
 attempt to convert the SixOns, after having 
 subdued them,, was unsuccessful, because it 
 was made, withaut the aid of violence or 
 thWatS, by the bishops and monks,- whoin the 
 Victor had left among that conquered people, 
 whose obstinate attachment to idblati^ no ar- 
 guinents or exhortations could overcome. More 
 fot-cible means were afterwards used' to di-aw 
 them into the pale of the church, in theAvars 
 which (Charlemagne carried on, in the years 
 775, 776, and 780, against that Valiant-people, 
 whose lovB of liberty was excessive, and'whose 
 aversion to every species of sacerdotal auth(Jri- 
 ty was inexpressible.* During these wars, 
 their attachment to the superstition of their 
 ancestors was so warmly combated by the al- 
 lurements of reward, by the terror of punjsli- 
 ,meut, and by the imperious language of vic-^ 
 tory, that they suffered themselves to be bap- 
 tised, though with inward reluctance, by the 
 missionaries whom the emperor sent among 
 them for that pwpOse.f Fierce seditions, in- 
 deed, were soon after renewed,, and fomented 
 by Witekihd and Albion, two of 'the most 
 valiant among-the Saxon-chiefs, who attempt- 
 ed to abolish the Christian Worship by the same 
 violent methods which had contributed to its 
 establishment. But the courage and liberality 
 of Charlernagne, alternately employed to sup- 
 press this new • rebellion, engaged these chiefs 
 to make a public and solemii profession of 
 
 * It will 'be proper here to.transcribe, from the epistles. 
 of the famous Alcuin, once abbot of Canterbury, a re- 
 markable -passage, whiph will show us the reasons that 
 contributed principally fq give the Saxonran ^version to 
 Christianity, and at thfrsame time will expose the absurd 
 , and preposterous inanner of teaching used by the ecelcsi- 
 astics who were seiit to coAvert-them. This, passage in 
 the 104th epistle, and the. 1647th paa;e of his vtorks, is as 
 .follows: *'Si tanta instantia leve Cnristi jugum et onus 
 ejus leve duri'ssimb Sjtxonum populo prsedicarentur; 
 quanta dccimarum redditi vcl legalis pro parvissimis qui- 
 huslibet cUlpis edictis necessitas exi|;cbatur, Jbrte baptj^- 
 matis sacramenta non abhorrerent. Sint tandem ^liquan- 
 do doctores Gdei apostolfcis eruditi exemplis: sint pra^di- 
 catorcs, non-praedaitores. " Here the reader may see a live- 
 ly-picture -of the tind of apostlesjhat flDurished'"at this 
 time: apostles who were more zealous in exacting'tithes, 
 and extending their authority, than jn propagating the 
 sublime ti-uths and precepts of the Gospel; and yet these 
 very apostles are said lobave wroughtstupendous miracles. 
 f Alcuinus- apud Gul. Malmc^b.ur. de Gestis Regum 
 Anglorum, lib. i.- cap. iv. n. 93, inter Rer. Anglic. Script. 
 edit. Francof. 1601. In this work we find the following 
 passage, which proves what we have said with respect to 
 the unworthy methods that were used iii converting the 
 Saxons. '* Antiqui Saxones et omncs Freson-um populi, 
 instante rege Garolo, alios prxmiis et alios minis splici- 
 tante, ad fid'em Christi eonvfersi sunt." S'ee also two pas- 
 sages in the Capituhria Regum Francor. lom. i. p. 246 
 and 259. From the first weTearn, that those Saxons-who 
 abandoned the pagan superstitions were " restored to the 
 liberty they had forfeited by the fate of arms, and freed 
 from the obligation of paying, tribute;'* ami; in the se- 
 condjWe find the-foUdvving severe law, that" every Sassn 
 who contemptuously refiised-to receive the sacrament of 
 baptism, and persisted in his adherence to -Paganism, was 
 to be punished with death.?' While such rewards and' 
 punishments were employed -dn ' thc> cause ' of religion, 
 there was no occasion for miracles to advance its progress; 
 for these motives were fluiiicient to draw all mankind to 
 an hypocritical and external profession of the Gospel; but 
 it is easy to imagine what sort of Christians the Saxons 
 must have been, who were dragooned into the church in 
 this abominable manner. Compare, with the authors 
 meDtioncd In this note, Launoius, de vetcri More bapti- 
 zandi Judaeos et Infideles, cap. v. vi. p. 703, tom. ii. op. 
 part Ii, This author assures us, (hat Adrian, the first Ro- 
 man pontiffof that name, honoured with his approbation 
 Cbarlemagne's method (.f converting the Saxons. 
 
 Christianity in 785, and to promise an adher- 
 ence to that divine religion for the rest of their 
 days.* To prevent, hoWESver, the Saxons from 
 renouncing a religion which they had embrac- 
 ed with reluctance, many bishops were ap- 
 pointed to reside among them, .schools also 
 were erected, and monasteries founded, that 
 the meansof instruction might not be "wanting. 
 The same precautions were employed among 
 the Huns in Pannonia, to maintain- in the pro- 
 fession of Christianity that fierce people whom 
 Charlemagne had converted to the faith, when, 
 exhausted and .dejected by various defeats, they 
 were no longer able to make head against his 
 victorious ai'ms, and chose rather to be Chris- 
 tians than slaves.] 
 
 VII. Succeeding generations, filled with a. 
 gratefu} sense of the exploits which Charle- 
 magne had performed in the service of Chris- 
 tianity, canonised his memory, and turnedthis 
 bloody ioamor into an' eminent saint. In the 
 twelfth, century, FrederiGjI, emperor of the 
 RomansJ ordered Paschal II. whom' he had 
 raised to the pontificate, to .enroll the name of ^ 
 this mighty conqueror among the tutelary saints 
 of the church;]: and indeed Charlemagne mer- 
 ited this honour, according to the opinions 
 whieh prevailed' in that dark period; for, to 
 have enriched the clergy with large and ma^ 
 nificent donations,! and to have extended tlie 
 boundaries of the church, no matter 1^ what 
 methods, were then considered as .th6- highest 
 merits, and aseufficient pretensions to the hon-« _ 
 our of saintship; but, in the esteem of those 
 who judg^ of the nature and characters of 
 sanctity by the decisions ef the GoSpel' «pon 
 that head., the sainted emperor will appear to 
 have been utterly imworthy of that dignity; 
 for, not to enter into a particular detail of his 
 vices, the number of which_ counterbalanced 
 that of his virtues, it' is undeniably evident, 
 tliat his ardent and ill-conducte(i zeal for the 
 conversion of the HunS, Friseland^rs,' and Sax- 
 ons, was more animated by the suggestions of 
 ambition, than by a principle of true piety; and 
 that his main view, in these religious exploits, 
 was to suljdue the converted nations ijnder-his 
 dominion, and to tame them to his yoke, which 
 they supported with impatience, and shook off 
 by frequent revolts. It is, moreover, well 
 known, that this boasted saint niade no scru- 
 ple of seeking the alliance of the infidel Sara- 
 cens, that he might be more effectually enabled 
 to crush the Greeks, notwithstanding their pro- 
 fession of the Christian i-eligion.]! 
 
 VIII. The many and stupendous miracles 
 which are said to ha-^e' been wrought by the 
 Christian missionaries, who were sent to con- 
 vert the barbarous nations, have lost,-!n our 
 times, the credit they obtained in former ages 
 
 Eginhartus, de Vita Caroli M. — Adam Brcmensis, lib- 
 i. cap. Viii. See also the writers^ of the history and ex- 
 ploits of Charlemagne, enumerated by Jo. Alb. Fabriciusj 
 in hi's-Bibliotheca Latiua medii .^vi, tom. i. p. 950. 
 
 f "Vita S. Rudberti in Henric. Canisii LecXionibus a,tt= 
 tiquis, tom. iii. part ii. p. 340. — Fauli-Debreceni t-Iistoria 
 Ecclesise Reformat, in H-uugar. et Transylvania, a Lam- 
 pioedita, cap. ii.'p. 10. 
 
 i Heqr. Canisii Lect. tom. iii. par. li. p. 207. — W&1~_ 
 chii Dissert, de <!?aroll Magni Ganonizatione. 
 
 § VaA. Carol! Tcstamentum in Steph. Baluzii Capilulft* 
 ribus Reguni Francor. tom. i. p. 487. 
 . I] See Basnage, Histoire dcs Juifs, tom. ix. cap. il. p 40 
 
190 
 
 EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part I 
 
 The corrupt discipline that then prevailed, ad-^ 
 mitted those fallacious stratagems, whicji are 
 very improperly called pioiis frauds; nor did 
 the heralds of the Gospel tiiink it at all unlaw- 
 ful to terrify or allure to the profession of 
 Christianity, by fictitious prodigies, those obdu- 
 rate hearts, which they could not subdtfe by 
 reason and argument. It is not, however, to 
 be supposed, that all those, who acquired re- 
 nown by their miracles, were chargeable with 
 this fanatical species of artifice and fraud; for 
 as, pn one hand, those- ignorant and ■ supersti- 
 tions nations were disposejl to look upon, as 
 miraculous, every event which had an unusua^ 
 aspect, so, on the other, the Christian doctors 
 themselves were so uninstructed and superfi- 
 cial, so little acquainted with the powers of 
 nature, and the relations and connexions of 
 things in their ordinary course, that uncommon 
 events, however natural, " were considered by 
 them as miraculous interpositions of the Most 
 High. This will appear obvious to such as 
 Tea[d, without superstition or partiality, the Jlcts 
 of the Saints who flourished in this and the fol- 
 lowing centuries. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Cotueming the calamitous Events that Imppened 
 
 to the Church during this Century. 
 
 I. The eastern empire had now fallen from 
 its former strength and grandeur through the re- 
 peated shocks of dreadful revolutions,' and the 
 consuming- power of intestine calamities. The 
 throne was now become the seat of terror, in- 
 quie,tude, and suspicion; nor was any reign at- 
 tended with an uninterrupted tranquillity. - In 
 this century three emperors were dethroned, 
 loaded with, ignominy, and sent into banish- 
 ment. Under Leo the Isaurian, and his son 
 Gonstantine, surnamed Copronymus, arose that 
 fatal controversy about the worship of images, 
 which proved a source of innumerable calami- 
 ties 'and troubles, and weakened, almost incre- 
 dibly, the force of the empire. These troubles 
 and dissensions left the Saracens at liberty to 
 ravage the provinces of Asia and Africa, to 
 oppress the G-reeks in the most barbarous man- 
 ner, and to extend their territories and domin- 
 ion on all sides,. as also to oppose every where 
 the progress of Christianity, and, in some 
 places, even to extii-pate it. • But the troubles 
 of the empire, and the calamities of the. church, 
 did not end here: for, about the middle of this 
 century, they were assailed by new enemies, 
 Btill more fierce and inhuman than those whose 
 usurpations they had hitherto siiifered. These 
 were the Turks, a tribe of the Tartars, or at 
 least their descendants, who, ' breaking forth 
 from the inaccessible wilds about mount Cau- 
 
 t)asus, overspread Colchis, Iberia^ and Albania, 
 rushed into Armenia, and, after having subdu- 
 ed the Saracens, turned their victorious arms 
 against the Greeks, whom, in process of time, 
 th6y reduced under their dominion. 
 
 II. In 714, the Saracens crossed the sea 
 which separates Spain from Africa, dispersed 
 the army of Roderic king of the Spanisli 
 Goths,* whose defeat was principally occasion- 
 ed by the treachery of thejr general Juhan, 
 and made themselves masters of" the greatest 
 part of the territories of this vanquished prince. 
 At "that time the empire of the Visigoths, which 
 had subsisted in Spain above three hundred 
 years, was totally overturned by these fierce 
 and savage invaders, who also took possession 
 of all the maritime parts of Gaul, from the 
 Pyrenean mountains to the river - Rhone, 
 whence they made frequent excursions, and 
 ravaged the neighbouring countries with fire 
 and sword. 
 
 The rapid progress of these bold invaders 
 was, indeed, checked by- Charles Martel, who 
 gained a signal "Victory over them in- a bloody 
 action near Poictiers, in ,732. f But the van- 
 quished spoilers soon recovered their strength 
 and their ferocity, and returned with new vio- 
 lence to their devastations. This engaged 
 Charlemagne to lead a formidable army into 
 Spain, in the hope of delivering that whole 
 country from the oppressive yoke of the Sara- 
 cens: but this grand enterprise, though it did 
 hot entirely miscarry, was not -attended with 
 the signal success that was expected from . it. J 
 
 The inroads of this vfarlike people were felt 
 by several of the western provinces, beside 
 those of France and Spain. Several parts of 
 Italy sufiered from their incursions; the island 
 of Sardinia was reduced under'^heir yoke; and 
 Sicily was ravaged and oppressed by them in 
 the most inhuman manner. Hence the Chris- 
 tian religiSn in Spain and Sardinia suffered in 
 expressibly under these violent usurpers. 
 
 In Geriiiany, and the adjacent countries, the 
 Christians were assailed by another sort of ene- 
 mies; for all such as adhered to the pagan su- 
 perstitions beheld, them with the most inveter- 
 ate hatred, and persecuted them With the most 
 unrelenting violence and fury.§ Hence, in se- 
 veral places, castles and various fortifications 
 were erected to restrain the incursions of these 
 barbarian zealots. 
 
 * Jo. Mariana, Rerun) Hispanicarum Hist. lib. vi. cap. 
 xxi. — ^Renaudot, Hisloria Patriarch. Alexandrin. p. S53. 
 — Jo. Qe Ferreras, Hist, de Espana, torn. ii. p. 425. 
 
 f Faulus J^iaconus-j de Gestis Ldngobard. Jib. vi. cap. 
 
 xlvi. liii Mariana, lib. vii. cap. iii — Bayls'a Dictionary, 
 
 at thearticle Abderamus. — ^Ferreras, torn. ii. p. 463. " 
 
 J Henr. de Bunau, TeutscHe Keyser-nnd-Reichs-His- 
 torie, torn. ii. p; 392.-^Ferrera3, torn. ii. p. 506. 
 
 § SerTati Lupi Vita 'Wigberti, p. 304. 
 
PART II. 
 
 THE INTERNAL HISTORY OF TH? CHURCH. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 Cono -»«iM^ the State of Letters and Philosophy 
 dvHng this Ceniwy. ■ ' 
 
 I. \mong the GreeRs of .this age 'Were some 
 men of genius and talents, who nliight'^have 
 contributed to prevent the total decline of 
 literature; b>;t their zeal was damped by the 
 tumults and. desolations that reigned in the 
 enigire; and while bpth church and stjite were 
 menaced with approaching ruin, the learned 
 were left destitute of that 'protection which 
 gives both vigour and success" to 'the culture, of 
 the arts and sciences. Hence few or none of 
 the Greeks were famous,;either for elegance of 
 diction, true wit, copious erudition, or a zeal- 
 ous attachinent to the study of philosophy, and 
 the investigation of truth. Frigid homilies, in- 
 sipid narrations of the exploits of pretended 
 saints; vain and subtile disputes about inessen- 
 tial and trivial subjects, vehement and Tjom- 
 bastic declamations for or against the erection 
 and worship'of imagfes, and histories conjposed 
 without method or judgment, .were the TOonu- 
 ments of Grecian learning iix" this miserable 
 'age. , 
 
 II. It must, however, be observed, that the 
 AristoteUan philosophy was taught every where 
 in the public .schools, and was propagated in 
 all places with considerable success. The' doc- 
 trine of Plato had lost all its credit in the 
 
 -schools, after the repeated sentences of con- 
 demnation that had been passed upon the 
 -opinions of Origen, and the troubles which 
 the Nestorian anj Eutychian controversies had 
 excited in the church; so tliat Platonism now 
 was almost confined to the solitary retreats of 
 the monastic orders. Of all the writers in this 
 century," who contributed to the illustration 
 and' progress of the Aristotelian philosophy^ 
 the most eminent was John Damascerius, who 
 composed a concise, yet comprehensive view 
 of the doctrines of the Stagirite, for tlie in- 
 stjTiotion.of the more ignorant, and in a man- 
 ner adapted to common -capacities. This lit- 
 tle work excited numbers, both in Greece and 
 Syria, to the s^udy of that philosophy, whose 
 proselytes increased daily. The Nestorians 
 and Jacobites were also" .extremely-diligent in 
 the study of Aristotle's writings; ai)d from this 
 repository they armed themselves with sophisms 
 and quibbles, which they employed against the 
 Greeks in the controversy concerning the na- 
 ture and person of Christ. 
 
 III. The literary history -of the Latins ex- 
 hibits innumerable instances of the grossest 
 ignorance,* which will not, however, appear 
 surprising to such as consider, with attention, 
 the state of Europe in this century. If we 
 except some poor remains of learning, which 
 were yet to be found at Rome, and in certain 
 cities of Italy,'! the sciences seemed to have 
 
 * See Steph.-Baluz. Obscrvat. ad Reginonem Frumieu- 
 fiem, p. S40. 
 
 t Lud. Ant. Muratori, Antiq. Italicse medii JEvi, torn, 
 iii. p. 811. 
 
 abandoned the continent, and fixed their resi- 
 dence in Britain and Ireland.* Those, there- 
 fore, of the Latin wyiters, who were distin- 
 siiished'by their learning and genius, were aU 
 (a few French and Italians excepted) either 
 Britons or Hibernians, such as Alcufn, Bede, 
 Egbert, Clemens, Dungallus^Acca, and others. 
 Charlemagne, whose political talents were 
 embellished by a considerable^degree of learn- 
 ing, and an ardent zeal for the culture of the 
 sciences, endeavoured to dispel the profound 
 ignorance that reigned in" his dominions; in 
 which excellent undertaking he was animated 
 and directed by the counsels of Alcuin. "With 
 this view he drew, first from Italy, and after- 
 wards from Britain and Ireland, by his liberali- 
 ty, eminent men, who had distinguished them- 
 selves in the various branches of literature; 
 and e.xcited the several orders of the olergy and 
 monks, by various encouragements, and the 
 nobility, and others of eminelit rank, by his 
 own example, to the pursuit of knowledge in 
 all its branches, human and divine. 
 
 IV. In the pl-osefcution of this noble design, 
 the greatest part of the bishops erected, by the 
 express! order of the empgror, cathedral schools 
 (so called from their contiguity to the princi- 
 pal church in each didcese,) in which the 
 youth, set apart for the service of Christ, re- 
 ceived a learned and religious education. 
 Those abbots also, who had any" zeal for the 
 cause of Christianity, opened schools in their 
 monasteries, in which the more learned of the 
 fraternity instructed such as were designed for 
 the monastic state, or the sacerdotal orderj^ in 
 the Latin language, and other branches of 
 learning, suitable to "their future destination. 
 It was formerly'believed that the university of 
 Paris was erected by Charlemagne; but this 
 opinion is rejected by such as nave studied, 
 with impartiality, the history of this age, 
 though it 'is undeniably evident, that this great 
 prince had life honour of laying, in some mea- 
 sure, the foundation of that, noble institution, 
 and th?.!^ the beginnings from which it arose 
 maybe ascribed to hira.f However this .ques- 
 tion be decided, it is certain, that the zeal of 
 this emperor, for the propagation and advance- . 
 ment of letters, was very great, and manifest- 
 ed its ardour by a considerable number of excel- 
 lent- establishments; nor among others must 
 we pass with' silence the famous Palatine ' 
 school, which he erected with a view to banish 
 igjiaranee from his court, and in which the p 
 princes of the blood, and the , children of the ■ 
 nobility, were educated By thd inost learned 
 and illustrious masters of the times. J 
 
 * Jac. Usserius, Fraef. ad Syllogcn Epistolarum Hiber- 
 nicarum. 
 
 I The reasons that have been used, to prove Charle- 
 magne the founder of the university of Faris, are accu • 
 ratelycollected by Du Boulay, Historia' Aeademiae Faris,- 
 tom. i. p. 91. But they have been refuted by the follow- 
 ing learned men in a victorious manner, viz. JMabilloD, 
 Act. Sanct. Ord. Benedict, torn. v. Prief. sect. 181, 183. 
 Launoy. Claud. Joly, de Scholis. 
 
 t Boulay, tom. i. p. 281 Mabillon, sect 179, 
 
192 
 
 EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH- 
 
 Part I. 
 
 V. These lestablisliments were not, however, 
 attended with the desired successp nor was the 
 improvement of the youth, in learning and 
 virtue, at all proportioned to the pains that 
 . were taken, and the bounty that was bestowed 
 to procure them a liberal education. This, in- 
 deed, will not appear surprising, when we con- 
 sider, that the most learned and renowned 
 masters of these times were men of very little 
 genius and abilities, and that their system of 
 erudition and philosophy was nothing more 
 tljan a lean and ghastly skeleton, equally unfit 
 for , ornament and use. The whole circle of 
 science was composed of, what they called, 
 the seven liberal' arts, viz. gramrnar, rhetoric, 
 logic, arithmetic, geometry, music, and astro- 
 nomy;* the three former of which they distin- 
 guished by the title of triiMm, and the four 
 latter by that of quadrivium. Notliing can be 
 conceived more wretchedly barbarous thdn the 
 manner in which these sciences .were taught, 
 as we may easily perceive from Alculn's trea- 
 tise concerning them,t and from the disserta- 
 tions of St. Augustin on the same subject, 
 vpbich were in the highest repute at this time. 
 In the greatest part of the schools, the public 
 teachers ventured no farther than the trivium, 
 and confined' their instructions to grammar, 
 rhetoric, and logic: they, however, who, after 
 pfissing tlie trivium and also the quadrivium, 
 were desirous of rising yet higher in their lite- 
 rary pursuits, were exhorted to apply -them- 
 selves to the study of Cassiodore and Boelhius, 
 as if the progress of human knowledge had 
 been bounded by the discoveries of t&ose two 
 Fearned writers. - 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Concerning the Doctor's and Ministers of the 
 Church, and its Form of Govermnent during 
 this Centv/ry. 
 
 I. That corruption of manners, which dis- 
 honoured the clergy iii the former century, in- 
 creased, instead of diminishing, in this, and dis- 
 covered itself under the most odious charac- 
 ters, both in the eastern and western provinces. 
 In the east there arose the most violent dissen- 
 sions and quarrels among the-bishops and doe^ 
 tors of the church, who, forgetting the duties 
 of, their stations, and- the cause- of Christ in 
 T."hich they were engaged,_ threw the state into 
 pombustion by their outrageous clamours and 
 their scandalous divisions, and even went so 
 far as to stain their hands with tli6 blood of 
 their brethren, who differed from them in opin- 
 ion. In the western world, Christianity was 
 not less disgraced by the lives and actions of 
 those who pretended to be the luminaries of 
 the. church, and who ought to have been so in 
 reality, by exhibiting examples of piety and 
 virtue to their flock. ' The clergy abandoned 
 themselves to their passions without modera- 
 tion or restraint: they were distinguished by 
 
 * Herm, Conringil Antiquilat. Acadcmicse, Diss. iii. p. 
 
 60 Jac. Thoraa.iii Programmata, p. 368. — Observat. 
 
 Halens. torn. vi. Obs. xiv. p. 118. 
 
 f Alcuini Opera, par. ii. p. 1245, edit. Q,uercetani. It 
 is, howeTer, to be observed, tbat the treatise of Alcuin, 
 here reTerred to, is Hot only imperfect, but is almost en- 
 tirely transcribed from Cassiodore. -' 
 
 their luxury, their gluttony, and their lust; they 
 gave themselves up to dissipations of various 
 kinds, to the pleasures of hunting, and, what 
 seemed 'still more remote from their sacred 
 chai-acter, to military studies* and enterprises. 
 They had also so far extinguished every prin- 
 ciple of fear and shame, that they becarne in- 
 corrigible; nor co'uld the various laws enacted 
 against their vices by Carloman, Pepin, and 
 Charlemagne, at all contribi^e to set bounds to 
 their licentiousness, or to bring, about their re- 
 formation.") 
 
 II. It is, indeed, aniazing, that, notwith- 
 standing the shocking nature of such vices, es- 
 pecially in a set of men whose profession re- 
 quired them to display to the world the attrac- 
 tive lustre of virtuous example; and notwith- i 
 standing the perpetual troubles and complaints 
 which these vices occasioned; the clergy were 
 still thought worthy of the highest veneration, 
 and honoured, as a sort of deities, by the. sub- 
 missive multitude. This venferatlon for the 
 bishops and clergy, and the influence and au- 
 thority it gave them over the people, were, in- 
 deed, carrfed much higher in the west than in 
 the eastern provinces; and the reasons of this 
 difFeifence will 'appear manifest -to such as con- 
 sider the customs and manners tbat prevailed 
 among the barbarous nations, which were^ at 
 this time, inasters of Europe, before their con- 
 version to Christianity. All the^ nations, 
 during their continuance under the darkness of 
 paganigm, were absolutely enslaved to their 
 priests, without whose counsel and authority 
 they transacted nothing of the, least impor- 
 tance, either -in civil' or military affairs.J On 
 their conversion to Christianity, they, there- 
 fore, thought proper to transfer, to the minis-, 
 ters of their new religion, the rights and privi- 
 leges of their former priests: and the Christian 
 bishops, iri their turn, were not only ready to 
 
 * Stepb. Baluzius, ad Regmon. Prumiensem, p. 563. — 
 Wilkins' CpncilFa-Magnae Britanriiffi, torn. i. p. 90. 
 
 f Stepb. Baluz. Capitular. Regum Francor. torn.], p. 
 189, 208, 275, 493, &c. 
 
 X Julius Cxsar, de hello Galileo, lib. Vl. cap. 13. '^ Dru- 
 ides magao sunt apud eos lionore: nam fere de otnnibus. 
 conlroversiisjpublicis privatisque, coDStituunt;et, si quod 
 est admissum facitius, si cxdes facta, si de hxreditate, si 
 de finibus controversia est, iidem decerount, prsemia 
 poEjnasque constituunt: si quis aut privatus avTt publicus 
 eorum decreto uon stetit, sacrificiisinterdicunt. — -Druides 
 a bello abess&^onsueveruntj neque tributa-iiiia cum reli- 
 quis pendunt: jnilitise vacationem, omuiuraque rerum 
 habent: immunitatem. Tantis excitati prEenuis). et sua 
 sponte multi in disciplinam conveuiunt, et a "parentibus 
 propiiiquisque mittuntuf." Tacitus(rfe Mor. Germano- 
 rum^ cap. 7.). expresses also the power, and authority of 
 the priests or. Druids in the following terms: '* JVeque 
 enim aiiimadvertere, neque vincire, neque verberare qui- 
 dem, nisi sacerdotibus permissum, oou quasi in pcenam, 
 nee ducis jussu, sed velut-Deo imperante;" and agafn, 
 cap. ii. " Silentiurti per sacerdotcs, quibus et turn coercendi 
 jus est, imperalur." Helmoldus (Chron. Sclavorum, lib. 
 i. cap. xxxvi.) expresses himself to the same purpose. 
 " Major flaminis quam regis, apud ipsos, veneratio est;-|» 
 and again, lib. ii. cap. xii. ** Rex apud eqs modicffi.sesti- 
 mationis est comparatione flaminis; ifle enim responsa pcr- 
 quirit; — rex et pbpulus ad illius nutum pendent." This 
 ancient custom of honouring their priests, and submitting 
 in all things to their decisions, was still preserved by the 
 Germans, and the other European nations, aller their 
 conversion to Christianity; and this furnishes a satisfac- 
 tory answer to the question, how it came to pass that the 
 Christian priesthood obtained in tlie west that cnormou* 
 degree of authority, which is so contrary to the positive 
 .precepts of Christ, and the nature and genius of his di- 
 VlQe religion. 
 
Chap. H. 
 
 DOCTORS, CHURCH GOVERNMENT, &o. 
 
 193 
 
 accept the offer, but used all their diligence 
 and dexterity to secure and assert, to them- 
 selves and their successors, the dominion and 
 authority which the ministers of paganism had 
 usurped over an ignorant and brutish people. 
 HI. The honoura and privileges, which the 
 western nations had voluntarily conferred upon 
 the bishops and other doctors of the church, 
 were now augmented with rrew and immense 
 accessions of opulence and.authority. The en- 
 dowments of the church and monasteries, "and 
 the revenues of the bishops, were hitherto con- 
 siderable; but in this century a new and inge- 
 nious method was found out of acquiring much 
 grteater riches to the church, and of increasing 
 its wealth through succeeding ages. An opin- 
 ion prevailed universally at. this time, though 
 its authors are not known, that the punishment 
 which the righteous judge of the World has re- 
 Served for thetransgressions.of the wicked, was 
 to be prevented and annulled by liberal dona- 
 tions to Nod, to the saints, to the churches and 
 clergy. In consequence of this notion, the 
 great and opulent, who were, generally Speak- 
 ing, the.- most remarka,ble for their . flagitious 
 and abominable liyes, offei-ed, out of the abun- 
 dance which they had received by inheritance 
 or acquired by rapine, rich donations to de- 
 parted saintSj their ministers upon* earth, and 
 the keepers of the temples that were erected to 
 their honour, in order to avoid the sufferings 
 and penalties annexed by the pnests to trans- 
 gression in this life,* and to escape the misery 
 denounced against the wicked in a future state. 
 This new and commodious method of making 
 atonement for iniquity, wasthe-principal source 
 of those immense treasUi-es, wtieh, from ihis 
 period, began to flow ior upon the clergy^ the 
 churches, and monasteries, and continued to 
 enrich them through succeeding ages down to 
 the present time.j 
 
 IV.- But here it is highly worthy of observa- 
 tion, that the donations which prmces and per- 
 sons of the first rank presented, in- order to 
 
 ^ make expiation for their sins, and to satisfy the 
 justice of Nod and the demands of the clergy, 
 
 -idid not mei-ely consistof those private posses- 
 sions, which every citizen may enjoy, and with, 
 which the churches and convents were already 
 abundantly enriched; for these donations were 
 carried to a much more extravagant-;leligth, 
 and the church was endowed with several of 
 those public grants, which are peculiar to 
 princes and sovereign states, and which are 
 commonly' called regalia, or royal domams. 
 Emperors, kings, and prince^, signalised their 
 
 -* The temporal penalties here mentioned were rigdrojis 
 iasts, bodily pain's and mortifications, long"and frequent 
 prayers, pilgrimages to the tombs of saihts'and martyrs, 
 
 - and the like austerities. * -These'rwere the penalties which 
 the priests imposed upon such as had confessed their 
 crimes; and, as they were singularly grievous to those who 
 
 ' had led Voluptuous lives, and were desirous ofcontinning 
 in the same course of licentious pleasure, efieminacy, 
 and ease, the richer sort of transgressors embraced eager- 
 ly this new method of expiation, and willingly gave a 
 part of their substance to avoid such severe and rigor- 
 ous penalties. ■ , ' 
 
 f Hence, by a known, foritt of speech, they who offered 
 donations to the church or clergy were said to do this for 
 the redein^on of their sott^; and the gifts themselves 
 were generally called the price of traTisgression. See 
 Lud. Aat. Muratori Diss, de Redemptione Feccatorum, 
 m his Antiquitates Italics medii'^vi. lorn. v. p. 712. 
 Vol. I.— 25 
 
 superstitious veneration for the clej-gy, by in-, 
 vesting bishops, churches, and monasteries, 
 with princely possessions. , Those who, by their 
 holy-profession, were appointed to procjaimto 
 the world' the vanity of human grandeur, and 
 to inspire the minds of men, by their instruc- 
 tions and their example, with a noble contempt 
 of sublunary things, became themselves scan- 
 dalous spectacles of worldly pomp, ambition, 
 and splendour; were created diikes, counts; and 
 marquises, judges, legislators, and sovereigns; 
 and not only gave laws to nations, but also, 
 upon many occasions, gave battle to Iheir ene- 
 mies at the head of numerous armies of their 
 own raising. It is here that we are to look for 
 the source of those dreadful tumults and ca- 
 lamities that spread desolation through Europe 
 in after-times, particularly of those bloodywars 
 concerning investitures, and those obstinate 
 contentions and disputes abput t\ie,regalia. 
 
 V. The excessive donations that were made 
 to the clergy, and the extravagant liberality 
 that augmented daily the treasures of the Eu- 
 ropean churches (to which those donations and 
 this liberality were totally confined) began in 
 this century; hqr do we find any examples of 
 the like munificence in preceding times. "Hence 
 we may conclude, that these donations were 
 owing to customs peculiar to the European na- 
 tions, and to the maxims of policy which were 
 estaj^lished among those warlike people. The 
 kings of these nations, who were employed 
 either in usurpation or self-defence, endeavour- 
 ed, by all means, to attach warmly to their in- 
 terests ^ose whom they considered as their 
 friends and clients; and, for this purpose, they 
 distributed among them extensive territories, 
 cities, and fortresses, with the various rights 
 and privileges belonging to them, reserving to 
 themselves" only the supreme dominion, and 
 the military service of their powerful vassals. 
 This then being-the method of governing cus- 
 tomary in Europe, it was esteemed by princes 
 a high instE&ce of political prudence to distri- 
 bute- among the bishops-, and other Christian 
 doctors, the same sort of donations that they 
 had formerly made to their generals and cli- 
 ents; ^Bitit is not to be believed, that supersti- 
 tion alone was always the principle that drew 
 forth their liberality. They expected greater 
 fidelity and loyalty frdm a set of men who were 
 bound by the obligations of religion, and con- 
 secrated to. the service of Nodi than fronS a 
 body of nobility, composed of fierce and impe- 
 tuous warriors, and accustomed to little else 
 but bloodshed and rapine; and they hoped also 
 to chedi; the seditious arid turbulent spirits of 
 their vassals, and maintain them in their obedi- « 
 ence, by the influence and authority of the 
 bishops, whose commands were highly respect- 
 ed, and whose spiritual thunderbolts, rendered 
 fonnida.ble by ignorance, struck terror into the 
 boldest and most resolute hearts.* 
 
 * The., account here given of the rise of the clergy to 
 such enormous degrees of opulence and authority, is cor- 
 TObate'd by the following remarkable passage of William 
 of IVlalmesbury (lib. v. de Rebus gestls Regum Anglis&.) 
 " Carolus Magnus, pro contundenda gentium illarum-fe- 
 rocia, omnes pene terras ^clesiis contulerat, consiliosis- 
 sime perpendens, nolle sacri ordinis homines, tara facilp 
 quam laicos, fidelitatem Domini rejicere: prEetereai si 
 
194 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part II. 
 
 VI. Thia prodigious accession to the opu^ 
 lence and authority of the clergy in the west 
 began with their head, the Roman pontiff, and 
 spread gradually from him among the inferior 
 bishops, and also among the sacerdotal and 
 monastic orders.' The barbarous nations, who. 
 received the Gospel, looked upon the bishop 
 of Rome as the successor of their chief drujdi 
 or high priest. And as this tremendous druid 
 had enjoyed, under the darkness of paganism, 
 a boundless authority, and had been treated 
 with a degree. -of veneration, -that, through its 
 servile eiEcess, degenerated into terror; so the 
 barbarous nations, on their conversion to Chris- 
 tianity, thought proper to confer upon the chief 
 of the bishops the same honours and the same 
 authority that had formerly been vested in 
 their arch-(druid»* The pope received, with. 
 something morethan a mere spiritual delight, 
 these august privileges; and lest, upon any 
 change of affairs, attempts might be made to 
 deprive hiin of them, he strengthened his title 
 to these extraordinary honours, by a variety of 
 passages drawn from ancient history, and 
 (what was still' more astonishing) by argu- 
 ments of a religious nature. This conduct of 
 a superstitious people swelled the arrogance of 
 the Roman druid to an enormous size, and 
 gave to the see of Rome, in civil and political 
 affairs, a high pre-eminence and a despotic au- 
 thority, unknown to former ages. Hence, 
 among other unhappy circumstances, arose 
 that ijtonstrous and most pernicious 'opinion, 
 that such persons as were excluded from the 
 conmiunion of the church by the-pontiff him- 
 self, or any of the bishops, forfeited thereby 
 not only their civil rights and advantagesas 
 
 laici rebellarent, illos posse excommunicationis.auctori- 
 tate et.potentiae severitate compeBcere,"^ This is,' doubt- 
 less, the true reason why Charlemagne, vrho was far from 
 being a superstitious prince, or a slave to the clergy, aug- 
 mented so -vastly the jurisdiction of the Roman pbntiff m 
 Germany, Italy, and the other countries where he had 
 extended his conqueatsj and accumulated upon the bish- 
 ops such ample .possessi&ns. He expected -more loyalty 
 and submission frQm the clergy^ than from the laity; and 
 he augmented the riches ahoauthority of the former, in 
 order to secure his throne against the assaults of the latter. 
 As the bishops were universally held in the hi^h^st vene- 
 ration, he made use of their influence in chec!^£^ the re- 
 beUious spirit of his dukes, counts, and k;mfnb, who 
 were fFequently very troublesome. For instance, he had 
 much to fear irom the dukes of Benevento, Spoleto, and 
 Capua, when the government of the Lombards was over- 
 turned; he therefore made over a considerable part of 
 Italy to the Roman pontiff, whose ghostly authority, opu- 
 lence, and threatenings, were so proper to restrain thoste 
 powerful and vipdictive princ^ from seditious insurrec-' 
 tions, or to quell such tumults ^s they might venture to 
 excite. Nor was he the only prince who xionoured the 
 clergy irom such political views; the other kings and 
 
 Srinces of Hurope acted much in the same manner, and 
 'om the same principles, as will appear evident to all who 
 consider, with attention, the forms of government, and 
 the methods of governing, that took place in this century: 
 GO that the excessive augmentation of sacerdotal opulence 
 and authority, which many look upon as the v^ork of su- 
 perstition alone, was, in many instances, an'effect of poli- 
 tical prudence. We- shall consider, presently, the terrors 
 of excommunication, which William of Malmesbury 
 touches but cursorily in the latter words of the passage 
 above quoted. ^ _ „ 
 
 * Cssar speaks thus of the chief or afch-druid: ''His 
 omnibus druidibus praeest unus, qui summam inter eos 
 (Celtas) habet auctoritat^m. Hoc mortdo, si qui ex re- 
 liquis excellit dignitate, succedit. At, si sunt plures pa- 
 res, Buffragio Druidum adlegitur: uohnunquam etiam ar- 
 mis de pnncipatu contendunt." Jul. Caesar, de Bello Gal- 
 jico, lib. vi. cap. xiii. 
 
 citizens, but even the Cf>mmon claims and pri- 
 vileges of humanity. This horrid opinion, 
 which was a fatal source of wars, massacres, 
 and rebellions without number, and which con- 
 tributed more than any othej means to aug- 
 ment and confirm the papal authority, was, 
 jinhappily for Europe, borrowed by Christians, 
 or rather by the clergy, from the pagan super- 
 stitions.* 
 
 VII.'^ We observe^ in the annals of the 
 French nation, the following remarkable and 
 shockiiig instance of the enotmous poWer that 
 was, at this time, vested in the Roman pontiff. 
 Pepin was mayor of the palace to Childeric 
 III., and, in, the exercise of that high oflBice, 
 possessed in reality the royal power and au- 
 thority; but, npt content with thjp,.he aspired 
 to the tftles and honours of majesty, and form- 
 ed the design of dethroning his sovereign. For 
 this purpose, the 'states of the realm were as- 
 sembled by Pepin, in' 751;. and though they 
 were devoted to the interests of this ambitious 
 usurper, they gave it as their opinion, that the 
 l}ishop of. Rome was previov^Iy to be consult- 
 ed, whether the execution of Such a projec?t 
 was lawful or not. In consequence of this, 
 ambassadors were sent by Pepin to Zachary, 
 the reigning pontiff, with the following ques;^ 
 tion: WheSrer the divine law did not permit a 
 valiant and warlike people to dethrone a pu- 
 sillanimous and indolent monarch, who was in- 
 capable, of discharging.any,of the functions of' 
 royalty ,^ and to substitute in his place one more 
 
 *Though'bxcommumcation,.from the time of C^slan- ' 
 tine the Great, vvas, in every part of the Christian world,. 
 attended with mjany disagreeable effects,' yet its highest 
 fervors were tibnfined to £urope, where its aspect .was 
 truly formidable and 'hideous. It acquired, also,.in the 
 eighth century, new accessions of terror; so that, from 
 that period, the excommunication practised in Europe 
 differed entirely from that which was in use in otherparfs 
 of Christendom. Excommunicated persons were indeed 
 conSiidered, in all places, as objects of aversion both to 
 God and men; but they'were not, on this account, robbed 
 of the privileges of citizens,-or of the rights of humanity; 
 nluch less were those kings and princes, whom an inso- 
 lent bishop had thought proper ta exclude from the com- 
 munion of the church, supposed to forfeit, on that ac- 
 count, their crown or their territories. But, from this 
 century, it was quite otherwise in Europe; excommuni- 
 cation received that infernal power, which dissolved all 
 connexions;, so that those whom the bishops, or their 
 chief, excluded from church- communion, were degraded 
 to a level with the beasts. Under this horrid sentence, 
 the king, the ruler, the husband, the father, and even the 
 man, foneited all their rights, all their adrantagcs, the 
 claims of nature, ^d the •pi'ivilcges of society. What 
 then was the origin of this unnatural power wiiich excom- 
 munication acquired? It was brie~Qy as follows: On the 
 conversion of the barbarous nations to Christianity, those 
 new and ignorant proselytes confounded the excommuni- 
 cation in use among Christians, with that which had been 
 practised in the limes of paganism by the priests' of the 
 god Sj and considered both as of- the same nature and ei"- 
 fect. The Roman pontiffs on the other hand, were too 
 artful not to countenance aud encourage this error; aod, 
 therefore, employed all sorts'of means to gain credit to 
 an opinion that tended to gratify their ambition, and to 
 aggrandise, in general, the episcopal order. That this is 
 the true origin of the extensive and horrid iuflucuce of 
 the European and papal excommunication, will appear 
 evident to such as cast an eye upon the following passage 
 of Csesar, de Bello Gallico, lib. vi. cap. xiii. ^' Si quis 
 aut privatus aut publicudlDruidum decreto non stetit, sa- 
 crificiis interdicunt. Hsec poena est apud eos gravissima. 
 Q.uibus ita est interdictum, ii numero imniorum et scele- 
 ratorujn habentur, iisomnesdecedunt, aditum eorum ser- 
 monemque defugiunt, ne quid ex contagione incommodi 
 acctpiant; ncq^ue iis petentibus jus rcdditur, neque honos 
 ullus comniunicatur."' 
 
Chap. II. 
 
 DOCTORS, CHURCH. GOVERNMENT, &c. 
 
 195 
 
 worthy to rule, and who had already rendered 
 most important services to the state? The 
 situation of Zachary, who stood much in need 
 of the aid gf Pepin against the Greeks and 
 LomlMirdB, rendered his answer such as the 
 usurper- desired. When this favourable Meci- 
 sion of the Roman-- praclfe wus published in 
 France, the unhappy iChilderic was stripped of 
 royalty without the least opposition; and Pepin, 
 without Ae smallest resistance froni any quar^ 
 ter, stepped into the throne of his master and 
 his sovereign. vLet the abettors of the papal 
 authority secj how they can justify, in Christ's 
 pretended vicegereftt upon earth, a decision 
 Whjch is so glaringly repugnant to the laws 
 and precepts of the diyin§ Saviour.* This de- 
 cision was'solemnly confirmed by Stephen II., 
 tjie succe^Or of Zachary. He undertook a 
 journey into France, in 754, in order to solicit 
 assistance against the Lombards; dissolved the 
 - obligation of the oath of fidelity and allegi- 
 ance which Pepin had sworn to Childeric, and 
 violated by his usurpation; and, to render his 
 title to the crown as sacred as possible, anoint-w 
 ed and crowned him, with his wife and two 
 sons, for the second time.f 
 
 VIII. This- compliaiv;e of the Roman pon- 
 tiffs proved an abundant source of opulence 
 and credit to the church, and to its aspiring 
 ministers. When that part of Italy which was 
 yet subject to the Grecian empire, was involv- 
 ed in confusion and trouble, by the seditions 
 and tumults which arose from the imperial 
 edictsj against the jerection and worship of 
 images, the kings of the Lombards employed 
 the united influence of their arms and negotia- 
 tions- in -order to terminate these, contests. 
 
 * See Le Cointe, Mezeray^ Danie!, and other Gallic and 
 Gerqiaii historians, concerning this important event; but. 
 paFticii)arIy Bossa^t, Defens. Declaratiouis Gler; Gallicani, 
 part i. p.'225.— Petr. Rival, Dissertations HistSr. et Criti- 
 ques sur divers Sujets, Diss. ii. p. 70; Diss. iii. p.. 156. — 
 Henr. de Bunau, Historia Imperii Germanici, torn. ii. p. 
 388. This reinarkabl& event is not, indeed, related in the 
 same manner by all historians, and it isgenerally represents 
 ed'under false colours by those who, froth a spirit of^blind 
 zeal and excessive aduiation, seize every occasion of ex- 
 alting the dignity aad authority of the bishops of Rome.- 
 'Sueh writers assert, that it was by Zachary's authority 
 as pontiff, and not in consequence of his opinion as a ca- 
 suist or divine, that the crown was taUen from the head 
 of Childeric', and placed upon that of Pepin. But this 
 the French, absolutely and justly deny. Had it, however,; 
 been so, the crime of the pontiff )vould. have been much 
 greater than it was in reality. 
 
 3(^ f Pepin hsid been iuioihted by th« legale Boniface 
 at Soissons, soon after his election; but, thintiitig that the. 
 performance of such a ceremony by the pope would re- 
 commend him^more to "ihe respect of his subjects, he de- 
 sired that the, unction shduld be administered anew- by 
 Stephen. Pepimvas the first French monarch who re- 
 ceived this unction as a ceremony of coronation, at least 
 according to the reports of the most credible historians.. 
 His predecessors were proclaimed- by being lifted up on a 
 shield; and the holyphXal of Clovis is now universally re- 
 ■ gnrded as fabulous. The custom of anointing kings at 
 their coronation was, however, more ancient than the 
 time of Pepin, and was observed .long before that period 
 both in Scptland and Spain. See Edmund Martenne, dc 
 Antiq. Eccles. Ritib. torn. iii. cap. x.; and also Bunau, 
 Historia Imperii Germanici, torn. ii. p. 301,366. 
 
 (J^^ j The author has here in view the edicts of Leo 
 Isauricus and Conslantine Copronymus. The former 
 published, in 726, a famous edict against the worship of, 
 images, which occasioned many contests and much dis-' 
 Curbance both m church and state; and the latter assem- 
 bled at. Constantinople, in 754, a council of 358 bishops, 
 who unanimously condemned, not only the worshyp but 
 even the use of images. 
 
 Their success, indeed^ was only ftdvantageoua *' 
 to themselves; for they managed matters so as 
 to become, by degrees, masters of the Grecian - 
 provinces in Italy, whieib were subject to the 
 fexarch who resided at Ravenna.i , One of these 
 monarchs, named Aistidphus, carried his views 
 still farther. Elate with these accessions to 
 his dominions, he meditated, the conquest of 
 Rome and its territory, and formed the ambi- 
 tious project of reducing all Italy under the 
 yoke of the' Lombards. Stephen now address- 
 ed himself to his powerful patron ah4 protec- 
 tor Pepin, represented to him his deplbrable 
 conditioi), and implored his assistance. The 
 French monarch embarked with zeal in the 
 cause of the terrified and suppliant pontiff; 
 crossed the Alps, in 754, with a numerous 
 army; and, having defeated AistulpMfus, oblig- 
 ed him, by a solemn tireaty, to deliver- up to 
 the see of Rome the exarchate of Ravenna, 
 Pentapolis, and all the c;ties, castles, and ter- 
 ritories which he had s^zed in the Roman 
 dukedom. It was not, however, long before 
 the Lombard prince violated, without remorse, . 
 an engagement which he had contracted with 
 reluctance. In 7&5, he laid siege to Rome for 
 the second time, but was again obliged to sue 
 for peace by the victorious arms of Pepin, who 
 returned into Italy, and, forcing the Lombard 
 to execute the treaty he had so audaciously 
 violated, made a new grant of the exarchate* 
 and of Pentapolis to the pontiff and his suc- 
 cessors. And thus was the bishop of Rome 
 raised to the rank of a temporal prince. 
 
 IX.- After the death o^ Pepin, a new attack 
 was made upon the patrimony of St Peter, 
 by pidenc, king of the Lombards, who invad- 
 ed the territories that had been granted by the 
 
 * See Car. Sigoniu's, de Regno Italiae, IIb."^iii. y. 209, 
 torn, ii: op: — Bunau, Historia Imperii Germanici, torn, 
 ii. p, 301', 366. — Muratori Annales Italiffi, torn. ir. p. 310^ 
 TJie^real limits of the exarchate granted by Pepin to the 
 Roman pontiff, have been much controverted among' the 
 learned, and h^e, particularly in our times, employed^ 
 the researches of several eminent writers. The bishops 
 of Rome e^ttend^the limits of this territory as far as they 
 can with any appearance of decency or probability, while 
 'their adversaries are as zealous in- contracting this famous 
 
 frant within narrower bounds. See Lud. Ant. Murator. 
 Iroits de P£mpire' sur P-£tat £cclesiastique, <!ap. i. ii.^ 
 as also his Antiquitat. Ital. biedii ^vi, torn. i. 7. 64, 68,. 
 986, 987. The same authpr treats, the matter with more 
 circumspection, torn, y, p. 790. This controversy can 
 oflly be-terminated with facility by an inspection of Per 
 pin's grant of the ' territory in question. Fontanini, in 
 his first Defence of the temporal Jurisdiction of the See 
 of RomCsOver the City of Commachio,\written in Italian, 
 intimates that thi:s grant is yet ei(tant,and even makes use 
 of some phrases that are said to be contained in it (see 
 the pages 943 and 346 of' that work.) This, however, 
 willscarcely be believed. Werie it indeed true, that such- 
 a deed remaius, its. being pubh'shed' to'^the worlc^ would 
 be, undoubtedly, -unfavouraole to the pretensions and in- 
 terests bCthe church of Rome. It is. at least certain, 
 that, in the dispute betweai the emperor Joseph If and 
 the Roman pontiff concerning Commachio, the partisans 
 'or the latter, though frequently called upon liy thofie of 
 the emperor to produce Uiis grant, refused constanUy to _ 
 coinply with this demand- On tlie other hand, it must be 
 confessed, that Bianchini,:in his Frolegom. ad Anastasium 
 de Vitis Fontif.lipm.,hai^^ivenus, from a Farneaian ma- 
 nuscript, a specimen of this grant, which seems to carry 
 the marks of remoteantitnuity. • Be that as it may, a multi- 
 tude of witnessee unite in assuring us, that the remorse 
 of a wounded conscience was the source of Pepin*s libe- 
 rality, and that his grant to the Homan pontiff ^vas the 
 superstitious: remedy by which he hoped" to expiate his 
 enormities, and particularly his horpid perfidy tohis mas 
 ter Childeric. 
 
196 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part II. 
 
 French monarch to the see of Rome. In this 
 extremity, pope Adrian I. fled for succour to 
 Charles, tJie son of Pepin, who, on account of 
 his heroic exploits, was afterwards distinguish- 
 ed by the name of Charlemagne. This prince, 
 whose enterprising genius led him to seize with 
 avidity every opportunity of extending liis 
 conquests, and whose venejj^tion for the Roman 
 see was carried Very far, as much fi'om the 
 dictates of policy as superstition, adopted im- 
 mediately the 'Cause of the trembling pontiff. 
 He passed the Alps with a formidable army, in 
 774; overturned the empire of the Lombards 
 in Italy, which had- subsisted above ' two hun- 
 dred years; sent their exiled monarch into 
 France, and proclaimed himself king of the 
 Lombards. These conquests offered to Charle- 
 magne an occasion of visiting Rome, where he 
 nttt only confirmed the grants which had been 
 made by his fathei; to that see, but added to 
 them new donations, and ceded to the Roman 
 pontiffs several cities and provinces in Italy, 
 which had not been contained in Pepin's grant. 
 What those cities and , provinces were, is a 
 question difficult to be resolved at this period, 
 as it is perplexed with much obscurity, from 
 the want of authentic records.* . 
 
 * See Car. Sigonius, de regno I'talise, lib. iii.p. 923, 
 torn. ii. op. — Bunau, Historia Imperii Germanici, torn. ii. 
 p. 368. — Fetr. de Marca, de Concordia Sacefdotii et Im- 
 perii, lib. i. cap. :tii. p. 67. — Lud. Antbn. Muratori Droits 
 de PEmpire sur I'Etat Ecclesiastique, cap. ii. p. 147. — 
 douringiusj'de Imperio Roman. German, cap. vi. The 
 extent of Chai:lemag;nc's grant to the see of Rome is as 
 muchMisputed as the magnitude of Pepin's donation, be- 
 tween the partisans of the .^ope, and those 6£ the emperor. 
 They-who plead the cans* of the Roman see, mainlam thgit 
 Corsica, Sardinia, SiciL-, the territory, of Sabino, the 
 duchy of Spoleto, and se eral other districts, were solemn- 
 ly granted by Charlemagne to St. Feter and his successors. 
 They," on the other hand, who assert the rights of the 
 eoiperor, diminish as far'as they can the munificence of 
 Charles, and confine this new ^rant within narroy limits. 
 The reader may <:onsur uppn this subject the authors of 
 the present age, who have published their opinions of the 
 pretensions of the emperors and the popes to the cities of 
 Commachio- and Florence, and the duchies of Farina and 
 Flacentia; but, above all, -the learned Ber ret *s excellent 
 treatise, entitled^ Dissertatio Chqrographica de Italia 
 , medii '^vi, f. 33. The spirit of party seems, in this con- 
 troversy, as in many others, to have bKhdea the dispu- 
 tants on both sides of the question^ and this, together 
 with the difficulty of avoiding mistakes upon a point in- 
 volyed in suj;h deep oHscurity/has, in many cases, ren- 
 dered the truth invisible to both the contending parties. 
 With respect to the motives that induced Charlemagne 
 to make-this grant, they are much less doubtful than the 
 extent of the grant itself. Adrian affirms, that the- 
 monarch's view was to atone for his sins by this act of 
 liberality to the church, as we see in a letter from that 
 pontiff to Charlemagne, which is'^ublished in Muratori's 
 Scriptorcs Rerum Itilicar. torn. iii. part ii. p. 265, and of 
 which the following passage is remarkable: f* Venientes 
 ad nos de Capuar, quam beato Fetro.apostolorum principi 
 pro merced'e animae vestras atque sempiterna memoria 
 cum ceteris civitatibus Qbtulistis.'-^ Is it not indeed im- 
 probable, that Cbarlemagnt^, who. affected that kind of 
 piety which was the characteristic of this barbarous age, 
 mentioned this superstitious motive 'in the act of cession 
 by which he confirmed his donation to the church; but 
 such as are acquainted with the character of this prince, 
 and the history of this period, will be cautious in attribut- 
 ing his generosity to this religious principle alone. His 
 grand motive was, undoubtedly, of an ambitious kind; he 
 was obstinately bent upon adding the western empire to 
 his dominions; and the success of this grand project de- 
 pended much' upon the consent and assistance of the pope, 
 whose approbation," in those times, was suffipient to sanc- 
 tify the most iniquitjous projects. Thus Charlemagne 
 lavished gifts upon the bishops of Rome, th^t, by their 
 assistance, -he might assume, >vith a certain air of de- 
 rency, the empire of the west, and confirm his new do- 
 
 X. By this act of liberality, which seems to 
 carry in it the contradictory characters of poli- 
 cy and i'mprjadence, Charlemagne opened for 
 himself a passage to the empire of the west, 
 and to the supreme dominion over the city of 
 Rome and its territory, upon which the western 
 empire seemed then to depend.* He had, no 
 doubt, been meditating for a considerable time 
 this arduous project, which his father Pepin 
 had probably formed before him; but the cir- 
 cumstances of the times djliged him to wait 
 for a favourable occasion of putting it in execu- 
 tion.' This' was offered him in SOO, when the 
 affairs of the Greeks were reduced to extremity 
 after the death of Leo III. and the barbarous 
 murdOT of his son Cdnstantine, and while the 
 impious Irene held the reins of empire. This 
 opportunity was seized/ with avidity byCharles; 
 Who set out for Rome, where he was received 
 with lively demonstrations of zeal by the sove- 
 reign pontiff,t who had entered into his views, 
 and persuaded the people, elate at this time 
 with high notions of their independence and 
 elective power, to unite their su^ages in favour 
 of, this prince, and 'proclaim him emperor of 
 the west.J 
 
 XI. Charles, on his elevation to the empire 
 of the west and the government of Rome, 
 seems to have reserved to himself the supreme 
 dominion, and the inalienable rights of majesty ,^ 
 while he granted to. the church of Rome a 
 subordinate jurisdiction over that great city 
 and its annexed territory. § This grant Was 
 
 minion, in Italy. ^ Of this policy we have already taken 
 notice, and it must appear manifest to all who view things 
 with the smallest degree ^impartiality and attention. 
 
 '^* Charles, in reality, was already emperor of the west, 
 that is, the most powerful of .the European monarrtis. 
 He wanted, therefore, .nothing more than- the title of 
 emperor, and the supreme dominion in Rome and its 
 territory, both of which he obtained by the assistance of 
 Leo. 111. 
 
 t Leo lU. 
 
 \ See the historians who have transmitted to ns ac- 
 counts of this century, and more especially Bunau, in his 
 Hist. Imperil Romano-German, tom. ii. p. 537. ^The 
 partisan^ of the Roman pontifis generally maintain, that 
 Leo III. by. a divme right, vested- m him as bishop of 
 Rome, transferred the western empire from the Greeks 
 to the Franks', and conferred it upon Charlemagne, the 
 monarch of the latter. Hence they conclude, ftiat the 
 Roman pontiff, as the vicar of Christ, is the supreme lord 
 of the whole earth, and, in a particular manner, of the 
 Roman empire. The temerity of'these pretensions, and 
 the absurdity of this reas6niBg, are exposed with much 
 learning arid judgment by the celebrated Fred. Span- 
 heim, de ficta translatione Imperii in Carolum' M. per 
 Leonem IIIi tom. ii. op. p. 557. 
 
 § That Charlemagne, in effect, preserved entire his 
 supreme authority over the city of Rome and its adjaqent ' 
 territory, gave law to the citizens "Sy fudges of his own 
 appointment, punishwd malefactors, enjoyed the preroga- 
 tives, and exercised alj the functions of royalty, has been 
 demonstrated by several of the learned in the most ample 
 and satisfactory manner, and confirmed by the most un- 
 exceptionable and Authentic testimonies. To be conyiac- 
 ed of this, it will be sufficient to consult Mura tori's Droits 
 de I'Empire sur I'Etat Ecclesia.stiquc, cap. vi. p. 77. 
 And, indeed, they must have a strange power of resisting 
 the clearest evidence, who are absurd enough to assert, 
 as does Fontanini, in his treatise, entitled, Dominio della 
 S. Sede sopra Commachio, Diss. i. c. 95, 96, that Charles 
 sustained at Rome the character of the advocate of the 
 Roman church, and not that of its sovereign or its lord, 
 the dominion of the pontiff being unlimited and univer- 
 sal. On the other hand, we must acknowledge ingenu- 
 ously, that'-the power of the pontiff, both in the city of 
 "Rome and its annexed territory, was very great, and that, 
 in several cases, he seemed to act with a princely autho- 
 rity. But the extent and the foundations of that authori- 
 
Chap. II. 
 
 DOCTORS, CHUHCH GOVERNMENT,. &e. 
 
 197 
 
 undoubtedly suggested to him by the'ambitious 
 pontiff as a matter of sacred and indispensable 
 obligation; and many ■ fictitious deeds "were 
 probably prpduced to make oiit the preten- 
 (ions, and justify the claims of the church to 
 this high degree of temporal authority and 
 civil jurisdiction. In order to reconcile the 
 hew emperor to this grant, it was without 
 doubt alleged, that Constantino the Great, his 
 renowned predecessor, when he removed the 
 seat of empire to Constantinople, delivered up 
 Rome, the old metropohS, with its adjacent 
 territories, commonly called the Roman duke- 
 dom, to be possessed and governed by the 
 church, with no other restriction, ,than .that 
 this should be no detriment to his supreme 
 dominion; ahd it was insinuated -to Charles 
 that he could not depart from the rule- estab- 
 lished by that pious emperor, without incur- 
 ring the wrath of God j and the indignation of 
 St. Peter.* 
 
 ty are concealed in the deepest obficurity, and ha.Te ^iven 
 occasion to endless disputes. Muratori maintains, in his 
 work abore cited, p. 102, that the bishop of Rome dis- 
 charged the.function of exarch, or incar, to the emperor; 
 an opinion which Clement XI. rejected as injurious to 
 the pdpal dignity, and which, indeed, does not appear to 
 have, any solid foundation. Alter a careful examination 
 of all the circumstances that can contribute toward the 
 solution of this perplexed question, the most probable ac- 
 count of the matter seems to be this: That the Roman 
 pontiff possessed the city of Rome and its terrilory, by 
 ■ the eame right by which he held the exarchate of Raven- 
 na, and the othec lands granted by Charleinsigne; that is 
 to say, he possessed Rome by a -feudal tenure, IhougliL 
 (Charged with fewer marks o£ dependence than other fiefs 
 generally are, oh accouot of the lustre and dignity of a 
 city which had been so Ipng the capital of the empire. 
 This opinion, derives much strength from what we -shall 
 have occasion to observe in the foilowing"note, and if has 
 the peculiar advantage of reconciling t-he^jarting testi- 
 'monies of ancjent writers, and the various records of an- 
 tiquity relating to this ppint.- 
 
 *Mo3£ writers are of opipion, that Cdnstantirie'a pre- 
 tended grant was posterior to this -period, and was forged 
 in the 'tenth century. It;appears to me, on the contrary, 
 that this fictitious grant was in being in the eighth cen- 
 tury; and it is extremely probable, that both Adrian and 
 his successor Leo III. made use of it to persuade Charle- 
 magne to that 'donation. In favour of this opinion we 
 have the unexceptionable testimony of Adrian himself in 
 his letter to Charlemagne, which is published in Murato- 
 riVRerum Italicarum Scriptores,tom. iii. part ii. p;194, 
 and which is extremely worthy of an attentive perusal. 
 In this letter, Adrian exhorts Charles, before his eleva- 
 tion to the empire, to order the restitution ofi^U the 
 grants and donation's that had formerly- been made to St. 
 Peter ahd to the church of Rome. In this demand also 
 he distinguishes, in the plainest manner, the donation of 
 tonsta'utine from those of the other princes and empe- 
 rors, and what is particularly remarkable, from the ex- 
 archate which was th^ gift of Pepin, and fcven^from the 
 additions that Charles had already made to his father's 
 grant; whence we may jus'tly conclude, that by the dona- 
 Hon of Constantine, Adrian meant the city^of Rome, and 
 its annexed territory.' He speaks first of this grant iii 
 the following terms: "tieprecamur vestram excellentiam 
 . . . pro Dei amore et ipsius el^vigeri* regni coelorum 
 . . . ut secundum- promissionem quam polliciti estis 
 eidem Dei apostolo pro animae vestras mercede et stabili- 
 tate regni vestri, omnia nostris temporibus adimplere ju- 
 beatis ... el sieut temporibus beati Silveatri Romani 
 pontificis, a sanctae recordationis piissiiho Constantino M. 
 imperatore, per ejus largitatem inhere Constantine's dona- 
 tion is evidently mentioned) sancta Dei catholiea et apos- 
 tolica Romana .ecclesia elevata atque exaltata est, et po- 
 testatcm in his Hesperi» partibus largiri dignatus est; 
 ilaetin hisvestris felicissimis temporibus atque nostris 
 sancta ^ei ecclesia germinet . . . et amplius atque amplius 
 exaltata permaneat . . . guia ecce novus Christianissimus 
 jDei gratia Constantinus imperator (here we see Charles, 
 who at that time was only a kmgi styled emperor by the 
 pontiff, and compared with Constantine) his temporibus 
 surrexit, per quern omnia Deus sanctae suae ecclesis . . ■ 
 
 XII. While the J)awer and opulence of the 
 Roman pontiffs were rising to the greatest 
 height by the events which we have now been 
 relating, they received a mortifying check in 
 consequence of a quarrel which broke out be- 
 ,tween those haughty .priests and the Grecian 
 emperors. -Leo the Isaurian, and his son Con- 
 stantine Copronymus, incensed • at the' ■ zeal 
 which Gregory II. and III. discovered for the 
 worship of images, not only confiscated the 
 treasures and lands which the church of Rome 
 possessed in Sicily,' Calabria, and Apulia, but 
 also withdrew the bishops of these countries, 
 and likewise the various provinces and churches 
 of Illyricum, from the jurisdiction of the'Rof 
 man see, and subjected them to ,the spiritual 
 dominion of the bishop of Constantindplei And 
 so inflexibly were ^the Grecian emperors bent 
 upon humbling the arrogance of the Roman 
 pontiffs, that no intreaties, supplications, or 
 threats, could engage them to abandon their 
 purpose, or to restore this rich and signal por- 
 tion lof St. Peter's patrimony to his greedy sue- __. 
 cessors.* It is here that we must look forthe^ 
 original' source, and the princfpal cause of that 
 .vehi^meht contest between .the Roman pontiff 
 and the bishop of Constantinople, which, in the 
 following century, divided the Greek and Latin 
 churches, and proved so pernicious' to the in- 
 terests and advancement of true' Christianity. 
 These lamentable divisions, which wanted no 
 new incident to foment them, were neverthe- 
 less augmented by a controversy which arose, 
 in this century, concerning the derivation of 
 the Holy Spirit, which we shall have occasion 
 to mention inore largely in its proper place. 
 It is more than probably that this'controversy 
 would have been terminated with the utmost 
 facility, had not the spirits of the contending 
 parties been previously-exasperated by disputes 
 founded upon avarice and ambition, and car- 
 ried On', without either moderation or decency, 
 by the holy patriarchs of Rome and Constanti- 
 nople, in defence of their respectiver. preten- 
 sions. 
 
 XIII. The monastic discipline was extremely 
 relaxed, at this time both, in the eastern and 
 western provinces, and^ as appears by the con- 
 
 largiri dignatus es,t." So much for that part of the lett^ 
 that relates to Constantine's grant: as to the other' dona- 
 tions which the pontiff evidently distinguishes, from it, 
 observe what follows: " Sed et cuncta alia quse per -di- 
 versos iinperatores, patricios, etiam,et alios Deum timen- 
 tes, pro eorum animae mercede et venia delictorum, in 
 partibus Tusciae, Spoleto, seu Benevento, atque Corsica,. 
 sjmul et Pavinensi patriinonio, beat6 Petro apostolo coQ- 
 cessa sunt, et per nefandam gentem Longobardorum per - 
 anporum spatia abstracta 'et ablata sunt, vestris tempori- 
 bus restituanfur." (The pontiff.intimates farther, that 
 all these grants were carefully preserved in'thc office of 
 .the Lateran, and that he sends them to Charles hy his le- 
 gates.) " Unde ct plures donationes in sacro nostro scri 
 nio Lateranensi reconditas habemus, tamen et pro satis- 
 factione Christianissimi regni vestri, ppr jam fatos viros, 
 ad demonstrandum eas vobis, direxJmas, et pro hoc petj- 
 mus. eximiam prEecellentiam vestram', ut in integro ipsa' 
 patrimonia beato Petro et nobis restituere jubeatis." By 
 this it appears that Constantine's grant was now in being 
 among the archives of the Lateran, and was sent to Char- 
 lehiagne with the other donations of kings and princes, 
 whose examples were adduced with a view tff exciting his 
 liberality to-the church. 
 
 * See Mich'. 'Lequien's Oriens ChristiaAus, torn. i. p. 
 96. Among the Gree'k writers also Theophaues and 
 others aclcnosvledge the fact; but they are not entirely 
 agreed about the reasons to which it is to be attributed* 
 
198 
 
 INTERNAL -HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part II. 
 
 curring testimonies of the writers of this cen- 
 tuiy, had fallen into a total decay. The only 
 monks who escaped this general corruption, 
 were those who passed their days in, the deserts 
 of Egypt, Syria,, and Mesopotamia, amidst the 
 austerities of a wretched life, remote from all 
 the comforts of human society: yet the merit 
 of having preserved their discipline was sadly 
 counterbalanced by the gross ignorance, the 
 fanatical madness, and the sordid superstition 
 that ]:Bigned among these miserable hermits. 
 Those of the monastic orders, who lived nearer 
 tf> cities and populous towns, frequently dis- 
 turbed the publiotranquillity hy the tumults 
 and seditions they fomented among the multi- 
 tude, so that it became necessary to check their 
 rebellious ambition by the severe laws that 
 were enacted against them by CJoristantine Co- 
 _ pronymus, and other emperors. The greatest 
 part of the- western monks followed, at this 
 time, the rule of, St. Benedidt; though there 
 were every where convents which adopted the 
 discipline of other orders.* But, as they in- 
 creased in opulence, they lost sight of all rules, 
 and submitted,- at length, to no other discipline 
 than -that of intemperance, voluptuousness, 
 and sloth.f Charlemagne attempted, by vari- 
 ous edicts, to put a stop to thfs growing evil; 
 but his effptts were attended with little success. + 
 ^IV. This general depravity and corruption 
 of the monks gave rise to.a-new order of priests 
 in the west, a sort of middle order between 
 the monks or regiUars, and the secular clergy. 
 This new species of ecclesiastics adopted the 
 monastic discipline and manner of life, so far 
 as to have their dwelling and their table in 
 common, and to assemble at ceitain hours for 
 divine service; but -they entered not into the 
 vows which were peculiar to the monks, and 
 they wereJ,lso appointed to discharge the minis- 
 terial functions in certain churches which were 
 committed to their pastoral direction. These 
 ecclesiastics were at first called fratres dormnici, 
 but soon after, received the name of canons-^ 
 The common opinion attributes the institution 
 of this order to Chrodegangus, bishop of Metz; 
 nor is this opinion destitute of trnth;|j for 
 though, iiefore this time, there were in Italy, 
 Africa, and otlier provinces, convents of eccle- 
 siastics, who lived after the manner of the ca- 
 
 * See Mabillon, Prgef.-ad acta SS. Ord. Benedict!, Saec. 
 i. p. 24, and Saec. iv. part i. p. 96. 
 
 f The author, mentioned in. the ' preceding note, dis- 
 courses with a noble.fratiltness and courage concerning 
 the corruption of the mo^ks, and its various causes, ip 
 -the same work, Prsef. ad Sa^. iv. part i. p. 64. 
 
 I See the Capitularia Caroli, published by Baluze, torn, 
 i. p. 148, 157, 237, 355, 366, 375, 50.3. Laws so severe, 
 and so dilen repeated, shew evidently that- the corruption 
 of the monks must have been truly enormous. 
 
 §'See Le Baeuf, Memoires sur I'Histoire d'Auiterre, 
 toijl. i. ^. 174, the Paris edition, published in 1743. 
 
 ||- See, for an account of Chrodegangus, the Histoire 
 Literaire de la France, torn. iv. p. 128. — Calmet, His^ 
 toire de Lorraine, torn. i. p. 513, — Acta' Sanctor. torn. i. 
 Martii, p. 452. The rule which he prescribed to his 
 canonSf may be seen in Le Gointe's Annales Francor. 
 Eccles. torn. v. ad An. 757, sect. 35; as. also in the Con- 
 cilia Labbei, torn., vii. 1444. He is not, however, the 
 author of the rule which is published in his name, in the 
 Spicileeium veter. Scriptor. torn. i. p. 565. Longueval, 
 in his 'Histoire de I'Eghse Gallicane, tom. iv. p. 435,'has 
 gifen a- neat and elegantjtbridgement of the rule of Chro' 
 uegangus 
 
 »K)?is,* ^et Chrodegangus, who, toward the 
 middje of this century, subjected to this rule 
 the clergy of Metz, not only added to their' 
 religious ceremonies the custom of singing 
 hymns and anthems to "God, at certain hours,- 
 and probably a variety of rites, tint also, by 
 his example,, excited the Franks, the Italians, 
 and the Gfermans, to distinguisl^ themselves by 
 their zeal in favour of the canons,, to erect col- 
 leges for them, and to introduce, their i^ule into 
 their respective countries. 
 
 ,XV. The supreme dominion, over the church 
 and its possessions, Was vested in the emperors 
 and kings, both in the eastern and the western 
 world. The sovereignty of the Grecian em- 
 perors, in this respect, has never been contest- 
 ed; and though the partisans of the Roman 
 pontiffs endeavour to render dubious the supre- 
 macy of the Latin'monarchs over the church, 
 yet'this gupremacy is top munifest to be dis- 
 puted by such as have considered the matter at- 
 tentively;t and it is acknowleged by the' wisest 
 and most candjd^ writers, even of the Romish ' 
 communion. Adrian I., in a council of bish- 
 ops assembled at Rome, conferred upon Char- 
 lemagne and his successors the right of elec- 
 tion to the see of Rome;J and though nejthet 
 Charlemagne, nor his son Louis, were willing 
 to exercise this power in all its extent, by' 
 naming and creating the pontiff ujion every 
 vacancy, yet they reserved the , right of ap- 
 proving 4.nd confirming the person who was 
 elected to that high dignity by the priests and 
 people; nor was the consecration of the elect- 
 ed pontiff of the least validity, unless perform- 
 ed in presence of the emperor's ambassadors.! 
 The Roman pontiffs obeyed the laws of the 
 emperors, rec^yed their judicial decisions as 
 of indispensable obligation, arid executed them 
 with the utmost punctuality and submission. || 
 The kings of the Franks appointed extraordi- 
 nary-judges, whom they called envois, ^o in- 
 spect, the lives and manners of the cler^, sji- 
 perior and inferior, take cognisance of their 
 contests, terminate their disputes, enact laws 
 concerning the public worship, and punish the 
 crimes of the sacred order, as well as those of 
 the other citizens.lT AH Churches also, and 
 monasteries, were obliged to pay to the public 
 treasury .a tribute proportioned to their respec- 
 tive lands arid possessions, except such as, by 
 
 * Murator. Antiq.' Itaticae, torn. v. p. 185; as also LuH. 
 Thomassivi^s Disciplina Ecclesiae "Vet. et Nov. part i.,lib. 
 iii. The design of this institution was truly excelleifl. 
 The authors of it, justly shocked at the vicious manners 
 of a licentious clergy, hoped that this new institution 
 would have a.tendency to prevent the irregnlarities of 
 that or^er, by delivering its members from the cares, 
 anxieties, andoccupations of this present life. But the 
 *veut shewed how much these pious views have been dis- 
 appointed. 
 
 ■ f For an accurate account of the rights of the Grecian 
 emperors in religious matters, we refer the reader to Le- 
 quien^s Oriens Christianus, tom. i. p. 136. 
 
 4 "^his act is mentioned by Anastasius; it has~been pre- 
 served by Yvo and Gratian, and has been the subject of a 
 multitude of treatises. 
 
 § See Mabillon, Comra. in Ordinem Romanum, in Mu- 
 seo Ital. tom. i1. p. 113 — Muratori, Droits de I'E&pire 
 siir V-Etat Ecclesiastique, p. 87. , 
 
 {j This has been amply demonstrated by Baluze, in his. 
 Praif.-ad (Capitularia Regnm Francorum, sect. 91. 
 
 IT See Muratori. Antiq. Ital., tom. i. Diss. ix. p. 470 
 
 Franc, de Roye, de Missis Dominicis, cap. x. p. 44; cap 
 viii. p. 118, 134, 168, 195. 
 
Chap. II. 
 
 DOCIORS, CHURCH GOVERNMENT, &c 
 
 199 
 
 the pure favour of the supreme poVirers, Were 
 graciously exempted from this general tax.* 
 
 XVI. It is true, indeed, that the Latin em- 
 perors did not assume to themselves the admin- 
 istration of the church, or the cognisance and 
 decision of controversies that viere purely of a 
 religious nature. They acknowledged on the 
 contrary, that these affairs belonged to the tri- 
 bunal of the Roman pontiff arid to the ecclesi- 
 astical councils.f But this jurisdiction of the 
 pontiff was confinedwithin narrow limits; he 
 could decide nothing by his sole authority, but 
 was obliged to convene a couticil when any 
 religious differences were to be terminated by 
 an authoritative judgment. Nor did the pro-, 
 vinces, when any controversy arose, wait for 
 the decision of-the bishop of Rome; but as- 
 sembled, by their own authority, their particu- 
 lar councUs, in which the bishops gave their 
 thoughts with the utmost freedom upon the 
 points in debate, and voted oflen in direct op- 
 position to what was known to be the opinion 
 of the Roman pontiff; all which is evident 
 from what passed in the councils assembled by 
 the Franks and GeBg^a^fe, in order to deter- 
 mine tl^e celebrated controversy concerning 
 the use and worship of images. It is farther 
 
 -to be observed, that the power of convening 
 coimcils, and the right of presiding in them, 
 were the prerogatives of the emperors and 
 sovereign princes, in whose dominions these 
 assemblies were holden; and that no decrees 
 of any councilobtained the force of laws, un- 
 til they were approved and confirined by .the 
 supreme" rnagistrate.| Thus was the spiritual 
 aathoriity pf Rome wisely bounded by the civil 
 power; but its ambitious pontiffs fretted under 
 the imperial curb, and, eager to loosen their 
 bonds, left no means unemployed for that pur- 
 pose. They even formed projects which Seem- 
 ed less the effects of ambition than of phrensy: 
 for they claimed a supreme dominion, not only 
 over the church, but also over kings them- 
 selves, and pretended to reduce the whole uni- 
 verse under their ghostly jurisdiction. How- 
 ever extravagant 3iese pretensions were, -they 
 were followed by the niost vigorous efforts; 
 and the wars and tumults that arose in the 
 followuig century, contributed much to render 
 these efforts successful. 
 
 XVII. If we turn our eyes toward the wri- 
 ters of tljis century, we shall find very few that 
 stand distinguished in the lists of fame, either 
 on account of erudition or geni"as. Among 
 the Greeks, the following only seem worthy 
 of mention. 
 
 Germanus, bishop of "Constantipople, the 
 
 * See Muratori Antiq. Ital., torn. 1. Disff. svii. p. ^. 
 See also the collection of the. various pieces that were 
 published on occasion of the dispute between Louis X^,^ 
 and his clergy, relating to the immunities of that order 
 in France. These pieces were printed in 1751, under the 
 following title; Ecrits pour et contre' les Immuniles pre- 
 tendues par le Clerge de France. 
 
 f See the Dissertation of Charlemagnejf de Imagiuibus, 
 lib.^i. cap. iv. - ^ 
 
 I* All this is fully and admirably demonstrated by Ba- 
 luze, in his preface. to the Capitularia, or laws of the 
 kings of the Franks, and is also amply illustrated in that 
 work. ' See also J. Basnage, Hisloire de PEglise, torn.!, 
 p. 270 
 
 greatest part of whose ^high renown was due 
 to his violent zeal for image worship.* 
 
 Cosmas, bishop of 'Jerusalem, who acquired 
 some reputation by his Ijrric vein, cbnsecrated 
 to the service of religion, and employed in 
 composing hymns for public and private devo- 
 tion. . • 
 
 George Syncellus and Theophanes, who are 
 not the least considerable among the writers 
 of the Byzantine history, though they be in 
 all respects infinitely below the ancient Greek 
 and Latin historians. 
 
 But the writer, who surpassed all 4iis con- 
 temporaries among, the Greeks and Orientals, 
 was J(j>hn Damascefius, a man of genius and 
 eloquence, who, in a variety of productions 
 full of erudition, explained the Peripatetic' phi- 
 losophy, and illustrated the capital points of 
 the Christian doctrine. It must, however, be 
 acknowledged that the eminent 'talents of this 
 great man were tainted with that sordid super- 
 stition and that excessive veneration for the 
 EUlcient fathers, which were the reigning de- 
 fects of the age he lived in, not to mention his 
 wretched method of explaining' the doctrines 
 of the .Gospel according to the principles of 
 the Aristotelian philosophy, f 
 
 XVIII. The first place, among the Latin 
 writer^, is due to Charlemagne, whose love of 
 letters formed one of the brightest ornaments 
 of his imperial dignity. The laws which are 
 known by the title of Capitularia, with several 
 Epistles, and a. Book concerning Images, are 
 attributed to this prince; though it seems highly 
 probable that most of .these compositions were 
 drawnup by other pens.j 
 
 After this learned prince, we may justly 
 place the venerable Bede-, so called from his 
 illustrious ^irtues;§ Alcuin,|{ the preceptor of 
 Charlemagne; Panlinus of Aquileia;!! who were 
 all distinguished by their laborious application, 
 auid their zeal for the advancement of learn- 
 ing and science, and who treated the various 
 branches of literature, known in this century, 
 in Bath a manner as to convince us, that it 
 was the ipfelicity of the times, rather than the 
 want of genius, that prevented them from 
 rising, to higher degrees of perfection than 
 what they attained to. " Add to these, Boni- 
 face, of whom we have already spoken: Egin- 
 hard, the celebrated author of the Life of 
 Charlemagne, and other productions; .Paul, 
 the deacon, who acquired a considerable and 
 lasting reputation by his History of the Lom- 
 bards, his Book of Homilies, and his miscella- 
 neous labours; Ambrose Authpert, who. wrote 
 
 * See Rich. Simon, Critique de la Bibliotheque Eccle- 
 siastique de M. Dii-Fin, tom. i..j). 270. 
 
 f Ba^le, Diction, tom. ii. p. 950; as also the account of 
 the writings of John. Damasc.enus, which is published in 
 Le Q,uien's edition of his works, and was composed br 
 Leo Allatius. 
 
 I See Jo. A. Fabricii Bibliotheca medii .d£vi Lat. tom. 
 1. p. -936. Hisloire Literaire de la France, tom. iv. p. 368. 
 
 § See the Acta Sanctorum, tom. i. April, p. 866, and 
 the Gen. Dictionary, at the' article Bede. A list of the 
 writings of this venerable Briton, composed by himself, is 
 published by Muratori, in his: Antiq. Italic, medii eevi, 
 tom. iii. p. ^5.. 
 
 II Hist. Liter, de la France,'tom. iv. p. 295. — Gen. Die 
 tionary. 
 
 IT See Hist. Literaire, Sec. torn. iv. p. 286. — Acta Sanct. 
 tom. i. Januar. p. 7t3. 
 
INTERNAL HISJOftY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 200 
 
 a commentary on the Revelations; and Theo- 
 dulphus,. bishop of Orleans; and thus we shall 
 have a complete Jist of all the writers who ac- 
 qaired any degree of esteem in this century by 
 their literary productions, either sacred or pro- 
 fane. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Concerning: tfte Doctrine of the Christian Church 
 
 during this Century. 
 
 I. The fundamental doctrines of Christian- 
 ity were, as yet, respected and preserved in the 
 theological writings, both of the Greeks and 
 Latins, as seems evident from the discourse of 
 John Damascenus. "concerning the orthodox 
 faith, and the confession of faith which was 
 drawn up by Charleinagne.'* The pure seed- 
 of celestial truth was, however, choked by a 
 monstrous and incredible quantity of noxious 
 weeds. The rational simplicity" of the Chris- 
 tian worship was corrupted by an idolatrous 
 veneration for images, and other superstitious 
 inventions, and the sacred flame of divine cha- 
 rity was extinguished by the violent conten- 
 tions and animosities which the progress of 
 these superstitions occasioned in the church. 
 AU acknowledged the efficacy of our Saviour^s 
 merits: and yet all, in one way or another, 
 laboured, in effect, to diminish the persuasion 
 of this efficacy in the minds of men, by teach- 
 ing, that Christians might appease an offended 
 Dejty by. voluntary acts of mortification, or. by 
 gifts and oblations lavished upon the church, 
 arid by exhorting such as were desirous of sal- 
 vation to place their confidence in the works 
 
 . and merits of the saints. Were we to enlarge 
 upon all the absurdities.and superstitions which_ 
 wer« invented to flatter the passions of the 
 misguided multitude, and to increase, at the 
 expense of reason and Christianityj the opu- 
 
 ' lence and authority ' of a licentious clergy, 
 such an immense quantity of odious materials 
 would swell this work to an enormous size. 
 
 II. The piety in vogue, during thisand- some 
 succeeding ages, consisted in building and em- 
 bellishing churches and chapels, ..in endowing 
 monasteries, erecting basilics, hunting after 
 the relics of saints and martyrs, and treating 
 them with an excessive and absurdveneration, 
 in procuring the intercession of the saints by 
 f ich ablations or superstitious rites, in worship- 
 ping images,, in pilgrimages to those places 
 which were esteemed holy, and chiefly to 
 Palestine, and the like absurd and extravagant 
 practices and institutions. The pious Chris- 
 tian, and the profligate transgressor, showed 
 equal zeal in the performance of these super- 
 stitious services, wMch were looked upon as of 
 the highest efficacy in order to the attainment 
 of eternal- salvationr they wpre performed by 
 the latter as an expiation for liis .crimes, and a 
 mean of appeasing an offended Deity;, and by 
 
 • * See the treatise of this prince coiieerninff images, 
 book iii. The reader may also consult.Mich. SyncelTus' 
 Coufes^on of Faith, published by Montlaucon, in his Bib- 
 Jiotheca Coisliniaua, p. 90: and, among the Latins, an Ex- 
 position of the primSpal Doctrines of the Christian Reli- 
 gion,' composed-by Benedict, abbot of Aniane, and pub- 
 liahed by Baluze in his Miscellanea, torn. v. p. S6; as also 
 the Creed of Leo iii., published in the same work, torn, 
 vii. p. 18. 
 
 PartII. 
 
 the former with a view to obtain, from above, 
 the good things of this life, and an easy and 
 commodious passage to life eternal. The true 
 religion of Jesus, if we except a few of Its doc- 
 trines contained in the Creed, was utterly un- 
 known in'this century, not ojily to the multi- 
 tude in general, but also to the doctors of the 
 first rank and emiiience in the church; ani^ the 
 consequences of this corrupt ignorance were, 
 fatal to the interests of virtue. All orders -of 
 men, regardless of the obligations of morality, 
 of the duties of the Gospel, and of the culture 
 and improvement of their minds, rushed head- 
 long with a perfect security into all sorts of 
 wickedness, from the delusive hopes, that by the 
 intercession and prayers of the saints, and the' 
 credit of the priests at the throne of God, they 
 might easily obtain the remission of their enor- 
 mities, and render the Deity propitious. This 
 dismal account of the religion and morals of 
 the eighth century is confirmed by ,the unani- 
 mous testimony of all the historians who have 
 written of the affairs of that period. 
 
 III. Tlie Greeks were of opinion, that the 
 holy scriptures had been successfully Interprelc 
 ed 9.nd explained by the ancient commentators, 
 and therefore imagined, that they rendered a 
 most important service to the students in dr- 
 yinjty, when, without either judgment or 
 choice, they extracted or compiled from the 
 works of these admiredsages their explanatory 
 observations on the sacred writings. The 
 commentary of John Damascenus upon the 
 epistles of St. Paul, which was taken from the 
 writings of Chryspstom, is alone sujficient to 
 serve as a proof of the little discernment with 
 wliich these compilations were generally made. 
 The Latin expositors may be divided into 
 two classes, according to tile AifSsient nature 
 of their productions. In the_ first, we place 
 those writers who, after the example of the 
 Greeks, employed their labour in collecting; 
 ihto one body the interpretations and commen- 
 taries of the ancients. Bede distinguished him- 
 self among the expositors of this class by his 
 explication of the epistles of St. Paul, drawn 
 from the writings of Augustin and othera.* 
 Still more estimable are the writers of the se- 
 cond class, who made use of their own pene- 
 tration and sagacity in investigating the sense 
 of the holy scriptures. Such were Alouin, 
 Ambrose Authpert, the expositor of the Reve- 
 lations,, and Bede also, who belongSj in reality, 
 to both classes. It must, however, be acknow- 
 ledged, that all these commentators were desti- 
 tute of tjie qualities that are essential to the 
 sacred critic; for we find them in their explica- 
 tions iieglecting the natural sense of the words 
 of Scripture, and running blindfold after a cer- 
 tain hidden and mystical meaning, which, to 
 use their jargon, they usually divided into alle- 
 goricql, anagogical, and tropological;] and thus 
 they delivered their own rash fictions and crude 
 fancies, as the true and genuine sentiments of 
 the sacred writers. Of this we are furnished 
 
 See, for an account of the commentaries of Bede, 
 Hich. Simon's Critique de la Biblioth. Ecclesiast. de M. 
 Du-Pin, torn. i. p. 280. See also Bedae Explicatio Gene- 
 seos ex Fatribus, in Martenne's Thesaur. Anecdot. torn. 
 T. p. Ill, 116, 140, and his interpretation of Habakkuk, 
 ibid. p. 295. ' 
 
 f See Carolus M^nus de Imaginibus^ lib. i. p. 138. 
 
Chap. III. 
 
 THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 201 
 
 \?ith many examples in Alcuin's Commentary 
 ,on St. John, Bede's allegorical illustrations 
 of the Books of Samuel, and Charlemagne's 
 Book concerning. Images, in which various pas- 
 sages of the holy scriptures are occasionally 
 explained according to the taste of the times.* 
 
 IV. The veneration of Charlemagne for the 
 sacred writings was so excessive,! as to induce 
 him to suppose, that they contained the.latent 
 seeds and principles of all arts and sciences; 
 an opinion," no doubt, which he early imbibed 
 from the lessons of his preceptor Alcuin, and 
 the other divines who frequented his court. 
 Hence arose the zeal with which that prince 
 excited and encouraged the more learned 
 among the' clergy to direct their pious labours 
 toward the illustration of the holy scriptures. 
 Several laws which he published to encourage 
 this species of learning are yet extant, as also 
 various monuments of his deep solicitude about 
 the advancement and propagation of Christian 
 knowledge. J: And lest the faults that were to 
 be found in several places of the Latin trans- 
 lation of the Scriptures should prove an obsta- 
 cle to the execution and accompHshment of 
 his pious views, he employed Alcuin in cor- 
 recting these errors,^ and is said, in the.last 
 years of his life, to nave spent a considerable 
 part of his time in the same learned and pious 
 work. II It is also to his encouragement and 
 dire/:tion, that some writers attribute the first 
 German translation of the sacred writings, 
 though others contend that this honour is" due 
 to his son and successor Louis, surnamed the' 
 Debonnaire. 
 
 V. This zeal and industry of the emperor 
 contributed, no doubt, to rouse from their sloth 
 a lazy, and ignorant clergy, and to raise up a 
 spirit of application to literary, pursuits. We 
 cannot, however, help observing, that this la- 
 borious prince imprudently established certain 
 customs, and confirmed others, which had a 
 manifest tendency to defeat, in a great mek- 
 sure, his laudable design of promoting Chris- 
 tian knowledge. He confirmed the practice 
 already in use, of reading and explaining to 
 the people, in -the pubUo assemblies, certain 
 portions only of the Scriptures; and reduced 
 the different methods of worship, followed in 
 different churches, into one fixed rule, which 
 was to be observed with the most perfect uni- 
 formity in all.TT Persuaded also that few of 
 
 * See the same imperial author, book i. p. 84, 91, 133, 
 127, 131, 133, 136, 138, 145, 160, 164, 165, &c, 
 
 f See 'Carolus Magnus, de Imagin. lib. i. p. 331, 336. 
 
 i Jo. Frickius, de Ganone Scripturae Sacrae, p. 1841 
 
 § Baroniusj Annal. ad A. DCCCXXVIII. n. xxvii — Jo. 
 A. FaBflcius, Biblioth. Lat. medii Myi, torn. i. p. 950 — 
 Hist.!|Lit. de la France. 
 
 II J. A. FabriciuB, torn. i. p. 950. — Usserius, de sacris 
 Scripturis vernacul. ]p. 110. 
 
 IT Thpy -who. imagine that the portions of Scripture 
 which are still explained, every year, to Chcistians In 
 their religious assemblies^' were selected for that purpose 
 by th^ order of Charlemagne, are- undoubtedly in an er- 
 ror; since it is manifest, that in the preceding ages there 
 were certain portions of Scripture set apart for each day 
 of worship in the greatest part of the Latin churches. 
 See Jo. Henr. Thameri Schediasma de Origine et Digni- 
 tate Pericoparum quse Evangelia et Epistolse vulgo vocan- 
 lur. See also Jo. Franc. Buddei Isagoge ad Theologiam, 
 torn. ii. p. 1640. It must, however, be confessed, that Char- 
 lema|;ne introduced some new regulations into this part 
 of divine service; for whereas, before his time^ the Latin 
 churches differed from each other in several circumstan- 
 ces of the public worship, and particularly in this, that 
 
 Vol. L— 26 
 
 the clergy were capable of explaining with 
 perspicuity and judgment the portions of Scrip- 
 ture, which ^re distinguished iri the ritual by 
 the name' of epistle and gospel, he ordered 
 Paul the deacon, and Alcuin, to compile (from 
 the ancient doctors of the church) homilies or 
 discourses upon the epistles and gospels, which 
 a stupid and ignorant set of priests were to 
 commit to memory, and recite to the people. 
 This gave rise to that famous collection, which 
 went by the title of the homiliariura' of Char- 
 lemagne," and which, being followed as a 
 model by many productions of the same kind, 
 composed by private persons from a principle 
 of pious zeal, contributed much to nourish the 
 indolence, and to perpetuate the ignorance of 
 a worthless clergy.f , The zeal and activity of 
 this great prince did not stop here; for he or- 
 dered the lives of the -principal saints to be 
 written in a moderate volume, of which copies 
 were dispersed throughout his dominions, that 
 the people might have, in the dead, exarnples 
 of piety and virtue, which were no where to 
 be found among the living. AH these projects 
 and designs "Were certainly formed and execiit- 
 edwith upright and pious intentions, and, con- 
 sidering the state of things in tliis century, 
 were, in several respects, both useful and ne- 
 cessary; they, however, contrary to the empe- 
 ror's intention, contributed, undoubtedly,, to 
 encourage the priests in their criminal sloth, 
 and their shameful neglect of the study of the 
 Scriptures. For the majority of them em- 
 ployed their time and labour only upon those 
 parts of the sacred writings, which the empe- 
 ror had appointed' to be read in the churches, 
 
 the same portions of Scripture were not read and explain 
 ed in them all, he published a solemn edict, commanding 
 all the religious assemblies within his territories to con- 
 form themselves, i|l that respect, to the rules- established 
 in the church of Rome. 'With respect to the portions of 
 Scripture which we call the epistles and gospels, and 
 which, from the time of Charlemagne down to us, con- 
 tiiiue to be used 'in^ivine worship, it is certain that they 
 were read in the church of Rome so early aa the sixth 
 century. It is also certain, that this prince was extremely 
 careful in reforming the service of the Latin churches, 
 and appointed the form of'worship'used at Rome to be 
 observed, in all of them. Hence the churches which did 
 not adopt the Roman ritual, have different epistles and 
 gospels from -those which are used by us and the other 
 western churches, who were commanded by Charlemagne- 
 to imitate the Roman service. The church of Corbetta 
 is an exai£ple of this, as may be seen in Muratori's Antiq. 
 Ital. torn. IV.- p. B36; and aisQ'the chyrch of Milan, which 
 follows the r>te of St. Ambrose. If any are desirous to 
 know what epistles and gospels were used by the Franks 
 and other western churches before the time of Charle- 
 magne, they have only to consult the Calendars published 
 bjr Martenne, in his Thesaur. Anecdot. tom. v. p. 66, the 
 Discourses oit Bede published in the same work, tom. v. 
 p. 339,_ and Mabillon, de Antiqua Liturgia Gallicana; to 
 all which may be added Feyrat, Antiquites de la Chapclle 
 du Roi de France, p. 566. 
 
 * See, fqr an account of this book of .Homilies, the 
 learned Seelen'B SelectaLiterarja,p. 353. 
 
 f A]an, abbot of Farfa in Italy, wrote in this century a 
 very copious Book of Homilies, the preface to which is 
 published by Bernard Pezius, in the' ThesaUr. Anecdot. 
 torn. vi. part i. p. .83. In the following age several works 
 under the same title were composed by learned men; one 
 by Haymo, of Halberstadt, which is still extant; another 
 by Rabanus''Maurus, at the request of the emperor Lo- 
 thaire; and a third by Hericus, mentioned by Fezius in 
 the work above quoted, p. 93. AH these were written in 
 Latin. The famous Ottfrid, of 'Weissenburg, was the 
 firstAvho composed a Book of Homilies in the Teutonic 
 language; for an account of this work, which was written 
 in me ninth century, see Lambecius, de Biblioth. Vindo* 
 bon. August, tom. ii. cap. v. p. 419. 
 
202 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Fart II. 
 
 and explained to the people; and never at» 
 tempted to exercise their capacities upon the 
 rest of the divine vpord. The greatest part of 
 the clergy also, instead of composing the'm- 
 Belves the discourses they recited in public, 
 confined themselves to the book of homilies, 
 published by the authority of their sovereign, 
 and thus' suffered their talents to lie unculti- 
 vated and unemployed. 
 
 VI. None of the Latins carried then: theolo- 
 gical enterprises so far as to give a complete, 
 connected, arid accurate system of the various 
 doctrines of Christianity. It would be absurd 
 to comprehend, under this title, the various 
 discourses concerning the person and nature of 
 Christ, wliich vfrere designed to refute the er- 
 rors of Felix* and Elipand, or to combat the 
 opinions which were now spread abroad con- 
 cerning the origin of the Holy Ghost,-f and 
 several other points; since these discourses af- 
 ford no proofs either of precision or diligence 
 in their authors. The labours and industry of 
 the divines of this age were wholly employed 
 in collecting the opinions and authorities of 
 the fathers, by whom are meant the theologi- 
 cal writers of the first six centuries; and so 
 blind and servile Was their veneration for these 
 doctors, that tl^ey regarded their dictates as in- 
 fallible, and their writings as the boundaries of 
 truth, beyond which reason was not permitted 
 to push its researches. The Irish, or Hiber- 
 nians, who in this century were known by the 
 name of Scots, were the only divines who re- 
 fused to dishonour their reason by subjecting 
 it implicitly to the dictates of authority. Na- 
 turally subtile and sagacious, they applied their 
 -philosophy (such as it was) to the illustration 
 of the truth and doctrines of religion; a me- 
 thod which was almost generally abhorred and 
 exploded by all other nations.:^ 
 
 Qt^ *The doctrine taught by Felix, bishop of TJrgel, 
 andhia disciple Elipand, archbishop of Toledo, was, tliat 
 Jesus Christ was the Son of God, not by nature, but by 
 adoption. This doctrine was also intimately connected 
 with the Westorian hypothesis, and was condemned, in 
 this century,, by the synod of Ratisbon, and the councils 
 of Frankfort and Frioul. . 
 
 Q^ f The error now published relating; to the Holy 
 Ghost was, that it. proceeded from the Father only, and 
 not from the Father and the Son. - 
 
 X That the Hibernians, who were called Scots in this 
 century, were lovers of learning, and distinguished them- 
 aelves, in those times of isDOrance, by the culture of the 
 sciences beyond all the other European nations, travelling 
 through the most distant lands.'both with a view to im- 
 prove and to coinmunicate their lmowledge,is a fact with 
 ■which 1 have long been acquainted, as we see them, in the 
 most authentic records of antiquity, discharging, with 
 the highest reputation and applause, the doctorial func- 
 tion in France, Germany, and Italy, both during this and 
 the following century. But that these Hibernians were 
 the first teachers of tncscholastic theology in Europe^ and, 
 so early as the eighth century, illustrated the doctrines 7)f 
 religion by the principles of philosophy, I learned but 
 lately from the testimony of Benedict, abbot of Aoiane, 
 who lived in this period. This learned abbot, in his Let- 
 ter to Guamarius, p. 54, expresses himself thus: " Apud 
 modemos scholasticos (i. e. public teachers, or school- 
 masters) .maxime apud Scotos est syllogismus delusionis, 
 ut dicantj Trinitatem, sicut personarum, ita esse substan- 
 tiarumj" (by this it appears, that the Irish divines made 
 use of a cer^in syllogism, which Benedict calls delusive, 
 i. e. fallacious and sophistical, to demonstrate that the per- 
 sona in the Godhead were subataoces; a captious syllo- 
 gism this, as we may see from what follows, and also every 
 way proper to throw tile ignorant into the ^eatest per- 
 plexity) " c[uatenU3 si adsenacrit illectus auditor, Trinita- 
 tem esse trium substantiarilm Deum, trium derogetur cul- 
 
 The Greeks were not so destitute of syste- 
 matical divines as the Latins. John Damasce- 
 nus composed a complete body of the Chris- 
 tian doctrine in a scientifical method, under 
 the title of Four Books concerning the Ortho- 
 dox Faith. The two kinds of theology, which 
 the Latins termeid scholastic and didactic, were 
 united in this laborious performance, in which 
 the author not only explains the doctrines he 
 delivers by subtile and profound reasoning, but 
 also confirms his explications by the authority 
 of the ancient doctors. This book was receiv- 
 ed among the Greeks with the highest ap- 
 plause, and was so excessively admired, that at 
 length it came to be acknowledged among that 
 people as the only rule of divine truth. Many, 
 however, complain of this applauded writer, 
 as having consulted more, in his theological 
 system, the conjectures of human reason and 
 the opinions of the ancients, than the gemiirie 
 dictates of the satcred oracles, and of having, 
 in consequence of this method, deviated from 
 the true source and the essential principles of 
 theology.* , To the work of Damascenus now 
 mentioned, we may add his Sacred Parallels, 
 in which he has collected, with uncommon 
 care and industry, the opinions of the ancient 
 doctors concerning various pointe of the Chris- 
 tian religion. We may, therefore, look upon 
 this writer as the Thornas and Lombard df the 
 Greeks. 
 
 VII. None of the moral writers of this cen- 
 tury attempted to form a complete system of 
 the duties and virtues of the j Christian life 
 John, surnamed Carpathias, a Greek writer, 
 composed some exhortatory discourses, in 
 which there are scarcely any marks of j udgment 
 or genius. Among the monastic orders no- 
 thing was relished but the enthusiastic strains 
 of the Mystics^ and the doctrines of Dionysius 
 the Areopagite, their pretended chief, whose 
 supposititious writings were interpreted and 
 explained by Johannes Darensis out of com- 
 plaisance to the monks.f The Latin writers 
 confined their labours in morality to some ge- 
 neral precepts concerning virtue and vice, 
 which seemed rather intended to regulate the 
 external actions of Christians, than to purify 
 their inward principles, or to fix duty upon its 
 proper foundations. Their precepts also, such 
 
 tor Deorum: si autem abntierit, personarum denegator 
 culpetur." It was with such miserable sophistry, that 
 these subtile divines puzzled and tormented their disciples 
 and hearers, accusing those of Tritheism who admitted 
 their argument, and casting the reproach of .Sabellianism 
 upon those who rejected it. For thus they reasoned, or 
 rather quibbled; " You must either affirm or deny that 
 the three Persons in the Deity are three substances. If 
 you affirm it, you are undoubtedly a Tritheist, and wor- 
 ship threelGods: if you deny it, this denial implies that 
 they are not three distinct persons, and thus you fall into 
 Sabellianism." Benedict condemns this Hibernian sub- 
 tiity, and severely animadverts upon the introduction of 
 it into theology; he also recommends in its place that ami- 
 able simplicity which is so conformable to the nature and 
 genius of the Gospel: — " Sedhaecdefide (says he) et om 
 nis calliditatis verautia, simplicitate fidei catholics et pu- 
 ritate, vitanda, non captiosa interjectione linguarum, sca^ 
 va impaetione interpofanda." Hence it appears, that the 
 philosophical or scholastic theology, among the Latins, is 
 of more ancient date than is commonly imagined. 
 
 *Jo. Hcur. Hottinger. Btbliolhecar. Quadripart. 
 lib. iii. cap. ii. sect. lii. p. 373. — Mart. Cheninitius, de 
 Usu et Utilitate Locor. Commun. p. S6. 
 
 \ Assemani Biblioth. Oriental. Vatican, torn. ii. p. 120 
 
Chap. HI. 
 
 THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 203 
 
 aa they were, and their manner of explaining 
 them, had now imbibed a strong tincture oF 
 the Peripatetic philosophy, as appears from 
 certain tracts of Bede, and the treatise of Al- 
 cuin concerning virtue and vice.* That the 
 people, howeverj might be animated to the 
 pursuit of virtue by the commanding power of 
 example, Bede, Florus, Alcuin, Marcellirius, 
 Ambrose, Authpert, and others, employed their 
 pious industry in writing the lives of such as 
 had been eminent for their piety and worthy 
 deeds. 
 
 yill. The controversies that turned upon 
 the main and essential points of religion were, 
 during this century, few in nuinber; and 
 scarcely any of them, were managed with tole- 
 rable sagacity or judgment. The greatest part 
 of the Greeks y/ete involved in the dispute 
 concerning images, in which their reasonings 
 were utterly destitute pf precision and perspi- 
 cuity, while the Latins employed their chief 
 zeal and iiidustry in confuting and extirpating 
 the doctrine of Elipand concerning the person 
 of Christ. John Damascenus exposed the er- 
 rors of all the different sects in a short but 
 useful and interesting treatise; he also attack- 
 ed the Manichaeans and Nestorians with a par- 
 ticular vehemence, and even went so far in his 
 polemic labours, as to combat tlie erroneous 
 doctrines of the Saracens, i In these composi- 
 tions we find several proofs of subtilty and ge- 
 nius, but very little of that clearness and sim- 
 plicity that constitute the chief merit of po- 
 lemic writings. The Jews were left almost 
 unmolested, as the Christians were sufficiently 
 etnployed by the contrbversies that had arisen 
 amoiig themselves: Anastasius, abbot of Pales- 
 tiiie, however, made some attempts to subdue 
 the infidelity of that obstinate people. , 
 
 IX. Of all the controversies which agitated 
 and perplexed the Christian church during this 
 century, that which arose concemingjhe wor- 
 ship of injages in Greece, and was thence car- 
 ried into both the eastern and western pro- 
 vinces, was the most unhappy and pernicious 
 in its consequences. Tlie first sparjks of this 
 terrible flame, which threatened ruin both to 
 the interests of religion and government, had 
 already appeared under the reign of Philippi- 
 cus Bardanes, who was created emperor of-the 
 Greeks soon after the commencement of this 
 century. This prince, with the consent of 
 John patriarch of Constantinople, ordered a 
 picture, which represented the sixth general 
 council, to be pulled down from its place in the 
 church of Sophia, in 712, because this council 
 had condemned the Monothelites, whose cause 
 the emperor espoused with the greatest ardour 
 and vehemence. Nor did Bardanes stop here; 
 but sent immediately an order to Rome to re- 
 move all representations of that nature from 
 the churches and other places pf worship. His 
 ordere, however, were far from being received 
 with submission, or producing their designed 
 effect: on the contrary, Constantino, the Ro- 
 man pontiff, hot only rejected, by a formal pro- 
 test, the imperial edict, but resqlved to express 
 his contempt of it by his actions as well as his 
 
 * This treatise is eictant in the works of Alcuiii, pub- 
 lished by Quercetauus, torn. ii. p. 13L8. 
 
 words. He ordered six pictures, representing 
 the six general councils, to be placed in the 
 porch of 5t. Peter's church; and that no act 
 of rebellion or arrogance might be left unem- 
 ployed, he assembled d council at Rome, in 
 which he caused the emperor himself to be 
 condemned as an apostate from the true reli- 
 gion; These first tumults were quelled by a 
 revolution, which, in the following year, de- 
 prived Bardanes of the imperial throne.* 
 
 X. The dispute, however, broke out with 
 redoubled fury under Leo the Isaurian,. a prince 
 of the greatest resolution and intrepidity; and 
 the new tumults which it excited were both 
 violent and durable. Leo, unable to bear any 
 longer the excessive, height to which the 
 Greeks carried- their superstitious attachment 
 to the worship of images, and the sharp raille- 
 ries and serious reproaches which this idola- 
 trous service drew upon the Christians from 
 the Jews and Saracens, resolved, by the most 
 vigorous proceedings, to root out at once this 
 growing evil. For this purpose he issued an 
 edict in 726, by which it was ordered, not only 
 that the worship of images should be abrogat- 
 ed and relinquished, but also that all the im- 
 ages, except that of Christ's crucifixion, should 
 be removed out of the 6hurcHes.t In this pro- 
 ceeding the emperor acted more from the im- 
 pulse of his natural character, which was warm 
 and vehement, than from thp dictates of pru- 
 dence, which avoids precipitancy where preju- 
 dices are to be combated, and destroys and un- 
 dermines inveterate superstitions rather by 
 slow and impercejitible attacks, than by open 
 and violent assaults. The imperial edict pro- 
 duced such effects eis might have been expect- 
 ed from the frantic enthusiasm of a supersti- 
 tious people. A civil war broke out in the 
 islands^of the Archipelago, ravaged a part of 
 Asta, and afterwards reached Italy. The peo- 
 ple, partly from their own ignorance, but prin- 
 cipally in consequence, of the perfidious sug- 
 gestions of the. priests and monks, who had 
 artfully rendered the worship of images a 
 source of opulence to their churches and clois- 
 ters, were led to regard the emperor as an apos- 
 tate; and hence they considered themselves as 
 freed from their oath of allegiance, and from 
 all the obligations which attach subjects to 
 their lawful sovereign. 
 
 XI. The Roman pbhtiffs, Gregory II. and 
 III., were tha authors and ringleaders of thiese 
 civil commoHons and insurrections in Italy. 
 The former, on the emperor's refusing to re- 
 voke his edict against images, declared him, 
 
 * See Fred. Spanhemii Historia Imaginum restituta; 
 also the^Annales Italise by Muratorj, vol. iv. — ^Maioi- 
 bourg's history of tliis controversy is full o^ the most 
 absurd and malif^nant fictions. 
 
 Cf^\ Jn this account of the imperial edict, Dr. Mo 
 sheim follows the; opinions of Baronius, Fleury, and Le 
 Sueur. " Others affirm, with greater probability, that this 
 famous edict did not enjoin the pulling down images every 
 where, and casting them out of the churches, Dut only 
 prohibited the paymg to them any kind of adoration or 
 worship. It, would seem as if Leo was not, at first,.aTerse 
 to the use of imager, a^ ornaments, or even as helps to 
 devotion and memory; for, at the same time that he for- 
 bade them to be worshipped, he ordered them to be placed 
 higher in the churches, some say, to avoid this adoration; 
 but afterwards finding that they were the occasion of 
 idolatry, he caused them to be removed from the ohilrches 
 ajid broken, 
 
204 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part II. 
 
 without hesitation, unworthy of the name and 
 privileges of a Christian, and thus excluded 
 him from the communion of the church; and 
 no sooner was this formidable sentence made 
 public, than the Romans, and other Italian 
 "■communities, that were subject to the Grecian 
 •empire, violated their all^iance, and, rising 
 m arms, either massacred or banished' all tlie 
 emperor's deputies and officers. Leo, exaspe- 
 rated by these insolent proceedings, resolved 
 to chastise the Italian rebels, and to make the 
 haughty pontiff feel in a particular manner the 
 effects of his resentment; but he faUed in the 
 attempt. Doubly irritated by this disappoint- 
 ment, he vented his fury against images, and 
 their worshippers, in 730, in a much more ter- 
 rible manner than he had hitherto done; for, 
 in 3. council assembled at Constantinople, he 
 degraded from his office Germanus, the^ishop 
 of that imperial city, who was a patron of.im- 
 ' ages; put Anastasius in his place,~Brdered all 
 the images to be publicly burned, and inilicted 
 a variety of severe punishments upon such as 
 were attached to that idolatrous worship. These 
 rigorous measures divided the Christian church 
 into two violent factions, whose contests were 
 carried on with an ungovemed rage, and pro- 
 duced nothing but mutual invectives, crimes, 
 and assassinations. Of these factions, one 
 adopted the adoration and worship of images, 
 and were on that account called Iconodiili oj 
 Iconolatrse; while the other maintained that 
 such worship was unlawful, and th^t nothing 
 was more worthy of the zeal of Christians; 
 than to demolish and destroy the statues and 
 pictures that were the occasions and objects of 
 this gross idolatry; and hence they were dis- 
 tinguished by the titles of Iconomachi and 
 Iconoclastee. ' The furious zeal which Gregory 
 II. had shewn in defending the odious super- 
 stition of image-worship, was not only imita- 
 ted, but even surpassed by-his successor, who 
 was the third pontiff of that name; and though, 
 at this distance of time, we are not acquainted 
 with all the criminal circumstances that at- 
 tended the intemperate zeal of these insolent 
 prelates, we know with certainty that it was 
 their extravagant attachment to image-wor- 
 ship that chiefly occasioned the separation of 
 the Italian provinces &om the Grecian empire.* 
 
 * The Greek writers tell us, that both the Gregories 
 carried their insolence so far as to excommnnicate Leo 
 and his sou Constaatinc, to dissolve the obligation of th^ 
 oath of allegiance, which the people of Italy had taken 
 to these princes, and to prohibit their paying tribute to 
 them, or sbowing them any marks of sumnission and obe- 
 dience. These tacts are also acknowledged by many of 
 the parlisaDs of the' Roman pontifis, such as Baronius, 
 Sigonius, and their numerous followers. On the other 
 hand, some learned writers, particularly among the 
 French, alleviate considerably the crime of the Gregories, 
 and positively deny that they either excommunicated the 
 emperors above-meutibned, or called off the people from 
 their duty and allegiance. See Launoius, Epist. lib. vii. 
 Ep. vii. p.' 456. tom. v. op. par. ii — Wat. Alexander, Sbt 
 lect. Histor. Ecclesiast. Capit. Ssec. viii. dissert, i. p. 456. 
 De Marca, Concordia Sacerdotii et Imperii, lib. iii. cap. 
 xi. — Bossuet,- Defens. Beclarationis Cleri Gallic, de Po- 
 testate Eccles. par. i. lib. vi. cap. xii. p. 197.' — Giannone, 
 Historia di Napoli, vol. il All these found their opinions, 
 •oncerning the conduct of the Gregories, chiefly upon the 
 authority of the Latin writers, such as Anastasius, Paul 
 the Deacon, and others, who seem to have known nothing 
 of that audacious insolence, with which these pontiffs are 
 said to liave opposed the emperors, and even represent 
 
 Xn. Constantine, to whom the furious tribe 
 of the image-worshippers had given by way of 
 derision the name of Copronymus,* succeeded 
 his father Leo in the empire, in 741, and, ani- 
 mated with an equal zeal and ardour against 
 the new idolatry, employed all his influence 
 for the abolition of the Worship of images, in 
 opposition to the vigoTous efforts of the Ro 
 man pontiffs and tlie superstitious monks. Hi* 
 manner of proceeding was attended with 
 greater marks of equity and moderation, than 
 had appeared in the measures pursued by Leo: 
 for, knowing the respect which the Greeks had 
 for the decisians of general councils, whose 
 authority they considered as supreme and un- 
 limited in religious matters, he assembled at 
 Constantinople, in 754, a council cornposed of 
 the eastern bishops, in order to have this im- 
 portant question examined with the utmost 
 care, and decided with wisdom, seconded by a 
 just and lawful authority. This assembly, 
 which the Greeks regard as the seventh oecu- 
 menical council,! gave judgment, as was the 
 custom of those times, in favour of. the opin- 
 ion embraced by the emperor, and solemnly 
 condemned the worship and also the use of 
 images.f But this decision was not sufficient 
 to vanquish the blind obstinacy of. superstition: 
 many adliered still to their idolatrous worship; 
 and none made a more turbulent resistance to 
 the wise decree of this council than the monks, 
 who still continued to exdte commotions in 
 the state, and to blow the flames of sedition 
 and rebellion among the people. Their ma- 
 lignity was, however, chastised byvConstan- 
 tine, who, filled with a , just indignation at 
 their seditious practices, pvmished several of 
 them in an exemplary manner, and by new 
 laws set bounds to the, violence of monastic 
 rage. Leo IV., who, after the death of Con- 
 stantine, was declared emperor, in 775, adopt- 
 ed the sentiments of his father and grandfa- 
 ther, and pursued the measures which' they 
 had concerted for tiie extirpation of idolatry 
 out of the Christian church; for, having per- 
 ceived that the worshippers of images could 
 not be engaged by mild and gentle proceed- 
 ings to abandon tliis superstitious practice, he 
 had recourse to the coercive influence of penal 
 laws. 
 
 XIII. A cup of poison, administered by the 
 impious counsel of a perfidious wife, deprived 
 Leo rV. of his life, in 780, and. rendered the 
 idolatrous cause of images triumphant. The 
 profligate Irene, after having thus dismissed 
 her husband from the world, held the reins of 
 empire during the minority of her son Con- 
 
 them as having given several marks of their submission . 
 and obedience to the imperial authority. Such are the 
 contrary accounts of the Greek and Latin writers; and 
 the most prudent use we can make of them is, to suspend 
 our judgment with respect to a matter, whicli .the obscu- 
 rity that covers the history of this period renders it im- 
 possible to clear up. AU that we can know with certainty 
 IS, that the zeal of the two pontifis above-mentioned for 
 the worship of images, furnished to the people of Italy 
 the occasion of falling from their allegiance to the Gre- 
 cian emperors. 
 
 .G(?"*This nick-name was given to Constantine, from 
 his having defiled the sacred font at hfs baptism. 
 
 Qt^ t The authority of this council is not acknowledg 
 ed by the Roman catholics, who also disregard the obll 
 gation of the second commandment, which they have pru 
 dently struck out of the decalogue. 
 
Chap.III. 
 
 THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 205 
 
 Btantine; and, to establish her authority on 
 more solid foundations, entered into an alli- 
 ance with 'Adrian; bishop of Rome, in 736, 
 and summoned a council 4t Nice in Bithynia,- 
 which is known by the title of tlie second Ni- 
 cene council. In this, assembly the imperial 
 laws concerning the new idolatry were abro- 
 gated, the decrees of the council of Constanti- 
 nople reversed, the' worship of images and of 
 the cross restored, and severe punishnients de- 
 nounced against such as maintained that God ' 
 was the only object of religious adoration. It 
 is impossible to imagine any thing more ridi- 
 culous and trifling than the arguments upon 
 which the bishops, assembled in this council, 
 founded their decrees.* The Romans, how- 
 ever, held sacred the authority of these de- 
 crees; and the Greeks considered in the light 
 of parricides and traitors all such a^ refused to 
 submit to them. The other enormities of the 
 flagitious. Irene, and her deserved fate, cannot, 
 with propriety, be treated of here. 
 
 XIV. . In these violent contests, the greater 
 part of the Latins, such as the Britons, Ger- 
 mans, and Gauls,, seemed to steer a middle 
 way between the , opposite tenets of the con- 
 tending parties. They ?^ere of opinion that 
 images might be lawfiuly preserved, and even 
 placed in the churches; but, at tlie same time, 
 tliey looked upon all worship of them as highly 
 injurious and offensive to the Supreme Being. f 
 Such, particularly, were the sentiments of 
 Charlemagne, who distinguished himself in 
 this important controversy. By the advice of 
 the French bishops, who were no friends to 
 this second council of Nice, he ordered some 
 learned and judicious divine to compose Four 
 Books concerning Images, which he ^ent, in 
 730, to Adrian, the Roman pontiff, with a 
 view of engaging him to withdraw his appro- 
 bation of the decrees of that council. In this 
 performance the reasons alleged by the NioCne 
 bishops to justify the worship of images, are 
 refuted with great accuracy and spirit.t They 
 were not, however, left without defence: — 
 Adrian, who was afraid of acknowledging 
 even an emperor for his master, composed an 
 answer to the four books mentioned above; but 
 neither his arguments, nor his authority, were 
 sufficient to support the superstition he endea- 
 voured to maintain; for, in 794, Charlemagne 
 
 * Mart. Chemnitius, £xamen Concilii Trid«ntini,par. 
 iv. lib. ii. cap. T. p. 52. — ^L'£nfaiitf FreservaliCcontre la 
 Reunion arec le Sieg;e de Rome, par. iii. leUre zvii.^p. 446. 
 
 f Tlie aversion the Britons had to the worship of ima- 
 ges, may be seen in Spelmao, Concil, Magnae Britannise, 
 tom^i. p. 73. 
 
 JThe books oX Charlemagne concerning Images, which 
 deserve an attentive .perusal, are yet extant; and, when 
 they were extremely scarce, were republished at Hanover, 
 in 1731, by the celebrated Christopher Aug. Heuman, 
 who enriched this edition with a learned preface. These 
 books are adorned with the venerable name of Charle- 
 magne; but it is easy to perceive that theyare the produc- 
 tions of a scholastic divine, and not of an Cmperor. Seve- 
 ral learned men have conjectured, that Charlemagne com- 
 posed these book^ with the assistance of his preceptor Al- 
 cuin; see Heuman's Pref. p. 51; and Biinau'sHistoria Im- 
 perii German, torn. i. p. 490. JThis conjecture, though 
 ■far from being contemptible, cannot be admitted without 
 hesitation, since Alciiin was in England when these ^^ooks 
 were composed. We learn from the history of his life, 
 that ke went into England in 789, and did not thence re- 
 turn beibre 792. 
 
 assembled, at.Frankfort on the Maine, a coun- 
 cil of three htmdred bishops, in order to re-ex- 
 amine this important question; in which the 
 opinions eontained in the four books were so- 
 lemnly confirmed, and the worship of imagea 
 unanimously condemned.* Hence we may* 
 conclude, that in this century the Latins deem- 
 ed it neither impious, nor unlawful, to dissent 
 from the opinion of the Roman pontiff, and 
 even to charge'that prelate with error. 
 
 XV. While the controversy concerning ima- 
 ges was at its height, a new contest arose 
 among the Latins and Greeks aboiit the source 
 whence the. Holy Ghost proceeded. The Latins 
 affirmed, that this . divine Spirit proceeded 
 from the Father and' the Son: the Greeks, on 
 the contrary, asserted, that it proceeded from 
 the Father only. The origin of this contro- 
 versy is covered with perplexity and doubt. It 
 is, however, certain, that it waB agitated in the 
 council of Gentilli, near Paris, in 767, in pre- 
 sence of the emperor's legates;! ^"^ from this 
 we may conclude, with a high degree of pro- 
 bability, that it arose in Greece at that time 
 when the contest about images was carried on 
 with the greatest vehemence. In this contro- 
 versy the Latins alleged, in favour of their 
 opinions^ the creed of Constantinople, which 
 the. Spaniards and- French had successively 
 corrupted (upon what occasion is not weU 
 known,) by adding the words filio-que to that 
 part of it which contained the doctrine con- 
 cerning the Holy Ghost. The Greeks, on the 
 other hand, made loud complaints of thiS'Cri- 
 minal attempt of the Latins to corrupt by a 
 manifest interpolation a creed, which served as 
 a rule oif doctrine for the church universal, and 
 declared this attempt impudent and sacrile- 
 gious. ThuSj'the dispute changed at length its 
 object, and was traiisferj'ed from the matter to 
 the interpolated words above mentioned.J In 
 the following century it was parried on with 
 still greater vehemence, and added new fuel to 
 the dissensions- lyhieh already portended a 
 
 *This event is treated with a dee;ree of candour, not 
 more laudable than surprising, by Mabillon, in Frsef. ad 
 Saeculum iv. Actorum SS. Ord. Benedict, part v. See 
 also Jo. Georg. Dorschens, Collat. ad Concilium Franco- 
 fordiense. 
 
 t See Le' Gointe, Annales Eccles. Francorum, toni. T. 
 p. 698. 
 
 X Learned men generally imagine that this controversy 
 began about the words ^fio-^ue, which some of the Latins 
 had added to the creed that had been drawn up by the 
 council of Constantinople, and that from the words the 
 dispute proceeded to the doctrine itself; see Mabillon 
 (Act. Sanctor. Ord. Bened. Ssec. iv. part i. Frsef. p. iv.) 
 who is foUovped by mdny in this particular. But this 
 opinion is certainly .erroneous. The doctrine was the 
 first subject of controversy, wjiich aflerwards extended 
 to the words fiUo~qti£j considered by the Greeks as a ma- 
 nifest inte^olation. Among other proofs of thi5,_the 
 council of Gentilli shows evidently, that the doctrine. con- 
 cerning th£ Holy Spirit had been, for a considerable^me, 
 the subject of controversy, when the diBpute aro^about 
 the words now mentioned. Pagi, in his Critica n^ 
 ninm, torn, iii- p. 3S3, is of opinion, that this confi| 
 had both its date and its occasion from the dispu 
 cerning images; for, when the Latins treated th^ 
 as heretics, on account of- their opposition to imag^iwor- 
 ship, the Greeks in: their turn cnarged the Latms'also 
 with heresy, on account of their maintaining that the 
 Holy Ghost proceeded from the Father and the Son. 
 The learned critic has, however, advanced this opinion 
 without sufficient proof; and we must therefore consider 
 it as no more than a-probahle conjecture. 
 
206 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORl OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 PartII 
 
 schism between the eastern and western 
 churches.* 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 Concerning theRUes and Ceremonies nsed in the 
 ^ Church during this Century. 
 
 I. The religion of this century consisted 
 almost entirely in a motley round of external 
 rites and ceremonies. We are" not, therefore, 
 tj> "Wondei tliat more zeal and diligence were 
 employed in multiplying and regulating these 
 outward marks of a superstitious devotion, 
 than in correcting the vices and follies of men, 
 in enlightening their understandings, and form- 
 ing their hearts. The administration of the 
 sacrament of the Lord's supper, which was 
 deemed the most solemn and important branch 
 of divine worship, was now every where em- 
 bellished, or rather deformed, with a variety 
 of senseless fopperies, which destroyed the 
 beautiful simplicity of that affecting and salu- 
 tary institution. We also find manifest traces, 
 in this century, of that superstitious custom of 
 celebrating what were called solitary masses,] 
 though it be difficult to decide whether they 
 were instituted by a public law, or introduced 
 by the authority of private persons.J Be that 
 as it may, this 'single custom is. sufficient to 
 give us an idea of the superstition and dark- 
 ness that sat brooding over the Ciiristian 
 church in this ignorant age, and renders it im- 
 necessary to enter into a farther detail of the 
 absurd rites with which a designing priesthood 
 continued- to disfigure the religion of Jesus. 
 
 II. Charlemagne seemed disposed to stem 
 this torrent of superstition, which gathered 
 force from day to day; for, not to mention the 
 zeal with which he opposed the worship of 
 images, there are other circumstances that bear 
 testimony to his intentions in this matter, such 
 as his preventing the multiplication of festi- 
 vals, by reducing them to a fixed and limited 
 number, his prohibiting the ceremony of con- 
 secrating the' church bells by the rite of holy 
 aspersion, and his enactment of other ecclesi- 
 astical laws, which redound to his honour. 
 Several circumstances, however, concurred to 
 render his designs abortive, and to blast the 
 success of his worthy purposes; and none more 
 than his excessive attachment to the Roman 
 pontiffs, who were the' patrons and protectors 
 of those who exerted themselves in the cause 
 of ceremonies. This vehement passion for the 
 lordly pontiff was inherited by the great prince 
 of whom we are now speaking, from his fiither 
 Pepin, who had already commanded the man- 
 ner of singing, and the kmd of church-music 
 
 *See Pithasi Hist. Controv. de Frocessione Spiritus S. 
 at the end of his Qod. Canon. Eccles. Roman, p. 355. — 
 Le C^uie'D, Oriens Christian, torn. iii. p. 354. — Ger. J. 
 yossius,,de Xribns Symbolis, Biss. iii. p. 65; and, above 
 all, Jo. Georg. Walchius, Hislor. ControT. d« Processiobe 
 Spiritus S. publishedat Jena in 1751. 
 
 dt^ f Solitary or private masses were such as were cele- 
 brated by the priest alone in behalf of souls detained in 
 purgatory, as well as on some other particular occasions. 
 These masses were prohibited by the laws of the church; 
 but they were a rich source of profit to the clergy.' They 
 were condemned by the canons of a synod assembled at 
 Meutz under Charleniagne, as criminal innovations, and 
 as the fruits of avarice ^nd sloth. 
 
 t See the Treatise concerning Images, attributed to 
 Charlemagne, p. 345; as also George Calixtus, de Missis 
 Solitari's, sect. 13. 
 
 in use at Rome, to be observed in all Christian 
 churches. It was in conformity with his exam- 
 ple, and in comphance with the repeated and 
 importunate solicitation of the pontiff Adrian, 
 that Charlemagne laboured to bring all the 
 Latin churches ,to follow, as their model, the 
 church of Rome, not only in the article now 
 mentioned, but also in the whole form of their 
 worship, in every circumstance of their reli- 
 gious service.* Several churches, however, 
 among which those of Milan and Corbetta.dis- 
 tinguished themselves eminently, absolutely 
 rejected this proposal, and could neither be 
 brought, by persuasion or by violence, to 
 change iheir usual method of worship- 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Concerning the Divisions and Heresies that trmir 
 bkd the Church during this Centimf. 
 
 . I. -The Arians, Manicheans, and Marcion- 
 ites, though often depressed by th^ force of 
 penal laws and the p'ower of the secular arm, 
 gathered strength in the east, amidst the tu- 
 mults and divisions with which the Grecian 
 empire was perpetually agitated, and ' drew 
 great numbers into the profession of their opin- 
 ions.f The Monothplites, to whose cause the 
 emperor Philippicus, and many others of the 
 first rank and dignity, were most zealous well- 
 wishers, regained their credit in various coun- 
 tries. The condition also both of the Nestori 
 ans and Monophysites was easy and agreeable 
 under the dominion of the Arabians; their 
 power and influence were considerable; nor 
 were they destitute of means of weakening 
 the Greeks, their irreconcileable adversaries, 
 of spreading their doctrines, and extensively, 
 multiplying the number of their adherents. 
 
 II. In the church whick Boniface had newly 
 erected in Germany, he himself tells us, that 
 there were many perverse and erroneous repro- 
 bates, who had no true notion of religion; and 
 his friends and adherents confirm this assertion. 
 But the testimony is undoubtedly partial, and 
 unworthy of credit, since it appears from the 
 most evident proofs^ that the persons here ac- 
 cused of errors and heresies were Irish and 
 French divines, who refused that blind sub- 
 mission to the church of Rome, which Bon> 
 face was so zealous to propagate every where 
 Adalbert, a Gaul, and Clement, a native of 
 Ireland, were the persons whose opposition 
 gave the most trouble to the ambitious Ipgate. . 
 The former procured himself to be consecrated 
 bishop, without the consent of Boniface; ex- 
 cited seditions and tumults among the eastern 
 Franks; and appears, indeed, to have been both 
 flagitious in his conduct, and erroneous in his 
 opinions. . Among other irregularities, he was 
 the forgerj of a letter to the' human race, 
 which Was said to have been written by Jesus 
 Christ, and to have been brought from heaven 
 by the arch-angel Michael.§ As to Clement, 
 
 * Sec the Treatise concerning Images, p. 52; and Egin- 
 hard, de Vita Carol! Magui, cap. 26. 
 
 f In Europe also Ariantsm prevailed greatly among the 
 barbarous nations that embraced the GhTistian Jaitfa.^ 
 
 i See the Histoire Literairc de la France, tom.,iT. p. ^> 
 
 $ There is an edition of this letter published by the 
 learned Baluze in the Capitularia Regum Fraacomin 
 torn, ii. p. 1396. 
 
Chap. V. 
 
 DIVISIONS AND HERESIES. 
 
 207 
 
 his character and sentiments were malifciously 
 misrepresented, since it appears, by the best 
 and most authentic accounts, that he was 
 much better acquainted with the true princi- 
 ples and doctrines of Christianity than Boni- 
 face himself; and herice he is considered by 
 many as a confessor and sufferer for the truth 
 in this barbarous age.* Be that as it will, 
 both Adalbert and Clement were condemned, 
 at the instigation of Boniface, by the pontiff 
 Zachary, in a council assembled at Rome, in 
 748,t and were committed -to prison, where, in 
 all probability, they concluded theirtd'ays. 
 
 III. Religious discord ran still higher in 
 Spain, France, and Germany, toward the con- 
 clusion of this century; and the most unhappy 
 tumults and commotions were occasioned by a 
 question proposed to Felix bishop of Urgel, by 
 Elipand, archbishop of Toledo, who desired to 
 know in what sense Christ was the son of 
 God. The answer given to this question, was, 
 that Christ, considered in his divine nature, 
 was truly and essentially the Son of God; but 
 that, considered as a man, he was only so^ 
 nominally^ and by adoption. This doctrine 
 was spread abroad by the two prelates; Eli- 
 pand propagated it in the different provinces 
 of Spain, and Felix throughout Septimania, 
 while the pontiff Adrian, and the greatest 
 
 * We fil^d an enumeration of the erroneous opinions 
 of Clement in the letters of Boniface, Epistol. cxxxv. p. 
 189. 5ee also Usserii Sylloge Epistolarum Hibernica- 
 ' rum, 6. 19. Noitveau Pictionnaire Histor. et Critique, 
 torn. I. p. 133. {}^ The zealous Boniface was too ignorant 
 lobe a proper judge of heresy, as appears by his condemn- 
 ing; Vigilius for believing that there were antipodes. The 
 great heresy of Clement seems to have been his preferring 
 the decisions of Scripture to the decrees of councils and 
 the opinions of the fathers, which he took the liberty to 
 reject when they were not conformable to the word of 
 
 Q^ f This is the true date of the council assembled by 
 Zachary for the condemnation of Adalbert and Cleinent, 
 and not the year 745, as Fleury and Mabillon have pre- 
 tended; iu'which error they are fgllowed by Mr. Bower, 
 in his History of the Popes. The truth is, that the letter 
 of 'Boniface, in consequence of which this councit was 
 ' asseinbled, mus^ have been written in 748, since he de- 
 clares in thatletter, that he |iad been near thirty years 
 legate of the holy see, into which commission he entered, 
 as. all authors aicree, about the year 719. 
 
 part of the Latin doctors, looked upon this 
 (^pinion as a renovation of the Nestorian here- 
 sy, by its representing Christ as divided into 
 two distinct persons. I9 consequence of this, 
 Felix was successively condemned by the coun- 
 cils of Narbonne, Ratisbon, Frankfort on the 
 Maine, and Rome, and was finally 6bliged, by 
 the council of Aix-la-Chapelle, to retract his er- 
 ror, and to change his opinion.* The change he 
 made was, however, rather nominal than real, 
 the common shift of temporising divines; for 
 he still retained his doctrine, and died in the 
 firm belief of it at Lyons, to which city he had' 
 been banished by Charlemagpe.l Elipand, on 
 the contrary, lived secure in Spain under the 
 dominion of the Saracens, far removed from 
 the thunder of synods and councils, and out 
 of the reach of that coercive power in reli- 
 gious matters, whose utmost efforts can go no 
 farther than to make the erroneous, hypocrites 
 or martyrs. Many are of opinion, that the 
 disciples of Felix, who were called Adoptians, 
 departed much less from the doctrine generally 
 received among Christians, thaii is commonly 
 imagined; and that what chiefly distinguished 
 their tenets were the terms they used, and their 
 manner of expression, rather than a real diver- 
 sity of sentiments.}: But, as this sect and their 
 chief thought proper to make use of singular 
 and sometimes of contradictory expressions, 
 this furnished such as accused them of Nesto- 
 rianism, with plausible reasons to support their 
 bharge. 
 
 Q^ * The cpuncil of JNTarbonne, which condemned 
 Felix, was holden in 788, that of Batisbon iii 792, that of 
 Frankfort in 794, that of Rome in 799. 
 
 f The authors, who have written of the sect of Felix, 
 are n^entioned by Fabricius, Biblioth. Lat. medii iEvi, 
 lorn. ii. p. 482; Add to these Fetrus de Marca, in his 
 Marca Hispanica, lib. iii. cap. xii. p. 368. — Jo. de Ferre- 
 
 ras, Historia de Espana, tom. ii Mabillon, Frsef. ad 
 
 Sseciv. Actor. SS. Ord. Benedicti, part ii. - There are 
 also very particular accounts given of Felix by Dom. Co- 
 lonia, in his Histoire Literaire de la Villcde Lyon, tom. 
 ii. aud by the Benedictine monks in their Histoire Lite- 
 raire de la France, tom. iv. 
 
 I Jo. G. Dorscheus, Collat. ad Conciliuqi Francofurt, 
 
 g. 101. — Werenfels, de Logomachiis S^ruditorutldi^ p. 459. 
 asnagius, Praef. ad Etherium in Canisii Lection, antiquis, 
 tom. ii. part i. p. 284'. — Cr. Calixtus, .Singul. Diss. 
 
THE NINTH CENTURY. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 THE EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Concerning the Prosperous Events which happen- 
 
 ed to the Church in this Century. 
 
 I. . The reign of Charlemagne had been sin- 
 gularly auspicious to the Christian cause; the 
 life of that great prince was principally em- 
 ployed in the most zealous efforts to propagate 
 and establish the religion of Jesus among the 
 Huns, Saxons, Friselanders, and other unen- 
 lightened nations; but his piety was mixed 
 with Violence, his spiritual-conquests were ge- 
 nerally made by the force of arms, and this 
 impure mixture tarnishes the lustre of his no- 
 blest exploits. His son 'Louis, undeservedly 
 Burnamed the Debonnaire, or the Meek, in- 
 herited the defects of his father without his 
 virtues, and was his equal in violence and cru- 
 elty, but greatly his inferior in all worthy and' 
 valuable accomplishments. Under his reign a 
 very favourable opportunity was offered of pro- 
 pagating, the Gospel among the northern na- 
 tions, and particularly among the inhabitants 
 of Sweden and Denmark. A petty king of 
 Jutland, named Harald Klack, being driven 
 from his kirigdom and-country, in 826, by 
 Kegner Lodbrock, threw himself at the em- 
 peror's feet, and implored his succours against 
 the usurper. Louis granted his request, and 
 promised the. exiled prince his protection aijd 
 assistance, on condition, however, that he 
 would embrace Christianity, arid admit the 
 ministers of that rehgion to preach in his do- 
 minions. Harald submitted to these condi- 
 tions, was baptised with his brother at Mentz, 
 in 826, and returned into his country attended 
 by two eminent divines, Ansgar or Anschaire, 
 and Authbert; the former a monk of Corbey 
 in Westphalia, and the latter belonging to a 
 monastery of the same name in France. — 
 These venerable missionaries preached the 
 Gospel with remarkable success, during the 
 course of two years, to the inhabitants of 
 Cimbria and Jutland. 
 
 H. After the death of his learned and pious 
 companion Authbert, .^the zealous and' indefati- 
 gable Ansgar made a voyage into Sweden, in 
 828, where his ministerial labours were also 
 crowned with distinguished success. Return- 
 ing into Germany, in 831, he was loaded by 
 Louis with ecclesiastical honours, being creat- 
 ed archbishop of the new church at Hamburg, 
 and also of the. whole north, to which dignity, 
 in 844, the superintendence of the church at 
 Bremen was added. The profits attached to 
 this high and honourable charge were very in- 
 considerable, while the perils and labours, in 
 winch it involved the pious prelate, were truly 
 formidable. Accordingly he travelled fre- 
 
 quently among the Danes, Cimbrians, and 
 Swedes, in order to prompte the cause of 
 Chrfst, to form new churches, and to confirm 
 and establish those which ho had already' in- 
 corporated; in all which arduous enterprises 
 he passed his life in the most imminent dan- 
 gers, until, in 865, he concluded his glorious 
 course.* 
 
 in. About the iniddle of this century the 
 M(B5ians,f Bulgarians, and Gazarians, and 
 after them the Bohemians and Moravians, 
 were converted to Christianity by Methodius 
 and Cyril, two Greek monks, whom the em- 
 press Theodora had sent to dispel the darkness 
 of those idolatrous iiations.| The zeal of 
 Charlemagne, and of his pious missionaries, 
 had been formerly exerted in the same cause, 
 and among the same people,| but with so little 
 success, that any faint notions which they had 
 received of the Christian doctrine were entirely 
 effaced. The instructions of the Grecian doc- 
 tors had a much better, and also a more per- 
 manent effect; but, as they recommended to 
 their new disciples the forms of worship, and 
 the various rites and ceremonies used among 
 the Greeks,|| this was the occasion of much 
 religious animosity and contention in after- 
 times,' when the lordly pontiffs exerted all their 
 vehemence, and employed all the means which 
 they could devise, though with imperfect suc- 
 cess, for reducing these nations under the dis- 
 cipline and jurisdiction of the Latin church; 
 
 IV. Under the reign of BasiliuS, the Mace- 
 donian, who ascended the imperial throne of 
 the Greeks in 867, the Sclavonians, Arentani, 
 and certain communities of Dalmatia, sent a 
 solemn embassy to Cpnstantinople to declare 
 their resolution of submitting to the jurisdic- 
 tion of the Grecian empire, and of embracing, 
 at the same time, the Christiein' religion. This 
 
 * The writers to. whom we are indebted for accounts 
 of this pious and illustrious prelate, the founder of the 
 Cimbrian, Danish, and Swedish churches, are mentioned 
 by Fabricius in his Biblioth. Latin, medii M,vi, torn. i. 
 p. 292, as also in his Lor Evangelii Orbi Terrarum exo- 
 riens, p. &S. Add to these the Benedictine nionks, in 
 their Histoire Lit. de la France, torn. v. p. 277.— Acta 
 Sanctor. Mens.Fcbruar. torn. i. p. 391 — Erici Pontoppi- 
 dani Annales E^cles. Danicae Diplomat, torn. i.-p. 18.— 
 Molleri Cimbria' titcrala, tom. iii. These writers give 
 us also cireumstanti^ accounts of Ebbo, Withmar, Rem- 
 bert, and others, who were either the fellow-labourers or 
 successors of Ansgar. 
 
 CiJ- 1 'We have translated th\is the term Mtjsi, which 
 is an error in the original. Dr. Mosheim, like many 
 others, has confounded the Mysians with the inhabitants 
 of Moesia, by giving to the latter, who were Europeans, 
 the title of tile former, who' dwelt in Asia. 
 
 t Jo. (George Stredowsky, Sacra^ Moravia Historia, lib. 
 ii. cap. ii. p. 94, compared with Fet. Kohlii Introduct. in 
 Historiam et Rem liter. Slavorum, p. 124. 
 
 $ StredowAy, lib. i. cap. ix..p. 55. 
 
 II L'Enlant, Histoire de la Guerre des Hussites, livr. i. 
 
Chap. H. 
 
 CALAMITOUS EVENTS. 
 
 209 
 
 chiefly in view the ha;ppiiieBS of mankind, en- 
 deavoured to promote the gospel of truth and 
 peace by r.ationaI persuasion, and seconded 
 their arguments by the victorious power pf ex- 
 emplary lives. It must, however, be confess- 
 ed, that the doctrine they taught was far from 
 being conformable to the pure and excellent 
 rules of faith and practice laid down by our 
 divine Saviour and his holy apostles; for their 
 rehgious system was corrupted by a variety of 
 superstitious rites, and a multitude of absurd 
 inventions. It is farther certain, that there 
 remained among these converted nations too 
 many ti^aces of the idolatrous religion of their 
 ancestorsj notwithstanding the zealous labours 
 of their Christian guides: 'and it appears also, 
 that these pious missionaries were content with 
 introducing an external profession of the true 
 religion among their new proselytes. It would 
 be, however, unjust to accuse them on this ac- 
 count of negligence or corruption in the dis- 
 charge of their ministry, since in order to gain 
 over these fierce and savage nations to the 
 church, it may have been al»olntely necessary 
 to indulge them in some of their infirmities 
 and prejudices, and to connive at many things, 
 which pious missionaries could not approve, 
 and which, in other circumstances, they would 
 have been careful to correct. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Conctrning'tke Calamitous JEuents that Itappened 
 to the Church during this Century. 
 
 I. The- Saracens had now extended their 
 usiirpations with amazing success. Masters 
 of Asia, a few provinces excepted, they pushed 
 their conquests to the extremities of India, and 
 obliged ^ great part of Africa to receive their 
 yoke; nor were their enterprises in the west 
 without effect, since Spain and Sardinia sub- 
 mitted to their arms, and fell under their do- 
 minion. ' But their conquests did not end here; 
 for, in 827, by the treason of Euphemius, they 
 made themselves masters of the rich and fertile 
 island of Sicily; and, toward the conclusion of 
 this century,' an army of those-barbarians, pro- 
 ceeding from Asia, seized- several cities of Ca- 
 lalma, and spread the terror of their victorious 
 arms even to the very walls of Rome, while 
 Crete, Corsica, and other islands,^ were either 
 joined to their possessions, or ravaged by their 
 incursions. It is easy to comprehend that this 
 overgrown prosperity of a nation accustomed 
 to bloodshed and rapine, and which also beheld 
 'the Christians with the utmost aversion, must 
 have been every where -detrimental to the pro- 
 gress of the Gospel^ and to the tranquillity of 
 the church. In the east, more especially, a 
 prodigious number of Christian families em- 
 braced' the religion «f their conquerors, that 
 they might live in the ^peaceful enjoyment of 
 their possessions. Minj, indeed, refused this 
 base and criminal compliance, and with a pious 
 magnanimity adhered to their principles in the 
 face of persecution; but such were gradually 
 reduced to a miserable condition, and wpre not 
 only robbed of the best part of their wealtli, 
 and deprived of their worldly advantages, but, 
 what was still more deplorable, they fell by 
 degrees into such incredible ignorance and stu 
 
 proposal was received with admiration and joy; 
 and it was also answered by a suitable ardour 
 and zeal for the conversion of a people that 
 seemed so ingenuously disposed to ernbrace the 
 truth: accordingly,, a competent number of 
 Grecian doctors were sent among them to in- 
 struct them in the knowledge of the Gospel, 
 and to admit them by baptism into the Chris- 
 tian church.* The warlike nation of the Rus- 
 sians were converted under the same emperor, 
 but not in the same manner, or from the same 
 noble and rational motives. Having entered 
 into a treaty of peace with that prince, they 
 were engaged by various presents and promises 
 to embrace the Gospel, in consequence 6f 
 which they received not only the Christian 
 ministers that were appointed to instruct them, 
 but also an archbishop, whom the Grecian 
 patriarch Ignatius had sent among them, to 
 perfect their conversion and establish their 
 church.f Such were the beginnings of Chris- 
 tianity among the bold and warlike Russians, 
 who were inhabitants of the Ukraine, and who, 
 before their conversion, had fitted out a formi- 
 dable -fleet, and, setting sail from Kiow for 
 Constantinople, had spread terror and dismay 
 through the whole empire.}; 
 
 V. It is proper to observe, with respect to 
 the various conversions which we have now 
 been relating, that they were undertaken upon 
 much better principles, and executed in' a more 
 pious and rational manner, than those of the 
 preceding ages. The ministers, who were now 
 sent to instruct and convert the barbarous na- 
 tions, did not, like many of their predecessors, 
 employ the terror of penal laWs, to affright 
 men into the profession of 'Christianity; nor, in 
 establishing churches upon the ruins of idola- 
 try, -were. they principally attentive to promote 
 the grandeur and extend the authority of the 
 Roman pontiffs; their views were more noble, 
 and their conduct more suitable to the genius 
 of the religion they professed. They had 
 
 * 'We are' indebted for this account .of the conversion 
 of the Sclavonians'to the treatise' de admlmstratido Impe- 
 riO) composed by the .learned emperor Constantine Por- 
 phyrogeneta, and published by Bandurius in his Imper. 
 Orient. tom.:i. Constantine gives the same account of this 
 event in the life of his.granafather Easilius, the J^acedb- 
 nian^ sect. 54, published in the Corpus Scriptorum By- 
 zantinorum, torn. xvi. 
 
 t ConstanlinUB For^h. in Vita Basilii Macedonis, sect. 
 96. p. 157. . Corp. Byzant. See also the IVarratio de 
 Ruthenorum Conversione, Pllblished both. in Greek and 
 Latin by Bandurius", in his Irnper; Orient. 
 
 I The learned Lequien in his Qriens Christianus, torn. 
 i. p. 1257„gives a very inaccurate account of those Rus- 
 sians who were converted. to Christianity under the reign 
 of Basilius the Macedonian; and in this he does no more 
 than adopt the errors of many who wrote before him 
 upon the same subject. Nor is he consistent -with him- 
 self; for in one place he aiiirm's, that the people here spo- 
 ken of were the Russians who lived in the neighbour- 
 hood of the Bulgarians, while in another he maintains, 
 that by these Russians we are to understand Ihe Grazari- 
 ans. The only reason he alle||e5 to support the latter 
 opinion is, that, among the Christian doctors sent to in- 
 struct the Russians, mention is made of Cyril, who con- 
 verted the Gazarir to Christianity. This reason shows, 
 that the learned writer had a most imperfect knowledge 
 both of these Russians and the Gazari. He is also guilty 
 of other mistakes uj^n the same subject. There is a 
 much better explanation of this matter given by the very 
 learned Theoph. Sieifred Bayer, Dissert, de Russorum 
 -prima Gxpeditione Constantinopoiitana, wjiich ispublish- 
 ed in the sixth volume of The Gommentaria Acad. Scien- 
 tiar. Fetropolitanae. 
 
 Vol.. l.—sn 
 
210 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part 11. 
 
 pldity, that, in process of time, there were 
 ■carcely anj remains of Christianity to Be fomid 
 among them, beside the mere name, and a few 
 external rites and ceremonies. The Saracens 
 who had fixed themselves in Europe, particu- 
 larly those who were settled in Spain, were of a 
 miich milder disposition, and seemed to have 
 put off, the greatest part of their native feroci- 
 tyj so that the Christians, generally speaking, 
 lived peaceably under their dominion, and 
 w;ere permitted to observe the laws, and to 
 enjoy the privileges of their holy profession. 
 It must, however, be confessed, that this mild 
 and tolerating conduct of the Saracens was 
 not without some few exceptions of cl-uelty.* 
 ', . II. The European Christians had the most 
 cruel sufferings to undergo froni another quar- 
 ter ,.^ven from the insatiable fury of a swarm 
 of barbarians that issued out from the northern 
 provinces. The Normans, under which gene- 
 ral term axe comprehended the Danes, Norwe- 
 gians, and Swedes, whose habitations lay along 
 the coasts of the Baltic sea, were a people ac- 
 customed to carnage and rapine. Their petty 
 kings and chie&, who subsisted' by piracy and 
 plunder, had' already, during the reign of Char- 
 lemagne, infested with their fleets the coasts 
 of the German ocean, but were restrained by 
 the opposition they met with from the vigi- 
 lance and activity of that warlike prince. In 
 this century, however, they became more bold 
 and enterprising, made frequent irruptions into 
 Germany, Britain, Friseland, and Gaul, and 
 carried along with them, wherever they Went, 
 fire and sword, desolation and horror. The 
 impetuous fury of these savage barbarians not 
 only spread. desolation through the Spanish 
 provinces,! but even penetrated into the very 
 
 * See, for esample, the account that ia given of Eulo- 
 eius, who suffered martyrdom at Cordova, iu the Acta 
 Sanctorum ad d. xi. Martii, torn. ii. pr88; as also of Ro- 
 deric and Solomon, two Spanish martyrs of- this century. 
 Ibid, ad d. ^iii. Martil\ p. 328. 
 
 t Jo. de Ferrerag, Historia de Espana, vol. ii. Piracy 
 was esteemed among the northern nations a very honoura- 
 ble and^iioble profession; and hence the sons of^^kings, and 
 the young nobility, were trained up to this species of rob- 
 bery ,'ana made it their principal busiiiesa to perfect them- 
 
 heart of Italy; for, in 857, they ravaged and 
 plundered the city of Luna in the most cruel 
 manner; and, about three years after, Pisa, and 
 several other towns of Italy, met with the same 
 fate.* The ancient histories of the Franks 
 abound with the most dismal, accounts of their 
 horrid exploits. 
 
 III. The first vieyvs of these savage invaders 
 extended no farther than plunder; but, charm- 
 ed at length with the "beauty and fertility of 
 the provinces which they were so cruelly de- 
 populating, they began to fprm settlements in 
 them; nor were the European princes in a con- 
 dition to oppose their usurpations. On the 
 contrary, Charles the Bald was obliged, in 850, 
 to resign a considerabls' part of his dominions 
 to the powerful banditti;! and a few years 
 after, imder the reign of Charles the Gross, 
 emperor and king of France, the famous Nor • 
 man chief Godofred entered with an army into 
 Friseland, and obstinately refused to sheath his 
 sword before he was master of the whole pro- 
 yince.J Such, however, of the Normans" aa 
 settled among the Christians, contracted a more 
 gentle turn of mind, and gradually departed 
 from their primitive brutality. Their marri- 
 ages with the Christians contributed, no doubt, 
 to civilize th^n; and engaged them to abandon 
 the superstition of their ancestors with more 
 facility, and to embrace the G^ospel with more 
 readiness than they would haye otherwise done. 
 Thus the proud conqueror of Friseland solemnly 
 embraced the Christian religion after he had 
 received in marriagej from Charles ^he Gross, 
 Gisela, the daughter of Lothaire the younger. 
 
 selves in it. .Nor will this appear very surprising to such 
 as consider the religion of these^nations, and the barba- 
 rism of the times. See Jo. Lnd. Hblberg, Historisi Ba- 
 norum et Norvegorum IVavalis, in Scnptis Societatis 
 Scientiar. Hafniensis, torn. iii. p. 349, in which there are 
 a multitude of curious and interesting relations fwncern- 
 log the ancient piracies, drawn from the Danish and 
 Norwegian annals. 
 
 ' See the Scriptores-^ Rerum Italicarum, published by 
 Muratori. . 
 
 t Annales incerti Auctoris, in Fithsei Sf^riptor. Francic 
 p. 46. 
 ' { Reginonis Frumiensis Annal. lib. ii , 
 
 PART II. 
 
 THE INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Concerning the State of. Letters and Philosophy 
 during-this Century. 
 
 J. The GreciaB'empire, in this century, was 
 in circumstances seemingly calculated to ex- 
 tinguish all taste for letters and philosophy, 
 and all zeal for the cultivation of the sciences. 
 The liberality, however, of the emperors, some 
 of whom weremen of learning and taste,iand 
 the wise precautions taken .by the patriarchs 
 of Constantinople, among- whom Photius de- 
 serves the Ih-st rank in point of erudition, con- 
 tributed to attach a certain mmiber of learned 
 .men to that imperial city, and thus prevented 
 the total decline of letters. Accordingly, we 
 
 find in Constantinople, at this time, several per- 
 sons who, excelled in eloquence and poetry; 
 sonfe who displayed, in their writings against 
 the Latins, a considerable knowledge of the 
 art of reasoning, and a high degree of dexterity 
 in the management of controversy; and others 
 who composed the history of their own times 
 with accuracy and elegance. The controversy 
 with the Latins, when it grew more keen and 
 animated, contributed, in a particular manner, 
 to excite the literary emulation of the dispu- 
 tants; rendered them studious to acquire new 
 ideas, and a rich and.copious elocution, adorn- 
 ed with the graces of elegance and wit; and 
 thus roused and invigorated talents that were 
 ready to perish in indolence' and sloth. 
 
CBi.F. I. 
 
 LEARNING AND PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 211 
 
 II. We learn from Zonaras, that the Btudy 
 of philosophy lay for a long time neglected in 
 this age; but it was revived, vfith a zeal for the 
 sciences in general, under the emperor The- 
 ophilus, and his son Michael III. This .revival 
 of letters may principally be ascribed* to the 
 encouragement and protection which the learn- 
 ed received from Bardas, who had been declar- 
 ed by Cffisar, himself an jUiterate raan^ but a 
 warm friend of the celebrated Photius, the 
 great patron of science, by whose counsel he 
 was, undoubtedly, directed in this matter. At 
 the head of all tie learned men to whom Bar- 
 das committed tlie culture of the sciences, he 
 placed Leo, surnamed the Wise, a man of the 
 most profound arid uncommon erudition, and 
 who. afterwards was cohsecrated bishop of 
 Thessalonica. Photius explained the Catego- 
 ries of Aristotle, while Michael Psellus gave a 
 brief exposition of the better works of that 
 great philosopher. 
 
 III. The Arabiana, who, instead of cultivat- 
 ing the arts and sciences, had thought of no- 
 thing hitherto, but of extending their territo- 
 ries, were now excited to literary pursuits by 
 Almamoun, otherwise called Abu.Giafer Ab- 
 dallah, whose zeal for the advancement of let- 
 ters was greatj and whose munificence toward 
 men of learning and genius was truly royal. 
 Under the auspicious protection of this cde- 
 brated khalif of Syria and Egypt, the Arabi- 
 ans made a rapid and astonishing progress in 
 various kinds of learning. This excellent prince 
 began to reign about the time of the death of 
 Charlemagne, and died in 833. He erected 
 the famous schaols of Bagdad, Cufa, and Basra, 
 and established seminaries of learning in seve- 
 ral other cities; he drew to his court men of 
 eminent^ parts by his extraordinary liberality, 
 set up noble libraries in various places, caused 
 translations to be made of the best Grecian 
 productions into the Arabic language at a vast 
 expense, and employed every method of pro- 
 moting the cause of learning, that became a 
 great and generous prince, whose zeal for the 
 sciences was attended with knowledge.! It 
 was Under the reign of this celebrated khalif, 
 that ihe Arabians began to take pleasure in the 
 Grecian learning, and to propagate it, by de- 
 grees, not only in Syria and Africa, but also in 
 Spain and Italy; and from this period they 
 give us a loijg catalogue of celebrated philoso- 
 phers, physicians, astronomers, and .mathema- 
 
 ^ticians, who were ornaments to thei* nation 
 through several succeieding ages; J and in this 
 certainly th.ey do not boast without reason, 
 though we are not to considg:, as literally true, 
 all the wonderful and pompous things which 
 the more modem Writers of the Saracen his- 
 tory tell us of these illustrious philosophers. 
 
 -After this period the European Christians 
 proStted much by the Arabian learning, and 
 were highly indebted to the Saracens for im- 
 provement in the various sciences; for the 
 
 * Zonar. Ajinal. torn. ii. lib. xvi. 
 
 f Abulphar^ius, Historia Synastlar. p. S46. — Geore;. 
 Elmacin.- Histor. Saraoea. lib. ii. p. 139. — ^Herbelot, Bib- 
 lioth. Orient, article Mamun, jt. 5-15. 
 
 i See the treatise of Leo Africanus, de Medicis et Fhi- 
 losophis Arabibus, published by Fabricius in his Biblio 
 Uieca Greeca, tdm. xii. p. SI59. 
 
 mathematics, astronomy, physic, and philoso- 
 phy, that were taught in Europe from the tenth 
 century, were, for thfe most part, drawn from ' 
 th^ Arabian schools that were established in 
 Spain and Italy, or from the writings of the 
 Arabian sages. Hence the Saracens may, in 
 one respect, be justly considered as the restorers 
 of learning in Europe. 
 
 IV. In that part of Europe which was Sub- 
 ject to the dominion of the Franks, Charle- 
 magne laboured with incredible zeal and ardour 
 for the advancement of useful learning, and 
 animated his subjects to the culture of the 
 sciences in all their various branches: so that, 
 had his successors been disposed to follow his 
 example, and capable of acting upon the noble 
 plan which he formed, the ertipire, in a little 
 time, would have heen entirely delivered from 
 barbarism and ignorance. It is true, this great 
 prince left in his familya certain spirit of emu- 
 lation, which animated- his immediate succes- 
 sors to imitate, in some measure, his zeal for 
 the prosperity of the republic of letters. Louis 
 the Debonnaire both formed and executed se- 
 veral designs that were extremely conducive 
 to the progress of the arts and sciences;* and 
 his zeal, in this respect, was surpassed by the 
 ardour with which his son' Charles the Bald 
 exerted himself in the propagation of lettera, 
 and in exciting the emulation of the learned 
 by the most alluring marks of his protection 
 and favour. This great patron of the seiencea 
 drew the literati to his court from all partsi 
 took a particular delight in their conversation, 
 multiplied and embellished the seminaries of 
 learning, anc} protected, in a more especial 
 manner, the Aulic school, of which mention 
 has already been made, and which was first 
 erected in the seventh century, for the educa- 
 tion of the royal fainily and the first nobility.f 
 His brother Lothair& endeavoured to revive in 
 Italy the drooping sciences, and to rescue them 
 from that state of languor BUd decay into 
 which the corruption and indolence of the 
 clergy had permitted them to fall. Forftis 
 purpose he erected schools in the eight princi- 
 pal cities of Italy, in 823,]: but with little suc- 
 cess, since that country appears to have been 
 entirely destitute of men of learning and ge- 
 nius djuring the ninth century.^ 
 
 In England learning had a better fate under 
 the auspicious protection of king Alfred, who 
 acquired au immortal _ name, not only by the 
 admirable progress he made in allkinds of ele- 
 gant and useful knowledge, || but a,lso by the 
 care he took to multiply men of letters ana 
 genius in his dominions, and to restore to the 
 
 583. 
 
 '' See the Histoire Literaire de la Fraiice, torn. iv. p. 
 
 ). --■ 
 
 f Herman. Conripgii Antiquit. AcademicaSj p. 390. — 
 CjBS. Eg. du Boulay, Hist, Acad. Paris, torn. i. p. 17S, — 
 Launoy, de Scholis Garoli M. cap. xi, xii. p. 47. — ^HlB- 
 toireiiter. de la France, torn. t. p. 483. 
 
 I See the edict for that purpose among the Capitularia, 
 published by Muratori-in the first TOlume of his compila- 
 tion de Rebus Ztalicis. 
 
 & See Muratori's Antiq. Ital. medii .^vi, torn. iii. p. 
 39.- 
 
 (I See Ant. Wood. Hist, et Antiquit. .4cadem. Oxoniens. 
 lib. i. p. 13 — Boulay, Hist. Acad, Paris, torn. i. p. 911. — 
 General Dictionary, at the article Alfred. (This'prlQce, 
 among other pious and learned, labo.urs, translated the 
 Pastoral of Gre|;ory I., Boetius de Coiiiolatione, ani 
 Bede's Ecclesiastical History.) 
 
212 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part II. 
 
 sciences, sacred and profane, the credit and 
 lustre wliich tliey so eminently deserve.* 
 
 V. But the infelicity of the times rendered 
 the effects of all this zeal and all these projects 
 for the advancement of learning much less 
 considerable than might have otherwise been 
 expected. The protectors and patrons of the 
 learned were themselves learned; their authori" 
 ty was respectabloj and. their munificence was 
 boundle^; and yet the progress of science to- 
 ward perfection was but slow, because the in- 
 terruptions arising from the troubled state of 
 Europe were frequent. The discords that 
 arose between Louis and his sons, which were 
 succeeded by a rupture between the latter, re-, 
 tarded considerably the progress of letters in 
 the empire; and the incursions and victories 
 of the Normans, which afflicted Europe during 
 the whole course of this century, were so in- 
 imical to the culture of the arts and sciences, 
 that, in most of the regions of this part of the 
 world, and even in France, tliere remained but 
 a small number who truly deserved the title of 
 learned men.f The wretched and incoherent 
 fragments of erudition that yet remained 
 among the clergy were confiiied to the monas- 
 teries, &nd to the episcopal schools; but the 
 zeal of the monkish and priestly orders for the 
 improvement of the mind, and the culture of 
 the sciences, diminished in proportion as their 
 revenues increased. So that their indolence and 
 ignorance grew with their possessions. 
 
 VI. It must, however, be confessed, that se- 
 veral examples of learned men, whose zeal for 
 science was kindled by the encouragement and 
 tnunificence of Charlemagne, shone forth with 
 a distinguished Itlstre through the darkness of 
 this barbarous age. Among these, the first 
 rank is due to Rabanus jyiaurus, whose fame 
 iiaa great through all Germany and France, 
 and to whoni the youth resorted, in prodigious 
 numbers, from all parts, to receive his instruc- 
 tions in the liberal arts and sciences. The 
 writers of history, Whose works have deserved- 
 ly preserved their names from oblivion, are 
 Egirihard, Freculph, Thegan, Haymo, Anas- 
 tasiusj Ado, and others of less liote. Florus, 
 Wala.fridUs Strabo, Bertharius, and Rabanus, 
 excelled in poetry. Smaragdus and Bertharius 
 were eminent for their skill in grammar and 
 languagesy as was also the celebrated Rabanus 
 already riientioned, who acquired a very high 
 degreri of reputation by h, learned and sUbtile 
 treatise concerning the causes and the rise of 
 languages. The Greek and Hebrew erudition 
 was cultivated with considerable success by 
 
 William, Scrvatua Lupus, Scotus, and others. 
 Eginhard, Agobard, Hincmar, and Servatus 
 Lupus, were famed for the eloquence which 
 appeared both in their discourses and in their 
 writings.* 
 
 VII. The philosophy and logic that were 
 taught in the European schools during this 
 century, scarcely deserved such honourable 
 titles, and were little better than an empty jar- 
 gon. There were, however, to be found in 
 various countries, particularly among the Irish, 
 men of acute parts and extensive knowledge, 
 who were perfectly well entitled to the appel- 
 lation of philosophers. Of these, the chief 
 was Johannes Scotus Erigena,t a native of 
 Ireland, the friend and companion of Charles 
 the Bald, who delighted so much in his con- 
 versation as to honour hjm with a place at his 
 table. Scotus was endowed with an excellent 
 and truly superior genius, and was considera- 
 bly Versed both in Greek and Latin erudition. 
 He explained to his disciples the philosophy of 
 Aristotle, for which he was singularly well 
 qualified by his thorough knowledge of the 
 Greek language; but, as his genius was too 
 bold and aspiring to confine itself to the au- 
 thority and deciaons of the Stagirite, he push- 
 ed his philosophical researches yet farther, 
 dared to think for himself, and ventured to 
 pursue truth without any other guide than his 
 own reason. We h^ve yet extant of his com- 
 position, five Books concerning the Division 
 of Nature; an intricate and subtile production, 
 in which the causes and principles of all things 
 are investigated with a considerable degree of 
 sagacity, and in which also the precepts of 
 Christianity are allegoricaUy explained, yet in 
 such a manner as to show, lliat their ultimate 
 end is the union of the soul with the Supreme 
 Being. He was the first who blended the 
 scholastic theology with the mystic, and form- 
 ed both into one system. It has also been 
 imagined, that he was far from rejecting the 
 opinions of those who consider the union of 
 God and nature, as similar to the union that 
 subsists between the soul and the body, — a no- 
 tion much the same with that of many ancient 
 philosophers, who looked upon the Deity as 
 the soul of the world. But it may, perhaps, 
 be alleged, and not without reason, that what 
 Scotus said upon this subject amounted to no 
 more than what ihe Realists,i as they are call- 
 
 iji^* This excelleot prince not only encouraged by his 
 proLection and liberality such of his own subjects as made 
 any Jirogress in the liberal arts and sciences, but invited 
 over from foreign conntries men of distinguished talents, 
 whom he fixed in a seminary at Oxford, and, in conse- 
 quence, may be loblikd upon as the founder of that noble 
 university. Johannes Scotus Erigena, who had been in 
 the service of Charlcis the Bald, and Grimbald, a monk of 
 St. Bertin in France, were the most famous of those 
 learned men who came from abroad: Asserius, Werefrid, 
 Flegmund, Dunwuf, Wulfsig, and the abbot of St. Neot's, 
 desSi've -the first rank aiiiong the Englisb literati who 
 adoi-bed the age of Alfred. See Collier's Ecclesiastical 
 History^ vol. i. book iii.,' and Rabin's History of England. 
 t Servati Lnpi Op. Epist. xxtiV. p. 69 — Conringii An- 
 tiq. Acad. Pi 3^. — ^Histoire Liter. At la France, torn. iv. 
 n.951. 
 
 * Such as are desirous of a more circumstantial ac- 
 count of these writers^, and of their various productions, 
 may consult the Histoire Literaire de ]a France, torn. iv. 
 p. ^51 to 271; or'the more ample account given of them 
 by the celebrated Le Bceuf, in his Etat des Sciences en 
 France depuis Charlemagne, jusqu'au Roi Robert, which 
 is published in his Recueil de divers Ecrits pour servil 
 d'Eclaircissement a PHistoire de France, torn. ii. 
 
 {I(^t Erigena signifies properly a native of Ireland, aa 
 Erin was the ancient name of that kingdom. 
 
 Q(^ I The Realists, who followed the doctrine of Aris- 
 totle witb respect to universal ideas, were so called in op- 
 position to the Nominalists, who embraced the hypothesis 
 of Zeno and the Stoics upon that perplexed and intricate 
 subject. Aristotle held, against Flato, that previous to, 
 and independent of matter, there were no universal ideas 
 or essences; and that the ideas, or exemplars, which the 
 latter supposed to have existed in the divine mind, and ta 
 have been the models of all created things, had been eter- 
 nally impressed upon matter, and were coeval with, and 
 inherent ill, thei^ objects. Zeno and his foIlbWers, de- 
 parting both from the Platonic arid Aristotelian ^stems, ' 
 maintained that these pretended universals had beither 
 
Chap. n. 
 
 DOCTOKS, CHURCH GOVERNMENT, &c. 
 
 213 
 
 ed, maintained aflerwoids, though it must be 
 allowed that he has expressed himself in a 
 very perplexed and obscure manner.* This 
 celebrated philosopher formed no particular 
 sect, at least as far as we know; and this will 
 be considered, by those who are acquainted 
 with the spirit of the times in which he lived, 
 as a proof that his immense learning was ao- 
 oompanied with meekness and modesty. 
 
 About this time a certain person named Ma- 
 carius, a native of Ireland, propagated in 
 France that enormous error, which was after- 
 wards adopted and professed by Averro6s, that 
 one individual intelligence, one soul, perform- 
 ed the spiritual and rational functions in all 
 the human race. This error was confuted by 
 Ratram, a famous monk of Corbey.f Before 
 these writers flourished, Dungal, a native of 
 Ireland also, who left his country, and retired 
 into a French monastery, where he lived- dur- 
 ing the reigns of Charlemagne and his son 
 Louis, and taiight philosophy and astronomy 
 with the greatest reputation.J Heric, a monk 
 of Auxerre, made likewise an eminent figure 
 among the learned of this age; he was a man 
 of uncommon sagacity, was endowed with a 
 great and aspiring genius, and is said, in many 
 things, to have anticipated the famous Descar- 
 tes in the manner of investigating truth^ 
 
 CHAPTER n. 
 
 Concerning; the Doctors and JUinisters of the 
 Church, and its Form of Government during 
 this Century. 
 
 I. - The impiety and licentiousness of the 
 greatest part of the clergy arose, at this time, 
 to an enormous height, and stand upon record, 
 in the unanimous complaints of the most caii- 
 did and impartial writers of this century. || In 
 the east, tumult, discord, conspiracies, and trea- 
 son, reigned uncontroU^, and all things were 
 carried by violence and force. These abuses 
 appeared in many things, but particularly in 
 the election of the patriarchs of Constantino- 
 ple. : The favour of the court was now the only 
 step to that high and important oiGce; and, 
 as the patriarch's continuance in that g^inent 
 cost depended Upon such an uncertain and pre- 
 carious foundation, nothing weis iliore usual 
 than to see a prelate pulled down from his 
 episcopal throne by an imperial decree. In the 
 
 form nor «3aence, and were no more than mere terms and 
 nominal representations of their particular objects. The 
 doctrine « AristoUe prevailed until the clcvcntlT cen- 
 Aurj, vtiies B<oecelli&us embraced the Stoical system, and 
 founded tiK sect of the JVominalists, whose sentiments 
 w«rc propagated With e^eat success by the famous Abe- 
 lard. -These two s^ets differed considerably among them- 
 selves, and explained, or' rather obscured, their respective 
 tenets in a varie^ of ways. 
 
 * Tbe work here alluded to vvas. published by Mr. 
 Thomas Oale, in 1681, The learned Heuman has made- 
 several extracts &om it, and has given also an Eimple ac- 
 count of Seotus, IB his Acts of the Philosophers, written 
 in Gfennan, torn. ill. p. 858. 
 
 f Mabillon, Praef. part ii. Actor. SSi Ord. Benedicti, 
 
 sect. iss. jk sa. 
 
 t Hifitoire Literairede la France, torn. iv. p. 493. 
 
 § Le BoBuf, Menvoires pour THistoire d'Auxerre, torn. 
 ii. p. 481. — Acta Sanctorum, torn. iv. M. Junii ad d. 
 xxiv. p. 8S9, et ad d. xzxi. Jul-, p. 349; for this philoso- 
 pher has obtained a place among the saintly orde^. 
 
 II See Asobardiu, de Privilegiia et Jure Sacerdotii, 
 wet 13. 
 
 western provinces, the bishops were voluptu- 
 ous and effeminate in a very high degree. 
 They passed their lives amidst the splendour of 
 courts and the pleasures of a luxurious indo- 
 lence, which corrupted their taste, extinguish- 
 ed their zeal, and rendered theiQ incapable of 
 performing the solemn duties of their func- 
 tions;* while' the inferior clergy were sunk ili 
 licentiousness, minded nothing but sensual gra- 
 tifications, and infected with the most heinous 
 vices the flock, whom it was the very business 
 of their ministry to preserve, or to deliver firom 
 the contagion of iniquity. Besides, the igno- 
 rance of the sacred order was, in many places, 
 BO deplorable, that few of them could either read 
 or write; and still fewer were eapable of express- 
 ing their wretched notions witji any degree of 
 method or perspicuity. Hence it happened, 
 that, when letters were to be penned, or any 
 nlatter of consequence was to he committed to 
 writing, they commonly had recourse to some 
 person who was supposed to be endowe4 with 
 superior abilities, as appears in the case of Ser- 
 vatus Lupus.f 
 
 II. Many circumstances concurred, particu- 
 larly in the European nations, to product and 
 augment this corruption and licentiousness, so 
 shameful ^n an order of men, who were set 
 apart to exhibit examples of piety to the rest 
 of tlie world. Among these we may reckon, 
 as the chief sources of the evil under considera- 
 tion, the calamities of the times, the bloody 
 and perpetual wars that were carried on be- 
 tween Louis the Deboniiaire and his family, 
 the Incursions and conquests of the -barbarous 
 nations, the gross and incredible ignorance of 
 the nobility, and the riches that flowed in upon 
 the churches and religious seminaries from 
 all quarters. Many other causes also contri- 
 buted to dishonour the church, by introducing 
 into it a corrupt ministry. A nobleman, who, 
 through want of talents, of activity, or cour- 
 age, was rendered incapable of appearing with 
 dignity in the cabinet, or wit?i honour in the 
 field, immediately turned his views toward the ' 
 church, aimed at a distinguished place among 
 its chiefs and rulers, and "became, in conse- 
 quence^ a contagious example of stupidity ana 
 vice to the inferipr clergy.j: The patrons of 
 churches, in whom' resided ^he right of elec- 
 tion, unwilling to submit their disorderly con- 
 duct to the keen censure of zealous and upright 
 pastors, industriously looked for the most ab- 
 ject, ignorant, and wprthless ecclesiastics, to 
 whom they committed the care of souls.§ But 
 one of the circumstances, which' contributed in 
 a particular manner to render, at least, the 
 higher clergy wicked and depraved, and to 
 take oflf their minds from the duties of their 
 
 * Tlve reader will be convinced of this by consulting 
 Agohard, passim, and by looking over the laws enacted 
 in the Latin councils for restraining the disorders of the 
 clergy. 'Sec also Servatus Lupus, Epist. xxxv. p. 73, 
 381, and Steph. Baluzi, in Adnot. p. 378. . 
 
 t See the worlis of Servatus Lupus, Epist. xcviii. xcix. 
 p. 126, 142, 148; as also his Life. See also Rodolphi 
 Bituricensis Ca^ula ad Clernm suum, in Baluzii Mii- 
 Cellaneis, tqm. vj. p. 139, 148. 
 
 X Hinemarus, in Opere Posteriore contra G^odeschal-^ 
 Cum, cap. ixxvi. torn. i. op. p. 318.— Servatus Lupus, 
 Epist. Ixxix. p. 120. 
 
 ^ Agobardus, de Privilegiis el Jure Sacerdotii, cap, xi 
 p. 341. torn. i. op, L > r 
 
314 
 
 INTERNAL fflSTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part II. 
 
 station, was the obli^tion of performing cer- 
 tain services to their sovereigns, in consequence 
 of the possessions they derived from the royal 
 bounty. The bishops and heads of monaste- 
 ries held many lands and castles by a feudal 
 tenure; and, being thereby bound to furnish 
 their princes with a certain number of soldiers 
 in time of war, were obliged also to take the 
 field themselves at the head of these troops,* 
 and thus to act in a sphere that was utterly in- 
 consistent with the nature and duties of their 
 sacred character. Beside all this, it often hap- 
 pened that rapacious princes, in order to satis- 
 fy, the craving wants of^ their soldiers and do- 
 mestics, boldly invaded the possessions «f the 
 church, which they distributed among their ar- 
 mies; in consequence of which the priests and 
 monks, in order to avoid perishing through 
 hunger, abandoned themselves to the practice 
 of violence, fraud, and all sorts of crimes, con- 
 sidering these acts as the only remaining 
 means by which they could procure a subsist-. 
 ence-t 
 
 III. The Roman pontiffs were raised to that 
 high dignity by the suffrages of the sacerdotal 
 order, accompanied by the voice of the people; 
 but, after their election, the approbation of the 
 emperor was necessary, in order to their conse- 
 cration.J An edict, indeed, is yet extant, sup- 
 posed to have been pijblished, in 817, by Louis 
 the Debonnaire, in which he abolishes this im- 
 perial right, and grants to the Romans, not 
 only the power of electing their pontiff, but also' 
 the privilege of installing and consecrating him 
 when elected, without waiting for the consent 
 of the emperor.§ But this grant will not de- 
 ceive those who inquire into the affair with 
 any degree of attention and diligence, since 
 several learned men have proved it spurious 
 by the most irresistible arguments. || It must, 
 however, be confessed,-that, after the time of 
 Charles the Bald, a new scene of things arose; 
 and the important change above-mentioned 
 was really introduced. That prince, having 
 obtained the imperial dignity by,the good offi- 
 ces of the bishop of Rome, returned this emi- 
 nent service by delivering the succeeding pon- 
 tiff's from the obligation of waiting for the con- 
 sent of the emperors, in order to their being in- 
 stalled in their office; and thus we find, that 
 fiotn the time of Eugenius III. who was raised 
 
 * Steph. Baluzii Appendix Actor, ad Servatum, p. 
 508 — Muratori Antiq. Ital. m^dii .^vi, torn. ii. p. 446. 
 MabitloD, Annal. Benedict, torn. vi. p. 587. — Du-Fresne, 
 ad Joinvillii Hist. Ludovici S. p. 75, 76. 
 
 t Agobardus, de Dispens. Rerum Ecclesiast. sect, 
 iv. — Flodoar'du9,-Hislor. Ecclcs. Rhemensis, lib. iii. cap. 
 is. — Servatus Lupus, Epist. xlv. p. 87, 437, &c. — Mura- 
 tori, torn. \i. Antiq. Ital. p. 302.^Lud, Thomassiu, Dis- 
 ctplina Ecclesiae ret. at novae circa Beneficia, par. ii. 
 lib. iii. cap. zi. These corrupt measures prevailed also 
 among the Greeks and Lombards, as may be seen in the 
 Oriens Christianus of Lequien', torn. i. p. 14S. 
 
 I See De Bunau, Histor. Imper. German, torn. iii. 
 
 § Harduini Concilia, torn. iv. p. 1^6. — Le Cointe, 
 Annates Eccles. Francor. torn. vii. ad.An. 617. -sect, 6. 
 Baluzii Capitular. Regum Francor. torn', i, p. 591. 
 
 I] Muratori, Droits de I'Empirc siir I'Etat Ecclesiast. 
 p. 54, and Antiq. Ital. torn. iii. p'. .29, 30, in which that 
 learned man conjectures, that this edict was forged in 
 the eleventh cenlury. Bunau,- Hist. Jmper. German, 
 torn. iii. p. 34. The partisans, however, of the papal 
 authority, siieh as Fontanini and others, plead strenuous- 
 ly, thou|;h ineffectually, for the authenticity of the edict 
 in question 
 
 to the pontificate in 884, the election of the 
 pope was carried on without the least regard 
 to law, order, and decency, and was generally 
 attended with civil tumults and dissensions, 
 imtil the reign of Otho the Great, who put a 
 stop to these disorderly proceedings. 
 
 IV. Among the pontiffs of this century, there 
 were very few who distinguished themselves 
 by their learning, prudence, and virtue, or who 
 were studious of those particular qualities which 
 are essential to the character of a Christian 
 bishop. On the contrary, the greatest part of 
 them are only known by the flagitious actions 
 that have transmitted their names with infamy 
 to our times; and all seem to have vied with 
 each other in their ambitious efforts to extend 
 their aiithority, and render their dominion un- 
 limited and universal. It-is here that we may 
 place, with propriety, an event which is said 
 to have interrupted the much-vaunted succes- 
 sion of regular bishops in the see of Rome, 
 from the first foundation of that church to the 
 present times. Between the pontificate of Leo 
 IV., who died id 855, and that of Benedict III., 
 a certain woman, who artfully disguised her 
 sex for a considerable time, is said, by learning, 
 genius, and dexterity, to have made good her 
 way to the papal chair, and to have governed 
 the church wiffi the title and-dignity of pfljitiff 
 about two years. This extraordinary person 
 is yet known by the title of Pope Joan. Dur- 
 ing the five succeeding centuries this event was 
 generally believed, and a vast number of wri- 
 ters bore testimony -to its truth; nor, before 
 the reformation undertaken by Luther, was 
 it considered by any, either as incredible in it- 
 self, or as disgraceful to the church.* But, in 
 the last century, the elevation, and indeed the 
 existence of this female pontiff", became the 
 subject of a keen and learned controversy; and 
 .several men of distinguished abilities, both 
 among the Roman catholics - and protestants, 
 employed all the force of their genius and eru- 
 dition to destroy the credit of this story, by in- 
 validating, on the one hand, the weight of the 
 testimonies on which it was founded, and by 
 showing, on the other, that it was inconsistent 
 with the most accurate chronological coinpu- 
 tations.f Between the contending parties. 
 
 * The arguments of those who maintained the truth 
 of this extraordinary, event are collected in one striking 
 point of view, with |;reat learning and industry, by 
 Fred. Spanheim, in hjs Exercitatio de Papa -Ftemina, 
 torn. ii. op. p. 577. This dissertation was translated into 
 French by .the celebrated L'Enfant, who digested it in^' 
 a better metliod, and enriched it with several additions. ~ 
 
 f'The arguments of those who reject the Story of 
 Pope Joan as a fable, have been collected by David filon- 
 del, and after him with still more art and erudition by 
 Bayle, in the third volume of his Dictionary, at the arti- 
 cle Papessb, Add to these Jo. Georg. Eccard. (Histor. 
 Franciae Oriental, torn. ii. lib. xxx. sect. 119. p.. 438,) 
 who has adopted and appropriated the sentiments of 
 the great Leibnitz, upon the matter in question. See 
 also Lequien^s Oriens Christian, torn. ii. p. 777, and 
 Heuman's Sylloee Dissert, Sacr. lom. i. part ii. p. 350, 
 The very learned Jo. Christoph. Wagenselius has given 
 a just and accurate view of the arguments on both 
 sides, which may be seen in the AmtBnitates Literarjse 
 of Schelhornius, part i. p. 146; and the same has been 
 done by Basnage in his Histoire de PE^ise, torn. i. p. 
 408. A list of the other writers, who have employed 
 their labours upon this intricate <iuestion, may be seen in 
 Casp. Sagittarius' Introd. in Hist. Eccles. torn, i. cap* 
 XXV. p, 676, and in the Eiblidth. Brimene torn, viii, pait 
 V. p. 935. 
 
Chaj. li. 
 
 DOCTORS, CHURCH GOVERNMENT, fiw. 
 
 ei5 
 
 some of the wisest and moat learned writers 
 have judiciously steered a middle course; they 
 grant that many fictitious and fabulous oircuni- 
 Btances haVe been interwoven with this story; 
 but they deny that it is entirely destitute of 
 foundation, or that tli^ controversy is yet end- 
 ed, in a satisfactory manner, in favour of those 
 who dispute the truth; and, indeed, upon a de- 
 liberate and impartial view of this whole mat- 
 ter, it will appear more than probable, that 
 some unusual event must have happened at 
 Rome, from which this story derived its origin, 
 because it is not at all credible, from any prin- 
 ciples of moral evidence, that an event should 
 be universally believed and related in the same 
 manner by a multitude of historians, during 
 five centuries immediately succeeding its sup- 
 posed date, if that event had been absolutely 
 destitute of all foundation.' But what it was 
 that gave, rise to this story is yet to be disco- 
 vered, and is likely to remain uncertain.* 
 
 y. The enormous vices, that must have co- 
 vered so many pontiffs with infamy in the judg- 
 ment of the wise, formed not the least obsta- 
 cle to their ambition in these miserable times, 
 nor hindered them from extending their influ- 
 ence, and augmenting their authority, both in 
 church; and state. It does not, indeed, appear 
 from any authentic records, that their posses- 
 sions increased in proportion to the progress of 
 their authority, or thatanynew grants of land 
 were added to what they had already obtained 
 from ,the liberality of the kings of France. — 
 The donations, which Louis ^;he Debonnaire. 
 is. reported to have made to them, are mere iil- 
 veutions, equally destitute of truth and proba- 
 bility;t and nothing is wore groundless than 
 the accounts of those writers who affirm that 
 Charles the- Bald divested himself, in 875; of 
 his right to the city of Rome and its territory, 
 in favour of the pontiffs, whom he at the same 
 time enriched with a variety of noble and cost- 
 ly presents, in return for the good services of 
 John Yiri., by whose assistance he had been 
 raised to the empire. Be that as it may, it is 
 certain, that the authority and affluence of the 
 bishops of Rome increased gteatly from the 
 time of Louis, but more especially 'from the 
 accession of Charles the Bald to the, imperial 
 throne, as all the. historical records of that 
 period abimdantly testify.! 
 
 VI. After the death of Louis II. a fierce and 
 dreadful war broke out between the posterity 
 of Charlemagne, among which there were seve- 
 ral competitors for the empire. This furnished 
 the Italian princes and pope John VIII. with 
 
 * Such is the tipiniou of Paul Sarpi, in hia Lette^. 
 Italiane, Lett. Ixxxii. p. 453; of L'Enfant, Biblioth. Ger- 
 manique, torn. x. p. 27j of Theod. Hasxus, Bibliplh. 
 Bremens. torn. viii. part v. p* 933; and of the celebrated 
 Pfaff, Instit. Hislor., Eccles. p. 408; to whom we might 
 add Werosdorf, Eoccler, Holberg;, and many others, 
 were such an enumeration necessary. Without assume 
 ing the character of a judge in .this intricate contro- 
 versy,, concerning which so many decisions have been 
 confidently pronounced, I shall only take the liberty to 
 observe, that the matter in debate is yet dubious, and has. 
 not, on either side, been represented in fiuch a light as to 
 bring conviction. 
 
 f See above, sect. 3. 
 
 X Bunau Histor. Imperii Rom. German, torn. ii. p. I 
 482. — Jo. George £ccard, Histor. Francis Orient, torn, 
 ii. lib. xtxi. p. tj06. I 
 
 an, opportunity of assuming the right of norai 
 nating to the imperiaUhrone, afid'of excluding 
 from all concern, in this election the nations 
 who had formerly the right of suffrage; and, as 
 the occasion was favourable, it was seized with 
 avidity, and improved with the utmost dexte- 
 rity and zeal. Their favour and interest were 
 earnestly solicited by Charles the Bald, whose 
 intreaties were rendered effectual by rich pre- 
 sents, prodigious sums of money, and most 
 pompous promises, in consequence of which he 
 was proclaimed, in 876, by the pope and the 
 Italian princes assembled at Pavia, king of 
 Italy and emperor of the Romans. Carloman 
 and Charles the Gross, who. succeeded him in 
 the kingdom of Italy, and in the Roman em 
 pire, were also elected by the Roman pontiff 
 and the princes of Italy. After the reigna 
 of those potentates, the empire was torn in 
 pieces: the most deploi^able tumults andcom 
 motions arose i^ Italy, France, and Germany, 
 which were governed or rather subdued and 
 usurped by various chiefs; and, in this confused - 
 sceiie, the highest bidder was, by the aid of the 
 greedy pontiffs, generally raised to the govern- 
 ment of Italy, and to the imperial throne.* 
 
 VII. Thus the power and influence of the 
 pontiffs, in civil affairs, rose in a short time to 
 an enormous height, through the favour and 
 protection of -the princes, in whose cause they 
 had employed the in^uence which superstition 
 had ^ven them over the minds.of the people. 
 The' increase of their authority, in religious 
 matters, was not less rapid or less considerable; 
 and it arose from the same causes. The widest 
 and most impartial among the Roman catholic 
 writers, not only acknowledge, but have even 
 taken pains to demonstrate, that, from the time 
 of Louis the Cebonnaire, the ancient rules 
 of ecclesiastical government were gradually 
 changed in Europe by the counsels and instiga/- 
 tion of the court of Rome, and new laws sub- 
 stituted in their place. The European princes 
 suffered themselves to. be divested of the su- 
 preme authority in religious matters, which 
 they had derived from Charlemagne; the epis- 
 copal power was greatly diminished, and even 
 the authority of both provincial and general 
 councils began to decline. The Roman pon- 
 tiffs, elate with their overgrown prosperity 
 and the daily accessions that were maxle to 
 their authority, were eagerly bent upon per- 
 suading all, and had, indeed, the good fortune 
 to persuade many, that the bishop of Rome 
 was constituted, by Jesus Christ, slSpreme legis- 
 lator and judge of the churph, universal; and 
 that, therefore, the bishops derived all their au- 
 thority from the pope, nor could the councils 
 determine any thing without his permission and 
 consent, t This opinion, which was inculcated 
 
 * This matter is amply illustrated by Sigonius, in his fa- 
 mous book de Regno Italis, and by the other writers of 
 German and Italian history. 
 
 t,See the excellent work of an anonymous and unknown' 
 author, who signs himself D. B. and whose book is enti- 
 tled, Histoire du Droit Ecclesiastique public Francois, 
 published first at London, in 1737, and lately republished 
 lu-a more splendid edition. The author of this perform- 
 ance shows, in a judicious and concise manner, the various 
 steps bv which the papal authority rose to subh a mon- 
 strous height. His account of the ninth century may be 
 seen in the first volume of his work, at the J 60th pajie. 
 
216 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part U. 
 
 ^th the utmost zeal and ardour, was opposed 
 by such as were acquainted with the ancient 
 ecclesiastical constitutions, and the goveroowBt 
 of the church in the earlier ages; but it was 
 opposed in vain. 
 
 VIII. In order to gain credit to tliis new ec- 
 clesiastical system, so different from the ancient 
 rules of church government, and to support the 
 haughty pretensions of the pontiffs to supre- 
 macy and independence, it was necessary to pro- 
 dace the authority of ancient de^ds, to stop the 
 mouths of such as were disposed to set bounds 
 to their usurpations. The bishops of Rome 
 were aware of this; and as those means were 
 deemed the most lawful that tended best to the 
 accomplishment of their purposes, they em- 
 ployed some of their most ingenious and zealous 
 partisans in forging conventions, acts of coun- 
 eils, epistles, and the lilie records, by which it 
 might appear, that, in the first ages of the 
 church, the Roman pontiffs were clothed with 
 the same spiritual majesty and supreme autho- 
 rity which they now assumed.* Among these 
 fictitious supports of the papal dignity, the fa- 
 mous Decretal Epistles, as they are called, said 
 to have been written by the pontiffs of the 
 primitive, time, deserve chiefly to be stigma- 
 tised. They were the productions of an obscure 
 writer, who fraudulently prefixed to them the 
 name of Isidore, bishop of Sevillejt to malce the 
 world believe that they had been collected by 
 this illustrious and learned prelate. Some of 
 them had appeared in the eighth century,! '♦"* 
 they were now entirely drawn from their ob- 
 scurity, and produced, with an air of ostentation 
 and triumph, to demonstrate the supremacy of 
 the Roman pontifFs.§ The decisions of a cer- 
 
 * There is just reason to imagioe, that these decretals, 
 and various otlier acts, such as the grants of Charlemagne 
 and his son Louis, were forged wim the knowledge and 
 consent of the. Roman pontifis, since it is utterly incredi- 
 ble, that these pontifis should, for nlany ages, nave con- 
 stantly appealed, in support of their pretended rights and 
 privileges, to acts and records that were only the fictions 
 of private persons, and should with such weak arms have 
 stood out against kings, princes, councils; and bishops, 
 who were Unwilling to receive their yoke. Acts-of a pri- 
 vate nature would have been useless here, and public deeds 
 were necessary to accomplish the views of papal ambition. 
 Such forgeries were in this century deemed lawful, on 
 account of their supposed tendency to promote the glory 
 of God, and to advance Ihe prosperity of the church: and, 
 therefore, it is not surprising, that the good pontifis should 
 feel no remorse in imposing upon the world frauds and 
 forgeries, that were designed to enrich the patrimony of 
 St. Feter, and to aggrandise his successors in the apostolic 
 see. 
 
 f It is certain that the forger of the decretals was ex- 
 tremely desirous of persuading the world, that they were 
 collected by Isidore, the celebrated bishop of Seville, who 
 lived in the sixth century. ^ See Fa'bricii Biblioth. Latin, 
 med'ii .^vi, torn. v. p. 561. It was a custom among the 
 bishops to add, from a principle of humility, the epithet 
 feca^tor, i. e. sinner, to their titles; and, accordingly, this 
 ibrger has added the word peccator aller the name of Isi- 
 dore: but this some ignorant transcribers have absurdly 
 changed into the word mercator; and hence it'liappens 
 that one Isidorus Mercator passes ibr the fraudulent col- 
 lector^ or forger of the decretals. 
 
 X See Calmet, Histoire de Lorraine, torn. i. p. 538. — B. 
 Just. Hen. Bohmer, Fraef. ad, novam Edit. Juris Canon, 
 torn. i. p. X. xix. Pfot. ^ 
 
 6 Beside the authors of the Cenlurise Magdeburgenses 
 and other writers, the learned Blondel has demonstrated, 
 in an ample and satisfactory manner, the spuriousness of 
 the decretals, in his Pseudo-Isidorus et Turrianus vapu- 
 lantes; and in our time the imposition is acknowledged 
 even bj the Roman catholics, at least by.such of them as 
 possess some degree of judgment and impartiality. See 
 
 tain Roman council, which is said to have been 
 bolden during the pontificate of Sylvester, were 
 likewise alleged in behalf of the same cause; 
 bat this coimcil had not been heard of before 
 the present century, and the accounts now 
 given- of it proceeded from the same source 
 with the decretals, arid were equally authentic. 
 Be that as it may, the decrees of this pretended 
 council contributed much to enrich and aggran- 
 dise the Roman pontiffs, and exalt them above 
 all human authority and jurisdiction.* 
 
 IX. There were, however, among the Latin 
 bishops, some men of prudence and sagacity, 
 who saw through these impious frauds, and 
 perceived the chains that were forging both for 
 them and for the church. . The French bishops 
 distinguished themselves, in a particular and 
 glorious manner, by the zeal and vehemence 
 with which they opposed the spurious decretals, 
 and other fictitious monuments and records, and 
 protested against their being received among 
 the laws of the church. But the obstinacy of 
 the pontiffs, and particularly of Nicolas I., 
 conquered this opposition, and reduced it to 
 silence. And as the empire, in the periods 
 that succeeded this contest, fell back into the 
 grossest ignorance and darkness, there scarcely 
 remained any who were capable of detecting 
 these odious impositions, or disposed to support 
 the expiring liberty of the church. The history 
 of the following ages shows, in a multitude 
 of deplorable examples, the disorders and ca- 
 lamities that sprang from the ambition of the 
 aspiring pontiffs; it represents these despotic 
 lords of the church, labouring, by the aid of 
 their impious frauds, to overturn its ancient 
 government, to underinine the authority of its 
 bishops, to engross its riches and revenues into 
 their own hands; and, what is still more horri- 
 ble, it repi;esents them aiming perfidious blows 
 at the thrones of princes, and endeavouring to 
 lessen their power, and to set bounds to their 
 dominion. All this Is unanimously acknow- 
 ledged by such as have looked, with attention 
 and impartiality, into the history of the times 
 of which, we now write, and is ingenuously 
 confessed by men of learning and probity, who 
 are well affected to the Romish church and its 
 sovereign pontiff.f 
 
 X. The monastic life was now universally 
 in the highest esteem; and nothing could equal 
 the veneration that was paid to' such as devoted 
 themselves' to the sacred gloom and indolence 
 of a convent. The Greeks and Orientals had 
 been long accustomed to regard the monkish 
 orders and discipline with the greatest admira- 
 tion; but it was only from the beginning of the 
 eighth century, that this holy passion was in- 
 dulged among the Latins to such an extrava- 
 gant length. In the present age it went beyond 
 all bounds: kings, dukes, and counts, forgot 
 their true dignity, even the zealous discharge 
 
 Bud'deus' Isagoge in Theologiam, torn. ii. p. 726; as abo 
 Fetr. Constantms' Frolegom. ad Epistolas Fontificum, 
 tom. i. p. 30; and a dissertation of Fleury, prefixed to the 
 sixteentn volume of his Ecclesiastical History. 
 
 * See J. Launoy, de cura Ecclesise erga pauperes et 
 miseros, cap. i. Obs'ervat. i. p. 576. torn. ii. part li. op. 
 
 t See -the above-mentioned author's treatise entitled, 
 Regia Fotestas in Causis Matrimonial, tom. i. part ii, 
 op. p. 764; as also Fetr. Constaatius, Fraef. ad Epist 
 Romanor. Fontif. tom. i. p. 1^. 
 
Chap. II, 
 
 DOCTORS, CHURCH GOVERNMENT, &o- 
 
 817 
 
 of the duties of their high stations, and affected 
 that contempt of the world and its grandeur, 
 which they took for magnanimity, though it 
 was really the result of- a narrow and super- 
 stitious spirit. They abandoned their thrones, 
 their honours, and their treasures, and shut 
 themselves up in nipnasteries with a view of 
 devoting themselves entirely to God. Several 
 examples of this fanatical extravagance were 
 exhibited in Italy, France, Germany, and 
 Spain, both in this and in the preceding cen- 
 tury; and if the allurements of worldly pleasures 
 and honours had too much power over the minds 
 of many, to permit their separating themselves 
 from human society during their lives, such 
 endeavoured to make, amends for this in their 
 last hours; for, when they perceived death ap- 
 pcoaphing, they demanded the monastic habit, 
 and actually put it on before their departure, 
 that they might be regarded as of the fraternity, 
 and be in- consequence entitled to the fervent 
 prayers and other spiritual succours of their 
 ghostly brethren. 
 
 But nothing affords such a striking and re- 
 - markable proof, of the -excessive and fanatical 
 veneration that was paid to the monastic order, 
 as the conduct of several.kings^nd emperors, 
 who drew numbers of monks and abbots from 
 their cloisters, and placed them in stations en- 
 tirely foreign to their vows and their cliaracter, 
 even amidst the splepdour of a court, and at 
 the head of affairs.' The transition, indeed, 
 was violent, from the obscurity of a convent, 
 and the. study of a liturgy, to sit at the helm 
 of an empire, and manage the political interests 
 of hatioiis. But such V?as the case; and pious 
 princes alleged, as a, reason for this singular 
 choice, tljat the government of a state could 
 never be better placed than in the hands of such 
 holy men, who had subdued all irregular ap- 
 petites and passions, and were so divested of 
 the lusts of-pleasure and ambition, as to be in- 
 capable of any unworthy designs, or any low, 
 sordid, or selfish views. Hence we find, in the 
 ^ history of these times, frequent examples of 
 monks and abbots performing the functions 
 of ambassadors, envoys^aiid ministers of state, 
 and displaying their talents with various suc- 
 cess in these high and eminent stations. 
 
 XI. The morals, however, of the rnonks, 
 were feir from being so pure as to justify the 
 reason alleged for tfeeir promotion. Their 
 patrons and protectors, who loaded them with 
 honours and preferment, were sensible of the 
 irregular and licentious lives that many of them 
 led, and used their utmost.effortsto correct their 
 vices, and to reform their manners. Louis the 
 Debonnaire distinguished his zeal in the exe- 
 cution of this virtuous and noble design; and, 
 to render it more effectual, he employed the 
 pious labours of Benedict, abbot of Aniane, in 
 reforming the monasteries, first in Aquitaine, 
 and afterwards throughout the whole kingdom 
 of France, and in restoring, by new and salu- 
 tary laws, the monastic discipline, which had 
 been so neglected as to fall into decay. This 
 worthy ecclesiastic presided, in 817, in the 
 _ council of Aix-la-Chapelle, where several wise 
 measures were taken for removing the dis- 
 orders that reigned in the cloisters; and, in 
 consequence of the unlimited authority he had 
 Vol. I.— 28 
 
 received from the emperor, he subjected all the 
 monks, without exception, to the rule, of the 
 famous JBenedict abbot of Mont^Cassin, an- 
 nulled the variety of rites and customs tha,t 
 had prevailed' in the different tnonasteries, pre- 
 scribed to them all one uniform method of liv- 
 ing, and thus united, as it were, into one general 
 body or society, the various orders which had 
 hitherto been connected by no, common bond.* 
 Tiiis admirable discipline, which acquired to 
 Benedict of Aniane the highest reputation, and 
 occasioned him to be revered as the secojid 
 father of the western monks, flourished during 
 a certain time, but afterwards declined through 
 various causes, until the conclusion of this 
 century,- when, under the calamities that op- 
 pressed both the church and the. empire, it al- 
 most entirely disappeared. 
 
 XII. The same emperor, who had appeared 
 with such zeal, both in protecting and reform- 
 ing the monks, gaVe also distinguished marks 
 of his favour to the order, of canons, which 
 Chrodegangus had introduced in several places 
 during the last century. He distributed them ' 
 through all the provinces of the empire,, and 
 instituted also an order of canonesses, the first 
 female .convent known in the Christian world.f 
 For each of these orders the zealous emperor 
 had a rule drawn up, in 817, in the council of 
 Aix-la-Chapelle, substitutiiig it for that which 
 had been appointed by Chrodegangus; and this 
 new rule was observed in most of the monas- 
 teries and convents of the canons and canon- 
 esses in the west until the twelfth century, 
 although it was disapproved 'by the court of 
 Rome.| The author of the rule, framed for 
 the canons, was undoubtedly Amalarius, a 
 presbyter of Metz; but it is not so certain 
 whether that which was drawn.up for the ca- 
 nonesses, was composed by the same hand.§ 
 Be that as it may, the canonical order grew 
 into high repute; and from this time a great 
 number of convents were erected for its menj- 
 bers in all the western provinces, and were 
 
 * Jo. Mabillon, Acta Sanctor. Ord. Benedict. Sfec. iv. 
 par. i. Praef. p. xsvii. and Fraef. ad. Sxc. r. p. xxt. ct 
 eiusdem Aniiales Ordin.' S. Benedict, torn. ii. p. 430. — 
 Calmet, Hist, de -Lorraine, torn. i. p. 596. ^ For a par- 
 ticular account of Benedict of Aniane, and his illustnqus 
 virtues, see the Acta Sanctor, torn. ii. Febr. 606; and.the 
 Histoire Lit. de la France, torn. iv. p. 447. 
 
 t See Mabillon, Annal. Ordin. S. Benedict!, torn. ii. 
 p.- 428. 
 
 [ This rule was condemned in a council held at Rome,, 
 A. D. 1059, under the -pontiff Nicolas II. The pretexts 
 used by the .pontiff and the assembled prelates, to justify, 
 their d^pprobation of this rule, were, that it permittRil 
 the canons to enjoy the possessions they had before their 
 vows, and allowed to each of them too large a portion of 
 bread and wine; but the true reason was, that this order 
 had been instituted by an emperor without either the con- 
 sent or knowledge of the Roman jiontiff. For -an account 
 of the rule ana discipline of these canons, see Fleurv's 
 Hist. Ecclea. torn. x. p. 163, 161, &.c. Brussels edition 
 in 12mo. 
 
 ^ Lud. Thomassin, Disciplin. Ecclea. Vet. rt Novk 
 part i. lib', iii. cap. xlii, xliii, — Muratori, Antiq. Ital. 
 medii aevi, torn. v. p. 186, 540. No accounts of the 
 Canons are less worthy of credit, than those which are 
 given by writers, who. have been themselves members of 
 that order, such as> Raymond ChapponePs Histoire des 
 Chanoines, published at Paris in 1699; for these writers, 
 from fond prejudices in favour of their institution, and 
 an ambitious desire of enhancing its merit and rendering 
 it reapectablej derive the origin of the canonical order 
 from Christ and his apostles, or trace it up, at least, to 
 the first ages'of the Christian chur^. 
 
218 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part H. 
 
 richly endowed by the liberality of pious and 
 opulent Christians. But this institution de- 
 generated in a short time, lilce all others, from 
 its primitive purity, and ceased to answer the 
 laudable intention and design of its worthy 
 founders.* 
 
 Xni. Of the theological writers who flou- 
 rished among the Greeks, the following are the 
 most remarkable: 
 
 Photius, patriarch of Constantinople, a man 
 of most profound and universal erudition; whose 
 Bibliotheoa,! Epistles; and other writings, are 
 yet valuable on many accounts. 
 
 Nicephorus, also a patriarch of the above- 
 mentioned city, who, among other productions, 
 published a warm defence of the worship of 
 images against the enemies of that idolatrous 
 service.J 
 
 Theodorus Studites, who acquired a name 
 chiefly by his warm opposition to the Icono- 
 clasts, and by the zeal with which he wrote in 
 favour of image worship. I 
 
 The same cause has principally contributed 
 to transmit to after-ages the names of Theo- 
 dorus GraptuSj Methodius, who obtairied the 
 title of Confessor for his adherence to image- 
 worship in the very face of persecution, Theo- 
 dorus Abucara,!! Petrus Siculus, Nicetas David, 
 and others, who would probably have been long 
 since buried in oblivion, had not the various 
 contests between the Greek and Latin church- 
 es, and the divisions of the former among them- 
 selves upon the question concerning images, 
 excited the vehemence of these inconsiderable 
 writers, and furnished them with an occasion 
 of making some noise in tlie world 
 
 Moses Barcepha, a Syrian bishop, far sur- 
 passed all whom we have now been mentioning, 
 and deserved the shining reputation which he 
 has obtained in the republic of letters, as what 
 we have yet extant of his works discover marks 
 of true genius, and ant uncommon acquaintance 
 with the art of writing.lT 
 
 XIV. Rabanus Maurus, archbishop of Mentz, 
 is deservedly placed at the head of the Latin 
 writers of this age; the force of his genius, the 
 extent of his knowledge, and the multitude of 
 productions that flowed from his pen, entitle 
 , him to this distinguished rank, and render im- 
 proper all comparison between him and his 
 1 contemporaries. He may be called the great 
 light of Germany and France, since it was fi'om 
 the prodigious fund of knowledge he possessed, 
 that those nations derfved principally their re- 
 ligious 'instruction. His writings were every 
 where in the hands of the learned,** and were 
 
 * Calmet, Hist, de Lorraine, torn. i. p. Sdl.-^Hist. 
 Lit. de la France, torn. iv. pi 536. 
 
 ^ See Camusat, Histoire dea Journaux, torn. i. p. 87.. 
 
 I Acta Sanctor. torn. ii. Martii ad d. xiii. p. 293. — Ou- 
 dinus, Scriptor. Eccles. torn. ii. p. 9. 
 
 9^^ § Theodore Studites was one of the most volumi- 
 nous writers of this century, and would certainly have 
 been known as ajnan of genius and learning in after-ages, 
 even if the controversy concerniag images had never ex- 
 isted. There are of his writings, yet extant, 265 letters, 
 ieveral treatises against the Iconoclasts, 121 epigrams in 
 iambics, and a large manuscript, which contains a course 
 of catechetical instruction concerning the duties of the 
 monastic life. ' - - ^ 
 
 II See Bayle's Dictionary, vol.- i. 
 
 Il Assemani Biblioth. Orient. Vatican, torn. ii. p. 127. 
 
 ** See,ibr a particular account of the life and- writings 
 
 of Rabanus Maurus, the Histoire Literaire de la France, 
 
 holden in such veneration, that, during foui 
 centuries, the most eminent of the Latin di- 
 vines appealed to them as authority in religious 
 matters, ahd adopted almost universally the 
 sentiments they contained. After this illus^ 
 trious prelate, the writers who are most worthy 
 of mention are, 
 
 Agobard, archbishop of Lyons, a man of 
 wisdom and prudence, and far from being des- 
 titute of literary merit; but whose reputation 
 has deservedly suffered by his vindicating, and 
 even fomentiijg the rebellion of Lothaire and 
 Pepin against Louis the Debonnaire, their fa- 
 ther arid their sovereign.* 
 
 Hilduin, abbot of St. Denis, who acquired no 
 small reputation by a work entitled Areopa- 
 gitica.t 
 
 Eginhard, abbot of Selingestadt,, the cele- 
 brated author of the Life of Charlemagne, re-, 
 markable for the beauty of his diction, the 
 perspicuity and elegance of his style, and a 
 variety of other literary accomplishments.^ 
 
 Claudius, bishop of Turin, whose exposition 
 of several books of.Scripture,§ as also his Chro- 
 nology, gained him an eminent and lasting 
 reputation. II 
 
 Freculph, bishop of Lisieux, whose Chroni- 
 cle, which is ho more than a heavy compilation, 
 is yet extant. 
 
 Servatus Lupus, of whose composition wo 
 have several epistles and treatises: and who, 
 though a copious and subtile writer, is yet de 
 fective in point of elegance and erudition. IF 
 
 Drepanijis Florus, who left behind him seve- 
 ral ' poems, an exposition of certain books of 
 Scripture, and other performances less worthy 
 of attention.** 
 
 Christian Druthmar, the author of a Com- 
 inentary upon St. Matthew's Gospel.tf 
 
 Godeschalc, a monk of Orbais,'who rendered 
 his name immortal by the controversy which 
 he commenced concerning predestination and 
 free grace. 
 
 Paschasius Radbert,^ a name famous in the 
 contests concerning the real presence of Christ's 
 body in the eucharist; and who, to pass in si- 
 lence his other writings, compose'd a book upon 
 
 torn. T. p. 151; as also the Acta Sanctor. torn. -i. Febr. p. 
 508. 
 
 * See Colonia, Hist. Liter, de la ville de Lyon, torn. ii. 
 p. 93. — General Dictionary j'at the article Agobard — Hist. 
 Lit. de la France, tom. iv. p. 567. [.\goDard opposed 
 with great zeal both the worship and the use of images, 
 in his- famous book, de Picturis et Imaginibus, a work 
 which has greatly embarrassed the doctors of the Romish 
 church.} 
 
 j Hist. Lit. de la France, torn. iv. p. 607. 
 
 \ Hist. Lit. de la France, tiim. iv. p. 550. See also the 
 Life of Charlemagne, the best edition of which is that 
 published by Schminlcius, at Utrecht, in l,7ir. 
 
 ^0=- § This prelate, who was famous for his knowledge 
 of the holy Scriptures, composed ill books ofcommenta- ■ 
 ries upon Genesis, 4 upon Erodua, and several upon Le- 
 viticus. He wrote also a commentary upon the Gospel of 
 St. Matthew, in which there are many excellent things, 
 and an exposition of all the Epistles of St. Paul, llis com- 
 mentary on the Epistle to the Galatians is printed, but all 
 the rest are in manuscript. 
 
 [| See Simon,. Critique de la Biblioth. Eccles. de M. Du- 
 Piuj tom. 1. p. 284. 
 
 IT Histoire Lit. de la France, tom. v. p. 255. 
 
 ** Colonia, Histoire Liter, de Lyon, tom. ii. p. 135.— 
 Hist. Lit. de la France, tom. v, p. 213. 
 
 ft Hist. Lit. de la France, tom. v. p. 84. 
 
 ii For an account of Radbert, see the work lact quoted, 
 toBi. V. p. 287. 
 
Chap. III. 
 
 THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 219 
 
 this very subject, which furnished abqndant 
 matter of dispute throughout this century. 
 
 Bertram, or Ratram, a monk of Corby, who 
 deserves the first rank among the writers that 
 refuted the doctrine of "Radbert; and whos? 
 book concerning the sacrament of tho Lord's 
 supper, composed by the order of Charles the 
 Bald, gave occasion to many contests among 
 learned divines.* 
 
 Haymo, bishop of Halberstadt, the laborious 
 author of several treatises upon various sub- 
 jects, and who is more to^ be esteemed for his 
 industry and diligence, than for his genius and 
 leaming.f 
 
 Walafridus Strabo, who apquired no mean 
 reputation by his Poems, his Lives of the 
 Saints, and his explications of many of the 
 more difficult passages of Scripture.^ "^ 
 
 Hincmar, archbishop of Rheims, a man of 
 an imperious a?id turbulent.spirit, but who de- 
 serves a distinguished place among the Latin 
 writers of this century, since his works discover 
 an aspiring genius, and an ardent zeal in the 
 pursuit of truth, and tend, in a singular man- 
 ner, to throw light, both upon the ciivil and 
 ecclesiiistical history of the age in which he 
 lived.§ 
 
 Johannes Seotus Erigena, the friend and 
 companion of Charles the Bald, an eminent 
 philosopher, and a learned divine, whose eru- 
 dition was accompanied with uncommon marks 
 of sagacity and genius, and whose various per- 
 formances, as well as his translations from the 
 Greek, gained hi^ a shining and lasting repu- 
 tation.|| ■ 
 
 It is sufficient barely to name Remigius 
 Bertharius, Ado, Aimoin, Heric, Regino, abbot 
 of Pruni, and others, of whom the most common 
 writers of ecclesiastical history give ample, ac- 
 counts. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 Concerning the doctrine of t/ie Christian Chwrch 
 during this Century. 
 I.. The zeal of Charlemagne for the interests 
 of Christianity, and his liberality to the learned, 
 encouraged many to apply themselves dili- 
 gently to the study of the Scriptures, and to the 
 pursuit of religious truth: and, as long as this 
 eminent set of divines remained, the western 
 ■ provinces were happily preserved from many 
 errors, and from a variety of superstitious prac- 
 tices. Thus we find among the writers of this 
 age several men of eminent talents, whose pro- 
 duetions show that the lustre of true erudition 
 and theolo^ wa? not yet totally eclipsed. But 
 these illustrious luminaries of the church dis^ 
 appeared one after another; and barbarism and 
 ignorance, encouraged by their departure, re- 
 
 * We shall have occasion to speak more particularly of 
 Bertram, and his book, in the following chapter. 
 
 t Itis projier to observe, that aereat part of the writings 
 that are attributed to HaymOjbishopof Halberstadt, were 
 composed % iR.emi, or Remigius, of Auxerre. See Casl- 
 mir' Oudinus, Comment, de .Scriptor. Eccles. tom. ii. p. 
 330. — Histoire Literaire d« la Franf^e, tom. v. p. Ill, 
 torn,, vi. p. 106. — Le BcBuf, Recueil de Diss, sur I'Histoire 
 de la France, tom. i. p. 278. 
 
 } See the Histoire de la France, tom. v. p.. 544. 
 
 6 The same work, tom. v. p. 416. 
 
 11 See Herm. Conringius, Antiq. Academicas, p. 309, 
 and the Hist. Lit, de ]a France, tom. T. p. 416. 
 
 sumed their ancient seats, and brought, in their 
 train, a prodigious multitude of devout follies, 
 odious superstitions, and abominable errors. 
 Nor did any encourage and propagate with 
 more zeal and ardour these superstitious inno- 
 vations, than the sacerdotal orders, the spiritual 
 gdides'of a deluded people; and if we inquire 
 how it came to pass, that the clergy were so 
 zealous in such" an inglorious cause, we shall 
 find that this zeal was, in some, the effiiCt of 
 ignorance, and, in 'Others, the fruit of avarice 
 and ambition, sinpe much was to be gained, 
 both in point of authority and opulence, from 
 the progress of superstition. Among the Greeks 
 and Orientals, Christianity was almost in the 
 same declining and deplorable state, though 
 there arose, from time to time, in the eastern 
 provinces, men of superior abilities, who en- 
 deavoured to support the cause of true religion, 
 and to raise it from the pressures under which 
 itjaboured. 
 
 tl. The causes of this unhappy revolution, 
 that covered the Christian church with super- 
 stition and darkness, will appear evident to such 
 as are at all acquainted with the history of 
 these times. The Oriental doctors, miserably 
 divided among themselves, and involved ip tho 
 bitterest contentions and quarrels with tha 
 western churches, lost all notion of the true 
 spirit and genius of Christianity, and, corrupted 
 and biased by the prejudices and passions that 
 are generally excited and nourished by ill-ma- 
 naged controversy, became incapable of pro- 
 moting the true and essential interests of reli- 
 gion. Intent also upon defending the excellence 
 and divine authority of their doctrine, and dis- 
 cipline against the Latin doctors^ and in main- 
 taining among themselves the worship of 
 images, which began to be warmly opposed, 
 they advanced, in the course of these disputes,- 
 many things that were highly erroneous; and, 
 as one error follows another, their number in- 
 creased from day to day. The savage and un- 
 natural lives of the monks and hermits, whose 
 number was prodigious, and whose authority 
 was considerable, — who haunted the woods and 
 deserts, the gloomy scenes of their extravagant 
 devotion,— ^!ontributed much, among other- 
 causes, to the decay of solid and rational piety. 
 Add; to all this, the irruptions of the barbarous 
 nations into the west, the atrocious exploits of 
 usurping princes, the drooping and neglected 
 condition of the various branches of learning, 
 the ambitious phrensy of the Roman pontifis, 
 (who were incessantly gaping after new acces- 
 sions of authority and dominion,) the frauds 
 and tricks of the monastic orders carried on 
 under the specious mask of religion; and then 
 we shall see the true causes that foimded the 
 empire of superstition and error, upon the ruin 
 of virtue, piety, and reason. 
 
 III. The ignorance and corruption that dis- , 
 honoured the Christian church, in this century, 
 were great beyond measure; and if there were 
 no other examples of their enormity upon re- 
 cord, than the single instance of the stupid 
 veneration that was paid to the bones and car- 
 casses of departed sainfi, this would be sufficient 
 to convince us of the deplorable progress of 
 superstition. This idolatrous devotion was now 
 considered as the most sacred and momentous 
 
220 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 pabt n. 
 
 branch of religion; nor did an; dare to entertain 
 the smallest hopes of finding the Deity propi- 
 tious, before they had assured themselves of the 
 protection and intercession of some one or other 
 of the saintly order. Hence it was that every 
 church, and indeed every private Christian, had 
 their particular patron among the saints, from 
 an apprehension that their spiritual interests 
 would be but indifferently managed by those, 
 who were already employed about the souls of 
 others; for they judged, in this respect, of the 
 saints as they did of mortals, whose capacity is 
 too limited to comprehend a vast variety of 
 objects. This notion rendered it necessary to 
 multiply prodigiously the number of the saints, 
 and to create daily new patrons for the deluded 
 people;^and this was done with the utmost zeal. 
 The priests and monks set their invention at 
 work, and peopled, at discretion, the invisible 
 world with imaginary protectors. They dis- 
 pelled the thick darkness which covered the 
 pretended spiritual exploits of many holy men; 
 and invented both names and histories of saints* 
 that never existed, that they might not be at a 
 loss to furnish the credulous and wretched mul- 
 titude with objects proper to perpetuato their 
 superstition, and to nourish their confidence. 
 Many chose their own guides, and committed 
 their spiritual interests either to phantoms of 
 their own creation, or to distracted fanatics, 
 whom they esteemed as saints, for no other rea- 
 son than their having lived like madmen. 
 
 IV. The ecclesiastical councils found it ne- 
 cessary, at length, to set limits to the licentious 
 superstition of those ignorant wretches, who, 
 with a view to have still more friends at court, 
 (for such were their gross notions of things,) 
 were daily adding new saints to the list of their 
 celestial mediators. They, accordingly, ie- 
 clared by a solemn, decree, that no departed 
 Christian should be considered as a member of 
 the saintly order before the bishop, in a provin- 
 cial council, and in the presence of the people, 
 had pronounced him worthy of that distin- 
 guished honour.f. This remedy, feeble and 
 illusory as it was, contributed, in' some mea- 
 sure, to restrain the fanatical temerity of the 
 saint-makers: but, in its consequences, it was 
 the' occasion of a new accession of power to the 
 Roman pontiff. Even so early as this century, 
 many were of opinion, that it was proper and 
 expedient, ttioiigli not absolutely necessary, 
 that the decisions of bishops and councils should 
 be confirmed by the consent and authority of 
 the pope, whom they considered as the supreme 
 and universal bishop; and this will not appear 
 surprising to any who reflect upon the enormous 
 strides which the bishops of Rome made toward 
 unbounded dominion in this barbarous and su- 
 perstitious age, whose corruption and darkness 
 were peculiarly favourable to their ambitious 
 prstensions. It is true, we have no example 
 of any person solemnly sainted by the bishop 
 of Rome alone, before the tenth century, J when 
 
 [* See Dr. Middleton's Letter from Rome, in which we 
 find the names of St. Eaccho, St, Yiar. St. Amphibolus, 
 Euodia, &c.] 
 
 f Mabillon, Act. Sanctor. Ord. Benedict!, Saec. v. Praef. 
 
 F. 44. — ^Launoy, de Lazari, Magdalenae, et Marthae in 
 rovinciam Appujsu, cap. i. sect. xii. — Franc. Pagi Bre 
 viarum Pontif. Romanor. torn. ii. p. 259, torn. iii. p. 30. 
 X See Dan. Fapebrochiua, de solennium Canonizatiouum 
 
 Udalric, bishop of Augsburg, received this dig- 
 nity in a formal manner from John XV. It is, 
 however, certain, that before that -time the 
 pontiffs were consulted in matters of that nar 
 ture, and their judgment respected in the choice 
 of those who were to be honoured with saint- 
 ship;* and it was by such steps as these, that 
 the church of Rome engrossed to itself the crea- 
 tion of these tutelary divinities, which at length 
 was distinguished by the title of canonizatiot^. 
 
 V. This preposterous multiplication of saints 
 was a hew source of abuses and frauds. It was 
 thought necessary to write the lives of these 
 celestial patrons, in order to procure for them 
 the veneration and confidence of a deluded 
 multitude; and here lying wonders were in- 
 vented, and all the resources tif forgery and fa- 
 ble exhausted, to celebrate exploits which had 
 never been performed, and to perpetuate the 
 memory of holy persons who had never exist- 
 ed. We have yet extant a prodigious quanti- 
 ty of these trifling legends, the greatest part 
 of which were, undoubtedly, forged after the 
 time of Charlemagne, by the monastic writers, 
 who haS both the inclination and leisure to 
 edify the church by these jAovs frauds. The 
 same impostors^, who peopled the celestial re- 
 gions with fictitious saints, employed also their 
 fruitful inventions in embellishing, with false 
 miracles and various other impertinent forge- 
 ries, the histories of those who had been really 
 martyrs or confessors in the cause of Christ; 
 these fictions, however, did not pass without 
 animadversion, Jbut were severely censured by 
 some of the most eminent writersof the limes.'f 
 Various were the motives that engaged differ- 
 ent persons to propagate these impositions, and 
 countenance their authors. Some were incited 
 to this by the seductions of a false devotion, 
 which reigned in this perverse and ignorant 
 age, and made them imagine, that departecl 
 saints were highly delighted with the applause 
 and veneration of mortals, and never failed to 
 crown, with peculiar marks of their favour and 
 protection, such as were zealous in honouring 
 their memories, and in celebrating their ex- 
 ploits. The prospect of gain, and the ambi- 
 tious desire of being reverenced by the multi- 
 tude, engaged others to multiply the number, 
 and to maintain the credit of the legends, or 
 saintly registers. The churches, that were de-~ 
 dicated to the saints, were perpetually crowded 
 
 Initiis et Progress, in PropylEEo Actor. SS. mens. Maii, 
 p. 171; and the other authors who have written upon this 
 subject, of which there is an ample list in the Bibliogr^ 
 phia Antiquar. ofFabricius, cap. Til. sect. 35. 
 
 * See the candid and impartial account that is given of 
 this matter by the late pope Benedict XIV. in his labo- 
 rious work, de Servorum Bei Beatificatione et Eeatorum 
 Canonizatione, lib. i. cap. 7. p. 50, torn. i. op. It is- to be 
 wished, that historians of the church of Rome would learn 
 to imitate the prudence, moderation, and equity of that 
 illustrious pontiff 
 
 t See Servatus Lupus' Vita Maximini, p. 275, and the 
 candid and learned observations upon this subject that are 
 to be found in various places of the'worlts of the cele 
 brated Launoy; e. g. in his Dispnnctio Epistolaa -Petri de 
 Marca, de Temjjore quo in Gallia Christi Fides recepta, 
 cap. xiv. p.llO, inhisDissertationesdeprimis Christians 
 Reli^. in Gallia Initiis, diss. ii. 142, 144, 145, 147, 168, 
 
 169, 181 De Lazari, Magdal. et Martha:, in Gdliam 
 
 Appulsu, p. 340.— De duobus Dionysiis, p. 527, 529, 530, 
 torn. ii. part i. op. — See also Martenne, Thesaurus Anec- 
 dotor. tom. i. p. 151 — Histoire Lit. de la France, torn. ir. 
 p.. 273. 
 
Chap. HI. 
 
 THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 221 
 
 with supplicants, who flocked to them with 
 rich presents, in order to obtain succour under 
 the aiflictions they suffered, or deliverance from 
 the dangers which they hadre^onto appre- 
 hend; and it was regarded also as a very great 
 honour to be the more immediate ministers of 
 these mediators, who, as it is likewise proper 
 to observe, were esteemed and frequented in 
 proportion to tlieii;^ antiquity, and to the num- 
 ber and importance of the pretended miracles 
 that had rendered their lives illustrious. The 
 latter circumstance offered a strong temptation 
 to such as were employed by the various 
 churches in writing the lives of their tutelar 
 saints, to supply by invention the defects of 
 truth, and to embellish their legends with ficti- 
 tious prodigies; indeed, they were not only 
 tempted to this unpostiure, but were even obli- 
 ged to make' use of it in order to swell the 
 fame of'their respective patrons.* 
 
 VI. But even all this was insufficient to sa^ 
 tisfy the demands of superstition, nourished by 
 the stratagems of a corrupt and designing 
 priesthood, and fomented by the zeal of the 
 more ignorant and stupid sons of the church. 
 It was not enough to reverence departed saints, 
 and I to conlide in their intercession and suc- 
 cours; it was not enough to clothe them with 
 an imaginary power of healing diseases, work- 
 ing miracles, and. delivering ftom all sorts of 
 calamities and dangers; their bones, their 
 clothes, the apparel and furniture they had pos- 
 sessed diu-ing their lives, the very ground which 
 they had touched, or in which their putrified 
 . carcasses were laid, were treated with a stupid 
 veneration, and supposed to retain the power. 
 of healing all disorders both of body and mind, 
 and of defending such as possessed them against 
 all the assaults and devices of Satan. The con- 
 sequence of this absurd- notion was, that every 
 one was eager to provide himself with these 
 salutary remedies; for which purpose great 
 numbers undertook fatiguing and perilous voy- 
 ages, and subjected themselves to all sorts of 
 hardships, while others made use of this delu- 
 sion to accumulate riches, and to impose upon 
 the miserable multitude by the most impious 
 and shocking involutions. As the demand for 
 relics was prodigious and universal, the clergy 
 employed all their dexterity to satisfy these.de- 
 mands, and were far from being scrupulous in 
 the methods they used for that end. ^ The bod- 
 ;*fe ies of the saints were sought by fasting and 
 prayer, instituted by the priest in order to ob- 
 tain a divine answer and an infallible direction, 
 and this pretended direction never failed to ac- 
 complislr. their desires; the holy body was al- 
 ways found, in consequence, as they impiously 
 gave out, of the suggestion and-inspiration of 
 God himself. Each discovery of this kind was 
 attended with excessive demonstrations of joy,- 
 and animated the zeal of these devout seekers 
 to enrich the church still more and more with 
 this new. kind of treasure. /Many travelled 
 with this view into the "eastern provinces, Bind 
 ' frequented the places which Christ and his dis- 
 ciples had honoured with their presence; that, 
 
 * Of all 'lie lives of the saints written in this century, 
 those which were drawn up by the monks of Great Bri- 
 lain, and of Bretagne in France, seem to be the most liable 
 to suspicion. Mabillon, Vrxl. ad Sac. i. Benedictin. 
 
 with, the bones and other secret remains of the 
 first heralds of the Gospel, they might comfort 
 dejected minds,' calm trembling consciences, 
 save sinking states, and defend their inhabit- 
 ants from all sorts of calamities. Nor did these 
 pious pilgrims return home withempty hands; 
 for the craft j dexterity, and knavery of the 
 Greeks found a rich prey in the stupid creduli- 
 ty of the Latinrelic-hunterSj "and made profit- 
 able commerce of this new devotion. The lat- 
 ter paid considerable sums for legs and arms, 
 sculls and ja;iv-bones (several, of which were 
 pagan, and some hot human,) andother things 
 that were supposed to have belonged to the 
 primitive worthies of the Christian church; and 
 thus the Latin churches came to the posses- 
 sion of those celebrated relics of Str Hark, St. 
 James, St. Bartholomew, Cyprian, Pantaloon, 
 and others, which they show at this day with 
 so much ostentation. ' But there were many, 
 who, unable to procure- for themselves these 
 spiritual treasures by voyages and prayers, had 
 recourse to violence and theft; for all sorts of 
 means, and all sorts of attempts in a cause of 
 this nature, were considered, when successful, 
 as pious and acceptable to the Supreme Being.* 
 
 VII. The study of the Scriptures languish- 
 ed much among the Greeks in this century. 
 Photius, who composed a book of Questions,t 
 relating to various passages of Scripture, an 
 exposition of the Epistles, ofSt. Paul, and other 
 productions of the same nature}, was one of 
 the few who employed their talents in the illus- 
 tration of the sacred writings. He was a man 
 Of great sagacity and genius, who preferred the 
 dictates of reason to the decisions of authority; 
 notwithstanding allTvhich, he cannot be recom- 
 mended'as a model to other commentators.— 
 The other Greek writers^ who attempted to 
 explain the Scriptures,^ did little more than . 
 compile and accumulate various passages &om 
 the commentators of the preceding ages; and 
 this method was the origin of those Catena, or 
 chains of commentaries, so much in vogue 
 among the Greeks during this century, of 
 which a-considerable number have come down 
 to our times, and which consisted entirely-in a 
 collection of. the explications of Scripture that 
 were scattered up and down in the ancient au- 
 thors. The grea);est part of the theological 
 writers, finding themselves incapable of more 
 arduous undertakings, confined their labours to 
 this compilatory practice, to the great detri- 
 ment of sacred criticism. 
 
 VIII. The Latin-commentators were greatly 
 superior in number to those among the Greeks, 
 
 * See Muratori (Antiq. Ital. torn, v.,) who g;ives exam- 
 ples of the truth of this assertion. 
 
 Q^ f This work, which is entitled Amphii>chia, from 
 its having been addressed to Amphilochius, bishop of Cy- 
 zicum, consists of 308 questions, and answers to .them; a 
 sixth paj-t of which, at least, are to be found in the Epis- 
 tles of Photius, published^ in 1651 by bishop Montague. 
 The greater part of these questions relate to different 
 texts of the Old and IVew Testament; but these are inter- 
 spersed with others of a philosophical, and literary kind. 
 This work is still extant in manuscript in the Vatican, 
 Barberinian, and Bavarian libraries. , 
 
 (iij^ i Such as a ciftena (a chain) of commentaries on 
 the book of Fsalms, compiled from the writings of Athana- 
 sius, Basil, Chrysostom, &c., and a commentary upon the 
 Prophets, bothof which are yet extant in manuscript, the 
 former in the Bibliotheca Seguefiana or Coisliniana, and 
 the latter in the V atican library. 
 
222 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part XI. 
 
 in consequence of the zeal and munificence of 
 Charlemagne, who, both by Tiis liberality and 
 by his example, had excited and encouraged the 
 doctors of the preceding age to the study of 
 the Scriptures. Of these expositors there are 
 two, at least, who are worthy of esteem, — 
 Christian Druthmar, whose Commentary on 
 St. Matthew has reached our times;* and the 
 abbot Bertharius, whose Two Books concern- 
 ing Fundamentals are also said to be yet ex- 
 tant. The rest seem to have been unequal to 
 the important office of sacred critics, and may 
 be divided into two classes, which we have 
 already had occasion to mention in the course 
 of this history; the class of those who merely 
 collected and reduced into a mass the opinions 
 and explications of the ancients, and that of a 
 fantastic set of expositors, who were always 
 hunting after mysteries in the plainest expres- 
 sions, and labouring to deduce a variety of ab- 
 struse and hidden significations from every pas- 
 sage of Scripture, all which they did, for the 
 most part, in a very clumsy and uncouth man- 
 ner. At the head of the first class was Raba- 
 nus Maurus, who acknowledges that he bor- 
 rowed from the ancient doctors the materials 
 of which he made use in illustrating the Gos- 
 pel of St. Matthew and the Epistles of St. 
 Paul. To this class also belonged Walafrid 
 Strabo, who borrowed his explications chiefly 
 from Rabanus; Claudius of Turin, who trod- 
 in the footsteps of Augiistin and Origen; Hinc*- 
 mar, whose Exposition of the four Books of 
 Kings, compiled from the fathers, we still pos- 
 sess; Remigius of Auxerre, who derived from 
 the same source his illustrations of the Psalms 
 and other books of sacred Writ; Sedulius, who 
 explained in the same manner the Epistles of 
 St. Paul; Florus, Haymo bishop of Halber- 
 stadt, and others, whom for the sake of bre- 
 vity, we pass in silence. 
 
 IX. Rabanus Maurus, whom we introduced 
 above at tlie head of the compilers from the 
 fathers, deserves also an eminent place among 
 the allegorical commentators, on account of 
 his diffuse and tedious work, entitled Scripture 
 Allegories. To this class also belong Sraarag- 
 dus, Haymo, Scotus, Paschasius Radbert, and 
 many otiiers, whom it is not necessary to par- 
 ticularize. The fundamental and general prin- 
 ciple, in which all the writers of this class 
 agree, is, that, beside the literal signification 
 of each passage in Scripture, there are hidden 
 and deep senses which escape the vulgar eye; 
 but they are not agreed about the number of 
 these mysterious significations. Some attri- 
 bute to every phrase three senses, others four, 
 and some five; and the number is carried to 
 seven by Angelome, a monk of Lisieux, an 
 acute, though fantastic writer, who is far from 
 deserving the meanest rank among the exposi- 
 tors of this century .f 
 
 * See R. Simon, Histoire •critique des principaux Com- 
 inentateura du Nouv. Testament, chap. xxv. p. 348; as 
 also his Critique de la Bibliotheque £celesia5tique de M. 
 Du-Pin, torn. i. p. 293. 
 
 f See the preface to his Commentary on the Book of 
 Kings, in the Bibliotheca Fatrum Masima, torn. xv. p. 
 308. The commentary of Angelome upon the book of 
 Genesis was published by Bernard Fezius, in his Thesau- 
 rus Anecdotorum, torn. i. part i.;, hut, indeed, the loss 
 would not have been great,, if It had never seen the light. 
 
 X. The teachers of theology were still more 
 contemptible than the commentators; and the 
 Greeks, as well as the Latins, were extremely 
 negligent both in unfolding the nature, and 
 proving the truth of the doctrmes of Christian- 
 ity. Their rnethod of inculcating divuie truth 
 was dry and unsatisfactory, and more adapted 
 to fill the memory with sentences, than to en. 
 lighten the understanding, or to improve the 
 judgment. The Greeks, for the most part, fol- 
 lowed implicitly Damascenus, while the Latins 
 submitted their hoodwinked intellects to the au- 
 thority of Augustine. Authority became the 
 test of truth, and supplied in arrogance what it 
 wanted in argument. . That magisterial deci- 
 sions were employed in the place of reason, ap.- 
 pears manifestly from the Colkctaneum de. trv- 
 bus Q,neestionibus of Seryatus Lupus; and also 
 from a treatise of Remigius, concerning the 
 necessity of holding fast the truths of the Gos- 
 pel, and of maintaining inviolable the sacred 
 authority of the holy and orthodox fathers.-^ 
 If any deigned to appeal to the authority of 
 the Scriptures in defence of their systems, they 
 either explained them in an allegopcal man- 
 ner, or understood, them in the sense that had 
 been given to them by the decrees of councils, 
 or in the writings of the fathers; from w^ich 
 senses they thought it both unlawful and impi- 
 ous to depart. The Irish doctors alone, and 
 particularly Johannes Scotus, had the courage 
 to spurn the ignominious fetters of authority, 
 and to explain the sublime doctrines of Chris- 
 tianity in a, manner conformable to the dictates 
 of reason, and the principles of true philoso- 
 phy. But this noble attempt drew upon them 
 the malignant fury of a superstitious age, and 
 exposed them, to the hatred of the Latin-theo- 
 logians, who would not permit either reason 
 or philosophy to interfere in religious matters.* 
 
 XI. The important science of morals suffer- 
 ed, like all others, in the hands of ignorant 
 and unskilful writers. The laboiurs of some 
 were wholly employed In collecting from the 
 fathers an indigested heap oT maxims and sen- 
 tences concerning religious and moral duties; 
 and such, among others, was the work of Al- 
 varus, intitled SdntillcR Patrwn. Others wrote 
 nf virtue and vice, in a more systematic man- 
 ner; such as Halitgarius, Rabanus MaurUs, and 
 Jonas, bishop of Orleans; but the representa- 
 tions t.hey gave of-one and the other were very 
 different firom thos6 which we find in the Gos- 
 pel. Some deviated into that most absurd and 
 delusive method of instructing the ignorant in 
 the will of God by a fantastic combination of 
 figures and allegories; and several of the Greeks 
 began to turn their studies towards the solution 
 of cases of conscience,! 'n 6rder to remove the 
 difficulties that arose in scrupulous andtimorous 
 minds. We pass in silence the writers of ho- 
 milies and books of penance, of which a consi- 
 derable number appeared in this century. 
 
 XII. The doctrine of the mystics, whose ori- 
 gin is falsely attributed to Dionysius the Are- 
 
 * For- an account of the persecutioa and hatred that 
 Johannes Scotus suffered in the cause of reason and liberty, 
 see Du Boulay, Hist. Academ. Faris. torn. i. p. 163; as 
 also Mabilton, Acta Sanctor. Ord. Bened. ssec. v. p. 392. 
 
 f See Wicephori Chartophylac. Epistolse Dufe, in the 
 I BibliotJicca Magna Fatruro, torn. iii. p. 413. 
 
Chas. in. 
 
 THE DOCTRINK OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 223 
 
 opagagite, sind whose precepts were designed 
 to elevate the soul above all sensible and ter- 
 restrial objects, .and to unite it to the Deity 
 in an ineffable manner, had been now for a 
 long time in vogue among the Greeks, and 
 more especially among the monastic orders; 
 and to augment the credit of this fanatical 
 sect, and multiply its followers, Michael Syn-, 
 cellus and Methodius composed the most pom- 
 pous and eloquent panegyrics upon the memo- 
 ry of Dionysius, in which his virtues were ce- 
 lebrated with the utmost exaggeration. The 
 Latins were not yet bewitched vrith the spe- 
 cioiis appearance, and the illusory charms of 
 the mystic devotion, which was equally adapt- 
 ed to affect persons of a lively fancy and those 
 of a. more gloomy turn of mind. They lived 
 in a happy ignorance of this contagioiis doc- 
 trine, when 9ie Grecian emperor Michael Bal- 
 bus sent to Louis the Debonnaire, in 824, a co- 
 py of the pretended works* of Dionysius the 
 Areqpagite, which fatal present iinmediately 
 kindled the holy flame of mysticism in the 
 western provinces, and filled the Latins with 
 the most enthusiastic admiration of this new 
 religion. The translation of these spurious 
 woSs into Latin by the express order of the 
 emperor,t who could not be easy while his sub- 
 jects were deprived of such a valuable treasure, 
 contributed much to the progress of mysticism. 
 By the order of the same emperor,Hilduin, abbot 
 of St. Denys, composed an account of the life, 
 actions; and writings of Dionysius, under the 
 title of Aereopagitica, in which work, among 
 other impudent fictions, usual in those times 
 of superstition arid imposture, he maintained, 
 IE Kder to exalt the honour of his' nation, that 
 Dionysius the'Areopagite, and Dionysius the 
 bishop of Paris, were one and the same pei> 
 Eon.{ This fable, which was invented with 
 unparalleled assurance, was received with the 
 most perfect and unthinking credulity, and 
 
 * Usserii Sylloge Ep. Hibernicar. p. 54, 55: Kf- The 
 spuriousness of tliese works is now admitted by the 
 most learned and impartial of the Roman Catholic 
 writers, as they contain accounts of many events 
 that happened several ages after the time of Biony- 
 sins, and were not at all mentioned until after the 
 fifth century. See Fleury, Hist. Eccles. liv. 54. tom. 
 xi. p. 528. edit. Bruxelles. 
 
 f That these bpoks were translated by the order 
 ofLoiiis, appears manifestly from the Epistle to that 
 ' emperor, which Hilduin prefixed to his Areopagitica, 
 and in which we find the-folIowing"passage; '-' de no- 
 titia librorum, quos (Dionysius) patrio sermone con- 
 scripsit, et puibus petentibus illoS coinposuit, lectio 
 nobis per Dei gratiam et Vestram ordinationem, cu- 
 jus dispensatione interpretatOs, scrinia nostra eos 
 petentibus reserat, satisfacit." From this passage, 
 it is evident that they are in an error, who afilrm 
 that the Latin translation of the works of Diony- 
 sius was not executed before the time.of Charles the 
 Bald. And they err also, who, with Mafoillon, (An- 
 nal. JBinedict. tom^ ij. lib. xxix. sect. 59. p. 488,) and 
 the aaiiors of the Hist. Lit. de la France (torn. v. p. 
 435.) inform us, that Michael Balbus sent these 
 works already translated into Latin to the emperor 
 Louis. It is amazing how men of learning could 
 fall into the latter error, alter reading the following 
 passage in the Epistle above quoted; " Authenticos 
 " namque eqsdem (Dionysii) libros Grxca lingua con- 
 " scriptoB, ciim oeconomus ecclesiae Constantinopoli. 
 " tanae et ceteri missi Michaelis legatione — functi 
 " sunt — pro munere magno suscepimus." 
 
 X Lt^unoy, Diss, de Discrimine Dionysii Areopag. 
 et Parisiensls, cap. iv. p. 38. tom. ii. p. i. op.; as also 
 the writings of this great man concerning both those 
 ilivines. 
 
 made such a deep and permanent impressioJi 
 upon the minds of the French, that the repeat- 
 ed demonstrations of its falsehood have iiot yet 
 been sufficient entirely to ruin its credit. As 
 the first trapslation of the works of Dionysius 
 that had been executed by order of Louis, 
 was probably in a barbarous and obscure style, 
 a new and more elegant one was given by the 
 famous Johannes Scotus Erigena, at the re- 
 quest of Charles the Bald, the publication of 
 which increased considerably the partisans of 
 the mystic theology among the French, Ital- 
 ians, and Germans. Scotus himself was so 
 enchanted with this new doctrine, that he in- - 
 corporated it into his philosophical system, and 
 upon all occasions either accommodated his 
 philosophy to it, or explained it according to 
 the principles of his philosophy. 
 
 XIII. The defence of CSiristianity, against 
 4he Jews and Pagans, 'was greatly neglected 
 in this century,- in which the intestine disputes 
 and dissensions that divided the church, gave 
 sufficient employment to such as had an mcli- 
 nation to controveijsy, or a talent of managing 
 it with dexterity and knowledge. Agobaro, 
 however, as also Amnio andRabanusMaurua, 
 chastised the insolence and malignity of the 
 'Jews, and exposed their various absurditiesand 
 errors,-while the emperor Leo, Theodoras Abu- 
 cara, and other writers, whose performanceij 
 are lost, employed their polemic labors against 
 the progress of the Saracens, and refuted their 
 iiripious^and extravagant system.. But it may 
 be observed in general of those who wioia 
 against the Saracens, that they reported many 
 things, both concerning Mohammed and his 
 religion, which were far from being trae; and 
 if, as there is too much reason to imagine, they 
 did this designedly, knowing the falsehood, or 
 at least the- uncertainty of their allegations 
 against these infidels, we must look upon their 
 vpritings rather as intended to deter the Chris- 
 tians from apostasy, than to give a rational re- 
 futation of the Saracen doctrine. 
 
 XIV. The contests of the Christians among 
 themselves were carried on with greater eager- 
 ness and animosity than the disputes in which 
 they were engaged with the common enemies 
 of their faith; and these contests were daily 
 productive of new calamities and disorders, 
 which dishonoured their profession, and threw 
 a heavy, though undeserved reproach upon the 
 cause of true religion. After the banishment 
 of Irene, the controversy, concerning Images 
 broke out anew among the Greeks, and was 
 carried on by the contendiiig parties, during^ 
 the half, of this century, with various and un- 
 certain success. The emperor Nicephorus, 
 though he did not abrogate the decrees of the 
 councU of Nice, or order the images to be tak- 
 en out of the churches, deprived the patrons 
 of image-worship of all power to molest or in- 
 jure their adversaries, and seems- upon the 
 whole to have been-' an enemy to that idola- 
 trous service. But his successor Michael Cu- 
 Topaiates, surnamed Rhangebe, acted in a very 
 different manner. Feeble and timorous, and 
 dreading the rage of the priests and monks 
 who maintained the cause of images, he fa- 
 voured that cause during his short reign, and 
 persecuted its adversaries with the greatest bit- 
 
224 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 PartII 
 
 temess and cruelty. The scene changed again, 
 npon the accession of Leo the Armenian to 
 the empire, who aholished the decrees of the 
 Nicene council relating to the use and wor- 
 ship of images, in a council assembled at Con- 
 stantinople, in 8 i 4;* without however enacting 
 any penal laws against their idolatrous wor- 
 shippers. This moderation, far from satisfy- 
 ing the patriarch Nicephorus, and the other 
 partisans of image-worship, only served to en- 
 courage their obstinacy, and to increase their 
 insolence; upon which the emppror removed 
 the haughty prelate from his office, and chas- 
 tised the. ijiry of several of his adherents with 
 a deserved punishmenti His successor Mi- 
 chael, Bumamed Balbus, or the Stammerer, 
 was obliged to observe the same conduct, and 
 to depart from the clemency and indulgence 
 which, in the beginning of his reign, he had 
 discovered toward the worshippers of images, 
 whose idolatiy, however, he was far, from ap- 
 proving. The monks more especially prp- 
 voked his indignation' by their fanatical rage, 
 and forced him to treat them with -particiSar 
 severity. But the real of his son and succes- 
 sor Theophilus, in discouraging this new ido- 
 latry, was still more vehenient; for he opposed 
 the adorers of images with great violence, arid 
 went so far as to put to death some of-the more 
 obstinate ringleaders of that impetuous faction. 
 XV. On the death of Theophilus, which 
 happened in 842, the regency was entrusted to 
 the empress Theodora during her son's niino^' 
 rity. This superstitious princess, fatigued with 
 the importunate solicitations of the monks, 
 deluded by their forged miracles, and not a lit- 
 tle influenced also by their insolent threats, 
 assembled, in the year above-nientioned, a 
 council at Constantinople, in which the de- 
 crees of- the second Nicene council were rein- 
 stated in their lost authority, and the Greeks 
 were indulged in their corrupt propensity to 
 image-worship by a law which encouraged 
 that wretched idolatry;! so that, after a con- 
 troversy, which had been carried, on dming 
 the space of a hundred and ten years, the 
 cause of idolatry triumphed over the dictates 
 of reason and Christianity; the whole east, the 
 Armenians excepted, bowed dovrn before the 
 victorious images; nor did any of the succeed- 
 ing emperors attempt to cure the Greeks of 
 this superstitious phrensy, or restram theni in 
 the performance of this puerile worship. The 
 council thatTvas holden at Constantinople un- 
 der Photius, in 879, and which is reckoned by 
 the Greeks the eighth general council, gave a 
 ferther degree of force and vigor to idolatry, 
 by maintaining the sanctity of images, and 
 approving, coniirming, and renewing the Ni- 
 cene decrees. The superstitious Greeks, who 
 were blind-led by the monks in the most igno- 
 minious manner, esteemed this council as a 
 most signal blessing derived to them from the 
 immediate interposition of Heaven, and ac^ 
 cordingly instituted, in commemoration there- 
 
 11^ * Pleury and some other writers place the. 
 meeting of this council in 815. 
 
 fSee Fred. Spanheim, Historia Imaginum, sect. 
 viii. p. 845, torn. ii. op.— L'Enfant, Preservatif con. 
 tre la Reunion avec le Siege de Rome, tom. iii. lett. 
 ziv. p. 147 ; lett. xviii. xix. p. 509. 
 
 of, an anniversary festival, which was called 
 the Feast of Orthodoxy.* 
 
 XVI. The triumph of images, notwithstand- 
 ing the zealous eiforts of the Roman pontiffs 
 in their favour, was obtained with much more 
 difficulty among the Latins, than it had been 
 among the Greeks; for the former yet main- 
 tained the inalienably privilege of judging for, 
 themselves in religious. matters, and were. far 
 from being disposed to submit their reason im 
 plicitly to the decisions of the pontiff, or to 
 regard any thing as infallible and true, which 
 had authority for its only foundation. The 
 greater part of the European Christians, as we 
 have seen aheady, steered a, middle .course 
 between the idolaters and the Iconoclasts, be- 
 tween those who were zealous for the worship 
 of images on the one hand, and those who 
 were averse to all use of them on the other. 
 They were of opinion, that images might be 
 suffered as the means of aiding the memory of 
 the faithful, and of calling to their remem- 
 brance the pious exploits and the virtuous ac- 
 tions of the persons they represented; but they 
 detested all thoughts of paying them the least 
 marks of religious homage or adoration. JVIi- 
 chaelBalbus, when he sent, in 824, a solemn 
 emtassy to Louis the Debonnaire, to renew 
 and confirm the treaties of peace and friend- 
 ship which had been concluded between his 
 predecessors in the einpire and Charlemagne, 
 charged. his ministers, in a particular manner, 
 to bring over the king of the Franksf to the 
 party of the Iconoclasts, that they might gra- 
 dually suppress, by their united influence, the 
 worship of images, and thus restore concord 
 and tranquillity to the church.- Louis, on thiff 
 occasion, assembled a council at Paris, in 8 24, J 
 in order to examine the proposal of the Grecian 
 emperor; in which it was resolved to adhere to 
 the decrees of the council of Frankfort, w'hich 
 allowed the use of images in the churches, but 
 severely prohibited the treating of them with 
 the smallest marks of religious worship. But 
 in process of time the European Christians de- 
 parted gradually from the observance of this 
 injunction, and fell imperceptibly into a blind 
 submission to the decisions of the pope, whose 
 influence and authority daily became more 
 formidable; so that, toward the conclusion of 
 
 * See Gretser's Observat. in Codinum de .Ofiiciis 
 Aulas et Hccles. Constantinopolitanse, lib. iii. cap. 
 viii. ; as also the Ceremoniale Byzantinum, pub 
 lished by Reisk, lib, i. c. xxviii. p. 92. 
 
 Jtr* t So Michael and his son Theophilua style Louis 
 in their letter to him, refusing him .the title.-of om- 
 peror, to which, however, he had an undoubted 
 right in consequence of the treaties which tiiey now 
 desired to renew. - 
 
 iC?* J Fleury, Le Sueur, and other historians, unfi- 
 nimously place this council in 825. It may be pro- 
 per to observe, that the proceedings of this council 
 evidently show, that the decisions of the 'Roman 
 pontiff were by no means looked upon at this time 
 either as obligatory or infallible ; for, when the let- 
 ter of pope Adrian, in favour of images, was read 
 in the cotincil, it was alrriost unanimously rejected, 
 as containing absurd and erroneous opinions. The 
 decrees of the second council of Nice, relating to 
 image-worship, were also censured by the ^Gallican 
 bishops; and the authority of that council, though 
 received by several popes as an oecumenical one, 
 absolutely rejected; and what is remarkable is, that 
 the pope did not, on this account, declare the Galli. 
 can bishops heretics, or exclude them from the com. 
 munion of the apostolic see. See Fleury, liv. xlvii 
 
Chap. m. 
 
 THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 S25 
 
 this centuiy, the Gallican clergy began to pay 
 a certain kind of relimous homage to the 
 saintly images, in which their exmiple v?as 
 foUoweiby the Germans and other nations.* 
 
 XVII. Notwithstanding this apostasy, the 
 Iconoclasts were not destitute of adherents 
 among the Latins. Of these, the most eminent 
 was Qaudius, bishop of Turin, by birth a Spa- 
 niard, and also a disciple of Felix, bishop of. 
 Urgel. This zealous prelate, as soon as he 
 had obtained the episcopal dignity through the 
 favour of Louis the Debonnaire, began to ex- 
 ercise the duties of his function in 823, by 
 ordering all images, and even_J;he cross, to be 
 ca^t out of the chtirches, and committed to the; 
 flames. The year following he composed a 
 treatise, in which he not only defended these 
 vehement proceedings, and declared against 
 the use, as well as the worship, of images, but 
 also broached several other opinions, tliat were 
 quite contrary to the notions of the multitude, 
 and to the prejudices of the times. He denied, 
 among other things', in opposition to the 
 Greeks, that the cross was to be honoured with 
 any kind of worship; he treated relics with the 
 utmost contempt, as absolutely destitute of the 
 virtues that were attributed to them, and cen- 
 sured with great freedom and severity those 
 pilgrimages to the holy land, and those jour- 
 neys to tile tombs of the saints, which, in this 
 century, were looked upon as extremely salu- 
 tary, and particularly meritorious. This noble 
 stand, in the defence of true religion^ drew 
 upon Claudius a multitude of adversaries; the 
 sons of superstition rushed upon him from all 
 quarters; Thepdemir, Dungallus, Jonas of Or- 
 leans, and WaJafrid Strabo,! combined to 
 overwhelm him' with their voluminous an- 
 swers. . But the learned and venerable prelate 
 maintained his ground,| and supported his 
 cause with such dexterity and force, that it 
 remained triumphant, and gained new credit; 
 and hence it happened, that the city of Turin 
 and the adjacent country, were, for a long 
 time after the death of Claudius, much less 
 infected with superstition than the other parts 
 of Europe. 
 
 XVni. The controversy that had been car- 
 ' ried "on in the preceding century concerning 
 the procession (if we may be allowed to use 
 that term) of the Hcjy Ghost from the Father 
 and the Son, and also concerning- the words 
 Jilio-que,{b\stei by the Latiiis into the creed of 
 Constantinople, broke out now with redpubled 
 vehemence, and from a private dispute became 
 a flaming contest between the Greek and 
 Latin churches. The monks of Jerusalem 
 distinguished themselves in this -^ntroversy, 
 and complained particularly of thP interpola^ 
 tion of the "woi&^filio-que, i. e. and from the 
 
 * Mabillon, Annal. Benedictin. torn. ii. p. 488, ct 
 Act. Sanctorum Ord. Bened. sax. iv.— Xe Coiiite, 
 Annal. Eccles. Francor. torn. iv. ad Annum 834. 
 
 53* t In order to do justice -to the adversaries of 
 Claudius here mentioned, it is necessary to observe, 
 that they only maintained the innocence and use- 
 fulness of images, without pretending to represent 
 them as objects of religious worship. • 
 
 J Mabillon, Annal. Benedictin. torn. ii. p. 488.— 
 Prajf. ad siec. iv. Actor. SS. Ord. Benedict, p. 8.— His- 
 toire Liter, de la France, torn. iv. p. '491, and torn. v. 
 p. 27, 64.— Basnagc, Histoice des £glises Keformees, 
 torn. i. 
 
 Vol. I.— 29 
 
 son, in the above mentioped symbol ; nor did 
 they stop here, but despatched to Charle- 
 magne, in 809, a certain ecclesiastic of their 
 order, whose name was John, to obtain satis- 
 faction in this matter.* The affair was de- 
 bated in due forrri, in a council assembled in 
 that year at Aix-la-Chapelle, and also at 
 Rome, in the presence of pope Leo III., to 
 whom the emperor had sent ambassadors fiir 
 that purpose. Leo adopted the doctrine which 
 represented the Holy Ghost as proceeding 
 fiom the Father and the Son, but he con- 
 demned the addition that had been made to 
 the symbol,! and declared it as his opinion, , 
 thatfilio-que, being '^d'ently an interpolation, 
 ought to be omitted in reading- the symbol, 
 and at length stricken out of it entirely, not 
 every where at once, but in such a prudent '" 
 manner as to prevent disturbance. Hb suc- 
 cessors were of the same opinion ; the word, 
 however, being once admitted, not only kept 
 its place in opposition to the Roman pontiffs, 
 but was by degrees added to the symbol in all 
 the Latin churches.j; 
 
 SX. To these disputes of ancient origin 
 were added controversies entirely new, and 
 particularly that famous one concemiiw the 
 manner in which the body and blood of Christ 
 were present in, the eucharist. It had been 
 hitherto the unanimous opinion of the church 
 that the body and blood of Christ were admin- 
 istered to those who received the sacrament of 
 the Lord's Supper, and that they were conse- 
 quently present at that holy institution; but' 
 the sentiments of Christians concerning the 
 nature and manner of this presence were vari- 
 ous and contradictory, nor had any^ council- 
 determined with precision that important 
 point, or prescribed the manner in which this 
 pretended presence was to be understood. Both 
 reason and folly were hitherto left free in this 
 matter ; nor had any imperious mode of faith 
 suspended the exercise of the one, or restrained" 
 the extravagance of the other. But, in this 
 century, Paschasius Radbert, a monk, and af- 
 terwards a,bbot of Corbey, pretended to ex- 
 plain with precision, and to determine with 
 certainty, the doctrine of the chijurch on this 
 head ; for which purpose he composed, in 831, 
 a treatise concerning the sacrament of the 
 body and blood of Christ.^ A second edition 
 of this treatise, revised with care, and consi- 
 derably augmented, was presented in 845 to 
 Charles the Bald; and it principally gave oc- 
 casion to the warm and iinportant controversy ,^ 
 that ensued. The doctrine of Paschasius 
 
 * See Steph. Baluzii Miscellanea, torn. vii. p. 14. 
 
 tC^ t This addition of Jiliti-^ue to the symbol of 
 Nice and Constantinople, was made in the fifth and 
 sixth centuries by the churches of Spain; and their 
 example was followed l>y most of the Gallican 
 churches, where the symbol was read and sung with 
 this addition. 
 
 X See Le Cohite, Annal. Eccles. Francor. toni. iv. 
 ad a. 809. — Longueval, Histoire.de I'Eglise Gallicahe, 
 torn. V. p. 151. 
 
 § See Mabillon, Annates Benedict, ii. p. 539. An 
 accurate edition of Radbert's book was published by 
 Martenne, in the sixth volume of his Ampliss.- Col- 
 lect, veter. Scriptor. p. 378. The life and actions of 
 this wrong-headed divine are treated of at large by 
 Mabillon, in his Acta Sanctor. Ord. Benedict. Sac, 
 iv. part II. 136, and by the Jesuits, jn the ActaSS. 
 Antwerp, ad d. xxvi. Aprilis. 
 
226 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part II 
 
 amounted, in general, to the two following 
 propositions : first, that, after the coi^ecration 
 of the bread and wine in the Lord's Supper, 
 nothing remained of these symbols but the 
 outward figure, under which the body and 
 Hood of Christ were really and locally present ; 
 and, secondly, tliat the body of Christ thtis 
 present in the eucharist was the same body 
 that was born of the Virgin, that suifered upon 
 the cross, and was raised from the dead. This 
 new doctrine, and more especially the second 
 proposition now mentioned, excited, as liaight 
 well be expected, the astonishment of many. 
 Accordingly it was opposed by Rabanus Mau- 
 rus, Heribald, and others, though they did not 
 all refute it in the same method, or on ,the 
 same principles. Charles the Bald, on this 
 occasion, ordered the famous Ratram and 
 Johannes Scotus to draw up a clear and ra- 
 tional explication of that important doctrine 
 which Radbert seemed to have so egregiously 
 corrupted.* These learned divines executed 
 with zeal and diligence the orders of the em- 
 peror. The treatise of Scotus perished in the 
 ruins of time ; tot that of Ratram is still ex- 
 tant,t which furnished ample matter of dis- 
 pute, both in the last and present century.f 
 
 XX. It is- remarkable that in this, controver- 
 sy each of the contending parties were almost 
 as much divided among themselves as they 
 were at variance with their adversaries. Rad- 
 bert, who began the dispute, contradicts him- 
 self in meiny places, departs from his own 
 principles, and maintains, in one part of his 
 book, conclusions that he had disavowed in 
 another. His principal adversary Bertram^ 
 or Ratram, seenfis in some respects liable to 
 the same charge ; he appears to follow in gen- 
 eral the doctrine of those, who deny that the 
 body andblood of Clirist are reaHy present in 
 the holy sacrament, and to affirm on the con- 
 trary that they are only represented by the 
 bread and ,wine as their sign^ or symbols. 
 There are, however, several passages in his 
 book which seem inconsistent with this just 
 and rational notion of the eucharist, or at least 
 are susceptible of different interpretations, and 
 have therefore given rise to various disputes. 
 Johannes Scotus, whose philosophical genius 
 rendered him more accurate, and shed through 
 his writings that logical, precision so much 
 wanted, and so Tiighly desirable in polemical 
 productions, was the only disputant in this 
 contest who expressed his sentiments with 
 perspicuity, method, and consistency, and de- 
 clared plainly that the bread and wine were 
 
 * For an account of Ratram. or Bertram, and his 
 fainous book which made so much noise in the 
 world, see the Biblioth. Lat. of Fabricius, torn. i. p. 
 1661. 
 
 53*1 -A- new English translation of the book"-of 
 Bertram, (who Was a priest and monk 'of Corbey) 
 concerning the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ in the 
 Sacrament, was published ~at Dublin in 1752; to 
 which is prefixed a very learned and judicious his- 
 torical dissertation respectingthis famous author and 
 his works, in which both are ably defended against 
 the calumnies and fictions of the Roman- Catholic 
 writers. 
 
 X There is an account, but a partial one, of this 
 controversy in Mabillon's Prief ad Siec. iv. part ii. 
 Benedict, p. viii. which the curious reader will 
 therefore do well to compare with Easnage's His- 
 toire de TEglise, torn. i. 909 
 
 the signs and symbols of the absent body an* 
 blood of Christ. All the other theologians of 
 his time fluctuate and waver in their opinions 
 express themselves with ambiguity^ and em 
 brace and reject the same tenets^ at different 
 times, as if they had no fixed or permanent 
 principles on this subject. Hence it evidently 
 appears, that there was not yet in the Lat'<i> 
 chm'ch any fixed or imiversally received opin- 
 ion concerning the manner in which the bod}' 
 and blood of Christ are present in the euchar 
 rist. ' •■ ■" 
 
 XXI. The disputants in this controversy 
 charged each other reciprocally with the most 
 odious doctrines, which each party drew by 
 way of consequences from the tenets they op- 
 posed, — a method of proceeditig as unjust,- as 
 it is common in all kinds of debate. Hence 
 arose the imaginary heresy, that, on the trium- 
 phant progress of the doctrine of transubstan- 
 tiation in the eleventh century, was branded 
 with the title of Stenoranimi,, and of which the 
 true origin Was as follows : They who, em- 
 bracing the opinion of Paschasius Radbert, be- 
 heved that the bread and wine in the sacrar 
 merit were substantially changed afler the con- 
 secration, and preserved only their external 
 figure, -drew a most unjust conclusion from 
 the opinion of their adversaries, who main- 
 tained on the contrary, that the bread and 
 wine preserved their substance, and that 
 Christ's body and blood were only figuratively, 
 and not really, present in the eucharist.* Th^y 
 alleged that tlie doctrine of the latter implied, 
 that the body of Christ was digested in the 
 stomach, and was thrown out with the other 
 excrements. But this consequence was quick- 
 ly retorted upon those that imagined it ; for 
 they who denied the conversion of the bread 
 and wine into the real body and blood of 
 Christ, charged the same enormous conse- 
 quence upon their antagonists who believed 
 this transmutation ; and the charge certainly 
 was much more applicable to the latter than 
 to the former. The truth is, that it was nei- 
 ther truly applicable to one nor to the other ; 
 and their inutual reproaches, most wretchedly 
 founded, show rather a spirit of invective, than 
 a zeal for the truth. The charge of Stercora- 
 nism is but a malignant invention; it can 
 never, without the inost absurd impudeuee^be 
 brought against those who deny the transmu- 
 tation of the bread into tlie body of Christ ; it 
 may indeed be charged upon such as allow 
 this transmutation, though it be a consequence 
 tjiat none of them, except those whose intel- 
 lects were unsound, perhaps ever avowed.* 
 
 XXII. While this controversy was at its 
 greatest height, another of a quite different 
 kind, and of inuch greater importance, arosej 
 whose unhappy consequences are yet felt in 
 the reformed churches. The subject of this 
 new contest was the doctrine of predestination 
 and divine g:ace, and its rise is universally at- 
 tributed to Godeschalcus, an illustrious Saxon, 
 who had entered involuntarily into the mo- 
 
 * For an account of the Stercoranists, see Mabillon, 
 Prsef ad Siec. iv. Benedict, part ii. p. 21. — J. Bas- 
 nage, Histoire de I'Eglise, torn. i. p. 826, and a Trea- 
 tise of the learned Dr. PfaS; published at Tubingen 
 in 1750. 
 
Chap. HI. 
 
 THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 827 
 
 oastio order in the convent orFulda, whence 
 be removed to the monastery of Orbais, in the 
 iiocese of Soiasons, where he prosecuted his 
 theoldgieal studies, not only with great assi- 
 duity, but also with an insatiable desire of 
 'ounding the deepest mysteries, and of being 
 j " wise above what is written." This eminent 
 ecclesiastic, ' upon his return from Rome in 
 B4'7, took up Jiis lodging for some time with 
 count Eberald, one of the principalrnoblemen 
 it the court of the emperor Lothaire, where 
 he discoursed largely of the intricate doctrine 
 of predestination in the presence of Nothingus, 
 bishop of Verona,, and maintained that God, 
 from all eternity, had pre-ordained some to 
 everlasting life, and others to everlasting 
 punishment and misery. Rabanus Maurns, 
 who was by no means his friend, being inr 
 formed of the propagation of this doctrine, op- 
 posed him with great vigor. To render his 
 opposition more successful, he began by reprer 
 seuting (Jodesohalcus as a corrupter 'of the 
 true religion, and a forger of monstrous here- 
 sies, in some letters addressed to count Eberald 
 and -to the bishop of Verona; and when the 
 accused monk came from Italy into Ctermany 
 to justify himself against these clamours, and 
 for-that.purpose appeared at Mentz, of which 
 Rabanus his accuser was archbishop, he was 
 condemned in a council assembled by the latter 
 in that city, in 848, and sent thence to Hino- 
 mar, archbishop of Rheims, in whose diocese 
 he had received the order of priesthood. Hinc- 
 nlar, who was devoted to the interests of Ra- 
 banus, assembled a council at Quiercy in 849, 
 in which Godeschalcus was condemned a se- 
 cond time, and was also treated in a manner 
 equally repugnant to the principles of religion 
 and the dictates of humanity. Because he was 
 firm in maintaining his doctrine, which he 
 afSrmed, and indeed with truth, to be the doc- 
 trine of St. Augustine, the imperious Hincmar 
 degraded him from the priesthood, and was so 
 Jjarbarous as to order him to be scourged with 
 the utmost severity, until the force of his pain 
 overpowering his constancy obliged him, ac- 
 cording to the Commands of his reverend execu- 
 tioiiers, to burn with Jiis own hands that justi- 
 fication of his opinions which he had presented 
 to the council of Mentz. After these barbarous 
 proceedings, the imfortunate monk was cast 
 into prison in the monastery of Hautvilliers, 
 where he ended his misery and his days in 
 868, or the following year, maintaining with 
 his last breath the doctrine for which he had 
 suffered. 
 
 XXUI. While Godeschalcus lay in prison, 
 his doctrine gained him followers; his suffeiv 
 ings excited compassion; and both together 
 produced a considerable schism in the Latin 
 church. Ratram, monk of Corbey, Prudent, 
 tins, bishop of Troyes, Loiip, or Lupus, abbot 
 of Ferrieres, Floras, deacon of Lyons, Remi, 
 archbishop of the same city, with his whole 
 church, and many other ecclesiastics, whom it 
 would be tedious to mention, pleaded with the 
 utmost zeal and vehemence, both in their writ- 
 ings and in their discourse, the cause of this 
 unhappy monk, and of his condemned opini- 
 ons. Some, indeed, confined themselves prin- 
 cipally to the defenc* of his person and con- 1 
 
 duct, while others went farther, and employed 
 all their zeal, and all their labour, in the vin- 
 dication of his doctrine. On the opposite side 
 of the question were Hincmar, his unrighteous 
 judge, Amalarius, the celebrated Johannes 
 Scotus, and-others, who all maintained, that 
 Godeschalcus and his opinions had received 
 the treatment they, deserved; As the spirit of 
 controversy ran high between these contending 
 parties, and grew more vehement firom day to 
 day, Charles the Bald summoned a new coim- 
 cil, or synod, which met at Quiercy in 859-, in 
 which, by the credit and influence of Hino- 
 mar, IJie decrees of the ferraer council were 
 confirmed, and in consequence Godeschalcus 
 was again condemned. But the decrees of this 
 council were declared null; and decisions of a 
 different kind,, by wliich he and his doctrine 
 were vindicated and defended, were enacted 
 in a council assembled at Valence in Dau- 
 phine, in 855. This council was composed of , 
 the clergy of Lyons, Vienne, and Aries, with 
 Remi, archbishop of Lyons at theit head; and 
 its decrees were confirmed, in 859, by the 
 council of Langres,.in which the same clergy 
 were assembled, and in 860, by the council of 
 Tousi, in which the bishops of fourteen pro- 
 vinces supported the cause of the persecuted 
 monk, whose de%th allayed the heat of this in- 
 tricate controversy.* 
 
 XXIV. If we attend to the merits of this' 
 cajise, we shall find that the debate still sub- 
 sists in all its force, and that the doctrine of 
 Godeschalcus has in- oui^ days both able de- 
 fenders and powerful adversaries. He un- 
 doubtedly maintained, a two-fold predestina- 
 tion, one to everlasting life, and the other to ' 
 eternal death. He held also, " that God did 
 -" jjot desire or will 'the salvation of all man- [ 
 " kiild, but that of the elect only; and that j 
 " Christ did not suffer death for the whole hu- ■ 
 " man race, but for' those persons oiJy whopi 
 " God has predestinated to eternal salvation." 
 These decisions, which carry a severe and 
 rigorous aspect, are softly and favouredly in- 
 terpreted by the foljowers of Godeschalciis. 
 They deny, for example, that their leader re- 
 presents God as predestinating, to a necessary 
 course of iniquity, those whom he has previ- 
 ously predestinated to eternal misery; and; ac- 
 cording to them, the doctrine of Godeschalcua 
 amounts to na more than this: " That God 
 " has, from all eternity, doomed to everlasting 
 " misery such as he foiresaw would go on im- 
 " p'enitent in a sinful course, and has decreed 
 " their ruin in consequence of their sins freely 
 "committed and eternally foreseen: that the 
 " salutary effects of the mercy of God,- and the 
 " sufferings of Christ, 'extend indeed only to 
 "the elect, and are made good to them alone; 
 " though this mercy and these sufferings, con- 
 " sidered in themselves, belong equally to all 
 ".mankind." But this contradictory jargon 
 
 * Beside the common ^writers, who speak of this 
 controversyT the curious reader will' do well to con- 
 sult the more learned and impartial accoants he will 
 find of it in Boulay's Hist. Acad. Paris, torn. i. p. 
 178. — Mabillon's PrEef. ad Sbbc. iv. Benedict, part ii. 
 p. slvii.— Hist. Literaire de la Prance, tom. v; p, 
 353.-.^0sserii Historia Godeschalci — Gerard, Joh. 
 Voseii Historia Pelagiana, lib. vii. cap. iv. — Fabricii 
 Biblioth. Latin, medii X\i, tom. iii. p. 310. 
 
228 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 p»iiT n. 
 
 did not satisfy the adversaries of the predesti- 
 narian monk; tliey maintained,- on tiie con- 
 trary, that, under ambiguous terms and per^ 
 plexed sentences, Godesclialcus had concealed 
 the most enormous errors, propagating it assi- 
 duously as an article of faith, " That God had 
 " not only by an original decree predestinated" 
 " one part of mankind to etemiU damnation, 
 " but had also puslied them on by an irresisti- 
 " ble necessity, by a propellent force, to those 
 " crimes and transgressions wliich were proper 
 " to render tliat damnation just."* Without 
 detemiining any thing upon such an intricate 
 and incomprehensible subject, with respect to 
 wliich silence is the truest wisdom, we shall 
 only observe, that the private quarrels, and 
 mutual haired, tliat prevailed between Raba- 
 nus Mauriis and Godeschalcus, were the real 
 source of the predestinarian controversy, and 
 of all tlie calamities in wliich it involved tlie 
 unfortunate monk.t 
 
 XXV. Another, though less important, con- 
 troversy arose alxiut this time, concerning tlie 
 concluding words of a very ancient hymn, 
 whicli rans thus: te, trina Deilas unaque, posci- 
 mus, which may be thus translated, " O God, 
 who' art tliree, and at the same time but one, 
 We beseech thee," &c. Hincmar wisely prohi- 
 bited the singing of these wOTds in the diurches 
 that were under his jurisdiction, from a per- 
 suasion that they tended to introduce into the 
 minds of the multitude notions inconsistent 
 with tlie unity and simplicity of the Suprrane 
 Being, and might lead them to imagine tiiat 
 there were three Gods. But the Benedictine 
 monks refused to obey this mandate, and Ber- 
 tram, who was one' of the most eminent of that 
 order, wrote a copious' work to prove the ex- 
 pression trina Deitas, or threefold Deity, ortho- 
 
 * The cause of Godeschalcus has been very learn- 
 edly, defended by the celebrated Maguin, who pub. 
 Ushed also a valuable edition of all.the treatises that 
 were composed , on both sides of this intricate con- 
 troversy. This interesting collection, which .was 
 printed at Paris in 1650, bears the following title: 
 •veterunf Auctorum qui Nono Sfcculo de Pnedesti. 
 ' natione et Gratia scripserunt, Opera et Fragmenta, 
 'cum Historia et gemina Praefatione.* Cardinal 
 Norris maintained also the cause of the predestina. 
 rian monk with more brevity, but less moderation 
 than Haguin. This brief vindication may be seen 
 in the Synopsis Historiee Godeschalcans, which is 
 inserted Jn the 4th volume of the worics of that car- 
 dinal, p.'677. All the Benedictines, Jansenists, and 
 Augustin monks maintain, almost without excep- 
 tion, that Godeschalcus was most unjustly perse- 
 cuted and oppressed by Jlabanus Maurus. The Jesu- 
 its are of a different opinion',, they assert in general, 
 and Louis Cellot, one of their order, has in a more 
 particular manner laboured- to demonstrate, in iiis 
 Historia Godeschaici Frcedestinationis, published at 
 Paris in 1655, that the monk in question was justly 
 condemned, and deservedly punished. 
 
 ' t The parents of Godeschalcus consecrated him to 
 God, by devoting him from his infancy, as was the 
 custom of the times, to the. monastic life in tile mo- 
 nastery of Fulda. The young monk, iMwever, hav- 
 ing arrived at a certain age, -seemed much disposed 
 to abandon his retreat, to shake off his religious fet- 
 ters, and to return into society; but 'he was pre- 
 vented frOm the execution of this purpose by Kaba- 
 nus Maurus, who kept him against his will in his 
 monastic bonds. Hence a violent contest arose be. 
 twe^n these ecclesiastics, in which Louis the De- 
 bonaire Was obliged to interpose; and hence pro- 
 ceeded the furious disputes concerning predestina- 
 tion and grace. See CenturiiB Ma^deb. Cent. ix. c. 
 10. — Mabillon, Annal. Bened. tom. ii. ad annum 839. 
 p SS3. 
 
 dox, from the authority of fathers, teteemed 
 the only criterion of truth in those miserable 
 times. Godeschalcus, who now lay in prison, 
 heard of this dispute, entered warmly into it, 
 and in a laboured dissertation supported the 
 cause of his Benedictine brethren; on which 
 account Hincmar accused him of tritheism, and 
 drew up a treatise to prove the charge, and to 
 refute that impious and enormous here^. 
 This controversjr, however, was but of a short 
 duration; and the exceptionable passage of the 
 hymn in question maintained its credit, not- 
 withstanding all tlie efforts of Hincmar, and 
 continued', as before, to be sung in the 
 churches.* 
 
 XXVI. A vain curiosity, and not any design 
 of promoting useful knowledge and true piety, 
 was the main source of the greatest part of 
 the controversies that were carried on in this 
 century; and it was more especially this idle 
 curiosity, calrried to an indecent and most ex- 
 travagant length, tiiat gave rise to the contro-. 
 versy concerning tlie manner in which Christ 
 was bom of the Virgin, which began in Ger- 
 many, and made its way from that cotmtry 
 into France. Certain Germans maintained, 
 that Jesus proceeded from his mother's womb 
 in a manner quite diiferent from those general 
 and uniform ^ws of nature that regtllate the 
 birth of the human species; which opinion was 
 no sooner known in France, than it was warmly 
 opposed by the famousJlatram, who wrote a 
 book expressly to prove that Christ entered 
 into the world i?i the very same way with 
 other mortals, that his Virgin mother bore 
 him, as other women bring forth their offspring. 
 Paschasius Radbert, who was constantly em- 
 ployed, either in inventing or patroni^ng the 
 most extravagant fancies adopted the opinion 
 of the German doctors, and composed an ela- 
 borate trgatise to prove that Christ was bom, 
 without his mother's womb being opened, in 
 the same manner as he came into Hie chamber 
 where his disciples were assembled after his 
 resvurection, though the door was shut. He 
 also charged those who held the opinion of Ra- 
 tram witti denying the virginity of Maiy. 
 This fruitless dispute was soon hushed and 
 gave place to controversies of superior mo- 
 ment.f 
 
 XXVII. Of all the controversies that divid- 
 ed Christians in this century, the most inter- 
 esting, though at the same time the most la- 
 mentable, wSs that which occasioned the fatal 
 schism between the Greek and Latin churches. 
 A vindictive and jealojis spirit of animosity 
 and contention had long prevailed between the 
 bishops of Rome and Constantinople, and had 
 sometimes broken out into acts of violence and 
 rage. The ambition and fury of these con- 
 tending prelates became still more keen and 
 vehement about the time of Leo the Isaurian, 
 when the bishops of Constantinople, seconded 
 by the power and authority of file emperors, 
 vrithdrew from the jurisdiction of the Roman 
 pontiffs many provinces, over which they had 
 
 * An account of this controversy is given by the 
 writers of the life, actions, and doctrines of Godes- 
 chalcus. 
 
 t Bee the Spicilegium veterum Scriptorum, pub- 
 lished by M. d'Acheri, tom. i. p. 396. — Mabiflon, 
 Prief. ad Seec. iv. Benedict, part ii. p. 51, 
 
Chap. IH. 
 
 THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 829 
 
 hitherto exercised a spiritual doitiinion.* In 
 this. century the cojitest rose to an enormous 
 height, wad broke forth info a most dreadful 
 flame, in 85S,f when the learned Photius was 
 chosen patriai'ch of Constantinople, ky the em- 
 peror Michael, in tlie place of Ignatius, whom 
 that pr^ce had driven fiom his see and sent 
 into exile. This violent proceeding, though it 
 was vindicated and even applauded by a coun- 
 cil assembled at Constantinople in 861, was 
 fai from being attended with a general appro- 
 bation. Ignatius appealed from this council to 
 pope Nicolas I., who espoused his interests, 
 ajid, ina council assembled at Rome in 862, ex- 
 communicated Photius as unlawfully elected, 
 and his abettors for having been concerned in 
 such aia unrighteous cause. The new patri- 
 arch, however, was so far from being terrified 
 or dejected by this excommunication, that he 
 returned the compliment to the pope, and, in 
 a. council assembled at Constantinople, in 866, 
 he declared Nicolas uiiworthy of the place he 
 held in the chiu:ch, and also of being admitted 
 to the communion of Christians. 
 
 XXVIII. The Roman pontiff alleged a spe- 
 cious pretext for his acting with such violence, 
 and exciting such unliappy fcommotions in the 
 church. This pretence was the innocence of 
 Ignatius, whom, upon an accusation 6f trea- 
 son, whether true or false, the emperor had de- 
 
 fraded from his patriarchal dignity. This, 
 owever, was not the true reason; ambition 
 and interest were the real though secret springs 
 that directed the motions of Nicolas, who 
 would have borne with patience, and viewed 
 with indifference, the unjust sufferings of Ig- 
 natius, if he could have recovered from the 
 Greeks, the provinces of lUyrioum, Macedo- 
 nia, Epinis, Achaia, Thessaly, and Sicily, 
 which the emperor and Photius had removed 
 from the jurisdiction of the Roman pontiff. 
 Before he engaged in the cause- of Ignatius, he 
 sent a solemn embassy to Constantinople, to 
 demand the restitution of the provinces; but 
 his demand was rejected with contempt. — 
 Hence, under pretence of avenging the inju- 
 ries committed against Ignatius, he indulged 
 without restraint- his own private Jresentment, 
 and thus covered with the mask of justice the 
 fury of disappointed ambition and avarice. 
 
 XXIX. While affairs were in this troubled 
 state and the flame of controversy was grow- 
 ing more violent from day to day, Basilius the 
 Macedonian, who, by the murder of his prede- 
 cessor, had pave^ his way to the imperial throne, 
 calmed at once these tumults, and restored- 
 peace to the chm-ch, by recalling Ignatius from 
 exile to the high station from wiiich he had 
 been degraded, and by confining Photius in a 
 monastery. This act of authority was so- 
 lemnly approved and confirmed by a council 
 assembled at Constantinople, in 899, in which 
 the legates of pope Adrian II. had great influ- 
 ence, and were treated with the highest marks 
 
 * See Giannone, Historia di Napoli, torn. i.-^Petr. 
 de Marca, de Concordia Sacerdotn et Imperii, lib. i. 
 Gap. i. p. 6. — Lequien, Oriens Christianus, torn. i. 
 p. 96. 
 
 inf* t la the original, we find the date of 852; but, 
 as this is probably an error of the press, the transla- 
 tor has taken tile liberty to correct it in the text. 
 
 of distinction.* The Latins acknowledge this 
 assembly as the eighth oecumenical councilj 
 and in it the religious contests between them 
 and the Greeks were concluded, or at least 
 hushed and suspended. But the controversy 
 concerning the authority of thejiontiffs, the li- 
 mits of their just power, and particularly their 
 jurisdiction in Bulgaria, still subsisted; nor could 
 all the efforts of papal ambition engage either 
 Ignatius or the emperor to give up Bulgajria, or 
 any other province, to the see of Rome. ' 
 
 XXX. The contest that had arisen between 
 the Greeks and Latins concerning the eleva- 
 tion of Photius, was of such a nature as to ad- 
 mit an easy and effectual remedy. But the 
 haughty and ambitious spirit of this learned 
 and ingenious patriarch fed the flame of dis- 
 cord instead of extinguishing it, and unhappily 
 prolonged the troubles and divisions of the- 
 Christian church. In the year 866, he added 
 to- the see of Constantinople the province of 
 Bulgaria, with which Nicolas had formed the 
 design of augmenting his spiritual dominion. 
 Wliile the pope was most bitterly provoked at 
 missing his aim, Photius went yet farther, and 
 entered into measures every way unworthy of 
 his character and station: for he not only sent 
 a circular letter to the oriental patriarchs to 
 engage them to espouse his private cause, as 
 the public and momentous cause of the church, 
 but drew up a most violent charge of heresy 
 against the Roman bishops, who had been sent 
 among the newly converted Bulgarians, and 
 against the church of Rome in general. The 
 etrticles of corrupt doctrine, or heresy, which 
 this imperious and exasperated prelate brought 
 against the votaries of the Romish system, 
 were as follow: first, that they fasted on the 
 Sabbath, or seventh day of the week: secondly, 
 that in the first week of Lent they permitted 
 the use of milk and cheese: thirdly, that they 
 prohibited their priests from marrying, and se- 
 parated from their wives such as had been mar- 
 ried when they entered intoordersif fourthly, 
 that they represented the bishops,.alone as au- 
 thorised to anoint with the holy chrism baptiz- 
 ed persons, and, in consequence, obliged tliose 
 who had been anointed by presbyters, to re- 
 ceive that imction a second time from the hand 
 of a bishop: lastly, that they had adulterated the 
 symbol or creed of Constantinople, by adding 
 to it the words jUio-qvie, i. e. and from the son, 
 and were therefore of opinion that the Holy 
 Spirit did not proceed from the Father only, 
 but also from the Son.^ Nicolas I. fmding the 
 
 * The writers on both sides of this controversy 
 are enumerated by Fabricius, in his Biblioth. Gr^eca, 
 vol. jv. c. xxxviii. p. 372. ' 
 
 t Photius attributes to this forced and unnatural 
 celibacy of the clergy, that multitude of children 
 whose fathers were unknown. Remarkable to this 
 purpose is the following passage from a book of Al- 
 varo Pelagio, bishop.of Sylva in Portugal, d^ Planctu 
 .EcclesitB; " It is to be wished," says he, " that the 
 clergy had never vowed chastity, especially the cler- 
 gy of Spain, where the sons .of the laity -are not 
 much more numerous than the sons of the clergy." 
 
 X See the letter of Photius in the collection pub- 
 lished by bishop Montague, N. ii. p. 47. Other wri- 
 ters mention ten heads of accusation brought against ^ 
 Photius; but such do not distinguish between tho 
 first and second controversy that arose between the 
 Greeks and Latins, and they add to the articles 
 with which this patriarch was charged, those that 
 
330 
 
 INTERNAL, HISTOKY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part H. 
 
 Roman church thus attacked, sent the articles 
 of this accusation to Hincmar and &e other 
 Gallican bishops in 867, desiring tliem to as- 
 semble their respective sufTragans in order to 
 examine and answer the reproach of Photiua. 
 In pursuance of this exhortation of the pon- 
 tiff, Odo, .S^eas, and Ado, bishops of Beau- 
 vais, Paris, and Vienne, as also the celebrated 
 Ratram, stepped forth gallantly into the field 
 of controversy against the Greeks, answered 
 nne by one the accusations of Photius, and em- 
 ployed the whole force of their erudition and 
 zeal in maintaining the cause of the Latin 
 church.* 
 
 XXXI. On the death of Ignatius, which hap- 
 pened in 878, the emperor took Photius into fa- 
 vour, and placed him again at the head of the 
 Greek church. This restoration of the de- 
 graded patriarch was agreed to by the Roman 
 pontiff John VIII. on condition, however, that 
 Photius would permit the Bulgarians to come 
 under the jurisdiction of the see of Rome. 
 The latter promised "to satisfy in this the de- 
 mands of the pontiff, to which the emperor 
 also seemed to consent;! and hence it was that 
 John VIII. sent legates to the council holden 
 in 889 at Constantinople, by whom he declar- 
 ed his approbation .of the acts of that assem- 
 bly, and acknowledged Photius as his brother 
 in Christ. The promises, however, of the em- 
 peror and tlie patriarch, were far from being 
 accomphshed; for after this council the former, 
 most probably by the advice, or at least with 
 the consent of the lattef, refused to transfer 
 the province of Bulgaria to the Roman pontiff; 
 and it must be confessed that this refusal was 
 founded upon most weighty and important 
 reasons. The pope was higlily irritated at this 
 disappointment, and sent Marinus to Constan- 
 tinople in the character of legate, to declare 
 that he had changed his mind -with reference 
 to Photius, and that he entirely approved the 
 sentence oj" excommunication that had been 
 formerly given against him. The legate, upon 
 delivering this disagreeable message, was cast 
 into prison by the emperor, but was afterwards 
 liberated; and, being raised to the pontificate 
 upon the death of John'VIIIi, recalled the re- 
 membrance of this injurious treatment, and le- 
 velled a new sentence of condemnation against 
 Photius. 
 
 XXXII. This sentence was treated with con- 
 tempt by the haughty patriarch; but, about 
 six years after this period, he experienced anew 
 the fragility of sublunary grandeur and eleva- 
 tion, by a fall which concluded his prosperous 
 days; for, in 886, Leo, surnamed the philo- 
 sopher, the son and successor of Basilius, de- 
 posed him from^the patriarchal see, and con- 
 fined him in an Armenian monastery, where 
 he died in 891. The death of Photius, who 
 was the only author of the schisms that divided 
 the Greeks and Latins, might have been an 
 occasion of removing these unhappy contests, 
 
 were drawn up in the time of Michael Cerularius. 
 Certain it is, that in the epistle of Photius, which 
 relates only to the first controvergy, and is the only 
 criterion by which we ought to judge of it, there are 
 no more heads of accusation than tile five which we 
 have enumerated in the text. 
 
 * Mabillon, Praef. ad Stec. iv. Bened. part ii. p. 55. 
 
 t Mich, le ^uien, Oriens Christianus, torn. i. p. 103. 
 
 and of restoring peace and concord in the 
 chiu-ch, if the Roman pontiffs had not been 
 regardless of the demands of equity as well a» 
 of the duty of Christian moderation. But 
 these imperious lords of the church indulged 
 their vindictive zeal beyond all measure; and 
 would be satisfied with nothing of less^oment 
 than the degradation of all the priests and bi- 
 shops, who had been ordained- "by Photius. 
 The Greeks, on the other hand, were shocked 
 at the arrogance of these unjust pretensions, 
 and would not submit to them on any condi- 
 tions. Hence a spirit of resentment and iiri- 
 tation renewed the rage of dispute, which had 
 been happily declining; religious as well as ci- 
 vil contests were again set on foot; new con- 
 troversies were added, to the old, until the fa- 
 tal schism took place, which produced a lasting' 
 and total separation between the Greek and 
 Latin churches. 
 
 CHAPTER ly. 
 
 Concerning the Rites and Ceremonies used in the 
 Church during this Century. 
 
 I. That religious rites and ceremonies were 
 progressively multiphed, evidently appears 
 from the labours of those writers, who began • 
 in this centnry to explain to the ignorant mul- 
 titude- their origin, their nature, and the pur- 
 poses they served; for the multiplicity alone 
 of these religious rites could render the expli- 
 cation of them necessary. Johannes Sootus, 
 Angelome,-Remi or Remigius, bishop of Aux- 
 erre, and Walafrid Strabo, were the principal 
 authors who distinguished themselves in this 
 species of sacred literature, to whom we may 
 add Araalarius, many of whose explanations 
 were, however, refuted by Agobard and Flo- 
 rus. Their works are generally entitled De 
 Offidis Divinis; for in the style of "this age re- 
 ligious cei-emonies were called by that name. 
 The labours of these pious andleamed men 
 in illustrating the ritual were undoubtedly un- 
 dertaken with good intentions; but their uti- 
 lity may be well called into question; and it 
 would be bold to aiErm that they were not as 
 prejudicial to the church in some respects, as 
 they might be advantageous to it in others. 
 Their books afforded, indeed, a certain sort of 
 spiritual nourishment to the minds of Chris- 
 tians in their attendance upon public worship; 
 but this nourishment was both coarse and un- 
 wholesome. The reasons alleged for the cere- 
 monies in vogue at this time in the church, 
 and the purposes they were supposed to an- 
 swer, were, for the most part, not only far- 
 fetched, childish, and ridiculous, but also bore 
 the strongest marks of forgery and fiction. It 
 is also farther observable, that these illustra- 
 tions not only encouraged, but augmented pro- 
 digiously, to the detriment of real piety, the 
 veneration and zeal of the multitude for exter- 
 nal rites and ceremonies; for who would daro 
 to refuse their admiration and reverence to in- 
 stitutions, which they were taught to consider 
 as full of the most mysterious wisdom, and 
 founded upon the most pious and affecting 
 
 II. It would be endless to enter into an ex- 
 act enumeration of the various rites and cere- 
 
Chap. IV. 
 
 RITES AND CEREMONIES. 
 
 231 
 
 monies, which were now introduced, for the 
 first time, and of which some were adopted by 
 the whole body of Christians, smd others only 
 by certain churches. We shall therefore dis- 
 miss this matter with the general account 
 which follows, and point out in the notes the 
 sources from which the curious reader may de- 
 rive a more particular knowledge of the absur- 
 dities of this superstitious age. The carcases 
 of the saints transported from foreign coun- 
 tries, or discovered at home by the industry 
 and diligence of pious or designing priests, not 
 only obliged the nUers of tlfe church to aug- 
 ment tlie number of festivals or holidays al- 
 ready established, but also to diversify the 
 ceremonies in such a manner, that each saint 
 might have his peculiar worship ; and, as the 
 authority and credit of the clergy depended 
 much upon the high notion which was gene- 
 rally entertained of the virtue and merit of the 
 saints whom they had canonised, and presented 
 to the multitude as Objects of religious venera- 
 tion, it was necessary to amuse and surprise 
 the people by a variety of pompous and strik- 
 ing ceremonies,' by images and the like inven- 
 tions, in order to keep up and nourish their 
 stupid admiration for the saintly tribe. Hence 
 arose the splendor and magnificence that were 
 lavished upon the churches in this century, and 
 the prodigious number of costly pictures and 
 images with which they were adorned ; hence 
 the stately altars, which were enriched witli 
 the noblest inventions of painting and sculp- 
 ture, and illuminated with innumerable tapers 
 at noon-day;, hence the multitude of proces- 
 sions, the gorgeous and splendid garments of 
 the priests, and the masses that were cele- 
 brated in honor of the saints.* Among other 
 novelties, the feast of All-Saints was added, in 
 this century, by Gregory IV. to the Latiii 
 calendar;! a.r"i the festival of St. Michael, 
 which had been long kept with the greatest 
 marks of devotion and respect by the Orien- 
 tals and Italians, began now to be observed 
 more zealously and' universally among the 
 Latin Christians.t 
 
 m. Nor was it only in the solemn acts pf 
 religious worship that - superstition reigned 
 with an unliinited sway ; its influence extended 
 even to the affairs of private life, and was ob- 
 servable in the civil tonsactions of men, par- 
 ticularly among the Eatin Christians, who re- 
 tained with more obstinacy, than the Greeks a 
 multitude of customs, which derived their ori- 
 gin from the sacred rites of pagainism. The 
 barbarous nations, which were converted to 
 Christianity, could not support the thoughts of 
 abandoning altoefether the laws and manners 
 of" their ancestors, however inconsistent they 
 might be with the indispensable demands of 
 the Gospel : on the contrary, they persuaded 
 the Christians among whom they lived to imi- 
 tate their extravagant superstition in this re- 
 
 * See the work of J. Fecht, de Missis in Honorem 
 Sanctorum. 
 
 t See Mabillon, de Re Diplomatica, p. 537. 
 
 X The holidays or festivals of the saints were yet but 
 few in number among the Latins, as appears from a 
 Doem of Florus. published by Marianne in the fifth 
 volume of his Thesaurus Anccdotoram. 
 
 source of the barbarous .institutions that pre- 
 vailed among the Latins, during this s,nd the 
 following century ; such as the various methods 
 by which it was usual for persons accused- to 
 prove their innocence in doubtful cases, either 
 by the trial of cold water,* by single Combat,t 
 by the fire ordeal,}, and by.the (3-oss.§ It iS no 
 
 Ct?" * All these were presumptuous attempts to 
 force the divine providence ,to declare itself miracu- 
 lously in, favor of the truth. In the trial of cold 
 water, 'the person accused had the right foot and left 
 hand bound together, and was, in this posture, 
 thrown naked into the water. If he sunk, he was 
 acquitted ; but, if he floated upon the surface, this 
 was considered as an evidence of guilt. ,The most 
 respectable authors, ancient and modern', attribute 
 the invention of this superstitious trial to pope £u- 
 genius II., and it is somewhat surprising that Mr. 
 Bower has taken no notice of it in his history of that 
 pontiff. Baluze has inserted, in the second volume 
 of his Capitularia, the solemn forms of prayer and 
 protestation, which Bugenius had caused to be drawn 
 up as an introduction to this superstitious practice ; 
 and both'Fleury and Spanheim look upon that pon- 
 tiff as its inventor. On the other hand, father Xe 
 Bruri, a priest of the oratory, maintains in fais.His- 
 toire Critique des pratiques Superstitieuses, tom.di., 
 that this custom was much more ancient than £u- 
 genius, and his reasons, are not unworthy of atten- 
 tion. Be that as it may, this custom was condemn- 
 ed and abrogated at the request, or rather by the au- 
 thority of Louis the Debonnaire, about the year ^. 
 It was, however, revived .afterwards, and was prac- 
 tised in the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries,- 
 as we shall see in the progress of this fiistory. For ' 
 ai; account of , this mode of trial, Dr. Mosheim refers 
 iis, in a note,' to Mabillou's Analecta veteris .^vi, 
 torn. i. p. 47, and Koye's work de Missis Dominicis, 
 p. 152. ■ - , . 
 
 t The trial by. duel, or single combat, was intro- 
 duced toward the conclusion of the fifth century by 
 Gondebald, king of the Burgundians, when the abuse 
 of: oaths had occasioned the most horrible perjuries, 
 and opened a door to all sorts of injustice. The duel 
 was then added to the oath by Gondebald; the suc- 
 cessful combatant was suppo'sed to be in the right, 
 and this barbarous test of .truth and justice was, in 
 spite of humanity and common sense^ adopted by 
 the Lombards, French, and Germans, and borrowed, 
 from them by other nations. It was first prohibited 
 in 855, in the third council of 'Valence. 
 
 X The fire ordeal was practised in various ways.- 
 The accused either held a burning ball of iron in his: 
 hand, or was obliged to walk barefooted upon heated 
 ploughshares, whose number was increased in i)ro- 
 portion to the number or enormity of the crimes im- 
 puted to him : and aoinetimes a glove 'of red-hot iron 
 was used on this occasion, as we see in the tenth 
 book of the history of Denmark,- by ^axo the Gram- 
 marian. If in these trials the person impeached re- 
 mained unhurt, and discovered.no signs of pain, he 
 was discharged as innocent ; otherwise he was pun- 
 ished as guilty. The first account we have of Chris- 
 tians appealing to this kind of trial as a .proof of 
 their innocence, is that of Simplicius, bishop of 
 Autun, who lived in the fourth century.' This pre- 
 late, as the story goes; before his promotion to the 
 episcopal order, had entered into the matrimonial 
 state ; and his fond wife, unwilling to quit him after 
 his advancement, continued to. sleep in the same 
 chamber- with her spouse. The sanctity, of Simplicius 
 suffered, at least in the voice of fame, by the con- 
 stancy of his wife's affection ; and it was rumored 
 that the holy man, though a bishop, persisted in op- 
 position to the ecclesiastical canons to taste the 
 sweets of matrimony ; upon which the dame, in the 
 presence'of a great concourse of people, took up a 
 
 onont- iTiii this wa=! the tTiip anrl nrio-inal considerable quantity -of burning coals, which she 
 spect , ana tms was tne true ana origmal j^^j.^ j^^ ^^^ clothes, and applied to her breasts, with- 
 out the least hurt to her person or damage to her 
 
 garments, as the legend says, and her example being 
 followed by h^r husbftnd with like success, the silly _ 
 multitude admired the miracle, and proclaimed the 
 innocence of the loving pair. Bricius, .or St. Brice; 
 (whom Mr. Collier, in his Ecclesiastical History of 
 England, represents by mistake as the first Christian 
 who endeavoured to clear himself in this way-) 
 
232 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part n. 
 
 longer a question in our days, from what 
 Boorce these methods of deciding dubious cases 
 and accusations derived their orighi ; all agree 
 that they were mere delusions, drawn ftom 
 the barbarous rites of paganism,* a,nd not only 
 opposite to the. precepts of the Gospel, butabr 
 solutely destructive of the spirit of true reli- 
 gion. The pontiffs, however, and the inferior 
 clergy, encouraged these odious superstitions, 
 and went so fax as to accompany the practice 
 of them with the celebration of the Lord's 
 Supper and other rites, in order to give them 
 a Christian aspect, and to recommend them to 
 the veneration and confidence of the multitude. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 GoBcerntJig' the Divisions and Heresies that trovr 
 bkd the Ohurch during this Century. 
 
 I The sects, that had sprung up in the 
 earlier ages of the church, subsisted still, with 
 little change in their situations or circum- 
 stances. Such of them as were considerably 
 numerous, fixed their settlements beyond the 
 limits both of the Greek and Latiq empires, 
 and thus out of the reach of their enemies. 
 The Nestorians more especially, and the 
 Monophysites, secjare under the protection of 
 the Arabians, were extremely industrious. in 
 maintaining their credit, and also discovered a 
 warm and active zeal in the propagation of 
 Christianity among those who were yet unac- 
 quainted with that divine religion. Some 
 learned men are of opinion, that it was only 
 in this century that the Abyssinians or Ethio- 
 pians embraced the sentiments of the Mono- 
 physites, iti consequence of the exhortations 
 addressed to them by ithe doctors of that sect 
 who resided in Egypt. But this is undoubted- 
 ly an erroneous accouiit of the matter ; for it 
 is certain, that the Abyssinians, who were ac- 
 customed to receive their spiritual guides 
 ftom the bishop of Alexandria, commenced 
 Monophysites in the seventh century, if not 
 sooner ; for in that period the Arabians made 
 
 played a trick of much the same nature in the fifth 
 century. 
 
 The trial by the cross was made by obliging the 
 contending parties to stretch out their arms, and he 
 that continued the longest in this posture gained his 
 cause. 
 
 Jo. Loccenii Antiquit. Sueo-Gothicte, lib. ii. cap. 
 vii.,%iii. p. 144. This barbarous method of deciding 
 controversies by duel was practised even by the 
 clergy. See Just. Hen. Bohmeri Jus Ecclcs. Frotes- 
 tantium, tom. v. p. 88. 
 
 Petr. Lambecius, Res Hamburg, lib. ii. p. 39. — 
 Usserii Sylloge Epistol. Hibernic. p. 81. — Johnsoji 
 Leges Eccles. Britannia. — Michael de la Roche, Me- 
 moires Ijiter. de la Grande Bretagne, tom. viii. p, 
 391. 
 
 § See Agobardus, contra Judicium Dei, tom. i. op, 
 et contra Legem Gundobaldi, cap. ix. p. 114.^^ier. 
 Bignonius, ad Formulas Marculphi, cap. xii. — ^Balu- 
 zius, ad Agobardum, p. 104. 
 
 * ^trabo tells us, in the fifth book of his Geogra- 
 phy, that, while the sacred rites of the goddess Fero- 
 na were celebrated in a grove not far from mount 
 Soracte, several persons,, transported with the ima- 
 gtnary presence of this pretended divinity, fell into 
 ■fits of enthusiasm, and walked bare-footed over 
 heaps of burning coals without receiving the least 
 damage. The historian adds, that a spectacle so ex- 
 traordinary drew a prodigious concourse of people to 
 this annual solemnity. Pliny relates something of 
 the same nature concerning the Hirpii. See his Nat. 
 Hist, book vii. chap. ii. 
 
 themselves masters of Egypt, oppressed the 
 Greeks, and granted to the Monophysites such 
 a powerful protection, as enabled them to re- 
 duce under their jurisdiction almost all the 
 churches that had been established in Egypt-* 
 
 II. The Greeks, during the greatest part 
 of this^ century, were engaged in a most bitter 
 controversy-, or, to speak more properly, in a 
 bloody and -barbarous war with the Paulicians, 
 a sect that may be considered as a branch of 
 the Manicheeans, and which resided principally 
 in Armenia. This pernicious sect is said to 
 have been formed by two brothers,.Paul and 
 John, sons of Callinices, and inhabitants of 
 Samosata, from the former of whom it derived 
 its name ; though others are of opinion that 
 the Paulicians were so called from another 
 Paul, an Armenian by birth, who lived under 
 the reign of Justinian Il.f Be that as it jnay, 
 a certain zealot called Constantino revived, in 
 the seventh Century, under the government of 
 Constans, this droosping faction, which had suf- 
 fered deeply from llie violence of its adversa- 
 ries, and was ready to expire under the severity 
 of the imperial edicts, and of those penal laws 
 which were executed against its adherents 
 with the utmost rigor. Constans, Justinian 
 II., and Leo the !baurian, exerted their zeal 
 against the Paulicians with a peculiar degree 
 of bitterness and fury, left no method of op- 
 pression unemployed, and neglected no means 
 of accomplishing their ruin; but their efforts 
 were ineffectual, nor could all their power, or 
 all their barbarity, exhaust thfe patience or 
 conquer the obstinacy of that inflexible people, 
 who, vrith a fortitude worthy of a better cause, 
 seemed to despise the calamities to which their 
 erroneous doctrine exposed them. The face 
 of things changed, however, to their advantage 
 toward the commencement of this century; 
 and their affairs wore a more prosperous aspect 
 imder the protection of the emperor Nicepho- 
 rus, who favoured them in a particular man- 
 ner, and restored to them their civil privileges, 
 as well as their religious liberty.}; 
 
 III. Their tranquillity, however, was but 
 of short duration ; it was a transient scene that 
 wassoon to be succeeded by yet more dreadful 
 sufferings than they had hitherto experienced. 
 The cruel rage of persecution, which had for 
 some years been suspended, broke forth with 
 redoubled violence undePlhe reigns of Michael 
 Curopalates, and Leo the Arinenian, who 
 caused the strictest search, to be made after 
 the Paulicians in all the provinces of the Gre- 
 cian empire, and inflicted capital punishment 
 upon such of them as refused to return to the 
 bosom of the church. This rigorous decree 
 turned the aflBictions of the Paulicians, who 
 dwelt in Armenia, into vengeance, and drove 
 them into the most desperate measures. They 
 massacred Thomas, bishop of New Csesarea, 
 and also the magistrates and judges whom the 
 emperors had established in Armenia : and, 
 
 * Nouveaux Memoires de la Compagnie de Jesus 
 dans le Levant, tom. iv. p. 283, ^. — ^Le Grand, 
 Dissert, iv. — Lobo, Voyage Historique de r Abyssinie, 
 tom. ii. p- 18- 
 
 t Photius, lib. i. contra Manichsos, p. '74, in B. 
 Wolfiii Anecdotis Grscis, tom. i. 
 
 } See Georg. Cedrenus, Compend. Uistoriar. tom. ii 
 
Chap. V. 
 
 DIVISIONS AND HERESIES. 
 
 83S 
 
 Bulgarians their pestilential doctrines, vrhich 
 were received with docility, and took root 
 speedily, as might naturally be expected, 
 among a barbarous people, recently converted 
 to the Christian faith.* 
 
 V. The Greeks treated the Faulicians, of 
 whom we have' now been speaking, as' Mani- 
 cheeans; though, if we may credit the testi- 
 mony of Photius, the Faulicians expressed the 
 utmost abhorrence of Maues and his doctrine.t 
 Most evident it is, that they were not altoge- _ 
 ther Manichaeans, though they embraced some 
 opinions that resembled certain tenets of that 
 abominable sect. They had not, like the Ma- 
 nichaeans, an ecclesiastical government admi- 
 nistered by. bishops, priests, and deacons: they 
 had no sacred order of men distinguished by 
 their manner of life, their habit, or any other 
 circumstance from the rest of the assembly; 
 nor had councils, syAods, or the like institu- 
 tions, any place in their religious polity. They 
 had certain doctors whom they called Synee- 
 demi, i. e. companions in the journey of life, 
 and also Mtarii. Among these, there reigned 
 a perfect equality; and Siey haid no peculiar 
 rites or privileges, nor any external mark of 
 dignity to distinguish them from the people.J 
 The only singularity that attended their pro- 
 motion to the doctorial rank was, that they 
 changed their lay-names for Scripture ones, 
 as if there had been something peculiarly ve» 
 nerable in the names of the holy men, whose 
 lives and actions are recorded in the sacred 
 writings. They received all the books of the 
 New Testament, except the two Epistles of 
 St. Peter, which they rejected for reasons un- 
 known to us; and their copies of the .Gospel 
 were exactly the same with those used by all 
 other Christians, without the least interpola- 
 tion of the sacred text; in which respect also 
 they differed considerably from the Mani- 
 chaeans.§ They moreover recommended to 
 the people without exception, with the most 
 affecting and ardent zeal, the constant and as- 
 siduous perusal of the Scriptures, and ex- 
 pressed the utmost indignation against the 
 Greeks, who allowed to priests alone an access 
 to these sacred fountains of divine knowledge. || 
 In explaining, however, the doctrines of the 
 Gospel, they often departed from the literal 
 sense and the natural signification of the 
 words, and interpreted them in a forced and, 
 allegorical majmer, when they opposed their 
 favourite opinions and tenets;^ and such more 
 especially were the delusive and erroneous ex- 
 plications which they gave of what is said con- 
 
 aAer avenging, themselves thus cruelly, they 
 took refuge in the countries that were governed 
 by the Saracens, and thence infested the 
 neighbouring states of Greece with perpetual 
 incursions.* After these reciprocal acts of 
 cruelty and vengeance, the Faulicians, as it 
 ~would seem, enjoyed an interval of tranquillity, 
 and returned to their habitations in the Gre- 
 cian provinces. 
 
 IV. But the most dreadful scene of persecu- 
 tion that was exhibited against these, wretched 
 heretics, arose &om the furious and inconsi- 
 derate zeal of tte empress Theodora. This 
 impetuous woman, who was regent of the em- 
 pire during the minority of her son, issued out 
 a decree, which placed the Faulicians in the 
 perplexing alternative either of abandoning 
 their principles, or of perishing by fire and 
 sword. The decree was severe; but the cru- 
 elty with which it was put in execution by 
 those who were sent into Armenia for that 
 purpose, was horrible beyond expression;^ for 
 these ministers of wrath, after confiscating the 
 goods of above a hundred thousand of that 
 miserable people, put their possessors to death 
 in the most barbarous manner, and made 
 them expire Mowly in a variety of the most 
 exquisite tortures. Such as escaped destruc^ 
 tion fled for protection and refuge to the Sa- 
 racens, who received them with compassion 
 and humanity, and permitted them to build 
 a city for their residence; which was called 
 Tibrica. Upon this they entered into a league 
 with the Saracens; and, choosing for their 
 chief an officer of the- greatest resolution and 
 valo,ur, whose name was Carbeas, they declared 
 against the Greeks a war which was carried 
 on with th& utmost vehemence and fury^ 
 This war continued during the whole century; 
 the victory seemed often doubtful-, but the 
 slaughter was terrible, and the numbers that 
 perished on both sides prodigious. Many of 
 the Grecian provijices felt, in a more partiqu- 
 lar manner, tiie dire effects of this cruel con- 
 test, and exhibited the most affecting scenes 
 of desolation and misery .-f During these com- 
 motions, some Faulicians, toward the conclu- 
 sion of the century, spread abroad among the. 
 
 * Photius, lib. i. contra Manichsos, p. 125,— Petri 
 Siculi Historia Manich!Eorum,-p. 71. 
 
 t Georg. Cedrenus, Compend. Hist. p. ,541, edit. 
 Paris.— Zonoras, Annal. lib. xvi. The principal au- 
 thors who have given accounts of the Paulicians'arp 
 Photiug,^lib. i. contra Manichieos, and Petriis Sicu. 
 Jus, whose history of the ManichJeans Matth. Rade- 
 lus published in Greek and Latin ii> 1604. By the 
 ar<;ounrof Petrus Siculus that is given by himself, 
 we learn that, in 870, under the reign of Basilius the 
 Macedonian, he was sent ambassador to the Fauli- 
 cians at Tibrica, to treat with them for the exchange 
 of prisoners, and lived among them during the spice- 
 of nine months; this is sufficient to give us a high 
 idea of the power and prosperity of the Faulicians 
 at that time. It is from this eminent writer that 
 Cedrenus seems to have taken what he has advanced 
 in his Compend. Histor. p. 431. What we learn 
 concerning the Faulicians tVom the more modern 
 writers, (fluch as Bayle, in his Dictionary, and B. 
 Jo. Clirist. Wolfius, in his ManiJhieismus ante Ma- 
 nichaeos, p. 247,) seems to be derived from Bossuet's 
 Histoire des Variations des Eglises Protestantes, 
 torn. ii. p. 129. But this authority is highly excep- 
 tionable; for Bossuet did not consult the true sources 
 of knowledge upon this point; and, what is still 
 worse, the spirit of party seems to have led him into 
 Btluntdry errors. 
 
 Vol. T.— so 
 
 * It is not improbable that there are yet, in 
 Thrace and Bulgaria, Faulicians, or Pauiians as 
 they are called by some. It appears at least certain, 
 that in the seventeenth century some of that sect 
 still subsisted, and dwelt at Nicopolis, as we learn 
 from the testimony of Urb. Cerri, who tells us, in 
 his Etat present de TEglise Romaine, that Peter 
 Deodati, archbishop of Sophia, caused them to aban- 
 don their errors, and return to the Catholic faith; 
 but whether the latter part of the account be true or 
 false, is more than we shall pretend to determine. 
 
 -I Photius, lib. i. contra Manichaeos, p. 17, 56, 65. 
 Petr. Siculus, Hist# Manich. p. 43. 
 
 X Photius, 1. c. p. 31, 32.— Fetr. Sicul. p. U.^—Ce- 
 dienus, 1. c. p. 431. 
 
 § Photius, p. 11.— Fetr. Sicul. p. 19. 
 
 I Photius, p. 101.— Fetr. Sieul. p. 57. 
 I ir Photius, p. la, - 
 
234 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part H. 
 
 cerning the institulions of baptism and the 
 Lord's Supper, and the divine authority of the 
 Old Testament, all which they obstinately re- 
 jected. Beside the books of the New Testa- 
 ment, they treated with a particular veneration 
 certain epistles of Sergius, the most eminent 
 and illustrious doctor of their sect. 
 
 VI. The Greek writers, instead of giving a 
 complete view of the Faulician system, which 
 was undoubtedly composed of a great variety 
 of tenets, content themselves with mentioning 
 six monstrous errors, which, in their estima- 
 tion, rendered the Faulicians unworthy of en- 
 joying either the comforts of this world, or the 
 happiness of the next. These errors are as 
 follow: 1. "They denied that this inferior 
 " and visible world was the production of the 
 " Supreme Being, and they distinguished the 
 " Creator of this world, and of htmian bodies, 
 " from the most high God, who dwells in the 
 "heavens." It was principally on account 
 of this odious doctrine, which was, however, 
 adopted by all the Gnostic sects, that the 
 Faulicians were deemed ManichEeans by the 
 Greeks. But what their sentiments were con- 
 cerning the creator of this world, and whether 
 they considered him as a being distinct from 
 the evil principle; are matters that no writer 
 has hitherto explained in a satisfactory man- 
 ner. We learn only from PhotiUs, that, ac- 
 cording to the Faulician doctrine, the evil 
 principle wasf engendered by darkness and 
 fire; whence it plainly follows- that he was 
 neither self-originated, nor eternal.* 2. " They 
 " treated conteinptuously the Virgin Mary;" 
 that is to say, according to the manner of 
 speaking usual among tiie Greeks, they re- 
 fused to adore and worship her. They main- 
 tained, indeed, that Christ was the son of 
 Mary, and was born of her (although they 
 maintained, as appears from the express testi- 
 mony of their adversaries, that the divine Sa- 
 viour brought with him fromi heaven his hu- 
 man nature, and that Mary, after the birth of 
 Christ, had other children by Joseph;) they 
 
 * Fhotius, lib. ii. contra Manichaeos, p. 147. It is 
 evideixt, baypnd all contradiction, that^ the Fauli- 
 cians, in imitation of the oriental philosophers from 
 whom the Gnostic and Manichaeans derived their 
 origin, considered eternal matter as the seat and 
 source of all evil; but they believed, at the same 
 time, like many of. the Gnostics, that this matter, 
 endued from all eternity with life and motion, had 
 produced an active principle, which was the foun- 
 tain of vice, misery, and disorder. This principle, 
 according to them, is the author of all material sub- 
 stances, while God is the Creator and Father of spi- 
 rits. These tenets resemble, no -doubt, the Mani- 
 cheean doctrine; yet they differ from it in several 
 points. The Faulicians seem to have emanated 
 from'one of the old Gnostic sects, and to have been 
 very numerous and diversified; and, though perse- 
 cuted^ and oppressed Arom age to age in the most 
 rigorous manner by many emperors, they could never 
 be entirely suppressed, or extirpated. 
 
 only fell into the sentiments of the Valenti- 
 nians, and held, that Christ passed through 
 the womb of the Virgin, as the pure stream 
 of limpid water passes through a conduit, and 
 that Mary did not preserve her virginity to 
 the end of her days; all which assertions the 
 Greeks rejected with the -utmost antipathy 
 and abhorrence. 3. " They refused to cele- 
 " brate the holy institution of the Lord's Sup 
 "per;" for, as they imagined many precepts 
 and injunctions of the Gospel to be of a merely 
 figurative and parabolical nature, so.they un- 
 derstood, by the bread and wine which Christ 
 is said to have administered to his disciples at 
 his last supper, the divine discourses and ex- 
 hortations of the Saviour, which are a spiritual 
 food and nourishment to the soul, and fill it 
 with repose, satisfaction, and delight.* 4. 
 " They loaded the cross of Christ with con- 
 " tempt and reproach;" by which we are only 
 -to understand, that they refused to follow the 
 absurd and superstitious practice of tte 
 Greeks, who paid to the pretended wood of 
 the cross a certain sort of religioiis homage. 
 As the FauHcians believed that Christ was 
 clothed with an ethereal, impassable, and ce-- 
 lestial body, they, could by no means grant 
 that he was really nailed to the cross, or that 
 he expired, in effect, upon that ignominious 
 tree: and hence naturally atrosethat treatment 
 of the cro'ss,~ of which the ' Greeks accused 
 thera. 5. '.'-They rejected, after the example 
 "of the greatest part of the Gnostics, the 
 "books of the Old Testament, and looked 
 " upon the writers of that sacred history as m- 
 " spired by the Creator of this world, and not 
 " by the Supreme God." 6. " They entirely 
 " excluded presbyters and lay-elders from the 
 "administration of the church." By this, 
 however, no more can be meant, than that 
 they refused to call their doctors by the name 
 of presiyteis, a name which had its origin 
 among the Jews, and was pecuUar to that odi- 
 ous people, who persecuted Jesus Christ, and 
 attempted, as the Faulicians speak, to put 
 him to death.t 
 
 * The Greeks do not charge the Faulicians with 
 any error concerning baptism; it is, however, cer- 
 tain, that the accounts of that sacred institution, 
 which are given in Scripture, were allegorically ex- 
 plained by this extravagant sect; .and Fhotius, in his 
 first book against the Hanichsans, expressly asserts 
 that the Faulicians treated baptism as a mere alle- 
 gorical ceremony, and by the baptismal water un- 
 derstood the Gospel. 
 
 t These six famous errors p< the Faulicians I have 
 taken from the Manichsean history of Fetrus Sicu- 
 lus, .with whom Fhotius . and Cedrenus agree, al- 
 though their accounts 'of these opinions be less per- 
 spicuous and distinct. The explanatory .remarks 
 that I have added, are the result of my. own reflec- 
 tions upon the Faulician system, and the doctrine 
 of the Greeks. 
 
THE TENTH CENTURY. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 THE EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 Concerning the Prosperom Events which hap- 
 pened ta the Chv/rch daring this Century. 
 
 I. The deplorable state of Christianity in 
 this century, arising partly from that astonish- 
 ing ignorance that gave a loose rein both to 
 supersjtition and imnioralihr, and partly from 
 an unhappy concurrence of causes of another 
 kind, is unanimously lamented by the various 
 writers, who have transmitted to us the his- 
 tory of these miserable times. Yet, amidst 
 all this darkness, some gleams of light were 
 perceived from time to time, and several oc- 
 currences happened, which deserve a place in 
 the prosperous annals of the church. The 
 Nestorians in Chaldtea extended their spiritual 
 conquests beyond mount Imaus, and intro- 
 duced the Christian religion into Tartary, 
 (properly so called,) whose inhabitants had 
 hitherto lived in their natural state bf-,igno- 
 Tance and ferocity, uncivilized and savage. 
 The same successful missionaries spread, by 
 degrees, the knowledge of the Gospel among 
 that most powerful nation of the Turks, or 
 Tartars, which went by the name of Karit, 
 and bordered on Kathay, or' the northern part 
 of China.* The laborious industry of this 
 sect, and their zeal for the propagation of the 
 Christian faith, deserve, no doubt, the highest 
 encomiums; it must, however, be acknow- 
 ledged, that the doctrine and worship, which 
 they introduced among these barbarians, were 
 far from being, in all respects, conformable to 
 the true spirit and genius of the Christian re- 
 ligion. 
 
 n. The prince of that country, whom the 
 Nestorians converted to the Christian faith, as- 
 sumed, if we may give credit to the vulgar tra- 
 dition, the name of John aft^r his baptism, to 
 which he added the surname of Presbyter, 
 from a principle of modesty. Hence it was, 
 as some learned men imagine, that the succes- 
 sors of this monarch retained these names un- 
 til the time of Genghiz-Klian, who flourished 
 in the fourteenth century,t and were each of 
 them called Prester John.j; But all this has a 
 very fabulous air; at least it is advanced with- 
 out any solid proof; it even appears evident, 
 on the contrary, that the famous Prest6r John, 
 who made so much noise in the world, did not 
 begin to reign in that part of Asia before the 
 conclusion of the eleventh qentury. It is, 
 however, certain beyond all contradiction, that 
 
 * AsBemani Bibliotheca Oriental. Vatic, torn. iii. 
 part ii. p. 483.— Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 
 256. 
 
 t Dr. Mosheim, and his translator, ought to have 
 said, the thirteenth century. Epit. 
 
 X See Assemani Biblioth. torn. iii. part ii. p. 282. 
 
 the monarchs of the nation called Karit fwhicli 
 makes a large part of the empire of the Mo- 
 gul, and is by some denominated a tribe of the 
 Turks, and, by others, of the Tartars,) em- 
 braced Christianity in this century; and that 
 a considerable part of Tartary, or AsiatiiTScy- 
 thia, lived under the spiritual jurisdiction of 
 bishops who were sent among them by the 
 Nestorian pontiff.* 
 
 III. If we turn our eyes to the western 
 world, we shall find the Gospel making its 
 way with more or less rapidity among the 
 most rude and uncivilized nations. The fa- 
 mous arch-pirate Rollo, son of'a Norwegian 
 count, being banished from his native land,t 
 had,^ in the preceding century, put himself at 
 the head of a resolute band of Normans, and 
 seized one of the maratimejprovinces of France, 
 whence he infested the neighbouring country 
 with perpetual incursions aiid- depredations. 
 In 9 12, this valiant chief, with his whole army, 
 embraced the Christian faith, on the following 
 occasion.' Charles the Simple, who wanted 
 both resolution and power to drive this warlike 
 and intrepid invader out of his dominions, was 
 obliged to have recourse to negotiation. He 
 accordingly offered to make over to Rollo ec 
 considerable part of his territories, on condi- 
 tion that the latter would consent to a peace, 
 espouse his daughter Gisela,J and embrace 
 Christianity. These terms were accepted by 
 Rollo without the least hesitation; and his 
 army, following the example of their leader, 
 professed a religion of which they were totally 
 ignorant.§ These Norman pirates, as appears 
 from many authentic records, were absolutely 
 without religion of any kind, and therefore 
 were not restrained, by the power of prejudice, 
 from embracing a religion which presented to 
 them the most advantageous prospects. They 
 knew no distinction lietween interest and duty, 
 and they estimated truth and virtue only fy 
 the profits with which they were attended. It 
 
 * The late learned Sigefred Bayer, in his Preface 
 to the Museum Sinicum, p. 145, informed us of his 
 design to give the world ah accurate account of 
 the Nestorian churches established in Tartary and 
 China, drawn from some curious ancient records 
 and monuments, that have not been as yet made 
 puhlic. His work was to-have been entitled Historia 
 Ecclesiarum Sinicarum, et Septentrionalis Asiae; but 
 death prevented the execution of this interesting 
 plan, and also of several others, which this great 
 man had formed, and which would undoubtedly have 
 thrown a new light upon the history of the Asiatic 
 Christians. 
 
 t Holbergi Historia Danorum Navalis in Scriptia 
 Societat. Sclent. Hafniens. part iii. p. 357. 
 
 -QC^} Other writers more politely represent the of- 
 fer of Gisela as one of the methods that Charles em- 
 ployed to obtain a peace with Rollo. 
 
 § Boulay, Hist. Acad. Paris, torn. i. p. 29G ~ T)ania 
 Hist, de France, torn. ii. p. 587. 
 
236 
 
 EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 was ftom this Rollo, who received at his bap- 
 tism the name of Robejrt, that the famous line 
 of Norman dukes derived its origin; for the 
 province of Bretagne, and a part of Neustria, 
 which Charles the Simple conveyed to his son- 
 in-law by a solemn grant, were from this time 
 known by the name of Normandy,* which 
 tliey derived from their new possessors. 
 
 Iv . The Christian religion was introduced 
 into Poland by tlie zealous efforts of female pi- 
 ety. Dambrowska, daughter of Boleslaus, 
 duke of Bohemia, persuaded, by the force of 
 repeated exhortations, her husband Micislaus, 
 duke of Poland, to abandon paganism; and, 
 in 965, he embraced the Gospel. The account 
 of this agreeable event was no sooner brought 
 to Rome, than the pontiff, John XIII., sent into 
 Poland 51gidius, bishop of Tuscvilum, attend- 
 ed with a numerous train of ecclesiastics, in 
 order to second the pious efforts of the duke 
 and duchess, who desired, with impatience, the 
 conversion of their subjects. The exhorta- 
 tions and endeavours of these devout mission- 
 aries, who were unacquainted with the lan- 
 guage of the people they came to instruct, 
 would have been entirely without effect, had 
 they not been accompanied with the edicts and 
 penal laws, the promises and threats of Mi- 
 cislaus, which dejected the courage, and con- 
 quered the obstinacy of the reluctant Poles. 
 When therefore_ the fear of punishment, and 
 the hope of reward, had laid the foundations 
 of Christianity in Poland, two national arch- 
 bishops and seven bishops were consecrated to 
 the ministry, whose zeal and labours were fol- 
 lowed with such success, that the whole body 
 of the people abandoned, by degrees, their an- 
 cient superstitions, and made public profession 
 of the religion of Jesus.f It was, indeed, no 
 more than an external profession; for that in- 
 ward change of affections and principles, which 
 the Gospel requires, was &x. from being an ob- 
 ject of attention in this barbarous age. 
 
 V. The Christian religion was established in 
 Russia by means similar to those that had oc- 
 casioned its propagation in Poland; for we must 
 not lay any stress upon the proselytes that 
 were made to Christianity among the Russians 
 in the preceding century, since those conver- 
 sions were neitiier permanent nor solid, and 
 since it appears evidently, that such of that na- 
 tion, as, under the reign of Basilius the Mace- 
 donian, had embraced the doctrine of the 
 Greek church, relapsed soon after into the su- 
 perstition of their ancestors. Wlodomir, duke 
 of Russia and Moscovy, married, in 961, Anne, 
 sister of Basilius, the second Grecian emperor 
 of that name; and this zealous princess, by her 
 repeated entreaties and her pious importunity, 
 at length persuaded her reluctant spouse to re- 
 ceive the Christian faith, and he was accord- 
 ingly baptized, in 987, assuming on that occa- 
 sion the name of Basilius. The Russians spon- 
 taneously followed the example of their prince; 
 
 {Jt^ * It was Neustria, and not Bretagne. that re- 
 ceived the name of Normandy, from the Normans 
 who chose Rollo for their chief. 
 
 t Duglossi Historia Polonica, lib. ii. p. 91, lib. jii. 
 p 95, 239.— Regenvolscii Historia Eccles. Slavoh. lib. 
 ii cap. i. p. 8. — Henr. Canisii Lectiones Antiqus, torn. 
 iil._part i. p. 41.— Solignae, Hist, de Pologne, torn. i. 
 
 Paht 1. 
 
 we have, at least, no account of any compul- 
 sion or violence being, employed in their con- 
 version;* and this is the true date of the entire 
 establishment of Christianity among that peo- 
 ple. Wlodomir and his duchess were placed 
 in the highest order of the Russian saints, and 
 are still worshipped at Kiow (where they were 
 interred) with the greatest devotion. The La- 
 tins, however, paid no such respect to the me- 
 mory of Wlodomir, whom they represented as 
 absolutely unworthy of saintly honours.f 
 
 VI. The Huhgarjans and Avari had receiv- 
 ed some faint notions of Christianity imder the 
 reign of Charlemagne, in consequence of the 
 measures that had been taken by that zealous 
 prince for the propagation of the Gospel. — 
 These notions, however, were soon and easily 
 extinguished by various circumstances, whitdi 
 took their rise from the death of Charlemagne: 
 and it was not before the century of which we 
 now write that the Christian religion obtained 
 a fixed settlement among these warlike na- 
 tions.J Toward the middle of this century, 
 Bulosudes and Gyula or Gylas, two Turkish 
 chiefs, whose governments lay upon the banks 
 of the Danube, § made publife profession of 
 Christianity, and were baptized at Constanti- 
 nople. The former apostatized soon after to 
 the religion of his ancestors, while the latter 
 not only persevered steadfestly in his new pro- 
 fession, but also showed the most zealous con- 
 cern for the conversion of his subjects, who, 
 in consequence of his express order, were in 
 structed in the doctrines and precepts of the 
 Gospel by Hierotheus, a learned prelate, by 
 whom he had been accompanied in his journey 
 to Constantinople. Sarolta, the daughter of 
 Gylas, was afterwards given in marriage to 
 Geysa, the chief of the Hungarian nation, 
 whom she persuaded to embrace the divine re- 
 ligion in which she had been educated. The 
 faith, however, of this new convert was feeble ' 
 and unsteady, and he retained a strong propensi- 
 ty to the superstition which he had been engag- 
 ed to forsake; but his apostasy was prevented 
 by the pious remonstrances of Adalbert, arch- 
 bishop of Prague, who went into Hungary to- 
 ward the conclusion of this century, and by 
 whom also Stephen, the son of Geysa, was 
 baptized with great pomp and solemnity. It 
 was to this young prince that the Gospel was 
 principally indebted for its propagation and es- 
 tablishment among the Hungarians, whose ge- 
 neral conversion was the fruit of his zeal for 
 the cause of Christ; for he perfected what his 
 father _and grandfather had only begun; fixed 
 bishops, with large revenues^in various places; 
 erected magnificent temples for divine worship; 
 and, by the influence of instructions, threaten- 
 ings, rewards, and punishments, brought his 
 subjects, almost wi^out exception, to aban- 
 don the wretched superstition of their idola- 
 
 * See Anton, Pagi Critica in Baron, torn. iv. ad 
 annum 987, p. 55, et. ad an. 1015, p. 110.— Car. du 
 Fresne, Famil. Byzant. j). 143. 
 
 t Ditmari, Merseb. Episcopi, Chronic, lib. vii, Ca- 
 ronic. p. 417, torn. i. Scriptor. Bninsvic. Leibnitii. 
 
 X Pauli Debrezeni Historia Eccles. Reformator. in 
 Ungaria, part i. cap. iii. p. 19. 
 
 5 The Hungarians and Transylvaniang were, at 
 this time, known to the Grecians by the name of 
 Turks. 
 
Cha». 1 
 
 PROSPEROUS EVENTS. 
 
 837 
 
 trouB ancestors. These yigorouB pr<sceedings, 
 by which Stephen introduced the rehgion of 
 Jesus among the Hungarians, procured him 
 the most distinguished honours of saintship in 
 succeeding ages.* , 
 
 VII. The Christian rehgion was in a very- 
 unsettled state among thfr Danes ^under the 
 reign of Gormon; and, notwithstanding -the 
 protection it received from his queen, who pro- 
 fessed it pubhcly, it was obhged to' struggle 
 with many difficulties, and to encounter much 
 opposition. The face of things changed^ in- 
 deed, after the death of Gormon. His son 
 Harald, sumamed Blaatand, being defeated by 
 Otho the Great, in 949, embraced the Gospel, 
 and was baptized, together with his consort and 
 his son Sueno or Swein, by Adaldagus, arch- 
 bishop of Hamburg, or, as others allege, by 
 Poppon a pious ecclesiastic, who attended the 
 emperor in this expedition. It is probable that 
 Harald, educated by his mother Tyra, who 
 was a Christian, was not extremely averse to 
 the religion of Jesus; it appears, however, cer- 
 tain, that his conversion was less the effect of 
 his own choice, than of the irresistible com- 
 mands of his victorious enemy; for Otho, per- 
 suaded that the Danes would never desist 
 from theii: hostile incursions and rapines, while 
 they persevered in the religion of their ances- 
 tors, which was calculated to nourish a ferocity 
 of temper, and to animate to military exploits, 
 made it the principal condition of the treaty 
 of peace, which he concluded with Harald, 
 that he and his subjects should receive the 
 Christian faith.f On the conversion of this 
 prince, Adaldagus and Poppon employed their 
 ministerial labours among the Cimbrians and 
 Danes, in order to engage them to imitate 
 such an illustrious example; and their exhoi^ 
 tations were crowned with remarkable success, 
 to which the stupendous miracles performed 
 by Poppon are said to have contributed in a 
 particular manner. These miiracles, indeed, 
 were of ^uch a kind, as manifestly shows that- 
 
 * The Greeks, Germans, Bohemians, and Poles, se- 
 verally claim the honour of having been the foun- 
 ders of the Christian religion in Hungary; and their 
 respective pretensions have introduced ijot a little 
 . obscurity into this matter. The Germans allege, 
 that the Christian religion was brought into Hun- 
 gary by Gisela, sister to their emperor Henry II., 
 who, being given in marriage to Stephen, the king 
 of that nation, persuaded that prince to embrace the 
 Gospel. The Bohemians tell us, on the other hand, 
 that it was by the ministry of Adalbert, archbishop 
 of, Prague, that Stephen was converted. The Poles 
 affirm, that Geysa, having married a Christian prin- 
 cess of their nation, viz. Adelheid, sister to Micis- 
 laus, duke of Poland, was induced by her remoastran- 
 ces and exhortations to make profession of Christi- 
 anity. In conseeiuence of a careful examination of 
 all thea,e pretensions we have followed the senti- 
 ments and decisions of the Greek writers, after hav- 
 ing diligently compared them with the Hungarian 
 historians; and we are encouraged in this by the au- 
 thority of the learned Gabriel de Juxta Hornad, who, 
 in his Initia Religionis Christians inter Hungaros 
 EcclesiiE oriental! adserta, published in 1740, de- 
 cides this question in favour of the Greeks. AH 
 other accounts of the. matter are extremely imper. 
 feet, and subject to many doubts and difficulties. 
 
 t Adami Brem. Hist. lib. ii. cap. ii. iii. p. 16, cap. 
 XV. p. 20, in Lindenbrogii Scriptoribus rerum Septen- 
 trional.— Alb. Kranzii Wandalia, lib. iv. cap. xx.— 
 Ludwigii Reliquife Manuscriptor. torn. ix. p. 10.— 
 Pontoppidani Annales Ecclesia Diploraatici, torn. i. 
 p. 59. 
 
 they derived their origin &om human art, and 
 not from a i^ivine interposition.* As long 
 as Harald lived, he used every wise and pro- 
 bable method of confirming his subjects in the 
 religion they had embraced. For this purpose 
 he established bishops in several parts of his do- 
 minions, enacted excellent laws, abrogated su- 
 perstitious customs, and imposed severe re- 
 straints upon all vicious and ithmoral practices. 
 But, after all these pious efforts, and salutary 
 measures, which promised such fair prospects 
 to the rising church, his son Sueno, or Swein, 
 apostatized from the truth, and, during a cer- 
 tain time, involved the Christians in the deep- 
 est calamity and distress, and treated them 
 with the greatest cruelty and injustice. This 
 persecuting tyrant .felt, however, in his turn, 
 the heavy strokes of adversity, which produc- 
 ed a salutary change in his conduct, and hap- 
 pily brought -him to a better mind; for, being 
 driven from his kingdom, and obliged to seek 
 his safety in a state of exile among the Scots, 
 he embraced anew the religion he had aban- 
 doned, and, on his restoration to his dominions, 
 exerted the most ardent and exeniplary zeal in 
 the cause of Christianity, which he endeavour- 
 ed to promote to the utmost of his power.f 
 
 Vm. It was in this century, that the first 
 dawn of the Gospel arose upon the Norwegi- 
 ans, as we learn from the most authentic re- 
 cords. The conversion of that people was at- 
 tempted, in 933, by their monarch, Hagan 
 Adalsteen, who had been educated among the 
 English, and who employed certain ecclesias- 
 tics of that nation to instruct his subjects in 
 the doctrines of Christianity. But his pious 
 efforts were rendered fruitless by the brutal ob- 
 stinacy, with which the Norwegians persevep-, 
 ed in their ancient prejudices; and the assidu- 
 ity and zeal with which his successor Harald 
 Graufeldt pursued the same plan of reforma- 
 tion, were also without effect.j The succeed- 
 ing princes, far from being discouraged by these 
 obsbicles, persisted firmly in their worthy pur- 
 pose; and Haco, amoiig others, yielding to the. 
 intreaties of Harald, king of Denmark, to 
 whom he was indebted for the Norwegian 
 crown, embraced, himself, the Christian reli- 
 gion, and recommended it with the greatest 
 fervour to his subjects, in an assembly of the 
 people, holden in 945. § This recommenda- 
 tion, notwithstanding the solenmity and zeal 
 with which it was accompanied, made little 
 impression upon the minds of this fierce and 
 barbarous people; nor were they entirely gain- 
 ed over by the zealous endeavours of Olaus to 
 convert them to Christianity, though the pious 
 diligence of that prince, which procured him 
 the honour of saintship, was not altegethef 
 without effect.|| But that which gave the fin- 
 ishing stroketo the conversion of the Norwe- 
 
 * Jq. Adolph. Cyprffii Annales Episcopor. Sleavic. 
 cap. xiii. p. 78. — Adam Bremens. lib. ii. cap. xxvi. p. 
 23, cap. xliv. p. 38. — Jo. Stephan. ad Saxonem Grain- 
 mat, p. 207. — MoUeri Introduct. ad Historiam Cher 
 sones. Cimbric. part ii. cap. iii. sect^ 14. 
 
 t Saxon. Gramm. Histor. Dan. lib. x. p. 186.— Pon 
 toppidan. de Gestis .et VeMigiis Danorum extra Da- 
 niam, tom. ii. cap. i. sect. 1, 3. 
 
 X Eric. Pontoppidan. Annales Eccles. Sanies di - 
 plomat.>tom. i. p. 66. . 
 
 8 Torftei Historia Norvegica, tom ii. p. 1£3, SM 
 
 g TorfeeuB p. 457 
 
238 
 
 EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part i 
 
 giaos was their subjection to Sueno, or Swein, 
 king of Sweden, who, having defeated their 
 miHiarch Olaus Tryg-gueaon, became master 
 of Norway, and obliged its inhabitants to aban- 
 don the gods of their ancestors, and to embrace 
 universally the religion of Jesus.* Among the 
 various doctors who were sent to instruct this 
 barbarous people, the most eminent, bofli in 
 merit and authority, was Gttthebald, an En- 
 glish priest.f From 'Norway, Christianity 
 spread its salutary light through the adjacent 
 countries, and was preached, with success, in 
 the Orkney islands, which were, at that time, 
 subject to the Norwegian kings, and also in 
 Iceland and Old Greenland ; for it is evident, 
 from many circumstances and records of un- 
 doubted authority, that the greatest part of the 
 inhabitants of these countries received the Gos- 
 pel in this century. J 
 
 IX. In Germany the pious exploits of Otho 
 the Great contributed, in a signal manner, to 
 promote the interest of Christianity, and to fix 
 it upon solid foundations throughout the em- 
 pire. This truly great prince, whose pioiis 
 magnanimity clothed him with a lustre infinite^ 
 ly superior to that which he derived from his 
 imperial dignity, was constantly employed in 
 extirpMing the remains of the ancient super- 
 stitions, and in supporting and confirming the 
 infant church, which in several provinces had 
 not yet attained any considerable degree of 
 consistence and vigor. That there might be 
 rulers and pastors to govern the church, and to 
 contribute both by theii: doctrine and example 
 to the reformation and improvement of an un- 
 polished and illiterate people, he established 
 
 Qt^ * Dr. Mosheim attributes here.to" Swein the 
 honor which is due to his predeceaspr Olaus Tryg- 
 giieson; if it can be deemed an honour to have pro-' 
 moted a rational and divine religion by compulsion 
 and violence, by fire and sword. Olaus. who had ab- 
 jured Paganism in England during his youth, in con- 
 sequence of a warm and pathetic discourse which he 
 had heard from a British priest, returned to Norway 
 with a firm resolution to -propagate Christianity 
 throughout his dominioiis. For this purpose he tra- 
 veled from one province to another, attended by a 
 chosen, band of soldiers, and, sword in hand, per- 
 formed, the functions of missionary and apostle. — 
 His ministry, thus enforced, was followed with the 
 desired success throughout all the provinces, except 
 that of Drontheim, which rose in rebellion againsf 
 him, and. attacked Christianity with the same kind 
 of arguments that Olaus employed in establishing 
 it. This opposition occasioried several bloody bat- 
 tles, which ended, however, in the defeat of the re- 
 bels,' and of the god Thor, their tutelar deity, whose 
 statue Olaus dragged from its place,.a'nd burned pub- 
 licly in the sight of his worshippers. This event de- 
 jected the courage of the inhabitants of Drontheim 
 who submitted to the religion and laws of their con- 
 queror. And thus, before the reign of Sueno, at 
 least before the defeat of Olaus by that prince, Nor- 
 way was Christian. See the History of Denmark, 
 published in French by M. Mallet, vol. i. p. 52, 53. 
 
 t Ohron. Danicum a Ludewigio editum in Keli- 
 quiis Mamiscriptorum, torn. ix. p. 11, 16, 17. . 
 
 X On the subject of the conversion of the |jihabi- 
 tants of the Orkneys, see Torfsi Historia Kerum 
 Orcadens, lib. i. p. ^, and, for an account of the Ice- 
 landers, the reader may consult Arngrim Jonas' Cry- 
 mogsea, lib. i. and Arius'Multis. in Schedis Islandis; 
 as also TorfiEUS, Histor. Norveg. torn. ii. p. 378, 379, 
 417; and Gabriel Liron's Singularites Historiques et 
 Literaires, torn. i. p. 138. — ^The same Torfsus gives 
 a full account of the introdiiction of Christianity 
 into Greenland, in his Histor. N.orveg. torn. ii. p. 
 374, and also in bis Groenlandia Antiqua, c. xvii. 
 p. 187. 
 
 bishops in several places, and generously 
 erected and endowed the bishopries of Bran- 
 denburg, Havelberg, Meissen, Magdeburg, and 
 Naumburg ; by which excellent establishments 
 the church was furnished with eminent doctors 
 ■from various pafts, whose instructions were the 
 occasion of raising up new laborers in the 
 spiritual harvest, and of thus mtiltiplying the 
 ministers of Christ from time to time- It was 
 also, through the munificence of the same 
 prince, that many convents were erected for 
 those who, in conformity with the false piety 
 of the times, chose to finish their Christian 
 course in. the indolent sanctity of a solitary 
 life ; and it was by his express order that 
 schools were estahhshed in almost every city 
 for the education of the youth. All this may 
 serve to show us the generosity and zeal of this 
 illustrious emperor, whose merit would have 
 surpassed the highest encomiimis, had his pru- 
 dence and moderation been equal to the fer- 
 vor of his piety and the uprightness of his in- 
 tentions. But the superstition of his empress,* 
 and the deplorable ignorance of the times, de- 
 luded this good prince into the notion, that he 
 obliged the Deity in proportion as he loaded 
 the clergy with riches and honors, and that 
 nothirig was more proper to draw down upon 
 him the divine protection, than the exercise of 
 a boimdless Mberahty to his ministers. In- con- 
 sequence of this idle and extravagant fancy, 
 OtJio opened the sources of his opulence, 
 which flowed into the church like an over- 
 grown torrent, so that the bi^ops, monks, and 
 the' religious frateriiities in general, wallowed 
 in wealth and abundance. But succeeding ages 
 perceived the urihappy effects of this excessive 
 and ill-judged munificence, when the sacred 
 orders employed this opulence, which they had 
 acquired without either merit or labor, in grati- 
 fying their passions, in waging war against all 
 who opposed tlieir ambitious pretensions, and 
 in purchasing the various pleasures of a hixu- 
 rious and effeminate life. 
 
 X. It was no doubtftil mark of the progress 
 and -strength of the Christian cause, that the 
 European kings and princes began so early as 
 this century to form the project of a holy war 
 aga.inst the Mohaimnedans, who were masters 
 of Palestine. They considered it as an intol- 
 erable reproach upon Christians, that the very 
 land in which the divine author of their reli- 
 gion had received his -birth, had exercised his 
 ministry, and made expiation for the sins of 
 mortals, should be abandoned to the enemies of 
 the Christian name. They also looked upon it 
 as highly jiist, and suitable to the majesty of 
 the Christian religion, to avenge the calamities 
 and iiijuries, the persecution and reproach, 
 which its professors had suffered under the 
 Mohammedan yoke; The bloody signal was 
 accordingly given toward the conclusion of this 
 century', by Sylvester II. in the first year 'of 
 his pontificate ; and this signal was an epistle, 
 written in the name of the church of Jerusa- 
 lem, to the church tmiversal tliiroughout the 
 world,t in which the European powers were 
 
 * See the life of the empress, who&e name was 
 Adelaide, in the Lectiones Antiquse of Henry Cani- 
 eius, torn. iii. 
 
 t This is the twenty-eighth Epistle in the first purt 
 
Chap. II. 
 
 CALAMITOUS EVENTS. 
 
 239 
 
 solemnly exhorted and entreated to succour 
 and deliver the Christians in Palestine. The 
 pope's exhortations, however, were yirjthout 
 eiFect, except upon the iriha'bitatits of Pisa, who 
 are said to have obeyed the summons with the 
 utmost alacrity, and to have prepared them- 
 selves immediately for a holy campaign.* 
 
 CHAPTER n. 
 
 Concerning the Calamitom Events that happened 
 to the Church dmimg this Cemtiiiry. 
 
 I. The Christian Teligion suffered less in 
 tiiis century from the cruelty of its enemies, 
 than irom the defection of its friends. Of all 
 the pagan monarehs, under whose government 
 the Christians lived, none behaved to them in 
 a hostile manner, or tormented them with the 
 execution of compulsive edicts or penal laws; 
 except Gormon and Swein, kings of Denmark. 
 Notwithstanding this, their affairs were far 
 from being either in a fixed or flourishing state ; 
 and their situation was full of uncertainty and 
 peril, both in the eastern and western provinces. 
 The Saracens in Asia and^ Africa, amidst the 
 intestine divisions under which they groaned, 
 and the calamities that overwhelmed them 
 fi'om different quarters, were extremely assidu- 
 ous in propagating the doctrines of Moham- 
 med ; nor were their efforts unsuccessful. 
 Multitudes of Christians fell into their snares ; 
 and the Turks, a valiant and fierce. nation, 
 who inhahited the northern coast qf the Cas- 
 pian sea,- received their doctrine. The uni- 
 fbhnity of religion did not, however, produce 
 a solid union of interest between the Turks and 
 Saracens; on the contrary, their dissensions 
 and quarrels were never more violent than 
 fromthe time that Mohammed became their 
 common chief in religious matters. The Per- 
 sians, whose country wag a prey to the ambi- 
 tious usurpations of the latter, implored the 
 aid of the former, by whom succours were 
 granted with the utmost alacrity and readi- 
 ness. The Turks accordingly fell upon the 
 Saracens in a furious maimer, drove them out 
 of the whole extent of the Persian territories, 
 and afterwards, with incredible rapidity and 
 succes, invaded, seized, and plundered the 
 other provinces that belonged to that people, 
 whose desolation, in reality, came on like a 
 whirlwind. Thus the powerful empire of the 
 Saracens, which its enemies had for so many 
 years attempted in vain to overturn, fell at 
 last by the hands of its allies and friends. The 
 Turks accomplished what the Greeks and Ro- 
 mans ineffectually aimed at ; they struck sud- 
 denly that dreadful blow, which rained at once 
 the a£&iis of the Saracens in Persia, and then 
 deprived them by degrees of their other do- 
 minions ; and thus the Ottoman empire, which 
 is still an object of: terror to the Christians, 
 was established upon the ruins of the Saracen 
 dorainion.f 
 
 II. In the western provinces, the Christians 
 
 of the collection of the letters of Sylvester II. pub- 
 lished hy Du-Chesne, in the third volume of his 
 Scriptor. Histor. Franc. 
 
 * See Muratori, Scriptoies Rerum Italicarum, torn. 
 iii. p.40a. 
 
 t For a luore ample accoWt.Qi these revolutions, 
 
 had much to suffer from the hatred and cruelty 
 of those who remained under the darkness of 
 paganism. The Normans, dnring a great part 
 of this century, committed, in several parts of 
 France, the most barbarous hostilities, and in- 
 volved the Christians, wherever they carried 
 their victorious arms, in numberless calamities. 
 The Sarmatians, Sclavohians, Bohemians, and 
 others, who had either concefved an aversion 
 for the Gospel, or were sunk in a stupid igno 
 ranee of its intrinsic excellence and its immor- 
 tal blessings, riot only endeavoured to extii^ 
 pate Christianity out of their own territories 
 by the most barbarous efforts of cruelty and 
 violence, but infested the adjacent countries, 
 where it was professed, with fire and sword, 
 and left, wherever they went, the most dread- 
 ftil marks of their unrelenting fiiry. The 
 Danes, moreover, did hot cease to molest the 
 Christians, "until they were sujidued by Otha 
 the Great, and thus, irom being the enemies, 
 became the fnends of the Christian cause. The 
 Hungarians also contributed their part to the 
 sufferings of the church, by their incursion; 
 into several parts of Germany, which they 
 turned into scenes of desolation and misery ; 
 while the fierce Arabs, by their tyranny in 
 Spain, and their depredations in Italy and the 
 neighbouring islands, spread calamity and op- 
 pression all around them, of which, no doubt, 
 the Christians established in those parts had 
 the heaviest portion. 
 
 in.' Whoever considers the enffless vexa- 
 tions, persecutions, and calamities, which the 
 Christians suffered from the nations that con- 
 tinued in theii' ancient superstitions, will easily 
 perceive the reason of that fervent and inextin- 
 guishable zeal, which Christian princes disco- 
 vered for the conversion of those nations, 
 whose impetuous and savage finy they expe- 
 rienced from time to time. A principle of self- 
 preservation, and a prudent regards to theii 
 own safety, as well as a pious zeal for the 
 propagation of the Gospel, engaged them to 
 put in practice every method that might open 
 the eyes of their barbarous adversalries, from'a 
 rational and well-grounded hope that the' pre- 
 cepts of Christianity would mitigate, by de- 
 grees, the ferocity of these nations, and soften 
 their rugged and intractable tempers. Hence 
 it was, that Christian kings and emperors left 
 no means unemployed to draw these infidels 
 withinthe pale of the church. For this pui^ 
 posei they proposed to their chiefs ajliances of 
 marriage, and offered them certain districts 
 and territories, with auxiliary troops to main- 
 tain them against their enemies, upon condi- 
 tion that they would abandon the superstition 
 of their ancestors, which tended to nourish 
 their ferocity, and to increase their-passion for 
 blood and carnage. These offers were attend- 
 ed wif^ the desired success, as they induced 
 the infidel chiefs not only to lend an ear them- 
 selves to the instructions and' exhortations of 
 the Christian missionaries; hut .also to oblige 
 their subjects and armies to follow their exam- 
 ples in tins important respect. 
 
 see the Annales Turcici of Leunolavius, and Elma- 
 cini Historia Saracenica. 
 
PART II. 
 
 THE INTERNAL fflSTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 Concerning the State of Letters and PhUosophy 
 daring thw Century. 
 I. The deplorable ignorance of this barba- 
 rous age, in which the drooping arts were to- 
 tally neglected, and the sciences seemed to be 
 on the point of expiring for want ofencourage- 
 ment, is unanimously confessed and lamented 
 by all the writers who have transmitted to us 
 any accounts of this.period. Nor, indeed, will 
 this fatal revolution, in the republic of letters, 
 appear astonishing to such as consider, on one 
 hand, the terrible vicissitudes, tumults, and 
 wars, that threw all things into confusion both 
 in the eastern and western world, and, on the 
 other, the ignominious stupidity and dissolute- 
 ness of those sacred orders which had been ap- 
 pointed as the guardians of truth and learning. 
 Leo, surnamed the Philosopher, who ascended 
 the imperial throne of the Greeks toward the 
 commencement of this century, was himself an 
 eminent lover of learning, and an auspicious 
 and zealous protector of such as distinguished 
 themselves in the culture of the sciences.* 
 This noble and generous disposition appeared 
 with still greater lustre in his son Constantine 
 Porphyrogeneta, who evinced the greatest ar- 
 dor for the revival of the arts and sciences in 
 Greece,t and employed what he deemed the 
 most efiiectual measures for the accomplish- 
 ment of this excellent purpose. It was with 
 this view that he spared no expense in draw- 
 ing to his court, and supporting in his domin- 
 ions, a variety- of learned men, each of whom 
 excelled in some of the different branches of 
 literature, and in causing the most diligent 
 search to be made for the writings of the an- 
 cients. With this view, also, he became him- 
 self an author,J and thus animated by his ex- 
 ample, as well as by his protection, men of 
 genius and abilities to enrich the sciences with 
 their learned productions. He employed, 
 moreover, a considerable number of able pens, 
 in making valuable extracts from the commen- 
 taries and other tiompositions of the ancients ; 
 which extracts were preserved in certain places 
 for the benefit and satisfaction of the curious ; 
 and thus, by various exertions of liberality and 
 zeal, this learned prince restored the arts and 
 sciences to a certain degree of life and vigor.§ 
 But there were few of the Greeks who followed 
 
 * See Jo. Alb. Fabricii Siblioth. GriEc. lib. v. parr 
 ii. cap. V. p. 363. 
 
 t Fabricius, lib; v. part ii. cap. V. p. 486. 
 
 fj(^ X We have yet remaining the following pro. 
 ductions of this prince; The Life of the Emperor 
 BasiliiiS ; — a Treatise upon the Art of Governing, in 
 which he investigates the origin of several nations, 
 treats "of their power, their progress, their revolu- 
 tions, and their decline, and gives a series of .their 
 princes and rulers; — a Discourse concerning the 
 Manner of forming a Land Army and Naval Force 
 in Order of Battle; — Two Books concerning the eas. 
 tern and western Provinces, which may be consider- 
 ed as an account of the state of the empire in the 
 time .of this prince. 
 
 § All this appears evident from the accounts left 
 upon rtcord by Zonaras, in his Annales, torn. iii. 
 
 this great and illustrious example ; nor did any 
 of the succeeding emperors equal these two 
 excellent princes in zeal for the advancement 
 of learning, or in lending, by protection and 
 encouragement, an auspicious' hand to raise, 
 out of obscurity and dejection, neglected and 
 depressed genius. But (what is still more re- 
 markable) Coristantine Porphyrogeneta, whom 
 we have now been representing as the restorer 
 of letters, and whom the Greeks unanimously 
 admire in this character, is supposed by some 
 to have done considerable prejudice to the cause 
 of learning by the very means he employed to 
 promote its advancement ; for, by employing 
 learned men to e^ract from the ^yriters of an- 
 tiquity what they thought might contribute to 
 the improvement of the various arts and 
 sciences, he gave too much occasion to neglect 
 the sources, and flattered the indolence of the 
 effeminate Greeks, who confined their studies 
 to these extracts, and neglected, in effect, the 
 perusal of the writers from whom they were 
 drawn. Hence it unfortunately happened, 
 that many of the most celebrated authors of 
 antiquity were lost, at this time, through the 
 sloth and negligence of the Greeks. 
 
 n. This method, as the event majiifestly 
 showed, was really detrimental to the pro- 
 gress of true learning and genius. And ac- 
 cordingly we find among the Greek writeis 
 of this century only a small number, who ac- 
 quired a distinguished and shining reputation 
 iti the republic of letters; so -that the fair and 
 engaging prospects which seemed to arise in 
 the cause of learning from the munificence 
 and zeal of pa imperial patrons, vanished in a 
 short time; and though the seeds of science 
 were richly sown, the natural expectations of 
 an abundant harvest were unhappily disap- 
 pointed. Nor did the cause of philosophy 
 succeed better than that of literature. Philo- 
 sophers indeed there were; and some of them 
 were not destitute of genius and abilities; but 
 not one of them rendered his name immortal 
 by productions that were, wprthy of being 
 transmitted to posterity. A certain number of 
 rhetoricians and grammarians, a few poets 
 who were above contempt, and several histo- 
 rians who, without deserving the highest en- 
 comiums,, were not totally destitute of merit, 
 were the members that composed, at this 
 time, the republic of letters in Greece, whose 
 inhabitants seemed ,to take pleasure in those 
 kinds of literature alone, in which industry, 
 imagination, and memory are concerned. 
 
 III. Egypt, though at this time it groaned 
 under a heavy and exasperating yoke of op- 
 pression and bondage, produced writers, who, 
 in genius and learning, were no-wise inferior 
 to the most eminent of the Grecian literati. 
 Among the many examples we might mention 
 to prove the truth of this assertion, we shall 
 confine ourselves to that of Eutychius, bishop 
 of Alexandria, who cultivated the sciences of 
 physic and theology with the greatest success, 
 and cast a new light upon them both by his 
 
Chap.I. 
 
 LEARNING AND PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 241 
 
 excellent writings. The Arabians, during this 
 whole century, preserved that noble passion 
 for the arts and sciences, which had been 
 kindled among tHem in the preceding age; and 
 hence their country abounded with physicians, 
 mathematicians, and pljilosophers, whose 
 liajnes and characters, together with an ac- 
 count of their respective abilities and talents, 
 are given by Leo Africanus and other literary 
 historians. 
 
 IV. The Latins present to as a spectacle of 
 a V^y different kind. They were almost with- 
 oat exception- sxmlt in the most brutish and 
 barbiirous ignorance; so that, according to tlie 
 misinimous accounts of the most credible writ- 
 ers, nothing could be more melancholy and 
 deplorable than the darkness that reigned in 
 tlie western world during this century, which, 
 with respect to learning and philosophy at 
 least, may be called the Iron Age of the Lat- 
 ins.* Some learned men of modem times 
 haye, we confess, ventured to call this ~in 
 question: but their doubts are certainly with- 
 out fouudatjori, and the matter of fact is too 
 firmly established by unquestionable authori- 
 ties to lose ajiy psu^ of its credit in conse- 
 quence of the objections they allege against 
 It.f It is true, there were piiblic schools, 
 founded in most of the European provinces, 
 some of which' were erected in the monaste- 
 
 , ries, and the rest in those cities where the 
 bishops resided. It is also true, that through 
 
 -this dismal night of ignorance there shone 
 forth from time to time, and more especially 
 toward the conclusion of this ,century,^some 
 geniuses of a superior order, who eyed with 
 ardour the paths of- science, and cast some 
 rays of light upon the darkness of a barbarous 
 age. But they were veryifew in number, and 
 their extreme rarity is a- sufficient proof of the 
 infelicity of the times in which they appeared 
 In the seminaries of learning, such as they 
 were, the seven liberal arts were taught in the 
 most unskilffil and miserable, mamier by the 
 monks, who esteemed the arts and sciences no 
 farther than as they were subservient to the in- 
 
 * The testiinonies that prove the ignorance 
 which prevailed in the tenth century, are collected 
 by Du Boulay, in his Hiatoria Acad. Paris, torn. i. p. 
 288; and also by Lud. Ant. Muratori, in his Anti. 
 "qiiitat. Ital. medii .^Evi, torn. iii. 'p. 831, et torn. ii. p. 
 141, &c. 
 
 t The famous Leibnitz, in his preface to the Cod. 
 Juris Nat. et Gentium Diplomat, -affirms that more 
 
 f:nowledge ancj^learning existed in the tenth cen- 
 ury, than in- the succeeding ages, particularly in the 
 twelfth and thirteenth ceiituries. But this is wash- 
 ing the Ethiopian; it is an extravagant-assertion, 
 ana borders, upon paradox. We shall be better di- 
 recte4 in our notions of this matter by Mabillon, in 
 his PriEfat. ad_ Act. B,ened. I^iiint. Ssec. p. 2, by the 
 authors of the Histoij-e Literaire de la France, and 
 by Le Bffiufs Dissertat. de Statu Literarum iiiFran- 
 cia, a Carolo M. ad Regem Kobertum; who all agree 
 in acknowledging the gross ignorance of this cen-. 
 tury, though they would engage us to believe that 
 its barbarism and darkness were not so hidbous as 
 they are commonly represented. There are, indeed, 
 several considerations that render the reasons and 
 testimonies even of these writers not a little defec- 
 tive; but we agree with them so far, a& to grant that 
 all learning and knowledge were not absolutely ex- 
 tinguished in Europe at this time, and that, in the 
 records of this century, we shall find a few chosen 
 spirits, who pierced through the cloud of ignorance 
 that covered the multitude. 
 Vol. 1.^31 
 
 terests of religion, or, to speak more properly, 
 to the vi^ws of Buperstitictjo. 
 
 V. They who were the mbst leariied aiid 
 judicious among the monastic orders, and who 
 were desirous of employing usefully a part of 
 their leisure, applied tliemselves to the com- 
 position of annals and histories, which savoured 
 of the ignorance and barbarism of the titties. , 
 Such were Abo, Luitprand,\Wittekind,^ Ful- 
 cuin, Johannes Capuanus, Ratherius, Flo- 
 doard, Notker, Etlielbert, and others, who, 
 though very different from ea;ch other in theii: 
 respective decrees of merit, were all ignorant 
 of the true nature and rules of historical cotn- 
 position. Several of the poets of this age 
 gave evident marks of true geniiis; but they 
 Were strangers to the poetic art, which Was 
 not indeed hecessary to satisfy a-people utterly 
 destitute of elegance and taste. The gram- 
 marians and rhetoricians of these imliappy 
 times are scarcely worthy of mention; thteir 
 method of instructing was fiill of absurdities; 
 and their rules were trivial, and, for' the most 
 part, injudicious: The same judgmelit may 
 be formed in general of the geometry, arith- 
 inetic, astrononjy, and mnsiCj which were 
 more or less taught in the jiublic schools, ahd 
 of which a more particular account would be 
 uninstructive.and insipid: 
 
 VI. The philosophy of the Latins extended 
 no farther than the single science of logic or 
 dialectics, which they looked' upon as the sum 
 and substance of all htunan wisdom. But this 
 logic, which was so highly ^admired, was 
 drawn without the least perspicuity ormethod 
 from a book of Categories, which some have 
 unjustly attributed to Augustin, and others to 
 Porphyry. It is true, indeed, that the Timaeus 
 of Plato, the Topica of Ciceird and Aristotle, 
 and the booli of the latter, concerning inter- 
 pretation, with other compositions of the 
 Greeks and Romans, were in the hands of se- 
 veral of the doctors of this century, as we 
 learn from credible accounts; but the same ac- 
 counts inform us, that the true sense of these 
 excellent authors was scarcely understood by 
 any of those who daily perused them.* It will t 
 appear, no doubt, surprising, that in such an ? 
 ignorant age such a subtile question as. that , 
 concerning universal ideas should ever have 
 been thought of ; true howfever it is, that the ; 
 famous eontroversy,'. whether universal ideas 
 belonged to the claSs of objects or of mere ' 
 names (a controversy- which perplexed and 
 bewildered the Latin doctors in succeeding 
 times, and gave rise to the opposite sects of tjie • 
 Nominalists and Realists,) was started for the 
 first tiine in this century. Accordingly we 
 find, in several passages of the writers of this 
 period, the seeds and beginnings of this tedious 
 and intricate dispute.f, 
 
 ' * Qunzo, Epiatol. ad MOnachos AugiensesinMar- 
 ten-ne's Collect. Ampliss. MonUmentoi:, Veter. torn, 
 iii. pT 304. ■ 
 
 t.This appears evident irnm the following remark- 
 able passage, whic^ the reader will find in the 304th 
 page of the work cited in the preceding note, aiid in 
 which the learned' Gunzo expresses himself in- the 
 following manlier; " Arisloteles, genus, speciem, 
 " difierentiam, proprium et accidens,"^ subsistere de- 
 "negavit, quie Platoni subsistentia persuasit. Aris- 
 " toteli an Platoni magis credendum putatis? Magna 
 " est utriusque auctoritas, quatenus vix audeat quis 
 
242 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part 11. 
 
 VII. The drooping sciences found an emi- 
 nent and illustrious patron, toward the conclu- 
 sion of this oentm-y, in the learned Gerbert, a 
 native of France, who, upon his elevation to 
 the pontificate, assumed tjie title of Sylvestfer 
 II. The genius of this famous pontjiF was ex- 
 tensive and sublime, embracing all the branches 
 of literature; but its more peculiar bent was 
 turned toward mathematical studies. Mecha- 
 nics, geometry, astronomy, arithmetic, , and 
 every other land of knowledge that had the 
 least afiinity to these important sciences, were 
 cultivated_-by this restorer of learning with the 
 most ardent zeal, and not without success, as 
 his writings abundantly testify; nor did he stop 
 here, but employed every method that was 
 proper to encourage and animate others to the 
 culture of the liberal arts and sciences; The 
 effects of this noble zeal were visible in Ger- 
 many, France^ and Italy, both in this and in 
 the following century; as by the writings, ex- 
 ample, and exiiortations of Gerbert, many 
 were incited to the study of physic, mathema- 
 tics, and philosophy, and in general to the 
 pursuit of science in all its branches. If, in- 
 deed, we compare this learned pontiff, with the 
 mathematicians of modern times, his merit, in 
 that point of view,, will almost totally disap- 
 pear under such a disadvantageous compari- 
 son; for his geometry, though it.be easy and 
 perspicuous; is merely elementary and superfi- 
 cial.* .Yet, Buch as it was, it was marvellous 
 in an age of barto'ism and darkness, and sur- 
 passed the apprehension of those pygmy philo- 
 sophers, whose eye§, under the auspicioios di- 
 rection of Gerbert; were just beginning to 
 open upon the light. Hence it was, that the 
 geometrical figures, described by this mathe- 
 matical pontiff, were regarded .by the monks 
 as .magical operations, and the pontiff, himself 
 was treated- as a magician and a disciple, of 
 Satan.f 
 
 YIII. It- was not however to ithe fecundity 
 of his genius alone, that Gerbert was indebted 
 fbr the knowledge with which lie now began 
 to enlighten the Ejuropean provinces; he had 
 derived' a part of his erudition, particularly in 
 physic, mathematics, and philosophy, from the 
 writings and instructions of the Arabiaiia, who 
 were settled in Spain. Thither he had re- 
 paired in pursuit of knowledge, and had spent 
 some time in the seminaries of learning at 
 Cordova and Seville, with a view of hearing 
 the Arabian doctbrs;J'^d it was, perhaps, by 
 his example, that the Europeans were directed 
 and engaged^to have recourse to this source 
 of instruction in aftef time^ for it is undbnia- 
 bly certain, that from the time of Gerbert, 
 
 " alterum alteri dignitate praferre." Here we see 
 plainly the seeds of discord sown, and the founda- 
 tion laidibr that knotty dispute which puzzled the 
 metaphysical brains of the Latin doctors in after- 
 times. Gunzo was not adventurous Enough to at- 
 tempt a solution of this intricate question, which he 
 leaves undeeidqd; others were less modest, without 
 being more supcessftij. 
 
 * Tills work was published by Pezius, in his The- 
 saurus Anecdotorum, torn. iii. part ii. p. 7. 
 
 t See the Hist. Liter, de la France, tent. vi. p. 
 558. — Du Boulay, Hist. Acad. Paris, torn. i. p. 314, 
 319. — ^Naude, ■ Apologie pour lea Grands Plommes 
 fauBsement accuses de.la Magie, chap. \ix. sept. 4. 
 
 J Du Boulay, torn. i. p. 314 
 
 such of the Europeans as were ambitious of 
 making any considerable progress in physio, 
 arithmetic, geometry, or philosophy, enter- 
 tained the most eager and irnpatient desire of, 
 receiving instruction either ftom the academi 
 cal lesson's, or from the writings of the Arabian 
 philosophers, who 'had founded schools in se- 
 veral farts of Spain and Italy. . Hence ft vns, 
 that the most celebrated productions of these 
 doctors were translated into Latin; their tenets 
 and systems were adopted with zeal in the 
 European schools; and numbers went over to 
 Spain and Italy to receive instruction from the 
 mouths of these famous teachers, which were 
 supposed to utter nothing but the deepest mys- 
 teries of wisdom and knowledge. However 
 excessive this veneration for the learned Ara- 
 bians may hate been, it must be ovraed, that 
 all the knowledge, whether of physic, astro- 
 nomy, philosophy, or mathematics, which 
 flourished in Europe from the tenth ceittury, 
 was originally derived from them: and that the 
 Spanish Saraaens, in a more particular man- 
 ner, may be looked upon as the fathers of Eit- 
 ropean philosophy. 
 
 CHAPTER ll.- 
 Cancemink the Doctors and Ministers of the 
 Church, and its Form qf Government iJurijig 
 this Century. 
 
 I. To those who consider the primitive dig- 
 nity and the solemn nature of the ministerial 
 character, the corruptions of the clergy mus> 
 appear deplorable beyond all expression. 
 These corruptions had risen to the most enor- 
 mous height m that dismal- period of the 
 church ™ich we have now before us. . Both 
 in the eastern and western provinces, the 
 clergy were, for the most part, a most- worth- 
 less sef of men, shamefully illiterate and stu- 
 pid, ignorantjnore especially- iii religious mat- 
 ters, equally enslaved to sensuality and super- 
 stition, and capable of the most abominable 
 and flagitious deeds. This dismal degeneracy 
 of the sacred, order, according to the iriost cre- 
 dible accounts," principally arose fi:om the 
 scandalous examples of those who ought to 
 have presented models of' good conduct^— 
 namely, the pretended chiefs ^nd rulers of the 
 universal church, who indulged themselves in 
 the commission of odious crimes, and aban- 
 doned themselves to the lawless impulse of the 
 most licentious passions without reluctance or 
 remorse; who confounded, in short, all differ- 
 ehce between just and unjust acts, to satisfy 
 their impious ambition; and whose spiritual 
 empire was such a. diversified scene of iniquity 
 and violence, as never was exhibited under 
 any of those temporal tyrants, who have been 
 the scourges of mankind. We may form some 
 notion of the Grecian patriarchs &om the sin- 
 gle example of Theophylact, who, according 
 to the testimonies of the most respectable 
 wxiters, made the most impious trafiic of ec- 
 clesiastical promotions, and expressed no sort 
 of care about any thing but his dogs and" 
 horses.* Degenerate, However, and licentious 
 
 S3" * This, exemplary prelate. Who sold every ecN 
 desiastical benefice as soon as it became vacant 
 
Chap-II. 
 
 DOCTORS, CHURCH GOVERNMENT, &e. 
 
 343 
 
 as these patriarchs might be, they were. In 
 
 feneral, less profligate and indecent than the 
 leman pqnti£&. 
 
 II. The history of the popes, who lived in 
 this century, is a history of so many monsters, 
 and not of men, and exhibits a horrible series 
 of the most flagitious, 'tremendous, and com- 
 plicated crimes, as all writers, even those of 
 the Romish commmjiom, unanimously con- 
 fess. The source of these disorders must be 
 Botight principally in the calamities that fell 
 upon th^greatest part of Europe, and which 
 afflicted Italy in a particular manner, after 
 the extinction of the race of Charlemagne. -On 
 the death of Benedict IV., in 903, Leo V. was 
 raised to the pontificate, which he eiyoyed no 
 longer than forty days, being dethroned by 
 ChrtstopherJ and cast into prison. Chrisfo- 
 pher, in his turn, was deprived of the pontifi- 
 cal dignity m the following year by Sergius 
 III., a Roman presbyter, seconded by the pro- 
 tection and influence of Adalbert; a most pow- 
 erful Tuscan prince, who had a supreme and 
 unlimited direction in all the aSairs that were 
 transacted at Rome. Anastasius III., and 
 Lando, who, on the death of Sergius, in 911, 
 were raised successively to the papal dignity, 
 enjoyed it but for a short time, and did nothing 
 that could contribute to render their names 
 illustrious. ^ ' 
 
 III. After the death of Lando, which hap- 
 pened 914, Alberto,* marquis or count of Tus- 
 cany, whose opulence was prodigious,, and 
 whose authority in Rome was despotic and 
 unlimited, obtained the pontificate' for John 
 
 "X., archbishop of Ravenna, in compliance with 
 the solicitation of Theodora, his mother-in-law, 
 whose lewdness was the principle that inter- 
 ested her in this promotion.f This infamous 
 election will not surprise such as know that the 
 laws of Rome were at this time absolutely si- 
 lent ; that the • dictates of justice and equity 
 were overpowered and suspended ; and that all 
 things were carried on in that great city by in- 
 terest or ' corruption, by violence or fraud. 
 John X., though in other respects a scandalous 
 example of iniquity and lewdness in the papal 
 chair, acquired a certain degree of reputation 
 by his glorious campaign against the Saracens, 
 whom he drov« from the settlement which they 
 had made upon the banlts of the Garigli- 
 
 had in his stable above 3000 hunting horses, which 
 he fed with pig-nuts, pistachios, dates, dried grapes, 
 and tigs steeped in the most' exquisite, wines, to all 
 which he added the richest perfumes. Oa Holy 
 Thursday, as he was celebrating high-mass, his 
 groom brought him the joyful news that one of his 
 favourite mares had foaled; upon which he threw 
 down the liturgy, left the church, and ran in rap- 
 turnu to the stable, where having expressed his joy 
 at 'hat grand event, he returned to the altar to 
 finMh the divine service,' which he had left inter- 
 rupted during his absence. See Fleury, Hist. Ecdes. 
 Iivre Iv. 
 
 ^^ * It was Albert or Adalbert, of whom Dr. 
 Mosheim here speaks.- Alberic was grandson to the 
 llder. Theodora, by her daughter Marozia, who was 
 married to Albert. See Spanheim, Eccles. Hist. 
 Seoul. X. p. 1432.— Fleury, Hist, eccles. llvre 54. The 
 latter historian is of opinion, that it was the younger 
 Theodora, the sister of Marozia, who, from an amo- 
 rous principle, raised John to the pontificate. 
 
 03- t Theodora, mistress of Rome, procured the 
 filevation of John, that she might continue the 11- 
 cenHoua commerce in which she had lived with that 
 eainal ecclesiastic for, many years before. 
 
 ano.* He did hot, however, long enjoy his glofy; 
 for the enmity of Marozia, daughter of Theodora 
 and wife of Alberic, proved fatal to him ; for 
 this inhuman female,- having espoused Wido, 
 or Guy, marquis of Tuscany, after the death 
 of her first consort, engaged him "to seize the 
 wanton pontiff, who was her mother's lover, 
 and4o put him to death in the prison where he 
 lay confined.. Tliis licentious pontiff was suc- 
 ceeded by Leo VI., who sat but seven months 
 in the apostolic chair, wliich was filled after 
 him by Stephen VII. The death of the latter, 
 Which happened in 931, -presented to the am- 
 bition of Marozia an object worthy of its grasp; 
 and accordingly she raised to the papal dignity 
 John XI., who was the fniJt. of her lawless 
 amours with one of the protended successors 
 of St. Peter, Sergiurj III., whose adulterous 
 commerce with that infamous woman gave an 
 infallible' gm&e to the Romish church.f 
 
 IV. John XI., who was placed at the head 
 of the church by the credit and influence of 
 his iriother, was pulled'down from this summit 
 of spiritual^graindeur, in 933, by Alberic his 
 -half-brother, who had conceived the utmost 
 aversion against him. His mother Marozia 
 had, after the death of Wido, entered anew 
 into the bonds of matrimony with Hugo, king 
 of Italy, who, having offended his step-son 
 Alberic, felt severely the weight of his resent- 
 ment, which vented its fury upon the whole 
 family; for Alberic drove out of Rome not 
 only Hugo, but also Marozia and her son the 
 pontiff, and confined them in prison, where the 
 latter ended his days in 936. The four pon- 
 tiffs, who, in their turns, succeeded John XI., 
 and filled the. papal chair until the year 956, 
 were Leo VII., Stephen VIII., Marinus H., 
 and Agapet, whose characters were much 
 better than that of their predecessor, ajid 
 whose government, at least,- was not attended 
 with, those tumults and revolutions that had 
 so often' shaken the pontifical throne, and ban- 
 ished from Rome the inestimable blessings of 
 peace and concord. On the death of Agapet, 
 which happened in 956; Alberic II., who to 
 VcfB dignity of Roman consul joined a degree 
 of authority and opulence which nothing, could 
 resist, raised to the pontificate his son Octo- 
 vian, who was yet in the early bloom of youth, 
 and destitute, besides, of every quality that 
 was requisite for discharging the duties of that 
 high and important office. . This unworthy 
 pontiff assumed the name of John XII., and 
 thus introduced the custom that has since been 
 adopted by all his successors in the see of 
 
 (tl^ * In the original we have Monterti Garilianum, 
 which-is, undoubtedly^ a mistake, as the Garigliano 
 is a river in the kingdom of Naples, and not a moun- 
 tain. 
 
 f The character and conduct of Marozia are ac- 
 knowledged to have been most infamous by the gen- 
 eral testimony both of ancient and modern histori- 
 ans, who affirm, with one voice, that John XI. was 
 the fruit of her carnal commerce with Sergius III. 
 Eccard alone (in his Origines Guelphicffi, tom. i. lib, 
 iii.) has ventured to clear her from this reproach, 
 and to assert, that Sergius, before his elevation- to - 
 the pontificate, was her lawful and first husband. 
 The attempt, however, is highly extravagant, if no,t 
 imprudent, to pretend to acquit, without the least 
 .testimony or proof of her innticence, a woman who 
 is known to have been entirely destitute of every 
 principle of virtue. 
 
244 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Paet n. 
 
 Rome, of assuming another name upon the ac- 
 quisition of the pontificate. 
 
 V. The fate of John XH, was as unhappy 
 as his promotion had been scandalous. Una- 
 ble to bear the oppressive yoke of Berenger. 
 n., king of Italy, he sent ambassadors, in 960, 
 to Qtho the Great, urging him to march into 
 Italy at the head of a powerful army, to deli- 
 ver the church and the people froni the tyran- 
 ny imder which they groaned. To these en- 
 treaties the perplexed pontiff added, a solemn 
 promise, that, if the German monarch would 
 come to his assistance, he would arra^y him 
 with the purple and the other ensigns of sove- 
 reignty, and proclaim him emperor of the Ro- 
 mans. Otho received this ambassy with plea- 
 sure, marched into Italy at this head of a large 
 body of troops, and was accordingly saluted 
 by John witlx the promised title. The pontiff, 
 however, soon perceiving that he had acted 
 with too much precipitation, repented of the 
 step he. had taken ; and_, thoilgh he had sworn 
 allegiance to the emperor, as his lawful sove- 
 reign, in the most solemn -manner, he broke 
 his oath, and joined witli Adalbert, the son of 
 Berenger, against Otho. This revolt was not 
 left uppimiSied. The emperor returned to. 
 Rome in 863; called a council, before which 
 he accused and convicted the pope of many 
 crimes ; and, after having degraded, him in tlie 
 most igpomimous manner from his high office, 
 he appointed Left VIII. to fill his place. On 
 Otho's departure from Rome, John returned 
 to tliat city, and in a council, which he assem- 
 bled in 964, condcinned the pontiff whom tlie 
 eniperor had elected, and soon after died in a 
 miserable and violent manner. After his death 
 the Romans chose Benedict V., bishop of 
 Rome, in opposition to Leo ; but the emperor 
 annulled this election, restored I^eo to the pa- 
 pal chair, and carried Benedict tb Hamburg, 
 where he died in exile.* 
 
 VI. The prelates who governed the see of 
 Rome from Leo VIII., who died in 956, to 
 Gerbert, or Sylvester II., who was raised to 
 the pontificate toward the conclusion of this 
 century, were more happy in their administra- 
 tion, as well as more decent in their conduct, 
 than their infamous predecessors ; yet none of 
 them acted in so exemplary a manner as. to 
 deserve the a^ pilause that is due to eminent 
 virtue. John XIII;, who Was raised to the 
 pontificate in 965, by the authority of Otho 
 the Great, was driven out of Rome in the be- 
 ginning of his administration ; but in the fol- 
 lowing year, on the emperor's return to Italy, 
 
 - he was restored to, his high dignity, in the 
 
 * In the account I have here given of the pontiffs 
 of this century, I have consulted Muratori's Scrip- 
 tor^s Rerum Italicarum, as also Baronius, Peter de 
 Marca, Sigonrus de (Regno Italiie (with the learned 
 ■ annotations of Ant. Saxius,) the same Miiratori in 
 his Annales Italiie, P'agi, and other writers, all of 
 whom had access to the fountain-head,; and to seve- 
 ral ancient manuscripts, , not yet published. The 
 narrations I have here given, are certainly true upon 
 the whole. It must, however,, he confessed, that 
 many parts of the papal history lie yet in great ob- 
 scurity, and, therefore, require farther illustration; 
 nor will I deny that a spirit of partiality has been 
 extremely dettimenfal to the history of the pontiffs, 
 by corrupting it, and rendering it uncertain in a 
 oiultitude of places. 
 
 calm possession of which he ended his days in 
 972. His successor Benedict VI. was not so 
 happy. Thrown into prison by Crescentius, 
 son of the famous Theodora, in consequence 
 of the hatred which the Romans had conceived 
 both against his person and government, he 
 was loaded with all sorts of ignominy, and 
 was strangled in 9T4, in the apartment where 
 he lay confined. Unfortunately for, him, Otho 
 the Great, whose power and severity had kept 
 the Romans in awe, died in 973 ; and with him* 
 expired that order and discipline whjph he had 
 restored in Rome by salutary laws executed 
 with impartiality and vigor. That event 
 changed the aspect of affairs. Licentiousness 
 and disorder, seditions and assassinations, re- 
 sumed their fbnner sway, and diffused their 
 horrors through that miserable city. After the 
 death of Benedict, the papal chair was filled 
 by Franco, who assumed the name of Boniface 
 VII., but enjoyed his d^nity only for a .short 
 time ; for scarcely a month had passed after 
 his promotion, when he was deposed from Iris 
 office, expelled from the city, and succeeded 
 by Donus II.,* who' is known by no other cir- 
 cumstance than his name. Upon his, death, 
 which happened in ^75, Benedict VII. was 
 created pontiff; and, during the space of nine 
 years, ruled the church without miich opposi- 
 tion, and ended his days in peace. This pecu- 
 liar happiness. Without doubt, ■ principally re- 
 sulted &6m the opulence and credit of the fa- 
 mily to which he belonged ; for he was nearly 
 related to tlie famous Alberic, whose power, 
 or rather despotism, had been unlimited ir. 
 Rome. 
 
 VII. His .successor Jolm XIV., whb from 
 tlie bishopric of Pavia was raised to the ponti- 
 ficate, derived no support from his birth, which 
 was obscure ; nor did he continue to enjoy the 
 protection of Otho III., to whom he owed his 
 promotion. Unsupported as he thus was, ca- 
 lamities fell upon him with fury, and misery 
 concluded his transitory grandeur ; ibr "Boni- 
 face VII., who had usurped the p^pal throne 
 in 974, and in aljttle time after had been ban- 
 islied from Rome, returned fi-om Constantino- 
 ple (whither he had fled for refiige,) seized the 
 unhappy pontiff, threw him into prison, and 
 afterwards put him to death. Thus Boniface 
 resumed the government of the chmch ; but 
 his reign was also transitory ; for he died about 
 six months after his restoration.j He was suc- 
 ceeded by John XV., whom some writers call 
 John XVI., because, as they allege, there was 
 another John, who ruled the church dtuing a 
 period of four months, and whom they conse- 
 quently call John XV.J Leaving it to the 
 reader's choice to call that John of whom, we 
 speak, the XV th or the XVIth of that name, 
 
 , tCf* * Some writers, place Dontis II, before Behe- 
 dict Vr. See the Tabulae Synopticie Hist. JGcclea. 
 by the learned Ffaff. 
 
 gg^ t Fleury says, eleven months. 
 
 dtp- i Among these authors, is the learned Pfaff: 
 but the Roman Catholic.writers, whom Dr. Mosheiih 
 follows with good reason, do not reckon, among the 
 number of the pontiffs, that John who governed the 
 church of Rome, during the space of four' months 
 after the death of Boniface VII., because he w.aa 
 never duly invested, by consecration, with the papal 
 dignity. 
 
Cb4.v. n. 
 
 DOCTORS, CHURCH GOVERNMENT, &c. 
 
 245 
 
 we shall Qtily observe that he possessed the 
 papal dignity from the year 985 to 996 ;'"that 
 hia administration was as happy as tlie trou- 
 bled state of the Rom(ui affairs would permit ; 
 and that the triwquilhty h* enjoyed was not 
 BO much the eiiect of his wisdom and prudence, 
 as of his being a Romanby birth, and a de- 
 sceq^ant from noble a^d illustrious ancestors. 
 It is certain, at least, that his successor Greg- 
 ory v., who was a German, and vifho was 
 
 •plected pontiff by the order of Otho HI. in 
 996, met with a quite different treatment; for 
 Cjfescehs, the Ronian consul, drove him out of 
 the city, and conferred his dignity upon John 
 XVI., formerly- known by the name of Phila- 
 gathus. This revolution was not, however, 
 permanent in its effects ; for Otho III., alarmed 
 by these disturbances at Rome, marched into 
 Italy in 998, at the head of a powerful army ; 
 and, iniprlsoiSing the new pontiff, whom the 
 ao)ldiers, in the first moni,ent of their fury, had 
 mainied and abused in a most barbarous man- 
 ner, he re-instated Gregory in his former 
 honors. It was on the death of the latter pon- 
 tilT, which happened soon after his restoration, 
 tha,t the same emperor raised to, the papal dig- 
 
 - nity his preceptor and friend, the famous and 
 lea,med^ Geftert or Sylvester II., vehose.pro- 
 motion was. attended with the universal appro- 
 bation of Ule 'Roman people.* 
 
 VUI. Amidst thes'8 frequent commotions, 
 and even amidst the repeated enormities and 
 flagitious crimes of those who gave themselves 
 out for Christ's vicegerents upon earth, the 
 power and authority of the Roman pontiffs 
 gradually aad imperceptibly increased ; such 
 were the effects of that ignorance and super- 
 stition which reigned without control in these 
 miserable times. Otho the Great had indeed 
 published^, solemn edict, prohibiting the elec- 
 tion of any pontiff without the previous know- 
 ledge &nd consent of the emperor ; which de- 
 cree, as all writers unanimoiisly agree, remain- 
 c4 ij; force from the time of its publication to 
 the conclusion of this century. It is also to be 
 observed, that the same emperor (and likewise 
 his soii and grandson, who succeeded him in 
 the empire) maintained,, without interruption, 
 the right of supremacy over the city of Rome, 
 its territory, and its pontiff, as may he clearly 
 proved by a multitude of examples. It is, 
 moreoverj"' equally certam that the German, 
 French, and Italian bishops, who were not ig- 
 norant of the nature of their privileges and- the 
 extent of their jjurisdiction, were, during this 
 whole century, perpetually upon their guard 
 against every eventual attempt of the pope for 
 the exclusive assumption of a legislative au- 
 thority in the church. But, notwithstanding 
 all this, the bishops of Rome found the means 
 of augmenting their influence, and partly by 
 open violence, partly by secret and fraudulent 
 stratagems, encroached, not only upon the 
 privileges of the bishops, but also upon the ju- 
 
 * The history of the pontiffs of this period is not 
 only extremely barren of interesting events, but also 
 obscure, and uncertain in many respects. In the ac- 
 counts I have here given of them, I have followed 
 principally Lud. Ant. Muratori's Annales Italiie, and 
 the Conatus Chronologico-Historicds de Romanis 
 Pontificihus, which the learned Papi-.brochius prefixed 
 10 his Acta Sanctorum Monsis Maii. 
 
 risdiction and rights of kings 8,114 smperois.* 
 Their ambitious attempts were sdcpuded and 
 vindicated by the scandalous adulation of cer- 
 tain mercena,ry prelates, who exalted the dig- 
 nity and prerogatives of, what they called, the. 
 apostolic see, in the most pompous and ex- 
 travagant terms. Several learned writers Iiave 
 observed, that in this century certain bishops 
 maintained publicly that the popes were not 
 only bishops of Rome, but of the whole world, 
 an assertion which liitherto none had ventured 
 to make ;f and that even among the French 
 clergy it had been affirmed by soine, that the 
 authority ^f the bishops, though divine in its 
 origin, was conveyed to them by St. Peter, the 
 prince of the apostles. J 
 
 IX. The adventurous ambition of the bish- 
 ops of Rome, who left no means unemployed 
 to extend their jurisdiction, exhibited an ej;- 
 ample which the ilijerior prelates, followed 
 with the most zealous and indefatigable emu- 
 lation. Several bishops and abbots had begun, 
 even from the time that the descendants of 
 Charlemagne sat on the imperial throne, to 
 eiilarge their prerogatives, and had actually 
 obtained, for their tenants . and their posses- 
 sions, an immunity from the jurisdiction of the 
 counts and other magistrates, as also from 
 taxes and imposts of all kinds. But in this 
 century they carried their - pretensions, still 
 farther ; aimed at the civil jurisdiction over the 
 cities and territories in which they exercised a 
 spiritual dominion, and even aspired to the 
 honors and authority of dukes, marquises, and 
 counts of the empire. Among the principal 
 circumstances that animated their zeal in |he 
 pursuit of these dignities, we may reckon the 
 perpetual and bitter contests concerning jurisr 
 diction and other matters, that reigned between 
 the dalces and counts, who were goveriiors of 
 cities, and tlie bishops and. abbots, who were 
 their sgiritual rulers. The latter, therefore, 
 seizing the op'portunity that was offered to 
 them by the superstition of the times, used 
 every method that might be effectual to obtain 
 that high rank, which had hitherto stood in 
 the way of their ambition ; and the emperors 
 and kings to whom they addressed their pre- 
 sumptuous requests, generally granted them, 
 either from a desire of pacifying the conten- 
 tions and quarrels that arose between civil and 
 militaiT magistrates, or from a devout reve- 
 rence for the sacred, order, or with a view to 
 augment their .own authority, and to confirm 
 their dominion by the good services of the 
 bishops, whose injfluence was very great over 
 the minds of the people. ■ Such were the differ- 
 ent motives that engaged princes to enlarge 
 the authority and jurisdiction of the clergy; 
 and hence we see from this century down- 
 wa;rds so many bishops , and abbots invested 
 with characters, employments, and titles so 
 foreign to their spiritual. offices and functions, 
 and clothed with the honors of dukes, mar- 
 quises, counts, and viscounts.§ 
 
 * Several examples of these usurpations may be 
 found in the Histoire dli Proit Eccles. Francois, torn, 
 i. p. 217, edit, in 8 vo. 
 
 t Histoire Literaire de la France, torn. vi. p 98. 
 
 I The same work, p. 186. 
 
 § The learned Louis Thomassin,-in his book, de, 
 Bisciplina Ecclesis veteri et nova, torn. iii. lib. i.. 
 
246 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part H, 
 
 X Beside the reproach of the grossest igno- 
 rance, which the Latin clergy in this century 
 so jostly deserved,* they were also chargeable, 
 in a heinous degree, with two other odious 
 vices, even concubinage and' simony, which the 
 greatest part of the writers of these unhappy 
 times acknowledge and deplorie. As to the 
 former of these vices, it was practised too 
 openly to admit any doubt. The priests, and 
 what is still more surprising,' even the sancti- 
 monious monks, fell victims to the triumphant 
 charms of the sex, and to the imperious domi- 
 nion of their carnal lusts; and, entering into 
 the bonds of wedlock or concubinage, squan- 
 dered away in a most luxurious manner, with 
 their wives and mistresses, the revenues 6f the 
 church.f The other vice reigned with ah equal 
 degree ofimpudence and licentiousness. Elec- 
 tions of bishops and abbots were no longer ad- 
 justed by the laws of the church; but kings 
 and princes, or their ministers and favourites, 
 either eoiiferred these ecclesiastical dignities 
 upon their friends and creatures, or sold them, 
 without shame, to the highest bidder.t Hence 
 it happened, that the mgst stupid and flagitious 
 wretches were frequently advanced to the most 
 important stations in the church; and that, 
 upon several occasions, even^oldiers, civil ma- 
 gistrates, and counts, were by a strange meta- 
 morphosis converted into bishops and abbots. 
 Gregory VIL endeavoured, in the followijig 
 century, to put a; stop to these two growing 
 evils. 
 
 XI. While the monastic orders, among the ' 
 Greeks and Orientals, still maintained an ex- 
 ternal appearance of religion and decency, the 
 Latin monks, toward the^ commencement of 
 this century, had so entirely lost sight of all 
 subordination and discipline, that the greatest 
 part of them knew not even by name the rule 
 of St Benedictj which they were obliged to 
 observe. A noble Frank, whose name was 
 Odo, a man as learned and pious as the igno- 
 rance and superstition of the times would per- 
 
 cap. xxviii., has collected a multitude of examples to 
 prove that the titles and prerogatives of dukes and 
 counts were conferred upon certain prelates so early 
 as the ninth century; and some "bishops trace even 
 as far back as the eighth century the beginning of 
 that princely dominion which they now enjoy. But 
 notwithstanding all this, if I do not grossly err, 
 there cannot b& produced any evident andindisputa- 
 ble example of this princely dominion, previous to 
 the tenth century. 
 
 * Katherius, speaking of the clergy of Verona in 
 his Itinerarium, which is publishfed in the Spicile- 
 gium of M. d'Acheiri, tom. i. p. 381, says, that he 
 found many among them who could not even repeat 
 the Apostles' Creed. His words are, "Sciscitatus de 
 " fide illorum, inveni plurimos neque ipsum sapere 
 " Symbolum, qui fuisse creditur Apostolorum." 
 
 t That this custom was introduced toward the 
 commencement of this century is manifest, from the 
 testimony orOrdericus Vitalis and other writers, 
 and also from a letter of Mantio, bishop of Chalons 
 in Champagne, published by Mabillon, in his Ana- 
 lecta veterura. As to the charge brotight against the 
 Italian monks, of their spending the treasures of 
 the church upon their vtives or mistresses, see Hugo's 
 narrative de Monasterii Farfensis destructione, in 
 Muraipri's Antiq. Ital. medii Evi, toin. vi. p. 278. 
 
 X Many infamous and striking examples and 
 proofs of siinoniacal practice may be found in the 
 Work entitled" Gallia Christiana, tom.' i. p. 23, 37; 
 tom. ij.,p.-173, 179. Add to this Abbonis Apologeti- 
 cum, published at the end of the Codex Canon. 
 Pitheei, p. 398, aa also Mabillon's Annal, Benedict. 
 tom. ▼. 
 
 iriit, endeavoured to remety this disorder; nor 
 were his attempts totally unsuccessful; This 
 zealous ecclesiastic being, created, in 927, ab- 
 bot of Clugni, in the province .'of Burgundy, 
 Qn the death of Berno, not only obliged the 
 monks to live in a rigorous observance of 
 their rules, but also added to their discipline a 
 new set of ceremonies, which, notwithstanding 
 the air of sanctity that attended them, were, 
 in reality, insignificant and trifling, and yet, at 
 the same time, severe and burthensome.* This- 
 new rule of discipline covered its author with 
 glory,, and, in a short time, was adopted in all 
 the European convents: for the greatest part 
 of the ancient monasteries, which hjid been 
 founded in If'rance, Germany, Italy, Britain, 
 and Spain, received the rule of the monks of 
 Clugnij to which also the convents, newly es- 
 tablished, were subjected by their founders; 
 and thus it was, that the Order-of Clugni, at- 
 tained that high degree of eminence and au- 
 thority, opulence and dignity, which it exhi- 
 bited to the Christian world in the following 
 century."f 
 
 XII. The more eminent Greek writers of 
 this century are easily numbered; among them 
 we find Simeon, high treasurer of Constanti- 
 nople, who, from his giving a new and more 
 elegant style to the Lives of the Saints, which 
 had been originally composed in a gross and 
 barbarous language, was distinguished by the 
 title of Metaplnrast, or Translator.^ He did 
 not, however, content himself with digesting, 
 polishing, and embellishing the saintly chroni- 
 cle,, but went so far as to augment it with a 
 
 * See MabilloHj Annal. Benedict, torn. iii. p. 386, 
 and Praef ad Acta Sanct. Ord. Benedict. Saec. v. p. 
 26. See also the Acta Sanctdr. Bened.^SEEC. v. p. 66,' 
 in which he speaks largely of Berno, the first abbot 
 of Clugni, who laid the foundations of that order, 
 and of Odo (p. 1^,) who gave it a new degree of 
 perfection. The learned Helyot, in his Histoire dea 
 Ordres Religieuses, tom. v. p. 184, has given a com- 
 plete t^nd elegant history of the order of Clugni; and 
 the subsequent state of that famous monastery is 
 described by Martenne, in his Voyage Liter, de deux 
 Benedict, part i. p. ^7. ' ■ 
 
 t The majority of ecclesiastical historians do not 
 appear to have perceived the true meaning and force 
 of the word order in its application to the Cistertian 
 monks, those of Clugni, and other convents. They 
 imagine that this term signifies a new monastic in- 
 stitution, as if the Order of Clugni imported a new 
 sect of monks never before heard of. But this is ap- 
 parently a great error, into which they fall by con- 
 founding the ancient meaning of that term with the 
 sense in which it -is used in modern times. The 
 word ordfiT*, when employed by the writers of the 
 tenth century, signified no more at first than a cer- 
 tain form or rule of monastic, discipline; but, from 
 this primitive signification, another (a secondary 
 one) was gradually derived: so that by the same 
 word is also understood, an association or confede- 
 racy of several monasteries, subjected to the same 
 rulp-of discipline under the jurisdiction, and inspec- 
 tion of one common chief Hence we conclude^ that 
 the Order of Clugni was not a new sect of monks, 
 such as were the Carthusian, Dominican, and Fran- 
 ciscan Orders; but signified, only, first, that new in- 
 stitution, or rule of discipline, which Odo had pre- 
 scribed to the Benedictine monks, who were settled 
 at Clugni, and, afterwards, that prodigious multi- 
 tude of monasteries throughout Europe, which re- 
 ceived the rule established at Clugni, and were 
 formed by association into a sort of community, of 
 which th^ abbot of Clugni was the chief. 
 
 X See Leo Allatius, de Simeonum Scriptis, p. 34. — 
 Jo. Bollandus, Prsef. aSi Acta Sanctorum Antwer|K 
 sect. iii. p. 6. 
 
Chap, m. 
 
 THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 247 
 
 multitude of trifling fables drawn from the fe- 
 cundity of his own imagination. 
 
 Nieonj an Armenian monk, composed a 
 treatise concerning the Religion of the Arme- 
 nians, which is not altogether contemptible. 
 
 Some place in this century Olympiodorus 
 and (Ecumenius,* who distinguished them- 
 selves by those compilations which were 
 known by the name of Catenae, or Chains, and 
 of which we have had" occasion to speak more 
 than once in the course of this history. But it 
 is by no means certain, that these two writers 
 belong to the tenth century, and they are 
 placed there only by conjecture. 
 
 It is much more probable, that the learned 
 Suidas, author of the celebrated G-reek Lexi- 
 con, lived in the period now before us. 
 
 Among this Arabian^, no author acquired a 
 higher reputation than Eutychius, bishop of 
 Alexandria, whose Annals, with several other 
 productions of his learned pen, are still extant.f 
 
 XIII. The most eminent of the Latin writers 
 of this century was Gerbert, or Sylvester II., 
 who has already been mentioned with the ap- 
 plause due to his singular merit. The other 
 writers of this age were not very eminent in 
 any respect. , 
 
 Odo, who laid the foundations of the cele- 
 brated Order of Clugni, left several productions 
 in which the grossest superstition reigns, and 
 in which it is difficult to perceive the smallest 
 marks of true geniOs or solid judgment.| 
 
 The learned' reader will form a different 
 opinion of Ratheir, bishop of Verona, whose 
 works, yet extant, afford evident proo^ of sa- 
 gacity and judgment, and breathe throughout 
 an ardent love of virtue. § 
 
 Atto, bishop of Vercelli, composed a treatise, 
 defyressmis Ecclesiasficis, i. e. concerning the 
 Sufferings and Grievanees of the Church, 
 which sho>vs in their true colours the spirit 
 and complexion of the times. |{ 
 
 Dunstan, the famous abbot of Glastonbury, 
 and afterwards archbishop of Canterbury, com- 
 posed in favour of the monks a book de Con- 
 cordia Regularum, i. e. concemingthe Harmo- 
 ny of the Monastic Rules.lT 
 
 Eifric, archbishop of Canterbury, acquired a 
 considerable reputation, among the Anglo- 
 Saxons established in Britain, by various pro- 
 ductions.** 
 
 Burchard, bishop of Worms, is highly es- 
 teemed among the canonists on account of his 
 celebrated Decreta, divided into twenty books, 
 though a part of the merit of this collection, of 
 canons may be considered as due fo Olbert, 
 with whose assistance it was composed.ft 
 
 * For an account of CEcumenius, see Montfau- 
 con'a Biblioth. Coisliniana, p. 274. 
 
 t See Jo. Albert. Fsbricii Bibliographi'a Antiqua- 
 ria, p. 179,— aa also Eusebii Benaudoti Historia Pa- 
 triarch. Alexandr. p. 347'- 
 
 t Histoire Literaire de la France, torn. vi. p. 339. 
 
 6 Id. ibid. p. 339. 
 
 fid. ibid. p. 381. 
 
 ICf' IT See the ample account that la given of this 
 eminent prelate in Collier's Ecclesiastical History 
 of England, vol. i. cent. x. p. 181, 183, &;c. 
 
 2^- ** 'We have a Grammar and a Dictionary com- 
 posed by this learned prelate; as also an Anglo- 
 Saxon translation of the first books of the Holy 
 Scripture, a History of the Church, and 180 sermons. 
 See Fleury, Hist. Eccl. livre Iviii. 
 
 *t See the Chronicon Wormatiense in Ludwig's 
 
 Odilo, archbishop of Lyons,* was the author 
 of some insipid discourses, and other produc- 
 tions, whose mediocrity has almost sui^ them 
 in a total oblivion. 
 
 As to the historical writers aiid armalista 
 who lived in this century, their works and abi- 
 lities have been already considered in. their 
 proper place. 
 
 CHAPTER m. ■ 
 Concerning the-Doctrine of the Christian Church 
 during this Centwy. 
 
 I. The state of religion in this century was 
 such as migh€ be expected in times of prevail 
 ing ignorance and corruption. The most im. 
 portant doctrines pf Christianity were disfi 
 gured and peiyerted in the most wretched 
 manner; and such as had preserved, in unskil 
 ful hands, their primitive purity, were never- 
 theless obscured with a multitude of vain opi- 
 nions and idl^ fancies, so that their intrinsic 
 excellence and lustre were little attended to 
 This will appear evident to those who look . 
 with the smallest degree of attention into the 
 writers of this age. Both Greeks and Latins 
 placed the essence and life of religion in the 
 worship ' of images and . departed saints; in 
 seeking with zeal, and preserving with a d^ 
 vout care and veneration, the sacred relics of 
 holy men and women, and in accumulating 
 riches upon the priests and monks, whose opu- 
 lence increased with the progress of supetsti- 
 tion. Scarcely did any Christian dare to ap- 
 proach the throne of God, without rendering 
 first the saints and images propitious by a so- 
 lemn round of expiatory rites and lustrations. 
 The ardour with which relics were sought 
 almost surpasses credibility; it had seized all 
 ranks and orders among the people, and had 
 become a sort of fanaticism and pWensy; and, 
 if the monks are to "be believed, the Supreme 
 Being interposed, in a special and extraordi- 
 nary manner, to discover, to doting old wo- 
 men and bareheaded fiiars, the places where 
 the bones or carcases of the saints lay dis- 
 persed or interred. The fears of purgatory, 
 of that fire which was to destroy the remaining 
 impurities of departed souls, were now carried 
 to the greatest height, and far exceeded the 
 terrifying_ apprehension of infernal torments; 
 for they hoped to avoid the latter easily, by 
 dying enriched with the prayers of the clergy, 
 or covered with the merits and mediation of. 
 the saints, while from the pains of purgatory 
 they thought there was no exemption. The - 
 clergy, therefoi^e, finding these superstitious 
 terrors admirably adapted to increase their 
 authority and to promote their interest, used 
 every method to augment them; and. by the 
 most pathetic discourses, accompanied with 
 monstrous fables and fictitious miracles, they 
 laboured to establish the doctrine of purgatory, 
 and also to make it appear that iiiey had a 
 nughty influence in that formidable region. . 
 
 Reliquife Manuscriptorum, torn: ii. p. 13. — Histoire 
 Liter, de la France, tom. vii.' p. 295. 
 
 IEf" * Odilo was abbot of Clugni, and not archbi- 
 shop of Lyons; for he obstinately refused, the latter 
 station, notwithstanding the urgent entreaties em- 
 ployed both by pontiffs and emperors to engage him 
 to accept it. See Fleury Hist. Eccl. livrc lix 
 
248 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part H. 
 
 n. The contests Concerning predestination 
 and grace, as also concerning the eucharist, 
 that had agitated the church in the preceding 
 century, were in this happily reduced to si- 
 lence. This was the result of the mutual tole- 
 ration that was practised by the contending 
 parties, who, as we learn from writers of un- 
 doubted credit, left it to each other's free 
 choice to retain, or to change their former 
 opinions. Besides, the ignorance and stupidity 
 of this degenerate age were ill suited to such 
 deep inquiries as these contests demanded; nor 
 was there any great degree of curiosity among 
 an illiterate multitude to know the opinions 
 of the ancient doctors concerning these and 
 other knotty points of theology. Thus it hap- 
 pened, that the followers of Augustin and Pe- 
 lagius flourished equally in this century; and 
 that, if there were many who maintained the 
 corporal presence of the body and blood of 
 Christ in the holy sacrament, there were still 
 toore who either came to no fixed determina- 
 tion upon this point, or declared it publicly as 
 their opinion, that the divine Saviour was 
 really a,bsent from the eucharistical sacrament; 
 and was received only by a certain inward im- 
 pulse of faith, in a manner wholly spiritiial.* 
 This mutual toleration, as it is easy to con- 
 chide &om what has been already observed, 
 must not be attributed either to the wisdom or 
 virtue of an age, which was almost totally 
 destitute of both. The truth of the matter is, 
 that the divines of this century wanted both 
 the capacity and the inclination to attack or 
 defend any doctrine, whose refutation or de- 
 fence required the smallest portion of learning 
 or logic. 
 
 in. That the whole Christian world was 
 covered, at this time, with a thick and gloomy 
 veil of superstition, is evident from a prodi- 
 gious number of testimonies and examples, 
 which it is needless to mention. This horrible 
 cloud, which hid almost every ray nf truth 
 from the eyes of the multitude, furnished the 
 priests and monks with many opportunities of 
 propagating absurd and ridiculous opinions, 
 which contributed not a little to confirm their 
 credit. Among these opinions, which so fre- 
 quently dishonoured the Latin church, and 
 produced from time to time such violent agita- 
 tions, none occasioned such a general panic, 
 or such dreadful impressions of terror or dis- 
 may, as a notion that now prevailed of the im- 
 mediate approach of the day of judgment. 
 This iiotion, which took its rise from a re- 
 markable passage in the Revelatipns of St. 
 
 * It is certain, that the Latin theologians of this 
 century differed much in their sentiments about the 
 manner in which the body and blood oT Christ were 
 present in the eucharist; this is granted by such of 
 the Roman Catholic writers as have been ingenuous 
 enough to sacrifice the spirit of ^arty to the love ot 
 truth. That the doctrine of transubstantiation, as 
 it is commonl-y called, was unknown to the English 
 in this century, has been abundantly proved from 
 the public homilies, by Rapin de Thoyras, in his 
 History of England, vol. i. It is, however, to bp 
 confessed, on the other band, that this absurd doc- 
 trine was already adopted by several French and 
 German divines. tCf'For a more judicious account 
 of the opinions of the An^lo-Saxon church concern- 
 ing the eucharist, see Collier's Ecclesiastical History 
 of Great Britain, vol. i. cent. x. 
 
 John,* and had been entertained by some doc- 
 tors in the preceding century, was advanced 
 publicly by many at this time; and, spreading 
 itself with an amazing rapidity through the 
 European provinces, it threw them into the 
 deepest consternation and anguish: for they 
 imagined tliat St. John had clearly foretold 
 that, after a thousand years from the birth of 
 Christ, Satan was to be let loose from his pri- 
 son; that Antichrist was to come, and the con- 
 flagration and destruction of the world were 
 to follow these great and' terrible events. 
 Hence prodigious numbers of people abandon- 
 ed all their civil connexions and their'parental 
 relations,"ahd,-giving over to the churches or 
 monasteries all their lands, treasures, and 
 worldly effects, repaired with the utmost pre- 
 cipitation to Palestine, where they imagined 
 that Christ would descend from heaven to 
 judge the world. Others devoted themselves 
 by a solemn and voluntary oath to the service 
 of the churches, convents, and priesthood, 
 whose slaves they became, in the .most rigor- 
 ous sense of that word, performing daily their 
 heavy tasks; and all this from a libtion that the 
 Supreme Judge would diminish the severity 
 of their sentence, and look upon them with a 
 more favourable and propitious eye, on ac- 
 count of their having made themselves the 
 slaves of his ministers. When an eclipse of 
 the sun or moon happened to be visible, the 
 cities were deserted, and their miserable inha- 
 bitants fled for refuge to deep caverns, and hid 
 themselves among the creiggy rocks, and un- 
 der the bending summits of steep moimtains. 
 The opulent attempted to bribe the Deity,_aiid 
 the saintly tribe, by rich donations conferred 
 upon the sacerdotal and monastic orders, who 
 were regarded as the immediate vicegerents 
 of heaven. In many places, temples, palaces, 
 and noble edifices, both public and private, 
 were suffered to decay, and were even delibe- 
 rately pulled down, from a notion that they 
 were no longer of any use, since the final dis- 
 solution of all things approached. In a word, 
 no language is sufficient to express the confu- 
 sion and despair that tormented the minds of 
 miserable mortals upon this occasion. This- 
 general delusion was, indeed, opposed and 
 combated by the discerning few, who endea- 
 voured to dispel these grotmdless terrors, and 
 to efface the notion from which they arose, in 
 the minds of the people. But their attempts 
 were ineffectual; nor could the dreadful ap- 
 prehensions of the superstitious multitude be 
 entirely removed before the conclusion of this 
 century. -Then, when they saw that the 
 
 gu- * The passage here referred to, is in the twen- 
 tieth chapter of the Book of Revelations, at the 2d, 
 3d, and 4th verses: " And he took hold of the dragon, 
 " that old serpent, which is the devil^and Satan, and 
 "bound him a thousand years; — and cast him into 
 "the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal 
 " upon him, that he should deceive the nations no 
 "more till the thousand years should be fulfilled; 
 " and after that lie must be loosed a little season. — 
 " And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and 
 "judgment was given unto them; and I saw the 
 " souls'of them that were beheaded for the witness 
 " of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had 
 "not worshipped the beast, neither his image, nei- 
 " ther had received his mark upon their foreheads, or 
 " in their hands; and they lived and reigned with 
 "Christ a thousand years." 
 
Chap. HI. 
 
 THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 849 
 
 dreaded period had passed without the arrival 
 of any great calamity, they began to under- 
 stand that St. , John had not really foretold 
 what they so much feared.* 
 
 IV. The number of the saints, who were 
 looked upon as ministers of the kingdom of 
 heaven, and whose patronage was esteemed 
 such an vmspeakabls blessing, had now an ex- 
 traordinary increase ; and the celestial courts 
 were filled with new legions of this species of 
 beings, some of which, aa we have had former- 
 ly occasion to observe, had no existence but in 
 me imagination of their deluded clients and 
 worshippers. This multiplication of saints 
 may be easily accounted for, when we consider 
 that superstition, the souJce of fear, had risen 
 to such an enormous height in this age, as ren- 
 dered the creation of new patrons necessary to 
 calm the anxiety of treinbling mortals. Be- 
 sides, the corruption and Impiety that now: 
 reigned with a horrid sway, and the licentiovis- 
 ness and dissolution that had so generally in- 
 fected all ranks and orders of men, rendered 
 the reputation of sanctity very easy to be ac- 
 quired ; for, amidst such a perverse generation, 
 it demanded no great efforts Of virtue to be 
 esteemed holy, arid this, no doubt, contributed 
 to increase considerably the number of the ce- 
 lestial advocates. All those, to whom natm-e 
 had given an austere complexion, a gloomy 
 temper, or enthusiastic imagination, were, in 
 consequence of an advantageous comparison 
 with the profligate multitude, revered as the 
 favorites of heaven and the friends of God. 
 
 The Roman pontiff, who before this period 
 had'pretended to the right of creating saints 
 by his sole authority, gave, in this century, th? 
 first specimen of this spiritual power; for in 
 the preceding ages there is no example of his 
 having exercised this privilege alone. This 
 specimen was given in 993, By John XV., 
 who, with all the formalities of a solemn ca- 
 nonization, enrolled Udalric, bishop of Augs- 
 burg, in the number of the saints, and thus 
 corfferred upon him a title to the worship and 
 veneration of Christians.! "We must not, how- 
 
 * Almost all the donations that were made to the' 
 church during this century, bear evident marks-of 
 this groundless panic that had seized all the Euro- 
 pean nations, as the reasons of Ihese donations are 
 generally expressed in the following words: " Appro- 
 "pinquante raundi termino," &c. i. e. " The end.of, 
 "'the world being now at hand," '&c. Among, the 
 many undeniable testimonies that we have from 
 ancient records of this universal delusion, that was 
 so profitable to the sacerdoial order, we shall confine 
 ^ourselves to the quotation of one' very remarkable 
 passage in the Apologeticun? of ^bbia, abbot of 
 Fleury, adversus AmulphUm, i. e. Amoul bishop of 
 Orleans: which apology is published by the learned 
 Francis Pithou, in the Codex Canonum Ecclesiae 
 Komanae, p. 401. The words of Abbo are as follow: 
 " De fine quoque mundi coram populo sermonem in 
 ecclesia Parisiorum adolescentulus audivi, quod sta- 
 tim finito mille annorum numero Antichristus ad- 
 veniret, et non longo post tempore universale judi- 
 cium succederet; cui praedicationi ex evangeliis, ac 
 apocalypsi, et Kbro Danielis, qua potui virtute res- 
 titi. Denique et errorem, qui de fine mundi inolevit, 
 abbas meus beats memoria Hichardus sagaci animo 
 propulit, postquam literas a Lothariensibus accepit, 
 quibus me respo'ndere jussit. Nam lama piene totum 
 mundum impleverat, quod, quando Annunciatio Do- 
 minica in Parascevc contigisset, absque ullo scru- 
 pulo finis Sfficuli esset. 
 
 f Franc. Pagi Breviar Pontif. Roman- torn. u. p. 
 259. ' 
 
 Vol. I.— 32 
 
 ever, hence conclude, that after this period the 
 privilege of canonizing new saints was vested 
 solely in the pontiiiB ;* for there are several 
 exa,mples upon record, which prove, that not 
 only provincial coimcils, but also several of the 
 iirst order among the bishops, advanced to the 
 rank of saints such as they thought worthy of 
 that high dignity, and continued thus to aug- 
 ment tile celestial patrons of the church, vrith 
 out consulting the pope, until the twelfth cen 
 tury.f Then Alexander III. abrogated this 
 privilege of the bishops and councils, and 
 placed canonization in the nruuber of the more 
 important acts of authority,]: which the sove- 
 reign pontiff alone, by a peculiar prerogative, 
 was Entitled to exercise. 
 
 V. The expositors and commentators, who 
 attempted in this century to illustrate and ex- 
 plain the sacred vrritlnga, were too mean in 
 their abilities,- and too unsuccessful in their 
 undertakings, to deserve more than a slight 
 and transient notice ; for it is extremely uncer- 
 tain, whether or no the works of Olympiodorus 
 and CEcumenius are to be considered as the pro- 
 dilctioiis of this age. Among the Latins, Remi, 
 or Remigius, bishop of Auxerre, continued 
 the exposition of the Scriptures, which he had 
 begun iri the preceding century ; but his work 
 is highly defective in various respects ; for he 
 took very little pains in explaining the literal 
 sense of the words, and employed the whole 
 force .of his fantastic genius in unfolding their 
 pretended mystical signiiication, which he 
 looked upon as infinitely more interesting than 
 ibkit plain and literal meaning. Besides, his 
 explications are rarejy the fruit of his own ge- 
 nius and invention, but ate, generally speak- 
 ing, mere compilations from ancient commen- 
 tators. As to tlie Moral Observations of 'Odo 
 upon the book of Jpb,§ they are transcribed 
 from a work of Gregory the Great, which bears 
 the same title. We mention no more; if, 
 however, any are desirous of an ample account 
 of those who were esteemed the principal com- 
 mentators in this century, they will iind it in a 
 book written professedly upon this subject by 
 Notkerus Balbulus. 
 
 VI. The science of theology was absolutely 
 abandoned in this century; nor did either the 
 Greek or Latin church furnish any writer who 
 attempted to explain in a regular method the 
 doctrines of Christianity. The Greeks were 
 contented with the works of Damascenus, and 
 the Latins with those of Augustln and Grego- 
 ry, who were now considered as the greatest, 
 doctors that had adorned the church. Some 
 added to these the writings of the venerable 
 Bede and Rabanus Maurus.. The moral science 
 was still more neglected than 1;hat of theolo^ 
 in this wretched age, and was reduced to a 
 certain number of dry and insipid homilies, 
 and to the lives of the saints, which Simeon 
 among the Greeks and Hubald, Odo, and 
 
 * This absurd opinion has been maintained with 
 \Varmth by Phil. Bonanni, in hts Numismata Pon- 
 tif. Romanorum, torn. i. p. 41. 
 
 . t See Franc. Pagi BreviaY. tom. ii. p. 260 ; tom. in 
 p. 3(>. — Arm. de la Chapelle, Biblioth. Angloise, torn 
 X. p. IDS.— Mabillon, Prsefat. ad Ssc. v. Benedict p. 
 S3. , • 1%, 
 
 1 These were called the Causa Majores "»"' 
 
 § Moralia in Jobuin- 
 
250 
 
 EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part II. 
 
 Stephen,* among the Latins, had dtawn up 
 with a seducing eloquence that covered the 
 most impertinent fictions. Such was the mi- 
 serable state of morals and theology in this 
 century; in which, we may add, there did not 
 appear any -defence of the Christian religion 
 against its professed enemies. 
 
 VII. The controversies between the Greek 
 and Latin churches, were now carried on with 
 less noise and impetuosity than in the prece- 
 ding century, on account of the troubles and 
 calamities of the times ; yet they were not en- 
 tirely reduced to silence.f ' ' The writers there- 
 fore who affirm, that this unhappy schism was 
 healedj and that the contending parties were 
 really reconciled to each other for a certain 
 space of time, have grossly mistaken the mat- 
 ter il though it be, indeed, true, that the tu- 
 mults of the times produced now and then a 
 cessation of these contests, and occasioned sev- 
 eral truces, which insidiously concealed the 
 bitterest enmity, and served often as a cover to 
 the most treacherous designs. The Greelts 
 were, moreover, divided among themselves, 
 and disputed with great warmth concei:ning 
 the lawfulness of repeated^ marriages, to 
 which violent contest.the cause of Leo, sur- 
 named the Philosopher, gave rise. This ein- 
 peror, having buried successively three wives 
 without having had by them any male issue, 
 espoused a fourth, ^yhose name was Zoe Car- 
 binopsina, and Who was born in the obscurityi 
 of a mean coildition. As" marriages contracted 
 •for the fourth time were pronounced impure 
 and unlawful by the .Greek canons, Nicolas, 
 the patriarch of Constantinople, suspended the 
 emperor, on this occasion, from the commu- 
 nion of the church. Leo, incensed at this 
 rigorous proceeding, deprived Nicolas of the 
 patriarchal dignity, and raised Euthymius to 
 that high office, who, though he re-adrnitted 
 the emperor to the bosom of the church, op- 
 posed the Jaw which he had resol-ved to 6nact 
 in order to render fourth marriages lawful. 
 Upon this a schism, attended with the bitter- 
 est animosities, divided the clergy ; one part 
 of which declared for Nicolas, the other for 
 Euthymius. Some time after this, Leo died, 
 and was succeeded in the empire by Alexan- 
 der,; who deposed Euthymius, and restored 
 Nicolas to his eminent rank in the church: No 
 sooner was this zealous patriarch re-instated 
 in his office, than he begairto load the memory 
 of the late emperor with the bitterest execra- 
 tions and the most opprobrious invectives, and 
 to maintain the unlawfulness of fourth mar- 
 riages with the -utmost obstinacy. In order to 
 appease these tumults, which portended num- 
 berless calamities to the state, Constantine 
 PorphyiJogeneta, convoked an assembly of the 
 clergy of Constantinople, in 920,. in which 
 
 * Bishop of Liege. 
 
 t Mich. Lequien, Dissert, i. Damascenica de Pro- 
 • cessione Spiritus Sancti, sect.' xiii.7— p. 13. — Fred. 
 Spanheim, de perpetua Dissensione Ecclesiee Orien- 
 tal, et Occidental, part iv. sect, vii p. 529, torn. 11. 
 op. 
 
 J Leo AUatius, de perpetua Consensione Eccleslffi 
 Orient, et Occident, lib. ii. cap. vii., viil. p. 600. 
 * .81^ 5 Fourth marriages our author undoubtedly 
 n^ns, since second and third nuptials were allowed 
 Oli'certaln conditions. 
 
 fourth marriages were absolutely prohibited, 
 and marriages for the. third time were permit- 
 ted on certain conditions ; and thus the public 
 tranquillity was restored.* 
 
 Several other contests of like moment arose 
 among the Greeks during this century ; and 
 they serve to convince us of the ignorance that 
 prevailed among that people, and of their blind 
 veneration and zeal for the opinions of their 
 ancestors. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Concerning the Sites and Ceremonies used in 
 ** . the Church dunng this Century. 
 
 J[. In ordejr to have some notion of the load 
 of ceremonies under which the Christian reli- 
 gion groaned during this superstitious age, we 
 have Only to cast an eye upon the acts of the 
 various councils Which were assembled in Eng- 
 land, Germany, France, and Italy. The num- 
 ber of ceremonies increased in proportion to 
 that of the saints, which multiplied from day 
 to day ; for each new saintly patron had ap- 
 propriated to his service a new festival, anew 
 form of worship, anew round of religious rites; 
 and the clergy, notwithstanding their gross 
 stupidity in other matters, discovered, in the 
 creation of new ceremonies, a- marvellous fer- 
 tility of invention, attended with the utmost 
 dexterity and artifice. It is also to be observed, 
 that a great part of these new rites derived 
 their origin from the various errors which the 
 barbarous nations had i:eceived from their an- 
 cestors, and still retained, even after their Con- 
 version to Christianity. The clergy, instead 
 of extirpating these errors, either gave them a 
 Christian aspect by inventing certain religious 
 rites to cover their deformity, or by explaining 
 them in a forced allegorical marmer ; and thus 
 they were perpetuated in the church, and de- 
 voiitly transmitted from age to age. We may 
 also attribute a considerable number of the 
 rites and institutions, tliat dislionored religion 
 in this century, to absurd notions both con- 
 cerning the Snpfeme Being and departed 
 saints ; for it was imagined that God was like 
 the princes and great ones of the earth, who 
 are rendered propitious by costly presents, and 
 are delighted with those cringing sali^tations, 
 and other marks of veneration and homage, 
 which they receive from their subjects ; and 
 it was believed likewise, that departed spirits 
 were agreeably aiFected with the same kind of 
 services. - 
 
 II. The famous yearly festival that was 
 celebrated in renfembrance of all departed 
 souls, Was instituted by the authority of Odilo, 
 abbot -of Clugni, and adged to the Latin caleii- 
 dar toward the conclusion of this century.f 
 Before this time, a custom had been introduced 
 in many places of offering up prayers on cer- 
 tain days, for the souls that were confined in 
 purgatory; but these prayers were made by 
 each religious society^ only for its ovra mem- 
 bers, friends, and patrons. The pious zeal of 
 
 * These facts are faithfully collected from Cedre- 
 nus, Leunclavius de Jure Grxco-Rom. tom. i. p. 104, 
 from Leo the Gramtnarian, Simeon the Treasurer 
 and other writers of the Byzantine history. 
 
 fin the year 998. 
 
Chaf. V. 
 
 DIVISIONS AND HEREfSIES. , 
 
 - 251 
 
 The Nestorians and Monophysites still lived 
 under the Arabian government: they were, 
 however, much more rigorously treated than 
 in former times, and were often persecuted 
 with the utmost injustice and violence. Butj 
 as some of them excelled in medical know- 
 ledge, which was highly esteemed among the 
 Arabians, while others rendered themselves ao- 
 c^table to the great, by the dexterous man- 
 agement of their domestic aflairs, as overseers 
 and stewards, all this contributed to diminish 
 the violence of the storms which arose against 
 them from time to time. 
 
 II. The Manicliseans or Paulicians, whose 
 errors have been already pointed out, gathered 
 considerable strength in Thrace under the 
 reign of John Tzimisces. A great part of this 
 restless and turbulent sect had been transported 
 into that province, by the order of Constantine 
 Copronymus, so early as the eighth century, 
 to put an end to the commotions which they 
 Had excited in the east; but a still greater num- 
 ber of them were left behind, especially in 
 Syria and the adjacent countries. Hence i£ 
 was,' that Theodore, bishop of Antioch, from a 
 pious apprehension^ of the danger to which his 
 flock lay exposed from the neighborhood of 
 such pernicious heretics, engaged the emperor,' 
 by his ardent and importunate solicitations, to 
 send a new colony of these Manichasans from 
 Syria to Philippi.* . From Thrace they passed 
 into Bulgaria and Sclavonia, where they long 
 resided under the jurisdiction of their own pon- 
 tiff, or patriarch. After the council of Basil 
 had commenced its -deliberations, these secta- 
 ries removed into Italy, and thence spreading 
 themselves through the other provinces of Eu- 
 rope, they became extremely troublesome to 
 the popes on many occasions.-f 
 
 III. In the last year of this century arose a 
 certain teacher, whose name was Leutard, who 
 lived at Vertus, in the diocese of Chalons, and, 
 in a short time, drew after him a considerable 
 number of. disciples. This new "doctor could 
 not bear the superstitious worship of Images, 
 which he is- said to have, opposed with the ut- 
 most vehemence, and even to have broken in 
 pieces an image of, Christ, which he found in 
 a church where he went to perform his devo- 
 tions. He, moreover, exclaimed with the 
 greatest wannth against the payment of tithes 
 to the priests, and in several other respects 
 showed that he was no cordial friend to the 
 sacerdotal order. But that which showed evi- 
 dently that^ he w,as a dangerous" fanatic, was 
 his affirming that in the prpphecies of the Old 
 Testament there was a manifest mixture of 
 truth . and falsehood. Gebduin, bishop of 
 ChalonS) examined the pretensions which this 
 man made to divine^inspiration, and exposed 
 his extravagance to the view of the public, 
 whom he had so artfully seduced ; upon Which 
 he tlireW himself into a well, and ended his 
 days hke many other fanatics.J It is highly 
 probable, that this upstart doctor taught many 
 
 Odilo could not be confined. within such nar- 
 row limits ; and he therefore extended the bene- 
 fit of these prayers to all the souls that labored 
 under the pains and trials of purgatory.* To 
 this proceeding Odilo was prompted by the ex- 
 hortations of a Sicilian hermit, who pretended 
 to have learned, by an immediate revelation 
 Irom heaven, that the prayers of the monks of 
 Qugni would be effectual for the. deliverance 
 of departed spirits from the expiatory flames 
 of a middle state.f Accordingly this festival 
 was, at first, celebrated only by the congrega- 
 tion of Clugni ; but, having afterwards received 
 the approbation of one of the popes, it was, by 
 his order, kepfrwith particular devotionin all 
 the Latin churches. 
 
 ni; The worship of the. Virgin Mary, which 
 before this -century, had been carried to a very 
 high degree of idolatry, now received new ac- 
 cessions of solemnity and superstition. Near 
 the close of this century, a custom was intro- 
 duced among the Latins of cetebrating masses. 
 and abstaining from flesh, in honor of the bless- 
 ed Virgin, ev^ Sabbath day. After this, what 
 the Latins called the minor office was instituted 
 in honor of St. Mary, which was, in the fol- 
 lowing century, confirmed by Urban II. in the 
 council of Clermont. There are also to be 
 found in this age manifest indications 'of the 
 institution of the rosary and crown of the Vir- 
 gin, by which her worshippers were to reckon 
 flie number of prayers that they were to offer 
 to tliis new divinity ; for, though some place 
 the invention of the- rosary in the thirteenth 
 century, and attribute it to St. Dominic, yet this 
 supposition is made without any foundation. { 
 The rosary- consists in fifteen repetitions of the 
 Lord's prayer, and a hundred and fifty saluta- 
 tions of the blessed Virgin ^ while the crown, 
 according to tlie different opinions of the 
 learned concerniijg the age of.the bless.ed Vir- 
 gin, consists in six or seven recitations of the 
 Lord's prayer, and six or seven times ten salu- 
 tations. | 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 Concerning the Divisions and Heresies that trou- 
 bled the Church dimng thM Centwry. 
 X, The profound ignorance and stupidity, 
 that were productive of so many evils in this 
 century^ had at least this advantage attending 
 them, that they, contributed much to the tran- 
 quillity of the church, and prevented the rise 
 of new sects and new commotions of a religious 
 kind.,- But, though no new inventions were 
 broached, the ancient errors still remained. 
 
 * See MabiUon, Acta. SS. Or~d. Bened. Sjec. vi. 
 part i. p. 584, where the reader will find the Life of 
 Odilo,'with his decree for the institution of tliis fes- 
 tival. 
 
 f Benedict XIV. was artful enough to observe a 
 profound silence with respect to' the superstitious 
 and dishonorable origin of this anniversary festival, 
 in his treatise de .Festis 3 Christi, Maria3, et Sanc- 
 torum", lib. iii. cap. xxii. p. 671, torn. x. oper. and by 
 his silence he has plainly shown to the world what 
 he thought of this absurd festival. This is not the 
 only mark of prudence tliat is to be found in the 
 works of that famous pontiff. 
 
 X This is demonstrated by Mabillon, Prief ad Acta 
 SS. Ord. Bened. Sico. v. p. 58. 
 
 5 In thesQ words — Ave, Maria ! 
 
 * Jo. Zonaras, Anna!, lib. xvii. 
 
 ■f It is extremely probable, as we have already had 
 occasion to observe, that the remains of this sect are 
 still to be found in Bulgaria. 
 
 {All this is related by Glaber Radulphua, Hist. 
 lib. ii. cap. xi. 
 
2sa 
 
 EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part I. 
 
 other absurd notions beside those which we 
 have now mentioned, and that, after his death, 
 hi» disciples formed a part of the sect that waa 
 afterwards known in France under the name 
 of the Albigenses, and which is said to have 
 adopted the Manichasan errors. 
 
 IV. There were yet subsisting some remains 
 of the sect of the Arians in several parts of 
 Italy, and particularly in the territory of Pa- 
 dua; but Ratherius, bishop of Verona, had a 
 still more enormous heresy to combat in the 
 system of the Anthropomorphites, which was 
 revived in 939. In the district of Vicenza, a 
 considerable number, not only of the illiterate 
 multitude, but also of the sacerdotal orderj 
 adopted that most absurd and extravagant no- 
 tion, that the Deity was clothed with a human 
 form, and seated, like an earthly monarch, 
 upon a throne of gold, and that his angelic 
 ministers were men arrayed in white garments, 
 and furnished with wings, to render them more 
 expeditious in executing their sovereign's oi> 
 ders. This monstrous error will appear less 
 astonishing, when we consider that the stupid 
 and illiterate multitude had constantly before 
 
 their eyes, in all the churches, the Supreme 
 Being and his angels represented in pictures 
 and images with the huma^ figure. 
 
 The supeistition of another set of blinded 
 wretches, mentioned also by Ratherius, was 
 yet more unaccountable and absurd than that 
 of the Anfcropomorphite^ for they imagined 
 that, every Monday, mass was performed in 
 heaven by- St. Michael in the presence of 
 God; and hence, on that day, they resorted in 
 crowds to all the churches which were dedi- 
 cated, to that highly -honoured saint.* It is 
 more than probable that the? avarice of the 
 priests, who ofiiciated in the church of St. 
 Michael, was the real source of this extrava- 
 gant fancyi and that in this, as in many other 
 cases, the rapacity of the clergy took advant- 
 age of the credulity of the -people, and mads 
 them believe whatever they thought would 
 contribute to augment the opulence of the 
 church. 
 
 - =*= Ratherii Epist. Synodica in Dacbfrii Spicilegio' 
 Script. Veter. torn. ii. p. 294. — $igehertj Gemblacens. 
 Chron. ad annum 93^. 
 
 THE ELEVENTH CENTURY. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 CHAPTER I, 
 Concerning the Pro^ercms Events which hap- 
 pened to the CImrch dming this Century. 
 
 I. In the preceding century some faint no- 
 tions of the Christian religion, some scattered 
 rays of that divine light which- it administers 
 to mortals, had been received among the Hun- 
 garians, Danes, Poles, and Russians; but the 
 rude and savage spirit of those nations, toge- 
 ther with their deplorable ignorance and their 
 violent attachment to the superstitions of their 
 ancestors, rendered their total conversion to 
 Christianity a work of great difficulty, which 
 could not be very rapidly accomplished. The 
 zeal, however, with which this important work 
 was carried on, did great honour to the piety 
 of the princes and governors of these unpo- 
 lished countries, who united their influence 
 with the labours of the learned men whom 
 they had invited into their dominions, to open 
 the eyes of their subjects upon the truth.* In 
 Tartary,t and the adjacent countries, the zeal 
 and diligence of the Nestorians gained over 
 considerable numbers,, almost daily, to the pro- 
 fession of Christianity. It appears also evident 
 
 * For an account of the Poles, Russians, and Hun- 
 garians, Bee Romualdi Vita in Actis Sanctor. torn, 
 ii. Fehruar. 
 
 t Tartary is taken here in its most comprehensive 
 sense, for between tlle inhabitants of Tartary, pro- 
 perly so called, and the Calmucs, Mogols, and the 
 inhabitants d fTan^ut, there is a manifest difierence. 
 
 from a multitude of unexceptionable testimo*- 
 nies,lthat Metropolitaji prelates, with a greater 
 number of inferior bishops imder their jurisdi(>: 
 tion, were estabU^ed at this time in the pro- 
 vinces of Casgar, Nuacheta, Turkest2in, Gen- 
 da, and Tangut;* from which we may con- 
 clude, that, in this and the following century, 
 a prodigious number of Christians lived in 
 those very countries which are at present over- 
 run with idolatry, or with the Mohammedan 
 errors. All these Christians were undoubtedly 
 Nestorians, and lived under the jurisdiction of 
 
 :* Marcus Paul. Venetus de Regionibus Orientali- 
 bus,Jib. i. cap. 38, 40, 45, 47, 48, 49, 62, 63, 64, lib. ii. 
 cap.'39.' — Euseb. Renaudot, Anciennes Relations des 
 Inde^ et de la Chine, p. 420.-rAssemani Biblioth. 
 Orielit. Vatican, torn. iii. part ii. p. 502, &c. The 
 successful propagation of the Gospel, by the ministry 
 of the Nestorians, in Tartary, China, and the neigh- 
 bouring provinces, is a most important event, and 
 every way worthy to employ the researches and the 
 pen of some able writer, well acquainted with ori- 
 ental history. It must, indeed, be acknowledged, 
 tliat, if this subject be important, it is also difficult 
 on many accounts. It was attempted, however, not- 
 withstanding its difficulty, by the most learned The. 
 oph. Sigefred Bayer, who had collected a great quan. 
 tity of materials relative to this interesting branch 
 of the history of Christianity, both from the works 
 that have been published upon this subject, and from 
 manuscripts that lie yet concealed in the cabinets of 
 the curious. But, unhappily for the republic of let- 
 ters, the death of that excellent man interrupted his 
 labours, 'and prevented him from executing a design, 
 which was worthy of his superior abilities, and his 
 well known zeal for the interests of religion. 
 
Chap. I. 
 
 PROSPEROUS EVENTS. 
 
 253 
 
 the patriarch of that sect, who resided in 
 Chaldsea. 
 
 II. Amon^ the European nations that lay 
 yet groveUirig in their native darkness and 
 superstition, were the Sclavonians, the Obo- 
 trlti,* the Venedi",t and the Prussians, whose 
 conversion had been attempted, but with little 
 or no success, by certain missionaries, from 
 whose piety and zeal better' frujts-might have 
 been expected. Toward the conclusion of the 
 preceding century, Adalbert, bishop of Prague, 
 had endeavoured to instil, into the minds of 
 the tierce and savage Prussiansj the salutary 
 doctrines of the Gospel; but he perished in the 
 fruitless attempt, ind received, in 996, from 
 the murdering lance of ,Siggo, a pagan priest, 
 the crown of martyrdom.J BolealaQs, king of. 
 Poland, revenged the death of thil pious apos- 
 tle by entering into a bloody war with the 
 Prussians; and he obtained, by the force of 
 penal laws and of a victorious army, what Adal- 
 bert could noteffect by exhortation and argu- 
 ment.§ He dragooned this savage people into 
 the Christian church; yet, beside this violent 
 method of conversion, others of a more gentle 
 kind were certainly practised by the attendants 
 of Boleslaus, who seconded the military argu- 
 ments of their prince by the more persuasive 
 influence of admonition and instruction. A 
 certain ecclesiastic of illustrious birth, whose 
 name was Boniface, arid who was one of the 
 disciples of St, Romuald, undertook the con- 
 version of the Prussians, and was succeeded in 
 this pious enterprize by Bruno, || who set out 
 from Germany with a company of eighteen 
 persons, who had entered with zeal into the 
 same laudable design. These ^^ere, however, 
 all barbarously massacred by the fierce and 
 cruel Prussians; and neither the vigorous e^ 
 forts of Boleslaus, nor of the succeeding kings 
 of Poland, could engage this rude and^ inflexi- 
 ble nation to abandon totally the idolatry of 
 their ancestors.lT 
 
 IIL Sicily had been groaning under the do- 
 minion of the Saracens from the ninth century; 
 nor had the repeated attempts of the Greeks 
 and Latins to dispossess them of that rich and 
 fertile country, been hitherto crowned with the 
 desired sudless. But in this century the face 
 of affairs changed entirely in that island; for, 
 in lOsS, Robert Guiacard, who had formed a 
 settlement in Italy, at the head of a Norman 
 
 (^ * The Obotriti were a great and "powerful 
 branch of the Vandala, whose kings resided in the 
 country of Mecklenburg, extending their dominion 
 along the coasts of the Baltic from the river Pene in 
 Pomerania to the duchy of Holsteinl 
 
 (^-fThe Venedi dwelt upon the banks of the 
 Weissel, or Vistula, in, what is at present called, 
 the Palatinate of Marienburg. 
 
 t See the Acta Sanctor. ad d. xxii. Aprilis, p. 174. 
 
 £ Soligriac's Hist, de Pologne, tom. i. p. 133. 
 
 g^ 11 Fleury differs from Dr. Mosheim in his ac- 
 count of BFuno, in two points. First, he maintains, 
 that Boniface and Briino were one and the same per- 
 son,. and here he is manifestly in the right; bat he 
 maintains farther, that he suffered martyrdom in 
 Russia, which is an evident mistake. It is proper 
 farther to admonish the reader to distinguish care- 
 fully the Bruno here mentioned, from a mdnk of the 
 same name, who founded the order of the Carthusi- 
 ans. 
 
 IT Ant. Pagi Critica in Baronium, torn. iv. ad an- 
 num 1008, p. 97.^-ChriBt. Hartknoch's Ecclesiastical 
 Bistory ofFrussia, book i. cha| i. 
 
 colony, and was afterwards created duke of 
 Apulia, encouraged by the exhortations of pope 
 Nicolas II., and seconded by the assistance of 
 his brother Roger, attacked with the greatest 
 vigour and intrepidity the SaraCens in Sicily; 
 nor did the latter chieftain sheath the victori- 
 ous sword before he had' rendered himself mas- 
 ter of that island, and cleared it absolutely of 
 its former tyrants. As soon as this great work 
 was accomplished, which was not before the 
 year 1090, count Roger not only restored to 
 its former glory and lustre the Christian reli- 
 gion, which had been almost totally extin- 
 guished under the Saracen yoke, but also es- 
 tablished bishoprics, founded monasteries, 
 erected magniiicent churches throughout that 
 province, and bestowed upon the clergy those 
 distinguished honours which they still enjoy * 
 It is in the privileges conferred upon this vali- 
 ant chief, that we find the origin of that su- 
 preme authority in matters of religion, which 
 is still veste'd in the kings of Sicily, within the 
 limits of their own territories, and which is 
 known by the- name of the Sicilian monarchy; 
 for pope Urban II. is said to have granted,, in 
 1097, by a special diploma, to Roger and his 
 successors, the title, authority, and preroga- 
 tives, of hereditary legates of the apostolic see. 
 Thecourt of Rome- affirms, that this diploma 
 is not authentic; and hence warm contentions, 
 about the spiritual supremacy, have arisen 
 even in our times between the popes and the 
 kings of Sicily. The successors of Roger go- 
 verned that island, under the title of dul^s, 
 until the twelfth centiuy, when it was erected 
 into a kingdom.f 
 
 IV.- The pontiffs, from the time of Sylvester 
 II., had been forming plans for fixtending the 
 limits of the church in Asia, and especially for 
 driving the Moslems out of Palestine; but the 
 troubles in which Europe was so long involved, 
 prevented the execution of these arduous de- . 
 signs. Gregory VII., the most enterprizing 
 and audacious priest that ever sat in the apos- 
 tolic chair, animated and inflamed by the re- 
 peated complaints which the 4^siatic Chris- 
 tians made of the cruelty of the Saracens, re- 
 solved to undertake in person a iioly war for 
 the deliverance of the chm-ch; and above fitly 
 thousand men were speedily mustered to follow 
 him in this bold expedition-j But his quarrel 
 with the emperor Henry IV., of which we 
 shall have occasion to speak hereafter, and 
 other unforeseen nccurr«nces, obliged him to 
 relinquish a personal invasion of the holy land. 
 The project, however, was i;eiiewed toward 
 the conclusion of this century, by the enthusi- 
 astic zeal of an inhabitant of Amiensli who was^ 
 known by the name of Peter the Hermit, and 
 who suggested to Urban II. the means of ac- 
 complishing what had been unfortunately sus- 
 pended. This famous hermit, in a journey, 
 which he had made through Palestine in i093, 
 had observed, with inexpressible anguish, the 
 vexations and persecutions which the Chris- 
 
 * Sec Burigni's Histoiie Generale de la Sicile, torn, 
 i. p. 386. 
 
 f See Barohli Liber de Monarchia Sicilis, torn. xi. 
 Annal.; as also the Traite-de-la Monarchie Sicili- 
 enne, by M. Du-Pin. 
 
 X Gregorii VII. Epist. lib. it. 3, in Harduini CoD- 
 cil. torn. vi. 
 
254 
 
 EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Fart 1. 
 
 tians, who visited the holy places, suffered 
 from the barbarous and tyrannic Saracens. In- 
 flamed therefore with a holy indignation and 
 a fiirious zeal, which he looked upon as the 
 effects 9f a divine impulse, he implored the 
 assistance of Simeon, patriarch of Constanti; 
 . nople, and also of the pope, but without ef- 
 fect. Far from being discouraged by this, he 
 renewed Ms efforts with the utmost vigour, 
 went through all the countries of Europe 
 sounding the«alarm of the holy war against the 
 infidel nations, and exhorting all Christian 
 princes to draw the sword against the tyrants 
 of Palestine^ nor did he stop here; but, with a 
 view to engage the superstitious and ignorant 
 multitude in his cause, he carried about with 
 him a._ letter, which he said was written in 
 heaven, and addressed- to all true Christians, 
 to animate their zeal for the deUverance of 
 their brethren, who groaned under the oppres- 
 sive burthen of a Mohammedan yoke.* 
 
 V. When Urban saw the way prepared by 
 tlie exhortations of the hermit, who had put 
 the spirits of the people every where in a fer- 
 ment, and hkd kindled in theirTareasts a vehe- 
 ment zeal for that holy carnage which the 
 church had been so long meditating, he as- 
 sembled a grand and numerous council at Pla- 
 centia, in 1095, and recommended warmly, for 
 the first time, the sacred expedition against 
 the Saracens.^ This arduous enterprize was 
 fej from being approved by the greatest part 
 of this, numerous assembly, notwithstanding 
 the presepce of -the emperor's legates, who, in 
 their master's name, represented most patheti- 
 cally how necessary it was to set limits to the 
 power of the victorious infidels, whose autho- 
 rity and dominion increased from day to jlay. 
 The pontiff's proposal was, however, renewed 
 with tlie same zeal, and witli the' desired' suc- 
 cess, some time after this, in the council as- 
 sembled at Clerm(jnt, where Urban was pre- 
 sent. The pompous and pathetic speech 
 which he delivered on this occasion, made a 
 deep and powerful impression upon the minds 
 of the French, whose natural character renders 
 them much superior to the Italians in encoun- 
 tering difficulties, ^cing danger, and attempt- 
 ing the execution of the most perilous designs: 
 so that an innumerable multitude, composed 
 of all ranks and orders in the nation, offered 
 themselves as yolunteers in this sacred expedi- 
 tion.]; This numerous host was looked upon 
 as formidable in the highest degree, and equal 
 to the most glorious enterprizes and exploits, 
 while, in reality, it -was no more than an un- 
 wieldy body without life and vigour, and was 
 weak and contemptible in every respect. This 
 will appear sufficiently evident when we con- 
 
 * This circurastaQCe is mentioned by the abbot 
 Dodechinus, m his. Continual. Chronici Mariani 
 Seoti, apud Scriptores Germ'anicos Jo. Pistorii, torn. 
 J. p. 403. For an account of Peter, see Du-Presne's 
 aotes upon the Alexias of Anna Comnena. 
 
 Qt^ t This council was the most numerous of any 
 that bad.beea hitherto assembled, and was, on that 
 account, holden in the open fields. There were pre- 
 sent at it two hundred bishops, four thousand eccle- 
 siastics, and three hundred thousand laymen. 
 
 I Theod. Ruinart. -in Vit. T3rbani II. sect, ccxiv. 
 p. 334, 239, 240, 272, &e. torn, iii, cp. posthum. Ma- 
 Dilloni et Ruinarti. — Jo. Harduiiii Concilia, torn. xi. 
 nart ii. p^ 1726.— Baron. Annal. Ecclf's. torn. xi. ad 
 annum 1095, n. xxxii. p. 643. 
 
 sider that this army was a motley assemhlage 
 of inonks, prostitutes, artists, labourers, lazy 
 tradesmen, merchants, boys, girls, slaves, male- 
 factors, and profligate debauchees,' and that it 
 was principally composed of the lowest dregp of 
 the multitude, who were animated solely by 
 the prospect of spoil and plunder, and hoped to 
 make their fortunes by this holy campaign. 
 Every one will perceive how little discipline, 
 counsel, or fortitude, were to be expected from 
 such a miserable rabble. This expedition was 
 distinguished, in the French language, by the 
 name of croisade, and all who embarked in it 
 were called- cj'OMfiS,'crowords, or cross-hearers, 
 not only because the end of ^this holy war was 
 to wrest the cross of Christ out of the hands 
 of the infidels, but also on account of the con- 
 secrated cross of various colours, which every 
 soldier wore upon his right shoulder.* ~ 
 
 VI. In consequence of these grand prepara- 
 tions, eight hundred thousand men, in separate 
 bodies, and under different commanders, set 
 out for Constantinople, in 1096, that, after re- 
 ceiving both assistance and direction from 
 Alexis Comnenius the Grecian emperor, they 
 might pursue their march intoAsia. One of 
 the principal divisions of this great body march- 
 ed under the guidance of Peter the Hermit, 
 the author and fomenter of the war, who was 
 girded with a rope, and continued to appear 
 with all the marks of an austere solitary. The 
 adventurers who composed this first division 
 committed the most flagitious crimes, which 
 so incensed the inhabitants of the countries 
 through which they passed, particularly those 
 of Hungary and Bulgaria, that they rose up ii^ 
 arms and massacred the. greatest part of them. 
 A like fate attended several other divisions of 
 the same army, who, under the conduct of 
 weak and unskilful chiefs, wandered about like 
 an imdisciphned band of robbers, plundering 
 the "cities that lay in their way, and spreading 
 misery and desolation wherever they came. 
 The armies that were headed by illustrious 
 commanders, distinguished by their birth and 
 their military endowments, arrived more hap- 
 pily at the capital of the Grecian empire. 
 That which was commanded by Godfrey of 
 Bouillon, dufcfe of Lorraine, who*deserves a 
 place among the greatest heroes, whether of 
 ancient or modern times,"f and by his brother 
 Baldwin, was composed of eighty thousand 
 well chosen troops, horse and foot,]: and di- 
 
 * See Abrah. Bzovius, Continaat. Annal. Baronii. 
 torn. XV. ad annum 1410, n. ix. p. 333, edit. COlon.-.- 
 L'Enfant, Histoire du Concile de Pise, torn. ii. lib. v. 
 p. 60. — The* writers who have treated of this holy 
 war are mentioned by Jo. Alb. Fabricius, in his Lux 
 Evangelii toto Orbe exoriens, cap. xxx. p.",518. 
 
 t The Benedictine"" monks have given an ample 
 account" of this magnanimous chief, whose character 
 was a bright assemblage of all Christian, civil, and 
 heroic virtues, in their Histoire Literaire de la 
 Prance, tom. viil. p. 598. 
 
 .Qt?" X The engaging and illustrious virtues of God- 
 frey had drawn from all parts a prodigious number 
 of volunteers, who were ambitious to fight under his 
 standard. The magnitude of this host, however, 
 perplexed the valiant chief, who, on that account, 
 divided it into several bodies, and, finding in Peter 
 the Hermit the same ambitious and military spirit 
 that had prevailed in him before liis retreat from the 
 world, declared him the general of the first division, 
 which was detached from the rest, and ordered tu 
 march immediately to Constaptinople. By thia incft 
 
Chap. I. 
 
 PROSPEROUS EVENTS. 
 
 255 
 
 reoted its march through Grermany snd Hun- 
 gary. Another host, which was headed hy 
 Raymond, earl of Toulouse, passed through 
 the Solavonian territories. Robert, earl of 
 Flanders, Robert, duke of Normandy,* Hugh, 
 brother to Philip I. king of France, embarked 
 tlieir respective forces in a fleet which was as- 
 sembled at Brundisi and Tarento, whence they 
 were transported to Durazzo, or Dyrrhaohium, 
 as it was anciently called. These armies were 
 followed' by Boemond, duke of Apulia and 
 Calabria, at the head of a chosen and numer.^ 
 ous body of valiant Normans. 
 
 VII. This army Was the greatest, and, in 
 outward appearance, the most formidable, that 
 had been known in the memory of man; and 
 thouglij before its arrival at Constantinople, it 
 was diminished considerably by the difficulties 
 and oppositions it had met with on the way, 
 yet, such as it was, it made the Grecian em- 
 peror tremble, and filled his mind with the 
 most anxious and terrible apprehensions of 
 some secret design against his dominions. His 
 fears, however, were dispelled, wheh he saw 
 these Regions pass the straits of Gallipolis, and 
 direct their march toward Bithynia.t 
 
 The first successful enterprize,J that was 
 formed against the infidels, -was tlie siege of 
 Nice, the capital of Bithynia, which was talced 
 in 1097; thence the victorious army proceeded 
 into Syria, and in the following year subdued 
 Antioch, which, with its fertile territory, was 
 granted, by the- assembled chiefe, to Boemond, 
 duke of Apulia. Edessa fell next into the 
 hands of the victors, and became the property 
 of Baldwin, brother to Godfrey of Bouillon. 
 The conquest of Jerusalem, which, after a 
 siege of five weelts, submitted to their arms in 
 
 sure Godfrey freed himself from the dregs of that as- 
 tonisMng i;aultitude which flocked to his camjl. 
 'FatherJvlalmhourg, notwithstaiidiiig his immoderate 
 zeal for tHe holy war, and that fabulous turn which 
 enabled him to represent it in the most favourable 
 points of view, acknowledges franEly, that the first 
 divisions of this prodigious army committed the 
 most ahominable enormities in the couittries through 
 which they passed, and that there was no kind of 
 ijisolence, injustice, impurity, barbarity, and vio- 
 lence, of whichithey were not guilty. Nothing per- 
 haps in the annals of iiistory can equal the flagitious 
 deeds of this infernal rabble.' See particularly Maim- 
 bourg, Histoire des Croisades, tom. i.- liv. i. p. 57, 58. 
 59, 60, 61, 62, second edit- in 12mo. 
 
 Ot^ * Eldest son of William the Conqueror. 
 
 9(^ -f Our author, ibr the sake of*, brevity, passes 
 over the contests and-jealousies, that subsisted be' 
 tween the chief of the crusade and the Grecian em 
 peror. The character of the latter is diflferently 
 painted by different ]^istorians. The warm defend- 
 ers of the cri^sade. represent him as a most perfidious 
 prince, who, under the show of friendship and zeal, 
 aimed at the destruction of Godfrey's army. Others 
 consider him as a wise, prudent politician, who, by 
 artifice and stratagem, warded ofl'the danger he had 
 reason to apprehend from the formidable legions that 
 passed through his: dominions; and part of which, 
 particularly the army commanded by Peter the Her- 
 mit, ravaged his most- fruitful teri-itories in the most 
 barbarous manner, and pillaged even the suburbs of 
 the capital of-the empire. The truth of the matter 
 is, that, if Alexis cannot be vindicated from the 
 charge of peffidy, the holy warriors are, on the other 
 hand, chargeable with many acts of brutality and 
 injustice. See Maimbourg, Histoire des Croisades, 
 livre' i. et ii. ' _ 
 
 (jg- % Before the arrival of Godfrey in Asia, the 
 - army, or rather rabble, commanded by Peter the 
 Hermit in such a ridiculous- manner as might be ex- 
 pected from a wrong-headed monk, received a ruin- 
 ous defeat from the young Soliman. 
 
 1099, seemed to crown their expedition with 
 the desired success. In this city were, laid the 
 foundations of a new kingdom, -at the head of 
 which was placed the famous Godfrey, whom 
 the army saluted' king of Jerusalem ■with an 
 una.nimous voice. 
 
 But this illustrious hero, whose other emi- 
 nent qualities were adorned with the greatest 
 modesty, refused that high title,* though ho 
 governed Jerusalem with that valour, equity, 
 and prudence, which have rendered his name 
 immortal. Having chosen a small army to 
 support him in his new dignity, he permitted 
 the rest of the troops to return into Europe. 
 He did not, however, long enjoy the fruits of a 
 victory; in which his heroic valour had been 
 so gloriously displayed, but died about a year 
 after the -conquest of Jerusalem, leaving his 
 dominions to his brother Baldwin, prince of 
 Edessa, who assumed the title of king without 
 the least hesitation. 
 
 VIII. If we examine the motives that en- 
 gaged the popes, more particularly Urban H., 
 to kindle this holy war, which in its progress 
 and issue was so detrimental to almost all the 
 countries of Europe, we shall probably be per- 
 suaded that its origin is to be derived from the 
 corriipt notions of religion. Which prevailed in 
 those barbarous times. It was thought incon- 
 sistent with the duly and character of Chris- 
 tians, to suffer tha.t land- which was blessed 
 with the ministry, distinguished by the mira- 
 cles, and consecrated by the blood of the Sa- 
 viour of men, to remain under the dominion 
 of his most inveterate enemies. It was also 
 deemed a very important branch of true piety 
 to visit the holy places in Palestine; but such pe- 
 regrinations were extremely dangerous, while 
 the despotic Saracens were in possession of 
 that country. Nor is it to be. denied, that 
 these motives of a religious kind were accom- 
 panied and rendered more effectual by an 
 anxious apprehension of the glowing power 
 of the Tories, who had already subdued the - 
 greatest part of the Grecian empire, and might 
 soon carry into Europe, and more particularly 
 into Italy, their victorious -arms.. 
 
 There are, it must be confessed, several 
 learned men who have accounted otherwise 
 for this pious, or rather fanatical, expedition. 
 They imagine that the Roman pontiffs recom- 
 mended this sacred campaign with a view of 
 augmenting their own authority, and weaken- 
 ing the power of the Latin emperors and 
 princes; and that these princes countenanced 
 and encouraged it in hopes of getting rid, by 
 that , measure, of their powerful and warlike 
 vassals, and of becoming masters of their 
 lands and possessions-t These conjectures, 
 
 X0=- * All the historians, who have written of this 
 holy war^ applaud the answer which Godfrey re- 
 turned to the ofi'er -that was made him of a crown 
 of gold, as a mark of his accession to the throne of 
 Jerusalem; the answer was, that " he could not beat 
 " the thought of wearing a crown of gold in that 
 " city, where the King of kings had been crowned 
 "with thorns." This answer was sublime in the 
 eleventh century, 
 
 t The part of this hypothesis, that relates to the 
 views of the Roman pontifis, has been adopted as an 
 undoubted truth,- not only by many protestant histo- 
 rians, hut also by- .several writers of the Romish 
 communion. See Bened. Accoltus de hello Sacro in 
 
256 
 
 EXTERNAL fflSTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part L 
 
 however plausible in appearance, are still no 
 more than conjectures. The truth seems to 
 be thisj that, the pope and the European 
 princes were engaged at first in these criisades 
 by a principle of superstition only; but when, 
 
 Infideles, lib i. p. 16.— Basnage, Histoire des Egli- 
 ses Reformees, torn. i. period, v. p. 235.— Vertot, His- 
 toire des Chevaliers de Maltha, torn. i. liv. iii. p. 
 302, 308; liv. iv. p. 428.--fiaillet, Histoire des Deme- 
 lez de Boniface VIIJ. avec Philippe le Bel^ p. 76.— 
 Histoire du Droit Ecclesiastique Francois, torn* i. p. 
 296, 399. To such, however, as consider matters at- 
 tentively, this hypothesis will appear destitute of any 
 solid foundation. Certain it is, thai: the pontiffs could 
 never have either foreseen, or imagined, that so 
 many European princes, and such prodigious multi- 
 tudes of people, would take arms against the infi- 
 dels, and march into Palestine; nor could they -be 
 assured before-hand, that this expedition would tend 
 to the advancement of their opulence and authority; 
 for all the accessions of influence and wealth, which 
 the popes, and the clergy jn general, derived from 
 these holy wars, were of a .much latfer date than 
 their origin, and were acquired by degrees, rather 
 by lucky hits, than by 4eep-laid schemes; and this 
 alone is sufficient to show, that the pontiffi, in form- 
 ing the plan, and exhorting to the prosecution of 
 these wars, had no thoughts of extending thereby 
 the limits of their authority. We may add, to fhis 
 consideration, another of no lees weight in'the mat- 
 ter before us; and thatis the general opinion- which 
 prevailed- at this .tinie, both among the clergy and 
 the people, that the conquest of Palestine would be 
 finished in a short time, ip. a single cqippaign; that 
 the Divine Providence'would interpose, in ti--mira- 
 culous manner, to accomplish the- ruin of the infi- 
 dels; and that, after the taking of Jerusalem,'the 
 greatest part of the -European princes >vould return 
 home with their troops, which last circumstance 
 was by no means favourable to the views. which the 
 popes are supposed to have formed of increasing their 
 opulence and extending their dominion. Of all the 
 conjectures that have been, entertamed upon this 
 fliibject, the most improhable find groundless is that 
 which supposes that Urban 11, recommended, with 
 such ardour, this expedition into Palestine, with a 
 view of weakening the power of the emperor Henry- 
 ly. with whom he had a violent dispute concerning 
 the investiture of bishops. They who -adopt this 
 conjecture, must be little acquainted with ^he his- 
 tory of these times; or at least they forget, that the 
 first armies that marched into Palestine against the 
 infidels, were chiefly composed of Pranks and Nor- 
 mans, and that the Germans, who were the enemies 
 of Urban II., were,' in the beginning, extremely 
 averse to this sacred expedition. Many other con- 
 siderations might be added to illustrate this matter, 
 which, for the sake of brevity, I pass in silence. 
 
 That part of.the hypothesis, which relates to the 
 kings apd princes of Europe, and supposes that they 
 countenanced the holy war to get rid of their pow; 
 erful vassals, is as grou:^dless as the other, which we 
 have been now refuting. It is, indeed, adopted by- 
 several eminent writers, such as Vertot. (Hist, de 
 Malthe, liv. iii. p. 309,) Boulainvilliers, and others, 
 'who pretend to a superior and uncommon insight 
 into the policy of-these remote ages^. The reasons, 
 however, which these great men employed to sup- 
 port their opinion^ may be all comprehended in tfyis 
 Bingle argument, viz. "Many kings^ especially 
 "among the Pranks, became more opulent and pow- 
 " erfulby the number of theirrvassals, who lost their 
 "lives and fortunes in this holy war; i therefore, 
 " these princes not only, permitted, but warmly 
 "countenanced the prosecution of this war from 
 " selfish and ambitious principles." The weakness 
 of this conclusion must strike every one at first 
 sight.' We are wonderfully prope to attribute both 
 to the Roman -pontiffs, and totheprinces of this bar- 
 barous ■age4 much more sagacity and cunning than 
 they really -possessed; and we deduce from the 
 events the principles and views of the actors, which 
 is a defective and uncertain manner of reasoning. 
 With respect to the pontiffs, it appears most proba- 
 nle that theirMmmense opulence and authority were 
 acquired,' rather by their improving dexterously the 
 opportunities that were offered to them, than by the 
 schemes they had formed for extending their domi- 
 nion, or filling their coffers. I 
 
 in process of time, they learned by experience, 
 that these holy wars contributed much to in- 
 crease their opulenpe and to extend their au- 
 thority, by sacrificing their wealthy and pow- 
 erful rivals, new motives were presented to 
 encourage these expeditions into Palestine, 
 and ambition and avarice seconded and en- 
 forced the dictates of fanaticism and supersti- 
 tion. 
 
 IX. Without determining any thing con- 
 cerning the justice or injustice* of. these wars', 
 
 * I do not pretend to decide the question concerning 
 the lawfulness of the crusades; a question which, 
 when it is considered with attention and impartial 
 lity, will appear not only extremely difficult, but also 
 highly doubtful. It is, however, proper to inform the 
 re^ader, that in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries 
 the justice of this holy war was called in question 
 and warmly disputed among Christians. The Wal- 
 denses and Alblgenses, who were distinguished. by 
 the name of CatHari, or Puritans, considered these 
 expeditions into Palestine as absolutejy. unlawful. 
 The reasons they alleged were collected and com- 
 bated by Fraricis Moneta, a Dominican friar of the 
 thirteenth century, in a book entitled Summa contra 
 Catharos <t Waldenses, lib. v. cap. xiii. p. 531., 
 which was j^ublished at Rome by Riccini. But nei- 
 ther the objections of the Waldenses, nor the an- 
 swers of Moneta, were at all remarkable for their 
 weight and solidity, as will .appear evidently from 
 the following examples. The former alleged, against 
 the holy war, the words of St. Paul, 1 Cor. x. 32. 
 " Give none offence; neither to the Jews nor to the 
 "Gentiles." By the Gentiles, said they, are to be 
 understood the Saracens. Aod therefore the Euro- 
 pean Christians are to abstain from making war 
 upon the Saracens, lest they give offence to the Gen- 
 tiles. We shall give Moneta's answer to this argu- 
 ment in his own words; "We read," says he, Gen. 
 xii..7, " that God said unto Abraham, Unto thy seed 
 "will I give this land:" Now we (Christians, who 
 dwell in Europe) are the seed of Abraham, as the 
 apostle affirms, Galat. iii. 29; Therefore we are 
 heirs of the promise, and the holy land isgiven to us 
 by the covenant as our lawful possession. Hence it 
 appears, that it is the duty of civil and temporal rul- 
 ers to use their n>ost zealous efforts to put us in pos- 
 session of the promised land, while it "is, at the same 
 time, incumbent upon the church and its ministers 
 to exhort these rulers in the most, urgent manner to 
 the performance of their duty. A rare argument this 
 truly! but let us hear him out. " The church has no 
 design to injure or slaughter the Saracens, nor is 
 such the intention of the Christian princes engaged 
 in this war. Yet the blood of the infidels must of 
 necessity be shed, if they make resistance and op- 
 pose the victorious arms of the princes. The church 
 of God therefore is entirely innocent and without 
 reproach fii this matter, and gives no ofifence to the 
 Gentiles, because it does no more, in reality, than 
 maintain its undoubted right." Such is the subtile 
 reasoning of Moneta, on which It is not necessary 
 to make any reflections. ^ 
 
 (tt^ Dr. Mosheim seems too modest, and even 
 timorous in his manner of arraigning the justice of 
 this holy war, which was so absurd in its principle, 
 and so abominable in the odious circumstances that 
 attended it. His respect, perhaps, for the Teutonic 
 crosses which abound in Germany, and are the_ 
 unarks of an order that derives its origin from these 
 fanatical expeditions into Palestine, may have occa- 
 sioned that ambiguity and circumspection in his ex- 
 pressions, through which, however, it is easy to 
 perceive his disapprobation of the crusades. The 
 holy place profaned by the dominion of infidels, was 
 -the apparent pretext for this fanatical war. What 
 holy place? Jerusalem, say the knights errant of Pa- 
 lestine. But they forget that Jerusalem was a city 
 which, by the. conduct of its inhabitants and the 
 crucifixion of Christ, had become most odious in the 
 eye of God; that it was visibly loaded with a divine 
 malediction, and was the miserable theatre of the 
 most tremendous judgments and calamities that ever 
 were inflicted upon any nation. Had the case been 
 otherwise, we know of no right which Christianity 
 gives its ptofessors to seize the territories, and in- 
 vade the possessions of unbelievers. Had the Jews 
 
CpAP. 1. 
 
 PROSPEROUS EVENTS. 
 
 257 
 
 we may boldJy affirm, that, they wej-e highly 
 prejudicial, both to the cause of religion, and 
 to the civil interests of nmnkind; and that, in 
 Europe more especially, they occasioned innu- 
 merable evils and calamities^ the effects of 
 which are yet perceptible in our times. The 
 European nations were deprived of the great- 
 est part of their inhabitants by tliese ill-judged 
 expeditions; immense sums of money were ex- 
 
 , ported info Asia for the support of the war; 
 and numbers of the most powerfiil and opulent 
 families either became extinct, or were in- 
 volved in the deepest miseries of poverty and 
 want. It could not easily be otherwise, since 
 the heads of the most, illustrious houses either 
 mortgaged or sold their lances and possessions 
 in order to pay the expenses of their voyage,* 
 ^hile others imposed such intolerable burthens 
 upon their vassals and tenants, as obliged- them 
 toabandon their houses and ail theirdomestjc 
 concerns, and to enlist themselves, rather 
 through wild despair than religious zeal, under 
 the sacred banner of the cross. Hence the 
 fece of Europe, was totally changed;- and all 
 things were thrown into the utmost confusion. 
 We pass in silence the various enormities that 
 were occasioned by these crusades, the-mur- 
 ders, rapes, and robberies of the jnost infernal 
 nature, that were every where committed with 
 impunity by these holy soldiers of God and of 
 Christ, as they were impiously called; nor 
 ghallwe enter- into a detaiiof the new privi- 
 leges and rights, to which these ware gave rise, 
 mid which Were often attended with the great 
 est incohveniences.t 
 
 - X. These holy wars were not less prejudicial 
 to the cause of -religion, and the true interests 
 of the Christian church, than they-Were to the 
 temporal concerns Of men. One of, their first 
 
 attempted the conquest of Palestine,"' they would 
 have acted conformably with their apparent rights, 
 "because it was formerly their country: and consist- 
 ently also with their religious principles, because 
 they expected a Messiah who was to bind- the kmg^- 
 of the. Gentiles in chains, and to" reduce the whole 
 world under the Jewish yoke. ~ 
 , *yVe findjnanymemorable«xamples of this in the 
 ancient records. Robert, duke of Normandy; mort- 
 ga-ged his duchy to his brother William king of-Eng- 
 land to defray the expejises of his voyage to Pales- 
 tine. See theHistor. Major of Matthew ■Paris,,lib.i. 
 p. 24.— Odo, viscount of Bourges, sold his territory 
 to- the king of France. Gallia Christiana Benedicti-- 
 norum, torn. ii. p. 45. See, for many examples of this 
 kind. Car. du Fresne, Adnot. ad Joinvillii Vitam 
 Ludovici S. p. 52.— Boulainvilliers sur I'Origine et 
 les Droits de la Noblesse, in Molet> Memoires de 
 Literature et (Je I'Histoire, torn. Ix. part i. p. 68.— Jo. 
 . George Cramer, de Juribus et Prsrogativis Nobilita- 
 - tia;,fpm'. i.'p. 81, 409. From the commencement ttare- 
 ' fore of these holy wars, a vast number tjf estates," 
 belonging to the European nobility, were either 
 mortgaged, or totally transferred, some to kings and 
 princes, others to priests and monks, and not a few 
 to persons of a private condition, wlio, by possessing 
 considerable sums of ready money, wer^ -enabled to 
 make advantageous purchases. , - ; 
 
 - t Such persons as entered into these expeditions,, 
 and were distinguished by- the badge of tlife military 
 cross, acquired thereby certain remarkable rights, 
 which were extremely prejudicial to the rest of their 
 fellow-citizens. Hence it happened, that when any 
 of these holy soldiers, contracted any civil obliga- 
 tions or entered into conventions of sale^ purchase, 
 or aiiy such" transactions, they were previously re- 
 nuired to renounce all privileges and immunities, 
 which they had obtained, or might obtain m time to 
 come, by assuming the cross. See Le Bffiuf, Memoires 
 sur I'Histoire d'Auxerre Append, tom^ii. p. MZ. - 
 Vol. I.— 33 
 
 and most pernicipus eifects was the enormous 
 augmentation of the influence and authority 
 of the Roman pontiffs : they also contributed, 
 in various ways, to etirich the churches and 
 monasteries with daily accessions of wealth, 
 and to open new sources of opulence to all the 
 sacerdotal orders. For they, who assumed the 
 cross, disposed' of their possessions as if they 
 were at the' point of death, on account of , the 
 great aiid innumerable dangers to which, they 
 were to be exposed in their passage to the holy 
 land, and the opposition ^;hey were' to encoun- 
 ter there upon their arrival.* They therefore, 
 for the most part, made their \yills before their 
 departure, and left a considerable part of their 
 possessions to the priests and mgnks, in order 
 to obtain, by these jAous legacies, the favor and 
 protection of the Deity.j Many examples of 
 thiese donations are to be found in ancient re- 
 cords. Such of the holy soldiers, fis had been 
 fengaged in suits of law with the priests or 
 monks, renounced their pretensipns, and sub- 
 missively gave up whatever it was that had 
 been the subject of debate ; and (rthers, who 
 had seized aiiy of the possessions of the church- 
 es or convents, or had heard of any injury that 
 had been committed against, the clergy by the 
 remotest of their ancestors, made the most li- 
 beral restitution, .both for their own usurpa- 
 tions and those of their forefathers, and made 
 ample satisfaction, for the real or pretended ifi- 
 juries committed against the 'church, by -rich 
 and costly donations.| ," ' 
 
 Nor were these the only unhappy effects of 
 these holy expeditions, considered with respect 
 to tlieir influence . upon the state of religion, 
 and, the affairs of the " Christian church; for, 
 while whole legions of bishops and, abbots 
 girded the sword to the thigh, and werit as ge- 
 nerals, volunteers, or chaplains into Palestine, 
 •the priests and monks, who had lived under 
 their jurisdiction, and were more or less awed 
 by their authority, threw oflF all restraint, led 
 the mostlawless and profligate livgS, and aban- 
 doned themselves to all- sorts oriicentigusness, 
 committing the most, flagitious and extrava- 
 gant excesses without reluctance or remorse. 
 The monster superstition, which "w^as ' already 
 grown to an enormous size, received- new ac- 
 ce^ions of strength and influence from this holy 
 'war, and exercised with greater - vehemence 
 than ever its despotic dominion over the minds 
 of the l,atins. To the crowd of saints and 
 tutelar patrons, whose number was prodigious 
 before this .period, were now added many fic- 
 titious saints of Greek and Syrian origin,| 
 
 g^ *-The translator has iiere inserted, in the "text, 
 the note (r) of the'origlnal, as it is purely historical, 
 and makes an interesting part of the narration." 
 
 t See Plessis, Hist, de" Meanx, toift. ii. p. TO, 79, 
 14L—!SalIia ' Christiana, torn: ii. p. 138, 139. — Le 
 BOBUf, Append, p. 31.— Du Fresiie, Notae ad Vitam 
 Ludovici Sancti;, p. 52. 
 , t Du-Fresne, .p...52. 
 
 I The" Eoroan Catholic historians acknowledge, 
 that, during the time of the crusades, many saints, 
 unknown to the Latins before that period, were im. 
 .ported into Europe from Greece and the eastern pro- 
 vinces, and were treated with the utmost respect 
 and the most devout veneration. Among these new 
 patrons, there' were some, whose exploits and even 
 existence are 'called in question. Such, among others, 
 was St. Catherine, whom Baronius and Cassander 
 represent as bavins remttvedfrom Syria into Els- 
 
258 
 
 EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.' 
 
 Part I. 
 
 hitherto unknown in Europe; and an incredir 
 bie quantity of relics, the greatest part of which 
 were ridiculous in the highest degree, were 
 imported into the European churches. The 
 armies, that returned from Asia after the 
 taking of Jerusalem, hrought with them a vast 
 number of these saintly relics, which they had 
 bought at a high price from the "Crafty Greeks 
 and Syrians, and which th^ considered as the 
 noblest spoils that could crown their return 
 from the holy land. These they committed to 
 the custody of the clergy in the churches and 
 monasteries, or ordered them to be most care- 
 fully preserved in their families from one ge- 
 neration to another.* 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Concerning the CalamUous Events that happened 
 
 to the Church during this Century. 
 
 I. The greatest opposition that Christians 
 met with, in this century, was from the Sara- 
 cens and Turlis. To the latter the Christians 
 and Saracens were equally odious, and felt 
 equaDy the fatal consequences of their increas- 
 ing dominion. The Saracens, notwithstandmg 
 their bloody contests with the Turks, which 
 gave them constant occupation, and the vigor- 
 ous, though ineffectual efforts they were con- 
 tinually making to set limits to tlie power of 
 
 rope. See Baronius, adMartyrol. Roman, p. 728. — 
 George Cassander, Schol. ad Hymuos Eccleslffi. It is 
 extremely doubtful, .whether this Catherine, who is 
 honoured as the patroness of learned men, "ever ex- 
 iated. 
 
 * The sacred treasures of musty reHcs which the 
 French, Germans, Britons, and other 33uropean na- 
 tions, preserved formerly with so much care, and 
 show even in our times With such pious ostentation, 
 are certainly not more ancient than these holy 
 war«, but were then purchased at a high rate from' 
 the Greeks and Syrians. These cunning traders in 
 superstition, whose" avarice and ftaud were exces- 
 sive, frequently imposed upon the credulity of the 
 simple and'ignorant Latins, by the sale of fictitious 
 relics. Richard, king of England, bought in 1191, 
 from the fanjoirs Saladin, all the relics that were to 
 he found in Jerusalem, as appears from the testimony 
 of Matthew Paris, who tells us also, that the Domi- 
 nicans brought from Palestine a white stone, in 
 Which "Jesus Christ had left the print of his feet. The 
 Genoese pretended to have received from Baldwin, 
 second king of Jerusalem, the very dish in which the 
 paschal lamb was 'served up to Christ and his disci- 
 ples at the last supper;' -though this famous dish ex-" 
 eites the laughter of even father Labat, in his Voy- 
 ages en Espagne 'et en Italic, torn. ii. For an ac- 
 count of the prodigous quantity, of relics, which St. 
 Louis brought from Palestine into France, we refer 
 the reader to the life of that prince composed by 
 Joinville, and published by Du-Fresne; as also to 
 Plessis, Histoire de TEglise de Meaux, tom. i. p. 120; 
 and Lancelot, Memoires pour la "Vie de I'Abbe de 
 St. Cyran, tom. i. p. 175. Christ's handkerchief, 
 which is worshipped at Besancon, was brought 
 thither from the holy land. See J. Jaques Chiflet, 
 Visontio, part ii. p. 108; and de Linteis Christi Se- 
 pulchralibus, c. 5x. p. 50. Many other examples of 
 this miserable superstition m.ay be' seen in Anton. 
 Matthsi Analecta veteris .^vi,-tom. ii. p. 677. — Jo.' 
 Mabillon, Annah Bened. tom. vi. p.-52; and princi- 
 pally Chiflet's -Crisis Historica de Linteis Christi Se- 
 pulchralibus, c. ix. x. p. -50, and also 59, where we 
 fin-d the following passage:," Sciendum est, vigente 
 •' immani et barbara Turcarum persecutione, et im. 
 *' minente Christians religionis in oriente naufra- 
 " gio, educta a sacrariis et per Christianos quovis 
 " modo recondita ecclesiarum ptgnora. — Hisce plane 
 ' divinis opi6us illecti prie aliis, sacra Aeii^»i>« qua 
 *' vi, qua pretio, a" detineutibus hac iliac extorse. 
 " mat." 
 
 that fierce' nation, which was daily extending 
 the bounds of its empire, persisted in their 
 cruelty toward their Christian subjects, whom 
 they robbed, plundered, maimed, or murdered 
 in the most barbarous manner, and loaded 
 with all sorts of ihjturies and calamities. The 
 Turks, on the other hand, not only reduced 
 the Saracen dominion to very narrow bounds, 
 but, also seized the richest provinces of the 
 Grecian empire, the fertile countries situated 
 upon the coasts of the Euxine sea, and subject- 
 ed them to their yoke, while they impoverished 
 and exhausted the rest by perpetual incursion's, 
 and by the most severe and unmerciful exac- 
 tions. The Greeks were not abie to oppose 
 this impetuous torrent of prosperous ambition. 
 Their force Was weakened by intestine dis- 
 cords, and their treasures were exhausted to 
 such a degree as rendered them incapajile of 
 raising new troops, or of paying the armies 
 they had already in their service. 
 
 II. The Saracens in Spain opposed the pro- 
 gress of the Go^el in a different, yet still 
 more pernicious wajr,' They used all sorts of 
 methods to allure the Christians into the pro- 
 fession of the Mohammedan faith. Alliances 
 of martiage, advantageous contracts, flatter- 
 ing rewards, were employed to seduce them 
 with too much success ; for great numbers fell 
 into these fatal snares, and apostatized fivm 
 the truth;* and these alliu'ements would have, 
 undoubtedly, still continued to seduce' mul- 
 titudes of Cliristians from the bosom of the 
 church, had not the face of affairs been 
 changed in Spain by the victorious arms of 
 the kings of Arragon and Castile, and more 
 especially Ferdinand I.; for these princes, 
 whose zeal for Christianity was equal to thar 
 military courage, defeated the Saracens in se- 
 veral battles, and deprived them of a great 
 part of their territories and possessions.! 
 
 The number of those among the Danes, 
 Hungarians, and other European nations, who 
 retained their prejudices in favour of the idola- 
 trous religion of their ancestors, was yet very 
 considerable; and - they persecuted, with the 
 utmost cruelty, the neighbouring nations, and 
 also such of their fellow-citizens as had em- 
 braced the Gospel. To put a stop to thi« 
 barbarous persecution. Christian pjinces ex- 
 erted their zeal in a terrible,manner, proclaim- 
 ing capital punishment against all who per- 
 sisted in the worship of tlifi Pagan deities. 
 This dreadful severity contributed much more 
 toward the extirpation of paganism, than the 
 exhortations and instructions of ignorant mis- 
 siorlaries,* who were unacquainted with the 
 true nature of the Gospel, and dishonoured its 
 pure and holy doctrines by their licentious 
 lives and superstitious practices. 
 
 •The Prussians, Lithuanians, Sclavonians, 
 Obotriti, and severa,! other nations, who dwelt 
 in the lower parts of Germany, and lay «till 
 grovelling in the darkness of paganism, con- 
 
 * Jo. Henr. Hottingeri His'tor. Ecclesiast. Stec, xi. 
 $ ii. p. 452; and Michael Geddcs' History of the Ex- 
 pulsion of the Morescoes out of Spain, which is t© 
 be found in the Miscellaneous Tracts of that Authof . 
 tom. i. 
 
 t For an account of tliese wars between the first 
 Christian kings of Spain and the Moslems or Moors, 
 see the Spanish histories of "Mariana and Ferreras 
 
Chap. I. 
 
 tinued to hara& the Christians, who lived ip 
 their Heighbowhood, by perpetual acts of hos- 
 tility and Violence, by frequent incursions into 
 their territories, and by putting numbers of 
 
 LEARNING AND PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 250 
 
 them to death in the most inhuman manner.* 
 
 ♦ H«lmaldi Chron. , Slavorum, lib. 1. cap. xvi. p. 
 52.— Adami ,Bremens. Histor. lib. ii. cap. xxvii. 
 
 PART II. 
 
 THE INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 CHAPTER L 
 
 Concerning the State of Letters and Philosophy 
 
 during this Centnry. 
 
 , I. -The declining condition of the Grecian 
 empire was fatal to the progress of letters and 
 philosophy. Its glory and power diminished 
 from day to day under the insults and usurpa- 
 tions of the Turks and Saracens; and, while 
 the empire suffered by these attacks from with- 
 out, it was consumed ^adually by the inter- 
 nal pestilence of civil discord, by frequent se- 
 ditions and conspiracies, and by. those violent 
 revolutions which shook frofn time to time the 
 imperial throne, and were attended with the 
 sudden fall and elevation of those who held 
 the reins of government. So many foreign 
 invasions, so many internal troubles, so many 
 emperors dethroned, deprived the political 
 body of its strength and consistency, broke in 
 , upon the public order, rendered all things pre^ 
 carious, and, dejecting the spirits of the nation, 
 damped the fire of genius, and discouraged the 
 efforts of literary ambition.* There were, how- 
 ever, some emperors,- such as Alexius Comne- 
 nus, who seemed to cherish and encourage the 
 drooping sciences, and whose zeal was second- 
 ed by several prelates, who were willing to 
 lend a supporting hand to tke cause of letters.. 
 The controversies also that subsisted between 
 the Greeks ind Latins, impelled the former, 
 amidst all, their disadvantages to a certain de- 
 gree of application to study, and prevented 
 them from abandoning entirely the culture of 
 the sciences. And hence it is, that we find 
 among the Greeks of this century some wri- 
 ters, at least, who haVe deserved well of the 
 republic of letters. 
 
 II. We pass in silence the poets, rhetori- 
 cians, and philologists of this century, who 
 were neither highly eminent nor absolutely 
 contemptible. ' Among the writers of history, 
 Leo the grammarian, John Scylizes, Cedrenus, 
 and ? few others, deserve to be mentioned 
 with some share of praise, notwithstanding the 
 palpable partiality with which they are charger 
 able, and the zeal they discover for many of 
 the fabulous records' of their nation. But the 
 greatest ornament of the republic of letters, at 
 this time, was Michael Psellus, a man illustri- 
 ous in every respect, and "deeply versed in all 
 the various kinds of erudition that were known 
 in his age. This great- man recommended 
 warmly to his countrymen the study of phi- 
 
 dt^ * The sentence which begins with the words 
 so many foreign, and ends with the words literary 
 ambition, is added by the translator to render the 
 connexion with what follows more evident. 
 
 losophy, and particularly the system of Aristo- 
 tle,^ which he eiiibellished and illustrated in 
 several learned and ingenious productions.* 
 If we turn our eyes toward the Araibian^ w'e 
 shall find that they still retained a high degree 
 of zeal for the culture of the sciences; as ap- 
 pears evidently from the number of physicians, 
 mathematicians, and astronomers, who flou- 
 rished among them ih this centuiy.f " ' 
 _ III. The arts and sciences seemed, in some 
 measure, to revive in the west, among the 
 clergy, at least, and the monastic orders; they 
 were not indeed cultivated by any other set 
 of men; and the nobility, if we except such 6f 
 them as were designed to fill certain ecclesias- 
 tical dignities, or had. voluntarily devoted 
 themselves to a rehgious solitude, treated all 
 sorts of learning and erudition with indiffei> 
 ence and contempt. The schools of learning ■ 
 flourished in several parts of Italy about the 
 year .1050; and of the Italian doctors, who ac- 
 quired a name by their writings or their aca- 
 demical lectures, several removed afterwards 
 into France, and particularly into Normandy, 
 where they instructed the youth, who had con- 
 secrated themselves to the service of the 
 ohurch.| The French also, though they ac- 
 knowledge their obligations to the learned 
 Italians who settled'iri their provinces, exhibit, 
 at the same time, a considerable list, of their 
 countrjmien, who, without any foreign suc- 
 cours, cultiva:ted the sciences, and contributed 
 not a little to the advancement of letters in 
 this century; they mention als6 several schools 
 erected in different parts of that kingdom, 
 which were in the highest reputation,' both on 
 account of the fame of their masters, and the 
 multitude of disciples that resorted to them.§ 
 And, indeed, it is certain beyond all contra- 
 diction, that the liberal arts and sciences were 
 cultivated in France, which abounded with 
 learned men, while the greatest part of Italy 
 lay as yet covered with a thick cloud of igno- 
 rance and darkness. For Robert, king of 
 France, son and successor of Hugh Capet, dis- 
 ciple, of the famous Gerbert (afterwards Syl- 
 vester II.,) and the great protector of tiie 
 sciences, and friend of the learned, reigned 
 
 * Leo Allatius, Diatriba de Fsellis, p. 14, edit. 
 Fabricii. 
 
 J Elmacini Historia Saracen, p. 281. — Jo. Henr, 
 Hettinger, Histor. Eccles. Saec. xL p. 449. 
 
 X Bee Muratori, Antiquitates Ital. medil tevi, torn. . 
 iii. p. 871. — Giannone, Historia di Napoli, vol. ii. 
 
 § Histoire Literaire de la France, torn. vii. at the 
 Introduction.-^Du Boulay, Hist. Academ. Paris, 
 torn. i. p. 355. — Le Bceuf, Diss, sur I'Etat des Sciences 
 en France depuis la Mort du Roi Robert, which is 
 published among his Dissertations sur I'Hiatoire Ec- 
 clesiastique et Civile de Paris, torn. ii. part 1. 
 
860 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Fakt II. 
 
 from the close of the preceding century to the 
 year 1031,* and exerted upon all occasions the 
 most ardent zeal for the restoration orietter^ 
 nor were his -noble efforts witliout succes."t 
 The provinces of Sicily, Apulia, Calabria, and 
 other southern parts of Italy,^were indebted, 
 for the introduction of the sciences among" 
 them, to the Normans, who became their mas- 
 ters, "and who brought with them >|rom France 
 the knowledge of letters to a people benighted 
 in the darkest ignorjtnce. To the Normans 
 also was due the restoration of learning in 
 England. .William the Conqueror, n. prince 
 of uncommon sagacity and genius, and the 
 great Maecenas of his time, upon his accession 
 to the throne of England in the year 1066, en- 
 gaged, by the most alluring solicitations, a 
 conaideiable number of learned men, froni' 
 Normandy and other countries, to settle in his 
 new dppiinions, and exerted his most zealous 
 endeavours to dispel that savage ignorance, 
 which is always a soiuce of innumerable evils, j 
 The reception of Christianity had polished and 
 civilized, in an extraordinary manner, tlie 
 rugged minds ' of the vali9:ilt Normans: for 
 those fierce warriors, who, under the darkness 
 of-paganisrh, had manifested the utmost aver- 
 sion"i;o all branches of knowledge and every 
 kind of instruction, distinguished themselves, 
 after their conversion, by their ardept apphca- 
 tion to Jhe study of religion and the pursuits 
 of learning. 
 
 IV.' This vehement desire of knowledge, 
 that increased from day to day, and became at 
 lengtli, the predominant passion of the politest 
 European nations, produced many happy ef- 
 fects. To it, more particularly, we must attri- 
 bute the considerable number of public schools 
 tliat were opened in various places, Said the 
 choice of more able and eminent masters l^ian 
 those who had formerly presided in the serni- 
 naries of learning. Toward the conclusion, of 
 the, pteceding age,, there were no schools in 
 Europe but those which belonged to monaste- 
 ries, or episcopal residences: nor were there 
 any .other masters, except thei Benedictine 
 monks, to instruct the youth in the "principles 
 of sacred and profane erudition. But, not 
 long after the commencement of this century, 
 the face of things was totally changed, in a 
 manner the most advantageous to the cause 
 of letters. In many cities of France and Ita- 
 ly, learned men, both among the clergy and 
 laity, undertook the weighty and important 
 charge of instructing the youth, and succeeded 
 much better jn this worthy undertaking thaii 
 the monks had done, not only by comprehends 
 ing in their course of instruction more branches 
 of knowledge than the monastic doctors were 
 acquainted with, but also by teaching in a bet- 
 ter method, and with more perspicuity and 
 
 |Ei* * Robert succeeded Hugh Capet, aiid reigned 
 thirty-five years, ^ 
 
 t Daniel, Histoire de la France, torn. iii. p. 58. — 
 Du Boulay, Hist. Academ. Paris, torn. i. p. 636 et 
 passim. 
 
 I See Hist. Liter, de la France, toni. viii. p. 171. — 
 " The English," says Matthew Paris, " were so il- 
 *' literate and ignorant before the time of William 
 "the Conqueror, that a man who understood the 
 " principles ofgrammar, was universallylooked upon 
 ** as a prodigy of learning." ' 
 
 precision, many of^he same branches of sci- 
 ence, which the others had taught before them. 
 The most eminent of these new masters were 
 such as had either travelled into Spain with a 
 view to study in the schools of the Saracens 
 (which was extremely customary in this age 
 among those who were ambitious of a distiu'^ 
 guished reputation for wisdom and knowledge,) 
 or l;ad improved their stock of erudition "and- 
 philosophy by a diligent and attentive peruual 
 of the writings of the Arabians, of which &• 
 great number were translated into Latin; for 
 with these foreign succours they were enabled 
 to teach philosophy,, mathematics, physic, as- 
 tronomy, ajid the other sciences thai are^-cony 
 nected with them, in a much more I'eamed and 
 soUd manner than the monk» or such- as had 
 received their ,education from them alone. — 
 The school of Salemum, In the kingdom of 
 Naples, was renowned above all others for the 
 study of physic in this century, and vast num- 
 bers crowded thither from all the provinces of 
 Europe to receive instruction ia the art of heal- 
 ing: but the medical precepts which rendered 
 the doctors of Salernum so iamous, were all 
 derived from the writings of the Arabians, or 
 from tlie schools of the Saracens in Spain and 
 Africa.* It was also from the schools and writ:- 
 Ings of the Arabian sages, that the absurd and 
 puerile tricks of divination, and the custom of 
 foretelling future events from the position of 
 the stars, the features of the face, and the lines 
 of the band, derived their origin. These ridi- 
 culous practices, proceeding from so respecta^ 
 ble a source, and moreover adapted to satisfy 
 the idle curiosity" of impatient mortals, were 
 carried on in all the European nations and ia 
 process of time the pretended sciences of a&- 
 trology anddivination acquired the highest rfe- 
 putatian and authority. 
 
 V. The seven liberal'arts, as they were now 
 styled, were taught in the greatest part of the 
 schools "that were erected .in this century, for 
 the education of youth. The first stage was 
 gramn^r,- which was followed by rhetoric and 
 logic When -the disciple, having learned 
 these three branches, which were generally 
 known by the name of trivium, extended his 
 ambition, and was desirous jjf new improve- 
 ment In the sciences, he was conducted slowly 
 through the quadnmumj to the very summit 
 of literary fame. But this method of teaching, 
 which- had been received in all the western 
 ^schools, was considerably changed toward the 
 latter end of this century; for, as the science 
 of logic, under which metaphysics were in 
 part comprehended, received new degrees of 
 perfection from the deep meditations and the 
 assiduous industry of certain acute thinkers. 
 
 * Muxatori, Antiq. Ital. torn. iti. p. 935. — Oiannone, 
 Hist, di Napoli, tom. ii. p. 151. Freind*s History. of 
 Physic. — It is well known, that the famous precepts 
 of the, school of Salernum, for the preservation of 
 health, were composed in this century, at the request 
 of the king of England. ^ 
 
 (p^ t The trivium was a term invented in the 
 times of "barbarism to express the three sciences that 
 were first learned in the schools, viz. grammar, rhe- 
 toric, and logic; and the schools in which these sci- 
 ences alone were taught, were called ttiviales. The 
 quadrivium comprehended the four mathematical 
 sciences, — arithmetic, music, geometry, and astro 
 nomy, ^ 
 
CiiAt. L 
 
 LEARNING ANP PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 961 
 
 and was taught with more detail and subtilty 
 than in former tinies, the greatest part of the 
 studious youth becarpe so enamoured of this 
 branch of philosdphyVas to abandon grammar, 
 rhetoric, and all the otlter liberal arts, that they 
 might consecrate their whole time to the dis- 
 cussion of logical questions, and the pursuit 
 of metaphysical speculations. Nor was this 
 surprising, When we consider, that, according 
 to file opinion which now prevailed in the re- 
 public of letters, a man who was well versed 
 in dialectics, i. e.- in logical and metaphysical 
 knowledge, was reputed sufficiently learned, 
 and was supposed to stand in need of no other 
 branches of erudition.* Hence arose that con- 
 tempt of languages and eloquence, of the more 
 elegant sciences, and the fine aits, which spread 
 its baneful influence through the, Latin '-pro- 
 vinces; and'henoe that barbarism and pedantic 
 sophistry which dishonoured,' in succeeding 
 ages, the repilblic of letters, and deplorably 
 corrupted the noble simplicity of true theolo- 
 gy, and the purest systems of philosophical 
 wisdom; " " ^ 
 
 VI. "The pliilosophy of the Latins, in this 
 century, was absolutely confined within the 
 circle of dialectic?, while the other philosophi- 
 cal sciences were scarcely known by naihcf 
 This diEilectic, -indeed, was miserably dry and 
 
 * See Boulay, torn. i. p. 408, 511.— This is too Ukely 
 ■ to become* the prevailing taste even in our times: 
 but it is'an ancient taste, as we may easily perceive, 
 ■by, casting an eye upon tile literary history of the 
 eleventh century; ' arMl to. confirm still farther the 
 truth of the vulgar saying, that there is notliirig new 
 under the swn, we shall quote the following passage 
 from the Metalogicum /of John of Salisbury, a wri- 
 ter, of no mean abilities, lib. i. cap., iii. " Poetae, 
 historiographi,liabebaoter infaraes, et si quisincuiri- 
 bebat laboribus antiquorum, notabatur ut non modo' 
 asello Arcadife tardior, sed obtusior plumbo vel ^- 
 pide,^oranibus eratun risum. Suis enim, aut magis- 
 Iri sui, quisque incumbebat inventis.^Fiebant ergo 
 summi repente philosophi: nam qui illiteratus acces- 
 serat, fere non morabatur in scholis ulterius quam 
 eo curripulo temporis, quo. avium pulli plumescunt. 
 Sed quid docebant novi doctores, et qui plus somnio- 
 rum quam ..vigiliarum in scrutinio philosjiphia} coh- 
 aumserant? 'Ecce nova tiebant omnia: innovabatur 
 grammatical immutabatur dialectica, contemnebatur 
 rhetorica. et novas totius qi;adrivii vias, .evacuatis 
 priorum regulis,.de.ipsis philosophiec adytis ,profere- 
 bant. Solara convenientiam sive rationcm Ibqueban- 
 tur, argumen^um.sqnabat in ore omnium — ac inep-, 
 turn nimis aut rude et a philosopho alienura, impos- 
 sibile credebatur concenienter et ad rationis normam 
 quicquam dicere aut facere, nisi convenientim et ra- 
 titmis meiltio expressim esset inserta." Many more 
 passages of this nature are to be found in this au- 
 tfibr. 
 
 t We shall, indeed, fitid. many, in the records of 
 this century, honoured with the title of Philosophers, 
 Thus we hear of iVtanegoldus th6" riiilosopher, Ada- 
 lardus the Philosopher, &c. But we must not attri- 
 bute to that term, when applied to these grammari- 
 ans, the sense which it bore among the ancient 
 Greeks and Latins, and which'it still bears in our 
 times. In the style of what we call .tfie middle ages, 
 every man of learning, of whatever kind. his erudi- 
 tion mightjje, was called a philosopher; and this ti- 
 tle was also given to the interpreters of Scripture, 
 though that set of men were, generally speaking, 
 destitute of true philosophy. See the Chronicon Sa- 
 lernitanum in Muratori's collection Scriptor. He- 
 rum Italicar. torn. ii. part ii.cap. cxxiv. p. 265, where 
 we, are told,, that in the tenth century, in which the 
 sciences were almost totally e.^tinguished in Italy; 
 there werff thirty-two philosophers at Benevento. 
 We learn, however, by what follows, that these phi- 
 losophers were partly grammarians, and partly per- 
 sons who were more or leas versed in certain liberal 
 arts. 
 
 barren, as long as it was drawn ironi no other 
 source than the ten (jategories falsely attribut- 
 ed to St. Augustin, or from-the explications of 
 the Aristotelian philosoph.y, composed by P<jr-- 
 phyry and Averroes. These, however, were 
 the only guides which the schools had to fol- 
 low in the begiiming of this century; nor had 
 the^ public teachers either genius or courage 
 enough to enlarge tjie system, or to improve 
 upon the principles of these dictators in philo- 
 sophy, whose authority. was treated as infalliT 
 ble, ai;id whose productions, for a long time, 
 were regarded as perfect, to the great detri- 
 ment of true science. JBut, about the year 
 1050, -the face of philosophy began to change, 
 and the science of. logic assumed a new aspect. 
 This revolution began in France, where several 
 of the -books of Aristotle had been brought 
 from the schools of the Saracens in Spain; and 
 it was effected by a set of men higlijy renown- 
 ed for their abilities and genius, such as Ber- 
 enger, Rosqellinus, Hildebert, and after them 
 by Gilbert de la Porree, the,famous Abelard, 
 and others. These eminent logicians, though 
 they followed the Stagirite as their guide, took 
 the liberty to illustrate and model anew his 
 philosophy^ and to extend it far, beyond its an- 
 cient limits. 
 
 yil. The philosophers of this age, whd 
 were niost famous fbj their zealous and success- 
 ful endeavours to improve the science of logic, 
 and accommodate it to general use, were Lan- 
 franc, an Italian by "birth, (Wl^o was, abbot of 
 St. Stephen's at Caen, and was thence called 
 by William the Conqueror to the see of Can- 
 terbury,) Anselm his successor, and Odo, whose 
 last promotion was the bishopric of C^mbray. 
 Lanfranc was so deeply versed in this science, 
 that he was eommonlycailed the Dialectician; 
 and he employed with great dexterity the sub- 
 tilties of logic in the controversy which was 
 carried on between him and the learned Beren- 
 ger, a:gainst whotri he maintained the real pre- 
 sence of Christ's body "and blood in the holy 
 sacrament. Anselm," in a ve^y learned dia- 
 logue, tturows much light upon the darkness 
 and perplexity in which the science of logic 
 had been so long involved; and, among other 
 things, he investigates, With no small sagacity, 
 the nature of substance, tmd mode or quality, 
 in order to convey more jtist notions of these 
 inetaphysical entities than had been hitherto 
 entertainied.* ' This great prelate, who" shone 
 Vf ith a distihguished-luatre in- several branches 
 of literature both sacred and profarie, was the 
 first of the Latin doctors who dispelled the 
 clouds of ignorance and obscurity that hung 
 over the important sciences of metaphysics and 
 natural theology, as appears from. two books 
 of his composition, wherein the trutlis con- 
 cerning the Deity, which are deducible from 
 the mere light of nature, are enmuerated and 
 explained with a degree of sagacity whidh 
 could not well be expected from a writer of 
 this century. He was the inventor of that fa- 
 mous argument, vulgarly and erroneously at- 
 tributed to Des-Cartps, which, demonstrates 
 the existence of God from the idea of an infi- 
 
 * Thia dialogue, de Qrammatico, is to be found in 
 -the works of Anselm, published by father Geiberoi), 
 torn. i. p 143 
 
262 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OE THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part II. 
 
 nitely perfect Being naturally implanted in the 
 mind of man, and which is to be found', with- 
 out exception in the breast of every mortal. 
 The solidity of this- argument was, indeed, 
 called- into question, almost as soon as it was 
 proposed, by Gaunilo,a French monk, whose, 
 objections were answered by Anselm, in j. trea- 
 tise professedly written for that purpose.* Odo, 
 the third restorer of logic whom we mention- 
 ed above, taught that science with the great- 
 est applause, and illustrated it in three learned 
 productions, which have not survived the ruins 
 of time.f ^ 
 
 VIII. The restoration of logic was imme- 
 diately followed by a vehement dispute' be- 
 tween its restorers and patrons, concerning the 
 object of that science; such was the term era- 
 ployed by the contending parties. , This con- 
 troversy,which was long agitated in the schools, 
 was in its nature extremely trivial and unim- 
 portant: butj considered in its consequences, it 
 became a very serious and weighty affair, 
 since the disputants on both sides made use of 
 their respective opinions in explaining the doc- 
 trines of religion, and reciprocally loaded each 
 other with the most odious invectives and the 
 most opprobrious accusations. In one point 
 only they wereTmanimous, acknowledging that 
 logic or dialectic had for its essential object the 
 consideration of universals.in their various, re- 
 lations and points of comparison, since paj> 
 ticular and individual things, being liable to 
 change, could not be the objects of a sure and 
 immutable science. -But the great question 
 was, whether- these universals, which came 
 within the sphere of logical inquiries, belonged 
 to the class of real (kings, or that of mere de- 
 nominations. J -One set of these subtile disput- 
 ants Inaintained, that universals were undoubt- 
 ed realities, and supported their hypothesis by 
 the authority of Plato, Boetius, and other an- 
 cient sages; the other affirmed, that tliey were 
 mere words and outward denominations, and 
 
 * eaiinilo's Treatise is to be found in the works 
 of Anselm, with the answei of that learned prelate. 
 Qg- As Anselm makes sueh a shining figure in the 
 literary history of England, it will not be improper 
 to add here a more ample account of his character 
 and writings than that which is given by Dr. Mo- 
 sheim.- His life and manners were without reproach, 
 though his spiritual ambition- justly exposed him to 
 censure. His works<are divided into three parts. 
 The first contains his dogmatical tracts, and begins 
 with" a discourse concerning the lixistence of God, 
 the Divine Attributes, and the Trinity. This dis- 
 course is called Monologia, because it is d/awn up 
 in the form of a Soliloquy. In this first part of the 
 works of Anselm, there are many curious researches 
 upon snUjecfs of a very difBcult and mysterious na- 
 ture, such as the Fall of Satan, the Reason why God 
 created Man, the doctrine o£ Original Sin, and the 
 Manner of its Communication to Adam's Posterity, 
 the Liberty of the Will, and the Consistency of 
 Freedom ^ith the Divine Prescience. The second 
 and third^parts of the writings of this eminent pre- 
 late contain liis practical and devotional perform- 
 ances, such as Homilies, Poems, Prayers, &.C. and his 
 Letters, which are divided-into four books. 
 
 t -The titles of these three treatises are as follow; 
 de Sophista, de' Complexionibus, de Ee et Ente. The 
 learned Heriman,in his Narratio Restaurationis Ab- 
 batiiB*Sti. Martini Tornacensis, which is published 
 in M. D'Acheri's ,Spicilegium Scriptor. Voter, torn. 
 ii. p. 889, speaks of Odo in the following honourable 
 manner;' '* Cum Odo septem liberaUum artium esset 
 [leritus, priBc'ique tamen in dial4^||a. -eminebat, et 
 pro ipsa maxime clericbrum fre^irentia eum expe- 
 tebat." 
 
 pleaded in behalf of their cause the respecta- 
 ble suffrages of Aristotle and Porphyry. The 
 former were called Realists, on account of 
 tbeir doctrine, and the latter Npintnallsts, for 
 the same reason. The contending parties 
 w«re, in process of time, subdivided irito vari- 
 ous sects, on account of the different modes 
 in which many explained the dpctrine that was 
 the badge and characteristic of their sect.* 
 This controversy made a prodigious noise in 
 all the schools throughout Europe during ma- 
 ny succeeding ages, and often produced imhap^ 
 py contentions and animosities between philo- 
 sophers and divines. Some are of opinion, 
 that, it deriveid its origin from the disputes be- 
 tween Berenger and his adversaries, conpem- 
 ing the eucharist;t a notion "which, though it 
 be advanced without authority, is by no means 
 destitute of probabihty, since the hypothesis of 
 the Nominalists might be very successfiilly em- 
 ployed in defending the doctrine of Berenger, 
 concerning the sacrament of the Lord*s supper. 
 IX. The Nominalists had for their chief a 
 person named John, vvho, on account of his 
 logical subtilty, was surnampd the Sophist, 
 which is the only circumstance we know of 
 his history.| His principal disciples were Ro- 
 bert of Paris, Roscelin of Compiegne, and 
 "Arnoul of Laon,, who propagated his doctrine 
 with industry and success; to whom we may 
 add, with some probability, Raimbert, the mas- 
 ter of a famous school at Lisle, who is said, ac- 
 cording to the quibbling humour of the times, 
 ' to have read nominiiT logic to his disciples 
 while Odo (whom we have already had occa- 
 sion to mention) instructed his scholars in real- 
 ity.\ The, most renowned of all the numanal 
 
 * The learned Brucker (in his Historia Critica Phi- 
 losophife, tom. iii. p. 904) gives an ample account of 
 the sect of the Nominalists, and enlarges upon the 
 nature and cfrcumstances of this logical contest; he 
 also' mentions' the various writers, who have made 
 this sect audits doctrine the oliject of their researches. 
 Among these writers, the principal was John Sala- 
 bert, presbyter in the diocese of Agen, who, in 1651, 
 published a treatise entitled Philosophia IVomihali- 
 iim 'Vindicata. This book, which is extremely rare, 
 has been seen by none of the authors who have writ- 
 ten professedly concerning the sect of the Nominal- 
 ists. A copy of it, taken from the manuscript in the 
 Trench king's library, was communicated to me, 
 from which it appears, that Salabert, who was cer- 
 tainly a very acute and ingenious logician, employed 
 his labour rather in' defending the doctrine of the 
 Nominalists, than in giving an accurate, account of 
 their sect. There are, however, several things to be 
 found in his book, which are far from being general- 
 ly known, even among the learned. 
 
 t D'u Boulay, Histor. Acad. Paris, torn. i. p. 443.— 
 Ger. du Bois, Histor. EcclesiiE Paris, tbm. i. 770. 
 
 1 This account we have from the unknown author 
 of the'Fragmentum Historiffi Trancicse a Roberto 
 Eege ad Mortem Phillippi I. which is published m 
 Du Chesne'fi Scriptures Historiae Francica"., tom. iv. 
 His words are as follow: " In dialectica hi potentes 
 extiterunt sophistae, Johannes, qui artem sophisti- 
 cam vocalem esse disseruit," &c.— DU Boulay conjee 
 tures that this Johii the Sophist was the same per- 
 son with John of Chartres, surnamed the Deaf, who 
 was first physician to Henry I. king of France, and 
 had acquired a great degree of renown byhjs genius 
 and erudition. The same author tells us, that John 
 had for his master Giraldus of Orleans, who was an" 
 incomparable poet, and an excellent rhetorician; but 
 he advances this without any proof Mabillon, on 
 the other hand, in his Annal. Benedict, tom. v. sup- 
 poses, that John the Nominalist was the same per- 
 son who made known to Anselm the error of Roscel- 
 linus concerning the Three Persons in the Godhead. 
 
 § The passage in the original is; " Qui dialecticam 
 
Chap. n. 
 
 DOCTORS, tTTURCH GOVERNMENT, &o. 
 
 263 
 
 philosophers of this age was Rosoolin: hence 
 many considered him as the chief and founder 
 of that sect, and he is still regarded as such by 
 severallearned men. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Concerning the Doctors and Ministers of the 
 Church, and its Form of Government, during 
 this Century. 
 
 I. All tl>e records of this century loudly 
 complain of the vices that reigned among the 
 rulers of the chmrch, and, in general, among 
 all the sacerdotal orders; they also deplore that 
 universal decay of piety and discipline, which 
 was the consequence of this corruption in a set 
 of men, who were bound to support, by their 
 example, their authority, and tlieir instruo- 
 tions, the sacred interests of religion and vir- 
 tue. The western bishops were no sooner ele- 
 vated to the rank of dukes, counts, and nobles, 
 and enriched with ample territories, than they 
 gave themselves up entirely to the donimion 
 of pleasure and ambition, and, wholly employ-' 
 ed in displaying the magnificence of their tem- 
 poral stations, ftequented the courts of princes, 
 accompanied always with a splendid train' of 
 attendants and domestics.* The inferior or- 
 ders of the clergy were also licentioiis in their 
 own way; few among theih preserved any re- 
 mains of piety and virtue, we might add, of 
 decency a,nd discretion. While their rulers 
 were wallowing in luxury, and, basking in the 
 beams of worldly pornp and splendour, they 
 were indulging" themselves, without the least 
 sense pf shame, in ^audulent practices, in im- 
 pure and lascivious gratifications, and even in 
 the commission of flagitious crimes. The Gre- 
 cian clergy were less chargeable with these 
 shocking irregularities, as the calamities under 
 which their country groaned, imposed a re- 
 straint- upon their passions, and gave a check 
 to tlieir licentiousness. Yet notwithstanding 
 these, salutary restraints, there'' were few ex- 
 amples of piety and virtue to be found among 
 them." 
 
 n. The- authority and lustre of the Latin 
 church, or, to speak more properly, the power 
 and dominion of the Roman pontiffs, rose in 
 this century to the highest point, though they 
 rose by~degrees, and had much opposition and 
 many difficulties to conquer. In the preceding 
 age the pontiffs had acquired a^ great degree 
 of authority in religious affairs, and in every 
 thing that related to the government of the 
 church; and their credit and influence increas- 
 ed prodigiously toward the commencement of 
 this century. For then they received the" pom- 
 pous titles of ' masters of the world,' and 
 ' popes, i. e. universal fathers;' they presided 
 also every where in the councils by " their le- 
 
 clLTJcis suis in voce legebat, qiium Odo in re discipu- 
 )i3 legeret. SeeiHerimatinua, Histor. Restaurationis 
 Monasterii Sti. Martini Tornacens. in D'Acheri's 
 Spicileg. Vet. Scriptorum, vol. iii. p. 889. 
 
 * See. among other examples of tliia episcopal 
 irrandeur that of Adalbert, in Adam. Bremens. lib. 
 lii. cap. xxiii. p^ 38, lib. iv. cap. xixv. p. 52. that of 
 Gunther, in the Lectiones Antiquae of Canisius, torn, 
 iii part i. p. J85, and that of Manasses, in Museum 
 Italicum of Mabillon, torn. i. p- IW- Add to all 
 these Maratori's Antiq. Ital. medii JEvi, torn. vi. 
 p. 73. 
 
 gates; assumed the authority of supreme arbi- 
 ters in all controversies that arose concerning 
 religion or church discipline; and maintained 
 the pretended rights of the church against the 
 encroachments and usurpa.tions of kings and 
 princes. Their authority, however, was con- 
 fined within certain limits; for, on one hand, it 
 was restrained by sovereign princes, that it 
 might not arrogantly aim at civil dominion; 
 and, on the other it was opposed by the bishops 
 themselves, that it might not rise to a spiritual 
 despotism, and utterly destroy the liberty and 
 privileges of synods and councils.* From the 
 time of Leo IX. the popes employed every me- 
 thod which the most artful ambition could sug- 
 gest, to remove these limits, and to render their 
 dominion both despotic and universal. They 
 not only aspired to the character of sv^reme 
 legislators in the church, to an unlimited juris- 
 diction over all synods and councils, whether 
 general or provincial, to the sole distribution 
 of all ecclesiastical honours and ben^ces, as 
 being divinely authorized and appointed for 
 that purpose; but they carried their insolent 
 pretensions, so far as to give themselves out for 
 lords of the universe, arbiters of the fate of 
 kingdoms and empires, and supreme rulers 
 over the kitags and princes of the 'earth. Be- 
 fore Leo. TX. no pope was so enormously im- 
 pudent as to claim this unbounded authority, 
 or to assume the power of transferring territo- ' 
 ries and provincesfrom their lawful possessors 
 to new masters. Thjs pontiff gave the exam- 
 ple of such an amaziiig pretension to his holy 
 successors, by granting -to the Normans, who 
 had settled in Italy, the lands and' territories 
 whioh they had already usurped, or were em- 
 ployed in forcing out of the hands of the 
 Greeks and Saracens.f The ambitious views, 
 however, of the aspiring popes were opposed 
 by the emperors, the kings of France, by Wil- 
 liam the Conqueror, who was now seated on 
 the throne of England, and was the boldest 
 assertor of the rights and privileges of royalty 
 against the high claims of the apostolic see,J. 
 
 * Xhe very learned Launoy (in his Assertio con- 
 tra Privilegium Stj. Medardi, part ii. cap. xxxi. op. 
 tom. ii. has given us an accurate account of the ec- 
 clesiastical laws, and "of the' power of the hierarchy, 
 during this century, which he collected from the let- 
 ters of pope Gregory "VII. from which account it ap- 
 pears, that Gregory, ambitious as be was, did not 
 pretend to a supreme. and despotic authority in the 
 church. 
 
 • .f See Gaufr. Malaterra, Hist. Sicula, lib. i. cap. 
 xiv. p. 553, tom. v. Scriptor. Ital. Muratori. Qt^ The 
 translator has -here incorporated the note (s) of the 
 original into the te.vl. 
 
 . t See Eadmeri Hist-oria Novorum, which ia pub- 
 lished at the end of the works of Anselm, archbishop 
 of Canterbury. It is proper to observe here, that, if 
 it is true on one hand, that William the Conqueror 
 opposed, on many occasions, with the u^out vehe- 
 mence and zeal, the growing power ofThe Koman 
 pontiffs, and of the aspiring bishops, it is no less 
 certain, on the oth'er, that, to accomplish his ambi- 
 tious views, he, like many other European princes, 
 had recourse to the influence of the pontifls upon 
 the minds of the' m'ultitude, and thereby nourished 
 and encouraged the pride and ambition of the court 
 of Rome. For, while he was preparing all things 
 for his expedition into England, he sent ambassa- 
 dors to pope Alexander II. " in order (as Matthew 
 Paris says. Hist. Major, lib. i.) to have his undertake 
 ing approved an4 Justified iby apostolical authority; 
 and the pope, having considered the'-clajms of the 
 contending parties, sent a standard to William as 
 
264 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part U. 
 
 and also by several other princes. Nor did the 
 bishops, particularly those of France and Ger- 
 many, sit tamely silent under the papal yoke; 
 many of them endeavoured to maintaintheir 
 rights and the privileges of thechiirch; but otl^.- 
 ers, seduced by the allurements of interest or the 
 dictates of superstition, sacrificed their liber- 
 ties, and yielded to the pontiffs. Hence it hap- 
 pened, that these imperious lords of the church, 
 though they did not entirely gain their point; 
 or satisfy to the full their raging ambition, yet 
 obtained vast augmentations of power, and ex- 
 tended their authority from day to day. _ 
 
 in. The see of Rome, after the death of 
 Sylvester II. which happened in 1003, was 
 filled successively by John XVII., John XVIII. 
 and Sergius IV.^ whose pontificates v^ere not 
 distinguished by any memorable events. It 
 is, however, proper to observe, that these three 
 popes were confirmed in the see of Rome by 
 the approbation and authority of th^ emperors 
 under whose reigns they were elected to,that 
 high dignity. Benedict VIII. who was raised 
 to the pontificate in 1012, being obliged byhis 
 competitor Gregory to leave'Bome, fled into 
 Germany for succour, and threw himself at 
 the feet of Henry II., by Whom he was rein- 
 stated in the apostolic chair, which he pos- 
 sessed in- peace until the year 1024. It was 
 during his pontificate,' that those Normans, 
 who make such a shining figure in history, 
 came into Italy, and reduced several " of its 
 richest provinces under their dominion. Bene- 
 dict was succeeded by his brother John XIX. 
 who ruled the church until "the year 1033; 
 The five pontiffs whoin we have now been 
 mentioning were not chargeable with disho- 
 nouring, their high station by that licentious- 
 ness and immorality which rendered so many 
 of their successors infamous;' their lives, were 
 virtuous; ' at least, their conduct was decent. 
 But their exainples had little effect upon Be- 
 nedict IX., a most abandoned proifigate, and 
 a wretch capable of the most horrid crimes, 
 whose flagitious conduct drew upon him the 
 just resentment of the Romans, who in 1038 
 removed him fi:om his station. He was after- 
 wards indeed restored, by the emperor Conrad^ 
 to the papal chair; but,- instead of learning 
 circumspection and prudence from his former 
 disgrace, he became still- more scandalous in' 
 his life and manners, and so provoked the Ro- 
 mari people by his repeated crimes, that they 
 deposed him asecoiid time, in 1044, and elected 
 in his place John, bishop of Sabijia, who as- 
 sumed the name of Sylvester III. About 
 three months after this new revolution, the 
 relatives and adherents of Benedict rose up in 
 arms, di-oVe Sylvester out of the city, and re- 
 stored the degraded pontiff to his forfeited 
 honours, -svhich, however, he did not long en- 
 joy; for, perceiving that there was no possibi- 
 
 the omen.of his approaching royalty." It is highly 
 probable, that the Normans in Italy Jiad- made the 
 same humble request lo- Leo IX., and demanded his 
 confirmation both of the possessions they liad ac- 
 quired, and of those which they intended-to usurp. 
 And when we consider aj] this, it will not appear so 
 surprising that the popes aimed at universal empire, 
 since they were "encouragedjn their views by the 
 mean submissions ^nd servile homage of the JSiiro- 
 pean princes 
 
 lity of appeasing the resentment of the Ro- 
 mans, he -sold the pontificate to John Gratian, 
 arch-presbyter of Rome, who took the name 
 of Gregory VI. Thus the church had,' at the 
 same time, two chiefs, Sylvester and Gregory, 
 whose rivalry was the occasion of much trou- 
 ble and confusion. This contest was termi- 
 nated in 1046,' in the council holden at Siitri 
 by the emperor Henry III., who so ordered 
 matters, that Benedict, Gregory, and Sylves- 
 ter, were declared unworthy of the pontificate, 
 and Siiidger, bishop of 3^mberg, was raised 
 to that dignity, vphicji he enjoyed for, a short 
 time under the title of Clement II.* 
 
 IV. After the death of Clement II., which 
 happened in 1047, Benedict IX^, though twice 
 degraded, aimed anew at the papal dignity, 
 and accordingly forced himself into St. Peter's 
 chair for the third time. But,in the following 
 year, he was obliged to surrender the pontifi- 
 cate to Poppo, ISshop of Brixen, known by the 
 name of Dainasus II., whom Henry II. electi- 
 ed pope in Germany, and sent into Italy to 
 take possession of that dignity. On the death 
 of Damasus, who ruled the see of Rome only 
 three and twenty days, the same emperor, in 
 the diet holden at Worms in 1048, appointed 
 Brimo, bishop of Toul, to succeed him in the 
 pontificate. This prelate is known iri the list 
 of the popes by the name of Leo IX.; and his 
 private virtues, as well as his public acts of 
 zeal and piety in the government of the church, 
 were deemed meritorious enough to entitle 
 him to a place among the saintly order. But 
 if we deduct from these pretended virtues his 
 zeal for augmenting the opulence and autho- 
 rity of the church of Rome, and his lajidable 
 severity in correcting and punishing certaip 
 enormous vices,'t which were coniinon among 
 the clergy during his pontificate,, there will re- 
 main little in the life and administration of 
 this pontiff, that could give him. any preten- 
 sion to such a distinction. It is at least cer- 
 tain, that many, who industriously conceal or 
 excuse the numerous infirmities and failings 
 of the pontiffs, censure, with the utmost firee- 
 dom,- the temerity and injustice of the mea- 
 sures he took toward the conclusion of his 
 days. Such, among others, was the war into 
 which he inconsiderately entered, in 1063, 
 with the Normans, whom he was. grieved to 
 see in the possession of Apulia. His temerityj , 
 indeed, was severely pimished by the issue of 
 this war, from which he deri'ved the bittel'e^t 
 firuits, being taken prisoner by the enemy, and 
 led captive to Beneyento. liere dismal reflec- 
 tions upon his unhappy fate preyed upon his 
 spirits, and threw him into a dangerous ill- 
 ness; so that, after a year's imprisonment, he 
 
 * In this cohipeni^ious account of the popes, I have 
 followed the relations of Francis and Anthony Pagi, 
 Papebrbck, and also those of. Muratori, in his An- 
 nales Italite, persuaded that the learned and judi-~ 
 cious reader will justify -my treating, with the ut- 
 most contempt, what Baronius and. others have 
 alleged in favour of.Gregory 'VI. 
 
 Q^-\ In several councils which he assembled in 
 Italy, France, and Germany, he proposed rij^orous 
 laws against simony, sodomy, incestuous ami adul- 
 terous marriages, the custom of carrying arms 
 (which had become general among the clergy,) the 
 apostasy of the monks, who abandoned their habit 
 and renounced their profession, &c. 
 
Chap. U. 
 
 DOCTOKS, CHURCH GC VERNMENT, &c. 
 
 265 
 
 ^ ity over that kingdom which the 
 Roman pontiffs constantly claim,' and which 
 the Sicilian monarchs annually acknowledge. 
 VI. Before the pontificate of Nicholas II., 
 the popes were chosen not only by the suffrages 
 of the cardinals, but also by those of the whole 
 Roman clergy, the liobility, the burgesses, 
 and the assembly of the people. An election, 
 in which such a confused and jarring multitude 
 was concerned, could not. but produce con- 
 tinual /actions, animosities, and tumults. To 
 prevent these, as "faras was possible, this artful 
 and provident pontiff had a j law passed, by 
 which the cardinals, as well presbyters as 
 bishops, were empowered, on a vacancy in the 
 see of Rome, to elect a new pope, without any 
 prejudice to the ancient privileges of the Ro- 
 man emperors in this important matter.* Nor 
 were the rest of the clergy, with the burgesses 
 and people, excluded from all participation in 
 this election, since their consent was solemnly 
 demanded, and also esteemed of much weight.f 
 In consequence, however, of this new regula- 
 
 was sent to Rome, where he concluded his 
 days on the 19th of April, 1054.* 
 
 V. After the death of Leo the papal chair 
 was filled, in 105S, by Gebhard, bishop of 
 Eichstadt, who assumed the name of Victor II. 
 and, after governing the church about three 
 years, was succeeded by Stephen IX. brother 
 to Godfrey, duke of Lorrain, who died a few 
 months after his election. Nothing memora- 
 ble happened vmder the adhiinistration of 
 these two pontiffs. Gerard, bishop of Flo- 
 rence, who obtained the papacy in 1058, and 
 took the name of Nicolas 11., makes a greater 
 figure in history than several of his prede- 
 cessors.f We pass in silence John, bishop 
 of Veletri, who usurped the pontificate, as 
 also the title of Benedict X., jifter the death 
 of Stephen, and who was deposed with igno- 
 miny, after having possessed about nine 
 months the dignity to which he had no other 
 title, than what he derived £rom lawless vio- 
 lence. Nicolas, on the removal of this usurper, 
 assembled a council at.Kome in 1059, in 
 which, among many salutary laws for healing 
 the inveterate disorders that had afflicted the 
 church, one remarkable decree was passed for 
 altering the ancient form of electing the pon- 
 tiff. This alteration was intended to prevent 
 the tumults «.nd commotions which arose in 
 Rome, and the factions which divided Italy, 
 when a new pope was to be elected. The 
 same pontiff' received the homage of the Nor- 
 manS, and solemnly created Robert Guiscard 
 duke of Apuha, Calabria, and Sicily, on con- 
 dition that he should observe, as a faithfiil vas- 
 sal, ^an inviolable allegiance to the Roman 
 church, and pay an annual tribute in acknow^ 
 ledgment of his subjection to the apostolic see. 
 By what authority Nicolas confirmed the Nor- 
 man prince in the possession of these pro- 
 vincfes, is more than we know; certain it is,- 
 that he had no sort of property in the lands 
 which he granted so liberally to the Normans, 
 who held them already by the odious right of 
 conqueSt.| Perhaps the lordly pontiff founded 
 this right of cession upon the fictitious dona- 
 tion of Constantino, which lias beeii already 
 noticed in the course of this history; or, pro- 
 bably, .seduced by the artful and ambitious 
 suggestions of Hildebrand, who had himself an 
 eye upon the pontificate, and afterwards filled 
 it under the adopted name of Gregory VII., 
 he'imagined, that as Christ's vicegerent, the 
 Roman pontiff was the king of kings, and had 
 the whole universe for his domain. It is well 
 known that Hildebrand had a supreme ascend- 
 ancy over the mind of Nicolas, and that the 
 latter neither undertook nor executed any 
 thing without his direction. Be that as it may, 
 it was the feudal grant iriade to Guiscard by 
 this pope, that laid the foundation of the king- 
 dom of Naples, or of the two Sicilies,~and of 
 
 * See the Acta Sanctorum ad d. xi.t. Aprilis, tcim. 
 iii. p. 643.— Hist. Literaire de la Fiance, torn. vii. p. 
 459.-^iannone, liistoria di Napoli, torn. ii. 
 
 + Beside the accounts given of Nicolas II. by the 
 writers of the papal history, there is a particular and 
 acouratehistory of this pontiff drawn up by the Be- 
 nedictine monks, in the Hist. Liter, de la France, 
 torn. vii. p. 515. . 
 
 J See Muraton's Annali d'ltalia, torn. vi. p. 186.— 
 BarOn. Annal. ad an. lOCO. 
 Vol. I.— 34 
 
 It?* * It does not appear, that Nicolas was at all 
 solicitous about the privileges of the emperor, and 
 Ilia authority in the election of the bishop of Rome; 
 for the words of the decree in all the various copies 
 of it are to this import; '|The cardinals shall first 
 " deliberate ooncerning the election of-a pontiff, and 
 *' the consent of the other clergy and of the peopla " 
 " shall be required to confirin their choice. Tlje pope 
 '* shall be chosen out of the me'mbers that compose 
 '" the church of Romc.if a proper person can be found 
 J' among- them: if not, he shall be elected elsewhere. 
 " all this without any prejudice to the honour i)f our 
 " dear son Henry (who is now king, and shall be 
 " soon emperor, as we have already promised him,) 
 " or to the honor of his successors on whom the 
 " apo&tolic see shall confer personally and successive- 
 " ly the same high privilege." Here we see the good 
 pontiff manifestly taking advantage of the minority 
 of Henry_ IV. to depreciate and diminish the ancient 
 prerogatives of the Imperial crown,- and to magnify 
 the autliority of the papa^mitre; for he declares, as a 
 personal right granted by the Roman see to each 
 -emperor for himself, the privilege of confirming the 
 pope's election; whereas it is well known that this 
 privilege had been vested in the emperors of Germa- 
 ny during many_preceding ages. See Fleury, Eccles. 
 Hist. vol. xiii. liv. Ix. It is proper to observe here, 
 that the cringing and ignoble submission of Charles 
 the Bald, who would not accept the title of emperor 
 before it was conferred upon him by the pontiff, oc- 
 casioned, in process of time, that ^surd notion, 
 that the papal consecration was requisite in order 
 to qualify the kings Of Germany to assume the title 
 of :Boman emperors, though, without that consecra- 
 tion, these kings had all Italy under their dominion, 
 and exercised in every part of it various rights and 
 prerogatives of sovereignty. Hence the kings of 
 Germany were first styled kings of the Franks and 
 Lombards, afterwards kings of the Romans u^til the 
 year 1508, when Maximilian I.changed^tbe title of 
 ^m^ into that of em^eroT*. 
 
 t The decree of Nicolas concerning the election of 
 the pontiff is to be found in many authors, and par- 
 ticularly in the Concilia. But, up&n comparing se- 
 veral copies of this famous decree, I found them* in 
 many respects very different from each other. In 
 some copies the decree-appears abridged; in others 
 it is long and prolix." In some ifseems favourable 
 to the rights and privileges of the emperors; in 
 others if. appears to have the contrary tendency. 
 The most ample copy is that which we find in the 
 Chronicon Farfense in Muratori's Script. Rerum 
 Italicarum, torn. ii. part ii. p. 645, which difiers 
 however, in various circumstances, from that which 
 was published-by Hug& Floriacensis, in his bookde 
 regia Protestate et sacerdotali Dignitate, in Baluzii 
 Miscellaneis, tom. iv. p 62. Notwithstanding the 
 diversity that exists in the copies of this famous de- 
 cree, they all agree in confirming the accounts we 
 have given of the plans and pontificate of Nicolas, 
 
266 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Paht n. 
 
 tion, the cardmals acted the principal part in 
 the creation of the new pontiff, though they 
 suffered for a long time much opposition both 
 from the sacerdotal orders and the Roman 
 citizens, who were constantly either reclaiming 
 their ancient rights, or abusing the privilege 
 they yut retained of-confirming the election of 
 every new pope by their approbation and con- 
 sent. In tiie follovring century an end was 
 put to all these disputes by Alexander III., 
 who was so fortunate as to complete what 
 Nicolas had only begun, and who transferred 
 and confined to the college of cardinals the 
 right of electing to the apostolic see, excluding 
 the nobility, the people, and the rest of the 
 clergy, from all concern in this important 
 matter.* 
 
 It may not be improper here to give some 
 account of the origin of the cardinals,t and 
 the nature of their privileges and functions. 
 Many writers^ have treated this subject in an 
 ample manner, and have shed upon it a, profii- 
 sion of erudition, which deserves, no doubt, 
 the highest applause; but they ai-e, generally 
 speaking, defective in perspicuity and precis- 
 ion; nor do I know of any, who have confined 
 themselves to the true state of the question, 
 and investigated, in a satisfactory manner, the 
 origin of the ofiice of cardinal, and the reasons 
 that occasioned the institution of that order of 
 ecclesiastics. Several learned men have em- 
 ployed much time and labour in fixing the 
 sense of the word cardinal, and in illustrating 
 its meaning from ancient monuments and re- 
 cords; but, however worthy of a curious phi- 
 lologist these researches may be, they contri- 
 bute little to clear up the point in question, or 
 to convey an accurate and satisfactory notion 
 of the true origin of the college of cardinals, 
 ajid the nature of that ecclesiastical dignity. It 
 is certain, that the word in question, when ap- 
 plied to persons or things, and more especially 
 to the sacred order, was, in the language of 
 the middle ages, a term of dubious significa- 
 tion, and was susceptible of various senses. It 
 is also well known, that, in former times, tliis 
 title was by no means peculiar to the .priests 
 and ministers of the church of Rome, but was 
 in use in all the Latin churches, and that not 
 only, the secular clergy, but also the regular, 
 suiSh' as abbots, canons, and monks, were capa- 
 ble of this denomination, though in different 
 senses.' But, after the pontificate of Alexan- 
 der HI., the common use of the term was 
 
 * See Mabillon, Cpmm. in Ord. Roman, torn. ii. 
 Musei Italici, p. 114.— Constant. Cenni PrsEf. ad Oon- 
 Gilium Lateran. Stephani iii. p. 18.— Franc. Pagi 
 Breviarium Pontif. Romanor. torn. ii. p. 374. 
 
 irf- 1 The translator has here incorporated into 
 the text the long and important note (o] of the ori- 
 ginal concerning the cardinals. The citations and 
 references only are tlurown into the notes. 
 
 t The authors who have written of the name, 
 origin, and rights of the cardinals, are enumerated 
 by Jo. Alb. Pabricius, in his Bibliogr. Antiquar. p. 
 455.— Casp. Sagittarius, Introd. ad Historiam Eccle- 
 siaSt. cap. xxix. p. T71, et Jo. And. Schmidius in 
 Supplement, p. 644— Christ. Gryphius, Isagoge ad 
 Historiam Sfficuli xvii. p. 430. Add to these Ludov. 
 Thomassini Disciplina Ecclesix vetus et nova, torn, 
 i. lib. ii. cap. 115, 116, p. 616, and Lud. Ant. Murato. 
 n, whose learned dissertation, de Origine Cardina- 
 latus, is published in his Antiq. Ital. medii levi, 
 torn. V. 
 
 gradually diminished, and it was confined to 
 such only as were immediately concerned in 
 the election of the pope, and had the right of 
 suffrage in this weighty matter; so that, when 
 we inquire into the origin of the sacred college 
 at Rome, the question is not, who they were, 
 that in the remoter periods of the chmrch were 
 distinguished, among the Latins in general, or 
 at Rome in particular, from the rest of the 
 clergy, by the name of cardinals; nor do we 
 inquire into the proper signification of that 
 term, or into the various senses in which it was 
 formerly employed. The true state of the 
 question is this: who the persons were that 
 Nicolas II. comprehended under that denomi- 
 nation, when he vested in the Roman cardi- 
 nals alone the right of electing the new pon- 
 tiff, and excluded from that important privilege 
 the rest of the clergy, the nobility, the bur^ 
 gesses, and the people.' When this is known 
 with certainty, we shall have a just notion of 
 the college of cardinals "in its rise, and shall 
 also perceive the difference existing between 
 the first cardinals and those of our times. Now 
 this may easily be learned from the edict of 
 Nicolas II. which sets the matter in the cleaj> 
 est light. " We have thought proper to enact 
 (says the pontiff,) that, on the decease of the 
 bishop of the Roman Catholic, or universal 
 church, the affair of the election be treated- 
 principally, and previously to all other delibe- 
 rations, among the cardinal bishops^lone, who 
 shall afterwards^ call in to their council the car- 
 dinal clerks^ and require finally the consent of 
 the rest of the clergy, and the people, to their 
 election."* Here we see that the pontiff di- 
 vides into two classes the persons who were to 
 have the right of sufirage in the election of his 
 successors. By the former we are manifestly 
 to understand the seven prelates who belonged 
 to the city and territory of Rome, whom Nico- 
 las calls, in the same edict, comprovinciales 
 episcopi (an epithet which had been used before 
 by Leo I.,) and who had been distinguished by 
 the title of cardinal bishops long before the 
 century of which we are treating.. The words 
 of Nibolas confirmed this account of the mat- 
 ter,- and place it beyond all possibility of con- 
 tradiction; for he declares, that by cardinal 
 bishops he understands those to whom it be- 
 longed to consecrate the j)ontiff elect; " Since 
 the apostolic see," observes the papil legisla- 
 tor, " cannot be under the jurisdiction of any 
 superior or metropolitan,! the cardinal bishops 
 must necessarily supply the place of a metro- 
 politan, and fix the elected pontiff on the sum- 
 mit of apostolic exaltation and empire."| Now 
 
 "ICf* * The passage of the edict (which we have 
 here translated from Hugo Floriacus, in Baluzii 
 Miscel. torn. iv. p. 62.) runs thus in the original: 
 " Constituimiis ut, obeunte hujug RomanBB univer- 
 " salis ecclesiie pontifice, imprimis, cardinalea epiB- 
 " copi diligentissima simul consideratione tractan- 
 "tes, moxsibi clericos cardinales adhibeant, sicque 
 " reliquus clems et populus ad consensum novje elec- 
 " tionis accedant." 
 
 9^ t In tbe consecration of a new bishop in any 
 province, the metropolitan always bore -the princi- 
 pal part: as therefore there was no metropolitan to 
 install the pope, cardinal bishops performed that 
 ceremony. 
 
 X Such are the swelling and bomMstic terms of 
 the edict: " Cluia sedes apostolica super se' metropo 
 
CuAP. n. 
 
 DOCTORS, CHURCH GOVERNMENT, &c. 
 
 267 
 
 it is well known that the ^even bishops of 
 Rome, above-mentioned, had the privilege of 
 consecrating the pontiff. 
 
 All these things being duly considered, we 
 shall immediately perceive the true nature and 
 meaning of the fiimous edict, according to 
 which it is manifest, that, upon the death of a 
 pontiff, the cardinal bishops were iirst to deli- 
 berate alone with regard to a proper successor, 
 and to examine the respective merit of the can- 
 didates who niight pretend to this high dignity, 
 and afterwards to call in the cardinal clerks, 
 not only to demand their couiisel, but also to 
 
 i"diu with them in the election. The word clerk 
 lere bears the same sense with that of presi 
 
 " ter, and it is undeniably certain that the name 
 of cardinal presbyter was given to the ministers 
 of the eight and twenty Roman parishes, or prin- 
 cipal churches. All the' rest of the clergy, of 
 whatever order or rank they might be, were, to- 
 gether with the people, expressly excluded from 
 the right of voting in the election of the pon- 
 tiff, though they were allowed what is called a 
 negative sui&age, and their consent was re- 
 quired to what the others had done; from all 
 which it appears that the college of electors, 
 who chose the Roman pontiff, and who after 
 this period were called cardinals in a new and 
 unusual acceptation of that term, consisted, 
 according to their original establishment by 
 Nicolas 11., of only two orders, namely, cardi- 
 nal bishops and cardinal clerks or presbyters.* 
 It is necessary to observe, before we finish 
 this digression, that the famous decree of Ni- 
 colas could not obtain the force of a law. " It 
 " is evident (says Anselm, bishop of Luccaf) 
 "that the edict of Nicolas is-, and always has 
 " been, without the smallest degree of weight 
 " or authority. But, in affirming this, I have 
 " not the least design to cast any reflection 
 " upon the blessed memory of that pontiff, or 
 " to derogate from the applause that is due to 
 " his virtues. ... As a ^an, however, he was 
 "fallible, Eind, through the weakness that-is 
 " inseparable firom humanity, was liable to be 
 " seduced into measures that were inconsistent 
 
 ."with 'equity and justice." It is true, the 
 
 " Ijtanum habere non potest, cardinales epispopi me- 
 " tropolitani vice procul-dubio fuiigantur, qui elec- 
 " turn antistitem - ad apostolici culminis apicem 
 " provehant," 
 
 * We must therefore take care that we be-ntit 
 misled by the error of Onuphr. Panvinius, who af- 
 firms, [*] that the cardinal bishops were not added to 
 the college of cardinals before the pontificate of 
 Alexander III. Nor are we to listen to the supposi- 
 tion of those writers, who imagine that certain dea- 
 cons were, from the beginning, members of that 
 college «f cardinals by whom the popes were elected. 
 There were indeed, in the Roman church, long be- 
 fore the edict of Nicolas, (and there still remain) 
 cardinal deacons, i. e. auperintendants of those 
 churches which have hospitals annexed to them, and 
 whose revenuesare appropriated to the support of 
 the poor; but they were evidently excluded from the 
 election of the pope, which, by the edict of Nicolas, 
 was to be made by the cardinal bishops and clerks 
 alone. Hence we find the cardinals plainly distin- 
 guished from the deacons in the diploma that was 
 drawn up for the election of Gregory VII. 
 
 t Anselm. Luccensis, lib. ii. contra Wibertum 
 Antipapam et sequaces ejus, in Canisii Lectionib. 
 Antiquis. torn, iii- part i. p. 383. 
 
 f*] See Mabillon, Comment, in Ordinem Rom. p. 
 lis, torn. ii. Musei Italici. 
 
 prelate has here principally in, view that part 
 of the "Sdict in vfrhioh Nicolas acknow.l^es. 
 and confirms the light of the emperoiB to ratify 
 the election of the Roman pontiff; yet what he 
 says is undoubtedly true of the whole edict in 
 all its parts. For the seven Palatine judges,* 
 who were excluded by this decree from the 
 important privilege they had formerly enjoyed 
 of voting in the election to the apostolic see, 
 complained loudly of the injury that was done 
 them; and, seconded in their complaints by the 
 various orders of tjie clergy, and by the cla- 
 mours of ihe army, the citizens, and the mul- 
 titude, they declared their opposition to the 
 execution of this edictj'^and gave much trouble 
 and uneasiness to the cardinals, who had been 
 constituted electors by Nicolas. To appease 
 these tumults, Alexander III. augmented the 
 college of the electing cardinals, by conferring 
 that dignity upon the prior, or arch presbyter, 
 of St. John Lateran, the arch presbyter of St. 
 Peter and St. Mary the Groaterj the abbots of 
 St. Paul and St. Laxu:ence without the wall, 
 and lastly, upon the seven Palatine judges.f 
 By this dexterous stratagem, the higher order 
 of the clergy was defeated, and ceased to op- 
 pose the measures of the cardinal electors; nor, 
 indeed, could its opposition be of any signlflr 
 cancy, since its chiefs and leaders were become 
 members of the sacred college instituted by 
 Nicolas. Tlje inferior clergy continued yet 
 obstinate; but their opposition was vanquished 
 in the same manner, aiid they were reduced 
 to silence by the promotion of their obiefe, the 
 cardinal deacons, to the dignity of elector?. 
 Who it was (whether Alexander HI. or some 
 other pontiff) that raised the principal Roman 
 deacons to the rank of cardinals, is not certain; 
 but nothing is more evident than thfit the de- 
 sign of this promotion was to put an end to the 
 murmurs and complamts of the inferior clergy, 
 who highly resented the violatioil of their pri- 
 vileges. 
 
 When the various orders of the clergy were 
 drawn off from the opposition, it was no diffi- 
 cult matter to silence the people, and to ex- 
 clude them from all part in the election of the 
 pontiff. And accordingly, when, upon the 
 death of Alexander III., it was proposed to 
 choose Lucius. ni.| as his successor, the con- 
 sent and approbation of the clergy and people, 
 which had hitherto been always esteemed ne- 
 cessary to ratify the election, were riot even 
 demanded, and the affair was transacted by the 
 college of cardinals alone, who have continued 
 to maintain that exclusive and important pri- 
 vilege even to our times. Some writers affirm, 
 that Innocent II. had been elected in the same 
 manner, by the cardinals alone, without the 
 consent of the clergy or the people, several 
 years before the pontificate of Lucius;§ this 
 
 * These' judges were the Primicerius, Secundice- 
 rius, Jircarius, Saccellarius, FrotoscriniariUB, Pri- 
 micerius Dfffensorum, et'Jldmimculator; for a parti- 
 cular account of whose respective offices, services, 
 and privileges, see Grsvius, Bu Cange, &c.. 
 
 I Cenni Frsf. ad Concil. Lateran. Stephan. iii. p. 
 19. — Mabnion, Comment, ad Ord. Roman, p. 115, ex 
 Panvinio. 
 
 0^ t In the original, instead of Lucius III., we 
 read Victor III. which was certainly a mistake of 
 inadvertency in the learned author. 
 
 § See Fagi Breviar. Pontif. Romanor. tom. ii. p. SIS. 
 
268 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part D. 
 
 may be true, but it is nothing to the purpose; 
 for, as the election of Innocent II. was irregu- 
 lar, it cannot properly be alleged in the case 
 before us. 
 
 Vn. From what has been observed in the 
 preceding section, we may conclude, that the 
 college of cardinals, and the extensive autho- 
 rity and important privileges they enjoy at this 
 day, derive their origin from the edict pub- 
 lished at the request and under the pontificate 
 of Nicolas II.; that, under the title of cardi- 
 nals, this pontiff comprehended the seven Ro- 
 man bishops, who were considered as his suffra- 
 gans, and of whom the bishop of Ostia was the 
 chief, as also -the eight and twenty ministers, 
 who had_ inspection over the princTpal Roman 
 churches; and that to these were added^^ in 
 process of time, under Alexander III. and 
 other pontiffs, new members, in order to ap- 
 pease the resentment of those who looked upon 
 themselves as injured by the edict of Nicolas, 
 and also to answer other purposes of ecclesias- 
 tical policy. We see, also, from an attentive 
 view of this matter, that though the high order 
 of purpled prelates, cammonly qalled cardi- 
 nals, had its rise in the eleventh century, yet 
 it does not seem to have acquired the firm and 
 undisputed authority of a legal council before 
 the following age and the pontificate of Alex- 
 ander III. 
 
 VIII. Though Nicolas II. Iiad expressly ac- 
 knowledged and confirmed in his edict the 
 right of the emperor to ratify by liis consent 
 the election of the pontiff, his eyes were no 
 sooner closed, than the Romans, at the insti- 
 gation of Hildebrand, arch deacon and 'after- 
 wards bishop of Rome, violated this imperial 
 privilege in the most presumptuous manner; 
 for they not only elected to the pontificate. 
 Anselm, bishop of Lucca, who assumed the 
 name of Alexander II. but also solemnly in- 
 stalled him in that high office without consult- 
 ing the emperor Heniy IV. or giving him the 
 least information of the matter. Agnes, the 
 mother of the young emperor, no sooner re- 
 ceived an account of this irregular transaction 
 from the bishops of Lombardy, to whom the 
 election of Anselm was extremely disagreeable, 
 than she assembled a council at Basil, and, in 
 order to maintain the authority of her son, 
 who was yet a minoi:, caused Cadol^us, bishop 
 of Parma, to be created pope, under the title 
 of Honorius II. Hence arose a long and furi- 
 ous contest between the 'rival pontiffs, who 
 maintained their respective pretensions by the 
 force of arms, and presented, a scene of blood- 
 shed and horror in the church of Christ, vvhioh 
 was designed to be the centre of charity and 
 peace. In this violent contention Alexander 
 triuinphed, though he could never engage his 
 obstinate adversary to desist from his preten- 
 sions.* 
 
 IX. This contest, indeed, was of little con- 
 sequence when -viewed in comparison with the 
 dreadful commotions which Hildebrand, who 
 succeeded Alexander, and assumed the name 
 
 * Ferdin. Ughelli Italia Sacra, torn. ii. p. 166 — Jo. 
 Jac. Mascovius^ de Rebus Imperii sub Henrico IV. 
 et V. lib. i. p. 7. — Franc. Pagi Breviar. Pontificum 
 jlolnanor. torn. ii. p. Sa"!.— Muratori, Annali d'ltalia, 
 torn. vi. P.-214. 
 
 of Gregory VII., excited both in church and 
 state, aM nourished and fomented until the 
 end of his days. This vehement pontiff, who 
 was a Tuscan, bom of mean parents, rose, by 
 various steps, from the obscure station' of a 
 monk of Clugni, to the rank of arch deacon in 
 the Roman church, and, from the time of Leo 
 IX. who treated him with peculiar marks of 
 distinction, was accustomed to govern the 
 Roman pontiffs by his-counsels, which had ac- 
 quired the highest degree of influence and au 
 thority. In the year 1073, and on the same 
 day that Alexander was interred, he was raised 
 to tlie,.pontificate by the unanimous suffrages 
 of the cardinals, bishops, abbots, monks, and 
 people, without regard to the-edict-of Nicolas 
 11.^ and his election was confirmed by the ap- 
 probation and consent of Henry IV. king of 
 the Romans, to whom ambassadors had been 
 sent for that purpose. This prince, indeed, had 
 soon reason to repent of the consent he had 
 given to an election, which became so preju- 
 dicial to his own authority and to the interests 
 and liberties of the church, and so detrimental, 
 in general, to the sovereignty and independ- 
 ence of kingdoms and empires.* Hildebrand 
 ■was a man of uncommon genius, whose ambi- 
 tion in forming the most arduous projects was 
 equalled by his dexterity in bringing mem into 
 execution. Sagacious, crafty, and intrepid, he 
 suffered nothing to escape his penetration, de- 
 feat his stratagems, or daunt his courage: 
 haughty and arrogant beyond all measure, 
 obstinate, impetuous, and intractable, he look- 
 ed up to the summit of universal empire with 
 a wishful eye, and laboured up the steep ascent 
 with uninterrupted ardour and in-vihcible per- 
 severance: void of all principle, and destitute 
 of every pious and virtuous feeling, he suffered 
 little restraint in his audacious pur^ts, from 
 the dictates of religion or the remonstrances 
 of conscience. ' Such was the character of 
 Hildebrand, and his conduct was every way 
 suitable to it; for no sooner did he find him- 
 self in the papal chair, than he displayed to the 
 world the most odious marlcs of his tyrannic 
 ambition. Not content to enlarge the juris- 
 diction, and to augment the opulence of the 
 see of Rome, he laboured indefatigably to ren- 
 der the universal church subject to the despotic 
 government and the arbitrary power of the 
 pontiff alone, to dissolve the jurisdiction which 
 kings and emperors had hitherto exercised over 
 the various orders of the clergy, and to exclude 
 them from the management or distribution of 
 the revenues of the church. The outrageous 
 pontiff even went farther, and impiously at- 
 tempted to subject to his jurisdiction the empe- 
 rors, kings, and princes of the earth, and to 
 
 * The writers who have given the most ample ac 
 counts of the life and exploits of Gregory VIIi arc 
 enumerated by Casp. Sagittarius, in his Introd. ad 
 Hist, Ecclesiast. tom. i. p. 687, and by And. Schmi- 
 dius, in his Supplement, tom, ii. p. 627. — See also the 
 Acta Banctor. tom. v. Maii ad d. xxv. p. 568, and 
 Mabillon, Acta Sanctor. Ordin. Benedicti, Saecul. vi. 
 p. 406. Add to these the Life of Oregory VII.- pub- 
 lished at Frankfort in 1710, by Just. Christopher 
 Dithmar, as also the authors who have written the 
 history of .the contests that arose between the em. 
 pire and the hierarchy Of Rome, and of the wars that 
 were occasioned by the disputes concerning investi- 
 tures. 
 
Chap. II. 
 
 DOCTORS, CHURCH GOVERNMENT, &c. 
 
 render their dominimis tributary to the see of 
 Rome. Such were the piovs and apostolic ex- 
 ploits that employed tlie activity of Gregory 
 Vll. during his whole life, and which rendered 
 his pontificate a continual scene of tumult and 
 bloodshed. Were it necessary to bring farther 
 proofs of his tyranny and arrogance, his fierce 
 impetuosity and boundless ambition, we might 
 appeal to those famous sentences, which are 
 generally called, after him, the dictates of Hil- 
 debrand, and which show, in a lively manner, 
 the spirit and character of thiarestle^ pontiff.* 
 X. Under the pontificate of Hildebrand, the 
 face of the Latin church was entirely changed, 
 its government subverted, and the most im- 
 portant and valuable of those rights and pri- 
 vileges that had been formerly vested in its 
 councils, bishops, and sacred colleges, were 
 usurped by the greedy pontiff. It is, however, 
 
 * Dictatiis Hildehrandini. By these are understood 
 twenty-seveu apophthegms, or short sentences, re* 
 latlng to the supreme authority of the Roman pon- 
 tiffs over the universal church and the kingdoms of 
 the world, which are to be found in the second book 
 of the Epistles of Gregory VII. between the fifty-fifth 
 and the fifty rsixth Epis.tle under the title of Dictatus 
 Papa, i. e.'Dictates of the Pope. See Harduini Con-, 
 cilia, to«i,vi. part i. p. 1304, and the various writers 
 of Ecclesiastical History, Baronius, Lupus [*] and 
 other-historians, who have signalized, upon all oc- 
 casions, their vehement attachment to the Roman 
 pontiffs, maintain, that these Dictates were drawn 
 up by GrTegory VII. and proposed as laws in a cer-. 
 tain council; and hence the protectant writers have 
 ventured to attribute them to Hildebrand. But the 
 learned John Launoy, Natalis Alexander, Antony [f] 
 and Francis P-agi,{|] Elias Du-Pin, and other au- 
 thors of note, affirm in the most positive manner 
 that these sentences, or dictates, were a downright 
 forgery imposed upon the world under the name of 
 Gregory, by some perfidious impostor, who proposed 
 thereby to flatter the Roman pontiffs in their ambi- 
 tious pretensions. As a proof of this assertion, they 
 observe,' that while some of these sentences express 
 indeed in a lively manner the ambitious spirit of 
 Gregory, there are others which appear entirely op- 
 posite to the sentiments of that pontiff, as they are 
 delivered in several parts of his Epistles. The French 
 writers have important reasons (which it is not ne- 
 cessary to mention here) for affirming that no Ro- 
 man pontiff ever presumed to speak of the papal 
 power and jurisdiction in such arrogant terms as are 
 
 - here put into the mouth of Gregory. It may be easily 
 granted, thai these sentences, in their present form, 
 are not the composition of this famous pontiff; for 
 many of them are obscure, and they are all thrown 
 together without the least order, method, or con- 
 nexion, and it is not to be imagined, that a man of 
 such genius, as Gregory discoi^ered, would have ne- 
 glected either perspicuity or precision in describing 
 the authority, and fixing what he looked upon to be 
 the rights and privileges of the bishops of Rome. 
 But, not-withstanding all this, if we consider the 
 matter of these sentences, we shall be entirely per- 
 suaded that they belonged originally to Hildebrand, 
 
 'since we find the greatest part of them repealed 
 word for -word in several places in his Epistles, and 
 since such of them as appear inconsistent with some 
 passages in these epistles, are not so in reality, but 
 may be easily explained in perfect conformity with 
 what they are said to contradict. The most probable 
 account of the matter seems to be this: that some 
 mean author extracted these sentences, partly from 
 the extant epistlesof Gregory, partly from those that 
 have perished in the ruins of time, and published 
 them in the form in which they now appear, without 
 judgment or method. 
 
 [*] Lupus, in his Notse et Dissertationes in Con- 
 cilia, torn, vi, op. p. 164, has given us an ample com- 
 mentary on the Dictates of Hildebrand, which he 
 inoks upon as both authentic and sacred. 
 
 [tl See Anton. Pagi Critica in Baronium. 
 
 f h gee Franc. Pagi Breviar. Pontif. Roman, torn. 
 ii.p.473. 
 
 869 
 
 to be observed,-that the weight of this tyrannic 
 usurpation did not fall equally upon all the 
 European provinces, several of these provinces 
 preserved some reniaina of their ancient liber- 
 ty and independence, in the possession of 
 which a variety of circumstances happily con- 
 curred to maintain them. 
 
 But, as we insinuated above, the views of 
 Hildebrand were not confined to the erection 
 of an absolute and universal monarchy in the 
 chui'ch; they aimed also at the establishment 
 of a civil monarchy equally extensive and 
 despotic; and this aspiring pontiff, after having 
 drawn up a system of ecclesiastical laws for 
 the government of the church, would have in- 
 troduced also a new code of political laws, had 
 he been permitted to execute the plan he had 
 formed. His purpose was to engage, in the 
 bonds of fidelity^ and allegiance to St. Peter, i, 
 e. to the Roman pontif^j all the kin^ and 
 princes of the earth, and to establish at Rome 
 an annual assembly of bishops, by whom the 
 contests that might arise between kingdoms or 
 sovereign states were to be decided, iSe rights 
 and pretensions of princes to be examined, and 
 the fate of nations and empires to be deter- 
 mined. This ambitious project met, however, 
 with the warmest opposition, particularly &om 
 the vigilance and r^olution of the emperors, 
 and also from the British and French mon- 
 archs.* 
 
 That Hildebrand had formed this audacious 
 plan is undoubtedly evident, both from his 
 own epistles, and also from, other authentic re- 
 cords of antiquity. The nature of the oath 
 which jhe drew up for the king or emperor of 
 the Romans, from whom he demanded a pro- 
 fe^ion of subjection and allegiance,! shows 
 abundantly the arrogance or his pretensions. 
 But his conduct toward the kingdom of France 
 is worthy of particular notice. It is well 
 known^ that whatever dignity and dominion 
 the popes enjoyed were originally derived front 
 the French princesj and'yet Hildebrand, or (as 
 we shall hereafter entitle him) Gregory VII. 
 pretended that the kingdom was tributary to 
 the see of Rome, and commanded his legates 
 to demand- yearly, in the most solernn manner, 
 the payment-^of that tribute;]; their demands, 
 however, were treated with contempt, and the 
 tribute was never either acknowledged or o& 
 fered. Nothing can be more insolent than the 
 
 |]3= * The long note (g) in the original, which con- 
 tains the ambitious exploits of Hildebrand, is in 
 serted in the following paragraph, except the cita 
 tions, which are thrown into notes. 
 
 I ^ee the ninth book of his epistles, Epist. iii. 
 The form of the oath runs thus: " Ab hac hora et 
 " deinceps fidelis ero per rcctam fidem B. Petro Apos- 
 "tolo, ejusque vicario Papje Gregorio . . . . et quod- 
 " cunque ipse Papa praeeperit sub his videlicet ver- 
 '* bis', per varam obedientiam, fideliter, sicut oportet 
 " Christianum^ observabo. Et eo die, qiiando eum 
 '" primitus videro, fideliter per manus meas miles 
 " Sancti Petri et illius efficiar." What is this but a 
 formal oath of allegiance? 
 
 X Epist. lib. viii. ep. xxiii. in Kardmn' s^Voncilia^ 
 tom. vi, p. 1476. " Dicendum autem est omnibus 
 " Gallis et per veram obedientiam praecipiendum, ut 
 " unaquseque domus saltem unum denarium annua- 
 "tim solvat Beato Petro, si eum recognoscant pa- 
 *' trem et pastorera suum more antiquo." Every one 
 knows that the demand made with the form, per 
 veram obedientiam, was supposed to oblige indispen- 
 sably 
 
270 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 lajigTiage in which he addressed himeelf to 
 i'talip I. kiiig of France, to whom he recom- 
 
 Part n. 
 
 = o 7 — "- .xij recom- 
 
 mended an humble and obliging carriage, from 
 this consideration, that both his 'kin^omand 
 ^ his soul were imder the iominion of St. Pe- 
 1 u^ J K **■ ^'^ '^^"^ ** Roman pontiff,) who 
 had tlie power to bind and to loose him, both 
 in heaven and upon earth.'* Nothing es- 
 caped his all-grasping ambition; he pretended 
 that Saxony was a fief lioldeu in subjection to 
 the see .of Rome, to which it had been formerly 
 yielded by Charlemagne as a pious offering to 
 St. Peter. He also extended his pretensions 
 to the kingdom of Spain, maintaining in one 
 of his letters,t that it was the property of the 
 apostolic see from the earliest times of the 
 church, yet acknowledging in another,}; that 
 the transaction by which the successors of St. 
 Peter had acquired this property, had been lost 
 among other ancient records. His claims, 
 however, were more respected in Spain than 
 they had been in France; for it is proved most 
 evidently ,by authentic records, that the'king 
 of Arragori, and Bernard, count of Besalu, 
 gave a fevourable answer to the demands of 
 Gregory, and paid him regularly an annual 
 tribute;^ and their example was followed by- 
 other Spanish princes, as we could show, were 
 it necessary, by a variety of arguments. The 
 despotic views of^ this lordly pontiff were at- 
 tended with less success in England, than in 
 any other country. William the Oanqueror 
 was a prince of great spirit and resolution, ex- 
 tremely jealous of his rights, and tenacious of 
 the prerogatives he enjoyed as a sovereign and 
 independent monarch; and accordingly, when 
 Gregory wrote him a letter demanding the ar- 
 rears of the Peter-pence, H,and at the same time 
 summoning hiin to do homage for the king- 
 dom of England, as a fief of the apostolic see, 
 William granted the former, but refused the 
 latterlT with a noble obstinacy, declaring that 
 
 .* Lib. vii.- epist. xx. in Harduin's Concilia, torn. 
 
 vi. p. 1468. " Maxime enitere ut B. Petrum, in cujus 
 
 "potestate est regnum tuum et anima tua, qui te 
 
 "potest in coilo et in terra ligare et absolvere, tibi 
 
 " facias debitoreiu." 
 t Lib. X. ep. vii. " Regnum Hispanlte ab antique 
 
 proprii juris S. Petri fuisse et soli apostclicse sedi ex 
 
 sequo pertinere." 
 I Lib. X. epist. xxviii. ^ 
 
 6 See Peter de Marca, Histoire de Beam, liv. iv. 
 p. 331. 
 
 ■ Qt^ W The impost o{ Peter-pence (bo called ftom its 
 being collected on the festival of ,S(. Peter in Vincu- 
 lU) was an ancient tax of a penny on each house, 
 first grantedin 725, by Ipa, kingof the West Saxons, 
 for the establishment and support of an English col- 
 lege at Rome, and afterwards extended, in 794, by 
 Offa, over all Mercia and East Anglia; In process 
 of time it became a standing and general tax 
 throughout England; and,- though it was for some 
 time applied to the support of the English college ac- 
 cording to its original design, the popes at length 
 found means to^appropriate it to themselves. It was 
 confirmed by the laws of Canute, Edward the Con- 
 fessor, William the Conqueror, icc. and was never 
 totally abolished till the reign of Henry VIII. 
 
 IT The letter of William is extaht in the Miscella- 
 nea of 7{aluzi>us, torn. vii. p. 127: as also in Collier's 
 Ecclesiastical History, in the Collection of Records, 
 at the end of the flrSt volume, p. 743, No. 12. " Hu- 
 " bertus legatus tuus (says the resolute monarch to 
 " the audacious pontiff) admonuit me, quatenus tibi 
 " et successoribus tuis iidelitatem facerem, et de pe- 
 " cunia, quam antecessores mei ad ecclesiam mittere 
 *' lolebant, melius cogitarem. Unum admisi, alterum 
 ■' BOB admisi. Fidelitalem facere nolui necvolo,"&c. 
 
 ho held his kingdom of God only, and his own 
 sword. Obliged to yield to the obstinacy of 
 the English monarch, whose name struck ter- 
 ror into the boldest hearts, the restless pontiff 
 addressed his imperious mandates where he 
 imagined they would be received with more 
 facility. He wrote circular letters to the most 
 powerfiil of the German princes,* to Geysa, 
 king of Hungary,! and Swein, king of Den- 
 mark,! soliciting them to make a solemn grant 
 of -their kingdoms and territories to the prince 
 of the apostles, and to hold them under the ju- 
 risdiction of his vicar at Rome, as fiefs of the 
 apostolic see. What success attended his de- 
 mands upon these princes, we cannot say; but 
 certain it is, that in several coimtries his efforts 
 were effectual, and his modest proposals were 
 received with the utmost docility and zeal. 
 The son of Demetrius, czar of the Russians, 
 set out for Rome, in consequence of the pon- 
 tiff's letter,§ in order to " obtain, as a gift 
 "from St. Peter, by the hands of Gregory, 
 " after professing his subjection and allegiance 
 "to the prince of the apostles," the kingdom 
 which was to devolve to him upon the death 
 of his father,' and hisptotu request was readily 
 granted by the oiGcious pope, who jsvas ex- 
 tremely liberal of what did not belong to him. 
 Demetrius Suinimer, duke of Croatia and 
 Dalmatia, was raised to the rank and preroga- 
 tives of royalty by the same pontiff in 1076, 
 and solemnly proclaimed king by his legate at 
 Salona, on condition that he should pay an 
 annual tribute of two hundred pieces of gold 
 to St. Peter at every Easter festival. || This 
 bold step was injurious to the authority of the 
 emperors of Constantinople, who, before this 
 time, comprehended the province of Croatia 
 within the limits of their sovereignty.' The 
 kingdom of Poland became also the object pf 
 Gregory's ambition, and a favourable occasion 
 was offered for the execution of his iniquitous 
 views: for, when Boleslaus II. had assassinated 
 Stanislaus, bishop of Cracow,, the pontiff not 
 only excommunicated him with all the cir- 
 cumstances of infamy that he could invent, but 
 also hurled him ffom his throne, dissolved the 
 oath of allegiance which his subjects had taken, 
 and, by an express and imperious edict, pro- 
 hibited the nobles and clergy of Poland from 
 electijig a new king without the pope's con- 
 sent IT Many other examples might be alleged 
 of the phrenetic ambition of Gregory; but 
 those which have been already mentioned are 
 suificient to excite the indignation of 'eveiy im- 
 partial reader. Had the success of that pon- 
 tiff been equal to the extent of his insolent 
 
 * See,, in Harduin's Concilia, his famous letter 
 (lib. ix. epist. iii.) to the bishop of Padua^ exhorting 
 him to engage Welpho, duke of Bavaria, and other 
 6erman princes, to submit themselves and their do- 
 minions to the apostolic jurisdic*ion. " Admonere 
 " te volumus (says'th'e pontiff)^ ducem Welphonem, 
 " ut fidelitatem B, Petro faciat. ^ Ilium enim totum 
 " in gremio-Beati Petri collocare' desideramus, et ad 
 " ejus gervitium specialiter provocare; quam volun- 
 *' tatem si In eo, vel etiam in aliis potentibus viris. 
 "-amore B. Petri ductis, cognoveris, ut perficiant 
 " elabora." 
 
 t Lib. ii. ep. Ixx. | Lib. ii. ep. 11. 
 
 S Lib. ii. ep. Ixxiv. 
 
 [ See Du Mont, Corps Diplomatique, torn. i. n. 88, 
 p. 53. — Jo. Lucius, de Regno Dalmatis, lib. ii. p 85. 
 
 ir See Dlugossi Histor. Polon. torn. i. p. 295 
 
Chap. n. 
 
 DOCTORS, CHURCH GOVERNMENT, &c. 
 
 271 
 
 vtews, all,the kingdoma of Europ& would have 
 been at this day tributary to the Roman see, 
 and its princes the soldiers or vassals of St. 
 Peter, in the person of his pretended vicar upon 
 earth. But, though his most important pro- 
 jects were ijneifectual, many of his attempts 
 were crowned with a favourable issue; foK, 
 from the time' of his pontificate, the face of 
 Europe underwent a considerable change, and 
 the prerogatives of the emperors and other 
 sovereign princes were much diminished. It 
 was, particularly under the administration of 
 Gregory, that the emperors were deprived of 
 the privilege of ratifying, by their consent, the 
 election of the pope; a privilege of no small 
 importance, which they nave never recovered. 
 XI. The zeal and activity which Grego- 
 ry employed in extending the jurisdiction 
 of the Roman see, and enriching the patrimo- 
 ny of St. Peter, met, in no part of Europe, 
 with such remarkable success as in Italy. — 
 His intimate familiarity witlr Matilda, the 
 daughter of Boniface, duke of Tuscany, and 
 the most powerful and opulent, princess in that 
 country (who found by experience that neither 
 ambition nor grace had extinguished the ten- 
 der passions in the heart of Gregory,) contri- 
 buted much to this success; for he engaged 
 that princess, after the death of her husband 
 Godfrey, duke of Lorrain, and her mother 
 Beatrix, which happened in the years 1016 and 
 1017, to settle all her possessions in Italy and 
 elsewhere upon the church of Rome, an,d thus 
 to appoint St. Peter and his pretended vicar 
 the heirs of her immense treasures. This rich 
 donation was, indeed, considerably invalidated 
 by the second marriage, which Matilda con- 
 tracted, in 1089, with Welph, or Guelph, the 
 son of the duke of Bavaria, not without the 
 consent of pope Urban II. She, however, re- 
 newed it in a solemn maimer in 1102, about 
 seven years after her separation from her second 
 husbandt, by which she became again sole mis- 
 tress of her vast" possessions.* But, notwith- 
 standing this new act, the popes did not re- 
 main in the peaceful pqssession of this splen- 
 did inheritance. It was warmly and-y)0wer- 
 fully disputed, first by the . emperor Henry V. 
 and afterwards by several other princes; nor 
 were the pontiffs so successfiil in this contest 
 as to preserve the whole inheritance, though, 
 after various struggles and efforts, they re- 
 
 * The life and exploits of this heroic princess (who 
 was one of the strongest bulwarks of the Eoman 
 church against the power of the emperors, and the 
 most tender and obedient of all the'spiritual daugh- 
 ters of Gregory Vll.) have been written by Bened. 
 Lucbinus, Domin. Mellinus, Felix Contelorius, and 
 Julius de Puteo, but more amply by Francis Maria 
 of Florence, in his Records concerning the Countess 
 Matilda, written in Italian, and Bened. Bacchinius, 
 in his Historia Monaster]! Podalironcnsis. The fa- 
 lious Leibnitz, in his Scriptores Brunsvic. torn. i. p.- 
 629, and Lud. Ant. Muratori, in his SCriptoree Ee- 
 rum Italic, torn. v. p. 335, have published, with an- 
 notations, the ancient histories of the life of Matil- 
 da composed by Donizo, and another writer, whose 
 name is unknown, together with the copy of the se-' 
 cond act of cession by which that princess confirmed 
 her former grant to the church of Rome. We may 
 add here, that nothing relating to this extraordinary! 
 woman is more worthy of jier.usal than the accounts, 
 that we find of her and her second husband, in the' 
 Origines GuelphicB, tom. i lib iii cap. v. ettom. ii.; 
 lib v= 
 
 mained in the possession of a considerable part 
 of it, which they still enjoy.* 
 
 XIT. The plan that Gregory had formed for 
 raising the church above e31 human authority, 
 to a state of perfect supremacy and indepen- 
 dencephad many kinds of opposition to en- 
 counter, but none more, difficult to surmount 
 than that which arose from the two reigning 
 vices of concubinage and simony, that had in- 
 fected the whole body of the European clergy. 
 The pontiffs, from the time of Stephen IX., 
 had combated with zeal and vehemence those 
 monstrous vices,f but without success, as they 
 
 * Many learned men conclude' from the very act by 
 which this donation .was confirmed to the see ol 
 Rome, that Matilda comprehended' in the gift only 
 her allodial possessions, and not the territories which 
 she held as the fiefs of the empire, such -as the mar- 
 quisate of Tuscany, and the duchy of .Spoleto. For 
 
 the words of the act run thus: " Ego iUathildia 
 
 *' dedi et obtuli ecclesiae S. Petri .... omnia mea bona 
 "jure proprietario, tarn quae tunc habueram, quam 
 " ea quBEi in ahtea acquisitura cram, Bive jure BUC- 
 " cessionis, sive alio quocunque jure ad me pertine- 
 " ant." See the Origines GuelphicBB, tom. i. lib. iii. 
 p. 448. But it is much to 'be questioned, whether 
 this distinction is so evident as is pretended; tor the 
 words jure proprietario, from which it is inferred 
 that Matilda disposed of only her aUodial posses- 
 sions in favour pf St. Peter, dp not, in ray opihion, 
 relate to the possessi'ons of the testatrix, but to the 
 nature of the gift, and must be interpreted in con- 
 junction with the preceding verbs, " dedi et obtuli." 
 The princess does not say, " dedi on'inia bona quffi 
 *' jure proprietario possideo et habeo," i. e. " I have 
 " granted that part of my property which I hold by a 
 " supreme and independent right," in which case the 
 opinion'of the learned.men above:mentioned would 
 be well founded; but she say^, "dedi omnia bona 
 " mea ecclesiie jure proprietario," i. e. " my will is,, 
 " that the churdh shall possess.as its own property 
 "the inheritance I have left-to it." Besides, the fol-, 
 lowing words manifestly •show, tliat the opinion of 
 these learned men is destitute of all foundation, 
 since-Matilda would not have added, " 6i,ve jure suc- 
 cessionia, sive alio quocunqUe jure adme pertineant," 
 i. e. " I grant all my possessions, under whatever' ti- 
 tle I enjoy them, whether by right of succession, 'Or 
 by any other right," &c. had slie intended to confine 
 her donation to her allodistl possessions. Certain it 
 is, that in this ample grant she excepts no part -of 
 her property, but evidently comprehends in it her 
 whole substance. If it be objected to this, that the 
 pontic never affirmed that the fiefs of the empire, 
 which Matilda possessed, were compAhended in this 
 grant to thefr church, and that they only claimed 
 her allodial and independent possessions, I answer 
 by questioning the fact, since many circumstances 
 concur to prove, that they claimed the whole sub- 
 stance of Matilda, all her possessions without ex-' 
 ceptiori, ' as their , undoubted right. But, suppose 
 fora, moment that the case was otherwise, and 
 that the Roman church had never made such an uni- 
 versal claim, this would, by no means invalidate the' 
 opinion I here maintain, since the question under 
 consideration is n'ot, how far the ponti£& may have 
 moderated their pretensions to the territories of Ma- 
 tilda, but what is the true and genuine sense of the 
 words in which her donation is expressed. 
 
 t Monstrous vices we may justly call them; for,-' 
 though it be true, that, in the methods Gregory took 
 to extirpate these vices, he violated not only the 
 laws of religion, but also the dictates of natural 
 equity and j'jstice, and, under the mask of a pious 
 zeal, committed the most abominable enormities, yet 
 it is certain, on the other hand, that these vices pro- 
 duced' the most unhappy etfects both in church and 
 state, and that the suppression of them had now be- 
 come absolutely necessary. There were, indeed, 
 among the clergy several men of piety and virtue, 
 who lived in the bonds of wedlock, .and these Gre- 
 gory ought to have spared. But there is no doubt 
 that a prodigious number of ecclesiastics through- 
 out Europe, not only of priests and canons, but 
 also of monks, lived in the, bonds Of a criminal 
 love- kent. under the titles of wives, mistresses 
 
272 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Paht n. 
 
 had become too inveterate and too general to 
 be extirpated without the greatest difficulty 
 and the most extraordinary efforts. Accord- 
 ingly Giegonr, in the- year 1074, which was 
 the second of his pontificate, exerted himself 
 with much more vigour than his predecessors 
 had done in opposition to the vices already 
 mentioned. For this purpose he assembled a 
 council at Rome, in which all the laws of tlie 
 former pontiffs against aimony were renewed 
 and confirmed, and the purchase or sale of ec- 
 clesiastical benefices prohibited in the strictest 
 and severest manner. It was also decreed in 
 the same council, that the sacerdotal order 
 should abstain from marriage,, and that Buch 
 priests as already had wives or concubines, 
 should immediately dismiss them, or quit their 
 ofiEice. These decrees were accompanied with 
 circular letters, written by tlje pontiff to all 
 the European bishops, enjoining the sti:ictest 
 obedience to the decisions of this solemn coun- 
 cil, under the severest penalties. -Gregory did 
 not stop here, but sent ambassadors into Ger* 
 many to Henry VI. king of the Romans, in or- 
 der to engage that prince to summon a council 
 for the trial and punishment of such ecclesias- 
 tics as had been guilty of simoniacal practices. 
 
 whom they dismissed at pleasure, to enjoy the sweets 
 of a licentious variety; and not only spent, in the 
 most profiise and scandalous manner, the revenues 
 and treasures of the churches and convents to which 
 they belonged," but even distributed a great part of 
 them ainong their bastards. As to the vice of si- 
 mony, its general extent and its pernicious fruits ap- 
 pear evidently from those records, which the Bene- 
 dictine monks have published in several parts of 
 .theirGallia Christiana, not to mention a multitude 
 of other ancient papers to, the same purpose. One 
 or two examples will be sufficient to give the reader 
 an idea of this matter. We find in the first volume 
 of the admirable work now mentioned (in the Ap- 
 pend. Document, p. 5,) a public act by which Ber- 
 nard a viscount, and Froterius bishop of Albi, grant, 
 or rather sell, openly to Bernard Aimard and his son, 
 •the bishopric of Albi, reserving to themselves a con- 
 siderable part of its revenues. This act is followed 
 by another, in which count Pontius bequeaths to his 
 wife the same bishropic of Albi in the following 
 terms: " Ego Pontius dono tibi dilectae sponsae mea 
 " episcopatum Albiensem— curii ipsa ecclesia et cum 
 " orani adjacentia sua — et medietatem de episcopatu 
 " Nemauso,— et medietatem de abbatia Sti. jEgidii- - 
 " post obitum tuum remaneat ipsius alodis ad infan- 
 " tes qui de me erunt creati."— In the second volume 
 of the same learned work (in the Append, p. m,) 
 there Is a letter of the clergy of Limoges, beseeching 
 William, count of Aquitaine, not to sell the bishop- 
 ric but to give them a pastor, and-not a devourer of 
 the flock. "Rogamus tuam pietatem, ne propter 
 " mundale lucrum vendas Sti. Stepani locum, quia, 
 " si tu vendis episcopalia, ipse nostra manducabit 
 " communia.— Mitte nobis ovium custodem, non de- 
 "voratorem." Ademar, viscount of Limoges, la- 
 ments, (torn: li. p. 179.,) that "he himself had for- 
 merly made traffic of the cure of souls by selling be- 
 nefices to simoniacal abbots." The barefaced im- 
 pudence of -the sacerdotal orders, in buying and sel- 
 ling benefices, exceeded all measure, anS almost all 
 credibility; and they carried mattentso far as to vin- 
 dicate- that abominable traffic, as may be seen in a 
 remarkable passage in the Apologeticum of Abbo, 
 which is added by Pithou to the Codex Can. Eccle- 
 siffi Komanae; this passage, which deserves to be 
 quoted, is as follows: "Nihil pene ad ecclesiam par- 
 " tinere videtur, quod ad pretium non largiator, scili- 
 " cet episcopatus, presbyteratus, diaeonatus, et ali- 
 " qui minores gradus, archidiaconatus quoque, deca- 
 "nia prEepositura, thesauri cUstodia, baptisterium — 
 " et hujusmodi negotiatores subdola responsione so- 
 "lent astruere, non se emere benediotionem, qua 
 " percipitur gratia spiritus sancti, sed res ecclesia- 
 " rum vel posseasiones cpiscopi. An acute distinc- 
 tion tnilyl 
 
 Xin. These decrees, which were in part 
 equitable and justj and which were, in every 
 respect,' conformable with the notions of reli- 
 gion that prevailed in this age, were looted 
 upon by the people as highly salutary, since 
 they rendered a firee election, and not a merce- 
 nary purchase, the way to ecclesiastical pro- 
 motion, and obliged the priests to abstain from 
 marriage, whicli was absurdly considered, as 
 inconsistent with the sanctity of their office. 
 Yet both these decrees were attended with the 
 most deplorable tumults and dissensions, and 
 were fruitful, in their consequences, of innume- 
 rable calamities. No sooner was the law con- 
 cerning the celibacy of the clergy published, 
 than the priests, in the several provinces, of 
 Europe, who lived in the bonds of marriage 
 with lawful wives, or of lasciviousness with 
 hired concubines,* complained loudly of the 
 severity of this council ,i and excited dreadful 
 tumults in the greatest part of the European 
 provinces. Many of these ecclesiastics, espe- 
 cially the Milanese priests, chose rather to 
 abandon their spiritual dignities than their 
 sensual pleasures, and to quit their benefices 
 that the^ might cleave to their wives. They 
 went still farther: for they separated themselves 
 entirely from the church of Rome, and brand- 
 ed with the irifamous name of Patmni,^ i. e. 
 
 * All the historians who give an account of this 
 century, mention the tui]pults excited by such priests 
 as were resolved to continue with their wives or 
 concubines. For an account of the seditions which 
 arose in Germany^ upon this occasion, see Bigonius 
 de Kegh^ Italise, lib. ix. p. 557. toin. ii. as also Ten- 
 gnagel's CoUectio Veter. Monument, p.. 45, 47, 54. 
 Those which the priests excited in England, are 
 mentioned by M. Paris, in his Hist. Maj. lib. i. The 
 tumults occasioned by the-same reason in the Belgic 
 and Gallic provinces, are described in'the Epfstola 
 Clericorum Cameracensium ad Remenses pro- Ux ■ 
 oribus suis, published in Mabillon's Annal. Bene 
 dictin. tom. v. p. 634; and in the Epistola Novioma- 
 gensium Clericorum ad Cameracenses, published in 
 Mabillon's Museum Italicum, tom. i. p. 128. .Great 
 was the flame which the laws of Gregory excited in 
 Italy, and particularly in the province of Milan, of 
 which we have an ample relation, given by Arnulph 
 and Landulph, t\to Milanese historians, whose works 
 were published with annotations by Muratori, in hia 
 Scriptores Rerum Italicarum, tom. iv. p. 36. Both 
 these mstOTians maintain, against Gregory and his 
 succesBors/'the cause of the -injjired priests, and the 
 lawfulness of their marriages. 
 
 t Patetinus is one of the names by which the Pau- 
 licians or Manichffians (who came during this cen- 
 tury from Bulgaria' into Italy, and were also known 
 by the title of Catharia, or Pure) were distinguished 
 among the Italians. But, in process pfrtime, the 
 term Paterinus became a common name for all 
 kinds of heretics, as we might show by many ex- 
 amples taken from the writers of the twelfth and 
 thirteenth centuries. There are various opinions 
 concerning the origin of this word, the most probable 
 of which is that which supposes it derived from a 
 certain place called Paiaria, in which the heretics 
 held their assemblies; and it is well known, that a 
 part of the city of Milan is, to this very day, called 
 Patara, or Contrada de Patari. See Annotat. ad 
 Arnulphum Mediolanensem in Muratori's Scriptores 
 Kerum Italicar. tom.iv. p. 39; see also Saxius ad Sig- 
 oniumde Regno ItaliiE,lib.ix.p.536. An opinion (of 
 which, if I -err not, Sigonius was the author) pre- 
 vailed, that the name in question was given to the 
 Milanese priests, who separated from the church of 
 Rome, and retained their wives in opposition to tho 
 laws of the pontiflS. But this opinion is withoii 
 foundation; and it appears evidently from the testi- 
 mony of Arnulph and other historians, that not the 
 married priests, but the faction of the pontiffs, who 
 condemned their conjugal bonds, were branded with 
 the opprobrious name of Paterini. See Arnulph. lib 
 
Chap. II. 
 
 DOCTORS, CHURCH GOVERNMENT, &c. 
 
 273 
 
 Maniohteans, the pontiff and his adherents- 
 who condenmed so unjustly tlie conduct of 
 such priests as entered into the bonds of a 
 lawful and. virtuous wedlock. The proceed- 
 ings of Gregory appeared' to the wiser part, 
 even of those who approved the celibacy of 
 the clergy, unjust and criminal in two respects: 
 first, because his severity fell indiscriminately, 
 aad with equal' fury, upon the virtuous hus- 
 band and the licentious rake; and he dissolved, 
 with a merciless hand, the chastest bonds of 
 wedlock, and thus involved iiusbands and 
 vrives, with their tender offspring, in disgrace, 
 perplexity, anguish, and want.* The second 
 thing criminal in the measures taken by this 
 pontiff was, that, instead of chastising the 
 married priests with wisdom and moderation, 
 and according to the laws of the ecclesiastical 
 discipline,whose nature is wholly spiritual, he 
 gave_ them over to the civil magistrate, to be 
 punished as disobedient and unworthy sub- 
 jects, With the loss of their substance, and with 
 the most shocking marks of undeserved infamy 
 and disgrace.! 
 
 XIV. This vehement contest excited great 
 tumults and divisions, which, however, were 
 gradually calmed by length of time, "and also 
 by tlie perseverance of the obstinate pontiff; 
 
 ill. c. X. — Anton, .Pagi. Crit. in Ann. Bar." torn, iii. 
 ad an. 1057, sect. iii. Lud. Ant. Muratori 'Anfiq. Ital. 
 medii iEvi, torn. v. p. 82, who have demonstrated 
 this in the most ample, learned, and' satisfactory 
 manner. Nor need we, indeed, look any where else 
 for the origin of this word. It is abundantly known, 
 that the Manichaeans, and their brethren the Pauli- 
 cians, "were extremely averse to marriage, which 
 they looked upon as an iiistitution invented by the" 
 evil principle: they in consequence, who considered 
 the marriages of the -clergy ^as lawful, employed the 
 ignominious name of Paterini^ to show that the pon- 
 tiffi, who prohibited these marriages, were followers 
 
 " of the odious doctrines of the Manichaeans. i 
 * We must always remember that the priests,, to 
 whom their wives or mistresses were much dearer 
 than the laws atXbe pontifls, were not all of the 
 same character: nor were such of them as might Jje 
 justly deemed criminal, all criminal in the same de- 
 gree. The better sort of these ecclesiastics (among 
 which we may count the Belgic and Milanese clergy) 
 desired nothing more than to live after the manner 
 of the Greeks, maintaining that it was lawful for a 
 priest, before his consecration, to marry one virgin, 
 though a •plurality of wives had been justly prohibit- 
 ed; and they grounded this their opinion upon the au- 
 thority of St. Ambrose. See Jo. Petri Puricelli Dis- 
 sertatio uttum S. Ambrosius Olerd suo Mediolan. 
 
 . permiserit, u"t Virgini semel nubere possfnt, rcpub-., 
 lished by Muratori, in his Scriptores Italic, torn. iv^. 
 p. 123. Gregory and his -successors ought to have 
 dealt more gently with this kind of ecclesiastics (as 
 
 - the warmest admirers of the pontiffs acknowledge) 
 than with those priests who were either the patrons 
 of concubinage, or who pretended to justify their 
 espousing of a plurality of wives. It was also un- 
 just to treat, in the same manner, the monks, who, 
 by the nature of their profession "and vows, were 
 necessarily excluded from the nuptial state; and the 
 priests, who cou^d not bear the thoughts of being tqrn 
 from the chaste partners of their beds, whom they 
 had espoused with virtuous sentiments and upright 
 intentions, or from th^ tender olfspring which were 
 the fruit of virtuous love. 
 
 + Theodorici Verdunensis Epistola ad Gregorilim 
 "VIL-in MartenUe's Thesaur. Anecdotorum, torn. i. 
 p 218.—" Faciem meam in eo vel maxime confusione 
 " perfundunt, quod legem de clericorum incontinentia 
 •'per laicorum insanias cohibenda unquam suscep- 
 "erim-rNec putetis eos qui ita sentiunt. . . . eccle- 
 "siasticorum griiduum incontinentiam talibus de- 
 " fcnsionibus fovere vellc. Honestam convcrsationom 
 "in desiderio habent, noc alitor, quam oportet, 
 " ecclesiasticiE ultionis ccnsuram intentari gaudent. 
 Vol. I.— 35 ' 
 
 nor did any of the European kings and princes 
 concern themselves so much about the marria- 
 ges of the clergy as to maintain their cause, 
 and thereby to prolong the controversy. But 
 the troubles which arose from the law that re- 
 garded the extirpation of simony were not so 
 easily appeased; the) tumults it occasioned be- 
 came greater from day to day; the methods of 
 reconciliation more difficult; and it involved 
 both the church and state during several years 
 ■ill the deepest calamities and in the most com- 
 plicated scenes of confiision and distress.* 
 Henry IV. received indeed graciously the le- 
 gatesof Gregory, and applauded his zeal for 
 the extirpation of simony; but neither this 
 prince, nor the German bishops, would pefinit 
 these legates to assemble in council in Ger- 
 many, or -to proceed judicially^against those, 
 who, in time past, had been chargeable with 
 simoniacal practices. The pontiff, exasperated 
 at this restraint in the execution of his designs, 
 called another council to meet at Rome, in 
 1075, in which he pursued his adventiu'ous 
 project with greater iinpetiiosity and vehe- 
 mence than ever; for he not only excluded 
 from the communion of the church several 
 German and Italian bishops and certain favour- 
 ites of Henry, of whose counsels that prince 
 was said to make use in the traffic of ecclesi- 
 astical dignities, but also pronounced,, in a 
 formal edict, an " Anathema against whoever 
 "received the investiture of a bishopric or 
 " abbacy from the hands of a layman, as also 
 " against those by whom the investiture should 
 
 * We have extant a great number both of ancient 
 and' modern writers, who have related the circum- 
 stances of this dispute concerning investitures, which 
 was begun by Gregory "VII., was carried on by him 
 and his successors on the one side, and the -emperors 
 Henry I"V..and "V. on the other, and became a source 
 of innumerable calamities < to the greatest part of 
 Europe. But few or none of these writers have 
 treated this weighty subject with an ' entire impar- 
 tiality. They an pleaded either thfe cause of the ■ 
 pontifffe, orthat of the emperors, and decided the 
 controversy, not bythe laws- then in being (which 
 ought, no doubt, to be principally consulted,) or by 
 the opinions .that generally prevailed at the tinTe of 
 this contest, but by laws of their own invention, 
 and by the- opinions of modern times. The famous 
 Gretser, in his Apologia pro Gregorio VII. (which is 
 puhlished in the sixth volume of his works, and also 
 separately,) has collected the principal of the ancient 
 writers who maintained -the cause of the pontiff: -jn 
 opposition to whom, they who defended the cause of 
 Henry I"V". are collected by Melchior Goldastus, in 
 his Replicatio contra Gretserum et Apologia pro 
 Henrico IV. Hanov. 1611, 4to. - .Among the modern 
 writers who have treated this subject, we may 'reckon 
 the" Centuriatorcs Magdeburgenses, Baronius, the 
 German, and Italian historians, and those who have 
 written the life of the famous Matilda. But, besides 
 these, it will be highly proper to consult Jo. Schilte- 
 rus, de Libertate Ecclesiic Germanics, lib. iv. p. 481. 
 — Christ. Thomasiu&i^ Historia Contenlionis inter 
 Imperium et Sacerdptium — Hen. Meibomiua, Lib. de 
 Jure InveStiturfflf Episcopalis, tom- iii. Scriptorum 
 Rer. Gernlanicar.— Just. Chr.Dithmarus, Historia 
 Belli inter Imperium et Sacerdotium, and, above all, 
 th» famous cardinal -Norris, who fir surpasses in 
 point of erudition those whom we have mentioned, 
 and whose Istoria delle Investiture delleDignita Ec- 
 clesiastiche, which was published at Mantua, after 
 his death, ia 1741, is a most learned work, though it 
 be imperfect and 'probably maimed, and also ex- 
 tremely partial in favour of the pontiffs; which is 
 not surprising from the pen of a cardinal. Se.e' also 
 Jo. Jac. 'Mascovii Commentarii de Rebus, Imperii 
 Germanici sub Henrico IV. et V. 
 
274 
 
 INTERNAL fflSTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 be performed."* This decree alarmed the 
 emperors, lungs, and princes of Europe, who 
 m consequence of a prevailing customj had thfe 
 right of conferring the more important eccle- 
 siastical dignities, and the government of mon- 
 asteries and convents, of which they disposed 
 m a solemn manner by the well known cere- 
 mony of the rings^and the staflF or crosier, 
 which ftey presented to the candidate on 
 whom their choice fell: This solemn investi- 
 ture was the main supfiOrt of that power a£ 
 creating bishops and abbots, which the- Euro- 
 pean princes claimed as their undoubted right, 
 and the occasion of that corrupt commerce 
 called simony, in consequence of which, eccleT 
 siastical promotion was sold to the highest 
 bidder; and hence arose the zeal and ardour 
 of Gregory for the annulment of these inves- 
 titures, that he might extirpate simony on the 
 one hand, and diminish the power of princes 
 in ecclesiastical matters on the other. 
 
 «9 short digressipn concerning Inveslitwes.^ 
 
 It will not be improper to"- illustrate the 
 custom now mentioned of investing bishops 
 and abbots in their respective dignities by the 
 ceremony of the ring and crosier, since this 
 custom; has been ill understood by some, and 
 imperfectly explained by others. Even the 
 learned -cardinal Norris appears highly defec- 
 tive here; for though, in his History of Inves- 
 titureSjJ there are some pertinent hints and 
 remarks upon the reasons which engaged 
 Gregory to prohibit investitures altogether, 
 yet that learned prelate does not seem, to have 
 had a complete notion of this important matter, 
 since he omits in his history certain pBints that 
 are necessary to the proper knowledge of it. 
 The investiture of bishops suid abbots com- 
 menced, undoubtedly, at that period when the 
 European emperors, kings, and princes, m^de 
 grants to the clergy of certain territories^ lands, 
 forests, qastles, &c.- According to the laws 
 of those times (laws which still remain in 
 force) no persons weft deemed as lawftd pos- 
 sessors of the lands or tenements which they 
 derived from the emperors or other princes, 
 before they repaired to court, took the oath 
 of allegiance to their respective sovereigns, as 
 the supreme proprietors, and received from 
 their- hands a solemn mark, indicating a trans- 
 fer of the property of their respective grants. 
 Such was the maimer in which the nobility, 
 and those who had distinguished themselves 
 by military exploits, were confirmed in the 
 possessions "which they oweji to the liberality 
 of their sovereigns. But.the custom of invest- 
 ing the bishops and a,bbots with the ring, and 
 the crosier, which are the ensigns of the sacred 
 function, is of a much more recent date, and 
 was then first introduced, when the European, 
 emperors and princes, annulling the elections 
 that were made in the church according to the 
 ecclesiastical laws which had been from the 
 
 Pam li. 
 
 * Ant. Fagi Critica in Baroniuro, torn, jii. ad an. 
 1075 — Hen. Norns, Hist. Investiturarum, p. 39 — 
 Christ. Lupus, Scholia et Dissertation, aU Concilia, 
 lorn. vi. op. p. 39 — i4. 
 
 t Here the translator has placed the note (r) of 'the 
 original in the text^ under the fojrm of a dissertation. 
 
 X Cliap. iii. p. 56. 
 
 earliest times established for that purpose, as- 
 sumed to themselves the power of conferring,, 
 on whom they pleased, the bishoprics and 
 abbeys that became vacant in their dominions, 
 and even of selling them to the highest bidder. 
 This power, then, being once usurped by the 
 kings and princes of Europe, they at first con- 
 firmed the bishops and abbots in their dignities 
 and possessions, with the same forms and cere- 
 monies that were used in investing the counts, 
 knights, and'^others, with their feudal tenures, 
 even by written contracts, and the ceremony 
 of presenting them with a wand or bough.* 
 And this custom of investing the clergy and 
 the laity with the same ceremonies would have 
 undoubtedly continued, had hot the clergy, to 
 whom the right of electing bishops and ab- 
 bots originally belonged, artfully eluded the 
 usurpation of the emperors and other' princes 
 by the following stratagem. When a bishop 
 or abbot died,, they who 'looked upon them 
 selves as authorised to fill up the vacancy, 
 fleeted immediately some one of their order 
 in the place of the deceased, and were careful 
 to have him consecrated without delay. The 
 consecration being thus performed, the prince, 
 who had proposed to liimself the profit of sell- 
 ing the vacant benefice, or the pleasure of con- 
 ferring it upon one of hi^ favoiirites, was 
 obliged to desist 'from his ipurpose, smd to 
 consent to the election, which the ceremony 
 of consecration rendered irrevocable. Many 
 examples _ of the success of this stratagein, 
 which was practised both in chapters ancl 
 monasteries, and" which -disappointed the libe- 
 rality or avarice of several princes, might hete 
 be alleged; tliey abound in the records of the 
 tenth century, to which we refer the curious 
 reader. No sooner did the emperors and 
 princes perceive this artful management, than 
 they turned their attention to the most proper 
 means of rendering it ineffectual, and of pre- 
 serving the valuable- pri-vilege they had usurp- 
 ed. For this purpose they ordered, that, as 
 soon as a bishop expired, his ring and crosier 
 should be* transmitted to the prince, to whose 
 jurisdiction his diocese was subject; for it was 
 by the solemn delivery of the ring and crosier 
 of the deceased to the new bishop that his 
 election was irrevocably confirmed, and this 
 ceremony was an essential port of his conse- 
 cration; so that, when these two badges of the 
 episcopar dignity were in the hands of the 
 sovereign, the clergy could not consecrate the 
 person whom their suffrages had appointed to 
 fill the vacancy. Thus their stratagem was 
 defeated, as every election that was not con- 
 firhied by the ceremony of consecration might 
 
 ' * This appears from a passage in cardinal Hum- 
 bert's third book, adversus Simoniacos, which was 
 composed before Gregory had set on foot the dispute 
 concerning investitures, and which is published in 
 Martenne's Thesaur. Anecd. torn. v. p. 787. The 
 passage is as follows: "Potestas secularis primo 
 " ambltiosis ecclesiasticarum dignitatum vel posses- 
 " sionum cupidis favebat prece, dein minis, deinceps 
 *' verbis concessivis; in quibus omnibus cernens sibi 
 " contradictorem ncminem, nee qui raoveret pennam, 
 " vel aperiret os et ganniret, ad majora progreditur, 
 ** et jam sub nomine investiturs dare primo tabellas 
 *' vel qualescumque porrigerc virgulas, dcin baculos. 
 " — Q.uod maximum ncfas sic inolevit ut id solum ^. 
 *' noniciim credatur, ncc qua: sit ecctesiastica regula 
 " Bciatur aut altendutur." 
 
Cbu>. n. 
 
 DOCTORS, CHURCH GOVERNMENT, &c. 
 
 be lawfully annvilled and rejected; nor was the 
 bishop qualified to exercise any of the episcopal 
 functions before the performance of that im- 
 portant ceremony. As soon, therefore, as a 
 bishop drew his last breath, the magistrate of 
 the city in which he had. resided, or the go- 
 vernor of the province, seized his ring and 
 crosier, and sent them to court.* The emperor 
 or prince conferred the vacant see- upon the 
 person whom he had chosen by delivering to 
 him these two badges of the episcopal office; 
 after which the new bishop, thus invested by 
 his sovereign, repau-ed to his metropolitan, to 
 whom it belonged to perform the ceremony 
 of consecration, and delivered to him the ring 
 and crosier which he had received from his, 
 prince, that he might receive them again from 
 his hands, and be thus doubly confirmed in his 
 sacred function. It appears, therefore, from 
 this account, that each new bishop and abbot 
 received twice the ring and the crosier; once 
 from the hands of the sovereign, and once from 
 those of the metropolitan bishop, by whom 
 tfiey were consecrated.f 
 
 It is very uncertain by what prince this cus- 
 tom was originally introduced. If we may 
 believe Adam of Bremen,| this privilege was 
 exercised by Louis the Debonnaire, who, id 
 the ninth century ^.granted to the new bishops 
 the use and possession of the episcopal reve- 
 nues, and confirmed this grant by the cere- 
 mony 'now under consideration. But the ac- 
 curacy of this historian is liable to suspicion; 
 and it is probable that, he attributed to the 
 transactions of ancient times the same form 
 flaat accompanied similar transactions in the 
 eleventh century, in which he lived; fgr it is 
 certain that, in the ninth century, Jthe greatest 
 part of the European, princes made no opposi- 
 tion to the right of electing the bishops, which 
 was both claimed aijd exercised by the clergy 
 and; the people; and, consequently, there was 
 
 275 
 
 * We see this fact confirmed in ibe following pas, 
 sage in Ebbo's Life of Otho, bishop.of Biimburg, lib. 
 i, sec.t. 8,-9, iiTAotis Sanctor. mensis Julii, torn. i. p. 
 • 426. " Nee multo post annulus cum virga pastorali 
 "Breinensia,e,piscopi ad aulam regiam translata est. 
 *' Eo siqiiidem tempore ecclesia liberam electionem 
 " nonha bebat. . . . sed cuin quilibet antistes viam 
 " universse carnis ingressus fuisset, mox capitanei 
 " civitatis illius annulum et virgam- pastoratem ad 
 " Palatium transmittebant, sicque regia auctoritate, 
 *' communicato cum auljcis, consilio, orbata) plebi 
 *'idoneum constituebat prifisulem. . . . Post paucos 
 *' vero dies rursum annulu's.et virga pastoralis Bab- 
 *' enbergensis epi&copi domino imperatori transmi ssa 
 "est: quo audito, 'multi nobiles— ad aulam regnm 
 *' confluebant, qui alteram harum~ prece vel preuo 
 "sibi comparare tentabant." -. 
 
 t This appears from a variety of- ancient records. 
 See particularly Humbert, lib. iii. contra Simoniacoa, 
 cap. vi. in Martenne's Thesaur. Anecdot. torn. v. p. 
 779, in which we find the following passage: "Sic 
 *' enc(Bniatu&(i. e. the-bisliop investedby the emperor) 
 " violentus.invadit clerum, plebem et ordinem prius 
 " dominaturus, qnam ab eis cognoscatur, quaeratur, 
 " aut petatur. Sic metropolitanum aggreditur, non 
 "ab eo judicanJus, sed ipsum judicaturiis. — Q.uid 
 *'enim sibi jam pertinet aut prodest baculum et an- 
 " nulum, quos portat, reddere? Nuipquid quia a laica 
 " persona dati sunt? Cur redditur quod habetur, nisi 
 " ut aut denuo res ecclesiastica sub hac specie jue- 
 " sionig vel donationis vendatur, aut certe ut pra3- 
 " Bumptio Iaic£e ordinationis pallietur colore et 
 " velamento quodam discipline clericalis?" 
 
 I In his Historia Ecclesiastica", lib. i. cap. xxxii. 
 p. 10, xsxix. p. 12, published among the Scriptores 
 J'eptentrionales of Lindenbrogius. 
 
 then no occasion for the investjturo mentioned 
 by Adam of Bremen.* We therefore choose 
 to adopt the supposition of cardinal Humbert,^ 
 who places the commencement of the custom 
 now under consideration in the reign.iof Otho 
 the Great; for, though this opinion nas not the 
 approbation of Louis Thomassin and Natalia 
 Alexander, yet these learned men, in their 
 deep researches into the origin of investitures, J 
 have advanced nothing sufficient to prove it 
 erroneous. We learn also fi:om Humbert,! 
 that the emperor Henry III., the son df Conrad 
 II. was desirous of abrogating these investi- 
 tures, though a variety of circumstances con- 
 curred to prevent the execution tjf his design; 
 but he represents Henry I., king of France, in 
 a different point of light, as a turbulent prince, 
 who turned all things into confusion, and in- 
 dulged himself beyond all measure in simo- 
 iiiacal practices; and he therefore loads him with 
 the bitterest invectives. 
 
 In this method of creating bishops and ab- 
 bots, by presenting to them the ring and cro- 
 sier, there were two things that gavg, particular 
 offence to the Roman pontiffs. One was, that 
 by this the ancient right of election was totally 
 changed, and the power of choosing, the ruleia 
 of the church was usurped by the emperors 
 and other sovereign princes, and was confined 
 to tlieni alone. This indeed was the most 
 plausible reason of complaint", when we con- 
 sider the religious notions of those 'times, 
 which were by no means favourable to the 
 cifcduct of the^ emperors in this affair. Another 
 circumstance that grievously distressed the 
 pretended vicars of St. Peter, was, to see the 
 ring saA crosier, the venerable badges of spi- 
 ritual authority and distinction,- delivered to 
 the bishop elect by the profane hands of un- 
 sanctified laymen; an abuse which they looked 
 upon as little better than sacrilege. Humbert, 
 who, as we previously stated, wrote his book 
 against simony before the contest between the 
 emperor and Gregory^ had commenced, com- 
 plains|| heavily of this supposed profanation, 
 and shudders to think, that the sicrj' which de- 
 notes the-ghostly shepherd, and the ring which 
 seals the mysteries of heaven,1f deposited in 
 the bosoms of the episcopal order, should be 
 polluted by the unhallowed touch of a civil 
 
 ' * Add to this the refutation of Adam of JJremen, 
 by Dapiel Papebroch, ia,the Acta Sanctorum, torn, 
 i. Febr.^p. 557. 
 
 t Humbert, lib. iii. contra Simoniacos, cap. vii. p. 
 780, ana cap. xi. p. 787. 
 
 X See Ludov. Thomtissilii Dlsciplina Eccles. circa 
 Benef. torn. ii. lib. ii. p. 434; and Natal, Alexander, 
 Select. Histor. Eccles. Capit. Siec. xi, xii. Diss. iv. p. 
 725. • • ■ ~ 
 
 § Lib. iii. cap. vii. 
 
 .fSee Humbert, lib. iii. contra Simoniac. cap. vi. 
 p. 779, 795. Hid words are, " ftuid ad laicas pertinet 
 " personas sacrahienta ecclesiastica et poiltificalem 
 "sen pastoralem gratiam distribuere, camyros BCili- 
 " cet baculos et annulos, quibus prfficique perficitur, 
 "militat et innititur tota episcopalis consecratio? 
 " Eqiiidem in camyris. baculis — designatur, quae eis 
 " committftur cura pastoralis.— Porro annulus signa- 
 " culum secretorum ccelestium indicat, prsemonens 
 " prsedicatores, ut secretam Dei sapientiam . cum 
 " apostolo dissignent. - (iuicunque ergo his duobus 
 "alitjuem initiant, procul-dubio omnem pastoralem 
 " auctoritatcm hoc prajsumendo sibi vendicant." 
 
 ^Humbert mistook the spiritual signification of 
 this holy ring, which was the emblem of a nuptial 
 bond between the bishop and his see. 
 
2ir& 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part II. 
 
 ■ate; and that emperors and princes, by 
 presenting them to their favourites, should 
 thereby usurp the prerogatives of the church, 
 Md exercise the pastoral authority and' power. 
 Ihis complaint was entirely consistent, as we 
 have already observed, with the opinions of 
 the times in which it was made; for, as the 
 nng and crosier were generally esteemed the 
 marks and badges of pastoral power and spi- 
 "'"^'j^uftority, so he who conferred these sa- 
 cred badges was supposed to confer and cora- 
 '""f'oate with them the spiritiial authority of 
 which they were the emblems. 
 
 All these things being duly "considered, we 
 shall immediately perceive what it was that 
 rendered Gregory VH. so averse to the pre- 
 tensions of the emperors, and so zealous in de- 
 priving them .of the privilege they had assumed 
 of investing the bishops with the ceremony of 
 the ring and crosier. In the first council which 
 he assembled at Rome, he made no attempt, 
 indeed, against investitures, nor did he aim at 
 anything farther than the abolition of simony, 
 and the restoration of the sacerdotal and mo- 
 nastic orders to their ancient right of electing 
 their respective bishops and abbots. But, when 
 he afterWards-found that the affair of investi- 
 ture was inseparably connected with the pre- 
 tensions of the emperors, who seemed to con- 
 sider it as empowering them to dispose, of the 
 higher ecclesiastical dignities and benefices, 
 he was persuaded that simony could not be 
 extirpated as long as investitures were in, 
 being; and, therefore, to pluek up the evil *y 
 the root, he opposed the latter custom with 
 the utmost vehemence. All this, shows the 
 true rise of the war that was carried on be- 
 tween the pontiff and the emperor with such 
 bitterness and fiiry. 
 
 And to understand still more clearly the 
 merits of this cause, it will be proper to ob- 
 serve, that it was not investiture, generally 
 considered, that Gregory opposed with such 
 keenness and obstinacy, but that particular 
 species which prevailed at this tihie. He did 
 not pretend to hinder the bishops from swear- 
 ing allegiance to kings and emperors, or even 
 fi-om becoming their vassals; and so far was he 
 from prohibiting that kind of investiture which 
 was performed by a verbal declaration or by a 
 written deed, that, on the contrary, he allowed 
 the kings of England and France to invest in 
 this manner, an Jprobably consented to the use 
 of the sceptre in this ceremony, as did also 
 after him Calixtu's 11. But he could not bear 
 the ceremony of investiture that was performed 
 with the ensigns of the sacerdotalorder, much 
 less could he endiire the performance of the 
 ceremony before the solemn rite of consecra- 
 tion; but what rendered investitures most odioiis 
 to this pontiff, was their destroying entirely the 
 free elections of bishops and abbots. It is now 
 time to resume the thread of our history. ' 
 
 XV. The severe law that had been enacted 
 against investitures, by the influence and au- 
 thority of Gregory, made very little impression 
 upon Henry. He acknowledged, indeed, that 
 m exposing ecclesiastical benefices to sale, he 
 had acted improperly, and he promised amend- 
 ment in that respect; but he remained inflexi- 
 ble against all attempts that were made to 
 
 persuade him to resign his power of creating 
 bishops and abbots, and the right of investi- 
 ture, which was intimately cormected with this 
 important privilege. Had the emperor been 
 seconded by the German princes, he might 
 have maintained this refusal with dignity and 
 success; but this was far from being the case; 
 a considerable number of these princes, and 
 among others the states of Saxony, were the 
 secret or declared enemies of Henry; and this 
 fiimished Gregory with an opportunity of ex- 
 tending his authority, and executing his ambi- 
 tious projects. This was by no means ne- 
 glected; the imperious pontiff took occasion, - 
 from the discords that divided the, empire, to 
 insult and depress its chief; he sent, by his 
 legates, an insolent message to the emperor at 
 Goslar, ordering him to repair immediately to 
 Rome, and clear himself, before the council 
 that would be assembled there, of. the various 
 crimes that were laid to his charge. Tlie em- 
 perot, whose high spirit could not brook such 
 arrogant treatment, was filled with the warm- 
 est indignation at the view of that insolent 
 mandate; and, in the vehemence of his just 
 resentment, convoked without delay a council 
 of the German bishops at Worms. In that 
 assembly; Gregory was charged with several 
 flagitious practices, and deposed from the pon- 
 tificate, of which he was declared unworthy; 
 and orders were given for the election of a new 
 pontiff". Gregory opposed violence to violence; 
 for no sooner had he received, by the letters 
 and ambassadors of Henry, an account of the 
 sentence' that had been pronounced against 
 him, than, in a fit of vindictive phrensy, he 
 thundered his anathemas at the head of that 
 prince, excluded him both from the commu- 
 nion of the church and fromthe throne of his 
 ancestors, and impiously dissolved the oath of 
 allegiance which his subjects had taken to him 
 as their lawful sovereign. Thus war was de- 
 clared pn both sides; and the civil and ecclesi- 
 astical powers were divided into two great fac- 
 tions, of which one maintained the rights of 
 the emperor, while the other seconded the am- 
 bitious views of the pontiff^ No terms are 
 sufficient to express the complicated scenes j)f 
 misery that arose from this deplorable schism. 
 . XVI. At the entrance upon this war, the 
 Suabian chiefe, with duke Rodolph at their 
 head, revolted from Henry; and the Saxon 
 princes, whcse former quarrels with the empe- 
 ror had been lately terminated by their defeat 
 and submission,* followed their example. 
 These imited powers, being solicited by the 
 pope to elect a new emperor if Hera^ should 
 persist in his disobedience to the orders of the 
 church, met at Tribur, in 1076, to take coun- 
 sel together concerning a matter of such high 
 importance. The result of the deliberation was 
 far from being favourable to the emperor; for 
 they agreed, that the determination of the con- 
 troversy between him and them should be re- 
 ferred to tlie pope, who was to be invited for 
 
 (0= * This same Rodolphhad, the year before this 
 revolt, vanquished the Saxons, and obliged them to 
 submit to the emperor. Beside the Suabian and 
 Saxon chiefs, the dukes of Bavaria and Carinthia, 
 the bishops of Wurtzburg and Worms, and several 
 other eminent personages, were concerned in thw 
 revolt. 
 
Chap. II. 
 
 DOCTORS, CHURCH GOVERNMENT, &c. 
 
 277 
 
 that purpose to a congress at Augsburg in the 
 following year, and that, in the mean time, 
 Henry should be suspended' from his royal djg- 
 riity, and live in the obscurity of a private sta- 
 tion; to which rigorous conditions they also 
 added, that he was to forfeit his kingdom, if,, 
 within the space of a year, he should not be 
 restored to the bosom of the church, and deli- 
 vered from the anathema that lay upon his 
 head. When things were come to this des- 
 perate extremity, and the faction, which ws(s 
 formed against this unfortunate prince, grew 
 more formidable ftom day to day, his friends 
 advised him to go into Italy, and implore in. 
 person the clemency of the pontiff. The em- 
 peror yielded to this ignominious counsel, 
 without," however, obtaining from his voyage 
 the advantages he expected. He passed the 
 Alps, amidst the rigour of a severe winter, and 
 arrived, in February, 1077, at the fortress of 
 Cantisium, where the sanctimonious pontiff re- 
 sided at that time *ith the young Matilda, 
 countess of Tuscany, the most powerful pa- 
 troness of the church, and the most tender and 
 affectionate of all the spiritual daughters of 
 Gregory. Here .the suppliant prince", un- 
 jnindfiil of his dignity, stood, during three 
 days, in the open. air at the entrance of this 
 fortress, with his feet ba3re, his head uncovered, 
 and with, no other raiment tiian a wretched 
 piece of coarse wooUen cloth thrown over his 
 body to cover his nakedness. On the fourth 
 day, he was admitted to the presence of the 
 .lordly pontiff, who with difficulty granted him 
 the absolution he demanded; but, as to his po- 
 litical restoration, hejefnsed to determine that 
 point before the approaching congress, at 
 which he made Henry promise to appear, for- 
 bidding him, at the same time, to assume, dur- 
 ing this interval, the title of king, or to wear 
 the ornaments or exercise the functions of roy- 
 alty. This opprobrious convention justly.ex- 
 cited the indignation of the princes and bishops 
 of Italy, who threatened Henry with all sorts 
 of evils, on account of his base and pusilla;ni- 
 mous conduct, and would undoubtedly have 
 deposed him, had not he allayed their resent-, 
 ■ raent by violating the convention into which 
 he had been forced to enter with the imperious 
 pontiff, and resuming the title and other marks 
 of royalty which he -had been obliged to re- 
 linquish. On the other hand, the confederate 
 princes of Suabia^and Saxony were no sooner 
 informed of this jmexpected change in the con- 
 duct of Henryj^than lliey assembled at Forc- 
 heiJn in Mar(ai,rl077, and unanimously elected 
 Rodolph, duke of Siiabia, emperor in his 
 place.* 
 
 XVn. This rash step kindled a terrible 
 flame in Gerrnany and Italy, and involved, foi 
 a long time, those unhappy lands in the cala- 
 mities of war. In Italy, the Normans, who 
 
 * The ancient and modern writers of Italian and 
 German history have given ample relations of all 
 these events, though not all with the same fidelity 
 and accuracy. In the brief account I have given of 
 these events, I have followed the genuine sources, 
 and those writers whose testimonies are^ the most 
 respectable and sure, such as Sigonius, Pagi, Mura- 
 tori, Mascovius, Norris, &c. who, though they differ 
 in some minute circumstances^ yet agree in those 
 matters which are of the most importance. 
 
 were masters of the lower parts of that coun- 
 try, and the armies of the powerful and valiant 
 Matilda, maintained successfully the cause of 
 Gregory against the Lombards, who espoused 
 the interests of Henry; while this unfortunate 
 prince, with all the. forces he could assemble, 
 -carried on the war in Germany against Ro- 
 dolph and the confederate princes. Gregory, 
 considering the events of war as extremely 
 doubtful, was at first afraid to declare for either 
 side, and therefore observed, diuing a certain 
 time, an appearance of neutrality; but, encou- 
 raged by tiie battle of Fladenheim, in which 
 Henry was defeated by the Saxons, in 1080, 
 he excommunicated anew that vanquished 
 prince, and, sending a crown to the victor Ro- 
 dolph,; declared him lawful king of the Ger- 
 mans. The injured emperor did not suffer 'this 
 new insult to pass unpunished. Seconded by 
 the suffrages of several of fhe Italian and Ger- 
 man bishops, he deposed Gregoly a second, 
 time in a council which met at Mtent?, and, in 
 a synod' that was soon after assembled at 
 Brixen, in the province of Tirol, he raised to 
 the pontificate" Guibert,' archbishop of Raven- 
 na, who assumed the title of Clement HI. 
 when he was Consecrated at Rome in 1084, 
 four years afler hjs election. 
 
 Xvni. This election was soon followed by 
 an occurrence which gave an advantageous 
 turn to the affairs of Henry: this event waa a 
 bloody battle fought upon' the banks of. the 
 river Elster, where Rodolph received-a mortal 
 wound, of which he died at Mersburg. The 
 emperor, freed from this formidable enemy, 
 marched into Italy, in the following year 
 (1081,) with a design to crush Gregory and 
 his adherents, whose defeat he imagined would 
 contribute effectually to put an -end to the 
 troubles in Germany. Accordingly he made 
 several campaigns, with various success, 
 against the vaUant troops of Matilda; and, after 
 having raised twice the siege of Rome, he re- 
 siimed with alacrity that bold enterprise, and 
 became, in 1084, master of the greatest part 
 of that city. His first step after this success 
 was to place Guibert in the papal chair: he 
 then received the imperial crown from the 
 hands of the new pontiff, was Saluted emperor 
 by the, Roman people, and laid close siege to 
 the castle of St. Angelo, whether his determin- 
 ed enemy, Gregory, had fled foi safety. He 
 was, however, forced to raise the siege by the 
 valour of Robert Guiscard, duke of Apulia 
 and Calibria, who brought Gregory in triumph 
 to Rome; but, not thinking hini safe there, 
 conducted him afterwards to Salemum. Here 
 the famous pontiff ended his days in the suc- 
 ceeding year, and left Europe involved in tho^ 
 calaiii.ties which were the fatal effects of his 
 boundless ambition. He was certainly a man 
 of e:^tctisive abilities, endowed with a mCst en- 
 terprising genius, and an invincible firmness 
 c^mind; but it niust, at the same time, lie ac- 
 knowledged, that he was the most arrogant 
 and audacious pontiff that had hitherto filled 
 the papal chair. The Roman church worships 
 him as a saint, though it is certain that he was 
 neyer plaiced in that order by a regular canon- 
 ization. Paul v., about' the beginning of the 
 seventeenth century, appointed the twenty- 
 
278 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part II. 
 
 fifth day of May, as a festival sacred to the 
 memory of this pretended saint;* but the empe- 
 rors of Germany, the kings of France, and 
 other Eviropean princes, have always opposed 
 the celebration of this festival, and have thus 
 effectually prevented its becoming universal. 
 In our times, the zeal of Benedict XIII. to se- 
 cure to Gregory the saintly honours, occasion- 
 ed a contest, the result of which was by no 
 means favourable to his superstitious views. ■[ i 
 iXIX. Tile deatli of Gregory neither restored 
 peace to the-church, nor tranquillity to tlie 
 state; the tumults and divisions which he had 
 excited still continued, and they were aug- 
 mented from day to day by the same passions 
 to which they owed their origin. Clement III. 
 who was the emperor's pontiffi| was master- 
 of the city of Rome, and was acknowledged as 
 pope by a great part of Italy. Henry carried 
 on the war in Germany against the confeder- 
 ate princes. The faction of Gregory, supported 
 by the Normans, chose for his successor, in 
 1086, Dideric, abbot of Mount Cassin, who 
 adopted the title of Victor III. and was conse- 
 crated itfthe church of St. Peter, in 1087, when 
 that part of the city was recovered by the Nor- 
 mans fi-om the dominion of Clement. But this 
 new pontiff was of a character quite opposite 
 to that of Gregory; he was modest and timor- 
 ous, and also of a mild and gentle disposition; 
 and finding the papal chair beset with factions, 
 and the city of Rome under the dominion of 
 his competitor, he retired to his monastery, 
 where he soon after ended his days in peace. 
 But, before his abdication,- he held a council 
 at Benevento, where he confirmed and renewed 
 the laws that Gregory had enacted for the 
 aboUtion of investitures. 
 
 XX. Otho, monk of Clugni, and bishop of 
 Ostia, was, by Victor's recommendation-, cho- 
 sen to succeed him. This new pontiff was 
 elected at Terracini, in 1088, arid assumed the 
 name of 0rban II. Infericir to Gregory in foi> 
 titude and resolution, he was, however, his 
 equal in arrogance and pride, and surpassed 
 him greatly in temerity and imprudence. § The 
 commencement of his pontificate had a fair 
 aspect, and success seemed to smile upon his 
 undertakings; but on the emperor's return into 
 Italy, in 1090, the face of affairs -was totally 
 changed; .victory crowned the arms of that 
 prince, who, by redoubled efforts of valour, at 
 length defeated Guelph, duke of Bavaria, and 
 the fa.mous Matilda, who were the formidable 
 
 * Seft tile Acta Sanetor. Antwerp, ad d.xxv. Mail, 
 and Mabillon, Acta Saiict. Ord. Benedict. Saec. vi. 
 part II. 
 
 t The reader will find an ample and curious ac- 
 count of tbis matter in a Frencii book published in 
 Holland in 1743, under the following title: L'Avocat 
 du Diable.'ou MemoireB Historiques et Critiques sur 
 la Vieet slu- laLegendedu Pape Gregoire. VII. 
 
 X This pontiff died in 1100, as appears evidently 
 from-the Chronicon Beneventanura, published'byMu- 
 ratori, in his Antiq. Ital. torn. i. p. 262. . See also 
 Rubei Historia Ravennat. lib. v.' p. 307. 
 
 § We find in the Posthumous Works of Mabillon, 
 torn. iii. the Life of Urban II. composed by Theod. 
 Ruinart, with much learning and industry, but with 
 too little impartiality and fidelity, as we may natu- 
 rally suppose even from the name of its author, since 
 itisw^ll known that no monkish writer durst at- 
 tempt to paint the pontiffs in their true colours. — 
 See also, for an account of Urban, the Hist. Lit. de 
 la France torn. viii. p. 514. 
 
 heads of the papal faction. The abominable 
 treachery of his son Conrad, who, yielding to 
 the seduction of his father's enemies, revolted 
 against him, and, by the advicq and assistance 
 of Urban and Matilda, usurped the kingdom 
 of Italy, revived the drooping spirits of that 
 faction, who hoped to see the laurels of the 
 emperor blasted by this odious and uimatural 
 rebellion. The consequences, however,, of this 
 event, were less mischievous to Heru'y, than 
 his enemies expected. In the mean time the 
 troubles of Italy still continued; nor could Ur- 
 ban, vfith all his efforts, reduce Rome under 
 his lordly yoke. Finding all his ambitious 
 measures disconcerted, he assembled a council 
 at Placentia, in 1095, where he confimied the 
 laws and the anathemas of Gregory; and after- 
 wards imdertook a journey into France, where 
 he held Uie famous council of Clermont, and 
 had the pleasure of kindling a new war against 
 the infidel possessors of the holy land, hi this 
 council, instead of endeavouring to terminate 
 the tumults, and desolations that the dispute 
 concerning investitures had already produced, 
 this unworthy pontiff added fuel to the flame, 
 and so exasperated matters by his imprudent 
 and arrogant proceedings, as to render an ac- 
 commodation between the contending parties 
 more difiioult than ever. Gregory, notwith- 
 standing his insolence and ambition, had never 
 carried matters so far as to forbid tiie bishops 
 and-J;he rest of thte clergy to take the oath of 
 allegiance to their respective sovereigns. This 
 rebellious prohibition was reserved for the au- 
 dacious arrogance of Urban, ivho published it 
 as a law in the council of Clermont.* After 
 this noble expedition, the restless ponl^iff re- 
 turned into Italy, where he made himself mas- 
 ter of the castle of St. Angelo, and soon after 
 ended his days, in 1099; he was not long sur- 
 vived by his antagonist, Clement III> who died 
 in the following;; year, and thus left Baynier 
 (a Benedictine monk, who was chosen succes- 
 sor to Urban, and assumed the name of Pascal 
 II.) sole possessor of the papal chair at the 
 conclusion of this century. 
 
 XXI. Ainong the eastern monks in this cen- 
 tury, there happened nothing worthy of being 
 consigned to the records of history, while those 
 of the west were concerned immediately in 
 transactions of great consequence, and which 
 deserve tfie attention, of the curious reader. 
 The western monks were remarkable for their 
 attachment to the Roman pontiffs. This con- 
 nexion had been long formed, and it was ori- 
 ginally occasioned by the avarice and violence 
 of both bishops and princes, who, under vari- 
 ous pretexts, were constantly encroaching upon 
 the possessions of the monks, and thus obliged 
 them to .seek for security against these inva- 
 sions of their property in the protection of the 
 popes. This protection was readily granted 
 
 . * To the- fifteenth canon of this council the follow- 
 ing words were added; " Ne episcopus vel sacerdos 
 "regi vel' alicui laico in manibus ligiam fidelitatem 
 ■" faciat," i. e. " It is enacted, that no bishop or priest 
 " shall promise upon oath, liege obedience to any king 
 " or any layman." They are entirely in an error, who 
 affirm that Gregory prohibited the bishops fVom tak- 
 ing oaths of allegiance to their respective sovereigns, 
 as cardinal Norris has sufficiently demonstrated in 
 his Istoria delle Investiture; chap. x. p. 279. 
 
Chap. H. 
 
 DOCTORS, CHURCH GOVERNMENT, &c. 
 
 279 
 
 by the pontifiS, who seized, with avidity, every 
 occasion of enlarging their authority; and the 
 monks, in return, engaged themselves to pay an 
 annual tribute to theTr ghostly patrons. But in 
 this century things were Carried still farther; and 
 the pontiffs (more especially Gregftry VI-I. who 
 was eagerly bent Tapon humbling the bishops, 
 and transferring their privileges to the Roman 
 soo) enlarged their jurisdiction over the monks 
 at the expense of the episcopal' order. They 
 advised and exhorted the monks to witl^draw 
 themselves and their possessions from the ju- 
 risdiction of the bishops, and to place both un- 
 der the inspection and doitiijiion of St. Peter.* 
 Hence, from the time of Gregory, the number 
 of monasteries that had received immunities, 
 both from the* temporal authority of the sove- 
 reign and the spiritual jurisdiction of the bi- 
 shops, increased beyond measure throughout 
 Europe; and the lights' Of princes, together 
 ^with the interests and privileges of the episco- 
 pal order, were violated and trampled upon, 
 or rather engrossed, to swell the growing des- 
 potism of the all-grasping pontiffs.! 
 
 XXII. All the writers of this age complain 
 of the ignorance, licentiousness, fraiids, de- 
 baucheries, dissensions, and enormities, that 
 dishonoured the greatest part of the monastic 
 orders, not to mention the numerousmarks of 
 their profligacy and impiety that have been 
 handed down to our times. j: However aston-. 
 ished we may be at such gross irregularities 
 among a set of men whose destination was so 
 sacred, and whose profession was so austere, we 
 sliall, still be more surprised to learn that this 
 degener&,te order, far from losing aught of their 
 influence and credit on account of their licen- 
 tiousness, were promoted, on the contrary, to 
 the highest ecclesiastical dignities, and beheld 
 their opulence and authority increasing from 
 day to day. Our surprise, indeed, will be di- 
 ^nished, when we consider the gross' igno- 
 rance and superstition, and the uiibounded li- 
 centiousness and corruption of manners, that 
 reigned in this century among all ranks and 
 orders of men.§ Ignorance and corruption 
 
 * A specimen of -this may be seen in the seventh 
 Epistle of Gregory, in .which- he reduces the monks 
 of Bedon under the jurisdiction of the Roman see, 
 by a mandate conceived in terms ^that had never 
 been used before his-tiine; see -Martenne's Thesaur. 
 Anecdot. tom. i. p. 304., We .may add, to tills, seve- 
 ral similar mandates of Urban II. and the succeed- 
 ing pontiff, which are to be found in the collection 
 now cited, and in others of that kind. 
 
 t There is not, perhaps, in Germany, a single in- 
 stance of this pernicious immunity before the time 
 of Gregory VII. 
 
 X See Jo. Launoi, Assert, in Privileg. S. Medardi, 
 cap.- Kxvi. sect. vi. op. tom. ill. part II. p. 49!)j and 
 Simon, Biblioth. Critique, tom. iii. cap. xxxii. p. 331. 
 
 g For an account of the astonishing corruption of 
 this age, see Blondel, de Formula, regnante Christo, 
 p. 14. — Boulainvilliers, de I'Origine et des Droits de 
 la Noblesse, in Molet's Memoires de Literature et 
 d'HJstoire, tom. ix. part i. p. 63. The corruption and 
 violence that reigned with impunity in this horrid 
 age gave occasion to the institutions of chivalry or 
 knighthood, in consequence of which, a certain set 
 of equestrian heroes undertook the defence of the 
 poor and feeble, and particularly- of the fair sex, 
 agaiiiat the insults of powerful oppressors and ra- 
 visheis. This order of knigjhts errant certainly be- 
 came' very useful in these miserable times,-when the 
 majesty of laws and> government had. fallen into 
 contempt, and when they who bore the titles of sove- 
 reigns and magistrates, had neitJier resolution nor 
 
 pervert the taste and' judgment even of those 
 who are not void of natural SEtgacity, and often 
 prevent their being shocked at the greatest in- 
 consistencies; Amidst this general deprava- 
 tion of sentiment and conduct, ainidst the fla- 
 gitious crimes that were daily perpetrated, not 
 only by the laity, but also by the various or- 
 ders of the clergy, both secular and regular, 
 all such as respected the common rul^s of de- 
 cency, or preserved in their external demeanor 
 the least appearance of piety and virtue, were 
 looked- upon as saints of the highest rank, and 
 considered as the pecuhar favourites of Hea- 
 ven. This circumstance was, no doubt, far 
 vourable to many of the monks who were less 
 profligate than thefest of their order, and might 
 contribute more or less to support the credit of 
 the whole poij. Besides, it often happened, 
 that princes, dukes, knights, and generals, 
 whose days had been consumed in debauchery 
 and crimes, and distinguished by nothing but 
 the violent exploits of unbridled lust, cruelty, 
 and avarice, felt, at the approach of old age, or 
 death, the inexpressible anguishof a wounded 
 conscience, and the gloomy apprehensions and 
 terrors it excites. In this dreadful condition, 
 what was their resource? What were the means 
 by which they hoped to disarm the uplifted hand 
 of divine justice, and render the governor of 
 the world propitious? They purchased, at an 
 enormous price, the prayers of the monks to 
 screen them from judgment, and devoted to 
 God and to the saints a large portion of the 
 fruits of their rapine, or entered into the mo-; 
 nastic order, and bequeathed their possessions 
 to their new brethren. And thus it was that 
 monkery perpetually received new accessions 
 of Opulence and credit. 
 
 XXni. The monks of Clugni in France 
 surpassed all the other religious orders in the 
 renown they had acquired, ftom a prevailing 
 opinion of their eminent sanctity and virtue. 
 Hence their discipline was universally respfect- 
 ed, and hence also their rules were adopted by 
 the founders of new monasteries, and the re- 
 formers of those that were in a state of de- 
 cline. These famous monks arose, by degrees, 
 to the highest «ummit of worldly prosperity, 
 by the presents which they received from all 
 quarters; and their power and credit grew, 
 with their opulence, to such a height, that, to- 
 ward the conclusion of this century, they were 
 formed into a separate society, which still sub- 
 sists, under the title of the Ord.er or Congrega 
 tidn of Clugni.* And no sooner were they 
 thus established, than they extended their spi- 
 ritual dominion on all sides; reducing, under 
 their jurisdiction, all the monasteries which 
 they had reformed by their counsels. The fa- 
 mous Hugo, sixth abbot of Clugni, who was 
 in high credit at the court of Rome, and had 
 acquired the peculiar protection and esteem 
 of several princes, laboured with such success, 
 in extending the power and jurisdiction of his 
 order, that, before the end of this century, he 
 
 power to maintain their authority, or to perform the 
 duties of their stations." -x 
 
 * For a particular account of the rapid and mon- 
 strous strides whichHhe order of Clugfti made to opu- 
 lence and dominion, see Stepil. Baluze, Miscellam 
 tom. V. p. 343, and tom. vi. p. 436, as also Mabillon 
 Annal. Benedict, tom. v, passim. 
 
280 
 
 INTERNAL fflSTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 PaetII 
 
 saw himself at the head of fivo-aad-thirty of 
 the principal monasteries in France, beside a 
 considerable number of smaller convents that 
 acknojf ledged him as their chief. Many other 
 religious societies, though they reftiseS to en- 
 ter into this new order, and continued to choose 
 their respective governors, yel^ showed such 
 respect for the abbot of Clugni, or the Arch- 
 Abbot, as he styled himself, that they regarded 
 him as their spiritual chief* This enormous 
 augmentation of opulence and authority was, 
 however, fruitful of many evils; it increased 
 the arrogance of these aspiring monks, and 
 contributed much to the propagation of the 
 several vices that dishoiioured the religious 
 societies of this licentious and superstitious 
 age. The monks of Clugrii soon degenerated 
 from their primitive sanctity, and were distin- 
 guished-by nothing but the peculiarities of their 
 discipline, from tlie rest of the monastic orders. 
 XXIV. The example of these monks excited 
 several pious men to erect particular monastic 
 fraternities, or congregations, like that of 
 Clugni,. Hie consequence of which was, that 
 the Benedictine order, which had been hither- 
 to one great and compact body, was now di- 
 vided into separate societies, which, though 
 they were subject to one general rule, differed 
 .from each other in various circumstances, both 
 of their discipline and manner of living, and 
 rendered their divisipn still more conspicuous 
 by reciprocal exertions of animosity and hatred. 
 In 1023, Romuald, an Italian fanatic, retired 
 to Camaldoli,! on the mount Apennine, and, 
 ju that solitary retreat, founded the order, or 
 Congregation of the Caraaldolites, which still 
 rsmains in a flourishing state, particularly in 
 Italy. His followers were distinguished into 
 two classes, the Coenobites and the Eremites. 
 Both observed a severe discipline; but the Coe- 
 nobites gradually degenerated from their pri- 
 mitive austerity .f Some time after this, Gual- 
 bert, a native of Florence, founded at Val- 
 Ombroso, amidst the Apemiines, a congrega- 
 tion of Benedictine monks, who quickly pro- 
 pagated their discipline in several parts^of Ita- 
 ly.! To these two Italian monasteries we may 
 add that of Hirsauge in Germany, || erected by 
 William, an eminent abbot, who had reformed 
 many ancient convents, and was the founder 
 
 * MaKUon, Prief. Act. SS. Ord. Bened. Siec. v.— 
 Hist.'Gencrale de Bourgogne par les Moines Bene- 
 dicticis, torn. i. p. 151, published at Paris, in 1739.— 
 Hist. Liter, de la Prance, torn. ix. p. 470. 
 
 t Otherwise called Campo-Malduli. 
 
 X The writers, who have given any satisfactory 
 accounts of the order of the Camaldolites, are enu- 
 merated by Jo. Alb. Fabricius in his Blbliotheca Lat. 
 medii JEvi,' torn. i. p: 895. — Add to these Komualdi 
 Vita, in Actis Sanctor. Pebruar. torn. ii.^). 101, and 
 in Mabillon's Acta Sanctor. Ord. Bened. Siec. vi. 
 part i. p. 247.— Helyot, Hist, des Ordres, torn. v. p. 
 336.— Mabillori, Annal. Ord. Bendd. torn. v. p. 261.— 
 Magnoaldi Zeigelbauer, Centifolium Canialdulense, 
 sive Notitia Scfiptor. Camaldulensium, published at 
 Venice in 1750. . X 
 
 § See the life of Gualbert in Mabillon's Acta Sane- 
 to*. Ord. Bejied. Siec. vi. part ii. p. 373. See also 
 Helyof 3 Hist, des Ordres, torn. v. p. 298. , Many in- 
 teresting circum.s*,ances relating to the history of 
 this order have been published by the learned Lami, 
 in-the Delicite Eruditorum, torn. ii. where the ancient 
 laws of the order are enumerated. 
 J See Mabillon, part ii. p. 716,— Helyot, tom. v p. 
 
 of several new establishments. It is, however, 
 to be observed, 4hat this monastery was rather 
 a branch of the congregationof Clugni, whose 
 laws and manner of living it had adopted,.^an 
 a new fraternity. 
 
 XXV. Toward the conclusion of this centu- 
 ry,* Robert, abbot of Molesme in Burgundy, 
 having in vain employed his most zealous ep. 
 forts to revive the decaying piety and discip- 
 line of his convent, and to oblige his monks to 
 observe, with greater exactness, the rule of St. 
 Benedict, retired, with about twenty monks, 
 who had not been infected vrith "the dissolute 
 turn of their brethren, to Citeaux, in thfe dio- 
 cese of Chalons. In this retreat, which was 
 at that time a miserable desert, covered on all 
 sides with brambles and thoriis, but which 
 bears, at present, a quite different aspect, Ro- 
 bert laid the foundations of the famous order, 
 or Congregation of Cistertians,, which, like 
 that of Clugni, made a most rapid and aston- 
 ishing progress, "was propagated through the 
 greatest part of Europe in the following centu- 
 ry, and was not only enriched with the most 
 liberal and splendid donations, but also ac- 
 quired the form and privileges of a spiritual 
 republic, and exercised a sort of dominion over 
 all the monastic orders.f The great and fun- 
 damental law of this new fraternity^ was the 
 rule of St. Benedict, which was to be solemnly 
 and rigorously observed; to this were added 
 several other institutions and injunctions, 
 which were designed to maintain the authority 
 of this rule, to ensure its observance, and to 
 defend it against the dangerous effects of opu- 
 lence, and those restless efforts of human cor- 
 ruption which render the best establishments 
 imperfect. These injunctipns were excessively 
 austere, and grievous to nature, but pious and 
 laudable in the esteem of a superstitious age. 
 They did not, however, secure the sanctity of 
 this holy coiigregationj for the seductive charms 
 of opulence, that corrupted the monks of Clug- 
 ni much sooner than was expected, produced 
 the same effect among the Cistertians, whose 
 zeal in the rigorous observance of their rule 
 began gradually to diminish, and who; in pro- 
 cess of time, became as negligent and dissolute 
 as the rest of the Benedictines. J. 
 
 XXVI. Beside these, convents, that were 
 founded upon the principles, and might be con- 
 sidered as branches of the Benedictine order, 
 several other monastic societies were fornied, 
 which were distinguished by peculiar laws, 
 and by rules of disciphne and obedience, which 
 
 * In the year 1098. 
 
 gU- t In about a hundred years after its first estab- 
 lishment, this order boasted of 1800 abbeys, and had 
 become so powerful, that it governed almost all Eu- 
 rope, both in spirituals and temporals. .^ 
 
 t The principal historian of the Cistertian order, 
 is Ang. Manriques, whose Annales Cistertienses (an 
 ample 'and learned work) were published in four 
 volumes folio, at Lyons, in the year 1642. After him 
 we may place Pierre le Nain, whose Essai de I'His 
 toire de I'Ordre.des Citeaux, was printed in the year 
 1696, at Paris, in 'nine volumes in 8vo. The other 
 historians, who have mven accounts of this fampus 
 order, are enumerated by Fabricius, in ids Biblioth 
 Latina medli ievi, tom. i. p. 4066. Add to these 
 Helyot's Hist, des Ordres, tom. v. p. 341, and Mabil- 
 lon, who, in the fifth iind sixth volumes of his An- 
 nales Benedictini, has given a learned and accurate 
 account of the origin and progress of the Cistertians. 
 
Chap. H. 
 
 DOCTORS, CHURCH GOVERNMENT, &c. 
 
 S81 
 
 they had drawn up for themselvea. To many 
 of those gloomy and fanittical momta, whose 
 austerity was rather the fruit of a bad habit .of 
 body, Uian the result of a rehgious principle, 
 the rule of Benedict appeared too mild; to 
 others it seemed incomplete and defective, and 
 not sufficiently accommodated to the exercise 
 of the various duties we owe to the Supreme 
 Being. • Hence Stephen, a nobleman of Au- 
 nergne (who is called by some Stephen de 
 Muret, from the place where" he first erected 
 the convent of his order,) obtained from GregOr 
 ry VII., in IQIS, the privilege of .instituting a 
 new species of monastic discipline. His first 
 design was to subject liis fraternity to the rule 
 of St. Benedict; but he changed nis mtention, 
 and composed a code which was to be their 
 rule of .life, piety, and manners.. In his laws 
 there were many injunctions, that showed the 
 excessive austerity of their author. Poverty 
 and obedience w?re the two great points which 
 he inculcated with the warmest zeal, and all 
 his regulations were directed to promote and 
 secure them in this new establishment.. For 
 this purpose it waS solemnly enacted that the 
 monks should possess no lands beyond the 
 limits of their convent; that the use .of flesh 
 should be allowed to none, -not even to the 
 sick and infirm;- and that none should be per- 
 mitted to keep cattle, that they might not .be 
 exposed to the temptation of violating their 
 frugal regimen. To these severe precepts 
 many others of equal rigour were added; for 
 this gloomy legislator imposed upon his fratei> 
 nity the solemn observance of a profound and 
 uninterrupted silence, and insisted so much 
 upon the importance and necessity of solitude,- 
 that none but a few persons of the highest emi- 
 nence and authority were permitted to pass the 
 threshold of his monastery. He prohibited all 
 intercourse with the female sex, and, i.hdeed, 
 excluded his order from all the comforts and 
 enjoyments of life. His followers were divided 
 into two classes, one of which comprehended 
 the clerks, and the other what he called the 
 converted brethren. The former were totally 
 absorbed in the contemplation of divine things, 
 while the latter were charged with the care 
 and administration of whatever related to the 
 concerns and necessities of the present life. 
 Such were the princip.al circumstances of the 
 new institution founded by Stephen, which 
 arose to the highest pitch of renown in this and 
 ' the following century, and was regairded with 
 the m'ost profound veneration as long as its 
 laws and discipline were observed: but two 
 things contributed to its decline, and at length 
 brought on its ruin; the first was, the violent 
 contest which arose between the clerks and 
 the converts, on account of the pre-eminence 
 which the. latter pretended over the former; 
 and the second was, the gradual diminution of 
 the rigour and austerity of Stephen's rule, 
 which was softened and mitigated from time 
 to time, both by the heads of the order and by 
 the pontiffs. This once famous monastic so- 
 ciety was distinguished by the title of the Or- 
 der of Grandmontains, as Mujst, where they 
 were first established, was situated near Gram- 
 mont in the province of Limoges.* 
 
 * The origin of this order is related by Beiuard 
 Vol. I.— 36 
 
 XXVII. In the. year 1084,* was instituted 
 the famous order of Carthusians, so called 
 from Chartrpux, a dismal and wild spot of 
 ground near Grenoble, suri-ounded with barren 
 mountains arid craggy rocks. The founder 
 of this monastic society, which surpassed all 
 the rest in the extravagant austerity of its 
 manners and discipline, was BrUnO, a riative 
 of Cologne, and canon of the caliiedral of 
 Rheims. This zealous ecclesiastic, who had 
 neither power to reform, nor patience to bear, 
 the dissolute manners of his archbishop Ma- 
 nasse, retired from his church with six of his 
 companions, and, having obtained the permis- 
 sion of Hugh, bishop rtf Grenoble, fixed liis 
 residence in the miserable desert already men- 
 tiohed.f He at first adopted the rule of St. 
 Benedict, to which he added a, considerable 
 number of severe and rigorous precepts; his 
 successors, however, went still farther, and- 
 imposed upon the Carthusians new laws, much 
 more intolerable than those of their.founder, — 
 laws which inculcated the highest degrees of 
 Austerity that the most gloomy imagination 
 could invent.| Yet -it may be affirmed (and 
 the fact is remarkable;) that no monastic so- 
 ciety degenerated so little from the severity of 
 its primitive institution and discipline as this 
 of the Carthusians. The progress of the order 
 was indeed less rapid, and its influence less 
 extensive in the different countries of Europe, 
 than the progress and influence of those mo- 
 nastic establishments, whose laws were less 
 rigorous, and whose manners were less aus- 
 
 Giildon, whose treatise. oit that subject is published 
 in the Bibliotheca Manuscriptorum Phil. Labbei, 
 tom.'ii.'p. 375. For an account of the history of this 
 celebrated society, see Mabillon, Annal. Bened. torn. 
 V. p/65, s. p. 99; tonl. vi. p. 116; and Frsf. ad Acta 
 SS. Ord. Bened. Siec. vi. .part ii. 340; Helyot, torn. vii. 
 p. 409. — Gallia Christ. Monachor. Bened. torn. ii. p. 
 645. — Baluzii. Vitje Pontif. Avenionens. torn. i. .p. 
 158, et Miscellanea, torn. vii. p.' 486.— C(?- The life 
 and spiritual exploits of the founder of this order, 
 are recorded in the Acta' Sanctorum, torn. 11. .Febr. 
 
 * Some place the institution 6f this order in 1080. 
 and others in 1086. ■ . - 
 
 t The learned Fabricius mentions, in his Bibl. Lat. 
 medii Mvi, torn, ii p. 784, several writers who have 
 composed the history^f Bruno and his order;,hut his 
 enumeration i? incomplete, since there'are yet ex- 
 tant many histories of the Carthusians, that have 
 escaped his notice. See Innocent. Massoni Annalea 
 Carthus, published in 1687; — Petri Orlandi Chronicon 
 Carthusianum, and the elegant, though imperfect 
 history of the order in question, which is to be found 
 in Helyot's Hist, des Ordres, torn. vii. Many im- 
 portant illustrations of the nature and laws of this 
 famous society have been published by Mabillon, in 
 his Annales Benedict, torn. vi. and a particular and 
 accurate account of Bruno has been given by the 
 Benedictine monks in their Hist.>Liter. He la France, 
 tom. ix. Xt was a current report in ancient times, 
 that the occasion of his retreat was the miraculous 
 restoration of a certain priest to life, who, during 
 the performance of the~ funeral service, raised him- 
 self up and said, "Bythe just judgment 'of God I am 
 "damned," and then expiired anew. "This story is 
 looked upon as fabulous by the most respectable 
 writers, even of the Roman church, especially since 
 it has been refuted by Launoy, in his treatise de 
 Causa Secessus Brunonis in Desertum. Nor does it 
 seein to preserve its credit among the Carthusians, 
 who are more interested than others in this pretend- 
 ed miracle. Such of them, at least, as aihrm it, do 
 it with a good deal of modesty and diffidence. The 
 arguments on both sides are candidly and accurately 
 enumerated by Cses. Egass&'du Boulay, in his Histor 
 Aca'dem. Paris, tom. i. p, 467, 
 
 ] See Mabillon, Frief. ad Secc. vi part ii. Actor. 
 SS. Ord. Bened. 
 
282 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part It 
 
 tere. It was a long time before the tender sex 
 could be engaged to submit to the savage rules 
 of this melancholy institution; nor had the 
 Carthusian order ever reason to boast of a mul- 
 titude of females subjected to its jurisdiction; 
 it was too forbidding to captivate a sex which, 
 though susceptible of the seductions of enthu- 
 siasm, is of a frame too delicate to support the 
 severities of a rigorous self-denial.* 
 
 XXyill. Toward the conclusion of this cen- 
 tury,! the order of St. Antony of Vienne, in 
 Dauphine, was instituted for the relief and sup- 
 port of such as were seized with grievous dis- 
 orders, and particularly with the disease called 
 St. Antony's fire. All who were infected with 
 that pestilential disorder repaired to a cell built 
 near Vienne by the Benedictine monks of 
 Grammont, in which the body of St. Antony 
 was said to repose, that, by the prayers and 
 
 ' mtef cessions of this eminent saint j they might 
 be miraculously healed. Gaston, an opulent 
 nobleman, and his spn Gaerin, pretended to 
 have experienced, in their complete recovery, 
 the marvellous efficacy of the saint's interces- 
 sion, and, in consequence thereof, devoted 
 themselves and their possessions, from a prin- 
 ciple of pious gfatitude, to his service, and to 
 the performance of generous and charitable 
 offices toward all suclfas were afflicted with 
 the miseries of poverty and sickness. Their 
 example was followed, at- first, only by eight 
 persons; their community, however, was after- 
 wards considerably augmented; They were 
 not bound by particular vows' like the other 
 monastic orders, but were consecrated, in gen- 
 eral, to the service of God, and lived under the 
 jurisdictioil of the monies of Gramnlont. In 
 
 ' process of time, growing opulent and powerful 
 by the multitude of pious donations which they 
 received from all parts, they withdrew them- 
 selves from the dominion of the Benedictines, 
 propagated their order in various countries, 
 and at length obtained, in 1291, from Boniface 
 VIII. the dignity and privileges of an indepen- 
 dent congregation, under, the rule of St. Aa- 
 gustin.J 
 
 * The Carthusian nuns hafft not sufficiently at- 
 tracted the attention of the authors who have writ- 
 ten of this famous order; and several writers have 
 even gone so far as tcmaintain, that there was not 
 in tliis order a single convent of nuns. This notion, 
 however, is highly erroneous, as there were formerly 
 several convents of Carthusian virgins, of which, 
 " indeed, the greatest part have not subsisted to our 
 times. In the year 1368, an extraordinary law was 
 enacted, by which the establisliment of any more fe-. 
 male Carthusian convents Was expressly prohibited. 
 Hence there remain only five at this day; four in 
 France, and one at Bruges in Flanders. See the Va- 
 rietes Historiques," Physiques, et Literaires, tom. i. p. 
 80., published in 1752. Certain it is, that the rigour- 
 ous discipline of the Carthusians is quite inconsistent 
 with the delicacy and tenderness, of the female sex; 
 and, therefore, in the few female convents of this or- 
 der that still subsist, the austerity of that discipline 
 has been diminished, as well from necessity as from 
 humanity and wisdom; it was more particularly 
 found necessary to abrogate those severe injunctions 
 of silence and solitude, that are so little adapted to 
 the known character and genius of the sex. 
 
 t In the year 1095. 
 
 X See Acta Sanctor. tom. ii. Januarii, p. 160. — 
 Helyot, tom. ii. p. 108. — Gabr. Penot. Histor. Canoni- 
 corum regular, .lib., ii. cap. 70.^-Jo. Erh. Kapii Diss, 
 de FratribuB S. Anton. From . an account of the 
 present state of the principal hospital, or residence 
 of this order where thfc abbot remains, see Martenne 
 
 .XXIX. The licentiousness and corruption 
 which had infected all the ether ranks and oii^ 
 ders of the clergy, were also remarkable among 
 the canons, who composed a middle sort of or- 
 der between the monks and secular priests, and 
 whose first establishment was in the eighth 
 century. In certain provinces of Europe, the 
 canons were corrupt in a very high degree, and 
 surpassed, in the profligacy of their maimers, 
 all the other ecclesiastical and monastic orders. 
 Hence several pious and xirtuous persons ex- 
 erted their zeal for the reformation of this der 
 generate body; some pontiffs appeared in this 
 good cause, and more especially Nicolas II., 
 who, in a council holden at Rome in 1069, ab- 
 rogated the ancient rule of the ,canons, which 
 had been drawn up at Aix-la-Chapelle, and 
 substituted another in its place.* These lauda- 
 ble attempts were attended with considerable 
 success; and a much better rule of discipline ' 
 was established^ in almost all the canonical 
 orders, than that which had been formerly in 
 use. It was not, however, possible to regulate 
 them all upon the same footing, and to subject 
 them to the same degree of reformation and 
 discipline; nor indeed was this necessaiy. , Ac- 
 cordingly, a certain number of these eSnonical 
 colleges were erected into communities,^ the 
 respective members of which had one common 
 dwelling, and a common table, which was the 
 point chiefly insisted upon by the pontiffs, as 
 this alone was sufficient to prevent the canons 
 from entering into the bonds of matrimony. It 
 did not, however, exclude them from the pos- 
 session or enjoyment of. private property; for 
 they reserved to themselves the right of appro- 
 priating the fruits and revenues of their bene- 
 fices, and of employing them as they thought 
 expedient. Other canonical congregations sub- 
 jected themselves to a rule of life less agreea- 
 ble and commodious, in consequence of the 
 zealous exhortations of Ivo, bishop of Chartres, " 
 renouncing all their worldly possessions and 
 prospects, all private property, and living in a 
 manner that resembled the austerity of* the 
 monastic orders. Hence arose the well-known 
 distinction between the secular and the regular 
 canons; the former .of y/bach observed the" de- 
 cree of Nicolas II., while the latter, more prone 
 to mortification and self-denial, complied with 
 the directions and jurisdictions of Ivo; arfd, as 
 this austere prelate iihitated St. Augustinf in 
 the manner of regulating the conduct of his 
 clergy, his canons were called, by many, " the 
 regular canons of St. Augustin."j; 
 
 and Durand, Voyage Liter, de deux Benedictins dq 
 la Congreg, de St. Maur, tom. i. p. 260. 
 
 * This decree, by .which the primitive rule of the 
 canons was changed, is published by Mabillon among 
 the papers which serve as proofs to the Tourth vol- 
 ume of his Annales Bened. and also in the annals 
 themselves. 
 
 Q^ \ St Angustin committed to writing no parti- 
 cular rule for his clergy; but his manner of ruling 
 them may be learned from several passages in his 
 Epistles. 
 
 X See Mabillon, Annal. Bened. tom. iv. p. 586, et 
 Opera Posthuma, tom. ii.-p. 102, 115. — Helyot, tom. 
 ii. p. 11. — Lud. Thomassini DiscipUna Ecclesise circa 
 Beneflcia, tom. i. part i. 1. iii. c. xi. p. 657. — Muratori, 
 Antiq. Ital. medii .^vi, tom. v. p. 257. In the Gallia 
 Christiana of the Benedictine monks, we find fre- 
 quent m.ention made both of this reformation of the 
 canons, and also of their division into seculars and 
 
Ghap. n. 
 
 DOCTaRS, CHURCH GOVERNMENT, &c. 
 
 XXX. The most eminent Greek writers in 
 this centmy, were, 
 
 Thcophanes Cerameus, i. e. the potter, of 
 whom there is yet extant a volume of Homilies, 
 not altogether contemptibte; 
 
 Nilus Doxopatrius, who was remarkable 
 for his knowledge in matters relating to eccle- 
 siastical polity, 
 
 Nicetas Pectoratus, who was a most strenu- 
 ous defender of the religious sentiments and 
 customs of the Greek Ehurch; 
 
 Michael Psellos, whos,e vast progressin va- 
 rious kinds of learning and science procured 
 him a most distinguished and Shining reputa- 
 tion; ^ 
 
 Michael Cerularius, hisliop or patriarch of 
 Constantinople, who imprudently revived the 
 controversy between the Greeks and Latins, 
 which had been for some time happily sus- 
 
 Simeon, the Younger, author of a book of 
 Meditations on the Duties of the Christian 
 Life, which is yet extant; ^ 
 
 Theophylact, a Bulgarian, whose illustra- 
 tions of the sacred writings were received with 
 universal approbation and esteem.* 
 
 XXXI. The writers who distinguished them- 
 
 regulars. The regular canons are much displeased 
 with all the accounts that render the origin of their 
 community so recent; they are extremely ambitious 
 of appearing with the venerable character of an an- 
 cient establishment, and therefore trace bade their 
 rise, tJlrough the darkness of remote ages, to Christ 
 himself, or, at least, to St. Augustin. But the argu- 
 ments and testimonies, by which they pretend to 
 support this imagined antiquity of their order, are 
 proofs of the weakness of their cause anS the vanity 
 of tlieir pretensions, and are therefore unf^orthy of 
 Berious refutation. It is true, the title of canon is 
 undoubtedly of much more ancient date than the 
 eleventh century,' but hot as -applied- to a particular 
 order or institution; -for-at its rise it was used in a 
 v,ery yague^general sense (See Clau4' de Vert, Expli- 
 cation des Ceremonies de la Messe, tom. i.,) and 
 - therefoire the mere existence of the title proves no- 
 thing, At-the. same time, it is.evident, beyond all 
 possibility of contradiction, that we find not the 
 least mention made of the division of the canons into 
 regular and secular before the eleventh century; and 
 it is equally certain that those canons who had no- 
 thing in -common but their dwelling and table, were 
 called secular, while those who had divested them- 
 selves of all private property, and had every. thing, 
 without exception, in common with.their fraternity, 
 were distinguished By the title of regular canons. 
 
 Ql^ To Dr: Mo&h^m's aocoun^t of the canons, it 
 may.noLbe improper to add a few words concerning 
 their introduction into England, and their progress 
 and establishment amofag us. .The order of regular 
 canons of St. Augustin was bropght into England by 
 Adelwald, confessor to Henry L, who first erected a 
 priory of his-order at Nostel in Ygrkshire, and had 
 influence enough to have the church of Carlisle, con- 
 verted into an episcopal see, and given to regular 
 canons, invested with the privilege of choosing their 
 bishop. This order was singularly favoured and pro- 
 tected by Henry I. who gave them, in the year 1107, 
 the priory of Dunstable; and by queen Matilda, who 
 erected for them, the year following, the priory of 
 the Holy Trinity in London, the prior of which was 
 always one of 'the twenty-fpur aldermeir. .They in- 
 creased so prodigiously, that, beside the noble priory 
 of Merton, w^ch was founded,for them, in the year 
 1117, by Gilbert, an earl of the Norman blood, they 
 had, under the reign of Edward I., fifty-three prio- 
 ries, as appears by the catalogue presented to that 
 prince, when he obliged all the monasteries to re- 
 ceive his protection, and to acknowledge his jurisdic- 
 tion. 
 
 * For a more ample account of these Greek writ- 
 ers, the reader may consult the Bibliotheca Grsca 
 irf'Fabticius. 
 
 283 
 
 selves most among the Latins, were the fol- 
 lowing: ; 
 
 Fulbert, bishop of Chartres, eminent for his 
 love of letters, and his zeal for the education 
 ef youth; as also for various compositions, 
 particularly his epistles; and famous for his 
 excessive and enthusiastic attachment to the 
 Virgin Mary;* 
 
 Humbert, a cardinal of the Roman church, 
 who -far surpassed- all the Latins, both in the 
 vehemence and learning which appeared in 
 his controversial writings against the Greeks;t 
 
 Petrus Damianus, who, on account of his 
 genius, candour, probity, and various erudi- 
 tion, deserves to be ranked among the most 
 learned arid estimable writers of this century, 
 though he was not altogether untainted with 
 the reigning prejudices and defects of the 
 times;t. 
 
 Marianus Scotus, whose Chronicle and other 
 compositions are yet extant; 
 
 Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury, a man 
 of great genius and subtilty, deeply versed in 
 the dialectics of this age, and most illustriously 
 distinguished by his profotmd and extraordi- 
 nary knoyvledge in theology;| 
 
 Lanfrajic, also archbishop of Canterbury, 
 who acquired a high degree of reputation by 
 his Commentary upon the Epistles of St. Paul, 
 as also by several other prodactionsj|| which, 
 considering the age in which he lived, discover 
 an uncommon measure of sagacity and erudi- 
 tion;Tr 
 
 Bruno of Mount-Cassin, and the other fa/- 
 mous ecclesiastic, of that name, who founded 
 the monastery of the Carthusians; 
 
 Ivo, bishop' of Chartres, who was so emi- 
 nently distinguished by his zeal and activity in 
 maintaining ihe rights and privileges of the 
 church; ■ ■'.■'- 
 
 Hildebert, archbishop of Tours, who was a 
 philosopher and a poet, as well as a divine, 
 without being either eminent or contemptible 
 in aiiy of these characters;** but, upon the 
 
 -* For a farther account- of this eminent man, see 
 the Hist. Liter, de la France, tom. vii. p. 261. . . 
 
 t See'Martennfe, Thesaurus A-necdot. tom. v. p. 
 
 19. — Hisf. Liter- de.Ja France, tom. vii. p. 527. 
 
 X See the Acta Banctor. Febr. tom. iii. p. 406. Ge- 
 jieral Dictionary, at the article Damien— Casim. 
 Oudini'Diss. in tom.ii.Comm.de Scriptor. Eccles 
 p. 686. 
 
 §S6e the Hist. Literaire de-la France, tom. ix. p. 
 398. — Rapin Thoyras, Hist. d'Angletejre, tom. ii. p 
 65, 166, de red. en 4to. — Colonia, Hist. Liter, de Lyon, 
 tom. ii. p. 210. — We have already given a more am- 
 ple account of the eminent abilities and iearned 
 productions of Anselm. ^ 
 
 Q(^ |[ Among these productions we may reckon 
 Lanfranc's Letters to pope Alexander II. to Hilde- 
 brand, while archdeacon of Rome, and to several 
 bishops ill England and Normandy; as also a Com- 
 mentary upon the Psalms, a Treatise concerning 
 Confession, an Ecclesiastical History, which is not 
 extant,.^rid a remarkable Dissertation concerning 
 the Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist. In 
 this last performance, Lanfranc endeavours to prove, 
 against JBerenger, the reality of a corporal presence 
 in the eucharist, though it is manifest that this opi- 
 nion was not the doctrine of the church of England 
 at the conclusion of theJenth, or the commencement 
 of the following cehtiiry. See Collier's Eccles. His . 
 tory of Great Britain, vol. i. p. 260, 263. 
 
 IT Hist. Liter, de la Fraiice, tom. viii. p. 260. 
 
 ** The Benedictine monks published in.ftiIio, at 
 Paris, in the year 1708, the works ofHiBiliett, il 
 lustrated by the observations of Beaugenijrs. 
 
284 
 
 INTERNAL, HISTORY OF THE CHOHCH. 
 
 Past U. 
 
 whole, a man of considerable teaming and ca- 
 pacity; 
 
 Gregory VII. that imperious and arrogant 
 pontiff, of whom we have several productions, 
 beside his Letters. 
 
 CHAPTER m. 
 Cohccming the Doctrine of the Christian Church 
 in this CerUury. 
 I. It is not necessary to draw at full length 
 the hideous portrait of the religion of this age. 
 It -may easily be imagined, that its features 
 were full of deformity, when we consider that 
 its guardians were equally destitute of know- 
 ledge and virtue, arid that the heads and rul- 
 ers of the Christian church, instead of exhibit- 
 ing models of piety, held forth in their conduct 
 scandalous examples of the most flagitious 
 crimes. The people were sunk in the grossest 
 superstition, and employed all their zeal in the 
 worship of images and relics, and in the per- 
 formance of a trifling round of ceremonies, im- 
 posed upon them by the tyranny of a despotic 
 priesthood. The more learned, it is true^ re- 
 tained still some notions of the truth, which, 
 however, they obscured and corrupted by a 
 wretched mixture of opinions and precepts, of 
 which some were ludicrous, others pernicious, 
 and most of them equally destitute of truth 
 and utility. There were, no doubt, in several 
 places, judicious and pious men, who would 
 have willingly lent a supporting hand to the 
 declining cause of true religion; but the violent 
 prejudices of a barbarous age rendered all such 
 attempts not only dangerous, but even despe- 
 rate: and those chosen spirits, who had escaped 
 the general contagion, lay too much concealed, 
 and had therefore too little influence, to com- 
 bat with success the formidable patrons of im- 
 piety and superstition, who were very numer- 
 ous, in all ranks and orders, from the throne 
 to the cottage. 
 
 II; Notwithstanding all this, we find, from 
 the time of Gregory VII., several proofs of the 
 zealous efforts of those, who are generally 
 called, by the Protestants, the witnesses of the 
 truth; by whom are meant such pious and ju- 
 dicious Christians, as adhered to the pure reli- 
 gion of the Gospel, and remained uncorrupted 
 amidst the growth of superstition; who de- 
 plored the miserable state to which Christianity 
 was reduced,- by the alteration of its divine 
 ' doctrines, and the vices of its profligate minis- 
 ters; who opposed, with vigour, the tyrannic 
 ambition, both of* the lordly pontiff and the 
 aspiring bishops; and in some provinces pri- 
 vately, in others openly, attempted the re- 
 fownation of a corrupt and idolatrous church, 
 and of a barbarous and superstitious age. This 
 was, indeed, bearing witness to the truth in 
 the noblest manner; and it was principally in 
 Italy and France that the marks of this heroic 
 piety were exhibited. (3:^ Nor is it at all 
 surprising that the reigning superstition of the 
 times met with this opposition; it is astonishing, 
 on the contrary, that this opposition was not 
 much greater and more general, and that mil- 
 lions of 'Christians suffered themselves to be 
 hoodwinked with such a tame submission; and 
 closed their eyes upon the light with so httle 
 
 reluctance.) For, notwithstanding the dark- 
 ness of the times, and the general ignorance 
 of the true religion, that prevailed in all ranks 
 and orders, yet the very fragments of the Gos- 
 pel (if we may use that term) which were still 
 read and explained to the people, were suffi- 
 cient, at least, to convince the most stupid and 
 illiterate, that the religion, which was iiow 
 imposed upon them, was not the true religion 
 of Jesus; that the discourses, the lives and mo- 
 rals of the clergy, were directly opposite to 
 what the divine Saviour required of his disci- 
 ples, and to the rules he had laid down for tlie 
 direction of their conduct; that the pontiffs 
 and bishops abused, in a scandalous manner, 
 their power and opulence; and that the favour 
 of God, and the salvation exhibited in his 
 blessed Gospel, were not to be obtamed by per- 
 forming a round of external ceremonies, by 
 pompous donations to churches and priests, or 
 by founding and enriching monasteries, but 
 by real sanctity of heart and manners. 
 
 m. It must, indeed, be acknowledged, that 
 they who undertook, with such zeal and ardour, 
 the reformation of the church, were not, for the 
 most part, equal to this arduous and important 
 enterprise, and that, by avoiding, with more 
 vehemence than circumspection, certain abuses 
 aiid defects, they rushed unhappily into' the 
 opposite extremes. They all perceived the 
 abominable nature of those inventions wjth 
 which superstition had disfigijred the religion 
 of Jesus: but they had also lost sight of the 
 true nature and genius- of that celestial reli- 
 gion, vfhich lay thus disfigured in the hands of 
 a superstitious and dissolute priesthood. They 
 were shocked at the absurdities of the esta- 
 bhshed worship; but few -of them were suffi- 
 ciently acquainted with the sublime precepts 
 and doctrines of genuine Christianity, to sub- 
 stitute in the place of that superstitious wor- 
 ship a rational service. Hence their attempts 
 of reformation, even where they were not 
 wholly unsuccessful, were very imperfect, and 
 produced little more than a motley mixture of 
 truth and falsehood,' of wisdom and indiscre^ 
 tion; of which we might allege a multitude of 
 exaapples. Observing, for instance, that the 
 corAiption and- licentiousness of the- clergy 
 were, in a great measure, occasioned by their 
 excessive opulence and their vast possessions, 
 they rashly conceived the highest ideas of the 
 salutary eflFects of indigence, and looked upon 
 voluntary poverty as the most eminent and il- 
 lustrious virtue of a Christian minister. They 
 had also formed to themselves a notion, that the 
 primitive church was to be the standing and 
 perpetual model, according to which the rites, 
 government, and worship of all Christian 
 churches^ were to be regulated in all the ages 
 of the world; and that the lives and manners 
 of the holy apostles were to be rigorously fol- 
 lowed, in every respect, by all the ministers of 
 Christ.- [§^ These notions, which were inju- 
 diciously taken up, and blindly entertained 
 (without any regard to the difference of times, 
 placed, circiimstances, and characters; without 
 considering that the provident wisdom of 
 Christ and , his apostles left many regulations 
 to the prudence and piety of the governors of 
 the church,) were productive of many pemi- 
 
Chap. HI. 
 
 THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 285 
 
 oious eftects, and threw tlieao good refooners, 
 whose zeal was not always according to know- 
 ledge, from the extreme of superstition into 
 the extreme of enthusiasm.] Many well-mean- 
 ing persons, whose intentions were liighly laud- 
 able, fell into great errors in consequence of 
 these ill-grounded notions. Justly incensed at 
 the conduct of the superstitious multitude, 
 who placed the whole of religion in external 
 services, and hoped to secure their salvation 
 by the performance of a lahorious round of 
 unmeaning rites and ceremonies, they rashly 
 maintained, that true piety was to he strict^ 
 confined to^ the inward motions and affections 
 of the soul, and to the contemplation of spi- 
 ritual and divine things. -In consequence of 
 this specious, yet erroneous principle, they 
 treated with the utmost contempt all the exter- 
 nal parts of religious worship, and even aimed 
 at the total suppression of sacraments, churches, 
 religious assemblies of every kind, and Chris- 
 tian ministers of every order. 
 
 IV. Of the Greek and Latin writers of this 
 age,'many employed their learned and pious 
 labours in the exposition and illustration of 
 the Scriptures. Among the La^tins, Srnno' 
 wrote a commentary on theJBook of Psalms, 
 Lanfranc upon the Epistles of St. Paul, Be- 
 renger upon the Revelations of St. John, Gre- 
 gory Vn. upofl the Gospel of St. Matthew, 
 and others upon other parts of the sacred writ- 
 ings. • But all these expositors, in comphance 
 with the prevailing custom of the times, either 
 copied the explanations of the ancient com- 
 mentators, or made such whimsical applica- 
 tions of certain passages of Scripture, both in 
 explaining the doctrines, and in inculcating the 
 duties of religion, that it is often difficult to pe- 
 ruse their writings without indignation or dis- 
 gust. The most eminent Grecian expositor 
 was Theophylact, a native of Bulgaria; though 
 he also is indebted to the ancients, and in a 
 particular manner to St. Chrysostom, for the 
 greatest part of his most judicious observa- 
 tions.* Nor must we pass in silence either 
 the commentary upon tlie Book of Psalms and 
 the Song of Solomon, that was composed by 
 the learned Michael Psellus, or the chain of 
 commentaries upon the Book of Job, which 
 we owe to the industry of Nieetas. 
 
 y. AU the Latin doctors, if we except a few 
 Hibernian divines, who blended. With the beau- 
 tifid simplicity of the Gospel, the perplexing 
 subtilties of an obscure philosophy, had hi- 
 therto derived their system of religion, and 
 their explications of divine truth, either from 
 the Scriptures alone, or from these sacred ora- 
 cles explained by the illustrations, and com- 
 pared with the theology, of the ancient doc- 
 tors. But in this century certain writers, and, 
 among others, the famous Berenger,t went 
 
 * For an account of Theophylact, see Kich. Simon's 
 Hist. Critique des principaux Commentateurs du N. 
 T. ch. xxviiLp. 390. Critique de la BibUotheque des 
 AuteuTs Ecclesiastiques, par Du-Pin, torn. i. P- 310, 
 where he also speais largely of Nicetaa and CEcu- 
 meniua. ' . , . „ 
 
 il^- 1 Otherwise called Berenganus, and famous for 
 the noble opposition he made to the doctrine of Tran- 
 substantiation, which Lanfranc so absurdly pretended 
 to support upon philosophical principles. The at- 
 tempt o' the latter to introduce thj rules of logic into 
 
 much farther, and employed the roles of logic 
 and the subtilties of metaphysical discussion, 
 both in explaining the doctrines of Scripture, 
 and in proving the truth of their own particu- 
 lar opinions. Hence Lanfranc, the antagonist 
 of Berenger, and afterwards archbishop of 
 Canterbury, introduced into the field of reli- 
 gious controversy the same philosophical arms, 
 and seemed, in general, desirous of employing 
 the dictates of reason to illustrate and confihn 
 the truths of religion. His example, m this 
 respect, was followed by Anselm, his disciple 
 and successor in the see of Canterbury, a man 
 of a truly metaphysical genius, and capable of 
 giving the greatest air of dignity and import- 
 ance to the first philosopher. Such were the 
 beginnings of that philosophical tlieology, 
 which grew afterwards, by degrees, into a 
 cloudy aiid enorinous system, and, from the 
 public schools in which it was cultivated, ac- 
 quired the name of scholaitic divihibj.* It is, 
 however, necessary to observe, that the emi- 
 nent divines, who first set on fdot this new 
 species of theology, and thus laudably main- 
 tained that most noble and natural connexion 
 of faith with reason, and of religion with phi- 
 losophy, were much more prudent and mode- 
 rate than their followers, in the use and appli- 
 cation of this conciliatory scheme. They 
 kept, for the most part, within bounds, and 
 wisely reflected upon the hmits of reason; 
 their language was clear; the questions they 
 proposed were instructive and interesting; they 
 avoided all discussions that were only proper 
 to satisfy a vain and idle curiosity; and,-.in 
 their disputes and demonstrations, they made, 
 generally speaking, a wise and sober use of 
 the rules of logic, and of the dictates of philo^ 
 sophy.f [§^ Their followers, on thercontrary, 
 
 religious controversy would have been highly lauda- 
 ble, had not he perverted this respectable science 
 to the defence of the mosl nlonatrous absiirdities. 
 
 * See Chr. August. Heumanni Praefat. ad Tribbe- 
 cliovii Librum de Doctoribus Scholastic^ p. 14. The 
 sentiments of the learned, concerning the first au- 
 thor^or inventor of the scholastic divinity, are col- 
 lected by^o. Franc. Buddeus, in hia Isagoge ad The- 
 blog..tom. i. p. 38.- 
 
 t We shalL here transcribe a passage - from the 
 works of Lanfranc, who is considered by many as 
 the father of the scholaatic system, that the reader 
 may see how far the first schoolmen surpassed their 
 disciples and followers in wisdom, moiiesty, and can- 
 dour. We take this passage from that prelate's book 
 concerning the Body and Blood of Christ,* and it is 
 as follows: " Testis mihi Deus est et copscientia mea, 
 quia in tractatu divinarum literarum nee proponere 
 nee 'ad propositas respondere cuperem dialecticas 
 quffistiones, vel earum solutiones. Et si quaildo ma 
 teria disputandi talis est, ut hujus artis regulis valeat 
 enudeatius explicari, in quantum possum, per aequl- 
 poUentias pfopositionum tego- artem, ne videar ma- 
 ' gis arte, quam veritate sanctorumque patrum auc- 
 toritate, confldere." Lanfranc here declares, ii^t^e 
 most solemn manner, even by an-appeaUoGod and hia 
 conscience, that he was so far from having the least 
 inclination to propose or to answer logical questions 
 in the course of his theological labours, that, on the 
 contrary, when he was forced to have recourse to 
 the dialectic science, in order the better to illustrate 
 his subject, he concealed the succours he thence de- 
 rived_with""all possible care, lest he should seem to 
 place more confidence in the resources of art than in 
 the aimplicity of truth and the authority of the holy 
 fathers. These last words show plainly the two 
 sources from which the Christian doctors had hither 
 
 * Cap. vii. p. 236. Op. ed. Luc. Dacherii. 
 
286 
 
 INTERNAL, HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part U. 
 
 ran with a metaphysical phrensy into the great- 
 est abuses, and, by, the most vinjustifiable pei^ 
 vetsion of a Wise and excellent method of 
 searching ailer, and confirming truth, they ba- 
 nished evidence from religion, common sense 
 from philosophy, and erected a dark and enor- 
 mous mass of pretended science, in which 
 words passed for ideas, and sounds for sense.] ■ 
 
 VI. No sooner was this new method intro- 
 duced, than the Latin doctors began to reduce 
 all the doctrines of religion into one perma- 
 nent and connected system, and to treat theo- 
 logy as a science; an enterprise which had 
 hitherto been a!ttempted by none but Taio of 
 SaragoBSa, a writer of the seventh centm-y, and 
 the learned Damascenus, who flourished among 
 the Greeks in the following age. The Latin 
 doctors had hitherto confined their theological 
 labours to certain branches of the Christian 
 religion, which they illustrated only on certain 
 occasions. The first production whicl) looked 
 like ageneral system of theology, was that of 
 the celebrated Anselm; this, however, was 
 sjirpaased by the coniplete and universal body of 
 divinity, which was composed, toward the 
 conclusion of this centmry, by Hildebert, arch- 
 bishop of Tours, who seems to have been 
 regarded both as the first and the best model 
 in this kind of writing, by the innumerable 
 legions of system-makers, who arose in suc- 
 ceeding times.* This learned prelate demon- 
 strated first the doctrines of his ■ system by 
 probfs' dr/iwn from the Scriptures, and also 
 from the writings of the ancient fathers of the 
 church; and in this he followed the custom that 
 had prevailed in the. preceding ages; but he 
 went- yet farther, and answered the objec- 
 tions which might be brought against his doc- 
 trine, by arguments drawn from reason and 
 philosophy: this part of his method was en- 
 tirely new, and -peculiar to the age in which 
 he lived.f 
 
 VII. The moral writers of this century, who 
 
 to derived all their tenets, and the arguments hy which 
 they maintained -them, viz.. fcom tjie Scriptures, 
 which Xarifraric here calls the truth, and from the 
 ' writings of the ancient fathers of the church. To 
 these two sources of theology and augmentation, a 
 third was added in this century, even the science of 
 logic, which, however, was only employed by tjie 
 managers of controversy to repulse their adversa- 
 riesj who came armed with syllogisms, or to remove 
 difficulties which were drawn from reason and from 
 the nature of-things. But, in succeeding. times, the 
 -two former sources were either entirely neglected or 
 Bparingly employed, and philosophical demonstration 
 "for, at least, something that bore that name) was, 
 regarded as a sufficient support to the truths of reli-' 
 
 ^'""xhis body of divinity, which was the first com- 
 plete theological system that had been composed 
 among the Latins, is inserted m the Works of Hil- 
 debert, published by Beaugendre, who shows evi- 
 dently' -in his preface, that Peter Lombard, Pullus, 
 and the other writers of theological systems, did no 
 more than servilely follow the -traces of Hildebert. 
 
 t It may not be improper to place here a.passage 
 which is taken from a treatise written by Anselm, 
 entitled Cur Dens homo? since this passage was re- 
 spected, by the first scholastic divines, as an immu- 
 table law in theology, " Sicut rectus ordo exigit 
 says the learned prelate, " ut profunda fidei Ohristi- 
 ariiE credamus, priusquam ea priEsumamus ratione 
 discutere, ita negligenfia rtiihi vidctur, si, postquam 
 confirmati sumus in fide, non studemus quod credi- 
 mus intelligere:" which amounts to this. That we 
 must flrat believe without examination, but must 
 arterwards endeavour to unden-tand what we believe. 
 
 undertook to unfold the obligations of Chris- 
 tians, and to delineate the nature, the extent, 
 and the various branches of true virtue and 
 evangelical obedience, treated this most ex- 
 cellent of all sciences in a manner qmte un- 
 suitable to its dignity and importance. We 
 find stifficient proofs of this in the moral writ- 
 iiigs of Peter Damian,* and even of the learned ' 
 Hildebert.f The moralists of this' age generally 
 confiiied themselves to a jejune explication of, 
 what are commonly called, the four cardinal 
 virtues, to which tjiey added the ten Com- 
 mandments, to complete their system. .An- 
 selm, the famous prelate of Canterbury, sur- 
 passed, indeed, all the moral writers of his 
 time; the books which he composed with a 
 design to promote practical religion, and more 
 especially his Book of Meditations and Prayers, 
 contain many excellent remarks, and some 
 happy thoughts, expressed with much energy 
 and unction.^ - [^^ Nor did the mystic divines 
 satisfy themselves with penetrating, by ecstatic 
 thought and feeling, into the sublime regions of 
 beauty and love; they conceived and brought 
 forth several productions that were destined 
 to diffuse the pure delights of union and com- 
 munion through enamoured souls.] Johannes 
 Johannellus, a Latin mystic, wrote a treatise 
 concerning Divine Contemplation;! and Simeon 
 the' yoimger, who was a Grecian sage of the 
 same visionary class, composed several dis- 
 courses upon subjects of a like nature. 
 
 VIII. ia. the controversial writings of this 
 century, we observe the effects of the scholas- 
 tic method that BelBHger and Lanfranc had 
 introduced into the study of theology.. Wo 
 see divines entering the lists armed with syllo- 
 gisms which they, maiiage awkwardly, and 
 aiming rather to confotmd their adversaries by 
 the subtilties of logic, than- to" cony ince them 
 by the power of evidence; -wrhile those who 
 were unprovided with this philosophical, ar- 
 mour, made a still more wretched and despi- 
 cable figure, fell into the grossest and most 
 perverse blunders, and seem to have written 
 without either thinking of theirisubject, or of 
 the manner of treating it with sijccess. IJami- 
 anus, already mentioned, defended the truth 
 of Christianity against the Jews; but his suc- 
 cess was not iB<jual either to the warnith of hit 
 zeal, or to -the uprightness of his intentions. 
 Samuel, a convert from Judaism to Christi- 
 anity, wrote an elaborate treatise against those 
 of his nation, which is still extant. " But the 
 noblest champion that appeared at this period 
 in the cause of religion, was the famous An- 
 selm, who attacked the enemies of Christianity, 
 and the audacious contemners of all religion, 
 in an ingenious work,| which was perhaps, by 
 its depth and acuteness, above the comprfr 
 hension of those whom it was designed to con- 
 vince of their errors. [^^ For it happened, 
 no doubt,in these earlier times, as it frequently 
 does in our days, that many gave themselves 
 out for imbelievers, who knew not the first 
 
 * See Petrus Damianus, De Virtutibus. 
 
 t See Hildeberti Philosophia Moralis, et Libellus 
 de IV. Virtutibus honestae Vita. 
 
 X See the Histoire' Literaire de la France, tom 
 viii. p. 48. 
 
 § This work was entitled. Liber adversus inupi 
 entem, i. e. The fool refuted. 
 
Chap. HI. 
 
 THE- BOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 887 
 
 principles- of reasoning, and whose incredulity 
 vras the fruit of ignorance and presumption, 
 nourished by licentiousness and corruption of 
 heart.] 
 
 IX. The famous contest between the Greek 
 and Latin churchesj which, though not de- 
 cided, had however been suspended for a con- 
 siderable time, was imprudently revived, in 
 1Q53, by Michael Cerularius; patriarch of Con- 
 stantinople, a man of a restless and turbulent 
 spirit, who blew the Hame.^f religious discord, 
 and widened the fatal breach by new invectives 
 and new accusations. The pretexts that were 
 employed to justify this new rupture, were, 
 zeal fej the truth, and an anxious concern 
 about the interests of religion: but its true 
 causes were, the arrogance a^ ambition of the 
 Grecian patriarch and the Roman pontiff. The 
 latter was constantly forming the most artful 
 stratagems to reduce the former un^er his im- 
 perious yoke;, and for tliis purpose, he left no 
 means unemployed to gain over to his side the 
 bishops of Alejtandria and Antipch, by with- 
 drawing them from the jurisdiction of the see 
 of Constantinople. The tumulttious and un- 
 happy state of the Grecian empire was appa- 
 rently favourable to Ins aspiring views, as the 
 friendship of the Roman pontiif was highly 
 useful to the Greeks in their struggles with the 
 Saracens and the Normans, who were settled 
 in Italy. On the other hand, the Grecian 
 pontiff was not only determined to refuse ob- 
 stinately the least mark of submission to his 
 haughty rival, but was also laying schemes for 
 extending his dominion, and for reducing all 
 the Oriental patriarchs under his supreme ju- 
 risdiction: Thus the contending parties were 
 f>reparing for "the field of controversy, when 
 Cerularius began the charge by a warm letter 
 written in his own name, and in the name of 
 Leo, bishop of Acrida, who was his chief 
 counsellor, to John, bishop"of Trani, in Apulia; 
 in .which he publicly accused the Latins of 
 various errors.* Lep. IX., who was then in 
 the papal chair, answered this letter in a most 
 imperious manner; and, .not satisfied with 
 showing his high 'indignation -by mere words, 
 he. assembled a council at Rome, in which the 
 Greek churches were solemnly excommuni- 
 cated.f 
 
 X.. Constantine, sumamed MonomaTchus, 
 who was now at the head of the Grecian em- 
 pire,, endeavoured to stifle this controversy in 
 its birth, and, for that purpose, desired the 
 Rpman pontiff to send legates to Constantino- 
 ple, to concert measures for restoring and 
 confirming the tranqutUity of the church. 
 Three legates were accordingly sent from 
 Rome to that imperial city, who took with 
 them letters from Leo IX. not only to the em- 
 peror, but also to the. Grecian pontiff. These 
 legates were cardinal Humbert, a man of a 
 high and impetuous spirit, Peter,- archbishop 
 of Amalfi, and Frederic, archdeacon and chan- 
 cellor of the church of Rome. The issue of 
 tins congress was unhappy in the highest de- 
 
 * See an account of those errors, sect. xi. 
 
 t These letters of Cerularius and Leo are published 
 in the Annals of Baronius, ad annum, 1053. — The 
 former is also inserted by Canisius in his Lection. 
 Antiq. torn. iii. p. 281, ed. nov. — Leonis Concilia, &c. 
 
 gree, notwithstanding the propensity which 
 the emperor, for political reasons,* discovered 
 to the cause of the bishop of Rome. The ar- 
 rogance of Leo IX., and his iijsolent letters', 
 excited the highest indignation in the breast 
 of Cerularius, and produced a personal aver- 
 sion to this audacious pontiff, which inflamed, 
 instead of healing, the wounds of the cHurch; 
 while,, on the other hand, the Roman legates 
 gave many and evident proofs, that the design 
 of their embassy was not to restore peace and 
 concordj but to establish among the Greeks 
 the supreme authority and the ghostly domi- 
 nion of the Roma;i pontiff. Thus all hopes 
 of a happy conclusion of these miserable divi- 
 sions entirely vanished; and the Roman le- 
 gates, finding their efforts ineffectual to over- 
 come the vigorous resistance of Cerularius, 
 very imprudently and , insolently excommuni7 
 cated, in the church of St. Sophia, in 1054, the 
 Grecian patriarch, with Leo of Acrida, and 
 all theit adherents; and leaving a written act 
 of their inhuman imprecations and anathemas 
 upon the grand altar of that temple, they 
 shook the dfist off tiieir feet, and thus departed. 
 This violent step rendered the evil incurable, 
 wJifch it-was before not only possible, but per- 
 haps easy, to remedy. - The Grecian patriarch 
 imitated the vehemeince of the Roman legates, 
 and did from resentment what they had perpe- 
 trated from a principle of ambition and arro- 
 gance. He excommunica,ted these legates 
 with all their adherents and followers in a 
 public council, and procured an order of the 
 emperor for burning the act of excommunica- 
 tion which they had pronounced against the 
 Greeks.f These vehement meg.sures were fol- 
 lowed on both sides by a multitude of contro- 
 versialwritings,- that were filled with the most 
 bitter and irritating invectives, and served no 
 other purpose than to add fuel to the flame. 
 
 XI. Cerularius added new. accusations to 
 the ancient charges adduced by Fhotias against 
 the Latin churches; of which the principal 
 was, that they used unleavened bread in the 
 celebrction of the Lord's supper. This accu- 
 sation (sueh were the rimes!) was looked upon 
 as a matter of the most serious nature, and of 
 the highest consequence; it wagj therefore, de- 
 bated between the Greeks and Latins with the 
 utmost vehemence, nor did the Grecian and 
 Roman pontiffs contend with more fury and 
 bitterness about the extent of their power, and 
 the limits of their jurisdiction, than the Greek 
 and Latin churches disputed about the use of 
 unleavened bread. The other heads of accusa- 
 tion that were brought ag?.inst the Latins by 
 
 Cig- * He stood greatly in need of the assistance 
 of the Germans and Italians against the Normans, 
 'and hoped to obtain it by the good offices of the pope, 
 who was in high credit with the emperor Henry III. 
 
 t Beside Baronius .and other writers, whose ac- 
 counts of this period of time are generally known, 
 and not always exactj see M^billon, Annal. Bened. 
 torn. V. lib. Ix. ad an. 1053, etPreef .ad Sebc. vii Actor. ■ 
 SS. Benedicti, part ii. p. 1. — Leo Allatius, de libris 
 Grsecor. Ecclesiast. Diss. ii. p. 160, ed. FabricU,vet de 
 perpetua Eccles. Orient, et Occident. Consensione 
 lib. ii. cap. ix. p. 614.^.Michi le Cluien, Oriens Chris, 
 tianus, tqm. i. p. 260, et Diss. Damascena prima, 
 sect', xxxi. p. 16. — Hermanni Historia Concertatio- 
 num de pane azymo et fermenfato, p. 59, .published 
 at Leipsic in the year 1739* — Jo. Bapt. Cotelerius 
 Monum. Ecclesis Grscse, torn. iL p. 108. 
 
288 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part It, 
 
 the Grecian pontiff, discovered rather a ma- 
 lignant and contentious spirit, and a profound 
 ignorance of genuine Christianity, than a ge- 
 nerous zeal for the cause of trutli. He com- 
 plains, for instance, in the heaviest manner, 
 that the Latins did not abstain from the use 
 of blood, and of things strangled; that their 
 monks used to eat lard, and permitted the use 
 of flesh to such of the brethren as were sick or 
 infirm: that their bishops adorned their fingers 
 with rings, as if they were bridegrooms; that 
 their priests were beardless: and that in the 
 ceremony of baptism they, confined themselves 
 to one immersion.* Such "were the miserable 
 and trifling objects that excited a fatal schism, 
 and kindled a furious war between the Greeks 
 and Latins, who carried their animosities to 
 the greatest lengths, and loaded each other 
 with reciprocal invectives and imprecations. 
 The attentive reader will hence form a just 
 -idea of the deplorable state of religion both in 
 the. eastern and western world at this period, 
 and will see, in this dreadful schism, the true 
 origin of the various sects that multiplied the 
 different forms of superstition and error in 
 these unhappy times. 
 
 XII. This vehement dispute, which the 
 Greeks had to carry on against the Latin 
 church, was nearly followed by a fatal division 
 among themselves. Amidst the straits and 
 difficulties to which the empire was now re- 
 duced by the expenses of war, and the ca- 
 lamities of the times, Alexius not -only em- 
 ployed the treasures of the church, in order to 
 answer the exigencies of the state, but ordered 
 also the plates of silver, and the figures of tiiat 
 metal tiiat adorned the portals of the churches, 
 to be taken down and converted into inoney. 
 This measure excited the indignation of Leo, 
 bishop of Chalcedon, a man of austere morals, 
 and of an obstinate spirit, who maintained tha^ 
 the emperor, in this step, was guilty of sacri^ 
 lege; and, to prove this chargOj he published 
 a treatise, in which he affirmed, that in the 
 images of Jesus Christ, and of the saints, there 
 resided a certain kind of inherent sanctity, that 
 was a proper object of religious worship; and 
 that, therefi)re, the adoration of Christians ought 
 • not to be confined to the persons represented 
 by these images, but extended also to the 
 images themselves. This new cpntroveisy ex- 
 cited various tumults and seditions among the 
 people; to suppress which, the emperor assem- 
 bled a council ,at Constantinople, in which the 
 question was terminated by the following de- 
 cisions: '^ That the images of Christ, and of the. 
 " saints, were to be honoured only with a rela- 
 " tive worship,! which was to be offered, not 
 " to the substance or matter of which these 
 " images were composed, but to the form and 
 " features of which they bore tlie impression; 
 " that the representations of Christ, and of the 
 " saints, whether in painting or sculptiu:e, did 
 " in no sense partake of the nature of the di- 
 
 * See Cerularii Epistola ad Johannem Tranensem 
 in Canisii Lection; Antiq. torn. iii. p. 281, where the 
 reader will also find the refutation of this letter by 
 cardinal Humbert. — See likewise Cerularii £pistola 
 ad Petrum Antiochens,' in Cotelerii Monumentis 
 Ecdesis Grsec. torn. il. p. 138; add to these Martenne, 
 Thesaur. Aneedot. torn. v. p. 847. 
 
 " vine Saviour, or of those holy men, though 
 " they were enriched with a certain commum- 
 " cation of divine grace; and, lastly, that in- 
 " vocation and worship were to be addressed 
 ." to the saints, only as the servants of Christ, 
 "and on account of their relation to him, 
 " as their master." These decisions, absilrd 
 and superstitious as they were, were not suffi- 
 ciently so for Leo, the idolatrous bishop of 
 Chalcedon, who maintained his monstrous sys- 
 tem with obstinacy, and was, for that reason, 
 sent into banishment.* 
 
 XIII. The famous dispute concerning the 
 presence of Christ's body and blood in the eu- 
 charist was revived about the middle of this 
 century in the- Latin church. Hitherto the 
 disputants on boih sides had proposed their 
 jarring opinions with the utmost fireedom, un- 
 restrained b^ the despotic voice of authority, 
 since no council had given a definitive sen- 
 tence upon this matter, or prescribed a rule of 
 faith to terminate all inquiry and debate.f 
 Hence it was, that, in the beginning of this 
 century, Leutheric, archbishop of Sens, af. 
 firmed, in opposition to the general opinion of 
 the times, that none but the sincere and upright 
 Cliristian, none but saints and real believers, 
 received the body of Christ in the holy sacra- 
 ment. This opinion, which Tvas broached in 
 1004, seemed likely -to excite commotions 
 among the people; but these its natural effects 
 were happily prevented by the influence of 
 Robert, king of France, and the wise coun- 
 sels of some prudent friends, who hindered 
 the fanatical prelate from disseminating this 
 whimsical invention.! It was not so easy to 
 extinguish the zeal, or' to stop the mouth of 
 the famous Berenger, principal of the pubhc 
 school at Tours, and afterwards archbishop of 
 Angers, a man of a most acute and subtile 
 genius, and highly renowned both on acooimt 
 of his extensive learning, and the exemplary 
 sanctity of his life and manners.| This emi- 
 nent ecclesiastic maintained publicly, in 1045, 
 the doctrine ■ of Johannes Scotus; opposed 
 warmly the monstrous opinions of Paschasius 
 Radbert, which were adapted to captivate a 
 superstitious multitude by exciting their aston- 
 ishment, and persevered with a noble obstinacy 
 in teaching, that the bread and wine were not 
 changed into the body and blood of Christ in 
 the eucharist, but preserved their natural and 
 essential qualities, and were no more than 
 figures and external symbols of the body and 
 blood of the-divine Saviour. This -wise and 
 rational doctrine was no sooner published, 
 
 * An ample account of this whole matter is givei. 
 by Anna Oomnena, in her Alexias, lib. v. p. 104, lib. 
 vu.-p. 158, edit. Venet.— The acts of this council, the 
 very mention of which is omitted by several histo- 
 rians of considerable note, are published by Moot 
 fancon, in his Bibliotheca Coisliniana, p. 103. 
 
 t The various opinions concerning the sacrament 
 of the Lord's supper, that were embraced during Ibis 
 century, are collected by Martenne from an ancient 
 manuscript, and published in his Voyage Literaire 
 de deux Benedictins de la Congregation de S. Maur, 
 torn. ii. p. 126. . . „ . - • ocj 
 
 1 See Du Boulay, Histor. Acad. Pans. torn. i. p. 354. 
 
 I See the Life of Berenger m the Works of Hilde 
 bert, archdeacon of Mans, p. 1324 — See also HistOire 
 Literaire de la Prance, torn. viii. p. 197.— Boulay, 
 Hist. Acad. Paris, torn. i. p. 304, and the authors, 
 mentioned by Fabricius, Biblioth. Lat. medii tevi, 
 tom. J. p. 570. It is probably by an errftr of tltt 
 
Chap. m. 
 
 THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 289 
 
 tlian It was opposed by certain doctors in 
 France and Germany. The pontiff Leo IX. 
 attacked it with -peculiar vehemence and fury 
 in lOSO; and, in two councils, one assenibled 
 at Rome, and the other at Vercelli, had the 
 doctrine of Berenger solemnly condemned, and 
 the book of Scotus, from which it was drawn, 
 committed to the flames. This example was 
 followed by the council of Paris, which was 
 summoned in the same year by Henry I. anfl 
 in which Berenger, and his numerous adhe- 
 rents; were menaced with all sorts of eyils; 
 both spiritual and temporal. . These threats 
 were executed, in part,_ against this unhappy 
 prelate; whom Henry deprived of all his reve- 
 nues; but neithfer threats, nor fines, nor synodi- 
 cal decrees, could shake the firmness of his 
 mind, or engage him to renounce the doctrine 
 he had embraced. 
 
 XIV; After these proceedings, the contro- 
 versy was for some years happily suspended, 
 and Berenger, whose patrons were as numerous 
 as his enemies were formidable,* enjoyed,' for 
 a while, the sweets of liberty and peace. His 
 enemies, however, after the death of Leo IX. 
 rekindled the flame of religious discord, and 
 persuaded his successor Victor II. to examine 
 anew the doctrine of Berenger. The pontiff 
 complied, and sent his legates to two different 
 councils, that were assembled at Tours, in 
 1054,t for that purpose. In one of these coun- 
 cils the famous Hildebrand, who was after- 
 wards pontiff under the title of Gregory VII. 
 appeared in the character of legate^ and op- 
 posed the new doctrine with the utmost vehe» 
 mence. Berenger was also present p.t this as- 
 sembly, and, overpowered with threats, rather 
 than convinced by reason and argument, he 
 not only abandoned his opinions, but (if we 
 may believe his adversaries, to whose testimony 
 we are confined in this matter) abjured them 
 solemnly, and, in consequence of this humiliat- 
 ing step, made his peace with the church. 
 This abjuration,' however, was far fi:om being 
 sincere, and the docility of Berenger was no 
 more than an act of dissimulation; for, soon 
 aitei this period, he again taught, though with 
 more circumspection and. prudence, the opin- 
 ions he had foriiierly professed. That this 
 conduct appears mean and dishonest, is indeed 
 evident; but we are not sufficiently acquainted 
 with the transactions of these councils to fix 
 precisely the degree of his guilt. 
 
 XV. The account of Berenger 's perfidy 
 being brought to Nicolas II. the exasperated 
 pontiff summoned him to Rome, in 1058, and, 
 in the council which he held there the follow- 
 ing year, so terrified the archdeacon, that he 
 declared his readiness to embrace and adhere 
 to the doctrines which that venerable assembly 
 should think proper to impose upon' his faith. 
 Humbert was accordingly appointed unani- 
 mously by Nicolas and the council to draw 
 up a confession of faith for Berenger, who 
 signed it publicly, and confirmed his adherence 
 to it by a solemn oath. In this confession 
 
 press, that Hildebert ia atyled archbishop instead of 
 archdeacon, by Paris, Hist. lib. i. p. 10, edit. Watta. 
 
 * Lanfranc, archbishop of Canterbury, was his 
 moat formidable rival and enemy. 
 
 Q(^t Other liistoriana iMention but one council, 
 and place it in the year 1055. 
 Vol. I.— 37 
 
 there was, among other tenets equally absurd, 
 the following declaration, that "the broad 
 and wine, after consecration, were not only a 
 sacrament, but^ also the real body and blood 
 of Jesus Christ; and that tliis body and blood 
 were handled by the priest and consumed by 
 the faithful, not merely in a sacramental sense, 
 but in reality and truth, as other sensible ob- 
 ject^ are.'? This doctrine was so monstrously 
 nofisensical, and was such an impudent insult 
 upon the very first principles of reason, that it 
 could have nothing alluring to a man of Be- 
 renger'sacute and philosophical turn; nor could 
 it become the object of his serious belief, as 
 appeared soon after tliis odious act of dissimu- 
 lation; for no sooner had he returned into 
 France, than, taJting refuge in the counte- 
 nance and prelection of his ancient patronSj 
 he expressed the utmost detestation and ab- 
 horrence -of the doctrines hS had been obliged 
 to profess at Rome, abjured them solemnly 
 both in his discourse and in his writings, and 
 returned zealously to the profession ajid de- 
 fence of his former, which- had always been his 
 real opinion. Alexander II. einployed the 
 seducing influence ofsoft and firiendly expostu- 
 lation to engage Berenger to dissemble anew, 
 or, in t)ther words, to return from his pretended 
 apostasy; but his remonstrances were ineffeo-. 
 tual, chiefly because this rebellious son of a 
 superstitious churclf v^as powerfully supported 
 in the maintenance of ijis opinions. Hence 
 the controversy was prolonged, -during many 
 years, by a miiltitiide of writings on both sides 
 of the question, and the number of Berenger's 
 followers daily increased. 
 
 XVI. Gregory VII., whose enterprising 
 spirit no difliculties or opposition could dis- 
 courage, was no sooner raised to the pontifi- 
 cate than he undertook to terminate this im- 
 portant controyersy, and, for that purpose, sent 
 an order, to Berenger, in 1078, to repair to 
 Rome. If we consider the natural character 
 of this pontiff, we shall be inclined to admit 
 that his conduct, in this afiair was highly lauda- 
 ble; and discovered a degree of impartiality 
 and candour, which his proceedings on othei: 
 occasions gave little reason to expect. He 
 seems to have had a high esteem for Berenger; 
 and, in the particular points in which he was 
 obliged to oppose him, he did it with all possi- 
 ble inildness, iind" with a tenderness which 
 showed that he acted rather from a forced 
 compliance with the clamours of his adversa 
 ries, than firom inclinatioh or principle. In the 
 council which he held at Rome toward the 
 conclusion of flie year 1078, he perinitted Be- 
 renger to draw up a new confession of his 
 faith, and to renounce that which had been 
 composed by Humbert, tliough it had been so- 
 lemnly-approved and confirmed by Nicolas II. 
 and a Roman council. The sagacious pontiff 
 perceived clearly the absurdity of Humbert's 
 confession, and therefore revoked it, though it 
 had been rendered sacred by papal authority.* 
 
 * It is worthy of observation, that Gregory, whose 
 zea* in extending the |urisdiction, and exalting the 
 authority of the Roman pontiifs, aurpas^d that oj-' all 
 his predcceaaora, acknowledged, at least tacitly, by 
 this step, that a pope and council might err, and had 
 erred in effect. He cv' otherwise could he allow £e- 
 renger to renounce a confession of faith that bad beco. 
 
290 
 
 INTERNAI^ HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part II. 
 
 In consequence of this, the persecuted arch- 
 deacon made a second declarationj confirmed 
 by an oath, that he would adhere for the 
 future to the following propositions: That 
 "the bread .deposited upon the altar became, 
 after consecration, the true body of Christ, 
 which was bom of the Virgin, suffered on the 
 cross, and now sits at the right-hand of the 
 Father: and that the wine placed upon the al- 
 tar became, after consecration, the triie blood, 
 which flowed from the side of Christ," The 
 pontiflE" was satisfied with this declaration*", 
 which was far firom producing the same effect 
 upon the enemies of Berenger; they showed 
 that it was ambiguous, and so it was in reality; 
 and they insisted, that Berenger should be 
 obliged not only"to sign a declaration less vague 
 and equivocal, but should also be required to 
 prove his sincerity by the fiery trial. Gregory 
 absolutely refused the latter demand, and 
 would'have equally refused the other, had not 
 his favourable intentions toward Berenger 
 yielded to the importunate clamours of his 
 enemies and persecutors. 
 
 XVII. The pontiff, therefore, gknted that 
 part of their demand which related to a new 
 declaration; and in a council convoked at 
 Rome, in 1079, procured from the members a 
 third confession of faith, less absurd than the. 
 first, though more harsh than the secondj and 
 to this creed Berengerj after reading and sub- 
 Bcribing it in the midst of tlie assembly, was 
 obliged'to declare his a^ent by. a solemn oath. 
 By this assent, he professed to believe, *' That 
 the bread .and wine, by the mysterious influ- 
 ence of the holy prayer, and the -words of our 
 Redeemer, were substantially changed into the 
 trtie, proper, and vivifying body and blood of 
 Jesus Christ:" and to remove all grounds of 
 suspicion, to dispel all doubt about the reality 
 of his attachment to this ridiculous'^ystem, he 
 added to his second confession*- a solemn de- 
 claration, that "the bread and wine, -after 
 consecration, were converted into the real body 
 and blood of Christ, not only in quality of ex- 
 ternal signs' and sacramental' representations, 
 but iri their essential properties, and in sub- 
 stantial reality." No sooner had Berenger 
 made this strange declaration, than the pontiff 
 redoubled the marks of esteem which he ha^ 
 formerly shown him, and sent him back to his 
 country loaded with the most honourable tes- 
 timonies of liberality and friendship. The dou- 
 ble-minded doctor did not, however, think 
 himself bound by this declaration, solemn as 
 it wasj and therefore retracted publicly, upon 
 his return to his residence, what he had sub- 
 scribed as his real sentiments in the council of 
 Rome, and went even so far as to compose an 
 elaborate refutation of the doctrine to which 
 he had' been engaged to profess his assent. 
 This new change excited a warm and vehe- 
 ment controversy, in which Lanfranc and 
 Guitmund endeavoiired to perplfex Berenger 
 with their sophistry, and to overwhelm him 
 with their invectives. Gregory, to whose pa- 
 pal thunder the affronted council' looked witli 
 Anpatience, seemed neither surprised nor of- 
 
 BOlemnly approved aad confirmed by NiGolas TI. in 
 a Roman council? 
 * Mentioned in the preceding section. 
 
 fended at the inconstancy of Berenger; nor did 
 he take any step which could testify the small- 
 est mark of resentment against this pretended 
 apostate. Hence it appears more than proba- 
 ble, that the second confession had entirely 
 satisfied the pontiff, and that the violent impo- 
 sition of the third was by no means agreeabte. 
 to one who seems to have adopted, in a great 
 nieasure (if not wholly,) the sentiments of Be- 
 renger.* • ~ 
 
 * A remarkable treatise of Beronger's composition, 
 which iias been published by Martenne in his The- 
 saur. Anecdot. tom. iv. p. 99. lOD, will contribute to 
 throw a satisfactory light upon this whole affair, 
 and will fully unfold the real sentiments of Gregory 
 concerning the eucharist. For from this-piece it is 
 undoubtedly evident; Isl, That, Berenger was es- 
 teemed and favoured in a singular manner by Gre- 
 gory; 2dlyi That this pontiff was of the same opinion 
 with Berenger respecting the eucharist; it is certain, 
 at least, that he was for adhering to {he words of 
 Scr^)ture in this matter, and was eager in suppress- 
 ing all curious researches and all positive decisions 
 concerning the manner of Christ's presence in the 
 holy sacrament.- This appears -from the following 
 words which he addressed to Berenger' before the 
 meeting of the last council of Rome, and in which he 
 speaks of his design to consult the Virgin Mary upon 
 the conduct which it was proper for him to observe 
 in the course of this controversy: " Ego plane te" 
 (says the pontiff in the 108th page of the work, cited 
 in the beginning of this note) " de Christi sacriflcio, 
 secundum Scripturas bene sentire non dubito: tamen 
 quia consuetudinis mihi est, ad B. Mariam de his 
 quffi movent recurrere — imposui religioso cuidam 
 amico— -a B. Maria obtinere, ut per eum mrhi-con 
 taceret, sed verbis comraendaret, quorsum me de 
 negotio quod in manihus habebaih de Christi sacriS- 
 cio reciperem, in quo immotus persisterem." We se^ 
 here- plainly, that Gregory, expresses a strong prQ-_ 
 pensity to. the sentiments of Berenger, not, however, 
 without some hesitation concerning the" manner, in 
 which lie-was to conduct himself, and also concern- 
 ing the precise doctrine, which it was necessary to 
 embrace in relation to the presence of Christ in the 
 eucharist. It was this hesitation which led him to 
 consult the Virgin Mary, whose answer the pontiff 
 giyes in the following words; " B. Maria audivit el - 
 ad me retulit, nihil de sacriflcio Christi cogitandum, 
 nihil esse tenendum, nisiquod'tenerent authentic® 
 Scripturce, contra quas Berengarius nihil habebat. 
 Hoc tibi manifestare voJui, ut securiorem ad nos 
 fiduciara et alacriorem spem habeas." Here we see 
 an answer of the Virgin pronouncing, that it was 
 necessary to adhere to the express declarations of 
 Scripture concerning the presence of Christ in the 
 sacrament; and wl^ether Gregory was fanatic enough 
 to confide in this answer asTeal, or rogue enough to 
 forge it, it is still certain, that he confined his belief 
 respecting the point in debate -to the language of 
 Scripture, and held that the true body and Wood of 
 Christ were exhibited in the sacraijient of the Lord's, . 
 supper, though it was neither necessary nor expedi- 
 ent to inquire into the nature or manner oT this 
 mysterious presence. 3dly, It appears manifest, from 
 the treatise already mentioned^ that the assembling 
 of the second council, and the imposition of another 
 confession of faith upon the conscience of Berenger, 
 were measures into which Gregory was forced by 
 the enemies of that ecclesiastic. "Dejectus est," 
 says Berenger, speaking of that pontiff, "importuni-, 
 tatePaduani scurr;E, non episcopi, et Fisani non 
 episcopi, sed antichristi . . . ..ut permitteret calum- 
 niatoribus veritatis in posteriori quadragesimali 
 concilio scriptum a se firmatum in priori m'utari." 
 ithly, We see here the true reason why Gregory 
 showed not the smallest mark of resentment against 
 Berenger, when, upon his return to his own coun- 
 try, he violated the proLrtiise by which he had so so- 
 lemnly bound himself at the last counpil, and re 
 futed the confession to which he had sworn his as- 
 sent. For the pontiff was very far from adopting the 
 sentiments of those who had, drawn up" or suggested 
 that monstrous confession, and deemed it sufficient 
 to believe with Berenger, that the body and blood of 
 Jesus Christ were exhibited to Christians in the eu* 
 chafist. Hence he suffered the violent advorsunca 
 
Chap. in. 
 
 THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 291 
 
 XVni, Amidst the clamoui-s of his incensed 
 adversaries, Berenger ohserved a profound si- 
 lence, and was so prudent as to return no an- 
 swer to their bitter, and repeated invectives. 
 Fatigued with a controversy, in which tlie first 
 principles of reason were so impudently- insult- 
 ed, .ai-nd exhausted by an opposition which he 
 was unable to overcome, he abandoned all his 
 worldly concerns, and retired to the isle of. St. 
 Cosme, in tlie neighbourhood of Tours, where 
 he spent the remainder of his days in fasting, 
 prayer, and pious exercises. In' the year 1088, 
 death put an end to the affliction he suffered in 
 his retirement, from a bitter reflection upon the 
 dissimulation he had been guilty of at Rome, 
 and to the penitential acts of mortification and 
 austerity, to which he seems to have subrnitted 
 with tt view of expiating the enormity of his 
 criminal compliance, and the guilt of his 
 perjury.* He left in the minds of the people 
 a deep impression of his extraordinary sanctity, 
 arid his followers were as numerous as his fame 
 was illustrious.f There have been disputes 
 among the learned about the real sentiments 
 of this eminent man: yet, notwitlistanding the 
 art which he sometimes used to conceal his 
 opinions, and the ambiguity that is often re- 
 markable in his expressions, whoever examines 
 with impartiality and attention such of his 
 writings as are yet extant, "will immediately 
 perceive, that he- looked upon the bread and 
 wine in the sacrament as no m6re than the 
 - signs or symbols of the body and blood of- the 
 divine Saviour.J In this opinion Berenger per- 
 
 of his persecuted friend to murmur, scribble, bawl, 
 and refute,, while he himself observed a profound si- 
 lence, and porsisted in his resolution to put that 
 unhappy man to no farther trouble. It is, however, 
 proper to observe, that, inthe same book from which 
 these particulars are taken, we find Berenger- ad- 
 drei^sing himself, with the utmost humility, to the 
 divine mercy; for the pardon of the crime of dissimu- 
 lation'and perjury 'he had committed at Rome, and 
 confessing that the ftear of death had extorted from 
 him oaths and declarations diametrically opposite to 
 Ills real sentiments, and engaged him to subscribe 
 to a set of tenets which he abhorred. " Deus omni- 
 potens," says he, "miserere, fons misericordiarum, 
 tantum sacrilegium agnoScenti." . ■ 
 
 * This will appear evident to such as peruse the 
 treatise^ of his composition, which we have mention^ 
 ed in the 'preceding note, as published in Martenne's 
 Thesaur. Anefedot. tom. iv. 
 
 t The canons of the cathedral of Tours continue 
 to_ honour the memory of Berenger by ah annual 
 procession, in which they perform a solemn service 
 at his tomb in the isle of 9t. Cosme. See Moleon, 
 Voyages Liturgiques, p. 130. 
 
 J Mabillon and other Roman catholic writers, as 
 also a few Lutheran divines, are of opinion that 
 Berenger denied onlythe doctrine of Transubstantia- 
 t i on r while he maihtained, at the same time, the 
 real presence of the body and blood" of Christ in the 
 eucharist; and this opinion will, indeed, appear 
 plausible to such as consider only the declaration he 
 signed in the first council at Rome, to which he was 
 summoned by Gregory VII. and which he. never re- 
 tracted, without comparing this d'eclaration with the 
 rest of hl.^ writings. On the other hand, Usher, Bas- 
 nage, and almost all the writers of the reformed 
 church, maintain, that the doctrine of Berenger was 
 exactly the same with that which Calvin afterwards 
 adopted; and I cannot help joining with them in 
 this opinion, when I peruse attentively the follow- 
 ing words of his Letter to Almannus, published in 
 Martenne's Thesaur. tom. iv. Constat, says Beren- 
 ger in express terms, " verum Christi corpus in ipsa 
 mensa proponi, sed spiritualiter interiori homini ve- 
 rum in ea Christi corpus ab his duntaxat, qui Christi 
 membra sunt, incorruptum, intaminatum,-inattri- 
 
 eevered to the last; nor have we any authentic 
 proof of his having departed from it before his 
 death, as some of the Romish writers vainly 
 
 pretend.* , ' 
 
 tumqiie spiriiuatitcr manducarV* These words de- 
 monstrate so clearly, tha.t,py the presence of Christ's 
 body' in tlie eucharist, Berenger meajit no more than 
 a spiritnal presence, as to dispel all doubt about his 
 real sentiments, though, upon other occasions, he 
 concealed these sentiments under dubious expres- 
 aipns, to deceive his adversaries. 
 , * It is well known what laborious efforts the Ro- 
 man catholic writers have employed to persuade us, 
 that Berenger, bofore his death, abandoned the opi- 
 nion he had so long and so warmly defended, and 
 returned to the doctrine of the church of Rome con- 
 cerning the corporal presence of Christ in the eucha- 
 rist. Biit when we inquire into the reasons on 
 which tliis assertion is founded, we shall immedi- 
 ately perceive their weakness and insufficiency. 
 They allege, in the first place, that Berenger gave 
 an account of his doctrine and belief in the council 
 of Bordeaux, in 1087; and add to this, that the an- 
 cient writers applaud hia penitential sentiments, 
 and afiirm that he died in the- catholic faith. In all 
 this, however, we see no proof of Berqn^er's retrac- 
 tion. He adhered, indeed, to the confession of faith, 
 which he iiad subscribed and adopted in the first of 
 the two Roman councils, to which he had been sum- 
 moned by Gregory, and which that pontiff judged 
 sufficient.to clear him from the imputation of heresy: 
 and they who confined their attention to the literal 
 sense of the words of that confession, without consi- 
 'dering their -spirit, and the different meanings of 
 which they were susceptible, might easily imagine 
 that Berenger^s confession was agreeable to the doc- 
 trine of the church. Gregory, in order to pacify 
 matters, confirmed thejn in this notion; and though 
 he' was well informed of Berenger's having retracted 
 the confession which he had signed in" the last Ro- 
 man council before which he appeared, and of his 
 opposing, with the utijnost warmth, the opinion he 
 had there so solemnly professed, yet he suffered the 
 inconstant doctor to remain unmolested, and thereby 
 tacitly -acquitted him of the crime and the error that 
 were laid to his charge. 
 
 It is -of the utmost importance to observe here, 
 that the Roman church had not come, in this centu- 
 ry, to a fixed determination concerning the nature 
 and manner of Christ's presence in the eucharist. 
 This appears most evidently from the three confes- 
 sions which Berenger signed by the order of three 
 councils; .which confessions differed from each other, 
 not only in the terrris and the turn of .expression, 
 but also in the opinions and doctrines they contain- 
 ed. Pope Nicolas II, arid the council he assembled 
 at Rome, in 1059, obliged him to subscribe, as the 
 true and orthodox doctrine of the church, the first 
 of these "confessions, or that which cardinal Hum- 
 bert h^ composed. This confession was, however, 
 rejected, not only as harsh in point, of expression, 
 but also as erroneous and unsound, by Gregory and 
 the two Roman councils, which he had expressly 
 summoned to inquire into that matter; for, had 
 Humbert's declaratipn- appeared to the pontiff to be 
 a just expression of the doctrine and sense of the 
 church concerning the eucharist, neither he nor the 
 succeeding councils would have permitted other 
 forms of doctrine to be substituted in its place. Gre- 
 gory, as we have already seen, was of opinion, that 
 it Was highly improper to pry ■yt'ith too much curio- 
 sity into the mysteries of , the eucharist, and that, 
 laying aside all disputes concerning the manner oi 
 Christ's, presence in that holy institution, it was 
 safest to adhere to the jlain words of Scripture; and 
 as this was also the opinion of Berenger, and was 
 plainly expressed in his confession of faith, the ju- 
 dicious pontiff pronounced him innocent. But a fol- 
 lowing council departed from- this equitable sen- 
 tence of Gregory, who, though with much reluctance, 
 was induced to confirm their rigorous decision; and 
 hence arose a third confession, which was extremely 
 different from the two preceding ones. We may re- 
 mark, by the bye, that in this controversy the coun- 
 cils seem plainly to have swayed the pontiffs, since 
 we see the obstinate, the invincible Gregory, yield- 
 ing, against his will, to one of these clamorous as- 
 semblies. Berenger had no sooner gotten out of the 
 bands of his enemieB^ than he returned to the aecond 
 
292 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 XIX. It is not rare to find, in th8 history of 
 the church, the most trifling objects excitino- 
 the warmest and most vehement controve^ 
 sies. Such was the dispute that arose in 
 France, in 1023, between the priests and 
 monks of Limoges, concerning the place that 
 was to be assigned in the public liturgy to 
 Martial, the first bishop of that diocese. " One 
 party, headed by Jordan, bishop of Limoges, 
 were for placing him among the coftfessors, 
 while Hugo, abbot of the monastery of St. 
 Martial, maintained, that tlie prelate in ques- 
 tion was to be ranl^ed among the apostles, and 
 branded, with the opprobrious and heretical 
 title of Ebionites, all such as adhered to the 
 proposal of Jordan. This momentous aflair 
 was debated, first, in a council hojden at Poic- 
 tiers in 1023, and in another assembled at 
 Paris the year following; in which latter it 
 was determined that Martial was to be ho- 
 noured with tlie title of an apostle, and that 
 all who refused him this eminent rank were to 
 be considered as Ebiojiites, who, as is well 
 known, confined the number of the apostles to 
 twelve, that they might exclude St. Paul from 
 that sacred order. The decree, however, of this 
 council did not produce the effects that were 
 expected fi"om it; for it exasperated, instead of 
 calming, the zeal and animosity of the con- 
 tending parties, so that tliis miserable dispute 
 became daily more general, and, spread like a 
 contagion through all the provinces of France. 
 The matter was at length brought before the 
 tribunal of the Roman pontiif, John XIX. who 
 decided it in favour of the monks, and, in a 
 letter addressed to Jordan and the other bishops 
 of the nation, pronounced Martial worthy of 
 the title and honours of an appstle. This de- 
 cision produced the most ^bstantial and per- 
 manent eifects: for in a council assembled at 
 
 confession, which the pontiff had approved, and pub- 
 licly declaimed af^ainst that which had heeu imposed 
 upon him in the last Roman council before which he 
 had appeared, without receiving the least mark of 
 disapprobation from Sregorj'. From this it was na- 
 tural to conclude, that although he opposed the de- 
 cree of that council, he adopted the opinion of the 
 pope and of the church. 
 
 . lu the account which I have here ^iven of this 
 memorable controversy, I have not only consulted 
 the ancient records relating to that matfer,"which 
 have been made public (for several of them lie yet in 
 manuscript in the cabinets of the curious,) but have 
 also been assisted by the labours of those among the 
 learned, who have treated that important branch 
 of ecclesiastical history in the most accurate and 
 ample manner: such as, first, Franc, de Rove's 
 book, published at Angers in 1656; " Ad Can. Ego 
 Berengarius 41. de consecrat. distinct. 2.>Ubi vita, 
 hffiresis, et poeniteiitia Berengarii Andegavensis 
 Archidiaconi, et ad Joseph! locum de Christo," {a 
 book which is extremely curious, and very little 
 known.) Mabillon's Prxf ad torn. ix. Act. gS, Ord. 
 Bened. seu Saec. vi. part II. p. 4. et Dissert, de multi- 
 plici damnatione, fidei professione et lapsu, which 
 is published in his Analecta veteris aavi, torn, ii. p. 
 456. De Boulay, Histor. Acad. Pai;is. tom. i, p. 404. 
 torn. ii. p. 452. The authors of the reformed church, 
 whom f have followed in this controversy, are, 
 archbishop Usher, de Successione Bcclesiar. Christi'- 
 anar. in occidente, cap. vii. sect. 24. p. 195. Basnage, 
 Hist, des Eglises Reformees, tom. i. p. 105, and Hist. 
 de I'Eglise, tom. ii. p. 1391.— Cas. Oudin, Dissert, de 
 Doctrina et Scriptis Berehgarii in Comment, de 
 Scriptor. Ecclesiast. tom. ii. p^. 624. ^There appears, 
 more or less, a certain spirit -of partiality in all 
 these writers; but this spirit is particularly notorious 
 .iniong those of the church »f Rome. 
 
 Part II. 
 
 Limoges, in 1029, Jordan declared his acqui- 
 escence in the papal sentence; in a provincial 
 council at Bourges, -two years after. Martial 
 was associated to the company of the apostles 
 with great solemnity, in consequence of the 
 decision of the Roman see; and about the 
 same time this controversy was completely and 
 finally terminated in a numerous council con- 
 voked at Limoges, in which the prayers that 
 had been consecrated to the men^ory of 
 the apostle Martial, by the zealous pontiff, 
 were publicly recited.* The warm contenders 
 for the apostleship of Martial asserted, that he 
 was one of the seventy disciples of Christ; 
 whence they concluded, that he had an equal 
 title with Paul and Barnabas to the honour of 
 an apostle.. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Concanng th( Rites and Ceremonies used in the 
 
 Church during this Century. 
 
 I. The form of public worship, which was es- 
 tablished at Rome, had not yet been received 
 in all tlie western provinces. This wai looked 
 upon by the imperious pontiffs as an insult 
 vipon their authority, and therefore they used 
 their utmost efforts to introduce imiversally 
 tjie Roman ceremonies, and to promote apei^ 
 feet uniformity of worship in every part of the 
 Latin world. Gregory VII. employed all his 
 diligence, activity,, and zeal in this enterprise, 
 as appears from several passages in his letters; 
 and he alone, perhaps, was equal to the execu- 
 tion of such an arduous attempt. The Span- 
 iards had long distinguished themselves above 
 all other nations, by their noble and resolute 
 resistance to the despotic attempts of the popes 
 upon this occasion; for they adhered to thert - 
 ancient Gothic liturgy! with great obstinacy, 
 and could not be brought to change it for the 
 method of worship established at Rome. Alex- 
 ander II. had indeed proceeded so far, in 1068, 
 as to persuade the inhabitants of Arragon into 
 his measures,! ^"^^ *° conquer the aversion 
 which" the Catalonians had discovered for the 
 Roman worship. But the honour of finishing 
 this difficult work, and bringing it to perfec- 
 tion, was resei-ved for Gregory, Who, without 
 interruption, exhorted, threatened, admonish- 
 ed, and intreated Sanchez and Alphonso, the 
 kings of Arragon and Castile, tmtil, fatigued 
 with the 'importtmity> of this restless pontiff, 
 
 *"See Boulay, tom. i. p. 372, 101. — J. Longueval, 
 Histoire de I'Eglise Gallicatie, tom. vii. p. 186, 189, 
 231.— The Benedictine monks, in their Gallia Chris- 
 tiana, tom- ii. Appefld. Documentor, p. Itj2, "have 
 published the Letter of Jordan to Pope Benedict 
 VIII. against the Apostleship of Martial. The de- 
 crees of the councils of Bourges and Limoges con- 
 cerning this matter are published by Labbe, in his 
 Biblioth. Nova Manuscriptor. tom. ii. p. 766. Mabil- 
 Ion has given- an ample account of Ademar, a monk 
 of St. Cybar, the first promoter of this ridiculous 
 contraversy, in his Annal. Ord. S. Benedict, tom. iv. 
 p. 318, and, among the original papers subjoined to 
 that volume, has published a letter written by that 
 monk in favour of the apostleship of Martial. See 
 also the Histoire Literaire de la France, tom. vii. p. 
 301. 
 
 f See Mabillon, de Liturgia Gallicana, lib. i. cap. 
 ii. p.10.,— Jo. Bona, Res Liturg. lib. i. cap. xL p. 
 220, op — Pet. Le Bfun, Explication des Ceremonies 
 de la messe. torn- ii. Diss. V. p. 272. 
 
 I Pet. de Marca Histoire de Beam, liv. ii. cap. Ix. 
 
Chap. V. 
 
 DIVISIONS AND HERESIES. 
 
 293 
 
 they consented to abolish the Gothic service 
 in flieir churches, and to introduce the Roman 
 in its place. Sanchez was the first who com- 
 plied with the request of the pontiff; and, in 
 1080, his example was followed by-Alphonso. 
 The methods which the nobles of Castile em- 
 ployed lo decide the matter were very extra- 
 ordinary. First, they chose two champions, 
 who were to determine the controversy by sin- 
 gle combat, the one fighting for the Roman li- 
 turgy, the other for the Gotliic. This first 
 trial ended in favour of the latter; for the Go- 
 thic hero proved victorious. Recourse was 
 next had to the fiery trial for the decision of 
 the dispute! the Roman and Gothic liturgies 
 were committed to the flames, which, as the 
 story goes, consumed tlie former, while the lat- 
 ter remained unblemished and entire. . Thus 
 were the Gothic rites crowned with a double 
 victory, which, however, was not sufficient to 
 maintain them against the authority of the 
 pope, and the -influence of the queen Constan- 
 tia, who determined Alphonso in favour of the 
 Roman service.* 
 
 II. The zeal of the Roman pontiffs for intro- 
 ducing uniformity of worship into the western 
 churches may be, in some measme, justified; 
 but their not pra-mitting every nation to cele- 
 brate divine worship in their mother tongue 
 was absolutely inexcusable. While, indeed, 
 the Latin language was in general use amongst 
 the western nations, or, at least, was unknown 
 only to a very small number, there was no rea- 
 son why it should not be employed in the pub- 
 lic service of the church. But when the decline 
 of the Roman empire drew on by degrees the 
 extinction of its language in several places, 
 andiits decay in all tlie western provinces, it 
 became just -and reasonable that each people 
 should serve the Deity, in the language they" 
 understood, and which was peculiar to them. 
 This reasoning, however, evident and striking, 
 had no sort of influence upon the Roman pon- 
 tiffs, who, neither in this nor in the following 
 centuries, could be^persuad.ed to change the 
 established custom, but perasted, on the con- 
 trary, with yie most senseless obstinacy, in re- 
 taining the use of the Latin language in the 
 celebration of divine worship, even when it 
 was no longer understo<^ by thepeople.f This 
 strange conduct has been variously accounted 
 for by different writers,,who have tortured their 
 inventions .to find otit its secret reasons,' and 
 have imagined many that seem extremely im- 
 probable and' far-fetched. A superstitious and 
 extravagant veneration for whatever carried 
 the hoary aspect of a remote antiquity, was 
 undoubtedly the principal reason that rendered 
 the pontiffs unwilhng to abolish the use of the 
 Latin language in the celebration of divine 
 worship. ■ The same absurd principle produc- 
 ed a similar, effect in the eastern churches; 
 thus the Egyptian Cln-istians perform their re- 
 ligious service in the language of the ancient 
 Copts, the Jacobites and the Nestorians, in the 
 Syriac, and the Abyssinians in the old Ethio- 
 
 * Bona, Ees Liturg. lib. i. cap. xi. p. 216.— Le 
 Brun, torn. ii. p. 392.— lo. de Ferrcras, Historia de 
 £spana, torn. ill. 
 
 ■f Usserii.Historia Dognratica de Scripturis et Sa- 
 oria Yernaculis, ab Hon. VVliartono edits et aucta, 
 Londini, 1690, In 4to. 
 
 pie, though all these languages have been long 
 since obsolete, and are consequently unintelli- 
 gible to the multitude.* 
 
 III. It would be tedidus to enumerate, in-^a 
 circumstantial manner, the new inventions 
 that were imposed upon Christians, in this cen- 
 tury, under the specious titles of piety and 
 zeal, by the superstitious despotism of an im- 
 perious clergy. It also unnecessary to men- 
 tion the additions that were made to former 
 inventions, the multiplication, for example, of 
 the rites and ceremonies that were used in the 
 worship of saints, relics, and images, and the 
 new directions that were administered to such 
 as undertook pilgrimages, or other supersti- 
 tious services of that nature. We shall only 
 observe, that, during the whole of this century, , 
 all the European nations were most diligetitly 
 employed in rebuilding, repairing, and adorn- 
 ing their churches.f Nor will.this appear sur- 
 prising, when we consider, that, in the preced- 
 ing century, all Europe was- alarmed with a 
 dismal apprehension that the day of judgment 
 was at hand, and that the world was approach- 
 ing to its final dissolution; for, among the other 
 effects of this panic terror, the churches and 
 monasteries were suffered to fall into ruin, or 
 at least to remain without repair, from an idea 
 that they woxdd soon be involved in the gene- 
 ral fate of all sublunary -things. But, when 
 these apprehensions were removed, affairs im- 
 mediately assumed a new aspect; the totter- 
 ing temples were rebuilt; and the greatest 
 zeal, atteiTded with the richest and most libe- 
 ral donations, was employed in restoring the 
 sacred edifices to their former lustre, oi: rather 
 in giving tljem new degrees of magiiificence 
 and beauty. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 Concenting the Divisions and Heresiea that trou- 
 bled tlie Church during this Century. 
 
 I. The state of the ancient sects, and par- 
 ticularly of the Nestorians and Monophysites, 
 who resided in Asia and Egypt, under the Mo- 
 hammedan government, was now much the 
 same as it had been in the preceding century, 
 neither extremely prosperous, nor absolutely 
 miserable. The case of the Maniehseans, of 
 Paulicians, whom the Grecian emperors had 
 banished from the eastern provinces-into Bul- 
 garia and Thrace-, was mufch more unhappy on 
 account of the perpetual conflicts they had to 
 sustain with the Greeks, who persecuted and 
 oppressed them with much keenness arid ani- 
 mosity. The Greeks, as- usually happens on 
 the hke occasions, laid the blame of their 
 violent measures upon the Manichaeans, whom 
 they represented as a turbulent, perfidious, 
 and sanguinary faction, and as the declared and 
 inveterate enemies of the Grecian empire.t 
 This, however, is by no means to be received 
 
 * See Easeb. Eenaildot, Dissertjt. de Liturgiarura 
 Orientalium oriyine et antiqiiitate, cap. vi. p. 40. 
 
 t Glab. Rodolpli. Hist. lib. iii. cap. iv. in Duchesne'a 
 Scriptor. Franc, torn. iv. p. 217. '■ Infra millesimum 
 tertio jam fere imminente annocontigit in uniTerso 
 pene terrarum orbe, prfficipue tamen in Italia et in 
 Galliis, innovari. ecclesiarum baeilicaa." 
 
 t See the Alexias of Anna Commena, hb. v. p 
 105; lib. vi. p. 124, 145. 
 
294 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part II. 
 
 as an impartial state of the case; at least, it 
 appears from many circumstances, that, if the 
 Manichieans were exasperated against' the 
 Greeks, their resentment was in some mea- 
 sure justified by the violent and injurious treat- 
 ment which they had received fium them. 
 The Grecian pontiffs and clergy vpere far from 
 being destitute of the odious spirit of persecu- 
 tion; and it is certain that the emperors, insti- 
 gated by them, had exhausted the patience of 
 the Paulioians by repeated vexations and cru- 
 elties, and alienated their affections by inflict- 
 ing upon them, without interruption, a variety 
 of punishments, such as banishment, confisca- 
 tion of goods, and other marks qf severity and 
 violence. ' - 
 
 Alexius Comnenus, who, by his learning, 
 was an ornament to the imperial sceptre, per- 
 ceiving that the Manicheeans were not to be 
 vanquished, without tlie greatest difficulty, by 
 the force of arms, 'and •bbserving also that 
 their numbers increased from day to day both 
 in Thrace and in the adjacent provinces, had 
 recourse to the power of reason and argument 
 to, conquer their obstinacy, and spent whole 
 days at Philippopolis, in disputing with the 
 principal doctors of that pernicious sect. Many 
 of them yielded to the victorious arguments 
 of this royal'dispufant, and his learned associ- 
 ates; nor is this to be wondered at, since t-heir 
 demonstrations were accompanied and enforced 
 by rewards and puaishments. Such of the 
 Manicheeans as retracted their errors, and re- 
 turned to the bosom of the Greek church, were 
 loaded with gifts, honours, and privileges, ac- 
 cording to their respective stations, while such 
 as stood firm against the reasoning of the em- 
 perffli were inhunianly condemned to per- 
 pet" imprisonment.* 
 
 II. Many of the Paulicians, either from a 
 principle of zeal for the propagation of their 
 opinions, or from a desire of relieving them- 
 selves from the persecution and oppression 
 they suffered under the Grecian yoke, retired 
 from Bulgaria and Thrace, and formed settle- 
 ments in other countries. Their first migra- 
 tion was into Italy; whence, in process of time, 
 they sent colonies into almost all the' other 
 provinces of Europe, and formed gradually a 
 considerable number of religious assemblies, 
 who adhered to their doctrine, and were aftei^ 
 wards persecuted with the utmost vehemence 
 by the Roman pontiffs.f It is difficult to fix 
 
 * There is an ample aiid circumstantial account of 
 this controversy between the emperor and tlje Mani- 
 chseans in the work mentioned in the preceding 
 note, lib. xiv. p. 357. 
 
 t See Muratori, Antiquitat. Ital. medii ^vi, tom. 
 
 v. p. 83 Limborch, Historia Inquisitionis, p. 31.— 
 
 Riccinii Dissertatio de Catharis, prefixed to the 
 Summa B. Monetas contra Catharos. We might also 
 refer, upon this occasion, to Glab. Eodulph. Histor. 
 lib. iij. cap. viii. to Matth. Paris, and other ancient 
 writers. Certain Italian authors, and among others 
 Riccini, seemed unwillhig to acknowledge that the 
 Paulicians arrived first ' in Italy, and proceeded 
 thence into the other provinces of, Europe; and 
 maintain, on the contrary, that their first settle- 
 ment was in France, whence they repaired to Italy. 
 These writers look upon it as ignominious to their 
 country, to he considered as the tirst European nation 
 which fostered sucha pernicious and impious sect in 
 its bosom. Be that as it may, their hypothesis is 
 favoured by Peter de Marca himself, a Frenchman, 
 •wDo in his Histoire de Beam, livt viii. cap. xiv. 
 
 the precise period when the Paulicians began . 
 to take refuge in Europe; it is, however, certain, 
 from the most authentic testimonies, that a 
 considerable number of that sect were, about 
 the middle of this century, settled iriLombardy, 
 Insubria, and principally at Milan, and that 
 many of them led a wandering life in France, 
 Germany, and other countries, where they 
 captivated tlie esteem and admiration of the 
 multitude, by tlieir sanctunonious looks, and 
 the uncommon air of piety, which they put on 
 with much affectation. In Italy they were 
 called- Paterini and Cathari, or rather Gazari, 
 which latter appellation the Germans have 
 preserved, with a small alteration euly, which 
 was proper to adapt it to the genius of their' 
 language.* In France they were called Alb'i- 
 gensesf fi-om the town of Albi, and Bulgarians 
 because they came from Bulgaria, and because 
 the head of their sect resided in that country; 
 as also Publicans, which was probably a corrupt 
 pronunciation of PaulidiMs, and boni liomiTies 
 or ' good men,' with several other titles and 
 epithets.J 
 
 declares it as his opinion, that the Paulicians joined 
 themselves to the Hjrallic armies that returned from 
 the holy war by the province 'of Bulgaria, and were 
 thus conducted into France. But that learned au- 
 thor alleges no proof to support this opinion: it ap- 
 pears on the contrary^ from the records of the Inqui- 
 sition of Toulouse, published by Limborch, and from 
 ot^her "authentic pieces, that the Paulicians settled 
 first in Sicily, Lombardy, Liguria, and.the Milanese, 
 and thence sent many doctors and missionaries into 
 France. See the Codex Tolosahus, passim- -We 
 learn also from the- Code Of Toulouse, that the 
 Frenijh Paulicians, who were called Albigenses, had 
 no bishop to consecrate their Ancitmi (such was the 
 title they gave to their presbyters,) so that such^of 
 them as were desirous of being placed in tlie order 
 of presbyters, were obliged to repair to Italy, ia 
 order to their being regularly installed. 
 
 * The title^ of Paterini, which was given to this 
 sect in Italy, has been already explained in the 
 second chapter of the second part of this century, 
 sect. 13, note [t]. As to the term Catharus, it was un- 
 doubtedly, when applied to the Paulicians, the same 
 with Gazarus, as I have elsewhere demonstrated. 
 See Histor. Ord, Apostol. p. 367. The country which 
 bore, in this century, the nameof Gazaria, was what 
 we now call the Minor Tartary. 
 
 t That the Paulicians were called Albigenses in 
 France, and were a sect entirely distinct from the 
 Walderises and other heretics, appears evidently 
 from the Codex Inquisitionis, Tolosanse. They re- 
 ceived this name from a town in Aquitaine, called 
 Albigia, or Albi, where their errors Were condemned 
 in a council which met in 117C. See Chatel's Me- 
 moires de THistoire de Lahguedoc, p; 305. It> is, 
 therefore, a mistake to consider the Albigenses as a 
 sect so called from Albi's being the place of their 
 birth, their residence, or the seat of their principal as- 
 sembly, since that name was given them for no 
 other reason than their having been condemned in 
 a council holden in that town. There were, indeed, 
 several Paulicians among the various sects of dis- 
 senters from the church of Rome, that inhabited the 
 country about Albi; and it is also true, that the title 
 of Albigenses is usually extended to all the heretics, 
 of whatever sect or denomination they were, who 
 dwelt in those parts. 
 
 X The learned Du Fresne, in his Glossarium Latin, 
 medii ^vi, torn.-!, p. 1338, has proved, in an ample 
 manner, that the Paulicians were called in France 
 Bulgare&r and (by a corrupt pronunciation of that 
 word) Bougres. The same author, in his Observa- 
 tiones adVilleharduini Historiam Constantinopolit., 
 has fully demonstrated, that the names Popolicani 
 and Publicani, that were imposed upon these Mani- 
 chacans, were no more than a corruption of the term 
 Pauliciani. ill pronounced. The appellation of Bovi 
 Homines, or Los bos Homos, as the southern French 
 spoke at that tiine, was a title which the Paulicians 
 
Chap. V. 
 
 DIVISIONS- AND HERESIES. 
 
 295 
 
 m.-The first religious assembly which the 
 Paulicians formed in Europe, is said to ha-ve. 
 been discovered at Orleans, in 1017, under the 
 reign of Robert. A certain Italian lady is said to 
 have been at the head of this sect; itsipfinoipal 
 members were twelve canons, of- the cathedral 
 of Orleans, men eminently distinguished by 
 their piety arid learning, among whom Lisoius 
 aiAd Stephen held the first rank; and it was 
 composed, in general, of a considerable number 
 of citizens, "who were far from being of the 
 meanest condition. Tlie impious doctrines, 
 pirofessed by these canons, were discovered by 
 a, certain priest named Heribert, and by Arifas- 
 tus, a Norman nobleman; upon which Robert 
 assembled a council at Orleans,' and employed 
 the most effectual inethods that he could devise 
 ta bring these heretics to a better mind. But 
 all his endeavours were to no purpose; this 
 pemidious sect adhered obstinately to its prin- 
 ciples; and its members were at length con- 
 demned to be burned aUve.* 
 
 It is difficult to come to a fixed determina- 
 
 _,tion with respect to the character and doctrine 
 of these sectaries; for, When we examine 
 matters attentively, we find that even their 
 enemies ackriowledged the sincerity of their 
 
 ' piety, that they were blackened by accusations 
 which were evidently talse, and that the opin- 
 ions for which they were punished differ vifidely 
 from the Manichsean' system.t As fiiraswe 
 can see into the case, it appears to us, that 
 tMse pretended Manichoeans of Orleans were 
 a set of Myotics, who looked with contempt 
 upon all external worship,~rejected all rites 
 and ceremonies, and even the Christian sacra- 
 ments, as destitute of any, even the least 
 spiritual efecacy or virtue; placed the whole 
 of religion in flie internal contemplation of 
 God, and the elevation of the soul to divine 
 and celestial things; and, in their philosophical 
 speculations concerning God, the Trinity, and 
 the human soul, soared above the comprehen- 
 sion of the age in which they lived. Alike, 
 set of men proceeded in vast numbers out of 
 Italy" in the following ages, spread like arf in- 
 undation through all the European provinces, 
 and were known in Gerrriany under the name 
 of the Brethren of the free Spirit, while they 
 were distinguished in other countries by the 
 appellatiofa of Beghards.| 
 
 attributM to themselves. See the Codex Inquiait. 
 TolosaniE. 
 
 > The accounts that the ancient-wnters have 
 riven of these heretics are collected by Boulay, in his 
 Hist. Acad. Paris, torn. i. p. 364.— D'Argentre, Col- 
 lectio Judicior. de novis Erroribus, torn. i. p. 5.— Jo. 
 Launoy, de Scholis celebrioribus Caroli Magni, cap. 
 xxiv. J>. 90^— The history of the synod of Orleans, in 
 which this seel was condemned, is given by D' Acheri, 
 in his Spicileg. Veter. Seriptor. torn. i. p. 604. ' _ 
 
 t Basnage, in his Histoire des Eglises Reformees, 
 torn. i. period iv. p. 97, and in his Hist, de I'Bglise, 
 torn. U. p. 1388,' pleads the cause of the canons of Or- 
 leans; but this learned and worthy man seems to have 
 been carried too far by his zeal for augmenting the 
 number Of those who have been martyrs to the truth. 
 
 t We shall have occasion to give a more copious 
 account of these fanatics in the history of -the 
 thirteeath century, in which they were first drawn 
 from their obscurity, and condemned by many coun- 
 cils especially in Germany. It is, however, certain, 
 that they had a clandestine existence long before 
 that period, and that they propagated their tenets 
 secretly in-several places. Their doctrine resembles, 
 in some particulars, that of the Manichsans, and 
 
 I IV. We find in history another branch of 
 this numerous sect, whose errors were not ac- 
 companied with the crimes that were laid to 
 the charge of their brethreijs and who were 
 converted by a pathetic discourse that was ad- 
 dressed to them by Gerard,, bishop of Camfcray 
 ai;id Arras, in an assembly of the clergy, holden 
 in the latter city, in -1030. These honest Mys- 
 tics, who were equally remarkable for their 
 docility and their ignorance, had received the 
 doctrine they professed from the Italians, and 
 partfcularly from a certain eccentric doctor, 
 whose name was Gundulf. They maintained, 
 in general', according to their own confession, 
 that the whole of religion consisted in the 
 study, of practical piety, and in a course of ac- 
 tion conformable to the divine laws; and they 
 treated all external modes of worship with the 
 utmost contempt. Their particular tenefs^nay 
 be reduced to the foUovHng heads: 1. They 
 rejected baptism, and, in a more especial man- 
 ner, the baptism of infants, as a ceremony that 
 was in no respect essential to salvation: 2, 
 They rejected, for the same reason, the sacra- 
 ment of the Lord's supper: 3. They denied, 
 that the churches were endowed with a greater 
 degree of sanctity than- private houses, or that 
 they were more adapted to the worship of God 
 than any other place: 4. They affirmed, that 
 the altars were to be considered in no other 
 hght than as heaps of stones, and were there- 
 fore unworthy of any marks of veneration or 
 i:egard: 5. They disapproved the use of in- 
 cense !uid consecrated oil in services of a reli- 
 gious nature: 6. They looked upon the use of 
 bells in the churches, as an intolerable super- 
 stition: 7. They denied, that the establishment 
 of bishops, presbyters, deacons, and other ec- 
 clesiastical dignities, was of divine instifiition, 
 and went so far as to maintain that the ap- 
 pointment of stated' ministers in the -church 
 was entirely uimecessary: 8. They affirmed, 
 .that -the institution of funeral rites was an ef- 
 fect of sacerdotal avarice, and that it wats a 
 matter of indifference whether the dead were 
 buried in the churches, or in the fields: 9. 
 They looked upon the voluntary punishment, 
 called penance, so generally praelised in this 
 century, as unprofitable' and absurd: 10. They 
 denied that the sins of departed spirits could 
 be, in any iheasure, atoned for by the celebra- 
 tion of masses, tlie distribution of alms, to the 
 poor, or a vicarious penance;* and they conse- 
 quently treated the doctrine of purgatory as a 
 ridiculous fable: 11. They considered marriage 
 as a pernicious institution, and absurdly con- 
 demned, without' distinction, all connubial 
 bonds:! 12. They looked upon a certain sort 
 of veneration and worship as due to the apos- 
 tles and martyrs, from which, however, they 
 excluded siich ' as were only confessors, in 
 
 hence it was natural for-the igijorant divines of the 
 a^e in which they lived, to consider them as a branch 
 of that .pernicious sect. 
 
 Q^ * By a vicarious penanc6 is understood the 
 course of mortification and voluntary sufiering, that 
 one person undergoes in order tb procure absoiution 
 for another. 
 
 ■f This eleventh article is scarcely credib1e,-at least 
 as it is here expressed. It is "more reasonable to 
 suppose, that these Mystics did not absolutely con- 
 demn marriage, but only held celibacy in higher es 
 teem, as a mark of superior sanctity and virtue. 
 
296 
 
 INTERNAL fflSTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part U. 
 
 which class they comprehended the saints, who 
 had not suffered death for the cause of Christ, 
 and whose bodies, in their esteem, had nothing 
 more sacred than any other liaflfen carcase: 
 13. They declared the use of instrumental 
 music in the churches, and other religious as- 
 semblies, superstitious and unlawful: 14. They 
 denied, that the cross on which Clu:ist suiFered 
 was in any respect more sacred than other 
 kinds of wood, and, in consequence, refused to 
 pay to it the smallest degree of religious woir- 
 ship: 15. They not pnly refused all acts of 
 adoration to the images of Christ, and of the 
 saints, but were also for having them removed 
 out of the churches: 16. They were shocked at 
 the subordination- and distinctions that were 
 established among the clergy, and at the differ- 
 ent degrees of authority conferred upon the 
 different members of that sacred body.* 
 
 When we consider the corrupt state of reli- 
 gion Jn this century, and particularly the su- 
 perstitious notions that were generally adopted 
 in relation to outward ceremonies, the efficacy 
 of penance and the sanctity of churches, relics, 
 and images, it will riot appear surprising, that 
 many persons of good sense and solid piety, 
 ruiming from one extreme ip another, fell 
 into the opinions of these Mystics, in which, 
 among several absurdities, there were many 
 things lilausibleand specious, and some highly 
 rational. 
 
 V. A controversy, of a much more subtile 
 and difficult nature, arose in France, about the 
 year 1089. It had for its principal author 
 Roscellinus, a canon of Compeigne, a profound 
 dialectician, and the most eminent doctor of 
 the sect called Nominalists. He deemed it in- 
 conceivable aud impossible that the Son of 
 God Aould assume the human nature alone, 
 i. e. without the Father and the Holy Ghost 
 becoming incarnate also, unless by the three 
 persons iii the godhead were meant- three. dis- 
 tinct objects, or natures existing- separately 
 (such as three angels, or three distinct spirits,) 
 though endowed with one will, and acting by 
 one power. When it was insinuated to Ros- 
 cellinus, that this manner of reasoning led 
 directly to Tritheism, or the doctrine of three 
 gods, he answered boldly, that the existence 
 of three gods might be asserted with truth,| 
 
 * See an account of the synod of Arras in the 
 Spicilegium Scriptor. Veter. torn. i. p. 607—624; also 
 Car. Plessis D'Argentre, CoHectio. Jiulicioriim de 
 J^ovis Erroribus^ torn. i. • ' 
 
 t poch is the account given by John, the accuser 
 of this metaphysical eccfcsiastic, in a letter to An- 
 selm, archbishop of Canterbury, published by Balu- 
 zius, in his Miscellanea, torn. iv. The same account 
 - is confirmed by Anselm himaelft in the book de fide 
 Trinitatia, which he wrote against Koscellinus: see 
 Oper. torn. i. p. 41, 43, and lib. ii. Epistolar. ep. xxxv. 
 p. 335, torn. ii. op.— and also by Fulcq, bishop of 
 Beauvais, as may be seen in the second book of the 
 Epistles of Anselm, ep. xli. lib. ii. torn. ii. op. p. 357. 
 It must, however, be- considered, that the learned 
 men now mentioned were the inveterate enemies of 
 Roscellinus, and that they perhaps comprehended his 
 meaning ihiperfectly, or perverted it wilfully- Seve- 
 ral circumstances prove, that some of his adversaries 
 were in one or the other of these two cases. Anselm 
 himself furnishes sufficient grounds for this suspi- 
 cion, since, notwithstandirie: his aversion to the 
 
 were not the expression harsh and contrary to 
 the phraseology generally received. He wad, 
 however, obliged to retract this error in a 
 council assembled at Soissons, in 1092; but he 
 resumed it when the council was dismissed, and 
 the danger over- Persecuted anew on account 
 of hjs doctrme, he took refuge in England, and 
 excited there divisions and contests of another 
 kind, by maintaining, among other things, that 
 persons born out of lawful wedlock ought to 
 be deemed incapable, of admission to holy 
 orders. This doctrine, which was by no means 
 suited to the times, procured Roscellinus many 
 enemies, and was in a great measure the occa- 
 sion of his involuntary removal from England. 
 Banished thence, he returned to France, and, 
 taking up his residence at Paris, fomented 
 again the old dispiite concerning uie Trinity. 
 This, howevej, succeeded not according to his 
 hopes, but exposed him to much trouble and 
 vexation from the redoubled attacks of his ad- 
 versaries, who fiercely assailed him from all 
 quarters. Fatigued with their persecutions, 
 he retired at last into Aquitaine, where he ac- 
 quired universal esteem by his eminent piety, 
 and passed the rest of his days in tranquillity' 
 and repose.* ^ , 
 
 Nominalists, of whom Koscel.linus was the chief, he 
 grants, in his book de Fide Trinitatis, cap. iii. that 
 the opinion of his antagonist may he admitted, or at 
 least tolerated, in a certain sense; and even frequently - 
 intimates, that he is not perfectly assured of his un- 
 derstanding fully the meaning of Roscellinus,- and 
 that he believes the senl^iments of that ecclesiastit: 
 less pernicious than his accusers have represented 
 them. " Sed forsitan (says Anselm) ipse (Roscelli. 
 nus) non dicit, sicut sunt tres animffi aut tres Ange- 
 Ii: sed ille, qui mihi ejus mandavit queestionem, hanc 
 ex suo posuit similitudinem: sed solum mode tres 
 personas aiiirmat esse tres ReB, sine additamento 
 alicujus similitudinis." The same Anselm (Episto- 
 lar. lib. ii. ep. xli. p. 357,) declares, that the account 
 whicb'he had received of the opinions of Roscellinus 
 appears to him extremely, dubious, "Q,uod tameh 
 (says lie) absque dubietate credere non possum." 
 From all this it is evident, that Anselin was far 
 from having an eiltire confidence in'the equity aiid 
 impartiality of the accusers of Roscellihus, or from 
 looking upon that ecclesiastic -as so black, as his 
 enemies had endeavoured to make him. 
 
 As to the merits of the cause, it appears manifest 
 to me, that this subtle dispute was a consequence of 
 the warm controversy (hat subsisted in this" century, 
 between the Realists and the Nominalists. The 
 former attacked the latter by the dangerous conclu- 
 sions that seemed deducible from their principles, 
 and reasoned thus: " If, as your doctrine supposes, 
 "universal substances are no more than mere 
 " sounds or denominations, and the whole science of 
 '" logic is only conversant about words, it must of 
 " necessity follow, that the three persons in the 
 " Godhead are only three names, and not three reali- 
 " ties or things," — " We deny the conclusion," re- 
 plied Roscellinus; "the Father, Son, and Holy 
 " Ghost, are not placed by us in the rank of denomi- 
 " nations, but in the class of realities, or things." 
 The subtile doctor here, as all must more or less do 
 after him, by avoiding Scylla fell into CharybdiB, 
 and was charged by his adversaries with the- intro- 
 duction of tritheism, by holding an opinion that sup- 
 posed the existence of three divine substances. 
 Were any of the writings of Roscelli nus now extant, 
 they would help us to form a more just notion of 
 this controversy than we can have at present. 
 
 * Boulay, torn. i. p.485.— Mabillon, Annal. torn. v. 
 p. 262.— Histoire Literaire de la France, torn. ix. p. 
 358.— Anton. Pagi, Critica in Baronium ad Annum 
 1094, torn. iv. p. 317.— Longueval, Hist, de ITBghse 
 Gallicane, tom. viii. p. 59. 
 
THE TWELFTH CENTURY. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 THE EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Concerning tlui Prosperous Events that happened 
 to tlie Church'dwring this Centmy. 
 
 A CONSIDERABLE poTt of EuropB lay yet in- 
 volved in pagan darkness, which reigned more 
 especially in the northern provinces. It was, 
 therefore, in these regions of glooniy supersti- 
 tion, that the zeal of the missionaries was prin^ 
 oipaily exerted in this century; though their 
 efforts were not all equally successful, nor the 
 methods they employed for the propagation of 
 the Gospel equally prudent. Boleslaus, diike 
 of Poland, having conquered tiiePomerainianSj 
 offered them peace,^ upon condition that they 
 would, receive the Christian teachers, and per- 
 mit them to exetcise their^ministry in that van- 
 quished province. This condition was accept- 
 ed; and Otho, bishop of Bamberg, si man of 
 eminent pjety and zeal, was sent, in the year 
 1 124, to -inculcate and explain the dqctrijies of 
 Christianity, among that superstitious and bar- 
 barous people^ Many were converted to the 
 faith by his ministry, while, great numbers 
 stood firm against his most vigorous efforts, 
 aiid persisted^ with an invincible obstinacy, in 
 the religion of their idolatrous ancestors. — 
 Nor was this the only mortification which that 
 illustrious prelate received, in the execution of 
 his pious enterprise; for, upon his return into 
 Germany, many of those whom he had engag- 
 ed in the profession of Christianity, apostatised 
 in his absence, andrrelapsed into their ancient 
 prejudices: this obliged Otho to undertake a 
 second voyage into Pomerania, A, D; 1126, 
 in which, a;fter much opposition and difficulty, 
 his labours were crowned' with a happier issue, 
 and contributed much to enlarge, the bounds of. 
 the rising' church, and to establish it upon so- 
 lid foundations.* From this period, theCliris- 
 ijan religion seemed daily to acquire new., de- 
 grees of stabihty among" the Pomeranians, who 
 had hitherto refiised to permit the settlement 
 of- a bishop among them. They now received 
 Adalbert, or Albert, in, that character,' who 
 was accordingly the first bishop of Pomerania. 
 
 n. Of all the northern princqs of this cen- 
 tray, none appeared with a more distinguished 
 lustre than.Waldemar I. king of Denmark, 
 who acquired an immortal name by the glori- 
 ous battles he fought against the pagan na- 
 tions, such as the Sclavonians, Venedi, Van- 
 
 * See Henr. Canisii Ijectiones Antiquie, torn. iii. 
 pari: it. p- 34". where we find the life of Otho, who, A. 
 1) 118,9, was canoniged by Clement III. See the Ac- 
 ta Sanctor. Mensis Julii, torn. i. p. 349. Dan. Crame- 
 ri Chroiucon Eccles. PomeranisB,-lib: i. as also a 
 learned Dissertation concerning the conversion of 
 the Pomeranians by the ministry of Otho, written m 
 the German language, by Christopher Schotgen, and 
 published at Stargard, in the year 1724. Add to these 
 Mabillon, Annal. Benedict, tom. vi. p. 123, Ha, 323. 
 Vol. I.— 38 
 
 dais, and others, who, either by their incur- 
 'sions or by revolt, drew upon them the weight ^ 
 of his victorious arm. He unsheathed his ' _ 
 sword, not only for the defence, and happiness * 
 of his people, but also for the prbpagation,and 
 advancement of Christianity; and wherever , 
 his arms were successful, he pulled dowii the 
 temples and images of the gods, destroyed their 
 altars, laid waste their sacred groves, and sub- 
 stituted in their place the Christian wqrship, 
 which deserved to be propalgated by better 
 means than the sword, by the authority of rea- 
 son, rather than by -the despotic yoice of 
 power. The island of Rugen, which lies in 
 the neighbourhood of Pomerania, submitted to 
 the victorious armsof Waldemar, A. D. 1168; 
 and its "fierce and savage inhabitants, whp 
 were, in reality, no more than a band^f rob- ' 
 hers and pirates, were obliged, by that prince, 
 to hear,the instructions of the pious and learn- 
 ed doctors that followed his army, and to re- 
 ceive the Christian worship. This salutary 
 work was brought to perfection by" Absalom, 
 archbishop of I^mden, a man of superior ge- 
 nius, and of a Inost excellent character in every 
 respect, whose eminent merit raised him to the 
 smnmit of power, and engaged Waldemar to 
 place him at the head <if afl^irs.* 
 , HI. The'Finlandcrs received the Gospel in 
 the same maimer in which it had been propa- 
 gated among the inhabitants of the isle of Ru- 
 gen. They were also a fierce and savage peo- 
 ple, who lived by plunder, and infested Swe- 
 den in a terrible manner by their perpetual 
 incursions, until, after many bloody battles, 
 they were totally defeated by Eric IX. styled 
 after his death the Sstint, and reduced under 
 the Swiedish yoke.. Histbrians'differ -about the 
 precise time when this conquest was complet- 
 ed;t but they are all unanimous in their ac- 
 counts of its effects. The FiiJanders were 
 commanded to embrace the religion of the con- 
 queror, which the greatest part of them did, 
 
 * Saxo-GrammaticUs, Histor. Danic. lib. xiv. p. 
 239. — ^Helmoldus, Chron. Sclavorum, lib. ii. cap. xii. 
 p. 234, and Henr. Bangertus, ad. h.-l. — Pontoppidani 
 Annates Ecclesiae Danicae, tom. i. p. 404. 
 
 ^j(^ Beside the historians here mentioned hy Dr 
 Mosheim', we refer the curious reader to-an excellent 
 history of Dehmarlc, written in French, by M. Mai 
 let, professor at'Cgpenhagen. In the first volume of 
 this history.'the ingeniusand learned 'author has gi- 
 ven a'Very interesting account of -the progress of 
 Christianity in the northern parts of Europe, and a 
 particular relation _Qf the exploits of Absalom, who 
 was.^at the same^ime, archbishop, general, admiral, 
 and prime minister, and who led the victorious Danes 
 to battle, by sea and land, without neglecting the euro 
 of souls, or in the least diminishing his pious labours: 
 in the propagation of the Gospel abroad, 'and its 
 maiptenance and support at home. 
 
 t Most writers, with Baronius, place this event in 
 the year 1151. ~ Difierent, however, from this is the 
 chronology of Vastovius and Oernhiehnius, the for- 
 mer placing it in 1150, and the latter in 1157 
 
298 
 
 EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part I. 
 
 though with the utmost reluctance.* The 
 founder (and ruler) of this new chnrdi was 
 Henry, archbishop pf Upsal, who accompani- 
 ed the victorious monarch in that bloody cam- 
 paign. This prelate, whose zeal was not suf- 
 ficiently tempered with the mild and gentle 
 spirit of the rejigion he taiight, treated the 
 new converts with great severity, and was as- 
 sassinated at last, in a cruel . manner, on ac 
 count of the heavy penance he imposed upon 
 a person of great authority, who had been 
 guilty of homicide. This melancholy event 
 procured Henry the honours of saintship and 
 martyrdorn, which were solemnly conferred 
 upon hiin by pope Adrian IV-f 
 
 ly. The propagation of the Gospel among 
 the Livonians was attended with much diiEcul- 
 ty, and also with horrible scenes of cruelty and 
 bloodshed. The first missionary, who attempt- 
 ed the- conversion of that savage.people, was 
 Majnhard, a regular canon of St. Augustin, in 
 the monaiteiy of Segeberg, who, toward the 
 'conclusion of this century ,|travelled to Livo- 
 nia} with a company of merchants of Bremen, 
 and improved this opportmiity qf spreading the 
 light of the Gospel in that barbarous region 
 of superstition arid darkness. The instruc- 
 tions and exhortations of this zealous apostle 
 were little attended to, and produced little or 
 no effect upon that uncivilized nation; Where- 
 upon he addressed himself to the Roman pon- 
 tiff, Urban IIL who consecrated him bish6p of 
 the Livonians, and, at the same time, declared 
 a holy war against that obstinate people. This 
 war, which was at first carried on against the 
 inhabitants -of the'provinefe of,Esthonia, was 
 continued with still greater vigour, andrender- 
 ed more general, by Berthold, abbot of Luccaj 
 who left his monastery to s|iare the labours and 
 laurels of- Mainha,rd, whom he accordingly 
 succeeded in the see of Livonia. The new bi- 
 shop marched into that province at the head 
 of a powerful army which he had raised in 
 Saxony, preached the Gospel sword in hand, 
 and proved its truth^by blows instead of argu- 
 ments. Albert, canon of Bremen, became the 
 third bishop of Livonia, and ibllowed, with a 
 barbarous enthusiasm, the same military me- 
 thods of conversion that had been practised by 
 his predecessor. He entered Livonia, A. D. 
 1198, with a fresh body of troops drawn out 
 of Saxony, and, encamping at Riga, instituted 
 there, by the direction of pope KnocentllL, 
 the military order of the knights sword-bear- 
 ers,| who were commissioned to dragoon the 
 Livonians into the profession of Christianity, 
 and oblige them by force of arms to^receive 
 the benefits of bap^m.|| , New legions wei-e 
 sent from Germany to second the efibrts, and 
 add efiicacy^to the mission of these booted 
 apostles; and they, in concert with the knights- 
 sword-bearers, so cruelly oppressed, slaughter- 
 
 * Oernhielmii Hlstor. Eccles. Gtentis "Suecorum, 
 
 lib. iv. cap. iv. sect. 13 Jo. Loccenii Histor. Suecica, 
 
 lib. iii. p. 76, ei. Prancof.— Erlandi Vita Erici Sanc- 
 ti, cap. vii. — Vastovii Vitis Aijuilonia, p. 65. ■ 
 
 t Vastovii Vitis Aquilon. seu Vitie Sanctorum 
 Eegni SueogOtliici, p. 62. Eric. Benzelii Moumenta 
 EcclesiaB Sueogotliicaj, part i. p. 33. 
 
 t In tile year 1186. 
 
 § Equestris Ordo- Militum Ensiferorum. 
 
 f See Henr. Leonardi Schurtzfleiscliii Historia Or- 
 Jiiiis Ensifeiorum Equitum, Wittenberg. 1701, 8.V0. 
 
 ed", and tormented this wretched people, that 
 exliausted at length, and unable longer to 
 stand firm against, the arm of persecution, 
 strengthened still by new accessions of power, 
 they abandoned the statues of their pagan dei- 
 ties, and substituted in theii° places the images 
 of the saints. But, whUe tJiey received the 
 blessings of the Gospel, they were deprived 
 of all earthly comforts; for their lands and 
 possessions were taken from them, with the 
 most odious circumstances of cruelty and vio* 
 lence, a,nd the knights arid bishops divided the 
 spoil.* ' 
 
 V. None of the northern nations had a more 
 rooted aversion to the Christians, or a more 
 obstinate antipathy to their religion, than the 
 Sclavonians, a rough and, barSirons people, 
 who inhabited the coast of the Baltic sea. 
 This excited the zeal of several neighbouring 
 princes, and of a multitude of pious missioria- 
 ries, who united their efforts, in order to con- 
 quer the prejudices of this people, and to open 
 their ^yes upon the light of the Gospel. Hen- 
 ry, duke of Saxony, sumamed the Lion, dis- 
 tinguished himself in a particular manner, by 
 the ardour which he discovered in the execu- 
 tion of this pious design, as well as by the 
 wise methods he employed to render it suc- 
 cessful. Among other meastu-es that were 
 proper for this purpose, he restored from their 
 ruins, and endowed richly, three bishopricsf 
 that had been ravaged and destroyed by these 
 l)arbarians, namely, the bishoprics of Ratze- 
 burg and Schwerin, and that ot Oldenburg, 
 Vhich. was afterwards transplanted to Lubeck. 
 The most eminent of the Christian doctors, 
 who attempted the conversion of the Sclavo- 
 nians, was Vicelinus, a native of Hamelen, a 
 man of extraordinary merit, who surpassed 
 almost all his contemporaries in genuine piety 
 and solid learning, and who, after having pre- 
 sided many years in the society of the regular 
 canons of St. Augustin at Falderen, was at 
 length consecrated bishop of Oldenburg.-^ 
 This excellent man, employed the last thirty 
 years of his llfejt amidst numberless vexa- 
 tioiis, .dangers and difficulties; in instructing 
 the Sclavonians, and exhorting them to com- 
 
 * See the Origines LivonijE, seu, Ohronicon vetus„ 
 Livonicum, publislied in folio, at Praucfort, in the 
 year 1740, by Jo: Daniel Gruherus, and enriched witb 
 ample and learned observations and notes, in which 
 the, laborious author enumerates all the writers of 
 the Livonian history, and corrects their mistakes. 
 
 g^ I Dr. Mosheim's account of this matter is very 
 different from that which is given by Pleury, who' 
 asserts, that it was Hartwick, archbishop of Bre- 
 men, who restored the three ruined sees, -and couse- 
 crated Vicelinus bishop sf Oldenburg; and that, as 
 he had done this without addressing himself to Hen- 
 ry, the -dnfce seized the tithes of Vicelinus, until a • 
 reconciliation was afterwards brought about between 
 the offended prince and the worthy bishop. See Fleu- 
 ry. Hist. Eccles. liv. Ixix. p. 665, 868. edit. Bruxelles. 
 Fleury, in this and, other parts of his history, shows, 
 that he is butindiflerentiy acquainted with the history 
 of Germany, and has.not drawn from the best sources. 
 The authorities which Dr. Mbsheim. produces for Ws 
 account of the affair, are the OriginesGuelphicie, torn, 
 iii. p. 16, 19, 34, 55, 61, 63, 72, 82, with the celebrated 
 Preface of Scheidius, sect. xiv. p. 41. Ludewig's Ee- 
 liquiffi Manuscriptorum, tom. vi. p. 230. Jo. Ern. dc 
 Westphalen, Monumenta inedita Kerum Cimbrica. 
 rum 6t Megapolens. tom. ii. p. 1998.. 
 
 J That is.from the year 1124 to, the year 1154, IB 
 wliich lie died. 
 
Chap. I. 
 
 PROSPEROUS EVENTS. 
 
 299 
 
 ply with the invitations of the Gospel of 
 Christ; andj'as his pious labours were directed 
 by true wisdonij and carried on with the most 
 indefetigable industry and zeal, so were they 
 attended with much fruit, even among that 
 fierce and iirtractstbie people.' Nor was his mi- 
 nistry among the Sclavonians the only circum- 
 stance that redounds to the honour of his me- 
 mory; the history of hislife and aotjons in ge- 
 neral furnishfrs proofs of his piety and zeal, suf- 
 ficient to transmit his name to the latest gen6- 
 -- rations.* 
 
 VI. It is needless to repeat here the observa- 
 tion we have so often had occasion to make 
 upon such conversions as theSBr or to intimate 
 to the reader that the savage nations, who 
 were thus dragooned "into the church, became 
 the disciples of Christ, ngt so much in reality, 
 as in outward appearance. . t|:^ They pro- 
 fessed, with an inward reluctance, a religion 
 which was inculcated by violence and blood- 
 shed, which recalled to their remembrance no- 
 thing but scenes of desolation and misery; and 
 which, iiideed, when considered in the repre- 
 sentations that were given of it by the great- 
 est part of tile missionaries, was but a few de- 
 grees removed from the absurdities of pagan- 
 ism,] The pure and rational religion of the 
 Gospel was never jgresented to these unliappy 
 nations in its native simplicity; they were only 
 talight to appease the Deity, and to render him 
 propitious,- by a senselees round of trifling ce- 
 remonies aid bodily exercises^ which, in many 
 (Mcumstances, resembled the superstitions they 
 wereijbliged to renounce, and might have been 
 easily reconciled with them, had it not been 
 _ that the name and history of Christ, the sign 
 of the cross, and some diversity between ceiv 
 tain rites and ceremonies of thfe two religions,. 
 ppposed.this coalition. Besides, the missiona- 
 ries whose zeal for imposing the name of 
 Christians upon this people was so vehement 
 and even furious, were extremely indulgent in 
 all other respects, and oppoBed.their prejudices 
 and vices with much gentleness and forbear- 
 ance. They permitted them to retain several 
 rites and observances that were in direct oppo- 
 sition to the spirit of Christianity, and to the 
 nature of true piety. The truth of the mat- 
 ter seems to have been this, that the leading 
 views of these Christian heralds, and propa- 
 gators of the faith, a smaller number excepted; 
 were rather turned toward the advancement of 
 tbeii ovm interests, and the confirming and ex- 
 tending the dominion of the Roman pontiff, 
 than toward the true conveiision of these sa- 
 rage. Pagans; that conversion which consists 
 tit the removal of ignorance,- the correction of 
 error, and the reformation of vice 
 
 VII. A great revolution in Asiatic Tartary, 
 which borders upon Cathay, changed the face 
 of things in that distant region about the com- 
 
 ^ There is a particular and ample account of Yi- 
 celinus in the Cinibria I^iterata of MoUerus, torn. iL 
 p. 910, and in the Res Hamburg, of Lambecius, lib. 
 ii. p. 12. See also upon this subject the Origrnes Ne- 
 omonaster. et Bordeshohnens. of the most learned 
 and industrious Joh. Em. de Westphalen, which are 
 published in the second tome of the Monumenta in- 
 edita Cimbrica, p. 2344, and the Preface to-this tome,, 
 pi 33. There is in this work a print of Vicelinus 
 well engraven 
 
 mencement of thfs century, and proved, by its 
 effects, extremely beneficial to the Cluistian 
 cause. Toward the conclusion of the preced- 
 ing century, died Koiremkhajn, otherwise cal- 
 led Kenkhan, the most powerful monarch that 
 was known in the eastern regions of Asia; and, 
 while that mighty kingdom was deprived of 
 its chief, it was invaded with such imcominon 
 valour and success, by a Nestorian priest, 
 whose name was John, that it fell before his 
 victorious arms, and acknowledged this war- 
 like and enterprising presbyter as its monarch. 
 This was the fainous' PreSter John (as he was 
 called,) whose territory was, for a long time, 
 considered by the Europeans as a second para- 
 dise, a^ the seat of opulence and complete, ffeli- 
 city. As he was a presbyter before his eleva- 
 tion to the royal dignity, many continued to 
 call him Presbyter John, even when he was 
 seated on the throne;* but his kingly name 
 was Unkhan. The high notions which the 
 
 * The -account I have here given of this famous 
 Presbyter, coramoiily called Prester John, "who was, 
 'for along time, considered as the greatest and happi- 
 est of'.all earthly monarchs, is what appeared to me 
 the most . probable among:' the various relations that 
 have been given of the life and adventures of that 
 extraordinary inan. -This account is moreover con- 
 firmed by the testimonies of contemporary writers, 
 whose kn<)wledge-and impartiality render them wor- 
 thy of credit; such as William of Tripoli, (see Du;^ 
 fresne's,Adnot. ad Vitam Ludovici Sti. a JoinvilliGi 
 scriptam, p. 89.) as also a certain- bishop of Gabal^ 
 mentioned by Otto Frising. Chronic, lib. vii. cap,' 
 xxxii. See also Guillaiime Kubruquis, Voyage, cap. 
 xviil. p. 36,' in the Antiqua in Asiam Itinera, collect- 
 ed by father Bergeron, -and-Altieric in Chronico, ad' 
 A. 1165, and 1170, -in Leibnitii Accessionibus Histor- 
 icis, torn, ii., p. 345, 355. It is indeed surprising, that 
 such authentic records a^ these should have' escaped 
 the observation- of the learned, and that so many 
 .different opinions should have been advanced con- 
 cerning Fleeter John, and the place of his residence. 
 But -it is roo generally the fate of learned-men, to 
 overlook tllose accounts that carry the plainest 
 marks of evidence, and, from a passion for the mar- 
 vellous, to. plunge into the Regions of uncertainty 
 and doubt. In^uie Jifteenth century, John II. king 
 of Portugal, employed Pedro Covilliano in a labori- 
 ous- inquiry into thereal situation of the kingdom 
 of Prester John. The. curious voyager undertook 
 this tasjc, and,' for information in the matter,, travel- 
 led .with a few companip'ns into Aljyssinia; and ob- 
 serving in the emperor of the Abyssinians, or Ethi- 
 opians, many circumstances that resembled the ac- 
 counts which, at that time, prevailed in Europe con- 
 cerning Prester John,- he -persuaded himself that he 
 had fulfilled his commission, and found out the resi- 
 dence of that extraordinary monarch, who was the 
 object of his researches. His opinion easily gained 
 credit in Europe, which had not yet emerged out of 
 its ignorance and barbarism. See Moriiius, de Ba- 
 cris Eccles. Ord'inationibus, part ii. p.-367. But a 
 new^light was cast uiton this matter in the seven- 
 teenth century, by the publication of several pieces, 
 which the industry of the Icurious drew forth from 
 their obscurity, and by, which -a great number of 
 learned men were- engaged to abandon the Portu- 
 guese opinion, and were convinced that Prester John 
 reigned- in A^a, though they still continued to dis- 
 -pute about the situation of his kingdom, and Qther 
 particular circumstances. There are, notwiths^nd- 
 ing all this, some men of the mo,st eminent learning 
 in our times, who maintain, tba-t John was emperor 
 of the' Abyssinians, and thits prefer the Portuguese 
 opinion, though destitu.te of authentic proofs and 
 testimonies, to, -the other above mentioned, though 
 supported by the strongest evidence, and the most 
 unquestionable authorities. See Euseb. Renaudot, 
 Hist. Patriarch. -Alexandr. p. 223, 337. Jos. Franc. 
 Lafitau, Hist, des Decouvertes des Portngais, torn. U^ ^ ' 
 p. 58, and tom. iii. p. S7. Henr. le Grand. Dis. de^' 
 Johanne Fresbytero in Lobe's Voyage d'Abyerinie, 
 tome i. p. 395, 
 
300 
 
 EXTERNAL fflSTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part J. 
 
 Greeks and Latins generally entertained of the 
 grandeur and magnificence of this royal pres- 
 byter, were principally produced by the letters 
 he wrote to the Roman emperor Frederic I. 
 and to Emanuel emperor of the Greeks, in 
 ■which, puifed up with pro'sperity, and flurfied 
 with success, he vaunted his victories over the 
 neighbouring nations.that disputed his passage 
 to ttie throne; described, in the most pompous 
 and extravagant terms, the splend9ur of his 
 nches, the grandeur of his state, and the ex- 
 tent of his dominions; and exalted himself far 
 above all other earthly roqnarchs. All this 
 was easily Iselieved; and the Nestorians were 
 extremely zealous in confirming the boaists of 
 their vainTglorious prince. He was sucpeeded 
 by his son, or, as others think, his brothpr, 
 whose" name was David, though, in common 
 discourse, he was also called Prester John, as 
 his predecessor had been. The reign of Da- 
 vid was far from being happy, nor did lie end 
 his days in peace; Genghiz Khan, the great 
 and warlike emperor of the Tartars, invaded 
 his territories toward the conclusion of this 
 century, and deprived liim both of his life and 
 his dominions. 
 
 VIII. The new ' kingdom of JeriisalemJ 
 which had been erected by the holy warriors 
 of France, near the close of the preceding cen- 
 tury, seemed to flourish considerably at the 
 beginning of this; and to rest upon firm and 
 solid foundations. This prosperous scene was, 
 however, but transitory, and was soon succeed' 
 ed by thie most terrible calamities and desola- 
 tions. For, wlien tlie Mohammedans saw 
 v?ist numbers of those who had engaged in 
 this holy war returning into "Europe, and the 
 Christian chiefs that remained in Palestine di- 
 vided into factions, and every one advancing 
 his private interest, without any regard to the 
 public good, they resumed their courage, re- 
 covered from the terror and consternation into 
 which they had been thrown by the amazing 
 valour and rapid success of the European le- 
 gions, and, gathering troops and soliciting suc- 
 cours fi:om'all quarters, they harassed and ex- 
 hausted the Christians by invasions and wars 
 without inten-uption. The Christians, on the 
 other hand, sustamed tliese efforts with their 
 usual fortitudcj and maintained their groimd' 
 during many years; but when Atabeck Zen^ 
 ghi,* after a long siege, made himself master 
 of" the city of Edessa, and threatened Antioch 
 with the same fate, their courage beganto fail, 
 and a diifidence in their own strength oWiged 
 them to turn their eyes once more toward 
 Europe. They accordingly implored, in the 
 most lamentable strain, the assistance of the 
 European prinoes:^aud requested that a new 
 army of cross-bearing champions might be 
 sent to support their tottering empire in the 
 Holy Land. Tlieir entreaties were favourably 
 received by the Roman pontiffs, wlio left no 
 method of persuasion unemployed, that might 
 
 * Atabeck was a title of honour given bjrthe sul- 
 tans to rtie viceroys or lieutenants, whom they in- 
 trusted with the government of their provinces. 
 The Latin authors, who have written the history of 
 this holy war, and of whom Bonsarsius has given 
 us a complete list, call this Atabeck Zenghj, Bangui-, 
 nus. Sec Herbelot, Biblioth. Orient, at the word 
 Atabeck, p. 142. , 
 
 engage the emperor and other Christian princes 
 to undertake a new expedition into Palestine. 
 IX. This new expedition was not, however, 
 resolved upon with such unanimity and pre- 
 cipitation as the former had been; it was the 
 subject of long deliberation, and its expediency 
 was keenly delated both in the cahinets of 
 princes, and in the assemblies of the clergy and 
 the people. Bernard, the famous abbot of 
 Clairval, a man of tlie. boldest resolution and 
 of tlie greatest authority, put an end to those 
 disputes under the pontificate of Eugenius III. 
 who had been his disciple, and who was wholly 
 governed by his counsels. Tljis eloquent and 
 zealous ecclesiastic preached the cross, i. e. the 
 crusade, in France and Germany, with great 
 ardour-^nd success; and in the grand parlia- 
 ment assembled at Vezalai, A. D. 1146, at . 
 which Louis Vll. king of France, his queen, 
 and a prodigious T5oncourse of the' principal 
 nobility, were present, Bernard recommended 
 this holy expedition with such a persuasive 
 power, and declared with such assiirance that 
 he had a divine commission to foretell its glo- 
 rious success, that tlie king, the queen, and all 
 the nobles, immediately put on the military 
 cross, and prepared themselves for the journey 
 into Palestine. ConraJ III. emperor of Ger- 
 mahyj was, for some tinSe, unmoved by the 
 exhortations of Bernard; but-he was at length 
 gained over by the urgent solicitations of the 
 fervent abbot, and followed the example oftho 
 French monarch. The two princes, each at 
 the head of a numerous army, set out for Pa- 
 lestine, to which they were to march by differs 
 ent roads. But, before their arrival in the 
 Holy Land, the greatest part of their forces 
 perished miserably, some by famine, some by > 
 the sword of the Mohammedans,"some by sliip- 
 wreck, and a considerablei number by the per- 
 fidious cruelty of the Greeks, who looked upon 
 tlie western nations as more to be feared^than 
 .the infidels themselves. Louis VII. left^ his 
 kingdom A. D. 1147, and, in the moiith-of 
 March of the.foUowing. year, he arrived at An- 
 tioch, with the wretched remains of his army, 
 dejected and exhausted- by a series of hard- 
 ships. Conrad set out also in the year 1147, 
 in the month of May; and, in November fol- 
 lowing, he arrived at Nice, whete he joined 
 the French army, after having lost the great- 
 est part of his own by calamities of various 
 Icinds. From Nice, the two princes proceeded 
 to Jerusalem, A. D. 1148; whence they led 
 back into Europe, the year following, the 
 miserable handftil of troops, which had sur- 
 vived the disasters of the expedition. Such 
 was the unhappy issue of this second crusade, 
 which was rendered ineffectual by a variety of 
 causes, but more particularly by the jealousie* 
 and divisions that reigned among the Christian 
 chiefs in Palestine. Nor was it more ineffec- 
 tual in Palestine than it was dctrimenta.1 to 
 Europe, by draining the wealth tff its fairest 
 provinces, and destroying a prodigious number 
 of its inhabitants.* ' j . 
 
 * Beside the historians enumerated by Bongarsius, 
 see Mabillon, Annal. Benedict, tom. vr. p. 399, 404, 
 407, 417, 451. Jac. Gervasii Histoire de 1' Abbe 
 SugiA-, tom. iii. p. 104, 128, 173, 190, 239. This was 
 the famous Suger, abbot of St. Denys, who had se- 
 conded the exhortations of Bernard in favour of the 
 
t)tf AP. I. 
 
 PROSPEROUS EVENTS. 
 
 301 
 
 X. The unhappy issue of this second expe- 
 dition was not however sufficient, when con- 
 sidered alone, tO' render the affairs of the 
 Christians in Palestine entirely desperate. Had 
 their chiefs and i»:inces relinquished their ani- 
 mosities and contentions, and attacked the 
 common enemy with their united force, they 
 would have soon repaired their losses, and re- 
 covered their glory. But this ^ was iar from 
 being the case. A fatal corruption of senti- 
 ments and manners reigned among all ranlE,s 
 and orders. Both the people and tlieir leaders, 
 and more especially the latter, abandoned 
 themselves without reluctance to all the ex- 
 cesses of ambition, avarice, and injustice; they 
 indulged themselves in the practice of all sorts 
 of vices; and by their intestine quarrels, jea- 
 lousies, and discords, they weakened then-ef- 
 forts against the •enemies that surrounded 
 them, and consumed their' strength' by thus 
 unhappily dividing it. - Saladin, viceroy or 
 rather sultan of Egypt and Syria,* and the 
 most valiant chief of whom the Mohammedan 
 annals l)oast, took advantage of these lamenta- 
 ble divisions. He waged war against - the 
 Christians with the utmost valour and success; 
 took prisoner Guy pf Lusignan, king of Jeru- 
 salem, in a fatal battle fought near Tiberias, 
 A. D. 1187; and, in the course of the same 
 year, reduced Jerusalem itself under his do- 
 minion.f The carnage and desolation that 
 accompanied this dreadful .campaign, tlirew 
 the affairs of the Cliristians in the east into a 
 deplorable: condition, 'and left them no glimpse 
 of hope, but what arose from' the expected suc- 
 cours of the European princes. Succours were 
 obtained for them by the Roman pontiffs with 
 much difficulty, in consequence of repeated 
 solicitations and entreaties. But the, event; 
 as we shall soon see, was by no means an- 
 swerable to the deep scheines that were con- 
 certed, or to the pains that were employed, 
 for the support of the tottering kingdoin of JS- 
 rilsalem. 
 
 , XI. The third expedition was undertaken, 
 A. D. 1189, by Frederic I. surnaihed Barba- 
 rossa, emperor of Germany, who, with a pro- 
 digious army, marched throu^ several Gre- 
 cian provinces, where he had innumerable 
 difficidties and obstacles to overcome, into 
 Asia Minor, whence, after having defeated the 
 sultan of Iconium, he penetrated into Syria. 
 His valour and conduct promised successful 
 and glorious campaigns to the army he com- 
 manded, when,- by an unhappy accident, he" 
 
 crusade^ and whom Louis appointed regent of France 
 during his absence. Vertot, Histoire des Chevaliers 
 de Malte, torn. i. p. 86. Joh. Jac. Mascovius, de 
 Rebus Imperii sub Conrado III. 
 
 (j^ * Saladin, so called by the western writers, 
 Salaha'ddin by the Orientals, was no longer vizir 
 or viceroy of Egypt, when he undertook the siege of 
 Jerusalem, but had usurped the sovereign power in. 
 that country, and had also added to his dominions, 
 by right of conquest, several provinces of Syria. 
 
 t See the Life of Saladin by Bohao'ddin Ebn 
 Sbeddadi an -Arabian writer, whose history of that 
 warlike sultan was published at Leyden in the year 
 1732, by the late celehrjted professor Albert Schul- 
 tens, and accompanied with an excellent ' Latin 
 translation. See also Herbelot, Bjblioth. Orient, at 
 the article Salah-a'ddin, p. 743, and Marigny's His- 
 toire des Arabes, tome iv. p. 283. 8(?- But, above 
 all, see the learned History of the Arabians in the 
 modern part of the Universal History. 
 
 lost hia life in the river Saleph,* which runs 
 through Seleucia.. The manner of^ his. death 
 ip not known With certainty; the. loss however 
 of such an able chief delected the spirits of his 
 troops, BO that considerable numbers-of them 
 returned into Europe. Those who remained 
 continued the war un4er the command of 
 Frederie, son of the deceased emperor; but the 
 greatest part of them perished miserably by a 
 pestilential disorder, which raged with extri- 
 ordinary violence in the camp, and swept off 
 vast numbers every day. The new general 
 died of this terrible disease, A. D. 1191; those 
 who escaped its fury were dispersed, and few 
 returned to their own country.f 
 
 XII. The example of Frederic Barbarossa was 
 followed, in the year 1 190, by Philip Augustus 
 king of France, and the lion-hearted Richard, 
 king of England. These two monarchs set 
 out from their respective dominions with a con- 
 siderable' number of ships of war and trans- 
 ports; J arrived in Palestine in. the year 1191, 
 each £^t the head of a separate array; and were 
 pretty successful in their first encouniers with 
 the infidels. After the reduction of the strong 
 ■city of Acre or Ptolemais, which had been de- 
 fended by the Moslems with the most obsti- 
 nate valbiir, the French monarch, returned 
 into Europe, in the month of July, 1191, leav- 
 ing, however, a considerable part of the army 
 which he had cond ucted into Palestine. After 
 his depa;i^ure tlie king of England pushed the 
 war vvith the- greatest vigour, gave d^tily marks 
 of his heroic intrepidity and military skill, and 
 not only defeated Saladin in several engage- 
 ftifints, but also made himself master of Jaffa§ 
 and ' Caesarea. Deserted, however,^ by the 
 French and Italians, and influenced by other 
 motives and ' considerations of the greatest 
 weight, he concluded, A. D. 1 192, with Saladin; 
 a truce of three years, three months, and as 
 many days, and evacuated Palestine vvith''his 
 whole army.|| Such was the issueof the third' 
 expedition against the infidels, which nearly 
 exhausted England, France, and Germany, 
 both of men and money, -without bringipg any 
 solid a,dvantagd, or giving even a favourable 
 turn, to the affairs of the Christians in the 
 Holy Land^ 
 
 Xin. These l)loody wars between the. Chris- 
 tians and the Mohammedans gave rise to three 
 fiunous military orders, whose office it was to- 
 
 CG^ * ^ainjbourg, in his Histoire des Croisades, 
 and Marigiiy in his Hist, du xii. Siecle, say, that . 
 Frederic perished in theCydnus, a river of Gilicia. 
 But they are easily to be reconciled with our author, 
 since, according to the descriptions given of the Sa- 
 leph by several learned geographers, and among 
 others by Roger the-Annalist, it appears that the 
 Saleph and the Cydnus ,were the same river under 
 different names. 
 
 t See an ample and satisfactory account of this 
 unhappy campaign in the Life of Frederic 1. written 
 in Germap by Henry count Bunau, p. 278, 293, 309. 
 
 €&■ t The learned authors of the Modern. Univer- 
 salHi^tory affirm thaj Philip arrived in Palestine, 
 with a supply of men, money, &c. on board of' six 
 ships, whereas Renaudot mentions 100 sail as em- 
 ployed-in this expedition. The fleet of Richard con- 
 sisted of 150 large ships, l)eside galleys, &c. 
 
 § More comjhonly known by the name of Joppa., _ 
 
 [J Daniel, Histoire de-France,' tome iii. p. 426. — 
 Eapin Thoyras, Histoire d'Angleterre, tome ii. 
 Regn'e de Richard Cceur.de-Libn.— Marigny, His- 
 toire des Arabes, tome iV. p. 283. 
 
302 
 
 EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 / / 
 
 destroy the robbers that infested the pubU, 
 roads, to harass the Moslems by perpetual in- 
 roads and warlike achievements, to assist the 
 poor and sick pilgrims, whom the devotion of 
 the times conducted to the holy sepulchre 
 and to perform otherservices that tended to the 
 general good.* The first order was that of the 
 Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, who de- 
 rived, their name, und particularly that of Hos- 
 pitalers, from an hospital in that city, dedi- 
 cated to St. John the Baptist, in which certain 
 pious and charitable brethren were constantly 
 employed in , relieving ■ and refreshing with 
 necessary supplies the indigent and diseased 
 Pilgrims, who were-daily arriving at Jerusalem. 
 When this city became the metropolis of a 
 new kingdom, the revenues of the hospital 
 were so highly augmented by the liberality of 
 severalprinces, arid the pious donations of such 
 opulent persons as ftequeuted the holy places, 
 that they far surpassed the wants of those 
 vvhom they were designed" to cherish and re- 
 lieve. Hence it was that Raymond du Puy, 
 who was the ruler of this charitable house, 
 oiFeired to the king of .Jerusalem to make war 
 upon the Mohammedans at his own expense, 
 seconded by his brethren, who served under 
 him in this famous hospital. Baldwin U. to 
 whom this proposal was made, readily accepted 
 it, and the enterprise was solemnly approjted 
 and confirmed by the authority of the Roman 
 pontiff. Thus was the world surprised with 
 the^strange transformation of a devout fra- 
 ternity, who had lived remote from the noise 
 and tumult of arms, in the performance of works 
 of charity and rnercyj into a yali^nt and hardy 
 band of Warriors, jf The whole order was upon 
 this occasion divided into three classes: the first 
 contained the knights, or soldfers of illustrious 
 iirth, who were to imsheath their swords in 
 the Christian cause; in the second were com- 
 prehended the priests, who were to officiate 
 in the churches that belonged to the order; 
 and in the third were the serving brethren, or 
 the soldiers "of low condition. This celebrated 
 order gave, upon many occasions, eminent 
 proo& of resolution and valour, and acquired 
 immense opulence by heroic exploits. When 
 Palestine was irrecoverably lost, the knights 
 passed into the isle of Cyprus; they afterwards 
 made themselves masters of the isle of Rhodes, 
 , where they maintained themselves for a long 
 time; but, being finally driven thence by the 
 Turks, they received from the emperor Charles 
 V. a grant of the island of Malta.f , 
 
 XIV. Another order, which was entirely of 
 a military nature, was that of the knighte tem- 
 plars, so called from a palace, adjoining to 
 the temple of Jerusalem,- which was app* o- 
 priated io their use for a certain time by 
 Baldwin II. The foundations of this order 
 were laid at Jerusalem, in the year 1118, by 
 
 PARr I. 
 
 * The writers, who have given the history of these 
 three orders, afe euumerated^by Jo. Alb. Fabricias, 
 Bibliograph. Antiquar. p. 465; but his enumeration 
 is not' complete. - _ 
 
 t The best and the most recent history of this 
 -order is that which was composed' by Vertot at -the 
 request of the knights of Malta; it was first publish- 
 ed at Paris, and afterwards at Amsterdam, in five 
 _ volumes 8vo. in the year 1732. See also Helyot's 
 Hist, dcs Ordres, tome ii'-. p. 73. 
 
 Hugues des Payens, Geoffrey of St. Aldemar, 
 or of St. Amour, as some will have it, and 
 seven other persons, whose names are un- 
 known; but it was not before the year 1228 
 that it^ acquired a proper degree or stability, 
 by being solemnly confirmed in the couneil of 
 Troyes, and subjected to a rule of discipline 
 drawn -up by' St. Bernard.* These warlike 
 templaiB were to defend and support the cause 
 of Christianity by force of arms, to have in- 
 fection over the'public roads, and to protect 
 Hie pilgrims, who came to visit Jerusiilem, 
 against the insults and barbarity of the Mos-' 
 lems.- The order flourished for some time, 
 and acquired, by the valour of its knighjs, im- 
 menseriches, and an eminent degree of military 
 renown; but, as t;heir jirosperity increased, their 
 vices were multiplied, and their arrogance, 
 Itixury, and inhuman cruelty, rose at last to- 
 such a monstrous height, that their privileges^ 
 were revoked, and their order suppressed with 
 the most terrible circumstances of infamy apd 
 severity, by a decree of the pope and of the 
 eouncilof Vienne in Dauphiiie, as we shall see 
 in the history of the fourteenth century .f 
 
 -XV. The third orderresembled the fjrst in 
 this respect, that, though it was a military in- 
 •stitution, the care of.the poor and relief of the 
 sick were not excluded from the services it 
 prescribed. Its members were distinguished 
 by the title of Teutonic Knights of St. Mary^ 
 of Jerusalem; and as to its rise, we cannot, ' 
 with any degree of certa;inty, trace it farther 
 back' than the year 1190, diiring the siege of 
 Acre, Or Ptolemais, though tlieje are historic 
 ans adventurous enough to seek its origin 
 (wbioh they place at Jerusalem) in a more" re-, 
 mote period. ^ During the long and tedious 
 siege of Aore^ several pious and charitable 
 merchants ftf Bremen and Lnbeck, moved 
 with compassiqn at the sight of the miseries 
 which the besiegers suffered in the midst of 
 their success, devoted themselves entirely to 
 the service of the sick and wounded soldiers, 
 and erected a kind of hbspital, or tent, where 
 they gave constant attendance to all such un 
 happy objects as had recourse to their charity. 
 This pious undertaking was so a^eeahle to 
 the German princes, who were present at this 
 terrible siege, that they thought proper to 
 form a fraternity of German knights to bring 
 it to perfection. Their resolution was highly 
 approved by pope Celestine III. who confirmed 
 the new order by a bull issued on the twenty- 
 third of February, A. D. 1192. This order 
 was entirely appropriated to the Germans; and 
 even of them none were admitted as. members 
 pf it, but such as were of an illustrious birth; 
 The support of Christianity,- the defence of 
 the Holy Land, and the relief of the' poor and 
 needy, were the iiiiportant duties and services 
 to which the Teutonic knights devoted them- 
 selves by a solemn vow. Austerity and fru- 
 gality were the first characteristicsof this rising 
 
 * See Mabillon, Annal. Benedict, torn. vi. p. 159. 
 
 t See Matthew Paris, Histor. Major, p. 56, foi an 
 account uf the comnbencement of this order. See 
 also Putean, Histoire de I'Ordre Militaire des Tern- 
 pliers, which was republished with considerable ad- 
 ditions, at Brussels, in 4to. in the year 1751; and 
 Nic. Gurtleri Historia Templariorum MiJitum. Am- 
 stelodam. 1691, in 8vo. 
 
Chap. II. 
 
 GAEAMITCJUS EVENTS. 
 
 803 
 
 order, and the equestrian garment,* bread, and 
 water, were the only rewards which the 
 knights derived from their generous labours^ 
 But as, according to the fate of human things^ 
 prosperity generates corruption, so it happened 
 that this austerity was of ashort duration, and 
 diminished in proportion as the revenues and 
 possessions of the order were augnjented. The 
 Teutonic knights, after, their retreat from 
 Palestine, made themselves masters of Prussia, 
 Livonia, Courland, and Semigallia; but, in 
 process of time, their victorious arms received 
 several checks; and when-the-light of the re- 
 ibrm'ation arose upon Germany, they were 
 deprived of the" ricixest provinces which they 
 possessed in that country; though they still re- 
 tain there a Bejtain' portion of their ancient 
 terrjtories.f 
 
 CHAPTER II, 
 
 Concerning the Calamitovs Events that happened 
 
 to the Church during this Centwry. 
 
 I. The progress of Christianity in the west 
 had disarmed its most inveterate^ enemies, and 
 deprived them of the power of doing linuch 
 mischief, though they still entertained the same 
 averaion to the disciples of Jesus. The Jews 
 and Pagans were no longer able to oppose the 
 propagation of the Gospel, or to oppress its 
 ministers. Their malignity remained; but their 
 credit and authority were gone. The Jews 
 were accused by the Christians of various 
 crimes, whether real or fictitious we shall not 
 determine; but, instead of attacking their ao-. 
 cusers, they were content to defend their own 
 lives, and Secure their persons, vrithp'ut daring 
 to give vent to their resentment. Affairs vpere 
 in a somewhat different state in, the northern 
 provinces. The Pagans were yet numerous 
 there in several districts; and wherever they 
 composed the majority, they persecuted the 
 Christians with the utmost harbarity, the most 
 unrelenting and merciless filry.| It is true, 
 the Christian kings and princes, who hved in 
 the neighbourhood of these persecuting barba-- 
 rians, checked ' \jf degrees their impetuouff 
 rage, and never ceased to harass and weaken 
 them by hostilities and incursions, until at 
 length they subdued them entirely,- and de- 
 prived them, by force, both of their independ- 
 ence and theii: superstitions. 
 
 II. "yhe writers of this century complain 
 grievously of the inhuman rage with "which the 
 Saracens persecuted the Christians in the east; 
 nor can we question tHe truth of what they re- 
 late on the subject of this Severe persecution. 
 But they pass over in silence the principal rea- 
 
 * This garment was a white mahtle with a black 
 cross. ' ^ 
 
 t See Raymondi Duellii Histor. Ord. Teutonic!, 
 published in folio at Vienna, in 1727. — Chronicon 
 PrussisCjby Peter Dufbiirg, published in 4to. at Jena, 
 in the year 1679, by Christoph. Hartknoch. — Helyot, 
 Hist, des Ordres, tome iii. p. 140. — Chronicon Ordinis 
 Teutonic!,, in Anton." Matthxi Analectis veteris 
 ffivi, torn. V. p. 621, 658, ed. nov, — Privilegia Ordinis 
 Teutonic! in P'etr. a Ludewig Keliquiis Manuscrip- 
 tor. torn. vi. p. 43.- ^ 
 
 f Helmold, Chronic. Sclavor. lib. i. cap. xxxiv. p. 
 88, cap. XXXV. p. 89, cap. xi. p. 99.— Lindenbrogii 
 Scriptor. Septentrional, p. 195, 196, 20].— Petri Lam- 
 becii Res Hamburg, lib. i. p. 23. 
 
 sons that inflamed the resentment of this 
 fierce people, and voluntarily forget that the 
 Christians were the aggressors in this dreadful 
 war. If we consider the matter with impar- 
 tiality and candour, the conduct of the Sara- 
 cens, however barbarous it may have been, 
 will not appear so surprising, particularly 
 when we reflect on the provocationsi they re>- 
 ceived. In the first place, they had a right, by 
 the laws of wjir, to repel hy force the violent 
 invasion oof their country; and the Christiana 
 could not expect, without being"^ chargeable 
 with the most audacious impudence, Jhat a 
 people whom they attacked with a formidable 
 armyi and whom, in the ftuy of their misguid- 
 ed zeal,-they massacred without mercy, should 
 receive insults with a tame submission, and 
 give lip their lives and possessions without re- 
 sistarice. It jnust also be -confessed, though 
 with sorrow, that the Christians did not con- 
 -tent themselves with making war upon the 
 Mohammedans in order tp rescue Jerusalem 
 and the holy sepulchre out of their hands, but 
 carried their brutal fury to the greatest length, 
 disgraced their cause by the most detestable 
 crimes, filled th6 eastern provinees through 
 which they passed with scenes of horror, and 
 made the Saracens feel the teiiible effects of 
 their violence and barbarity wherever their 
 arms were successfijl. Is it men so surprising 
 to see the infidel Saracens committing, by w;ay 
 of reprisal, the same barbarities^ that the holy 
 warriors had perpetrated without the least 
 prbvocation.' fi there afty thing so' new and 
 so extraordinary in this, that a people" natu- 
 rally fierce, and exasperated^" moreover, by the 
 calamities of ai:eiigious war, carried on against 
 them in contradictionto all the dictates of jus- 
 tice and humanity, should avenge themselves 
 upon the Christians who resided in Palestine, 
 as professing the religion which gave occasion 
 to the war, and attached, of consequence, to 
 the cause of their eneinies and invaders.' 
 
 in. The rapid arfll amazing victpries of the 
 great Genghiz-Khan, emperor of the Tartars, 
 gave an unhappy turn to the affairs of the 
 Cliristians in the northern parts of Asia, near 
 the close of this century. This warlike prince, 
 who was^ty^ birth a, Mogul, and whose military 
 exploits rg,ise hiin in the Est of fame above al- 
 most all the commanders either of ancient or 
 modem times,- rendered his name formidable 
 throughout " all "Asia, whose most flourishing 
 dynasties fell successively before his victorious 
 arms. David, or Unkhan, who, acbording to 
 some, was the son,' or, as others will have it, 
 the brother, but who was certainly the succes- 
 sor, of the famous Prester John, q.nd was him- 
 self so called in common discourse, was the 
 first victim that, Genghiz sacrificed to his 
 boundless ambition. He invaded his territory, 
 and put to flight his troops in a bloody battle, , 
 where .David lost, at the same time, his king- 
 dom an d his life.* The princes , who governed 
 
 * The Greek,' Latin, and Oriental writers are far 
 from being agreed conoernirig the year iii winch the 
 einperbr of the Tartars attacked and defeated Pres- 
 ter John. The greater part of the Latin writers 
 place this event in the year 1202, and consequently 
 in the thirteenth century. But Jiarcus Paulas Vene- 
 tus (in his book de Regionibiis Orientalibus', lib. i. 
 cap. li. Iii. liii.) and other historians whose account* 
 
304 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Ih^ ^^M. Indians, and the province of Ca- 
 thay, fell, in their turn, before the victorious 
 iartar, and were all cither put to death, or 
 Rendered tributary; nor did Genghiz stop here 
 but proceeding into Persia, India, and Arabia 
 he overturned the Saracen dominion in those 
 regiqns, and substituted that of the Tartars in 
 . Its place.* From this period the Christian 
 
 I have followed-as the most probable, place the defeat 
 of this second Preater John in the year 1187' The 
 Earned and Illustrious Demetrius Canteroir (in his 
 Wib£ ad HiBtor. Jmperii Ottomanici.'p. 45, torn, i of 
 the French edition) gives an account of this matter 
 oiHSrent from the two now mentioned, and' affirms 
 upon the authority of the Arabian writers, that Gene'. 
 Juz did not -invade, the territories of his neighbours 
 before the year 1214. ' : 
 
 ion ^SS,^'"' ""^ ''^ ^'°^ Histoire ds Genghiz-Can, p 
 KVl r.' P«''''shed in lamo. at Paris in the year 
 J.71I.— Herbelot, Biblioth. Oriental, at the article 
 Gonghiz-Khan, p. 378.— AssemaniBibUoth.brientaI. 
 
 PartII. 
 
 cause lost much of its authority and credit in 
 the provinces that had been ruled by Prester 
 John ajid his successor David, and continued 
 to decline and lose ground until it sunk en- 
 tirely under the weight of oppression, and was 
 succeeded in some ^aces by the errors of the' 
 Mohammedan faith, and In others by the su- 
 perstitions of paganism. We must except 
 however, iuthis general account, the kingdom 
 of Tangiit, the chief residence of Prester John, 
 in which his posterity, who persevered in the 
 profession of Christianity, maintained, for a 
 long time, a certain sort of tributary dominion, 
 which exhibited, indeed, but a faint riiadow 
 of their former grandeur.* 
 
 Vatican., torn. iii. part i. p. 101, and 295.— Jean du 
 Plan Carpin, Voyage en Tartarie, ch. v. in the Re- 
 cueil des Voyages au Nbrd, tpme vii. p. 350. 
 
 * Assemani Biblioth. Oriental. Vatican, torn. iii. 
 part ii. p. SCO. 
 
 PART II. 
 
 THE INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 CHAPTER:!. 
 
 Concerning- the statu-' of Letters and Philosophy 
 during this Centwry.' 
 
 I. NoTwiTHSTANnme the decline of the 
 Grecian empire, the calamities in which it was 
 repeatedly invqlved, and the frecjuent revolu- 
 tions and civil wars that consumed its strength, 
 ' and were preftipifating its ruin, the arts and 
 sciences- stUl floturished in Greece, and covered 
 with glory such as cultivated thetn with assi- 
 duity and success. This maybe ascribed, not 
 only to the liberality of the ertiperors, and to 
 the extraordinary zeal which the family of the 
 Comneni discovered for l^ie advancement of 
 learning, but also" to the provident vigilance 
 of the patriarchs of Constantinople, who took 
 all possible measures to prevent-the clergy 
 from falling into ignorance and sloth, lest the 
 Greek church should thus be deprived of able 
 champions to defraid its cause against the" La- 
 tins; The learned and ingenious commenta- 
 ries of Eustathius, bishop of Thessalouica; 
 upon Homer and Dionysius the Geographer, 
 are sufficient to show the diligence and labour 
 that were employed by men of the first genius 
 ' in the improvement of classical erudition, and 
 in the study of antiquity. And if we turn our 
 view toward the various writers who composed 
 in this century the history of their own times, 
 such as Cinnamus, Glycas, Zonaras, Nicepho- 
 rus, Briennius and, others, we shall find in-their 
 productions undoubted marks of learning and 
 genius, as well as of a laudable ambition to ob- 
 tain the esteem and approbation of future ages. 
 II. Nothing could equal the zeal and en- 
 thusiasm with which Michael Anehialils, pa- 
 triarch of Constantinople, encouraged the 
 study of philosophy by his munificence, and 
 still more by the extraordinary influence of his 
 illustrious example.* It seems, however, to 
 
 have been the Aristotelian philosophy that was 
 favoured in such a distinguished maimer by 
 this eminent prelate; and it was in the illustra- 
 tion and improvement of this profound and in- 
 tricate system that those -Greeks who had a 
 philosophical turn were principally employed, 
 as appeals from, several -remains of ancient 
 erudition, and particularly from the commenta- 
 ries of Eustratius uponrthe ethics and othter 
 treatises of the Grecian sage. We are hot, 
 however, to imagine that the sablime wisdom 
 of Plato was neglected in this century, or that 
 his doctrines bad fallen -into disrepute. It ap- 
 pears, on the contrary, that they were adopted' 
 by many. Such, ipore especially, as had im- 
 bibed the precepts and spirit of the Mystics 
 preferred them infiaitely to the Peripatetic 
 philosophy, whidi they considered as an .end- 
 less source of sophistry and presumption, while 
 they looked upon the Platonic system as the 
 philosophy of reason and piety, of candour and 
 virtue. . This diversity of sentiment produced 
 the famous controversy, Which was managed 
 with such vehemence and e^dition among the 
 Greeks; concerning- the respective merit and 
 excellence of the-Peripatetio and Platonic doc- 
 trines. 
 
 ni. In the western world the pursuit of 
 knowledge was now carried oil with incredible 
 emiilation and ardour; and all branches of sci- 
 ence were studied with the greatest applica- 
 tion and industry. This literary enthusiasm 
 was encouraged and supported by the influ- 
 ence and' liberality of some of the European 
 monarchs, and Roman pontiffs, who perceived 
 the happy tendency of the sciences to soften 
 the savage manners of uncivilized natioiis, and 
 thereby to administer an additional support ta 
 civil government, as well as an ornament to 
 human society. Hence learned societies were 
 formed, and colleges established, in which ths 
 
 „ „ , , onem in Henr. Justelli Bibliotbeca Juris canonitf 
 
 ■ * Theodoras Balsamon, Fraf. ad Photii Nomocan- U veteris, tow ii. p. 814. 
 
Chaf. I. 
 
 LEARNING AND PHILOSOPHT- 
 
 305 
 
 liberal arts and sciences were publicly taught. 
 The piodigiouis concourse of students, who re- 
 sorted thither for instruction, occasioned, in 
 process of time, the enlargement of tliese 
 schools, which htfd arisen from small begin- 
 nings, and their erefction into universities, as 
 they were called, in the succeeding age. The 
 principal cities of Europe were adorned With 
 establishments of this kind; but Paris surpassed 
 them all in the number and variety of its 
 schools, the merit and reputation of its public 
 teachers, and the immense multitude Of the 
 studious youth that frequented its colleges, 
 And thus was exhibited iri that famous city the 
 model of our present schools of learning; a 
 model indeed defective in Several respects, but 
 ' whichi, in afterrtimes, was corrected and im- 
 piroved, ariid brought gradually to higher de- 
 grees of perfection.* About the same tmie the 
 famous school of Angers, in which the .'youth 
 were instructed in various sciences, and parti- 
 culairly and principally in the civil law, was 
 founded by the zeal and industry of Ulgerius, 
 bishop of that city;t and the coUegetrf Mont- 
 pelrer, where law and physic Were taught with 
 great success, had already acquired a conside- 
 rable reputjition.J The same literiry spirit 
 reigped also, in Italy. The academy of Bo- 
 logiia, whose origin may be traced higher than 
 this century, was now in the Iiighest' renown, 
 and was frequented by ^reat numbers of stu- 
 dents, and more especially by such as were 
 desirous of being instructed in the civil and 
 canon laws. The fame of this academy was, 
 in a great measure, established by the munifi- 
 cence of the emperor Lotharius II. who took it 
 under his protection,^and enriched it with new 
 privileges'Eind immunities.! In the same pro- 
 vince flburished also the celebrated school of 
 Salernum, where^reat numbers resorted, and 
 which was whoUy set apart for the stiidy of 
 physic. While this zealous emulation, in ad- 
 vancing the cause of learning and philosophy, 
 animated so msiny princes and prelates,' and 
 discovered itself in the erection of so many 
 
 * Boulajr, Hist. Acjaid. Paris, tom.tii. p. 463 — Pas- 
 quier, It^cherches de la Prance, liv. iii. ch. xxix.— 
 Petri Lambecii Histor. BibliotH. -Vindobon. lib. ii. 
 pap. V. p. 260.— Histoire Liter, de la France, tome ix. 
 p>60— 80. ; 
 
 t Bdulay, Hist. .\cad. Paris, .torn. ii. p. 215. Pec- 
 quet de- Ja Livoniere, Dissert, sui:. PAntiquite' de 
 PUniversile d'Angers, p. 21, published ia 4to. at An- 
 gers, 1736. 
 
 J Histoire Gen. de Languedoc, par les.Benedictms, 
 tome ii. p- 517. 
 
 .8 The inhabitants of Bologna pretend, that their, 
 academy was founded in the fifth century byTJieo- 
 dosius II. and they pretend to show the diploma by 
 which that emperor enriched their city with this vn^- 
 Inable establishment. But the greatest part of those 
 writers, who have studied with attention and im- 
 partiality the records of ancient times, maintain, 
 that this diploma is a spurious production, and al- 
 lege weighty arguments' to prove, that the academy 
 orBologna is of no. older date than tlw eleventh cen- 
 tury, and that in the succeeding age, particularly 
 from the time of Lotharius II. it received those ini- 
 provemeDts that rendered it so famous throughout 
 all isurope. See Sigonii Historia Bononiensis, as it 
 is published, with learned observations Jn the works 
 of that excellent author.— Mutatori Antiq. Italic, 
 medii »vj, torn. ii. p. 23, 884, 898.— Just. Hen. Boh- 
 meri Priefat. ad Corpus Juris Canon, p. 9, as also the 
 eleeant History of the Academy of Bologna written 
 in the German language by the learned Keufehus, 
 and published at Helmstadt in 8vo. in the year 1750. 
 Vot. I.— 39 
 
 academies and schools of learning, the Roman 
 pontiff, Alexander III. was seized also with 
 noble enthusiasm. In a council holden at 
 Rome, A. D. 1179, he/caused a solemn law to 
 be published, for erecting new schools in the 
 monasteries and cathedralsi, -and restoring to 
 their primitive lustre those which, through the 
 sloth and ignorance of the- monks and bishops, 
 had fallen into ruin.* But the effect which 
 this law was intended to produce was pre- 
 vented by the growing fame of the ne.wly.- 
 erected academies, to which the youth resorted 
 from all parts, and left the episcopal and mo- 
 nastic schools entirely empiy; so that they gra- 
 dually declined, and sunk, at last, into a total 
 oblivion. 
 
 IV. Many were the s^al advantages that 
 attended these literary establishments; and 
 what is particularly worthy of notice, they not 
 only rendered knowledge more genered by 
 facilitatiiig'the means of instruction, but were 
 also the occasion of forihing a new circle of 
 sciences, better digested, and much more com- 
 prehensive than that which bad been hitherto 
 studied by the greatesf adepts in learning. 
 The whole extent of learning and philosophy, 
 before this period, was confined to the seven 
 liberal arts, as they were commonly called, of 
 wliich three were- known by the name of the 
 trivium, which comprehended grammar, rhet- 
 oric, and logic; and the other four by the title 
 of quadrivium,, which included ariUuqetic, 
 mnsic, geometry, and astronomy. The. great- , 
 est part of the learned, as we have formerly ob» 
 served, were satisfied, with their literary, ac- 
 quisitions, Swhen they had made therhselves 
 masters of the trivium, while such as with an 
 q,dventurous flight aspired to the quadrivium, 
 were considered as stars of the first magnitude, 
 as the great luminaiies of the learned world. 
 But in .this century the aspect of letters un' 
 derwent a considerable and an advantageous 
 chstnge. The liberal arts and sciences were 
 multiplied; and new andunfrequented paths of 
 knowledge were opened to.tlie emulation of 
 the studious; youth. Theology was placed in 
 the number of the sciences; not that ancient 
 theology which had no merit butits simplicity, 
 and which was drawn,'_without the least order 
 or connexion, from diverse passages of the 
 holy Scriptures, and -firom the opinions and in-? 
 ventiohs of the primitive doctors, but that-phi- 
 losophical or scholaMic theology wbicii, with 
 the deepest abstraction, traced divine truth to 
 its first principles, and thence followed it into 
 its various connexions and branches.- Nor was 
 theology alone added to the ancient circle of ' 
 sciences; the studies of the learned languages, 
 of the civil and canon law, and of physic,! 
 were now brought into high repute. Par- 
 ticular academies were consecrated to the 
 culture of each of these sciences, in various 
 places; and'thus it was natural to consider 
 them as important branches of erudition, and 
 an acquaintance with them as a qualificatioa 
 
 * See B. Bobmeri Jus Eecles. Protestant, torn. iv. 
 p. 70S. , ' 
 
 n^" t The word physica, though, according to its 
 etymology, it denotes the study of natural philosophy 
 in general, was, in-the twelfth centur-y, applied par 
 ticularly to medicinal studies; and it has also pre- 
 served that limited sense in the English languaQiu 
 
306 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OT THE CHURCH. 
 
 PaktIL 
 
 necessary to such as aimed at universal learning. 
 All this required a considerable change ia the 
 division of the sciences hitherto received;' and 
 this change vitm accordingly brought about. 
 The seven liberal arts were^-by degrees, re- 
 duced to one general title, ajnd were compre- 
 hended under the name of phitosdphy, , to 
 vphich theology, jurisprudence, and physic, 
 were" added. And hence originated the ibur 
 classes of science, or, to use the academic 
 phrase, the four feoulties which prevailed in the 
 universities, in the following century. 
 
 V. A happy and unexpected event restored 
 In Italy the lustre and authority of the ancient 
 Roman law, and, at the saihe time, lessened 
 the credit of those systems of legislation which 
 had been received for several ages past. Tliis 
 ^Went was the discovery of the original manii- 
 ', script of the famous iliPanSect of" Justiniaii, 
 ( which was found in the ^uins of Amalphi, or 
 Melfi,- when that city/vfas taken by Lotharius 
 II. in 1137, and of which that emperor made 
 a present to the inhabitants of Pisa, whose 
 fleet had contributed, in a particular marmer, 
 to the success of the siege. This admirable 
 collection, which had been almost buried in 
 oblivion, was no sooner recovered, than the 
 Roni'an law became the grand object of the 
 studies and; labours of the learned. In the 
 academy of Bologna, colleges were erected ex- 
 pressly for the study of the Roman jurispru- 
 dence; and these excellent institutions \vere 
 multiplied in several parts of Italy, in procfess 
 of time, and animated other European nations 
 toimitatfe so wise an example. Hence arose 
 a''great revolution in the public tribunals, ancj 
 an entire qhalige in their judicial proceedings. 
 Hitherto different systems of law had been fol- 
 lowed in different couirts; and every person of 
 distinction, particularly among the Franks, 
 had the liberty of choosing that code of law 
 which was to be the rule of his conduct. But 
 the Roman law acquired such credit and au- 
 thority, that it superseded, by degrees, all 
 other laws in £he greatest part of Europe, and 
 was substituted in the place of the Salic, Lom- 
 bard, and'Burgun3ian codes, which before this 
 period were iri the highest reputation. It is 
 an ancient opinion, that Lotharius II. pursuant 
 to the counsels and solicitations of Ifiierius,* 
 principal professor of the Roman law in the 
 academy of Bologna, published an edict en- 
 joining the abrogation of all the statutes then 
 in force, and substitiiting in their place the 
 Roman law, by whiqh, for the future, all with- 
 out exception were to modify their contracts, 
 terminate their differences, arid regulate their 
 actions. But this opinion, as many learned 
 men have abundantly proved,t is far from be- 
 ing supported by sufficient eviderice, 
 
 * otherwise called Werner. 
 
 t See Heim. Conringius de Origine Juris Germanici, 
 cap. xxii.— Guide Grandus, Epiat.'de Pandectis, p. 
 21 69, published at Florence, in 4to. in 1737.— Henry 
 Brencinann, Historia Pandeetar. p. 41.— Lud. Ant. 
 Muratori, Praf. ad Leges Langobardicas, apud 
 scriptor. refum Ital. torn. i. partii. p. 4, &c. Atitiq. 
 Ital. medii Jevi, torn. ii. p. 283. There was a warm 
 controversy carried on concerniTlg this matter be- 
 tween George Calixtus and Barthol. Nihuaius, the 
 latter of whom embraced the vulgar opinion concern- 
 ing the edict of Lotharius, obtained by the soUcita- 
 liona of Irneriiis; of this controversy there is a dr- 
 
 VI. No sooner was the civil law placed in 
 the number of the sciences, and considered as 
 an important branch of academical learning, 
 than the Roman pontiffs, and their zealori^ 
 adherents, judged it, not oiily expedient, but 
 also highly necessary, that the canon law 
 should have the same privilege. , There ex- 
 isted,' before thistime, certain collections of 
 the canons or laws of the church; but th$se 
 collections were so destitute of order and 
 method, and were so defective, hoth in respect 
 to matter and ibrm, that they could not be 
 conveniently explained in the schools, or be 
 brought .into use as systems of ecclesiastical 
 polity. Hence it was, tha.t Gratian, a Bene- 
 dictine monk, belonging to the convent of 
 St. Felix and Nabor at Bologna, and By birth 
 a Tuscan cornposed, about the year 1130, for 
 the use of the schools, an abridgement, or 
 Epitome of Canon Law, drawn from the Jetters 
 of the pontiff, the decrees of councils, and the 
 writlrigs of the ancient doctors. Pope Euge- 
 nius in. was extremely pleased with this work, 
 which was also received with the highest ap- 
 plause by the doctors and professors of Bologna, 
 and was unanimously adopted, as the text 
 they Were to follow in their public lectures. 
 The professors at Paris were the first that fol- 
 lowed the example of those of Bologna, which, 
 in process of time, was imitated by the great" 
 est part of the European colleges. But, not- 
 wittetanding the encomiums bestowed upon 
 this performance, which was commonly called 
 the decretal of Gratian,* and was entitled, by 
 the author himself, the re-union or coalition 
 of the jarririg cano.n^,t several most learned 
 and eminent writers of the Rornish communion 
 acknowledge, that it is fiill of errors and de- 
 fects.! lAs, however, thg" main design of this 
 abridgement was to support tlie despotispi, 
 and to extend the authority of the Roman 
 pontiffs, its irmumerable defects -were over- 
 looked', its merits were exaggerated; and,^hat 
 is still more surprising, it enjoys, at tliis day, 
 in an age of light and liberty, that high degree 
 of veneration and authority, which was incon- 
 siderately, thpugh more excusably,, lavished 
 upon it in an age of tyranny, superstition, and 
 
 darkness.| 
 
 ^ ^ 
 
 cumstantial account in the Cimbria Literata of. 
 Mollerus, torn. iii. p. 142. 
 
 * Decretum Gratiani. 
 
 t Concordia DiscOrdantiilm Canonum, . 
 
 X See, among others, Anton. Augustinus,' Dff 
 Jlmendatione Gratiani, published in 8vo. at Arnlieim 
 A. D. 1678, with the learned observations of Stcpta. 
 Baluze and Ger. a Maestricht. 
 
 § See Gerhard, a Maestricht, Historia Juris Bccle- 
 siastici, sect. 293, p.. 325. — B. Just. Hen. Bohmer's 
 "Jus Eccles. Protestant, torn. i. p. 100, and more par- 
 ticularly the learned Preface, with which he enriched 
 the new edition of -the Canon Law, published at 
 Halle iu 4to. in the year 1747. See also Alex. 
 Machiavelli Observationes art Sigonii Histor. Bonon- 
 ijnsem, torn. iii. Oper. Sigonii, p. 128. This writer 
 has drawn, from the' Kalendarium Archi-Gymnasii 
 fiononiensis, several particularities concerning Gra- 
 tian and his w.ork, which were generally unknown, 
 Ijut whose truth is also much disputed. What in- 
 creases the suspicion-of their being fabulous is, that 
 this famous Kalendar, of which the Bolognese boast 
 so much, and winch they have- so often promised to 
 publish in order to dispel the doubts of the learned, 
 has never yet seen the light. Besides, in the frag- 
 ments that have appeared, there are manifest markif 
 of unfair dealing. 
 
LEARNING AND PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 ^. 
 
 Chap. L 
 
 yn. Sach among the Latins tis were am- 
 bitions of making a figure in the repubho of 
 letters, applied thomseTves to philosophy with 
 the utmost zeal and diligence. Taken ■ in its 
 most extensive and general meaning, that 
 study comprehended, accbfding to the method 
 wliich was the most generally received toward 
 the middle of this century, four classes: it was 
 «SJ divided into theoretical, practical, mechanical, 
 and logical. The first class comprised natural 
 theology, matliematlcs, and natural philoso- 
 phy., ui the second class were ranked ethics, 
 (Economics, and politics. The third contained 
 the seven arts that are more immediately sub- 
 servient to the purposes of life, such as naviga- 
 tion, agriculture, hunting, fee. The fourth 
 wtis divided into grammar and composition, 
 the latter of whieffwas subdivided into rhet- 
 oric, dialectics, and sophistry; and under the 
 term dialectic was comprehended that part of 
 the metaphysic science which treats of general 
 notions. , This division was almost universally 
 adopted. Some, indeed, were inclined to 
 separate grammar and mechanics from,philoso- 
 phy; a separation highly condernned by others, 
 who, under the general term philosophy, com- 
 prehended the whole circle of the sciences,* 
 
 VIII. Tlje learned, who taught or ^ho 
 cultivated these different branches of study, 
 were divided into various factions, which atr 
 tacked each other with the utmpst animpsity 
 and bittemess.f At this time, three methods 
 of teaching philosophy were practised by dif 
 ferent doctors. The first was the ancient and 
 plain method, which Coniined its researches to 
 the philosophical notions of Porphyry, and the 
 dialectic systei^ commonly attributed to St. 
 Augustine, and in which was laid down this 
 general rule, that philospphical inquiries were 
 to be limited to a small number of subjects, 
 lest, by their becoming- too extensive, religion 
 might suffer by a profane mixture of human 
 subtilty- with its divine wisdpnr. _ The second 
 method was called the Aristoteliaii, because it 
 consisted in explications of the works-of that 
 philosopher,t several of whose productions, 
 being translated into Latin,' were now almoM 
 every where in the hands of the learned. 
 These traiislatidns' were, indeed, extremely ob- 
 
 « These literary anecdotes I have taken from i^^^ 
 veral writers, particnlarlyfrom Hugo aSt. Victore, 
 Didascali Libro -ii. cap. ii. p. 7: torn. i. op. and froifi 
 the Metalogicum of John of Salisbury. 
 
 t See Godof. de St. Vietore, Catmen de Sectis 
 Philosoph. published by Le Bceuf, in his Diss, sur 
 I'Histoire Ecclesiast. et Ciyile de Paris, ttime ii. p. 
 254.— Boulay, Hist. Acad. Paris, tom./ii.p. 562 — 
 Ant Wood, Antiil, Oxoniens. torn. i. p: 51. Jo. Saris- 
 burieiisis Metalog. et Policrat. passim. 
 
 J Kob. de Mante, Append, ad Sigebertum Gembla- 
 cens. published by d'Acheri, among the works of 
 Gulbert, abbot of Nogent, ad annum 1128, p. 753. 
 " Jacobus Clericus de Venetfa transtulit de Gneco in 
 Latinum quosdam libros Aristotelis et commentatus 
 est scilicet Topica, Annal priores et posteriores et 
 elenchos; quamvis antiquior translatio Super eosdem 
 libros haberetur." Thorn. Becket, Bpistplar. Ifb. ii. 
 ep xciii. p. 454. edit. Bruxell. 1682, in'4to. " Itero 
 preces quatenus libros Arislotelis, qnns habetis, 
 mihi facialis exscribi.— Precor etiam iterata suppli- 
 catione quatenus in operibus Aristotelis, ubi diffi- 
 ciliora fuerint, notulas facialis, eo quod intejpretem 
 aliquatenus suspeclum habeo, quia, licet eloqnens 
 fuerit alias, ut siepe audivi, minus tamen luit in 
 fframmatica institutus." 
 
 SO? 
 
 scure and incorrect, and led those who made 
 use of them in their academical lectiires, into 
 various blunders; and often into such notions 
 as were "not more, absurd than "whimsical and 
 singular. ,Th^ third was termed the free 
 method, employed bysuch as were bold enough 
 to search ; after truth, in the manner they 
 thought the most adapted tp render their in- 
 quiries successful, and who followed the bent 
 of their own genius, without "rejecting, hovv- 
 ever, the aid ofAsristotleand Plato. Laudable 
 as this method was, it became an abundant 
 source of sophistry and chicane, by the im- 
 prudent management of those who employed 
 it; for tliese subtile doctors, through a wanton 
 indulgence of their metaphysical fancies,, did 
 little more than puzzle their disciples with vain 
 questions, and Migue Ihem with endless dis- 
 tinctions' and divisions.* These different sys- 
 tems, and vehement contests that divided the 
 philosophers, gav^ to many a disgust against 
 philosophy in general, and prompted t^em J:o 
 desire, with impatience, its banishment from 
 the public schools, , 
 
 ,.i IX. Of all the controversies that divided the 
 philosophers in this century, there were none 
 carried on with greater animosity, and treated 
 with greater subtilty and refinement, than the 
 contest of. the Dialecticians concerning univer- 
 sals. , [The sophistical, doctors were wholly 
 occupied aboiit the intricate questions relating 
 to -genus and species, to the solution of which 
 they directed all ■their philosophical efforts, 
 and the whole course of their metaphysical 
 studies; but iiot all in the same method, nor 
 upon the same principles.! The two leading 
 sects into wHoh they had .been divided longbe- 
 fore this period, and which were- distinguished 
 by the titles of Realists and Nominalists, not 
 only still 'subsisted, but were subdivided, each 
 into smaller parties "and factions, according as 
 the two opposite and leading schemes were 
 modified by new fancies and. inventions. The 
 Nominalists; though they had their followers, 
 were hevertheless much inferior to the Real- 
 ists, both with respect to the number of their 
 disciples, and. to the credit and reputation of 
 their doctrine. . A third sect arose under the 
 name of Formalists,-^ who pretended to termi- 
 
 ■ * See Jo. Sarisburiensia Policrat. p. 434, et Meta- 
 log. i). 814, &c .■ - 
 
 t John Of Salisbury, a very elegant and ingenious 
 writer of this age, censures, with no small degree of 
 wit, the crude and unintelligible speculations of these 
 sophists in Jlis book'intitled Policraticon, sen de 
 Nugis Curialium, lib. vii. p. 451. He obs.erves, tha* 
 more time had been consumed in resolving the ques- 
 tion relafing to genus and species, than the Giesara 
 had employed in making themselves masters of the 
 whole world; that the riches of Crcesus Were inferior 
 to the treasures which had been 'tixhau^ted in this ' 
 controversy; and that the contending parties, .alter 
 having spent their whole lives upon this single point, 
 had neither been so happy as to determine it to their 
 satisfaction, nor to. make, in the labyrinths of 
 science where they had. been- groping, anj discovery 
 that was worth the pains they had taken. His 
 words are: " Veterem paratus est solvere quEestionem 
 de generibus et speciebus (fie speaks here of a' certain 
 philosopher) in qua laborans mundus jam sennit, in 
 qua plus temporis consumptum est, quam in acqui- 
 rendo et regehdp orbis'imperio consumpserit Csesarea 
 domus: plus eft'usum pecuniie, quam iir omnibus di- 
 vitiis suis poss6derit Crcesus. Htec enim tarn dlii 
 multos tenuit,ut cum hoCunumtota vitaquicrerenl^ 
 tandem nee istudnec aliud-'invenirent." 
 
308 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 PartH 
 
 Date the controversy, by steering a middle 
 course between the jarring systems now men- 
 tioned; but,- as the Jiypoflieses of tljese new 
 doctors were most obscure and unintelligible, 
 they only perplexed matters more than tliey 
 had hitherto been, and funiished new subjects 
 of contention and dispute.* 
 
 Those among Uie learned, who turqed their 
 pursuits to more interesting and beneficial 
 branches of science, than theintricate and puz- 
 zling doctrine of urriversals, travelled into the 
 different countries, where the kinds of Itnow- 
 iedge, which they wished to cultivate, chiefly 
 flourished. The students of physic, astronomy, 
 and mathematics, continued to frequent the 
 schools of the Saracens in Spain. Many of 
 the learned productions of the Arabians were- 
 also translated into Latinjf for the high fame 
 which that people had acquired for erudition, 
 together with a desire of -converting the 
 Spanish Saracens to Christianity, had excited 
 many to study their Janguage,. and to acquire 
 a considerable knowledge of their doctrine. 
 
 * 3ee the above cited author's Policrat. lib. vii. p. 
 451, where he gives a succihct account of the For- 
 malists, Realists, and Nominalisljs, in the follov^ing 
 words; " Sunt qui more mathematicorura formasab- 
 strahunt, et ad illas quicquiddeunivers^libusdicitur 
 rcferunt." Such were the Formalists, who applied the 
 doctrine of universal ideas to what the mathemati- 
 cians call abstract forms. " Alii dlscutiun t In tellectu?, 
 et eos universalium nominibus censeri confirmant." 
 Here we find' the Realists pointed but, who, under the 
 name of uhiversals, comprehended all intellectual 
 powers, qualities, and ideas. " Fuerunt efqui voces 
 ipsas genera dlcerent et species: sed eorum jam e.x- 
 plosa senCentia est, et facile cum auctore suo 
 evanuit. Sunt Eaiilen.adhuc, qui deprehenduntur 
 in vestigiis eorum, licet erubcscant vel auctorem 
 vel scientiam profiteri, solis nominibus inbierentes, 
 quod rebus et intellectibus subtrahunt, sermonibus 
 ascribunt.'* This was a sect of the Nominalists, 
 "wlio, ashamed (asthis author alleges).to profess the 
 exploded doctrine of Roscellinus, 'which place^. ge- 
 nus and species in the class of mere words,j)r sim- 
 ple denominations, modified that system by a slight 
 change of expression only, which didnot essentially 
 distinguish their doctrine from that of the ordinary 
 Nominalists. It appears from all this,-that the sect 
 of the Formalists is of more ancient date than John 
 Duns Scotus, whom' many learned men consider as 
 its founder. See Jo. Sarisbur. Metalogic. lib. ii. cap. 
 xvii. p. 814, where that eminent author describes at 
 large the various contests of these three sects, and 
 aum^ up'.their diilerenccs in the following words: 
 -"Alius consistit in vocibus, Jicet hxc opinio cum 
 Roscellino suo fere jam evanuerit; alius sermones 
 intuetur: alius versatur in intellectibus," &c. 
 
 t Gerard of Cremona, who was so famous' among 
 tlie Italians fbrhis eminent skill in astronomy and 
 physic, undertook a voyage ,tQ Toledo, where 'he 
 translated into Latin several Arabian treatises; see 
 Muratori's' Antiq. Ital. medii ffivi, torn. iii. p. 936, 
 937. — Mirmet, a French monk, travelled into Spain 
 and Africa, to learn geography among the Saiacens. 
 See Luc. Dache'rii Spicilegium Scriptor. torn. ix. p. 
 443, ed. Antiq. — Daniel Morlach, an Englishman, 
 who was extremely fond of mathematical learning, 
 undertook a journey to Toledo, whence he brought 
 into his own country a considerable number of Ara- 
 bian books: Ant. Wood, Antiquit. Oxon. tom. i. p- 
 55. — Peter, abbot of Clugni, surtiamed the Venera- 
 ble, after having sojourned for somp time among the 
 Spaniards, in order to make himself master of the 
 Arabian language, translate into Latin the-Koran, 
 and the- Life of Mohammed: see Mabillon, Annal. 
 Bened. tom. vi. lib. Ixxvii. 345. This eminent eccle- 
 siaL>::ic, as appears from the-^ibliotheca Cluniacen- 
 sis, p. 1169, found, upon his arrival in Spain, persons 
 of learning from England and other countries, who 
 applied themselves with extraordinary assiduity and 
 ardour to the study of astrology. We might multiply 
 ^e examples of those who travelled in quest of 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Concerning the Doctora and Ministers qf the 
 Church, and its Fomi of Government, during 
 this Century. ' 
 
 I. Wherever we turn our eyes among the 
 various ranks and orders of the clergy, we per- 
 ceive, in this century, the most flagrant marks 
 of licentiousness and fraud, ignorance and 
 luiuryj and" oth^r vices, whose pernicious ef' 
 fects were deeply felt both In church and state. 
 If we except a very small number, who re- 
 tained a sense of the sanctity of their vocation, 
 and lamented the dorruption and degeneracy 
 of their order, it may be' said, with respect to 
 the rest, that their whole business was to sa- 
 tisfy their lusts, to multipljp-their privileges by 
 grasping perpetually at new honours and dis- 
 tinctions, to increase their opulence, to dimi- 
 nish the authority and encroach upon the pri- 
 vileges of princes and magi^rates, and, ne- 
 glecting entirely the interests of religion and the 
 cure of souls, to live in ease and pleasure, and 
 draw out their days in an unmanly and luxu- 
 rious indolence. This appears manifestly froin 
 two remarkable treatises of St. Bernard, in 
 one of which he exposes the corruption of the 
 pontiffs and bishops,* while he describes in the 
 other the enormous crimes of the monastic or- 
 ders, whose licentiousness he chastises v^th a 
 just severity.f 
 
 II. The pontiffs, who successively ruled the 
 Latin churchj governed that spiritual and mys- 
 tical body by the maxims of worldly ambition, 
 and thereby fomented the warm contest that 
 had arisen between the imperialand sacerdotal 
 powers. On the one hand, the popes not oidy 
 maintained the opulence and authoiity which 
 they had already acquired, but extended their 
 views, and liiboured strenuously to enlarge 
 both, though they had not al] ecfual success in 
 this ambitious attempt. The European empe- 
 rors and princes, on the other hand, alarmed 
 a;t the strides which the pontiffs were makmg 
 to universal dominion, used their utmost ei- 
 forts to disconcert their measures, and to check 
 their growing opulence and power. These vio- 
 lent dissensions between the » empire and the 
 priesthood (for so the contending parties were 
 styled in this century,) were most unhappy in 
 their effects, which were felt throughout all 
 the European provinces. Pascal II. who had 
 been raised to the pontificate about the' con- 
 clusion of the preceding age, seemed now to 
 sit firm and secure m the apostolic chair, with- 
 x>ut the least apprehension "from the imperial 
 faction, whose affairs had taken an unfavour- 
 able turn, and who had not the courage to 
 elect a new pope of their party in the place of 
 Guibert, who died in the year.IlOO.J 
 
 science during this century; hut those now alleged 
 are sufficient for our purpose. 
 
 * In the work entitled, Considerationum Libri V. 
 ad Eugenium Fontificem. - 
 
 't See his defence of the jcnisades, under the title 
 of Apologia ad Gulielmnm Abbatem; as also Gerho- 
 hus, de corrupfo Ecclesias Statu, in Baluzii Miscell. 
 tom. v. p. 63.— Gallia Christiana, tom. i. p. 6. App, 
 torn. ii. p. 265, 273, &c. Boulay's Histor. Academ. Pa- 
 ris, tom. ii. p. 490, 690. 
 
 Qt^t Dr. Mosheim's affirmation iere must be 
 somewhat modified in order to be true; it is'certaia 
 
Chip. II. 
 
 DOCTORS, CHURCH GOVERNMENT, &e. 
 
 309 
 
 . Unwilling^ to l?t pass unimproyed the pre- 
 sent success of the papal faction, Pascal re- 
 newed, in a council assembled at Rome, A. D. 
 1102, the dectees of his predecessors against 
 investituxes, and the excommimications they 
 had thundered out against Henry IV., and uied- 
 his most vigorous endeavours to raise up on 
 all sides new enemies to that unfortunate em- 
 peror. Henry opposed, with great constancy 
 and resblution, the efforts of. this violent pon- 
 tiff, and eluded, with much dexterity and vigi- 
 lance, his perfidious stratagems. But his heart, 
 wounded in tlie tenderest part, lost all its firm- 
 ness and-courage, when; iri the year 1106, an 
 unnatural son, under the impious pretext of 
 religion, took up arms against his person and 
 ' his cause. Henry' V. (so was this monster 
 afterwards named) seized his father- in a most 
 treacherous maimer, and obli^d him to abdi- 
 cate the empire; after which the unhappy 
 prince retired to Liege; where, deserted by all 
 his adherents, he shook off, in 1 106, the bur- 
 then of life and df misery. It has been a mat- 
 ter of dispute, whether it was the instigation 
 of the pontiff, or the ambitious and impatient 
 thirst of dominion, that engaged Henry V.. to 
 declare war against his father; nor is it, per- 
 haps, easy to decide this question with a per-, 
 feet degree of evidence. One thing, however, 
 is unquestionably certain, that -Pascal II. not 
 only dissolved, or rather impiously pretended 
 to dissolve, the bath of fidelity aiid obedience 
 that Henry had taken to his father, but adopt- 
 ed the cause, and supported the interests of 
 this uimatural rebel with the utmost zeal, assi- 
 duity, and fervour.* ' - , 
 
 III.- The revolution that this odious rebel- 
 lilbn caused inthe empire, was, howevet, much- 
 less favourHble to the views of Pascal, than 
 that lordly pontiff "expected. Henry V; could 
 by no means be. persuaded to renounce his 
 right of investing the bishops and abbotSj 
 though he was willing to grant the right of 
 election to the canons and monks, as was usuaJ 
 before his time. Upon this the exasperated 
 pontiff renewed, in the councils of Guastalla 
 and Tn>yes,the decrees that had so often been 
 promulgated against investitures; and the 
 flame broke out with new force. It was, in- 
 deed, suspended during a few years, by the 
 wars in which Henry was ^ngaged^ and which 
 prevented his bringing the affair to a decisionr 
 But ho sooner had he made peace with his 
 enemies; and composed the tumults that trou- 
 bled the tranquillity of the empire, than he set 
 out for Italy with a formidable army, A.'D. 
 11 10, in order to put an end to this long and 
 unhappy contest. He advanced towards Rome, 
 by slow marches, while the trembling pontiff, 
 seeing himself destitute of all succour, and re- 
 duced to the lowest and most defenceless con- 
 
 dition, proposed the following^ conditions of 
 peace: That the emperqr, on the one hand, 
 should renounce the right of investing with the 
 ririg and crosier; and that the bishops and ab- 
 bots should, on the other hand, resign and give 
 over, to him and his successors, all the grajits, 
 received from" Charlemagne, of the rights and 
 privileges that belong to royalty, such as the 
 power of raising tribute, coining money, and 
 possessing independent lands and territories, 
 with other injmunities of a like nature. These 
 conditions were agreeable to Henry, who- aic- 
 cordingly gave a formal consent to mem in the 
 year 1111; but they were extremely displeas- 
 ing to the Italian and German bishops, who 
 expressed their dissent in the strongest terms. 
 Hence a temble. tumult arose in the church of 
 St. Peter, whefe the contending parties were 
 assembled with their respective followers; upon 
 which Henry. ordered the pope to be "seized, 
 and Ho be confined inihe castle of Viterbo. 
 After having remained there for some time, 
 the captive pontiff was engaged, by the un- 
 happy circumstances of his present condition, 
 to enter into a- new fconvention, by which he 
 solemnly receded from the article of the for- 
 mer treaty that regarded investitures, and con- 
 fttmed tp the emperorthe privilege of.hiangu- 
 rating the bishops and abbots with the ring 
 and crosier. Peace being thus concluded, the 
 vanquished pontiff arrayed Henry with the 
 imperial diadem.* 
 
 IV. This transitory peace, which was the 
 fruit of violence and necessity, was followed 
 by greater tumults and more dreadful wars, 
 than had yet afflicted the church. Immedi- 
 ately after the conclusion of this treaty, Rome 
 was filled with the most vehement commotions; 
 and a loud clamour was raised against the 
 pontiff, who was accused of having violated, 
 in a scandalous manner, the duties and digr 
 nity of- his station, and of having pr6stitute,d 
 the majiesty of the church by his ignominious, 
 compliance with the demands of the emperor. 
 Tp appease these coinmotioris, Pascal assem- 
 bled, in the y^ar 11'12, a_council in the La,te- 
 j-an church, and- not only confessed, with con- 
 trition and iumility, the fault he had com- 
 mitted in concluding such a convention with 
 Henry, but-submittedJhe question to the de- 
 termination of the council, 'who accordingly 
 took that treaty into consideration, "and so- 
 lemnly annulled ;it.t This step was followed 
 by many events that gare, for a long time, an 
 unfavourable turn' to tho-affaifs of the empe- 
 ror. He was excommunicated in many synods 
 and councils, both in France and Gerinany; 
 he was even placed in the black lists of here- 
 tics, a dfenominatibn which exposed him to the 
 .greatest dangers in those superstitious .and 
 "barbarous times;| and, to complete his anxiety, 
 
 that, after the death of Gnibert, the imperial parly 
 chose in his place a person named Albert, who, in- 
 deed was seized and imprisoned on the day qf his 
 election. Theodoric and MSgnulf were successively 
 chosen after Albert, but could not long support their 
 claims to the pontificate. See Fleury, Hist. Eccles. 
 liv Ixv. vol. xiv. p. 10. Brussels edition in 8vo. 
 
 * These accounts are drawn from the most au- 
 thentic sources, and also from the eminent writers, 
 whose authority I made use of, aijd whose names I 
 mentioned, in that part of the preceding century 
 which corresponds with the subject here treated. 
 
 * Beside the writers already mentioned, see Ma- 
 billon, Annal. Benedict, toin. v. p. 681, and tom. vi. 
 p". 1, at the particular years to which the events here 
 noticed belong. _" 
 
 t Pascal, upon this occasion, as Gregory yil. had 
 formerly done in the case of Berenger, submitted his 
 proceedings and his authority to the judgment of a 
 council, to which, of consequence, he acknowledged 
 his subordination. That council even condemned 
 his measures, and declared^them scandalous. 
 
 t See Gervaise, Diss suV I'Heresie des Investi 
 
310 
 
 he saw the German princes revolting from his 
 authority m several places, and taking up arms 
 m the cause of the church. To put an end tc 
 calamities that thus afflicted the empire on all 
 sides, Henry set out a second time for Italy' 
 with a numerous army, in the year 1116, and 
 arrived, in the following year, at Rome, where 
 he assembled the consuls^ senators, and no- 
 bles, while the fugitive pontiff retired to'Bene 
 vento. Pascal, however, during this forced 
 absence, engaged the Normans to come to his 
 assistance; and, encouraged .by the prospect 
 ot immediate succour, prepared every thing 
 for a' vigorous war against the empei:or,-ajnd 
 attempted to make himself master of Rome. 
 But, in the midst of these warlike preparations, 
 which drew the attention of Europe, ahd por- 
 tended ^reat and remarkable events, the mili- 
 tary pontiff yielded to fate,^A. D. U 1 8. 
 T u' -^ '^'^ ^^y^ '^^^'' the death of Pascal, 
 John of Gaieta, a Benedictine monk of Mont- 
 Cassin, and chancellor of the Roman Church, 
 was raised to the pontificate under the title of 
 Gelasius II. In opposition to this choice, 
 Henry elected to the same dignity Mauride 
 Burdin, archbishop of Braga, in Spain,* who 
 assumed the denomination of Gregory Vlll.t 
 Upon this, Gelasius, not" thinking himself safe, 
 at Ripie, or indeed in Italy, set out for France, 
 and soon after died at fSugni. The cardinajs,- 
 who accompanied him in his joOriiey; elected 
 to the papacy, innnediately-aft6r his departure, 
 Guy, archbishop of Vienne, count of Burgun- 
 dy, who was nearly related "to the einpsror, afiS 
 is distinguished in the list of the Ronian pon- 
 tiffs by the name of Calixtus II. The eleva- 
 tion of this eminent ecclesiastic was, in the is- 
 sue, extremely fortunate both for the church 
 and state. Remarkably distinguished by his 
 illustrious birth, and still more by Jiis noble and 
 ieroic qualities, this magnanimous pontiff con- 
 tinued to oppose the emperor with courage and 
 success! and to carry on the war both with the 
 sWord of the spirit, and with the arm of flesh. 
 He made himself inaster of Rdme, threw into 
 prison the pontiff who had been chosen by the 
 emperor, and fomented the civil commotions 
 in Germany; But his- fortitude and resolu- 
 tion were tempered with moderation, and ac- 
 companied with a spirit of generosity and 
 compliance which differed much from the ob- 
 stinate arrogance of his lordly predecessors. 
 Accordingly, he lent an ear to prudent coun- 
 sels, and. was willing to relinqmsh a part of 
 the demands upon which, the .former pontiffs 
 had so vehemently insisted, that he might re- 
 store the public tranquillity, and satisfy the ar- 
 dent desires of so many nations, who groaned 
 under the dismal effects of these deplorable 
 divisions.^ , 
 
 It will, appear unquestionably evident to 
 
 INTERNA. HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 PabtH 
 
 tares, whicli is the fourth of the Dissertations pre- 
 fixed to his History of the Abbot Suger. 
 
 Q^ * Braga was the inetr"opolifi of ancient GaU- 
 cia, Cat at present is one of the three arcbhishoprics 
 of Pjjrtugal, ip the province of Entre Duero 'e Minho. 
 The archbishop of that , see claims the title'of pri- 
 mate of Spain, which'is annexed in Spain to the see 
 of Toledo. - 
 
 ,tSee Stephani BaluzilVita Mauritii Burdini, in^ 
 MiscellaneiS torn. iii. p. 471. 
 
 05^4 Thc-paragraph following is the note (t) of 
 the' original placed in. the text. 
 
 every attentive and' impartial observer of 
 things, that the iUiberal and brutal manners 
 of those who ruled the church were the only 
 reason that rendered the dispute concerning 
 investitures so violent and cruel, so tedious in 
 its duration, and so unhappy in its effects 
 During'the space of fifty-fi^ve years, the church 
 was governed by monks, who, to the obscurity ■ 
 of then: birth, the asperity.:_of their natural ' 
 tempers, and the" unbounded rapacity of their 
 ambition and avarice, joined that inflexible ob- 
 stmacy which iS" one of the essential character- 
 istics of the monastic order. Hence arose 
 those bitter feuds, those furious efforts .of am- 
 bition and vengeance, that, dishonoured, the. 
 church and afflicted the state during the course 
 of this controversy". But as soon as the papal 
 chair was filled by a man of a more dignified 
 Jiature, and of a liberal education, the ftce of 
 things changed entirely, and a prospect of 
 peace arose to the desires and hopes of ruined 
 and desolate countries: ' 
 
 VI. These hopes were not disappointed; for, 
 after much contestation, peace was," at -length,, 
 concluded between the emperor and the pope's" 
 legates, at a general difet, holden at Worms, 
 A. D. 1122. The conditions were as foUdw: 
 " That for the future the bishops and abbots 
 " should be chosen by those to whom the right 
 " of election belonged;* but that this election 
 " should be made in presence of.^the emperor, 
 " or of an ambassador appointed by him for 
 " that purposerf 
 
 " That, in case of a dilute among the eleo- 
 " tors, the decision of it should be left to the 
 "emperor, who was to consult with the bj- 
 " sliops upon that occasion: 
 
 " That the bishop or abbot elect should take 
 " an oath of allegiance to.the emperor, receive 
 " ffom his hand the .regalia, and do homaee 
 "for them: _■ . / . . - 
 
 " That the emjiteror should no more confer 
 " the regalia by the ceremony of the ring and 
 " crosier, ivhich were the ensigns of a ghostly 
 " dignity, but by that of the sceptre,' which 
 " was more proper to invest the person elected 
 " in the possession of. rights and privileges, 
 "merely temporal. "| 
 
 This convention was solemnly confirined in 
 the fpllowing year in the Lateran council,. • 
 aiid remains still in force in our times, though 
 the true sense of some of its articles has occa- 
 sioned disputes between the emperors and pon- 
 ti<&.§ , 
 
 - VII. Calixtus did not long enjoy the Iruits 
 of this peace, to which he had so much contri- 
 butpd by his prudence and moderation. He. 
 
 d^ * The expression is ambiguous; but it signi- 
 fies that the elections of bishops and abbot8'~were to 
 be made by monks and canons as in former times. 
 
 t From this period the peopio in Germany were 
 excluded from the right of voting in the election of 
 bishops. See Petr. de Marca, de Concordia sacerdo- 
 tii et imperii, lib. vi. cap. ii. sect. 9, p. 788, edit. Boh- 
 meri. 
 
 X See Muratori, Antiq. Ital. medii levi, torn. vi. p. 76. 
 Schiiterns, de Libertate Eccl. Germanicas, lib. iv. cap. 
 iv. p. 545. — Cffisar Kasponus, de £asilica Lateranensi, 
 lib. iv. p. 295. - 
 
 $ It was disputed among other things, whether the 
 consecration of the bishop elect was to precede or 
 follow the collation of the regalia. See Jo. Wilh. 
 Hoffinan, ad concordatnm Henrici "V. et Calisti II. 
 Vitembergffi, 1739, in 4to. 
 
Chap. n. 
 
 DOCTORS, CHURCH ^GOVERNMENT, Sto. 
 
 311 
 
 died in -the year 1124, and was succeeded by 
 Lambert, bishop of Ostia, who asstimed the 
 title of Honorious II. and under whose ponti- 
 ficate nothing worthy of mention, was trans- 
 acted.' His death, which happened- A. J). 
 1130, gave rise to a considerable Bcbism in the 
 church of Rome, or rather in the college of 
 cardinals, of whom one party elected, to the 
 papal chai^, Gregory, a cardinal deacon of St. 
 Angeljo, who was distinguished-by the name of 
 [nnoceAt II. while the other chose, "for succes- 
 sor to Honorius,' Peter, the son of Leo, a Ro- 
 man princOj under the title of Anacletus II. 
 The friends of Innocent were far from being 
 numerous in Rome, or throughout Italy in ge- 
 neral, for which reason he judgeci'it expedient 
 to retire into FranceJ- where he had many ad- 
 herents, and where he sojourned during the 
 space of_ two years. His credit was very great 
 out of Italy; for, beside the emperor Lotnarius, 
 the kings of England, France, and Spain, with 
 other princes, espoused warmly the cause, of 
 Iimocent, principally by the influence of St. 
 Bernard, who was his intimate friend, and- 
 whose counsels had the force and authority of 
 laws in almost all the countries of Europe. 
 The patrons of >4nacletus were fewer in num- 
 ber, and were . ccfnfined to the kings of Sicily 
 and Scotland. His death', in the year 1138, 
 tenmnated the contest, and left Iniiocent in the 
 entire and uiidisputed possession of the apos- 
 tolic chair. The surviving pontiff presided, in 
 the year 1139, at the second Lateran council, 
 and, about four years after, ended his days in 
 peace.* 
 
 Vni. After the;dea,th of Innocent, the Ro- 
 man see was filled by Guy, cardinal of St. 
 Mark, who ruled the-church about five months, 
 under the title of Celestine II. /If his reign 
 was short, it was, however, peaceable, and not 
 like that of his successor, Lucius II; whose 
 pontificate was disturbed by various tiimults 
 and seditions, >uid who, about eleven niontlis 
 after his elevation to the papacy, was killed in 
 a rtot wjiich he waS'elideavouring to suppress 
 by. his presence aiid authority. He was suc- 
 ceeded by Bernard; a Cistertian inonk, and an 
 eminent disciple of the famous St. .Bernard, 
 abbot of Clairval. This worthy ecclesiastic, 
 who is distinguished among the . popes by the 
 title of Eiigehius III. was raised to that high 
 dignity ;in the year 1145, and, during a period 
 -of eight y^ars, he was involved in the same pe- 
 rils and perplexities tliat had embittered the 
 government of his predecessor. He was often 
 obliged to leave Rome, and to save himself by 
 flight from the fury of the people;t and- the 
 same reason engaged him to retireinto France, 
 where he resided for a considerable time. At 
 
 ♦ Beside the ordinary writeis of the papal history, 
 see Jean de Lannes, Histoire 4u -Pontificat du Pape 
 Innocent II. Paris, 174J, in 8vo: 
 
 ijg- 1. There was a party formed in Home at this 
 time, whose design was to restore the Koman senate 
 to its former privileges, and to its ancient splendour 
 and glory; and, for this purpose, to reduce the papal 
 revenues and prerogatives to a narrower compass, 
 oven to the tithes and oblations that were offered to 
 the primitive bishops, and to the. spiritual govern- 
 ment of the church, attended with an utter exclu- 
 sion from all civil jurisdiction over the city of Eome. 
 It was this party that produced the Tends and sedi- 
 tions to which Dr. Mosheim has an eye in this eighth 
 section. 
 
 length, exhausted by "the opposition he met 
 with jn supporting wnat he deemed the prero- 
 gatives of the papacy, he died iij the year 
 1153. The pontificate of his successor Con- 
 rad, bishop 'of Sabino, who, after his elevatiop 
 to thfe see of Rome, assumed the title of Anas- 
 tasius ly., was less disturbed by otvjl commo- 
 tions; butit was not of long duration; for Anas- 
 tasius died about a year and fouJ months after 
 his election. . ,. 
 
 IX^ The warm contest between the empe- 
 rors and the popes, which was considered as 
 at an end ever since the time of Calixtus II., 
 was tmhappily renewed under the pontificate 
 pf Adrian IV. who was a natjve of England, 
 and whose original name was Nicolas Break- 
 spear. Firederio I. surnamed Barbarbssa, be- 
 ing placed in 1152 on the imperial throne, 
 publicly declared his resolution to maintain 
 the dignity and privileges of the Roman em- 
 pire in'general, and more particularly to ren- 
 der it respectable in Italy; lior was he at ail 
 studious to conceal the design he had formed 
 of reducing the overgrown power and opu- 
 lence of thepontifls and clergy within iiai 
 rower limits. Adrian perceived the danger 
 that threatened the majesty of the church and 
 the authority of the clergy, and -prepared him- 
 self for defending both *fith vigour and con- 
 stancy. The first occasion of ■ trying their 
 strength was offered at the coronation of the 
 emperor at Rome, in the year 1155, wheiithe 
 pontiff insisted upon Frederic's performing the 
 ofiice of equerry, and holding the stirrup to 
 his sholiness. This humiliating, proposal was 
 at first rejected with disdain by the emperor, 
 and was followed by contests of a more mor 
 mentous nature, relatiiig to the political inter- 
 ests of the empire. ' ' 
 
 These .differences were no sooner reconciled, 
 than new disputes, equally important, arose in 
 the year 1158, when the emperor, in order to 
 put a stop to the enormous opulence of the 
 pontiffs, bishops, and monks, which increased 
 from day to day, enacted a law to prevent the 
 transferring of fiefs without the knowledge or 
 consent of the superior, or lord, in whose name 
 they were holdeii,* and turned the whole force 
 of his arms to reduce the little republics of 
 Italy under his dominion. An open rupture be- 
 tween the emperorand the pontiff, was expected 
 as the" inevitable consequence of such vigor- 
 ous measures, when the death of Adrian, which 
 happened on the first of September, 1159, sus- 
 pended the storm.j 
 
 N X. In the election of a new pontiff, the car- 
 dinals were divided into two factions. The 
 more numerous and powerful of the two parties 
 raised to .the pontificate, Rowland, bishop of 
 Sienna, who assuQied the name of Alexander 
 ni. wMle the rest of the conclave elected to 
 
 * This ptohibition of transferring the possession 
 of fiefs from one to another, without the consent of 
 the sovereign, or supreme lordr under whom they^ 
 were holdeti, together with other laws of a like na 
 ture, formed the flrst effect ital barrier that was op-, 
 posed to the enormous and growing opulence and 
 authority of the clergy. See Muratori, Antiq. Ital; 
 medii JEvi, .torn. vi. p. 239. 
 
 . t See the accurate and circumstantial 'account of 
 this whole affair that is given by the illustrious and 
 learned count Bunau, in his history of Frederic I 
 written in German, p. 15, 49, 73, 99, IDS, &c. ' 
 
313 
 
 ttiat high dignity Octavian, cardinal of St. 
 Cecilia, known by tne title of Victor IV. The 
 latter was patronized by the emperor, to whom 
 Alexander was extremely disameeable on 
 several accoraits. The council of Pavia, which 
 , , was assembled,, by the emperor in the year 
 y / 1160, adopted his sentiments, and pronounced 
 m- favour of Victor, who thus became trium- 
 phant in Germany and Italy; so' that France 
 alone was left open to Alexander, who accord- 
 ingly fled thither from Rome for safety and pro- 
 tection. Amidst the tumults and commotions 
 which this schism occasiohed,Vjctor died at 
 Lucca, in the year 1164: bui; his place was im- 
 mediately filled by the emperor, at whose de- 
 sire Guy, cardinal of St. Calixtus, was elected 
 pontiff ujider the title of Pascal III. and ac- 
 knowledged in that character by the German 
 princes assemtiled in the year 1167,, at the diet 
 of Wurtzbm'g. In the mean time Alexander 
 recovered. his sphits, and, returning into Italy, 
 maintained his cause with uncommon resolu- 
 tion a.nd vigour, arid not without some promis- 
 ing hopes of success. , He held at Ilome, in 
 the year 1167, the Lateran council, in which 
 he solerhnly deposed the' emperor (whom he 
 had, upon several occasions before tliis periodj 
 publicly loaded with anathemas and execra- 
 tions.,!) dissolved the oath" of allegiaince whicji 
 his subjects had taken to him as their lawfiil 
 sovereign, and encouraged and exhorted them 
 to rebel against his authority, and to shake off 
 his^ yoke. But, soon after this audacious pro- 
 ceeding, Frederic made himself master of 
 Kome; 'upon which the insolent pontiff fled to 
 Benevento,' and lefl; ilie. apostolic - chair to 
 Pascal, his competitor. 
 
 XI. The affairs of Alexander ,seemed-, soon 
 after, to take, a more prosperous turns' when 
 (the greatest part of the imperial amiy being, 
 consumed by a pestilential disorder) the empe- 
 ror was forced to abandon Italy, and when the 
 death of Pascal, which happened in the year 
 1168, delivered iim from a powerfiil and for- 
 midable rival. But this fair prospect soon 
 vanished; for the imperial faction elected to 
 the pontificate ,lohn, abbot of Strum, /under 
 the title of Calfxtus III. whonr FrSderic, not- 
 withstanding his absence in Germany, and the 
 various wars ^and disputes in which he was 
 involved, supported to the utmost of his power. 
 When peace was in some measure restored to 
 the empire, Frederic marched into Italy, A. D. 
 1174, to chastise the, perfidy of the states and 
 cities that had.-revolted during his absence, 
 and seized the first opportunity uf throwing 
 , , off his yoke. Had this expedition beencrown- 
 ed with the expected success, Alexander would, 
 undoubtedly, have been obliged to desist irom 
 his 'pretensions-, and to yield the papal chair 
 ^o Calixtus. , But the event came far short of 
 the hopes which this grand expedition had 
 excited; and the emperor^ after having, during 
 the space of three years, been alternately de- 
 feated and victoidous, was at length so, fatigued 
 with the hardships he had suffered, and so de- 
 jected at a view of the difficulties he had yet 
 to overcome, that, in the year 1177, he con- 
 cluded a treaty of peace at Venice with Alex- 
 ander, and a truce. with the rest of his ene- 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part n. 
 
 mies.* Some writers affirm, that, upon this 
 occasion, the haughty pontiff trod upon the 
 neck.of the suppliant emperor, while he kissed 
 his foot, repeating at the same time those 
 words of the royal Psalmist: " Thou shalt 
 t^ead upon the lion and adder; the young lion 
 and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet."t 
 The greatest part, however, of modem authors 
 have called this event in que,stion, and con- 
 sider it as utterly destitute of authority and 
 unworthy of credit. j: - 
 
 XII. Alexander III., who was rendered so 
 famous by his hJng and successful contest with 
 Frederic I., was also -engaged in a warm dis- 
 pute with Henry II. king of England, which 
 was occasioned by the arrogaiice of Thomas 
 Becket, archbishop' of Canterbury. In the 
 council of Clarendon, which that prince held 
 in the year 1164j several laws were enacted, 
 by which the, king's power and-jurisdiction 
 over the clergy were accurately e^lained, and 
 the rights and privileges of the bishops and 
 priests reduced within narrow'bounds.^ Becket 
 
 * All the circumstances .of these conventions are 
 accurately related by count Bunau, in his History 
 of Frederic I. p. 115— 242.— See also Fortunati Olmi 
 tstoria delja Yenuta a Venetia occultamente nel A. 
 1177, di Papa Alessandro III. yenet. 1629, in 4to.— 
 Muratori, Antiq. Italics medii sevi, torn. iv. p. 2, 9.—' 
 Origines Guelphics, torn. ii. p. 379.— Acta Sancto- 
 rum, torn. i. April, p. 4P, in Vita Hugonis abbatis 
 Bonx-Vallis, & tome ii. April.' in Vita Galdini Me- 
 diolanensis, p. 596,-two ' famous ecclesiastics, who 
 were employed as ambassadors and arbiters in -the 
 treaty of peace h^e mentioned, 
 
 t Psalm 'ici. ,13. 
 
 j See ^unau's Life of Frederic I, p. 243.— HeumBn- 
 
 ni F<9ciles., tom. iii. lib. i. p. 145 Bibliotheque 
 
 Italique,tom. vi. p. 5, asialso the authors mentioned 
 by Caspar Sagittarius, in bis Introduct. in HiStor. 
 Eccles. tom, i. p. 6^, tom. ii. 
 
 § See Matth. Paris, Histor. Major, p. 82, 83, 101, 
 114. Dav. Wilkius, Concilia Magnae Britanniie, torn, 
 i.p. 434. , 
 
 <lt^ Henry II. -had formedr the wise project of 
 bringing tlie clergy under the jurisdiction of the civil 
 courts, on account- of the -scandalovs abuse they had 
 made of their rimmunities, and the crimes which 
 the ecclesiastical tribunals let pasa with impunity. 
 The Constitutions of Clarendon, which consisted of 
 sixteen articles, were drawn up for this purpose: 
 and, as they are proper to give the reader a just id^a 
 of the prerogatives andpriyileges tliat were claimed 
 equally by the king and the clergy, and which occa- 
 sioned of Consequence such warm debates between 
 state and church, it will not be altogether useless to 
 transcribe them at length. 
 
 I. "When any diflerence relating to^the right' of 
 patronage arises between the Idity, or between the 
 clergy and laity, the controversy is to be tried and 
 ended in the King's.court. -, 
 
 II. Those churches whigh are fees of "the crown, 
 cannot be granted away in perpetuity Withou't the 
 -king*B consent. 
 
 lU.'When the plergyare charged with any mis- 
 deirieanouj, and summoned by the justiciary, they 
 shall be obliged to make their appearance in his 
 court, and plead to sucb'parts of the indictment as 
 shall be put'to them; and likewise to answer such 
 articles in the ecclesiastical courts as they shall be 
 prosecuted for by that jurisdiction; always provided, 
 that the kind's justiciary shall send an officer to in- 
 spect the proceedings of the Court Christian. And 
 in case any clerk is eonvieted, or pleads guilty, he 
 is to forfeit the privilege of his character, and to be 
 protected by the church no longer. . 
 
 IV. No archbishops, bishops, or parsons, are al- 
 lowed to depart froi^ the kingdom, without a licence 
 from the crown; and provided they have leave to 
 travel, they shall give security, not to act or solicit 
 any thing during -their passage, stay, or return, to 
 I the prejudice of the king or kingdom. 
 
Chap. II. 
 
 refused obedience to Ijhes© laws, whioh he 
 deemed prejudicial to the divine rights of the 
 church in general, and to the prerogatives of 
 the Roman pontiffs in particular. Upon this 
 
 DOCTORS, CHURCH GOVERNMENT, &c. 
 
 313 
 
 V. Wlien any of the laity are prosecuteil- iit the 
 ecclesiastical courts, the-icharge ought to be proved 
 befor^ the bishop by legal and reputable witnesses; 
 and thq course of the process is to be so niEtnagerl 
 that the archdeacon may not lose any .part of his 
 ri^ht, oOhe profits accruing to his ofhce: and.if any 
 offenders seem to have been screened from prosecu- 
 tion upon the score either of favour or quality, the 
 sheriff, at the bishop's instance, shall order twelve 
 sufficient men of the neighbourhood to make oath 
 before the bishop, that thfey will discover the truth 
 according to the best ot their knowledge. 
 
 VI. Excommunicated persons shall iiot.be obliged 
 to make oath, or give security to continue upon the 
 pl^e where they live, bat only to abide by the judg- 
 ment of thecharch in order to their absolution. 
 
 - VII. No person that holds in chief of the king, or 
 any of his barons, shall be excoraraiinlcated, nor any 
 of their estates put under an interdict, before appU^ 
 cation be made no the king, provided he be in the 
 kingdom; and If his liighness be out of England, the 
 justiciary must be acquainted with the dispute, in 
 order to make satisfaction: and thus what belongs- 
 to the cogni_zance of the king^ court, must be tried 
 there; and. that which beloirga' to the Court Chris- 
 tian, must be remitted to that jurisdiction. 
 
 VIII. In -case of appeals* in ecclesiastical causes, 
 the first step- is to'be made from the archdeacon to 
 the bishop, and from the bishop (o the archbishop; 
 and, if the archbishop fails to do justice, recourse 
 may be had to the king, by whose order the contro- 
 versy is to be finally _deQided in, the archbishop's 
 court. Neither shall it be lawfiil for either of the 
 partiestto move for ahy farther remedy without leave 
 from the crown. 
 
 IX. Wlien a difl^rence happens to arise between 
 any clergyman and layman concerning a tenement, 
 and the cle.rk pretends that it is holden by frank 
 Almoine,* and the layman pleads it a lay fee, the 
 tenure shall be tried.by the inquiry and verdict. of' 
 twelve siifiicient men of the neighbourhood-, sum- 
 moned according to the custom otthe realm. And, 
 if the tenement or thing in controversy shall be- 
 found frank Almoine, the dispute concerning it shall 
 be tried in the ecclesiastical courts But if it is 
 brought in a lay-fee, the suit shall be- followed in the 
 king's courts, unless both the plaintiff"and defendant 
 hold the tenement in question of the same bishop; 
 in which case the cause shall be tried in the court of 
 such bishop or baron, with this farther proviso, that 
 he who is seized of the lhin^,in controversy, shall 
 notbe disseized during the suit (pendente, lite;) upon 
 tlie ground of the verdict above-mentioned. 
 
 X. With r^ard to one wlio holds of the king in 
 any city, castle, or borough, or resides upon any of- 
 the demesne lands of the crown, in oase he is cited 
 by rtie archdeacon or bishop to answer for any mis- 
 behaviour belonging to their_ cognizance; if he re- 
 fuses to obey their sumipons, and to stand to the 
 sentence of the court, it shall he lawful for the ordi- 
 nary to put him under an interdict, but not to ex- 
 communicate him, till the king's principal officer of 
 
 . the town shall be pre- acquainted with the case, in 
 order' to enjoin him to make satisfaction to the 
 dhurch. And if such officer or magistrate shall fhii 
 in his duty, he shall be fined by the king's judges. 
 And then the bishop-may exert his disoiplineon the 
 refractory person as he thinks "fit. , . . , 
 
 XT. AU archbishops, bishops, and ecclesiastical 
 persons, who hold of the king in chief, and by the 
 tenure of a barony, are for that reason obliged to 
 appear before the king's justices and ministers, to 
 answer the duties of their tenure, and to observe all 
 the usages and customs of Jhe realm; and, like other 
 barons are bound to be present at trials in the 
 king's court, till sentence is to be pronounced for the 
 losing of life or limbs. . ^. ,. . ut. 
 
 XII. When any archbishopric, bishopric, abbey, 
 or priory, of royal foundation, become vacant, the 
 king is to make seizure; from which time all the 
 profits and issues are to be paid into the exchequer, 
 as if they were the demesne lands of the crown. 
 
 * i. e. A tenure by divine service, as Brittop ex- 
 plains ft. 
 
 Vol. 1.-40 
 
 there arose a violent debate between the reso- 
 lute monarch and the rebellious prelate, which 
 obliged the latter to retire into France, where 
 Alexander was at that time in a" kind of 
 exile. This pontiff and the king of Franco 
 interposed theii* good offices in order to com- 
 pose these differences, in which they succeeded 
 so far, after much trouble and diffic<ilty,-as to 
 encourage Becket to return to England, where 
 he was reinstated in his forfeited dignity. 
 But the generous and indulgent proceedings 
 of his sovereign toward him, were not sufficient 
 to subdae his "arrogant and rebellious obsti- 
 nacy in maintaining what he called the privi- 
 leges of the church; nor could he be induced 
 by any means to comply with tlie views and 
 measures of Henry. The consequences of this 
 inflexible resistance were fatal to the haughty 
 prelate; for he was, soon after his return into 
 England, assassinated before. the altar. while 
 he was at vespers in his cathedral hy four 
 persons, who certainly did not commit "this act 
 of violence without the king's knowledge and 
 connivance.* This event produceti warm de- 
 
 And when it is tletfermined that the" vacancy shall be 
 filled up, the king is to summon the most considera- 
 ble persons of the chapter to^court, and the election 
 is to be made in the chapel royal, with the consent 
 of our sovereign lord the king, and, by the advice of 
 such persons of the government, as his highness 
 shall think fit to consult; at which time, the person 
 elected, shall, before^ his consecration, be obliged to 
 do homage and fealty to the king, as his liege lord; 
 which homage shall be performed in the usual form,- 
 with a clause saving the privilege of his order. 
 
 Xill. If any of the temporal barons, or great 
 men, shall encroach upon the rights or property of 
 any archbishop,. bishop, or archdeacon, and refuse to 
 make satisfaction for wrong done by theniselves, or 
 their tenants," the king shall do justice to the party 
 Aggrieved. And if any person shall disseize the king 
 of any part of his lands, or trespass upon his preroga- 
 tive, the Archbishops, bishops, and deacons, shair 
 call him to an account, and oblige him to make the 
 crown restitution; i. e. "They were to excommuni- 
 cate such disseizers and injurious persons, incase 
 they proved refractory and incorrigible." 
 
 XrV". The goods and chatties of those who lie un • 
 der forfeitures of felony or treason are not to be de- 
 tained in any church or church-yard, to secure them 
 against seizure and justice, because such goods are 
 the 'king's property, whether they are lodged within 
 the precincts of a church or without it. 
 
 XV. AU actions, and pleas of debts, though par- 
 ticularly solemn ih the circumstances of the con- 
 tract," shall be. tried in the king's courts. 
 
 XVI. The sons of copy-holders are not to be or- 
 daitfed without the consent of the .lord of the manor 
 where they were born. 
 
 Such were the articles of the constitutions of Cla- 
 rendon, against the greatest part of, which the pope 
 protested. They were signed by the.English clergy, 
 and" also by Becket. The latter, however, repented 
 of what he had done, and retiring from court, sus- 
 pended himself from his office in the church for about 
 forty days, till he received absolution from Alexan- 
 der, who was then at. Sens. His aversion to these 
 articles manifested itself by an open rebellion 
 against his sovereign, in which he discovered his 
 true character, as a most daring, turbulent, vindic- 
 tive, and arrogant priest, whose ministry^was solely 
 employed in extending the despotic dominion of 
 Rome, and whose fixed purpose was to aggrandize 
 the church upon the ruins of the state. See Collier's 
 Ecclesiastical History, vol. i. xiith century. K^pin 
 de Thoyras, in the reign of Henry II. 
 ' Ct?" * This assertion is in our opinion by much too 
 atrong. . It can only be founded upon certain indis- 
 crete and passionate .expressions, which the intole- 
 rable insolence and phrenetic obstinacy of Becket 
 drew from Henry in an unguarded moment, when, 
 after having received new affronts, notwithstanding 
 the reconciliation he had efilected with ^o much 
 
814 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 PartH. 
 
 bates between the king of England and the 
 Roman pohtiff, who gained his point so far as 
 to make the suppliant monarch undergo a 
 ■evere course of penance, in order to expiate 
 a crime of which he was considered as the 
 principal promoter, while the murdered pre- 
 late, in 1173, was solemnly enrolled in the 
 Highest rank of saints and martyrs.* 
 ' Xlli. It was not only by force of arms, but 
 also by uninterrupted efforts of dexterity and 
 artifice, by wise counsels and prudent laws, 
 that Alexander III. maintained the pretended 
 rights of the church, and extended the autho- 
 rity of the Roman pontiffs. For, in the third 
 Lateran council, hoiden at Rome in 1 179, the 
 foUtJwing decrees, among many others upon 
 different subjects, were passed by his advice 
 and authority, let, In order to put an end to 
 the confusion and dissensions which so often 
 accompanied the election of the Roman pon- 
 tiffs, it, was determined that the right of elec- 
 tion should be vested in the cardinals alone, 
 and that the person, in whose favour two- 
 tibirds of the college of cardinals voted, should 
 be considered as the lawful pontiff. This law 
 is still in force; it was therefore from the time 
 of Alexander t^at the election of the pope ao- 
 _ quired that form which it still retains, and by 
 which, not only the""people, but also the Ro- 
 man clergy, are excluded from all share in .the 
 honour of conferring" that important dignity. 
 
 trouble and condescension, he expressed himself- to 
 this purpose: 'Am I not uirhappy, that, among the 
 numbers who are attached to my interests, and em- 
 ployed in my service, there is no one possessed of 
 spirit enough to resent the affronts which I am con- 
 stantly receiving from a miserable priest?' These, 
 words, indeed, were not pronounced in vain. Four 
 gentlemen of the court, whose names were Fitz- 
 Urse, Tracy, Brito, and Morville, murdered Becket 
 in his chapeU and thus performed, in a licentious 
 and criminal manner, an action which the Jaws 
 might have commanded with justice. But it is ex- 
 tremely remarkable, that, after the murder, the as- 
 sassins were afraid they had gone too far, and ,durst 
 not return to the king's court, which was then in 
 Normandy; J)ut retired at first to Knaresborough iii 
 Yorkshire, which belonged to Morville, whence they 
 repaired to Rome for absolution, and being admitted 
 to penance by Alexander, were sent by that pontiff 
 to Jerusal&m, and passed the remainder of their lives 
 -upon the Black Mountain in the severest acts of 
 austerity and mortification. All this does not look 
 as if the king had been deliberately concerned in 
 ■this murder, or had expressly consented to it. On 
 the contrary, various circumstances concur to prove 
 that B!eriry~was entirely innocent of this murder. 
 Mr. Hume mentions particularly one, which is 
 worthy of notice. The king, suspecting the design 
 of the four gentlemen above-mentioned, by some 
 menacing expressions they had dropped, "despatched 
 "(says Mr. Hume) a messenger after them, ordering 
 "them to attempt nothing against the person of the 
 •' primate. But these orders came too late." See his 
 History >of England, vol. i. p. 294. Rapin Thoyras, 
 Histoire d'Angleterre, Collier's Ecclesiastical His- 
 tory of England. The works to which Dr. Mosheim 
 refers for an account of this matter, are as follow: 
 Guiliel. Stephanidae Historia Thomce Cantuarieusis 
 apud Scriptores rerum Anglicarum, published 'in fo- 
 lio an London by Sparke, in the year 1723.— Christ. 
 Lupi EpistolsB et Vita ThomaB Cantuar.— Epistolje 
 Alexandri III. Ludovici VII. Henriei II. in hac 
 causa, ex M. S. Vaticano, Bruxelles, 1682, 2 vol. 
 4to.— Natalis Alexandri Select. Histor. Eccles. Ca- 
 pita, SiBC. xii. Diss. i. p. 833. — Thomas Stapletoni 
 Trea Tftomse, seu res gesta Thomse Apostoli, S. 
 Idioms Cantuariensis, et Thomae Mori. Coloniae, 
 1612, in 8vo^ 
 
 * Boulay, Histor. Academ. Pans. torn. n. p. 328, 
 et de Die Festo ejus, p. 397. Dom. Colonia, Histoire 
 Literaire de la Vii'« de Lyon, torn. ii. p. 243. 
 
 2dly, A spiritual war was declared against the 
 
 heretics, whose numbers, increasing considera- 
 bly about this time, created much disturbance 
 in th# church in general^ and infested, in a 
 more particular manner, several provinces in 
 France, which groaned under the fatal dissen- 
 sions that accompanied the , propagation- of 
 their errors.* Sdly, The right of recommend- 
 ing and nominating to tlie saintly order was 
 also taken away from councils and' bishops, 
 and canonization was ranked among the great- 
 er and more important causes, the cognizance 
 of which belonged to the pontiff alone.f We 
 must not 'orgdt to add, that the power of 
 erecting new kingdoms, which had been claim- 
 ed by the pontiffs from the time of Gregory 
 Vn., was not only assumed, but also exercised 
 by Alexander in a remarkable instance; for, 
 in the year 1179, he- conferred the title , of 
 king, with the ensigns of royalty, upon Al- 
 phonsb I. duke of Portugal, who, under the 
 pontificate of Lucius II., had rendered his pro- 
 vince tributary to the Roman see.J 
 
 XIV. Upon the death of Alexander, Ubald, 
 bishop of Ostia, otherwise knoWn by the name 
 of Lucius III., was raised to, the pontificate, 
 A. D. 1181, by the suffrages of the cardinals 
 alone, in consequence of the law mentioned in 
 the preceding section. The administration of 
 this new pontiff was embittered by violent tu- 
 mults and seditionsj for he was twice driven 
 out of the city by the Romans, who coiild not 
 bear a pope that was elected . in opposition to 
 the ancient custom, without the knowledge 
 and consent of the clergy and the people. In the 
 midst of these troubles he died at Verona in 
 the year' 1185, and was succeeded by Hubert 
 .Crivelli, bishop of Milan, who assumed the 
 title of Urban IIL and who, without having 
 transacted any thing worthy.of mention during 
 his short pontificate, died of grief in the year 
 1187, upon hearing that Saladin had made 
 hiniself master of Jerusalem. The pontiiitate 
 of his successor Albert,§ whose papal denomi- 
 nation was" Gj^ory VIII. exhibited a still 
 more striking instance of the fragility of hu- 
 man grandeurj. for this pontiff yielded to fate 
 about two months after his elevation. He was 
 succeeded -by Paul, bishop ofTi'eneste, who 
 filled the papal chair above three years under 
 the title of Clement III. and died in "1191, 
 
 , * See Natalis Alexander, Select, Histor. Eccles. 
 Capit. Sebc. xii. Diss. ix. p. 819, where he treats par- 
 ticularly of this council. — See also torn. vi. part ii. 
 Conciliorum Harduini, p. 1671. 
 
 di^ Dr. Mosheim, as also Spanheim and Pleury, 
 call this the 3d Lateran couilbil, Whereas other his- 
 torians mention eight preceding councils hoiden" in 
 the Lateran church, viz. those of the years 649, 864, 
 1105, 1112, 1116, 1123, 1339, 1167. Our anthor has 
 also attributed, to this council of 1179, decrees that 
 ■probably belong to a later period.. ^ 
 
 t See what has been observed already, under the 
 xth century, concerning the election of the popes, 
 and the canonization of saints. 
 
 J Baronius, Annal. ail A. 1179.— Innocentii III, 
 Epistolffi Lib. ep. xlix. p. 54, tom. i. ed. Baluz. 
 
 Qt^ Alphonso had been declared, by his victorious 
 army, king of Portugal, in the year 1136, in the 
 midst of the glorious exploits he had performed in 
 the war against the Moors; so that Alexander, did 
 no more than confirm this title by an arrogant bull 
 in which he treats that excellent prince as his vassal 
 
 § This prelate, before his elevation to the papacy, 
 was bishop of Benevento, and chancellor of the Ro- 
 man church 
 
Chap. II. 
 
 DOCTORS. CHURCH GOVERNMENT, Stc. 
 
 315 
 
 witllout having distinguished his ecclesiastical 
 reign by^ any raeniorable achievement, if we 
 except his zeal for draining Europe of its trea- 
 ■sures and inhabitants by the publication of new 
 crusades. Celestine HI.* makesa more shin- 
 ing figure in- history than the pontiffs we have 
 been now mentioning; for he thundered his 
 excommunications against the emperor Henry [ 
 VI. and Leopold, duke of Austria, on account 
 of their having seized and imprisoned Richard 
 I. king of England, as he was returning from 
 the Holy Land: he also subjected to the same 
 malediction Alphonsb X. king of Galhcia and 
 Leon, on account of an incestuous marriage 
 into which that prince had entered; and com- 
 manded Philip Augustus, king of France, to 
 readmit to the conjugal state and honours In- 
 gelbuTga his queen, whom he had divorced for 
 reasons unknown; though this order, indeed, 
 produced little effect.f But the most illustri- 
 ous arid resolute pontiff, that filled the papal 
 chair during this century, and whose exploits 
 made the greatest noise in Europe, was Lo- 
 tharius, count of Segni, cardinal deacon, other- 
 wise known by the name of Innocent HI. The 
 arduous undertakings and bold achievements 
 of this eminent pontjff, who ,was placed at the 
 head of the church in the year 1198, belong to 
 the history of the following century. , 
 
 XV. If, from the series of pontiffs that ruled 
 the church in this century, we descend to the 
 other ecclesiiistical orders, such as the bishops, 
 priests, arid deacons, very unpleasing objects 
 will be exhibited to our view. The unani- 
 mous voice of the historians of this age, the 
 laws and decrees of synods and councils, loudly 
 declare the gross ignorance, odious frauds, and 
 flagitious crimes, that reigned among the dif- 
 ferent ranks and orders of the clergy now 
 mentioned. It is not therefore at all surpris- 
 . ing, that the monks, whose rules of discipline 
 obliged them to a regular method of living, and 
 placed them out of the way of many tempta- 
 tions to licentiousness, and occasions of sinning, 
 to which the episcopal and sacerdortal orders 
 were exposed; were in higher estimation than 
 these- were. The reign of corruption became, 
 however, so general, that it reached at last 
 e^en the convents; and the monks, who were 
 gaining with the most ardent efforts the sum- 
 mit of ecclesiastical power and authority, and 
 who beheld both the secular clerks arid the re- 
 gular canons with aversion andcontempt,J be- 
 gan, in many places, to degenerate from that 
 sanctity of manners, and that -^xact obedience 
 to their rules of discipline, by which they had 
 been formerly distinguished, and to exhibit to 
 the pfeople scandalous examples of immorality 
 and vice.§ The Benedictines of Clugni, who 
 
 * Whose name was Hyacinth, a native of Eome, 
 and a cardinal'deacpn. 
 
 dt^ f It was in consequence of the vigorous and 
 terrible proceedings of Innocent III, that the re-union 
 between Philip and Ingelburga- was accomplishe'd. 
 See L'Histoire de France, par I'Abbe Velly, torn. 
 iii. p. 367. 
 
 t See Ruperti Epistola in Martenne's Thesaur. 
 Anecd. torn. i. p. 285. This writer prefers the monks 
 to the apostles. 
 
 § See Bernardi Considerationes ad Eugenium, lib. 
 iii. cap. iv. — See also the Speculum Stultorum, or 
 Brunelles, a poem, composed by Nigel Wireker, an 
 Eng{ish bard of no mean reputation, who lived about 
 
 undoubtedly surpassed, in regularity of con- 
 duct and purity of manners, all the monastic 
 orders who lived under their rule, maintained 
 their integrity for a long time, amidst the gene- 
 ral decay of piety and virtue: but they were 
 at.length carried away with ihe torrent. Se- 
 duced by the example of their abbot Pontius, 
 and corrupted by the treasures that were pour- 
 ed daily into their convent by the liberality of 
 the- opulent' and pious, they fell from their pri- 
 mitive austerity, and following the dissolute 
 examples of the other Benedictines, they ' gave 
 themselves up to pleasure, and dwelt ctireless- 
 ly.'* Several of the succeeding abbots endea- 
 voured to reriiedy this disorder, and to recover 
 the declining reputation of their convent; but 
 their efforts were much less successful than 
 they expected, nor could the monks of Clugni 
 ever be brought back to their primitive sanc- 
 tity and virtue.! 
 
 XVI. The Cistertian Order, which was much 
 inferior.to the monks of Clugni, both with re- 
 spect to the antiquity of its institution, and 
 tlje possessions and revenues of its convent, &r 
 surpassed them in external regularity of life and 
 manners, and in a striking air of inndcenQa 
 and sanctity.. Hence its members acquired 
 that high degree of reputation and authority 
 which the Order of Clugni had formerly en- 
 joyed; and the fraternity increased daily in 
 nuinber, credit, and opulence. The famous 
 St. Bernard, abbot of ClairvalJ whose influ- 
 ence throughout Europe was incredible, whose 
 word was a law, and whose counsels were 
 regarded by kings and princes as so many or- 
 ders to which the most respectful obedience 
 was due, was the person who contributed most 
 to enrich and aggrandize the Cistertian order. 
 Hence he is justly-considered as its second pa- 
 rent and founder; and hence the Cistertians, 
 not only in France, but- also in Germany and 
 other countries, were-distinguished by the title 
 of Bernardine monks.J A hundred and sixty 
 religioiis communities derived their origin, or 
 their -rules of discipline, from this illustrious 
 abbot; and he left, at his death, seven hundred 
 monks in the monastery of ClairyaJ. The 
 church abounded with bishops and archbishops 
 who had been formed and prepared ^r the mi- 
 nistry by his instructions; and he also reckoned, 
 among the number of his disciples, Eugenius 
 in. one of the best and wisest of tie Roman 
 
 pontiffs. , ; 
 
 XVII. The growing prosperity of the Cistern 
 tian Order excited the envy and jealousy of 
 the^ monks of Clugni, and, after several dissen- 
 sions of less consequence, produced at length 
 anopen rupture, a declared war, between these 
 opulent and powerful monasteries. They both 
 followed the rule of St. Benedict, though they 
 
 the middle of the xiith century. In this poem, of 
 which several editions have been published, the dif- 
 ferent orders of monks are severely censured; the 
 Carthusians alone have escaped the keen and viru- 
 lent satire Of this witty writer. , 
 
 * Isaiah, xlvii.8. 
 
 t See Martenne's Ampli^sima Collectio Monumen- 
 tor. Veter. torn. ix. p. 1119. ■ 
 
 X See Jo. Mabillon, Annal. Ord. Beiiedict. torn, vi, 
 passim, in vita Sti. Bernardi, which be has prefixed 
 to his edition of the works of that saint. — See also 
 the Annales Cistercienses, by Manriquez, torn, ii 
 and iiii 
 
did 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 PartII 
 
 differed in their habit, and in certain laws, 
 which the Cistertians more especially haJ ad- 
 ded to that rule. The rtonks of Clugni accus- 
 ed the Cistertians of affecting an extravagant 
 austerity in .their manners and discipline; 
 while the Cistertians, on the other hand, charg- 
 ed them, upon very good grounds, with having 
 degenerated from their former sanctity and re- 
 gularity of conduct. St. Bernard, who was 
 the oracle and protector of the Cistertians, 
 wrote, in the year 1 1"27, an apology for his own 
 conduct with respect to the division that sub- 
 sisted between the two convents, and inveigh- 
 ed, with a just but not intemperate severity, 
 against the vices that corrupted the monks of 
 Clugni.* This charge was answered, though 
 with uncommon hioderation and candour, by 
 Peter Mauricius, abbot of Clugni; and hence 
 arose a controversy in form, which spread from 
 day to day its baneful influence, and excited 
 disturbances in several provinces of Europe.f 
 It was, however, followed by a much more ve- 
 hement and bitter contest concerning an ex- 
 emption from the payment of tithes, granted 
 among other privileges and immunities to the 
 Cistertians, A, ~T>. 1132, by Innocent 11. A 
 considerable part of the lands which the Cis- 
 tertians possessed, and to which the pontiff 
 granted this exemption, were subject to the 
 monks of Clngni, who consequently suffered 
 by this act of liberality, and. disputed the mat-, 
 ter, not only with the Cistertians, but with 
 the pope himself. This keen dispute was, in 
 some measure, terminated in the year 1156; 
 but in what manner, or upon what conditions, 
 we do not precisely know.J 
 
 XVni. The regular canons, .who had been 
 formed into a fixed and permanent order in 
 the preceding century, employed their time in 
 a much more useful and exemplary manner 
 than the monistic drones, who passed their 
 days in luxury and sloth. They kept public 
 
 (BW- » This apology, as it is called, of St. Bernard 
 is well worth the attention of the carious reader, as 
 it exhibits a true and.lively picture of monastic opu- 
 lence and luxury, and shows how the religious or- 
 ders in general lived in tins century. The famous 
 abbot, in this performance, accuses the monks of 
 Clugni of luxury and intemperance at their table, of 
 Buperfluitv and magnificence in their dress, their bed- 
 chambers;, their furniture, equipage, and buildings. 
 He points out the pride and vanity of the abbots, 
 who looked much more like the governors of pro- 
 vinces, than the spirituarfathersofhumble and holy 
 commimities, whose original profession it was, to 
 be crucified and dead to the interests and pleasures, 
 the pomps and vanities of the present world. He de- 
 clares, with a pious concern, that he knew several 
 abbots, each of whom had inore than sixty, horses in 
 his stable, and such a prodigious variety of wines in 
 his cellar, that it was scarcely" possihle to taste the 
 half of them at a single enterlairiment. See Pleury, 
 Hist. EccleBiastique,liv.lxxvil. torn. xiv. p. 351, edit. 
 Bruxelles. , „ . ^ ^^^ 
 
 t See S. Bernardi Apologia in Oper. torn. j. p. S23— 
 533. The apology of Peter, abbot of Clugni, sur- 
 named the venerable, which is published among his 
 Eoistles lib. i. ep- 28, in the Bibliotheca Clumacen- 
 Ss torn.' i. p- 657—095- See also the Dialogus inter 
 Cluniacensem et Cisterciensem, published by Mar- 
 tenne in his Thesaiir. Anecdot. toip. v. p. 1573—1613, 
 Compare with all these Mabillon, Anna!. Benedict. 
 torn. vi. p. 80, and Manriquez,- Annal. Cisterc. torn. 
 
 ' t See Manriquez, Annal. Cistercienses, torn. i. p. 
 232 -Mabilloh, Annal. Benedict, tom. vi. p. 212,.479, 
 t„A nr-pfat ad Opera S. Bernard].- Jo. de Lannes, 
 HUtoTre du Pontifi'cat d'Innpcent II. p. 68^79._Jo. 
 Nic Hertii diss, de exempt! one Cisterc- a decimis. 
 
 schools for the instruction of youth, and exer 
 cised a variety of ecclesiastical fiinctions, which 
 rendered them extremely useful to the church.* 
 Hence they rose daily in credit and reputation, 
 received many rich and noble donations from 
 several persons, whose opulence and piety 
 rendered them -able and willing to distinguiA 
 merit, and were also often put in possession of 
 the revenues of the monies, whose dissolute 
 lives occasioned, from time to time, the sup- 
 pression^f their convents. This, as might well 
 OS expected, inflamed the rage of the monastic 
 orders against the regular canons, whom they 
 attacked with the greatest fury, and loaded 
 with the bitterest invectives. The canons, in 
 their turn, we^e far from being backward in 
 making reprisals; they exclaimed, on the con- 
 trary, against the monks with the utmost vehe- 
 mence; enumerated their vices both in dis- 
 courses and in writings, and insisted upon their 
 being confined to their monasteries, sequestered 
 from human society, and excluded fi-om all 
 ecclesiastical honours and functions. . Hence 
 arose, between the monks and canons, a long 
 and warm contest for pre-eminence; in which 
 both parties carried their pretensions too high, 
 and exceeded the bounds of decency and 
 moderation.! The champions, who espoused 
 the interest of the monks, were the famous 
 Jeter Abelard, Hugh of Amiens, Rupert of 
 Du3rtz; while the cause of the canons was de- 
 fended by Philip Harvengius, a learned abbot, 
 and several other men ofgenius and abilities.j 
 The effects and remains of this ancient con- 
 troversy are yet visible in our tiines. 
 
 XIX. A new society ,of religious Benedic- 
 tines arose about the commeiicement of this 
 century, Whose principal monastery was erect- 
 ed in a barren and solitary place, called 
 Fontevraud, between Angers and Tours; 
 whence the order derived its>name. Robert 
 of Arbrisselles, its founder, who had been first 
 a hermit, and afterwards a monk, prescribed 
 to his religious of both sexes the rule of St. 
 Benedict, amplified, however, by the addition 
 of several new laws, which' were extremply 
 singular and excessively severe. Among other 
 singularities that distinguished this institution, 
 one was, that the several monasteries wliich 
 Robertiad built, within one and the same inclo- 
 sure, for his monks and nuns, were all sub- 
 jected to the authority and government of one 
 abbess; in justification of which measure, the 
 example of Christ was, alleged, who recom- 
 mended St. John to the Virgin Mary, and ini- 
 posed it as an order upon that beloved disci- 
 ple, to be obedient to her as to his own mother.^ 
 
 * See the Histoire Literaire de la France, tom. ix. 
 
 P- 112- 
 
 t See Lambert! Epistola in Martenne's Thesaur. 
 Anecdot. tom. i- p. 329. 
 
 t Abelardi Opera, p- 228. Paris, 1010, in 4to.— 
 Martenne's The saur. Anecdot. ,tom. v. p. 970—975, I 
 1014, et Amplissima ejusdem CoUectio, tom. ix. p. 
 971, 972.— Phil. Harvengii Opera, p. 385. Duaci 
 1621, in folio. 
 
 § See the works of Abelard, p. 48, whose testimony 
 in this matter isconfirmed by the present state and 
 constitution of this famous order; though Mabillon, 
 from an excessive partiality in favour of the Bene 
 dictines,' has eiideavoured to diminish its credit in 
 his Annal. Benedict, tom. v. p. 423. For an account 
 of Robert and his order, see the Acta Sanctor. tom 
 iii. Februar. o. 593. — Dion. Sammarthani Gallia 
 
CHip.n. 
 
 DOCTORS, CHURCH GOVERNMENT, &c. 
 
 . 317 
 
 fconsequeiKje of the high esteem ^^hich the 
 monks of this community had acquired by the 
 gravity of theii mamiers, arid their assiduous 
 application to the liberal -arts and sciences. 
 But their overgrown prosperity was the source 
 of their ruin; it soon diminished their zeal for 
 the exerci'ses of devotion, extinguished their 
 thirst after useful knowledge, and thus gradu- 
 ally plunged them into all kinds of vice. The 
 rule which they followed was that of St. Au- 
 gustine, with some slight alterations, and an 
 addition of certain severe laws,' whose au- 
 thority! however, did not long survive their 
 austere founder.* 
 
 XSI. About the-middle of this century,- a 
 Calalsrian, whose name was Berthold, set out 
 with a few "companions for mount Carmel, and, 
 upon the very spot where the prophet Elias -is 
 said to have- disappeared, built an humble cot- 
 tage, with an adjoining chapel, in which he 
 led" a life of solitude, austerity, and labour. 
 This little colpny subsisted,' and the places of 
 those that died were more than filled by new- 
 comers; so that it was, at length,! erected into 
 a monastic community by Albert, patriarchof 
 Jerusaleiji. , This austere prelate drew up, for 
 the new monks, a rule of discipline, which was 
 afterwards confirmed by the authority of ihe 
 Roman pontiffs, who modified and altered it 
 in several respects, and, among other correc- 
 tions, rtiitigated its. excessive rigour.J Such 
 was the origin of the famous Order of Carme- 
 lites, or, as they are commonly called, the 
 Order of bur Lady of Mount Cjarmel, which 
 was afterwards transplanted from Syria into 
 Europe, and obtained the principal T&nk 
 among the mendicaftt or begging orders. It is 
 true, the Carmelites reject, with jthe highest 
 indignation, an,x)rigin "so recent and obscure, 
 and afiirni to this very day, -that the prophet 
 Elias-was the parent and founder of their an- 
 cient community. § Very few, however, have 
 
 This new order, like all other novelties of that 
 kind, gained immediately a high degree of 
 credit: -the singularity of its discipline, its ioi-m, 
 and its laws, engaged multitudes to embrace 
 itj and thus the labours of- its founder were 
 crowned with remarkable- success. [^I^ But 
 the association of vigorous monks and tender 
 virgins, in the same community, Wag an im- 
 prudent measure, and could not but be at- 
 .tehded with many inconveniences. However 
 that may be, Robert continued his pious 
 labours, and the odour of his sanctity perfumed 
 all the .places where he exercised his ministry.] 
 He was, indeed, suspected by some, of too 
 great an intimacy with his female disciples; 
 and it was rumoured, that, in order to try his 
 virtue, by opposing it to the strongest tempta- 
 tions, he e^osed it to an inevitable defeat by 
 the manner in which he conversed with these 
 holy vifgins. It was'&,ffirmed, that their com- 
 merce was softened by something more tender 
 than divine love; against which charge his 
 disciples have used their most zealous endea- 
 vours to defend their master.'^ 
 
 XX. Norbert, a German' nobleman, who 
 took holy orders, and was" afterwards, arch- 
 bishop of Magdeburg, employed his most 
 strenuous effo'rts to restore to- its primitive 
 severity the discipline of the regular ftanons, 
 which was extremely relaxed in some places^: 
 and almost totally abolished, in others. This 
 eminent reformer founded, .in the year 1121, 
 the Order of Premontre in Picardy, whose fame 
 spread Ihroughout Europe with- an amazing 
 rapidity, and whose opulence, in a phort space 
 of time, became excessive and enormous,! ^i^ 
 
 Christiana, tom. ii. p..l311.^— Bayie^ Dictionary, at 
 the larticle Pontevraad. — Helyot, Hist, des Ordres, 
 torn. vl. p. 83,— Th? present state of this monastery 
 is described by Moleon, in his Voyages Xifurgiques, 
 p. J08, and by Martenne, in the second part of his 
 Voyage Literaire de deux Benedictius. 
 
 * See the letters' of GeofFry, -abbot of Vendome, 
 and of Mkrbod, bishop of Jlennes; in which Robert 
 is accused of Lying in the same bed with the nuns. 
 JHow Jhe grave abbot was defended against this ac- 
 cusation by the members'of his order, may-be saen 
 in Mainferme's Clypeus Nascentis Ordiriis Fonte- 
 braldensis, published ift 8vo at Paris, in the year 
 1684; and also by another production of the same 
 ' aiithor, entitled, Dissertatjones in Epistulam contra 
 Robertum de Abrissello, Sahmirii; 1682, in 8vo. 
 Bayle's account, of this famous abbot, in which'there 
 is such an admirable mixture of wit, sen^e, and 
 malice, has been also attacked by several writers; 
 ^e, among other works, the rth and vith tomes of 
 Mabillon's Annals, and the Dissertation Apologeti 
 que .pour le bienheureuJc Kobert d'Aibrisselles sur 
 ce'qu'en a dit M. Bayle, Anvers 1701, in Bvo. 
 
 (^^ In the year 1377, some nuns of this, order 
 were brought into England at thedesireof Henry II. 
 who gave them the monastery of Ambresbury, in 
 Wiltshire. They ha^ two other houses here; one at 
 Bton, the other at Westwood, in Worcestershire. 
 
 Qi^ t The religious of this order were at first so 
 poor, that they liad nothing they- could call their 
 own, but a- single ass, which served to carry the 
 wood they cut down every morning, and sent to 
 Laon in order to purchase bread. But in a short 
 time they received so many donations, and built so 
 many monasteries, that, thirty years after the foun- 
 dation of this order, they had abovw a^hundred ab- 
 beys in France and Germany. In process of time, 
 the order increased so prodigiously, that it had mo- 
 nasteries in all parts of Christendom, amounting to 
 1,000 abbeys, 300 provostships, a vast number of 
 priories, and 500 nunneries. But this number is. now 
 greatly -diminished. Besides what they lost in Pro- 
 testant countries, of. 65 abbeys, that they bad in 
 Italy, there is not one now remaining. 
 
 * See Helyot, Hist, dos Ordres, torn-, ii. p. "156 ~ 
 Chrysost. Vander Stefrfe, Vita S. Norberti Prjwnon- 
 stratensium Patriarchs, published in 8vo., at Ant- 
 werp, in 1656.— Louis Hughes, Vie de S. Norbert, 
 Luxemb. 1704, in 4to. — Add to these, notwithstand- 
 ing his partiality, Jo. Launoy, Inqnisit. in Privile- 
 gia Ordin. PriEmonstrat." cap. i. ii. Opei". tomi iii. 
 part i. p. 448._'Foran .-iccount of the present. state 
 of the Order of] Premontre, see Martenne's Voyage 
 Xjiteraire de deux Benedictins, torn. ii. p. 59. 
 
 (J^^ The Pi-ffiihonstratcnses, or monks "of Pre- 
 montre, vulgarly- called White Canons, .came first 
 into England in the year 1046. Their first monastery, 
 called New House, was built in Lincoln shi^e, by 
 Peter de Saulia, and dedicated to St. Martial. In 
 the reign of Edward I. the order in question had 27 
 monasteries in'Erigland. 
 
 t In the year 1205- 
 
 X I have here principally followed Dan. Papebrocli, 
 an accurate writer, and one who is always careful 
 to pr.qduce sufRcient testimonies of the trut4i of his 
 narrations. See the Acta S'anctor. Antwerp. Mens^e 
 April, tom. iii. p". 774—802. It is well known, that 
 an accusation was brought against this leHrnad Je- 
 suit, before the tribunal of the pope, by the Carme- 
 lites,, on account of his having called in question the 
 dignity and high antiquity of their order. We have 
 in Helyot's Hist. des^Ordrps (torn. i. p. 282) an ac- 
 pount of this long and. tedious contest, which was so 
 far.determined,' OF at least suspended, in the year 
 1698, by Innocent XII. that silence was imposed upon ' 
 the contending parties. 
 
 § The most concise and accurate.of all theX^arme- 
 lite wiriters, who have treated this matter, is Thomas ■ 
 Aquinas, a Freil'ch monk, in his Dissertatio H^stor. ' 
 Theol. in qua Fatriarchatus Ordinis Carmelitarum 
 
318 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Pabt n. 
 
 been engaged to adopt this fabulous and chi- 
 merical account of the establishment,- except 
 the members of the order; and many Roman 
 Catholic writers have treated tlieir pretensions 
 to such a remote antiquity with the utmost con- 
 tempt.* {$f- And scarcely, indeed, can any 
 thing be more ridiculous than the circumstan- 
 tial narrations of the occasion,. Origin, founder, 
 and revolutions of this famous order, which we 
 find in several ecclesiastical authors, whose 
 zeal for this fraternity has rendered them capa- 
 ble of adopting without reluctance, or, at 
 least, of reciting without shame, the most 
 puerile and glaring absurdities. They tell us 
 that Elias was introduced into the state of 
 mohachism by the ministry of angels; that his 
 first disciples were Jonah, Mioah, and also 
 pbadiah, whose wife, in order to shake ofF-an 
 importunate crowd of lovers, who fluttered 
 about her at the coiui; of Ahab ^fter the-depar- 
 ture of-her husband, bound herselC by a vow 
 of chastity, received the veil from the hands 
 of father Elias, and thus became the first ab- 
 bess of the Carmelite order. They enter into 
 a minute detail of the circumstances that relate 
 to the rules of discipline which were drawn up 
 for this community, the habit which distin- 
 guished its members, and the various alterar 
 tions which were successively introduced. into 
 their rule of discipline. ' They observe, that 
 among other marks which were used to dis- 
 tinguish the Carmelites iiom the seeulars^ the 
 tonsure was one; that this mark of distinction 
 
 ^ exposed them, indeed, to the. mockeries of a 
 profane multitude; and that this furnishes the 
 true explication of the term bald-head, which 
 
 ' the children addressed, by way of reproach, to 
 Elisha as he was on his way to Carmel.f They 
 also aflirm, that Pythagoras was a member of 
 this ancient order; tbat he drew all his wisdom 
 from Mount Carmel, and had several conver- 
 sations with the prophet. Daniel at Babyton, 
 upon the subject of the Trinity. They even 
 go farther into the region of fable, and assert, 
 that the Virgin Mary, and Jesus himself, as- 
 sumed the habit and profession of Carmelites; 
 and they loaded this fiction with a heap of ab- 
 surd circumstances, which it is impossible to 
 read without the highest astonishment. J 
 
 Prophetffi EliiE vindicaiur, publisBed in 8vo. at Paris 
 in the year. 1632. The modern writers who. have 
 maintained the cause of the Carmelites against 
 Papebroch, are extremely prolix and tiresome. 
 
 * See Harduini Opera Posthum. p. 652. — Labat, 
 Voyage en Espagne et Italie, tom. iii. p. 87. — Cou- 
 rayer, Examen des Defauts Theologiques, tom. 1. p. 
 455. 
 
 t See 2 Kings ii. 23. 
 
 ?IJ' X For an ample account of all the absurd in- 
 ventions here hinted at, see a very remarkable 
 work, entitled, " Ordres Monastiques, Histoire ex- 
 " traite de tous les Auteurs qui out conserve a la 
 " Pos^erite ee qu'il y a de plus curieux dans chaque 
 "Ordre, enrichie d'un tres grand nombre do passages 
 *' dea memes Auteurs, pour servir de demonstration 
 "que ce qu'on y'avance est egalement veritable et 
 *' curieux." This work, which was first printed at 
 Paris in 1751, under the title of Berlin, and which 
 was suppressed almost as soon' as it appeared, is 
 written with great wit, eloquence, and learning: 
 and all the narrations it contains are confirmed by' 
 citations from the most eminent authors, "who have 
 given accounts of the religious orders. The author's 
 view seems to have' been to expose the monks of 
 every denomination to the laughter of his readers; 
 and it is very rrmarkable, that, in the execution of 
 
 XXII. To thisbrief account of the religious 
 orders, it will not be amiss to add a list of the 
 principal Greek and Latin writers who flour- 
 islied in this century. The most eminent 
 among the Greeks were those that follow: 
 
 Philippus Solitarius, whose Dioptra, or 
 controversy between the soul and the body, 
 is sufficiently known; 
 
 EustratiuS, who maintained the cause of 
 the Greek church against the . Latins with 
 great learning and spirit, and who wrote com- 
 mentaries on certain books" of Aristotle: 
 
 Euthymius Zigabenus, who, by his anti- 
 heretical Panoply, together with his commen- 
 taries upon several parts of the sacred writings, , 
 acquired a place among the principal authors 
 of this century;* 
 
 Johannes Zonaras, whose Annals, with 
 several other productions of his learned pen, 
 are still extant; 
 
 Michael Glycas, who also applied, himself to 
 historircal composition, ap well as to other 
 branches of learning;! 
 
 Constantius Hai'menopulus, whose com- 
 mentaries on the civil and canon laws are de- 
 servedly esteemed; 
 
 Andronicus Catnaterus, who wrote with 
 great warmth and vehemence against the 
 Latins and Armenians; 
 
 Eustathius, bishop of Thessalonica, the most 
 learned of the Greeks in this century, and the 
 celebrated commentator upon the Iliad; ^ 
 
 Tlieodorus Balsanlon, who employed great 
 diligence, erudition and labour, in explaining 
 and digestingthe civil and ecclesiastical laws 
 of the Greeks.| ' '. ' 
 
 XXIII. The most eminent among the Latin 
 'writers were, 
 
 Berjiardj abbot of Clairval, fi-om whom the 
 Cistertian monks (as has been already, observ- 
 ed) derived the title of Bemaidins; a man who 
 was not destitute of genius arid taste, and 
 whoso judgment, in many respects, was just 
 and peivetrating; but who,, on the other hand, 
 discovered in his conduct many marks of su- 
 perstition and weakness, and . what is still 
 worse, concealed the lust of dominion under 
 the mask of piety, and made no scruple of 
 loading, with false accusations, such as had 
 the misibrtune-to incur his displeasure;! 
 
 Jiis purpose,- he has drawn his materials from the 
 gravest writers, alid from the most zealous defenders 
 of monarchism. If he has embellished his subject, 
 it is by the vivacity of his manner, and the witty 
 elegance- of his style, and not by imputing to the 
 monastic communities, any practices which their 
 most serious historians omit or disavow. The 
 authors of the Bibliotheque des Sciences et des Beaux 
 Arts, at the Hague, have given several interesting 
 extracts from this work in the 2d, 3d, 4th, and 
 5th volumes of that literary journal. 
 
 {JU- The Carmelites came into England in the 
 year 1240, and erected a vast number of monasteries 
 in that kingdom. See BrougMon's Historical Li- 
 brary, vol. i. p. 208. ■ ' 
 
 * See Rich. Simon, Critique de la Bibliotheque des 
 Auteurs Eccles. par M. Du Pin, tom. i. p. 318, 324. 
 
 t Other historians place Glycas in the fifteenth 
 century. See Lami Dissertatio de Glyca, which is 
 prefixed to the first volume of his Delicia: Virorum 
 eruditorum. 
 
 1 See the Bibliotheca Graeca of Fabricius. 
 
 § The learned Mabillon has given a splendid edi- 
 tion of the works of St. Bernard, and- has not only, 
 in his preface, made many excellent observations 
 upon the life and history of this famous abbot, but 
 
Crap. m. 
 
 THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 319 
 
 Innocent HI. bishop of Rome, whose epis- 
 tles and other productions contribute to illcis- 
 trate the religious sentiments, as also the dis- 
 cipline and morals, that prevailed in this cen- 
 tury;* 
 
 Anselm of Laon, a man of a sabtile genius, 
 and deeply versed in logical disquisition; 
 
 Abelard, the disciple of Anselm,' and most 
 famous in this century, on account of the ele- 
 gaupe of his wit, the -extent of his erudition, 
 the power of his rhetoric, ^nd the severity of 
 his fate;t 
 
 Geoiiry of Vendome, whose Epistles and 
 Dissertations are yet extant; , 
 
 Rupert' of D,uytz,'the most eminent j_ per- 
 haps, of £^11 the scrfptural expositors who floTi- 
 rished among the Latins 'during this century, 
 a man of a spund judgii^ent and an elegant 
 taste;j; 
 
 Hugh of St. Victor, a man distinguished by 
 the fecimdity of his genius, who treated of all 
 the branches of sacred and profane erudition 
 that were known in his time, and composed 
 several dissertations that are nbt destitute of 
 merit;! 
 
 Richard of St. Victor, who was at the head 
 of tlie Mystics in this century, and whose trea- 
 tise, entitled. The Mystical Ark, <vhich con- 
 tains, as it were, the marrow of that kind of 
 theology, was received with the greatest, avi- 
 dity, and applauded by the fanatics of the 
 times;{| • 
 
 Honorius of ' Autun,!! no mean philoso- 
 pher, and tolerably versed in theological learri- 
 ing; . . 
 
 Gratian, a learned monk, who reduced the 
 canon law into a new and regular form, in his 
 vast compilation of the decisions of the ancient 
 and" modern councils, thedecretals of the pon- 
 tiffs, the capitularies of the kings of France; &c.'; 
 
 William of Rheims, the author of several pro- 
 ductions, calculated to excite pious sentiments, 
 and contribute to the progress of practical re- 
 ligion; , 
 
 Peter Lombard, who was commonly called,^ 
 in Erance, Master of the Sentences^ because 
 
 has also subjoined to. Ms works the accounts, that 
 have been given, by the ancient writers, of hia life 
 and actions. 
 
 * The Epistles of Innocent III. were published at 
 Paris, in two large volumes in folio,"by BalUze, in 
 the year 1682. 
 
 t See Bayle's Dictionary, at the articles Abelard 
 and Paraclet.— Gervais, Vie de Pierre Afeeillard, 
 Abbe de Ruys, et d'Heloise, published at Paris jn 
 two volumes 8vo., in the year 1728. The works of 
 this famous and Unfortunate monk were published 
 at Paris in 1616, In one volume 4to., by Franc. Am- 
 boise. Another edition, much more ample, might 
 be given, ainCe there are a great number of the prtf- 
 ductions of Abelard that have never yet seen the 
 
 t See Mabillon, Annal. Bened. tom. vi. p.-19, 43, 
 144, 168, 261, 282, 296. He gives ah ample account 
 of Rupert, and of the disputes in which he was in- 
 volved, .: „^ 
 
 6 See Gallia Christiana, tom. vu. p. 661. The works 
 of this learned man were published at Roueh, in 
 three folio volumes, in the year 1648. See, for a 
 farther account of him, Derlangil Dissert, de Hugone 
 a S. Victore, Helmstadt, 1746, in 4to., and Mar- 
 tenne's Voyage Literaire, tom. ii. p. 91, 92. 
 
 11 Gallia Christiana, tom. vii. p. 669. 
 
 IT Such is the place to which Honorius is said to 
 have belonged. But le BoBuf proves him to have 
 been a German, in his Dissert, sur I'Hist Francoise, 
 tom. i. p. SSi. 
 
 he had composed a work so entitled, which 
 was a collection of opinions and sentences re- 
 lative to the various branches of theology, ex- 
 tracted from the Latin doctors, anff reduced 
 into a sort of system;* 
 
 Gilbert de la Porree,j a subtile dialectician, 
 and h, learned divine, who is, however, said to 
 have .adopted several erroneous sentiments 
 concerning the Divine Essence, the Incarna- 
 tion, and the Trinity;^ 
 
 William of Auxerre, who acquired a consi- 
 derable reputation by his Theological Systefti;§ 
 
 Peter of Blois,|| whose epistles and^ other 
 productions may yet be read with profit; 
 
 John of Salisbury, a man of great learning 
 and true geniu% whose philosophical and theo- 
 logical kno\yIedge was adorned with a lively 
 wit and a flowing eloquence, as appears in his 
 Metalogicus, and liis book de Nugis Curialium; 
 ' Petrus Comestor, author of An Abridgement 
 of the Old and New Testament, which was 
 usea in the schools for the instruction pf the 
 youth, and called (probably from that circum 
 stance) Historia Scholastica. 
 
 A more ample apcount of the_ names and 
 characters of the. Latin writers maybe found 
 in those authors who have professedly treated 
 of that branch of literature. 
 
 CHAPTER HI. 
 
 Concerning the Doctrine of the Christian Chv/rch 
 intjds Century. 
 
 I. When we consider the multitude of • 
 causes which united their influence in obscure 
 ing thQ lustre of genuine Christianity, and 
 corrupting it by a profane mixture of the in- 
 ventions of superstitipus aiid designing men 
 with its pure and sublime doctrines," it will ap- 
 pear surprising, that the religioh of Jesus was 
 not totSilly extinguished. AH orders contri- 
 buted, though in different ways, to corrupt the 
 native purity of true religion. The popes led 
 the way; they would not suffer any doctrines 
 to prevail that had the smallest tendtocy to 
 diminish theit despotic a.uthority; but obliged 
 the public teachers to interpret the precepts 
 of Christianity in such a manner, as to ren- 
 der them subservient to> the support of papal 
 dominion and tyranny. This order was so 
 much the more terrible, as those who refused 
 to comply with it, and to force the words of 
 scripture into significations totally opposite to 
 the intentions of its divine author (sucl)', in a 
 word, as had the couragf to place the authority 
 of the Gospel above that of the Roman pon- 
 tiffs, and to consider it as the supreme rule of 
 their conduct,) were answered with the formi ■ 
 dable arguments of fire and sword, and re- 
 ceived death in the most cruel forms, as the 
 
 * Gallia Christ;ana, tom. vii. p. 68.' 
 
 f Called, in Latin, Gilbertus Porretanus. 
 
 (0- X He held, among other things, this trifling 
 and sophistical proposition, that the divine essence, 
 aiid attributes are not God; a proposition that was 
 every way proper to exercise the quibbling spirit of 
 the scholastic writers. 
 
 § Le Bffiuf, Dissert, sur la Somine Theologique de 
 Guillaume d'Auxerre, in Molat's Continuation dea 
 Memoures d'Histoire et de Literature, tom. iii. part 
 
 ii. p. an. 
 If Petrus Blesensis. 
 
320 
 
 INTEENAL fflSTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part II. 
 
 fruit of their sincerity and resolution. -The 
 priests and monies contributed, in their way, 
 to disfigure the beautiful simplicity of religion; 
 ceaA, finding it their interest to keep the people 
 in the grossest ignorance and dai'kness, daz- 
 zled their feeble eyes with the ludicrous pomp 
 of a gaudy worship, and led them to place the 
 whole of religion in vain ceremonies, bodily 
 austerities and exercises,- and particularly in a 
 blind and stupid veneration for the clergy. 
 The scholastic doctors, who considered the de- 
 cisions of the ancients, and the precepts of the 
 Dialecticians, as the great ^rule and criterion 
 of truth, instead of explaining the doctrines of 
 ' " the Gospel, undermined them by degrees, and 
 sunk divine truth in the ruins of a captious 
 philosophy; while the Mystics, running into 
 the opposite extreme, maintained, that the 
 souls of the truly pious were incapable of any 
 spontaneous motions, and could only be moved 
 by -a divine impulse; and thus not only set 
 limits to the pretensions of reason, but exclud- 
 ed it entirely from religion and morality, if 
 they did not in some measure deny its very 
 existence. • 
 
 II.' The consequences of all this were super- 
 stition and ignorance, which were substituted 
 fortriie rehgion, and reigned over the multitude 
 with an universal" sway. Relics, which were 
 for the most part fictitious, or at least oncer- 
 tain, attracted more powerfully the confidence 
 of the people, than the merits of Christ, and 
 were supposed by many to be more effectual, 
 than the prayers ofiered to heaven, through 
 the mediation and intercession of that divine 
 Redeemer.* The opulent, whose circumstan- 
 ces enabled them either to erect new temples, 
 or to repair and embellish the old , were consi- 
 dered as the happiest of all mortals, and as the 
 most intimate fi-iends of the Most High; whilst 
 they, whom poverty rendered incapiible of such, 
 pompous acts, of liberality; contributed to the 
 multiplication of religious edifices by their bo- 
 dily laboursi^cheerfuUy performed the services 
 in which beasts of burden are usually employ- 
 ed (such as carrying stones and drawing wa- 
 gons,) and-expected to obtain eternal salvation 
 by these voluntary and painful efforts of mis- 
 ■/ -.' guided zeal.j The saints had a greater num- 
 ,'),') ber of worshippers, than the Supreme Being 
 and the Saviour of mankind; nor did these 
 superstitious worshippers trouble their heads 
 about that knotty question, which occasioned 
 much debate and many laborious disquisitions 
 in succeeding times, viz. How the inhabitants 
 of heaven came to the knowledge of the pray- 
 ers and supphcations that were addressed to 
 them from the earth? -This question was pre- 
 vented in this century by- an opinion, which the 
 Christians had received from their pagan an- 
 cestors, that the inhabitants of heaven descend- 
 ed often fi-om above, and frequented the places 
 in which they had formerly taken pleasure 
 
 * See Guibert de Novigemo, de Pijnoribiis, (so 
 were relics called) Sanctorum, in. his Works pub- 
 liabed by d'Acheri, p. 327, wliere he attacks, with 
 judgment and dexterity, the superstition of these 
 miserable times. 
 
 t See Haymon's Treatise concerning this custom, 
 ■ublished by Mabillon, at the end of the sixth tome 
 of hia Annal Benedict. See also those Annals, p. 
 
 during their residence" upon earth.* To finish 
 the horrid portrait of superstition, we shall 
 only observe, that the stupid creduHty of the 
 people in this century went so far, that when 
 any persons, either through the phrenzy of a 
 disordered imagination, or with an intention 
 of deceiving, published the dreams or visionSj 
 which they fancied or pretended they had from 
 above, the multitude resorted to the new ora- 
 cle, and respected its decisions as the com- 
 mands of God, who in this way was pleased, 
 as they imagined, to communicate cotmsel, in- 
 struction, and the Itnowledge Of his will to 
 men. This appears (to mention no other ex- 
 amples) from the extraordinary reputation 
 which the two |amous prophetesses Hildegard, 
 abbess of Bingen, and Elizjtbeth of Schonauge, 
 obtained in Germany.f 
 
 - III. The general prevalence of ignorance 
 and superstition was dexterously, y«t- basely 
 improved, by the rulers of the church, to fill 
 their coffers, and to drain the purses, of the de- 
 luded multitude; indeed each rank and order 
 of the clergy had, a peculiar method of fleec- 
 ing the people. The bishops, when they waiit- 
 ed money for tlieir private pleasures, or for the 
 exigencies of the church, granted to their flock 
 the power of purchasing the remission of the 
 penalties imposed upon transgressors, by a sum 
 of money, which waS to be applied to certain 
 religious purposes; or, in other words, they r-,'* 
 published indulgences, which became an inex- r 
 haustible source of opulence to the episcopal "^ 
 orders, and enabled them, as is well known, to 
 form' and execute the most difficult schemes 
 for the enlargement of their authority, and to ■ : 
 erect a multitude of sacred edifices, which 
 augmented considerably the external pomp and 
 splendom- of the churfth.]; The abbots and 
 monks, who were not quahfied to grant indul- ; 
 gences, had recourse to other- methods of en- ..'.^ 
 riching their convents. They carried about 
 the country the carcases and relics of the 
 saints in solemn procession, and permitted the 
 multitude to behold, touch, and embrace, at 
 fixed prices, these sacred and lucrative remains. - 
 The monastic orders often gained as much by 
 this raree-show, as the bishops did by -their in- 
 dulgences.§ > 
 
 IV. When the Roman pontiffs cast an eyS 
 
 * As a proof that this assertion is not without 
 foundation, we shall transcribe the following re- 
 markable passage of the life-of St. Altman, bishop 
 of Padua, as it stands in Seb. Tengnagel's Collect. 
 Vet. Monumentor. p. 41. *' Vos licet, sancti Domini, 
 somno vestro requiescatis . . . hand tamen crediderim, 
 spiritus vestros deesse locis queb viveiites tanta de- 
 votione constru-Yistis et dilexistis. Credo vos adesse 
 cunctis illic degentibus, astare videlicet orantibus, 
 succurrere laborantibus, et vota sin'gulorum in con. 
 spectu" divinae majestatis promovere.'* j 
 
 t See Mabillon, Annales Benedict, tom. vi. p. 431, 
 .529, 554. 
 
 I Stephanus Obazinensis in Baluzii Miscellan. tom. 
 iv. p. 130. — Mabillon, Annal. Benedict, tom. vi. p. 
 535, &c., 
 
 § We find in the records of this century innumera- 
 ble examples of thi* method of extorting contribu- 
 tions from the multitude. See the Chronicon Cen^ 
 tulense in Dacherii Spicilegio Veter. Scriptor. tom. 
 ii. p. 354.— Vita Stae. Romanae, ibid. p. 137.— Mabil 
 Ion, Annal. Benedict, tom. vi. p. 332,644. — Acta Sane 
 tor. Melisis Mail, torn. vii. p. 533, where we have an 
 account of a long' journey made by the relics of St, 
 Marculus. Mabillon, Acta Sanctor. Ord. Benedict 
 tom. vi. p. 519, 520; tom. ii. p. 732. 
 
Chap. III. 
 
 THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 321 
 
 upon the immense treasures thit the inferior 
 rulers of the church were accumulatinflf by the 
 sale of indulgences, they thought projier to li- 
 mit the power of tlie bishops in remitting the 
 penalties imposed upon transgressors, and as- 
 sumed, almost entirely, this profitable traffic 
 to themselves. In consequence of this new 
 measure, the court of Rome became the gene- 
 ral magazine of indulgences; and the pontiffs, 
 when either the wants of the cliur-ch; tlie emp- 
 tiness of their coffers, or tlie doembn of ava- 
 rice, prompted them to look out for new sub- 
 sidies, published'not only~a general, but also a 
 cpmplete, or what they called a-plenary remis- 
 sion of the temporal pains and penalties, aii- 
 nexed by the church to certain transgressions. 
 They went still farther; and not only remitted 
 the penaltiesj which the civil and ecclesiastical 
 laws had enacted against transgressors, but au- 
 daciously usurped the authority which belongs 
 to God alone, and impiously pretended to abo- 
 lish even the punishments which are reserved 
 in a future state for the workers of iniquity; a 
 step which the bishops, with all their ayavice 
 and presumption, had pever once ventured to 
 take,* 
 
 The pontiffs first employed this pretended 
 prerogative in promoting the holy^wiir, and 
 shed abroad their indlUgences, though with a 
 certain degree of moderation, in order to en- 
 courage the European princes to form new ex- 
 peditions for the conquest of Palestine; but, in 
 process of time, the charm of indulgence was 
 practised upon various occasions"of much .less 
 consequence, and- merely with a view to base 
 lucre-t Their introduction, aniiong other things, 
 destroyed the credit and -authority of the aii- 
 cieht canonical and ecclesiastical discipline 
 of penaiice, and occasioned the removal and 
 suppression of the penitentials,j: by which, the 
 reins were let loose to every kind of vice. 
 Such . proceedings stood much in need of a 
 plausible defence; but this, was impossible. To 
 vindicate in an authoritative inanner these 
 scandalous measures of the pontiifs, an absurd 
 and eveii monstrous doctrine was now invent- 
 ed, which was modified and embellished by 
 St. Thomas in the succeeding century, and 
 which contained. among others the following 
 enormities: " That there actually enisled an 
 • " immense treasure of merit, composed of the 
 i" pious' deeds, and virtuous actions,, which 
 " the saints had performed beyond what was 
 " necessary for their own salvation,! and which 
 " were therrfore applicable to the benefit of 
 "others; that the guardian and dispenser of 
 ', " this precious treasure was the Roman pon,- 
 " tiff; and that consequently he was empower- 
 
 ■ * Morinus, de administratione Sacrament! Pcsni- 
 tentiffi, lib. x. cap.' xx. xxi. xxii. p. 768.— Eich, Si- 
 mon, BiWioth. Critique.-toin^ iii. cap. xxxiii. p. 371. 
 Mabinqri, Pr^f. ad Acta ^anctor, Saec. v. Acta Sane- 
 tor. Benedict, p, 54, not to speak of the protestant 
 writers, whom I designedly pass over 
 
 tMuratori, Antiq. Italic, medii ffivj, torn. v. p. 761. 
 Franc. Pagi, Breviar. Rom. Pontif. tom..ii. p. 60..— 
 Theod. Kuinarti Vita Urbani II. p. 231, torn. iii. Op. 
 Posthnm. , , - 
 
 a^ J The Penitential was a book, in whicn the 
 degrees and kinds of penance, that were annexed to 
 different-crime's, wore registered. 
 ' 83- § These works are kno\yn by the name of 
 Works of Supererogation, 
 
 " ed to assign, to such as he deemed proper ob- 
 " jects, a portion of this inexhaustible source 
 " of merit,, suitable to their respective guilt, 
 " and sufficient- to deliver them from the pun- 
 "ishment -due to their crimes." It is a most 
 deplorable nlajk pf flie power of superstition, 
 that a doctrine, so absurd in its nature, and so 
 pernicious in its effects, should yet be retained 
 and defended in the church of Rome. * 
 
 V. Nothing was more common in this cen- 
 tury than expositors and interpreters ' of the 
 sacred, writings; but nothing was so rare, as -to 
 find, in that class of authors, the- qualifications 
 that are essentially required in a good com- 
 mentator. Few of these expositors were at- 
 tentive to search after the true signification of 
 the .words employed- by the sacred writers, or 
 to investigate the precise sense in ,which they 
 were tised; and these few were destitute of the 
 succours which such researches demand. The 
 Greek and Latin commentators, blinded by 
 their enthusiastic love of ant(iquity, and their 
 implicit veneration for the doctors of the early 
 ages of the church, drew fi'om their writings, 
 Without discernment or choice, a heap of pas- 
 sages, which they were pleased to consider as 
 illustrations of the holy scriptures. Such were 
 thB commentaries pf Euthymius Zigabenus, 
 an eminent .expositor 'among the Greeks, upon 
 the Psalms, the Gospels and Epistles; though 
 it must, at the same timej be acknowledged, 
 that this writer follows, in some places, the 
 dictates of his own judgment, and gives, upon 
 certain occasions, proofs of penetration and 
 genius. Among the Latins, we might give 
 several examples of the injudicious manner of 
 expounding the divine word that'prevailed in 
 this century, such as the-Lucubrations of Peter 
 Lorrilaard, Gilbert de la Porree, and the famous 
 Abelard,..upon the Psalms of David, and the 
 Epistles of St. Paul. Nor do those Latin 
 commentators who expounded the whole of the 
 sacred writings, and who are placed at the head 
 of the expositors of this age, (such as Gilbert, 
 bishop of London, surnamed the Universal, on 
 account of tlie vast extent of his erudition,! '^"'1 
 Hervey,j: a most studious Benedictinemonk) 
 deserve a higher place in our esteem, than the 
 authors ' before mentioned. ' The writers that 
 merit the preference among the Latins are 
 Rupert of Duytz, and Anselm of Laon; the 
 former pf whom expounded several books of 
 scripture, and the latter composed, or rather 
 odmpiled, a glossary upon the sacred writings. 
 
 fltp- * For a sjiti^factory and' ample account of the 
 enormous doctrine of iudulgencps, see a very learned 
 and judicious work, entitled, Lettres sur Ics Jubiles, 
 -published in the year 1751, in three -volumes, 8vo. by , 
 the Rev. Mr. Chaia, minister of the French church ' 
 at the Hague, on occasion of the universal Jubilee 
 celebrated at Rome in 'the preceding year, by the or- 
 der of Benedict XIV. In the second volume of this 
 excellent work, which we shall have frequent occa; 
 sion to consult in th^ course of this history, a clear 
 account and 4 satisfhctory refutation of the doctrine 
 may be tound^with the history of that ntonstrous 
 practice from ife origin to the present tunes. 
 
 t For an account of this prelate, see Le Bceuf, 
 Memoires coiicernant rHistoire d'Auxerre, torn. ii. 
 p. 486. . 
 
 t An ample account of this learped Benedictine i.i' 
 to be found in (Jabr. Liron's Singularltes Histo.riques 
 et Literaires, tom. iii. p. 39.— See also MabiUo^i, A* 
 nales Benedict, torn. vi. p. 477. 719; ■■ ■ 
 
332 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part 11. 
 
 As to those doctors who were not carried away 
 by an enthuslaetical veneration for the ancients, 
 who had courage enough to try their own tal- 
 ents, and to follow the dictates of their own 
 sagacity, they were chargeable with defects of 
 another kind; for, disregarding and overlooking 
 the beautiful simpliicity of divine truth, they 
 were perpetually bent on the search of all sorts 
 of mysteries in the sacred writings, and were 
 constantly on the scent after some' hidden 
 meaning in the plainest expressions of scrip- 
 ture. The Mystics excelled peculiarly in this 
 manner of expounding; and, by their violent 
 explications, forced the word of God into a 
 conformity witli their visionary doctrines, iheir 
 enthusiastic feelings, and the system of disci- 
 pline which they had drawn from the excur- 
 sions of their irregular fancies. . Nor were the 
 commentators, who pretended to logic and 
 philosophy, and who, in effect, had applied 
 themselves to theseprofound sciences, free from 
 the contagion of mysticism in their explications 
 of scripture. That they followed tlie example 
 of those fanatics may be seen by the Allegori- 
 cal Exposition which Hiigh of St. Victor rave 
 of the Old and New Testament, by the IVtysti- 
 cal Ark of Richard of St. Victor, and by the 
 Mystical Commentaries of Guibert, abbot of 
 Nogent, on Obadiah,' Hosea, and Amos;* not 
 to mention several other writers, who seem to 
 have been animated by the same spirit. 
 ~ VI. The most eminent teachers of theplogy 
 resided at Paris, which city was, from tliis 
 time forward, frequented by students of divinity 
 from all parts of Europe, who resorted thither 
 in crowds, to receive instruction from these 
 celebrated masters. The French divines were 
 divided into different sects. The first of these 
 sects, who were distinguished by the title of 
 the Ancient Theologists, explained the doc- 
 trines of religion, in a plain and simple man- 
 ner, by passages' drawn from the holy scrip- 
 tures, frorn Ihe decrees of councils, and the 
 writings of the ancient doctors, and very rarely 
 made use of the succours of reason or philoso- 
 phy in their theological lectures. In. this class 
 we place St. Bernard, Peter sumamed the 
 Chanter, Walter of St. Victor, and other theo- 
 logian% who declaimed an open and bitter war 
 against the philosophical divines. The doctors, 
 who were afterwards known by the name of 
 positive and sententiary teachers of religion, 
 were not, in all respects, different from these 
 flow mentioned. Imitating the examples of 
 Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury, Lanfiuno, 
 Hildebert, and other doctors of the preceding 
 century, they taught and confirmed their sys- 
 tein of theology, principally by collecting the 
 decisions of the inspired writers, and the opin- 
 ions of the ancients. At the same time they 
 were far from rejectmg tlie succours of reason, 
 Btad the discussions of philosophy, to which 
 they more especially- had recourse, when diffi- 
 culties were to be solved, and adversaries to be 
 refuted, but, in the application of which, all did 
 not discover the same degree of moderation 
 and prudence. Hugli of, St. Victor, is sup- 
 posed to have been the first writer of this 
 
 * The Prologus in Abdiam was published by Ma- 
 billon, in his Annates Benedict, torn. vi. p. 637. 
 
 century, who taught in this manner the doc- 
 trines of Cliristianity, digested into a regular 
 system. His example was followed by many; 
 but no one acquired such a shining reputation 
 by his labours, in this branch of sacred erudi- 
 tion, as Peter, bishop of Paris, sumamed Lom- 
 bard from- the country which gave him birth. 
 The four books of Sentences of this eminent 
 prelate, which appeared in the year 1162,* 
 were not only received with general applause, 
 but acquired also such a high degree of au- 
 thority, as induced the most learned doctors 
 in all places to employ theu: labours in illus- 
 trating .and expounding them. Scarcely was 
 there any divine of note that did not undertake 
 this popular task, except Henry of Ghent, and 
 a few others;! so that Lombard, who was com- 
 monly called Master of the Sentences, on ac- 
 count of the famous work now mentioned, be- 
 came truly. a classic author in divinity.} 
 
 VII. The followers of Lombard who were 
 called Sententiarii, though their manner of 
 teaching" was defective in some respects, and 
 not altogether exetnpt from vain and trivial 
 questions, were always, attentive to avoid en- 
 tering too far .into the subtilties of the Dialec- 
 ticians, nor did they presumptuously atteinpt 
 to submit the divine truths of the Gospel to the 
 uncertain and obscure principles of a refined 
 and intricate logic, which wajs rather founded 
 on tlie excursions of fancy than' on the true 
 nature of things. They had for contempora- 
 ries another set of theologians, who were far 
 from imitating their moderation and pru- 
 dence in this respect; a set^f subtile doqtors; 
 who taught the plain and simple truths of 
 Christianity, in the obscure terms, and with 
 the perplexing distinctions used by the Dialec- 
 ticians, and explained, or rather darkened with 
 their unintelligible jargon, the sublime precepts 
 of that wisdom which emanates from above^ 
 This method of teaching theology, which was 
 afterwards called the scholastic system, be- 
 cause it was in general use in the .^chools, had 
 for its author, Peter Abelard, a man of the 
 most subtile genius, whose public lectures in 
 philosophy and divinity had raised him to the 
 highest summit of literary renown, and who 
 was successively canon of Paris, and mouk- 
 
 * Erpoldi Ljndenbrogii Scriptores Rerum Septen* 
 trionalium, p. 250. ' 
 
 t A list of the commentators who laboured in ex- 
 plaining the Sentcnees of Lombard, is given by An- 
 ton. Posseviiius,' in his Bibliofh. Selecta, torn. i. Jib. 
 iii. cap. xiv.'p. 242.' 
 
 Qq- X The Book of Sentences, which rendered the 
 name of Peter Lombard so illustrious, was a compi- 
 lation of sentences and passages drawn from the' 
 fathers, whose manifold contradictions this eminent 
 prelate endeavoured to reconcile. His work may be 
 considered as a complete body of divinity. - It con- 
 sists of four books, each of which is subdivided into 
 various chapters and sections. In the first he treats 
 of the Trinity, and the Divine Attributes; iii the se- 
 cond, of the Creation in general, of the Origin of 
 Angels, the Formation and Fall of Man, of ^race 
 and Free 'WHl, of Original ,Sin and Actual Trans- 
 gression; in the third, of the Incarnation and-Per- 
 fections of Jesus Christ, of Faith, Hope, and Charity, 
 of the Gifts of the Spirit, and the Commandmenta of 
 God. The Sacraments, the Resurrection, the Last 
 Judgment, and the State of the Righteous in Hea- 
 ven, are the subjects treated in the fourth and last 
 book of this celebrated work, which was the wonder 
 of the twelfth century, but is little mora than an ob. 
 ject of co.ntempt in ours. 
 
Chap. III. 
 
 THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 323 
 
 and abbot of Ruys.* The fame he acquired 
 by this new method engaged many aiiibit' ous 
 divines to adopt it; and, in a short spaco of 
 time, the followers of Abelard multiplied pro- 
 digiously, not only in France, but also in Eng- 
 land, and Italy. Thus was the pure and 
 peaceable wisdom of the Gospel perverted into 
 a science of mere sophistry and chicane; fpr 
 these subtile doctors never explained or illus- 
 trated ^ny subject, but, on the contrary, dark- 
 ened and dis^ured the plainest iBxpressioiis, 
 and the most evident truths, by their laboured 
 and useless distinctions, fatigued both them- 
 selves and others with unintelligible solutions 
 of abstruse and frivolous questions, and, 
 through a rage for disputing, ijiaintaine'd 
 with equal vehemence and ardour the opposite 
 sides of the most serious and momentous 
 questions-t 
 
 THI. From this period, therefore, an im- 
 portant distinction was made between the 
 Christian doctors, who were divided into two 
 dasses. In the first class were placed those, 
 who were called by the various names of bib- 
 lici, i. e. bible-doctors, dogmatici, and positivi, 
 i. e. didactic divines, and - also veteres, or an- 
 cients; and in the second were ranged the scho- 
 lastics, who- were also distinguished by the titles 
 of Sententiarii, 'after the Master of the Sen- 
 tences, and Novi, to express their recent ori- 
 gin. The former expounded, though in a 
 wretched manner, the sacred writings in their 
 public schools, illustrated the doctrines -of 
 Christianity, without deriving, any succours 
 fi!Om reason or philosophy, and confirmed their 
 opinions by the united testimonies of Scrip- 
 titfe and Tradition. The latter expounded, 
 instead of the Bible, the famous Book of Sen- 
 t9nces; reduced, under the province of their 
 subtile philosophy, whatever the Gospel pro- 
 posed as an object of faith, or a rule of prac- 
 tice; and perpiexed~^ and obscured its divine 
 doctrines and precepts by a multitude of vain 
 questions and idle speculations.! The method 
 of -the scholastics exhibited a pompous aspect 
 of- learning, and these disputants seemed to 
 surpass their adversaries in sagacity and genius; 
 hence they excited the admiration of the studi- 
 ous youth, who flocked to their schools in multi- 
 tudes, while the biblici or doctors of the sacred" 
 page,. as they were also called, had the morti- 
 fication to see their auditories unfrequented, 
 and almost deserted.§ The scholastie theo- 
 
 * Abelafd acknowledges this himself, Epist. i. cap. 
 ix. p. 20, Oper.— See aUo-Lauuoy, de Scholis Caroli 
 M. p. 67, cap. lix. ,tom. iv. op. pant i. . ^ „ . 
 
 t Cks. Egasse'de Boulay, Histor. Acad. Pans, 
 torn. ii. P- 201, 583.— Anton. Wdod, Antiquit. 0.\o- 
 niens. torn. i. p. t8.— Launoy, de varia Aristotelis 
 Fortuna ia Acad. Paris, cap. iii. p. 187, Edit. Els- 
 j«ichii,Vitem. 1720( in 8vo. 
 
 1 See Boulay, Histor. Acad. Paris, torn. ui. p. 657. 
 
 I The Book of Sentences seemed to he' at this time 
 in much greater repute than the Holy Scriptures; 
 and the compilations of Peter Lombard were pre- 
 ferred to the doctrines and precepts of Jesus Christ. 
 This appears evident from the following remarkable 
 passage in Roger Bacon's Op., Maj. ad Clementem 
 tV Pontic Rom. published in 1733 at London, by 
 .Sam^ Jebb, from the original MS. " Baccalaureus 
 flui legit textum (scriptura!) succumbjt lectori sen- 
 tentiarurii, et ubique in omnibus honoratur^et prie- 
 fertur- nam iUe, qui legit sententias, habet principa- 
 lera horam legendl secundum suam voluntatem, 
 habet et socium et camerani apud religiosos: sed qui 
 
 logy continued in high repute in all the Euro- 
 pean colleges until the time pf Luther. 
 
 IX. It must, however, be observed, that 
 these metaphysical divines had many difficul- 
 ties to encounter, and much opposition to 
 overcome, before they could obtain that bound- 
 less authority in the European; schools, which 
 they So long enjoyed. .They were attacked 
 from different quarters; on the one hand, by 
 the ancient divines, or bible doctors; on the 
 other by the mystics, who considered true 
 wisdom and knov^fledge as unattainable by 
 study or reasoning, and. as the fruit of mere 
 contemplation,^ inward .feeling, and a passive 
 acquiescence ini divine influence^. Thus that 
 ancient conflict between faith and reason, that 
 had formerly divided the Latin doctor's, and 
 had been for many years hushed in silence, 
 was now unhappily revived, and produced 
 various tumults, arid bitter dissensions. The 
 patrons of the ancient theology, who attacked 
 the schoolmen, were Guibert, abbot of Nogent,* 
 Peter, abbot of Moustier-la-Celle,t Peter the 
 Chanter,|^ahd principally Walter of St. Victor.§ 
 The mystics also sent forth into the field of con- 
 troversy, upon this occasion, their ablest and 
 most violent champions, such as Joachiin abbot, 
 of Fieri, Richard of St. Victor, who loaded 
 with- invectives the scholastic divines, and 
 more especially Lombard, though he was, un- 
 doubtedly, the most candid and modest doctor 
 of that subtile tribe. These -dissensions and 
 contests, whose deplorable effects augmented 
 from day to day, engaged pope Alexander IH. 
 to interpose his authority, in order to restore 
 tranquillity and concord in the church. For 
 this purpose he convoked a solemn and nume- 
 rous assembly of the clergy in the year 1164, || 
 in which the licentipus rage of religious dispu- 
 tation was condemned; and another in 1119, 
 in which some particular errors of Peter Lom- 
 bard were pointed out and censured.lT 
 
 X. But of all the adversaries that assailed 
 the scholastic divines in this century, no one 
 was so formidable as the famous St. Bernard, 
 whose zeal was ardent beyond all expression, 
 ..and whose influence and authority were equal 
 to his z^al. -Ajid, accordingly, we find this 
 
 legit Bibliam, caret his, et niendicat horam legendi 
 secundum quod pl^et lectori sententiarum: et. qul- 
 legit summas, disputat ubique et pro magistro-habe- 
 tur; reliquuB qui textum legit, non potest disputare, 
 sicut fuit hoc anno Bononise, et in multis aliis locis, 
 quod' est absurdum; manifestum est i?itur, quod 
 textus illius facultatis (so. Theologicae) subjicitur uni 
 summse magistrali." Such was now the authority 
 of the scholastic theology, as appears from the words 
 of Bacon, who lived in the following century, and in 
 whose.writings there are many things highly worthy 
 of the attention of the curious. 
 
 * In his Tropologia in Oseam, p. 203,' op. 
 
 t Opuscul. p. 277. 396. edit. Benedict. 
 
 J. In his 'Verbum Abbreviat. cap., iii. p. 6, 7, pub- 
 lished at Mons in the year 1639, in 4to. by George 
 Galopin. 
 
 § In his Libri IV. contra Q.uatuor Francia! Laby- 
 rinthos et' novos Hi^-eticos. He called Abelai-d-;- 
 Gilbert de la Porree, Lombard, and Peter of Poic- 
 tiers, who were the principal-scholastic divines of 
 this century, the four Labyrinths of France. For 
 an account of this work, which is yet in manuscript, 
 see BoUlay, Hist. Acad. Paris, torn. ii. p. 619, 659, 
 
 II Ant. Pagi, Critic, in . Baronium, tom. i-v. ad A. 
 1164, p. 614, 615. 
 
 IT Matth. Paris. Histor. Major, p. 115— Boulay, 
 Histor. Acad, Paris, tom. ii. p. 403. 
 
324 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part IT. 
 
 illa3triou3 abbot combating the Dialecticians, 
 act only in his Avritings and his convereation, 
 3Ut also by his deeds; arming against them 
 synods and councils, the decrees of the church, 
 ind the laws of the state. The renowned 
 A.belard, who-, was as 'much superior to St. 
 Bernard in sagacity and erudition, as he was 
 dig inferior in credit and authority, was one 
 3f the iirst who felt, by a bitter experience, the 
 iversion of the lordly abbot to the scholastic 
 Joetors: for, in the year 1121, he was called 
 before the council of Soissons, and' before that 
 af Sens in 1140; in both of which assemblies he 
 was accused by St. Bernard of the most perni- 
 cious errors, and was finally, condemned as an 
 egregious heretic* The charge brought against 
 this subtile and learned monk was, that he had 
 notoriously corrupted the doctrine of the 
 Trinity, blasphemed against the majesty of 
 the Holy Ghost, • eptertained unworthy and 
 false conceptions of the person and offices of 
 Christ, and- the union of the two natures in 
 bim; denied the necessity of tlie divine grace 
 to render us virtuous; and, in a word, by his 
 doctrines struck at the fundamental principles 
 of all religion. It must be coi^ssed, by those 
 who are acquainted with the writings of Abe- 
 lard, that he- expressed himself in a very singu- 
 lar and incongruous manner upon several 
 points of theology ;t and this, indeed, is one of 
 the inconveniences to which subtile refine- 
 ments upon mysterious doctrines frequently 
 lead. But it is certain, on the flther haiid, 
 that St. Bernard, who had much more genius 
 than logic; misunderstood Bome of the opin- 
 ions of Abelard, and wilfully perverted others: 
 for the zeal of this good abbot too rarely per- 
 mitted him to consult in his decisions the dic- 
 tates of impartial equity; and hfence it was, that 
 he almost always applauded beyond measure, 
 and censured without inercy.| 
 
 XI. Abelard was not the only scholastic di- 
 vine who paid dearly for his metaphysical re- 
 finement, upon the doctrines of the Gospel, 
 and whose logic exposed him to the unrelent- 
 ing fury of persecution; Gilbert de la Porree, 
 biskop of Poictiers, who had taught theology 
 and philosophy a:t Paris, and in other places, 
 with the highest applause, met with the same 
 fate. Unfortunately for hinfi, Arnold, and Ca- 
 
 * See Bayle's Dictionary, at the article Abelard.— 
 Gervais, Vie (HAtielard et d'HelMse.— HaWllon, An- 
 nal. Benedict, torn. vi. p. 63, 84, 395.— Martenne, 
 Thesaur. Anecdotor. torn. v. p. 1139. 
 
 (iw- t H^ affirmed, for example, among other 
 things equally unintelligible and extravagant, that 
 the names. Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, were im- 
 proper terms,' and were only used to express the 
 fulness of the sovereign good; that the Father was 
 the plenitude of povvei-, the Son a certain power, and 
 the Holy Ghost no povier at all; that the Holy Ghost 
 was the soul of the woild, with other .crude fancies 
 of alike nature, mingled, however, with bold truths. 
 
 t~See Gervais, Vie d' Abelard, torn. ii. p. 162.— 
 Le Clerc, Biblioth. Ancienne et Moderne, torn, jx, p. 
 353— Dionys. Petav. Dogmata Theolqg. toln. l.nih.v. 
 cap vi p 217, as also the works of Bernard, jsssMn. 
 Abelard, -who, notwithstanding all his crude no- 
 tions was a man of true genius, was undoubtedly 
 worthy of a better fiite than that which fell to his 
 lot, and of a more enlightened age than that in 
 which he lived. After passing through the furnace 
 of persecution, andhavjng suffered afflictions of va- 
 rious kinds of which he has transmitted the history 
 to posterity, he retired to the monastery of Clugni, 
 where he ended his days in the j "ar 1142, 
 
 lo, two of his ar6hdea(ions, who had been edu- 
 cated in the principles of the ancient theology, 
 heard him one day disputing, with more »ub- 
 tilty than was meet, of the divine nature. 
 Alarmed at the novelty of his doctrine, they 
 brought a charge of blasphemy against him 
 before pope Eugenius III. who was at that 
 time in France; and, to give weight to their 
 accusatioUj they engaged St. Bernard in their 
 cause. The zealous abbot treated the matter 
 with his usual vehemence, and opposed Gil- 
 bert with the utmost severity and bitterness, 
 first in the council of Paris, A. D. 1 141, and 
 afterwards in that which was assembled at 
 Rh^ims in the following year. In the latter 
 cormcil the accused bishop, in order to put an 
 end to the dispute, offered to submit his opi- 
 nions to the judgment of the assembly, and of 
 the Roman pontiff, by whom they were con- 
 demned. The errors attributed to Gilbert were 
 the fiuits of an excessive subtil ty,- and of 
 an extravagant passion for rediicing the doc= 
 trines of Christianity mrder the empire of 
 metaphysics and dialectics. He distinguished 
 the divine essence from the Deity, the, proper- 
 ties of the three divine persons front the per- 
 sons themselves, not in reality, but by abstrac- 
 tion, in statu ra&onis, as the metaphysicians 
 speak; and, in consequence of these distinc- 
 tions, he denied the incarnation of the divine 
 nature. To these he added other opinions, 
 derived from the same source, which were ra- 
 ther vain, fanciful, and adapted to excite sur- 
 prise by their novelty, than glaringly -false, or 
 really pernicious. These refined notions were 
 far stbove the comprehension of good St. Ber- 
 nard, who was -'by no means acciistomed to 
 such profound disquisitions, to such intricate 
 
 XII. The important science of morality was 
 not now in a very flourishing state, as may be 
 easily imagined when we consider the genius 
 and spirit of that philosophy, which, in this 
 century, reduced all the other sciences tmder 
 its dominioii, and of which we have given 
 some accoimt in the preceding sections. The 
 only moral writer among the Greeks, worthy 
 of mention, is Philip, sumamed the Solita.ry, 
 whose book, entitled Dioptra, which consists 
 of a dialogue between the body and the soul, 
 is composed with judgment emd elegance, and 
 contains many remarks proper to nourish pious 
 and virtuous sentiments.. 
 
 .The Latin morahsts of this age may be di- 
 vided .into two classes, the scholastics and mys- 
 tics. The former discoursed about virtue, as 
 they did about truth, in the most unfeeling 
 jargon, and generally subjoined their arid sys- 
 tem of morals to what they called their didactic 
 theology. The latter treated tha duties of mo- 
 rality in a quite different manner; their lan- 
 guage was tender, persuasive, and affecting, 
 and, their sentiments were often beautiful and 
 sublime; but they taught in a confused and if 
 
 * See Du Boulay, Hist. Acad. Paris, torn. ii. p. 
 223, 332.— Mabillon, Annal. Benedictin. torn. vi. p. 
 343, 415, 4^3.- Gallia Christiana Benedictin. torn, ii 
 p. 1175.— Matth. Paris, Histor. Major, p. 56.— Pela. 
 vii Dogmata Theologica, torn. i. lib. i. cap. viii.— 
 Longueval, Histoire de I'EgUse GaUlcane, torn. ix. 
 p. 147. 
 
Chap. m. 
 
 THETJOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 325 
 
 regular manner, without method or precision, 
 and frequently mixed the dross of.Platonism 
 with the pure treasures of celestial truth. 
 
 We might also place in the class of moral 
 "Writers the greatest part of the commentators 
 aijd expositors of tliis century, who, laying 
 aside all attention to the signification of the 
 words' used by the sacred writers, and scarcely 
 ever attempting to illustrate the truths which 
 they reveal, or the events which they relate, 
 turned, by forced and allegorical explications, 
 every -passage of S(iripture to practical uses, 
 and drew lessons of morality from every quar- 
 ter. We could produce many instances of this 
 way of commenting, beside Guibert's Moral 
 Observations on the Book of Job, the Prophecy 
 of Amos, and the Lamentations of Jeremiah. 
 
 XIII. Both Greeks and Latins were seized 
 with that enthusiastic passion for dialectical 
 
 " researches, which raged in this century, and 
 were thus rendered extremely fond of captious 
 questions and theological contests; and, at the 
 same time, the love of controversy seduced 
 theih from the patlis that lead to truth, and 
 involved them in labyrinths of uncertainty-and 
 error. The discovery of truth was- not, in- 
 deed, the great object they had in, view; their 
 principal aim-ivas to perplex and embarrass 
 their adversaries, and overwhelm them v/ith 
 an enormous heap of fine spun distinctions, an 
 impetuous torrent of words without meaning, 
 a long list of formidable authorities, and a spe- 
 cious train of fallacious consequences, embel- 
 lished with railings and invectives. - The prin- 
 cipal polemic writers among tlie Greeks were 
 Constantinus Harmenopulus, . and Eutliymius. 
 Zigabenus. The former published a short trea- 
 tise de Sectis Hairetv:f»'um, i~. e. concerning the 
 Sects of Heretics. The latter, in a. long and' 
 laboured work, entitled Panoplia, attacked all 
 the heresies and errors that troubled .the 
 church; but, not to mention the extreme le- 
 ■vity and credulity of this writer, his mode of 
 disputation was highly defective, and' all his 
 argamients, according to the wretched method 
 that now prevailed, were drawn from the 
 writings of the ancient' doctore, whose autho- 
 rity supplied the place of evidence. Both these 
 authors were .sharply censured in a satirical 
 poem composed by Zonara^. The Latin writ- 
 ers were also employed in various branches of. 
 religious controversy. Honorius of Autun 
 wrote against certain heresies; and Abelard 
 combated them all. The Jews, whose credit 
 was now- extremely low, and-Whdse circum- 
 stances were miserable in every respect, were 
 refuted by Gilbert de Castilione, Odo, Peter 
 Alfonsus, Rupert of Duytz, Peter Mauritius, 
 Richard of St. Victor, and Peter of Blois, ac- 
 cording to the logic of the times, while. Euthy- 
 mius and several other divines directed their 
 poleinic force against the Saracens. 
 
 XIV. That contest between the Greeks and 
 Latins, the subject of wliich has been already 
 mentioned, was still carried on by both parties 
 with the greatest obstinacy and vehemence. 
 The Grecian champions were Eutlymius, Ni- 
 cetas, and others of Jess renown; while the 
 cause of tljB Latins was vigorously maintained 
 by Anselm, bishop of Havelberg^ and Hugo 
 Etherianus, who eminently distinguished them- 
 
 selves by their erudition in this famous contro- 
 versy.* Many attempts were made, both at 
 Rome and Constantinople, to reconcile these 
 differences, and heal these divisions; and this 
 union was solicited, in a particular manner, by 
 the eipperors of the Comnene family, who ex- 
 pected to draw great advantage from the friend- 
 ship and alliance of the Latins, toward the 
 support of the Grecian empire', which was at 
 this time in a declining, and almost in a des- 
 perate condition. But as tlie Latins aimed at 
 nothing less than a despotic supremacy over 
 the Greek church, and as, on the other hand, 
 the Grecian bishops coiild by no ,means be in- 
 duced to yield an implicit obedience to the Ro- 
 man pontiff, or to condemn the measures and 
 proceedings of their ancestors, the negotia- 
 tions, undertaken for the restoration of peace, 
 widened the bleach instead of heahng it; and 
 tlie terms proposed on both sides, but especially 
 by'tlie Latins, exasperated, -instead of calming, 
 the resentments and animosities of the con- 
 tending parties. : 
 
 XV.-Many controversies of inferior moment 
 were Carried on among the Greeks, who were 
 'extremely fond of disputing, and were scarcely 
 ever" without debates upon religious matters. 
 We shall not enter intoa circumstantial narra- 
 tion of these tlieologioal contests, which would 
 fatigue rather than amuse or instmcf; but shall 
 cpnnne ourselves to a brief mention of those 
 which made the greatest noise in the empire. 
 Under the Teign of Emanuel Comnenus, whose 
 extensive learning" was accompanied with an 
 excessive curiosity, several theological contro- 
 versies were carried on, in which he himself 
 bore_a principal part, and which fomented such 
 discords and animosities among a people al- 
 ready exhausted and dejected by intestine tu- 
 mults, as threatened their destruction. The 
 first question that exercised the metaphysical 
 talent of this over-curious emperor and hissub- ^ 
 tile doctors, was this: — in what sense was it, , 
 or might it be, affirmed that an incarnate God / 
 was at tlie same time the offerer and the obla- > 
 tion? When this knotty question had been . 
 lon^ debated, and the emperor had maintain- | 
 ed, for a considerable time, tiiat ^lution of ' 
 it which was contrary to the opinion generally 
 received, he yielded at length, and embrac- 
 ed the popular notion pf that unintelligible 
 subject.^ ' The consequence of this step was, 
 that many men of eminent abilities and great 
 credit, who had differed from the doctrine of 
 the church upon this article, were deprived of 
 their honours and employments.! What the 
 emperor's opinion of this matter was, we are 
 not satisfactorily informed-, and we are equally 
 ignorant, of the sentiments adopted by the 
 church in this question. It is highly probable 
 that Emanuel, followed by certain' learned doc- 
 tors, differed from the opinions generally re- 
 ceived among the Greeks concerning the 
 Lord's supper, and the oblation or sacrifice of 
 Christ in that holy ordinance. 
 
 XVI. Sortie years, after this, a stiU more 
 warm contest arose concerning the sense of 
 these words of Christ, John xiv. 28. ' For 
 
 * See Leo Allatius, de perpetua Consensione Eo. 
 clesix Oriental, et Occident, lib. ii. cap, xi. p. 644. 
 t Nicetas Chrniates, Annal. lib, vii, sect, 5t 
 
326 
 
 INTERNAL fflSTORr OP THE CHURCH. 
 
 my Father is greater than I,' and divided the 
 trreeks into the most bitter and deplorable fac- 
 tions. To the ancient explicatit)ns of -that im- 
 portant passage new illustrations were now 
 added; and the emperor himself, who, from an 
 indifferent prince, had become a wretched di- 
 vine, published an exposition of that remark- 
 able text, which,he obtruded, as the only true 
 sense of the words, upon a council assembled 
 for that purpose, and was desirous of having 
 received as a rule of faith by all the Grecian 
 clergy. He maintained that the words in 
 question related to the flesh that was hidden 
 m Christ, and that was passible, i. e. subject 
 to sufiering,* and not only ordered this deci- 
 sion to be engraven on tables of stone in the 
 principal church of Constantinople, but also 
 published an edict, in which capital punish- 
 ments were denomiced .against all such as 
 should presume to oppose this, explication, or 
 teach any doctrine repugnant to it-f This 
 edict, however, expired with the emperor by 
 whom it was issued; and Andronicus, upon his 
 accession to the imperial throne, prohibited all 
 those contests concerning speculative points 
 of theology, that arose from an irregular and 
 wantoil curiosity, and suppressed, in a more 
 particular manner, all inquiry into the subject 
 now mentioned, by enacting the severest pe- 
 nalties against such as should in any way con- 
 tribute to revive tliis dispute.f 
 
 XVII. The same theological emperor trou- 
 bled the church with another controversy con- 
 cerning the God of Mohammed. The Greek 
 catechisms pronounced an anathema against 
 the Deity worshipped by that false prophet, 
 whom they represented as a solid and sphencSt 
 Being ;\ for so 'they translated the Arabian 
 word elsemei, which is applied in the Koran to 
 the Supreme Being, and which indeed, is sus- 
 ceptible of that sense, though it also signifies 
 etemal.\\ The emperor ordered this anathema 
 to be effaced in the catechism of the Greek 
 church, on account of -the high offence it gave 
 to those Mohammedans, who had either been 
 already converted to. Christianity, or were dis- 
 posed to embrace that divine religion, and who 
 were extremely shocked at such an insult of- 
 fered to the name of God, with whatever re- 
 strictions and conditions it might be attended. 
 The Christian doctors, on the other hand, op- 
 posed with resolution and vehemence this im- 
 perial order. They observed that the anathe- 
 ma, pronounced in the catechism, had no rela- 
 tion to the nature of God in general, or to the 
 true God in particular; and that, on the con- 
 trary, it was solely directed against the error 
 of Mohammed, against that phantom of a di- 
 vinity which he had imagined; for that impos- 
 tor pretended that the Deity could neither be 
 engendered nor engender, whereas the Christians 
 adore God the Father. After the bitterest dis- 
 putes concerning this abstruse subject, and va- 
 rious efforts to reconcile the contending par- 
 ties, the bishops assembled in council consent- 
 ed, though with the utmost difficulty, to trans- 
 
 f ABT n. 
 
 f Nicetas Choniates, Annal. Hb. vii. sect. 6, p. 113. 
 i Nicetas in Andronico, lib. ii. sect. 5, p.,175. ' 
 
 ^^ 5 OKoT^atfiog. 
 
 i Reland, de religione MohammediCB, lib. ii. snrt. 
 3, p, 142. 
 
 fer the imprecation of the catechism from tha 
 
 God of Mohammed to the pseudo-prophet him- 
 self, his doctrine, and his sect.* 
 
 , XVIII. The spirit of controversy raged 
 among the Latins, as well as among the 
 
 Greeks; and various sentiments concerning 
 the sacrament of the Lord's supper were pro- 
 pagated, not only in the schools, but also in 
 the writings of the learned; for, though all the 
 doctors of the church Were now exceedingly 
 desirous of being looked upon as enemies to 
 the system of Berenger, yet many of them, and 
 among othorsf Rupert of Duytz, differed very 
 little from the sentiments of that great man; 
 at least it is certain, that the famous contro- 
 versy,- which had arisen in the church concern- 
 ing the' opinions of Berenger, had still left the 
 manner of Christ's presence in the eucharist 
 undetermiijed. 
 
 Rupert had also religious contests of another 
 nature with Anselm, bishop of Laon, William 
 of Champeaux, and their disciples, who main- 
 tained their doctrine when they were no more. 
 The divine will and the divine omnipotence 
 were the subjects of this controversy; and the 
 question debated was, "Whether God really 
 "■willed, and actmlly prodnced, all things that 
 "exist, or whether there are certain things, 
 " whose existence he merely permits, and whose 
 "production, instead of being the effeet of his 
 "will, was contrary to it'" The affirmative 
 of the latter part of this question was main- 
 tained by Rupert, while his adversaries affirm- 
 ed that all things were the effects, not only of 
 the divine power, but also of the divine will. 
 This learned abbot was also accused of having- 
 taught that the angels were formed out of 
 darkness; that Christ did not administer his 
 body to Judas, in the last supper; and several 
 other doctrines,;]; contrary to the received opi- 
 nions of the church. 
 
 'XIX. These and other controversies of a 
 more private kind, which made little noise in 
 the world, were succeeded, about the year 
 1140, .by one of a more public nature, con- 
 cerning what was called the Ijtwu;tculate C&nr 
 ceptionofthe Virgin Mary, ^ Certain churches 
 in France began, about tiiit time, to celebrate 
 the festival consecrated to this pretended con- 
 ception, which the English had observed be- 
 fore this period" in consequence of the exhorta- 
 tions of Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury, as 
 some authors. report. The church of Lyons 
 was one of the first that adopted this new festi- 
 val, which no sooner came to the knowledge 
 of St. Bernard, than he severely censured the 
 canons on account of this innovation, and op- 
 posed the Immaculate Conception of tht Virgin 
 with the greatest vigour, as it supposed. her 
 being honoured with a, privilege which be- 
 longed to Christ alone. -Upon tliis a warm 
 contest arose; some siding with the canons of 
 Lyons, and euloptihg the new festival, while 
 
 * Nicet. Chon. Annales, lib. vii. p. 113— 116. 
 
 t Boulay, Hist. Acad. Paris, lorn. ii. p. 30. 
 
 i See tile Epistle of Mengoz, publisbed by Mar- 
 tenne, in his Thesaur. Anecdotor. torn. i. p. 290. — 
 Jo. Mabillon, Annal. Benedict, torn. vi. p. 19, 43, 1G8, 
 261. 
 
 {ft^ § The defenders of the Immaculate Conception 
 maintained, that the Virgin Mary was conceived in 
 the womb of her mother with the san^e purity that 
 is attributed to Christ's conception in her womb. 
 
Chap. V. 
 
 DIVISIONS AND HERESIES. 
 
 327 
 
 others adhered to the sentiments of St. Ber- 
 nard.* The controversy, however, notwith- 
 standing the zeal' of the contending parties, 
 was carried on, during this century, with a 
 certain degree of decency and moderation. 
 But, in subsequent times, when the Don^ini- 
 cans'were established in the academy of Paris, 
 the contest was renewed with the greatest ve.- 
 hemence, and the same subject was debated, 
 on both sides, with the utmost animosity and 
 contention of mind. The Dominicans declar- 
 ed for St.' Bernard, while the academy pa- 
 tronised the canons of Lyons, and adopted the 
 new festival. 
 
 CHAPTER ly. 
 
 Concerning the Rites aAd Ceremonies used in the 
 
 Church during this Century. 
 
 I. The rites and ceremonies used in divine 
 worship, both public and private, were now 
 greatly augmented among the Greeks; and the 
 same superstitious passion for the introduction 
 of new observances, discovered itself in all -the 
 eastern churches. The Grecian, Nestorian, 
 and Jacobite pontiifs, who were in any degree 
 remarkable for their credit or ambition, were 
 desirous of transmitting their names" to poste- 
 rity by the invention of some new rite, or by 
 the introduction of some striking change, into 
 the method of worship that had hitherto pre- 
 vailed. This Tvas, indeed, almost the only 
 way left to distinguish themselves in an age 
 when, a due sense of the excellence of genuine 
 religion and substantial piety being almost 
 totally lost, the whole care and attention of an 
 ostentatious clergy, and a superstitious multi- 
 tude, were employed upon the round of exter- 
 nal ceremonies and observances substituted in 
 their place. Thus some attempted, tlioiigh in 
 vain, to render their names immortal, by in- 
 troducing a new method of reading or reciting 
 the prayers of the church; others changed the 
 church music; some tortured their inventions 
 to find -out some new mark of veneration, that 
 might be offered to the relics and images .of the 
 saints; while several ' ecclesiastics did not dis- 
 dain to employ their time, with the most seri- 
 ous assiduity, in embellishing the garments of 
 the clergy, and in forming the motions and 
 postures they were to observe, and the looks 
 they vrere to eissume, in the celebration of di- 
 vine worship. 
 
 II. We may learn from the book de Divinis 
 Cffidis, composed by the famous Rupert, or 
 Robert, of Duytz, what were the rites in u^e 
 among the Latins during this century, as also 
 the reasons on which they were founded. Ac- 
 cording to the plan we follow, we cannot here 
 enlarge upon the additions that were made to 
 the doctrinal part of religion. We shall there- 
 fore only observe, that the enthusiastic vene- 
 ration for the Virgin Mary, which had been 
 hitherto carried to such an excessive height, 
 increased now instead of diminishing, since her 
 dignity was at this time considerably augment- 
 ed by the new fiction or invention relating to 
 
 * Sti. Bernardi Epistola 174.— Boulay, Hist. Acad. 
 
 Paris, torn. ii. p. 135 Mabillon, Annal. Bened. torn. 
 
 vi. p. 337.— Dora. Colonia, Hist. Lit. de la Ville de 
 Ajjron, torn. ii. p. 333. 
 
 her immaculate conception; for, though St. 
 Bernard and others opposed with vigour this 
 chimerical notion, yet their efforts were coun- 
 teracted by the superstitious fury of the de- ' 
 luded multitude, whose judgment prevailed 
 over the counsels of the wise; so that, about 
 the year 1138, there was a solemn festival in- 
 stituted in honour of this pretended conception, 
 though we neither know by whose authority 
 it was established, nor in what place it w?a 
 -first celebrated.* 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Concerning the Divisions and Heresies that irour 
 bled the Church during this Centuiry. 
 
 I. The Greek and eastern churches were 
 infested with fanatics of different kinds, who 
 gave them much trouble, and engaged them 
 in the most warm and violent contests. Some 
 of these fanatics jprofessed to believe in a dou- 
 ble trinity, rejected wedlock, abstained from 
 flesh, treated with the utmost contempt the 
 sacraments of baptism and the Lord's supper, 
 as also all the various branches of external 
 worship; placed the essence of religion in in- 
 ternal prayer alone, and maintained, as it is 
 said, that an evil being, or genius, dwelt in the ' 
 breast of every mortal, and could be thence 
 expelled by no other method than by perpetual 
 supplications to the Supreme Being. The 
 founder of this enthusiastical sect is said to 
 have been a person called Lucopetrus. His 
 chief disciple was named TycEiciS,' who cor- 
 rupted, by false and fanatical~interpretations, 
 several books of the sacred writings, and par- 
 ticularly the Gospel according to St. Mat- 
 thew. f It is well known, that enthusiasts of 
 this kind, who were rather wrong headed than 
 viciouSj lived among thp Greeks and Syrians, 
 especially aihong the monks, for many ages 
 before this period, and also in this century. 
 The actjounts, indeedj that have been given 
 of them, are not in all respects to be depended 
 upon: and there are several circurastanees, 
 which render it extremely probable, that mahy 
 persons of eminent piety, and zeal for genuine 
 Christianity, were confounded by the Greeks 
 with these enthusiasts, and ranked in the list of 
 heretics, merely on account of their opposing 
 the vicious practices and the Insolent tyranny 
 of the. priesthood, and their treating with deri- 
 sion that motley spectacle of superstition which 
 was supported by public authority. In (Jreece, 
 and in all the eastern provinces, these fanatics 
 were distinguished by the general and invidi- 
 ous appellation of MassMans or Euchites,l as 
 
 * Mabillon, Annal. Benedict, torn. vi. p. 327, 413. — 
 Gallia Ciiristiana, torn. i. p.ll98. 
 
 t Euthymii Triumph, de Secta Masgalianorum, in 
 Jac. Toliii Insignibus Itineris Italici, p. 106 — 125. 
 
 OC^ X'Massalians and Euchitt^s are denominations 
 that signify the same thing, and denote, one in the 
 Hebrew, and the otHer in the Greek language, per 
 sons whopray. A Sect, under this denomination, arose 
 during the reign of the emperor Constantius, about 
 the year 361, founded by certain monk^ of Mesopo. 
 .tamia, who dedicated themselves wholly to prayer, 
 and held many of the doctrines attributed by Mo- 
 sheim to the MassaUans of the twelfth century. See 
 August, de Hjeres. cap. Ivii. and Theod. Hteret; Fab. 
 lib. iv. Epiphanius speaks of another sort of Mas- 
 salians still more ancient, who were mere Gentiles, 
 acknowledged several gods, yet adored only one 
 
328 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part II. 
 
 the Latins comprehended all the adversaries 
 of the Roman pontiff under the general terms 
 of WiUdenses and Attiigenses. It is, however, 
 necessary to -observe, that the- names above- 
 mentioned were very vague and atribiguous in 
 the way they were apphed by the Greeks and 
 the Orientals, who made use of them to cha- 
 racterize, without distinction, all such as com- 
 plained of the multitude of useless ceremonies, 
 and of the vices of the clergy,, without any re- 
 gard to the difference that existed between 
 such persons m point of principles and morals. 
 In short, the righteous and the profligate, the 
 wise arid the foolish, were equally compre- 
 hended under the name of Massalians, when- 
 ever they opposed the raging superstition of 
 the times, or considered true and genuine piety 
 as the-essence of the Christian character. 
 
 n. From the sect now mentioned, that of 
 the Bogomiies is said to have proceeded, whose 
 founder Basilius, a monk by profession, was 
 fcommitted to the flames at Constantinople, 
 under the reign of Alexius Comnenus, after 
 all attempts to .make him renounce his errors 
 had proved ineffectual. By the accounts we 
 have of this unhappy man, and of the errors he 
 taught, it appears sufficiently evident, that his 
 l.doctrine resembled, in a striking manner, the 
 religious system of the ancient Crnostics a.nd 
 Manicheeans; though, at the same time, the 
 Greeks may have falsified- his tenets in some 
 respects. Basilius maintained, tliat the world 
 and all animal bodies were formed, not by the 
 Deity, but by an evil' demon, . who had been 
 cast down &oifi heaven by the Supreme'Being; 
 whence he concludea, that the body was no 
 more than -the prison of the immortal spirit, 
 and that it was, therefore, to be enervated by 
 fasting, contemplation, ■ and' other exercises, 
 that so the soul might tje-gradually i4stored to 
 its primitive liberty, for this purpose also wed- 
 lock was to be avoided, with many other cir- 
 cumstances which we hav? often had occasion 
 to explain and repeat in the course of this his- 
 tory. It was in consequence of the same prin- 
 ciples, that this, unfortunate enthusiast denied 
 the redity of, Christ's body (which, like the 
 Gnostics and Maniehsaans, he considered only 
 as a phantom,) rejected the law of Moses, and 
 maintained that the body, upon its separation 
 by death, returned to the malignant mass of 
 matter, Without either the prospect or possi- 
 bility of a future resurrection to life and feU- 
 city. We have so many examples of fanatics 
 of this, kind in the f ecords of ancient times, 
 and also in the history of this century, that it 
 is. by no means to be wondered, that some tine 
 of them, more enterprising than the rest, should 
 found a sect among the Greeks. The name 
 of this sect was taken from the divine mercy, 
 which its members are said to Jiave incessafitly 
 implored; for tlie word bogmniltis, in the Moesian 
 language, signifies calling out for mercy from 
 above.* 
 
 whom they called Alrjiigkly, -3.nA had oratories in, 
 which ithey assembled to pray and sing hymns. This 
 resemhlance between the Massalians and the Es- 
 senes, induced Scaliger,to think that Epiphanius 
 confounded the former with the latter. 
 * See the Alexias of Aiina Comnena, lib; xv. p. 
 
 384, edit. Venet Zonar® Annales, lib. xviii. p. 336. 
 
 ■^o. Qiriatj Wolf. Hisloria Bogomilorum, published 
 
 III. The Latin sects wpre yet more nume- 
 rous than those of the Greeks; and this will 
 not appear at all surprising to such as consider 
 the state of religion in the greatest part of the 
 European provinces. As the prevalence of 
 superstition, the vices of the clergy, the luxury 
 and. indolence of the pontiffs and bishops, the 
 encouragement of impiety by'the trafiSc of in- 
 dulgences, increased from day to day, several 
 pious, though weak men, who had the true re- 
 ligion of Christ at heartj easily perceived tliat 
 it was in a most declining and miserable state, 
 and therefore attempted a reformation in the 
 church, in order to restore Christianity to its 
 primitive purity and lustre. But the know- 
 ledge of 'these good men did not equal their 
 zeal; nor were their abilities in any proportion 
 to the grandeur of their undertakings. The 
 greater part of them were destitute both of 
 learning and judgment, and, being involved 
 in the general ignorance of the times, very 
 imperfectly understood the holy scriptures, 
 whence Christiamty ^as derived, and by which 
 alone the abuses that had been mingled with 
 it could be reformed.. In a word, few of these _ 
 well-meaning Christians were equal to an at- 
 tempt so difficult and arduous as an universal 
 reformation; and the consequence of this was, 
 that while they avoided the reigning abuses, 
 they fell into others that were as little consis- 
 tent with the genius of true religion, and carried 
 the spirit of censure and reformation to such 
 an expessiye length, that it degenerated often 
 into the various extravagances of enthusiasm, 
 and engendered a number of new sects, that 
 became a new dishonour to ' the Christian 
 cause. 
 
 IV. Among the sects that troubled the 
 Latin church during this century, the principal 
 place is due to the Catkari or Catharists, whom 
 we have- already had occasion to mention.* 
 This numerous faction, leaving- their first resi- 
 dence, which was in Bulgaria, spread them- 
 selves throughout almost all the European 
 provinces, where they occasioned much tumult 
 and-<Jisorder; but their fate was unhappy; for, 
 wherever they were found, they were put to 
 death with the most unrelenting cruelty.j 
 Their rehgion resembled the doctrine of the 
 Manicheeans and Gnostics, on which account 
 they commonly received tlie -denomination 
 pf the former, though they differed in maiiy , 
 respects from the genuine and primitive Mani- 
 chffians. They all indeed agreed in the fol- 
 lowing points of doctrine, viz. That matter 
 was the source of all evil; that the creator of 
 -this world was a being distinct from the Su- 
 preme Deity; that Christ was neither clothed 
 with a real body, nor could be properly said 
 to have been bom, or to have seen death; that 
 human bodies were the production of , the evii 
 
 at Wittenberg, in 1712.— Sam.- Andrete Diss, de 
 Bcgomilis in lo. V'oigtii Bibjiotheca Historic Ilffire.- 
 sioIogicEe, torn. i. part ii. p. 131. Chr, Aug.-Heumanni 
 Dissertat. dc Bogomili.s. 
 
 * See "Cent. III. Part II. Ch. V. sect, xviii.: but 
 principally, for the Catharists here mentioned, see 
 Cent. XI. Part II. Ch. V. sect. .i. 
 
 t See the account given of this unhappy and per- 
 secuted s^ct by Charles Fles^is d'Argentre,>in his 
 CoUectio Judjcioriim de novis Errorious, torn. i. ii^ 
 which, however, several circumstances are omitted^ 
 
Chap. V. 
 
 DIVISIONS AND HERESIES. 
 
 329 
 
 principle, and were extinguished without the 
 prospect of a new life; and that baptism and 
 the Lord's Snpper were useless institutions, 
 destitute of all efficacy and power. They ex- 
 horted all who embraced their doctrine- to a 
 rigorous abstinence from -animal food, wine, 
 and wedlock, and recommended to them in 
 the most pathetic terms the most severe acts 
 of austerity and mortification. They more- 
 over treated with the utmbsl contempt all the 
 books of the Old Testament, but expressed a 
 high degree of veneration for the New, .par- 
 ticularly for the four Gospels; and, to ps^ss 
 over many other peculiarities in. their doctrine, 
 they maintained, that human souls, endued 
 with reason, were shut up by an unhappy fate 
 in the dungeons of mortal bodies, from which 
 they could only be delivered byfasting,. mor- 
 tification, and continence of every kind.* 
 
 V. These principles and tenets,. though they 
 were adopted and professed by the whole sect, 
 were variously interpreted and modified by dif- 
 ferent doctors. Hence the Catharists were 
 divided into various sects, which, however, 
 on account of the general persecution in which 
 they were involved, treated each other with 
 candour and forbearance, disputed with mode- 
 ration, and were thus carefiil not to augment 
 their common calamity by intestine feuds arid 
 animosities. Out of these factions arose two 
 leading and piincipal sects of theCatharists, 
 which were distinguished from the rest by the 
 number of their respective followers, and the 
 importance of their differences. The one, bor- 
 rowing hints from the Manichsesin system, 
 maintained the doctrine of two eternal Beings, 
 from whom all things are derived, the God of 
 light, who was also the fiither of Jesus Christ, 
 and the principle of darkness, whom they con- 
 sidered as the author of the material world. 
 The other believed in one eternal principle, 
 the father of Christ, and the Supreme God, 
 by whom also they held that the first matter 
 was created; but they added to this, that the 
 evil being, after fiis rebellion against God and 
 his fall from, heaven, arranged this original 
 matter according to his fimey, a.nd divided it 
 into four elements, for the production of this 
 visible world. . The' former maintained, that 
 Christ, clothed with the celestial body, de- 
 scended into the womb of the Virgin, and de- 
 rived no part of his substance from her; while 
 the latter ,taught, that he first assumed a real 
 body in the womb of Mary, though not from 
 her.f The sect which held the doctrine of two 
 principles^ derived the name of Albanenses 
 from the place where their spiritual ruler re- 
 sided; and this sect was subdivided into two, of 
 which, one took the name of Balazinansa, 
 bishop of Verona, and the other that of John 
 
 * Beside the works which will be soon mentioned, 
 see the Disputatio inter Cathoiicum et Pateritium, 
 published by Martenne, in his Thesaur. Anecdotor. 
 torn. V. p. 1703, as also Bonacursi Manifestatio 
 Hffiresis Catharorum, in d'Acheri's Spicileg. torn. i. 
 
 '' t See Bern. Moneta, Summa adversus Catharos et 
 Vaidenses, published at Rome in the year 1743, by 
 Thorn. AugusC Riccini, who prefixed to it a disser- 
 tation concerning the Cathaii, that is by no means 
 worthy of the highest encomiums. Moneta was no 
 mean writer for the time in which he lived. See 
 Ub. i. p. 2et S. lib. ii. p. 347, &c. 
 
 Vol. I.— 42 
 
 de liUgio, bishop of Bergamo. The sect which 
 adhered to the doctrine of one eternal princi- 
 ple was also subdivided into the congregation of 
 Baioli, the capital "town of-the province, and 
 that of Concoregio, or Concorezzo. The Albi- 
 genses, who were settled in France, belonged 
 to the church or congregation of Baioli.* 
 
 VI. In the internal constitution of the 
 church tliat was founded by this sect, there 
 were many rules and principles of a singular 
 nature, which we pass over in silence, as they 
 would, oblige us to enter into a detail incon- 
 sistent With our intended brevity. The govern- 
 ment of this church was administered by 
 bishops; and each of these had two vicars, of 
 whom one was called the elder son, and the 
 other the younger, while the rest of the clergy |^[^ 
 and doctors were comprehended under the» _ 
 general denomination of deacons.t The vene- i ., 
 ration; which the people had for the clergy in 
 general, and more especially for the bisliop^''*'* 
 and thrar , spiritual sons, was carried to a, 
 height that almost exceeds credibility. The 
 discipline' observed by this sect was so exces- 
 sively rigid and austere, that it was practica- 
 ble only by a certain number of robust and de- 
 termined-fanatics. But that such as were not 
 able to undergo this discipline might notj on 
 that account, be- lost to the cause, it was 
 thought necessary, in imitation of the ancient 
 ManichsBans, to divide this sect into two class- 
 es, one of which was distinguished by. the title 
 
 of the consolati (comforted,) while the other 
 received only the denomination of confederates. 
 The former gave themselves out for persons of 
 consummate wisdom and extraordinary piety, 
 lived in perpetual celibacy, and led a life of 
 the severest mortification and abstinence, 
 without allowing themselves the enjoyment of 
 any worldly comfort. The latter, if we except , 
 a few particular rales which tliey observed, 
 lived like the rest of mankind, but at the same 
 time were obliged by a solemn agreement they 
 had made with the church, and which, in 
 Italian, they called la convenerisa, to enter be- 
 fore their death, in their last moments, if not 
 sooner, into the class of the comforted, and to 
 ■receive the consolamentuni., or form of inaugu- -' 
 ration. By which they Were introduced into 
 that- fanatical order.| / 
 
 VII. A much more rational sect wej that 
 which was founded about. the year 1110 in 
 Languedoc and Provence, by Petefde Bruys, 
 
 * Raineri Sachoni Summa de Catharis et Leonis- 
 tis, " in Martenne's Thesaur. Anecdot. torn. v. p. 
 1761, 1768. — Peregriniis ' Priscianus in Muratorii 
 Ahtiq. Ital. medii. j33vi', tom. v. p. 93. who exhibits, 
 in a sort of table, these dilferent sects, but errone- 
 ously places the Albigepses, who were a branch of " 
 the Baiolenses, in the placeyof the AlBanenses; this, 
 perhaps, may be an error of the press. The opinions 
 of these Baiolenses or Bagnolenses, may be seen in 
 the Codex Inquisitionis Tolosanae,'"which -Limborch 
 publislied with his History of the Inquisition^ Tho',^ 
 account, however, which we have in this history 
 (Book i. ch. vidi.) of the opinions of the Albigenses, 
 IS by no means accurate. A great variety of causes 
 have contributed to involve in darkness and per- 
 plexity the distinctive characters of these different , 
 sects, whose respective systems we cannot enlarge 
 "\ipon at present. 
 
 t See Sachoni Suiiima de Gatharis, p. 1766. 
 
 t For a farther account of this sect, see the writers 
 mentioned before, and particularly the Codex Inqui- 
 sitionis Tolot'anie. 
 
330 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 PartH 
 
 who made the most laudable attempts to re- 
 fonn the abuses and to remove the supersti- 
 tions that disfigured the beautiful simplicity of 
 the Gospel; but, after having engaged in his 
 cause a great number of followers, during a 
 laborious ministry of twenty years, he was 
 burned at St. Giles', in the year 1 130, by an 
 enraged populace, instigated by the clergy, 
 whose traffic was in danger from the enter- 
 prising spirit of this reformer. The whole sys- 
 tem of doctrine, which this unhappy martyr, 
 whose zeal was not -without a considerable 
 mixture of fanaticism, taiaght to the Petrobrus- 
 sians, Iris disciples, is not known; it is however 
 certain, that tiie five following tenets made a 
 part of his system: 1. That no persons were to 
 
 J, be baptized before they had the full use of 
 their reason; 2. that it was an idle superstition 
 
 ' to build churches for the service of God, who 
 will accept a sincere worship wherever it is of- 
 
 *<ered; and that therefore such churches as had 
 already been erected were to be destroyed; 3. 
 that the crucifixes, as instruments of supersti- 
 tion, deserved the same fate; 4. that the real 
 body and blood of Christ were not exhibited in 
 the eucharist, but were merely represented in 
 that holy ordinance by figures and symbols; 5. 
 and, lastly, that the oblations, prayers, and 
 
 ■ good works of the living, could in no respect 
 be advantageous to the dead.* 
 
 ,VIU. This iimovator was succeeded by 
 another, who was an Italian by birth, and 
 whose name was Henry, the founder and pa- 
 rent pf the sect called Henricians. It was, no 
 doubt, a rare thing to see a person, who was 
 at the same time monk and hermit, un- 
 dertaking to reform the superstitions of the 
 times; yet such was the case of Henry, who, 
 leaving Lausanne, a city in Switzerland, tra- 
 velled to Mans, and beiiig banished thence, re- 
 moved successively to Poictiers, Bourdeaux, 
 and the neighbouring places, and at length to 
 Toulouse in the year 1 147, exercising his min- 
 isterial fimction with the utmost applause 
 from the people, and declaiming with vehe- 
 mence and fervour against the vices of the 
 clergy, and the superstitions they had intro- 
 duced into the Christian church. At Toulouse 
 he was warmly opposed by St. Bernard, by 
 whose influence he was overpowered, notwith- 
 standing his popularity, and obliged to save 
 himself by flight. But being seized by a pre- 
 ' late,, in his retreat, he was carried before pope 
 Eugenius IH., who presided in person at a 
 council then asseinbled at Rheims, and who, 
 in-'consequence of the accusations brought 
 against Henry, committed him, in the year 
 1148, to a close prison, where he soon ended 
 his days.f We have no satisfactory account 
 of the doctrines of this reformer. We merely 
 
 '.'\ know that he rejected the baptism of infants, 
 ' censured with severity the corrupt and licen- 
 
 * See Petri Venerab. Iiib. contra Petrobrussianos 
 in Bibliotheca Cluniensi,-p. 1117.— Mabillon, Annal. 
 Benedict, torn. iv. p. 346.— Baanage, Hiatoire des 
 EKlises Keformees, period iv. p. 140. 
 
 t Gesta Episcoporum Cenomanens. in MabiHon, 
 Analect. veter. JEvi, p. 315.— Gaufridi Epistola in 
 lib vi. Vita Sti. Bernard!, torn. ii. Op. Bernard, p. 
 1807 — Mattli. Paris, Histor. Maj. p. 71.— Mabillon, 
 Vxat. ad Opera Bernardi, sect. vi. et Annal. Benedict, 
 torn. vi. p. 346, 480, 434. 
 
 tioiis manners of the clergy, treated the festi- 
 vals and ceremonies of the church with the ut- 
 most contempt, and held clandestine assem- 
 blies, in which he explained and inculcated the 
 novelties he taught. Several writets aflirm, 
 that he was the disciple of Peter de Bruys; but 
 I cannot see upon what evidence or authority 
 this assertion is grounded.* 
 
 IX. While th^JHenricians were propagating 
 their doctrines m France,^n illiterate man, 
 called Tanquelin, or Tanquelm, arose in Bra- 
 bant about the year 1115, excited the most 
 deplorable- commotions at Antwerp, and drew 
 after him a most numerous sect. If the ac- 
 counts given of this heresiarch by his adver- 
 saries may be at all depended upon, he must 
 either have been a monstrous impostor, or an 
 outrageous madman. For he walked in public 
 with the greatest solemnity, pretended to be 
 God, or, at least, the Son of God, ordered 
 daughters to be ravished in presence of their 
 mothers, and committed himself the greatest 
 'disorders. Such are the enormities that are 
 
 attributed to Tanquelm; but they are absolute- 
 ly incredible, and caimot be true.t What 
 seems most worthy of credit in this matter is, 
 that this new teacher had imbibed the opinions 
 arid spirit of the Mystics; that he treated with 
 contenipt the external worship of God, the sa- 
 crament oCthe Lord's Supper, and the rite of 
 baptism; and held clandestine assemblies to 
 propagate more effectually his visionary no- 
 tions. But as, beside all this, he inveighed 
 against the clergy, like the other heretics al- 
 ready mentioned, and declaimed against their 
 vices with vehemence and intrepidity, it is 
 probable that these blasphemies were falsely 
 charged upon him by a vindictive priesthood. 
 Be that as it may, the fate of Taiiquelm was 
 -unhappy; for he was assassinated by an eccle- 
 siastic in a cruel manner. His sect, however, 
 did'not perish with him, but acquired strength 
 and vigour under the ministry of his disciples, 
 until it Was at length extinguished by the fa- 
 mous St. Norbert, the founder of the order of 
 Praamonstratenses, or Premontres.J 
 
 X. In Italy, ArnoFd of Brescia, a disciple 
 of Abelard, and a man of extensive erudition 
 and remarkable austerity, but of a turbulent 
 and impetuous spirit, excited new troubles and 
 commotions both in church and state. He 
 was, indeed, condemned in the Lateran coun- 
 cil, A. D. 1139, by Innocent II., and obliged 
 to retire into Switzerland; but, upon the death 
 of that pcaitiff, he returned into Italy, and 
 raised at Rome, during the pontificate of Eu- 
 
 * That Henry was the disciple of Peter de Bruys is 
 not at all probable; since, not to insist upon other 
 reasons, the latter could not bear the sight of a cross, 
 and In all likelihood owed his death to the multitude 
 of crjicifixes which he had committed to the flames; 
 whereas the former, when he entered into any city, 
 appeared with a cross in his hand, which he bore as 
 a standard, to attract the veneration of the people. 
 See Mabillon, Analecta, p. 316. 
 
 t Epistola: Tiajectens. Ecclesias ad Fredericum 
 Episcopum de Tanchelmo, in Seb. Tengnagelii Col- 
 lectione Veterum Slonumentor, p. 368.— Boulay, 
 Histor. Acad. Paris, torn. ii. p. 98.— Argentre, Col- 
 lectio Judicior. de novis Erroribus, torn. V p. 10. 
 
 X Louis Hugo, Vie de S. Norbert, liv ii. p. 136.— 
 Chrys. Vander.Sterre Vita S. Norberti, cap. xxxvi. p. 
 164, et Folyc. de Hertogh, ad illam Annotationes, p. 
 387. 
 
Chap. V. 
 
 MVISIONS AND HERESIES. 
 
 331 
 
 genius III. several tumults and seditions among- 
 the people, who changed, by^Jiis instigation, 
 the government of the city, and insulted the 
 persons of the clergy in the most disorderly 
 maimer. He fell however at last a victim to 
 tile vengeance of his enemies; for, afler vari- 
 ous turns of fortune, he was seized in the year 
 nss, by a prefect of the city, by whom he was 
 crucified, and a.'ilerwards burned to ashes. This 
 unhappy man seums not to have adopted any 
 doctrines inconsistent with the spirit of true 
 religion; and the principles upon which he 
 acted were chiefly reprehensible firom their be- 
 ing carried too far, applied without discern- 
 ment or discretion, and executed with a de- 
 gree of vehemence which was both imprudent 
 and criminal. Having perceived the discords 
 and animosities, the calamities and disorders 
 that sprang from the overgrown opulence of 
 the pontiffs and bishops, he" was persuaded 
 that the interests of the church and the happi- 
 ness of nations in general required, that tiie 
 clergy should be divested of all their worldly 
 possessions, of all their temporal rights and 
 prerpgatives. He, therefore, publicly main- 
 tained, that the treasures and revenues of 
 popes, bishops, and monasteries, ought to be 
 resigned and transferred to the supreme rulers 
 of each state, and that nothing was to be left 
 to the ministers of the gospel but a spiritual 
 authority and a subsistence drawn from tithes, 
 and from the voluntary oblations and contribu- 
 tions of the people.* This violent reformery 
 in whose character and manners there were 
 several points worthy of esteem, drew after 
 him a great number of disciples, who derived 
 from him the denomination ofJlrnoldists, and, 
 in succeeding times, evinced the spirit and in- 
 ; trepidity of their leader, as often as any oppor- 
 . tunities of reforming the church seemed to be 
 offered to their zeal. 
 
 XI. Of all the sects that arose in this cen- 
 tury, not one was more distinguished by the 
 reputation it acquired, by the multitude of its 
 ~ votaries, and th^ testimony which its bitterest 
 enemies bore to thd probity and innocence of 
 _ Its members, than that of the Waldenses, so 
 called &om their parent and founder Peter 
 Waldus. This sect was known by different 
 denomiiiations. From the place where it first 
 appeared, its members were called The poor 
 ' men of Lyons,^ or, Lyonists, and, fi-om the 
 . wooden shoes which its doctors wore, and a 
 certain mark that was imprinted upon these 
 
 *See Otto Frising. de'Gestis Frederici I. lib. ii. 
 cap. XX.— S. Berriardus, Epist. 195, 196, torn. i. p. 
 187.— Boulay, Histor. Acad. Paris, torn. ii. p. 157. — 
 Maratori, Droits de TEmpire ear I'Etat Eoclcsias- 
 tique, p. 137.— Henr. de Bunau, Vita Frederici I. p. 
 41.— Cbauffep ed, Nouveau Diction. Hist. Crit. torn. 
 i. p. 482. 
 
 t They were called LeovAsts from Leona, the an- 
 cient name of Lyons, where their sect took its rise. 
 The more eminent persons of that sect manifested 
 their progress toward perfection by the simplicity 
 and meanness of their external appearance. Hence, 
 among other things, they wore wooden shoes, which 
 in the French language are termed sabots, and had 
 imprinted upon these shoes the sign of the cross, to 
 distinguish themselves ftom other Christians; and it 
 was on these accounts that they acquired the deno- 
 mination oisanatati and insabbntnti. See Du Fresne, 
 Glossarium Latin, medii Mm, vi. voce Sabbatati. 
 Nlcol. Eumerici Directorium Inquisitorum, Part III. 
 N 113, &c 
 
 shoes, they were called Insdbbatati, or Sabbor 
 tati.* The origin of this famous sect w^ as 
 ■follows: Peter, an opulent merchant of Lyons, 
 suritamed Valiensis, or Validisius, from Vaux, 
 or Waldum, a to\vn in the marquisato of Ly- 
 ons, being extremely zealous for the advance- 
 ment of true piety and Christian knowledge, 
 employed a certain priestjf about the year 
 1160, in translating from Latin into French 
 the ffpiir Gospels, with other books of Holy 
 Scripture, and the most remarkable sentences 
 of the ancient doctors, whichwere so highly 
 esteemed in this century. But no sooner had 
 he perused these sacred books with a proper 
 degree- of attention, than he perceived that the 
 religion, which was now taught in the Roman 
 chiu-ch, differed totally fi-om that which was 
 originally inculcated by Christ and his apos- 
 tles. Shocked at this glaring contradiction 
 between the doctrines of the pontiffs and the 
 truths of the Gospel, and animated with a 
 pious zeal for, promoting his own salvation, 
 and that of others, he abandoned his; mercan- 
 tile vocation, distributed his riches among the 
 poor,J and forming an association with other 
 pious men, who had adopted his sentiments 
 and his turn of devotion, he began, in the year 
 1 180, to assume the-quality of a public teacher, 
 and to instruct the multitude in the doctrines 
 and precepts of Christianity. The archbishop 
 of Lyons,- and the other rulers of the church 
 in that province, opposed, with vigour, this 
 new doctor in the exercise of his ministry. Bu^ 
 their opposition was unsuccessful; for the purity 
 and simplicity of that religion which these 
 good men -taught, the spotless innocence that 
 shone forth in their hves and actions, and the 
 noble contempt of riches and honours mani- 
 fested in the whole of their conduct and con- 
 versation, appeared so engaging to all such 
 as had any sense of true piety, that the num- 
 ber of their disciples and, followers increased 
 firom day to day.§ They accordingly formed 
 
 * See Steph. de Borbone, de septem donis Spiritus 
 Sancti, in Echard and Quetif, Bibliotheca Scriptor. 
 Dominicanor. torn. i. p. 192.— Anonym. Tractatiode 
 Hseresi Pauperum de Lugduno, in Martenne's The? 
 saur. Anecdotor. torn. v. p. 1777. 
 
 t This phesf iwas called Stephanus de Evisa. 
 
 i it was on^this account that the Waldenses were 
 called Pauvres de £^ons,.or Poor Men of Lyons. 
 
 _§ Certain writers give different accounts of the 
 origin of the Waldenses, and suppose ^they were' so 
 called from the valleys in which they had resided for 
 many ages befoce the birth of Peter V^aldus.. But 
 these writers have no authority to-support- this as- 
 sertion; and, besides this, they are aiuply refuted by 
 the best historians. -I do not mean to de^y, that 
 there were in the valleys of Piedmont, long before 
 this period, "a set of men who- differed iVidfely from 
 the opinions adopted and inculcated 'by the church 
 of Rome, and whose doctrine resembled, in many 
 respects, that of the Waldenses; all that 1 maintain 
 is, that these inhabitants of the valleys above-men- 
 tioned are to bo carefully distinguished from the 
 Waldenses, who, according to the unanimous voice 
 of history, were originally inhabitants of Lyons, 
 and -derived their name from Peter Waldus, their 
 founder and chief. (H^ We may venture to atiirm 
 the contrary, with the learned Beza and other writ- 
 er's of note; for it seems evident from the best re- 
 cords, that Valdus derived his name from the true • 
 Valdenses of Piedmont, whose doctrine he adopted, 
 and who were known by the names of Faudois and 
 Valdenses, before he or his immediate followers ex- 
 isted. If the Valdenses- had derived .their name from 
 any eminent teacher, it would probably have been 
 from Valdo, who was remarkable for the purity of 
 
332 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 religious assemblies, first in France, and af- 
 terwards In Lombardy, whence they propa- 
 gated their sect through the other, provinces 
 of Europe with incredible, rapidity, and with 
 such invincible fortitude, that neither fire nor 
 sword, nor the most cruel inventions of mer- 
 ciless persecution, could damp their zeal, or 
 entirely ruin their cause.* 
 
 XII. The attempts of Peter Waldus and his 
 followers were neither employed nor intended 
 to introduce new doctrines into the church, 
 nor to propose new articles of faith to Chris- 
 tians. All they aimed at was, to reduce the 
 form of ecclesiastical government, and the 
 lives and manners both of the. clergy and peo- 
 ple, to thaj amiable simplicity,, and that primi- 
 tive sanctity, which had characterised the 
 apostolic ages, and which~ appear so strongly 
 recommended in the precepts and injunctions 
 of the divine author of our holy religion. Li 
 consequence of this desi^, they complained 
 that the Roman church had degenerated, un- 
 der Constantino the Great, from its primitive 
 purity and sanctity. They, denied 'the supre- 
 macy of the Roman poiftiff, and maintained 
 that "the rulers and ministers of the church 
 were obliged, by their vocation, to imitate the 
 poverty of the _ apostjes, and to procure for 
 tiiemselves a subsistence by the work of their 
 hands. They considered every Christian, as 
 in a certain measure qualified and authorized 
 
 Fart H. 
 
 his doctrine in the IXth century, and was the con 
 temporary and chief counsellor of Berengarius. But 
 the truth is, that they derive their name from their 
 valleys iti Piedmont, which in their language are called 
 f^aux; hence Favdois, their true name; hence Peter, 
 or (as others call hun) John of Lyons, was called in 
 Latin, Valdus, because lie had adopted their doc. 
 trine; and hence the term Valdenees and Waldeinses-, 
 used by those who write in English or Latin, in the 
 place of Vaudois. The "bloody inquisitor Reinerus 
 Sacco, who exerted such a furious zeal for the de- 
 Btruction of the "Waldenses, lived but about 80 years 
 after Valdus q{ Lyons, and must therefore be sup. 
 posed to have known whether he was the real 
 founder of the Valdenses or Leonists; and yet it is 
 remarkable that he speaks of the Leonists (mention 
 ed by"Dr". Mosheim in this section, as synonymous 
 with Waldenses)' as a sect that had flourished albove 
 500 years, and even mentions authors of note, who 
 make their antiquity remount totb^apostolic age. 
 Sec the account given of Bacco's book by xhe Jesijit 
 Gretser, in the Bibliotheca Patrum. T know, not 
 upon what principle Dr. Mosheim maintains, that 
 the inhabitants of the valleys of Piedmont are to be 
 carefully distinguished from the WaldenseS; and I 
 am persuaded, that whoever will be at the pains to 
 read al,tentivcly the 2d. 2Sth, 26th, and 27th chapters 
 of the first book of Leger'^ Histoire Generale des 
 Eglises Vaudoises, will find this distinction, entirely 
 groundless. — When the Papists ask us, where our 
 religion was before Luther, we generally answer, in 
 the Bible; and we answer well. But to gratify their 
 taste for tradition and human authority, we may add 
 to this answer, and in the valleys of- Piedmont. 
 
 * Sfee the following ancient writers; who have 
 given accounts of the sect in question; namely, Sa- 
 chdni Summa contra "Valdenses. — MonetiE Summa 
 contra Catharos et "Valdenses, published by Riccini. — 
 1r'. de Hjeresi Pauperum de Lugduno, published by 
 Martenne, i& his Thesaur. Anecdot. torn. v. p. 
 1777.— Pilichdorfius contra Valdenses, t. xxv. B. 
 Max. Patr. — Add to these authors, Jo. Paul Perrin, 
 Histoire des Vaudois, published at Geneva in 1619. — 
 Jo. Leger, Histoire Generale des EglisCs Vaudoises, 
 liv. i. ch. xiv. p. 156, — Usher, de successione Ecclesi- 
 arum Occidentis, cap. viii. p. 209. — Jac. Basnage, 
 Histoire des Eglises Reformees, tom. i. period iv. p. 
 329. — ^Thom. August. Riccini, Dissertat. de Valden- 
 Bibus, prefixed tn his edition of the Summa Monetas, 
 li. 30— Boitlay, Histor. Acad. Paris, tom. ii. p. 292. 
 
 to instruct, exhort, and confirm the brethren 
 in their Christian course, and demanded the 
 restoration of the ancient penitential discipline 
 of the church, i. e. the expiation of transgres- 
 sions by prayer, fasting, and alms, which the 
 new-invented doctrine of indulgences had 
 nearly abolished. They at the same time af- 
 firmed, that every pious Christian was qualified 
 and entitled to prescribe to penitents the kind 
 and degree of satisfaction or expiation that 
 their transgressions required; that confession 
 made to a priest was by no means necessary, 
 since the humble offender might acknowledge 
 his sins and testify his repentance to any true 
 believer, and might expect from such the coun- 
 sels and admonitions that his case and circum- 
 stances demanded. They maintained, that the 
 power of delivering sinners from the guilt and 
 punishment of their offences belonged to God 
 alone; and that indulgences, in consequence, 
 were the criminal inventions of sordid avarice. 
 They looked upon the prayers, and other ce- 
 remonies that were instituted in behalf of the 
 dead, as vain, useless, and absurd, and denied 
 the existence of departed souls in an interme- 
 diate state of purification, afiirming, that they 
 were immediately, upon theu: <separation from 
 the body, received into heaven, or sent down 
 to hell. These and other tenets of a like na- 
 ture composed the system of doctrine propa- 
 gated by the Waldenses. Their rules of prac- 
 tice were extremely austere; for they adopted, 
 as the model of their moral discipline, the ser- 
 mon of Christ on the mount, which they in- 
 teipreted and explained in the most rigorous 
 and literal manner, and consequently prohi- 
 bited and condemned in their society all wars, 
 and suits of law, all attempts toward the ac- 
 quisition of wealth, the infliction of capital 
 punishments, self-defence against unjust vio- 
 lence, and oaths of all kinds.* 
 
 XIII. -The government of the church was 
 cqmmitted, by the Waldenses, to bishops,t 
 presbyters, and'deacons; fi)r they acknowledg- 
 ed that these three orders were instituted by 
 Christ himself. But they deeined it absolutely 
 necessary, that all these orders should resemble 
 exactly the apostles of the divine Sayiour, and 
 be, like them, illiterate, JiQor, destitute of all 
 worldly possessions, and Ifijmished with some 
 laborious trade or vocation, in order to gain by 
 constant industry their daily subsistence.J The 
 laity were divided into two classes; one of 
 which contained the perfect, and the other the 
 imperfecl Christians. The former spontane- 
 
 * See the Codex Inquisitionis Tolosanse, published 
 by,Limboreh, as also the Summa Monetae contra 
 Waldenses, and the other writers of the Waldensian 
 history. Though these writers are not all equally 
 accurate, nor perfectly agreed about the number of 
 doctrines that entered into the system of this sect, 
 yet they are nearly unanimous in acknowledging 
 the sincere piety and exem^plary conduct of the Wal. 
 denses, and show plainly enough that their intention 
 was not to oppose the doctrines which- were univer- 
 sally received among Christians, but only to revive 
 the piety and manners of the primitive times, and to 
 combat the vices of the clergy, and the abuses that 
 had been- introduced into the worship and discipline 
 of the church. 
 t The bishops were also called majorales or elders, 
 X The greatest part of the Waldenses gained their 
 livelihood by weaving: hence the whole. sect, in some 
 II places, were called the sect of weavers. 
 
Chap. V. 
 
 DIVISIONS AND HERESIES. 
 
 333 
 
 ouBly divested themselves of all worldly pos- 
 Bessions, manifested their extreme poverty in 
 the wretchedness of their apparel, and ema- 
 ciated their bodies by frequent fasting. The 
 latter were less austere,' and approached the 
 method of living generally received, though 
 they abstained, like the graver sort of anabap- 
 tists in later times, from all appearance of 
 pomp and luxury. It is, however, to be ob- 
 served, that the Waldenses were not without 
 their intestine divisions. Such as resided in 
 Italy differed considerab^ in their opinions 
 from those who dwelt in France and the Mher 
 European countries. The former considered 
 the church of Rome as the church of Christ, 
 though much coirrupted and sadly disfigured; 
 they also acknowledged the validity of its 
 seven sacraments, and solemnly declared that 
 they would ever continue in communion with 
 it, provided that they might be allowed to live 
 as they thought proper, without molestation 
 or resbaint. The latter affirmed, on the con- 
 trary, that the church of Rome had apostatized 
 from Christ, was deprived of the Holy Spirit, 
 smd was, in reality, the whore of Babylon men- 
 tioned in'the Revelations of St. John.* 
 
 XIV. Beside these famous sects, wlfich made 
 a great' noise in the world, and drew after 
 them multitudes from the bosom of a corrupt 
 - and superstitious church, there were religious 
 factions of less importance, which arose in 
 Italy, and more especially in France, though 
 they seem to have fexpired soon after their 
 birth-t In Lombardy, which \*as the principal 
 residence of the Italian heretics, there sprang 
 np a singular sect, known (for what reason I 
 cannot tell) by the denomination of Pasagi- 
 nians, and also by that of the circumcised. 
 Like the other sects already mentioned, they 
 had the utmost aversion to the dominion' and 
 discipline of the church of Rome; but they 
 were, at the same time, distinguished by tw'o 
 -religious tenets, which were peculiar to them- 
 selves. The first was a notion, that the ob- 
 servance of the law of Moses, in every tiling 
 except the offering of sacrifices. Was obligatory 
 upon Christians; in consequence of which they 
 ! circumcised .their followers, abstained from 
 those meats, the use of virhicli was prohibited 
 under the Mosaic oeconomy , and celebrated the 
 '"' Jewish sabbath. The second tenet that distin- 
 guished this sect was advanced in opposition 
 to the doctrine of three persons in the divine 
 nature; for the Pasaginians maintaijied that 
 Christ was no more than the first and purest 
 creature of God; nor will their adoptioii of this 
 opinion seem very surprising, if we consider the 
 prodigious number of Arians that were scat- 
 te red throughout Italy long before this period.| 
 
 * Moneta; Summa contra Catharos et Valdenses, 
 p. 406, &o. They seem to have been also divided in 
 their sentiments concerning- the possession of world-, 
 ly goods.- is appears from the accounts of Stephanas 
 de Borbone, apud Echardi Script. Dominican, torn. i. 
 This writer divides the Waldenses into two classes, 
 the poor men^of Lyons, and the poor men of Lom- 
 tardy. The former rejected and prohibited all sorts 
 of possessions; the latter looked upon worldly pos- 
 sessions as lawful. This distinction is confirmed by 
 several passages of other ancient authors. . 
 
 t For an account of these obscure sects, see Ste- 
 phaausde Borbone, apud Echardi Script. Dominican. 
 
 t See F. Bonacursi Manifestatio hferesis Catharo- 
 
 XV. A sect of fanatics, called Cajnaiati, 
 from a singular kind of cap that was the badge 
 of their faction, infested the province pf Bur- 
 gundy, the" diocese of Auxerre, jmd several 
 other parts of France, in all whiclj places they 
 excited much disturbance among the people. 
 They wore upon their caps, a leaden image of 
 the Virgin Mary; and they declared publicly, 
 that thsir purpose was to level all distinctions, 
 to abrogate magistracy, to remove all subordi- 
 nation among mankind, and to restore that 
 primitive liberty, that natural equality, which 
 were the inestimable privileges of the first 
 mortals. Hugo, bishop of Atixerre, attacked 
 these disturbers of human society in the pro- 
 per manner, employing against them the force 
 of arms, instead of arguments.* 
 
 The sect of the apostolics, whom St. Ber- 
 na,rd opposed with such bitterness and fury, 
 and who weie so called, as that zealous abbot 
 himself acknowledged, because they professed 
 to exliibitj iu their lives and manners, the "pie- 
 ty and virtues o.f the holy apostles, were very 
 different from the audacious heretics now men- 
 tioned. They were a clownish set of men, of 
 the- lowest birth, who gained their subsistence 
 by bodily labour; yet, as soon as they formed 
 themselves into a sect, they drew after them a 
 multitude of adherents of all ranks and orders. 
 Their, religious doctrine, ~as St. Bernard con- 
 fe^es, was free from error, and their lives and 
 manners were irreproachable and.exeniplary: 
 but they were repreliensible on account of the 
 following peeularities: 1. They held it unlaw- ' 
 ful to take an oath; 2. Tliey suffered their 
 hair and their beards to grow to an enormous 
 length, so that their aspect was inexpressibly . 5 
 extravagant and savage; 3. They preferred ce- 
 hbaoy to wedlock, and called themselves the 
 chttste brethren and sisters; notwithstanding 
 which, 4. Each man had a spiritual sister with 
 him, after the manner of the apostles, with 
 whom he lived in a domestic relatio/i, lying in 
 the same cha,mber with her, though not in the 
 same bed.^ '' ,, 
 
 XVI. In the council assembled at B,heims, in 
 the year 1148, inwhich pope Eugeinius III. pre- 
 sided,'a gentleman of the province of Bretagne, 
 whose name was Eon, and whose brain was 
 undoubtedly disordered, was condemned for 
 pretending to be the Son of God., Having 
 heard, in the form that was used for exorcising 
 malignant spirits, these words^prondunced, per 
 Eum, qiti venturui est judicare miios et inortuos,' 
 he concluded, from "the resemblance between 
 the word Eum and his name, that he was the 
 person who was to come and judge both the 
 quick and' the dead. This poor man should 
 rather have been delivered 'jver to the physi- 
 cians than placed m the list of heretics. He 
 ended his days in a miserable prison, and left 
 a considerable number of followers and adhe- 
 rents, whom persecution and death in the-most 
 dreadful forms could not persuade to abandon 
 
 rum, in d'Acheii's Spicileg. Veter. Scriptor. tom. i. 
 p. 211. Gerard. Bergamensis contra Catharos el 
 Fasagios, in Liud. Anton. Muratorii Antiq. ItaL 
 medii ffivi, tom. v. p. 151'. 
 
 * Jaques Le Boeuf, Memoires sur I'Histoire d'Aux- 
 erre, tom. i. p. 317. 
 
 t Sti. Bernard! germ. Ixv. in Canticum, tom. iv. 
 op. p. 1495, edit. Mabillon. 
 
334 
 
 EXTERNAL fflSTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 PAifrl. 
 
 his cause, or to renounce an abBurdity, which' 
 one would think could never have gained cre- 
 dit, but in a receptacle of lunatics.* This re- 
 
 * Matth. Paris, Historia Major, p. C8.^C!uil. Neu- 
 brigensis, HistoriaRerum Anglicariiiji, lib. i. p. 50. — ' 
 Botilay, Historia Acad. Paris, torn. ii. p, 241. 
 
 markable example is sufficient to show, not 
 only the astonishing credulity of the stupid 
 multitude, but also how far even the rulers 
 of the church were destitute of judgment, 
 and unacquainted with true and genuine re 
 ligion. 
 
 THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 THE EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Concerning Oi£ prosperous Events that happened 
 
 to the Church during this Centxiry. 
 
 L Thodgh the successors of Genghiz-Khan, 
 the powerful emperor of the Tartars, or rather 
 of the Mogols, had carried their victorious 
 arms through- a great part of Asia, and, having 
 reduced China, India, and Persia, under their 
 yoke, had involved in many calamities and suf- 
 ferings the Christian assemblies which were es- 
 tablished in those vanquished, lands,* yet we 
 learn from the best accounts, and the most re.- 
 spectable authorities, that in China, and in the 
 northern parts of Asia,- the Nestorians conti- 
 nued to have a flourishing church, •a.nd a great 
 number of adherents. The emperors of the 
 Tetrtars and Mogols had no great aversion to 
 the Christian religion. It even appears from 
 authentic records, that several kings and gran- 
 dees of those nations had either been instruct- 
 ed in the doctrines of the Gospel by their an- 
 cestors, or were converted to Christiaiiity by 
 the ministry and exhortations of the Nestori- 
 ans.f But the religion of Mohammed, wiich 
 was so calculated to flatter the passions of men, 
 gradually linfeoted these noble converts, op^ 
 posed with success the progress of the Gospel, 
 and at length so effectually triumphedjover it, 
 that not the Jeast remains of Christianity were 
 to be perceived in the courts of those eastern 
 prince's. « 
 
 XI. The Tartars having made an incursion 
 into Europe, in the year 1241, and having laid 
 waste, 'with the most unrelenting and savage 
 barbarity, Hupgary, Poland, Silesia, and the 
 adjacent countries, the Roman pontiffs thought 
 it incumbent upon them to endeavour to calm 
 the fury, and soften the ferocity, of these new 
 and formidable enemies. For this purpose, in 
 1245, limocent IV. sent an embassy to the 
 Tartars, which consisted of Dominican' and 
 
 ■* Gregor. Abulfaraj. Historia Dynastiar. p. 231, 
 edit. Pocock. , '„ . .v ^ ■ . , 
 
 t See Marc. Paul. 'Venet. de Eegionibus Oriental. 
 Jib. i. c. iv. lib. ii. c. vi.— Haytho the Armenian's His- 
 tor. Oriental cap. xix. p. 35, cap. xxiii. p. 39, cap. 
 xiiv. — Jos. Sim. Assemani -Biblioth. Orient. "Vatic. 
 tom. iii. part ii. See particularly the Ecclesiastical 
 History of the Tartars, published in Latin at Helm- 
 ■tadt, in J741, u^der my auspices and inspection. 
 
 Franciscan friars.* In 1274, Abaca, the em- 
 peror of that fierce nation, sent ambassadors 
 to the council of Lyons, which was holden un- 
 der , the pontificate of Gregory X.f About 
 four years after this, pope Nicolas III. paid the 
 same compliment to Coblai, emperor of the 
 whole Tartar nation, to whom he sent a so- 
 lemn embassy of Franciscan monks, with a 
 view to render that prince propitious to the 
 Christian cause. The last expedition of this 
 kind that we shall mention at present, was that 
 of Johannes a Monte Corvino, who, in 1289, 
 was sent with other ecclesiastics to the same 
 emperor, by.Nicolas IV., and who carried let^ 
 ters to the Nestorians from that zealous pon- 
 tiff. This mission was far from being use-' 
 less, since those spiritual ambassadors convert- 
 ed many of the Tartars to Christianity, en- 
 gaged considerable numbers of the Nestorians 
 to adopt the doctrine and discipline of the 
 church of Rome, and erected churches in var 
 rious parts of Tartary and China. In order 
 to accelerate the propagation of the Gospel 
 among these darkened nations, Johannes a 
 Monte Corvino translated the New Testament 
 and the Psalms of David into the language of 
 the Tartars.^ 
 
 III. The Roman pontiffs employed their 
 most zealous and assiduous efforts in the sup- 
 port of the Christian cause in 'Palestine, which 
 was now in a most declining, ot rather in a 
 desperate ' state. They had learned, by a de- 
 lightful e.tperience, how much these Asiatic 
 ware, undertaken from a principle, or at least 
 carried on under a pretext of religion, had con- 
 tributed to fill their coffers, augment their au- 
 thority, and cover them with glory; and there- 
 fore they had nothing more at heart than the 
 renewal and prolongation of these sacred expe- 
 
 * See 'Wadding, Annal. Minor, tom. iii. p. 116, 149, 
 179, 256. 
 
 t 'Wadding, tom. iv. p. 35. tom. v. p. 128. See par- 
 ticularly an accurate and ample- account of the ne- 
 gotiations between the- pontiife and the Tartars, in 
 the Historia Ecclesiastica Tartarorum, already men- 
 tioned. 
 
 X Odor. Eaynaldus, Annal. Ecclesiastic, tom. xiv. 
 ad annum 1^8, sect. 17, and adawtium 1289, sect. 
 
 59 Pierre Bergeron, Traite des.Tartares, chap. xi. ^ 
 
 See also the writers mentioned in the Historia E& 
 clesiastica Tartarorum. 
 
Chap. I. 
 
 PROSPEROUS EVENTS. 
 
 335 
 
 ditions.* Innocent III., therefore, sounded 
 the charge; but the greatest part of the Euro- 
 pean princes and nations were deaf to the 
 voice of the holy trumpet. At length, how- 
 ever, after many unsuccessful attempts in dif- 
 ferent countries, a body of French nobles en- 
 tered into an alliance with the republic of 
 Venice, and set sail for the east with an army 
 that was far from being formidable. The event 
 of this new expedition was by no means an- 
 swerable to the expectations of the pontiff. 
 The French and Venetians, instead of steer- 
 ing their course toward Palestine, sailed di- 
 rectly for Constantinople, and, in 1203, took 
 that imperial city by storm, with a design of 
 restoring to the throne Isaac Angelus, who 
 implored their succour against the violence of 
 his brother Alexius, the usurper of the empire. 
 In the following year a dreadful sedition was 
 raised at Constantinople, in which the empe- 
 ror Isaac was put to death,- and his son, the 
 young Alexius, was strangled by Alexius 
 Ducas, the ringleader of this furious faction.f 
 The account of this atrocity no sooner came to 
 the ears of the chiefs of the crusade, than they 
 made themselves masters of ConstaJitinople 
 for the second time, dethroned and drove from 
 the city the tyrant Ducas, and elected Baldwin, 
 coiant of Flanders, emperor of the Greeks. 
 This proceeding was a source of new divisions; 
 for, about two years after this, the Greeks re- 
 solved to set up, in opposition to this Latin 
 emperor, one of their own nation, ajid elected, 
 for that purpose, Theodore Lascaiis, who chose 
 Nice in Bithynia for the place of his imperial 
 residence. From this period until the year 
 1261, "two emperors reigned over the Greeks; 
 one of their own nation, who resided at Nice; 
 and the other of Latin or French extraction, 
 who lived at Constantinople, the ancient me- 
 tropolis of the empire. But, in the year 1261, 
 the face of things was changed by the Grecian 
 emperor, Michael Palaeologus, who, by the 
 valour and stratagems of his general, Ceesar 
 Alexius, became master of Constantmdple, and 
 forced the Latin emperor to abandon that city, 
 and save himself by flight into Italy. Thus fell 
 thp empire of the Franks at Constantinople, 
 after a duration of fifty-seven years. J; 
 
 IV. Another sacred expedition was under- 
 taken in 1217, under the pontificate of Hoho- 
 rius ni.> by the confederate arms of Italy and 
 Germany. The allied army was commanded 
 in chief by Andrew, king of Hungary, who 
 was joined by Leopold, duke of Austria, Louis 
 
 * Tliia is remarked by the writers of the twelfth 
 century, who .soon perceived the avaricious and 
 despotic views of the pontiffs, in the encouragement 
 they gave to the crusades. See Mattb. Farijs, Hist. 
 Major. 
 
 (^ t The learned authors of the Universal Histo- 
 ry call this ringleader, by mistake, John Ducas. 
 
 J See, for a full account of this empire. Da Presne, 
 Histoirede TEmpiredc Constantinople sous les Empe- 
 reura Francois; in the former part of which we find 
 the Histoire de la Conquete de la Ville de Constan- 
 tinople par les Francois, written by Godfrey de 
 Ville-Harduin, one of the French chiefs concerned 
 in the expedition. This work makes a part of the 
 Byzantine history. See also daude Fontenay, His- 
 toire de I'Eglise Gallicane, torn. x. Guntheri Monachi 
 Histor. captae a Latinis Constantinopoleos, in Henr. 
 Caniiii Lect. Antiq. torn, iv.— Innocentii III. Epis- 
 tol. a Baluzio edit. 
 
 of Bavaria, and several dlhei'^princes. Aftei 
 the lapse of a few months, Andrew returned 
 into Europe. The remainihg-chiefs carried on 
 the war with vigour, and, in 1220, made them- 
 selves masters of Dajnietta, the strongest city 
 in Egypt; but thejr prosperity was of a short 
 duration; for, in the following year, their fleet 
 was totally ruitied by that oi'^ the Saracens, 
 their provisions were cut off, and their army 
 reduced to the greatest difficulties. Tliis irre- 
 parable loss, being followed'by that of- Dami- 
 etta, blasted all their hopes, and removed the 
 flattering prospects which their successful be- 
 ginnings had presentea to their expectations.* 
 V. The legates and missionaries of the court 
 of Rome still continued to ahimate the lan- 
 guishing zeal of the European princes in be- 
 half oF the Christian cause in Palestine, and to 
 revive the spirit of crusading, which so many 
 calamities and disasters had almost totally ex- 
 tinguished. At length, in consequence of 
 their- lively remonstrances, a hew army was 
 raised, and a new expedition -undertaken, 
 which excited great expectations, and drew the 
 attention of Europe so much the more, as it 
 was generally believed that this army was to 
 be commanded by the emperor Frederic, II. 
 That prince had, indeed, oWiged himself by a 
 solemn promise, made to the Roman pontiff, 
 to imdertake the direction of this enterprise; 
 and what added a new degree of force to this 
 engagement, and seemed to render the viola- 
 tion of it impossible,, was the marriage that he 
 had contracted, in 1223, with Jolanda, daugh- 
 ter of John, count of Brienne, and king of 
 Jerusalem; by which alliance that kingdom 
 was to be added to his European dominions. 
 Notwithstanding these inducements, he postr< 
 poned his voyage under various pretences, and 
 did not set out until the year 1228, when^ 
 after having been excommunicated on account 
 of his delay, by the incensed pontiff Grsgory 
 IX,t he followed with a small train of atten.i 
 dants the troops, who expected, with the most 
 anxious impatience, his arrival inl^estipe. 
 No sooner did he land in that disputed king- 
 doTQ, than, instead of carrying on the war with 
 vigour, he turned all his thoughts toward peace, 
 and, without Consulting the other princes and 
 chiefs 1^ the crusade, concluded, .jn 1229, a 
 treaty of peace, or rather a truce often years, 
 with Malec-al-Camel, sultan of Egypti The 
 principal- article of this treaty was, that Fred" 
 eric should be put in possession of the city 
 and kingdom of Jeru^lem. This condition 
 was immediately executed; and the emperor. 
 
 * See Jac. de V.itriaco, Histor. -Oriental.- et 'Mari- 
 nus Sanutus, Secret, fide]. Crucis inter Bongarsianos 
 desacrisbellis Scriptores, sea Gesta Dei per Franco's. 
 *' Q^ t This papal excommun^tion, which was 
 drawn up in the most outrageous and indecent laa- 
 guagBj was so far from exciting Frederic td accele- 
 rate his departure for Palestine, that it produced no 
 effect upon, him at all, and was, on the contrary, re- 
 ceived with 'the utmost contempt. He /tefended 
 himself by his ambassador at Rome, and showgTlthat 
 the reasons of his delay were solid and just, and not 
 mere pretexts, as the pope had pretended. At the 
 same time, he wrote a remarkable letter to Henry 
 III. king of England, in which he complained .of the 
 insatiable avarice, the boundless ambition, the per- 
 fidious and hypocritical proceedings of the Roman 
 pontifis. See Fleury, Histoire Ecclesiastique, liv* 
 Ixxix. torn. xvi. 
 
336 
 
 EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 PaetI. 
 
 entering the city with great pomp, accompanied , 
 by a nmnerous train, placed the crown upon 
 his head with his own hands; and, having thus- 
 settled affairs in Palestine, ho returned with- 
 out delay into Italy, to :appease. the discords 
 and commotions which the vindictive and am- 
 bitious pontiff had excited in his absence. 
 Notwithstanding all tlio reproaches' that were 
 cast upon the emperor by the pope and his 
 creatures, this expedition was, in reality, the 
 most successful of any that had been under- 
 taken against the infidels.* 
 
 VI. The expeditions that followed this were 
 less important, and also less successful. In 1239, 
 Theobald VI.,t count of Champagne -and king 
 of Navarre, set out from Marseilles 'for the 
 Holy Land, accompanied by several French 
 and German prmces, as did also, in the-follow- 
 ing year, Richard, earl of Cornwall, brother to 
 Henry III., king of England. The issue of 
 these two expeditions by no means correspond-. 
 ed with the preparations which were made to 
 render them successful. The former failed 
 through the influence of the eipperor'sj am- 
 bassadors in Palestine, who renewed the truce 
 with the Moslems; while on the other hand, a 
 considerable body of Christians were defeated 
 at Q-aza, and such as escaped the carnage re- 
 turned into Europe. Tliis fatal event .was 
 principally occasioned by the discord that 
 reigned between the templars and the kniglits 
 of St. John of Jerusalem. Hence it came to 
 pass, that the arrival .of Richard, which had 
 been industriously retarded by Gregory, and 
 which" had revived, in some degree, the hopes 
 of the vanquished; was ineffectual to repair 
 their losses; and all that this prince could do, was 
 to enter, with the consent of the allies, into a 
 truce, upon as good conditions as the declining 
 state of tlieir affairs would admit. This truce 
 was accordingly concluded with thq sultaii of 
 Egypt in 1241; after which Richard immedi- 
 ately set sail for Europe. §■ - ' 
 
 Vn. The affairs of the Christians in the east 
 daily declined. Intestine discords and ill-con- 
 ducted expeditions had reduced them almost 
 to extremities, when Louis IX., king of France, 
 who was canonised after his death, and is still 
 worshipped with the utmost deyotipn,attempted 
 their restoration. It was in consequence <if a 
 vow, which this prince had made in the year 
 1248, when he was seized with a "dangerous 
 illness, that he undertook this arduous task; 
 and, in the execution of it, he set sail for 
 
 * See the writers who have composed the history 
 of the holy wars, and of the life and exploits of 
 Frederic n. See also Muratori'a Annates -Itali; 
 and the various authors of the GerinaniC/History. 
 
 9^ t Dr. Mosheim calls him, by a mistake, Theo- 
 bald V.; unless we attribute this fault to an error 
 of the press. - 
 
 {|(J- I This was Prederic II. who had a great party 
 in Palestine, and did not act in concert with the 
 clergy' an'd the creatures of his bitter enemy, Grego- 
 ry IX.; from which division the Christian c^use suf- 
 fered much. 
 
 § Air .these circumstances are accurately related 
 and illustrated , by the learned George Clirist. Ge- 
 baureus, in his 'Historfa Ricardi Imperatoris, lib. i. 
 p. 34,^^It appears, however, by the Epistolre Petri de 
 VineiSj'that Richard was created, by Frederic, his 
 lord lieutenant of the kingdom of Jerusalem; and 
 this furnishes a probable reason why Gregory used 
 all possible means to retard Richard's voyage. 
 
 Egypt with a formidable army and a numerous 
 fleet, from a notion that the conquest of this 
 province would enable him to carry on the 
 war in Syria and Palestine with greater facility 
 and success. The first attempts of the £alous 
 monai'ch were crowned with victory; tor Da- 
 mietta, that famous' Egyptian city, yielded to 
 his arms; but the smiling prospect was soon 
 changed, and the progress of the war presented 
 one uniform scene of calamity and desolation. 
 The united horrors of famine and pestilence 
 overwhelmed the royal army, whose provisions 
 vs^ere cut off by the Mohammedans, in 1250; 
 Robert, earl of Artois, the king's brother; 
 having surprised the Saracen army, and) 
 through an excess of valour, pursued them too 
 far, was slain in the engagement; and, a few 
 days after, Louis, two of his brothers,* and the 
 greatest part of his army, were made prisoners 
 in a bloody action, after a bold and obstinate 
 resistance. This valiant monarch, who was 
 endowed with true greatness of mind, and who 
 was extremely pious, though after the manner 
 that prevailed in this age of superstition and 
 darkness, was ransomed at an immense price;t 
 and, after having spent about four years in 
 Palestine, returned into France, in 1254, with 
 a -handful of men , J the miserable remains of his 
 formidable army. ' 
 
 VIII. No calamities could deject the courage 
 or damp the invincible spirit of Louis; nor did 
 he look upon his vow as fulfilled by what he 
 had already done in Palestine. He- therefore 
 resolved upon a new expedition, fitted out a 
 formidable fleet, with which -he set sail for 
 Africa, accomjianied by a splendid train of 
 princes and nobles, and proposed to begin in 
 that part of the world his operations against 
 the .infidels, that he might either convert them 
 to the Christian faith, or draw from thek trea- 
 sures the means of carrying on more effectually 
 the war in Asia. Immediately after his arrival 
 upon the- African coast, he made himself mas- 
 ter of the fort of Carthage; but this success 
 was soon followed by a fatal change in his .af- 
 fairs'." A pestilential disease broke out in the 
 fleet, in the harbour of Tunis, carried off the 
 greatest part of the army, and seized, at 
 fength, the monarch himself, who fell a victim 
 to its rage, on the 25th of August, 1270.| 
 
 (0-* Alphonsus.'carl of Poictiers, and' Charles, 
 eart of Anjou. ■ . , ^ 
 
 DS- t The ransom, whicll, together with the resto- 
 ration of Damietta, the king was obliged to pay foi 
 his liberty, was 800,000 gold bezants, and not 80,000, 
 as- Collier erroneously reckons. This sum, which 
 was equal then to 500,000 livres of French money, 
 would in our days, amount to the value of 4,000,000 
 of livres, that is, to about IVO.OOOi. sterling. 
 
 t Of 2,800 illustrious knights, who set out with 
 Louis from France, there remained about 100 when 
 he sailed from. P.alcstine. See Joinville's Hist.de S. 
 Louis. ' . , 3 » 1, 
 
 S Among the various histories that desnrve to be 
 consulted for a more ample account of this last crn- 
 sade, the principal place is due to the Histoire de b. 
 Louis IX. du nom, Roy de France, ecrite par Jean 
 Sr. de Joinville, enrichie de nouvelles Dissertations 
 et ObservaUons Bistoriques, par Charles du Presne, 
 Paris, 1688. See also Pilleau de la Chaise, Histolre 
 de B. Louis, Paris, 1688, -2 vols. 8vo.— Menconis 
 Chronicon, in Ant. Matthffii Aualect. veteris Kvi, 
 torn, iii.— Luc. Wadding, Annales Minorum, torn. iv. 
 — Boulay, Hist. Acad. Paris, torn, iii.— Pierre Claude 
 Fontenay, Histoire de I'Bglise Gallicane, tom-.xi. 
 
Chap. II. 
 
 Louis was the last of the European princes 
 that embarked in the holy war; the dangers 
 and difficulties, the calamities and disorders, 
 and the enormous expenses that accompanied 
 each crusade, disgusted the most zealous, and 
 discouraged the most intrepid promoters of 
 these fanatical expeditions. In consequence 
 of this, the Latin empire in the east declined 
 apace, notwithstanding the effortS'Of the Ro- 
 man pontiffs to maintain and support it; and 
 in the year 1291, after the taking of Ptolemais 
 ay the Mohammedans, it was entirely over- 
 thrown.* It is natural to inquire into the true 
 causes that contributed to this unhappy revo-, 
 lution in Palestine; and these causes are 'evi- 
 dent. We must not seek for them either in 
 the councils or iii the valour of the infidels, 
 but in the dissensions that reigned in the 
 Christian armies, in the profligate lives of those 
 who balled themselves the champions of the 
 cross, and in tlie ignorance, obstinacy, ava^ 
 rice, and insolence, of the pope's legates. 
 
 IX. Christianity had not yet tamed the fe- 
 rocity, or conquered the pagan superstitions 
 and prejudicjes, that still prevailed in some of 
 the western provinces. Among others, the 
 Prussians, a fierce and savage nation, retained' 
 the idolatrous worship of their ancestors with 
 the most obstinate perseverance; nor did the 
 arguments and exhortations employed by the 
 ecclesiastics, who were sent from time' to time 
 to convert them, produce the least effect upon 
 their stubborn and intractable spirits. The 
 brutish firmness of these Pagans induced Con- 
 rad, duke of Masovia, to have recourse to 
 more forciblCj methods than reason and argu- 
 ment, in order to effect their conversion, For 
 this purpose, he addressed himself, in the year 
 1230, to the knights of the Teutonic order of 
 St. Mary, (who, after their expulsion from Pa- 
 lestine, had settled at Venice,) and gngaged 
 thei^, by pompous promises, to undertake the 
 conquest and conversion of the -Prussians. The 
 knights accordingly arrived in Prussia, imder 
 the command of Herman de Saltza, and, after 
 a most cruel and obstinate war of fifty years 
 with that resolute people, "obliged tliem to ac- 
 kncwledge the sovereignty of the Teutonic or- 
 der, and to embrace the Christian faith.f After 
 having established Christianity, And fixed their 
 own dominion in Prussia, these booted apostles 
 made several incursions into the neighboiirihg 
 countries, and particularly into Lithuania, 
 where they pillaged, burned, massacred, and 
 ruined all before . them, until they forced tlie 
 inhabitants of that miserable province to ih-o- 
 fess a feigned submission to the Gospel, or 
 rather to the furious and unrelenting missiona- 
 ries, by whom it was propagated in a manner 
 so contrary to its divine maxims, and to the 
 benevolent spirit of its celestial anthor.| 
 
 CALAMITOUS EVENTS. 
 
 SST 
 
 * Ant. MatthEei Analecta veteris ajvi, torn, v — 
 Jaq. Echardi Scriptor. Dominican, torn. i.-7lmola in 
 Dantem^ in Muratorii Antjq. Italics medii ffiyi, tpm.i. 
 
 I See Matthffii Analecta vet. avi, torn. iii. p. 18. 
 torn. V. p. 684 — 689. — Chronicon Fruasis, by Peter of ■ 
 Daisbutg.— Hartknflclfs History of the FrusEian 
 Church, written in tbe German language, book i. 
 chap, i., and Antiqiiitates Frussiae, Diss, xjv.— Balu- 
 zii Miscellanea, torn, vii.— Wadding's Annales Mi- 
 nor. ' torn, iv.— Htstoire de Polagne par Solignac, 
 torn. ii. 
 
 t Beside the authors mentioned in the t)rcceding 
 
 * 'Vol. I.— 4SS 
 
 X' In Spain the cause of the Gospel gained 
 ground. The' kings of Castile, Leon, Navarre, 
 and Arragon, waged^ perpetual war with the 
 Saracen princes, who' held still under their do- 
 minion the kingdoms of Valencia, Granada, 
 and Murcia-, togetlier with the province of 
 Andalusia; and this \yar was carried on with 
 such success, that the Saracen dominion de- 
 clined apace, and was daily reduced within 
 narrower bounds, while the limits of the church 
 were extended on every side. The princes 
 whochiefly contributed to this happy revolu- 
 tion were Ferdinand, Idng of Leoil' and Cas- 
 tile, who, after his death, obtained a place ip 
 the kalen(}ar, his father Alphonso IX., king 
 of Leon', and James I., of Arragon.* The last, 
 moreespecially, distinguised hiijiself eminently 
 by his fervent zeal for the advancement of 
 Christianity; for no sooner had he made him- 
 self master of Valencia, in the year 1236, than 
 he employed, with the greatest pains and as- 
 siduity, every possible method of converting to 
 the faith his Arabian subjects, whose expulsion 
 would have been an irreparable loss to his 
 kingdom. For this purpose he ordered the 
 Dominicans, of whose ministry he principally 
 made use in this salutary work, to learn the 
 Arabic tongue; and he founded public schools 
 at Majorca- and Barcelona, in which . a cohsi- 
 derab^ number of youths were educated in a 
 manner that might enable them to preach the 
 Gospel in that language. When these pious 
 efforts were found to' be ineffectual, pope Cle- 
 ment IV. exhorted the king to drive the Mo- , 
 hammedans out of Spain. The obsequious 
 prinee attempted to follow the counsel of the 
 inconsiderate pontiff; in the execution of which, 
 however, he met with great difficulty, from Uje 
 opposition of the Spanish nobles on one hand, 
 and from the obstinacy of the Moors on the 
 other.f 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Concerning the Calamitom Events that jtopfened 
 
 to the Church dwn!ng tins Century. 
 
 I. The accounts we have already given of 
 the Tartarian conquests, and of the unhappy 
 issue of the crusades-,- will be sufficient to sug- 
 gest a lively idea of the melancholy condition 
 to which the Christians "were reduced in Asia; 
 and, if the Saracens had been infected witE the 
 same odious spirit of persecution that possessed 
 the crusards, there would not perhaps have re- 
 mained a single Christian in that part of the 
 world. But, though these infidels were charge- 
 able with various crimes, and had frequently 
 treated the Christians in a rigorous and injuri- 
 ous manner, they looked with horror upon 
 those scenes of persecution, which the Latins , 
 exhibited as the exploits of heroic piety, and , 
 considered it as the highest and most atrocious 
 inark'of injustice and cruelty, to force unha|tpy 
 men, by fire and swprd, to,abandon their reli- 
 gious principles, or to put the;n to deatl; 
 merely because they refiiked to change their 
 
 note, seaLudwig's Keliquia: Manuscriptorum omnia 
 ajvi, tom. i. 
 
 * See Joh. Ferreras, History of Spain, vol. iv. 
 
 t See Geddes* History of the Expulsion of the Mo^ 
 rescoes, in his Miscellaneous Tracts, vol. i< 
 
938 
 
 EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part I 
 
 opinions. After the destruction of the king- 
 dom of Jerusalem, many of the Latins remain- 
 ed still in Syria, and, retiring into the dark 
 and solitary, recesses of mount Libanus, lived 
 there in a savage manner, and lost, by degrees, 
 all sense of religion and humanity, as appears 
 from the" conduct and- characters of their de- 
 scendants, who still inhabit the same unculti- 
 vated wilds, and who seem almost entirely 
 destitute of all knowledge of God and religion.* 
 n. The Latin writers of this age complain 
 in many places of. the growth of infidelity, of 
 daring and licentious writers, some of whom 
 publicly attacked the doctrines of Christianity, 
 while others went so far as atheistically to call 
 in question the perfections and government of 
 the Supreme Being. These complaints, how- 
 ever they might have been exaggerated in 
 some respects, were yet far from being entirely, 
 destitute of fomidation; and the superstition 
 of the age was too naturally adapted to create 
 a number of infidels and libertines, among men 
 who had more capacity than judgment, more 
 wit than solidity. Persons of this character, 
 when they fixed their attention only upon that 
 aibsurd system of religion, which the Roman 
 pontiffs and their dependants exhibited as the 
 true religion of Christ, and n;aintained by the 
 odious influence of bloody persecution, were, 
 for want of the means of being better instruct- 
 ed, unhappily induced to consider the Christian 
 religion as a fable, invented and propagated by 
 greedy and ambitious priests, in order to fill 
 their coffers, and to render their authority re- 
 spectable. The philosophy of Aristotle, which 
 flourished in all the European schools, and was 
 looked upon as the very essence of right rea- 
 son, contributed much to support this delusion, 
 alid to nourish a proud and presumptuous spi- 
 rit of infidelity. This quibbUng and intricate 
 philosophy led many to reject some of the 
 most evident and important doctrines both of 
 rlatural and revealed religion; such as the doc- 
 trine of a divine providence governing the uni- 
 verse, the immortality of the soul, the scriptu- 
 ral account of the origin of the world, and 
 various points of less moment. Not only were 
 these doctrines rejected, but the most perni- 
 " Cious errors were industriously propagated in 
 opposition to them, by a set of Aristotelians, 
 who were extremely active in gaining prose- 
 Ivtes to their.impious jargpn.t 
 
 HI. If the accusations brought against Fre 
 deric II. by pope Gregory IX. deserve any cre- 
 dit, that prince may be ranked among the most 
 inveterate and -malignant enemies of the Chris- 
 tian religion, since he was charged by the 
 pontiff with laaving said, that the world had 
 been deceived by three impostors, Moses, 
 Christ, and Mohammed.* This charge was 
 answered by a solemn and public profession of 
 his faitii, which the emperor addressed to all- 
 the kin^ and princes of Em'ope, to whom also 
 had been addressed the accusation brought 
 against him. The charge, however, was found- 
 ed upon the testimony of Henry Rospon, land- 
 grave of Thuringia, who declared that he had 
 heard the emperor pronounce the abominable 
 blasphemy above mentioned.f It is, after all, 
 difficult to decide with sufficient evidence upon 
 this point. Frederic, who was extremely pas- 
 sionate and imprudent, 'may, perhaps, in a fit 
 of rage, have suffered some such expression as 
 this to escape his reflection; and this is ren- 
 dered probable by the company he frequented, 
 and the number of learned Aristotelians who 
 were always about his person, and might sug- 
 gest matter enough for such impious expres- ■ 
 sions, as that now under consideration. It was 
 this affair that gave occasion, in after-times, to 
 the invention of that fabulous account,J which 
 supposes the detestable book concerning the 
 three impostors to have been composed by the 
 emperor himself, or by Peter de Vineis, aiiativo 
 of Capua, a man of great credit and authority ,- 
 whom that prince§ had chosen for his prime 
 minister, and in whom he placed the highest 
 confidence. 
 
 * A certain tribe called Derasi, or Drusi, who inha- 
 bit the recesses of the mounts Liban and Anti-Li- 
 ban, pretend to a-descent from the ancient Franks, 
 who were once masters of Palestine. Tins dcriva- 
 tion is indeed, doubtful. It is however certain, that 
 there still remain in these.countr.es descendants of 
 those whom the holy war led from Europe into Pa- 
 latine thoush they do very Uttle honour to their 
 ancestorsrand have nothing of Christians but the 
 
 ° Vsee Sti. Thorns Summa contra Gentes, and Ber- 
 nard! MonetiE Summa contra Catharos et Walden- 
 ses. The latter writer, in the work now mentioned, 
 f nmbats with ffreat spirit, those enemies of Chris- 
 KanUy who appeared in his time. In the fourth 
 chapter of the fifth book, p. 416, he disputes, m an 
 ample and copious manner, against those who af- 
 filed that the soul perished with the body; refutes, 
 in the' eleventh chapter, p. 477, those Aristotelian 
 DhilOBOphers, who held, that the world had existed 
 fcom all eternity, and would never have an end; 
 and In the fifteenth chapter, p. 554, he attacks 
 thoM, who, despising the authOTity of the sacred 
 writiigfl, denjirthe exittence of human hberty, and 
 
 maintain, that all things, and even the crimes of the 
 wicked, are the effects of an absolute and irresistible 
 necessity. Add to these authors, Tempier's Indicu- 
 lus Errorum, qui a nonnuUis M-agistris Lutetix pub- 
 lice privatimque docetfantur. Anno 1277, in Biblio- 
 theca Patrum Maxima, tom. xxv. p. 233; as also 
 Boulay's Hist. Acad. Paris, tom. iii. p. 433, and Ge- 
 rard du Bois' Hist. Eccles. Paris, tom. ii. p. 501. The 
 tenets of these doctors will, no doubt, appear of a 
 surprising nature; for they taught, " that there was 
 only one intellect among all the human race; that 
 all things were subject to absolute fate or necessity; 
 that the universe was not governed by a divine pro- 
 vidence; that the world was eternal and the soul 
 mortal;" and they maintained these and the like 
 monstrous errors, by arguments drawn from the 
 philosophy of Aristotle. But, at the same time, to 
 avoid the just resentment of the people, they held 
 up, as a buckler against their adversaries, that' most 
 dangerous and pernicious distinction between theo- 
 logical and philosophical truth, which has beensince 
 used, with the most cunning and bad faith, by the 
 more recent Aristotelians of the fifteenth and six- 
 teenth centuries. " Th,ese things," say they, (as we 
 learn from Tempier, who was bishop of Paris,) " are 
 true in philosophy, but not according to the catholic 
 faith." Vera sunt hsc secundum pbilosophiam, non 
 secundum fidem catholicam. 
 
 * Matthew Paris, Historia Major, p. 408, 459.— 
 Petr. de Vineis Epistolai'. lib. i. 
 
 t Herm. Giganlis Plores Temporum, p. 126.— Cnr. 
 Fred. Ayrmann, Sylloge Anecdotor. torn. i. p. 639. 
 
 I See Casira. Oudini Commsnt. de Scriptor. Eccle- 
 siasticis, tom. iii. p. 6S.— Alb. Henr. de Sallengre, 
 Memoires d'Histoire et de Literature, tom. i. part i. 
 p. 386. 
 
 UtJ- 5 The. book entitled Liber de iii. Impostonbus, 
 sive Tractatus de Vanitate Religionum, is really a 
 book which had no existence at the time that the 
 mdst noise was made about it, and was spoken of by 
 multitudes before it had been seen by any one per- 
 son. Its supposed existence was probably owing to 
 an'impious saying of Simon Tournay, doctor of di- 
 vinity in the university of Paris in the thirteenth 
 
PART 11. 
 
 THE INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Concerning the state of Learning and Philosophy 
 
 during this Century. 
 
 I, The Greelis, amidat the dreadful calami- 
 ties, discords, and revolutions, that distracted 
 and perplexed their unhappy country, had nei- 
 ther that spirit, nor that leisure, which are ne- 
 cessary for the culture of the arts and sciences. 
 Yet, under all these disadvantages, they retain- 
 ed a icertain portion of their former spirit, and 
 did not entirely ahandon the cause -of learning 
 and philosophy, as" appears from the writers 
 that arose among them during this, century. 
 Their best historians were Nicetas Choniates, 
 Georgius Acropolita, Gregorius Paehymeres, 
 and Joel, whose Chronology is yet extant. We 
 learn from the writings of Gregory Paehymeres, 
 and Nicephorus Blemmida, that the Peripate* 
 tic philosophy was not without its admirers 
 among the Greeks, though the Platonic was 
 most in vogue. The greatest part of the Gre- 
 cian philosophers, following the example of 
 the later Platonists, wh9se W9rks were the 
 subject of their constant meditation, were iu» 
 clincd to reduce the wisdom of Plato and' the 
 subtilties of the Stagirite into one system, and 
 to reconcile, as well as they could, their jarring 
 principles. It is not necessary to exhibit a 
 list of those authors, who wrote the lives and 
 discourses of the saints, or distinguished them- 
 selves in the controversy with the Latin church, 
 or of those who employed their learned labours 
 in illustrating the canon law. of the Greeks. 
 The principal Syrian writer, which this cen- 
 
 century, which amounts to this: " That the Jews 
 were seduced out of their senses, by Moses, the 
 Christians by Jesus, and the -Gentiles by Moham- 
 med." This, or some expressions of a similar kind, 
 were imputed to the emperor Frederic, and other 
 persons, perhaps without any real foundation; and 
 the imaginary book to which they have given -rise, 
 bas been attributed by different authors to Frederic, 
 to l»s chancellor Peter de Vineis, to Alphonso, king 
 of Castile, to Boccace, Poggio,.the Aretins, Pompo- 
 nace, Machiavel, ErasmuSj Ocliinus,. Servetus, Ra- 
 belais, Giordano 'Bruno, Campanella, and many 
 others. In a word, the book was long spoken of be- 
 fore any such work existed; but the rumour that was 
 spread abroad encouraged some profligate traders in 
 licentiousness to compose, or rather compile, a bun- 
 dle of miserable rhapsodies, under the famous title 
 of the Three Impostors, in order to impose upon such 
 as are fond of these pretended rarities. Accordingly, 
 the Spaccio della Bestia Triomphante of Giordano 
 Bruno, and a wretched piece of impiety called the 
 Spirit of Spinoza, were the ground-work of mate- 
 rials from which these hireling compilers, by modi- 
 fying some passages, and adding others, drew the 
 book which now jesses under the name of the Three 
 ' Impostors, of which I have seen two copies in ma- 
 nuscript, but no printed edition. See La Monnoye's 
 Dissertation sur le Livre des Trois Imposteurs, pub- 
 lished at Amsterdam in 1715, at the end of the fourth 
 volume of the Menagiana. See also an answer to 
 this Dissertation, which was impudently exposed to 
 the public eye, in 1716, from the press of Scheurleer 
 at the Hague, and which contains a fabulous story 
 of the origin of the book in question. Whoever is 
 desirous of a more ample and a very curious account 
 of this matter, will find it in the late Prosper Mar- 
 chand's Dictionaire Historique, vol. ii. at the article 
 Imposteurs. 
 
 tuiy produced, was Gregory Abul-Fara.ji pri- 
 mate of the Jacobites, a man of true genius 
 and universal learning, who was a judicioua 
 divine, an eminent historian, and a good phi- 
 losopher.* ■ George Elraacin, who composed 
 the history of the Saracens, was also a writer 
 of no mean reputation. 
 
 II. The sciences carried a fairer aspect in 
 the western world, where every branch of eru- 
 dition was cultivated with assiduity and zeal, 
 and, in consequence, flourished -with increas- 
 ing vigour. The European princes had learn- 
 ed, by a happy experience, how much learning 
 and the arts contribute to the grandeur and 
 happiness of a nation^ and therefore they in- 
 vited into their dominions learned men froru 
 all parts of the world, pourishedNthe arts in 
 their bosoms, excited the youth to the love of 
 letters, by crowning their progress with the 
 most noble rewards, and encoiu:aged every ef. 
 f(Jrt of genius, by conferring, upon such as ex- 
 celled, the most honorable distinctions. Among 
 these patrons and protectors of learning, the 
 emperor, Frederic II. and Alphonso X. king of 
 Leon and Castile (two princes as much distin- 
 guished by their own learning, as by the en- 
 couragement they granted to men of genius,) 
 acquired the highest renown, and rendered 
 their names immortal. The former founded 
 the academy of Naples, had the works of Aris- 
 totle translated into Latin, assembled about 
 his person all the learned men whom he could 
 engage by his munificence to repair to his 
 court, and gave other undoubted proofs of his 
 zeal for the advancement of the arts and sci- 
 ences.f The latter obtained an illustrious and 
 permanent renown by several learned prodtic- 
 
 * See Bayle's Dictionary, at the article.Abulpha- 
 rage; as also Jos. Simon. Assemani Bibliotheca Ori- 
 entalis, Vatican, torn. ii. caput xlii. p. 244. 
 
 d^ Abulpharagius, or Abul-Faraj, was a native 
 of Malatia, a city in Armenia, near the source of 
 the river Euphrates, and acquired a vast reputa,tion 
 in the east, on account of his extensive erudition. 
 He composed an Abridgment of Universal History, 
 fVom the beginning of the world to his owri times, 
 which he divided into ten parts or dynasties.' The 
 first comprehends the history of the ancient patri- 
 archs from Adam to Moses.' The second, that of 
 Joshua and the other judges of Israel. The third, 
 fourth, fifth, and sixth, contain the history of the 
 kings of ,Isr.ael, of the Chaldean princes, of the Per- 
 sian Magi, and Of the Grecian monarchs. The se- 
 venth relates to the Eoman history; the eighth to 
 that of the Greek emperors of Constantinople. In 
 the ninth he treats of the Arabian princes; and in 
 the tenth of the Moguls. He is more to be depended 
 upon in his history of the Saracens and Ta.rtars, than 
 in his accounts vOf other nations.- The learned Dr. 
 Edward Pocock translated this work into Latin, and 
 published his translation in 1663-4, with a supple- 
 ment, which carries on the history of the oriental 
 princes, where Abul-Faraj. left it. The same learn- 
 ed translator had obliged the public, in 1650, with an 
 abridgment of the ninth dynasty, under the follow- 
 ing title: "Specimen Histpris Arabum. sive Grego- 
 rii Abulfaragii Malatiensis de Origrne et Moribus 
 Arabum succincta Narratio." 
 
 t Boulay, Hist. Acad. Paris, torn. iii. p. .115. Gi- 
 annone, Historia di Napoli, torn. ii. p. 497. Add to 
 these the observations of Jo. Alb. Fabricius,.Bib]i^ 
 oth. Latin, medii .^vi, tom^i. p. '618. 
 
340 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part II. 
 
 tions, but more especially by his famous As- 
 tronomical tables.* In consequence then of 
 the protection that was given to the sciences 
 in this century, academies were erected almost 
 in every city; peculiar privileges * of various 
 kinds were granted to the youth that frequented 
 them; and these learned societies acquired, at 
 length, the form of political bodies; that is to 
 say, they wern invested with a certain juris- 
 diction, and were governed by their own laws 
 and statutes. 
 
 ni. In the public schools or academies that 
 were founded at Padua, Modena, Naples, Ca- 
 pua, Toulouse, Salamanca, Lyons, and Co- 
 logne, the whole circle of science was pot 
 taught, as in our times. The application of 
 the youth, and the labours of their instructors, 
 were limited to certain branches of learning; 
 and thus the course of academical education 
 remained imperfect. The academy of Paris, 
 which surpassed all the rest, both with respect 
 to the number and abilities of its professors, 
 and the multitude of students by whom it Was 
 frequented, was the first learned society which 
 extended the sphere of education, received all 
 the sciences into its bosom, and appointed mas- 
 ters for every branch of erudition. Hence it 
 was distinguished, before a6y other academy, 
 ■with the title of an university, to denote its 
 embracing the whole body of science; and, in 
 process of time, other schools of learning were 
 ambitious of forming themselves upon the same 
 model, and of being honoured with the same 
 title. In this famous university, the doctors 
 were divided into four colleges or classes, ac- 
 cording to the branches of learning they pro- 
 fessed; and these classes were called, in after- 
 times, faculties. In each of these fkculties, a 
 doctor was chosen by the suffrages of his col- 
 leagues, to preside during a fixed period in the 
 society; and the title of dean was given to 
 those who successively filled that eminent of- 
 fice.f The head of the' university, whose in- 
 spection and jurisdiction extended to all bran- 
 ches of that- learned body, was dignified with 
 the name of chancellor; and that high and ho- 
 ne urable place was filled by the bishop of Paris, 
 to whom an assistant was afterwards joined, 
 who shared the administration with hini, and 
 was invested with an extensive authority.]: 
 The college set apart for the studjr of diyimly 
 was first ereote^l and endowed,' in the year 
 1250, by an opulent and pious man, whose 
 name was Robert de Sorbonne, (a particular 
 friend and favourite of St. Louis,) whose name 
 was adopted, and is still retained by that theo' 
 logical society.^ 
 
 '» Nic AntonilBfbliothecaVetusHiSpan. lib. viii. 
 c. V. p. 217. Jo. de Ferreras, Histoire d'Bspagne, torn. 
 
 '^'t^liis arrangement was executed about the year 
 1260. See Du Boulay, Histor. Acad. Pans. torn, he 
 
 '"'t^See^^Herm; Conrtngii Antiquitates Academibie, 
 a work however, susceptible of considerable no- 
 nrovements. The important work mentioned in 
 the preceding note, and which is divided into six vo- 
 lumerdeservcs to He principally consulted m this 
 Doint as well as in all others that relate to the his- 
 torv alid eovernment of the university of Pans;, add 
 to this Claud. Hemerffii I-iber de Academia Parisi- 
 ensi qialie prime ftiit in insula et episcoporum scho 
 
 'ifcrDuToula/'Hist. Acad. Pari«. torn. iil. p, 
 
 IV. Such as were de^rous of being chosen 
 professors in any of the faculties or colleges of 
 this university, were obliged to submit to a long 
 and tedious course of probation, and to suffer 
 the strictest examinations, and to give, during 
 several' years, undoubted proofs of their learn- 
 ing and capacity, before they were received 
 in the character of public teachers. This 
 severe discipline was called the academical 
 course; and it was wisely designed to prevent 
 the number of professors from multiplying be- 
 yond measure, and also to prevent such as 
 were destitute of erudition and abilities from 
 assuming an office, which was justly looked 
 upon as of high importance. They who had 
 satisfied all the demands of this academical law, 
 and had gone through the formidable trial 
 with applause, were Solemnly invested with 
 the dignity of professors, and were saluted 
 masters with a. certain i'ound of ceremonies, 
 that were used in the societies of illiterate 
 tradesmen, when their company was aug- 
 mented by a new candidate. This vulgar 
 custom had been introduced, in the preceding 
 century, by the professors of law in the aca- 
 demy of Bologna; and, in this century, it was 
 transmitted to that of Paris, where it was first 
 practised by the divinity-colleges, and after- 
 wards by the professors of physic and of the 
 liberal arts, m this account of the trial and 
 installatioii of the professors, of Paris, we may, 
 perceive the origin of what we now call actf- 
 demical degrees, which, like all other human 
 institutions, have miserably degenerated from 
 the wise ends for which they were at first ap- 
 pointed, and grow more insignificant from day 
 to day.* 
 
 V. These public institutions, consecrated to 
 the advancement of learning, were attended 
 with remarkable success; but that branch of eru- 
 dition, which we call humanity or polite litera- 
 ture, derived less advantage from them than 
 the other sciences. The industrious youth 
 either applied themselves entirely to the study- 
 of the civil and canon laws, which was a 
 sure path toi>referment, or employed their la- 
 bours in philosophical researches, in order to 
 the attainment of a shining reputation, and of 
 the applause that was lavished upon such as 
 were endowed with a subtile and metaphysi- 
 cal genius. Hence arose the bitter complaints 
 of the pontiffs and other bishops, of the neglect 
 and decline of the- liberal arts and sciences; 
 and hence alsoiie zealous, but unsuccessful 
 efforts thtey ^used to turn the youth &om juris- 
 prudence and philosophy, to the study of hu- 
 manity and philology.f Notwithstanding all 
 this, the thirteenth century produced several 
 writerSj Who were very far fi:om being oon- 
 temptible, such as WiUiam Brito,t Walter 
 223.— Du Fresne's Annotations upon the Life of St. 
 Louis, written by Joinville, p. 36. 
 
 * Beside the writers above mentioned, see Jo. Cm. 
 Itterus, de Gradibus. Academicis.— Just. Hen. Boh- 
 mer, Pnef. ad Jus Canonicum, p. 14.— Ant. Wood, 
 Antiquit. Oxoniens. torn. i. p. 24.— Boulay, Histor. 
 Acad. Paris, torn. ii. p. 25fi, 682, &;c. 
 
 t Boulay, Hist. Acad. Paris, torn. iii. p. 265, where 
 there is an epistle of Innocent III., who seems to 
 take this matter seriously to heart — Ant. Wood, 
 Antiq. Oxon. torn. i. p. 124.— Imola in Dantem, in 
 Muratori's Antiquit. Ital. medii .^vi, torn. i. p. 1262- 
 
 t See Hist, de 1< Acad, des Inscript, et des I 
 Lettres, t jvi p. 255. 
 
 Belles 
 
Chap. I. 
 
 LEARNING AND PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 Mapes,* Matthew of Vendosme, Alain de 
 risle,f Guntherus, James of Vitri, and seve- 
 ral others, who wrote with ease, and were n6t 
 altogether destitute of elegance. Among the 
 liistorians, the first place is due to Matthew 
 Paris, a writer of the highest merit, both in 
 point of knowledge and prudence, to whom 
 we may add Roderic Ximenes, Rigord,t ^i"" 
 cent of Beauvais, Robert of St. Marino,^ 
 Martinus, a native of Poland, Gervase of Til- 
 bury,|J Conrad of Liclitenau, and William 
 Nangius, whose names are wortliy of being 
 preserved from oblivion. The writers who have 
 laboured to transmit to posterity the lives and 
 exploits of the saints, have rather related the 
 superstitions and miseries of the times, than 
 the actions, of those holy men. ' Among these 
 biographers, James of Vitri, mentioned above, 
 nakes the greatest figure; healso composed a 
 History of the Lombards, that is full of in- 
 sipid and trifling stories.lT '' 
 
 VI. Roger Bacon,** John Balbi, and Robert 
 Capito, with other learned men, whose num- 
 ber, however, was inconsiderable, applied them- 
 selves to the study of Greek literature. The 
 Hebrew language and theology were much less 
 cultivated; though it appears that Bacon and 
 Capito, already mentioned, and Raymond 
 ^artin, author of an excellent treatise, en- 
 titled, Pugio Fidei Christianse, or. The Dagger 
 of the Christian Faith, were extremely well 
 versed in that species of eruditioh. Many of 
 the Spaniards, and more particularly the Do- 
 minican fi-iars, made themselves masters of the 
 Arabian learning and laiiguage, as the kings 
 of Spain had charged the latter with the in- 
 struction and conversidn of the Jews and Sara- 
 cens who resided in their dominions. ft As to 
 the Latin grammarians, the best of 'them were 
 extremely barbarous and insipid, arid equally 
 destitute of taste and knowledge. To be con- 
 
 341 
 
 * Jo. Wolff, Lectiones Memorabil. torn. i. p. 430. 
 ' t Called in Latin, Alanus ab Xnsulis. 
 
 J See the Histoire de TAcademie dcs Inscriptions 
 et des Belles Lettres, torn. xvi. p. 243, wliich also 
 gives an ample account of William of Nangis, page 
 Si02. 
 
 § See Le Boeuf, Memoires .pour I'Histoire-d'Aux- 
 ■erre, torn. ii. p. 490, where there ia also a learned ac- 
 count of Vincent of Beauvais, p. 494. 
 
 (tC^ II Gervase of Tilbury was nephew to Henry 
 II., king of England, and was in high credit with 
 the emperor Otho IV., to whom he dedicated a de- 
 scription of the world aod a Chronicle, both of which 
 he had himseir composed. He wrote also a History 
 of England, and one of the Holy Land, with several 
 treatises upon difierentsubjects. 
 
 IT See Schelhorftii Amoenitates, Literariffi.tom. xi. 
 
 p. :m. 
 
 Q[^ ** This illustrious Franciscan, in point of ge- 
 nius and universal learning, was one of the great- 
 eat ornaments of the British nation, and, in general, 
 of the republic of letters. The astonishing discove- 
 ries he made in astronomy, chemistry, optics, and 
 mathematics, made him pass for a magician in the 
 ignorant and superstitious tjmes in which he lived, 
 while his profound knowledge in philosophy, theolo- 
 gy, and the Greek and Oriental languages, procured 
 him, with more justice, the title of the admirable 
 or wondeiful doctor. Among other discoveries, he is 
 said to have made that of the composition and force 
 of gunpowder, which he describes clearly^in one of 
 his letters; and he proposed much the same correc- 
 tion of the calendar, wliich was executed about 300 
 years after by Gregory III. He composed an extra- 
 ordinary number of books, of which a list may be 
 seen in the General Dictionary. 
 
 ft See Rich. Simon's Lettres Choisies, torn. iii. p. 
 113, and Nic.'Antonii Bibliothcca veins Hispanica, 
 
 vinced of this, we have only to cast an ot-b 
 upon the productions of Alexander de Villa 
 Dei, who was looked, upon as the most emi- 
 nent of them all, and whose works were-read 
 in alpiost all the schools from this period^until 
 the sixteenth century. This pedantic Fran- 
 ciscan- composed, in the year 1240, what he 
 called a Doctrinale, in Leonine verse, fall of 
 the most wretchfed quibbles^ and in^vhich the 
 rules of grammar and criticism are delivered 
 with the greatest confusion and obscurity, -or, 
 rath^, are covered with impenetrable dark- 
 ness. 
 
 VII. The various systemsof philosopliy that 
 were in. vogue before tliis centurjr, lost their 
 credit by degrees, and submitted to the trium- 
 phant doctrine qf Aristotle, which erected a 
 new and despotic empire in the republic of 
 letters, and reduced the- whole ideal world 
 under its -lordly dommion. Several of the 
 works of this philosopher, and more especially 
 his metaphysical productions, had. been, so 
 early as the beginning of this century, trans- 
 lated into Latin at Paris, and were from that 
 time explained to the youth in the public 
 schools.* But when it appeared, that Almericf 
 had drawn from'these books his erroneous. sen- 
 timents cpncerning the divine nature, they 
 were proln'bited, and condemned as pernicious 
 and pestilential, by a public decree of the 
 Council of Sens, in the year 1209.^ The logic 
 of Aristotle, however, recovered its credit sonje 
 yeard after this, and was publicly taught in the 
 university of Paris in the year 1215; but the 
 natural philosophy and metaphysics- of that 
 great, man were still under the sentence of 
 condemnation. § It was reserved for the em- 
 peror Frederic II. to restore the Stagirite to 
 his- former glory, which this prince effected by 
 employing a number, of learned men, whom 
 
 * Franc. Patricii Discuasiones PeripateticEe, torn, 
 i. lib. xi. p. 145. Jo. Launoius de varia Aristot. 
 fortuna in Acad. Parisiensi, cap. i. p. 137, ed. Els- 
 wich. It is commonly reported, that the books of 
 Aristotle here mcjitioned, were translated from 
 Arabic into Latin. But we are told positively, that 
 these books were brought from Constantinople, and 
 translated from Greek into Latin. See Rigord's 
 work de gestis Philippi regis Franc, ad annum 1309, 
 in Andr. Chesnii Scrip. Hist. Franc, p. 119. 
 
 (^^1; Almfix'ic^ or Amauri, does not -seem to have 
 entertained, any enormous errors. He held, that 
 every Christian was obl'iged to believe himself a 
 member of Jesus Christ, and attached, perhaps, 
 some extravagant and fanatical ideas to that opin- 
 ion; but hi? followers fell into more pernicious no- 
 tions, and adopted the most odious te^iets, maintain- 
 ing, that the power of the Father continued no lon- 
 ger than the Mosaic dispensation; that the empi -e of 
 the Son extended only to the thirteenth century; 
 and that- then the reign' of the Holy Ghost com- 
 menced, when all sacraments and external worship 
 were to be abolished, and the salvation of Christians 
 was to be accomplished merely by internal acts of 
 illuminating grace. Their morals also were as infa- 
 mous as their doctrine was absurd; and, under the 
 name of cha,rity, they comprehended and committed 
 the most criminal acts of impurity and licentious-' 
 ness. 
 
 tlj:" t Dr. Mosheim ha« fallen here intn two slight 
 mistakes. It was at Paris, and not at Sens, and in 
 the year 1210, and not 1209, that the metaphysicSV. 
 books of Aristotle were condemned to the flames. 
 The works quoted here by our author, are tJiose-o/ 
 Launoy, de varia Aristotelis fortuna in Acad. Paris, 
 cap, iv. p. 195, and Syllabus rationum quibus Duran- 
 di causa defenditur, torn. i. op. 
 
 § Nat. Alexander, Select. Histor. Ecclesiast. Capi 
 ta, torn. viii. cap. iii. sect. 7. page 76. 
 
342 
 
 INTERNAL fflSTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part H. 
 
 he had chosen with the greatest attention and= 
 care,* and who were profovtndly versed in the 
 knowledge of the languages, to translate into 
 Latin, from the (Jreek and Arabic, certain 
 books of Aristotle, and of other ancient sages. 
 This translation, which was recommended, in 
 a particular manner, to the academy of Bo- 
 logiia by the learned emperor, raised the credit 
 of Aristotle to the greatest height, and gave 
 him an irresistible and despotic authority in all 
 the European schools. This authority was 
 still farther augmented by the^ranslations 
 which were made of some, of the books of the 
 Grecian sjige by several Latin interpreters, 
 such as Michael Scot,' Philip of Tripoli, Wil- 
 liam Fleming, arid others; though these men 
 were quite unequal to the task they undertook, 
 and had neither sacli knowledge of the lan- 
 guages, nor such an acquaintance with phi- 
 .fcsophy, as were necessary to the successful 
 execution of sach a difficult enterprise.^ 
 
 VIII. The Aristotelian philosophy received 
 the very last addition that .could "be made to 
 its authority and lustre, when the Dominican 
 and Franciscan friars adopted its tenets, taught 
 it, ill their schools, and illustrated it in their 
 writings. These two mendicant orders were 
 looked.upon as the chief depositories of all 
 learning', both human and divine; and were 
 followed, with the utmost eagerness and as- 
 siduity, by all such as were ambitious of being 
 distinguished from the multitude by superior 
 knowledge. Alexander Hales, an English 
 Franciscan, who taught philpsophy at Paris, 
 and acquired, ij the strengtljof his metaphysi- 
 cal geniiis, the title of the Irrefragable Doctor,! 
 and Albert the Great, a German of tlie Do- 
 minican order, and bishop of Ratisbon, a man 
 of great abilities, and an universal dictator at 
 this time,| were the first eminent writers who 
 Illustrated, in their learned productions, the 
 Aristotelian system. But it was the disciple 
 of Albert, Thomas Aquinas, the Angelic Doc- 
 tor, arid the great luminary of the scholastic 
 world, that contributed most to the glory of 
 the Stagirite,|| by inculcat ing, illustrating, and 
 
 *Petr [leVineis,Epist.lib.iii.ep.lxvji.p.S03. This 
 epistle is addressed " ad magistros et scliolares Bo- 
 nonienses;" «. e. " to the masters and scholars of the 
 academy of Bologna:" but it is. more than probable, 
 that the emperor sent letters upon this occasion to 
 the other European schools. It is a common opin- 
 ion, that this learned prince had all the works ol 
 Aristotle, that were then extant, translated'into 
 Latin about the year 1220; but this cannot be de- 
 dttced from the letter above mentioned, or from any 
 other sufficient testimony that we know of., 
 
 t See Wood's account of the interpreters of Aris- 
 totle; in his Anti(iuitat.-Oxon tom i p. "?; af/'=° 
 Jebb's preface to the Opus Majus of-the famous Eo- 
 eer Bacon, published at London m folio, in the year 
 1733 We shall give here the opinion which Bacon 
 had of the translators of Aristotle, in the words of 
 that sreat man, who expresses his contempt of these 
 wretched interpreters in the following manner: S) 
 habsrem potestfltem supra libros Aristotelis, (Latine 
 conversos,) ego faccrem omnes creinari, quia non est 
 nisi temporis amissio studere in illis, et causa erro- 
 ris et multlplicatio ignorantiffi, ultra id quod valet 
 
 "^t See Wadding's Annales Minorum, torn. iii. P- 
 233. Du Boulay, Histor. Acad'. Paris, tom. iii. p. 200, 
 
 % Jti. Alb. Fabricii Biblioth. Latina medii ^vi, 
 
 TThi" Dominicans maintain, that this Angelic 
 Docto" was the disciple o' Albert the Great, and I 
 
 enforcing his doctrines, both in his lectures and 
 in his writings; and principally by engaging 
 one of his learned colleagues to give, under 
 his inspection, a new translation of the works 
 of the Grecian sage, which far surpassed the 
 forfner version in exactness, perspicuity, and 
 elegance,'* By these means the philosophy 
 of Aristotle, notwithstanding the hostile eiforts 
 of several divines, and even of the Roman 
 pontiffs themselves, _who beheld its progress 
 with an unfriendly eye, triumphed in all the 
 Latin schools, and.absorbed all the other systems 
 that had flourished before this literary revo- 
 lution. 
 
 IX. There were, however, at this tiriie in 
 Europe several persons of superior genius and 
 penetration, who, notwithstanding their re- 
 spect for Aristoticj considered the method of 
 treating philosophy, which his writings had in- 
 troduced," as dry, inelegant, and fit ' only to 
 confine and damp the efforts of the mind in 
 the pursuit of truth; and who, consequently, 
 were desirous of, enlarging the sphere of sci- 
 ence by new researches and discoveries.! At 
 the head of these noble adventurers we may 
 justly place Roger Bacon, a Franciscan finar 
 of the English nation, knowh by the appella- 
 tion of the admirable doctor, who was renowned 
 on account of his most important discoveries, 
 and who, in natural philosophy, mathematics, 
 chemistry, the mechanic arts, and the learned 
 languages, soared far beyond the genius of the 
 times, t With him we may associate Arnold 
 
 their opinion seems to be founded in- truth. See An-- 
 toine -Touron, Vie de St. Thomas, p. 99. The Fran- 
 ciscans; however, maintain as obstinately, that Al- 
 exander Hales was the master of Thomas, ^ee 
 Wadding's Annales Minorum, tom. iii. p^ 133. 
 
 * It has been believed by many, that William de 
 MoerBeka, a native of Flanders, of the Dominican 
 -order, and archbishop of, Corinth, was the author 
 of the new Latin translation of the works of Aris- 
 totle, which was carried on and finished under the 
 auspicious inspection of Thomas Aquinas. See J. 
 Echard, Scriptores Dominican, tom. i. p. 388, 469. 
 Casim. Oudinus, Comm. de Scriptor. Eccles. tom. iii. 
 p. "468. Jo. Franc. Foppens, Bibliotheca jBelgica, 
 tom. i. p. 416. Others, however, suppose, though in- 
 deed with less evidence, that this translation was 
 composed by Henry Kosbein, who was also a Domi- 
 
 t Bacon's contempt of -the learning that was m 
 vogue in his time may be seen in the following pas- 
 sage, quoted by Jebb, in his preface to the Opus 
 Majus of that great man: " Nunquam fuit tanta ap. 
 parentia sapientiae, nee tanlum exercitiuin studii in 
 tot facultatiBus, in tot regionibus, sicut jam a quad- 
 
 raginta annis: ubique eninidoctores sunt dispersi 
 
 in omni ci-vitate, et in omni castro, et in omni bur^ 
 go prscipue per duijs ordines studentcs (he-means 
 the Franciscans and Dominicans, who were almost 
 the only religious orders that distinguished -them, 
 selves by an application to study) quod non accidit, 
 nisi a quadraginta annis aut circiter, cum tameii 
 nunquam fuit tanta ignorantia, tantus error . . . 
 Vulgus studentium languet et asininat circa mala 
 translatafby these wretched versions he understands 
 the works of Aristotle, which were most miserably 
 translated by ignorant bunglers) et tempus et ma- 
 dium amittit in omnibus et expensas. Apparenlia 
 quidem sola tenet eos, et non curant quid sciant, sett 
 quid videantur scire coram multitudine insensata. 
 Thus, according to Bacon, in the midst of the most 
 specious appearance of science, the greatest igno- 
 rance and the grossest errors reigned almost umver- 
 
 t That Bacon deserves this high rank in the 
 learned world appears evidently from his book, enti- 
 tied Opus Majus, which was dedicated to pope Cle- 
 ment fv., and which Jebb published at London in 
 
Chap. 11. 
 
 DOCTORS, CHURCH GOVERNMENT, &c. 
 
 843 
 
 of Villa Nova, whose place of nativity is fixed 
 by some in France, by otliers in Spain, and 
 who acquired a shining reputation by his 
 knowledge in- chemistry, poetry, philosophy, 
 languages, and physic;* as also Peter d'Abano, 
 a physician of Padua, who was surnataed the 
 Mecondkr, from a book which he wrote in the 
 hope of terminating the dimensions and con- 
 tests that reigned among, the philosophers and 
 physicians,! and who was pi-ofoundly versed 
 in the sciences of philosophy, astronomy, 
 physic, and mathematics.J It must, however, 
 be observed, to the eternal dishonour of the 
 age,- that the only fruits which these grfeat men 
 derived from fteir learned labours, and their 
 noble, as well as successful efforts for the ad- 
 vancement of the arts and sciences, were the 
 furious clamours of an enraged and supersti- 
 tious multitude, who looked upon them as he- 
 retics and magicicans, and thirsted so eagerly 
 after their blood, that they escaped with diffi- 
 culty the hands of the public executioner. 
 Bacon was confined many years in a comfort- 
 less prison; and the other two were, after 
 their death, brought before the tribunal of the 
 inquisition, and declared worthy of being com- 
 mitted to tile flames for the novelties they had 
 introduced into the rgpublic of letters. 
 
 X. The state of theology, and the method 
 of teaching and representing the doctrines of 
 Christianity that now prevailed, shall be men- 
 tioned in their place. The civil and canon 
 laws held the first rank in the circle of the 
 sciences, and were studied with peculiar zeal 
 and application by almost all who were am- 
 bitious of literary glory. But these sciences, 
 notwithstanding the assiduity with which they 
 were cultivated, were fir from being then 
 brought to any -tolerable degree of perfection. 
 They were disfigured by the jargon that reigned 
 in the schools, and were corrupted and render- 
 ed intricate by a multitude of trivial commen- 
 taries that were intended to illustrate and ex- 
 plain them. Some employed their labours in 
 collecting the letters of the Roman pontiffs, 
 which are commonly known under the title 
 of Decretals,^ and which were deemed a very 
 important branch of ecclesiastical law. Rai- 
 n^ond of Pennafort, a native of Barcelona, was 
 the most famous of all these compilers, and ac- 
 quired a considerable reputation by his coUeO" 
 
 1733, from a manuscript that still exists in the uni- 
 versity of Dub'in, enriching it-with a learned preface 
 and a'considerable number of judicious observations. 
 The other works of Bacon, which are very nume- 
 rous, lie for the" most part concealed in the libraries 
 of the curious. For a farther account of this eminent 
 man, -see Wood's Antiq. Oxon. torn. i. p. 136. — 
 Wadding, Annal. Minor, t. iv. p. 161, t. v; p. 51 — 
 Thorn. Gale, ad JambUChum'de Mysteriis ^gyptior. 
 p. 255.— General Hist, and Crit. Dictionary. 
 
 * See Nic. Antonii Biblioth. vetus Hispan. torn. ii. 
 lib. ix. c. i. — Pierre Joseph, d'Arnaud Vie de Ville- 
 neuve, Aix, 1719. — Niceron, Memoires des Hommes 
 illustres, torn, xxxiv. — Nicol. Eymerici Directorium 
 Inquisitorum, pag. 282, where, among other things, 
 we have an account of his errors. 
 
 t This book was entitled, Conciliator Ditferentia- 
 rum Philosophorum et Medicorum. 
 
 X There is a very accurate account of this philoso- 
 pher given by Job. Maria Mazzuchelli, Notizie Sto- 
 riche e Critiche intorno alia Vita di Pietro d'Abano, 
 in Angeli Calogeri Opus. Scientifici e Philologioi, t. 
 
 xiii. 
 i See Boulay, Hisl. Acad. Fans. torn. m. 
 
 tibn of the Decretals in five books, which he 
 undertook at the desire of Gregory IX., and 
 which has been since honoured with the name 
 of that pontiff, who ordered it to be added to 
 the Decretals of Gratian, and to be read in all 
 the European colleges.* Toward the conclu- 
 sion of this century, Boniface VIII. caused a 
 new collection to be made, which was entitled, 
 The Sixth Book of Decretals, because it was 
 added to the five already mentioned. 
 
 CHAPTER n. 
 Concerning the Doctors and Ministers of the 
 Church, and its Fo^in of Government, dming 
 this CentMry. 
 
 I. Both the Greek and Latin writers, pro- 
 voked beyond measure by the~ flagitious Uvea 
 of their spiritual rulers and instructors, com- 
 plain loudly of their licentious manners, and 
 load them with the severest reproaches; nor 
 will these complaints and reproaches appear 
 excessive to. such as are acquainted with the 
 history of this corrupt and superstitious age.f 
 Several eminent men attempted to stem this 
 torrent of licentiousness, which from the heads 
 of the church had caiTied its pernicious streams 
 through all the members; but their power and 
 influence were unequal to such a difficult and 
 arduous enterprise. The Grecian emperors 
 were prevented from executing any project of 
 this kind by the infelicity of the times, and the 
 various calamities and tumults, 'vVhich not only 
 reigned in their dominions, but even shook 
 their thrones, while the power and opulence 
 pf the Roman pontiffs, and the superstition of 
 the age, prevented the Latins~from accom- 
 plishing, or even attempting, a reformation 
 in the church.: 
 
 II. In thehistory of the popes, we meet with 
 a lively and horrible picture of the compli;' 
 cated crimes that dishonoured the niinisterS 
 of the church, who were peculiarly required, 
 by their sacred office, to exhibit to the world 
 distinguished models of piety and virtue. Such 
 members of the sacerdotal order as were ad- 
 vanced to places of authority in the church, 
 behaved rather like tyrants than rulers, and 
 showed manifestly, in all their conduct, that 
 they aimed at an absolute and unlimited do- 
 minion. The popes, more especially, incul- 
 cated this pernicious maxim, " That the bishop 
 of Rome is the supreme lord of the univeiise, 
 and that neither princes nor bishops, civil 
 governors nor ecclesiastical rulers, have any 
 lawful power in church or state, but, what they, 
 derive from him." This extravagant maxim, 
 which was considered as the sum and substance 
 of papal jurisprudence, the pontiffs obstinately 
 maintained, and left no means unemployed, 
 that perfidy or violence could suggest, to give 
 it the force of an universal law. " It was in 
 
 * Ger, a Maestriciit, Historia juris Ecclesiastic!^ 
 sect. 353. — Jo. Chifflet, de Juris utriusque Architec- 
 tis, cap. vi. — Echard et jiuetif, Scriptor. Dominican. 
 t. i. — Acta Saiictor. Antwerp, t. i. Januarii ad d. vii. 
 
 f See the remarkable letter of pope Gregory IX. to 
 the archbishop of Bourges, -which was written in 
 1227, with a design to reprove and reform the vices 
 which had infected all the various orders of the 
 clergy, and which is published by Dion. Sammartha. 
 nus, in his Gallia Christiana, tom. ii. in Append.^ 
 See also Du Freene,'Annotat. in Vitam LudoviciSti, 
 
344 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part n. 
 
 consequence of this arrogant pretension, that 
 they not only claimed the right of dispoang 
 of ecclesiastical beneficeSy as they are com- 
 monly called, but also of conferring civil do- 
 minion, and of dethroning kings and emperors, 
 according to^ their good pleasure. It is true, 
 this maxim was- iar from heing universally 
 adopted; many placed the authority of councils 
 above that of the pontiffs, and -such of the 
 European kings and princes as were not in- 
 gloriously blinded and enslave^ by Hie super- 
 stition of the times, asserted their rights with 
 dignity and success, excluded the pontiffs from 
 all concern in their civil transactions, and even 
 reserved to themselves the supremacy over the 
 churches that were established in their domin- 
 ions.* In thus opposing the haughty preten- 
 sions of the lordly pontiffs, it was, indeed, ne- 
 cessary to proceed with mildness, caution, and 
 prudence, on account of the influence which 
 .those Spiritual tyrants had usurped over the 
 minds of the people, and the power they had 
 of alarming princes, by exciting their subjects 
 to rebellion. 
 
 HI. In order to establish their authority, 
 both in civil aijd ecclesiastical matters, upon 
 the firmest foundations, the Roman pontiffs 
 assumed to themselves the power of disposing 
 of the various offices of the church, vphethef 
 of a higher or more subordinate nature, and 
 of creating bishops, abbots,- and canons, accord- 
 ing to their fancy. Thus we see the heads of 
 the church, who formerly disputed with such 
 ardour against, the emperors in favour of the 
 free election of bishops and abbots, overturn- 
 ing now all the laws that related to the elec- 
 tion of these spiritual rulers, reserving for 
 -themselves the revenues, of the richest benefi- 
 ces, conferring Vacant places upon their clients 
 and their creatures, and often deposing bishops 
 who had Ijeen duly and lawfully elected, and 
 substituting others for them with a high haud-i 
 ThgSiypocritical pretexts for all these arbitrary 
 proceedings were an ardent zeal for the wel- 
 fare of the church, and an anxious concern, 
 lest devouring heretics should get a footing 
 among the flock of Christ.J The first pontiff 
 who usurped such an extravagant extent of 
 authority, was Innocent III., whose example 
 was followed by Honorius III., Gregory IX., 
 and several of their successors.'. But it was 
 keenly opposed by the bishops, who had hith- 
 erto enjoyed the privilege of nominating to the 
 smaller benefices, and still more effectually by 
 the kings of England and France, who em- 
 ployed the force of warm remonstrances and 
 vigorous edicts to stop the progress of this'new 
 jurisprudence.^ Louis IX. k ing of France, 
 
 * Asa afeclmen of [his, the reader may peruse the 
 letters of Innocent III. and tlie emperor utho IV., 
 which have' been collected by the learned George 
 Christ. Gebau6r, in his history of the emperor Kich- 
 ard written in German. Other prhicffi, and more 
 especially the kings of England and France, dis- 
 played, io.the defence of their rights and privileges, 
 the same zeal that animated Otlio. 
 
 t Many examples of this may be taken from the 
 liistory of this century. See Steph. Baluzii Miscellan. 
 tom. vii.— Gallia Christiana -torn. i. .Append.— Wad- 
 ding, Annal. Minor, in Diplomat.— Wood, Antiquit. 
 Oxon. tom. i. , . _„ . _ , -.. 
 
 ' "iSee the Epistle of Innocent IV. in Baluz. Mis- 
 eelian. toih. vii. , „ . . ■•■ ■ 
 
 § Boulay, Histor. Acad. Paris, tom. in. iv. 
 
 now the tutelar saint of that nation, distin- 
 guished himself by his noble opposition to these 
 papal encroachments. In 1268, before he set 
 out fpr the H61y Land, he secured the rights 
 of the Galilean church against the insidious 
 attempts of the popes, by that famous edict, 
 known in France by the name of the prag- 
 matic sanction.* This resolute and prudent 
 measure rendered the pontiffs more cautious 
 and slowin their proceedings, but did not de- 
 ter them' from the prosecution of their purpose. 
 For Bcmifactf VIII. maintained, in the most 
 express and impudent terms, that the univer- 
 sal church was under the dominion of the 
 pontile, and that princes and lay patrons, 
 councils' arid chapters, had no more power in 
 spiritual thinglj than what thSy derived from 
 Christ's vicar upon earth.' 
 
 IV. The legates, whom the pontiffs sent in- 
 to the provinces, to represent their persons, 
 and execute their orders, imitated perfectly 
 the avarice and insolence of their masters. 
 They violated the privileges of the chapters; 
 disposed of. the smaller, and sometimes of the 
 more important ecclesiastical benefices, in fa-; 
 vour of such" as had gained them by bribes, 
 or the like considerations;! e-xtorted money 
 from the people, by the vilest and most iniqui- 
 tous means; seduced the linwary by forged let- 
 ters and other stratagems of that nature; ex- 
 cited tumults among the multitude, and were, 
 themselves, the ringleaders of the most furious 
 and rebellious factions; carried on, in the most 
 scandalous manner, the'impious traffic of relics 
 and indulgences, and distinguished themselves 
 by several acts of profligacy still more heinous 
 than the practices now mentioned. Hence we 
 find the writers of this age complaining unani- 
 mously of the flagitious conduct and the enor- 
 mous crimes of the pope's legates.J We even see 
 pope Alexander IV. enacting, in 1256, a severe 
 law against the avarice and frauds of these cor- 
 rupt ministers,^ which, however, they .easily 
 evaded, by their friends and their credit at the 
 court of Rome. 
 
 V. From the ninth century to this period, 
 the wealth and revenues of the pontiffs' had 
 not received any considerable augmentation; 
 but at this time they were vastly increased 
 under Innocent III., and Nicolas III., partly 
 by the events of war, and partly by the muni- 
 ficence of kings and emperora. Innocent, as 
 soon- as he was seated in the papal chair, re- 
 duced under his j,urisdiction the prasfect of 
 Rome, who had hitherto been considered as 
 subject to the emperor, to whom he had taken 
 an oath of allegiance in entering upon his of- 
 fice. He also seized the territories of Ancona, 
 Sp'oleto, and AsSisi,.the town of Montebello, 
 and various cities and fortresses which had, ac- 
 cording to him, been unjustly alienated fiom 
 
 * Boulay, tom. iii. 
 
 t See Baluzii Miscellanea, tom. vii. ,, . ,, 
 
 tSee that judicious and excellent writer Malta 
 Paris, in his Historia Major, p. 313, 316, 549, and 
 particularly p. 637, where we find the following xer 
 markaWe words: " Semper solent legati, et omncB 
 nuncii papales, regna quK i^grediuntur depauporare 
 vel aliiino modo perturbare." See also Boulay, Uist 
 Acad. Pariff. tom. iii. p. 859. 
 
 § This edict is published by Lami, in his DellcvB 
 Eruditorum, torn. ji. paje 300. 
 
Chap. II. 
 
 DOCTOBS, CHURCH-GOVERNMENT,, &c.. 
 
 345 
 
 the patrimony of St. Peter.* On the other 
 hand,-rrBderio H., who was extremely desirous 
 that the pope should espouse his quarrel with 
 Otho IV., loaded the Roman see with the 
 richest marks of his munificence -and libe- 
 rality, and not only made a noble present in 
 valuable lands -to the pope's brother^f but also 
 
 permitted Richard, count of Fundi, to be- 
 queath all his possessions to the Roman see,t 
 and confirmed the immense donation tlaat had 
 formerly been made to it by the opulent Ma- 
 tilda. Such was the progress that Innocent 
 Ilf. made, during his pontificate, in augment-, 
 ing tlie splendour and wealth of the church. 
 Nicolas III. followed his example with the 
 warmest emulation, and, ip 12'7.8, gave a "re- 
 markable proof of his arrogance and obstinacy, 
 in refusing to crown the emperor Rodolphus 
 I. before he had acknowledged a,nd confirmed, 
 by. a solemn treaty, all the pretensions of the 
 Roman, see, of which, if some were plausible, 
 maTiy were altogether groundless, or, at least, 
 extremely dubious. This agreement, to which 
 all the Italian princes subject to the emperor 
 were obhged to accede, was no sooner con- 
 cluded, tlian Nicolas reduced under his tem- 
 poral dominion several territories in Italy, that 
 had formerly been annexed to the imperial 
 crown, particularly Romania and Bologna. 
 It was therefore under these two pontiffs that 
 the see of Rome arrived, partly by force, and 
 partly by artifice, at that high degree of gran-, 
 da'ur and opulence, which it yet maintains in 
 our tim6s.§ 
 
 VI. Innocent III., who remained at the 
 head of the church until the year 1216, fol- 
 lowed the steps of Gregory Vll., and not only 
 usurped the despotic goverrunent of the church, 
 but also claimed the empire of the world, and 
 entertained the extravagant idea of subjecting 
 all the kings and princes of the earth to his 
 lordly sceptre. He was a inan of learning and 
 application; but his cruelty, avarice, and arro- 
 gance,|| clouded the lustre of any good quali- 
 ties which his panegyrists have thought pror 
 per to attribute to him. In Asia and Eupopcj 
 he disposed of crowns and sceptres with tlie 
 most wanton ambition. In Asia, ho gave a 
 
 ^ king to thd Armenians': in Europe, he usurped 
 the same exorbitant privilege in J 204, and con- 
 ferred" the regal dignity upon Primislaus, duke 
 of Bohemia.Tr The same year, he sent to Jo- 
 hannicius, duke of Bulgaria and Wallachia an 
 extraordinary legate, who, in the name of the 
 pontifi^, invested that pripce with the ensigns 
 and honours of royalty, while, with his own 
 hand, he crpwned Peter II., of Arragon, who 
 
 * See'Franc. Pagi, Breviar. Romanor. Pon?if ton). 
 iii p. tei.— Muiatoi-i, ATitiq. Ital. torn,,!, p, 328. 
 
 + This, brother of the pontiff was called Richard, 
 See, for an accoant of this transaction, Mupatori's 
 fifth volume, p. 652. 
 
 t Odor. Raynaldus, Oontinuat. Annal. Baro.nii, ad 
 annum 1212. „ ^ - . , . 
 
 S Raynaldus ad annum 1378. The papal grandeur 
 and opulence, however, were seriously impaired hy 
 the fury of the'French revolution, and, although the 
 Kiccess of the allied powers repla6ed the pontiff on 
 his throne, his power is now at a low ebb.— Edit. 
 
 I; See Matth. Paris. Hist. Maj. 
 
 flrj- T Other historians affirnr, that the emperor 
 Phifip was the potentate who conferred the royal 
 dignity upon Primislaus, in order to strengthen his 
 party against Otho. 
 ^ Vol.. I.— 44 
 
 had rendered his dominions subject and tri- 
 butary to the church, and saluted him publicly 
 at Rome, with the title of king.* We omit 
 many othei: examples of this phrenetic preten- 
 sion to universal empire, which might be pro- 
 duced from the letters of this arrogant pontjff, 
 and many other acts of despotism, which Eu- 
 rope beheld with astonishment, but also, tb its. 
 eternal reproach, with the ignominious silence 
 of a passive obedience. 
 
 VII. The ambition of this pope was not sa^ 
 tisfied with the distribjition and government 
 of these petty kingdoms. He extended his 
 views farther, and resolved to render the power 
 and majesty of the Roman see formidable to 
 the greatest European kings, and even to the 
 haughty emperors themselves. VS^hen the em- 
 pire of Germany was disputed, about thie Com- 
 mencement of this century, between Philip, 
 duke of Suabia, and Otho IV. third son of 
 Henry the Lion, he espoused at first^he cause 
 of Otho,- thundered out his exiSsmmuHications 
 against Philip, and on the death of the latter 
 (which happened in 1209,) placed the imperial 
 diadem upon the head of his adversary. But, 
 as Otho was by no means disposed to submit 
 to this poritifF's nod, or to 'satisfy to the full his 
 ambitious desires, he incurred his lordly indig- 
 nation; and Innocent, declaring him, by a so- 
 lemn excommunication, unworthy of the em- 
 pire, raised in his place Frederic II. his pupil, 
 the son of Henry VI. and king of the two Si 
 cilies, to the imperial throne, in 1212. f , The . 
 same pontiffexcommunicated Philip' Augustus, 
 king of France, for having- dissolved his rnarri- 
 age with Ingelburga, a princess of Denmark, 
 and espoused anQther in her place; nor did he 
 cease to pursue tliis monarch with his anathe- 
 mas, until he engaged him to receive the di- 
 vorced queen, and to restore her to her lost 
 dignity.J . \t^ 
 
 VIII. But of all the European prinoes,aione 
 felt, in so dishonourable and severe a manner, 
 the despotic fury of this insolent pontiffj as 
 John, surnamed Sans- Terre, or Lackland, king 
 of England. This prince vigorously opposed, 
 the measures of Innocent, who had ordered 
 the monks of Canterbury to choose Stephen 
 Langtoiv (a Roman cardinal .of Ehghsh de- 
 scent) archbishop of- that see, notwithstanding 
 -the election qf John deGrey to that highidig- 
 nity, which had been regularly made hyirthe 
 convent, and had been con&med by roysSPau- 
 thority.§ The pope afte^ having consecrated 
 Langton at Viterbo, wrote a soothing letter in 
 his favour to the king, accompanied w th four 
 
 * Murat, Ant, Ital. medii jEvi, t. vi; J. de Ferreras, 
 Hist. d'Espagne, t. iv- _ ' 
 
 fAll this is amply illustrated in the Qrig. Guel. 
 phicae, tom. iii. lib. vii. 
 
 X Boulay, Histor. Acad. Paris, tom. iii. — Daniel, 
 Histoife de^ France, tom. iii. — Gerarddu Bois, His- 
 tor. Eccles. Paris, tom. ii. 
 
 (I(^ § Dr. Mosheim passes lightly ovpr this rupture 
 between king John and Innooeht III. mentioning in 
 a fewJines the mferdict under-which England was 
 laijl by that pontiff; the excommunication of the 
 king's person, and the impious act by which the En- 
 glish 'were declared to be; absolved from their alle- 
 giance. The translator, however, thought this event 
 of too great importance to be treated with siich bre- 
 vity, and has, therefore, taken the liberty to enlarge 
 considerably this eighth section., which contains only 
 twelve lines in the original.. 
 
S46 
 
 -INTERNAL fflSTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part It 
 
 rings, and a mystical comment upon the pre- 
 cious, stones with which they were enriched. 
 But this present was not sufficient to avert the 
 just indignation of the offended monarch, and 
 he sent troops to drive out pf the Ijingdom the 
 monks of Canterbury, who had been engaged 
 by the pope's menaces to receive Langton as 
 their archbisliop. He also declared to the pon- 
 tiff, that, if he persisted in imposing a prelate 
 upon,the see of Canterbury, in opposition to 
 a regular election already made, the conse- 
 quences of such presumptuous obstinacy would, 
 in the issue, prove fatal to the papal authority 
 in England. Innocent was -so far from being 
 terrified by this menacing remonstrance, that, 
 in 1208, he sent orders to the bishops of Lon- 
 don, Worcester, and Ely, to lay the kingdom 
 under an interdict, in case of the monarch'6 
 refusal to yield, and to receive Langton. John, 
 alarmed at this terrible menace, and unwilling 
 to break entirely with the pope, declared his 
 readiness to con^m the election made at 
 Rome; but in the act that was drawn up for 
 this purpose, he wisely inserted a clause to 
 prevent any interpretation of this compliance, 
 that might be prejudicial to his rights-, dignity, 
 and prerogative. This exception was rejected, 
 and the interdict was -proclaimed. A stop was 
 immediately put to divine service; the churches 
 were shut in every parish; all the sacraments 
 were suspended except that of baptism; the 
 dead were buried in the highways without the 
 usual rites or any funeral solemnity. But, 
 notwithstanding this interdict, the Cistertian 
 order continued to perform divine service; and 
 several learned and respectable divines, among 
 whom were the bishops of Winchester ^nd 
 Norwich, protested against the injustice of the 
 .pope's proceedings. 
 
 The- interdict not producing the effects that 
 were expected from it, the pontiff proceeded to 
 a still farther degree of severity and presump- 
 tion, and denounced a sentence of excommu- 
 nication against the person of the English mo- 
 narch. This sentence, which was issued in 
 1209, was followed about two years after by a 
 bull, absolving all his subjects from their oath 
 of allegiance, and ordering all persons to avoid 
 him, on pain of excommunication. But it was 
 in 12.12, that Innocent carried his impious ty- 
 ranny to the most enormous length, when, as- 
 sembling a council of cardinals and prelates, 
 he deposed John, declared the throne of En- 
 gland vacant, and authorized Philip Augustus, 
 king of France, to execute this sentence, un- 
 dertake the con,quest of England, and unite 
 that kingdom to his dominions for ever.. He, 
 at the same«time, published another bull', ex- 
 horting all Christian princes to contribute 
 whatever was in their power to the success of 
 this expedition, and promising, to such as 
 would assist Phihp in this grand enterprise, the 
 same indulgences that were granted to those 
 who carried arms against the infidels in Pales- 
 tine. The French monai-ch entered into the 
 views of the pontiff, and made immense pre- 
 parations for the invasion of England. John, 
 oil the other hand, assembled his forces, and 
 was putting himself in a posture of defence, 
 when Pandulfj the pope's legate, arrived at 
 Dovei) and proposed a conference in order to 
 
 prevent tlie approathing rupture, and tp avert 
 the storm. This artful legate terrified the 
 king, who met him at that town, with an ex- 
 aggerated account of the armament of Philip 
 on the-one hand, and of the disaffection of the 
 English on the other; and- persuaded him that, 
 there was no possible way left of saving his 
 dominions from the fornjidable arms of the 
 French king, but Uiat of putting them under 
 the protection of the Roman see. John, find- 
 ing himself in such a perplexing-situation, and 
 full of diffidence both in the nobles of his court 
 and in the officers of his army, complied with 
 this dishonourable proposal, did homage to In- 
 nocent, resigned his crown to the legate, and 
 then received it as a present from the see of 
 Rome, to which he rendered his kingdoms tri- 
 butary, and^wore fealty as a vassal and feuda- 
 tory.* In the act by which he resigned, thus 
 scandalously, his kingdoms to the papal juris- 
 diction, he declared that he had neither been 
 compelled to this measure by fear nor by force; 
 but that it was his own voluntary deed, per- 
 formed by the advice,, and with the consent, 
 -of the barons of his kingdom. He obliged him- 
 self and his heirs to pay an annual sum of se- 
 ven hundred marks for England, and three hun- 
 dred for Ireland, in acknowledgment of the 
 pope's supremacy and jurisdiction; and Con- 
 sented that he or such, of his successors as 
 sliould refuse to pay the submission now stipu- 
 lated, to the see of Rome, should forfeit all 
 right to-the British crown.f " This shameful 
 ceremony was perJbrmjed (says a modern his- 
 torianf) on Ascension-day, in the house of the 
 Templai-s at Dover,- in- tlie midst of a great 
 concourse of people, who beheld it with confu- 
 sion arid indignation. John, in doing .homage 
 to the pope, presented a sum Of money td his 
 representative, which the proud legate tram- 
 pled under his feet, as a. mark of the king's 
 dependance. Evsry. spectator glowed with re- 
 sentment, and the archbishop of Dublin ex- 
 claimed aloud against such intolerable inso- 
 lence. - Pandulf, .not satisfied with this 'morti- 
 fying act of superiority, kept the crown and 
 sceptre five whole days, and then restored 
 them as a special, iavour of the Roman see. 
 John was despised before this extraordinary 
 designation; but now he was looked upon as a 
 contemptible wretch, unworthy to sit upon a 
 throne, while he himself seemed altogether in- 
 sensible of his disgraces" ..^^ 
 
 IX. Innocent III. was sacceeded in tliepbn- 
 tifioate by'Cencio Savelli, who, assuming the 
 title oT Honorius III., ruled the church above 
 ten years, and whose government, though not 
 signalized by such audacious exploits as those 
 of his predecessor, disclosed an ardent zeal for 
 maintaining the pretensions, and supporting 
 the despotism, of the Roman see. It was in 
 consequence of this zeal that the new pontiff 
 opposed the measures, and drew upon himself 
 the indignation of Frederic II. that magnaai- 
 
 * For a full account of Ihis shameful ceremony, 
 see Matthew Paris, Historia Major; Boulay'B Hist. 
 Acad. Paris, torn. iii. and Kapin's Histoire d'Angle- 
 terre, torn. ii. 
 
 Q@- f C<Mlet a jure regni, is the expression used in 
 the charter of resignation, which may be seen at 
 length in the Historia Major of Matthew Paris. 
 
 X Dr. SmoUet. 
 
u\j\^i\ji\,i3, Kjnuayjti VjUJVJaitXVJVlJSJNT, KC. 
 
 347 
 
 mous prince, on^whose head he himself had 
 placed, in ,1220, the imperial crown. This 
 spirited prince, following tlie steps of his illus- 
 trious grandfather, had formed the regpljition 
 of confirming the authority, and extending the 
 jurisdiction of the emperors in Italy, o? de- 
 pressing the small states of Lombardy, and re- 
 ducing to narrower limits the iinmense credit 
 and opulence of the pontiffs and bishops; and 
 it was with a view to the execution of these 
 grand projects, that he deferred the execution 
 'of the solemn^ vow, by which he had engaged 
 himself to lead a formidable army against the 
 infidels of Palestine. The pontiff, on the other 
 -hand, urged with importunity the emperor's 
 departure; encouraged, animated,' and strength- 
 ened, by secret succours, the Italian states that 
 opposed his pretensions; and resisted the pro- 
 gress of Jiis power^ by all the obstacles which 
 the most fertile invention could suggest. These 
 contests, however, had not yet brought on an 
 open-rupture. 
 
 X. In 1227, Hugolin, bishop of dstia, whose 
 advanced age had not extinguished the fire of 
 his ambition, or diminished" the firmness and 
 obstinacy of his spirit, was raised to the ponti- 
 ficate, assumed the title of Gregory IX., and 
 kindled the feuds and dissensions, that had al- 
 ready secretly subsisted between the church 
 {ind the empire, intcan open and violent flame. 
 No sooner was he placed in the papal chair, 
 than, in defiance of justice and order, he ex- 
 communicated the emperor for delaying his 
 expedition -agaijast the Saracens to another 
 year, though the postponement manifestly 
 arose froin a fit of sickness, which seized that 
 prince when he was ready to embark for Pa- 
 lestine. In 1228, Frederic at last set out, and 
 arrived in the Holy Xand; but, instead of cai> 
 rying on the war with vigour, as we have al- 
 ready had occasion to observe, he entered into 
 a truce with Saladin; and contented himself 
 with the recovery of Jerusalem. The pretend- 
 ed vicar of Christ, forgetting (or rather unwil- 
 ling to -persuade himself) that his^ master's 
 "kingdom was not. of this world," Blade war 
 upon the emperor, in Apulia during his ab- 
 sence,* and used his utmost efforts to arm 
 against him all the European-powers. Frede- 
 ric, having received Information of these perr 
 fidious and violent prcjceedings, returned into 
 Europe, in 1229, defeated the papal army, re- 
 took the places he h^d lost in Sicily and in 
 Italy, and, in the succeeding year, made his 
 peace with the pontiff, from whom he received 
 a public and solemn absolution. This peace, 
 however, was not of long duration; for the em- 
 peror could not tamely hear the insolent pro- 
 ceedings and the imperious temper of Gregory. 
 He therefore broke all measures with that 
 headstrong pontiff, distressed the states of 
 Lombardy that were in alliance with the sep 
 of Rome, seized the island of Sardinia, (which 
 Gregory regarded as a part of his spiritual pa- 
 trimony,) and erected it into a kingdom for 
 his son Entius. "These, with other steps that 
 
 (gf- * Under the feeble reign of Henry III. the 
 pope drew iinmense sums out of Rngland for the sup- 
 port of this impious war, and carried his audacious 
 avarice so far, as to demand a fifth part of the ec- 
 clesiastical revenues of the whole kingdom. 
 
 were equally provoking to the: pope's avarica 
 and ambition, drew the thunder of the 'Vatican 
 anew upon the enlperor's head. Frederic was 
 publicly excommunicated in 1239, vrith all the 
 circumstances of severity that 'vindictive rage 
 could invent, and was charged with the njost 
 flagitious crimes, and the most impious blas^ 
 phemies, by the exasperated pontiff, who sent 
 a copy of this terrible accusation to all the 
 courts of Europe. The. emperor, on the other 
 hand, defended his injured reputation by so- 
 lemn declarations in writing, while, by his vic- 
 torious arms, he avenged himself of his adver- 
 saries, maintained his ground, and reduced the 
 pontiff to tire greatest, difficulties. To extri- 
 cate himself from these perplexities, the latter 
 convened, in 1240, a general council at Rome, 
 with a view of deposing Frederic by the una- 
 nimous suffrages of the cardinals and prelates 
 who were to compose that assembly. But the 
 emperor .'disconcerted that audacious project 
 by defeating, in 1241, a, Genoese fleet, on 
 board of which the greatest part of these pre- 
 lates were embarked, and by seizing, with all 
 their treasures, the reverend fMiers, who were 
 all committed to close confinement. This dis- 
 appointment, attended with others which gave 
 an unhappy turn to liis affairs, and blasted his 
 most promising expectations, dejected and con- 
 sumed the despairing pontiff, and apparently 
 contributed to the conclusion of his days,-whicli 
 happened soon after this remarkable event.* 
 
 XI. Geoffry, bishop of Milan, who succeed- 
 ed Gregory IX., under the title of Celestine 
 IV., died before his consecration, and after a 
 vacancy of twenty months, the apostolic chair 
 was filled by Sinibald, one of the counts of 
 Fieschi, who was raised to the pontificate in 
 1243, assumed the denomination of Innocent 
 IV., and yielded to none of his predecessors in 
 arrogance and fury.'f. His elevation,- however, 
 offered at first a prospect of peace, as he 'had 
 formerly been attached to the interests of the 
 emperor; and accordingly the conferences wgre 
 opened, and a reconciliatioir was proposed; 
 but the temis offered by the new pope were 
 too imperious and extravagant, not to be re- 
 jected with indignation.| Hence it was that 
 Innocent, not thinking himself safe in any part 
 of Italy, set out from Genoa, the place of hig 
 birth, for Lyons, in 1244, and assembling there 
 a council in the following year, deposed. Fre- 
 deric^ in presence of its members, tliough not 
 with their approbation, and declared the impe- 
 
 * Beside the original and authentic writ'ers col- 
 lected by Muratori, in his Scriptores rerum Italica 
 rum, and the German- and Italian historians,' few or 
 none of whom are absolutely free fron^artiality in 
 their account^ of these unhappy contests between 
 the empire and the papacy, see Petrus de Vineis, 
 Epistol. lib. i. and Matthew Paris, in. his Hiftoria 
 Major. Add to thesS Haynaldi Annal.— Muratori, 
 Annal. Ttaliae, torn. vii. et Antiquit. Italic, medii 
 jEvi, torn, iv.' p^ 325, 517. It must, however, be ob- 
 served, that this branch of history stands yet in need 
 of farther illustration: 
 
 t See the Hist. Maj. of Matthew Pans, ad annum 
 1354. 
 
 fl(5- J These preliminary conditions were, Ist, 
 That the emperor should give up entirely to the 
 church the inheritance which was left to it by Matil- 
 da; and, adly. That he would oblige himself to sub- 
 mit to whatever terms the pope should think fit to 
 propose, as conditions of peace. 
 
348 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part II. 
 
 rial throne vacant.* This unjust and insolent 
 decree was regarded with such veneration, and 
 looked upon as so weighty by the German 
 princes, seduced and blinded by the supersti- 
 tion of the times, that they proceeded instantly 
 to a new election, and raised first, Henry, land- 
 grave of Thuringia, and, after his death, Wil- 
 liam, count of Holland, to the head of the em- 
 pire. Frederic, whose firm and heroic spirit 
 supported without dejection these cruel vicis- 
 situdes, continued to carry on the War in Italy, 
 until a violent dysentery put an end to his life, 
 on the 13th of December, 1250. On the death 
 of his formidable and magaanimous adversary, 
 Innocent returned into Italy,! hoping now to 
 enjoy with security the fruits of his ambition. 
 It was principally from this period, that the 
 two famous factions,, called Gudphsa,ai Cfwi- 
 hellines, of wliioh tlie latter espoused the cause 
 of the emperors, and the former that of the 
 pontiffs, involved all the Italian states -in the 
 most calamitous dissensions, though their ori- 
 gin is much earlier than this century .| . 
 
 XII. Raynaldj count of Segni and bishop of 
 Ostia, was raised to the pontificate after the 
 death, of Innocent, in the year 1254, and is 
 distinguished in the list of the popes by the 
 name of Alexander IV. During the six years 
 and five months that he governed the see of 
 Rpnie, Ins time was less employed in civil af- 
 fairs, than in regulating the internal state of 
 the church, if we except the measures he took 
 for the destruction of Gonradin, grandson of 
 Frederic II. and for composing the tumults 
 ; that had so long prevailed in Italy. The men- 
 j dicant friars, in partictdar, and- among them 
 the Dominicans and Franciscans, were much 
 favoured by this pontiff, and received several 
 marks of his .peculiar bounty. 
 1 He was succeeded in the Roman see, A. D. 
 1261, by Urban IV. a native of Troyes, of ob- 
 scure birth, who, before his elevation to the 
 pontificate, was patriarch of Jerusalem, and 
 after that period was more distinguished by his 
 institution of the Festival of the Body of 
 Christ, than by any other circumstance in the 
 course of his reign. He had, indeed, formed 
 several important projects; but their execution 
 was prevented by his death, which happened in 
 1264, after a short reign of three years. His 
 successor, Guy Fulcodi, or Clement IV. a na- 
 tive of France, and bishop of Sabino who was 
 raised to the see of Rome in 1265, did not en- 
 joy much longer that high dignity. His name, 
 however, niakes a greater %ure in history, 
 and was rendered famous in many respects, 
 and more especialty by his cbnferring of the 
 kingdom of Naples upon Charles of Anjou, 
 I brother to Louis IX. king of France. The 
 consequences of this donation, and the melan- 
 ' choly fate of Conradin, the last descendant of 
 Frederic II., (who, after an unfortunate battle 
 fought against Charles, Was publicly beheaded 
 by the batbarous victor, if not by the counsel, 
 
 yet certainly with the consent, of the Roman 
 pontiff,) are well known to such as have the 
 smallest acqimintance with the history of these 
 unhappy times. 
 
 XIII. Upon the death of Clement IV.,* 
 there arose warm and vehement contests among 
 the cardinals concerning the election of a new 
 pontiff. These debates, which kept the Ro- 
 man see vacant during the space of almost 
 three years, were at length terminated in fa 
 vour of Theobald, a. native of Placentla, and 
 archbishop of Liege, who was raised to the 
 pontificate in 1271, and assumed the title of 
 Gregory X.j This devout ecclesiastic was in the 
 H6ly Land when he received the news of his 
 election; and, as he had been an eye-witness 
 of the miserable condition of the Christians in 
 that country, heiad nothing so much at heart, 
 as the desire of contributing to their relieC 
 Hence it was, that," immediately afterhis con- 
 secration, he summoned a council at Lyons, in 
 1274, in which the relief and maintenance of 
 tl)e Christians in Palestine, and the re-union 
 of the Greek and Latin churches, were th^ 
 two points that were to come principally un- 
 der deliberation. This assembly is acknow- 
 ledged 'as the fourteenth general council, and 
 is reidered particularly remarkable by the new 
 regulation's that were introduced into the man- 
 ner of electing the Roman pontiff, and more 
 especially by the famous law, which is still in 
 force; and by which it -was enacted, that the 
 Cardinal electors should be shut up in the con- 
 clave during the vacancy of the pontificate. 
 With respect to the character and sentiments . 
 of the new pope we shall -only observe, that, 
 though he seemed to be actuated by a milder 
 spirit than many of his predecessors, he incul- 
 cated, without the least hesitation, the odious 
 maxim of Gregory VII., which declared the 
 bishop of Rome lord of the world, and, in a 
 more particular manner, of the Roman em- 
 pire. It was in consequence of this presump- 
 tuous system, that, in 1271, he wrote an impe- 
 perious and -threatening letter to the German 
 princes; in which, deaf to the pretensions and 
 remonstrances of Alphonso, king of Castile,t 
 he orderatJ them to elect an emperor withoiit 
 delay, assuring them, that, if they did not do 
 it immediately, he would do it for them. This 
 letter produced the intended effect; an electo- 
 ral diet was assembled at Franckfort, and Ro- 
 dolphus, count of Hapsburg, was raised to the 
 imperial throne. ' 
 
 XIV. Gregory X. was sucqeeded, in 1276, 
 by Peter of Tarentaise, of the Dominican or- 
 der, and bishop of Ostia, who assumed the 
 name of Innocent V., and died about four 
 months after his election. Ottoboni, a native 
 of Genoa, and cardinal of St. Adrian,. was 
 chosen in his place, took the title of Adrian 
 
 * This assembly is placed In the list of acuTnenical 
 or general councils; but it Is not acknowledged as 
 Buch by the Galilean church. 
 
 t Beside the writers already mentioned, see Nicol. 
 d.e Curbio, "Vlit. Innocentii IV. in Baluzii Miscellan: 
 ibm- vii. 
 
 } See Murat. Diss. deGuelph. et Guibel. in Ms Ant. 
 Ital. med. Mv, t. iv. I 
 
 * Which happened in November, 1268. 
 
 t For records of this election, see Wadding, Annal. 
 Minor, t. iv. p. 330. 
 
 Qg- X Alphonso, king of Castile, had been elected 
 emperor in 1256, by the archbishop of Treves, the 
 duke of Saxony, the margrave of Brandenburg, and ■ 
 the king of Bohemia, in opposition to Kichard, earl 
 of Cornwall, who was -at the same time raised to 
 the same dignity by the archbishops of Mentz and 
 Cologne, the count Palatine of the Rhine^ and tha 
 duke of Bavaria. 
 
Cbap. II. 
 
 DOCTORS, CHURCH GOVERNMENT, &c. 
 
 349 
 
 V.,' and, afler having ruled the chiu-oh during 
 five vireeks, was succeeded by Peter Julian,, bi- 
 shopof Tusculum, who enjoyed that high dig- 
 nity about eight- month's, and is distinguished 
 in the papal list by the name of John XXI.f 
 The see of Rome continued vacant for about 
 six months after the death of the last-mention- 
 ed pontiff, but was at length filled, in Novem- 
 ber, 1271, by John' Caietan, of the family of 
 Ursini, cardinal of St. Nicolas, whose name 
 he adopted for his papal title. This- famous 
 pontiff (as has-been already observed) aug- 
 mented greatly both the opulence and- autho- 
 rity of the bishops of Rome, and had formed 
 vast projects, which his undaunted courage 
 and his remarkable activity would have ena- 
 bled him, in all probability, to execute with suc- 
 cess, had- not death blasted his hopes, and dis- 
 concerted his ambitious schemes. 
 
 XV. He was succeeded, in 1281, about six 
 months after his departure from this life, by 
 Simon de Brie, who adopted the name of Mai:- 
 tin IV., and was not inferior to Nicolas III. m 
 ambition, arrogance^and constancy of mind, of 
 which he gave several proofs during his pontifi- 
 cate. Michael Pateologus, the Grecian empe- 
 ror, was one of the first princes whom this auda- 
 cious priest solemnly excommunicated; and the 
 pretext was, that he had broken the peace con- 
 cluded between the Greek and Latin Churches, 
 at the council of Lyons.]: The same insult was 
 committed against JPeter, king of Arragon, 
 whom Martin not only excluded from the bo- 
 som of the church, but also deposed from his 
 throne, on account of his attempt upon Sicily; 
 and made a grant of his kingdom, fiefs, and 
 possessions, to Charles, son of Philip the B6ld,§ 
 king of. France. It was during the execution 
 ^ of such daring enterprises as these, and while 
 he was meditating still greater things for the 
 glory of the Roman hierarchy, that a sudden 
 death, in 1285, obliged him to leave his schemes 
 unfinished. They were, however, prosecuted 
 with great spirit by his successor, James Sa- 
 velli, who chose tlae denornination of Hono- 
 rius IV., but was also stopped' short in the 
 midst of his career, in 128'7, haying ruled the 
 church only two years. Jerome d'Ascoli, bi- 
 shop of Palestrina, who was raised to the pontifi- 
 cate in 1288, and is known by the denomination 
 of Nicolas IV-, distinguished himself, during 
 the four years that he remained at the head 
 of the church, by his assiduous application both 
 to ecclesiastical' and political, affairs. Some- 
 times we see the disputes of sovereign powers 
 ,left to his arbitration, and terminated by his 
 dsoision; at other times, we find him maintain- 
 ing the pretensions and privileges of the church 
 with the most resolute zeal and the most ob- 
 stinate perseverance; and occasionally we see 
 him employing, with the utmost assiduity,- 
 every probable method of propagating the Gos- 
 
 rtj^ * We read, in tho Latin, Adrian VI., wlijch 
 is more probably an error of Ihe press, than a faiill 
 of the author. 
 
 ng- t In the original. Dr. Mosheim observes, that 
 these three successors of Grp.gory were elected and 
 carried off by death in 127li; but hiire he has fallen 
 into a slight mistake; for John XXI. died on the IGth 
 of May, 1277. I, 
 
 X This council hid been holden under the pontifi 
 eateof Gregory X. .. „ ,. t, u 
 
 § Philippe le Hat li, as he is called by the French. 
 
 pel among the Tartars and other eaiitem na- 
 tions. But the object, which, of all others, 
 occupied most the thoughts of this vigilant and 
 zealous pontiff, was the desperate state of the 
 Christians in Palestine, who were now reduced 
 to ah extremity of misery and weakness. His 
 laborious efforts were therefore employed for 
 the restoration of their former grandeur;^ they 
 were however employed in vain; and his de^th, 
 which'happened in 1292, disconcerted all the 
 projects. he had formed for that purpose. 
 
 XVI. Tile death of this pontiff was follow- 
 ed: by a vacancy of two years . in the see of 
 Rome, in consequence of the disputes which 
 arose among the cardinals about the election 
 of a- new pope. These disputes were at length 
 terminated, and the contending parties united 
 their suffrages in favour of Peter, sumamed 
 De Murrone, from a mountain where he had hi- 
 therto lived in the deepest solitude, and with 
 the utmost austerity. This venerable old man, 
 who was in high renown on account of the re- 
 markable sfnctity of his life and conversation, 
 ,was raised to the pontificate; in 1294, and as- 
 sumed the name of Celestine V. But the aus- 
 terity of his manners, being a tacit reproach 
 upon tlie corruption of the Roman court, and 
 more especially ilpon the luxury "df the cardi- 
 nals, rendered hirn extremely disagreeable to a 
 degenerate and licentious clergy; and-this dis- 
 like was so heightened by the whole course of 
 
 'his administration, (which showed that he had 
 more at heart the reformation and purity of 
 the church, than the increase of its opulence 
 and the propagation of, its authority,) that he 
 was almost universally conadered as. unworthy 
 of the pontificate. Hence it was, that several 
 of the carjlinals, and particularly Benedict 
 Caietan, advised Mm to abdicate the papacy, 
 which he had accepted with such reluctance; 
 and they had the pleasure of seeing their ad- 
 vice followed with tlve utmost docility. .The 
 good man resigned his dignity in ' the fourth 
 month after his election, and died in 1296, in 
 the castle of Fumone,^ where his tyrannic and 
 suspicious successor kept him in capti'vity, tliat 
 he might not be engaged, by the solicitations 
 of his friends, to attempt the- recovery of his 
 abdicated honours; His memory was precious 
 to the virtuous part of the cliurch, and he was 
 elevated to "the rank of a saint by Clement V. 
 It was from him that the branch of the Bene- 
 dic'tine order, called Celestines, yet subsisting 
 in France and Italy, derived its origin.* 
 
 XVII. Benedict Caietan, who had persuad- 
 ed the good pontiff now mentioned to resign 
 his place, succeeded him in it, in 1294j with 
 the name of Boniface VIII. We may say, 
 with truth, of this unworthy prelate, that he 
 was born to be a plague both to church and 
 s£at?, a disturber of the repose of nations, and 
 that his attempts to extend and confirm the 
 despotism of the Roman pontiffs, were car- 
 ried to a length that approached to phrensy. 
 As soon as he entered upon his new- dignity, 
 he claimed a supreme and irresistible domin- 
 ion ovet all the powers of the earth, both spi- 
 ritual and temporal, terrified kingdoins and 
 empires with the thunder of his bulls, called 
 princes and sovereign states before his tribunal 
 
 * Helyot, Histoire des Ordres, torn. vi. p. 180. 
 
350 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 to decide their quan-els, augmented the papal 
 jurisprudence witK a new body of laws enti- 
 tled the Sixth Book of the Decretals, declared 
 war against the illustrious family of Colonna" 
 
 , who disputed his title to the pontificate;* in a 
 word, exhibited to the church, and to Europe 
 a li¥Sly image of the tyrannical administra- 
 tion of Gregory VH-, whom he<-perhaps sur- 
 passed in arroganoe.t This *as the pontiff 
 who,. in 1300, instituted the famous jubilee, 
 which, since that time, has been regularly ce- 
 kbrated in the Roman church at fixed periods. 
 But the consideration of this institution, which 
 was so favourable to the progress of licentious- 
 ness and corruption, as also the other exploits 
 of Boniface, and his deplorable end, belong to 
 the history of the following contury.| 
 
 XVIIl. In the-Lateran council that was 
 holdeh in 1215, a decree had passed, by the 
 advice of Innocent III., to prevent the intro- 
 duction of jiew rehgions, by which were meant 
 new monastic institutions. This decree, how- 
 ever, seemed to be very little-respected, either 
 by that pontiff or his successors, since several 
 rejigious orders, hitherto linltnownin the Chris- 
 tian woi;Id, were not only tolerated, but were 
 distinguished by peculiar marks of approba- 
 tion and favour, and enriched with various pri- 
 vileges and prerogatives. Not will this tacit 
 abrogation of the decree of Innocent appear 
 at all surprising to Such as consider the state 
 of the church in this century; for, not to menr 
 tion many enormities that contributed to tjje 
 suspension of this decree, we sliall only ob- 
 serve, that the enemies 'of Christiaijity, and 
 -the heretical sects, increased daily every where; [ 
 and, on the other hand, the secular clergy 
 were more attentive to their woirldly advanta- 
 ges than to the interests of the church, and 
 spent in mirth and jollity the opulence with 
 which ihe -piety of tlieir ancestors had enrich- 
 ed that sacred body. The monastic orders 
 also had almost all degenerated from their pri- 
 mitive sanctity, and, exhibiting the- most of- 
 fensive examples of licentiousness and vice to 
 public view, rendered by their flagitious lives 
 the cause of heresy triumphant, instead of re- 
 tarding its progress. All these things, being 
 considered, it was thought necessary to encom-- 
 age the establishment of new monastic socie- 
 ties,, who, by the sanctity of their manners, 
 might attract thcesteem and veneration of the 
 people, and diminish the indignation which 
 the tyranny and ainbition of the pontiffs had 
 so genefalfy excited; and who, by their dili- 
 gence and address, their discourses and their 
 
 arguments, their power and arms, when tliese 
 violent means were required, might discover, 
 
 Part II, 
 
 ^ilj- * Th6 reasons which they allege .Tor disputing 
 the title of Boniface to tlwj pontificate were, that the 
 resignation of Celestine was not .canonical, and that 
 it was brought about by fraudulent means.- 
 
 t There is a historyof this pontiff written by Jo. 
 Rubeus, a Benedictine monk, whose work, which is 
 entitled Bonifacius VIIl'. e Familla Caietanbruia 
 principum Romanus pontifex, was published atRome 
 iri the year lG5i. 
 
 X In this account of the popes, I have chiefly fol- 
 lowed Daniel Fapebroch, Francis Pagi, and Nuratori, 
 in his Annales Italias, consulting at the same time 
 the original sources collected by the last mentioned 
 author in his Kerum Italicaruni Scriptores. 
 
 ■persecute, convert and vanquish,- the growing 
 tribe of heretics. 
 
 XIX. Of the religious societies that arose in 
 this century, sonie are now entirely suppressed, 
 while' others continue to flourish, and are in 
 high repute. Among the former we may reck- 
 on the Humiliati, (a title expressive of -great 
 Ijumility an^ self-abasement,) whose origin 
 may b^ traced to a much earlier period than 
 the present century, thoiigh their order was 
 confirmed and new-modelled by Innocent III., 
 who subjected it to the rule of St. Benedict. 
 These humble monks became so shockingly 
 licentious in process of time, that, in 1571, 
 pope Pius V. was obliged to dissolve their soci- 
 ety.* We may also place, in the list of sup- 
 pressed .fraternities, the Jacobins, who were 
 erected into a religious order by Ipnocent III.,t 
 and who, in this very<;entury, not long after the 
 council of Lyons, were deprived of their char- 
 ter;, and also .the Valli-Scholares, or Scholars 
 of the Valley, so called from their being insti- 
 tuted by the scholares, i. e. the four professors 
 of divinity in the university' of Paris, and from 
 a deep vale in the province of Champagne, in. 
 which they assembled and fixed' their residence 
 in 1234.|. This society, whose foundation was 
 laid. about the commencement of this century, 
 was formerly governed by the rule of St. Au- 
 gustin, but is now incorporated into the order 
 of the Regular Canons of St Genevieve. To 
 the same class we may refer the order of the 
 blessed Virgin Mary, the mother of Christ, 
 which had its commencement, in 1266, and 
 was suppressed in 1274;^ the Knights of Faith 
 and Charity, who. undertook to disperse the 
 bands of robbers that irifested the public i;oads 
 in France, and who were favoured with the 
 peculiar protection and approbation of Gre- 
 gory IX;|| the Hermits of St. William, duke 
 qf Aqaitaine;TF not to mention the Brethren 
 of the Sack, the Bethlemites, and some orders 
 of inferior note, that started up in this centu- 
 ry, which, of all others, was the most remark- 
 able for the number and variety of monastic 
 establishments, -that date their origin from it.** 
 
 XX. Among the convents that were founded 
 in this century, and still subsist, the principal 
 place is due to that of the Servites, i. e. the 
 Servants of the blessed Virgm, whose order 
 was first instituted, A. D. 12.33, in Tuscany, 
 by seven Florentine merchants, and afterwards 
 made a great progress under the government 
 of Pliilip Benizi, its chief. This order, though 
 subjected to the rule of St. Augustin, was 
 erected in commemoration of the mosfi holy 
 
 * Helyot His. des Ord. t. vi. p. 153. 
 
 t Mat. Paris. His. Maj. p. 16.1. 
 
 t Boulay, Hist. Acad. Paris, torn. iii. p. 15.— Acta 
 Sanct. Mens. Febrtiar. torn. ii. p. 482. 
 
 J Dion. Sammarthani Gallia Christiana, tom. i. p. 
 653. 
 
 II Gallia Christ, tom. i. Append, p. 105.— Martenne, 
 Voyage Liter, de deux Benedictins, tom. ii. 
 
 IT Jo. Bolandi deordine Eremitar. S. Gulielmi Com. 
 in actis SS. Februar. tom. ii. p. 472. 
 
 ** Matth. Paris, Hist. Major, p. 815, edit. Watts, 
 where, speaking of the prodigious number of con- 
 vents, founded m England during this century, be 
 eitpresSeth himself thusr " Tot jam apparuerunt or. 
 dines in Anglia, ut ordinum confusio videretur inor* 
 d'inata." 
 
Chap. II, 
 
 DOCTORS, CHURCH GOVERNMENT,-&o. 
 
 351 
 
 . widowhood of the blessed Virgin; for which 
 reason its monks wear a black habit,* and pb- 
 Berve several rules unknown to other monaste- 
 
 . ries. The prodigious number of Christians, 
 that were made prisonera by the Mohamme- 
 dans in Palestine, gave rise, toward the con- 
 clusion of the 12th century, to the institution 
 of the order named the Fraternity of the Tri- 
 nity, which, in the following age, received a 
 still greater degree of stability, under the pon- 
 tificate of Honorius III. and also of Clement IV. 
 The founders of this institution were Jolln de 
 Matha and Felix de Valois, two pious men 
 who led an austere and sohtary life at Cer- 
 
 ^froyj in the diocese of Meaux. The monks of 
 this socieKy are Called the Bretlnen of the Holy 
 Trinity, because all theirchurches are solemnly 
 dedicated to. that profound mystery; they are 
 alsQ styled Mathiiriiis, from having a monas- 
 tery at Paris, erected in a place where is a 
 chapel consecrated to St. Mathurin,- and Bre- 
 
 ■ tliren of the Redemption of Captives,! because 
 the gijind design o~f their instituticm was to 
 find out mfeans for restoring liberty to the 
 Christian captives in the Holy Land, iii which 
 charitable- work they were obliged to employ 
 a third part of their revenue. Their manner 
 of life was, at first, extremely abstemious and 
 austere; but its austerity has been frorn time 
 to time considerably mitigated by the indul- 
 gence and lenity of the pontifis. J 
 
 XXI. The religions society that surpassed 
 all the rest in purity of rnanners, extent of 
 
 .fame, liumber of privileges, and multitude of 
 members, was that of the IVIendicant or beg- 
 
 - ging friars, whose order was first established in 
 this Tcentury, and who, by the tenour of their 
 instit;ition, were to remain entirely destitute 
 of all- fixed revenues and possessions. The pre- 
 sent state and circumstances of the church 
 rendered the establishment of such an order 
 absolutely necessary. The monastic" orders, 
 who wallowed in opulence, were, by the cor- 
 rupting influence of their ample possessions, 
 lulled in a, luxurious indolence. Theyjlost 
 sight of all their religious obiigatipns, trampled 
 uponthe authority of their superiors, suffered 
 
 * Beside the ordinary writersofmgnastic- history, 
 see Pauh Florentini Dialog, de Origine Ordinjs-Ser- 
 voram, in Lamii'fielic. Eruditorum, torn. i. p. 1 — iS. 
 - gi^ T Broughton and some other writers raafce a 
 distinction between the Order of the Redemption of 
 Captives, and the Fraternity of the Holy Trinity. 
 They allege, that the latter order was instituted at 
 Kome by St. Philip Neri, in 1548, about 350'years- af- 
 ter the first eatablishmeivt of .the former; and that 
 the monks who composed it, were obliged by their 
 vow to take^carfe of the pilgrims Who resorted from 
 all parts of the world to Ro;ne, to visit thetombs-6f 
 St. Peter and St. Paul. • . ^ 
 
 X Beside Helyot and the other writers of monastic 
 history, see Touissaint de Plessis, Hist, de TEglise 
 de Meaux, torn. i. p. , 172, and 566. Boulay, Hist. 
 Acad. Paris,- torn. ii. p. 523. Ant. Wood, -Antiq, 
 Oxon. torn. i. p. 133. In the ancient records, this so- 
 ciety-is frequently styled the Order of Asses, on ac- 
 count of the prohibition of the use of horses, which 
 made a part of their rule, and which obliged the 
 mendicant monks to ride upon asses. See Car. du 
 Fresno's Notes upon ijfoinville's Life of Sjt. Louis, p. 
 81. But at present, through the indulgence of the 
 Roman pontifls, they are permitted to make use of 
 horses when they find them necessary. An order of 
 the same kind was instituted in Spain, in 1228, by 
 Paul Nolasco, under the title of the Order of St, 
 Mary, for the Redemption of Captives. See the Acta 
 Sanctorum, Januar. torn. ii. p. 980. 
 
 heresy to triumph linrestrained, and the secta- 
 ries to form various, asserhblies; in short, they 
 were incapable of promoting the true interests 
 of the church, and abandoned themselves, 
 without either shame or remorse, tb all sorts 
 of crimes. On the other hand, the enemies 
 of the church, the sects which had leftits com- 
 munion, followed certain austere, rules of life 
 and conduct, which formed a strong 'contrast 
 betvyeen them and the religious orders, and 
 contributed to render the licentiousness of the 
 latter still more offensive and shocking to the 
 peopled These sects maintained, -that volunta- 
 ry poverty was tire -leading and essential qua- 
 lity in a servant of Christ; obliged' their doc- 
 tors to imitate the simplicity 'of the apostles; 
 reproached the' church with its overgrown opu- 
 lence, and tlie vi6es aiid corruptions of the 
 clergy, that flowed thence as from their natu- 
 ral source; and, by their comniendation of po- 
 verty and contempt of riches, acquired a high 
 degree of respect, and gained a -prodigious 
 ascendancy over the. minds of the multitude. 
 All this rendered it absolutely necessary to in- 
 troduce into the church a set of men, who, 1|^ 
 .the. austerity of tlieir manners, theil" contempt" 
 of riches, and tlie external gravity and sanctity 
 of their conduct and maxims, might resemble 
 those doctors who had gaiiied such reputation 
 to the heretical sects, and who might rise so 
 far above thp allurements of worldly profit and 
 pleasure, as not to be seduced, by the prbmises 
 or threats of kings: and princes, from the per- 
 formance of the duties which they owed to the 
 church, or from persevering in their subordi- 
 nation to the.Rpman pontiffs. Irinocent III. 
 was the first of the pope^.who perceived the' 
 necessity of instituting such an order; and. ac- 
 cordingly he treated such monastic societies as 
 made a profession of poverty, with the liiost 
 distinguishing marks of his protection and fa- 
 vour. These associations were also encouraged 
 and. patronised by the succeeding .pontiffs, 
 when experience had demonstrated their pub- 
 lic and extensive utility. But when it became 
 generally known, that they had such a pecu- 
 liar place in the esteem and protection of the 
 rulers of the church, their numbef -grew to 
 such an enormous and unwieldy miiltitude, 
 and swarmed so prodigiously in all the Euro- 
 pean- provinces, that' they became a burthen, 
 not only to- the people, but to the churph itself. 
 XXII. The great inconvenience that arose 
 from the excessive multiplication of the men- 
 dicant orders, was remedied by Gregory X., 
 in 1272, in a general council which he assem- 
 bled at Lyons; for here all the leligidus orders, 
 that had sprung up after the council holden at 
 Rome in 1215, uiideV the pontificate of Inno- 
 cent III., were suppressed, and the " extrava- 
 gant multitude of mendicants," as Gregory 
 called them, were reduced to a smaller num- 
 ber, and confined to the four following socie-' 
 ties, or denominations, viz. the Domitucans, 
 the Franciscans, the. Carmelites, and the Her- 
 mits of St. Augustin.* The Carmelite order, 
 
 *Concil. Lugd. ll. A. 1274, Can. xxiii. in Jo. Har- 
 duini Conciliis,. torn. -vii. p. 715. " Importuna peten- 
 tium inhfatio Beligionum (so were the religious or- 
 ders entitled) multiplicationem extorsit, verum etiam 
 aliquorum prffisumptuosa-temeritasdiveraorum ordi". 
 num, prsecipue mendlcantium . . eHrasnatanli multi. 
 
352 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part II. 
 
 which had fc^eii instituted in Palestine during 
 the preceding century, was, in this, trans- 
 plantedlnto Europe, and, in 1226, was favour- 
 ed by pope Honorius III. with a place among 
 the monastic societies, which, enjoyed tlie pro- 
 tection and approbation, of the church. The 
 Hermits of St. Augustin had for their founder 
 Alexander IV.,* wlio, observing that the her- 
 mits were divided into several societies, some 
 of whicli followed the maxims of the famous 
 William, others the rule of St. Augustin, while 
 others again were distinguished by different 
 denominations, formed the 'judicious project 
 of uniting them all into one religious order, and 
 subjecting them to the same rule of disciphne, 
 even that which bears the name of St". Au- 
 gustin.' This project was put in executioDi 
 in the, year 1256. 
 
 XXIII. As the pontiffs allowed to these four 
 Mendicant orders the 'liberty of travelling 
 wherever they thought proper, of- conversing 
 with persons of all raiiks, of instructing the 
 youth and the-multitude wherever they yfent; — 
 and as these ipouks exhibited,, in iheir out- 
 ward appeaiunce and inanner of life, more 
 striking marks of gravity and holiness, than 
 were observa.ble in the other monastic so- 
 cieties, — they arose as it were at once to the 
 very summit pf fame, and were regarded with 
 the utmdst esteem and veneration , in all the 
 countries of Europe. The .enthusiastic attach- 
 ment to tllese sanctimoiiious beggars went so 
 far, that, as we learn irom the. most authentic 
 records, several cities were divided, or can- 
 toned out, into. four parts,, with a view to these 
 four orders; the first- part was assigned to the 
 Dominicans, the second to the Franciscans, the 
 third to the Carmelites, jand the fourth to the 
 Augijstinians. The people were unwilling to 
 receive. the sacraments from any other hands 
 than those of the Mendicants, to whose 
 churches they crowded to perform their devo- 
 tions, while living,, and were extremely desi- 
 rous to deposit .there also their, remains after 
 death; all which occasioned grievous cora- 
 plamts among the ordinary priests, who, being 
 entrusted with -the cure of souls, considered 
 themselves as the spiritual guides of the multi- 
 tude. Nor did the influence and credit of the 
 Mendicants end -here; for we find in the history 
 of this' and of the succeeding 'age?, that they 
 were employed, not only in spiritiial concerns,, 
 but also in temporal and political affairs of the 
 greatest consequence, in coihposhig the differ- 
 ences of prince.s,-com;luding treaties of peace, 
 concerting alliances, presiding in cabinet-coun^ 
 oils, governing jcourts, levying taxes, and in 
 other occupations, not merely remote from, 
 but absolutely inconsistent with; the monastic 
 character and profession. » 
 
 XXIV. We must not however imagine, that 
 all the Mendicant friarB attained the same de- 
 gree of reputation and authority; fdr the 
 power .0f- the Dominicans and Franciscans 
 surpassed greatly that of the other.two 'orders, 
 and rendered' them remarkably conspicuous- 
 
 tudinem adinvenit . . . Iliuc .ordincs Meiidicaiites 
 D08t dictum concilium (i e. the Lateran council of 
 1315) adinventos . . ■ pe petuE prohibitioni -sabjici- 
 
 f Ttiis edict of pope Alexander ly. is to be found 
 
 in the eyes of the world. During three cen- 
 turies, these tjvo fraternities governed, with an 
 almost universal and absolute sway, both 
 state and church, filled-the highest posts eccle- 
 siastical and civil, taught in the universities 
 and churches with an authority before which all 
 opposition was silent, and maintained the pre- 
 tende~d majesty and prerogatives of the Roman 
 pontiffs against kings, princes, bishops, and here- 
 tics, with incredible ardour and equal success. 
 The Dominicans and Franciscans were, before 
 the Reformation, what the Jesuits became after 
 that happy and glorious event, — the very soul 
 of the hierarchy, the engines of the.state, the 
 secret springs of all the motions of both, and 
 the authors or directors of every great and im- 
 portant event both in the religious and politi- 
 cal world. Dominic, a Spaniard by birth, a 
 native of Calaroga, descendant of the illustri- 
 ous bouse of GuzmaUj and regular canon of 
 Osma, a manof a fiery and impetuous temper, 
 and vehemently exasperated by the commo- 
 tions and contests which the heretics of diflfer- 
 ent denominations had excited in the'church, 
 set put for France with a few companions, in 
 order to combat the sectaries who had multi- 
 plied in that kingdom. This enterprise he ex- 
 ecuted with the greatest vigour, and', we may 
 add, fury, attacking, the Albigenses and the 
 other enemies of the church with the power 
 of eloquence, the force of arms, the subtlety 
 of controversial writings, and the terrors of the 
 inquisition, which owed its form to this violetit 
 and sanguinary, priest. Passing thence into 
 Italy, he was honoured by the Roman ponlifis 
 Innocent III. jmd Hoporius III. with the-most 
 distinguished tnarks of their protection and far 
 vour; and, after many labours in the cause of 
 the chi^rch, obtained, from them the privilege 
 of .erepting a new fraternity," -whose principal 
 objects -ivere the extirpation of error and the 
 destruction of heretics. The first rule'which 
 he , adopted, for this society was that of the ■ 
 Canons of St. Augustin, to which he added 
 several austere precepts and observances. But 
 he afterwards changed the, disciphne of the 
 qanons for that of the monks; and, holding a 
 chapter of the order- at Bologiia in -1220, he 
 obliged the brethren to take a vow of absolute 
 poverty, and to abandon all their revenues and 
 possessions. He did not hra long enough to 
 see the consequences of this reformation; for 
 he died in the following year~at Bologna.* 
 His monks were, at first, distinguished by the 
 denomination oi preaching fiiars, because pub- 
 lic instruction -vyas the main end of their iMti- 
 tution; but, in hqnour of him, they were after- 
 wards called Dominicans.t [^ Jnst before 
 
 ill tha Bttllariura Ramanum, torn. i. p. 110.— See also 
 Acta Sarictor. Mens- Feb. torn. 1i. p. 472.. ' 
 
 * See Jac. Bchard and auetif in Sci'iploribus Old 
 Doirtinic. toin. i- p. 84.^Acta Sanctor. ApriHom 
 iii p. 872.— Niool. Jansenii Vita S. Domintci. AM 
 to tiiese the long, list of writers mentioned by EaDn- 
 cius, in hia Bililiotheca Lat. med. ^vi, tom. ii. p. 
 J37, and also Antonii Bremondi Bullarium Qrdims 
 
 Doininicaiii. , „ ,,-„;« 
 
 t-The Dominicans are called Fratres Majoresm 
 several of the ancient records: see Ant. MattBEl 
 Analecta vet. jEvi. t. ii. p. 172. This appellation 
 however, by which the Dominicans were set m op- 
 position to the Franciscans, who called themselves 
 FrqXrcs JfftTiorcs^ was rather a term of derision than 
 a real' name.— In Trance tjie Dominicans were 
 
Chap. II. 
 
 DOCTORS, CHURCH GOVERNMENT, &c. 
 
 353 
 
 his death, Dominie sent Gilbert do Fresnoy 
 with twelve of the brethren into England, 
 where they founded their first monastery at 
 Oxford, in 1221,^ and, soon after, another at 
 London. In 1276, the mtdyor and aldermen 
 of London giive tliem two Whole streets near 
 the river Thames, wliere they erected a very 
 commodious convent, whence tliat place still 
 bears the name of Black-Friars; for so the Do- 
 minicans were oalled in England.] 
 
 XXV. Francis, the foimder of the celebrated 
 order that bears his name, was the son of a 
 merchant of Assisi, in the province of Umbria, 
 and led, in ,his youth,, a most debauched and 
 dissolute life. Upon his recf/very from a 
 severe fit of sickness, which was the conse- 
 quence and punishment of his licentious con'^ 
 duot, he changed his method of living, and, as 
 extremes are natural to men of warm imagi- 
 nations, fell into an extravagant kind of 'de- 
 votion, that looked less like religion than 
 alienation of mind. Some time after this,* 
 he happened to be in a church, where he heard 
 that passage of the Scripture repeated, in 
 which Christ addresses his apostles in the fol- 
 lowing manner: "Provide neither gold, nor 
 silver, nor brass in your purses, nor scrip for 
 your journey, neither two coats, neither shoes, 
 nor .yet staves; for the workman is worthy of 
 his meat."t This produged a powerful effect 
 upon his -mind, made him consider a voluntary 
 and absolute poverty as the essence of tlie 
 Gospel and the soul of religion, and prescribe 
 this poverty as a sacred rule both to himself 
 and to the few who followed him. Sucli was 
 the commencement of the famous Franciscan 
 order, -whose chief was undoubtedly a. pioiis 
 and well-meaning man, though grossly igno- 
 raht, and manifestly weakened in his intellect 
 by the disorder from which he had recently re- 
 covered. Nevertheless the new society j which 
 appeared to Innocent III. extremely adapted 
 to the present state of the church, and proper 
 to restore its declining credit, was solemnly 
 approved and confirmed by Honorius III.; in 
 1.223, and had already made a considerable 
 progress when its devout founder, in 1226, was 
 called from this life. Francis, through an ex- 
 cessive humility, would- not suffer the monks 
 of his order to be called Fratres, i. e. brethren 
 or friars, but Fratereuli, i. e. little brethren, or 
 friars-minOrs,! by-'whicji denomination they 
 continue to be aistingviished.§. [g:^ The Fran- 
 
 called Jacobins, from the Rue de St. Jaques, where 
 their first convent was erected at Paris. 
 * In 1308. t Matthew x. 9, 10, 
 
 t They were called FrotriccUi by the Italians, 
 Frerea Mneurs by the French, and Fratres Minores 
 by the Latin writers. „ „ „ „■ . 
 
 S Bonaventura wrote a hfe of St. Francis, which 
 has passed through several editions. But the most 
 ample and circumstantial accounts of this extraor- 
 dinary man are given by Luke Wadding, in the first 
 volume of his Annal. Ord. Min. a work which con- 
 tains 3: complete history of the Franciscan order, 
 confirmed by a great nujnher of authentic records, 
 and the >est edition of which is that putillshed at 
 Kome in 1731, and the following ycars^ in eighteen 
 volumes in folio, by Joseph Maria Fonseca ab Ebora. 
 It is to the same Wadding that we are obliged for 
 the Oposcula Sti. Francisoi, and the Bibliotheca Or- 
 dinis Minorum, the former of which appeared at 
 Antwerp in 1633, and the latter at Rome in 1650. 
 The other writers, who have given accounts of the 
 Franciscan order, are mentioned by Jo. Alb. Fabri- 
 Vol,. I,-45 
 
 ciscans came into England in the roign of 
 Henry III;, and thoir first ^stablialiment was at 
 Canterbury;] , ' 
 
 XXVI. These two orders restored the church 
 fl"om that declining condition in which it had 
 been languishing for many years, by the zeal 
 and activity with whicli tliey set tliomselves to 
 discover and extirpate heretics, to undertake 
 various negotiations and embassies for the in- 
 terest of the hierarchy, and to confirm the wa- 
 vering multitude in an implicit obedience to 
 the Roman pontiffs. Tliese spiritual rulers, 
 on the other hand, sensible of their obligations 
 to the new monks, which, no doabtj were very 
 gifeit, not only engaged them in the most im- 
 portant affairs, and raised them to the most 
 eminent stations in the church, b\it also accu- 
 mulated upon them employments and privi- 
 leges, which, if they enriched them on the one 
 hand, qould iiot fail to render them odious on 
 the other,* and to excite the envy and com- 
 plaints of other ecclesiastics. Such (among 
 many other extraordinary prerogatives) was 
 the permission Uiey received from the pontic's, 
 of preaching to the multitude, hearing confes- 
 sions, and pronouncing absolution, without any 
 license from the bishops, and even without 
 consulting them; to which we may add the 
 treasure of ample and extensive indulgences, 
 whose distributiijn was committed by the popes 
 to the Franciscans, as a means of subsistence, 
 and a rich indemnification for their voluntary 
 poverty.f These acts of liberality and marks 
 of protection, lavished upon the Dominicsn 
 and Franciscan friars with such an ill-judged 
 profusion,, as they overturned the ancient dis- 
 cipline of the church, and were a manifest Bii- 
 croachment- upon t|ie rights of- the first and 
 second orders of the ecclesiastical rulers, pro- 
 duced the moat unhappy and bitter dissensions 
 between the Mendicant orders anf the bishops 
 'And these dissensions, extending their conta- 
 gious influence, beyond the limits of the church, 
 excited in all the European provinces, and 
 
 ciiis, in his Bibliotheca Lat. mcdii Mv'i, torn. ii. p. 
 573. 
 
 * The popes were so infa:tuated with the Fraiicia- 
 eans, that those whom they could not employ more 
 honourably in their civil negotiations or domestic 
 afiairs, they made their publicans, beadles, &c. Bee, 
 for a confirmatioirof -this, the following passages in 
 the Histor. Major of Matthew Paris 'Fratres Mi- 
 nores et PrjEdicatores (says he) invitos, ut credi- 
 mus, jam siios fecit dominua papa, non sine ordinis 
 eorum liEsione et scandalo,-teloniario3 et bedcllos,*. 
 p. 634. — '-Non cessavit papa pecuiiiam aggrepare, 
 faciens de Fratribus Praedicatoribus, el Minoribus, 
 etiuin invitis, non jam piscaroribus honiinum, sed . 
 numraorum,' p. 630.-:-' Erant Minores et^Praedica- 
 tores magnalum consiliatorea et nuntii, etiani dbmi- 
 ni papa? secretarii; nimis in hoc gratjam sibi secula- 
 rem cnmparantes;' ad an. 1236, p. 354. — ' Facti sunt 
 eo tempore Praedicatores et Minores regum consilia- 
 rii et nuntii speciales, ut sicut quondam moUibus 
 induti in domibus regum erant, ita tunc qui vilibus 
 vestiebantur in domibus, cameris, et palatiis essent 
 principum;' ad an. 1230. p, 46S. 
 
 t Bee Baluzii Miscellan. tom. iv. p. 490, torn. vli. 
 p. 393. — It is well, known, that no religious order 
 had the distribution of so many and' such ample in- 
 dulgences as the Franciscans. Nor could these good 
 friars live and multiply as they did^ without some 
 source of profit, since, by their institution; they were 
 to be destitute of revenues and possessions of every 
 kind, it was therefore in the place of fixed revenues, 
 that such lucrative indi<lgences were put into their 
 (lands. 
 
354 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 even in the city of Rome,* under ^he very eyes 
 of the pontiffs, the most dreadful disturbances 
 and tumults. The measures taken by the 
 popes to appease these tumults were various, 
 but ineffectual, because their principsl view 
 was to support the cause of their' faithful ser- 
 vants and creatures, the Mendicant friars, and 
 to maintain thern^ in the possession of tlieir 
 honours and advantageslf 
 
 XXVII. Among all the controversies which 
 were maintained by the Mendicants, whether 
 against the" loishops, abbots, schools, or other 
 rehgious orders, that was the most famous 
 which arose in 1228, between the Dominicans 
 arid the university of Palis, and was prolonged, 
 with various success, until the year 1269. The 
 Dominicans claimed, as their unquestionable 
 right, two theological classes in that -celebrated 
 university: one of these had been taken frbm 
 theni, and an academical law had- passed, im- 
 porting that no religious order should have 
 what the Dominicans demanded. The latter, 
 however, persisted obstinately in reclaiming 
 the professorship they had lost; while the doc- 
 tors of the university, perceiving the restless 
 and contentious spirit that animated their ef- 
 forts, excluded them from their society, and 
 formed themselves into a separate body. This 
 measure was .considered as a declaration of 
 war; and, accordingly, the most vehement 
 commotions arose between the contending par- 
 ties. The debate was brought before the tri- 
 bunal of the Roman pontiff, in 1266; and the 
 decision, as might have been expected, was in 
 favour-of the monks. Alexander IV. ordered 
 the university of Paris not only to restore the 
 Dominicans to their former place in that learn- 
 ed society, but moreover to make a grant to 
 them of as many classes or professorships as 
 they should think proper to demand. This 
 unjust and despotic sentence was opposed by 
 the university with the utmost vigour; and 
 thus the contest was renewed with double fury. 
 JBut the magistrates of Paris were, at length, 
 BO terrified and overwhelmed with the thun- 
 dering edicts and formidable mandates of the 
 exasperated pontiff, that, in 1269, they yielded 
 to superior force, and satisfied the demands 
 not only of the Dominican, but also of the 
 Franciscan order, in obedience to the pope, 
 and to the extent of his commands.^ Hence 
 arose that secret entnity and silent ill-will, 
 which prevailed so long between the univer- 
 sity and the Mendicant orders, especially the 
 Domimcans. 
 
 Part XL 
 
 * Baluzii Miscellan. torn. vii. p. 441. 
 
 t See Jo. Launoii ,-Explicata Eccleaiffi Traditio 
 circa Canoneiri, Omnjs utriusque Sexus, torn. f. part 
 i. op^p. 247. — Kich. Simon, Critique de la Biblio- 
 theque des Auteurs Ecclesiastiques, par M. Du-Pin, 
 torn. i. p. 326.— L'Bnfant, Histoire da Concile "de 
 Pise, torn. i. pi. 310, torn. ii. p. 8. — Echardi Scriptores 
 Doralnicani, torn. i. p. 404. The circumstances of- 
 these flaming contests are meHtioned by all the 
 writers, both of this'and the following centuries. 
 
 t See CtBS. Egass. du Boulayi Histor. Acad.. Paris. 
 
 torn. iii. 138, 240, &c Jo. Cordesii, or (to mention 
 
 him by the name he assumed) Jo. AJitophili Prtef 
 Histor. et Apoiogetica ad Opera Gulielmi de S. 
 Amore. — Antoine Touron, Vie de S. Thomas, p. 
 134. — Wadding, Annal. Minor, torn. iii. p. 247, 366. 
 tom, )V. p. ,14, 52, 106, 263.— Matth. Paris, Histor. 
 Major, ad an. 1228— Nangis Chronioon, apud d'Ache- 
 rii Spicilegium, tom. iii. p. 38. 
 
 XXVIII. In this famous debate none pleaded 
 the cause of the university with greater spirit 
 or asserted its rights with greater zeal and ac- 
 tivity j^han Guillauine de St. Amour, doctor of 
 the Sorbonne, a man of true genius, worthy to 
 have lived in better times, and capable of 
 adorning a more enlightened age. This vigor- 
 ous -and able chainpion attacked the whole 
 Mendicant tribe in various treatises with the 
 greatest veherooncej and more especially in a 
 -book ''concerning the perils 'of the latter 
 times." Ho boldly maintained, that.their dis- 
 cipUne was in direct opposition to the precepts 
 of the. Gospel; and that, in confirming and 
 approving it, the popes had been guilty of te- 
 merity, and the church was become chargeable 
 with error. What gave occasion to the re- 
 markable title of this celebrated work, was the 
 author's beingentirely persuaded that the pro- 
 phecy of St. Paul, relating to the "perilous 
 times that were to come in the last days,"* 
 was fulfilled in the establishment of the Men- 
 dicant friars. This notion St. Amour main- 
 tained in the warmest manner, and proved it, 
 principally from the book called the Everlast- 
 ing Gospel, which was publicly explained by 
 the Dominicans and Franciscans, and of which 
 we shall have occasion to. speak more fully 
 hereafter. The fury, and resentment of the 
 Mendicants were therefore kindled in ajiecu- 
 liar manner against this formidable adversary, . 
 whoin they persecutfed without interruption, 
 until, in 1266, the pope ordered his book, to be 
 publicly burned, and banished iis author out 
 of Era,nce, lest he should excite the Sorbonne 
 to renew their opposition to these spiritual 
 beggars. -St. Amour submitted to the papal 
 edict, and retired into his native province of 
 Franche-Comte; but, under the pontificate of 
 Clement IV., he returned, to Paris, where he 
 ■illustrated the tenets of his famous book in a 
 more extensive work, and died esteemed and 
 regretted by all, except the Mendicants.t 
 
 XXIX. While the pontiffs accumulatedlipon 
 ■the Mendicants the most honourable distinc- 
 tions, and the most valuable privileges which 
 they had to begtow, they. exposed them still 
 more and more to the envy and hatred of the 
 rest of the clergy; and this hatred was consi- 
 derably increasec) by the" audacious arrogance 
 that discovered itself every where in the con- 
 
 * 2 Timothy, iii. 1. ■ 
 
 t The doctors of the university 6f Paris profess 
 still a liigh respect for the memory of St, Amour, es- 
 teem his book, and deny obstinately that he was 
 ever placed in the list of heretics. The Dominicans, 
 on the contrary, consider him as a heretic of Ihe first 
 magnitude, if we may use that expression. Such of 
 his- works as could be found were- published in 1632, 
 at Paris, (though the title bears COTtsiantitB,) by-Cor- 
 desius^ who has introduced them by a long and learn- 
 ed, preface, in which he defends the reputation and 
 orthodoxy of St. Aiuour in a triumphant manner. 
 This learned -editor, to avoid the resentment and 
 fury of the Mendicants, concealed his real name, and 
 assumed that of Jo. Alitophilus. This did not, how- 
 ever, save his book from the vengeance of these fri- 
 ars, who obtained fromliOliis XIU. in 1633, an edict 
 for its suppression, wliich Touron, a Dominican 
 friar, bas published in his Vie de St, Thomas.—Foi a 
 farther account of the life of this famous doctor, see 
 Wadding, Annal. Minor, torn. iii. p. 366.— Boulay, 
 Hist. Acad. Paris, tom. iii. p. 266. -Nat. Alex. Hist. 
 Eccles. SEBC. XIII. cap. iii. art. vii. p. 95. — Rich. Si- 
 mon, Critique de la Biblioth. Eccles. de M. Du-Fin, 
 t. i. p. 315. 
 
Chap. II. 
 
 DOCTORS, CHURCH GOVERNMENT, fee. 
 
 duct of these supercilious orders. They had the 
 presumption to declare publicly, that they had 
 a divine impulse and commission to illustrate 
 and maintain the rfeligion of Jesus; they treat- 
 ed with the utmost insolence and contempt all 
 ranks and orders of the priesthood; they af- 
 firmed, without a blush," that the true method 
 of obtaining -salvation was revealed to them 
 alone, proclaimed with ostentation the superior 
 efficacy and -virtue of their indulg6nces, and 
 vaunted, beyond measure, their interests at 
 the court of Heaven, and their familiar con- 
 nexions with the Supreme Being, the Virgin 
 Mary, and the saints in glory. By these im- 
 pious wiles, they so deluded and captivated 
 the miserable and blinded multitude, that they 
 would not entrust any others but the Mendicants 
 with the care of their souls, their spiritual and 
 eternal concerns.* 'We may give, as a speci- 
 men of these notoripus ftauds, the ridiculous 
 &ble, which the Carmelites impose u^on the 
 credulous, relating to Simon Stoclsius, the ge- 
 neral of their order, who died about the begin- 
 ning of this century. To this ecclesiastic, they 
 tell us^ that the Virgin - Mary appeared, and 
 gave him asolemn promise, that- the souls of 
 such as left the world with the .Carmelite 
 dpak Or scapulary upon their shoulders, should 
 be infallibly preserved from eternal" darana- 
 tion-t And here let it be observed to the as- 
 tonishment of all, in whom the power of su- 
 perstition has not extinguished the plainest 
 dictates of. common sense, that this ridiculous 
 . and impfous fiction found patrons and defend- 
 ers even among the pontiffi.f 
 
 XXX. It is however certain, that the Men- 
 dicant orders, though they were considered as 
 the main pillars of the hierarchy, and the prin- 
 cipal~supports o£ the papal authority, involved 
 the pontic's, after the death of Dominic and 
 Francis, in many perplexities and tfoubles, 
 which were np sooner . dispelled, than they 
 were unhappily renewed; and thus the church 
 was often reduced to a-state of imminent dan- 
 ger. The^e tumults and perplexities began 
 with the contests between the Dominicans and 
 Franciscans about pre-eminence, in which 
 these hvmble monks mutually indulged them- 
 selves in the bitterest invectivea and the se- 
 verest accusations both in. their writings arid 
 therr discourses, and opposed each other's in- 
 terests with all the fury of disappointed ambi- 
 tion. Many schemes were formed, and vari- 
 ous measures were employed, for terminating 
 these scandalous dissensions; but the root of 
 the evil still remained, and the ilame was ra- 
 ther covered than extinguished. § Beside this, 
 the Franciscans were early divided among 
 themselves, and spKt into several factions, 
 which gathered strength and consistence fi:om- 
 
 * See Matth. Paris, ad an. 12-46, Histor.Maj. 
 
 t See Jo. Launoii Itib.Ae Viso Stockii, oper. torn, 
 ii. part ii. p. 379.^-Acta Sanctor. torn. iii. Mensis 
 Mail ad diem xvi. — Theoph. Rainaudi Scapulare Ma- 
 rianiim, torn. vii. op. p. 614. 
 
 t Benedict XtV., notwithstanding his pretended 
 freedom from superstition and priestly fraud, deigned 
 to appear amongthe supporters. of this gross fiction, 
 though he defended it with his usual air of prudence 
 and timidity, in. his book de Festis B. Maris Virg. 
 lib, ii. cap. vi. p. 472, t.x. op. edit. Rom. 
 
 t See the Alcoran des Cordeliers, torn. i. p. 356, 286, 
 ice. Luc. Wadding, Annales Minor, torn. iii. p. 380. 
 
 355 
 
 day to day, and not only disturbed the tran- 
 quillity-of the church, but .struck at the su- 
 preme jurisdiction and prerogatives of the Ro- 
 man pontiffs. And whoever considers with at- 
 tention the series of events that happened in 
 the Latin church from this remarkable period, 
 will be .fiiUy convinced that the- Mendicant 
 or4ers (whetlier through imprudence or de- 
 sign we shall not determine) gave some very 
 severe blows to the a.uthority of "the church of 
 Rome, and excited in the minds of the people 
 those ardent desires of a reformation, which 
 produced, in after-times, such substantial and 
 such glorious effects.- 
 
 XXXI. The occasion of these intestine di- 
 visions among the Franciscans, was a dispute 
 about the precise meaning of their rule. Their 
 founder and chief had made absolute poverty 
 one of their indispensable obligations. The re- 
 ligious orders before his time were so co£s,ti- 
 tuted, that, though no single moi;k had any 
 personal property, the whole community, con- 
 sidered "as one collective body; had possessions 
 and revenues, from which every member drew 
 the means of his subsistence. But the austere 
 chief of the Franciscans absolutely prohibited 
 both separate and collective property to the 
 monks of his order, not permitting either the 
 individual or the community to possess funds, 
 revenues, or any worldly goods.* This injunc- 
 tion appeared so severe to several of the friars- 
 minors, that they took the liberty to dispense 
 with it as soon as their founder was dead; and 
 in this they were seconded by pope Gregory 
 IX., who, in 1231, published an interpretation 
 of this rule; which considerably mitigated its 
 excessive rigour.f But this mitigatiorrwas far 
 from being agreeable to all the Franciscans; it 
 shocked the austere inonks of that order, those 
 particularly who were called the Spiritualad if 
 whose melancholy temper rendered them-fond 
 of every thinaf harsh and gloomy, and whose 
 fanatical spirit hurried them always into ex- 
 tremes. HenCe arose a warih debate, which 
 Innocent IV. decided, in. 1245, in favour of 
 those who were inclined to mitigate the se- 
 verity of the rule in question. By his decree 
 it was enacted, that the Franciscan fiiars 
 should be permitted to possess certain places,< 
 habitations, chattels, books, &c. and to make 
 use of them, but that the property of all these 
 things should reside in St. Peter or the Roman 
 church; so that without the pope's consent 
 they might ■ neither be sold, bartered, nor 
 transferred, under any pretext whatever. This 
 edict was considered by the gloomy part of the 
 order as a most pernicious depravation of their 
 holy-rule, and was, consequently, opposed and 
 rejected by them witli indignation. Hence 
 
 * The words of the rule itself relating to this poiiit 
 are as follow: " Fratres sibi nihil approprieift, nee 
 domum, nec^locijm; nee aliquam rem sed, sicut per- 
 egrini et adveuEc in hoc sefcuIo, in paupertate et hu. 
 militate famulantes Domino, vadant pro eleembsyna 
 co'nfidenter .... (i. e. let them be sturdy beggars) 
 . . . . H^ec est ilia celsitudo altissims paupertatis 
 qus vos carissimos meos fratres hferedes et regea 
 regni ccelorum i'nslituit." 
 
 . t The bull was published b^ Emmanuel Roderic in 
 hisCollectioPrivilegiorumre^ulariumMendicantium, 
 et non Mendicantiuth, tom. i. ' 
 
 J Luc. Wadding, Annal. Minor, torn. iii. p. 90: 
 they were also called Zelatores, and Cffisariani fron 
 their chief Ceesari us. 
 
356 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part II. 
 
 many of these spiritual malcontents retired into 
 the woods and deserts, while others were ap- 
 prehended by Crcscentius, the general of the 
 society, and sent into exile.* 
 
 XXXn. A ohiiige, however, atoSe in thoir 
 favour, in 1241, when. Jo!in Of PamSa was 
 chosen general of the order. This famous eccle- 
 siastic, who was zealously attached to the sen- 
 timents of the spiritual members, recalled them 
 from their exile, and inculcated upon all his 
 monks a strict and unlimited obedience to the 
 very letter of the rule that had been drawn up 
 by St. Francis.f By this reform, he brought 
 back the order to its primitive state; and the 
 only reward he obtained for his zealous la- 
 bours, was to be accused as a rebellious here- 
 tic at the tribunal of pope Alexander IV., iii 
 consequence of which "he was obliged to resign 
 his post. He had also the mbrtification to see the 
 monks who adhered to his sentiments thrown 
 into prison, which unhappy lot he himself es- 
 caped with great difficulty .J His successor, 
 the femous Bonaventura, who was one of the 
 most eminent scholastic divines of this centu- 
 ry, proposed steering a middle course between 
 the contending factions, > having nothing so 
 much at heart as to prevent an open schism. 
 Nevertheless, the measures he took to recon- 
 cile^ the jarring parties, -and to maintain a 
 spirit of union ui the order, were not attended 
 with the degree of success which he expected 
 from them; nor were they-sufficient to hinder 
 the less austere part of the Franciscans from 
 soliciting and obtaining, m 1251, from Alexan- 
 der IV. a solemn renewal of the mild interpre- 
 tation which Innocent IV, had given of the, 
 rule of their founder.! On the other hand, 
 those who adhered to the sentiments of Jolin 
 of Parma maintained their cause with such 
 success, that, in an assembly of the order holden 
 in 1260, the explication of Innocent was abro- 
 gated and annulled, especially in those points 
 wherein it differed &om that which had been 
 formerly given by Gregory IX.|| ' 
 
 XXXIII. This dispute concerning the true 
 sense of the rule of St. Francis was followed 
 by another of equal moment, which produced' 
 new and unhappy divisions among the nionks 
 of that order. About the commencement of 
 this century, there were handed about in Italy 
 several pretended prophecies of the famous 
 Joachim, abbot of Sora in Calabria.TT whom 
 the multitude revered as a person divmely m- 
 epired, and equal to the most illusttions pro- 
 
 » Luc. Wadding, Annal. Minor, torn, iii.iv. 
 
 t Luc. Wadding, Annal. Minor, torn. iii. 
 
 t Wadding, torn. iv. , , .,■,..,. 
 
 S This edict of Alexander IV. is published by 
 Wadiiin", Annal. Min. t..iv. among the Records. 
 
 II The interpretation of Gregory mitigated the rule 
 of St Fiancis; but that of Innocent went much far- 
 ther, and seemed to destroy its fundamental princi- 
 ples. See Wadding, Arinales Minor, torn. iv. The 
 lampntable divisions that reigned among the monks 
 of this famous order, are described, in an accurate 
 and lively manner, by Bonaventura hipiself, in a 
 lotter,'whioh is extant In the work now cited. 
 
 (ir^ IT The resemblance between the words Sara 
 aniTPfo™, has probably led Dr. Mosheim here into a 
 slight mistake. Sora is not in Calabria, but in the 
 province of Capua, It must therefore have been 
 Flora, that our an thor intended to write, as Spanheim, 
 Fleury, and other ecclesiastical historians, have I 
 done. ' 
 
 phets of ancient times. The greatest part of 
 these predictions were contains in a work en- 
 titled tfie Everlasting Gospel j. which was also 
 usually called the Book of: Joachim.* This 
 Joachim, (whether a real or fictitious person 
 we shall not pretend to determine,) among 
 many other future events, foretold the destruc- 
 tion of thechnrch of Roirfe, whose corruptions 
 he censured with the greatest severity, and the 
 promulgation of a- new and more perfect Gob 
 pel in the age of the Holy Ghost, by a set of 
 poor and auster? ministers, whom God was to 
 raise up and employ for that purpose. . For ho 
 divided the world into three ages, with refer- 
 ence to the three dispensations of- religion. 
 The two imperfect ages,— namely, the age of 
 the Old Testament, which was th^t of the 
 Father, and the^ age of the New, which was 
 under the administration of the Son, — had ac- 
 cording to the predictions of this fanatic, al- - 
 ready expired, and the third age, that,of the 
 Holy Ghost, had commenced. The Spiritual, 
 i. e. the austere Franciscans, who were, for 
 the most part, well-meaning but wrong-headed 
 enthusiasts, not only swallowed down, with 
 the most voracious and implicit credulity,' the 
 prophecies and doctrines which were attributed 
 to Joachim, but applied those predictiofis to 
 themselves, and to the rule of discipline estaV 
 lished by their holy founder St. Francis;! for 
 they maintained, that he delivered to mankind 
 the true Gospel, and that he was the angel 
 whom St. John saw flying in the midst of 
 heaven. I 
 
 XXXIV. When the intestine divisions ainong 
 the Franciscans were at the greatest height, 
 one of the Spiritml friars, whose name was 
 
 * The Merlin of the English, the Malichi of the 
 Irish, and Nostradamus of the French', those pre- 
 tended soothsayers, who, under the illusory or feigned 
 persuasion of a divine impulse, sang in uncouth 
 verse the future revolutixins of church and stale, 
 are just what we may, suppose the Joachim of the 
 Italians to have been. Many predictions of this' 
 latter were formerly handed about, and are still to 
 be seen: they have passed through various editions, 
 and have beeii illustrated by the lucubrations of 
 several commentators. It is not to be doubted th^t 
 Jpachim was the author of some predictions, ana 
 that he, in a particular manner, foretold, the refor- 
 mation of the church, of which he might easily ,see 
 the absolute necessity. It is however certain that the 
 greatest part of the predictions and writings, which 
 were formerly attributed to him, were composed by 
 others; and this we may affirm even of the Everlast- 
 ing Gospel, the work undbubteaiy of some obscure, 
 silly, ana visionary author, who thought proper to 
 aflorn his reveries with the celebrated name of Joa- 
 chim in order to. gain them credft, and to render 
 them more agreeable to the multitude. The title of 
 this senaeles.B production is taken from Revelations, 
 xiv. 6, and it contained three books; the first was 
 entitled. Liber Concordim VeHtatis, i. e. the Book of 
 the Harmony of Truth; the second, Apocabjfsis Miva, 
 or the New Revelation; and the third, PsaUertwm 
 decern Clurrdaram, i. e. the Ten-stringed Harp. This 
 account was taken from a manuscript of that work 
 in the library of the Sorbonne, by Jac. Echard, who 
 has published it in his Scriptores Dominican, torn. l. 
 
 t This is acknowledged even by Wadding, not- 
 withstanding his partiality in favour of the spiritual 
 or austere Franciscans. See his Annal. Minor, 
 torn. iv. p. 3 — 6. - ■ m ■ ^1,, 
 
 1 Revel, xiv. 6. ' And I sam another angelflymtM 
 midst of. heaven, having the Everlasting Gospel to 
 vreaeh unto them that dwell on the earth: See on tnis 
 subject Baluzii Miscellan. torn. i. p. 221, 235.— Bchardi 
 Scriptoc. Dominic, torn. i.. p. 202.— Codex Inqunit 
 Tojosanffi a Limborchio edit. p. 301. 
 
Chap. H. 
 
 POCTORS, CHURCH GOVERNMENT, &c. 
 
 Gerard, undertook the explication of the 
 Everlasting Gospel ascribed to Joachim, in a 
 book which appeared, in 1250, under the title 
 Of Introduction to th e Everlasting Gospel.* In 
 
 * As the accounts given of this book, by oncient 
 and moilorn writers, 4re not suffleiently accurate it 
 majrrot be improper to otter here some observations 
 that may correct their-mistakcs. ]. They almost 
 aj. confound the Everlasting Gospel, or the Gospel 
 of the Holy Ghost, (for so it is also called, as vve are 
 lold by Guil. de St. Amonr, in his book dc Penculis 
 noviss. Temporum,) with the Introduction to the 
 Jiiverlastmg Gospel. But these two productions must 
 be carefully distinsuished from each other. The 
 Everlasting Gospel was attributed to the abbot Joa- 
 chim, and It consisted of three books, as has been al- 
 rBady observed. But thelntroduction to this Gospel 
 was tlie work of a Franciscan monk, who explained 
 the obscure predictions of the pretended Gospel, and 
 applied them to his order. The Everlasting Gospel 
 was neither complained of by the university of 
 Faria, nor condemned by the Roman pontiff, Alex- 
 ander IV.; but the Introduction was complained of, 
 condemned, and burned, as appears evidently from 
 the letters of the above mentioned pontifl; which are 
 to be seen in Boulay's Histor. Academ. Paris.tom. 
 iii-p. 292. The former consisted, as productions of 
 that nature -generally do, of ambiguous predictions 
 and intricate riddles, and was consequently despised 
 or neglected; but the latter was dangerous in many 
 respects. . 3. It is farther to be obseri^ed, that the 
 ancient writers are not agreed concerning the author 
 of this Introduction. They are unanimous in at- 
 tributing it to one of the mendicant friars; but tlie 
 votaries of Sj. Francis mai ntain , that the author was 
 a Dominican, while the Dnmini'can partv atiirm as 
 obstinately, that he was a Franciscan. The' great- 
 est part of the learned, however, arc of opinion, that 
 the author of the infamous work in question was 
 John of Parmaj getieral of the-Pranciscans, who i.i 
 known to have been most warmly attached to the 
 spiritual faction of that order, and to have main- 
 tained thp sentimelits of the abbot Joachim with an 
 excessive zeal. See Wadding, (Aniial. Minor, torn. 
 IV.) who endeavours to defend him against this ac- 
 cusation, though withoPit success. (See also the Acta 
 Sanctorum, torn. iii. Martii.p. 157; for Jolm.of Parma, 
 though he preferred the Gospel, of St. Frapcis to that 
 of Christ, has, nevertheless, obtained a place anions 
 the saints.), -The learned -Echard is of a etiligrent 
 opinion, and has proved, (in his Scriptor. Dominican. 
 torn. i. p. 202,) from the curious manuscripts yet pre- 
 ser^d in the Sorbonne, relating to the Everlasting 
 Gospel, that Gerard, a Franciscan friar, ^was the 
 ' author of the infamous Introduction to'that.book;' 
 Tl)isGer.ard, indeed,'was the intimate friend and com- 
 panion to John of Parma, and not only maintained, 
 with the greatest obstinacy, the caii'se of the apirit- 
 ' uals, but als& 'embraced all the sentiments that were 
 attributed to the abbot Joachim, with'ijuch an .-irdent 
 zeal, that- he 'chose to remain 18 years iii prison, 
 rather than to abandon them. See Wadding, torn.- 4. 
 Those Franciscans who were called obsercantes, i.e. 
 vigilant, from their professing a more rigid obser- 
 vance of the rule of their founder than was practised 
 .by the rest of their order, place Gerard- among 'the 
 saints of the first rank, and impudently affirm, 
 that he was riot only endow'ed with the gift of 
 prophecy, but also with the power of working 
 miracles. See Wadding, torn, iii.' p. 213. ^It is to be 
 observed. 3dly, That whoever may have' been the 
 writer of this detestable book, the whole mendicant 
 order, in the judgment of the greatest part of the 
 historians of this age;' shared the guilt of its compo- 
 sition and. publication, more especially the Domini- 
 cans and Franciscans, who are supposed to have 
 fallen upon this impious method of deluding the 
 multitude into a hiah notion of their sanctity, in 
 order to establish their dominion, and to extend 
 their authority beyond all bounds. This opinion, 
 however, is ill-founded, notwithstanding the num- 
 bers by which it has been adopted. The Fran- 
 ciscans alone are chargeable with the guilt of 
 this horrid production, as appears most evidently 
 from the fragments of the book itself, which yet re. 
 main; but ws are obliged in justice to observe farther, 
 that this guilt does not lie upon all the Franciscans, 
 but only on the spiritual faction. Perhaps we might 
 go still farther, and allege, that the charge ought not 
 
 357 
 
 this book, the fanatical monlt, airiong. othei 
 enormities, as insipid as- impious, inculcated 
 the' following detestable doctrine: " That St 
 Francis, who was. the angel mentioiied in the 
 Revelations xiv. 6, had promulgated to the 
 world the true and' everlasting gospel of Godj 
 that the gospel of Christ was to be abrogated 
 in the year 1260, and to giveplace to' this new 
 and everlasting gospel, which was to be substi- 
 tuted in its room; and that the ministers of 
 this great reformation' were to be humble ^d 
 bare-footed friars, destitute of all worldly 
 emoluments."* 'When this strange book was 
 published at Paris in 1254, it excited in the 
 doctors ,of the church, and indeed in all good 
 men, the most lively feehngs of horror and in- 
 dignation against the mendicant friars, who 
 had already, by other parts of their conduct, 
 incurred the displeasure of thp public. This 
 general ferment engaged pop'e Alexander IV., 
 though much against his will, ito order , the 
 suppression of this absurd book in 1255;. jie,. 
 how«'Ver,' took care to have this order executed 
 with the greatest, possible mildness, lest it 
 should hurt the reputation of the mendicants, 
 and open the eyes of the superstitious multi- 
 tude. But the doctors of the university of 
 Paris, not being sa,tisfied with these gentle and 
 timorous proceedings, repeated without intei^ 
 rtiption their'accusation and complaints, until 
 the extravagant arid obnoxious production was 
 publicly .committed ta tije flames.f 
 
 XXXV. The intestine flame of discord, 
 which had raged among the Franciscans,, and, 
 was smothered, though- not extinguished j ]}y 
 the prudent management' of Bonaventura, 
 broke out anew with redoubled fury after the 
 death of that pacific doctor. Those Franciscan 
 monks who were fond of opulence and ease, 
 renewed their complaints against the rule of 
 their foimder as unreasonable and unjust, do- 
 
 to be extended even to all the members of this faction, 
 but to such' alone as placed lin idle and-enthusiastic 
 confidence in Joachim, and gave credit to all his pre- 
 tended- prophecies. These observations are neces- 
 sary to the true ilnderstanding of what, has been 
 said concerning the Everlasting Gospel by the fol- 
 lowing learned men: Jo. Andr. Scjimidius, Dissertat. 
 Helmst. 1700.^— Ufeserius, de Successione EcUesiar, 
 Occident, c. ix. sect. 20. — Boufay, Hist. Acad. Paris. 
 tom. 'iii. p. 2fl2. — hiatal. Alexander, Histor. -Eccles. 
 siEC. XIIJ. artic. iv.— -Wadding, Annal. Minor, tom, 
 iv. — Upon the whole it may. be affirmed,- that the 
 book under consideration is not, as the greatest part 
 of the' learned have imagined,' a monument of the 
 arrogance of the .mendicant or^Iers in gejieral, but 
 rather a proof of the impious fan aticism and extrava- ' 
 gance of a small number of Franciscans. 
 
 * See-Guil. de St. Amour de Periciilis noviss. Tem- 
 por. Who observes that the book under consideration 
 was not indeed published before the year 1254, but 
 that the opinions contained in it had an earlier ori- 
 gin, and were propagated even in the year 1200. 
 Several of the ancient writers have given large ex- 
 tracts from this infamous book. See Herm. Cprneri 
 Ghronicon, in Eccardl Qorpore Histor. medii-jEvi, 
 
 tom. ii. p. 850 Ghronicon Eg'mondanum, in Ant. 
 
 ATatthiBi Analectis veteris .M\v, tom. ii. p. 517. — 
 Ricobaldus apud Eccardi Corp. tom. p. i. 1215 — But be- ' 
 tween these extracts there is a great difference, 
 which seems to, have ^ri.sen from this, that some 
 drew their citations from the-Everlasting Gospel of 
 Joachim, while others drew theirs froihthelntroduc. 
 tipn of Gerard, not sufficiently, distinguishing one 
 work from the other. ^ ' - _. 
 
 t See Boulay, Hist. Acad, Pans. 'tom. iii. p. .399. — 
 Jordani Chronicon in Muratorii Antiq. Ttal. tom, iv. 
 
^ INTERNAL HIS TORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 mandiDff what it was absolutely beyond the 
 power of-man to perform. ,Their complaints 
 however, were without efFectj and their 
 Bchem^j were disconcerted by pope Nicolas 
 lU., who leaned to the side of the austere 
 Jtjranciscans, and who, in 1579, published that 
 T^"™™"*""'''"*^"" *'!'''='' confirmed' the rule 
 ot St. Francis, and contained" an accurate and 
 elaborate explioatipn of the maxims it recom- 
 mended,^nd the duties it.presorib'ed.* By this 
 edict he renewed that part of the rule, which 
 prohibited, all kinds of property among the 
 Jfranciscans, every thing that bore the least 
 resemblance to a legal possession, or a fixed do- 
 main; but he granted to them, at the same 
 time,, the use of things necessary, such a? 
 houses, books, And other conveniences of that 
 nature,- the property of which,,in conformity 
 with the appointment of Innocent IV., was to 
 reside in the church of Rome. Nor did the 
 provident pontiff stop here; but prohibited i 
 un4er the severest penalties, all private expli- 
 cations of this new law, lest they should ex- 
 cite disputes, and furnish new matter of con- 
 tention; and reserved the power of interpreting 
 it to himself and his successors alone.f - 
 
 XXXVI. However disposed Nicolas was to 
 satisfy the spkitua,l and austere part of the 
 Franciscan order, which, had now become nu- 
 merous both in Italy and France; and particu- 
 larly ill the province of Narbonne, the fconsti- 
 tution above mentioned was far froiri proddcing , 
 that effect. The monks of that gloomy fac- 
 tion, who resided in Italy, received the papal 
 edict wdth a sullen and- discontented silence. 
 Their brethren in France, and more especially 
 in the southern pattsrf that kingdom, where 
 the inhabitants are of a warm and sanguine- 
 complexion, testified, in an open and tumul- 
 tuous manner, the disapprobation of this n€w 
 constitution; and having -at their heada famous 
 Franciscan, whose name was Pierre Jean 
 d'Olive, they excited new dissensions and trou- 
 bles in the order .J Pierre was a native of 
 Serignaln in Languedoc, who - had acquired a 
 shining reputation by his writings, and whose 
 eminent-sanctity and learning drew after him 
 a great number' of followers; nor is it to be de- 
 nied, that thgre were many important truths 
 and wise maxims in the instructions he deli- 
 vered. One of the great objects of which he 
 never lost sight in his writings,- was the corrup- 
 tion ortheohurch of Rome, which_he, censured 
 with extraordinary freedom and severity, in a 
 work entitled PostiUa^ or a Commentary on 
 the Revelations, affirming boldly, that this 
 church was represented by- the 'whore. of 
 Babylon, the mother qf -harlots,' whom St. 
 
 Part 11. 
 
 - * Some affirm^ that this constitution was issued 
 byTVicolas IV.; but tlieir opinion is refuted by Wad- 
 ding, in his Annal- Min. torn, v- - ' 
 
 t This constitution is yet extant in the Jus- 
 Canon, lib- vi- DecretaL Tit.' xii. c. iii p. 1028. edit- 
 Bollm. and is vulgarly called the Constitution Sxiit, 
 from its beginning with that word- 
 
 t In -some ancient records, tliis ring-leader is 
 called Petrus Biterrensis, i. e. Peter of Beziers, be' 
 eaiuse be resided for a'rlong time in the convent of 
 Beziers, where he performed the functions of a pub- 
 lic tcactfer. By-others, he is named Petrus de Ser-, 
 ignano, from the place of his nativity, Thisremarici 
 f s so-much tjie more neiassary, as some authors have 
 -taken these three denominations for t'iree distinct 
 |ier»>n8 [ 
 
 John beheld sitting upon a scarlet-cdloured 
 beast, full of names of blasphemy, having-seven 
 heads, and ten horns,* It is however to be 
 observed, that this' severe censor of a corrupt 
 church, was himself a most superstitious fa- 
 natic in several respects, having imbibed the 
 greatest part of those monstrous opinions 
 which thfc Spiritual's pretended to have received 
 from the abbot Joachim; to which he added an 
 mpious and extravagant, veneration for St 
 Francis, whom'he considered as entirely trans^ 
 formed into the person of Christ.f In the de, 
 bate concerning the sense of the rule of this 
 famous chief, he seemed to, adhere to neither 
 oflthe-conteiidmg parties; for he allowed to his 
 followers the bare use of the necessaries of- 
 iife; ^nd being called upon, at dlfierent times 
 by the authority of his superiors, to declare 
 his sentiments upon this head, he professed his 
 assent to the interpretation that had been gfven 
 of the rule in question by Nicolas' HI. He' 
 leaned, neverthpless, to the side of those aus- 
 tere and spiritual Franciscans, who not only 
 opposed the introduction of pfojerty among 
 the individuals of thcTOrder, but alsomaintain- 
 ed, that the whole community, considered col- 
 lectively, was fikewise to be excluded fi-om 
 possessionsof every kind. Great was .bis zeal 
 for these gloomy Franciscans, and he defended 
 their- cause with warmth;J hence he is looked 
 upon as the chief of that faction, which disputed 
 so often, and so.veheMentjy, with the Roman 
 pohtifft, in favour of the renunciation of pro- 
 perty, in consequence of the institution of St. 
 Francis.§' , ' ■ '' 
 
 -XXXVn. The credit and authority of Pierre 
 d'Olive; whom the multitude considered, not 
 only as a.' man of unblemished sanctity', but 
 also as a prophet sent from above, added new 
 force and vigour to the Spirituals, and encour- 
 aged them to renew the combat with redou- 
 bled fury. But the prudence, of the heads of 
 the order prevented, for sometime, the pejni 
 cious effects of these violent; efforts, and so 
 over-ruled the impetuous motions of this en- 
 thusiastic faction, that a sort of eqiiality was 
 preserved between the contending ,parties,-r— 
 Biit the promotion of Matthew of Aqua Spar- 
 ta, who was elected general of the- order in 
 I28T, put.an end to these prudential measures, 
 and changed entirely' the face of -affairs. This 
 
 * Revelations, xvii; 3, 5. 
 
 f Totum Ch'risto configuratura. , See the Litera 
 Magistrorum, d'e Postilla Fratris P. Joh. Olivi, in 
 Baluzii Miscellan..tom.i.'>2l3s-Wadding, Annales 
 Minor. Ipin. v. p. 51. . '- ' 
 
 X The real sentiments of Pierre d'Olive will be best 
 discovered in the last discourse he pronounced, which 
 Is yet extant in Boulay's Histor. Acad. Paris, torn, 
 iij. p. 535, 'and in Wadding's Annal. Min. t. v. p. 378. 
 
 § For an account of this famous .friar, ,see not 
 only the common monastic historians, such as Bay ■ 
 naldus, Alexander, and OU|dinus, but also the follow- 
 ing: Baluzii Miscel. tom. i. p. 213- and his ViC Pontif. 
 Avenion. tom. ii- p- 752- Car. Plessis d'Argentre, 
 Collectio Judiciorum de novis- Ecclesiffi Erroribus, 
 tom- i- p. 226-— Wadding, Annal. Minor, tom. v, p. 
 52, lOS,- 121, 140, 236, and more espedally,vp: 37^, 
 where he makes an unsuccessful attempt to- justify 
 this enthusiast.— Boulay, Hist- Acad. Paris, tom. lu. 
 
 p. 535 Scheihornii Amosnitates Literariffi, tom. il. 
 
 p-'^678. Histoire Generale de Languedoc, par. lea 
 Moines Benedictins, torn- iv. p. 91, 179, 182. Tlie 
 bones of Pierre d'Olive were taken up by the order 
 of ptjpe John XXII- and burned publicly with his 
 writings, in the year 1325 
 
Chap. 11. 
 
 DOCTORS, CHURCH GOVERNMENT, &c. 
 
 859 
 
 new chief suffered the ancient discipline of 
 the Francispans to dwindle away to nothing, 
 indulged his monlss in abandoning even the 
 very -appearance of poverty, and tlius drew 
 upon himself not-only the indignation arid rage 
 of the austere part of the spiritual Francis- 
 cans, but also the disapprobation of the more 
 moderate members of that party. Hence 
 arose various tumults and seditions, first in 
 the marquisate of Ancona, and afterwards in 
 France, which the new general endeavoured to 
 suppress^^y imprisonment, exile,'and corpora^- 
 punishments; but, finding all these means in- 
 effectual, he resigned his place in 1289.* His 
 successor, Raymond G-offredi, employed his ut- 
 most .efforts to appease these troubles. For 
 this purpose he recalled the banished friars, set at 
 ■ liberty those who had been thrown jnto prison, 
 and put out of the way several of the austere 
 Franciscans, who had been jh& principal en- 
 couragers. of these unhappy divisions, by send- 
 ing them into Armenia in the character of 
 missionaries. But tha disorder was too far gone 
 to be easily remedied. The more moderajte 
 Franciscans, who had a relish for the sweets 
 of property and opulence, accused the new ge- 
 nera! of a partial attachment to the Spirituals, 
 whom he treated with peculiar affection and 
 respect, and therefore employed their whole 
 credit to procure. his dismission from office, 
 which, with much difficulty, they at lengthef- 
 fecte4, under the pontificate of Boniface V-IIL 
 On the other hand, the more rigid part of the 
 Bpiritual faction renounced all fellowship, even 
 with such of their own party as discovered a, 
 pacific and reconciling spirit; and, forming 
 themselves into a separ^e body, protested pub- 
 .icly against the interpretation which Nicolas 
 III. had given of the rule of St. Francis. 
 Thus, from the year 1290, the affairs of the 
 Franciscaiis carried a dismal aspect, and por- 
 tended nothing but seditions and schisms in.ah 
 order which had been so famous for its pre- 
 tended disinterestedness and humility .f 
 
 XXXVIII. In the year 1294, a certain num- 
 ber of Italian Franciscans, of the spiritual par- 
 ty, addressed themselvestb CeleStin V. for per- 
 mission to form a separate oi;der, in which they 
 might not only profess,,butalso observe, in the 
 strictest manner, that aTistere rule of .absolute 
 poverty, which St., Francis had 'prescribed to 
 his followers. The good pontiff', who, before 
 his elevation to the supremacy of the chiirch, 
 had led" a solitary and austere hfe,| and was 
 fond of every thing that looked like mortifica- 
 tion and self-denial, granted with tha utmost 
 facility the request of these friars,, and placed, 
 at the head of the new order, a monky whose 
 
 * Wadding, Annales Min. torn. v. p. 210, 235. 
 
 t Idem opus, t. v. p. 108, 131, 140, and more espe- 
 cially p. 235, 236. „ . ,, 
 
 {S- X This pope, whose name was Peter Mueron, 
 had retired very young to a solitary mountain, in or- 
 der to devote himself entirely to prayer an^ mortifi- 
 cation. The fame of his pi6ty brought many to see 
 him from a principle of curiosity, several of whom 
 renounced the world, and became the companions of 
 his solitude. With these he formed a kind of com- 
 munity, in 1254, which was approved by Urban IV. 
 in 1264 and erected into a distinct order, called the 
 Hermits of St. Damien. On his assumption of the 
 pontifical name of Celestin V., his order, whichmust 
 not be confounded with the new Franciscan Celestin 
 Hermits took the title of Celestins. 
 
 name was Liberatus, and who was orie of the 
 greatest self-tormentors of all the monastic 
 tribe.'* " Soon after this, Celestin, finding him- 
 self unfit for the duties of his high and impor- 
 tant office, resigned the pontificate, iii ■ which 
 he was succeeded by Boniface.VIII. who an- 
 niilled allthe-acts of his predecessor, and sup- 
 pressed, among other institutions, the new or- 
 der, which had assumed the title of the Celes- 
 tin Hermits of St. Francis.'^ This disgrace was, 
 as it were, the signal which drew upon them 
 tlie most furious attacks of their enemies^ The 
 worldly-minded Franciscans persecuted them 
 with the most unrelenting bitterness, accused 
 them of various crimes, and even cast upon 
 them the odious reproach of Manicheism. 
 Hence many of these unhappy fanatics retired 
 into lAchia, whenc? they passed into a small 
 island, where they imagined themselves secure 
 from the rage of their adversaries, and at li- 
 berty to indulge themselves in all the austeri- 
 ties of that miserable life, which they looked 
 upon as the perfection of holiness here below. 
 But no retreat was sufficient to screen them 
 from theSrigUanceand fury of their cruel per- 
 secutors, who left no means unemployed to per- 
 petuate their miseries. In the mean time, the 
 branch of the spiritual Franciscans that re- 
 mained in Italy, continued to observe the ri- 
 gorous laws of^ their prrmitive institution in 
 spite of Boniface VIII., who used his utmost 
 efforts tp conquer their obstinacy. .They erect- - 
 ed societies of their order, first in the kingdom 
 of Naples, afterwards in the Milanese, arid in 
 the marquisate of Ancona; and, at length 
 spreading themselves through the greatest part 
 of Europe, they continued in the most violent 
 .state of war with the church of Rdmfe, until 
 the Reformation clmnged the face of things; 
 In these conflicts they Underwent trials and . 
 sufferings of every kind, and multitudes of 
 them perished in the flames, as miserable vic- 
 tims to the infernal fury of the Inquisition.J 
 
 * Wadding, Annales, torn. ,'. p. 324, 338. 
 
 t Wadding, Annales, torn. vi. — BuUarium Mag- 
 num, Contln. III. IV. p: 108. 
 
 J Tbe writers that serve- generally as guides in 
 this part of the history of the church, and whom I 
 have bee'n obliged to consult- upon the divisions of 
 the Franciscjins, (whose history, as will soon appear, . 
 is peculiarly interesting andimpQrtant,)are farfVom 
 meriting-the encomiums which are due to perspi- 
 cuity and exactness. Thia part of-the eccl^iastical 
 history of what is called the Middle Age, has not hi 
 therta been accurately illustrated by any writer, 
 though it be, everyway, worthy of the labours of 
 the learned, and of the attention of Christians. Its 
 principal nierit consists herein,' that it exhibits strik- 
 ing examples of piety atjd learning struggling against 
 the power of superstition and ignorance, and against 
 that" spiritual tyranny of which they were theprin- 
 cipal supports. And it may be obserVed, that these ' 
 rebellious Franciscans, though fanatical and super- 
 stitious in several respects, deserve an eminent rank 
 among those who prepared the way for the reforma- 
 tion in Europe, and who excited, in the minds of the 
 people, a -just aversion to- the church of Rome. Ray- 
 naldus, Bzovius,-Spondanus, in-.their Annals, Eyme- 
 ricus, in his Bir^ctorium Inquisitorum, and Natalia 
 -Alexander, in his Ecclesiastical History, relate the 
 revolutions that happened in the Franciscan order, 
 and in the church in general, "during this period; 
 bu^ their accounts are neither so accurate, nor so 
 ample, as the importance of the events deserved. 
 And as it is from these authprs that the protestant 
 historians have, drawn their'materials, we need not 
 to be surprised at the defects with which the latter 
 abound. Wadding, who merits^ high encomiums ai 
 
360 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part II. 
 
 — XXXIX. Toward the conclusion of this cen- 
 tury Arose in Italy the enthusiastic sect of the 
 FrataicelU and Bizochi, which, in Germany 
 and France, received the denomination of 
 Beghards. They were condemned by Boniface 
 Vm.,* and by several of his successors; and 
 the inquisitors were ordered by these despotic 
 pontiff^ to persecute them until they were ex- 
 tirpated, which commission they executed with 
 their usual barbarity. The Fratncetli, or Lit- 
 tie Brethrerij were Franciscan monks, who se- 
 parated themselvres from the grand community 
 of St. Fjancis, with an intention of ob€*ying 
 the laws of their parent and founder in a more 
 strict and rigorous manner than they were ob- 
 served by tlie other Franciscans, and who, a,c- 
 cordingly, renounced every kjnd of possession 
 and propei'ty both common and personal, and 
 begged from door to door their daily subsistr 
 ence.f They alleged that neither Christ no r 
 
 a laborious and learned writer, is yet an uncertain 
 guide, when he treats of the matters now under con- 
 ^ider^tiou. His attachment to one- party-, and his 
 fear of the others, subject hi^ to restraints, that pre- 
 vent his- declaring the truth with a noble freedom. 
 He shades his picture with' dexterity. He conceals, 
 dissembles, excuses, acknowledges, and denies, with 
 such a timorous prudence and cautiou, that the truth 
 could not-buf'suffer considerably undef his pen. • He 
 appears to have been attached to the rigid Francis- 
 cans, and yet had not the courage to declare openly, 
 that they had been injured by the pontiffs. He saw, 
 on the other hand,' the tumults and perplexities in 
 which these rigid Franciscans had involved the 
 
 / church of <Rome, and the strokes which they-^had 
 aimed, with no sniall sucgess, at the-^najesty of the 
 pontil&: but he, has. taken all imaginable jtains to 
 Uirow s^ich a shade upon thi^ part of their conduct, 
 
 ■ as conceals its'violence from t^e view of his readers. 
 Such then being the characters- of the writers whq 
 have handed down to us the history of the churchjin 
 this important period, 'I could not follow any one of 
 them as a sure or constant guide, in all the eveitls 
 they rela.te, the-judgments they form, or" the charac- 
 ters thay describe. I have n»t, however, been desti- 
 tute of a clue to condnct me through the' various 
 windings of this intricate labyrinth. The testimo- 
 nies of antient authors, with, several manuscripts 
 that have never yet been published, such as the Di' 
 plomas of the pontiffs and emperors, the Acts of the 
 Inquisition-, and ot"her records of that kind, are the 
 authentic sources from which! have drawn my ac-, 
 eounts -of many things, that have been very imper- 
 fectly represented by other historians.- j 
 
 * See Trithnmius, An. Hirsaug. t..ii.-p. 74, though 
 this author is defective in several respects, and more 
 especially in his accounts of the origin and senti- 
 ments of the Fratricelli. It is also to be observed, 
 that he confounds; through^the whole of his history, 
 the sects and orders of this century one with, ano- 
 ther, in"the most ignorant and unskilful manner. 
 See rather Du Bbulay, His. Acad. Paris, t, jii. p. 
 541, where the edict published in 1297, by Bonrftice 
 V'Jtl.. against the Bizochi or Beghards, is inserted; 
 as also Jordan! Chronicon, in Mur;itoru Antiq. Ita- 
 liffi, tom. iv. p. 1020. 
 
 t The Fratricelli resembled the Spirituals in many 
 of-their maxims and .observances: they, however, 
 were a distinct body:,"and differed from them in va- 
 rious respects. The Spirituals, for instance, conti- 
 nued to hold communion wit^i the rest of .the Fran- 
 ciscans, from whom they diftbred in points of consi- 
 derable moment, nor did they ever;pretend to erect 
 themselves into a particular and distinct order;, the 
 Fratricelli, on the contraiy, renounced all commu- 
 nion with the Franciscans, and, withdrawing their 
 obedience-froni the superiors of that society, chose 
 
 " -for themselves a new chief, under whom they fWrmed 
 
 - a new and separate order. The Spirituals did not 
 absolut^y oppose their order's possessing- certain 
 goods jointly and in common, provided they re- 
 nounced all property in these goods, and confined their 
 pretensions to the mere use of them; whereas the 
 Fratricelli rejected every kind of possession, whe^ 
 tber personal or in couMnon and embraced that ab- 
 
 his apostles had any possessions," either per- 
 gonal or in common; and that ihey were the 
 models, whom St. Francis commanded his fol- 
 lowers to imitate. After the example also pt 
 their austere founder, they went about clothed 
 with sordid garments, or rather with loatJispme 
 rags, declaimed against the corruption of the 
 church of Rome, and tlie vices of the pontiffs 
 and bishops, foretold the reformation of the 
 church and the restoration of the true Go'spel, 
 by the genuine^ followers of St. .Francis, arid 
 declared their assent to. almost all the doc- 
 1a*ines, which were published, under the name 
 of the abbot Joachim. They esteemed' and 
 respected Celestin V., because, as has been al- 
 ready observed, he-was, in some measure, the 
 founder of their society, by permitting tiiem 
 to erect themselves into a separate order. But 
 thejr refused to acknowledge, as true and iaw 
 ful heads of the church, his successor Boniface 
 and the subsequent pontiffs, who opposed the 
 Fratricelli, and persecuted their order.* 
 
 solute poverty and want which St. Francis had pre 
 scribed in his Rule and in his last Testament. Ws 
 omit the mention of less .important difierences. 
 
 * The accounts of the Fratricelli, that are given 
 by ancient and modern writers, even by those who 
 pretend to the greatest ex'actness, are extremely 
 confused and uncertain. Trithemius, in his Annul. 
 Hirsaug. torn. ii. p. 74,. affirms, that they derived 
 their origin from Tanchelinus, and thus jgnorantly 
 confounds tl^em with the Catharists and other sects 
 that arose in those. times. The Franciscans leave no 
 means, unemployed to clear themselves from all re- 
 lation to^this soc)e_ty, and to demonstrate that such 
 a pestilential and impious' sect, as that of the Tra- 
 tricelli, did aiot derive their origin freni the order of 
 St. Francis. In consequence of this; they deiw that 
 the Fratricelli professed the Franciscan .rule; and 
 ■maintain, on the contrary, thatlhe society which 
 was distinguished by this title was a heap of rabble, 
 composed of persons of all kinds and all religions, 
 whom Herman Porigilup, toward the conclusion of, 
 this century, assembled at Ferrara, and erected Ihto 
 a distinct order. See Wadding's Annal. Minor, tom. 
 vi. p..279. This author employs all his eloquence to 
 ^efeild his order from the infamouS "reproach of hav- 
 ing given rise to that of the Fratricelli; but his ef- 
 forts are vain; for he acknowledges, and even.proves 
 by unqttestionable authpr-ities, that this hated seel 
 professed- and observed, in the inost. rigorous man- 
 ner, the rule of St. Francis; and neverthelesSj he de- 
 nies. tha* they were Franciscans; by which he means, 
 and indeed can only mean, that they were not such 
 yrancis6aias as those who lived in subjection to the 
 general-of the order, and adopted the interpretation 
 which the -popes had given of thctule of their found- 
 er- All Wadding's boasted demonstration, there- 
 fore, comes to no morejthan this, that the Fratricelli 
 were Franciscans who separated thems^elyes from 
 the grand order of St. Francis, and rejected the au- 
 thority of the general of that order, and the laws 
 and interpretations, together with the jurisdiction 
 of the pontiffs; and this no mortal' ever took into his 
 head to deny. Hermanns, or (as- he' is called by 
 many) Arm an us Pongilup, whom ^Wadding and 
 others consider, as-the parent of the Fratricelli, lived 
 in this, century at Ferrara, in the highest reputation 
 t\)r his extra(jrdinarv piety; and when_ he died, in 
 1269, he was interred with the .greatest pomp an*! 
 magnificence in the principal church of that city. 
 Hiff memory was, for a long time, honoured with a 
 degree of veneration equal to that which is paid to 
 the most illustrious saints; and it was supposed that 
 the Supreme Being bore testimony to his eminent 
 sanctity by various miracles.'^ Put, as PongUup had 
 been suspected of heresy by the Inqiifi-sitors of Here- 
 tical Depravity, on account of the peculiar austerity 
 of his life, which resembled that of the Catharists, 
 they made, even after his death, such an exact and 
 scrupulous ihquiry into his maxims and morals, 
 that, many years after he was laid low in the grave, 
 his impiety was detected and published to the world. 
 HencG it was, that, in 1300, hi? tomb was dcstrovetl 
 
Chap. II 
 
 DOCTORS, CHURCH GOVERNMENT, &c. 
 
 361 
 
 XL. As the Franciscan order acknowledged, 
 for its companions and associates, a set of men, 
 who observed .the third rule that was prescrib- 
 ed by St. Francis, and were therefore com- 
 
 liis bones were dug up, and burned by the order of Bo- 
 niface VIII., and the multitude eftectually cured of 
 the enthusiastic veneration they had ifor his memory. 
 The judicial acts of this remarkable event are re- 
 corded by Muratori, in his Antiquit. Italic, racdii 
 ^vi, torn. V. p. 93 — 147, and it appears evidently 
 froni them, that those learned men, who consider 
 Pongi^up as the founder of the order of the Fratri- 
 celU, have fallen-into h grOss error. So~far was he 
 
 ,froin being the founder of this sect, that he was dead 
 before it Wijs in existence. The truth is, that this 
 famous enthusiast was a Catharist, infected with 
 Faulician-or Manijchean principlBs, and a member 
 of the sect entitled bugnolists, from a town of that 
 name inProvence, where they residfed. Some modern 
 writers, indeed, have seen so far into the truth, as 
 to perceive that the Fratricelli were a separate 
 branch of the rigid and austere Franciscans; but they 
 err in this, that they Consider them as the same sect 
 with the Beghards or Beguins, under a different de- 
 nomination. Such is the opinion adopted by Lim- 
 borch, (in his Hist. Inquisit. lib. i. cap. xix.) who 
 seems to have1>een very little, acquainted with the 
 matters now under consideratipn; by Baluze, in his 
 Miscellan. torn. i. p. 195, and Vit. Pontif. Avenio- 
 nens. torn. i. p. 509; by Beausobre, in liis Disserta- 
 tion concerning thd Adamites, subjoined tothe His- 
 tory of the Wars of the Hussites, p. 330; and by 
 Waddingj'in his-Annal. Minor, torn. v. p. 376." But, 
 notwithstanding the authorities ^f these learned 
 meh, it is certain, is we shall show tn its place, that 
 there was a r^a,l difference between the Fratricelli 
 and the Beghards, not indeed with respect to their 
 opinions^ but in their rule of discipline and < their 
 manner of life. 
 
 3^he-' principal cause of the errors that have ob- 
 scured the history of the Fratricelli, is the ambiguity 
 in the denomination of their order. Prati-icellus or 
 Fraierculu9 (Little Brother) was an Italian nick- 
 name,-or term' of derision, that was applied in this 
 eentury to-all those who, without belonging to any 
 of the religious orders, affected a monkish air in 
 their clothing, their carriage, and their maniier of 
 living, and assumed a sanctimonious aspect of piety 
 
 "alid devotion. See Villani, Istorie Florentine, lib. 
 viii. c 84.— IiTiola in Dantem, p. 1121, in Muriitori's 
 Antiq. Ital. torn. i. And as there were many vaga- 
 bonds of this kind during this century, it happened 
 that the genera] term of .Fratricelli was applied to 
 them all, though they differed considerably from, one 
 another in their'opinions and in their methods of 
 living. Thus , the Catharists, the Waldenses, Jhe 
 Apostles, and many other sects who had invented 
 new opinions in refigion, were marked with this de-, 
 nomination by the multitude; while the^writeis of 
 foreign nations, unacquainted with this ludicrous 
 application of the word, were puzzled in their inqui- 
 ries after the sect of the Fratricelli, (who had given 
 »o much trouble to the Roman pontiffs,) were even 
 led into the grossest mistakes, and imagined, at one 
 time, that this order was thiit of the Catharists; at 
 another, that it was the sect of the Waldenses, &c. 
 But, in order to have distinct ideas of this matter, it 
 must be considered that the word -Fraterculus, or 
 Little Brother, bore a quite different sense from the 
 ludicrous one now mentioned, when it was applied 
 to the austere part of the Franciscans, who njain-. 
 itained the necessity of observing, in the strictest 
 manner, the rule of their- founder. Instead of Being 
 a nick-name, or a term of derision when- applied to 
 them, it was an honourable denomination in which 
 tiiey delighted, and which they preferred infinitely 
 to all other titles. The import of Frutricelli corres- 
 ponds with Friars-Minors; and every one kno?vs,- 
 that the latter appe-llation was adopted by the Fran- 
 ciscans, as an expression of their extraordinary hu-- 
 mility and modesty. In assuming this title, there- 
 fore, these monks did not, properly speaking, assume 
 a new name, but only translated the anoient name 
 of their order mto the Italian language; for those 
 whom the Latins caMed JPYatres Minores, the Italians 
 called Fratricelli. Of the many prooft we might 
 draw ftom the best authors in favour of this account 
 of the matter, we shall only allege one, from the life 
 of Thom. Aquinas, by Guliclmus de Tboco in AeJis 
 Vol.. I —46 
 
 monly called "Tertiaries;*' so likewise the order 
 of the Fratricelli, who were desirous of being 
 considered as the only genuine followers of St. 
 Francis, had a great number of Tertiaries at- 
 tacheui to their cause. These half-monks were 
 called, in Italy, Bizochi and Bocasoti; in France, 
 Begldnsi and, in Germiiny Begwardsj'or Beg~ 
 hards, whiph-last was the denomination by 
 -which they were, cqmmonly known in almost 
 all places4 They differed from .the Fratri- 
 
 Sanctor. Marlii, torn. j. cap. ii. sect. xxi. "Destruxit 
 (says that biogi'apher) er turtium pestiferum pravita- 
 tis errorem S. Thomas . . . cujus sectatores simnlel 
 inventores se nominant fratercuios de vita paupere, 
 ut etiam sub hoc humilitatis sophistico^noiiiine sim- 
 plicium (iorda seducant . . . contra (luera prrorem pes- 
 tiferum Johannes papa XXII. mirandam edidit de- 
 cretalem."-- 
 
 Now this very Decretal of John XXII. against the 
 Fratricelli, which Thoco calla admirablOi is, to men- 
 tion no other testimqnies, a sufficient and satisfac- 
 tory proof of what I have affirmed ip relation to that , • 
 sect. In this act (which is to be se^n in the Extra-* '-' 
 vagantia Joh. XXII. Corp. JurisCanon. torn, ii, p. 
 1112, edit. Bohraer) the pontiff expresses himself 
 thus: " NoritauUi profanaj multitudinis viri, qui vul- 
 gariter i'ratricelli seu Fratres de paupere vita, Bizo- 
 chi, sive Beguiiii, nuncuparttur in partibus Itatiae, in 
 insula Sicilus . . . r publice mendicarc soleut." He 
 afterwards divides the Fratricelli, into monks end 
 tertiaries, or (which amounts to the same thing, as 
 we shall ^how in its place) inta Fratricelli and Be- ^' 
 guins. With respect to the Fratricelli, properly so 
 called, he expresses himself thus: *' Plurimi regulam 
 .seu ordinem Fratrum Minorum . . . . se profiteri ad 
 literam conservare confingunt, prffitendentes se a 
 SanqtfE memoriffi Coelestino Papa Q,uinto, proedeces- ^ 
 sore nostvo, hujus status seu vita; privilegium ha- 
 buisse. Q,uod tamen etsi ostenderent, non yalerot, ) 
 cum Bonifacius papa octavus e-x cenis causis ration.- 
 abilibus omnia abipso Coalestino concessa .... viri- 
 ,bus penitus evacuaverit.'\ Here he describes cl^afly 
 those Fratricelli, who, separating thems'elves froin 
 the Franciscans-with a view to observe more strictly 
 the rule oT St. Francis, were erected into a distinct 
 order by Celestin V. And in the following passage 
 he characterises, with the same perspicuity, the Bi- 
 zocIm and Beguins, who entitled themselves of the 
 third order of the penitents of St. Francis- " Nonnulli 
 ex ipgis asserentes ae esse de tertig ordine beati 
 Francisci pccnitentium vocato.prffidictum statum et 
 ritum eorum sub velamine talis nommis satagunt 
 pallijire." ' ' 
 
 *-Be^de.two very austere rules drawn ujT by St. 
 Frai;ici.s, the one lor the Friars-Mintirs, 9nd the 
 other for tlie Poor Sisters, called Clarissa^, from St. 
 Clara ihlir founder, this famous chief drew up a 
 third, whose demands were less .rigorous, for such 
 as^ without abandoning their worldly affairs or re- 
 signing their posse^ssions, were disposed to ^ter 
 with certain restrictions into the Franciscan order, 
 and desirous of enjoying the privileges annexed to 
 it. This rule prescribed fasting, continence, hours 
 of devotion and prayer, mean and dirty apparel, 
 gravity of manners, and things of that nature; tiiit 
 neither prohibited contracting marriage, accumulat- 
 ing wealth,' filling civil employments, nor attending 
 to worldly affairs. AH the Franciscan historians 
 have pi vpn_ accounts of this third rule, more espe- 
 cially Wadding, Annal. Min. tom. ii.— Helyot Hist, 
 des Ordres, tom.. vii. I'hey who professed this third 
 rule, were called Friarsjf the Penance of Christ, and 
 sometimes also, on account of the raeannes5i;of their 
 garments. Brethren of the Sacli; but t^ey were more 
 generally known by-the denomination of Tertiaries, 
 The greatest part of the religious orders of the church 
 of Rome imitated this institution of St. Fi'^ncis, as 
 soon as they perceived the various" advantages tha*, 
 were deducible ftom it- And hence, at this daj, 
 these orders continue to have their Tertiaries. 
 
 t The Tertiaries that were connected with Ihe 
 order of the Fratricelli, arose about the year 1296, in 
 the marqnisate of Ancona and the neighbouring 
 countries, and were called Bizochi, as we learn from 
 the edict issued against them, in 1297, by Boniface 
 VIII., and published by Du Boulay, in his Historia, 
 Aead. Paris, tom. iii. p. 541. They are mentioned 
 
INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 PahtII 
 
 celli, not in their opinions and doctrines, but 
 only in their manner of living. The Fratri- 
 celli were real monks, subjected" to the rule of 
 St. Francis; while the Bizochi or Beguins, if 
 
 under' the same tille by John XXII. in the ball al- 
 ready cited. Add to alt these authorities, that of the 
 learned Du-Fresne, who, in his Glossar. Latinit. me- 
 diifi, observes, that this denomination is derived from 
 Bizdchtis, whioh_5ignifie3 in French %jie- Bcsaco, i. e. 
 a sack or wallet^ such as beggars in general, and 
 these holy beggars in particular, were accustomed to 
 carry about with them. Tlje term Bocasotus, (or 
 VocasatTLS, as Du-Boulay writes it,) has without 
 doubt the same origin, and bears the sainc signilica- 
 tion. It is used by Jordan, in his Chronicle, from 
 which we shall cite a remarkable passage in the fol- 
 lowing note. The denominations of Beghards and 
 Beguins, given to the Tertiaries in France'and Ita- 
 ly, are very frequently met with in the ecclesiastical- 
 history of Ihe middle ages. The accounts, however, 
 which both ancient and modern writers generally 
 give of these ^mous names, are so uncertain, and 
 BO different frotn each other, that we need not be 
 surprised to find the history of the Beghards and Be- 
 guins involved in greater perplexity and darkness, 
 than any other part gf the ecclesiastical annals of 
 - the period now mentioned. It is 'therefore my pre- 
 sent object to remove this perplexity, and dispel this 
 darkness as far as that can be done in the short 
 space to -which I am confined, and to disclose the 
 true origin of these denominations. 
 
 The vvoris, Beghard or Beggehard, Begutta, Beg- 
 kinus, and Beghmd, which only differ in their termi- 
 nations, have ^all'one and the same sense. The 
 German and Belgic nations wrote Beghard and Be 
 ' gutte, which terminations are extremely common in 
 . the -language of the ancient Germans. But the 
 French substituted the Latin termination for the 
 German, and. changed Beghard into Bcghinus and 
 Beghina; s6 that Jhose who in Holland and Germa- 
 ny were called Beghard and BeguUe, were denomi- 
 nated, hi France, Beghini and Beghince. Even in 
 Germany and Holland, the Latin termination was 
 gradually introduced instead of the German, particu- 
 larly in the- feminine term Begutta, of which change 
 we might allege several probable reasons, if this 
 were the proper place for disquisitions of that na- 
 ture. There are many different opinions concerning 
 the origin and signification of these terms, which it 
 would be too tedious to mention, and still more so 
 to refute. Besides, I have done this in a large work 
 concerning -the Beghards, wherefn I have traced out, 
 with the utmost pains.and labour, (from records, the 
 greatest part of-which had never before seen the 
 light,) the history of all the sects to whom these 
 names have been given, and have, at the same time, 
 detected the errors into which many learned men 
 have fallen, in treating this part of the history of the 
 church. At present, therefore, netting aside many 
 opinions and conjectures, I shall confine myself to a 
 brief inquiry into the true origin and signification 
 of these words. They are undoubtedly derived from 
 the old German word beggen or beggeren, which sig- 
 nifies to seek any thing with importunity, zeals and 
 earnestness. In joining to this word the syllable 
 Aari, which is the. termination of many German 
 words, we have the term Beggeiard, which is appli- 
 cable tp a person who asks any thing with ardour 
 and importunity; and, therefore, common mendi- 
 cants, in the ancient German language, were called 
 Beghard, from which the English word beggar is 
 manifestly derived. Begutta signifies a feftiale beg- 
 gar.— When Christianity was introduced into Ger- 
 many, the word beggen^ or beggeren, was used in a 
 religious sense, find expressed the act of devout and 
 fervent prayer to the Supreme Being. Accordingly, 
 we find, in the Gothic translation of the Four Gos- 
 pels' attributed to Ulphilas, the word beggen employ- 
 ed to express the duty of the earnest and fervent 
 prayer. Hence, when any person distinguished him- 
 self fVom others by the frequency and fervojir of his 
 devotional service, he was called a Beghard, i. e. a 
 devout man; and the denomination of Begutta was 
 given in the same sense, to women of uncommon 
 piety. And as they who distinguished themselves 
 from others by the flrequency of their prayers, thus 
 assumed a more striking air of external devotion 
 than the rest of their fellow-Christians, all those who 
 were ambitious of appearing more religious and de- 
 
 we except their sordid habit, and certain ob- 
 servances and maxims, which they followed in 
 consequence of the injunctions of the famous 
 saint above mentioned, lived after the manner 
 
 vout than their neighbours, were called Beghardi or 
 BeguttcB. 
 
 The observation« we have hitherto made w>th re- 
 spect to the origin and signification! of the words in 
 question, will serve as a clue to rescue the atten. ive 
 reader from that labyrinth of difiiculties in which the 
 subject has 'beeri' involved. They will also enable 
 him. to account for the prodigious multitudes of Beg- 
 hard? and Beguins that sprang ~up in Europe in the 
 thirteenth century, and will show him. how it hap- 
 pened, that these denominations were given to above 
 30 sects or orders, which differed .widely from each 
 other in their opinions^ discipline, and manner of 
 living. The original signification of the word Beg- 
 hard, (or Beggert, as it was pronounced by the com- 
 mon people,) was importiinate beggar. Therefore, 
 when the people saw certain persons, not only em- 
 bracing with resignation, but also with the most 
 voluntary choice, and under a pretext of devotion, 
 the horrors of absolute poverty, begginj their daily 
 bread from door to door, and renouncing ~all their 
 worldly possessions and occupations, they called all 
 such persons Beghards, or, if they were women. Be- 
 gutt^E, Without considering the variety, of opihions 
 and maxims by which they were distinguished. The 
 sect called Jipostless the rigid Franciscans, the bre- 
 thren of the free spirit (of whom we shall speak 
 hereafter,) all embraced this sordid state of beggary; 
 and thoimh among these ordera the^e was not only a 
 wide difference, but even the greatest opposition, 
 the Germans called them indiscriminately Beghards, 
 from the miserable state whichahey had all embrac- 
 ed. Nor is this to be wondered at; the character 
 which they possessed in common was striking, whil^ 
 the sentiments and maxims that divided them es- 
 caped the observation of the multitude. 
 
 But the word Beghard acquired a second, and a 
 new signification^ in this century, being employed, 
 as we have already observed, to signify a person who 
 prayed with uncommon frequency, and who distin- 
 guished himself from those about him by an extra- 
 ordinary appearance^ of piety. The force of this 
 term, in its new signification, is the same with that 
 of the Word Methodist, which is at present the deno- 
 mination of a certain sect. of fanatics in Great Bri- 
 tain. Such, therefore, as departed from, the manner 
 of living that was usual among their fellow-citizeiis, 
 and distinguished themselves by the gravity of their 
 aspect and the austerity of their manners, were 
 comprehended under the general denomination of 
 Beghards and Beguttes in Oermany, and of^Beguhis 
 and Beguines in Prance. These terms, as we could 
 show by many examples, comprehended at first even 
 the monks and nuns; but, in process of tunc, they 
 were confined to those who formed a sort of inter- 
 mediate orller between the monks and citizens, and 
 who resembled the former in the manner of living, 
 without assuming their name or contracting their 
 obligations. The Tertiaries, therefore, or half-monks 
 of the Dominican, Franciscan, and, in general, of all 
 the religious orders, were called Beghards; for 
 though, as lay-citizens, "they belonged to the body 
 politic, yet they distinguished themselves by their 
 monkish dispositions, and their profession of extra- 
 ordinary piety and sanctity of mapners. The fra- 
 ternity of weavers, the Brethren of St. Alexius, the 
 followers of Gerard the Great, in a word,^ all Who 
 pretended to an uncommon degree of sanctity and 
 devotion, were called Beghards, although they pro- 
 cured the necessaries of life by honest industry, 
 without having recourse to the sordid trade of beg- 
 ging. ^ 
 
 The denominations, therefore, of Beghards, Be- 
 guttes, Beguins, and Beguines, are rather honourable 
 than otherwise, when we consider their origin; and 
 they are mentioned as such, in several records and 
 deeds of this century, whose authority is most re- 
 spectable, particularly in the Testament of St. Louis, 
 king of France. But, in the sequel, these terms lost 
 gradually, as the case often happens, their primitive 
 signification, and became marks of infamy and deri- 
 sion. Foil, among these religious beggars and these 
 sanctimonious pretenders to extraordinary piety, 
 there were many, whose piety was nothing more 
 than the mos*. senseless superstition; many, also. 
 
Chap. II. 
 
 DOCTORS, CHURCH" GOVERNMENT, &c 
 
 363 
 
 of other men, and were therefore considered in 
 no other light, than as seculars and laymen.* 
 It is, however, to be observed, that the Bizochi 
 were divided into two classes, which derived 
 their respectivie denominations of perfect and 
 imperfecty from the different degrees of austeri- 
 ty that they discovered in their manner of liv- 
 ing. The perfect lived upon alms, abstained 
 from Wedlock, and l\ad no fixed habitations. 
 The imperfect, on the contrary^ had their 
 houses, wives, and possessions, and were en- 
 gaged, like the rest of their fellow-citizens, in 
 the various affairs of life.f 
 
 XLI. We must not confound these Beguins 
 and Beguines, who derive their origin from 
 an austere branch of the Franciscan order, 
 with the German and Belgic Beguines, who 
 crept out of their obscurity in thfe century, and 
 multiplied prodigiously in a very short time4 
 
 whose austere devotion was accompanied with opi- 
 nions of tf corrupt nature, entirely opposite to the 
 doctrine of the church; and (what was still more 
 horrible) many artful hypocrites, who, under the 
 mask, of religion, concealed the most abominable 
 principles, and committed the most 6normous crimes. 
 These were the fools and knaves who brought the 
 ' denomination of Beghard into disrepute, and ren- 
 dered it both ridiculous and infamous; so that it was 
 only employed to signify idiots, heretics, or hypo- 
 crites. The denomination of Lollards, of which ^ect 
 we shall soon have occasion to speak, met with the 
 same ,fate, and was rendered contemptible by the 
 persons who masked^their iniquity under that spe- 
 cious title. - . 
 
 * See the Acta Inquis. Tolos. published by Lim- 
 borch, p. 298, 302, &c. Among the various passages 
 of ancient writers, which tend to illustrate the his- 
 tory of the Fratricelli and Beguins, I shall quote 
 only one, which is to he found in Jordan's Chroni- 
 con, published by Muratori, in his Aiitlq,. Ital. medii 
 Mvi, tom.. iv. p. 1020, and confirms almost every 
 t^ng we have said upon that head; anno 1294. 
 "Petrus de Macerata et Petrus de Porogempronio 
 apostats fuerunt ordlnis Minorum et hsretici. His 
 petentibus eremitice vivere; ut regulam B. Francisci' 
 ad literam servare pbssent; quibus plures Apostats 
 adhsserunt, qui statum com munitatis damn abant et 
 declarationes re^ulae, et "vocabant se FratTes S. 
 Francisci (he blight to have said FVatricellos) Saicu- 
 larea, (i. e. the Tertiaries, who were the friends and 
 associates of the Fratricelli, without quitting, how- 
 ever, their secular state, or entering into the monas- 
 tic order?) Sseculares autem vocarunt Bizocios aut 
 Fratricellos vel Bocasotos," Jordan, however, errs in 
 afhrming, that the Ssculares were called Fratricelli; 
 for the latter name belonged only to the true, monks 
 of" St. Francis, and not, to fhe Tertiaries. The other 
 circumstances of Ihis'accourit are exact, and show 
 that the more austere professors of the Franciscan 
 rule were divided into two clashes, namely, friars and 
 seculars, and that the latter were called Bizochi. "ti 
 dogmatizabant, quod nullus summus pontifex regu- 
 lam B. Francisci declarare potuit. Item, quod ange- 
 lu9 abstulit a Nicolao tertio papatus aucCoritatem 
 
 Et quod ipsi soli sunt in yia Dei et vera eccle- 
 
 sia," &jR 
 
 t This division is mentioned, or supposed by seve- 
 ral authors, and more especially in the Acta luqui- 
 Bit. ToIosancB, p. 303, Sec. 
 
 X In the seventeenth century-, there was a great de- 
 bate carried on in theTTetherlands on this subject. 
 Ip the course of this controversy it was proved, by 
 the most authentic and unexceptionable records and 
 diplomas, that, so early as the eleventh and twelfth 
 centuries, there had been several societies of Begui- 
 nes established in Holland and Flanders. It is true, 
 that no more than three of these authentic acts were 
 produced; the first was drawn up in 1065, the second 
 in 1129, the third in 1151; and they were all three 
 drawn up at Vilvordeh by the Beguines. See Aub. 
 MirffiUS.-OperaDiplomaticio-historica, tom. ii. c. xxvi. 
 
 6 948, and tom. iii. p- 62.3.— Erycius Puteanus, de 
 LgtUnarum apud Belgas Instituto. This treatise 
 of Puteanus is to be found with another of the same 
 author, and upon the same subject, in a work en- 
 
 Their origin was of earlier date than this cen- 
 tury; but it was only now that they acquired 
 a name, and made a noise in the world. Their 
 primitive establishment was, undoubtedly, tho 
 effect of virtuous dispositions and upright in- 
 tentions. A certain number of pious women, 
 both virgins and widows, in order to maintain 
 their integrity, and preserve their principles 
 from the contagion of a vicious and corrupt 
 age, formed themselves into societies, each of 
 which had a fixed place of residence, and lived 
 under the inspection and government of a fe- 
 male head. Here they divided their time be- 
 tween exercises of devotion, and works of 
 honest industry, reserving to themselves the 
 liberty of entering into the state of matrimony, 
 as also of quitting the convent, whenever they 
 thought proper. And, as all those among the 
 female sex, who made extraordinary profes- 
 sions of piety and devotion, were distinguished 
 by the title of- BeguvneSj (i. e. persons who 
 were imcommonly assiduous in prayer,) that 
 title was giveii to the women of whom we are 
 now speaking.* The firsf regular society of 
 this kind that we read of, was formed at Ni^ 
 yelle in Brabant, in 1226;f and it was followed 
 by so many institutions of a like nature in 
 France, Germany, Holland, and Flanders, 
 that, toward the middle of the. thirteenth cen- 
 tury, there was scarcely a city of any. note, 
 that had not its heguinage, or vineyard^ as it 
 was sometimes called in conformity to the style 
 of the Song of Songs, j; All these female so- 
 
 titled Josephi Geldolphi a Ryckel Vita S. Beggs, 
 cum Adnotationibus, p. (55— 227. Uuaci, 1631. Now, 
 though we grant that those writers have not fiajlen 
 into an error who place the rise of the Begliines in 
 the twelfth or thirteenth century, yet the 'email 
 number of authentic records, which they.have to pro- 
 duce in favour of their antiquity, is an incontestable 
 proof of the obscurity in which they lay concealed 
 before the time in which these author-s-placed their 
 origin, and may render it almost probable, that the 
 mily convent of Beguines, that existed before the 
 thirteenth century, was that of Yilvorden: . 
 
 * All the Beghards and Beguines that yet remain 
 in the Netherlands, where their, convents have al- 
 most entirely chaftged their ancient andprimitivo 
 form, afiiVm unanimously, that both their name and 
 institution derive their origin from St. Begghe, duch- 
 ess of Brabant, and daughter of Pepin, mayor of the 
 palace df the king of Austrasia, who. lived in the 
 seventh century. This lady,, therefore, they con- 
 sider as their patroness, ami honour her as a kind 
 of tutelar divinity ^n^ith the deepest sentiments of 
 veneration and respect. See Jos. Geld- a Hyckel^ 
 Vit. S. Beggs, a work of great bulk and little meri , 
 and full of the most-sUly and insipid fables.— Those 
 who are not well-wishers to the cause of the Be^ 
 guines, adopt a qui.te different account of their 
 origin, which they deduce from Lambert le Begue, a 
 priest and native of Liege,_who lived in the twelfth 
 century, and was much esteemed forhis eminent 
 piety. -The learned Peter Coens, canon of Antwerp, 
 has defended this opinion with more erudition than 
 any other wriier,in his Disquisitio Historicade Gri- 
 gine Beghinarum et Beghin'agiorum inBelgio, Leod> 
 1672. 
 {JC^ t Other historians say, in 1207. 
 X See Matth. Paris, Histor. Major, ad An. 1243 and 
 1250, p. 540,696. — Thomas Cantipratensis in Bono 
 Universal! de Apibus, lib. ii. cap. li.^-Pet. de Her- 
 enthal, in his Annate, from which we have a-^very 
 remarkable passage cited^by Jo3. Geld, a Ryckefl, in 
 his Observationes ad l^itam 8, Begg^y sect, cxcvi. 
 The origin and chart^sof the convents of Begui- 
 nes, that were founded during this and the following 
 century in Holland and Flanders, are treated in an 
 ample manner by Aub. Mirsus, in his Opera His- 
 torico-diplomatica, John Bapt. Grammaye, in bis^ 
 Antiquitates Belgics, Anton. Sanderi, in hii Bra- 
 
364 
 
 INTERNAL HlislORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 PARtn 
 
 cietieg were not governed by the same laws; ' 
 biit, in the greatest part of them, the hours 
 that were not devoted to prayer, meditation, 
 or other rehgious exejcises, were employed in 
 weaving, embroidering, and other manual la- 
 boars. The poor, sick, and disabled Beguines, 
 were supported by the pious liberality of such 
 opulent persons as were friends to the order. 
 
 XLII. This female institation was soon 
 imitated in Flanders by the other sex; and con- 
 siderable numbers of unmarried men, both 
 bachelors- and widowers, formed themselves 
 into coinmunities of the same kind with those 
 of the Begaines," under the inspection and go- 
 vernment of a certain chief, and with the same 
 religious views and purposes; reserving to 
 themselves, however, the liberty of returning 
 to their former mode of life.* These pious per- 
 sons were, in the style of this age, called Beg- 
 liards, and (by a corruption of that term usual 
 among the Flemish and Dutch) Bogards; from 
 others they received the denomination of Lol- 
 lards: in France they were distinguished at 
 first by that of-^ons Valets, or Bans Garcons, 
 and afterwards by that of Begnms: they were 
 also styled the Fraternity of Weavers, from the 
 trade which the greatest part of them exei^ 
 cised. The first Beghard society seems to have 
 been that which was established at Antwei^ in 
 1228; and this estabhshment was followed by 
 many similar associations in Grermany, France, 
 Holland, and Flanders, though, after all their 
 success, their congregations were less nume- 
 rous than those of the Beguines.f It is worthy 
 of observation, that the Roman pontiffs never 
 honoured the societies of the Beghards and 
 Beguines with their solemn or explicit q.ppro- 
 bation, or confirmed their establishments by 
 the seal of their authority. They, however, 
 granted them a fiiU toleration, and even de- 
 fended them often against the stratagems and 
 violence of their enemies, who were many in 
 number. This appears by the edicts in favour 
 of the Beghards, which the pontiffs granted in 
 compliance with the solicitations of many il- 
 lustrious personages, who wished well to that 
 society. It did hot, however, continue always 
 to flourish. The greatest part of the conlrents, 
 both of the Beghards and Beguines, arc now 
 either demolished, of converted to other "uses. 
 In Flanders, indeed, a considerable number of 
 the la,tter still subsist, but few of the former 
 are to be found in any countiy. 
 
 XLIII. After the accounts hitherto given of 
 the rulers of the church; and of the religious 
 orders that were instituted or became famous 
 during this century, it will not be improper to 
 conclude this chapter,' by mentioning briefly 
 
 bantia et Plandpa illustrata, and by other writers 
 of the Bplgic history. 
 
 * Matth. Paris, Hist. Major, ad An. 1253. 
 
 t See Kyckelii Vita S. Beggaj, p. 635.— Ant. San- 
 der! Flandria Tllustrata, lib. iii. c. xvi. Jo. Bapt. 
 Grainmaye's Antiquit. Fland. p. 22. — Aub. Miriei 
 Opera Diplom. Hist. toim. iii. c. clxviii. — Helyot, Hist, 
 des Ordres, torn. vii. p. 248, who is nevertheless 
 \ ciiargeable with many errors. — Gerardus.Antoninua, 
 Pater Minister (so the head of the order is called in 
 our times) Beghardorum Antwerpiensium, in Epis- 
 tola ad Ryckium de Beghardorum origine et fatis, 
 in EyckelU Vita S. Begg», p. 489. This author, in- 
 deed, from a spirit of partia.ity to hig order, conceals 
 the truth desifj ledly in various places 
 
 the Greek and Latin vmters, who, during the 
 satne period, acquired fame by their learned 
 productions. The most eminent among the 
 Greelis were, 
 
 Nicetas Acominatus, who composed a work, 
 entitled the History and Treasure of the Or- 
 thodox Faith; - 
 
 Germanus, the Grecian patriarch, of whom 
 we have yet extant, among other productions 
 of less note, a Book against the Latins, and an 
 Exposition of the Greek Liturgy; 
 
 Theodorus Lascaris, who left behind him 
 several treatises upon various subjects of a re- 
 ligious nature, and who also entered the lists 
 against the Xatins, which \*as the reigning 
 passion among such of the Greeks as were en- 
 dowed with tolerable parts, and vvere desirous 
 of showing their zeal for the honour of their 
 nation; ' 
 
 Nicephonis Blemmida, who employed his 
 talents in the salut-ary work -of healing the 
 divisions between the Greeks and Latins; 
 
 Arsenius, whose Synopsis of the Canon Law 
 of the Greeks is f^r from being contemptible; 
 
 Georgius Acropolita, who acquired a high 
 degree of renown, not only by his historical 
 wntings, but also by the transactions and ne- 
 gotiations in.^ which he was employed by the 
 emperor Michael; i 
 
 Johannas Beccus or Yeccus, who involved 
 himself in much trouble, and excited the odium 
 of many, by defending the cause of the Latjns 
 against his owii nation with, too much zeal; . 
 ;George Metochita, and Constantino Meli- 
 te'niota, who employed, without succesSj theii 
 most earnest effortsito bring about a reconcilia 
 tion between the Greeks and L(atihs; 
 
 George^ Pachymeres, who acqaired reputa 
 tion by his commentary upon Dionyaius, the 
 pretended chief of the mystics, arid by a history 
 which he composed x>i his own time; and, 
 
 George the Cyprian, whose hatred of the 
 Latins, and warm opposition to Veccus above.' 
 mentioned, rendered him more famous than all 
 his other pi"oductions.* 
 
 XLIV. The -prodigious nuinber of Latin 
 writers that appeared in this century, renders 
 it impossible for us to mention them all; we 
 shall therefore confine our account to those 
 among them, who were the most eminent, and 
 whose theological writings demand "most fre- 
 quently our notice in the course of this history; 
 Sueh were, 
 
 Joachim, abbot of Flora in Calabria,' who 
 was a rhan of mean parts and of a weak judg- 
 ment, full of enthusiastic and visionary notions, 
 but was esteemed for his piety and supposed 
 knowledge, and was even considered, during 
 his life and after his death, by the miserable 
 and blinded multitude, as a prophet sent fi:om 
 above. _ The pretended propheMes of this silly 
 fanatic are abundantly known, and have been 
 frequently published 
 
 7 
 
 *■ For a more ample account of all these writers, 
 the reader may consult the BibUotheca Grsca of . 
 Fabricius. 
 
 t The life of Joachim was written in Italian by 
 Gregory di Lauro, and published at Naples in 1660. 
 The first editij)n of his prophecies appeared at Venice, 
 in 1517; and it was followcJ by several new editions, 
 to satisfy the curiosity of the populace, great and 
 small 
 
Chap. HI. 
 
 ,tHe doctrink of the church 
 
 Stephen Langton, archbishop of Canterbury, 
 Who wrote commentaries upon the greatest 
 part of the books of Scripture;* 
 
 Francis, the founder of the famous society 
 of Friars-minors, or Franciscans, whose wri- 
 tings were desigfied to touch the heart, and ex- 
 cite pious and devout sentiments, but discover 
 Uttle genius, and less jiidgment. 
 
 Alan de I'Isle, a logician, who made no 
 mean figure among tlie disputatious tribe; who 
 applied himself also to the study of chemistry, 
 ?;nd published Several moral discoursesj "in 
 :which are many wise ajid useful exhortations 
 and precepts;! 
 
 Jacobus de Vitriaco, who acquired a name 
 by his Oriental History; and Jacobus de Vora- 
 gi^e, whose History of the LombardsJ was re- 
 ceived with applause. 
 
 The writers of this century, who obtained 
 the greatest renown on account of their labo- 
 rious researches in what was called philosophi- 
 cal or dialectical theology, were Albertus 
 Magnus, Thomas Aquinas, and Bonaventura, 
 who respectively possessed an inquisitive turn 
 of mind, and a subUme and penetrating ge- 
 nius, accompanied with an uncommon talent 
 of exploring the most hidden truths, and treat- 
 ing with facility the most abstruse' subjects, 
 though tliey ai-e all chargeable with errois and 
 reveries that do little honour to their memo- 
 ries.! The other writers, who trod the same 
 intricate paths of «ietai)hysical divinityj wei-e 
 many in number, and several of them were 
 justly admired, though much inferior in re-, 
 nown to the celehrated triumvirate now men- 
 tioned; such were Alexander Hales, the inter- 
 preter of Aristotle, William 6f-Paria,|| Robert 
 Capito,ir Thomas Cantipratensis, John of 
 Peokham, William Durand, Roger Bacon,** 
 Richard Middleton, Giles de Cojuinna, Ar- 
 mand de Bello-Visu, and several others. 
 
 Hugo de St. Caro gained much applause by 
 his Concordance of the Holy Bible.ft 
 
 365 
 
 Ql^ * Langton was a learned and polite authoi> 
 for the -age in which he" lived. To" hiin we are in- 
 debted for the division of the Bible into chapters. 
 He wrote commentaries upon all the books of the 
 Old Testament, and upon St. Paul's Epistles. 
 
 t Several of the name of Alan lived in this cen- 
 tury, who have been strangely confounded, both by 
 ancient and modern writers. See Jaq. ie Bteuf, Me. 
 moires surl'Hist. d'Au.^erre, torn. i. and Dissert, sur 
 mist. Civil, et-Eccles. de^ Paris, torn. ii. - " . 
 
 X Jac. Echardi Scriptor. Itpniin. t: i.— BoUandi 
 PriKf ad Acta Sanctor." ' ' 
 
 . § For an account of Albert, see Echard. Script. 
 Doiri. tom. i.^For an account of Thomas Aquinas, 
 who was called the Angel of the Scholastics among 
 other splendid titles, see the Acta Sanctoruin; tom. 
 
 !. and Ant. Touron, Vie de St. T/tomas, Paris, 1737 
 
 We have "aiso a circumstantial relation of .what- 
 ever concerns the life, writings, and exploits of 
 Bonaventura, the tutelar saint of the Lyonriois, in 
 France, in the two following books,- viz. Colonials 
 Histoire Literaire de la Ville de Lyon, tom. ii. and 
 .he Histoire de la Vie et du Cultede S. Bd^aventure, 
 par un Religieux Cordelier. 
 
 IJ See the Gallia Christiana, published hy the 
 Benedictines, tom. vii. 
 
 IT Anthony Wood has given an ample account of 
 Robert Capito, in his Antiquitat.,Oxoniens. tom. i. 
 
 Qt^ ** We are surprised to find Roger Bacon thrust 
 here into a crowd of vulgar literati, since that great 
 man, whose astonishing genius and universal learn- 
 ing have already beeft noticed, was in every respect 
 superior to Albert and Bonaventura, two of the 
 heroes of Dr. Mosheim's triumvirate. 
 
 (0^ It Hugo de St. Oaro, or St. Cher, composed also 1 
 
 Gruillaume de St. Amour carried on with 
 great spirit and resolution, but with little suc- 
 cess, a literary and theological war against 
 those friars who looked upon begging as a, 
 mark of sanctity. 
 
 Humbert de Romanis drew up a system of 
 rules and precepts, with a view of subjecting 
 to a better regulation the lives and manners of 
 the monastic orders. 
 
 Willjara Perald 'arose in this century to a, 
 high degree of literary renown, in consequence 
 of a system of morals he published under the 
 title of Summa Virtutum et Vitiorum.* 
 
 Raymond Martin yet survives the oblivion 
 that has covered many of his contemporaries; 
 and his Piigio Fidei, or Swqrd of Faith, which 
 he drew against the Jews, and Saracens, has 
 escaped the ruins of time. . 
 
 John of Paris deserves an eminent rank 
 a;inong the glorious defenders of truth^liberty, 
 and justice, since he maintained the authority 
 of the civil powers, and the majesty of kings 
 and princes, againstthe ambitious stratagems 
 and'usurpations of the JRomau pontiffs,, and de- 
 clared openly his opposition to the opinion that 
 was commonly adopted with.respect to the sa- 
 crament of the Lord's supper, and the presence 
 of Christ in that holy ordinance, j" 
 
 CHAPTER HL 
 
 Concerning the Doctrine of the Christian Church 
 
 during this Century. 
 
 I. However numerous and deplorable were 
 the corruptions and -superstitious abuses which 
 had hitherto reigned in the church, and deformed 
 the beautifiil simplicity of the Gospel, -they 
 were nevertheless increased in this century, 
 instead of being reformed; and the religion of 
 Christ continued to" sufi'er Under the growing 
 tyranny of fanaticism and superstition. The 
 progress of reason and of truth was retarded 
 among the Greeks and Orientals," by their irn- 
 moderate aversion to tlie La.tins, their blind 
 admiration -of whatever boi:e the stamp of an- 
 tiquity, the indolence of their bishops, the stu- 
 pidity of their clergy, and the calamities of the 
 times. Among the IJatins, many concurring 
 causes united to augnjent tlie darkness of that 
 cloud which had already been cast over the 
 divine lustre of genuine Christianity.- On the 
 one hand, the Roman pontiffs could not bear 
 tlie thought of any thing that niight Have even 
 the remotest tendency to diminish their au- 
 thority, oi to encroach upon their prerpga- 
 tives; and therefore they laboured assiduously 
 to. keep the multitude in the dark, and to bias* 
 every attempt that was made toward a refor- 
 mation in- the doctrine or discipline of the 
 church. On the other hand, the school di-vines, 
 
 a very learned collection of the various readings of 
 the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin manuscripts of the 
 Bi*l6, This work, which he entitled Correctoriun? 
 Biblise-, is. preserved in manuscript in the Sorbonne 
 Library. We must not-forget to observcalso, tha. 
 his Concordance is the first that ever was compiled. 
 
 * SeeColonia, Hisl^ire Literaire de la Ville de 
 Lyon, torn, ii.- p. 322. ' 
 
 t We may learn his opinion concerning theenchar- 
 ist from his treatise entitled Determinatio de S. 
 Ccena, published at London, by the learned Dr.Allix, 
 in 1686. — See also EchardiScriptor. Dominican, torn. - 
 i. p. 501. — Baluzii Vitae Pontif. Avenionens. tom. i. 
 
366 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Pabt it. 
 
 among whom the Dominican and Franciscan 
 monks made the greatest figure- on account of 
 their iminteljigible jargon and subtlety, shed 
 perplexity and darkness over the plain truths 
 of religion by their intricate distinctions and 
 endless divisions, and by that cavilling, qaib- 
 bling, disputatious spirit, which is the mortal 
 enemy both of truth and virtue. Ifis true that 
 these scholastic doctors were not all equally 
 chargeable with corrupting the truth; the most 
 enormous and criminal coii-uptors of Christi- 
 anity we(e those wlio led the multitude into 
 the two following abominable errors: that it 
 was in the power of man to perform, if he 
 wished, a more perfect obedience than God 
 required; and that the whole of religion con- 
 sisted in an external air of gravity ,'and in certaip 
 composed bodily gestures. ' 
 
 II. It will be easy to confirm this general ac- 
 , oount of the state of religion by particular 
 facts. In the fourth Lateran council, convok- 
 ed by Innocent III., in 1215, and at which an 
 extraordinary number of ecclesiastics'were as- 
 sembled,* that imperious pontiff, without deign- 
 ing' to consult any body, published no less than 
 seventy laws or decrees, by- which not only the 
 authority of the popes and the power of the 
 clergy were confirmed and extended, but also 
 new doctrines, or articles (ff faithj were impos- 
 ed upon Christians. Hitherto the opinions 
 of the Christian doctors, concerning the man- 
 ner in which the body and blood of Christ 
 were pi'esent in the eucharist, were extremely 
 different; nor Bad the church determined, by 
 any- clear and positive decree, tlie sentiment 
 that was to be embraced in relation to that im- 
 portant matter. It was reserved for Innocent 
 to put an end to the liberty, which every Chris- 
 tian'had hitherto enjoyed, of interpreting this 
 presence in the manner he thoughtmost agree- 
 able to the declarations of Scripture, and to 
 decide in favour of the most absurd and mon- 
 strous doctrine that the phrehsy of supersti- 
 tion' was capable of inventing. Tliis auda- 
 cious pontiff pronounced the opinion, which js 
 embraced at this day in the church of Rome 
 with regard to that point, to be the only true 
 and orthodox account of the matter; -and he 
 had the honour of introducing and establishing 
 the use of the term Transubstantiation, which 
 was hitherto absolutely unknown.f The same 
 pontiff placed, by his own authority, among 
 the duties prescribed by the divine, laws, that 
 of auricular confession to a priest; a confession 
 that implied not only a general acknowledg- 
 ment, but also a particular enumeration pfthe 
 sins and follies of the penitent. Before this 
 period several doctors, indeed, looked upoh 
 this kind of confession , as a duty inculcated 
 by divine authority; but this opinion was not 
 publicly received as the doctrine^of the church; 
 for, though the confession of sin was justly 
 deemed an essential duty, yet it was left to 
 every Christian's choice, to make the confes- 
 sion mentally to the Supreme Being, or to ex- 
 press it in words to a spiritual confidant and 
 
 (Jtp^ * At this council there were present 413 bi- 
 shops, 800 abbots and- priors, beside the ambassadors 
 of almost all the European princes. 
 
 t See £dm. Albertinus, de Eucharistia, lib. iii. p. 
 973 
 
 director.* These two laws, which, by the au- 
 thority of -Innocent, were received as laws of 
 God, and consequently adopted as laws of the 
 church, occasioned a multitude of new injunc- 
 tions and rites, of which not even the smallest 
 traces are to be found in the sacred writings, 
 or in the apostolic and primitive ages; and 
 which v/ere much more adapted to estabhsb 
 and extend the reigii of superstition, than to 
 open the eyes of the blinded multitude upon 
 the enormous abuses of which it had been the 
 source. 
 
 III. There is nothing that ,will contribute 
 more to convince us of the miserable state of 
 religion in ithis. century, and of the phrensy 
 that prevailed in the devotion of these unhap- 
 py times, than the rise "of the sect called Fta- 
 gellantes, or Whippers, which sprang up in Ita- 
 ly, in- 1260; and thence diffused itself through 
 almost all thff countries of Europe. The so- 
 cieties that embraced this new discipline, pre- 
 sented the most hideous and shocking specta- 
 cle that can -well be conceived; multitude^, 
 composed of persons of both sexes,/and_ of all 
 ranks and ages, ran through the public places 
 of the most populous cities, and also through- 
 the fields and deserts, with whips in their hands, 
 lashing their naked bodies with astonishing se- 
 verity, filling the air with their wild shriekp, 
 and beholding the firmament with an- air of 
 distraction, ferocity, and horror; and all this 
 with a view to obtain the divine mercy for 
 themselves and others, by their voluntary mor- 
 tification and penance.f This method of ap- 
 peasing the Deity was perfectly conformable to 
 the notions of religion that generally prevailed 
 in this century; nor did these fanatical Flagel- 
 lators do any thing more, in this extrav^ant 
 discipline, than practise the lessons which they 
 hsid received fi:om the monks, especially from 
 the'mendicant fanatics. Hence they attracted 
 the esteem and veneration, not only of the po-- 
 pulace, but also of their rulers, and were ho- 
 noured and revered by all ranks and orders, on 
 account of their extraordinary sanctity and 
 virtue. Their sect, however, did not alwkyS 
 continue in the same high degree of credit and 
 reputatio'n; for, though the primitive whippers 
 were exemplary in Ipoint of morals, yet their 
 societies were augmented, as might naturallv 
 be expected, by a turbulent and furious jabble, 
 many of whom were infecteS with the most 
 ridiculous and even impious opinions. Hence 
 both the emperors and pontiffs thought proper 
 to piit an end to this religious phrensy, by de- 
 claying all devout flagellation contrary to the 
 divine" law, and prejudicial to the soul's eternal 
 interests. . 
 
 IV. The Christian interpreters and commen- 
 tators of this cerituiy differ very httle from 
 those of the preceding times. The greatest 
 part of them pretended to draw from the 
 depths of truth, (or rather of their imagina- 
 
 * See the book of the learned Daille, concerning 
 Auricular Confession. 
 
 t Christ. Schotgenii Historia Flagellantium — Ja 
 ques Boileau, Histoire des Flagellans, chap. ix. We 
 have also a lively picture of this fanatical discipline 
 of the Whippers, exhibited in Martenne's Voyage 
 Literaire de deux Benedictine, torn. ii. with which 
 the reader may compare Muratori's Antiq. Ital. roe 
 dii .lEvi, torn, vj 
 
cbaf. m. 
 
 THE DOCTIilNE OF T flE CHURCH, 
 
 tions,) what they called .tli? internal juice and 
 marrow of the Scriptures, i, e. their hidden and 
 mysterious sense; and this they did with so lit- 
 tle dexterity, so. little plausibility and inven- 
 tion, that the greater part of tfieir explications 
 must appear insipid and nauseous to such as 
 are not'entirelydestitute of judgmentand taste. 
 If ojir readers he desirous of a- proof of the 
 justice of this censure, or curious to try the 
 extent of theirpatience, they have only to pe- 
 ruse the explications that have been given by 
 Archbishop Langton, Hugh de St-^Cher, and 
 Aptony of Paduaj of the various books of .the 
 Old and New Testament. The mystic doctors 
 carried this visionary method of interpreting 
 Scripture to'the greatest height, and displayed 
 the most laborious industry," or rather the 
 most egregious folly, in searching -for myste- 
 ries, where reason and common sense could 
 find nothing but plain and evident truths; 
 They were too peneh'ating and quiclc-s^hted not 
 to perceive clearly in the holy scriptures all 
 those doctrines that weie agreeable to their 
 idle and fantastic system. Nor were their ad- 
 versaries, the schoolmen, entirely averae to this 
 arbitrary and fanciful manner of interpreta- 
 tion, though their principal industry was em- 
 ployed rather in collecting the ^plications gi- 
 ven by the ancient doctors, than in inventing 
 new ones, as appears from the' writings of 
 Alexander Hales, William Alvernus, and Tho- 
 mas Aquinas himself. Wo flaust not, however, 
 oniit observing, that the scholastic doctors in 
 general, and more especially these now men- 
 tioned;, had recourse often to the subtleties of 
 logie ,and metaphysics, to assist them in their 
 explications of the sacred writings. To faci- 
 ■ lltate the study and interpretation of these" di- 
 vine books, Hugh de St. Cher composed his 
 Concordance,* Tind the Dominicans, under the 
 eye of their supreme chief, the learned Jordan, 
 gave a new edition of the' Latin translation of 
 the Bible, carefully revised and-corrected from 
 the ancient oopies.f -The Greeks contributed 
 nothing that deserves attention toward the il- 
 lustration of the Scriptures; the greatest part 
 of which were expounded with great learning 
 by Gregory Abulpharaj, that celebrated Syrian, 
 whose erudition was femous throughout the 
 east, and whom we have already heid occasion 
 to mention.! - ' 
 
 V. Systems of theology and ethics were 
 multiplied exceedingly in this century; and of 
 those writers, who IJeated of the divine per- 
 ■fedtions-and worship and of the practical rules 
 of virtue and obedience, the number is too 
 great to permit specification. All sUch as were 
 endowed with any considerable degree of ge- 
 nius and eloquence, employed their labours 
 upon these noble branches of sacred science, 
 more especially the academical and public 
 teachers, among whom the Dominicans and 
 Franciscans held the most eminent rank. It is, 
 indeed, imnecessary to mention the names, or 
 enumerate the productions of these doctors, 
 since whoever is acquainted with the charac- 
 
 * Bchardi Scriptor. Ord. Praedicator. torn. i. p. 194. 
 
 t Rich. Simon, Crit. de la Bib. des Aut. Ecc. par 
 M. Du-Pin, t. i. p. 341. „ . 
 
 X Jos. Sim. Assemani BiWioth. Orient. Vatican, 
 tom. li. p. 177 
 
 367 
 
 tera and writings of Albert the Great, and 
 Thomas Aquinas, will know every thing that 
 is worthy of note in the rest, who' were no 
 more than their echoes. The latter of these 
 truly great men, commonly called the Angel 
 of the Schools, or the Angelic Doctor, sat un- 
 rivalled at the head of the divines of this cen- 
 tury, and deservedly obtained the principal 
 place among those who digested the doctrines 
 of Christianity into a regular system, and il- 
 lustrated and explained tliem in a scientific 
 manner. For no sooner had his system, or 
 sum of theology and morals, seen the light, 
 than it was received almost universally with 
 the highest applause, placed in the same rank 
 with Lombard's famous Book of Sentences, 
 and admitted as the standard of truth, and the 
 great -rule according to which the public teach- 
 ers formed their plans of instruction, and the 
 youth their methods of study. Some writers, - 
 indeed, have denied that Thomas was the au- 
 thor of the celebrated system that bears his 
 name;* but the reasons which they allege in 
 support of this notion are destitute of evidence 
 and solidity.f . ' 
 
 VL The greatest part of these doctors fol- 
 loiyed Aristotle as their model, ahd made use 
 of the logical and metaphysical principles of 
 that subtle philosopher, in illustrating the doc- ' 
 trines of Christianity, and removing the diffi- 
 culties with which some of them were attend- 
 ed. ' In th^ir philosophical explications of the 
 more sulilime truths of that divine ,religicr^ 
 they followed the hypothesis of the EeaUsts,i~. 
 'which sect, in, this century, was much mgro 
 numerous and- flourishing than that of the 
 JVominoKsJs, on account of the lustre and credit 
 it- derived ,from the authority of Thomas 
 Aquinas' and Albert, its learned and venerable 
 patrons. Yet, notwithstanding all the subtlety 
 and penetration of these irrefragable, seraphic, 
 and angelic doctors, as they were usually 
 'Styled, 3iey often appeared wiser in their ovra 
 conceit, than they were in reality, and fre- 
 quently did little more than involve in greater 
 "obscurity the doctrines which they pretended 
 to place in the clearest hght. For, not to men- 
 tion the lidiculous oddity of many of their ex- 
 pressions, -the hideous barbarity of their style, 
 and their extravagant and presumptuous desire 
 of prying into matters that infinitely surpass 
 the coinprehension of short-sighted mortals, 
 they were chargeable with defects in their man- 
 ner of reasoning, which every true philosopher 
 will, of all others, be most carefhl to avoid. 
 For they neither defined their terms accurately, , 
 (and hence arose innumerable disputes merelf ' 
 about words,) nor did they divide their subjects 
 with perspicuity and precision; and henccthey 
 generally treated it in a confused and unsatis- 
 factory manner. The great Angelic Doctor 
 
 * See Jo. Launoii Tradltio Ecclesa circa Simoni. 
 am, p. 290. 
 
 t See Natalis Alexander, Histor. Eccles. SiEC. xili. 
 
 391.— Eeliard and Quetif, Scriptor. OrBin. Prffidl- 
 cator. Sffic. xiii. tom. i. p. 293.— Ant. Touron, Vie de 
 St. Thomas, p. 604. 
 
 t In Ihe oiieinal we find Posltivi in the margin, 
 which is manifestly a fault; since the Positivi were 
 quite opposite, in their 'method of .teaching, to the 
 schoolmen, and were the same with the Biblici men- 
 tioned in the .following section. 'Sae above, Cent 
 xii. Fart ii. Ch, iii. sect. viii. 
 
868 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OP THE CHURCH. 
 
 PartU 
 
 himself, notwithstanding his boasted method, 
 was defective, in these respects; his definitions- 
 are often vague, or obscure, and Ijis plans or 
 divisions, though full of art, are frequently des- 
 titute of clearness *nd proportion. 
 
 VII. The method of investigating divine 
 truth by reason and philosophy remarkably 
 prevailed, and was followed with such ardour, 
 that the number of those who, in conformity 
 with the example of the ancient doctors, drew 
 their systems of theology from the holy scrip- 
 ■ tures and the writings of the fathers, and who 
 acquired on that account the name of Biilidsls,* 
 diminished from day to day. It Is true, indeed, 
 that several persons of eminent ^iety,t and, 
 even some of the Roman pontiffs,J. exhorted 
 with great seriousness and warmth the scho- 
 lastic divines, and more especially those of the 
 university of Paris, to change their method of 
 teaching theology, and (relinquishing their 
 philosophical abstraction and subtlety) to de- 
 duce the sublime science of salvation from the 
 holy scriptures with that purity and simplicity 
 with which it was delivered by the inspired- 
 writers. B.ut these admonitions and exhorta- 
 tions were without effect; the evil was too in- 
 veterate to admit a spgedy remedy, and the4 
 passion for logic' and metaphysics had become 
 so general and so Violent, that neither remon- 
 strances nor arguments could check its pre- 
 sumption or allay its ardour. - In justice how- 
 ever to the scholastic doctors, it is necessary 
 to observe, that they did not neglect the dic- 
 tates of the Gospel or the authority of tradi- 
 tion, though it is sufficiently proved, by what 
 they drew ftom these two sources, that they 
 had studied neither with m uch attention, or ap- 
 plication of mind. I And it is moreover certain, 
 that, in process of time, they committed to 
 others the care Cff consulting the sources now 
 mentioned, and reserved to themselves the 
 much-respected province of philosophy, and 
 the intricate mazes of dialectical chicane. 
 And, indeed, independent of their philosophi- 
 cal vanity, we may assign another reason . for 
 this method of proceeding, dravni from the na- 
 ture of their profession, and the circumstances 
 in which they were placed. For the greatest 
 part of these subtle doctors were Dominican or 
 
 {jl^ * In the margin of the original, instead of 
 Biblicists, which we find in the text. Dr. Moshiein 
 has written Senievtiarii, which is undoubtedly an 
 oversight. The Seritentiarii, or followers of Peter 
 Lombard, who is considered as the father of the 
 scholastic philosophy, are to be placed in the same 
 class with the philosophical divines, mentioned in the 
 preceding section; and were very different from the 
 Biblici, both in their manner of thinking arid 
 teaching. 
 
 t See Dn Boulay-, Hist. Acad. Paris, torn. iii. p. 9, 1S29, 
 ISO.^Ant. Wood, Antiq. O.xoniens. tom. i. p. 91. 
 
 JvSee the .famous epistle of Gregory XX. to the 
 professors in the university of Paris, published in 
 Du Boulay's Histnr. Acad. Paris, tom. iii. The pon- 
 tiff concludes th.1t remarkable epistle with the fol- 
 lowing 'words: "Mandamus et stricte prjecipimus, 
 ouateniis" sine ferraento mundante scientiffi doceatis 
 theologicam puritatem, non adtilterantes /erbnm 
 Dei philosophorum figmentis . . . sed, contenti terrai- 
 nia a 'patribus institutis, mentes auditorum vestro- 
 rum frnctn ccelestis eloquii sagiuetis, ut hauriaht de 
 fontibus Salvatoris." 
 
 § Faydit, Alteration dn -Dogme Theologique par 
 ia Philosophie d'Aristote, p. 289. — Richard Simon, 
 Critique de la Bibliotheque des Auteurs Eccles. par 
 H. Du-Pin. tom. i- p ITtt 
 
 Franciscan friars; and, as the monks of these 
 orders had no possessions, not even libraries, 
 and led, besides, wandering and itinerant lives, 
 such of them as were ambitious of literary 
 farne, and of the honours of authorship, were, 
 for the most part, obliged to draw, their mate- 
 rials from their own genius and memory ,.being 
 destitute of all other succours. 
 
 VIII. The opinions which these philosophi- 
 cal divines instilled into the -minds of the youth, 
 appeared to the votaries of the ancient fathers 
 highly dangerous and even pernicious; and 
 hence they used their utmost efforts to stop 
 the progress of these opinions, and to diminish 
 the credit and influence of their authors. Nor 
 was their opposition at all ill-gro'unded;-for the 
 subtle doctors of the school not only explained 
 the mysteries of religion in a maimer confbiV 
 mable to the principles of their presumptuous 
 logic, and modified them according to the dio 
 tates of their imperfect reason, but also pro- 
 moted the most impious sentiments and tenets 
 concerning the Supreme Being, the material 
 world, the origin of the universe; and the na- 
 ture of the souL And when it was objected 
 to these sentiments and tenets, that they were 
 in direct contradiction to the genius of Christi- 
 anity, -and to the express doctrines of Scrip- 
 tm-e, these scholastic quibUers had recourse, 
 for a reply, or father for a method of escape, 
 to that perfidious distinction which has been 
 frequently employed by -modern deists,— that 
 these tenets were philosophically true, and 
 conformable to figlit reason, hut that they 
 were, indeed, theologically false, and contrary 
 to the orthodox faith. This produced an open 
 war between the Biblicists and the scholastic 
 doctors; which was ..'carried on with great 
 warmth throughout the whole course of this 
 century, particularly in the universities of Ox- 
 ford and Paris, where we find the former load- 
 ing the latter with the heaviest reproaches in , 
 their public acts and in their polemic writings, 
 and accusing. 'them of corrupting the doctrines 
 of the Gospel, both in their public lessons, and' 
 in their private discourse.* Even St. Thomas 
 himself was accused of holding opinions con- 
 trary to the truth; his orthodoxy, at least, was 
 looked upon as extremely dubious by many 
 of the Parisian doctors.f He accordingly saw 
 a formidable scene of opposition arising against 
 him, but had the gSod fortune to ward off the 
 storm, and to escape' untouched. ' Others, ' 
 whose authority was less extensive, and whose 
 names were less respectable, were treated with 
 greater severity. ' The living were obliged to 
 confess publicly their errors; and the memo- 
 ries of the dead, who had persevered in them 
 to -the last, were branded with infamy. 
 
 IX. But the most 'formidable adversaries 
 the scholastic doctors had to encounter were 
 the Mystics, who, rejecting every thing that 
 bore the least resemblance to argumentation 
 or dispute about matters of doctrine and opin- 
 
 * See Matth. Paris, Histor. Major, p. 541.— Boulay, 
 Hist. Acad. Paris, tom. iii. p. 397,. 430, &.c. 
 
 t See J. Launoy, Histor. Gymnas. Navarreni, part 
 iii. lib. iii. chap. cxvi. tom. iv. op. part i. p. 485.— ^ 
 Boulay, Histor. Acad. Paris, tom. iv. p. 204.^-Petri 
 Zorni Opuacula Sacra, tom. i. p. 445. — II. Simon, 
 Lettres Choisies, tom. ii. p. 266. — Echardi Scriptor. 
 Ordin. Prsedicator. tom. i. p. 435. 
 
Chap. in. 
 
 THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 369 
 
 3on, confined their endeaToure to the advanee- 
 ment of inwsud piety, and the propagation of 
 devout and tender feeUngs, and thus acquired 
 the highest degree of popularity. The people, 
 who are much more affected with what touches 
 their passions, -than with what is only addressed 
 to their reason, were attached to the Mystics 
 in tlie warmest- mariner; and this, gave such 
 weight to the reproaches and invectives which 
 they threw out against the schoolmen,, that the. 
 latter thought it more prudent to disarm these 
 favourites of the miJtitude by mild and sub- 
 missive measures, than to return their re- 
 proaches with indignation and .bitterness. 
 Tliey accordingly set tliemselyes to flatter the 
 Mystics, .and not only extolled their sentimen- 
 tal system, but employed their pens in illus- 
 trating and defending it; they even associated 
 it with tlie scholastic philosophy, though they 
 were as different from each otheras any two 
 things could be. It is well known that Bona- 
 ventura, Albert the Great,' Robert Capito, 
 aid Thomas Aquinas, contributed to this re- 
 conciliation between mysticism arid dialectics 
 by their learned labours, arid even w.ent so far 
 as to write commentaries upon Dionysius,.the 
 , chief of the Mystics, whom thgse subtle doctors 
 probably looked upon with a secret contempt. 
 X. Both the schoolmen find Mystics of this 
 century treated^ in their writings, of the, obli- 
 gations of* morality, the duties of the Christian 
 Efe, and of the means that were most adapted 
 to preserve or deliver the soul from the servi- 
 tude and contagion of vice; but their methods 
 of handling these important siibjefcts were, as 
 may , be easily conceived, entirely different. 
 We inay form an idea of mysticarmgrality from 
 the observations of George PaiShymeres, upon 
 the writings of Dionysius,-and from the Spirit- 
 ual institutes, or Abridgment of Mystic The- 
 ology, composed by Humbert de Bomanis, of 
 which productions the former was written in 
 Greek, and the second in Latin. ' As to the 
 scholastic moralists, they were principally em- 
 ployed in defining the nature of .virtue and 
 vice in general, and the characters of the vari- 
 ous virtues and vices in particular;' and hence a 
 prodigious number of mms, or systematic col- 
 lections of virtues and vices, appeared in this cen- 
 tury. The schoolmen divided the virtues into 
 two classes. The first comprehended- the moral 
 virtues, which differ, in no respect, from those 
 which Aiistotle recommended to his disciples.. 
 The second contained the theological virtues, 
 which, in consequence of what St. Paul says, 
 (I.Corinth, xiii. IS,) they made to consist in 
 faith, hope, and charity. In explsjjing and 
 illustrating the nature of the virtues compre- 
 iended in these two classes, they seemed ratlier 
 to have in view th&pleasures of disputing, than 
 the design of instructing; and they exhausted 
 all their subtlety in resolving difficulties which 
 were of their own creation. Thomas Acjuinas 
 shone forth as a star of the first magnitude, 
 though, like the others, he was often covered 
 with impenetrable fogs. The. second part of] 
 his famous sum was wholly empfoyed in lay- 
 ing down the prineiples of morality, and m 
 deducing and illustrating the_ various duties 
 that result frpm them; and this part of his 
 learned labour has had the honpur and misfor- 
 Vo^. 1,-47 
 
 tune of passing through the hands of a truly 
 prodigious number of commentators. 
 
 XI. It is absolutely necessary to observe 
 here, that' the' moral writers of this and the 
 following centuries must be read with the ut 
 most caution, and with a perpetual attention 
 to this circumstance, .that, though they employ 
 the same terms that we find in the sacred writ- 
 ing^i yst they use them in a quite different 
 sense from that which they really bear in these 
 divine botoks. They speak of 'justice, charity, 
 faith, and holiness; but, from the manner in 
 Which these virtues are illustrated by those 
 quibbling sophists', they differ much from the 
 amiable and sublime duties, which Christ and 
 his disciples inculcated under the same deno- 
 minations. • A single example will be suffi- 
 cient to render this evident beyond contradic- 
 tion. A pious and holy man, according to the 
 sense annexed by our Saviour to these terms, 
 is one who consecrates his affections and ac- 
 tions to the service of the Supreme Being, and 
 accounts it his highest honour and felicity, as 
 well as his indispensable duty, to obey -his laws. 
 But,- ™ Iho style of the moral writers of this 
 age, that person was pious and holy, who de- 
 prived himself of his possessions to enrich the 
 priesthood', to build churches, and found mo- 
 nasteries, and whose faith and obedience were 
 so implicitly enslaved to tlie imperious dictates 
 of the Roman politics, that he believed and 
 acted without examination, as these lordly di- 
 rectors thought proper to prescribe.' JVor were 
 the ideas which thes6 writers entertained con- 
 cerning justice, at all conformable to the na- 
 ture of thatvirtue, as it is described in the holy 
 scriptures, since in their opinion it was lawful 
 to injure, revile, torraent,^ persecute, arid even 
 put to death, a heretic, i. e. any person who re- 
 fused to obey blindly -the decrees of the pon- 
 tiffs, or to believe all the absurdities which- 
 they imposed upon the eredulity of the multi 
 .tude. 
 
 XII. The writers of controversy in this cen- 
 tury were more numerous than respectable 
 Nicetas Acominatus, who made a considera- 
 ble figure among the Greeks, attacked all the 
 different sects in his work entitled The Trea- 
 sure of the Orthodox Faith; but he combated 
 after the Grecian manner, and defended the 
 cause which he had espoused, rather by the 
 decrees of councils and the decisions of the 
 fathers, than by the dictates of reason and the 
 authority of Scriptme. Raymond . of Penna- 
 fort was one of the first among the Latins, who 
 abandoned, the unchristian -'method of convert- 
 ing infidels by the'fbrce of arms and the ter- 
 rors of capital punishments, and who under- 
 took to vanquish the Jews and Saracens by 
 reason and argument.* This engaged in the 
 same controversy a' considerable number of 
 able disputants, who were acquainted with the 
 Hebrew and Arabic languages; among, whom 
 ■Raynion;! Martini, the celebrated author of 
 the Sword of Faith,j is unquestionably enti' 
 tied to the first- tank. Thomas Aquinas also 
 appeared with dignity among the Christian 
 
 * Ecliard andauetif.apudScriptoresOrdinisPrae- 
 dicator. torn, i. sect. xiii. 
 
 t Bayle's Dictionary, at tlie article Martini.- -FaiUi 
 Colomesii Hispania Orient, p. 209. 
 
370 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE' CHURCH. 
 
 PahtII. 
 
 champions; and liis book against the Gentiles* 
 is'far from being contemptible: nor ouglit we 
 to omit mentioning a learned book of Alan de 
 I'-Isle, which was designed to refute the objec- 
 tions both of- Jews and Pagans. f The writers, 
 who handled other (more particular) branches 
 of theological controversy, were far inferior 
 to those now mentioned in genius and abi- 
 lities; and their works seemed less calculated 
 to promote the truth, than to render their ad- 
 versaries odious. ■ ' 
 
 XIII. The grand -controversy between tlie 
 Greek aiid Latin church, was still carried on; 
 and all the efforts that were made, during this 
 century, to bring it to a Conclusion, proved in- 
 effectual. Gregory IX. employed- the minis- 
 tiy of the Franciscan monlis to bring about an. 
 accommodation with the Greeks, and pursued 
 with zeal this laudable purpose from tlie year 
 1232, to the end of his poiitificate, but without 
 the least " appearance of Buccess.|' Innocent 
 IV. embarked in the same undertaking., in 
 1247, and with that view sent John of Parma, 
 with other Franciscan friars, to Nice; while 
 the Grecian pontiff came in person to Rome, 
 and was declared legate of the apostolic see.§ 
 But these previous acts of mutual civility and 
 respect,' which excited the hopes of such as 
 longed for the conclusion of these violent dis- 
 cords, did riot terminate in the reconciliation 
 that was expected. New incidents arose to 
 blast the in'fluence of these salutary measures, 
 and the flame of dissension gained new vigour. 
 Under the pontificate of Urban IV., however, 
 the aspect of things Changed ibr the better, 
 and the negotiations for peace were renewed 
 witli such success, as promised a speedy con- 
 clusion of these unhappy divisions; forMichael 
 Paleeologus had lio sooner driven the Latins 
 qat of Constantinople, then he sent ambassa- 
 dors to Rome to declare his pacific intentions, 
 ' that thus he might- establish his disputed do- 
 minion, and gain over the Roman pontiff to his 
 Bide. II But during the course of-these nego- 
 tiations, Urban's"death left matters unfinished, 
 and suspended once inore the hopes and ex- 
 pectations of the- pubhc. Under the pontifi- 
 cate of Gregory X., proposals of "pqace were 
 again made by. the same emperor, who, after 
 much opposition from his own clergy, sent am- 
 bassadors to the council of Lyons m the year 
 1274;Tr*and these deputies, with the solemn 
 consent of John Ycccus, patriarch of Constan- 
 tinople, and several Greek bishops, piiblicly 
 agreed to the terms of accommodation proposed 
 by the pontiff.** This re-unioii, however, w"as 
 
 * Jo. Alb.-Fabricius, Delect. Argamentorum et 
 Scriptor. pro veritate Relig. Chi-istiaih p. 270. j 
 
 f Liber contra Judaeos et Paganoa. 
 
 j See Wadding, AnnaL Minor, torn. ii. p. 279, 296; 
 and Schard, Scriptor. Ordin. Prsedicator. torn. i. p. 
 103,911.— Add to these Mattli. Paris, Histor. Major, 
 
 p. 386. , ; 
 
 5 .See Baluzii Misoellari. -torn. vii. p. 370, 388, 393, 
 497.^-Wadding, Annal. Minor, torn. iii. and iv. 
 
 11 Wadding, torn. iv. p. 181, 201, 223, 2li9, 303. 
 
 IT See Wadding, AniHil. Mino/. torn. iv. p. 343, 371. 
 torn. v. p. 9, 29, 62 — Colonja, Hist. Liter, de la Ville 
 de Lyon, torn. ii. p. 284. 
 
 J ** -Joseph (not Veccus) was patriarch of Constan- 
 tinople, When Oiis- treaty was concluded. The for- 
 
 not durable; for the situation of affairs in 
 Greece and Italy being changed some years 
 after this convention, in, such a manner as to 
 deliver the former from all apprehensibns of a 
 Latin invasion, Andronicus^ the son of Mi- 
 chael, assembled a council at Constantinople, 
 in the palace of Blachemoe, A. D. 128-1, ijl 
 Which, by a solemn ' decree, this igtiomiij-ious 
 treaty was annulled, and the famous Veccus, 
 Ijy whose persuasion and authority it had been 
 concluded, was sent .into exile.* This resolute 
 measure, as may well be imagined, rendered 
 tlie divisions more violent than they had been 
 before the treaty was signed; and it was also 
 followed by an open, schisnl, and-by thermpst 
 unhappy discords among the Grecian clergy. 
 
 XIV. We pass over several controversies of 
 a more private kind, and of inferior moment, 
 which have nothing in their nature: or circaat- 
 staiices to claim ihe attention of the curious; 
 but we must not forget'- to observe that the 
 grand dispute concerning the eucharist was 
 still continued in this Century, not only in 
 Fiance, but ajso in some other cofintries;. for, 
 though Ijinocent HI; had, in the Lateran 
 council of the year 1216, presumptuously 
 placed tmnsubstanliation ahiong the avQ,w^ 
 ajid regular doctrines of the Latin- Church, 
 yet the authority of this decre& was called in 
 question by many, and several divines main- 
 tained the probabihty of the opinions that 
 werp opposed to -that monstrous doctrine. 
 Those indeed who, adopting the sentifiients of 
 Berenger, considered the bread and wine ir 
 no other light than as signs or symbols of the 
 body and -blood of Christ, did hot. -venture , 
 either to defend, or profess this opinion in- a '*— 
 public manner; while many thought it suffi- .. - 
 cient to acknowledge what was termed a real 
 presence, though Ihey explained the manner of ' ' 
 this- presence quite otherwise than the doc- -'- 
 trine of Irmocent had. defined it.f Among f^ 
 these, John, surnamed Pungens Asinus,{ a sub- ^ 
 tie -doctor of ths university of Paris, acquired 
 an eminent and distinguislied name, and with-' 
 out incurring the censure of his superiors, sub- -^ 
 stituted consubslanliatiiiti, for tranMstaiitiation- ~, 
 toward the conclusion of this century. . 
 
 iner had bound himself bjja solemn oath never to con- 
 sent to a reconciliation between, the Greek and Latin 
 ciiiircbcs; for whicl^ reason the emperor, when he 
 sent his, ambassadors to Lyons, proposed to JO^eph^ 
 the following alternative: that, if tliey succeededin 
 bringing about an accommodation. He should re- 
 nounce his patriarchal dignity; but if they failed in 
 their attempt, he was to remain patriarch, being ad- 
 vised, at the same time, to retire to a convent, until 
 the matter was decided. The ambassadors were suc- 
 cessful: Joseph was deposed, and Veccus elected in 
 his place,; when, and not before, the latter ratified 
 the treaty in questioji by his solemn consent to the 
 ignominious article of supremacy and pre-eminence 
 which it confirmed to the Roman pontiff.- 
 
 -* Leo Allatjus, de perpetua Consensione EccleSr 
 Orient, et Occident, lib.-i. c. xv. xvi; p. 727. — Fred. 
 Spanheim de PeTpet. Dissensione Grfficor. et Latin, 
 tom.-ii. op. p. 188, &;c. 
 
 -t Pet. Allix. Prcef. ad F. Johannis Detenninat.de 
 Sacramento Altaris, published at London in 1G86. 
 ■ X The book of this celebrated doctor was publish- 
 ed by the learned Allii above mentioned. See 
 Baluzii VitBB Pontif. Avenion. torn. i. p. 576. — 
 D'Acherii Spicileg. Veter. Scriptor. torn. jii. p. 58.— 
 Echardi Scriptores Dominic, torn. i. p. 561 
 
Chap. iV. 
 
 RITES AND CEREMONIES. 
 
 371 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 ConcemingJht Rites and Ceremonies used in 
 Ch-istian Church during this Century. 
 
 I. It would be endless to enumerate the ad- 
 ditions that were made in this century to the 
 •external part ofdivine worship, in order to in- 
 crease i"t^ pomp and render it more striking. 
 These additions were produced in part by .^.lie 
 public edicts of the Roman pontiffs, and partly 
 • by the private injunctions of the sacerdotal and 
 monastic orders, who shared the veneration 
 which was excited' in the multitude by the 
 splendour and magnificence of this religious 
 spectacle. Instead of raentioiiing these addi- 
 tions, we shsiU only observe in ^general, tliat 
 religion had now become a sort of a raree-show 
 in the hands qf the rulers of the church, who, 
 to render its im'pressions mo;-e deep and last- 
 ing, thought proper to exhibit it in a striking 
 manner to the external senses. For this pui> 
 j^qse, at st^^ted times, and especially upon the 
 principal festivals, the mirteulous dispensations 
 of the divine wisdom- in favour of the church, 
 and the more remarkable events in the Cliris- 
 tiaji history, were represented under allegorical 
 figures and images, or rather in a kind of 
 mimic show.* But these scenic representations, 
 in which there was a motley mixture of njirth 
 And gravity, these, tragi-comical , spectacles, 
 though they amused and affected in a certain' 
 manner the gazing populace, weire highly det- 
 rimental, instead of being useful to the cause 
 of religion; thfey degraded its dignity, and fur- 
 nished abundant matter of laughter to its ene-. 
 niies. . ■-- 
 
 II. It will not appear surprising that the 
 bread, consecrated in the sacrament of the 
 Ldrd's supper, became the object of religious 
 worship; for this was the natural consequence 
 of the monstrous doctrine of tran^ubstantiaiion. 
 Bfit the effects of that impious and ridiculous 
 doctrine did not end here; it produced a series 
 <Sf ceremonies and institutions, still used in the 
 church of Rome, in honour of that deified 
 ' bread, as they blasphemou^' call it. Hence 
 arose those rich and splendid receptacles 
 which were formed for the residence of God 
 ' under this new shape.f and the lamps and 
 other precious ornaments that were designed to 
 beautify this habitation - of the Deity; and 
 hence the custom that still prevails of carry- 
 ing about this dpiine iread-in solemn pomp 
 through the public streets, when it is to be ad- 
 
 _* It is probable that this liceulious custom of ex- 
 'Ilibitin^ mimic representations of religions objects 
 derived its origin from the Mendicant friars^ 
 'St?" t This blasphemous language, which Dp-'Mo- 
 gheim is obliged to use in representingthfr-ITbsurdi- 
 ties of the doctrine of transubstantidtio% is nothing' 
 in comparison with the impious figures that were 
 used by the abettors of that monstrous tenet, to ac- 
 commodate it„in some measure, to the capacities of 
 the multitude. We need not wonder, that the Pagans 
 metamorphosed their Jupiter into a bull, a swan,- 
 and other such figures, when we see the rulers of 
 the Christian church transforming the Son of God into 
 a piece of bread; a transformation so vile, and (even 
 were it not vile) so useless, that it is inconceivable, 
 hoWit could enter into the head of any mortal, and 
 equally so. how the bishops of Rome could confide 
 so far in the crediility of the people as to risk their 
 authority by propagating such a doctrine. 
 
 ininistered to sick or dying persons, with many 
 other cerempnies of a like nature, which are 
 dishonourable to religion, and oppjobrious to 
 humanity. But that which gave the finishing 
 touch to tliis heap of absurdities, and displayed 
 'Superstition in its highest extravagance, was 
 the institution of the celebriited .anmial Festi- 
 tjjval of the Holy Sacrament, of, as it is some- 
 times called, of the Body of Christ; the origin 
 of which was as follows:,a Certain devout wo- 
 man, whose name was Juliana, and \^ho lived 
 at Ijiego, declared that she had j:eceived a. 
 revelation from heaven, intimating to her, that 
 it was the will qf God, that a peculiar festival, 
 should he annually observed in honour of the 
 holy sacrament, or rather of the real presence 
 of Christ's ' body in that sacred institution. 
 Few gave attention or credit to this pretended 
 vision, the circumstances of which were ex- 
 tremely equivocal and ' absurd,* and which 
 would have come to nothing, had it not been 
 supported by Robert, bishop of Liege, who, in 
 1246, published an order for the celebration ol 
 this festival throiighout the province, notwitli- 
 stEinding the opposition which he knew would 
 be made to a proposal founded only on an idle 
 dream. After the death of Juliana, one of her 
 friends and companions, whose 'name was 
 Eve, adopted her cause with uncommon zealjr 
 and had sufficient credit with Urban IV. to 
 engage him to publish, in 1264, a solemn edict, 
 by which the festival in question was indposed 
 upoij all the Christian churches. This edicts 
 however, did not produce its full effect, on ac- 
 count qf the death of the pontiff, which hap- 
 pened soon after its publication; so that the. 
 festival in question was not imiversally cele- 
 brated in the Latin churches before the ponti- 
 ficate of Clement V.,t who, in the council 
 which he held at Vienne in Dauphine, in 13U, 
 confirmed the edict of Urban, and thus, in 
 spite of all opposition, established a festival, 
 which contributed more to render the doctrine 
 of tr&n^ubstantiation agreeable to the people, 
 than the decree of the Lateran council under 
 Iimocent HI., or than all the exhortations of ' 
 his lordly successors. 
 
 HI. About'the conclusion of this century, 
 Boniface VIII.- added, to the public rites and 
 cereitionies qf the church, the famous jubilee, 
 wiich is still celebrated at Rome, at a stated 
 period, with the utmost profllsion of pomp and 
 magnificence. In 1299, a rumour was propa- 
 gated among theinliabitants of that city, im 
 .porting that all such as should visit, within the 
 lirnite of the following year, the church of St. 
 Peter, should obtain the remission of all' their 
 sins, and that this privilege was to be annexed t» 
 
 C(?" * This fanatioal woman decJated, that as oft^en 
 as ^he addre'ssed herself to God, or to the saints in 
 prayer, she saw the .full moon with a small defect 
 or- breach in i.t; and that, having long studied to find 
 out the signification of this strange appearance, sJle 
 wjts inwardly informed by the Spirit, that the moon 
 signified the citurch, and that the defect or breach was 
 the want of an annual festival in honour of the holy 
 sacrament. ' - ' - 
 
 t See BarthoI.Tisen, Origo prima Pesti Corporis 
 Christi ex Viso Sancta? "Virgini Julians oblato, pub- 
 lished at Liege in 1619. — Dallieus, de Cultus religiosi 
 objecto, p. 287. — Acta Sanctor. April, torn. i. p. 437, 
 903.— And above all Benedict XIV. Pont. Max. de 
 Festis Christi et Maris, lib. i. c. xiii. p. 360. torn 
 
 op. 
 
372 
 
 INTERNAL HtSTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part U. 
 
 the performance of the same service once in 
 every period of one hundred years. Boniface 
 no sooner heard of this, than he ordered strict 
 'nq^iiry to be made concerning the author a^id 
 the foundation of this report; and the result of 
 the inquiry was answerable to, his views; for he 
 was assuredf by many testimonies worthy^of 
 credit,* (say the Romari-catliolic historians) 
 that, fi-om the remotest antiquity, this impor- 
 tant privilege of remission and indulgence, weis 
 to he obtained by the service above-mentioned- 
 No sooner had the pontiff received this infof^' 
 niatio^, than he addressed to all Christians an 
 epistolary mandate, in which he enacted it as 
 a solemn law of the church, that those who, 
 in every hundredth or jubilee year, should con- 
 fess their sins, and visit, with sentiments, of 
 contrition and repentance, the churches of St^ 
 Peter and St. Paul at Rome, should obtain^ 
 thereby the entire remission of ^hgir various 
 offences-t The successors of Boniface were 
 not satisfied with adding a multitude of new, 
 rites and inventionSj^by" way of ornaments, to 
 this superetitious institution^ but, finding by 
 experience that it added to the lustre, and 
 augnlented the revenues of Ihe Roman church, 
 they rendered its return more frequent, and 
 fixed its celebration to every five-and-twenti- 
 eth year.} ^ 
 
 SCF" * These testimonies worthy of credit haVe-never 
 been produced by the Romish writers', unless we 
 rank, in that class, that of an Ojld man,- who had- 
 completed his 107th year, and who, being brought 
 before Boniface, declared (if we may believe the 
 abbe Fleury) that his father, who was a common 
 lalrourer, had assisted at the celebration of a jubilee, 
 a hundred years before that time. See Fleury's 
 inst. Eccles, toward the end of the twelfth century; 
 It is, however, a very unaccountable thing, if the in- 
 stitution of the jubilee year was not the invention 
 of Boniface, that there shotild l^e neither in the acts 
 of councils, -nor in the records of history or writings 
 of the learned, any trace or the least mention of its 
 cpl'ebration before the year 1300. This, and other 
 reasons of an irresistible evidence, have persuaded 
 some Roman catholic writers to consider the insti- 
 tution of the jubilee year, as the ihvehtlon of this 
 pontiff, who, to render it more respectahle, pf ^tended 
 that it was of a much earHer date. See GhiJ^ii. et 
 Victorell. apud^^Philippf B.ohanni Numism. Pontif. 
 Rom. torn- i. p. 22, 23. 
 
 t So the matter is related by James Caielan, car- 
 dinal of St, George, and nephew toBoniface.'in his 
 Relatio de Centesbno sen Jubllso anno, which is 
 published in his Magna Bihliothecsi Vet. Patrum, 
 torn. vi. p. 426, and in the Bibliotheta Maxima Pa- 
 trum, tom. xxv. p. 267. Nor is there any reason to be- 
 lieve that this account is erroneous and latsd, or that 
 Bohiface-'acted the part" of an impostor from a^rin 
 ciple^of avarice upon this occasion. 
 
 (tC^-JV. B. It is riot without astonishment, that we 
 hear Dr. Mosheim- deciding in this manner with re- 
 si)ect to the good faith of Boniface, and the relation 
 of his nephew. The character ofthat wicked and 
 ambitious pontiiTis well known, and the reTation of 
 the cardinal of St. George has been proved to be the 
 most ridiculous, fabulous, motley piece of stuff, that 
 ever usurped the title of an historical record. See 
 the excellent I;ettrea de IVT. Chais sur les Jubiles, 
 tom. i.p'53. 
 " X The .various writers who have tre_ated of the in- 
 stitution of the Roman Jubilee, are enumerated by 
 Jo. Albert Pabricins in his Bibliogr. Antiquar. p. 
 31G. Among the authors that may be added to this 
 li^t,^ there is one whom we think it necessary to 
 mention particularly, viz. the Reverend Charles 
 Chais, whose Leltres His.toriques et Dogmatiques sur 
 les Jubiles et les Indulgences, were publishedin'1751. 
 
 Stp- These letters of Mr. Chais (Minister of the 
 French church at t*ie Ha^ue, and well known in the 
 republic of letters) contain the most full and accu- 
 ato acojunt that has been ever given of theinstitu- 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Concerning ihe Divisions and HeresieB that trovr 
 hied the Chtirch duHng this Century. 
 
 I. WfiTiave no account of any new sects that 
 arose among the ^Greeks durkigjJiis centurjr. 
 Those of the Nestorians and Jacobites, estab- 
 lished in- the remoter, regions, of the east,- who 
 equalled' the Greeks in their aversion to the 
 ,rites and jurisdiction of tiie Latin church 
 were frequently solicited, by ■ the Francis^ 
 can and Dominican papal missionaries, ta re- 
 ceive the . Roman yoke. In 1246, Iniiocent 
 IV. used his utmost efforts to bring both these 
 sects under his dominion; etnd, in 1278, terms 
 of accommodatton were 'proposed by Nicolas 
 IV. "to the Nestorians, and particularly to that 
 branch of the sect which resided in the north- 
 em parts of Asia.* The leadmg men, both 
 among the Nestorians and Jafcobites, seemed 
 to give ear to the proposals that were made to 
 them, and to wish for'a reconciHation with the 
 church of Rome; but th? prospect of peace 
 soon vanished, and a' variety of causes con- 
 curred to prolong the rupture. ' 
 
 II. During the whole couree of thist;entury,, 
 the Roman pontiffs carried on the most.bar- 
 barous and inhuman persecution against those 
 
 tion of the Jubilee, and of the rise, progress, abuses, 
 and enormities^ Qf the infamous traffic of indulgen- 
 ces. This account is judiciously collected from the 
 best authoi-s of antiquity, and from several curious 
 records that have escaped the researches of other 
 writers; i^ is also intergpel-sed with curious, and 
 sometimes ludicrous anecdotes, that render the work 
 equally productive of entertainment and instruction. 
 In the first volume of these letters, the learned au- 
 thor lays open the nature and origin of the institu- 
 tion of the jubilee; he .proves it to have been a hu- 
 man invention, which owed its rise to. Ihe avarice 
 and ambition of the popes, and its credit to the igno- 
 rance and superstition of the people, and whose cele- 
 bration was absolutely unknown before the thir- 
 teenth pentury, which is the true date ofits origin. 
 He takes notice of the various changes it underwent 
 with respect to'the time of its celebration, the varit 
 ous colours witii which the ambitious pontii^ covered - 
 it in order to render it respectable and alluring in 
 the eyes of the multitude; and exposes these delusions 
 by many conducing arguments, whose gravity is 
 seasoned with an agreeable and temperate mixture 
 of decent raillery: He proves, with the utmost evi- 
 dence, that the papal jubilee is an imitation of the 
 Secular Games, Which were celebrated with such 
 porpp in pagan Romer " He points out the gross con- 
 tradictions that reign in the bulls of the different 
 popes, with resp^t to the nature of this insti- 
 tution, and the time of its celebration. Nor does 
 he pass over in silence the infamous traffic of in- 
 dulgences, . the worldly pomp and splendour, tho 
 crimes,, debaucheries, and disorders of every kind, that 
 were observable at the return of each jubilee year. 
 He lays also before the reader an historical view of 
 all the jubilees that were celebrated from the ponti- 
 ficate of Bbniface VIII. in the year 1300, to that of 
 Benedict XIV. in 1750, with an entertaining account 
 of the most remarkable adventures that happened 
 among the pilgrims who repaired to Rome on these 
 occasions. The second and third volumes of these 
 interesting letters treat of the indulgences that are 
 administered in the church of Rome. The reader 
 will- find here their nature and origin explained, the 
 doctrine of the Roman patholic divines relating to 
 them stated and refuted, the history of this impious 
 traffic accurately laid do^n, and its enormities and 
 pernicious effects circumstantially exposed, with 
 learning, perspicuity, and candour. 
 
 * Odor. Raynaldus, Annal. Eccles. tom. xiii. ad 
 Annum 1247, sect, xxxii.et tom. xv. ad A. 1303, sect, 
 xxii. et ad A. 1304, sect, xxiii.— Matth. Paris, Hist. 
 Major, p. 372. 
 
Chip. V. 
 
 DIVISIONS. AND HERESIES. 
 
 373 
 
 whom they branded witfe the denomination of 
 ■ heretics; 1. e. against all those who. called their 
 pretended authority and jurisdiction in ques- 
 tion, or taught doctrines-difforent from those 
 whiqh were- adopted "and propagated by, the 
 church of Rome. For the sects of tlie .Ca- 
 thari, Waldenses, Petrobriissians, &6. gathered. 
 strength from day to day, spread imperceptibly 
 throu|;hout -all Europe, assembled numerous 
 cfingregations in Italy, France, Spain, - and 
 Germany, and'formed ,by degrees such a pow- 
 erful party as rendered them- formidable to the 
 pontifi°s, and. menaced t)ie papal jurisdiction 
 with a fatal revolution. To the ancient sects 
 liew factions Were added-, which, though they 
 differed from each. other in various respects, 
 unanimously agreed jn this point: " That the 
 public and established religion Was a motley 
 system of errors and- superstition, and that the 
 dominion which the popes had usurped over 
 Christians, as also the authority they exercised 
 in religious matters,, were unlawful and tyran- 
 nical." Such were the notions propagated by 
 the sectaries, who refuted the superstitions and 
 impostures of the times by arguments drawn 
 from the holy scriptures, and whose declama- 
 tions against the. power, the opulence, and the 
 vices of the pontiffs and clergy, were extremely 
 agreeable to many princes and civil magfe-^ 
 trates, who groaned- under the "usurpations of 
 the sacred order. The pontiffs, therefore, con- 
 sidered .thehiselves as obliged to haverecourse 
 to new and extraordinary methods of defeating- 
 and subduing-' enemies,, who,^ both by their 
 number -and their rank, were every way pro- 
 per to fill them with terror. 
 
 Ill; Of tliesecdisssnters from the church of 
 Rome, the number was no wliere greater than 
 in Narbonne Gajjl,* and the countries adja- 
 cent, where they were received aiid protected, 
 in a singular manner. By Raymond VI. earl of 
 Toulouse, and other persons of th«s highest dis- 
 tinction; and where the bishops, either through 
 humanity or indolence,, were so negligent and 
 remiss in the prosecution of heretics, that the 
 latter, laying aside all their fears, formed set- 
 tlements; and multiplied greatly from day to 
 day. Innocent III. was soon informed of" all 
 these proceedings; and, about the Commence- 
 ment of this centuly, lie sent 10ga\es extraor- 
 dinary into the southern provinces of France 
 to do what the bishops had left undone, and to 
 extirpate heresy, in all its various forms tand 
 jriodifications, without being at all scrupulous 
 in the adoption of such methods as migh|t seem 
 necessary to eifect this salutary purpose. The 
 persons charged with this - commission were 
 Rainier,:t a Cistertian monli, and Pierre de 
 Castelnau,t archdeacon of Maguelone, who 
 became also a-fterwards a Cistertian friar. 
 These eminent missionaries were foUovped by 
 
 * That part of Ptance, which, in ancient times 
 was termed Narbonne Gaul, comprehended the pro 
 vinces of Savoy, Dauphine, Provence., and Langnedoc. 
 
 n«. t Instead of Rainier, other historians mention 
 nne^aoul, or Ralph, as the associate of Pierre de 
 Castelnaa. "See Fleury's Histoiro Eccles. hv. lixvi. 
 
 &Gct xii 
 
 1 The greatest part of the Roman writers consider 
 Pierre de Castelnau as the first inquiaitor. It will 
 aouear hereafter in what sense this assertion (nay 
 lie admitted. For an account of this legate, see the 
 Acta Sanctor. torn. i. Martii, p. 411. 
 
 several others, among whom" was the faihoua 
 Spaniard, Dominic, founder of the order of 
 preachers, who, returning from Rome in 1206, 
 met with these delegates, embarked in their ., 
 cause, and laboured both by his exhortations" 
 and actions in the extirpation of heresy. .These 
 spirited champions, who- engaged iri this expe- 
 dition upon the sole authority of the j pope,, 
 without either asking the advice ordemainding 
 the succours of tlie bishops, and who inflicted 
 capital punishment upon sucll of the heretics 
 as they could not convert by reason and argu- 
 ment, were distinguished in common discourse 
 by, the title of Innuisitors;, and from them the 
 formidable and odious tribunal; called the In- 
 quisition, derived its origin. 
 
 IV. VPlien tliis new set of heresy-hunters* 
 had executed their commission, and purged the 
 provinces to which they were sent of the great- 
 est part of the enemies of the Roman faith, the 
 pontiffs were so sensible of their excellent ser- 
 vices,^ that they established missionaries of a 
 like nature, or, in _other words, placed Inqui- 
 sitors in "almost every cify, whose inhabitants 
 had the misfortune to. be suspected of 'heresy, 
 notwithstanding the reluctance which the peo- 
 ple showed to this new institution, ' and the 
 violence with which they frequently expelled,, 
 and sometimes massacred, these bloody offir 
 cers of the popish ' hierarchy.^ The couiicil 
 convoked at Toulouse, in 1?29, by Romanus, 
 cardinal of, St. Angelo, and pope's legate, went 
 sfill farther, and erected in every city a set or 
 society of inquisitors,-consisting of one priest and 
 three iii/meji.t This institution was, howeVer, 
 superseded in 1233 by Gregory IX., who in- 
 trusted' the Dominicans, or preaching friars, 
 with the important commission of discovering 
 and Bringing to judgment the heretics who were 
 lurking in France, and in a formal epistle dis- 
 charged the bishops from the burthen of "that 
 painful- Office. J Immediately after .this, the 
 bishop- of -Tournay, who was the pope's legate 
 in France", began to execute this new -resolu- 
 tion, by appointing Pierre Cellan, and Guil- 
 ■ laume -Arnaud, inquisitors of heretical pravity 
 at Toulouse,, and, afterwards proceeded in 
 every city, where the Dominicans had a mo- 
 nastery, to constitute officers of the same na- 
 ture, selected from the monks of that celebrat- 
 ed order .4 From -this-period we are to date 
 the commenceinent of the" dreadful tribunal of 
 the iiiquisition, which in this and the foUoiving 
 ages subdued such a prodigious multitude of 
 heretics, part of- whom were converted to the 
 ch-urch by terror, and the rest c.ommjtted to 
 the flames without mercy. For the Domini- 
 cans erected, first at Toulouse and afterwards 
 at Carcasone and "other places, a tremendous 
 
 Q(^ * The terin of heresy-hunters, for which the 
 translator is responsible, wrll not seem absurd, when 
 itis known, that the missionaries who were sentinto 
 the provinces of France to extirpate heresy, and the 
 inquisitors who succeeded them, were bound by an 
 oath, not only to seek for the heretics in towns, 
 houses, cellars, and other lurking-places, but.also in 
 woods,-, caves, fields, &;e. 
 
 f See'Harduini Concilia, tom. vii. p, 175. 
 
 X Bern.Guido'in Chronico Pontif. apud Jllc. Echar 
 dum, Scriptor. Pnedicatpr.- tom. i. p. 88.-^Percijii 
 Historia Inquisit. Tolosan!B,.subjoined to h'is Histo. _ 
 ria Oonventus Frat.'Praedicat. Tolosie, 1693.— Hi* 
 toire iGrenerale de Languedoc, tom. iii. p. 394. 
 
 § Echard and Perciniis, loc. cltat. 
 
374 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH, 
 
 Part H. 
 
 court, before which were summoned' not "only 
 heretics, and persons suspected of horesy, but 
 likewise all who were accused of magic, sor- 
 cery, Judaism,- witchcraft, and othercriihes of 
 a -spiritual kind- This tribunal, in procfess 
 of tipie,. was erected in otlier countries of Eu- 
 rope, though not every where with the same 
 success.* 
 
 V. The method of proceeding in this court' 
 of inquisition was at first simple, anjl' almost 
 ill every respect similar to that which was ob- 
 served in the ordinary courts of justice. f But 
 this simplicity was gradually changed 'by the 
 Dominicans, to whom experience suggested 
 several"new methods of augmenting the pomp 
 and- majesty of thefr spiritual tribunal, and- 
 
 * The accounts which we have here, given of the 
 rise of the Inquisition, .though .founded upon the 
 most unexceptionable testimonies and the most au- 
 thentic records,, are yet very different from those 
 that are to be found in most authors. Some learned 
 men tellus, th^t the Tribimal of the Inquisition was 
 the invention of St. Dominic, and was first erected 
 h.y llim Jn the city of Toulouse; that he, of co.nse- 
 queiice, was the first inquisitor; that the year of its 
 institution .is indeed uncertain; but that it was un- 
 doubtedly confirmed in a solemn manner by Inno^ 
 cent III. in tlie Lateran council of 121S. See Jo. Alb. 
 Fabricius, ill his Lux Evangelii tbt"i Olhi exoriens, 
 [). 568.— Pliil. Limborchi Sistoria Inquisit..lib.' i. c. x. 
 and the other writers mentioned by Fabricius. I 
 will- not a(hrm, that thejvriters, who give this ac- 
 count of the .matter, have advanced all this without 
 
 ' authority;' biit this I will venTure to say, -that the' 
 authors, whom they have taken for their guides, are 
 not of .the "first rate in point of merit and credibility. 
 Limborch, whose History of llie Inquisition is looked 
 upon as a niost imjiortanl and capital work, is ge- 
 nerally followed by modern writers in their ac- 
 
 ' counts of tHat odious tribunal. But,.however .laud- 
 able that historian may have been in point of flde- 
 -lity and diligence, it is certain that he was little ac- 
 quainted with the ecclesiastical history of the middle 
 age^f that he drew his' materials, not from the true 
 and original sources, but from writers of a second 
 class, and thus has fallen, in the course of his his- 
 tory, into various mistakes. His account of the ori- 
 gin of the inquisition is undoubtedly false; nor do^s 
 that which is given by many other writers approach 
 nearer'to the truth. The circumstances of this ac- 
 count, which.I have mentioned in the beginning of 
 this note, are more especially destitute of all founda- 
 tion. Many of thtf'Dominicans, who, in our times, 
 have presided in the court ofjinquiaition, and have 
 extolled the sanctity of that-yiw" institutioii, deny, 
 at the same time, that Dominic was its founder, as 
 also that he was the first inquisitor, or that he was 
 an inquisitor at all. They go still farther, and affirm, 
 that the court of inquisition was not erected during 
 the.life of St. Dominic. Nor is .all tlus advanced in-, 
 considerately, as every impartial inquirer into the 
 nroofs they allege will easily perceive. Nevertheless, 
 the question-, whether or.nbt St..Dommic was an 
 inquisitor, seems to be merely a dispute' about words, 
 and depends entirely upon the •diflerent significa- 
 tions of which the term inquistlor is susceptible. 
 That word, according to its original meaning, sign)- 
 fled a person invested with tlje commission and ati- 
 t-hority of the pope to extirpate- her«sy and oppose its 
 abettors, but not clothed with any judicial power. 
 But it soon acquired a different meaning, alid signi- 
 fied a person appointed by the pontiff to proceed ju- 
 dicially against heretics and such as were suspectetl, 
 of heresy, to pronounce sentence according to their 
 respective cases, and -to d'eliver,over to the secular 
 arm such ^as persisted obstinately in their errors. Jn 
 the latter sense Dominic was not an inquisitor, 
 since itisjvell known that there wore no papal 
 judges of this nature before the pontificate of Gre- 
 gory IX.; hut he was undoubtedly an inquisitor in 
 the sense originally attached to that term. 
 
 t The records, published by the Benedictines m 
 their HistoircGencr. de ianguedoc, tom. m. p. 371, 
 show the simplicity that reigned in the proceedings 
 of the inquisition at its first institutio t 
 
 whs made such alterations in the process, that 
 the manner of taking' cognisance of heretical 
 causes' became totally different from that which 
 was usual in civil affairs. These friarswere, 
 to say the truth, entirely igriorant of judicial 
 matters;, nor were they acquainted, with the 
 proceedings of any other tribimal, than that 
 which was ■ called, in- the Roman church, the 
 Ti-ibvmal of penance. It was therefore ■ from 
 this, that they modelled .the new comi; of tn- 
 quistlion, as far as a resemblance was posMble;' 
 and hence arose that strange system of inqui- 
 sitorial' lavV, which, in Biany respects, is so 
 conij'ary to the common feelings of humanity, 
 and the plainest dictates of pquity and justioer 
 This is the important circumstance by which . 
 we are fenabled to account for the absurd and 
 iniquitous proceedings of the inquisitors, against 
 persons who are Accused of holding, what'th%y 
 call, heretical opinions. 
 
 VI. That nothing might be waJiting to ren- 
 der this spiritual court formidable and tremen- 
 dous, the Roman pontiffs persuaded the "Eu- 
 ropean princes, and more especially the em- 
 peror Frederic II., and Louis IX. king of 
 France, not only to enact the most, barbarous 
 laws against heretics, aiid' to cornmit to the 
 ilames, -on pretence of public justi.ce, those 
 who were pronounced such, by the inquisitors, 
 .but also, to maintain.the latter in their office, 
 and grant/them their protection in (he most 
 open and solemn manner. . The edicts. to this 
 purpose issued by Frederic 11. are well kno*n; 
 edicts fit only to eiccite horror, ajid which ren- 
 dered the most illustrious piety and virtue in- '- 
 capable Of saving from the most cruel death 
 sucji as had the misfortune to be disagreeable 
 to the inquisitors.* These execrable laws were 
 not, however, suffieierit to restrain the just in- 
 dignatfon of the people against these inhuman 
 j^udges, .whose barbarity was accompanied 
 with superstition and'arrogance, with a spirit 
 of suspicion and' perfidy, and even with te- 
 merity and imprudence. Aocdrdingly they 
 were insulted by the multitude in/many places, 
 were drivehln ati ignominious manner out of 
 some cities, and. -were put to death in others, 
 and Conrad of Mai:pu%, the first German in- 
 quisitor, who de'rived his commission from Gre- 
 gory^X., was one' of the many victinis that 
 were sacrificed upon this occasion to the ven- 
 geance of the public,! which his incredible 
 
 ^ The iawsof the. emperor Frederic, in relation to 
 'the inquisitors, may he seen in Limborch's Historjr' 
 of the Inquisition, as also in the Epistlfes of Pierre 
 -de Vignes and in' Bzovius, Raynaldus, &c. The 
 edict of St. Louis, in favour of these spiritual judges, 
 is generally knownoinder the title of Cnjiientcs; for 
 so It is called by the French lawyers, on account of 
 if] beglnnidj; with thatword. It \vas issued mlSBO, 
 as the Benedictine monks have proved sufficiently in 
 -their Hist. Generale de Languedoc, torn. in. It is 
 also published by Catelius, in his Hisjor. Comit. To- 
 losanor, and by many other authors. This edict-is 
 as severe and' inhuman, to the full, as the laws of 
 Frederic II.; for a great part of the sanctity of good 
 king Louis consisted in his furious and implacable 
 aversion to heretics, against whom he judged -it more 
 expedient to employ the influence of racks and gib- 
 bets than the power of reason and argument. See 
 Du Fresne,~VitaLudovici a JoinvUlio scripta. 
 
 t The life of this furious and celebrated inquisitor, 
 was composed from the most authentic records, anii 
 also from several valuable manuscripts, by the learn- 
 ed John Herman Schminckius. See also Wadding, 
 
Chab. V. 
 
 DIVISIONS AND HERESIES. 
 
 875 
 
 barbarities had raised to a dreadful degree of 
 vehemence and fury.* _ 
 
 VII. When Innocent JIL, perceived .that 
 the labours of the inquisitors wece not imrae- 
 diately attended with such abundant fruits aS 
 he had fondly expected,' he addressed himself, 
 in 1207, to Philip. Augustus, "king of France, 
 and to. the leading men of that nation, urging 
 them, by the alluring promise of the most 
 ample indulgences, to extirpate all, whom he 
 thought Tffoper to ,call heretics, by fire and 
 sword. f Tljus exhoMatibn was repeated, with 
 new acce'Ssronsof fervour and earnestness, in 
 the following year, when Pierre de Castelnau, 
 the legate of this pontiff, and his inquisitor-in 
 France, was put to death by the patrons Of 
 the heretics. J Not long after..^;his, .the Cister- 
 tian . Aionka, in th,e name' of this pope, pro- 
 claimed a crusade against the-heretics through.. 
 out France; and a storm seemed to begatherr 
 ing agahist them on all sides. Raymond Vl., 
 earl of Toulouse, in whose territories Cgstel- 
 nau had been massacred, was solemnly excom- 
 municated, and, . to deliver himself from this 
 ecclesiastical malediction, changed sides, and- 
 embarked in the' crusade now' mentioned.- .In 
 1209, a, formidabfe army of. cross-bearers 
 commenced against the heretics (who w6re 
 comprehended under the genetal denomination 
 of/Atbigenses^ an open war, which, they car- 
 ried on with the, utmost exertions of cruelty, 
 thoiigh with various success, for several years. 
 The chief director of tWs war was Arnald, 
 abbot of the Cistertians, and legate of, the Ro- 
 
 An. Minor, t. ii. p. 151', 3.55, an.d Echard, Scrip. Do- 
 minican, t: i. p. 487. ,'...■' 
 
 Ot^*,The abbe'Fleury acloiowledges the brutal 
 barbarity' of this unrelenting, imiTiisitof, .who, undei' 
 the pretext of heresy, not only committed to the 
 flames *a prodigious number of nobles, clerks, monks, 
 hermits, and lay-persons of all ranks', but moreover 
 caused them to be putto^leath on the vcry'day when' 
 they^ were accused, without appeal. 'See- Fleury's 
 Hist. Eccles. liv. Ixxx. . ' 
 
 . t |nnocentii Tertii EpistOlse, lib. x. fiplst.-49. ' 
 ' jinnoc. Epist. lib. xj. p. 20. — Acta Sanctor. Mart. 
 torn. i. p. 411.' 
 
 ' ' § This term is used in two senses, of which one is 
 general, and the other .more j.'6'nfined. In its more 
 general and extensive sense it comprehends all the 
 various kitids of heretics who resided at that time 
 in Narbonne. 'Gaul, i. e. in .the southern parts of 
 France. This appears from the following passage 
 of !Petrus Sarnensis, who, in the dedication of his 
 History of the Albigenses to Innocent III. expresses 
 liimse,lf thusr *' Tolosani et' aliarum civitatum -et 
 castrorum hseretici, -et defensores eo'rum,.generalit'er 
 Albigenses vocantur." The same author divides 
 afterwards the Albigenses into various sects, (cap. 
 ii. p. 3, and '8.) of which he considers that of, .'the 
 Waldenses as. the least pernicious. *MaU erant 
 TValdenses, sed comparatione alioriun hjereticorum 
 longe minus, perversi.' It was not, however, from 
 the city of Albigia, or Albi, that the French heretics 
 were comprehended iinder the general title of Albi- 
 genses, but from another circumstance, namely, that' 
 the greatest part of 'Narbonne Gaul was, in this cen- ^ 
 tury, called Albigesium, as the Benedictine monks 
 have' clearly demonstrated in their Histoire Gene'r- 
 ale de Languedoc, tom. iii. The term Aliigenses, in 
 its more confined sense, was used to denotre those 
 heretics who inclined toward the Manichaean sys- 
 tem, and who were otherwise known by the denom-- 
 inations of Oatharists, Publicans or Faulicians, and 
 Bulgarians. J^This appears evidently from, many in- 
 contestable authorities, and more especially from the 
 Codex Inquisitionis Tolosanie, (published by Lim- 
 borch, in his History of the Inquisition,) in which 
 the Albigenses are carefiilly distinguished from the 
 other sects that made a hoise in this ccnturv. 
 
 man pontiff; and tiie commapder in chief ot 
 the troops employed in this nohle expedition 
 was Simon, 'earl of Montfort. Raymond, who, 
 consulting his safety rather than his conscience, ■ 
 had engaged in the, crusade- against ihe here-, 
 tics, was now obliged to attack their persecu- 
 tors. For Simon, who had embarked, in. this 
 war, not so much fronj a principle of zeal for 
 religion, or of aversion to the heretics, asfeotti 
 ,a desire of augmenting his fortune, cast a 
 greedy bye upon tlie territoiies'of Raymond, 
 and his selfish views were seconded and ac- 
 complished by. tlie court of Rome. After 
 many battles; sieges, and a multitude of other 
 exploits, conducted with the -most intrepid 
 courage and the most ahpminable barbarity, 
 he received from th^ hands of Innocent, at the 
 .Laterail council, A. D. 1215, the county of 
 Toulouse, and the other lands belonging to the ' 
 obnoxious earl, as a reward for his zeal in sup- 
 porting tlie cause of Gfidr and of the church. 
 About three yeaT,s ,a,ft-er this, he lost his hfe at 
 the siege of Toulouse. Jlaymond, his valiant- 
 adversary, died in 1222. " " - 
 
 VIII. Thus were the tjvo chiefs of this de- 
 plorable war taken off the scene; but- this rp-'r 
 moval was far from extinguishing 'the infernal 
 flame of persecution on the side of the pon- 
 tiffs,'or calming the restless spirit of faction oa 
 that of the pretended,. heretics. Raymond 
 VII., earl of Toulouse, and Amalric, earl of 
 Moiilfort, succeeded, th^ir fathers at the head of 
 tho-conteiiding parties, and carried on the war 
 wit& the utmost vehemence,- and- with, such 
 various success as rendered the issue for some 
 time doubtful. The former seemed at first 
 morei ppwerful than his adversary; and pope . 
 Honorius.Ul., alarmed at the vigorous oppo- 
 sition he made to the orthodox legions, engaged 
 Louis VIII., king of France, by the most 
 porupous promises, to march in person with a 
 formidable army against the enemies of the 
 church. The obsequious monarch listened to 
 the solicitations of the lordly pontiff, and em- 
 barked with a considerable, military force in 
 th,e cause of the chmrch, but did not live to 
 reap the fruits of his zeal. His engagements, 
 however, with the court- of Rome,Tand his fu- 
 riousdesigns against the heretics,- were exe- 
 cuted with the greatest -alacrity and vigour by 
 his son and successor Louis the Saint;. so that 
 Raymond,,pressed on. all sides, was obhged, in 
 1229, tp make peace upon the most disadvan- 
 tageous terms, even by making a oessi<Jn of • 
 the greatest part of his fei-ritorie's t»the FrencK 
 monarch,, 'after having sacrificed a considera- 
 ble portion .of them, as a peace-offering to the 
 church of Rome.* This treaty gave a mortal 
 
 ' Ot^^lt'wss in' consequence of this treaty (of 
 which- the articles wfere drawn up at Maux, and 
 afterwards confirm'ed'at Paris, in presence of Louis) 
 that the university of Toulouse was.; founded, Ray- 
 liiond having bound himself thereby to pay the suni 
 of 4000 silver marcs, toward the support of two pro- 
 fessors of divinity, two of caiion'law, two of gram- 
 mar, and si.x of the liberal arts, during the space of 
 ten years. We must also observe, that what' Dr. 
 Mosheim says of the cession that Raymond made, of 
 his lands is not suihciently clear and. accurate. 
 These lands, were not to be transferred till after his 
 death, and they were to be tralnsferred to the brother 
 of Louis IX. who, according to the treaty, waff to 
 espouse the daughter of Raymond. See Fleury's Hist. 
 Eccles. liv. Ixxix. sect. 50. 
 
376 
 
 INTERNAL. HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part U. 
 
 blow to the cause of heresy, an^ dispersed the 
 champions that had appeared in its tiefence: 
 the inquisition was established at Toulpuse, 
 and the heretics were not only exposed to the 
 pious, qrueltiea of Louis, but, what waa still 
 more shocking, Raymond himself, who had 
 formerly been their patron, became their per- 
 secutor, and treated them upon all occasions 
 with the most inhuilian severity. It is true^ 
 this prince, broke the engagements into which' 
 he had entered by the treaty above-mentioned, 
 and renewed the war against Louis and the in- 
 quisitors, who abused, in the most odious man- 
 ner, their victory and the power.;they had 
 acquired. . But this liew effort, iii fevour of 
 the heretics, was attended with little or no 
 effect, and the unfortunate earl of Toulouse, 
 the last representative of that noble and pow- 
 erful family, dejected and ■ exhausted by the 
 losses he had sustained, and the perplexities in 
 which he was involved, died, in 1249^ without 
 male issue. And thus ended a civil war, 6f 
 which' religion had been partly the cause, and 
 partly the pretext, and which, in its conse- 
 quences, was highly profitable both to the kings 
 ,of Franc'e and to the Roman pontiffs.* 
 
 , IX. The severity which theicourt of Rome 
 employed in the extirpation of heresy, and the 
 formidable arguments of fire and iwoird, racks 
 and gib'bets, with whfch the popes arid their 
 creatures reasoned against the. enemie^ of the 
 church, were riot sufficierit to. prevent the rise 
 br new and pernicious sects in different coun- 
 tries^ Many of these sects^were inconsidera- 
 ble in themselves, and transitoryin their dura- 
 tion, while some of them made a noise in the 
 worldj and were suppressed with, difficulty. 
 Among the latter we may reckon that of the 
 Brethren and Sistei^ of the free spirit, which' 
 about this time gained ground secretly and al- 
 most imperceptibly in ItaLy,France, and Ger- 
 rnany, and seduced into its'bosom multitudes 
 of persons, of both sexes, by the striking- ap 
 
 * Many writers, hoth ancient and modern, have 
 related -the circuiAstances of this, religious war, car- 
 ried on against the earls of Toulouse and their con- 
 federates,- and also against the heretics, whose cause 
 they maintained. But th^ historians, whom 1 itave 
 consulted on this subject, havenot treated it with 
 that impartiality which is so essential to the merit 
 of historic writing. The protes'taut .writers,, amon^, 
 whohi. Basn age deserves an eminent rank, are too 
 favoarable to Raymond' and the AJbigenses; the Ro- 
 raa^l catijolic historians lean with still more pa.o 
 tiality to the other side. . Of the latter, the most.re-' 
 cent are -Benedict, a Dominican -monk,- author of^ 
 the Histoire des.Albigeois, (Jes Vaudois, et des Barhets, 
 
 Sublished at Pa'ris in 1691, and J. Bapt. L'Anglois, a 
 esuit, who composed the Histoire .des Croisades con- 
 tre les Albigepis, published at Rouen ,in 1703, to 
 which we must"add~Jo. Jac. Percini Mionumenta 
 Convenlus Tolosani Ordinis Fratrum Prajdicator. in 
 quibus Historia hujus Conventus distribuitur, et re- 
 fertur totius Albigensiuih facti narj-atio, ToloStC, 
 1693. These writers are charfreable with the-greates't 
 partiality and in justice - for tlie' reprbaches- arid .ca- 
 luihnies they tlifow out so liberally agitinst the Ray- 
 monds and the Albi^nses, whije they disguise, with 
 a perfidious, dexterity, the "barbarity of ^imon of 
 Montfort, and the ambitious views of extending 
 their dominions -that engaged the kings of Fraiice 
 to enter into this war. The most ample and-ac- 
 curate account of this expedition- against the here- 
 ,tic.s is thaf which is given by the learned Benedic- 
 'tines Clause le Vic and Joseph Vaissette, in their 
 Histoire iJenerile de Languedoc, torj. iii. in which, 
 however, there are several omissions, which render 
 thatTvalualjle work defective. .( 
 
 pearance , of piety that was observed in the 
 conduct of the members, who composed it. 
 How far the councils of this century proceeded 
 against the new sect,-<we cannot say with cer- 
 tainty; because we have upon record only a 
 few of the decrees that were issued upa,h that 
 occasions Perhaps the obscurity of the 'rising 
 faction screened it, in a great measure, from 
 public view. But this was.not tlie case in the 
 following ago; the Brethren and Sistirs above- 
 mentioned issued firoin their retreats in propor- 
 tion as their numbers increased:- they drew 
 upoft them the eyes of the world, and particu- 
 larly those of the inquisitors, who committed 
 to. the Barnes such of these unhappy enthu- 
 siasts as felLinto their Jiands; while the coun- 
 cils, holden in Germany and other countries, . 
 loaded them with excommunications and 
 darnnatory edicts. ' 
 
 This sect took its denomination ,from the 
 words of St. Paul,* and maintained that the 
 true children of God were invested with the 
 privilege of a full and perfect /rceiiom from the 
 jurisdiction of the lavi.j ■ They were called, by ' 
 the Germans and Flemish, Beghards and Be- 
 guttes, names which, as we have seen already, 
 were usually given to those who made an ex- 
 traordinary profession of piety and devotion. 
 They received from others the reproachful 
 deiiorainatipn .of Biccmi,' i. e. Idiots. -In 
 France, they were known by the appellation 
 of Regains and Beguines, while Jtlie multitude 
 distinguished them by that of Turlupins, ihe 
 origin and reason of which title I have not 
 beeli able to-learn.J Nothing carried a inore 
 shocking air of lunacy and distraction than 
 their external aspect and manners. They ran 
 from pla'ce to place clothed- in the rao'st singu- 
 lar and fantastic apparel, and begged their : 
 bread with wild shouts and clamour^, rejecting 
 with horror every kind of industry and labour, - 
 as an obstacle to divine contemplation, and to 
 the ascent of the soul toward the Fatlier of 
 spirits.. Ih all their excursions they were fol- 
 
 * Romans, viii. 2, 14. 
 
 t The accounts here given pf these wretched fana- 
 tics are, fqr thtj most part, taken frona authe.nlic re. 
 cords, which h^ye not^been yet. published, from. the 
 decrees of synods and councils holden in France and 
 Germany, from the diplomas of the Rornan poritiflfs, 
 the sentences prqnounced by thp inquisitors, -and 
 other sources of information to which I have had 
 access. I Imve also a collection' of extracts from 
 certain boo'ks -of these enthusiasts, and more es- 
 pecially from that which treated of the JVinc Spirit- 
 ual Roclcs, and which was^-in the highest esteem 
 ariiong the free' brethren, who considered it as a 
 trea'sure of divine wisdom and doctrine. As 1 can- 
 not here expose these records to the exarnination of 
 the curious reader, T beg leave, to I-efer^him to a long 
 and ample edict issued out against these brethren 
 by Henry- 1, archbishop of Cologne, and published in 
 the Siatuta GolonienBia, anno 1554. This edict is, 
 in' every respect, conformable to those published on 
 the same .occasion at Mentz, Aschalfenburg,.Pader- 
 boni, Beziers, Treves, and other .places. - 
 
 X Many have written of the Turlupins, but none 
 with accuracy and precision. Bee Beausobre's Dis- 
 sertation sur les Adamites, part ii. p. 384, where 
 that learned author has fallen into several errors, 
 as usually happens to him when he treats subjects 
 of this kind. I know not the origin of the wflrd 
 Turlu'pin; but I am able to deinonstrate, by the most 
 authentic records, that the persons so called, who 
 were burned at Paris and in other parts of France, 
 were no other than the Brethren of the free spirit, 
 who were condemned by the Roman pontifis, and 
 ^Ifio hy various councils. 
 
Chap. V. 
 
 DIVISIONS AND HERESIES. 
 
 877 
 
 lowed by women, called Sisters, witK whom 
 they livfed in the most intimate familiarity,* 
 They disti-ibuted, . among- the people, books 
 which contained the substance of their doc- 
 trines; held nocturnal assemblies in places re- 
 mot& from public view; and seduced many 
 from frequenting the ordinary institutions of 
 divine worship. ^ 
 
 X. These, brethren, v^ho gloried in the free- 
 - dom which they pretended to have obtained, 
 through the spirit, from the dominion and obli- 
 gation of the lam, adopted a certain rigid and 
 iantastic system of niysUc theology, built upon 
 pretended philosophical principles, which- bore 
 a stHking resemblance to the impious- doc- 
 trines of the Pantheists. They held, " That 
 all things flowpd by emanation from God,, and 
 were finally, to return to tlieir divine source; 
 that rational souls were so inany portions of 
 the Supreme Deity, and that, the universe, 
 considered as one great wliole, was God: 
 that every man, by the power of contempla- 
 tion, and by calling off his mind from sensible 
 and terrestrial objects, might i)6 united to the 
 Deity in an inexplicable manner, and become 
 one with the Source and Parent of all things; 
 stnd that they, who, by long and assiduous 
 medita-tion, had plunged' themselves, as it 
 were, into the abyss of tlie Divinity, acquired 
 g, most glorio.us and sublime liberty, and were 
 not only delivered from the violence of sinful 
 lusts, but even from the common instincts of 
 nature." From these and the like doctrines, 
 the brethren drew this impious ajid horrid con- 
 clusion, " That the^ person who. had ascended 
 to God in this manner, and was absorbed by 
 contemplation in the abyss of Deity, became 
 thus a part of the Godhead, commenced God, 
 was the Sen of God in the, same sense and man- 
 ner in which Christ was, arid was. thereby 
 raised to a glorious independence, and freed 
 from the obligation rf all laws human and di- 
 vine." It was in consequence of all this", that 
 they treated with contempt the ordinances of 
 the (lospel, and every external act of rehgious 
 worship, looking upon prayer, fasting, baptism, 
 and the sacrament of the Lord's supper, as the, 
 first elements of piety adapted to the state and 
 capacity of children, and as of no sort of use to 
 the j)er/ect man, whom long meditation had 
 raised above all external things, and carried 
 into the bosom and essence of the Deity.f 
 
 * Hence they were styled, in Germany, Schwestri- 
 ones, as appears by the decrees of several councils. 
 
 t It may -not be improper to introduce a certain 
 number of sentence.?, translated faithfully from seve- 
 ral of the more secret books of these heretics. The 
 following will be sufficient to give the curious reader 
 a full idea of their impiety. r 
 
 " Every pious and good m.an is the only begotten 
 Son of God, whom God engendered from-alUternity; 
 (for these hetetics maintained, that what the Scrip- 
 tures taught concerning the distinction of three per- 
 sohs in the divine nature, is by no means to be un- 
 derstood literally, and therefore explained it accord- 
 ing to the principles of their mystical and fantastic 
 system.) ^,^. 
 
 "All created thmgs are non-entities, or nothing: 
 I do not say that they are small or minute, but that 
 they are absolutely nothing. 
 
 " There' is in the soul of man something that is 
 neither created nor susceptible of creation, and that 
 is rationality, or the power of reasoning. 
 
 "God is neither good, nor better, nor best: whoso- 
 ever therefore calls the Deity good, speaks as fool- 
 Vqt. I.— 48, 
 
 XI. Araon^ these fanatics there were seve^ 
 ral persons of eminent probity, who had en- 
 tered into this sect with the most upright in- 
 tentions, and who extended that liberty of the 
 spirit, which they looked upon as the privilege 
 of true believers, no farther than to an ex- 
 emption from -the duties of external worship, 
 and an immunity from the positive laws of thp 
 churclx The whole of religion was placed by 
 this class of- men in internal devotion, and 
 they treated with- the utmost contempt the 
 rules of monastic discipline, and all other exter- 
 nal rites and institutions, as infinitely beneath 
 the attention of the perfect. Nor were their 
 exliortations and examples without effect; for, 
 about the middle of this century, they per- 
 suaded a considerable number of monks and 
 devout persons, in Sujibia, " to Uve without 
 any rule, and to serve God in the liberty of 
 the spirit, which was the most acceptable ser- 
 vice that could be presented to the Deity."* 
 The inquisitors, however, stopped these poor 
 enthusiasts in the midst of their career, and 
 committed several of them to the flames, in 
 which they expired, not only with the most 
 unclouded serenity, but even with the most 
 triumphantifeelings' of cheerfulness and joy. 
 
 But we find among these Brethren of the 
 free spirit another class of fanatics very differ- 
 ent from these now mentioned, -and rnuch more 
 exlyavagant, whose system of religion wfas as 
 d,angerous as it was ridiculous' and absurd, 
 «nee it opened a jioor to the most licentious 
 manners. These wretched enthusiasts main- 
 tained, that, by continual contemplation, it was 
 possible to eradicate all the instincts of nature 
 outof the heaven-born mind, and to introduce, 
 into the' soul a certain divine stupor, and -holy 
 apathy, which they looked upon as the great 
 characteristics of Christian perfection. The 
 persons .who adopted these sentiments took 
 strange liberties in consequence of their pre- 
 tended sanctity, and showed, indeed, by their 
 conduct, that they had little regard to external" i 
 appearances; for they held their secret assem- 
 blies in a state of nudity; and lay in the same 
 beds with their spiritual sisters, or, indiscrimi- 
 nately, with other women, withoiitthe smallest 
 scruple or hesitation. ■ This-shocking violation 
 
 ishly as he who calls an object black which he 
 knows to be white. 
 
 ".God still engenders his only begotten gon,.and 
 begets still the same son, whom he had begotten 
 from eternity: for every, operation of the Deity is 
 uniform and one; and therefore he engenders his son 
 without any division. - 
 
 " 'What the Scriptures say concerningChrist is true 
 of every good, of every divine man: andevery quality 
 of the divine nature belongs equally to every person 
 whose piety is genuine and sincere " 
 
 To these horrid passage's we may add the following 
 sentences, in which John bishop of Strasbourg (in an 
 edict he published against the Brethren of the fl-e'a 
 spirit, in 1317). discovers l^rther the blaspliemous 
 doctrine of this impious sect. ' Deus (says these 
 heretics) est foimaliter omne quod est. Quilibet 
 homo, perffectus est Christus,per naturam. Homo 
 porfectus est liber in totum,nec tenetur ad- servan- 
 dum ^)rjecepta ecclesiae data a J?eQ. Multa sunt po- 
 etica in Evangelio, quie non sunt vera; et homines 
 credere magis debent conceptihus ex anima sua Deo 
 juncta profectis, quam Evangelio,' &c. . 
 
 * See Mart. Crusius, Aunal. Suevicorunl, part i'li. - 
 lib. ii. cap. xiv. ad annum 1261.— This author hag 
 taken his materials from Felix Faberi-an impartial 
 writer. 
 
378 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 of decency was a consequence of their perni- 
 cious system. They looked upon decency and 
 modesty as marks of inward eonuptionj as the 
 , characters of a soul that was, still under the 
 dominion of the sensual, animal, and lascivi- 
 ous spirit, and that was not, as yet, re-united 
 to the divine nature, its centre and source. 
 And they considered, as at a fatal distance from 
 the Deity, all such as either felt the cirnal 
 suggestions of nature, or were penetrated with 
 warm' emotions at the view or approach of per^ 
 sons of a different sex, or were incapable of 
 
 t vaojquishing and suppressing the Jrising feryour 
 of lust and intemperance.* 
 
 There wfere, moreover, in thiafanatioal troop, 
 certain- enthusiasts, who far surpassed in iinpi- 
 ety the two classes we have been now mention- 
 ing, who abused the system and doctrines of 
 the sect, so as to, draw from them an apology 
 for all kinds of wickedness, and who audacious- 
 ly maintained, that the divine man, or the be- 
 liever, who was intimately united to God, 
 could not sin, let his conduct be ever so horri- 
 ble and atrocious. This execrable doctrine 
 was not, indeed, explained in the same manner 
 by all the Brethren of the free spirit who were 
 BO outrageous to adopt it. Some held that the 
 motions and actions of the body had no rela- 
 tion at all to the soul, which, by its union with 
 God, was blended with the divine nature: others 
 
 , fell, into a notion infinitely injurious to the 
 Supreme Being, and maintained that the-pro- 
 pensities and passions that arose in the soul of 
 the divine man after his union with the Deity, 
 were the propensities and affections of God 
 himself, and were therefore, notwithstanding 
 their apparent deformity and opposition to the 
 law, holy and good, since the Supreme Being 
 is infinitely exalted above all law and allobli- 
 gatibn.f It is necessary' to observe, before we 
 
 * Certain writers, whose principal zeal is employ- 
 ed in the defence of these heretics, and who have 
 accustomed themselves to entertain a high ide^ of 
 the sanctity of ail those who, in the middle ages, 
 separated themselves from the communion of the 
 church of Iflome, suspect the inquisitors of having 
 attributed falsely these impious doctrines to the Bre- 
 thren of the free spirit, with a" view to blacken these 
 pious men, and to render them odious. But this sus- 
 picioii is entirely groundless; and the account qf this 
 matter, which v/e have given in the text, is conform- 
 able to the strictest truth. The inquisitors have 
 been less fabulous in their accusations of these he- 
 retics, than many are apt to imagine. They ac- 
 knowledge that the Beghards, though destitut-e of 
 shame, were nqt in general chargeable with abreach, 
 of the duties of chastity and, abstinence. They were 
 indeed of opitiion, that the firmness of mind, and in- 
 sensibility of heart, which rendered them proof 
 against female charms, and deaf to^ the voice- of na- 
 ture, were privileges granted to them by the_ devil; 
 for they adopted the opinion of honest Nieder, (JFor- 
 micar. lib. iii. cap. v.) and affirmed that jit was in the 
 power of that evil spirit to render men cold, and to 
 , extinguish the warm and lascivious solicitations of 
 nature; and that Satan wrought this miracle upon 
 hiS' friends and adherents, in order to procure them a 
 high reputation for sanctity, and-make them appear 
 superior in virtue to the rest of mankind. " Credo 
 (saith Nieder, wtio was both a Dominican "and an in- 
 quisitor) quosdam ex eis dEBmonis opera ffif^ctos fii- 
 Isse, ne movcrentur ad naturales actus incontinentia 
 ..... Facillimum-enim est^dsemonibus infrigidare." 
 
 t This account will be confirmed by the following 
 passage, which is faithfully translated from the fa- 
 mous book of the JVine Rocks, written originally in 
 German: " Moreover the divine man operates and 
 engenders whatever the Deity operates and engen- 
 ders: for in God be produced and formed the heavens , 
 
 FartIL 
 
 leate this subject, that flagitious and impious 
 , impostors mingled themselves sometimes with 
 this sect, and toot the name of Beghards, that 
 by a feigned piety they might impose upon the 
 multitude, and deceive the siniple into their 
 snares.* 
 
 XII. The famousAmalriCjprofessocof logic 
 and theology at Paris, whose hones were dug 
 up and publicly burned in 1209, (although ha 
 
 and the eprth. He is also the father of the eternal 
 word. Neither could God produce anything with- 
 out this divine man^ who is therefore obliged to ren- 
 der his will conformable to the will of God, that 
 whatever may be agreeable to th? Deity, maybe 
 agreeable to him also. If therefore it be the will of 
 God that I should commit sin^ my will must be the 
 same, and I must n,ot even desire to abstain from 
 sin. Thisis true contrition. And although a man, 
 who is well and truly united to God, may-have.com- 
 mitted a thousand mortal sins, he ougln not to wi^h 
 that he had not committed them: he should even be 
 ready to die a thousand deaths rather than omit one 
 of these ^mortal sins." Henpe arose the accusation 
 brought by the inquisitors against this impious'sect, 
 whom thdy reproach with maintaining that the 
 " sin of a man united to God, is not sin, since God 
 works in him and with him whatever he does." Hen- 
 ry Suso, a Dominican monk, and one of the most ce- 
 lebrated Mystic writers, composed, in the following 
 century, another book concerning the Nin& Rocks, 
 which is to be found.in the edition-of his works pub- 
 lished by Laurence Surius. But this book is entirely 
 different from that which was in such high efeteem 
 among the Beghards, though it bears the same title. 
 The latter is of much older date, and was in vogue 
 in Germany, ahibng the Brethren of the free spirit, 
 l&ng before Suso was born. There fell some tiine 
 ago into my hands an ancieut manuscript, composed 
 ill Alsace during the fifteenth century, containing 
 an account of various revelations and visions of 
 that age. In^this manuscript I found a piece enti- 
 tled, Declaratio Eeligiosi cujusdam super Reyela- 
 tiorie Carthusiano cuidam de Ecclesiie per gladium 
 reformatione, Leodii in anno 1453 facta; and, almost 
 in the beginning of this declaration, Lmet with tlie 
 following passage relating to the book of the Nine 
 Rodcs: " Homo quidani devotissiihus, licet.laicus, li- 
 brum de novem Rupibus conscripsit a Deo compul-. 
 sus, ubi multa ad prtesens pertinentia continentur 
 de Ecclesiie renovatione et prfevia gravi persecu* 
 tione." These Nine Rocks signified, according to the 
 .fanatical doctrine of this wrong-headed sect, the dif- 
 ferent steps by which the divine man ascended to the 
 Deity. 
 
 * Th_e founder of this famous sect, the place of its 
 origin,~and the time of its first appearance, are not 
 known with certainty. I have in my possession 
 eiglity-nine Sentences of the Beghards, vulgarly call- 
 ed Schwestriones, but who style themselves Brethren 
 
 I of the sect of the free spirit and of voluntary pover- 
 ty, with a refutation of the said sentences^ written 
 at Worms toward the conclusion of.this century by 
 one of the inquisitors. The 79th sentence runs thus 
 " To say that^the truth' is in Rhetia, is to fall into- 
 the heresy of Donatus, who said that God was in 
 Africa; and not elsewhere." From' these words it. 
 appears evident, that Rhetia was tho country where 
 the church of the Brethren of the free spirit was fix- 
 ed and established, 'and that from this province they 
 passed into Germany.. I am not, however, of opin- 
 ion, that this sect had its origin in that province; 
 but am rather inclined to think, that Italy was its 
 country, and that, being driveur thence, it took re- 
 fuge in Rhetia. Nor is at all improbable, that Italy, 
 which saw so many religious factions arise in its bo- 
 som, was also the nursing mother of this blasphemous 
 sect. We shall be" almost fully confirmed in this 
 opinion, when we consider that, in a long letter 
 from Clement V. to Rainier bishop of Cremona, (pub 
 lished by Odor. Eaynaldus, Annal. tom. xv. an. 
 1311,) the zealous pontifi" exhorts that prelate to sup- 
 press and extirpate, with all his power, the sect of 
 the Brethren of the free spirit, who were settled in 
 several parts of Italy, and particularly in tho pro- 
 vince of Spoleto and the countries adjacent. Such 
 are the terms of the pontiff's letter: " In nonnullis 
 Italis partibus, tarn Spoletanse |)rovinci£B, quam cir- 
 
 cumjacentium regiuQum." 
 
t;HAp. V. 
 
 had abjmed his errors before his death,) and „ 
 considerable number of whose disciples and 
 followers were committed to tlie flames on ac- 
 count of their absnjd and pernicious doctrine, 
 was undoubtedly of the same way of thinking 
 With the sect whose opinions wp have been 
 now considering;* for, though the writers of 
 this barbarous age, have given very different 
 and confused accounts of his opinions, and even 
 attributed some doctrines to him which he 
 never maintained, it is nevertheless certain, 
 that he taught, that all things were the parts 
 ol one substance, or, in other words, that the 
 universe was God, and that not only the forms 
 of all things, but also their matter or substance, 
 proceed froni the Deity, and must return to 
 the source from which they were derived.f 
 From the^e absurd and blasphemous principles 
 he deduced that chimerical system of fanatical 
 devotion, which we -have already exposed to 
 the view of the reader, pretended to demon- 
 strate the possibihty of incorporating or trans- 
 lating the human nature into the divine, and 
 rejected all kinds of external worship, as in- 
 significant and useless. The disciples of this 
 enthusiast were men of exemplary piety, were 
 i^tinguished by' the gravity and austerity of 
 their lives and manners, and suffered death in 
 the most dreadful forms with the utmost reso- 
 lution and constancy. David of Dinant, a 
 Parisian doctor, was one of the most eminent 
 among these;'and he usually expressed the fun- 
 damental principle of his master in the follow- 
 ing proposition; " God is the primary matter 
 -or substance of all things." He composed a 
 work entitled Quaternarii, with sevejal other 
 productions, which were chiefly designed to 
 
 DIVISIONS AND HERESIES. 
 
 379 
 
 . f This did not escape the notice of the enemies of 
 - the Beghards or Brethren of the free spirit in Get- 
 many much less that of the inquisitors, who, in 
 their Refutation' of the 89 sentences of the Beg- 
 hards, mentioned in. the- preceding note, express 
 themselves thus: (sent. 68.) "Dicere quod omnis 
 creatura est Beus, -hseresis Alexandri* est, qui dixit, 
 materiam primam et Deum et hominem, hoc est 
 mentes, esse in substantia, qitodpostea quidam Da- 
 vid de DiTtanto sequutus est, qui "temporibus nostris 
 de_ hac' hsresi de ,Traucia fugatus est, et punitus 
 fuisset, si deprehensus fuisset." 
 
 id" t The account given by Fleury, in his Ecclesi- 
 astical History, of the opinions of Amalric, is very 
 different from that which is ly^re given by Dr. Mo- 
 eheim. The former observes, that Aihalric, or 
 Amauri, taught that ' every Christian was obliged 
 to believe himself a member of Jesus Christ, and that 
 without this belief nonecould'be'saved;' and he ob- 
 serves also, that his disciples introduced errors, still 
 more pernicious, -such as the following: "That the 
 power of the Father had continued only during^the 
 Mosaic dispensation, that of the Sbn 1200 years 
 after his entrance upon earth, and that, in the thir- 
 .teenth century, the age of the. Holy Spirit com- 
 menced, in which the sacraments and all external 
 worship were to be abolished; that there would be 
 no resurrection; that heaven and hell were mere fic- 
 tions;" and many more sentiments of that nature, 
 which, as the learned Spaiiheim imagines, were 
 falsely imputed to Amalric, in order to render his 
 memory odious, because he had opposed the worship 
 of saints and images. See Fleury, Hist. Eccles. livre 
 Ixxvi. sect. lix. — Dr. Mosheim' considered Amalric as 
 a Pantheist; and many men of eminent learning are 
 of this opinion. See, among others, Joh. Gerson apud 
 Jac. Thomasium, and also Brucker's Hist. Philosoph. 
 torn. iii. p. 688. 
 
 * The person here mentioned is Alexander, the 
 Epicurean, of whom Plutarch speaks in his Sympo- 
 iium. 
 
 affect and gain the multitude; but he was at 
 length obliged to save himself by flight.* The 
 bishops, assembled in council at Paris, in 1209, 
 considered the philosophy of, Aristotle as the 
 source of these impious doctrines, and, on that 
 account, prohibited all persons from reading 
 or explaining, either in pubUc or private, the 
 metaphysical and other productions of the 
 Grecian sage.+ 
 
 ^ XIII. If we may depend upon the accounts 
 given by certain writers, Amalric aiid his fol- 
 lowers received with the utmost docility and 
 faith the predictions, attributed to ,Joachim, ' 
 abbot of Flora, concerning the reiformatiori 
 that was soon to be brought about in the 
 church by the power of the sword, — the ap- 
 proaching %e qf the Holy Ghest, that was to 
 
 succeed those of the Father and the Son, 
 
 and other things of that nature, which raised 
 the hopes and occupied the thoughts Of the 
 Spiritual Franci,gcans. Whether these accounts 
 may be , depended uppn or not, we shall not 
 determine. To us they appear extremely 
 doubtful. It is, however, true, that certain 
 persons were so far deluded by these pretended ' 
 prophecies, as to form new sects with a view 
 to their accomplishment, and to declare war 
 against the established church, its system of 
 doctrine, and its forms of worship. Among 
 other fknatical sectaries, there arose one of a ^ 
 most extraordinary kind, a Bohemian woman, 
 named Wilhelmina, who resided in the terri- 
 tory of Milan. This delirious and wrongs 
 headed woman, ha-ving studied with attention ■ ' 
 the predictions concerning the age of the Holy 
 Ghost, was so extravagant as.to persuade her- 
 self; and (what is still more amazing) had 
 sufficient influence to persuade others, that 
 the Holy Ghost had become iijcamate in her 
 person,. for tlie salvation of a great part of 
 mankind. According to her doctrine, " None 
 could be saved by the blood of Jesus, but true, 
 and pious Christians; while, the Jews, Sara- 
 cens, and unworthy Christians, were to obtain 
 s,alvation through the Holy Spirit which dwelt 
 in her; and, in consequence thereof, all that 
 had happened to Christ, dming his appearance 
 upon earth' in the human na.ture, was to be 
 exactly renewed in her person, or rather in that 
 of the Holy Ghost which was united to her ' 
 This mad woman died^at Milan, in 1281, m 
 the rnost fragrant odour of sanctity; and her 
 memory was not only holden in the highest 
 'veneration by her numerous followers and the 
 ignorant multitude,- but was also honoured 
 with religious worship both in public and in 
 private. Her sect was at length discovered by 
 the cm-ious eye of persecution, in 1300, arid 
 fell under the cognizance of the inquisitors, 
 who destroyed the magnificent monument that 
 had been erected- to her honour, ordered her 
 bones to be committed to' the flames, and in 
 the same fire consumed the leaders of this 
 
 *See Martenne's Thesaur. Anecd. torn. iv. p. 163, 
 where -there is an account Of the heresies for which 
 several priests were burned at Paris in 1209. — Natal. 
 Ale.*ander, Hist. Ecol. Sffic. xiii. cap. iii. art. ii. p. 
 
 76 DuBois, Hist. Eccl.JParis. t. ii. p. 244.— Boulay, 
 
 Hist. Acad. Paris, t. iii. p. 24, 48, 53 — Jac. Thoma- 
 sius, de Exustione Mundi Stoica, p. 199. 
 
 t Launoy, de varia Aristot. fortuna in Acad. Parii. 
 p. 127. 
 
380 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part If. 
 
 wretched faction, among whom were persons 
 ofboth sexes.* 
 
 - XIV. It was upon predictions similar to 
 those mentioned in the! preceding section, that 
 the sect of the Apostles founded its discipline. 
 The members of this sect made little or no al- 
 teration in the doctrinal patt of the public re- 
 ligion; what they principally aimed at; was, to 
 introduce among Clnristiaiis the simplicity of 
 the primitive times, and more especially the 
 maimer of hfe that was observed ijy the apos- 
 tles. Gerard Sagarelli, the founder of tins 
 sect, obliged his followers to go from placeto 
 place as the apostles, did, to wander about 
 clothed in white, with long beards, dishevelled 
 hair, and bare Heads, accompanied with women 
 whom they called tlieir Sisters. They were 
 also Obliged to renounce all kinds of property 
 and possessions, and to preach in public the 
 necessity of repentance, while in their more 
 private assemblies they declared the approach- 
 ing destruction of the corrupt church of Rome, 
 and the establishment of a purer service, and a 
 more glorious church, which, according to the 
 prophecies of the abbot Joachim, would cer- 
 tairJy arise from its ruins. TVo sooner was the 
 illrfated leader of this faction committed to the' 
 flames,tthan he was succeeded in that charac- 
 ter by a bold and enterprising fanatic, named 
 Dulcinus, a native of No vara, who published 
 his predictions with more courage, and main- 
 tained them with more zeal, than his prede- 
 cessor had done, and who' did not hesitate to 
 declare that, in a short tmje, pope Boniface 
 VIII., the corrupt priests, and the licentious 
 tnonks, were to -perish by the hand of the em- 
 peror Frederic III., son of Peter, king of Ar- 
 ragon, and that a new and most holy f ontiff 
 was to be raised to the head of the church. 
 These visionary predictions were, no doubt, 
 drawn from the -dreams of Joachim, who is 
 said to tave declared, among other things, that 
 an emperor called Frederic III.-, was to bring 
 to perfection what Frederic II. had left unfin- 
 ished. Be that as it may, Dulcinus appeared 
 with intrepid assurance at the head of the 
 apostler, and acting, not only in the character 
 of a prophet, but also in that of a general, he 
 assembled an army to maintain his 6ause, and 
 perhaps to accomplish, at least in part, his 
 predictions. He wa-s opposed by Raynerius, 
 bishop of VSrcelli, who defended the interests 
 of the Roman pontiff, and carried on, above 
 two years, a most sanguinary and dreadful' 
 war against this chief of the apostles. The 
 issue of this contest was fatal to the latter, 
 who, after several battles fought with 6bstinate 
 courage, was at length taken prisoner, and 
 put to death at VerceUi in a most barbarous 
 manner, in 1307, together with Margaret, 
 whom he had diosen for his spiritual sister. 
 
 * The Milanese historians, such as Bernardinus 
 Corius, and oChers, have related the adventures of 
 this odd woman; T)ut their accounts are very differ- 
 ent from those given by the learned Muraton in 
 his Antiq. ItaliciE medii ^vi, torn, v., and which he 
 lia= drawn from the judicial proceedings of thecquTt, 
 where the extraorcUn o ry case of this female fanatic 
 was e-xamined. We are informed by tHe same ex- 
 cellent author, thatalearnedwnler.namedPuricelli, 
 composed a history of WUhelmina, and of her sect. 
 
 t This Ulihiippy man was burned alive at Parma, 
 ir. 1300. 
 
 according to the custom of his sect. The tei^ 
 rible end of Dvilcinus was not immediately 
 followed by the extinction of his sect, which 
 still .subsisted in France, Germany, and other 
 countries, and stood firm against the most ve- 
 henierit eiforts of its enemies, uiitil the begin- 
 ning of the ISth century, when, tmder tlie 
 pontificate of Boriiface IXr, it was totally ex 
 tirpated.* 
 
 XV. This famous Joachim, abbot of Flora, 
 whose. fanatical predictions turned the heads 
 of so many weU-raeajiing people, and excited 
 them to attempt reforming the'church by the 
 sword, a;nd to declare open war against the 
 Roman pontifB, did not fall under the suspi- 
 cion of heresy on account of 4hese predictions, 
 but in consequence of anew explication he had 
 given of the doctrule of a Trinity of persons in 
 the Godhead. He had in an elaborate work 
 attacked very warmly Peter Lombird, the 
 master of the sentences, on account of the dis- 
 tinction which this writer had made between 
 the divine essence and the three persons in the 
 Godhead; for Joachirn looked upon this doc- 
 trine as introducing a fourth object, even an 
 essence, into the Trinity. But tiie good man 
 was too Ijttle vfersed in metaphysical matters, to 
 carry on a controversy of such a subtle nature; 
 and he was betrayed ,by his ignorance so fat 
 as to advance inconsiderately the most rash 
 and most exceptionable tenets. For he denied 
 that there was any thing, .or ariy "essence, thai 
 belonged in common to the three persons in 
 the Trinity, or was jointly possessed by them; 
 by which doctrine the substantial union, among 
 the three "persons, was taken away, and the 
 union of the Father, Son, and Holy'Ghost, 
 was reduced from a natural, simj)Ie,-and nimerir 
 cal unity, to a moral one only; that is, to such 
 an unity as reigns in the counsels and opinions 
 of different persons, who embrace the same 
 notions, and think and act with one accord. 
 This' explication of the Trinity was looked, 
 upon by many as very little differenffro'm the 
 , Arian system; and therefore pope Innocent III. 
 pronounced, in 1215, in the Lateiran council, 
 a damnatory sentence against the doctrine of 
 Joachim;' not extending, however, to the per- 
 son or fame of tlife abbot himself. Notwith- 
 standing this papal sentence, Joachim has at 
 this day a considerable number of adherents 
 and defenders, more especially among those 
 Franciscans who are called Otservants. Some 
 of these mairitain that the book of this abbot ' 
 was corrupted'and interpolated by his enemies, 
 while the rest are of opinion that his doctrine 
 
 * I composed in the German language an accurate 
 history of this famous sect, which la very little 
 known in our times; and I have in my hands mate- 
 rials that willfurnish an interesting addition to that 
 history. That this sect subsisted in Germany, and 
 in some other countries, until the pontificate ot 
 Boniface IX., is evident from the Chronicle of Her 
 man Cdrherus, published by Jo. George Echard, m 
 his Corpus Historicum medii ^vi, tom. ii., and may 
 be sufficiently demonstrated by other, authentic tosti. 
 monies. In 1402, a certain member of this apostolic 
 sect, whose name was William, or Wilhelmus, wab 
 burned alive at Lubec. The Germans, v/bo were 
 accustomed to distinguish by the name of Beghards 
 all those who pretended to extraordinary piety, and 
 sought, by poverty and begging, an eminent reputa- 
 tion for sanctity and virtue, gave this titl^ also to 
 the sect of the Afostlea. 
 
Chap. I. 
 
 PROSPEROUS EVENTS. 
 
 381 
 
 was not'thbroughly understood by those who 
 opposed it.* ^ 
 
 * See Dan. Papebrocliius, Disquis. Histor. de-Flo- 
 rensi -Ordine, Prophetiis, Doctrina, B. Joachimi, in 
 
 Actis Sanctorumj,-Maii, torn. vi. p. '486, which cdh- 
 tains the life of Joachim, written by 3yllanEeuH, a|[d 
 several other pieces of consequende. See also Natftl. 
 Aloxatider, jfjist. Eccles. sfflc xiii. din. ii. d. 331.-^ 
 'Luc. Wadding, Annal. Minor, tohi. iv.- " ■ •^' 
 
 THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 THE EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 CHAPTER I, , 
 Concerning the 'prosperous' Events that happened 
 to tlie Church during this Century. 
 I. Several attempts- were made by the 
 princes of the west, at the instigation of the 
 Rgman pontiffs, to renew the war in Palestine 
 , against the Turks and Saracens, and to deli- 
 ver the whole province of Syria ■ from the op- 
 pressive yoke of those despotic infidels. The 
 succession of pontiffs that resided in Avignon, 
 evinced the greatest zeal for the renovation of 
 this religious war, and left no artifice, no me- 
 thods- of pei-suasion unemployed, that could 
 have the least tendency to engage th'B kings 
 of Englarid and France in an^ expedition to the 
 Holy Land. . Bat liieir success was not an- 
 swerable to their zeal; and, notwithstanding 
 the poweiful influence of their exhortations' 
 and romonstraijces, something still happened 
 to prevent their producing the desired effect. 
 Clement V. urged the renewal of this holy war 
 with the greatest ai-dour in the years 1307 and 
 1308, and set -apart a very large sura of money 
 fqr prosecuting it with alacrity and vigour.* 
 John-TOCn. ordered ten ships to be fitted out 
 iii 1319, to transport an army of pious adven- 
 turers into Palestine,t and had fecour^e to the 
 power of superstition, that is, to the influence 
 oi* indulgences, for raising the funds rsecessary 
 to the support of this great enterprise. These 
 indulgenpes he offered to such as contributed 
 generously to -the war, and appointed legates 
 to administer them in all the European coun- 
 tries that were subject to his spiritual jufisdic- 
 tion. But, under this fair show of piety and 
 zeal, John is supposed to have covered the 
 most selfish and grovelling views; and we find 
 Louis of Bavaria, who was at that- time, empe- 
 ror, and several other princes, complaining 
 loudly that this pontiff made use of the holy 
 war as a pretext to disguise his avarice and 
 ambition;{ and indeed the character of tliis 
 pope was of such a stamp as tended to accredit 
 such complaints. Under the pontificate of 
 Benedict XII., a formidable army was raised, 
 in 1330, by Philip de Valois, king of .France, 
 
 * Baluzii VitiD Pontif. Aveiiinn. torn. i. p. -15, 594; 
 torn. ii. p. 55, 374, &;c. Ant. Matthaji Analecta ve- 
 teris iEvi, tnm. ii. p. 577. . 
 
 t Baluzii Vitse Pontif. Avenion. torn. i. p. 135; torn. 
 
 "t'Baluzius, torn. i. p. IT5, 786. Matthffii Analecta 
 vet. iEvi, torn. ii. p. 595. 
 
 with a view, as was said, to attempt the deli- 
 verance of the Christians in Palestine;* but, 
 when he was ready to embark his troops, the 
 apprehensiorr of an invasion from England 
 obliged him to lay asidc^this- weighty enter- 
 prise. In 1345, Clement VI., at the request 
 of the" Venetians, engaged, by the persuasive 
 power of indulgences, a prodigious number of 
 adventurers to embark for Smyrna, where 
 they composed a. numeroUs army under the 
 command of Guide, oT Guy, dauphin of 
 Vienne; but the want of provisions soon obliged 
 this army to return with the general into.Eu- 
 rope.f. This, disappointment did'not,- however, 
 damp the spirits of the restless pontiffs; for 
 another formidable army was assembled in 
 1363, in conseq.uence of the zealous exhorta- 
 tions of Urban V., and was to bo employed in 
 a new expedition against the infidels, with 
 John,, king of France, at its head; but the im- ■ 
 expected death of that prince blasted'the hopes 
 that many had entertained from this grand 
 project, and occasioned the dispersion of that 
 numerous body which had repaired to his 
 standard. { - 
 
 II. The missionaries who had- been sent by 
 the Roman pontiffs into China, Tartary, and 
 the adjacent countries, in the preceding cen- 
 tury, found their la1)ours crowned with the de- 
 sired success, and established a grfeat number 
 of Christian churches among those unenlight-. 
 ened nations. • In 1307, Clement V. erected 
 Cambalu (which at that time was the celebrat- 
 ed metfopolis of Cathay, and is, undoubtedly, 
 the same with Pekin, the capital city at pre- 
 sent of tlie Chinese empire,) into .an archbi 
 shopric, which he conferred upon John da 
 IMonte GorVmo, ah Italian friar who had been 
 employed in propa^ting the Gospel iri thai 
 country for, many years. ' The same pontiff 
 sent soon afterj to assist this prelate in hif 
 pious labours, seven other prelates of the Fran- 
 ciscan order.§ John XXII. exerted in this 
 
 * Baluziua, torn. i. p. 200. 
 
 t Fragmenta Histor. Romante. in Murator. Antiq 
 Ital. niedii .lEvi, tom.iii. p. 308: 
 
 t Baluzii Vitte Pontif, Avenion. torn. i. p. 366,.3C8, 
 371, 401. ' ' - 
 
 8 -Wadaing, Anvlal. Ordin. Minor, torn. vi. ad an. 
 1305, sect. xii. p. 69. ad an. 1307, p. 91, 368; torn. viL 
 p. 53, 221; torn. viii.. p. 235.— J. S. Asseman. BiWioth, 
 Orient. Vatican, torn. iii. sect. ii. p. 621.— J. Echard, 
 Scriptor. Prsedicator. torn. i. p. 537.— Acta Sanctor. 
 torn. i. Januarii, p. 984 — Mosheim, HJstoria.Kcclsa 
 Tartar. ■ 
 
38a 
 
 EXTERNAL HISTORY OP THE CHURCH: 
 
 good cause tlje same zeal which had distin- 
 guished the pontificate of his predecessors. On 
 the deatji of John de Monte Corvino, in 1333 
 he sent Nicolas of Ee'ntra to. fill the vacant 
 archbishopric- of Cambala, and charged him 
 with letters to the emperor .of tlie Tartars, 
 who,, at that time, was in possession of the 
 Chmese dominions. In 1338, BeneSict XII. 
 sent-new Iegates"'aBd missionaries into Tartary 
 and China, in consequeiioe .of a :soIemn em- 
 bassy* with which he was honoured nt Avig- 
 non from the kahn of the Tartars.' During the" 
 time that the princes of the latter nation njain- 
 tained themselves in the emp'ire of China, the 
 Chnstiai) religion flourished in those vast re- 
 gions; and both Latins and Neslorians not 
 only made a public profession of their faith, 
 but qjso propagated it, without any apprehen- 
 sion of danger, through the northern provinces 
 of Asia. 
 
 III. There remained in this century scarcely 
 a.ny European prince unconverted to" Chris- 
 tianity, if we except Jagellon, duke of Lithua- 
 nia, who.continiied in the^ darkness of pagan- 
 Ism, and worsliipped the gods of bis idolatrous 
 ancestors, until ,1386, when he embraced the 
 Christian faithj received in baptism" the name 
 Oi Ladislaus, and persuaded his subjects to 
 open their eyes upon the divine light of the 
 Gospel. We shall not p"retend. to justify the 
 purity of the inotives' IJiat first engaged this 
 prince, to renounce the religion of his fathers, 
 as they were accompanied, at least; with views 
 of policy, interest, and ambittoh.- Onthe death 
 of Louis, king of Poland, which happened"- in 
 1382, Jagellon was_ named among the com- 
 petitors, w'ho- aspired to the vacant throne; 
 and; as he was a rich and powerful princej.the 
 Poles beheld his prelensjops and efforts with a 
 favourable eye-. His religion was the only ob- 
 stacle to the accomplishment of his views. 
 Hedwige, the youngest daughtef of the de- 
 ceased monarch, who, by a 'decree of tlie se- 
 nate, was declared heiress of the kingdom-, 
 was as little disposed "to espolise,"as tbePoles* 
 were to obey, a Pagan; and hence Jagellon 
 was obliged to mate. superstition yield to roy- 
 alty.! Ou the other hand, the, .Teutonic 
 knights and crusaders extirpated by fire and 
 sword all the remains of paganism that were to 
 be found in Prussia and Livonia, and effected, 
 by force, what persuasion alone ought to have 
 produced. 
 
 We find also in the annals of this century 
 many instances of Jews .converted to the 
 GhristianYaith. The cruel persecutions they 
 suffered in several parts of Europe, particularly 
 ini.France and Germany, Vanquished their ob-- 
 atinacy, and bent their intractable sjrf^rits under 
 the yoke of the Gospel. The reportsj (whether 
 
 Part L 
 
 * fialoKii Vitae Pontificum Avenionensium, torn. i. 
 p. 242. 
 
 t Odor. Raynaldus, Annal. Eccles. ad an. 1386, 
 sect. iv. Wadding, Annal. Minor, torn. ix. p, 71. — 
 SoUgnac, Histoire de Pologne,- torn. iii. p. 241. 
 
 (^^ X It "seems raqxe than probable that these re- 
 ports were insidiously forged- out. of animosity 
 against the Jews, who had long been the peculiar 
 objects of general odium. This will appear still 
 more evidently to have been the case, when we con- 
 sider that the popes Gregory IX. and Innocent IV.,- 
 published, in the thirteenth century, declarations 
 alculated To destroy the etfect of several calumnies 
 
 false or true, we shall not determine) that had 
 been industriously -spread abroad, of their poi- 
 soning the public fountains, of their killing 
 infants and drinking their blood, of their pro^ 
 faning, in the most- impious and blasphemous 
 -manner, the consecrated wafere that were used 
 in the celebration of the eucharist, with other 
 accusations equally enormous, excited every , 
 .where the resentment of the magistrates ,and ' 
 the fury of the people,' -and ibrought the most 
 •terrible sufferings, that unrelenting vengeance 
 could invent, upon that wretched anddevoted 
 nation. 
 
 IV. The Satacens still maintained a con- 
 siderable footing in Spain.. The kingdoms of 
 Granada and Murcia, with the province of 
 Andalusia, were subject to their dominion; and 
 they carried on a perpetual war with the kin^ 
 of Castile, Arragon, and Navarre, in which, 
 however, they were not always victoriQus. 
 The African princes, and particularly the em- 
 perors of Morocco, became their auxiliaries 
 against the Christians. On the other hajid, 
 the Roman poritiff&'left no means unemployed 
 to excite the Christians to unite their forces 
 against 13ie Moslems, and to feve them out of 
 the Spanish territories; presents, exhortations, 
 promises, — in short, all allurements that reli- 
 gion, superstition, or avarice, could render 
 -powerful, — were made subservient to the exe- 
 cution of this arduous project. The Christians, 
 accordingly, united their counsels and efforts 
 for this end; and though for sometime the diffi- 
 culty of the eqterpri'se'rendered' -their progress 
 inconsi(^rable, yet even in this century their 
 affairs wore a promising aspect, and gave them 
 reason to hope that they might one day triumph 
 over their enemies; and become sole possessors 
 of the Spanish dominions.* >' 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Concernii^ the calamitous Events, that happened 
 to the Church during this Century% 
 I. ThB' Turks and Tartar's, who extended 
 their' dominions in Asia with an amazing ra- 
 pidity, and~directed their arms against the, 
 Greeks, as well as against the Saraceiis, de- 
 stroyed wherever they went the fruits that had ' 
 sprung up in .such a rich abundance froin the 
 labours of the Christian missionaries, extir- 
 pated the religion of Jesus in several provinces 
 and cities 'where it had flourished^ and substi- 
 tuted "the impostures of Mohammed in its 
 place. Many of the Tartars had'formerly pro- 
 fessed the Gospel, and still inore Jiad tolerated 
 the exercise of that divine religion; but, from 
 the beginning of this century,, things put on a ' 
 new face; and that fierce nation renounced 
 
 which had been invented and dispersed to the disad- 
 vantage of the Jews, and in the fourteenth century, 
 we find Benedict XII. and Clement 'VI. giving simi- 
 lar proofs oftheir equity toward an injured people. 
 'We'find, in history, circular letters of the dukes of 
 Milan and "Venice, and imperial edicts of Frederic 
 III.' and Charles Vl, to the same purpose; and all 
 these circumstances materially detract from the cre- 
 dibility of the reports mentioned by Dr. Mosbiem. 
 
 * See J. de Perreras, Histoire d'Espagne, tom. iv. v. 
 vi — ^Fragmenta Histor. Romanae, in Muratorii An- 
 tiq. Ital. medii JEvi, tom. iii. p. 319, in which, how- 
 ever, there is a considerable mixture of falsehood 
 with truth. — Baluzii Miscellan. tom. ii. p. 267. 
 
Chap. 1. 
 
 LEARNING AND PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 383 
 
 every other religious doctrKie, except tlikt of 
 the Koran. Even Timur-Bec, commonly call-' 
 ed Tamerlane, their mighty emperor, embraced 
 the doctrine of Mohammed, though under a 
 form different fnim that which was adopted 
 by the Tartai-s in general.-* This formidable- 
 warrior, after having subdued the greatest part 
 of Asia, having triumphed over Bajazet (or 
 Bayezid) emperor of tlie Turks, and even filled 
 Europe with terror at the approach of his vie-: 
 torious arms, made use of liis authority, to 
 force multitudes . of Christians to - apostatise 
 from their holy faith. To' the dictates of 
 authority he added the compulsive power of 
 violence and persecution^ and treated the dis- 
 ciples of Christ with the utihost barbarity. 
 Persuaded, as we learn from the most credible 
 writers of his life and actions, that it was in- 
 cumbent upon the true followers of Moham- 
 med to persecute the Christians, and that the 
 most ample and glorious rewards were reserved 
 for such as were most instrumental in convert- 
 ing them to the rehgion of tliat supposed pro- 
 phet,! he employed the most inhuman acts of 
 severity to vanquish the magnanimous con- 
 stancy of suc)i as persevered in their attach- 
 ment'to the Christian religion, of whom some 
 
 * This great Tamerlane, whose name seemed to 
 strike terror even when Ije was no rixore, adhered to 
 the sect of the Sonnites, and professed the greatest 
 enmity against their adversaries, the Shiites. See 
 Petit Croix, Histoire de^ Timur-Bec, torn. ii. p. 151; 
 lorn. iii. p. 228. ■ It Js, however, extremely doubtful, 
 what was, in reality, the religion of Tamerlane, 
 though hfi professed the Mohammedan faith. See 
 MosheimrHist. Eccles. Tartarori p. 124.. 
 
 t Petit de la Croix, Histoire de Timur-Bec, tom. 
 ii. p. 329;' torn. iii. p. 137, 243, &c~. 
 
 suffered death in the most barbarous forma, 
 while others were condemned to perpetual sla 
 very.* 
 
 ■ II. In those parts of Asia, which 'are inhabit- 
 ed by the Chinese, Tartars, Moguls, and other 
 nationsstill less known, the Christian religion 
 not only lost ground, but seemed to be totally 
 extirpated. It is, at least, certain, that we 
 have no account' of anymembersof the Latin 
 church residing in those countries, later than 
 the year 1370; nor could we ever leant the fate 
 of the Franciscan missionalries sent thither 
 from Rome. 'We have, indeed, some records, 
 from which if would appear that there were 
 Nestorians residing in China so fer down as the 
 sixteenth centuryff but theserecords are notso 
 clear as to remove all doubt. However that 
 may be, the abolition of Christianity in those 
 remote parts of the world may, without hesi- 
 tation, be iraputed^to the wars that were car- 
 ried on by the Tartars against- the Chinese and 
 other Asiatic nations; for, iii 1369, the last 
 emperor of the . race of Genghiz-Khan was 
 driven out of China, and his throne filled by 
 the Mim family, who, "by a solemn law, refused , 
 to all foreigners the privilege of entering thai 
 country. ■ ; . 
 
 * Many instances of this we find in the History of 
 Tiiiiui'-Bec, written by a Persian named Sherefeddiri^- 
 published at Delft, in 172?.— See also Horbelot, Bib- 
 lioth. Oriental, at the article Timur, p. 877.— [The 
 work of Sherefeddin is^the same with that of M. dc 
 la Croix, \yikO only professed himself, in this inr 
 stance, a translator. , Edit.] 
 
 .t Nicol. TfigautiuB, de Christ. Exped. apudSinas, 
 lib. i. c. xi.-i-Jos. Sim. Assemani Bib. Orien. Vatic, 
 t. iii.— Du Halde, Descrip. de la Cliine,' t. i. 
 
 PART II. 
 
 THE INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Concerning the State of Letters and Philosophy 
 ' " during this Century. 
 I. The -Greeks, though dejected by the fo- 
 reign and intestine calamities in which they 
 were involved, were far from withdrawing 
 their attention and zeal from the cause of lite- 
 rature, as is evident from the great number of 
 learned men who floijristed p,mong them dur- 
 ing this period. In this honourable class we 
 may reckon Nicephorus Gregoras, Manuel 
 Chrysoloras,' Maximus Planudes, and many 
 others, who, by their indefatigable application 
 to the study of history, antiquities, and the 
 belles lettres, acquired considerable reputation^ 
 Omitting the mention of writers of mferior 
 note, we may obserVe, that Theodoins-Meto- 
 chita, John Cantacuzenue, and Nicephorvis 
 Gregoras, applied themselves to the composi- 
 tion of history, though with different success. 
 Nor ought we to pass over in silence Wice- 
 phorus Callistus, who compiled an ecclesiasti- 
 cal history, which, notwithstanding its being 
 debased with idle stories and evident marfci 
 
 of superstition,, is highly useful on account of 
 its illustration of mariy important facts. 
 
 II. Jis no sage of this cekituryjiad the' pre- 
 sumption to set up for a leadfer in philosophy, 
 such of the Greeks as had a taste for philoso- 
 phical researches adhered to Aristotle, as their 
 conductor and guide; but we may -learn from 
 the tracts of Theodorus Metochita in what 
 manner they explained the principles and te- 
 iiets of the Stagirite. Plato also had his fol- 
 lowers, especially among those who were fond . 
 of mysticism, whroh-had for many ages been 
 holden iii the highest veneration by the Greeks 
 In the sublime sciences'of mathematics and as- 
 tronomy, Nicolas Cabasil.as surpassed all his 
 contemporaries. Balaam adbpted the senti- 
 ments and precepts of the Stoics with respect 
 to the' oBligatioHS of morality and the duties 
 of life, and -digested them into a work which 
 is'known by the title of Etitica ex Stoicis." 
 
 III. In all the Latin ' provinces, schemes 
 were carried into execution with considerable 
 success, for promoting the study of letters, im 
 
 * Henrici Canisii Lectiones Antique! tom. iv. p. 
 405. 
 
384 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 provi^ taste, and dispelling the pedantic sni- 
 nt of the times. This laudable disposition 
 gave nse to the erection of many schools and 
 academies, at Cologne, Orleans, Cdhors, Peru- 
 Sia, Florence, and Pisa,, in which all the liberal 
 arts and. sciences, distributed into the same 
 classes that still subsist in thos^ places, were 
 ■ taught, with assiduity and zeal. Opulent per- 
 sons founded and amply endovyed particular 
 colleges, in the pubhc universities, in which, 
 beside the monks, young men of- narrow cir- 
 cumstances were educated in all the branches 
 of literature. Libraries were also collected, 
 and men of leiirning animated to aspire to 
 fame and glory, by the prospect of honourable 
 rewards. It ,must be acknowledged, indeed, 
 that the advantages arising'-to the church and 
 state, froni so many professors and learned 
 men, did not wholly answer the expense -and 
 care bestowed on this undertaking by men of 
 rank and fortune; yet we are by no, means to 
 conclude, as many have rashly done, that all 
 the doctors of this age, whq rose graduaUy 
 from the lower to the higher and more honour- 
 able stations, were only distinguished by their 
 stupidity and ignorance. ' ' 
 
 •IV. Clement V.,,who was now raised to the 
 pontificate, ordered the Hebrew and other 
 Oriental languages to be taught in the public- 
 school^^that the church might pever want a 
 sufficient number of missionaries properly qua- 
 lified to dispute, with the Jews, and Mohamr 
 medaiis, and to diffuse the divine light ef the 
 Gospel throughout the east;* in consequence 
 of which appointment, some eminent' profi- 
 cients in these tongues, and especially in the 
 Hebrew, flourished during 'this age. The 
 _ Greek language, which hitherto . had been 
 much neglected, was now revived, and tatight 
 with general apDiause,. first by Leontius Pila- 
 tus, a Calabrian, who wrpte a commentary 
 upon Homer, and a, few others,! but after- 
 : wards, withfiir greater success and reputation, 
 by Manuel Chi'ysoloras,| a native of Constan- 
 tinople. Nor were there wanting some extra- 
 ordinary geniuses, who, by their zeal and ap- 
 plication, contributed tp the restoration of the 
 ancient and genuine eloquence of the Latins, 
 among whom the excellent and j.ustly renown- 
 , ed Petrarch held the first place, § and Dante 
 Aliglii^i the second. 'Full of this worthy de- 
 sign, liey both acted as~if they had received 
 an extraordinary commission to promote the 
 reign of true tiste and the progress of polite 
 learning; and their success was answerable to 
 the geperous ambition that animated their ef; 
 forts; for they had many followers andadmir- 
 
 Part H. 
 
 . torn. 
 
 , 156, 
 
 * See Ant. Wood.Antiq.TDxouiens, 
 159. , ^ 
 
 t See Humph. Hody, de Grfficis illustribus, Linguae 
 Grxcfe Lilerarumque humanioriiin Instauratoribus, 
 Hb. i. — Caloge^a, Opusculi Scientifici, .torn. xxv. p, 
 M8. 
 
 t Hody, lib, i. p. 10.— Calogera, p, 349,— and raore 
 €special]y Christ. Fred, Borner's Lib, de Greeds Li- 
 terariim Grfficarum in Ithlm Instaurat. 
 - § See Jac. Phil, Thomasifti Vita PetrarchKD in Jo. 
 Ger. Meuschen Vit. claror, Viror. torn. iv. who, in 
 his preface, enumerates all the other writers of his 
 life. Of the celebrated poet Dante, several have 
 treated, particularly his translator Benvenuto of 
 Imola, from whgm Muratori has borrowed large ex- 
 tracts in bis Antiquit. Ital. medii ^vi, torn. i. , 
 
 el-s, not only amorig their countrymen, but also 
 among the French and Germans. 
 
 V. The wrjtmgs of this age furnish us with 
 a long hst of grammarians, historians, lawyers, 
 and physicians, of whom it would be easy to 
 speak more particularly^ but, as Such a detail 
 is unnecessary; if will be sufficient to inform 
 our readers, that there were few of this multi- 
 tude, whose labours' were strikingly useful, to 
 society. Great numbers, applied themselves to 
 the stiidy of the civil and canon laws, because 
 it was the readiest .way to preferment both in 
 church and jtate. Such as have any tolerable 
 acquaintance with history,, cannot be entirely 
 strangers to the fame of JBartoIus, Baldus, An- 
 dreas, and other doctors of laws in this centu- 
 ry, who reflected honour on the imiversities 
 of Italy. But, after all, it' is certain, that the 
 jurisprudence of this age was a most intricate, 
 disagreeable study, unenlivened either by liis- 
 tory or style, arid destitute of every allure- 
 ment, that could recommend it to a man of ge- 
 nius. As for the mathematics, they were cul- 
 tivated by many; yet, if -we except Thomas 
 Bradwardine, the acute and learned archbishop 
 of Canterbury, there were few who acquired 
 any degree ofTeput'ation by this kind of study. 
 
 VI. The vast number of philosophers, who 
 rather disgraced tlian adorned this century, 
 looked upon Aristotle as their infallible''oracIe 
 and guide, though they stripped him of ail 
 those excellences that really belonged to him, 
 and were incapable of entering into the true 
 spirit of his writings. So ffreat was the-authb- 
 rity of the peripatetic phikisophy, that, in or- 
 derto diffuse the 'knowledge of it as widely as 
 possible, even kings and emperors ordered the 
 works of Aristotle to be translated into the 
 native language of their respective dominions. 
 Among the most eminent of this class was 
 Charles V. king of France, who ordered' all 
 the writings of the ancients,,! and especially 
 those of Ai"istotlej,to be translated into French 
 by Nicolas Oresme.* Those, however, who- 
 professed themselves philosophers, instead of 
 being animated by the love of truth, were in- 
 flamed by a rage of disputation, which led 
 them to perplex, and deform the pure, simple 
 doctrines of reason- and religion, by a multi- 
 tude of idle subtleties, trifling questions, and 
 ridiculous distinctions. It is iieedless to enlarge 
 either on the barbarity of their phraseology,, 
 in which. they supposed the chief strength of 
 their art cbnsisted, or on that utter aversion , 
 to every- branch- of polite learning, in- which 
 they foolishly gloried; Those who wish to be ac- 
 quainted with their methods of argumentation, 
 and whatever else relates to this wrangling 
 tribe, need only consult John Scotus, or Wal- 
 ter Bufteus. But, though' they all followed 
 one common track, there were several points 
 on which they differed among themselves. 
 
 VII. The old disputes -between the Realists 
 and J^omincdists,. which had lain dormant a long 
 time, were now revived, with an ardour seem- 
 ingly inextinguishable, by an English Francis- 
 can of the severe order, named William Oo- 
 
 * Launoy, Hist. Gygmnas. Navarr. tom. iv. op. 
 part i, p, 504,— Boulay, Hlstor. Acad. Paris, tom. iv. 
 p. 379.— Le Boeuf, Dissert, sur I'Hist. Eccles. et Ci-, 
 I vile de Par. tom. iii. p. 4516. 
 
Chap. n. 
 
 DOCTORS, CHURCH GOVERNMENT, &o. 
 
 885 
 
 voam, who was a follower of the great Scotus, 
 and a doctor of divinity at Paris. The Greeks 
 and Persians never fought against each other 
 with more hatred and fury, tlmn these two 
 discordant sects; whose angry disputations sub- 
 sisted without uny abatement, till the apjiear- 
 ance of Luther, who soon obliged the scholas- 
 tic divines to terminate their mutual wrang- 
 lings, and to listen to terms of accommoda^ 
 tion. The Realist^ despised their antagonists 
 as philosophers gf a recent date, branding them 
 with the nanje pf Modems, while, through a 
 great mistake, thoy ascribed a very high anti- 
 quity to the tenets of their pwn party. The' 
 Nominalists, on the other hand, inveighed 
 against them as a set of doting visionaries, 
 who, despising substantial matters, ^ere pur- 
 suing mere shadofrs. The Nominalists had 
 the most eloquent, acute, and subtle doctors 
 of Paris, fpr their leader^, among whom, beside 
 Occam, the famous John Buridan* was yery 
 erament; the Reajists, nevertheless, throiigh 
 the countena,uce given them by successive 
 popes, prevailed;, &r, when Occam had joined 
 the party of the Frariciscan mpnks, whp stre- 
 nuously opposed John XXII., that pope him- 
 self, and his successors, left no means untried 
 to extirpate the philosophy of the Nominalists, 
 which was deemed highly prejudicial to the inr 
 terests of the church;! "■"<! hence it was, that, 
 in 1339, the university of Paris, by a public 
 edict, solemnly condemned and prohibited the 
 philosophy of Occam, \yliich was tlmt of the 
 Nominalists.^ But, as it is natureii for men to 
 love and pursue what is forbidden, the conse- 
 quence was, that the partj of the Npminali^ts 
 flourished more than ever. 
 
 yill. Among the philosqpberg of these times, 
 there were many who with their philosophy 
 mingled astrology, i. e. the ar^ of telling for- 
 tunes by the aspect of the heavens and the in« 
 fluence of the stars; and, notwithstanding the 
 obvious folly and absurdity of this pretended 
 science, both the higher and lowrer ranks were 
 fond of it even to distraction. Yet, in spite of 
 all this popular prejudice in favour of their art, 
 these astrologica,! philosophers, to avoid being 
 impeached of witchcraft, and to keep thenvr 
 selves out of the hands of the inquisitors, were 
 obliged to behave with great circuw^spection. 
 The neglect of this caution was remarkably 
 fatal to Ceccus Asculanus, a famous peripate- 
 tic philosopher, astrologer, and mathematician, 
 who first acted as physician to pope John 
 XXII. and afterwards to Charles Sineterra, 
 duke of Calabria. This unfortunate man, hav- 
 ing .performed some experiments in mechanics, 
 that seemed miraculous to the vulgar, and hay- 
 ing also offended many, and among tlie rest 
 his master, by giving out some predictions, 
 which were said to have been fulfilled, was 
 universally supposed to, deal with infernal spi- 
 rits, and was committed to the flames, in 13,27, 
 
 * Kob. Gaguin wrote a particular account of this 
 famous man, as we learn fromLaunoy.in hisHisto- 
 ria Gymnasii Navarreni, torn. iv. op. part i. p. 723. 
 See also Boulay, Histor. Acad. Paris, torn. ly. p. 282, 
 307, 341, &c. 
 
 t Steph. Baluzji Miscel. torn. iv. p. 532. 
 
 t Boulay, Hist. Acad. Paris, torn. iv. p. 257; torn. 
 V. p. 708.— Car. Pless. J'Argentre, CpUectjo judicio- 
 rum de novia erroribua. Sic 
 Vol. I.— 4Sf 
 
 by the inquisitors of Florence.' There is. yet 
 extant his commentary upon the Sphere of 
 -John de Sacrobosoo, otherwise named Holy- 
 wood, which shows him to have been deeply 
 tainted with superstition.^ 
 
 IX. Raymond LuUy was the author of a 
 new and singular kind of philosophy, which 
 he endeavoured to illustrate and defend by his 
 yolmninous writings. He was a native of Ma- 
 jorca, and admirable for the extent and fecun- 
 dity 'of his genius; but was, at the same time, 
 a strange compound of reason and folly. Be- 
 ring full of zeal for the propagation pf the Gos- 
 pel, and having performed many voyages, and 
 undergone various hardships to promote it, he 
 was-slain at Bogia, in Africa, in 1315, by the 
 Mohammedans whomhe was attempting to cpn- 
 vert The Franciscans, to whose third order it 
 is said he belonged, exitol hini to the skies, and 
 have taken great pains to. persjjade several 
 popes to canonise hiip; while many, on the 
 ccntrary, ai)d especially the DcBiipicanSj in- 
 veigh bitterly against him, calling him a wild 
 and visionary chemist, a hot-bea,ded fanatic 
 and heretic, a magician, and a mere coinpiler 
 from the wbrks of the more leirhed Moslems. 
 The popes entertained different ppjnipns pf 
 Ijim; some regarding hi,in as a harmless pious 
 man, Tifhjle others pronounced him a vile he- 
 retic. But whoever peruses the writings pf 
 LuUy without prejudice, will not be biassed by 
 either pf these parties, It is. at least certajn, 
 that he would have been a grea,t man, had the 
 warnith and fertility pf his imagination fee^ 
 tejnpered lyith a gound judgment..J 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 Concerning the Doctors and (xovemme)it of the 
 
 Church, during this Ceriiury. 
 * I. The governors of the church in this, pe- 
 riod, firom the highest to the Ipweat orders, 
 vpere addicted to vices peculiarly dishonoura- 
 ble to their sacred character. We shall say 
 nothing of the Greoiaii and Oriental clergy, 
 who lived, for the most part, under a rigid, 
 severe, and oppressive govermueut, though 
 they deserve their part in this heavy and ig- 
 nominious charge. But, with regard to the 
 Latins, our silence wpuld be inexcusable, since 
 the flagrant abuses that prevailed ameng them ' 
 were attended with consequences equally per- 
 nicious to the interests of religion and the 
 well-being of civil society. It is, however, 
 necessary to observe, that there were, even in 
 these degenerate times, some pieus and worthy 
 men, who ardently longed for a reformation of 
 the church,'bpth in its head and members, as 
 
 * Paul Ant. Appianus wrote a defence of this un- 
 happy man, which is inserted in .Domen. Bernini Sto- 
 ria di tutte I'Heresje, torn. iij. sect. xiv. cap. iii. p. ^ 
 210. We have also a farther account of him by 
 Giov. Maria' Crescimheni, Comnientari della .yofear 
 Poesia, vol. ii. part ii. lib. iii. cap, xiv. 
 
 t Gabr. NaudiEus, Apo(ogie pour les grands iom- 
 nies qui ont ete soupconnez de Magie, p. 270. 
 
 J S6e John Salzinger'a Preface to Raymond Lully'e 
 works, which Joiih William, elector Palatine, caused 
 to-be collected at a great expense, and to be publish- 
 ed in 1720. Luc. Wadding, Annar. J^inor. rom. iv. 
 p. 4^1; torn. V. p. 157, 316; torn. vi. p. 229. Gonc«n- 
 ing the famous invention of Lully, see the Polynia- 
 tor of Dan. George Morhoff, lib. ii. cap. v. p. 352. 
 
386 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 they used to express themgelves.* To prevent 
 the accomplishment of these laudable desires, 
 many circumstances concurred; such as the 
 exorbitant power of the popes, so confirmed 
 by length of time that it seemed immovable, 
 and the excessive superstition that ensla,ved 
 the minds of the generality, together with the 
 wretched ignorance and barbarity of the age, 
 by which every spark of truth was stifled-, as 
 It were, in its very birth. Yet, fii-m and last- 
 ing as the dominion of the Roman pontiffs 
 seemed to be, it was gradually undermined 
 and weakened, partly by the pHde and rash- 
 ness bf the popes themselves, and partly by un- 
 expected events. 
 
 II. This important change may be dated 
 from the quarrel which arose between Boni- 
 face Vin., who filled the papal throne about 
 the beginning of thiscentury; and Philip the 
 Fair, Mng of Fiance. This prince, who was 
 endowed vrith a bold and enterprising spirit, 
 soon convinced Europe, that it was possible to 
 Bet bounds to the overgrown arrogance of the 
 bishop of Rome, although many crowned 
 heads had attempted it without success. Boni- 
 face sent Philip the haughtiest letters ima- 
 ginable, in which he assertted, that the king of 
 France, and all other Kings and princes, were 
 obliged^ by a divine command, to submit to 
 the authority of the popes, as well in all politi- 
 cal and civil matters, as in those of a religious 
 nature. The king answered him with great 
 spirit, and in terms expressive of the utmost 
 contempt. The pope rejoined with more arro- 
 gance than ever; and, in that ^mous bull 
 Xunam sanctum) which he published about this 
 time, asserted that Jesus Christ had granted a 
 twofold power to his' church, or, in other 
 words, the spiritual and temporal swords; that 
 he had subjected the whole human race to the 
 authority of the Roman pontiff, and that all 
 who dared to dispute it, were to be deemed 
 heretics, and excluded from all possibility of 
 salvation.! The king, on the other hand, in 
 an assembly of the peers of his kingdom, 
 holden in 1303, ordered William de Nogaret, 
 a celebrated lawyer,| to draw up an accusation 
 against the pope, in which he publicly charged 
 him with heresy, simony, and other vices and 
 crimes, demanding, at the same time, the con- 
 vocation of an cecimienical council, for the 
 speedy deposition of such an execrable pontiff. 
 The pope, in his turn, passed a sentence of 
 excommunication, in that very year, against 
 the king and all his adherents. 
 — III. Philip, shortly after 'he received his 
 sentence, held an assembly of the states of -the 
 kingdom, where he again employed some per- 
 
 * Matt. Flacias, Catalog, testium Veritatis, lib. 
 xiii. p. 1697. Jo. Launoius, de varjaFortuna Aris- 
 totelis p. 217. Jo. Hear. Hottinger, Historia Eccles. 
 BaBC, xiv. p. 754. 
 
 t This tull is yet extant in the Corpus Juris Canon. 
 Extravagant. Commun. lib. i. tit. de majoritate et 
 obedientia. 
 
 X Of this distinguished man, who was the most 
 intrepid and inveterate enemy the popes ever had 
 before Luther, no writers have given us a more co 
 pious account than the Benedictine mordES, Hist. 
 Generale de Languedoc, tom. iii. p. 114, 117. Philip 
 made him chancellor of France for his resolute bppo- 
 aition to the pope. 
 
 Part U. 
 
 sons of the highest ranlc and reputation to Sit 
 m judgment upon the pope, and appeal to a r 
 general council. After thiir, he sent William 
 de Nogaret with some others into Italy, to ex- 
 cite a sedition, to seize the pope's person, and 
 then to convey him to Lyons, where the king 
 was determined to hold the above-mentioned 
 council. Nogaret, being a resolute active man, 
 _soon drew over to his assistance the powerfiil 
 Colonna family, (then at variance witli the 
 pope,) levied a small army; seized Boniface, 
 who hyed in apparent security at Anaghi, and 
 treated .him in the most shocking manner, 
 carrying his resentment so far as to wound bun 
 on the head by a blow with his iron gauntlet. 
 The inhabitants of 'Atiagni rescued him out 
 of the hands of this fierce apd implacable ene- 
 niy, and conducted him to Rome, where he 
 died soon after of an illness occasioned by the 
 rage and anguish into which these insults 
 had thrown him.* 
 
 IV. Benedict XL, who succeeded him, and 
 whose name, before his accession to the papal 
 chair, was Nicolas Boccicini, learned prudence 
 by this fatal example, and pursued, more mode- 
 rate and gentle measures. He repealed, of his 
 own accord, the sentence of excommunication 
 which his predecessor had thundered- out 
 against the. king of France and his domintons; 
 but never could be prevailed upon to absolve 
 Nogaret of his treason against the spiritual 
 majesty of the pontificate. Nogaret, on the 
 other hand, set a small value upon the papal 
 absolution, and prosecuted, "with his usiial 
 vigour and intrepidity, in the Roman court, 
 the accusation tliat he had formerly.adduced 
 against Boniface; and, in the name of his royal 
 master, insisted,' that the memory of that pon- 
 tiff should be branded with a notorious mark 
 of infamy. During these transactions, Benedict 
 died, A. D. 1304; upon which Philip, by his 
 artful intrigues in the concla;ve, obtained the 
 see of Rome for Bertrand de Got, archbishop 
 of Bourdeaux, who was- accordingly elected 
 to that high/dignity, on the 5th of June, 1305. 
 This "step was so much the more necessary, as 
 the breach between the king and the court of 
 Rome was not yet entirely healed, and (No- 
 garet not being absolved) might easily be re- 
 newed. Besides, the French monarch, in- 
 flamed with the desire of revenge, insisted upon 
 the formal condemnation of Boniface by the 
 court of Rome, the abolition of the order of 
 Templars, and other concessions of great im- 
 portance, which he could not reasonably ex- 
 pect from an Italian pontiff. Hence he looked 
 Jipon a French pope, in whose zeal and com- 
 pliance he could confide, as necessary to the 
 execution of his designs. ' Bertrand assuined 
 the name of Clement V., and, at the king's re- 
 quest, remained in France, and removed the 
 papal residence to Avignon, where it continued 
 during the space of seventy years. This period, 
 
 * See the Acta inter Bonifacium Vlll. Bened. XI. 
 Clement. "V. et Philippum Pulchrum, published in 
 1614 by Peter Puteauus.— Adr. Baillet, Hist, dea 
 Demelez du Pape Boniface "VlII. avec Philippe le 
 Bel. — ^Jo. Rubens, in Bonifacio, cap. xvi. p. 137. The 
 other writers on this subj'ect are mentioned by 
 Baillet, in his Preface, p. 9, — See also Boulay, Hist. 
 Acad. Paris, tom. iv. 
 
Uhap. n. 
 
 POCTORS, CHURCH GOVERNMENT, &c. 
 
 887 
 
 the Italians call, byway of derision, the Baby 
 lonish captivity.* 
 
 V. There is no doubt, that the continued 
 residence of the popes in France greatly im- 
 paired the authority _of the Roman see'. For, 
 during the absence of the pontiffs from Rome, 
 the faction of the Ghibellines, their inveterate 
 enemies, rose to a greater height than everj 
 and tliey not only invaded and ravaged St. 
 Peter's patrimony, but even attacked the pa- 
 pal autlioriiy by tjieir writirigs. This caused 
 many cities to revolt ftom the popes: even 
 Rome itself was the grand source and fomenter 
 of cabals, tumults, and civil wars; insomuch, 
 that the laws and decrees sent thither from 
 France were publicly treated with contempt 
 by the populace, as well as by the nobles.f 
 The influence oftMs example was propagated 
 from Italy through most parts of Europe; it 
 being evident, from a vast number of instances, 
 that'the Europeans in general were faj from 
 paying so much regard to tlie decrees and 
 thunders of the Gallic popes, as they did to 
 those of Rome. This gave rise to various se- 
 ditions against the pdntiffs, which they could 
 not entirely crush, even with the aid of the 
 inquisitors, who^ exerted themselves with the 
 most barbarous fury. 
 
 VI. The French pontiffs, finding that they 
 could draw only small revenues from their 
 Italian dominions, which were now torn in 
 pieces by faction and Iravaged by sedition, were 
 obliged to contrive new methods of accumu- 
 lating wealth. For this purpose, they not only 
 Bold indulgences to tlie people, more. frequent- 
 ly than they had formerly done, whereby they 
 'made themselves extremely odious to several 
 potentates, but also disposed publicly of scan- 
 dalous licences, of all sorts, at an excessive 
 price. John XXII. was remarkably shrewd 
 and zealous in promoting this abominable traf- 
 fic; for, though he was not the first inventor 
 of the laxes and rules of the apostolic chan- 
 cery, the Romish writers acknowledge that he 
 enlarged and rendered them more extensively 
 profitable to the holy treasury. { It is certain, 
 that the origin of the tribute paid to the popes 
 under the name of Jlnnates, a tax which is ge- 
 nerally afiirmed to have been first imposed by 
 him, is of a much earlier date.§ Beside the 
 abuses now mentioned, these Gallic popes, 
 having, abolished the right of election, arro- 
 gated to themselves a power of conferring all 
 the ofiices of the church, whether great or 
 
 * For an account of the French popes, consult 
 chiefly Vitae^POntif.. Avenionensium, published by 
 Baluze in 1693. The reader may also peruse, but it 
 must be with the utmofst caution, Longueval's His- 
 tory of the.Gallican Church, and the continuation 
 of that work. — See more especially torn. xii. This" 
 Jesuit, and his successors, have shown great industry 
 and eloquence in the compositioaof this history; but 
 they, for the most part, artfully conceal thevicoEiand 
 enormities of the Roman pontifis. 
 
 t See Baluze, Pontif. Avenion. tom. ii. p. 230, 301, 
 309. — Muratori, Antiq. Ital. tom. iii. p. 397, 401, 
 &c. — Giannone, Historia di Napoli, t. iii. 
 
 J Jo. Ciampinus, de Vice-Cancellario Ecclesis 
 Rom. p. 39.^Chais, Lettres sur les Jubiles, tom. ii. 
 p. 673. 
 
 § Bern, van Espen, Jus Eccles. universale, tom. ii. 
 p. 876. — Bonlay, Histor. Acad. Paris, tom. iv. p. 
 §31.— Ant. Wood, Antiquit. Oxon. tom. i. p. 213.— 
 Gull. Franc. Berthier, Diss, sur les Annates, tom. xii. 
 Hist, de I'Eglise Gallic. 
 
 small, according to their fancy, by which they 
 soon amassed prodigious wealth. It was also 
 under their government that reserves, provi- 
 sions, expectatives, and other impositions of 
 the like odious nature, which had seldom, (if 
 ever) been heard of before, became familiar to 
 the public ear, and filled all Europe with bit- 
 ter complaints.* These complaints exceeded 
 all bounds, when some of these pontiffs, parti- 
 cularly John XXII., Clement VI., and Gre- 
 gory Xl., openly declared that they had re- 
 served to themselves all churches and parishes 
 within their jurisdiction; and were determined, 
 in consequence„of that sovereign authority ,and 
 plenitude of power which.^Christ hid con- 
 ferred upon them, his vicars, to provide for 
 them, and dispose of them without exception.f 
 It was by these and other inean and selfish 
 contrivances, which had no other end than the 
 acquisition of riches, that- these inconsiderate 
 and rapacious pontiffs exrcited a general hatred 
 against the Roman see, and thereby greatly 
 weakened the papal empire, which had been 
 visibly upon the decline firom the time of Bo- 
 niface. 
 
 VII. Clement V. was a mere creature .of' 
 Philip the Fair, Imd was absolutely directed 
 and governed by that prince as long as he 
 lived. William de Nog'aret, the implacable 
 enemy of the late pontiff, altliough he was un- 
 der a sentence of excommunication, had tlie 
 boldness to prosecute his master's cause, and 
 his own, against Bonifiioe, even in the pope's 
 court; an instance of assurance not easy to be 
 paralleled. Philip insisted, that the dead body 
 of Boniface should lie dug up and-publicly 
 burned;- but Clement averted this infamy by 
 his advice and intreaties, promising implicit 
 obedience to the king in every thing else. In 
 order therefore to keep his word, he was 
 obliged to abrogate the laws enacted by Boni- 
 face, to grant the king a bounty of five years' 
 tithes, fully to absolve Nogaret" of all his 
 crimes, on condition of his submitting to a 
 light penance, (which, however, he never per^ 
 formed,) to restore the citizens of Anagnl to 
 their reputation and honour, and to call a. -ge- 
 neral council at Vieime, in 1311, in order to 
 condemn the Templars, on whose destruction 
 Philip was most ardently bent. In this coun- 
 cil every thing was determined as the king 
 thought proper; for Clement, terrified by the 
 melancholy fate of Boniface, durst not venture 
 to oppose this intrepid and obstinate monarch.| 
 
 Vlli. Upon Clement's death, -which hap- 
 pened in 1314, fierce contentions arose in the 
 conclave about choosing a successor, the 
 French cardinals insisting upon a French, and 
 those of Italy demanding an Italian pope. 
 
 * Steph. Baluzii Miscellan. tom. iii. p. 479, 518.— 
 Ejus Vit. Pontif Avenion. tom. ii. p. 60, 74, 154.— 
 Galtia Christiana Benedictinor. tom. i. Append, p. 
 13.— Wood, Antiquit. Oxon. tom. i. p. 148, 201.— 
 Boulay, Hist. Acad. Paris, tom. iv. p. 411. . 
 
 t Baluzii Pontif Avenion. tom. ii. p. 873. torn. i. 
 p. 285, 311, 681.- Ant. Matthiei Analecta vet. M\'\, 
 tom. v. p. 249.— Gallia Christiana, tom. i. p. 69, 
 1208. — Histoir'e du Droit Eccles. Francois, tom. ii. p. 
 129. i 
 
 X Beside the common writers already cited, see 
 Guil. Fran. Berthier, -Discours sur le Pontificat de 
 Clement V. tom. xiii. Hist. Eccles. Gallic. — Colonia, 
 Hist. Liter, de Lyon, tom. i. p. 340.— Gallia Cliristi 
 ana, tom. i. ii'. 
 
388 
 
 INTERNAL fflSTORT OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part H. 
 
 After a contest, which continued two years, 
 the French party prevailed, and, in ISlfr, 
 elected James d'Ease, (a native of Cahors, and 
 cardinal bishop of PortOy) who assumed the 
 name of John XXII. He had a tolerable 
 share of learning, but was crafty, proud, weak, 
 imprudent, and covetous, which is allowed 
 even by those writers who, in other respects, 
 speak well of him. He is deservedly censured 
 on account of his temerity, and the ill success 
 that attended him, through his own impru- 
 dence, in many of his enterprises; but he is 
 more especially blamed for that calamitous 
 and unhappy war into which he entered against 
 Louis of Bavaria. This powerful prince dis- 
 puted th& imperial throne of Germany with 
 Frederic, duke of Austria; and they had been 
 both chosen to that high dignity. In 1314, by 
 their respective partisans among the electors 
 and princes of the empire. John took it for 
 granted, that the decision of this contest came 
 under his spiritual jurisdiction. But, in 1322, 
 the duke of Bavaria, having vanquished his 
 competitor by force of arms, assumed the ad- 
 ministration of the empire without asking the 
 pope's approbation) and wouM by no means 
 allow-, that the dispute, already determined by 
 the sWord, should be again decided by the 
 pontiff's judgment. John interpreted this re- 
 fusal as ti heinous insult upon his authority, 
 and, by an edict issued in 1924-, pretended to 
 deprive the emperor of his crown. But this 
 impotent Te^entment was very little regarded; 
 and he was even accused of heresy by Louis, 
 who, at the same time, appealed to a general 
 council. Highly exasperated by these and 
 other deserved -affiontS, th6 pontiff presumed, 
 in 132T, to declare the imperial throric Vacant 
 a second time, and even to publish a sentence 
 of excommunication against the chief of the 
 empire. This new mark of papal arrogance 
 was severely resented by Louis, who, in 1328, 
 published an edict at Home, by which John 
 was declared unworthy of the pontificate, de- 
 posed from that dignity, and succeeded in it by 
 one of his bitterest enemies, Peter de Corbieri, 
 a Franciscan monk, who assumed the name 
 of Nicolas v., and crowned the emperor at 
 Rome, in a Solemn and public jnanner. But, 
 in 1330, this imperial pope voluntarily abdi- 
 cated the chair of St. Peter, and surrendered 
 himself to John, who kept him in close con* 
 finement at Avignon for the rest of his life. 
 Thus ended the contest between the duke of 
 Bavaria and John XXII., both of whom, not- 
 withstanding their efforts to dethione each 
 other, continued in the possession of their re- 
 spective dignities.* 
 
 * The particulars of this violent quarrel may be 
 learned from the Records published by Steph. Baluze 
 in his'Vit. Pontif. Avenion. torn. ii. p. 513. — Edm. 
 Martenne, Thesaur. Anecdotor. torn. ii. p. 641.— Jo. 
 Georg. Herwart, in Ludovico Imperatore defenso 
 contra Bzovium, et Christ. Gewold. in Apologia pro 
 Ludovico Bavaro, against the same Bzovius, who, in 
 the Annals he had ^published, basely aspersed the 
 memoi'y of the emperor. See also Wadding,,in An- 
 nalib. Minor, torn. vii. p. 77, 106, &c. Whoever at- 
 tentively peruses the history of this war, will per- 
 ceive that Louis of Bavaria followed the example of 
 Philip the Fair, king of France. As Philip brought- 
 an accusation of heresy against Boniface, so did 
 Louis with respect to John XXll. The French mo- 
 najrcli made use of Nogaret and other accusers 
 
 IX. The numerous tribes of the Fratricelli, 
 Beghards, and Spiritual Franciscans, adhered 
 to the party of Louis. Supported by his pa- 
 tronage, and dispersed through the greatest part 
 of Europe, they boldly attacked the reigninff 
 pontiff, as an enemy to, the true religion, and 
 loaded him with the heaviest accusations, and 
 the bitterest invectives, both in their writings 
 and in their ordinary conversation. These at» 
 tacks did not greatly affect the pontiff, as they 
 were made only by private persons, by a set of 
 obscure monks, 'who, in many respects, were un- 
 worthy of his notice; but, toward the conclu- 
 sion of his life, he incurred the disapprobation 
 and censures of almost the whole Catholic 
 church: for, in 1331, and the succeeding yeatj 
 he asserted, in some public discourses, (Sat the 
 souls of the feithful, in -their internlfediatd 
 state, were permitted to behold Christ as man, 
 but not the face of God, or the divine nature, 
 before their re-union with the body at the last 
 day. This doctrine highly offended Philip VI., 
 king of France, was opposed by the pope's 
 friends a& well as by his enemies, and con- 
 demned in 1333 by the divines of Paris. This 
 favpurite tend, of the pope was thus severely 
 treated, because it seemed highly prejudicial to 
 the felicity of happy spirits in their unembodi- 
 ed state; otherwise the point might have been 
 yielded to a man of his positive temper, with- 
 out any material consequence. Alarmed by 
 these vigorous proceedings, he immediately 
 offered something by way of excuse for having 
 espoused this opinion; and after'wardsj in 1SS4, 
 when he was at the point of death,, though he 
 did not entirely renounce, he in some measure 
 softened it, by saying he believed that the un- 
 embodied souls of the righteous 'beheld the 
 divine essence as far as their separate state and 
 condition would permit.'* This declaration 
 did not satisfy his adversaries: hence his suc- 
 cessor, Benedict XII., after many disputes about 
 it, put an^end to this controversy by an unani- 
 mous resolution of the Parisian doctors, order- 
 ing it to be received as an article of faith, that 
 the souls of the blessed, during their interme- 
 diate state, were capable of contemplating, 
 fully and perfectly, the divine nature.f -Bene- 
 dict's publishing of this resolution could be in 
 no way injurious to the memory of John; for, 
 when the latter lay upon his death-bed, he sub- 
 mitted his opinion to the judgment of the 
 church, that he might not be deemed a' heretic 
 after his deoease.J 
 
 against one pontiji: Louis employed Occam and 
 the Franciscans, in that quality against the other. 
 Each insis'ted u^ion the convocation of a general 
 council, and the deposition of an obnoxious, pontiff. 
 I omit odler circumstances that might be alleged to 
 render the parallel more striking. 
 
 * See Steph. Baluzii Vit. Pontif Avenion. torn. i. 
 
 p, 175, 182, 197, 321, 786, See Luc. D'Acherii Spicil. 
 
 Scriptor. Veter. torn. i. p. 760, ed. vet. — Jo. Launoii 
 Historia Gymnas. Navarreni, part i. cap. vii. p. 319. 
 torn. iv. part i. op.— Boulay, Histor. Acad. Paris, 
 tom. iv. p. 235, 250. — ^Wadding, Annal. Minor, torn, 
 vi. p. 371; tonii vii. p. 145.— Echard, Scriptor. Prsdi- 
 cator. tom. i. p. 599, 608. 
 
 t Baluzii Vit. Pontif. Avenion. tom. i. p. 197, 216, 
 221. 
 
 (pj=- X All the heretical fancies of this pope about 
 the Beatific Fision were nothing in comparison with 
 a vile and most enormous practical heresy, that was 
 found in his coffers after bis death, viz. five and 
 twenty millions of florins, of which there were eigh- 
 
thiAp. n. 
 
 DOCTORS, CHURCH GOVERNMENT, &e. 
 
 389 
 
 X. John dying in 1334, new contentions 
 arose in the conclave between the Prench and 
 Italian cardinals, about the electiiSn of a pope^ 
 but toward the end of the year they chose 
 James Fournier, a Frenchman, and cardinal 
 of St. Prisca, who took the nairie of Benedict 
 XII. The writei-s of these" times represent 
 him as a man of great probity, who was not 
 chargeable with that avarice, or that ambition, 
 which had dishonoured so many of his prede- 
 cessors.* He put an end to the papal quarrel 
 with the emperor Louis; and though he did 
 not restore him to the communion of the 
 church, because prevented, as it is said, by the 
 king of France, yet he did not atteinpt any 
 thing against him. He carefully attended to 
 the grievances of the church, redressed them as 
 far as was in his power, endeavoured to reform 
 the fundamental laws of the monastie socie- 
 ties, whether of the mendicant, or more opu- 
 lent orders; and died in 1343, while he was de-. 
 vising the most noble schemes for promoting a 
 yet more extensive reformation. In short, if 
 we overlook his superstition, the prevailing 
 blemish of this barbarous age, it must be allow-' 
 ed that he was a man of integrity and merit. 
 
 XI. He was succeeded' by a man of a very 
 different disposition,. Clement VI., a native of 
 France,- whose- name was Peter Roger, and 
 who was cardinal of St. Nerous and St. 
 Achilles, before his elevation to' the pontifi- 
 cate. Not to insist upon the most unexceptiona- 
 ble, parts of this pontiff's conduct, we shall 
 only observe, that he trod faithfully in the 
 steps of John XXII. in promding for vacant 
 churches and bishoprics,-by' reserving to hiiji- 
 self the disposal 'of them, which showed his 
 sordid and insatiable avarice; that he confelred 
 ecclesiitstical dignities and benefices of the 
 highest consequence upon strangers and' Ita- 
 lians, which drew upon him the warm dis-. 
 pleasure of the kings of England and France; 
 and lastly, tha,t by renewing the dissensions that 
 had formerly subsisted between Louis of Ba- 
 varia and the Roman see, he exposed his 
 excessive vanity and ambition in the most odi- 
 ous colours. In 1343, he assailed the emper6r 
 with his thundering edicts; and when he heard 
 that they were treated by that prince with the 
 utihost contempt; his rage was augmented, 
 and he not only threw out new maledictions, 
 and published new sentences, of excommunica- 
 tion agaiiist him, in 1346, but also excited the 
 German princes to elect Henry VII., son of 
 Charles IV., emperor in his place. This vio- 
 lent measure would infallibly have occasioned 
 a civil war in Germany, had it not been pre- 
 vented by the death of Louis, in 1341. Cle- 
 ment survived him above five years, and died 
 near the close of the year 1352, famous for 
 nothing but his excessive zeal for extending 
 the papal authority, and for his having added 
 
 teen in specie, and the rest in plate, jewels, crowns, 
 mitres and other precious baubles, which he had 
 squeezed out of the people and the inferior clergy 
 daring his, pontificate. See Fleury, Hist. Eccles. liv. 
 xciv. sect, xxxix. _ .,,.... 
 
 * See the Fragme^ita Histor. Roman, in Muratom 
 Antiquit. Ital. torn, iii p. 275.— Baluzii Vit. Pont. 
 Avenion. toni. i. p. MS, 218, &c.^BouIay, Hist Acad. 
 Par. torn. iv. 
 
 Avignon, which he purchased of Joan, queen 
 of Naples, to the patrimony of St. Peter. 
 
 XII. His successor. Innocent VI., whose 
 nam© was Stephen AllJert, was much more re- 
 markable for integrity and moderation. He 
 was a Frenchman, and before his election had 
 been bishop of Ostia. He died in 1362, after 
 having governed the church for almost ten 
 years. His greatest blemish was, that he pro- 
 moted -his relatives with an excessive partiality; 
 but, in other respects, he was a man of merit, 
 and a great encourager of pious and learned 
 men. He kept the monks closely to their duty, 
 carefully abstained fi-om reserving churdies, and, 
 by many good actions, acquired a great and 
 deserved reputation. He was succeeded by 
 William Grimoard, abbot of St. Victor at 
 Marseilles, who took the name of Urban V., 
 and was entirely free from all the grosser -vices, 
 if we except those which cannot easily be sepa- 
 rated from the papal dignity. This pope, be- 
 'ing prevailed on by the entreaties of the Ro- 
 mans, returned to Rome in 136T; but,jn 1370, 
 he revisited Avignon, to reconcile the differ- 
 ences that had arisen between the kings of E'ng- 
 land and France, and died there in the same year, 
 
 XIII. He was succeeded by Peter Roger, a 
 French ecclesiastic of illustrious descent, who 
 assumed the name of Gregory XL, a man who, 
 though inferior- to his predecessors in virtue, 
 far exceeded them in courage and audacity. 
 In his time, Italy in general, and the city of 
 Rome in particular, were distressed with- most 
 outrageous and formidable tumults. The Flo- 
 rentines carried on with success a terrible war 
 against the ecclesiastical state;* upon which, 
 Gregofy, in hopes of quieting the disorders of 
 Italy, and also of recovering the cities and 
 territories which had" been taken fi-om St. 
 Peter's patrimony, transferred the papal seat, 
 in 1376, from Avignon to Rome. To this he 
 was in a great measure determined by the ad- - 
 vice of Catharine, a virgin of Sens, who, in 
 this credulous age,; was thought to be ir^ired * 
 with" the spirit of prophecy, and made a journey 
 to Avignon on purpose to persuade him to take 
 this step.f It was not, however, long before 
 Gregory repented that he had followed her 
 advice; for, by the long absence of the popes 
 from Italy, their authority, was reduced to so 
 low an ebb, that the Romans and Florentines 
 made no Scruple to insult him .with the grossest 
 abuse, which thade^him resolve to return to 
 Avignon; but, before he could execute Ijis de; 
 termination, he was talsen off by death, in 1 378. 
 
 XIV. After the death of Gregory XI., the 
 cardinals were assembled to consult about 
 choosing a successor, when the people of Rome, 
 unwilling that the vacant dignity should be 
 conferred on a Frenchman, approached the 
 conclave in a tumultuous manner, and with 
 great clamours^ accompanied with outrageous 
 menaces, insisted that an " Italian should be 
 advanced to the popedom. The cardin'.ls, tei> 
 rified by this uproar, immediately proclaimed 
 
 * See Colncii Salutati Eplstolas, written in the 
 name of the Florentines, part i. See also the preface 
 to the second part. 
 
 t See Longueval, Hist, de I'Eglise Gallicane, toiBi 
 xiv. p. ISO, 192. 
 
390 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part II. 
 
 Bartholomew Pregnane, who was a Neapolitan', 
 and archbishop of Bari, and assumed the name 
 of Urban VI. This new pontiff, by bis impo- 
 lite behaviour, injudicious severity, and intole- 
 rable arrogance, had entailed upon himself the 
 odium of people of all ranks, and especially of 
 the leading cardinals. These latter, therefore, 
 .tired of his insolence, with4rew from Rome to 
 Anagni, and thence to Fondi, where they 
 elected to the pontificate Robert, count of 
 Geneva, (w^ho took the name of Clement VII.,) 
 and declared at the same time, that the elec- 
 tion of Urban was nothing more than a mere 
 ceremony, which they Jiad found themselves 
 obliged to perform, in order to calm the turbu- 
 lent rage of the populace. Which of these 
 two-we'ought to consider as having been th6 
 true and lawful pope, is to this day, a doubtful 
 point;- nor will the records and writings, al- 
 leged by the contending parties, enable us to 
 adjust that point with certainty.* Urban re- 
 mained at Rome: Clement went to Avignon. 
 His cause was espoused by France, Spain, 
 Scotland, Sicily, and ,Cypnis, while all the 
 rest of Europe aclmowlfedged Urban as the 
 true vicar of Christ. 
 
 XV. Thus the union of the Latin church 
 under one head, was destroyed at the death of 
 Gregory XI., and was succeeded by that de- 
 plorable dissension, commonly known by the 
 namo'of the great loestem schism.^ This dis- 
 sension was fomented with such dreadful suc- 
 cess, and arose to such a shameful height, that,' 
 for fifty years, the church had two or three 
 different heads at the same time; each of the 
 contending popes forming plots, and thunder- 
 ing out anathemas against their competitors. 
 The distrefe and calamity of these times are 
 beyond all power of description; for, not to in- 
 sist -upon the perpetual content-ions and wars 
 between the factions of the several popes, by 
 which multitudes lost their fortunes' and liyes, 
 all sense of religion was extinguished in most 
 place§, and profligacy rose to a most scanda- 
 lous excess. The clergy, while they vehe- 
 mently contended which of the reigning popes 
 ought to be deemed the true suqcessor of 
 Christ,, were so excessively corrupt, as to be 
 no longer studious to keep up even an appear^ 
 anoe of religion or decency; and, in consequence 
 of all this, many plain well-meaning people, 
 who concluded that no one could partake of 
 eternal life, unless united with the vicar of 
 Christ, were overwhelmed with doubt, and 
 plunged into the deepest mental distress.! 
 
 * See the. acts and documents in Boulay, Hist. 
 Acad. Paris, torn. iv. p. 463.^-Luc. Wadding, Anna . 
 Minor, torn. ix. p. 12.— Steph. Baluze', Vit. Pontif. 
 Avenion. tom.-i. p. 442, 998. — Acta. Sanctor. torn. i. 
 April, p. 728. 
 
 t An account of tliis dissension may be seen in 
 Pierre du Pay, Histoire Generale du Bchisme qui a 
 ete en l*Eglise depuis I'an. 1378 jusqu' en Tan. 1428; 
 which, as we are informed in the preface, was com- 
 piled from the royal records of France, and is en- 
 Tirely worthy of credit. Nor should we wholly reject 
 Louis Maimbourg's Histoire du grand Schisme d'Oc- 
 cident, though in -general it be deeply tainted with 
 .the leaven of party spirit. Many documents are to 
 be met with in Boulay's Histor. .Acad; Paris, torn. 
 iv. and v.; and also in Marteiine's Thesaur. Anecdo- 
 tor. torn. ii. I-always pass over the common writers 
 upon this subject, such as Ale.xander, Raynald, 
 Bzovius, Spnndanus, and Du-Pin. 
 
 t Of 'be mischievous coiisequences of tills schism. 
 
 Nevertheless, these abuses were, by their con- 
 sequences, greatly conducive both to the ci-vil 
 and religious interests of mankind; for, by these 
 dissensions, the papal power received aii incu- 
 rable wound; and kiiigs and princes, who had 
 formeTly been the slaves of the lordly pontiffs, 
 now becanie theii judges and masters; and 
 many of the least stupid among the people had 
 the courage to disregard and despise the popes, 
 on account of their odious disputes about do- 
 minion, to commit their salvation to God 
 alone, and to admit it as a maxim, that the 
 prosperity of the church ihight be maintained, 
 and the interests of religion secured and pro- 
 moted, without a vtsi'ble head, crowned with a 
 spiritual supremacy. 
 
 XVI. The Italian cardinals, attached to the 
 interests of Urban VI., on the death of that 
 pope, in 1389, set up for his successor Peter 
 Thomacelli, a Neapohtan, who took the name 
 of Boniface IX.; and dement VII., dying in 
 1394, the French cardinals raised to the ponti- 
 ficate Peter d6 Lima, a Spaniard, who assumed 
 the name of Benedict XIII. During these 
 transactions, various methods were proposed 
 and attempted for healing this melancholy 
 breach in the church. Kings and princes, 
 bishops and divines, appeared with zeal in this 
 salutary project. It was generally thought 
 that the best course to be taken was, what they 
 then styled, the Method of Cession: but neither 
 of the popes could be prevailed on, either by 
 entreaties or threals, to give up the pontificate. 
 The Galilean church, highly incensed at this 
 obstinacy, renounced solemnly, in a council 
 holden at Paris, in 139-7, all subjection and obe-. 
 dience to both-pontiffs; and, on the publication^ 
 of this resolution, in J398, Benedict was, by 
 the express orders of Charles' VI., detained 
 prisoner' in his palace at Avignon.* 
 
 XVII. Some of the popes, particularly 
 Benedict XII., were perfectly acquainted with 
 the prevailing vices and scandalous conduct 
 of the greatest part of the monks^ which they 
 zealously endeavoured to rectify and remove; . 
 but the disorder was too inveterate to be easily 
 cured, or effectually remedied. The Mendir ' 
 cants, and morp especially the Dominicans and 
 Franciscans, were at the head of the monastic 
 orders, and had, indeed, become the heads of 
 the church: so extensive was the influence 
 they had acquired, that all matters of impor- 
 tance, both in the .court of Rome, and -in the 
 cabinets of princes, were carried on tmder their 
 supreme and absolute direction. The multi- 
 tude had such a high notion of the sanctity of 
 these sturdy beggars, and of their credit with 
 the Supreme Being, that great numbers of both 
 sexes, some in health; others in a state of infir- 
 inity, others at the point of death, earnestly 
 desired to be admitted into the Mendicant or- 
 der, which they looked upon as a sure and in- 
 fallible method of rendering Heaven propitious. 
 Many made it an essential part of their last 
 wills, that their carcasses, after death, should 
 be wrapped in ragged Dominican or Francis- 
 
 we have a full account in the Histoire du Droit pub- 
 lic Eccles. Francois, torn. ii. p. 166, 193, 202. 
 
 * Beside the common historians, and Longueval'i 
 Histoire de I'Eglise Gallicane, t. xiv. see the acts of 
 this council in Boulay's Hist. t. iv 
 
Chap. 11. 
 
 DOCTORS, CHURCH GOVERNMENT, «to. 
 
 391 
 
 can habitg, and interred among the Mendi- 
 cants; for, amidst the barbarous superstition 
 and wretched ignorance of this age, the gene- 
 rality of people believed that they might readily 
 obtain mercy from Christ at the day of judg- 
 ment, if they should appear beibre his tribunal 
 associated With the Mendicant friars. 
 
 XVnii The high esteem attached to the 
 Mendicant ' orders, and the great authority 
 whicli they had acquired, only served to ren- 
 der them still more odious to such as had 
 hitherto been their enemies, and to draw upon 
 them new marks of jealotisy and hatred from 
 the higher and lovver clergy, the monastic so- 
 cieties, and the public universities. So general 
 was this odium, that in almost every province 
 and university of Europe, bishops, clergy, arid 
 doctors, were warmlyiengaged in opposition, to 
 the Dominicans and Franciscans; who em- 
 ployed the power and authority they had re- 
 ceived from the popes, in undermining tlie an- 
 cient, discipline of the church, and- assuming to 
 themselves a certain superintendence in reli- 
 gious matters. In England, the university of 
 Oxford made a resolute stand against the en- 
 croachments of the Dominicans,* while Rich- 
 ard, archbishop of Armagh, Henry Cromp, 
 Norris, aiid others, attacked all the Mendicant 
 orders with great- vehemence and severity.^ 
 But Richard, whose, animosity was inuch 
 keener against them than that of their other 
 ajitagonists, went to the court of Innocent VI., 
 in 1356, and vindicated the cause of the church 
 against them with the greatest fervour, both 
 in his writings , and discourse, imtil the year 
 1360, in whith he died.J They had also many 
 opponents in France, who, together with the 
 university of Paris, were secretly engaged in 
 contriving mean? to overturn .their exorbitant 
 power: but John de Polliae set himself openly 
 against them, publicly denying the validity of 
 the absolution granted ,by the Dominicans and 
 Franciscans to those who confessed to them, 
 maintaining that the popes were disabled from 
 granting them a power of absolution by the 
 authority of the canon entitled Omnis lUrivs- 
 que sexiis,. and proving from these premises, 
 that all those who would be sure of their sal- 
 vation, ought to confess their sins to the priests 
 of their respective parishes, even though -they 
 had been absolved by the monks. They suf- 
 fered little or nptbing, ,however,~froin the ef^ 
 forts of these numerous adversaries, being reso- 
 lutely proteQted against all opposition, whether 
 open or secret, by the popes, who regarded 
 them as their best friends and most effectual 
 supports; Accordingly, John XXII., by an 
 extraordinary decree, in 1321, condemned the 
 opinions of John de Folliac.§ 
 
 XIX. But, among all the enemies of the 
 
 * See Wood's Antiquit. Oxon. torn. i. p. 150, 196, 
 tc. 
 
 t See Wood, torn. i. p. 181; torn. ii. p. 61.— Baluzii 
 Vit» Pontif. Avenion. torn. i. p. 338, 950— Boulay, 
 torn. iv. p. 336. — Wadding, torn. viii. p. 126. 
 
 J See Simon's Lettres Ohoisiea, torn. i. p. 164. I 
 have in ray possession a manuscript treatise of Bar- 
 tholomew de Brisac, entitled, " Solutiones oppositas 
 Ricardi, Armachani episcopi, propositionibus contra 
 Mendicantes in curia Bomana coram Fontifice et 
 cardjnalibus factis, anno 1380." 
 
 5 See Jo.'Launoius, de Canone Omnis utriusque 
 Bexufi, lorn. i. part i. op. p. 271, 287, &c.— Baliwil 
 
 Mendicant orders, no one has been transmitted 
 to posterity with more exalted encomiums on 
 the one hand, or black calumnies on the other, 
 than John Wickliff, an English doctor, profes- 
 sor of divinity at Oxford, and afterwards rector 
 of Lutterworth; who, according to the' testir 
 nlouy of the Writers of these times, was a man 
 of an enterprising genius, and extraordinary 
 learning. In 1360, animated by the example 
 of Richard, archbishop of Armagh, he defend- 
 ed the statutes and privileges of the university 
 of Oxford, against all the orders of the- Men- 
 dicants, and had the courage to throw out 
 some slight reproofs against the popes, their 
 principal jpatrons, which no true . Britoii'ever 
 imputed to him as a crime. After this, in 
 1367, he was deprived of the wardenship of 
 Canterbury Hall, in the university of Oxford, 
 by Sinion Langham, archbishop of Canter- 
 bury, who substituted a monk in his place"; 
 upon which he appealed to pope Urban V., 
 who confirmed the sentence of the primate 
 against him, on account of the freedom with 
 which he had inveighed against the monastic 
 orders. Highly exasperated at this treatment, 
 he threw off all i:estraint, and not only attack- 
 ed all the monks, and their scandalous irregu- 
 larities, but even the pontifical power itself and 
 other ecclesiastical abuses, both in-his sermons 
 and writings. He proceeded to yet greater 
 lengths, and, detesting the wretched ' supersti- 
 tion of the times, refuted, with great acuteness 
 and spirit, the absurd notions that were gene- 
 rally received iri religious matters, and not only 
 exhorted ther laity to study the Scriptures, but 
 also translated into English these divine books, 
 in order to render the perusal of them more 
 general. Though neither the doctrine of 
 Wickliif was void of etror, nor his life with- 
 out reproach, yet it.must be allowed, that the 
 phangeshe attempted to introduce, both in the 
 ,faith and discipline of the church, were, in 
 many rgspeots, wise,, useful, and salutary.* 
 
 XX. The monks, whom Wickhif had prin- 
 cipally exasperated, coinmenced a violent pro* 
 secution against him at the court of Gregory 
 XI., who, in 1377, ordered Simon Sudbury, 
 archbishop of- Canterbury, to take cognizance 
 of the affair in a council convoked at London, 
 Imminent as this daiiger evidently was, Wick» 
 liff escaped it, by the interest of the duke of 
 Lancaster, and some other peers,'who had a high 
 regard for him; and soon after the death of 
 Gregory, the fatal schism of the Romish 
 church commenced, during which there was 
 one pope at Rome, and another at Avignon; so 
 that of course the controversy lay dormant a 
 long time. The process against Wickliff was 
 after<vards revived, however, by William de 
 Courtenay, archbishop of Canterbury, in 1385, 
 and was carried on with great vehemence in 
 two councils holden at London'and Oxford. 
 The event was, that of the twenty-three opin 
 
 Vit. Pontif. Avenion. torn. i. et ii. Ejus. Miscellanea, 
 torn. i. — D'Acherii Spicil. Scriptor. Veter. torn. i. — 
 Martenne, Thesaur. Anecdotor. torn, i.- 
 
 * A work of his was published at Leipsic and 
 Frankfort, in 1753, entitled, Dialogorum Libri qua* 
 tuor, whicli, though it does not contain all the 
 branches of his doctrine, yet shows sufficiently the 
 spirit of the man, and his way of thinking in ga 
 neral. 
 
392 
 
 INTERNAL fflSTORr OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part H. 
 
 ions, for which WicklifF had been proaecuted 
 by the monks, ten were condemned as heresies, 
 and thirteen as errors.* He himself, however, 
 returned in safety to Lutterworth, where he 
 died peaceably in 1 3 8 7 . The latter attack was 
 much more dangerous than the former; but by 
 what means he got safely through it, whether 
 by the interest of the court, or by denying or 
 abjuring hisopinions, is to this day a secret, f 
 He left many followers in England, and other 
 countries, who were styled Wickliffites and 
 Lollards, which last was a term of popular re- 
 proach translated from the Flemish tongue 
 into English. Wherever they could be found, 
 they were terribly persecuted by the inquisi- 
 tors, and other instruments of papal- vengeance. 
 In the council of Constance, in 1416, the me- 
 mory and opinions of Wickliff were condemn- 
 ed by a solemn decree; and, about thirteen 
 years eiftef, liia bones were dug up, and .pub- 
 licly burned. 
 
 XXI. Although the Mendicants were thus 
 vigorously attacked on all sides, by such a con". 
 siderable number of ingenious and Teamed ad- 
 versaries, they cciiild not be persuaded to abate 
 any thing of their excessive pride, to set bounds 
 to their superstition, or to desist from imposing 
 upon the multitude, but were as diligent as 
 ever in propagating opinions highly detrimental 
 to religion in general, and particularly injuri- 
 ous to the majesty of the Supreme Being. 
 The Franciscans, forgetting, in their.enthusi- 
 astic phrensy, the veneration which they owed 
 to the Son of God, and animated with a mad 
 zeal for advancing the glory of their order and 
 its founder, impiously maintained, that the 
 latter-was a second Christ, in all respects simi- 
 lar to the first, and that tiieir institution, doc- 
 trine, and discipline, were the true Gospel of 
 Jesus. Yet, shocking as these foohsh and im- 
 pious pretensions were, the popes were not 
 ashamed to patronise and encourage them by 
 tlieir letters and mandates, in which they made 
 no scruple to assert, that the absurd fable of 
 
 the stigiqas, or five wounds impressed upon 
 Francis by Christ himself,;Dn mount Alvemus, 
 was worthy of credit, because matter of un- 
 doubted fact.* Nor was this all; for they not 
 only permitted to be published, without any 
 mark of their disapprobation, but approved, 
 and even recomriiended, an impious piece, 
 stuffed with tales yet more improbable and ri- 
 diculous than either of the above-mentioned 
 fictions, and entitled, The Book of the Con- 
 formities of ,St. Francis with Jesus Christ, 
 which was composed, in 1885, by Bartholomew 
 Albizi, a Franciscan of Pisa, with the applause 
 of his order. This infamous tract, in which 
 the Son of God is put upon a level with a 
 wretched mortal, is an eternal monument of. 
 the outrageous enthusiasm and abominable ar- 
 rogance of the Franciscan order, and also of 
 the excessive imprudence, of the pontiffs who 
 extolled and recommended it.f 
 
 XXII. The Franciscans, who adhered to the 
 genuine and austere rule of their founder, and 
 oppqsed the popes who, attempted to mitigate 
 the severity of ite injimctions, Were not in the 
 
 lE^* In the original, Dr. Mosheim says, tlia-t, of 
 eighteen articles imputed to Wickliff, nine were con- 
 demned as heresies, and fifteen as errors. This 
 contradiction, which we hare taken the liberty 
 to correct in the text, is an oversight of the learned 
 author, who appears to have confounded the eighteen 
 hei-esies and errors that were enumerated and re- 
 futed by William Woodford, in a letter to Arundel, 
 archbishop of Oanterbtrry, with the twenty-three 
 propositions that had been condemned byhis pre- 
 decessor Courtenay at London, of which ten were 
 pronounced heretical, and thirteen erroneous. See 
 the very curious collection of pieces, entitled, -Fas- 
 ciculus rerum expetendarum et fugiendarum Qrthu- 
 ini Gratii, published first at Cologne by the compiler, 
 in 1535, and afterwards at London, in leflO, with an 
 additional volume of ancient pieces and fragnients, 
 by the learned Mr. Edward Brown. The letter Of 
 Woodford is at full, length in the first voli^me of this 
 collection. 
 
 t We have a full and complete History of the Life 
 and Sufferings of John Wickliff, published at Lon- 
 don, in 3720, by Mr. -John Lewis, who also puhlished, 
 in 1731, Wickliff's English translation of the New 
 Testament from the Latin version called the Vul- 
 gate. This translation is enriched with a learned 
 preface by the editor, in which he enlarges upon the 
 life, actions, and sufferings, of that eminent reform- 
 er. Tlie pieces, relative to the controversies which 
 were occasioned by the doctrines of Wirftliff, are to 
 be found in the learned work of Wilkins, entitled. 
 Concilia Magnae BritanniiB et Hibern. torn. iii. p. 
 116, 156.— ^ee also Boulay's Hist. topi. iv. and 
 Wood's Antiq. torn. i. 
 
 ■ * The story of the mar&f, or stigmas, impressed on 
 Francis, is well known, as are also the letters of 
 the Rqmai^ pontiffs, which enjoin, the -belief of it, 
 and which Wadding has collected with great care, 
 and published in his Annales Minorum, torn. viii. 
 and ix." The' Dominicans formerly made a public 
 jest of 'this ridiculous fable; but, being awed into 
 silence by the papal bulls,.theyare now obliged to de- 
 ride it in secret, while the Franciscans, on the 9ther 
 hand, continue to propagate it With the most fervent- 
 zeal. That St. Francis Jiad upon hisbodylhe marks 
 or impressions of the five great wounds of Christ, is 
 not to be doubted, since this is a fact proved by a 
 great number of unexceptionable witnesses. But, 
 as he was a n;ost superstitious and fanatical mortal, 
 it is undoubtedly evident that he imprinted on him- 
 self these holy wounds, that he might resemble 
 Christ, and bear about on his body a.perpetual memo- 
 rial-of the Redeemer's sufferings, it was customary 
 in these tiijies, for such as were willing to be thought i 
 more pious than others, to imprint upon their bodies 
 marks of this kind, that, having thus continually 
 before them a lively representation of the death of 
 Christ, they might preserve a becoming sense of-it 
 in their minds. The words of St. Paul (Galat. vi. 17,) ' 
 .■were sufficient to confirm in this wretched delusion 
 an ignorant and superstitious age, in which the 
 Scriptures were neither studied nor understood. A/ 
 long list of these stigmatised fanatics jm^t. be ex- 
 tracted from the Acta Sanctorum, and other records 
 of this and Ihe-following century: nor is this ancient 
 piece of superstition entirely abolished, even in our 
 times. Bb that as it -may,- the Franciscan monks, 
 having found these marks upon the dead body of 
 their founder, took this occasion. of making him ap- 
 pear to the worl(I as honoured by Heaven above the 
 rest of mortals, and invented, for this purpose, the 
 story of Christ's having miraculously transferredhia 
 wounds to him. 
 
 " t For an account of Albizi and his book, see Wad- 
 ding, torn. ix. p. 158. — Fahricii Biblioth. Lat. medii 
 Mvi, tom, i. p. 131. — Schelhnrnii Amten. Liter, torn, 
 iii. p. 160 Bayle's Dictionary, at the article Fran- 
 cois, and the Nouveau Dictionnaire "Hist. Crit. at 
 the article Albizi. Erasmus Albert m,ade several 
 extracts from this hook, and published them under 
 th6 title of- the Koran of the Franciscans, which 
 was frequently printed in Latin, German, ai^d 
 -French. 
 
 Cc?*' The conformities between Christ and St. 
 Francis, are only carried to forty, in the book of 
 Albizi: but they are multiplied to 4000, by a Spanish 
 monk of the order .of Observants, in a work publish- 
 ed, in 1651, under the following title, Prodigiosum 
 NaturjE et Gratiaj Portentura. The conformities 
 mentioned by Pedro de Alva Astorga, the austere 
 author of this most ridiculous book, are whimsical 
 beyond expression. See the Bibl. des Sciencecet das 
 Beaux Arts, t. iv. p. 318. 
 
DOCTORS, CHURCH GOVERNMENT, &o. 
 
 CHAp.n. 
 
 least wiser than those of the order, who ac- 
 knowledged the jurisdiction arid respected the 
 decisions of the Roman pontiffs. By those 
 antipapal Franciscans 1 mean the Fratricelli, 
 or Minorites, and the. Tertiaries of that order, 
 otiierwise called Beghai-ds, together with the 
 Spirituals, who resided principally in France, 
 and embraced the opinions of Pierre d'Olive. 
 These nipnastic factions were turbulent and 
 seditious beyond expression; they gayp incre- 
 dible vexation to the popes,, and for a long 
 time disturbed, wherever they appeared, the 
 tranquillity both of church and state. . About 
 the beginning of this century,* the less austere 
 Franciscans vrere outrageous in their resent- 
 ment against the Fratricelli, who had deserted 
 their communiQh;t upou which such of the 
 latter as had the good ibrtune to escape the 
 fury of their persecutors, retired into France, 
 in 1307, and associated themselves with the 
 Spirituals, or, followers of Pierre d'Olive, in 
 Provence, who had also abandoned the society. 
 Soon afterthis, the whole Franciscan order in 
 F-rahce, Italy, and other countries, formed' two 
 parties. Those who embraced the severe dis- 
 cipline and absolute poverty of St. Francis, 
 were called Spirituals; such as insisted upon 
 mitigating the austere injunctions of their 
 founder, were styled the Brethren of the Com- 
 munity. The latter, being far more numerous 
 and powerful, exerted themselves to the -ut- 
 most, to oppress the former, whose Taction was 
 still weafc, and, as it were, in its infancy; yet 
 they cheerfully submitted to these hardships, 
 rather than return to the society of those who 
 had desehed the rules of their master. Pope 
 Clement V., having drawn the leaders of these 
 two parties tb his court, took great pains to 
 compose tliese dissepsions; nevertheless, his 
 pacific scheme advanced but slowly, on ac- 
 count of the inflexible obstinacy of each sect, 
 and the great number of their mutual accusa- 
 tions, m the mean while, the Spirituals_of 
 Tuscany, instead of waiting for the decision 
 of his holiness; chose a president and inferior 
 officers; while those of France, being in the 
 neighbourhood of Avignon, patiently expected 
 the papal determination.! , 
 
 XXIII. After many deliberations, Clepient, 
 in a general council at Vienne in Daiiphipe, 
 (where he issued the famous bull,§ Exivi de 
 paradiso,) proposed- , an expedient for healing 
 the breach between the jarring parties, by wise 
 concessions on both sides. He gave up many 
 points to the Spirituals, or rigid Franciscans, 
 enjoining upon the whole order the profes- 
 sion of absolute poverty, according to their 
 primitive rule,- and the solemn renunciation of 
 all property, vyhether common or personal, 
 confining them to what was necessary for their 
 immediate subsistence, and allowing them, 
 even for that, a very scanty pittance, He, 
 however, on the other hand, permitted the 
 Franciscans, who lived in places where it was 
 
 393 
 
 ■ * In 1306 and 1307. 
 
 t Wadding, t. vi. ad an. 1307. 
 
 X Wadding, torn. iy. ad an. 1310, p. 217. — Eccardi 
 Corpus Histor. medii JEvi, torn. i. p. 1480.— Boulay, 
 torn. iv. p. 129. — Eccardi Scriptor. Prsedicafeor. toni. i. 
 
 § This bull is Inserted in the Jus Canouicum inter 
 Qlementinas, tit. xi. de vcrtor. signify torn. ii. p. 
 loss, edit. Boiimeri. 
 Voi,. I.— 50 
 
 extremely difficult to procure by begging the 
 necessaries of life, to erect "granaries and store- 
 houses; where they might deposit apart of 
 their 'alms as a stpck, ih case of want; and 
 ordered that all such i:epositories should be un- 
 der the inspection and' management of over- 
 seers and store-keepers, who wefe to determine 
 what quantity of provisions should be laid up 
 in them. And, finally, in order to satisfy- the 
 Brethren of the Community, he condemned 
 some opinions of Pierre d'Olive.* These pro- 
 ceedings silenced tlie monastic commotions in 
 France; but the Tuscan and Italian Spirituals 
 were so exceedingly perverse and obstinate, 
 that they could not be brought to consent to 
 any method of reconciliation. At length, in 
 1313, many of them, not thinking themselves 
 safe in Italy, went into Sicily, where they met 
 with a friendly reception from Frederic, the 
 nobility", and bishops.f 
 
 ^ XXIV. Upon the death of Clement V. the 
 tumul);, which had been appeased by his autho- 
 rity, revived in France with as much fury as 
 ever. For, in 1314, a hundred and twenty of 
 the Spirituals made a violent attack i;pon :the 
 Brethren of the Community, drove them out 
 of the convents of Narbonne and Beziers by- 
 force of arms, and inflamed the quarrel in a 
 yet higher degree, by relinquishing their an- 
 cient habits, and assuming such as -were short,- 
 dose, and mean. They were soon joined-by 
 ji considerable number from other provinces; 
 and the citizens of Narbonne, where Olive wiis 
 interred, enlisted themselves in the. party. 
 John XXII., who was raised to the pontificate! 
 ;in the year 1317, took great pains to heal this 
 new disprder. The first thing-he did for this 
 purpose, "was to publish a" special bull, by 
 .which he ordered the abolition of the' Fratri- 
 celli or.JVIiuorites, and their Tertiaries, whethei 
 Beguinesor Beghards, who formed a body dis- 
 tinct from the Spirituals.! In the next place, 
 he admonished the king of Sicily to expel all 
 the Spirituals who had takeil refuge in his do- 
 minions,! 3,nd then ordered the French Spirit- 
 uals to appear at Avignon, where he exhorted 
 tliem to return to their duty, and as the first 
 step to it, to lay aside the short, close habits, 
 with the small hoods. The greatest part of 
 them obeyed;, but Fr. Bernard Delitiosi, who 
 was the head of the faction, and twenty-four 
 of the bretliren, boldly refused to submit tb the 
 injunction. In vindication of their conduct, 
 they alleged that the rules prescribed by St. 
 Francis, were the same with the Gospelof Jesug 
 Christ; that the popes therefore had no author- 
 ity to alter them; that the pontiffs had acted 
 sinfully in permitting the Franciscans to have 
 ■granaries and storehouses; and that they added 
 to their guilt in not allowing those habits to be 
 worn that were enjoined by St. Francis. John, 
 highly exasperated by this opposition, gave 
 orders that these obstinate brethren should be 
 
 * Wadding, torn, vi^ p. 194, 197, 199. 
 
 t'Wadding, torn. vj. p. 213, 214. — Boulay, toni. 
 iv. p.- 152, 165. — AEgentre, Golleetio judicior. de novia 
 error, topi. i. p. 392. 
 
 I This law is called Sancta Romana^&c. and is- 
 to be found among the Extravagantes Johannis 
 XXII. tit. vii. de religiosig domibua, torn.- li. Jur. 
 Canon, p. 1112. 
 
 § Wadding, torn. vi. p. 365 
 
394 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part 11. 
 
 proceeded against as heretics. And surely 
 nothing could make them appear viler heretics 
 in the papal eye, than their venturing thus 
 audaciously to oppose the authority and ma- 
 jesty of the Roman see. As for Delitiosi, who 
 is sometimes called Delli Consi,.he was im- 
 prisoned, and died in his confinement. Tour 
 of his adherents were condemned to the flames, 
 in 1318, at Marseilles;* and this horrible sen- 
 tende was accordingly executed without mercy. 
 
 XXV. Thus these unhappy friars, and many 
 more of their fraternity, who were afterwards 
 cut off by 'this cruel persecution, suffered 
 merely for their contempt of the decisions of 
 the pontiffs, and for maiiitaining that the in- 
 stitute of St. Francis) their founder, which 
 they imagined he had established under the 
 direction of an iimnediate inspiration, was the 
 very Gospel of Christ, and therefore ought^not 
 to be altered by the pope's authority. The 
 controversy, considered in itself, was rather ri- 
 diculous than important, since it did not affect 
 religion in the least, but turned wholly on 
 these two points, the form of the habits to be 
 worn by the Franciscan order, and t|ieir grana- 
 ries and store-houses. The Brethren of the 
 Community, or the less rigid Franciscans, wore 
 long, loose, and good habits, with ample hoods; 
 but the Spirituals went in short, scanty, and 
 very coarse ones, which they asserted to be 
 precisely, the dress enjoined by the institute of 
 St. Francis, and what therefore no power upon 
 earth had; a right to alter. And whereas the 
 fornjer, immediately after the harvest and 
 vintage, were accustomed to lay up a stock of 
 corn and wine irf their granaries and cellars, ■ 
 the latter resolutely opposed this practice, as 
 entirely repugnant to ' that profession of abso- 
 lute poverty which had been embraced by the 
 Fratricelli or Minorites. In order to put an 
 end to these broils, the pope, in this very year, 
 puhlished a long mandatory letter, in wliich 
 he ordered the contending parties to submit 
 their disputes, upon the two points above- 
 mentioned, to the decision of their superiors.f 
 
 XXVI. The effects of this letter, and of 
 other decrees, were prevented" by the unsea- 
 sonable 'and impious severity of John, whose 
 cruelty was condemned and detested even by 
 his adherents. For the Spiritual Franciscans 
 and their votaries, being highly exasperated at 
 the cruel death of their brethren, maintained; 
 that John, by procuring, the destruction of 
 these holy men, had ^rendered himself utterly 
 unworthy of the papal dignity and was the 
 true Antichrist. They'raoreover revered their 
 four brethren, who were burned at Marseilles, 
 as BO many martyrs, paying religious venera- 
 tion to their bones a.nd ashes; and inveighed 
 yet more vehemently than ever against long 
 habits, large hoods, granaries, and store-houses. 
 The inquisitors, on the other hand, having. 
 
 * Baluze, VitiB Pontif- Avenion. torn. i. p. 116; 
 tom.,ii. p. 341, et Miscellan. torn. i. p. 195,372. Wad- 
 ding, torn; vi. p, 267. Martenne, Thesaur. Anecdotor. 
 torn. y. p. 175. Mai;tinus Fuldensis, in Eccardi Cor- 
 pore thstor. medii Jivi, torn. i. p. 1725, et Herm, 
 Cornerus, ibid. torn. ii. p. 981. Histoire generale 
 dc Languedoc, torn. iv. p. 179. Argentre, CoUectio 
 Judicior. de novis errorib. torn. i. p. 294. 
 
 t It may-be seen in the Jus Canon, among tlie Ex- 
 travBgVcommunes de verbor. signif. See also Wad- 
 ding, torn. vi. 
 
 by the pope's order, apprehended as many of 
 these people as they could find, condemned 
 them to the flam.es, and sacrificed them with- 
 out mercy to papal resentment and fury: so 
 that from this time a vast number of those zea- 
 lous defenders of the institute of St. Francis, 
 viz. the Minorites, Beghards, and Spirituals, 
 were most barbarously put to death, not only 
 in France, but also in Italy, Spain, and Ger- 
 many.* 
 
 XXVII. This dreadfiil flame continued to 
 spread till it invaded the whole Franciscan or- 
 der, which, in 1321, had revived the old con- 
 tentions concerning the poverty of Christ and 
 his apostles. A certain Beguin, or monk of 
 the third order of St. Francis-, who was appre- 
 hended this year at Narbonne, taught, among 
 other things, " That neither Christ nor his apos- 
 tles ever possessed any thing, whether in com- 
 mon or personally, by right of property or do- 
 minion." John de Belna, an inquisitor Of the 
 Dominican order, pronounced this opinion er- 
 roneous; biit Berengarius Taloni, a Franciscan, 
 maintained it to be orthodox, and perfectly con- 
 sonant to the bull, Exiit qui seminat^ of Nicolas 
 III. The judgment of the former was approv- 
 ed by the Dominicans; the determination of 
 the latter was adhered to by the Franciscans. 
 At length- the matter was brought before the 
 pope, who prudently endeavoured to put an 
 end to the dispute. With this view he -called 
 into his council Ubertinus de Casalis, the pa- 
 tron of the Spirituals, and a person of .great 
 weight and reputation. This eminent monk 
 gave captious, subtle, and equivocal answers to 
 the questions that were proposed to him. The 
 pontiff, however, and the cardinals, persuaded 
 that his decisions, however ambiguous, might 
 contribute ito terminate the quarrel, acquiesced 
 -in them, seconded them with their authority, 
 and, at the same time, enjoined silence and mo- 
 deration on the contending parties.^ 
 
 XXVIir. But the Dominicans and Francis- 
 cans ware so exceedingly exasperated against 
 each other, that they could by no means be 
 brought to -conform themselves to this order. 
 The pope, perceiving this, permitted them to 
 renev/ the controversy in 1322; and he himself 
 proposed to some of the most celebrated divines 
 of the age, and especially to those of Paris, 
 the determination of this point, namely, " Whe- 
 ther those were to be deemed heretics, who 
 maintained that Jesus Christ, and his apostles, 
 had no common or personal property in any 
 thing they possessed?" The Franciscans, who 
 held an assembly in that year at Perugia, hav- 
 ing gained intelligence of this proceeding, de- 
 creed that those who held this tenet were not 
 
 * Beside many other pieces that serve to illustrate 
 the intricate liistory of this persecution, I have in 
 my possession a treatise, entitled, Martyrologium 
 Spiritualium et Fratricellorum, which was delivered 
 to the tribunal of the inquisition at Carcassone, A. 
 D. 1454." It contains the names of 113 persons of 
 both sexes,-who, from the year 1318 to the time of 
 Innocent VI., were committed to the flames in 
 France and Italy, for their inflexible attachinent to 
 the poverty of St. Francis. I reckon that from these 
 and other records, published and unpublished, we 
 maymake out a list of two thousand martyrs qf this 
 kind. See Codex Inqliis. Tolosanae. 
 
 t Wadding, torn. vi. p. 361. Baluzii Miscellan 
 torn. i. p. 307. Ger. du Bois, Hiator. Eccles. FaruL 
 p. 611. 
 
Chap. II. 
 
 DOCTORS. CHURCH GOVERNMENT, &c. 
 
 395 
 
 heretics, but maintained on opinion tliat was 
 holy ancl orthodox, and perfectly agreeable to 
 the-,decisions and mandates of the popes. They 
 also sent a deputy to Avignon, to defepd this 
 unanimous determination of their whole, order 
 against all opponents whatever. The person 
 whom they commissioned for this purpose was 
 F. Bonagratia, of Bergamo, who also went by 
 the'name of Boncortese,* one of their fraterni- 
 ty, and a man famous for his extensive learning. 
 John, being highly incensed at this step, issued 
 a decree, wherein he espoused an opinion dia- 
 metrically opposite to that of the Franciscans, 
 and declared them to he heretics, for obstinately 
 maintaining " that Christ and his apostles had 
 no common or persb,nal property in what they 
 possessed, nor a power of selling or alienating 
 any part of it." Soon after, he proceeded yet 
 farther, and, in another constitution, exposed 
 the weakness and inefficacy of those argu- 
 ments, commonly reduced from a bull of Nico- 
 las III., concerning the property of the Fran- 
 ciscan possessions being transferred to the 
 church of -Rome, whereby the monks were 
 supposed to be deprived of what we call right, 
 and were only allowed the sirhple. use of what 
 was necessary for their immediate support. .In 
 order to confute this plea,^he showed that it 
 was absolutely impossible to separate right and 
 property from the lawful use of such things as 
 were immediately consumed by that use.^ He 
 also solemnly renounced all property jn the 
 Franciscan effects, which had been reserved to 
 the church of Rome by former popes, their 
 churches and some other things excepted. 
 And whereas the revenues of the order had 
 been hitherto received and administered by 
 procurators, on the part of the Roman church, 
 he dismissed these officers, and abolished all 
 the decrees and constitutions of his predeces- 
 sors relating to this affair.f 
 
 XXIX. By this method of proceeding, the 
 dexteroiis pontiff entirely destroyed that boast- 
 ed exproprxMon, which was the main bulwark 
 of the Franciscan order, and which its foundpr 
 had esteemedvthe distinguishing glory of the 
 society. It was therefore natural, that these 
 measures should determineithe Franciscans to 
 an obstinate resistance! And such indeed was 
 the effect they produced: for, in 1323, they 
 sent their brother Bonagratia in the quality of 
 legate to the papal court, where he vigordusly 
 and openly opposed the recent constitution of 
 John, boldly affirming, that it was contrary ,to 
 human as well as divine law.| The pope, on 
 the other hand, highly exasperated against this 
 audacious defender of the Franciscan poverty, 
 threw him into prison, and ordained, by anew 
 
 * I insect this caution, because I have observed 
 that some eminent writers, by not attending to this 
 circumstance, have taken these two names for two 
 different persons. - ' 
 
 t These constitutions are recorded in the Corpus 
 ■ Juris Canonici, and also among the Extravagantes, 
 tit. xiv. de verBor. signiflc. cap. ii. iij. p. 1121. For 
 an account of the transaction itself, the reader should 
 chiefly consult that impartial writer, Alvariis Pela- 
 
 flUB, de Planctu Bcclesiae, lib. ii. cap. 60. as also Wad- 
 ing, torn. vi. p. 394. Both these authors blame pppe 
 John. 
 
 1 Wadding, torn. vii. p. 2, 23. — Alvar. Pelagius, de 
 Planctu Ecclesia, lib. ii. p. 167.— Trithemius, Annals 
 Hirsaug. torn. ii. p. 157.— Theod.de Niem, in Eccardi 
 Corpore Histor. med. iEvi, t. vii. p. 1491. 
 
 edict, that all who maintained that Christ, and 
 his apostles, had no common or special proper- 
 ty in any of their possessions, should be deem- 
 ed heretics, and corrupters of the true religion.* 
 Finding, however, that tlie Franciscans were 
 not tej'rified in the least by this decree, he pub- 
 lished another yet more flaming constitution, 
 about-the end of the year 1324;- in wliich he 
 confirmed his former edicts, and pronoimced 
 that tenet concerning the expropriation of 
 Christ and his apostles, ' a pestilential, errone- 
 ous, damnable, arid blasphemous doctrine, hos- 
 tile to the catholic faith,' and'declared all such • 
 as adhered to it, obstinate heretics, and rebels 
 against the church.f In consequence of this 
 merciless decree, great ntunbers of those who 
 persisted in assorting that Christ and his apos- 
 tles were exactly such mendicants as Francis 
 would have his brethren to be, were apprehend- 
 ed by the Dominican inquisitors, who were im- 
 placable enemies of the Francispans, and com- 
 mitted to the flames. The histories of France 
 and Spain, Italy and Germany, dliring this and 
 the following century, abound with instances 
 of this atrocious cruelty. 
 
 XXX. The zealous pontiff pursued this af- 
 fair with great warmtli for several years; and, 
 as this contest seemed to have taken its rise 
 from the books of Pierre d'Olive, he branded 
 with infamy, in 1325, the Postilla and other 
 writings ofthat author, as pernicious and here- 
 tical.]: The next stgp he took, was to sum- 
 mon to - Avignon, some of the more learned 
 and eminent brethren of the Francispan order, 
 of whose writings and .eloquence he was par-, 
 ticuiarly apprehensive, and to detain them at 
 his court: and then, to arm himself against the 
 resentment and indignation of this exasperated 
 society, and to prevent their attempting any 
 thing to his prejudice, he kept a strict guard - 
 over them in all places, byjneans of his friends 
 the Dominicans. Michael of Cesena, who re- 
 sided in Italy, and was the head of the order, 
 could not easily dissemble the hatred he had 
 conceived against the pope, who therefore, or- 
 dererd himio repair to Avignon, in 1327, and 
 there deprived him of his office. § But, pru- 
 dent as this rigorous nieasure might appear at 
 first sight, it served only to"inflame the enrag- 
 ed Franciscans more than eVer, and to confirm 
 them in their attachment to the scheme of ab- 
 solute ^poverty. For no sooner did tire bitter 
 and well-ikngwn contest, between John XXII.. 
 aiid Louis of Bavaria, break out, than ' the 
 principal champions of the Franciscan cause, 
 such as Mafsilius of Padua,' and John of Genoa, 
 fled to the emperor, and under his protection 
 published the most virulent pieces imaginable, 
 in which they not only attacked John person- 
 ally, but also levelled their satire at the power 
 
 * Wadding, torn. vii. p. 36. — Contiii. de Nangis, in 
 I>'Acherii Spicilegio, torn. iii. p. 83. — Boulay; torn. 
 iv. p. 205. — Benedictinor. Oallia Christiana, torn, ii* 
 p. 1515. 
 
 t This constitution, and the two former alrsady 
 mentioned, are published among the Extravagantes, 
 tit. xiv. de verbor. signif,. Wadding, (t. vii. p. 36,) 
 vigorously opposed this last; which is rather extraor 
 dinary in a man so immoderately attached to the 
 cause of the popes as he was. 
 
 J Wadding, tom. vii. p. 47.— Eccardi Corpus His 
 tor. medii .^vi, tom«i. p. 592, and 1491. 
 
 § Wadding, tom. *ii. p. 69, 74. 
 
396 
 
 INTERNAL fflSTORT OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part H. 
 
 and authority of the popes in general.* This 
 example was soon followed by others, particu- 
 larly by Michael of Cesena, and William Oc- 
 cam, who excelled most men of his time in 
 subtlety and acuteness of genius, and also by 
 F. Bonagratia of Bergamo. They made their 
 escape by sea from Avignon, in 1328, went 
 first to the emperor, -Who was at that lime in 
 Italy, and thence proceeded to Munich. They 
 were soon joined by many others, such as Be- 
 rengarius, Francis de Esoulo, and Henry de 
 Halem, who were highly and deservedly 
 ' esteemed, on account of their eminent parts 
 and extensive learning.f All these learned 
 fugitives defended the institute of tljeir founder 
 in long and laboured treatises, in which th^y 
 reduced the papal dignity and authority with- 
 in a very naiTow compass, and loaded the pon- 
 tiffs with reproaches and invectives. Occam 
 surpassed them all in the keenness and spirit 
 of his satire; and hence his Dialogues, together 
 with his other productions, which Were perus- 
 ed with avidity, and transmitted to succeeding 
 generations, gave a very severe blow to the 
 ambition arid majesty of the Roman ponlifis. 
 
 XXXl. On the other hand; Louis, to ex- 
 press his gratitude to thfese his defenders,' not 
 only made the cause of the Franciscans his 
 own, but also adopted their favourite sentiment 
 concerning the poverty of Christ and his apos- 
 tles; for, among the heresies and errors of 
 which he publicly aceuseS John, and for which 
 he deprived him^of the pontificate, the prinoi' 
 pal and most pernicious one, in the opiriien of 
 the emperor, was his maintaining that the po- 
 verty of Chtist did not exclude all right and 
 property in" what he used as a subsistence.} 
 The Fratricelli, Beghards, Beguines, and Spi- 
 rituals, then at variance with the pope, were 
 effectually protected by the emperor, in Ger- 
 many, against the attempts of the inquisitors; 
 so that, during his reign, that country was 
 overrun with shoals of Mendicant friars. There 
 was scarcely a province or city in the empire 
 that did not abound with Beghards and, Be- 
 guines; that is, monks and nuns who professed 
 the third rule of St. Francis, and placed the 
 ^hief excellence of the Christian lifein a vol- 
 untary and absolute poverty. | The Domini- 
 cans, on the other hand, as enemies to- the 
 Franciscans, and firiends to the pope, were 
 treated with great severity by his imperial ma- 
 jesty, who banished them with ignominy out 
 of several cities. 11 
 
 * Luc. D'Acherii Si>icilegium, torn. iii. p. 85. Bul- 
 lar. Roman, torn. vi. p. 167. Martenne, Thesaur. 
 Anecdotor. torn. ii. p. 695, 704. Boulay, torn. iv. p. 
 216. There is a very noted piece on this subject 
 written by Marsilius of Padua, who was professor 
 at Vienna, and.entitled. Defensor Pacis pro Ludovi- 
 co Bavaro adversus usurpatam Komani Pontificis 
 jurisdictionem. 
 
 t Wadding, torn. Vii. p. 81. — Martenne, Thesaur. 
 Anecdotor. torn. iii. p. 749, 757. — TTithemii- Annal. 
 Hirsaug. torn. ii. p. 167.— Boulay torn. iv. p. 317.— 
 Eccardi Corpus~Histor.-tom. ii. p. 1034 — Baluzii Mis- 
 cellan. torn. i. p. 2^3, 315. — The reader may also con- 
 sult those writers who have compiled indexes and 
 collections of Ecclesiastical historians. 
 
 X See Processus Ludovici contra Johannem, an, 
 1328, d. 12.. Dec. datus, in Baluzii MiscellaneiS, t. ii. 
 p. 522, and also his Appellatio, p. 494. 
 
 § I have many pieces upon this subject that were 
 never published. 
 
 Mart. Dtefenhach, de mortis genere, quo Henri- 
 
 XXXII. The rage of the contending parties 
 subsided greatly from the year real. The 
 pope ordered a diet of the Franciscans to be 
 holden in that year at Paris, where, by means 
 of Cardinal Bertrand, who was president of the 
 assembly, and by the efforts of the Parisian 
 doctors, who were attached to his interests, he 
 so far softened the resentment of the greatest 
 part of the brethren, that they cease^ to defend 
 the conduct of Michael of Cesena and his as- 
 sociates, and permitted, another president, Ge- 
 rard Odo, to be substituted in his room. They 
 also acknowledged John to be a true and law- 
 ful pope'j and then-terminated the dispute con- 
 cerning the poverty of Christ in such an am- 
 biguous manner, that the constitutions and 
 edicts of Nicolas III. and John XXII., how- 
 ever contradictory, maintained their authority.* 
 But,, notwithstanding these pacific and mutual 
 concessions, there were great numbers of the 
 Franciscans in Germany, Spain, and Italy, 
 who would by no means consent to this recon- 
 ciliation. After the death of John, Benedict 
 XII. and Clement, VI. tpok great pains to 
 close the breach, and showed some clemency 
 and tenderness toward such of the order as 
 thought the institute of their founder more sa- 
 cred than the papal bulls. This lenity had 
 some good effects., Many who had withdrawn 
 themselves from the society, were hereby in- 
 duced to return to it, in which number were 
 Francis de Esculo and others, who had been 
 some of John's most inveterate enemies. f 
 Even those who. could not be prevailed on to 
 return to their order, ceased to insult the popes, 
 observed the rules of their fotmder in a quiet 
 and inoffensive maimer, and \Yonld have no 
 sort of connexion with those Fratricelli and 
 Tertiaries in Italy, Spain, and Germany, who 
 condemned the papal authority.J 
 
 XXXIII. The German "Franciscans, who 
 were protected by the emperor Louis, held 
 out their opposition much longer than any of 
 .the rest. But, in 1347, their imperial patron 
 being dead, the haldyon days of the Spirituals, 
 as also of their associates the Beghards ' or 
 Tertiaries, were at an end in Germany. For 
 Charles IV., who, by the interest .of the pope, 
 had been declared king of the Romans in 
 1345, vifas ready, in his turn, to gratifythe de- 
 sires of the court of Rome, and accordingly, 
 supported, both by his edicts and by his arins, 
 the inquisitors who were sent by the Roman 
 pontiff aga!lnst his enemies, and suffered them 
 to apprehend and put to death all obnoxious 
 individuals who came within their reach. 
 These ministers Of papal vengeance acted 
 chiefly in the districts of Magdeburg and Bre- 
 men, Thuringia, Saxony, and Hesse, where 
 they extirpated all the Beghards and Beguines, 
 or Teirtiaries, the associates of those Francis- 
 cans, who held that Christ and his apostles had 
 no property in any thing. These severe mea- 
 
 cus VII. obiit, p. 145, and others — Eccardi Corpus 
 Hist. t. i. p. 2103.— Boulay, t. iv. p. 220. 
 
 * Wadding, tom. vii. p. 94. — ^D'Acherii Spicilegium, 
 tom. iii. p. '91. 
 
 t Argentre, Collectio Judicior. de novis erroribus, 
 torn. i. p. 343.— Boulay, tom. iv. p. 281.— Wadding 
 tom. vii. p. 313. 
 
 X Wadding, tom. vii. p. 116, 136.— Argentre, tom. i 
 p. 343, &c. 
 
chai-. n. 
 
 DOCTORS, CtttJRCH GOVERNMENT, &e.. 
 
 397 
 
 Bureg were appro,ved by. Charies IV., who then 
 resided at Lucca, whence; in 13G9, he issued 
 seyera,! edicts, comlna^ding all the German 
 princes to-ex'tirpate out of thsir'domiTiions the 
 Beghards and Begtiines, or; as helHrnself iiitei- 
 preted the names, the' voluntary tmggars,* as 
 enemies of tlie chureh, and "of tlie. Roman em- 
 pire, and to' assist the inquisitors in their'^pro- 
 ceedings against tliem: By another edict, pub- 
 lished not long after, he gave -the houses oT 
 the Beghards to the tribu.nalof the inquisition, 
 ordering them to be. converfed into prisons ifbr 
 heretics; and, at the same time, ordered all the 
 effects of the Beguinesto Be publicly sold, and 
 the profits thence arising, to be equally divided 
 among, the inquiaitd.i's, the maigistrales, and the 
 poor of those towns and cities where such sale 
 should take plaee.f ■ The Beghard's, being re- 
 duced -to great distress," by this and otlieir man- 
 dates of 'flie. emperor, and by, the constitutions 
 of the popes, sought a refuge in those provinces 
 of "Switzerland that border upon the Rhine, 
 and also in Hollaikl,- jfoabaht, and various 
 parts of Germany. t "But tW ediots and man- 
 dates of the emperor, ..together with the papal 
 bulls and inquisitors, liarassed them in tliei'r 
 most distant retreats; -aW,-'during'tiie reign of 
 Charles. IV., all Germany (except the pro-, 
 vinces 'borderlng^ upojr Switzerland) was tho- 
 roughly purged. of the JBeghards, or rebellious 
 Franciscans, both perfect. and imperfect. 
 
 XXXIV. But no.ediot§,.bulls,-or-inq'uisitbi's, 
 Gould entirely pluok up the roots of this Invet- 
 erate discord; for so ardently were maity of 
 the brethreil b'enl upon observing, imthe most 
 perfect and- rigorous manner, the institute of 
 St. FranoiSj' that numbers were to be found in 
 all places,, who either ivithstood; the president 
 of the society, or at least obeyed him with re- 
 luctance. At once, therefore^ to satisfy both 
 the lax- and the rigid .party, after various 
 methods had been tried to no purpose, a di- 
 vision of the order was agreed to. According- 
 ly, in 1368i the president consented' that' Pau- 
 lutius Fulginas, the chief of the more rigid 
 Franciscans in Italy, together with his asso- 
 ciates, who were numeiious, should live sepa- 
 rately from tile rest of the brethren, according 
 to the- rules' and- custprn's they .had adopted, 
 and follow the institutes of their founder,Mn 
 the strictest and ipcjst rigorous- manner. The 
 
 .♦..Called", in the German. language, diewilgen Ar- 
 men. . -, . . 
 
 t I have in iny^ ijossessiDti this edicj, with, .other 
 . laws of Charles IV..enacted on .this oG£a^on,-as also 
 manyxif the papal constitution!?; and'other'records 
 which illustrate this affair^ and which -undoubtedly 
 deserve to see the light.- It is certain that Charles 
 himself, in his ediptB-and-'mandate's,'cll3ariy charac-^ 
 terizes those people, whom, he there styles'Beghards 
 and''Bcj;uines,-as Franciscan Terti;aries, belonging, to 
 that party of the Or-der then at variance' with the 
 pope. ".They are .(to uselljo emperor's own-words, 
 in his edict of the dSth of .June, 1369) a pernicious 
 sect, who prefehd .to a s.acrilegious and heretical 
 poverty, and who are under a-voWT that they neither 
 ought to have, nOr will -have, anjf property, whether 
 special or common,- in the goods they use;" (this is 
 the poverty of the Franciscan institute, which- John 
 XXll. so strenuously opposed) " which they extend 
 even to their wretched, habits."— For so the spirituals 
 and their associates used to do. 
 
 t See Odor. Raynaldus, Annal, Ecel'es. ad an. 1372, 
 sect, xxxiv. See also the books of Felix Malleolus, 
 written in the following century against the Begha'rds 
 of Switzerland. 
 
 Spirituals and the followers of Pierre d'Olive, 
 whose scattered remains were yet observable 
 in several places, joined themselves gradually 
 and imperceptibly to this party. And, as the 
 number of those who were fond of the severe 
 discipline continually increased in many pro- 
 vinces, the popes thought proper to approve 
 that institute,- and to give it the solemn sanc- 
 tion oftheir authorityv Inr'consequence of this, 
 the Franciscan order was divided into two 
 large bodies, namely, the Conventual Breth- 
 ren, aiid the Brethren of the regular observance. 
 Those who neglected the strict sense of the 
 expressions in which the institute of their 
 founder was conceived, and-adopted the modi- 
 fications given of them by the pontiffs, were 
 called by the former.name; and the'council of 
 Constance conferred the latter upon-those who 
 chose to be determined by the words of the 
 institute itself, rather than by any explications 
 of"lt.* But the Fratricelli and the Beghards 
 absolutely rejected. this reconciliation, and per- 
 sisted in disturbing the peace of the church 
 during this apd the following century, in the 
 raarquisate of Ancona, and in other districts. 
 
 XXXV. This century gave rise to other re- 
 ligious societies, some of which did not long 
 suljgist, and the rest never became faihous. 
 Jolin Colombini, a noblen;an of Sienna, 
 founded in 1367, the order of the Apostolic 
 clerks, who, because they frequently pro- 
 nounced the name of Jesus, were afterwards 
 called Jesuates. This institution-'was confirmed 
 by Urban V., in the following year, and sub- 
 sisted till, the seventeenth century, when.it 
 was abolished by Clement IX.f The brethren 
 belonging to it professed poverty, and adhered 
 to the institute of St. Augustin. They were 
 not, however, admitted to holy orders, but as- 
 sisted the poor by their prayers and other pious 
 offices, and prepared' medicines- for-thSm, 
 which they distributed gratis-l But these stat- 
 utes were in a manner abrogated when Cle- 
 ment-dissolved the order. 
 
 XXXVI. Soon after the commencement of 
 this century, the famous sect of the Cellite 
 Brethiren and Sisters arose at Antwerp; they 
 were also styled the Alexiatf Brethren and 
 ,Sisters, because St. Alexius was their patron; 
 and they were named Cellites, from the cells 
 in whiteh they were accustomed to live. As 
 the clergy of this age took little care of the 
 sick and dying, .and deserted such as were in- 
 fected with those pestilential disoMers which 
 were then very frequent, some compassionate 
 and pious persons at Antwerp formed them- 
 selves into a society for the performance of 
 these religious ofiices, which the sacerdotal or- 
 ders so shamefully neglected. In the prosecu- 
 tion of this agreement, they visited and com- 
 forted the sicl^, assisted the dying with their 
 prayers and exhortations, took care of the in- 
 terment of those who were cut off by the 
 plague, and on that account forsaken by the 
 terrified clergy, and committed th^m to the 
 
 -* See Wa4ding, tom. viii. ix. 
 
 t In the year 1668. 
 
 j Helyot, Hist, des Ordres, torn. iii. p. 411.— Pagi 
 Breviar. Pontif. torn.' iv.' p. 189. — Bonanni, and 
 others, who have Compiled histories of the religious 
 orders. 
 
398 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY. OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 grave with a solemn funeral dirge. It was 
 with reference to tliis last office, that the com- 
 mon people gave them the name of Lollards.* 
 The example of these good people had such 
 an extensive influence, that in a little time so- 
 cieties of the same kind, consisting both of 
 men and women, w.ere formed in most parts 
 . of Germany and Flanders, and were supported, 
 
 * Many writers have given us copious accounts 
 concerning the sect and name of the Lollards; 
 yet none of them can be commended for theirfidelity, 
 diligence, or accuracy, on this head. This I can con- 
 fidently assert, because I have carefully and expressly 
 inquired into whatever relates to the Lollarda, and 
 from'themost authentic recordsconcerjijng them, both 
 published and unpublished, have collected copious 
 materials from which their true history may be com- 
 piled. Most of the German writers, as well as those 
 of other countries, aflirm, that the' Lollards were a 
 particular sect, who diftered from the church of Rome 
 in many religious points; and that Walter Lolhard,, 
 who was burned in this century at Cologne, was 
 their founder. How so many learned men came to 
 adopt this opinion, is .beyond my' comprehension. 
 They indeed refer to Jo. Tritheraius as the author 
 of this opinion: yet it is certain, that no such account 
 of these people is to be found in his writings. I 
 shall therefore endeavour, with all possible brevity, 
 to tjirow all the light I can upon this matter, that 
 they who are fond of ecclesiastical history may have 
 a just notion of it. . • 
 
 The term Lollhard, or LuWiard, (or, as the ancient 
 Germans wrote it, Lollert, Lullert,) is compounded 
 of the old German word luUen, lollen, lallen, and the 
 well-known termination hard. Lollen, or lullen, signi-- 
 fies to sing with a low voice. It i« yet used in the 
 same sense-among the English, who say, lull asleep, 
 which sigpiftes to sing any one into a slumber with 
 a sweet indistinct voice. See Franc. Junii Etymo- 
 logicon<A.nglicanum. The word is also used in the 
 same sense among the Flemings, Swedes, and other 
 nations, as appears hy their respective dictionaries. 
 Among the Germans, both the sense and pronuncia- 
 tion of it have undergone some ^Iteration; for they 
 eay, Za/^fiK, which signifies to pronounce indistinctly, 
 or stammer. Lolkard, therefore, is a singer, or one 
 who- frequently sings. - For, as the word heggen, 
 which universally signifies to request any thing fer- 
 vently, is applied to devotional requests or prayers, 
 ahd, in the stricter sense in which it is used by the 
 Germatfs, denotes praying fervently to God; in the 
 same manner the word lollen, or lullcn, is transferred 
 from a common to a sacred song, and signifies^ in 
 its most limite* sense, to sing a hyinn. Lolkard, 
 therefore, in the vulgar tongue of the ancient Ger- 
 mans, denotes a person who is continually praising 
 God with a song, or singing hymns -to his honour. 
 Hocsemius, a canon of Liege, has well apprehended 
 and expressed the force of this word in his Gesta 
 Pontificum Leodiensium, lib. i. cap. xxsi. in Jo. 
 Chapea,uVilli Gestis Pontificum Tungrensium et 
 Leodiensium, tom. ii. p. 350. "In the same year," 
 (1309,) says he, "certain strolling hypocrites, who 
 were called Lollards, or praisers of God, deceived 
 some women of quality in Hainault and Brabant." 
 Because those who praised God generally did it in 
 verse, to praise Ood, in the Latin style of the middle 
 ages, meant to sing to him; and such as were fre- 
 quently employed in acts of adoration, were called 
 religious singers; and, as prayers and hymns are re- 
 garde4 as a certain external sign of piety toward 
 God, those who aspire to a more than ordinary de- 
 gree ofpiety and religion, and for that purpose were 
 more frequently occupied in singing hymns than 
 others, were, in the popular language, called Loll- 
 hards. Hereupon this word acquired the same mean- 
 ing with the term Beghard, which denoted a per- 
 son remarkable for piety; for in all the old records, 
 from the eleventh century, these two, words are 
 synonymous: so that all who were styled Beghards 
 are also called Lollards, which mayoe proved to a 
 demonstration from many authors. ' - 
 
 The Brethren of the free spirit, of whom we have 
 already given a large account, are by some styled 
 Beghards, by others Lollards. The followers of 
 Gerard Groote, or Priests of the community, are fre- 
 quently called Lollard Brethren. The good man 
 
 Part II 
 
 partly by their 'manual labours, and partly by 
 
 the -charitable donations of pious persons. The 
 magistrates and inhabitants of the towns, 
 where these brethren and sisters resided, gave 
 them peculiar marks of favour and protection 
 on account of their great usefulness to the 
 sick and needy. But the clergy, whose repu- 
 tation was not a little hurt by them, and the 
 
 Walter, who was burned at Cologne, and whom so 
 many learned men have unadvisedly represented aa 
 the founder of the sect of the Lollards, is by some 
 called a Beghard, by others a Lollard, and by some 
 a Minorite. The Franciscan Tertiaries, who were 
 remarkable for their prayers and otlier pious exer- 
 cises, were frequently called Lollards; and the Cellite 
 Brethren, or Alexians, whose piety was very exem- 
 plary, no sooner appeared in Flanders, about the be- 
 ginning:of this century, than the peolile gave them 
 the title of Lollards. A particular reason indeed for 
 their being distinguished by this name was, that they 
 were. public singers, who made it their business to 
 inter the bodies of those who died of the plague, and 
 sang a dirge over them in a mournful and indistinct 
 tone as they carried them to the grave. Araong the 
 many testimonies that might be alleged to prove 
 this, we shall confine ourselves to the words of Jo. 
 Bapt. Gramaye, a man eminently skilled in the 
 history of his country, in his work entitled. Ant wer- 
 pia, lib. ii. "Th6 Alexians," says he, "'who con- 
 stantly employed themselves about funerals, had theii 
 rise at Antwerp; at which place, about the year 1-300 ~ 
 some honest pious laymeA formed a society. On 
 account of, their extraordinary temperance and mo- 
 desty,, they 'were- styled Matemanni, (or Moderatists,) 
 and also Lollards, from their attendance on funeral 
 obsequies. From their cells, they were named Cellite 
 bretlu-en," To the same purpose is the following 
 passage in his work entitled Lovahigtm: "The 
 Alexians, who were wholly engaged in taking care 
 of funerals, now began to appear. Tliey were lay- 
 men, who, having wholly devoted themselves to 
 works of niercy, were named Lollards and Mate- ' 
 manni.- They made it tJieir sole business to taia 
 care of all such as were sick, or out of their senses. 
 These they attended both privately and publicly, arid 
 buried the dead." The same learned author tells 
 thus, that he transcribed some of these particulars 
 from an old diary written in Flemish rhyme. Hence 
 we find in the Annals of Holland and Utrecht, in 
 Ant. Mattha;i Analect. vet. .^vi, tom. i. p. 431, the 
 following words; '■' Die Lollardtjes die brochten de 
 dooden by een, i. e. th^ Lollards who collected the 
 dead bodies;" which passage is thus paraphrased by 
 Matthajiis; " The managers of funeral^, and carriers 
 of the dead, of whom there was a fixed company, - 
 were ^ set of mean, worthless creatures, who usually 
 spoke in a canting mournful tone, as if bewailing the 
 dead; and hence it came to pass, that a street in 
 Utrecht, in which most of these people lived, was 
 called the Loller street." The same reason that 
 changed the word Beghard from its primitive mean- 
 ing,contributed also to give, in process of time, a differ- 
 ent rfgnification to that of Lollard, even to its being 
 assumed by persons that dishonoured it; for, among 
 those Lollards who made -such extraordinary pre- 
 tensions to piety and religion, and spent the "great- 
 est part'of their time ia meditation, prayer, and tht 
 like acts of piety, there were many abominable hypo 
 crites, who entertained the most ridiculous opinions, 
 and concealed the most enormous vices, under the 
 specious mask of this extraordinary profession. But 
 it was chiefly after the rise of the Alexians, or Cel- 
 lites, that the name Lollard became infamous. For 
 the priests and monks, being in veterately exasperated 
 against these good men, propagated injurious suspi- 
 cions of them, and endeavoured to persuade the peo- 
 ple, that, innocent and beneficent as the Lollards 
 seemed to be, they were in reality the contrary, be- 
 ing tainted with the most pernicious sentiments of a 
 religious kind, and secretly addicted to all sorts of 
 vices. Thus by degrees it came to pass, that any 
 person, who covered heresies or crimes under the 
 appearance ofpiety, was called a Lollard. Hence it 
 is certain, this was not a name to denote any one 
 particular sect, but was formerly common to all per- 
 sons and all sects, who were supposed to be guilty 
 of unpiety toward God and the church, under an ex- 
 ternal profession of extraordinary piety. 
 
Chap. HI. 
 
 THE DOCTRINE OP THE CHURCH. 
 
 399 
 
 Mendicant friars, who found their profits di- 
 minished by the growing credit of these stran- 
 gers, persecuted tliem vehemently, and accused 
 them to tile popes of many vices and intolera- 
 ble errors. Hence it was, that the word Lol- 
 lard, which originally carried a good meaning, 
 became a term of reproach, to denote a person 
 who, under the mask of extraordinary piety, 
 concealed either pernicious sentiments or enor- 
 mous vices. Bat the magistrates, by their re- 
 commendations and testimonials, supported 
 . the Lollards against their malignant rivals, and 
 obtained several papal constitutions, by which 
 their institute was confirmed, and their per- 
 sons, exempted from the cognizance of the in- 
 quisitors, were subjected entirely to the juris- 
 diction of the bishops.. But, as these measures 
 were insufficient to secure them from molesta- 
 tion, Charles,' dukewSf Burgundy, in 1472, ob- 
 tained a solemn bull from pope Sixtus IV., or- 
 dering that the Cellites, or Lollards, should be 
 ranked among the religious orders, and deli- 
 vered from the jurisdiction of the bishops; and, 
 in 1506, Julius II. granted them yet greater 
 privileges. Many societies of this kihd are 
 yet subsisting at Cologne, and in the cities 'of 
 Flanders, though they have evidently departed 
 from their ancient rules.* 
 
 XXXVn. Among the Greek writers of this 
 century, the following were the most eminent: 
 
 Nicephorus Callistus, whose Ecclesiastical 
 Jlistory we have already mentioned; 
 
 Matthew Blastares, who illustrated and ex- 
 plained the canon law of the Greeks; 
 
 Balaam, who was a very zealous champion 
 in behalf of the Grrecian cause against the La- 
 tins; 
 
 Gregory Acindynus, an inveterate enemy 
 of the Palamites; 
 
 John Cantaciizenus, famous for his history 
 of his own time, and his confutation of the 
 Mohammedan law; 
 
 Nicephorus Gregoras, who eotnpiled the 
 Byzantine history, and left some other monu- 
 ments of his genius to posterity; 
 
 Theophanes, bishop of Nice, a laborious de- 
 fender of the truth of Christianity against the 
 Jews, and the rest of its enemies', 
 
 Nilus Cabasilas, Nilus Rhodius, and Nilus 
 Damyla, who most warmly- maintained the 
 cause of their nation against the Latin writers; 
 
 Philotheus, several of whose tracts are yet 
 extant, and seem well adapted to excite a der 
 votional temper and spirit; 
 
 Gregory Palamas, of whom more will be 
 ■aid hereaiter. 
 
 XXXVIII. From the prodigious number ol 
 the Latin writers of this century, we shall only 
 select the most famous. Among the scholastic 
 doctors, who blended philosophy With divinity, 
 John Duns Sootus, a Franciscan, and the 
 great antagonist of Thomas, held the first 
 
 * Beside many others, whom it is unnecessary to 
 mention here, see .a3gid. Oelenius, de admiranda 
 ^cra et civili masnitadine urbis Coloniffl, lib. m. 
 Svnta"m. li. p. 534, 598.-Jo. Bapt. Gramaye, in An ti- 
 dS Belg.-Anton.Sanderas, in Braban la et Flan- 
 dria iUa1trat.-Aub. Mirseua, in Opinbm Diplo- 
 ZMco-Histcricis, and many other writers of tins 
 noriod in various places of their works. - I may add, 
 ?hat th "LoTards are by many called/i« Mlfbruder, 
 ftom noUen, an ancient German word. 
 
 rank; and, though not entitled to any praise 
 for his candour and ingenuity, was by no 
 means inferior to any of his contemporaries in 
 acuteness and subtlety of genius.* 
 
 Ai1;er him, the most celebrated writers Of 
 this class were Durandjof St. Portian, who 
 combatted the commonly received doctrine of 
 the divine co-operation with the human will,t 
 Antonius Andreas^: Hervceus Natalis, Francis 
 Mayronius, Thomas Bradwardine, an acute, in 
 genious man,J Peter Aureolus, John Bacon, 
 William Occam, Walter Burlseus, Peter de 
 Alliaco, Thdmas of Strasburg, and Gregory 
 de Rimini. § ' 
 
 Among the Mystic divines, Jo. Tauler and 
 Jo. Ruysbrock, though not entirely free from 
 errors, were eminent for their wisdom and in- 
 tegrity; ., 
 
 Nicolas- Lyranus, or de Lyra, acquired 
 ^eat reputation by his Compendious Exposi- 
 tion of the whole Bible; . 
 
 Rayner of Pisa, iS celebrated for his Sum- 
 mary of Theology,. and Astesanus for his Sum- 
 mary of Cases of Conscience. 
 
 CHAPTER in. 
 
 Concerning the Ooctrint of the Christian Church 
 
 during this Century. 
 
 I. All those who are well acquainted with 
 the history of these times, must acknowledge, 
 that religion, . either as it was taught in the 
 schools, or inculcated upon tlie people as the 
 rule of their conduct, was bo extremely adul- 
 terated and deformed, that there was not a sin- 
 gle branch of the Christian -doctrine, which 
 retained its primitive lustre and beauty. Hence 
 it may easily be imagined, that the Waldensea 
 and others, who ardently wished for a reforma- 
 tion of :the, church, and had separated them- 
 selves from the jurisdiction of the bishop of 
 Rome^ though every where exposed to the fury 
 of the inquisitors and monks, yet increased 
 from day to day, and baffled all the attempts 
 that were inade for their extirpation. Many 
 of these poor people, having observed, that 
 great numbers of theirparty perished by the 
 flames and other punishments, fled out of Italy; 
 France, and Germany, into Bohemia, and the 
 adjacent countries, where they afterwards a* 
 sociated with the Hussites, and other sepaia 
 tists from the church of Rome. 
 
 II. Nicolas Lyranus- deservedly holds the 
 first rank among the cornmentators on the 
 Scriptures, having explained them in a man- 
 ner far superior to the prevailing taste and 
 spirit of his age. He was a perfect master of 
 
 * The very laborious and learned Wadding fa- 
 voured the public with an accurate edition of the 
 works of Scotus, printed at Lyons, 1639, in twelve 
 volumes folio. See Wood, Antiq. Oxon. tom. i.-r 
 Wadding, Annal. Minor, fratr. torn, vi.— Boulay, 
 tom. iv. - ■ 
 
 t See Launoy's treatise, entitled. Syllabus ratio- 
 num, quibus Durandi causa defenditur; also Gallia 
 Christ, tom. if. 
 
 I Rich. Simon, Lettres Choisies, toift.-iv. p. 232; 
 and Critique de la Biblioth. des Auteurs Ecclesiast. 
 par M. Du-Pin, tom. i. p. 360. Steph. Souciet, in Ob- 
 servationibus ad h.. 1. p. 703. — Nouv. Diet. Hist, et 
 Crit. tom. ii. p. 500. He was archbishop of Canter- 
 bury. 
 
 6 For a full account of all these persons, see Hii- 
 toire de I'^glisc GalUcane, tom. xiv. 
 
400 
 
 INTERN AI-. HISTORY OF THE- CHURCH. 
 
 Part 
 
 the Hebrew language, but not well versed in 
 the Gjreek, and was therefore much happier in 
 his exposition of the Old Testament, than in 
 that of the New.* All the other divines, who 
 apphed themselves to this kijfd of writing, 
 were servile imitators of their predecessors. 
 They either culled choice sentences from the 
 writings of the more ancient doctors; or, de- 
 parting from the obvious meaning of tlie words, 
 they tortured the sacred writers to accommo- 
 date them to senses that were mysteripus and 
 abstruse. They who are desirous of being 
 acquainted with this art, may have recourse to 
 Vitalis a Pijrno, In his Moral ' Mirror of the 
 Scriptures,! or to Ludolphus of Saxony, in his 
 Psalter Spiritualized.} The philosophers, wJio 
 commented upon the sacred writings, sometimes 
 proposed subtle questions, drawn from what 
 was called, in this century. Internal Science, 
 and solved them in a, dexterous and artful man' 
 ner. 
 
 III. The greatest part of the doctors of this 
 century, both Grpek and Latin, followed the 
 rules of the peripatetic philosophy, in expound- 
 ing and teaching the doctrines of religion; 
 and the Greeks, from their commerce with the 
 Latins, seemed to have acquired some .know- 
 ledge of those methods of instruction which 
 were used in the western schools. Eveii to 
 this day, the Greeks read, in their own tongue, 
 the works of Thomas, and other capital writers 
 of the scholastic class, which in this age were 
 translated and introduced into the Greek 
 church by Demetrius Cydonius and others. § 
 Prodigious numbers among the Latins were 
 fond of this subtle method, in which John 
 Scotus, Durand of St. Portian, and William 
 Occam, peculiarly excelled. Some few had 
 recourse to the decisions of Scripture and tra- 
 dition in explaining divine truths, but they 
 were overborne by the immense tribe of logi- 
 cians, who carried all before them. 
 
 IV. This superiority of the schoolmen did 
 not, however, prevent some wise and pious 
 men among the Mystics, and in other sects, 
 from severely censuring this presumptuous 
 method of bringing before the tribunal of phi- 
 losophy matters of pure revelation. Many, 
 as it appears. Were bold enough to oppose the 
 reigning passion, and to recall the youth de- 
 
 - signed .for the ministry, to the study of the 
 Scriptures, and the writings of the ancient 
 fathers. This proceeding kindled the ilame of 
 discord almost every where; but this flame 
 raged with peculiar violence in some of the more 
 famous universities, especially in those of Paris 
 and Oxford, where many sharp disputes were 
 continually carried on against the philosophical 
 divines by those of the biblical party, who, 
 though gregitly inferior to their antagonists in 
 point of number, were sometimes victorious. 
 For the -philosophical legions, chiefly tutored 
 by Dominicans and Franciscans, were oft,en 
 extremely rash in their manner of disputing; 
 
 * Rich'. Sfmnn, Histoire des principaux Commenta- 
 ^eurs dii N. T. p. 447, -and Critique de la Biblioth. des 
 Auteurs Eccles. par M. Du-Pin, torn. i. p. 352. — Wad- 
 ding, torn. V. p. 364. 
 
 f Speculum Morale totius Scripturs. 
 
 t Psalterlum juxta spiritualem Seiisum. 
 
 SRich. Simou. Creance de I'Eglise Orientalc sur 
 'laTransubstantia^ioh, p.,166. 
 
 they defined and- explained the principal doc- 
 trines of revealed religion ip such a way, as 
 really tended to overturn them,' and fell into 
 opinions that were evidently absurd ahd im- 
 pious. Hence it came to pass, that some of 
 them were compelled to abjure their errors, 
 others to seek their safety in flight; some had 
 their writings publicly burned,-and others were 
 thrown into prison.* However, when these 
 commotions were quelled, most of them re- 
 turned, though with prudence and caution, to 
 their former way of -thinking, perplexed their 
 adversaries by various contrivances, and de- 
 prived them of their reputation, their profits, 
 and many of their followers. 
 
 V. It is remarkable, that the scholastic doc- 
 tors, or philosophical theologists, far from 
 agreeing among themselves, were furiously 
 engaged in disputations with each other con- 
 cerning many points. The flame of their con- 
 troversy was, in this century, supplied with 
 copious accessions of fuel, by John Duns Sco- 
 tus, a learned friar already mentioned, who, 
 animated against the Dominicans by a warm 
 spirit pf jealousy, had attacked and attempted 
 to disprove several doctrines of Thomas Aqui- 
 nas. Upon this, the "Dominicans, taking the 
 alarm, united from all quarters to defend their 
 favourite doctor, whom they justly considered 
 as the leader of the scholastics, while the Fran- 
 ciscans espoused with ardour the cause of Sco- 
 tus, whom they looked upon as a divine sage 
 sent down from heaven to enlighten bewil- 
 dered and erring mortals. Thus these power- 
 ful and flourishing orders were again divided; 
 and herice originated the two famous sects, 
 the Scotists and Thomists, which, to this day, 
 dispute the field of controversy in the I^atin 
 schools. The chief points about which they 
 disagree are, the" nature of the divine co-ope- 
 ration with the human will, the measure of 
 divine grace that is necessary to salvation, the 
 unity of farm in man, or personal identity, and 
 other abstruse and minute questions, the enu- 
 meration of which is foreign to our purpose. 
 We shall only pbserve, that what contributed 
 most to exalt the reputation of Scotus, and to 
 cover him with glory, was his demonstration 
 and defence of what was called the Immacu- 
 late Conception of the Virgin Mary against 
 the Dominicans, who entertained different no- 
 tions of that point. f 
 
 VI. A prodigious number of the people, de- 
 npminated Mystics, resided, and propagated 
 their, tenets, in almost every part of Europe; 
 There were, undoubtedly, aniong them many 
 persons of eminent piety, who endeavoured to 
 wean men from an excessive attachment te 
 the external part of religion, and to form them 
 to the love of God, and the practice of genuine 
 
 ■ See Boulay, torn. iv. — In 1340, several opinions 
 of the schoolmen, concerning the Trinity and other 
 doctrines, were condemned, p. 266. — In 1347, M. Jo. 
 de Mercuria and Nic. de Ultricuria were obliged «to 
 abjure their errors, p. 398, 308. — In 1348, one Simon 
 was convicted of some horrible errors, p. 322. — The 
 same fate, in 1354, befell Guido of the Augustine or- 
 ^r, p. 329. In 1362, the like happened to one Louis, 
 p. 374, to Jo. de Calore, p. 377; in 1365, to Dion. Soul- 
 lechat, p. 383. Oxford also had its share in transac- 
 tions of this haturfi. See Ant. Wood, torn. i. p. 153, 
 183. ' 
 
 \ See Wadd'i!!?, torn, vi p. 52. 
 
Chap.UI. 
 
 THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 401 
 
 virtue. Such, among otherrf, wore Taulerus, 
 B.u.yabrockius,~Suso, and Gerard of Zutphen,! 
 who; it must be allowed, Jiayelgft mjiny wri- 
 tings that are exceedingly wellbaloulated to 
 excite pious dispositions in the minds of theil: 
 readers, though want of juc^inent, and a pro- 
 pensity to' indulge enthusiastic^ visipns, ^are 
 failings common to them all. But tliere-were 
 also some senseless fanatics belonging tCthis 
 party, who ran from'one place to another, re- 
 commending, a most -unaccountable ■Extihqtidn 
 of all the rational facu^ies, whereby they idly 
 ima^'ned the human mind would be transfused 
 into the divine essence, and thus led their 
 proselytes into' a foolish kind of piety, that in 
 too many cases bbrdered nearly upon lieen» 
 tioTj^hess. Tlig .rehgious phj-elizy^if these en- 
 thusiasts rose to such a. height, as rendered 
 them detestable to the sober sort of JVIystics, 
 w^o charged their followers to Tiave no con- 
 nexions with them.f - 
 
 Vn. it is needless to say much concaning 
 those who applied themselves to the study o? 
 morality, as.Uieir.spirit is nearlyTof' the same 
 kind- with thai of th6 authors whom we have 
 already noticed; though it may be' proper to 
 mention two circurast&nces, by which tlie rea- 
 der mayuseertain the true state of this science.' 
 ;The £i^t is, that, about this time, more writers 
 than in.iny former century ma/ie it their busi"- 
 ness to cjsllect' and ;,s61ye, what they styled,' 
 Coses of Conscience^; ,by which Astesanup, an 
 Italian, Monaldus, ami Bartholomew, of St. 
 Concordia, acquired ^a reputation superior to 
 jhst of any of their contemporaries. This kind 
 of Writing was or a, piece' with the- edupition 
 then received in the schools, sinCtf.it taught 
 people to qiiibhle and wfangle,' instead o$ 
 ierming them to ^ sound faith and a suitable 
 pnictice. A second .thing worthy .of notice is, 
 that moral tluties were explained,, and their 
 practice enfprced, by.allegories and iqopipari- 
 'sons of a^ew and whimsical kind, even by ex- 
 amples drawn from the natures, properties, and 
 ) actions of the brute creation. ,The5e .writers 
 began, for instance, by explaining the nature 
 and quahties.of some particular animal, and 
 then applied their, 'description to 'huiban life 
 and manners, , to characterizethe virtues and 
 vices of moral agents. The most remarkable 
 productions of this sort are, Nieder'sFormica- 
 rius, a treatise concerning Bees "by Thomas- 
 Brabauitinus, dissertations- upon Beasts -by' 
 Hiigh of St.. Vioto.r, and- a tract by Thoinas 
 Whalleyj entitled. The Natureof Brute Ani- 
 mals moralized. ■ . - . 
 
 VIII. The defenders ol^ ^Christianity in this 
 age were,, in general, unequal to the glorious 
 cause they undertook to support; nor do their 
 writings discover any ptnking marks of gefiius, 
 dexterity, perspicuity, or candour. Some pro- 
 ductions, indeed, appeared froratiffle to tiine. 
 
 * Concerning these authors, sec Petr. Poiret, Bib- 
 lioth. Mystioorum, and Godofr. Arnold; Historia et 
 Descriptio I'heoJ. Mystica. Of 'ftulerus and Suso, 
 Echard treats expressly in his Scriptor. Prffidicat. 
 torn. i. p. 653, 677. See also Acta Sanctor. Januar. 
 torn. ii. p. 652. _ ^ . ; 
 
 t Joh. Euysbrockma inveighed bitterly against 
 them, as appears from his Works, pablished byLaur. 
 Suriua, p- 50, 378, and also from his treatise de vera 
 Contemplatione, cap. xviii. p. 608. 
 Vol. I.— 51 
 
 that .w?re not a,ltogetiier .imwbrthy of notice. 
 Th6 learned Bradwardine, an English divine^ 
 advanced many pertinenl;, aild ingenious re- 
 marks, tending to confirm the "truth of Chris- 
 tianity, in a Book, upon ' Providence; The 
 work; entitled, GoUyrium Fidei contra Hcere- 
 -ticos, or, the " Eye-salve of Faith against the 
 .TIeretiBs," "shows, that its author, Alvaro- Pe- 
 lagio^ wasa well-raeaning.and judicious man, 
 though he has by no means exhausted the sub- 
 ject in this performance. Nicolas de Lyra 
 wrote against the Jews, as did also PorchetijA 
 Salvaticus, whosfe treatise,,, entitled, -i'-The 
 Triumph ^of Faith,''. Is chiefly borrowed from 
 the wptingsof Raymond Martin. Both these 
 writers are much inferior to Theophanes, 
 whose " Book'against the Jews,'and his Har- . 
 m'ony between' the Old and New Testament j" 
 contain rhany observations that are by no 
 means contemptible . ^ 
 
 IX. During this century," there wer^ some 
 promisinga^ipearances of- a reconciliation be^. 
 tween the Greeks and Latins. For the former, 
 apprehending that they might want assistance 
 to set bounds to the power 'of the Turlre, 
 which about this time was continually increas- 
 ing,''oflen pretended a iViUingness to submit to 
 the Latin canons. Accordingly, in 1S39, Anr 
 dronicus the Younger sent Balaam as his am- 
 bassador into the west, to desire a recbncilia- 
 tionin his name. In 1S4S, another Grecian 
 erabas^ was sent to 'plement VI. for the same 
 pjirpose, and, in 1356,. a third was dispatched 
 upona. like errand to Innocent VI'.. Nor was 
 this all; for, in 1367, the Grecian patriarch ar- 
 rived at Rome, iii order to negotiate this im- 
 portant matter,' and was followed, in .1369, by 
 thp emperor hmiself, John falaeologus, who, 
 in order t'b conciliate the friendship and good- 
 Will of the Latins, published a confession of his 
 faith,^ which weis "agreeable to the sentiments 
 ^'of thellbman pdntitF. But, hotwithstaiiding 
 these prudent and pacific measures, the major 
 part of the Greeks could hot be persuaded by- 
 any means tb. drop the controversy, or. to be 
 reconciled to the church of Rome, thougli se- ' 
 yeral of them, from views of interest or ambi- 
 tion, expressed a readiness to. submit to its de- 
 mand^; so that this "whole century was spent 
 partly in furious debates, and partly in &uit- 
 'less negotiations,* . 
 
 X. In 1384, a furious controversy arose at 
 Paris, between the university and the Do.rci- 
 nican order. The author of it was" John de 
 Mbnt^sono, a native of Aitagon, a Dominican 
 iriar and professor of divinity, whp, in pur%i- 
 ance of the decisions and doctrine of his order, 
 publibly denied that the blessed Virgin Mary 
 was conceived without' any stain of original - 
 sin; and moreover asserted, that all who be- 
 lieved the Jinniaculate Conception were ena- 
 niiieB of the true firith.. The quarrel gccasioned 
 by this- proceeding would certainly have been 
 soon compromised, had not John, in a public 
 discourse delivered in 1381,' revived this opin- 
 iaa with more violence thaii ever.' For this 
 
 * See Henr. Canisii Lectiones Antiqus,-toin: iv. 
 p. 369.— 'Leo Allatius, de pefpetua cpnsensione cccles. 
 Orient, et Occident, lib, ii, cap. xvi: xvii. p. 782. — 
 Wadding, torn. viii. p. 29, 40, 107, 201, 289. Baliize, 
 Vitae Pontif Avenion torn; i. p. ^8^380, 403, 772." 
 
402 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 pakt n. 
 
 reason the coltego of divines, and afterwards 
 the whole university, condemned tliis, and 
 some other tenets of Montesonus. .For it may 
 be proper to infjbrm the reader, that the uni- 
 versity of Paris, principally induced thereto 
 by-the discourses of John Duns ^Scotus, had, 
 from the beginning almost of this centdry, 
 publicly adopted the doctrine of the sinless 
 conception (rf the holy Virgin.* Upon this, 
 the Dominicans, with their champion John de 
 Montesono, appealed frdm the. sentence of the, 
 university to pope Clement Vll.at Avigiion, 
 and clamorously affirmed that St. Thomas 
 himself vvas condemned by the judgment passed 
 up'on their brother. Biit, before the {>ope could 
 decide the affair, the accused friSx fled from 
 the court of Avignon,, went, over to the party 
 of Urban VI., who resided atRora6, and, during 
 his absence, was excommunicated. Whether 
 the pope approved the'sentenee of the univer- 
 sity of Paris, we_cannot Say. The Dominicans, 
 however, deny that Ke did, and affirm, that 
 the professor was condemned purely^ on ac- 
 count of his" flight;! though there are- many 
 others who assert, that his opinion was also, 
 condemned; and, as the Dominicans would not 
 acknowledge the validity of the academic sen- 
 tence, they were expelled in 1389, and were 
 not restored to their anpient honours in the 
 imiversity before the year 1404.1 
 
 : CHAPTER IV. . 
 Concerning tlie Rites and Ceremonies used in tlie^ 
 ■ " Church during, this Century. '. 
 
 I. We must confine ourselves to a general 
 and. superficial view of the. alterations which 
 were introduced' into the ritua.1 of the church 
 during this century, since it cannot reasonably 
 be ex.pected that we should insist largely, upon 
 this subject within the narrow "limits of sucn a 
 work as this. A principal circumstance that 
 strikes us here, is the change that was made 
 inthe time of celebrating the jubilee'.' In 1350, 
 Clement VI., ih, compliance jvith tlie request 
 of the people of Rome, enacted that the jubi- 
 lee, which BonifaoeVIII. had ordered to T)e 
 celebrated in every hundreth year, should be 
 celebrated twice in every century.§ In favour 
 of this alteration he might have assigned a 
 very plausible pretext, since -it is well knowil 
 that the Jews, whopi the^Roman pontiffs were 
 always ready to imitate in whatever related to 
 pomp, and majesty,' celebrated this sacred so- 
 lemnity in every fiftieth year. But Urban VI., 
 Sistus VI., aiid other popes, who ordered a 
 iftore fteq^ient celebration of this salutary and 
 ■ profitable institution, would have had more diffi- 
 culty in atteriipting to satisfy those who might 
 have demanded sufficient reasons to justify this 
 inconstancy. - ~ 
 
 II. Innocent V. instituted festivals, sacred 
 tb-the memory of the laiice with. which our 
 
 * See Wadding'.s'Annals,-tom. vi. 
 
 t See Jac. BchaTdi Scriptor. Proidicator. torn. i. p. 
 .691. . , -. 
 
 X Boulay, torn. iv. p. 599, BIS, 038.— Baliizii 'Vit. 
 Pont. Av. torn. i. p. 521; torn. ii. p. 992.^Argeritre, 
 Collectio judicior.de novis.errorib. torn. i. p.' CI. — 
 Jac. (le~ liongueval, I-Iist. de rJBgJise Galilcane, torn, 
 xiv. p. 347. • 
 
 " § Baluze, t6m. i. p. 247, 287, 312, 887.— Miitatori, 
 AnCiquit. Ital. torn. ill. p. 344, 481. 
 
 Saviour's side was pierced, of ths nails that 
 f&teiied him to the cros^, .and the crown of 
 J;horns he wore at his death.* This, though 
 evidently absurd, may be deemed pardonable 
 upo^ the whole, if we gonsider the gross igno- 
 rance and stupidity of the times. But noming- 
 can excuse "the impious, fanaticism and sujier- 
 Stition of Benedict XII., who, by appointing a 
 festival in honour of the jnarkS' of . Christ's 
 wounds, which, the Franciscans 'tell us, were 
 imprinted upon the body of their chief and 
 founder by a miraculous interposition of the 
 divine power, gave credit to that grossly ridicu- 
 lous 'g.nd blasphemous fablo. ' John XXII.,- be- 
 side the sanction he gave, to many other super- 
 stitions, ordered Christians to add to their 
 prayers ' those words with which the angel 
 Grabriel sdluted the'Virgih Mary. 
 
 CHAPTER V. . 
 
 Cohcerningthe Divisions and Heresies that trou- 
 .bled the Church dming this Century. 
 I.. DuEJtiG some part of this, century, the 
 Hesychasts, or, as the Latins call them', the' 
 Quietists, gave great trouble to the (Jreek 
 church. . To assign the true sourqe of it, we 
 must jJbserve tihat'^^i^l^^i'™; or Balaam, a na- 
 tive of Calabria, who was a monk of St. ,fiasil, 
 and afterWE^rds bishop, of GieracS in Calabria, 
 made a -progress through Greece, to inspect 
 the behaviour of tlxe monks, among whom he 
 .found many thmgs highly reprehensible. He 
 was more especially Wended at the Hesychasts 
 of .mount. Athos, in Thessaly, who were the' 
 same with the Mystics, or more'perfect n).pnks, 
 and who, by a lo.ng course of intense" contem- ' 
 platiori, endeavoured to arrive at a-tranquillity 
 of jnihd entirely free from tumult and peirtur- 
 bation.; These- Quietists, in compliance with , 
 an ancient opinion of their principal doctors, 
 (who imagined thatthere was a celesfial light 
 concealed in the deepest recisses of the mind,) 
 used to sit in a solitary corner, during a certain. ' 
 portion of every Any, with their_Syes eagerly; 
 and immoyeably fixed upon the middle region 
 of the bel}yi or navel; and boasted, that while 
 they remained in this posture, they found, in 
 effect, a divine light beaming forth from the 
 soul, which diffused through their hearts inex- 
 piressible sensations of pleasure and delight, j 
 
 . * See Jo. Henr. a Seelen, Diss, de festo Laiices.et - 
 Clav'prum .Christi.T-Baluzii Miscell. torn. i. 'et Vit. 
 Pontif. torn. i. ' . - . 
 
 -f". We have no reason to be surprised. at_, and Qiucb 
 less to disbelieve, this account.. For it is a fiinda. '' 
 mental rulje with all those people in the easte.rn 
 wOEld, whether Christian^ Mohammedans, or Pa 
 'ga(is,(WIio maintain the necessity of abstracting the 
 mind from the- body, in order to hold communion 
 with Gocl, which is exactly the same thing with the 
 coritempIativiT aild. mystic life among the Latins,) 
 that the eyesmust be steadily fixed every day for 
 some hours upon some particular object; and that he 
 who cotnplies with this precept will be thrown into 
 an ecstasy, in which, being united to God, he will 
 sfife wonderful things, and be entertained with inef- 
 fable delights. Se'e what is said of the Siamese 
 monks and Mystics by Engelb.' Kfempfer, in bis His- 
 tory of Japan, tom.i. andalsoof those of India, in the 
 Voyages of Bernier, torn. ii. Indeed, I can easily^ 
 admit, that they who continue long in the above- 
 mentioned posture, will imagine they behold many 
 things which no man in nis senses ever beheld or 
 thought of; for certainly the comtr^nations tliey form 
 
Chap. V. 
 
 DIVISIONS AND HERESIES. 
 
 403 
 
 To auch'as inquired wihiit kind of light this 
 was, they replied, by way of illustration, that 
 it was the glory of God, the same celestial, ra- 
 diance tjiat surrounded Christ duijng liis. trans- 
 figuration' on the mount. Balaam, entirely 
 vuiacquainted witlT tlie customs and raamiers 
 of the- Mystics, looked upon all this as highly 
 absurd and -fanatical, and therefore styled' the 
 monies who adhered to- this institujion, MasSa- 
 lians and Euchites,* and also -gavb them thfe 
 newijameof Umbilicani.f On flie other hsthd, 
 Gregory Palamas, archbishop of Thessalonica, 
 defended the cause of these monies against 
 Balaam.^ 
 
 II. In order to put an end to this dissension, 
 a council was convoked at, Constantinople, in 
 1341, in which the emperor himself, Androni- 
 cus the younger, and the patriarch, presided.' 
 • Here Falainas and the monks triumphed "over 
 Balaam, who was condemned by the council; 
 whereupon he left Gfeede, and, returned to 
 Italy. Not long/.after "tlifls, another" monk, 
 named Gregory AcindyniSa,. renewed the con- 
 . troversy , and, . in opposition to. the opinion 
 maintained by Palamas, denied that God d*irelt 
 in an eternal light distinct from his essenice, 
 as also that such.aJight was beheld by the dis- 
 ciples on mount Tabor. This dispute was now 
 ■ no "longer teonijerning the monks; but turned 
 ;upon the'light seen dt mount Tabor, andalsq 
 upon the nature and residence of the Deity. 
 Nevertheless, he was condemned as a follower 
 of Bala^Sn, in another council hoMen at Con- 
 stantinople. Many assemblies were convened 
 about this aifair;- but the most remarkable of 
 them all, was that of the year 1351, in which 
 t3ie. Balaamites and their adherents', received 
 such a fatal wound, in consequence of the se- 
 vere decrees enacted against them, that they 
 were forced to yield, "and leave' the victory to 
 Palamas, This'~prelate iifiaiiitained, that God 
 was eneircle'd, as it were, with an et^nal 
 light, which might be styled .-his energy or 
 operation, and was distinct from his nature and 
 essence; and that- he favoured' the ;three dis- 
 ' ciples with a view of this light "upon, mount 
 Tabor. Hence he concluded Hhat .this divine 
 operation WUS- really different from the sub- 
 
 of the uuconrtEcted' notions that arise tq their fancy 
 while theii- minds are ill this odd and unnatural 
 state, must be mostsingu'lar andVvhimsical; Bo much 
 the more, as theTule itself, which prescribes the con-' 
 -■ templation "of 'a.certarii object, as- tlje means Jof ar- 
 riving at a vision of the Doity, absolutelJ>.forbids all 
 use of the faculty of reasoji during thit ecstatic and 
 sublime interval. -This total suspension of^reason 
 and reSectioo, during the period of contemplation, 
 W'as not, bo'wever, peculiar t0"tHe eastern duietists; 
 the" Latin Mystics observed the same rule, and in- 
 culcated it upon their disciples. Qn a due exajnina- 
 tidh of the subject^ We may safely concludff, that the 
 many surprising visions,- of -which, these fanatics 
 boast, are fables utterly destitute of reason and prb- 
 bability. But this is not tile proper place for enlarg- 
 ing upon prodigies of this nature. 
 
 ftra- * The Massatiane (so called from a Hebrew 
 word which signifies prayer^ and Euchites from a 
 Greek word of the same signification) formed them- 
 selves info a sect, during: the fourth century, in the 
 reign'of Constantius. Their tenets resembled th6se 
 of the auietists in several respects. 
 
 I For an account of these two famous men, Ba- 
 Jaam and Gregory Palamas, see, in preference to all 
 other, writers, Jo. Alb. Fabriciu.?, Bibliotli. Grajca, 
 torn. i. p- 437, and 454. 
 
 stance of the Deity; and farther, that no being 
 could partake of the divine substance or es- 
 sence, but that finite natures xnight . possess a 
 -share of his divine light, or operation. ^The 
 Balaamites, on the contrary, denied these po- 
 sitions; aflfir-njing', that the propeirties ajid ope- 
 rations of the Deity were not different from . 
 his essence; and that there was really no differ-^ 
 ence between .the attribiites "and efsse'ncedf God, 
 considered in themselves, but only in our con- 
 ^ceptions of ther^, and reasonings upon them.* 
 
 III. in the Latiij. church the inquisitors, thoWe. 
 active ministers and executioners;of papal jus- 
 tice, extended their vigilance to every quarter, 
 and most industriously,Jiiinted out the remains 
 of those sects who opposed the religion, of 
 Rome, even the Waldenses, the Catharfsts, 
 the Apostolists, and others; so that the history 
 of these times "a.bounds with numberless instan- 
 ces of persons who were burned or otherwise 
 barbarously, destroyed, by tjiose unrelenting 
 instruments of siiperstitious vengeance... But 
 none of tljese enemies of,the, church gave the 
 inquisitors and' bishops- so mueh:emplQyment 
 of tjhis sanguinary kind, as the Brethren and 
 Sisters of the free spirit, who • went -undei^ the 
 common name of Beghards ;and Beguines uj 
 Germany and the Netherlands, and were diJF- 
 ferently denominated.iu other "pijovinces. For, 
 as this sort of people professed an tincommon 
 and sublime species of devotion, endeavouring 
 to call off- men's minds fjom the external and • 
 sensible' parte of religion, and to win them oyer 
 to the inward, and spiritual worship of God, 
 they were greatly esteemed by rnany plain, 
 ,'well-in_eaning p'ersoiis,' whose piety -and sini- 
 plicity^ere d'eceivfed by a profession so scdiic- 
 ing^ a*d thus they made many converts to their 
 opinions. It was on this account that such 
 numbers of this turn a.nd disposition perished 
 in the flames of persecution during this century 
 in Italy, Frspice, and Germany. 
 
 |IV. This sect vvas most numerous in the ci- 
 ties of Germaify that lay upon the Rhine, 
 especially at Cologne; which circumstance in- 
 duced Henry I., archbishop of that diocese, to 
 publish a severe' edict against them, A. D. 
 13065t_an pxample that was soon followed by 
 the bishops Of Meiitz, Treves, Worms, .and 
 Strasbm-g.j: And as there were some subtle 
 acute men belonging to this party; that emi-- 
 nently keen logician; John Duns Spotus,§ was 
 sent to Cologrfe„in 130S", to dispute against 
 them, a,nd to vanquish them by dint of syllo- 
 gism. In'lSl Q, the famous'Maj^aret Foretta, ' 
 
 * See Jo. Cantacuzenus, Hist^ lib. ii. cap. xxxil. 
 ■p. 2"63, and the observation? of Gregdr. Pon t^nus; also - 
 NicephOEUS GregorasV Hist.. By:^nt. lib. xi. cap. x. p. 
 277,-and in many other places. BuP these two wri- 
 ters disagree in'sevecal circumstances. Many mate- 
 1'iais.relative to this con troversy are yet unpublished 
 (sseMontfaucon,Biblioth.Coislimana, p. 130,174, 404.) 
 Nor havB we ever Ueeri favoured with an accurate' 
 and well-djgested' history of'it. In the mean, time, 
 the reader may -consult Leo. Allatius, -de perpetua 
 consensione Orient. etOccid. Bccles. lib. iL cap. 
 
 xjdi; p.' ■8(24 Henr. Canisii Lectiones Antiquffi, torn; 
 
 iv. p. 3C1. — Dion Petavius, Dogmat; Tlieol. torn. i. 
 lib^ i. cap. Tiii.— Steph. de Altin^ura, Panbplia contra 
 Schisma'Graecor. -p. 381, &c. 
 
 t See Statuta Coloniensia, published in 1554. 
 
 X Johannes, apud Scriptores rerum Moguntinar. 
 torn, iii-! p. 298:-^Martenne, Thesaur. Ariecdotor, torn, 
 iv. p. 250; • 
 
 § Wadding, Annal. Minor, torn, vi. p. 108. 
 
404 
 
 INTERNAL HISTOHY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 ?AiiT at. 
 
 who made such a shining figure in this sect, 
 was committed to the flames at Paris with one 
 of the brethren. She ha3 undertaken to de- 
 monstrate in an elaborate treatiee, " That the 
 soul, when absorbed in the love of God, is ^e 
 from the restraint of every law, and may freely 
 gratify all its. natural appetites',^ without .con- 
 tracting any-guilt."* Pope ClemiSnt V., exas- 
 perated by this and other instances of the per- 
 nicious fanaticism that prevailed' among this 
 sect, published in a general council at Vienne, 
 A.D. 1311, a special; constitution against the 
 Beghards and'Beguines of Germany; and 
 though the edict only mentions imperfectly the 
 opinion? of this sect, yet, hy the numeration of' 
 them, we may easily perceise that the Mystic 
 brethren and sisters of the free spirit are the 
 persons principally intended.f - Clement,- in 
 the same council, issued another constitution, 
 ~by- which h6 suppressed another and a very 
 -different sort of Beguines,t whOLhad-liitherto 
 been considered as a lawful and regular sofciety, 
 andMived in fixed habitations appropriated to 
 their order, but were now corrupted by theia- 
 natios above mentioned; for the Brethren and 
 Sisters of the free spirit had insinuated them- 
 selves into the greatest part of the convents of > 
 the Beguines, where they inculcated with' 
 great success their mysterious and subliitie 
 system of religion to these simple' women; and 
 these credulous females were no sooner initia- 
 ted into this brilliant and chimerical system, 
 than they were captivated with its delusive 
 charms, and -babbles, in the ^ most absilrd and 
 impious manner, concerning the true worship 
 of the Deity.Sp 
 
 V. The Brethren of the free spirit, oppres- 
 sed by so many severe edicts and constitutions, 
 formed the intention of removing fiom'Upper 
 Germany into the lower parts of the empire; 
 and this scheme was so far put in execution, 
 that Westphaha was the only province which 
 refused admission to these dispersed fanatics, 
 and was free, from their disturbances. This 
 tranquillity was produced by the provident 
 measures T>f Henry., archbishop of Cologne, 
 who, having called acounciljin 1322, serious- 
 ly admonished the bishops of his province of 
 the approaching danger, and thus excited them 
 to exert thSeir utnio'st vigilance to prevent any 
 of these pepple fi'om coming into Westphalia. 
 About the same time the Beghards|| upon the 
 Rhine, lost their chief leader and champion, 
 Walter, a Dutchman of remarkable eloquence, 
 and famous for liis writings, who came from 
 Mentz to Cologne, where he was apprehended. 
 
 * Liic. d'Acherii Bpicil. vete'r.. Scriptnr. torn, iii.-p 
 63.— J. Bale, <le Scriptor. Britau. Centur iv. n. 88. p. 
 367. 
 
 J It is extant in the Corpus Jin-ia Canon.'inter 
 Clementinas, lib. v. lit. lii. de Itereticis, tap. iii. p. 
 1088. . . .^ .;. ^ 
 
 • X In Jure Canonico jnter Clementinas^ lib, iii. tit. 
 xi. de religiosis domifius, cap. i. p. 1075, edit. Bohmer. 
 
 ■§-Forthis reason, in the German records' of this 
 century, we often find a distinction of the Beguines 
 into those of the right and approved class, and those 
 of the sublime and fre« spirit; the former of whom 
 adhered to the public religion-, while thelatter were 
 corrupted by the opinions of the Mystics. ' 
 
 ft?- II By Beghards, here, Dr. Mosllcim means par- 
 ticularly the Brethren of the Free Spirit who fre- 
 quently passed under this denomination. 
 
 and burned.* The death of this- person waa 
 highly .detrimental to the. affairs of the Bre- 
 thren of the free spirit: it" did not, however, 
 fuih their cause, dr extirpate their Sect. For 
 it not only appears fiom inilumerahle testimo- 
 nies, that, for a longtinie stfterwards, they 
 held tlieir private assemblies at CoiogitB; and 
 in thiiny other parts of Germany, but also that 
 ■they had several men among them of high 
 rank and great learning, of which number 
 Henry Ayoardus, or Eccard, iC Saxon,; was the 
 most famous.' He was a Dominican, and also 
 the Superior of that order in Saxony; a man of 
 a subtle genius, and one who had acquitte4 
 himself wilh reputation^ as^jirofesspr of di- 
 vinity at Paris.f . In 1330, pope John XXII., 
 endeavoured to suppiress this obstinate sect by 
 a new and severe constitution, in which the' 
 errors of the sect of , the free spirit are marked 
 out in a more distinct ind accuntte manner 
 thapi in the Clementina.^ 'But this attempt 
 was fruitless; the. disorder continued, and was 
 combated both by the inquisitors and bishops 
 in most parts of Europe to the end of this cen- 
 tury. 
 
 VI. The Clementina, or cpnstitution of the 
 council of Vienne against the Beguines, or the 
 female societies that lived together in fixed ha- 
 bitations, under a common rule of pious dis- 
 cipline and virtuous industry, gave rise to a 
 persecution of thSse people, whidh lasted' till 
 the reformation by liuther, and ruined the 
 cause both of the Beguines and Be|&ards in 
 niany places. ' For though the pope, in his last 
 constitution, had permitted pious women to 
 live as nuns in a state of celibacy, with or 
 without taking'the vow, an(f refused a tolera/t 
 
 * Jo. Trithemij Airnai. Hirs.aug. tom. ii. pMS5.— ^ 
 Schaten, Annal. Paderbornxtom. ii. p. 250. — This is 
 that famous Walter,- whtlin so many ecclesiitstical 
 historians have represented as the founder of the 
 sect of the Lollards, and as an eminent martyr to 
 their cause. -Learned men conclude 'all this, and 
 more, from the following words of Trithemius; • That 
 same .Walter' Liihareus, (so it stands in my copy, 
 though I fancy it ought to have been Loihamua, es- 
 pecially as-'rrjthemiiisi according to the custom of 
 his time, frequently 'uses this word when treating of 
 the sects that dissented from llje churcH,) a native 
 of Holland, was not well versed in the Latin tongue."^ 
 I say, from this short j)assage, learned men have 
 concluded that^ Walter's surname was Lolhard; 
 whence, as from its founder and master, they sup- 
 posed his sect derived the name of Lqllards. But it 
 is very evident, not only from this, but from other 
 -passages of Trithemius, that Lolhard' was no sur- 
 name, bilt merely-a-term of reproach applied to'a^l 
 heretics who concealed t.he pgison of error tmder- the 
 appearance of piety. Trithemius, speaking of the 
 very same man, in a preceding passage, calls him, 
 ' the head of the Fratricelli, or Minorites;' but these 
 terms were very extensive, including people of vari- 
 ous sects. This Walter embraced the opinions of 
 the Mystics^ and was the principal doctor among 
 those Brethren of the free spirit, who lived on the 
 banks of-the Rhine. ' ' . „ 
 
 t See Echardi Scriptor.. Prsdicator. tom. i. p.507.- 
 -Odor. Kaynaldus, Annal. tom. xv. ad an. 1399. sect. 
 Ixx.p. 389. . - „. ^ J 
 
 I -This new constitution was never published en- 
 tire. It began with the words, ' in agro Dominica;' 
 and was inscribed thus, contra singulatia^ dubia,_suB 
 pecta, et temeraria, quts Beghardi et BegkinaprtBdicant 
 et observant.' We are favoured with a summary of it 
 by Herm. Cornerus in Eccardi Corp. Histor. Medii 
 iEvi, torn. ii. p. 1035. It is also, mentioned by Paul 
 Lariguis, iii Chronico Citizensi, apud Jo. Pistorii 
 Scriptores return German, tom. i. p. 1200. 
 
■ Cha*. V. 
 
 DIVISIONS AND HERESIES. 
 
 AOb 
 
 Hon Qjttiy to such of them M were corrupted 
 with the opinions- of the Brethren of the free 
 spirit, yet the vast number of enemies which 
 the Beguines and Bogharda had, partly among 
 the mechanics', especially the weavers, and part- 
 ly among tile priests and-monkg, took a^handle 
 from the Clementina to molest them in their 
 'houSiisj to seize afid. destroy .their' goods, and 
 offer them many other insults. John XXII. 
 
 . afforded some relief under"^the9e oppressions, 
 in 1 324,' by means of a special constitution, in 
 \riiich he gave a favourable explication of the 
 Clenientina, and ordered that the- persons, 
 goods, and habitations, of the innocent Be- 
 guines, should he preserved from "every kind 
 of violence and insult; — an example of clemen- 
 cy and inoderation which was aiterwards fol- 
 lowed by other popes. On,the otherhand, the 
 Beguines, in hopes, of disappointing more ef- 
 fectually the malicious attempts of their ene- 
 
 ~ mies, and avoiding their snares, embraced in 
 many places the third rule of 'St._ Francis,' and 
 of the Augustinea. Yet all these measures in 
 their favour could, not- prevent the loss both of 
 their repcitation smd substance; for from tljis- 
 lime they were Oppressed in several provinces 
 by the magistrates, the. clergy, und the monks, 
 who had .cast a greedy eje upgn their, trea- 
 sures, and were extremely eagerto divide the 
 spoil.* - - , , 
 
 ■^11. Some years before the- middle of thfs 
 century, while Gemiany and many other-parts- 
 of Europe were distressed with various calami- 
 ties; the Flagellants^.a sect forgotten almost 
 every Where, and especially in Germany, made 
 their appearance anew,- and, rambling through 
 many provinces, occasioned great disturbances". 
 .These new Flagellants, whose, enthusiasm in- 
 fected every raiik, Seot,-and age, were much 
 worse than th^ old ones. . They not only sup- 
 posed, that God might be prevailed, upon to. 
 show.mercy to t-hose wh6 underwent voluntary 
 punishments,, hut. propagated other ' tenets 
 
 . highly injurious to rehgion. They "held, among 
 other things, ".That flagellation was, of equal 
 virtue withbapfism, and the other sacraments: 
 that it would procure from God the forgive^ 
 ness of all sins, without the. merits (JfJes\is 
 Christ: that, the old law of Christ was soon to 
 be abolished, and that a new law, enjoiniiig 
 the baptism of blood, to be administered, by 
 whipping, was to be substituted m its place,'! 
 with other tenets more or less enormous than 
 these; whereupon Clement VIE thundered out 
 aiiathemas against these sectaries, many, of 
 whom were committed to the flames by the in- 
 human inquisitors^ It was, however, found as 
 diiEcult to extirpate them, as it had been to 
 suppress the other sects of wandering fanatips.t 
 
 * I have collected a great number of particulars 
 relating to this long persecutioii "of the Begujnes.. 
 But the most copious of all the'writets. who-Bave 
 published anything upon this -subject (especially if 
 we consider his account of the persecution at Basil, 
 and of Mulbergius, the most inveterate enemy of 
 the Beguines,) is Christian Wurstisen, or Urstisius, 
 in his Chronicon Basiliense, written in German, .lib. 
 iv. cap. ix. p. 201, published at Basil, 158p. There are 
 now in my hands, and also in many libraries, manu- 
 script tracts of this celebrated Mulbergius, written 
 against the Beguines in the following century. 
 • t See Baluzii Vit. Fontif. Avenioij. torn. i. p. ICO, 
 316 and Miscellan. torn. i. p. 50.— Matthiri Analecta 
 
 VIII-. Directly the reverse of - this melan- 
 choly sept was the merry one of the Dantjers, 
 which, in 1573) arose at Aix-la-Chapelle, 
 whence it spread through the district of Liege, 
 Hainault, and other parts of the Netherlands. 
 It was customary among .these fanatics,^r 
 peraons of both sexes, publicly as well as in 
 private,' suddenly to begin dancing, and, hold- 
 ing each other's hands, to. continue their mo- 
 tions with. e;s;traordinary violence, till, bemg 
 almost suffocated, they -fell down breathless 
 together; and they ^fiirmed, that,^ during these ' 
 intervals of vehement agitatioii, they were fa- 
 voured with wonderful visioiis. - Like ~ the 
 Flagellantsi^.lhey.wandered" about from place 
 to place, had recourse to begging for their sub- 
 sisteiice, treated with the utmost 'contempt 
 both the priesthood and the' public rites and 
 worship of the church, and held secret assem- 
 lilies. Such was the nature of this new 
 phrensy, which the ignorant clergy of this age 
 looked upon as the work of evil demous, who 
 possessed, as they thought, this dancing tribe. 
 Accordmglyj th&priests.of Liege endeavoured 
 to- cast out the devils which reiidered - these, 
 fanatics, so raerly, by singing hymns and ap- 
 plying fumigations of incense; and they grave- 
 ly tell us, that the evil spirit was entirely van- 
 quished by these powerful charms.* 
 - IX. The mostheinous and abominable tribe 
 of heretics that infected this century, (if the 
 •enormities with which they stand cmrged be 
 true,) were the Kn^hts Templars, who had 
 he$n established in Palestine about two bdn- 
 dred years before this period, and who were 
 represented as enemies and deriders of all re- 
 ligion.. Their principal accuser indeed was a 
 person whose testimony ought not to be ad- 
 mitted without cautton." This'was Philip the 
 Fair, an avaricious, vindictive, and turbulent 
 prince,, who loudly complained to Clement V. 
 of their- opinions, and ' conduct. The^ PPPB, 
 though at first unwilling, to proceed .against 
 them. Was Under a necessity of cpmplying.with 
 the ting's desjre; so thfit; in ISOi, on an ap- 
 pointed day, and for some time afterwards, all 
 the knights, who were dispersed throughout 
 Europe, and nqt in the least apprehensive ^ 
 any impending evi.I, were seized and imprison- 
 ed. Such as" refused to confess the enormities 
 of which they were accused, were put to death; 
 and those who, by tortt:ires and promises, were 
 induced to iiekjiowledge~the truth of what^was 
 laid to their charge, obtained their liberty." In 
 1 3.11, the whole order was extinguished by the 
 councilof -Vienne. Of the- rich revenues they 
 possessed, a part was bestowed upon other or- 
 ders, especially on the knights of St.' John, and 
 the rest confiscated to the re^ective treasuries 
 of the sovereign princes in whose dominions 
 the& ppsses^ions lay.. 
 
 vet.' JEvx, torn. i. iii. iv. — Herm. Gygis Flores Tem- 
 por. p. 139. 
 
 * Baluz. torn. i. p. 485. — Matth. Analecta, tom. i. 
 p. 51, where we -find the following passage in the 
 Belgic Chronicle, which gives but an obscure account 
 of the ..sect in question: A. 1374.. Gingen de Dancer^, 
 and then'in Latin, Gens, impa^ata cadit^cruciata sal- 
 vat. The French coiiiMMonists, (or.propbets,) who. 
 in our age, were remarkable for the vehemence and 
 variety of their a^tations, greatly resembled these 
 brethren and lister dancers. 
 
406 
 
 EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Fabt I. 
 
 X. The Knights Templars, if their judges 
 be worthy of credit, were a set of men who 
 insulted the majesty of God, turned into de- 
 rision the Gospel of Christ, and trampled upofi 
 the obligation of all laws, huiiian and divine. 
 For it is affirmed, that dan^idatefe, upon their 
 admission to this or.dA:, were commanded to 
 spit, as a mark of contempt, upon an image 
 of Christ; and. that, after admission, they were 
 bound to worship either a oaf, or a wooden 
 head covered with gold. It is fajiJifer affirmed,' 
 that, among them, the- odious and iinnatural 
 act of sodomy was a matter of phligation; that 
 they cominitted to the flames the unhappy 
 ftuit of their lawless amours; and, added, to 
 these, other crime's too horiible to beineiition- 
 cd, or even imagine'd. It will, indeed, be 
 readily allowed, that in this order, as m all 
 the other religious societies of this age, there- 
 were shocking examples of impiety and wick^ 
 e'dness; .bitt,that the. Templars in general wer« 
 thus enormously corrupt, is so far froih being 
 proved, that the contrary may be concluded 
 even from the acts and' records', yet extant^ of, 
 the tribunals before which" they were "tried 
 and examined. If to this we add, that some 
 
 of ^he accusations advanced agaihst them^ 
 flatly contradict each othei^ and that many 
 members Of this unfortunate order solemnly 
 avowed -their, irmocence, while languishing 
 under the severest tortures, and even wjth their 
 dying breath, it would seem probable, that 
 Philip set ohfo6t this bloody tragedy, with, a 
 view of gratifying his avarice, and glutting his, 
 resentment .against the .Telnplars,* and espe- 
 cially .against their grand master, who had 
 IiigMy ofleuded him. 
 
 * See, the Apta annexed to Eutean's Histoire4e la 
 Condemnatioa des I'empliers, and other writings' of 
 his relating to the- history of France, publisl^d at 
 Paris, in, 1654. The most valuabje edition of the 
 history appeared at Brussels, in 1751, enlarged by the 
 addition of a great number of doGuments, by- which 
 e.very diligent and impartial reader- will be convinced 
 that the Tem'plara were greatly injured. See also 
 Nicolai' Guftleri Historia Templariorum. If the 
 reader--has an opportunity, he would do well to con- 
 sult Stcph. BalU2luB,,yit. Pontif. Avenidlt. torn. i. p. 
 8, 11, .6cc. Ger. du Bdis, Hist, ^c'cles.. Paris, torn. ii. p, 
 '540. * The prmcipaf cause of Philip's indoIil>lc hatred 
 agaiitst the Templars, was, that in liis quarrel with ' 
 .Boxiiface, VIII. the knights espoused the' cause of the 
 pope, ^and" furnished him with mqney'to carry on the 
 WAr; an ofience which the king could never pardon. 
 
 THE FIFTEENTH CElXTURY. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 THE EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 ., CHAPTER I. 
 
 CtMcemms Ow, prosptrous Events that happened 
 to the Church dvnng this Cmtimi. 
 I. The new subjects, that were added to th^ 
 kingdom of Christ in this century, were alto- 
 gether unworthy of that sublime -title, unless 
 we prostitute it by applying -it to those who 
 made an external and insincere pi:ofession of 
 Christianity. Ferdinand, surnamed the Catho- 
 lic, by the conquest of Granada; in. the year 
 1-492, entirely "overturned the dominion.of ^the 
 
 ' Moors or Saracens in Spain. Some time aXter 
 this happy revolution, he issued a sentence of 
 banishment against a prodigious multitude of 
 Jews, who,, to avoid the execution .of this se- 
 vere decree, dissemhied their sentiments, and 
 feigned an assent to the Gospel;* and it is well 
 known that, to this very day, there'are both .in 
 Spain and Portugal a great number "of that 
 dispersed and wretclied people, who wear the 
 outward mask of Christianity, to secure them 
 against the ra!ge of persecution, and to advance 
 
 ' their worldly interests. ; The .myriads of Sa- 
 racens that remained in Spain afte^ the. disso- 
 lution of their government, were at first soli- 
 cited by exhortations and entreaties to embrace 
 the Gospel. When thesegentle methods prov- 
 ed ^efFectiiai to bring about their conversion. 
 
 * J. de Ferreras, Hist. Gencrale d'-Espagn'e, tom. 
 viii. p. 133, 132, fee, 
 
 the famous Ximenes,-arclsbishop of Toledo, and 
 prime minister of thfe kingt}pih-, ^judged it-,ex- 
 pedient to try the force of the secular arm, in 
 order to accoriiplish- that salutary purpose. 
 But even this rigorous measure was without 
 the desired effect: the" greatest part of the Mo- 
 hammedans persisted,- with astonishing obsti- 
 nacy, in their fervent attachment to thieir vor 
 luptuous prophet.* 
 
 II. The light of the Gospel was also carried 
 in this century among ^he Samogets [in Po' 
 land] and the neighbouring nations, but with 
 less fr.uit than was expected.f Toward the 
 conclusion' of this age, the Portuguese, who 
 cultivated with ardour and success the art of 
 navigation, had- penetrated as far as Ethiopia 
 and the Indies. In 1492, Christopher Colum- 
 bus, by discovering the islands, of Hispaniola, 
 Cuba, and Jamaica, opened a, passage into 
 America;! and, after him, Americus Vespu- 
 tius, a citizen of Florence, landed on the con- 
 tinent of that vast regibn.§ The new Argo- 
 nauts, who thus discovered nations hitherto 
 
 * Esprit Fl.echier, Histolre du Cardinal Ximenes^ 
 p. B9.^-Geddes' History of the Expulsion of the Mo- 
 rescoes,'in his Miscellaneous Tracts, -tom. i. 
 
 t Jo. Henry Hettinger, Hist. ^ccIesiast.sEec: XV. 
 p. 856. . . 
 
 X See Charlevoix, Histoire de I'lsle de St. Domin- 
 gue, tom. i. p. -64. 
 
 § See the Life of Americus Vesputius, written in 
 Italian by the learned Angela Maria Bandinii 
 
Chap. II 
 
 CALAMITOUS EVENTS.. 
 
 407 
 
 unknown tothe inhabitants of Europe, deemed 
 it their duty to enlighten them with the know- 
 ledge "or the truth. Tl\e first attempt of this, 
 pious nature was made by tlie Portuguese 
 among those Africans who inhabited Ih^ king^ 
 dbm of- Congo, and who, with their monarch, 
 were' suddenly eonyerted to the Romish faitti, 
 in 1491.* But what must we think of a con- 
 version effected with such astonishing rapidity, 
 and of a people who at once, without hesita- 
 tion, abandoned their inveterate p'reijidices.' 
 Has not such a conversion, a'ridiculous or- ra- 
 ther an afflictive aspect' After this religious 
 revolution in Africa, Alexander VI. gave a rare 
 specimen- of papal presuiiiption, in' dividing. 
 AmericabetweenthePortuguiseUndSpaniards, 
 but showed at the same time his ?eaj ibr the 
 propagation of the .Gospel, by the ardour with 
 which hd" recommended, to these two nations, 
 the instruction and conversion of the 'Ameri- 
 cans, both in the isles and on- the continent of 
 thai, immense region.f Jn consequence of 
 this exhortation of the pontiff, a great number 
 of Franciscans and Dominicans were 'sent into 
 those countries, to enlighten the darkness of 
 their inhabitants; and the -success orthe mis- 
 sion is abjmdantly known.J ; 
 
 CHAPTER II. , 
 
 ' Concermrig the calamitous Events that Happened 
 to the Church during this Centiiry. 
 I. Iji the vast^regions-of the eastern world 
 Christianity daily lost ground; and the Mos- 
 lems, -whether Turks or Tartars, united their 
 barbarofus efforts to extjB|uish its' bright and 
 saliitary lustre. -AsiaticTartary, Mogblestan, 
 
 . Tangut, arid the adjacent provinces, where the 
 religion of Jesus had' long. ;flourished, -were 
 now become the dismal seats of superstition,. 
 which reigned among the people' under the 
 vilest forms. Nor infthese immense tracts of 
 land were there at this time any "traces of 
 Christianity visible, except in China, where 
 the Nestorian's still preserved some scattered 
 remains of their former glory, and appeared 
 like a faint and dying taper in the mia.st of a 
 dark and gloomy fiinjament. ,' That someNes- 
 torian churches were still subsisting in these 
 
 ^ rggions' of darkness,Js undoubtedly, certain; 
 for in this century the Nestorian pontiff, in 
 
 * Labat,' Eelation d& J'Europe Occidentale; torn. ii. 
 p. 366.— Jos. Franc. Lafltau, Histoire des DeQouvec- 
 teg des Portagais "dans le nouveau Monde,. torn. i. 
 p. 72. . -' ' , " 
 
 t See the-Bnll itself, in the Bi(llariam Eomanum^ 
 torn. i. p.- 466. - • ,. „-," . . ,,^ .. 
 
 t See Thom. Maria Mamachiua, Otig. et Antiijui-, 
 tat. Christian, torn. ii. p- 326, where we havean aCr 
 count of the gradual introduction 5f the Christian 
 religion into America.^ee also Wadding, Annal. 
 Minor, torn. xv. p. 10. 
 
 Chaldea, sbnt -missionaries into Cathay and 
 China, who were empowered to exercise the 
 authority of bishops over the Christian assem 
 bhes, which lay conqealed ih the remo,ter pro- 
 vinces of those great empires.*^' It is, at the 
 same time, almost" equally certain, that, even 
 these assemblies did not survive this cnntury. 
 
 II. The niin of the Grecian empife was a 
 new source of - calamities to the Christian 
 church in a considerable {tart of Europe and 
 Asia; 'When the Turks, conducted by Mo- 
 hammed II., an able prince and a fprmidable 
 warrior, had made thisraselves .masters of Con- 
 stantinople, in J453, the cause of Christianity 
 received a blow, from which it has not yet re- 
 covered. Its adherents in these parts, had no 
 resources left, which could enable them to 
 maintain it against the perpetual insults of 
 their fierce and incensed victors;, nor could 
 they stem that torrent of barbarism and igno- 
 rance which rushed- in with the triumphant 
 arms of the Moslem prince, and overspread 
 Greece with afatal rapidity. The Turks took 
 one part of Constantinople by "force .of arms; 
 the other, surrendered upon terms. f Hence, in 
 the former division, the 'public profession of 
 the. Gospel was prohibited, and every vestige 
 of Christianity effaced; while the inhabitants 
 of the latter, were permitted to. retain their 
 churches and monasteries during the whole 
 course'^of this century, and to worship God ac- 
 cording to the precepts of the Gospel, and the 
 dictates of their consciences.' This valuable 
 liberty was, indeed, considerably diminished in 
 the reign of Selim I., and the Christian wor- 
 ship was'loaded with severe and despotic re- 
 sttictibns.j The outward form of the Chris- 
 tian church was not, indeed, either changed or 
 destroyed by the lurks; but its lustre was 
 eclipsed, its strength was undermined, and it 
 was graduaiUy atteiiuated to a- mere sha,dow 
 under their tyrannic empire^ Pope Pius II. 
 wrote '.a warm .and urgent letter to Mohammed 
 II. to persuade that prince to profess the Gos- 
 pel;, but this letterJs equally destitute of piety 
 and prudence.§-_ 
 
 *' This -circumstance was communicated to the au- 
 thor in a letter from the learned Mr. Theopfailus Sige- 
 fred-Bayer, one of the greatest adepts in eastern his* 
 tory ati.d antiquities, that this or any other age has 
 prod"uced. 
 
 41:^ t In this account Dr. Mosheim has followed 
 the. 'Turkish Writers^ And indeed their account is 
 'iniich mbre probable, than that of the Latin and 
 Greelt historians, ;who suppose that the whole city 
 was taken by force, and not by capitulation. The 
 Turkish relation diminishes' the' glory of the con- 
 questj-and therefore probably would not have been, 
 adopted, had it not been true. . 
 
 ' X Demet. Cantemir, 3istoire de TEmpire Ottoman, 
 t. i. 11, 46, 54. . 
 
 '^§ Dictionnaire Hist, et Critique de Bayle.' 
 
PART II. 
 
 THE INTERNAL HISTORY OF. THE CHURCH. 
 
 CHAPTER r 
 
 Concerning the state of Letters and Philosophy 
 dijaringthisVentiiiry. 
 I. The Grecia» ^and Oriental -Muses lan- 
 guished under the despotic, yokd of the Mo- 
 hammedans; their voices were mute, and their 
 harpa. unstrung. The republic of letters had 
 a qnite different aspecr in the Latin' world, 
 where tlife liberal arts jiiid se^ences were culti- 
 vated wfth zeal and spirit, under the most 
 auspicious encouragement', and recovered their 
 ancient lustre and glory.. Several of the popes 
 became their zealous patrons and prbtector^, 
 among whom Nicolas V.: deserves an eminent 
 and distinguished rank; the munificence and 
 authprify of kin^ and princes were also no- 
 bly exerted m this excellent cause, and ani- 
 mated men of learning and genius to display 
 their talents. The illustrious' family of the 
 Mediei in Italy,* AlphonsoVI. king of Naples,' 
 and the other Neapolitan monarchs of the 
 house of Aijagon.t acquired~immortal renown 
 by their love of letters, their liberality- to.th^ 
 learned, and their ardent zeal for the advance- 
 ment of science." Under their auspices,,or in 
 consequence of their example, many acade- 
 mies were 'founded in Germany, France, and 
 Italy, libraries were collected at- a. prodigious 
 expense, and honours and rewards were lavish- 
 ed on tie studious youth^ to animate their in- 
 dustry by the views of interest and 4;he desire 
 of glory. To all these happy circumstances, 'in 
 favour of the sciences, was now added an ad- 
 mirable discovery, which contributed, as "much 
 as any thiiig else, to their propagation, I mean, 
 the art of Printing,- (first with wooden, and 
 afterwards with metal types,) which was in- 
 ventedabout the year 1440,.at Mentz, by John 
 Guttemberg. By_the aid of this incomparable 
 art, the productions of the most eminent Greek 
 and La,tih writers, which had lain concealed, 
 before this interesting period; in the libraries 
 of the monks, were now spread abroad with 
 fecility, and perused'by many, who 'could never 
 have had access to them under their primitive 
 form.J The perusal of these noble eomposf- 
 
 * We have a full account of the obligations o'f the 
 republic of letters to the'family of Medici, in a. va- 
 luable work of Joseph Bianchini de Frato, del gran 
 Duchi di Toscana delle reale Casa de Medici. Fro- 
 tettori delle Lettere e delle Belle Arti, Kagiona- 
 medti Historici, published at Venice, in 1741. 
 
 f See Glannoire, Historia di Napoli, tdm. iii — Ari^ 
 ton. Panormitani Dicta et Facta jnemorabilia AI- 
 plionsi I. denub edit£ a Jo. Ger. Meuscbenio, in "Vit. 
 Brad. Viror. torn. ii. 
 
 Q^ J Dr. Mosheim decides here, that Guttemberg 
 of Meritz was the' inventor of ths art of printing; 
 but this notion is opposed with zeal by several- men 
 of learning. Of the many treatises that^have b^en 
 .published on -this subject, not one^is composed With 
 greater erudition and judgmentthan that of profes- 
 sor Schoepflin, of Strasbourg, in which the learned 
 author undertakes to prove that the art of printing, 
 by the means of letters engraven on*plates of wood, 
 was invented at Haerlem, by Coster; that the method 
 of printing, -by moveable types, , was the discovery 
 of John Guttemberg, a discovery made during his. 
 residence at Strasbourg; and that the still more per- 
 fect manner of printing with types .6finetal cast in 
 
 tions purified the-taste, excited the elniilation 
 of men of genius, and' animated theni with a 
 rloble ambition of excelling in the same way.* 
 II. The rtili of the Grecian .empire contpir 
 buted greatly to the propagation- and advance- 
 ment of learning in the west. ^For, after the 
 reduction of Constantinople, the most-eminent 
 of. the Greek literati passed into Italy, and 
 viiere thence dispersed into 'the other countries 
 (£ Europe, where, to gain snbsisteric'er these 
 venerable exiles iiistructed the yduth in Grecian 
 erudition, -and propagated throughout the 
 western world the love of learning, and a true 
 and elegant' teste for the sciences. Hence it 
 was, -that every distinguished city and imi- 
 versity possessed one-or more of these learned " 
 Greeks, who formed the stiidious youth to- 
 literary pursuits-t But they received no where 
 such encouraging marks of protection and 
 esteem as in Italy, where they were honoured 
 in a. singular manner in various jjities, and 
 were more especially distinguished by the fa- 
 mily of Medici, whose liberality to the learned 
 seemed to- have no bojinds. _ It was conse- 
 quently ill Italy that these ingenious fugitives 
 were.most numerous; and hence that country, 
 became," in some measure, the centre of the 
 arts and sciences,'^ and the general rendeiiyous 
 of all who were ambitious of literary glory. j 
 . III. The learned jBen who adorned at thiff 
 time the various provinces of Italy^were prin- 
 cipally employed in publishing accurate and. 
 elegant editions of the Greek and Latin clas- 
 sics, in illustrating these authors with useful 
 
 .a ihould. Was. the contrivance ofJohn Schojeffer^and . 
 i^as first practised at Mentz. This learned work, in 
 which the author examines the opinions of Mar- 
 chand, Fournier, and other writers, was published 
 in- 1760,i under the following title: Jo. DanieHs 
 Schoepflini Consil. Reg. ac -Francise Hisi 'Vindicis 
 TypOgraphfcae,*- &c. 
 
 ■ * Mich. Maittaire, AnnalesTypographici.— Prosp.. 
 -M^rchand, PIist(jire-de rimpnnierie. 
 
 t Jo. Henr. Mail Vita ReuchUnj, p. 11, 19,-38, 152, 
 165t — Casp.- Barthi'us ad Statium, tom. ii, p. 1008.^^ 
 Boulay, torn.- "v. p. ,692. - ' ' ^ ■ . 
 
 I For a- -farther, account of this interesting period. . 
 of the higtory of learning, the -reader' may consult 
 the lear;ied ^ork of Humphry "Ho'dy, de Grfficis iUiis- 
 tribus Citei^rum -Grscarum in Italia Tnstaurato'ri- 
 bus, to. which may > be lidded, Battler's Oration on 
 the same subject, published in the Museum Helveti- 
 cura, torn. iv. ,' 
 
 ^^ * ^ this note stands iti .the first edition of 
 ."ihis History, in ,4to. Since that time, the learned 
 and ingenious Mr. .GerardJWeerman, pensionary of 
 Ro,tterdam, has published his laborious and interest-- 
 ing accoUltt of the origin and'inventionof .the art 
 of printing, u'hder.the following title, " Qrigihes Ty- 
 pographicE," — aTvdrk which, sets this matter in its 
 true light,, by making certain distinctions unknown 
 to the writers whp treated this subject before him. 
 According to the hypothesis of this writer, (an hy- 
 pothesis supported by irresistible proofs,) Laurence 
 Coster^ of Haerlenr, invented the 'moveable wooden 
 types;'— Genfleisch and Guttemberg carved metallic 
 types at-Mentz, which, though superior to the former, 
 were still imperfect, because often unequal; Schoeifer 
 perfected the invention at Strasbourg, by casting the 
 types in an iron mould, or matrix, engraven with a 
 puncheon. Thus the question is decided. Coster 
 was evidently the inventor of printing; the others 
 itiyproved the ar.t, or rendered it more perfect 
 
Chap. I. 
 
 LEARNING AND PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 409 
 
 commentaries, in studying them as their models^ 
 both in poetry and prose, and in throwing hght 
 upon the precious remains of antiquity, that 
 were discovered from day to day. In all these 
 branches of literature, many arrived at such 
 degrees of excellence, as it is almost impossible 
 to surpass, and extremely difficult to equal. 
 Nor were the other languages and sciences ne- 
 glected. In the university of Paris there was 
 now a public professor, not only of the Greek, 
 but also of the Hebrew tongue;* and in Spain 
 and Italy the study of that language, and of 
 Oriental learning and antiquities in general, 
 was pursued wit£ the greatest success.f John 
 Reuchlin, otherwise called Capnion, and Trith- 
 eniius, who had made an extraordinary pro- 
 gress, both in the study of the languages and 
 of the sciences, were the restorers of solid 
 learning among the Germans.! Latin poetry 
 was revived by Antony of Palermo, who ex- 
 cited a spirit of emulation among the favourites 
 of the Muses, and had many followers in that 
 sublime art;§ while Cyriac of Ancona, by his 
 own examplg, introduced a taste for coins, 
 medals, inscriptions, gems, and other precious 
 monuments of antiquity, of which he himself 
 made a large collection in Italy. || 
 
 IV. It is not necessary to give here a pecu- 
 liar and minute account of the other branches 
 of literature that Nourished in this century; 
 nevertheless, the state of philosophy deserves 
 a moment's attention. Before the arrival of 
 the Greelcs in Italy, Aristotle reigned there 
 "without a rival, and captivated, as if were by 
 a sort of enchantment, all without exception, 
 whose gE^nius led them to philosophical inqui- 
 ries. The veneration that was shown him, de- 
 generated into a foolish and extravagant en- 
 thusiasm; the encomiums with which he was 
 loaded, surpassed the bounds of decency; and 
 many carried matters so far as to compare him 
 with the respectable precursor of the Messiah.lT 
 This violent passion for the Stagirite was how- 
 ever abated, or rather was rendered less gene- 
 ral, by the influence which the Grecian sages, 
 and particularly Gemistius Pletho, acquired 
 among th& Latms, many of whom they per- 
 suaded to abandon the contentious and subtle 
 doctrine of the Peripatetics, and to substitute 
 in its place the mild and -divine wisdom of 
 Plato. It was in the year 1439, about the 
 time of the famous council of Florence, that 
 this revolution happened in the empire of 
 philosophy. Several illustrious personages 
 among the Latins, charmed with the subhme 
 sentiments and doctrines of Plato, propagated 
 them among the studious youth, and particu- 
 
 * R. Simon, Critique de la Bibl. Eccles. par M. 
 Du-Pin, torn. i. p. 502. Boulay, Histor. J?aris. torn. 
 v. p. 852. 
 
 t Pauli Colomesil Italia Ofientalis, et Hispama 
 Orien talis. 
 
 t R. Simon, Lettres Choisies, torn. i. p. 232; torn, 
 iv. p. 131, 140. 
 
 S IJictionnaire Hist, et Critique de Bayle. 
 
 ( See the Itinerarium of Cyriac, publislied at Flo- 
 rence in 1742, by Melius, from the original manu- 
 script together with a preface, annotations, and 
 several letters of that learned man, who may be 
 considered as the first antiquary that appeared in 
 Europe.— See also the Epistles of Leonardo Aretino, 
 torn. ii. lib. ix. p. 149. _ 
 
 ir See Christ. August. Ileumanni Acta Philosopho- 
 tum, tom. iii. p- 345. 
 Vol. I.— 52 
 
 larly among those of a certain rank and figure. 
 The most eminent patron, of this divine phi- 
 losophy, as it was termed by its votaries, was 
 Cosmo de' Medici, who had no sooner heard, 
 the lectures of Pletho, than he formed the de- 
 sign of founding a Platonic academy at Flo- 
 rence. For this purpose, he ordered Marsilius 
 Fioinus, the son of his first j>hysician, to be 
 carefully instructed in the doctrines of the 
 Athenian sage, and, in general, in the language 
 and philology of Uie Greeks, that he might 
 translate into Latin the productions of the 
 most renowned Flatonists. Ficinus answered 
 well the expectations, and executed the inten- 
 tions of his illustrious patron, by translating 
 successively into the Latin language, the cele- 
 brated works of Hermes Trismegistus, Ploti- 
 nus, and Plato. The same excellent prince 
 encouraged by his munificence, and animated 
 by his protection, many learned men, such as 
 Ambrose of Camaldoli, Leonardo Bruno, 
 Poggio, and others, to undertake works of a 
 like nature, that the Latin literature might be 
 em-iched with translations of the best Greek 
 writers. The consequence of all this wag, 
 that two philosophicalsects arose in Italy, who 
 debated for a long time (with the warmesi, 
 animosity in a multitude of learned and con- 
 tentious productions) thi^ important question, 
 which was the greatest philosopher, Aristotle 
 or Plato.* 
 
 V. Between these opposite factions,, some 
 eminent men, among both Greeks and Latins, 
 thought proper to steer a middle course. To 
 this class belonged Johannes Picus de Miran- 
 dola, Bessarion, Hermolaus Barbarqs, and 
 others of less renown, who, indeed, considered 
 Plato as the supreme oracle of philosophy, but 
 would by no means suffer Aristotle to be treated 
 with indifference or contempt, and who pro- 
 posed to reconcile the jarring doctrines of these 
 two famous Grecian sages, and to combine 
 them into one system.^ -These moderate phi- 
 losophers, both in their manner of teaching, 
 and in the opinions -they adopted, followed 
 the mpdem Platonic school, of which Ammo- 
 nias was the original founder.! This sect was, 
 for a long time, regarded with the utmost Vene- 
 ration, particularly among the Mjratics; while 
 the scholastic doctors, and all such as were in- 
 fected with the itch of disputing, favoured the 
 Peripatetics. But, after all, these reconciling 
 Elatonists were cjiargeabl^ with many errors 
 and follies; they fell into the most childish su- 
 
 * Boivin, dans THistoire de I'Academie des In- 
 scriptions et des Belles Lettres, tom. iv. p. 381. — 
 Launoy, de varia Fortuna Anstotelis, p. 225. 
 
 Leo AUatius, de Geoigiis, p. 391.— La Croze, En- 
 tretiens sur divers Sujets, p. 384. — Joseph Bianchini, 
 dei Gran Duchi di Toscana. — Bruckeri Historia 
 Critica PhilosophlfB, tom. iv, 
 
 Q(^ It was not only the respective merit of these 
 two philosophers, considered in that point of light, 
 that was debated in this controversy;"the principal 
 question was, which system was most conformable 
 to the doctrines of Christianity? And here the Pla 
 tonic certainly deserved the preference, as was abun 
 dantly proved, by Pletho and others. I* i^ well known 
 that many of the opinions of Aristotle lead directly 
 to atheism. 
 
 t See Bessarion's Letter in the Histoire de I'Aca- 
 demie des Inscriptions, tom. v. p. 456 — Thomasius, 
 de Svncretismo Feripatetico, in ejus Orationibus, p. 
 340. ' 
 
ii>iJi.n,iNai. tiiSTUKK ur THK UHUKUtl. 
 
 perstitions, and followed, without either re- 
 flection or restraint, the extravagant dictates 
 of their wanton imaginations. 
 
 VI. Their system of philosophy was, how- 
 ever, much less pernicious than that of the 
 Aristotelians, their adversaries, who still main- 
 tained their superiority in Italy, and instructed 
 the youth in all the pabhc schools of learning. 
 For these subtle doctors, and more especially 
 the followers of Averroes, (who maintained 
 that all the human race were animated by one 
 common soul,) imperceptibly sapped the foun- 
 dations both of natural and revealed religion^ 
 and entertained sentiments very little, if at all, 
 different from that impious pantheistical sys- 
 tem, which confounds the Deity with the uni- 
 verse, and merely acknowledges one self-ex- 
 jstent being, composed of infinite matter and 
 infinite intelligence. Among this class of so- 
 phists, the most eminent was Peter Pompo- 
 nace, a native of Mantua, a man of a crafty 
 turn, and an arrogant, enterprising spirit, who, 
 notwithstanding the pernicious tendency of 
 his writings (many of which are yet extant) to 
 undermine the principles, and corrupt the doc- 
 trines of religion,* was almost universally fol- 
 lowed by the professors of philosophy in the 
 Italian academies. These intricate doctors 
 did not, however, escape the notice of the in- 
 quisitors, who, alarmed both by the rapid pro- 
 gress and dangerous tendency of their meta- 
 physical notions, took cognizance offtem,and 
 called the Aristotelians to give an account of 
 their principles. The latter, tempering their 
 courage with craft, had recourse to a mean and 
 perfidious stratagem, to extricate themselves 
 from this embarrassing trial. They pretended 
 to establish a wide distinction between philo- 
 sophical and theological truth; and maintain- 
 ing that their sentiments were philosophically 
 true; and conforinable to right reason, they al- 
 lowed them to be deemed theologically false. 
 and contrary to the declarations of the Gospel 
 Tills niiserable and impudent subterfiige was 
 condemned und prohibited in the following 
 century, by Leo X. in a council which he held 
 at the Lateran. 
 
 VII. The Realists and Nominalists contin- 
 ued their disputes in France and Germany 
 with more vigbur and animosity than ever; 
 and, finding that reason and argument were 
 feeble weapons, they had recourse to mutual 
 invectives and accusations, penal laws, and 
 even to the force of arms; a strange, method, 
 surely, of deciding a metaphysical question! 
 The contest was not only w'arm,.but'''was very 
 general in its extent; for it infected, almost 
 without exception, the French and German 
 colleges. Jn most places, however, the Real- 
 ists maintained a manifest superiority over the 
 Nominahsts, to whom they also gave the ap- 
 pellation o/ Terminists.f While the famous 
 Gerson anJ the most eminent of his disciples 
 were living, the Nominalists were in high es- 
 teem and credit in the university of Paris. 
 
 * See the very learned Brucker'a Hist. Grit. Philo- 
 Eophis, t. iv. p. 158. 
 
 . t See Brucker-s Historia Critica Phildsophiae, torn. 
 iai. p. 904. — Jo. Salaberti Philosophia Nominalium 
 Vindicata, cap. i. — Baluzii Miacellan. t. iv. p. .531." — 
 Argentre, Coll. Docum. de nov. Erior. t. i. p. KO. 
 
 But, on the death of these powerful and re- 
 spectable patrons, the scene was changed to 
 their disadvantage. In 1473, Louis Xl., by 
 tire instigation of his confessor the bishop pf 
 Avranches, issued a severe edict against the 
 doctrines of the Nominalists, and ordered all 
 their writings to be seized, and secured in a 
 sort of imprisonment, that they might not be 
 perused by the people.* But the same mo- 
 narch mitigated this edict in the following 
 year, and permitted some of the books of that 
 sect to be delivered fi-om their confinement, f 
 In 1481, he went much farther; for he not orjy 
 granted a full liberty to the Nominalists and 
 their writings, but also restored that philo- 
 sophical sect to its former authority and lustre 
 in the university.| 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Concerning the Doctors and Ministers^ of the 
 Church, and its Forms of Govenmuni, during 
 this Century. 
 
 I. The most eminent writers of this century 
 unanimously lament the miserable condition to 
 which the Christian cjiurch was rediiced by 
 the corruption of its ministers, and which 
 seemed to portend nothing less than its total 
 ruin, if Providence should not interpose, By 
 extraordinary means, for its deliverance and 
 preservation. . The vices that reigned among 
 the Roman pontiffs, and, indeed, among all tha 
 ecclesiastical orders, were so flagrant, that the 
 cotnpPaints of these good- men did not appear 
 at all exaggerated, or their apprehensions ill- 
 founded; nor had any of the corrupt advocates 
 of the clergy the courage to call them to an 
 account for the sharpness of their censures and 
 of their complaints. The rulers of the church, 
 who lived in luxurious indolence, and in the 
 infamous practice of all kinds of vice, were 
 even obliged to hear with a placid counte- 
 nance, and even to commend, these bold cen- 
 sors, who declaimed against the degeneracy of 
 the church, declared that there was scarcely 
 any thing sound eitlier in its visible head or in 
 its members, and demanded tlie aid of the se- 
 cular arm, and the destroying sword, to lop off 
 the parts that were infected with this grievous 
 and deplorable contagion. Affaire, in short, 
 were brought to such a pass, that those were 
 deemed the best Christians, and the most use- 
 ful members of society, who, braving the ter- 
 rors of persecution, and triumphing over the 
 fear of man, inveighed with the greatest frea- 
 dom and fervour against the court of Rome, 
 its lordly pontiff, and the whole tribe of his 
 followers and votaries, 
 
 II. At the commencement of this century, 
 the Latin church was divided into two great 
 factions, and was governed by two contending 
 pontiffs, Boniface IX. who remained at Rome, 
 and Benedict XIII. who resided at Avignon. 
 
 * Naude'a Additions a rHistoire de Louis XI. p. 
 203.— Du Boulay, Hist. Acad. Paris, torn. v. p. 678, 
 705. — Launoy'8 Histor. Gymnaa. Navar. t. iv. oji. 
 part i. p. 201, 378. 
 
 t Boulay, t. V. p. 710. 
 
 j The proofs of this we find " in Salebert's Phila 
 Sophia Nominal, vindicata, cap. i. — See also Boulay 
 torn. v. 
 
DOCTORS, CHURCH GOVERNMENT, &c. 
 
 Chap. II. 
 
 Upon the death of the former, the cardinals of 
 his party raised to the pontificate, in .1404, 
 Cosmo de Meliorati, who assumed the name 
 of Innocent VII.,* and held that high dignity 
 during tlie short space of two. years only. 
 After his decease, Angelo Corrario, a Vene- 
 tian cardinal, was chosen in his roonij and 
 ruled the Roman faction tinder the title of 
 Gregory XII. A plan of reconciliation was 
 however formed, and the contending pontiffs 
 bound themselves, each by an oath, to make a 
 voluntary renunciation bf the papal chair, if 
 that step should be deemed necessary to pro- 
 mote the peace and welfare of the church; but 
 both of them scandalously violated this solemn 
 obligation. Benedict, besieged in Avignon 
 by the king of France, in 1408, saved himself 
 by flight, retirihg first into Catalonia, his na- 
 tive country, and afterwards to Perpignan. 
 Hence eight or nine of the cardinals, who ad- 
 hered to his cause, seeing themselves deserted 
 by their pope, went over to the other side, and, 
 joining publicly With the cardinals who sup- 
 ported Gregory, they agreed to assemble a 
 council at Pisa on the 25th of March, 1409, in 
 order to heal the divisions and factions that 
 had so long rent the papal empire. This coun- 
 cil, however, which was designed to close the 
 wounds of the church, had an effect quite con- 
 trary to that which' was generally expected, 
 and only served to open a new breach, andio 
 excite new divisions. Its proceedings, indeed, 
 were vigorous, and its measures were accom- 
 panied with a just severity. A heavy sentence 
 of condemnation was pronounced, on the 6th 
 day of Jun6, against the contending pontiffs, 
 who were declared guilty of heresy, perjury, 
 and contumacy, unworthy of the smallest to- 
 kens of honour or respect, and separated ipso 
 facto from the communion of the church. This 
 step was followed by the election of one pontiff 
 in their place. The election took place on the 
 25th of June, and fell upon Peter of Candia, 
 known in the papal list by the name of Alex- 
 ander V.,t but all the decrees and proceedings 
 of this famous council were treated vvith con- 
 tempt by the condenmed pontiffs, who con- 
 tinued to' enjoy the privileges and to perform 
 the functions of the papacy, as if no attempts 
 had been made to remove them from that dig- 
 nity. Benedict held a council at Perpignan; 
 and Gregory assembled one near Aquileia. 
 The latter, however, apprehending the resent- 
 ment of the Venetians,J made his escape in a 
 clandestine manner from the territory of Aqui- 
 leia, arrived at Caieta, where he threw himself 
 upon the protection of Ladislaus, king of Na- 
 ples, and, in 1412, fled-thence to Rimini. 
 III. Thus was the Christian church divided 
 
 411 
 
 * Beside the oriSinary writers, who have given us. 
 an account of the transactions that happened under 
 the pontificate of Innocent VII., see Leon, Aretin. 
 Epistol. lih. i. ep. iv. v. et CoUuc. Salutat. Epistol. 
 lib ii,— We have also an account of the pontificate 
 of Gregory, in the Epistles of the same Aretin, and 
 in Jo. Lami, Delic. Eruditorum, torn. i. „,: 
 
 + See L'Enfant Histoire, dtt Concile de Pise.— F. 
 Pasi Breviar. Pontif. Komanorumj torn, iv.— and 
 Bossuet, Defensio Decreti Gallicani de Potestate 
 Ecolesiastica, torn. >'-,,„,. . , 
 
 ng- t He had ofifended the Venetians by deposing 
 their patriarch, Antony Panciarini, and putting An- 
 tony du Pont, the bishop of Concordia, in his place. 
 
 into three great factions, and its govemnent 
 violently carried on by three con^^nding chie& . 
 who loaded each other with reciprocS male- 
 dictions, calumnies, and excbmmunieations. 
 Alexander V., who had been elected pontiff at 
 th^ council of Pisa, died at Bologna in 1410; 
 and the sixteen cardinals, who attended him in 
 that city, immediately filled up the vacancy, 
 by choosing, ets his successor, Balthasar Cossa, 
 a Neapolitan, destitute of all principles both 
 of religion and probity, who assumed the title 
 of John XXIII. The duration of this schism 
 in the papacy was a source of many calami- 
 ties, and became daily .more detrimental both 
 to the civil and religious interests of those .na- 
 tions among whom the flame raged. Hence 
 it was that the emperor ^igismund, the king 
 of France,, and several other princes, employ- 
 ed all their zeal and activity, and spared nei- 
 ther labour nor expense, in restoring the tfan- ■ 
 quillity of the church, and uniting it agkin un- 
 der one spiritual head. On the other hand, the 
 pontiffs could not be persuaded by any means 
 to prefer the peace of the churfth to the grati- 
 fication of their ambition; so that no other 
 method of accommodating this weighty mat- 
 ter remained, than the assembling of a general 
 council, in larhioh the controversy might be ex- 
 amined, and terminated by the judgment and 
 decision of the universal church. This coun- 
 cil was accordingly convoked at Constance, in 
 1414, by John XXIII. who was engaged in 
 this measure by the entreaties of Sigismund, 
 and also frbm an expectation, that the decrees 
 of this grand assembly would be favourable to 
 his interests. He appeared with a great num- 
 ber of cardinals and bishops, at this famous 
 council, which was also honoured with the 
 presence of the emperor, of many German 
 princes, and of the ambassadors of all the Eu- 
 ropean states, whose monarchs or regents could 
 not be personally present at the decision of this 
 important controversy.* 
 
 IV. The great object of this assembly was 
 the healing of the schism that had so long rent 
 the papacy: and tliis purpose was happUy ac-. 
 complished. It was solemnly declared, in the 
 fourth and fifth sessions of this council, by two 
 decrees, that the Roman pontiff was iiuerior 
 and subject to a general assembly of the uni- 
 versal church; and the same decrees vindicat- 
 ed and maintained, in the most effectual man- 
 ner, the authority of councils.f This vigor- 
 
 * The acts of this fa.mous council were published 
 in six volumes in folio, at Frankfort, in 1700, by 
 Herman von der'Hardt. This collection, however,- 
 is imperfect, notwithstanding the pains that it cost 
 the laborious editor. Many of the. acts are omitted, 
 and a great number of pieces are introduced which 
 by no jneans deserve a place. The history of the 
 same council by L'En'fant, is composed with great 
 accuracy and elegance; but the supplement that was 
 given to it by Bourgeois de Chastene^a French 
 lawyer, is a performance of little meril^^t is enti- 
 tled, ' Nouyelle Histoire du Concile de Constance, ou 
 I'fln fait voir combien la France a contribue a I'ex- 
 tinction du .Schisme.' .. ' i, 
 
 t For an account of these two famous deci^^, 
 which set such wise linCiita to the supremacy qf tl^ 
 pontiffs, see Natalis Alexand. HisOi EccI- s!ec. XV. 
 Diss. iv. — Bossuet, Defens. Senten'tis Cleri Galilean, 
 de Potest. Ecclesiast. torn. ii. — L'Enfant, Dissert, 
 Hisforiqu^ et Apologetique pour Jean Gerson et le 
 Concile de Constance, which is subjoined to his his- 
 tory of that council. 
 
412 
 
 mTEUNAL HISTORY OP THE CHURCH. 
 
 PamiI 
 
 ous proceeding prepared the way for the de- 
 gradation of John, who, during the twelfth 
 session, was unanimously deposed ftoiil the 
 pontificate,* on account of several flagitious 
 crimes that were laid to his charge, and more 
 especially for the scandalous violati&i of a so- 
 lemn engagement which he had taken about 
 the beginning of the council, to resign the pa- 
 pal chair, if that measure should appear neces- 
 sary to the peace of the church; which engage- 
 ment he broke some weeks after by a clandes- 
 tine flight. In the same year (1415,) Grego- 
 ry sent Charles de Malatesfa to the council to 
 make, in his name, a solemn and voluntary re- 
 signation of the pontificate. About two years 
 after this, Benedict was deposed by a solemn 
 resolution of the council,t and Otto de Colon- 
 na raised, by the unanimous suffrages of the 
 cardinals, Ito the high dignity of head of the 
 church, which he ruled under the title of Mar- 
 tin V. Benedict, who still resided at Perpig- 
 nan, was far from being disposed-to submit 
 either to the decree of the council which depos- 
 ed him, or to the determination of the cardi- 
 nals with respect to his successor. On the 
 contrary, he persisted until the day of his 
 death, which happened in the year 1423, in as- 
 suming the title,vthe prerogatives, and the au- 
 thority of the papacy. And when this obsti- 
 nate man was dead? a certain Spaniard, named 
 Giles Munoz, was chosen pope in his place by 
 two cardinals, under the patronage of Alphon- 
 so, king of Sicily, and adopted the title of 
 Clehient VIII.; but this sorry pontifl", in 1429, 
 was persuaded to resign his pretensions, and 
 to leave the govern'meht of the church to Mar- 
 tin V. 
 
 V. -If, from the measures that were taken in 
 this council to check thfe lordly arrogance of 
 tlie Roman pontiffs, we turn our eyes to the 
 proceedings against those who were called he- 
 reticsj we shall observe in this new scene no- 
 thing worthy of applause, but several things, 
 on the contrary, that can only excite our indig- 
 nation} and which no pretext, no consideration, 
 can render excusable. Before the meeting^of 
 this council, gJeat commotions had been excit- 
 ed in several parts of Europe, and more espe- 
 cially in Bohemia, by contests on religious sub- 
 jects. One of the persons that gave occasion 
 to these disputes was John Huss, who lived at 
 Prague in the highest reputation, both on ac- 
 count of the sanctity of his manners, and the 
 purity of his doctrine, who was distinguished 
 by his uncommon erudition and eloquence, and 
 performed, at the same time, the functions of 
 professor of divinity in the~ university, and of 
 ordiriary pastor in the church of that famous 
 city .J This eminent ecclesiastic declaimed 
 
 « On the 23th of May, MIS. 
 t On the^th of July, 1417. - ' 
 
 (jl^ I A Bohemian Jesuit, who was far from being 
 favonrable'to JohnHuss, and who had the best^'op- 
 portunity of being acquainted with his real character, 
 desvlbes liim thus: " He was more subtle than elo- 
 quent; but the gravity and austerity of his manners, 
 his frugal and exemplary life, bis pale and meagre 
 countenance, his sweetness of temper, and liis un- 
 common affability toward persons of all ranks and 
 cqnditions, from the highest to the lowest, were 
 much more persuasive than any eloquence could be.'* 
 Sec BohuslaUs Balbinus, Epitom. Hist. Rer. Bohem, 
 ib. iv cap. V. p. 431. I 
 
 with vehemence against the vices that hud cop- 
 rupted the clergy of all denominations; nor 
 was hp singular in this respect; fpr such re* 
 monstrances had become very common, and 
 were generally approved by the wise and tlie 
 good. Huss, however, went still farther;" and, 
 From the year 1408, used his most zealous en- 
 deavours to withdraw the university of Prague 
 from the jurisdiction of Gregory XIL, whom 
 the kingdom of Bohemia had hitherto acknow- 
 ledged as the true and lawful- head of the 
 church. The archbishop of Prague, and the 
 clergy in general, who were warmly attached 
 to the interests of Gregory, were greatly exas- 
 perated at these proceedings. . Hence, arose a 
 violent quarrel between the incensed prelate 
 and the zealous reformer, which the latter in- 
 flamed and augmented, from day to day, by 
 his warm exclamations against the conduct of 
 the court of Rome, and the corruptions that 
 prevailed, among the sacerdotal order. 
 
 VI. Such were the circumstances that first 
 excited the resentment of the clergy against 
 John Huss. This resentment, however, jnight 
 have been easily- calmed, and perhaps totallj 
 extinguished, if new incidents of a more im- 
 portant kind had not arisen to keep up the, 
 flame and increase its fury. In the first place, 
 he adopted the philosophical opinions of the 
 Realists, and showed his warm attachment 
 to their cause, in the manner that was usual in 
 this barbarous age, even by persecutmg, to the 
 utmost of his power, their adversaries, the 
 MJminalists, whose number was great, and- 
 whose influence was Considerable in the uni- ' 
 versity of Prague,* He also multiplied the 
 number of his enemies, in 1408, by procuring, 
 through his great credit, a sentence in favour 
 of the Bohemians, who disp)ited with the Ger- 
 mans concerning the numbe'r of suffrages tp 
 which their respective nations were entitled in 
 all points that were carried by election in the 
 university. ~ That the nature of- this contest 
 may be better understood, it will be proper to 
 observe, that this famous university was divided, 
 by its founder Charles IV., into^bur nations, 
 namely, the Bohemians, Bavarians, Poles, and 
 Saxons; of which, according to the original 
 laws of the institutions, the first had three suf- 
 frages, and the other three, who were compre- 
 hended under the title of the German nation, 
 only one. This arrangement, however, had 
 not only been altered by custoni, but was en- 
 tirely inverted in favour of the Germans, who 
 were vastly superior to the Bohemians in num- 
 ber, and assumed to themselves the three suf- 
 frages which originally belonged to the latter^ 
 Huss, therefore, whether animated by a prin- 
 ciple of patriot^ih, or by an aversion to the 
 Nominahsts, who were peculiarly favoured by 
 the Germans, raised his voice against this abuse. 
 
 * See the Litene Nominalium ad Regem FranciaB 
 Ludovlcum VI., in Baluzii Miscellan. tom. iv. p. 534, 
 where we read th§ following passage: "Legimua 
 Nominates, cxpulsos de Bohemia eo tempore, quo 
 bffiretici vo^uerunt Bohemicum regnum suis bsresi- 
 bus inficerb. — duum dicti hasretici non possent dis- 
 putando superare, impetraverunt ab Abbisseslao 
 OVen6eslao) principe Bohemise, ut gubernarentur stu- 
 dia Pragensia ritu Parisiensium; quo edicto coacii 
 sunt supradicti Nominales Pragam civitatem relin- 
 quere, et se transtulerunt ad Lipzicam civitatem, et 
 ibidem erexerunt universitatem solemnissimam." 
 
Chap, II. 
 
 DOCTORS, CHURCH GOVERNMENT, &c. 
 
 413 
 
 and eniplpyedj with success, the extraordinary 
 credit he had obtained at court, by his flowing 
 and masculine eloquence, in depriving the 
 Gerinans of the -privilege they had usurped, 
 and in reducing their three suffrages to one. 
 The issue of this long and tedious contest* 
 was so offensive to the Germans, that a prodi- 
 gious number of them, with John Hoffman, 
 the rector of the university, at their head,t re- 
 tired from Prague, and repaired to Leipsic, 
 where Frederic the Wise, elector of Saxony, 
 erected for them, in 1409, tliat academic insti- 
 tution which still subsists in a flourishing state. 
 This event contributed greatly to -render Huss 
 odious to many, and, by the consequences that 
 followed it, was certainly instrumental in bring- 
 ing on his ruin; for no sooner had the Germans 
 retired from Prague, than he began not* only 
 to inveigh with greater freedom than h? had 
 formerly done agaiiist the vices and corruptions 
 of the clergy, but even went so far asto re- 
 commend, in an open and public manner, the 
 writings and opinions of the famous Wickliffe, 
 whose-new doctrines had already made such a 
 noise in England. Hence an accusation was 
 brought against him, in 1410, before the tribu- 
 nal of John XXn., by whom he was solemnly 
 expelled from the communion of the church. 
 He treated, indeecl, this excommunication with 
 - the utmost contempt, and, both in his conver- 
 sation and his writings, exposed the disor- 
 ders that preyed upon the vitals of the church, 
 and the vices that dishonoured the conduct of 
 its ministers;! and the fortitude and zeal which 
 he discovered on this occasion were almost 
 universally a-pplauded. 
 
 Vn. This eminent man, whose piety was 
 truly fervent and sincere, though his zeal, per- 
 - haps, was rather too violent, and his prudence' 
 not always equally circumspect, was summon- 
 ed to appear before the council of Constance. 
 Obedient to this order, and thinking himself 
 secured from the rage of his enemies, by the 
 safe conduct which had been granted to him 
 by the emperor'Sigismund, both for his journey 
 to Constance, his residence in that city, and 
 his return to his own country, John Huss ap- 
 peared before the assembled churchmen, to 
 demonstrate his innocence, and to prove that 
 the charge of his haviiig deserted the church 
 of Rome was entirely groundless. And it may 
 be eifiirraed with truth, that his religious opin- 
 ions, at least in matters of importance, were 
 conformable to the established doctrine of the 
 church in this age.§ He declaimed, indeed. 
 
 g(^ * Wenceslaus, king of Bohemia; wlio was 
 -bribed by both of the contending parties, protracted 
 iiistead of abridging this dispnle, and used to say. 
 with a smile, that he had foand a good goose, which 
 laid every day a considerable number of gold and sil- 
 ver eggs. ThiB was playing upon the word Suss, 
 which, in the German language, signifies a. goose. 
 
 (0^ t Historians differ much in their accounts of 
 the number, of Germans that retired from the uni- 
 versity of Prague upon this occasion. ,^neas Syl- 
 vius reckons 5000; Trith'emins and-OtherB-2000. Du- 
 bravius 24,000; Lupatius 44,000; Laudai(a contempo- 
 rary writer) 36,000. 
 
 t See Laur. Byzinii Diarium Belli Hussitici, in 
 Ludewig's Reliquiae Manusciptorum, torn. vi. p. 127. 
 
 {13- 8 It was observed in the preceding section, 
 that John Huss adopted with zeal, and openly re- 
 commended the writings and opinions of Wickliflfe; 
 hut this must be understood of the writings and 
 
 with etxtraordinary vehemence against the Ro- 
 man pontiffs, the bishops and monks: but this 
 freedom was deemed lawful in these times, 
 and it was used every day in the council of 
 Constance, where the tyranny of the court of 
 Rome, and the corruption of the sacerdotal 
 and monastic orders, were censured with the 
 utmost severity. The enemies, however, of 
 this good man, who were very numerous, co- 
 loured the accusation that was brought against 
 him with such artifice and success, that; by the 
 most scandalous breach of pubUc faith, he was 
 thrown into prison, declared a heretic, because 
 he refused to obey the order of the council, 
 which commanded him to plead guilty against 
 the dictates of his corisciencej and was burned 
 alive on the 6th of July, 1415; which dreadful 
 punishment he endured with unparalleled mag- 
 nanimity and resignation, expressing in his 
 last, moments the noblest feelings of love to 
 God, and the most triimiphant hope of the 
 accomplishment of those transporting promises 
 with which the Gospel fortifies the true Chris- 
 tian at the approach of eternity. The same 
 unhappy fate was borne with the same pious 
 fortitude and constancy of mind by Jerome 
 of .Prague, the intimate companion of John 
 Huss, who appeared at this council with the 
 generous design of supporting and seconding 
 his persecuted friend. - Terrified by the pros^ 
 pect of a cruel death, Jerome at first appealed 
 willing to submit to the orders of the council, 
 and to abandon the tenets and opinions which 
 it had condemned in his writings. This sub- 
 mission, however, was not attended with the 
 advantages he expected from it; nor did it 
 deliver him from the close and severe con- 
 finement in which he was kept. He therefore 
 resumed his fortitude; professed anew, with an 
 heroic constancy, the opinions which he had 
 deserted for a wliile from a principle of fear, 
 and maintained them in the flames, in which 
 he expired on the 30th of May, 1416.* 
 
 Many learned men have endeavoured to in- 
 vestigate the reasons that occasioned the pro-^ 
 nouncing of such a cruel sentence against 
 Huss and his associates; and, as no adequate 
 reasons for such a severe proceeding can be 
 found, either in the Iffe or opinions of that 
 good man, they conclude that he fell a victim 
 to the rage and injustice of his unrelenting 
 enemies. And indeed this conclusion is both 
 natural and well-grounded; nor will it be dip-, 
 ficult to show how it came to pass, -that the 
 reverend fathers of the council were so eagerly 
 bent upon burning, as a heretic, a man who 
 neither deserved such an injurious title, nor 
 such a dreadful fate. In the first place, John 
 Huss had excited; both by his discourses and 
 by his writings, great-commotions in Bohemia, 
 and had rendered the clergy of all lUnks and 
 
 opiniotLS of that great man in relatiomto the papal 
 hierarchy, the despotism of the court of Rome, and 
 the corruption of the clergy; for, in other respects, it 
 is certain that he adhered to the most superstitious 
 doctrines of the church, as appears from various 
 passages in two sermons which he had prepared for 
 the council of Constance. 
 
 Ot^ * The translator has here inserted into the 
 text the long note (a) of the original, which relates to 
 the circumstances that precipitated the ruin of these 
 two eminent reformers; and he has thrown Ibe cita- 
 tions therein contained into several notes 
 
414 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part II. 
 
 ontera extremely odious in the eyes of the peo- 
 ple. The bishops, therefore, together with 
 the sacerdotal and monastic orders, were very 
 sensible that their honours and advantages,' 
 their credit and authority, were in thagreatest 
 danger of being annihilated, if thirreforraer 
 should return to his country, and continue to 
 writ^ and declaim against the clergy with the 
 same fi-eedom which he had formerly exercis- 
 ed. , Hence they left no -riieans unemployed to 
 accomplish his ruin;' they laboured night' and 
 day, formed plots, bribed men in power; they 
 used, in short, every method that could have 
 any tendency to rid them of such a formidable 
 adversary.'* It may be observed, secondly, 
 that in the council there were many men of 
 great influence and weight, who looked upon 
 themselves as personally offended by him", and 
 demanded his life as the only sacrifice that 
 could satisfy their vengeance. Huss, as has 
 been already mentioned, was njit only attach- 
 ed to the party of the Realists, but was pecu- 
 liarly severe in his opposition to their adversa- 
 ries. And now he was so unhappy, as to Jje 
 brought before a tribunal which was-principal- 
 ly composed of the Nominalists, with the fa- 
 mous Jotn Gerson at their head," who was the 
 zealous patron of that faction, and the mortal 
 enemy of Huss. Nothing could equal the vin- 
 dictive pleasure the Nominalists felt from an 
 event that put this unfortunate prisoner in 
 their power, and gave them an opportunity of 
 satisfying their vengeance to the full; and acr 
 cordingly, in their letter to Louis, king, of 
 France,! they do not pretend to deny that 
 Hfuss fell a victim to the resejitment of their 
 sect", which is also confinlied by the history of 
 the council. The aiiimosities that always 
 reigned between the Realists and Nominalists, 
 were -at this time carried to. the greatest excess 
 imaginable. Upon every occasion that offei> 
 ed, they accused each other of heresy and im- 
 piety, and • constantly had recourse to corporal 
 punishments to decide the dispute. The No- 
 minalists procured the death of JHuss, who was 
 a Realist; and the Realists, on the other hand, 
 obtained, in 1419, the condemnation of John 
 of 'Wesel, who was attached to the opposite 
 party.f These contending sects carried their 
 blihd fury so far as to charge each other with 
 
 * The bribery and cormption that were employed 
 in bringing about- the ruin of John Huss, are mani- 
 fest from the following rei^arkable' passages of the 
 Diarium HussiticunLof Laur. Byzinius; " Clerus 
 perversus, priecipue in regno Bohemise et marchiona- 
 tu MoravijE, cdndemnationem ipsius (Hussi) contri- 
 batione pecuniarum et modis aliis diversis procura- 
 vit, et ad ipsius consensit interitum." "Clerus per- 
 versus regni Bohemiffi et marchionatus Moraviie, -et 
 prfficipue episcopi, abbates, canoniei, plehani, et reli- 
 giosi, ipsius fideles ac salutiferas admonitiones, ad- 
 hortatio'nes, ipsorum pompam, simoniam, avaritiam, 
 fornicationem, vitEeque detestandaB abominationem 
 detegentes, ferre non valendo, pecuniarum contribu- 
 tiones ad ipsius extinctionem faci'endo procurarunt." 
 
 t See Baluzii Miscell. torn. iv. p. 534, in which we 
 find the following passage: " Suscitavit Deus docto- 
 res cathplioos, Petrum de Alliaco, Johannem de 
 gersono, et alios quam plures doctissimos homines 
 Nominales, qui, convocati ad concilium Constanti- 
 ense, ad quod citati fuerunt hffiretici, et nominatim 
 Hieronymus et Johannes^-dictos hajreticos per qua- 
 draginta dies disputando superaverunt." 
 ■.'t See the Examen Magistrale et Theologicale Mag. 
 .j^>de Wesalia, in Ortuini Gratii Fasciculo rerura 
 ejetend. et fugienday. Colon. 1S3S. 
 
 the sin against the Holy Ghost,* and exhibited 
 the most miserable spectable. of inhuman bi- 
 gotry" to the Christian world. The aversion 
 which John Huss, and Jerome, his companion, 
 had against the Germans, was a third circum- 
 stance that contributed to determine their un- 
 happy fate. This aversion they declared pub- 
 licly at Prague, on all occasions, both by their 
 words and actions; nor were they at any pains 
 to conceal it even in the council of Constance, 
 where they accused them of presumption and 
 despotism in the strongest terms, t The Ger- 
 mans, on tlie other hand, remembering the af- 
 front they had received in the university of 
 Prague,- by the means of John Huss, burned 
 with resentment and rage both against him 
 and his tmfortunate friend; and, as their influ- 
 ence and authority were very great in the 
 council, there is no doubt that they employed 
 them, with the utmost zeal, against these two 
 formidable adversaries. Besides^ John Hoff- 
 man, the famous rector of the university, 
 whom Huss had been the occasion of expelling 
 from that city, together with the Germans, 
 and who in consequence thereof became his 
 most virulent enemy, was consecrated bishop 
 of Misnia, in 1413, and held in this council 
 the most illustrious rank among thedelegates 
 of- the German church. This "circumstance 
 was also most unfavourable to Huss, and was, 
 without doubt, ultimately detrimental to his 
 cause. ' 
 
 The circumstances now mentioned, as con- 
 tributing to the unhappy fate of this good inan, 
 are, as we see, all drawn from the resehtinent 
 and prejudices of his enemies, and have not the 
 least colour of equity. It must, however, be 
 confessed, that there appeared one mark-qf he- 
 resy in the condijct of this reformer, which, ac- 
 cording to the notions that prevailed in this 
 century, might' expose him to condemnation 
 with some shadow of reason and justice; I 
 mean, his inflexible obstinacy, which the church 
 of Rome always considered as a grievous 
 heresy, even in those whose errors were of lit- 
 tle moment. We must consider, this man, as 
 called before a council, which was supposed 
 to represent the universal church, to confess 
 his faults and to abjure his errors. This he 
 
 * In the Jlxamen mentioned'in the preceding note, 
 we 'find the following striking passage, which may 
 slMJW ua the extravagant length to which the dis 
 putes betwe'en the Nominalists and Realists- weie 
 now carried;—" Quis nisi',ip5e diabolus seminavit 
 illam zizaniam inter philos'ophos et inter theologos, 
 ut tanta sit dissensio, etitim animorum^ inter diversa 
 opinantes? Adeo ut si universalia quisquam realia 
 negaverit, existimetur in Spiritum Sanctum pecca- 
 visse; imo summo et maximo peccato plenus creditur 
 eontra Deum, contra Christianam religionem, contra 
 jlistitiam, contra omneni politiam, graviter deli- 
 .quisse. Unde hfec ccecitaslmentis nisi a diabolo, qui 
 phant-aeias nostras illudit?" We see by this pas- 
 sage, that the Realists charged their adversaries 
 (whose only crime was the absurdity of calling unu 
 versal ideas mere denominations) with sin against 
 the Holy Ghost, with transgression against God, and 
 against the Christian religion, and with a violation 
 of all the laws of justice and civil polity. 
 
 t See Theod. de Niem_, Invectiva in Joh. XXIII., 
 in Hardtii Actis Concilii Constant, torn. ii. p. 450. 
 " Improperabat etiam in publico Alamannis, dicen- 
 do, quod essent prsesumptuosi, et vellent ubique per 
 
 orbem dominari Sicque , factum fuisset saepe in 
 
 Bohemia, ubi volentes etiam dominari Alamanni 
 violenler exinde repulsi et male tractati fuissent.' 
 
Chap. II. 
 
 DOCTORS, CHURCH GOVERNMENT, && 
 
 obstinately refused to do, unless he was pre- 
 viously convicted of error; here, thejefore, he 
 resisted the authority of the catholic cliurch, 
 demanded a- rational proof of the justice of the 
 sentence it had' pronounced against him, and 
 intimated, with sufficient plainness, that he 
 looked upon the charch ai^ fallible. All this 
 certainly was most enormously criminal and 
 intolerably heretical, according to the ffgneral 
 opinion of the times; for it became a dutiful 
 son of the church to renounce his eye-sight, 
 and to submit his own judgment ajid will, with- 
 out any exception or, reservation, to tlie judg- 
 ment and will of that holy mother, under a 
 firm belief and entire persuasion of the infalli? 
 bility pf all her decisions. This ghostly mo- 
 ther had, for many ages past, followed, when- 
 ever her unerring perfection and authority were 
 called in question, the rule which Pliny observ- 
 ed in his conduct toward the Christians: 
 " When they persevered, (says he, in his let- 
 ter to Trajan,) I put my threats into execution, 
 from a persuasion that, whatever their con- 
 fessions might be, their audacious and invinci- 
 ble obstinacy deserved an exemplary punish- 
 l.ment."* . - - 
 
 Vni. Before sentence had been pronounced 
 against John Huss arid Jerome of Prague, the 
 famous Wickliffe, whose opinions they: were 
 supposed to adopt, and who was long since 
 dead, was called from his rest before this spirit- 
 ual" tribunal; and his memory was solemnly 
 branded with infamy by a decree of the coun- 
 cil. Oh tie 4th day of May, in 1415, rnany 
 propositions, invidiously culled out of his writ- 
 ings, were examined and condemned, and an 
 order. was issued to commit all his works, to-, 
 gether with his boiies, to the flames. On the 
 14th X)f June following, the assembled fathers 
 passed the fanious decree, which took the cup 
 froin the laity in the celebration of the eucha- 
 rist; ordered " that the Lord's supper should be 
 received j)y them only in one kind, i. e. the 
 bread," and rigorously prohibited the commu- 
 nion in both kinds. This decree was occa- 
 sioned by complaints that had been made' of 
 the conduct of Jacobeljus de Misa; curate "Of 
 the parish of St. Michael, at Prague, who, 
 about a year beforOr liad been p'ersuaded by 
 Peter of Dresden, to administer the ' Lord's 
 supper in both kinds, and was followed in this 
 by several churches.f The^^Jouncil, being in- 
 formedof this matter by a Bohemian bishop, 
 thought proper to "oppose with vigour thfe pro- 
 gJessof this heresy; and therefore they enacted 
 the statute, which ordered " the communion 
 to be administered to the laity only in one 
 kind," and" which obtained the force and au- 
 thority of a law in the church of Rome. 
 
 IX. In the same year, the opinion- of John 
 Petit, a dootorof divinity at Paris,| Who main- 
 tamed, that every individual had an undoubted 
 right to take away the life of a tyrant, was 
 brought before the council, and was condemned~l 
 
 * Plin. Epist. lib. x. ep. 97. " Perseverantes duel 
 lassi. Neque enim dubitabam, qualecumqiie esset 
 quod faterentur, pervicaciam certe et inflexlbilem 
 obstinationem dehere puniri." 
 
 + Byzinii Diar. Huss. p. 134. 
 
 (}g- I Some historians have erroneously repre- 
 sented Petit as a lawyer, gee Dr. Smollet's History 
 if England. 
 
 415 
 
 as an odious and detestable heresy; but both 
 the name and person of the a,uthor were 
 spared, on account of the powerifiil patrons, 
 under whbse protection he had defended that 
 pemicious^octrine. John, duke of Burgundy, 
 had, in HQ7, employed arband of ruffians to 
 assassinate Louis duke of Orleans, only brother 
 of Charles VI. king of France. While the 
 whole city was in an uproar, in consequence 
 of this horrible deed, Tetit vindicated it in a 
 public oration, in presence of the dauphj^md 
 the other princes of the blood," affirming, that 
 the duke had done a laudable action, and that 
 it was lawful to put a tyrant to death,-" in 
 any .way, either by violence or fraud, without 
 any form of law or justice, and even in opposi- 
 tion to the most solemn contracts and oaths 
 ofjidelity and allegiance." It is, however, to 
 be observed, that by tyrants, this doctor did not 
 mean the supreme rulers of iiatlons, but those 
 powerful and insolent siibjects, who abused 
 their .opulence and credit to bring about mear 
 sures that tended to the dishonour of their 
 sovereign and the ruin of their country.* The 
 university of Paris pronounced a severe and 
 rigorous sentence against the author of this 
 pernicious opinion; and the council of Conr 
 stance, after much deliberation and debate, 
 condemned the opinion without mentioning 
 the author. This determination, though modi- . 
 fled with the utmost clemency and mildness, 
 was not ratified by the new pontiff Martin V., 
 who dreaded 'too much the formidable power 
 of the duke of Burgundy, to confirm a sentence 
 which he knew would be displeasing to that 
 ambitious prince.f 
 
 X. After these and other transactions of a 
 like nature, it was now time to take into con- 
 sideration a point of greater importance than 
 had yet been proposed, even the reformation 
 of the church m ifs head and in Its members, 
 by setting bound to the despotism and corrup- 
 tion of the Roman pontiffs, and to the luxury 
 and immorality of licentious ecclesiastics. It 
 was particularly with a view to this important 
 object, that the eyes of all Europe were fixed 
 upon the council, from a general pe^uasion 
 of the necessity of this reformation, and an 
 ardent desire of seeing it happily brought into 
 execution. Nor did the assembled fathers 
 deny, that this reformation was the principal 
 end of their meeting. - Yet this salutary work 
 had Bb many obstacles in the passions and in- 
 terests of those very persons by whom it was 
 to be effected, \hat little could be expected, 
 and still less was done. The cardinals and; 
 dignified clergy, vrhose interest it was that the 
 church should remain in its corrupt and dis- 
 ordered' state, employed all their eloquence 
 and art to preventitsreformatlon; and observed, 
 among other artful pretexts, that a work of 
 
 ^ This appears manifestly from the very discourse 
 of Petit," which the reader may see in L'Entaht's 
 History of the Council of Pisa, tom. ii. p. 303.* See 
 also August. Leyseri Diss, qua Memoriam Job. Bur 
 gundi et Doctrinam Joh. Parvi de Csde per Du^Jf 
 liura vindicat. 
 
 t Boulay, tom. v. — Argentre, CoUectio Judicior. 
 de novis Erronbus, tom. i. part ii. — Gersonis Opera, 
 edited by M. Du-Pin, tom. v.— Bayle's Diction, torn, 
 iii^ ^^ '_ ; 
 
 (jl^ * See also the same author's History of the 
 Council of Constance, book iii. sect. xii. 
 
416 
 
 INTERNAL fflSTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part II. 
 
 such high moment and importance could not 
 be undertaken with any prospect of success, 
 until a new pontiff should be elected. And, 
 what was still more shocking, Martin V. was 
 no sooner raised to that high dignity, than he 
 employed his authority to elude and frustrate 
 every effort that was made' to set this salutary 
 "work on foot, and made it appear most evi- 
 dently, by the laws he enacted, that nothing 
 was more foreign from his intention than the 
 reformation of fiie clergy, and the restoration 
 of the church to its primitive purity. Thus 
 this famous council, after sitting three years 
 a;nd six months, was dissolved, on the 22d day 
 of April, 1418, without having effected its chief 
 ostensible object; and the members postponed 
 to a futiire assembly of the same kind, which 
 was to be summonedlive years after this period, 
 that pious design of purifying a corrupt church, 
 which had been so long the object of the ex- 
 pectations and desires of all good Christians. 
 
 XI. Not merely five years, but almost thii> 
 teen, elapsed without th^ promised meeting. 
 The remonstrances,, however, of those whose 
 zeal for the reformation of the' church interest- 
 ed them in this event, prevailed at length over 
 the pretexts and stratagems whiqh were em- 
 ployed to put it off from time to time; ajid 
 Martin summoned a council to meet at Pa via, 
 whence it was removed to Sienna, and thence 
 to Basil. The pontiff did not live to be a wit- 
 ness of the proceedings of this assembly, being 
 carried off by a sudden death on the 21st day 
 of February, 1431, just about the time when 
 the council was to nieet. He was immediate- 
 ly succeeded by Gahri^l Condolmerio, a na- 
 tive of Venice, and bishop of Sienna, who is 
 known in the papal list by the title of Euge- 
 nius IV. This pontiff approved all the mea- 
 sures of lus predecessor, in relation to the as- 
 sembling of the council of Basil, which was 
 accordingly opened on the 23d of July, 1431, 
 under the superintendence of Cardinal Julian 
 Cesarini, who performed the functions of pre- 
 sident in the place of Eugenius. 
 
 The two grand points, proposed to the de- 
 liberation of this &mous council,, were, the 
 union of the Greek and Latin churches, and 
 the reformation of the-churoh universal, both 
 in its head and in its memberSi according to 
 the resolution that had been taken in'the late 
 council; for that the Iloman pontiff, or the 
 head of the church, and the bishops, jiriests, 
 and monks, who were looked upon as its mem- 
 bers, had become excessively corrupt, and that, 
 to use the expression of the prophet in a ami- 
 lar case, the ' whole head was sick and the 
 whole heart faint,' were matters of fact too 
 striking to escape the knowledge of the obscur- 
 est individua;!. ' On the other hand, as it ap- 
 peared by the very form of the council,* by 
 its method of proceeding; and by the first de- 
 
 gg-* By the form of the council, Dr. Mosheimun- 
 doubtedly means the division of the-cardlnals, arch- 
 bishops, bishops, abbots. Sec. into four equal classes, 
 without any regard to the nation or province by 
 which they were sent. This prudent arrangement 
 prevented the cabals and intrigues of the Italians, 
 whose bishops were much more numerous than those 
 of other nations, and who, by their number, might 
 have had it in their power to retard or defeat the 
 laudable purupse which the council had in view, had 
 things been otherwise ordered. 
 
 crees that were enacted by its authority, that 
 the assembled fathers were in earnest, and 
 firmly resolved to answer the end and purpose 
 of their meeting, Eugenius was much akrmed 
 at the prospect of a reformation, which he 
 feared above all things; and beholding with 
 terror the zeal and designs of these spiritual 
 physicians, he twice attempted the dissolution 
 of the council. These repeated attempts were 
 vigorously opposed by the members, who 
 proved by tlje decrees of the late assembly, 
 ^nd by other arguments equally conclusive, 
 that the council was superior in point of 'au- 
 thority to the Roman pontiff. This controvei> 
 sy was terminated in November, 14S3, by the 
 silence and coi;cessions of the pope, who, in 
 the following month, wrote a'letterfrom Rome, 
 expressing his approbation of the council, and 
 his acknowledgment of its authority.* 
 
 Xn. These preliminary measures being 
 finished, the council proceeded with zeal and 
 activity to the accomplishment of the impor- 
 tant purposes for which it was assembled. 
 The pope's legates were, admitted as members, 
 but not before they had declared, upon oath, 
 that they would submit to the decreed that 
 should be enacted in it, and more partipularly 
 tha:t they would adhere to the laws of the 
 council of Constance, in relation to th^ supre- 
 macy of general councils, ^nd the subordina- 
 tion of the pontiffs to their authority andjujis- 
 diotion. These very laws, which the popes 
 beheld with such aversion and horror, were 
 solemnly renewed by the assembly m 1434; 
 and in the following year, the Jinnates (as they 
 were called) were puMicly abolished, notwith- 
 standing the opposition that was made to this 
 measure by the legates of the Roman see. 
 On the 25th of March, 1436, a confession of 
 faith was read, 'which every pontiffi was to 
 subscribe on the day of Jiis election; it was vot- 
 ed that the number of cardinals should be- re- 
 duced to twenty-four; and the papal imposi- 
 tions, called Expectalives, Reservations, and 
 Provmons, were annulled. These measures, 
 with others of a like nature, provoked Eugenius 
 
 * The history of this grand and memorable council 
 is yet a desideratum. The learned Stephen Baluzej 
 (as we iand in. the Histoire de 1' Academic des Inscrip- 
 tions et des Belles Lettres, tom. vi. p- 544,) and after 
 him M. L'Enfant, promised the world a history of 
 this council; but neither of these valuable writers 
 performed that promise.* The acts of this famous 
 assembly were collected with incredible industrjr, in 
 a great number of volumes, from various archives 
 and libraries, at the expense of Rodolphus Augustus, 
 duke of Brunswick, by the very learned and laborious 
 Herman von der Hkrdt. They are preserved, as we 
 are informed, in the library of Hanover; and they 
 certainly deserve to be drawn from their retreat, and 
 published to the world. In the mean time, the curi- 
 ous may consult the abridgment of the acts of this 
 council published at Paris, in 1512, of which I have 
 made use in this history, as also the following au- 
 thors: jEneae Sylvii Lib.'duodeConcilioBasilienai.— 
 Edm. Eicherius, Histor. Concilior. General, lib. iii. 
 cap. 1.— Henr. Canisii Lectiones Antiquie, tom.iv.p. 
 447. 
 
 Q(^ * Dr. Mosheim has here fallen into an error; 
 for L''Enfant'did in reality perform his promise, and 
 composed the History of the Council of Basil, which 
 he blended with his history of the war of the Hus- 
 sites, on account of the connexion between these 
 subjects, and also because his advanced age prevent- 
 ed his indulging himself in the hope of being able to 
 give, separately, a complete llistory of the council of 
 Basil. 
 
Chap. II. 
 
 in the highest degree, and induced hiihto form 
 the intention, either of removing this trouble- 
 some and enterprising council into Italy, or of 
 setting up a new assembly in opposition to it, 
 which might fix bounds to its zeal for there- 
 formation of tlie church. Accordingly, on the 
 7th of May, 1437, the assembled fathers hav- 
 ing, on account of the Greeks, come to a reso- 
 lution of holding the new councif at Basil, 
 Avignon, or some city in the duchy of Savoy, 
 the intractable pontiff opposed' this motion, 
 and maintained that it should be transferred 
 into Italy. Each of the contehding parties 
 persevered, with the utmost obstinacy, in the 
 resolution they had taken; and this occasioned 
 a warm and violent contest between the pope 
 and the council. The latter .summoned Eu- 
 geniua to appear at Basil, in order to give ah 
 account of hia conduct; but the pontiff, instead 
 of complying iyith the requisition, issued a de- 
 cree, by which he pretended to dissolve the 
 councH, and to assemble another at Ferrara, 
 This decree, indeed, was treated with the ut- 
 most contempt by this council, which, with the 
 consent of the emperor, the king of France, 
 and severri other "princes, continued its- deli- 
 berations, and pronounced a sentence of con- 
 tumacy against the rebellious pontiff, for hav- 
 ing refused to obey its ordpr. 
 
 XIII.' In the year 1438, Eugenius in person 
 opened the council, which he had summoned 
 to meet at Ferrara, and at the" second" session 
 thundered out an excommunication against 
 the fathers assenihled at BasiU The principal 
 business that was now to be transacted, was 
 the proposed reconciliation between the Greek 
 and Latin lurches; and, in order to bring this 
 saljitary and important design to a happy issue, 
 the emperor Joiin Palasologus, the Q-recian 
 patriarch Josejflius, with the most eminent 
 bishops and doctors among the Greeks, arrived 
 in Italy, and appeared at Ferrara. The ex- 
 tremity to which the Greeks were reduced by 
 the Turks, and the pleasing hope, that their 
 reconciliation with the Roman pontiff would 
 contribute to engage the Latins in their cause, 
 seem to have animated, in a particular mannei:, 
 their zeal in this negotiation. Be that as it 
 may, there was little done at Ferrara, whete 
 matters were carried on too slowly, to afford 
 any prospect of an end of their dissensions: but 
 the negotiations were more successful-iat Flo- 
 rence, whither Eugenius" removed the council 
 about the beginning of the year 1439, on ac- 
 count of the plague" that broke out at Ferraraj 
 On the other hand, the council of Basil, exas- 
 perated by the imperious proceedings of Euge- 
 nius, deposed him from the papacy on tlie 25th 
 of June, 1439; which vigorous measure was 
 not approved by the European kings and 
 princes. It may be easily conceived what an 
 impression this step made upon the affronted 
 pontiff; he lost all patience; and devoted, for 
 the second time, to hell aild damnation,, the 
 members of the obnoxious council by a solemn 
 and most severe edict, in which also he de- 
 clared all their acts null, and all their proceed- 
 ings unlawful. This new peal of papal thun- 
 der was held in derision by the council of Ba- 
 sil, whose members, persisting in their purpose, 
 elected another pontiff, and raised to that high 
 Vol. I.— 53 
 
 DOCTORS, CHURCH GOVERNMENT, Sto. 
 
 417 
 
 dignity Amadous, duke of Savoy, who then 
 lived in the most profound solitude at a charm- 
 iij^ retreat, called Ripaille, upon -the borders 
 ofthe Iceman Lake, and who is known in the 
 papal list by the name of Felix Y» 
 
 XIV. This election was the occasion of the 
 revival of that deplorable schism, which had 
 formerly rent the church, and which, had been 
 terminated with so much difficulty, and after 
 so many vain and fruitless efforts, at the coun- 
 cil of Constance. The new breach was even 
 more lamentable than the former one, as the 
 flatiie was kindled not only between rival pon- 
 tiffs, but also between the contending councils 
 of Basil and Florence. The greatest part of 
 the church subinitted to the jurisdiction, and 
 adopted the cause of Eugenius; while Felix 
 was acknowledged, as lawfhl pontiff, "by i 
 great number of univeisities, and, among 
 others, by that of Paris, as also in several king- 
 doms and provinces. The council of Basil 
 continued to deliberate, to enact laWs, and pub- 
 lish edicts, until the year 1443, notwithstand- 
 ing the efforts of Eugenius and his adherents 
 to put a stop to their proceedings. And, though 
 in that year the members .of the council re- 
 tired to their respective places of abode, yet 
 they declared publicly that the council was 
 not dissolved. 
 
 In the mean time, the coimcil ef Florence, 
 with IJugenius at ite head,, was chiefly era- 
 ployed in reconciling the differences between 
 the Greeks and Latins; which weighty busi- 
 ness was committed t6 the prudencb, zeal, and 
 piety, of a select number of eminent men on 
 both sides. -The most distinguished among 
 those -whom the Greeks chose for this purpose 
 was the learned Bessaribn, who was afterr 
 wards raised to the dignity of cardinal in the 
 Romish church. This great man, engaged 
 and seduced by the splendid presents and pro- 
 mises of the Latin ipontiff, employed' the whole 
 extent of his authority, and the power of his elo- 
 quence, and even ha{dj?eeourse to promises and 
 threats, to persuiide the Greeks to accept- the 
 conditions of peace that were proposed by Euge- 
 nius. These conditipns^required their consent to 
 the following poinbi:— " That the Holy Spirit 
 proceeded from, the Son, as well as from the Fa- 
 ther; that departed souls were purified in the 
 infernal regions, by a certain kind of fire, be- 
 fore theiradmissign to the presence and vision 
 of the Deity; — that unleavened bread might be 
 used in the administration of the Lord's- eaip- 
 per;" — and lastly, which was the principal 
 thing insisted upon by the Latins, that ' the 
 Roman pontiff was the supreme judge, ths 
 true head J of the universal church.' Such 
 were the terms of peace Jto which all the 
 Greeks were obliged to accede, except Mark 
 of Ephesus, whom neither entreaties nor re- 
 wards could move from his purpose, or engage 
 to submit to a reconciliation funded uponsuch 
 conditions. And indeed this reconciliation, 
 which had been brought about by various 
 stratagems, was much more, -specious than 
 solid, and had by no means stability sufficient 
 to insure its duration. We find, accordingly, 
 that the Grecian deputies had no sooner re- 
 turned to Constantinople,-than they declared 
 publicly, that all things had been carried fiijl 
 
418 
 
 INTERNAL HIS'TORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 at Florence by artifice and fraud, and renewed 
 the schism, which had been so imperfectly 
 iiealed. The council put an end to its delibe- 
 rations on the 26th of April, 1442,* without 
 having executed any of the designs that were 
 proposed bylf, in a satisfactory manner; for, 
 beside the affair of the Greeks, they proposed 
 bringing the Armenians, Jacobites, and more 
 par^cularly the Abyssinians, into the bosom 
 of the Romish church; but this project was at- 
 tended with as little success as the other. 
 
 XV. Eugenius IV., who had been the occa- 
 sion of the new schism in the see of Rome, 
 died m February, 1447, and-was succeeded, 
 in a few weeks^iy Thomas de Sarzaho, bishop 
 of Bologiia, who filled tlie pontificate under 
 the denomination of Nicolas V. This eminent 
 prelate had, in point of merit, the best preten- 
 sions possible to the papal throne. He was 
 distinguished "by his erudition and genius; he 
 was a zealous patron and protector of learned 
 men; and, what was still more laudable, he 
 was remarkable for his moderation, and for 
 the meek and pacific spirit that discovered it- 
 self in ail his conduct and actions.^ Under this 
 pontificate, the European princes, and more es- 
 pecially the king of France, exerted their 
 warmest endeavours to ;restore Iranquillity and 
 union to the Latin church; and their efforts 
 were crowned with the desired success. For, 
 in 1449, Felix v., resigned the papal chair, 
 and. returned to his delightful hermitage at 
 Ripaille, while the fathers of the Council of 
 Basil, assembled' at Lausanne,f ratified his 
 voluntary abdication, and, by a solemn decree, 
 ordered the universal church to submit to the 
 jurisdiction of Nicolas as their lawful- pontiff. 
 On the other hand, Nicolas proclaimed this 
 treaty of peaie with great pomp on the 18th. 
 of June, in the same year, and set the seal of 
 his approbation and authority to the acts and 
 decrees of the council. This pontiff distin- 
 guished himself in a very extraordinary man- 
 ner, by his love of leariiing, and by, his ardent 
 zeal for the ^opagation or the Ijberatarts and 
 sciences, which he promoted, with great suc- 
 cess, by the encouragement he granted to the 
 laamed'Crreeks, who emigrated from Constan- 
 tinople into Italy. J The principal occasion of 
 his death wjas the fatal revolution that threw 
 this capital of the Grecian empire into the 
 hands of the-Turics;' this melancholy event 
 
 Part H. 
 
 preyed upon his spirits, and hastened his death, 
 which happened on the 24th of March, 1455. 
 XVI. His successor Alphonso Borgia, who 
 was a native, of Spain, and is known in the 
 papal list by the denomination of Calixtus III.j 
 was remarkable for nothing but his zeal in ani- 
 mating the Christian princes to make war upon 
 the Turks; his reign also was short, for lie 'died 
 in 1458. ^heas Sylvius 'Piccolomini, who 
 suoceeded*him in the pontificate in that same 
 year, under the title of Pius II., rendered his 
 nariie much more illustrious, not only by his 
 extensive genius, and the important transao 
 tions that were carried on during his adminis- 
 tration, but also by"the various and usefiiljpro- 
 ductions_with which he enriched tiie republic 
 of letters. The lustre of his fame was, indeed, 
 tarnished by a scandalous proof which he gave 
 of his fickleness and inconstancy, or rather 
 perhaps of Hsbad &ith; for, after having Ti- 
 gorously defended, against the. pontiffs, the 
 dignity and prerogatives of general councils, 
 and maintained, with peculiar boldness and- 
 obstinacy-j the cause of the -council of Basil 
 against EugeniusJ IV., he ignominipuSly -re- 
 nounced these principles upon his accession to 
 the pontificate, and acted in direct Opposition 
 to them during the whole course of his admi- 
 nistration. Thus, in 1460, he denied publicly 
 that the pope was subordinate to a general 
 council, and even prohibited all appeals to such 
 a council under the severest penalties. In the 
 following year he obtalined from Louis XI;, 
 king of France,,the abrogation of the^ragmatie 
 Sunctiorij which favoured, in a. particular man- 
 ner, the pretensions of the general councils to 
 supremacy in the church.* But the-most egre- 
 
 * The history of this council, and of thefrauds and 
 stratagems tbat were practisW in it, was composed 
 by ■ that learned Grecian, Sylvester Sgyropuius, 
 whose work was published at the Hague, in 1660^ 
 with a Latin translation, a preliminary l^iscourse. 
 and ample notes, by tbe learned Ro.bert Crelghtoh, 
 a native of Great Britain. This history was refuted 
 by Leo Allatius, in a work "entitled, Exert^itationes 
 in Creightoni Apparatum, Versionem, et Notaa ad 
 Hiatoriaoi Qoncilit Florentini scriptam a Sgyropufo; 
 KohiiB, iC74, See the same -author's Perpetua Con- 
 Bensio Ecclesis Oriental, et Occident, p. 875, as also 
 Mabillon, Museum Italicum, torn. 1. p. 243. — Span- 
 heim, de' perpetua Dissensiooe l^ooles. Orient, et 
 Occident, torn. ii. op. p. 491.— Hermann,- JHiatoria 
 concertat. d& Pane azymo, part ii. d. v. 
 
 t This abdication was made on the 9th of April, 
 1449, and was rati.iied on the 16tb. 
 
 J Se(J Dom. Georgii Vita Nicolai V. ad Udem vete- 
 rum BJonumentorum: to which is added a treatise, 
 Entitled, Disquisitio de Nioolai V. erga Literas ef 
 Literatos Viros fatrocinio, published at Rome, in 
 .743 ' ' 
 
 ' lEf** There 'was --a famous edict, entitled,- The 
 Pragmatic Sanbtion, issued by. Louis IX., who, tAough 
 he is honoured with a place'in theKalendar, wasyet 
 a zealous assertor of the liberty and privileges of the 
 Gallican church, against theHesp'otic encroachments 
 and pretensions of the Roman pontiifs. - It was 
 against their tyrannical proceedings, and intolera- 
 ble extortions, that this edict ..was chiefly. leyelledL 
 and though some creatures of the court of Rome 
 have tl^rown out insinuations of its being a spurious 
 production, yet the' conlrarj^-is evident fi-om-its hav- 
 ingbeen registered, as the aathentic edict of that pi- 
 ous monarch, by the parliament of Paris, in 1461, 
 by .the states of the Itin'gdom assembled at Tours in 
 1483, and by the. university of Paris, in 1401. — See, 
 for a farther account of this edict, the excellent His- 
 tory of France, (begun by the Abbe "Velly^ and con- 
 tinued by'M. 'Villaret,-) vol. vi. p. 57. 
 
 The edict which lir. Mosheim has in view here, i,s 
 the Pragmatic Sanction that was drawn up at Bour- 
 ges,' in 1438, by Charles 'VII. king of Prance, with 
 the consent of the most eminent prelates and gran- 
 dees of the nation, who were assembled at that place. 
 This edict, (which was absolutely necessary in order 
 to deliver the French clergy fl-om the vexations tlley 
 'suilbred fVom the encroachments of the popes, Vver 
 -sihce the lattei-'had fixed their residence at Avignon) 
 consisted of twenty-three articles, in ychich, among 
 other salutary regulatiops, the elections to vacant 
 benefices were restored to their ancient purity-and. 
 freedom,* the annates and other pecuniary preten. 
 
 n3* * That is to say, these elections were wrested 
 out of the hands of the popes, who Jiad usurpeii themj 
 and, by the new edict, every church had the privii 
 lege of choosing its bishop, and every monastery its 
 abbot or prior. By the Concordat, or agreement, be- 
 tween Francis I- and Leo X., (which was substituted 
 in -the place of the Pragmatic Sanction.) the nomi- 
 nation of the bishoprics in Prance, and the collation 
 of certain benefices of the liigher class, were vested 
 in the kings of France, An ample and satisfactorr 
 
Chap. 11. 
 
 DOCTORS, CHURCH GOVERNMENT, &c. 
 
 419 
 
 Bious instance .of impudence and perfidy that 
 He exhibited to the world was in 1463, when 
 he publicly retracted all that he had written in 
 favour of the council of Basil, and declared 
 without either shame or hesitation, that, as 
 .Xneas Sylvius, he was a damnable heretic, but 
 that, as Pius II., he was an orthodox pontiff. 
 This indecorous declaration was the last cir- 
 cumstance, worthy of notice, that happened 
 during his pontificate; for he died in July, 
 1464.* ■ 
 
 XVn. Paul II., a Venetian by birth, whose 
 name was Peter Barbo, was raised to the head 
 of the church in 1464, and died in 1471. His 
 ' administration was distinguished by some mea^ 
 Bures, whidi, if we consider the genius of the 
 times, were worthy of praise; though it must . 
 at the same time be confessed, that he did ma- 
 ny things which were evidently inexcusable, 
 (not to mention his reducing the jubilee circle 
 to twenty-five years, and thus accelerating 'the 
 return of that most absurd and Superstitious 
 ceremony;) so- that his reputation became-jat 
 least dubious in aftertimes, and was viewed in 
 difierent lights by different persons.! The .fol- 
 lowing popes, Sixtus IV., and Innocent VIII., 
 whose names'were Francis Albescola and John 
 Baptist Cibo, were neither remarkable for their- 
 virtues nor their vices. The former died in 
 1484, and the .latter in 1492. Filled with the 
 most terrible apprehensions of the danger that 
 threatened Europe in general, and Italy in par- 
 ticular, from the growing power 'of the Turks, 
 both these pontfffs attempted tq gut themselves 
 
 sions and etjcroachments of the pontiffs abolished 
 and the authority of a general counisU declared supe 
 rior to that "of the pope-. Tins edict was draivn up'? 
 in concert with the fathers of the council of Basil,- 
 and the articles were taken froin the decrees of that 
 council, tliough they were admitted by the Galilean 
 church with certain modifications, which the nature 
 of the times and the manners of the natioii, rend-ered 
 expedient. Such then was the Pragmatic Sanction^ 
 which Pius 11.-^ engaged Louis XI. (who received upon 
 that occasion, for himself and his successors, the ti- 
 tle of Most CArisiion) to aholisil by a solemn decla- 
 ration; the "full execution of which jwas, however, 
 prevented by the- noble stand made by the university 
 of Paris in favour of the edict. The king also, per- 
 ceiving that he had been deluded into this declara- 
 tion' by the trea'cherous insinuations of Geoffry, bi- 
 shop of Arras, (whoni the pope had bribed with a 
 cardinal's cap, and large promises of a more lucra- 
 tive kind,) took no sort Of paing to have it &xecured, 
 but-published, on the contrary, new edicts agalhst the 
 pecuniary pretensions and extortions of the court 
 of Kome; bo that in reality the Pragmatic Sanction 
 was not abolished before the adjustment of the Con- 
 cordat or agreement, which was transacted between 
 Francis I. and Leo X. in \iVr, andTvas forced upon 
 the French nation in opposition to the united efforts 
 of the clergy, the university, the parliameat, and the 
 people." See, for a farther- account of this matter, 
 Du Olos. Histoire do Louis XI, vol. i. p. 115— 132. 
 
 * Beside the writers of ecclesiastical history, see 
 Mouveau Diction. Histor. et Critique, torn. ii,-at the 
 article Enee Sylvius. '^ » . ' 
 
 t Paul II. Has had the good fortune to find, in one 
 of the most eminent and learned men of this age, 
 ("the famous cardinal Q-uiriui,) a zealous apologist. 
 See among- the productions of that illustrious pre- 
 late the piece entitled, *' Pauli II. Vita, ex Codice 
 Ang'licffi Bibliothecffi desumpta, praemissis ipaus Vjn- 
 diciis adversus Platinain aliosque obtrectatores, Ro- 
 ma, 1740." 
 
 account of thisconvention may be seen in bishop Bur- 
 net's excellent History of the Reformation, vol. iii. 
 and in a book entitled, Histoire dU Droit public Eccle- 
 •iastique Francois, published in 1737. 
 
 in a posture of defence, and warmly exhorted 
 the European princes t9 check the progress of 
 that warlike people; but-many obstacles arose, 
 which rendered their exhortations ineffectual. 
 The other undertakings that were projected or 
 carried on, during their continuance at the 
 head of the church, are not of sufficient im7 
 portance to require particular notice. 
 
 XVni. Jn the series of pontiffs that ruled 
 the church during this century, the last, in 
 order of time, was Alexander VI., a Spaniard 
 by birth, whose ^ame was Rbderio Borgi#* 
 The life . and actions of this man show, that 
 there was a Nero among the popes, as -well as 
 among the emperors.. The crimes and enor-, 
 mities, that history has imputed to Jthis papal 
 Nero, evidently prove him to have been not 
 only destitute of all religious and virtuous 
 principles, but even regardlessx)f decency, and 
 hardened against the very feeling of shame; 
 and, though the malignity of his enemies may 
 have forged false accusations against him, and, 
 in some instances, exaggerated the horror of 
 his real crimes, yet we have upon record an 
 authentic list of undoubted facts, which, both 
 by their number and their atrocity; are sufii- 
 cient to render the naiiie andmemory of Alex- 
 ander VI. odious and detestable, in the opinion 
 even of such as have the smallest tincture of 
 virtuous principles, and feelings. An inordi- 
 nate affection for his children was the principal 
 source from which proceeded a great part 
 of' the crimes he committed. --He had four 
 sons by a concubine with whom he had lived 
 many years; among whom was the iiifamous 
 Qcesar Borgia. . A daughter, named Liicretia, 
 was likewise among the fruits of this unlawful 
 commerce. ' The tenderness of the pontiff for 
 his spurious offspring was' excessive beyond all 
 expression; his only aim was to load them 
 with riches and honour's; and, in the execution 
 of this purpose, he trampled with contempt 
 upon every obstacle, which the demands of 
 justice, the dictates of reason, and the remon- 
 strances of fehgion, threw in his way.* Thus 
 he persisted' in his proBigate career until the 
 year 1503, when the poison, which he ajidhis 
 son Csesar had mingled for others who stood 
 in the way of their avarice and ambition, cut 
 short, by a happy mistake, his own days.f 
 
 XIX. The monastic societies, as we learn 
 from a multitude of authentic records, and 
 from the testiinonies of the best writers, were, 
 at this time, so many herds of lazy, illiterate, 
 profligate, and licentious Epicureans, whose 
 views in life were confined to opulence, idle- 
 ness, and pleasure. The rich monks, par^ 
 ticularly those of the Benedictine and Augus- 
 tine orders, .perverted their revenues to the 
 gratification of their lusts; and renouncing, 
 in their conduct, all regard to their respetJtive 
 rules of discipline, drew upon themselves { 
 
 '*' The life of this execrable tyrant was written i.n 
 Rnglish by Mr. Alexajider Gordon; but the same 
 suhject has been treated with greater -moderation by 
 the ingenious and learned author of the Histoire du 
 Droit Fubl. Fccles. Francois, to which work are sub. t 
 joined the lives of Alexander^'VI. and Leo X. 
 
 t Such is the account which the best historians 
 have 'given of the death of Alexander VI. Not- 
 withstanding these authorities, Voltaire has pre- 
 tended to prove that this pontiff died a natural 
 death. ' 
 
420 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Pa»tIL 
 
 popular odium by their sensuality and licau- 
 tiouaness.* This was matter pf affliction to 
 many wise and good men, especially inFrance 
 and Germany, who formed the pious design of 
 stemming tl^torrent of monkish luxury, and 
 excited a spffit of ^reformation among tliat de- 
 generate'order.f Among the German reform- 
 ersf who undertook the restoration rf virtue 
 and temperance in the monasteries, Nifcolas de 
 Mazen, an Austrian abbot, and Nicolas Dun- 
 kelspuhl, professor at Vienna, held the first 
 rank. They attempted, with unparalleled zeal 
 and assidtiity, the reformation of the Benedic- 
 tines throughcfut Germany, and succeeded so 
 far as to restore, at least, a certain air of de- 
 cency and virtue in the conventual establish- 
 ments of Suabia, Franconia, and Bavaria.f 
 The reformation of the same order was at- 
 tempted in France by many, and particularly 
 by Guy Juvenal, a learned man, whose wri- 
 tings, upon that and on other subjects, were 
 received with applause. \ It is, however, 
 certain, that tlie majority of the monks,. both 
 in France and elsewhere, resisted, with obsti- 
 nacy, the saliltary attempts of these spiritual 
 physicians, and returned their zeal with the 
 worst treatment tliat it was Jiossible to show 
 them. - 
 
 XX. While the opulent monks exhibited to 
 the world scandalous examples of luxury, ig- 
 norance, indolence,- and licentiousness, accom- 
 panied with a barbarous aversion to every thing 
 that carried the remotest aspecit of science, th& 
 Miendicants, arid more especially the Domini- 
 cans and* Franciscans, were chargeable with 
 irregularities of another kind. Beside their 
 arro^nce, which, was excessive, a quarrelsome 
 itnd litigious spirit, an ambitious desire' of en- 
 croachiing upon the rights and privileges of 
 others, an insatiable zeal for the propagation of 
 superstition, and the itch of disputing and of 
 starting absurd and intricate questions of a re- 
 ligious kind, prevailed amon^ them, and drew 
 upon them justly the displeasure and indigna- 
 tion of many. It was this wrangling spirit 
 that seriously protracted the controveries which 
 had subsisted so long between tliem and the 
 bishops, and, indeed, the whole sacerdotal or- 
 der; and it was their vain curiosity, and their 
 inordinate passion for novelty, that made the 
 divines, in the greatest part. of the European 
 colleges, complain of the dangerous ahd de- 
 structive errors which they had introduced 
 into religion. These complaints were repeat- 
 ed, without interruption, in all the provinces 
 where the Mendicants had any credit; andthe 
 same complaints were often presented to the 
 court of Aorqe, where they exercised sufficient- 
 ly both the patience and subtlety of the pope 
 and his ministers. The dilferent pontiffs who 
 ruled the church during tliis century, were dif- 
 ferently affected toward the Mendicants; some 
 
 * See Martin Scngin^, TuitionesOrdinis S. Bene- 
 dicti, sen Oratio in Concilio Basilicnsi, an. 1433, 
 contra vitia Benedict, recitata, in Bern. Fezii Bib. 
 Aeicetica, -t. viii., 
 
 t See Leibnitii Pr»f. ad t. ii. Script. Bruns. 
 
 t For an account of these reformers, see Martin 
 Kropf. Bibliotheca Mellicensis, sen de Vilis et Scrip. 
 Benedict. Mellicens. p. 143, 163, 203. 
 
 § See Liron'B Sinp'ularites Historiques et Lite- 
 laires. torn. iii. p. 49. 
 
 patronised them, others opposed them: and 
 this circumstance frequently changed the as- 
 pect of affairs, and, for a long time, rendered 
 the decision of the contest dubious.* The 
 persecution that was carried on against the 
 Beguins became also an occasion of increasing 
 the odium that had been cast upon the begging 
 monks, and was extremely prejudicial to their 
 interests. jFor the Beguins and Lollards, to 
 escape the fury of their inverate enemies, the 
 bishops and others, frequently took refuge in 
 the third order of the Franciscans, Domini- 
 cans, and Augustinians, hoping that, in the 
 patronage and protection of these numerous 
 and powerful societies, they might find a. se- 
 cure retreat from the ^lamities that oppressed 
 them. Nor' were their hopes -entirely disap- 
 pointed; but the storm that hitherto pursued 
 them, fell upon their new patrons and protec- 
 tors, the Mendicants; who, by affording a re- 
 fuge to a sect so odious to the Clergy, drew 
 upon themselves the indignation of that sacred 
 order, "and were thereby involved iii various 
 d(fficulties and perplexities.^ 
 
 XXI. The more austere and rebellious Fran- 
 ciscans, who, separating themselves fi-om the 
 church, renounced their allegiance to the 
 Roman pontiffs, and were distinguished by the 
 appellation of Fratricelli oif Minorites, con- 
 tinued, with their Tertiaries, the Beghards, to 
 carry on an open war against the court of 
 Rome. Their head-quarters were in Italy, in 
 the marquisiie of Ancona and the neighbouring 
 countries; for it was there that their leader and 
 chief ruler resided. They were persecuted^ 
 about the middle of this century, with the 
 -greatest severity, by pope Nicolas V., who 
 employed every method he could devise to 
 vanquish their obstinacy, sending for that pur- 
 pose successively against them the Franciscan ' 
 monks, armed hosts, ahd civil magistrates, and 
 committing to the flames manyof those who 
 remained unmoved by all these means of con- 
 version.}; This heavy persecution was carried 
 on by the succeeding pontiffs, and by none 
 with greater bitterness and vehemepce than 
 by Paul II., though it is said, that this pope 
 chose rather to conquer the headstrong and 
 stubborn perseverance of this sect by impri- ■ 
 sonment and exile, than by fire and sword.§ 
 The Fratriqeili, on the other hand, animated 
 by the protection of several' persons of great 
 influence, V?ho became their patrons on ac- 
 count of the striking appearance of sanctity 
 which they exhibited, had recourse to vio- 
 lence, and went so far as to put to death some 
 of the inquisitors, among whom Angelo of 
 Gimaldolf fell a victim to their vengeance. || 
 
 * See Launoy, Lib. de Canone Utriusque Sexus, 
 op. torn. i. part L— BouIa_y, torn, v.— Ant. Wood, 
 torn. i. 
 t See the history of the preceding century. 
 ( Mauritius Sartius, de Antiqua Picentum civi- 
 tate Cupromontaha, in Angeli CalogerffiTtaccolta di 
 Opusculi Scientifici, torn, xixix. where we have 
 several extracts from the manuscript dialogue of 
 Jacobus dc Marchia ajainst the Fratricelli. 
 
 S Ang. Mar. auirini Vita Pauli II. p. 78.— Jo. Tar- 
 gionius, Prffif. ad claror. Venetor. Epistolas ad Mag- 
 liabechium, tom. i: p. 43, where we have an account 
 of the books that were written against the Fratri- 
 celli by Nicolas Talmerius and others under the pon- 
 tificate of Paul II. and which are yet in manuscript. 
 II See the Acta Sanctor. tom. ii. Mali, p. 356. 
 
ClIAP. II. 
 
 DOCTORS, CHURCH GOVERNMENT, &c. 
 
 421 
 
 Nor were the connnotions raided by this trou- 
 blesome sect confined to Italy; other countries 
 felt the efi^ects of their petulant zeal; and Bohe- 
 mia anii Silesia (where they preached with 
 wirrath their favQurite doctrine, " that the 
 true imitation of Christ consisted in beggary 
 and extreme poverty") becam^ th? theatres of 
 the spiritual war.* The king of Bohemia was 
 well affected to these fanatics, granted them 
 his protection, -and was on' that- account ex- 
 communicated by Paul n,t In France, their 
 affairs were- far frdm beiilg prosperous; such of 
 theiji as fell into the hands of the inquisitors, 
 were committed to the flames,|-a,nd they were 
 eagerly searched after in the province of Tou- 
 louse and the adjacent countries, where great 
 numbers of thera lay concealed, and -endea- 
 voured to escape the Vigilance of IJieir enemies; 
 while several of their scattered parties removed 
 to England andJlreland.^ Even the dreadful 
 series of calamities and persecutions, that ha- 
 rassed this miserable sect did not entirely .ex- 
 tinguish it; for it subsisted to the time of the 
 reforiuation in Germany, when; its remaining 
 votaries adopted the cause, and embraced tliQ 
 dqetrinfe and discipline of Luther. 
 
 XXn. Of the religious fraternities that were 
 founded in this century, hot one deserves a 
 more honourable mention than the Brethren 
 and Clerks of the common life, (as they called 
 themselves,) who lived Tinder the rule of St. 
 Augustine, and were eminently usefiil in pro- 
 moting the- cause of religion, learning, and 
 virtue. This society had been, formed in the 
 preceding age by Gerard Groote, a native of~ 
 De venter, II. reniarkable for his fejvent piety 
 and extensive erudition; it was ndt, however, 
 before the present century, that'it received a 
 proper degree of consistence, and, having ob- 
 tained the approbation of the council of Con- 
 stanch, flourished in Holland, the Lower Gei> 
 many, and the adjacent provinces. It was di- 
 vided into two classes, Uie Lettered Brethren 
 or Clerks, and the Illiterate, who, though they 
 i)ccupied separate habitations, lived in the 
 firmest bonds of &atemal itnion. The Clerks 
 applied themselves with exemplary zeal and 
 assiduity to the study of polite literature, and 
 to the education of youth. " They composed 
 -learned works for the instruction of their con- 
 temporaries, and erected schools and ^enjina- 
 ries of learning wherevier they went. The Il- 
 literate Brethren, on the other haiid, were em- 
 ployed- in manual labour, and exercised with 
 success the mechanic arts. No religious vows 
 ' restrained thg members of either clalss; yet 
 they had all things in common, and this com- 
 munity was the great bond of their union, 
 The Sisters of this virtuous society lived much 
 in the same manner, and employed the hours. 
 
 « Jo. Georgii Schelhornii Acta Historica Eccles 
 
 '"t auirini Vita Pauli II. p, 73. 
 
 t I have in manu.script the acts or decrees of the 
 innuisition against John Guddchi de CasteUio-ne 
 aim Francis d'Arehata.JJOth of thein Fratricelli, who 
 Vfere burned in France, in 1454. 
 
 S Wood's Antiq. Oxoniens. torn. i. p. 2J2. 
 
 I The life of this famous Dutchman, Gerard Groote, 
 was written by Thomas a Kerapis, and is to be found 
 in his works. It stands at the head of the lives of 
 eleven of his contemporaries, composed by this emi- 
 nent writer. 
 
 that were not consecrated to prayer and read- 
 ing, in' the education of young females, and in 
 branches of industry suitable to their sex. The 
 schools, tW were erected by the clerks of this 
 fraternity, acquired a great ^and illustrious 
 reputation in this century. FromBhem issued 
 those immortal restorers oftearnifig and taste 
 which gave a new face to the republic of,^et- 
 ters in Germany and Holland, such sts Eras- 
 mus of Rotterdam, Alexander Hegius, John 
 Murmelius, and several others.*. But the in- 
 stitution of the order of Jesuits seemed to di- 
 minish the- credit of these -excellent schools, 
 which, from that period, began to decline. It 
 ought to be added, that the Brethten bf the 
 common life, however -encouraged by the pub- 
 lic, were, exposed to the insults and opposition 
 of the clergy and monks, who had a strcmg 
 aversibn to every thing that bore the remotest 
 aspect bf learning or taste.f 
 
 XXIJI. Of the Greeks, who acquired fame 
 bytheir learned productions, the most-eminent 
 were, 
 
 Simeon of Thessalonica, the author of seve- 
 ral treatises, and, among others, of a book 
 against tlie heresies that had troubled the 
 church; to which we may add his writings 
 against the Latins, which are yet extant;f 
 
 Jo^ephus Bryenriius, who wrote a book con- 
 cerning- the Trinity, -and another against the 
 Latins; 
 
 Macarius Macro's, whose animosity against 
 the Latins was carried to the greatest height; 
 
 George Phranza, whose historical, telerit 
 makes a figure in the compilation of ihe By- 
 zantine historians; 
 
 Marcus EphesiuSj who was an obstinate 
 enemy to the council of Florence;^ 
 
 Cardinal Bessarion, the illustrious protector 
 and supporter of the Platonic school, a man 
 of unparalleled genjusand erudition; but much 
 hated- by the Greeks, because he seemed to 
 lean to the party of the Latins, and proposed 
 an union of the two nations to the prejudice of 
 the former;!] - - . - _ 
 
 George Scholarius, otherwise called Genna 
 dius, who wrote against the Latins, especiallj 
 
 * Accounts of this, order have been giv^n by Aub 
 MiriEUS,in his Chronicon.ad an. 1384, and byHelyot 
 in his Hist;oire des Ordres, torn, iii, But, in thas 
 which I have here given, there are some circumstan 
 ciis taken from ancient.records not yet published.' 1 
 have in my- possession several manuscripts, wnic!. 
 flirnrsh materials for a much more clear and circum 
 stantial -account of the, institution and progress of 
 'this order, than can be derived from the books thai 
 have hitherto appeared on. that subject. 
 
 t We read frequently, in the records Of. this cen 
 tury, of schools erected by the Lollards; and some 
 times by the Beghards, at Deventer, Brunswick. 
 Koningsfaerg, and Munster, and many other places 
 Now these -Lollards were the clerks of .the common 
 life, who, on- aecou-nt of their virWd, industry, tmi, 
 learningr which rendered them" very useful in the 
 education of youth, were invited by the magistrates 
 of several cities to reside among them. 
 
 t Jo. Alb. -Fabricius, Bibl. Grsec. vol. xiv. p. 49.— 
 Kich. Siiho'n, Critique de la Bibliothequc Eccles. pai 
 M. Du-Pin, tom. i. p. 400. . 
 
 5 Rich. Simon, torn. i. p. 431. 
 
 i For an account of Bessarion and the other 
 learned men here mentioned, see Bornerus and Hody, 
 in their histories of the restoration of letters in Italy, 
 by the (Jreeks who took refuge there, after the taking 
 of Constantinople; add to these the Bibliothecs 
 Grieca of Fabricius. 
 
422 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part II. 
 
 against the council of Florence, with greater' 
 learning, candour, and perspicuity, than the 
 rest of his countrymen displayed;* 
 ' George Gemistius Pletho, a man of eminent 
 learning, who excited many of the Italians to 
 the^tudy, n6t*only of tlie Platonic philosophy 
 in particular, but of Grecian literature in ge- 
 nera); • 
 
 George of Trapesond, who translated seve- 
 ral of the most eminent Grecian authors into 
 Latin, and supported the cause of the Latins 
 against the Greeks by his dexterous and elo- 
 quent pen; 
 
 George Codinus, of whom we have yet re- 
 maining several productions relating to the J 
 Byzantine history. 
 
 ,- XXIV. The tribe of Latin writers that 
 adorned ot, dishonoured this century, cannot 
 easily be numbered. We shall therefore con- 
 fine ourselves to the enumeration of those who 
 wrote upon theological points; and even of 
 these WQjshall only mention the most eminent. 
 At their head we may justly place John Ger- 
 son, chancellor of the university of Paris, the 
 most illustrious ornament that this age could 
 boast of, a man of the greatest influence and 
 authority^ whom the council of Constance 
 looked upon as its. oracle, the lovers of liberty 
 as their patron, and whose memory is yet pre- 
 cious to such among the French, as are zealous 
 for the maintenance of their privileges against 
 papal despotism.t This excellent man pub- 
 lished a considerable number of treatises that 
 were admirably adapted to reform the corrup- 
 tions Cf a superstitious worship, to excite a 
 spirit of genuine piety, and to heal the wqunds 
 of a divided church; though, in some respects, 
 he does not seem to have thoroughly under- 
 stood the demands and injunctions of the. Gos- 
 pel. The most eminent among the other theo- 
 logical writers were, 
 
 Nicolas de Clemangis, a man of uncommon 
 candour and integrity, who, in . the most elo- 
 quent and affecting strains, lamented the ca- 
 lamities of the times and the unhappy state of 
 the -Christian chupch;J. 
 
 Alphonsus TostatHS, bishop of Avila, who 
 loaded the Scriptures "with unwieldy and vo- 
 luminous commentaries, and also ^composed 
 other works, in wWch there is a great mixture 
 of good and bad;, , 
 
 Ambrose of Camaldoli, who •acquired a high 
 degree of -reputation by his profound know- 
 ledge of the Greek language, and 'his -uncom- 
 mon acquaintance with Grecian literature,. as 
 also by the -zeal and industry-he discovered in 
 his attempts to effectuate a reconciliation be- 
 tween the Greeks and Latins; 
 
 Nicolas de Cusa, a man of vast erudition, 
 and no mean genius, though not famed for the 
 
 * Rich. Simoii", Croyance de I'Eglise .Orienlale sur 
 la Transubstaotiation, p. 87. 
 
 t See DurPin's Gersoniana, prefixed to the edition 
 of the worksof Gerson, which we owe to that labori^ 
 oils author, and wliich appeared at Antwerp in five 
 TO)uir\ES foiio, in i700. See also Jo. Launoii His- 
 toria Gymnasii Eegii Navarreni, part iii. lib. ii. cap. 
 1. p. 514, torn. iv. p. i. op. — Herm. von der Hardt, 
 Acta Concil. Constant, torn. i. part iv. 
 
 + See Launoii Hist, part iii. lib. ii. cap. iii.— Lon- 
 Bueval Hist, de I'Eglise Gallicane, torn. xiv. p. 436.— 
 The works of Clemangis were publisji«d by Lydius 
 at Leyden, with a glossarj', if J631. 
 
 solidity of his judgment, as may appear from a 
 work of his, entitled, " Conjectures concerning 
 the last Day;"* 
 
 John Nieder, whose writings are very proper 
 to give us an accurate notion of the manners 
 and spirit of the age in which he livedj and 
 whose journeys and transactions have rendered 
 hini famous;-. 
 
 John Capistran, who was in high esteem at 
 the court of Roifte on account of .the -ardour 
 and vehemence with which he defended the 
 jurisdiction and majesty of the pontiffs a^gainst 
 all their enemies and opposers;t 
 
 John Wesselus and Jerome Savanarola, 
 who may justly be placed among the wisest 
 and worthiest men of this age. The former, 
 who was a native of -Groningen, and on ac- 
 count of his extraordinary penetration and sa- 
 •gacity was called, the Light of the World, 
 propagates several of those doctrines, which 
 Luther afterwards inculcated with greater evi- 
 dence and energy, and animadverted with 
 freedom and candour upon the corruptions of 
 the Romish church. J The latter was.^ Domi- 
 nican and a native of Ferrara, remarkable for 
 piety, eloquence, and learning; who touched 
 the sores of the church with a heavier hand, 
 and inveighed against the pontiffs with greater 
 severity^ For this freedom he severely smered. 
 He was committed to the flames at Florence 
 in 1498, and bore his fate with the most trium- 
 phant fortitude and serenity of mind;§ 
 
 Alphonsus Spina, who wrote a book against 
 the Jews and Saracens, which he called For- 
 talitium Fidei. ' 
 
 To all these we must join the "whole tribe of 
 the scholastic writers, whose chief ornaments 
 were, John Capreolus, (John de Tiirrecremata, 
 Antoninus of Florence, Dionysins a Ryckel, 
 Henry Gorcoinius, Gabjiel Biel, Stephen Bra- 
 lifer, and others. The most remarkable among 
 the Mystics were, Vincent Ferrerius, Henry 
 Harphiiis, " Laurence Justinianus, Bernardine 
 of Sienna, and Thomas a I^mpis, whoshone 
 among these with a superior lustre, and to 
 whom the famous book, concerning the imita- 
 tion of Christ, is comrnonly attributed.]] 
 
 CHAPTER in. 
 -Cpmceming- the State of Religion, and the Doc- 
 trine o/'the Church, dwir^ this Century. 
 
 I. The state *f religion had become so cor- 
 rupt among the Latins, that it-was utterly des- 
 
 * Bayle, Repojise^ux Q.uestions d'un Provincial, 
 torn. ii. cap. cxvu 
 
 t L'Enfant's Histoire de la Guerre des Hussites, 
 torn. ii. Wadding, Annales Minorum, torn. ix. . . 
 
 t Jo. Henr. Mali Vita Eeuchlini, p. 156. 
 
 § Jo. Franc. BuddeiParergaHistorico-Theologica. 
 The life of Savanarola was written by J. Francis 
 Piciis, and iTublished at Paris, with various annota- 
 tions, letters, and original pieces, by Quetif, in 1674. 
 The same editor published also the Spiritual and 
 Ascetic Epistles of Savanarola, translated from the 
 Italian info Latin. See Echard, Scriptof. Friedicator. 
 torn. i. p. 884. 
 
 II The late abbe Lenglet du Fresnoy promised the 
 world a demonstration that this work, whose true 
 author has been so much disputed among the learn, 
 ed, was originally written in French by a person 
 named Gersen, or Gerson, and only translated into 
 Latin by Thomas a Kempis. See Granetus in Lau- 
 noianis, part ii. tpm.iv. part ii. op. p. 414. The his 
 tory of this celebrated production is given by Vin- 
 
Chap. m. 
 
 THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 433 
 
 titnte of any thing that could attract the 
 esteem of the truly virtuous and judicious part 
 of mankind. This is a fact, which even those 
 mdlyiduals whose prejudices render.them un- 
 wrilling to acknowledge it, will never presume 
 to deny. Among the Greeks and Orientals, 
 religion had scarcely a better aspect than 
 among the Latins; at least, if the difference 
 was in their favour, it was far from being con- 
 siderable. The Worship of the Deity consist- 
 ed in a round of frivolous and insipid cere-, 
 monies. The discourses of those who instruct- 
 ed the people in public, were not only destitute 
 of sense, judgment, and spirit, but even of pi- 
 ety and devotion, and were in reality nothing 
 more than a motley mixture of the grossest 
 fictions and the most extravagant inventions. 
 The reputation of Christian knowledge and 
 piety was easily acquired; it was lavished upon 
 those who professed a profound veneration for 
 the sacred order, and their spiritual head the 
 Roman pontiff, who .studied to render the 
 saints ( i. e. the clergy, their ministers) propi- 
 tious by frequent and rich donations, who were 
 exact and regular in the observance of the 
 stated ceremonies of the church, and who had 
 wealth enough to pay the fines which the pa- 
 pal qua3stors had annexed to the conjmission 
 of all the different degrees of transgression; or, 
 in other words, to purchase indulgences. Such 
 were tlie ingredients of ordinary piety; but per- 
 sona who added to these a certain degree of 
 austerity and bodily mortification Were placed 
 in the highest order of worthies, and consider- 
 ed as the peculiar fevourites of Heaven. On 
 the other handy the number of those -who were 
 studious to acquire a just notion of religion, to 
 investigate the true sense of the sacred writ- 
 ings, and to model their lives and manners 
 after the precepts and example of the divine 
 Saviour, was extremely small; and such had 
 much difficulty in escaping the fla:mes, at a 
 time when virtue and sense were deenied he- 
 retical. 
 
 II. This miserable state of affairs, this enor- 
 mous perversion of religion and morality, 
 throughout almost all the western provinces, 
 were observed and deplored by many wise ani 
 good men, who all endeavoured, though in dif- 
 ferent ways, to stem the torrent of superstition, 
 and to reform a corrupt church. In England 
 and Scotland, the disciples of Wickliffe, whom 
 the multitude had stigmatized with the odious 
 title of liollards, continued to, inveigh against 
 the despotic laws of tlie pontiffs, and- the licen- 
 tious manners of the clergy.* The WaMenses,. 
 though persecuted aid oppressed on all sides, 
 raised their voices-eyen in the remote valleys 
 and lurking-places wliither they were driven 
 by the violence of their enemies, and called 
 aloud for succour to the expiring Cause of re- 
 ligion and virlue. Even in Italy, many, and 
 among others the famous Savanarola, had the 
 courage to declare, that Rome was become 
 the image of Babylon; and this notion was 
 soon adopted by multitudes of all ranks and 
 conditions. But the greatest part of the clergy 
 
 centiuB Thuillierius, in the Opera Posthuma Mabil- 
 loiii et Ruinarli, torn. iii. p- 54. 
 
 * See Wilkins, Concilia Magna; Britann. et Hi- 
 bern. torn- iv. — Wood, Antiq. O^ton. torn. i. 
 
 and wonks, persuaded that their honoiU'S, in- 
 fluence, and riches, would diminish in propor- 
 tion to the increase of knowledge among the 
 people, and would receive inexpressible detri- 
 ment liom the downfall of superstition, vi- 
 gorously opposed every thing that had the re- 
 motest aspect of a reformation, and imposed 
 silence upon these importunate censors by the 
 formidable authority of fire and sword. 
 
 lit The religious dissensions that had been 
 excited in Bohemia by the ministry of John 
 Huss and his disciple Jacobellus de Misa, were 
 doubly inflamed by the deplorable fate of Huss 
 and Jerome of Prague; and broke out into an 
 open war, which was carried on with unparal- 
 leled barbarity. -The followers- of Huss, who 
 pleaded for the administration of the cup to 
 the laity in the holy sacrament, being perse- 
 cuted and oppressed in various ways by the 
 emissaries and ipiiiisters of the court of Rome, 
 retired to a steep and high mountain in the 
 district of Bechin, in which they held their re- 
 ligious meetings, and administered the sacra- 
 ment of the Lord's supper under both kinds. 
 This mountain they called Tabor, from the 
 tents, which they at first erected there for their 
 habitation; and iii process of time they raised 
 a considerable fortification for its defence, and 
 adorned it With a well-built and regular city. 
 Forming more grand and important projects^ 
 they chose fpr their chiefs Nicolas of Hussinetz, 
 and the famous John Ziska, a Bohemian 
 knight, a man of the most undaunted courage 
 and resolution; and proposed, under the stand- 
 ards of these violent leaders, to revenge the 
 death of Huss and' Jerome upon'the creatures 
 of the Roman pontiff, and obtain a liberty of 
 worshipping God in a more rational manner 
 than that which was prescribed by the church 
 of Rome. After the death of Nicolas, which 
 happened in 1420, Ziska commanded alone 
 this warlike body, and had the satisfaction to 
 see his army daily increase. During the first 
 tumults of this war, which were no more than 
 a prelude to calamities of a much more dread- 
 ful kind, Wenceslaus, king-of Bohemia, resign-^ 
 ed his breath in the yearl419.* 
 
 IV. The emperor Sigismund, who succeeded 
 him. on the throne of Bohemia, employed not 
 only edicts and' remonstrances, but also the 
 terror of penal laws and the force of arms, to 
 put an end to these lamentable divisions; and 
 great numbers of the Hussites perished, by his 
 orders, in the most barbarous manner. ~ The 
 Bohemians, irritated by these inhuman pro- 
 ceedings, threw off. his despotic yoke, in 1420, 
 and, with Ziska at their head, made war against 
 their sovereign. This famous leader, though 
 deprived of his sight, discovered, in every step 
 he took, such an admirable mixture of pru- 
 dence and intrepidity, that his naine became a 
 terror to his enemies. Upon his death, which 
 happened in 1424, the majority of ths Hus- 
 
 fil^* Tliis prince had no sooner begun to execute 
 the decrees oif the council of Constance .against the 
 Hussites, than the inhabitants of Prague took tire 
 at the proceeding, raiseti a tumult, murdered the ma- 
 gistrates who published the order, and committed 
 other outrages, which filled the court of Wenceslaus 
 with consternation, and so afiec^ed that pusillani 
 mous monarch, that he was seized with an apoplexy, 
 of which he died in a few days. 
 
424 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part II. 
 
 Bites chose for their general Procopius Rasa, a 
 man also of undaunted courage and resolution, 
 who maintained their cause, and carried on the 
 war with spirit and success. The acta of baj- 
 bp,rity, committed on both sides, were shocking 
 and terrible beyond expression; for, notwith- 
 standing the irreconcilable opposition that exr 
 isted between the religious sentiments of the 
 contending parties, both agreed in this one 
 horrible point, that it was innocent and lawful 
 to persecute and extirpate wjth fire and sword 
 the enemies of the true religion; and such they 
 appeared to be in each other's eyes,. The Bo- 
 hemians maintained, that Huss had been un- 
 justly put to death at Constance, and cpnse- 
 quently revenged, with the utmost fory, the 
 injury which he had suffered. They acknow- 
 ledged it, nevertheless, as an incontestable 
 principle, that heretics deserved capital punish- 
 ment; but they denied obstinately that Huss 
 was a heretic. This pernicious maxim, then, 
 was the source of that cruelty which disgraced 
 both parties inthis dreadful war; and it is, per- 
 haps, difficult to determine, which, of the two 
 carried this cruelty to the greatest height. 
 
 V. All those who undertook to avenge the 
 death of the Bohemian martyr, set out upon 
 the same principles; and, at the commence- 
 ment of the war, they seemed to agree both in 
 their religious sentiments, and in their demands 
 upon the church and government from which 
 theyiad withdrawn themselves. But, as their 
 number increased, their union diminished; and 
 their army being prodigiously augmented Ijy a 
 confluence of strangers from all quarters, a 
 great dissension arose among them, which, in 
 1420, came to sm.open ruptuj:e, and divided 
 this multitude into two great factions, wjiich 
 were distinguished by the titles of Calixtines 
 and Taborites. The former, who were so call- 
 ed from their insisting upon the use of the 
 chalice, or cup, in the celebration of the 
 eucharist, were mild in their proceedings, and 
 modest in their.demands, and showed no dis^ 
 position to overturn the, ancient system of 
 church govemmentj or to make any consider^ 
 able changes in the religion which was public- 
 ly received. All that they requiredj may he 
 comprehended under the four articles which 
 follow. They demanded, fitst, that the word 
 of God should be explained to the people in a 
 plain and perspicuous manner, without the 
 mixture of superstitious comments or inven- 
 tions; secondly, that the sacrament of the 
 Lord's supper should be administered in both 
 kinds; thirdly, that the clergy, instead of em- 
 ploying all their attention and zeal in the 
 acquisition of riches and power, should turn 
 their thoughts to objects more suitable to their 
 profession, and be ambitious of living and act- 
 ing as became the successors of the' holy apos- 
 tles; and, fourthly, that transgressions of a 
 more heinous kind, or mortal sins, should be 
 p^ished in a manner suitable to their enormi- 
 ty, Jn this great faction, however, there were 
 some subordinate sects, *ho were divided upon 
 several points. .The admihistration" of the 
 Lord's supper was .one occasion of dispute; 
 Jacobellus de Misa, who had first proposed the 
 celebration of that ordinance under both kinds, 
 was of opinion, that infants had a right to par- 
 
 take of it, and this opinion was adopted by 
 many; while others maintained the contrary 
 doctrine, and' confined the privilege in ques- 
 tion to persons of riper years.* 
 
 VI. -The demands of the Taborites, who de- 
 rived their name from a mountain wel' known 
 in sacred .history, were much more ample. 
 They npt only insisted upon reducing the reli- 
 gion of Jesus to its primitive simplicity, but 
 required also, that the system of ecclesiastical 
 government should be reformed in the same 
 manner^ the authority of the pope destroyed, 
 the form of divine worship changed: they de- 
 manded, in a word, the erection of a new 
 church, a. new hierarchy, in which Christ alone 
 should reign, and all things should be carried 
 on by a divine impulse. £i maintainiiig these 
 extravagant demands, the principal doctors of 
 this sect, (such as Martin Loquis, a Moravian, 
 .and his followers) went so far as to flatter 
 themselves with the chimerical notion, that 
 Christ would descend upon earth, armed with 
 fife and tword, to extirpate heresy, and purify 
 the church from its multiplied corruptions. 
 These fantastical dreams they propagated in 
 different countries, and taught them even in a 
 public manner with unparalleled confidence 
 and presumption. It is this enthusiastic class 
 of the Hussites alone, that we are to look 
 upon as accountable for all those abominable 
 acts of violence, rapine,, desolation, and mur- 
 der, which are too indiscriminately laid. to the 
 charge of the Hussites in general, and of their 
 two leaders Ziska and Frpcopiiis in-particular.f 
 It must indeed be acknowledged,, that a great 
 number of the Hussites had imbibed the most 
 barbarous seiitiments with respect to the obliga- 
 tion of executing vengeance upon Uieir ene- 
 mies, against whom they breathed nothing but 
 bloodshed and fiiry, without Miy mixture of 
 humaniW or compassion. 
 
 VII. In the year 14S3, the council of Basil 
 endeavoured to put an end to this dreadful war, 
 and for that purpose invited the Bohemians to 
 the assembly, The Bohemians, accepting this 
 
 * Eyzinii Diarium Hussiticum, p. 130. 
 
 t From the foUbwirig opinions and maxims of the 
 Taborites, whicli may be seen in the Diarium Hus- 
 siticum of Byzinius, T^e may form a just idea of their 
 detestable barbarity: " Omnes legis Ohiisti adver- 
 sarii deben t puniri septem plagia novissimis, ad qtta- 
 rlim executionem fidelea. sunt'' provocandi. — In isto 
 tempore ultionis Christus in' sua humilitate et mi- 
 seratione nOn est imitandus ad ipsps peccatores, sed 
 in zelo et furore et-justaretributione. — In hoc- tem- 
 pore ultionis, qiiilibet fidelis, etiam presbyter, i/,ttan- 
 tumcunque spiritualise est matedictus, qui gladium 
 suum co'rporalem^rohibet a sanguine adversariorum 
 legis Christi, sed debet manus suaa lavare in corum 
 sanguine et sanctiflcare." From men, who adopted 
 such horrid and detestable maxims, what could be 
 expected but the most abominable acts of injustice 
 and'cruelty? For an account of this dreadful and 
 calamitous war, the reader may consult (beside the 
 ancient writers, such as' Sylvius, Theobaldus, Coch- 
 lEus, and others) L'Enfant's Histoire de la Guerre 
 des Hussites, published at Amsterdam in 1731. To 
 this history it will, however, be advisable to add the 
 Diarium Belli Hussiticl of Byzinius, a book worthy 
 of the highest .esteem, on- account of the candour 
 and impartiality with which it is composed, and 
 which Mr. L'Enfant does not seem to have consult- 
 ed. This valuable production was published, though 
 incomplete, in the sixth volume of the Reliquiee 
 Manuscriptorum of the very learned John Peter 
 Ludwig. See also Beausobre's Supplement to the 
 Histoire de la Ouerre dps JIussites, Lausanne, 1745- 
 
Chap. III. 
 
 THE DOCTRINK OF THE CHtRCH. 
 
 425 
 
 invitation, sent ambassadors, and among others 
 Procopius their leader, to represent them in 
 that council. But, after many warm debates, 
 these messengers of peace returned without 
 having affected any thing that might even pre- 
 pare the way for a reconciliation so long and 
 so ardently desired. The CaUxtines were not 
 averse to peace; but no njethqda of persuasion 
 could engage the Taborites to yield. This 
 matter, however, was transacted with more 
 success by .Siieas Sylvius and others, whom 
 the council sent into Bohemia to renew the 
 conferences; for these new legates, by allow- 
 ing to the Calixtines the use of the cup in the 
 hdiy sacrament, satisfied them in the point 
 which they had chiefly at heart, and thus re- 
 conciled them vrith the Roman pontiff. But 
 the Taborites adhered inflexibly to their first 
 principles; and neither the artifice nor the elo- 
 quence of Sylvius, nor the threats, sufferings, 
 and persecutioiis to wliich their cause exposed 
 them, could vanquish their obstin|ite perse- 
 verance. From this period, indeed, they began 
 to review their religious tenets, and their eccle- 
 siastidal discipline, with a view of rendering 
 thdm more perfect. This review, as it was. 
 executed with great prudence and impartiality, 
 produced a very good effect, and gaye a ra- 
 tional aspect to the religion of these sfectaries, 
 who withdrew themselves, from the war, aban- 
 doned the doctrines, which, upon serious ex- 
 amination, they found to. be inconsistent with 
 the spirit and genius of the Gospel, and banish- 
 ed from their communibn'' all persons whose 
 .disordered brains, or licentious manners, might 
 expose them to reproach.* The Taborites, 
 thus new-modelled, were the same with those 
 Bohemian Brethren (or Ficards, i. e. Beghards, 
 as their adversa,ries called them) who joined 
 Luther and his successors at the reforma- 
 tion, and of whom there are at this day many 
 of the descendants and followers in Poland 
 and other countries. ' 
 
 ~^ Vni. Among the greatest part of the inters 
 preters of Scripture that lived in this century, 
 we find nothing vrorthy of applause, if we ex- 
 cept their zeal and their good intentions. Such 
 of them as aimed at something higher than 
 the character of mere compilers, and ventured 
 to draw their explications from their own sense 
 of things, did little more than amuse, or rather 
 delude,,their readers, with mystical and alle- 
 gorical &ncies. At the head of this class we 
 may place Alphpnsus Tostatus, bishop of Avila, 
 whose voluminous commentaries upon the sa- 
 cred writings exhibit nothing remarkable but 
 their enormous bulk. Laurentius Valla is en- 
 titled to a more favourable judgment; and his 
 small collection of Critical and Grammatical 
 Annotations upon the New Testament is far 
 firom -being destitute of merit, since it pointed 
 out to succeeding authors the true.method of 
 removing the difficulties that sometimes. pre- 
 sent themselves to such as study with attention 
 the divine oracles. It is proper to observe 
 
 • See Adriani Regenvplscil Historia Eooles. pro 
 vinciar. Sclavonicar. lib. ii. cap. viii. p. 165. — Joacb. 
 Camerarii Historica Narratio de Frattum Ecclesiis 
 in Bobemia, Moravia, et Polonia. — Jo. Lasitii His- 
 toria Fratrum Bohemicorum, which I possess in 
 manuscript, and of which the eighth boolt was pub- 
 iisbed at Amsterdam, in 1649. 
 Vol. I.— 54 
 
 here, that these sacred books were, in ahnost 
 all the kingdoms and states of Europe, tralns^^^ 
 lated into the language of each nation, par- 
 ticularly in Germany, Italy, France, and Bri- 
 tain. This circumstance naturally excited the 
 e3tpectations of a considerable change in the 
 state of religion, and made the thinking,*few 
 JiQj)e, that tiie doctrine of the church would 
 be soon reformed by the light that could not 
 but Euise from consulting the genuine sources 
 of divine truth, 
 
 . IX. The schools of divinity made a misera- 
 ble figure in this century. They were filled 
 with teachers, who loaded their memory, and 
 that of tlieir disciples, with unintelligible dis- 
 tinctions and unmeaning sounds, that they 
 might thus dispute and discourse, with an ap- 
 pearance of method, upon matters which they 
 did not understand. There were now few re- 
 maining, of those who proved and^ illustrated 
 the doctrines of religion by the positive declara- 
 tions of the holy scriptures, and the sentiments 
 of the ancient fathers, and who, with all their 
 defects, were much superior to the vain and 
 obscure pedants of whom we have been speak- 
 ing. The senseless jargon of the latter did 
 not escape the just and heavy censure of some 
 learned and judicious persons,, who considered 
 their methods of teaching as highly detri- 
 niental to the interests of true religion, and to 
 the advancement of genuine and solid piety. 
 Accordingly,, various plans were formed .by 
 different individual, some of which had for 
 their object the abolition of this method, others 
 its reformation, while, in the mean time, the 
 enemies of the schoolmen increased from day 
 to day. The, Mystics, of whom we shall have 
 occasion to speak more larg;ely hereafter, were 
 ardently bent upon baiiishing entirely this 
 scholastic theology out of the Christian church. 
 Others, who seemed disposed to act with 
 greater moderation, did not insist upon its 
 total suppression, but were of opinion, that it 
 was necessary to reform it, by abolishing all 
 vain and useless subjects of debate, by re- 
 straiiung the rage of disputing that had in- 
 fected the seminaries of theology, and by sea- 
 soning the subtlety of the schoolmen with a 
 h|ippy temperature of mystic sensibility and 
 simplicity. This opinion was adopted by the 
 famous Gerson, who laboured with the utmost 
 zeal and assiduity in correcting and reforming 
 the disorders and abuses which the scholastic 
 divines had introduced'into the seminaries,* as 
 also by Savanarola, Fetrus de Alhaco, and 
 Nicolas Cusanus, whose treatise concerning 
 Learned Ignorance is still extant. 
 
 X. The litigious herd of schoolmen found 
 a new class of enemies equally keen, in the 
 restorers of eloquence and letters, who were 
 not all, however, of the same opinion with re- 
 spect to the manner of treating these solemn 
 quibblers. Some of them covered the scho- 
 lastic, doctrine with ridicule, loaded it with 
 invectives, and demanded its suppression, as 
 
 * Eicta. Simon. Lettres Cboisies, torn. ii. p. %9, 
 and Critique de la Bibliotheque Ecclesiastique de M. 
 Du-Fin, tom. 1. p. 491. — Thomasii Originea Histor. 
 Fhilos. -p. 56, and principally Gecsonis Methodus 
 Theologiam studendi, in Laanoii Historia Gymnas. 
 Nevarrenii torn. iv. op. part i. p. 330, 
 
426 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Part II. 
 
 a most trifling and absurd system, tliat was 
 highly detrimental to the culture and im- 
 provement of the mind, and could only pre- 
 vent the growth of genius and true science. 
 Others looked upon this system as supportable, 
 and only proposed illustrating and polishing 
 it by the powers of eloquence, thus to render 
 it more intelligible and elegant. Of this class 
 was Paulus 0)rteSius, who wrote, with this 
 view, a commentary on the Book of Proverbs, 
 in which, as we learn from himself, he forms 
 a happy union between eloquence and theology, 
 and clothes the principal intriceicies of scholas- 
 tic divinity vrith the graces of an agreeable 
 and perspicuous style.* After all, the scholas- 
 tic theology, supported by the extraordinary 
 credit and authority of the Dominicans and 
 Franciscans, maintained its ground against its 
 various opposers; nor could these two religious 
 orders, who excelled ifa that litigious kind of 
 learning, bear the thought of losing the glory 
 they had acquired by quibbling and disputing 
 in the pompous jargon of the schools. 
 
 XI. This vain philosophy, however^ grew 
 daily more contemptible in the esteem of the 
 judicious and the wise; while the Mystics ga- 
 thered strength, and saw their friends and ad- 
 vocates mtdtiply on all sides. Among these 
 there were some men of distinguished merit, 
 who are chargeable with few of the errors and 
 extravagances that were mingled with the dis- 
 cipline and doctrine of that mmous sect, such 
 sis Thomas a Kempis, (the author of the Ger- 
 maiuc theology, so highly commended by 
 Luther,) Laurentius Justinianus, Savanarola, 
 andv .others. There are, on the other hand, 
 some writers of this sect, such as Vincentius 
 Ferrerius, Henricus,,Harphius, and Bernard 
 of Sienna, in whose productions we must care- 
 fully separate certain notions which were the 
 effects of a warm and irregular fency, as. also 
 the visions of Dionysius, whom the Mystics 
 consider as their chief, &om the noble precepts 
 of divine wisdom with which they are mingled. 
 The Mystics were defended against their ad- 
 versaries, the Dialecticians, partly by the Plar 
 tonists, who were in general highly esteemed, 
 and partly by some, even of the most eminent 
 scholastic doctors. The former considered Dio- 
 nysius as a person whose sentiments had been 
 formed and nourished by the study of Flaton- 
 ism, and wrote commentaries, upon bis writ- 
 ings; of which we have an eminent example 
 in Marcilius Ficinus, whose name adds a lus- 
 tre to the Platonic school. The latter attempt- 
 ed a certain sort of association between tiie 
 scholastic theology and that of the Mystics; 
 and in this class were John Gerson, Nicolas 
 Cusanus, Dionysius the Carthusian, and others. 
 
 XII. The controversy with the enemies of 
 Christianity was carried oh with much more 
 Vigour in this than in the preceding ages; and 
 several learned and eminent men seemed now 
 to exert themselves with peculiar industry and 
 zeal in demonstrating the truth of that divine 
 religion, and defendmg it against the various 
 objections, of its ^adversaries. This appears 
 
 * TMs work waa published at Borne in 1513, and 
 Bt Basil in 1513. 
 
 from the learned book of Msircilios Ficmus 
 concerning the Truth of Christianity, Savanar 
 rola's Triumph of the Cross, the Natural The- 
 ology of Raymond de Sabunde, and other pro- 
 ductions of a like nature. The Jews were re- 
 futed by Perezius and Jerome de St. Foi, the 
 Saracens, by Johannes de Turrecremata; and 
 both these classes of unbelievers were op- 
 posed by Alphonso de Spina, in the Fortress 
 of Faith. Nor were these pious labourers in the 
 defence of the Gospel at all unseasonable or 
 superfluous: on the contrary, the state of 
 things at this time rendered them necessary. 
 For, on the one hand, the Aristotelian philo- 
 sophers in Italy seemed, in their public instruo- 
 tions, to strike at the foundations of all reli- 
 gion; and, on the other hand, the senseless 
 subtleties and quarrels of the schoolmen, who 
 modelled religion according to their extrava- 
 gant &ncies, tended to bring it -into contempt. 
 Add to all this, that the .^ws and Saracens 
 lived in many places promiscuously with the 
 Christians, who were therefore obliged, by the 
 proximity of the enemy, to defend themselves 
 with the utmost assiduity and zeal. 
 
 XIII. We have already taken notice of the 
 finitless attempts which were made to heal the 
 unhappy divisions of the Greek and Latin 
 churches. After Ihe council of Florence, and 
 the violation of the treaty of pacification by 
 the Greeks, Nicolas V. exhorted and entreated 
 them again to turn their thoughts towards the 
 restoration of peace and concord. But his ex- 
 hortations were without effect; and in. about 
 the space of three years after the writing of 
 this last letter, Constantinople was besieged 
 and taken by the Turks. And from tiiat fatal 
 period to the present time, the Roman pontiffs, 
 in all their attempts to bring about a reconci- 
 liation, have always found the Grecian patri- 
 archs more obstinate and intractable than they 
 were when their empire was in a flourishing 
 state. Nor is this circumstance .so difficult to 
 be accounted for, when all things are properly 
 considered. This obstinacy was tiie effect of a 
 rooted aversion to the Latins and their pontifEs, 
 that acquired, fiom day to day, new degrees of 
 strength and bitterness in the hearts of the 
 Greeks; an aversion, produced and nourished 
 by a persuasion, tiat the calamities which 
 they suffered imder the Turkish yoke might 
 have been easily removed, if the western prin- 
 ces and the Roman pontiffs had not refused to 
 succour them against their haughty tyrants. 
 And accordingly, when the Greek writers de- 
 plore the calamities that fell upon thehr devot- 
 ed cdimtry, their complaints are always min- 
 gled with heavy accusations against the Latins, 
 whose cruel insensibility to their unhappy sito- 
 ation they paint in the strongest and most 
 odious colours. 
 
 XIV. We pass over in silence many trifling 
 controversies among the Latins, which have 
 no claim to the attention of our readers. But 
 we must not omit mentioning the revival of 
 that famous dispute concerning the kind of 
 worship that was to be paid to the blood of 
 Christ, which was first kindled at Barcelona, 
 in 1351, between the Franciscans and Domi- 
 nicans, and had heea left undecided by Oe' 
 
Ohap. V. 
 
 DIVISIONS AND HERESIES. 
 
 427 
 
 ment VI.* This controversy was renewed at 
 Brizen, in 1462, by. James, a Marohia, a ce- 
 lebrated Franciscan, %ho m&tained publicly, 
 in one of his sermons, thatTihe blood which' 
 Christ shed upon the cross, did not belong to 
 the divine nature, and of consequence was not 
 to be considered as an object of divine and 
 immediate .worship. The Doininicans rejected 
 this doctrine, and adopted with such zeal the 
 opposite side of the question, that James of 
 Brixen, who performed the office of inquisitor, 
 called tbe Franciscan before his tribunal, and 
 accused him of heresy. IJope Pius n., having 
 made several ineffectual attempts to suppress 
 this controversy, was at last persuaded to sub- 
 mit the affair to the examination-and judgment 
 of a select number of able, divines. Butniany 
 obstacles arose to prevent a final decision, 
 among which we may reckon, as the principal, 
 the influence and d.uthority^of the contending 
 orders, each of which had, embarked with zeal 
 in the cause of their respective champions. 
 Hence, after much altercation and chicane, 
 the pontiff th(^ught proper to impose silence on 
 both the parties in this miserable dispute, in 
 I4&4; declaring, at the same time, that "both 
 sides of the question, might he lawfully main- 
 tained until Christ's vicar upon earth should 
 find leisure and opportjuiity for examining the 
 matter, and determining on which side the 
 truth lay." - Tliis leisure and opportimity have 
 not yet been offered to the pontiffs.f 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 Concerning the Rites and Ceremonies thai were 
 used in the Church during this Century. 
 I. The state of rfeligious ceremonies among 
 the Greeks may be learned from the book of 
 Simeon of Thessalonica, concerning Rites and 
 Heresies,! from which it appears, that the sub- 
 stance of religion was lost among that people; 
 that a splendid shadow of pomp and vanity 
 was substituted in its- place by the rulers of 
 the church; and that all the branches of divine 
 worship were Ordered in such a manner as to 
 strike the imaginations, tind captivate the 
 senses of the multitude. They pretended, in- 
 deed, to allege several reasons for nfultiplying, 
 as they did, the external rites and institutions 
 of religion, and throwing over the whole of 
 divine worship such a pompous garb of world- 
 ly^ splendour. But in these reasons, and in all 
 llieir explications of this gaudy ritual, subtlety 
 and invention are more apparent than truth 
 or good sense. The origin of these multiplied 
 rites, that cast a cloud over the native beauty 
 and. lustre pf religion, is often obscure, and 
 frequently dishonourable; and such as, by force 
 of ill-applied genius and invention, have en- 
 deavoured to derive honour to these ceremo- 
 nies Smia the circumstances that gave occasion 
 to them, have failed egregiously in this despe- 
 rate attempt. The deceit is too palpable to 
 seduce any mind that is void of prejudice, and 
 capable of attention. 
 
 * Luc. Wadding, Annal. Minor, torn. viii. p. 58.,— 
 Jac. Echardi Scriptor. Prffidicator. torn. i. p. 650. 
 
 t Wadding, Annal. Minor, torn. xiii. p. 206.— Nat. 
 Alexander, Hist. Ecclea. Stec. XV. 
 
 t J. A. Pabricius has given an account of the con- 
 tents of thia book in Bis Blblioth. Grieca, vol. xiv. 
 
 . II. Though the mor« rational and judid^fcp 
 of the Roman pontiffs complained of the m^K 
 tiplicity of ceremonies, festivals, temples, and 
 the like, and did not seem unwilling to l^ave this 
 enormous mass diminished, they nevertheless 
 distinguished, every one his own pontificate, 
 by some new institution, and thought it their 
 duty to perpetuate their fame by some new . 
 edict of this nature. Thus Calixtus III., to 
 immortalize the remembrance of the delive- 
 rance of Belgrade from the powerful arms of 
 Mohammed II., who had "been obliged to raise 
 the siege of that city, ordered, in 1456, the 
 festival in honour. of the transfiguration of 
 Christ (which had been celebrated in some 
 places by private authority, before this period) 
 to be religiously observed throughout' the 
 western world. And Sixtus IV., in 1476, 
 granted indulgences, by a particular edict, to 
 all those who should devoutly celebrate an an- 
 nual festival in honour of the immaculate con- 
 ception of the blessed Virgin,, with respect to 
 which noiie of the Roman pontiffs before him 
 had thought proper to make any express de- 
 claration, or any positive appointment.* The 
 other additions that were rhade to the Roman 
 ritual, relating to the worship of the Virgin 
 Mary, public . and private prayers, the traffic 
 of indulgences, and other things of that nature, 
 are of too little importance to deserve an exact 
 and circumstantia,! enumereltioh. We need- 
 not such a particular detail to convince us, 
 that in this century religion was reduced to 
 mgre show, to a show composed of pompous 
 absurdities and splendid trifles. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 Concerning the Heresies, Sects, and Divisums, 
 that troviMed the Church duriing this Century. 
 
 I. Neither the severe edicts of pontiffs and 
 emperors, i)or tlie barbarity aad vigilance of 
 unrelenting inquisitors, covdd extirpate the re- 
 mains of the ancient heresies, or prevent the 
 rise of new sects. We have already seen the 
 Franciscan order at open war with Uie church 
 of Rome. In Bosnia, and the adjacent coun- ■ 
 tries, the Manicheeans or Paulieians, who were 
 the same with the sect named Catharists in 
 Italy, propagated their doctrines with confi-' 
 dence, and held their religious assemblies with 
 impunity. It is true, indeed, that the great 
 protector of" the Manichoeans, Stephen Tho- 
 maacus, king of Bosnia, abjured their errors, 
 received baptism by the ministry of John Car^ 
 vaial, a Roman cardinal, and, in consequence 
 thereof, expelled those heretics fi'om his do- 
 minions. But it is also certain, that he after- 
 wards changed his mind; and it is well known, 
 that, toward the conclusion of this century, 
 the Manichseans inhabited Bosnia, Servia, and 
 the neighbouring provinces. The Waldenses 
 also still subsisted m several European pro- 
 vinces, more especially in Pomerania, Bran- 
 denburg, the district of Magdeburgh, and 
 Thuringia, where they had a considerable 
 number of friends and followers. It appeals, 
 however, from authentic records not yet piib- 
 
 * See Volaterrani Comment. Urbani, lib. viii. p. 
 
 289 jEneas Sylvius de Statu -EuropE sub Prederico 
 
 III. cap. X. in Preheri Scriptor. Rerum Germanicar. 
 tom.ii. p. 104. 
 
428 
 
 INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Pabt IL 
 
 liahed, that a great part of the adherents of 
 this unfortunate sect, in the countries now 
 mentioned, were discovered by the inquisitors, 
 and delivered over by them to the civil magis- 
 trates, who committed them to the flames. 
 
 II. The Brethren and Sisters of the free 
 spirit (who were called in Qermany Beghards 
 or Schwestriones, and in France Twlupins, 
 and whose distinctive character was a species 
 of mysticism that bordered upon phrenzy) 
 wandered about in a secret ftnd disguised man- 
 ner in various parts of France, Germany, and 
 Flanders, and particularly in Suabia and 
 Switzerland, wh^re they spread the contagion 
 of their enthusiasm, and caught the unwary in 
 their snaies. The search, however, that was 
 made after them, was so strict and well con- 
 ducted, that few of the teachers and chie& of 
 this fanatical sect escaped the hands of the in- 
 quisitors.* When the war between the Hus- 
 sites and the votaries of Rome broke out in 
 Bohemia, in 1418, a troop of these fanatics, 
 headed by a person whose name was John, re- 
 pa,ired thither and held secret assemblies, first 
 at Prague, and afterwards in different places, 
 whence they at length retired to a certain 
 island, where they were less exposed to the 
 notice of their enemies. It was, as we have 
 already had occasion to observe, one of the 
 leading principles of this sect, that the tender, 
 instincts of nature, vpith that bashfulness and 
 modesty which generally accompany them, 
 were evident marks of inherent corruption, and 
 showed, that the mind was not sufficiently 
 purified or rendered conformable to the divine 
 iiatvire, whence it derived its origin. And 
 they alone were deemed perfect by these &nar 
 tics, and supposed to be united to the Siipreme 
 Being, vvho could behold without any emotion, 
 the naked bodies of the sex to which they did 
 not belong, and who, in imitation of what was 
 practised before the fall by our first parents, 
 went entirely naked, and conversed familiarly 
 in this manner with males and females, with- 
 out feeling any of the tender propensities of 
 nature. HenSe it was that the Beghards (whom 
 the Bohemians, by a change in the pronuncia- 
 tion of that word, called Picmds,) when they 
 came into their religjous assemblies, and were 
 present at the celebration of divine worship, 
 appeared without any veil or covering what- 
 ever. They had also constantly in their 
 mouths a maxinj, which, indeed, was very 
 suitable to the genius of the rehgion they pro- 
 fessed; namely, ' that they were not free (Ji.e. 
 sufficiently extricated from the shackles of the 
 body) who made use of garments, particularly 
 such garments as covered the thighs and the 
 
 * Felix Malleolus (whose, German name is Ham- 
 merlein) in his account of the Lollards, subjoined to 
 his book contra mlidos Mdndicmtes, i. e. against the 
 sturdy Beggars, has given us a list, though a very 
 imperfect one, of the Heghafds who were comraitted 
 to the flames in Switzerland and the adjacent 
 countries, during this century. This author, in his 
 books against the Begbards and Lollards, has (either 
 throuah'deaign.ur bya mistake founded on the am- 
 biguity of the terms) confounded three different 
 classes of persons, who were usually known by the 
 arnellations of Beghards and Lollards; as, 1st, the 
 Tertiarins, or third order of the more austere Fran- 
 ciscans' 2dly, the Brethren of the free spirit; and, 
 3dly, the Cellite of Alexian friars. Many writers 
 have falUn into the same error. 
 
 parts adjacent.' These tenets could not but 
 cast a.deServed reproach upon this absurd sect; 
 and though in their religious assemblies nothing 
 passed that was contrary to the rules of vir- 
 tue, yet they were universally suspected of 
 the most scandalous incontinence, and of the 
 most lascivious practices. Ziska, the austere 
 general of the Hussites, gave credit to these 
 suspicions, and to the rumours they occasioned; 
 and, falling upon this miserable sect in 1421, 
 he put some to the sword, and condemned the 
 rest to the flames, which dreadful punishment 
 they sustained with the most cheerful fortitude, 
 and also with a contempt of death that was 
 peculiar to their sect, and which they possessed 
 in a degree that seems to surpass credibility'.* 
 Among the various titles by which- these ex- 
 travagant enthusiasts were distinguished, that 
 of Adamite was one; and it was given them on 
 account of their being so studious to imitate 
 the state of innocence in which the first man 
 was created. The ignominious term of Beg- 
 hards, or Picards, at first peculiar to the small 
 sect of which we now treat, -was afterwards 
 applied to the Hussites, and to all the Bohemi- 
 ans who opposed the tyranny of the Romish 
 church. AH these were called by their ene- 
 mies,' and indeed by the multitude in general, 
 Picard friars. 
 
 III. A new sect, which made a great noise, 
 and infected the multitude with the contagion 
 of its enthusiasm, arose aboilt the beginning 
 of this century. A priest whose name is not 
 knovsm, descended ^fi-om the Alps,t arrayed in 
 a white garment, and accompanied with a pro- 
 
 * See the Historia Fratmnt Bohemorum. MS.*lib. 
 ii. sect; Ixxvi. by Lasitius,'whD proves, in a satisfac- 
 tory and circumstantial manner, that the Hussites 
 and the Bohemian Brethren were entirely distinct 
 from these Picards, and had nothing in common with 
 them. Thfe other authors who have written upon 
 this subject are honourably mentioned by Isaac de 
 Beausobre in bis Dissertation sur les Adamites de 
 Boheme, subjoined to L'Enfant's Histoire de la On- 
 erre des Hussites. This learned author has taken 
 great pains. to j'ustifythe Picards, or Bohemian 
 Adamites, whom he supposes to have been the sama 
 with the -Waldenses, and a set of men eminent foi 
 their piety, whom their enemies loaded with the 
 most groundless accusations. But this is manifestly 
 endeavouring to wash the -Ethiopian white; for it 
 may be demonstrated, by the most unexceptionable 
 and authentic records, that the account -I have given 
 of the matter is true. The researches I have made, 
 and the knowledge theyhave procured me of the 
 civil and religious history of these times, entitle mo 
 perhaps to more' credit in 'such a point as this, 
 than the laborious author from whom I differ, who 
 Was not profoundly acquainted with the history of 
 the middle ages, and was by no means exempt frpm 
 prejudice and partiality. 
 
 .(Ei^ t Theodoric de Niem tells us, that the sect 
 came from Scotland, and thatits leader .gave himself 
 out for the prophet Elias. Sigonius and Platinain- 
 form us, that this enthusiast came from France; that 
 he had white apparel, carried in his aspect the great- 
 est modesty, and seduced prodigious numbers of peo- 
 ple of both sexes, and of all ages; that his followers, 
 (called penitents,) among whom were several cardi* 
 nals and^priests, were clothed in white linen down 
 to their Heels, with caps, wliich covered their whola 
 faces, except their eyes; that they went in troops of 
 ten, twenty, and forty thousand persons, from one 
 city to another, calling out for mercy, and sin^ng 
 hymns; that wherever they came they were received 
 with great hospitality, and made innumerable prose- 
 lytes; that they fasted, or lived upon bread and water, 
 during the time of their pilgrimage, wliich continuea 
 generally nine or ten days. See Annal. Mediol. ap. 
 Muratori.— Niem, lib, ii. cap. xvi. 
 
Chap. V. 
 
 DIVISIONS AND HERESIES. 
 
 429 
 
 digious number of persona of both sexes, who 
 after the example of their chief, were also 
 clot^ied in white linen, whence they were dis- 
 tinguished by the name of Fi'otres Mbali, i. e. 
 White Brethren. This enthusiastic multitude 
 went in a kind of procession through several 
 provinces, following a cross, which their leader 
 held erected like a standard, and, by the strik- 
 ing appearance of their sanctity and devotion,- 
 captiyated to such a degree the minds of the 
 people wherever they went, that persons of all 
 ranks and orders flocked in crowds to augment 
 their number. The new chief exhorted his 
 followers to appease the anger of an incensed 
 Deity, emaciated his body by voluntary acts 
 of mortification and penance, endeavoured to 
 persuade the Christian nations to renew the 
 war against the injidels in Palestine, and pre- 
 tended, that ho was favoured with divine vis- 
 ions, which instructed him in the will and in 
 the secrets of Heaven. Boniface IX. appre- 
 hending that this enthusiast or impostor con- 
 cealed insidious and ambitious views,* ordered 
 him. to be seized and committed to the flames; 
 upon which his followers were dispersed, and 
 his sect entirely extinguished. Whether -a 
 punishment so severe was inflicted with reason 
 and justice, is a point that has been debated, 
 and yet remains uncertain; for several writers 
 of great credit and authority maintain the in- 
 iiooenoo of the sectary, while others assert that 
 he was convicted of the most enormous crimes.f 
 rV. In the year 1411, a sect was discovered 
 in the Netherlands, and more especially at 
 Brussels, which owed its origin to an illiterate 
 man, whose name was £gidius Cantor, and to 
 William of Hildenissen, a Cajmelite monk; 
 and whose members were distinguished by the 
 title of Men of Understanding. There were 
 many things reprehensible in the doctrine of this 
 sect, which seemed to be chiefly derived from 
 •the theology of the Mystics,, For they pretend- 
 ed to be honoured with celestial visions; de- 
 nied that any could arrive at a perfect know- 
 ledge of the Holy Scriptures, without the ex-- 
 traordihary succours of a divine illumination; 
 declared the approach of a new revelation 
 from heaven, more complete and perfect than 
 the Gospel of Christ; maintained, that the re- 
 surrection was already accomplished in the 
 person of Jesus, and that no other resurrection 
 was to be expected; affirmed, that the inward 
 man was n<rf defiled by the outward actions, 
 whatever they were; that the pains of hell 
 were to have an end, and that not only all~ 
 mankind, but even the devils themselves, were 
 to return to> God, and be made partakers of 
 eternal felicity. This sect seems to have been 
 a branch of that of the Brethren and Sisters of 
 the free spirit; since they declared, that a new 
 
 53- * What Dr. Mnsheim hints but obscurely here, 
 is explained by Slgoniusand Platina, who tell us, that 
 the pilgrims, mentioned in the preceding note, stopped 
 at Viterbo, and that Boniface, fearing that the priest 
 who headed them might endeavour by their assis- 
 tance to seize the pontificate, sent a body of troops 
 thither, who apprehended the false Btophet, and 
 carried him to Rome, where he was burned. 
 
 t See L'Enfant, Hist, du Concile de Pise, torn. i. p. 
 102.— Poggi, Hist. Plorentina, lib. iii. p. 122.— Marc. 
 Anton. Sabellicua in Enneadibus Rhapsodiffi His. 
 Enneud. ix. lib. ix. t. ii. op. p. 839, pub. at Basil in 
 1560. 
 
 dispensation of grace and of spiritual liberty 
 was to be promidgated to mortals by the Holy 
 Ghost. It must however be acknowledged, oa 
 the other hand, that their absurdities were 
 mingled with several opinions, which showed, 
 that they were not totally void of understand- 
 ing; for they maintained, among other things, 
 " 1st, That Christ alone bad merited eternal 
 life and felicity for the human race, and that 
 therefore men could not acquire this inestima- 
 ble privilege by their own actions alone; 2dly, 
 That the priests, to whom the people confessed 
 their transgressions, had not the power of ab- 
 solving them, but that it was Christ alone in 
 whom this authority was vested; and Sdly, 
 That voluntary penance and lilortification were 
 not . necessary to salvation." These proposi- 
 tions, however, and some others, were declared 
 heretical by Peter d'AiUy, bishop of Cambray, 
 who obliged William of Hildeuissen to abjure 
 them,* and opposed with the greatest vehe- 
 mence and success the progress of this sect. 
 
 V. The sect of the Flagellantes, or Whip- 
 pers, continued to excite commptions in Ger- 
 many, more especially in Thuringia and the 
 Lower Saxony; but these fanatics were very 
 different from the ancient heretics of the same 
 name, who ran wildly in troops through va- 
 rious provinces. The new Whippers rejected 
 not only the sacraments, but also every branch 
 of external worship, and placed their only 
 hopes of salvation in faith and flagellation; to 
 whiclT they added some strange doctrines con- 
 cerhiiig the evil spirit, arid other matters, which 
 are not explained in history with sufficient per- 
 spicuity. The person that appeared at ,th6 
 head of this sect in Thuringia was Conrad 
 Schmidt; and he was committed to the flames, 
 with many of his followers,! in 1414, by 
 Schonefeld, who was, at that time, inquisitor 
 in Germany, and rendei'ed his name famous 
 by his industry and zeal in the extirpation of 
 heresy. Nicolas Schaden suffered at Qued- 
 linburgh for his attachment to this sect; and, 
 though Berthold Schade, who was seized at 
 Halberstadt in 1481, escaped death, as appears 
 most probable, by abjuring their doctrine,! ^^ 
 find in the records of these unhappy times a 
 numerous list of the Flagellantes, whom the 
 German inquisitors devoted to the flames. 
 
 * See the records of this transaction in Steph. 
 Baluz. Miscellan. torn. ii. p. 277. 
 
 t Excerpta Monachi Pernensis, in Jo. Burch. Men- 
 kenii Scr;iptor. Rerum Germanicar. torn. ii. p. 1521. — 
 Chron. Monaster, in Anton. Matthiei Analect. vet. 
 jEvi, torn. v. p. 71. — Chron. Magdeb. in Meibomii 
 Scriptor. Eeruln German, tom. ii. p. 362.— From six- 
 teen articles of faith adopted by this sect, which 
 were committed to wrjttng by a certain inquisitor 
 of Brandentierg in the year 1411, and which Conrad 
 Schmidt is said to have taken from the papers of 
 Walkenried, we may derive a tolerable idea of their 
 doctrine, of which the substance is as follows:— 
 " That the opinions adopted by the Roman church, 
 with respect to the efficacy of the sacraments, the 
 flames of purgatory, praying for the dead, and seve- 
 ral other points, are entirely false and groundless; 
 and that the person who believes what is contained 
 in the Anostles' Creed, repeats frequently the Lord's 
 prayerMmd the Ave Maria, and at certain times 
 lashes his body severely, as a voluntary punishment 
 tbr the transgressions he has committed, shall obtain 
 eternal salvation.'* . 
 
 X See the account of this matter, which is given by 
 tie learned Jo. Ernest Kappius, in his Relat. de re- 
 bus Theologicia Antiquis et Novis, an. 1747, p. 475.