means to be adopted, since it bordered upon and ceremonies rendered an augmentation of the erroneous expressions and tenets of the doctors and interpreters of these mysteries inTheopaschites, who composed one of the sects dispensably necessary. Hence a new kind of into which the Eutychians were subdivided.* science arose, which had, for its object, the exThe latter opinion was confirmed by Hormis-plication of these ceremonies and the investigadas the Roman pontiff, to whom the Scythian tion of the causes and circumstances whence monks had appealed in vain; but this, instead they derived their origin. But most of those, of allaying the heat of the present controver-who entered into these researches, never went sy, only added new fuel to the flame. John II., who was one of the successors of Hormisdas, approved the proposition which the latter had condemned; and, confirming the opinion of the Scythian monks, exposed the decisions of the papal oracle to the laughter of the wise. His sentence was afterwards sanctioned by the fifth general council; and thus peace was restored to the church by the conclusion of these unintelligible disputes.†

With the question now mentioned, there was another closely and intimately connected, namely, Whether the person of Christ could be considered as compounded? Of this question the Scythian monks maintained the affirmative, and their adversaries the negative.

CHAPTER IV.

to the fountain-head, to the true sources of these idle inventions. They endeavoured to seek their origin in reason and Christianity; but in this they deceived themselves, or, at least, deluded others, and delivered to the world their own fancies, instead of disclosing the true causes of things. Had they been acquainted with the opinions and customs of remote antiquity, or studied the pontifical law of the Greeks and Romans, they would have discovered the true origin of many institutions, which were falsely looked upon as venerable and sacred.

III. The public worship of God was still celebrated by every nation in its own language,. but was enlarged, from time to time, by the addition of various hymns, and other things of that nature, which were considered as proper

Concerning the Rites and Ceremonies used in the to enliven devotion by the power of novelty.

Church during this Century.

Gregory the Great prescribed a new method of administering the Lord's supper, with a I. In this century the cause of true religion magnificent assemblage of pompous ceremosunk apace, and the gloomy reign of supersti- nies. This institution was called the canon of tion extended itself in proportion to the decay the mass; and, if any are unwilling to give it of genuine piety. This lamentable decay was the name of a new appointment, they must at supplied by a multitude of rites and ceremo- least acknowledge, that it was a considerable nies. In the east the Nestorian and Eutychian augmentation of the ancient canon for celecontroversies gave occasion to the invention of brating the eucharist, and occasioned a remarkvarious rites and external institutions, which able change in the administration of that ordiwere used as marks to distinguish the contend-nance. Many ages, however, passed before ing parties. The western churches were load- this Gregorian canon was adopted by all the ed with rites by Gregory the Great, who had a Latin churches.* marvellous fecundity of genius in inventing, Baptism, except in cases of necessity, was and an irresistible force of eloquence in recom-administered only on great festivals. We omit mending superstitious observances. Nor will mentioning, for the sake of brevity, the litathis appear surprising to those who know, that,nies that were addressed to the saints, the difin the opinion of this pontiff, the words of the sacred writings were images of mysterious and invisible things; for such as embrace this chimerical system will easily be led to express all the doctrines and precepts of religion by external rites and symbols. Gregory, indeed, is worthy of praise in this, that he did not pretend to force others to the observance of his inventions; though this forbearance, perhaps, was as much occasioned by a want of power, as by a principle of moderation.

II. This prodigious augmentation of rites

The deacon Victor, and those who opposed the Scythian monks, expressed their opinion in the following proposition: viz. One person of the Trinity suffered in the flesh. Both sides received the council of Chalcedon, acknowledged two natures in Christ, in opposition to Eutyches, and only one person in opposition to Nestorius; and yet, by a torrent of jargon, and a long chain of unintelligible syllogisms, the Scythian monks accused their adversaries of Nestorianism, and were accused by them of the Eutychian heresy.

† See Historia Controversiæ de uno ex Trinitate passo, by Norris, tom. iii. op. p. 771. The ancient writers who mention this controversy, call the monks who set it on foot, Scythians. But La Croze (Thesaur. Epist. tom. iii.) imagines, that the country of these monks was Egypt, and not Scythia; and this conjecture is supported by reasons which carry in them, at least, a high degree of probability. VOL. I.-22

ferent sorts of supplications, the stations or assemblies of Gregory, the forms of consecration, and other such institutions, which were contrived, in this century, to excite a species of external devotion, and to engage the outward senses in religious worship. An inquiry into these topics would of itself deserve to be made the subject of a separate work.

IV. An incredible number of temples arose in honour of the saints, during this century, both in the eastern and western provinces. The places set apart for public worship were already very numerous; but it was now that Christians first began to consider these sacred edifices as the means of purchasing the favour and protection of the saints, and to be persuaded that these departed spirits defended and guarded, against evils and calamities of every kind, the provinces, lands, cities, and villages, in which they were honoured with temples. The number of festivals, which were now observed in the Christian church, and many of which seem to have been instituted upon a pagan model, nearly equalled the amount of the temples.

To those that were celebrated in the

* See Theod. Chr. Lilienthal, de Canone Missa Gregoriano.

preceding century, were now added the festival of the purification of the blessed Virgin (invented with a design to remove the uneasiness of the heathen converts on account of the loss of their Lupercalia or feasts of Pan,) the festival of the immaculate conception, the day set apart to commemorate the birth of St. John, and others less worthy of mention

CHAPTER V.

Concerning the Divisions and Heresies that trou

bled the Church during this Century.

I. THE various sects which had fomented divisions among Christians in the early ages of the church, were far from being effectually suppressed or totally extirpated. Though they had been persecuted and afflicted with a variety of hardships, trials, and calamities, yet they still subsisted, and continued to excite dissensions and tumults in many places. The Manicheans are said to have gained such a degree of influence among the Persians, as to have corrupted even the son of Kobad, the monarch of that nation, who repaid their zeal in making proselytes with a terrible massacre, in which numbers of that impious sect perished in the most dreadful manner. Nor was Persia the only country which was troubled with the attempts of the Manicheans to spread their odious doctrine; other provinces of the empire were, undoubtedly, infected with their errors, as we may judge from the book that was written against them by Heraclian, bishop of Chalcedon.* In Gaul and Africa, dissensions of a different kind prevailed; and the controversy between the Semi-Pelagians and the disciples of Augustin continued to divide the western churches.

while their opinions were openly professed, and their cause maintained, by the Vandals in Africa, the Goths in Italy, the Spaniards, the Burgundians, the Suevi, and the greatest part of the Gauls. It is true, that the Greeks, who had received the decrees of the council of Nice, persecuted and oppressed the Arians wherever their influence and authority could reach; but the Nicenians, in their turn, were not less rigorously treated by their adversaries, particularly in Africa and Italy, where they felt, in a very severe manner, the weight of the Arian power, and the bitterness of hostile resentment.*

The triumphs of Arianism were, however, transitory, and its prosperous days were entirely eclipsed, when the Vandals were driven out of Africa, and the Goths out of Italy, by the arms of Justinian;† for the other Arian princes were easily induced to abandon, themselves, the doctrine of that sect; and not only so, but to employ the force of laws and the authority of councils to prevent its progress among their subjects, and to extirpate it entirely out of their dominions. Such was the conduct of Sigismond king of the Burgundians; also of Theodimir king of the Suevi, who had settled in Lusitania; and Recared king of Spain.Whether this change was produced by the force of reason and argument, or by the influence of hopes and fears, is a question which we shall not pretend to determine. One thing, however, is certain, that, from this period, the Arian sect declined apace, and could never after recover any considerable degree of stability and consistence.

IV. The Nestorians, after having gained a firm footing in Persia, and established the patriarch or head of their sect at Seleucia, exII. The Donatists enjoyed the sweets of tended their views, and spread their doctrines, freedom and tranquillity, as long as the Van- with a success equal to the ardour of their zeal, dals reigned in Africa; but the scene was great- through the provinces situated beyond the ly changed with respect to them, when the em- limits of the Roman empire. There are yet pire of these barbarians was overturned in 534. extant authentic records, from which it apThey, however, still remained in a separate pears, that throughout Persia, as also in India, body, and not only held their church, but, to- || Armenia, Arabia, Syria, and other countries, ward the conclusion of this century, and par- there were vast numbers of Nestorian churches, ticularly from the year 591, defended them- all under the jurisdiction of the patriarch of selves with new degrees of animosity and vi- Seleucia. It is true, indeed, that the Persian gour, and were bold enough to attempt the monarchs were not all equally favourable to multiplication of their sect. Gregory, the Ro- this growing sect, and that some of them even man pontiff, opposed these efforts with great persecuted, with the utmost severity, all those spirit and assiduity; and, as appears from his who bore the Christian name throughout their epistles, tried various methods of depressing dominions;§ but it is also true, that such of this faction, which was pluming its wings anew, these princes, as were disposed to exercise moand aiming at the revival of those lamentable deration and benignity toward the Christians, divisions which it had formerly excited in the were much more indulgent to the Nestorians, church. Nor was the opposition of the zeal- than to their adversaries who adhered to the ous pontiff without effect; it seems on the con- council of Ephesus, since the latter were contrary to have been attended with the desired success, since, in this century, the church of the Donatists dwindled away to nothing, and after this period no traces of it are to be found. III. About the commencement of this century, the Arians were triumphant in several parts of Asia, Africa, and Europe. Many of the Asiatic bishops favoured them secretly,

See Photius, Biblioth. cod. cxiv. p. 291.

f See his Epistles, lib. iv. ep. xxxiv. xxxv. p. 714, 715, lib. vi. ep. lxv. p. 841, cp. xxxvii. p. 821, lib. ix. ep. liii. p. 972, lib. ii. ep. xlviii. p. 611, tom. ii. op.

*Procopius, de Bello Vandal. lib. i. cap. viii. and de Bello Gothico, lib. ii. cap. ii.—Evagrius, Hist. Ecclesiast. lib. iv. cap. xv.

See Mascovii Historia German. tom. ii. p. 76, 91. See also an account of the barbarian kings, who abandoned Arianism, and received the doctrines of the Nicene council, in the Acta Sanctorum, tom. ii. Martii, p. 275, and April. p. 134.

Cosmas Indicopleustes, Topograph. Christian. lib. 1ì. p. 125, which is to be found in Montfaucon's Collectio nova PP. Græcorum.

Asseman. Biblioth. Orient. Vatic. tom. iii. part i. P. 109, 407, 411, 441, 449; tom. iii. part ii. cap. v. sect. íì. p. 83.

sidered as spies employed by the Greeks, with whom they were connected by the ties of religion.

Egypt, Nubia, Abyssinia, and other countries." This dexterous monk had prudence to contrive the means of success, as well as activity to put V. The Monophysites, or Eutychians, flour- them in execution; for he almost totally extinished also in this century, and had gained over guished all the animosities, and reconciled all to their doctrine a considerable part of the the factions, that had divided the Monophyeastern provinces. The emperor Anastasius sites; and when their churches grew so numewas warmly attached to the doctrine and sect rous in the east, that they could not all be conof the Acephali, who were reckoned among veniently comprehended under the sole juristhe more rigid Monophysites; and, in 513, he diction of the patriarch of Antioch, he appointcreated patriarch of Antioch (in the room of ed, as his assistant, the primate of the east, Flavian, whom he had expelled from that see,) whose residence was at Tagritis, on the borSeverus, a learned monk of Palestine, from ders of Armenia. The laborious efforts of whom the Monophysites were called Severi- Jacob were seconded, in Egypt and the adjaans. This emperor exerted all his influence cent countries, by Theodosius bishop of Alexand authority to destroy the credit of the coun-andria; and he became so famous, that all the cil of Chalcedon in the east, and to maintain Monophysites of the east considered him as the cause of those who adhered to the doctrine their second parent and founder, and are to of one nature in Christ; and, by the ardour this day called Jacobites, in honour of their and vehemence of his zeal, he excited the most new chief. deplorable seditions and tumults in the church. After the death of Anastasius, which happened in 518, Severus was expelled in his turn; and the sect which the late emperor had maintained and propagated with such zeal and assiduity, was every where opposed and depressed by his successor Justin, and the following emperors, in such a manner, that it seemed to be on the very brink of ruin, notwithstanding that it had created Sergius patriarch in the place of Severus.§

VII. Thus it happened, that, by the imprudent zeal and violence which the Greeks employed in defending the truth, the Monophysites gained considerable advantages, and, at length, obtained a solid and permanent settlement. From this period their sect has been under the jurisdiction of the patriarchs of Alexandria and Antioch, who, notwithstanding the difference of opinion which subsists, with respect to some points, between the Syrian and Egyptian Monophysites, are exceedingly VI. When the affairs of the Monophysites careful to maintain communion with each were in such a desperate situation, that almost other, both by letters, and by the exchange of all hope of their recovery had vanished, and good offices. The Abyssinian primate is subtheir bishops were reduced, by death and im- ject to the patriarch of Alexandria; and the prisonment, to a very small number, an obscure primate of the east, who resides at Tagritis, is man whose name was Jacob, and who was dis-under the jurisdiction of the patriarch of Antinguished from others so called, by the surname of Baradæus, or Zanzalus, restored this expiring sect to its former prosperity and lustre. This poor monk, the greatness of whose views rose far above the obscurity of his station, and whose fortitude and patience no dangers could daunt, nor any labours exhaust, was ordained to the episcopal office by a handful of captive bishops, travelled on foot through the whole east, established bishops and presbyters every where, revived the drooping spirits of the Monophysites, and produced such an astonishing change in their affairs by the power of his eloquence, and by his incredible activity and diligence, that when he died bishop of Edessa, in 578, he left his sect in a most flourishing state in Syria, Mesopotamia, Armenia,

See Asseman. Biblioth. Orient. Vatican. tom. ii. p. 47, 321.-Euseb. Renaudot, Historia Patriarch. Alexandrinor. p. 127, &c.

tioch. The Armenians are ruled by a bishop of their own, and are distinguished by certain opinions and rites from the rest of the Monophysites.

VIII. The sect of the Monophysites, before it was thus happily established, was torn with factions and intestine disputes, and suffered, in a particular manner, from that nice and subtile controversy concerning the body of Christ, which arose at Alexandria. Julian, bishop of Halicarnassus, affirmed, in 519, that the divine nature had so insinuated itself into the body of Christ, from the very moment of the Virgin's conception, that the body of our Lord changed its nature, and became incorruptible. This opinion was also embraced by Caianus, bishop of Alexandria; from whom those who adopted it were called Caianists. They were, however, divided into three sects, two of which debated this question, whether the body of Christ was created or uncreated, while the third asserted, that our Lord's body was indeed corruptible, but never actually corrupted, since the energy of the divine nature must have pre

Evagrius, Hist. Ecclesiast. lib. iii. cap. xxxiii.-Cy-vented its dissolution. rillus, vita Sabæ in Jo. Bapt. Cotelerii Monument. Ecclesiæ Græcæ, tom. iii. p. 312.-Bayle's Dictionary, at

the article Anastasius.

See Abulpharajii Series Patriarch. Antiochen. in Biblioth. Orient. Vatican. tom. ii.

This sect was warmly opposed by Severus of Antioch, and Damianus, who maintained

With regard to the Nubians and Abyssinians, see the See Biblioth. Orient. &c. tom. ii. cap. viii. p. 62, 72, Biblioth. Orient. tom. ii. p. 330.-Lobo, Voyage d'Abys326, 331, 414. Eusebii Renaud. Hist. Patriarch. Alexandr.sinie, tom. ii. p. 36.-Ludolph. Commentar. ad Historiam p. 119, 133, 425, and the Liturgia Orient. tom. ii. p. 333, Æthiopicam, p. 451. 342.-Faustus Naironus, Euoplia Fidei Catholicæ ex Syrorum Monumentis, part i. p. 40, 41.

† Asseman. Biblioth. Orient. tom. ii. p. 410. See also this learned writer's Dissertatio de Monophysitis.

THE SEVENTH CENTURY.

PART I.

THE EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

CHAPTER I.

Concerning the prosperous Events which happen

ed in the Church during this Century.

gine, that this general change in favour of Christianity was wholly due to the discourses of the Roman monks and doctors; for other causes were certainly instrumental in accomplishing this great event; and it is not to be doubted that the influence which some Christian queens, and ladies of high distinction, had over their husbands, and the pains they took to convert them to Christianity, as also the severe and rigorous laws that were afterwards enacted against idolaters, contributed much to the progress of the Gospel.

II. The attention and activity of the Greeks were so entirely occupied by their intestine divisions, that they were little solicitous about the progress of Christianity. In the west, AugusI. In this century the progress of Christiani- tin laboured to extend the limits of the church, ty was greatly accelerated both in the eastern and to spread the light of the Gospel among and western hemispheres; and its divine light the Anglo-Saxons; and, after his death, other was widely diffused through the darkened na- monks were sent from Rome, to exert themtions. The Nestorians who dwelt in Syria, selves in the same glorious cause. Their efPersia, and India, contributed much to its pro- forts were attended with the desired success: pagation in the east, by the zeal and diligence, and the efficacy of their labours was manifestthe laborious efforts and indefatigable assidui- ed in the conversion of the six Anglo-Saxon ty, with which they preached it to those fierce kings, who had hitherto remained under the and barbarous nations, who lived in the remot-darkness of the ancient superstitions, to the est regions and deserts of Asia, and among Christian faith, which gained ground by dewhom, as we learn from authentic records, their grees, and was, at length, embraced universalministry was crowned with remarkable suc-ly in Britain. We are not, however, to imacess. It was by the labours of this sect, that the light of the Gospel first penetrated into the immense empire of China, about the year 636, when Jesuiabas of Gadala was at the head of the Nestorians, as will appear probable to those who consider as genuine the famous Chinese monument, which was discovered at Siganfu by the Jesuits during the last century.* Some, indeed, look upon this monument as a mere forgery of the Jesuits, though, perhaps, without reason: there are, however, some unexceptionable proofs, that the northern parts of China, even before this century, abounded with Christians, who, for many succeeding ages, were under the inspection of a metropolitan sent to them by the Chaldean or Nestorian patriarch. *This celebrated monument has been published and explained by several learned writers, particularly by Kireher, in his China Illustrata; by Muller, in a treatise published at Berlin in 1672; by Renaudot, in his Relations anciennes des Indes et de la Chine, de deux Voyageurs Mahometans, p. 228-271, published at Paris in 1718; and by Assemanus, in his Biblioth. Orient. tom. iii. in part ii. cap. iv. sect. 7. p. 533. A still more accurate edition of this famous monument was promised to us by the learned Theoph. Sigefred Bayer, the greatest proficient of this age in Chinese erudition; but his death has blasted our expectations. For my part, I see no reason to doubt the genuineness of this monument; nor can I understand what advantage could redound to the Jesuits from the invention of such a fable. See Liron, Singularites Historiques et Literaires, tom. ii. p. 500.

† See Renaudot, p. 56, 68, &c. also Assemani Biblioth. cap. ix. p. 522; the learned Bayer, in the Preface to his Museum Sinicum, assures us, that he had in his hands such proofs of the truth of what is here affirmed, as put the matter beyond all doubt. See on this subject a very learned dissertation published by M. de Guignes in the thirtieth vol. of the Memoires de Literature, tires des Registres de l'Academie Royale des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, in which he proves that the Christians were settled in China so early as the seventh century. He re marks indeed, that the Nestorians and other Christians were for a long time confounded in the Chinese annals with the worshippers of Fo, an Indian idol, whose rites were introduced into China about 65 years after the birth

III. Many of the British, Scotish, and Irish ecclesiastics travelled among the Batavian, Belgic, and German nations, with the pious intention of propagating the knowledge of the truth, and of erecting churches, and forming religious establishments. This was the true reason which induced the Germans, in after-times, to found so many convents for the Scotch and Irish, of which some yet remain.‡

Columban, an Irish monk, seconded by the labours of a few companions, had happily extirpated, in the preceding century, the ancient superstitions in Gaul, and the parts adjacent, where idolatry had taken the deepest root; he also carried the lamp of celestial truth among the Suevi, the Boii, the Franks, and other Ger

of Christ; and that this circumstance has deceived De la Croze, Beausobre, and some other learned men, who have raised specious objections against the hypothesis that maintains the early introduction of Christianity into this great empire. A reader, properly informed, will pay little or no attention to the account given of this matter by Voltaire in the first volume of his Essai sur l'Histoire Generale. A poet, who recounts facts, or denies them, without deigning to produce his authorities, must not expect to meet with the credit that is due to an historian.

* Bedæ Historia Ecclesiast. Gentis Anglor. lib. ii. cap, iii. xiv. lib. iii. cap. xxi.—Rapin de Thoyras, tom. i. Wilkins' Concilia Magne Britanniæ, tom. i. p. 222. See the Acta Sanctorum, tom. ii. Febr. P. 360.