n UCSB * . A CONCISE HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH, FIRST ESTABLISHMENT TO THE PRESENT TIME ; CONTAINING A GENERAL VIEW OF MISSIONS EXHIBITING THE STATE OF RELIGION IN DIFFERKST PARTS OF THE WORLD. COMPILED FROM THE WORKS OP DR. G. GREGORY, WITH NUMEROUS ADDITION* AND IMPROVEMENT* BY MARTIN RUTER, D. D. NEW-YORK: TTJBL1SHED BY T\ MAs)\N AND G. LANE. FOB THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, AT THE CONFERENCE OFFICE, 300 MULBERRY-STREET. J. Collord, Printer. 1840. " Entered according; to Act of Congress, in the year 1834, by B. Wangh and T. Mason, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southom District of New-York.' PREFACE THE rise, progress, establishment, corruption, and reformation of the Church, are subjects of deep interest to mankind, and especially so to the friends of Christianity. But the voluminous works in which these subjects are exhibited, are to the great mass of community inac- cessible. The want of means to purchase, or of time to read them, has restricted their use to a comparatively small number of readers. Hence the spread of the gospel, and the condition of the Church in different ages since the establishment of Christianity, are by many very imperfectly understood. The object of this work in its original form, as prepared by Dr. Gre- gory, was to furnish a comprehertsive abridgment of ecclesiastical history; and thus to place this important branch of knowledge within the reach of multitudes that could not obtain it from larger works. In revising and preparing it in its present form, the same object has been kept in view. The work might have been swelled to a size much beyond its present limits ; but a general history of the Church in a small compass was deemed preferable, especially in view of the use that may be made of it by the young and rising generation. The history by Dr. Gregory does not extend to the close of the last century. Although this is compiled principally from that, it is extended to the present time ; has numerous additions and improvements, and is enriched with a view of missions, and other subjects of moral enter- prise, exhibiting the present condition and prospects of the Christian world. In this compendious form it is offered to the public, with the hope that it may be found, in some degree, useful in advancing the great interests of the Redeemer's kingdom. M. RTTTER. Pittsburgh, Pa., March 3, 1834. HISTORY THE FIRST CENTURY. CHAPTER I. GENERAL VIEW OF THE HISTORY OF RELIGION PREVIOUS TO THE BIRTH OF CHRIST. Two systems of religion prevalent from the early ages Origin of paganism Mistakes concerning the ancient traditions Worship of the heavenly bodies Applying the titles of the gods to the early monarchs Local deities Idolatry Nature of the Jewish religion State of the world at the birth of Christ Social genius of polytheism Grecian phi- losophy Epicurean Peripatetics Stoics Platonics Oriental philosophy Religious state of Judea Pharisees Sadducees Essenes Civil state Herod Profligacy of the nations. IN the great chain of history, every event is so closely connected with that immediately preceding, and so much governed by the contin- gent circumstances of manners, time, and place, that an account of any given period, with no retrospect whatever to past transactions, would afford a detail frequently unintelligible, and in general dry and uninte- resting. It appears necessary, therefore, on the present occasion, to lay before the reader a short statement of the progress of religion from the first periods of society, in order to enable him to judge properly of the great importance of the Christian dispensation, and of the causes which impeded or accelerated its progress. The exuberance of human folly and superstition has branched out into innumerable ramifications ; but it would be neither useful nor convenient to pursue, with a minute attention, all the meanders of ab- surdity. Such a history would be little more than a catalogue of names, or a dull recital of correspondent rites, and similar ceremonies. In this short abstract of religious history I shall, therefore, consider the sub- ject under two divisions ; the religion of the pagans, and that of the Jews. The former will serve to convey a general idea of the natural deviations of the human mind from reason and truth ; the latter will exhibit the miraculous foundations of that majestic structure which was completed in the Christian dispensation. The first principles of religious knowledge, imparted to the fathers of the human race, were few and simple. They were unsupported by the knowledge of letters, and were such as would easily admit of corruption, from the timid and credulous nature of man. One of the first devia- tions from the truth was, certainly, the worship of the heavenly bodies 10 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. [CENT. I The first men had been accustomed to a direct communication with the Supreme Being ; it was, therefore, not unnatural in their offspring to expect a continuance of the same indulgence. But. in looking around for the visible manifestation of the great Ruler of the universe, to what object would ignorance and superstition so naturally direct themselves as to that glorious luminary whose nature and phenomena must be necessarily so imperfectly understood, and who is the dispenser of light, of warmth, and of cheerfulness to the whole creation ? The sun was, therefore, very early an object of worship with all nations but that singular people to whom the knowledge of the omnipresent God was revealed. From the adoration of the sun, the transition to that of the moon was the most natural that possibly could be imagined. Thus the Egyptians worshipped the SUN and MOON by the names of Osiris and Isis ; the former of which, in the Egyptian tongue, signified many eyed, from the sun's overlooking all that passes in the world ; the latter signified the ancient : Isis, moreover, was generally painted with horns, in allusion to the lunar crescent. When the traces of ancient tradition were become faint in successive generations, the human imagination sported in the wantonness of fiction. From the broken fragments of true history, the want of combination in hieroglyphic representations, and the mutilated remains of ancient records or language, innumerable superstitions were fabricated, and re- ceived with all the avidity of popular credulity. The deluge proved a most fertile source of error. The venerable patriarch Noah, from being revered as the father of men, came at last to be worshipped, under different names, as their creator. He is evidently the Saturnus, the Janus, the Poseidon or Neptune, the Thoth, Hermes, Mencs, Osiris, Zeuth, Atlas, Prometheus, Deucalion, and Proteus of all the ancient fables.* Not only the patriarch himself, but all the circum- stances of his history, have been strangely metamorphosed into divini- ties. The dove, the ark, even the raven and the olive branch, have all occupied different places in the mysteries of paganism, and with direct allusions to their derivation. (Bryant's Mythology, vol. ii.) In the same manner Men or Menes, one of the Egyptian divinities, (originally the patriarch Noah, ibid.,) was the same with the celebrated Minos of Crete, upon which island there was a temple or tower to this divinity, called Mentor, or the tower of Menes. To this temple the Athenians were annually obliged to send some of their youth to be sacrificed, in the same manner as the people of Carthage sent their children as victims to Tyre. (Diod. Sic. 1. xx.) From these circum- stances arose the fable of the Minotaur ; and as there was a Men-tor in Crete, there was a Tor-men, now Taormina, in Sicily, where the same brutal rites were also performed. These towers were commonly situated on the seacoast ; they were peculiarly dreaded by mariners ; wherefore, the same author supposes, with much probability, that the tremendous Scylla was no other than one of those fatal temples, where the shipwrecked stranger was inhospitably sacrificed. In the same temples the rites of fire were performed. Hence arose the celebrated fable of the Furies : as the term Furia is evidently derived from Phur, (fire,) the priestesses of which, being engaged in these inhuman and * See this decidedly ascertained in the second volume of Bryant's Mythology. CENT. I.] HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 11 inhospitable rites, were not improperly converted into the tormentors of the damned. The next grand deprivation of the human mind, with respect to reli- gion, proceeded from confounding the names and characters of the early rnonarchs with those of the gods. . Perhaps the first legislators might be ambitious of asserting the Divine origin of their institutions ; perhaps they might assume to themselves a celestial character, and might find it no difficult matter to persuade their ignorant countrymen that the immortals had condescended to visit the earth in a human form. Or, perhaps, with more probability, they might only appropriate to themselves the appellations of the deities ; and the mistakes of future ages may have fabricated a mythology from this confusion of names. The names of Isis and Osiris, which I have already noted as the first of the Egyptian divinities, were soon applied to the early monarchs of that mythologic region ; and thus the original applications of these titles were soon forgotten. The history of these divinities is no longer that of the two heavenly bodies which they originally denoted, but that of a succession of princes, who assumed those high denominations, and whom the unfaithful records of tradition have strangely converted into two celestial potentates, who continued to direct the affairs of men, but who formerly condescended to visit that favoured people in a human form. Where there is no exact register of time, facts or histories traditionally preserved will naturally recede, and the distance of time be enormously increased. The tradition was, in the time of Herodo- tus, that no god in the form of man had reigned in Egypt for upward of 11,340 years a period which the active genius of their priests had taken care to fill up with events suited to the capacity and the taste of their disciples. During that period of miracles, the sun had no less than four times altered his course ; twice rising where he now sets, and twice setting where he now rises. When, according to the same tradition, the gods reigned in Egypt, they reigned by turns, nor were they all at once upon earth. Orus, the son of Osiris, was the last who reigned among them ; and this Orus was the Grecian Apollo. From these sources each nation, after the dispersion of mankind, came, in process of time, to have its peculiar gods ; for after such concessions, the establishment of national and local deities seems no very difficult effort of the mind ; and if a plurality of gods be once ad- mitted, it is an easy method of accounting for the suggestions of our own minds, to assign the different passions and emotions of their tute- lary deities ; hence a god of love, a god of war, &c. The social genius of polytheism admitted to a free participation of celestial honours the gods of all nations, whether inimical or friendly. Hence, at the period of our Lord's appearance, almost the whole civilized world acknowledged the same divinities, and the religion of Greece and Rome composed a bulky system, which embraced all the false deities that human folly or mistake had ever invented. Idolatry was the natural concomitant of such a system as this. The gods of the ancients were only men ; their fabulous history was wholly fabricated from the transactions of men who had assumed the names and titles originally appropriated to the heavenly bodies : to exhibit them therefore, in a human form, or by an allegorical application, in the form of that animal to whose nature their peculiar functions were 12 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. [CENT. I. supposed to bear the strictest analogy, was natural and easy. And if the idea of local deities be once generally admitted, it is no harsh sup- position to imagine, that the spiritual being might occasionally visit the shrine which was dedicated to his glory ; and thus adoration might easily be transferred from the Deity himself to his image or resem- blance. Whoever attentively and seriously considers the religion of the He- brews will find it totally different in every circumstance from that which has been described. By successive revelations, the know- ledge of the one true God was carefully preserved among them. The abominations of paganism were frequently, indeed, introduced, but their progress was constantly retarded by some fresh interposition of miraculous power. The abstract and metaphysical notions of the Di- vine attributes, so repugnant to human reason in an uncultivated state, were always regarded with veneration by this singular people. He is represented as infinite, eternal, unchangeable, invisible ; as omnipresent, omniscient, and omnipotent characters which agree with none of the heathen deities. This was indeed the first revelation made to man ; it was the foundation of the Jewish institutions, and appears to have been consistent with no other system of religion. There is no part of the Hebrew theology which can be traced from the perversions or misapprehensions of the human imagination. No part of their theology can be resolved into a mistaken history, a corruption of names, or a puerile allegory. That at a period when the rest of the world was immersed in barba- rism and the grossest idolatry ; at a period when even the Jewish nation themselves appear to have made but little progress in human science, the most refined theological notions should prevail among them, united with a milder and more spiritualized system of morals* than was to be found in any other nation, can only be accounted for from a superior and more recent revelation. In such a state of civijization, or rather of barbarism, the peculiar providence of God was indeed ever neces- sary to preserve them in the path of rectitude. The miraculous in- terpositions of the Deity were, therefore, frequent; and a number of inspired men appeared, from time to time, who served to recall the people to the knowledge of their God, and to invigorate the debilitated system with fresh portions of spiritual information. But not only the general scheme of the Hebrew theology and ethics differed from those of the heathen, and were superior to them ; but even those institutions which are accounted peculiar to the Israelites will admit of a rational and consistent intepretation. The rites and mys- teries of paganism were either corrupt and absurd allusions to the patriarchal history ,f or they were profligate and unmeaning. The religious institutions of the Hebrews may all of them be con- sistently explained upon two principles only. They had either a re- trospect to the past, or a reference to the future. They were intended either to preserve in the memories of the people the religion of their ancestors, and to fortify them against the contagion of idolatry ; or they bore so clear and decisive a reference to that great object of the whole * See the decalogue, the laws concerning slavery, the treatment of other ani- mals, &c. t See that incomparable treasury of ancient learning, Bryant's Mythology, passim. CENT. 1.] HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 13 Mosaical dispensation, the coming of the Messiah, that a considerable part of the Jewish ceremonies have been ever regarded by the learned of that nation as a great and standing prophecy ; and the application of them to the circumstances of Jesus Christ, by himself and his apos- tles, was so striking and unanswerable, that it served to confound, to silence, and even to convert their most obstinate opponents. Much might be added upon this subject ; but it is more the business of the divine than of the historian. I shall, therefore, hasten to exhibit a short sketch of the state of the two prevailing systems of religion at the time of our Lord's appearance ; from which I doubt not but it will evidently appear, that the period described by the Hebrew prophets as tk* fulness of time, was now arrived ; in other words, that such a reve- lation as that by Christ Jesus was then absolutely necessary ; and far- ther, that this was the only proper season which apparently had occurred since the patriarchal ages for the promulgation of such a dispensation. The victorious arms of Rome had, at the time of our Lord's descent upon earth, subjected to its sway a considerable part of the known world. Distant nations had either silently submitted to a power too mighty to withstand, or had been compelled to acknowledge the strength and the authority of their triumphant conquerors ; and governed either by Roman proconsuls, invested with temporary commissions, or indulged by the republic with the continuance of their own princes and laws, they were reduced to own its claims to supreme sovereignty, and all to enrol themselves in the number of its sons and subjects. The power, indeed, of the Roman people was at this time much abridged. The senate retained little of authority but the name, while the empire was in reality governed by the victorious, the crafty, the accomplished Augustus. This extensive empire, so extremely favourable to the civilization of barbarous and remote nations, together with the general diffusion of the Greek language, was particularly conducive to an easy propagation of the Gospel ; while a cessation from all the calamities of discord and war* tranquillized the mind, and prepared it for the reception of the mild and rational doctrines of Christ. United in error, those nations which acknowledged not the Roman power agreed with its professed subjects in idolatry and superstition. Every country, as was already intimated, had its peculiar gods ; every people their particular manner of worshipping and propitiating their respective deities ; and their religious homage, not confined to the natural world, to the memory of departed heroes, or the improvers of elegance or convenience, was extended to things inanimate, and u persons merely ideal. Mountains, groves, and rivers were the objects of religious adoration ; and even those vices, or those maladies, which are the most destructive of human happiness, were honoured with tem- ples, and served with trembling awe and devout terror. To avoid the imputation of worshipping inanimate beings, many of the heathens pretended, that the deity represented by the statue was really resident in it ; and that every part of the visible creation was the residence of some superior being: but the generality, naturally more impressed with sensible than with invisible objects, easily transferred to the symbol * Mosheim intimates his dissent from the opinion of general peace then prevailing in the world. The assertion of Orosius, that the temple of Janus was at this time bet, is confirmed by Horace in his 1st Ep. lib. ii. 14 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. [CENT. I. that homage which should have been offered to the god. The know- ledge of what were called mysteries was imparted only to a few. who, previous to their initiation, were compelled to exhibit undoubted proofs of their secrecy, fidelity, and patience, and to conceal, under no less a penalty than the probable deprivation even of life, every circumstance relating to those rites, which were generally subversive of good order, and even of external decorum. The teachers of error, and the base deluders of a wretched and ignorant multitude, the pontiffs or priests, represented the whole of religion as consisting in the performance of certain ceremonies, and the gods as superior to men only in their im- mortality and power. Thus their deities, so far from being laudable objects of imitation, were rather examples of enormous but successful crimes ; unjust, capricious, and partial, whose vengeance was in general appeased, or whose protection was ensured, by animal offerings, though some nations supposed these ends could only be attained by the horrible sacrifice of human victims. This absurd system of theology, unsupported by any decided belief of future rewards and punishments, their opinions of which were obscure, licentious, and often more calculated to administer indulgence to vice than incitements to virtue, was regarded by the more enlightened part of mankind as a subject of ridicule and contempt. Nor indeed could any, who were not totally bewildered in error, avoid dis- covering the absurdity of a religion which presented no discouragement to the most depraved propensities, and the perpetration of the most flagitious actions. To those who have observed that intolerant spirit, which for a trifling difference in religious belief has persecuted wise and good men, and visited the earth with the calamities of war, it will appear extraordinary, that so great a variety of religious systems, and of objects of religious worship, should produce neither dissensions nor war. This general moderation is not, however, to be ascribed to any superiority in the temper or character, but to a circumstance which has been already intimated, to their considering the gods who presided over the earth as local deities, whose influence and jurisdiction extended only to certain countries, and their respective inhabitants ; who, it would have been absurd to expect, should leave their tutelary divinities for the worship of those whom they considered as affording them neither regard nor protection. The Romans extended their religious modera- tion so far, as not only to tolerate foreign superstitions, but even to naturalize the gods of every conquered nation : but though they granted to their citizens the right of privately adopting those religious tenets of other nations which were not inimical to their own interests and laws, yet they permitted no innovations to take place in the religion publicly professed, and* gently insinuated their own peculiar rites and institutions into the religious worship of those whom they had subdued. Policy, no less than religion, prompted them to a step which added to mutual interest the strong tie of mutual faith. Thus their religion, with their conquests, extended over a considerable portion of the globe, and incorporated with the sacred rites of every vanquished nation. A ray of light faintly illumined this dark and dreary night of ignorance and error. The northern nations had so far emerged from their state of barbarism, as to have made some progress in curious inventions and CENT. I.] HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 15 useful arts ; but in the polished states of Greece and Rome, philosophy and learning were eagerly sought and pursued by all who aspired to elegance and refinement. The Roman youth, however distinguished for his attainments in those arts which luxuriantly nourished in his own republic, could neither be esteemed an orator nor a rhetorician, without completing his studies in the Grecian schools, and imbibing, from the purest sources, attic grace and elegance. Hence, the philosophy of Greece found easy access into the Roman republic. Oratory, which was publicly taught in all the great cities by those who styled themselves philosophers, was a successful vehicle for conveying the peculiar opi- nions of its professors into the youthful and credulous heart: those, there- fore, who visited Greece unbiased by the opinions of any philosophical sect, were not likely to continue insensible to arguments offered to them with every embellishment of eloquence, acuteness, and wit. The doctrines of the Epicureans and Academics appear to have been eagerly received at Rome. They were, indeed, peculiarly cal- culated for that great and luxurious people. The followers of Epicu- rus asserted the fortuitous origin of the world ; the inability and indif- ference of the gods respecting human affairs ; the mortality of the soul ; and that the life which was most conformable to nature consisted in pleasure, of which they constituted sense the judge. While this sect offered to its votaries a license for the most illicit pursuits, the Acade- mics involved the most important doctrines in infidelity and skepticism, and questioned the existence of the gods, the immortality of the soul, and the superiority of virtue to vice. Far from having attained to unpolluted knowledge, those sects, which boasted a superior purity of morals, were yet greatly defective, and involved in error. The Aristotelians represented the Supreme Being as indifferent to human affairs, and happy in the contemplation of his own excellence. The Stoics described him, indeed, as govern- ing the world, and asserted, that the perfection of happiness consisted in the perfection of virtue : they peopled the world with gods, genii, and demons,* and supposed that every man had a tutelary genius as- signed him, arid that all virtue and happiness consisted in acting in concert with this genius, with reference to the will of the supreme director of the whole. But, however plausible and specious these doctrines may appear, several of their leading tenets were not less pernicious than erroneous. The Stoical belief, of the Deity being corporeal in his nature, was highly derogatory of his dignity, and destructive of their reverence ; while their opinions of the mortality of the soul removed the strongest incentive to virtue, and the most powerful restraint upon vice. The exalted genius and profound pene- tration of Plato had enabled him to discover whatever the mere light of nature could reveal. He taught to his followers the pure doctrine of the unity of God, who is perfect, self-existent, and self-sufficient ; that he is a being infinitely good, and desirous of rendering all his creatures happy ; that the perfection of morality consists in living con- * The agency of genii, i. e., angcla and demons, made an essential part of the Jewish popular creed ; and every thing in the administration of their peculiar system, as well as of the whole mundane system, is represented in the sacred writings, and by Jesus Christ himself, as effected through the agency of such existences. It has often sur- prised me that divines have taken so little notice of this. 16 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. [CENT. I. formably to his will ; that the soul is immortal, and that there is to be a future state of retribution. These doctrines, however approaching to truth and perfection, were yet at a considerable distance. They were often obscurely expressed, and accompanied with some opinions calculated to cherish superstition, and others injurious to the omnipotence of God. The Platonists taught that the Deity was confined to a certain determinate portion of space, and that there was an invincible malignity and corruption of matter, which the Divine power had not been sufficient to reduce en- tirely to order. Having noticed the principal sects of the Greek philosophers, it is unnecessary to enlarge upon those who, though called by other names, were separated from them by slight, sometimes imaginary, partitions. The oriental philosophy, though termed gnosis, or science, that is, the way to the true knowledge of the Deity, was the offspring and the parent of error ; the source of those pernicious opinions which in the first three centuries perplexed and afflicted the Christian Church. Its doctrines were fantastic, ignorant, and obscure, founded indeed, in many instances, upon just principles, but its deductions from them were false and absurd. They affirmed, that as the eternal mind must be inaccessible to evil, perfect and beneficent in its nature, therefore the origin of evil cannot reside in him, but must, be without him ; and as there is nothing without or beyond the Deity but matter, matter must be the source of whatever is vicious or evil. They asserted the eternity of matter, which derived its present form not from the will of the Supreme God, but from the creating power of some inferior intelli- gence who formed the world ; alleging that it was incredible that a being perfectly good, and infinitely removed from all evil, should either create or modify matter which is essentially malignant or corrupt, or bestow upon it any portion of his riches or liberality. Divided into many sects, each of which contended for some favourite error, the Gnostics agreed in acknowledging the existence of an eternal nature, in whom dwelt the fulness of perfection ; and represented him as a pure and radiant light diffused through all space, which they termed pleroma, or ful- ness. The formation of celestial beings they accounted for by suppos- ing the Eternal, after having passed innumerable ages in solitude and happiness, to have produced from himself two minds of a different sex, perfectly resemblingXheir Divine original, who peopled the pleroma with their celestial ons^ring. These they called JEons, or an eternal nature. They supposed the world to be created not by God, but by one of the inferior inhabitants of the pleroma, whom they described as being in many respects of an exalted character, but haughty and am- bitious ; and this being they named Demiurge, the governor of the world, from the ruling of which they would have the Deity utterly ex- cluded. They believed that man was composed of a soul, which is of celestial origin, and which would aspire to worship the true God, were it not that the other half of his nature, which is a corrupt body, super- sedes all its more virtuous desires, and attaches it to the pursuits of sensuality. That the Supreme Being employs various means for the deliverance of his creatures from their bondage to sin, but is opposed by the demiurge, who tempts men to disregard these merciful designs, and to serve him. That those who rise superior to his artifices, and CENT. I.] HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 17 subdue those corrupt affections which sinful matter excites in them, shall at death ascend into the glorious pleroma, while the wicked shall pass from one body into another till they become purified. That the world will at length be destroyed by God, who will overcome all evil, release those souls which have been confined in mortal prisons, and dwell with them and happy spirits in glory and happiness to all eternity. If we advert to the state of the Jewish nation at this period, we shall find that they had introduced the most absurd superstition, and the grossest corruption into their worship. The whole of religion, accord- ing to their ideas, consisted in the rites appointed by their great law- giver, and the performance of some external acts of duty toward the Gentiles. Uncharitable upon system, they regarded the rest of man- kind as excluded from the hopes of eternal life, and treated them with the utmost contempt, rigour, and inhumanity. To these corrupt and vicious principles were added several superstitious notions concerning the Divine nature, magic, invisible powers, oar of the reigning emperor was introduced, and continued to be used ; though some years previous to this Dionysius Exiguus, in his Cyclus Pascha- lis, had introduced the mode of computation now generally used in the Christian world, from the birth of Christ. CENT. VII.] HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 139 THE SEVENTH CENTURY. CHAPTER I GENERAL STATE OF THE CHURCH IN THIS CENTURY. Reigns of Justin, Tiberius, and Maurice Phocas Heraclius Monothelito controversy Vain attempts for reconciling theological differences Constantine and Heracleon Constans Silence enjoined concerning theological speculations Controversy continued, notwithstanding the imperial edict Persecution of Pope Martin I. Constantine Pogo- natus Sixth general council Condemnation of the Monothelites Attempt to raise a dead man as a proof in favour of Monothelism Roman pontiffs Boniface III. Agatho Pope's claim to infallibility Controversies in the west Inflexible rancour of the Jews Conquest of Jerusalem by Chosroes Generosity of Heraclius Jews baptized Persecu- tion of the Jews in Spain Laudable and tolerant spirit of the Spanish clergy Conver- sion of pagan nations Mohammed His origin Doctrines Flight Assumption of regal and sacerdotal power Conquests Causes of his success Destruction of the Alexan- drian Library Vices of the clergy Superior clergy whip the inferior ministers Assume temporal power Confusions at Rome, occasioned by the election of a pope Destruction of the patriarchates of Alexandria, &c., by the Mussulmen. THE reigns of Justin, Tiberius, and Maurice, the immediate suc- cessors of Justinian, were distinguished by a rare but happy calm in the ecclesiastical affairs of the east : nor did the imperial interference occasion any alteration during the reign of the ambitious Phocas, the murderer and successor of the amiable and unfortunate Maurice. On his ascension to the throne he made a solemn promise to the Byzan- tine patriarch to defend and to preserve inviolate the orthodox faith of the councils of Nice and Chalcedon ; and in this solitary instance the perfidious prince was firm to his engagement : nor did he concern himself more with the doctrines than with the practice of religion. The enormities of his conduct soon deprived him of a sceptre which he so unworthily retained. Exasperated by injuries, the people of Constan- tinople were easily induced to forget their allegiance to a cruel and insidious prince ; and Heraclius, the African praetor, had little difficulty in obtaining possession of the imperial throne. The orthodox zeal of the new emperor did not permit him to be an indifferent spectator of religious affairs. He engaged with warmth in the nice decisions of theology ; and his ardour for religion was rewarded by the gratitude of the people and clergy, who, in his war against the Persians, recruited his exhausted treasury with a considerable sum, derived from the sale of the magnificent gold, and silver vessels which had been appropriated to the decoration or to the uses of the church. (Gibbon, vol. v, p. 510.) On his victorious return from the Persian war, Heraclius entered into the theological question, which for some years had been much agitated, concerning the existence of two wills in Christ. The orthodox belief consisted in his possessing the wills and operations peculiar both to his divinity and humanity. The doctrine of one will was, however, strongly insisted upon by many of the clergy, 140 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. [CENT. VI. and was adopted by the emperor, who conceived that the profession of a doctrine, certainly harmless, and possibly not quite without founda- tion, might reconcile the Jacobites of Egypt and Syria (whose opinions it approached) to the orthodox faith. Heraclius, therefore, indulged the laudable but impracticable design of effecting ecclesiastical union. Zeal for religion might perhaps instigate him to this measure ; but pro- bably policy had some share in a design which was intended to pre- vent the defection of numbers, who, like the Nestorians, might secede, not only from the Church, but from the empire. Prompted by these motives, the imperial theologian, by the advice and concurrence of several of the Monophysite party, published an edict which asserted that after the union of the two natures in Jesus Christ there existed only one will and one operation. Athanasius, the Armenian bishop of the Monophysites, and Sergius, the Byzantine patriarch, who favoured that sect, had laboured to persuade the empe- ror that this declaration would induce the Monophysite party to receive the Chalcedonian decrees ; and, provided it were assented to by the orthodox, would terminate the controversy. Cyrus, bishop of Phasis, a zealous Monothelite, or asserter of one will in Christ, was promoted by the emperor to the vacant see of Alexandria, and confirmed the favourite opinion of his benefactor by the decrees of a provincial coun- cil. This perplexed doctrine, illustrated and modified according to the opinions or ingenuity of its different adherents, was explained by them in terms which admitted of such various significations that it was accepted by considerable numbers who were restored to communion with the Church. But however acceptable this romantic project for the restoration of onion, among a people who delighted in controversial disquisitions, might be to many, still, although it was supported by the efforts of Honorius, the Roman pontiff, and of the Byzantine patriarch, it met with a violent opposition, and occasioned contests not less pernicious to the tranquillity of the Church than those which it was designed to prevent. The emperor and the heads of the eastern and western Churches were regarded as the betrayers of the orthodox faith ; and the heretical Monothelites, and the schismatical asserters of two wills, regarded each other with mutual distrust and implacable aversion. Disappointed in these endeavours for ecclesiastical harmony, Heraclius had recourse to another method, and published the Ecthesis, or Exposition of the Faith ; in which all controversies upon this subject were strictly prohi- bited. This exposition was the production of Sergius, bishop of Con- stantinople, and was approved by his successor, Pyrrhus, and several of the eastern bishops. But it met at Rome with a very different reception. On the decease of Honorius, the more orthodox Severian had obtained the pontificate, who continued warmly to condemn the Monothelite doctrine, and to oppose the Ecthesis ; and it was openly condemned in a council by his successor, John the Fourth, and by Theodore, who, in the year 642, succeeded to the papal see. The short and tumultuous reigns of Constantine and Heracleon admitted not of the imperial interference in religious disputes ; they ctill continued, however, to disturb the peace of the Christian world ; and Constans had scarcely assumed the purple before he published CENT. VII.] HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 141 the Type, an edict of a similar nature to that of his grandfather Hera- clius, which enjoined profound silence upon this long-disputed ques- tion. This proclamation might suppress, but could not extinguish, the heated passions of the theological disputants. Sophronius, bishop of Jerusalem, had been among the most zealous opposers of Mono- thelism, and had condemned this heretical opinion in a provincial coun- cil. His labours in the cause of orthodoxy ended not with the subju- gation of his see by the Saracens, in the year 636 ; he still continued, by his writings and example, to animate the clergy and the monks. They detected a latent heresy in the language, and even in the silence of the Greeks ; they were joined by the Latin Churches ; the obedi- ence of Pope Honorius was retracted and censured ; and the execra- ble heresy of the Monothelites, which was said to have revived the errors of Manes, Apollinaris, and Eutyches, was formally condemned. As the representative of the western Church, Pope Martin I., in his Lateran synod, anathematized the perfidious arid guilty silence of the Greeks. One hundred and five bishops, chiefly the inhabitants of those parts of the western empire which remained in subjection to Constans, presumed to reprobate his execrable Type, no less than the impious Ecthesis of Heraclius. Such an insult could not pass with impunity. Martin was removed from Rome, and was afterward exiled to Naxos, a small island in the Archipelago ; and his oracle, Maximus, a seditious monk, of the same party, was banished to Bizyca. Whatever had been the perverseness and obstinacy of this pontiff and his associate, humanity must, notwithstanding, recoil at their suf- ferings. Martin was, after a series of expedients in order to escape punishment, taken prisoner by the exarch, Calliopas, and sent to his place of banishment. His voyage, which was imbittered by apprehen- sion, captivity, disease, and insult, was succeeded by a year's impri- sonment, in which he endured extraordinary hardships. Nor were his sufferings mitigated at the expiration of that period : on his return to the imperial court, he was exposed to the insults of the populace, by whom he was reviled and contemned as a rebel, and was confined in a common prison. After a captivity of more than three months, during which he was oppressed with a violent dysentery, and denied the com- forts of suitable food, he was summoned before the senate ; refused the indulgence of a seat, though from disease and weakness he was unable to stand ; and was charged with treason against the state. His asseverations of innocence, and the powerful plea he exhibited of the impossibility of his committing the crime, were ineffectual. The un- happy pontiff was divested of his sacerdotal garments, loaded with chains, was ordered to be led through the city, preceded by the exe- cutioner bearing a drawn sword, and at length to be cut in pieces. Immediate death was not, however, inflicted upon the miserable Martin ; he was thrown into successive prisons, and sent into banishment on the inhospitable shores of the Tauric Chersonesus ; where a famine, and the inattention of his friends, who neglected, or who perhaps feared, to administer to his relief, added extreme penury to the overflowing cup of his sufferings, and he died amidst these calamities in 656. (Bower's Hist, of Popes, vol. iii, p. 55.) Though the spirit of discord was, by these severe proceedings, in some degree repressed, it was not overcome. The bishops of Rome 142 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. [CENT. VII successively adhering to the decrees of the Lateran council, and the example of Martin, continued in a state of separation from the Greek Church. In order to unite, and if possible to restore peace to the Church, the Emperor Constantino Pogonatus, by the advice of Agatho, the Roman pontiff, convened at Constantinople a general council, which is called the sixth. This assembly commenced in November, 680 ; and, after eighteen meetings, terminated in the following September, after having confirmed the decrees of the Romish synods by the con- demnation of the Monothelites, and of the deceased pontiff, Honorius. The emperor presided personally in this convention, and the argu- ments or the persuasions of the Duothelites were of sufficient efficacy to induce the son of Constans to relinquish his infant creed, while the example, or perhaps the influence, of the royal proselyte converted the Byzantine pontiff and a majority of bishops. The Monothelites, with their chief, Macarius, bishop of Antioch, were condemned to the tem- poral and spiritual pains of heresy. The eastern provinces conde- scended to accept the documents of the west : the creed which teaches that two wills, and two operations, were existent in Jesus Christ, was finally determined ; and the articles of the Catholic faith irrevocably defined. During the debates of this synod, the aged and fanatical Polychronius was called upon to declare his faith ; who proposed a more summary decision of the orthodox belief than the controversies of this assembly, by offering to restore to life the body of a dead man. Many of the judges in this cause were too well acquainted with the na- ture of modern miracles not to have some reason to be apprehensive of this mode of decision : they probably took care, however, that the body was actually dead ; and consented to the trial. But in vain did Poly- chronius deposit his written confession of faith upon the body ; in vain did he whisper, during several hours, into the ears of the deceased : the vital spark was totally extinguished ; and the insane ecclesiastic, who, notwithstanding the failure of this proof, still persisted in the doctrine of one will and one operation in Christ, was degraded from his sacer- dotal function, and anathematized by the clergy and people. The state of religion in the western parts of the empire underwent few alterations during this century. Those claims to dominion and supremacy which at first were but faintly urged by the Roman pontiffs, were continually extending, and as continually successful : new titles, and even those which had occasioned the warmest opposition from the followers of St. Peter, when conferred upon their brethren of Constanti- nople, were eagerly sought for, and gratefully received by the bishops of Rome for themselves. The artful Boniface III., who had for some years resided as nuncio at the imperial court, did not disdain to insinu- ate himself into the good opinion of the infamous Phocas, nor to receive with gratitude the effects of his favour. The Romish patriarchs were permitted in future to assume the title of oecumenical or universal bishops : this title, however, was unaccompanied by any new powers, and only served to increase the animosity which invariably subsisted between the patriarchs of Rome and Constantinople ; the latter of whom saw with extreme uneasiness the deprivation of his own dignities and the accumulation of those which were possessed by his haughty rival. The title of pope, which in fact merely signifies the name of father, was equally bestowed upon the bishop of Rome and those who CENT. VII.] HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 143 possessed the other considerable sees ; and Cyprian had been compli- mented with the title of pope of Carthage, by Cornelius, bishop of Rome. About the seventh century the prelates of the Roman see began, how- ever, to appropriate this title to themselves. But the demands of ambition and vanity are insatiable : and the leaders of the Romish Church were so little contented with the honours they had already acquired, that Agatho laid claim to a privilege never yet enjoyed by man ; and asserted that the Church at Rome never had erred, nor could err in any point, and that all its constitutions ought to be as im- plicitly received as if they had been delivered by the divine voice of St Peter. (History of Popery, vol. ii, p. 5.) These insolent preten- sions to infallibility, when they were first asserted, were resisted by many bishops of the western churches, and by several princes. The Spanish monarchs, particularly, chose not to consider the Roman pontiff even as the head of the Church ; but claimed nearly the same degree of supremacy over the churches in their dominions, which the kings of England since the reign of Henry VIII. have exercised over theirs. The rage for religious disputation, which was so general in the east- ern parts of the empire, extended, though in an inferior degree, its influ- ence to the west. The Pelagian controversy was warmly agitated both in Gaul and Britain ; and considerable numbers of the Lombards, uninfluenced by the example of the court, still continued their attach- ment to the doctrines of Arius. The sceptre, no longer swayed by the hands of a firm consubstantialist, was transferred to the valiant Rotharis, a zealous Arian. His regard to justice was not, however, in this instance, less conspicuous than in the other transactions of his reign : he forebore to compel his Catholic subjects to the violation of their consciences by an external profession of his own religious creed ; but in all the cities of his dominions permitted the appointment of two bishops, an Arian, and a consubstanlialist. The other barbarian princes continued in a firm adherence to the decrees of the council of Nice. They presided in the ecclesiastical councils, entered into every debate concerning faith or discipline, and their barbarian subjects were admit- ted to the performance of the sacred functions of religion. The increase of Christianity was beheld by the Jews with the utmost rancour of which the human mind is susceptible ; and this passion was continually augmented by the severe edicts which at various times had been promulgated against them by their Christian rulers. The wars between the Persians and the Roman emperor afforded them an oppor- tunity for the gratification of their revenge. The conquest of Jerusa- lem was meditated and achieved by the zeal and avarice of Chosroes, who enlisted for this holy warfare an army of six and twenty thousand Jews : these saw with exultation the capture of the city ; the flames bursting out from the stately churches of Helena and Constantino; the demolition of the sepulchre of Christ ; and the precious relic of the cross conveyed, together with its sacred guardian, the Christian patriarch, into Persia. The massacre or captivity of ninety thousand Christians was the consequence of the conquest of Chosroes. Many of them were disposed of by the inhuman Persian to his Jewish adhe- rents, and in their subjection to these masters endured evils which were poorly compensated by the gift of life. The victories of Heraclius restored them once more to the enjoyment of their rights ; but hie 144 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. [CENT. VII. conduct toward the Jews was marked by a spirit of revenge, unworthy of a conqueror who had generously set at liberty fifty thousand Persian captives. These unhappy people were destined to experience the severe ven- geance of the exasperated monarch ; they were ignominiously banished from the seat of their fondest wishes, from the holy city ; and the miserable captives were compelled to a punishment, the greatest that could be conceived, that of receiving the sacred rite of baptism in the Christian Church. The unhappy situation of this people was considerably increased by the punishments which their factious and seditious conduct excited not only in the eastern but western parts of the empire. Their wealth, however, rather than their contumacy, or their attachment to the Mo- saical rites, might occasion many of the evils for which their religion was the avowed pretext. Sisebut, the Gothic monarch in Spain, suddenly attacked his Jew- ish subjects ; compelled the timid to receive the sacrament of baptism, and confiscated the effects of the obstinate. The Spanish clergy had not, however, so far forgotten the benevolent doctrines of the Gospel as to regard this circumstance with approbation, or even with indiffer- ence. They openly opposed the cruelty and folly of these severe pro- ceedings : in their provincial council they forbade the forcible imposi- tion of the holy sacraments ; but their superstition, and mistaken zeal for the honour of the Church, permitted them not to liberate from this most cruel slavery those who had been partakers of the initiatory rite of Christianity, and who had been, though by the most unworthy means, enrolled among the professors of the Gospel. They decreed that those who had already been baptized should still be constrained to the exter- nal profession of the Christian religion. The decrees of this council were probably mollified by the influence of the president, Isidore, bishop of Seville, who dared to condemn the mode of conversion prescribed by the Gothic monarch. ( Chron. Goth. p. 728.) The decree of the council of Toledo, in the year 633, was, however, less favourable to this persecuted people. A decree passed that the children of the Jews should be forcibly taken away from their parents, and placed in monasteries, or in the hands of religious persons, where they might be instructed in the principles of Christianity. (Fleury, Hist. Ecc. viii, p. 367.) Toward the close of this century a charge was exhibited against them which afforded a pretext for additional severity : they were accused of treason against the state ; and in the council of Toledo their possessions were confiscated ; their persons condemned to perpetual slavery to the Christians, who were earnestly exhorted not to tolerate them in the exercise of their religion ; and their children were doomed to be taken from them, at the age of seven years, to be educated in the Christian faith, and to be afterward married to Chris- tians. (Fleury, Hist. Ecc. ix, 125.) The boundaries of Christianity were, in this century, still farther expanded by the assiduity of the Nestorians in the east, and the zeal of several monks in the west. Missionaries from the monastic orders of Britain, Scotland, and Ireland, travelled into Germany, with the de- sign of propagating or preserving the knowledge of Christianity. The Frieslanders were converted ; and the Picts in England, together with CENT. VII.] HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 145 the monarchs of the Saxon Heptarchy, acknowledged the truths of the Gospel. But Christianity received, at an early period of this century, a most fatal blow from the doctrines and conquests of Mahomet, or Mohammed, the archimpostor of the east. Descended from the most illustrious tribe of the Arabians, and from the most illustrious family of that tribe, Mohammed was, notwithstanding, reduced by the early death of his father to the poor inheritance of five camels and an Ethio- pian maid-servant. In his twenty-fifth year he entered into the service of Cadijah, an opulent widow of Mecca, his native city. By selling her merchandise, in the countries of Syria, Egypt, and Palestine, Mo- hammed acquired a considerable part of that knowledge of the world which facilitated his imposture and his conquests : and at length the gratitude or affection of Cadijah restored him to the station of his an- cestors, by bestowing upon him her hand and her fortune. " According to the tradition of his companions," says Mr. Gibbon, " Mohammed was distinguished by the beauty of his person, an out- ward gift which is seldom despised, except by those to whom it has been refused. Before he spoke, the orator engaged on his side the affections of a public or private audience. They applauded his com- manding presence, his majestic aspect, his piercing eye, his gracious smile, his flowing beard, his countenance that painted every sensation of the soul, and his gestures that enforced each expression of tke tongue. In the familiar offices of life, he scrupulously adhered to the grave and ceremonious politeness of his country ; his respectful atten- tion to the rich and powerful was dignified by his condescension and affability to the poorest citizens of Mecca : the frankness of his man- ner concealed the artifice of his views ; and the habits of courtesy were imputed to personal friendship, or universal benevolence. His memory was capacious and retentive, his wit easy and social, his ima- gination sublime, his judgment clear, rapid, and decisive. He rjos^ sessed the courage both of thought and action; and, although his designs might gradually expand with his success, the first idea which he entertained of his Divine mission bears the stamp of an original and superior genius. The son of Abdallah was educated in the bosom of the noblest race, in the use of the purest dialect of Arabia ; and the fluency of his speech was corrected and enhanced by the practice of discreet and seasonable silence. With these powers Mohammed was an illiterate barbarian ; his youth had never been instructed in the art? of reading and writing ; the common ignorance exempted him from shame or reproach ; but he was reduced to a narrow circle of exist- ence, and deprived of those faithful mirrors which reflect to our mind the minds of sages and heroes. Yet the book of nature and of man was open to his view ; and some fancy has been indulged in the political and philosophical observations which are ascribed to the Arabian traveller. He compares the nations and religions of the earth ; discovers the weakness of the Persian and Roman monarchies ; be- holds, with pity and indignation, the degeneracy of the times ; an