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adapted to deceive the unwary, as the exam- III. Notwithstanding the extensive progress ples of Chalcidius, and Alexander of Lyco- of the Gospel, the Christians, even in this cenpolis, abundantly testify. Some of them, how-tury, suffered grievously, in several countries, ever, were less modest, and carried their audacious efforts against Christianity so far as to revile it publicly. Damascius, in the life of Isidorus, and in other places, casts upon the Christians the most ignominious aspersions; Simplicius, in his illustrations of the Aristotelian philosophy, throws out several malignant insinuations against the doctrines of the Gospol; and the Epicheiremata of Proclus, written expressly against the disciples of Jesus, were universally read, and were, on that account, accurately refuted by Philoponus.§ All this shows, that many of the magistrates, who were witnesses of these calumnious attempts, were not so much Christians in reality, as in appearance; otherwise they would not have permitted the slanders of these licentious revilers to pass without correction or restraint.

from the savage cruelty and bitterness of their enemies. The Anglo-Saxons, who were masters of the greater part of Britain, involved a multitude of its ancient inhabitants, who professed Christianity, in the deepest distresses, and tormented them with all that variety of suffering, which the injurious and malignant spirit of persecution could invent.* The Huns, in their irruptions into Thrace, Greece, and the other provinces, during the reign of Justinian, treated the Christians with great barbarity; not so much, perhaps, from an aversion to Christianity, as from a spirit of hatred against the Greeks, and a desire of overturning and destroying their empire. The face of affairs was totally changed in Italy, about the middle of this century, by a grand revolution which happened in the reign of Justinian I. This emperor, by the arms of Narses, overturned the 好* *The religion of Chalcidius has been much disputed among the learned. Cave seems inclined to rank kingdom of the Ostrogoths, which had subsisthim among the Christian writers, though he expresses ed ninety years; and subdued all Italy. The some uncertainty about the matter. Huet, G. J. Vossius, political state, however, which this revolution Fabricius, and Beausobre, decide with greater assurance that Chalcidius was a Christian. Some learned men have introduced, was not of a very long duration; maintained, on the contrary, that many things in the for the Lombards, a fierce and warlike people, writings of this sage entitle him to a place among the pa- headed by Alboinus their king, and joined by gan philosophers. Our learned author, in his notes to several other German nations, issued from Panhis Latin translation of Cudworth's Intellectual System, and in a Dissertation "de turbata per recentiores Platoni nonia, in 568, under the reign of Justin; incos Ecclesia," lays down an hypothesis, which holds the vaded Italy; and, having made themselves middle way between these extremes. He is of opinion masters of the whole country, except Rome that Chalcidius neither rejected nor embraced the whole system of the Christian doctrine, but selected, out of the and Ravenna, erected a new kingdom at Ticireligion of Jesus and the tenets of Plato, a body of divini Under these new tyrants, who, to the ty, in which, however, Platonism was predominant; and natural ferocity of their characters, added an that he was one of those Syncretist or Eclectic philoso-aversion to the religion of Jesus, the Christians, phers, who abounded in the fourth and fifth centuries, and who attempted to unite Paganism and Christianity into one motley system. This account of the matter, however, appears too vague to the celebrated author of the Critical History of Philosophy, M. Brucker. This excellent writer agrees with Dr. Mosheim in this, that Chalcidius followed the motley method of the eclectic Platonists, but does not see any thing in this inconsistent with his having publicly professed the Christian religion. The question is not, whether this philosopher was a sound and orthodox Christian, which M. Brucker denies him to have been, but whether he had abandoned the pagan rites, and made a public profession of Christianity; and this our philosophical historian looks upon as evident; for though, in the commentary upon Plato's Timæus, Chalcidius teaches several doctrines that seem to strike at

num.

in the beginning, endured calamities of every kind. But the fury of these savage usurpers gradually subsided; and their manners contracted, from time to time, a milder character. Autharis, the third monarch of the Lombards, embraced Christianity, as it was professed by the Arians, in 587; but his successor Agilulf, who married his widow Theudelinda, was persuaded by that princess to abandon Arianism, and to adopt the tenets of the Nicene catholics.f

But the calamities of the Christians, in all the foundations of our holy religion, yet the same may be other countries, were light and inconsiderable said of Origen, Clemens Alexandrinus, Arnobius, and in comparison of those which they suffered in others, who are, nevertheless, reckoned among the pro- Persia under Chosroes, the inhuman monarch fessors of Christianity. The reader will find an excellent view of the different opinions concerning the religion of of that nation This monster of impiety aimChalcidius, in the third volume of Brucker's History. ed his audacious and desperate efforts against The truth of the matter seems to be this, that the Eclec-heaven itself; for he publicly declared, that he ties, before Christianity became the religion of the state, would make war not only upon Justinian, but enriched their system from the Gospel, but ranged themselves under the standards of Plato; and that they repair- also upon the God of the Christians; and, in ed to those of Christ, without any considerable change consequence of this blasphemous menace, he of their system, when the examples and authority of the vented his rage against the followers of Jesus emperors rendered the profession of the Christian religion a matter of prudence, as well as its own excellence in the most barbarous manner, and put multirendered it most justly a matter of choice. tudes of them to the most cruel and ignomindeaths.

Alexander wrote a treatise against the Mani-ious chæans, which is published by Combefis, in the second tome of his Auctor. Noviss. Biblioth. PP. Photius, Combefis, and our learned Cave, looked upon Alexander as a proselyte to Christianity; but Beausobre has demonstrated the contrary. See the Histoire du Manicheisme, part ii. Discours Preliminaire, sect. 13, p. 236.

Photii Bibliotheca, cod. ccxlii. p. 1027.

See J. A. Fabricii Bibliotheca Græca, vol. iii. p. 522.

* Usher's Chronological Index to his Antiquit. Eccles. Britann. ad annum 508.

Paul. Diacon. de Gestis Longobardorum, lib. ii. cap. ii. xxvii.-Muratorii Antiq. Italiæ, tom. i. ii.-Giannone, Historia di Napoli, tom. i.

Procopius, de Bello Persico, lib. ii. cap. xxvi.

THE INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

CHAPTER I.

sort of learning and erudition, which they con

Concerning the State of Letters and Philosophy, sidered as pernicious to the progress of piety;*

during this Century.

not to speak of the illiberal ignorance which several prelates affected, and which they inju diciously confounded with Christian simplicity;† even those who applied themselves to the study and propagation of the sciences, were, for the most part, extremely unskilful and illiterate; and the branches of learning taught in the schools were inconsiderable, both as to their quality and their number. Greek literature was almost every where neglected; and those who, by profession, had devoted themselves to the culture of Latin erudition, spent their time and labour in grammatical subtilties and quibbles, as the pedantic examples of Isidorus and Cassiodorus abundantly show. Elo

bast, a noisy kind of declamation which was composed of motley and frigid allegories and barbarous terms, as may even appear from several parts of the writings of those superior geniuses who surpassed their contemporaries in precision and elegance, such as Boethius, Cassiodorus, Ennodius, and others. As to the other liberal arts, they shared the common calamity; and, from the mode in which they were now cultivated, they had nothing very liberal or elegant in their appearance, consisting entirely of a few dry rules, which, instead of a complete and finished system, produced only a ghastly and lifeless skeleton.

I. THE incursions of the barbarous nations into the greatest part of the western provinces were extremely prejudicial to the interests of learning and philosophy, as must be known to all who have any acquaintance with the history of those unhappy times. During those tumultuous scenes of desolation and horror, the liberal arts and sciences would have been totally extinguished, had they not found a place of refuge, such as it was, among the bishops, and the monastic orders. Here they assembled their scattered remains, and received a degree of culture which just served to keep them from perishing. Those churches, which were dis-quence was degraded into a rhetorical bomtinguished by the appellation of cathedrals, had schools erected under their jurisdiction, in which the bishop, or a certain person appointed by him, instructed the youth in the seven liberal arts, as a preparatory introduction to the study of the Scriptures. Persons of both sexes, who had devoted themselves to the monastic life, were obliged, by the founders of their respective orders, to employ daily a certain portion of their time in reading the ancient doctors of the church, whose writings were looked upon as the rich repertories of celestial wisdom, in which all the treasures of theology were centred. Hence libraries were formed in all the monasteries, and the pious III. The state of philosophy was still more and learned productions of the Christian and deplorable than that of literature; for it was other writers were copied and dispersed by the entirely banished from those seminaries which diligence of transcribers appointed for that were under the inspection and government of purpose, who were generally such monks as, the ecclesiastical order. The greatest part of by weakness of constitution, or other bodily these zealots looked upon the study of philosoinfirmities, were rendered incapable of more phy, not only as useless, but even pernicious to severe labour. To these establishments we those who had dedicated themselves to the serowe the preservation and possession of all the vice of religion. The most eminent, indeed ancient authors, sacred and profane, who es- almost the only Latin philosopher of this age, caped in this manner the savage fury of Gothic was the celebrated Boethius, privy counsellor ignorance, and are happily transmitted to our to Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths. This times. It also to be observed, that, beside illustrious senator had embraced the Platonic the schools annexed to the cathedrals, semina-philosophy,§ and approved aiso, as was usual ries were opened in the greater part of the mo- among the modern Platonists, the doctrine of nasteries, in which the youth who were set Aristotle, and illustrated it in his writings; and apart for the monastic life were instructed by it was undoubtedly in consequence of the dilithe abbot, or some of his ecclesiastics, in the gence and zeal with which he explained and arts and sciences. recommended the Aristotelian philosophy, that it rose now among the Latins to a higher degree of credit than it had before enjoyed. IV. The state of the liberal arts, among the

II. But these institutions and establishments, however laudable, did not produce such happy effects as might have been expected from them. For, not to speak of the indolence of certain abbots and bishops, who neglected entirely the Gregory the Great is said to have been of this numduties of their stations, or of the bitter aver-ber, and to have ordered a multitude of the productions sion which others discovered towards every of pagan writers, and among others Livy's History, to be committed to the flames. See Liron's Singularites Hist. et Lit. tom. i.

Fleury, Discours sur l'Histoire Eccles.-Histoire Liter. de la Frauce, tom. iii.-Herm. Conringii Antiq. Academicæ.

Benedict. Anianensis Concordia Regularum, lib. ii. iii.--Jo. Mabillon, Præf. ad Sæc. i. Act. SS. Ord. Bened. p. 44.

Benedict. Concord. Reg. lib. ii. p. 232.-Mabillon, Acta Ord. Bened. tom. i.

Mabillon, Præf. ad Sæc. i. Benediet. p. 46. Sce M. Aur. Cassiodori Liber de septem Disciplinis, which is extant among his works.

This will appear evident to such as, with a competent knowledge of modern Platonism, read attentively the books of Boethius, de Consolatione, &c. See also, on this subject, Renat. Vallin. p. 10, 50. Holstenius in Vit. Porphyrii, and Mascov. Histor Germanor. tom. ii.

translated the books of Aristotle into Syriac.' Uranius, a Syrian, propagated the doctrines of this philosopher in Persia, and disposed in their favour Chosroes, the monarch of that nation,

tic system. The same prince received from one of the Nestorian faction (which, after having procured the exclusion of the Greeks, triumphed at this time unrivalled in Persia) a translation of the Stagirite's works into the Persian language.‡

Greeks, was, in several places, much more flourishing than that in which we have left them among the Latins: and the emperors raised and nourished a spirit of literary emulation, by the noble rewards and the distinguish-who became a zealous abettor of the peripateed honours which they attached to the pursuit of all the various branches of learning.* It is, however, certain, that, notwithstanding these encouragements, the sciences were cultivated with less ardour, and men of learning and genius were less numerous than in the preceding century. In the beginning of this, the modern Platonists yet maintained their credit, and their philosophy was in vogue. The Alexandrian and Athenian schools flourished under the direction of Damascius, Isidorus, Simplicius, Eulamius, Hermias, Priscianus, and others, who were placed on the highest summit of literary glory. But when the emperor Justinian, by a particular edict, prohibited the teaching of philosophy at Athens,† (which edict, no doubt, was levelled at the modern Platonism already mentioned,) and when his resentment began to flame out against those who refused to aban- || don the pagan worship, all these celebrated philosophers took refuge among the Persians, who were at that time the enemies of Rome. They, indeed, returned from their voluntary Concerning the Doctors and Ministers of the exile, when the peace was concluded between the Persians and the Romans in 533;§ but they could never recover their former credit, and they gradually disappeared from the public schools and seminaries, which ceased, at length, to be under their direction.

It is, however, to be observed, that among these eastern Christians there were some who rejected both the Platonic and Aristotelian doctrines, and who, unwilling to be obliged to others for their philosophical knowledge, invented systems of their own, which were inexpressibly chimerical and pregnant with absurdities. Of this class of original philosophers was Cosmas, a Nestorian, commonly called Indicopleustes, whose doctrines are singular, and resemble more the notions of the Orientals than the opinions of the Greeks.§ Such also was the writer, from whose Exposition of the Octateuch Photius has drawn several citations.|| CHAPTER II.

Church.

I. THE external form of church government continued without any remarkable alteration during the course of this century. But the bishops of Rome and Constantinople, who Thus expired that famous sect, which was were considered as the most eminent and prindistinguished by the title of the Modern or cipal rulers of the Christian church, were enLater Platonic; and which, for a series of ages, gaged in perpetual disputes about the extent had produced such divisions and tumults in the and limits of their respective jurisdictions; and Christian church, and been, in other respects, both seemed to aim at the supreme authority prejudicial to the interests and progress of the in ecclesiastical affairs. The latter prelate not Gospel. It was succeeded by the Aristotelian only claimed an unrivalled sovereignty over the philosophy, which arose imperceptibly out of eastern churches, but also maintained, that his its obscurity, and was placed in an advantage- church was, in point of dignity, no way infeous light by the illustrations of the learned, rior to that of Rome. The Roman pontiffs but especially and principally by the celebrated beheld, with impatience, these lordly pretencommentaries of Philoponus; and, indeed, the||sions, and warmly asserted the pre-eminence knowledge of this philosophy was necessary of their church, and its superiority over that for the Greeks, since it was from the depths of of Constantinople. Gregory the Great distinthis peripatetical wisdom, that the Monophy-guished himself in this violent contest; and sites and Nestorians drew the subtilties with which they endeavoured to overwhelm the abettors of the Ephesian and Chalcedonian councils.

V. The Nestorians and Monophysites, who lived in the east, equally turned their eyes toward Aristotle, and, in order to train their respective followers to the field of controversy, and arm them with the subtilties of a contentious logic, translated the principal books of that deep philosopher into their native languages. Sergius, a Monophysite and philosopher,

* See the Codex Theodos. tom. ii. lib. vi. and Herm. Conringius, de Studiis Urbis Romæ et Constantinop. in a Dissertation subjoined to his Antiquitates Academicæ. Johannes Malala, Historia Chronica, part ii. p. 187, edit. Oxon. Another testimony concerning this matter is cited from a certain Chronicle, not yet published, by Nic. Alemannus, ad Procopii Histor. Arcanam, cap. xxvi. Agathias, de Rebus Justiniani, lib. ii.

See Wesselingii Observat. Var. lib. i. cap. xviii.
VOL. I.-21

the following event furnished him with an opportunity of exerting his zeal. In 588, John, bishop of Constantinople, surnamed the Faster, on account of his extraordinary abstinence, and austerity, assembled a council, by his own authority, to inquire into an accusation, brought against Peter, patriarch of Antioch; and, on this occasion, assumed the title of œcumenical or universal bishop.¶ Now, although this title

lished by Dr. Pocock, p. 94, 172.

See the Histor. Dynastiarum, by Abulpharajius, pub

See Agathias, de Rebus Justiniani, lib. i. p. 48.That Uranius made use of the Aristotelian philosophy in the Eutychian controversy, is evident from this circumstance, that Agathias represents him disputing concerning the passibility and immiscibility of God (xx тo RUNTO και ασυγχύτον.)

Agathias, ibid.

Bernard de Montfaucon, Præfat. ad Cosmam, p. 10, tom. ii. Collectionis novæ Patrum Græcorum. Biblioth. cod. xxxvi.

We cannot avoid taking notice of some mistakes which have slipped from the pen of Dr. Mosheim, in his

gant prelates in Italy, permitted none to be raised to the pontificate without their approbation, and reserved to themselves the right of They enacted spiritual laws, called the religious orders before their tribunals, and summoned councils by their legal authority. In consequence of all this, the pontiffs, amidst all

had been formerly enjoyed by the bishops of Constantinople, and was also susceptible of an interpretation that might have prevented its giving umbrage or offence to any, yet Grego-judging of the legality of every new election.* ry suspected, both from the time and the occasion of John's renewing his claim to it, that he was aiming at a supremacy over all the Christian churches; and therefore he opposed his claim in the most vigorous manner, in let-their high pretensions, reverenced the majesty ters to that purpose, addressed to the emperor, and to such persons as he judged proper to second his opposition. But all his efforts were without effect; and the bishops of Constantinople continued to assume the title in question, though not in the sense in which it had alarmed the pope.t

of their kings and emperors, and submitted to their authority with the most profound humility; nor were they yet so lost to all sense of shame, as to aim at the subjection of kings and princes to their spiritual dominion.‡

III. The rights and privileges of the clergy were very considerable before this period, and the riches, which they had accumulated, immense: and both received daily augmentations from the growth of superstition in this century. The arts of a rapacious priesthood were practised upon the ignorant devotion of the simple; and even the remorse of the wicked was made an instrument of increasing the ecclesiastical treasure; for an opinion was propagated with industry among the people, that a remission of

II. This pontiff, however, adhered tenaciously to his purpose, opposed with vehemence the bishop of Constantinople, raised new tumults and dissensions among the sacred order, and aimed at no less than an unlimited supremacy over the Christian church. This ambitious design succeeded in the west; while, in the eastern provinces, his arrogant pretensions were scarcely respected by any but those who were at enmity with the bishop of Constanti-sin was to be purchased by their liberalities to nople; and this preiate was always in a condition to make head against the progress of his authority in the east. How much the opinions of some were favourable to the lordly demands of the Roman pontiffs, may be easily imagined from an expression of Ennodius, that infamous and extravagant flatterer of Symmachus, who was a prelate of ambiguous fame. This parasitical panegyrist, among other impertinent assertions, maintained, that the pontiff was constituted judge in the place of God, which he filled as the vicegerent of the Most High. On the other hand, it is certain, from a variety of the most authentic records, that both the emperors and the nations in general were far from being disposed to bear with patience the yoke of servitude, which the popes were imposing upon the Christian church.§ The Gothic princes set bounds to the power of those arronarration of this event. First, the council here mentioned was holden under the pontificate of Pelagius II. and not of Gregory the Great, who was not chosen bishop of Rome before the year 590. Secondly, the person accused before this council was not Peter, but Gregory, bishop of Antioch. Thirdly, it does not appear that the council was summoned by John of Constantinople, but by the emperor Mauricius, to whom Gregory had appealed from the governor of the east, before whom he

was first accused.

The title of universal bishop, which had been given by Leo and Justinian to the Patriarch of Constanti nople, was not attended with any accession of power. Gregor. Magni Epist. lib. iv. v. vii. All the passain these epistles that relate to this famous contest, have been extracted and illustrated by Launoy, in his Assertio in Privileg. S. Medardi, tom. iii. op. part ii. p. 266. See also Lequien, Oriens Christianus, tom. i. p. 67. Pfaffi Dissertatio de Titulo Ecumen. in the Tempe Helvetica, tom. iv. p. 99.

ges

See his Apologeticum pro Synodo, in the xvth volume of the Bibliotheca Magna Patrum. One would think that this servile adulator had never read the 4th verse of the 2d chapter of St. Paul's 2d Epistle to the Thessalonians, where the Anti-Christ, or man of sin, is described in the very terms in which he represents the authority of the pontiff Symmachus.

See particularly the truth of this assertion, with respect to Spain, in Geddes' Dissertation on the Papal Supremacy, chiefly with relation to the ancient Spanish Church, which is to be found in the second volume of his Miscellaneous Tracts.

the churches and monks, and that the prayers of departed saints, whose efficacy was victorious at the throne of God, were to be bought by offerings presented to the temples, which were consecrated to these celestial mediators. But, in proportion as the riches of the church increased, the various orders of the clergy were infected with those vices which are too often the consequences of an affluent prosperity.This appears, with the utmost evidence, from the imperial edicts and the decrees of councils, which were so frequently levelled at the immoralities of those who were distinguished by the appellation of clerks; for, what necessity would there have been for the enactment of so many laws to restrain the vices, and to preserve the morals of the ecclesiastical orders, if they had fulfilled even the obligations of external decency, or shown, in the general tenor of their lives, a certain degree of respect for religion and virtue? Be that as it will, the effect of all these laws and edicts was so inconsiderable as to be scarcely perceived; for so high was the veneration paid, at this time, to the clergy, that their most flagitious crimes were corrected by the slightest and gentlest punishments; an unhappy circumstance, which added to their presumption, and rendered them more daring and audacious in iniquity.

IV. The bishops of Rome, who considered themselves as the chiefs and fathers of the Christian church, are not to be excepted from this censure, any more than the clergy who were under their jurisdiction. We may form some notion of their humility and virtue by that long and vehement contention, which arose in 498, between Symmachus and Laurentius, who were, on the same day, elected to the pontifi *See Mascovii Histor. Germanor. tom. ii. not. p. 113. Basnage, Histoire des Eglises Reformees, tom. i. p. 381.

See the citations from Gregory the Great, collected by Launoy, de regia Potestate in Matrimon. tom. i. op. part ii. p. 691, and in his Assertio in Privilegium S. Medardí, p. 272; tom. iii. op. part ii. See also Giannone, Historia di Napoli, tom. ii.

which they propagated, with such success, the contagion of this monastic devotion, that, in a short time, Ireland, Gaul, Germany, and Swit

were, in a manner, covered with convents. The most illustrious disciple of the abbot now mentioned, was Columban, whose singular rule of discipline is yet extant, and surpasses all the rest in simplicity and brevity.* The monastic orders, in general, abounded with fanatics and profligates; the latter were more numerous than the former in the western convents, while, in those of the east, the fanatics were predominant.

cate by different parties, and whose dispute was, at length, decided by Theodoric king of the Goths. Each of these ecclesiastics maintained obstinately the validity of his election; theyzerland, swarmed with those lazy orders, and reciprocally accused each other of the most detestable crimes; and, to their mutual dishonour, their accusations did not appear, on either side, entirely destitute of foundation. Three different councils, assembled at Rome, endeavoured to terminate this odious schism, but without success. A fourth was summoned, by Theodoric, to examine the accusations brought against Symmachus, to whom this prince had, at the beginning of the schism, adjudged the papal chair. This council met about the com- || mencement of the century; and in it the Roman pontiff was acquitted of the crimes laid to his charge. But the adverse party refused to acquiesce in this decision; and this gave occasion to Ennodius of Ticinum (now Pavia,) to draw up his adulatory Apology for the Council and Symmachus.† In this apology, which disguises the truth under the seducing colours of a gaudy rhetoric, the reader will perceive that the foundations of that enormous power, which the popes afterwards acquired, were now laid; but he will in vain seek, in this laboured production, any satisfactory proof of the injustice of the charge brought against Symmachus.t

VI. A new order, which in a manner absorbed all the others that were established in the west, was instituted, in 529, by Benedict of Nursia, a man of piety and reputation, for the age he lived in. From his rule of discipline, which is yet extant, we learn that it was not his intention to impose it upon all the monastic societies, but to form an order whose discipline should be milder, establishment more solid, and manners more regular, than those of the other monastic bodies; and whose members, during the course of a holy and peaceful life, were to divide their time between prayer, reading, the education of youth, and other pious and learned labours. But, in process of time, the followers of this celebrated ecclesiastic degener

V. The number, credit, and influence of theated sadly from the piety of their founder, and monks augmented daily in all parts of the lost sight of the duties of their station, and the Christian world. They multiplied so prodi- great end of their establishment. Having acgiously in the east, that whole armies might quired immense riches from the devout liberalihave been raised out of the monastic order, ty of the opulent, they sunk into luxury, intemwithout any sensible diminution of that enor-perance, and sloth, abandoned themselves to all mous body. The monastic life was also highly honoured, and had an incredible number of patrons and followers in all the western provinces, as appears from the rules which were prescribed in this century, by various doctors, for directing the conduct of the cloistered monks, and the holy virgins, who had sacrificed their capacity of being useful in the world, to the gloomy charms of a convent.§ In Great Britain, a certain abbot, named Congal, is said to have persuaded an incredible number of persons to abandon the affairs, obligations, and duties of social life, and to spend the remainder of their days in solitude, under a rule of discipline, of which he was the inventor. His disciples travelled through many countries, in

This schism may be truly termed odious, as it was carried on by assassinations, massacres, and all the cruel proceedings of a desperate civil war. See Paulus Diaconus, lib. xvii.

This apology may be seen in the fifteenth volume of the Magn. Bibl. Patrum, p. 248.

sorts of vices, extended their zeal and attention to worldly affairs, insinuated themselves into the cabinets of princes, took part in political cabals and court factions, made a vast augmentation of superstitious ceremonies in their order, to blind the multitude, and supply the place of their expiring virtue; and, among other meritorious enterprises, laboured most ardently to swell the arrogance, by enlarging the power and authority of the Roman pontiff. The good Benedict never dreamed that the great purposes of his institution were to be thus perverted; much less did he give any encouragement or permission to such flagrant abuses. His rule of discipline was neither favourable to luxury nor to ambition; and it is still celebrated on account of its excellence, though it has not been observed for many ages.

It is proper to remark here, that the institution of Benedict changed, in several respects, the obligations and duties of the monastic life, as it was regulated in the west. Among other That Symmachus was never fairly acquitted, may be presumed from the first, and proved from the things, he obliged those who entered into his second of the following circumstances: first, that The-order to promise, at the time of their being reodoric, who was a wise and equitable prince, and who had attentively examined the charge brought against him, would not have referred the decision to the bishops, if the matter had been clear, but would have pronounced judgment himself, as he had formerly done with respect to the legality of his election. The second circumstance is, that the council acquitted him without even hearing those who accused him, and he himself did not appear, though frequently summoned.

These rules are extant in Holstenius' Codex Regularum, part ii. published at Rome in 1661. See also Edm. Martenné et Ursin. Durand. Thesaur. Anecdot. Nov. tom. i. p. 4.

Archbishop Usher's Antiq. Eccles. Britan.

ceived as novices, and afterwards at their admission as members of the society, to persevere in an obedience to the rules he had laid down, without attempting to change them in any respect. As he was exceedingly solicitous about

* Usserii Sylloge Antiquar. Epistolar. Hibernicar. p. 5-15.-Holstenii Codex Regularum, tom. ii. p. 48.Mabillon, Præf. ad Saculum ii. Benedictinum, p. 4.

See Mabillon, Acta Sanctor. Ord. Bened. Sæc. i. and Annales Ordin. Ben. tom. i. See also Helyot, and the other writers who have given accounts of the monastic orders,

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