in the course of this history. But it is by no means certain, that these two writers belong to the tenth century, and they are placed there only by conjecture.

It is much more probable, that the learned Suidas, author of the celebrated Greek Lexicon, lived in the period now before us.

Among the Arabians, no author acquired a higher reputation than Eutychius, bishop of Alexandria, whose Annals, with several other productions of his learned pen, are still extant.'

VIII. The most eminent of the Latin writers of this century was Gerbert, or Silvester II. who has already Latin writers. been mentioned with the applause due to his singular merit. The other writers of this age were far from being eminent in any respect.

Odo, who laid the foundations of the celebrated order of Clugni, left behind him several productions in which the grossest superstition reigns, and in which it is difficult to perceive the smallest marks of true genius or solid judg

ment."

The learned reader will form a different opinion of Ratheir, bishop of Verona, whose works, yet extant, give evident proofs of sagacity and judgment, and breathe throughout an ardent love of virtue."

Atto, bishop of Vercelli, composed a treatise, De pressuris Ecclesiasticis, i. e. Concerning the Sufferings and Grievances of the Church, which shows in their true colours the spirit and complexion of the times."

Dunstan, the famous abbot of Glassenbury, and afterward archbishop of Canterbury, composed, in favour of the monks, a book, De Concordia Regularum, i. e. Concerning the Harmony of the Monastic Rules."

Elfric, archbishop of Canterbury, acquired considerable reputation among the Anglo-Saxons established in Britain by various productions."

1 See Jo. Albert Fabricii Bibliographia Antiquaria, p. 179. As also Eusebii Renaudoti Historiar. Patriarch. Alexandr. p. 347.

m Histoire Literaire de la France, tom. vi. p. 229.

n Id. ibid. p. 339.

o Id. ibid. p. 281.

p See the ample account that is given of this eminent prelate in Collier's Ecclesiastical History of England, vol. i. cent. x. p. 181, 183, 184, 185, 197, 203.

FqWe have a Grammar and Dictionary composed by this learned prelate; as also an Anglo-Saxon translation of the First Books of the Holy Scriptures, A History of the Church, and one hundred and eighty sermons. See Fleury, Hist. Eccl. livre Iviii. p. 384, edit. de Bruxelles.

Burchard, bishop of Worms, is highly esteemed among the canonists on account of his celebrated Decreta, which he has divided into twenty books; though a part of the merit of this collection of canons is due to Ólbert, with whose assistance it was composed.'

Odilo, archbishop of Lyons,' was the author of some insipid discourses, and other productions, whose mediocrity has almost sunk them in a total oblivion.

As to the historical writers and annalists who lived in this century, their works and abilities have been already considered in their proper place.

CHAPTER III.

CONCERNING THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH DURING
THIS CENTURY.

I. THE state of religion in this century was such as might be expected in times of prevailing ignorance and The state of corruption. The most important doctrines of religion. Christianity were disfigured and perverted in the most wretched manner, and such as had preserved, in unskilful hands, their primitive purity, were nevertheless obscured with a multitude of vain opinions and idle fancies, so that their intrinsic excellence and lustre were little attended to; all this will appear evident to those who look with the smallest degree of attention into the writers of this age. Both Greeks and Latins placed the essence and life of religion in the worship of images and departed saints, in searching after with zeal, and preserving with a devout care and veneration, the sacred relics of holy men and women, and in accumulating riches upon the priests and monks, whose opulence increased with the progress of superstition. Scarcely did any Christian dare to approach the throne of God, without rendering first the saints and images propitious by a solemn round of expiatory rites and lustrations. The ardour also with which relics were sought, surpasses almost all credibility; it had seized all ranks and

r See the Chronicon Wormatiense in Ludwig's Reliqua Manuscriptorum, tom. ii. p. 43. Histoire Liter. de la France, tom. vii. p. 295.

s Odilo was abbot of Clugni, and not archbishop of Lyons, which latter eminent station he obstinately refused, notwithstanding the urgent entreaties employed both by pontiffs and emperors to engage him to accept it. See Fleury, Hist. Eccl. livre lix. p 520, edit. de Bruxelles.

orders among the people, and was grown into a sort of fanaticism and frenzy; and, if the monks are to be believed, the Supreme Being interposed, in an especial and extraordinary manner, to discover to doting old wives and bareheaded friars the places where the bones or carcasses of the saints lay dispersed or interred. The fears of purgatory, of that fire that was to destroy the remaining impurities of departed souls, were now carried to the greatest height, and exceeded by far the terrifying apprehensions of infernal torments; for they hoped to avoid the latter easily, by dying enriched with the prayers of the clergy, or covered with the merits and mediation of the saints; while from the pains of purgatory they knew there was no exemption. The clergy therefore finding these superstitious terrors admirably adapted to increase their authority and to promote their interest, used every method to augment them, and by the most pathetic discourses, accompanied with monstrous fables and fictitious miracles, they laboured to establish the doctrine of purgatory, and also to make it appear that they had a mighty influence in that formidable region. II. The contests concerning predestination and

concerning predestination and

per.

grace, as

also concerning the eucharist, that had agitated The disputes the church in the preceding century, were in this the Lord's sup happily reduced to silence. This was owing to the mutual toleration that was practised by the contending parties, who, as we learn from writers of undoubted credit, left it to each other's free choice to retain or to change their former opinions. Beside, the ignorance and stupidity of this degenerate age were ill suited to such deep inquiries as these contests demanded; nor was there almost any curiosity among an iliterate multitude to know the opinions of the ancient doctors concerning these and other knotty points of theology. Thus it happened, that the followers of Augustin and Pelagius flourished equally in this century; and that if there were many who maintained the corporal presence of the body and blood of Christ in the holy sacrament, there were still more who either came to no fixed determination upon this point, or declared it publicly as their opinion, that the divine Saviour was really absent from the eucharistical sacrament, and was received only by a certain inward impulse of faith, and that in a manner wholly spiritual. This mutual

t It is certain that the Latin doctors of this century differed much in their sentiments

Superstition

nouris ed by

a multitude of

toleration, as it is easy to conclude from what has been already observed, must not be attributed either to the wisdom or virtue of an age, which was almost totally destitute of both. The truth of the matter is, that the divines of this century wanted both the capacity and the inclination to attack or defend any doctrine, whose refutation or defence required the smallest portion of learning or logic. III. That the whole Christian world was covered at this time with a thick and gloomy veil of superstition, is evident from a prodigious number of testimonies and examples which it is needless to mention. vain and idle This horrible cloud, which hid almost every ray opinions. of truth from the eyes of the multitude, furnished a favourable opportunity to the priests and monks of propagating many absurd and ridiculous opinions, which contributed not a little to confirm their credit. Among these opinions which dishonoured so frequently the Latin church, and produced from time to time such violent agitations, none occasioned such a universal panic, nor such dreadful impressions of terror or dismay, as a notion that now prevailed of the immediate approach of the day of judgment. This notion, which took its rise from a remarkable passage in the Revelation of St. John," and had been entertained by some doctors in the preceding century, was advanced publicly by many at this time, and spreading itself with an amazing rapidity through the European provinces, it threw them into the deepest consternation and anguish. For they imagined that St. John had clearly foretold that after a thousand years from the birth of Christ, Satan was to be let loose from his prison, antichrist to come, and the destruc

about the manner in which the body and blood of Christ were present in the eucharist; this is granted by such of the Roman catholic writers as have been ingenuous enough to sacrifice the spirit of party to the love of truth. That the doctrine transubstantiation, as it is commonly called, was unknown to the English in this century, has been abundantly proved from the public Homilies, by Rapin de Thoyras, in his History of England, vol. i. p. 463. It is however to be confessed, on the other hand, that this absurd doctrine was already adopted by several French and German divines. For a judicious account of the opinions of the Saxon English church concerning the eucharist, see Collier's Ecclesiastical History of Great Britain, vol. i. cent. x. p. 204, 266.

u The passage here referred to, is in the twentieth chapter of the Book of Revelation, at the 2d, 3d, and 4th verses: "And he laid hold of the dragon, that old serpent, which is the devil and Satin, and bound him a thousand years; and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years should be fulfilled; and after that he must be loosed a little season. And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them; and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.”

tion and conflagration of the world to follow these great and terrible events. Hence prodigious numbers of people abandoned all their civil connexions and their parental relations, and giving over to the churches or monasteries all their lands, treasures, and worldly effects, repaired with the utmost precipitation to Palestine, where they imagined that Christ would descend from heaven to judge the world. Others devoted themselves by a solemn and voluntary oath to the service of the churches, convents, and priesthood, whose slaves they became, in the most rigorous sense of that word, performing daily their heavy tasks; and all this from a notion that the Supreme Judge would diminish the severity of their sentence, and look upon them with a more favourable and propitious eye, on account of their having made themselves the slaves of his ministers. When an eclipse of the sun or moon happened to be visible, the cities were deserted, and their miserable inhabitants fled for refuge to hollow caverns, and hid themselves among the craggy rocks, and under the bending summits of steep mountains. The opulent attempted to bribe the Deity, and the saintly tribe, by rich donations conferred upon the sacerdotal and monastic orders, who were looked upon as the immediate vicegerents of heaven. In many places, temples, palaces, and noble edifices, both public and private, were suffered to decay, nay, were deliberately pulled down, from a notion that they were no longer of any use, since the final dissolution of all things was at hand. In a word, no language is sufficient to express the confusion and despair that tormented the minds of miserable mortals upon this occasion. This general delusion was indeed opposed and combated by the discerning few, who endeavoured to dispel these groundless terrors, and to efface the notion from which they arose, in the minds of the people. But their attempts were ineffectual; nor could the dreadful apprehensions of the superstitious multitude be entirely removed before the conclusion of this century. Then, when they saw that the so much dreaded period had passed without the arrival of any great calamity, they began to understand that St. John had not really foretold what they so much feared."

w Almost all the donations that were made to the church during this century, carry evident marks of this groundless panic that had seized all the European nations, as the reasons of these donations are generally expressed in the following words; Appro