i • 
 
 
 1 
 
 CALIFCRN*A 
 
 i 
 
^' 
 
A 
 COMPENDIOUS ABSTRACT 
 
 OF 
 
 THE HISTORY 
 
 OP 
 
 THE CHURCH OF CHRIST, 
 
 FROM ITS FIRST FOUNDATION TO THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 WITH V 
 
 A faithful and circumstantial Account of the Acts of the Apostles; of the Lives of 
 
 the Primitive Christians ; of the general Persecutions raised against them by 
 
 the Pagan Emperors ; of the (Ecumenical Councils ; of the chief Pastors, 
 
 of the Condemnation of ancient Heresies ; of the defective Systems of 
 
 Pagan Philosophy; of the Dispersion of the Jews, the Destruction 
 
 of the Temple of Jerusalem, and the vain Attempt of the 
 
 Emperor Julian to rebuild it ; of tho Downfall of 
 
 Idolatry ; of the Supjiression of Schisms ; of the 
 
 Conversion of Nations ; of the Rise of Ma- 
 
 hometanism ; of the Crusades ; 
 
 WITH SEVERAL OTHER 
 
 REMARKABLE EVENTS AND OCCURRENCES. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED WITH 
 
 A brief detail of the eminent Virtues and Apostolic Labours of the holy Fath(5X»| 
 
 learned Doctors, ecclesiastical Writers, renowned Martyrs, and other 
 
 great Saints, who have flourished in every Age 
 
 down to the present, &c. 
 
 " Upon this Rock I will build my Church, and the Gates of Hell shall not prevail 
 against her.^^ 'St. M^tt. c. 16. v. 18. 
 
 BY THE REV. WILLIAM GAHAN, O. g. A. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA : ' 
 
 PUBLISHED BY EUGENE CUMMISKEY. 
 
 Stereotyped by S. Walker «& Co. Boston. 
 
 1825. 
 
lOAN STACK 
 
mm 
 
 ,Lk gethsemani abbey, 
 
 /»5<^ GETHSEf-^ANI.P.O.KY. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 page. 
 CHAPTER I. The wonderful wisdom and goodness displayed 
 by Jesus Christ in the formation of his Church. 13 
 
 II. The Apostles begin the great work of the conversion of the 
 world, and establish a Church in the city of Jerusalem. 18 
 
 III. The gates of the Church are opened to the Gentiles, and the 
 Apostles announce the happy tidings of salvation to different 
 nations. . , 26 
 
 IV. The stupendous progress of the Christian Religion, and the 
 happy effects it produced in the world. 34 
 
 V. The necessity of the Christian Religion evinced from the de- 
 fective systems of Pagan Philosophy. 39 
 
 VI. The means established by the Apostles for preserving the 
 Christian Religion in its primitive purity. 4G 
 
 VII. All the Apostles crowned with martyrdom. 53 
 
 VIII. The destruction of Jerusalem, and the dispersion of the 
 Jewish nation. 57 
 
 IX. The three first general persecutions. 61 
 
 X. The Church of the second century. 66 
 
 XI. The fourth and fifth general persecutions. 84 
 
 XII. The Church of the third century. 90 
 
 XIII. The five last general persecutions. 109 
 
 XIV. The persecutors of the Church overtaken in this life by the 
 avenging justice of God. 119 
 
 XV. The Church of the fourth century. 124 
 
 XVI. The Emperor Julian apostatizes, and attempts to re-esta- 
 blish Paganism, &c. 169 
 
 XVII. Of the persecutions raised by Valens, the Vandals, and 
 Persians ; and of the second general council, under Theodo- 
 sius the Great. 175 
 
 XVIII. The Church of the fifth century. 180 
 
 XIX. The Church of the sixth century. 198 
 
 XX. The demolition of old Pagan Rome, ana the rise of new 
 Christian Rome from its ashes. 211 
 
 XXI. The Church of the seventh century. 217 
 
 XXII. The rise and progress of Mahometanism. 222 
 
 XXIII. The Church of the eighth century. 227 
 
 XXIV. The Church of the ninth century. ^ 238 
 
 XXV. The revival of the Western Empire, &c. by Charles the 
 Great. 243 
 
 XXVI. The Church of the tenth century. 247 
 
 XXVII. The Church of the eleventh century. 253 
 
 XXVIII. Of the Crusades and military orders. 261 
 
 XXIX. The Church of the tyyrelfth century^ ' 269 
 
1? CrOMENT/i. 
 
 XXX. The Church of the thirteenth century. 278 
 
 XXXI. The Churcli of the fourteenth centurv. 289 
 
 XXXII. The Church of the fifteenth century. 203 
 
 XXXIII. The seventeenth general council, held at Florence for 
 
 the extinction of the Greek schism, «&c. 300 
 
 XXXIV. The Church of the sixteenth century. 306 
 
 XXXV. The rebuilding of St< Peter's Church at the Vatican, &c. 312 
 
 XXXVI. The rise of Lutheranism in Germany, of Calvinism in 
 France, of Socinianisni in Tuscany, Poland, &c. 321 
 
 XXXVII. The Ciiurch of the seventeenth century. 332 
 
 XXXVIII. The Church of the eiditeenth centurv. 341 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 — >H«#«4<«- 
 
 j\_ KNOWLEDGE of what concems the Church of Christ 
 is the more interesting and the more necessary, as the 
 Church is the sacred organ by which God speaks to his 
 people, and discovers to them the great truths of eternity. 
 This is the plain, easy, comprehensive, and certain rule, 
 that Jesus Christ has appointed for teaching mankind 
 what they are to believe, and what they are to do, in or- 
 der to secure their salvation. By following this rule, the 
 faithful are preserved in the unity of the same religious 
 sentiments, and prevented from being carried about by 
 every wind of doctrine, as the Apostle says, Ephes. c. 4. 
 v. 14. In fact, it is by this means alone that we know for 
 certain that the Scripture itself is the genuine word of 
 God, and that Christians of the weakest capacity, who 
 cannot read, and who are incapable of examining or in- 
 terpreting the Scriptures, come to the knowledge of the 
 true sense and meaning of them, and are instructed in 
 many points of the Christian religion, which the Written 
 Word does not contain. 
 
 Kence it is, that after professing in the Aposdes' creed 
 our belief in the ever blessed Trinity, the Incarnation, and 
 the other sublime mysteries of our redemption, the very 
 next article that is subjoined to them, is that of the Holy 
 Catholic Church, it being the next in importance to these 
 Divine Truths, and the sacred canal through which the 
 Ijfcevelation of them is conveyed to us with every degree 
 of certaintv. 
 
 This article of the creed is a most convincing proof. 
 
 oth of the continual existence of the church upon Earth, 
 
 and of all those signal prerogatives with which Christ 
 
 has adorned and distinguished her ; for as it was a divine 
 
 A2 
 
 ■b 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 revealed truth, when the creed was made by the inspired 
 Apostles, that Christ had then an holy Catholic Church 
 upon Earth, so it is no less a divine truth, that he has an 
 holy Catholic Church upon Earth at present, that he had 
 such a Church in all ages ever since the Creed was made, 
 and that he will have such a Church to the end of the 
 world, because the Creed and every article of it must be 
 true at all times. It would be blasphemous to suppose 
 any article of it to be false, as every article of it stands 
 Tipon the san)e ground with all the other sacred truths of 
 faith, that is, upon the Divine Revelation, and conse- 
 quently must be equally believed at all times. 
 
 By the Church is meant, a congregation or society 
 composed of pastors teaching, and of the people who are 
 taught. Taken in its most ample signification, it consists 
 of all the posterity of Adam, who belong to Christ by 
 faith, and thus comprehends the people of God through 
 the whole period of the existence of mankind. Christ 
 himself is the supreme head of this great mystical body, 
 as St. Paul teaches us, Ephes. c. 1. v. 22. It is he who 
 merited grace and glory for all the saints of the old Testa- 
 ment. There is no Salvation for men but through him. 
 There is 710 other name under Heaven^ by which we are to 
 be saved f Acts 1. v. 12. He took away the w^all of se- 
 paration that divided the Jews and Gentiles. He united 
 ihem and made them one people, called the Christian 
 people. The members of the Church being in different 
 states or conditions, are distinguished into different Class- 
 es, w4iich compose the three parts of the Church, usually 
 called the Church Triumphant, the Church Suffering, and 
 the Church Militant. The first is called the Church 
 Triumphant^ because the saints in Heaven, of whom it is 
 composed, are now triumphing in the possession of eter- 
 nal glory, after having fought manfully here on Earth and 
 conquered all the enemies of their souls. The souls in 
 Purgatory are called the Church Suffering, because they 
 are in a state of suffering and plirgation, until they are 
 pure enough to be admitted into Heaven. The faithful 
 on Earth are called the Church Militant, because they 
 
PREFACE. vii 
 
 are still in the field of battle, engaged in a spiritual war- 
 fare with the enemies of their salvation. 
 
 St. John in the Apocalypse, describing the Church tri- 
 umphant, says, that " he saw great multitudes of saints 
 " and martyrs, and of holy virgins in Heaven, who follow 
 " the Lamb wherever he goes, — redeemed to God in 
 " his blood, out of every tribe, and tongue and people, — 
 " clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands, — 
 " casting their crowns before the throne of God, — falling 
 " down upon their faces, and adoring God, — serving him 
 " day and night in his temple, — saying Holy, Holy, Holy, 
 " Lord God Almighty, — benediction, and glory, and wis- 
 " dom, and thanksgiving, honour, and power, and strength 
 " to our God for ever and ever. Amen." 
 
 The Prophet Isaias, c. 35. fortelling the glories of the 
 church militant, describes her as a way of holiness, that 
 leads to eternal happiness, and forms to virtue and sanc- 
 tity such as are one day to people Heaven. The Pro- 
 phet Osee, c. 2. v. 19. calls the Church the Spouse of 
 Christ, betrothed to God in righteousness and for ever. 
 St. Paul, Ephes. 5. c. 27. v. calls her a Glorious Church 
 without spot or wrinkle, and 1 Tim. 3. 15. the Pillar and 
 Ground of Truth, She is also styled the City of the 
 Liviiig God, the House and Temple of God, the Sister 
 of Heavenly Jerusalem, the Mother of the Saints, embel- 
 lished with every ornament of grace and virtue, and rich 
 in her numerous issue, always bringing forth, and giving 
 
 t)iritual birth to the children of God. She is compared 
 ythe Tower of David, built with bulwarks, to a power- 
 ful army in battle array, to a fountain of water, springing 
 up into eternal life, and ivatering every place by her co- 
 "ious streams. Anodier time she is compared to the 
 '<Creat Luminary, that spreads its rays and diffuses its light 
 hroiigh the whole world; another time to a Tree that ex- 
 tends its branches over the earth ; another time to a city set 
 Kn a hill, which cannot be hid, and the gates ofivhich shall 
 ot be shut day or night ; another time to a huge Moun- 
 tain that fills the whole Earth ; another time to a Moun- 
 tain upon the top of mountains, exposed to the view of all 
 
Vm PREFACE* 
 
 nations flowing to it, and as conspicuous as the Sun in the 
 Heavens, ^c. 
 
 The Prophet Daniel, c. 2. v. 4. speaking of the 
 Church of Christ in the New Testament, compares it to 
 a kingdom, and foretels that his spiritual dominions shall 
 extend over the universe, and that his reign shall be with- 
 out end. His kingdom shall never be destroyed, nor de- 
 livered Up to another people, but shall stand for ever. 
 Where, it is evident, that by the kingdom of the Messias, 
 the Prophet did not mean a temporal kingdom, but the 
 spiritual kingdom of the Church, which Christ has esta- 
 blished in order to enlighten and sanctify mankind. His 
 Kingdom is not of this ivorld, nor does it consist in any of 
 those sublunary pomps or perishable things, which render 
 earthly kingdoms respectable in the eyes of men. His 
 reign is a reign of truth and justice. The only riches, 
 that are deemed worth thirsting after in his kingdom, are 
 the riches of grace. The only force that is desirable, 
 is that of virtue and good works. Jesus Christ reigns 
 here over the minds of his servants by faith, and over 
 their hearts by charity. The greatest enemies of his 
 spiritual kingdom are errors and vices, heresies, schisms, 
 and scandals. 
 
 Christ himself has foretold that his Church on Earth 
 -should have such enemies to encounter. She is not here 
 below in the place of her repose, but in a place of trial, 
 and in a foreign country. She must of course necessa- 
 rily expect to meet with severe trials and persecutions, 
 and must be prepared to combat them with the spiritual 
 weapons of patience, prayers, and instructions, until the 
 happy period of her migration into heavenly Jerusalem, 
 her native country, where she is to be for ever associated 
 to the Church triumphant, and to be crowned with im- 
 mortal glory. 
 
 If we trace the history of her birth, her growth, her es- 
 tablishment, and continuance ■ to this day, we shall find 
 that, according to the prediction of her Divine Founder, 
 she has been attacked in every age since her infancy, 
 either by the persecutions of the ruling powers of the 
 
PREFACE. IX 
 
 world, or by heresies, schisms, and scandals, raised by 
 some of her own refractory members, who swerved from 
 her sound doctrine, and trampled upon her sacred laws. 
 She never has been, and never will be, without some per- 
 secution, open or hidden, general or particular, as St. 
 Augustine observes in his exposition of psalms 39 and 
 54 ; and all these persecutions are to terminate with the 
 general persecution of Antichrist at the end of the world. 
 The Heathen emperors have used their utmost endea- 
 vours to destroy her by fire and sword. False brethren 
 and rebellious children have disturbed her peace by 
 ■ broaching errors, and by separating themselves from her 
 ' unity. But she has triumphed over all their efforts, and 
 surmounted all oppositions, because she was divinely and 
 eonstantly protected by the all-powerful hand of her 
 Heavenly Author, who had promised to be with her all 
 days unto the consummation of ages. She has seen 
 many 'different sects rise from time to time, and she has 
 also seen them fall and dwindle away to nothing, whilst 
 she constantly gained ground in one Country, when she 
 happened to lose it in another. She has always preserv- 
 ed the deposit of faith pure and uncorrupted, and never 
 adopted as any part of her doctrine, the erroneous popu- 
 lar opinions, that prejudice might have authorized in any 
 age, even in the first ages of Christianity. She has con- 
 quered the cruelty of tyrants by her patience, and termi- 
 nated the contests and disputes that were raised on similar 
 occasions, by the decrees and decisions of her councils. 
 She has already had a visible being in the world, upwards 
 of seventeen centuries, notwithstanding the various revo- 
 
 (utions of nature, and the many violent attempts that have 
 jeen made from time to time, to alter and adulterate 
 [er doctrine of faith, morals, and discipline, God 
 iaving raised in every age a multitude of learned doc- 
 tors, zealous pastors, and illustrious saints, to stem the 
 rrent of iniquity, to condemn the reigning vices of the 
 times, and to confound and refute every peinicious error 
 as soon as it made its first appearance in the world, as will 
 he shown in the sequel. 
 
X PREFACE. 
 
 f 
 
 Millions of Christians in every preceding generation 
 have found the Church of Christ subsisting in their days, 
 and believing precisely the self-same doctrine which we 
 now profess ; and this must necessarily be the case in all 
 proceeding ages, and future generations, till time shall be 
 no more, because a perpetual duration has been promised 
 to the Church, and because he who made this promise is 
 immutable, all-powerful, and faithful to his word. Hea- 
 ven and Earth may pass away, but his words will never 
 pass away. Hence I may justly conclude with the great 
 Augustine : Prcedicta lege, impleta cerne, implenda col- 
 lige. Read what has been heretofore foretold by Jesus 
 Christ ; behold what has been already accomplished in 
 the foregoing ages ; and conclude that the remainder 
 of his predictions shall be infallibly accomplished here- 
 after. 
 
 Edification being the primary view of this undertaking, 
 the compiler's first care has been a most scrupulous at- 
 tachment to truth, the soul of all history, especially of sa- 
 cred history, which tends to the advancement of piety 
 and religion. No good end can, on any account, ever 
 yender the least lie lawful, or authorize the use of, what 
 some most improperly call, pious frauds. On the con- 
 trary, to tell any lie whatsoever in the least point relating 
 to religion is, so far from being justifiable, or excusable, 
 that the pretence of religion would exceedingly aggra- 
 vate it, and make it a crime of the most heinous nature* 
 Good men may sometimes be too credulous in things that 
 appear harmless, and die more adverse they are from 
 fraud themselves, the more unwilling they are to suspect 
 imposture in others. But no good man can countenance 
 and abet a known fraud for any purpose whatsoever. All 
 wilful lying is essentially a sin, as all Catholic divines 
 teach, with St. Augustine against the Priscillianists. It is 
 hateful to the God of truth and an affront and injury of- 
 fered to our neighbour. It is contrary to the very end and 
 use of speech, dissolves the sacred bond of society, and 
 destroys mutual confidence and commerce among men. 
 Hence the canons of the Church have always strictly for | 
 
PREFACE. 361 
 
 bidden false legends, and all kinds of such forgeries and 
 impostures as lies, in matters of great moment, and the 
 authors when detected, have been always condemned and 
 punished with the utmost severity. TertuUian and St. 
 Jerom inform us, that even in the time of the Apostles, a 
 certain priest at Ephesus having forged false acts of St. 
 Paul's voyages and sufferings, out of veneration for that 
 Apostle, was deposed for this crime from the priesthood. 
 All the facts related in the following compendious ab- 
 stract, have been faithfully taken from the most unques- 
 tionable authors, and are founded upon original monu- 
 ments and authentic records. A free use has been made 
 of the unwearied labours of the Rev. Dr. Alban Butler, 
 the pious author of the Lives of the Fathers, &;c. The 
 limits of this work would not allow long narratives ; yet 
 the heart, which seeks and loves God, will find it agree- 
 ably diversified by an intermixture of interesting events 
 and a variety of salutary documents, that may afford the 
 attentive reader ample matter for serious reflection. A 
 short account is given of all the chief pastors and of the 
 writings of the principal fathers, of all the general coun- 
 cils, of the conversion of nations, &.c. and of the charac- 
 teristical virtues of several illustrious saints, who are pro- 
 • posed as models for our imitation. The example of 
 those great servants of God points out to us the true path 
 to eternal happiness, and sweetly invites us to walk in their 
 steps. It tacitly reproaches us with our own sloth and 
 indolence, and silences all our pretences and objections. 
 It removes the difficulties which self-love is so apt to raise, 
 and forces us to cry out with St. Augustine : Cannot you 
 do, what such and such have done 9 For though we may 
 not be able to practise the extraordinary rigours and aus- 
 terities of some saints, who were conducted by an un- 
 common impulse of the Holy Ghost, yet we can learn 
 from them to practise charity, humility, patience, resigna- 
 tion, sobriety, penance and other virtues, in a manner 
 suiting our circumstances and respective states. The 
 difficulties, which many apprehend in embracing a peni- 
 tential course of life, according to their circumstances^ 
 
XU PREFACE. 
 
 are often only imaginary, and arise from groundless fe?irs, 
 which sloth and sensuality create. A coward starts at 
 shadows, and every thing wears a frightful face to those 
 who have not courage to set their hands to work. 
 
THE 
 
 HISTORY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 CHURCH OF CHRIST. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 The wonderful wisdom and s;oodncss displayed by Jesus 
 Chirist in the formation of his Church. 
 
 M_ HE Royal Prophet, after praising God in the most 
 profound sentiments of adoration and thanksgiving for 
 the wonderful works of his Providence in the creation 
 and administration of the universe, raises his eyes above 
 this material world, and the whole order of nature, to 
 contemplate the new spiritual creation, and in a transport 
 of admiration and thanksgiving, cries out, in his 103 
 H^salm, 30, v. Thou shall send forth thy spirit^ and they 
 shall be created ; and ihou shall renew the face of the earth. 
 |^[)f this new spiritual creation the first forming of the 
 ^vorld out of nothing was but an emblem. This predic- 
 tion, and its accomplishment, this great and astonishing 
 mystery ; this wonderful work of the Holy Ghost ; this 
 new creation regards the establishment of the spiritual 
 kingdom and Church of Christ dn earth, and its propa- 
 gation through all the nations of the known world, not- 
 withstanding all the opposition that earth and hell could 
 contrive against it. The meridian sun could not appear 
 clearer and brighter than the Divine Power and Wis- 
 dom did on this occasion : It shone in its full lustre, and 
 confounded all the enemies of the Christian Religion, by 
 such illustrious marks of supernatural interposition, and 
 such incontestible proofs, as no pretences could invali- 
 date. 
 
 B 
 
14 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 Christ our Lord began to form his Church when he 
 assembled his disciples, and instructed them with his 
 own mouth. Like a wise architect, he built his Church 
 upon a firm rock, upon a solid and immoveable founda- 
 tion that it should stand in spite of all storms, opposi- 
 tions, or any efforts whatever to make it fall. His infi- 
 nite wisdom did not use less prudence in the constitution 
 of his spiritual kingdom, than human legislators do in 
 well-regulated states and sociefles, wherein wise means 
 are established to preserve ceconomy, peace, and tran- 
 quillity amongst the subjects. Magistrates are appointed, 
 io prevent confusion and disorder. Judges are com- 
 missioned to give decrees, to interpret and explain the 
 civil laws with a sovereign authority, and to terminate 
 the differences that arise between man and man, which 
 otherwise might last till doomsday, if every man was 
 left at liberty to construe and expound the laws after his 
 own fancy, or allowed to be judge in his own cause, and 
 to prefer his own private interpretation to that of the 
 unanimous decision of the whole body of judges and 
 lawyers. Christ came, as he says himself, St. John, c. 
 10, v. 16, to gather all nations together, to bring back 
 all who had been dispersed^ that there might be but one 
 sheepfold and one shepherd, one Church and one Faith, 
 as there is but one Lord and one Baptism. It was his 
 constant prayer whilst on earth, that all his disciples 
 should be one, as he and his heavenly Father were one. 
 — St. John, c. 17. V. 21. He had expressed in the most 
 forcible terms. Matt. c. 12. v. 25, the desolation threaten- 
 ing a kingdom divided in itself. It cannot therefore be 
 supposed that he would expose his own kingdom to such 
 a danger, or act in a manner that would not become any 
 king or potentate on earth, by leaving his people unpro- 
 yided'of what is necessary to preserve subordination in 
 every well regulated society. He was sensible that no 
 human means could contribute more etfectually to ce- 
 ment unity and faith, subordination in goverimient, peace 
 and charity among Christians, and to preserve them from 
 splitting and dividing into diffeiient sheepfolds or com- 
 munions, than if he appointed a. centre of unity or an 
 universal pastor over his Church, to regulate and govern 
 it, and to influence all the particular Churches in the 
 world, as their visible head, and supreme judge in mat- 
 ters appertaining to faith and morals. 
 
CHURCH OF CHRIST. la 
 
 In the old law, the Jews had recourse to the High 
 Priest of the Synagogue in all matters of difficulty and 
 importance, and were obliged to submit to his judgment, 
 though they had both scriptures and prophets. — Deut. 17. 
 In the new law our divine Legislator did not alter this 
 method of instructing mankind. He chose one among the. 
 twelve apostles, says St. Jerome, as the visible head of his 
 Church, that an head being appointed, the cause of schism 
 might be removed. He commanded Peter to feed his sheep, 
 ami to feed his lambs ; that is, his whole (lock without 
 exception. — St, John 21. He prayed for him that his 
 faith should not fail, and left him as chief pastor of his 
 fold, to confirm his brethren. — St. Luke 22, 31. He gave 
 him in particular the keys of the Jdngdom of Heaven, St, 
 Matt. 16, 19. as the ensign qf supreme power and au- 
 thority, which he communicated to him as his vicegerent 
 on earth. In line, he gave him the name o£ Peter, which 
 signiiies a rock, and declared that upon him, as a rock, he 
 would build, his Church, and that the gates of Hell shoulijL 
 not prevail against her. — St. Matt. 16, 18. Hence the 
 chief place in the sacred college of the Apostles was 
 from the beginning assigned to Peter. In the enumera- 
 tion of the twelve, all the Evangelists constantly place 
 him in the front, and unanimously agree in naming him 
 before all the rest, as the first. Our Lord usually directs 
 his discourse to him, and he replies as the mouth of the 
 
 (est, which made the primitive writers of Christianity 
 lonstantly call Peter the Chief, the Head, the President, 
 he Prolocutor, and Foreman of the Apostles, with several 
 ither titles of distinction and prerogative. 
 Christ also appointed different orders of Pastors, Apos- 
 ^Jles, Evangelists, and teachers, to carry on tlie work of the. 
 ^hiimstry in succession for the edification and preservation of 
 l^his mystical body, and for conducting souls in the road 
 to perfection. — Ephes. 4, 12. He authorized them to 
 preach' the gospel, St. Luke 4, 18, and gave them all the 
 spiritual power of the priesthood, to administer the sa- 
 craments, St. John 20, 21. and to ride the Church which 
 he purchased with his own blood. — Acts 20, 28. He com- 
 missioned and sent them into the whole world — St. Mark 
 16, 15, to teach all nations the same heavenly doctrine 
 he had taught them, to administer to them all the same 
 baptism, and to establish one and the same plan of re- 
 
M> HISTORY OF THE 
 
 iigioiis worship. — St. Matt. 28, 19. He moreover promi- 
 sed to send down the Holy Ghost to teach them all truth. — 
 St. John 16, 12, and assured them that he himself would 
 be with them all days, even to th-e consummation of the world, 
 to assist them by the continual protection of his all- 
 ruling Providence, St. Matt. 28, 20, and consequently that 
 he would be with their lawful successors in office, who 
 are to continue to the end of the world, and to complete 
 the work which they began ; for as the Apostles neither 
 did, nor could teach all nations in their own person, nor 
 were to continue long on earth, it is manifest that the 
 aforesaid commission and promises of Christ were not 
 limited or confined to their persons, but were given and 
 designed to extend to their successors in office. Here 
 t^en we have just cause to admire the goodness of our 
 Lord, who requiring from us a belief of mysteries, which 
 are above the comprehension of all human understand- 
 ing, and founded in divine revelation, did not leave us 
 trusting to the uncertainty of our own private judgment, 
 or exposed to a variety of errors, and to an endless 
 source of dissentions and divisions, but vouchsafed to 
 provide us with a sure and unerring guide, which is under 
 the special protection of Heaven, and the continual gui- 
 dance of the Holy Ghost. Instead of a weak and blind 
 reason, which we are to sacrifice in obedience to him, 
 according to St. Paul, 2 Cor. 70. he was pleased to es- 
 tablish an authority that cannot mislead us, and that every 
 individual is bound to yield a firm assent to in religious 
 matters. It was truly becoming the wisdom, and worthy 
 of the goodness of Jesus Christ, to preserve us thus from 
 all illusions, differences, oi* disunions, with regard to our 
 faith, and to secure us against all doubts, fluctuations, 
 and distrustful suggestions of an incredulous temper, to 
 which they must be liable who shake off the yoke of au- 
 thority to become their own guide in the affair of reli- 
 gion, as they can have no certainty that they are not 
 misled by their own private opinion, and mistaken in 
 their judgment, this being a thing that daily happens to 
 thousands and thousands in cases less difficult and less 
 abstruse than matters of faith. Every man of candour, 
 who is open to conviction, must acknowledge that this 
 method of instructing mankind by the authority of the 
 Church, is the only sure channel through which the sense 
 
CHURCH OF CHRIST. 17 
 
 of revelation is conveyed to us with the most perfect 
 
 |^:ertainty, and the hest calculated rule for conducting us 
 ^n the way of salvation, and for leading us to virtue and 
 happiness in a plain, easy manner, fitted to all capacities, 
 nd adapted to the infirmities of human nature. By this 
 iieans tfie ignorant, the dull of apprehension, and those- 
 ho, through their weakness of understanding, and their 
 everal avocations, have not leisure, or are incapable of 
 xamining and interpreting the Scriptures, or of judging 
 "or themselves, are instructed in the revealed truths, and 
 have better eyes to see for them than their own. By 
 
 Kiis means also the learned, as well as the ignorant, are 
 aarded against the illusions of pride and self-love, and 
 furnished with the same motives of belief, and the same 
 ■foundation for their faith. Instead of building on a sandy 
 foundation, they build upon a rock, and have the pillar 
 ^ind ground of truth to support them, 1 Tim. 3, 15 ; for 
 which reason they are not to be shaken by all the specious 
 arguments that human wit and learning are able to sug- 
 gest. In hearing the pastors of the Church, they hear 
 ^^■esus Christ himself, who expressly «..says, St. Luke 10, 
 ^^■6, He that hears you^ hears me ; he that despises yoUy des- 
 ^^ises me ; and he that despises me, despises my heavenly 
 Father, who setit me. In obeying the ordinances of the 
 Church in matters concerning religion, they cannot go 
 astray, since they thereby obey only the orders of Christ 
 himself, who says, St. Matt. c. 18. v. 17. He that will not 
 hear the Church, let him be to thee as the heathen ami the 
 publican. Let us stop here in silent raptures of astonish- 
 ment, and briefly contemplate the spiritual beauty, in- 
 comparable advantages, and high prerogatives of the 
 Church of Christ : She can never cease to be the true 
 Church of Christ, nor fail in any of those sacred prero- 
 gatives with which Christ at first adorned her ;' she is al- 
 ways holy, always catholic, always preserves the precious 
 deposit of faith pure and unvaried. Christ always ani* 
 mates her by his holy spirit ; he always presides over her 
 as her supreme invisible head, and as the vine communis 
 cates nourishment to the branches, St. John c. 15. so he 
 communicates to the members of his mystical body, the 
 Church, the special influx of his gifts and graces, by the 
 ministry he has estabhshed, and by the holy sacraments 
 he has instituted for supplying all our spiritual necessities^ 
 B2 
 
18 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 and for healing all the disorders of our souls, that he might 
 thus redeem us from all iniquity^ ami might cleanse to him' 
 self a people acceptable y a pursuer of good works — Tit. 2. 
 14. or, as St. Peter speaks, 1. 2. 9. a chosen generation y a 
 holy nation^ a purchased people. St. Paul assures us, that 
 he died for this very purpose, to purify his Church, and 
 make her holy. Christ loved the Church, says he, Ephes. 
 6. 25. and delivered himself up for it, that he might sanctify 
 it, cleansing it by the laver of water, in the word of life; 
 that he might present it to himself a glorious Church, not 
 having spot or wnnkle, nor any such thing, bid that it sJiould 
 he holy and without blemish. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The Apostles begin the great work of the conversion of 
 the world, and establish a Church in the city of Jeru- 
 salem. 
 
 THE nativity of the Christian Church may be said 
 to take its date from the descent of the Holy Ghost on 
 the day of Pentecost, or Whitsunday, for it was then that 
 Jesus Christ infused, as it were, a soul into his mystical 
 body, and endowed it with a vigorous principle of life 
 and action. From this period his apostles being com- 
 pletely qualified by the miraculous effusion of the Holy 
 Ghost, began to exercise all their respective functions, 
 and to exert their powers in governing and propagating 
 his spiritual . kingdom. They immediately proceeded to 
 execute the commission given them by their Divine Mas- 
 ter, when he ordered them to go and teach all nations, 
 but to begin with Jerusalem and Judea. Peter, the 
 Prince of the Apostles, and the Visible Head of the 
 Church, began the great work with courage and intrepi- 
 dity. Inspired and animated by the Divine Spirit, he 
 raised his voice, and preached boldy the divinity and 
 resurrection of Jesus Christ before those very Jews, those 
 Scribes and Pharisees, and those Princes of the Nation, 
 who had put him to an ignominious death. He set be- 
 fore their eyes the enormity of their crime, and told 
 them with a confidence, which no fear of torments or 
 death could shake : Ye have slain the Author of Ufe, 
 iahom God has raised from the dead, of which tee are wit- 
 
CIWJRCH OF CHRIST, 19 
 
 nesscs. Shortly before, the Pillar of the Church trembled 
 at the voice of Caiphas's servant-maid, says St. Augus- 
 tine, and shamefully denied his Lord and Master : but, 
 O wonderful change ! after the descent of the Holy 
 Ghost, he fears no danger, dreads no torments, and va- 
 lues not the menaces of the whole Sanhedrim of the Jews. 
 He openly reproaches them with the murder of their 
 Lord and Messiah. He exhorts them to repent, and to 
 become adorers of Jesus ; and by his first sermon he con- 
 verts three thousand souls to the Christian Religion. His 
 second discourse in the Temple was followed by the con- 
 version of five thousand more, wh«, being struck with 
 wonder and amazement, embraced the faith, on seeing 
 him work an illustrious miracle in favour of a lame beg- 
 gar, Avho lay at the gate of the Temple called the beau- 
 tiful, unable to move without help ; for Peter and John 
 going into the Temple at three o'clock in the afternoon, 
 to perform their devotions, this poor man, who had been 
 ^ cripple from his mother's womb, fixed his eyes upon 
 ^le two Apostles, and craved an alms, whereupon Peter 
 
 (Replied, that he was not possessed either of gold or silver, 
 jut that he would give him what he had, and forthwith 
 jommanded him, in the name of Jesus Christ, to rise and 
 talk, taking hold of his right hand at the same time, and 
 ifting him up. The poor man at that instant leaped 
 upon his feet, stood firm upon his legs, and walked joy- 
 fully with the Apostles into the Temple, giving thanks to 
 God for the favour he had received by their means. 
 « Peter seeing the people amazed at the miracle instanta- 
 IBeously wrought before their eyes, seized on the favoura- 
 l^e occasion to preach the mystery of the Cross to them, 
 and to notify that Jesus is the promised Messiah and Sa- 
 viour of Mankind, and that there is no other name under 
 Heaven given to men, whei^eby ive must be saved. — ^Acts 
 4. 12. 
 
 I The Jewish Priests, Sadducees and Officers of the 
 Temple, were so exasperated at the subject of his dis- 
 ourse, that they took Peter and John into custody, and 
 iresented them before the Great Council of the Nation, 
 rhich, after some deliberation, commanded the Apostles 
 be silent for the future, and to be careful not to speak 
 nor teach in the name of Jesus. But they were not to 
 be terrified or intimidated by such menaces : We leave 
 
20 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 you to judge, said they in reply, wlietlier it be right to 
 hear you, rather than God ; we cannot but speak the 
 things which we have seen and heard. Death, in its 
 most terrifying shape, was not able to deter them from 
 discharging the sacred functions of their ministry. Far 
 from being silent, they felt the invigorating effects of the 
 Holy Ghost ; they were filled with new courage, and 
 preached the word of God with confideuce to the people, 
 so that the multitude of believers in Jerusalem became 
 every day more and more numerous. . 
 
 Of all the Jewish sectaries who opposed their preach- 
 ing, the Sadducees were the most violent : Stung with 
 envy to see the people so eager in embracing the new 
 doctrine of the Gospel, they caused the Apostles to be ap- 
 prehended and cast into the common prison ; but an 
 Angel of the Lord having opened the doors and led them 
 out, they went next day to preach again to the people in 
 the temple. — An officer being immediately dispatch'ed to 
 summon them before the Council, tlie Apostles ready to 
 obey every order of the magistrates, that was consistent 
 with their duty to God, made their appearance. The 
 High Priest reproached them with disobedience to the 
 former orders, which had been given them, not to men- 
 tion the name of Jasus among the people, nor to disturb 
 the public peace with any new doctrines. Peter answer- 
 ed in the same words as before, and observed, that when 
 God commands one thing and m.an another, it nevdr can 
 be justifiable to obey men preferably to God. The 
 answer threw the Council into a violent ferment ; 
 they swelled with rage, they stormed, and threatened 
 the Apostles with immediate death ; when Gamaliel, 
 a wise and prudent Pharisee, rose up to make them 
 hear reason, and to calm their passions. With a soft 
 and soothing eloquence he dissuaded them from acts 
 of violence, and convinced them that they had no other 
 measure to take than that of moderation ; that if this 
 new doctrine was the invention of men, it would of 
 itself soon fall to nothing ; but if it sprung from God, 
 that it would be rashness in them to oppose it. — 
 They agreed to follow his advice, and to dismiss the 
 Apostles, after having scourged, and strictly charged 
 thein never to speak again in the name of Jesus. The 
 Apostles being thus acquitted, departed from the Coun- 
 cil, rejoicing because they had been accounted worthy 
 
CHURCH OF CHRIST. 21 
 
 to siifFer rqiroach for the name of Jesus. Their zeal 
 was not damped by suffering. They preached daily in 
 the temj^e ; and from house to house ceased not to teach 
 the faith and doctrine of Jesus Christ. With tongues of 
 fire, and voices of thunder, they proclaimed the myste- 
 ries of the Divine Mercy and Goodness to the people of 
 diflerent nations, assembled then in Jerusalem. They 
 displayed to them, in their native languages, the beauty 
 and recompense of virtue, the riches of eternity, the 
 baseness and folly of sin, the emptiness and vanity of 
 the imaginary greatness and pleasures of the world, with 
 such divine force as to drive the powers of Hell before 
 them wherever they went ; to strike the Oracles dumb, 
 which the Devil to delude mankind, pretended to deliver 
 by the mo.uth of the Pagan idols ,; and to beat down the 
 
 (spirit of pride, covetousness, and sensual pleasure, of 
 irhich they found the world every where full. — They de- 
 livered the great truths of salvation with undaunted cour- 
 age, and quoted the Divine Oracles of the Sacred Scrip- 
 l^iare with as much facility, as if they had made them the 
 'Constant study of thoir \v1iole life. They were inflamed 
 with so ardent a desire that all men should know and 
 love God's infinite goodness, that if they had a thousand 
 lives they would have sacrificed them all with pleasure 
 for the glory of God and their neighbours'* salvation. 
 n As they were constantly employed in preaching the 
 " word of God and gaining over new converts to Christi- 
 anity, they ordained seven deacons by the imposition of 
 their hands, that they might not only take upon them the 
 management of the temporalities of the faithful, but that 
 Ifciey might also co-operate in tbe sacred functions of the 
 Bainistry. The most eminent of these deacons was Ste- 
 phen, who to a natural greatness of soul united an ar- 
 dent zeal for the cause of God. Full of the Holy Ghost, 
 ' e exerted the force of his divine eloquence in instruct- 
 g the people in the knowledge of salvation. His ene- 
 ies, UTiabie to resist the wisdom and the spirit that spoke 
 y his tongue, had recourse to violence, and rushing fu- 
 iously upon him, they hurried him out of Jerusalem to a 
 lace where they stoned hiy^i to death ; a young man 
 ailed Saul, keeping their garments, whilst the execu- 
 tioners were hurling the stones at him. Stephen, in the 
 mean time falling upon his knees, called most earnestly 
 
22 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 upon Jesus not to lay the sin to their cliarge, and when/ 
 he had ended his prayer, and offered np his blood to God 
 for those who spilt it, he slept happily in the Lord, and 
 thus became the first martyr of the new law, who sufTer- 
 ed death for the testimony of the doctrine of Jesus Christ, 
 After the martyrdom of St. Stephen, a grievous persecu- 
 tion commenced against the Church at Jerusalem, and a 
 general consternation prevailed amongst the ministers of 
 God's word. All, except the Apostles, fled from the 
 storm, and dispersed themselves through the country of 
 Judea and Samaria. Their dispersiotv contributed to the 
 propagation of the Gospel, for they preached the word 
 of God wherever they went, and received a great num- 
 ber of schismatics and other converts into the pale of the 
 Church. It was on this occasion that the . Samaritans 
 were converted and baptised by St. Philip, one of the 
 tfeacons, who having preached the Gospel with amazing 
 success through all the neighbouring cities, was admo- 
 nished by an angel to go to the great road, between Je- 
 rusalem and Gaza, where he went, instructed, converted 
 and baptised an Ethiopean Eunuch, one of the princi- 
 pal oflScers in the Court of Queen Candace, and her high 
 treasurer. St. Peter, in the interim, wrought great won- 
 ders and many conversions among the Jews. He made 
 his apostolical excursions through the country, and visi- 
 ted and confirmed his flock by word and example. Being 
 informed that the Samaritans had been converted and 
 baptized, and judging it necessary to confirm them a- 
 gainst the terrors of persecution, he went with St. John 
 to Samaria for this purpose. And no sooner did these 
 two Apostles lay their hands upon the new converts and 
 pray for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost, 
 than they accordingly received the Holy Ghost. It was 
 here that Simon, a noted magician, observing the visible 
 effects that ensued from the mysterious imposition of the 
 Apostles' hands, offered them money, if they would 
 grant him the power of performing such wonders and 
 conferring the Holy Ghost in the sam6 manner. St. Pe- 
 ter, to show what a heinous crime they are guilty of who 
 presume to barter spiritual things for temporal, immedi-j" 
 ately rephed : "Keep thy money to thyself, and let it I 
 *' perish with thee, since thou hast wickedly thought that j 
 *' the gift of God may be purchased with siber." St^ 
 
CHURCH OF CHRIST. 23 
 
 er went afterwards toLjdda, where he healed Eneas, 
 mail, Avho, for eight years, had been confined to his 
 d by a palsy. At Joppe he raised to life a woman, 
 died Tabitha, who was remarkable for her alms to the 
 or. It was at Joppe that St. Peter was called by di- 
 ,jiiie appointme.it, and instructed by a mysterious vision 
 IB communicate the faith to the Gentiles in the person of 
 Cornelius, a Roman Centurion, who was remarkable for 
 his piety to od, and his alms-deeds to the poor. Cor- 
 nelius residing then at Ctesarea, the capital of Palestine, 
 wSls on his part admonished by an angel to send for Si- 
 mon, surnamed Peter, who accordingly made no diffi- 
 culty of going to Caesarea, where, after explaining the 
 doctrine of Jesus Christ to the virtuous Centurion and 
 his family, he had the consolation of seeing them inspir- 
 ed by the Holy Ghost, and endowed with the miraculous 
 gift of tongues, which determined the Apostle to baptize 
 them upon the spot. 
 
 KThe conversion of Saul afforded also great consolation 
 d joy to the Church. St. Augustine ascribes it to the 
 ayers of St. Stephen for his persecutors. If Stephen, 
 says he, had not prayed, the Church would never have 
 had St. Paul. He was one of those who combined to 
 murder St. Stephen, and by keeping the garments of all 
 who stoned that holy martyr, he is said, by St. Augus- 
 tine, to have stoned him by the hands of. all the rest. 
 He was a denizen of Tarsus, the capital of Cihcia, in- 
 
 iructed at Jerusalem in the strictest observance of the 
 aw of Moses, and a most scrupulous observer of it in 
 ^ery point. Not satisfied with having signalized his 
 sal in the persecution at Jerusalem, he breathed noth- 
 ing but blood and slaughter against the Disciples of our 
 Lord. By the violences he committed, his name became 
 ery where a terror to the faithful. In the fury of his 
 al he applied to the Sanhedrim for a commission to 
 e up all Jews at Damascus who confessed Jesus Christ, 
 d bring them bound in chains to Jerusalem, that they 
 
 ight serve as public examples for the terror of others. 
 
 ' 33ut God was pleased to show forth on him his patience and 
 mercy, and changed him, in the very heat of his fury, 
 into a vessel of election, and a most illustrious instrument 
 of his glory : He was almost at the end of his journey 
 to Damascus, a city of Coelesyria, when, about noon, he 
 
24 HISTORY 6F the 
 
 and his company were on a sudden surrounded by a 
 great light from Heaven, brigjhter than the sun. They 
 all saw the light, and being struck with amazement, fell 
 to the ground ; then Saul heard a voice speaking to him 
 in the Hebrew tongue, Saul, Saul, why dost thou jjcrsecule 
 mc ? Christ said not, Why dost thou persecute my Dis- 
 ciples, but me ; for it is he, their Head, who is chiefly 
 persecuted in his servants. Saul answered, TVho art 
 thoUy Lord 1 Christ said, Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou 
 persecutest. It is hard for thee to kick against the goad; to 
 contend with one so much mightier than tliyself. By 
 persecuting my Church, you make it flourish, and only 
 hurt yourself. This mild expostulation of our Redeemer, 
 accompanied with a powerful interior grace, strongly 
 affecting his soul, cured his pride, assuaged his rage, 
 and wrought at once a total change in him ; wherefore, 
 trembling and astonished, he cried out, JLord, ivhat i<:ilt 
 thou have me to do i What to repair the past ? What 
 to promote your glory ? I make a joyful oblation of my- 
 self to execute your will in every thing, and to sufier 
 for your sake afflictions, disg;races, persecutions, tor- 
 ments, and every sort of death. The true convert ex- 
 pressed this, not hi a bare form of words ; nor with faint, 
 languid desires ; nor with any exception lurking in the 
 secret recesses of his heart ; but with an entire sacrifice 
 t)f himself, and an heroic victory over the world, witli 
 its frowns and charms ; over the devils, with their snares 
 and threats ; and over himself, and all inclination of self- 
 love, devoting himself totally to God : a perfect model 
 of a true conversion, the greatest work of Almighty 
 Grace ! Christ ordered him to rise and proceed on his 
 journey to the city, where he should be informed of what 
 he required from him. Christ might as easily have in- 
 structed him immediately by himself, but, as St. Augustine 
 observes, he sent him to the ministry which he had estab- 
 lished in his Church, to be directed in the way of salva- 
 tion, by those whom he had appointed for that purpose. 
 He would not finish the conversion and instruction of this 
 great Apostle, but by remitting him to the guidance of 
 his ministers ; showing us thereby, that it is his divine 
 wifl that a due respect be paid to those powers, which he 
 has established upon earth, and that all who desire to 
 serve him, should seek his will by listening to the Pas- 
 
CHURCH OF CHRIST. 2^ 
 
 tors of his Church, whom he has commanded us to hear, 
 and whom he has sent in his own nam6, and appointed to 
 be our spiritual guides. So perfectly would he abolish 
 in his servants all self-confidence and presumption, the 
 source of error and illusion. The Convert, rising from 
 the ground, found that though his eyes were open, he 
 saw nothing : this corporeal blindness being an emblem 
 of the spiritual blindness in which he had lived, and 
 giving him to understand that he was henceforward to 
 die to the world, and learn to apply his mind totally to 
 the contemplation of heavenly things. His attendants 
 took him by the hand, and conducted him to Damascus, 
 where he remained bhnd for three days, without eating 
 or drinking the whole time. After this time of proba- 
 tion and interior trial, which he doubtless spent in be- 
 wailing his past blindness and false zeal against the 
 Church, a certain Disciple of distinction in Damascus, 
 called Ananias, being admonished by our Lord in a 
 vision, laid his hands on Saul, saying to him. Brother 
 Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to thee on thy jour*- 
 ney, hath sent me, that thou mayest receive thy sight, 
 and be filled with the Holy Ghost. Immediately some- 
 thing like scales fell from his eyes, and recovering his 
 sight at the moment, he rose up, was baptized, and 
 took some refreshment. He remained some few days 
 with the Disciples at Damascus, and began immediately 
 to preach in the Jewish Synagogue that Jesus was the 
 ^Son of God, to the great astonishment of all that heard 
 him, and that knew that he came to persecute the very 
 doctrine which he now so strenuously supported. The 
 Jews, imable to withstand his arguments, and yet unwil- 
 ling to embrace his doctrine, sought to take away his 
 life ; and though he would have beeu happy to seal the 
 truth by the effusion of his blood, yet in hopes of reserv- 
 ing himself for some greater good, by labouring for the 
 salvation of others, he permitted his friends to let him 
 down the walls of the city of Damascus in a basket by 
 night, and thus he escaped out of the hands of his ene- 
 mies. In about three years after his conversion, which 
 he spent in Arabia, preparing himself for the Apostleship 
 of the Gentiles, he was introduced by St. Barnabas to 
 St. Peter and St. James at Jerusalem, and admitted there 
 amongst the Disciples of Jesus Christ. But his gre^t 
 
26 HISTOHY OF TiiE 
 
 zeal, which would not suffer him to remain either silent or 
 inactive, soon drew upon him a persecution, which must 
 have ended in his death, had not his brethren prevented 
 it by sending him away to Caesarea and Tarsus. He was 
 afterwards called by the name of Paul, as it is supposed, 
 from the surname of the illustrious Proconsul Sergius 
 Paulus, whom he converted to the Christian religion. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The gates of the Church arc opened to the Gentiles, and 
 the Apostles announce the happy tidings of salvation 
 to different nations. 
 
 THE manifold benefits which the Saviour of the 
 world came to confer on mankind were first offered to 
 the Jews, but the great body of that' carnal and stiff- 
 necked people being professed enemies of Christ, openly 
 rejected the doctrine of the Apostles. The hght of the 
 Gospel passed therefore from them, and was transferred 
 to a people that was sitting in the darkness, and in the 
 gloomy shades of death. The mystery of the vocation 
 of the Gentiles began then to be accomplished, and it ap- 
 peared that God was not a respecter of persons, and that 
 he excepted none from his mercy, but out of his pure 
 bounty called all to partake in the grace of eternal lif^, 
 of whatsoever nation they might be by descent or birth. 
 It began to be known that his coverrant was no longer 
 annexed to a certain race of people, but was to be com- 
 municated to all nations by a spiritual regeneration ; and 
 that the true Israelites were not only the children of 
 Abraham according to the flesh, but the imitators of his 
 faith, and the children of the promise, whether Jews or 
 Gentiles, who seek sincerely to please God by faith and 
 good works. Hence the Apostles spread over the globe, 
 each of them, like the Angel mentioned in the Apoca- 
 lypse, flying with his gospel through the air, as the spirit 
 ^ides him. Fired with zeal, they resolve to communi- 
 cate the divine flame, with which their hearts burned, to 
 the remotest countries, and to spread the happy tidings 
 of salvation to the very boundaries of the earth. The 
 
CHURCH OF CHRIST. 27 
 
 wondering world is roused by the thunder of their voice. 
 The most barbarous nations are tamed and civihzed. 
 The most populous and renowned cities hear their divine 
 eloquence with raptures, and the temples of the devils 
 fall to the ground at the sound of their words, as the 
 walls of Jericho fell af the sound of the trumpets of Is- 
 rael. To each of them was assigned a part of the world 
 for the principal theatre of their apostolic labours, by 
 which means God, who before was scarce known out of 
 Judea, and even there ill served, was, through them, in 
 a few years, honoured and adored all over the East and 
 the South, and the different regions of the known world, 
 which made St. Paul apply to them the following words 
 of the royal Prophet, Ps. 18. — 7^ heir sound ivcnt forth 
 into all the earth, and their tvords unto the cmls of the world. 
 It was by preaching, and not by writing, that they propa- 
 gated the Christian Religion, and gained over thousands 
 of souls to the Lord : Christ having given them no commis- 
 sion to write the Gospel, but to preach and teach it. Seve- 
 ral of them wrote nothing at all ; nor did Christ himself 
 commit any part of his doctrine to paper. Those who 
 wrote the difl'erent parts of the New Testament, never 
 converted any person or nation by their writings, but first 
 converted them by word of mouth, and then wrote occa- 
 sionally, not with a design to leave a complete abridg- 
 ment of the Christian Doctrine, but to exhort and com- 
 fort them, and to adjust their faith in some controverted 
 points. St. Matthew wrote his Gospel about the year of 
 hrist 42, in the Syro-Chaldaic language, to satisfy the 
 [converts of Palestine. St. Mark, the disciple of St. Pe- 
 ter, wrote his Gospel in Greek, at Rome, about the 43d 
 year of our Lord, by the persuasion of the faithful. St. 
 Luke, the disciple of St. Paul, wrote his Gospel in the 
 Greek tongvie, about the year 53, and the Acts of the 
 Apostles in the year 63, in opposition to some false his- 
 tories. St. John wrote his Gospel at Ephesus, about the 
 year 98, at the request of the bishops of Asia, to refute 
 the blasphemous errors and heresies of Cerinthus and 
 Ebion. The rule of faith, by v/hich the true believers 
 were directed in the apostolic age, and instructed in the 
 practice of all Christian duties, was the living voice of 
 the Pastors of the Church, and not the dead letter of the 
 Scriptures, which the generality of mankind, perhaps 
 
 
28 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 not one in some thousands, could make use of in those 
 days, as very few then learned to read at all, and as 
 there were none but written books in the world, until the 
 art of printing- was invented about thirteen hundred years 
 after the days of Christ and his Apostles* 
 
 Immediately after the ordination of St. Paul and St. 
 Barnabas, they both set out together, and preached with 
 such unwearied zeal and amazing success, that they 
 brought over to the faith innumerable multitudes, both of 
 Jews and Gentiles, by their ministry. The zeal of St. 
 Paul seemed to quicken, as he advanced in his aposto- 
 lic labours. The more he was persecuted, and the more 
 he suffered, the more his heart was on fire. The glory 
 of God, and the salvation of souls, were the only ob- 
 jects that occupied his thoughts. He allowed himself no 
 rest, but travelled from province to province, from one 
 island to another, braving every danger by land and by 
 sea. He employed twenty-five years in announcing 
 Jesus Christ through all the different " states of Greece, 
 and in the various provinces of Asia Minor, Syria, Cili- 
 cia, Phrygia, &c. The gift of miracles was so conspi- 
 cuous in him, that even the handkerchiefs and aprons 
 which had touched his body healed the sick, and put 
 the infernal spirits to flight. He founded many numer- 
 ous Churches, particularly in the great cities of Philippi, 
 Thessalonica, Beroea, Athens, Corinth, Ephesus, Co- 
 losse, Galatia, Crete, Sec. and wherever he founded any 
 local and particular Church, he took care to ordain and 
 appoint a Bishop, Priests, and Deacons, to rule and gov- 
 ern it, according to the form of government established 
 by Jesus Christ. Thus he ordained Timothy, Bishop of 
 Ephesus ; Titus, Bishop of Crete ; Dionysius, the 
 Areopagite, Bishop of Athens, &c. that they might gov- 
 ern their respective Churches, and keep up a lawful 
 succession of pastors, by stirring up the grace of God, 
 and communicating to others after them the spiritual 
 powers of the Priesthood, which they had received by 
 the imposition of his hands. — 2 Tim. 1. 6. 
 
 In like manner the rest of the Apostles planted local 
 Churches in all considerable cities, and ordained Bishops 
 to govern them. They preached the Gospel with inde- 
 fatigable zeal wherever they went, and they had the con- 
 solation to see their labours crowned with wonderful sue- 
 
i 
 
 caURCH OP CHRIST. 29 
 
 cess. St. Andrew, brother to St. Peter, preached in 
 Scythia, Thrace, Epiriis, and Achaia. St. James the 
 Greater, brother to St. John the EvangeHst, preached in 
 Judea. St. John preached in Lesser Asia. St. Thomas 
 in Parthia, and other Eastern nations. St. James the 
 Lesser, brother of St. Jude, preached in Judea. St. Phi- 
 lip preached in the two Phrygias, and in other provin- 
 ces of the East. St. Bartholomew carried the Gospel 
 into India, amongst the Brachmans, and in the latter 
 part of his life preached in the Greater Armenia. St. 
 Matthew preached the faith in Ethiopia, Parthia, and 
 Persia. St. Jude or Thadseus, brother to St. James the 
 Lesser, preached in Persia, Arabia, Mesopotamia, and 
 the people of Edessa. St. Matthias, after labouring zea- 
 lously in Judea, preached in the countries bordering on 
 the Euxine and Caspian Seas. 
 
 St. Peter spent seven years in preaching over a great 
 part of Lesser Asia, in settling Christianity in Pontus, 
 Galatia, Cappadochia, and Bithynia. He preached for a 
 considerable time in Jerusalem, until that Church, which 
 first gave birth to Christianity, and which sprung from 
 him and the rest of the Apostles and Disciples, became 
 very considerable, and was settled upon a very respect- 
 able footing. It was already composed of persons of 
 every sex, age, and condition, when St. Luke wrote the 
 Acts of the Apostles, The Lord adding daily to the Church 
 such as should be saved.^— Acts 2. 47. St. Peter, in par- 
 ticular, wrought so many illustrious miracles there, that 
 the inhabitants of the countries and cities round about 
 erusalem flocked to him from every side, and brought 
 heir sick into the streets, and laid them on beds and 
 couches, that the shadow at least of this great Apostle 
 ight reach them, as he passed along, and heal their in- 
 rmities. Herod Agrippa, at the instigation of the Jews, 
 caused him at length to be apprehended and imprisoned 
 under a strong guard, designing to put him to death. 
 The faithful were in the deepest consternation at the 
 disastrous event, rightly judging, that the welfare of the 
 flock was closely connected with that of the pastor, and 
 therefore day and night did they send up their most fer- 
 vent prayers to Heaven for his deliverance The Al- 
 mighty graciously heard their petition, and delivered his 
 Apostle on the very night that preceded his intended ex- 
 C 2 
 
30 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 ecution. Bound with two chains, he lay asleep between 
 two soldiers in the prison, perfectly resigned within him- 
 self, either to life or death, when an angel of the Lord 
 came with great brightness to the place, and, striking 
 him on the side, said. Arise quickly. That moment the 
 chains fell off from the Apostle's hands ; he speedily 
 arose, put on his sandals, threw his garment round him, 
 and followed the Angel through the first and second ward, 
 till they came to the iron gate, which of itself flew open 
 at their approach ; and thus the Sovereign Disposer of 
 all things here below set bounds to the power of a tyrant, 
 and miraculously rescued his Apostle out of his hands. 
 
 St. James the Elder being appointed the particular 
 Bishop of Jerusalem, St. Peter removed his apostolic 
 see to the city of Antioch, the capital of Syria and of 
 all the East, where the followers of Christ's doctrine 
 were first distinguished by the name of Christians. They 
 increased there amazingly, and formed a very numerous 
 Church, of which St. Evodius and St. Ignatius were the 
 first Bishops after the removal of St. Peter from Antioch 
 to Rome ; for this zealous Apostle, not content with 
 founding the two great Churches of Jerusalem and An- 
 tioch, resolved to set up the standard of the Cross of 
 Jesus Christ in the very metropoHs of the world. Hence 
 he went to Rome in the year of our Lord 42, being the 
 second year of the reign of the Emperor Claudius, and 
 planted a very flourishing Church in that city, which he 
 chose for the chief seat of his labours, and made his 
 own particular see, and in that quality the capital of 
 Christendom, and the first and most eminent of all other 
 particular Churches, on account of the authority and 
 pre-eminence of its chief pastor. The faith of the Church 
 of Rome was spoken of throughout the whole world. Rom. 
 1.8. even some time before St. Paul had arrived there, 
 for he had never been at Rome when he wrote his epis- 
 tle to the Romans (in the year 57,) as appears from his 
 own words, Rom. 1. 13. and 15. 22. and when he ar- 
 rived in Italy, and was on his way to Rome, he had the 
 pleasure to meet numbers, of the faithful, who embraced 
 him with open arms. 
 
 However, though the Church of Rome was in a very 
 flourishing condition before the arrival of St. Paul, it 
 made such acquisitiooB by the labours and preaching of 
 
CHURCH OF CHRIST. 31 
 
 this Apostle, that he is considered, jointly with St. Peter, 
 a principal founder of it. Hence, St. Irenaeus, in. the 
 following century, calls the Church of Rome the greatest 
 and most antient Churchy founded and established by the 
 two most glorious Apostles, Peter and Paul, lib. 3. c. 8. 
 Divine Providence, which had raised the Roman Empire 
 for the more easy propagation of the Gospel in many 
 countries, was pleased to fix the fortress of faith in that 
 great metropolis, that it might be easily diffused from 
 the head into all parts of the imiverse. Nothing can be 
 more incontestable in history, than that St. Peter v^^as 
 the founder and first Bishop of the see of Rome. In this 
 the concurring testimony of all ancient Christian writers 
 down from St. Ignatius, the Disciple of this Apostle, is 
 unanimous. Eusebius, the parent of Church history : 
 St. Jerom ; and the old Roman calendar, published by 
 Bucherius, says, that St. Peter held the see of Rome 
 twenty-five years, though he was often absent upon his 
 apostolic functions in other countries, where he visited 
 the faithful, like unto a general who makes his rounds, 
 says St. John Chrysostome, to see if all things are every 
 where in good order. It is not to be doubted but he 
 preached the Gospel over all Italy, as Eusebius, Rufinus, 
 and others assure us ; for though he and several of the 
 Apostles chose particular sees for themselves, among the 
 Churches which they founded, nevertheless they did not 
 so confine themselves to single cities, as to forget their 
 •universal commission of preaching to all nations, except 
 that St. James fixed his residence at Jerusalem, for the 
 j|Biake of the Jews. 
 
 ^ From Rome Christianity was soon spread through all 
 the regions of the West, and through all the provinces of 
 the Roman Empire. It was from Rome that St. Peter 
 wrote his two epistles to the converts he had made during 
 the seven years that he was Bishop of Antioch. He in- 
 deed calls that city Babylon, as St. John also does in the 
 pocalypse, because Rome was then the chief seat both 
 of the Empire and of Pagan idolatry, as formerly Baby- 
 lon had been ; but as Babylon in Chaldea was at that 
 time nothing but a heap of ashes, the best interpreters 
 by Babylon understand heathenish Rome. It was also 
 from this city that St. Peter sent his disciple, St. Mark 
 the Evangelist, to found the great church of Alexaudria, 
 
 ii^j 
 
^2 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 the capital of Egypt, and then the second in the world, 
 with several other churches in Libya and Pentapolis. 
 Among the disciples of St. Peter who helped to propagate 
 the Church of Christ in the West, one of the most re- 
 nowned was St. ApoUinaris, who founded the Church of 
 Ravenna. Seven other disciples were ordained Bishops, 
 and sent to found Churches, in Spain, viz. Torquatus, 
 Ctesiphon, Secundus, Indaletus, Caecilius, Hesychiiis, 
 and Euphrasius. St. Polycarp, the disciple of St. John 
 the Evangehst, was ordained Bishop of Smyrna. By the 
 Angels of the seven Churches in Asia, mentioned in the 
 Apocalypse, are meant the seven Bishops who governed 
 those sees. All those local and particular Churches 
 were linked together in the same Communion, with due 
 subordination, and by this means they only composed 
 one Catholic Church, one mystical body, one sheejyfold under 
 one shepherd, and one visible head. They all persevered 
 in the doctrine of the Apostles, and believed and taught 
 all the divine truths revealed by Jesus Christ, as they 
 had received them from the Apostles, and from their dis- 
 ciples and successors, who were regularly called, ordained, 
 and authorized by them, and to whom they communi- 
 cated the same necessary powers, which they had receiv- 
 ed from Jesus Christ, to govern the Church that he had 
 purchased with his blood, and, according to their exam- 
 ple and instructions, to revive, carry on, and perpetuate 
 an hierarchy and lawful succession of pastors, co-operat- 
 ing in the great work of the ministry to the end of time 
 for the salvation of souls ; for as in the temporal repub- 
 lic no person is to usurp the reigns of government, or 
 to thrust himself into the functions of public power, un- 
 less he be duly authorised and deputed thereto, so in like 
 manner no one is to intrude himself into the pastoral 
 office, or presume to exercise the sacred powers of the 
 priesthood in the spiritual kingdom of the Church, unless 
 he be called to that high office, and be ordained and law- 
 fully sent. Even St. Paul and St. Barnabas, though im- 
 mediately called by Heaven, could not exercise the func- 
 tions of the Priesthood until they were ordained and sent 
 by the pastors of the Church, as appears from the 1.3th 
 c. of the Acts, 3d v. which plainly shows the necessity 
 of a lawful mission, and how little credit is to be given 
 to new gospellers, ivlw do not enter into the sheepfold by the 
 
CfBURCH OP CHRIST. 33 
 
 door ; St. John 10 ; but come of their own accord, and 
 by their own private authority, like the false prophets in 
 the Old Law. How can they preachy unless they be sent ? 
 Rom. 10, 15. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 f%e stupendous Progress of the Christian Religiony and 
 { the happy Fruits it produced in the world, 
 
 JESUS CHRIST had foretold that his Gospel should 
 be preached all over the world, and that after his death 
 he would draw all things to himself, when he would be 
 exalted from the earth, and fastened on the cross. He 
 ll^d compared the preaching of the Gospel, in its weak 
 ""ginning, to a grain of mustard seed, which, from the 
 least of all seeds, grows to such an height as to surpass 
 all other shrubs. Mat. 13. He had also compared it 
 to a little leaven, which being hid in the dough, spreads 
 through the whole mass, and changes its nature by im- 
 parting its own qualities. To see his predictions accom- 
 plished, and to be convinced that the establishment of his 
 Church was a divine work beyond the reach of the least 
 suspicion or possibility of error or imposture, we need 
 but consider the amazing rapidity and success with w^hich 
 the Christian Religion was embraced and propagated all 
 over the known world, by instruments and means in them- 
 selves so weak and inadequate to the undertaking. In 
 the first place, all human considerations conspired against 
 I (Christianity : No doctrine could ever be less calculated 
 I to meet with any reception or encouragement in a world 
 I that was strangely attached to an old religion, settled 
 and confirmed by a long prescription of many ages. The 
 r.'hristian Religion thwarted all the darling inclinations of 
 nature, and tended directly to pull down the pride of the 
 understanding and of the heart, by proposing mysteries 
 that appeared almost incredible, and by commanding 
 things that seemed impracticable. It preached a God 
 i made man, rejected and put to death by his own people. 
 ' It declared war against idolatry and superstition ; and 
 ' was entirely opposite to the received maxims and prejudi- 
 
3^ HISTORY OF T«E 
 
 I 
 
 ces of the world. It taught self-denial and mortification, 
 and inculcated the necessity of loving even our professed 
 enemies ; of doing good to them that hate us, and forgiv- 
 ing from our hearts all injuries and affronts. It recom- 
 mended a contempt of what is generally admired, and 
 enforced the obligation of being humble in our own eyes, 
 of flying the applause of men in the performance of 
 good works, and seeing in all things the honour and glory 
 of God. In short, it counteracted the favourite passions 
 of mankind, and absolutely required a virtuous hfe in all 
 its professors. Nevertheless, these new maxims, these 
 self-denying principles, these sublime mysteries of the 
 Gospel, wfere universally embraced, adopted, and estab- 
 lished, with such speed and success, that we must here 
 acknowledge the finger of the Most High, and confess 
 that the conversion of the world to the Christian religion 
 was one of the most stupendous and the most evident of 
 miracles. 
 
 This success was the more astonishing, as the instru- 
 ments chosen by Jesus Christ for this great design were 
 seemingly unequal, disproportionate, and unfit for laying 
 the foundation of such a structure as the planting of his 
 Church upon the ruins of Paganism and the destruction 
 of the Jewish Synagogue : Twelve poor fishermen by 
 trade, without either power, interest, or credit to favour 
 so great an undertaking. They had no riches to bribe 
 men into their religion, no armies to force them to it, no 
 learning to impose upon them, no politics to over-reach 
 them, no rhetoric to recommend their cause by studied and 
 eloquent discourses. They were not possessed of those na- 
 tural endowments, which might make impression on their 
 hearers, and conciliate their minds to a new doctrine. 
 They were men chosen from the lowest conditions of life, 
 destitute of all human succour, and without the advantages 
 of education. Men, who by the obscm-ity of their birth and 
 by their natural pusillanimity, were accustomed to tremble 
 before people in power, and whom Christ himself com- 
 pared to sheep in ike midst of wolves. Yet it was by instri;- 
 ments and means in themselves so weak, that the predic- 
 tions of Christ, relative to the success of the gospel and 
 the propagation of the Christian religion, were speedily and 
 most wonderfully accomplished. After the Holy Ghost 
 had shed his beams upon ihe\n, they were instantly 
 
CHITRCH OF CHRIST. 35 
 
 changed into other men. They were inspired with such 
 a spirit of zeal, and such supernatural force of elocution, 
 as was not to be resisted. They entered the lists against 
 troops of sophists, orators, and philosophers, and combated 
 the false maxims of Pagan antiquity. They confuted, 
 confounded, and triumphed over the proud scholars of 
 Plato's academy, of Aristotle's lycaeum and of the por- 
 ticos of the Stoics. They were endued with an intre- 
 pidity which no torments could subdue, nor death intimi- 
 date. They received a spirit of heavenly knowledge and 
 light, a spirit of sanctity and charity, a spirit of fortitude 
 and strength, which enabled them to beat down the elo- 
 quence and learning of the philosophers and sages, 
 ■fcnongst both the Jews and Gentiles, and to triumph over 
 "The combined oppositions of the kings and powers of the 
 earth. So powerful was the spirit of God which enlight- 
 ened their understandings, and spoke by their mouths ; 
 gAnd such was the evidence of their testimony, confirmed 
 1^ innumerable miracles, and by the heavenly temper 
 and sanctity which their words and actions breathed, that 
 it was impossible for the most obstinate infidel to harbour 
 the least suspicion of human contrivance. The miracu- 
 lous powers with which they were vested from above, were, 
 I may say, the credentials of Heaven that indicated the 
 truth of their doctrine, and stamped on it the seal of di- 
 vine attestation in the 'brightest characters. This made 
 Picus of Mirandula say, " If I could be deceived in thy 
 *' faith, thou alone, O Lord, must have been the author 
 " of my error, so evident are the marks of thy authority 
 
 t which it bears." This also made St. Augustine 
 y, lib. 22. de Civ. c. 8. ^' Whoever still asks for mi- 
 racles, before he will be induced to believe the Gos- 
 pel, is himself a prodigy of incredulity, who will not 
 believe such a doctrine, which he sees the whole world 
 • has been compelled by clear conviction to believe." 
 To all who sincerely seek after truth, it is evidently a 
 illar of light ; and if to the perverse it is sometimes 
 urned into a cloud of darkness, it is because the beams 
 of this sun, though most bright and piercing, become 
 impervious to their pride and passions. No sooner did 
 the Christian Religion make its appearance, than it began 
 to lay open to view the errors to which mankind had been 
 enslaved, and to withdraAv the veil of ignorance which 
 
Sfe WSTORY OF TUt 
 
 had overshadowed human reason. It diffused the good 
 odour of the Christian virtues of meekness and humiHty 
 on all sides, and warmed the hearts of sinners by its 
 divine flames. It united Jews and Gentiles, and people of 
 different countries, humours, manners, and interests, 
 in the bonds of fraternal love. It associated together 
 in the same fold lions, bears, wolves, and tygers, with 
 the sheep and the lambs, as the prophet Isaiah had fore- 
 told with astonishment. It joined in the same commu- 
 nion men of different nations, who had been insatiable 
 as wolves by avarice, furious as tygers with anger, revenge, 
 and jealousy, crafty as bears by dissimulation and hypo^ 
 crisy, haughty and uncontrollable as lions by ambition 
 and pride. It perfectly extinguished these passions in 
 the breasts of the first believers, and transformed into 
 lambs the furious wild beasts who had torn in pieces the 
 innocent Lamb of God, and who had gloried before in 
 destroying their fellow creatures. Was any thing but a 
 divine hand able to work such a wonderful change in the 
 world, and to strike such a heavenly concord out of such 
 a jarring discord of complexions, constitutions, and in- 
 terests ? Such were the happy fruits that the Christian 
 religion produced in the infancy of the Church. A new 
 people was formed, and the new sacrifice and pure ob- 
 lation, foretold by the prophet Malachy, began to be 
 offered in every place. The wild olive tree, as St. Paul 
 speaks, Rom. 11. ivas grafted into the good olive tree, in 
 order to partake of its root and fatness. The Gentiles 
 were united in spirit to the converted Jews, and made 
 with them one tree, one body, one people. Thus they 
 entered into the stock of Abraham, became his children 
 by faith, and partook of the promises which had been 
 made to him. The multitude of the believers^ says St. 
 Xiiike, Acts 4, 32. had but one heart and one soul. The 
 very Heathens themselves admired the perfect union and 
 harmony they lived in, and, as Tertullian informs us, 
 were often heard to say, with surprise, See, hov) the 
 Christians love each other. They learned from the exam- 
 ple of their teachers so perfect a spirit of disinterested- 
 ness, contempt of the world, and thirst after eternal goods, 
 that they lived in common, and retained no possessions 
 which were not devoted to the service of the community. 
 The cold words mim and thine, by which charity is often 
 
CHURCH OF CHRIST. Qlf 
 
 extinguished among men, were unknown to them. They 
 had no desire ot* riches, but such as were spiritual. They 
 knew no other ambition than to serve and to be subject 
 to all in Christ. They were so perfectly disengaged from 
 the transitory thi.igs of this life, that the rich sold their 
 estates, laid the p)ice at the feet of the Apostles, and 
 consecrated it to God, that it might be equally distributed 
 to such as were indigent, no one looking upon what he 
 possessed as belonging to himself more than to his neigh- 
 boui'. A rigorous judj;ment befel Ananias and Saphira 
 liis wife, for having avariciously and secretly retained to 
 themselves a part of the money they had received for a 
 field they had sold : They hypocritically pretended to 
 resign the whole price to the public use, and told a lie to 
 the Holy Ghost, in the person of his ministers ; where- 
 fore, St. Peter having reprimanded them for their frau- 
 dulent proceedings, and for the breach of the vow and 
 promise they had made to God, the husband first, and 
 afterward the wife, fell down dead at his feet. The 
 faithful, greatly alarmed at this melancholy disaster, per- 
 
 I fevered in the docinne of the Apvstles, in prayer, and in 
 ,H|/te communion of the breaking of bread, Acts 4, 2. that is 
 to say, in the participation of the holy mysteries of the 
 Divine Eucharist. Their humility, simplicity of heart, 
 meekness, patience, and other virtues, were such, that, 
 to use the expression of St. John Chrysostom, they seem- 
 ed to be transformed into Angels. They were not 
 swayed by passion, nor led astray by private views : 
 Their chief concern was to serve and honour God by the 
 pious exercises of religion. They appeared, by the sanc- 
 tity of their conduct, to form a new community, entirely 
 different from the rest of mankind ; and they practised 
 ■K§uch transcendent and heroic virtues as before were 
 ijdeemed impossible. Some, who were called Ascetics, 
 IP renounced all the pleasures of the world, and entered 
 r into courses of the severest austerities of mortification, 
 fasting, and self-denial, after the example of St John the 
 Baptist and the Prophets. Others, in imitation of the 
 Apostles, who recommended virginity, and who, from 
 the commencement of their apostleship and vocation to the 
 ministry, had embraced a state of perpetual continency, 
 consecrated themselves to God by vows of chastity. Acts 
 21. and led a fife entireb'- new, entirely interior, entirely 
 3> 
 
58 HISTORV OF THE ^ 
 
 Spiritual. They employed their time in heavenly exer- 
 cises, in hymns and canticles of praise and thanksgiving, 
 says St, Ambrose, 4ii contemplating the perfections of the 
 Supreme Being, in meditating on his hountiful dispensa- 
 tions to mankind, and in aspiring after that state of bliss 
 which they hoped to succeed to, after this present life. 
 Even they, who before had been slaves to voluptuous- 
 ness, and victims of their passions, became on a sudden 
 chaste and temperate, meek and humble of heart, as 
 soon as they were baptized and confirmed by the imposi- 
 tion of the hands of the Apostles. They were tilled with 
 the Holy Qhost, and changed into Christians eminent for 
 their piety and other heroic virtues. It is impossible to 
 enumerate the instances of the rich that impoverished 
 themselves to relieve the poor : of the poor that prefer- 
 red poverty to riches ; of the virgins that imitated upon 
 earth the life of angels ; of the penitents who embraced 
 the rigours and austerities of penance and mortification 
 with greater ardour than others did pleasures ; or of the 
 charitable pastors, who made themselves all things to all 
 men, ever ready to bestow upon their flocks not only their 
 watchings and labours, but their very lives. Multitudes 
 of converts, charmed by the examples of such shining 
 virtues, flocked every day to the standard of Jesus Christ, 
 and were incorporated in his Church. These were the 
 precious fruits that the gospel then brought forth, and it 
 was thus that the infancy of the Church was decorated 
 with the highest ornaments of religion, and its divine 
 origin was demonstrated by the edifying lives of the pri- 
 mitive Christians. This was truly the age of Christian 
 perfection, and in it the Lord was pleased to set up the 
 most eminent models of all the virtues human nature is 
 capable of, that the world might see the power of his 
 grace and the excellence of his doctrine, and that all fu- 
 ture ages might have before their eyes a specimen of a 
 religious life, and illustrious examples of perfection, for 
 Iheir encouragement and emulation, ^ 
 
' CHURCH OF CHRIST. 3i9 
 
 Hfl CHAPTER v. 
 
 B The necessity and excellency of the Ghristian Religion 
 ■. evinced from the defective systems of Pagan Phi* 
 K losojphy. 
 
 m WHEN the light of the Gospel appeared on earth, it 
 dispelled the darkness of Paganism and superstition, and 
 discovered by its native lustre the imperfection of all the 
 systems of doctrine and precepts of morality laid down 
 by the philosophers of antiquity for the conduct of life, 
 and held in admiration for many ages, much after the 
 same manner that, when the great luminary of the day 
 comes forth, the light of the stars of the firmament, 
 which strike us with their lustre and shine with advant- 
 age in the night, begins to fade and vanish out of sight. 
 We admire in the writings of Plato, Seneca, Tully, Plu- 
 tarch, Marcus Aurelius, and other heathen philosophers, 
 many excellent dictates and precepts of morality. — To 
 wear quite out the knowledge of virtue and the image of 
 God originally stamped on the rational soul, has been be- 
 yond the power of the vices of men or the malice of devils. 
 It was an eflect of the Divine Goodness, that the traces 
 of this image should be preserved amidst the ruins that 
 followed the defection of man from his Creator, that he 
 might always have some knowledge of evil, and be con- 
 demned by the testimony of his own conscience, if he 
 sinned, and that by these helps he might apply himself 
 to know and seek God, and discover the conformity of 
 his most sublime revealed law with the law of reason. 
 Nevertheless, how imperfect and insufficient a guide 
 reason alone is, in the path of perfect morality, and how 
 much it stands in need of the superior light of revelation, 
 is manifest, because religion alone can point out the 
 remedy and true cause of our spiritual wounds and cor- 
 ruption, and both teach us and conduct us to our last 
 end. Reason alone tells us, indeed, that we should adore 
 God, that we should love him, and pay him an interior 
 1^ worship ; but the bare light of reason does not sufficient- 
 ly instruct us in the nature of this adoration, of thi» love 
 and worship which God requires of us, or in the conse- 
 quences that result from the practice of them : it was 
 necessary to receive information on these objects froua 
 
•^ 
 
 40 HISTORY OF THE 4^ 
 
 a revealed Religion ; it is it that points out to us ihe 
 origin of our duties, in the positive will of God ; the dr;- 
 tail of them in his commandments and prohibitions ; the 
 motives for the observance of them in his supreme domi- 
 nion, in our relations with him, and in his promises and 
 threats ; the means which enable us to observe them, in 
 the supernatural helps which God offers us — in the sacra- 
 ments, which are the channels of them — in prayer, 
 which obtains them — and in vigilance, which guards and 
 preserves them. Our reason is confined : it is with great 
 diflSculty that it acquires the knowledge of those truths, 
 which it is of the greatest importance to know — A super- 
 natural revelation was wanting to enlarge its lights. Our 
 reason is uncertain : it finds unanswerable difficulties in 
 the most evident dogmas — A revelation was necessary to 
 dissipate its doubts. Our reason is slow in its progress : 
 it stands in need of study, meditation, and researches ; 
 few men are capable of these, and almost all are taken 
 up with other concerns — It was necessary that revelation 
 should place truth within the reach of every one, as every 
 pne is equally interested in knowing it. Our reason is 
 weak in its efforts : although it is sensible of tiie advant- 
 age of virtue, it is turned aside from it by the passions ; 
 a man must therefore be engaged to practice it by a 
 powerful interest, the fear of punishment and the hopes 
 of reward. Revelation therefore was necessary, to ren- 
 der the knowledge of truth more clear, more enlarged, 
 more certain, more common, more efficacious. 
 
 The experience of many ages, before the divine dis- 
 pensation, is sufficient to show that human reasoning is 
 too weak, without the assistance of the superior light of 
 revelation, even to directus safely in all the paths of moral 
 virtue. In the present depraved state of human nature, 
 it may be compared to a weak glimmering light in a dark 
 night, which rather serves to show a traveller that he is 
 wandering out of the road, than to direct him in the 
 right way. If too confidently followed, and if relied on 
 in things beyond its sphere, it easily leads astray. Even 
 in many points, in which it is given to be a guide, it is 
 often eclipsed by the passions, and becomes liable to 
 errors. Aristotle, the most comprehensive genius of 
 antiquity, relying too much on it, fell into many glar- 
 ing errors, which several heretics of the first age adopt-* 
 
I 
 
 (jHURCli O]^ CHRIST. 41 
 
 ^d stgainst the Gospel, on which account 'he is called 
 by Tertullian the Patriarch of Heretics. Many other philo- 
 
 Bsophers were remarkable for the strength of their genius 
 and learning, and yet they never were abl6, by the 
 force of their reason and study, to attain a knowledge of 
 the great supernatural truths of eternity, as these truths 
 do not fall under the senses and reason, so as to be exa- 
 mined or investigated by them. Unaware of the weaknes-s 
 Kof human reason, unassisted by revelation, they indeed 
 imagined that they could attain to wisdom by the sole 
 strength of reason j but this dangerous persuasion alone 
 was sufficient to lead them into many extravagant and 
 gross errors. What contradictions do we not meet in 
 their doctrines ! What prejudices I To how many vices 
 did they give the name of virtues ! How many crimes 
 did they canonize ! What gross mistakes, even about 
 the Divinity itself, and the Sovereign Good ! Varro 
 relates more than two hundred and eighty different opi- 
 nions on that single article j some, with Epicurus, teach- 
 ing that it consisted in voluptuousness ; others, With the 
 Stoics, placing it in virtue ; others, with the Peripate- 
 tics, making it consist in knowledge, &.«.■ Thales, 
 the prince of naturalists^ being asked by Croesus what 
 God was, put off that prince from time to time, saying, 
 I j)ill consider on it ; a question which the most illiterate 
 Christian could easily resolve. Plato, indeed, is remark- 
 able for several noble sentiments on the attributes of the 
 Deity, particularly on his providence' ; and his doctrine 
 on the rewards and punishments in a future state is re- 
 ally admirable ; but in his travels through Egypt and 
 Phoenicia, he learned many traditional truths delivered 
 down from the patriarchal ages. The lessons and max- 
 
 ||ims found in the Enchiridion of Epictetus, and in the 
 r meditations of Marcus Aurelius the philosopher, are truly 
 L sublime ; but these practical treatises are rather vain- 
 f glorious boasts, or high flights of eloquence, than suitable 
 . antidotes against the most dangerous vices. Such empty 
 
 11 exclamations on the beauty of virtue cannot subdue 
 lor regulate the heart of man, or restrain the sallies of 
 this passions : it is only in the Christian Religion that we 
 find and possess this true wisdom. It is it that teaches us 
 the great mysteries of our redemption, a) id applies to our 
 souls the remedies of our justification, and the means o£ 
 D 2 
 
 Pi 
 
4^ HISTORY OP THE 
 
 salvation. It is religion that teaches us to love God with 
 our whole heart, and ahove all things. It is religion that 
 directs us to love our neighbour, even our enemies, in 
 God and for God. It is religion that guides us to seek 
 the glory of God, and not our own ; to please him, and 
 not ourselves ; to refer ourselves, and all that we do, 
 to him, as to our first beginning and last end ; and to 
 place our true happiness in the eternal enjoyment of 
 him, and not in any of the perishable things of this tran- 
 sitory life. These glorious ends of charity and univer- 
 sal benevolence are not attainable on any other but 
 ^e principles of religion. 
 
 The beauty of the Christian morality and the sanctity 
 of its faithful professors, appear no where to greater ad- 
 vantage, than when they are contrasted with the imper- 
 fect systems and false virtues of the most famous sages 
 of the Heathen world. The very best of them were 
 strangers to the first lessons of Christian morality. They 
 knew not the name, much less the practice of humihty, 
 though this virtue is nearly allied to truth, which they 
 pretended to pursue. In all the lessons which they gave 
 against vice, they only taught men to sacrifice the lesser 
 passions to the greater, or to a more refined self-love, 
 pride, and vain-glory. The ultimate end, which they 
 proposed, went no further than their dear selves, and 
 their own interest and glory, or, at most, the good of 
 virtue in itself, without any reference to God, or to his 
 eternal rewards or punishments. If in many of them we 
 admire great examples of zeal for justice, of temperance 
 in prosperity, of patience in adversity, of generosity, of 
 courage, and the like ; these were often shadows and 
 phantoms, that dazzled and imposed on the eyes of men, 
 rather than real virtues, because, as they sprung from 
 a principle of vanity, or at least were tainted with a 
 more refined pride and vain glory, they were vitiated by 
 a.bad intention, and infected with the poison of their 
 origin, as waters, which come from a poisonous spring, 
 retain their malignant quality, through whatever delight- 
 ful channels or groves they may happen to pass. Hence 
 St. Jerome calls the ancient philosophers animals of 
 fame, who basely drudged for the breath of the people. 
 Tertullian also calls them traders in fame. Where ii^ 
 the similitude, says^ he, between a Philosopher and ^ 
 
CHURCH OF CHRIST. 43 
 
 hristian ? a disciple of Greece and of Heaven ? a 
 ader in fame and a saver of souls ? between a man of 
 ords and a man of works ? Apol. c. 46. The Pyrrho- 
 ians, the Sceptics, and Academics, had nothing else in 
 iew but to puzzle the other sects, and to ensnare them 
 jvith their subtle sophisms. The Stoics were inaccessible 
 iBp all the feelings of humanity. One cannot read with- 
 IBut astonishment the number of temples that Greece was 
 ' tilled with, and the prostitutions that were established 
 there for the worship of Venus. Solon erected at 
 l^thens a Temple to the honour of that Goddess, and the 
 Ifcravest of their philosophers forbad drinking to excess, if 
 PR was not on the feast of Bacchus, and to the honour of 
 that false God. They were sensible that there was 
 another God, very different from those whom the vulgar 
 adored. Yet Seneca, Socrates, Cicero, &c. with all their 
 learning, fell into such gross absurdities, that they them- 
 selves basely worshipped and sacrificed to stocks and 
 stones with the vulgar. Seneca, a native of Cordova in 
 ^^pain, and the Son of a Roman knight, is justly admired 
 Ipbr the compass of his learning, the liveliness of his ima- 
 gination, the elevation of his thoughts, and the many 
 excellent lessons of moral virtue, which are delivered in 
 his works. His great abstemiousness and some other 
 virtues are justly commended. But if we inquire into 
 
 Mis conduct, we shall find his virtue tainted with pride, and 
 ven fall short of that of a moral Heathen. His im- 
 mense riches, his stately palace and villas, his most 
 (piimptuous furniture, in which himself counts five hun- 
 dred tables of cedar, supported by ivory feet, all alike, 
 jewels above price, with every other most costly thing, 
 ■^ery ill suited with his stoic philosophy. Much less ex- 
 ■^usable were the excessive usuries, with which he op- 
 pressed and pillaged great part not only of Italy, but also 
 I of Britain : his complaisance also to Nero, on many un- 
 Irarrantable occasions ; his flattery after the poisoning of 
 pritannicus, his acceptance of his palace and gardens 
 fifter his unjust death, &c. To his last breath he wa^ 
 an enthusiastic advocate for suicide ; took hemlock after 
 his veins were opened, and when the poison did not ope- 
 rate, would be removed into a hot bath to accelerate his 
 own death. When Socrates was accused of denying the 
 Gods, which the public adored, he vindicated himself 
 
44 filStORY OF tllE 
 
 from it as from a cnme ; and when he was upon the poiri£ 
 of expiring, he ordered a cock to he sacrificed to j^iscir- 
 lapius. Plato, his disciple, whasaw all Greece' filled with 
 this absurd and scandalous worship, durst not oppose the 
 public error^ It was from him the Stoics derived their 
 proud maxim : The ivise man is self-sufficient. Cicero 
 patronized revenge, though nolhing is so heroic as for a 
 man to forgive an injury, to vanquish hi-s passions, and 
 iearn to govern his own souL The least exertion of pa- 
 tience, meekness, humility, of charity, is something much 
 greater and more adv^itageous than the conquest of ^n 
 empire would be. For Alexander once to have curbed 
 his anger, on ever so small an occasion, would have been 
 a far more glorious victory than all his conquests, even 
 if his wars had been just. Pythagorus and Zeno aflfect-' 
 ed tyranny, and Epictetus allowed a man to be proud or 
 the conquest of any vice. Aristotle could not sit easy, 
 until he pfoudly made his friend Hermias sit below him ; 
 and he w as as gross a flatterer of Alexander for the sake 
 of vanity, as Plato was of Dionysius for the sake of his 
 belly. Diogenes could not be contented in his tub with- 
 out gratifying his passions ; and when with his dirty feet 
 he trod upon Plato's costly carpetsy crying that he tram- 
 pled upon the prkle of' Plato, he did this, as Plato an- 
 swered him, with greater pride. But among all the im- 
 pious, absurd, and false maxims of the Pagan, Greek, 
 and Roman philosophers, scarce any thing was more 
 monstrous than the manner in which they canonized sui- 
 cide, in distress, as a remedy against temporal miseries, 
 and a point of heroism. It is strange, that any people 
 should by false prejudices be able so far to extinguish the 
 most evident principles of reason, andthe voic6 of nature,- 
 as to deem suicide an action of eoiiTage, since it springs 
 from a total want of that heroic virtue, and implies the 
 utmost excess of pusillanimity, impatience, and cowardice. 
 To bear all kind of suflferings with unshaken constancy 
 and virtue, is true courage and greatness of soul, and iht 
 test and triumph of virtue : and to- sink under misfor- 
 tunes, is the most unworthy baseness of soul. Nothing 
 can ever make it lawful for any one directly to procurey 
 concur to, or hasten his own death-. Whoever delibe- 
 X^ately lays violent hands upon himself, is guilty of a 
 Keinous injury against God, the Lord of his life : against 
 
Church op christ. ^^^^^^^^45 
 
 the commonwealth, which he robs of a member, and 
 
 I gainst himself, by destroying his corporal life, and en- 
 iling everlasting damnation on his soul ; this crime 
 ling usually connected with final impenitence, and eter- 
 l1 enmity with God. To murder another is the greatest 
 temporal injustice a man can commit against a neigh- 
 bour, life being of all temporal blessings the greatest 
 Ivid the most noble. Suiciue of course is a crime so 
 much more enormous, as the charity, which every one 
 owes to himself, especially to bis immortal soul, which 
 is here destroyed with the body, is stricter, more noble, 
 and of a superior order to that which he owes to his 
 neighbour. Away then with the prejudices of Seneca, 
 and the false philosophy of LycuVgus, who put himself to 
 death, because his pride was unsfcle to bear the thought 
 of the Lacedemonians correcting the severity of his laws. 
 Gross errors, and impious maxims of this sort, are dis- 
 coverable in the doctrine and conduct of all the other 
 boasted philosophers of Paganism, which plainly shows 
 the incompetence of reason alone for our direction in 
 our present corrupted state, and that without religion 
 there is no true wisdom. Of Human philosophy in these 
 matters a very wise man said : / have tried all (hinqs in 
 wisdom. I have saidy I will he iviu^ and it departed further 
 from me. Eccles. 7. 24. We ave therefore obliged to 
 acknowledge not only the incomparable advantages, but 
 also the absolute necessity of divine revelation. 
 
 God is the sovereign reason who caamot err. His 
 word is a flambeau that guides our steps and directs our 
 ways. The religion he has revealed hoih enlightens the 
 I mind and regulates the affections and appetites of the 
 heart. The holy maxims which he has laid down in the 
 gospel, concerning vice and virtue, i.ifinitely excel in 
 purity and perfection all the most admired lessons of phi- 
 losophy. Their subserviency to each other, and the 
 tendency of them all together to the common end of re- 
 ligion, are such as visibly exceed all human invention, 
 aad argue Christianity to be the product of a divine 
 mind, and the work of an Infinite Being. There is no 
 crime, no vice, no sin, even in thought, but it detects, de- 
 tests, and prohibits ; no virtue, no perfection, no good work 
 but it promotes, prescribes, and excites us to. The small- 
 est stain cannot be showxi in it. The least flaw, the least 
 
46 msTonv OP TAB 
 
 contradiction can never be found in it. Every article of 
 it is conducive to true holiness. How admirable is the 
 harmony of the awful mysteries which it teaches ! How 
 adorable is the light of its important and sublime truths ! 
 How pure the morality q( its precepts ! What power- 
 ful means of grace and helps of sanctification does it not 
 furnish ! What cogent motives of divine love ! W^hat 
 strong incentives to glorify God by the tender of our 
 sacrifices and affections ! How nobly does it display be- 
 fore our eyes the goodness and mercy of God in the 
 work of our redemption f Here the Divine truth and wis- 
 dom shine forth with the most ravishing lustre in a manner 
 worthy a God. Here we behold in raptures of asto- 
 nishment the unparalleled charity of our blessed Re- 
 deemer, the dreadful enormity of sin, and our own hap- 
 py deliverance from the powers of Hell. Here our con- 
 science is awakened and roused by the faith of a future 
 judgment, by the hope of an assured resurrection from 
 the dead, by a clear revelation of unspeakable rewards 
 prepared for the just, aad by the fear of endless tor- 
 ments reserved for the punishment of the reprobate in 
 the world to come. In consideration of all these great 
 truths, St. Paul calls t^e Gospel of Christ tihe jwiver of 
 God unto salvation to erwt^ one that bdieveth. Rom. 1. 16. 
 
 CHAPTER VL 
 
 The means esttUished h\j the Apostles for preserving the 
 Chnslian religion in its primitive purity. 
 
 EVEN in the days of the Apostles there appeared 
 false prophets, lying teachers, scoffers, and sectaries, 
 "whose errors chiefly sprung from the Pagan principles of 
 the Platonic phibsophy, and from a wrong sense ant 
 meaning, which they took out of the sacred Scriptures, 
 by interpreting i( accoi*ding to their own wild imagina* 
 tions. The Scripture itself affirms in express terms, tha 
 svLch false teachers would arise up among the faithful, am 
 hnng in sects of perdiiion, 2 Pet. 2. having an appearand 
 of godliness, but speaking lies in htjpocrisy, resisting tin 
 'irvihj departing from the faith j aiid having their comcienc& 
 
CHURCH OF CHRIST. ^^^ 47 
 
 $earcd. 1 and 2 Tim. ."3 and 4 c. It also assures us that 
 in Hie Epistles of Si. Paul there are some things hard to be 
 vmlcrstoody which the unlearned and the unstable wrested^ as 
 they did also the other Sctiptures, to their own destruction. 2 
 Pet. 3. 18. The Apostles, foreseeing what was to hap- 
 pen, and solicitous to preserve the deposit of faith intrust- 
 ed to them, pure and inviolate throughout all future ages, 
 look particular care to warn the faithful against such 
 teachers, and to exhort them to stick close to the doc- 
 trine which they had delivered to them, and to teach the 
 •same inviolate to their posterity. 1 and 2 Tim. They 
 iStrictly charged their successors in office, as well as the 
 flock committed to their instruction, to avoid and shun 
 all the broachers of profane novelties, whose speech 
 «preadeth like a canker. They commanded them to con- 
 tend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints, 
 to adhere firmly to the sound doctrine they had received 
 from the beginning, and to defend it zealously against all 
 seducers, blasphemers, and gainsayers, who subvert whole 
 houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy 
 lucre's sake. They ordered them not to add, diminish, 
 alter, corrupt or deviate one single iota from the faith, 
 though an Angel from Heaven should teach and preach 
 up a contrary doctrine ; because an error, though in one 
 point, in one single article, is a removing from the grace — 
 and perverting the Gospel of Christ. Gal. 1.6, 7,8. In 
 short, the Apostles laid it down as an invariable rule, to 
 be carefully observed in every succeeding generation, 
 that the least change or alteration should never be made 
 in the doctrine of faith, but that the self-same revealed 
 truths, which were believed and taught by them in the first 
 age of the Church, should be carefully handed down to pos- 
 t<irity, entire and uncorrupted. This principle they esta- 
 i blished as a fence and barrier for the continual preserva- 
 tion of the true faith, and as a most effectual means to coni- 
 vey it to every succeeding generation, without the small- 
 est addition, diminution, or deviation. Hence St. Paul, 2 
 Thess. 11.14. says : Stand fast^my brethren^and hold thetra' 
 diti-yns fhich ye have learned, whether by word or by my epis- 
 f tic. It was for this reason that, when some false brethren 
 '> in St. PriiiPs absence had persuaded the Galatians that it 
 was necessary to join circumcision with the gospel, the 
 Apostle wrote to them on purpose to correct this delusion, 
 
48 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 and to prevent them from innovating, altering, or adulte- 
 rating the doctrine of faith. He likewise iiT>dertook a 
 journey to Jerusalem for the purpose of confeirirg and 
 deliberating with the Apostles, priests, and elders of the 
 Church about this question, which began to be contro- 
 verted with a degree of warmth in the city of Antioch, 
 where many, who had been converted from Judaism, and 
 who were still strongly attached to the law of Moses, 
 raised violent disputes, and insisted that such of the 
 <jrenUles as were converted from Paganism to Christian- 
 ity, could not be saved unless they were circumcised and 
 observed the other ceremonies of the Mosaic law. On 
 this occasion a council of the Apostles and Elders of the 
 Churci was assembled at Jerusalem in the year 51. St. 
 Clement of Alexandria assures us that all the Apostles 
 were present at this council. St Luke only mentions St. 
 Peter and St. James, with St. Paul and St. Barnabas, who 
 also assisted thereat, and recounted the progress which 
 they had made by their preaching among the Gentiles. 
 St. Peter presided in this assembly, and having maturely 
 considered and discussed the matter in debate, he made 
 a di.scourse to show that the obligation of the Jewish 
 ceremonies was not to be laid on the Gentile converts ; 
 for the ceremonial precepts and rites being all types, that 
 pointed out' the Redeemer to come, were to cease when 
 they were a'lcomplished by the new law^ of the Gospel, 
 As figures and shadov/s they were banished, and gave 
 plac" to the reality and substance. St. Peter having first 
 pronounced sentence, his determination was second- 
 ed by St. James, the Bishop of Jerusalem, who proved 
 by the testimonies of the Prophets, that the observance 
 of the |e5;al ceremonies was no longer necessary, and that 
 the Gentiles ongbt not to he subjected to the burden and 
 servitiide of the Mosaic law. The doctrine of St. Peter, 
 supported thus by the local Pastor of Jerusalem, was by 
 the Council formed into a decree, which began with these 
 words : It has seamed scood to the Holy Ghost, and to ns, &c, 
 tp signify that the Holy Ghost exphcates himself, and 
 speaks to the faithful by the Pastors of the Church, as 
 bis or<?:ans, and the depositories of his revealed truths ; 
 and cr\<-'- o f>i>flv, that their decisions and decrees in these 
 ma^^'e- . , > be ronsidered as dictated by him. These 
 were the means established and practised by the Apostles 
 
CHL-RCH OP cimist. 49 
 
 m the first century, for preventing innovations and 
 schisms amongst the faithful, and for settling and finally- 
 deciding this first controversy about rehgion. And these 
 likewise are the means to which the pastors of the Church 
 
 II succeeding ages have had recourse, after the ex- 
 mple of the Apostles, in order to preserve the faith in 
 ;s primitive purity, and to settle disputes, whenever any 
 ogmatical point of received doctrine happened to be 
 npug)ied, controverted, or called in question. Either 
 eneral, national, provincial, or diocesan councils and 
 ' synods have been held, for the purpose of settling and 
 determining all such disputes and differences as arose 
 about religious matters, or for making regulation in disci- 
 pline and morals. And really, as Christ our Lord de- 
 clared it necessary that heresies and scandals should 
 arise, it was also necessary that his Church should be 
 provided with a remedy against them, and have some 
 effectual means to recur to, in order to separate the tares 
 from the good grain, and retrench scandals and abuses, 
 M'henever they occur. 
 ■K The chief errors that were broached in the apostolic 
 "ge, were those of Simon the Magician, Cerinthus, Me- 
 jiander, EbiOn, Saturmnus,Basilides, and the Nicolaits, so 
 called from Nicholas, oae of the Seven Deacons. In 
 process of time an almost incredible number of Gnostics 
 5Lnd other sectaries started up, began to dogmatize, and 
 attempted to subvert the faith. They adopted the gross- 
 est absurdities and the most impious tenets ; but their 
 errors created horror, and at their first appearance were 
 ' immediately condemned and refuted by the pastors of 
 the Church in their respective sees, when they could ntrt 
 freely and publicly assemble in council, on account of 
 the violent persecutions of the Paj^an emperors. The 
 Gnostics were a sect, that boasted of extraordinary light 
 and knowledge of unknown mysteries, particularly in 
 composing combinations and genealogies of aeons, or at- 
 tributes and operations of the Deity. Their principles 
 were detestable, and led them to all kinds of libertinism 
 and abominable practices. The errors of the Nicolaits 
 rather regarded manners than faith ; for which reason St. 
 
 I Clement of Alexandria reproaches them only for their 
 immoralities and debaucheries. Caius, a priest of the 
 Church of Rome, and St. Denis, of Alexandria, repre- 
 
60 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 liend the Cerlnthians for teaching, among many other 
 errors, that the reign of Jesus Christ would be terrestrial, 
 and that it would consist in carnal delights, sensual plea- 
 sures, feasts, and continual sacrifices for the space of a 
 thousand years before the day of judgment. This opinion 
 is called the Millenarian system. It never was a doc- 
 trine of faith, nor proposed by the Church to be be- 
 lieved as such, although some few of the Fathers admit- 
 ted a Millenarian reign of Christ on earth, in spiritual 
 pleasures with his e'cct. They were herein misled by 
 Papias, a disciple of St. John the Evangelist, who being 
 a man of a very moderate understanding, as Eusebius 
 says, for want of comprehending what he heard from the 
 Apostles, took literally what was said in a mystical sense. 
 But this point was afterwards cleared up, and the mistake 
 was corrected by consulting the tradition of the whole 
 Church. The system of the Millenarians, says Calmet, owes 
 its origin to the Jews, who expected to reign a thousand 
 years with the Messiah on earth. Some of the ancients 
 also inferred this erroneous opinion from a passage of" 
 the Apocalypse and Isaiah misunderstood ; but, instead 
 of, having any foundation in the sacred text, it is refuted 
 by it, and has been long exploded, as contrary to the 
 Gospel, and to the doctrine of St. Paul. 
 
 As to the errors of Simon the Magician, they chiefly 
 sprung from the system of the Platonists, and gave' rise 
 to most of the heresies of the first ages, Simon, that bane 
 of mankind, as Eusebius calls him, being expelled from 
 the East by St. Peter, repaired to the city of Rome, with 
 his. favourite Helena, and imposed on the people there 
 by his sorceries. The Infernal Spirit was permitted to 
 oppose these illusions and artifices to the true miracles 
 of Jesus Christ, he was suffered in Egypt to assist the 
 madcians of Pharaoh ag-ainst Moses. It is from this 
 Simon that the crime of selling any spiritual thmg for a 
 temporal price is called Simony ; and to maintain that 
 practice lawful, is usually termed in the canon law, the 
 heresy of Simon Magus. He strove in all things to rival 
 Christ. He pretended to be the Messiah, and often 
 called himself the Holy Ghost, which name he also gave 
 sometimes to the concubine Helena, whom he had pur- 
 chased at Tyre, and to whom he desired divine honours 
 to be paid under the figure of Minerva. He had man^ 
 
CHURCH OF CHRIST. 
 
 Followers in Rome, and at length gained so high a reputa- 
 IKtion, that a statae was erected to him in the isle of Tiber, 
 l^k^rith this inscription : Siinoni Deo Sancto. St. Justin 
 '^Martyr, who was a person of great learning and gravity, 
 
 I and of a genius wonderfully inquisitive about matters of 
 this nature, and well acquainted with all the mythology 
 iof the Heathens, assures us hereof, in his Apology ad- 
 dressed to the emperor, to the seliate, and to all the peo- 
 |K)le of Rome, whom he pressed to demolish this statue, 
 ^^^t. Justin lived then in Rome, and repeats this twice ia 
 
 IhIus great Apology, and in his Dialogue with Trypho, the 
 ^philosopher, which he would never have had the as- 
 surance to do, were it not a real fact, as the Pleathens 
 could not fail to take notice of, and resent such a blunder, 
 l^and turn it to the scorn of the apologist and his religion, 
 ■ which they never did. TertuUian, Eusebius, Theodoret, 
 I^Si. Cyril, and St. Augustine say, that this statue was 
 '"erected to Simon by the public authority of the senate 
 and the emperor Claudius, who succeeded that barbarous 
 tyrant Caius Caligula, who wished the Roman people had 
 but one neck, that he might cut it off at one stroke. It 
 was under Claudius that Great Britain was reduced to 
 the form of a Roman province. His mother Antonia, 
 when she met with any very silly fellow, was accustomed 
 to say : . He is as great a fool as my son Claudius. His 
 first wife-Messalina was capable of persuading him to 
 ny thing she pleased, a greater idiot having never worn 
 the imperial purple, being therefore called a child with 
 rey hairs. His second wife, Agrippina, pushed him on 
 o many extravagancies, and prevailed on him to adopt 
 ero, who was her son by Domitius, her first husband, 
 nd who, in the year 51, ascended the imperial throne 
 "lifter the death of Claudius, who was poisoned by Agrip- 
 pina. The young prince governed five years with great 
 clemency, leaving the dii'ection of all things to his master 
 
 t>eneca, the philosopher, and to Eurrhus, the prefect of 
 he praetorian cohorts, except that he poisoned his bro- 
 her Britannicus, the son of Claudius, by Messalina, whilst 
 hey were supping together. — In the year 53, he killed 
 his own mother, Agrippina, and from that time he be- 
 came the greatest monster of cruelty and vice, that per- 
 haps ever disgraced the human species. Simon Magus 
 found means to ingratiate himself with this tyrant, and by 
 
 IKgii 
 
^ HISTORY OF TttE 
 
 his vain boastings and illusions c{>u]d not fail io please 
 him, as Nero was above all mortals infatuated with the 
 detestable superstitions of the deceitful art of ma'gic, to 
 the last degree of folly and extravagance, Simon the 
 magician called himself the Gh-eat Power of God, and 
 promised the Emperor, that he would fly in the air, thus 
 pretending to imitate the ascension of Christ. Accord- 
 ingly by his magical power, and by the aid of 'two daemons, 
 he was carried up into the air in a chariot of fire, in the 
 presence of Nero. But the most merciful and kind Pro- 
 vidence, says Eusebius, conducted to Rome Peter, the 
 most courageous among the Apostles, in order to defeat 
 the impostures of Simon Magus : for this great Apostle, 
 in conjunction with St. Paul, seeing the delusion, betook 
 themselves to their prayers, upon which the noted impos-- 
 tor fell to the ground, was bruised, broke a leg, and died 
 a few days after in rage and confusion. This wonder- 
 ful event, though disbelieved by some moderns, is related 
 by St. Justin, St. Ambrose, St. Cyril of Jerusalem, St, 
 Augustine, St. Philastrius, St. Isidore of Pelusiura, TheO- 
 doret, and others, — Dion Chrysostomus, a Heathen wri- 
 ter, assures us, that Nero kept a long time i» his court a 
 certain magician, w^ho promised to fly ; and vSuetonius 
 says, that at the public games a man undertook to fly in 
 the presence of Nero ; but fell in his first essay, and his 
 blood even stained the balcony in which the emperor 
 stood. Some historians say, the resentment of the ty- 
 rant against the Apostles was much inflamed by the mis- 
 fortune of Simon Magus, and by the conversion of 
 several persons of his household, who embraced the faith, 
 particularly his beloved concubine and cup-bearer. St, 
 Ambrose tells us, Serm.68. that the Christians entreated 
 St. Peter to withdraw for a while, and that yielding to 
 their importunity, he made his escape by night ; but 
 going out of the gate of the city, he met Jesus Christ, or 
 what in a vision appeared in his form, and asked him, 
 ' Lord^ whither art thou going ? Christ answered, / am 
 ^oing to Home to be crucified again. St. Peter readily 
 vmderstood this vision to be meant of himself, and taking 
 it for a reproof of his cowardice, and a token that it was 
 the will of God he should sufler, and follow Christ, even 
 to the death of the cross, as Christ had foretold him after 
 his resurrection, returned into Rome, and being taker^ 
 
'ch:jrch of CHRisi'. ^Hr S3 
 
 as confined in the Mamertine prison with St. Paul. The 
 two Apostles are said to have remained there eight 
 months, during which time they converted and baptized 
 Processus and Martinian, the captains of their guards^ 
 
 ith forty seven others. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 All the Apostles crowned with martyrdom. 
 
 SUCH was the oeconomy, such was the unfathomable 
 wisdom of God, that he was pleased to permit his ser- 
 vants, and new acquired people, to be subjected, during 
 the three first centuries of the Church, to. the most 
 rigorous trials, and their fidelity to be put to the strictest 
 test, by ten bloody persecutions. Not only the first 
 preachers of Christianity were persecuted, but also their 
 disciples and followers, who adhered to their doctrine. 
 Whole cities rose up against them ; entire nations were 
 leagued to destroy them : philosophers opposed argu- 
 ment ; Libertines opposed sensuality ; Pagan Emperors 
 opposed torments. MiUions of martyrs sealed their faith 
 \^h tKe effusion of their blood, and laid down their lives 
 with joy under these persecutions, in testimony of the 
 Gospel. They endured the sharpest trials, and the most 
 barbarous cruelties that tyranny could invent or inflict, 
 with the meekness of lambs, and the simplicity of doves ; 
 and they gloriously surmounted every opposition, though 
 the only weapoms with which they encountered the malice 
 «of their enemies, w^re patience, forbearance, humility, 
 and prayer. Divine Providence conducted them through 
 the fiery crucible with such courage and intrepidity, that 
 they demonstrated their creed by the constancy of their 
 invincible valour ; and bore death itself, in its most 
 dreadful shapes, with an amazing calmness of mind, re- 
 collecting what Christ hud said in his first sermon on the 
 Mount : Blessed are ye., when they shall revile yon and perse- 
 xute you ; be glad and rejoice, for your reward is very great 
 in Heaven. 
 
 Thus it appeared visibly that God was the immediate 
 
 «upporter and defender of his Church, for though it lost 
 
 in its infancy some of its main pillars, and was deprived 
 
 of such a vast number of its pastors and members^ it re- 
 
 E2 
 
54 HISTORY OP ritfi 
 
 mained no less firm than before, and even grew and 
 gathered strength from the most violent persecutions. 
 King Agrippa, who had been brought up at Rome in the 
 feign of that cruel tyrant Tiberius, called by his own 
 preceptor Theodorus Gadareu?, a lamp of flesh steeped 
 in blood, was the first prince that persecuted the Church. 
 The first of the Apostles who fell a victim under him was 
 St. James the Greater, whom he caused to be beheaded 
 in the year 43 at Jerusalem, whither he was returned 
 after having preached the gospel, with great success, not 
 only to the twelve tribes of the Jews in their dispersion 
 over the world, but also to the inhabitants of Spain, ac- 
 cording to the constant tradition of that Church. St. 
 James the Lesser, who was called The Just Mem, by the 
 very Jews, on account of his austere life and eminent 
 sanctity, and who had been constituted Bishop of Jerusa- 
 lem by the Apostles before their dispersion, was thrown 
 headlong from the battlements of the Temple, received 
 below with a shower of stones by the populace, and kill- 
 ed with a blow of a fuller's club on the head, in the 
 year 62, because he had, in the most solemn and public 
 manner, declared that Jesus was seated at th^ right 
 hand of the Sovereign Majesty, and would come in the 
 clouds of Heaven to judge the world. Eusebius, 1. 7. c. 
 19. relates that the Episcopal chair of St. James was 
 preserved with great veneration by the Christians, of 
 Jerusalem, till the fourth century. St. Andrew was 
 crucified at Patrae, inAehaia. It is the common opinion, 
 that his cross was in the form of the letter X, coinposed 
 of two pieces of timber, crossing each other obliquely in 
 the middle. When he saw his cross at a distance, he is 
 said to have cried out, *'Hail, precious cross ! thou hast 
 " been consecrated by the body of my Lord, and adorned 
 ** with his limbs, as with rich jewels — I come to thee 
 " exulting Avith joy ; .receive me into thy arms, and pre- 
 '* sent me to my master." St. Thomas suffered martyr- 
 dom at Calamina, or Meliapor, in the peninsula on this 
 side the Ganges, on the coast of Coromandel, where his 
 body was discovered, with certain marks that he was slain 
 with lances ; it was carried to the city of Edessa, where 
 it was honoured with great veneration, when St. Chry- 
 sostom, Rusin, Socrates, Sozomen, and St. Gregory of. 
 Tours wrote. St. Philip the Apostle is said to have been 
 
feruclfie^ at Hierapolis, in Phrygia. Some writers have 
 ^^onfounded his death with that of St. Philip the Deacon, 
 ^■v^hose four daughters were virgins and prophetesses, Acts 
 ^Ri. 9. and who probably died at Ciesarea. St. Bartholo- 
 mew, wh6 is believed by several learned writers to have 
 been the same person with Nathaniel, after preaching in 
 ■■India and Persia, was flayed alive, and then crucified at 
 l^^lbanus, in Great Armenia. St. Matthew, ^s Venantius 
 '^Tortunatus relates, suffered martyrdom at Nadabar, a 
 city in Parthia, after pi-eaching to the ^Ethiopians, Per- 
 sians, and Medes. St. Simon is said to have been cruci- 
 iBEed in Persia, at the instigation of some idolatrous priests. 
 Upt. Jude, surnamed Thaddcfcus, to distinguish him from 
 the Ischariot, is said to have been tied on a cross aTid 
 shot to death with arrows, at Ararat in Armenia, then 
 subject to the Parthian empire, and consequently es- 
 __teemed part of Persia. Those who say he died atBery-^ 
 IBfUs, in Phoenicia, confound him with Thaddasus, one of 
 iB^he sev'enty-two Disciples, who was sent to St. Thomas 
 to Edessa, where King Abgar and a great number of his 
 people are said to have received baptism at his hands. 
 
 Kt was this disciple that founded the Churches of Seleucia 
 md Ctesiphon, the two capital cities of Assyria. St. 
 vlatthias, who, from being one of the seventy-two Disci- 
 ples was chosen, in the room of Judas, a twelfth Apostle, 
 is said to have received the crown of Martyrdom in Col- 
 . chis, where he was stoned by a number of Savages, and 
 ■Bihen beheaded. St. John, being brought to Rome by 
 ■wrder of Domitian, was cast into a caldron of boiling oil, 
 ^ut being miraculously preserved, and coming out more 
 vigorous than before, he was banished to the islahd of 
 Patmos, in the ^gean Sea, or the Archipelago, where 
 , be wTote the admirable prophecy of the Apocalypse, 
 U^vhich is regarded as a summary of the history of the 
 ■■Christian Church, through every age, from the date of 
 its birth to its triumphant and glorious state in Heaven. 
 It is generally asserted, that when St. Peter and St. 
 Paul were condemned by Nero, they w ere both scourged 
 before they were put to death, as that punishment, ac- 
 cording to the Roman laws, was always inflicted before 
 crucifixion. Eusebius, St. Epiphanius, St. Prudentiun, 
 and most WTiters, aflSrm, that they suffered both to- 
 gether near the Ostian Gate, on the 29th of June, in the 
 
SQ history of the 
 
 year 67. St. Peter, when he was come to tnc place of^ 
 execution, requested of the officers that he might be cru- 
 cified with his head downwards, alleging, that he was not 
 worthy to suffer in the same manner his divine Master 
 had died before him : his PJaster looked towards Heaven, 
 which by his death he opened to men ; wherefore Peter 
 judged, through humility, that a sinner, formed from dust, 
 and going to return to dust, ought rather in confusion to 
 look on the earth, as unworthy to raise his eyes to Hea- 
 ven. St. Paul undenvent more labours, and suflered 
 more frequent imprisonments, and more stripes, than any 
 of the rest : he had been five times publicly whipped by 
 the Jews, receiving each time thirty-nine stripes ; he had 
 heen thrice beaten with rods by the Gentiles ; had thrice 
 suffered shipwreck ; and had been a day and a night in 
 the depth of the sea, that is, in a vessel which was so 
 long shattered and tossed amidst the waves ; at length 
 the happy term of his labours and sufferings being arrived, 
 he beheld with joy the momeiit of his dissolution, ili which 
 Christ called him to his glory, and with the most perfect 
 resignation, submitting himself to the executioner, he 
 was beheaded, his dignity of a Roman citizen not allow- 
 ing him to be crucified. St. Gregory writes, that the 
 bodies of these two Apostles were buried in the Cata- 
 combs, two miles from Rome, where now stands the 
 Church of St. Sebastian, near the Salvian Waters. At 
 present the heads of the two Apostles are deposited in 
 silver bustos in the Church of St. John Lateran ; but one 
 half of the body, of each Apostle is kept together in the 
 great Church of St. Paul, on the Ostian Road, and the 
 other half of both bodies in a stately vault, in the Vati- 
 can church, which sacred place is called IVie Confes- 
 sion of St. Peter and Limina Apostolorumy and is resorted 
 to from all parts of Christendom. 
 
 About the same year that St. Peter and St. Paul were 
 martyred, the civil wars began in Judea, by the seditions 
 of the Jews against the Romans. The Christians then 
 residing in Jerusalem were warned by Almighty God of 
 the impending destruction, says Eusebius, and ordered 
 to withdraw from that city, as Lot was ordered to 
 withdraw from Sodom. Accordingly they retired be- 
 yond the river Jordan, with their bishop, St. .Simeon, 
 successor of St. James, and remained in a city called 
 
^HURCh"^ of CHRIST. 59 
 
 Pella, until after the taking and burning of Jerusa em, 
 when they returned to settle themselves in the midst of 
 its ruins. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 'Ae destruction of Jerusalem, and the dispersion of the 
 
 Jewish Nation. 
 
 was expedient that the City of Jerusalem, and the 
 temporal Republic of the Jews, should subsist some time 
 after the promulgation of the Gospel, until the spiritual 
 kingdom of Christ and the new Church of the Gentiles 
 would be formed and grafted on the ancient stock and 
 root of the Synagogue of the tnie Israelites, as the 
 branches of the wild olive are grafted upon the fruitful 
 olive. Rom. 11. 17. The time at length arrived when 
 Jerusalem and its beautiful Temple were to be demolish- 
 ed, and the people of that stubborn and ungrateful na- 
 tion was to be involved in the most dreadful calamities, 
 and dispersed all over the earth. By. an unparalleled in- 
 stance of impiety they had crucified the Son of God, and 
 uttered this horrible blasphemy, His blood be upon us and 
 upon our children. St. Mat. 27. 25, The just vengeance 
 of Heaven fell therefore upon their commonwealth, and 
 a whole torrent of divine wrath was poured down upon 
 their criminal heads, .d also upon their children, in 
 less than forty years after. The Romap armies under 
 Vespasian and Titus invaded their territories, and ravaged 
 H|[eir country. Jerusalem was besieged, taken, and razed 
 rto the ground. The Temple was set on fire by a Roman 
 soldier, and consumed, notwithstanding all the efforts 
 made by Titus to extinguish the flames. Previous to this 
 sad disaster many strange phenomena had been seen, 
 according to the Jewish Talmud : insomuch, that a fa- 
 mous Rabbin cried out one day, O Temple ! Temple ! 
 what is it that moves thee, and wherefore dost thou make thy- 
 self afraid 1 What is more noted than that dreadful noise 
 that was heard in the Sanctuary on the day of Pentecost, 
 and that audible voice which issued forth from the in- 
 nermost part of that sacred place :. L&t us go hence— Let 
 
 
58 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 US go hence f The Holy Angels, Guardians of the Temple, 
 loudly declaring, that they were forsaking it because God, 
 who had there established his dwelling during so many 
 ages, had now given it up to reprobation. Josephus, 
 their historian, and Tacitus himself, have both related 
 this prodigy. Josephus also makes mention of a prophet 
 who constantly ran through the public streets, crying out 
 with a loud voice, Wo to the Cihj — Wo to the Temple — 
 Wo to the Jews. Eleven hundred thousand of them pe- 
 rished on this occasion, partly by famine, partly by the 
 plague, and partly by the sword. About fifty years after 
 the destruction of. Jerusalem they revolted through the 
 whole Roman Empire, under the conduct of Barchoke- 
 bas, who boasted that he was the promised Messiah, and 
 called himself the Star of Jacob y foretold in the book of 
 Numbers. On this occasion six hundred thousand of the 
 Jews are said to have been killed, and the remainder of 
 that unhappy people who survived, were expelled Judea, 
 scattered over the face of the earth, and became the 
 contempt of mankind, and a lasting monument of God's 
 indignation. In this condition they have now remained 
 upwards of seventeen hundred years, without any fixed 
 abode or government, still in expectation of the Messiah, 
 though it is evident that the sceptre has been removed 
 from the tribe of Juda, the seventy weeks of years pre- 
 dicted by Daniel have been accomplished, and the time 
 and other circumstances foretold by the prophets for the 
 coming of the Messiah, is long since elapsed. They stili 
 persevere in the blindness and » bstinacy of their fore- 
 fathers, amidst the noon-day light of the Gospel. How- 
 ever, their obstinacy affords Christians the advantage of 
 finding in unsuspected hands the sacred Scriptures, 
 which have foretold Jesus Christ and his mvsteries. 
 Thus we are g-ainers bv their overthrow, and their infide- 
 lity is one of the foundations of our faith. They leach 
 us to fear God, and are a dreadful example of the judg- 
 ments he executes upon his ungrateful children, that we 
 may learn never to glory in the favours shown to our 
 forefathers. Sixtus Senensis, who had been a Jew be- 
 fore his conversion, informs us, that the Jews of his 
 days had improved so much upon the false delicacy of the 
 Jews in Christ's time, that they scrupled to take an oxi 
 out of a pit on the Sabbath, and would only allow foodj 
 
k. 
 
 GHURCII OV CHRIST. 
 
 b^ 
 
 io be given the beast in the water, till the festival was 
 \>er, when thej took him out. Nay, he relates, that a 
 Jew, who was fallen into a ditch on the Sabbath, refused 
 to suffer a Christian, who offered his help, to lift him out 
 of the mire, saying, 
 
 Sahbata nostra colo ; 
 
 De stercore surgere nolo. 
 The Jewish Sabbath doth of me require, 
 That I should rest contented in this mire. 
 
 Wherefore, when he implored the same Christian's as- 
 sistance on the ensuing day, which was Sunday, the lat- 
 ter, to turn the Jew's superstitious scrupulosity against 
 hunself, answered, that he should keep the Christian 
 Sabbath in the same place : 
 
 Sabbata nostra quideniy 
 
 Salomon, celebrabis ibidem. 
 Christians on this day their Sabbath keep ; 
 ni leave you then, dear Jew, there still to creep. 
 
 Some of their Rabbins have even gone so far as to 
 contend, that a tailor would be guilty of breaking the 
 Sabbath who should carry a needle stuck in his sleeve on 
 that day. 
 
 The calamities and oppressions the Jews have under- 
 gone, would probably have extinguished any other peo- 
 ple, but they are still preserved by a special Providence 
 for a future great purpose ; for when the merciful dis- 
 pensations of Heaven to the Gentiles shall be completed, 
 when the Gospel shall have been fully preached to man- 
 kind, and the number of converts to Christianity, designed 
 by the Almighty, shall be filled up, the last posterity of the 
 Jews shall experience that bounty which has been sus- 
 pended for so many ages. By a particular mark of pre- 
 dilection, they had been chosen in former ages by God 
 as his peculiar people, and adopted preferably to any 
 other nation. They shared his favours in great abunv 
 dance, and in the most conspicuous manner ; and though 
 in their infidelities and gross deviations from their duty, 
 he used the rod of correction, yet he always retained the 
 disposition of a merciful father for them, and was so far 
 from utterly exterminating them, that their race subsists 
 
66 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 to this day, and is still very numerous. Before the end 
 of the world, says St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Satan will raise 
 up a man, who will falsely assume the name of Christ, 
 and endeavour to seduce them ; he will allege the sacred 
 scriptures to prove that he is their Messiah, and the 
 Christ, says St. Ambrose ; but the Lord will then send 
 the Prophets Elias and Henoch to oppose his efforts, and 
 to undeceive and convince them tliat their Messiah is 
 that very Jesus, whom they have rejected. He will then 
 in his mercy take from them the heart of stone , and give 
 them a heart of flesh ; he will make them sensible of their 
 past blindness and obstinacy ; he will, in fine, open their 
 eyes to acknowledge Christ their Messiah and Saviour, 
 and by making them Christians, he will incorporate them 
 in the pale and bosom of his Church. — Rom. 1 1. 25, 26, 
 27. It is thus that the Jews shall be at length converted 
 to Christianity, and the remnant of Israel shall be saved 
 by believing in Jesus Christ. Nor can any man ever be 
 saved, without a supernatural faith in this Divine Re- 
 deemer : There is no other name under Heaven given toman 
 whereby he must be saved. — Acts 4. 12. The saints, in the 
 old law, were saved by the same faith which we more 
 explicitly confess. They believed In Christ to come : 
 we believe in him already come. The words are chang- 
 ed. Our Redeemer will come, and, He is come, as St. 
 Augustine frequently observes, but the object of this 
 faith is the same. 
 
 Our blessed Saviour foresaw, and clearly predicted the 
 destruction of Jerusalem, and of its Temple, and the dis- 
 persion of the Jews, Luke 21 ; ^nd as it could not possi- 
 bly have been foreseen but by the eye of Divine Provi- 
 dence alone, it served as an evident proof of Revelation, 
 that bore testimony to the truth of the Christian Religion, 
 and persuaded great multitudes, both of Jews and Gen- 
 tiles, to embrace it. Wherefore Satan, who for many 
 ages had usurped almost an universal empire jin the 
 world, being deeply stung with envy to see his own 
 throne shaken by the progress of the Gospel, and the 
 Christian Religion flourishing more and more every day, 
 resolved to stir up the potentates of the earth, to give it 
 the most violent opposition, and to do all that men could 
 do to extirpate the very name of Christianity. 
 
dttURCH OF CHRIST, 61 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 7Vie three first gen&ral Persecutions. 
 
 THE Christians liad already been cruelly persecuted, 
 both by the Jews and by the Gentiles, but these persecu- 
 1^ tions were not {>-eneral. The monarchy of Rome being 
 at that time exceedinj^ly powerful and extensive, Satan 
 1^ chiefly attempted to instil the poison of his malice into the 
 P™Tninds of the Pagan Emperors, and to inspire them, and 
 the o-overnors of the Roman provinces, against all the 
 Christians in general. To open the scene and begin the 
 bloody tragedy, he made use of the emperor Nero, doubt- 
 |k less a very proper instrument for the work, as being al- 
 P" ready a monster of vice and cruelty, that glutted his savage 
 mind with the slaughter of his own mother Agrippina, his 
 brot|ier Britannicus, his two wives Octavia and Poppaea, 
 and his preceptors Seneca and Burrhus. The first five 
 years of his reign he ruled with so much clemency, that 
 when lie was to sign an order for the death of a con- 
 denjnea person, he said, " I wish I could not write." But 
 wiien he began to feel the dangerous pleasure of being 
 master of his own person and actions, he plunged himself 
 into the most infamous debaucheries. He forgot all com- 
 mon rules of decency, order, or justice. It was his' great- 
 est ambition to sing, or perform the part of an actor on 
 he stage, to play on musical instruments in the theatre, 
 to fish with nets of gold, or to drive a chariot in the circus. 
 He made a tour through the principal cities of Greece, 
 attended by a great number of singers, pantomimes, and. 
 musicians, carrying, instead of arms, instruments of mu- 
 ic, masks, and theatrical dresses. Pie gained there 
 eighteen hvmdred various sorts of crowns, at the Olym- 
 j)ian games and public diversions. Whosoever did not ap- 
 plaud all his*performances, or had not the complaisance 
 to let him carry the prize, at every race, or pubhc enter- 
 tainment, his throat was sure to be cut, or he was reserved 
 for some more cruel death. It was in the year 64 that 
 this brutal prince first drew the sword of sovereign power 
 against the Church, and returned from Greece to make 
 F 
 
 m 
 
 ii^ 
 
€S HISTORY OF HHE ** ,^ *^ 
 
 the streets of Rome stream with blood. Envying the fate 
 of Priam, who saw his country laid in ashes, Nero is 
 charged with having privately ordered the city of Rome, 
 to be set on fire, and with having caused lighted torches 
 to be thrown among the houses, that he might gkit his eyes 
 with an image of the burning of the city of Troy. During 
 this horrid tragedy he was seated on the top of a tower 
 upon a neighbouring hill, in the theatrical dress of a mu- 
 sician, singing a poem which he had composed on the 
 burning of Troy. Finding himself detested by the people, 
 who imputed the burning of Rome to him, he endeavour- 
 ed to exculpate himself, and to transfer the odium upon 
 the incendiaries. Hence he published a severe edict 
 against all the professors of Christianity, and ordered 
 vast multitudes of them to be sacrificed, not only in Rome, 
 but likewise in all the different provinces of the Roman 
 empire. At Rome some were wrapt up in the skins of 
 wild beasts, and thus exposed to be worried by dogs ; 
 others were crucified ; others burnt alive, being clad in 
 coats dipt in pitch, brimstone, or some other combustible 
 matter, and then fastened to stakes, and set on fire, that 
 they might serve, instead of torches, to illuminate the 
 streets and other public places. — See Tacitus, 1. 15, c. 44. 
 Nero himself is said to have driven his chariot, and ex- 
 hibited a public show in his gardens by the light of these 
 horrid torches. Historians relate, that no less than ten 
 thousand Christians were slain in one single city by his 
 orders. What could engage such multitudes in the Chris- 
 tian Religion, and support them in it, in defiance of death 
 in the most shocking forms, but evident truth, and a supe- 
 rior grace and strength from above ? It is the preroga- 
 tive of the Christian Religion to inspire men with such reso- 
 lution, and form them to such heroism, that they rejoice to 
 sacrifice their life to truth. This is not the bare force and 
 exertion of nature, but the undoubted power of the Al- 
 mighty, whose strength is thus made perfect in iixakness. No 
 other religion ever produced martyrs so meek, so humble, 
 so patient, so cheerful and steadfast, under the most intolera- 
 ble torments. If we contrast the pretended heroism of the 
 greatest sages of Paganism, with the fortitude and constan- 
 cy of the Christian martyrs, we shall find that the constancy 
 of the Christian is founded in humility, and its motive the 
 pure love of God, and perfect fidelity to his holy law. He 
 
11^ 
 
 11 
 
 CHURCH OF CHRIST. 6S 
 
 mters with modesty, charity, and tender fortitude, and 
 'with a pure intention that God may be known, honoured, 
 and glorified by the testimony he bears to his sovereign, 
 goodness. He desires no acclamations, seeks no ap* 
 plause, feels no sentiments of revenge, praises and 
 thanks God amidst his torments, and affectionately em- 
 races, loves, and prays for his enemies and tormentors 
 ike St. Stephen, under a shower of stones, and covered 
 ith wounds and blood. On the other hand, the vain 
 nd proud philosopher is puffed up in his own mind, be- 
 ause he suffers ; he sets forth his pretended virtue with 
 stentation ; he conceals his inward spite, rage, and de- 
 pair, under the hypocritical exterior of a forced and af- 
 ected patience ; he insults his enemies, or at least stu- 
 dies and wishes revenge. The boasted Cato dreaded and 
 abhorred the sight of Caesar, and killed himself, that he 
 might not be presented before, or owe his life to an ene- 
 my, by whom he was vanquished. Socrates was the 
 only philosopher that can be said to have died for his doc- 
 trine, and though he was esteemed the best and the wisest 
 of the Heathens, he betrayed a restless posture of mind, 
 and delivered himself with fits of hope and fear, in that 
 most famous discourse which he is supposed to have made 
 a little before his death about a future state. By the 
 haughtiness of his looks he despised and insulted his 
 udges, and by the insolence of his behaviour he pro- 
 voked them to condemn him ; and neither Phaedo, Cebes, 
 Crito, Simmias, nor any of his greatest friends in the 
 Areopagus, had the courage to maintain either his inno- 
 cence, or that doctrine for which he died. With what 
 reserve did Plato himself dogmatize, concerning the God 
 whom he worshipped in public, but denied in private ! 
 How did he dissemble, for fear of the hemlock of Seneca ! 
 How did he disguise himself, and say and unsay the 
 same excellent truths ! Only the Christians suffered with 
 true heroism, and held on suffering at this rate, until 
 they subdued the world by dying for their religion. 
 
 The disturbances under the emperors Galba, Otho, and 
 Vitellius, wtie in their turn succeeded Nero, and the 
 humane dispositions of Vespasian and his son Titus, gave 
 some respite to the Church. Vespasian, emulous of the 
 virtues of Augustus, reigned with such clemency, as to 
 be grieved at the infliction of punishment, even when It 
 
^4 HISTORY Ol' TliE 
 
 was right. Joseplms, the Jewish Historian, llattered liiiii, 
 as if he had been the Messiah foretold by the prophets. 
 But Vespasian was not free from avarice, for he laid a 
 tax upon urine, and was accustomed to say, tliat gain 
 made every thing smell sweet. Titus, on account of his 
 jugular humanity, was called the deliglit of mankind ; 
 and if he passed a day without exercising his l)cnevoleiice, 
 he used this memorable saying : " My friends, I have 
 lost a day !" He is supposed to have been poisoned by 
 liis brother, Domitian, who succeeded him in the empiie, 
 but not in his humanity, or other good qualities, for Domi- 
 tian became a second Nero in cruelty. This is the 
 Emperor who, in the beginning of his reign, entertained 
 himself in his closet with catching flies, and sticking them 
 with a sharp bodkin. Hence Vibius Crispus, being ask- 
 ed who was with the Emperor ? aptly replied, Not so 
 much as a fly. 
 
 Domitian, instigated by Satan, began the second gene- 
 ral persecution in the year 95, and published neAv edicts 
 throughout the empire against the C'hristians, by virtue 
 of which great numbers were made victims of religion. 
 Among others, he put to death Elavius Clemens, Antipas, 
 St. Nereus, and Achileus, and ordered St. John the Evan- 
 gelist to be cast into a caldron of boiling oil. 
 
 The third general persecution was carried on by the 
 permission of Trajan. This Emperor, indeed, possessed 
 many amiable qualities, which gained him from the Se- 
 nate the title of Oplimiis, or Good Prince ; but he sullied 
 his Pagan virtues by a blind superstition, and an exces- 
 sive vanity, which procured him the surname of Parie- 
 iinuSy or a dauber of every wall with the inscription of 
 his name and actions. In seven years he built the fa- 
 mous pillar which is called by his name, and justly es- 
 teemed a finished and most admirable monument of 
 antiquity. It is recorded of him, that when, according 
 to the usual custom, he delivered the sv/ord of office to 
 the chief praetor of Rome, he said, " if I rule with jus- 
 *' tice, use this for me — and against me, if'I rule other- 
 '* wise." He issued no new edicts against the faithful, 
 but he suffered the former sanguinary laws to be execut- 
 ed in different parts of the empire, in the year 106, as 
 appears from his answer to Pliny the Younjjer, governor 
 of Pontus and Bythinia, who had informed him by letf er, 
 
-'k 
 
 CHURCH OF CHRIST. '^^^■V 65 
 
 That the Christians were very numerous in the provin- 
 ces of his government, that the temples of the Gods were 
 abandoned, their feasts were interrupted, and scarce anj 
 H victims were purchased or offered, and, therefore, that 
 he wished to know his pleasure what should be done. 
 
 t Trajan's answer was : '' Let the Christians not be 
 *' sought for ; but if they be accused and convicted as 
 " such, let them he punished.*' Tertullian justly confutes 
 this absurd and unjust answer, by a keen raillery, and 
 the following dilemma : " If they are criminal, why are 
 IB " ^^^y^ ^^^ sought after ? if innocent, why are they pu- 
 IB '' nished ?" It was in the reign of this Emperor that 
 St. Clement, Bishop of Rome, and disciple of St. Pe- 
 ter, was put to death. St. Simeon, Bishop of Jerusa- 
 lem, and brother and successor of St. James the Less- 
 km ^^y suffered also a glorious martyrdom under Trajan, at 
 IH the age of J 20 years ; and St. Ignatius, Bishop of Anti- 
 P^och, was sent by him to Rome, there to be torn to pieces 
 by wild beasts in the amphitheatre. St. Ignatius wrote 
 W seven epistles, still Extant, which contain a sublimity, 
 H an energy and beauty of thought and expression that 
 " cannot be sufficiently admired. The perfect spirit of 
 humility, meekness, patience, zeal, and burning charity, 
 which they breathe in every period, cannot fail deeply to 
 affect all who attentively read them. The acts of his 
 martyrdom, written by the Christians, who accompani- 
 ed him to Rome, bear record, that a great respect was 
 paid to his sacred relics, and that they were carried to 
 Antioch, and deposited in that church as an inestimable 
 treasure. 
 
 Trajan's persecution, in some degree, continued the 
 first year of his successor, -^lius Adrianus' reign, but he 
 put a stop to it about the year 124, moved, probably, 
 both by the apologies of Q,uadratus and Aristides, and by 
 a letter which the proconsul of Asia had written to him 
 in favour of the Christians. This emperor came into 
 Britain, and separated Scotland from England by a wall 
 of 80,000 paces. So monstrous was his vanity, that he 
 caused all to be slain who pretended, in any art or sci- 
 ence, to rival him. He reduced the tumultuous Jews, 
 who revolted against the Romans, being led on by the 
 advice of Coziba, called Barchokebas, from Barchokebay 
 Son of the Star, who assumed the title of the King of the 
 F2 
 
66 HISTORY OF TUB 
 
 Jews. Adrian having defeated him, destroyed JerusaJem 
 entirely, in the year 134, and built up a nevv city on a 
 different spot, giving it the name of iEHa, and strictly 
 forbidding any of the Jews to come near it. Here was 
 formed a new church of Jerusalem, composed of Chris- 
 tian Gentiles, of which St. Marcus was the first Bishop, 
 the former Church of Jei-usalem having had thirteen holy 
 Bishops, successively, after St. Simeon, all of the Jewish 
 nation. — See Eusebius, 1. 4. c. G. St. Paulinus informs 
 us, that Adrian caused a statue of Jupiter to be erected 
 on the place where Christ rose from the dead, and a mar- 
 ble Venus on the place of his crucifixion, and at Bethle- 
 hem a grotto, consecrated in honour of Adonis, to whom 
 he also dedicated the cave where Christ was born. This 
 emperor, towards the end of his reign, abandoned him- 
 self more than ever, to acts of cruelty against the in- 
 nocent flock of Christ ; particularly against St. Sympho- 
 rosa, a widow of distinction, and her seven sons, whom, 
 he put to death because they had refused to ofiier sacri- 
 fice to his idols. At last he fell sick of a dropsy, and 
 finding no medicines gave him relief, he grew most im- 
 patient and fretful under his lingering illness, wishing for 
 death, and lamenting day and night that death refused 
 to obey and deliver him, who had caused the death of so 
 raany others. He at length hastened his death, by eat- 
 ing and drinking- things contrary to his health in his dis- 
 temper, and expired with these words in his mouth : 
 Turha medicorum Cazsarem perdidit — The multitude of 
 physicians hath killed the Emperor. 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 The Church of the Second ^Century 
 
 THE Christian Religion, by the beginning of the se- 
 cond century, had prodigiously increased, and spread it- 
 self through a ^reat extent in Europe, Asia, and Africa. 
 St. Justin, in his dialogue with Trypho, the most learned 
 man among the Jens, tells him, " that there is no race 
 *' of men, whether Greeks or Barbarians, or of whatever 
 ^'^cther denomination, amongst-Avhom prayers and euch;at- 
 
CHURCH OF CHRIST. 6T 
 
 '^ list are not offered to the Father and Maker of all 
 " things, in the name of Jesus crucified," St. Irenaeus, 
 who, with St. Pothinus, estabhshed the faith at Lyons 
 and Vienne in Gaul, says, 1. 1. c. 3, "As the sun is one 
 
 Knd the same in the whole universe, so also the faith, 
 isseininated through the whole world, is kept with 
 reat care one and the same : for, though in the world 
 '' there is a variety of languages, yet the virtue of tradi- 
 *' tion is the same in Germany, Spain, Gaul, E«:ypt, and 
 *' Lybia. The light of the preaching of the truth every 
 " where shines and enlightens all men who are willing to 
 " come to the knowled";e of the truth.'' TertuUiau 
 also soon after, tells the Romans, Apologet. c. 37, p. 
 39, '^ We are but of yesterday, and we have overspread 
 *' your empire. Your cities, your islands, your forts, 
 " towns, arid assemblies, — your very armies, wards, 
 '' companies, tribes, palaces, senate, and forum, SAvarni 
 " with Christians. We have left nothing but your tem- 
 " pies to yourselves." In his book against the Jews, c.7, 
 p. 189, he likewise says, " Now the various tribes of the 
 *' Getulians and Moors, in all parts of Spain and Gaul, 
 " and amongst the Sarmatians, ])aci, Germans, and Scy- 
 *' thians, and the territories of the Britons, which were 
 '' inaccessible to the Romans, are subject to the religion 
 " of Jesus Christ."' He also Avonclerfully extols the 
 Christians of those times, for the purity of their morals, 
 arid the sanctity of their lives ; and, challenging the In- 
 fidels to the trial, he bids them spill on the spot the 
 blood of that Christian whose prayer, in the name of 
 Jesus, should fail to cast the devil out of a demoniac pre- 
 sented to him, — Apolog. c. 23. 
 
 St. Linus, a disciple of St. Peter, was his immediate 
 mccessor in the see of Rome after his martyrdom, and 
 governed the Church for eleven years. St. Cletus was 
 :he third Bishop of Rome, and succeeded St. Linus : he 
 >at. twelve years in the chair of St. Peter, and distinguish- 
 ]id himself among the illustrious disciples of the Apostles, 
 vho were formed upon their mode!, to perfect virtue, and 
 illed with the holy spirit of the Gospel. Upon the de- 
 nise of St. Cletus, St. Clement a fellow-labourer v.ith St. 
 ?eter and St. Paul in the vineyard of the Lord, was 
 ilaced in the apostolic chair, and, according to the Li- 
 jerian Calendar, he sat nine ye;ars, eleven months, and 
 
68 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 twenty days. He wrote an excellent epistle to thfi 
 Church of Corinth, on account of a schism that happen- 
 ed there amongst the faithful, a party of whom had re- 
 belled against some irreproachable priests, and presumed 
 to depose them. The epistle the Saint wrote on this 
 occasion is a piece highly extolled, and esteemed by pri- 
 mitive antiquity, as worthy of a disciple of the Apostles, 
 In his days Hermas, who is supposed to be the same 
 whom St. Paul salutes, Rom. 16. 14, wrote a book in 
 recommendation of penance, called Pastor, or the Shep- 
 herd, which was so highly esteemed, that it was placed 
 in rank next to the canonical books of the Holy Scrip- 
 tures. St. Linus, St. Cletus, and St. Clement, are named 
 in ttie Roman Marty rology, as having purchased the title 
 of martyrs, by their sufferings for the faith. Nay, the 
 thirty-six first Bishops of Rome, down to Liberius, and, 
 this one excepted, all the Popes, to Symmachus, the 
 fifty-second, in the year 498, are honoured among the 
 Saints and glorious Martyrs, for their piety, and for their 
 sufferings in the cause of Jesus Christ. 
 
 After St. Clement, there sat in the chair of St. Peter, 
 Anacletus, Evaristus, Alexander, Sixtus, Telesphorus, 
 &c. The first fervour of the primitive Christians w^s 
 preserved in this century by thousands of the faithful in 
 different parts of the world ; the succession of Saints was 
 kept up in the Church of Christ, and the doctrine of 
 faith was invariably maintained in its purity, as original- 
 ly derived from Christ and his Apostles, by numbers of 
 holy bishops and doctors ; for, whilst the holy martyrs 
 were bearing testimony to the faith by the effusion of 
 their blood, Divine Providence raised up a multitude 
 of holy prelates and illustrious writers, to guard it 
 against the snares of heresy, and to defend it by their 
 learned apologies. The spirit of fervour and perfect 
 sanctity, vt^hich is now-a-days so rarely found in the very 
 sanctuaries of virtue, was then conspicuous in most of the 
 faithful, and especially in their pastors. The whole 
 tenour of their lives, both in retirement and in their 
 public actions, breathed it in such a manner, as to render 
 them the miracles of the world, angels on earth, and 
 living copies of their Divine Redeemer. Anacletus go- 
 verned the Church with great prudence for nine years 
 and three months, according to the Liberian Pontifical, 
 
CHURCH OF CHRIST. Bf 
 
 d a very old Vatican manuscript register. Evaristiis 
 
 Ioverned the Church nine years, and died in the year 
 ^2. Alexander died in 119. Sixtus governed the 
 jihurch ten years, at a time when that dignity was the 
 ^mnion step to martyrdom. Telesphorus was a Grecian 
 y hirth, and the ninth Bishop of Rome : he sat eleven 
 years, and saw the havock which the persecution ol' 
 Adrian made in the Church. Hyginus was placed in the 
 chair of St. Peter in the year 139, and sat fouryears, ac- 
 
 Iiprding to Eusebins. In the year 140 Cerdo, a wolf in 
 peep's clolhinjj;, came from Syria to Rome, and began 
 i teach that there v/ere two gods, the one rigorous and 
 ^vere, the author of the Old Testament — the other 
 merciful and good, the author of the New, and the father 
 of Christ, sent by him to redeem man from the tyranny 
 of the former. Tlie holy Pope, by his pastoral vigilance, 
 soon detected that monster, and cut him off from the 
 communion of the Church. Th6 heresiarch, imposing 
 upon him by a false repentance, was again received ; but 
 the zealous pastor, having discovered that he secretly 
 preached his old impious opinions, excommunicated him 
 a second time. Another heresiarch, called Valentine, 
 came from Alexandria to Rome, and revived the errors 
 of Simon Magus. Being a Platonic Philosopher, and 
 prifled up with the vain opinion of his learning, he also 
 broached many absurd and extravagant doctrines of his 
 "tvn. PIyj:;inus endeavoured in vain to reclaim him, with- 
 t proceeding to extremities. After his death, Pius, by 
 om he was succeeded, condemned Valentine, and re- 
 cted Marcian the heresiarch, who adopted the errors 
 Cerdo. Amcetus governed the Church from the year 
 5 to 173, and tolerated the custom of the Asiatics, in 
 lebratino; Easter on the fourteenth day of the first 
 oon after the vernal equinox, with the Jews. His vigi- 
 nce protected his flock from the wiles of Valentine and 
 arcian, who attempted to corrupt the faith. Soter, 
 ing raised to the see of Rome, vigorously opposed the 
 resy of Montanus, a vain, ambitious man, of Ma^sia, on 
 the confines of Phrygia, who, out of an unbounded desire 
 of invading the first dignities of the Church, and filled 
 with rao:e to '^ee himself disappointed, commenced false 
 prophet, and began to preach against the Church, deny- 
 ing that it had power to forgive certain sins. He pre- 
 
70 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 tended that the holy Ghost spoke by his mouth ; uttered 
 extraordinary expressions in an enthusiastic strain, and 
 pubhshed forged revelations. His followers afterwards 
 advanced that he was himself the Holy Ghost, the Para- 
 clete Spirit, sent by Christ to perfect the law. They af- 
 fected an excessive rigour ; had many fasts ; kept three 
 lents in the year ; refused the communion and absolution 
 to persons who had fallen into any sin of idolatry, mur- 
 der, and of impurity ; condemned second marriages as 
 adulteries, and as inconsistent with the perfect law of 
 chastity. The Montanists were also called, from their 
 country, Cataphryges, and Pepuzeni, from Pepuzium, a 
 little town, which was their capital, and which they 
 called Jerusalem. Priscilla and Maximilla, two women 
 of quality, left their husbands, and being filled with the 
 same spirit, spoke like Montanus, vaunted their pretend- 
 ed prophecies, and became the oracles of their deluded 
 votaries. But their hypocrisy was confounded, and their 
 errors refuted and condemned, in a great conference held 
 at Ancyra, in the year 188. Some, who had braved 
 the racks of the persecutors, and despised the allure- 
 ments of pleasure, had the misfortune to become the 
 dupes of these wretched enthusiasts. About the same 
 time Tatian fell from the Church. He was a Platonic Phi- 
 losopher, puffed up with the opinion of his own knowledge 
 and learning, and fond of novelty and singularity. He 
 borrowed several of his errors from Marcian, Valentinus, 
 and Saturninus, and condemned second marriage as no 
 less criminal than adultery. Hence his followers were 
 called Encratit(Ky or the continent. They were likewise 
 called Aquainif because, in consecrating the Eucharist, 
 they used only water, for they condemned all use of 
 wine, and likewise the use of flesh meat, as St. Epipha- 
 nius, St. Irenaeus, and St. Clement of Alexandria, inform 
 us. Thus it is, that false prophets wear every face ex- 
 cept that of a sincere and docile humility and obedience. 
 Pharisee like, they please themselves, and gratify their 
 own pride, in an affected austerity, by which they seek 
 to establish themselves in the opinion of others, but tiieir 
 severity usually ends in some shameful libertinism, when 
 vanity, the main spring of their ps^sions, is either cloyed, 
 or finds nothing to gratify it. ( 
 
 Eleutherius, who succeeded Soter, was watchful to cut 
 
CHURCH Cf¥ CHRIST. 71 
 
 these scandals in their root, and every where to 
 laintain the faith in its original purity. — He had the af- 
 Iction to see the Church beaten with violent storms and 
 Persecutions, but he had, on the other side, the comfort 
 find the losses richly repaired, by the acquisition of 
 ;w countries to the Christian Religion. The Light of 
 c Gospel had, in the very times of the Apostles, crossed 
 e sea into the island of Great Britain, but seems to have 
 en almost choked by the tares of the reigning super- 
 stitions, or oppressed by the tumults of wars, in the re- 
 ■Jpction of that island under the Roman yoke, till God, 
 'who chose poor fishermen to convert the world, inspired 
 —Lucius, a petty king, who held a part of that remote 
 Blonquered country, in subjection to the Romans, to send 
 Bfc solemn embassy to Rome, as venerable Bede informs 
 Ip, praying Eleutherius to grant him some zealous clergy- 
 ^nen, who might instruct his subjects, and celebrate and 
 administer to them the divine mysteries. The holy Pope, 
 ■jtaiving received the message with joy, sent over St. Fu- 
 ^^itius and St. Dumianus, apostolical men, who baptized 
 King Lucius and many others, and preached Christ in 
 Britain with such fruit, that the faith, in a short time, 
 passed out of the provinces which obeyed the Romans, 
 into those Northern parts which were inaccessible to their 
 eagles, as Tertullian observed soon after. 
 
 Eleutherius dying in the year 192, after having go- 
 verned the Church fifteen years, was succeeded in the 
 pontificate by Victor, a native of Africa, who zealously 
 opposed the creeping heresies of that age. Theodotus 
 of Byzantiimi, a tanner, having apostatized from the 
 faith to save his life in a persecution, afterwards, to ex- 
 tenuate his guilt, pretended that he hud denied only a 
 man, not God, teaching that Christ was nothing more 
 than a mere man, as the Socinians teach at this day ; 
 whereas, the Arians allowed him to have been before 
 the world, though they impiously asserted hi'm to be a 
 creature. Theodotus, being well versed in polite litera- 
 ture, drew many into his blasphemous errors, but Victor 
 2hecked his progress at Rome, by excommunicating him, 
 ivith Ebion, Artemon, and another Theodotus, called 
 Frapezita, or the Banker, who taught the same blasphe- 
 y, and was author of the Melchisedechian Heresy, 
 hich a<*s^rted that Melchisedec was greater than Christv 
 

 72 . HISTORY Oh Tlili 
 
 Praxeas, also began to sow a new heresy at Rome abou^ 
 this time, maintaining but one person in God, and attri- 
 buting crucifixion to the Father as well as to the Son, ibr 
 which reason his followers were called Patripassians. 
 His errors beinj: brought to light, he was cut ofi' from the 
 communion of the Church. It was this same Praxcas 
 who, before that, had brought Pope Victor an ample 
 account from the East of the tenets and practice of the 
 Montanists, who had deceived Victor, and prevailed on 
 him, by the favourable report he had heard of their 
 morals and virtue, to send them letters of comnmnion. 
 It was easy to be deceived in a matter of fact concern- 
 ing persons at such a distance, and who, for a long time, 
 disguised themselves under the garb of hypocrisy ; but 
 he no sooner answered their letters, and was undeceived 
 as to their persons, and their facts and tenets, than he 
 immediately recalled his letters of peace, and condemned 
 these innovators. So that Dr. Cave, and some others, 
 who think that the Pope approved of their doctrine, are 
 greatly mistaken. 
 
 Victor exerted his zeal in the dispute about the time 
 of celebrating Easter, The Churches of Lesser Asia 
 kept it, with the Jews, on the 14th day of the first moon 
 after the Vernal Equinox, on whatever day of the week 
 it fell. The Roman Church, and all the rest of the woi-ld, 
 kept Easter always on the Sunday imniediatcly follouing 
 that 14th day. Anicetus permitted the Asiatics, even at 
 Rome, to follow their own custom, but Soter o])liged 
 them to conform to the customs of the places where they 
 should be. Several councils unanimously determined the 
 point according to the Roman custom. BJastus, who 
 pretended that the custom tolerated in the Oiientals was 
 a divine precept, and ought to be followed at Rome, v. as 
 degraded by Eleutherius. Those who did this upon the 
 false principle that the Jewish ceremonial laws bound 
 Christians, and were not abolished Avhen fulfilled by ihe 
 coming of Christ, were deemed lieretics. Others, on ac- 
 count of their separation from the Church, and obstinate- 
 ly refusing submission to its decrees and censures, were, 
 after the Cou^icil of Nice, looked ujson as schismatics, 
 and were called Quciriodechmms. Victor, seeing the 
 Asiatics fixed in their resolution to follow their ov. n cus- 
 toxn, and thinking the difference of this rite might be 
 
CatUCH OF CHRIST. ^^^^^^ «jr3 
 
 dangerous to the unity of the Church, threatened to ex- 
 eommunicate them, but was dissuaded by a letter which St. 
 Irenaeus wrote to him on the subject. Victor died in the 
 year 201, after he had sat ten years. What veneration, 
 must the morality of the Gospel command, when set off 
 with all its lustre in the lives and spirit of such zealous 
 pastors, since the bare precepts and maxims it lays down 
 are allowed, by Deists and Infidels themselves, to claim 
 the highest respect, and to be most admirable and evi- 
 dently divine ! 
 
 The principal ecclesiastical writers who flourished in 
 this age, and wrote in vindication of the Christian Reli- 
 gion, were, St. Justin ; St. Irenaeus ; St. Q,uadratus ; St. 
 Clement, of Alexandria ; St. Aristides, of Athens ; St. 
 Hegesippus ; St. Melito, Bishop of Sardis, in Lydia ; St. 
 Theophilus, Bishop of Antioch ; St. Serapion, the eighth 
 Bishop of the same see ; St. Dionysius, Bishop of Corinth ; 
 St. Pinitus ; St. Philip, Bishop of Crete ; St. Apolinaris, 
 Bishop of Hierapolis ; St. Apollonius ; St. Pantanus, mas- 
 ter of the famous school of Alexandria, and afterwards 
 preacher of the Gospel in the East Indies ; Athenagoras ; 
 Tertullian, and others ; many of whose choice produc- 
 tions are not come to our hands, except a few fragments. 
 Justin was brought up by his father in the errors and su- 
 perstitions of Paganism, and spent his youth in reading 
 the Poets, orators, and historians. Having gone through 
 the usual course of their studies, he applied himself to 
 philosophy in quest of truth, an ardent love of which was 
 his predominant passion. He addressed himself, first to 
 Stoic, then to Peripatetic, and afterwards to Pythago- 
 rean masters, who boasted much of their wisdom, but 
 preferring the school of an academic, he soon made a 
 great progress under him, in the Platonic philosophy. 
 Upon an inquiry into the credibility of the Christian Re- 
 ligion, and seeing the innocence and true virtue of its 
 professors, and admiring the courage and constancy with 
 which they suffered the sharpest tortures, rather than 
 deny their faith, or commit the least sin, he embraced 
 Christianity, from a conviction of its superior excellency, 
 and because he found it to be the only true philosophy. 
 He came to Rome after his conversion, and published 
 some works to convince the Heathens of the reasonable- 
 aess of his having deserted Pao-anism. Herein he shows 
 G 
 
74 HISTORY OP THE 
 
 the errors and absurdity of Idolatry, and the vanity of 
 the Heathen Philosophers, and proves the unity of God 
 from their own testimonies and reasons. He demon- 
 strates the imperfection of the Jewish worship, and sets 
 forth the purity and sanctity of the Christian doctrine. 
 He explains clearly the Divinity of Christ the Maker of all 
 things, and Son of Gody and wonderfully extols " the im- 
 *^ mense goodness and love of God for man, in creating 
 " him, and the world for his use, and in sending his only 
 " begotten Son to teach us his holy mysteries, and when 
 *^ we deserved only chastisement, to pay the full price of 
 " our redemption : the Holy one to suffer for sinners — 
 " the person offended, for the offenders." He defended 
 the Catholic faith against Marcian, and against all the 
 heresies of that age, and for two entire days disputed, in 
 the presence of several witnesses, with Tryphon, a fa- 
 mous Philosopher, and the most celebrated Jew of those 
 times, as Eusebius says. Justin, after he became a 
 Christian, continued to wear the pallium, or cloak, which 
 was the singular badge of a philosopher. Tryphon ca- 
 sually meeting him, and seeing the philosopher's cloak, ad- 
 dressed him on the excellency of philosophy. Justus an- 
 swered, that he admired he should not rather study Moses 
 and the Prophets, in comparison of whom all the writings 
 of the philosopers are empty jargon and foolish dreams. 
 Then he showed, that, according to the Prophets, the 
 Old Law was temporary, and to be abolished by the 
 New ; that Christ was God before all ages, distinct from 
 the Father, the same that appeared to Abraham, Moses, 
 &c. the same that created man, and was himself made 
 man, and crucified. Justin afterwards committed this 
 dialogue to writing : The Socinians dread the authority 
 of it, on account of the clear proofs which it furnishes of 
 the divinity of Christ. But what chiefly renders Justin's 
 name so illustrious, were the apologies which he address- 
 ed to the Emperor and Senate of Rome, about the years 
 150 and 167. The lies and calumnies generally spread 
 abroad by the enemies and slanderers of the Christian 
 name, served for a pretence to justify the persecutions 
 that were raised against them. They were every where 
 traduced, as a wicked and barbarous set of people, ene- 
 mies to their very species. They were deemed Atheists, 
 and accused of practising the mo^t abominable evils, and 
 
CHURCH OF CHRIST. 75 
 
 forming conspiracies against the state ; which slanders 
 seem to have been founded on the secrecy of their mys- 
 
 »ries. They were said in their sacred assemblies to 
 ed on the flesh of a murdered child ; to which calumny 
 false notion of the blessed sacrament of the Eucharist 
 might give birth. Celsus, and other Heathens, add, that 
 they adored the cross ; which slander seems to have 
 been grounded on the respect that was shown to the sign 
 of the Holy Cross since the earliest years of Christianity. 
 |A.ll these circumstances stirred up the zeal of St. Justin 
 to write and present his apologies, wherein he sets forth 
 the sanctity and manners of Christians, and shows that 
 they ought not to be condemned barely for the name of 
 Christian. He vindicates their faith from all the slanders 
 that were forged and unjustly propagated against it. He 
 describes the manner of sanctifying the Sunday, by meet- 
 , ing to celebrate the divine mysteries, to read the Pro- 
 phets, hear the exhortation of him that presides, aud 
 make a collection of alms to be distributed among the 
 orphans, widows, sick, prisoners, and strangers. He de- 
 scribes the sacraments ofvBaptism and the blessed Eucha- 
 rist, mentioning the latter also as a sacrifice : " No one," 
 says he, n. 66. p. 83. " is allowed to partake of this food, 
 " but he that believes our doctrines to be true, and who 
 " has been baptized in the laver of regeneration for re- 
 " mission of sins, and lives up to what Christ has taught ; 
 " for we take not these as common bread and common 
 ** drink, but like as Jesus Christ our Saviour, being in- 
 '^ carnate by the word of God, had both flesh and blood 
 ^' for our salvation, so are we taught that this food, by 
 ** which our flesh and blood are nourished, over which 
 " thanks have been given by the prayers in his own 
 " words, is the flesh and blood of the incarnate Jesus." 
 He shows, in fine, that the Christians fly all oaths, love 
 even enemies ; abhor the least impurity ; are patient and 
 meek ; readily pay all taxes ; respectfully obey and ho- 
 nour princes ; share their riches with the poor ; have 
 so great an abhorrence of the least wilfid untruth, that 
 they were ready, rather to die, than to save their lives 
 by a lie ; that numbers among them who were then sixty 
 years old, had served God from their infancy in a state 
 of spotless virginity, without having oflJended against the 
 virtue of chastity, in action, or even in thought j th^ 
 
H6 HISTORY Of T»E 
 
 their fidelity to God was inviolable, and their constancy 
 in observing his law invincible, "No one," says he, can 
 *' affright from their duty those who beheve in Jesus. In 
 " all parts of the earth we cease not to confess him,, 
 " though we lose our heads, be crucified, or exposed to 
 " wild beasts." This great and ancient Father of the 
 Church suffered martyrdom about the year 167, in the 
 reign of Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus. 
 
 St. Irenasus is called, by Theodoret, the Light of the 
 Western Gauls, and, by St. Epiphanius, a most learned 
 and eloquent man, endowed with all the gifts of the Holy 
 Ghost. He was a scholar of the great St. Polycarp, and 
 ofPapias, another disciple of the Apostles, St. Gregory 
 of Tours informs us, that St. Polycarp sent Irenaeus into 
 Gaul, where he was ordained by St. Pothynus, Bisho|) of 
 I-iyons. After the death of St. Pothynus, he was chosen 
 second Bishop of Lyons, and by his preaching he, in a 
 short time, converted almost that whole country to the 
 faith. He wrote five books against the heresies of his 
 days, and confuted them by the Holy Scriptures, by the 
 Apostles' Creed, and by the unanimity of all churches in 
 the same faith. He testifies, that the Christians, by the 
 gift of God, cast out devils, cured the sick, raised the 
 dead, and performed miraculous works every day, over 
 the whole world in the name of Christ Jesus. — 1. 2. c. 57. 
 He describes the superstitions and impostures of the 
 heresiarch Mark, " who, in consecrating chalices filled 
 *^ with water and wine, according to the Christian rite, 
 " made the chalices appear filled with a certain red liquor, 
 " which he called blood ; and who allowed women to 
 " consecrate the holy mysteries." In his third book he 
 complains ^' that when the heretics are pressed by scrip- 
 *H^ ture, they elude it by pretending to fly to tradition, 
 '^ but that when tradition is urged against them, they 
 " abandon it to appeal to the scripture alone, whereas, 
 *' both scripture and tradition confute them." He ob- 
 serves, " that the Apostles certainly delivered the truth, 
 *' and all the mysteries of our faith, to their successors, 
 '^ the pastors ; to these therefore, we ought to have re- 
 " course to learn, especially to the greatest Church, the 
 *' most ancient and known to all, founded at Rome by the 
 *' two most glorious Apostles, Peter and Paul, which re- 
 « tajiis the tradition that it received from them, and wliich 
 
CHURCH OF CHRISt. 7Tt 
 
 ** is derived, through a succession of Bishops, down tct 
 " us." He adds, that " the Valentinians and Marcianites 
 " had nothing but the novelty of their doctrine to show ; 
 ** for the Valentinians were not before Valentinus, nor 
 ^* the Marcianites before Marcian. All these arose much 
 " too late, their novelty alone suffices to confound them." 
 In his fourth book he proves the unity of the Godhead, 
 and teaches, (c. 17, 18.) " that Christ, abolishing the an- 
 " cient sacrifices, instituted the clean oblation of his body 
 ** and blood, to be offered every where, as is foretold ia 
 *^ Malachy." In the fifth book he proves our redemptioii 
 by Christ, and the resurrection of the dead, and mentions 
 the prophetic gifts and other miraculous powers then sub- 
 sisting in the Church. A correct edition of the works o£ 
 this primitive father has been published by Dom. Mas- 
 suel a Benedictine Maurist, in the year 1710. They 
 were published by Erasmus before, and in the year 1702, 
 by Grabe, but this last editor often makes too bold with 
 the text, and turns it to a wrong sense, in order to favour 
 his own innovations. St. Irenaeus suffered martyrdom ia 
 the general massacre of the Christians at Lyons, whilst 
 the Pagans were celebrating the decennial games, in ho- 
 nour of the Emperor Severus, as he passed through that 
 city in his expedition into Britain. St. Gregory of Tours 
 writes, that almost all the Christians of that populous 
 city were butchered with Irenaeus, and that the streets 
 ran with streams of blood. An ancient epitaph, in leo^ 
 nine verses, inscribed on a curious Mosaic pavement ia 
 the great Church at Lyons, says, the number of martyrs 
 who died with him amounted to nineteen thousand. 
 
 St. Quadratus, Bishop of Athens, was a disciple of the 
 Apostles, inherited their spirit and gifts, and by his mira- 
 cles and labours exceedingly propagated the faith, as 
 Eusebius testifies. He succeeded St. Publius, the imme- 
 diate successor of St. Dionysius, the Areopagite, and was 
 esteemed by the heathens as a greater ornament to their 
 city, than the seat of the Muses. He presented to the 
 
 ^^mperor Adrian an apology for the Christian Religion, 
 
 Home time after the martyrdom of St. Publius, and it pro- 
 cured him such applause, even among the Heathens, 
 that it extinguished a violent persecution. 
 
 Clement of Alexandria was a native of Athens, well 
 
 I skilled in the Platonic Philosophy, and a scholar of Pan- 
 
 ' G2 
 
IB 1M STORY OF THE 
 
 taenus, who taught the Catechetical school at Alexandria. 
 In his search of truth he discovered the folly of idolatry, 
 and came to the light of faith. Pantaeniis being sent by 
 the Bishop Demetrius into the Indies, in the year 189, 
 Clement succeeded him in the great school of the Chris- 
 tian doctrine at Alexandria, in which he taught with suc- 
 cess, and, among other scholars of great eminence, had 
 Origen and St. Alexander, afterwards Bishop of Jerusalem 
 and martyr. He was promoted to the priesthood about 
 the year 195, and published several books, wherein he 
 laid open the absurdity of idolatry, and gave an histori- 
 cal account of its mythology. He shows in what man- 
 ner the Christians lived in those early ages, and lays 
 down many excellent rules for conducting souls to true 
 perfection. Great erudition is displayed in all his writ- 
 ings. He died at Alexandria before the end of the reign 
 of Caracalla, who was slain by Macrinus, in the year 217, 
 
 St. Hegesippus, a primitive father near the times of the 
 Apostles, wrote an history of the Church, in five books, 
 from the passion of Christ down to his own time in the 
 year 133, and gave in it illustrious proofs of his faith, 
 showing the apostolical tradition, and proving, that no 
 episcopal see, or particular church had fallen into error, 
 but had in all things preserved inviolably the truths de- 
 livered by Christ, as Eusebius informs us, lib. 4. c. 22. 
 
 St. Theophilus was one of the most illustrious bishops 
 and learned fathers of the second century. His writings 
 are highly valued by Eusebius and St. Jerdm, for elegance 
 of style, variety of erudition, and a discreet and w arm 
 spirit of piety and religion. His parents, being Gentiles, 
 trained him in idolatry, and gave him a liberal education. 
 He was well versed in the works of the greatest masters 
 of ancient philosophy ; but finding the religion, in which 
 he was reared, to be not only unsatisfactory, but also 
 absurd and ridiculous, he had too honest an hesirt to take 
 Tip with falsehood and impiety, because it was fashiona- 
 ble. In his diligent inquiry after truth, he fell upon the 
 books of the Prophets and Gospels, and was much de- 
 lighted with the sublime verities which they contain. 
 The doctrine of the resurrection was for some time a 
 ^reat stumbling block to him. There was scarcely any 
 article of faith which met with so mufih opposition as this 
 from the Heathen Philosophers. So full were their 
 
^neac 
 
 IJHURCH OP CHRIST. ^9 
 
 (Is of the axiom, that from a privation of form to the 
 repossession of it, there can be no return, that they un- 
 derstood it, not only of the order of things in the ordinary 
 course of nature, but as if it implied a contradiction, 
 though certainly in the supernatural order of things, it is 
 equally easy to Omnipotence to restore our scattered 
 parts, and combine them again into the same mass, as it 
 was at first to create them out of nothing. Theophilus 
 at length conquered this difficulty, by reading the sacred 
 
 iracles of truth, and by frequent reflections upon the 
 lany shadows of a resurrection which God had impress- 
 d upon several parts of the creation, in the common 
 ourse of nature. After his conversion, being chosen 
 iishop of Antioch, and successor to Eros, he laboured 
 zealously to promote virtue and true religion, and to 
 draw sinners from the wanderings of heresy and idolatry 
 into the paths of eternal life. Heresies and schisms he 
 compared to dangerous rocks, upon which whoever is 
 
 tast nins the dreadful hazard of losing his immortal soul. 
 As pirates," says he, "by striking on rocks, dash to 
 pieces their laden vessels, so whoever are drawn aside 
 from the truth shall be miserably overwhelmed in their 
 error." — 1. 2. ad Antolyc. p. 183. He tells them, 
 that it is in vain to make an inquiry after truth, unless 
 " they reform their hearts, and proceed with views per- 
 ^' fectly pure ; for the passions raise clouds, which blind 
 ^ reason. All men have eyes," says he, "yet the sun is 
 Hg veiled from the eyes of some : it, however, ceases not 
 |Bto emit a flood of day, though those whose eyes are 
 ^* blinded, see not its radiant light. But this defect is not 
 *' to be laid to their charge, nor can the sun be com- 
 ** plained of on account of their blindness." 
 
 St. Dionysius, Bishop of Corinth, flourished under the 
 Emperor Marcus Aurelius. This primitive father says, 
 " that St. Peter and St. Paul, after planting the faith at 
 1^ Corinth, went both into Italy, and there sealed their 
 " testimony with their blood." Eusebius mentions seve- 
 ral of his instructive letters to the faithful. 
 ■^ St. Apollinaris rendered his name illustrious hy a noble 
 Topology for the Christian Religion, which he addressed to 
 the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, about the year 175, to re- 
 mind him of the benefit he had received from God, by 
 the prayers of the Christians, and to imt)lore his prote(^ 
 
to HISTORY OF THE 
 
 St. Apollonius also composed an excellent apology m 
 vindication of the Christians, and spoke it in a full senate, 
 but having refused to renounce Christianity, he was con- 
 demned to be beheaded about the year 186. 
 
 St. Pantaenus, a learned father of the second century, 
 is for his eloquence, styled, by St. Clement of Alexandria, 
 the Sicilian See, being by profession a Stoic philosopher, 
 his esteem for virtue led him into an acquaintance with 
 the Christians, and being charmed with the innocence 
 and sanctity of their conversation, he opened his eyes to 
 the truth, and embraced the faith. 
 
 Tertullian was born at Carthage, in the year 160. He 
 applied himself from his youth to the study of every 
 branch of literature, poetry, philosophy, geometry, phy- 
 sic, and oratory. He dived into the principles of each 
 sect, and both into the fabulous and into the real or his- 
 torical part of mythology. His comprehensive genius 
 led him through the whole circle of profane sciences. 
 He had a surprising vivacity and keenness of wit, and an 
 uncommon stock of natural fire, which rendered him ex- 
 ceedingly hot and impatient, as himself complains. His 
 other passions he restrained after his conversion to 
 Christianity. The motives which engaged him to em- 
 brace the Christian Religion were the antiquity of the 
 Mosaic w'ritings, the mighty w^orks and wisdom of the 
 Divine Law-giver ; the continued chain of prophecy and 
 wonders conducting the attentive inquirer to Christ ; the 
 evidence of the miracles of Christ and his Apostles ; the 
 excellency of the law of the Gospel, and its amazing in- 
 fluence upon the lives of men ; the power which every 
 Christian then exercised over evil spirits ; and the tes- 
 timony of the very devils themselves, whom the infi- 
 dels worshipped for Gods, and who turned preachers 
 of Christ, howling and confessing themselves devils in 
 the presence of their own votaries — Apol. c. 19, 20. 23, 
 &c. Being excellently formed for controversy, he im- 
 mediately began to write in defence of religion, which 
 was then attacked by the Heathens and Jews on one 
 side, and on the other by heretics. He successfully 
 employed his pen against all these enemies to truth. 
 The persecution which began to rage, gave occasion 
 to his Apologetic, which is a master-piece, and indispu- 
 tably one of the best among all the works of Christian 
 
CHUROH OP CHRIST. 81 
 
 intiquity. By it be gave a deadly blow to Paganism, 
 and refuted all the calumnies published against the Chris- 
 tians. He shows the divine morality of their doctrine, 
 and exposes the incoherence and absurdity of the Pagan 
 religion. He mentions their submission to the Emperors, 
 their love of their enemies, their mutual charity, horror 
 of all vice, patience and constancy in suffering death and 
 all manner of torments for the sake of virtue. The Hea- 
 thens called them, in derision, Sm'mentiiians and Scmax- 
 
 .^jf^ns, because they were fastened by the executioners to 
 
 IH'unks of trees, and stuck about with fagots, to be set on 
 fire : but Tertullian answers them, '' Thus dressed about 
 "with fire, we are in our most illustrious apparel ; these 
 "are our triumphal robes, embroidered with palm branch- 
 " es, in token of victory, and mounted upon the pile we 
 "look upon ourselves as in our triumphal chariot. Who- 
 " ever looked well into our religion, but he came over 
 "to it } And who ever came over to it, but was ready to 
 
 H^ suffer for it ^ We thank you for condemning us, be- 
 " cause there is such a blessed discord between the di- 
 *^vine and human judgment, that when you condemn us 
 " upon earth, God absolveth us in heaven." 
 
 In his excellent book of Prescriplion against HereticSy 
 he lays a great stress on his communion with all the 
 Apostolic Churches, especially that of Rome, and con- 
 futes by general principles all heresies that can arise. 
 He shows, " that the appeal to scripture is very unjust 
 " in them who have no claim or title to the scriptures : 
 " Those were carefully committed in trust by the Apostles 
 " to their successors ;" and he proves, that " to whom 
 " the scriptures were intrusted, to them also was com- 
 
 l^mitted the interpretation of scripture." He urges, c. 
 
 IB5, " that Marcian — Appelles — Valentinus — and Hermo- 
 
 ■■' genes, a Stoic Philosopher and Christian in Africa, who 
 
 " taught matter to be eternal, were of too modern a date, 
 
 ** and that the Church was before them, and that before 
 
 " they can commence Apostles, they ought to say, that 
 
 ■^ Christ came down again from Heaven, and taught again 
 
 Iv upon earth." He says, " that if they have the confi- 
 *' dence to put in their claim to apostolic antiquity, they 
 " should prove their mission by miracles, like the Apostles, 
 " and should show the original of their Churches, the 
 '* ordjer and succession gf their Bishops so as to ascend up 
 
$2 ft I STORY OF THE 
 
 " to an Apostle," &c. He adds, '' to these men the 
 *' Church might thus freely address herself : Who are 
 " ye ? when, and from whence came ye ? What do ye in 
 *' my pastures, who are none of mine ? By what authori- 
 *' ty do you, Marcian, break in upon my enclosures ? 
 *' Whence, O Apelles, is your power to remove my land- 
 " marks ? This field is mine of right : why, then, do you 
 *' at your pleasure sow and feed therein ? It is my pos- 
 *' session : I held it in times past ; I first had it in my 
 " hands : my title to it is firm and indisputable, and de- 
 " rived from those persons whose it was, and to whom it 
 " properly belonged — I am the heir of the Apostles ;♦ as* 
 *' they provided in their testament, as they committed 
 ^' and delivered to my trust, as they charged and ordered 
 ^' me, so I hold." — c. 37. He observes, in fine, in this 
 book, that heresies are no just cause of scandal or won- 
 der, any more than fevers, which consume the human 
 body ; for they were predicted by Christ, and they are 
 the necessary consequence of the criminal passions of 
 ipen, who are unwilling to be governed by any rules, but 
 model every thing according to their own fancy. 
 
 The most useful among his other works, and the best 
 polished, is his book On Penance, wherein he treats of 
 repentance a:t Baptism, and for the sins committed after 
 Baptism, which he there proves the Church has power to 
 lemit. 
 
 In his treatise On the shotos he represents them as oc- 
 casions of sin, and the Stage as the school of the world, 
 and of course an antichristian school : He mentions a 
 lyoman, who, going to the theatre, returned back pos- 
 sessed of a devil. When the exorcist reproached the 
 evil spirit for daring to attack one of the faithful, it bold- 
 ly answered, I found her in my own house. 
 
 Tertullian, in his other works, recommends modesty 
 in attire to women, and condemns the use of paint. He 
 mentions several in the Church living in perpetual con- 
 tinency, from a conviction that those, who for the sake 
 of practising more perfect virtue, prefer a state of perpe- 
 tual virginity and voluntary chastity, embrace that which 
 is more perfect and more excellent. This is the mani- 
 fest inspired doctrine of St. Paul, 1 Cor. 7. and in the 
 Revelations of St. John, 14. Spotless virgins are called, 
 ijj a particular manner the companions of tJie Lamb, and 
 
m 
 
 CHURCH OF CHRIST. 'HH* ^^ 
 
 are said to enjoy the singular privilege of following him 
 Vvherever he goes. The holy Fathers are all profuse in 
 ^^xtolling the excellency of holy virginity, as a special 
 ^fc-uit of the incarnation of Christ, his divine institution, 
 and a virtue that raises men, even in this mortal life, to 
 the dignity of angels ; disengages the mind and heart 
 from worldly thoughts and aflections ; purifies the soul, 
 and produces in it the nearest resemblance to God, who 
 delights in chaste minds, and chooses to dwell singularly 
 them. 
 
 Tertullian dissuades widows from second marriages, for 
 this reason, among others, because he says, it is the diUy 
 of a widow always to pray for the soul of her deceased hus- 
 band. He informs us, that on the sacred chalices was 
 represented the image of the good shepherd bringing 
 home the lost sheep on his shoulders, that the blessed 
 Eucharist was received by the faithful before they took 
 any food, that they fasted through obligation every day 
 before Easter (that is, in Lent) till vespers, or evening 
 prayers, and, out of devotion, on Wednesday and Friday 
 till three o'clock, some abstaining from all vinous and 
 juicy fruits, and using only dried meats, others confining 
 themselves to bread and water. This ancient writer also 
 mentions the ceremonies used at baptism ; the yearly 
 oblations or sacrifices for the dead ; standing at prayer 
 on the Lord's day, and from Easter to Whitsuntide ; and 
 the sign of the cross, which, he says, ^^ the Christians 
 *^ then usually made upon their foreheads at every action 
 *' and in all their motions, — at coming in or going out of 
 *' doors, in dressing or washing themselves, when they 
 *^ sat down to table, or went to bed, when they light a 
 <^ lamp or candle,'' &c. — De Cor. c. 3, 4. 
 
 St. Vincent of Lerins, speaking of Tertullian, says, 
 _ JJe was among the Latins what Origen was among the 
 IBrreeks, the first man of his age. Every word in his 
 writings seems a sentence, and almost every sentence, a 
 new victory over his adversaries ; yet with all these 
 advantages he did not persevere to the end of his life 
 in the ancient and universal faith : by pride he misera- 
 bly fell into the reveries of the Montanists, about the 
 time of the death of Pope Victor. He maintained that 
 second marriages were unlawful, and denied that the 
 Church could forgive sins of impurity, nurcjer or ido- 
 
d4 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 latry. His vehement temper knowing no medium, he 
 resented some affronts which he imagined he had re- 
 ceived from the clergy of Rome, as St. Jerome testi- 
 fies, and in this passion he deserted the Church. But 
 as Solomon's fall did not prejudice his former inspired 
 writings, neither did the misfortune of TertuUian destroy, 
 at least the justness of the reasoning in what he had 
 written in defence of the truth, any more than if a man 
 lost his senses, this unlucky accident could annul what 
 he had formerly done for the advancement of learning. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 TTie fourth and fifth general Persecution. 
 
 ARRIUS ANTONINUS, being adopted by the Em- 
 peror Adrian, ascended the Imperial Throne in the year 
 138, and obtained the surname of Pius, according to some 
 historians, by his gratitude to Adrian, and, according to 
 others, by his clemency, and other moral virtues. He 
 had often in his mouth the celebrated saying of Scipio 
 Africanus: that *' he would rather save the life of one 
 "citizen, than destroy a thousand enemies." He was 
 eminent for his learning, and devoted himself to the Stoic 
 philosophy. Yet he had the weakness to extort, by his 
 tears and entreaties, a decree from the Senate to enrql 
 Adrian among the Gods, and to appoint a temple for his 
 worship ; he likewise caused his wife, Faustina, to be ho- 
 noured after h«r death as a Goddess. He did not raise 
 any new persecution against the Church, but he was so 
 pusillanimous, that he had not always courage to protect 
 the innocent from the fury and malice of their enemies. 
 St. Justin, Eusebius, and TertuUian inform us, that in 
 his reign the blood of the saints was often shed, and that 
 the Christians were tortured with the most barbarous 
 cruelty, without having been convicted of any crime. 
 Ruinart testifies, that in his reign the seven brothers, Ja- 
 nuarius, MartiaKs, Felix, Philip, Sylvanus, Alexander, 
 and Vitalis, suffered martyrdom, with their pious mother, 
 Felicitas, a noble widow in Rome, who had brought them 
 up in the most perfect sentiments an(i practice of heroic 
 
CHURCH OP CHRIST. 85 
 
 ViHue, and who, after the death of her husband, having 
 made a vow of continency, employed herself wholly in 
 prayer, fasting, and works of charity, 
 ^k Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, the adopted son and suc- 
 ^Tessor of Arrius Antoninus, was renowned for his wisdom, 
 ^moderation, and attention to the good of the Roman em- 
 P^ire. He was surnamed the Philosopher, and had a say- 
 
 I'ng of Plato's for ever in his mouth : " Happy is that 
 r state, where philosophers ai-e kings, and kings philoso- 
 f phers." However, the lustre of his wise administration 
 (('as not without shades, and his apparent virtues were 
 mixed with an alloy of superstition and vice. It is cer- 
 tain, that with all his philosophical knowledge and princely 
 qualities, he was a bigoted Pagan by principle, and did not 
 lOve his Christian subjects, though they did nothing but 
 good to mankind. Besides a tincture of superstition and 
 -philosophical frenzy, a mixture of weakness was blended in 
 his character, notwithstanding the boasted cry of his wis- 
 dom : Was it not acting out of character, and more like 
 a pedant than a prince, for a Roman Emperor, in his old 
 age, to trudge with his book, like a School-boy, to the 
 house of Sextus the philosopher, to learn his lesson r The 
 fourth general persecution took place under this empe- 
 ror, in the year 166, for he then published fresh edicts 
 against the Christians, and commanded them to be pu- 
 
 Kished with death. In consequence hereof numbers were 
 rowned with martyrdom at that period both in Asia and 
 1 Gavd, particularly at Smyrna and at Lyons, and Vien- 
 a. Amongst the rest, St. Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, 
 was put to a cruel death at the age of eighty-six years : 
 and Eusebius informs us, Hist. I. 4, c. 13, that the Chris- 
 tians of that city carried away his relicks, and valued 
 them more than gold and precious stones. St. Pothinus, 
 Bishop of Lyons, and many others, of all ages and con- 
 ditions, were also, through the most acute torments, con- 
 veyed to Heaven. At Rome St. Justin was beheaded. 
 At length Marcus Aurelius put a stop to this persecution, 
 about the year 174, and pubHshed an edict in fi^our of 
 the Christians, after the miraculous victory he gained in 
 Germany. It is thus related by Eusebius, Tertullian, St. 
 Jerom, St. Gregory of Nyssa, and by thje Christian and 
 Heathen historians of those times. Marcus Aurelius hav- 
 ing long attempted, without success, to subdue the Ger- 
 
36 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 mans by his generals, resolved to lead a powerful army 
 against them. He and his army were beyond the Da- 
 nube, shut up in narrow defiles, and surrounded by the 
 Quadi, a people inhabiting that tract now called Mora- 
 via. He was in such a disadvantageous situation, that 
 there was no possibility that either he or his army could 
 escape out of their hands, or subsist long where they were, 
 for want of water. The twelfth legion, called the Mele- 
 fine, from a town of that name in Armenia, where it had 
 been quartered for a long time, was chiefly composed of 
 Christians : These, when the army was drawn up, but 
 languid and ready to perish with excessive heat and thirst, 
 fell upon their knees, " as we are accustomed to do at 
 " prayer," says Eusebius, and humbly addressed them- 
 selves to God for relief. The enemies, surprised at so 
 strange a sight, assailed the Roman camp with impetuo- 
 sity ; but on a sudden, the sky being darkened with 
 clouds, a thick rain showered down immediately and re- 
 lieved the Romans, who fought and drank at the same 
 lime, catching the rain as it fell in their helmets, and 
 often swallowing it mingled with blood. By this means 
 Ihey were much refreshed ; but the Germans being still 
 too strong for them, the storm was driven by a violent 
 ivind upon their faces, and accompanied with such dread- 
 ful flashes of lightning and loud thunder, that they were 
 terrified, and deprived of their sight and beaten down to 
 the ground. In fine, being entirely routed, and put to 
 flight, they sent back thirteen thousand prisoners, whom 
 they had taken, and begged for peace, on whatever con- 
 ditions it should please the emperor to grant it to them. 
 In acknowledgment hereof, he immediately gave this 
 Christian Legion the name of the Thundeting Legion, 
 and took the title of the Seventh time Envperor, contrary 
 to custom, and without the consent of the Senate, regard-, 
 ing it as given him by Heaven. Out of gratitude to his 
 Christian soldiers, he published an edict, in which he 
 conf^ed himself indebted for his delivery to the shoiver 
 obtained, perhaps hy the prayers of the Christians, and 
 more he could not say, without .danger of exasperating 
 the Senate. In it he forbade, under pain of death, any 
 one to accuse a Christian, on account of his religion ; yet 
 by a strange inconsistency, especially in so wise a prince, 
 being overawed by the opposition of the Senate^ he ha4 
 
CHURCH OF CHRIST. 
 
 8t 
 
 not the courage to abolish the laws already made and in 
 force against the Christians ; for which reason the go- 
 vernors in several places availed themselves of these laws, 
 and put many of the faithful to death, though their ac- 
 cusers were also put to death, as appears in the case 
 of St. Apollonius, and of the martyrs of Lyons. To 
 perpetuate the remembrance of the aforesaid signal 
 prodigy and wonderful deliverance of Marcus Aurelius 
 Antoninus, with his army, the Columna Anioniana, or 
 Antonine Pillar, was erected in one of the piazzas of 
 Rome, with a representation of this remarkable event on 
 ■te base relievos, by the figure of a Jupiter Pluvius, fly- 
 ^^ in the air, with his arms expanded, and a long beard, 
 which seems to waste awav in rain. The Christian sol- 
 diers are represented as relieved by this sudden tempest, 
 and in a posture partly drinking of the rain water, and 
 partly fighting against their enemies, who, on the contrary, 
 are repi-esented as stretched out on the ground with their 
 liorses, and upon them only the dreadful pai-t of the 
 storm is descending. Sixtus V. placed on the summit of 
 this pillar a beautiful statue of St. Paul, as he did another 
 elegant statue of St. Peter on Trajan's Pillar, mstead of 
 the golden urn, wherein the ashes of that emperor had 
 been lodged according to the custom of the ancient Ro- 
 mans. These pillars are still extant, as likewise a curious 
 equestrian bronze statue of Marcus Aurelius, erected in 
 the centre of the platform of the Capitolium, on a lofty 
 square marble pedestal, formed out of one block, by Mi- 
 chael Angelo. This statue is admirably well finished, and 
 so expressive, that Charles Maratti, viewing it with ad- 
 miration, cried out and said : March forward — Do you 
 forget that you are alive ? 
 
 Lucius Commodus, having succeeded his father, Mar- 
 cus Aurelius, began his reign with extraordinary mode- 
 ration, and though he afterwards sunk into debauchery 
 and cruelty, for which he was poisoned and strangled, in 
 the year 192, yet he never persecuted the Christians. 
 After his death, Helvius Pertinax, at the age of 69 years, 
 was made emperor by compulsion, but reigned only 
 eighty-seven days, always trembhng for his own safe- 
 ty. He was stabbed in his palace by the fury of the 
 soldiery. On that occasion, the Praetorian Guards, who 
 •'ad often made and unmade emperors at pleasure, de- 
 
t8 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 based to the last degree the dignity of the Roman em-s- 
 pire, having exposed it to sale by public auction. Di- 
 dius Julianus and Sulpicianus, having several times out- 
 bid each other, when the latter had offered five thou- 
 sand drachms, Julianus at once rose to 62.50, which he 
 promised to give each soldier. Having carried the em- 
 pire for this price, the senate confirmed the election, 
 but the purchaser being embarrassed to find money to ac- 
 quit himself of his engagement, was murdered sixty-six 
 days after, so that he dearly bouglit the honour of wear- 
 ing the purple, and of having his name placed among the 
 emperors. Septimius Severus, a man really, as well as 
 nominally, severe, vere pertinaXy vere severus^ as the com- 
 mon people used to say of him, was next advanced to the 
 throne, by a part of the troops, and acknowledged empe- 
 ror by the senate. Pescennius Niger, praefect in Syria, 
 and Clodius Albinus, praefect of Britain, both competi- 
 tors for the empire, were proclaimed by different armies } 
 but Severus defeated the first, by his generals, in the 
 year 194, and the latter himself near I^yons, in Gaul, in 
 the year 197. The Christians had no share in these pub- 
 lic broils. Tertullian, at that time, extols their fidelity 
 to the ruling princes, and says, none of them were ever 
 found in the armies of rebels, or engaged in the party of 
 either of the two competitors of Severus. They regard- 
 ed the confirmation of the senate, in the name of the 
 whole Roman people, as the solemn act of state by which 
 the emperor was legally invested with that supreme digni- 
 ty, and on this account, they every where acknowledged 
 and faithfully obeyed Severus ; nay, a Christian called 
 Proculus, cured him miraculously of some grievous dis- 
 temper, as TertuUian tells us, 1. de Scapul. c. 4. for which 
 benefit the emperor was for some time favourable to the 
 Christia s, but the clamours of the Heathens at length 
 moved him to raise the fifth general persecution against 
 the Church. About the conclusion of the second centu- 
 ry, and the tenth year of his reign, he issued his bloody 
 edicts agai. st the Christians, and had them executed with 
 such rigour and barbarity, that it was imagined that the 
 time of Antichrist was come. — Having formerly been 
 governor of Lyons, and an eye witness to the flourishing 
 state of that Church, he seems to have given particular 
 iivstructions, that the Christians there, who refused to 
 
tlhjfeCll OP CHRIST. 89 
 
 join the idolaters in the sacrifices, should be proceeded 
 ^■gainst with extraordinary severity. The fire of this per- 
 secution raged through all the provinces of the Roman 
 ^^mpire, but far from consuming the Church of Christ, it 
 served only to purify it, and to make it shine with great- 
 er lustre. The more Christians were put to death, the more 
 their number daily increased and multiplied under their 
 very oppressions, and the more converts were made to 
 Christianity from the view of such wonderful examples 
 of fortitude, which made Tertuliian say, that their blood 
 w^as a seed that continually produced new crops of Chris- 
 tians, and w^as multiplied to an himdred fold. God was 
 pleased to work miracles frequently at their martyrdom, 
 whereby many of the spectators, and sometimes the very 
 executioners, and the judges themselves, were converted. 
 They appeared Avith courage before the tribunals, and 
 viewed \Vith calmness and unconcern the racks and oth^r 
 instruments prepared for their torture, ready to meet 
 death in all its forms of cruelty. It was not for w ant of 
 strength or valour that they suffered with such patience 
 every persecution and insult, but from a principle of reli- 
 gion, which taught them submission to the civil authority 
 of government. They preferred torments and death to 
 sin, because the love of God, above all things, reigned iu 
 their heart. Far from denying our relij^ion, " we say^ 
 *' we are Christians," says Tertuliian. " We proclaim it 
 " to the whole world, even under the hands of the execu- 
 *^ tioners, and in the midst of all the torments you inflict 
 " upon us to compel us to unsay and deny it. Torn and 
 " mangled, and weltering in our blood, we cry out, as 
 " loud as we are able to cry, that we are worshippers of 
 *' God, through Jesus Christ." It was under the tyrant 
 Severus, that Leonidas, Origen's father, was beheaded at 
 Alexandria, St. Separatus and his companions were be- 
 headed at Carthage, St. Felicitas and St. Perpetua were 
 martyred in Mauritania, St. Potamiaena and her mother, 
 arcella, were burned ahve at Alexandria, with several 
 thers who had been educated in the school of Origen. 
 everus, after carrying on the prosecution ten years, as 
 ulpicius informs us, whilst he was making war in Bri- 
 ain, being on his march with his army, his eldest soa 
 Bassianus, surnamed Antoninus Caracalla, who marched 
 after him, stopped his horse, and drew his sword t« 
 H2 
 
90 tnsroim or ti^ 
 
 stab him, but was prevented by the outcry of those about 
 him. Severus only reproached him for his intended 
 parricide, but died soon after at York, of grief and me- 
 lancholy for his son's treachery, rather than of the gout. 
 His two sons, Antoninus Caracalla, and Geta, succeeded 
 him, but the eldest caused the latter to be stabbed in 
 his mother's bosom, who was sprinkled with his blood. 
 Caracalla himself, after a cruel and abominable reign of 
 six years, was slain by Macrinus, who, from being a 
 gladiator and huntsman, was elected emperor, and after an 
 unsuccessful war with the Parthians, and a reign of one 
 year and two months, was slain by the soldiers. Macri- 
 nus was succeeded by Varius Heliogabalus, who being 
 one of the most filthy monsters Rome ever produced, was 
 likewise put to death by the soldiery, and after having 
 been dragged through the streets of Rome, he was thrown 
 into the Tyber. 
 
 CHAPTER Xn. 
 
 The Church of the third Century. 
 
 IN this century the succession o(^ chief Pastors, and 
 of Saints and Martyrs, was kept in the chair of St. Peter, 
 by Zephyrinus, Calixtus, Urbanus, Pontianus, Antherus, 
 Fabianus, Cornelius Lucius, Stephanus, Xystus, Diony- 
 sius, Felix, Eutychianus, Caius, and Marcellinus. IB 
 other sees, a similar succession of holy Bishops was kept 
 up, the doctrine of faith and morals was preserved in its 
 primitive purity, and the Church of Christ made fresh 
 acquisitions by the conversion of numberless infidels in 
 Armenia and Persia, and by settling a new colony of 
 Saints in the deserts of Egypt and Thebais. The princi- 
 pal fathers and ecclesiastical writers of this age were 
 Caius, a disciple of the great St. Irenaeus, and a regiona- 
 ry bishop, who was commissioned to preach the Gospel, 
 though he was not fixed in any particular see, Hippoly- 
 tus, a most learned and holy prelate, Minucius Felix, Ju- 
 lias Africanus, St. Cyprian, St. Gregory of Neocaesarea, 
 §t. Dionysius of Alexandria, St. Victorinus of Pannonia, St^ 
 Methodius Bishop of Tyre, with whom we may join the 
 
CHtinCH OP CHRIST. 91 
 
 great prodigy of his days, Origen, a priest of Alexandria, 
 Arnobiu? the orator, and his scholar Lactantius, the 
 Christian Tully. 
 
 St. Zephyrinus, a native of Rome, succeeded Victor, 
 and filled the pontifical chair seventeen years. He was 
 a zealous defender of Christ's divinity, maintained the 
 sacred deposit of the faith of the Church inviolable, and 
 watched over the purity of its morals and the sanctity of 
 its discipline. He was the support and comfort of his dis- 
 tressed flock, under the bloody persecution of Severus, 
 and he suffered by charity and compassion what every 
 confessor underwent. The triumphs of the Martyrs were 
 indeed his joy, but his heart received many deep wounds 
 from the fall of apostates and the blasphemies of Arte- 
 mon, Marcian, Montanus, and Theodotus the banker, and 
 Theodotus the tanner. Eusebius informs us that St. 
 Zephyrinus, affected by the tears and compunction of 
 Natalis, who, covered with sackcloth and ashes and pros- 
 trated at the feet of the clergy, humbly implored forgive- 
 ness for the scandal he had given, re-admitted him to the 
 communion of the Church, and granted him an indul- 
 gence or relaxation of the severity of the discipline, that 
 required a penitential delay and trial. 
 
 St. Calixtus, or Calistus, succeeded St. Zephyrinus in 
 the pontificate, in the year 217, or 218, and governed the 
 Church five years and two months with great prudence, 
 piety, and religion. The pontificals ascribe to him a de- 
 cree appointing the four quarterly fasts, called Ember 
 days. He also decreed that ordinations should be held in 
 each of the Ember weeks. From St. Peter to St. Sylves- 
 ter, we read of no other Pope holding ordinations, but in 
 the month of December. The name of St. Calixtus is 
 rendered famous by the ancient cemetery, which he en- 
 larged and adorned on the Appian Road, and which, for 
 the great number of holy martyrs, whose bodies were 
 there deposited, became the most celebrated of all those 
 about Rome. The entrance of it is at St. Sebastians, one 
 of the seven principal churches of Rome, and in it the 
 bodies of St. Peter and St. Paul lay for some time, ac- 
 ^ cording to Anastasius. Mabillon observes, that in the 
 first ages of the Church, the primitive Christians were 
 desirous to be buried near the tombs of the martyrs, in' 
 )lopes of bein^ assisted by their prayers^ and of rising in 
 
92 HISTORY OP THE 
 
 their glorious company at the last day. They also tarri- 
 ed their faces towards the East at prayer, and built their 
 churches and oratories, so that the high altar and head 
 of the church, was eastwards, the rising Sun being a sym- 
 bol of the resurrection. They hkevvise buried the faith- 
 ful with their feet turned towards the East, that they 
 might rise facing the rising sun. The Romans burned 
 the corpses of their dead, and placed the urns, in which 
 the ashes were contained, usually on the sides of the high 
 ways, as Cicero informs us. The Egyptians preserved 
 their dead bodies, and the Persians cast them to the wild 
 beasts ; but the faithful in all ages down from Adam, 
 were careful to treat the dead with religious respect, and 
 to bury them with decency and modesty in the earth, 
 where, according to the sentence pronounced by God, 
 they return to dust till the general resurrection. The 
 commendations, which our Lord bestowed on the Woman 
 who poured precious ointments upon his head, a little be- 
 fore his death, and the devotion of those pious persons, 
 who took so much care of his funeral, strongly recom- 
 mended this office of charity, to the primitive Christians, 
 and their practice in this respect, consisted not in any 
 extravagant pomp, but in a modest religious gravity and 
 respect, that was expressive of their lively faith and firm 
 hope of a future resurrection, in which they regarded the 
 mortal remains of their dead as precious in the eyes of 
 God, who watches over them, regarding them as the ap- 
 ple of his eye, to be raised one day in the brightest glory, 
 and made shining lustres in the heavenly Jerusalem. 
 
 St. Urban succeeded Calixtus in the year 223, and go- 
 verned the Church seven years. He was succeeded by 
 St. Pontian, who being persecuted and banished by the 
 emperor Maximinus into the isl« of Sardinia, died there, 
 if not by the sword, at least by the hardships of his exile, 
 and the unhealthfulness of the air, as Tillemont informs 
 us. T. 3. 
 
 St. Antherus, his successor, governed the Church only 
 one month and ten days. St. Fabian governed it sixteen 
 years, and died a glorious martyr in the persecution of 
 Decius, as St. Cyprian and St. Jerom witness. The 
 Apostolic see remained vacant above sixteen months, the 
 clergy and people not being able, all that time, through |j 
 the violence of the persecution, to assemble for the elec- (I 
 
CHURCH OP CHRIST. 93 
 
 tion of a Bishop. St. Cyprian says, tliat such was the 
 rage of Decius, that he would more easily have suffered 
 a competitor in his empire than a Bishop in Rome. At 
 length, however, when that emperor was at a distance 
 engaged in a war with the Goths, in Thrace, where he 
 perished in a bog, Cornelius, who had the chief share in 
 the direction of affairs, in the Roman Church, during the 
 vacancy, was elected Pope, in the year 250, by almost 
 all the clergy of Rome and a great number of the laity, 
 Mrith the concurring suffrages of sixteen ancient and wor- 
 ^^^y Bishops, who were then present. St. Cyprian ex- 
 teediiigly exiols the zeal and piety with which St. Corne- 
 lius behaved in his pastoral charge, and the courage and 
 steadfastness, with which he adhei>ed to his duty in the 
 most perilious times. He assembled at Rome a Synod of 
 sixty Bishops, in which he confirmed the Canons, by which 
 ■■k was ordained to admit the lapsed that were penitent to 
 public penance ; and Bishops and Priests who had fallen 
 only to the rank of laymen, without power of exercising 
 ny sacerdotal function. Novatian, who was there pre- 
 ent, and obstinately refused to communicate with such 
 penitents, was excommunicated, and several persons, who 
 had been seduced by him to favour his schism, repented 
 and were received to communion by St. Cornelius, to the 
 great joy of the people. 
 
 This Novatian had been a Stoic philosopher, and had 
 gained a considerable reputation by his eloquence. Hav- 
 ing embraced the faith, he continued a catechumen, till 
 falling dangerously ill, and his life being despaired of, he 
 as baptized in bed, not by immersion, which was then 
 the most usual method, but by infusion, or the pouring 
 n of water. On recovering, he received not the seal of 
 the Lord, by the hand of the Bishop, says St. Pacian, that 
 is to say, the sacrament of Confirmation. Both these 
 defects were, by the ancient discipline of the Church, 
 bar> to Holy Orders. The Clinici^ or persons who had 
 been baptized in bed in the time of sickness, were de~ 
 lared irregular, and excluded from the priesthood ; not 
 as if such a baptism was defective, but in detestation of 
 the sloth and lukewarmness by which such persons put 
 off their baptism till they were in immediate danger of 
 death. — Novatian, notwithstanding this double irregulari- 
 ty, was afterwards ordained Priest, and with a view to 
 
 mi 
 
 m 
 
^4 HiSfrORY OF THE 
 
 make himself conspicuous, he opposed the pastors of the 
 Church, complaining, that by a criminal relaxation of the 
 law of the Gospel, they too easily admitted again those 
 who had fallen in the persecution. By this rigour and 
 Pharisaical zeal he made an open schism, pretending, #iat 
 the lapsed ought never to be again admitted to penance, 
 or to receive absolution, not even after having performed 
 any course of penance, or in the article of their death. 
 On account of his errors, he is called by St. Cyprian, Ep. 
 57. a deserter of the Church, an enemy to all tenderness, 
 a very murderer of penance, a teacher of pride, a cor- 
 rupter of the truth, and a destroyer of charity. At length 
 he added heresy to his schism, and maintained, that the 
 Church had not received from Christ power to absolve 
 sinners from the crime of apostacy, how penitent soever 
 they might be. His followers and disciples, who were 
 called Novatians, and Cathari, that is, pure, taught the 
 same of murder and fornication, and condemned second 
 marriages. Novatian gained over to his party some con- 
 fessors, who were in prison at Rome, and decoyed three 
 Bishops from a corner of Italy to come to Rome and or- 
 dain him Bishop of that city, in opposition to the holy " 
 Pope Cornelius, who was sent into banishment by the 
 Emperor Gallus to Centumcellae, now called Clvita Vec- 
 chia. St. Cyprian wrote him a congratulatory letter 
 upon the news of his happiness, in suffering for Christ, 
 and in it he foretold his own approaching conflicts and 
 martyrdom. 
 
 St. Cornelius being called to eternal bliss, in the year 
 252, St Lucius was elected, and he suffered a glorious 
 martyrdom about five months after his election, as St. 
 Cyprian assures us. St. Lucius having recommended 
 St. Stephen for his successor, he was accordingly chosen 
 Pope, on the third of May, in the year 253. The contro- 
 versy concerning the re-baptization of heretics gave St. 
 Stephen much trouble. It was the constant doctrine of 
 the Catholic Church, that baptism given in the name of 
 the Three persons of the Holy Trinity, is valid, though 
 it be conferred by an heretic ; for Christ being the prin- 
 cipal, though invisible minister, in the administration of 
 the sacraments, though both faith and the state of grace 
 be required in him who confers any sacrament, not to in- 
 cur the guilt of sacrilege •, yet neither is required (qx 
 
CHURCH Ot CHRIST. 95 
 
 the validify. St. Cyprian, Firmilian, and some other 
 African prelates, supported the contrary opinion, and 
 falsely imagined this to be a point, not of faith, which 
 is every where invariable, but of mere discipline, in 
 which every church might be allowed to follow its own 
 rule or law. St. Stephen, who saw the danger which 
 threatened the Church under the colour of zeal for its 
 purity and unity, and an aversion from heresy, opposed 
 himself as a rampart for the house of God, declaring, 
 that no innovation is to be allowe«i, but that the tradition 
 of the Church, derived from the Apostles, is to be invio- 
 lably maintained. He even threatened to cut off the 
 partisans of this novelty from the communion of the 
 Church, but never proceeded to pronounce any sentence 
 against them, or they never would have stood out 
 against a censure, in which the whole Church acquiesced. 
 He suffered himself patiently to be traduced as a favour- 
 er of heresy in approving heretical baptism, and was in- 
 sensible to all personal injuries, not doubting but those 
 great men, who by a mistaken zeal were led astray, 
 would, when the heat of disputing should have subsided, 
 calmly open their eyes to the truth. Thus by his zeal 
 he preserved the integrity of faith, and by his forbearance 
 he saved many souls from the danger of shipwreck. He 
 was sensible, that the rule of faith admits nothing new, but 
 that all things are to be delivered down to posterity, with 
 the same fidelity, with which they were received, and 
 that it is our duty to make our own imaginations bend te 
 the wisdom of those that went before us, and to follow 
 rehgion, and not to make religion follow us. What then 
 was the issue of this grand affair, but that which is usual: 
 Antiquity kept possession, and novelty was exploded. 
 
 Upon the demise of St. Stephen, St. Xystus succeeded 
 him in the pontificate. He is styled by St. Cyprian a 
 peaceable and excellent prelate. He suffered martyr- 
 dom in the year 258, under the emperor Valerian, in a 
 cemetery, for the Christians in the times of persecution 
 resorted to cemeteries and subterraneous caverns to cele- 
 brate the divine mysteries, and to visit out of devotion the 
 tombs of the martyrs. After the death of St. Xystus, or 
 Sixtus, through the violence of the persecution, the holy 
 see continued vacant almost a year, until St. Dionysiu? 
 i^as cl^osen on the 2d of July, 259. He was emineat 
 
96 HISTORY OP THE 
 
 for his learning, and for his charity to the distressed and 
 indigent. He condemned the errors of Sabellius, and 
 confuted the blasphemies of Paul of Samosata. 
 
 St. Felix succeeded St. Dionysius in the government 
 of the Church, in the year 269. Paul of Samosata, the 
 proud Bishop of Antioch, to the guilt of other crimes 
 added that of heresy, teaching that Christ was no more 
 than a mere man, in whom the Divine Word dwelt, by 
 its operation, and as in its temple ; with many other gross 
 errors concerning the capital mysteries of the Trinity and 
 Incarnation. St. Felix wrote on this occasion a learned 
 ftpistle, quoted by the council of Ephesus, and clearly 
 explained the Catholic doctrine of the whole mystery of 
 he Incarnation. He governed the Church five years, and 
 "•assed to glorious eternity in the year 274. He was suc- 
 :eeded by St. Eutychian, who is said to have interred 
 ivith his own hands no less than 342 martyrs at Rome. 
 St. Caius succeeded St. Eutychian in the apostolic see, in 
 the year 283, and sat twelve years, four months, and 
 seven days. The ancient pontificals say he was a native 
 of Dalmatia, and related to the emperor Dioclesian. He 
 was succeeded by St. Mafcellinus, in the year 296, about 
 the time that Dioclesian set himself up for a deity, and 
 impiously claimed divine honours. St. Theodoret tells us, 
 that in those stormy times of persecution, Marcellinus 
 acquired great glory. Petilian, the Donatish Bishop, ob- 
 jected to the Catholics, that Marcellinus had sacrificed 
 to idols, and had delivered up the Holy Scriptures to the 
 persecutors ; and that Melchiades, Marcellus, and Syl- 
 vester, were guilty of the same apostacy. But St. Au- 
 gustin entirely denied the charge, which was a mere ca- 
 lumny of the Donatists, 1. contr. Petil. c. 16. t. 9. p. 541. 
 Yet upon this slander some others built another fictitious 
 history of his repentance in a pretended council of Sinu- 
 essa. See Pagi, Orsi, and Tillemont, ad An. 303. 
 
 St. Caius and St. Hippolytus are justly ranked among 
 the most illustrious Doctors, who flourished in the third 
 century. They were both disciples of Irenaeus. St. 
 Hippolytus was the master of Origen. St. Jerom calls 
 him a most holy and eloquent man. St. Chrysostora 
 styles him a source of light, a faithful witness, a most 
 holy Doctor, and a man full of sweetness and charity. 
 Theodoret styles him a spiritual fountain in the Church. 
 
CHUKCH OF C»UIST. 97 
 
 I A collection of his homilies was extant in I'heodoret's 
 time. He wrote comments on several parts of the Holy 
 
 [Scriptures, and treatises on the mysteries of the Trinity 
 
 land incarnation, on the divinity of the Son of God, on 
 the distinction of the divine and human nature in Christ, 
 on the resurrection of the dead, on the fast of Saturday, 
 on the holy Communion, on the origin of good and evil. 
 He wrote also a book against heresies, particularly against 
 th€ errors of Noetus, Marcian, &.c. 
 
 Minucius Felix seems to have been originally an Afri- 
 can, though he lived at Rome, and there pleaded at the 
 bar, with great reputation, for eloquence and probity. 
 He was called in an advanced age to the light of divine 
 wisdom, as he says, and he had humility enough to de- 
 spise the rank which he held among the learned and the 
 great ones in the world, and by a happy violence, to em- 
 brace the doctrine of the cross, and enter heaven in the 
 company of the ignorant, and the httle ones, says St. Eu- 
 cherius. Minucius had two African friends, Cecilius and 
 Octavius, who were joined Avitli him in a course of the 
 same studies. They were all three eminent and learned 
 men of the first rank, and formed together a triumvirate 
 of perfect friendship. Octavius seems to have had the glo- 
 ry of leading the way ; for Minucius says, he ran before 
 him as a guide ; but like a true friend, he could not be 
 content or happy without his dear Minucius. He gave 
 himself no repose, so long as he saw his friend, his 
 other half, remain in the darkness of infidelity, and in 
 the shades of death. Words from the mouth of such a 
 
 ffriend, drop hke honey from the honey-comb, whilst from 
 a harsh prophet, whom we hate, truth itself becomes un- 
 acceptable. Minucius, therefore, was easily prepared to 
 receive the impressions of virtue, and this blessed pair be- 
 came one in religion as well as in friendship. The Chris- 
 tian faith, which he embraced, far from abating, served 
 only to refine and perfect their mutual affection, and 
 make them congratulate each other upon their new life, 
 in transports of holy joy, which all their oratory wanted 
 words to express. They looked back on their past sin- 
 ful lives with sorrow, and could relish nothing for the fu- 
 ture, but the humihations of the cross, and the severities 
 of penance. Racks and tortures they overlooked with 
 triumph, both turned advocates for the faith of d^-ist, 
 
98 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 and without any other retaining fee than the reward ol" 
 their charity, and the expectation of a happiness heyond 
 the grave, they strenuously pleaded the cause of their 
 crucified Redeemer. The two illustrious lawyers and 
 converts seemed now to want nothing themselves, but 
 they were extremely desirous to make Cecilius, their 
 third friend, a happy convert like themselves. This how- 
 ever was a work of difficulty, that called for the last ef-' 
 fort of their piety and friendship. Early prejudices from 
 education leave a tincture upon the mind, which seldom 
 wears out without much pains and ingenuity ; and how 
 supine soever such a conduct is in matters of this nature 
 and importance, men often are inclined to content them- 
 selves with the religion of their parents, almost as natu- 
 rally as they take up with their language, — Cecilius, 
 moreover, was a man of the world, and of latitudinarian 
 principles, and therefore was hardly to he come at with 
 argupient. He was a person of wit and abilities, but his 
 own idol, and a great lover of applause and pleasure. 
 Hence his chief religion seems to have been to serve 
 himself. To complete his character, the philosophy hfe 
 had imbibed only raised his vanity, and intoxicating his 
 head with conceit, set him at the greatest distance from 
 the reach of argument. But notwithstanding this seem- 
 ingly inaccessible temper of mind, we find Cecilius, at 
 length, by the power of divine grace, made a glorious 
 convert, an eminent saint, and, in all probability, the con- 
 verter of the great St. Cyprian. Octavius and Minucius 
 were the instruments which God was pleased to make use 
 of, to effect this great work. They began by recom- 
 mending it to God by their fervent prayers. And their 
 victory over him was the issue of a conference, the sum 
 of which Minucius has left us in an elegant dialogue, which 
 he entitled Octavius, in honour of his friend, and which 
 for parity and delicacy of the Latin language is not equal- 
 led by any Pagan writers of that age. 
 
 Thasius Cyprian, the son of one of the principal sena- 
 tors of Carthage, tells us, that he lived a long time amidst 
 the Fasces, which were the Roman emblems of the su- 
 preme magistracy, but he dieplores that he was then a 
 slave to vice and evil habits. — '* I lay in darkness," says 
 he, '^ and I floated on the boisterous sea of this world, a 
 H stranger to the light, and uncertain where to fi^ my 
 
CHURCH OP CHRIST. 99 
 
 feet." He passed the greater part of his hfe in the 
 study of philosophy and all the Hberal arts ; and made 
 such improvements in oratory and eloquence, that he was 
 hosen public professor of rhetoric at Carthage, a city 
 inferior to none but Rome for the number of its inhabi- 
 tants. He was upon the borders of old age, when he 
 was rescued from the darkness of Paganism and the ser- 
 
 (itude of vice. Cecilius, an holy Priest of Carthage, 
 ms the happy instrument, in the hands of God, of his 
 onversion to the Christian religion, for which reason, 
 ;!^yprian ever after reverenced him as his benefactor, his 
 ather, and guardian angel, and to express this gratitude 
 would from that time be called Thascius Cecilius Cy- 
 prian. Pontius informs us, that he applied himself with 
 
 l^rreat eagerness to the lecture of the holy scriptures ; 
 
 jHind finding the sacred oracles very copious in the com- 
 mendation of purity and continence, he made a resolution 
 to practise these virtues for the more easy attainment of 
 true perfection. Soon after his baptism he sold his whole 
 estate, and gave almost all the money, and whatever else 
 he possessed, for the support of the poor. With the 
 study of the holy scriptures St. Cyprian joined that of 
 their best interpreters, and in a short time became ac- 
 quainted with the most approved ecclesiastical writers. 
 He was particularly delighted with the writings of his 
 countryman Tertullian, scarce passing a day without 
 reading something in them, and when he called for them, 
 used to say. Reach hither my Master, as St. Jerom relates. 
 But though he admired his genius, and the variety of his 
 learning, he was upon his guard not to imitate any of his 
 faults or errors. St. Cyprian led a retired penitential 
 life, and made such a progress in virtue, that, whilst he 
 
 IJpvas yet in the rank of the Neophytes, or persons lately 
 baptized, he was raised to the priesthood at the earnest re- 
 quest of the people ; his exemplary piety and extroardi- 
 nary merit being judged a sufficient motive for dispensing 
 in the rule laid down by St. Paul against admitting Neo- 
 phytes to holy orders. Within less than a year after he 
 was chosen by the clergy and people Bishop of Carthage, 
 and successor to Donatus, and was consecrated with the 
 unanimous approbation of the Bishops of the province. 
 
 ^ In the discharge of the episcopal functions, he showed 
 
 ( abundance of piety, charity, goodness, and courage, mix- 
 
iOO HISiORY OF THE 
 
 ed with vigour and steadiness. His writings, says "St. 
 Jerom, shine more bright than the sun. When the cruel 
 edicts of Decius reached Carthage, in the year 250, they 
 weie no sooner made public, but the idolaters, in a kind 
 of sedition, ran to the market place, confusedly crying 
 eut, Cyprian to the lions, Cypnan to the wild beasts. But 
 ..Divine Providence vouchsafed to preserve the vigilant 
 pastor, that by his active zeal and authority he might 
 support and comfort his flock, maintain discipline, and re- 
 pair the ruins caused by the persecution that raged, lie 
 encouraged and animated the coafessors in prison, and 
 took care that priests, in turns, should visit them, and ofl'er 
 the sacrifice of the altar, and give them the holy com- 
 munion every day in their dungeons ; for he said : " We 
 " should support and strengthen them with the body and 
 " blood of Christ, unless we would leave those naked and 
 " defenceless, whom we are exhorting to fight our Lord's 
 " battle. The design of the Eucharist being to be a 
 *' defence and security for those who partake of it, we 
 ^' should fortify them, whose safety we are concerned for, 
 " with the armour of our Lord's banquet. How shall 
 " they be able to die for Christ .'' How shall we fit them 
 *' for drinking the cup of martyrdom, if Vv c will not 
 ^' first admit them to the cup of the Lord ?" Epist. 57. 
 
 According to the discipline of the Church, in St. Cy- 
 prian's days, the lapsed sinners, whether Tharificaii and 
 Sarrijicati, that is, apostates, who had sacrificed to idols, 
 or luibellaticiy who, without sacrificing, had purchased 
 for money libels and certificates, as if they had oifered 
 sacrifices, were not admitted to assist at the holy mys- 
 teries, before they had gone through a most rigorous 
 course of public penance, consisting of four degrees, 
 and of several years continuance. When, during this 
 penitential term, absolution was given in danger of death, 
 if the penitent recovered he was obliged to accompiish 
 his course as to the austerities enjoined him. Relaxa- 
 tions of these penances, called indulgences, were granted 
 on certain extraordinary occasions, as on account of the 
 uncommon fervour of a penitent, or on occasion of a new 
 persecution. It was also customary to grant indulgences 
 to penitents, who brought tickets from some martyr 
 going to execution, or from some Confessor in prison for 
 the faith, containing a request in their behalf, which the 
 
m 
 
 
 CHURCH OF CHRIST. lOl 
 
 Bishop and his clergy examined and often ratified. This 
 custom at length degenerated in Africa into a great 
 abuse, by the multitude of such tickets, which were often 
 given in too peremptory terms, and without examination 
 or discernment, to the great prejudice of souls, and the 
 relaxation of the discipline of the Church. Novatius, 
 FeUcissimus, and five other turbulent men, formed also a 
 schism in Carthage, and held their great assemblies upon 
 a mountain. Novatus received, without any canonical 
 penance, all apostates that desired to return to the com- 
 munion of the Church. St. Cyprian, seeing the mischief 
 that threatened his flock, severely condemned those 
 buses, and exhorted the faithful to beware of being mis- 
 ed by the schism, which he calls moA'e dangerous than 
 the persecutions of the Pagans. ^' 'iTlere is," says he, 
 " one God, and one Christ, and but one episcopal chair 
 '^ originally founded on Peter, by our Lord's authority. 
 " There cannot, therefore, be erected another altar, or 
 " another priesthood. Whatever any man in his rage 
 " or rashness shall appoint, in defiance of the divine in- 
 " stitution, must be a spurious, profane, and sacrilegious 
 " ordinance," Epist. 43 ; and in Epist. 11. he complains, 
 *' that by the recommendation of the Confessors, some 
 *' Priests had presumed to make oblations for the lapsed, 
 *^ and to admit them to the holy Eucharist, that is, in- 
 *' deed, to profane the body of our Lord. — And as a 
 " further aggravation, says he, they have admitted those 
 '^ sinners to communion before any submission made by 
 *' them to penitential discipline, before any confession 
 ^^ made of their heinous and crying sin, and before any 
 " imposition of hands made by the Bishop and his clergy 
 "* unto penance — Such priests, instead of approving 
 " themselves true shepherds of the sheep, become as 
 *' bad to them as butchers and murderers. For a mis- 
 *' chievous condescension is in eflfect a cheat, nor are 
 " those who have fallen, raised by such helps, but ra- 
 " ther cast down, and pushed upon destruction." 
 
 In his 16th Epistle, he threatens to restrain from of- 
 fering, or to suspend, some of the priests, who, forgetting 
 the rules of the Gospel, as well as the rank they hold in 
 the Church, rashly and hastily admitted penitents to 
 Communion, though they had not performed their pe- 
 nance, made no humble confession of their sin, nor receiv- 
 I 2 
 
102 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 ed the imposition of hands from the Bishop and his cler- 
 gy ; the holy Eucharist is administered to them, in defi- 
 ance of the Scripture, which saith : Whoever shall eat or 
 drink unworthily^ shall be guilty of the body and blood of the 
 Lord. 1 Cor. 11. 27. Of such prj^sts he says, Ep. 34. 
 ** Let them be suspended from their monthly dividend ;" 
 for the revenues of the clergy then consisted chiefly of 
 the oblations of the faithful, which were divided every 
 month into four parts, one of which was assigned to the 
 Bishop, and one to his clergy. The other two parts were 
 allowed to the poor, and the expenses of the oratories on 
 churches. Ep. 39. 
 
 In his book On the Lapsed^ he bitterly deplores the la- 
 mentable fall of apostates, and says, his very bowels were 
 i'ent with a gr%ei iwhich no words could express, and 
 which admitted no alleviation but that of tears and sighs. 
 He expatiates on the gf ievousness of the crime of apos- 
 tacy, and on the remedies of it, and inveighs against a 
 rash, hasty absolution, and pretended reconciliation. '' He 
 *' would," says this holy doctor, " betray a great igno- 
 *' ranee of his profession, who, for fear of putting his 
 " patient to pain, by opening his wound, should softly 
 " handle it, skin it over, and close it up, not cleansing it 
 " of the corruption lodged in it ; for by such unskilful 
 " management, the malignity would take deep root, 
 *' and taint the whole mass. The wound, in all such 
 " cases, must be opened, the knife must not be spared, 
 *' all guperfluities must be pared away, without regard to 
 *' the pain occasioned by so sharp a treatment. If the 
 *^ patient complains and cries out for the present, he will 
 *^ afterward thank the operator, when he finds his re- 
 *' covery has been owing to such a treatment — A delusive 
 *' absolution is given at random, dangerous to the givers, 
 " useless to the receivers. Coming fresh from the altar 
 •' of the Devil, their hands yet reeking with the blood of 
 " the sacrifices offered thereon, they would fain approach 
 " the highest mysteries — in spite of these divine admo- 
 " nitions, violence is offered to the body and blood of 
 "Christ — they who dispense it to them, resemble unskil- 
 *' ful pilots, who instead of conducting their vessel safe 
 " into the harbour, split it upon the rocks." 
 
 The zealous pastor then shows, " that penitents de- 
 ■*' ccive themselves, who think that a reconciliation can b^ 
 
CHURCH OF CHRIST. 103 
 
 *^ given them before ihey have expiated their crime by 
 -" penance, and purified their conscience by imposition of 
 ^' hands from the Bishop." To strike a terror into sin- 
 ners, he relates several examples of persons severely 
 punished by God, in a miraculous manner, for being so 
 bold as to receive the body and blood of Christ before 
 they Iiad done condign penance. He adds a strong ex- 
 hortation to penance, and says, ^' that some among the 
 " faithful, because they had once sinned only in thought 
 " and purpose, confessed this with much grief to the 
 " priests of God, doing severe penance, imburdening their 
 " consciences, and seeking a healtky remedy for their 
 '^ wounds," which is a proof of the esteem they had for 
 voluntary confession, as no one could have called them 
 to an account for their sinful thoughts, if they had not of 
 their own accord declared them. He then repeats his 
 pressing solicitations to sinners. " Let every oite of you 
 " make an humble and solemn confession of his sin, whilst 
 ** he is yet in the world, whilst his confession can be ad- 
 " mitted, whilst his satisfaction and the pardon given him 
 '^ by the Priests are available with God." 
 
 In his discourse on the Lord^s Prayer, he takes no- 
 tice that the Priest, in the preface of the celebration of 
 the Eucharist, said Sursmn corda, " Lift up your htarts;^^ 
 and that the people answered, TVe lift them up to the 
 Lord. 
 
 In this book On the Mortcdity, " or pestilence," he shows 
 ^' that true servants of God ought to rejoice in calami- 
 " ties, because they afford opportunities to exercise pa- 
 " tience and all heroic virtues, and to merit Heaven. 
 " As for death, no man," says he, " can be afraid of it, 
 " but he who is loath to go to Christ." He strongly ex- 
 horts all Christians to wish heartily for the happy hour 
 of their death, " as it will be their passage to the glory 
 " of Heaven, their admission into the kingdom of divine 
 " love, and into the glorious society of angels and saints." 
 
 In his book On the Habit of Viro^ins, he wonderfully 
 extols the sanctity of their state, and severely condemns 
 all painting of the hair or face, which disguises, and pre- 
 tends to mend the workmanship of God, and all allure- 
 ments of dress, by which those whose modesty is cheap 
 draw the eyes of others after them, and ruin their souls. 
 The more curious, he says, persons are in setting off 
 
104 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 their bodies, the more careless they grow as to the or- 
 naments of their minds. 
 
 In his book on The Unity of the Church, he demon- 
 strates the Church of Christ to be essentially One, and 
 says, ^' that Christ built his Church upon St. Peter, and 
 " gave the power of the keys to him ; aild though he 
 " also gave the same power to all his Apostles, he would 
 ** have it take its rise from one, and settled the whole upon 
 ** that foundation." The holy doctor says also, in the same 
 book, ^' He cannot ever attain the recompense propound- 
 " ed by Christ to his followers, who deserts his Church. 
 *^ He becomes thence unsanctified, an alien, and a down- 
 " right enemy. He cannot have God for his father, who 
 *^ hath not the Church for his mother. Could any one 
 " escape who was not with Noah in the Ark ? What- 
 ** ever shall be separated from the fountain of life, can 
 " have no life remaining in it, after having lost all com- 
 " munication with its vital principle." 
 
 His treatise on Alms and Good TVorJcs, is a moving 
 exhortation to alms-deeds and works of mercy, as com- 
 manded in the holy Scriptures, and as the means to obtain 
 the divine mercy. He teaches us, that all that is su- 
 perjiiious is due to the poor. *' Let the necessitous," says 
 he, " be sensible of your abundance ; put your money to 
 ** God, who will repay 3'our loans with interest ; feed 
 *^your Redeemer in his destitute and hungry members ; 
 ** engage, by your treasure many solicitors at the throne 
 "of grace," &.c. In fine, in a council of 61 Bishops, as- 
 sembled in Carthage, in the year 253, he supported the 
 necessity of infant baptism ; and in his other writings he 
 shows that it was always the behef of the Church, 
 that the saints in Heaven intercede for us before God — 
 that it was customary to mention the names of the faith- 
 ful departed, at the altar, and to make an oblation for 
 their repose after their death, at the Eucharist or the 
 Mass. He mentions, also, the use of the cross at bap- 
 tism, and says, that a Christian is fortified by the defen- 
 sive sign of the cross — 1. 2. Testim. His zeal was inde- 
 fatigable in exhorting the confessors, and in procuring 
 them all possible succour. He was careful in devoutly 
 honouring the memory of the martyrs, after their tri- 
 umphs, by sacrifices of thanksgiving to God on their an- 
 nual festivals ; " We offer up," says he, " the usual ga- 
 
CMURCfl QF CHRIST. 105 
 
 '* crifices and oblations in commemoration of them." As 
 ♦o the dispute which he carried on with a degree of 
 warmth with St. Stephen, St, Augustine says, that his 
 fault was compensated by the abundance of his charity, 
 and purified by the axe of his passion, for St. Cyprian 
 was beheaded for the faith, on the 14th of September, in 
 the year 258. 
 
 St. Gregory, surnamed Tlimimatnrgus, or worker of 
 miracles, on account of his extraordinary miracles, and 
 his brother, Athenorus, were disciples of the great 
 Origen. They were both converted from Paganism to 
 Christianity, and raised to the episcopal dignity with the 
 usual ceremonies. St. Gregory was cocsecrated Bishop 
 of Neocaesarea, in Pontus. He committed to writing the 
 famous Creed, or rule of faith, concerning the mystery 
 of the Holy Trinity, which is extant in his works. He 
 also wrote a canonical epistle, which holds an erainent 
 rank among the penitential canons of the Church, and 
 1^ which he mentioned the four distinct classes of peni- 
 tents. He and his brother are named the first among 
 the subscribers to the council thjit was held at Antioch, 
 in the year 264, to condemn the heresies broached by 
 Paul of Samosata, one of the most haughty and vain of 
 mortals, who had caused hymns in his own praise to be 
 simg in the Church. 
 
 St. Dionysius, Archbishop of Alexandria, is called, by 
 St. Athanasius, the doctor of the Cathohc Church. Being 
 born of Heathen parents, but of high rank in the world, 
 he was educated at Alexandria, then the centre of the 
 sciences, and ran through the whole circle of profane 
 learning. Falling at length upon the Epistles of St. 
 Paul, he found in them charms which he had not met 
 [ with in the writings of the Philosophers, and opening his 
 I heart to the truth, and turning it perfectly to God, he re- 
 [ nounced the errors qf idolatry, and trampled under his 
 feet all the glory and applause of the world. He became 
 ; an humble scholar in the catechetical school of Origen, 
 and made such progress, that he was ordained Priest, and 
 afterwards Bishop of Alexandria. When the sanguinary 
 edict of Decius reached Alexandria, in the year 250, St. 
 Dionysius was particularly active in arming and prepar- 
 ing the faithful for the combat. He wrote two books 
 •igainst the Millenarians, and persuaded several to forsake 
 
106 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 the Novitian schism. He condemned the blasphemies 
 of Sabellius, in a council at Alexandria, and strenuously 
 defended the real distinction of the three Divine Persons. 
 The loss of his works is extremely regretted, for of them 
 nothing has reached us, except some fragments quoted 
 by others, and his Canonical Epistle, wherein he men- 
 tions the austere manner in which the fjiithful then fasted 
 the Lent before Easter, and inculcates the great purity, 
 both in mind and body, that is required in all who ap- 
 proach the Holy Table, and receive the body and blood 
 of our Lord. 
 
 St. Victorinus is styled, by St. Jerom, one of the pil- 
 lars of the Church. He wrote against most heresies of 
 that age, and comments on a great part of the holy 
 Scriptures ; but all his works are lost, except a small 
 treatise on the creation of the world, and a treatise on 
 the Apocalypse, extant in the library of the Fathers. 
 
 Origen was the eldest son of Leonides, a Christian 
 philosopher at Alexandria, who brought him up with great 
 care, returning thanks to God for having blessed him v^•ith 
 a son of such an excellent disposition for learning, and a 
 very great zeal for piety. These qualifications endeared 
 him greatly to his father, who, after his son was baptized, 
 would come to his bedside, whilst he was asleep, and 
 opening his bosom, kiss it respectfully, as being the tem- 
 ple of the Holy Ghost. Origen became a scholar first 
 of St. Clement, then regent of the famous catechetical 
 school in Alexandria, and afterward a scholar of the ce- 
 lebrated philosopher, Ammonius Saccas. When the per- 
 secution raged in Egypt, in the tenth year of Severus, 
 Leonides was cast into prison. Origen, who was then only 
 seventeefi years of age, burned with an incredible desire 
 of martyrdom, and sought every opportunity of meeting 
 with it : but his mother conjured him not to forsake her, 
 and, seeing his ardour redoubled at the sight of his fa- 
 therms chains, was forced to lock up his clothes to oblige 
 him to stay at home ; so, not being able to do any more, 
 he wrote a letter to his father, in very moving terms, 
 strongly exhorting him to look on the crown of glory that 
 was ofiered him, with courage and joy, adding this clause, 
 <* Take heed. Sir, that, for our sakes, you do not change 
 ** your mind." Leonides was accordingly beheaded for 
 the faith in the year 202. His estates and goods being 
 
CHURCH OF CHRIST. 107 
 
 ail conijscated and seized for the Emperor''s use, his wi- 
 dow was left with seven sons to maintain, in the poorest 
 condition imaginable: but Divine Providence was both 
 her comfort and support. 
 
 Origen, being reduced to extreme poverty after the 
 death of his father, was relieved by the liberality of a 
 rich lady of Alexandria. He made such improvements in 
 all sorts of learning, that he was regarded as a prodigy, 
 for his genius and extensive knowledge. At the age of 
 eighteen years he was appointed by Demetrius, the Bi- 
 shop, to preside in the great school of Alexandria, where he 
 was soon followed, consulted, and respected by a number 
 of disciples, who after being with the greatest masters in 
 the world, were thereby only qualified to become his 
 scholars and to crowd to his lectures. From his school, 
 innumerable doctors, priests, confessors, and martyrs 
 came forth. He seemed scarce ever to cease from ap- 
 plication, or to know any difference, as to repose, be- 
 tween day and night. Besides his public lectures, the fa- 
 tigue of which was enough to kill another person, he dic- 
 tated to seven Amanuenses. He led a most austere life, 
 walking almost barefooted, sleeping upon the bare ground, 
 watching much, besides fasting often. He abstained 
 from flesh meat, and during many years from wine, till 
 the weakness of his breast obliged him to mingle a little 
 with his water. He is said to have writen six thousand 
 volumes, but by blending the Platonic philosophy with 
 i.he Christian theology, he fell into some errors, that 
 were condemned in the fifth general council, though he 
 never, as long as he lived, withdrew himself from the 
 <I'hurch. The most celebrated work he wrote is his 
 Apology for the Christian Religion, published in the year 
 £!49, against Celsus, the Epicurean philosopher, who lived 
 in the reign of Adrian, and who was the most formidable 
 adversary that ever attacked, in writing, the Christian 
 Religion. Porphyrins the Tyrian philosopher ; Hiero- 
 cles ; and Julian, the Apostate, wrote, indeed, against it 
 many bitter invectives, ludicrous cavils, and slanders, 
 supported only by an extravagant sophistry, that visibly 
 betrays the weakness of infidelity, and strengthens the 
 cause of truth, as St. Eusebius of Cassarea, St. Gregory 
 Nazianzen, and St. Cyril, have clearly demonstrated. 
 But of all the writers against Christianity, Celsus was 
 
108 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 the most crafty and subtle, for he wrote with the most 
 refined fallacy that sophistry could invent, with an air 
 of positiveness to in\pose upon the vulgar, and with all the 
 advantages that wit and raillery could give. He was also 
 master of all the difficulties that an extensive knowledge, 
 seconded by artifice and management, could object. On 
 the other side, Origen, with all the sense and solidity of 
 right reason, reduces every argument to its true prin- 
 ciples, follows his adversary step by step, convicts him 
 of falsehood in point of fact, refutes all his calumnies, 
 sets in the true light things which his adversary disguised 
 or smothered, and established the truth of the Christian 
 rehgion by the evidence of facts and of its history. Eu- 
 sebius and St. Jerom say, that all objections that ever 
 were, or can be made to Christianity, will find an answer 
 in this work. 
 
 Arnobius was a native of Sicca, in Africa, and a cele- 
 brated rhetorician, about the close of the third century. 
 From a most fiery stickler for idolatry, he became an il- 
 lustrious champion for Christianity, being compelled, by 
 heavenly admonitions, to acknowledge the evidence of 
 divine Revelation, as St. Jerom says. Being thus mi- 
 raculously converted, like another Saul, he desired bap- 
 tism, but, the Bishop of Sicca, considering with what 
 fury he had declaimed against the Church, before he 
 would admit him to the laver of salvation, required, as a 
 condition, that he should, by some learned work, give a 
 public testimony to the truth, which he had so violently 
 combated. The sincere convert, impatient to attain to 
 the desired happiness, wrote his seven books Against the 
 GeniileSy whilst a novice in the faith, and undoubtedly 
 would have better polished his style, if the haste with 
 which he wrote had allowed him leisure to give it the last 
 finishing strokes. 
 
 Lectantius, the famous Latin author, was in his youth 
 a disciple of Arnobius, at Sicca, and was converted to the 
 faith from Idolatry. His writings are full of admirable 
 precepts of morahty which he enforces with invincible elo- 
 quence. But after his conversion his pen was chiefly 
 employed in overthrowing Paganism, which he confutes 
 with all the ardour and spirit imaginable. He combats 
 the difierent sects of the Heathen philosophers, pursuing 
 them through all the labyrinths of error and false vjudg- 
 
CHURCH OF CHRIST. 109 
 
 iiieul, without ever losing himself. Having exploded 
 falsehood, he introduces the most noble, sublime, and 
 perfect philosophy of the holy Scriptures, which alone 
 satisfies all the inquiries of human reason, wherein all 
 systems of philosophers are infinitely deficient. He 
 relates the several persecutions which the Church had 
 suflered, and the exemplary puui^^hments which God had 
 iullicted on the persecutors. He lolls us, that as the 
 Emperor Dioclesian was oflbrhig sacrifice at Antioch, 
 one of his officers made on his forehead the sign of the 
 cross, and thereupon, to the great trouble of the Pagans, 
 the auspices were disturbed, and the daemons disappear- 
 •d — de Mort. Persec. c. 11. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 The jive last general Persecutions. ^ 
 
 THE Emperor Alexander, surnamed Sevenis, cousrn 
 german and successor of Heliogabalus, was one of the 
 best of Princes. Two maxims, which he learned of the 
 Christians, were the rules by which he endeavoured to 
 square his conduct: The first was, ''Do to all men as 
 *• you would have others do to you." The second, that 
 all places of command are to be bestowed on those wh<5 
 are the best qualified for them. He forbade the sale of 
 employments, saying, '' He fhat buys must sell." He 
 kept the soldiers in awe by regular pay, and gave salaries 
 out of the treasury to the rulers of provinces, that they 
 might not be a burden to the people. It was in his peace- 
 able reign that the Christians first began to build 
 churches, which were demolished in the succeeding per- 
 secution. Julius Maxi minus, having opened to himself a 
 way to the imperial throne, by contriving the assassination 
 of the best of the Roman emperors, began his reign by rais- 
 ing the sixth general persecution against the Church, in 
 the year 235. He was originally a shepherd of mean ex- 
 traction from Thrace, and a man of fierce manners and 
 gigantic stature, and a monster of gluttony: he eat fifty 
 pounds of meat in a day, and was so strong, that he couM 
 tfear up trees by the roots with his han4s, ^s historians as- 
 K 
 
no HISTORY OF THE 
 
 sure us. When emperor, he put to death liis nio&t 
 ancient friends, who could give an account of his origin. 
 Capitolinus says of him, " That never did a more cruel 
 " beast tread upon the earth." He raged violently agairist 
 the Christians, particularly the bishops, pastors, and teach- 
 ers, having ordered some to be crucified, others to be dress* 
 ed in the skins of beasts, and thus to be exposed to wild 
 animals to be torn in pieces. 
 
 After the death of Maximinus, the faitliful enjoyed the 
 sweets of peace for several years ; but this peace and 
 tranquilhty occasioned, conformably to the bent of hu- 
 man nature, a remissness and a sensible relaxation in 
 their manners, as St. Cyprian complained. It enervated, 
 in many, the watchfulness and spirit of their holy pro- 
 fession, and opened a door to several converts, who, when 
 their virtue was put to the test, had not courage to stand 
 the trial. Nay, the virtue of some, who had stood the 
 fiercest persecutions, began to melt away at the first rays 
 of peace and prosperity: so dangerous are its flattering 
 blandishments. Almighty God, therefore, to punish their 
 sloth and neglect, and to revive their fervour, was pleased 
 to try them in a fiery crucible, and to permit a most dread- 
 ful storm to be raised against the Church, in the j'ear 
 '^49: for Decius having usurped the empire, after causing 
 the Emperor Philip to be killed by his soldiers at Verona, 
 began his reign by raising the seventh general persecu- 
 tion, which he carried on with the utmost cruelty near 
 three years. No sooner were his bloody edicts published, 
 hut the Christians were immediately driven from their 
 houses, and stript of their estates. Whips and prisons, 
 iires and wild beasts, scalded pitch and melted wax, sharp 
 stakes and burning pincers, were the ordinary instru- 
 ments used for their torments. Many of all ages, ranks, 
 and professions, were put to the most exquisite tortures: 
 They were scourged, beaten, racked, and roasted ; their 
 flesh was pulled off with burning pincers, and their sides 
 burnt with torches. Some were beheaded with swords, 
 others were run through with spears ; some were stretch- 
 ed on racks, others were hung up with weights at their feet, 
 and tortured in this posture with more instruments of tor- 
 ment than their bodies had limbs. Multitudes fled into 
 the mountains, woods, and deserts, from this scene of 
 slaugUtet ; of this number was St. Paul, the eminent An- 
 
oret, who is styled the first Hermit. Others sought 
 r refuge in the catacombs of Rome ; others concealed 
 emsekes in subterraneous caverns and dismal retreats, 
 here they either perished by hunger and cold, or fell 
 mto the hands of the Saracens, and were reduced to a 
 ate of slavery worse than death itself. Nicephorus, the 
 storian, declares, that it would be easier to count the 
 nds of the sea, than to reckon up all the martyrs of 
 is persecution. The very Pagans themselves beheld, 
 ith admiration, these heaveidy conilicts, and stood as- 
 nished at their meekness, patience, and courage, in the 
 midst of all their suflerings ; nay, some of them were sd 
 powerfully overcome by their example, that they sudden- 
 ly declared themselves Christians, and sufiered death 
 with joy for their profession ; so that if a few apostatized 
 in this terrible time of trial, the scandal they gave was 
 
 Rnply repaired by the wonderful conversion of others, 
 id by the unconquerable virtue, constancy, and fidelity 
 of thousands, v/ho tired out their tormentors, smiling at 
 them whilst they were raking in their wounds, and with 
 shaken souls making open profession of Christ under 
 e sharpest engines of execution. They had constantly 
 efore their eyes the divine pattern of their Lord and Sa- 
 vour, and the heavenly recompense which awaited them 
 "ter their combats. This glorious prospect animated 
 tlieir courage, and sweetened their torments. Inspired 
 with inward, joy, they said to themselves: Hie sufferings 
 of this time are not ivorthy to he compared with the glory 
 to comey that shall be revealed in us. Rom. 8. 18. They 
 
 Iongratulated each other on the view of their approach- 
 ig triumph, saying, as St. Cyprian tells us, '^The per- 
 tsecutor wrests from us our lands, but Heaven is opened 
 [to us ; the enemy of Christ threatens, but Christ pro- 
 tects us. By killing us they deprive us of this world, but 
 ^' Paradise is offered us in its stead ; our temporal life is 
 *^ extinguished, but changed into eternal." Decius being- 
 defeated in Thrace by the Goths, and succeeded by Gal- 
 lus, the general of the army, who had betrayed him, this 
 volution gave some short respite to the Christians, but 
 a great plague, which ravaged several provinces of the 
 empire, during twelve years, beginning in the year 250, 
 alarmed the superstition of th6 new emperor so much, 
 that he commanded sacrifice every where to be niade tt> 
 
ll'-l HISTORY OF THE 
 
 Apollo, for averting that scourge, and revived the pei'5:e- 
 cution of Decius, in order to appease the anger of his 
 false gods, by spilling the blood of the Christians. It was 
 at this time that St. Hippolytus was ordered to be drag- 
 ged and torn assunder by wild horses, at Ostia, where he 
 expired uttering these words, <' Lord, they tear my body, 
 '' receive thou my soul." About the same time, St. 
 Cassian, a Christian schoolmaster, was ordered to be 
 slabbed to death with the penknives and styles, or iron 
 writing pencils, of his own scholars. Gallus continued to 
 persecute the Christians, until he, and his collea<jue, 
 Volucianus, were slain in a battle at Terni, by Emilia- 
 uus, in the year 254. Three months aftea^ Emilianus 
 being killed by his own soldiers near Spoleto, Valerian, 
 who commanded the army in Gaul, got possession of the 
 Imperial Throne, and for some time gave peace to the 
 Church ; but in the year 2j7 he commenced the eighth 
 general persecution, by the persuasion and artifice of 
 Macrianus, an Egyptian magician, who advised him to 
 suppress Christianity, thereby to render tlie gods propi- 
 tious, and procure prosperity and success in his wars. 
 Numbers of Christians were crowned with martyrdom in 
 consequence of the cruel edicts published by this empe- 
 ror, and executed with the utmost rigour for three years 
 and a half, till he was taken prisoner by the Persians. 
 The chief martyrs who suffered in his reign were St. 
 Stephen, St. Sixtus, St. Laurence, St. Cyprian, St. Felix 
 of Nola, St. Fructuosus, St. Saturninus, St. Marian, with 
 several illustrious confessors, who were chained and im- 
 prisoned, or condemned to work in the mines, and in Cf£- 
 sar's farms. St. Augustine informs us, that in the per- 
 secution of Valerian, one hundred and fifty-three Chris- 
 tians, who were detained in the prisons of Utica, suffered 
 a glorious martyrdom there on the same day: for the Pro- 
 consul of Africa having gone from Carthage to Utica, and 
 having ordered a great pit of burning lime to be pre- 
 pared in a field, and by it an altar of idols, with salt and 
 hog's liver placed on it, ready for sacrifice, he caused all 
 the aforesaid prisoners to be brought before him, and gave 
 them their choice, either to be thrown into the pit of 
 burning lime, or to offer sacrifice to the idols which 
 were set by it. They unanimously chose the first, and 
 w'^.i-e all consumed together in the furnace. Their ashes 
 
CHURCH or CHRIST. 113 
 
 were afterwards taken out by the Christians, and as they 
 made but one common mass, cemented with the hme, 
 these martyrs were called the White Mass, Galienus, the 
 son and successor of Valerian, restored peace to the 
 Church, but as he led a life of debauchery and supine 
 
 Indolence, he became odious to the people, and was mur- 
 ered in the year 268, and there rose up no less than 
 lirty tyrants together, who assumed the title of empe- 
 ors, and tore the empire to pieces by factions and di- 
 isions. 
 Claudius II. the successor of Galienus, a prince of mo- 
 eration and wisdom, continued to suspend the edicts of 
 former persecutors during the two years that he reigned. 
 lie was surnamed GothicuSy on accoinit of his successful 
 wars against the Goths, wherein it appears that 320,000 
 of them were slain, and two thousand of their ships were 
 sunk. After his death the Emperor Aurelius raised the 
 .plinth general persecution, in the year 274. It is said of 
 l^nim, that he would have been a good doctor, if he haci 
 not taken away too mu^h blood. The principal victims 
 |Hent to Heaven in t^is _persecution were St. Felix, vSt. 
 ^^Mamas of Caisarea, SL Agapetus, St. Savinianus, St. 
 I^polumba, &.c. 
 
 ■"^ The tenth and last j^eneral persecution was raised by 
 Dioclesian, a soldier of fortune, and a man of mean ex- 
 traction, who was proclaimed emperor by the army at 
 Clhalcedon, in the year 284, the emperor of Cams, who 
 bad impiously assumed the title of a j2;od, being killed by 
 lightning, and his son, Numerianus Augustus, being cut 
 off by the treachery of his uncle, Aper. Dioclesian 
 slew Aper, and by killing him accomplished a prediction 
 which had formerly been delivered in his favour, that he 
 should be an emperor when he killed an Aper, this 
 
 ^word in Latin signifying a wild boar. The following year 
 he defeated and slew Carinus, the second son of Carus, 
 and, after this victory, took the haughty name of Jovius, 
 from Jupiter. But fmding the empire too unwieldy a body- 
 to govern alone, and wishing, at the same time, to secure 
 bimself against the continual treasons of the soldiery, es- 
 pecially the praetorian guards, who, during the last three 
 hundred years, had murdered almost all their emperors, 
 he chose Maximian for his partner and colleague in the 
 empire, and honoured hira with the title of Augustus. 
 K 2 
 
114 HISTORY OF The 
 
 Maximian assumed also the surname of Hercideus, from 
 the false god Hercules. The two emperors named each 
 an emperor of an inferior rank, under the title of Cwsars. 
 Dioclesian chose Galerius Maximian for the East, and 
 Maximian Herculeus pitched uponConstantiusChlorus for 
 the West. Dioclesian usually resided in the East at Ni- 
 comedia, and Galerius occupied Illyricum, and the places 
 adjacent to the Euxine Sea. Maximian Herculeus re- 
 served to himself the rich provinces of Italy, Spain and 
 Africa, and Constantius had Gaul and Britain, and the 
 countries this side the Alps. The first years of the 
 reign of Dioclesian were tolerably favourable to the 
 Christians, though several, even then, suffered martyrdom 
 by virtue of the former edicts, and by the natural cruelty 
 of Maximian Herculeus, who delighted in blood ; but in 
 the beginning of the year 302, Galerius prevailed upon 
 Dioclesian to form a project utterly to extirpate the 
 Christian name, and even began, by his own authority, 
 to persecute the faithful within his own jurisdiction. In 
 order to stir up Dioclesian the more, he procured some 
 of his own creatures to set fire to the imperial palace at 
 Nicomedia, that the Christians, according to the usual per- 
 verseuess of the Heathens, might be accused of it ; for, 
 as Tertullian tells us, they conceived such prejudice and 
 hatred against the professors of Christianity, that every 
 pubHc calamity and misfortune that befel the government 
 was thrown upon them. If the Temple of Daphnis was 
 consumed by lightning from Pleaven, the Christians were 
 slandered and condemned as the incendiaries. If the 
 Tiber overflowed ; if the Nile watered not the plains ; 
 if there were earthquakes, famine, or plague, they would 
 cry out, The Clunstians to the Jjions. 
 
 Dioclesian, not suspecting the imposture, gave orders, 
 that all his domestics and dependents should be cruelly 
 tortured in his presence, to oblige them to confess the 
 supposed guilt, but all to no purpose, for the criminals 
 lay concealed among the domestics of Galerius, who, in a 
 fortnight after, caused the palace to be set on fire, and 
 left Nicomedia the same day, protesting that he went 
 away through fear of being burnt alive by the Christians. 
 The fire was stopped before it had done any great mis- 
 chief, but it had the efiect intended by the author of it, 
 for Dioclftsian^ ascribing it to the Christians, resolved to 
 
CHURCH OF ohiust. 115 
 
 Eeep no measures with them. His rage and resentment 
 being now at the highest pitch, he vented them with the ut- 
 most cruelty upon the innocent, and published four edicts, 
 commanding all Christians to be put to death who should 
 refuse to renounce their faith, or to sacrifice to the idols j 
 for the Devil, by his instruments, sought not so much to 
 destroy the bodies of the servants of God by death, as their 
 souls by sin. The first victims of Dioclesian's rage were the 
 courtiers of his palace, the presidents of his councils, the 
 holy Bishop Anthimus, and the clergy of Nicomedia, 
 whom he ordered to be seized, loaded with chains, and 
 compelled by torments to sacrifice to the gods, which 
 they refusing to do, they were beheaded, with all the per- 
 sons belonging to their families. The church of Nicome- 
 dia was levelled with the ground, the whole city was fill- 
 ed with desolation and slaughter, and all the books of the 
 Scriptures that could be found were burnt. Judges 
 were appointed in the temples to condemn to immediate 
 death all who refused to sacrifice, and torments, till then 
 unheard of, were invented. Altars were erected in the 
 courts of justice and in the public offices, that all might 
 be obliged to offer sacrifice before they could be admit- 
 ted to plead. Idols were set up in the market places, at 
 the corners of the streets, and at the public fountains, that 
 the people might first ofier incense to them, before they 
 could be suffered to buy or sell any thing, to grind their 
 corn, to draw water, or transact any business. Persons 
 of every age and sex were burnt, not sinjfly one by one, 
 but, on accountof their numbers, whole companies of them 
 were burnt together, by setting fire round about them ; 
 while others, being tied together in great numbers, were 
 cast into the sea. Seventeen thousand Christians were 
 
 Passacred in one single day, as historians relate. 
 Dioclesian, not satisfied with all these cruelties, had 
 his edicts published in other parts of the empire, and or- 
 dered all the churches to be every where demolished, the 
 Scriptures to be burnt, the Christians to be declared in- 
 capable of all honours and employments, to be deprived 
 of their liberties and their right of voting, to be put out 
 of the protection of the law, and not to be allowed either 
 to recover debts, or to sue for a reparation of any inju- 
 ries or damages done to them, whilst, on the other hand, 
 all actiajis were to be received against them. The 
 
1 16 Mistoni' OP Tits 
 
 bloody edicts were sent ironi the East to Maxiniian, and 
 to Constantius in the West. The former willingly obey- 
 ed them, but Constantius put no man to deatii on that 
 account, though he sufl'ered the churches to be pulled 
 down. He told the Christians he had in his army and 
 household, that he gave them their choice, either to sa- 
 crifice, or to lose their posts. Some preferring their tem- 
 poral interests to their religion, were tempted to offer sa- 
 crifice, but Constantius despised and discharged such 
 apostates from his service, saying, that persons, so self- 
 interested and- treacherous to their God, would never b^e 
 faithful to him. On the contrary, those who continued 
 steadfast in their faith, he kept near his person, declaring 
 them worthy to be entrusted with the care of his person 
 and empire. In the interim, his eldest son, Constantine, 
 was kept at the court of Dioclesian, as a hostage for his 
 father's fidelity, and like another Moses, was brought up 
 amidst the enemies of truth, whom he was one day to 
 extirpate. 
 
 In the other parts of the Roman Empire, the persecu- 
 tion was carried on with great violence by Dioclesian, 
 Galerius, and Maximian. These cruel beasts, says Lac- 
 tantius, raged every where from East to West. If I had 
 a hundred tongues, says that historian, I should not be 
 able to recount all the different torments that were em- 
 ployed by them against the Christians, The barbarities 
 they exercised, exceed all description. They deluged 
 the Roman Empire with an ocean of blood. The unheard 
 of torments they made use of for the space of ten years 
 were innumerable, says Eusebius. — Some Christians were 
 broiled to death on grid-irons and frying pans. Some 
 'were squeezed in a press, until their veins, sinews, and 
 fibres, burst. Some were hung up with their heads down- 
 wards, and suffocated by slow fires. Some were slain by 
 breaking their legs and chopping off their hands and feet. 
 Some were sawed in two. Some had their eyes and teeth 
 pulled out. Some were dipt in melting lead or scalding 
 oil. Some were devoured by dogs, bears, lions, and other 
 wild beasts. Some were beheaded ; others had sharp reeds 
 thrust under their nails. Some were cruelly scourged and 
 beaten with clubs and balls of lead. Some had their 
 flesh torn off with pincers, or furrowed and racked off 
 •with piece^ of broken pots, kon hooks, and nails. Some 
 
CHURCH OF CHRIST. ^^^^ff^^ 117 
 
 ere exjjosed to the sun, and rubbed over with honey, that 
 ej might be stung and torkiredby bees and wasps. Some 
 ere sent in chains to work in the mines. Some were 
 iivered over to archers to be shot to death with arrows, 
 me were sewed up in sacks, or leathern bags, with scor- 
 pions, serpents, vipers, snake*, and other reptiles, and 
 thrown into the sea. Some wei^ confined in infectious 
 dungeons, strewed with nails and broken glass. Those 
 who survived were called Confessors^ because they had 
 courage to confess the name of Christ before the judges. 
 A populous city in Phrygia, consisting all of Christians, 
 jH^as surrounded by a large body of soldiers, who set fire 
 ^0 it ; and men, women, and children, were all consum- 
 ed in the flames. In the West, the sanguinary tyrant 
 Maximian, as St. Jerom calls him, having crossed the 
 Alps with his army, on an expedition into Gaul, and hav- 
 ing halted at Octodurum, then a considerable city on the 
 Rhone, above the lake of Geneva, now a village called 
 Martignac in the Valais, issued out an order that the 
 w hole army should join in offering sacrifice to the gods 
 for the success of their expedition. — The Theban legion, 
 consisting of about six thousand six hundred Christians 
 from Thebais, or Upper Egypt, hereupon withdrew itself, 
 ^ith Maurice, Exuperius, and Candidas, the captain and 
 Hp'incipa} officers, and encamped at some distance from 
 the main body of the army, that they might not join in 
 the idolatrous worship, Maximiau sent them repeated 
 orders to return to the camp and offer sacrifice ; and 
 
 K)on their constant and unanimous refusal, he commanded 
 em to be decimated. Every tenth man was then put 
 to death, according as the lot fell, the rest exhorting one 
 ^nother in the interim to perseverance. After the first 
 cimation, a second was commanded, and the emperor 
 nt fresh threats, that if they persisted in their disobe- 
 ence, not a man among them should escape death, 
 he soldiers declared, that " they would rather suffer all 
 extremities than do any thing contrary to their reli- 
 gion. They humbly remonstrated to Maximian, that 
 '' they were his soldiers, but at the same time, that they 
 were servants of the true God. We owe you, said 
 '' they, military service and obedience ; but we cannot 
 '' renounce him, who is our Creator and Master, and also 
 " yours, even whilst you reject him. In all things, which 
 
118 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 ^^ are not against his law, we most willingly obey you, as 
 '^ we have done hitherto. We readily oppose all your 
 " enemies, wherever they are, but we cannot dip our 
 ** hands in the blood of the innocent. We have taken 
 " an oath to God, before we took one to you ; you can 
 " place no confidence in our second oath, should we vi- 
 " olate the first. We confess God the Father, Author 
 ** of all things, and his Son, Jesus Christ. Neither the 
 *^ extremity to which we are reduced, nor any provoca- 
 " tion hath tempted us to revolt. We have arms in our 
 " hands, but we do not resist, because we had rather die 
 " innocent than live by any sin." This legion was well 
 armed, and might have sold their lives very dear. But 
 they had learned to give to God Avhat is God's, and to 
 Caesar what is Caisar's, and they showed their courage 
 more in dying for their faith, than in the most hazardous 
 enterprises. Maximian having no hopes of overcoming 
 their constancy, commanded his whole army to surround 
 them, and cut them to pieces. They made no resist- 
 ance, but, dropping their arms, suffered themselves to 
 be butchered like innocent sheep, without opening their 
 mouths, except mutually to encourage one another ; and 
 not one out of so great a number failed in courage to the 
 last. The ground was covered with their dead bodies, 
 and streams of blood flowed on every side. 
 
 Such was the general disposition and firmness of the 
 Christians under the sharpest trials and most violent per- 
 secutions. Nothing could shake their constancy, or pre- 
 vail on them to offer sacrifice to the idols. For one that 
 prevaricated or denied his faith, in the heat of perse- 
 cution, or that lost his courage when subdued by torture 
 and almost torn to pieces, or that burnt incense in the 
 temples, or that procured at a certain price certificates 
 and attestations from the Pagan magistrates, of having 
 complied with the imperial edicts, thousands sealed their 
 faith with the last drop of their blood. They despise<l 
 death in its most terrifying shapes, and even stared it in the 
 face with joy, regarding it as the gate to everlasting hap- 
 piness. Far from retaliating injuries, they prayed for 
 their persecutors, and never used the least violence 
 ftcfainst those who treated them with crueltv. Thev 
 were so numerous, as to be capable of forming great ar- 
 mies, yet they sufiered themselves to be massacred, ra- 
 
 J 
 
cc 
 
 CHURCH OF CHRIST. ^^Mf ^^^ 
 
 er than rise up in arms against tlieir princfts and rulers ; 
 
 r they had learned from the Apostles and their sue- 
 
 ssors, that the powers established by God are to be 
 
 spected even in the persons of wicked men. — They 
 
 id, as St. Justin and Tertullian inform us: " our hopes 
 
 are not fixed on the present world, and therefore we 
 
 make no resistance to the executioner that comes to 
 
 ^' strike us. Vv'e adore one only God, but in all other 
 
 things we cheerfully obey the ruling powers.*" We 
 
 pray to God that he may grant to the emperors a long 
 
 life, a peaceable reign, safety at home, victorious arms, 
 
 *' a faithful senate, virtuous subjects, universal peace, and 
 
 *' every thing that a man and emperor can desire." 
 
 Most flourishing was the condition of the Roman empire, 
 
 till the emperors drew the sword of persecution against 
 
 those, whose prayers were the protection of the state. 
 
 They flattered themselves that they would be able to ex- 
 
 Hhguish the Christian name, and to destroy the Church, 
 
 ^potand branch. For this end, they bore down against her, 
 
 ^ith all their weight, but all their efforts proved abortive, 
 
 and Avere as vain as the winds and rain against a iiouse, 
 
 ^at is built upon a rock. They had no other effect, but 
 
 H throw a gloomy vail over the Church for a while, b«t 
 
 IB^^ being once removed, she appeared with new strength, 
 
 and like the sun emerging from an eclipse, she shone forth 
 
 %vith greater lustre and spread her influence over the 
 
 whole earth. The more her children were persecut- 
 
 jiid, and the more of them were slain with the sword, the 
 
 ■"ore they increased and multiplied, like unto a vine, as 
 
 St. Justin says, which by being pruned and cut close, 
 
 shoots forth new suckers and bears a greater multitude 
 
 of fruit. 
 
 CHAPTER :^IV. 
 
 27i€ Pcr9ecidor8 of the Church overtaken in this Life by the 
 avenging justice of God. 
 
 WHILST the Church of Christ increased by the very 
 means that were employed for her extermination, her ene- 
 mies and persecutors were generally overtaken by the 
 
140 HISTORT OP THE 
 
 wrath of Heaven, even in this world, and fell victims Il» 
 Divine Justice in the end. 
 
 King Agrippa, the grandson of Herod, and first prince 
 who drew the sword of persecution against the Church, 
 was eaten up by worms, and expired in the most exqui- 
 site torments, and in all the miseries that can he express- 
 ed or imagined. Nero miserably perished under the 
 public resentment of the whole empire, and the universal 
 detestation of all mankind. The Roman senate havinir 
 pronounced sentence of death against him, he lied into 
 the country, and after attempting' his own life, he prevail- 
 ed on another to despatch him Mith a dagger. Domitian 
 was murdered by his own domestics, and after his death, 
 his statues were pulled down, his name was erased out of 
 all the public registers, and oi'dered never more to be 
 mentioned. In the days of Trajan, Adrian, and Aurelius, 
 the Roman empire was visibly scourged with plagues and 
 famine, dreadful earthquakes and inundations. Severus 
 and his vicious sons Caracalla and Geta, fell into sad 
 disasters, and their whole family was extinguished. Ju- 
 lius Maximius and his son were killed by the soldiers at 
 Aquileia, their heads were -sent to Rome, and their bo- 
 dies were left to be devoured by dogs and birds of prej. 
 Decius ran with despair into a deep bog and perished 
 miserably, G alius was killed the year after he com- 
 menced persecutor. Valerian was taken prisoner by the 
 Persians, and led about in triumph, loaded with chains, 
 and clad in purple, and all the imperial ornaments. Ahd 
 as often as Saphor I, king of Persia, had occasion to 
 mount on horseback, or to go into his chariot, he made 
 use of Valerian for a footstool, or horseblock, ordering 
 the unhappy emperor to stoop down, and setting his foot 
 upon his neck or back, as a step to get up. Valerian) 
 who had robbed many others of their liberty, lived seven 
 years in this infamous slavery. After his death, his skin 
 was flayed off his body, pickled with salt, tinctured with 
 a red colouring, and hung up as a trophy in one of the 
 Persian temples, to be shown to the Roman ambassadors 
 whenever they should come into Persia, that they might 
 remember Valerian's fall, and learn from it not to pre- 
 sume too much upon their own strength. Aurelian, that 
 haughty, proud, and insolent prince, whom the fortune of 
 war had raised frojja a barbarian slave to the imperial 
 
CHURCH OF CHRIST. 121 
 
 throne, and wlio, as Aurelius Victor tells us, was the first 
 among the Roman emperors that wore a diadem, drew 
 down the Divine displeasure on himself, and was assassi- 
 nated by his own secretary, and cnt off the face of the 
 earth in the beginning of his blood}^ persecution, after 
 leading Zenobia, queen of the East, a captive to Rome, 
 in triumph. Nothing prospered with Dioclesian, from 
 the time he be«:an his war ai»;ain.vt the Church. Until 
 then he had done many gallant actions, which merited a 
 triumph, and appeared very unwilling to adopt violent 
 measures, foreseeing that the peace of the empire w'ould 
 be thereby disturbed to an high degree. But Satan hur- 
 ried him on blindly to destruction, and inspired him w^ith 
 the most rancorous hatred against tlie Christians. At 
 length, intimidated by the power and threats of his fa- 
 vourite Galerius, he resigned to him the purple at Nico- 
 media. His colleague, Maximian Herculeus, made the 
 like abdication at Milan, and was compelled to resign the 
 imperial purple to Constantius Chlorus, after which he 
 hanged himself in despair. Victor the historian relates, 
 that Dioclesian put an end to his miserable life by poison. 
 He lived to see his wife Prisca Octavia, and his daughter 
 Valeria publicly beheaded by Licinius, and their bodies 
 thrown into the sea. He had also the mortification to 
 see the Christian religion protected by law, and to learn, 
 that his statues had been pulled down by Constantine, 
 who was created emperor on the demise of his father, 
 Constantius Chlorus, who died at York, in Great Britain, 
 in the year 306. Lactantius says, that Dioclesian seeing 
 himself despised by the whole world, and loaded with 
 guilt and disgrace, was in perpetual uneasiness, and could 
 neither eat nor sleep. He was heard to sigh and groan 
 continually, often with tears in his eyes, sometimes tum- 
 bling himself on his bed, and sometimes on the ground. 
 The hand of God was likewise very visible upon the 
 abominable Galerius, who had taken so much pains to in- 
 stigate Dioclesian against the Christians. He was seized 
 with a grievous and terrible disease. Being extremely 
 fat and unwieldy, the huge mass of his flesh was overrun 
 with putrefaction, and swarmed with vermin. An ulcer 
 consumed the lower parts of his belly, and laid open 
 his very bowels ; and the stench that came from him was 
 not to be borne, even hy his own servants, as Eusebius 
 E 
 
12:2 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 relates. His pains were so violent, that he roared out, 
 and often attempted to kill himself. In these agonies he 
 seemed to acknowledge the hand that scourged him, and 
 in order to avert it, he published an edict in favour of 
 the Christians. But Heaven did not relent, and his dis- 
 temper increasing, put a period to his wicked life in a few 
 days. Maxentius, the son of Maximian Herculeus, was 
 routed in a battle he fought with Constantine, on the 
 banks of the Tyber, near the bridge Milvius, now called 
 Ponie Mole^ two miles from Rome. Constantine's army 
 being inferior in number, he earnestly implored the pro- 
 tection of one supreme God, and was encouraged by a 
 miraculous vision, for, after his prayer, a little after mid- 
 day, as Eusebius relates, when he was traversing the 
 country with part of his forces, he saw in the sky a cross 
 of light, with this inscription, " In this shalt thou con- 
 *' quer," and he was inspired to make a representation 
 of that cross, which he had seen, and to use it for an en- 
 sign in battle. The emperor accordingly made the fa- 
 mous banner called JLabarum, and effectually under its 
 auspices, on the 28th of October", 312, he gained a com- 
 plete victory over Maxentius, who in his flight was drown- 
 ed in the Tyber, by the breaking of the bridge of boats, 
 Avhich he had caused to be thrown over that river. On 
 the same day Constantine entered Rome in triumph, on 
 which occasion, the Senate ordered that magnificent 
 triumphal arch to be built, which is still extant, at the 
 head of the Appian Road, behind the famous amphithea- 
 tre. A statue was also erected in honour of him in one 
 of the public places of the city, where he appeared hold- 
 ing a cross in his hand instead of a lance ; and he caused 
 this inscription to be made on the pedestal : " By this salu- 
 " tary sign, the true mark of courage, I have delivered 
 " your city from the yoke of tyranny, and restored the 
 " Senate and people of Rome to their ancient glory." 
 Euseb. in Vit. Const. 
 
 Maximinus Daia, the nephew and successor of Gale- 
 rius, who being upon the point of engaging with Licinius, 
 made a vow to Jupiter, that if he gained the victory, he 
 would exterminate the very name of Christianity, was to- 
 tally defeated near Byzantium, by a much smaller army 
 than his own, and compelled to repeal his edicts against 
 the Christians. Upon which he threw away his imperial 
 
^ 
 
 H 
 
 m 
 
 CHURCH OF CHRIST. 1^3 
 
 obe, and fled in the habit of a slave into Asia. Shortly 
 fter he was struck with a dreadful disorder not unlike 
 that of Galerius, and expired in excessive pain, rage, and 
 despair. He rolled himself upon the ground, and at- 
 tempted different times to make away with himself. For 
 his purpose he ate and drank to great excess, and took 
 oison, which burnt him inwardly, and reduced him to 
 such a condition, that he ate common earth, and looked 
 like a withered and dried skeleton. His pains became 
 so acute and intolerable, that he ran his head against 
 the wall with such violence that his eyes started out. 
 He had put out the eyes of many Christians, and now by a 
 iust judgment he lost his own sight, and began to acknow- 
 odge that he deserved what he suffered for his cruelty, 
 and for the insults which he had committed against Jesus 
 Christ, as Eusebius relates, 1. 9. Hist. c. 10. He hkewise 
 adds, that all the rulers of the provinces, who had acted 
 under him, and imbrued their hands in the innocent blood 
 f the Christians, met with an exemplary punishment, 
 after being permitted for a while to exercise their tyran- 
 nical power. 
 
 At the death of Maximinus Daia, in the year 313, LI- 
 cinius, an Officer, with whom Galerius had contracted an 
 intimacy, and whom he had declared his colleague and em- 
 peror, remained master in the East. He joined with 
 Constantine in a league, in favour of Christianity, super- 
 seding all persecution, and married his sister Constantia. 
 He was a worthless and stupid prince, who could not read 
 or write his own name, hated all men of learning, and 
 was in his heart a foe to religion, though to please Coi^- 
 stantine, he pretended himself to be ready to become a 
 Christian ; but at last he threw off the mask, revived the 
 persecution and renevved the war he had before waged 
 with Constantine. Constantine, on his part having made 
 the necessary preparations, attacked and defeated him 
 near Adrianople, almost thirty-four thousand of his troops 
 being left dead on the spot. Licinius making a second 
 stand near Chalcedon, ordered his soldiers not to attack 
 Constantine's army on the side where the Labarum or 
 great standard of the cross was, nor to look towards it 
 confessing that it was fatal to him, as Eusebius affirms, 
 victory every where following it. In this second battle, 
 oat of one hundred and thirty thousand .iien, scarce three 
 
124 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 thousand of Licinius' army escaped. Being at length 
 vanquished both by sea and hind, he was allowed to re- 
 tire to Thessalonica, where he was put to death, in the 
 vear 324, because he still meditated new disturbances. 
 Lectantius tells us, that not only all the aforesaid per- 
 secutors were crushed by a superior power, but that their 
 whole race was extirpated and cut off the face of the 
 earth. So ti*iie is it what St. Cyprian says: "Never do 
 ^' we see the Christian name persecuted, but the Divine 
 *' vengeance soon folio -vs." By a just judgment of God, 
 the swords of the persecutors fell in the end ^pon their own 
 criminal heads, and the Church of Christ, which they 
 had determined to exterminate, brightened only in the 
 tlames of persecution. On the other hand, the whole 
 system of idolatry was shaken to the very foundation, and 
 ready to tumble to pieces. It received a deadly blow 
 by the accession of Constantine to the Imperial Throne, 
 while Christianity began to triumph over every obstruc- 
 tion which his Pagan predecessors had opposed to it. 
 When he reigned sole emperor, he put a period to the 
 persecutions, and gave full liberty to the Christian Re- 
 ligion, both in the East and West ; and hence is dated 
 the remarkable epocha of the peace of the Church, after 
 three hundred years of sufierings. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 The, Church of the fourth Century. 
 
 THE Chair of St. Peter was filled in this century by 
 Marcellus, Eusebius, Melchiades, Sylvester, Marcus, 
 Julius, Liberius, Damasus, Siricius, and Anastasius. 
 The Church of Christ never suffered more violent as- 
 saults, never gained more glorious victories, never sent 
 more saints to Heaven than under the government of 
 those Pontiffs. St. Marcellus succeeded Marcelliiuis in 
 the year 308, after the holy see had been vacant for 
 three years and a half. By enforcing the penitential 
 canons, and for his severity against a certain apostate, he 
 drew upon himself the contradictions of some tepid and 
 refractory Christians, and was banished by the tyraiit 
 
CHURCH OF CHRIST. i26 
 
 Maxentius. St. Eusebius succeeded him in the Pon- 
 tificate, and strenuously maintained the discipline of the 
 Church, in the rigorous observance of the penitential 
 canons with regard to penitent sinners, especially those 
 who had denied the faith in the persecution. He was 
 banished into Sicily by Maxentius, but called thence by 
 God to eternal rest. He was succeeded by St. Mel- 
 chiades, or Miltiades, a zealous pastor, a true son of peace, 
 and a true father of Christians, as St. Augustine called 
 him, on account of the moderation he used in the Coun- 
 cil, which he held in the Lateran Palace, and in which 
 he acquitted Cecilian, successor to Mensuriusin the see of 
 Carthage, of the charge brought against him, and con- 
 demned Donatus, Bishop of Casa Nigra, in Numidia, and 
 author of the Donatist schism, which J3lazed then with 
 great fury in Africa. St. Melchiades dying in January 
 314, St. Sylvester was exulted to the Pontificate, and the 
 same year commissioned four legates, two priests, and two 
 deacons, to represent him at the Great Council of the 
 Western Church held at Aries, in which the schism of 
 the Donatists, and the heresy of the Quartodecimans, 
 were condemned, and the decisions confirmed by St. 
 Sylvester, and published to the whole Church. His great 
 age not permitting him to go in person to the General 
 Council of Nice, which was assembled against Arianism,^ 
 in the year 325, he sent his legates Ossius*, Vito, and Vin- 
 centius to assist at it in his place. PJe greatly advanced 
 religion by a punctual discharge of all the duties of his ex- 
 alted station dvn-ing the space of twenty-one years and 
 eleven months, and died on the 31st of December, 335. 
 After his death, St. Marcus was elected, and having go- 
 verned the Church only eight months, he was succeeded 
 by Julius, who was a man of extraordinary genius and 
 sohd judgment, apostolic zeal and vigour, tempered with 
 charity and meekness. He wrote an excellent letter to 
 the Oriental Bishops, v.hich Tillemont calls one of the 
 first monuments of ecclesiastical antiquity. Julius go- 
 verned the Church, fifteen years, two months, and six 
 days. His successor was Liberius, who, by some wri- 
 ters, is excluded from the catalogue of Popes, because he 
 is said to have subscribed the condemnation of St. Atha- 
 nasius, and a formulary, or creed, which had been framed 
 by the Arians at Surmium j but the formtilary which he 
 L 2 
 
126 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 signed was the first confession of Surmium, which was not 
 heretical in its terms, though the word Coibsiibstantial was 
 omitted in it. Liberius, indeed, sunk under the hardships 
 of a two years' exile, at Berea in Tiirace, and his reso- 
 lution was shaken by the continual solicitations of Demo- 
 philus and Fortunatian, two temporizing Arian Bishops. 
 He was so far softened by listening to flatteries and sug- 
 gestions, to which he ought to have stopped his ears with 
 horror, that he yielded to the snare laid for him, and fell 
 by a prevarication and notorious scandal, but not by her- 
 esy. The fall of so great a prelate, and so illustrious a 
 confessor, is a terrifying example of human weakness, 
 which no one can call to mind, without trembling for 
 himself. St. Peter fell by a presumptuous confidence in 
 his own strength and resolution, that we may learn that 
 every one stands only by humility. Liberius, however, 
 speedily imitated the repentance of the Prince of the 
 Apostles, and had no sooner recovered his see, which he 
 had spontaneously resigned to St. Felix, who died a mar- 
 tyr in the year 359, than he again loudly declared him- 
 self the patron of justice and truth, and anathematized aJl 
 who did not confess the Son like to the Father in all 
 things. He condemned and annulled the decrees of the 
 council of Rimini, by a letter which he wrote to those Bi- 
 shops, mentioned by Siricius, Ep. ad Himer. Liberius 
 died in the year 366, and St. Damasus, who was Arch- 
 deacon of the Roman Church, and then sixty years old, 
 was chosen Pontiff, and ordained in the Basilic of Lucina, 
 otherwise called St. Laurence's. Soon after Ursinus, who 
 could not bear that St. Damasus should be preferred before 
 him, raised a schism, and got together a crowd of dis- 
 orderly and seditious people in the Liberian Basilic, now 
 called St. Mary Major, and persuaded Paul, Bishop of 
 Tibur, now Tivoli, to ordain him Bishop of Rome, con- 
 trary to the ancient canons. Juventius, praefect of 
 Rome, banished Ursinus, and some others of his party. 
 Seven priests, who adhered to him, were seized to be 
 carried into exile, but were secured by their partisans 
 and carried to the Liberian Basilic. The people that 
 sided with St. Damasus came together, unknown to him, 
 with swords and clubs, besieged the Basilic to deliver 
 those men up to the Praefect, and a fight ensued, in which 
 one hundred and thirty-seven persons were killed, as S*. 
 
CHURCH OF CHRIST, 1^»7 
 
 Augustine relates. The general council of Chalcedon 
 styles Damasus, for his piety, the honour and glory of 
 Rome. Theodoret says he was illustrious by his holy 
 life, and places him at the head of the famous doctors of 
 divine grace in the Latin Church. He filled the chair of 
 St. Peter eighteen years and two months, and died near 
 fourscore years of ajje. 
 
 St. Siricius sat near 13 years. After his death, St. 
 Anastasius was raised to the Pontificate, and acquired a 
 high reputation for his virtue and abilities. St. Jerom 
 calls him a man of an holy life, and endued with an Apos- 
 tolic soHcitude and zeal. He exerted himself in stopping 
 the progress of Origenism, and governed the Church 
 three years and ten days, with great prudence. The 
 whole power of the Roman empire had been exerted in 
 the preceding centuries against the Church with the ut- 
 most fury, but was not able to stop its progress, much 
 less to extinguish it. The flock of Christ grew by its own 
 losses, and gathered strength from the most violent per- 
 secutions. The Almighty, who prescribes limits to the 
 sea in its greatest rage, set bounds to the power of the 
 Pagan Emperors, and, as St. Augustine says, conquered 
 the world, not by the sword, but by the cross ; and, by 
 a wonderful change, made its enemies become its vo- 
 taries and protectors. He was pleased to make Con- 
 stantine the Great triumph by that sacred sign, that he 
 might know the hand by which he was raised to the im- 
 perial throne. This pious Prince immediately recalled 
 the Christians, who had been banished by his predeces- 
 sors, and ordered their places of worship to be restored to 
 them. He built and endowed many churches at his own 
 expense: among those Eusebius mentions a most mag- 
 
 Itfiificent Church at Nicomedia ; and another at Antioch, 
 In the form of an octagon, which, from its rich orna- 
 ments, was called the Golden Church. He founded the 
 great Church of St. Sophia at Constantinople, and built 
 in the same city the beautiful Church of the Twelve 
 Apostles, which, according to Eusebius, " had all its walls 
 
 K' covered with marble, its roof overlaid with gold, and 
 ' the outside covered with gilded brass, instead of tiles." 
 3e founded the Church of our Saviour, on Mount Caelio 
 n Rome, now called the Church of St. John Lateran, it 
 being built upon the spot where the palace of Lateranus^ 
 
128 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 a rich Roman senator,, formerly stood. Within the area 
 of this Church he erected a Chapel, dedicated in honour 
 of St. John the Baptist, with a second altar in honour 
 of St. John the Evangelist. 'Upon the front of this cha- 
 pel, called the Baptisterion, which is a fine structure, and 
 most richly ornamented, was placed an image of St. John 
 the Baptist, which caused the whole Church to be ge- 
 nerally named the Church of St. John Lateran. This 
 Church is styled the head, the mother, and the mistress 
 of all Churches, and was the usual residence of the Bi- 
 shop of Rome, till Gregory IX. returning from Avignon, 
 began to reside at St, Peter's in the Vatican. Constan- 
 tine also, desirous of expressing his veneration for the 
 holy places which had been honoured and sanctified by 
 the presence and sufferings of our Blessed Redeemer on. 
 earth, came to a resolution to build a magnificent Church 
 in Jerusalem, near Mount Calvary, and other Churches 
 in several parts of Palestine, to which his devout mother, 
 St. Helen, undertook a journey, when she was near eighty 
 years old, in order to find the identical cross on which 
 Christ suffered for our sins. Having succeeded herein, 
 the pious empress ordered tw^o stately churches in be 
 erected: one at Bethlehem, where our Blessed Saviour 
 was born, and another on Mount Olivet, from whence he 
 had ascended into Heaven. — See Sozomen, St. Paulinus, 
 Sulpicius, Severus, Rufin, and other Historians. The 
 cross was then transferred, as St. Augustine speaks, from 
 the places of execution to the foreheads of emperors and 
 kings, and deemed the most valuable pearl in their crowns. 
 Coustantine forbade it to be used in the punishment of 
 malefactors in any part of his dominions, which has been 
 observed ever since throughout all Christendom, He or- 
 dered the sign of the cross to be stamped on his coin, on 
 his helmet, on the banners of each legion, and on the 
 shields of his soldiers. He chose fifty men of the stout- 
 est and most religious amongst his guards, to carry, by 
 turns, the standard, called the Imperial JLabarum, before 
 his army. He likewise caused the sign of the cross to 
 be erected in the chief square of the new city, that was 
 called Constantinople, from his own name. In the year 
 330 he removed his imperial seat to this city, and divided 
 the Roman Empire into two parts, the Eastern and the 
 Western, for which reason the Imperial Eagle is repre- 
 
CHURCH OF CHRIST. l!29 
 
 sented with two heads, one denoting the East, and the 
 other the West, according to the following verse: 
 
 IPicta biceps aqidlay hinc Occasumy kinc adspxcii Ortwn. 
 Bij this two-headed Eagle understand^ 
 2^liai Kast and West obey our high command. 
 " The Church," says Eusebius, " was then in a flour- 
 ishing condition, and the faithftd employed themselves 
 " in all kind of holy exercises with comfort and joy ; nor 
 '' was there the least danger to be feared from any fo- 
 reign enemy." The senaters and most distinguished 
 characters in the empire, encouraged by the example of 
 the Emperor and his pious mother, Helena, the Empress, 
 openly professed Christianity ; and the faithful were mul- 
 tiplied so wonderfully through the whole extent of the 
 Roman dominions, that it was doubted whether the 
 Christians or the Heathens were the more numerous in 
 the Roman world. The Church shone like a bright sun 
 over most of the kiiown world, and daily acquired new 
 splendour ; but this sunshine of peace was of no very 
 considerable duration ; the blessing of so happy a con- 
 dition was more than could be expected to last very 
 long, as Christ had fixed that his disciples should follow 
 him, not by a life of prosperity and ease, but through the 
 thorny roads of tribulation. This situation was too flat- 
 tering not to raise the envy of Satan, who saw his idols 
 fallen into disrepute, and his temples deserted: he was 
 no longer able to keep mankind in the old dark road of 
 Pagan superstition, or to persecute the Church by Hea- 
 thenish emperors, who no more existed ; wherefore he 
 shifted his ground, and contrived a means to persecute 
 her by the hands of her own rebellious children when 
 she was delivered from her foreign enemies: in short, he 
 invented a stratagem to deceive the unwary, under the 
 disguise of the Christian name itself. This stratagem, 
 says St. Cyprian, was the heresy of Arius, and the 
 schism of Donatus, which he employed as his instruments 
 10 subvert faith, to corrupt truth, to dissolve unity, to 
 tear the seamless garment of Christ in pieces, and to 
 lay waste the Church, by exciting her own bowels to 
 lise up and make war upon her in a furious manner. 
 
 Arius, a priest of Alexandria, in Egypt, was well vers- 
 ed in profane literature, was a subtle dialectician, had an 
 
'130 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 exterior show of virtue, and an insinuating behaviour, but 
 was a monster of pride, vain glory, and ambition, which 
 easily betray men into the most fatal errors ; for who- 
 ever is possessed with these vices is fond of his own con- 
 ceits, self-confident, and obstinate, and will endeavour to 
 shut up all the avenues of light, however strong the day- 
 light of evidence may be in itself. Arius concealed a 
 heart full of deceit under an affected modesty ; and, 
 pretending an holy zeal for discipline, joined Meletius, 
 Bishop of Lycopolis, in the beginning of a pernicious 
 schism, which he had formed, and which took its name 
 from him, and disturbed the Church of Egypt for many ' 
 years. After the death of St. Peter and St. Achillas, 
 Arius had the ambition to aspire to the see of Alexandria, 
 but finding himself disappointed by the election of St. Alex- 
 ander, he became his mortal enemy ; and as Alexander's 
 life and conduct were irreproachable, all his endeavours to 
 oppose him were levelled at the orthodox doctrine of that 
 holy prelate ; hence his jealousy stimulated him to broach 
 a new blasphemous aystem of doctrine, which denied the 
 divinity o£ Christ our Redeemer. He propagated the poi- _ 
 son of his heresy by his Thalia^ or poems and songs, which 
 he composed and taught the lower class of people to sing, 
 and even found means to gain over to his party twenty- 
 two Oriental Bishops, among whom was the crafty Eu- 
 sebius of Nicomedia, his warm friend and principal patron , 
 On the other hand, the Donatist schism disturbed the 
 peace of the Church in the six Roman provinces of Af- 
 rica. At first there was only question about the legality 
 of the election of Cecihan, Bishop of Carthage, and suc- 
 cessor to Mensurius, who had been falsely accused of 
 having delivered up the sacred Scriptures to be burnt, in 
 the time of persecution. Donatus, Bishop of Cassa Ni- 
 gra, in Numidia, pretended that Cecilian's ordination was 
 illegal, and most unreasonably separated himself from his 
 communion. The affair being carried to the Apostolic 
 see, Donatus refused to submit to the decision, and was 
 joined by the jealous enemies of Cecilian, especially by a 
 powerful lady called Lucilla, who was personally piqued 
 against that zealous prelate, whilst he was Archdeacon of 
 the Church of Carthage, because she had received from 
 him a rebuke, and wanted humility and discretion, with- 
 out which the show of piety is only a shadow and pha- 
 
CHUnCH OF CHRIST. 131 
 
 risalcal hypocrisy. She was accustomed every morning, 
 before she received the body and blood of our Lord, to 
 kiss the bone of an unknown dead man, whom she pre- 
 tended to have been a martyr, but who was not, or at least 
 had not been, acknowledged such by the Pastors of the 
 Ciiurch ; for, to prevent abuses and superstition, it was 
 always a necessary law in the Church, that no private 
 persons should be allowed to pay to rehcs the honour due 
 to those of martyrs, without a moral assurance of their 
 authenticity, or without the Bishop's approbation. — 
 When these rules of prudence are observed, even though 
 a mistake should happen, it is of the same nature as if a 
 person, by inculpable inadvertence, kissed some other 
 book instead of the Bible, and the primary object of such 
 religious actions, which is to glorify God in his Saints, is 
 always certain, whatever mistakes may happen in facts, 
 or such like human means, which excite our devotion. 
 Cecilian, in quality of Archdeacon, thought it his duty to 
 put Lucilla in mind of her fault, but, through the mist of 
 her passions, she was not able to discern the charity of 
 this just and necessary correction. Her resentment for 
 this pretended affront seemed to have no bounds when 
 she saw Cecilian raised to the Archiepiscopal Chair of 
 Carthage. By her money and interest she protected and 
 abetted a faction that was formed against him by some 
 competitors, who, being discontented at his preferment, 
 resolved to carry matters to the last extremity, and set 
 aside his election, upon no other pretence but the foolish 
 plea that he admitted the penitent Traditors to his com- 
 munion, and thereby defiled the sanctity of the Catholic 
 Church. Donatus and his abettors raised altar against 
 altar, and established another Bishop in Carthage. Their 
 party at length became so numerous, that they counted 
 five hundred Bishops of their own faction, and so furious, 
 that they seized on the Churches of the Catholics by 
 force of arms, drove away the lawful bishops, broke 
 down the altars and sacred vessels, and forcibly re-bap- 
 tized such as had received baptism out of their commu- 
 nion. Thus a small spark in the beginning gave rise to 
 a flame of altercations and contentions, tumults and com- 
 motions, and blazed up in process of time into a great 
 fire. To put a stop to the unhappy disputes that were 
 laised bv the Arians, and divided the Church, Constan- 
 
132 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 tine the emperor zealously concurred in assembling a Ge- 
 neral Council, this being the only remedy adequate to 
 the growing evil, and ca})able of restoring peace to the 
 Church. By letters of respect he invited the Bishops 
 from all parts of the world to the city of Nice, in Bithynia, 
 and defrayed their expenses. They assembled in the 
 Imperial Palace on the 19t.h of June, in the year 32d. 
 The Emperor entered the Council witliout guards, nor 
 ^vould he sit till he was requested, as Eusebius says. This 
 was the first general Council, and it consisted of three 
 hundred and eighteen Bishops, eminent both for their pi- 
 ety and learning. The renowned Osius, Bishop of Cor- 
 duba, iu Spain, presided thereat, in the name of St. Syl- 
 vester, by whom he was commissioned. The fathers 
 thus assembled, in imitation of the Apostles on a similar 
 occasion, examined, refuted, and proscribed the doctrine 
 of Arius, and cut him off from the communion of the 
 faithful. They ascertained the Catholic Faith, and drew 
 up a solemn j)rofession, known by the name of T/te Ni~ 
 cenc Creed, wherein, to exclude all the subtleties of the 
 Arians, they declared, in terras that left no subterfuge for 
 error, no room for heresy to play in, the Son consubsfan- 
 ikd to the Father. Divine providence was pleased to 
 raise up at this very juncture a great number of bishops 
 and learned doctors, like so many illustrious champions, 
 to support his own cause with becoming dignity, to de- 
 fend the revealed truths of faith with intrepidity, and to 
 set Christian morality in the clearest point of view. They 
 employed their pens and exerted their zeal in con)bati:g 
 the impious tenets of the Arians, and in detecting the 
 slanders and calumnies by which they imposed on the 
 Emperor Constantine, and the difierent artifices wheieby 
 they endeavoured to elude the decision of the Council of 
 Nice, and to diffuse their contagious doctrine among the 
 people, in ambiguous professions of faith, couched in 
 equivocal terms. The great St. Athanasius, Bishop of 
 Alexandria, hved in the midst of this sceiie, and bore a 
 great share in it, having been five times banished from his 
 &ee, and five times recalled. He had employed all the 
 power which his authority put in his hands, to bring back 
 the Meletian schismatics in Egypt to the unity of the 
 Church. Their opposition moved the Arians to court 
 theh*frieud.ship, and pei-suade them to enter into a solemn 
 
m 
 
 CHURCH OF CHAIST. 133 
 
 league of iniquity together, against St. Athanasius, though 
 they were in other respects at variance with each other. 
 This is the spirit of all sectaries, who, though divided in 
 other things, dissemble their private animosities, and enter 
 into a mutual confederation, and cabal against the truth ; 
 not unlike Herod and Pilate, who forgot their enmity to 
 unite and agree in persecuting Christ. The Arians thus 
 united with the Meletians, and seconded by Eusebius, set 
 their engines at work to calumniate and impeach St. 
 J^thanasius, and they at length succeeded so far as to pre- 
 vail on Constantine to banish him to Triers, then the chief 
 city of the Belgic Gaul. How often are princes obliged 
 1^:0 see with the eyes of others, and how difficult is it fr^- 
 '^juently to them, when surrounded with flatterers and hy- 
 pocrites, to come to the knowledge of the truth ! but God 
 opened the eyes of the Emperor with regard to the in- 
 nocence of his holy servant, for in his last illness he re- 
 called St. Athanasius from his banishment, and expiated 
 is faults and errors by devoutly receiving the sacrament 
 of Baptism and the other sacraments, in the year 337, 
 when he died at Nicomedia. 
 |— . Arius the heresiarch had been shortly overtaken by the 
 li^ustice of God, and cut off the face of the earth by a sud- 
 den and miserable death the preceding year, on the very 
 day that his friends were conducting him in triumph to the 
 Church of Constantinople in order to thrust him forcibly 
 into the sanctuary. The Arians continued still to disturb 
 the peace of the Church. Wherefore, in the year 347, 
 or as some say 344, another synod of three hundred Bi- 
 shops assembled at Sardica in Illyricum. Natalis Alex- 
 ander considers it a general council, but it is commonly 
 looked upon only as an appendix to the council of Nice, 
 because it only confirmed its decrees of faith. St. Maxi- 
 minus, Bishop of Triers, was one of the most illustrious 
 defenders of the Cathohc faith in this council. After the 
 death of Constantine, surnamed the Great, his three sons 
 divided the empire, as their father's will directed. Con- 
 stantine, the eldest, had Britain, Spain, Gaul, and all that 
 lies on this side the Alps. Constantius, the second son, 
 possessed Thrace, Asia, Egypt, and the East. Constans, 
 the youngest, occupied Italy, Africa, Greece and Illyri- 
 cum. The city of Alexandria, being within the jurisdic- 
 tion of Constantius, the Arians took care to gain him over 
 M 
 
134 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 to their party. He was a constant protector of Arianism, 
 and a violent persecutor of tlie orthodox, especially when 
 he became sole master of the whole empire in the year 
 353, after the death of his two brothers, Constantine and 
 Constans. Constantiiis objected to the Catholics the 
 prosperity of his reign, as a proof of the justice and 
 truth of his cause. Like Polycrates of Samos, who boast- 
 ed that foHune was in his jmy, he gloried in the success 
 that crowned whatever he undertook, but he had not 
 then seen the issue. He did not consider, that the smiles 
 of fortune are often to impenitent sinners the most dread- 
 ful of all divine judgments ; and that on the contrary, the 
 afflictions and distresses of the just, are often the greatest 
 effects of the divine mercy, and are sent by Providence for 
 the exercise of patience ; to put their love to the test, 
 and to call forth their resignation, humility and reliance 
 on God. The Arian faction, supported thus by the se- 
 cular power, employed all the means that artifice and ma- 
 lice could suggest, to undermine the very foundation of 
 religion, and to destroy the true professors of it. They 
 deposed, scourged, wounded, imprisoned, or exiled the 
 lawful prelates, who refused to communicate with them, 
 and intruded apostates and usurpers into their sees, like 
 so many wolves let in amongst the flock. They pulled 
 down and burnt several churches, and branded the mi- 
 nisters of the altar in the forehead. The emperor, also, by 
 an unjust usurpation in the affairs of the Church, was 
 more occupied in persecuting the orthodox than in go- 
 verning the empire. He caused a council to be assem- 
 bled at Seleucia in Isauria, and another at Rimini in 
 Italy, in the year 359. The council of Rimini consist- 
 ed of three hundred and twenty Catholic Bishops, and 
 about fourscore Arian. The prelates, whilst they were at 
 their full liberty, confirmed the Nicene Creed, maintain- 
 ed the Catholic truth, and refused to admit any new for- 
 mulary or profession. But being intimidated by the 
 menaces of Taurus the emperor's prasfect, who threatened 
 them with exile, and who had received orders not to suf- 
 fer them to break up until they had signed a new for- 
 mula, that was dressed up by the Arians, a number of 
 them, not aware of the fraud, and uneasy to be con- 
 iined so long, and at such a distance from their churches, 
 had the weakness to suffer themselves to be deceived, and 
 
CHURCH OF CHRIST. 135 
 
 to yield to the artifices of the Arians, by signing a cap- 
 tious profession of faith, in which the word Consubstantial 
 was omitted. The formula was in appearance Catholic, 
 and supposed by the fathers to be orthodox, for they be- 
 lieved that the meaning of the word Consubstantial was 
 contained therein in other expressions. But they were 
 afterward surprised to see the triumph of the Arians, as if 
 they had aboHshed the Nicene faith, which gave occasion 
 to that celebrated saying of St. Jerom, that the ivorld won- 
 dered to find itself become Avian ; from which it follows, 
 that it was not really so, as no one is astonished to find 
 himself what he really is. The fault of the prelates was 
 not owing to any error in faith, but to a want of courage 
 and insight into the artifices of the Arians. Hence, struck 
 with remorse for their unwary condescension, by which, 
 through surprise, and without any intention or design, 
 they had given room to the imaginary triumph of Arian- 
 ism, those who had been beguiled, retracted their sub- 
 scription, and professed their adherence to the Nicen e 
 faith. No sooner did they perceive the imposition, than 
 they protested against it, and expressed their detestation 
 of the sense given by the Arians to the subscribed for- 
 mula. The Bishops spread all over the universal Church 
 had no share in that seduction. — On the contrary, having 
 Pope Liberius at their head, they zealously rose up against 
 the scandal, and disavowed this act of the council of Rimi- 
 ni ; so that the pubhc doctrine of faith suffered no change 
 or alteration whatsoever, but invariably continued one and 
 the same, except in a few places, comparatively speaking, 
 that were seduced into error. The greatest portion of the 
 flock of Christ, even in the Eastern provinces, stood 
 always firm in their faith, and adhered closely to the 
 determination of the council of Nice, as is attested by St. 
 Athanasius, who held the patriarchal chair of Alexandria 
 forty-six years, according to St. Cyril. As to the West- 
 ern provinces, they were a considerable time almost una- 
 nimous in their detestation of Arianism, till it was import- 
 ed by foreign people, who came to settle there, and even 
 then the West was but little infected by it, for Divine 
 Providence raised St. Hilary, Bishop of Poictiers, to de- 
 fend the faith, and to oppose the impious tenets of the 
 Arians with invincible courage in the West, as St. 
 Athanasius did in the East. 
 
136 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 St. Augustine styles St. Hilary the illustrioillB doctor of 
 the Church, and St. Jerom says, that he was a most elo- 
 quent man, and the trumpet of the Latins against the 
 Arians. He himself says, he was brought up in idolatry, 
 but having discovered the absurdity of Polytheism, he 
 submitted his understanding to divine revelation, and re- 
 ceived the heavenly regeneration by baptism. He was 
 married before his conversion, but from the time of his 
 ordination and election to the episcopal see of Poictiers, 
 i^bout the year 353, he lived in perpetual continency, as 
 St. Jerom observes, 1. 1 . Contra Jovinian. For though the 
 Church was sometimes obliged to make choice of mar- 
 ried men for the priesthood, because virgins, or unmarried, 
 could not always be found, they notwithstanding lived 
 ever after continent. All St. Hilary's writings breathe an 
 extraordinary vein of piety. St. Jerom in a particular 
 manner recommends to devout persons the reading of his 
 elegant comments on the Gospel of St. Matthew, and on 
 the Psalms. The weak emperor Constantius, who was 
 the dupe sometimes of the Arians, and at other times of 
 the Semi-arians, sent an order to Julian, then Caesar, in 
 Gaul, for St. Hilary's immediate banishment into Phry- 
 gia, together with St. Rhodanius, bishop of Toulouse, be- 
 cause they refused to submit to the Arian councils of 
 Aries and Milan, and to hold communion with Ursacius, 
 Valens, and Satuninus, three Arian bishops in the West. 
 On a similar occasion St. Eusebius of Vercelli, St, Dio- 
 iiysius of Milan, and Lucifer bishop of Cagliari, the me- 
 tropolis of Sardinia, were exiled. But the trophies Lu- 
 cifer had jijained bv his zeal ajfainst the Arians, were af- 
 terwards blasted by the scandal he gave in layii.'g the 
 foundation of the fatal schism of the Eustathians at An- 
 tioch, and in giving birth to another unhappy schism of 
 his own, which he still carried to greater length, refusing 
 to communicate not only with the penitent bishops, who 
 at Rimini had been drawn into the snares of the Arians, 
 and into an omission favourable to their heresy, but also 
 with those who received them, that is, with the whole 
 Cathohc Church, and its visible head. 
 
 St. Hilary during his exile, employed his time in com- 
 posing several learned works. The principal and most es- 
 teemed of those, is that On the Tnnity , against ike Anans^ 
 ill twelve books. In this immortal monument of his ad- 
 
11 
 
 
 CHURCH O^ CHRISf. 3137 
 
 mirable genius and piety, he proves the consubstantiality 
 of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and explains the 
 Trinity, which we profess in the form of Baptism. He 
 detects and confutes the subtleties of the Arians in their 
 various confessions of faith, and also of the Sabellians 
 and Photinians. He demonstrates the divinity of Christ, 
 from the confessions of St. Peter, and of the very Jews, 
 who, more sincere than the Arians, acknowledged that 
 Christ called himself the natural Son of God. The na- 
 tural unity of the Father and the Son, he demonstrates 
 from that text: land my leather are One. He proves 
 that '* Arianism cannot be the faith of Christ, because not 
 ' reveafled to St. Peter, upon whom the Church was built 
 ' and Secured foi* ever ; for whose faith Christ prayed, 
 ' that it might never fail ; who received the keys of the 
 ' kingdom of Heaven, and whose judiciary sentence on 
 ^ earth is that of Heaven." 1. 8. ?. ^e proves the divinity 
 of Christ, " by the miracles wrought at the sepulchres of 
 ^ the Apostles and Mart}Ts, and by their relics: for the 
 ^ devils themselves confess Christ's Godhead, and roar 
 ^ and flee at the presence of the venerable bones of his 
 ' servants." 1. 11. de Trin. 
 
 He teaches, that " the Church is one, out of which, as 
 ' out of the Ark of Noah, no one can be saved." 1. 7. 
 He observes, that *' from, the testimony of Christ, in the 
 ' holy Scriptures, and from the faith of the Church, we 
 ' believe without doubting, the Eucharist to be the true 
 ' body and blood of Christ," 1. 8. n. 14. In his expo- 
 sition of the Psalter, which he compiled after his exile, he 
 teaches that " the holy angels, patriarchs, and prophets, 
 ' protect the Church, attend and succour the faithful, as- 
 ' sist them in time of combat against the devils, and car- 
 * ry up their prayers to their heavenly Father." He also 
 mentions, " fast days of precept, the violation of which 
 ' renders a Christian a slave of the devil, a vessel of death, 
 ' and the fuel of hell," in Ps. 1 18. 1. 18. This holy doc- 
 tor wrote two books to Constantius, in which he entreats 
 him to restore peace to the Church, and to receive the 
 nchangeable apostolic faith, injured by the late innova- 
 ons. He also smartly rallies the fickle humour of the 
 Arians, *' who were perpetually making new creeds, con- 
 *' demning their old ones, having made four within the 
 *' compass of the foregoing year. He complains that they 
 M 2 
 
133 ' ■ HISTORY OF THE 
 
 *<had their yearly and monthly faiths, that they had 
 "Scripture texts, and the words Apostolic faith in their 
 •'mouths, for no other end than to impose on weak minds; 
 "that they lost faith by attempting to change it; that they 
 ** corrected and amended, till, weary of all, they condemn- 
 *' ed all ; that faith was now become that of the times, not 
 ** that of the Gospels, and that there were as many faiths 
 " as men, as great a variety of doctrine as of manners, as 
 *' many blasphemies as vices." He therefore exhorts them 
 to return to the haven from which the gustsof their party 
 spirit and prejudice had driven them, as the only means to 
 be delivered out of their tempestuous and perilous con- 
 fusion. 
 
 The great St. Martin, the glory and light of Gaul, was 
 a disciple of St. Hilary. The utter extirpation of idola- 
 try out of the diocese of Tours, and all that part of Gaul, 
 was the fruit of his edifying piety, illustrious miracles, 
 zealous labours, and fervent exhortations and instructions. 
 He was remarkable for his humility, charity, austerity, 
 and all other heroic virtues. The churches of Spain- and 
 Gaul were at that time disturbed by the Priscillianists, who 
 revived many errors of Simon Magus, the Gnostics, and 
 the Manicheans, to which they added their favourite tenet 
 of dissimulation, holding it to be a precept, to conceal their 
 doctrine by lies and perjuries, for it was an avowed prin- 
 ciple amongst them, Jura, perjura, secretum prodere noli: 
 Swear, forswear thyself, betray not the secret. These 
 heretics were condemned by the council of Saragossa, with 
 their abettors, Instantius and Salvianus, who grew furious 
 at their condemnation, and ordained Priscillian, who gave 
 name to the sect. Bishop of Avila. — ^They resolved to ad- 
 dress themselves to St. Damasus. Salvian died at Rome, 
 the other two repaired to Milan, and made interest with 
 the emperor Gratian. But the new emperor Maximus, 
 ordained them to be tried in a council at Bourdeaux. 
 Priscillian having appealed to Maximus, they were both 
 sent to him at Triers, where being tried by Eodius the 
 praefect, and accused by Ithacius, a Spanish Bishop, Pris- 
 cillian and his associates were beheaded. St. Martin hap- 
 pening at that time to go to Triers, to intercede with the 
 tyrant in favour of certain persons, who were condemned 
 to death for adhering to their master Gratian, reproved 
 the Spanish Bishop Ithacius, for prosecuting and seeking 
 
i 
 
 cntiicu OF CHRIST. 13.9 
 
 to put heretics to death, and pressed him to desist from 
 his accusation, and to consider how much the Church ab- 
 orred the shedding of blood, even of criminals, and ne- 
 er suffered any of her clergy to have any share in such 
 causes. He also besought Maximus not to spill the blood 
 of the guilty ; saying it was sufficient that they had 
 been declared heretics and excommunicated. The em- 
 peror, out of regard to his remonstrances, caused the trial 
 to be deferred while St. Martin stayed at Triers, and even 
 promised that the blood of the persons accused should not 
 be spilt ; though after the saint had left Triers, he suffer- 
 ed them to be condemned by the Imperial Judges. St. 
 Martin, on his return to Tours, was received there as the 
 tutelar angel of his people. In his great age he relaxed 
 nothing of his austerities, or of his zealous labours for the 
 salvation of souls. He was above fourscore years old 
 when he died, and he continued to the end of his life to 
 confirm his doctrine by frequent and wonderful miracles, 
 especially casting out devils, and raising the dead to life, 
 like another Elisaeus, as we are assured by St. Sulpicius 
 Severus. This illustrious writer was a disciple of St. 
 Martin, and squared his life by his direction. His con- 
 version from the world happened in the same year with 
 that of Paulinus of Nola. He wrote the life of St. Mar- 
 tin, and says, that his greatest comfort in the loss of so 
 good a master, was a confidence that he should obtain the 
 divine blessings, by the prayers of St. Martin in Heaven. 
 The most important work of St. Sulpicius, is his Abridg- 
 ment of Sacred History, from the beginning of the world, 
 down to his own time. It is a most useful classical book 
 for Christian schools, and looked upon as the most finish- 
 ed model extant of abridgments. The elegance, concise- 
 ness, and perspicuity, with which it is compiled, have pro- 
 cured him the name of the Christian Sallust. He has imi- 
 tated the style of the purest ages, though he sometimes 
 takes the liberty to use certain terms and phrases which 
 are not of the Augustan standard, 
 
 St. Paulinus, Bishop of Nola, was born at Bourdeaux, 
 in the year 353. His superior virtues rendered him the 
 admiration of his own and all succeeding ages, and ex-* 
 cited St. Martin, Sulpicius Severus, and several others, to 
 vie with each other in celebrating his heroic actions, and 
 to become the publishers of his praises to the corners of 
 
140 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 the earth. Besides the pre-eminence of his birth and 
 pedigree, in which was displayed a long line of rich and 
 illustrious senators, he received from nature a penetrating 
 and elevated understanding, and an elegant genius, with 
 other excellent accomplishments of mind and body, by 
 which he was qualified for the highest attainments, and 
 seemed born for every thing that is great. These talents 
 he cultivated from his infancy, by the closest application 
 to the study of all the liberal arts, and had for his master 
 in poesy and eloquence the famous Ausonius, the first 
 man of his age in polite literature, and the ablest master. 
 Probity, integrity, and other moral virtues, were endow- 
 ments of his still more admirable than his learning. His 
 merit Avas soon distinguished at the bar, where he pleaded 
 with great applause. "Every one," says St. Jerom, " ad- 
 " mired the purity and eloquence of his diction, the deli- 
 *' cacy and loftiness of his thoughts, the strength and 
 *' sweetness of his style, and the Hveliness of his imagina- 
 " tion." He was raised by the emperor to the first digni- 
 ties of the state, and declared consul before the year 379. 
 But God was pleased to open his eyes to see the empti- 
 ness of all worldly pursuits, and to touch his heart, yet 
 divided by a desire of pleasing men, and to inspire him 
 with a more noble and innocent ambition, of becoming 
 little for the sake of the kingdom of Heaven. He made 
 some advances in virtue, by the conversation of St. Am- 
 brose, St. Martin, and St. Delphinus, Bishop of Bour- 
 deaux, who spoke to him of the necessity of happiness of 
 giving himself to God, without reserve. He was an enemy 
 to vanity and to the love of human applause, than which 
 passion nothin"^ can be more unworthy of virtue, or more 
 beneath a generous soul ; though all the Heathen philo- 
 sophers shamefully disgraced their attainments by this 
 base weakness. Tully was not ashamed to boast of it, 
 and Demosthenes was delighted to hear a poor old woman 
 whisper, This is the great Demosthenes. Paulinus seemed 
 always raised by his own greatness of soul above this ab- 
 ject passion, and sliowed that geniuses, which are truly 
 great, are superior to their own abihties. But still he 
 found how difficult a task it is for man to preserve a per- 
 fect disengagement and purity of heart, in the midst of 
 worldly honours and blandishments, and to shield his soul 
 from the penetrating caresses of pleasures, or stand his 
 
CHURCH OF CHRIST. 141 
 
 ground against the incitements of the softer passions. 
 Certain revokitions that happened in the empire contri- 
 buted to give him a more feehng sense of the instability 
 of earthly things, and to discover to him the falsehood of 
 the gilded bubbles, which dazzle the eyes of men at a dis- 
 tance. In fine, he sold all his estates, distributed the 
 ^Drice among the poor, and retired from the world, in or- 
 ^^■er to aspire to Christian perfection, and embrace the 
 ■umiiity of the Cross in a small cottage, near Nola, in 
 IHbampania. When the servants of God complimented 
 him upon his retreat, he begged them to refrain, *^and 
 *' not add to the load of his sins by praises which were 
 *' not his due. It surprises me," said he, *' that any one 
 *' should look upon it as a great action for a man to pur- 
 ■^ chase salvation, the only solid good, with perishable 
 '^ pelf, and to sell the earth to buy Heaven." He re- 
 ceived the holy order of priesthood from the hands of the 
 Bishop of Barcelona in the church, on Christmas'jday, 
 at the earnest request of the people, who were in hopes 
 to fix him among themselves, but after having spent fif- 
 teen years in retirement, where he practised all the rules 
 and austerities of a monastic state, he was chosen to fill 
 the episcopal chair of Nola, on the demise of Paul, the 
 Bishop of that city. The epistles of St. Paulinus gained 
 him the name of ^' the delight of ancient Christian piety." 
 St. Augustine says, that they flow with milk and honey, 
 "nd that the faithful, in reading them, were transported 
 with their charms, and inspired with sweetness and ar- 
 dour. Ep. 27. He expresses, Ep. 23. ad Sever, a great 
 devotion to the saints ; he testifies, that their relics were 
 used in consecration of altars and churches, the faithful 
 not doubting that they serve for a defence and a remedy. 
 He mentions that their shrines were adorned with flowers. 
 Poem 14. that crowds flocked to them, Poem 13. being 
 attracted by the miracles Avrought by their intercession. 
 He speaks as an eye-witness of a imaging fire, which had 
 mastered all the power of human industry, but was ex- 
 tinguished by a little chip of the holy cross, Poem 25. 
 He sent to Sulpicius Severus a chip of that holy wood 
 enchased in gold, calling it, " A great present, in a httle 
 *' atom ; a defence of our temporal, and a pledge of eter- 
 " nal life." Ep. 32. Pie speaks of holy images and pic- 
 tures, and calls them the books of the ignorant. Poem 24. 
 
•# 
 
 142 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 He begged the prayers of his friends, for the soul of his 
 brother deceased, and doubts not but they will procure 
 him refreshment and comfort, if he suflered any pains in 
 the other hfe, Ep. 35. He made every year a journey 
 to Rome to visit the tombs of the Apostles, Ep. 45. and 
 to assist at the feast of St. Peter and Paul, Ep. 17. All 
 his poems on St. Felix, are full of testimonies of his conii- 
 dence in the intercession of that saint. He prays him to 
 recommend his petitions to God, and to be his protector 
 before the throne of his divine Majesty, especially at the 
 day of judgment. Poem 14. He declares also in his 32d 
 Epist. that in the holy Eucharist, we eat the same flesh 
 of Christ, which was fastened on the Cross, and drink 
 the same life-giving blood, that flowed from his wounds, 
 as appears from the following distich : 
 
 In cruce fixa caro est, qua pascor : de cruce sanguis 
 
 Illejiuitj vitam quo biboy corda lavo. 
 • Ep. 32. p. 204. 
 
 St. Nocholas, Archbishop of Myra, the capital of Ly- 
 cia, flourished also in the fourth century, and became fa- 
 mous by his charity to the poor, his extraordinary piety 
 and zeal, and an incredible number of stupendous miracles. 
 
 St. Pacian, Bishop of Barcelona, was likewise a great 
 ornament of the Church in this century. St. Jerom ex- 
 tols his eloquence and learning, and more particularly the 
 chastity and sanctity of his life, after he renounced the 
 world and was raised to the Episcopal chair. He wrote 
 three learned letters to Sempronian, a Novatian noble- 
 man, on penance, and on the name Catholic^ a sermon on 
 Baptism, and an exhortation to penance, which are still 
 extant, and wherein he clearly asserts and proves the doc- 
 trine of the Church, with regard to the Sacraments ot 
 Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist, and Penance. The 
 beauty of this holy doctor's writings can only be discover- 
 ed by reading them. His diction is elegant, his reasoning 
 just and close, and his thoughts lively. He is full of unc- 
 tion when he exhorts to virtue, and of strength when he 
 attacks vice, and defends the true faith, which made him 
 say, in his reply to Sempronian, who thought him angry, 
 ** that remedies seem often bitter, and that he only was 
 *' like the bee, which sometimes defends its honey with its 
 " sting." 
 
i 
 
 CHURCH OF CHRIST. 143 
 
 pbreni was the most illustrious of all the doctors, 
 o by their doctrine and writings have adorned the Sy- 
 riac Church in the fourth centurv. He was born in the 
 territory of Nisibis, a strong city in Mesopotamia, and 
 consecrated to God by his parents, from his cradle, like 
 Muother Sam\iel, though he was eighteen years old when 
 he was baptized. The great servant of God, St. James, 
 Bishop of Nisibis, was his spiritual director and patron. 
 He spent many years in the desert, out of which he came 
 inilamed with the ardour of a Baptist, to preach penance 
 with incredible zeal and fruit, and to announce the divine 
 truths to a world buried in spiritual darkness and insensi- 
 bility. Being ordained deacon of the Church of Edessa, 
 he became an apostle of penance, brought many idolators 
 to the faith, and converted great numbers of Arians, Sa- 
 bellians, Novatians, Millenarians, Marcionites, Apollina- 
 rians, Manicheans, and disciples of the impious Barde- 
 sanes, who denied the resurrection of the flesh. He never 
 would consent to be promoted to the sacerdotal dignity, 
 but continued always in the humble station of a deacon. 
 His spotless purity was the fruit of his sincere humility 
 and constant watchfulness over himself. He was deeply 
 penetrated with the fear of the Divine judgment, and had 
 always present to his mind the rigorous account he was 
 to give to God of all his actions. Nothing seemed more 
 admirable in him than his compunction of heart, the sister 
 of that sincere humihty, which all his words, actions, and 
 writings, breathed in a most affecting manner. He ap- 
 peai-ed always drowned in an abyss of compunction. 
 Night and day his eyes seemed swimming in tears, whicJi 
 readily flowed from him in abundance, as often as he 
 raised his heart to God, or remembered the sweetness of 
 iiis divine love, or the baseness of sin. '•'• We cannot call 
 •' to mind his perpetual tears, says St. Gregory of Nyssa, 
 without melting into tears. We cannot read his dis- 
 '•' courses on the last judgment without weeping. Where 
 " is the proud man, continues the same holy doctor, who 
 " would not become humble by reading his discourse on 
 " humility ? Who would not be inflamed with a divine 
 " fire by reading his treatise on charity ? Who would 
 " not wish to be chaste in heart and spirit, by reading the 
 praises he has given to virginity V 
 St. Ephrem spoke with admirable perspicuity, copious- 
 
144 ♦ HISTORY OF THE 
 
 ness and sententiousness, in an easy, imafTected style. 
 Words flowed from him like a torrent, wijen he treated 
 of spiritual subjects. His writings derive a singular energy 
 from the natural bold tropes of the Syriac language, of 
 which he was a perfect master, and have a graceful 
 beauty and force, which no translation can attain ; though 
 his works are not studied compositions, but the effusions 
 of an heart penetrated and overflowing with the most 
 perfect sentiments of divine love, coniidence, compunc- 
 tion, humility, and other virtues. He wrote seventy-six 
 ParceneseSj or moving exhortations to penance, and seve- 
 ral treatises and sermons on compunction, on the vices 
 and passions, on humility, on the last judgment, on frater- 
 nal charity, on the beatitudes and virtues, and divers other 
 subjects. He also wrote commentaries on the first book 
 of Moses, the fourth book of Kings, Joshua, Judges, Job, 
 and on all the prophets, &c. His works demonstrate the 
 uniformity in faith of the Church in the fourth century, 
 with that of the Church of all ages. Nothing can be 
 clearer than the texts collected by Ceillier, torn. 8. p. 
 101, from the writings of St. Ephrem in favour of the 
 real presence of the sacred body of Christ in the hoiy 
 Eucharist. His confidence in the precious fruit of this 
 blessed sacrament of the altar raised his hope, and in- 
 flamed his love, especially in his last illness, and on his 
 passage to eternity, about the year 378, for he then ex- 
 pressed himself thus ; " Entering upon so long and dan- 
 *' gerous a journey, I have my viaticum, even thee, O 
 *' Son of God. In my extreme spiritual hunger, I will 
 " feed on thee, the repairer of mankind. So it shall be 
 '' that no fire will dare to approach me ; for it will not 
 '^' be able to bear the sweet saving odour of thy body and 
 blood." Necrosim. can. 81. p. 355. t. 6. 
 
 St. James, Bishop of Nisibis, in Mesopotamia, who 
 lived in the fourth century, Avas favoured with the gifts of 
 prophecy and miracles in an uncommon manner. Nice- 
 phorus names him among the holy bishops. in the Council 
 of Nice, who bore the glorious marks of their sufilBrings 
 for Christ. His learning and writinjcs have procured 
 him a rank next to St. Ephrem, among the doctors of 
 the Syriac Church. He wrote eighteen excellent dis- 
 courses, still extant, on faith, charity, fasting, prayer, h»i- 
 mility, holy virginity, on penanc^, and other pious sab- 
 
CHURCH OP CHRIST. 145 
 
 jects. In his foui*th discourse he expressly says: " None 
 *■* will be cleansed, unless they have been washed in the 
 ** laver of baptism, and have received the body and blood 
 " of Christ" And in his seventh discourse he exhorts 
 K sinners " to confess speedily their crimes ; to conceal 
 ** which, through shame, is final impenitence." He adds, 
 "the priest cannot disclose such a confession." p. 237. 
 Genadius also mentions twenty-six books written by this 
 holy doctor in the Syriac tongu«. 
 
 St. Gregory of Nyssa, younger brother to St. Basil the 
 Great, was so illustrious in th-e fourth century, that the 
 Arians trembled ut his name. Havang; renounced the 
 world, he was ^ardained Lector, and in the year 372, he 
 was chosen Bishop of Nyssa, a city of Cappadocia, near 
 the Lesser Armenia. The high reputation of his learning 
 and virtue, procured him the title of Father of tJi£ Fathers^ 
 as the seventh general council testifies. His sermons are 
 eternal monuments of his piety, zeal, and eloquence ; 
 but his great penetration and learning appear more in his 
 polemic works, especially in his twelve books against Eu- 
 nomius. He wrote many commentaries on the Holy 
 -Scripturjes, five orations on the Lord's Prayer, and eight 
 sermons on the eight beatitudes. His sermons on pe- 
 jaance, on alms, on virginity, on the lent fast, on loving the 
 poor, and against usurers, fornicators, and those who de- 
 5"er baptism, are particularly beautiful and elegant. He 
 writes very expressly, and at length, on the invocation of 
 Saints, inculcates the authority of Priests, in binding and 
 l^.^oosing before God, and calls St. Peter the head of the 
 !■ Apostles, and the prince of the apostolic chair. He is no 
 less clear for the sacrifice of the altar, for the private 
 confession of sins, and for transubstantiation, in his great 
 catechistical discourse, c. 37. p. 534, where, speaking of 
 the two sacraments of Baptism and of the body of Christ, 
 he says, *' that in the latter, Christ's real body is mixt 
 " with our corruptible bodies, to bestow on us immortality 
 " of grace." 
 
 St. Basil, the great, the illustrious doctor and intrepid 
 champion of the Church, in the fourth century, was born 
 towards the close of the year 329, at Caesarea, the me- 
 tropolis of Cappadocia. After making a wonderful pro- 
 ficiency in the first elements of literature, first at Caesa- 
 rea, and then in oratory at Constantinople, under the ce- 
 
 N 
 
146 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 lebrated sophist and rhetorician Libanius, he was sent to 
 Athens, which from the days of Pericles, who raised 
 Greece from barbarism, remained still the seat of the Mu- 
 ses and of the purity and attic elegance of the Greek 
 tongue. Here he met and contracted an intimacy with 
 St. Gregory Nazianzen, which was the most perfect 
 model of holy friendship, not founded on base interest, 
 pleasure, sensual fondness, or a variable affection, but 
 rooted in pure love and motives of true virtue. They 
 carefully shunned the rock of bad company, and the 
 conversation of scholars, that were impious, rude, or im- 
 pudent. A most important lesson, especially to youth, 
 the neglect of which is the ruin of the strongest virtue, 
 and renders abortive all the care and instructions of the 
 most zealous parents and pastors, and all the fruit of the 
 very best education. The holy pair of perfect friends knew 
 only two streets in Athens, as St. Gregory tells us, the 
 first vk^hich led them to the church and to the holy teachers 
 and doctors, who there attended the service of the altar, 
 and nourished the flock of Christ with the food of life. 
 The second street was the road to the schools, and to 
 tiieir masters in the sciences. They left to others the 
 the streets which led to the theatre, to spectacles, 
 {'eastings, and diversions, and avoided the dangerous 
 snares which the enemy of souls never fails to throw in 
 ilie way on such occasions. It was no loss, but an ad- 
 vantage to them, that from motives of virtue, they abhorred 
 the theatre, for the stage only gives a theatrical accent 
 and gesture, ill becoming an orator, and never formed 
 any great man to speak well at the bar, or in the 
 pulpit. Basil soon excelled in all the liberal arts and 
 s'ciences- He spared no pains to perfect himself in the 
 art of true and genuine eloquence, and to form his style 
 upon the best models. He excelled likewise in poesy, 
 philosophy, and every other branch of literature. In lo- 
 gic, such were his superior abilities, that it would have 
 been more easy for a man to draw himself out of a la- 
 byrinth, than to extricate himself from the web, in which 
 he entangled his adversaries by the force of his reasoning, 
 as St. Gregory tells us. He seasoned his studies with the 
 assiduous meditation of the holy Scriptures, and a diligent 
 perusal of the works of the Fatliers, in order to qualify 
 liimself for the ministry of the Church, and for announc- 
 
CHtlRCII OF CHRIST. 147 
 
 ing the great truths of salvation to mankind. At Athens 
 he was already regarded as an oracle both in sacred and 
 profane learning. In the year 357, he ti^avelled over 
 Syria and Egypt, and visited the most celebrated monas- 
 teries and hermits of the deserts in those countries. Be- 
 ing much edified by the examples of those holy men, who 
 lived like travellers on earth and citizens of heaven, he 
 despised all the glittering advantages, with which the 
 world flattered him, gave away the greatest part of 
 his estate to the poor, and embraced the penitential and 
 laborious state of a poor monk. He was ordaiv.ed priest 
 in the year 363, and upon the death of Eusebius was 
 chosen and consecrated Archbishop of Caesarea, in the 
 year 370. Being placed in this dignity, he seemed as 
 much to surpass himself, as he had before surpassed others. 
 Like an impregnable tower, he baffled all the eflbrts of 
 the Arians and Eunomians, and gained a glorious triumph 
 over the emperor Valens. He was indefatigable in preach- 
 ing to his Hock, and advancing piety and devotion. His 
 iieal made him spare no pains for the conversion of sin- 
 ners, whose crimes were to him a perpetual source of 
 tears and sighs to the Father of Mercies. The poor, 
 ilistressed and afflicted were always sure to find comfort 
 and relief in his boundless charity. He founded a vast 
 hospital, which Nazianzen calls a new city. St. Gregory 
 of Nyssa compares his abstinence to the fast of Elias. 
 His writings are published in three volumes, folio. Erasf 
 mus, and many other critics, call St. Basil the most ac- 
 complished orator the world has ever produced, superior 
 even to Cicero and Demosthenes, the unrivalled princes 
 of eloquence among the ancient Greeks and Romans. 
 
 St. Gregory of Nazianzen, was surnamed the Theolo- 
 gian, on account of his profound skill in sacred learning. 
 His father, whose name also was Gregory, being from his 
 youth a worshipper of false gods, was at length converted 
 by the prayers and tears of his pious wife Nonna, and 
 baptized about the time of the great council of Nice, 
 being then about forty-five years old. The sanctity of 
 his life raised him soon to the episcopal see of Nazianzen 
 near Caesarea, which he held about forty-five years with 
 great edification, hvingin celibacy, and rigorously observ- 
 ing the canons of the Church. St. Gregory, his eldest 
 son^ born long before tiie father's conversion and episco° 
 
148 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 pacy, was consecrated by his mother to the service o^ 
 God from his infancy, and received such impressions of 
 piety in his tender age, that he resolved to spend his life 
 in the holy state of perfect continence. The progress he 
 made in eloquence, philosophy, and the sacred studies, 
 appears by the high reputation which he acquired, and 
 by the monuments he has transmitted to posterity. But 
 his greatest happiness and praise was that he always 
 made the fear and love of God his principal afl'air, to 
 which he referred his studies, all his pursuits and endea- 
 vours. In these dispositions he enjoyed his dear friend, 
 St. Basil, in the solitude of Pontus, where fasting, watch- 
 ing, prayer, contemplation, studying the holy Scriptures, 
 singing psalms, and manual labour, employed the whole 
 time. Being afterwards, with great reluctance, ordained 
 Priest, in the year 361, he trembled at the thoughts of 
 the terrible account which would be demanded of him for 
 the souls committed to his care, and of the duties of the 
 sacerdotal office, and the sanctity requisite to approach 
 the altar of God. Yielding however to the necessities 
 of the Church, he acquiesced, and was afterwards impor- 
 tuned by St. Basil to receive the episcopal consecration 
 at Caesarea, in the year 372. At length, notwithstanding 
 many tears and expostulations, he was placed in the ar- 
 chiepiscopal chair of Constantinople by the united sohci- 
 tations and entreaties of the faithful, and of a synod of all 
 the Bishops of the East, wherein St. Meletius, Patriarch 
 of Antioch, presided. It was here that St. Jerom, coming 
 out of the deserts of Syria, became his disciple and scho- 
 lar. The faithful there, and even heretics and pagans, 
 admiring his erudition, and charmed with his eloquence, 
 flocked to his sermons and discourses, as men parching 
 with thirst eagerly go to the spring to quench it. He soon 
 reformed the morals of the people, and purged them of 
 that poison which had corrupted their hearts for many 
 years. But the envy of the Devil and of his instruments 
 could not bear the success of the saint's apostolic labours. 
 Several attempts were made upon his life, because he 
 valued nothing but God, and scorned to flatter the great 
 ones in their luxury. A ferment was raised among the 
 people^ and the Bishops of Egypt complained, that his 
 election to the chair of Constantinople was uncanonical, 
 it being forbidden by the canons to transfer bishops frocQ 
 
fciitJiiCtt o'F CHkisT. 149 
 
 fen6 see to another, for fear of introducing avarice or am- 
 bition into the sanctuary. Wherefore St. Gregory Na- 
 zianzen, falling on his knees befote the emperor Theodo- 
 sius, who had pot him in possession of the Church of St. 
 Sophia, prayed him to accept his resignation, and grant 
 him license to retire to his little cottage, which heing ob- 
 tained with much difficulty, the saint delivered a pathetic 
 discourse in the metropolitan Church, before a hundred 
 and fifty bishops, and an incredible multitude of people. 
 He declared, that he was placed in that chair through the 
 importunities of others, that he never desired that dignity, 
 that he took the charge upon him much against his will, 
 and that he had never taken possession of any other see. 
 He said, that since his holding the see of Constantinople 
 gave disturbance, he was ready and willing to depart, and 
 like Jonas, to be cast into the sea, to appea.se the storm, 
 though he did not raise it. He only wished that the 
 Church of God might enjoy peace, and that the see might 
 be filled by a person capable and wilhng to defend the 
 faith. He observed, *' that he was accused of having 
 " made a mean appearance with respect both to dress 
 " and table ;" but he vindicated himself herein, saying : 
 " I did not take it to be any part of my duty to yie with 
 " consuls, generals, and governors, who know not how 
 *' to employ their riches otherwise than in pomp and 
 *^ show. Neither did I imagine, that the necessary sub- 
 ^^ sistence of the poor was to be applied to the support of 
 ■*' luxury, good cheer, a prancing horse, a sumptuous cha- 
 ** riot, and a long train of attendants. If I have acted in 
 *^ another manner, and have thereby given ofi'ence, the 
 ■*' fault is already committed, and cannot be recalled ; but 
 *^ I hope is not unpardonable." He concluded, by bid- 
 ding a moving farewell to his Church, to the cl-ergy, and 
 to his dear flock, beseeching them *' to preserve the de- 
 *^ positum of faith, and to remember the stones, which 
 " had been thrown at him, because he planted it in their 
 " hearts." Numbers followed him weeping, but Constan- 
 tinople was not worthy to possess so great and so holy a 
 pastor. He \e£t that city before the election of Necta- 
 rius, and returned to his favourite solitude, where seeing 
 himself at liberty, and rejoicing in his happiness, he ex- 
 pressed himself to a friend in these words : " What ad- 
 ** vantages have I not found in the jealousy of my ene- 
 N2 
 
150 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 " mies ? They have dehvered me from the fire of Sodom, 
 *^ by drawing me from the dangers of the episcopal 
 ** charge." Ep. 73. He spent the remainder of his hfe 
 in retirement, in a private abode near Arianzum, where 
 he had a garden, a fountain, and a shady grove. Here, 
 in company with a few anchorites, he hved estranged from 
 pleasures, and in the practice of bodily mortification, 
 fasting, watching, and praying. *'I live," says he, Carm. 
 5. and 60. " among rocks and wild beasts, never seeing 
 " any fire or using shoes, having only one single garment. 
 " I lie on straw, clad in sackcloth : my floor is always 
 " moist with the tears I shed." Carm. 147. In the de- 
 cline of life he wrote several pious poems, in opposition 
 to the poems made use of by the Apollinarists, to pro- 
 pagate their poisonous errors. In his paro&netic poem to 
 St. Olympius, he lays down excellent rules for the con- 
 duct of married women : among other precepts, he says : 
 " In the first place honour God ; then respect your hus- 
 " band ; love only him ; take care never to give him any 
 '^ occasion of otfence or disgust. Yield to him in his an- 
 " ger : comfort and assist him in his pains and afflictions, 
 " speak to him with sweetness and tenderness, and make 
 '^ him prudent and modest remonstrances at seasonable 
 " times. It is not by violencfe and strength that the keep- 
 " ers of lions endeavour to tame them, when they see 
 " them enraged : but they soothe and caress them, stroking 
 " them gently, and speaking with a soft voice." His 
 writings contain an hundred and fifty-eight poems, full of 
 aspirations of divine love to Jesus Christ, " without whose 
 '' grace," he says, ^Sve are only dead carcasses exhaling 
 " the stench of sin, and as incapable of making one step, 
 '^ as a bird is of flying without air, or a fish of swimming 
 *^ without water ; for he alone can make us see, act, and 
 '^ run." He wrote 237 letters, pubhshed by the learned 
 Billius, and 227 epigrams, published by the indefatigable 
 Muratori, Librarian to the Duke of Modena. He com- 
 posed 46 orations on several points of morality and mys- 
 teries of faith, and two discourses against the Apollina- 
 rists. He teaches and practises the invocation of saints 
 in many places. He reproaches Julian the apostate, that 
 he refused to honour the relics of the martyrs, which 
 cured distempers and expelled devils. 
 
 St. Amphilochius, Bishop of Iconium; the capital of the 
 
 i 
 
CHURCH OF CHRIST. 151 
 
 second Pisidia, otherwise called Lycaonla, was a Ieai?ned 
 and eminent Father of the fourth century, and an inti- 
 mate friend of St. Gregory Nazianzen and St. Basil. He 
 assisted at the general Council of Constantinople, held in 
 381, against the Macedonian heretics. Theodoret informs 
 us, that St. Amphilochius zealously opposed the rising 
 h«resy of the Messalians or Euchites, who were a set of 
 fanatics, that sprung up in Mesopotamia, and gave much 
 disturbance to the Church. They pretended to an extra- 
 ordinary perfection, placed the whole essence of religion 
 in prayer alone, rejected the use of the Sacraments, and 
 all other practices of religion, even fasting ; lived in the 
 fields with their wives and children, leading idle vagabond 
 lives, meeting every night and morning in their oratories 
 (which were buildings open at the top) by the light of 
 lamps, to sing spiritual songs, and to pray without inter- 
 ruption. St. Epiphanius tells us, " they explained the- 
 *' texts of Scripture concerning selling all their goods, and 
 *' of praying without intermission, according to the rigour 
 " of the letter." Like the Convulsionarists, the Ceven- 
 nes, and other modern fanatics, they pretended to visions 
 and wonderful illuminations, in which much is to be as- 
 cribed to a heated imagination, though it seems not to be 
 doubted but, by the divine permission, they sometimes 
 suffered extraordinary impulses and illusions from the devil. 
 St. Cyril, Archbishop of Jerusalem, and successor to St. 
 Maximus, flourished in this century. He received the 
 degrees of the council of Nice and of the council of Sar- 
 dica, in the year 349, and made an undaunted profession 
 of the Consubstantial Trinity, in his letter to Constantius 
 tlie Emperor. He assisted in the year 381, at the gene- 
 ral council of Constantinople, and joined with the other 
 bishops in condemning the Semi-Arians and Macedonians. 
 He preached to the faithful every Sunday, and performed 
 for several years the office of catechist, to instruct and 
 prepare the catechumens, who ordinarily remained two 
 years in the course of instruction and prayer, and were not 
 admitted to Baptism till they had given proof of their 
 morals and conduct, as well as of their constancy in the 
 faith. The beginning of his episcopacy was remarkable for 
 a prodigy, by which God was pleased to honour the in- 
 strument of our redemption. It is related by Socrates, 
 Philostorgius, the Chronicle of Alexandria, &c. St. Cyril, 
 
15^ HlStORY OF Tllfe 
 
 who was an eye-witness, and wrote immediately to the 
 Emperor Constantius an exact account of this miraculous 
 phaenomenon. *' On the seventh of May, about nine in 
 " the morning, avast kiminous body in the form of a cross 
 " appeared in the heavens, just over the holy Golgotha, 
 " reaching as far as the holy Mount of Olivet (that is, almost 
 ** two English miles in length) seen not by one or two per- 
 ** sons, but clearly and evidently by the whole city. It was 
 " not a momentary transient phaenomenon, for it continued 
 " several hours together visible to our eyes, and brighter 
 ** than the sun ; the light of which would have eclipsed 
 " it, had not this been stronger. The whole city, struck 
 '* with a reverential fear tempered with joy, ran imme- 
 ** diately to the church, young and old, Christians and 
 ** Heathens, citizens and strangers, all with one voice giv- 
 '* ing praise to our Lord Jesus Christ, the only Son of 
 ** God, the worker of miracles, finding by experience the 
 ** truth of the Christian doctrine to which the Heathens 
 ** bear witness." Philostorgius, and the Alexandrian 
 Chronicle affirm, that the cross of light was encircled 
 with a large rainbow ; nor could it be deemed a natural 
 solar Halo, since both experience and the natural cause 
 of Halos show, that they do not appear in the figure of a 
 cross, but a ring or circle. ^' It is an ugly circumstance, 
 " says Mr. Jortin, and I wish we could fairly get rid of 
 *' it." But those who can explain the Scripture account of 
 the passage of the Israelites through the Red Sea by a na- 
 tural strong wind, and an extraordinary ebbing of the 
 waters, can find no knot too hard for them,but can swallow 
 Contradictions and build hypotheses far more wonderful 
 than the greatest miracles, when they wish to deny a 
 supernatural interposition. 
 
 The catechetical sermons, which St. Cyril preached for 
 the instruction of the catechumens to prepare them for 
 Baptism and the holy Communion, consist of eighteen to 
 the Competentes, or illuminali, that is, catechumens before 
 Baptism, and of five mystagogic discourses, addressed to 
 the catechumens after they were initiated in the holy 
 mysteries of Baptism, Confirmation, and the Eucharist, 
 which were not fully expounded to such as were not 
 initiated out of respect, and for fear of giving occasion to 
 their profanation by the blasphemies of infidels. This is 
 one of the most important works of antiquity. It is evi- 
 
CHURCH OP CHRIST. 153 
 
 dent from six hundred passages in these discourses, that 
 they were dehvered in Jerusalem about the middle of the 
 fourth century, seventy years after Manes broached hisj 
 heresy. In these discourses he gives a summary of the 
 Christian faith, reckons up the canonical books of Scrip- 
 ture, explains very distinctly and clearly every article of 
 our creed, extols exceedingly the state of virginity, calls 
 the lent the greatest time of fasting and penance, recom- 
 mends on all occasions the tenderest devotion to the holy 
 cross of Christ, inculcates the honour due to the relics of 
 saints, proves that the holy Catholic Church cannot fail 
 or err, instructs his Neophytes perfectly in the myste- 
 ries of the sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation, and the 
 Eucharist, w^hich it v^'as thought a profanation to explain 
 fully to any before Baptism. — He teaches them, that 
 Baptism imprints an indelible signet, or spiritual character 
 on the soul, that the character or signet of the commu- 
 nication of the Holy Ghost is by confirmation imprinted 
 on the soul, whilst the forehead is anointed with chrism, 
 after Baptism. He teaches, that Baptism perfectly 
 remits all sin 5 but penance, the remedy for sins after it, 
 does not quite efface them, as wounds that are healed 
 leave still scars. He attributes great virtue to the exor- 
 cisms, and to the blessed oil and mystical ointment. He 
 explains the force of the baptismal renunciations of the 
 ■Kevil and his pomps, and what the other ceremonies of 
 "neaptism mean. In the twenty-second and twenty-third 
 mystagogic catecheses, he explains the blessed Eucharist, 
 and the hturgy or sacrifice of the Mass and Communion. 
 ^ As to the blessed Eucharist, he says, by it we are made 
 wimmcorporeal and consanguineal with Christ, by his body and 
 hlood being distributed through our bodies. Cat. 22. n. 1. 
 3. He explains the doctrine of transubstantiation here in 
 so plain terms, that no one who reads this twenty-second 
 
 I^techesis, (n. 1. 2. 3. 6. p. 32. 320.-and 321.) can doubt 
 ■ its being the faith of the Church in the fourth century. 
 m. the twenty -third and last catechesis he calls the Mass 
 HI unbloody sacrifice, a victim of propitiation, a supreme 
 ^orship. He explains the preface and other principal 
 parts of it, especially the communion. He expounds the 
 Lord's Prayer, and mentions the commemorations for the 
 living and the dead. Of the latter he writes thus, n. 9. p. 
 328. ^^We«»also pray for the deceased holy fathers, 
 
154 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 f 
 
 '* bishops, and all in general who are dead, believing that 
 ** this will be a great succour to those souls for which 
 ** prayer is offered, whilst the holy and most tremendous 
 ** victim hes present." ■» 
 
 The great St. John Chrysostom holds an eminent place 
 among the most illustrious doctors and holy pastors of 
 the Church of the fourth century. He was born about 
 the year 344, at Antioch, the capital city of the East. He 
 was surnamed Ch^sostom or Golden Mouth, on account of 
 the fluency and sweetness of his eloquence. St. Augus- 
 tine, St. Nilus, St. Isidore of Pelusium, and others, style 
 him the wise interpreter of the secrets of God, the lamp 
 of virtue, the most shining star of the earth, and sun of 
 the universe. He was ordained deacon by St. Meletius, 
 and priest by St. Flavian, who constituted him his vicar 
 and ordinary preacher at Antioch, which contained at 
 that time a hundred thousand souls. All these he fed 
 with the word of God, preaching several days in the week, 
 and frequently several times on the same day. The 
 instruction and care of the poor, he regarded as his first 
 obligation, and always made his favourite employment and 
 delight. He never ceased in his sermons to plead their 
 cause, and to recommend to the people the precept of 
 alms deeds. Nothing could withstand the united power 
 of his eloquence, zeal and piety, during the tv.clve years 
 that he discharged the duties of his arduous station at 
 Antioch. He auolished the most inveterate abuses, 
 repressed vice, and changed the whole face of that great 
 city. After the death of Nectarius, he was consecrated 
 Archbishop of Constantinople, in the year 398, for the 
 benefit of innumerable souls. He suppressed the wicked 
 custom of swearing, first at Antioch, then at Constantino- 
 ple. By his charity and zeal, he tamed the fiercest sin- 
 ners, and changed them into meek lambs. He preached 
 against immodesty of dress and extravagance, pomp and 
 vanity of women, with such success, that he persuaded 
 the ladies of Constantinople to despise and lay aside the 
 vise of purple, silks, and jewels, and to consider clothing 
 as the covering of the ignominy of sin, and a memorial 
 of the fall of our first parents, which ought to be an instru- 
 ment of penance, and a motive of confusion and tears, 
 rather than of pride and vanity. The voluminous excel- 
 lent writings of this glorious doctor, are a rich and com* 
 
CHURCH OF CHRIST. 155 
 
 plete treasure of the maxims of Christian virtue, and 
 make his standing- and most authentic eulogium. The 
 benedictine edition of his works, in twelve tomes, by Don 
 Montfaucon, in the year 1718, is of all others the most 
 comlpete ; he wrote comments on the whole Scripture, 
 and beautiful instructions and sermons almost upon every 
 Christian virtue and duty. His commentaries on St 
 Matthew are full of such admirable instruction, that St. 
 Thomas of Aquin said, he would rather be master of this 
 single book, than of the whole city of Paris. Nothing 
 can be stronger or more tender than the manner in which 
 he expresses his charity and solicitude for his flock. When 
 lie touches this topic, his words are all fire and flame, and 
 seem to breathe the fervour of St. Peter, the zeal of St. 
 Paul, and the charity of Moses. He often recommends 
 the advantages and necessity of assiduous prayer, with 
 singular energy. Speaking of prayers for the souls of 
 the faithful departed, he says, Hom. 3. tom. 11. p. 217. 
 that it is a wholesome ordinance of the Apostles in their 
 favour to commemorate them in the adorable mysteries, 
 in presence of the adorable sacrifice. In his sermon on 
 Lent he strongly inculcates the obligation of fasting, and 
 informs that Christians in that penitential season abstain- 
 ed from wine and fish, no less than from fowls and flesh. 
 In his homilies on Penance, he condemns stage entertain- 
 ments, as schools of the Devil, the seat of pestilence, the 
 furnace of Babylon, and strong incentives to vice, as they 
 
 Erve to feed concupiscence and inflame the passions, by 
 [ministering the fnel which should be withdrawn, accord- 
 g to the well known maxim: Take away the fuel and you 
 take away the Jia^ne. Sublrahe ligna foco, si vis extinguere 
 flammam. He frequently speaks of the miracles wrought 
 by the relics of St. Babylas, and at the tombs of other 
 i holy martyrs. In his 54. homil. on St. Matthew, speak- 
 ing of the sign of the holy cross, he says ; " Let us carry 
 ^^ about the cross of Christ as a crown, and let us not 
 " blush at the ensign of salvation. If you form it on 
 " your forehead, no unclean spirit shall be able to stand 
 " against you, w]hen he beholds this instrument, which has 
 *' given him the mortal stab, and which has broken down 
 *' the gates of Hell, unbolted those of paradise, and open- 
 " ed its glory to us." In his farewell sermon, speaking 
 of the unjust persecution he suflfered at Constantinople, 
 
t56 HISTORY OP THE 
 
 he says: " Violent storms encompass me on all sides, yet 
 " I am without fear, because I stand upon a rock. Though 
 " the sea roar, and the waves rise high, they cannot sink 
 " the vessel of Jesus. I fear not death, which is my gain; 
 " nor banishment, for the whole earth is the Lord's ; nor 
 '^ the loss of goods, for I came naked into the world, and 
 *^ must leave it in the same condition. The terrors, 
 *^ smiles, and frowns of the world are to me more con- 
 " temptible than a spider's web. I always say, O Lord, 
 " may thy will be done. What it shall please thee to ap- 
 " point, that shall I do and suffer with joy. This is my 
 " strong tower ; this is my unshaken rock ; this is my staff 
 " that can never fail." But he expresses himself on no 
 subject with greater tenderness or force, than on the ex- 
 cess of the divine love which is displayed in the holy 
 Eucharist, and in exhorting the faithful to the frequent 
 use of that heavenly sacrament. He recommends the 
 the most profound respect for it, and frequently speaks 
 of the enormity of a sacrilegious communion. He calls 
 the blessed Eucharist the tremendous mystery, the mira- 
 cle of mysteries, the body that was scourged, that was 
 pierced with nails, and fastened to the cross. He charges 
 us not to contradict the words of Christ, but to captivate 
 our reason and understanding in obeying him, and believ- 
 ing his word, which cannot deceive us, whereas our 
 senses often lead us into mistakes. He desires us to con- 
 sider this mystery with spiritual eyes, and to believe 
 Christ, when he tells us. This is my Body. He exhorts 
 us to approach the holy table with a vehement hunger 
 and thirst after this divine banquet, and says, that to be 
 deprived of this heavenly food, ought to be to us the most 
 sensible, nay, our only grief. Tom. 7. horn. 82. In his 
 first Homily On the Treason of Judas^ he says, that 
 *' Christ gives us in the Eucharist the same body which 
 " he delivered to death for us, and that he refused not to 
 '^present to Judas the very blood which that traitor sold." 
 Hom. 1. t. 2. p. 383. He repeats the same thing, Hom. 
 2. p. 393. In fine, he exhorts sinners to hope in the mercy 
 of Christ, '* who, leaving the earth, left us his own flesh, 
 " which yet he carried with him into heaven, and that 
 " blood, whicb he spilt for us, he again imparted to 
 " us. After this, what will he refuse to do for our salva- 
 tion ?" 
 
 I 
 
CIIURC'H or CHRIST, lol 
 
 AiireliuS Prudentius Clemens, the most learned of the 
 Christian poets, flourished in the days of St. John Chry- 
 sostom, being born in the year 348, in Old Castile, in 
 Spain. This age likewise produced the great servant of 
 God and holy doctor St. Epiphanius, who was born about 
 the year 310, in the territory of Eleutheropolis, in Pales- 
 tine. He was raised to th<i archiepiscopal see of Salamis, 
 m Cyprus, about the year 367, a-'l governed it with great 
 piety, zeal, and sanctity, thirty-six years. Sozomen tes- 
 tifies, that God honourefl his tomb with miracles, 1. 27, c. 
 27. His works are published by the learned Petavius, in 
 two volumes, folio, but the original Greek must be con- 
 sulted by those who desire to avoid some mistakes, which 
 are said to be in the translation. In his Anchoret he ex- 
 plains the principal articles of the Catholic faith. In his 
 Panarium^ or box of Antidotes against all heresies, he 
 gives the history of twenty heresies before Christ, and of 
 four-score since the promulgation of the Gospel. These 
 heresies he confutes by the Scriptures and tradition. He 
 justifies the practice, and proves the obligation of praying 
 for the dead, and admires how Arius could presume to 
 abolish the fasts of Wednesdays and Fridays, ivhichy he 
 says, a?'e observed hy Uie ivhole earthy and i^mt by apostolical 
 uuthority. Hasr. 76. 
 
 About the same time lived the holy Bishop of Gaza, St„ 
 Porphyrius, who in the year 378, consecrated himself to 
 God, in a famous monastery in the desert of Scete. The 
 writers of his life testify that he converted a great num- 
 ber of idolaters by his illustrious miracles, and the emi- 
 nent sanctity of his life. Besides tliese, and many other 
 lioly prelates who flourished in the fourth century, par- 
 ticularly the four chief doctors of the Eastern or Greek 
 Church, viz. St. Athanasius, St. Pasil, St. Gregory Na- 
 zianzen, and St. John Chrysostom, thi^e out of the four 
 chief doctors of the Western or Latin Church, were like- 
 wise born in the same century. St. Jerom was born ia 
 the year 329, St. Ambrose about the year 340, St. Au- 
 gustine on the 13th of November, in the year 354. St. 
 Jerom being instructed in piety, and in the first principles 
 of literature at home, at Stridonium, a small town upon 
 the confines of Pannonia, Dalmatia, and Italy, near Aqui- 
 leia, was sent by his parents to Rome, where he had for 
 his tutors the famous Donatus and Victorinus, and made 
 O 
 
15^8 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 an amazing progress in the Greek and Latin langnages^r 
 as well as in oratory. A vehement thirst after learning 
 made him undertake a tour through Gaul, where the Ro- 
 mans had erected several famous schools. When he ar^ 
 rived at Triers, with his friend Bonosus, the sentiments of 
 piety, which he had imbibed in his infancy, were awaked, 
 and his heart being entirely converted to God, he took a 
 resolution to renounce all the vanities of the world, and 
 to devote himself wholly to the divine service, in a state 
 of perpetual continence, as he informs us in his first Epis- 
 tle, p. 3. He repaired therefore to Aquileia, and shut 
 himself up f'or some time in a monastery, that was famous 
 for many eminent and learned men. He afterwards re- 
 tired to a hideous desert, lying between Syria and Arabia, 
 where he spent four years in studies, and the fervent ex- 
 ercises of piety, self-denial, and mortification. He there 
 learned the Hebrew alphabet frotn a converted Jew, and 
 neglected no means to perfect himself in the knowledge 
 of the Hebrew languajre. Before the end of the year 
 377, he received the holy order of px-iesthood from the 
 hands of Paulinus, Patriarch of Antiocb. About the year 
 380, he went to Constantinople, some short time after 
 ])eing called to Rome by Pope Damasus, he was em- 
 ployed by him in answering the consultations of Bishops, 
 and in other important affairs of the Church. The letters 
 is£ this holy doctor contain excellent advice and instruc- 
 tions for various states and conditions. All the heresies 
 which were broached in his time, found in him a warm 
 and indefatigable adversary. Damasus dying in the year 
 384, St. Jerom returned into the East, there to seek a 
 quiet retreat in the holy palaces of Palestine, particularly 
 at Bethlehem, which was his favourite and usual residence. 
 At Alexandria he met the famous Didymus, and as he 
 tells us, profited very much by his conversation. — ^There 
 never seems to have been a more wonderful example of a 
 learned blind man, than this X>idymus. St. Jerom, So- 
 crates, Sozomen, and Theodoret assure us, that he lost 
 his sight by a humour which fell upon both his eyes in his 
 infancy, when he just began to learn the alphabet. Ne- 
 vertheless, he afterward got the letters of the alphabet 
 cut in wood, and learned to distinguish them by the touch. 
 With the assistance of hired readers and copiers he be- 
 came acquainted with almost all authors sacred and pro- 
 
CHURCH OP CHRIST. l5& 
 
 fane, and acquired a thorough knowledge of grammar, 
 logic, arithmetic, music, geometry, astronomy, the philo- 
 sophy of Plato and Aristotle, and chiefly a knowledge of 
 the holy Scriptures, so ihat he was esteemed a kind of 
 prodigy. He added prayer to study, and acquired such 
 reputation by his learning and piety, that the great school 
 of Alexandria was committed to his care. He was born 
 about the year 308, and lived four-score and five years. 
 He composed commentaries on the Scriptures and several 
 other works, which are lost. His book against the Mace- 
 donian heretics is extant in St. Jerom's Latin translation. 
 
 St. Jerom wrote the lives of St. Paul, the first hermit : 
 of St. Hilarion, and of St. Malchus the anchoret, with a 
 most useful catalogue of illustrious men, and ecclesiasti- 
 cal wwters. He drew his pen against the Luciferian 
 schismatics, and ably refuted the iv^pious errors of Hel- 
 vidius, Jovinian, Vigilantius, Eunomius, Pelagius, &c. for 
 the holy doctor could sufler no heresy to pass without 
 censure. A new edition of St. Jerom's works has been 
 published in ten volumes, folio, by an Itahan Oratorian, 
 and another by Dom Martinuay, a Maurist Monk, with 
 the life of this father, and many useful notes. But nothing 
 has rendered the name of St. Jerom so famous, as his 
 critical labours on the holy Scriptures. Having retired 
 to the sacred grotto of Bethlehem, he undertook immense 
 pains in order to expound these divine oracles. He read 
 all the interpreters, and searched all the histories both 
 sacred and profane, that could give any light to this ar- 
 duous undertaking. He seems to have been raised by 
 God, through a special Providence, for this purpose, and 
 to have been inspired and divinely assisted therein. He 
 composed from the original Hebrew and from the Greek, 
 that version of the Bible, which all the Western churches 
 have received under the name of the Latin Vulgate, -and 
 which is now every where in use. St. Prosper tells us in 
 his chronicle, that this great doctor, after a life of pe»- 
 nance and labours, was released from the prison of his body 
 in the year 420, on the 30th of September, and conse- 
 quently in the 91st year of his age. 
 
 The common suffrage of all antiquity has ranked St. 
 Ambrose, Archbishop of Milan, among the four great doc- 
 tors of the Latin Church. He received the episcopal 
 consecration in the year 374, in the reign of Valeiitinian 
 
160 HISJORT OF TITE 
 
 I. and pureed the diocese of Milan of the leaven of the 
 Arian heresy with wonderful success. His instructions' 
 were enforced by an admirable innocence and purity of 
 manners, prayer, rigorous abstinence, and frequent fasts. 
 — He devoted himself entirely to the service of liis flock, 
 and every day offered the holy sacrifice of the altar for 
 his people. Epist. 20. His charities were as extensive 
 as the necessities of human nature, and he styled the 
 poor, his stewards and treasurers, in whose hands he de- 
 posited his revenues. He even caused the golden vessels of 
 the Church to be broken and melted down for the re- 
 demption of captives. He is said to have first introduced 
 into the West the custom of singing hymns in the church, 
 several of which he composed, and are still used in the 
 divine service. After the death of Valentinian I. and of 
 Gratian his eldest son, the Empress Justina, widow of 
 Valentinian I. and moiher of Valentinian II. residing then 
 at Milan, and being a violent abettor of Arianism, perse^ 
 cuted the Catholics of that city, and used her utmost en- 
 deavours to expel their holy Prelate St. Ambrose, because 
 he refused to deliver up (he Basilics to the Arians, to hold 
 their assemblies therein. But an end was put to this per- 
 secution by the discovery of their relics of SS. Gervasius 
 and Protasius, in the year 3B6, as St. Augustine testifies. 
 St. Ambrose gives an account thereof, Ep. 2. and in two 
 sermons, which he preached on the occasion of the trans- 
 lation of these relics to a new Church which at present 
 is called from him the Amhrosian Basilic. He assures us, 
 that many possessed persons were delivered, and many 
 sick healed by those relics, and by the towels and hand- 
 kerchiefs laid upon them. In. particular, he mentions a 
 blind man named Severus, who was miraculously cured 
 during the translation, by touching the bier, on which the 
 rehcs layj with an handkerchief, and then applying it to 
 his eyes. He had been blind several years, was known 
 to the whole city, and the miracle was performed before 
 a prodigious number of people, as St. Augustine, who wa* 
 then at Milan, assures us in three several parts of his works. 
 .St. Ambrose made the administration of the sacrament of 
 penance a chief part of his pastoral care. St. Paulinus 
 tells us, that whenever any persons confessed their sins to 
 him, in order to receive penance, he shed such an abun- 
 dance of tearS; as to make the penitent also weep. In hi? 
 
CHURCH OF CHRIST. 161 
 
 tvritings he explains all the parts and duties of penance* 
 Speaking of the obligation of confessing sins, he says, 1. 2 
 de Poenit. c. 6. '* If thou wilt be justified, confess thj 
 *' crime, for an humble confession loosens the bonds of 
 " sin." In his two books Of Penance, against the Nova- 
 tians, he shows that absolution is to be given to penitents 
 for all sins, however grievous, provided tiieir penitence be 
 condign and sincere. In his book On the Mysteries, he 
 exhorts the faithful to fi'equent communion, because the 
 holy Eucharist is our spirit, food, and daily nourishment. 
 He expounds the ceremonies of Baptism and Confirma- 
 tion, and the sacrament of the Eucharist iil'the clearest 
 terms. After having explained the eminent types of the 
 Eucharist, as the sacrifice of Melchisedech, the manna, 
 and the water flowing out of the rock, he urges the exam- 
 ple of the rod of Moses changed into a serpent, and seve- 
 ral other miracles, to show that the power of consecratioa 
 changes nature itself. " Jesus Christ," says he, '* had 
 " real flesh, which was fastened on the cross, and laid in 
 ** the sepulchre: The Eucharist is the true sacrament of 
 *' this flesh. Christ himself assures us of it. This is, says 
 he, my Body. Before the benediction of these heavenly 
 words, it is of another nature, after the consecration, it 
 is the body. If man's benediction has been capable of 
 changing the nature of things, what shall we say of the 
 divine consecration, wherein the very words of our Sa- 
 viour himself operate .'* Th« word of Jesus Christ, 
 ^^ which could make that out of nothing which was not, 
 " can it not change that which is, into what it was not .?" 
 St. Ambrose wrote three books in praise of the holy state 
 of Virginity, a treatise on TFidoichood, a work on the Di- 
 rinity of the Holy Ghost, another on the Incarnation, and 
 five books on the Trinity, which are an excellent confuta- 
 tion of the Arian heresy. In his funeral discourse on 
 Valentinian the younger, who was murdered in 392, at 
 twenty years of age, whilst a catechumen, the holy doctor 
 says : Lift up your hands with me, O "people ! Let us icith 
 pious earnestness beg repose for his soul. He died on the 
 4th of April, in the year 397. 
 
 St. Augustine, a native of Tagaste in Africa, was one 
 
 of the most glorious doctors and brightest luminaries of 
 
 the Church since the days of the Apostles. His very 
 
 ii-ame is an eulogium that raises an exalted idea, and com- 
 
 02 
 
 u 
 
162 HISTORY OP THE 
 
 f 
 
 tnands profound respect. His*conversion happened In the 
 year 386, the thirty-second of his age. He was baptized 
 by St, Ambrose on Easter-eve, in 387, ordained priest by 
 Valerius, about the end of the year 390, and consecrated 
 Bishop in 395. He was a perfect model of penance, of 
 humihty, of piety, of charity, of gentleness, and every 
 Christian virtue. There perhaps jiever was* a man en- 
 dowed by nature with a more affectionate and friendly 
 soul. In him, as in a mirror, may be seen a perfect 
 Bishop, and such as St. Paul describes. He exercised 
 hospitahty in his . episcopal house, and engaged all the 
 priests, deacons, and sub-deacons, who lived with him, to 
 renounce all property, and to embrace the rule and man- 
 ner of life he established there. Herein he was imitated 
 by several other Bishops, and this was the orijijirial of re- 
 gular canons, in imitation of the Apostles. Possidius tells 
 us, that his table was frugal ; that at it he loved rather 
 reading, or literary conferences, than secular conversa- 
 tion, and to warn his guests to shun detraction he had the 
 following verses in their view : 
 
 " Quisqiiis amat dictis ahsenlum voder e vitain j 
 Heme meiisam vetitam noverit esse si6i." 
 
 T'his board allows no vile detractor place, 
 
 IVliose tongue shall charge the absent with disgrace. 
 
 His labours were immense, and his zeal for the hduse of 
 God, and for the Salvation of souls, was indefatigable. 
 All his voluminous writings plainly show how full his soul 
 was of the love of God. The Benedictine edition of his 
 works, in eleven tomes, folio, is more correct than any 
 other. Divine Providence raised him up to be an invin- 
 cible champion of faith, and a bulwark for the defence of 
 the truth, against the numerous brood of heresies, that 
 started up in the fourth and fifth centuries. He pursued 
 the Manicheans, the Arians, the Donatists, and other sec- 
 taries of his days through the various mazes and labyrinths 
 of their errors and delusions, and destroyed the many- 
 headed hydra. To him is the Church indebted, as to the 
 chief instrument of God, in overthrowing the dangerous 
 and formidable heresy that w^as broached and propagat- 
 ed by Pelagius, a Briton, by Celestius, a Scotchman (a 
 fellow, says St. Jerom, bloated with Scotch gruels) and by 
 their successors the Semi-pelagians of Lerns and Mat- 
 
©HURCH OF CHRIST. 16'3 
 
 seilles. In liis book againj^t the fundamental Epistle of 
 Manes, c. 4. he lays down his reasons for adhering to the 
 Catholic Church in these terms: " Several motives keep 
 " me in the bosom of tlie Catholic Church. The ^ene- 
 " ral consent of nations and people : an authority grounded 
 *' upon miracles, upheld by hope, perfected with charity) 
 ^* and confirmed by antiquity: a succession of Bishops 
 ** descending from the see of St, Peter to our time, and the 
 " name of Catholic, which i.s so peculiar to the true 
 *' Church — I would not believe the Gospel, if the autho- 
 *' rity of the Church did not move me thereto." In his 
 psalm agahist the Donatist schismatics, he says to them, 
 *' Come, brethren^ if ye have a mind to be ingrafted in the 
 *^ vine. It is a pity to see you lie in this manner lopped off 
 ** from the stock. Reckon up the prelates in the very 
 *' see of Peter ; and in that order of "fathers see which 
 *' has succeeded whicli. Tiiis is the rock over which the 
 *' proud gates of bell prevail not," In his 20th book 
 against Faustus, he says, that '' the Catholics honoured 
 *' the saints and holy martyrs, in order to partake of their 
 " merits, to be assisted b}^ their prayers, and excited to 
 *' imitate their examples, bvit never paid to them the wor- 
 *^ ship of latria, which is due to God alone, nor offered sa- 
 *' crifice to them, but only to God in thanksgiving for their 
 *' graces." In his sermons he often inculcates assiduous 
 meditation on the four last things, frequently mentions 
 Purgatory, and strongly recommends prayerand sacrifices 
 for the repose of the faithful departed. Serm. 172. He 
 .^speaks of holy images of Christ, St. Peter and Paul, St. 
 Stephen, and of the respect due to the sign of the cross, 
 and of miracles wrought by it, and by the relics of martyrs. 
 Serm. 88. and 218. Several of his letters are so many 
 excellent and learned treatises, which contain admirable 
 instructions for the practice of perfect virtue. Inhis36. 54. 
 and 55. Epis. to Januanus, he lays down this principle, 
 that a custom universally received in the Church, must 
 be looked upon as a rule settled by the Apostles, or by a 
 general council, and 1. 4. de Bapt. c. 6. he says, that when 
 any doctrine is found generally received in the Church 
 in any age whatsoever, whereof there is no certain author 
 or beginning to be found, then it is sure that such a doc- 
 trine comes down from Christ and his Apostles. In other 
 parts of his writings, he speaks of the observance of the 
 
164 HISTORY OE THE 
 
 lent, and of the fasts on Wednesdays and Fridays, and of 
 several important points of faith and discipline. Among 
 other things, he says there, that though the faithful at 
 first communicated after supper, the Apostles afterwards 
 ordained, that out of reverence to so great a sacrament, 
 all should communicate fasting. He says also, that they 
 do well who communicate daily, provided it be donewor- , 
 thily, and with the humility of Zacheus, when he received 
 Christ under his roof; but. that they are also to be com- 
 mended, who sometimes imitate the humble centurion, and 
 set apart only Sundays or certain days for communicating, 
 in order to do it with greater devotion. He often en- 
 forces the necessity of doing penance, and the obligation 
 and advantajjes of alms-deeds. He mentions his own 
 frequent indispositions, and says, *' he was confined to his 
 *^ bed under violent pain," but adds: *' Though I suffer, 
 " yet I am well, because I am as God would have me to 
 " be." In his 84 Epist. he says, " All the martyrs that 
 *'* are with Christ, intercede for us. Their prayers never 
 ^ cease, so long as we continue our sighs." The Empe- 
 ror Theodosius sent a special messenger into Africa to 
 invite this eminent Doctor to the general council that was 
 sitmmoned to meet at Ephesus, against Nestorius, but he 
 was departed to eternal bliss on the 28th of August, in the 
 year 430, and in the seventy-sixth year of his age, forty 
 of which he spent in the labours of the ministry. St. 
 Possidius informs us, that he was present in the city of 
 Hippo, when the holy sacrifice of the mass was offered to 
 God for his recommendation, before he was buried, in the 
 same manner, that St. Augustine himself, 1. 9. c. 12. 
 Confess, mentions to have been done for the soul of his 
 pious mother Monica, when she died at Ostia in Italy. 
 
 St. Optatus, Bishop of Milevum in Numidia, was also 
 an illustrious champion of the Church in the fourth age. 
 /St. Augustine names him with St. Cyprian and St. Hilary^ 
 among those who had passed from the dark shades of 
 Paganism to the light of faith, and carried into the Church 
 the spoils of Egypt, that is, human science and eloquence. 
 He was the first Catholic prelate who undertook by his 
 writings, to stem the tide of the Donatist schism, 
 which took its rise in Africa, from a circumstance that 
 happened in the persecution of Dioclesian, by the Tra- 
 ditors delivering the holy Scriptures, for feai' of torments 
 
 ■A 
 
CHURCH OF CHRIST. • 165 
 
 and death, into the hands of the persecutors, that they might 
 be burnt. Parinenian, the successor of Donatus the 
 schismatical Bishop of Carthage, and a man well versed 
 in the art of sophistry, and capable of covering the worst 
 cause with specious glosses, had written five books in de- 
 fence of his s«ct. Against this Goliah, St. Optatus 
 stepped forth, stripped him of his armour, in which he 
 trusted, and turned all his artillery against himself. He 
 wrote six hooks against Parmenian, and gave the Hydra 
 a mortal blow, though the Donatists were very numerous 
 in Africa for above a hundred years, till the zeal of St. 
 Augustine almost extinguished their faction. About the 
 year 347, a sect of fanatics, called Circumcelllons, sprung 
 up among the Donatists, who pretending to devote them- 
 selves to martyrdom, wandered about for some months or 
 years, pampering themselves as victims, fed for sacrifice, 
 and at length cast themselves from rocks, or into rivers, or 
 any other way laid violent hands upon themselves, which 
 death they called martyrdom. Many of them compelled 
 strangers whom they met on the high roads to murder 
 them. Some Catholics^ who met them in their mad 
 phrensy, to save their own lives, and not to imbrue their 
 hands in the blood of these fanatics, insisted first upon bind- 
 ing them, before they could proceed to do them this 
 desired good turn in sacrificing them ; but when they were 
 tied, beat them till they came to their senses, and were 
 eontented to live, as Theodoret assures us. Such are the 
 wild chimeras and extravagancies into v/hich men are led, 
 when they have once lost the anchor of truth, and their 
 minds are set afloat on the tide of passions, St. Optatus 
 pursued them through the endless mazes of their errors, 
 and laid open their hypocrisy, pretended zeal, and incon- 
 sistency, in separating themselves from the Catholic 
 Church, as if her sanctity could be defiled by admitting 
 penitent Traditors to her communion, whilst tliey passed 
 over such proceedings among themselves. He showed 
 them, that they were but a small number of rebels, coop- 
 ed up in one little corner of a single country, that they 
 were branches lopped otf from the vine, and separated 
 from the stock, and consequently that they had no right 
 whatsoever to unchurch an infinite number of Christians 
 in the East and in the West, and spread all over the 
 world. It is evident from the writings of this holy 
 
ilG6 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 r 
 
 Doctor, that the Blessed Eucharist was then kept in th© 
 
 churches after the sacrifice no less than at present, and 
 that the Donatists used and reverenced the holy oblation 
 or mass, and all the sacraments, though they pretended 
 those administered out of their own sect, were void and 
 null, and only holy among themselves, -for like unto the 
 Pharisees and Novatians, blinded by their passions, they 
 boasted of their great purity, and sanctity, and did not see 
 the inward uncleanness of their own hearts, defiled by 
 pride and disobedience. St. Optatus reproached them with 
 pulling down the altars, where Jesus Christ rests at cer- 
 tain times, and with breaking the chalices, which carried 
 the blood of Jesus Christ. Nothing in fine can be more 
 clear, than the terms in which he frequently expresses him- 
 self about the real presence of the body and blood of 
 Christ in the Eucharist, and about the adoration that is 
 due to this sacrament. 
 
 St. Eustathias, first Bishop of Beraea in Syria, and 
 afterwards translated to the Patriarchal see of Antioch, 
 confessed the faith of Christ before the Pagan persecu- 
 tors with heroic constancy. St. Jerom calls him a sound- 
 ing trumpet, and says, he was consummate in sacred and 
 profane learning, and the first who employed his pen 
 against the Arians. His elegant works against them have 
 not reached us, but his treatise on the Pijlhonissaj or 
 Witch of Endor, is still extant, where he undertakes to 
 prove against Origen, that this witch neither did, nor could 
 call up the soul of Samuel, but only a spectre, or devil 
 representing Samuel in order to deceive Saul. Nothing 
 more enhances the virtue of this holy prelate, than the 
 invincible constancy and patience with which he suffered 
 the most reproachful accusation, with which his enemies 
 falsely charged him, and the unjust deposition and ba- 
 nishment which were inflicted on him. 
 
 St. Philogonius, Bishop of Antioch, was renowned for 
 his eloquence, and still more for the purity of his man- 
 ners and the sanctity of his life in the fourth century. 
 He strenuously defended the Catholic faith before the 
 Assembly of the council of Nice. 
 
 St. Nilus, anchoret and father of the Church, lived 
 also in this age. His works were in great request among 
 the ancients. They demonstrate the excellent perfection 
 of his viitue and his great talent of eloquence. His let- 
 
 ^ 
 
ciimCH OF CHRIST- 167 
 
 tcrs have been printed in four books, folio. They are 
 short, but elegant, and written with spirit and vebemen- 
 cy, especially when any vice is the theme. 
 
 In this century the Church extended her boundaries 
 very considerably, by the wonderful conversions that 
 were wrought by the miracles and preaching of the holy 
 Bishop Frumentius, apostle of -5tlthiopia, and of the em- 
 pire of the Axumites. Thousands also of holy monks, 
 anchorets, hermits, and ascetics, peopled the deserts in 
 this century, and were formed into regular monastaries. 
 The Prophet Elias, and St. John the Baptist, sanctified 
 the deserts in the old law, and Jesus Christ himself was a 
 model of the heremitical hfe, during his forty days fast 
 in the Wilderness. St. Paul, called the first hermit, spent 
 ninety years in the desert, where being fed, like Elias, by 
 a raven, he died in the year 342, in the 1 13th year of his 
 age. St. Anthony, a young gentleman of Egypt, is gene- 
 rally looked upon as the patriarch of monks, and the au- 
 thor of the monastic life in the Eastern parts of the 
 Church. He was born in the year 251. Hearing on a 
 certain day in the church these words of the gospel; If 
 you are willing to he perfect^ go, sell all you have, give to 
 the poor^ and you shall have a treasure in Heaven, he applied 
 them to himself, and returning home sold his goods, and 
 distributed them to ttie poor. Actuated then with an ar- 
 dent desirfe of greater perfection, he retired from the 
 dangers and corruptions of the world into a solitude, there 
 to ^tend solely tb his eternal salvation, and to devote the 
 remainder of his days to the spiritual exercises of penance 
 and mortification. His holy life and edifying example soon 
 attracted an amazing number of disciples from the neigh- 
 bouring countries, and they made such a progress in the 
 way of perfection by the many excellent lessons of piety 
 which he prescribed, that they became the admiration 
 of the world. Their habitations were so many temples, 
 where they watched, fasted, and chaunted psalms in praise 
 of the Lord. To avoid idleness and procure themselves 
 a corporal subsistence, they laboured with their hands, 
 and employed the time that was not devoted to prayer, 
 in tilling the earth, in making mats, baskets, sack-cloth, 
 or other mean things, proper to inspire and entertain hu- 
 mility. The profit of their manual labour, above the 
 little pittance, which was necessary for their support, 
 
168 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 enabled them to bestow considerable amis on the poor. 
 Nor did this labour interrupt the prayer of the heart, for 
 they always prayed or meditated at their work, which they 
 .were taught to perform in the spirit of penance, and to 
 offer up to God, in union with the laborious life and suf- 
 ferings of Jesus Christ. Their food, as St. John Chrysos- 
 tom tells us, was bread steeped in water, with a little salt, 
 oil, herbs, pulse, and sometimes a few dates. They wore^ 
 no shoes, and had no other bed than a mat spread on the 
 bare ground. Their garments were made of the skins of 
 goats, or of camel's hair, that is, coarse camlet, any thing 
 that was soft being looked upon as unsuitable to their 
 penitential state of life. . The regimen they followed 
 btrengthened their constitution, prevented disorders, and 
 prolonged their life to a considerable old age. St. An- 
 thony their founder lived to upwards of a hundred years. 
 The same course of life was embraced by S. Pachomius, 
 who was the ifirst that drew up a monastic rule in writing, 
 in the year 348. The writers of his life assert, that he 
 had the sacrifice of the mass offered for the soul of every 
 one of his monks that died. He departed this hfe in a 
 Tery advanced age, and left several thousands of disciples 
 in deep affliction for the loss of their spiritual father and 
 director. St. Macarius the elder lived sixty years in the 
 vast desert of Scete, eighty miles beyond Nitria, and a 
 hundred and twenty from Alexandria. Innumerable reli- 
 gious persons flocked to him from all sides, and put them- 
 selves under his direction. Tillemont informs us, that "St. 
 Macarius the younger had five thousand monks under his 
 inspection at Nitria, in the deserts of Thebais, or Upper 
 Egypt. In the close of the fourth century, Cassian 
 reckoned fifty monasteries on Mount Nitria,' inhabited by 
 an amazing number of relisrious, who served God there in 
 the exercises of fervent penance and contemplation ; as- 
 sembling in Church on Sundays to celebrate the divine 
 mysteries, and to partake of the holy communion. They 
 fasted every day till after sunset, except Sundays and the 
 paschal time, and lived for the most part on bread and 
 water. They rose at midnight, and met twice in the day 
 to pray together in common. They frequently prayed 
 with their arms stretched out in the form of a cross. They 
 fciept little, and observed great silence. They built little 
 cells for their lodgings, which resembled sepulchres rather 
 
ClICllCU OF CHRIST. 169 
 
 than dwelling places. St. Palajmon, St. Pambo, St. John 
 of Egypt, who died in the year 394, and in the 90th year 
 of his age ; St. Arsenius, who after spending 55 years in 
 the desert, died in the 95th year of his age, and several 
 other holy anchorets followed this course of life, and de- 
 voted themselves entirely to the spiritual exercises of 
 penance and heavenly contemplation. The same course 
 of life was also embraced by St. Macedonius, St. Hilarion, 
 and St. Basil, and quickly propagated through Palestine, 
 Syria, Mesopotamia, and through, the deserts of Pontus 
 and Cappadocia, under several wise regulations, highly 
 conducive to Christian perfection. The austerities of all 
 these inhabitants of the desert were not only the edifica- 
 tion of the faithful, but also the admiration even of infidels, 
 who were amazed to see that such multitudes of Christians 
 had attained to so wonderful a victory over their passions, 
 so sublime a degree of virtue, and so heavenly a temper, 
 as to have seemed rather angels than men, " For my part," 
 said St. Sulpicius Severus, Dial. 1. c. 26, ^' so long as I 
 '' shall enjoy life and retain my senses, I shall ever cele- 
 '•^ brate the monks of Egypt, praise the anchorets, and 
 '^ admire the hermits." " There have I seen," says He- 
 raclides, " many fathers leading an angelic life, and walk- 
 '^ ing after the example of Jesus." Their long lives are 
 chieBy ascribed to their regularity, moderate labour, and 
 great abstemiousness, so that their example, as well as 
 the experience of all ages, confirms the old proverb ; that 
 to eat long J a person ought to eat little. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 The Kmperor Julian apostatizes and allempts to re-estahlish 
 
 Paganism, S^'c. 
 
 IN vain had the Arians, supported by the power of 
 Constantius, exerted their cruelty against the orthodox, 
 and endeavoured to subvert the doctrine of the Church of 
 Christ. The faith increased under axes, and the blood 
 of martyrs multiplied the number of its professors. The 
 Arian heresy, and the Donatist schism, seemed indeed at 
 first to threaten the utter ruin of the Church, had she not 
 P 
 
no HISTORY OF THE 
 
 been secured by tlie promises of Jesus Christ. But as she 
 stood the shock against the united force both of the Jews 
 and Gentiles, so she remained immoveable and incorrupti- 
 ble against the deceitful reasonings, outrageous impieties, 
 and sacrilegious violences of the Arians and Donatists and 
 their abettors. The edifice of the Church could not be 
 thrown down by these storms, because he that built it was 
 himself the corner stone, and had declared it should stand 
 for ever. The Emperor Julian, who succeeded Constan- 
 tius in the year 361, learning by experience how weak 
 and ineflectual a means force and violence was, resolved 
 to change his artillery and manner of assault, and not to 
 employ open persecution, like his predecessor, but di.s- 
 simulation and seduction, in which he was the most com- 
 plete master. At first he affected a show of great mode- 
 ration, but was a more dangerous persecutor than Nero or 
 Decius, and the most implacable and most crafty instru- 
 ment which the Devil ever employed, for the purpose of 
 undermining the faith, and sapping the foundations of the 
 Christian religion. Through the influence of some Pagan 
 philosophers with whom he had studied at Athens, he re- 
 nounced Christianity, openly professed Paganism, and re- 
 solved to re-establish the worship of idols. Hence he was 
 surnamed the Apostaie. He pretended to efface the cha- 
 racter of his baptism, by besmearing himself Avith the 
 blood of impious victims. He commanded the cross, and 
 name of Jesus Christ, which Constantine the Great had 
 placed in the Labaruniy or chief standard of the army, to 
 be struck out, and had the standards reduced to the an- 
 cient form, used under the Pagan emperors, on which the 
 images of false gods were represented. He recalled indeed 
 the exiled bishops, and allowed every one the free exer- 
 <:ise of religion, but he adopted other crafty measures, 
 which appeared to him more efiectual, to harass and op- 
 press the Christians ; for he fomented divisions between 
 the Catholics and the Arians, in order to weaken the one 
 by the other, and at length to give them both a deadly 
 blow. He was as prodigal in granting favours to the Pa- 
 gans, whilst the Christians experienced nothing on his 
 part but contempt, vexations, and disgraces. He exacted 
 considerable sums of money from them, for the purpose 
 of repairing the Pagan temples, to which he caused the 
 sacred Vessels and ornaments of the churches to be ve- 
 
CHURCH OF CHRIST. 171 
 
 moved. He revoked the privileges of the ecclesiastics, 
 and suppressed the pensions which Constantine had as- 
 signed for the maintenance of the clergy, and of the sa- 
 cred virgins and widows, devoted to the service of God. 
 He levied heavy fines, and seized the estates of Christians, 
 saying in raillery, that he did it to oblige them to follow 
 the Gospel, which recommended poverty. Whenever 
 they complained of this injurious treatment, he answered 
 in the words of Christ : Blessed are the pooVy and observed 
 through derision, that evangelical poverty would facilitate 
 their admission into the kingdom of Heaven. He ordered 
 that they should be no longer called Chnstians but Gall" 
 leans, and disqualified them from bearing any offices in 
 the state, or exercising; the functions of magistrates, under 
 tlie pretext, that the Gospel forbid them the use of the 
 sword. He excluded them from the rights of citizens, 
 and would not allow them to defend themselves in the 
 courts of justice, because, said he, your religion forbids 
 you to engage in litigations and complaints. He thought it 
 impossible for him to succeed in his endeavours to under- 
 mine the Christian Religion, so long as its Pastors and 
 defenders were the most learned men of the empire, such 
 as St. Athanasius, St. Basil, St. Gregory Nazianzen, St. 
 Hilary, Apollinaris, Diodorus of Tarsus, Sec. For this 
 reason he forbade the Christians to teach either grammar, 
 rhetoric, or philosophy, and deprived them of all the ad- 
 vantages of a learned education, saying, that Christians 
 should be ignorant of human literature^ and believe without 
 reasoning. This kind of persecution by stratagems, ar- 
 tifices, and caresses, might perhaps have been detriment- 
 al, and destroyed more souls than the cruelties of Dio- 
 clesian, if God, who always protects his Church, had not 
 defeated the infernal project, by shortening the reign of 
 its impious author. 
 
 Whilst Julian was endeavouring by these crafty means 
 to destroy the Christian Church, he furnished a new proof 
 of the divinity of its heavenly founder, and of the truth of 
 his sacred oracles. He was sensible that the prophecies 
 announced the ruin of the Temple of Jerusalem as irre- 
 parable, and that Jesus Christ had foretold, that one stone 
 of it should not be left upon another. Wherefore, in order 
 to falsify the Scriptures, and discredit the Christian reli- 
 gion by bringing the scandal oi imposture upon its divine 
 
IT2 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 Author, he undertook to rebuild the Temple, about the 
 beginning of the year 362, and, though he did not love 
 the Jews, he invited them to concur in this enterprise. 
 Sozomen tells us, that he wrote a letter to their chiefs, 
 wherein he gave them every encouragement to repair 
 hnmediately to Jerusalem, in order to re-establish their 
 ancient worship, which was then abohshed, as the Tem- 
 ple, wherein their bloody sacrifices could only be offered, 
 Jay in ruins, and of course, the whole system of their re- 
 ligion was annihilated. He even promised to give orders 
 to his treasurers to furnish money, and every thing neces- 
 sary, and he sent Alipius, one of his confidential officers, 
 to the very spot, to enforce the execution of his orders. 
 The news was no sooner spread abroad, than the Jews, 
 elated with joy, and triumphing over the Christians, 
 flocked from all parts to Jerusalem, and contributed large 
 sums of money towards carrying on the building. The 
 .Jewish women stript themselves even of their most costly 
 ornaments, to contribute towards the expense. Immense 
 quantities of stone, brick, timber, and other materials 
 were prepared. Thousands of workmen were speedily 
 assembled from all quarters, and lodged in porticos and 
 other adjoining buildings, under a number of overseers, 
 who were charged to make them labour without loss of 
 time, and complete the undertaking as soon as possible. 
 It is related by historians, that some of the pickaxes, 
 spades, and baskets were made of silver, for the honour 
 of the work. When all things were in readiness the 
 workmen began to clear the ground, to dig up the earth, 
 and to remove the ancient foundations. The Jews of 
 both sexes, and of all degrees, both young and old, 
 men, women, and children, bore a share in the labour. 
 The Jewish women helped to dig the ground with alacrity, 
 and carried away the rubbish in their aprons, and in the 
 skirts of their gowns. St. Cyril, Bishop of Jerusalem, 
 seeing all these mighty preparations without any concern, 
 as Rufinus assures us. Hist. 1. 10. c. 37. he foretold with 
 the greatest confidence, that the Jews far from being able 
 to rebuild their ruined Temple, would be the very instru- 
 ments whereby the prophecy of Christ would be more 
 fully accomplished. The event justified the Saint's pre- 
 diction, for until then the antient foundations, and some 
 ruins of the walls of the temple subsisted, and the Jews, 
 
 J 
 
f CHURCH Of CHRIST. 173 
 
 by dehiolishmg these ruins with their own hands, concurred 
 to the accomplishment of what our Saviour had foretold, 
 ifiat one stone should not be left on another. When they be- 
 gan to dig the new foundation, the finger of the Almighty 
 visibly defeated the rash undertaking, for what the workmen 
 had thrown up was, by repeated earthquakes, cast back 
 into the trencfies, and prodigious heaps of the lime, sand, 
 and other loose materials, were carried away by dreadful 
 storms and whirlwinds. And when Alipius and the pro- 
 jectors earnestly pressed on the work, horrible balls and 
 flames of fire bursting out of the earth near the founda- 
 tion, repelled the stones, melted down the iron instruments, 
 burned or scorched the workmen, drove,^iem to a dis- 
 tance, and obliged them to give over the -Enterprise, not 
 once only, but as often as they ventured to renew their 
 attempt. At the same time, the statue which Julian had 
 caused to be erected to himself, in place of the statue which 
 had been erected, in honour of Christ, by the woman 
 whom he had miraculously cured of the hemorrhoid, was 
 cast down by fire from Heaven, and a flaming cross ap- 
 peared in the sky over Jerusalem, surrounded with a lu- 
 minous circle, as if it were to celebrate the triumph of 
 Jesus Christ, and to confound the vanity of the impotent 
 Julian. These phaenomena, which are attested by a num- 
 ber of Christian and Pagan writers, astonished all the 
 spectators, and induced many Jews, and still more Hea- 
 thens, to confess the divinity of Jesus Christ, and cry out for 
 baptism. But the unhappy Julian continued still blind 
 and hardened in the midst of such a flash of conviction, 
 and undertook an expedition into Persia, with an army of 
 sixty-five thousand men. When he was on his march, 
 he ordered Juventius and Maximinus, two officers in his 
 foot guards, to be scourged and beheaded, because they 
 refused to sacrifice to his idols. He was deceived almost 
 in every step by ridiculous omens, oracles, and augurs. 
 All the Pagan deities wherever he passed promised him 
 victories. The oracles of Delos, Delphos, and Dodona, 
 gave him the like assurances. When he arrived at 
 Antioch, he was informed that the famous idol of Apollo, 
 which was then worshipped in a temple at Daphne, five 
 miles from Antioch, had been struck dumb by the neigh- 
 l)ourhood of the relics of St. Babylas, Martyr and Bishop 
 of Antioch, which were deposited in a small church aew ' 
 P 2 
 
174 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 the profane temple. Julian commanded that tlie Chris- 
 tians should immediately remove the shrine of the Saint 
 from Daphne to some distant place. The Christians 
 obeyed the order, and with great solemnity carried the sa- 
 cred relics to Antioch in procession, singing on this occasion 
 the psalms which ridicule the vanity and feebleness of 
 idols, repeating after every verse, *'May they who adore 
 *' idols, and glory in false gods, blush with shame, and 
 *^ be covered with confusion." The following evening, 
 fire and hghtning fell from the heavens on the temple of 
 Apollo, and reduced to ashes all the rich and magnificent 
 ornaments with which it was embellished, and the idol 
 itself, leaving only the walls standing. Julian was much 
 enraged hereat. However, he durst not restore the idol, 
 lest the hke thunder should fall on his ow^n head ; but he 
 breathed fury and vengeance against the Christians, es» 
 pecially of Antioch, and intended that they should feel 
 the fatal effects of his wrath, at his return from the Per- 
 sian war, if God had not defeated his vain projects by 
 his unhappy death in that expedition. He was made a 
 subject of mockery and ridicule at Antioch, on account 
 of his low stature, gigantic gait, great goat's beard, and 
 bloody sacrifices, in answer to w hich, he wrote a low and 
 insipid satire, called the Misopogon, or Beard-hater. 
 Theodoret and Sozomen relate, that having rashly ven- 
 tured into the w'ilds and deserts of Persia, he and his 
 army were defeated in June, 363. Finding himself mor- 
 tally wounded in the battle, with an arrow from an 
 unknown hand, he was carried into his tent, where he 
 miserably perished, throwing up a handful of blood to-- 
 wards Heaven, and crying out, Vicisti Galiloiej Thou 
 hast conquered, O Galilean, thou hast conquered. Thus 
 perished the Apostate Juhan, so much boasted and ex- 
 tolled by the false sages of our age. The Divine ven- 
 geance also overtook his uncle, Count Julian, governor 
 of the East, who having in like manner become an apos- 
 tate from the faith, persecuted the Christians, seized the 
 sacred vessels of the Church, and after ordering the 
 holy priest Theodoret, and SS. Bonosus and Maximihan, 
 two officers of \iistinguished virtue, to be cruelly tor- 
 tured, caused them to be beheaded. Shortly after he was 
 seized with a terrible disease in his bowels, by which the 
 adjacent parts of his body were putrefied, and bred such 
 
CHURCH or CHRIST. 175 
 
 a quantity of worms, that all the art of physicians could 
 not destroy tiiem, nor give him any relief. They crawled 
 still deeper, and penetrated into the live flesh, and came 
 out with his excrements by his mouth, which had uttered 
 so many blasphemies. Philostorgius says, he remained 
 forty days without speech or sense. He then came to 
 himself, and in his last extremity acknowledged his im- 
 piety, like Antiochus, before he expired 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 Of the persecutions raised by ValenSj the Vandals and Per' 
 sians, and of the second General Council^ under Tlieodo' 
 sius the Great. 
 
 THE orthodoxy of the Emperor Jovian, who succeed- 
 ed Julian the Apostate, put a stop to the persecution of 
 the Catholics, till the reign of Valens, who was raised to 
 the Imperial Throne in the East, whilst his brother, Va- 
 lentinian, a true Catholic, governed in the West. Va- 
 lens was the last of the Roman Emperors who protected 
 Arianism. Seduced by the persuasions of his wife, he 
 promised, upon oath, that he would promote the cause of 
 that sect. He openly declared in favour of it in the year 
 367, and violently persecuted the orthodox bishops, and 
 the monks in the deserts, who were known to distinguish 
 themselves in supporting the true rehgion. He caused 
 the streets of Antioch to swim with innocent blood, and 
 many houses to be consumed with flames. He ordered 
 fourscore ecclesiastics at Nicomedia to be put together 
 on board a ship, and the ship, when out at sea, to be set 
 on fire, that they might all perish. The Lombards, 
 also — and Ostrogoths, or Eastern Goths, who settled in 
 Italy — and the Visigoths, or Western Goths-, who pro- 
 ceeded from the Southern parts of France into Spain — 
 and the Vandals, who passed from Spain into Africa, with 
 
 enseric their King, were infected with Arianism, and 
 persecuted the orthodox with great fury. Hunneric, the 
 son and successor of G enseric, shut up all the Catholic 
 Churches in his dominions, demolished the monasteries, 
 and banished the bishops and clergy, to the number of 
 near five thousand, but the justice of God overtook him 
 
 V 
 
176 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 at length, and he died eaten up with worms. Gonda- 
 mund and Trasamund, his successors, raised two cruel 
 persecutions, but an end was put to their kingdom and 
 power, by Belisarius, the general of Justinian's army. 
 
 After the death of the Emperor Valens, who, in the 
 year 378, was burnt alive, in a cottage near Adrianople, 
 by the Goths, whom he had perverted, Arianism lost 
 ground by degrees in the Eastern provinces, which were 
 chiefly tainted with it, for the Arians began to differ among 
 themselves, and split into as many different sects and 
 branches as it had heads. Their case, says St. Hilary, 
 was the same with that of imskilful architects, who are 
 never pleased with their own work, and who do nothing but 
 build up and pull down. They constantly changed their 
 Greeds, and thus they weakened their party, and fell into 
 a confusion, which occasioned numbers of them to for- 
 sake their errors and embrace the Catholic faith. The 
 Goths and Vandals were converted in process of time ; 
 and thus the formidable heresy of the Arians withdrcAV 
 itself by degrees from the East and West, passed away 
 like a thunderbolt, and sunk quite into nothing, so that not 
 a single shoot of Arianism was left in the whole world, after 
 the entire conversion of the Lombards, till it was unhap- 
 pily revived by some unbelievers in the sixteenth century. 
 Such is the nature of every heresy : after spreading for 
 a while, it dwindles away sooner or later ; which made 
 St. Jude compare heresies to wandering meteors, which 
 .seem to blaze for a time, but set in eternal darkness. 
 Heresies must be, says St. Paul, 1 Cor. 11, 19. that they 
 who are approved may be made manifest. They serve as a 
 touchstone to distinguish the sound part of Christians from 
 the unsound. This was the case with the Arian heresy. 
 It was an useful instrument to separate the chaff from the 
 corn, and to purge away all dross from the Church. 
 Another storm was raised against the Church in this cen- 
 tury ; for about the year 340, Sapor II. commenced a 
 most violent persecution in the great empire of Persia, 
 which was then full of Christians. This persecution con- 
 tinued, without intermission, for the space of forty years. 
 It was recommended in the year 380, by King Isdegerdes, 
 and continued under his successors for thirty years more, 
 until Chrosroes II. was defeated by Heraclius, Emperor 
 of Constantinople. Some historians make the number of 
 
 I 
 
CHURCH OP CHRIST. 177 
 
 Christians who were crowned with martyrdom in these 
 persecutions, amount to two hundred thousand, exclusive 
 of ninety thousand who were sold for slaves, and partly 
 massacred by the Jews. SeeSozomen, 1. 2. c. 15; Casi- 
 odorus, 1. 3. Nicep. 1. 8. c. 27. 
 
 When Gratian, the eldest son of Valentinian I. became 
 master of the East, after the death of his uncle Valens, 
 he restored peace to the Church, and declared Theodosius, 
 an experienced general, his partner and colleague in the 
 empire. Gratian having been afterward treacherously 
 stabbed by Andragathius, general of the usurper Maximus' 
 house, and Valentinian II. Gratian's half brother, having 
 fled from Milan, with his mother Justina, into the East, 
 to implore the assistance of the Emperor Theodosius 
 against Maximus, this great prince and model of Christian 
 emperors, who, until then, had been employed in settling 
 the peace of the Church and state in the East, came from 
 Constantinople to Thessalonica, to comfort, in the most 
 tender and paternal manner, the distressed remains of the 
 family of Valentinian. Having shortly after declared war 
 against Maximus the tyrant, he gave orders for solemn 
 prayers to be every where put up to God to draw down a 
 blessing on his army, and sent to entreat the most eminent 
 solitaries in Egypt to lift up their hands to Heaven, whilst 
 he fought, as St. Augustine informs us, 1. 5. de Civ. He 
 then marched with his troops towards the banks of the 
 Save, encountered and defeated Maximus, entered the city 
 of Rome with great magnificence, in a triumphal chariot 
 drawn by elephants, and put young Valentinian in posses- 
 sion of the whole Western Empire. During his residence 
 at Rome, he gained the hearts of the people, by his sin- 
 gular clemency and generosity, goodness and humanity. 
 He abolished the remains of idolatry, prohibited Pagan 
 festivals and sacrifices, and caused the temples to be 
 stripped of their ornaments, and the idols to be broken in 
 pieces. But he preserved those statues which had been 
 made by excellent artists, ordering them to be set up in 
 galleries, or other public places, as an ornament to the 
 city. He hkewise ordered the Pagan temples and idols 
 of Egypt to be demolished, particularly the famous temples 
 of Bacchus and Serapis in Alexandria, with the enormous 
 idol that was worshipped there. 
 
 The first years of this pious emperor's reign were dis- 
 
il'S HISTORY OP THE 
 
 tinguished by his zealous efforts to stop the progress of j 
 a new blasphemous heresy, that sprung from the bosom 
 of Arianism, and attacked the divinity of the Holy Ghost. 
 It was broached by Macedonius, a Senii-arian Bishop, who 
 had usurped the see of Constantinople. To prevent the 
 scandal from spreading, a Council of one hundred and 
 fifty bishops was assembled in that city, and was opened 
 with great solemnity in the year 381. The decrees and 
 symbol of the council of Nice were there renewed and 
 ratified, the doctrine of the Church was cleared up and 
 explained, the heresy of Macedonius was refuted and 
 condemned, and though the Council was not general in 
 the celebration, as it consisted only of the Eastern Bishops, 
 yet it is acknowledged to be an (Ecumenical, or General 
 Council, by the acceptation of the Universal Church, as 
 it was afterwards received and approved by the Pope, and 
 the Bishops of the West. St. Meletius, the venerable 
 Bishop of Antioch, who presided at this Council, dying at 
 Constantinople, was succeeded by St. Flavian, a perfect 
 model of meekness and candour. It was this holy prelate 
 that reconciled the Emperor Theodosius, by a pathetic 
 discourse, to the people of Antioch, after the great sedi- 
 tion which happened in that city, in the year 387, on oc- 
 casion of a new tax that was levied there. But Theodo- 
 sius unhappily forgot the clemency and moderation which 
 he had shown on this occasion, when he received an ac- 
 count of another tumultuous insurrection that happened 
 in Thessalonica, where the populace stoned Botheric, the 
 governor of that city, to death. When the Emperor was 
 apprised hereof, instead of checking the impetuosity of 
 his hasty disposition, he suffered himself immediately to 
 be carried away by the first transports of his passion, and 
 issued a commission, or warrant, for the soldiery to be let 
 loose for three hours on the inhabitants of Thessalonica, 
 till about seven thousand of them were massacred, with- 
 out distinguishing the innocent from the guilty. The hor- 
 ror with which the news of this tragical scene filled the 
 breast of St. Ambrose, is not to be expressed. After 
 giving the Emperor a httle time to reflect, and 6nter into 
 himself, he wrote him a letter, wherein he declared, that 
 he neither could nor would receive his offering at Mass, 
 nor celebrate the divine mysteries before him, till he ex- 
 piated, by an exemplary penance, the enormity of the^ 
 
XIIURCH OF CHRIST. 1T9 
 
 maisacre lately committed. The emperor, notwithstand- 
 ing, resolved to go to the Church of Milan, according to 
 custom. St. Ambrose, meeting him at the church porch, 
 forbid him any further entrance. The prince alleging^ 
 by way of extenuating his guilt, that King David had also 
 sinned, the holy Bishop replied, " Him whom you have 
 " followed in sinning, follow also in his repentance." 
 Theodosius submitted to this sentence as if pronounced 
 by God himself, and returned to his palace, bewailing his 
 miserable condition, and saying. The Church is open to 
 beggars and slaves, and to the meanest of my subjects, 
 but the doors of it, and consequently the gates of Heaven 
 also, are shut against me. He remained shut up at home 
 in his oratory for the space of eight months, clad with 
 penitential weeds, imploring mercy and pardon, and shed- 
 ding many tears. When the feast of Christmas was come, 
 he went to the enclosure of the church, placed himself in 
 the rank of the public penitents, prostrate on the ground, 
 and striking his breast with grief, and with tears running 
 down his cheeks, begiriug pardon of God in the sight of 
 all the people, who were so touched with his humility and 
 edifying piety, that they wept and prayed with him for a 
 considerable time. In short, he made an open confession 
 of his sins, accepted and performed the public pfinance 
 enjoined him by St. Ambrose, according to the sacred 
 canons ; for the Church, instructed by the word and ex- 
 ample of the Apostles, was accustomed then to inflict 
 public penance upon public sinners, and these penances 
 were determined by the bishops, according to the particu- 
 lar circumstances of the case. When charity waxed cold, 
 and crimes became more frequent, the Church became 
 more rigorous in the use of these public penances, in order 
 to put some restraint on sinners. Certain regulations, 
 called penUeniial canons^ were established, by which the 
 nature and duration of the penance to be enjoined was 
 determined, according to the different kinds of crimes 
 committed ; some lasting for one year, some for three, 
 some for seven, ten, nay, fifteen, twenty years together. 
 This discipline of canonical penance was in force both in 
 the Eastern and Western Churches, in the second and 
 third century, as is manifest from the writings of Tertul- 
 lian, St. Cyprian, and the Canonical Epistle of St. Gre- 
 gory Thaumaturgus, who lays down the different stages 
 
180 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 of public penance, and describes the four different classe 
 of penitents, viz. the TVeepers, or mour ers, who remain- 
 ed in the open air, without the gate of the Church ; 2ndly, 
 the Hearers, who were allowed to remain near the door, 
 iand to hear the instructions and sermon with the catechu- 
 mens in the lower part of the church ; 3dlj, the Prostra- 
 terSj or kneelers, who remained all the time of prayer 
 prostrate, or on their knees ; 4thly, the Cons'isients, or 
 co-standers, who joined the faithful in prayer to the end, 
 but were not admitted to make their offering at Mass, or 
 to communicate. — This severe discipline continued in the 
 Church, with mitigations and changes, for the space of 
 twelve hundred years, after which the use of public pe- 
 nance became less frequent in many places, fell into dis- 
 use, and was changed into other works of piety. In the 
 primitive ages, no person, how great soever, was exempt 
 from the common rules of doing penance, as appears from 
 the examples of Theodosius at Milan, and the illustrious 
 Fabiola at Rome. The Bishops, however, were accus- 
 tomed sometimes to relax the severity of this discipline, 
 by granting indulgences on certain extraordinary occa- 
 sions, at the intercession of martyrs and confessors, or at 
 the joint prayers of the whole Church, or when the peni- 
 tent showed an extraordinary fervour, and gave unequivo- 
 cal proofs of the sincerity of his compunction. Thus St. 
 Ambrose, at length, moved by the great ardour and most 
 edifying conduct of Theodosius, granted him the absolu- 
 tion he prayed for so fervently, and admitted him to en- 
 ter the Church, assist at the holy mysteries, and partake 
 of the blessed communion. In the year 395 this great 
 emperor expired in the arms of St. Ambrose, after giving 
 his two sons, Honorius and Arcadius, excellent instructions 
 how to govern well, one of them being made Emperor of 
 the West, the other of the East. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 Tlie Church of iheffth century. 
 
 The succession of chief pastors in the Chair of St. Pe- 
 ter was kept up during this century by St. Innocent I. St. 
 
CHURCH OF CHUIST. 181 
 
 Zozimu.s, St. Boniface I. St. Colestine I. St. Sixtus lU. 
 St. Leo the Great, St. Hilarius, St. Sim|>lieius, St. Feli\ 
 III. St. Gelasjus I. St. Anastasivis 11. and St. Symmachiis. 
 Innocent, a native of Albano, near Home, was unani- 
 mously chosen to fill the Pontifical Chair in the year 402. 
 In the beginning of his pontificate, the Western Empire 
 was afflicted with a dreadful famine and pestilei^ce, occa- 
 sioned by the irruptions of an immense army of Parbarians, 
 that poured in upon it on all sides, lilce a torreiit, which, 
 having broken down its banks, impetuously spreads itseil" 
 over the Avhole country. Three different nations that in- 
 habited the North side of the Rhuie and Danu.be, ad- 
 vancing thence, through Pomerania, into the neighbour- 
 hood of Palus McEotis, crossed the Rhine, and invaded 
 the provinces of Gaul and Italy. T4tese northern wolves,, 
 as St. Jerom speaks, laid waste the whole coiuitry be- 
 tween the Alps and the Pyrenees, between the Ocean and 
 the Rhine. — Epist. 11. The Goths, a people originally 
 from Gothland, in Sweden, bore a principal share herein. 
 Aiaric, their King, an enterprising:, ambitious adventurer, 
 animated with the success of his victorious arms, crossed 
 the Alps and the river Po, carrying desolation and slaugh- 
 ter with him wherever he went. But he received a great 
 overthrow from the army of the Emperor Honorius, com- 
 manded by Stilico, in the year 403, near Polentia, in Li- 
 guria. Prudentias says, I. 2. Adv. Sym. that the Roman 
 soldiers began the battle by making the sign of the cross 
 on their foreheads. Radagaisus, ariother Pagan Prince of 
 the Goths, invaded Italy ih the year 405, with an army, 
 according to some historians, of four hundred thousand 
 men, and vowed to sacrifice all the Romans to his gods. 
 He besieged the city of Florence, and reduced it to the 
 utmost straits ; but the Romaui, commanded by Stihco, 
 obtained a complete victory over him, without any loss of 
 men : fof Radagaisus, being struck with a sudden panic, 
 immediately fled, and, being taken prisoner, with his two 
 sons, was put to death, and his scattered troops being also 
 taken, were sold like droves of cattle. Notwithstanding 
 these defeats, Aiaric resolved to lead his Goths to attack 
 Rome itself; for, as Socrates and Sozomen tell us, he said, 
 " I constantly feel an impulse within me that gives me 
 " no rest, but presses me to go and destroy that city." 
 He marched, therefore, at the head of his army, from- 
 Q 
 
182 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 Tuscany towards Rome, in the year 409, and having 
 pitched his camp in the neighbourhood, he laid close siege 
 to it. In the year 410, the scarcity of provisions occa- 
 sioned a famine to rage to a degree that had never been 
 felt before. ^' Such was the force of hunger there," says 
 St. Jerom, " that they fed upon the most execrable meats ; 
 " the people tore one another to pieces, to devour their 
 " flesh ; and mothers did not even spare the infants at 
 " their breasts, inhumanly eating up what they had 
 '• lately brought into the world." — Ep. 16. Eusebius the 
 historian, relates, that Rome was then infected with a 
 plague that sAvept away ten thousand inhabitants in a day, 
 for several days, and filled the streets with carcasses of 
 the dead. Alaric, availing himself of this distress, assault- 
 ed the city on the 24th of August, and having taken and 
 pillaged it, set it on fire, excepting the church of S\. Peter 
 and Paul, to which he granted the privilege of a sanctuary. 
 The fall of Rome was an object of surprise and sorrow 
 to many nations, on account of the extraordinary figure 
 it had made in the world. St. Jerom, who was then at 
 Bethlehem, lamented (in the words of Virgil, describing 
 the conflagration and destruction of Troy — iEneid, 1. 2.) 
 the fate of that ancient and powerful city, which, after 
 having subsisted eleven hundred and sixty years, fell a 
 prey to an obscure Goth, who could scarce be said to be 
 master of a foot of ground. The Christians shared in 
 these public calamities, but by their charity, resignation, 
 and patience, they found in them a source of solid com- 
 fort and spiritual joy, God converting all things to the 
 good of his elect. The holy Pope, Innocent, signalized 
 his zeal, piety, and charity on this occasion, and exhorted 
 Ills flock to draw an advantage from their sufferings, by 
 making a good use of them ; and so much were the Hea- 
 thens edified at the patience and resignation with which 
 they suffered the loss of their goods, and whatever was 
 dear, without any murmuring or complaint, that they came 
 in crowds, desiring to be instructed in the faith, and to be 
 baptized. The letters of this zealous Pontiff* are replete 
 with excellent instructions^. In his letters to the holy 
 Bishops, Exuperius and Decentius, he says, that absolu- 
 tion is never to be denied to dying penitents, and speaks 
 in clear terms of the holy Sacraments of Confirmation and 
 Extreme Unction. When, iu the year 416, he ratified 
 
CHURCH OF CHRIST. 183 
 
 the decisions of the two African Councils, against the er- 
 rors of Pelagiiis, he observed, in his answer to the Bishops, 
 that all ecclesiastical matters are, by Divine right, to be 
 referred to the Apostolic see, according to the ancient 
 rule, which has always been observed by the whole world ; 
 and St. Augustine, who had drawn up the synodal letters, 
 said, on the arrival of Innocent's confirmation of the two 
 Councils of Carthage and Milevum, " The decisions have 
 '^ been already sent to the Apostolic see : the rescripts are 
 " also come from thence. The cause is now finished. 
 " Would to God the error may at last be at an end.'^ — 
 Serm. 131. St. Innocent died in the year 417. St. Zo- 
 simus governed the Church only one year. St. Boniface 
 Avas raised to the Pontificate, on the 29th of December, 
 in the year 418. He testified the highest esteem for the 
 great St. Augustine, who addressed to him four books 
 against the Pelagians. This holy Pope died towards the 
 end of the year 422. Upon his demise St. Celestine was 
 elected by the wonderful consent of the w4iole city of 
 Rome, as St. Augustine writes. It was this holy Pontifi* 
 that sent St. Palladius to preach the faith to the Scots in 
 North Britain. St. Patrick also received a commission 
 from him to preach to the Irish, in the year 431. St. Ce- 
 lestine died on the first of August, in the year 432. St. 
 Sixtus III. governed the Church near eight years. He 
 wrote in defence of the grace of God against its enemies, 
 and closed his life on the 28th of March, in the year 440. 
 St. Leo, surnamed the Great, was raised to the first 
 Chair of the Church, and received the Episcopal conse- 
 cration on the 20th of December, in the year 440. He 
 applied himself with diligence to cultivate the great field 
 committed to his care, especially to pluck up the weeds 
 of heretical errors, and to root out the thorns of vices 
 wherever they appeared. He never intermitted to preach 
 to his people with great zeal. One hundred and one ser- 
 mons, preached by him on the principal festivals of the 
 year, are still extant. There are also among his works 
 nine sermons on the fasts of the Ember days in December, 
 and one hundred and forty-one epistles on important sub- 
 jects of faith and discipline, which suflSciently show his 
 pastoral vigilance and labours in every part of the Chris- 
 tian world, for the advancement of piety. His writin<^s 
 a««ainst the Manichees, Arians, Apollinarists, Nestorians, 
 
184 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 Eutychians, Novatians, and Donatists, arfe standing proofs 
 of his extraordinary genius and indefatigable zeal, and 
 are an armory against all heresies. Herein he clearly 
 explains the whole mystery of the incarnation, and express- 
 ly says, that the true body of Christ is really received by the 
 faithful in the holy Eucharist — Epis. 46, 47, and Serm. 
 6. de jejun. sept. mens. He is very explicit on the su- 
 premacy of St. Peter and his successors, the oblation of 
 the sacrifice, the bendiction of chrism, the invocation and 
 intercession of saints — ^Ep. 89, 125, and Serm. 2. 4. 15. 
 34. 41, &c. 
 
 The example of St. Leo shows, that even in the vi'orst 
 of times, a holy pastor is the greatest comfort and sup- 
 port of his flock. He was reverenced and beloved by all 
 ranks of people, even infidels and barbarians, on account 
 of his humility, mildness, charity, and other shining vir- 
 tues. When Attila, King of the Huns, styled the terror 
 of the world, and the scourge of Gud^ was enriching him- 
 self with the plunder of many nations and cities, and 
 advancing in his career towards Rome, all Italy was in 
 a general consternation, and St. Leo was requested to go 
 meet him, in hopes of mollifying his rage. His army, 
 which, according to Jornandes, amounted to the prodi- 
 gious number of seven hundred thousand fighting men, 
 was vanquished in the year 452, by the Roman General 
 Aetius, in a most bloody battle fought in the extensive 
 plains of Champagne, near Challons. Attila, enraged at 
 this defeat, repaired his losses and entered Italy by Pan- 
 p-onia, in the year 453. He took and burnt the city of 
 Aquiieia, filled the whole country with blood and desola- 
 tion, and destroyed all before him by fire and sword. 
 He sacked Milan, razed Pavia, and depopulated whole 
 provinces. Multitudes of the inhabitants fled from his 
 arms, for protection, into the little islands in the shallow 
 lakes at the head of the Adriatic Gulf, and there laid 
 the foundations of the noble city and republic of Venice. 
 The weak Emperor, Valentinian III. shut himself up in 
 Ravenna, and the Romans, in the utmost terror, expected 
 to see the barbarians speedily before their gates. Such 
 was the state of affairs when St. Leo went to meet Attila 
 near Ravenna. Contrary to the expectation of every one, 
 he received the Pope with great honour, and gave him a 
 favourable audience. St. Leo on his part addressed the 
 
ClitJRCli OF CHRIST. 185 
 
 barbarian with so much energy, eloquence, and dignity, 
 that he prevailed on him to forbear all hostility, to repass 
 the Alps, and retire beyond the Danube, into Pannonia, 
 where Attila died of a violent vomiting of blood, in the 
 year 453. St. Leo likewise went to meet Genseric, King 
 of the Vandals, in Africa, when he landed in Italy with a 
 powerful army, being invited into it by the empress 
 Eudoxia, who had taken a disgust to ' her husband Max- 
 imus, for having forced her to marry him after the mur- 
 der of her former husband, Valentinian III. The holy 
 Pope prevailed on this Vand&l King to restrain his troops 
 from slaughtering the citizens of Rome, and to content 
 himself with the plunder of the city. Accordingly, having 
 entered it without opposition, in the year 455, he deliver- 
 ed it up to the soldiers, who, after pillaging it for the 
 space of fourteen days, retired at length with an immense 
 booty. St. Leo having filled the holy see twenty-one 
 years, one month, and thirteen days, died on the 10th of 
 November, 461. St. Hilarius, his successor, died in the 
 year 467. L^pon his demise St. Simplicius, the ornament 
 of the Roman Clergy, was raised by Divine Providence 
 to the chair of St. Peter, to comfort and support the 
 Church amidst the greatest storms. All the provinces 
 of the Western Empire, out of Italy, were fallen into the 
 hands of the barbarians. The ten last emperors, during 
 twenty years, were rather shadows of power than sove- 
 reigns. The governors levied heavy taxes in the most 
 arbitrary ways, and oppressed the people at discretion. 
 Italy itself, by the ravages of foreigners, was almost de- 
 populated, and the Imperial armies consisted chiefly of 
 the Suevi, Alans, Heruli, &c. Such was the condition of 
 the Roman state in its decline. It was torn by intestine con- 
 vulsions and civil dissensions, and had within itself the seed 
 of its own destruction, which sooner or later must occa- 
 sion the dissolution of a body politic, no less certainly than 
 the internal weakness of the animal body must bring it at 
 length to a fatal period. The Heruli, a people of that 
 part of Germany now called Mecklenburg, demanded one- 
 third of the lands of Italy for themselves, and upon re- 
 fusal, they chose for their leader Odoacer, one of the 
 lowest extraction, but a tall, resolute, ajid intrepid man, 
 then an officer in the guards. He entered the city of 
 Rome in the year 476, and was proclaimed King of Italy, 
 
186 HISTORT OF THE 
 
 and, out of contempt to Rome, fixed his royal seat at 
 Ravenna. He deposed the young Emperor Augustulus, 
 when he had only reigned eight months ; extinguished the 
 imperial title in the West ; and put to death Orestes, 
 who was regent of the empire, for his son Augustulus. 
 Odoacer, however, spared the life of the young beautiful 
 prince, appointed him a salary of six thousand pounds of 
 gold, and permitted him to live at full liberty near Naples. 
 The holy Pope Simplicius was in the interim wholly 
 taken up in comforting and relieving the afflicted, and in 
 sowing the seeds of the Catiiolic faith among the Barba- 
 rians. The Eastern Empire gave his zeal no less em- 
 ployment and concern, particularly when he discovered 
 the artifices of Acacius, Cnapheus, and Peter Mongus, 
 and saw the faith ambiguously explained and betrayed by 
 the famous decree of union, called the JHenoticojij which 
 the emperor Zeno, son and successor to Leo the Thra- 
 cian, had published in favour of the Eutychians. St. 
 Simplicius governed the Church fifteen years, eleven 
 months, and six days, and went to receive the reward of 
 his labours in the year 483. St. Felix III. died the ninth 
 year of his Pontificate, on the 25th of February, in the 
 year 492. St. Gelasius filled the Apostolic see four years, 
 eight months, and eighteen days. He was illustrious, not 
 only for his profound erudition, but also for his extraordi- 
 nary humihty, temperance, austerity, liberality to the 
 poor, and purity of manners. In his writings he expressly 
 mentions the blessing of holy oils, the anointing, and other 
 ceremonies used at Baptism, the blessing of holy water, 
 the invocation of the saints, veneration of relics, votive 
 masses, holy communion, &c. He died on the 21st of 
 November, in the year 495. St. Anastasius II. filled the 
 Papal chair about tvyo years. St. Symmachus, a native 
 of Sardinia, and Arch-deacon of the Roman Church, was 
 raised to the holy see in the year 498. He died on the 
 19th of July, in the year 514. 
 
 It was in the fifth century that the Southern Picts, so 
 called from the custom of painting their bodies in Caesar's 
 time, were converted to Christ, by St. Ninianus, as ve- 
 nerable Bede tells us, 1. 3. Hist. c. 4. The French were 
 likewise converted to Christianity about the close of this 
 century ; C'iovis their king, with three thousand officers 
 of his army, having been baptized in the year 496,. by St. 
 
^ CHURCH OF CHRIST. 187 
 
 Remigius, archbishop of Rheims, on Christmas day. 
 This great Apostle of the French nation was one of the 
 brightest hghts of the GauHsh Church, illustrious for his 
 learning, eloquence, sanctity, and miracles. He was 
 raised to the Episcopacy when he was twenty-two years 
 old, held that dignity about seventy-two years, and died 
 in the 94th year of his age. Hincmar informs us, that 
 St. Remigius gave to the Church of Rheims a silver cha- 
 lice, ornamented with several images, and on it he caused 
 three verses to be engraved, which express the Catholic 
 doctrine concerning; the blessed Eucharist: 
 
 *' Hauriat hinc jjopulus vitam de sanguine sdcro, 
 *' Tajecto (Bternus quern fudit vulnere ChrisiuSj 
 " Remigius reddit Domino sua vota sacerdos.^^ 
 
 This holy vase ivas hy Remigius givhiy 
 To cheer the soidy and clear the ivay to Heav'^Uy 
 Prom whence each true believer may he fed 
 With the sacred blood his Saviour shed. 
 
 The Providence of God raised a great number of other 
 holy bishops and learned doctors in this age, to maintain 
 the purity of faith, and to combat a numerous brood of here- 
 sies that started up, and assaulted the Church with great 
 violence. The great St. Augustine, after shining like a 
 bright luminary for a considerable time in the fourth cen- 
 tury, continued his labours for the Church about thirty 
 years in the fifth, and was the chief instrument of God in 
 overthrowing the errors of the Donatists, Manicheans, 
 and Pelagians. The Donatists had already caused great 
 tumults and contests, and spread devastation over Africa 
 for more than a hundred years. The}'^ now reckoned 
 above five hundred Bishops of their faction, and were di- 
 vided into so many difi'erent sects, in Muritania and 
 Numidia, that they themselves did not know their num- 
 ber. At length, in the year 411, a famous conference, 
 that was opened at Carthage on the 4th of June, and 
 continued three days, gave a mortal blow to their schism, 
 for the Donatist bishops being publicly refuted and 
 worsted, the greatest part of them renounced their errors, 
 and from that time their followers returned in crowds to 
 the bosom of the Catholic Church. The great Augus- 
 tine had a principal share in the disputation, and bore 
 away the glory of that triumphant day. When t^icir 
 
188 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 schism was nearly extinguished, the Cluirch saw herself 
 attacked by new enemies: Pelagius, an Englishman, and 
 Celestius, a Scotchman, Julian and their Ibllovvers, the 
 Semi-pelagians in Gaul, at Lerins and Marseilles, broach- 
 ed most dangerous errors, chiefly regarding original sin, 
 and the necessity of Divine grace. It is not to be won- 
 dered that the heresy of Pelagius found so many advo- 
 cates, for as pride is become the darling passion of man's 
 heart, through the corruption of human nature by sin, 
 men are born with a propensity to Pelagianism or prin- 
 ciples which flatter, an opinion of our own strength, merit, 
 and self-sufliciency. Next to Arianism, the Church never 
 received a more dangerous assault. But this formidable 
 heresy was nobly combated and refuted by St. Augustine 
 and Jerom, and anathematized by the authority of the 
 Apostolic see. The glorious Augustine, by several learn- 
 ed volumes, clearly proved, that, without the succour of 
 Divine Grace, man can do nothing, can not so much as 
 form one good thought, conducive to eternal life, nor take 
 the least step, towards God, by supernatural virtue, " lor 
 " as the eye of the body, though perfectly sound, cannot 
 " see unless it be assisted by the light, so in like man- 
 ^* ner," says this holy doctor, " neither can a man live 
 "well, but by eternal light, which is derived from God." 
 
 St. Prosper of Aquitain, zealously opposed the progress 
 of Semi-pelagianism. About the year 431 he wrote his 
 most elegant poem On the ungrateful, and published two 
 books in answer to the objections of Vincent of Lerins, 
 and of Cassian, the famous abbot of St. Victor's at Mar- 
 seilles, whom he styles the CollatoVj as having been the 
 author of the book of Conferences, and of the twelve 
 books of The Inaiitut'wns of a monastic LAfe, wherein the 
 spiritual maxims of the fnost experienced monks of Egypt 
 are collected. St. Prosper wrote a chronicle from the 
 creation of the world to the year 455, and a book of four 
 hundred sentences drawn from the works of St. Augus- 
 tine, which is an excellent abstract of his doctrine on 
 grace. Among other things, he says, "that the see of 
 " St. Peter fixed at Rome, presides over the whole 
 " world, possessing by religion what it never had subdued 
 " by arntis." 
 
 St. Peter Chrysologus, Archbishop of Ravenna, flou- 
 r jghed also in the fifth century. His reputation as a preacher 
 
CHURCH OF CHRIST. 189 
 
 ran so high as to procure him the surname of Chrijsologiis, 
 which is as much as to say, that his speeches were ol" 
 gold, or excellent. We have an hundred and seventy-six 
 of his discourses still extant. He strongly recommends 
 the communion of the body of Christ, Serm. 65, 67, 68, Sec. 
 every where extols the excellency, and inculcates the obli- 
 gation of alms-deeds, prayer, and fasting. 
 
 St. Severianus, bishop of Scythopolis ; St. Porphyrius, 
 bishop of Gaza, St, Maximus, bishop of Riez ; St. Medard, 
 bishop of Noyon ; St. C;«sarius and St. Hilary, arch- 
 bishops of Aries ; St. Honoratus, arch-bishop of Marseilles ; 
 St. Severinus, apostle of Austria ; and St. Eucherius, 
 bishop of Lyons, were likewise great luminaries in the 
 fifth century. St. Isidore, bishop of Pelusium, was looked 
 upon as a living rule of religious perfection. We have 
 still extant two thousand and twelve of his letters, abound- 
 ing with excellent instructions of piety, and with theologi- 
 cal and critical learnins:. We have also a correct edition 
 of the homilies and sermons of St. Maximus, the illus- 
 trious bishop of Turin, with Muratori's remarks, from a 
 manuscript of the Ambrosian Library, above one thousand 
 years old. St. Gaudentius, bishop of Brescia, is called, 
 ])y Ruffinus, " the glory of the doctors of the age wherein 
 lie lived." The Church of Brescia possessed a great trea- 
 sure in this holy pastor. He constantly broke the bread 
 of life to his flock, and fed their souls with the important 
 truths of salvation. We have twenty of his sermons still 
 extant. In the second^ which he made for the Neophytes, 
 after their coming out of the font, he explains to them the 
 mysteries which he could not expound in the presence of 
 the Catechumens, especially of the blessed Eucharist, of 
 which he says, " The Great Creator, the Lord of Nature, 
 ** who bringeth the bread out of the ground, maketh also 
 " bread of his own body ; because he hath promised, and 
 ^' is able to perform it, and he who made wine of water, 
 " converteth wine into his own blood." Bibl. Pat. t. 5. p. 
 949. Labbe says, that St. Gaudentius died in the year 427. 
 
 St. Germanus, bishop of Auxerre, and St. Lupus, bishop 
 of Troyes, lived also in this century, and became illus- 
 trious for the fame of their sanctity, doctrine, and mira- 
 cles. Burning with zeal for the glory of Christ, they as- 
 sisted at the synod and public conference at Verulam, 
 about the year 446, according to Spelman, and confuted 
 
190 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 f 
 
 the errors of Agricola, a disciple of Pelagius and Celes- 
 tius, who denied the corruption of human nature by origi- 
 nal sin, and the necessity of divine grace. They confirmed 
 the Catholics of Britain in the true faith, converted great 
 numbers, even of those who were spreading the poison of 
 Pelagianism through that island, and entirely banished the 
 heresy by their prayers, preaching, and renowned mira- 
 cles, which are related by Bede, Constantius, and Nen- 
 nius, the British historians. It was during the second mis- 
 sion of St. Germanus into Britain, as Carte asserts, that 
 the Britons gained the famous Alleluiah victory over the 
 army of the Picts and Saxon pirates, without bloodshed, 
 by a stratagem the holy bishop had recourse to. See Bede 
 Hist. 1. 1. c. 1. Usher A. B. c. 11, &c. 
 
 St. Mammertus, archbishop of Vienne, in Dauphine, in 
 the year 447, was a prelate renowned in the Church for 
 his sanctity, learning and miracles. He instituted in his 
 diocese the yearly fasts and supplications called the Roga- 
 tionSf to appease the wrath of Heaven, and avert the 
 scourges and public calamities with which the country 
 was then afflicted. 
 
 St. Vincent of Lerins, who lived abouf this period, in- 
 forms us in his prologue, that having been for some time 
 tossed about in the storms of a busthng military life, and 
 seriously considering the dangers with which he was sur- 
 rounded, he made for the desired peaceful and safe haven 
 of religion with all the sail he could, that he might divest 
 his soul of its ruffling passions of pride and vanity, and 
 that being further removed from worldly temptations, he 
 might endeavour more easily to avoid, not only the wrecks 
 of the present life, but also the burnings of that which is 
 to come. For this end he shut himself up in the famous 
 monastery of Lerins, not far from the coast of Lower Pro- 
 vence, towards Antibes. In this place, he assures us, he 
 earnestly strove to redeem time, and to turn it always to 
 the best account, reflecting that those fleeting moments 
 pass as quick as they come, never, never more to return, 
 as water which is gone from its source, runs to it no more. 
 There were too other Vincents living at Marseilles, at that 
 very time, and there might be others of the same name, 
 one of whom might have been a semi-pelagian. But the 
 saint we here speak of, condemned the profane novelties 
 of semi-pelagianism with great warmth, and highly ex- 
 
 I 
 
CirURCH OF CHRIST. 191 
 
 lolled the letter of Pope Celestine.to the bishops of Gaul. 
 Out of hiunility, he disguised himself under the name of 
 PeregrimiSj a pilgrim or stranger on earth, the least of all 
 ike servants of God, and less than the least of all the SaintSy 
 unworthy to bear tlie holy name of a Christian. He con- 
 sidered tiiat true faith is necessary to salvation no less 
 than morality, and that the former is the foundation of 
 Christian virtue ; and he grieved to see the Church, at 
 that time pestered with numberless heresies, which sucked 
 their poison from their very antidote, the holy Scriptures, 
 as the spider sucks poison from the very same flower that 
 the bee extracts honey. To guard the faithful against the 
 dangerous snares that Avere spread on every side, and to 
 open the eyes of those, who had been already seduced by 
 the false and perplexing glosses of subtle refiners, St. Vin- 
 cent with great clearness and force of reasoning wrote a 
 book in the year 434, which he entitled A Commonitory 
 agaiiist Heretics^ particularly the Nestorians and Apollina- 
 rists, whom he nobly confutes herein, by general clear 
 principles. Together with the ornaments of eloquence 
 and erudition, the inward beauty of his mind, and the 
 brightness of his devotion sparkle in every page of this 
 book. He lays down this rule, or fundamental principle, 
 in which he found, by a diligent inquiry, all Catholic pas- 
 tors and the ancient Fathers to agree, that such doctrine 
 is truly Cai/wHc, as hath been believed in all places j at all 
 times, and by all the faithful, Com. c. 3. By this test of 
 universality, antiquity, and consent, he says all contro- 
 verted points in behef must be tried. He shows, that 
 whilst Novalian, Donatus, Arius, Pelagius, Sic. expound 
 the divine oracles ditferent ways, to avoid the perplexity 
 of errors, we must interpret the holy Scriptures by the 
 tradition of the Catholic Church, as the clue to conduct 
 us in the truth ; for this tradition, derived from the Apos- 
 tles, manifests the true meaning of the holy Scriptures, 
 and all novelty in faith is a certain mark of heresy. He 
 says, that new teachers, who have made bold with one 
 article of faith, will proceed on to others ; and what will 
 be the consequence of this reforming of religion, but only 
 that these refiners will never have done, till they have re- 
 formed it quite away. C. 29. He elegantly expatiates on 
 the divine charge given to the Church, to maintain invio- 
 lable the sacred depositum of faith, C 1. 27. p. 30. He 
 
192 HisTonv or the 
 
 takes notice, tiiat in the works of Paulus Samosata, Pris- 
 cillian, Eimomius, Jovinian, and other heretics, ahiiost 
 every page is painted, and laid on thick with Scripture 
 texts. Btit in this, he says, heretics are like those pri- 
 soners or quacks, who put off their destructive potions 
 under inscriptions of good drugs, and under the title of 
 infallible cures. C. 31. They imitate the Father of Lies, 
 who quotetl Scripture against the Son of God when he 
 tempted him. C. 32. The Saint adds, that if a doubt 
 arise in interpreting the meaning of the Scriptures in any 
 point of faith, we must summon in the holy Fathers, who 
 have liv^ed and died in the faith and communion of the 
 Catholic Church, and by this test we shall prove the false 
 doctrine to be novel ; for that only Ave must look upon as in- 
 dubitably certain and unalterable, which all, or the major 
 part of these Fathers have delivered, like the harmonious 
 consent of a general council. But if any one among them^ 
 be he ever so holy, ever so learned, holds any thing be- 
 sides, or in opposition to the rest, that is to be placed in 
 the rank of shigular and private opinions, and never to be 
 looked upon as the public, general, authoritative doctrine 
 of the Church. C. 33. These general principles, by which 
 all heresies are easily overthrown and confounded, St. 
 Vincent explains with equal elegance and perspicuity. No 
 controversial book ever expressed so nmch, and such deep 
 sense in so few words. 
 
 St. Proclus, archbishop of Constantinople, flourished at 
 the time of the memorable earthquakes, that were felt 
 during six months in diverse parts of Egypt and the East, 
 especially near the Heirespont. The earth shook like a 
 ship, abandoned to the mercy of the winds, and tossed by 
 the fury of the waves worked up by a storm. Amidst the 
 ruins of many stately buildings, men ran to and fro dis- 
 tracted with fear and horror, not being able to find any 
 place of refuge, or security. At Constantinople the in- 
 habitants wandered in the fields, and with the rest the em- 
 peror Theodosius the younger, and all his courtiers. St. 
 Proclus with his clergy followed his scattered flock, and 
 ceased not to comfort and exhort them aniidst their afflic- 
 tions. He implored the divine mercy with them by unani- 
 mous and common prayer, singing devoutly the celebrated 
 Trisagion : Holy God, Holy Strong;, Hob/ Immortal^ have 
 mercy upon us^ whereupon the earthquake ceased. St. 
 
CHURCH OF CHRIST. 193 
 
 Augustine tells us, that at another time, under the emperor 
 Arcadius, a great ball of fire appeared in the air over 
 Constantinople, and that the emperor and all the citizens, 
 fearing that the city was going to be destroyed, abandon- 
 ed it one day, until God was moved through their tears 
 and prayers to spare them in his great mercy. T. 6. p. 622. 
 
 The great Theodoret lived in this age. He was edu- 
 cated in every branch of Syrian, Greek, and Hebrew 
 learning. He gave a large estate to the poor, and was 
 consecrated bishop of Cyprus, in the year 423. He con- 
 verted all the Marcianites, Arians, and other heretics in 
 his extensive diocese, wherein he reckoned 800 parishes. 
 His works are printed in four volumes, in folio. Hi,5 
 Church History in live books is a valuable compilation. 
 He assures us, that he was himself an eye-witness to seve- 
 i*al of the miracles which he relates to have been wrought 
 by the sign of the cross, by holy water, and blessed oil. 
 In his eighth discourse on the Maiiyrs, he elegantly explains 
 in what manner the souls of the martyrs, now in Heaven, 
 with the choirs of Angels, are our protectors and media- 
 tors with God, and he clearly demonstrates that the vene- 
 ration which Christians pay to the saints, is entirely dif- 
 ferent from the worship which the Heathens gave to their 
 false gods. 
 
 The illustrious St. Cyril, patriarch of Alexandria, was 
 raised by God in this age to be the champion of the Church, 
 and defender of the faith of the Incarnation, against Nes- 
 torius, bishop of Constantinople, who impiously divided 
 Christ into two persons, the one God, the other man, there- 
 fore denied the blessed Virgin to be the mother of God. 
 This new doctrine shocked the faithful exceedingly, ex- 
 cited every where clamours, and caused great scandal 
 both among the clergy and laity. St. Cyril, on reading 
 the homilies of Nestorius, sent him a mild expostulation 
 on the subject, and attempted to reclaim him by remon- 
 strances, but he was answered with haughtiness and con- 
 tempt. The retiredness and austerity of Nestorius's life, 
 joined with a hypocritical exterior of virtue, and a super-* 
 ficial learning, and fluency of words, gained him some re- 
 putation in the world. But being full of self-conceit, he 
 neglected the, study of the ancient fathers, was a man of 
 weak judgment, extremely vain, violent, and obstinate, as 
 the historians of those times testify. St. Cyril, who etu- 
 R 
 
194 HISTORV OF THE 
 
 died under his unele Theophilus, made it his rule, never 
 to advance any doctrine which he had not learned from 
 the ancient Fathers, and never ceased to exert his zeai 
 in maintainhig the faith of tlie Church in its primitive 
 purity, and in opposing every heretical novelty at its first 
 appearance. With the approbation of the emperor Theo- 
 dosius, he drove the Novatians and Jews out of Alexan- 
 dria, but thereby offended Orestes the governor so griev- 
 ously, that he rejected all ofTers of reconciliation with the 
 holy btshop, though he conjured him by the Gospels to 
 join in sincere friendship. This unhappy disagreement 
 produced many pernicious eflects, created several enemies 
 for St. Cyril, and lessened his interest at the imperial 
 court. The unruly and tumultuous mob of the populous 
 city of Alexandria, the second in the w^orld for extent, 
 -seditiously rose up against the famous Hypatia, upon a 
 suspicion that she had incensed the governor against their 
 bishop. This Pagan lady kept a public school of Platonic 
 philosophy in the city. Her reputation for learning was 
 so great, that Synesius and other philosophers of f he first 
 rank flocked to her from all parts, and consulted her on 
 the most intricate questions, wShe was much respected 
 and consulted by the governor, which made the populace 
 pull her out of her chariot, mangle her flesh, and tear her 
 body in pieces in the streets of Alexandria, in the year 
 415, to the scandul of all good men, and to the great grief 
 of St. Cyril, who was by no means conscious of a crime 
 so horrible and so shocking to human nature. 
 
 This holy doctor triumphed at length over all his ene- 
 mies by his meekness, intrepidity and courage. He sent 
 Nestorius twelve propositions, called Ancdhemtdisms^ to be 
 signed by him, as a. proof of his orthodoxy, but the here- 
 siarch appearing more perverse and obstinate than ever^ 
 the third general council was opened at Ephesus, in the 
 year 431, by two hundred and seventy-four bishops, with 
 St. Cyril at their head, as Pope Celestine's legate and 
 representative. A throne was raised in the middle of the 
 Church, and on it was erected tlie book of the Gospel to 
 represent the assistance of Jesus Christ, who has prom- 
 ised that he will be in the midst of the pastors assembled 
 in his name. The bishops being seated on both sides, 
 according to the dignity of their sees, the heretical sermons 
 of Nestorius, who refused to appear, though then in the 
 
CHURCH OF CHRIST. 195 
 
 city and thrice cited, were read, and depositions received 
 against him. His doctrine was examined and condemned, 
 and the sentence of excommunication and deposition was 
 pronounced aj^ainst him, after which he was banished by 
 the Emperor Theodosius, at the reqi ;est of John of Antioch, 
 his former friend, to Oasis, in the deserts of Upper Egypt, 
 where he died miserably and impenitent. The oriental 
 bishops made peace with St. Cyril in the year 433, when 
 matters being cleared up to his honour, and his conduct 
 being approved, the schism was extinguished, and the 
 zealous patriarch spent the remainder of his days in the 
 faithful discharge of his pastoral duties till his glorious 
 death, in the year 444, on the 28th of June. 
 
 The Latin translation of this father's works is printed 
 in six tomes, in folio. His extraordinary devotion towards 
 the blessed sacrament of the Eucharist, appears from the 
 zeal with which he frequently inculcates the wonderful 
 effects which it produces in the soul of him who worthily 
 receives it, especially in healing all his spiritual di; j'ders, 
 strengthening him against temptations, subduing t ". pas- 
 sions, in giving life, and making us one with Christ r the 
 most sacred union, not only in spirit and affection, but 
 also by a natural participation with his humanity. H. 4. 
 Cont. Nest. t. 6. 1. 7. De Adorat. tit. 1. 1. 10. Joan. t. 4. 
 Hence he says, that " by the holy communion we are 
 *' made concorporeal with Christ, for as wax melted and 
 " mingled with another piece of melted wax, makes one, 
 *' so by partaking of his precious body and blood, he is 
 *' united in us. and we in him." In his works against 
 Nestorius, he is also very clear in establishing the reality 
 of Christ's body, in the sacrament of the altar and the 
 holy sacrifice. "We celebrate, says he, the unbloody 
 *' sacrifice in the Church, and do by this means approach 
 " the mystical benediction, and are sanctified, being made 
 " partakers of the sacred flesh and precious blood of 
 " Christ, the Saviour of us all, and we do not receive it 
 " as common flesh, but as it is truly, the hfe giving and 
 " proper flesh of the word." He likewise says in his 9th 
 homily on the Mystical Supper, or holy banquet of the 
 communion and sacrifice: " The tremendous mystery is 
 " performed, and the Lamb of God sacrificed. The Eter- 
 " nal Wisdom distributes his body as bread, and his 
 *' saving bloor! ns wine: The Maker gives himself to the 
 
196 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 '* work of his own hands. Life bestows itself to be eat 
 " and drunk by men. He remains the Priest and the 
 " victim: he who offers, and he who is offered." 
 
 The Nestorian heresy being condemned in the manner 
 above mentioned, another formiddble heresy was broacii- 
 ed by Eutyches, abbot of a monastery of three hundred 
 monks, near Constantinople, who had acquired a reputa- 
 tion of virtue, but in effect was nj better than an ignorant, 
 proud, and obstinate man. His intemperate zeal against 
 Nestorius, for asserting two distinct persons in Christ our 
 Lord, threw him into the opposite error, of denying two 
 distinct natures after the incarnation. This heresiarch 
 being condemned in a council of thirty-two bishops, and 
 twenty-three abbots, held in the year 448, by St. Flavian, 
 successor of St. Proclus, in the Archiepiscopal see of 
 Constantinople, appealed to St. Leo the Great, complain- 
 ing of the proceedings of the council, and endeavouring 
 to impose on. him by false assertions. But the Pope 
 being jiformed of the true state of the affair, wrote to 
 him aa ample declaration of the orthodox faith, concern- 
 ing the mystery of the Incarnation, Yet by the intrigues 
 of Chrysaphius the eunuch, a kinsman of Eutyches, and 
 a particular favourite and chamberlain to the weak Em- 
 peror Theodosius II. a packed council was assembled at 
 Ephesus, without the authority of the Pope, and an order 
 was obtained, for a re-examinalion of the cause between 
 St. Flavian and Eutyches. This pretended synod, com- 
 monly called the Ltatrocinale, or cabal of Ephesus, for 
 the violences therein used, met on the eighth of August, 
 in the year 449, and Dioscorus, who had succeeded S. Cyril 
 in the patriarchal see of Alexandria, and who was a man 
 of a violent temper, an Eutychian, and general disturber 
 of Christian peace, took upon him to preside in it. The 
 false council consisted of one hundred and thirteen bish- 
 ops, or their deputies, from Egypt and the East. Eu- 
 tyches was present with two officers from the Emperor, 
 and a great number of soldiers. Every thing was carried 
 on by violence and open faction, in favour of Eutyches, 
 by those officers and bishops who had espoused his party, 
 and formed a cabal. The final result of the proceedings 
 was to pronounce sentence of deposition against St. 
 Flavian, and Eusebius of Dorylajum, who had accused 
 Eutyches of heretical errors. The legates sent by Pope 
 
CHURCH OF CHRIST. 197 
 
 Leo to act in his name, were not suffered by Dioscorus 
 to read his letters. They protested against the unjust 
 sentence, and opposed it with a zeal and vigour that was 
 admired by the whole world, snys Theodoret, Ep. 116. 
 Hilarius, the deacon, who afterwards succeeded St. Leo, 
 cried aloud, Conlrndiciturj opposition is made. Diosco- 
 rus no sooner began to read the sentence, but he was in- 
 terrupted by several oi' the bishops, prostrating tlicmselves 
 before him, and beseeching him in the most submissive 
 terms, to proceed no further in so unwarrantable an affair. 
 Upon this he started up, and called aloud for the imperial 
 commissioners, who ordered the church doors to be set 
 open, and a band of soldiers to be let in, followed by a 
 confused multitude with chains, clubs, and swords. This 
 struck such a terror into the whole assembly, that few 
 had the courage to withstand the threat, except the legates, 
 who got off with much difficulty, and to whom St. Flavian 
 delivered in writing his act of appeal to the Apostolic 
 see, which so provoked Dioscorus, Barsumas, and others 
 of their party, that they threw the holy bishop on the 
 ground, and kicked and braised him with such a degree 
 of malice and violence, that he died within a few days, a 
 martyr .of the mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of 
 God. When the council was over, Dioscorus, with two 
 of the Egyptian bishops, had the insolence to excommu- 
 nicate St. Leo. But violence and injustice did not tri- 
 umph long. Upon the first advice of these proceedings, 
 St. Leo declared them null and void. He wrote to the 
 Emperor, and conjured him in these words: *' Leave to 
 " the bishops the liberty of defending the faith: no pow- 
 " er or terrors of the w^orld will ever be able to destroy 
 " it — protect the Church, and seek to preserve its peace, 
 '' that Christ may protect your empire," The next year 
 the Emperor died, as Cedrenus says, penitent and sensi- 
 ble of his error, Chrysaphius was disgraced, and Eudoxia 
 obliged to retire to Jerusalem. Marcian and St. Pulche- 
 ria ascending the Imperial throne, the fourth general 
 council was opened on the 8th of October, in the year 
 451, at Chalcedon, in the suburbs of Constantinople. It 
 consisted of six hundred and ninety bishops. St. Leo 
 presided by his legates. The memory of St. Flavian was 
 vindicated. The wicked Dioscorus was declared excom- 
 municated and deposed. Eusebius of Dorylseum was 
 R2 
 
198 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 honourably restored to his see, and the Eutychian heresy 
 was solemnly condemned and anathematized by the whole 
 Church. The fathers of the Council, in their synodal 
 letter to St. Leo, beseech him to confirm their decrees, 
 saying, " He had presided over them, as the head over its 
 members." — Cone. t. 4. p. 833. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 The Church of the sixth Century. 
 
 THE Apostolic see was filled in this century by Hor- 
 misdas, John I. Felix IV. Boniface II. John II. Agape- 
 tus I. Silverius, Viligius, Pelagius I. John III. Benedict I. 
 Pelagius II. and St. Gregory the Great. 
 
 After the death of St. Symmachus, Hormisdas govern- 
 ed the church nine years. He had been engaged in wed- 
 lock before he entered the ministry. He died in odour 
 of sanctity, in the year 523, and was succeeded by John 
 I. a Tuscan by birth, who sat two years and nine months. 
 He was obliged, by Theodoric, the Arian King of the 
 Goths, who resided chiefly at Spoleto, or Ravenna, to go 
 at the head of an embassy of five bishops and four sena- 
 tors to Constantinople, on a negotiation with the emperor 
 Justin. The joy of that city was universal, and the pomp 
 with which the successor of St. Peter was received there, 
 seemed to surpass the festival of a triumph. The inhab- 
 itants went out twelve miles to meet him, carrying wax 
 tapers and crosses. Anastasius relates, that on entering 
 the city he restored sight to a blind man. Whilst he was 
 in the East, Theodoric caused the great statesman and 
 philosopher Boetius, one of the finest geniuses the world 
 ever produced, to be apprehended and tortured on a 
 wheel, by which his head was squeezed with such vio- 
 lence, that his eyes flew out ; then he was beaten with 
 clubs by two executioners, and beheaded, or rather his 
 head was cloven asunder in the year 52o. When the 
 holy Pope St. John landed at Ravenna, with the four 
 senators, his colleagues, he was, by order of Theodoric, 
 cast into a dark and loathsome dungeon, where he died on 
 the^7th of May, 526. 
 
CHURCH OP CHRIST. 199 
 
 St. Felix IV. succeeded him in the Pontificate, and 
 died on the 18th of September, 530. Boniface II. gov- 
 erned the Church about two years, and died in the year 
 632. John II. died on the 26th of April, 535. The great 
 sanctity of St. Agapetus recommended him to the love 
 and veneration of all that knew him. He was chosen to 
 fill the holy see, and consecrated on the 4th of May, 535. 
 By his singular mildness he soon healed the wounds which 
 had been made by dissentions, and by the unhappy schism 
 of Dioscorus against Boniface II. in the year 529. The- 
 odatus, King of the Gk)ths in Italy, hearing that the empe- 
 ror Justinian was making preparations for an expedition 
 to recover Italy, obliged Pope Agapetus to undertake a 
 voyage to Constantinople, in order to divert him from 
 such a design. Upon his arrival in that city he fell sick 
 and died, on the 17th of April, 536, having sat about 
 eleven months and three weeks. St. Gregory the great 
 relates, Dial. 1. 5. c. 3. " that this holy Pope, on his 
 ** journey through Greece, cured a man who was lame 
 *^ and dumb, by saying mass for him." 
 
 Upon the demise, of St. Agapetus, after a vacancy of 
 forty- seven days, St. Silverms, the son of Hormisdas, was 
 chosen. He was violently persecuted by the empress 
 Theodora, because he would not come into her unjust 
 measures, and betray the cause of the Catholic faith. 
 The emperor Justinian, the husband of this violent and 
 crafty woman, was now master of Rome, His general, 
 Belisarius, having sailed with a fleet of 500 sail into Afri- 
 ca, had made an easy conquest of the whole country, and 
 taken Carthage almost without opposition. By his victo- 
 ries he extinguished the puissant kingdom of the Vandals, 
 and re-united Africa to the empire, after it had been se- 
 parated above one hundred years. In the year 535 he 
 marched with his victorious army against Italy, and af- 
 ter subduing Sicily, he passed thence into Italy, and took 
 Naples and Rome ; the senate and people, at the persua- 
 sion of Silverius, having opened the gates of the city to 
 him, whilst the Gothic garrison retired towards Ravenna, 
 where Theodatus being deposed, Vitiges, an experienced 
 officer, was raised to the throne, and having marched 
 from Ravenna, in the year 537, with an army of one 
 hundred and fifty thousand men, invested the city of 
 Rome. The siege lasted a year and nine days, during 
 
200 HISTORY OP THE 
 
 which both Goths and Romans performed prodigies of 
 valour ; but Belisarius defeated all the attempts and stra- 
 tagems of the Barbarians, and in the end obliged them to 
 retire. In the interim, the empress Theodora endeavour- 
 ed to promote the sect of the Acephali, or most rigid Eu- 
 tychians, who rejected the council of Chalcedon, but find- 
 ing she could never expect from the firmness of Pope 
 Silverius any thing favourable to her impious designs, she 
 resolved to compass his deposition. For this end she made 
 her application to the Arch-deacon Vigilius, a man of 
 address, and promised to make him Pope, and to bestow on 
 him seven hundred pieces of gold, provided he would en- 
 gage himself to communicate with the three deposed Eu- 
 tjchian patriarchs Anthimus of Constantinople, Severus 
 of Antioch, and Theodosius of Alexandria. The unhappy 
 Vigilius having assented to the conditions, the Empress 
 sent him to Rome, and charged him with a letter to Beli- 
 sarius, commanding him to depose Silverius, and to con- 
 trive the election of Vigilius to the Pontificate. To suc- 
 ceed the more easily in so unwarrantable a proceeding, 
 the enemies of Silverius impeached him for high treason, 
 and suborned two false witnesses to forge a letter, which 
 was pretended to have been written by Silverius to the 
 kins: of the Goths, invitinj* him to Rome. Belisarius 
 saw evidently this to be a bare-faced calumny, yet he had 
 the weakness to say, " The empress commands, I must 
 '* therefore obey. He who seeks the ruin of Silverius 
 '* shall answer for it at the last day — not I." Vigilius 
 urged him on one side, to execute the project, and his 
 wife Antonia on the other. Silverius was therefore strip- 
 ped of all his pontifical ornaments, clothed with the habit 
 of a monk, and sent into banishment to Patara in Lycia 
 The bishop of that city received the illustrious exile with 
 all possible marks of honour and respect, and, thinking 
 himself bound to undertake his defence, he repaired to 
 Constantinople, where having obtained a private audience 
 of the emperor, he terrified him with the threats of the 
 Divine judgments for the expulsion of the bishop of so 
 great a see, telling him, as Liberatus informs us, Brev. c. 
 22, *' There are many kings in the world, but there is 
 " only one Pope over the whole world," which words im- 
 ply a clear confession of the supremacy of the Roman see. 
 Justinian, who had not been sufficiently apprised of the 
 
 I 
 
CHURCH OP CHRIST. 201 
 
 matter, appeared startled at the proceedings, and gave 
 orders that Silverius should be sent back to Rome, and 
 restored to his sea, in case he was not convicted of the 
 treasonable correspondence with the Goths. But Belisa- 
 rius, Vigilius, and Antonia, prevented his restoration, by 
 causing him to be intercepted on the road, and to be 
 conveyed into the little inhospitable island of Palmeruelo, 
 near Tarracina, where the holy Pope died of hard usage, 
 or, as Prdcopius tells us, was murdered in the year 538. 
 That the eyes of Belisarius were afterwards plucked out, 
 and that he was reduced to beg his bread in the streets 
 of Constantinople, saying, Give a faiihing to poor JBelisa- 
 riMS, is a story founded on no better authority than that 
 of John Tzetzes, a lying Greek poet in the twelfth century. 
 The truth is, that Belisarius, being recalled into the East, 
 and sent against the Persians and Hunns, was at length 
 accused of having been privy to a conspiracy against Jus- 
 tinian, and lost his estates and honours, as Theophanes 
 and Cedrenrfs testify ; but the same authors add, that he 
 recovered them again, and died in peace. 
 
 Vigihus, from an ambitious intruder and mercenary 
 .schismatic, became afterwqe'ds a lawful Pope, by the rati- 
 fication and consent of the Roman Church ; and, having 
 renounced the errors and commerce of the Acephali, he 
 suffered much for his steadfast adherence to the orthodox 
 faith. He died in the year 555. Upon his demise, Pe- 
 lagius I. was raised to the Pontificate, which he held near 
 five years. John III. surnamed Caielinus^ was elected in 
 the year 560, and governed the Church near thirteen 
 3'^ears. Benedict I. surnamed Bonosus, was chosen in the 
 year 574, and died in 578. His successor Pelagius II. sat 
 in the chair of St. Peter upwards of eleven years, and 
 died in the beginning of the great pestilence in January 590. 
 
 St. Gregory, surnamed the Greaty one of the four prin- 
 cipal doctors of the Latin Church, was raised to the I%n- 
 tificate by the unanimous voice of the clergy, senate, and 
 Roman people, and consecrated on the 3d of September, 
 in the year 590, though he had opposed his election with 
 all his power, and concealed himself in the woods and 
 caverns, till he was discovered as Paul the deacon tells 
 us, by a pillar of light appearing over the place where he 
 lav disjcuised. At the ao-e of 35 years he took the monas- 
 tic habit, and built and endowed the famous monastery of 
 
^02 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 St. Andrew, on the hill Scaurus, with six other monasteries 
 in Sicily. It is incredible how much he wrote and labour- 
 ed during the thirteen years, six months, and ten days, 
 that he sat in the chair of St. Peter ; what great things 
 he achieved for the glory of God, the good of the Church, 
 the reformation of manners, the edification of the faithful, 
 the relief of the poor, the comfort of the afflicted, the es- 
 tablishment of ecclesiastical discipline, and the advance- 
 ment of piety and religion ; especially if we consider the 
 austerity of his life, his assiduity in prayer and holy con- 
 templation, and his continual bad state of health and fre- 
 quent sicknesses. In the beginning of his Pontificate he 
 instituted the great LitanicSj in order to avert an epidemi- 
 cal disorder that attacked the people of Rome after a great 
 inundation of the Tyber. Pie took occasion from this 
 calamity to exhort them to repentance. Having made a 
 pathetic sermon on that subject, he appointed a solemn 
 procession in seven companies, with a priest at the head 
 of each, who were to march from different churches, and 
 all to meet in that of St. Mary Major, singing Kyiie Elei- 
 son as they went along the streets, until such time as the 
 distemper ceased. The Litanies that are celebrated on 
 the Rogation-days, were instituted by St. Mammertus, 
 as has been already observed, and were afterwards ex- 
 tended to the universal Church, by Leo III. in the eighth 
 century. St. Gregory's zeal for the glory of God, and 
 the angelical function of paying him the constant tribute of 
 praise in the Church, moved him to reform the Church 
 music. He also revised and reformed the Ritual and Sa- 
 cramentary, or ancient written order of the Mass, and made 
 some accidental alterations and improvements in certain 
 collects or prayers, the essential parts being always the 
 same. Pope Gelasius had thus augmented and revised 
 the liturgy in the year 490, and the conformity between 
 the present church office and this liturgy, as well as all 
 the other ancient liturgic writings, mentioned in the apos- 
 tolic constitutions, and in the works of St, Ignatius, St. 
 Justin, St. Cyril of Jerusalem, St. Innocent, Celestine, 
 Leo, ^c. appears so evidently from the Sacramentary, 
 Antiphonarium, and Responsorium of St. Gregory, that 
 the four Magdeburgians or Centuriators acknowledge that 
 the Fathers of the second and third century taught the 
 doctrine of the Mass. St. Gregory, Horn. 8. testifies that 
 
CHURCH OF CHRIST, 2(S 
 
 lie said Mass thrice on Christmas day: and, 1. 4, dial. c. 
 55, he relates, that he ordered Mass to be daily offered 
 for the soul of Justus, one of his Monks, during thirty 
 days, and that after the Mass of the thirtieth day, he was 
 released from the torments in which he had been. From 
 this fact of St. Greofory, a trental of Masses for a soul 
 departed are usually called the Gregorian Masses. The 
 Benedictine edition of this holy doctor's works, in four 
 volumes, folio, is the most accurate. His four books of 
 dialogues, forty homilies on the Gospels, fourteen books 
 of letters, and thirty-five books of moral comments upon 
 Job, are very interesting compilations of the main princi- 
 ples of morality. His incomparable book O/i the Pastoral 
 Care, contains excellent instructions on the dangers, du- 
 ties, and obligations of all pastors of souls who are exhort- 
 ed and commanded by the councils frequently to read it, 
 and in it, as in a looking-o:lass, to behold themselves. He 
 preached his exposition of Ezechiel in twenty-two homi- 
 lies, at the time that Rome was besieged, in the year 592. 
 He subscribed himself in ail his letters Servant of the Ser- 
 vants of God. He was always a zealous asserter of the ce- 
 libacy of the clergy, and extended his pastoral solicitude 
 over all churches, frequently observing, that the care of the 
 churches of the whole world was intrusted to St. Peter, 
 and to his successors in the see of Rome, 1. 3. ep. 39. 
 He declared that he received the four general councils as 
 the four Gospels. The state of Christendom was at that 
 time miserably distracted, and stood in need of such a pas- 
 tor as St. Gregory, whose extraordinary sanctity, abilities, 
 and zeal, rendered him equal to every great enterprise. 
 The Eastern churches were divided and shattered by the 
 heretical factions of the Nestorians, and the numerous 
 spawn of the Eutychians, all which he repressed. The 
 West was harassed by barbarians. A great part of Italy 
 was become a prey to the Lombards, so called from their 
 having long beards. They were originally a barbarous 
 and idolatrous nation, from Scandinavia and Pomerania, 
 that broke into the North of Italy about the middle of the 
 sixth century. They gradually extended their dominions 
 under their King, Alboinus, and made themselves masters 
 of the grand city of Milan in the year 568. In process of 
 time they became so powerful that they besieged Rome it- 
 self ; but St. Gregory engaged them, by entreaties, to retire 
 
204 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 into their own territories, and by his zeal brought over their 
 King, Agiluph, to the Cathohc faith. The Lombard laws au- 
 thorized duels, but only with a buckler and clubs: cum fiis- 
 tibus et clypeo. This execrable practice, of barbarous 
 extraction, became more pernicious when more dangerous 
 weapons were used, and it was usurped by private autho- 
 rity, though it is in itself the basest, as well as the most hor- 
 rible and unnatural crime, unknown to the Jews, Greeks, 
 and Romans, and to all civilized nations, mo^t renowned 
 for true valour. Yet, alas ! since the challenge sent by 
 Francis I. of France to the Emperor Charles V. whom he 
 could no longer face with an army, as Spelman observes, 
 duelling has been able, by maxims equally shocking to 
 reason and religion, to pass for a test of courage and a 
 point of honour, by a false prostitution of those names. 
 True fortitude incites and enables a man to bear all man- 
 ner of affronts, and to undergo all humiliations, dangers, 
 hardships, and torments, for the sake of virtue and duty. 
 What is more contrary to this hei'oic disposition, what can 
 be imagined more dastardly than not to be able so much as 
 to look humiliation in the face, or to put up with a petty 
 affront .'' What more inconsistent with the character of ii 
 Christian than to trample upon the favourite command- 
 ment of Christ, and offend against all laws, divine and hu- 
 man, rather than brook an injvuy, or bear a trifling offence 
 with patience and constancy ! To forgive injuries, and to 
 suffer with humility for Christ, is the distinguishing mark 
 of his followers, and the very sonl of the Divine Law. 
 Nay, it is a glorious victory gained over ourselves, by 
 which we vanquish our passions, and improve in our souls 
 the habits of those divine virtues in wliich consists the 
 spirit of Christ and the resemblance we are commanded 
 to bear to him. 
 
 But to return to St. Gregory, he reformed many grie- 
 vous abuses in Gaul, whence he banished Simony, 
 which had greatly infected that Church. It is to his zeal 
 that the flourishing kingdom of the Angles, who were ori- 
 ginally a Saxon people that invaded the south part of 
 Great Britain and gave it their name, owes its conversion. 
 Christianity had, indeed, been introduced into England in 
 the second century, in the reign of King Lucius, but it was 
 driven about two hundred years after into the moun- 
 tains of Wales, by the Saxon Pagans, until St. Austin and 
 
CHURCH OP CHRIST. 
 
 20^ 
 
 ins colleagues, St. Laurence, St. Mellitus, he. were sent 
 from Rofiie, by Pope Gregory the Great, to re-establish 
 the faith avid law of Jesus Christ in that island, by their 
 preaching and miraciCs, about five hundred years before 
 the Norman Conquest. It was ilicn they converted the 
 English nation from Saxon Pa<janism, and baptized the 
 kings Elhelbert and Sebeil, with a great number of their 
 subjects. Historians relate, that St. Austin cnicred the 
 kingdom of Kent with forty companions, preceded by the 
 Cross, and baptized no less than ten thousand persons at 
 Canterbury on Christmas-<^Iay. 
 
 It was about the middle of this century, in the year 
 553, that the fifth General Council was celebrated at 
 Constantinople, It consisted of one hundred and fifty- 
 five bishops, who condemned certain writings in favour 
 of Nestorianism, called The Three Chapters : together 
 with the errors of Origen and his followers. 
 
 St. Fulgentius, bishop of Ruspa, in the district of Tunis, 
 was one of the principal Ecclesiastical writers, who flou- 
 rished in this century. He was born at Carthage, about 
 thirty years after the Barbarians had dismembered Africa 
 from the Roman Empii-e. In the twenty-second year of 
 his age he embraced a monastic life, on having read a 
 sermon of St. Augustine on the vanity of the world and 
 the short duration of human life. 
 
 WhenTheodoric, king of Italy, made his first entry into 
 Rome, towards the latter part of the year 500, Fulgentius, 
 who came to offer up his prayers at the tomb of the Apos- 
 tles, seeing him seated on an exalted throne, adorned 
 with pompous state, surrounded by the senate and his 
 courtiers, with all the grandeur of the city displayed in 
 the greatest magnificence, cried out and said, *' Ah, how 
 ** beautiful must the heavenly Jerusalem be, if earthly 
 '' Rome be so glorious ! What honour, glory, and joy 
 ^' will God bestow on the saints in heaven, since here in this 
 
 ^*' perishable life he clothes with such splendour the lov- 
 " ers and admirers of vanity!" In a short time after, 
 having returned home, he built a spacious monastery in 
 Byzacena, out of which he was forcibly taken, and con- 
 |l secrated bishop, in the year 508. Whilst he was zeal- 
 ously discharging his episcopal duties, orders were issued 
 by King Trasamund for his banishment into Sardinia, 
 with sixty other orthodox bishops. He wrote an amole 
 
 S 
 
206 HISTORY 6T THE 
 
 confutation of Arianism, under the title of his TJitte Beaks 
 to King Trasamund ; with another book, entitled An An- 
 swer to Ten Objections. His talents for preaching were 
 singular. His sermons and h»>milies are usually short, 
 but very pathetic: w« have near a hundred still extant 
 that bear his name. His letters are remarkably pious and 
 instructive. ^ His other works are chiefly polemical 
 against the Arians, Pelagians, and Nestorians. After the 
 doath of Trasamund he returned to his flock, and was re- 
 ceived with the greatest demonstrations of joy. He al- 
 ways proposed to himself St. Augustine for a model, and, 
 as a true disciple, he imitated him in his conduct, faith- 
 fully expounding his doctrine and imbibing his spirit. In 
 his book Oft Faith to Peter ^ he explains the chief mysteries 
 of faith) especially the Trinity, Incarnation, sacrifice of 
 the Altar, absolute necessity of the true Faith, sincere 
 Repentance, and of living in the pale of the true Church. 
 Many other illustrious saints and apostolic men flourished 
 in this age, particularly St. Ennodius, the learned bi- 
 shop of Pavia ; St. Gregory, bishop of Tours, eminent both 
 for his piety and voluminous writings ; St. Leander, bishop 
 of Seville ; St. Maxentius, abbot of Poitou ; St. Aurelius, 
 archljishop of Aries ; St. Benedict, patriarch of the West- 
 ern Monks ; St. Germanus, bishop of Paris ; St. Eulo- 
 gius, patriarch of Constantinople ; St. John, distinguished 
 by the appellation of Climacus, from his excellent book 
 entitled Climax^ or the ladder to perfection ; St. Simon 
 Stylites the Younger, whose sanctity God was pleased to 
 manifest by a great number of miracles, to many of which 
 Evagrius Scholasticus, the historian, declares he was an 
 eye-witness ; St. Eugenius, the renowned bishop of Car- 
 thage ; St. Sabbas, abbot ; St. Gildas ; St. Dacius, bishop 
 of Milan ; St. Aritus, bishop of Vienne in Gaul ; St. Se- 
 verinus, abbot of Agaunum ; St. Anastasius, patriarch of 
 Antioch, and a prelate of singular learning and piety, who 
 vigorously opposed the heresy of the Incorrupticolcey 
 which the Emperor Justmian maintained in his dotage, 
 declaring, by an edict, that Christ's body during his mor- 
 tal state, was never liable to any alteration, or even na- 
 tural passion, such as hunger, thirst, or pain. Anastasius 
 wrote upon that subject with propriety, elegance, and 
 choice of sentiments Theodorus of Heraclea, Venan- 
 tius, Fortunatus, Leontius, Prasilius Cilix, Facundus, 
 
CHURCH OF CHRIST, 20^ 
 
 Primasius, and Ephaemius of Antioch, were in high repu- 
 tation in this age. Dionysius Exiguus, an abbot in Rome, 
 is also highly commended for his learning and piety, by 
 Cassiodorus, his contemporary. In his Paschal Cijcle he 
 first began to date the year from the birth of Christ, 
 which epoch, called the Christian ^^r a, was every where 
 introduced, soon after the extinction of the Consulates, 
 from which the dates had been usually taken before. 
 
 Venerable Bede informs us, that in the year 565 Bri- 
 dius, the powerful King o£ the Northern Picts, was con- 
 verted from Idolatry to the faith of Christ, by the preach- 
 ing, virtues, and miracles of St. Columb, one of the great- 
 est patriarchs of the monastic order in Ireland. This 
 illustrious saint was surnamed Columkille, from the great 
 number of monastic cells, called Kills, which he had 
 founded in Ireland, before he passed with his disciples from 
 his native country. into Scotland, and became the Apostle 
 of the Northern Britons and Highlanders. 
 
 Ireland, which had been converted by St. Patrick in the 
 fifth century from Heathenism to Christianity, abounded 
 through the three succeeding ages with so many saints, 
 eminent both for their piety and learning, that it was 
 styled the Island of Saints. Camden testifies that the 
 English Saxons flocked then to Ireland, as to the mart of 
 sacred literature ; which was owing to the labours and 
 apostolic lives of the native ecclesiastics, who were never 
 known to abuse the great immunities and secular endow- 
 ments conferred on them by the Irish Princes. The 
 learned Prideaux says, Ireland was celebrated for three 
 hundred years after its conversion, as the emporium and 
 prime seat of sacred learning in Christendom. It was filled 
 with saints ; and the reputation of its schools was so re- 
 nowned, that students resorted to it from Britain, and 
 many parts of the continent, for their cultivation, and 
 professors have been invited from hence by foreiga 
 princes to establish seminaries in their dominions. Mari- 
 anus Scotus says, in his Chronicle, that in the eighth cen- 
 tuiy, two Irishmen gave birth to, and laid the foundation 
 of, the two first universities in the world, namely, that of 
 Paris and Pavia. From hence several apostolic men have 
 gone with zeal to illuminate and convert heathens in South 
 and North Britain, in Germany, in the Netherlands, in 
 Burgundy, in France, &c. The fervour with which the 
 
208 HISTORY OP THE 
 
 Irish first embraced the faith, did not abate for many 
 ages. They established numerous congregations of reli- 
 gious men, eminent in all virtues. They founded cities 
 in the midst of deserts, which they cleared and cultivated 
 with their own hands. They erected monasteries in all 
 parts of the island, which were so many nurseries of piety, 
 where the Christian youth was instructed in the science 
 of the saints, and in the literature that leads to it. The 
 most numerous and most celebrated of these monasteries 
 was that of Benchor or Bangor^ in the county of Down, 
 founded about the year 550, by St. Congal, under whose 
 direction a great number of fervent servants of God seem- 
 ed to lead an angelic life in mortal flesh, employed in tillage 
 or other manual labours, at the hours that could be spared 
 from the duties of prayer, heavenly contemplation, and 
 their sacred studies. It is said, that three thousand monks 
 lived sometimes together in this abbey^ before it was de- 
 stroyed by Danish pirates, who massacred here nine hun- 
 dred of them in one day. The buildings lay in ruins, till 
 they were repaired, in the twelfth century, by the care of 
 St. Malachy, the Archbishop of Armagh, who rendered 
 Benchor a flourishing seminary of learning and piety, though 
 not so numerous as it had formerly been. The monastic 
 institute received great lustre from the eminent sanctity 
 and profound learning of St. Gallus, and St. Columban, 
 the disciple of St. Congal. 
 
 St. Gallus was born soon after the middle of the sixth 
 century, and educated in the great monastery of Benchor. 
 By his preaching, example, and miracles, he converted a 
 great number of Idolaters, near the lake of Constance,, 
 tind is justly regarded as the Apostle of that territory. 
 Mabillon places his death on the 10th of October, 646. 
 
 St. Columban was a native of Leinster, one of the four 
 provinces of Ireland. He passed into Britain, and thence 
 into Gaul, with twelve other monks, about the year 585. 
 He preached with wonderful success in all places through 
 which he travelled, and the sanctity of his hfe added great 
 weight to his instructions. His reputation reached the 
 Court of Burgundy, under whose protection he erected 
 different monasteries in Lorrain. Going afterwards, with 
 some of his disciples, into Switzerland, he preached the 
 Gospel to the infidels near the lakes of Zurich and Con- 
 jii,tance. Thence he passed into Italy, where, meetin«; a 
 
CtfURCII OF CHRIST. 209* 
 
 kind r^ception from Agiluph, King of the Lombards, he 
 built the famous monastery of Bobio, in a desert, amidst 
 the Apennine Mountains. The affair o£ the Three Chap- 
 ters (writings which were condemned in the East by the 
 fifth Council at Constantinople, and by Pope Vigilius, as 
 favouring Nestorianism) made at that time a jcreat noise in 
 Italy. Several among the Lombards harboured mistaken 
 prejudices in favour of the Three Chapters ^ and erroneous- 
 ly imagined, that by their condemnation the Council of 
 Chalcedon was condemned. These and many other mis- 
 takes, about the transactions of the Orientals, and con- 
 cerning facts that passed at so great a distance, might 
 Ihappen very easily, as the greatest part of the Westerns, 
 for want of commerce, and through their ignorance of 
 the Greek tongue, were strangers to the atfairs of the 
 East, except what they learned by vague, and often false 
 reports. St. Columban coming into Lombardy, and being 
 there informed about the debate ofthe Three Chapters yWrote 
 a strong letter to Pope Boniface IV. in defence of them, at 
 the solicitation of King Agiluph and Queen Theodolinda, 
 his patrons, and persons of singular zeal and piety. From 
 this letter it is evident, as Dr. Cave observes, that St. 
 Columban was not nghtly informed in the affair of the 
 Three Chapters, and that he never joined the schismatics 
 in Istria, but continued always inviolably attached to the 
 communion of the Roman see. Riv€t shows, from this 
 
 -very letter, that he then conformed to the Nicene Decree 
 
 '^concerning the celebration of Easter, though he had ap- 
 plied twice to St. Gregory for leave to observe the custom 
 he had learned in Ireland. Sixteen discourses which he 
 had made to his monks,, are published in the library of 
 the Fathers. Speaking therein of the contempt of the 
 
 Svorld, he cries out, " O transitory life, how many hast 
 ^' thou deceived, seduced, and blinded ! If I consider the 
 " rapidity of thy flight, thou seemest nothing: thy exist- 
 
 ^" ence is httle more than a shadow. They who set their 
 ^' hearts on thee, know thee not: they Only understand 
 *' thee, who despise thy enjoyments. When thou showest 
 " thyself, thou art again withdrawn, as if thou wert no 
 *'more than a phantom. What art thou but a swift 
 *' course on a road, passing as a bird on the wing, uncertain 
 " as a cloud, frail as a vapour, vanishing as a shadow !" — 
 Among the works of St. Columban, nothing is so much 
 S 3 
 
SdiO mSTdRY dp THE 
 
 admired as his JRuhj which is full of wisdom, attective 
 piety, and spiritual unction. He died on the 21st of No- 
 vember, 615. 
 
 St. Coemgen, alias Kevin, was born in 498. He founded 
 the famous abbey of Glendaloch, in the county of Wick- 
 low, about twenty-three miles from Dublin. Being raised 
 to the episcopal dignity, he erected a cathedral church 
 near the church of the abbey, which was -situated about 
 the middle of a long valley, surrounded with very high 
 mountains, from whence the water falls over several crag- 
 gy rocks, and feeds two lakes, or rivers, that run through 
 the lower part of the valley below ; hence it took the 
 name of Glendaloch, which signifies the Glen or Valley of 
 the two Lakes. The walls of seven or eight buildings, now 
 called the seven Churches, are still standing to this day, 
 with the ruins of St. Kevin's cell, and manv other curious 
 pieces of ancient architecture. St Kevin died on the 3d 
 of June, 618, in. the " 120th year of his age. The episcopal 
 see of Glendaloch was united to the diocese of Dublin, in 
 1214. 
 
 St. Fintan, abbot ; St. Kenny ; St. Colman ; St. Catal- 
 dus, regent of the great school of Lismore, and afterwards 
 bishop of Tarentum in Italy, with many other illustrious 
 Irish saints, adorned the Church about this time with the 
 splendour of their eminent virtues and learning. Thus 
 God was pleased to new kindle lights in the extremity of 
 the West, at a period when the Roman Empire was torn 
 to pieces, and when an inundation of Pagan nations seized 
 on the greater part of Europe. In that state Providence, 
 ever watchful over the Church, erected an asylum in this 
 remote island for its repose and extension. Ireland, how- 
 ever, in the ninth century began to feel the grievances 
 which followed the invasion of the sanctuary in other coun- 
 tries. It was infested in its turn by successive swarms of 
 Heathen barbarians, who, under the general name of Nm^- 
 mans, ravaged at the same time the maritime districts of 
 France, England, and Scotland, and nothing sacred escaped 
 their depredations wherever their power prevailed. They 
 massacred the ecclesiastics, demolished the monasteries, 
 laid waste the seats of learning, and committed their libra- 
 ries to the flames. In these times of confusion the civil.- 
 power was weakened, the national assemblies seldom con- 
 vened, a great relaxation of piety and morals gradually 
 
CHURCH OF CHRIST. 211 
 
 look place, and factions among the governors of provinces 
 ended in the dissolution of the Irish n}onarchj. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 The demolition of old Pagan Rome, and the me of new 
 Christian Home from its ashes. 
 
 The Roman Empire, like iill other human structures, 
 was built upon a perishable foundation. It had its rise 
 and its decline. In its first ages it supported itself with 
 wisdom and moderation, until it reached' the maturity of 
 perfection, and extended its dominion most amazingly ; 
 but in the latter part of its period, it» constitution being 
 grown old, it tended to a decay from its own infirmities 
 and disorders. The Prophet Daniel had, long before its 
 existence, described its nature : Pie compares it first to 
 iron, c. !2, y. 20, &lc. for as iron is the strongest of metals, 
 so the Roman state was to perform greater achievements 
 than any other of the preceding empires, and was to sub- 
 due them all. Then he compares it to iron mixed with 
 clay, which mixture exhibits its subsequent dechne, clay 
 denoting weakness and want of solidity. During the time 
 of its consuls and first emperors it lorded over the world, 
 but its monarchy dropped afterwards into pieces, and 
 mouldered away in the hands of Northern invaders. The 
 military grew licentious, the patricians effeminate, the 
 plebeians mutinous, the emperors became debauched, dis- 
 sipated, and cruel persecutors of the Christian Religion. 
 The whole earth was ransacked to supply their extrava- 
 gance, intemperance, and profusion, and to furnish their 
 tables with the most dehcious and expensive dainties. 
 Seneca tells us, that Caius Caligula once spent for a sup- 
 per one hundred and fifty thousand crowns. Suetonius 
 informs us, that Vitellius would feast himself three or four 
 times a day, spending ten thousand crowns at each meal. 
 He had at his table dishes made up of the brains of phea- 
 sants and peacocks, others of the tongues and livers of 
 rare birds, others of the milts of some particular fish 
 brought from distant regions. Nero, in particular, had an 
 extravagant passion to rebuild Rome in a more sumptuous 
 
212 HtSTORY OF THJE 
 
 manner, and extend it as far as Ostia to the sea. Sdeto* 
 nius, Dion Cassius,Tillemont, Crevier, and other judicious 
 writers, charge him with being the author of the dreadful 
 conflagration that happened in the year 64, and raged for 
 nine days with such violence, that out of the fourteen re- 
 gions, or quarters, into which Rome was then divided, 
 three were entirely laid in ashes, seven were miserably 
 defaced, and only four entirely escaped the disaster. All 
 the buildings being burnt and thrown down, from the 
 Great Circus at the foot of Mount Palatine, to the further 
 end of the Esquiliae, the cruel tyrant gained the space he 
 wanted to enlarge his own palace. Accordingry, he re- 
 built a palace of immense extent, and adorned it all over 
 with gold, mother of pearl, precious stones, and whatever 
 the world afforded that was rich and curious, so that it 
 was called the Golden Palace of Nero. Tertullian observes, 
 that it redounded to the honour of the Christian Religion 
 that Nero, the most avowed enemy to all virtue, was the 
 first Roman emperor who declared against it in a bloody 
 manner. To exculpate himself, he charged the Christians 
 with having set fire to Rome, though, as Tacitus testifies, 
 nobody believed them guilty. Tacitus adds, that Nero 
 inflicted the most cruel torments on them, and made a 
 sport of their punishment, diverting the people with cha- 
 riot races in his own gardens, whilst the innocent victims 
 were devoured by dogs, or, besmeared over with pitch 
 and brimstone, were hung on crosses set in rows, and 
 were burnt alive in the night, by way of torches. This 
 horrid scene was only a prelude to the subsequent inhu- 
 man edicts and violent persecutions by which this tyrant, 
 and many of the succeeding emperors, deluged the Roman 
 Empire with Christian blood. They bent their whole 
 power to the supporting of idolatry, and to the suppress- 
 ing of the establishment of Christianity. Rome, the capi- 
 tal of their Empire, and proud mistress of the world, was 
 then the principal seat of Paganism, and the very centre 
 and bulwark of superstition. It was the greatest enemy 
 of Christ, and the chief instrument of Satan in opposing 
 the progress of the Gospel. It had provoked the indigna- 
 tion of Heaven, by glutting itself with the innocent blood 
 of the saints and servants of God. It had carried its su- 
 perstition so far, as even to deify its impious emperors, to 
 build temples to their memories, to raise statues, and ofier 
 
CftlURCH OF CHRISf. 213 
 
 incense to them. It had adopted all the heathenish gods 
 of the countries it had subdued ; and, lest any unknown 
 god should not receive due worship, it had built a temple 
 dedicated to all the deities of Paganism, and called the 
 Pcmtheoiij besides 402 other heathenish temples, which 
 histoi-ians relate to have been erected in that city for simi- 
 lar purposes. Old Pagan Rome, therefore, became a vic- 
 tim of God's anger, and was justly doomed to drink the 
 full cup of his wrath, even in the most conspicuous man- 
 ner. He had formerly sent Nabuchodonozor as a scourge 
 to execute his avenging justice against Jerusalem, and 
 Cyrus to destroy Babylon ; so, in like manner, he sent 
 the instruments of his wrath, and executers of his justice, 
 to destroy the great imperial city of Pagan Rome, which 
 in the Apocalypse of St. John, is styled I^abilon^ on ac- 
 count of the resemblance between it and ancient Babylon, 
 as to the extent of its walls, and the excess of its haugh- 
 tiness and cruelty in shedding the blood of the holy mar- 
 tyrs. It is of it we are to understand the following pas- 
 sage, Apoc. c. 17. Depart mij people from Babylonyili2d is y 
 from Pagan Rome, which God was delivering up to plun- 
 der, in punishment of its idolatry and other crying sins. 
 In the year 410, Alaric took Rome, plundered it for 
 three days, and burned it ; verifying the prophecy of 
 Daniel, c. 7. v, 11. where, speaking of the fourth beast 
 that represented Rome with its empire, he says, / sato 
 that the beast ivas slain, and that Us body u'as dest^'vyedy and 
 ^iven to thejire to be burned. The greatest part of the pub- 
 lic edifices, magnificent temples, and theatres, triumphal 
 arches, Egyptian obehsks, and the so much admired baths, 
 were then destroyed. The august palace of the emperors, 
 with all their rich furniture, shining ornaments, ostenta- 
 tious pageantry, and pompous trains of equipage were 
 consumed by flames, and buried in their own ashes. The 
 country all around, which was filled with towns and num- 
 berless inhabitants, whilst Rome maintained her power, 
 {was laid waste ; the lands of Campania Rom ana were re- 
 duced to a desolate desert ; swarms of insects ruined the 
 produce and fruits of the earth ; the towns were razed to 
 the ground ; the sea overswelled its boundaries, and swal- 
 lowed up whole multitudes ; earthquakes overthrew seve- 
 ral places, and destroyed thousands, and many who sur- 
 vived these disasters were brought to such extremities oA* 
 
214 ^ k^>HISTORY OP TH^ 
 
 -m 
 
 distress, that they had not the necessaries of life, and were 
 glad to feed on the most filthy things. The Pagans, 6u 
 seeing Rome and its empire scourged with so many visible 
 judgments, renewed their blasphemies against the Chris- 
 tian Religion, and pretended that all the calamities that 
 Lad fallen on their state, were punishments inflicted on 
 them by their gods, for having permitted the growth of 
 Christianity. To answer and refute their slanders, St, 
 Augustine began his great work of The City of God^ 
 which he finished in the year 426. St. Cyprian also wrote 
 a letter to Demetrianus, a magistrate of Carthage, to 
 show that Pagan Rome and its empire had drawn down 
 the indignation of the Supreme Ruler of empires, by shed- 
 ding the innocent blood of the Saints, and that the evils 
 that befel their state were real punishments, sent from 
 the True God of Heaven and Earth for their cruel perse- 
 cutions of the Christians. 
 
 The wrath of Heaven was not yet appeased, nor was 
 the Divine Justice fully satisfied ; for in the year 455, 
 Rome was delivered again into the hands of Genseric, 
 King of the Vandals, who plundered it for the space of 
 fourteen days together, and having set fire to it, returned 
 with his army into Africa, carrying off an immense booty. 
 Among other, rich spoils, he carried away the gold and 
 Corinthian brass, with which the Capitol was inlaid, and 
 the sacred vessels of the Jewish Temple, which the em- 
 peror Titus had brought from Jerusalem to Rome. Again, 
 in the year 476, Odoacer, having defeated Orestes, and 
 pillaged Pavia, advanced to Rome, extinguished its impe- 
 rial title and dignity, trampled its authority under foot, 
 and parcelled out, among a set of barbarians, such mor- 
 sels of the Roman provinces as they relished most. Odoa- 
 cer being treacherously murdered in the year 493, Theo- 
 doric, King of the Ostrogoths, who settled in Italy, pro- 
 claimed himself King of all Italy, and having rebuilt the 
 walls of Rome, fixed his residence at Verona. From that 
 time Italy remained under the power of the Goths, till 
 Belisarius and Narses, two experienced generals in the 
 armies of Justinian the Great, having reduced the Gothic 
 power to a low ebb, subdued a considerable part of their 
 kingdom, and united Rome to the dominions of the Greek 
 Emperors, who governed it by an exarch residing at Ra- 
 yenna. Thus this unhappy city, which had been the ad- 
 
CHURCH OP CHRIST. 2T5 
 
 miration of all nations, and the queen of the world, was 
 struck down from the pinnacle of power, tossed from hand 
 to hand, and became a member of that empire, of which 
 she had formerly been the head. However Totila, being 
 chosen king of the Goths, found means to retrieve the 
 declining state of their affairs, and* to re-establish a flou- 
 rishing kingdom in Italy. The arm of God being still hfted 
 up against old idolatrous Rome, ready to strike another 
 blow, and to pour down a whole torrent of wrath upon 
 her at once, Totila invested this unfortunate city, at the 
 head of a numerous army, in the year 546. He blocked 
 it up so closely, that it could receive no provisions, which 
 occasioned a raging famine. At length, by the treachery 
 of the centinels posted at one of the gates, Totila being 
 admitted in the night, gave up the city to the pillage of 
 his soldiers, who spent several days in plundering the in- 
 habitants. Shocking were the barbarities committed by 
 them : the walls and fortresses were thrown down ; the 
 public monuments were demolished. Rome, in fine, was 
 burnt, buried in its own ashes, and reduced into a solitude. 
 '' Totila," says the historian Procopius, 1. 3. " carried 
 " away with him all the inhabitants, without leaving one 
 ^' human creature there, and in this condition the city re- 
 " mained desert for above forty days." 
 
 Thus was completed the final destruction of ancient 
 Rome. Thus have been accomplished the predictions of 
 St. John in the Apocalypse, respecting the downfall of 
 the idolatrous empire of Babylon the Great, and of the- 
 " Harlot who is said to be clothed with purple and scar- 
 " let, with gold, and precious stones and pearls, and to be 
 *' drunk with the blood of the saints and of the martyrs 
 " of Jesus," to denote the purple robes and pompous 
 display of the Roman Emperors, and the abominations of 
 idolatry with which imperial Rome was polluted, and the 
 blood of the Christian martyrs, with which she was stain- 
 ed. Thus in short has been verified the prophecy of 
 » Daniel, c. 2. v. 34. and 35. relative to " the stone cut out 
 '*" of the mountain without hands, which struck the statua 
 " upon the feet and broke them to pieces, and became a 
 ** great mountain, and filled the whole earth ;" for it is 
 evident that by this stone is meant Christ our Lord, who 
 overcame the mighty Empire of Rome, and threw down 
 the great Colossus of pagan superstition and fortress of 
 
216 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 idolatry. He is the Lion of the Tribe cfJuda, who crushed 
 the many headed Hydra of Paganism, and overturned the 
 throne which the powers of darkness had occupied so 
 many ages, in ancient Rome. He is the founder and 
 protector of his Church, and the avenger of the injuries 
 done to her. All other kingdoms are to have an end, but 
 the spiritual kingdom of his Church, being a work of di- 
 vine construction, shall last for ever. All other kingdoms 
 and empires are to give way to it. " All nations, all peo- 
 *' pie, tribes, and tongues, shall flock to it from the ex- 
 " tremities of the earth, and to the end of the world." 
 The heavy pressures the members of his Church laboured 
 under in the reign of the Pagan Emperors of Rome, served 
 but to purify them like gold in a furnace, and to make 
 her rise up from the fire of persecution more bright and 
 more vigorous. His disciples have always increased in 
 number and strength, the more they were oppressed, as 
 the Jews in Egypt had done under Pharaoh. The very 
 barbarians, who have concurred in the subversion of Pa- 
 gan Rome, helped to fill the Church of Christ both in 
 the East and West, as if the Providence of God, who is 
 master of the human mind, and who can call to the or- 
 thodox faith whom he pleases, had permitted their irrup- 
 tions into the Roman provinces with a view to efllect their 
 happy conversion, as Orosius remarks. In effect, they 
 gradually renounced their superstitious errors, and from 
 Pagans became civilized Christians, obedient to the laws 
 of the Gospel. From the very ashes of old idolatrous 
 Rome, emerged and rose up Hke a phoenix, a new Chris- 
 tian Rome, privileged with the dignity of being an holy 
 Christian city, and the head and source of spiritual juris- 
 diction. She has not, indeed, recovered her former tempo- 
 ral domir.ion, splendour, and riches, but she has extended 
 her spiritual conquests, even amidst civil depression, to 
 regions which her arms never subdued, and has derived 
 from the rays of the Gospel, the splendour of being the 
 centre of unity in divine worship and religion, and the 
 residence of the vicar of Jesus Christ. She has defeated 
 the assaults of Satan, in the very place where he had 
 erected his throne. She has ascended the throne of the 
 persecuting tyrants, trampled upon idolatry, and triumph- 
 ed over all the false deities of the Heathens in their own 
 principal temple, the Pantheon, which was converted into 
 
CllUIiClI UF CHRIST. 217 
 
 4' 
 
 a Christian Church, by Boniface IV. and dedicated to the 
 worship of the true God, in the year 607. This curious 
 monument of ancient magnificence is still extant. It is a 
 master-piece of architecture, has neither pillar nor window, 
 but one large round aperture in the middle at the top, 
 which lets in the light, and underneath in the middle of the 
 floor an orifice of a sink, covered with a concave brass 
 plate, bored with many holes, to receive the rain that may 
 happen to fall in through the aperture at the top. This 
 amazing edifice is a perfect hemisphere or half globe, its 
 height being almost equal to its breadth. The diameter 
 is 158 feet. The porch is majestic, though somewhat 
 lower than the square where it stands. It is supported by 
 a beautiful colonnade of sixteen grand pillars of Oriental 
 granite, and was formerly covered with gilt bronze. The 
 niches were likewise decorated with several elegant 
 bronze statues of Augustus, M. Agrippa, Mars, and other 
 Pagan deities, which Genseric is said to have carried away 
 with him into Africa. 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 The Church of the Seventh Centm^y. 
 
 THE apostolic see was filled in this age by Sabinian, 
 the immediate successor of St. Gregory the Great. Sa- 
 binian dying in the seventh year of his pontificate, was 
 succeeded by Boniface III. who sat eight months, twenty- 
 three days, and died in the year 607. Upon his demise, 
 Boniface IV. was chosen and sat till the year 6 1 5. Deus- 
 dedit, a man of eminent sanctity, was raised then to the 
 pontifical chair, which he held till November, 618. After 
 him, Boniface V. was elected, and governed the Church 
 almost six years. He was succeeded by Honorius I. who, 
 after a government of thirteen years, departed this life on 
 the 12th of October, 638. His successor, Severinus, died 
 on the 1st of August, 640. John IV., being chosen after 
 hira, died on the twenty-first month of his pontificate. 
 Theodorus I. was then placed in the pontifical chair, and 
 held it till the 20th of April, 649. St. Martin succeeded 
 Theodorus in the apostolic see, and, after suffering all 
 
218 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 kind of injuries with the most heroic fortitude, died in 
 exile on the 21st of September, 655. St. Engenius I. 
 was then elected, and filled the pontifical see near two 
 years. His successor, St. Vitahanus, sat upwards of four- 
 teen years. On his demise, in the year 672, Adeodatus 
 was raised to the pontificate, and held it till the 26th of 
 June, 676. His successor, Donus, or Domnus I. died in 
 the year 678. St. Agatho succeeded him, and died in 
 the year 682. St. Leo II. succeeded Agatho, and depart- 
 ed this life in 683. After a vacancy of almost a year, 
 St. Benedict II, was chosen, and, having governed the 
 Church ten months, died on the 7th of May, 685. John 
 V. who succeeded him, died in the beginning of August, 
 686. He was succeeded by Conon and Sergius I. The 
 former died in the year 687, the latter on the 7th of Sep- 
 tember, 701. According to the discipline of those times, 
 the aforesaid pontiflls were chosen by the clergy and peo- 
 ple of Rome, and as the Christian emperors were the head 
 of the people, their consent was required, which often 
 occasioned long delays, and considerable vacancies in the 
 holy see, till the return of the messengers who were sent 
 to the East where the emperors resided, to consult them 
 upon the election of a new pontiff. 
 
 The peace of the Church was greatly disturbed in this 
 age, by the heresy of the Monothelites, which was broach- 
 ed as an expedient whereby to compomid with the Euty- 
 chians. It had gained admission at the court, and tri- 
 umphed on the imperial throne. It was chiefly broached 
 and supported by Theodorus, bishop of Pharan in Arabia; 
 Cyrus, bishop of Phasis in Colchis ; Sergius, bishop of 
 Constantinople, and by his successors, Pyrrhus and Paul. 
 It made great havoc in some of the principal sees of the 
 East, whilst it was powerfully opposed by the whole Latin 
 Church, and by a considerable part of the Greek Church. 
 This heresy was Demi-Eutychianism, and was called 
 Monothelism, because it admitted but one will in Jesus 
 Christ, compounded of the human and divine, which was 
 called Theandnc, though its abettors received the council 
 of Chalcedon, and acknowledged two natures in Christ, 
 the divine and human. But this was a glaring inconsis- 
 tency ; because the will is the property of the nature, and 
 Christ being God and man at the same time, the divine 
 and human natures must have their respective powers of 
 
CHURCH OF CHRIST." Sl9 
 
 volition. Moreover, Christ sometimes speaks in the Gos- 
 pel of his human uill distinct from the divine, as in his 
 prayer at the time of his agony in the garden. Sergius 
 had the artifice to impose for a while on^the Pope Hono- 
 rins, by a letter full of craft, dissimulation, and falsehood. 
 He persuaded him, by captious expressions, to tolerate a 
 silence on the question of one or tuo wills in Christ, in 
 order to prevent disturbances and scandal among the 
 ignorant, who might be shocked if the question of two 
 operations was to be agitated. It is however evident, 
 from the most authentic monuments, that Honorius never 
 assented to the error of the Monothelites, but always ad- 
 hered to the truth, and held with St. Leo, and the Catho- 
 lic Church, the doctrine of two wills in Jesus Christ, and 
 that he only denied that thei-e were in Christ, as" in us 
 sinners, two wills, contrary and opposite to one another, 
 that of the flesh, and that of the spirit, that is to say, a 
 will of concupiscence, which revolts against the spirit. 
 Honorius was undoubtedly wrong in agreeing for some 
 time to be silent on the article in question, because this 
 indiscreet ill-timed silence, though not so designed, might 
 be deemed by some a kind of connivance. He should 
 have been more acti^ e in extinguishing the error in its 
 first rise, when the sparks appeared ; for a rising heresy 
 seeks to carry on its work under ground without noise, it 
 being a fire which gradually spreads itself under cover. 
 The emperor Heraclius adopted Monothelism, whereby 
 he tarnished the glory he had acquired by his bravery and 
 virtue. He began with commanding silence touching one 
 or two operations in Christ, and afterwards, in the year 
 639, published an edict called Kcthe.ns^ or the Exposition, 
 which was drawn up by Sergiiis, and condemned in a 
 council at Rome by John IV. The imperial edict pub- 
 lished by his grandson, Constantius, in the year 643, and 
 imposing silence in the point controverted, called tne 7^- 
 pws, or the Forimdanj^ was likewise condemned by Pope 
 Theodore, in a council held in the church of St. Peter. 
 The holy Pope St. Martin also held a council of 105 bi- 
 shops in the Lateran Church, wherein he censured the 
 Fjcthesis of Heraclius, and the Typvs of Constantius, and 
 solemnly condemned Sergius, Pyrrhus, and Paul, the 
 ringleaders of the Monothelite sect. The JEcfhe^is was 
 censured because it was entirely favourable to the Mono- 
 
2!20 HISTORY OP THt: 
 
 thelites, and the Fbrmulary, hecause it imposed sileiKe, and 
 forhid to mention either one or two operations in Christ. 
 " The Lord," said the Lateran Fathers, " hath command- 
 " ed lis to shun evil and do good: but not to reject the 
 ^^ good with the evil: we are not to deny at the same time 
 " both truth and error.-' The emperor Constantius was 
 so much exasperated hereat, that he sent Olympius 
 first, and then Caliopas, in quality of exarch, into Italy, 
 with an order either to cause Martin to be massacred, or 
 sent prisoner into the East. Martin being at length seized 
 at midnight, was carried in a boat 'down the Tyber to 
 Porto, where he was put on board a vessel to be convey- 
 ed to Constantinople. It is ahnost incredible with what 
 barbarity he was treated: being stripped of his sacerdotal 
 pallium, he was chained with an iron collar about his neck, 
 and confined to a dreary dungeon at Chersonesus, where 
 he endured the greatest hard-^hips with heroic patience, 
 until he resigiied his soul into the hands of the Lord. 
 
 The Monothelite heresy was at length effectually sup- 
 pressed, and solemnly condemned in the year 680, by the 
 sixth General Council, and third of Constantinople, in the 
 reign of the pious emperor Constantine Pogonatus. This 
 council consisted of 166 bishops, or, according to the an- 
 nals of the Greeks, of 289. St. Agatho presided thereat 
 by his legates. With a view of adding a supplement of 
 new canons to those of the fifth and sixth general coun- 
 cils, two hundred and eleven bishops of the Greek Church 
 held the council, called Quinisext, in a hall in the impe- 
 rial palace at Constantinople, named TruUus^ in the year 
 692, which laid a foundation of certain differences in dis- 
 cipfiue between the Eastern and Western Churches. 
 
 The orthodox faith shone in this age with the highest 
 glory and lustre, in the zeal, sufierings, and death of St. 
 Maximus, surnamed, by the Greeks, Humologetes, or con- 
 fessor. He held a public conference with Pyrrhus, the 
 Monothehte, at Carthage, in the year 645, and by the 
 force of his arguments obliged him to retract all he had 
 done or taught against the faith ; but the dissembler soon 
 relapsed into his errors. The writings of St. Maximus are 
 printed in two volumes in folio, and consist of mystic or 
 allegprical commentaries on the Scripture ; of commenta- 
 ries on the works attributed to St. Denis the Areopagite ; 
 of polemic treatises against the Monothelites ; excellent 
 
cmrRCH or curj^r. 521 
 
 ascetic discourses, letters, and spiritual maxims, principally 
 on charity. The MonotheHtes found also a IbrmidabJe 
 adversary in St. Sophronius, patriarch of Jerusalem, who 
 explained the Catholic faith in an excellent synodal letter, 
 "which was confirmed by the sixth General Council. His 
 sermons breathe an aflecting piety. In a sermon on the 
 exaltation of the cross, he mentions the custom of takinj^- 
 the cross out of its case at midlent to be venerated. He 
 deplored the abomination of desolation set up by the Ma- 
 hometans in the holy place. Before his promotion to the 
 Patriarchate, he lived twenty years near Jerusalem, under 
 the direction of John Moschus, the holy hermit, who wrote 
 the Spiritual Meadoiv, wherein he gives an account of the 
 edifying examples of virtue which he had seen or heard,, 
 when he visited the monasteries of Ej^ypt. 
 
 St. Anastasius, the Simtiiej llonrished likewise in this 
 age, and confuted the errors of the Eutychians and Ace- 
 phali, by an excellent work entitled OdeguSy or, the Guide. 
 He wrote several ascetic works, full of piety and devotion. 
 In his discourse on the Synaxis, or mass-, he urges the du- 
 ties of confession to a priest, respect at mass, and pardon 
 of injuries, in so pathetic a manner, that Canisius and 
 Camhesis recommend this piece to the diligent perusal of 
 all preachers. 
 
 St. Isidore, archbishop of Seville, to extend to posterity 
 the advantages which his apostolical labours had procured 
 to the Church, compiled many useful works, wherein he 
 takes in the whole circle of the sciences, and discovers a 
 most extensive reading, and a general acquaintance with 
 the ancient writers, both sacred and profane. He died in 
 the year 636. The most famous of his works are twenty 
 books of Etymologies y or. Origins^ in which he lays down 
 the principles of the different sciences. His three books 
 of the Sentences^ or on the summuni honum^ are a summary 
 of theology. In his j;vvo books on the Divine or Ecdesias- 
 ileal Offices, he explains the canonical hours, ceremonies, 
 feasts, and fasts of the Church. His monastic rule re- 
 sembles that of St. Bennet : in it he orders mass to be 
 said for every deceased brother, and on Monday in Whit- 
 sun week for all the faithful departed. 
 
 St. Omer, or Audomarus, bishop of Tarvanne, in Belgic 
 Gaul ; St. Ouen, or Audoen, archbishop of Rouen ; St. 
 John the Almoner, patriaixh of Alexandria, &,c. lived in 
 T2 
 
222 HISTORY OF THS 
 
 this age. The other principal fathers, saints, and eccle- 
 siastical writers of this century, were St. Ildephonse and 
 St. Julian, archbishops of Toledo ; St. Braulio, bishop of 
 Saragossa ; St. Rupert, bishop of Saltzbourg, and apostle 
 of the Bavarians and Bohemians ; St. Cuthbert, bishop of 
 Lindisfarne ; St. Theodorus, of Siceon in Galatia ; St. 
 Anastasius I. patriarch of Antiochia ; St. Aldhelm, bishop 
 of Sherburn ; St. Theodard and St. Lambert, bishops of 
 Maestricht ; St. Kilian, who, commissioned by Pope Conon, 
 preached the Gospel in Franconia, with amazing success ; 
 St. Eligius, apostle of the Flemings and Western Saxons ; 
 St. Columba, who converted the Swedes ; St. Rumold, 
 apostle of Mechlin ; St. Livin, of Ghent ; St. Willibrord, 
 consecrated by Pope Sergius, first bishop of Utrecht, in 
 the year 696 ; St. Swidbert, and many other apostolic and 
 learned men, to whose indefatigable zeal, preaching, and 
 illustrious miracles, Friseland, Brabant, Holland, Guel- 
 ders, Cleves, and other parts of Lower Germany, are in- 
 debted for their Christianity. 
 
 Alford and Cressy relate, that it was about the close of 
 this century that the pious virgin St. Wenefride suffered 
 Martyrdom at Holy-Well, in North Wales. The won- 
 derful spring at this place, is in itself far more remarkable 
 than the celebrated fountain of Vaucluse, five leagues from 
 Avignon, famous for the retreat of Petrarch the poet, or 
 that of La Source, two leagues from Orleans, where Lord 
 Bolingbroke built himself a house, these being no more 
 than subterraneous rivers ; but at St. Wenefride's w ell 
 such vast quantities of water spring continually without 
 intermission or variation, that above twenty-six tons are 
 raised every minute, for if the water be let out, the basin 
 and well, which contain at least 240 tons, are filled in less 
 than ten minutes. 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 TTie rise and progress of Mahometanism. 
 
 WHILST the Church, brilliant as the rainbow in all its 
 glory, was shooting her rays of brightness on every side 
 through the clouds that surrounded her 5 whilst the apos- 
 
• CHURCH OF CHRIST. ^2S 
 
 tolic labours of her pastors and doctors were crowned 
 with the most amazing success in the difi'erent nations, 
 which, hke so many fragments, had been torn from the 
 body of the western empire, the Arabians and Saracens, 
 by their incursions, were spreading alarms through all the 
 East, and carried their insults to the very gates of Con- 
 stantinople. The Greeks, exhausted by the wars they 
 had supported in the West, and in the East against the 
 Persians, were constantly overthrown and defeated by the 
 barbarians, who spread themselves like a torrent over the 
 empire, and overturned every thing that opposed their 
 passage. The emperor Heraclius, astonished at their 
 victories, and demanding one day in council what could be 
 the cause, a grave person of the assembly stood up and 
 said, ^' It is because the Greeks have dishonoured the 
 " sanctity of their profession, and no longer retain the 
 '^ doctrine taught by Jesus Christ and his disciples. They 
 " insult and oppress one another, live in enmity and dis- 
 " sensions, and are abandoned to the most infamous usu- 
 " ries and lusts." In reality, the vices and disorders of 
 the Greeks at that period excited such odium, that the 
 very infidels held them in detestation, if we may give 
 credit to their own most celebrated writers. Their fre- 
 quent defeats were looked upon by the Emperor himself 
 to be a just punishment of their sins, by which they pro- 
 voked the vengeance of Heaven, and drew upon their na- 
 tion the scourges of Divine Justice. It was in the reign 
 of Heraclius that the sect of Mahomet was suffered to 
 establish itself among the Saracens, who then laid the 
 foundation of an empire equal to that of the Romans. 
 Mahomet, or rather Mahommed, broached his impostures 
 at Mecca, in the 38th year of his age, and the 608th of 
 the Christian sera, setting himself above Jesus Christ, 
 whom he notwithstanding acknowledged to be a great pro- 
 phet. Not like the Apostles, who had planted the holy 
 Christian religion by means evidently divine, this famous 
 impostor ushered into the world his pretended revelations 
 and carnal sensual religion by open violence and other 
 means merely natural. He established his sect by letting 
 loose the reins to the passions, and destroying with the 
 sword such as refused to submit to his impious tenets. 
 With the help of a Jew and a Nestorian Monk, called 
 Sergius^ he compiled his Alcoran, or the book of his new 
 
224 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 religion, which is a monstrous compound of absurdity and 
 nonsense, and a strange medley of Judaism, Christianity, 
 old heresies, and extravagant imaginations, without design 
 or connexion. Tiiere are indeed in it some passages that 
 strike with a certain air of grandeur, but the whole is so 
 foolish and puerile and so full of repetitions, that one 
 would need much patience to read any part of it even 
 once. He boasted that he had received his abominable 
 doctrine from the angel Gabriel, and attributed to his 
 visits the epileptic fits, to which he was subject, saying, 
 but not producing any other proof but his own bare word, 
 that these fits were trances and convulsions, occasioned 
 by the angePs presence, which was more than he was able 
 to bear. He adopted circumcision, and prescribed absti- 
 nence from wine, blood, and pork, but exploded the in- 
 carnation and all distinction of persons in the Deity. On 
 the other hand, he allowed every man to have four wives, 
 and concubines without restriction, reserving to himself 
 the liberty of marrying as often as he pleased, insomuch 
 that he is said to have had at least fifteen wives, and ten 
 of them together. His doctrine meeting with opposition 
 at Mecca, he was compelled to fiy to Medina, in the year 
 622, and it was from this flight that the Hegira of the 
 Arabs, that is, the ajra and epoch, from which the Ma- 
 hometans date their years, commenced. In the year 628, 
 Mahomet was declared chief in religious and civil matters, 
 with the title of Prophet. His followers were distinguished 
 by the name of Mussulmen. The Saracens, so called from 
 Scumca, a city of Arabia, embraced his system of religion, 
 attracted by the latitude he allowed them to indulge their 
 sensual desires and carnal pleasures. In the beginning he 
 was joined with a little army of proselytes, chiefly consist- 
 ing of thieves and fugitive slaves, whom he exhorted to 
 take up arms for religion, and to propagate it by the 
 power of the sword, promising a paradise of all sensual 
 pleasures and delights to those who should die fighting in 
 that cause. He began his conquests at Medina, and from 
 that period the Saracen power advanced with great rapidi- 
 ty, and grew to an amazing height in less than thirty years. 
 At first Mahomet attacked the caravans, that travelled 
 through the country for trade, and meeting with great 
 success, he enriched his followers, and enlarged his pro- 
 jects. Actuated by a fanatic rage he possessed himself 
 
CliURCH OF CHRIST. 225 
 
 of the town of Mecca, and carried the sword of destruc- 
 tion from one tribe of people to another, forcing them ei- 
 ther to adopt his new religion or to pay him an annual 
 tribute. Hence it is easy to conclude, that ambition, lust, 
 and cruelty, were the characteristics of Mahomet. Before 
 his death, which happened at Medina, in the year 632, he 
 was master of almost all Arabia. Aboubeker, whose daugh- 
 ter he had married, succeeded hhn under the title of Ca- 
 liph, or vicar of the prophet; He died after a reign of 
 two years. Omar, his successor, and the second caliph, 
 took Damascus, and, after a siege of two years, Jerusa- 
 lem, Antioch, and Alexandria, the reduction of which was 
 followed by the conquest of all Egypt. He built a 
 mosque at Jerusalem, in the place of Solomon's Temple, 
 and because it fell in the night, the Jews told him it 
 would not stand, unless the Cross of Christ, which stood 
 on Mount Calvary, was taken away ; which Omar caused 
 to be done, as Theophanes tells us, page 284. He even 
 blocked up Constantinople with a fleet of eighteen hun- 
 dred ships, which w^ere destroyed by fire and tempest, 
 three hundred thousand men having perished then with 
 pestilence and hunger. Shortly after the Caliph seized 
 on Tripoli and almost all Barbary, and extended his 
 conquests all along the coasts, on the Mediterranean 
 sea, to the straits of Gibraltar. In the course of Oth- 
 man's reign, who succeeded Omar in the year 643, all 
 Persia submitted to the Saracen yoke. They blocked up 
 the whole island of Cyprus, in the year 648, with seven- 
 teen hundred ships, and subdued it. They also reduced 
 the island of Rhodes, and other islands in the Mediter- 
 ranean, and in the year 668, they brought away from 
 Africa an innumerable multitude of captives, having taken 
 eighty thousand from Syracuse alone. From Africa they 
 passed into Spain, where they made settlements, and were 
 called Moors, because they came from Mauritania in 
 Africa. They also made several incursions into France 
 and Italy, and committed the most horrid barbarities, and 
 gave sad specimens of their cruelty, burning the towns, 
 crucifying t^ie principal citizens, massacring men, women, 
 and children, and spreading terror wherever they came. 
 By so many conquests, the Saracen empire grew too un- 
 wieldy in the hands of one ruler, and therefore his vast 
 dominions were, at length divided into several independent- 
 
226 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 dynasties, or principalities. The governors appointed by 
 the Arabian caliph over the diflerent provinces renounced 
 their subjection, set up their own authority, and began to 
 enlarge their respective dominions. Some of them carried 
 their victorious arms into the vast country of Indostaii, 
 and reduced a great part of it. Other princes, or siiUanSj 
 (a word that signifies the king of kings,) as they were then 
 called, aided by different tribes of Tartars or Turks, that 
 issued from the Northern countries above the Caspian 
 Sea, made irruptions into the Asiatic provinces of the 
 Greek empire, and having settled in that tract of Asia, 
 now known by the name of Georgia, and Turcomania, 
 made peace with the Saracens, and embraced the Ma- 
 hometan religion. Upon the death of Alad.in, sultan of 
 Iconium, in Lesser Asia, Othman, the Arabian Sultan, ob- 
 tained the sovereignty of this country, and laid the foun- 
 dation of the vast empire of the Turks, which from his 
 name is called the Ottoman Porte. The empire of the 
 Saracens being thus swallow ed up, the succeeding Turk- 
 ish sultans, inheriting the warlike spirit of Othman their 
 founder, subdued in process of time the greatest part of 
 the provinces of the Eastern empire, and reduced the 
 Greeks to such straits, that nothing seemed left to be con- 
 quered but the imperial city of Constantinople. But Ta- 
 merlane, the founder of a great empire in Tartary, a 
 generous and valiant prince, to defend the Grecian em- 
 pire against the encroachments of the Turks, fell upon 
 them, and having defeated them near the banks of the 
 Euphrates, took their sultan Bajazet, and kept him pri- 
 soner in an iron cage. Notwithstanding this check, the 
 Turks afterwards continued their conquests over both the 
 Saracens and the Greeks, till they at length became mas- 
 ters both of Constantinople and Trebisond. Such has 
 been the rise and amazing growth of Mahometanism. It 
 has been permitted, through God's inscrutable judgments, 
 to overspread those regions which had enriched the Church 
 with the Ignatiuses, the Polycarps, the Basils, the Ephrems, 
 the Chrysostoms, the Augustines, the Cyprians,' the Je- 
 romes, and Gregories. Palestine, which after having been 
 for above fourteen hundred years God's chosen inheritance 
 under the Old Law, was sanctified by the presence, la- 
 bours, and sufferings of Christ, gave birth to his Church, 
 and was watered with the blood of innumerable glorious 
 
CHURCH OF CHRIST. 227 
 
 martyrs, has thus fallen a prey to the most impious and 
 gross superstition. Greece, so famous in history, once 
 the seminary of learning, the nursery of piety, and the 
 fertile parent of legions of eminent saints, and Egypt, 
 lieretofore renowned for eighteen thousand cities, and 
 said to be inhabited by twenty-seven millions of Christians, 
 now, alas ! groan under the Turkish yoke, and are buried 
 in the darkness of infidelity. So many flourishing churches 
 in the East, planted by the labours of the Apostles, have 
 been abandoned to Barbarians, and treated hke the vine- 
 yard, mentioned in the 5th c. of Isaiah, which was at 
 length abandoned, and the time of forbearance being ex- 
 pired, was delivered up to be plundered and trodden under 
 foot, hke a desert. This, indeed, is a dreadful instance 
 of the justice of God, who, for his own wise reasons, some- 
 times withdraws the gift of faith from one nation to give 
 it to another, and who, when provoked by the crying sins 
 of his people, employs their very enemies as a scourge to 
 punish them. However, in proportion as the light of the 
 Gospel was weakened in the East, by the conquests of the 
 Mahometans, it darted its beams towards the West and 
 the North, and the flambeau of faith, hke unto the Sun 
 in the Heavens, began immediately to enlighten one coun- 
 try on quitting another. By this economy, w^hich is usually 
 observed in the course of Divine Providence, the Church 
 continues always Catholic j as she gains in one place what 
 she loses in another. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 Tlie Church of the eighth Century. 
 
 AMIDST the scandals, schisms, and heresies, that as- 
 saulted the Church at difierent times, the providence of 
 God never failed to raise up zealous pastors and apostolic 
 men, filled with his Holy Spirit, and qualified to instruct 
 his people, and defend the purity of the orthodox faith. 
 The prophet Isaiah foretold this constant, and perpetual 
 succession of pastors and teachers in the Church of Christ, 
 when he said: " Upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, I have ap- 
 '' pointed watchmen, all the day and all the night, they 
 
228 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 ^' shall never hold their peace." The chief pastors of the 
 Church in the eighth century, were John VI. who filled 
 the pontifical chair from the close of the year 701, till the 
 9th of January, 705. John VII. who sat near three years, 
 Sisinnius twenty days, Constantine about seven years, St. 
 Gregory II. upwards of fifteen years, St. Gregory III. 
 about ten years, St. Zachary ten years, Stephen II. three 
 days, Stephen III. five years, Paul I. ten years, Stephen 
 IV. about four years, Adrian I. renowned for his piety 
 and erudition, about twenty-four years, and Leo III. about 
 twenty years. 
 
 The succession of saints and ecclesiastical writers was 
 kept up by St. John Damascene, St. Paulinus of Aquileia, 
 St. Germanus, St. Tarasius, Venerable Bede, St. Lullus, 
 archbishop of Mentz, St. Burkard, first bishop of Wurz- 
 burg, in Franconia, St. Hidulphus, archbishop of Triers, 
 St. Rumold, bishop of Dublin, who was crowned with 
 martyrdom at Mechlin in Brabant, in the year 755, St. 
 Hubert, bishop of Liege, St. Boniface, St. Adelbert, St. 
 Lebwin, St. Willibald, St. Marchlem, St. .Eoaban, St. 
 Wigbert, St. Werenfrid, St. Walburga, St. Witta, St. 
 Tecla, St. Sola, St. Vigilius, St. Egburt, Alcuin, Theo- 
 dolphus, of Orleans, Ehas, of Crete, Florus, of liaodicea, 
 Fredegardius, Isidorus, Paulus, and several others, \vh«* 
 by their eminent sanctity, learning, and miracles, served 
 to stem the torrent of barbarism and ferocity, which 
 every where followed the arms of the Saracens. 
 
 The conduct of Christ toward his Church, which he 
 planted at the price of his blo«d, cannot be considered 
 attentively without admiring the adorable counsels of his 
 tender Providence. This Church, so dear to him, and so 
 precious in his eyes, never was, never is, never will be, 
 without some persecution, either open or hidden, either 
 general or particular. He formed and spread it from the 
 very beginning under most severe and dreadful persecutions. 
 He exposed it in every age to frequent violent storms, 
 and seems to delight in always holding at least some part or 
 other of it in the fiery crucible. But the days of its severest 
 trials have been those of its most glorious triumphs. 
 Then it shone, above all other periods of time, with the 
 brightest examples of sanctity, and formed in its bosom 
 the most illustrious heroes of all perfect virtue. There 
 is not an article of her faith but has been attacked by the 
 
ciiL'Rcn OF CHRIST^ 2:29 
 
 false reasonings of unbelievers, and the experience of 
 past ages shows, that some Christian emperors have been 
 no less inimical to her than the Pagan emperors of Rome, 
 and that the persecutions which sprung from heresies 
 were never more violent than after the ten general per- 
 secutions had ceased. The divinity of Jesus Christ, the 
 incarnation, his grace, his sacraments, in fine, all the dog- 
 mas of faith have become from time to time the subject 
 of different heretical errors, and have given occasion to 
 fatal divisions and altercations. But these heretical errors 
 could never prevail, though they were supported by a 
 Constantius, a Valens, &c. who had no more power to 
 alter or corrupt the faith, than Nero and Dioclesian had 
 to hinder it from being established. The Church, which 
 saw so many heresies rise, saw them all vanish out of 
 sight, one after the other, and can point out their authors 
 and first cause, the time and place of their origin, with 
 their progress and downfal. She has always been ex- 
 tremely watchful and attentive to discover the tares that 
 grew up among the wheat, and zealous in opposing the 
 growth of every heresy, however obscure or speculative, 
 at its first appearance. The errors of Tertullian, Origen, 
 Lactantius, Arnobius, Cassian, and of the holy bishop St. 
 Cyprian, could not escape her watchful eye, notwithstand- 
 ing the reputation of their wit and learning, and the high 
 esteem their orthodox writings are justly held in by all 
 men of letters. All this could not save their errors from 
 being combated and condemned. So careful is the 
 Church of every age to adhere closely to the purity of 
 the primitive faith, and to hand it down to posterity pre- 
 cisely as she received it from the Apostles, without over- 
 looking the smallest innovation, or sufl'ering the slightest 
 deviation from it. It is evident from the genuine histo- 
 ries of her councils, and from the writings of the holy 
 Fathers, that she always laid it down as an invariable rule 
 and principle, not to depart one single iota from the an- 
 cient faith, but to adhere firmly to the doctrine received 
 from the preceding generation, and to convey it pure and 
 undefiled to the succeeding generation, without any, even 
 the least addition or diminution. By this means, it be- 
 comes impossible that her faith should ever be altered or 
 corrupted. Her di-cipline may, indeed, vary, according 
 to the circumsfRnces of tiiue and place, but her doctrine 
 
230 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 1 
 
 of faith is always the same, and will alw ays be the same 
 to the end of the world ; for if the Church of the second 
 century, for example, believed nothing as revealed truths, 
 but what she received from Christ and his Apostles in the 
 first century, it is manifest that the faith of the first and 
 second century was perfectly the same. And if the 
 Church of the second century delivered the same entire 
 and uncorrupted to the Church of the third century, then 
 the faith of the third century must infallibly be the same 
 with the faith of the two preceding centuries, and the 
 same must necessarily be the case with every succeeding 
 century to the present, and will be throughout all ages. 
 Moreover, the promised assistance of the Holy Ghost to 
 teach the Church all truth, and to abide with her for ever, 
 puts this matter beyond the possibility of any doubt, for he 
 guides the great body of the pastors of his Church into 
 his truth through all ages, not indeed by continual succes- 
 sive inspirations, but by dii-ecting and assisting them by 
 his all-wise and all-powerful protection, in discharging the 
 office of teaching all nations, without any danger of lead- 
 ing them astray. Hence it is, that the Church cannot be 
 deceived in any point of faith, for though individuals, 
 whereof she is composed, are fallible, and liable to errors, 
 yet the whole body of the Church is infalhble, this infalli- 
 bility not being grounded on the holiness, wit, or learning 
 of fallible men, nor depending on the personal merits, or 
 natural qualifications of any assembly of men, but being 
 derived from the assurance of God's unerring word, and 
 owing to the sacred influences and infalhble direction of 
 the Holy Ghost. 
 
 The Church being thus placed under the protection of 
 Heaven, and the guidance of the Holy Ghost, had already 
 weathered out many violent storms, and triumphed over 
 several formidable heresies, which had taken their rise in 
 the East. Another dreadful storm was raised against her 
 in the eighth century by the Iconoclasts, or Image-break- 
 ers, who made their appearance in the year 726. The 
 heresy of these fanatics was the more dangerous, as it had 
 the emperor Leo the Isaurian for its author, and was 
 warmly supported by his son and successor Constantine 
 <>opronymus, and by his grandson Leo, surnamed Cha- 
 zarus. The Isaurian, though ignorant of the elements of 
 the Christian doctrine, had the vanity to commence re- 
 
CHURCH OF CHRIST. 231 
 
 former of religion, and become chieftain of this new sect. 
 By an imperial edict which he pubhshed, he ordered the 
 sacred images and pictures of Christ, of the Blessed Vir- 
 gin, and of the Saints, to be taken out of the churches, and 
 to be broken and burnt in the public streets of Constan- 
 tinople, to the great scandal of the faithful, who mur- 
 mured and complained loudly, on seeing Christ and his 
 Saints thus dishonoured in effigy. The statues of tlie 
 Emperor were, on this occasion, overthrown in several 
 places, and when he complained that his person was there- 
 by affronted, he was reproached with offering a similar 
 affront to Jesus Christ and his Saints, and toid that by 
 his own confession the indignity offered to the images 
 reflected upon the original. 
 
 But the Emperor, being infatuated by certain Jews, 
 who had gained an ascendant ov^er him, by pretended as- 
 trological predictions, endeavoured to establish his heresy 
 by bloodshed and violence. Deaf to the remonstrances, 
 tears, and entreaties of the orthodox bishops of the East, 
 and of Gregory II. the tyrant sent orders to several of his 
 officers to kill the holy Pope, though he strenuously main- 
 tained the people of Italy in their allegiance to their 
 prince, and pacified the mutineers in the West, as Anas- 
 tasius assures us, whilst he signalized his zeal in opposing 
 every innovation in the faith, and in settling a reforma- 
 tion in manners, during the fifteen years, eight months, 
 and twenty-three days that he held the pontificate. Con- 
 stantine Copronymus carried on for twenty years, the 
 sacrilegious war which his father Leo had begun against 
 holy images. In the year 754, he caused a pretended 
 council of 338 Iconoclast bishops to meet at Constanti- 
 nople, and to condemn the use of holy images, as a rem- 
 nant of idolatry. In all parts of the empire he perse- 
 cuted the Cathohcs, to compel them to subscribe to his 
 decree, and those who refused to consent to his impiety, 
 were treated with the utmost severity. The eyes of 
 several were pulled out, their noses were cut off, they 
 were cruelly scourged, beheaded, or cast into the sea. 
 Copronymus levelled his malice chiefly against the mon"ks, 
 and sent a body of armed men to burn down the famous 
 monastery of Mount S. Auxentius, near Chalcedon, to 
 the very foundation, and to disperse all the monks, be- 
 cause they would not come into his measure*. In parti- 
 
i^32 IJISTOUV : .■ ii.fc 
 
 cular he persecuted St. Stephen the abbot, and employed 
 several stratagems to draw him into a snare, knowing 
 that the reputation of his sanctity and miracles multiplied 
 the defenders of holy images. 
 
 But all his efforts to shake the Saint's constancy prov- 
 ing ineflectual, St. Stephen was taken into custody, loaded 
 with irons, and presented for examination before the Empe- 
 ror, who asked him, whether he beheved that men trampled 
 on Christ, by trampling on his image ? " God forbid," re- 
 plied St. Stephen. Then taking a piece of the Emperor's 
 coin in his hand, he asked what treatment he should de- 
 ^erve who should stamp upon that image of the Emperor.? 
 The assembly crying out, that he should be severely pu- 
 iiishcd, " Is it then," said the saint, " so great a crime to 
 '* insult the image of the Emperor of the Earth, and none 
 '•'to cast into the Hre the image of the King of Heaven?" 
 The Emperor, confounded and transported with rage, 
 conmianded that he should be beheaded, but recalled the 
 sentence before Stephen reached the place of execution, 
 resolving to reserve him for a more cruel death. After 
 some deliberation, he sent an order, that he should be 
 scourged to death in prison, but the executioners leaving 
 the Work imperfect, the holy martyr was shortly after 
 diagged through the streets, with his feet tied with cords, 
 and his brains were dashed ont with staves and clubs, as 
 Cedrenus and Theophanes inform us. 
 
 Leo IV. who continued the persecution that had been 
 raised by his father and grandfather, dying miserably, in 
 the year 780, after a five years' reign, and having left his 
 son Constantine, but ten years old, under the guardianship 
 of the Empress Irene, his wife, a stop was put by her to 
 the persecution of the Catholics. Irene was always pri- 
 vately a Catholic, though an artful ambitious woman, and 
 she so managed the nobility in her favour, as to get the 
 regency and the whole government of the state into her 
 bauds. Having dethroned her son Constantine, she caused 
 his eyes to be plucked out with such violence, that he 
 died of his wounds in 797. Irene reigned five years alone, 
 after which she at length met with the deserved reward 
 of her ambition and cruelty ; for in the year 802, she was 
 deposed by Nicephorus, her chief treasurer, and banished 
 into a nu>i.asterv in the Isle of Lesbos, where she died in 
 close coniinenient in 303. Nicephorus assumed the Iiu- 
 
perial diadem on the last day of October, 802. He was 
 one of the most treacherous and perfidious of men, dis- 
 simulation being his chief talent, and it was accompanied 
 with the basest cruelty against ail whom he suspected to 
 be his enemies, as Theophanes tells us. He was a fast 
 friend to the Manichees, or Paulicans, and was fond of 
 their oracles and superstitions, to a degree of phrensy. 
 He grievously oppressed the Catholic Bishops and monas- 
 teries, and when remonstrances were made to him, his 
 answer was. My heart is hardened : Never expect amj thing 
 but what you see from Nicephorus. When he was setting 
 out in May, 811, to invade Bulgaria, St. Theodorus the 
 Studite reproved him for his impiety, exhorted him to re- 
 pent, and foretold that he never would return from that 
 expedition. But regardless of the salutary counsel given 
 him, he entered Bulgaria with a superior force, and re- 
 fused all terms which Crummius, king of the Bulgarians, 
 offered him. The barbarian being driven to despair, came 
 upon him by surprise, attacked and slew him in his tent 
 on the 25th of July, 811, and caused a drinking cup to be 
 made of the Emperor's head, to be used on solemn festi- 
 vals, according to the custom of the ancient Scythians. 
 The flower of the Christian army perished in this battle. 
 Great numbers were made prisoners, and many of these 
 were tortured, hanged, beheaded, or shot to death with 
 arrows, rather than consent to renounce their faith, as the 
 Pagan Bulgarians required. 
 
 Whilst the Iconoclasts were disturbing the peace of the 
 Church, Paul, patriarch of Constantinople, the third of 
 that name, being touched with remorse for his condescen- 
 sion in some respects to the then reigning heresy, quitted 
 the patriarchal see in order to end his days in a monas- 
 tery, and repair the scandal he had given. St. Tarasius 
 was therefore chosen patriarch by the unanimous consent 
 of the court, the clergy, and the people. Finding it in 
 vain to oppose his election, he was solemnly consecrated, 
 on Christmas Day. He declared, however, that he could 
 not in conscience accept of the government of a see which 
 had been cut off from the Cathohc communion, but on 
 condition that a general council should be called to com- 
 pose the disputes which divided the faithful at that time, 
 in relation to holy images. This being agreed to, St. Ta- 
 rasius wFote to Pope Adrian on the subject of a general 
 
234 
 
 HISTORY OP THE 
 
 council, begging that he would either come in person, or 
 send his legatees for this purpose to Constantinople. In 
 consequence hereof, the seventh general council was 
 opened on the first day of August, in the Church of the 
 Apostles, at Constantinople, in the year 786, but being 
 disturbed by the violence and tumults of the Iconoclasts, 
 it met again the year following, in the famous church of 
 St. Sophia, at Nice. It consisted of 350 bishops, besides 
 many learned abbots, and other holy priests and confes- 
 sors, who condemned the sham council held under Copro- 
 nymus, as wanting all the conditions necessary to a gene- 
 ral council, and extinguished the sanguinary heresy of the 
 iconoclasts, until it was revived in the sixteenth century. 
 
 The Fathers thus assembled refuted all their objections 
 as to every article. They produced the testimonies of the 
 J^criptures, and the constant tradition of the Church in all 
 ages, in favour of the relative honour due to holy images 
 They declared, that images ought to be set up in churches, 
 as well as crosses, because the oftener people behold holy 
 images or pictures, the oftener they are excited to the re- 
 membrance of what they represent ; that those images 
 are to be honoured, but not with the worship called La- 
 iria, which can only be given to God ; that the honour 
 paid to images passes to the archetypes, or things repre- 
 sented, and he who reveres the image, reveres the person 
 it represents. This is what the faithful are taught in the 
 first rudiments of their catechism, and it was to inculcate 
 the same doctrine that, as Mr. Weever, a learned Pro- 
 testant writer, in his discourse on funeral monuments, p. 
 117, testifies, these Latin verses were formerly written 
 under the pictures of Christ in all abbey churches in Eng- 
 land, before the dissolution. 
 
 " Effigiem Christi dura iransis, semper honora. 
 
 ^* Non tamen effigiemj sed quern designatj adora. 
 
 " Nam deus est quern imago docety sed non Deus ipsa : 
 
 *' Uunc videas, et menie colas quod cernis in illa.^^ 
 
 That is, in English, Honour the image of Christ , whilst 
 thou passest 6i/, adoring not the image^ hut him whom it re- 
 presents. 
 
 The council of Nice declared this to be the doctrine of 
 the Fathers, and tradition of the Catholic Church, which is 
 the rule that the Church follows when her dogmas of faith 
 
CIIVRCH OP CHRIST. 235 
 
 are Tmpugned and called in question. She assembles a 
 lawful council, in imitation of the Apostles, whose spirit 
 she inherits. She makes no new articles of faith, but only 
 unfolds the truths originally revealed by Jesus Christ, and 
 taught by the Apostles and their lawful successors in the 
 ministry. She examines what has been the belief of all 
 ages and of all nations, which are there present in their 
 respective pastors and prelates, and declares more expli- 
 citly what was anciently believed by Christians of every 
 age, in relation to the matter in debate. 
 
 St. Germanus, patriarch of Constantinople, strenuously 
 defended the faith, vvith equal zeal, learning, and pru- 
 dence, first against the Monothehtes, and afterwards 
 against the Iconoclasts. In the most degenerate times he 
 kept virtue in countenance, and vice in awe. He was 
 seconded herein by that illustrious Father of the Church, 
 St. John, surnamed Damascene^ from the city of Damas- 
 cus, where he was born in the decline of the seventh cen- 
 tury. He took up the pen in defence of the faith, and 
 zealously entered the lists against the Iconoclasts, when 
 he saw the Church assailed by them. He proved, that 
 the inferior veneration which is paid to the friends and 
 servants of God, is entirely different, and infinitely be- 
 neath the supreme adoration due to God alone, and no 
 more inconsistent with it, than the civil honour which the 
 law of nature and the holy scriptures command us to pay 
 to princes and superiors. The dogmatical writings of this 
 great doctor show the extent of his genius still more than 
 his controversial. His most important and celebrated 
 work is, The Exposition of the Orthodox Faith^ divided 
 into four books. St. Paulinus, of Aquileia, wrote three 
 books against the pestilential errors of Elipandus, and 
 preached with great success to the Avares, a barbarous 
 nation of Huns in Pannonia. The famous Alcuin, a monk 
 at York, wrote seven books against Felix of Urge], and 
 omitted no opportunity of exerting his zeal in defence of 
 the faith. His comments on the Scripture consist in ex- 
 tracts from the ancient Fathers. His moral works breathe 
 a sincere piety ; the dogmatic are solid and close. His 
 letters, of which there are upwards of one hundred and 
 eighty-two published, are curious and interesting. 
 
 Venerable Bede was " a singular and shining light," in 
 the eighth century, as Camden calls him, and, according 
 
236 HISTORY OF Tiu: 
 
 to Leland, " the brightest ornament of the English nation ; 
 " most worthy, if any one ever was, of immortal fame." 
 He was ordained priest in the year 702, by St. John of 
 Beverly, bishop of Hexham, and afterwards of York. In 
 king Alfred's version, Bede is styled Mass Pnest, because 
 it was his employment to sing every day the conventual 
 mass in the Church belonging to his monastery, which 
 consisted of about six hundred monks. His writings are 
 a kind of Encyclopcedia, or universal library. All the 
 sciences and every branch of literature were handled by 
 him : Natural Philosophy, the philosophical principles of 
 Aristotle, Astronomy, Arithmetic, the Calender, Gram- 
 mar, Ecclesiastical History, and the lives of the Saints ; 
 though works of piety make up the bulk of his writings, 
 which have been published in eigh%1;omes. — His comments 
 on the Old and New Testament, and his homilies and 
 sermons, prove that meditation on the Word of God, and 
 the writings of the holy Fathers, chiefly engrossed his 
 time and attention. He wrote his history of the English 
 Church in the year 731, and died in 762, ninety years old. 
 The famous Alcuin is said to have been a scholar of his, 
 and to have composed the following epitaph for him, when 
 his remains were deposited in St. Paul's church at Jarrow, 
 on the banks of the river Tyne : 
 
 " Hac sunt in fossa BecUz venerabilis ossa."*^ 
 Here lie the bones of venerable Bede. 
 
 St. Boniface, who calls Bede " the lamp of the English 
 *' Church," flourished also in this age, and acquired the 
 title of Apostle of Germany. Burning with zeal for the 
 divine honour, and for the salvation of souls, he bewailed 
 night and day the misfortune of those nations which lay 
 benighted in the shades of infidehty. Going, therefore, 
 to Rome, in the year 719, he presented himself to Pope 
 Gregory II. and having begged his apostolic blessing, and 
 commission to preach the faith to all the infidel nations of 
 Germany, he was constituted archbishop of Mentz, and 
 laboured with such fervour that he baptized many thou- 
 sands of idolaters, and founded several respectable 
 churches. After converting the Hessians, Thuringians, 
 and Bavarians, he planted the standard of the cross in 
 East Friseland, where he was crowned with martyrdom 
 
CHURCH OF CHRIST. 237 
 
 in the year loo, with fifty-two priests and deacons, who 
 were assisting him in civilizing and planting the spirit of 
 meekness and Christian piety in that fierce and then un- 
 civilized nation. St. Corbinian, bishop of Frisengen ; 
 St. Willibrord, first bishop of Utrecht, and several other 
 apostolic missionaries, co-operated at this time in the 
 conversion of a great part of Holland and West Friseland. 
 St. Virgiliiis, also a native of Ireland, was distinguished 
 at this period for his devotion, zeal, charity, and sacred 
 learning. He ti'avelled into France, in the reign of King 
 Pepin, and being courteously received by him, he laboured 
 strenuously for the conversion of infidels. St. Boniface 
 wrote a complaint against him to Pope Zachary, alleging, 
 that a certain priest named Virgilius, taught that there 
 were other men under ikt^ earth, another sun and moon, 
 and another world, whereupon Zachary answered, that if 
 he taught such an error, he ought to be deposed. But St. 
 Boniface mistook Virgilius's opinion about the antipodes, 
 as if he had taught that there was another race of men, 
 who descended not from Adam, and were not redeemed 
 by Christ, which would be heresy. However, Zachary 
 did not pronounce any sentence in this case, nor condemn 
 the doctrine of the spherical figure of the earth, as some 
 writers have erroneously imagined ; for he ordered in the 
 same letter, that "Virgilius should be sent to Rome, that 
 his doctrine might be examined; and he seems to have 
 cleared himself, for we find that he was soon after pro- 
 moted to the episcopal see of Saltzburgh. Many ancient 
 philosophers, indeed, thought the earth flat, not spherical, 
 and believed no antipodes. Tins was a vulgar error in 
 philosophy, in which faith no way interferes ; but it is a 
 mistake to imagine that this was the general opinion of 
 the Christian philosophers, for St. Basil, the two St, Gre- 
 gories of Nazianzum and of Nyssa, and St. Athanasius, 
 taught the world to be a sphere, and St. Hilary, Origen, 
 St. Clement, Pope, 8tc. mention Antipodes, as the learned 
 Philophonus demonstrated before the modern discoveries. — 
 1. 3. c. 13. de M. Creat 
 
238 HISTORY or the 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 21ie Church of the Ninth Ceniimj. 
 
 THE chief pastors of the Church of this century, after 
 Leo III. were Stephen V. St. Paschal I. Eugenius II. 
 Valentine, Gregory IV. Sergius II. St. Leo IV. Benedict 
 III. St. Nicholas I. Adrian II. John VIII. Marinus I. 
 Adrian III. Stephen VI. Formosus, Stephen VII. Roma- 
 nus, Theodorus II. and John IV. Stephen V. filled the 
 apostolic chair seven months, and died in January, 817. 
 The day after his death St. Paschal was elected. He sat 
 seven years, and died in February, 824. His successor, 
 Eugenius II. governed the Church three years, was called 
 the father of the poory and died in August, 827. Valentine 
 died the same year, on the fortieth day after his election 
 and consecration. Gregory IV. died on the 29th of Ja- 
 nuary, 844. Sergius II. died in the year 847. St. Leo IV. 
 was elected in the same year, and held the pontificate 
 eight years, three months, and some days. He repaired 
 the Confession^ or burial place of St. Peter, with the altar 
 which stood upon it after the Saracens from Calabria had 
 plundered St. Peter's church. St. Leo likewise enclosed 
 the whole Vatican hill with a v/all, and built there a new 
 JRione, or quarter of the city, called from him Leonhta. 
 He also rebuilt or repaired the walls of Rome, and for- 
 tified it with fifteen towers. Being inilamed with a holy 
 zeal, he vigorously exerted his authority for the refor- 
 mation of manners, and of the discipline of the Church, 
 and enforced every duty of the pastoral charge with no 
 less learning than piety. Among other miracles perform- 
 ed by this holy pope, it is recorded, that, by the sign of 
 the cross, he extinguished a great fire in Rome. Upon 
 his demise, on the 17th of July, 855, Benedict III, was 
 immediately chosen, by the unanimous consent of the 
 people, and consecrated on the 1st of September, in the 
 same year, 855, as is attested by Anastasius, the Biblio- 
 thecarian, "the most learned man then living, and the 
 " most shining ornament of that age," according to Dr. 
 Cave. Some prejudiced writers have pretended that the 
 scries of the succession between Leo IV. and Benedict 
 III. has been interrupted by the intrusion of a she pope, 
 
CHtlRCH OF CHRIST. 239 
 
 whom they culled Joan. But this is an idle tale, and a 
 most notorious forgery, fabricated after the death of 
 Martinus Polonus, who in the year 1277 wrote a chronicle, 
 in vvliich this fable has been since inserted. It is wanting 
 in the true manuscript copy of Martinus Polonus, which 
 is kept in the .Vatican Library, and in other old manu- 
 script copies, as Allatius, Lambelius, Boerhave, David, 
 Burnet, Carlew, &.c. testify. Blondel, a violent Calvinist, 
 has, by an express dissertation, demonstrated the falsity 
 of this ridiculous fable. It was borrowed from a chroni- 
 cle which Maurianus Scotus wrote at Mentz in 1083, and 
 which was also probably falsified. Here mention is first 
 made of it, and it was not to be met with in the oldest 
 and best copies deposited in the Imperial Library at Vi- 
 enna, and the royal Library at Paris, ^until it was foisted 
 in a leaf written in a different character. Moreover, the 
 very fi-amers and propagaters of tliis tale have sufficiently 
 discredited it in their own narrations, for they do not agree 
 Hs to the name or country of this pretended woman, some 
 saying that she was born at Mounts in England, though no 
 such place was ever heard of, others alleging that she 
 sat two years five months, and that she had studied at 
 Athens, an university which did not exist then, but had been 
 destroyed many years before. Neither Photius, nor the 
 Greek schismatics, ever objected this to the Latins, for 
 which reasons the learned agree now that this female pope 
 never had a being upon earth. 
 
 Benedict III. having governed the Church till April, 
 858, was succeeded by St. Nicholas, who held the Pontifi- 
 cate from the year 858 till November, 867. His succes- 
 sor, Adrian II. held it till the year 872. John VIII. 
 being then chosen, sat till December, 882. Marinus I. 
 called also Agapitus, died in 884. His successor, Adrian 
 III, died in 885. Stephen VI. died in the sixth year of 
 his pontificate, in September, 891. Formosus died iii 
 896. Stephen VIT. was then raised to the pontifical chair, 
 by the power of Adelbert, Marquis of Tuscany, but, after 
 .sitting about thirteen months, he was imprisoned, and 
 strangled to death, in the year 897. Romanus w'as cho- 
 sen pope the same year, but dying about the fourth month 
 after his election, he was succeeded by Theodorus II. 
 who sat only twenty days. John IX. was then canoni 
 callj elected, and died in August, 900. 
 
240 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 The succession of saints and ecclesiastical writers was 
 kept up in this century. St. Theophanes, abbot, wrot« 
 his Chronographia in the year 814. St. Nicephorus, suc- 
 cessor of St. Tarasius, and archbishop of Constantinople, 
 wrote several tracts against the Iconoclasts, wherein he 
 also most evidently establishes the real presence of the body 
 of Christ in the Eucharist. St. Methodius, patriarch of 
 Constantinople, purged that Church of heresy, and insti- 
 tuted an annual feast of thanksgiving, called the festival of 
 the Orthodoxy. St. Ado, archbishop of Vienne ; St. Nice- 
 tas, abbot ; and St. Benedict, abbot of Anian, lived in this 
 age. St. Adalbert, bishop of Prague, converted great 
 numbers in Poland, planted the faith at Dantzicj and is 
 styled the Apostle of Prussia ; St. Prudentiua', bishop of 
 Troyes, was one of the most learned prelates of the Galil- 
 ean Church ; St. Ludger, bishop of Munster, and apostle 
 of Saxony and Westphalia, converted numbers of Pagans 
 and vicious Christians, founded several monasteries, and 
 built many churches ; St. Eulogius, of Cordova, then the 
 capital of the Moors, or Saracens, in Spain, who tolerated 
 the Christian Religion there among the Goths, exacting 
 only a certain tribute every new moon, lived also in this age. 
 The writings of St. Eulogius breathe an infiamed zeal ai)d 
 spirit of martyrdom. The chief of them are his Histoy of 
 the Martyrs, called the Memorial of the Mt.rlyrs^ and his 
 Apology for them against their calumniators. St. Anscarias, 
 archbishop of Hamburgh and Bremen, distiniiiiished him- 
 self likewise by his virtue and learning. He preached 
 with great success, first to the Danes ; and in the year 
 830 he planted the faith in Sweden, ant! in the Northern 
 parts of Germany. St. Cyril, with his brother, St. Me- 
 thodius, who obtained leave from Pope John Vlll. to ce- 
 lebrate the hturgy in the Sclavonic tongue (tom. 9. Cone. 
 Labbe, p. 176,) after converting the Slavonians and Rus- 
 sians, in the year 842, were instrumental to the conver- 
 sion of Michael, king of the Bulgarians, and of his whole 
 nation, in the year 8Go, as Joseph Assemani testifies. 
 They afterwards passed into Moravia, and baptized the 
 king of that country, with a considerable part of his sub- 
 jects. St. Frederick, bishop of Maestricht ; Haiitgarius, 
 bishop of Cambray ; Amalarius, bishop of Treves ; Ra- 
 banus Maurus, archbishop of Mentz ; Haymo, bishop of 
 Halberstadt ; Hincmar, archbishop of Rheims, and a pre- 
 
CHURCH OF CHRIST. ^4i 
 
 late of great learning, whose works are published in two 
 volumes, folio ; Welefridus Strabo ; Anastasius, the Li- 
 brarian ; Remigius of Auxerre ; Jonas of Orleans ; Dun- 
 galdus ; Bertharius ; Theodorus Graptus ; Agobardus ; 
 Paschasius Radbertus, abbot of Corbie ; St. Swithin ; 
 bishop of Wincliester, Sec. flourished also in this century. 
 Malmesburj affirms, that a great number of miracles 
 were wrought at the translation of St. Svvithin's relics. 
 The learned Lanfred wrote in the year 980 a history of 
 this translation, and of several miraculous cures wrought 
 throujrh the saint's intercesf^ion. The works of Rabanus 
 Maurus are printed in six tomes. Whilst he was abbot 
 of Fulde, he made that monastery the greatest nursery of 
 .-science in Europe. The long commentaries of Pascha- 
 sius Radbert on St. Matthew's Gospel, are a learned and 
 useful work, wherein he solidly confutes the errors of 
 Gothcscale the Predestinaiian, who blasphemously assert- 
 ed, that the reprobate were doomed by God to sin and 
 hell, without the power of avoiding either. He also wrote 
 against John Scotus Erigeiio, a native of Ireland, axid a 
 subtle sophist in the court of Charles the JBald, infamous 
 for many absurd errors in faith and philosophy, particu- 
 larly against the mystery of the Real Presence. The 
 most famous of the works of Paschasius Radbert is his 
 book On the Sacrament of the Altar, or on the body and 
 blood of Christ in the Eucharist, v*hich he revised after- 
 wards, and dedicated, in (he year 841, to king Charles //ic 
 Baldy ^\ho had desired to see it. 
 
 St. Theodorus Stiidite distinguished himself likewise in 
 this age by his sanctity and by his zeal against the Icono- 
 clasts: for Leo the Armenian becoming Emperor in the 
 year 813, and being him!<e]f an Iconociast, renewed the 
 war against lioly images, and endeavoured both by arti- 
 fices and open violeiice to re-establish that heresy. In 
 814, he studied by crafty suggestions to gain over the 
 holy patriarch Nicephorus to favour his designs. But 
 St. Nicephorus answered him: *' We cannot change the 
 *' ancient traditions ; we respect holy images, as we do 
 " the Cross and the book of the Gospels." For it must 
 be observed, that the ancient Iconoclasts venerated the 
 book of the Gospels, and the figure of the Cross, though 
 by an inconsistency usual in error, they condemned the 
 like relative honour witli regard to holy images. The 
 X 
 
242 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 I 
 
 Saint showed., that far from derogating from the supreme 
 honour of God, we honour him when for his sake we pay 
 a subordinate respect to his angels, saints, prophets, and 
 ministers, and when we give a relative inferior honour to 
 sacred vessels, churches, images, and other inanimate 
 things, which belong to his service. But the tyrant being 
 fixed in his errors, sent St. Nicephorus into banishment, 
 and intruded into his see one Theodosius, an impious 
 officer of the court. In vain did the Saint, with several 
 holy prelates, entreat the Emperor to leave the govern- 
 ment of the Church to its pastors, and to let the ecclesi- 
 astical affairs be discussed by them, as being the compe- 
 tent judges. " My Lord," said St. Theodoi-us, the Stu- 
 dite, " Do not disturb the order of the Church. God 
 *' hath placed in it apostles, prophets, pastors, and teach- 
 " ers. Your majesty he has intrusted with the care of 
 "the state ; but leave the Church to its pastors." " For 
 '^ these eight hundred years past," said Euthymius bishop 
 of Sardes, " since the coming of Christ, there have been 
 "always pictures of him, and he has been honoured in 
 " them. Who shall now have the boldness to abolish so 
 '' ancient a tradition ?" Michael the Sttfmmerer, who after 
 the death of Leo the Armenian, ascended the Imperial 
 throne on Christmas Day, in the year 820, was engaged 
 in the same heresy, and persecuted St. Nicephorus, who 
 died in his exile, in the monastery of St. Theodorus, being 
 about seventy years old. 
 
 The origin of the Greek schism, commenced by the 
 usurper Photius, renders the life of St. Ignatius, the holy 
 patriarch of Constantinople, an interesting part of the 
 history of the Church of this century. In the year 808, 
 he was most unjustly banished from his see, and Photius 
 the Eunuch was intruded into the patriarchal chair by 
 Bardus Caesar, uncle to the young emperor Michael, with- 
 out even so much as the formality of an election. Pho- 
 tius, secretary to the emperor, and master of the horse, 
 was a prodigy of genius and learning, but his great quali- 
 fications were debased by a consummate depravity of soul. 
 He was the most cunning and deceitful of men, and a 
 most daring impostor, always ready to sacrifice every 
 thing to an unbounded ambition. Anastasius relates, that 
 Avhen St. Ignatius was advanced to the patriarchal dignity 
 in the year 846, Photius began to decry his virtues, and 
 
CHURCH OF CHRIST. 243 
 
 disputed that every man has two souls. St. Cyril of 
 Thessalonica, reproving him for this error, Photius re- 
 plied, that lie meant not to hurt any one, but to try the 
 abilities and lojcic of Ijcnatius. To which wretched ex- 
 case St. Cyril answered: '* You have thrown your darts 
 " into the midst of the crowd, yet pretend no one will 
 *'be hurt. How great soever the eyes of your wisdom 
 " may be they are blinded by the smoke of avarice and 
 " envy. Your passion against Ignatius has deprived you 
 ''of your siglit." The unjustifiable proceedings and er- 
 rors of Photius being at length notified to, and censured 
 by the Apostolic see, he broke out into an open rebellion, 
 and gave rise to the Greek schism, which was founded 
 upon the most frivolous pretences and notorious slanders 
 imaginable. In short, Photius Avas condemned by the 
 eighth General Council, which was held by an hundred 
 and nine bishops, in the Church of St. Sophia, at Con- 
 stantinople in the year 869. The legates of Adrian II. 
 presided hereat, and the schism of Photius was in a great 
 measure extinguished at his death, till it was revived by 
 Michael Cerularius in the eleventh century. St. IgnatiusT 
 having, after a long series of severe trials, recovered his 
 dignity, applied himself to his pastoral functions with so 
 much patience, charity, zeal, and vigilance, as showed his 
 sanctity and experience were much improved by his suffer- 
 ings. He died on the 23d of October, 878, being near 
 four-score years old. 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 Ilie revival of the Western Empir'e, 6$c. i)y CJiarles live 
 
 Ch^eat. 
 
 THE piety of Charlemagne, or Charles the Great, son 
 of King Pepin, was a subject of great joy to the Church 
 in the ninth century. The western empire which had 
 been extinguished in Momylus Augustulus, in the fifth cen- 
 tury, was revived in him, and raised up a^ain, though not 
 to its former splendour. In the year 800, on Christmas 
 Day, he was crowned and anointed by Leo III. in St. 
 Peter's Church, Emperor of Rome, and of the West. 
 
244 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 France, Flanders, Germany, a great part of Spain and 
 Hungary, arid almost all Italy, were subject to him. He 
 Avaged a tedious war against the Saxons, which terminated 
 in their conversion. The late King of Prussia, in his ele- 
 gant memoirs of the house of Brandenburgh, tells us, that 
 the conversion of the country of Brandenburgh was begun 
 by the conquests and zeal of Charlemagne, and completed 
 in 9^8, under Henry the Fowler, who again subdued that 
 territory, which was originally inhabited by the Sarma- 
 tians, the most savage of all the Northern idolaters, and 
 such strangers to the elegance of temples, that they adored 
 tiieir false gods under oak trees, and sacrijQced prisoners 
 taken from their enemies to their idols. 
 
 Charlemagne extended his conquests along the coasts of 
 tlie German ocean, us far as Denmark. He conquered 
 French Gothia, or Languedoc, quelled the seditious at 
 Rome, and restored Leo III. whom they had treated with 
 the utmost barbarity. He was a zealous protector of the 
 Church daring his long and prosperous reign, and left no- 
 thing mYdone to promote the happiness of his people, and 
 to extirpate the reigning vices of the age. When Desi- 
 deriUs, the last king of the Lombards, ravaged the lands 
 which king Pepin had oiTereJ on the Apostolic ?ee, Char- 
 lemagne marched into lta;y, defeated the forces of the 
 Lombards, put an end to their usurpations, took Pavia, 
 after a long siege, extiuguished their kingdom, and led 
 Desiderius captive with him into Gaul. On this occasion 
 he was crowned king of Italy, with an iron crown, such 
 as the Goths and Lombards in that country had used, 
 perhaps as an emblem of strength. He then also confirm- 
 ed to Pope Adrian I. tlie donation of his father Pepin, 
 who had given to Stephen II. and his successors, the city 
 of Rome, and its Campagna, Rimini, Pesaro, Fano, Sine- 
 gallia, Ancona, with the exarchate of Ravenna, the duchy 
 of Spoleto, &c. But as this point of history is much mis- 
 represented by some modern writers, in order to set it in 
 a true light, it is to be observed, that from the reign of 
 Constanthie the Great, many large possessions had been 
 bestowed on the popes for the service of the Church, 
 whereby it was enabled to perform many acts of universal 
 charity, and found various asylums for the relief and sup- 
 port of great numbers of wretched, distressed, and indi- 
 gent objects. Maud, or Mathilda, Countess of Tuscany, 
 
CHURCH OF Christ. 245 
 
 bequeathed Viterbo, Aqua Pendente, Civita Vecchia, and 
 a considerable part of her dominions to the Apostolic see, 
 now called The Pahimony of St. Peter. Thomassin 1. 1. 
 de dis. Ec. c. 27. tells us that the Alpes Coftice, including 
 Genoa and the sea coast, as far as the boundaries of Gaul, 
 were formerly the estate of the Apostolic see, but were 
 seized by the Lombards, who ravaged and conquered that 
 country, and spread fire and desolation over the territo- 
 ries of Rome. On this occasion, the people of Italy, in 
 the time of Gregory II. finding themselves absolutely 
 abandoned to the swords of these barbarians, and being 
 refused the protection of the Greek Emperors, took up 
 arms in defence of their lives and property, and chose in 
 many places leaders for themselves, though the Pope ex- 
 horted them every where not to revolt against their law- 
 ful princes, but to remain in their obedience and fidelity 
 to the empire, as Anastasius the Librarian assures us. 
 
 Stephen II. who succeeded Zachary, had often in vaiu 
 implored the succours and protection of Leo the Emperor 
 of Constantinople, against Astulphus, king of the Lom- 
 bards. Whereupon he went to Paris, and in the name of 
 the Roman people, who looked upon the popes as their 
 fathers and guardians, he sought that protection from 
 Pepin King of the French, which the Greek Emperor had 
 refused. Pepin sent ambassadors into Italy, requiring 
 that Astulphus would restore what he had taken from the 
 Church of Rome, and repair the damages he had done in 
 Italy. Astulphus refusing to comply with these conditions, 
 Pepin led a powerful army into Italy, defeated the Lom- 
 bards, and took Astulphus prisoner in Pavia, but gene- 
 rously restored him his kingdom on condition he should 
 live in amity with the Pope. Immediately after Pepin's 
 departure, Astulphus perfidiously broke his treaty, and 
 took up arms again, which obliged Pepin to return into 
 Italy, where having a second time defeated ayd captured 
 Astulphus, and having threatened him with death, if he 
 ever again took up arms against the Romans, he once 
 more restored him his kingdom, taking from him the ex- 
 archate of Ravenna, which he gave to the Apostolic see, 
 upon a principle laid down by PufTendorf, Grotius, Fon- 
 tanini, and others, and founded upon the law of nations, 
 that he who conquers a country in a just war, no ways 
 undertaken for the former possessors, nor in alhance with 
 X2 
 
^46 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 them, is not bound to restore to them what they would 
 not, or could not protect or defend. Hence, when the 
 ambassadors of the Greek Emperor demanded of Pepin 
 the restitution of the countries he had conquered from 
 the Lombards, that Prince answered, that as he had ex- 
 posed himself to the dangers of war merely for the pro- 
 tection of St. Peter's see, not in favour of any person, he 
 never would suffer the Apostolic Church to be deprived 
 of what he had bestowed on it. Thomassin observes very 
 justly, that Pepin could not give away dominions, which 
 belonged to the Emperors of Constantinople ; but if he 
 had conquered the Goths of Italy, or the Vandals iu 
 Africa, before Justinian had recovered those dominions, 
 who will pretend that he would have been obliged to re- 
 store them to the Greek Emperors } Or, if the Britons 
 had repulsed the Saxons after the Romans had abandoned 
 them to their fury, might they not have declared them- 
 selves a free people } The Greeks had by their sloth lost 
 their right to the exarchate of Ravenna, after they had 
 suffered it to be conquered by the Lombards, without 
 sending succours during so many years to defend and pro- 
 tect it. Those countries, therefore, either by the right 
 of conquest in a just war belonged to Pepin and Charle- 
 magne, who bestowed them on the Popes, or, the Roman 
 people became free, and being abandoned to barbarians, 
 had a right, when the Greeks refused to afford them pro- 
 tection, to seek it from others, or to form themselves into 
 a new government. The Greeks themselves afterwards 
 ratified the partition made of the Italian dominions, when 
 Charlemagne was crowned Emperor of the West, and not 
 only Irene, who was then Empress of Constantinople, but 
 likewise her successor Nicephorus III. solemnly acknow- 
 ledged him in the. quality of Augustus. 
 
 Charlemagne was a lover and encourager of learning, 
 T)eing sensible that it is the highest improvement of the 
 human mind, and no less conducive to the good of religion 
 than to the welfare of the state. He set a just value 
 on the arts and sciences, and placed all his glory in pro- 
 moting the study of every branch of true and useful learn- 
 ing. He invited over into his dominions the two learned 
 professors Clement and John, from Ireland, and men of 
 the most consummate erudition from other foreign parts, 
 to become teachers in the public schools which he founded 
 
CUUUCII OF CHRIST. 247 
 
 at Paris, Tours, Bologna, Pavia, &c. He appointed the 
 celebrated Alcuia to open a great school in his own palace, 
 and generally assisted at his lessons with the princes, his 
 sons, and other lords of his court. By the advice of so 
 wise a master he made several literary establishments for 
 the revival of the sciences, and instituted an academy, 
 consisting of many learned men, who met on certain days 
 to discourse on points oj sacred learning. He had St. 
 Augustine's book On the Oily of God, laid every night 
 under his pillow, to read, if he awaked. He caused seve- 
 ral synods to be held for the advancement of piety' and 
 the reformation of manners, and the decrees therein 
 framed are called his Capitulars. The Carolin books are 
 a theological work, adopted by this prince, and compiled 
 in four books, against a falsified copy of the second coun- 
 cil of Nice, sent by certain Iconoclasts from Constantino- 
 ple. This accounts for the mistake of the Carolin books, 
 and the council of Frankfort, an. 794, can. 2, concerning 
 the doctrine of the Nicene Council. They had not seen 
 the Greek original, but only a Latin and vicious transla- 
 tion of it, which occasioned the mistaken opposition they 
 gave to the decree about honouring sacred images. At 
 length the Almighty was pleased to call Charlemagne to 
 the enjoyment of a better life, in the 72d year of his age. 
 He was buried at Aix-la-Chapelle. After his death, the 
 imperial dignity was transferred from France to Germany. 
 It was conferred first on Otho, and is swayed at present 
 by the august house of Austria. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 jT/te Church of the Tenth Century, 
 
 THE succession of chief pastors in the apostolic see 
 was continued in this age by Benedict IV. who, after the 
 death of Theodorus II. and John IX. governed the Church 
 till October, 903. His immediate successor, Leo V. did 
 not hold the pontificate two entire months, according to 
 that verse of Flodoardus : Emigrat ante suuin quam tuna 
 bis impleat Orbem. Christopher was then raised to the 
 pontifical chair the same year about the beginning of 
 
^48 HISTORY OP THE 
 
 November ; but being compelled to abandon it, he M'as 
 sent first into a monastery, and afterwards into a prison, 
 where he ended his days. After him the pontificate was 
 occupied seven years by Sergius III. two years by Anas- 
 tasius III. six months by Lando, fourteen years by John X. 
 seven months by Leo VI. about two years by Stephen 
 VIII. and upwards of five years by John XI. who was 
 succeeded, in the year 936, by Leo VII. of whom FIo- 
 doardus writes : 
 
 " Deditus assiduis precihus^ spectdamine celsus, 
 ^' Affalu IceluSj sapiens atque ore serenus.^^ 
 
 Constant in prayer, in meditation high, 
 Remov''dfrom earth, and tending to the sky , 
 Wise, gentle, humble, cheerful, modest, kind, 
 Grace in his speech, and virtue in his mind. 
 
 Upon the demise of Leo VII. Stephen IX. sat three 
 years and some months. Marinus II. his successor sat 
 about four years, and died in June, 946. Agapetus II. 
 was chosen the same month, and died in the eleventh 
 year of his pontificate. Tlie apostolic see was then suc- 
 cessively occupied by John XII. Benedict V. who died in 
 965, John XIII. who died in 972, Domnus II. Benedict 
 VI. Benedict VII. John XIV. John XV. and Gregory V. 
 who was raised to the pontificate in 996, and died on the 
 18th of February, 999. Sylvester II. succeeded him in 
 the month of April of the same year, and died on the 1 1th 
 of May, 1003. Some writers look upon John XVI. to 
 have been an antipope. 
 
 This age was indeed happy in this respect, that no con- 
 siderable heresy arose, or was broached in it, for which 
 reason there was no occasion for general councils, nor for 
 so many ecclesiastical writers, as in the foregoing ages. 
 Swarms of armed barbarians overran Germany, England, 
 France, Italy, and Spain, carrying desolation with them 
 wherever they went, pillaging churches, massacring priests 
 at the foot of the altar, burning houses, and reducing 
 cities to ashes. Scandals were multiplied ; the most holy 
 laws were publicly violated ; studies were much neg- 
 lected ; and people, devoted to the profession of arms, 
 looked with contempt on the cultivation of letters. Vir- 
 
 J 
 
Church of Christ. 349 
 
 tue, of course, began to decay among the generality of 
 Christians, and a relaxation of morals ensued, and reach- 
 ed the very sanctuary. Rome itself was not exempted. 
 The Church bewailed these disorders, which were a 
 thousand times more excruciating to her than the perse- 
 cutions of the Pagan emperors. Through the tyranny of 
 despots, and the violence of contending factions, s^e 
 few bishops, incapable of writing their names, (perhaps 
 about six in all Christendom) are said to have been in- 
 truded on diflierent episcopal sees. By the power of the 
 counts of neighbouring territories, and by the intrigues of 
 Marozia,wife to Guy, Marquis of Tuscany, and her mother 
 and sister, both called Theodora, three women of scan- 
 dalous lives, some unworthy popes have, by unjust usur- 
 pation, and not by canonical election, been thrust into 
 the apostolic chah', and disgraced their high station by 
 the immorality of their lives. However, as the wicked- 
 ness and usurpation of an Alcimus could not destroy the 
 Aaronic priesthood, so the immoralities of some few in- 
 truders could not destroy the Christian priesthood, nor 
 prejudice the spiritual prerogatives of the Church of 
 Christ. His Providence appeared the more remarkable 
 ia still protecting her upon such occasions, amidst all the 
 .«candals and disorders with which she scemf^d to be almost 
 overwhelmed. He would not suffer the Devil to wrest 
 out of his hands the inheritance and kingdom which his 
 Eternal Father gave him, and which it cost his most pre- 
 cious blood to establish. He permitted for a while some 
 vicious men to sit on the chair of St. Peter, as the Scribes 
 and Pharisees sat on the chair of Moses, but his singular 
 Providence always interposed in defence of the Church, 
 to let the world see that nothing could make void his pro- 
 mises, and that it is his all-powerful hand that supports 
 the Church, and not the hands of men. He promised to 
 be iDith her all days lo the consummaiion of ages. He pro- 
 mised infallibility to the great body of her pastors, in their 
 public doctrine, but he has no where promised them impec- 
 cability in their conduct. Go, said he to them, teach 
 all nations: Baptize and teach them to observe all that I 
 have ordained, and I ivill be with ye, &c. In virtue of this 
 promise, he is always with the pastors of his church, to 
 guarantee them from all error in the doctrine of faith, but 
 not to exempt them fvom all vice ; for he did not say, as 
 
250 HISTORY OF TKE 
 
 the great Bossuet observes, I will he ivitfi you pracHsing n\\ 
 that I have commanded, but J will be with ye teachiufr. 
 Hence, to show that the mark of the true faith was at- 
 tached to the profession of the public doctrine, and not to 
 the innocence of their morals, he said to the faithful, wlio 
 are taught. Do all that they say, and not what they do. Jt 
 is%vident, therefore, that the conservation of the Church 
 does not depend upon the sanctity of her pontiffs, and 
 that their misconduct should cast no more aspersion on 
 her than the fall of Judas did on the college of the Apos- 
 tles, or the rebellion of Lucifer on the hierarchy of the 
 angels. The fate of temporal kingdoms may, indeed, be 
 attached to the conduct of the princes who govern them ; 
 but the case is different with regard to the spiritual king- 
 dom of the Church, because it is Christ himself who sup- 
 ports her foundation. His infinite wisdom takes care to 
 over-rule the infirmities of her pastors, and to make them 
 even become subservient to his designs, however immoral 
 some individuals may happen to be in their own practice. 
 He will never suffer the Christian morality or the Catholic 
 belief to undergo the smallest alteration, or the least cor- 
 ruption in the public instructions, but will ever preserve 
 the doctrine of Verity in the chair of Unity, and make 
 the streams of Faith run very pure, even in the worst of 
 times. There never was an instance of any pope who at- 
 tempted to alter the creed, or who taught and proposed 
 any bad doctrine from the apostolic chair, to be believed 
 by the Church, or who issued any decree concerning faith 
 and sound morality, that was contrary to the sacred truths 
 revealed by Jesus Christ. Though a few, out of the 
 great number, have not been so irreproachable in their pri- 
 vate character as they should have been, and though they 
 have, at times, assumed a temporal authority that did not 
 belong to them, yet it is remarkable that they never form- 
 ed any decree on this point, and that any errors into which 
 they might have been led, were no more than mere errors 
 of fact, owing to a misrepresentation or false statement 
 of cases, or to the mistaken poHtics and prejudices of 
 the times, that were then sanctioned by temporal kings and 
 princes themselves. 
 
 Some writers style this century the iron and dark age, 
 but Bellarmine reckons up between two and three hun- 
 dred ecclesiastical writers in those days of darkness, many 
 
cnun.cH OF cunisr. 2ol 
 
 of whom were as eminent for their holiness and learning as 
 the ancient writers ; amonj^ the rest, Simon Metaphrastes ; 
 Hippolytus, of Thebes ; Eutychius, of Egypt ; Constan- 
 tins, son of Leo the Wise ; Flodoardus, of Rheims ; Wi- 
 tikindus 5 Liiithprandus, of Pavia ; Ratherius, bishop of 
 Verona ; Notherius, bishop of Liege ; Odo, abbot of 
 Cluni, that celebrated nursery of learned men ; CEcume- 
 niiis ; Abbo ; Burchardus ; Lanfrid, called by Leland an 
 ilhstrious Doctor , &c. flourished in this age of pretended 
 ignorance, besides many other learned doctors of the uni- 
 versity of Sorbonne, founded by Charlemagne, and that of 
 Oxford, founded by King Alfred the Great, in the year 
 877, upon the plan laid down and recommended to him 
 by the holy anchoret St. Neot It is true, indeed, the 
 study of the fine arts began to be generally neglected in 
 tlie West, after the fall of the Roman Empire. With it 
 ducation fell, and an ignorance of the belles lettres en- 
 ued, and spread itself far and near. The learned writ- 
 gs of the ancient Romans were thrown aside, and the 
 atin toDgue degenerated into diverse jargons, from 
 hich ?>prung our modern languages. However, the arts 
 nd sciences always found an asylum in episcopal houses 
 nd monasteries, from the turbulence of war and rapine. 
 "^hilst men of the world were employed in pursuing a 
 ilitary life, great numbers of monks were occupied in 
 anscribing the works of the ancients, which they had 
 scued from the hands of the barbarian invaders. These 
 recious monuments of antiquity would have perished, 
 ad they not thus taken care to transmit them to posterity. 
 'hey opened public schools in their religious retreats, 
 here men of studious minds were instructed and im- 
 oved in times of general anarchy and violence. And if 
 e true taste of literature did not yet flourish, at least the 
 udy of rehgion, the love of science, and a zeal for im- 
 irovement did. Every well-informed and ingenuous mind 
 erefore, instead of being prejudiced by vague and 
 groundless imputations on monastic or clerical ignorance, 
 ^vill remember with gratitude, that it is to this body of 
 iBnen the world is indebted for the preservation of ancient 
 Upterature, and that they alone gave such cultivation to 
 letters as the unimproved state of science admitted. In 
 short, it is to them we owe the revival and return of the 
 sciences and fine arts, as they rekindled the feeble 
 
252 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 sparkles which afterwards cast such a blaze of h'glit all 
 over Europe. 
 
 Several zealous pastors, of eminent sanctity and learn- 
 ing, rose up at this time in different parts of Christendom, 
 to stem the torrent of iniquity, and to reform the morals 
 of both the clergy and laity. They incessantly inveigh- 
 ed against the abuses and prevailing vices of the age, an<l 
 preaching penance with wonderful success. They held 
 several synods in order to repair the breaches which had 
 been made in ecclesiastical discipline, and to enforce the 
 observance of the sacred canons of the Church, They 
 corrected the ignoiance, stupidity and barbarism of the 
 fiercest nations, and diffused a rational, virtuous, and holy 
 temper throughout the countries where they preached. 
 They civilized and refined the minds of the most rude 
 and wild people, and inspired them with the meek spirit 
 of the Gospel, rendering them examples of mildness, pa- 
 tience, himiility, and charity. By their apostolic labours 
 they extended the kingdom of Jesus Christ in Mnscovy, 
 Poland, R.ussia, Denmark, Gothland, and Swedeland. 
 The very barbarians, who had spread themselves over 
 Italy, Germany, England, &c. became children of the 
 Church, by the laver of baptism, and subjected themselves 
 to the sweet yoke of the Gospel. The Normans, who 
 had ravaged France for the space of seventy year*;, were 
 converted with Roland, their Duke, and baptized, in the 
 vear 912. The Hun«;arians were conveited in the vear 
 1002, by the means of St. Stephen, their pious king. 
 Thus Christ, who never forsakes his Church, made her 
 triumph over scandal, immorality, and barbarism, as she 
 had already triumphed over idolatry and here.<!y. 
 
 The succession of saints was kept up by St. Bruno, 
 archbishop of Cologne ; St. ^Adelbert, bishop of Mugde- 
 burgh; St. Wolfang, bishop ofRatisbon; St. Radbod, 
 bishop of Utrecht ; St. Dunstan, archbishop of Canter- 
 bury ; St. Sigefride, apostle of Sweden ; St. Ephege, 
 archbishop of Canterbury ; St. Ethelwold, bishop of 
 Winchester ; St. Oswald, archbishop of York; St. Odo, 
 archbishop of Canterbury ; St. Birnstan, bishop of Win- 
 chester ; St. Berno, institutor of the monks of Cluni ; St. 
 Gerard, of Toul ; St. Hugerus, of Hansborough ; St. 
 Maieul and St. Odilo, abbots of Cluni ; St. Fulbert, of 
 Chartres ; St. Rudefind, of Compostella ; St. Romauld. 
 
t'HL'IlCH OF CHRIST. 2o3 
 
 founder of the Camaldulenses in Italy ; St. Olaus, king 
 of* Norway ; St. Henry II. emperor ; St. Wenceslaus, 
 king of Bohemia ; St. Harold VI. king of Denmark ; St. 
 Nilus, abbot; St. Adelais ; St. Matildes ; and St. Gune- 
 gunda, who being falsely accused of incontinence, like 
 the innocent Susanna, cleared herself by the ordeal trials, 
 vv'alking over twelve red-hot plough shares, without re- 
 ceiving the least hurt ; for ordeal trials, notwithstanding 
 \ arious prohibitions of the Church, still remained in fre- 
 •juent use in several places. St. Ulric, or Udalric, bishop 
 of Augsburgh, Nourished also in this age. In his last sick- 
 ness he caused himself to be laid on ashes, blessed and 
 strewed on the floor in the form of a cross, in which pos- 
 ture he died, amidst the prayers of his clergy, on the 4th 
 of July, 973, after having been Bishop fifty years. His 
 sanctity was attested by a ninnber of miracles, and he 
 is the first saint that was solemnly canonized by the 
 Church. Benedict XIV. tells us, 1. I.e. 7. that he was 
 canonized by John XV. in the year 993, though Suriu.s 
 pretends that St. Swidbert, an English monk, was canon- 
 ized by Leo III. about the year 800. Formerly it was 
 ii.sual for bishops to canonize saints, or to declare 
 ihem such, but in order to prevent the danger of abuses, 
 this has been reserved to the mature discussion and ap- 
 probation of the apostolic see, which never proceeds to a 
 solemn canonization of any saints till after a most ri- 
 gorous examination, and full evidence given of the heroic 
 virtues which they possessed in an eminent degree, and of 
 the incontestable miracles wrought by their intercession. 
 This double testimony of heroic actions of virtue and 
 of miracles, is required, before any one is enrolled among 
 the saints. Neither miracles suffice, without clear proofs 
 of heroic sanctity, nor the latter without the former, as 
 Benedict XIV. observes. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 The Church of the Eleventh Cenlury. 
 !'HE apostolic see was fdled by John XVII. John 
 
 IS 1 
 
 Y 
 
 XVIII. Sergius IV. Benedict VIII. John XIX. Benedict 
 
254 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 IX. Gregory VI. Clement II. Damasus II. St. Leo IX. 
 Victor II. Stephen X. Nicholas II. Alexander II. St. 
 Gregory VII. Victor III. and Urban II. After the death 
 of Sylvester II. John XVII. sat only about six months, 
 and John XVIII. five years and five months : the latter 
 died in May, 1009. Sergius IV. died in August, same 
 year. Benedict VIII. sat eleven years, and died on the 
 6th of June, 1024. John XIX. sat nine years, and died 
 the 8th of November, 1033. Benedict IX. being ejected 
 for simoniacal joractices, and Gregory VI. having abdi- 
 cated the pontificate, Clement II. was then elected pope, 
 and died on the 1st of October, 1047. Damasus II. being 
 poisoned after a short administration, his successor, St. 
 Leo IX. died in the sixth year of his pontificate. Victor 
 II. died in Tuscany, in the year 1057. Stephen X. died 
 on the 1st of April, 1058. Nicholas II. died the 22d of 
 July, lOGI. Alexander II. governed the Church eleven 
 years and six months. St. Gregory V\l. died on the 25th 
 of May, 1085, in the twelfth year of his pontificate. Vic- 
 tor III. died in 1087, and Urban II. in 1099. 
 
 In the course of this century the Church had various 
 'trials to encounter, for as she is not here on earth in the 
 place of her repose, she must expect to be almost always 
 disturbed, either by heresy or by schisms, or by scandals. 
 Berengarius Scholasticus of Tours, and archdeacon of 
 Angers, espoused the errors of John Scotus Erigena, in 
 the year 1050, and openly preaclied against the mystery 
 of Transubstantiation in the holy Eucharist. Lanfranc, 
 archbishop of Canterbur}', ascribes his fall to vain glory. 
 He was a man full of self-conceit, and a lover of novelty. 
 The novelty of his doctrine immediately alarmed all Chris- 
 tendom, it being contrary to the constant belief of all ages. 
 Never was any heresy more universally condemned : it 
 Avas condemned in no less than fifteen councils. We have 
 still extant the excellent writings of holy bishops and 
 learned doctors, who entered the lists against him. Lan- 
 franc wrote an excellent confutation of this heresy. Guit- 
 mund, bishop of Aversa, near Naples, published a learned 
 work on this subject. Alger, of Liege, wrote also an in- 
 comparable book on the same subject, by the reading of 
 which Erasmus says, his faith of the truth of that great 
 mystery, of which he never doubted, was much confirmed, 
 and for this reason he strongly recommends to all sacj'a- 
 
 J 
 
CHURCH OF CHRIST. ^55 
 
 mentariaus the perusal of these three treatises, preferably 
 to all the polemic writers of this age. St. Leo IX. con- 
 demned the new heresy of Berengarius, in a council as- 
 sembled at Rome, in the year 1050 ; and Berengarius 
 himself solemnly retracted his error, signed the retractation 
 with his own hand, and having kindled a fire in the midst 
 of an assembly of one hundred and thirteen bishops, threw 
 into it the books which contained his heresy ; so that it 
 died with him, until it was revived in the 16th century. 
 Another storm was raised against the Church in the East, 
 by Michael Cerularius, patriarch of Constantinople, who, 
 in the year 1053, renewed the schism of Photius, upon 
 mere frivolous pretences, and by his artiiices drew into it 
 the patriarch of Antioch and Jerusalem, with a great part 
 iof the Greeks. St. Leo exhorted him to peace and union, 
 and composed a learned and ample apology for the Latins. 
 He sent Humbert, his legate, to Constantinople, to vindi- 
 cate the Latins against the exceptions of the Orientals, 
 and prove that it was to the last degree extravagant to 
 pretend to ground a schism upon such exceptions ; but no- 
 thing was able to overcome the obstinacy and factious 
 spirit of Cerularius till he died, in the year 1058. The 
 holy pontiff laboured strenuously in the West, in extir- 
 pating simony, and the incestuous marriages, which many 
 noblemen had presumed to contract. In fine, he w^as in- 
 defatigable in his labours to advance the service of God 
 and the salvation of souls. It is recorded of him, that he 
 was born in Alsace, with his body marked all over with 
 little red crosses, which was attributed to the intense 
 meditations of his pious mother on the passion of Christ. 
 Miracles which followed his death proclaimed his glory 
 with God. 
 
 In this century the peace of the Church w^as greatly 
 disturbed by a simoniacal traffic of ecclesiastical benefices, 
 and many and great were the scandals and troubles that 
 sprung from this shameful abuse. Several councils were 
 held by the pastors of the church for the restoration of 
 the ecclesiastical discipline and the reformation of morals ; 
 decrees were made, by which all persons that should be 
 guilty of the sin of simony, were declared incapable of 
 receiving any ecclesiastical jurisdiction, and disqualified 
 for holding any benefice whatever. This raised great mur- 
 murs especially in Germany, where Henry IV. who sue- 
 
256 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 ceeded his pious father, Henry III. surnamed the Black, 
 was filling and oppressing the Church with sinioniacal pas- 
 tors, and conferring its livings on such as offered him the 
 highest price. He had sucked in very early the corrupt 
 maxims of tyranny and irreligion, and was flattered by 
 avaricious and ambitious men, who found it their interest 
 to indulge him in his passions. Not content with putting 
 the bishops and abbots of his realm in possession of their 
 benefices by the sceptre, or Regalia, according to the 
 usual custom, he claimed and usurped a right of giving 
 the investitures for cathedrals and abbeys, by the Cro.-is 
 and Ring, the sacred emblems of spiritual power, and lie 
 grievously abused this pretended right, by promoting to 
 ecclesiastical dignities persons the most unworthy and un- 
 fit. The scandals which such sinioniacal proceedings 
 caused in the Church, provoked his subjects to revolt, 
 and called loudly for an apostolic zeal in the chief pastor ; 
 wherefore Gregory VII. called Hildebrand, who sat then 
 in the chair of St. Peter, stood in the breach, and laboured 
 with vigilance and fortitude to stem the torrent of iniquity, 
 which was breaking into the sanctuary itself. He stirred 
 up all the zealous pastors rather to lay down their lives, 
 than to be remiss in maintainin": the laws of God and his 
 Church. He deposed Godfrey, archbishop of Milan, and 
 exconnnunicated some other incorrigible sinners, who, 
 growing desperate, attempted his life. Baron Holbf:rg, 
 in his abridged Universal Hisiory, (a work which is full of 
 fancour, slanders, and mistakes,) most falsely advances, 
 that during the contest about investitures, Gregory exposed 
 ecclesiastical benefices, and every thing that is sacred, to 
 jsale, no less than the emperors did ; whereas it is noto- 
 rious, from the couiu^ils, epistles, and whole conduct of 
 this pontift', that the vice of Simony never had a more 
 :?:ealous or a more implacable enemy, Henry IV. finding 
 him index ible, assembled at Worms, in the year 1076, a 
 conventicip of simoniacal time-serving bishops, who pre- 
 sumed to depose Gregory from the pontificate, and whose 
 mock sentence was sent to him, together with a contume- 
 lious letter. In short, such was the depravity and turbu- 
 lence of the times, that a schism was raided, and an anti- 
 pope was set up, by name Gullheii, the excomnumicated 
 aichbishop of Ravenna, and called Clement III. whilst 
 Henry entered Ruuie with an army, in 1084, and besieged 
 
CHURCH OP CHRIST. 257 
 
 Gregory in the castle of St. Angelo. But Robert Guis- 
 card, Duke of Calabria, obliged him to retire, and the 
 Tuscans gave his army a great overthrow in Lombardy. 
 Gregory being thus rescued from his enemies, retired, for 
 greater safety, from Rome to Monte Cassino, and thence 
 to Salerno, where he died, with these words in his mouth : 
 I have loved justice^ and have hated iniqiiily : therefore I die 
 in a strange land. In the midst of all these troubles, the 
 Church had the consolation to behold a new religious or- 
 der of the Carthusians, instituted by the great St. Bruno 
 of Cologne, in the year 1084, and edifying the world by 
 the sweet odour of their virtues, and the sanctity of their 
 lives. The most pious and learned Cardinal Bona, of 
 whom it was said : 
 
 " Esset Papa bonus j si Bona Papa for el.'' "^^ 
 
 Bona a good and learned Pope would be. 
 Were he exalted to the Holy See. 
 
 Speaking of the Carthusian monks, he calls them " The 
 ^' great miracles of the world ; men living in the flesh as 
 *' out of the flesh •, the angels of the earth, representing 
 '• John the Baptist in the wilderness ; the principal orna- 
 '^ ment of the Church ; eagles soaring up to Heaven." 
 Voltaire himself says of them : '' the Carthusians entirely 
 " consecrate their time to fasting, to silence, to solitude, and 
 " prayer ; perfectly quiet in the midst of a tumultuous world, 
 '' the noise of which scarce ever reaches their ears ; know- 
 " ing their respective sovereigns no otherwise than by the 
 " prayers in which their names are inserted." From this 
 epoch is also dated the origin of the Cistercian order, 
 founded by St. Robert, abbot of Molesme, who in the year 
 1098, began to build a monastery in a place called Cis- 
 fercium, or Ciieau^ an uninhabited forest, covered with 
 woods and brambles and watered by a little river. The 
 Cistercian order within fifty years after its institution con- 
 sisted of no less than five hundred abbeys ; which number 
 was increased to eighteen hundred soon after the year 
 1200. The famous houses of Sept Fons and La Trappe 
 are branches of this order. Some are seemingly shocked 
 at the extraordinary austerities, which they read to have 
 been practised by these religious men, and by the ancient 
 hermits in the desert. — ^What, say they, has the kind au- 
 Y2 
 
-268 HISTORY OF the 
 
 thor of nature given us an inclination to pleasure, and yet 
 commanded us to forego it ? or does he delight in our pain i 
 The advocates of self-love, who make such objections to 
 the necessity and merit of mortification, both exterior and 
 interior, seem to be strangers to the doctrine of Christ 
 and to the examples of his apostles, of St. John the Bap- 
 tist, of many ancient prophets, and other Saints both in 
 the New and Old Testaments, which are a standing com- 
 mendation of this spirit of mortification in the servants of 
 God. And really to deny the utihty and necessity of 
 mortification and penance would be to destroy the whole 
 system of Christian moraUty. Ever since the corruption 
 of our nature, and the revolt of our passions against rea- 
 son, our appetites stand in need of a severe curb ; and 
 without frequent denials and restraints, self-will and the 
 senses become headstrong and ungovernable, and refuse 
 subjection. God has therefore appointed the mortification 
 of the senses, joined with sincere humility, and the more 
 essential denial of the will, to be the powerful remedy, 
 and a necessary condition for obtaining his victorious 
 graces. The Gospel frequently inculcates the obligation 
 of it, and declares that no one can be the disciple of 
 Christ, who is not crucified and dead to himself, as the 
 s;rain of corn must die in the p'ound before it can bring forth 
 fruit. Though God therefore has annexed pleasure to 
 many actions for necessary and good purposes ; and though 
 many lawful pleasures of our senses are allowable, and 
 may be sanctUied by a virtuous intention, yet the servants 
 of God have in all ages embraced with prudence and fer- 
 vour such austerities as upon mature deliberation seemed 
 to them to have the greatest tendency to facilitate the 
 subjection of their passions ; they have regarded the prac- 
 tice of voluntary mortification and self-denials for the love 
 of God, as helps to virtue and as means to acquire it, and 
 to punish sin in themselves ; not that they placed sanctity 
 in them, or measured virtue thereby, as adervise or brach- 
 man might do, nor that they imagined God to be delighted 
 with their pain, but with the cure of their spiritual mala- 
 dies, as a mother rejoices in the health of her child, though 
 not in the bitterness of the potion, which she gives him to 
 procure it. Neither the relaxation of disciphne, nor the 
 corruption of morals ever was, or ever will be, so univer-^ 
 sal, but there have always been, and always will be in the 
 
m 
 
 ciiUiicii OF cmiisT. 25^ 
 
 Cliuiciij emir.eiit servants of God, actuated with this hea- 
 venly spirit ; for God's promises can no more be defeated 
 by the human passions, than the eternal decrees of his 
 infinite wisdozn can be obstructed by the constant vices 
 and folHes of mankind. The good and the wicked shall 
 be mixed together to the end of the world, " for," as St. 
 Augustine says, '^if wickedness should ever become the 
 " universal practice of mankind, how would it be true, 
 ^' that wheat and tares shall grow together till the harvest, 
 " since in that supposition there would be nothing but tares, 
 " and no v»heat at all ?" 
 
 The succession of saints and ecclesiastical writers was 
 kept up in this century by St. Peter Damian, bishop of 
 Ostia, whose works are printed in three volumes, and by 
 St. Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury, whose writings 
 are pubhshed in three volumes, folio. His ascetic works 
 will be an eternal monument to show that he was one of 
 the most eminent masters in the contemplative way. In 
 his dogmatical writings he adheres close to the fathers, 
 particularly to the great Augustine, and he is regarded as 
 the first of the scholastic theologians, who gathered his 
 doctrine into a regular system, in a clear method and 
 chain of close reasoning. It was rather his delight to be 
 employed in the exterior exercises of devotion, but on 
 public occasions he was obliged to enter into a literary 
 career, and take up the pen in defence of the Church. 
 St. John Gualbert, founder of the religious order of Val- 
 Hs Uinhrosa, St, Anselm, bishop of Lucca ; St. Hugh, 
 bishop of Grenoble ; St. Hugh, Abbot of Cluni ; St. Maca- 
 rius, of Antioch ; St Wiltstan, bishop of Worcester ; St. 
 Osmund, archbishop of Canterbury ; St. Godard, bishop of 
 Hiklesheim ; St. Walter, abbot ; St. Anno, bishop of Co- 
 logn ; St. Bernard ; St. Gerard, bishop of Chonard, and 
 apostle of a large district in Hungary ; St. Ulfred, in 
 Su edeland ; St. Colman ; St. Ivo ; St. Edward, King and 
 Confessor; St. Canutus, King of Denmark; St. Stanislaus, 
 bishop of Cracow in Poland ; St. Margaret, Queen of Scot- 
 and; St. Emericus, &.c. ad#rned the Church in this age. 
 Lanfranc, Guitmundus,Theophylactus, Adelman,Humber- 
 tus, Hugh, abbot of Cluni, Bertholdus,Bonitius, Herman- 
 nus, Albericus, Radulphus, Theoduinus, &c. flourished in 
 this century. Marianus Scotus, who is proved by Usher to 
 have been a Scot from Ireland, lived at this period,and hay- 
 
260 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 ing founded a monastery at Ratlsbon, taught both sacred and 
 profane learning there with great reputation. The afore- 
 said Usher testifies, that the name o£ Scotia was then con- 
 fined to Ireland alone, the better part of North Britain 
 being still in possession of the Picts. Ej^inard, secretary 
 to Charlemagne, expressly denominates Ireland Hibcrnia 
 Scotorum Insula. It w^as in this century that Guido, a 
 great admirer of music, and a monk of Arrezzo, in Tus- 
 cany, in 1009, invented the Gamut, or scale of music, 
 consisting of the six notes, Uty re, mi, fa, sol, la, which 
 syllables he took from the three first verses of the hymn 
 of St. John the Baptist: JJt queanl laxis resonare fibris, 
 &c. St. Ambrose composed several hymns, which arc 
 still used in the divine office, and is said to have been the 
 first who established the custom of singing hymns and 
 psalms alternately by two choirs in the Church of Milan. 
 He had learned this from the Oriental Churches, and 
 from Milan the custom spread to a!ll the Churches of the 
 West. The psalms, and several sacred canticles in the 
 holy scriptures, authorize and recommend this religious 
 custom of employing a decent and grave music both in- 
 strumental and vocal in sounding forth the Divine praises. 
 St. Cecily is regarded as the patroness of Church music. 
 St. Gregory the Great improved the plain song, which is 
 sung in unison. St. John Chrysostom elegantly extols 
 the good effects of sacred music. In his exposition of the 
 41st psalm he says, that the fire of divine love is kindled 
 in the soul by devout psalmody. St. Augustine says, that 
 it is useful in moving piously the mind and kindling the af- 
 fections of divine love. He tells us, in the 9th book of 
 his confessions, c. 6. that when he was but lately con- 
 verted to God, he was moved to shed abundance of tears 
 by the sacred singing at the Church. Soft and effeminate 
 music is to be always shunned with abhorrence, as the 
 corrupter of the heart and the poison of virtue. But to 
 sing assiduously the Divine praises on earth in a decent 
 and grave manner, is a kind of novitiate to the state of 
 the blessed in Heaven, and*truly a function the most 
 sweet and comfortable to a soul that loves God. . By 
 this homage of praise we join the heavenly spirits in 
 their uninterrupted songs of adoration, love, and praise. 
 
 Angels and z::e, assisted by this art, 
 
 3Iay sing together^ iho^ ive dwell apart. Waller. 
 
CHURCH OF CHRIST. JHV 261 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 Of the Crusades and MUilar^j Orders. 
 
 THE Crusades, or military expeditions under the ban- 
 ner of the Cross, were undertaken about the close of the 
 eleventh century, for the recovery of Palestine, or the 
 Holy Land, from the oppressive yoke of the Mahome- 
 tans. The kings and princes of Europe were alarmed at 
 the rapid progress of a people sprung from so mean and 
 obscure an origin. The eastern empire, which had stood 
 tirm for several ages after the downfall of the Western, 
 was now stripped by them of its fairest possessions in 
 Asia, and the Greek Emperor, harassed and distressed 
 on every side, solicited and implored the assistance of the 
 Latins against the common enemy of Christianity. Si- 
 mon, the patriarch of Jerusalem, and Peter, a famous 
 hermit of Amiens, after making a pilgrimage to Pales- 
 tine, represented the deplorable situation of the Christians 
 residing there in so feeling a manner as to excite com- 
 passion in the breasts, and draw tears from the eyes of a 
 council that was assembled at Clermont, in the year 
 1095, for the purpose of taking these matters into serious 
 consideration. Pope Urban II. was so sensibly affected, 
 tliat he engaged the princes of France, Italy, and Ger- 
 many, to unite their forces, and to march to therehef of the 
 faithful in the Holy Land. Their first expedition was 
 successful. The army of the Crusaders or Cross Bearers, 
 amounting to six hundred thousand foot, and one hundred 
 thousand cavalry, under the command of Godfrey of 
 Bouillon, Duke of Lorrain, accompanied by Hugh the 
 Great ; Robert Duke of Normandy, son to William the 
 Conqueror ; Robert Earl of Flanders, Stc. arrived in Bi- 
 tbynia, in the year 1097, and having vanquished the Sa- 
 racens, took possession of the strong city of Nice, the 
 royal seat and capital of Soliman, with one and forty 
 other cities, and about two hundred towns, thirteen thou- 
 sand Christians, and about two hundred thousand Turks, 
 being slain in various engagements. lu the year 1098, 
 the Cliristians took the city of Antioch, and the ensuing 
 year they besieged and took Jerusalem, though it was de- 
 feuded by a garrison of forty thousand Saracens. Here 
 
262 HISTORY OP THE 
 
 they established a new kingdom in Palestine, of which 
 Godfrey was unanimously chosen the first king. Being 
 presented with a gold crown, he refused to wear it, say- 
 ing, that he never would wear a crown of gold, where the 
 Redeemer of the world had worn a crown of thorns. A 
 few days after Godfrey defeated the Sultan of Egypt, and 
 the Sultan of Babylon (a city on the Nile, out of the 
 ashes of which Grand Cairo rose,) with an army of four 
 hundred thousand foot, and one hundred thousand horse. 
 The Latins having gained so many signal victories, esta- 
 blished four principalities in the East in a short time, one 
 at Jerusalem, a second at Antioch, a third at Edessa, and 
 a fourth at Tripoli. Godfrey's were distinguished from 
 all the rest by the good order which they every where 
 observed. He began and ended every undertaking with 
 the most edifying acts of devotion. For a proof of his 
 extraordinary strength of body, William of Tyre, a most 
 exact and faithful historian, relates, that on the bridge of 
 Antioch, he cut a Turk, who had on a coat of mail, quite 
 asunder across the middle of his body with one stroke of 
 his scimitar ; and clove another on horseback from the 
 head downwards to the very saddle, wounding also the 
 horse's back. Another time, seeing a bear going to 
 kill a poor man that was gathering sticks, he rode up, and 
 the furious beast having killed his horse, Godfrey seized 
 him with his left hand, and with his right thrust his sword 
 into his belly to the very hilt. During a sickness of five 
 weeks he prepared himself for death, with the piety of a 
 Saint, and the true fortitude of a Christian hero, very 
 different from that of a Pagan philosopher. He died, to 
 the inexpressible grief of the Christians, in the year 1 100, 
 and being buried in the Church of Jerusalem, the follow- 
 ing epitaph was engraved on his tomb: 
 
 Francorum Gentis Sion loca sanda pefcnfis, 
 Minjicum Sklus, Dux hie recuhat Goihofridus . 
 
 Here lies ^ from native land removed afar, 
 Godfrey the Great, the shinins; western star. 
 France boasts his birth, the Christian world his jmins, 
 And conquered Sion guards his last remains. 
 
 He was succeeded by his brother Baldwin, who, aided 
 bv the Genoese, took Ptolemais in the year 1104, and 
 
CHURCH OF CHRIST. 263 
 
 several othev cities in 1109. His successor Baldwin II 
 gained several advantages over the Saracens, but was de- 
 feated and taken prisoner in 1120, by the Sultan Barac. 
 He recovered his liberty the following year, when three 
 thousand Christians routed an army of sixty thousand Sa- 
 racens. The V^enetians also gained two complete victo- 
 ries over the Saracen fleet, about the same time, and took 
 possession of the great and strong city of Tyre. Barac 
 the Turkish Sultan was conquered afterwards and put to 
 death at Aleppo, by Joscelin, and Baldwin reduced the 
 city of Apamea in the year 1126. The cities of Alexan- 
 dria, Ascalon, and Damietta, fell likewise into the hands 
 of the Christians ; but jealousies, dissensions, and animo- 
 sities arising amongst them, their affairs in the East took 
 a quite different turn, and the Holy Land was in imminent 
 danger of being re-taken by the Infidels. 
 
 A second Crusade was therefore preached up all over 
 France and Germany with such amazing success, that in 
 the year 1147 Conrad the Emperor and Lewis VII. sur- 
 nanicd the Yoimg-, King of France, marched towards 
 Greece at the head of an army of one hundred and forty 
 thousand cavalry, with coats of mail, exclusive of the light 
 liorse and infantry, which was almost innumerable. But 
 the greater part of them perished in the deserts of Asia 
 Minor, and after some unsuccessful attempts, the scattered 
 remains returned to Europe. Saladin, Sultan of Egypt, 
 at the head of fifty thousand Saracens, discomfited the 
 Christian army in the year 1187. Guy ofLusignan, 
 King of Jerusalem, w^as then taken prisoner, and the 
 Knights Templars and of St. John of Jerusalem were al- 
 most all cut to pieces. After this signal victory, nothing 
 could stop the progress of Saladin's arms, almost every 
 city opening its gates to the conqueror. He laid siege to 
 Jerusalem, and took it the same year, on the second of 
 October, the eighty-eighth year after it had been subdued 
 by the Christians. Thus what Christian charity and the 
 humility of the Cross had gained, was soon lost by discord, 
 pride, and ambition. Cuncordia res 'parvm crescimt, dis- 
 cordia magnce dilabuntur. There only remained now in 
 the hands of the Latins three considerable cities in Pales- 
 tine: Antioch, Tyre, and Tripoh. 
 
 The Emperor Frederick Barharossa^ or Red Beard, 
 set out for the East in 1188, but when Ire drew near Sy- 
 
264 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 ria, going one day to swim for his diversion, the rapid 
 stream carried him away in the current, and he was 
 drowned, as is thought, in the river Cydnus, where Alex- 
 ander the Great, benumbed by the coldness of the water, 
 bad like to have perished. The news of all these sad disas- 
 ters spread such consternation all over the West, that in 
 the year 1 191, a third crusade was set on foot by Richard 
 I. siirnamed Heart of Lion, son of Henry II. king of En- 
 gland, and by Philip Augustus of France, who were then 
 at war with each other, but forgot their particular dis- 
 putes for the common good of Christianity. In order to 
 shun the treachery of the Greeks, they embarked at 
 Marseilles, with two powerful armies, and set sail for 
 Palestine. When they arrived they captured the strong 
 city of Acre, or Aeon, on the sea coast of Palestine, an- 
 ciently called Ptolcmais, which the Christians had then 
 been besieging for three years under the command of Guy 
 of Lusignan, the expelled king of Jerusalem. Philip be- 
 ing obliged, for the recovery of his health, to return to 
 Europe, Richard staid a year longer in Palestine. In the 
 interim he defeated Saladin in a great battle, and con- 
 cluded a truce with him on favourable conditions. Before 
 he returned home with his troops, he sold the island of 
 Cyprus to Guy of Lusignan, whose posterity reigned there 
 afterwards for the space of three hundred years. 
 
 In the year 119o, a fourth crusade was undertaken by 
 a great number of French and Itahan gentlemen, assem- 
 bled at Venice, under the command of the Marquis of 
 Montserrat, and Baldwin, earl of Flanders. The republic 
 of Venice engaged to supply them with ships to convey 
 them into Palestine. It also equipped fifty gallies for the 
 use of five hundred Italian nobles, who wished to embark 
 on the same expedition. When all things were in readi- 
 ness, and the crusaders were only waiting for favourable 
 weather, young Alexis, son of Isaac Angelus, the Emperor 
 of Constantinople, arrived at Venice and solicited the aid 
 of the Latins in favour of his father, who was then de- 
 throned, and closely imprisoned by an usurper, who had 
 put out his eyes. Alexis promised to re-establish an union 
 between the Latin and Greek Church, to facilitate the 
 conquest of the Holy Land, to maintain during his life 
 500 knights there for its defence, and to furnish the Latins 
 with two hundred thousand marks of silver, and with pro- 
 
I 
 
 ClIURCU OF CHRIST. 265 
 
 visions for a year. These offers appeared too advanta- 
 geous to be rejected, (hough the minds of the crusaders 
 were thereby aUenated from their first plan. Instead of 
 directing their course towards Palestine, they sailed for 
 Constantinople, and upon their arrival, the usurper fled, 
 and young Alexis was crowned emperor. But he was 
 shortly after assassinated by one of his officers, who seized 
 on the Imperial throne. Under these circumstances the 
 crusaders held a council to deliberate on what was to be 
 done, and believing themselves authorized to avenge the 
 death of the prince whom they had taken under their pro- 
 tection, they attacked the city of Constanstinople, and 
 having taken it on the 12th of .April, 1204, they aban- 
 doned it to the pillage of the soldiery. Albthe authority 
 of their leaders was not sufficient to bridle their licen- 
 tiousness, which carried them to the greatest excesses. 
 These excesses inspired the Greeks with such a violent 
 aversion against the Latins, that we may date from the 
 epoch of this conquest, the entire rapture and complete 
 schism between the Latin and Greek Church. The cru- 
 saders, on thus becoming masters of Constantinople, re- 
 solved to establish there one from among themselves in 
 ijaality of Emperor. The choice fell upon Baldwin Earl 
 of Flanders, whose virtues were highly extolled even by 
 the Greeks themselves. He was crowned with great so- 
 lemnity in the Church of St. Sophia, and took the title 
 and ornt-ments of the Emperor of the East. He reigned 
 but one year, for lie was taken, confined in a prison six- 
 teen months, and put to death in a cruel manner by^ the 
 King of the Bulgarians in the year 1205. His brother 
 Henry having succeeded him, the Latin noblemen entirely 
 abandoned the expedition, for which they had first taken 
 up arms, and began to extend their conquests in Greece, 
 and reduced to their obedience almost all the provinces 
 that belonged to the Greek Eniperor in Europe. But ia 
 about fifty years after the corupiest of the Latins, the 
 Greeks, who were settled atTrebisond,Nice,and Adriano- 
 ple, found means to recover Constantinople, and to re- 
 place on the Imperial throne Michael Palcelogus, of the 
 family of their ancient Emperors. 
 
 John of Brienne landed in E^jypt in the year 1221, with 
 an army of seventy thousand men, took Damietta, and 
 besieged Grand Cairo, but lost the greatest part of his 
 Z 
 
266 HISTORY or the 
 
 troops by sickness, want of provisions, and by a very bigh 
 flood of the Nile. Frederick II. son and successor of 
 Henry VI. in the Empire of Germany, sailed also with an 
 army to Acre, in ]228, and made a truce with the Ma- 
 hometans, for ten years, on being crowned king of Jeru- 
 salem. About the year 1240, Richard, the brave Earl of 
 Cornwall, brother to Henry III. King of England, arrived 
 in Palestine with an English crusade. St. Lewis king of 
 France, undertook two criisades, one in the year 1248, 
 and another in 1270. The Mariner's compass is thought 
 to have been made use of in this crusade,' St. Lewis in 
 his first expedition having taken the Onflammey or royal 
 standard, so called froni its being of a red, or flame co- 
 lour, sailed to Cyprus with a fleet of 120 great vessels, 
 and 1650 small ones, carrying on board 12,800 French, 
 English, and Cypriot knights, and above 60,000 chosen 
 soldiers. William Earl of Salisbury, surnamed Liono- 
 Sword, brought to St. Lewis in Cyprus 200 gallant En- 
 glish knights. The Sultan of Egypt employed spies to 
 destroy the large magazines, and to poison the victualling 
 houses of the Christian army in Cyprus, but they were 
 discovered and confessed the fact. This crusade ended 
 in the taking of Damietta from the Saracens, and in the 
 second St. Lewis died of a dysentery. His death struck 
 a damp upon the spirits of the Christians in the East. 
 However, though this crusade failed of success, it was 
 some check to the progress of the Saracens' arms. The 
 Prince of Wales, afterwards Edward I.' king of England, 
 was the last support of the Christians in Palestine, He 
 sailed from Sicily in the year 1271, and after plundering 
 Antioch, and taking Jaffa and Nazareth, was obliged to 
 return in 1271, upon the death of his father, Plenry III. 
 The Christians were then dispossessed of all the places 
 that remained in their hands in Palestine. Damietta was 
 destroyed by the Saracen army, a vast number of Chris- 
 tians were put to death, and 750 of their ships were burnt. 
 Seventeen thousand Christians were killed at Antioch, and 
 one hundred thousand were led into captivity by Bendoc- 
 dar, the Sultan's general. 
 
 In the years 1289 and 1291 the Sultan seized on Tripoli, 
 Tyre, and Ptolemais, or Acre, where twenty-five thousand 
 Christians were put to the sword, and twenty thousand made 
 captives. Thus, in the year 1291, the kingdom of the Chris- 
 
cjiuncii OF CHRIST. 267 
 
 tians ill Syria, was entirely overthrown. It is computed, 
 that from the year 1095, when the Crusades began, unto 
 the year 129 1, about two milhoiis of Christians perished 
 in those expeditions, which employed Europe for almost 
 two hundred years. Many things were great obstacles 
 to the success of these military enterprises ; such as 
 the distance of countries ; the difference of climates ; 
 the excessive heats, and the scarcity of provisions, which 
 occasioned malignant fevers, dysenteries, and pestilential 
 diseases ; the repeated treacheries of the Greeks, who led 
 the Latins into ambuscades ; the mixture of different na- 
 tions ; the feudal jurisdiction in the Christian armies ; the 
 opposite views and clashinq; interests of particulars ; the 
 want of military subordination and obedience, &.c. Some 
 engaged not through motives of religion, charity, and 
 compassion for the suiferlngs of their brethren in the East, 
 but with views altogether worldly and seliish. Some were 
 led by no other motives than the prospect of rapine and 
 plunder,- and they committed great disorders in their 
 march. Others went merely to screen themselves from 
 public justice, and from their lawful creditors. Others 
 were actuated by the passions of ambition, vanity, avarice, 
 jealousy, anger and revenge, which often have a great 
 share in wars. Such armies were so far from being proper 
 instruments to avert the scourges of an angry God, that 
 the disorders committed by them w^ere sufficient to occa- 
 sion the misfortunes and trials that fell on those who were 
 conducted by motives of rehgion, charity, and penance, 
 for the exercise of their virtue. It is no wonder then that 
 the finger of God was often visible in punishing and chas- 
 tising the crusaders, since they drew the wrath of Heaven 
 upon themselves by their sins, like unto the Children of 
 Israel, who were frequently punished in the desert, and 
 excluded from the Land of Promise, on account of their 
 manifold transgressions. Voltaire's History of the Cru- 
 sades is more superficial, if possible, than his other histo- 
 rical performances, in which a blaze of empty wit was 
 the author's chief aim and ambition. To give a satisfac- 
 tory account of events, or an inquiry after truth, are sel- 
 dom any part of his concerns, and the reflections which 
 he intersperses are frequently false, and have the most 
 impious and pernicious tendency. 
 
 The cmsades gave rise to some military orders, the most 
 
268 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 ancient of which was thaf of the Knights Hospitalers of 
 St. John, which subsists to this day, under the name of 
 the Knights of Malta. The fust house of this celebrated 
 order was an hospital founded in Jerusalem, in the year 
 1098, by certain merchants of Amalphi, in the kingdom 
 of Naples, who trading in the Levant, obtained leave of 
 the caliphs of the Saracens, on paying an annual tribute, 
 to builil a house for themselves, and for the reception of 
 pilgrims who came to visit the Holy Land. Soon af^er 
 they founded a church there, in honour of St. John Bap- 
 tist, with an hospital for the relief of sick pilgrims, from 
 w hich they took their narhe. In process of time they took 
 up arms to defend the Christians from the insults of the 
 Infidels, and to secure the pusses into Palestine. They 
 performed prodigies of valour on several occasions, par- 
 licularly in the year 1310, at Rhode Island, from whence 
 they afterwards withdrew to the Island of Malta, the sove- 
 reignty of which was granted to them by the emperor 
 Charles V. They wear for their bandage a cross with 
 eight points. The Teutonic order of knights was founded 
 after the model of St. John's of Jerusalem. They were 
 to be of a noble race, to defend the Holy Land, and to 
 be hospitable to German pilgrims of their own country. 
 These knights behaved gallantly at the taking of Ptole- 
 mais, or Acre, in the year 1291. The Knights Templars, 
 so called from an house given to them near the place 
 where formerly stood the Temple of Solomon, were insti- 
 tuted in the year 1118, and in about 191 years after their 
 establishment they were persecuted by king Philip the 
 Fair, and entirely suj)pressed by Pope Clement V, in the 
 year 131'2. The year following, the Grand Master, who 
 was a Frenchman, was burnt at Paris, and several others 
 suffered death, though they all, with their last breath, 
 protested their innocence as to the crimes that were laid 
 to their charge. These were certainly much exaggeiated 
 by their enemies, and doubtless many innoreut men were 
 involved Avith the guilty. A great part of their estates was 
 given to the Knights of Rhodes^ or Malta. 
 
CnuJRCH OP CHRIST. ^69 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 The Church of the Twelfth Century 
 
 THE chief pastors of the Church in this age, after the 
 demise of Urban II. were Paschal II. who died in the year 
 1118; Gelasius II. who died in 1119; CaHxtus II. who 
 died in 1124 ; Honorius II. who died in the sixth year of 
 his pontificate ; Innocent II. who died in 1 143 ; Celestine 
 II. who died in the sixth month after his election ; Lucius 
 II. who governed the Church but two months ; St. Euge- 
 nius III. a disciple of St. Bernard, who sat upwards of 
 eight years ; Anastasius IV. who died in 1 154 ; Adrian IV. 
 an Englishman by birth, who died on the 1st. of Septem- 
 ber, 1 159 ; Alexander III. who sat twenty-two years ; Lu- 
 cius III. who died in 1 185 ; Urban III. who died in 1 187 ; 
 Gregory VIII. who died on the fifty-seventh day after his 
 election ; Clement III. who died in the third year of his 
 pontificate ; and Celestine III. who, though elected in the 
 eighty-fifth year of his age, governed the Church near 
 seven years, and died in January, 1 198. 
 
 Three general councils, viz. the ninth, tenth, and ele- 
 venth, were held in this century, for the reformation of 
 manners, the suppression of schisms, and the extirpation 
 of heretical errors. The ninth general council, being the 
 first of Lateran, was held in the year 1122, under Calix- 
 tus II. and consisted of three hundred bishops. The tenth 
 general council, being the second of Lateran, was held in 
 the year 1139, under Innocent II. against the schism of 
 Peter Leo, and was composed of a thousand bishops. The 
 eleventh general council, being the third of Lateran, was 
 held in the year 1179, under Alexander III. against the 
 Albigenses, who maintained the errors of the Manicheans, 
 and it consisted of three hundred bishops, among whom 
 were St. Laurence O'Toole, archbishop of DubHn, and 
 the archbishop of Tuam, with five other Irish and four 
 English bishops. 
 
 After the death of Honorius II. in the year 1130, an 
 unhappy schism divided the Church: Innocent IT. was duly 
 chosen on the 14th of February, 1130, by the greater 
 number of cardinals ; notwithstanding which a faction 
 acknowledged Peter, the son of Leo, under the name of 
 Z2 
 t 
 
270 HISTOKY Of THjt 
 
 Anacletus II. Being an ambitious worldly man, he got 
 all the strong holds about Rome into his hands, and was 
 supported by Roger, duke of Sicily ; by William duke 
 of Aquitain, or Guienne, which was part of Aquitain ; by 
 the Milanese, &.c. Innocent II. who was a holy man, fled 
 to Pisa, and from thence into France, where he was re- 
 cognized by king Lewis VI. surnamed the JBigy or the Fat, 
 and by Henry I. king of England. In the year 1 132, the 
 emperor Lothaire marched with an army to Rome, to 
 put him in possession of the Lateran Church, and St, 
 Bernard and St. Norbert laboured vigorously and suc- 
 cessfully in extinguishing the schism, and in bringing over 
 the partisans of Anaclet to the union of the Church. 
 Upon the demise of this antipope, one Gregory was set 
 up, under the name of Victor IV. but after three months 
 he surrendered his pretensions to the lawful Pope, Inno- 
 cent. When Alexander III. a person eminent for his 
 skill in theology and in the canon law, was duly raised to 
 the pontificate, five cardinals presumed to form another 
 schism, in favour of Octavian, under the name of Victory 
 V. and this schism was continued by three other antipopes, 
 who styled themselves Paschal III. Calistus III. Innocent 
 III. The Emperor Frederick I. surnamed, from the co- 
 lour of his beard and hair, ^noharbus, and by the Ita- 
 lians, Barbarossa, carried on ah unjust quarrel with se- 
 veral popes successively, seizing the revenues of vacant ec- 
 clesiastical benefices, usurping the investiture and nomi- 
 nation of bishops, and openly making a simoniacal trafi^ic 
 of all that was sacred. It is not, therefore, strange that 
 such a prince should declare himself the patron and pro- 
 tector of a schism, which had been raised only by his 
 faction and interest in Rome. The city of Milan had 
 offended him, by claiming an exclusive right i)f choosing 
 its own magistrates, and by acknowledging Alexander III. 
 for the true and rightful Pope. In revenge he sat down 
 before it with a great army, in 1161, and, after a siege of 
 ten months, having compelled it to surrender at discretion, 
 he razed the town, filled up the ditches, levelled the walls 
 and houses with the ground, and caused salt to be sown 
 on the place, as a mark that this city was condemned, 
 never more to be rebuilt. The bodies of the three kings, 
 which he found there in the church of St. Eustcrgius, he 
 ordered to be removed to Cologn on this occasion. The 
 
ClIURCH OF CHRIST. 271 
 
 Lombard cities had unanimously entered into a common 
 league to rebuild Miiaii. When the walls and moats 
 were finished, the inhabitants, with great joy, returned 
 into their city on the 27th of April, 1167. The emperor 
 again marched against it, but was defeated by the Mila- 
 nese, supported by all Italy, which was united against 
 him ; wherefore he agreed to hold a conference with the 
 pope at Venice, in which he abjured the schism, and 
 made his peace with the Church in 11 77. That Alexan- 
 der III. set his foot on the neck of this emperor, in the 
 porch of St. Mark's church in Venice, and insulted him 
 on this occasion in these words of the Psalmist, Super as- 
 pidem et hasiliscum ambulabis^ et conculcabis leonem ei dra- 
 conenij Ps. 90. is a notorious forgery, as Baronius, Natalis, 
 Alexander, Romuald, Mathew Paris, William of Tyre, 
 Roger Hoveden, and many other judicious historians, de- 
 
 Imonstrate. Nor is the story consistent with reason, or 
 with the singular meekness and humanity of Alexander ;. 
 though in some modern pictures in the senate-house of 
 Venice, this pretended humiliation of Frederic with the 
 triumph of the Lombard cities over his army, is exqui- 
 sitely painted ; but this is no proof of the fact, as painters 
 and poets are equally allowed the liberty of fictions and 
 emblematical representations. 
 
 In this century the Norwegians were finally brought 
 [over to Christianity by the means of Adrian IV, The 
 JFin landers were converted by St. Henry, bishop of Up- 
 [sal, and the Rhugians, who inhabited Pomerania, by Ab- 
 [solon and Berno, bishops of Roschildes and Meckelburgh. 
 [The people of Courland, Samogitia, and Livonia, were 
 likewise happily won over to Christ, by the preaching and 
 apostolical labours of Memardus. Christian piety and re- 
 lijjion were greatly advanced by the holy order of the 
 Cistercians, or Bernardins ; by the canons regular of St. 
 Augustine ; by the canons of Premontre, founded by St. 
 [Norbert in the year 1 120 ; and by the Trinitarians, in- 
 stituted in the year 1160, for the redemption of Chris- 
 tian captives and prisoners made by the Infidels during- 
 [the crusades. 
 
 The succession of saints was continued in the Church 
 by St. Bernard ; St. Norbert, archbishop of Magdeburgh ; 
 St. Galdin, archbishop of Milan ; St. Laurence Toole, 
 archbishop of DubUn ; St. Malachy, archbishop of Ar- 
 
27^ llISTORY OF THE 
 
 magh ; St. Malchus, bishop of Lismore, reputed tlien, for 
 his learning, the oracle of Ireland ; St. Felix Valois ; St. 
 Johnof Matha ; St. Stephen Harding, abbot of Citeaux ; 
 St. Isidore of Madrid ; St. Eric, king of Sweden ; 
 St. EUzabeth ; St. Hildegardis ; St. Alberic ; St. Robert, 
 abbot of Nevvminster, in England ; St. Hugh, bishop of 
 Lincoln ; St. Thomas of Canterbury ; St. Ceisus of Ar- 
 magh ; St. William of Maleval ; St. Robei-t of Arbrissel ; 
 St, Gilbert of Sembringam, founder of the Gilbertins ; St. 
 Ubaldus, bishop of Gubio ; St. Godrick, and St. Ulrick, 
 hermits ; and St. Homobonus, merchant. See Dr. Alban 
 Butler, torn. 11. p. 241. 
 
 St. Bernard was the prodigy and great ornament of 
 this age. Had Lord Bolingbroke been better acquainted 
 with his character and writings, instead of displaying his 
 talents in passing unjust censures, he would have acknow- 
 ledged that the heroic sentiments of humility, devotion, 
 and divine charity which all his works breathe, could only 
 come from a soul full of the spirit of God. This holy 
 doctor was well versed in the writings of the principal 
 fathers of the Church, especially St. Ambrose and St. 
 Augustine. He is reckoned among the fathers, and one 
 of the most useful to those who desire to improve their 
 hearts in sincere piety. His works are printed in two 
 volumes folio, and in nine octavo. His letters amount to 
 above 440, and are a lasting monument of his learning, 
 prudence, and indefatigable zeal. A perfect spirit of hu- 
 mility reigns throughout all his writings, and strongly af- 
 fects the hearts of his readers, as it is the language of his 
 own heart, always glowing with ardent love and compunc- 
 tion. His confidence in God was such, that he said, " I 
 " confess myself most unworthy of the glory of heaven, 
 *' and that I can never obtain it by my own merit ; but 
 '' my Lord and Saviour possesses it upon a double title, 
 •' that of natural inheritance, by being the only begotten 
 V* Son of his Eternal Father — and that of purchase, by 
 '* having bought it with his precious blood. This second 
 *' title he has transferred on me, and upon this right I hope, 
 " with an assured confidence, to obtain it, through his 
 " adorable passion and mercy." St. Bernard lays it down, 
 as an undoubted maxim, that not to advance in virtue, 
 or not to go on in a spiritual Ufe, is to fall hach^ yet nothing 
 is more rare than to find persons who always press for- 
 
CHURCH OF CHRIST. ^IS 
 
 ward. We see, says he, more converted from Vice to 
 virtue, than increase their fervour in virtue. He assigns 
 two principal reasons: First, many who begin well, after 
 some time grow again remiss in the exercises of mortifi- 
 cation and prayer, and return to the amusements, plea- 
 sures, and vanities of a worldly life. Secondly, others, 
 who are regular and constant in exterior duties, neglect 
 to watch over and cultivate their interior ; so that some 
 spiritual vice insinuates itself into their alTections, and 
 renders them an abomination in the eyes of God. '' A 
 ** man," says the holy Doctor, " who gives himself up 
 " entirely to exterior exercises, w^ithout looking seriously 
 '* into his own heart, to see what passes there, imposes upon 
 ^' himself, imagining that he is something whilst he is no- 
 " thing. He employs his hands in fulfilling the precepts : 
 " he fails in no exercise of piety or penance, complies with 
 '* his duties by habit and a certain rotation, but he neither 
 " sees nor feels the sacred worm, which gnaws and con- 
 <' sumes his heart. Whilst he strains at a gnat, he swallows 
 '* a camel, and is in his heart a slave to self-will, a prey 
 '' to avarice, vain glory, and ambition. One or other, or all 
 '' these vices together, reign in his soul.- ' In the days of St. 
 Bernard, many philosophers, by pursuing the subtle ima- 
 ginations of their own refining genius, pretended to give 
 reasons for what is above reason, and fell thereby into 
 many gross errors. Peter Abelard, a wolf in a sheep^s 
 skin, denied the Trinity with Arius, destroyed the Incar- 
 nation with Nestorius, and took away the necessity of 
 race with Pelagius. He was always unlike himself, al- 
 ogether equivocal and inconsistent, and so vain, that, as 
 >t. Bernard says, he knew every thing in Heaven and 
 '^.arth, but himself. He measured the heavens, counted 
 the stars, and pretended to dive into the mysteries of faith, 
 and secrets of nature, but his science was but all folly, 
 jand empty vanity, because he knew not himself, and con- 
 equently had not learned the first elements of true wisdom. 
 mold of Brescia in Italy, ascholar of Abelard, preached 
 lany errors at the head of armed troops. *' His conver- 
 ' sation," says St. Bernard, " had nothing but sweetness, 
 and his doctrine nothing but poison. He had the head 
 "■' of a dove, but the tail of a scorpion." Another person 
 of enunence, by deviating from the Scripture and tra- 
 dition, to philosophize on the mysteries of religion, adul- 
 
274 , HISTOHY OF THE 
 
 terated their simplicity. This was Gilbert de la Porree, 
 a famous professor of theology at Poictiers, and at length 
 bishop of that city, who taught, that the Divine Nature is 
 really distinguished from the three persons, and that the 
 wisdom, justice, and other attributes of God, are really 
 not God himself. St. Bernard zealously entered the lists 
 with these dangerous innovators, and maintained the pu- 
 rity of the Catholic faith with erudition and eloquence. 
 Besides the famous abbey of Clairvaux, he founded be- 
 fore his death, which happened on the 20th of Au<::ust, 
 1153, a hundred and forty other monasteries, which after- 
 wards were increased to the number of eif^-ht hundred. 
 Fleury has inserted in his history, a journal of a great 
 number of illustrious miracles wrought by St. Bernard, 
 and attested by ten venerable and faithful vouchers, 1. 69. 
 and Mabillon has proved their incontestable authenticity. 
 
 The reputation of the sanctity of St. Norbert, founder 
 of the Premonstratensian order, attracted the eyes of 
 Europe. His whole life was a perpetual lent. He 
 preached penance with amazing success, and wrought the 
 conversion of numberless sinners. He reformed abuses, 
 re-established ecclesiastical discipline, and inculcated, in 
 all his sermons, the frequent use of the Blessed Sacrament 
 of Christ's Body and Blood, as the most powerful strength- 
 ener of our weakness, the sovereign remedy of our spirit- 
 tial miseries, and the source of heavenly comfort to alle- 
 viate the labours and sorrows of our mortal pilgrimage. 
 Hence he is usually represented with a ciborium in his 
 hand, to denote by this symbol his extraordinary devotion 
 to the blessed Eucharist. St. Norbert extirpated at Ant- 
 werp the impious errors of Tanklin; who drew after him 
 three thousand persons, that believed him to be a great 
 prophet, and were ready to commit any outrages to sup- 
 port his reveries. He practised the most filthy abomina- 
 tions of the Gnostics, luring the people with magnificent 
 banquets, but in the year 1115, he met with the usual 
 fate of the authors of sedition, and disturbers of the pub- 
 lic peace. 
 
 When St. Malachy was born, Ireland was in a great 
 measure sunk into barbarism, and the face of the Irish 
 Church was greatly disfigured, through a long and una- 
 voidable intercourse between the natives and the Danish 
 invaders. From the dissolution of the Irish monarchy io^ 
 
 ^ 
 
CHURCH OF CHRIST. 275 
 
 1022y to the entrance of Henry II. 1171, the nation con- 
 tinued mostly in a state of anarchy, a great relaxation of 
 piety and morals gradually took place, and the regular 
 succession of bishops was interrupted in several dioceses 
 by intruders, till the heathen barbarians were converted 
 to Christianity. St. Malachy being canonically raised to 
 the see of Armagh, laboured with indefatigable zeal in abo- 
 lishing all barbarous customs, in reforming abuses, and in 
 banishing ignorance and superstition. He softened the most 
 
 Iavage hearts into humanity, and made several wise re- 
 ;ulations in ecclesiastical discipline, and re-established all 
 eligious observances and practices of piety. The great 
 bbey of Benchor, which lay then in a desolate condition, 
 ocame by his care a flourishing seminary of learning 
 nd piety. He died in the abbey of Clairvaux, in 1148. 
 t. Bernard wrote the history of his life and miracles, 
 nng a mass of Requiem for his sonl, made a funeral ora- 
 on on the occasion, and another on his anniversary, 
 hich pieces l)om. Rivet thinks to be equal to any 
 mposition of the kind that has appeared since the Au- 
 nistan age. 
 
 St. Laurence Toole, the son of a powerful prince in 
 
 I.cinster, was abbot of Glendaloch. After the death of 
 
 Gregory, he was unanimously chosen to fill the archiepis- 
 
 Htopal see of Dublin. He was consecrated by Gelasius 
 
 rtrchbishop of Armagh and successor of St. Malachy in 
 
 Ihe year 1162, that is, three hundred and twenty-four 
 
 ears after the Pagans, called Ostmen or Easterlings, had 
 
 ken possession of Dublin. It was in the year 1 152, that 
 
 ardinal John Paparo, legate of Pope Eugenius III. con- 
 
 rred on this see the archiepiscopal dignity, having brought 
 
 om Rome four palls for the four metropolitans of Ar- 
 
 agh, Dublin, Cashel, and Tuam. St. Laurence's first 
 
 care was to watch over his liock, to reform the manners 
 
 l^f his clergy, and to furnish the altar with worthy minis- 
 
 P^ers. He applied himself with unwearied zeal to every 
 
 l^art of his office, having always before his eyes the strict 
 
 IBccount which he was to give to the sovereign pastor of 
 
 IHouls. His cathedral was the Church of The Holy Triniiij^ 
 
 Ipnow called Christ Churchy which was built in the centre 
 
 of the city, by Sitricus king of the Ostmen, and bishop 
 
 Donat, in 1038, and converted into a dean and chapter 
 
 by Henry the VIII. in ' 1541 . The other cathedral, dedi- 
 
276 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 cated under the invocation of St. Patrick, was built by arch- 
 bishop Comyn In 1 190, on the same spot where an old paro- 
 chial church had long stood, which was said to have been 
 erected by St. Patrick in the fifth century. St. Laurence 
 frequently made choice of the abbey of Glendaloch for 
 his retreats, and coming out of them he seemed another 
 Moses, coming from conversing with God, full of a hea- 
 venly fire and divine light. It was in his time that Richard, 
 Earl of Pembroke, commonly called Stronp^boiVj took Dub- 
 lin, sword in hand, and massacred a great number of the 
 inhabitants. In this dreadful disaster the good pastor was 
 employed in relieving the distressed, in imploring for them 
 the compassion of the conquerors, and in exhorting the 
 sufferers at least to make a good use of their afiiictions. 
 All found in him a father, both in their temporal and spi- 
 ritual necessities. Every day he entertained at table thirty 
 poor persons, and often three hundred, besides many others 
 whom he maintained in private houses, and furnished with 
 clothes and other necessaries of fife, especially when the 
 terrible famine continued to rage for three years all over 
 the country. Whatever he possessed became immediately 
 the treasure of the poor, so that he could truly say to a 
 friend, who in his last illness reminded him to make a will, 
 " I thank God I have not a penny left in the world to dis- 
 pose of." He died in 1180, in the monastery of regular 
 canons at Eu, upon the confines of Normandy, after re- 
 ceiving the Viaticum and Extreme Unction with the most 
 edifying piety from the hands of the abbot. The archbishop 
 of Rouen and three other commissioners, by order of 
 Pope Honorius lit. took juridical informations of several 
 miracles wrought through his intercession ; and his life, 
 with a faithful account of his rigorous fasts and austerities, 
 was authentically written by a regular canon, in Surius. — 
 Fontani, Chron. Rotom. 
 
 St. Felix, of the royal branch of Valois in France, 
 liaving renounced his estate, retired into an hermitage, 
 and sequestered himself from the world, forgetting its 
 shadows and appearances, which grossly impose upon its 
 deluded votaries. There, in the calm and serenitv of his 
 silent retreat, he studied to purify his heart, and five only 
 to his Creator ; letting others amuse themselves with the 
 airy bubbles of ambition, and enjoy the cheats of fancy 
 and the flatteries of sense, he abandoned himself to the 
 
OHUIICII OF CIlltlST. 277 
 
 heavenly delights of holy contemplation, and to the great- 
 est rigours of penance, which his fervour, love, and com- 
 punction rendered sweeter to him than the joys of thea- 
 tres. St. John of Matha, a young nohleman of Provence, 
 and doctor of divinity, having heai*d much of the holy 
 hermit, sought him out in his desert, and proposed to hira 
 a project of estahlishing a religious order for the redemp- 
 tion of captives, a design with which he was inspired when 
 he said his first mass. The two servants of God agreed 
 to consult Heaven, by redoubhng their fasts and prayers 
 for three days, after which they resolved to beg the ap- 
 probation of the apostolic see. Innocent III. after many 
 dehberations, approved this new religious institute, which 
 was called of ike Most Holy Trhiily^ and which was so 
 much increased within the space of forty years, as to be 
 possessed of six hundred monasteries. 
 
 The principal ecclesiastical writers of this age, (besides 
 St. Bernard, surnamed 3IcUiflims, or honey-flowing, on 
 account of the fluidity and sweetness of his style) were 
 Peter the Venerable, abbot of Cluni ; Gratian, the com- 
 piler of the canon law, in 1150 ; Ivo, bishop of Chartres ; 
 Algerus Scholasticus ; John of Salisbury ; Perer of Blois, 
 archdeacon of Bath ; Hildebert, archbishop of Tours ; St. 
 Hugh, bishop of Grenoble ; Peter Comester ; William of 
 Malmesbury ; Rupertus Abbot ; Cardinal Leo Marsica- 
 nus ; Nicetas ; Sigebert ; Honorius ; Cardinal Robert Pol- 
 lein ; Enthymius ; Zigabenus ; Zonarus ; Cedrenus ; Theo- 
 rianus ; Hugo of St. Victor, a native of Ypres, surnamed 
 the Tongue of St. Augustine ; Richard of St. Victor, a 
 Scotsman, and an eminent contemplative : Peter Lombard, 
 a native of Novara in Lombardy, and archbishop of Paris, 
 who compiled a body of divinity, collected from the writ- 
 ings of the holy Fathers into four books, called the SeU' 
 iences, from which he was surnamed the Blaster of the Sen-- 
 tences, and on which several eminent doctors have written 
 commentaries, &c. 
 A a 
 
278 iiistohy of the 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 The Church of ihe Thirteenth Century. 
 
 THE apostolic chair was filled in this age by Innocent 
 
 III. eighteen years and six months, by Honorius III. ten 
 years and eight months, by Gregory IX. fourteen years 
 and five months, and by Celestine IV. only seventeen days. "^ 
 After a vacancy of near twenty months, Innocent IV. was 
 raised to the pontificate, in Jmie 1243, which he held ele-, 
 ven years, five months, and fifteen days. Alexander IV.. 
 being then chosen, governed the Church six years and 
 five months. Urban IV. sat three years and one month, 
 and died in Perugia in 1264. Clement IV. sat three years 
 and nine months. St. Gregory X. the archdeacon of 
 Liege, succeeded him in 1271, after a vacancy of almost 
 three years, the cardinals not agreeing in their choice, 
 which gave occasion to the following distich : 
 
 *^ Papatus munus tulit Archidiaconus unus, 
 
 " Qiiem Patrem Pairmn fecit discordia fratrum^ 
 
 After much toil^ anxiety^ and care., 
 A plain Archdeacon mounts St. Peter'' s chair ; 
 The holy Weatern Pontiffs placed among ; 
 So concord sweet from dire dissension sj)rung. 
 
 St. Gregory d^ing in January, 1276, Innocent V. was 
 elected, and died after the fifth month of his pontificate. 
 Adrian V. died on the thirty-seventh day after his election. 
 John XXI. died in May, 1277, in the eighth month of his 
 pontificate. Nicholas III. died in August, 1280. Martin 
 
 IV. sat four years and one month. Honorius IV. sat two 
 years. Nicholas IV. died on the 4th of April, in the be- _. 
 ginning of the fifth year of his pontificate, that is, in 1292, 
 the year after Jerusalem was taken by Saladin. The apos- 
 tolical see having remained vacant two years and three 
 months, St. Peter Celestine V. was, out of pure regard to 
 his eminent sanctity, unanimously elected, and impor- 
 tuned to accept of the pontificate, on the 5th of July, 
 1294, which he abdicated on the 121h of December, the 
 same year, with greater joy than the most ambitious man 
 could mount the throne of the, richest empire in the world. 
 
CHURCH OF CHRIST. 279 
 
 Cardinal Benedict Cajetan, under the name of Boniface 
 VIII. the ablest civilian and canonist of his age, was 
 «'hosen in his place, and crowned at Rome on the 16th of 
 January following. He held the pontificate eight years, 
 nine months, and eighteen days ; but Rome being then 
 torn by civil divisions, especially by the factions of the 
 Colowias, he fell into great calamities, and received much 
 ill treatment from William of Nogaret, and Philip tJu. 
 F'air^ kirig of France, his declared enemy. 
 
 Three general councils were held in this century. The 
 fourth of Lateran of 412 bishops, and near 800 abbots, 
 under Innocent III. in the year 1215. This was the 
 twelfth general council. The thirteenth was the first 
 council of Lyons, which was celebrated there in 1245, by 
 Innocent IV. partly for the purpose of procuring succours 
 for the Crusaders, and partly to reclaim the emperor 
 Frederic II. It consisted of 140 bishops besides the car- 
 dinals, patriarchs, the emperor Baldwin II. and the orators 
 of other Christian princes. The fourteenth general coun- 
 cil, or second of Lyons^ was opened in the same city, on 
 the 7th of May, 1274, in which were assembled 500 
 bishops, 70 abbots, and 1000 other prelates. James king of 
 Arragon, with the ambassadors of several other princes, 
 the patriarch of Constantinople, the metropolitan of Nice, 
 and the grand treasurer of the Greek emperor, assisted, 
 and produced the emperor's letters, with another letter 
 written in the names of thirty-five Oriental archbishops 
 and their sufiragans, earnestly praying for a re-union with 
 the mother Church, and styling the bishop of Rome the 
 first Pontiff and the common Father of all Christians. The 
 emperor Michael Palaeologus had made proposals before to 
 Clement IV. for a union, and Gregory X. resolved to 
 pursue the business zealously, and bring it to a happy 
 conclusion. The city of Lyons was most convenient for 
 this purpose, and also to concert measures for the recovery 
 of the Holy Land, which Gregory promoted with all his 
 might. It was also the most unexceptionable place for 
 the meeting of those princes whose succours were princi- 
 pally expected, because at that time it was subject to its 
 own archbishop, though held in fief of the emperor. The 
 Pope himself presided at this council, and the Logothete, 
 or chancellor of Constanstinople, abjured the schism in 
 the name of the emperor and the nation, accepted the pro^ 
 
280 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 fession of faith of the church of Rome, and confessed the 
 supremacy and primacy of the holy see. In thanksgiving 
 the Pope sung Mass, and the Te Deum on the feast of SS. 
 Peter and Paul, in the cathedral of St. John, with his 
 cheeks all the time bathed in tears. The Gospel was sung 
 first in Latin, then in Greek, and a sermon was preached 
 by St. Bonaventure on the unity of faith. Then the Creed 
 was sung also in Latin and in Greek, and as a seal of the 
 re-union of the two churches, these words were thrice re- 
 peated : TVho proceeded from the Father and the So7i. The 
 council was closed by the fifth and last session on the 17th 
 of July ; and in memory hereof two crosses are placed on 
 the high altar of the Metropolitan church at Lyons. Every 
 thing then apparently promised a durable union ; but, alas ! 
 after a short sun-shine of peace, the Greeks relapsed as 
 usual, and the schism was renewed nine years after by the 
 emperor Andronicus. A violent storm was also raised in 
 this age against the Church by the new Manicheans and 
 Cathari^ a sect of men whose principles and practice were 
 inimical to public peace, and tended to the destruction of 
 the laws of civil society and Christian morals. The Mani- 
 cheans had been troublesome from time to time for near 
 a thousand years, but never were so numerous or so pow- 
 erful as in this century, particularly in the southern parts 
 of France, where they were called Albigeois or Albigen- 
 seSj from the city of Alby. Being favoured by Raymond, 
 Count of Toulouse, and by some other neighbouring 
 princes, they committed great outrages in Languedoc, ex- 
 pelled the bishops from their sees, burnt churches, demo- 
 lished monasteries, and even entered the field in armed 
 troops to the amount of a hundred thousand men. But 
 their reign was short, for their numerous forces were 
 routed at Muret, a small town on the Garonne, near Tou- 
 louse, by Simon of Montfort, earl of Leicester, at the 
 head of only a thousand men. In the year 1209 they for- 
 tified themselves at Beziers, but the town being besieged 
 and taken by assault, the inhabitants were barbarously 
 put to death, to the number of fifteen thousand. The in- 
 humanity of this action is not to be palhated, nor can the 
 cruelties and injustices that were exercised on this occa- 
 sion be justified on any principle. Those, indeed, who dis- 
 turb the public peace, and set up the standard of rebellion 
 and persecution against all laws and authority, are to be 
 
CHURCH OP CHRIST. 281 
 
 restrained by lawful authority from doing acts of violence 
 and hurting others, but crimes and seditions are not to be 
 punished or revenged by other crimes, nor are avarice 
 and ambition to cover themselves under the cloak of zeal 
 for religion. 
 
 France was also infested about this time with another 
 sect, which was that of the Waldenses, or Poor Men of 
 Lyons, whq took their origin from Peter Waldo, a mer- 
 chant of that city, and broached various errors. They 
 commenced preachers without any license or commission, 
 and when they were opposed by the pastors of the Church 
 they wanted humility, and said, the clergy condemned 
 them because they envied their sanctity and morals. 
 Such are the baneful fruits and blindness of pride and 
 self-conceit. The Pctro-Brusians, who took their name 
 from Peter Bruys, a native of Dauphine, disturbed the 
 peace of the Church in like manner, and began to pro- 
 pagate their pernicious tenets at this period, covering the 
 most wicked actions and corrupt morals under an hy- 
 pocritical garb. In opposition to all these heresies. Di- 
 vine Providence was pleased to raise a number of apos- 
 tolic men and eminent saints, who maintained the purity 
 of faith, and promoted true piety and devotion, by the 
 light of their doctrine and shining virtues. St. Dominick 
 and St. Francis of Assisium founded two religious orders, 
 which were solemnly approved and confirmed in 1216 
 and 1223, by the authority of Honorius II. who also con- 
 firmed the holy order of the Carmelites in 1226. The 
 religious order of Hermits, founded by St. Augustine, near 
 the city of Tagaste, in the year 388, was transferred by 
 ^Jnnocent IV. in the year 1243, from their hermitages into 
 ^Bities and towns, for the edification of the faithful: and 
 ^Kheir union into one great body, under one general supe- 
 l^^ior, was approved and ratified by Alexander IV. in 1257. 
 A new religious order for the redemption of captives, was 
 approved by Gregory IX. in the year 1235. It was found- 
 ed by St. Peter Nolasco, a native of Languedoc, who being 
 I sent by Count Simon, of Montfort, into Spain, with the 
 ^oung prince James of Arragon (whose father had been 
 befeated and killed among the Albigenses, in the battle 
 of Muret) led the life of a recluse, and practised the aus- 
 terities of a cloister in the midst of the royal court at 
 Barcelona, where the kings of Arragon then chiefly resided- 
 A a 2 
 
282 HISTORY OF TilL 
 
 Charity and compassion for the poor had always been a 
 distinguishing feature in the character of St. Peter, so 
 that he might say with holy Job, that mercy and compas- 
 sion for his neighbour in distress had groivn up with him 
 from his childhood. He saw almost under his eyes the suf- 
 ferings of the Christians, who were detained in bondage 
 among the Infidels, and his tender heart was particularly 
 afflicted hereat ; for the Moors at that time being pos- 
 sessed of a considerable part of Spain, great numbers of 
 Christians groaned under their tyranny in a miserable sla- 
 very, both there and in Africa. The sight of so many 
 moving objects in captivity, and the consideration of their 
 corporeal sufferings, and much more so of the spiritual 
 dangers to which their immortal souls were exposed, un- 
 der their Mahometan masters, made him feel by compas- 
 sion the weight of all their chains, and spend his whole 
 estate in ransoming as many as he could. By his dis- 
 courses he moved the king and several others to contri- 
 bute large alms towards this charity, and at last formed a 
 project of instituting a religious order, for a constant sup- 
 ply of men and means, whereby to carry on his laudable 
 undertaking. St. Raymund of Pennafort, who was de- 
 scended from the counts of Barcelona, and nearly allied 
 to the kings of Arragon, concerted with him the founda- 
 tion of this new order, and drew up for it certain rules 
 and constitutions. It was this saint who collected into one 
 body all the scattered decrees of popes and councils, since 
 the collection made by Gratian. . It is looked upon as the 
 best finished part of the body of the canon law, and is 
 compiled in five books, commonly called the Decretals. 
 The incredible number of conversions, of which these 
 Saints were the instruments, is known only to Him, who, by 
 his grace, was the author of them. The kingdom of Va- 
 lentia was the first place that was blessed with the labours 
 of St. Peter ; the second was that of Grenada and the 
 coasts of Spain and Algiers, where, after undergoing great 
 hardships and sufferings, he induced many of the Ma- 
 hometans to embrace the faith of Christ. St. Raymund 
 applied himself to the exercises and functions of an 
 apostolic life, especially the conversion of the Saracens, 
 ten thousand of whom received baptism in the year 1256. 
 St. Peter died on Christmas day, in 1256, in the 67th 
 year of his age, and St. Raymund on the 6th of Janu- 
 
CHURCH or cnnisT. > 283 
 
 ary, 127p, in the "lOOtfcyear of his age. They were both 
 honoured by many miracles: Bollandus has filled fifteen 
 pages in folio with an account of them. 
 
 St. Raymond, surnamed Non-natus, or Unhorn^ because, 
 like unto Scipio Africanus, and, according to some authors, 
 Julius Csesar, he was taken out of the body of his mother 
 after her death, by the Caesarean operation, in the year 
 1!204, succeeded St. Peter Nolasco, at Barcelona, in the 
 charitable office of Ransomer of Captives. Being sent 
 into Barbary, he purchased the liberty of a greater num- 
 ber of slaves ; and when all his treasure was laid out in 
 that charitable way, he made a magnanimous sacrifice of 
 his own liberty, and voluntarily gave himself up as a hos- 
 tage for the ransom and salvation of others, who were in 
 imminent danger of sinking under their calamities, and 
 losing their immortal souls by impatience or apostacy from 
 Christ. 
 
 St. Philip Beniti, a native of Florence, was in this age 
 a great ornament of the Church, and a principal pro- 
 pagator of the rehgious order of the Servites in Italy. 
 When, upon the death of Clement IV. the cardinals 
 assembled at Viterbo began to cast their eyes on him to 
 raise him to the apostolic chair, having got intelligence 
 of their design, he retired into the mountains, and lay 
 concealed there till Gregory X. was chosen. All this 
 time he redoubled the macerations of his body, and gave 
 himself up to the sweet exercise of heavenly contempla- 
 tion, living chiefly on dry herbs, and drinking at a foun- 
 tain, since called St. Philip's Bath. He returned from 
 the desert, glowing with holy zeal, to labour for the con- 
 version of sinners, and to kindle in the hearts of Chris- 
 tians the fire of divine love. Italy was at that time 
 horribly divided by intestine discords and hereditary 
 factions, particularly those of the Guelphs, who adhered 
 to the popes, and the Ghibellins, or imperialists, who were 
 partisans of the emperors in their contests about investi- 
 tures, &c. These factions subsisted in Germany for above 
 an hundred years, but in Italy almost four hundred, they 
 not being quite extinct there before the reign of Charles 
 V. St. Philip Beniti, and several other holy men, en- 
 deavoured to supply suitable remedies to these quarrels, 
 and wonderfully pacified the people at Pistoia, Forli, and 
 many other places, where they were ready to tear each 
 
284 History of the 
 
 other to pieces, bat the discords^ like a wound ili cured, 
 broke out again with worse symptoms than ever. 
 
 The renowned St. Thomas of Aquino, styled the An- 
 gelic Doctor, flourished in this age. He performed his 
 studies at Cologne and Paris, under the tuition of Alber- 
 tus Magnus. His profound humility made him conceal 
 the amazing progress he made therein from his school- 
 fellows, who, on account of his modesty and silence, call- 
 ed him the Dumb Ox, but the brightness of his genius, and 
 his quick and deep penetration, were soon discovered by 
 his master, Albertus, who not able to contain his joy 
 and admiration, said, '' We call him the dumb ox, but he 
 *' will give such a bellow in learning, as will be heard all 
 '* over the world." This applause made no impression 
 on the humble Thomas, because his heart was full of no- 
 thing but of God, and his own insufficiency. In the year 
 1248, being twenty-two years of age, he began to publish 
 his first works, which consisted of comments on the ethics 
 and other philosophical works of Aristotle. The Albi- 
 genses and Saracens in Arabia and Spain, made then a 
 bad use of Aristotle's philosophy, and wrote with incre- 
 dible subtilty on his principles, particularly Avicenna and 
 Averroes, the Arabian philosophers. St. Thomas, though 
 he had only a bad translation of the works of that philo- 
 sopher, opposed the enemies of truth with their own wea- 
 pons, and employed the philosophy of Aristotle in defence 
 of the faith, and made it subservient to divine revelation. 
 He discerned and confuted his errors, and set in a clear 
 and new light the great truths of reason, which that phi- 
 losopher had often wrapt up in obscurity. Thus Aristo- 
 tle, who had been called the terror of Christians, in the 
 hands of Thomas became orthodox, and furnished rehgion 
 with new arms against Idolatry and Atheism. His writ- 
 ings are original efforts of genius and reflection, and 
 every point he handles in a manner that makes it appear 
 new. If his speculations are sometimes spun fine, and his 
 divisions run to niceties, this was owing to the custom 
 of the age in which he lived, and to the speculative re- 
 fining geniuses of the Arabians, whom he had undertaken 
 to pursue and confute throughout their whole subtle sys- 
 tem. St. Thomas penetrated the most knotty difficulties 
 in all the sciences, whether sacred or profane, to which he 
 applied himself; not out of a vain passion, or the desire 
 
m. 
 
 CHURCH OF CHRIST. 285 
 
 of applause, "but for the advancement of God's honour 
 and the interest of religion. In obscure and difficult 
 points, he redoubled with more earnestness his fervour in 
 his prayers than his application to study, which he found 
 attended with such success, that he was accustomed to 
 say, that he learned more before his crucifix, and at the 
 foot of the altar, than in books. His works are printed 
 in ten volumes, folio, and are partly philosophical, partly 
 theological, with comments on the holy Scriptures, and 
 several treatises of piety, wherein he reduces the rules 
 of an interior life, to these two Gospel maxims: first, that 
 we must strenuously labour, by self-denial and mortifi- 
 ration, to extinguish in our hearts all the sparks of pride, 
 and the inordinate love of creatures ; secondly, that by 
 assiduous prayfer, meditation, and doing the will of God in 
 all things, we must kindle his perfect love in our souls. — 
 Opusc. 17 and 18. The fruits of his preaching were no 
 less wonderful than those of his pen: He was heard at 
 Cologne, Paris, Rome, and in other cities as an angel. 
 Even the Jews ran of their own accord to hear his ser- 
 mons, and many of theiti -were converted. His devotion 
 to the blessed sacrament was extraordinary, and in saying 
 mass he seemed to be in raptures, often quite dissolved in 
 tears, and melting with love in contemplation of the im- 
 mense charity of Jesus Christ. He died on the 7th of 
 March, 1274. The Bollandists give a long authentic 
 account of various miracles wrought through his inter- 
 cession and by his rehcs, which were deposited in Tou- 
 louse with great honour. 
 
 St. Bonaventure, cardinal and bishop of Albano, sur- 
 
 amed the Seraphic Doctor, for his extraordinary devotion, 
 ardent charity, and eminent skill in sacred learning, was 
 a contemporary of St. Thomas, and died the same year, 
 on the 15th of July, in the 53d year of his age. The cele- 
 brated Gerson, the most learned and devout chancellor of 
 
 aris, calls St. Bonaventure both a Cliet^b and a Seraph, 
 
 ecause his writings both enlighten the understanding and 
 inflame the heart of the reader. The acts of his canoni- 
 zation record several approved miracles wrought by his 
 
 ntercession. 
 
 St. Anthony of Padua, so called from his long residence 
 in that city, though he was a native of Lisbon in Portugal, 
 adorned the church of this century by his learning and 
 
 i 
 
286 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 shining virtues. After teaching divinity with great ap- 
 plause at Bologna, Toulouse, Montpelier, and Padua, he 
 at length forsook the schools to apply himself wholly to 
 the functions of a missionary preacher ; for he thought 
 the conversion of souls from vice, and the reformation of 
 manners, called for his whole attention and zeal, and he 
 seemed formed, both by the gifts of nature and grace, for 
 this most important office. Being perfectly versed in the 
 Scriptures, he displayed in a clear light, and with inex- 
 pressible energy, the genuine sense, and the spirit and 
 marrow of the sacred text. He opposed the fashionable 
 vices with vigour and success in France, Spain, and Italy, 
 and he spoke with such unction and energy, that his elo- 
 quence, like a torrent of fire, bore down all before him, 
 and his words were so many darts, which pierced the hearts 
 of his hearers, for he had long treasured up in his own 
 heart the most feeling sentiments of every virtue, and his 
 soul was all flame, before he endeavoured to kindle the 
 fire of divine love in others. He was no less admirable 
 in the private direction of souls than in the pulpit. 
 Wherever he came, dissensions and ftnimosities were ex- 
 tinguished, usurers restored their unjust gains, and sinners 
 threw themselves at his feet, melted into tears. The sanc- 
 tity and austerity of his life added such weight to his words, 
 that he seemed to preach by every action. He gave up 
 his happy soul to Him who had created it for his own 
 great glory, on the 13th of June, 1231, being 36 years 
 old. At the first news of his departure, the children ran 
 about the streets, crying out, *' the saint is dead." His 
 sanctity was testified by many illustrious miracles, recorded 
 by Papebroke the Bollandist. — T. 2 Jun. p. 718. 
 
 St. Hyacinth of Poland, called the Apostle of the North, 
 lived about this time. He was a professed enemy of idle- 
 ness, which he knew to be the bane of all virtues. Every 
 hour of the day had its employment allotted to it, but 
 prayer was, as it were, the seasoning both of his sacred 
 studies and of all his other actions. His zeal was too ac- 
 tive for him to allow himself any rest, whilst he sav/ souls 
 perishing eternally in the ignorance of the true God. A 
 tender compassion for sinners moved him to carry the 
 Gospel into the vast and savage countries of the North. 
 After he had preached his first sermons with great success 
 at Cracow in Silesia (a province then united to Poland)^. 
 
CHURCH OF CHIIIST, 
 
 I and in the principal cities of Prussia, Pomerania, Den- 
 mark, Sweden, Gotha, and Norway, in all which coun- 
 tries there still remained many idolaters, he travelled into 
 Lesser Russia, and penetrated as far as the Black Sea, and 
 into the isles of the Archipelago. Long and dangerous 
 journeys over rocks, precipices, and deserts, were not able 
 to abate his ardour, or discourage his heroic soul, which 
 delighted in labouring for the glory of God, and could 
 think nothing difficult that was undertaken for so great an 
 end. Returning towards the North, he entered Muscovy, 
 called also Great Russia, and he no sooner began to an- 
 nounce the Gospel, confirming his doctrine by miracles, 
 but the Mahometans, Heathens, and Greek schismatics 
 tlocked to hear him in great multitudes, and became do- 
 cile to the truth. Having returned to Cracow in the year 
 lL'r31, his ardour to gain souls to Christ made him after- 
 ward undertake a voyage to Comania on the Danube, and 
 penetrate into Great Tartary, into Thibet near the East 
 ndies, and into Catay, the most northern province of 
 China. By means of his apostolic labour, several thousands 
 of these barbarians received the Sacrament of Baptism, 
 and among them a prince of the Tartars, who went with 
 several lords of his nation to the first General Council of 
 Lateran, in 1245. St. Hyacinth, after having travelled 
 above four thousand leagues, arrived in Cracow in the 
 year 12-57, which was the seventy-second and last of his 
 life. His sanctity was attested by an amazing number of 
 miracles, with the history of which the Bollandists have 
 filled thirty-five pages in folio. They have also filled 
 twenty-two pages in folio w^ith the history of the miracles 
 of St. Peter of Verona, who, after converting a multitude 
 of sinners, and Manicheans in Tuscany, Bologna, Ancona 
 and the. Milanese, w^as martyred on his return from Como 
 to Milan, the 6th of April, in the year 1252, by Carinus, 
 an assassin, who was hired by the Cathari to lie in am- 
 bush, and murder him on the road. 
 
 ; The succession of saints was still kept up by St. John 
 of Mantua ; St. Peregrinus Latiozi, who continued during 
 .^^penance in sackcloth and ashes to the 80th year of his 
 |» age ; St. Edmund, archbishop of Canterbury ; St. Richard, 
 bishop of Chichester; St. Wilham, archbishop of York ; 
 St. Lewis, bishop of Toulouse ; St. Simon Stock ; St. Syl- 
 vester, abbot of Osimo ; St. Raynerius ; St. Lewis IX. 
 
288 HISTORY OP THE 
 
 king of France, with his only sister, St. Isabella ; 8t. 
 Hedvvigis, queen of Poland ; St. Clare ; St. Elizabeth ; 
 St. Gertrude ; St. Juliana ; and St. Margaret of Cortona, 
 &c. These great servants of God had that fundamental 
 maxim -of virtue always before their eyes, that even devo- 
 tion, infected with self-will and humour, becomes vicious, 
 and nourishes self-love and self-conceit, the bane of all 
 virtue, and the chief enemy of the love of God. It is from 
 the poisonous root of self-love that all our vices and pas- 
 sions spring, and the seven capital sins are but so many 
 branches of it. Take away self-love, and you will shut up 
 all the avenues of hell. It is the indispensable duty of 
 every Christian to combat and counteract this dreadful 
 evil, by the opposite virtue of self-denial, in spite of all 
 the refined persuasions of a deluded conscience, and all 
 the specious arguments that are drawn from the artifices 
 and suggestions of self-love itself, since the Gospel re- 
 quires self-denial as a preliminary condition, and the first 
 step necessary to become a disciple of Christ. If any one 
 ivill come after me, let him deny himself ^t. Matthew, 16, 24. 
 Several academies were instituted in this age for the 
 cultivation of letters, one at Salamanca, in the beginning 
 of this century, one at Patavium, in the year 1222, one 
 at Toulouse in 1233, one at Naples in 1239, one in Swe- 
 den in 1240, one in Cambridge in 1280, one at Montpe- 
 lier, in 1289, and one at Lisbon in 1290. Academical de- 
 grees were introduced for the purpose of licensing persons 
 to teach in public. In conferring the degree of Doctor^ 
 or Master, a Bacillus, or wand, was delivered, whence 
 comes the name of JBaccalaureuSj or Baichtlor. The chief 
 ecclesiastical writers of this century were, among others, 
 Innocent III. eminent both for his literary and apostolical 
 labours ; Alexander of IJales, in Gloucestershire, sur- 
 named the Irrefragable Doctor ; ^gidius Romanus, styled 
 Doctor Fundatissimus ; Albertus Magnus, whose works 
 are published in twenty-one large volumes ; Augustinus 
 Triumphans ; Ulric of Argentina ; Alanus, a Cistercian 
 monk, called the Universal Doctor ; Cardinal James of 
 Vitri ; Henricus Gandavensis ; Rodericus Ximenius, arch- 
 bishop of Toledo ; Roger Bacon, called Doctor Mirabilis ; 
 Joachimus, abbot ; Helinandus ; Humbert ; Hugo de 
 Sancto Caro ; Vincent of Beauvais ; Robert Sorbon ; 
 Thomas Cantipratensis ; Robert Grotest ; William the 
 
I 
 
 I 
 
 ciiuRcu or CHRIST. 289 
 
 Wise and Pious, bishop of Paris, who exceedingly pro- 
 moted the studies in that university, so that there were 
 then more students than citizens in Paris. The works of 
 this illustrious prelate have been reprinted several times^ 
 and are standing monuments of his great piety and con- 
 summate erudition. If we follow the history of the Church 
 through every age with attention, we shall find that the 
 Providence of God has always taken care to raise up such 
 men from time to time for the defence of the TValls of Je- 
 rusalem^ and to fill them with his holy spirit, that they 
 might repel all the assaults of the powers of darkness, and 
 support the faith in its primitive purity, by their writings, 
 their miracles, and saint-like lives. This has been the 
 ^ase hitherto, and this will be the case to the end of time. 
 The promises made to the Church are eternal, and will 
 continue to be accomplished in all succeeding ages. The 
 victories she has heretofore gained over idolatry, heresies, 
 and scandals, are a sure proof and guarantee of the victo- 
 ries she is to gain in future. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 The Chitrch of the Fourteenth Centmvj. 
 
 •*tHE pontifical chair was filled in this age by Benedict 
 [XI. who, after the demise of Boniface VIII. on the 11th 
 jof October, 1303, was unanimously elected Pope on the 
 [22d of the same month, but sat only eight months and 
 [seventeen days. His successor Clement V. sat about nine 
 
 ears, and died near Avignon on the 20th of April, 1314. 
 [After a long vacancy John XXII. was elected on the 7th 
 of August, 1316, and sat eighteen years. Benedict XII. 
 succeeded him, and died in the eighth year of his pontifi- 
 cate. After him Clement VI. sat ten years and about 
 nine months. Innocent VI. was elected on the 18th of 
 December, 1352, and sat till the 12th of September, 1362. 
 He was succeeded by Urban V. who sat eight years and 
 near two months. Gregory XI. sat seven years and three 
 months, and died in Rome on the 27th of March, 1378. 
 Urban VI. was chosen on the 9th of April the same year, 
 and died on the 15th of October, 1389. He was suc- 
 Bb 
 
2D0 IIISTOKY OF THE 
 
 ceeded by Boniface IX. who governed the Church till the 
 1st of October, 1403. 
 
 The fifteenth General Conncil was held in the year 
 1310 at Vienne in France, under Clement V, It consisted 
 of three hundred bishops, and a great number of other 
 prelates of distinguished abilities and merit, perfectly ac- 
 quainted with ecclesiastical discipline and sacred anti- 
 quity. This Council suppressed the order of Knights 
 Templars, and condemned the Fratricelli, who made all 
 perfection to consist in a seeming poverty. The impure 
 heresies of the Bernards, L^olliards, Beguincs and Turlu- 
 piniy with the errors of the F'lagallantes^ who placed pe- 
 nance entirely in the exterior practice of disciplining^ or 
 flagellation, and other fanatics who made their appear- 
 ance about this time, were also condemned. The peace 
 of the Church was disturbed in this age by the great 
 schism that began in the West, and was occasioned by 
 the election of Clement V. who being a Frenchman, 
 fixed his residence at Avignon, where his successors con- 
 tinued for a considerable time. Antipopes were set up 
 by the contending parties, and the schism was not entirely 
 extinguished till after the Council of Constance. 
 
 The succession of saints was kept up by St. Andrew 
 Corsini, bishop of Fiosela ; St. John Columbini, founder 
 of the Jesuati : St. Yvo, a priest of little Britain ; St. Roch 
 of Montpelier ; St. John of Burlington ; St. Peter of Lux- 
 emburg, bishop of Mentz ; St. John Nepomucen, martyr ; 
 St. Elzear, and his holy spouse St. Delphina, who were a 
 noble pattern for heads of families ; St. Catharine of 
 Sienna ; St. Clare of Monte Falco near Spoleto ; St. 
 Elizabeth, queen of Portugal ; St. Catharine of Sweden ; 
 St. Agnes of Monte Pulciano, kc. See Dr. Alb. Butler, 
 torn. 9. p. 329. and tom. 5. p. 217. The great St. Nicho- 
 las of Tolentin died about the beirinnino: of this centurv, 
 on the 10th of September, 1306, in the sixty-first year of 
 his age. He was a prodigy of penancis and mortification ; 
 his ordinary food was coarse bread with pulse or herbs ; 
 his bed was the bare floor, with a stone for his pillow. 
 The disciplines and iron girdles with which he afllicted 
 Ids body are shown to this day in Tolentin, where his 
 sacred relics ai'e deposited in a stately basilic. Eugenius 
 IV". who canonized him in the year 1446, styled him 
 ThamnuturguSy and declared that no saint since the days 
 
Ill 
 
 i 
 
 CIltjRCH OF CHRIST. 291 
 
 of the Apostles adorned the Church with more miracles. 
 The bull of his canonization alone relates upwards of three 
 hundred renowned miracles, strictly examined and juridi- 
 cally proved by the solemn testimonies of three hundred 
 and seventy-one witnesses, among whom were diflerent 
 persons who had been raised to life by his intercession. 
 These and such like miracles are not however proposed 
 as parts of Divine revelation, or articles of faith, to be 
 equally assented to with the miracles that are recorded in 
 the holy scriptures, but they rest upon their bare histori- 
 cal authority, and deserve at least the same prudent as- 
 sent, human belief, and credit, that is given to other facts, 
 attested by great numbers of eye-witnesses, examined by 
 authority, and found upon record, or related upon good 
 grounds in profane history. Nothing can be more vmjust 
 tiian to charge the Church with pationising forgeries, or 
 countenancing falise legends. So far from this, that she 
 condemns all kidids of forgeries relating to religion, as lies 
 of the most criminal and the most heinous nature, and 
 that her councils and bishops have been always most se- 
 vere in detecting and punishing them. See the decrees of 
 the fourth council of Lateran, and of the council of Trent 
 against counterfeit miracles and relics. Yet a little in- 
 credulity, accompanied with a presumption of measuring 
 od's works by the short line of human wisdom, will make 
 the best attested miracles pass for forgeries and absurd 
 impossibilities. Is not every thing ridiculous and absurd 
 to unbelievers ? Is not the whole doctrine of Christ a 
 scandal to the Jews, and ci folly to the Gentiles ? Take away 
 faith, and see what will become of the miracles recounted 
 in the Old and New Testament, where we read that God, 
 for the manifestation of his glory and goodness, has been 
 pleased to favour many of his servants with the gift of 
 miracles, and where Christ our Lord has promised that 
 is disciples should work greater miracles than himself had 
 rought ; that in his name they should cast out devils, and 
 ical all kind of disorders : See an excellent treatise of Dr. 
 Hays, On Miracles, printed in the year 1789. 
 
 This century was auspicious to the cultivation of letters. 
 The hard servitude of the people under their immediate 
 Lords, who were a kind of subaltern sovereigns in their 
 own estates, with many severe customs concerning vas- 
 salages being abolished in France and some other coun- 
 
292 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 tries, studies began to flourish exceedingly, and great en- 
 couragement and protection were held out by many zeal- 
 ous patrons of the sciences. The depravation of taste 
 imder the decline of the Roman Empire had begun, and 
 the inundations of the barbarians completed the fall of 
 the polite arts in the West. However, the sciences of 
 faith and piety never languished in the Church of Christ. 
 Sacred learning was always cultivated, even in what are 
 called the dark ages. The study of the Holy Scriptures 
 was never neglected. They were carefully delivered 
 down, and accurately corrected from the Hebrew under 
 Charlemagne, and under St. Lewis, with learned notes 
 from the Hebrew, 70, Origen, St. Jerom, Stc. long before 
 the revival of the belles lettres and the invention of the 
 art of printing. All the great monasteries had public li- 
 braries and Scriptoriums, where numbers of religious men 
 ■were employed in copying and transcribing books, at the 
 hours allotted to manual labour. Ecolah^es, or Scholas- 
 tics, were established in Cathedrals, and great care was 
 taken by the Clergy to preserve and restore ancient 
 literature. The very names of Lanfranc, St. Stephen 
 Harding, abbot of Citeau, Raymond Martini, Nicholas of 
 liyra, Porket Salvage, a Carthusian monk of Genoa, Paul 
 of Burgos, Austin Justiniani, Houbigand, a French ora- 
 torian, &c. ought alone to stop the mouth of slander. 
 Who was it that transplanted and revived the Greek lan- 
 guage and authors, and with them all polite arts and lite- 
 rature in the West } says the elegant Protestant author 
 of the Minute Philosopher j Dial. 5. n. 25. T. 1. p. 324. 
 Was it not chiefly Bessarion, a Cardinal, Marcus Masu- 
 rus an archbishop, Theodore Gaza, a private clergyman.' 
 Has there been a greater and more renowned patron and 
 restorer of elegant studies in every kind since the days of 
 Augustus Caesar, than Leo X. Pope of Rome? Did any 
 writers approach the purity of the classics nearer than the 
 Cardinals Bembus and Sadoletus, or than the bishops Jo- 
 vius and Vida? not to mention an endless number of 
 Cistercians, French Benedictines, and other learned eccle- 
 siastics, who have eminently excelled in all the branches 
 of polite literature. Several universities were founded in 
 this century: one at Avignon, in the year 1303, another 
 at Orleans, in 1305, another in Dublin, in 1320, another 
 at Pisa, in 1339, another at Angers, in 1346, another at 
 
CHURCH OF CHRIST. 293 
 
 Heidelberg, the same year, another at Prague, in 1358, 
 another at Orange, in 1347, another at Geneva, in 1365, 
 another at Vienna, about the year 1390, another at Si- 
 enna, in 1387, and another at Cologne, in 1388. i 
 The most celebrated writers of this century were John 
 Duns Scotus, who died at Cologne in 1308 ; Augustine (f£ 
 Ancona ; WiUiam Ockam, a native of Surry in England, 
 and head of the Nominal philosophers, who, in opposition 
 to the Realists, maintain, that words, not things, are the 
 objects of dialectic ; John Bacon ; Petrus Aureolus ; Ni- 
 colaus Lyranus ; Gregory of Ariminum ; Thomas de Ar- 
 gentina ; Jacobus Viterbiensis ; Alphonsus Vargas ; Pe- 
 lagius Alvarus ; Durandus, a Sancto Portiano ; Herva^us ; 
 Francis Mayro ; Monaldus ; Petrus Paludanus ; Guido 
 Carmelita ; Ludolphus Carthusianus ; John of Burlington ; 
 Richard of Hampole ; Simon de Cassia ; John Taulerus ; 
 John Rusbrochius ; Antonius Arragonius ; Thomas Bra- 
 duardinus ; Alexander de Sancto Epidio ; Jacobus Tolo- 
 sanus ; Jordon of Saxony ; Henry Suso, tiie author of se- 
 veral pious tracts, &c. Lithuania was gained over to the 
 Church of this century, by the conversion of the grand 
 duke, Wladislaus, and his people. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 Tlie Church of the Fifteenth Cenlwry. 
 
 THE Apostolic chair was filled in this age by Innocent 
 II. from the 17th of October, 1104, till the 6th of No- 
 vember, 1406. Gregory XII. succeeded him, on the 20th 
 of the same month and year, was deposed on the 26th of 
 June, 1409, and died at Recanati in 1417. Alexander 
 V. sat from June, 1409, till the 3d of May, 1410. John 
 XXIII., being elected at Bologna, on the 17th of the same 
 month and year, was deposed on the 29th of May, 1415, 
 and died at Florence on the 22d of December, 1419. 
 Martin V. was chosen on the 11th of November, 1417, 
 and sat twelve years, three months, and twelve days, ac- 
 cording to an inscription on his brass monument in the 
 Lateran Basilic. Eugenius IV. succeeded him, and died 
 in the sixteenth year of his pontificate. Nicholas V. his 
 B b 2 
 
294 HisroRY OF Tiii; 
 
 successor, died in March, 1455. Calixtus III. iieid the 
 pontificate from the 8th of April, 1455, till the 6th of 
 August, 1458. Pius II. being elected the same year, on 
 the 27th of August, died on the 14th of August, 1464. 
 On his demise, Paul 11. being raised to the pontificate, 
 viva voce, by the means of Cardinal Bessarion, died on 
 the 26th of July, 1471. Sixtus IV. succeeded him, and 
 sat till the 13th of August, 1484. Innocent VIII. was 
 elected on the 29th of the same month, and died in July, 
 1492. Alexander VI. was chosen the same year, on the 
 nth of August, and died on the 18th of August, 1503. 
 On him the following distich was made: 
 
 *' Visuram se iterum Sixtum cum Roma putardy 
 " Pro Sixto Sextum viditj ct ingemuit.'*^ 
 
 When Rome another Shius toish^d retuni'd, 
 A Sextus she beheld, and deeply mourned. 
 
 In this century the peace of the Church was greatly 
 disturbed by a long schism. Italy suffered great loss by 
 the absence of the popes, and the city of Rome in par- 
 ticular, was torn by different factions. The Romans com- 
 plained that their bishops had for seventy-four years past, 
 forsaken their Church, and they ardently wished for, and 
 earnestly solicited, their return from Avignon. In fine, 
 Gregory XI. yielding to their pressing entreaties and im- 
 portunities, removed his seat from Avignon on the 13th of 
 September, 1376, and was received at Rome, amidst the 
 acclamations of the people, with the most lively demon- 
 strations of joy. After his death th« Romans, fearing 
 lest the new Pope, if he happened to be a Frenchman, 
 might fix his residence again at Avignon, assembled in 
 crowds about the palace where the cardinals were deli- 
 berating, and cried out. We loill have a Roman Pope. To 
 these seditious clamours they added menaces. The car- 
 dinals being intimidated, named the archbishop of Bari, 
 who took the name of Urban VI. Sixteen of the car- 
 dinals being afterwards dissatisfied with their choice, de- 
 parted from Rome, declared their election null, because 
 it was not free, and elected another Pope, under the 
 name of Clement VII. This unhappy affair threw the 
 Church into a dreadful confusion. Christendom was di- 
 vided between two Popes: Clement was acknowledged 
 JQ- France, in Spain, in Scotland, and Sicily ; whilst En- 
 
I 
 
 , eilURCH OF CHRIST. 295 
 
 gland, Hungary, Bohemia, and a part of Germany, de- 
 clared for Urban. The death of Urban did not terminate 
 the schism, the cardinals of his obedience, as they were 
 then called, having elected a successor, which the opposite 
 party likewise did on their side. These dismal scenes were 
 frequently renewed. In the year 1409, the cardinals, 
 afflicted at the continuance of so scandalous a division 
 among the faithful, resolved to put an end to it, and for 
 this purpose they united in the council of Pisa, and hav- 
 ing withdrawn their obedience from the two contending 
 popes, Gregory XII. and Benedict XIII. they unanimously 
 elected Alexander V. This council was composed of 
 tw«nty-two cardinals, twenty-four archbishops, one hun- 
 dred and eighty-two bishops, with above three hundred ab- 
 bots and theologians. But all their efforts proved ineffec- 
 tual, the schism still continued, and the evil consequences 
 increased. The obstinacy of the popes, the jealousy of the 
 cardinals on both sides, and the different interests of the 
 crowned heads, seemed to forebode a perpetual continu- 
 ance of the schism, if God, who promised not to abandon his 
 Church, had not removed all the obstacles which the human 
 passions opposed to the re-establishment of union. His 
 Divine Providence was pleased at length to accomplish this 
 great work in the sixteenth general council,whichwas assem- 
 bled in 1414, at Constance in Germany, near Switzerland. 
 John XXIII. Sigismond the emperor, four patriarchs, forty- 
 three archbishops, one hundred and sixty bishops, and up- 
 wards of a hundred and sixty abbots and eminent theo- 
 logians, were present at this council. All the pretenders 
 to the popedom being cited to appear, either abdicated 
 voluntarily, or were deposed, and Martin V. was canon- 
 ically elected, and generally acknowledged for the only 
 lawful head of the Church. Thus ended the schism, after 
 having continued thirty-six years. In this extraordinary 
 case, the Church had full power to assemble herself thus 
 in a general council, in order to proceed to the election of 
 a pope, whose title should be unquestionable. This is 
 what she did in the council of Constance, which, as car- 
 dinal Turrecremata observes, was but a continuation of 
 the council of Pisa. Whilst the election of the contend- 
 ing popes continued doubtful, the papal chair might be 
 considered in effect the same as vacant, and the faithful 
 in the interim might rest as fully convinced of the infalli- 
 
290 HISTORY OP THE 
 
 bility of the public doctrine of the Church, as of the in- 
 falHbility of the Gospels, though the persons who wrote 
 them were men subject to human passions. The whole 
 difference being about a matter of fact, that is, about the 
 validity of the election of the popes, the people were not 
 on this account the less attached to the apostolic see and 
 chair of St. Peter. They still continued to believe that 
 there was but one visible head of the Church, and that 
 he only who had been canonically elected, was this head 
 and the true pontiff. They were not, indeed, competent 
 judges, in the concurrence of different pretenders, to dis- 
 cern which of them was the lawful pope, or which of 
 them had been duly elected ; but in this case they might, 
 with a safe conscience, follow the opinion and directions 
 of their respective pastors, as St. Antoninus remarks. 
 
 Besides the extinction of the long schism, another ob- 
 ject, which the council of Constance had in view, was the 
 suppression of the heretical errors of Wiclef, a doctor of 
 Oxford, which John Huss, rector of the university of 
 Prague, and Jerom his disciple, w^ere spreading at that 
 time through Bohemia, until they were condemned, de- 
 graded, and handed over to the civil power in the year 
 1415. The Hussties raised great commotions in that king- 
 dom for about one hundred years, and filled it with civil 
 wars, tumults, bloodshed, plunders, sacrileges, the ruin of 
 famihes, and every other sort of calamity. The New 
 Adamiies, the JFossarii, and Tliaborites, gave great scan- 
 dal, and perpetrated the most horrid crimes. The Calix- 
 linSj so called from their belief of the necessity of 
 communion under both kinds, painted the form of a chalice 
 in so many places, that they gave occasion to the follow- 
 ing distich: 
 
 " Tot pingit Calices JBohemormn terra per Urbes^ 
 ^* Ut credas Bacchi numina^ sola coliy 
 
 So many cups Bohemia does afford, 
 You'd fancy Bacchus only ivas ador'^d 
 
 John Zisca, a veteran general and a follower of John 
 Huss, having assembled a powerful army, plundered that 
 whole country with unheard of barbarity, and built the 
 strong fortress, which he called Thahor, amidst waters and 
 mountains. He defeated the emperor Sigismond's armies 
 eight times, and when he was dying of a pestilence at 
 
CHURCH OF CHRIST. 297 
 
 Prisroii, in the jear 1424, he ordered a drum to be made 
 of his skin to terrify his enemies. 
 
 In the midst of all the foregoing scandals, the grand 
 design of God, which is the sanctification of his elect, 
 was brougiit about and accomplished, and the succession 
 of saints was kept up by St. Antoninus, archbishop of 
 Florence ; St. Vincent Ferrerius ; St. Laurence Justmian, 
 patriarch of Venice ; St. Bernardinus of Sienna ; St. 
 Thomas of Kempis ; St. John Capistran ; St. Nicholas 
 Albergati ; St. John of Sahagun ; St. Didacus ; St. 
 James de la Marcha ; St. Casimir, prince of Poland ; St. 
 Frances of Rome ; St. Catharine of Bologna ; St. Ca- 
 tharine of Genoa ; St. Jane of France ; St. Coleta ; St. 
 Anthony of Amandula ; St. Andrew de Monte Regalia ; St. 
 Anthony of Aquila ; St. Veronica of Binasco ; St. Rita of 
 Cassia; St. Francis of Paula, the founder of the religious 
 order of the 3Iinims jWiih many others,who were eminent for 
 the gift of miracles, and who edified the world by the sweet 
 odour of their virtues. See Alban Butler, torn. 4. p. 10. 
 , The faith was iu this century preached with great suc- 
 cess in the kingdoms of Congo and Angola in Afric, and 
 the inhabitants of the Canary Islands were gained 
 over to the Church of Christ. Five and twenty thou- 
 sand Jews and Moors were also converted, and a prodi- 
 gious number of Schismatics and of bad Christians were 
 reclaimed by the preaching, labours, and miracles of St. 
 Vincent Ferrerius. 
 
 St. Laurence Justinian, says Dr. Cave, was a prelate 
 admirable for his sincere piety towards God, the ardour 
 of his zeal for the divine honour, and the excess of his 
 charity to the poor, which seemed a sea that could not be 
 drained. His writings consist of sermons, letters, and 
 fourteen treatises of piety, full of unction. He was con- 
 stituted by Nicholas V. first Patriarch of Venice. 
 
 There were but three patriarchs acknowledged in the 
 Church until the fourth century. The bishop of Rome 
 was the patriarch of the West, and the bishops of the 
 great sees of Alexandria and Antioch were the patriarchs 
 of the East. Afterwards the patriarchal dignity was con- 
 ferred on Jerusalem, on account of its sanctity; and Con- 
 .stantinople, on account of the Imperial seat, usurped the 
 patriarchal right in the year 381, but not without much 
 opposition. For peace saKe it was at length agreed to by 
 
293 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 a decree of the Council of Lateran, in the year 1215, that 
 next after Rome, Constantinople should hold thjg second 
 rank, Alexandria the third, Antioch the fourth, and Jeru- 
 salem the fifth. The title of Vicar of Jesus Chrisi was 
 always peculiar to the bishops of Rome, as is manifest 
 from the fifteenth letter of St. Cyprian to Pope Cor- 
 nehus. — The title of Pa^ja, or Pope, which signifies Father y 
 was anciently common to all bishops, they being the Fa- 
 thers of the Church. For many ages past custom has 
 confined this title to the bishop of Rome only, who in 
 quality of head of the whole Church, and successor of 
 St. Peter, who fixed his apostolic seat and died in Rome, 
 is the spiritual father of all the faithful. Some writers 
 say that the word Papa comes from the initial letters of 
 these four words, Petrus, Apostolus, Princcps, Aposiolonunj 
 which being abbreviated with a punctum or colon after 
 each of the four initial letters, coalesced in progress of 
 time into the word Papa, without any intermediate punc- 
 tuation. Hence it follows, that Baron Holberg and some 
 other historians are greatly mistaken, when they assert 
 that the order of the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy was intro- 
 duced in the eighth century ; it being evident from the- 
 sixth and seventh canons of the first General Council of 
 Nice, and from the first Council of Ephesus, that Me- 
 tropolitans and Archbishops had been previously esta- 
 blished. Bingham in his Antiquities also proves that the 
 title of Archbishop was mentioned by Justinian in the 
 sixth century. The truth is, that the institution of Bi- 
 shops, Metropolitans or Archbishops, Primates and Pa- 
 triarchs, originated in the practice of the Apostles, who, 
 as Eusebius and St. John Chrysostom observe, committed 
 the care of the churches in Crete to Titus, and intrusted 
 Timothy with the superintendence of all the churches in 
 Asia Minor, to direct all the pubUc and common afiairs 
 of them. 
 
 St. Antoninus, archbishop of Florence, was eminent for 
 his writings, as well as for his piety. His principal work 
 is his Sum of Moral Divinity, divided into four parts, 
 wherein all virtues and vices are explained ; the former 
 enforced by pathetic motives and examples, aiul the latter 
 painted in the mast striking colours, to inspire Christians 
 with horror, St. John Capistran wrote some tracts on 
 ih€ Council of Basil , on the Last Judgment , on the Spiritual^ 
 
CHURCH OF CHRIST. S99 
 
 IVarfarCy on Hie Civil and Canon Law, Sfc. The works of 
 St, jBornanline are printed in five volumes folio. The 
 ■works of Thomas of Kempis, a canon regular of the order 
 of St. Augustine, bear evident testimony to his extraordi- 
 nary sanctity, especially the incomparable book of the 
 Lnitalion of Christy whereof he is said to be the author, or 
 at least the copier. It is the privilege of this book to be 
 tlie pocket companion of devout persons, as it is the 
 genuine effusion of a perfect Christian spirit. Fontenelle 
 calls it the most excellent book that ever came from the 
 hand of man, the holy scriptures being of divine original. 
 The Spirilual Combat may be called its key, or introduc- 
 tion. That great contemplative Thomas of Kempis died 
 in 1471, in the 91st year of his age. About the same pe- 
 riod died also the renowned prodigy of wit and learning, 
 John Picus, prince of Mirandula, in the 32d year of his 
 age. The following epitaph was engraved on his tomb ; 
 
 Joannes jacet hie Mirandula, ccetera norunt 
 Kt TaguSj el Ganges yforsan et Antipodes. 
 
 Of John Mirandida, here all does lie 
 That mortal was, and that could ever die : 
 For tvhat viHuc, learning, sense could him givCj 
 Throughout the world his fame shall ever live. 
 
 There were several other celebrated writers in this cen- 
 tury, particidarly Cardinal Peter de Alliaco, and John 
 Gerson, his disciple. Cardinal John, a Turrecremata, Car- 
 dinal Nicholas Cusa, Bessarion, archbishop of Nice, Gre- 
 gory, archbishop of Constantinople, Gabriel Biel, Joannes 
 Capriolus, Thomas Walden, Paulus Utinensis, Andreas 
 Bilius, Dionysius Carthusianus, Gennadius, Joseph, bishop 
 pf Modion, Jacobus Perez, Henricus Harpius, Paulus 
 Burgensis, Honuphrius, and Alphonsus Tostatus, of whom 
 it is said : 
 
 I 
 
 Hie stupor est mundiy qui scibile discutit Omne, 
 
 Here 7'esis, tilt summoned to ih^ Almighty Tlirone^ 
 A prodigy, who knew all could he known. 
 
 In the year 1418 near two thousand students were put 
 ^ to death by the people, in a sedition at Paris, and the 
 "same year the Portuguese began the discovery of Madeira, 
 
300 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 and several other islands on the Western coast of Africa, 
 and found a passage by sea to the East Indies, with which 
 no commerce was then open, but through Egypt or Per- 
 sia. Americus Vespusius, a Florentine, discovered Bra- 
 zil in 1497, and Vasco de Gama, the Portuguese admiral, 
 doubled the Cape of Good Hope, in 1498, and having dis- 
 covered the coast of Mozambique, and the city of Melin- 
 da, upon the African coast, he sailed thence to Calicut 
 in the East Indies. The art of printing with types cast in 
 metal was invented about the year 1440, and propagated 
 through Germany, France, Italy, England, &c. The first 
 book that was printed was Duramli Rationale Divinorum 
 Officiorum. It came from the new press of John Fust and 
 Peter Schoeffer, his partner, who were aided in their ex- 
 pensive enterprise by John Chiilenburg, a native of Ment^, 
 settled then at Strasburgh. The pohte arts received great 
 improvement from the invention of printing, especially 
 after the taking of Constantinople by the Turks, for the 
 Grecian scholars being then exiled and scattered over the 
 West, brought into it all the Oriental learning, and gave 
 no small support to the cultivation of letters, first in Italy, 
 and afterwards in other parts of Europe. A new plan of 
 education was then adopted, public schools were opened 
 for the improvement of youth, and several academies were 
 established, particularly at Herbipolis, in Franconia, in 
 1403, at Tours in 1405, at Leipsic in 1408, at Louvain in 
 1426, at Valentia in 1452, at Nantz and Fribourg in 1460, 
 at Basil in 1459, at Ingolstadt in 1472, at Copenhagen in 
 1479, at Strasburg in 1487, at Munsier, in Westphalia, in 
 1490, &c. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 
 The seventeenth General Council held at Florence, for the 
 extinction of the Greek schism, Sfc. 
 
 CANONISTS and theologians require to a general 
 council the presence of the chief patriarchs, as principal 
 prelates, (at least by their deputies,) and of bishops, from 
 the different kingdoms of the CathoHc Church, who repre- 
 sent the body of the pastors of the whole Church. The 
 
OHUIIQH OF CHRIST. 301 
 
 confirmation of the chief pastor is also deemed, by most 
 divines, a necessary condition. If doubts arise whether 
 a conncil be general, it is to be considered whether it be 
 looked upon by the Church as such, and as the repre- 
 sentative of the whole ; or whether the whole Church re- 
 ceives and acquiesces in its decisions ; which the faithful, 
 having their pastors and teachers always ready to instruct 
 them, cannot in practice be at a loss to know, though this 
 may sometimes be obscure, till circumstances are cleared 
 up. The aforesaid conditions were wanting at Basil after 
 the tenth session. That council was continued eighteen 
 years, first at Basil, afterwards at Lausanne. Its proceed- 
 ings in 1433, concerning the Hussites, and some points of 
 ecclesiastical discipline, were approved and confirmed by 
 Eugenius IV. who, during the tenth session, ordered the 
 council to be removed, and from this time his legates were 
 refused admittance. Wherefore, it is allowed by most, 
 that this council was legal and general in the beginning, 
 but it became afterwards a particular synod and schis- 
 matical conventicle, especially when it was solemnly dis- 
 solved by a bull of Eugenius, and a general council open- 
 ed at Ferrara in 1437. Turrecremata, and a considerable 
 part of the prelates that were assembled at Basil, removed 
 then, after the twenty-sixth session, but some staid behind, 
 and contiiuied their sessions schismatic ally during the 
 forty-five last sessions. In 1438 they approved the French 
 pragmatic sanction of Charles VII. relating chiefly to the 
 collation of benefices, and in 1439 they prevailed upon 
 Amadeus VII. formerly duke of Savoy, and then a hermit 
 Rt Ripalles, near the Lake of Geneva, to receive from 
 ihem, under the name of Felix V. a pretended pontificate, 
 which he afterwards voluntarily resigned in 1449. 
 
 The true general council met first at Ferrara in 1437, 
 and thither John Palseologus, the Greek emperor — Joseph, 
 the patriarch of Constantinople — with the other prelates, 
 l-epaired. After sixteen sessions a contagious distemper 
 breaking out at Ferrara, the council was removed by Eu- 
 genius IV. to Florence, in 1439 ; and the same year, on 
 the 6th of July, after all difficulties had been discussed, 
 the reunion of the Western, or Latin Church, and of the 
 Eastern, or Greek Church, was agreed to, and a decree 
 %vas drawn up for that purpose. The Greek emperor — 
 the deputies of the patriarchs of Ale^i^andria, Antioch, and 
 C c 
 
302 Hisroiiv OF the 
 
 Jerusalem — with sixteen Oriental metropolitans, or arch- 
 bishops — several bishops — ten abbots ; and a great num- 
 ber of other Greek dignitaries and ecclesiastics of distin- 
 guished abilities, having renounced their schism and errors, 
 openly professed according to the faith of the Roman 
 Catholic Church, that the Holy Ghost proceeded from 
 the Father and the Son, and that the Pope was head of 
 the Universal Church. They all, Greeks as well as La- 
 tins, embraced one another in token of union and mutual 
 charity, and subscribed the decree, except Marky arch- 
 bishop of Ephesus. After the departure of the Greeks, 
 the Armenians abjured their here-sy, and also signed a de- 
 cree of union. This council lasted three years after the 
 conclusion of this momentous affair, and was at length 
 dissolved at Rome, in the Lateran palace, in 1442. 
 
 The eyes of all Christendom had been attentively fixed 
 on this council, and the happy issue of it diffused univer- 
 sal joy through the Church. But this bright sun-shine of 
 concord and joy had only emerged from one cloud to be 
 intercepted by another, for the Greeks, thus brought back 
 to the bosom of their mother Church, relapsed shortly 
 again into their former schism. The obstinate prelate, 
 Mark of Ephesus, on his return to Constantinople, finding 
 the people of that city violently prepossessed against the 
 union, availed himself of this opportunity to declaim and 
 write against it. An inundation of libels soon appeared, 
 fraught with virulence, calumnies, and falsehoods. Those 
 who had subscribed the decree were bitterly reviled, and 
 treated with so much cruelty, that many of them lost 
 courage, yielded to the stream, and gave up the cause. 
 
 Pope Nicholas V. a pontiff of remarkable piety and 
 learning, grieving at the invincible obstinacy of the Greeks, 
 and reflecting on the repeated and unsuccessful labours, 
 which had been taken for their conversion, wrote to them 
 a letter in the beginning of the year 1451, in which he 
 exhorted them in a pathetic manner to open their eyes to 
 their past stubbornness, and to re-unite themselves to the 
 Cathohc Church. He addressed himself in particular to 
 Constantine Palseologus, their emperor, in the following 
 words : "The Greeks have already too long abused the 
 *' patience of God, in persisting in their schism. Accord- 
 " ing to the parable of the Gospel, God waits to see if 
 *' the fig-tree, after having been cultivated with so much 
 
CHURCH OF CHRIST. 303 
 
 '^ care, will at last yield fruit ; but if it does not, within 
 '' the space of three years, which God still allows them, 
 '' the tree will be cut down by the root, and the Greek 
 '^ nation shall be entirely ruined by the ministers of*Divine 
 *' Justice, which God will send to execute the sentence 
 ••' already pronounced in Heaven against them." 
 
 This prediction was literally accomplished, for in the 
 year 1453, Mahomet II. having besieged Constantinople 
 with a land army of three hundred thousand men, and a 
 ileet of above one hundred gallies, with a hundred and 
 thirty other smaller vessels, began a general assault both 
 by sea and land, on the 29th of May, early in the morn- 
 ing. He animated his troops so surprisingly, that they 
 advanced through the most violent fire of the besieged, 
 and a storm of darts and stones, over the dead bodies of 
 those that were slain, till they became masters of the 
 city. A janizary having planted the Turkish standard on 
 the top of the wall, the Turks immediately poured in like 
 a torrent, at a breach which they had made by shooting 
 stone bullets of two hundred pounds weight from fourteeu 
 batteries, as Phranzes, the Greek historian, relates. The 
 emperor and eight hundred of his soldiers were trod to 
 death in the breach, by the barbarians, and the fugitives 
 were slaughtered without mercy. It is computed that 
 forty tho\isand Greeks perished on this unhappy occasion, 
 besides sixty thousand who were afterwards sold for slaves. 
 Mahomet allowed his victorioas troops to plunder the city 
 for three days, during which they gave a loose to the hu- 
 man passions, were guilty of all kind of excesses, and 
 perpetrated the most execrable crimes ever recorded in 
 the annals of history. Mahomet himself, who is said to 
 have caused the belhes of fourteen of his own pages to be 
 ripped open, that he might discover w^hich of them had 
 eaten a melon taken from him, gave manifest proofs of 
 his tyrannical cruelty on this occasion ; for he caused the 
 Kmperor's head to be cut off and fixed on a pike, and his 
 body to be treated with the greatest indignity ; he ordered 
 the nobles and grandees to be massacred and dissected, 
 and the bodies of the empress and her daughters to be cut 
 in pieces, and inhumanly served up on dishes at a ban- 
 quet. Yet Divine Providence, for its own wise reasons, 
 was pleased to permit this monster to prosper in this world, 
 and to be flushed with such wonderful success, that he 
 
304 HISTORY OF TUE 
 
 overthrew the two Christian empires of Constantinople 
 and Trebisonde, subdued twelve kingdoms, and took about 
 two hundred cities during his reign. He immediately re- 
 moved his imperial seat from Adrianople to Constantino- 
 ple, which has continued ever since to be the residence 
 of the Turkish emperors. After the reduction of Constan- 
 tinople, he counted the Western Empire as already his 
 own, and looked upon himself as master of all Christen- 
 dom, not doubting but he should soon plant the Ottoman 
 crescent in the heart of Europe, and in the cities of Vienna 
 and Rome. He mai'ched his victorious troops into Hun- 
 gary, and sat down before Belgrade on the 3d of June, 
 1 456, but the brave John Corvin, commonly called Huri- 
 niadeSj compelled him to raise the siege on the 6th of Au- 
 ;^ust, and to retreat with great precipitation, leaving be- 
 hind him all his heavy artillery and baggage, with the 
 greatest part of his booty, and sixty thousand of his best 
 soldiers killed. The Almighty, whose finger is able to over- 
 throw phalanxes that seem invincible, w^as pleased to make 
 use of him as a scourge to punish the crying sins of the 
 Greeks. A similar fate attended the empires and cities 
 of Ninive and Babylon, Tyre, Sidon, and Jerusalem : 
 when the people of God had renounced their fidelity to 
 him, he delivered them over in his wrath to the sword of 
 the Pagans, their inveterate enemies. He sent Nabucho- 
 donosor, Vespasian, and Titus to scourge them, to ravage 
 their country, to destroy them by famine, fire, and sword, 
 and to carry the survivors into captivity. So true it is, 
 that a deviation from the laws of God is often the occa- 
 sion of the calamities which sooner or later befal king- 
 doms and states, and terminate in their utter ruin. The 
 Western Empire was sacrificed for the extinction of Idola- 
 try at the very time pre-ordained by God, and the barba- 
 rian Goths and Vandals were sent as instruments of divine 
 vengeance, to demohsh Pagan Rome, in punishment of its 
 crying sins. In like manner the Eastern Empire was 
 marked out as a victim of destruction, and sentenced to 
 be enslaved by a barbarous race, who are the greatest 
 enemies to Christianity. The Turks and Mahometans 
 were employed as the instruments of God's avenging jus- 
 tice to chastise the people of Constantinople, and swallow 
 up their empire, which had espoused and fostered the 
 heretical and schismatical doctrines of the Arians, Mace- 
 
CHURCH OF CHRIST. SOo 
 
 (lonians, Nestorians, Eutychians, Photians, &.c. The Greeks 
 had rehnquished the orthodox faith of their ancestors, and 
 rejected a tenet relating to the procession of the Holy- 
 Ghost, which had been defined by the Church in the year 
 381, and inserted in the Nicene Creed by the general 
 council at Constantinople. It is certain that they had 
 been seven or eight hundred years in communion with 
 the Church of Rome, and that, during that time, they ac- 
 knowledged the Pope as Visible Head of the Universal 
 Church, as appears from the first seven general councils, 
 which were held in the East, and in which the primacy of 
 the Pope had been authentically acknowledged. Photius 
 himself, who had sown the first seeds of the dissension in 
 the ninth century, did not disagree. The Church of Con- 
 stantinople never pretended but to be the second Rome, 
 and to hold the first rank after her. The see of Rome 
 was on all hands allowed to be the centre of unity, and 
 all Christians recited the Creed then, and said, after the 
 council of Constantinople, as they now say, / believe the 
 Church, iviiich is one. Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic. They 
 unanimously professed that there was a true Church in 
 the world, to which the four distinctive characters of the 
 Church of Christ belonged. They believed that there 
 was a society on earth called the true Church of Christ, 
 and composed of pastors and people, and that the Pope, 
 or bishop of Rome, was its visible head. It is therefore 
 true to say, and easy to show, that the Greeks, on sepa- 
 rating themselves from the Church, which acknowledged 
 the Pope for its visible head, and which was incontestably 
 the true Church during the eight first centuries, separated 
 from the true Church of Christ, dissolved the chain of 
 unity, and withdrew themselves from the society of the 
 faithful, to erect a difierent society that did not exist be- 
 fore. In fine, they have condemned themselves iti their oicn 
 judgment, as the Apostle speaks, 1 Tit, 10, 51. They 
 changed their faith backwards and forwards diflferent 
 ' mes. They solemnly renounced their errors, and sub- 
 scribed to their own condemnation in the councils of 
 I^J^yons and Florence, but unhappily relapsed into their 
 ^atal schism and heresy. Of such persons St. Jude says, 
 in his Catholic Epistle, v. 19. and 22, These are they who 
 separate themselves : sensual men, having not the spirit — be- 
 ing reproved and judged. God in his mercy waited many 
 Cc2 
 
306 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 years for the conversion of the Greeks, but finding them 
 hardened and inflexible, he cut them off at length, like 
 the barren fig-tree. In fine, when the measure of their 
 iniquity was filled up, they were delivered into the hands 
 of Barbarians, and have ever since continued to groan 
 under the Turkish yoke to this very day. Thus, as the 
 Western Empire, which had been founded by Augustus, 
 expired in Augustulus, so in like manner the Eastern 
 Empire, which had been founded by Constanstine the 
 Great, was extinguished in Constantine Palseologus, eleven 
 hundred and twenty-three years after its first establish- 
 ment. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 Tiie Church of the Sixteenth Century. 
 
 THE chief pastors in this age were Pius III. Julius II. 
 Leo X. Adrian VI. Clement VII. Paul III. Julius III. 
 Marcellus II. Paul IV. Pius IV. Pius V. Gregory XIII. 
 Sixtus V. Urban VII. Gregory XIV. Innocent IX. and 
 Clement VIII. 
 
 Pius III. filled the apostohc see twenty-six days only. 
 Julius II. succeeded him in the year 1503, and died on 
 the 21st of February, 1513. Leo X. held the pontificate 
 eight years and about nine months. He was succeeded in 
 January, 1522, by Adrian VI. who sat till the 14th of 
 September, 1523. Clement VII. sat near eleven years ; 
 and Paul III. about nine years. Julius III. governed the 
 Church from the 8th of February, 1550, to the 23d of 
 March, 1555 ; and Marcellus II. only twenty-one days. 
 Paul IV. sat four years and about three months ; and 
 Pius IV. almost six years. St. Pius V. filled the pon- 
 tifical chair from the 7th of January, 1566, to the 1st of 
 May, 1572. Gregory XIII. who happily executed the 
 reformation of the Calendar, and established the new 
 style, in the year 1582, sat thirteen years, wanting one 
 month ; Sixtus V. five years and four months ; Urban 
 VII. ten days ; Gregory XIV. ten months and nine days ; 
 Innocent IX. two months ; and Clement VIII. ten years 
 5md one month, dying on the 3d of March, 1605. '' 
 
CHiyRCH OF ciiRisT, sew 
 
 New nations in the most remote parts of both the East- 
 tern and Western hemispheres were brought to the flock 
 of Christ, and millions of converts were gained over to 
 the Church in this age, by apostolic preachers and zeal- 
 ous missionaries, who Avere sent to announce the Gospel, 
 and spread over the whole world the fire which Christ him- 
 self came to kindle on earth. This conversion of bar- 
 barous nations, according to the Divine Commission, is 
 the prerogative of the CathoHc Church, in which she 
 never had any rival. 
 
 Two general councils were held in this century, viz. 
 thejiftk Council of Later an, which was the eighteenth ge- 
 neral council ; and the ComicH of Trent, which was the 
 nineteenth and last general council. The council of La- 
 teran was opened in the year 1512, under Julius II. for 
 the purpoisc of rescinding the acts of the conventicle held 
 at Pisa the foregoing year, and for abolishing the Prag- 
 matic Sanction, or constitution, that was made in the year 
 1438, at Bourges, under Charles VII. king of France, 
 during the sitting of the council of Basil. The Lateran 
 council, after having been twice prorogued, was conclud- 
 ed in 1517, and the differences which had arisen from 
 the Pragmatic Sanction, were at length terminated by 
 the famous Concordate entered into between Leo X, and 
 Francis I. king of France. The patriarchs of Alexandria 
 and Antioch were present at this council, besides fifteen 
 cardinals, twenty-two archbishops, fifty-five bishops, the 
 generals of the religious orders, and the orators of France, 
 Spain, Venice, Poland, Sec. 
 
 The council of Trent was opened in the cathedral 
 church of that city, on the 13th of December, 1545, and, 
 after having been often interrupted and resumed, was 
 brought to a conclusion on the 5th of December, in 1563. 
 
 I There assisted at it six cardinals, four legates, three pa- 
 triarchs, thirty-two iarchbishops, two hundred and twenty- 
 eight bishops, thirty-nine deputies of absent prelates, se- 
 , ven abbots, seven generals of religious orders, and above 
 one hundred and fifty theologians, eminent for learning in 
 the Scriptures, fathers, antiquities, and languages, with 
 some of the ablest canonists of all Catholic nations, who 
 attended and discussed every point in the conferences. 
 No new articles of faith were formed or defined in this 
 councilj but every thing was weighed in the balance of 
 
 fe 
 
3G8 iirjsroRy of the 
 
 the sanctuary, and the ancient doctrine, and unanimous 
 behef of all foregoing ajres, was maturely examined and 
 explicitly declared. This is the course which the 
 Church has invariably pursued through the whole period 
 of the Christian aera. She has constantly preserved the 
 sacred depositum, which was received from her Divine 
 Founder, and delivered by the Apostles. Her doctrine 
 of faith is always the same, and constantly i\niform. 
 Her decrees and decisions in dogmatical points are unal- 
 terable and irrevocable to the end of the world ; and the 
 one true faith is so essential to her constitution, that with- 
 out it she would no more continue to be the Church of 
 Christ, than a man would continue to be a man without 
 a soul. It is objected by Fra Paolo and Courayer, that 
 several kings and prelates had private views, and employ- 
 ed intrigues in this council which could not be inspired 
 by the Holy Ghost. But cardinal Pallivicini has clearly 
 proved, that both Fra Paolo and Courayer were party 
 writers, and have retailed many notorious slanders and 
 errors. It is true, indeed, ambition, envy, and the like 
 vices, may easily disguise and insinuate themselves even 
 into the sanctuary under false cloaks, but they cannot 
 prevent Christ from leading the pastors of his Church 
 into all truth, by a special protection which does not ne- 
 cessarily imply an. inspiration. His promises to his 
 Church are the anchor of the Catholic faith, and the very 
 contests and pretended intrigues among the kings and pre- 
 lates, prove the liberty which the council enjoyed, and 
 only serve to convince us, that neither the weakness nor 
 the passions of men were able to defeat or annul the pro- 
 mises oi' Christ. 
 
 The succession of saints was kept up in this age by St. 
 Charles Borromaius, archbishop of Milan ; St. Thomas 
 of Villanova, archbishop of Valentia, styled the Father 
 of the Poor ; St. Pius V. ; St. Ignatius of Loyola ; St. 
 Francis Xaverius, apostle of the Indies ; St. Aloysius 
 Gonzaga ; St. Francis Borgia ; St. Lewis Bertrand ; St. 
 John of God ; St. Stanislaus Kosta ; St. Andrew Avei- 
 lino ; St. John of the cross ; St. Teresa ; St. Philip Neri ; 
 St. Peter of Alcantara, author of a golden book On men- 
 ial prayerj which ran through near fifty editions before 
 his death ; St. Cajetan of Thienna ; St. Jerom ^miliani 
 of Somascha •, St. Paschal Baylon ; St. Felix of Caiita- 
 
CHURCH OF CHRIST. 309 
 
 licio ; St. Catharine de Ricci, and a numberless multitude 
 of happy souls and glorious martyrs, who suffered cruel 
 torments and death for the faith in various parts of the 
 world, and whose sanctity has been attested by a great 
 number of illustrious miracles. — See Alban Butler, torn. 
 3. p. 76 ; torn. 5. p. 341 ; tom. 12. p. 17. 
 
 Seminaries were erected at this period for the educa- 
 tion of the clergy, and public schools opened in all places 
 for training up youth in christian piety. Several religious 
 orders and regular congregations Avere likewise institut- 
 ed : The Theatins in 1514 ; the Capuchins, founded by 
 Matthew Bassius in 1525, and approved by Clement VII. 
 in 1528 ; the Barnabites in 1526, and approved by Paul 
 III. in 1535 ; the Recollects, or reformed Franciscans 
 of strict observance, in 1532 ; the Jesuits in 1534 ; the 
 Congregation of St. Peter of Alcantara in 1555 ; the 
 re2:ular Clerks of the Christian doctrine in 1570 : the 
 ^K)ratorians in 1575; the Discalceate Carmelites, confirmed 
 ^By Gregory XIII. in 1580, Stc. ; all these different orders 
 ^■aaking a beautiful variety in the Church militant, and 
 ■terming so many societies and companies, united in the 
 ^)rofession of the same Creed, and tending towards Chris- 
 tian perfection, by different exercises of piety and devo- 
 •ion. The Maronites, so called from St. Maro Abbot, 
 I' ho erected many monasteries in Syria, and trained up 
 a great number of holy solitaries in the fifth century, 
 
 i^ere inveigled for a while into the Greek schism, but 
 hey returned to the communion of the Catholic Church 
 nder Gregory XIII. and Clement VIII. 1'hey have a 
 eminary at Rome, which has produced several great men, 
 ^ho have exceedingly promoted true literature. Their 
 atriarch, styled of Anlioch^ is confirmed by the Pope, 
 resides in a monaster}^ in Syria, at the foot of Mount Li- 
 banus, and has under him five metropolitans, namely, of 
 Tyre, Damascus, Tripoh, Aleppo, and Nicosia, the ca- 
 T)ital of Cyprus. 
 B Divine providence was pleased to raise a great number 
 l^pf learned doctors and ecclesiastical writers in this age. 
 The most celebrated were, Cardinal Thomas Cajetan ; 
 l^^ardinal Stanislaus Hosius, bishop of Wormia, in Poland, 
 '^^nd one of the ablest polemical writers that any age ever 
 produced \ Cardinal Hieronymus Seripandus, one of the 
 presidents of the council of Trent ; Cardinal iEgidius 
 
310 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 Viterbiensis ; John Driedo doctor of Louvain ; Claude 
 d'Espense doctor of Sorbonne ; Nicholas Maillard, dean 
 of that faculty ; William Estius ; Joannes Hoffmeisterus; 
 Albertus Pighius ; Cardinal Reginald Pole who is much 
 extolled by Burnet himself for his erudition and virtue ; 
 Anthony Augustinus, archbishop of Tarracona, and one 
 of the greatest men, says Du Pin, that Spain ever bred ; 
 Melchior Canus ; Dominicus Soto ; Petrus Soto ; Bai-- 
 tholomew de Martijnbus, archbishop of Braga ; Cardinal 
 Francis Toletus ; Ludovicus Vives ; Alphonsus Rodri- 
 guez Lewis of Granada, whose works have been translated 
 into all the languages of Europe ; Lewis Blosius ; Marti- 
 nus Navarrus ; Joannes Cochloeus ; Alphonsus Salme- 
 ron ; Cardinal Commendon ; and Cardinal Frederic Bor- 
 romaeo, who wrote several pious works, and founded the 
 famous Ambrosian Library at Milan, which is said now 
 to contain thirty-eight thousand volumes, including four- 
 teen thousand manuscripts, with many literary curiosities, 
 and curious monuments of antiquity. The venerable 
 Johnof Avila, a native of the diocese of Toledo, flourish- 
 ed in this century, and was the edification of the Church 
 by his virtues, its support by his zeal, its oracle by his 
 doctrine. He was a profound and tmiversal genius, a 
 prudent and upright director, a prodigy of penance, a ce- 
 lebrated preacher, powerful in words and works, the glo- 
 ry of the priesthood, ihe apostle of Andalusia, revered by 
 all Spain, and known to the Christian world. About this 
 time Thomas of Jesus was author of the excellent book 
 entitled the Sufferings of Chtisty which he composed whilst 
 he was confined for the faith in a frightful dungeon in 
 Morocco. 
 
 Whilst the church was extending her branches over 
 every region of the .globe with amazing success, the 
 Turks, the great enemies of Christianity, made several 
 attempts to add the Western kingdom to the Ottoman 
 Empire. The numerous armies of Amuratli and Ma- 
 homet II. had been often defeated in the 15th century 
 by the famous George Castriot, whom they called Scan- 
 (lerbeg, that is, L^rd Alexander. However, this did not 
 deter Solyman II. named ihe Magnijicenty from resolving 
 to over-run all Christendom with his arms. He took 
 Belgrade in the year 1521, Rhode Island in 1522, defeat- 
 ed Lewis, king of Hungary, in 1526, took Buda in 1529, 
 
^( 
 
 LliLRCll OF CHRI^>T. 311 
 
 and besieged Vienna in the reign of Charles V. and, 
 though he was forced to raise the siege, after lying a 
 
 Konth before that city, and after losing eighty thousand 
 en, he broke into Hungary in 1532, with a formidable 
 'my of three hundred thousand horse and foot, and car- 
 ed devastation with him all over that kingdom. He 
 took the island of Corcyra from the Venetians in 1537, 
 and brought several thousands of prisoners with him to 
 Constantinople. He penetrated again into Hungary in 
 1541, 1543, and 1551. He invaded Tripoli, in Africa, 
 1560, and destroyed the Spanish fleet, with eighteen 
 
 ousand men. In the year 1566, he besieged the isle of 
 Malta for the space of four months, but was obliged to 
 ) etreat with eight thousand men, though the garrison, 
 commanded by the valiant John Valette, the grand mas- 
 |B^^ of the Knights of Malta, had only six thousand to op- 
 pose him. 
 
 Selimus II. the son of Solyman, elated with pride, and 
 flushed with the many signal victories he had gained in 
 the East, resolved to carry his arms into the West. Hav- 
 ing already swallowed up in his own imagination all Italy, 
 with the neighbouring countries, he haughtily demanded 
 of the republic of Venice the surrender of the isle of 
 Cyprus, by way of satisfaction for some pretended inju- 
 ries, but in reality for the sake of his excellent wine, with 
 which he was extremely besotted, though forbidden by 
 the Alcoran. In the year 1570 he besieged and took Ni- 
 cosia, the capital of Cyprus, and in 1571 the opulent city 
 of Famagusta, where he put all the brave Venetian offi- 
 cers to death, and caused the governor to be flayed alive 
 in the market-place, after cutting off his ears and nose. 
 The Venetians, alarmed at those proceedings, immediate- 
 ly fitted out a fleet of great gallies and small vessels, with 
 an army of twenty thousand valiant soldiers under the 
 command of Don John of Austria, son of Charles V. 
 They sailed directly from Corfu, and met the Turkish 
 fleet, consisting of three hundred and thirty vessels in 
 order of battle near the harbour of Lepanto. A bloody 
 I and obstinate engagement ensued on the 7th of October, 
 and after a fight of three hours with equal advantage, the 
 Christians gained a most complete victory. The Turks 
 lost thirty thousand men, and above two hundred ships 
 aitd gallies, beside ninety that were stranded, burnt, or 
 
3l!2 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 sunk, and tiiree hundred and seventy-two pieces of can- 
 non. Five thousand prisoners were also taken from 
 them, and fifteen thousand Christians, who were found 
 chained on board their gallies, were set at liberty on this 
 occasion. Thus, the Almighty, who has set bounds to the 
 raging billows of the sea, and who weighs in his hand the 
 globe of the universe as a grain of sand, was pleased to 
 fix limits to the power of the Barbarians, and to stem the 
 tide of their victories in the very height of their pride 
 and prosperity. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXV. 
 
 The Re-building of the Vatican Church of St. Peter, ^x. 
 
 IT was in this century, in the year 1506, that Julius 11. 
 laid the foundation of that finished masterpiece of archi- 
 tecture, the Vatican Church of St. Peter in Rome, the 
 old church t)eing fallen to decay. The ancient regular 
 manner of building, which effected its purposes with less 
 materials and observed the rules of justness and propor- 
 tion in all parts, followed the fate of other polite arts and 
 sciences in the West. The Romans learned it from the 
 Greeks, but it began to be neglected and depraved among 
 them in the reign of Gallien, as appears by his triumphal 
 arch in Rome. After the inundation of the Barbarians, 
 Gothic architecture, in which no certain rules, propor- 
 tions, or measures were obserA'^ed, took place in the West, 
 and was executed with wonderful success in the eleventh, 
 twelfth, and thirteenth centuries, merely by the dint of 
 genius in masons and architects, when they got proper en- 
 couragement. The wonderful cathedral of Pisa, the so 
 much admired Dominican convent in Bologna, the cathe- 
 dral of Sienna, which is deemed the most finished Gothic 
 building in the world, the rich and majestic cathedral of 
 Milan, were raised in the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth 
 ages. From that period excellent and ingenious artists, 
 by studyirig the best models of ancient architecture still 
 standing in Italy, and by conversing with cardinal Bessa- 
 rion and other learned Greeks, restored the true taste of 
 regular architecture. 
 
CjiURCH OF CHRIST. 313 
 
 The church of St. Peter was begun by the famous Bra- 
 mante Lazari, who died in 1514. It was continued by the 
 renowned architect and prince of painters, Raphael Ur- 
 bin, then by Michael Angelo, Barrozzi, James de la Porta, 
 and by Maderno, till it was dedicated by Urban VIII. in 
 1626, and finished under Paul V. by Bernini. This grand 
 and beautiful church is, according to Jones, seven hundred 
 and twenty-two feet long, five hundred and twenty broad, 
 and four hundred and thirty-two feet high. Under it there 
 is a spacious subterranean church, with a number of ele- 
 gant chapels, altars, marble statues and vaults, wherein 
 are deposited the remains of many holy martyrs, popes, 
 and other saints. But the richest treasure of this vene- 
 rable place consists in one half of the precious relics of 
 St. Peter and Paul, which He in a sumptuous vault, that 
 is most richly ornamented with pillars of alabaster, and 
 enclosed above with a semicircular balustrade of antique 
 yellow and white marble, beyond the middle of the 
 church, near the patriarchal altar, at which only the Pope 
 celebrates mass, unless he commissions another to om- 
 eiate there. This sacred vault is called, The Confession 
 'of Si. Peter, or the Threshold of the Apostles {Jbimina 
 Apostolorum) to which devout persons have flocked in pil- 
 grimages from the primitive ages. The papal altar stands 
 under the grand dome, and is supported by four huge pil- 
 lars of gilt bronze, which are beautifully turned and orna- 
 mented with emblematical figures and festoons, and erect- 
 ed on four lofty square pedestals of variegated marble, 
 that are inlaid with large cross keys of gilt bronze, repre- 
 senting the keys of St. Peter. On the top of the four pil- 
 lars of this magnificent altar are placed four beautiful 
 figures of angels, seventeen feet long, and cast of gilt 
 bronze, each of them holding a garland of gilt bronze in 
 one hand, and with the other supporting a square gilt 
 bronze canopy of admirable beauty and most curious work- 
 manship, with a bronze cross terminating the whole ; at 
 the distance of one hundred and seventy-seven palms from 
 the floor. The most amazing part of this vast edifice is 
 the grand dome, which is supported by four stupendous 
 pillars, embellished on every side with white marble ba- 
 lustrades, elegant pews, shrines, medallions, pictures, 
 busts, and statues of Egyptian marble, and a great variety 
 of emblematical figures in mosaic, &c. The dome is four 
 
 Dd 
 
S14 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 hundred and nlnoiy-four palms high, and one liundred and 
 ninety-two in diameter. The interior of it is finished in 
 the highest taste, and encircled with a palisadoed gallery, 
 and terminates with a beautiful lantern and spire of the 
 neatest construction. The exterior circumference of this 
 great dome is computed to measure six hundred and 
 twenty feet, and it appears so conspicuous, that it is easily 
 discerned by travellers at the distance of twenty miles 
 from the city of Rome. 
 
 It would be an endless task to enumerate all the other 
 ornaments and decorations of this church, which are so 
 many and so great, that after viewing them with attention 
 for the course of a year, new beauties will be discovered 
 in the end. The proportions are so just, that nothing ap- 
 pears there long, broad, or elevated, and the enormous 
 size is only perceived, when every part is examined sepa- 
 rately. Entering into one of the ten chapels, which are 
 in the aisles, with ten smaller domes, or oval cupolas cor- 
 responding to them, you find yourself as in a cathedral. 
 At the upper end of the church, which is built in form of 
 a Greek cross, the grand monument of the chair of St. 
 Peter presents itself with an unparalleled majesty. The 
 ornaments of it are said to have cost one hundred and 
 seven thousand, five hundred and fifty-one Roman crowns. 
 The four feet of it are supported by four gilt bronze 
 statues, each seventeen ^lalms high, of four doctors of the 
 Church, two of the Latin church, St. Augustine and St. 
 Ambrose, and two of the Greek church, St. John Chry- 
 sostom and St. Athanasius. These statues are elevated 
 on four lofty pedestals of variegated marble, to such a 
 height that the feet of the chair are upon a level with 
 their heads. The figures of two angels of gilt bronze are 
 placed on each side of the chair holding the keys in their 
 hands, and above them the Holy Ghost is represented 
 in the form of a dove, with a surrounding multitude of 
 cherubims and seraphims, and the figure of grand Glot^y 
 all in gilt bronze, casting brilliant rays to a very consider- 
 able distance, and at times redoubling their brilliancy by 
 means of the rays of light which the meridian sun conveys 
 through a yellow stained glass window in the rear. The 
 choice paintings by the most celebrated masters, the 
 sculpture, stucco, and mosaic work, the great number of 
 beautiful altars, and rich ornaments thereto belonging, the 
 
CHURCH OF CHRIST. 315 
 
 nineteen supeib marble mausoleums of popes, king?, 
 queens, and princes, which are erected in different parts 
 of this church, the pleasing variety of fine marble statues 
 and emblematical figures, representing the different Vir- 
 tues, the elegance of the new sacristy, which is built in 
 the form of an octagon, and of the pilasters in the corri- 
 dore leading to it, the grandeur of the ceiling curiously 
 decorated and gilt, nay, the very floor paved with polished 
 marble, and partly inlaid with mosaic, partly with white 
 marble circles, which exactly correspond to the dimensions 
 of the difl'erent cupolas, is^c. justly o.xcite admiration in 
 every spectator of taste and judgment. The two holy 
 water fountains, which are erected on each side of the 
 princi[)al nave, at a proper distance from the middle gate 
 and entrance, are amazingly beautiful and grand. They 
 are made of yellow antique marble, and supported by 
 two white marble statues of angels, which on close inspec- 
 tion are found to be six feet high, though they appear ex- 
 actly proportioned, and suitable to the purpose for which 
 they are designed. The drapery that embellishes this no- 
 ble piece of sculpture, is composed of lapis lazuli. 
 
 There are five grand gates or entrances into the body 
 of the church, supported by lofty pillars of Oriental mar- 
 ble, in the Doric order, on each side. One of them is al- 
 ways closed, except in time of a jubilee. The foldini^ doors 
 of the middle gate are entirely of bronze, and of a prodi- 
 gious height and size. On them is seen a lively representa- 
 tion of the crucifixion of St. Peter, and the decollation of 
 St. Paul. Over them Christ is represented intrusting his 
 flock to the care of St. Peter, and on the opposite side of 
 the grand porch, the ship of Peter appears to be tossed to 
 and fro by the fury of the raging billows of the sea, but 
 still is kept above the water and preserved from sinking. 
 The porch itself is so spacious and magnificent, that it 
 might be looked on as a noble church any where else. At 
 both ends of it there are two spacious galleries, separated 
 by iron pahsadoes from the remainder of the porch, and 
 in one of them is erected an equestrian statue of Con- 
 stantine the Great, and in the other a statue of Charle- 
 magne. Exclusive of these two apartments, the porch is 
 two hundred and sixteen feet long, and forty feet wide. 
 Inchiding them, the whole length is reckoned six hundred 
 and forty-eight palms. The ceiling is computed to be one 
 
316 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 hundred and forty-three palms high from the floor. It is 
 decorated with gilt stucco, as the floor is paved with po- 
 lished marble of various colours, and the wall occasionally 
 hang with pieces of fine tapestry, which represent the mi- 
 racles and historical passages of the New Testament. 
 There is a majestic passage from each end of the porch 
 to the colonnade, and in the front, directly opposite to the 
 five gates of the church, there are five other neat folding 
 gates of iron palisadoes, with open circular tops, and a 
 commodious landing place at the bottom, contiguous to a 
 very extensive staircase of twenty-one marble steps, which 
 being divided into three flights, and projecting in an oval 
 figure in the middle, aftbrd a very easy ascent to, and de- 
 scent from the church. Over the porch there is a noble 
 apartment of equal grandeur and magnificence, called the 
 Lodgioy and beautified in the front, from one side to the 
 other, with balconies, balustrades, pilasters, and open 
 windows with circular tops, &c. Over this Lodgio is 
 raised a fine attic story, that terminates with a grand ba- 
 lustrade, crowned with twelve lofty statues of the Twelve 
 Apostles, which are ranged at a proper distance, with a 
 beautiful statue of Jesus Christ in the centre. The fa- 
 cade of this so much admired pile of building is two hun- 
 dred and fifty-one palms high, and five hundred and fifty- 
 two wide. The various pillars which adorn it are of a 
 prodigious size, and one hundred and twenty- six palms in 
 height. The spacious court, or open area that interposes 
 between it and the beautiful bridge and castle of St. An- 
 gelo, being 1230 palms deep, contributes much to its ma- 
 jestic appearance, and places it in a most agreeable point 
 of view. It is neatly paved, and intersected with lines of 
 white marble in the form of a star. At the upper end, on 
 the right and left side, near the steps leading to the portal, 
 stand two handsome pedestals, on one of which is erected 
 a statue of St, Peter holding the keys, and on the other a 
 statue of St. Paul holding a flaming sword. Toward the 
 lower end, at a regular distance, on the right and left, two 
 grand fountains with double basins, of a circular figure, 
 one above the other, and elevated about twenty feet from 
 the surface of the area, are incessantly playing and emit- 
 ting their waters, through a great number of united tubes, 
 and to an amazing height, until they descend again in the 
 form 'of a bow. A most beautiful obelisk of Egyptian 
 
CHURCH OP CHRIST, 317 
 
 granite^ eighty feet high, is erected in the centre of the 
 court, on an elegant square pedestal thirty feet high, sur- 
 rounded with pillars, and fronted with white marble, with 
 the following inscription : Christus Vincit. Christus re^nat. 
 C/iristus imperat. Vicit Leo de hibu Jiida. Kcce crucem 
 Domini. Fugite partes adversoe^ &c. The obelisk rests 
 immedipiely upon the backs of four rampant lions of 
 bronze, and terminates above like a pyramid, with a large 
 cross of bronze. This grand obehsk is said to have been 
 originally dedicated to the Pagan gods, by the emperor 
 Trajan, but w^as afterwards consecrated to Christ, by 
 Sixtus V. 
 
 On each side of the court there is a most majestic oval 
 colonnade of three hundred and twenty columns, with 
 eighty pilasters, in the Doric order, arranged in four rows 
 near the two vaulted porticos of twenty-four arches which 
 lead immediately into both ends of the^grand porch, and 
 which form a square between the obelisk and the front of 
 the church. The porticos and the colonnade are covered 
 in and crowned with an entablatm-e of curious workman- 
 ship, and with an elegant balustrade, \\hereon are erected 
 one hundred and thirty-six elegant statues, twenty-four 
 palms high. 
 
 The Church of St. Peter is but the second patriarchal 
 church of Rome, that of St. John Later an being the first, 
 as an inscription on its walls imports. It is also amaz- 
 ingly grand and beautiful. It contains five naves, and is 
 supported by three hundred and thirty-five marble pillars. 
 The sides of the grand nave are ornamented with twelve 
 great marble statues of the Twelve Apostles, arranged 
 at a regular distance, and exhibiting each one of the 
 twelve articles of the creed. The patriarchal altar here 
 is exceedingly beautiful, and the sculpture executed in a 
 most masterly manner. The chapel of Corsini, near the 
 grand portal, is justly deemed one of the richest and the 
 most beautiful in the world. The principal front of this 
 church is crowned with an elegant balustrade, whereon 
 are erected eleven lofty statues, that represent Christ with 
 the Four Evangelists, and the six greater prophets. Near 
 this church stand the ruins of the famous amphitheatre, 
 or the CoUsee, which contained with ease eighty thousand, 
 and if crowded, one hundred and fifty thousand specta- 
 tors. — Vespasian, after his triumph over Judaea^ employed 
 Dd2 
 
SI 8 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 twelve thousand captive Jews in raising this stupendous 
 oval fabric for entertaining the people with shows and 
 pubhc exhibitions. It was completed by Titus, and the 
 outside of the walls was ornamented with a great number 
 of beautiful columns, which the family of the Barberini 
 removed for the purpose of decorating their own palace. 
 This gave occasion to that common saying: Quod non se- 
 cerunt JBarbari, fecere Barberini. The inner side round 
 the area contained seats, made of vast polished stones, 
 one above another, that the spectators might have a per- 
 fect view of the whole pit without any hinderance. The 
 Cavea under the walls contained dens for the wild beasts, 
 and dark dungeons for the condemned prisoners, and the 
 porta libitinod, was the gate, through which the bodies of 
 the slain were dragged out. The Vomitoria were gates 
 so contrived in the walls, that persons went in and out 
 without being crowded. The Arena, or oval pit, was 
 strewed with sand to suck up the blood, and surrounded 
 with iron rails on a balustrade about a yard from the 
 lower seats, for a fence that the beasts might not be able 
 to hurt the spectators. This place, which was bedewed 
 with the blood of great numbers of holy martyrs, is now 
 converted to a religious purpose, and called the Via Cru- 
 cis^ or the station of the holy cross, fourteen stationary 
 chapels, which the faithful resort to with edifying piety 
 and devotion, being erected at a regular distance from 
 each other, all round the interior circumference. 
 
 The other patriarchal Churches, and principal basilicas 
 in the city are the church of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem, 
 wherein part of the real cross of our Saviour is preserved 
 to this day, and the church of St. Mary Major, both of 
 which are situated within the distance of about half a 
 mile from St. John Lateran's. The church of St. Paul 
 stands on the Ostian Road, about five miles from Rome ; 
 the church of St. Sebastian on the Appian Road, and of 
 St. Laurence extra Muros, on the Tiburtian Road. These 
 seven churches form the seven stations of Rome. 
 
 The church of St. Paul is supported by one hundred and 
 forty large and beautiful pillars, chiefly of white marble, 
 taken out of Antoninus' baths, and from the tomb of 
 Adrian. Some of them are of porphyry, some of granite. 
 The church is very extensive, and contains five naves. 
 The patriarchal altar is erected in the central nave over 
 
ciitiRCH OP Christ. 319 
 
 subterraneous chapel, wherein half the relics of St. Pe- 
 r and Paul is kept, and under a beautiful pavilion, 
 that terminates above in the form of a pyramid. This 
 altar is supported by four pillars of agate and porphyry. 
 The twenty four elders, mentioned in the Apocalyspe, 
 with Christ at their head, are beautifully represented in 
 mosaic on the ceiling, with a wonderful variety of ancient 
 historical paintings, &c. The two facades of the church 
 of St. Marij Major ^ in the Ionic and Corinthian orders, 
 with its elegant portals, octagon domes, spires, belfry, 
 balustrades, statues, galleries, pillars, pilasters, basso re- 
 ^Kevos, palisadoes, and the adjacent obelisks and foun- 
 Hains, make a most majestic appearance, and inspire the 
 Bkeholder with sentiments of reverence and respect for the 
 Bouse of God. The interior of this church is most richly 
 PKmbellished with gilt stucco and mosaic, with porphyry 
 pillars and pilasters, with bronze statues and choice paint- 
 ings. The roof is supported by thirty-eight columns 
 »f white polished marble, and four of granite. The pa- 
 [•iarchal altar, in the grand nave, is formed of porphyry, 
 nd the elegant square canopy over it is sustained by four 
 Kreat figures of angels, standing on porphyry pillars. Under 
 lis altar there is a subterraneous chapel, adorned with a 
 umber of white marble statues, and with a lively repre- 
 sntation of Christ in the stable and manger of Bethlehem. 
 Nothing can be more magnificent than the Borghesian, 
 l^ponfalon and Sixtine Chapels, which are in this church, 
 "'he walls are incrusted with the richest Egyptian marble. 
 The altars are finished in the highest taste. The pillars 
 are covered with Oriental jasper, the pedestals are en- 
 riched with agate, the bases and capitals are formed of gilt 
 ■ronze, and the table and front of the altar of lapis lazuli. 
 ^ The city of Rome abounds with a great number of 
 other stately churches, but the church of the Jesuits is 
 
 nne of the most magnificent piles of building in the world, 
 ext to the Vatican,and is not less admired for the elegance 
 of the architecture than for its riches, consisting in cost- 
 ly beautiful ornaments of gold, silver, jewels, exquisite 
 paintings, statues, and carving, and a great profusion of 
 fine marble. Among the many chapels which it contains, 
 that of St. Ignatius is the admiration of travellers. His 
 sacred remains lie there in a silver shrine under the altar, 
 exposed to view. The other glittering rich ornaments of 
 
S20 HISTORY OF l^HE 
 
 this place seem almost to lose their histre, when the sta- 
 tue of the saint is uncovered. It is somewhat bigger than 
 the life, because raised high. Its bright shining gold, sil- 
 ver, and sparkling diamonds, especially in the crown of 
 glory over the head, dazzle the eye. It is surprising to 
 hear so many in those days inveigh against the splendour 
 and magnificence of the ornaments of the House of God, 
 as savouring too much of worldly pomp, and nourishing 
 pride and vanity. On pretence of refining religion, and 
 rendering it more spiritual, they cry out in the language 
 o{ those who were filled with indignation on seeing tlie 
 pious penitent of the Gospel pouring out a precious oint- 
 ment on the head of our Lord: *'To what purpose is this 
 " waste and profusion ? These valuable things might be 
 **sold, and the price given to the poor." But those who 
 are not ashamed to exclaim thus against the rich decora- 
 tions that become the House of Ged, and render it a fi- 
 gure of heavenly Jerusalem, show that they are divested 
 of all sense of piety or respect for God. They are ge- 
 nerally people full of themselves and of their own wit 
 and judgment, who are displeased at seeing that employ- 
 ed for the honour of the Almighty, which they would 
 wish to be their own property. Can any thing be con-- 
 ceived more splendid or more magnificent, than the sa- 
 cred vestments used by the priests in the Old Law ? Or 
 than the golden candlesticks, the lamps and goblets, the 
 rich images of Cherubims, the cedar altar, and tables co- 
 vered with the purest gold, the censers and vessels of mas- 
 sive gold, &.C. which God himself commanded to be used 
 in the Temple of Solom.on.^ Does not this example of God 
 himself authorize the embellishment of places of divine 
 worship in the New Law, whereof the Old Law was only 
 a type and shadow ? Is it not alone sufficient to silence the 
 enemies of religion? The rich decorations of Christian 
 churches are so far from nourishing pride and vanity 
 that they serve to inspire the faithful with reverential 
 awe and respect ; and for this reason those who have 
 been most remarkable for their profound humility and 
 solid virtue, were always the most zealous for the splen- 
 dour and magnificence of every thing relative to the ser- 
 vice of God, as we learn from the history of ^11 fore- 
 going ages. 
 
 > 
 
CHURCH OF CHRIST. 321 
 
 {JHAPTER XXXVI. 
 
 The Rise of Ltdheranism in Germamjj Calvinism in France^ 
 and Socinianism in Tuscany, Poland, Sfc. 
 
 No age, since the commencement of the Christian aera, 
 has ever been more productive of new rehgions than the 
 sixteenth century. Martin Luther broke off, in the year 
 1517, from the communion of the estabhshed Church of 
 all Christendom, and separated himself from the great 
 body of the faithful diffused all over the world. He tells 
 us himself that he stood alone in the beginning, pnmo so- 
 lus eraiUy as if the Divine Goodness had abandoned his 
 Church, and left the world in darkness, until his appear- 
 ance ; but he no sooner sounded the trumpet of sedition, 
 than all Germany was set in a flame. He qualified his 
 apostacy with the name of Reformation, and set out with 
 exclaiming against errors and abuses, this being the usual 
 cry of rebels against their lawful sovereigns. He falsely 
 prophesied that the reign of popes should have an end in 
 two years' time, and pretended that the Church had fallen 
 into ruin and desolation ; but it appeared strange, that in 
 such a number of holy prelates, learned doctors and emi- 
 nent saints, who had lived and died in her commimion 
 for fifteen hundred years, no one ever perceived the im- 
 posture, no council ever gave information hereof, no 
 hither, no historian opened his mouth or employed his 
 pen to decry or record such pretended errors, till Luther 
 made the discovery. He began immediately to show his 
 contempt of the Augustines, the Jeroms, the Cyprians, 
 and other ancient Fathers, revered for so many ages^ 
 though these great lights of antiquity were better qua- 
 lified to know the doctrine of the primitive Church than he 
 was, at the distance of fourteen hundred years ; but he 
 vented his spleen against them, because he was sensible 
 that their authority and his new religion could not stand 
 together. He poured out a torrent of gross, scurrilous, 
 and abusive invectives, against the most respectable cha- 
 racters ; and though at first he professed an aversion to 
 violence, he soon altered his maxims, and declared that 
 blood was requisite for the establishment of his gospel, 
 and that the true children of God would do well if they 
 
322 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 washed their hands in the blood of popes, cardii>als, and 
 bishops. Strange language in the mouth of ar man who 
 set up for an apostle ! Could the religion of Jesus Christ 
 authorize such proceedings? In particular he bent his vi- 
 rulence and rancour against the Church of Rome, because 
 he knew that it was her special province to oppose all 
 innovations in faith. Henry VIIl. wrote a book against 
 him, which he sent to Leo X. with the following distich, 
 and for which he was styled Defender of the Faith: 
 
 " Anglorum Rex IlenriaiSy Leo decline y mlUit 
 '* Hoc opus J etjidei testem cl amicitioa.^^ 
 
 Great Leo this from Ilem^fs hand receive. 
 
 As much as faiih can say orjricndship give. 't 
 
 But Luther had the address to engage several other 
 powerful princes to take part with him, being allured by 
 the hopes of enjoying the church lands, and sharing in 
 the rich spoils and revenues of the abbeys and monasteries. 
 Frederick, elector of Saxony, openly declared himself 
 his protector. He drew over Philip, landgrave of Hessia, 
 by granting him, through a most shameful compliance, a 
 license to have two wives at once, contrary to the express 
 prohibition of Christ. Nay, Luther himself, notwith- 
 standing the most sacred engagements of his ordination 
 and religious vows, ventured upon taking a wife, and mar- 
 ried Catharine Boren, a professed nun, to the great scan- 
 dal of his friend, Melancthon, (L. 4. Edist. 24.) and in 
 open defiance of the established laws of the Church, 
 which never allowed Priests or Religious to marry after 
 receiving Holy Orders, and making a voluntary promise 
 to God- to live continently, the breach of a solemn vow 
 of chastity being a formal violation of the Divine Law, 
 expressly condemned, Deut. 23. and 1 Tim. 5. 12. where 
 the Apostle, speaking of widows who presume to marry 
 after having thus consecrated themselves to God, says, 
 that they ijicur damnaiionj because they have cast off their 
 first faith) that is, their solemn engagement made to God. 
 Hence St. Augustine, 1. de bono Vid. c. 11. affirms, that 
 the breach of such a vow of chastity, is worse than adid- 
 tery. Luther's revolt was followed with a visible decay 
 of Christian piety, and an increase of vice and immorality 
 among all degrees of people in Germany. Erasmus him- 
 self, though no zealous advocate for the Church, could/ 
 
CHIRCH OF CimiST. 323 
 
 not help observing the general decay of piety that ensued, 
 and the degeneracy of morals that was brought on by the 
 change of religion, and by enfranchising men from the 
 powerful curbs and penitential exercises of fasting, ab- 
 stinence, confession, and other religious duties. Luther 
 also made the same remark, and historians of those days 
 tell us, that the Lutheran magistrates of the illustrious 
 city of Nuremberg were so sensible hereof, that they so- 
 lemnly petitioned the emperor Charles V. to re-establish 
 auricular confession among them by an imperial law, as a 
 check upon the prevailing libertinism, alleging, that they 
 lij.d learned by experience, that since it had been laid 
 aside by them, their commonwealth was overrun with sins 
 against justice and other virtues, heretofore unknown in 
 their country, and that restitution for injustices commit- 
 ted was scarce any longer to be heard of. The petition 
 only moved the court to laughter, as if a human law could 
 compel men to the confession of the secrets of their con- 
 : sciences, and as if it was to be expected that any atten- 
 tion would be paid to the ordinance of man by a people 
 who disregarded the institution of God, as the Emperor 
 replied. Such was the commencement of that fatal de- 
 . fection from the ancient faith, which afterwards tore away 
 -many fair edifices from the rock on which they had stood 
 for several centuries. In the year 1529, the Lutherans 
 in Germany protested against the decree of the Emperor, 
 enacted at the diet of Spire, and having formed an army 
 of 72,000 men, they desolated the provinces of Suabia, 
 Franconia, and Alsatia, pillaging and burning churches, 
 destroying monasteries and castles, and massacring priests 
 and religious. 
 
 In the year 1526, John Calvin, having relinquished the 
 nncient faith, and deserted the Church in which he had 
 been baptized, ushered into France a new system of re- 
 ^ lii>;ion, and made Geneva the centre of his sect. He was 
 ^pi enemy to all subordination, rejected all authority, and 
 ^nrew oil' all obedience to the ruling powers. Yet he re- 
 quired so implicit a submission, and so blind an obedience 
 to every thing that he himself was pleased to define, that 
 he caused Michael Servetus, an Unitarian, to be condemn- 
 ed and burnt alive at Geneva, in 1553, by a decree of 
 the senate, for havino* advanced some erroneous doctrine 
 about the mystery of the most Holy Trinity. It is im~ 
 
324 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 possible to read the history of Calvinism, without being 
 shocked at the disorders and horrid violences committed by 
 its abettors and followers in Dauphine, Gascony, Langue- 
 doc, and other provinces. During three reigns France was 
 convulsed and torn w^ith continual factions, civil wars, and 
 bloody engagements. It is computed, that in the course 
 of these wars twenty thousand churches were destroyed, 
 nine hundred towns and villages burnt. Two hundred 
 and fifty priests, and one hundred and twelve religious 
 monks, were massacred in the province of Dauphine 
 alone. This made Erasmus say, that the disciples of Lu- 
 ther and Calvin were equally as good at fightiyig as at die- 
 ptding. Erasmus died in 1536, when the following epi- 
 taph was inscribed on his tomb: 
 
 " Hicjacet Erasmus , qui quondam bonus crat Mus, 
 '^ Rodere qui solituSj roditur a Vermibus.''^ 
 
 Here lies a snarling biter in his day. 
 Bid now J in tunij to biting worms a prey. 
 
 About the middle of the sixteenth century there arose, 
 at Sienna, in Tuscany, another new sect, called Socinian- 
 isMy from Loelius and Faustus Socinus, the authors of it. 
 Socinianism is a compound of Arianism, Macedonianism, 
 Photinianism, and of the old condemned errors of Paul of 
 Samosata, and of the Sabellians and Ebionites, for which 
 reason its followers are called the neio Ebionites, Antitrini- 
 iarianSj Unitarians^ and Socinians. Socinianism is but one 
 remove from Deism, or bare natural religion, and its ten- 
 dency is to lay aside the belief of the mysteries of the 
 Trinity and Incarnation, and to overturn tlie whole sys- 
 tem of Christianity. Luther began the work, Calvin car- 
 ried it on, but Socinus endeavoured to undermine the very 
 foundation, according to the following epitaph that was 
 made for him : 
 
 *' Tota quidem Babylon destruxit tecta L/idherus, 
 *' Muros Cahinus, sed fimdamenta Socinus.''^ 
 
 Three grand refoi^ners^ffirW with ardenl zeal, 
 Proud Babylon at various times assail : 
 Luther, of pious haste to give a proof, 
 UntiVd the building, and stripphl off the roof ; 
 Calvin, with greater rage, pidVd down the ivall ; 
 Socinus raz^dfound-alionst earth and all. 
 
CHURCH OF CHRIST. 325 
 
 The cliiijf and favourite principle of the Socinlans is, 
 that whatever is above reason, or is not reconcileable to 
 'it, is against it, and that no mystery can be admitted in 
 reHgion : a principle that not only flatters the pride of the 
 human heart exceedingly, but likewise opens a door to 
 endless divisions, and often di-ives the abettors of it into 
 the most glaring inconsistencies and monstrous absurdities 
 against reason itself. If nothing is to be allowed in faith 
 or religion, but what our reason fully comprehends, will it 
 not follow that articles of faith must vary in proportion to 
 men's capacities } Moreover, to believe no mystery, or 
 to admit nothing above reason, is the most extravagant 
 inconsistency in man, who feels the weakness and short- 
 sightedness of his reason in every thing, whether in or 
 about himself, and to whom the whole universe is in every 
 part an enigma. It is much more inconsistent in a Chris- 
 tian, to whom the Scriptures present a religion that is 
 founded in mystery and divine revelation, and that by its 
 brightness and evidence dispels the mists and lays open 
 the artful subterfuges of Socinianism. 
 
 The gross errors and absurdities of Pagan antiquity 
 plainly show the weakness of human reason, unassisted 
 by divine revelation, and prove the absolute necessity of 
 a revealed religion to direct us even in the paths of moral 
 virtue, and to guide us in the search of many necessary 
 truths ; for as the human mind is of itself nothing but 
 darkness, we stand in need of the light of divine revela- 
 tion as a sure guide to point out to us the straight way, 
 and to conduct us with safety through the dangerous pil- 
 grimage of this moral life. If we forsake it, we lose and 
 bewilder ourselves, how much soever enlightened we may 
 suppose ourselves to be. How many acute philosophers, 
 great geniuses, and strong reasoners, have gone astray, 
 and run into all kinds of excesses, by relying too much 
 on the strength of their own reason, and pursuing their 
 own speculations, without a sense of religion ? How many 
 have lost sight of common sense, and overset and unhinged 
 their understanding, by too intense an application to things 
 beyond their sphere ? How many have mistaken the wild 
 fancies of their brain for right reason ? Cicero justly re- 
 marks, that nothing can be invented ever so absurd or 
 monstrous, v/hich has not been said by some of the ancient 
 philosophers, who, like the Scrir-ians of those davs, boast' 
 
326 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 cd mightily of making reason their only guide. St. Au- 
 gustine also tells us, that the Manicheans, by relying too 
 much on the strength of their own reason, whilst they de- 
 rided the simplicity of the true believers, became at length 
 so absurd as to teach, that when a iBg-tree was plucked 
 and eaten, both it and its mother tree wept with milky 
 tears, and that particles of Deity, imprisoned in the fruit, 
 were restored to liberty. 
 
 The root of such abuses is pride and a secret vanity, 
 self-sufficiency or complacency, that men easily entertain 
 in the opinion of their own knowledge or penetration, and 
 that makes them overrate their imaginary perfections and 
 superior abilities. Nay, pride alone has sometimes made 
 men forget that they were men, and has even raised 
 them to the extravagant presumption of claiming divine 
 honours, as we read of Alexander, the celebrated Mace- 
 donian conqueror, and of several emperors of ancient 
 Babylon and Rome. Sound philosophy demonstrates, that 
 as there is nothing more certain than that there is a God, 
 so nothing is more certain than that there must be a reli- 
 gion, and a revealed religion, which has God for its au- 
 thor ; for there is no such thing, and no such thing can be, 
 as a natural religion. Natural reli jrion would be that where 
 reason alone would dictate to man the homage and wor- 
 ship that the Deity demands of him. But his natural lights 
 do not reach so far, as the Deists have heen forced to ac- 
 knowledge. Man cannot attain by his reason only to the 
 free designs which God has over him ; he cannot discover 
 what his destination is, or how he is tor appease God when 
 he has offended him. He must be taught these duties by 
 a revealed religion. It is it that makes known to him the 
 state in which he was born, the cause of the great igno- 
 rance of his mind, and of the deep-rooted corruption of 
 his heart. It is it that points out the source of his spi- 
 ritual maladies, and applies to them effectual remedies. 
 It is the privilege of religion only to make mankind good 
 and happy. It is it that gives both light and strength. It 
 is it that illuminates the understanding, rectifies the will, 
 regulates the heart, stems the tide of men's passions, fur- 
 nishes most powerful motives of virtue, and sovereign pre- 
 servatives against vice. {See p. 43, <S|'C.) Philosophy or 
 human reason is insufficient, and too weak to maintain or- 
 der, either in public or domestic life. If the heart be cor- 
 
CHURCH OF CHRIST. 327 
 
 i 
 
 rupted, it will scarce scruple any thing that will serve a 
 man's ambition or interest. Refinement on reason will in 
 this case contribute only to refine upon the means of 
 gi'atifying his darling passions, whereas, on the contrary, 
 those who act under the influence of religion, are steady 
 in the disinterested pursuit of every virtue, and in the dis- 
 charge of every duty they owe their king and country, 
 their families and themselves. In short, religion alone is 
 the sacred band of justice and civil society in the present 
 life. The safety and happiness of all society is founded 
 upon it. He who, with Hobbes, so far degrades human 
 reason as to reduce virtue to an ideal beauty, and an empty 
 name, or who laughs religion and the law of God out of 
 doors, is of all others the most dangerous enemy to man- 
 kind, capable of every mischief. It is safer to live among 
 lions and tigers, than among men of this description ; for 
 unless religion bind a man in his conscience, the general 
 laws of nations, and those of particular states, are too 
 weak a restraint upon him, and lose their force. His 
 heart being open to every crime, he will become so far 
 the slave of his passions as to be ready to commit every 
 advantageous villany to which he is prompted, whenever 
 he can do it with secrecy and impunity. 
 
 The followers of Socinus, particularly in Poland and 
 Transylvania, disagreed so much among themselves, that 
 they were at length divided into about fifty different sects, 
 but were all known by the general name of Unitarians. 
 The refinement of false philosophy, destructive at once 
 both of religion and morality, difiused itself with the ra- 
 pidity of an inundation. Freethinking grew apace. Some 
 uneasy under any restraint, and extending what they 
 called universal charity to Turks, Jews, and Pagans, de- 
 clared themselves indifferent to every form of doctrine 
 and worship, and were styled Laiitadinarians, because 
 they allowed a latitude that was calculated to indulge hu- 
 man pride, and to gratify the inclinations of the heart. 
 Others, contented with the simple belief of a God, re- 
 nounced all divine revelation, and were denominated 
 Deists ; whilst others sunk into mere materialism, and be- 
 lieved no future state at all. Brandt, the Belgic historian, 
 relates, that Hubert Dovehouse, a parish priest at Utrecht, 
 in those days of innovation, to conform to his flock, in 
 which some were Catholics, sorrje Calvinists, professed 
 
328 HISTORY OF THf; 
 
 himself of both relij^ions at once, and first said Mass to 
 the Catholics — then they going out, and the Calvinists 
 coming into the Church, he immediately began to read to 
 them their new liturgy. The principles of such men v/ould 
 allow them to sacrifice both to the true God and to Baal, 
 and would induce them to coniiueuil tl.« fbil.s« religion of 
 Redwald, kix'g of the East Saxons, who had in the same 
 church or temple, one altar erected to Christ, for the 
 celebi*ation of the divine mysteries, and another lesser, on 
 which he oflered victims to the idols of his ancestors. 
 
 The disciples of Luther and Calvin were also divided 
 and subdivided into different sects, following difl'erent 
 heads. Very soon the same principle which had separated 
 them from the society of the faithful, formed new divisions 
 in their own bosom. Doctors trained up in their school, 
 turned against them the same arms which they themselves 
 had made use of against the ancient Church, and their 
 own children had no more respect for them than they had 
 shown to their mother. They scarce agreed in any other 
 thing but their endeavours to destroy the faith, in which 
 their predecessors, for so many ages, had wrought their 
 salvation. They withdrew themselves from the jurisdic- 
 tion of the Church militant, by laying aside its authority ; 
 they separated from the Church suffering, by rejecting 
 prayers for the souls in purgatory ; and from the Church 
 triumphant, by refusing to invoke the intercession of the 
 saints and by destroying their shrines and sacred relics. 
 Thus it was that they revived the old condemned errors 
 for which Aerius, a priest of Sebastia — Jovinian, a monk 
 of Milan, called by St. Jerom the Christian Epicure — and 
 Vigilantius, a priest of Barcelona, had been ranked 
 amono-st the heretics of the fourth and fifth centuries. 
 They exploded fasting and other religious duties, as en- 
 croachments and restraints on Christian liberty. They 
 preached down celibacy and a state of virginity, in direct 
 opposition to the doctrine and advice of St. Paul, 1 Cor. 
 7. of living, as he did, in a state of perpetual continency. 
 They banished the painful restrictions of penance and 
 mortification, though perfectly conformable to the maxims 
 and spirit of the Gospel. They opened a spacious lawn 
 and smooth path to Heaven, strewed with roses, instead 
 of the narrow, thorny road of the cross. In short, they 
 Tevelled all the fences which veneraljle antiquity }\><i, 
 
ttiXjtLCU OF CHRIST. 3^9 
 
 ^i*ccted, reduced faith to a mere skeleton, and dogmatized 
 that it alone was sufficient for salvation. 
 
 To such a degree prevailed the spirit of dogmatizing 
 and forming new creeds in those days, that the cities and 
 villages, camps, houses, and pulpits, were filled with a 
 numerous tribe of new gospellers. Each of them pre- 
 tended that he had as good a right as Luther and Calvin, 
 to interpret the Bible according to his own fancy ; and 
 thus, like the Arians and Pelagians, they made a handle 
 of the best of books to lead the poor deluded people 
 astray, and to pass their own notions upon them for divine 
 truths. " Aristarchus formerly could scarce find seven 
 " wise men in Greece," as Dr. Walton, a Protestant wri- 
 ter, says in his preface to Polyglott, "but then scarce 
 " were to be found so many idiots ; for all were doctors, 
 '^ all were divinely learned ; and there was not so much 
 '* as the meanest fanatic, who did not give his own dream 
 " for the word of God." Like the ancient sectaries, they 
 all boasted they had Scripture on their side, and imagined 
 that they understood it better than all the holy Fathers, 
 Doctors, and Pastors of the preceding ages. But as they 
 had no certain standard to go by, and were not limited by 
 any settled principle, but depended upon the arbitrary de- 
 termination of their own private judgment, it is no won- 
 der that they split into an amazing number of jarring 
 opinions and contradictory systems, which were not to be 
 found in the genuine sources of truth. Staphylus reckons 
 seven opposite expositions of that one text. This is my 
 Bocly^ and says that the Lutheran religion was, within a 
 i^&w years after its birth, divided into fifty sects. — Apol. 
 fol. 138. The number of confessions of faith that were 
 drawn up by them, demonstrates the instability of their 
 doctrine, as Bossuet, the bishop of Meaux, proves, in his 
 History of Valuations. 
 
 Sleiden relates, b. 10. that John of Leyden, by reading 
 the Bible, and preaching his whims, made himself king 
 of Munster, and introduced polyg-amy. A woman of that 
 city, by reading the book of Judith, heated her imagina- 
 tion to that degree, that she attempted to kill the bishop 
 of Munster, but perished herself. Brandt, in his History 
 of the Low Countries, tells us, that David of Delft said 
 to his companion, '* Come, dost thou not see how men 
 " raise themselves by turning new preachers .'' How they 
 Ee2 
 
330 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 " grow rich and powerful at an easy rate ? We have 
 " read the Bible: let us set up." He did so, and made a 
 great figure at Basil, till he died there. Peter Martyr, 
 Ochinus, Osiander, Zuinglius, Carlostadius, CEcolampa- 
 dius, &c. thought themselves authorized to commence re- 
 finers of religion, and preached up a hitherto unheard-of 
 evangelical liberty. Philip Melancthon framed the Con- 
 fession of Augsburg in the year 1530, and left the following 
 epitaph to be inscribed on his tomb: 
 
 " Iste brevis tumulus misern tenet ossa Philippiy 
 *^ Qui qualis fuerit, nescio, talis erit.^^ 
 
 T\is slender pile within its space contains, 
 Poor Philip^s mortal corse and sad remains. 
 His future state I neither know nor see ; 
 BtU as he was, such ever he shall be. 
 
 Nicholas Stork and Thomas Munster gave birth to the 
 Anabaptists, who in a short time split into at least thirty- 
 two different sects. John Knox, who died in 1572, was 
 author of the Puritans. John Arminius, of Amsterdam, 
 became the leader of a party, called the Arminians, who 
 revived the errors of the Pelagians, and were opposed by 
 another party, called GomaHsts, from Gomarus, a pro- 
 fessor of theology at Leyden. Some called themselves 
 Conformists, others Non-conformists; some were styled 
 Hemonstrants, others, Contra remonstrants; some indepen- 
 dents, others Moravians; some Episcopalians, others Pres- 
 byterians; some were named Broivnists, others Ilutch- 
 insonians; some Sacramentarians, others Ubiquitarians, 
 Some in short obtained the appellation of Huguenots, 
 particularly in several provinces of France, where Theo- 
 dorus Beza dogmatized after the death of Calvin. 
 
 In the interim, the Church, Hkeunto a sorrowful mother, 
 sat bewailing the loss of so many children, whom she had 
 baptized and reared in her bosom. She beheld with re- 
 gret and concern a very considerable portion of her vine- 
 yard lopped off in some respectable countries of Europe, 
 which for upwards of nine hundred years had been con- 
 spicuous in the Christian world for the orthodoxy of their 
 belief, and for having sent a multitude of saints to Heaven. : 
 Never did she meet with a greater trial ; never was there 
 a more dreadful storm raised against her, since the days . 
 
CHURCH OF CHRIST. 331 
 
 of Arianism, than at this remarkable period. The raging 
 waves of error and libertinism swelled so high, and with 
 such violence, as to seem to threaten the world with a 
 general deluge ; but he who has set certain bounds to the 
 sea, and who commands the winds and the waves, did not 
 abandon the ship of Peter, but stood constantly at the 
 helm, to preserve it from the danger of sinking or of being 
 wrecked, and to pilot it safe into port. For his own wise 
 reasons he suffered it to be agitated for a while by the most 
 violent tempests, but in the end he made it rise triumph- 
 antly, like Noah's Ark, above the raging billows, that it 
 might carry salvation to the extremities of the earth. 
 HUherto shall thou comcy and shall go no furlher, and here 
 thou shah break thy swelling waves. Job c. 38. v. 11. 
 The billows may rage and foam, but the rock stands firm, 
 whilst they dash and spend themselves against it to no 
 purpose. 
 
 In effect, never was the protection of God more visible 
 in supporting that building which Christ had founded 
 upon an immoveable bulwark. It was so far from being 
 overthrown or destroyed by the various attacks levelled 
 at it in those days, that the breaches and losses it sus- 
 tained were most amply repaired. Such is the general 
 plan and oeconomy that Divine Providence seems to follow 
 in the government of the Church of Christ. When 
 through his unsearchable judgments he permits any part 
 of it to be wrested from him by infidelity, or when in 
 his anger he withdraws the gift of faith from one nation, 
 he usually gives it to another, and retrieves the loss by 
 making new conquests. He enlarges his spiritual do- 
 minions elsewhere, and repairs the breaches by the con- 
 version and accession of much larger regions to the pale 
 of his Church. If the Church therefore had the affliction 
 to behold some countries cut of!" from her communion in 
 the sixteenth century, she likewise had the consolation to 
 See other nations substituted in their place ; so that the 
 lopping off of some of her branches served only to make 
 her, like unto a great tree, shoot forth fresh branches, 
 and produce more excellent fruit. The discovery of the 
 ew world and fourth part of the earth, by Christo- 
 pher Columbus, a native of Leghorn, in the year 1492, 
 and by Americus Vespusius, a Florentine, in the year 
 1497, opened a door to carry the Gospel into those vast 
 
332 HISTORY OF TH£ 
 
 regions, and immense tracts of land, where innumerable 
 multitudes embraced the Catholic communion in the six- 
 teenth century. It was in this century that St. Francis 
 Xaverius, the apostle of the Indies, carried the light of 
 the Gospel to the coasts of Malabar and Coromandel, to 
 Travancer and the fisheries in the East Indies, to the Mo- 
 lucca islands, and the islands Del Moro, and to the king- 
 dom of Japan, where he planted the faith of Christ and 
 converted many hundred thousands of souls. See his Life 
 englished by Dryden. The Church of Japan, about the 
 year 1582, counted no less than six hundred thousand 
 Christians, and stood for a long time the shock of the 
 most violent persecutions, in which innumerable martyrs 
 suffered with a piety and constancy, not unworthy the 
 primitive ages. In the year 1590, no fewer than 20,000 
 were put to death for the faith. It was at this period also 
 that numbers of pious missionaries, burning with zeal for 
 the glory of God, and for the salvation of souls, announc- 
 ed the faith with prodigious success in the great empire 
 of China, in Brazil, Terra Firma, New Granada, New 
 Andalusia, Popayan, Paraguay, and in the Philippine 
 islands, where they civilized millions of barbarians and 
 gained over innumerable souls to the Lord. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVII. 
 
 The Church of the Seventeenth Centunj. 
 
 THE Apostolic succession of chief pastors in the chair 
 of St. Peter was continued in this age by Leo XI. who 
 sat but twenty days. Paul V. succeeded him on the 16th 
 of May, 1605, and died on the 28th of January, 1621, 
 in the sixteenth year of his pontificate. Gregory XV. 
 was elected on the 9th of February, 1621, and died on 
 the 8th of July, 1623. Urban VIII. was chosen on the 
 6th of August, the same year, and after sitting twenty- 
 one years, died on the 29th of July, in 1644. Innocent 
 X. was raised to the pontificate on the 15th of September, 
 the same year, and died on the 7th of January, 1655. 
 Alexander VII. sat from the 7th of April, the same year, 
 till the 22d of May, 1667. Clement IX. was chosen on 
 
CHURCH OF CHRIST. 333 
 
 the 20th of June, same year, and died on the 9th of De- 
 cember, 1669. Clement X. being elected after him, died 
 on the 22d of July, in 1676. Innocent XI. sat from the 
 21st of September, same year, till the 12th of August, 
 1689. Alexander VIII. sat from the 6th of October, 
 same year, till the 1st of February, 1691, and Innocent 
 XII. from the 12th of July, same year, till the 27th of 
 September, 1700. 
 
 The succession of saints was kept up in this age by St. 
 Francis of Sales, bishop of Geneva, St. Vincent of Paul, 
 founder of the Lazarites or fathers of the mission, St. 
 Camillus of Lellis, founder of therehgious order for serv- 
 ing the sick and assisting the faithful at their death, St. 
 Fidelis of Sigmaringen, martyr, St. Joseph of Leonissa, 
 St. Francis Solano, Apostolic preacher in Peili, St. 
 Alphonsus Thuribius Archbishop of Lima, St. Joseph 
 Calasanctius, founder of the regular clergy of the Scholoz 
 piodj or pious schools, St. John Francis Regis, St. Jane 
 Frances de Chantal, St. Mary Madgdalen of Pazzis, St. 
 Rose of Lima, the capital of Peru, with many others, 
 who died in the sweet odour of sanctity. See Dr. A. 
 Butler, tom. 1.6. 7, and 8. Even in the most degenerate 
 ages, when the true maxims of the Gospel seem almost 
 obliterated among the generality of those who profess it, 
 God fails not, for the glory of his holy name, to raise to 
 himself faithful ministers and vessels of election, whom he 
 replenishes with his gifts and graces, that they may be 
 qualified to revive the spirit of religion in others, and to 
 conduct them both by word and example in the paths of 
 heroic virtue. One of these instruments of the divine 
 mercy was St. Francis of Sales. To read the lives of 
 the saints, and to consider their edifying actions in order 
 to imbibe their spirit and quicken his own soul in the 
 practice of piety, was an exercise in which from his 
 youthful days he found singular comfort and dehght, and 
 a great help to devotion. Like the industrious bee, which 
 sucks honey from every flower, he endeavoured to learn 
 from the life of every saint some new practice of virtue, 
 and to treasure up in his mind some new maxim of an 
 interior life. By reading the golden book composed by 
 Laurence Scupoli, entitled the Spiritual Combat, he con- 
 ceived the most ardent desire of Christian perfection. He 
 carried it fifteen years in his pocket, read something of it 
 
334 inSTORY OF THE 
 
 every day, always with fre&h profit, as he assures us, and 
 strongly recommends it to others in several of his letters. 
 This book ran through near fifty editions, before the 
 death of the author, which happened in the year 1610. 
 Herein are laid down the best remedies against all vices, 
 and the most perfect maxims of an interior life, in a clear 
 concise style, which in the original Italian breathes the 
 most affecting sincere simplicity, humility, and piety. A 
 spiritual life is here proved to be founded in perfect self- 
 denial, and the most sincere sentiments of humihty and 
 distrust in ourselves on one side, and on the other in an 
 entire confidence in God, and profound sense of his good- 
 ness, love, and mercy. St. Francis was nat\u'ally of a 
 hasty and passionate temper, wherefore, from his youth 
 he made meekness his favourite virtue, and studied and 
 practised that important lesson of his Divine Redeemer, 
 Lteamfrom me to he meek and humble of heart, to such per- 
 fection as to convert his predominant passion into his cha- 
 racteristical virtue. When he was promoted to holy 
 orders, and consecrated bishop of Geneva, he studied as 
 much at the foot of the crucifix as in books, being per- 
 suaded that the essential quality of an ecclesiastic and 
 preacher of the Gospel is to be a man of prayer. His 
 sermons were accompanied with incredible success. He 
 is said to have converted no less than seventy-two thou- 
 sand Calvinists, which wonderful conversion? they ascrib- 
 ed principally to his meekness and humility, and the 
 unction with which he spoke from the abundance of his 
 own heart, and affected the hearts of his hearers. 
 
 The writings of St Francis breathe that meekness and 
 divine love with which his heart was filled, and are an in- 
 estimable treasure of moving instructions, suitable to all 
 sorts of persons and circumstances. His incomparable 
 book, called The Introduction to a Devout Life, has been 
 translated into all the languages of Europe. Queen 
 Mary of Medicis sent it richly bound and adorned with 
 jewels to James I. of England, who was so wonderfully 
 taken with it, that he expressed a great desire to see the 
 author. This being told to Francis, he cried out, <' Ahy 
 ^^who will give me the wings of a dove ? and I will fly to the 
 *' king, into that great island, formerly the country of saints 
 " but now overwhelmed with the darkness of error. If 
 " the Duke will permit me, I will arise and go to that grea 
 
ciiuucii or ciiiiisT. 335 
 
 *' Ninive : I will speak to the king, and will announce to 
 " him, with the hazard of my life, the word of the Lord." 
 Ill effect he solicited the duke of Savoy's consent, but 
 could never obtain it. Villars, the archbishop of Vienna, 
 wrote to St. Francis, that this book charmed, inflamed, and 
 put him in raptures, as often as he opened any part of it. 
 The like applause and commendations were received from 
 all parts. Yet a certain preacher had the rashness and 
 presumption to declaim bitterly against this book in a 
 public sermon. He even cut it in pieces, and burnt it in 
 the very pulpit, as if it had allowed of scurrilous jests, and 
 approved of gambling, balls, and comedies, which was 
 very far from the Saint's doctrine. Nature, indeed, stands 
 in need of relaxation for the exercise of the body, and 
 unbending of the mind, but to make a round of trifling 
 amusements, slothful games, and idle visits the business 
 of life, is, indeed, to degrade the dignity of a rational 
 being. Games at cards, the modish diversion of this age, 
 first invented at the French court in the fourteenth cen- 
 tury, and consisting of military allusions to the combats 
 of chivalry, and to the persons and transactions of that 
 age, fall under the censure of games of hazard, when 
 chance is chiefly predominant in them. They can only be 
 tolerated or allowed when dexterity and skill prevail, and 
 when the play is not deep, and there is no danger either 
 of losing much of our precious time at them, or of con- 
 tracting an attachment and passion for gaming. St. 
 Peter Damian severely rebuked the bishop of Florence 
 for playing a game of chess, and the prelate acknow- 
 ledging the amusement faulty in a man of his character, 
 who should be better employed in labouring for the sal- 
 vation of many souls redeemed by the blood of Christ, 
 and perishing for want of zealous workmen in the vine- 
 yard, recited the Psalter three times by way of penance. 
 St. Camilhis of Lellis had in his youth followed a mili- 
 tary life, and contracted so violent a passion for cards and 
 gaming, that he was at length reduced to the necessity of 
 driving an ass for a subsistence. He was insensible of the 
 evils attending gaming, till distress compelled him to open 
 his eyes and bewail his folly. He was then convinced 
 that all playing even at lawful games for exorbitant 
 sums, and absolutely all games of hazard for considerable 
 sums, are forbidden by the law of nature. The imperial 
 
336 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 laws, the civil laws of all Christian or civilized ivations, 
 and the canons of the Church likewise forbid them. 
 Aristotle himself, 1. 4. Ethic, c. 1. places gamesters in the 
 same class with highway-men and plunderers. No con- 
 tract is justifiable in which neither reason nor proportion 
 is observed. Nor can it be consistent with the natural 
 law of justice, for a man to stake any sum on blind chance, 
 or to expose without a reasonable equivalent or necessity, 
 so much of his own or his antagonist's money, that the 
 loss would notably distress himself or any other person. 
 Many other evils are inseparable from a spirit of gaming. 
 It springs from avarice, rejoices in the loss of others, and 
 is the source and immediate occasion of several other 
 vices. A passion for it unsettles, enervates and debases 
 the mind, unhinges the whole frame of the soul, and ge- 
 nerates a strong^ aversion to business. One of the best 
 remedies lor it, is to give whatever is won to the poor. 
 These considerations completed the conversion of Camil- 
 lus. Having deplored his past indolent, unthinking life, 
 and being perfectly dead to self-love, he embraced a pe- 
 nitential course, and laid the foundation of a charitable 
 congregation for serving the sick in prisons and hospitals, 
 even those infected with the plague. His attention to 
 every circumstance relating to the care of dying persons, 
 made him soon discover, that many were buried alive, of 
 which Cicatello relates several examples, 1. 2. c. 1. p. 446. 
 particularly of one buried in a vault, who was found walk- 
 ing about in it, when the next corpse was brought to be 
 there interred. Hence the saint ordered his religious to 
 continue the pi'ayers for souls yet in their agony for a 
 quarter of an hour after they seem to have drawn their 
 last breath, and not to sutler their faces to be covered so 
 soon as is usual, by which means those that are not dead are 
 stitled. This precaution is most necessary in cases of 
 drowning, apoplexies, and such accidents and distempers, 
 which arise from mere obstructions, or some sudden re- 
 volutions of humours. Boerhaave, Bruhier, and some other 
 eminent physicians and surgeons in France and Germany, 
 have demonstrated by many undoubted examples of per- 
 sons who have recovered long after they had apppnred to 
 have been dead, that where the person is not dead, an 
 entire cessation of breathing, and of the circulation of the 
 blood, may happen for some time, bv a total obstruction 
 
CHURCH OF CHRIST. 337 
 
 in the organical movements of the springs and fluids of the 
 whole body, which obstructions may sometimes be after- 
 wards removed and the vital functions restored. Hence 
 the soul is not to be presumed to leave the body in the act 
 of dying, but at the moment in which some organ or part 
 of the body absolutely essential to life, is irreparably de- 
 cayed or destroyed. And for this reason, these authors 
 insist, that no corpse should be allowed to be buried, or 
 its face close covered, before some evident symptom or 
 certain proof of putrefaction commenced, appears sen- 
 sible, and for this they assign as usually one of the first 
 marks, if the lower jaw being stirred, does not restore 
 itself, the spring of the muscles being lost by putrefaction. 
 The Romans usually kept the bodies of the dead eight 
 days, and before they burnt or interred them, practised 
 a ceremony of often calling upon them by their names, 
 which, though trivial in itself, was of importance to ascer- 
 tain publicly the death of the person. 
 
 This ao-e was remarkable for the conversion of several. 
 great personages. The son of the emperor of the Turks 
 was converted and baptized in the year 1621. The eld- 
 est son of the emperor of China, with his mother, was 
 converted in 1646. The king of Tunis was baptized the 
 same year. The king of Monomotapa in Africa was bap- 
 tized in 1652. The eldest son of the emperor of Morocco 
 was baptized in 1667. Christina queen of Sweden em- 
 braced the Catholic religion in 1656. Wolfangus Wil- 
 liam, duke of Neoborough, was converted in 1614. Chris- 
 tianus Augustus, the elector palatine, and his sisters, were 
 converted in \655. The kingdom of Christ was likewise 
 considerably extended in Tonquin, in the Marian islands, 
 on the coasts of Zanquebar, in Canada and New Mexico, 
 in Chili, and other parts of South America. 
 
 No general council was held, though several synods 
 and congregations were assembled for the regulation of 
 ecclesiastical discipline, the reformation of morals, and 
 for settling the school disputes between the Donjiinicans 
 and .Jesuits on the grace of God, or de Auxiliis, The er- 
 rors that arose were suppressed by the authority of the 
 Apostolic see, with the concurrence of the great body of 
 bishops throughout the Church, acquiescing in its decisions, 
 which carries with it the same authority as a general coun- 
 cil. In the year 1567, Pius V. had condemned seventy- 
 Ff 
 
338 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 six propositions under the name of Michael Baius, doctor 
 and professor of divinity at Louvain, which contained a 
 new doctrine concerning the grace conferred on man in 
 the two states before and after Adam's fall, and some 
 other speculative points. Baius himself solemnly revoked 
 and sincerely condemned his errors, in 1580, at Louvain, 
 in the presence of Francis Toletus, legate to Gregory 
 XIII. on which occasion it was said of him : Baio nihil 
 dodius, Baio nihil hmnilius. Nothing more lemvied than 
 JBaius, nothing more humble than Baius. He said with 
 the truly humble, and truly great Augustine, Errare pos- 
 suMj hcereiicus non ero. Cornelius Jansenius, bishop of 
 Ipres, and John Verger, director of the nuns of Port- 
 Royal, commonly called Abbe de St. Cyran, concerted a 
 plan of a new system of doctrine, concerning divine grace, 
 founded, in part, upon some of the condemned errors of 
 Baius, and this system Jansenius endeavoured to establish, 
 in a book, which, from St. Augustine, the great doctor of 
 grace, he entitled Augustinus, and which he never pub- 
 lished, having died of a pestilence in 1638, declaring, that 
 he submitted his work to the judgment of the Church. 
 Fromond, another Louvanian divine, polished the style of 
 this book, and put it in the press, and Verger became a 
 most strenuous advocate for the doctrine it contained. 
 The book was condemned by Urban VIII. in 1641, and 
 in 1653, Innocent X. censured five propositions, to which 
 the errors of Jansenism were principally reduced. In 
 1656, Alexander VII. confirmed those decrees, and in 
 1665 approved the formulary for receiving and subscribing 
 them. The Jansenian heresy is downright Predestinarian- 
 ism, than which no doctrine can be imagined more mon- 
 strous and absurd. In the year 1671, Paschasius Q,uenel, 
 a French oratorian, published his book of Moral Reflections 
 on The Gospels, which he afterwards augmented, and 
 added like reflections on the rest of the New Testament. 
 In this work he craftily insinuated the errors of Jansenius, 
 and a contempt of the censures of the Church. The fanati- 
 cism of Quietism was broached by Michael Molinos,' a 
 Spanish priest, and false mystic, who, in his book entitled 
 j?'Ae Spiritual Guide, endeavoured to establish a system 
 of perfect contemplation, inaction, and inattention, which 
 he calls Quiet, and in which he teaches that the soul de- 
 sires nothing, not even salvation, and fears nothing, not 
 
 J 
 
CHURCH OF CHRIST. 338 
 
 even hell itself. Innocent XI. in 1637, condemned sixty- 
 eight propositions, extracted from this book, as respectively 
 heretical, scandalous, and blasphemous. Semi- Quietism 
 Avas for some time patronised by the great Fenelon, arch- 
 bishop of Cambray, who having in some measure under- 
 taken the patronage of the wi'itings of the famous Madam 
 (jJuyon, published a book entitled tlie Maxims of the Saints^ 
 in which a kind of Semi-Q,uietism was advanced. This 
 book, with twenty-three rash propositions, extracted out 
 of it, was condemned by Innocent XII. in 1G99, on the 
 twelfth of March, and on the ninth of April following by 
 the author himself, who closed his eyes to all the glimmer- 
 ings of human understanding, to seek truth in the obe- 
 dient simplicity of faith. By this submission, he vanquished 
 and triumphed over his defeat itself. 
 
 This century produced innumerable ecclesiastical wri- 
 ters. Some of the most celebrated were cardinals Baro- 
 nius, Bellarmin, Perron, Pallavicini, Norris, de Laurae, 
 and D'Aguirre, cardinal Bona, Christianus Lupus, Lanuza, 
 Launoius, Bossuet, bishop of Meaux, Lambert Le Drou, 
 Gavardi, Estius, Sylvius, Tirinus, A. Lapide, cardinal de 
 Berulle, Spondanus, Pontas, Calmet, Bollandus, Vazquez, 
 Suarez, Aiigelus Rocca, Van Espen, Bartholomew de las 
 Casas, Canisius, Menochius, Gonet, Contensonius, Sec. 
 
 In the year 1655, Isaac Peyrerius, a Calvinist of Bour- 
 deaux, faljricated the fabulous system of the Pre-adamites, 
 but he abjured his error, along with Calvinism, and sent 
 the treatise he had written on this subject to a certain 
 friend, with the following verse of Ovid, the word urbcm 
 being changed into ignem. 
 
 Vade nee invideOy sine me liber ibis in ignem. 
 
 In the same year, 1655, commenced the sect of Quakers, 
 so called from their quaking or trembling. Like other 
 sectaries, they said they had Scripture in their favour, 
 and claimed an equal right to interpret it, according to 
 their own private judgment. By the same rule, every il- 
 literate man or woman might begin a new religion, and 
 warrant it, by quoting the Sacred Text, and setting up for 
 a better judge of its meaning than the most able divine. 
 An Arian might say, that Scripture is on his side, and a 
 Pelagian would make it speak Pelagianism, and it would 
 be impossible to convince either the one or the other by 
 
340 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 Scripture alone. The Quakers were set up under the 
 usurpation of Oliver Cromwell, by George Fox, an Ana- 
 baptist Shoemaker, and by James Nailor, a Quarter-mas- 
 ter of Lambert's regiment, in Cromwell's army. The 
 author of the Classical Dictionary relates, that in 1656, 
 James JVailor rode into Bristol, a man and a woman hold- 
 ing the reins of his horse, whilst some others followed him, 
 fcinging, Hobj, i^oly, ^lohjy Lord God of Sahaolh. Being 
 seized by the magistrates, and tried and condemned as a 
 feeducer of ilie people, his tongue was bored with an hot 
 iron, and his forehead marked with a B, signifying Blas- 
 phemer. In the year 1670, Benedict Spinosa, an apostate 
 at Amsterdam, published an impious book in support of 
 Atheism, wherein he was followed by Lucilius Vanini, 
 and Mathias Kunzen, Sec. 
 
 About the beginning of this century the Turks were 
 several times defeated in Hungary. In 1611, Sigismund 
 III. gained a signal victory over their army, consisting of 
 two hundred and ninety-two thousand men, twenty-five 
 thousand of them being killed in one battle, and sixty 
 thousand in diflerent engagements. Nine hundred thou- 
 sand Moors were ordered to depart out of vSpain in 1610, 
 under the reign of Philip III. In 1669, the isle of Crete 
 was subdued by the Turks, after a struggle of twenty-four 
 years, and a siege of twenty-eight months, and twenty- 
 seven days. One hundred and fifty thousand Turks and 
 thirty thousand Cliristians perished in the war of Crete. 
 In the year 1083, under the reign of the emperor Leo- 
 pold, one hundred and fifty thousand Turks, in conjunction 
 with an army of forty thousand Hungarians, under the 
 command of Count Tekeli, laid siege to Vienna. John 
 Sobieski, king of Poland, marched against them with ex- 
 pedition, at the head of twenty-four thousand chosen men, 
 and attacked them on the twelfth day of September. The 
 whole Turkish army fled in the utmost disorder, and left 
 behind them all their artillery, consisting of one hundred 
 and fourscore heavy pieces of ordnance. John Sobieski 
 having found immense treasures and riches in the camp 
 of the Turks, wrote to his queen, that the Grand Vizir had 
 made him that day his sole executor. 
 
CHURCH OF CHRIST. 341 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVIII. 
 
 The Church of the Eighteenth Century. 
 
 The succession of chief pastors in the Apostolic see has 
 been kept up in this age by Clement XI. Innocent XIII. 
 Benedict XIII. Clement XII. Benedict XIV. Clement 
 XIII. Clement XIV. and Pius VI. 
 
 Clement XI. was elected on the 23d of November, 1700. 
 He published the Constitution Vineam Domini against the 
 Jansenists in the year 1705, condemned QuenePsbook of 
 Moral Reflections in 1708 ; and 1713, by the Constitution 
 Unigenitus, censured one hundred and one propositions 
 extracted from it. He died in the twenty-first year of 
 his pontificate. Innocent XIII. succeeded hira and held 
 the pontificate two years and near ten months. Benedict 
 
 XIII. a man of great piety, governed the church from the 
 29th of May 1724, till the 21st of February, 1730, and 
 Clement XII. from the 3d of July, the same year, till the 
 6th of February, 1740. Benedict XIV. a Pontiff renowned 
 for his profound erudition and wisdom, held the chair of 
 St. Peter from the 17th of August, 1740, till the 3d of 
 May, 1758, and Clement XIII. from the 6th of July, 1758, 
 till the 2d of February, 1769, His successor, Clement 
 
 XIV. who suppressed the order of the Jesuits in the year 
 1773, governed the church from the 19th of May, 1769, 
 till the 22d of September, 1774. On his demise, Pius VI. 
 the present pontiff, was elected the 15th of February, 
 1775, and has already filled the apostolic chair near twenty 
 years. With him we shall here close the catalogue of 
 Popes, wherein it is to be observed, that not one single 
 Pope has ever broke off from the line of succession since 
 the days of the Apostles, but all of them have continued 
 on in the same communion, and governed each in his turn 
 the church which he found established before him. Thus 
 we have a regular chain of head Pastors ; — a chain, whose 
 links are closely joined, and hang one to the other from 
 the first to the last, so that it is not more diflScult to prove, 
 by counting back from the present Pope through the cata- 
 logue of his predecessors, that Pius VI. is a Successor of 
 St. Peter, the first Pope and bishop of Rome, than it is 
 to prove that our gracious Sovereign George III. is a sue- 
 
 Ff2 
 
342 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 cesser of the first King who founded the English Monar- 
 chy. What consolation must it give to the faithful ! what 
 conviction ! to find that from the chief Pastor, who at this 
 day fills the first see of the Church, they can go back 
 without interruption, and trace their religion in a direct 
 line up to St. Peter, to whom Christ {John 21. 15.) com- 
 mitted the care of feedinghis Lambs and his Sheep, that 
 is, his entire flock. Nay, what is more ; the Church of 
 Christ, taking up here the succession of the ancient peo- 
 ple of God, and resuming the high Priests that served 
 under the old Law, finds herself united to Aaron and 
 Moses, from whom she ascends to the Patriarchs and Pro- 
 phets, and goes up to the very origin of the world ! What 
 progression ! what tradition ! what a wonderful series and 
 concatenation ! what greater authority can there be than 
 that, which centres in itself the authority of all preceding 
 ages, and the ancient traditions of mankind up to the 
 creation itself ? Should we any longer wonder that God 
 proposes to our belief so many mysteries, so worthy of 
 him, and at the same time impenetrable to human under- 
 standing .'* Should we not rather wonder that the Catholic 
 faith, being built upon so sure and so manifest an authority, 
 there should still remain so many unbelievers in the world .'' 
 Millions of Christians living in this age, have seen, heard, 
 and conversed with millions of their predecessors in the 
 diflferent parts of the world. They cannot be ignorant of 
 the faith that every generation of them, from the cradle 
 to the greatest old age, held and professed. They bear 
 witness of the doctrine which the great body of Pastors 
 taught their respective flocks by common consent, which 
 fathers handed down to their children, and which all the 
 faithful, who include always about sixty or eighty genera- 
 tions together, unanimously believed before them in the 
 last age. The preceding age gave the like testimony of 
 the faith and practice of the age immediately preceding it 
 for the s^ame reason ; so that, though the faithful of the 
 presenf age have not seen Jesus Christ or his apostles, yet 
 they are unexceptionable witnesses of what was taught 
 and believed in the days of Christ and his apostles, be- 
 cause they are unexceptionable witnesses of what was 
 taught and believed by the generation that immediately 
 preceded them, and this generation was in like manner 
 sm unexceptionable witness of the doctrine and practice 
 
CHURCH OF CHRIST. 34 
 
 ^ 
 
 which it learned from the generation before it, and so up- 
 wards to the very beginning of Christianity. This per- 
 petual mixture of so many ages and so many generations, 
 interwoven and twisted together, the one with the other, 
 still united in religion, though spread all over the known 
 world, and widely differing in language, manners, and cus- 
 toms, and almost in every thing else but faith, forms but 
 one great Body or Church, composed of all true believers, 
 who bear one testimony for seventeen hundred years, 
 that the faith we now profess, is the self-same that was 
 professed by the prmiitive Christians. This plainly shows 
 the finger of God, and his all-ruling Providence to be visi- 
 bly here, and must convince all unbiassed and unpreju- 
 diced persons, that the church of Christ could never fall 
 into idolatry or superstition, nor alter the faith, nor fail 
 to teach the true doctrine of Christ. To prevent the pos- 
 sibility hereof, the Apostles, when they first planted the 
 faith, took particular care to establish an invariable Rule 
 and settled principle to be observed in every succeeding 
 generation, by means of which the self-same revealed 
 truths that were believed and taught by them in the in- 
 fancy of the church, should be uniformly conveyed down 
 to posterity without the least change, innovation, or addi- 
 tion, as has been already remarked in chap. 6 and 23. By 
 adhering strictly to this rule, the Church has inviolably 
 preserved the purity of her faith in every age, to this day ; 
 so that the church in the eighteenth century believes pre- 
 cisely what was believed in the seventeenth century, the 
 Church of the seventeenth believed what was believed in 
 the sixteenth, the church of the sixteenth believed what 
 was believed in the fifteenth, and so up to the days of the 
 Apostles. 
 
 Her doctrine is, has been, or shall be, announced in all 
 parts of the earth. She has always maintained her 
 ground amidst the various agitations and vicissitudes of 
 human affairs. The very Heathens looked upon her as 
 the tree, the trunk, and the stock, which the lopped off and 
 withered branches had left still whole and entire. Cel- 
 sus himself called her the great Church. What other 
 communion ever inherited the name of Catholic ? What 
 other society on earth can trace its origin higher than the 
 time of its forming a separate congregation, or the birth 
 of the sectary after whom it is called ? What republic or 
 
344 HISTORY or THE 
 
 community, eifher sacred or profane, ever had d,' succes- 
 sion of so many great personages, and so few bad or vi- 
 cious men in so great a number of chief pastors, as the 
 Church of Christ has had since the days of St. Peter ? 
 The world may be challenged to show the fifth part of so 
 many successive governors, since the creation, of whom 
 there has not been a far greater number who have abus- 
 ed the power and authority of their office. Out of two 
 hundred and fifty-four Popes who are reckoned from St, 
 Peter down to our time, seventy-seven are ranked in the 
 catalogue of the Saints, and there have not been above 
 ten or twelve at most against whom even their most vi- 
 rulent enemies could find occasion to throw out any invec- 
 tives. Mr. Bower himself could not single out any more 
 for the objects of his uncharitable attacks, bitter invec- 
 tives, and foul aspersions, which he deals out with such 
 profusion, that one would be apt to conclude that he took 
 delight in dwelling, like the fly, on sores and corrup- 
 tion, and that he raked in all the sinks of Heathen and 
 angry party writers, in order to find out some slander 
 trumped up by them, that upon their bare assertion he 
 might advance it in his history as an undeniable truth. 
 Wherever he can discover any real or imaginary failings 
 in the actions of some of the most shining ornaments of 
 venerable antiquity, and those very men who have been the 
 admiration of past ages for their sanctity and learning, 
 these he carefully picks out, and exaggerates in a strange 
 manner, whilst he either entirely omits and forgets their edi- 
 fying actions, or poisons their heroic virtues by false mo- 
 tives, as Alban Butler has demonstrated in his Remarks 
 on Bower'^s Lives of the Popes. The staining of so many 
 sheets of paper with his peevish, disgusting narrative, 
 could not answer this gentleman's purpose, even though 
 his assertions should be granted, because this would only 
 show that popes and pastors of the Church are not im- 
 peccable, but not that any scandals or vices they might 
 have been guilty of, should be charged on Religion, or 
 imputed to the doctrine of the Church, since it has never 
 authorized any evil by her decisions, tenets, or instructions, 
 and it is by them, and not by the personal misdemea- 
 nours or corruption of individuals, that we are to judge 
 the body of the Church, and of the sanctity of her Reli- 
 gion. The abuses that have been sometimes made of Reli- 
 
 J 
 
CHURCH OF CHRIST. 345 
 
 gion, are inileed a melancholy proof that the wickedness 
 of man is capable of abusing the very best things. In the 
 ^ ery purest ages of Christianity, St. Paul complained that 
 H great part of the pastors of his own time sought their 
 own interests, and not those of Jesus Christ — 2 Phihp 12. 
 However, even in the worst of times the morality of the 
 Gospel has been constantly practised by milHons of the 
 faithful, and every age has produced shining examples of 
 virtue, perfect models of sanctity, and a numberless mul- 
 titude of learned prelates, eminent doctors, zealous 
 pastors, edifying priests, spotless virgins, fervent reli- 
 gious, and devout recluses. 
 
 Since the commencement of the present century, many 
 eminent servants of God have lived and died in the odour 
 of sanctity 5 a prodigious number of ecclesiastical writers 
 has illustrated the doctrine of the Church by their volu- 
 minous works ; great conversions have been wrought in dif- 
 ferent parts of the world, and divers apostolic missionaries 
 have suffered martyrdom in China, in Tonquin, in Co- 
 chinchina, in India, &,o. but the elncidatiou of thasiA mat- 
 ters is left to the decision of the Church, and reserved for 
 the historians of the ensuing age. 
 
 The narrow limits to which this epitome is confined, 
 allow only a few observations to be made here on the 
 impious writings of a set of Atheists, Deists, Materialists, 
 Fatahsts, and Freethinkers, who have disgraced the pre- 
 sent century, by blasphemously attacking the attributes 
 of the Deity, the mysteries of Faith, and the miracles of 
 the Old and New Testament. These mighty opposers of 
 revelation style themselves philosophers, and boast of 
 taking reason for their chief guide, whilst they appeal to 
 the passions more than to reason, and artfully disguise 
 and gloss over their monstrous errors and inconsistent sys- 
 tems with the exterior dress and pomp of elegant lan- 
 guage. They call the present age the enlightened age, 
 and the age of reason, though, with respect to them, it 
 might be called more justly, the age of stubborn incredu- 
 lity, and of a presumptuous and intolerant philosophy, 
 tliat is destructive at once both of religion and morality. 
 Having filled their heads with chimeras, with reveries, 
 and false ideas in metaphysics, they raise disputes on every 
 tiling, and trample down all authority, as if they made it 
 a rule not to see as others do, and as if tJiey fancied 
 
346 . HISTORY OF THE 
 
 themselves able, by the power of their eloquence and so- 
 phistry, to overset every truth with impunity. The beauty 
 of their style makes the principal merit of their literary 
 productions. They dazzle their unguarded readers with 
 the brilliancy of their wit ; they charm them with a va- 
 riety of figures and a parade of choice expressions and 
 well arranged periods ; they enchant them with ingenious 
 saUies and contrasts, with diverting descriptions, with nice 
 pleasantries, and soft graces ; and make them insensibly 
 swallow the subtle poison of irreligion and libertinism, 
 that is concealed in their writings under the specious title 
 and name of philosophy. In short, they are fine speakers ; 
 they write with an elegant and natural turn, and with a 
 force and eloquence that scarce leave to a common read- 
 er the liberty to examine, to discuss, to compare their 
 thoughts, to see if they be true, just, and consequential. 
 This is the artifice which Voltaire, Rousseau, Gibbon, 
 Paine, and several new philosophers of our days, have 
 employed to infatuate and ensnare so many giddy, un- 
 thinking young ppople of both scaccs, who do not pay 
 proper attention to the sense and substance of things, but 
 are to be captivated at the first reading of an author by 
 the beauty of his language, and by an empty jingle of fine 
 words. Their taste, in general, is not turned to books 
 that require thought and attention in reading. Novels, 
 romances, Httle starts of wit, trifling anecdotes, and such 
 authors as express best the passions, paint with the most 
 force, and have the most brilliant colouring of imagina- 
 tion, are perused by them with avidity, though they are 
 defective in truth and solidity, and faulty in point of 
 good sense, reason, and judgment. They cannot submit 
 to the reading of the Imitation of Jesus Christ, or the 
 like books of piety, which tend to improve the morals 
 and cultivate virtue, whilst works of an immoral and per- 
 nicious tendency are unhappily become the favourite 
 and fashionable entertaiment of the age. Heedless of 
 things, and running after shadows, they think a book ex- 
 cellent if it be well written, though as Horace himself 
 justly remarks, good sense is the basis and source of the 
 art of writing well. Thus the tender sensibility of youth 
 contracts a fond desire for what it should abhor, and a love 
 for what it should avoid. At first they, perhaps, think j 
 only of studying the beauty of their language, as if ihey 
 
 ^ 
 
CHURCH OF CHRIST. 347 
 
 could not draw pure language and eloquence from other 
 sources ; but in the end they learn by woful experience 
 the weakness of human nature, and the sad consequence 
 of exposing themselves to the dangerous occasion of 
 sin. How frequently are their understandings per- 
 verted, their hearts debauched, their passions inflamed, 
 their morals depraved, and their innocence sacrificed, by 
 the lecture of such impious productions ? Was it not by 
 these means that Voltaire instilled the poison of his errors 
 and hcentious maxims into the hearts and minds of a great 
 part of the French nation ? Was it not by strewing the 
 paths of falsehood and corruption with so many flowers 
 and charms, that he made so many apostates, and ruined 
 such a number of souls ? May not his pen be justly com- 
 pared to the sword of Mahomet ? Yet never was there a 
 writer more superficial, or who had less of the real philo- 
 sopher. Instead of arguments and proofs, he has recourse 
 to banters and pleasantries. He is satisfied with his jests 
 on questions the most important, and seems to glory in 
 turning every thing into ridicule, at the expense of decency 
 and truth. He attacks the Christian Religion with the 
 weapons of falsehood and misrepresentation. In his dis- 
 courses there is neither principle, sequel, or connexion. 
 He seldom gives any thing from his own fund, and even 
 when he is original, we have no reason to admire his 
 learning or accuracy. When his writings are analyzed 
 and coolly examined, they are found to be nothing but 
 surface and colouring, devoid of truth, solidity, or prin- 
 ciple. Nothing can be discovered in them, or in the so 
 much boasted works of the other modern philosophers, 
 comparable to the solidity, strength of reasoning, and 
 depth of knowledge which we observe in the writers of 
 the two foregoing centuries. What are they all put to- 
 gether, when compared with a Bossuet ? Never has the 
 respectable name of philosophy been more abused than by 
 them, in order to give full scope to the most monstrous 
 errors. Voltaire has collected from Tindal, Collins, Bo- 
 lingbroke, and others, whatever could be ofiered to the 
 disadvantage of the holy Scriptures ; these materials he 
 took care to embellish, by flashes and lively sallies of 
 a poignant wit, on which account they have been greedily 
 received, whilst the answers are neglected and forgot- 
 ten, perhaps because they are not written in so di- 
 
348 UISTORV OF THE 
 
 verting and entertaining a style. It is to be wished, how- 
 ever, that those who have met with the olijections urged 
 by him, would also read the answers which have been 
 given by the Jews, and by Abbe Guence, professor of 
 rhetoric in the university of Paris, and other able ad- 
 vocates for tlie Scriptures, They would be convinced 
 thereby, that whatever applause might have been due to 
 the vivacity of Voltaire's genius, and the fine turn of his 
 humour, had he but made a better use of his talents, he 
 certainly merits the severest censure for having indulged 
 his wit in treating the word of God in a ludicrous and 
 contemptuous manner. It is true indeed, the praise or 
 the resentment of mankind is now of small moment to 
 liim, but his works remain, and it is equitable that they 
 should receiv'e due correction. As for Rousseau, he has 
 hardly much more than the appearance of a philosopher. 
 Had he confined himself to subjects of literature and 
 amusement, he would have met with the most glorious 
 success, but the ambition of dogmatizing having unhappily 
 seized him, he has succeeded only in betraying an extra- 
 vagant pride and a rancorous spirit. With his extraordi- 
 nary talents he has only formed an absurd hypothesis, an 
 unconnected plan, a building wherein every part stands 
 in need of a prop, a chaos, rather than a system. He is 
 every where in contradiction with himself, not only in the 
 same book, but often in the same page. His ideas are 
 extravagant, his reasonings false and captious, his views 
 chimerical and full of paradoxes. The reading of his works, 
 so far from staggering the belief of revelation in a sound 
 miderstandino' and well-informed mind, ought rather to con- 
 tribute to the strengthening of it. If, therefore, they some- 
 times puzzle the reader with their subtleties and wretch- 
 ed sophisms, — the glaring inconsistency of their argu- 
 ments, and their self-contradictions, are an evident proof 
 that revelation cannot be attacked by just reasoning, and, 
 consequently, that it is true, as M. Bergier has demonstrat- 
 ed, in his Deism Self-refuted^ 2 vols. London printed, 1775. 
 With respect to Mr. Gibbon, he imposes on his readers 
 by the elegance of his composition, and by his parade of 
 vague and unwarrantable quotations. As if he imaghied 
 wisdom was born with him, he censures the primitive Fa- 
 thers with peculiar severity, and perpetually vilifies the 
 most sacred truths with contemptuous irony. Instead of 
 
 J 
 
CHURCH OF CilRISI. 349 
 
 quoting facts and passages faithfully, he has recourse to 
 shameful falsifications, and supports his cause by manifest 
 calumnies, in order to father the absurdest opinions on 
 the most venerable writers of antiquity. He retails objec- 
 tions, as new, which had been started often against the 
 Divine Original of Christianity, and as often refuted and 
 exploded, long before he was born. The indefensible ar- 
 tifices to which he recurs have been unmasked, and his 
 arguments have been ably refuted, by several learned men 
 of this age, who have zealously stept forth to support the 
 cause of the Christian Religion with solid truths and sound 
 reasoning. Watson, Whitaker, Davis, Chelsum, Ran- 
 dolph, with other members of the universities of Oxford 
 and Cambridge, have confuted his principles, pointed out 
 his inaccuracies, and shown that his writings teem with 
 misrepresentations and base calumnies. They have prov- 
 ed that this whole plan of accounting for the rapid pro- 
 gress of the Christian Religion among the Gentile na- 
 tions, is a stale infidel topic, and that, as Mosheim says in 
 his Ecclesiastical History, " it is necessary to have re- 
 " course to an omnipotent and invisible hand, as the true 
 ** and proper cause of that amazing rapidity, v/ith which 
 *' Christianity spread itself upon the earth by poor feeble 
 " instruments. Those who pretend to assign other causes 
 " of this surprising event, indulge themselves in idle fic- 
 " tions, which must disgust every attentive observer of 
 " men and things." 
 
 This century will be ever remarkable in the annals of 
 history for the French Revolution, which commenced on 
 the 14th of July 1789, and in a short time exhibited to 
 mankind the most bloody tragedy, that since the creation 
 was ever acted in any civilized nation. The seeds of this 
 revolution had long been sown in France by a set of men, 
 who styling themselves philosophers, had formed a faction 
 and divided among themselves the task of overturning the 
 Throne and the Altars. At first they concealed their im- 
 pious designs, and spoke the language of universal benevo- 
 lence, humanity, and toleration. They boasted of the 
 lights which they were to diifuse through the world, and 
 of the rights of man, which they pretended to restore. 
 But the atrocity of those pretended philosophers was one 
 day to be unmasked, and the Galilean Church and State 
 were to be convinced, by vvoful experiencej that they were 
 
350 HISTORY OF THte 
 
 actuated by a mortal hatred of Royalty and of the Priest- 
 hood, and determmed to stop at nothing that might possi- 
 bly bring about the destruction both of the one and the 
 other. TV/ien shall I see, said Diderot, the last of Kings 
 strangled with the entrails of the last of Piiests ? To such 
 lengths, alas ! are men unhappily driven, when they lose 
 sight of religion, and reject or abuse the lights that God 
 gives them. By a just and terrible judgment, they are 
 abandoned to the errors of their minds and to the depravity 
 of their hearts, and suffered to plunge into a worse dark- 
 ness than that of ancient idolatry. They are left to them- 
 selves and to their lawless passions. They break through 
 all bonds, lay aside all shame, make a sacrilegious use of 
 their reason, bhnd themselves more and more, until, be- 
 ing dead to grace, they fall into the most dissolute de- 
 bauchery and the most complete irreligion. The leading 
 Heroes of this revolutionary philosophy, and all the sects 
 and impious wits of the day, acknowledged Voltaire to b6 
 their father, and solicited for him the honour, pomp, and 
 triumph of an apotheosis of an ancient Roman. The Na- 
 tional Assembly enacted that the majestic Church of St. 
 Genevieve, the most august fabric in the capital of France, 
 lately finished at the immense expense of more than eighty 
 miUions of livres, and forty years' labour, should be con- 
 verted into a Pantheon, and serve as a mausoleum for the 
 reception of the remains of Voltaire and other declared 
 enemies of Jesus Christ and his ReHgion. An insidious 
 Constitution was afterwards framed to sap the very foun- 
 dations of Religion, and to subject the Gospel to the ca- 
 pricious will of men, who professing no religion them- 
 selves, were enemies to every religion. Their hatred of 
 all religion impelled them to enforce an oath on the Clergy, 
 which their fidelity to the laws of their conscience would 
 not allow them to take. Unmerited calumnies were there- 
 fore artfully spread, in order to prejudice the minds of 
 the people against them. They were persecuted with 
 open violence, the altars were stained with the blood of 
 many innocent victims, that refused to join the faction ; 
 several were paraded about the public streets in the most 
 humihating garbs, with labels the most insulting and inju- 
 rious, and with their mouths crammed with hay. Several 
 were plunged into rivers with pitchforks fixed to their 
 necks, and held under the water till they expired. Seve- 
 
 S 
 
CHURCH OF CHRIST. '3ol 
 
 ral wei-e beheaded, and their heads carried on pikes 
 amidst imprecations and songs. Several were knocked 
 down in the Churches, and kicked and buffeted by mer- 
 ciless ruffians, hired for that purpose. It would be an 
 endless task to enumerate all the horrid sacrileges, assassi- 
 nations, and savage cruelties that were perpetrated in dif- 
 ferent parts of the kingdom by the lawless populace, who 
 were encouraged thereto by men in power. Near six 
 hundred persons were butchered in the streets of Nimes 
 imder the pretext of exterminating aristocracy. Mr. Nol- 
 hac, the venerable pastor of St. Symphorien, in the 
 eightieth year of his age, and six hundred of his flock, 
 were massacred at Avignon, with bars of massive iron, 
 and torn and disfigured with sabres. The cities of Lyons, 
 T3ourdeaux, Rouen, Sec. exhibited also most dreadful 
 scenes of ferocious cruelty, bloodshed, and barbarity. The 
 sacred asylums of piety, and monasteries of the Rehgious 
 of both sexes were thrown open, pillaged, and profaned. 
 Sanctuaries were pulled down, the sacred vessels were 
 abused, the Images were defaced, the paintings were dis- 
 figured, the bells were melted, the tombs of the dead 
 were violated, and bullets were made of their leaden cof- 
 fins, for the use of the soldiery. In short, the supporters 
 of the Throne were either guillotined, imprisoned, or 
 obliged to emigrate, and the defenders of Religion were 
 either murdered, exiled, or reserved as victims to be im- 
 molated at a future period. 
 
 Of one hundred and thirty-eight French Bishops or 
 Archbishops, only four prevaricated. The number of 
 priests, both secular and regular, who persevered in a 
 steady refusal of perjury and apostacy, amounted to at 
 least seventy thousand. Those who had not consulted 
 the safety of their lives in time, by travelling over moun- 
 tains and crossing the seas in quest of some hospitable 
 spot, were cast into prisons, and compelled to abandon 
 their flocks to mercenaries and ravenous wolves, who 
 were thrust into the pastoral ministry by a set of laymen, 
 who had no mission or spiritual jurisdiction themselves, 
 and consequently could impart none. Thus a phantom 
 w^as substituted in France for the Church, schism for unity, 
 intruders for lawful pastors, illusion and error for reality 
 and truth, anarchy and confusion for order and discipline, 
 liberty and equality for regularity and, subordinatioD. 
 
3'5'2 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 Nothing can equal the barbarity, with which numbers of 
 the nonjuring ecclesiastics were sacrificed at Paris, the 
 very metropolis of the revolution, and under the eyes of 
 the new Legislators. In the first week of September, 
 1792, one hundred and sixty Priests were massacred in 
 the prison of ha Force, eighty-six at the Conciergerie, 
 and ninety -two at the seminary of Si. Firmin, according 
 to the printed lists, then published. About one hundred 
 and eighty Priests were massacred at the Ahbaye and at 
 the Chapel of the Carmelites, in the space of two or three 
 hours. It was here the illustrious Archbishop of Aries 
 and his brother the bishop of Saintes, were most inhu- 
 manly murdered, whilst, in imitation of the primitive 
 Christians in tlie Catacombs, they were on their knees 
 united in prayer and offering to God the sacrifice of their 
 lives, in coni])any with several other ecclesiastics of distin- 
 guished merit, who, at the same time, likewise sealed 
 with their blood the faith they had so gloriously defended. 
 The murders continued at the Conciergerie with very little 
 interruption for twenty-six hours ; but they lasted at La 
 Force from the second of September at night till late on 
 the fifth. It was the common opinion at Paris that the 
 number of the slain, including both Clergy and Laity, 
 was not less than twelve thousand. Five months had not 
 elapsed from this tragical scene, when his Most Christian 
 Majesty, Lewis XVI. appeared on the scaffold the 21st of 
 January, 1793, and his head fell by a decree of a Con- 
 vention, tiiat styled itself National. Maria Antoinette of 
 Austria and Lorrain, his Royal consort, and Madame Eli- 
 zabeth, his sister, were likewise guillotined, by a decree 
 of the same self-created Tribunal. For fbrther particu- 
 lars, the reader is referred to the writings of Maury, Bar- 
 ruel, and other well-informed writers, who have faithfully 
 collected the memorable events and transactions of the 
 present age from the most authentic documents, in order 
 to transmit a genuine history of them to posterity. 
 
 Let us therefore stop here in silent admiration, adoring 
 the unsearchable ways and counsels of Divine Providence, 
 which for its own wise reasons has permitted a proud in- 
 tolerant philosophy to mount the throne of the once flou- 
 rishing, but now miserably convulsed, Kingdom of France, 
 to trample upon so large a portion of the Christian 
 <^hurch, and to carry the calamities of war, fire, and de- 
 
CHURCH OF CHRIST. 353 
 
 solation into several of the surrounding Nations of Europe. 
 It is to be hoped, that the blessings of peace will be shortly 
 restored, and that God in his great mercy will be pleased 
 to avert from us in his own good time those dreadful 
 scourges and disasters, which his provoked justice has 
 suffered this part of the world to be visited with in o\ir 
 days, in order to punish the crying sins of the wicked, 
 and to exercise the virtues of the just. At all events, the 
 Church of Christ being the work of God himself, will al- 
 ways stand firm, and weather out every storm raised 
 against her by the powers of hell, whilst the works of 
 men, though supported for a time with ever so much ob- 
 stinacy and enthusiasm, must perish and moulder away 
 in the end. The perpetual and uninterrupted continuance 
 of the Church for so many past ages, notwithstanding the 
 various revolutions that have happened in the world since 
 her first establishment, is a certain sign of what is to hap- 
 pen hereafter. Nay, it is nothing less than a standing 
 Miracle, that proves the truth of her religion, and shows 
 her to be always under the protection of Heaven, and the 
 unerring guidance of the Holy Ghost. It appears plainly 
 from the contents of the foregoing Synopsis, that she is 
 the beloved Spouse of Jesus Christ, and the first and most 
 ancient communion of Christians in the world. It cannot 
 be denied that she was the true Church of Christ whea 
 St. Paul wrote his epistle to the Romans, and declared 
 that their faith was spoken of through the whole tvorld, Rom. 
 1. 8. and of course she is still the true Church, since her 
 faith can never fail or vary, for the sanded ivorxls of God 
 once put into hennouth, shall never depart from her moidh, as 
 God in his Covenant with her expressly promised. — Isai. 
 1. 59. In her are to be found the four distinguishing charac- 
 ters or marks of the true Church, assigned by the Nicene 
 Creed, when it says, / believe One, Holy, Catholic, and 
 Apostolic Church ; for she is One in her faith. Holy in her 
 morals. Catholic or Universal in her extent, and Perpetual 
 in her duration. She is also Apostolic, because she de- 
 scends by a lineal succession of seventeen hundred years 
 from the twelve Apostles, and derives her doctrine, her 
 priesthood, and her mission from them. Although the 
 members of her communion are spread over all regions, 
 yet they are united in one and the same faith, and in the 
 participation of the same Sacraments. — They all believe 
 Gs2 
 
354 HISTORY OJP THE 
 
 the same divine truths, hold the same principles, teacli 
 the same doctrine, preach the same Gospel, profess the 
 same Religion, offer the same sacrifice, receive the same 
 Sacraments, and concur in one and the same w^orship. 
 She justly glories in having had always in her communion 
 a great number of Saints, whose eminent virtues have 
 been frequently attested by real miracles. Her doctrine, 
 if attended to, conduces to all virtue, sanctity, and perfec- 
 tion. Far from holding out any encouragement to sin, 
 or adopting any impious principle whatever, she chal- 
 lenges her greatest adversaries to show the smallest stain 
 in any part of what she really teaches as an article of her 
 belief. She detests and condemns all traitorous plots, 
 conspiracies, rebellions, massacres, and every kind of 
 perjury, even upon the score of religion. Tribunals of 
 inquisition constitute no part of her Creed. They are hu- 
 man laws of polity or state-government, received in some 
 Catholic countries and rejected in others ; though without 
 acting the part of an advocate for them, truth and justice 
 must oblige every impartial and unprejudiced person to 
 acknowledge, that they are grossly misrepresented by 
 several writers. If men governed by the spirit of the 
 world have sometimes made use of the name of religion 
 as a pretext or blind to cover their passions and criminal 
 projects, in actions wherein it had no share, Religion 
 should not be charged with their misdemeanours, nor is 
 it accountable for the abuse of its name, since the wicked- 
 ness of man will abuse even the very best things. It is 
 not, therefore, the fault of Religion if many of its profess- 
 ors do not practise what it teaches and inculcates. Nor 
 does the Church cease to be holij^ because there is a mix- 
 ture of good and bad in it, for a Church upon earth with- 
 out any sinners in its communion would not answer the 
 description given by the Gospel of the Chm'ch of Christ, 
 which is compared to a floor^ in which there is chaff 
 mingled with wheat, Matth. 3, to a net in which there are 
 bad fish as well as good, Matth. 13, and to 3l field wherein 
 tares are suffered to grow up with the good grain, Matth. 
 13, till the harvest time, or the end of the world, when the 
 separation is to take place. In the interim, says St. Au- 
 gustine, the wicked, signified by the tares, are permitted fl| 
 to live among the just, either that they may be converted, 
 or that the just may be tried and exercised by them. The 
 
 m 
 
CHURCH OF CHRIST. 355 
 
 Church incessantly bewails their misfortune, and zealously 
 endeavours to reclaim them from their evil ways, and con- 
 duct them by the most efficacious helps and means into 
 the narrow way that leads to " happy eternity. 
 
 In fine, the Church justly inherits the titles of Catholic 
 and Apostolic. She is the Church of all ages and nations, 
 She is not confined to one corner of the earth, or to one 
 single nation, like the Je\\'ish Synagogue, but diffused 
 over all countries, from the rising of the sun to the going 
 down thereof — It was from her that the different empires 
 and kingdoms of the earth first received their Christianity, 
 and her faith is, or has been, and shall be announced in 
 all places of the universe before the day of general judg- 
 ment. The contents of this compendious narrative plainly 
 show, that she has lineally descended to this very day 
 from the first society of Christians, founded by the Apos- 
 tles, and that she has preserved the sacred doctrine de- 
 livered by them at the beginning, without the smallest al- 
 teration or innovation of her faith in any one article of 
 revealed truths. 
 
 Happy they who live up to the dictates of her religion, 
 and honour it by the purity of their morals, and by a con- 
 tinual observance of its precepts, a mere speculative or 
 abstractive faith not being sufficient, but a belief, that 
 worketh by charity, being required. Those who are 
 reared in the bosom of the Church, instructed in her doc- 
 trine, educated in her principles, and sanctified by her 
 sacraments, which are so many conduits of divine grace, 
 ever open and ever flowing for the sanctification of souls, 
 "which demean themselves in a manner becoming worthy 
 members of so illustrious a body, of ^^hich Christ is the 
 head. They should always acknowledge God's infinite 
 mercy with sentiments of gratitude, and return him the 
 warmest thanks for the signal benefit and grace of their 
 vocation. Far from giving any scandal or offence, they 
 should edify their neighbour by the practice of the Chris- 
 tian Virtues of humility, meekness, justice, charity. This 
 obligation is grounded on the sanctity of the religion they 
 profess, on the dignity of the character they bear, and on 
 the sacred vows which they have made at the Baptismal 
 Font. 
 
 THE END 
 
AN 
 
 ALPHABETICAL TABLE 
 
 OF PARTICULAR PERSONAGES AND MATTERS 
 TREATED OF IN THIS SYNOPSIS. 
 
 THE NUMBERS DENOTE THE PAG£S. 
 
 Abelard, p. 273. 
 
 Academies, 210, 246, 251, 247, 
 
 2dl), 292, 300. 
 Accphali, 200. 
 Adrian, G6. 
 St. Agapetus, 199. 
 Alaric, 182, 183,213. 
 Albigenses, 269, 280. 
 Alcoran, 223. 
 Alcuin, 235, 236, 247. 
 Alexander III. 269. 
 Alexander Severus, 109. 
 Almsdeeds, 104, 276, 283. 
 St. Ambrose, 160. 
 St. Amphilochius, 151. 
 St. Anselni, 259. 
 St. Anthony of Egypt, 108. 
 St. Anthony of Padua, 285. 
 Antipodes. 237. 
 Apostles, 20, 27, 29, 34, 46, 52. 
 
 54, 55. 
 Arius, 129, 132, 133. 
 Arians, 132, 133, 134, 135, 176. 
 Arnobius, 108. 
 Arnold of Brescia. 273. 
 St. Athanasius, 132, 135. 
 Attila, 184. 
 
 St. Augustine, 161, 187, 188. 
 Aurelius Prudentins, 157. 
 St. Austin, of England, 205. 
 St. Babylas, 173. 
 Bajazet" 226. 
 Baldwin, 2Gi>. 
 
 Bangor Abbey, 208, 275. 
 Barbarossa, 263, 270. 
 St. Basil, 145. 
 Bede, Venerable, 235. 
 Belisarins, 200, 201. 
 Berengarius, 254. 
 St. Bernard, 271, 272, 273, 274, 
 Boetius, 198. 
 St. Bonaventure, 285. 
 St. Boniface, 237. 
 Bower, 300. 
 Burials, 91. 
 
 Calendar reformed, 219. 
 Calvin, 324. 
 St. Camillus, 335. 
 Canonization, 253. 
 Carthusians, 257. 
 Catechumens, 151. 
 Cocilian, 130. 
 Cccilius, 97. 
 
 Celibacy, 37, 136, 147, 153, 203. 
 Celsus, 107. 
 
 Cemetery of Cali.xtus, 91. 
 Cerulnrius, 243, 255. 
 Charlemagne, 243, 246, 247. 
 Christ. Ciiurch, 275. 
 Christ. Rome, 30,215,216. 
 C/hristopher Columbus, 331. 
 Church of St. Peter, 312, 313. 
 Church of St. Paul, 318 
 Cluirch of St. John liater 
 128,317. 
 
 Church of Holy Cross, 318. 
 
 J 
 
ALPHABETICAL TABLE. 
 
 35.7 
 
 Church of St. Mary Major, 318. 
 Church of St. Sophia, 127. 
 Church of St. Sebastian, 318. 
 Church of St. Laurence, 318. 
 Church of St. Ignatius, 319. 
 Cluirch Music, 1(50, 202, 2G0. 
 Church Ornaments, 320. 
 Circumccilians, 165. 
 Cistercians, 257. 
 Colissee at Rome, 317. 
 St. Columban, 20i1. 
 St. Columkille, 207. 
 Columna Anton. 87. 
 Confession, 102, 103, 104, 145, 
 
 146, 161, 220. 
 Confidence in God, 272. 
 Constantine the Great, 116, 122, 
 
 127, 131, 133. 
 Constantine Copron. 231. 
 Constantinople, 128, 225, 2G5, 
 
 303. 
 Constantius, 134, 135, 136. 
 Convulsionarists, 151. 
 St. Cornelius, 92. 
 Council of Jerusalem, 48. 
 1st G. Council, 125, 131. 
 2d G. Council, 178. 
 3d G. Council, 194. 
 4th G. Council, 197. 
 oth G. Council, 205. 
 6'th G. Council, 220. 
 7th G. Council, 234. 
 ■Sth G. Council, 243. 
 9(.h G. Council. 269. 
 I Oth G. Council, 260. 
 nth G. Council. 269. 
 12th G. Council, 279. 
 13th G. Council. 279. 
 14th G. Council, 279. 
 15th G. Council, 290. 
 16th G. Council, 294. 
 17th G. Council, 301. 
 18th G. Council, 307. 
 19th G. Council, at Trent, 307. 
 Council of Rimini, 134. 
 Council of Sardica, 133. 
 Council Lfitrociyiale, 196. 
 Council Quincscrjit, 220. 
 Council Basil 301. 
 Cross, 75, 83, 109, 122, 127, 152, 
 
 155, 225, 238, 253. 
 Crummius, 933. 
 Ousades, 261 . 
 Cultivation of Letters, 246, 
 
 251,288,291,202,300. 
 St. Cyprian, ^)8. 
 St. Cyril of Alexandria, 193. 
 St. Cyril of Jerusalem, 151. 
 St. Damasus, 126. 
 Decline of the Roman Empire, 
 
 185, 211. 
 Didymus of Alexandria, 158. 
 Dioclesian, 113, 121. i 
 
 St. Dionysius of Alexandria, 
 
 105. 
 Dionysius Exiguus, 207. 
 Dioscorus, 196. 
 Donatists, 125, 130, 165, 187, 
 Duelling, 204. 
 Dying persons, 236. 
 England converted, 204. 
 St. Ephrem, 143. 
 St. Epiphanius, 157. 
 Erasmus, 324. 
 Eucharist, 37, 66, 77, 83, 100, 
 
 lOi, 102, 103, 104, 106, 137, 
 
 142, 145, 153, 156, 161, 164, 
 
 166, 168, 184, 186, 189, 195, 
 
 240, 274. 
 St. Eustatius, 166. 
 Eutyches, 196. 
 Evangelists, 28. 
 Fasting, 83, 106, 137, 155, 157, 
 
 167 183 
 St. Felix, of Valois, 276. 
 Fenelon, 360. 
 St. Flavian, 178, 196. 
 France converted, 186. 
 St.Francisof Sales, 333. 
 St. Francis Xaverius, 332. 
 French persecution, 349. 
 Frederic I. 270. 
 St. Fulgentius, 205. 
 Geleriu's, 114, 121. 
 Games of hazard, 335. 
 St. Gaudentius, 189. 
 St. Gelasius, 186, 202. 
 General Councils, 300. 
 Genseric, 175, 214. 
 St. Germanus, 189, 235. 
 Gibbon, 348. 
 Gilbert of Porree, 274. 
 Godfrey of Bouillon, 261, 262. 
 Gothescale, 241. 
 Goths, 25, 175, 176, 181, 203. 
 
 214. 
 St. Gregory the Great, 201, 
 Gregory ML 256. 
 
358 
 
 ALPHABETICAL TABLE. 
 
 St. Gregory Nazianzen, 147. 
 
 St. Gregory of Nyssa, 145. 
 
 St. Gregory Thaumaturgus, 
 
 105. 
 Greek schism, 242, 305. 
 Greek empire overthrown, 226, 
 
 261, 305. 
 Guelphs, and Ghibellins, 363. 
 St. Helena, 128. 
 Henry IV. 256, 257. 
 Heraclius, 219, 224. 
 Heresies, 3, 75, 79, 81, 130, 162, 
 
 176, 191, 192,218,238. 
 Hierarchy of the Church, 32, 
 
 162, 298. 
 St. Hilary, 136. 
 B. Holberg, 256, 208. 
 Holy Well, 228. 
 Honorius, 219. 
 Hunneric, 175. 
 Hussites, 296. 
 St. Hyacinth, 28G. 
 Hypatia, 194. 
 St. James of Nisibis, 144. 
 Jansenius, 338. 
 Iconoclaus, 230. 
 St. Jerom, 148, 158, 159. 
 Jews, 57, 58, 59, 60. 
 St. Ignatius, 65, 242. 
 Incorrupticoloe, 206. 
 Indefectibility of the Church, 16, 
 
 18, 155, 227. 
 Indulgences, 100, 180. 
 Infallibility of the Church, 155, 
 
 229, 230, 249, 296. 
 Intercession of Saints, 104, 137, 
 
 142, 145, 150, 163, 193. 
 Joan, Pope, a forgery, 239. 
 John I. 198. 
 John of Avila, 361. 
 St. John Chrysostom, 154. 
 St. John Damascene, 235. 
 St. John of Matha, 277. 
 Ireland converted, 207, 275. 
 Irene, 232. 
 St. Irenaeus, 76. 
 St. Isidore, 189, 221. 
 Julian Apostate, 86. 
 St. Justin M. 73. 
 Justinian, 200, 201. 
 St. Kevin, 210. 
 Knights Hospitalers, 268. 
 Knights Templars. 2G3, 268. 
 
 ' Lactantius, 108. 
 j Lanfranc, 254. 
 Lanfrid, 241,251. 
 Latiludinarians, 227. 
 St. Laurence Justinian, 207. 
 Laurence Scupoli, 333. 
 St. Laurence Toole, 269, 27:. 
 
 276. 
 Lawful Mission, 33, 81. 
 St. Leo the Great, 183. 
 St. Leo IV. 238. 
 St. Leo IX. 255. 
 Leo the Isaurian, 230. 
 St. Lewis IX. 266. 
 Libellatici, 100. 
 Liberius, 126, 135. 
 Licinius, 122, 123. 
 Litanies, 2U2. 
 
 Lombards, 203, 244, 245, 246. 
 Lucilla, 128. 
 Lucius, 71, 204. 
 Luther, 322, 323. 
 Macedonius, 178. 
 Mahomet II. 302. 
 Mahometanism, 223, 224, 225, 
 
 266. 
 St. Malachy, 208, 274, 275. 
 Manicheans, 162, 268, 260. 
 Marcionites, 69. 
 Marcus Aurelius, 85, 87. 
 Mariner's compass, 266. 
 Mark of Ephesus, 302. 
 Marks of the Church, 353. 
 Maronites, 309. 
 St. Martin, 138, 220. 
 Martyrs, 53, 62, 89, 90, 110. 
 
 Ill, 115, 116, 117, 118, 119, 
 
 172. 
 Mass, 102, 104, 153, 154, 164. 
 
 168, 186, 199, 202, 203, 221 , 
 
 236, 285. 
 Maxentius, 122. 
 Maximian, 112. 
 Maximinus, 109, 116, 123. 
 St. Maximus, 189, 220. 
 St. Melities, 177. 
 Meletians, 130, 133. 
 Messalians, 151. 
 Millenarians, 52. 
 Minucius Felix, 96. 
 Miracles, 19, 22, 2.3, 24, 28, 20, 
 
 35, 138, 1,39, 142, 152, 192, 193, 
 
 241, 274, 291. 
 
 d 
 
A I .PIl ABETICAL TABLE. 
 
 559 
 
 Moi.ka, 115, 145, 1G7, 1C8, 169, 
 
 206. 
 JVIonothelltes, 21c. 
 Montanists, 09, 70. 
 Mortification, 258, 273, 285. 
 Nailor, 340. 
 Nero, 52, Gl, 211, 212. 
 Nestorius, 193. 
 New Gospellers, 329, 330. 
 Nicephorus, 232, 233. 
 St. Nicephorus, 241, 242. 
 St. Nicholas of Tolentin, 290. 
 Nicholas V. 302. 
 St. Norbert, 274. 
 Normans, 210, 252. 
 Novatian, 93. 
 Odoacer, 185, 186, 214. 
 St. Optatus, 164. 
 Ordeal trials, 236. 
 Origen, 106. 
 St. Pacian, 142. 
 Pagan Philosophers, 45, 46, 47, 
 
 49, 63, 64. 
 Pagan Rome, 181, 182, 185, 199, 
 
 205,211,212,213,214,215. 
 Paintinor, 103. 
 Palestine, 226, 261. 
 Pantheon, 213, 216. 
 Passage to East Indies, 300. 
 Paschasius Radbert, 241. 
 Patriarchs, 297. 
 St. Patrick, 182, 276. 
 Patrimony of St. Peter, 245. 
 St. Paul Apostle, 21, 22, 23, 24, 
 
 55. 
 St. Paul H. 167. 
 St. Paulinus of Nola, 139. 
 Pelagius, 188. 
 Penitent canon.^, 103, 105, 125, 
 
 179. 
 Pepin, 237, 243, 244, 245. 
 Persecutors, 119, 120, 174. 
 St. Peter, Apostle, 15, 19, 22, 29, 
 
 30, 31, 32, .52, 56, 145. 
 St. Peter Chrysol, 18S. 
 Peter Leo, 269. 
 Peter Lombard, 277. 
 St. Peter Nolasco, 281. 
 St. Peter Verona, 287. 
 St. Philip Beniti, 283. 
 Photius, 243. 
 St. Porphyrius, 157. 
 Prag. Sanction, 301, 302, 307. 
 
 Prayers for the dead, 83, 104, 
 
 105, 143, 153, 154, 161, 163, 
 
 230. 
 Pride, 63, 70, 84, 141. 
 Primitive Christians, 36, 37, 38, 
 
 67, 68, 77, 81, 88, 91, 113, 114." 
 Printing Types, 300. 
 Priscillianists, 138.. 
 St. Proclus, 192. 
 St. Prosper, 192. 
 Prosperity, 110, 127, 134, 303. 
 Protection of the Church, 53, 
 
 119, 120, 127, 132, 210, 227, 
 
 228, 248, 249. 
 Quartodecimans, 72. 
 Rabanus Maurus, 240. 
 St. Raymond Nonnatus, 283. 
 St. Raymond of Pen, 282. 
 Reason, 39, 40, 44, 325, 326- 
 Relics, 85, 131. 
 Religion, 33, 35, 41, 42, 43. 
 Religious Orders, 282, 309. 
 St. Remiffius, 187. 
 Resurrection, 79. 
 Revelation, 40. 
 Rogations, 190. 
 Rousseau, 348. 
 Rule of Faith, 15, 24. 27. 
 Sacred Images, 231, 232. 
 Sacrifice, 77, 80. 
 Sadducees, 19. 
 Sanctity of the Church, 355. 
 Saints in the worst of times, 259, 
 
 289, 333. 
 Sapor II. 176. 
 Saracens, 222. 
 Saul converted, 23. 
 Scandals, 49. 
 
 Schism in the West, 238, 290, 
 Sacred Scripture, 27, 28. 
 Self-denial, 258. 
 Self-love, 272, 273. 
 Seneca, 43. 
 
 Septimius Severus, 88. 
 St. Silverius, 199, 200. 
 Simon Magus, 50, 51, 52. 
 Socinianism, 324. 
 St. Sophronius, 221. 
 St. Stephen first M. 17. 
 St. Stephen Ab. 232. 
 St. Stephen P. 94. 
 Sufferings and afflictions, 110 
 Suicide, 44. 
 
,'}G0 
 
 ALPHABETICAL TABLE. 
 
 St. Sulpicius, 139. 
 
 Tamerlane, 22G. 
 
 St. Tarasius, 233. 
 
 Tertullian, 80. 
 
 Theatre, 82. 
 
 Theban Legion, 117. 
 
 Theodoret, 193. 
 
 Theodoric, 198. 
 
 Theodorus the Studite, 241. 
 
 Theodosius the Great, &c. 177. 
 
 Theophilus, 78. 
 
 St. Thomas of Aquin, 384. 
 
 Thomas of Jesus, 310. 
 
 Thomas of Kempis, 299. 
 
 Thundering Legion, 86. 
 
 Totila,21.j. 
 
 Tradition, 47. 
 
 Trajan, 05. 
 
 Turks. 220. 
 St. Udalric, 253. 
 Valens, 195. 
 Valerian, 120. 
 Vandals, 185. 
 Venice founded, IS-l. 
 
 Ves 
 
 pasian. 
 
 G4. 
 
 Victor, 72. 
 
 Vigilius, 200. 
 
 St. Vincent of Lerins, 190. 
 
 Virginity, 37. 
 
 Visible Head of the Clwirch, 14. 
 
 Voltaire, 257. 
 
 Waldenses, 281. 
 
 St. Wenefride, 222. 
 
 White Mass, 113. 
 
 Zachary, 237. 
 
 Zisca, 290. 
 
 (^ETHSEMAM! ABB-Y 
 GETHSEMANI. P, Q. ky.' 
 
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