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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.*

IV. The number of the saints, who were looked upon as ministers of the kingdom of heaven, and whose patronage was esteemed such an unspeakable blessing, had now an extraordinary increase; and the celestial courts were filled with new legions of this species of beings, some of which, as we have had formerly occasion to observe, had no existence but in the imagination of their deluded clients and worshippers. This multiplication of saints may be easily accounted for, when we consider that superstition, the source of fear, had risen to such an enormous height in this age, as rendered the creation of new patrons necessary to calm the anxiety of trembling mortals. Besides, the corruption and impiety that now reigned with a horrid sway, and the licentiousness and dissolution that had so generally infected all ranks and orders of men, rendered the reputation of sanctity very easy to be acquired; for, amidst such a perverse generation, it demanded no great efforts of virtue to be esteemed holy, and this, no doubt, contributed to increase considerably the number of the celestial advocates. All those, to whom nature had given an austere complexion, a gloomy temper, or enthusiastic imagination, were, in consequence of an advantageous comparison with the profligate multitude, revered as the favorites of heaven and the friends of God.

|| ever, hence conclude, that after this period the privilege of canonizing new saints was vested solely in the pontiffs; for there are several examples upon record, which prove, that not only provincial councils, but also several of the first order among the bishops, advanced to the rank of saints such as they thought worthy of that high dignity, and continued thus to augment the celestial patrons of the church, with out consulting the pope, until the twelfth cer tury. Then Alexander III. abrogated this privilege of the bishops and councils, and placed canonization in the number of the more important acts of authority, which the sovereign pontiff alone, by a peculiar prerogative, was entitled to exercise.

V. The expositors and commentators, who attempted in this century to illustrate and explain the sacred writings, were too mean in their abilities, and too unsuccessful in their undertakings, to deserve more than a slight and transient notice; for it is extremely uncertain, whether or no the works of Olympiodorus and Ecumenius are to be considered as the productions of this age. Among the Latins, Remi, or Remigius, bishop of Auxerre, continued the exposition of the Scriptures, which he had begun in the preceding century; but his work is highly defective in various respects; for he took very little pains in explaining the literal sense of the words, and employed the whole force of his fantastic genius in unfolding their pretended mystical signification, which he looked upon as infinitely more interesting than The Roman pontiff, who before this period their plain and literal meaning. Besides, his had pretended to the right of creating saints explications are rarely the fruit of his own geby his sole authority, gave, in this century, the nius and invention, but are, generally speakfirst specimen of this spiritual power; for in ing, mere compilations from ancient commenthe preceding ages there is no example of his tators. As to the Moral Observations of Odo having exercised this privilege alone. This upon the book of Job,§ they are transcribed specimen was given in 993, by John XV., from a work of Gregory the Great, which bears who, with all the formalities of a solemn ca- the same title. We mention no more; if, nonization, enrolled Udalric, bishop of Augs- however, any are desirous of an ample account burg, in the number of the saints, and thus of those who were esteemed the principal comconferred upon him a title to the worship and mentators in this century, they will find it in a veneration of Christians. We must not, how-book written professedly upon this subject by

* Almost all the donations that were made to the church during this century, bear 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: " Appropinquante mundi termino," &c. i. e. "The end of “the world being now at hand," &c. Among the many undeniable testimonies that we have from ancient records of this universal delusion, that was so profitable to the sacerdotal order, we shall confine ourselves to the quotation of one very remarkable passage in the Apologeticum of Abbo, abbot of Fleury, adversus Arnulphum, i. e. Arnoul bishop of Orleans: which apology is published by the learned Francis Pithou, in the Codex Canonum Ecclesiæ Romanæ, p. 401. The words of Abbo are as follow: "De fine quoque mundi coram populo sermonem in ecclesia Parisiorum adolescentulus audivi, quod statim finito mille annorum numero Antichristus adveniret, et non longo post tempore universale judicium succederet; cui prædicationi ex evangeliis, ac apocalypsi, et libro Danielis, qua potui virtute restiti. Denique et errorem, qui de fine mundi inolevit, abbas meus beatæ memoriæ Richardus sagaci animo propulit, postquam literas a Lothariensibus accepit, quibus me respondere jussit. Nam fama pæne totum mundum impleverat, quod, quando Annunciatio Dominica in Parasceve contigisset, absque ullo scrupulo finis sæculi esset.

253.

Franc. Pagi Breviar Pontif. Roman. tom. ii. p

VOL. I.-32

Notkerus Balbulus.

VI. The science of theology was absolutely abandoned in this century; nor did either the Greek or Latin church furnish any writer who attempted to explain in a regular method the doctrines of Christianity. The Greeks were contented with the works of Damascenus, and the Latins with those of Augustin and Gregory, who were now considered as the greatest doctors that had adorned the church. Some added to these the writings of the venerable Bede and Rabanus Maurus. The moral science was still more neglected than that of theology in this wretched age, and was reduced to a certain number of dry and insipid homilies, and to the lives of the saints, which Simeon among the Greeks and Hubald, Odo, and

*This absurd opinion has been maintained with warmth by Phil. Bonanni, in his Numismata Pontif. Romanorum, tom. i. p. 41.

† See Franc. Pagi Breviar. tom. ii. p. 260; tom. iii p. 30.-Arm. de la Chapelle, Biblioth. Angloise, tom. x. p. 105.-Mabillon, Præfat. ad Sæc. v. Benedict p.

53.

These were called the Causæ Majores. § Moralia in Jobum.

Stephen,* among the Latins, had drawn up | fourth marriages were absolutely prohibited, with a seducing eloquence that covered the and marriages for the third time were permitmost impertinent fictions. Such was the mi- ted on certain conditions; and thus the public serable state of morals and theology in this tranquillity was restored.* century; in which, we may add, there did not appear any defence of the Christian religion against its professed enemies.

Several other contests of like moment arose among the Greeks during this century; and they serve to convince us of the ignorance that prevailed among that people, and of their blind veneration and zeal for the opinions of their ancestors.

CHAPTER IV.

Concerning the Rites and Ceremonies used in the Church during this Century.

VII. The controversies between the Greek and Latin churches, were now carried on with less noise and impetuosity than in the preceding century, on account of the troubles and calamities of the times; yet they were not entirely reduced to silence. The writers therefore who affirm, that this unhappy schism was healed, and that the contending parties were really reconciled to each other for a certain I. In order to have some notion of the load space of time, have grossly mistaken the mat- of ceremonies under which the Christian reliter; though it be, indeed, true, that the tu-gion groaned during this superstitious age, we mults of the times produced now and then a have only to cast an eye upon the acts of the cessation of these contests, and occasioned sev- various councils which were assembled in Engeral truces, which insidiously concealed the land, Germany, France, and Italy. The numbitterest enmity, and served often as a cover to ber of ceremonies increased in proportion to the most treacherous designs. The Greeks that of the saints, which multiplied from day were, moreover, divided among themselves, to day; for each new saintly patron had apand disputed with great warmth concerning propriated to his service a new festival, a new the lawfulness of repeated§ marriages, to form of worship, a new round of religious rites, which violent contest the cause of Leo, sur- and the clergy, notwithstanding their gross named the Philosopher, gave rise. This em- stupidity in other matters, discovered, in the peror, having buried successively three wives creation of new ceremonies, a marvellous ferwithout having had by them any male issue, tility of invention, attended with the utmost espoused a fourth, whose name was Zoe Car- dexterity and artifice. It is also to be observed, binopsina, and who was born in the obscurity that a great part of these new rites derived of a mean condition. As marriages contracted their origin from the various errors which the for the fourth time were pronounced impure barbarous nations had received from their anand unlawful by the Greek canons, Nicolas, cestors, and still retained, even after their conthe patriarch of Constantinople, suspended the version to Christianity. The clergy, instead emperor, on this occasion, from the commu- of extirpating these errors, either gave them a nion of the church. Leo, incensed at this Christian aspect by inventing certain religious rigorous proceeding, deprived Nicolas of the rites to cover their deformity, or by explaining patriarchal dignity, and raised Euthymius to them in a forced allegorical manner; and thus that high office, who, though he re-admitted they were perpetuated in the church, and dethe emperor to the bosom of the church, op- voutly transmitted from age to age. We may posed the law which he had resolved to enact also attribute a considerable number of the in order to render fourth marriages lawful. rites and institutions, that dishonored religion Upon this a schism, attended with the bitter- in this century, to absurd notions both conest animosities, divided the clergy; one part cerning the Supreme Being and departed of which declared for Nicolas, the other for saints; for it was imagined that God was like Euthymius. Some time after this, Leo died, the princes and great ones of the earth, who and was succeeded in the empire by Alexan-are rendered propitious by costly presents, and der, who deposed Euthymius, and restored Nicolas to his eminent rank in the church. No sooner was this zealous patriarch re-instated in his office, than he began to load the memory of the late emperor with the bitterest execrations and the most opprobrious invectives, and to maintain the unlawfulness of fourth marriages with the utmost obstinacy. In order to appease these tumults, which portended numberless calamities to the state, Constantine Porphyrogeneta, convoked an assembly of the clergy of Constantinople, in 920, in which

* Bishop of Liege.

are delighted with those cringing salutations, and other marks of veneration and homage, which they receive from their subjects; and it was believed likewise, that departed spirits were agreeably affected with the same kind of services.

II. The famous yearly festival that was celebrated in remembrance of all departed souls, was instituted by the authority of Odilo, abbot of Clugni, and added to the Latin calendar toward the conclusion of this century.f Before this time, a custom had been introduced in many places of offering up prayers on certain days, for the souls that were confined in purgatory; but these prayers were made by each religious society, only for its own mem

† Mich. Lequien, Dissert. i. Damascenica de Processione Spiritus Sancti, sect. xiii.-p. 12.-Fred. Spanheim, de perpetua Dissensione Ecclesiæ Orien tal. et Occidental. part iv. sect. vii p. 529, tom. iibers, friends, and patrons. The pious zeal of

op.

Leo Allatius, de perpetua Consensione Ecclesiæ Orient. et Occident, lib. ii. cap. vii., viii. p. 600.

Fourth marriages our author undoubtedly means, since second and third nuptials were allowed on certain conditions.

* These facts are faithfully collected from Cedrenus, Leunclavius de Jure Græco-Rom. tom. i. p. 104, from Leo the Grammarian, Simeon the Treasurer, and other writers of the Byzantine history.

In the year 998.

*

Odilo could not be confined within such nar-|| The Nestorians and Monophysites still lived row limits; and he therefore extended the bene- under the Arabian government: they were, fit of these prayers to all the souls that labored however, much more rigorously treated than under the pains and trials of purgatory. To in former times, and were often persecuted this proceeding Odilo was prompted by the ex-with the utmost injustice and violence. But, hortations of a Sicilian hermit, who pretended as some of them excelled in medical knowto have learned, by an immediate revelation ledge, which was highly esteemed among the from heaven, that the prayers of the monks of Arabians, while others rendered themselves acClugni would be effectual for the deliverance ceptable to the great, by the dexterous manof departed spirits from the expiatory flames agement of their domestic affairs, as overseers of a middle state. Accordingly this festival and stewards, all this contributed to diminish was, at first, celebrated only by the congrega- the violence of the storms which arose against tion of Clugni; but, having afterwards received them from time to time. the approbation of one of the popes, it was, by his order, kept with particular devotion in all the Latin churches.

III. The worship of the Virgin Mary, which, before this century, had been carried to a very high degree of idolatry, now received new accessions of solemnity and superstition. Near the close of this century, a custom was introduced among the Latins of celebrating masses, and abstaining from flesh, in honor of the blessed Virgin, every Sabbath day. After this, what the Latins called the minor office was instituted in honor of St. Mary, which was, in the following century, confirmed by Urban II. in the council of Clermont. There are also to be found in this age manifest indications of the institution of the rosary and crown of the Virgin, by which her worshippers were to reckon the number of prayers that they were to offer to this new divinity; for, though some place the invention of the rosary in the thirteenth century, and attribute it to St. Dominic, yet this supposition is made without any foundation. The rosary consists in fifteen repetitions of the Lord's prayer, and a hundred and fifty salutations of the blessed Virgin; while the crown, according to the different opinions of the learned concerning the age of the blessed Virgin, consists in six or seven recitations of the Lord's prayer, and six or seven times ten salutations.§

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Benedict XIV, was artful enough to observe a profound silence with respect to the superstitious and dishonorable origin of this anniversary festival, in his treatise de Festis J Christi, Mariæ, et Sanc torum, lib. iii. cap. xxii. p. 671, tom. x. oper, and by his silence he has plainly shown to the world what he thought of this absurd festival. This is not the only mark of prudence that is to be found in the works of that famous pontiff.

This is demonstrated by Mabillon, Præf. ad Acta 88. Ord. Bened. Sæc. v. p. 58.

§ In these words-Ave, Maria!

II. The Manichæans or Paulicians, whose errors have been already pointed out, gathered considerable strength in Thrace under the reign of John Tzimisces. A great part of this restless and turbulent sect had been transported into that province, by the order of Constantine Copronymus, so early as the eighth century, to put an end to the commotions which they had excited in the east; but a still greater number of them were left behind, especially in Syria and the adjacent countries. Hence it was, that Theodore, bishop of Antioch, from a pious apprehension of the danger to which his flock lay exposed from the neighborhood of such pernicious heretics, engaged the emperor, by his ardent and importunate solicitations, to send a new colony of these Manichæans from Syria to Philippi.* From Thrace they passed into Bulgaria and Sclavonia, where they long resided under the jurisdiction of their own pontiff, or patriarch. After the council of Basil had commenced its deliberations, these sectaries removed into Italy, and thence spreading themselves through the other provinces of Europe, they became extremely troublesome to the popes on many occasions.†

III. In the last year of this century arose a certain teacher, whose name was Leutard, who lived at Vertus, in the diocese of Chalons, and, in a short time, drew after him a considerable number of disciples. This new doctor could not bear the superstitious worship of images, which he is said to have opposed with the utpieces an image of Christ, which he found in most vehemence, and even to have broken in a church where he went to perform his devotions. He, moreover, exclaimed with the greatest warmth against the payment of tithes to the priests, and in several other respects showed that he was no cordial friend to the sacerdotal order. But that which showed evidently that he was a dangerous fanatic, was his affirming that in the prophecies of the Old Testament there was a manifest mixture of truth and falsehood. Gebouin, bishop of Chalons, examined the pretensions which this man made to divine inspiration, and exposed his extravagance to the view of the public, whom he had so artfully seduced; upon which he threw himself into a well, and ended his days like many other fanatics. It is highly probable, that this upstart doctor taught many

Jo. Zonaras, Annal. lib. xvii.

It is extremely probable, as we have already had occasion to observe, that the remains of this sect are still to be found in Bulgaria.

All this is related by Glaber Radulphus, Hist. lib. ii. cap. xi.

other absurd notions beside those which we have now mentioned, and that, after his death, his disciples formed a part of the sect that was afterwards known in France under the name of the Albigenses, and which is said to have adopted the Manichæan errors.

IV. There were yet subsisting some remains of the sect of the Arians in several parts of Italy, and particularly in the territory of Padua; but Ratherius, bishop of Verona, had a still more enormous heresy to combat in the system of the Anthropomorphites, which was revived in 939. In the district of Vicenza, a considerable number, not only of the illiterate multitude, but also of the sacerdotal order, adopted that most absurd and extravagant notion, that the Deity was clothed with a human form, and seated, like an earthly monarch, upon a throne of gold, and that his angelic ministers were men arrayed in white garments, and furnished with wings, to render them more expeditious in executing their sovereign's orders. This monstrous error will appear less astonishing, when we consider that the stupid and illiterate multitude had constantly before

their eyes, in all the churches, the Supreme Being and his angels represented in pictures and images with the human figure.

The superstition of another set of blinded wretches, mentioned also by Ratherius, was yet more unaccountable and absurd than that of the Anthropomorphites; for they imagined that, every Monday, mass was performed in heaven by St. Michael in the presence of God; and hence, on that day, they resorted in crowds to all the churches which were dedicated to that highly honoured saint. It is more than probable that the avarice of the priests, who officiated in the church of St. Michael, was the real source of this extravagant fancy; and that in this, as in many other cases, the rapacity of the clergy took advantage of the credulity of the people, and made them believe whatever they thought would contribute to augment the opulence of the church.

*Ratherii Epist. Synodica in Dacherii Spicilegio Script. Veter. tom. ii. p. 294.-Sigeberti Gemblacens. Chron. ad annum 939.*

THE ELEVENTH CENTURY.

PART I.

EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

CHAPTER I.

from a multitude of unexceptionable testimonies, that Metropolitan prelates, with a greater

Concerning the Prosperous Events which hap-number of inferior bishops under their jurisdic

pened to the Church during this Century. tion, were established at this time in the proI. IN the preceding century some faint no- vinces of Casgar, Nuacheta, Turkestan, Gentions of the Christian religion, some scattered da, and Tangut;* from which we may conrays of that divine light which it administers clude, that, in this and the following century, to mortals, had been received among the Hun-a prodigious number of Christians lived in garians, Danes, Poles, and Russians; but the those very countries which are at present overrude and savage spirit of those nations, toge-run with idolatry, or with the Mohammedan ther with their deplorable ignorance and their errors. All these Christians were undoubtedly violent attachment to the superstitions of their Nestorians, and lived under the jurisdiction of ancestors, rendered their total conversion to Christianity a work of great difficulty, which could not be very rapidly accomplished. The zeal, however, with which this important work was carried on, did great honour to the piety of the princes and governors of these unpolished countries, who united their influence with the labours of the learned men whom they had invited into their dominions, to open the eyes of their subjects upon the truth.* In Tartary, and the adjacent countries, the zeal and diligence of the Nestorians gained over considerable numbers, almost daily, to the profession of Christianity. It appears also evident

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*Marcus Paul. Venetus de Regionibus Orientalibus, lib. i. cap. 38, 40, 45, 47, 48, 49, 62, 63, 64, lib. ii. cap. 39.-Euseb. Renaudot, Anciennes Relations des Orient. Vatican. tom. iii. part ii. p. 502, &c. The Indes et de la Chine, p. 420.-Assemani Biblioth. successful propagation of the Gospel, by the ministry of the Nestorians, in Tartary, China, and the neighbouring provinces, is a most important event, and every way worthy to employ the researches and the pen of some able writer, well acquainted with oriental history. It must, indeed, be acknowledged, that, if this subject be important, it is also difficult on many accounts. It was attempted, however, notoph. Sigefred Bayer, who had collected a great quanwithstanding its difficulty, by the most learned Thetity of materials relative to this interesting branch of the history of Christianity, both from the works that have been published upon this subject, and from manuscripts that lie yet concealed in the cabinets of the curious. But, unhappily for the republic of letters, the death of that excellent man interrupted his labours, and prevented him from executing a design, which was worthy of his superior abilities, and his well known zeal for the interests of religion.

the patriarch of that sect, who resided in || colony, and was afterwards created duke of Chaldæa.

Apulia, encouraged by the exhortations of pope Nicolas II., and seconded by the assistance of his brother Roger, attacked with the greatest vigour and intrepidity the Saracens in Sicily; nor did the latter chieftain sheath the victorious sword before he had rendered himself master of that island, and cleared it absolutely of its former tyrants. As soon as this great work was accomplished, which was not before the year 1090, count Roger not only restored to its former glory and lustre the Christian reli

II. Among the European nations that lay yet grovelling in their native darkness and superstition, were the Sclavonians, the Obotriti, the Venedi,† and the Prussians, whose conversion had been attempted, but with little or no success, by certain missionaries, from whose piety and zeal better fruits might have been expected. Toward the conclusion of the preceding century, Adalbert, bishop of Prague, had endeavoured to instil, into the minds of the fierce and savage Prussians, the salutarygion, which had been almost totally extindoctrines of the Gospel; but he perished in the fruitless attempt, and received, in 996, from the murdering lance of Siggo, a pagan priest, the crown of martyrdom. Boleslaus, king of Poland, revenged the death of this pious apostle by entering into a bloody war with the Prussians; and he obtained, by the force of penal laws and of a victorious army, what Adal-preme authority in matters of religion, which bert could not effect by exhortation and argument.§ He dragooned this savage people into the Christian church; yet, beside this violent method of conversion, others of a more gentle kind were certainly practised by the attendants of Boleslaus, who seconded the military arguments of their prince by the more persuasive influence of admonition and instruction. A certain ecclesiastic of illustrious birth, whose name was Boniface, and who was one of the disciples of St. Romuald, undertook the conversion of the Prussians, and was succeeded in this pious enterprize by Bruno, who set out from Germany with a company of eighteen persons, who had entered with zeal into the same laudable design. These were, however, all barbarously massacred by the fierce and cruel Prussians; and neither the vigorous efforts of Boleslaus, nor of the succeeding kings of Poland, could engage this rude and inflexible nation to abandon totally the idolatry of their ancestors.¶

III. Sicily had been groaning under the dominion of the Saracens from the ninth century; nor had the repeated attempts of the Greeks and Latins to dispossess them of that rich and fertile country, been hitherto crowned with the desired success. But in this century the face of affairs changed entirely in that island; for, in 1059, Robert Guiscard, who had formed a settlement in Italy, at the head of a Norman

The Obotriti were a great and powerful branch of the Vandals, whose kings resided in the country of Mecklenburg, extending their dominion along the coasts of the Baltic from the river Pene in

Pomerania to the duchy of Holstein.

The Venedi dwelt upon the banks of the Weissel, or Vistula, in, what is at present called, the Palatinate of Marienburg.

I See the Acta Sanctor. ad d. xxii. Aprilis, p. 174.
Solignac's Hist. de Pologne, tom. i. p. 133.

Fleury differs from Dr. Mosheim in his account of Bruno, in two points. First, he maintains, that Boniface and Bruno were one and the same person, and here he is manifestly in the right; but he maintains farther, that he suffered martyrdom in Russia, which is an evident mistake. It is proper farther to admonish the reader to distinguish carefully the Bruno here mentioned, from a monk of the same name, who founded the order of the Carthusi

ans.

T Ant. Pagi Critica in Baronium, tom. iv. ad an. num 1008, p. 97.-Christ. Hartknoch's Ecclesiastical History of Prussia, book i. chap. i.

guished under the Saracen yoke, but also established bishoprics, founded monasteries, erected magnificent churches throughout that province, and bestowed upon the clergy those distinguished honours which they still enjoy It is in the privileges conferred upon this valiant chief, that we find the origin of that suis still vested in the kings of Sicily, within the limits of their own territories, and which is known by the name of the Sicilian monarchy; for pope Urban II. is said to have granted, in 1097, by a special diploma, to Roger and his successors, the title, authority, and prerogatives, of hereditary legates of the apostolic sec. The court of Rome affirms, that this diploma is not authentic; and hence warm contentions, about the spiritual supremacy, have arisen even in our times between the popes and the kings of Sicily. The successors of Roger governed that island, under the title of dukes, until the twelfth century, when it was erected into a kingdom.t

IV. The pontiffs, from the time of Sylvester II., had been forming plans for extending the limits of the church in Asia, and especially for driving the Moslems out of Palestine; but the troubles in which Europe was so long involved, prevented the execution of these arduous designs. Gregory VII., the most enterprizing and audacious priest that ever sat in the apostolic chair, animated and inflamed by the repeated complaints which the Asiatic Christians made of the cruelty of the Saracens, resolved to undertake in person a holy war for the deliverance of the church; and above fifty thousand men were speedily mustered to follow him in this bold expedition. But his quarrel with the emperor Henry IV., of which we shall have occasion to speak hereafter, and other unforeseen occurrences, obliged him to relinquish a personal invasion of the holy land. The project, however, was renewed toward the conclusion of this century, by the enthusiastic zeal of an inhabitant of Amiens, who was known by the name of Peter the Hermit, and who suggested to Urban II. the means of accomplishing what had been unfortunately suspended. This famous hermit, in a journey, which he had made through Palestine in 1093, had observed, with inexpressible anguish, the vexations and persecutions which the Chris

* See Burigni's Histoire Generale de la Sicile, tom. i. p. 386.

† See Baronii Liber de Monarchia Siciliæ, tom. xi. Annal.; as also the Traite de la Monarchie Sicilienne, by M. Du-Pin.

Gregorii VII. Epist. lib. ii. 3, in Harduini Concil. tom. vi.

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