A N HISTORY OF THE CORRUPTIONS O F CHRISTIANITY, IN TWO VOLUMES. BY JOSEPH PRIESTLEY, LL.D. F.R.S. DJDST THOU NOT SOW GOOD SEED IN THY FIELD? WHENCE THEN HATH IT TARES? MATT. XIII. 27. VOL. II. BIRMINGHAM: PRINTED BY PIERCY AND JONES, FOR J. JOHNSON, NO. 72, ST PAUL'S CHURCH YARD, LONDON. B\ CONTENTS O F THE SECOND VOLUME. PART VI. PAGE. CT'H E hiftory of opinions relating to the Lord's Supper. \ SECTION I. 'The hiftory of the Eucharift till after the time of Auftin. 3 SECTION II. The hiftory of the Eucharift from the time of Auftin, to that of Pafchaftus. 23 SECTION III. 'The hiftory of the Eucharift from the time of Pafchajius to the reformation. 36 SECTION IV. Of the recovery of the genuine chriftian doc- trine concerning the Lord's Supper. 58 PART VII. 'The hiftory of opinions relating to Baptifm. 66 SEC T'l ON I. Of the opinions and practices of the chriftians relating to Baptifm till the reformation. 79 SECTION II. 'The ft ate of opinions concerning Baptifm Jince the reformation. t 91 a2 APPENDIX IV. CONTENTS. APPENDIX TO PARTS VI, AND VII. Containing the hiftory of the other Sacraments bejides Baptifm and the Lord's Supper. 95 PART VIII. A hiftory of the changes that have been made in the method of conducing Public Wor- Jhip. 105 SECTION I. Of Churches and Jome things belonging to them. ' 1 06 SECTION II. Of Ceremonies in general and other things relating to Public Worjhip. 114 SECTION III. Of the proper parts of Public Worjhip. 119 SECTION IV. Of FeftivalS) &V. in the chriftian Church.. 128 PART IX. The hiftory of Church Difcipline. 139 SECTION I. The hiftory of Church Difcipline in the time of the chrijlian Fathers. 140 SECTION II. Of the ft ate of Church Difcipline in the dark ages, and, till the reformation. 148 SECTION III. Of the method of enforcing Church Cenfures, or the hiftory of perfection till the time cf Auftin. 1 66 SECTION CONTENTS, v. SECTION IV. Of the methods of enforcing ecclefiajtlcal Cen- fures from the time of Aujtin to the re- formation, and afterwards by the Ca- tholics. 1-8 SECTION y. Of perfection by Prot eft ants 191 SECTION VI. The hiftory of mi/lakes concerning Moral PART X. The hiftory of Minifters in the chriftian Churchy and efpecially of Bijhops. 227 SECTION I. The hiftory of chriftian Minifters till the fall of the JFeJtern Empire. 228 SECTION II. The hiftory of the Clergy from the fall of the Roman Empire in the Weft, to the re- formation. 249 PART XL The hiftory of the Papal Power. 280 SECTION I. Of the ftate of the Papal Power till the time of Charlemaigne. 283 SECTION II. The hiftory of the Papal Power from the time of Charlemaigne to the Reformation. 299 APPENDIX I. TO PARTS X. AND XI. The hiftory of Councils. 336 2 SECTION Yl. CONTENTS. APPENDIX II. TO PARTS X. AND XI, Of the authority of the Secular Powers or the Civil Magijlrate y in matters of Religion. 34^ APPENDIX III. TO PARTS X. AND XI. Of the authority of 'Tradition, and of the Scriptures, &C. 362 PART XII. 440 SECTION. CONTENTS. vii. PART II. CONTAINING, Confiderations addreffed to the advocates for the frefent civil eftablijhments of Chrifti- anity, and efpecially Eijhop Hurd. 467 APPENDIX, CONTAINING A Summary View of the Evidence for the primitive Chriftians holding the Doftrine of the ftmple Humanity of Chrift. 485 ERRATA VOL. II. Page 68, 1. 6, read Mark vii. 4. 14.8, 1. 12, (b) for Paul read James. 182, L II, for penances read penalties. 223, 1. 12, (b) for facrifice read facrament. 371, 1. 16, for y read yr. CORRECTIONS VOL. II, P. 64, 1. 14, read many Dijenters have. 66, 1. i, read 'was, perhaps. 355, I. 12, dele on earth. THE HISTORY OF THE CORRUPTIONS O F CHRISTIANITY. PART VI. The Hiftory of Opinion,* relating to the Lord's Supper. INTRODUCTION. /" AHERE is nothing in the whole hiftory that A I have undertaken to write, Ib extraor- dinary as the abufes that have been introduced into the rite of the Lord's Jupper. Nothing can be imagined more fimple in its original infti- tution, or lefs liable to mifapprehenfion cr abufej and yet, in no inftance whatever, has the de- pravation of the original doctrine and cuftom proceeded to a greater height, or had more fe- rious confequences. In allufion, perhaps, to the feftival of the pair- over, our Lord appointed his difciples to eat VOL. II. A bread 1 'fbe Hiftory of Opinions bread and drink wine in remembrance of him ; in-forming them that the bread reprefented his body, which was going to be broken, and the wine his blood, which was about to be fried for them ; and we are informed by the apoftle Paul, that this rite is to continue in the chriftian church till our Lord's fecond coming. Far- ther than this we are not informed in the New Teftament. We only find that the cuftom was certainly kept up, and that the chrifrians of the primitive times probably concluded the public worfhip of every Lord's day, with the celebra- tion of it. As the rite was peculiar to chriftians, the celebration of it, was of courfe, in common with joining habitually in the public worlhip of chriftians, an open declaration of a man's be- ing a chriftian, and more fo indeed, than any other vifible circumftance ; becaufe other perfons might occafionally attend the public worfhip of chriftians, without bearing any proper part in it themfelves. Let us now fee what additions have been made to this fimple inftitution, in feveral periods, from the primitive times to our own. And for this purpofe it will be moft convenient to divide the whole hiftory into four parts ; the firft from the age of the apoftles to that of Auftin, including his time, and that of the great men who were his cotemporaries j the fecond extending from that period to the time of Pafchafius > the third, from relating to the Lord's Supper. 3 from him to the reformation ; and the fourth, from that time to the prefent. In writing the hiftory of this fubjec~b, in each of the periods, I fhall firft note the changes of opi- nion with refpect to the Lord's fupper itfelf, together with the change of language which took place in confequence of it. I fhall then give an account of the fuperftitious practices that were grounded on thofe opinions; and laftly, I lhall relate what particulars I have met with re- lating to the manner of celebration. SECTION I. The Hijlory of the Eucharijl till after the Time of Aujlin. THE firft new idea which was fuperadded to the original notion of the Lord's fup- per, was that of its being a facrament, or an oath to be true to a leader. For the wordfacrament is not to be found in the fcriptures, but was after- wards borrowed from the Latin tongue^ in which it fignified the oath which a Roman foldier took to his general. Thusy in the firft century, Pliny reports, that the chriftians were wont to meet together before it was light, and to bind them- felves by a facrament. This I would obferve, is but a fmall deviation from the original idea A 2 of 4 The Hiftory of Opinions of the Lord's flipper ; and though it be not the fame with the true idea of it, as before explain- ed, yet it cannot be faid to be contrary to it. Afterwards the word facrament came to be ufed by chriftian writers in a very loofe manner, for every thing that was looked upon to be folemn or myfterious ; and indeed, as bifliop Hoadley obferves, for almoft every thing relating to re- ligion. The next idea which was added to the primi- tive notion of the Lord's fupper was of a much more alarming nature, and had a long train of the worft confequences. This was the con- fidering of this inftitution as a myflery. And, indeed, the chriftians affedted very early to call this rite, one of the myfteries of our holy religion. By the term myftery was meant, ori- ginally, the more fecret parts of the heathen worfhip, to which feleft perfons only were ad- mitted, and thofe under an oath of fecrecy. Thofe myfteries were alfo called initiations -, thofc who were initiated were fuppofed to be pure and holy, while thofe who were not initiated were confidered as impure and profane; and by thefe myfteries the heathens were more at- tached to- their religion than by any other circumftance whatever. This made the firft chriftians (many of whom were firft converted from heathenifm, and who could not all at once, diveft themfelves of their fondnels for pomp and myftery) wifli to have fomething of relating to the Lord's Supper. 5 of this nature, which was fo ftriking and cap- tivating, in the chriftian religion -, and the rite of the Lord's fupper foon ftruck them, as what might eafily anfwer this purpofe. When this new idea was introduced, they, in confequence of it, began to exclude all who did not partake of the ordinance, from being prefent at the celebration of it. Thofe who did not communicate, were not even allowed to know the method and manner in which it was adminiftered. Ter- tullian, who wrote at the end of the fecond century, feems to allude to this practice. " Pi- " ous initiations," he fays*, " drive away the " profane, and it is of the very nature of " myfteries to be concealed as thofe of Ceres cc in Samothrace," but as he is there defend- ing the chriftians from the charge of pra&ifmg abominable rites in fecret, he may only mean that, on the fuppofition of fuch practices, no perfon could reveal them, their enemies not being prefent, and they would hardly do it themfelves. Indeed, it is moil probable that this cuftom of concealing the myfteries did not take place till the middle of the third cen- tury f. After this time, the council of Alex- andria reproached the Arians with difplaying the holy myfteries before the catechumens, and even the pagans, whereas l ground; and that in receiving the wine, they Jhould approach it with the body a little bowed, in token of veneration. The fixth general coun- cil ordered that the hand fhould be held in the form of a crofs. It was the cuftom in the time of Jerom, to kifs the bread ; and in the liturgy of Chryfoftom, ufed by the Greeks, it is directed that he who receives the elements Ihould kifs the hand of the deacon from whom he receives them*. It is needlefs to note the progrefs of fuperftition in all thefe obfervanees. When the fervice was ended, the congregation was difmiffed by the prieft, faying Ite, Mi/a eft ; which Polidore Virgil acknowledges was alfo the form of difmifiing the idolatrous fervices of the pagans f. There was likewife, as was obferved before, a formal difmifiion of the catechumens, before they proceeded to the celebration of the eucharift, in the fame words, and from this term mijfa the whole fervice came afterwards to be called by that name, which by corruption is in the Englifh language mafs. The primitive chriftians did frequently eat in common, before the celebration of the Lord's fupper. To this kind of entertainment, to which every perfon brought what he thought proper, they gave the name of dgape, or Iwe-faft ; and it is thought to be alluded to in the epif- * Larroche, p. 119. f Sueur, A. D. p. 398. B 3 ties 22 fhe Htftory of Opinions tl which are often fo called f. The firft men- tion that we have of the eucharift being cele- brated more than once in the courfe of the fame day, in any church, is in the fifth century, when Leo the firft ordered it on great feftival days, when the crowds were fo great that the churches could not contain thofe that reforted to them. To induce the common people to continue their offerings after they ceafed to communicate, they were given to underftand, that provided they kept up that cuftom, the fervice would ftill be ufeful to themj and inftead of a real communion with bread and wine duly confe- crated, the priefts gave them a kind of fubftitute for it, and a thing of a much lefs awful nature, viz. bread, over which they prayed, and to which they gave the name of hallowed bread. This was about the year 700 . p. 47 . Hill, of ar.tient ceremonies,, p. 88. 10 30 tte Hiftory of Opinions It was in confequence of few perfons ofFering themfelves to communion, that the priefts got a habit of fpeaking in a very low voice, a cuftom which was afterv/ards continued through fuper- ftition. This is faid to have begun about the end of the tenth century , and fome fay that it proceeded from a report that God had pu- nifhed with fudden death fome fhepherds, who fung the words of confecration in the fields *. Having noted thefe general abufes, refpecting the eucharift, I fhall now confider the method in which it was adminiflered, going over the different parts of the fervice for that purpofe ; and we fhall find traces enow of fuperftition every ftep that we take. As there is nothing prefcribed in the New Teftament concerning the order of public wor- fhip, or the- mode of celebrating the Lord's fup- per, different churches fell naturally into dif- ferent methods with refpect to them, as we fee in what remains of feveral of the antient litur- gies. That of moft churches had probably been gradually altered, efpccially as mens ideas with refpect to the nature of the fervice itfelf had changed. The prefent canon of the mafs, as it is now ufed in the church of Rome, was, for the moft part, compofed by Gregory the great, who made more alterations in it than any of * Larroche, p. -9. his relating to the Lord's Supper. 31 his predeceflbrs. He introduced into it many pompous ceremonies, but it was feveral centu- ries before this canon was adopted by all the members of the Latin church. In 699, pope Sergius added to the canon of the mafs, that while the prieft is breaking the bread, he fhould fmg three times Lamb of God who taketh away the fins of the world, have mercy upon us- y but that at the third time, inftead of the words have mercy upon us, he fhould fay, grant us peace*. Since the celebration of the eucharift was now confidered as a proper facrijice, the table on which it was offered came of courfe to be an altar; and as altars in the Jewilh church, and among the pagans, were confecrated, the chriftian altars muft be fo too. The firft men- tion that is made of the confecration of al- tars (more than was obferved to have been done by Gregory Nyffenus) is in the council of Agde in 506, when they were ordered to be confecrated both by chrifm and by the bene- diction of the prieft. In the ninth century they added water to the chrifm, and incenfe, and other things. They alfo confecrated three table cloths of feveral faihions, and a kind of veil of feveral colours, according to the dif- ferent days, &c. * Sueur. Larroche, p. 49. In 32 fbe Hiftory of Opinion* In order to be better entitled to the name of altars, and to correfpond to the altars in the Jewifh and pagan religions, all the wooden tables were removed, and all altars were or- dered to be made of ftone. And it was far- ther alledged, in favour of this cuftom, that Jefus Chrift is called the corner ft one ^ and foun- dation of the church. This inftitution is afcrib- ed to Silvefter; but the decree is not found. It was a council of Epaone in 517, that for- bad the confecration of altars, unlefs they were made of ftone*. To the due confecration of altars it is now requifite that there fhould be relics in them; but this was far from being the cafe originally. For a council in the feventh century ordered that altars fhould not be confecrated in any place where a body had been interred f. The laft thing which I (hall obferve in refpect to altars is, that Bede is the firft who makes any mention of portable ones. It was the cuftom in all this period not only to make ule of lights, though in the day time, during the celebration of the eucharift, but of incenje alfo; and both thefe appendages were borrowed from the heathen facrifices, and were firft adopted by the Greeks, and fo early * Bafnage, vol. i. p. 47. f Ib. p. 48. as relating to tbe Lord's Supper. 33 as the middle of the fifth century; mention being then made of affembling the church by flambeaus and perfumes. But it is not faid that this was for the celebration of the eucharift in particular *. Originally, the bread that was u fed for the ce- lebration of the Lord's fupper, was fuch as was prefented among other offerings on the occafion. Afterwards it was the cuftom to make one great loaf or cake, to fupply all the communicants j and this was broken at the time of the celebra- tion, and diftributed in fmall pieces to the com- municants. But this cuftom being attended with fome lofs, fome priefts in Spain began about the feventh century, to prepare the eucha- riftical bread in a different manner, baking fmall round pieces on purpofe, that there might not be occafion to break it at all. But this inno- vation was not generally approved, and it was exprefsly forbidden by the council of Toledo in 693 . In time, however, the increafmg fuper- ftition of the age got the better of this regula- tion, and the cuftom of making fmall round wafers for the purpofe of communion at length became univerfal in the church. It was the cuftom in the primitive church, as I have already obferved, to give what is called * Larroche, p. 526. Ib. p. 36, VOL, II. C the 34 Vbe Hiftory of Opinions the kifs of peace, or of charity, immediately be- fore communion. This, in time, was thought to be an indecent practice, and therefore ought to have been laid afide altogether. However, Leo the third, at the end of the ninth century, changed this cuftom for that of Idfling a plate of lilver or copper, with the figure of a crofs upon it, or the relic of fome faint after the con- fecration of the elements *. In the fifth century it was the cuftom for men to receive the bread with their naked hands, and the women (who perhaps did not expofe their hands naked) in a clean cloth, which obtained the name of Dominica. Afterwards, in the farther progrefs of fuperftition, it came to be the cuftom to receive it in vefiels of gold, &c. but this was forbidden in the fixth general council in 680, and they were again ordered to receive it with the hand. It has been already obferved that glajs was thought to be too brittle a thing to receive the holy elements. Glafs veflels, however, con- tinued to be made ufe of, fo that it was thought neceflary to forbid the ufe of them in a council held at Rheims under Charlemaigne -, and in another council, held in the year 895, wooden veflels were forbidden to be ufed for that pur- pofe j and at prefent the Latin church does not fuffer the confecration to be made in any thing but in a chalice of gold, or lilver, or at leaft of * Hill of antient Ceremonies, p. 90. f Larroche, p. 555. pew- relating to the Lord's Supper. 35 pewter; and a council held at Albi, in 1254, commands all churches, the yearly rent of which amounts to fifteen French livres, to have a filver chalice *. In the primitive times we find no mention of any particular pofition of the body, as more pro- per than any other for receiving the Lord's fup- per; but as fuperftition kept gaining ground, the Eaft began to be held peculiarly facred, as it always had been held by the heathens, who wor- fhipped with their faces turned that way; and about the year 536, Pope Vigilius ordered that thofe who celebrated mafs ftiould always direct their faces towards the Eaft f . We fee the effects of fuperftition as well in the method of difpofmg of what remained of the confecrated elements, as in the ufe of them. Some churches ufed to burn all that remained after communion. This was the cuftom at Jeru- falem, and it is fo with the Greeks at prefent ; at leaft, fays FleuryJ, they are reproached with it. At Conftantinople it was formerly eaten by young fcholars, fent from the fchool for that purpofe, as is related by Evagrius, who wrote at the end of the fixth century. The council of Toledo, in 693, left it to the liberty of each particular church, either to keep what remained of the * Larroche, p. 53. f Hiftory of antient ceremonies, p. 76. J A. D. 1054. C 2 con- ^6 The Htftory of Opinions confecrated elements, or to eat it; but, in the latter cafe, it was ordained that the quantity confecrated fhould be moderate, that it might not opprefs the flomachs of thofe who were appointed to take it. But, in whatever man- ner they difpofed of thefe facred elements, it was the cuftom not to leave any of them till the next day *. One would imagine that we had feen fuperftition enough in this one article of chriftian faith and practice within this period ; but we fnall find much greater abufes in the next; and notwith- ftanding the greater light of the prefent age, they continue unreformed in the church of Rome to this day. SECT ION III. 'The Uiftory of the Eucharift, from the 'Time of Pafchafius to the Reformation. WE are now arrived to the moft diftin- guifhed asra in the hiftory of the eu- charift; after having feen how much the eucha- riftical elements in this age of darknefs had gained in point of Jacrednejs and folemnity, and how aweful a thing the act of communicating Larroche, p. 171. was relating to the Lord's Supper. 37 was generally apprehended to be ; fo that com- monly the prieft alone communicated, and the people very feldom, except at the time of the greater feftivals, and efpecially at Eafter. This was in confequence of the people in general being imprelTed with a confufed notion that the euchariltical elements were, in fome fenfe or other, the body and blood of Chrift, and therefore that Chrift himfelf was prefent in them. But in what manner he was prefent they feem to have had no clear idea. This general notion, however, paved the way for the capital addition that was made to the do&rine of the eucharift by Pafchafius Radbert, a monk of Corbie in France, who undertook to explain the manner in which the body of Chrift is prefent in the eucharift. This he did in a treatife publifhed in the year 8 1 8, in which he maintained that not only the bread and wine were changed, by confederation, into the real body and blood of Chrift; but that it was the fame body that had been born of the virgin Mary, and that had been crucified and raifed from the dead. It was in fupport of this opinion that he wrote the two books on the delivery of the virgin Mary y which I had oc- cafion to mention before ; in which he main- tained, that it was performed in a miraculous manner, without any opening of the womb*. * Sueur, A. D. 818. C 3 . ThV 38 The Hijlory of Opinions This opinion Pafchafius himfelf fecms to have been fenfible was bold and novel. For the ftrft time that he mentions it, after calling the eucha- riftical elements the body of Chrift in general, he adds, " and to fay fomething more furpri- *' fing and wonderful (Ut mirabilius loquar} it a doctor of the univerfity of Paris, fubftituted the word confubftant'tation inftead of tranfubftan- tiation, towards the conclufion of this century *% Others fay that he maintained the affumption of the confecrated bread by the divinity. How- ever, he did not deny that the fubftance of the bread and wine remained in the elements; and yet the faculty at Paris did not condemn his opi- nion, but declared that both this, and the com- mon doctrine of tranfubftantiation, were proba- ble ways of making the body of Chrift exift in the facrament. * Mofheim, vol. 3. p. 106. As 42 27> and that they fhould even conti- nue to be held, notwithftanding the moft autho- ritative decifions refpecting it. Peter Lombard, cotemporary with Stephen of Autun above men- tioned, approved of this doctrine of tranfubftan- tiation, but could not determine of what kind the change was j whether it was only formal, or Jub- ftantial, that is, whether it affected the fenfible properties of the elements, or the real fubitance of them*. It was allb a queftion whether the water (which it was always the cuftom to mix with the, wine * Larroche, p. 183. before 44 We Hiftory of Opinions before confecration) was changed immediately into the blood of Chrift, or whether it was changed into wine firft. Pafchafius himfelf had afferted the former, but after long debates it was determined by Innocent the third, and the fchool- men fupported him in it, that the water is chang- ed into wine before it is changed into the blood of Chrift. See Bafnage's Hiftoire des Eglifes Reformers, vol. iii. p. 68 1, where this and other difficulties on the fame fubje<5t are particularly confidered. It is fufficient for my purpofe to give a fpecimen of them. In this, and feveral other refpefts, a confidera- ble latitude of opinion was formerly allowed in the church of Rome j and indeed the do6trine of tranjubftantiation did not properly become an ar- ticle of faith before it was made to be fo by the council of Trent. The cardinal D'Ailli, at the council of Conftance, fpoke of the doctrine of tranfubftantiation as an opinion only, and faid that it could not be clearly inferred from the fcrip- tures, that the fubftance of bread did not re- main in the facrament j*. At the council of Trent, the Francifcans main- tained that the body of Chrift defcended from heaven, in order to be changed into the form, of bread and wine, though it did not quit its for- mer place, whereas the Dominicans faid, that Je- fus Chrift did not come from any other place, f Larroche, p. 492. but relating to the Lord's Supper. 45 but that he was formed in the hoft, the fubftance of the bread being changed into that of his bo- dy. The council did not decide this queftion, but in their decrees made ufe of fuch terms as both parties might adopt . When the great difficulty of one fmgle conver- fion of any particular quantity of bread and wine into the body and blood of Chrift was got over, one would imagine that another difficulty, no lefs infuperable, would have occurred, with refpeft to the multitude of confecrations performed in dif- ferent places at the fame time. But Guimond, who wrote againft Berenger, in 1075, made no- thing of thefe, or of ftill greater difficulties. " Every feparate part," fays he, " of the eu- as they called them, were incorruptible, while others maintained that they were not : when Zonaras, a Greek friar, hap- * Burneton the Articles, p. 370. f Bafnage, vol. 3. p. 687. pily 48 5T2> nor at the folemnity which the receiving of the com- munion gave to an oath. This appeared, when pope Gregory the feventh, propofed to the em- peror Henry, who was charged with many crimes, to exculpate himfelf, by taking one part of a confecrated hoft, while he himfelf fhould take the other. This propoial ftaggered the em- f Larrochc, p. 483. Ib. p. 484. D 2 peror $2 The Hiftory of Opinions peror fo much, that he defired the affair to be re- ferred to a general council *. But we are more furprifed that, upon any occafion whatever, any perfon fhould be permitted to eat before he re- ceived the communion ; and yet, application be- ing made to the pope on the part of the king of France, in 1722, that he might take fome nou- rifliment before he received the communion, on the day of his confecration, as it was thought that he would not be able to go through the fa- tigue of the ceremony without it, the requeft was granted. It muft be prefumed, however, that no other than the pope himfelf could have given fo great a difpenfation f. It was owing to the great awfulnefs of the real maffes, and the many ceremonies that were ne- ceffary to be obferved in the celebration of them, that, for four or five hundred years, what are called dry maffes (or the ceremonies of the mafs without the confecration of the elements) were much ufed in the church of Rome. They were more efpe- cially ufed by gentlemen who went a hunting early in the morning, or returned late, or when a new married couple wanted to receive benedic- tion, &c. St. Louis often ufed this ceremony on board his veffel, and it ferved for a confola- tion to pilgrims, when they had no opportunity of having real maffes in their return from the Holy Land, Thefe dry maffes were fo common * Fleury, A, D, 1077. f Hill, des Tapes, vol. 5. p. 499. at relating to the Lord's Supper. 53 at one time, that there was a rubric in the Ro- mifh ritual prepared for them. But the refor- mation opening mens eyes upon the fubject, Eo cius confefied that what had been practifed fo long was, in truth, an impiety and blafphemy againft God. The council of Trent did not, however, correct the abufe ; but the bifhops fince that time have abolifhed it by degrees, and now it is only ufed on Good Fridays, and during ftorms at fea f. We fee the farther progrefs of fuperftition in the various methods that were devifed in order to prevent the wafte or abufe of the confecrated elements, which increafed after the doctrine of tranfubftantiation. In the tenth century the priefts began to put the bread into the mouths of the communicants, and in the eleventh they began, in fome churches, to ufe little hofts, like wafers, made round, white, and very thin; but this was not till after the condemnation of Be- renger, and was difliked by many at that time; and the former cuftom of breaking the bread into little pieces, and alfo that of giving the bread fteeped in the wine were ftilJ ufed in many places, till near the end of the twelfth century, after which the ufe of thin wafers became uni- verfal. At length, in order to leave the leaft room for \vafte or abufe poflible, the cuftom of communi- f Bafnage, vol. 3. p. 686. D 3 eating 54 We Hiftory of Opinions eating the laity with the bread only was introduc- ed ; and the doctrine of tranfubftantiation made this practice much eafier than it could otherwife have been. For it being now agreed that the confecrated bread was the whole body of Chrift, it contained the blood of courfe; and confequent- ly the wine, which was the blood only, became fuperfluous. Thomas Aquinas defended the cuftom of com- municating with the bread only, but he fays that it was not obferved in all churches ; and the laity in many places, in order to prevent the fpilling of the wine, or as they called it, the blood of Chrift (againft which they were always mofl par- ticularly cautioned) fucked it through quills, or filver pipes, which were fattened to their chalices for that purpofe. But at length, and efpecially from the cuftom of giving the bread fteeped in the wine, came by degrees, the cuftom of com- munion in one kind only, without any exprefs au- thority for the purpofe, in almoft all the weftern churches, till it was eftablifhed by the council of Conftance, in 1415. But the cuftom of commu- nicating in both kinds was ftill praclifed in /eve- ral places, and the pope himfelf is faid at one time to have adminiftered the wine to the dea- cons and minifters of the altar, and to other perfons of eminent piety, whom he thought worthy of fo great a gift. The relating to the Lord's Supper. 55 The council of Trent confirmed that of Con- ftance, but left it to the pope to grant the ufe of the cup to thofe whom he ihould think pro- per. Accordingly Pius the fourth granted the communion in both kinds to thofe who Ihould demand it, provided they proferTed to believe as the church did in other refpects *. The Bo- hemians alfo were allowed, with the pope's con- fen t, to make ufe of the cup. The high reverence for the eucharift, which was produced by the doctrine of tranfubftan- tiation, made a change in the poflure of re- ceiving it. For till the thirteenth century, all perfons had communicated ftanding, but about that time the cuftom of receiving it kneeling came into ufe, and this is continued ever fince in the church of Rome, and from that in the church of England. Frequent communion alfo was now no more to be expected, and indeed fo early as the tenth century, Ratherius bifhop of Verona was obliged to order his priefts to warn believers to come four times a year to the communion f, and now the catholics are not required to communicate more than once a year, and this is generally at Eafter. There are various other fuperflitious practices re - fpecling the eucharift in the church of Rome, the origin of which it is not eafy to trace. There * Hiftoire des Papes, vol. 4. p. 679. f Larroche, p. 137^ D 4 are 56 tfhe Hiflory of Opinions ar fix feveral forts of veftments belonging to the officiating prieft, and eight or nine to the bifhop, and there is not one of them but has fome myfterious fignification, and a correfponding fe- parate confecration ; not to mention the dif-^ ferent colours of them, and the different oc- cafions on which they are ufed ; and they are all fo necefiary, that the fmalleft variation in the ritual 3 makes the mafles be deemed im- perfed. As I obferved before, that two mafles muft not be celebrated on the fame altar in the courfe of one day, and even a pried cannot officiate at any altar when a bilhop has done it before him, they are now multiplied exceedingly. The maf- fes alfo are reckoned defective, unlefs the altar be covered with three cloths, confecrated by the bilhop, the laft of which muft be longer than the other; and it muft, after all, be covered with a fluff of fome particular colour, according to the feftival on which it is ufed. But the altar muft be ftripped of all its ornaments on Good Friday, for reafons which may be feen in Baf- nage vol. i. p. 48. together with many other fuperftitious obfervances relating to the eucha- rift, which I do not think it worth while to recite. In the eleventh century there arofe violent debates between the Greek and Latin churches on account of the former ufing unleavened bread in relating to the Lord's Supper. 57 in the celebration of the eucharift. Such, how- ever, it is very evident, inuft have been the bread that our Saviour himlelf made life of in the inftitution, as there was no leaven to be had during the whole feafon of pafibverj and at length the Latin church conformed to this cuftom. Confidering the many grofs abufes which prevailed with refpect to the Lord's fupper, after the time of Pafchafius, it is no wonder thar we meet with fome perfons who laid it afide altogether. This was the cafe with the Paulicians in the ninth century, who confider- ed both baptifm and the Lord's fupper as fome- thing figurative and parabolical*. This was alfo the cafe with fome perfons in France, in the beginning of the eleventh century, and they were condemned at the fynods of Orleans, and again at Arras in 1025 . Alfo in the twelfth century, one Tanchelin perfuaded the people of Antwerp, and other per Tons in Flanders, that receiving the Lord's fupper was not ne- ceffary to falvation. But indeed this he might do, without wifhing them to omit the celebra- tion of it altogether. As little can we wonder that unbelievers fhould take advantage of fuch a doctrine as this, to treat the chriftian religion with contempt. * Mofheim, vol. z. p. 178. Flcury. AverroeSj 58 Sfifo Hijiory of Opinions Averroes, the great free-thinker of his age, faid that Judaifm was the religion of children, and Ma- hometan ifm that of hogs ; but he knew no feel: fo foolifh and abfurd as that of the chriftians, \vho adored what they eatf. SECTION IV. Of the Recovery of the genuine Cbrijtian Doffrinc concerning the Lord's Supper. AS the corruption of this doftrine took place very early in the chriftian church, and proceeded farther than any other, fo it was with great difficulty rectified ; and indeed it is in general but very imperfectly done to this day, efpecially in the eftablifhed reformed churches. The minds of the reformers, in general, were imprerTed with an idea of fomething peculiarly myiterious and awful in the nature of the eu- charift, as well as with a firm perfuafion con- cerning the divinity of Chrift. Wickliffe was late in fettling his notion about the Lord's fupper; fo that, in different parts of his writings, he contradicts himfelf on this fubje&J. John Hufs believed the doctrine of tranfubftantiation and the' real prefence ; but in anfwer to a perfon who had faid that a t Memoires pour la vie de Petrarch, vol. 3. p. 760. J Gilpin's life of him, p. 65, prieft, relating to the Lord's Supper. $9 prieft, after his confecration, was the Father of God, and the creator of Gad's body, he wrote a treatife to prove that Jefus Chrift is the au- thor of the tranfubftantiation, and the pried only the minifter of it*. It is remarkable, that with refpect to moft of the reformers from popery in the fixteenth cen- tury, the article of the eucharift was the laft in which they gained any clear light, the doctrine of tranfubftantiation being that which they parted with with peculiar reluctance, and in all public difputations their popifh adverfaries had more advantage with refpect to this than to any other fubject. They advanced to the conferences with the utmoft boldnefs when this was to be the fubject of their difputation, hav- ing the prejudices of their audience, and in a great meafure, thole that were their adverfa- ries too, on their fide, Though Luther rejected tranfubftantiation, he neverthelefs retained the doctrine of the real prejence of the body of Chrift in the eu- charift ; believing that even the body of Chrift might be omniprefent, as well as his divinity; and in the Lutheran Form of concord, which they made the terms of communion with them, this article was inferted. Luther, in his attempts * Lenfant's Hiitory of the Council of Conftance, yol. i. p. 432. to 6a The Hiftory of Opinions to explain his doftrine on the fubjecl: of the eucharift (which, to diftinguifh it from that of the papifts, he called confubftantiation) faid that as in a red hot iron, two diftindt fubftances, the iron and the fire are united, fo is the body of Chrift joined with the bread in the eucharift*. Some Lutherans maintained, that all the pro- perties of the divine nature were communicated to the human nature of Chrift, and conlequently its omniprefence, by the hypoftatical union be- tween themf. But thefe were more rigid than Luther himfelf, and it is fuppofed that being convinced by the reafons of Melanchton, he would have entertained the opinion of the other reformers on this fubjecl:, if death had not pre- vented himj. Carolftadt, Luther's colleague, maintained that the bread and wine were no other than figns or fymbols t defigned to excite in the minds ofchriftians the remembrance of the fufferings and death of Chrift, and of the benefits which arife from them . It is remarkable that Zuinglius was much more rational than Luther on this fubjecl:. For he, like Carolftadt, confidered the bread and wine as no more than figns and fymbols of the body and blood of Chrift, and that we derive no benefit from the eucharift, except what arifes from the recollection of the merits of Chrift ||. * Mofneim, vol. 3. p 331. f Ib. vol. 4. p. 75. t Bafnage, vol. 3. p. 331. Mofheim, vol. 3. p. 331. j| Molheiip, vol. 4. p. 76. He relating to the Lord's Supper. 61 He would not even allow the minifters of the church the power of excluding flagitious mem- bers from church communion, but left all pu- nifhment to the civil magiftrate *. Upon the whole, Zuinglius feems to have thought as ra- tionally on the fubje<5t of the eucharift as Soci- nus, who alfo confidered it merely as a comme- moration of the death of Chrift. Calvin was much lefs rational. For he fup- pofed that a certain divine virtue or efficacy was communicated by Chrift, together with the bread and winef. And he not only excluded vicious perfons from communion, but likewife procured their banifhment from the city . We have a remarkable example of the confi- dence of the catholics on the fubjedt of the eucha- rift in the famous conference of PoifTy, in 1561, held in the prefence of Charles the ninth, and Ca- tharine of Medicis, in the court of France, be- tween a number of popifli and proteftant divines, of whom the cardinal of Lorraine was the princi- pal on the fide of the catholics, and Beza on that of the proteftants. The cardinal, in his fpeech on this fubjecl:, fays, " We muft always oppofe thefe " wofds of Chrift, This is my body, to all argu- " mentations, judgments, and fpeculations of the " underftanding. They will be fire and thun- tc der to all confciences. Let us believe the * Mofheim, vol. 4. p. 1 15. f Ib P- 79- Ib. P- J J 5' c Lord, 6 2 The Uiftory of Opinions " Lord> and obey him in all things, and placfesj " let us not contradict him, becaufe what he teUs " us feems abfurd, improper, and contrary to our " fenfes and thought. Let his word overcome c< every thing, and be unto us, as it is, the moft " precious thing. This it becomes us to do " every where, but efpecially in the holy myfte- " ries. Let us not look only to the things we " fee, but let us obferve his word, for his word " is infallible, and cannot be falfe or deceive " us. On the contrary, our fenfes are eafily " impofed upon, and deceive us often. Since " then he has faid this is my body, let us not * c doubt of it, but believe, obey, and look upon " him with the eyes of our underftanding, &c *." On moft other fubjecls the popifh advocates ra- ther declined the conteft, but in this they thought they could triumph. This conference ended as all others in thofe days did, without giving any fatisfaftion to either party. The cardinal himfelf would have confented to an article on this fubject fufficiently agreeable to the Luthe- ran doctrine, viz. That the fubftance of the bo- dy and blood of Chrift is in the eucharift; but his brethren would not admit of it, think- ing it captious and heretical f. It is the doctrine both of the church of Eng- land, and of the eftablifhment in Scotland, that * Laval's Hiftory of the Reformation in France, vol. i. p. 536. t Ib. p. 583, fomc relating to tie Lord's Supper. 63 fome peculiar divine virtue is communicated with the euchariftical elements, when they are pro- perly received, and therefore more preparation is enjoined for receiving this ordinance, than for attending public worfhip in general* In the twenty-fifth article of the church of England it is faid, that " facraments ordained by Chrift, be " not only badges or tokens of chriftian mens " profeffion, but rather they be mens certain " fure witnefles, and effectual figns of grace, " and God's good will towards us, by the which " he does work invifibly in us, and doth not " only quicken, but alfo ftrengthen and confirm " our faith in him." In the AffemUys catechifm, a facrament is de- fined to be " an holy ordinance, inftituted by "Chrift; wherein, by fenfible figns, Chrift and * c the benefits of the new covenant, are repre- " fented, fealed, and applied to believers." The Lord's fupper in particular is faid to be " a " facrament, wherein, by giving bread and wine, ff according to Chrift's appointment, his death is " fhewed forth, and the worthy receivers are not " after a corporeal and carnal manner, but by " faith, made partakers of his body and blood, with " all its benefits, to their fpiritual nourifhment, " and ' growth in grace." Agreeably to thefe ideas, it is there faid that, " it is required of " them who would worthily partake of the fo by a child being holy, they meant that it had a right to the ceremonies of their holy religion. As therefore a child born of one Jewifh parent had a right to circumcifion, fo a child born of one chriftian parent had a right to baptifm. In-, deed, I do nor fee what other rational meaning can be afligned to the holinejs of a child. It is remarkable that the chriftians in Abyfli- nia repeat their baptifm annually, on the feftival of Epiphany*. * Geddej's Church Hillory of Ethiopia, p. 33. SECTION Opinions relating to Baptifm. 79 SECT ION I. Of the Opinions and Practices of the Chriftians re- lating to Baptifm till the Reformation. THERE is this Difference with refped to the corruptions of the rite of bap- tifm, and thofe of the Lord's fupper, that though they both began about the fame time, and thofe relating to baptifm were perhaps the earlier of the two, and the progrefs of fuperftition in con- fequence of this corruption, was rather more ra- pid in the firft century of chriftianity, it was by no means fo afterwards. For after the time of thofe who are more properly called Fathers^ we find no material alteration in the rite of baptifm itfelf (though the bufmefs of confirmation grew out of it) whereas we have feen that the molr material additions were made to the doclrine of the eucharift fo late as the ninth century. In the age immediately following that of the apoftles, we find that baptifm and regeneration were ufed as fynonymous terms; and whereas, originally, the pardon of fin was fuppofed to be the confequence of that reformation of life which was only promifed at baptifm, it was now imagin- ed that there was fomething in the rite itfelf,, to which that grace was annexed 3 and in general it feems So The Hijtory of feems to have been imagined that virtue was in the water ^ and in no other part of the ordinance as adminiflered by the prieft. Tertullian fays, that the holy fpirit was always given in baptifm ; and yet he exprefsly denied that it was bellowed by the laying on of hands. This writer fays farther, that the fpirit of God de- fcends upon the water of baptifm, like a dove. Cyprian adds that the adorable Trinity is ineffa- bly in baptifm. Paulinus fays, that the water conceives and contains God; Chryfoftom, that the water ceafes to be what it was before, and is not fit for drinking, but is proper for fanftifying. He fays*, that the chriftian baptifm is fuperior to that of John, in that his was the baptifm of repentance, but had not the power of 'forgiving fin. And Auftin adds, that it touches the body and purifies the heart f. Chriftians having now got the idea that bap- tifm wafhed away fin, a field was opened for much feducing eloquence on the fubjecl:, which could not fail to confirm and increafe the prevailing fuperftition. Chryfoftom, fpeaking of baptifm, fays, " When you are come to the bed " of the holy fpirit, to the portico of grace, to " the dreadful and defirable bath, throw your- * Horn. 24. Opera, vol. i. p. 312. f Bafnage Hiltoiredes Eg!i$s Reformees, vol. i. p. 138. felve.s Opinions relating to Baptifm. 81 ** felves upon the ground, as prifoners before a king*. Superflitious practices, fimilar to thofe which followed the corruption of the doctrine of the eucharift, did not fail to accompany this undue reverence for the water of baptifm. We find that in the third century the noviciates returned from baptifm adorned with crowns, and cloath- ed with white garments, in token of their victory over fin and the world. If they fcrupled eating before they received the eucharift, they made a greater fcruple of waftiing after baptifm. They would not do it till the end of the .week j and immediately after baptifm they wiped the bodies of the catechumens left a drop of the facramental water fhould fall to the ground. They went to church on the Sunday to put off their white gar- ments, and to receive what was called the ab- lution. It was even believed that a miracle was wrought on the water that was drawn on the day of Epi- phany, becaufe Jefus Chrift had been baptized at that time. They carried it with refpect to their houfes after it had been confecrated; it was kept with care, and Chryfoftom faid that it would keep fweet many years f. This water was even given inftead of the eucharift, to peni- tents who were not entirely reconciled to the * Bafnage, vol. i. p. 139. f Horn. 24. Op. vol. i. p. 311. VOL. II. F church s 82 fbe Hijtory of church; and Auftin fays, the catechumens among other means are fanctified by it. " The water," he fays, " is holy, though it be not the body of " Chrift. It is more holy than the other aii- " ments, becaufe it is a facrament." He fays, at the fame time, that the catechumens are fanc- tified by the iign of the crofs, and by the impo- fition of hands, which had alfo been made appen- dages of baptifm at that time f. It appears by a pafiage in Auftin, that the African chriftians ufually called baptifm falvation, and the eucha- rift life, preferring the former to the latter. When once it was imagined that a perfon newly baptized was cleanfed from all fin, it is no wonder that many perfons deferred this fandify- ing rite as long as poffible, even till they ap- prehended that they were at the point of death. We find cafes of this kind at the beginning of the third century. Conftantine the Great, was not baptized till he was at the laft gafp, and in this he was followed by his fon Conftantius ; and two of his other fons Conftantine and Conftans, were killed before they were baptized. When baptifm was adminiftered to perfons near the point of death, the patient muft gene- rally have been in bed, and confequently the cere- mony could not have been performed by immerficn- y and it appears in the hiftory of Novatian that this f De Peccatorum Meritis. lib. 4, cap. 26. Opera, vol. 7. p. 711. was Opinions relating to Baptifm. 83 was actually the cafe. On thefe occafions, the unftion, and other ceremonies which had been added to the fimple rite of baptifm, were omit- ted j but they were performed afterwards, if the fick perfon recovered. We even find that, ra- ther than omit baptifm entirely, it was ufual to baptize perfons who were actually dead. Epi- phanius, Chryfoilom, and Theodorit, obferve, that this cuftom prevailed in fome places in their timef. After the age of Juftin Martyr we find many additions made to the rite of baptifm. It was then the cuftom to give the perfon baptized milk and honey, and to abftain from wafhing all the remainder of the day, for which Tertullian fays they had no authority from the fcripture, but on- ly from tradition. They alfo added unElion and the impofttion of hands j the unction, probably, re- ferring, in a fymbolical manner, to their prepa- ration for a fpiritual combat; and in apply- ing the oil the prieil touched the head or the forehead in the form of a crofs. Tertullian is the firft who mentions the figning with the fign of the crofsy but only as ufed in private, and not in public worfhip; and he particular- ly defcribes the cuftom of baptizing without mentioning it. Indeed, it .does not appear to have been ufed in baptifm till the latter end of the fourth or fifth century j but then we find great virtue afcribed to it. Lactantius, who lived in f Bafnage, vol. i. p. 137. 2 the 84 $be Hijlory of the beginning of the fourth century, fays, the de- vil cannot approach thole who have the heaven- ly mark of the crofs upon them, as an impreg- nable fortrefs to defend them*; but he does not fay it was ufed in baptifm. After the council of Nice chriftians added to bap- tifm the ceremonies of exorcifm, and adjurations, to make evil fpirits depart from the perfons to be baptized. They made feveral fignings with the crofs, they ufed to light candles, they gave ialt to the baptized perfon to tafte, and the prieft touched his mouth and ears with fpittle, and alfo blew and fpit upon his face. At that time alfo baptized perfons were made to wear white gar- ments till the Sunday following as was mention- ed above. They had alfo various other ceremo- nies, fome of which are now abolifhed, though others of them remain in the church of Rome to this day. Blowing in the face, putting fait in the mouth, giving milk and honey, and alfo kitting the baptized perfons, and making them abftain for fome time from wine, are now no longer in ufe. The reafon of thefe ceremonies may be pretty eafily conceived. I fhall, therefore, only obferve, that the fait was ufed as a fymbol of purity and wif- dom j and that exorcifm took its rife from the Platonic notion that evil daemons hovered over human fouls, feducing them to fin. * Inft lib. 4. cap. 27. p. 439. In Opinions relating to Baptifm. 85 In a decree of the council of Laodicea, held in the year 364, mention is made of two anoint- ings, one with fimple oil before baptifm, and the other with ointment (/*$) after baptifm; and it is there exprefTed, that the firft unction was for the participation of the holy fpirit, that the water was a fymbol of death, and that the ointment, which was applied with the fign of the crofs, was for the feal of the covenant*. This latter unction we fhall find was afterwards referv- ed for the bifhops, and became the fubject of a diftinct facramenr in the church of Rome, called Confirmation. Originally the bifhop only, or the priefls by his permiflion, adminiitered baptifm ; as, with his leave, they alfo performed any other of of his functions j but it appears from Tertullian that, in his time, laymen had, in fome cafes, the power of baptizing. This baptifm, how-r ever, we may be allured, required the confir- mation of the bifhop, and would not be allowed but in cafe of necefiity, as at the feeming ap- proach of death, &c. At a fynod at Elvira, in 306, it was allowed that a layman, provided he had not been married a fecond time, might baptize catechumens in cafe of neceffityj but it was ordered that, if they furvived, they fhould be brought to the bifhop for the impo- fition of hands. Afterwards, when the bounds * Sueur, A. D. 364^ F 3 of 86 We Hiftory of of the church were much enlarged, the bufmefs of baptizing was left almoft entirely to the priefts, or the country bilhops, and the biihops of great fees only confirmed afterwards. Great doubts were railed in early times about the validity of baptifm as adminiftered by he- retics. Tertullian, before he became a Mon- tanift, wrote a treatife to prove that heretics, not having the fame God, or the fame Chrift, with the orthodox, their baptifm was not valid. Cyprian called a fynod at Carthage, in which it was determined, that no baptifm was valid out of the catholic church, and therefore, that thofe who had been heretics fhould be re-baptized. But Stephen, the bifliop of Rome, did not ap- prove of this decifion, and by degrees his opi- nion, which continued to be that of the church of Rome, became every where prevalent. In- deed, when fo much ftrefs was laid on bap- tifm itfelf, it would have introduced endlefs anxiety if much doubt had remained about the power of administering it. Having given this account of the corruption of the doctrine of baptifm, and the principal abufes and fuperftitions with refpeft to the prac- tice of it, I fhall go over what farther relates to the fubject according to the order of admi- niftration. When Opinions relating to Baptifm. 87 When chriftians, from a fondnefs for the rites and ceremonies of paganifm, and a defire to engage the refpect of their heathen acquaintance for the religion which they had embraced, began to adopt fome of the maxims and rites of their old religion, they feem to have been more parti- cularly ftruck with what related to the myfteries, or the more fecret rites of the pagan religion, to which only few perfons were admitted, and thofe under a folemn oath of fecrecy. In con- fequence of this difpofition, both the pofitive inftitutions of chriftianity, Baptifm and the Lord's fupper, were converted into myfteries, chriftians affecting great fecrecy with refpedt to the mode of adminiftering them, and no per- fon could then be admitted to attend the whole of the public worfhip before he was baptized - s but all who were clafled with the Catechumens were difmiffed before the celebration of the eucharift, which clofed the fervice. Farther, thofe who were admitted to the heathen myfteries had certain Jigns, or fymbols, delivered to them, by which they might know each other, fo that by declaring them they might be admitted into any temple, and to the fecret worfnip and rites of that God whofe fymbols they had received. In imitation of this, it oc- curred to the chriftians to make a fimilar ufe of the Apoftles creed, or that fhort declaration of faith which it had been ufual to require of per- fons before they were baptized. This creed, F 4 there- 8 IrJd Eijlory of therefore, (which does not appear to have been publifhed, and indeed was altered from time to time, as particular herefies arofe in the church,) they now began to call a fymbol, affecting to conceal it from the pagans, and not revealing it even to the catechumens themfelves, except juft before they were baptized ; and then it was delivered to them as a fymbol by which they were to know one another. Cyprian fays, that the Jacrament of faith, that is the creed, was not to be prophaned or di- vulged, for which he cites two texts, the one Proverbs xxiii. 9, Speak not In the ears of a fool, for he will dejpife the wifdom of thy word ; and the other, Matthew vii. 6. Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither caft ye your pearls before Jwine, &c. Ambrofe moft pathetically exhorts to the utmoft vigilance, to conceal the chriftian myfteries, and in particular to be very careful not by incautioufnefs to reveal the fe- crets of the creed, or the Lord's prayer. This laft appears very extraordinary, as the Lord's prayer is contained in the gofpels, where it might be feen by any perfon *. In the fecond century baptifm was performed publicly only twice in the year, viz. on Eafter and Whit-funday. In the fame age Jponfors, or Godfathers, were introduced to anfwer for * Hiftory of the Apoftles Creed, p. 20. adult Opinions relating to Baptifm. 89 adult perfons, though they were afterwards ad- mitted in the baptifm of infants f. This, Mr. Daille fays, was not done till the fourth cen- tury. It fhould feem, from the Acls of the apoftles, that it was fufficient to the ceremony of baptifm, to fay / baptize into the name of Jefus Chrift. But we foon find that the form of words ufed, Matthew xxviii. 19. was ftrictly adhered to, at lead in the third century, viz. / baptize thee in the name of the Father^ the Son, and the Holy Ghoft. It appears, however, that at the time of J-jftin Martyr, they did not always confine themfelves to thefe particular words, but fome- times added others by way of explanation. For though thefe precife words occur in one account of baptifm by this writer Jj in another he fpeaks of baptifm, " Into the name of Jefus Chrift, who " was crucified by Pontius Pilate, and into the from their holding the doctrine of general re- demption. The church of England retains the baptifm of infants, and alfo the ufe of the fign of the crofs, and of godfathers. It alfo admits of baptifm by women, a cuftom derived from the opinion of the indifpenfable neceffity of baptifm to falvation. " We do not," fays bifhop Bur- net, which was originally an appendage to the rite of baptifm, another dif- tinct facrament was made, and called confirmation. The church of Rome, in the time of pope Sylvefter, had two unctions of chrifm (a com- pofition of olive oil, and. balm, opobalfamum) one on the breaft, by the prieft, and the other on the forehead by the bifhop. But, from the time of Gregory the third, the priefls had been allowed to anoint on the forehead, and Honore of Autun, a writer of the twelfth century, in- forms us, that after the prieft had anointed the head, it was covered with a mitre, which .was worn eight days, at the end of which it was taken off, and then the bifhop anointed the fore- head with the chrifm. From this time the church of Rome, feeing that the unction of the bifhop was different from that of the prieft, and performed at a different time, made of it a facrament diftinct from baptifm, and called it confirmation, which can only be adminiftered by the biihop. The firft exprefs inftitution of th!s facrament is in the decree of pope Eugenius, in I439> in which he fays, " the fecond facra- " ment is confirmation, the matter of which is " chrifm blefTed by the bifhop, and though the VOL. II. -G prieft 98 The IUJtory of " priefl may give the other unction, the bifliop " only can confer this *. 'In adifiiniftering confirmation in the church of Rome, the bifhop applies the chrifm to the forehead, pronouncing thefe words, " I fign " thee with the lign of the crofs, and confirm " thee with the anointing of falvation, in the and indeed too much of this will be found to have been the cafe in this bufmefs. It will, however, be a matter of curiofity to many perfons, to fee what changes have been made from time to time in the forms of chriftian worfhip; and therefore I did not omit to note fuch particulars concerning it, as ic6 Hiftory of the Changes in the as happened to fall in my way, but without giving myfelf much trouble to look for them. It will feem, that in general, the fame fpi- rit dictated thefe variations, that led to other things of more importance to the effentials of religion. I fnall begin with a few obfervations on the buildings in which chriftian aflfemblies were held, their appurtenances, &c. SECTION I. Of Churches, and feme Things belonging to them. AT firft chriftians could have no places to aflfemble in but large rooms in private houfes ; and when they began to erect buildings for the purpofe, it is moft probable they were fuch as the Jews made ufe of for their fyna- gogues ; their manner of conducting public worlhip, as well as their regulations for the go- vernment of churches, being copied from the Jews; and as far as appears nothing more fim- ple, or more proper, could have been adopted for the purpofe. Of the buildings themfelves we know but lit- tle. The names that were originally given to thefe places of affembly, were the fame as thofeof the Jewifh fynagogues, viz. uJ.^* or wptw^ai that is Method of conducing Public Worjhip. 107 is, houfes of prayer ; but afterwards they were called x.^axa, and in Latin dominica, whence came the German word Thorn, and the Flemifh and Englifli words Church and Kirk. Thefe buildings were not called temples till the time of Conftantine. But about that time, in imita- tion of the pagans, they called the magnificent buildings which were then erected for the pur- pofe of public worfhip by that name. And thefe being generally made to enclofe the tombs of martyrs, thefe tombs were called altars y on account of their bearing fome refemblance to the altars of the heathen temples. And from this came the cuftom, at the end of the fourth century, of putting bones and other relics of martyrs in all thofe places which were ufed for the celebration of the Lord's fupper, inftead of the wooden tables, which were at firft ufed for that purpofe*. When Conftantine ordered the chriftian churches to be rebuilt ; it was done with great pomp ; and before they were ufed for the pur- pofe of public worfhip, fome ceremony of con- Jecration, began to be ufed. But at firft no- thing more was done for that purpofe, befides finging of pfalms, preaching, and receiving the Lord's fupper, that is, nothing more, in fact, than going through the ufual forms of public worfhip, but probably with greater folemnity * Sueur A. D. 211, and io8 Hijiory of the Changes in the and devotion, followed by feafting, and other marks of feftivity ; and it foon became the cuftom to repeat this feftivity on the fame day annually. In 538, it appears, that the dedications of churches were fometimes made by fprinkling of holy water. For in that year pope Vigilius fays that this ceremony was not neceffary; it being fufficient for the confecration of churches to celebrate the eucharifl, and depofit relics in them. But in 60 1, pope Gregory exprefsly or- dered that holy water Ihould be added. In 816, a fynod was held at Canterbury, in which, befides thefe things, it was ordered that the images of the faints, whofe names the churches bore, fhould be painted upon the wall. From the year 1150 they added the fignature of the crofs, and other figures on the pavement and walls ; and afterwards they traced on the pave- ment the Greek and Latin alphabet, in the form of a crofs ; and laftly they added the li- tany of the virgin Mary and other faints f. That fome ceremony, or fome peculiar fo- lemnity, fhould be ufed on the firft making ufe of any building deftined for the purpofe of public worfhip, is natural, and certainly not im- proper, provided nothing more be implied in itj befides folemnly fetting it apart for that par- f Sueur A. D. 335. ticular Method of conducing Public Wtorjhip. 109 ticular and valuable purpofe ; and we find that folemn confecrations were made of the temple of Jerufalem, and of every thing belonging to the Jewifh religion. But the ceremonies above men- tioned, fhew that,fome peculiar virtue was afcrib- cd to them, and that it was fuppoled they impart- ed a character of peculiar fanctity to the building itfelf. And that the bells in them (which ferved no other purpofe originally, befides that of call- ing the people together) ihould have any form of confecration in churches is a little extraordi- nary. This, however, was done with much fo- lemnity by John the thirteenth in 968. There having been caft at that time a larger bell than had ever been made before for the church of Lateran ac Rome, this pope fprink- led it with holy water, Cf blefled it, and confe- <{ crated it to God with holy ceremonies," from which is come the cuftom of confecrating all bells ufed in churches, and which the common people call baptizing them. Upon this occa- fion they pray that when the bell fhall found they may be delivered from the ambufhes of their enemies, from apparitions, tempefts, thun- der, wounds, and every evil fpirit. During the fervice, which is a very long one, they make many afperfions of holy water, and feve- ral unctions on the bells, both within and with- out ; and at each unction they pray that the bell may be " fanclified and confecrated, in the " name of the Father, of the Son,, and of the Holy no Hiftcry of tbe Changes in the {C Holy Spirit, to the honour of Emanuel, and and Carejme or Car erne, which is the French term for Lent. Another reafon for failing at this particular time, was, that ma- ny perfons were then preparing for baptifm, and others for communion, which, as fuperftition pre- vailed, was frequented more generally, and at- tended upon with more folemnity, on that day. Even the Montanifts only failed two weeks in the year ; and in thefe they exccpted Satur- days and Sundays f. Lent was firft confined to a certain number of days in the fourth century. At this time, however, abftinence from flefh and f Svjeur, A. D. 206. wine Method of conducing Public Wor]hij>. 131 wine was by many judged fufficient for the pur- pofe of fading, and from this time it prevailed in the weftern church *. Soon after the time of Tertullian, chriftians began to obferve Wed- nefdays and Fridays for the purpofe of fading j and they kept thefe fafts all the year, except be- tween Eafter aud Pentecoft, in which time they neither faded nor kneeled in churches. In 416, Innocent the firft ordered that the people fhould fad on Saturdays 5 but the Greeks and all the Ead paid no regard to this ordinance f. At the time of the council of Nice, the week before Eader was called Quarantana^ or Lent ; though fome obferved more days, and fome fewer at pleafure ; but within forty years after this council, Lent was extended to three weeks J. Durandus tells us that Lent was counted to begin on that which is now the fird Sunday in Lent, and to end on Eader eve, which time containing forty two days, if you take out of them the (ix Sundays on which it was held to be unlawful to fad, there will remain only thirty fix days ; and therefore, that the number of forty days which Chrid faded might be com- pleted, Gregory the Great added to Lent four days of the week preceding, viz. that which we call ^fo IVedneJday^ and the three days following * Mofheim, vol. i. p. 324. f Sueur, A. D. 391 j Ib. A. D. 325. 364. it; 132 Hiftory of tie Changes in the it; fo that our prefent Lent is a fuperftitions imitation of our Saviour's faft of forty days*. Before the council of Nice, there had been a great difference between the eaftern and wef- tern churches about the time of keeping Eafter, the chriftians in the Eaft following the cuftom of the Jews, with whom the day on which the Pafchal lamb was killed was always the four- teenth of their month Nifan, on whatever day of the week it happened to fall ; but with the Latins Eafter-day had always been the Sunday fol- lowing, being the anniverfary of our Saviour's rerurredion. At the council of Nice the cuf- tom of the Latin church was eftablifhed , and as aftronomy was more cultivated in Egypt, it was given in charge to the bifhop of Alex- andria, to publifh to the other churches the pro- per time of keeping Eafter, by what were call- ed Pafchal epiftles. For the fame purpofe af- terwards the Golden number was invented f. Pentecoft was a Jewifli feftival, celebrated fifty days after the pafTover; and being like- wife diftinguiflied in the chriftian hiftory by the defcent of the holy fpirit, it was obferved next after Eafter -, and, as far as appears, about the time of Tertullian. We call it Whitjuntide. Thefe * Hiftory of Popery, vol. i. p. 186. t Hift. of Antient Ceremonies, p. 44. are Method of conducing Public Worjhip. 133 are the only great feftivals that chriftians were not at liberty to fix where they pleafed. All the other feftivals they fixed at thofe times of the year which the pagans ufed to obferve with the greateft folemnity, with a view to facilitate their converfion to chriftianity. The feaft of Chriftmas t in commemoration of the nativity of Chrift, is mentioned by Chry- foftom as unknown at Antioch till within ten years of the time of his writing ; and therefore he concluded that it had lately been introdu- ced from Rome*. It was thought to be firft obierved by the followers of Bafilides, and from them to have been adopted by the orthodox, in the fourth century, when the feftival of Cbrijl's bap- tifm was introduced ; in confecjuence of which this feaft of the nativity was removed from the fixth of January, to the twenty fifth of Decem- ber : the former retaining the name of the Epi- phany , which feaft only, and not that of the nativity, is obfcrved in the Eaftf. Feftivals in honour of the apoftles and mar- tyrs are all of late date, none of them earlier than the time of Conftantine, when magnificent temples were built round the tombs of fome of their martyrs , and then the feftivals were * Bafnage Hiftoire des eglifes Reformees, vol. i. p. 280. f Pierce's Vindication, p. 510. I 3 only 1 34 lliftory of tbe Changes in the only held at the places where they were fup- pofed to have fuffered. Vigils were the afTemblies of the antient chriftians by night, in the time of perfecution, when they durft not meet in the day-time. Afterwards they were obferved before Eafter, but they were kept not as feafts, which was done afterwards, but as fafts, as appears from Tertullian. The feaft of AJcenfion was obferved about the time of Auftin. The feaft of Circumc ifion is firft mentioned by Maximus Taurinenfis, who flou- rifhed in 450; and the feaft of Purification was perhaps inftituted in the ninth century . The feaft of Advent is of no earlier authority than that of Innocent the third, in the thirteenth century ; and the Vigils of the grea': feftivals are all later than the tenth century f. It was Mamert, bifliop of Vienne in Gaul, who, about 463, firft inftituted the faft of Ro- gation, that is, the prayers that are made three days before the feaft of Afcenfion, that is, the Monday, Tuefday, and Wednefday before Holy Thurfday; which was exprefsly contrary to the order eftablifhed in the antient church, forbid- ding all fafting between Eafter and Pentecoft. This faft of Rogation was generally received in Pierce's Vindication, p. 512. &c. f Sueur, A. D. 392. the -Method of conducing Public Worfhif. 135 the Weft prefently after the time of this Ma- inert*. The bifhop of Vence added the pro- ceflions to them, in imitation of the Luflrationes Ambervales of the heathens, which were made round their fields, in order to render them fruit- ful ; and thefe were attended with much intempe- rance and diforder ; being made, no doubt, in all reipects, after the pagan manner. Alcinus Avitus, who fucceeded Hefychius, the immediate fuccefibr of Mamert, in the church of Vienne, defcribes the occafion of inftituting this fail in his homily on the Rogation. He there fays that the city of Vienne had fuffered much by fire, thunder florins, earthquakes, extraordi- nary noifes in the night, prodigies, figns in the heavens, wild beafts, and other calamities; that on this the bifliop of the city ordered the people to faft three days with prayer and repent- ance, that, by the example of the Ninevites, they might avert the judgments of God. He fays that thereupon the anger of God was appeafed, and that in commemoration of it Mamert ordered this faft to be obferved every year. His example was foon followed, firft by the church of Cler- mont in Auvergne, then by all their neigh- bours, and afterwards throughout all Gaul. In 801, Leo the third confirmed this faft, and made it univerfalf. * Sueur, A. D. 392.- \ Ib. A. D. 462. 463. I 4 The 136 Hifory of the Changes in the The faft of Ember IVeeks^ or Jejunia guafuffr temporum, was probably inftituted a little before Leo the Great, in the middle of the fifth centu- ry*. But others think that it is not quite cer- tain that he fpeaks of it. Some fay that pope Gelafius having ordered that the ordination of priefts and deacons fhould be on the four weeks of Ember, or ember days, viz. the Wednefday, Friday, and Saturday after the firft Sunday in Lent, after Whitfunday, after the fourteenth of September, and the thirteenth of December, and this ceremony being always conducted with faft- ing and prayer, it came to be a cuftom to faft at that time f. It was upon the idea of the fpiritual benefit that would arife from vifiting the church of St. Peter at Rome, and alfo in imitation of the Jewiih jubilee, and the fecular games among the Romans, that the popilh Jubilee is found- ed. This feftival, which is celebrated with the utmoft pomp and magnificence, was inftitut- ed by Boniface the eighth, in the year 1300, in confequence, as it is faid, of a rumour, the ori- gin of which is not known, which was fpread among the inhabitants of Rome, in 1299, that all who within the limits of the following year, fhould vifit the church of St. Peter, would re- ceive the remiflion of all their fins, and that this privilege would be annexed to the fame obferv- ance every hundredth year. * Pierce's Vindication, p. 529. Sueur, A. D. 392. f Hill, of Antient Ceremonies, p. 67. The Method of conducing Public ftforjbip. 137 The fuccefibrs of Boniface added a number of new rites and inventions to this fuperftitious in- ftitution, and finding by experience that it ad- ded luftre to the church of Rome, and increafed its revenue, they made its return more frequent. In 1350, Clement the fixth ordered that the jubi- lee fliould be celebrated every fifty years, on pre- tence that the Jews did the like, and Paul the fecond, in the fifteenth century, reduced the term to twenty-five years. This year of jubilee is called a holy year -, but, as the author of the Hiftoire des papes obferves, it Ihould rather be called the year of facrilege, impiety, debauch, and fuperflitionj. Many of thefe feftivals have been retained by the reformers, efpecially thofe of Eafter, Whit- funtide, and Chriftmas, and, like the papifts, they obfcrve them with more ftrictnefs than they do the Sundays. Our eftablifhed church has by no means thrown oft" the popifh fuperftition with refpect to faft- ing. The faft days in the church of England, are all the Fridays in the year, except Chriftmas day, all the days in Lent, which, befides Fridays, are thirty-three, fix more in the Ember weeks, three Rogation days, and the thirtieth of Janu- ary. The fum of all the feftival days is thirty- one. And if to thefe we add the ninety-five faft j Vol. 5. p.. 409. days 138 Hiftory of tbe Changes, 6ff. days, fifty-two Sundays, and twenty-nine faints days, all the days in a year appropriated to reli- gious exercifes, befides vigils, will be one hun- dred and feventy-eight ; and making allowance for fome of them interfering with others, they will be about one hundred and feventyf. In fo little efteem, however, are thefe obferv- ances held by the more enlightened members of the eftablifhed church, that there can be no doubt but that when any reformation takes place, a great retrenchment will be made in this article. Pierce 's Vindication, p. 508 1 T H THE HISTORY OF THE CORRUPTIONS O F CHRISTIANITY. PART IX. The Hiftory of CHURCH DISCIPLINE. THE INTRODUCTION. f e 'A H E changes which the difcipline of the i chriftian church underwent from the time of the apcftles to the reformation, were as great, and of as much importance, in practice, as the changes in any other article relating to chriftian- ity. From being highly favourable to good con- duct, the eftablifhed maxims of it came at length to be a cover for every kind of immorality, to thofe who chofe to avail themfelves of them. On this account I have given a good deal of atten- tion to the iubje<5t To many perfons, I doubt not, this will be as interefting an object as any thing in the hiftory of 140 rfhe Hiftory of of chriftianity, and to introduce it in this place will make the eafieft connection between the two great divifions of my work, I mean the corrup- tions of doftrme, and the abufes of power in the chriftian church. It will alfo ferve to fhew in what manner thefe departures from the chriftian fyftem promoted each other. SECTION 1. The Hiftory of Clour cb Difcifline in the lime of the chriftian Fathers. IN the purer ages of the church, the offences which gave public fcandal were few; but when they did happen, they were animadverted upon with great rigour. For as many enormi- ties were laid to the charge of chriftians, they were exceedingly felicitous to give no juft caufe of obloquy. It is, indeed, probable, that fome time after the apoftolic age, the morals of the chriftians in general were more ftrift, than we find, by the writings of the apoftlcs, they were in their own times. Nor is it to be wondered at, when we confider that the whole body of the gentile chriftians, being then newly converted from heathenifm, muft have retained many of their former habits, or have eafily relapfed into them. Afterwards, moft of the cafes of fcandal we meet with relate to the behaviour of chriftians Church Difcipline. 141 in the time of perfecution, from which many Shrunk or fled, in a manner that was exceeding- ly and juftly difapproved by the more fevere. Confequently, after a perfecution, there was much to do about the re-admifflon to the privi- leges of church communion, of thofe who repent- ed of their weaknefs ; and it \vas a great part of the bufmefs of the councils in the fourth and fifth centuries (which was after the eftablilhment of chriftianity) to fettle rules concerning the de- grees of penance, and the method of receiving penitents into the church. Indeed, befides the cafes of thofe who had fhrunk from perfecution, the governors of chriftian churches at that time muft have had many offences of other kinds to animadvert upon ; confidering that chriftianity had then the countenance of the civil powers, and therefore that people of all ranks, and of all characters, would naturally crowd into it. On thefe accounts they found it necefTary to have a very regular fyftem of difcipline. In general, we find that about the third and fourth centuries, chriftians diftinguifhed four or- ders of penitents. The firft flood at the en- trance of the church, begging in the moft earneft manner the prayers of all that went in. The fe- cond were admitted to enter, and to hear the lec- tures that were given to the catechumens, and the expofition of the fcriptures, but they were dif- mified, together with the catechumens, before the celebration of the encharift. The third lay pro- ftrate 142 Sfifo Hiftory of ftrate in a certain place in the church, covered with fackcloth, and after receiving the benedic- tion of the bifhop, and the impofition of hands, were alfo difmiffed before the celebration of the eucharift. The fourth order attended that cele- bration, but did not partake of it. Penitents having paflfed through all thefe orders, were ad- mitted to communion by the impofition of the hands of the bifhop, or of a prieft, in the pre- fence of the whole congregation*, If any perfons relapfed into the fame fault for which they had been excommunicated, or exclu- ded from the congregation of the faithful, they were not re-admitted to communion, except in the article of death ; but towards the end of the feventh century the antient difcipline began to be relaxed in this refpect, and they admit- ted perfons to communion after a fecond of- fence. In all times there were fome crimes for which no repentance could make atonement, fo that perfons who had been once guilty of them could never be admitted to the peace and communion of the church. Thefe were mur- der, adultery, and apoftacy. In this manner, at leaft, were thefe crimes ftigmatized, in many churches. But about the third century pope Zephyrinus began to relax a little of this difcipline, admit- * Sueur, A, D. 213. ting Church Difcipline. 143 ting adulterers to communion after fome years of penance, in which he was vehemently oppo- fed by Tertullian. However, in the time of Cyprian, the penalties impofed by the bifhop, which were always a public appearance for a certain time in the character of penitents, were often relaxed, or abridged, at the entreaty of the confeffbrs, or thofe who had been deftined to martyrdom j and this was called indulgence, of the abufe of which we ftiall fee enough in a later period. But at this time there was not much to complain of in this bufmefs, except the improper interference of thefe confefibrs, and the too great influence which they were allow- ed to have in fuch cafes. Equally innocent was the bufinefs of confeffion* as it was firft begun ; but we fee in the courfe of this hiftory, that it is no uncommon thing for an innocent beginning to lead to a fatal cataftrophe. The apoftle Paul exhorts chriftians to confefs their fins one to another ; and our Savi- our aflures us that we muft forgive, as we hope to be forgiven. Upon this was grounded the cuftom of the primitive churches, to require every perfon who was excommunicated, to make a public confefllon of his guilt before he was re-admitted to chriftian communion. In fomc cafes, alfo, a public confeflion prevented ex- communication. It was, likewife, the cuftom for many confcientious perfons to confefs their private fins to fome of the priefts in whom they could 144 Me Hijtory of could put the greateft confidence, and whofe advice and prayers they wifhed to have ; and what was at firft a voluntary thing, was after- wards, but indeed long afterwards, impofed as a pofitive duty. Confefiion was alfo much encouraged by another circumflance. Many canons made a difference in the degree and time of penance, between thofe who had accufed themfelves, and thole againft whom their crimes were proved. Many perlbns, therefore, to prevent the feverer penalty, came of their own accord to confefs their fins; and this was much encouraged, and the virtue of it magnified by the writers of thofe times. This confefiion was, originally, always made in public, but fome inconveniences being found to attend this (efpecially when the crimes affect- ed other perfons, or the ftate) a 'private con- fefiion was appointed inftead of it. In this cafe the bifhop either attended himfelf, or appointed fome particular prieft, who from this office got the title of penitentiary prieft, to receive thefe confeflions. The difficulty of re-admifiion to the privileges of church communion was, in general, very great, and the penances impofed were exceedingly ri- gorous, and this, in the end, was one great caufe of the total relaxation of all difcipline. Novatian Church Difcipline. 145 Novatian particularly diftinguifhed himfelf by refufing to admit to communion any who had been guilty of the greater crimes, efpecially that of apoftacy, leaving them to the judgment of God only. This arofe from the rigour of Ter- tullian and the Montanifts ; and it is obferva- ble that the church of Rome {till keeps up this rigorous difcipline in cafes of berefy, the relapjed being delivered to the fecular arm, Without being admitted to penance. It was ordained by the council of Nice, that thofe who apoftatized before baptifm fhould not be admitted to the communion of the church till after three years of penance, but if they had been of the faithful, the penance was to continue feven years*. Bafil decided that for the crime of fornication, a man ought to do pe- nance four years. Others for the fame offence impofed a penance of nine years, and for adul- tery eighteen years f. Hitherto we have feen nothing but rigour, and the relaxation did not begin by lefifening the time of penance (except in thofe cafes in which the confeflbrs had improperly interfered) but firft in the manner of making the confeffion, then in the place of penance, and laftly in the commutation of it. * Sueur, A. D. 325- f Bafnage Hiftoire cles Eglifes Reformees, vol. I. p. 189. VOL. II. K After 146 The -Hi/lory of After the perfecution under the emperor De- cius, the orthodox bifhops, Socrates fays, ap- pointed that the penitents fhould make their confeflions to one particular pried, and that they fhould make a public confeffion of fuch things only as fhould be thought proper for pub- lic hearing. This cuflom continued in the eailern church till the year 390, when Ne6la- rius the bifhop of Conftantinople abolilhed the office of penitentiary priefts, on account of a wo- man having been enticed to commit adultery with a deacon of the church, whilft fhe flayed to perform the duties of failing and prayer, which had been enjoined her. From this time all confeflions, public and private, feem to have been difcontinued in the Greek church , and at this day, it is faid, that the Greeks make con- fcfiion to God only. In the weftern church public confefTion con- tinued till the fifth century, but at that time thofe offenders who had been ufed to make public confeflion of their crimes, were allowed by Leo the Great to confefs them privately, to a prieft appointed for that purpofe. By this means a great reftraint upon vice was taken away, and the change was as pleafing to the finner, as it was advantageous to the priefls in feveral ref- pecls. Of this many perfons at that time were fufficiently aware ; and we find that in 590, a council held at Toledo forbad confeflion to be made Church Difciplinc. 147 made privately to a prieft, and ordered that it fhould be made according to the antient canons. To confefllon in private foon fucceeded the doing penance in private, which was another great ftep towards the ruin of the antient dif- cipline, which required, indeed, to be moderated, but in a different manner. In the fifth century, however, penitents were fuflfered to do penance fecretly in fome monaftery, Qr other private place, in the prefence of a few perfons, at the difcre - tion of the bifliop, or of the confeflbrs, after which abfolution alfo was given in private. This was the only method which they ventured to take with thofe who would not fubmit to the eftablifhed rules of the church. But in the fe- venth century, all public penance for fecret fins was quite taken away, and Theodore archbifhop of Canterbury is faid to have been the firft of all the bifhops of the weftern church who efta- blifhed this rule*. Had chriftians contented themfelves with ad- monilhing and finally excommunicating thofe who were guilty of notorious crimes, and with requiring public confefllon, with reftitution in cafe of injuftice, and left all private offences to every man's own confcience, no inconvenience would have arilen from their difcipline. But by urging too much the importance of confef- * Burnet on the Articles, p. 346. K 2 fion I4& The Hiftory of fion, and by introducing corporeal aufterides, as fafting, &c. as a proper mode of penance," and then changing thefe for alms, and in fact for money, in a future period, paved the way for the utter ruin of all good difcipline; and at length brought it to be much worfe than a ftate of no difcipline at all. However, we have yet feen but the firft fteps in this fatal progrels. SECTION II. Of the State of Church Difcipline in the dark and till the Reformation. WE have feen feveral fymptoms of the change and decay of difcipline in the laft period; but in this we fhall fee the total ruin of it, in confequence of the increafed ope- ration of the fame caufes, and the introduction of feveral new ones. After the introduction of private confejfion, it was complained by a council held at Challons, in 813, that perfons did not confefs their offen- ces fully, but only in part ; and therefore they ordered, that the prieft fhould make particu- lar inquiry, under fuch heads as were thought to include the principal vices that men were addicted to. At this time, however, confeflion was Church D if a f line. 149 was not reckoned necefTary to falvation, and was not made in order to obtain abfolution of the prieft, but to inform perfons how they ought to conduct themfelves with refpect to God, in order to obtain pardon of him ; and therefore the Fathers of this council fay that confefiion to God purges fin, but confeflion to the prieft teaches how fins are purged*. This bufinefs of confeflion to priefts, before it was held to be of untverfal obligation, gave rife to a new kind of cafuiftry, which confifted in afcertaining the nature of all kinds of crimes, and in proportioning the penalties to each. This improvement is afcribed to Theodore, archbifliop of Canterbury, above mentioned, who, in a work intitled the Penitential, regulated the whole bufinefs of penance, diftinguifhing the different kinds of crimes, and prefcribing forms of confolation, exhortation, and abfolution, adap- ted to each particular cafe. From Britain thefe regulations were foon introduced into all the weftern provinces, and the Penitential of The- odore became a pattern for other works of the fame nature. But in the next century this bu- finefs greatly declined, and gave way to the doctrine of indulgences f, However, what is now properly called auricu- lar confejjion was not fully eftabliihed, and made Sneur, A f D. 813. f Molheim, vol. 2. p, 26. K 3 f 150 The Hiftory of of univerfal obligation, before the thirteenth cen- tury, when Innocent the third appointed it by his own authority, in a Lateran council. This do<5trine, as it is now received in the church ot Rome, requires not only a general acknowledge- ment, but a particular enumeration of fins, and of follies ; and is appointed to be made to a pro- per prieft once at lead every year, by all perlbns who are arrived at years of difcretion. Before this law of Innocent, feveral doctors had confi- dered confefiion as a duty of divine authority, but it was not publickly received as a doctrine of the church. This law occafioned the introduc- tion of a number of new injunctions and ritesf. It being notorious to all perfons, that all ufe- ful church difcipline was loft at the time of the reformation, it was thought proper at the coun- cil of Trent to do, or at leaft to feem to do fomething in the bufmefs; and therefore it was ordered that fcandalous offenders fhould do pub- lic penance, according to the antient canons, and that the bifhops fhould be judges of it. But things had gone on fo long in a different train, that it does not appear that any thing was done in confequence of it. Together with this change in the bufinefs of confefiion, other caufes were at the fame time operating to the corruption of church dilcipline, f Mofheim, vol. 3. p. 94. 290. but Church Difcipline. 151 but nothing contributed to it more than the ftrefs which was then laid upon many things foreign to real virtue, and which were made to take the place of it. Of this nature were the cuftomary devotions of thofe days, confifting in the fre- quent repetition of certain prayers, in bodily au- fterities, in pilgrimages, in alms to the poor, and donations to the church, &c. Thefe were things that could be afcertained, fo that it might be known with certainty whether the party had con- formed to the penalty or not; whereas a change of heart and of character was a thing of a lefs obvious nature, and indeed not much attended to by the generality of confeflbrs at that time. About the end of the eighth century the com- mutation of penances began, and inftead of the antient feverities, vocal prayers came to be all that was enjoined, fo many Paters (or repetitions of the Lord's prayer) were held to be equiva- lent to fo many days fading, &c. and the rich were allowed to buy off their penances by giv- ing alms. Alfo the getting many mafies to be faid was thought to be a mode of devotion by which God was fo much honoured, that the com- mutation of penance for mafies was much prac- tifed. Pilgrimages and wars came on after- wards f. f Burnet on the Articles, p. 346. K 4 The 152 Vbt Hiftory of The immediate caufe of this commutation of penances was the impofiibility of performing them, according to the canons of the church; fmce, in many cafes it required more time than the term of human life. For inftance, a ten years penance being enjoined fpr a murder, a man who had committed twenty murders, muft have done penance two hundred years ; and there- fore fome other kind of penance was judged ablblutely neceflary; and the perfon who was chiefly inftrumental in fettling the commutations of penance was one Dominic, who communi- cated them to the celebrated Peter Damiani, whofe authority in the age in which he lived was very great. By them it was determined that a hundred years of penance might be compenfated by twen- ty repetitions of the pfalter, accompanied with difcipline, that is, the ufe of the whip on the na- ked fkin. The computation was made in the following manner. Three thoufand ftrokes with the whip were judged to be equivalent to a year of penance, and a thoufand blows were to be gi- ven in the courfe of repeating ten pfalms. Con- fequently, all the pfalms, which are one hundred and fifty, were equivalent to five years of pe- nance, and therefore twenty pfalters to one hun- dred years. It is amufing enough at this day, and in a proteftant country, to read that Domi- nic eafily difpatched this tafk in fix days, and thus difcharged fome offenders for whom he had undertaken Church DifcipHrig. 1^3 undertaken to do it. Once at the beginning of Lent, he defired Damiani to impofc upon him a thouiand years of penance, and he very nearly finifhed it before the end of the fame Lent. Da- miani alfo impofed upon the archbifhop of Milan a penance of an hundred years, which he redeem- ed by a fum of money to be paid annually *. Though Peter Damiani was the great advocate for this fyftem of penance, he did not deny the novelty of it j". Fleury acknowledges that when the penances were made impoffible, on account of the multi- tude of them, they were obliged to have recourfe to compenfations, and eftimations, fuch as thefe repetitions of pfalms, bowings, fcourg- ings, alms, pilgrimages, &c. things, as he obferves, that might be performed without con- verfion. However, in a national council in Eng- land, held in 747, penances performed by others were forbidden J. This enormity was too great to be admitted even in theie ignorant and licen- tious ages ; but it muft have gained fome con- fiderable ground before it was checked by pub- lic authority. The monks becoming confeflbrs contributed greatly to the ruin of ecclefiaftical difciplinc. They, knowing nothing of the antient canons, * Fleury, A. D. 1059. f Ib. vol. 13. p. 100. t Ib. p. 43. introduced 154 ?be Hiftory of introduced a certain cafuijlry by which many crimes were excufed, and abfolution was made eafy in all cafes ; no perfons being ever refufed, or put off, after ever fo many relapfes. This re- laxed cafuiftry is the moft prevalent in thofe countries in which the inquifition is eftablifhed ; where, if a perfon does not make his confefiion, and confequently receive his abfolution, regular- ly, he is excommunicated, and at length declared fufpefted of herefy, and profecuted according to law*. Another thing that greatly promoted the ruin of difcipline, and the encouragement of licenti- oufnefs, in the middle ages, was the protection given to criminals who took refuge in churches, which was a cuftom borrowed from paganifm ; this right of AJylum being transferred from the heathen temples to chriftian churches by the firft chriftian emperors. In the barbarous times of antiquity, the rights of bofpitalily were held fo facred, that it was even deemed wrong to give up to public juftice a criminal who had thrown himfelf under the protection of any perfon who was capable of fcreening him. This privilege was, of courfe, extended to the temples, which were confidered as the houfes of their Gods ; and fo facred was it efteemed, that, in cafes of the greateft criminality, all that it was thought law- ful to do, was to take off the roof of the temple, * Fleury's eighth Difcourfe, p. 42. and Church DiJcipHne. 15$ and leave the wretch who had taken refuge in it to perifh with hunger and the inclemency of the weather. The abufe of this rite of afylum, when it was transferred to chriftian churches, was complained of by Chryfoftom, who perfuaded the emperor to revoke the privileges which had been granted by his predeceffors. But they were reftored, extended, and eftablifhed afterwards, efpeciaily by Boniface the fifth, in the feventh century*, and were the fubjecl: of great complaints in ma- ny countries, efpeciaily in England, where the churches and church-yards were in a manner crowded with debtors and criminals of all kinds. Complaint being made on this fubjecT: in the time of Henry the feventh, the pope ordered that if any perfon who had taken refuge in an afylum fhould leave it, and commit a new crime, or repeat his old one, he fhould be deprived of the privilege . It muft be obferved, that croffes on the public road, and various other things and places, which had the reputation of beingfacred, had, by degrees, got this privilege of afylum, as well as churches. In later times, any criminal was fafe from the purfuit of jui- tice within the precincts of the palace of any cardinal i but Urban V. reformed that abufef. * Molheim, vol. 2. p. 28 Hiftoire des Papes, vol. 4. p. 273. f Meraoires pour la vie de Petrarch, vol. 3. p. 676. Among 156 We Hiftory of Among the Jews the privilege of afylum was a wife inftitution, and came in aid of the prin- ciple of juftice ; as it only protected a perfon who pleaded that he had killed another inadver- tently, fo that the relations of the deceafed could not hurt him, till a regular inquiry had been made into the fact ; but he was delivered up to juftice if it appeared that the murder was a wilful one. Befides, this afylum was not grant- ed to the temple in particular, but to certain towns, moft conveniently fituated for that pur- pofe, in different parts of the country. Another fburce of great corruption in difci- pline was the abufe of pilgrimages. Thefe were undertaken at firft out of curiofity, or a natural reverence for any place that had been diftinguilhed by important tranfaftions. They began to be common about the fourth cen- tury, and it appears by the writers of that time, that fome weak people then valued them- felves on having feen fuch places, and imagin- ed that their prayers would be more favour- ably heard there than elfewhere. But in later times much more ftrefs was laid upon thefe things, and in the eighth century pilgrimages began to be enjoined by way of penance, and at length the pilgrimage was often a warlike expedition into the Holy Land, or fervice in fome other of the wars in which the ambition of the popes was interefted. By this means atll the ufe even of the pilgrimage itfelf, as a penance Church Difcipline. 157 penance, was wholly loft. For, as Mr. Fleury obferves, a penitent marching alone was much more free from temptation to fin than one who went to the wars in company ; and fome of thefe penitents even took dogs and horfes along with them, that they might take the diverfion of hunting in thefe expeditions*. Solitary pilgrimages were, however, much in fafhion, and we find fome very rigorous ones fubmitted to by perfons of great eminence in thofe fuperftitious times ; when it was a maxim, that nothing contributed fo much to the health of the foul, as the mortification of the body. In 997, an emperor of Germany by the advice of the monks went bare-foot to mount Garganus, famous for the fuppofed prefence of the arch- angel Michael, as a penance. Before the eighth century it had been the cuf- tom to confine penitents near the churches, where they had no opportunity of relapfing into their offences; but in this century pilgrimages, and ef- pecially diftant ones., began to be enjoined under the idea that penitents fhould lead a vagabond life, like Cain. This, however, was foon abufed; as, under this pretence, penitents wandered about naked, and loaded with irons, and therefore it was forbidden in the time of Charlemaigne. But ftill it was the cuftom to impofe upon penitents * Fleury's fixth Difcourfe, p. zj. pilgrimages 158 fbe Hi/lory of pilgrimages of eftablifhed reputation, efpeci- ally that to the Holy Land, to which there was a conftant refort from all parts of Europe. This was the foundation of the Crujades *. Of all the confequences of the Crufades, the moft important to religion was the difcontinu- ance which they occafioned of the antient canon- ical penance. For a man who was not able to ferve in the Crufades was allowed to have the fame benefit by contributing to the expences of thofe who did. Though the Crufades are over, the canonical penances are not returned J. Fleury alfo obferves, that -plenary indulgences had their origin with the Crufades -, for till then it had never been known that by any Jingle work the fmner was held to be difcharged from all the temporal ptmifhments that might be due from the juftice of God. Commutations of penance for pilgrimages to Rome, Compoftella, or Jerufa- lem, had been in ufe before, and to them, he fays, the Crufades added the dangers of warf. Befides the wars againft the Mahometans, the Crufaders, in the courfe of their expeditions, had frequent differences with the Greek emperor; and then the prefervation of the Roman empire againft the fchifmatical Greeks was held to be as meritorious as fighting againft the Turks them- * Fleury, vol. 13. p. 22. I Ib. p. 29. | Ib. fixth. Difcourfe, p. 6. felves Church Difiipline. 159 felves; and this merit was foon applied to all wars which the popes efteemed to be of import- ance to religion, especially thofe againft heretics, as the Albigenfes in France*. t> As it was the abufe of indulgences that was the immediate caufe of the reformation by Luther, it may be worth while to go a little back to con- fider the rife and progrefs of them. It has been obferved in a former period, that all that was meant by indulgences in the primitive times, was the relaxation of penance in particular cafes, ef- pec.ially at the intercefllon of the confefibrs. From this fmall beginning, the nature of it being at length quite changed, the abufe grew to be fo enormous, that it could no longer be fupported ; and the fall of it occafioned the downfall of a great part of the papal power. As an exprefiion of penitence and humiliation, a variety of penances, and fome of them of a painful and whimfical nature, had been introduc- ed into the difcipline of the church. At firft they were voluntary, but afterwards they were impofed, and could not be difpenfed with but by the leave of the bifhop, who often fold difpenfa- tions or indulgences, and thereby raifed great fums of money. In the twelfth century the popes, obferving what a fource of gain this was to the bilhops, limited their power, and by de- * Fleury's fixth Difcourfe, p, 16. degrees 160 ?bc tHjiory of grees drew the whole bufinefs of indulgences ttf Rome. And after remitting the temporal pains and penalties to which fmners had been fubject- ed, they went at length fo far as to pretend to abolifli the punifhment due to wickednefs in a future ftate. To complete this bufmefs, a book of rates was publifhed, in which the iums that were to be paid into the apoftolical chamber for abfolution for particular crimes were precifely ftated* This practice entirely fet afide the ufe of the books called Penitential*, in which the penances annex- ed to each crime were regiftered. So long as nothing was pretended to be re- mitted but the temporal penances which it had been ufual to enjoin for certain offences, no great alarm was given, and no particular reafon was thought neceflfary for the change ; the payment of a fum of money being a temporal evil, as welt as bearing a number of lafhes, or walking bare- foot, &c. and this commutation was admitted with more eafe, as it was pretended, that all the treafure raifed by this means was applied to fa- ered ufes, and the benefit of the church. But when the popes pretended to remit the future punifhment of fin, and to abfolve from the guilt of it, fome other foundation was neceflary j and this they pretended to find in the vail ftock of merit which had accrued to the church from the good works of faints and martyrs, befides what Church D if dp line. 161 what were necefTary to infure their own falvation. Thefe pretended merits flill belonged to the church, and formed a treajure, which the popes had the power of difpenfing. This doctrine was greatly improved and reduced into a fyftem by Thomas Aquinas. And afterwards, to the me- rits of the faints and martyrs were added, thofe of Chrift, as increafing the treafure of the church. Among other things advanced by cardinal Cajetan in fupport of the doctrine of indulgen- ces, in his controverfy with Luther on the fub- ject, he faid, that one drop of Chrift's blood being fufficient to redeem the whole human race, the remaining quantity that was fhed in the gar- den, and upon the crofs, was left as a legacy to the church, to form a treafure, from which indulgences were to be drawn, and adminiftered by the Roman pontiffs*. Though in this fomething may be allowed to the heat of controverfy, the doctrine itfelf had a fandtion of a much higher authority. For Leo the tenth, in 1518, decreed that the popes had the power of remitting both the crime and the punifhment of fin, the crime by the facra- ment of penance, and the temporal punifhment by indulgences., the benefit of which extended to the dead as well as to the living j and that * Mofheim, vol. 3. p. 311. VOL. II. L thefe 1 62 'The Hiflory of thefe indulgences are 'drawn from the fupera- bundance of the merits of Jefus Chrift and the faints, of which treafure the pope is the dif- penfer*. This Leo the tenth, whofe extravagance and expences had no bounds, had recourfe to thefe indulgences, among other methods of recruit- ing his exhaufted finances j and in the publica- tion of them he promifed the forgivenefs of all fins, paft, prefent, or to come; and however enormous was their nature. Thefe he fold by wholefale to thofe who endeavoured to make the moll of them j fo that pafllng, like other com- modities, from one hand to another, they were even hawked about in the flreets by the com- mon pedlars, who ufed the fame artifices to raife the price of thefe commodities, as of any other in which they dealt. One Texel, a Dominican friar, particularly diftinguifhed himfelf in pufliing the fale of thefe indulgences. Among other things, in the fer- mons and fpeeches which he made on this oc- cafion, he ufed to fay, that, if a man had even lain with the mother of God, he was able, with the pope's power, to pardon the crime ; and he boafted that he had faved more fouls from hell by thefe indulgences, than St. Peter had converted * Hiftoire des Papes, vol. 4. p. 407. to Church Difcjpline. 163 to chriftianity by all his preaching*. There would be no end of reciting the blafphemous pretenfions of the venders of thefe indulgences, with refpect to the enormity of crimes, the num- ber of perfons benefited by them, or the time to which they extended. Biihop Burnet had ieen an indulgence which extended to ten thou- fand years. Sometimes indulgences were affixed to particular churches and altars, and to parti- cular times or days, chiefly to the year of Ju- bilee. They are alfo affixed to fuch things as may be carried about with a perfon, as Agnus Dei's, to medals, rofaries, or fcapularies. They are alfo affixed to fome prayers, the devout re- petition of them being a means of procuring great indulgences. The granting of all thefe is left intirely to the difcretion of the popef. Such fcandalous excefTes as thefe excited the indignation of Luther, who firft preached againft the abufe of indulgences only, then, in confe- quence of meeting with oppofition, againfl in- dulgences themfelves, and at length againft the papal power which granted them. Before this time the council of Conftance had, in fome meafure, reftrained the abufe of indul- gences, and particularly had made void all thofe that had been granted during the fchifm J. But * Moftieim, vol. 3. p. 304. f Burnet on the Articles, p. 282. J Lcnfant, vol. i. p. 433. L 2 it 1 64 We Uiftory of it appears, that, notwithftanding thefe reftraints,, the abufes were greater than ever in the time ol Leo the tenth. The council of Trent allowed of indulgences in general terms, but forbad the felling of them, and referred the whole to the difcretion of the pope ; fo that, upon the whole, the abufe was eftablifhed by this council. But though the re- formation may not have produced any formal decifions in the church of Rome againftthe abule of indulgences fo as to affect the doftrine of them, the pra&ice has been much moderated; and at prefent it does not appear that much more ftrefs is laid upon fuch things by catholics in general, than by proteftants themfelves. Some remains of the doctrine of indulgences are retained in the church of England, in which the bifhops have a power of difpenfmg with the marriage of perfons more near a kin than the law allows ; which is, in fad, to excufe what they themfelves call the crime of inceft. But there is fomething much more unjuftifiable in the pow- er of abfolution, or an authoritative declaration of the forgivenefs of fin, which is alfo retained from the church of Rome. For after confeflion, the prieft is directed to abfoive a fick perfon in this form of words. " Our Lord Jefus Chrift, the effett of church cenfures in thofe times was very extraordinary. It was cuftomary, as we have feen, for perfons under fentence of excommunication to attend at the doors of the churcli with all the marks of the deepeft dejection and contrition, intreating the minifters and people with tears in their eyes, and earneftly begging their prayers, and reftoration to the peace of the church. Perfons the moft diftinguifhed for their wealth and power were indifcriminately fubjecl: to thefe church cenfures, and had no other method of be- ing reflored to communion-, but by the fame hu- miliation and contrition that was expected from the meaneft perfon in the fociety. When Philip the governor of Egypt, would have entered a chriftian church, after the commiffion of fome crime. iy o 1'be tfijtory of crime, the bifhop forbad him till he fird made corifeflion of his fin, and parTed through the or- der of penitents, a fentence which, we are told, he willingly fubmitted to. Even the emperor Theodofius the Great, was excommunicated by Ambrofe the bifhop of Milan, for a barbarous flaughter of the Theflalonians ; and that great prince fubmitted to a penance of eight months, and was not received into the church till after the mod humble confefllon of his offence, and giv- ing the mod "undeniable proof of his fincerity. I muft add, that whenever a perfon was excom- municated in any particular church, it was gene- rally deemed wrong to admit him to communion in any other. Sometimes, however, neighbour- ing churches, being well acquainted with the caufe of excommunication, and not approving of it, received into their communion the perfons ib ftigmatized. And when the regular fubordinati- on of one church to another was eftablifhed, it was cuftomary for the excommunicated perfon to appeal from the fentence of his particular church to a higher tribunal. Many of thefe appeals were made to the church of Rome, from other churches not regularly fubordinate to it, which laid the firft foundation of the exorbitant power of that church. When chriftians began to debate about opini- ons, and to divide and fubdivide themfelves on that account, it is to be lamented, but not to be wondered Church Dijcipline. 171 wondered at, that they laid an undue firefs on what they deemed to be the right faith, and that they fhould apply church cenfures in order to prevent the fpreading of heretical opinions; with- out waiting till they could judge by obfervation what effect fuch opinions had on the temper and general conduct of men, and indeed without con- fidering that influence at all. The firft remark^- able abufe of the power of excommunication in this way is by no means fuch as recommends it, being fuch as would now be deemed the moft frivolous and unjuftifiable that can well be ima- gined. For on the account of nothing more than a difference of opinion and practice with re- fpect to the time of celebrating Eafter, Victor, bifhop of Rome, excommunicated at once ali the eaftern churches. But this was reckoned a moft daring piece of infolence -and arrogance, for which he was feverely reproved by other bifhops ; nor, indeed, was any regard paid to the cenfure. It muft be obferved that, in confequence of ap- peals being made from inferior churches to the patriarchal ones, thefe took upon them to extend their excommunications beyond the limits of their acknowledged jurrfdiction, viz. to all who held any obnoxious opinion or practice. Perfons thus cenfured often formed feparate churches, and in return excommunicated thofe who had excommunicated them. In this ftate of mutual hoflility things often continued a long time, till the influence of an emperor, ij 2 tfbe Hiftory of emperor, or feme other foreign circumitance, de- termined the difpute in favour of one of them, which was thenceforth deemed the orthodox fide of the queftion, whilft the other was condemned as heretical. It is well known that the Arians and Athanafians were in this manner reputed or- thodox by turns ; as both had the fanction of councils and emperors in their favour; till, in confequence of mere fadion, and the authority of the emperors, the party of Athanafius prevail- ed at laft. The firft inftance that we meet with of the ufe of actual force, or rather of a defire to make ufe of it, by a chriftian church, was in the proceedings againft Paul bifliop of Samofata ; when, at thd requeft of a chriftian fynod, the heathen empe- ror Aurelian, expelled him from the epifcopal houfe*. Indeed, having been depofed from his office, if that had been done by competent au- thority, namely, that of his own diocefe, he could not be faid to have any right to the emoluments of it, and therefore his keeping pofleflion of the epifcopal houfe was an at of violence on his fide. But as foon as the empire became what is call- ed chriftian, we have examples enow of the in- terference of civil power in matters of religion j and we foon find inftances of the abufe of excom- * Fleury's feventh Difcourfe, p. 7. munication, Church Difcipline. 173 munkation, and the addition of civil incapacities annexed to that ecclefiaftical cenfure. In a council held at Ptolemais in Cyrene, Andronicus the prefect was excommunicated, and it was ex- prcfled in the fentence, that no temple of God fhould be open unto him, that no one fhould fa- lute him during his life, and that he fhould not be buried after his death f. The emperor Conilantine, befides banifliing Arius himfelf, ordering his writings to be burnt, and forbidding any perfons to conceal him under pain of death, deprived many of thofe who were declared heretics of the privileges which he had granted to chriftians in general, and befides im- pofmg ones upon them, forbad their arTernblies, and demolifhed their places of worfhip. On the other hand, the emperor Conftantius banifhed the orthodox biihops becaufe they would not con- demn Athanafius. Neftorius was banifhed by Theodofius, in whofe reign perfecution for the fake of religion made greater advances than in any other within this period. He certainly imagined he made a right ufe of the power with which God had entrufted him, by employing it in eftablilhing what he thought to be the ortho- dox faith, without ever reflecting on the impro- priety of fuch a means with refpecl to fuch an end. \ Sueur, A. D. 411. Immedi- 1 74 Vb* Hifiory of Immediately upon his baptifin, which, accord- ing to the fuperflitious notions which influenced many perfons of that age, he had deferred till his life was in danger by ficknefs, he publifhed a de- cree commanding that, " in order that all his " fubjects fhould make profeffion of the fame ui iterum mergit mer- gatur ; He that dips a Jecond time, let him be dip- Calvin went upon the fame plan, perfecuting many worthy perfons, and even procuring Serve- tus to be burned alive for writing againft the dodrine of the Trinity. He alfo wrote a trea- tife in order to prove the lawfulnefs of putting heretics to death -, and in one of his letters he fays, " Since the papifts, in order to vindicate f e their own fuperftitions, cruelly fhed innocent * Chandler's Hiftory of Perfecution, p. 311. f Vol. 4. p. 440 t Ib. 3-p. 320. Chandler's Hift. of Pcrfecution, p. 328. blood^ Church Dijripline. 1 93 " blood, it is a fhame that a chriftian ma- ff giftrate fhould have no courage at all in the <{ defence of certain truth." Even Melancthon, though efteemed to be of a mild and moderate temper, approved of the death of Servetus *. After the reformation in England, the laws againil heretics were not relaxed, but the pro- ceedings were appointed to be regular, as in other criminal cafes. Thus it was enacted in 1534, that heretics fhould be proceeded againft upon prefentment by a jury, or ori the oath of two witnefles at leaftf. When the new liturgy was confirmed by act of parliament in the reign of Edward the fixth, in 1548, it was ordered that fuch of the cler- gy as refufed to conform to it, fhould, upon the firft conviction, fuffer fix months imprifon- menr, and forfeit a year's income of their bene- fices j for the fecond offence they fhould forfeit all their church preferments, and fuffer a year's imprifonmerit; arid for the third offence impri- fonment for life. They who fhould write or print any thing againfl the book were fined ten pounds for the firft offence, twenty for the fe- cond, with forfeiture of all their goods ; and Imprifonment for life for the third J. * Chandler's Hift. p. 321. 323. f Neale's Hift. p. 10. J Ib. p. 39. VOL. II. N Cranmer 194. fhe Hiftory of Cranmer, whilft he was a Lutheran, confented to the burning of John Lambert and Ann Afkew, for thofe very doctrines for which he himfelf fuffered afterwards ; and when he was a facramentarian he was the caufe of the death of Joan Bocher, an Arian, importuning the young king Edward the fixth, to fign the death war- rant j and he is faidto have done it with great reluctance, faying, with tears in his eyes, that if he did wrong, it was in fubmiffion to his authority (Cranmer's) and that he fhould anfwer to God for it. Many were the feverities under which the Puritans laboured in the reign of queen Eliza- beth, and the princes of the Stuart family; and the Prefbyterians were but too ready to act with a. high hand in their turn, in the Ihort time that they were in power; but they were ibon repaid with intereft on the reftoration. At the revolution they obtained pretty good terms, but flill all thofe who could not fubfcribe the doctrinal articles of the church of England re- mained fubject to the fame penalties as before, and a new and fevere law was made againft the Anti-trinitarians. This law, which fubjects the offender to confifcation of goods and im- prifonment for life, if he perlifts in acting con- trary to the law, ftill remains in force, though many other hardfhips under which Diffenters formerly laboured have lately been removed. The Church Difdpline. ig$ The perfecution of the Remonftrants by the Calviniftic party in Holland was as rancorous in the mode of carrying it on, as any of the popifh perfecutions, though the penalties did not extend beyond banifhment. All the proteftant churches have been too ready to impofe their own faith upon others, and to bind all their pofterity to believe as they did. But the mod remarkable public act of this kind occurs in the hiftory of the proteftant church in France. At a fynod held in 1612, it was decreed, that they who take holy orders fhould take this oath, ft I whofe name is here " under written, do receive and approve the con- " fefiion of faith of the reformed churches in or that of the higheft kindf. After the fign of the crofs, a fanctifying vir- tue was afcribed to holy water, or fait and water, fuch as the heathens had ufed in their purifica- tions, confecrated by a bifhop. An extraordi- nary power was alfo afcribed to lights burning in the day-time, to the ufe of incenfe, to the re- lics of the faints, and to their images -, and as the fuperftitious veneration for the real eucharift, produced a mock one, fo it probably occasioned another fuperftition, fomething fimilar to it, viz. the making of little waxen images of a lamb, * De Corona, cap. 4. Opera, p. 102. f Mofheim, voL i. p. 202. 205. 238. which 2O2, 'The Htjlory of which were either invented or much improved by pope Urban the fixth. The pope alone has the power of confecrating them, and that in the firft year only of his popedom, and in every fe- venth year afterwards. In the fervice on this oc- cafion, which may be feen in the Hiflory of Po- peiy, vol. 3, p. 531, thefe Agnus D to which Jotitude was favourable. By thus ex- cluding themfelves from the world, and medi- tating intenfely on fublime fubjects, they thought they could raiie the foul above all external ob- jects, and advance its preparation for a better and more fpiritual ftate hereafter. Many chrifti- ans, therefore, and efpec'ially thole who had been addicted to the Platonic philofophy, before their converfion, were exceedingly fond of thefe ex- ercifes. And this notion, though more liberal than the former, which led them to torment and mor- tify the body, naturally led them to be very inattentive to it, leeking the cultivation of the mindy and the knowledge of truth, in a fancied abftraction from all fenfible objects. In this ftate of contemplation, joined to folitude and abftinence, it is no wonder that they were open J Mpfheim, vol. I. p. 157. to o8 The Hi/lory of to many illufions -, fancying themfelves to b infpired in the lame manner as the heathen pro- phets and prophetefTes had fancied themlelves to be, and as madmen, are frill generally ima- gined to be in the Eaft. Thefe pretenfions to infpiration were moil common among the Mon- tanifts, who were alfo moft remarkable for their aufterities. In the third century, in which the doctrine of Plato prevailed much, we find that marriage, though permitted to all priefls, as well as other perfons, was thought to be unfit for thofe who afpired after great degrees of fanctity and pu- rity ; it being fuppofed to fubject them to the power of evil daemons, and on this account ma- ny people wifhed to have their clergy unmar- ried f. Origen, who was much addicted to Platonifm, gave into the myftic theology, and recommended the peculiar practices of the hea- then myftics, founded on the notion that filence, tranquility, and folitude, accompanied with acts of mortification, which exhauft the body, were the means of exalting the foul. The perverfions of the fenfe of fcfipture by which thefe unnatural practices were fupported are aftonifhing. Jerom, writing againft mar- riage, calls thofe who are in that ftate veffels of dijhonour ; and to them he applies the faying f- Moftieim, vol. i. p. 218. Of Church Difripline. 209 of Paul, *fbey that are in the flejh cannot pleafe God. The laws alfo of chriftian emperors foon be- gan to favour thefe maxims. Conftantine re- voked all the laws that made celibacy infamous among the antient Romans, and made it to be confidered as honourable*. I muft now proceed to mention various other aufterities, which poor deluded mortals, whom 1 am afhamed to call chriftians, inflicted upon themfelves, vainly imagining to merit heaven by them, for themfelves and others. In this I fhall, in general, obferve the order of time in which I find an account of them in ecclefiaftical hiftory ; obferving that the fa<5bs I mention are but a fmall fpecimen of the kind, but they may ferve to give us an idea of the general fentiments and fpirit that prevailed in the dark ages of the church. Some of the Myftics of the fifth century not only lived among the wild beafts, but alfo af- ter their manner. They ran naked through the defart with a furious afpeft. They fed on grafs and wild herbs, avoided the fight and conver- fation of men, remamed motionlefs in certain places for feveral years, expofed to the rigour Sueur, A. D, 320. VOL. II. O and 21 o ke Hiftory of and inclemency of the feafons ; and towards the conclufion of their lives, fhut themfelves up in narrow and miferable huts. All this was con- fidered as true piety, the only method of ren- dering the Deity propitious to them ; and by this means they attracted the higheft veneration of the deluded multitude. One Simeon, a Sy- rian, in order perhaps to climb as near to hea- ven as he could, patted thirty feven years of his wretched life upon five pillars, of fix, twelve, twenty-two, thirty-fix, and laftly forty cubits high. Others followed his example, being call- ed Stilites by the Greeks, and Sanfticolumtiares, or Pillar Saints, by the Latins; and, of all the in- ftances of fuperftitious frenzy, none were held in higher veneration than this, and the prac- tice continued in the Eaft till the twelfth cen- tury*. Among the popifh pilgrims there is a fpe- cies called Palmers, from a bough of palm which they carry with them. Thefe have no home, or place of refidence, but travel and beg their bread till they obtain what they call the palm, or a complete victory over their fins by death f. Many of the rules to which the monaftic or- ders are fubject are extremely rigorous. Ste- * Molheim, vol. i. p. 391. f Hiftory of Popery, vol. i. p. 212. phen Church Difcipline. fin phen a nobleman of Auvergne, who inftituted the order of Grand-montam, with the permiffion of Gregory the feventh, forbad his monks the ufe of fiefh meat even in ficknefs, and impofed upon them the obfervance of a folemn and un- interrupted filence*. The hermits of Luceola in Umbria were not allowed any thing of fat in the preparation of their vegetables. They ate only raw herbs, ex- cept on Sundays and Thurfdays. On ether days they ate nothing but bread and water, and were continually employed in prayer or labour. They kept a ftridt filence all the week, and on Sun- days only fpake to one another between vefpers and complines j and in their cells they had no covering for their feet or legs. The perfons the moft diftinguifhed in eccle- fiaftical hiftory for their bodily auflerities and religious exercifes, were Dominic, who was one of thefe hermits, and Peter Damiani who was his fpiritual guide, both of whom were men- tioned above. This Dominic for many years had next to his (kin an iron coat of mail, which he never put off but for the fake of flagellation. Tie feldom pafled a day without chanting two pfalters, at the fame time whipping himfelf with both his hands j and yet this was his time of greateft relaxation. For in Lent, and while he Mofheim, vol. 2. p. 308. O? was ail tfbe Hiftory of was performing penance for other perfons, he would repeat at leaft three pfalters a day, whip- ping himfelf at the fame time. He would of- ten repeat two pfalters without any interval be- tween them, without even fitting down, or ceaf- ing for one moment to whip himfelf. Peter Damiani afking him one day if he could kneel with his coat of mail 3 he faid, When I am well I make a hundred genuflections every fifteenth pfalm, which is a thoufand in the whole pfalter; and one time he told his matter that he had gone through the pfalter eight times in one day and night ; and at ano- ther time, trying his utmoft, he repeated it twelve times, and as far as the pfalm which begins with Beati Quorum of the thirteenth. And in repeating the pfalter he did not flop at the hundred and fifty pfalms, but added to them the canticles, the hymns, the creed of St. Athanafius, and the litanies, which are to be found at the end of the old pfalters. His fall- ing and his coat of mail made his fkin as black as a negroe, and befides this he wore four iron rings, two on his thighs, and two on his legs, to which he afterwards added four others; and befides this iron Ihirt he had another under him to fleep upon. Notwithftanding thefe feverities, he died very old on the fourteenth of October, 1062, which day is dedicated to his honour in the calendar of the church of Rome*. The * Fleury, vol. 13. p. 99. auflerities Church Difcipline. 213 aufterities of Peter Damiani were fimilar to thefe, and an account of them may be feen in the fame hiftorian*. In the thirteenth century there arofe in a fed that was called the Flagellants, or whippers, and it was propagated from thence over all the countries of Europe. They ran about in pro- mifcuous multitudes, of both fexes, of all ranks and ages, both in public places, and in defarts, with whips in their hands, lalhing their naked bodies with the greateft feverity, fhrieking dread- fully, and looking up to heaven with an air of horror and diftra&ion j and this they 'did to ob- tain the divine mercy for themfelves and others; For they maintained that this whipping was of equal virtue with baptifm, and the other facra- ments, and that the forgivenefs of all fin was to be obtained by it from God, even without the merits of Jefus Chrift. Thefe people attracted the efteem and veneration not only of the popu- lace, but of their rulers alfo; but being after- wards joined by a turbulent and furious rabble, they fell into difcreditf. The Janfenifts carried their aufterities fo far> that they called thofe perfons who put an end to their own lives by their exceflive abftinence or labour, the facred viffims of repentance, and faid that they had been conjumed by the fire of divine * Fleury, p. 205, &c. f Molheim, vol. 3, p, 95. zc6. O 3 love 214 22^ Hijlory of love. By thefe fufferings they thought to ap- peafe the anger of the Divine Being, and to bring down blefiings upon themfelves, their friends, and the church. The famous Abbe de Paris put himfelf to a mod painful death, de- priving himfelf of almoft all the bleflings of life, in order to fatisfy, as he thought, the juftice of an incenfed God *. So famous was the devout nunnery of Port Royal in the fields, that multitudes of perfons crowded to live in its neighbourhood, and to imi- tate the manners of thofe nuns j and this in fo late a period as the feventeenth century. The end that they had in view was, by filence, hunger, thirft, prayer, bodily labour, watching, and other volun- tary acts of felf-denial, to efface the guilt of their fins, and to remove the pollution of their fouls, whether derived from natural corruption, or evil habits. Many perfons, illuftrious by their birth and fortunes, chofe this mode of life f. Dr. Middleton mentions a practice ftill kept up at Rome, which is equally fhocking on ac- count of its cruelty and abfurdity. " In one of " their proceffions, in the time of Lent, I faw," fays he, " that ridiculous penance of the Fla- (f gellants, or felf-whippers, who march with " whips in their hands, and lafh themfelves as " they go along upon the bare back, till it is all .Moftieim, vol.4, P- 3 8 *- t * b - P- 3 8 S- covered Church Difcipline. 215 tc covered with blood, in the fame manner as th " fanatical priefts of Bellona, or the Syrian god- " defs, as well as the votaries of Ifis, ufed to " flafli and cut themfelves of old j a mad piece