name of Maronites, from John Maro, their first bishop, a name which they still retain. In 692, another council was held at Constantinople, in which were decreed one hundred and two canons, on various subjects relating to external worship, the government of the church, &c. Some of these canons were opposed to the opinions and customs of the Romish church: the Roman pontiffs therefore refused to approve the council as a whole, or to rank it among the general councils, although they have deemed the greater part of its canons to be excellent.

CENTURY VIII.

1. Extension and sufferings of the church.-2. Increase of cor ruptions and power among the clergy.-3. State of religion -4. Literature -5. Controversies.

I. THE Nestorians in the East continued, during the eighth century, to extend the influences of Christianity among the Scythians and Tartars, inhabiting the shores of the Caspian Sea. A Nestorian missionary by the name of Subchal, travelled further East, and spread the gospel extensively in Tartary, Cathai, and China. In the West, by the active and persevering labours of Boniface, who has obtained the title of the apostle of Germany, churches were established extensively among the Thuringians, Hessians, and Frieslanders; by the latter of whom, he was finally murdered, together with fifty other clergymen, whc

attended him; (A. D. 755.)

Boniface p ssessed

great zeal and activity, and perhaps true piety; but strongly tinctured with the errors of those times-excessive attachment to nonkery, superstitious regard for the externals of religion, and devotion to the power and authority of the Roman pontiff. Corbinian, a French Benedictine nonk; Pirmin, also a French monk; and Lebwin, an Englishman; with many others of less note, laboured with zeal, and with more or less success, to establish Christianity among other nations of Germany that were still heathen. Corbinian

obtained remarkable fame, by his marvellous sanctity, and numerous miracles. The Saxons and Huns, who were less yielding to the influence of missionaries that were sent among them, were more effectually brought over to submit to baptism, by the arms of Charlemagne. With all due zeal, he assailed them with the sword, with rewards and punishments, the legitimate arguments of kings, until, being humbled and exhausted, they thought it better to become Christians, than to be slaves. One law, well calculated, we may suppose, to accomplish its object, was in these words. If any person of the Saxon race, shall contemptuously refuse to come to baptism, and shall resolve to continue a heathen, let him be put to death. For these achievements of Charlemagne, in behalf of Christianity, the gratitude of posterity decreed him the honours of a saint.

The following are curious specimens of the mi. racles of this age. In the life of St. Winnock, it is stated as a miracle, that his mill, when he let

go of it, to say his prayers, would turn itself. And when an inquisitive monk looked through a crevice, to see the wonder, he was struck bind for his pre

sumption. The biographer of St. Pardulphus, makes a child's cradle to rock day after day, without hands; while, if touched, it would stop, and remain immovable. In the life of St. Guthlack, of Croyland, while the saint was praying, at his vigils, a vast number of devils entered his cell, rising out of the ground, and issuing from crevices. These bound the saint fast, dragged him through hedges and briers, lifted him up from the earth, and carried him to the mouth of hell, where he saw all the torments of the damned. But while they were threatening to confine him there, St Bartholomew appeared in glory to him; the devils were affrighted; and he was conducted back to his cell, by his celestial deliverer. These are only a few, among scores of others, which might be adduced.”

In this century, the church suffered very severely both in the East, and in the West, from the Saracens. The Greek empire, greatly weakened by internal dissensions, was not able to withstand this warlike people, who overran the fairest portions of Asia and Africa, and in many places, wholly exterminated the Christian faith. In the year 714, the Saracens passed over from Africa into Spain, and routed the army of Roderic, king of the Spanish Goths, and subdued the greater part of that country. Thus was the kingdom of the West Goths in Spain, wnolly exterminated by this ferocious people, after it had stood more than three centuries. And even France and Italy suffered from the frequent invasions of these fierce and victorious propagators of the Moham. medan faith. The Christians of Germany ofter suffered from the neighbouring tribes that still remained pagan Abou the middle of this century

a new enemy to Christianity appeared, still more savage and cruel than the Saracens ; namely, the Turks. They were a tribe of the Tartars, a rough and uncivilized race, who, issuing from the narrow passes of Caucasus, burst upon Colchis, Iberia, and Albania, and thence proceeding to Armenia, first subdued the Saracens, and afterwards the Greeks.

II. The degeneracy and vices of the clergy of this age may be inferred from the laws enacted against them by Carloman, Pepin, and especially Charlemagne. These laws forbid clergymen's loaning money at twelve per cent. interest-haunting taverns-practising magic-receiving bribes to ordain improper persons: bishops, abbots, and abbesses, were forbidden to keep packs of hounds, or hawks and falcons. Laws were also enacted against clerical drunkenness, concubinage, and profane swearing. Notwithstanding their vices, the clergy were held in very great veneration, particularly in the West. Before they embraced Christianity, these nations were under the control of their priests, and dared not attempt any thing important, either civil or military, without their concurrence. These prerogatives, therefore, when they became Christian, they readily transferred to the bishops and ministers of their new religion; and the Christian prelates and clergy, craftily and eagerly seized and appropriated to themselves these rights. Hence originated the monstrous authority of the priesthood in the European churches, which was always much greater than in the East.

"To the honours and prerogatives enjoyed by the bishops and priests, with the concurrence of the people of the West, were added, during this

period, immense wealth and riches. The churches, monasteries, and bishops had before been well supplied with goods and revenues; but in this century, there arose a new and most convenient method of acquiring for them greater riches, and of amplifying them forever. Suddenly, by whose instigation is not known, the idea became universally prevalent, that the punishment for sin, which God threatens to inflict, may be bought off by liberal gifts to God, to the saints, to the temples, and to the ministers of God and of glorified saints. This opinion being every where admitted, the rich and the prosperous, whose lives were now most flagi. tious, conferred their wealth, (which they had re ceived by inheritance, or wrested from others by violence and war, according to the customs of the age,) upon the glorified saints, their ministers, and the guardians of their temples, most bountifully, for religious uses; in order to avoid the very irksome penances,* which were enjoined upon them by the priests, and yet be secure against the evils that threatened to overtake them after death. This was the principal source of those immense treasures, which from this century onward, through all the subsequent ages, flowed in upon the clergy, the churches, and the monasteries."

Princes and noblemen made over to the church, not merely private possessions, but public proper. ty-royal domains-whole provinces, cities, and castles; with all the rights of sovereignty. Thus the persons, whose business it was to teach contempt of the world, unexpectedly became Dukes,

*The penances imposed by the priests of those times upon those who confessed their sins to them, were such as, long and severe fasts, tortures of the body, frequent and long contin ued prayers, pilgrimages to the tombs of the saints, and the like